Four Hunters & The Unstoppable Fiend - A Monster Hunter World Story

"Perseverance, secret of all triumphs."

- Victor Hugo

The beautiful idea about video games is the acceptance of failure. As gamers, we take our failures and turn them into learning experiences to come back stronger. Whether it's a tricky time trial, a pattern to memorize, or relying on gaming reflexes, we eventually overcome the obstacle.

Monster Hunter World has surely tested my skills and reflexes as a gamer. By no means that I'm the best there is, but I'm no pushover either. Since the game's release, I have bested nearly every monster solo and with other players, obtained high level armor and weapons, and have some pretty damn good finishing blow screenshots on the raging monsters in Monster Hunter World.

When Capcom and Square Enix announced their epic crossover between Monster Hunter World and Final Fantasy XIV, I was pumped to see the two monstrous video game icons make crossover history. For Monster Hunter World players, we were given the chance to take on the King of Monsters. The Unstoppable Fiend. Final Fantasy's very own Behemoth. Behemoth is an iconic monster that appears in nearly every Final Fantasy game and is no pushover either. Their strength is unfathomable - a four-legged purple beast with bulging muscles the size of boulders, long and sharp horns for gruesome kills, a proud and deep roar that shakes the ground, and a piercing gaze that will send shivers down your fragile spine.

And I have beaten it countless times in the Final Fantasy games. Naturally, I had the same cockiness going into Monster Hunter World.

"This will be great," I thought. "This should be a breeze. Can't wait to get that new Behemoth armor today too."

I haven't been this wrong since my calculus test in high school.

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Myself, and two of my buddies, Soul and Aryes (out of discretion, I am using both of my friends' in-game names rather than their account or real names), along with a fourth person jumped into the Behemoth quest to see what this monster can do. My group is more than decent and we had some kick-ass moments in Monster Hunter World. Soul had a fantastic great sword that wrecks even the toughest of monsters, Aryes came equipped with slicing dual blades, the random player (which I will call Rando from now on) had the bow decorated with ailment-inflicting arrows, and I went with my trusty insect glaive specialized in aerial combat. With that in mind, what can go wrong? Well, everything.

In the game, we approached the familiar area known as the Elder's Recess. What was once clear blue skies was quickly replaced by a blood red sky and black, thick smoke quickly covering any ray of light - and hope. Soul, Aryes, Rando, and I made our way to a large area adorned with crystals above and around the perimeter. A beautiful sight to take in, until the floor beneath us started to tremor.

Us hunters looked ahead to see a menacing, giant Behemoth headed our way. More than ready for the fight, the beast leapt into the sky for an easy stomping kill on any of us. We immediately dispersed into separate paths, losing track of one another all the while franticly unsheathing our weapons to avoid certain death.

The insect attached to my glaive has never failed me and has been blessed with speed and power attributes. I send it forward three times towards the Behemoth's head, arms, and legs to get the necessary buffs and maximize my glaive's potential. Aryes positions himself near the Behemoth's long tail, Soul goes for the arms and feet, while Rando shoots from afar. That's my cue to take to the skies.

My character, Simba, vaults into the air by pushing his glaive against the ground and shooting up. Straightening out his stance in the air, I pan my camera over to the snarling beast and go in for an attack. Simba twirls the glaive in a spinning motion having every end of the weapon dish out damage on the Behemoth's hide. He continues this succession of attacks a few times and ends the combo with a downward spin.

Behemoth winds his paw up and smacks the ground in front of him, knocking Soul to the ground. The monster then quickly raises his tail up and swipes behind him. The tail just barely missed Aryes, but leaves itself vulnerable. Frustrated, the Behemoth roars and his neck and head begins to glow a bright blue. He shouts a deafening roar into the sky as if he was calling for help... or casting a spell?

Just then, a meteor pierces through the red skies, falling towards Rando! Rando quickly sheathes his bow and runs out of the way, somehow dodging the small meteor's impact. The Behemoth's head glowed a bright blue once again, but kept his head down as if he was conjuring a more powerful spell this time. I saw this as my opportunity for another aerial combo once more while Soul swung his great sword at the Behemoth's face.

At the same time, small mini-tornadoes formed on the battlefield, circling in on Aryes. Aryes took no chance and ran for it. The small tornadoes tracked him until a larger swirl of wind permanently took their place, making the big area harder to maneuver around.

Simba spun his glaive yet again. During his second set of attacks, the Behemoth spun his body around, successfully knocking Simba onto the ground. Vulnerable and defenseless, Behemoth calls another meteor with its aim at my character.

"Oh no," I breathed.

In the nick of time, Rando activates a healing powder near my character, refilling his health bar. With Simba's health nearly replenished, the meteor's impact thankfully didn't knock him out. I rush Simba to his feet for another airborne strike. He vaults forward and attacks, completing a swirl of successful hits and mounting the Behemoth! Simba uses all of his strength to stay on its back and do enough damage to topple the monster. Behemoth jumps, shakes, and does all he can to get Simba off, but I wasn't going to let that happen.

With a final blow, Simba swings his glaive hard enough to knock the Behemoth on its side, paralyzing it for a few seconds and the opportunity for his teammates to do as much damage as possible. Aryes aims for the tail while Soul and Rando go for the head, each doing a string of blows and heavy damage. Soul winds up his giant sword for a massive hit, breaking off the monster's horns! Even better, Aryes swings his dual blades in a blindingly fast string of attacks against the Behemoth's tail, cutting it off completely! Yes!

"This is the endgame!" I say to my teammates. We were confident and sure of our victory. I only wish I was right about it.

The Behemoth sprang up from its side and his body started to glow red.

Uh oh.

He set his gaze upon Soul and called to the skies once more. The sky responded with a giant boulder from space that crashed onto the ground and stayed there for the entire fight. We kept to our strategy: watch out for any casted tornados and meteors, keep applying buffs and heals, and not get killed.

The minutes that passed by felt like hours. We were running out of potions and helpful items, my stamina couldn't keep up with the barrage of attacks from the Behemoth, and any openings to strike were few and far in between. And the worse has yet to come.

Still glowing red, the Behemoth stopped in his place and and stood on his hind legs. The sky started to quickly fill with intimidating red and grey swirling clouds. Brief spots of lightening pierced through those clouds, signaling a powerful spell was being conjured by the Unstoppable Fiend.

"Get behind the boulder!" Soul yelled.

We really, really did try.

With a last ditch attempt, we all sheathed our weapons and ran towards the boulder for cover against the fatal blow.

"Ecliptic Meteor..." Aryes said.

The very words shot down my spine like a cold chill. It was a cataclysmic spell - only the strongest in mind, spirit, and body could ever cast it and rain down hellfire on their foes. Behemoth succeeded in the incantation, and another giant meteor was headed right for us.

I didn't dare to look up, but I couldn't resist. I was in awe of the spectacle at hand. Something only an ancient being of the world can summon - a plummeting, fire and lightening infused meteor from the depths of space itself, leaving behind a trail of red smoke. It was only a matter of time, something which we had none left.

We all ran towards the still boulder, getting closer and closer to our survival. We almost turned to cover until...

The Ecliptic Meteor crashed with such force and power that it sent a giant wave of lightening and fire towards us, engulfing every inch of our physical bodies. We didn't make it in time. All that was left of the battlefield was our dead bodies spread out across the area, red smoke rising into the air, and the Behemoth taking a big, mighty roar, completing his earned victory over the four hunters.

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Holy hell, what a fight that was. The Behemoth is, without a doubt, the toughest challenge in Monster Hunter World. Rightly so, since its Final Fantasy counterpart is supposed to be tough as nails as well. After three days of trial and error, failing every try after try, I eventually managed to fell the King of Monsters, the Unstoppable Fiend, the great and mythical Behemoth. It was an amazing battle and immensely satisfying to complete the quest many players are having trouble with. If you plan on taking on this challenging quest, be sure to bring friends and give it your all. You'll need it.