In Monster Hunter World’s iceborne expansion there’s a monster called Brachydios. It’s a giant blue monster that attacks by spreading explosive slime all over the arena and punching it to blow it up. In the postgame you can eventually fight a variant known as Raging Brachydios which is about twice as big and three times as agressive. For the most part it’s almost the same as the normal Brachy fight, just significantly more intense. That is, until near the end of the fight.

It should be noted that Monster Hunter games are hard. The base game is difficult. The expansions are even harder. The expansion post games? Brutal. Raging Brachydios is one of the most difficult fights I’ve ever had in a video game, only topped by the monsters that follow it in the same game. (soloing Fatalis is probably my greatest video game achievement of all time.)

So you’ve been stuck with this beast for about 20 minutes now, slowly wearing it down. You’re probably on your last life and you’ve burned through enough healing items to last you the entire base game. Finally this thing runs away, and you can tell you’re nearing the end. You sharpen your weapon one last time and follow the monster into that volcanic cavern.

Suddenly, it lets out a bellowing roar and starts rapidly punching the ground! Slime is flying everywhere and the entire room seems to heat up. You notice a message on the side of your screen: “Oh no! The entrance has been blocked off! Looks like you can’t use certain items!”. the Brachydios has sealed off your exits and disabled your traps and fast travel items. There is no running away. There is no capturing this thing. Neither of you are leaving this room until one of you is dead. You can tell Brachydios is getting desperate. It’s flailing wildly, throwing slime everywhere with none of the precision and technique it had before. It has recognized you as a serious threat and it does not want to die.

Eventually however, you triumph! The beast belts out one final roar and falls over dead. Exhausted, you take a moment to recover from that grueling fight and from its corpse you tear your well earned prize! Two ebonshell and a warhead. Looks like you’re gonna have to murder another couple dozen of these things for that immortal reactor. Happy hunting!