Monster Hunter: Open Ocean. (One Piece x Monster Hunter)

Battle on a High Wire! Jungle Assassin Nerscylla!!!

It didn't take long for Bloodworm to pick up the Gypceros's scent again, despite the bird wyvern's attempts to hide itself.  After fleeing, it seemed to have covered itself in felvine sap to try and mask its scent.  Against any other monster, this likely would've worked, but against a Khezu's nose, it did little.  Bloodworm led us deeper and deeper into the swamp, and as we progressed, the environment became covered in monstrous spider webs, gigantic beehives, and towering ant and termite hills.  Arthropods crawled over every inch of boggy ground.  Monsters like Konchu, Altaroth, and Vespoids seemed to be thriving here.

"This place is crawling with bugs", Zoro commented, swatting at a mosquito.

"Yeah, perfect hunting ground for a Gypceros", I replied, "I'm just worried about these webs."

"Scared of spiders?", Zoro teased.

"Hardly, I actually think they're pretty cute", I retorted, much to his disdain, "but, the only spiders I know that make webs this big are Nerscylla."

"Nerscylla?", Luffy asked, confused and intrigued.

"They're part of an exclusive class of monsters called Temnocerans", I explained, "only two monsters fit in that category: Nerscylla and Shrouded Nerscylla.  Both monsters are giant spiders, and they're some of the smartest monsters around.  They skin their prey alive and wear their hides as armor."

"Sounds pretty cool", Zoro commented.

"Yeah, till they start taking over entire ecosystems and devouring entire villages", I retorted, "a single Nerscylla can have a web stretching for miles.  Not to mention, their venom is one of the most lethal discovered.  Even monsters with high poison tolerance fall ill after being bitten."

"Uh Saurus, what's that?", Luffy asked, pointing at something above us.

Zoro and I looked up and, to our horror, there was a freshly killed monster dangling above us, partially wrapped in thick webbing.  The blood dripping from it was a sickly brown color, as though rotten.  It was some kind of wyvern, but the body was so badly deteriorated I couldn't tell what species it was.

"That's... definitely a Nerscylla's kill", I said nervously, gulping, "it's fresh, but it looks like the Nerscylla's venom has already broken most of the soft tissue down."

"So it's not rotten?", Zoro questioned.

"Nope, just butchered and dissolved beyond recognition.  Hehehe", I joked nervously, sweating bullets.  Cute as I found them, there was no denying the brutality that was a Nerscylla's feeding habits.  

"Well if it just ate, shouldn't it leave us alone?", Luffy asked, cocking his head.

"Nerscylla never let anything they catch escape", I responded, "They're always hunting, and they store extra kills in their web till they're ready to eat.  Let's just find that Gypceros before a Nerscylla does, or we aren't getting that logpose back."

As Bloodworm led us on through the webbed maze of trees, the number of hanging bodies grew larger and larger.  Monsters of all shapes, sizes, and species were entombed in spider's silk, their bodies breaking down from the inside out.  A few of them seemed to be Gypceros, but none were large enough to be our target.  

Other spiders seemed to be inhabiting the giant web as well, feeding on any small creatures that got caught in the web.  Bloodworm had grown very uneasy, no doubt fearful of his kind's worst predator.  I gently rubbed the back of his neck to calm him down, feeling the cold, clammy skin become less tense under my palm.  

A loud cry made Bloodworm's head jerk up, and he started growling.  A sound similar to laughter rang out through the jungle.  Bloodworm crouched lower, as did we, and we slowly stalked closer to the source.  Peering through the brush, I spotted the Gypceros standing over a pile of shiny objects, from rocks, to jewelry, to our logpose.  It gave the pile a once over, before beginning a strange display.  It let out raucous cries that carried for miles, and I paled.