7. Thomas?

Now this was definitely not how Thomas had planned this whole isekai thing to go, if he planned it at all. After Shirone blew up reality around him he was sent into a realm of pure static all around him. And that's where he is now, as he fights for consciousness.

It's odd, his vision feels clear but at the same time the only thing he could see was static, except his own body that seemed very corporeal and solid when he looked down at his hands.

'Well this sucks, I need to find some way out of this limbo'

and so he walked.

He didn't have to walk long before he found something visible, a black disk not too far from him, probably a portal appeared out of seemingly nowhere and just remained there.

If Thomas knew anything about portals it was that they can close at any time, so he did what anyone would, he jumped headlong through it.

Reality appeared around him instantly after passing through the portal, blinding his eyes for a second from the sun.

"Dammit, can't immortal beings at least simulate sunshine in their own limbo?" Said Thomas to himself jokingly.

Blinking the sun out of his eyes Thomas quickly realized where he was. He stood in a plain of hard stone in a sharp slope down from a mountain of hexagonal pillars on one side of him. On the other side was a massive cave made of translucent crystal.

'Without a shadow of doubt, I am sure I'm at the elder's recess from Monster Hunter.'

Surely enough a monster casually trudged into the zone he just jumped into. This monster is a blue four legged beast with a massive jaw full of molten rock.

'And this is a Dodogama, welp, might as well test out my new powers.'

Ever since Thomas arrived in reality he felt strong, like he just ate a full meal and then had a brisk jog. He felt like an elder dragon himself.

Cracking his knuckles he walked towards the dodogama.

"Hey you!"

He shouted.

Dodogama turned towards him and roared, it didn't like being disturbed while eating.

Thomas let out a yell as he charged the dodogama. For some unexplainable reason Dodogama thought this would be a great time to roar back, creating a perfect opening for Thomas. He jumped at it and gave it his meanest right hook. The dodogama recoiled like it had been hit by a truck about 200x Thomas's self-estimated weight.

"Haha, how do you like that, boy?" Thomas went in for a kick to its tail.

Unfortunately though dodogama scooted forward just in time for Thomas to whiff and fall flat on his ass in a bunch of crystal shards. This cut him up quite a lot, but ironically he didn't feel like it hurt at all.

Dodogama, sensing opportunity turned around and started charging. Plowing the ground with its massive rock-jaw.

Roaring himself, Thomas threw a killer jab forward into the dodogama's waiting jaw. This completely stopped its momentum in place and caused it to pant in place like a traditional MH monster, after all his punch just broke its jaw in two.

"Eat this!" Thomas jumped once more and pounded both fists downward into its head causing a small tremor in the ground as he knocked the lights clean out of the poor dodogama.

Laughing to himself like a maniac Thomas walked over to the cave where he knew there'd be a giant crystal growing at an angle out of the ground. Arriving there he laid back and took a quick breather.

'Awesome, it seems like Shirone came in clutch with these powers, this is great!'

Feeling the full night of his newfound power Thomas decided he'd take a quick breather here, he is feeling quite tired after the fight's adrenaline left him.

'Odd, usually in an isekai they don't forget part of the request, I specifically asked for a system didn't I?'

Thomas thought to himself.

'Also the goddess usually doesn't scream like a banshee and then dump you into some limbo, something must be going -'

This last thought was interrupted by a snort behind his head.

Like any normal human this scared the living daylights out of Thomas as he scrambled forward and turned around to find a drooling giant, black dragon. The dragon had two massive white horns, an ugly face, and giant jet-black wings. But also very notably this dragon was covered in spikes.

'Nergigante! Although I feel powerful I still probably wouldn't want to fight him of all monsters, he is an absolute beast to solo.'

Nergigante, not seeming to expect Thomas to be alive with the amount of fragrant blood coming from him reared back startled and let out an annoyed growl.

'Oh shit, I feel powerful, I might have the blood of...'

Negigante let out an incredibly loud and vicious roar.

'...an elder dragon.'

Nergigante raised a spiked arm up and brought it down with the full force of its body weight.

'I might be able to man-handle dodogama, I'm not quite sure about Nergy though.'

Thomas's muscles acted as if on their own accord as he dove out of the way of the spiked monolith of doom rushing towards his body with a mighty crash.

'Shit, I'd much rather fight Nergy in the open area than in here if I don't have a slinger.'

With that thought Nergigante shoved its arm further into the ground than it already was embedded, sending a shower of arm-spikes it in all directions, one of which being Thomas's back.

Cursing heavily Thomas took off running, as any sane person would do after getting shot in the back with a nail gun multiple times.

Nergigante roared again and with a mighty flap of its wings took to the air in place.

'Well this is lovely, if I remember its moveset at all, at this range it is almost guaranteed to go for a flying slam.'

With his head still back, timing the charge of Nergy Thomas forgot one crucial detail.

'THE PORTAL!'

Almost too late Thomas realized he was running headlong to the rift in space and scrambled against the pebbles and crystal shards frantically to stop his momentum.

"Phew, that was a close -"

And with that self statement Negigante plowed straight into him, into the portal.