Team RGTS - Capture The Fort - Forest
As luck would have it, something else had arrived along with the Beowolves, and it watched from outside the circle of Grimm as Robert's last attempt at protecting himself was crushed by the large Boarbatusk. The man tumbled down from the tree and onto the ground, defenseless.
Not for the first time, Sand found herself wishing her chosen weapon worked for crowd control.
She could not fight all of the Grimm. She wasn't even sure she could fight that giant boar on her own. Drawing their attention was unlikely to work at that point, with their prey right under their nose. She needed a way to get the boy out, and she had very few options on how to do that. The ones she could think of did not inspire much confidence.
The encroaching monsters quickly surrounded him, leaving Sand with only a few moments to act. Whether she would perform a miracle or share in the man's fate if she tried to save him, she did not know. All she knew was that if she remained still, someone would die.
And she would have lost the chance to spite the man's teammate.
That simple thought did well enough to ward away the terrifying idea that intervening was just as likely to cost Sand her life.
So as the Grimm approached the fallen Robert, she sprung to action. She rushed in, blood suddenly pumping in her ears, and, taking advantage of the fact that all the monsters were focusing on the man, aimed her gauntlet at one of the dark figures. From a box-like object attached to the top of her gauntlet, a pair of blades suddenly shot out with a rasping sound almost as loud as a gunshot.
They sunk into a Beowolf's back. She had not bothered terribly hard with aim, but it was difficult to miss in that environment. There was a lot of meat shuffling about.
No sooner had a pained whine escaped from the monster's throat at the back ranks of the Grimm that Sand bent slightly and, with a spark of light erupting from under her, jumped into the circle of Grimm.
That was when things became difficult. The first shot was meant to disorient the Grimm in the hopes that they would not be able to react properly when the assailant that had just injured one in their rear line found themselves right in the thick of them. Now, she needed to grab the man, get out from the mountain of Grimm, and run off. The first one she wasn't overly concerned with. Getting into trouble was always easy. The second and third one – getting out of it – ran on a lot more hope and goodwill than she was comfortable with, but she had not been given many options to work with.
She landed straight on the inner ring. Right atop a Creep's head. Surprised by the sudden weight, the shadow teetered forward, losing its balance. For a moment, the monster may have noticed glowing particles flittering on the ground below it before the floor rushed towards it at breakneck speed. The landing, with a strong, reflexive helping of Sand's semblance, crushed the Grimm's skull underfoot. The sudden acceleration also sent Sand into a forward roll that almost had her losing her balance and crashing into her target.
For all that, it brought her close enough to the boy, though at that point, thinking of him as anything other than a sack of potatoes was bound to be counterproductive. As quickly as she could, she roughly took ahold of the sack and hoisted it over her back in a motion oddly reminiscent of the starting steps of a judo throw, before heading for the thinnest point in the monster's ranks she could see – namely wherever the giant blasted Boarbatusk was not.
Some Grimm were quicker on the uptake than others. Almost as soon as she looked up she caught sight of a single Boarbatusk, one of the smallest in the group, she reckoned, charging at her from the front. By then it was too late to change course and she was in no position to dodge out of the way. So she hopped instead. One foot first, as though climbing up a staircase, she jumped onto the boar's back. Her next step had to take her higher. Motes of dust formed around her feet and the boar's armored back. For every action, there was an equal and opposite reaction. For one such as her, whose semblance consisted of creating such attracting and repelling forces, she needed to keep that law constantly on her mind. So when the Grimm found itself being flattened against the ground by a sudden, immense pressure, so did Sand and her luggage find themselves being launched up and over the surrounding monsters.
The landing was less than gracious. She lost grip of her charge midway, and the two landed in a heap some meters away from the Grimm-made clearing's edge, getting covered in mud and filth in the process.
For a moment, the only sound to be heard was rough breathing and confused shuffling. Then the furious screeching began.
Sand rose as quickly as she could, only for a maw full of teeth to flash inches away from her face. She threw one of her gauntlets up and the fangs ground ineffectively against the metal, but the Creep threw up its back legs, clawing at her thighs. The assault was kept at bay by her pants' tough fabric and her remaining aura until a heavy hook to the monster´s exposed gut dislodged the beast.
Adrenaline rushing through her, she roughly grasped Robert's shoulder and forcefully hoisted him up on his feet, already beginning to rush towards the forest.
"Run!" Once Sand's amazing feat of both acrobatics and strength had finished and Robert found himself out of the dogpile of Grimm and sitting next his savior, he looked at Sand with a shocked expression. "That was frickin' amazing!" he said as he followed her away from the mass of monsters and ran towards Fort Jeager where Trad and Grane were waiting. As he ducked under a low-hanging tree branch, he said, "Thanks for the rescue. Name's Robert Fallson by the way. What's yours?"
"Sand—"
A roar disrupted Robert and Sand's small talk. Bob, enraged that he lost his quarry, made a relentless charge to the front of the horde. He cared very little about who or what got in his way, though most of the Grimm were smart enough to stay off to his sides, allowing the only victims to being the environment itself. While Bob was big and started off slow, with nothing stopping him he was building speed at an alarming rate and was starting to catch up to the hunters. The horde of Grimm were only a few yards behind, following Bob's trail of destruction.
Sand threw a apprehensive look over her shoulder as she felt the thundering steps of the giant Boarbatusk shake the ground under her.
This was a bad situation, to be sure, but it was not nearly as bad as it had been moments ago. At least now her one hope of saving both of them did not seem to rely entirely on suicidal amounts of good fortune.
So she began barking orders.
"That boar's going to be on us in a moment! When I give the signal, turn right!"
There were other laws that came attached to the one she had taken advantage of before, particularly one that related to objects in motion. Such objects, Bob the Boarbatusk being one of them, preferred to remain in motion once they began moving, unless they were acted on by an outside force. This little phenomenon happened to be dubbed inertia, and it was the reason why top-heavy cars were more likely to roll over if one tried speeding through a sharp turn. The bottom of the car might turn, but the upper part would want to keep going in the same direction, causing the vehicle to list to the side.
Bob, being the massive creature that that he was, and taking into account the velocity he was gathering, would need an outrageous force to act on him in order to match the tight turn or sidestep that could be executed by the smaller, nimbler bodies of the Hunters. The idea was that the thing would race past them and need a moment to regain its bearings, time they would use to put more distance between them and the pursuing monsters.
Olé.
Soon enough, the tremors felt close enough that Sand was afraid to glance over her shoulder in case she had misjudged the distance.
"Now!" she yelled as she veered out of the monster´s path.
Doing exactly what his new companion instructed, Robert attempted to turn and avoid the incoming giant Boarbatusk. For a moment, the boy believed that he could be crushed under the rolling Grimm as he continued to skid in the direction he had been running. Maybe tennis shoes weren't the best footwear to use when out on such a dangerous mission, but it was the only thing he owned. Knowing that it was only a matter of time before he would be flattened into a pancake, Robert lunged out of the way, feeling a rush of air pass by where his legs had just been.
Watching Bob take out several trees as it continued to barrel forward, Robert got a sudden idea. "Hey Sand, maybe we can try to lead this thing around and take out some of its companions before we meet up with the rest of my team at the fort. It'll certainly make things easier when we have to hold the fort from however many waves of enemies we have to face later."
"You really like pushing your luck, huh?" Sand paused for long enough to help Robert up. She glanced back towards their pursuers and the new hole in the foliage created by the huge boar's headlong charge. Her jaw tensed and she tugged at his arm before starting out into another run. "Let's not get greedy! I'm in no mood to pull you out of the fire again!"
"If you say so," Robert said as he followed Sand. He wouldn't admit it if he was asked, but with all the running and fighting he had completely gotten turned around. If not for her, he probably would never have been able to find his way back to Fort Jeager. Hell, he'd probably be Grimm chow if she hadn't shown up.
Sure enough Sand's plan worked, for the most part. Bob continued to crush everything in his path but completely missed Robert and Sand, and didn't even notice that they lost him as he continued to flatten everything. Bob's minions were more perceptive, veering off to continue the chase through the forest, though not at Bob's speed since they couldn't simply crush all the trees in their way. Soon the Boarbatusks were taken out of the chase simply for being too slow at maneuvering, though the Beowolves and creeps had little trouble keeping on the hunter's trail. And while they lacked individual strength like the Boarbatusks, there was a vastly larger amount of Beowolves and creeps.
At the moment, however, they did not seem to be gaining on the pair. Sand glanced behind her, something that had become a habit in the past few minutes, and was satisfied by the fact that she could no longer see flashes of white and black among the trees, though the snarls and distant howls told her that the Grimm were still hot on their tail.
She let out a breathless chuckle.
They should have been done then and there, among that horde of Grimm. The idea that her hastily constructed plan had worked, never-mind that they had both come out of it with all of their limbs attached, was mind-boggling. It had essentially boiled down to 'jump in, jump out, then hope for the best', for crying out loud.
The chuckle turned into a cough and she swallowed. Sand prided herself on being in peak physical condition, but the sudden, liberal use of her power and the subsequent sprint had taken their toll. So far she had been running on adrenaline – likely the same thing that was making her feel so giddy – but now that the most immediate danger seemed to have passed, she was beginning to feel the ache in her lungs.
Still, they were not out of the woods yet. Literally.
"Hold this pace as long as you can," she said in-between breaths. "I want to put as much distance between us and the Grimm as possible. Barring any surprises, we should be able to meet up with the rest of your team at Jeager."
Robert had been running for much longer than Sand had been was practically running on fumes at this point, never-mind his injuries which were probably going to get infected if not treated as soon as they met back up with Trad and Grane. Actually, considering how much dirt, mud, and filth he was already covered in, it might already have been too late. Nevertheless, he continued to follow Sand, though at a slightly slower pace and unable to respond back as he was wheezing from the lack of oxygen he was receiving.
Sand must have noticed his difficulty, for she slowed her pace enough to make sure Robert did not fall far behind. She made no further move to ease his burden, however. Getting him back to his team was clearly her current priority.
After some time rushing through the forest, their pace marked by Robert's gasping breaths, her pace slackened. Something must have bothered her, for her expression twisted into a grimace.
"Stop."
"What-" Robert wheezed before finishing his three word sentence, "-is it?"
Sand slowed to a stop, placing one hand on a nearby tree for support. She remained silent, head tilted slightly, eyes focused on nothing in particular. A howl reached them, one of several cries from the Grimm that were pursuing them.
"They're closer than they should be," she answered. After a moment, she decided that answer was likely too vague. "I was sure we'd have lost them by now. Or at least that they would have lost our trail at some point, but those Grimm have not stopped chasing us since we started running."
Sand swallowed. "I thought maybe they were rushing back to the fort, so some time ago I took us off the path, hoping they would run past us." She shook her head. "They're still following us."
"Why are they doing that? Are they tracking our scent or something?" Robert asked before collapsing onto the ground.
Sand made a dismissive gesture with her other hand. "Don't know. I figure if they were following our scent or our tracks, they'd at least need to stop to make sure they're still on the right trail. Best as I can tell, they haven't."
It was then that Robert remembered something from his Grimm Studies class. Grimm are attracted to people's emotions, especially negative ones. "I think... I think they're following me."
"How?" she began to ask, but a tidbit of the conversation she had had with Robert's teammates, until then forgotten in her rush to help, suddenly came to the forefront of her mind.
We already had someone killed..."Wonderful," she sighed. It was the basics of the basics. The Grimm could sense the death hanging over Robert as clearly as the most pungent stench. "If we go back to the fort like this, we'll have every Grimm in the area rushing to our position."
"I'm sorry that you came to risk your life for me only to have to leave me behind now, but I think that's the best option now," Robert told Sand. "I don't want another death to be on my hands."
"Robert." She pushed herself away from the tree and stood to face him. Her voice was even and measured, but there was an unmistakable hint of irritation in her tone. Her following words did little to hide her chagrin. "This changes nothing. I made the decision to help myself, and I plan to do exactly that. So save the heroic sacrifice talk for someone who cares, unless you'd rather I knock you out and drag you back. Perhaps the Grimm wouldn't be able to track you that way, but I'd rather not risk brain damage."
"But, everyone around me, they always get hurt... or worse. Priscilla, Greyson, Daniel, Delta, my mom, my dad, even my little sister. She was still a toddler when it happened. All dead. All because of me. If I had done things differently, maybe they'd all still be alive," Robert said. A sudden anger washed over the boy before he punched the ground with both fists. "It's not fair! Why do these things always happen to people I care about?!"
And that was the crux of the issue. Sand looked at the boy, for he did seem small after that outburst, and found herself at a loss. It was just her luck that this kind of problem would crop up there and then. With a horde of Grimm bearing down on them, this was not the place or time to have such a conversation, and even if it was, she was convinced she was not the right person to handle it. Sand could fight. It was always easy to break things. If no one else was available, she could take charge and jolt things into motion, but she feared she lacked the gentle touch Robert might need.
For a moment, she seriously considered making good on her threat and striking Robert in the back of the head before making a run for it. Instead, she found herself kneeling before him, one hand settled on his shoulder. The act felt awkward and forced, but it seemed like the right place to start.
"Robert..." she balked. She couldn't think of anything that could set his mind at ease. These were things everyone had to face at some point in their lives. All the sooner if they were in their profession. The truth was all that came to her. "I can't do anything about that. Life isn't fair. Thinking about what happened in maybes and perhaps only serves to torture oneself. People die. Others live and wonder why."
"So what am I supposed to do? Just stop caring? Close myself off from the rest of the world?" Robert asked.
A sad smile played on Sand's lips. "If it works, maybe. It just doesn't work forever." She gave a small shrug. "Personally, I hate the idea. At the core, I'm a very selfish person, you see. I want to save people, and then make it back so I can see everyone happy. I want to bake my cake and eat it." She gave his shoulder a small pat. "So that's what we're going to do. I think it's time we stop retreating."
Getting up from the ground, Robert rolled his neck to get a few good cracks out. "Yeah, sounds good to me," he replied, his voice sounding very monotone and emotionless. "This should at least even up the playing field when we finally do get back," he finished before transforming his bracers to their ballistic form.
Sand nodded, righting herself. As long as he was moving, they had a chance. Right on time too. The howls were beginning to sound too close for comfort. She glanced at his weapons. "Those things can shoot?" she asked.
"Yeah. They may be semi-automatic, but I've got two of them. Shouldn't have too much trouble with incoming Grimm as long as we can funnel them somehow," he replied. "Don't suppose you've got anything to cut these trees down to do that do you?"
She shook her head. "If we did, we'd be too worried running away from a giant boar to take advantage of it." She had been thinking about a way to get the Grimm off their tail ever since she realized simply losing them might not be an option, however. "Our best shot is to keep running away from the Grimm, keep them coming from the same direction. Since I can't hear trees falling over, I assume we lost that Boarbatusk right after I pulled you out from under its snout. Without that thing clearing the trees, the other boars must have fallen behind too, meaning we'll just be dealing with Beowolves and Creeps. We'll need to match their pace. Just shoot whenever they get close enough, and I'll make sure they don't get too close to you." With a smirk, she added, "we won't be retreating. We'll be advancing backwards."
"Didn't plan on calling it retreating," Robert said as he loaded a new magazine into both bracers. "Alright, let's get going."
"Don't be too eager," Sand cautioned. "Last chance to catch your breath before we start seeing black and white."
"No worries, I recover quickly," Robert said before turning toward one of the nearby trees. The red-haired boy began to climb upward, deciding that if they were going to wait for the Grimm to come to them, the best place to ambush would be from above. It would also prevent Sand from being possibly hit by ricochet or being in his backstop. He just hoped that he wouldn't get caught in a branch like last time. Robert peeked around the tree as he waited for the horde of Beowolves and Creeps to arrive.
Sand's eyes followed Robert's progress under a furrowed brow, but said nothing. After a moment, she sighed and settled behind the same tree. As long as he remembered to jump down once the beasts got too close, they would not be in danger of being overrun. Like Robert, she looked around the tree's cover, waiting for their enemy to arrive.
As predicted, the wait was short. Less than a minute after the two had taken cover, the first of the masks began filing into view, the monsters weaving through the trees in the direction their senses pointed. They must have noticed their prey had stopped, but this did little to slow their approach.
It was only natural.
They had harried their prey for quite some time, too long for their quarry to continue their flight at such a pace. Still, as they moved towards the two hunters, their run slackened to a prowl. Robert had seen this right before he met Sand, when the Grimm had stopped to methodically destroy his surroundings. They knew the two were close, but did not know exactly where. This too, was fine. Exhausted prey could do naught but hide.
Of course, neither of Sand nor Robert thought of themselves as prey.
They where the hunters.Sand directed a quick, anxious glance up the tree, hoping Robert could see the monsters through the branches. It was time to spring their trap.
Once the Beowolves and Creeps had gotten close enough, Robert hooked his legs around the tree branch he was sitting on and leaned over so he was hanging upside down. The Grimm were then met with a barrage of bullets as the boy continuously pulled the triggers on his dual weapons. There were so many of the monsters all running so closely together that many had no where to go to avoid the 10 mm rounds, dooming them to slowly evaporate as their bodies died.
It didn't take long though until both magazines were spent and the sound of gunshots were replaced with quiet clicks of empty chambers. Unhooking his legs from his perch, Robert dropped down on a Creep that was attempting to try and jump up to take a bite. The redhead transformed his weapons to their blade form and sunk his bracers into the Grimm's skull. "I need to reload. Let's get moving again," Robert told Sand before he began his slow run away from their attackers. He wanted to save his energy so he didn't have to catch his breath on the way to the fort, as well as make replacing the magazines to his weapons a little less difficult.
By the time Robert had finished his barrage, every Grimm in the area knew where he was located. The remaining monsters all launched themselves towards him with outraged howls. As he turned to run, another Creep snaked forward from the beneath the underbrush and leapt at him. Just before it crashed against Rob's exposed back, a gauntleted hand closed around the beast's tail. With a grunt of exertion, Sand pulled back and smashed the Creep against the trunk of the tree they had been hiding behind with a resounding crack. Not bothering to watch the Grimm's body dissipate, she followed after Robert.
"Let's!" she agreed. As the furious howling closed in, she urged, "Faster! They did not like that!"
"Not surprised," Robert replied before swiftly turning around and firing a few rounds into a couple Beowolves that were getting too close for comfort. "I know I'm never too happy when I watch my friends die before my eyes either." A third Beowolf suddenly charged from the foliage as it snapped at the boy with its tooth-filled jaws. Robert immediately, turned one of his bracers into its blade form before slashing at the Grimm's face. "Do you know which way Fort Jeagar is from here?"
Sand grimaced. She knew roughly in which direction the fort lay, but she was hesitant to return to Grimm infested territory with Robert and a pack of Grimm on her tail. "We shouldn't head back there until we either kill all these Grimm or find a way to lose them," she said, pointedly avoiding the question. "Just focus on shooting them."
Firing back at a few more enclosing Grimm, Robert turned to Sand. "Losing them sounds much easier than killing all of them," he said.
"We already tried that," she retorted, unable to keep an impatient note out of her voice.
"Yeah, but they were tracking my negative emotions last time. Right now, I can't really care about anything except getting out of this mess." The idea continued to form in his head as he remembered back to the blueprints of Fort Jeagar. Specifically, that it was pretty close to the edge of a cliff. Hopefully Sand wasn't afraid of heights. "So, ever gone cliff jumping?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" she shouted back at him.
Glancing over her shoulder, she caught another Beowolf closing in while Robert was distracted, nearly nipping at their heels. She pointed her arm at it and two blades shot out of her gauntlet, piercing the Grimm's mask and sending it into a tumbling stop.
"Beowolves and Creeps aren't really well-known for their ability to swim. We jump off into the water, we might finally be able to have a little peace and quiet," he suggested as he vaulted over a fallen tree, firing behind him to make any pursuers back off.
And that was a huge might, Sand thought. There were three glaring flaws in that plan. First, Sand was convinced bottling up whatever issues Robert had to deal with would not stop the Grimm from following them. Ignoring was not the same thing as resolving, and this was not the proper environment for that. The monsters were just as likely to lose them as to skirt the cliff edges until the two decided to come out of the water. Second, she was not sure how far they would have to run to find a cliff without leaving the forest and running for the Grimm-infested fort. The two could very well give out in exhaustion before they came across one. Third, other Grimm lived in the water, and she was a lot more confident in her ability to handle Beowolves than in her ability to shake off a Megaladeus underwater.
If only she had the time to explain that to him. She shook her head. "That is a
terrible idea," she said sternly as she glanced behind her, expecting to see another row of teeth ready to sink into her.
Instead, she barely had time to catch a flash of white and black disappearing into the foliage behind them. "They're slowing down," she observed, perplexed.
"Slowing down? Why?" Robert said as he too began to slow down until eventually stopping. "You don't think-" he began before shutting up and listening to the sounds around them. It had become extremely quiet. Too quiet, in fact. Even the Grimm had stopped their growling and snarls. What was going on?
Sand for her part, was directing a distrustful frown to her surroundings.
"Find cover," she instructed in a low voice before crouching beside a tree, her jaw tense and clearly on edge.
The forest around them was quiet, though the occasional rustle of the leaves and crack of branches told them that their pursuers had not left them.
Despite being completely confused, Robert did as Sand said and made his way to the nearest tree. "What is it?" he whispered as he leaned against it, trying to blend in as much as possible.
She was not sure, and so did not offer an immediate answer. She shook her head. If the Grimm would allow them a chance to set up another ambush, she would gladly take them up on that offer. "Be ready to shoot. Same drill as before."
It was only after nearly a minute and quite a few frayed nerves that Grimm emerged from the foliage. A small group of Creeps, with a couple of Beowolves trailing in their midst appeared before the pair, snouts close to the ground and maws curved in a silent snarl.
Robert was the first to take the opportunity of the Grimm's distraction as he lunged foward and thrust both blades into the nearest creature. Pulling one out of the slowly dissipating corpse, he transformed the bracer into its ballistic form as he fired point blank into a Beowolf's skull. With his other bracer still in its blade form, he stabbed yet another Beowolf, this time in the chest. The wolf-like beast didn't die as easily as its comrades as it took a swing at Robert with its claws. The bracer quickly turned into its ballistic form as well as the boy fired a single shot inside the Grimm, finally finishing it off.
A few more Beowolves stepped out, snarling at Robert and Sand (Or at least where they thought she was). But only two came at Robert, their claws swinging in a flurry of blows. Despite the veritable horde that was chasing them, only a few actually showed up. That was because the Grimm were moving around them, to surround the two hunters from all sides, stalling for time and making as much noise as they can once they were in position. But in the distance, past all the growling and guttural screaming, was the crashing echoes of the ocean ramming into the cliff.
It was then, as Robert lunged into the midst of the Grimm, and roaring and howling erupted behind her, that Sand realized she had made a bad call. She should have told Robert to keep running. The Grimm were surrounding them. After the first ambush, whatever passed for self-preservation in the minds of the Grimm must have made its presence known. But they still held the number advantage. They could be single-mindedly bloodthirsty to a fault, but even the lowliest of animals could make frightening displays of cunning when it was needed.
And Grimm could learn.
Sand swiveled just in time to avoid taking the full brunt of the blow as a Beowolf clawed at her. Still, she could feel the claws ripping at her sleeve and the pressure on her shoulder as the monster's arm was repelled by her aura.
The wolf stepped closer, its jaws wide open as it moved to take a bite out of her. Sand whipped out her right fist in response, driving it into the beast's throat. A muffled flash of light came from inside its mouth before the monster crumpled.
Even as the first monster fell, another Beowolf rose to take its place, lunging at her with claws outstretched. She backed away from the beast and felt her back hit the tree she had been using for cover.
"Robert!" she paused to duck under a slash, sharp claws ripping bark off the tree just where her head had been moments ago. She took a step under its arm and brought a gauntleted fist towards the Beowolf's side, blades outstretched. They sank fully between the Grimm's ribs, and she pushed it away with a punch to the face, letting the knives detach. "We need to leave!"
Robert attempted to dodge the Beowolves' attacks as the two of them clawed at him, but al the rapid moving ended up irritating his previous injury. Falling over on his ass, one of the two dove on top of him and tried to bite his head. The boy lifted his bracers to stab the Beowolf as it continued to snap at him, even with both of his blades stuck in his abdomen. Soon though, the Grimm began to lose its strength as it slowly died, its jaws finally closing for good. Robert's bracers then transformed to their ballistic form before he fired two shots through the Beowolf's corpse, going through it and hitting the second Beowolf that was standing above them.
"Fine by me," Robert replied as he got back to his feet and began to run again.
As their prey attempted to escape, the Grimm lost all pretense of stealth. Monsters jumped out at their sides as they ran, hoping to keep the two Hunters from fleeing. Most either fell behind or were quickly dealt with by Robert's guns. The few that managed to block their path were quickly swept out of the way by fistfuls of steel.
By then, the sound of crashing waves was unmistakable, even over the raging howls erupting all around them.
Sand cursed inwardly. That was horrible luck. Had the Grimm been herding them all this time?
She tried to alter her course, only for a Creep to jump out from a bush beside her. She danced away from its snapping jaws and kicked down as she passed. The blow bent the Grimm's leg back and it tripped, leaving the beast to be trampled under the mass of pursuing monsters.
"That idea of yours," Sand panted as she ran, "we may have to try it after all."
The horde continued to push forward, regardless of losses. Soon, it wouldn't matter. As the two hunters ran ever so closer to the cliff's edge, one of the creeps, who had the mind to run along ahead, had dug into the ground and was now appearing. The first thing that emerged were its jaws, which it opened like a flower, right as Sand would step into its mouth. While normally painful for other Grimm, this creep was willing to take the hit so that its jaws would close around Sand's legs, trapping her. That wasn't the worst thing that would happen.
Soon, trees, rocks, and even other Grimm were flying towards Robert. And following those was their old friend, Bob the Big Boss Boarbatusk. Having been waiting on the cliff's edge for the hunters, the formerly thinned out Grimm horde now was bolstered by Bob's Boarbatusk, cutting off Robert's and Sand's escape. There were only a few paths left for them; either they run from Bob, try to take him head on, attack to make a last stand against the horde in front of them, or take a dive off the cliff. And the two hunters had only a few seconds to decide, as Bob was making his deadly charge straight towards the hunters. There was almost no room to dodge; Bob had positioned himself and the Grimm horde in such a way that going left just meant fighting the horde, and going right meant jumping off the cliff. The Grimm as well were mindful of this tactics, giving Bob just enough space for him to charge at the hunters unblocked. Only the trees were in the way, and they wouldn't hardly slow him down.
Sand noticed the small Grimm a second too late. Sharp pain suddenly blossomed in her foot and she fell forward with a surprised gasp, barely managing to arrest the fall with her arms. She turned herself upwards as the pressure increased, and saw the small Grimm desperately pulling at her boot, thrashing its head about like a rabid dog. She kicked at it, trying to get it to loosen its stubborn hold, but that only made the Creep bite down harder.
Gritting her teeth, Sand directed her focus inwards, and the Grimm's jaws flew open with a sudden spark. She pulled her leg back immediately, dragging herself back, but by then the pack was almost on her.
A Beowolf threw itself at her prone figure and she rocked back, curling her legs into proper position. Her boots planted themselves on the beast's stomach and she rolled back to her feet with one fluid motion, throwing the wolf against a tree behind her.
Fangs and claws snapped and flashed at her as she drew back, but it was the sound of toppling trees and the figures of the old Boarbatusk and its entourage breaking through the foliage that told her that reaching the cliff before she was surrounded would be a near thing.
Robert turned his back to the cliff as he turned to the incoming Grimm. "Go! I'll cover you!" he shouted to Sand as he signaled toward the edge. The boy then focused his fire on whatever beasts were nearest to the sandy-white haired girl. In the corner of his eye, he watched as the monstrous Boarbatusk drew closer. He wanted to jump off now, but he refused to do so until Sand had gone first. He wouldn't leave anyone behind if he could help it.
Sand nodded and turned her back on her pursuers, ducking under Robert's fire as she dashed towards the cliff as fast as her legs would allow. The Boarbatusks continued in their stampede, approaching at an alarming rate as their leader cleared away all obstacles. Meanwhile, the red-haired boy stayed rooted to his spot, his guns aimed at the monsters behind her. She had a sudden inkling as to his intent.
"Jump!" she shouted, trying to speed up. "I'll be right behind you!"
Deciding on listening to Sand, Robert hopped backwards off the cliff, watching the girl to make sure she did what she said she would. If any Grimm decided to fool heartedly follow them, he'd also get the chance to shoot at them on the way down.
Sand was relieved to see Robert fall back at her call, rather than choosing to endanger both of them. His efforts had allowed her to shake away from the pack of Grimm that had been pursuing them, but, even a few steps from the edge as she was, she knew that waiting for another second was only liable to get two people flattened. And it looked as if she would have to work to keep her word.
One huge tusk flashed at the corner of her vision and she jumped. Not directly forward, where the tusk would catch her in the air and pummel her to the ground, but to the side, angling herself towards the curve of the Boarbatusk's head.
Perhaps she could credit the fact that the crash did not quite feel like being hit by an oncoming train to the beast not managing to reach its full speed since it began its charge, or perhaps to the angle of the impact, but even then the crash left her with barely enough presence of mind to throw out a hand towards the monster's side as it passed. With a whisper of power, her arm stuck to the Boarbatusk's back, and she was pulled along with a wrenching sensation rather than falling back to be trampled by the small army of Grimm following behind the old giant.
Her body shook with each step the monster took, threatening to dislodge her, but she managed to pull her legs under her, preparing to use the boar's side as a springboard to jump off the cliff. Just before she did, however, a thought crossed her mind and her eyes narrowed.
This was an old Grimm. Large and scarred, and smart enough to be able to direct others of its kind to set up proper ambushes. Many must have fallen to the beast. Twice it had come close to killing them. Now, even if the beast did not realize it, it had wandered into a very precarious position. One Sand meant to exploit.
Blades rasped out of her gauntlets, and she sunk them between the Grimm's plates. Little more than a pinprick to a monster its size, but they were lodged firmly in place. Then she pulled away, letting herself fall off the side of the cliff. Unlike before, however, the blades remained connected to her gauntlets by metal wires, a whirring sound accompanying her fall as whatever winches were inside the mechanism freed yards of cable as Bob continued in its way. As if rappelling down the cliff, the wires, unable to completely offset the Grimm's motion, brought her against the wall and she stood sideways against it. Small, luminous particles rose and spread from her point of contact as she leaned back and closer to the wall, almost as if sitting on it, in an attempt to make her position more solid by enlarging the area her semblance was acting on. She could never produce the amount of force needed to completely stop something Bob's size moving at those speeds, but perhaps she could act as a fulcrum, and force it to turn ever so slightly in its charge, enough to drive it over the edge.
Of course, this plan rested on two assumptions. The first, that she was sturdy enough to withstand restraining the massive boar, and the second that the surface she was attached to managed to stay in place.
With a subtle gesture, the winches inside her gauntlets reeled back.
The wires tautened with a snap. Sparks flew. Sand let out a pained cry.
For a crystalline moment where time seemed to stop, she had the distinct impression that her arms were about to be ripped off her shoulders.
To her credit, the rock under her gave first.
As cracks formed in the cliff's wall, the large Grimm beginning to steadily drag her along, Sand began to heavily doubt her ability to carry out her plan. She had succeeded in redirecting the creature towards the edge, but only for a moment. After a sudden stumble, the beast had righted its course, and, despite her efforts, begun to pick up its pace as if she was just another tree to uproot in its way. With her arms shaking with the strain and her reserves rapidly dwindling, Sand feared she might have miscalculated.
As Robert watched Sand try to singlehandedly take down the large Boarbatusk, and fail so badly he wondered if maybe some of his Fallson luck had rubbed off on her, the boy raised his bracers and fired at the cable. His hope was that maybe he could cut the girl free before Bob did anything irreversible to her, but he knew the likelihood of pulling off such a maneuver was probably a pipe dream. Even if he was standing instead of falling, had an extremely accurate sniper rifle, and the training to go with it, the shot would probably still be impossible. Still, Robert had to do something, he couldn't leave her to die. In total, twelve 10mm rounds flew towards the metal wire with the cliff edge directly behind it.
Bullets hit the cliff's edge, missing the wires it was connected to. But perhaps due to luck or even divine intervention, the bullets did something. And that something involved weakening the dirt just enough for the massive boar Grimm to put excess weight on the ground beneath him. Time and tides had already corroded away at the cliff's edge, and Robert's bullets were the final nail in its coffin.
Suddenly, chucks of dirt fell off the wall, and from the top the ground beneath Bob loosened and sent him falling into the ocean. But there was very little time for celebrations. Out of spite the boar tried to climb out fruitlessly, striking the cliff to further disturb the cliff's edge. The Grimm horde that was there before fled as the entire cliff wall began to collapse like an avalanche, threatening to crush Sand and Robert in the free-fall.
"Well that works, I guess," Robert said as he watched Bob the Boarbutusk begin to fall from the cliff's edge, seemingly putting Sand out of harm's way. At least that's what it seemed like at first. Apparently, the monstrous Grimm was a bit of a sore loser as he began to take more of the cliff with him, taking the two hunters-in-training out of the frying pan and into the big ass bonfire. "Why does everything have to fall apart when I'm around?" he thought aloud before turning his body so he was perpendicular with the incoming sea below. He hoped to fall faster than the incoming boulders by cutting through the air rather than tumbling down.
With a gesture, Sand disconnected the wires from the blades still attached to the Boarbatusk's hide. She barely had time to for relief before a rock the size of her head smashed against her side. Already weakened from the massive strain the Grimm had put her under, the blow was enough to shake her focus and disrupt her semblance. For a moment, she had her eyes on the cliff's edge. A large crack spread along its length as the wall collapsed under its and the massive Grimm's considerable weight, the rock and earth seeming to slide out of place with a displeased groan. Then she was falling, the top of the wall receding while the landslide followed after her. She held her arms out for a moment, letting the winches inside her gauntlets reel the steel wires in, and then curled up into a ball, closing her eyes and trying to make herself as small as possible.
Her back crashed against the churning waters, and then she was sinking. The sound of muffled impacts made her aware of the rocks falling after her. Something hit her on her shoulder, sending her reeling, and a pained gasp escaped her lips. She strained to spread out her protesting limbs, arresting the motion, and forcing herself to bite down on to whatever breath she still held. Sand waited until she was mostly stationary to open her eyes, forcing herself to remain calm as she glanced around. Sunlight, even darkened as it was by the debris as it streamed into the water, made it easy to discern up from down.
With dismay, she realized she had sunk quite a ways, but knowing better than to waste time, she began to swim towards the light. Other problems quickly made itself apparent. Her gauntlets were weighing her down. Sand was tired and sore. It was difficult to move. Her aching arms' cries for her to stop and rest sounded more and more appealing by the second, and her chest was aching with the desire to take a breath, even if the act only brought with it a flood of water.
Dimly, Sand became aware that she might not have the strength to make it back to the surface before she ran out of breath even if she decided to discard her weapons.
Due to the way he hit the water, Robert had sunk deeper than even Sand had. Luckily for her, he had gotten quite good at swimming thanks to all the time he had spent in the water the past week and he had fallen in much sooner than she did since he had jumped before she did. Grabbing her arm, Robert attempted to help pull Sand toward the surface and out of the current danger of drowning. They had almost made it when a medium sized, sharp rock crashed through and nicked the boy's head, throwing him off for a moment before finally getting his head above the sea. "You okay?" he asked Sand once she had done the same.
Sand's response as she broke the water were deep, greedy breaths of fresh air. She shuddered to think what would have happened if Robert hadn't been with her. Once again she wondered what she had been trying to prove by venturing out on her lonesome, but the answer still eluded her.
Further in the deep, a creature had awoken. Bob fell to the ocean floor, desperately trying to swim, but failing to do so. And from the abyss, a single tendril wrapped around Bob's dying form, causing it to disappear into a murky blackness. But instead of vanishing into dust as most Grimm do, the shadows were absorbed into the black tentacle, and a set of red eyes began to glow in the deep.
The waters, fortunately, seemed to be clear of Grimm at the moment. But the disturbance did not go unnoticed and soon some Grimm may come to investigate. The horde that had been chasing Sand and Robert dispersed into the forest and tried to find their way back to the fortress, having assumed that the hunters perished in the waves just as Bob had. That being said, the cliff side was still quite loose, and would threaten to fall and crush Robert and Sand at the slightest provocation.
On the surface, a wave came over them, and Sand found herself needing to grab onto Robert to keep herself from going under. Spitting out a mouthful of water and cringing at the salty taste, she said, "Help me get to the cliff face. These things were not made for swimming."
"Yeah, sure," Robert replied as he held onto Sand as well. As he made his way to the cliff wall with her in tow, he couldn't help but watch as Bob sunk underneath the waves. The Boarbutusk had long disappeared from view by the time it was grabbed by the large tendril though. When the two finally arrived at the cliff face, Robert desperately held onto a small piece of rock that jutted out the side as he tried to pull Sand onto a nearby ledge.
The flat surface was too narrow for her to climb up to it properly, but she threw her arms onto it nonetheless, glad to have something to support her weight.
Taking another moment to gather her wits, Sand glanced at one of her hands. She sharpened her focus and spread her hand over the surface. Small motes of light rose from the point of contact, but the glow was feeble and flickering, like a dying flame. As if on a warning note, a pebble fell from the top of the cliff. It clacked harmlessly against the back of her gauntlet and bounced into the water with a small splash. She let the light fade. Even if she had the strength to pull the both of them up the cliff, something told her she would only trigger another landslide if she tried.
Not that she was particularly eager to climb back up to the Grimm infested woods.
Sand let out a weary sigh, letting her forehead rest against her gauntlets. The tie that kept her hair fastened back had become undone when she crashed the water, and wet clumps of white hair now clung against her face, obscuring her features. Soaked, and with half their bodies submerged under water, the young Hunters must have looked like a pair of castaways.
"For the record," she said sullenly, "this is not quite how I pictured this mission."
"You could say that again," Robert replied as he clung to the cliff. Using his free hand, he wiped his hair out of way of his visor so he could see again. He was definitely glad that he had gotten his weapons and gear water-resistant with Ms. Vanhomrigh's help after that fight with the Ogdoad. Otherwise, he'd be out of the game for the rest of the mission. "So... If I remember correctly, wasn't the sea wall near the fortress collapsed? Do you think we could swim all the way there or is it too far of a distance?"
Sand hummed half-heartedly. Circling the coast until they reached the outpost in her state was not a cheery thought.
"Don't see any other choice," she eventually said, raising her head. She was mildly irritated that Robert had known about the state of the outpost without laying eyes on it. The intel she had been given regarding the fort's current structure had been awfully limited. Her employer had had different concerns. "We could easily get in through the docks. Problem is, the place was filled with Grimm last I checked."
Dropping from the cliff wall and submerging himself up to his neck, Robert replied, "I guess we'll just have to hope the rest of the team was able to clear the place out then." The team leader looked at Sand's weapons and began thinking of a possible solution to lightening her load and making the long swim ahead easier for her. "Do you want me to hold onto one of those for you?"
"Absolutely not."
"If you insist. Just don't go drowning on me while we make our way there," the red haired boy replied before he began the long swim towards the fort.
Sand grunted sourly. Now that she had had time to calm down and even her breathing after the mad dash through the forest and the overuse of her semblance, the last thing she wanted to do was move. Her arms ached, sympathetically echoing the thought.
After a moment, she reluctantly followed after Robert, using the wall to support and push herself forward. Rest could wait until the boy was reunited with his team, not to mention she still had unfinished business at the fort itself.
