Bianca listened to Gratia. While some may have been surprised by the girl's tone, her choice of words. Bianca knew it had been there. She was not concerned nor was she stunned. She was simply, warm. She felt the heat begin to flush into her numb legs, fingers, and lungs. Gratia's tender fingers were stroking Bianca's hair. She hadn't even known realized that the car was still running.
Bianca began to sniffle, as her tears well up. She pulled away from Gratia and wiped her face gingerly. Bianca looked at Gratia with eyes so big they looked to be able to capture the entire world in their gaze.
"Thank you." And they did. Bianca's world began and ended with Gratia at this moment in time. She ripped her from perdition and gave Bianca a second chance. It was something she'd never pay back in full. But she would never stop paying it back.
"I'll wait here for extraction, you do your best." Bianca said with a smile like one a kid may bear when getting a present they know they don't deserve. She looked Gratia up and down one last time before embracing her friend once more. "I'm sorry you've been forced to do this. To come here and clean up this mess." Bianca said motioning towards herself."But this will not happen again. I-" Through Bianca's peripherals the corpse of one Vitoria Dodici greeted her. Bianca tightened her grip on Gratia and dared not move. She said through pursed lips as she held back her tears, she would not bother her friend any longer. She would leave them to their wanton destruction of the Dodici Cosca.
So there she sat. Embracing her friend whom had set her on the path of redemption. She dared not let go.
A cheery laugh bubbled up from Ivor. “No, you big doof,” he chided Sangue, as casually as if a man’s life weren’t at stake. “The drink’s for the man dying of hypothermia. Give it to him gently.” Providing an example, he gave his own patient another sip of the coffee from the second mug, making sure to set it apart from the third mug he made for himself.
When Benjamin reached the roof, the route taken by Millade became apparent. Evidently the spite that allowed her to ignore the agony of claw wounds and bitemarks did not last for long. A radio antennae rested directly in his path lay crumpled and sideways on the roof, spattered with crusty brown. His eyes followed the trail to its conclusion, and the end of the untold tale lay before him. Approximately fifteen meters away sprawled the pallid and odorous corpse of a middle-aged woman in blue with hair colored in all the hues of the ocean, the concrete around her besmirched by dried blood and black ash. A shard of jagged glass, the discoloration on its edges indicative of being wielded like a knife, was beside her. In the quiet tragedy the weight of the world’s inhumanity could very well be embodied; the person responsible for warning her coworkers and perhaps saving their lives had died, alone, in the middle of nowhere, with no hand to tear from her skin the ebony claws of Grimm and no tears to herald her last breath. Her killers, their job complete, did not so much as take a single bite from their prize before moving on, ever in search of more death.
Whether or not Benjamin opted to pay respects for the dead, he did not have much time. Situated on an open roof above the swamp’s fetid waters and skeletal trees, any man might feel like an island, safe for the moment above an infinite and perilous depth. Darkness gathered, though it could not yet be 3:00 PM, thanks to accumulating gray clouds overhead. Every nerve of human or faunus screamed danger, danger, mere synapses proven oddly prophetic.
A monumental howl rattled the entire distillery: the predator had caught the scent of its next victim. Through the trees there came a vast, black shape, and it soared from the ground onto the rooftop of the distillery. It landed with a tremendous crash, sending tremors through the building. The Manticore leered down at the leader of team Bastille before releasing another colossal roar. It raised a huge clawed paw to crush the hunter and mince the remains.
-meanwhile-
No threat barred Cian’s hasty rush to Priscilla’s body and back, keycard clutched in her hand. After returning to the door, she swiped it open, and like heaps of random junk mixed with long-neglected slightly-smelly clothes a pile of four people immediately spilled through the doorway, in danger of falling right on top of Cian. With very little hesitation the living stack untangled itself, spreading into the hall; clearly, the sweet air of freedom meant a departure from the stifling, overcrowded confines of the control room. After the four came the remaining three survivors, urgently but not so enthusiastic as their precursors, and just like that the amount of people in the storage room nearly tripled. A half-dozen voices broke out at once, be they sputtering exhortations, gratitude, or trepidation. At the very least, a Grimm-infested facility did not seem so bad after a handful of hours spent in a small, stuffy chamber.
From the refinery room, where Jack currently stood like a statue, there came a sudden clang. One of the drums had toppled over, and after the lid popped off from the impact the culprit made her appearance. Breathless, frazzled, and stuck with what appeared to be an indelible look of terror beneath her thick spectacles, the young woman squeezed her lower half out of the drum before pulling herself out of the way of a noxious, nearby chemical puddle. Her eyes watered from the fumes, her panda ears twitched constantly, and when she stood to her shaky feet her head swam enough to make her sway, but anything beat another second crammed in that God-forsaken barrel. With her arrival, there now lived twelve individuals on the bottom floor of Manticore Distillery.
The walkie-talkie crackled to life. “Attention, team JCL,” came the voice of Goodwitch. “I have examined the medical vehicle in the distillery lot. It has just about everything you might want, including a stretcher. I encountered several Grimm; the threat has not waned. I suggest moving quickly.”
As if on cue, the very foundations of the distillery shook violently. A thunderous roar filled the air, and the vibrations of titanic footsteps filtered down even to the basement.
Gratia slowly pulled her arms away, breaking free of the embrace. Her onyx gaze met the crying blue orbs of her friend. She could comprehend the pain that Bianca was suffering. It was for that reason why she would continue to act. To bring an end to that pain. She despised watching those eyes try and fail to hold in tears.
Their dishonesty didn't fit Bianca.
"Just don't fuck up again, birdbrain," she said, without a hint of harshness in her flat tone. " I won't be there to rescue your delicate asshole from whatever retarded situation you find yourself in next time."
She pushed open the door to the SUV, allowing the cool night air to flow inside. Her fingers reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone and quickly tapping a request to their Bullhead to pick up Bianca.
"Get going," stated the Mistralese huntress, handing over her coat. "Let me handle the trash here."
Sangue nodded slowly. As much as she realized that giving the drink to the patient was logical, she acted without thinking for a second time. She would give herself a good mental lesson after the mission...
Bringing herself to her patient as closely as possible, the red-haired Huntress held the mug she had been given before letting the patient next to her drink. Though unsteady, she managed to follow Ivor's example and let the man drink.
"..."
Looking up, Sangue stared at Ivor as if to confirm if she did it correctly this time. As she did so, she heard a rather not-so-faint howl of a monster, causing her to look around the room with a startled look.
"That... was close by, wasn't it...?" She whispered to no one in particular.
"Hindsight is 20/20", which you would now recognize as being a common phrase thrown around when talking about this young man's life, applied in an all-too worrisome manner for the latest turn of events.
Of course— There had to be a reason Priscilla dared to leave the room in the first place after holing up like she did.
They hadn't gone in with this knowledge, and with the sudden quiet after the quick burst of combat, had been lead to believe that the source of the screams they had heard was Priscilla herself.
On the frenetic level that one's mind ran on in an S-Rank mission as a very green freshman, this seemed to be the logical conclusion. They heard screaming, heard the crash from the barrel, saw Priscilla, killed the Grimm that had been mauling her, and then heard nor seen any more, preoccupied by their injured classmate or otherwise.
Even so, it was only after the Faunus freed herself from her silent almost-tomb that the concept he should have immediately considered clicked into place:
Priscilla would leave the safe room only if she had a very good reason to.
A reason like rescuing another person trapped here.
Before he could even debate whether to rise and offer her a steadying hand or continue preliminary care on Priscilla, the entire building shuddered as something very big and heavy landed upon the roof.
"What was—"
His question was pre-emptively answered by a roar loud enough to clearly be heard down in the basement, carried through the building by raw energy.
"...We need to get these people out right now."
As always, Luke proved his mastery of stating the obvious.
He shot to his feet, quickly bounding over to the bespectacled girl and steadying her with a hand, guiding her away from the spilt chemicals.
"Easy..."
He grimaced as he brought her over to his previous spot, well away from any noxious fumes. As it happened, however, it was also close to a now half-attended at best Priscilla.
This was bad. His attention was splitting, to the chagrin of everyone involved. Why couldn't he have learned to properly multitask?
Wait, we have another brain in the room to work with.
He tilted his head over to his leader.
"Jack, how are we going to make this happen?"
A building with something big and nasty walking around, still infested by Grimm, and they had twelve survivors to navigate through it safely as well as a wounded classmate whose only hope for medical attention was far away.
There was the option to have someone run over and grab the medical supplies, but that'd be speeding headfirst into a room full of Grimm alone.
If they went with a pair, that left only one person to either guide 12 people out on their lonesome, or stay behind and bunker down while every footstep from above shook the building.
If everyone left, then that meant they'd lost their minds.
There has to be a better way than this. If we just had one more person...
If we could just get Priscilla well enough to move now!
His jaw clenched. With the winds batting the trio in the face instead of catching their sails, to this degree, anyone would have.
From the moment the building came into view, even before he had snagged his cover, the sniper's eyes and ears was scanning his surroundings. The boy was on high alert, he couldn't afford to be careless, not when so many were depending on him. Not when Nuit was depending on him. He wasn't about to let his teammate suffer any more. Not to mention bastards like the Dodici deserved to feel some pain, they had inflicted more than their fair share, and as the saying went: Karma was a bitch.
But that's what he had Gratia for. She could do the brutalizing, and from the sounds of that phone call, Bianca may have been in deep trouble, but Gratia was on her way. As much as it pained the Mistralian, he'd have to trust her for now.
That said he mentally filed away hearing Mr. Nuit and seeing Bianca's insignia on the file, there would be time to piece that together later, right now he needed to get in unseen. As of now that wasn't insanely hard, just a single human between him and the door. Although Napoli wasn't an idiot either, there was no sense entering a closed door with no knowledge of what existed behind. From his current position however he was unable to see the window, that said there was a position down by the car which would assist him. Based off the assistant's distance, and Napoli's own skill at moving quietly he was pretty confident he could make it there without alerting her.
Once there the plan was simple:
Scan the inside with his sniper's scope and devise a plan of attack from there.
Bianca Nuit was picked up by the bullhead. She watched as she rose up into the air. She couldn’t stop staring at Gratia who was standing there, without her coat. She was finally pulled into the bullhead by an assistant who attempted to begin a psychological evaluation. They probably weren’t going to like what they would find. But she silently reminded herself that Gratia didn’t get out of bed for Bianca to falsify a medical examination. So she did what she does best.
Bianca began to gush about her latest trip to Mistral.
Gratia Mindaro – Mistral, Je T’aime
The bullhead rose up into the air and the wind flushed the pavement with a refreshingly cold breeze. Gratia Mindaro was standing next to a car which itself held the body of a Mafioso and another one whom was unconscious. It would be a long night.
Napoli Fiordilatte & Beryl Harken – A Basic Infiltration
Beryl would manage to catch up to her teammate just as he successfully transitioned between hiding spots. Marissa, god bless the girl - would be too occupied to notice the increasing amount of Hunters in her general vicinity. Napoli would now be able to make out what was through the window to the warehouse, there was an unbelievable amount of Faunus, more than 50 to be sure. Due to the sheer number of Faunus he couldn't make out much more from window, though he did also seem to be able to notice the fact that it was slightly ajar, as if someone had opened it due to the heat. Marissa immediately turned to face the direction of Napoli and Beryl, not that she could see them.
She began tapping away at her phone screen. She seemed impatient, worried perhaps.
Text on a page or a picture in a book can't really convey power. The best wordsmith can't convey the way it feels, to grasp the enormity of a foe, to see the muscles rippling under its hide, witness its shadow all but blot out the sun, see the world illuminated almost exclusively by the red of its eyes. There's no way to convey the force of presence backing the animosity inside those crimson orbs. It's not conscious. It's a primal understanding, a knowledge that you are completely, utterly, impossibly outclassed by the towering nightmare of ebony, bone, and blood leering down at you. It's a split-second understanding in the face of the beast itself, something only someone else who's seen it will ever understand. But the words come back to you anyway.
Manticore. Riesen class Grimm. Venomous spines in the mane. Claws. Tail. Teeth. Low armor, highly tenacious. Many, many times the size of a hunter.
I swear to God, I'm having a word with whoever in the airship managed to miss something that big.
Still, with all encompassing terror comes adrenaline.
With adrenaline time seems to slow down.
And with that extra time fear turns into spite.
While the Manticore's paw came down, Ben's feet were already pushing off of the ground hard and sending him rocketing aside. The few percentage points dropping off his Aura gauge told him Deinamig had a hand in that, but the force got him out of harm's way without much time to spare. The paw came crashing down where he'd been only a few precious seconds before, but he didn't have time to think about that. No time for hindsight. Not if he was going to feed this fucking Grimm its own fucking teeth. Artorius and Lawnslot were back in his hands before the thought even finished crossing his mind, and before his foot ever connected with the roof again. He landed nimbly but he didn't stay still. Staying still was death. He was on the move. A single shotgun shell rocketed towards its face far above, something to distract it, while he darted away from its paws and got ready.
Knowing this wasn't the time to hold back, he triggered the release of his second battery and watched the Aura gauge on his BaSTEELs rocket up to three hundred percent. More than enough to keep Deinamig going, and himself safe. Especially with the way he was moving. Part of what made the Manticore deadly was its size, yes, but it existed on a scale that was by the very nature of its existence disassociated with the one Ben existed on. Ben was tiny in comparison. The Manticore's efforts to crush him were like trying to swat a fly. Easy when it stops moving, or when you know where it'll be, but when it's in motion? When it's moving too fast and too erratically for you to track?
Good fucking luck.
"Well, we've got a party on the roof!" Ben said into the radio with a tone that was a little too cheerful to actually convey the frenetic pulse beating through every fiber of his being, training paired with centuries-old instinct to keep him alive. Slipping some Fire Dust rounds into Lawnslot made him stop talking a second, just long enough to aim and fire a few times at its eyes and reverse direction as soon as it looked like it might have worked out a pattern to his movements. "Jack, you guys gotta get the survivors out now. Know I told you I'd try and back you up, but I'm gonna need backup. Manticore up here."
Would've been nice to be able to get a message to ASL, but that wasn't happening. Earpieces were ten lien at Good Buy, and by God he was going to buy four of the fucking things when they were done here. There was no 'if'. There was no question as to whether or not he was walking away, as to whether or not he would win, as to whether or not this was the day that Manticore died. He was Benjamin Lloyd. He was part of Bastille. He was the captain. He was immovable, insurmountable, and invincible. He wouldn't let Lauren lose here. He wouldn't let Sangue lose here. He wouldn't let Amy, either. So neither would he.
Anything else'd be hypocritical.
Deinamig fueled his legs, keeping him one step ahead, while his eyes tracked the massive beast's movements. It couldn't get the drop on him, it was too big for that. Any attack'd be telegraphed a mile in advance. And when it was, he'd be getting out of the way. His tonfa combined with a series of quick, mechanical clicks leaving him with Caletfwlch held in both hands. That Manticore had one blind spot. Its underbelly had no armor, and no way for it to attack him. Once he saw an opening, that's where he'd be going.
Time to prove, once and for all, that Bastille wasn't second best to anyone.
She'd been told to take Moss to Lauren and obey her orders from there, true enough, but... Didn't seem quite right, leaving Ben to go to the roof alone. Oh well, at least his virgin level would protect him. Amy helped the other woman down the stairs and to the cafeteria, making sure to keep her eyes and ears open. Nothing on the way down, which was odd and didn't sit well. Moss got there safe, but before she reported to Lauren... She dialed her semblance up, listening upward.
THUMP!
With an audible sound and a roar, something hit the roof. Something big.
"Sangue!" She shouted, her shield rattling out of her sleeve. "If you hear me call, come running."
Sorry for the insubordination, Cap. Never did like being the submissive one.
***
From beside Ben, a long chain lanced out, toward the Manticore, then immediately retracted into a spear, smacking into her hand with practiced ease. Her eyes didn't seem soft blue anymore-they had a predatory gleam, her feathers bristling at the Manticore's presence. As far as the animal side of her was concerned, the beast had just stepped into her territory and was trying to make a meal of her and everyone else nearby. She stepped up to be at the right of her captain, shield covering their left flank, for all the good it would do. She aimed the spear's point at the creature-
This was it, this was right-
And suddenly, all her feathers slicked back as she released a shrill scream, the sound of a hawk sighting its prey.
Cian sighed "troubles never end does it?" She said muttered out loud the sheer craziness that was occuring for this mission alone was getting to her. Not only was her weapon in dire need of repairs but the sheer chaos of what happened and the condition Priscilla was in did not make for a good stress free time. Quite the opposite in fact "FUCK" Cian cursed out loud something that was out of char for her but in this case she thought it fit. "There has to be way were missing something but what?" She continued as she thought about ways out of their current situation.
The impact and subsequent skull-rattling roar caused Ivor to freeze and blanch visibly. He sat stock-still for the duration of the tremor, as if any movement might throw him off into a gaping chasm. Afterward, however, he saw fit to reply to Sangue, “Yes, I’d say it is. I think it’s time we get going. Something that big might tear through the ceiling and land on our heads any moment. I can carry this guy.” To conform the statement, he gingerly embraced the man on the floor before hoisting him up over his shoulders, fireman-style. This put a great and obvious exertion on Ivor, whose face immediately betrayed the burden upon him. Of course, he knew full well that a sufferer of hypothermia should be moved as little as possible, but between worsened condition and death by giant monster, the choice seemed clear.
At the same time, the battle began in earnest on the roof. The instincts of a hunter, even one in his first year of formal training, were impressive indeed, but among predators the killer instincts of the Manticore are seldom matched. Its every sense focused on the diminutive creatures before it, permitted by age and experience to regard even small and weak things as threats thanks to steel, strategy, and souls. A cluster of bullets moved quicker than the monstrous eye could see, chipping away at its great bony mask, but the Grimm never diverted its attention away from the source, which it now saw moving toward its unprotected underbelly. At the same time, a second pipsqueak appeared to offer a glancing blow to a leg, scraping across the hide, and a shrill squawk. Did this sparrow imagine itself the predator? The moment Benjamin was beneath, the Manticore unleashed not a roar but a snarl, nasty and intense, like the cry of some behemoth engine. It sprang backward, agile if not quite as fast as a feral cat, and with some twisting of its body span around. The huge tail swept horizontally across the roof, crumpling and sending away antennae, AC units, and the body of the deceased woman. The beast landed on the ground, its head just high enough to crest the building’s edge. Pushing off its front legs, it reared up and put its front paws on the distillery, shaking the whole thing again. Its red eyes shone with a lust for bloodshed, but it would be content to wait for the little ones to open themselves up by attacking it instead.
-meanwhile-
The rapid degeneration of the current situation did not go unfelt by the group of survivors, now counting eight after the rescue of the panda girl. Knowing exactly where their best chances of survival lay, the civilians almost collectively panicked when Lucas seemed distracted and overwhelmed, Cian swore and searched wildly for a solution, and Jack did nothing. The newly-freed faunus did, however, pipe up in the ensuing silence. “’Scuse me? We can help carry the hurt girl if…if you need help?” She gestured to Priscilla, and some of the other survivors nodded eagerly, hoping that the resolution of that problem might bright the hunters-in-training clarity of mind enough to begin the dangerous journey out.
"That would be best", he answered. He was steadying his breathing, what was he doing... He was trying to think earlier, but that only cost them. Having the survivors carrying Priscilla would free up more man power for them.
"Also we should at least apply first aid, staunch her bleeding so she can last a little longer. The medical supplies are still a ways off, so we need to do what we can... Next, if we're all to survive this everyone needs to work together...", he ordered, but he wasn't done.
"Can you survivors tell me what talents you all have? Perhaps they can be of use", he inquired. They were scientists and workers to be sure, but even if all they had was information of this facility, that was still valuable.
Gratia gazed impassively at the disappearing form of the Bullhead, the din of its engines fading away into the Mistralese night. Nuit had been successfully exfiltrated. The stated aim of the mission assigned to Team VGNB had thus been fulfilled. Regrouping with the other members of the team and returning to the Academy was a legitimate course of action. However, over the time they had expended in retrieving their Faunus companion, a number of "loose ends" had emerged. Her onyx eyes glanced back towards the stolen SUV, at the rapidly cooling corpse of Vitoria Dodici in the back, face frozen in an expression of shock. There were still more of them out there; the scum that had taken Bianca from them in the first place had yet to face retribution.
Until the Dodici Cosca were grabbed, kicking and screaming like the rabid little pests they were, onto the ground and forced to face their crimes, VGNB could not leave.
She slid into the driver's seat of the SUV, turning the key in the ignition once more with practiced familiarity. A quick perusal of the discarded suit in the seat next to her provided the Mistralese teenager with a pair of sunglasses, an ID badge that could possibly assist her in moving around the compound, and a zippo lighter. She pocketed them. They could be utilised.
Gratia pressed her foot down on the accelerator, and the SUV began to make its way back down to the Dodici Compound.
The pathetic piece of flesh hogtied in the back visibly groaned in her rearview mirror. He was awaking.
"Good morning," she said, voice flat and solemn as a grave. "I have many questions for you."
The nearly-naked grunt woke up in shock. He scrambled to attempt to open the obviously locked doors, he even tried to elbow his way through a window. But the Dodici were not fools, they made sure it was bulletproof. He saw the display left for him. The rotting surprised face of his former employer and nearly fainted again. His vision caving in around him. He only saw his interrogator. “The Faunus are in the warehouse, Sonny, Ignzaio and Marissa should all be there though so you’ll have a hard time getting in, please I have a family don’t kill me too. I ain’t never done nothing to that Faunus friend o’yours.” He rambled attempting to put up a solid defense against Gratia should she attack. He glanced at Vitoria and there was nothing he could use in an attempt to defend himself on her person.
He threw up his hands in front of his face, cowering in fear.
Somewhere, in the back of Luke's head, he was starting to wonder just how out of his depth he really was here.
He couldn't speak for his other teammates, but when the newly-freed faunus spoke up and casually revealed an option that none of them had seemed to be considering, the little voice in the back of all of our heads that expresses self doubt was snarking till the cows came home.
Of course that was an option. Twelve survivors also meant twelve extra hands, and twelve extra brains, whether they were combatants or not. Was he cracking under the pressure hard enough to forget that? S-Rank or not, second mission or not, it was his job to handle it as a hunter-in-training, wasn't it? High stakes couldn't be allowed to be an excuse.
...Or was it something besides that?
No, that wasn't a thought he could honestly entertain in light of the last 15 minutes. While he didn't quite have a sporadic outburst like his gun-toting teammate, he couldn't deny that, yes, he had been letting it get to his head.
Which, as previously stated, meant a failure on his part.
...They're watching us. If I get to down on myself, they're going to pick up on it and start panicking.
I have to keep cool.
Thanks, Psychology class.
"Hey, on top of that, would anyone here know what the quickest route out of here would be?"
He glanced to his teammates, then down to Priscilla before continuing.
"If there's a better option than doubling back, we should take it."
It would probably end up being "back the way you came", but if he'd learned anything from this mission thus far, it was that you left no stone unturned. Anything to help speed these people along out of here would reduce the amount of time that BASL, who he could only assume was at least in part engaging the Grimm on the roof, was on their lonesome against something that big.
The warehouse. Given the presence of the Dodici scum's leaders there, it was a truly tempting target, one that provided her with the opportunity to eradicate their pestilence in a single stroke. Yet despite her desire to crush those insects, those filthy little cockroaches who thought a meat suit made them human, she would not be proceeding towards their location. No, she would allow Fiordilatte and the church girl to handle them. Her comrades on the mission would be suitable distractions.
Gratia would assault the main office.
She parked the SUV a block away from the Dodici Cosca's bank, near where VGNB's leader had holed up. The bank was a front that supposedly brought them some modicum of legitimacy, but in the Mistralese teenager's eyes, there was absolutely none of it at all. They were still bottom-feeders. And they had dared ... they had the gall to harm something of hers.
That was why she would tear the Dodici Cosca apart. Piece by piece, brick by brick.
"Venetia," she stated as she exited the vehicle, her flat tones bouncing through the silence of the secluded spot her leader had snuggled into. Her onyx eyes glanced briefly at the unconscious old man beside the other huntress, but she made no further comment on the observation. "Take care of these two bodies for me."
Without waiting for a reply, Gratia immediately deposited Vitoria's corpse next to Venetia, followed by the frightened thug, wrists hogtied with a piece of fabric. They were excess baggage; everything she required had already been obtained from them.
As silently as she had arrived, she returned to the SUV, driving out of the alley and towards the Dodici Cosca's garage. They would be expecting her, likely.
"We also need to take care of the injured as well" Cian mentioned as she rolled her neck her line of sight never leaving Priscilla. The journey out is going to be dangerous no matter how one looks at it so with that said we should at least do some basic first aid even if its just binding the wounds real quick. "Also yes if there is a better way out we need this information so we can get out here safely without the potential of injury. There were many variables she counted that could go wrong but she supposed that the first problem should be getting out safely plus she was worried about what happened earlier only pointed to a large grim appearing. This made getting out safely all the more difficult they had civilians that was with them and as such would make things more difficult that and with her weapon of choice made it even more difficult a single err in her shots would mean friendly fire and would more than likely injure or kill them.
After the gunships lifted off and took flight, they started off by circling the airspace above the town. Unsure of their location until Esther spoke further with the flight commander. Esther, Emerald, Tony, and Diamond had all loaded onto Skyhawk-3, and while it wasn’t exactly a tight fit, it wasn’t roomy either. Emerald lay on the stretcher in the center as the medical team worked on her. Already hooked up to oxygen and life-saving fluids dripping into her intravenously. An EKG machine displaying her vital signs. Esther sat alone, with Diamond and Tony sitting next to one another. Emerald being in the center acted as a sort of divider. The total count was an approximate 30 or so soldiers. 15 to each gunship, to give an idea of how crowded it was or wasn’t. The same female soldier from before made her way to Esther and stood speaking to her. ”PAX count?” Esther, her mind elsewhere as she watched the docs work on Emerald, blandly responded. ”Four.” ”Those automated turrets-...” ”Disable. Do not destroy.” ”Location of the ECMs? ”Unknown.” ”Approximate location of Skyhawk-1?” Esther pulled out her Scroll to bring up a holographic map of the area. Using her best calculations she pressed a spot on the map and then swiped at the screen to send the information to ‘Sam’. Sam pulled it up using the same holographic display on her forearm as Tony and nodded. ”Alright. That’s all we needed. You ah-...Need anything else?” Esther shook her head ever so slightly, eyes still watching Emerald. ”No. Just make sure my students don’t die.” Sam didn’t know how to respond and simply nodded in silence as she returned to the cockpit.
On the other side of Emerald, Tony nudged his shoulder against Diamond’s. ”Hey, thanks for the smokes and sorry about earlier. I, of all people, should know better.” One of the medics working on Emerald called out to the rest of them. ”We’re cutting her bandages. If you’ve got something swinging between your legs, have some decency.” To which Tony obliged by looking down at the floor of the gunship as did any other soldier on deck who was male.
Giving Tony an inquiring look, Diamond seized the few minutes they had before they got where they were going. “So. How does one go about having her own private army when she treats you like garbage?” she asked in a whisper, fairly certain her voice didn’t carry over the noise of the machines in the middle of the compartment. Tony glanced at Diamond. ”Say again? How do you mean? She treats us the same as we’ve all treated each other before. And why are you whispering? Speak up, the ship’s a noisy gal.”
Emerald had remained semi-conscious during her transport to the gunship, it seemed the drug that had been administered to her twice now not only was really good at numbing the pain, but it also made it difficult to sleep, even if she wanted too. She was vaguely aware of the medical team treating her, but she didn’t want to focus on that if she could help it. The less she knew about what they were doing the better.
Instead she looked towards her teacher, there was one question burning through her mind at the very moment that she needed answered.
“Are there more of those...things out there?” Esther blinked slowly, unsure if whether or not she should blatantly lie or be honest to Emerald. To preserve what little innocence this girl had for now, or to wake her up to the reality of the world they lived in. Though she hated to lie as it was against her nature, she sighed quietly before responding.
”No.”
Emerald felt more relief than she thought possible, she certainly didn’t want to deal with any more of them, not ever. “How does something like that even happen…”
“Yah, either of you care to actually enlighten us to what the hell we just fought? Not very teachy of you.” Diamond sneered.
Esther glared at Diamond, glancing at Tony who still held his head low to avoid looking at Emerald’s body. ”You fought Huntsmen. That’s all you need to know and that’s all I’m telling you.”
“Yeah like all I needed to know was that it wasn’t a grimm, except it took my anger and threw it back at me exactly like one of those would. Do you see where the problem is?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.
Esther’s anger grew, clenching her fist tight. If only she could explain everything to Diamond and help her to understand. But a large part of her refused to lay bare the truth of the matter, some desperate part of her wanting to preserve her student’s innocence as best she could. For as long as she could.
”You fought a Huntress. That’s. It.”
“I...I don’t want to end up like that…” Emerald squeaked out.
Esther’s anger drained out of her at that pathetic response and caused her to get to her feet, moving a step or two closer until she was by Emerald’s side. Taking her hand and warming it, she leaned her face in close so that their eyes met.
”You don’t have to worry about that. You never will. I promise you.”
Emerald would have tried to hug Esther right then and there, if she hadn’t been horribly injured. Her eyes were teared up, from both the stress she was dealing with and the comfort that she would never become a monster like that. She nodded in response.
“Huntress. Sure.” Diamond grumbled for herself, filing a mental note to get to the bottom of this one way or the other. Turning back to the merc beside her, she raised an eyebrow questioningly. “You meant to tell me this ship’s full of assholes? I swear even the street gang had more class then you guys then.”
Tony chuckled.
”Hey, everyone’s got one and they all stink. When you have to rely on the best money can afford to buy and expect to be sent home in a box any second, you kinda take on this don’t-give-a-shit-imma-do-me attitude and find enjoyment anyway you can. So yeah, we’re all pretty much the same way. I mean, we have our key differences, but the similarities are what help us to bond. The common ground, know what I’m sayin’? And what’s this about a street gang?”
“Speaking of best money could buy, can’t you take that helmet off? That flat stare is creeping me out.” Diamond shivered. “I get what you’re saying. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. Not when she’s pulling the same crap on my team. What pisses me most of all is that I get the nagging feeling it’s fake. A well rehearsed role but push her buttons and it starts to crumble. If I deserve to be yelled at, out with it. I want people to be honest with me.”
Tony placed a hand on the side of his helmet. ”Hm? You want me to remove this? I mean, I can but does it really bother you that much? Honestly, we’re never supposed to remove them to protect identities and dome-pieces. What, you talkin’ about ol’ gal Vanessa over which way? Ah...hold on. I think the seal for my helmet is acting up.” Tony weakly tried to divert the subject away from Esther, using his ‘faulty’ helmet as a piss-poor excuse. ”Fuckin’ thing. I think the locks are damaged…”
“Let me get the can opene-” she reached over her head, only for her hand to pass through air. “Fuck’s sake…” she relieved herself, reaching into her pocket to check her wallet was still there. “Yeah I’ve been meaning to ask about that, is that a callsign or something? Doesn’t seem to fit the rest of your theme.”
Tony waved his hand at Diamond. ”Ah, no need for any ‘can openers’ I g-I got it. Gah, fuck I’m gonna have to get them to pop the seal when I get back. Shit, that’s gonna suck? Huh? Oh, y’mean Esther? I uh…” He glanced over at Esther, who was still preoccupied with comforting and tending to Emerald with her wonderful bedside manners.
”I uh...I really shouldn’t say. B-but no, it’s not a callsign. We don’t really have a ‘theme’ per se. Just stupid identifiers more akin to nicknames. Like mine has to do with my last name. Ski Mask’s has to do with how terrible he looks with a mustache and how he has a court order to stay away from schools, white vans, balloons, and candy. Gorilla because of his face. And Carnal because he’s trying to become a religious whatchamajigger. Funny sorry actually-...” It was still obvious, but Tony was still trying to change the subject and avoid talking about Esther however he could. Diamond already made it known she was no fool, but it wasn’t going to stop Tony from trying.
“Tsk. Wow. That afraid of her huh?” Diamond said, looking at Esther and inclining her head. “Interesting. I didn’t know a clip to the head held that much power. Maybe I should get a few for whenever Oswald pisses me off.”
Tony scoffed, placing his hand on his chest as if he took great offense. ”Am not.” He glanced at Esther, still preoccupied with Emerald. ”Okay, maybe a little. Alright, you got me, a LOT. You haven’t seen what she can do for realsie in the field. There’s a reason our call sign for her is ‘Death March’. You only got a taste of what she can do. Why Beacon Academy haven’t signed her on as a full teacher is beyond us. Probably all of the…” He paused to think. ”Never mind. Anyways, to answer your earlier question, it’s not an act. I assure you, she’s angry 110% of the time and hates any person with a pulse. Mostly because the general populace are idiots in her eyes, some more than others. But, that’s not all there is to Van-..Esther. I mean, look at her right now.” Tony motioned with a hand at Esther. ”I’m not lying when I’m telling you that when she goes home after all this, she’s going to drink heavily and bawl her eyes out for your teammate having been hurt as badly as she has. She may not show it, but she does care deeply for every knucklehead that has the gall and intestinal fortitude to be under her care. She has a habit of taking any and all blame and taking responsibility for everything that happens. To her, everything bad or wrong that happens to those around her is completely her fault. Which is stupid, but-...” Tony froze. Realizing he was saying WAY too much. ”Shit. Fuck. Uhhh...forget I said all that. Please. Damn it. Ahh…” Tony began to check his equipment and ‘organize’ it. Discarding whatever he considered ‘trash’ on the deck of the gunship.
“She’s a good huntress but shitty teacher, that’s why.” Diamond deadpanned. “There’s her way and no other way. Good one would find an approach that the student responds to. Take me for instance, I’m a bit of an anarchist. That is going to be interesting yet since I signed up for her class.” she snickered, 50:50 between looking forward to it and wanting to cancel the transfer.
“I noticed as much, let’s just say our last mission was only slightly less crap than this one. Despite everything she did offer to talk if we felt like. Maybe I should cut her a little slack.” she said, the last part being again in a half hushed tone. “Oi, come on, I’m not saying anything to anyone. Heh. Say what’s with the hugs? She got some painful scars or something? Fresh tatts that itch?””
Tony almost burst out laughing when Diamond commented on Esther’s teaching ability. ”Well, V-...Esther’s teaching method has to with how she was raised, trained, and et cetera. There’s a method to her madness, I promise you. You just gotta really analyze the things she says and does. Everything is for a reason and if you can’t pick up on it, I’d recommend dropping out of her courses. Like you said, it’s her way or none at all. From what I’ve seen and heard, she’s trained quite a few stellar Huntsman. Hell, some of our own rookies are decorated Veterans still alive to this day because of some of the things she had taught them. If it weren’t for her, our group would probably be a lot smaller. She’s saved a lot of men from an early grave more times than I can blink. But about her teaching ways...It sounds like a crock of shit, but just listen and obey. Otherwise be prepared for a lot of stupid games. She knows more fuck-fuck games than a freakin’ toy manufacturer.”
Tony bowed his head lower and sighed heavily, ”A LOT of stupid games.” Lifting his head back up ever so slightly, he continued. ”Y-you know what? I’d recommend you just...save yourself some agony and take an easier class. Do they have a crochet class at Beacon? I don’t know if they teach home making shit.”
Diamond’s eye twitched. Bending down to grab a piece of Tony’s discarded equipment, she lobbed it at his head. “Shut up. I’m not some doll.” She growled, pausing for a second before looking over at Esther. “What do you know I did learn something.” Tony sputtered, ”Fuckin’ hell sonofabitch. On second thought, her course might be the perfect place for you.” He sighed. ”The physical contact stuff? No, no scars. Fresh tattoos, mayb-...” Tony acted flustered and agitated again for a moment, making a few unintelligible sounds and wild motions which drew the attention of the nearby soldiers. ”You’re a fuckin’ weasel, you know that girl? Stop making me talk! If she finds out I spilled the beans there won’t be anything left for my wife to divorce!” Tony adjusted the volume being output from his helmet, lowering it.
“Hey, by all means, if I do something wrong I deserve an ass kicking. You should have seen her when Emmy shown up in the morning waving loaded guns around. That, THAT was the real her. And the most beautiful hissy fit I ever seen. But I also deserve to know why I’m doing certain thing. I’ll work myself to death if there’s a reason for it without a beep, but not because she feels like it. I mean if you don’t explain how to do something, you don’t get to shout at someone for doing it wrong. Period. Anyway, we’ll see how that goes.” she sighed. Then her mind got to the last part of what was said, and she looked at Esther funny. “I’m sorry what was that about a divorce? My fantasy wandered off for a little.”
Tony shrugged. ”I’m getting a divorce from my wife. She’s a bitch. But, I don’t care because I have custody of my daughter. Nothing big. But, Vanessa teaches in a way that she gives you big puzzle pieces and clues and expects you to put it all together yourself. She hates insulting people’s intelligence in that way and also in that way, it’s a test to see if you’re capable of critical thought and problem solving on your own. Which is not only a useful trait to have as a Huntsmen but as functioning adult member of society. If you can’t FITFO, you need to GTFO.”
“Sorry to hear that. Sorry for the kid that is. Not growing up with a mom around sucks. Bitch that gave birth to me is out there somewhere still to my unending fury. The woman who’s doorstep she dumped me on took care of me for a couple of years, but she was old and passed away. Than… Yeah. Street. Worst grade school ever. But I graduated top of the class, so to speak. If your wife gets something you really like in the divorce that one person can lift, give me a call.” she winked with a crooked smile.
Tony laughed and gave Diamond his hand to shake. ”Sounds like a deal. Man, what the fuck kind of kids they letting in at Beacon nowadays? No offense to you.” Forgetting the handshake, Tony pulled out the pack of cigarettes Diamond gave him and opened it up to view the brand and the number of smokes remaining. Shaking it slightly, he peered inside the box. ”Smoking, thieving, kids off the street apparently. By the way, thanks again for the cigarettes. I really appreciate it. What brand is this? I don’t think I recognize it. Unless they changed the design or something...Man, I hope we can get a break soon. Nic feenin’ is the worst. I tried quitting before in the past when my daughter was born, but then I realized that would make me a quitter. And quitters are losers.” Tony chuckled as he oddly inspected a singular cigarette.
“Being fucked up sounds like a prerequisite to be stellar in this job.” Diamond said, nodding over to the other side of the ship. “I dunno some garbage they sell near school. Don’t thank me for those, but for the save might be nice.” she said, rubbing her arm. Still nothing. Maybe she should have one of the docs here check it out, but given what she just heard she didn’t want to put more weight on the teacher’s mind. After all Diamond knew full well that was a risk and accepted it. “Dibs on the sawblades by the way, I’m mounting them on the wall. Well maybe you guys can have one. Both if it wouldn’t let Emerald sleep at night.” she grinned, making a note to also recover the remains of her hat before they left.
”I heard that, lady. We’re all mad here. But hey, a cigarette is a cigarette. Beggars can’t be choosers.” Tony noticed her rubbing her arm. ”Y’cold or somethin’, lady?” Moving onto the subject of the creature’s weapons, Tony shook his head. ”Oh, no. You don’t get any souvenirs from that bitch. After we’re done here, a ‘sanitation/relief’ team will be sent in right behind us. One, to collect and scrub any evidence of those fuckers. Two, to aid the civilians in the repairs of the town and surrounding areas. So you can put in a request for the recovery team to pick up anything that may belong to you. Otherwise, you’re shit out of luck.”
“For fucks sake! I am getting really fed up with you stonewalling us on anything regarding that thing! At least tell me it’s classified, make some excuse damn it! I can live with being a pawn IF THE GAME MAKES SENSE.” Diamond thrown a little tantrum, loud enough to be overheard. Huffing she stuffed herself into the chair, arms folded on her chest and a pout on her face. “If something even shittier happens from now on, that’s on you lot! I don’t wanna hear what it is or where it came from, just how to kill it before that-” she pointed at Emerald, “-happens again, am I asking for that much?”
All head and eyes turned to stare at Diamond, the medics pausing in their work. Esther furrowed her brow at Tony. Were the two of them talking about something? What was with the sudden outburst? Tony put up his hands in a defensive expression as he shrugged and motioned at Diamond. Esther shook her head and sighed, returning to her seat as the docs finished up on Emerald’s wounds.
Tony turned to look at Diamond and attempted to appease her.
”Look, lady. They’re Huntsmen, like you, your teammate, and Esther. They have powerful Auras, Semblances, and Trick Weapons just like you. If all you want to know is how to kill them, think about what it takes to kill another Hunter. Not much else to them other than their warped sense of thinking, fucked up faces, and dark clothing like a bunch of angsty teenagers coming out of a Warm Subject store. You happy?”
Esther said nothing on the matter, her attention now focused on the pair and observing them as she crossed her arms across her chest.
“Nghhhhh...everything is moving…” Emerald muttered for one reason or another, it was hard to say if it was the painkiller that was the cause or simply her distressed state.
Dismissing the discussion with a ‘hmph’, Diamond returned to silently sulking in her seat. I already knew that much! she spat mentally, wanting for the hat to still be there so she could shove it in her face and just ignore her surroundings for the rest of the ride. They all might have been used to dealing with losing friends. Diamond never had friends, until now. It was the image of them no longer being there that she dreaded and that put her so on edge.
“Heyyyy….” Emerald drawn out slowly, looking at Esther. “Do you think all the scars I’m gonna have will make me look...badass?” She asked hopefully, for one reason or another this was now on her mind.
Esther cocked an eyebrow and gave her an odd, twisted smile. ”Ah...At the very least you’ll have a story to share. Be proud that you survived something. Lived to tell the tale, so to speak.” She hoped the answer would be sufficient enough for the girl.
One of the medics then chimed into the conversation, which Esther didn’t appreciate too much. ”Don’t worry, kiddo. You can’t feel it much because of the sedatives you’ve taken, but we took the liberty of giving you something that’ll prevent scarring. Or at least reduce the visibility and size of any scars.”
“Oh.” Emerald said, blinking. She almost looked disappointed when she heard the visibility would be reduced. “But how am I supposed to look cool if no one can see them?”
Esther and the doctors shared a look, both turning to stare back at Emerald unsure of what to really say. At this point, Tony who had overheard the conversation butted in. ”Look, little lady. I don’t know who got it in your head but scars, to me? They’re a reminder of something stupid. A stupid mistake that happened. So, if I were you, I’d get it straight that scars aren’t that cool to rock. Trust me. I know. I have a few myself.”
Esther looked at him, ”A few?” Tony threw up his hands and searched the ceiling for guidance. ”Fine. Okay. A LOT.”
The medic who joined in on their conversation remembered something and left Emerald’s side to kneel in front of Esther. The two of them shared whispers as they talked back and forth, Esther’s worried eyes looking at Emerald briefly before turning back to sharply reprimand the medic. Really, only Emerald’s ears could hear bits and pieces of what was said. But not enough to piece together a complete picture.
”...Did our best...remove” ”-The fuck do you mean…” ”Trace amounts still remain…” ”You better fucking promise me or I swear…” ”Shouldn’t have any effect…”
Esther’s face twisted into an angry scowl as she stood and grabbed the collar of the medic and shoved him away and to the deck of the airship. The medic exclaimed as he bumbled backwards, crashing into a few of the seated mercenaries. She sharply pointed to where the medic stood prior, ”You better get your fucking ass over there and do your damn job!” she hissed. The mercenaries who were tripped into looked at Esther wordlessly and turned to stare at the medic, still on the ground.
”A-aye.” the medic said meekly. The other medics went to help their friend up, one offering a pathetic apology to Esther. ”Excuse him, ma’am. H-He’s new to the team.” Esther stripped her hat off of her head and threw it hard against the deck, causing them to jump. ”Go-fucking-figure! No shit, huh!?” Letting out an exasperated sigh, Esther ran her gloved hands back against her hair. Lowering her head, she held herself there as she cursed to herself, spitting venom. The medic stood and they all returned to Emerald’s side. Running tests for a second time and replacing her IV drip.
Tony knew what was going on and sighed, ”Oh, boy....”
“W-What’s going on…” Emerald finally said, very concerned with what she’d just heard. She didn’t need the whole picture to realise they were talking about her. What was more unsettling was that there was something seriously wrong with her and no one was telling her what it was.
Esther raised her head and looked at the girl, unsure of how to answer. Thankfully, Tony spoke up. He liked to talk a lot and sometimes that worked in his favor, able to handle nearly any situation just by word-smithing his way through things. ”Hey, don’t worry about it kiddo. The docs weren’t able to completely clear out the medication we gave you, so they’re flushing your system with another IV. You’ll piss like a racehorse when you get back, but that way you won’t get sick from any side effects that may come up. So, rest easy. Momma Essie is lookin’ out for you. We all are.” Emerald wouldn’t know it, but he was lying.
Esther didn’t appreciate the new moniker of ‘Momma Essie’, so she picked up her hat and forcefully chucked it at Tony’s face. Catching him off guard, Tony squirmed in his seat as he clumsily tried to remove the hat caught on his helmet’s face.
“Oh.” Emerald said, nodding a bit. She didn’t know too much about medical procedures but it sounded like something they might do. Still, there was one thing that didn’t quite add up. “Then...why do you both look so worried? I-I’m not buying that! Tell me what’s really happening, I can handle it.” Emerald didn’t believe Esther would have gotten so worked up and pissed if it was as simple as flushing drugs out of her system.
Esther looked to Tony again, the two of them sharing another look. Esther sure as well couldn’t lie to the girl. Tony had no issues coming up with a believable lie and feeding it to the Huntresses. ”Well, think about it like this. If you come back to Beacon, the medical team there is going to do their own thing. When they run their tests and find even trace amounts of the...life-saving medication we administered to you, Esther and her buddies, that’s us, can get into some trouble. It’ll cause a bigger hassle than it’s worth for everyone involved when Ms. Vanhomrigh here has to stand in front of Ozpin and explain as to why we used...medication as strong as what we gave you two gals. You see what I’m sayin’? So, just to make it easier on all of us...Getting yourself flushed prevents any long term side effects to your health. Bonus points saves Esther and the Abyss Walkers some potential paperwork, yeah? Trust me, little lady, it’s nothin’ serious.” Inwardly, Tony hoped and prayed that Emerald would take the bait and bite. Better that she left the subject alone than to continue asking so many questions.
Tony and Esther again shared a look, as difficult as it was to see through the faceplate of Tony’s full helmet. She knew what he was thinking and knew what his facial expression looked like. How far were they all going to go hiding information from the Beacon student body? How far were they willing to lie and feed drivel to Diamond and Emerald? Damn their young inquisitive minds. Just focus on the mission and leave things be. They’ll find out when they graduate and take missions of their own as full-fledged Huntresses. But Esther couldn’t help but wonder, were they doing more damage than good? Esther hated being dishonest to people, even if they were younger students of hers’.
Tony got up and roughly patted the shoulder of the nearest medic, startling him. ”Isnt’ that right, doc? Tell the girl.”
The medic turned his head to look at Tony, then back down to Emerald whose body had been recovered with clean bandages and made decent again. The medics all wore the same equipment as the rest of the Abyss Walkers, so it was impossible to see the medic’s face or expression. But, nevertheless, the medic nodded his head once and gently patted Emerald’s shoulder.
”That’s right. Everything is fine with you, Ms. Huntress. You’re going to be completely okay once we get the rest of the medication cleaned out of your system.” The medic turned to glance at Tony, who nodded and again patted his shoulder, sitting back down. Esther silently gave Tony her thanks.
Emerald looked between Esther, Tony, and the medic. Her face scrunched up as she thought it over. She wanted to believe them really, it would be easy to do that. The medic telling her it was true made it more believable but...weren’t they all basically in cahoots with each other? She could shake the feeling they were trying really hard to keep something from her.
“Keep your secrets if you want...but isn’t it unethical for medical personnel to keep a patient in the dark about their own health?”
The other medics looked between one another before the one that had been speaking to Emerald spoke up. Nodding in agreement, the medic laughed. ”You’re absolutely right, Ms. Huntress. It would be against a doctor’s hippocratic oath, so you have nothing to worry about.” The medic, who would later be discovered to be the senior lead medic, turned his head and watched as Diamond angrily stood and walked towards the backend of the ship without saying anything. Looking at her back, the medic thought for a moment. The Huntresses wouldn’t know it, but none of the medics were actually doctors. None of them were required to take any sort of oath, other than their own formulated one. One that only required them to do everything within their power to ensure a person’s survival, nothing more nothing less. Morals and ethics played no part of their ‘oath’. Looking back at Emerald, the lead medic continued. ”Now, the only reason we aren’t doing the same to your teammate is because she had a single dose. By the time you and your team return to Beacon, the medication will be cleared of its own by her own body. It’s only when you receive a double dosage is when problems start to arise, understand?”
One of the mercenaries who had been paying attention to the whole situation fidgeted in his seat. Tapping his foot repeatedly against the deck of the ship as he seemed disturbed by something, worried. From the cockpit, a unintelligible conversation could be overheard, a series of electronic voices speaking in military jargon/code back and forth. As the conversation between pilots of the two gunships ended, ‘Sam’ made her reappearance and addressed them all.
”Alright, so plain and simple, we’re here. We have eyes on the wreckage of Skyhawk-1. Skyhawk-2 will be going in fast and hard to offload a team of our operatives to shut down those turrets to allow us safe passage. Once their mission is done and they’re extracted safely, we’ll be flying in to recover your team and continue forward. Sound good?”
As Sam briefed the occupants of Skyhawk-3, Skyhawk-2’s afterburners kicked into overdrive and their engines could be heard roaring from even inside the other gunship. Within seconds, the turrets that lined the perimeter reactivated and again opened fire. But this time, the gunship was expecting them and conducted stomach-churning evasive maneuvers narrowly avoiding the volley of anti-aircraft fire. Flying low just above the treeline, numerous Abyss Walkers dropped out of the back of the gunship just as it peeled straight up and flew off and back to safety. The gunship falling in line with the one that contained the team, the two of them circling in the safe airspace until the ground troops gave their signal of the all-clear.
Sam continued. ”For now, we’ll be circling until our boys and gals do what they do best. When we see their flares go up, we’ll get a move on.”
So let’s all not notice the other girl who got a shot against her will not being drained of anything to erase evidence. I would have thought you would be doing your best what with the involuntary recipient part, how’d that look on your resumé? Diamond thought wordlessly, but a very angry gaze was ticking between Ms. Vanhomrigh and Tony. She was not saying anything only because she didn’t want to make Emerald even more worried than she already was. I wasn’t sick before but you guys are sure going to make me. Same lying, cheating scumbags as on the streets. Well, if there is any truth to that the least I could do is go have a checkup post-mission, make you at least a tiny bit miserable about this garbage. She got out of her seat and walked as far away from the horse shit that was being tossed around, which amounted for a couple of steps to the cargo ramp. It would have to do. Let them come and say to strap into the harness, she was ready to hurt someone.
For a moment Emerald just looked straight ahead, unresponsive as her mind raced. Then her face got red as her expression became one of anger and her body shook. “That’s bullshit!” She screamed, which caused her more pain than she had been expecting, but she continued, her body still shaking. “You’re all hiding something from me...that much is painfully obvious. I may be young and naive but I’m not an idiot! If there’s something going on with my body I deserve to know what it is! I don’t give a fuck what your reasons are for trying to hide it. S-So don’t you dare tell me another lie! I’ll rip these IVs right out of my arms and refuse to let you do another thing to me!” Emerald moved her right arm to grab the IV that was in her left arm, doing so caused her a lot of pain but she did it anyway, tears in her eyes. She was tired, in pain, drugged, and quite agitated. If they wanted to stop her they’d have to tell her the truth or sedate her.
With Emerald’s outburst, the entire mood of the gunship’s cabin flipped on its head. Every Abyss Walker PMC got to their feet and were ready to pile on top of Emerald if she lost control of herself. They had seen how Huntsmen could get when angered and were not about to have to deal with that however many tens of thousands of feet in the air as they were. The medics grabbed at whatever part of Emerald’s arms, legs, wrists, and ankles to hold her down as the senior lead medic pulled out another syringe that was more than likely a heavy sedative. Tony and Esther had gotten to their feet and worked to diffuse the situation.
Tony put his arms out and looked about the cabin, ”Woah! Woah! Woah! Hey! Everybody calm down, relax! Take it easy now!” Esther wasn’t nice about it. ”Everybody sit the fuck down! At ease! Lower your damned weapons!” The mercenaries that weren’t well acquainted with the Huntresses looked at each other nervously, but silently obeyed Esther’s commands and reseated themselves. Esther shot a sharp look at Tony and pointed at the senior medic that was just about to stick Emerald again. Tony nodded and came up behind him to snatch it away.
”I think the gal’s had enough of that today!” Tony exclaimed, tossing it towards the back end of the gunship, not noticing it landing somewhat near Diamond.
Esther sighed and locked eye contact with Emerald, seeing the tears in her eyes. It wasn’t easy for her, what she thinking of doing. Telling the truth never was easy. But, she was tired of hiding what she knew. She was tired of being dishonest, as it wasn’t in her nature to be a liar. Her and Tony would argue later, but who cared about that. All she cared about was the wellbeing of her students under her care.
”Those...those things.” Esther and the Abyss Walkers had fought them countless times in the past, but never had a name for them as they gave themselves no name. ”They coat their weapons. Their armor. Their equipment, all of it. They coat it with some poison. Something we’ve never been able to figure out. All we know is that if it stays in you…If they draw blood..” Esther looked up at Tony, remembering that he sustained cuts from the sawblades. She would have to remind him to get that checked out. ”You start to think like them. Your mind eventually slips. You become rabid. Feral. Just like them.” Tony started towards Esther but she put up a finger and stopped him. ”Stop. Just...s-stop. Sit down.” A faint but detectable waver broke up her usual clear and firm tone as she spoke. Tony took a step back, slowly reseating. Esther blinked and rubbed at her eyes, sighing again. ”So, please. Emerald. The docs are doing their best to get it all out of you. I promised you that you wouldn’t become like them, but I can’t keep that promise if you don’t let the docs do their job. Okay, baby girl?” Esther took a step towards the faunus girl and touched her hand to Emerald’s. Only Emerald could see it, but reflected in Esther’s eyes was a deep sorrow and pain. It was clear. Esther had seen the results of someone twisted and transformed by the creatures’ poison. Perhaps more than once. ”Okay?” she pleaded, almost begging. Tony held his head in his hands, shaking his head and muttering to himself. ”Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. We’re all fucked anyways..” He sat up straight and threw up his hands. ”Well, might as well tell them everything at this point. The brass ain’t gonna like this.” Tony turned and looked at Diamond, then to Emerald, and finally to Esther. ”Since we’re all coming clean now and it’s obvious we’re all discredited as liars…” Tony stood, pacing in what little space he could.
”You all wanted to know what those things were? They’re Huntsmen, yes, I’ve said that. But they’re Huntsmen who worship the Creatures of Grimm. They worship blood. Pain. Death. Fuckin’ freaks, all of them. They fanatically believe that the Grimm are the superior lifeforms of Remnant and that we are all heretics for fighting against our lords and masters. They act as servants for the Grimm, doing whatever they can to sow seeds of misery to empower them, to feed them. They believe that by looking like the Grimm, acting like them, that when they die they are granted the greatest and highest honor of becoming one with the Grimm. As some sort of hivemind. Where it all started and how did they become the way they are? We don’t know. We don’t know how big they are, we don’t know how powerful they are, we don’t even have a fucking name for them. All we know is that they really…really...REALLY hate other Huntsmen. This whole shitstorm of a mission? Probably a set up by them. All to send out their message and spread the word. And that word they want to spread?”
Tony paused, really wishing he could peel off his helmet and light up a cigarette. ”That Huntsmen are not all-powerful. That none of you are the true heroes and saviors of Remnant. That all of our days are numbered, the days when the Grimm will rule is coming.” Sitting back down, he groaned. ”So now that the cat’s out of the bag-” Tony looked at Emerald real quick. ”No pun intended.” Tony turned back to the rest of the cabin. ”Can we PLEASE for the love of all that is sacred be happy, finish this shit up, and go the fuck home?”
Emerald focused on Esther as she spoke, unable to really do anything else but listen. It felt like her heart stopped when her fears were confirmed, she had a poison in her that could turn her into one of...them. When they were finally done talking Emerald had to take a moment to get her voice back.
“O-Okay...” She finally said, removing her hand from the IV she had threatened to pull. “Thank you...for telling me…” Emerald spoke slow and distant, it was a lot to take in, and she wasn’t in the best mental state as it was. She felt like her mind was shutting down on her. She knew that Esther had promised she wouldn’t become like them but the very fact that there was even a chance that it could happen was more terrifying than she had bargained for. More terrifying than death. Their poison was in her veins...if they didn’t get it out it would happen.
She started to sob, she couldn’t help it now. She was in a nightmare that she couldn’t wake up from. “E-Esther I...I’m scared.”
Diamond twitched at Emerald’s outburst, but understood it perfectly. Unfortunately, there was little she could do other than comfort the girl, and someone seemed to be doing that. Now though it only made even more worried about Oswald and Cobalt. Was there only one of those things? Or are there more here. The gunship couldn’t get there fast enough for her.
Though it would be hard for anyone who didn’t truly know Esther to see, the woman’s heart broke when Emerald started sobbing terrified for her future. Removing her body armor and letting the heavy plate carrier drop to the deck with a solid thud, Esther stood over the girl and wrapped her arms around the girl in an embrace. Being careful not to disturb any of the connections from the medical equipment to the girl’s body, Esther softly shushed and stroked Emerald’s hair.
”Shh...It’s okay, sweetheart. You’ll be okay, there’s nothing to worry about. There’s nothing to be scared about. Just relax and take it easy, we’re all here for you. You’ll be alright.”
Esther could only hope she was successful in calming and comforting the girl. She wouldn’t say it, but any negative emotion would activate the trace amounts of poison, even fear. She earnestly cared for the girl, as little as she had known her at this point, but her offering solace was dual-purposed. To ease her suffering and misery, and to save her life. The transformation isn’t a pretty sight, nor was it ever painless. Echoes of comrades that had gone untreated howled faintly in Esther’s memories.
The more she thought of Emerald losing herself, the more she was constantly reminded to have the same procedure done to Tony. Thankfully he had experience in dealing with the poison and only suffered trivial flesh wounds. It was very likely he had less in his bloodstream than the Faunus girl, but even a droplet was enough if left to fester.
It didn’t ease her mind when she looked up and saw Tony rotating his shoulders as if to work out some soreness.
Emerald started to calm down a bit, her sobs slowly turning into sniffles. The fear was still there inside her, lingering, but it started to fade as she let Esther comfort her. Eventually she closed her eyes, she just wanted to sleep and forget about all of this, at least for a little while. It didn’t take long before she lost consciousness.
WE NOW RETURN TO YOUR IRREGULARLY SCHEDULED REKTONING
Missing the staff swing, the creature chuckled darkly. It's laughter was cut short as gunshots grazed its legs and diverted its attention. Stumbling from the damage, the creature whirled to stare down Cobalt and growled. Moving its pole staff to its back, it picked up the hammer head portion of its weapon by looping its fingers into some smoothed out holes as if it was some odd bowling ball. With a twisting motion, it unlocked and separated the massive chunk into two halves and shot towards Cobalt. Thanks to its feathered cloak-like hide, many of its movements would be difficult to read and confusing to look at. But deeming Cobalt to be the most severe threat at that point in time with his large firearm, it rocketed towards the Hunter in a serpentine pattern. Aiming to use its brick/hammer fist weapons to pulverize the boy.
”Make us whole again!”
The creature howled and laughed maniacally as it sprinted towards Cobalt.
As the monster began moving, Oswald gave chase. Weighed down by his assorted pieces of armor, however, he couldn’t match its rapid pace.
So he forced the situation. Appearing to the side of Cobalt once he was within range, Oswald took a step towards the creature, sword and shield ready to attack. “Aim for the legs. He’s faster than I am, and I’m not wasting Aura to constantly chase him down with my Semblance.”
“That was the plan.” Cobalt jumped back and took aim at the Grimm’s legs once more. Or where the legs should be anyways. The weird cloak thing was making it a little hard to tell, but he got the gist of it really. Cobalt began firing on the Grimm, ready to move if it got past Oswald.
The air cracked loudly with each of Cobalt’s shots. Booming like thunder as the massive rounds broke through the sound barrier as they flew at the creature. Frighteningly agile, it narrowly dodged each shot as it moved in erratic and unpredictable patterns that would make it difficult for the Hunter to track. Made even more difficult thanks to its feathery hide concealing parts of its body. Even still, it refused to back off and continued its charge. But instead of going to Cobalt, it redirected its focus onto Oswald. Mainly, his shield.
”Break the armor! Shatter the sword!”
Its body again glowing with that alien light, it closed the distance and swung hard with its hammer fists. Aiming directly at Oswald’s shield for one reason or another.
Oswald was caught off-guard by the creature when it began to glow. It looked like it was extending its Aura outward. That was impossible, though: Grimm didn’t have Aura.
Unable to react in time to this sudden turn of events, Oswald found himself taking the full force of the monster’s attack.
As the creature’s attack connected, an odd sensation would resonate throughout the shield and flow into Oswald’s body. The clearest indication of what was happening, was the fact that the face of Oswald’s shield seemed to take a bit more physical damage than usual. Enough to leave more than just a simple scratch and dent.
Cobalt cursed and took aim at the Grimm attacking Oswald. “Move!” Cobalt called out as he began to fire at the now stationary Grimm. Meanwhile Cobalt was thinking on this new development. ’What the hell is going on in this town?! Grimm don’t have Aura, yet here I have a Grimm with Aura!’
Jumping backwards in reaction to the damage to his shield, Oswald cursed. Loudly “MotherFUCKER!” Snarling in anger, Oswald teleported behind the creature and unleashed a vicious stab, transforming his sword into Katar form. “Die, dammit!”
The creature stood its ground as Cobalt shot it nearly point blank. The shots clearly hit and connected, but the oddest thing about it all was that the rounds seem to ‘deflect’ off of its body. Almost like whenever Cobalt would be dueling with another Huntsman depending on their aura levels. Standing there and straight up tanking Cobalt’s attacks, the formidable foe continued its odd electronic maniacal cackle. Knowing it had angered Oswald, it predicted the Huntsmen’s next movement and turned around with a nasty right hook with the intention connecting its hammer fist with Oswald’s weapon to damage it even further.
This time, Oswald was prepared for a counterattack. As the creature turned and unleashed a vicious punch, he snarled and pivoted his arm, swinging his sword under the beast’s hand and coming back up with a slice to its exposed arm.
The attack failed, partially due to the claw gauntlets it had on as armor and partially due to whatever invisible force was protecting it. Having missed its own swing, the momentum of it allowed the creature to whirl on the spot and follow through with another punch. This one aimed right at Oswald’s soon-to-be-maybe-not-as-pretty face.
Instead of preparing a counter-attack again, Oswald jumped backwards and to the side, a grimace on his face. “Damn thing’s too quick!” Normally, he’d have stood there and taken the hit, giving as much as he got, but even Dust rounds barely put a crack in this shield. Whatever the hell this thing was, it was capable of even more damage than that.
Cobalt noted that the bullets bounced off of the Grimm without actually touching it. ’That seals it. This Grimm has an aura. This is officially the worst day ever.’ Cobalt ran towards the Grimm and slash at its right shoulder, hoping to create some sort of opening for Oswald.
Laughing as it saw Cobalt rush, it smashed its hammer fists together and twisted to lock the two blocks of metal into one solid piece. Dropping the weighty hammerhead on the ground, the creature withdrew its staff and slammed it home into the hammerhead to reform it into its war hammer mode. Rearing back with the weapon, the creature intended to let Cobalt come in close so that he could pull off an upswing attack that would send the boy flying.
Taking advantage of the creature’s maneuver, Oswald returned to its side, throwing his shield to the side and delivering another stab, this time with his remaining arm acting to block his arm from a counterattack. Let’s see this thing take us both at once…
The creature had quite honestly forgotten Oswald in the moment and in that moment it blanked on what to do next. So, as Cobalt and Oswald closed in on it, it took a heavy blow from both of their strikes. No blood was drawn yet, so its protective energy was still running high. After it had taken both of their attacks head on, the creature hardly budged, it didn’t move. It just stood there for a second. The second passed and it broke out in yet another quiet snicker. The shaft of the warhammer it held slackened and broke into a sort of segmented chain. Flail mode. Now with the two of them that close, it shouldered off their weapons and swung hard. After a slight delay from dragging the head of the flail, the chain it was connected to threatened to whip around and tightly wrap around the two. The creature erupting into its energetic laugh again.
As the monster’s weapon transformed into a flail, Oswald groaned and watched where its head was. This was going to be tough; if they got caught by that thing, it was game over.
Knowing that he couldn’t come up with a plan in the time that Cobalt could with his Semblance, Oswald reacted based on instinct: take the attack head-on to keep the heat off his team. His Aura was strong enough to survive at least a few more hits from this thing, that much he knew.
Stepping away from Cobalt and the creature, Oswald reached out with his free hand and grabbed the chain as it passed by him, yanking it towards himself and swinging into it with his own sword.
Cobalt activated his Semblance at the moment that the creature was hit and an eternity passed by in the space of a second. He watched as the creature began to snicker and turn his warhammer into a flail. Cobalt then smiled as he saw his own opportunity arise. He too swung at the chain in an effort to try and shatter the chain and effectively disable the weapon. “Disable the weapon! Then focus on the Grimm!” Cobalt yelled to Oswald, this thing was too dangerous with this weapon. It had more forms than Beacon Students had classes!
Cobalt’s attack succeeded, as did Oswald’s. Acting with an effective synergy, Cobalt’s attack broke a weak link in the chain which separated the lethal end from the user. Oswald’s attack connected with the lethal end to knock it a good distance away, but not before causing a good bit of damage to Oswald’s weapon. Though it was essentially a very special hammer, there was something about this creature that accelerated equipment wear and tear. Perhaps tied to some unique special ability.
Regardless, they both essentially defanged the creature. And as it stood there dumbfounded with a dangling chain in its claws, it grew angry from its confusion. Clearly unhappy with losing possession of its toy, it tightly gripped the chain in its hands and began to wildly scream and thrash about. Without the heavy hammer head attached to it, it now gained a different advantage. Unpredictable movements combined with speed. Attempt to flog the two boys and beat them to death, each hit that connected with the end of the chain caused increased damage to their weapons and armor, though to a lesser extent when compared to the hammer head strikes.
That...was an outcome Oswald hadn’t anticipated. Nor was the rapidly-incurring damage to his weapon and armor, as a matter of fact. Being in such extreme proximity when the creature had begun its flailing meant that he necessarily had to take a few hits, though these were not nearly as destructive as the hammer had been.
This thing was perfectly equipped to kill Huntsmen, it seemed...a disturbing thought, which had to be discarded in favor of not dying gruesomely. Rather than continue to suffer at the hands of the relentless chain assault, Oswald forced himself to retreat backwards, watching for a gap in its movements, a chink in its armor, anything he could use to even the odds.
Cobalt retreated as well, attempting to stay out of range of the high velocity chain while also taking potshots at the enraged Grimm. He got struck a few times, but nothing truly serious, just glancing blows. He moved next to Oswald and glanced at him to assess his condition. “You feelin alright? No injuries, not feeling tired?” He asked with a tinge of worry in his tone. Oswald had been going against this strange beast for a majority of the battle after all. “If you’re good, we should probably figure out a way to permanently down this monster.”
Chuckling at Cobalt’s worry for his safety, Oswald smirked cockily as he adjusted his sword. “I’ll be alright. I’m holding at maybe 75-80 percent Aura right now. Just load up whatever anti-personnel rounds you have. Preferably of the incendiary or explosive variety…”
“I’ve got a clip or two of incendiary. Would’ve had more if not for those damn Ratatosks.” Cobalt unloaded his current clip and loaded in a clip of incendiary bullets. “You think that we’ll get a mission upgrade?” He asked, making sure to keep an eye on the Grimm still throwing a tantrum.
Seeing the two back off, it took its chance. Forming its chain back into a broken off staff. Rushing straight at Cobalt and Oswald, still dodging and shrugging off Cobalt’s shots, at the last second it slammed the end of the staff into the ground and pole vaulted up and over the two. Launching itself and landing next to the hammer head. Looking back at Cobalt and Oswald, it let out a deep and menacing growl.
It didn’t get to take too long to try and intimidate the boys as Alex and Chase joined in the fight, having recovered enough. Chase kneeled in a firing position, while Alex stood directly behind him. The two of them doing their best to buy the two boys time and run interference. The creature was easily angered and refocused on the two mercenaries, rushing directly at them as it slung its staff onto its back and twisted apart its hammer head into its fist form.
Alex and Chase lowered their rifles at the same time. Chase ducking under a left jab to position himself behind the creature with Alex in front. Dancing with the beast, the two of them manage to land a few body shots while evading the flustered and confused enemy. Not that the two of them were faster than it, but merely they were in a good spot to narrowly slip by its telegraphed and sluggish attacks.
Having enough of the peons, the beast recombined its hammerhead and lifted it above its head. Punching straight down, the creature cratered the earth and threw the two off balance. Dropping the hammerhead, it swept the legs of the two soldiers with its staff and in the same motion formed its warhammer. Lifting the massive weapon above its head, one of the mercenaries was seconds away from being pancaked as they raised their rifles trained to fight to the bitter end.
If the creature couldn’t get to the Huntsmen, it would use the weaker mercenaries as sacrificial lambs. With its unique abilities, would the boys let the mercs die or shoulder a heavier burden and work to keep them alive at their own expense? The thought brought about a certain dark joy in the monster, grinning ear to ear hidden underneath its skull/antler mask.
As the creature leapt over Oswald and Cobalt, changing its focus onto the two mercenaries, Oswald felt his blood run cold. The two of them wouldn’t last a minute against that thing, especially not after the crash they just survived.
Breaking into a wild sprint, Oswald let out a battle cry as he approached the fighting trio, using his Semblance as soon as he was able to appear directly in front of the creature, tendrils of Aura thrashing about wildly on his body as he braced his arms to intercept the attack.
“NO.”
Cobalt snarled as the Grimm went after the two soldiers, monster couldn’t even pick on someone it’s own size. He dashed forwards towards the Grimm, activating his Semblance and aiming carefully. When he pulled the trigger, fire encased bullets began flying straight past Oswald’s head and hopefully into the Grimm’s face. “Eat this!” He yelled as time resumed his normal flow and he awaited his results.
The hammerhead impacted against Oswald, suffering the Huntsmen a heavy devastating blow. A second later, Cobalt’s shots hit home and caused the creature’s head to violently snap to the side. As flames shrouded its face, the creature stumbled and tripped, falling over. Howling and frantically swiping at its own head, pieces of its mask had shattered and were crumbling off.
Alex and Chase both nodded a silent thanks to Oswald and joined the fray in full. Getting back to their feet and flanking Oswald’s left and right, they presented their rifles and began to unload a hailstorm of incoming small arms gunfire at the wild thrashing beast. Snarling and roaring, the creature rolled about kicking and swinging. Screaming and punching as it stupidly attempted to remove its flaming mask from its own head.
Groaning in pain at his arm, Oswald breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed that the creature was flailing in its own misery. “Serves ya right, fuckin’ bastard.” Reluctant to attack with his right arm because of the hit he’d just taken, Oswald drew his sword in his left hand, stepping towards the creature and took a measured swing at its upper arm.
Meanwhile Cobalt moved slightly closer to the Grimm, taking more shots at the head to try and put it down for good. He was also keeping an eye on the two soldiers, he wasn't going to let the Grimm go after them again.
With a snarl, the creature was back in the fight in an instant as it looked up at Oswald and stopped his sword swing by grabbing the blade before it connected.. As its feathered hide burned away and gunshots continued to deflect off of its body, a shot from Cobalt hit its mask causing it to break away from its face as burning crimson eyes locked with Oswald’s. Clutching Oswald’s sword with a death grip, one could almost hear the metal groaning under the monster’s power. Rising to its feet, the creature took a step forward and threw a headbutt at Oswald’s nose. Following up with a swift and nasty jab at his throat before attempting to spartan kick his chest.
Eyes widening at the creature’s dextrous blocking of his attack, Oswald grunted in frustration and stared defiantly into its eyes. He only noticed the headbutt when it was too late, skulls colliding with a sickening crunch and a splash of blood.. In what otherwise might have been a hilarious dose of irony, the headbutt knocked Oswald off balance enough to send him careening backwards, causing the follow-up attack to land, mostly harmlessly, on his forehead. It hurt, mind you, but not nearly as badly as it would have had the attack landed on his throat.
As Oswald fell backwards, the kick passing over him as his head struck the ground, he realized that he had lost his sword in the struggle.
He was completely disarmed now, only his armor and his Aura to protect him. “Fuck.”
Scrambling backwards and quickly regaining his footing, Oswald didn’t even bother to fix his nose or wipe the blood from his face: he was far too angry for that now. His eyes burned with a passion he hadn’t felt in years, and his Aura acted similarly, shadowy ethereal tendrils thrashing about wildly. Raising his arms into a loose combat stance, Oswald stepped toward his adversary and grunted derisively.
Cobalt winced as the Grimm suddenly headbutted Oswald, sending him careening backwards. He rushed the Grimm from behind as it focused on Oswald, slicing at its midsection to draw it's attention away from Oswald for a bit. It was time for him to take some heat now.
The creature reacted with the same speed as it did when Oswald had swung at it and turned in time to block Cobalt’s attack with Oswald’s sword. Attention diverted to the ‘bigger threat’, The creature growled before her nostrils flared and she took a deep inhale. As she did so, the air seemed to vibrate as seemingly drained something from Cobalt’s teammate. Growing emboldened and empowered, the creature grinned with gleaming white teeth as it swung away at Cobalt’s weapon. Oswald’s sword becoming imbued with its strange special ability to rapidly degrade equipment. Then, it began a wild barrage of swings at Cobalt.
Alex and Chase had to lower their weapons. Due to the Hunters’ close proximity to the beast, they feared continuing with providing fire support. If they jumped into the fray, they would hurt more than help. Anything they did could possibly affect the boys, and they couldn't have that. Even still, they wouldn’t stand by and just watch. The two of them looked about to try and think of anything they could possibly do to provide aid. Through the treeline, they saw something that they could work on, sharing a silent look of understanding before the two of them vanished. Running off into the woods, the monster would be too preoccupied to give chase at this point, it wasn’t worried about them anyways.
Gritting his teeth as the creature started using his own weapon to fight his teammate, Oswald waited for a moment when the two were locked into their attacks and used it, teleporting behind the creature and unleashing a quick punch into its side.
Letting out a cough as it was reminded that this was a 2v1 situation, the creature turned her head ever so slightly to look back at Oswald as she threw a sharp elbow back towards his face.
With the luxury of both plenty of breathing room and having expected the counterattack, Oswald lifted his arm to deflect the elbow from hitting him before loosing another punch into its back, a few inches below where he figured its ribcage was.
Cobalt dodged as fast as he could while also throwing in some hits of his own. He quickly noted that hitting Oswald's sword seemed to damage his own, so he stopped doing that quickly. Things were getting tricky right up until Oswald rejoined the fray, once again making the fight a 2 on 1. He grew emboldened by this, ready to go on the offensive when he got a chance.
A sharp pain shot through the creature’s body as Oswald successfully countered its rear elbow and struck hard, letting out another open-mouthed cough. Its face twisted in shock. Anger and frustration quickly getting the best of it, it sloppily tried to hold its ground against the two. Many if not all of its attacks missing by wide margins as the damage rapidly stacked up against it. Taking hits from all sides. Having enough, it attempted a desperation move. First chance it got, the creature ducked down as low as it could as suddenly as it could, to manage to avoid having its intentions telegraphed and predicted. Tossing its legs out, the creature went for a 360 degree leg sweep to throw the boys off balance and trip them up.
All it needed was one of the Huntsmen to fall. As it got into a crouching position, its claws shot out to tightly clutch at one of their ankles. Scrambling to its feet, the creature dragged whichever Huntsman along the ground and with its immense strength picked the boy up to lift and then slam their body down into the other as hard as it could. Growling, its body again glowed with light as it stabbed Oswald’s sword into the ground and clasped its hands together.
Raising its balled up fist above its head, it struck the ground at the boys’ feet. Its strength combined with its special abilities ‘shattered’ the ground and erratically caused parts of it to collapse and crack making it difficult to stand on or move. Removing Oswald’s sword from the ground, it channeled its power through the blade as it pounced on the boys and started to bash the weapon viciously against them. Keep the Hunters together and attack them both at the same time, funnel them. That was its plan. Crush their armor. Shatter their weapons. Once they were defanged, the battle would belong to the creature.
Oswald’s jump was too little, too late. His timing was a bit off, and being weighed down by as much gear as he carried was not conducive to jumping in a hurry, even to an experienced Aura user. Instead of clearing the leg sweep, Oswald’s foot was caught, tripping the fledgling Huntsman in mid-air and sending him slamming face-first into the ground. His groan of pain was barely finished before he was grabbed about the body and forcibly dragged, before being slammed down.
Cobalt jumped into the air, not quite making enough air to clear the leg sweep, but he accounted for that. He pointed his gun at the ground and fired a few times, letting the massive knockback give him a couple of extra inches into the air. When he landed, he saw the Grimm swinging Oswald at him. Crap. Cobalt took the hit and tried to wrench Oswald out of the creature's grasp. Not that it mattered, it let go of Oswald and grabbed his sword, stabbing it into the ground. The Grimm shattered the ground, making combat much less predictable.
Cobalt quickly got up after having been hit by Oswald, moving to avoid the Grimm's attacks. The battle was once again in the Grimm's favor, he needed a game changer and fast.
”Good!” the creature thought. It had bought itself time. Sticking Oswald’s sword back into the ground it buried its claws into the dirt. Ripping large, boulder-sized chunks out of the earth the creature tossed them at the boys in an attempt to crush and entomb them. Doing this two more times, it figured it gave itself enough time to make a mad dive for its cherished weapons. Taking Oswald’s sword with it, it dove towards where it last saw its equipment.
Bad move on its part. For some reason, this creature had yet to account for Oswald’s near-suicidal tendency to throw himself into the line of fire. And once more, he did so, launching a furious punch at the first chunk of earth to reach him, hoping to shatter it before it could harm him. His Aura was certainly hurting, but he had enough to take a few more hits at the very least.
As the second of the boulders came towards him, Oswald let out a grunt while throwing himself to the side, avoiding the projectile completely. The third boulder came close enough for Oswald to feel the need for another crushing punch, though the feat cost him more Aura than he’d have liked. “Cobalt, this thing is hitting like a truck. Forty, fifty percent left at most.”
Meanwhile...
Alex and Chase had seen a nearby turret, deactivated but they knew that was a crock of shit. After a quick sweep of the area, they made sure the area was safe before proceeding. The creature had not followed after them, as hoped. Alex provided security overwatch while Chase worked.
”Never thought I’d see those fuckers again.” Chase said as he ripped open a control panel, exposing a plethora of cables and connections. ”They’d gone quiet since our last conflict. How many years ago was that, anyways?” Alex stayed alert, rifle up and eyes focused as he constantly scanned around. ”I don’t know, it’s been a while. You know I don’t have the best memory.” Chase dug around among the cables. ”What exactly do you plan to do?” Alex asked. ”Well, I’m not going to waste any time trying to access this shit and bang out some shoddy programming or coding.” Chase activated the light on his helmet to help him see better. ”So…?” Alex inquired again. ”I figure these turrets are all connected to a network where they’re all controlled remotely. Whoever is fucking with us has total control of these things. Remove it from the network, and the turret can’t function normally or receive commands from wherever the central control station is.” Alex remained silent, letting Chase talk. ”If these turrets were built up to snuff and I would like to think they are, there’s probably some manual override, service mode, or functions test.” Alex looked at him, still confused. Chase sighed, dramatically ripping out two cables. ”I’m going to turn it off and turn it on again.” Alex shrugged and nodded, that was simple enough to comprehend. Chase shook his head. ”Gods and Goddesses above, and you’re a fuckin’ pilot? How the fuck did you manage to nab that with an open contract?” Alex quipped back, ”Hey, I can do words good.” he laughed. Chase reconnected one of the two cables he removed after letting 30 seconds pass and watched the little display on the control panel. Tapping the metal chassis impatiently. ”Come on, come on...That’s right, network disconnected. Failure to communicate with server...Ente-YES! Got it!” Reaching into the chassis of the turret, Chase tapped at the puny keypad. ”Troubleshooting/Repair mode….Here we go! This ought to turn things in our favor!” Chase watched as the turret hummed to life, the barrel raising and spinning up. Chase noticed something on the screen and couldn’t help but chuckle. ”Please troubleshoot and complete repairs before reconnecting to the network to prevent errors in operation? Pfft! Okay, now where are the controls for this thing…Oi! Alex! Head back to those Hunters and mark that bitch so I can get a bead on her. Let’s see how she likes taking a couple shots from this thing.” Alex lowered his rifle as he looked at Chase. ”We don’t separate, you know this.” Chase sighed. ”Fuck, alright, alright.” Pressing a button on his helmet, he turned up the output volume to act as a loudspeaker. ”Oi! Hunters! You might want to stay down!” After a few seconds of tinkering with the controls, the barrel to the turret began to spin up rapidly. After sufficiently gaining speed the air thundered as Chase did a ‘test fire’ cutting down the trees that stood in their way.
Chase chuckled darkly, ”H’oohh baby…”
Cobalt looked towards the mercs and frowned. “What the fuck does that mean?” He asked himself, right before the sound he dreaded echoed through the clearing. “Oswald, get the fuck away from it now!” God damn it, those turrets kept fucking shit up everywhere he went. First the plane, now this! Fuck!
Dropping to the ground as the turret’s gunfire rang out, Oswald yelled in frustration. “Not this shit again!”
Just as the creature was reunited with its equipment, it turned its head to face where the two mercenaries had cut away at the treeline to expose it as a target. A look of desperation froze its features for a moment, before its instinctual ‘flight’ mode kicked in. As it grabbed its weapons, it sped off just as Chase locked the turrets’ barrels onto it, firing off another thunderous burst of gunfire that just barely missed it.
The creature ducked behind the wreckage of the airship, small embers of flame still burning about. Panting heavily, the creature’s mind raced trying to think of how it would regain the upper hand. Off in the distance, it could hear other turrets going off and see an aircraft much like the one it hid behind zipping above the treeline. It could only be more reinforcements coming to save the day. Its thoughts were interrupted with another volley of gunfire that cut a large piece of the wreckage down just above its head, the aircraft pieces crumbling down with a calamitous clatter. Wincing and shutting its eyes tight, it began to panic. Two inexperienced Huntsmen. Two experienced mercenaries that seized control of a turret capable of shredding an entire airship to pieces. Countless more mercenaries and whatever else on their way to reinforce and outnumber it dramatically. As powerful as the creature knew she was, she knew her end was coming and so close to the completion of her mission. She couldn’t know the fruits of her companion’s labors, but only hoped she that she was successful as well. The creature still had one last trick up its sleeve. If it were just the two greenhorn Huntsmen, she could crush them easily. But having been divided from her partner and locked into this precarious situation sealed her fate from the beginning. Might as well go out with grandeur. It held out until nightfall, so that objective was complete. All that was left was to kill or draw blood, and she could manage that along with summoning her masters.
Pressing her back against the section of metal, she slid to her seat and swallowed dryly as she began to sweat. Opening her mouth wide, she carefully stuck her claws down her throat and forced herself to gag and dry heave. Coughing sickly, she searched her mouth with her tongue and located what she needed. Spitting it out and looking at it covered in saliva and mucus in her palm, she grinned uneasily. With the little purple pill she held in her hand, it spelled certain death for her once she used it which was of no import to her.
Taking a deep breath, hidden there in the flames and smoldering metal, the creature popped the pill back in its mouth and bit down on it. Crushing it with her back molars, her mouth filled with a disgusting bitter taste but she forced herself to gulp it down. Hacking and coughing, all she had to do now was wait. Less than a minute was all that was needed.
~~~
Alex cursed and punched Chase’s shoulder. ”You fuckin’ idiot, be careful!” Chase threw up his hands and shouted back, ”-Fuck you mean, be careful!?” Alex pointed at the wreckage and reminded his friend, ”Or did you already forget that Duckie and Ski Mask’s body is still in there somewhere? We already have to find all of Duckie’s pieces, or did you want to make that harder for us!” Chase lowered his hands, ”Oh. Right.” how could he forget? The two of them kept their eyes on alert to search for the creature, but couldn’t find it. Alex was the first to ask, ”Well, where is it? Did you get it? I don’t see or hear anything.” Chase grew agitated, ”I don’t fucking know, I see and hear what you see and hear.” He really hoped he didn’t desecrate his comrade’s corpses any further.
But, when they heard that familiar scream, their blood ran cold. The fight draining from their bodies as they froze to the spot. It was a sound they had never hoped to hear again. A sound they hadn’t heard for years and could live happily for the rest of their lives if they could go without ever being reminded of what that scream meant.
Chase weakly begged to whatever deities were watching over them from above as he shook his head, ”No...Please, no.” Alex cursed, ”She fucking didn’t…”
~~~
If one could possibly describe how the creature’s scream sounded, it would be as this. Imagine a scream so animalistic, so primal that from its sheer volume immediately damaged one’s vocal cords and quite literally ruptured them to the point where they would bleed down into one’s throat and fill one’s lungs. Imagine that within that scream, it held every single bad memory or experience you had ever gone through in your life. Every dark and evil emotion that you had ever felt within your mind, heart, body, and soul. Core, basic, crude feelings, and thoughts all tightly compacted and compressed only to be abruptly set free all at once like an explosion of everything demonic that existed within a person’s spirit. That, would be the soul-shattering sound that the creature made and sustained for a good bit of time as the effects of her ‘ace’ took control.
Pain. Anger. Sorrow. Malice. Malevolent expressions all came flooding out and could be seen infecting and spreading throughout the environment around her, taking the form of what was obviously her dark and twisted Aura. She was on her knees, trying to hold herself together long enough and conscious enough so that she may do her masters’ bidding. Grasping at her head, threatening to tear out her own snow-white hair as her bleeding eyes struggled to focus on the ground. Black, tar-like oil oozed from her ears and nostrils as her own blood flooded out from her mouth as she continued to scream her lungs out. The veins on her face and head pulsed angrily as they visibly blackened making them stand out even more so against her near translucent-pale skin. Every nerve in her body flared painfully as it felt she were burning alive, her skin threatening to peel off of her as it cracked and bled, her brain feeling as though it were seconds from popping. It was maddening, unbearable, but it was all she had left. All for the sake of her masters’ and their shared mission. Her bones shook and rattled within her until she had no strength left to even kneel and bent over on all fours to violently retch, vomiting the same black tar-like oil substance out with a wet squelching sound.
The earth groaned and cracked and her surroundings appeared to bow and bend away from her, as if the very planet knew what a terrible abomination existed on its surface and feared it so heavily. Her scream fell silent. Panting, ragged heavy breaths she blinked. Sniffing and coughing, she survived. She was chosen. With an intense flooding sensation of absolute power, she stood. A small part of her thoughts to wipe away at the black blood that lined her face, but she dismissed them. She could feel it. She was closer to them. She was part of them. The Grimm.
Her bleeding eyes looked to the side at her weapons, waiting for her. They begged to grind the bones of the pathetic humans into meal. Bending over to loop her fingers through the hammerhead, she separated them into their fist form and turned ever so slowly to where she last remembered the mercenaries stood by. Take care of the appetizers first, then move on to the main course and dessert. Casually striding from behind its cover, she stood out in the open as she stared down the mercenaries from however far off.
Alex and Chase didn’t have a chance to gasp as they saw the very image from their own nightmares reappear before their very eyes. The creature moved with such an enhanced speed that one would think it only took a single step before it stood a foot from them. It looked as though it only threw out two swift jabs, but in actuality it had given both Alex and Chase an uppercut to both of their abdomens. The strength of the creature shattered their battle armor and forced fragments of it into their own bodies, rupturing internal organs, cracking multiple ribs and from the sheer force punctured their lungs with a terrible combination of both armor fragments and their broken ribcages. The creature, in one fell swoop, essentially collapsed their entire torsos into themselves. The two mercenaries fell face forward onto the ground, blood and bodily fluids gushing out of their bodies rapidly as the laid there. Disgusting gurgling noises coming from their mouths as they fought for every second of life.
The creature turned, walking away with bland disinterest before something caught its foot. Looking down, it saw the hand of one of the mercenaries and followed it to meet eyes with the dying soldiers. At both of their sides were discarded syringes of some dubious concoction they had apparently injected into themselves. Chase was attempting to hold the creature back by grabbing at its feet. Alex somehow had his sidearm in hand, pointing it unsteadily at the creature’s body.
The creature scoffed. Admirable. It thought. But without a second to waste, she turned back around and walked away. Leaving Alex and Chase to wallow in their filth together, pathetically. Now, the Huntsmen. Facing Oswald, it moved with the same speed that dared to rival the Hunter’s Semblance leaving behind false illusions as it sprinted straight at him. Disorienting afterimages concealing its movements as it instantly began to swing at Oswald with its fist weapons, each strike containing the same power that shut down the mercenaries.
Oswald’s face fell in recognition of the sound of the creature’s horrific screaming. It was a cry of pure evil, of something that existed for a single, obscene purpose: the annihilation of all Human life. It was the cry of the Creatures of Grimm. And not any ordinary Grimm, this cry drove existential dread through the souls of all but the sturdiest, most bullheaded men and women. The type of people who would punch a boulder in the face, so to speak. Oswald only felt hatred at the sound of the cry, a kind of primal, instinctive disgust that drove animals to slaughter their enemies.
The air clear of bullets, Oswald broke into a sprint towards Alex and Chase, skidding to a halt as he witnessed their brutal defeat at the monster’s hands. Until then, his Aura had manifested itself as relatively short, translucent black tentacles, writhing and thrashing in throes of passion.
Now, Oswald seemed to be concealed by a rampaging vine bush, opaque tendrils of life force jerking about erratically. His figure was nearly completely obscured by the visage of his fury as he stared directly at the charging Grimm.
Reacting on a nearly inhuman level, Oswald vanished behind the Grimm, unleashing a savage punch at its back in a repeat of his previous attack. Unlike before, however, Oswald continued punching, hooks and jabs and crosses flying from his arms faster than his body would typically allow. Tendons stretched and ligaments groaned in protest at the adrenaline-fueled lengths Oswald put them through, but until one of the opponents could no longer fight, there would be no cessation of the salvo of blows Oswald rained on his enemy.
Cobalt felt his heart skip a beat at the scream, no, the roar that reverberated through his body. It was the roar of a truly pissed off animal who was willing to do anything to kill. The Grimm was so fast, he didn't even have time to activate his Semblance to think before the monster dismantled the mercs. Cobalt wanted to run. He wanted to save himself and run as far away as possible. Then Oswald jumped into the fray once more. His Aura was going insane, whipping around everywhere in his own uncontrolled rage.
Cobalt activated his Semblance just as Oswald threw the first punch and began to think. He thought long and hard about what he was going to do. Battle scenarios ran through his head and were thrown out just as soon as they were finished. This thing was seemingly invincible. Were there any visible weak points? Then Cobalt zoomed in on it. Bleeding eyes.
His Semblance deactivated and Cobalt charged into battle once more. If Oswald could he brave enough to fight a seemingly invincible monster, than he had to be as well. Oh god this was a bad idea, but it was his only one to be honest. Oswald attacked from the back, and Cobalt moved in front of the Grimm. He barely bothered aiming at this point, he just pointed in the general direction of its head and began firing.
Oswald was mostly predictable with his usage of his Semblance. At this point the creature already knew all it needed to combat the Hunter, with only Cobalt’s Semblance being unclear to it. None of that truly mattered at this point, when one fell the other would be next. Turning at the exact moment Oswald had warped behind it, the two immediately became locked in a fist fight. Trading blows and both standing their ground, unwilling to give. Unfortunately for Oswald, the odds were stacked against his favor. As powerful as Oswald was, able to match its own base physical power, the fledgling Hunter failed to reign in his emotions. If something wasn’t done soon, Oswald would seal his fate.
The creature fed on Oswald’s anger, growing more and more in power as the fist fight continued. Gaining more and more speed as it gorged on the food Oswald gave it, with Cobalt’s fear contributing even more to the feast. As it only grew more, Oswald’s power would diminish. Combined with its unique ability, every hit that connected would only serve to weaken the Hunter further. Cobalt’s erratic fire to its back did nothing to slow it down, the creature having near omniscient perception. All it took was a simple nanosecond glance back and it was able to accurately predict Cobalt’s next shot. Evading his gunshots with slight change in angle or movement. If anything, Oswald was more threatened by Cobalt’s assistance. He was hurting more than helping.
Knuckle to knuckle strikes. Facial hits. Body blows. The creature attacked every sloppy opening Oswald gave it. It would only be a matter of time before the Hunter’s aura would be depleted and the blood would be spilled, bones being broken. Its own toxic aura exuded outward and infected, seeding a small but terrifying thought in the team leader’s mind.
”You’ll be next.”
~~~
At the currently sealed cave entrance…
Night had fallen and they had woken. Now aware of their current fate, the horde of Grievers within the cave sleeping worked tirelessly to dig and burrow through the rock and rubble. One of their kin had called out to them on the other side. They had to answer its call. With their sheer number, it would only be a matter of time before they cleared the entrance enough to escape. To begin the swarm. To destroy and kill. One of their kind had cried out to them on the other side. They had to answer its call.
~~~~~
After trading blows with the Grimm-thing for nearly a minute, Oswald’s rage-addled mind could tell only one thing: this isn’t working. Normally, it would only take a few punches to stun or wound even the grandest of Ursae, given how hard Oswald was exerting himself.
This creature had hardly budged after taking more than a dozen.
Meanwhile Cobalt was still internally freaking out. Then a random thought occured in his mind. ’I'll be next. What a strange thought. He looked at Oswald and steeped his will. ’No. I'll be first if it comes to that.’ Cobalt thought as he mentally slapped himself. First things first, time to calm down. Being afraid did nothing for his mental state and Grimm feed off of negative emotions if he recalled correctly. Next, make a battle plan with Oswald.
“Oswald, calm down and think! We can get angry later, now is not the time!” Alright, message conveyed to Oswald. Step three, ??? Step three was to come up with an actual step three. Cobalt slowed down time and began to think. What could possibly hurt this thing? It had evaded so many bullets with just a glance, how could he hit it? Observation of surroundings: helicopter scrap, dead bodies, turret that produced helicopter scrap. Bingo.
Time resumed its normal flow. Here's hoping he could figure out how to use the turret before the Grimm killed Oswald. Cobalt began moving towards the turret, ignoring the dead bodies, and looked at it's controls. This seemed simple enough. Kinda like a joypad almost. He moved the barrel around a bit and looked towards Oswald. “Teleport as far away as possible!” He yelled as loudly as he could, right when the turret locked on to the Grimm. Then the turret let loose a storm of metal.
Oswald’s fury-driven stated proved to be more than Cobalt’s few words could break. In fact, Oswald barely registered words, mostly just the fact that Cobalt was talking. The words ‘as far away as possible’ registered as a hail of gunfire erupted in his direction.
And then he saw red. A burst of pain flew through his body as his Aura vanished in a single fell swoop, his body being propelled forward, off to the side, and to the ground rapidly. He could tell that he was bruised from the sheer force of the launching and the landing, even if his Aura saved him from being torn into meaty chunks.
Red faded to black slowly but surely, for not even sheer force of will could prevent such trauma from draining consciousness out of Oswald’s body. After a few moments, his body went slack as he passed out.
The deadlocked fight ceased, halted in its tracks by gunfire that shook the ground and ripped apart the air itself. One moment, the creature was battering the Hunter into the ground to flatten him and the next she felt an ungodly force slam into her sides and sent her flying in a similar direction to Oswald. Impacting the ground ungracefully, skidding and sliding, it was in the second after she regained consciousness that she realized what had happened.
When she executed the two mercenaries, somehow she had forgotten to disable the accursed turret that was possibly the largest threat to itself. No matter. It wouldn’t allow the turret or its gunner to do much else for long. Her Aura levels had been near its highest point when she took the burst of gunfire so she fared better than the Hunter. Looking across the way, her blood streaked face coughing, she grinned when she saw Oswald out cold. She had to fight the urge to walk over and finish him off then and there, but she had other arrangements to take care of first.
With her source of ‘food’ unable to produce much more to keep itself at peak condition, her aura levels teetered at their halfway mark. But, it was more than enough to crush the other Hunter. Other than his weapon, she perceived him as weak. In mind, body, and spirit. Standing to her feet, she punched her fist weapons together and locked them. Following the motion by dropping the combined hammer head to the ground and shoving her staff into its slot, she spun once and transformed the weapon into its flail mode straight at the barrels of the turret mid swing. Though Cobalt could duck to the side to evade it, the turret was stationary. After just firing, the metal was was warm and easily warped. When the hammer head impacted against it the turret barrels crumpled, immediately becoming dysfunctional. Recalling her weapon, she removed the staff and transformed the hammer head back into their fist form.
Licking her lips, she eyed Cobalt with a dark hunger. Exploding into a straight sprint at the remaining Hunter, she wasted no time in fiercely swinging at Cobalt.
“Shit.” Cobalt uttered simply as he accidentally knocked Oswald out in the middle of the fight. He was sorta hoping that Oswald would get out of the way in time, but that didn't work out very well. The turret was then immediately rendered unusable and the situation rapidly went from bad to worse. But now was not the time to panic. Now was the time to stall in hopes of rescue.
The Grimm charged Cobalt and he slowed down time to determine what it's plan was. It was swinging viciously at Cobalt, trying to destroy his armor with its strange decaying aura. Cobalt let time resume it's normal flow and he began dodging the punches instead of blocking. He really liked his weapon, so he wasn't just going to let it be destroyed. Cobalt made sure that he wasn't bumping into anything through quick glances at the shadows on the ground as he backed away from the vicious assault, but that was quickly becoming an unviable option as they backed into the forest.
Cobalt finally backed into a tree and was faced with a vicious punch coming straight for him. He jumped straight up, firing at the ground to let the recoil of his gun propel him to a sturdyish branch. The branch quickly snapped and Cobalt jumped behind the Grimm. He was quickly coming to regret his turret idea.
What was going on? As fast as she was, every swing this Hunter was able to narrowly but effectively dodge. It quickly grew irritating, no matter what sort of attack or weapon combination she tried, the Hunter was able to stay just out of range. Did it have something to do with his Semblance? What exactly were the details of his abilities, and how long could he keep it up? Regardless, the creature refused to give up, keeping up the pressure until she would able to land a hit. All it would take was one misstep, one good attack and she could end him. How sorely she underestimated him, not having known what secrets Cobalt hid up his sleeve.
~~~
In the skies above, Skyhawk-2’s cockpit…
The pilot and copilot silently listened to the garbled radio chatter coming across their channel. Keeping an eye on the location of the other gunship every so often.
”One turret, down.” “Turret #2, down. Pulled the plug on #3. EMP on turret four. Turret five, shut down.”
The chatter continued, the turrets that endangered the two gunships getting disabled by the Abyss Walkers on the ground. It seemed like very little time had passed by, the team working quickly and finishing.
”Skyhawk-2, Skyhawk-2, this is-” The team leader of the ground troops hailed the gunship. Static interference muddied and distorted the signal. ”...This is Skyhawk-2, you’re coming in broken but readable. Send your traffic.” The pilot of the gunship responded. ”All anti-aircraft guns have been disabled. I say again, all anti-aircraft guns have been disabled. Stand by for green star cluster pop up. All troops rally on me at the designated muster point.”
Various voices in a particular order responded to the order to regroup. The voices belonging to the Abyss Walkers on the ground. The pilot and copilot shared a look and nodded, looking over their control panels.
”---This is Skyhawk-2, we read you Lima Charlie. Standing by for star cluster.”
As the mercenaries all hoofed it through the dark forest to gather up, the pilot of the gunship had the craft hover in the skies. The copilot hailing the craft that held the Huntresses onboard the other ship.
”Skyhawk-3, this is Skyhawk-2 radio check.” ”Roger, Skyhawk-2 we read you Lima Charlie. How me?” ”We read you same/same. Skyhawk-3, we are approximately three mikes until extraction. You are all cleared for landing.” ”Roger, solid copy. Tango.”
Seconds after the radio channels fell silent, a green flare was shot into the sky and the hovering aircraft dove in to quickly extract the ground team of Abyss Walkers. After just a minute, the ship was well on its way, flying back over the defensive perimeter and towards the town. Once the airspace had cleared, Skyhawk-3 broke out of its circular flight path and lurched forward.
The woman from earlier who was addressed as Sam poked her head out from the cockpit and spoke to the mercenaries and Huntresses in the cargo hold.
”Gear up and get ready. We’re practically right there.”
Esther looked at Sam and then to Emerald fast asleep in her arms. Slowly pulling herself away from the girl, she gathered up her things and walked to the back of the hold. Reaching up and holding onto a handle, she stared out the back of the off ramp as it began to lower. Largely ignoring Diamond who stood across from her and the rest of the mercenaries as they also stood and readied themselves.
~~~
The creature halted its attack when it saw a ball of green light shoot up into the sky off in the distance. Panting and absolutely seething, it still hadn’t managed to land a single hit on Cobalt. Time was running out. Giving up, the creature decided it best to focus its efforts elsewhere. Bolting, the creature weaved through the forest and emerged from the treeline to where the unconscious Oswald lay. Standing over his body, the creature reached down and grabbed the boy’s neck after dropping its weapons to the ground. With its one arm, the creature’s strength allowed it to lift Oswald’s entire body weight by his neck. With its free arm, it flexed its claws as it prepared to plunge its hand into the Hunter’s abdomen.
The effects of the pill it had taken were starting to wane and wear off, it didn’t have long now. It could hear the roar of what sounded like engines fast approaching, though off in the opposite direction it could sense that its masters had freed themselves and were on their way as well. Gritting its teeth, the creature shot its free hand forward.
Groaning as the sudden movement and the sound of engines woke him, Oswald opened his eyes to meet the creature’s. He was about to die. Barring a last moment rescue from Cobalt, he was on his own. Pain racked his entire left side, and he could taste the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.
As the creature’s hand moved backwards in preparation to impale him, Oswald did the only thing he could think to do: go for the eyes. His upper body lurching forward, his hands shot out, thumbs aiming to gouge the monster’s eyeballs from their sockets.
Cobalt ran after the Grimm as it headed back towards Oswald, it was either going for a hostage or trying to take one person out before it died. Both options were pretty bad. He burst onto the clearing just as the Grimm grabbed Oswald by the neck. Time slowed and he pulled up his gun for one shot. He shot at the hand that was going for Oswald's abdomen and let time resume normal flow.
At the last second, Cobalt’s shot knocked away its hand and saved Oswald from being eviscerated for the time being. Unfortunately for the creature, Oswald had awoken and still held an admirable spirit to fight to the very bitter end. As the boy’s thumbs painfully dug into its eyes, the creature let out an angered roar baring its fangs. Tightening its grip on the Oswald’s neck, it then decided to kill the Hunter by crushing his neck. Digging its claws into the sides of Oswald’s neck, it slowly tried to claw its way to his carotid arteries for good measure. Puncturing the skin to begin drawing blood, with its other hand it reached up to grab one of Oswald’s thumbs and violently jerked it away, snapping it.
With one open watering eye, the creature stared at Oswald’s face. Panting, with ragged breath as its grip on his neck increased in pressure and strength it spoke.
”You...smell….like us. Your scent, is very similar.”
The creature ignored Oswald’s other thumb, what was the sacrifice of one eye when compared to the life of another Hunter? The gains outweighed the costs and even still, it knew it wouldn’t be alive for much longer. Better yet, it could scar Cobalt forever. How would he feel knowing that as a leader he allowed the death of another Hunter to occur in front of him? A shameful, dishonorable display.
Gurgling and coughing as the monster in front of him rapidly started choking the life from him, Oswald knew this was it: do or die. He had a few seconds left, at most. His broken thumb felt like it was on fire, but between the pain in his hand and his impending death, Oswald wasn’t deterred.
Pulling both hands from its face, Oswald slammed one arm out, into the inside of his enemy’s elbow, trying to force its arm to bend and break its hold. At the same time, his mangled hand swung directly at the creature’s nose, intent on returning the favor for breaking his own earlier.
Cobalt ran towards the Grimm as he pressed his advantage, running through several options in regards to freeing Oswald. Finally he came up with the one that was most likely to get it to let go, as he rapidly approached the Grimm he dove forward into a slide directly into its legs.
”Detestable heretical Huntsmen..” The creature thought, as yet again the tide of the battle was turned and thrown into chaos. Oswald’s downward strike did cause its grip to weaken and loosen ever so slightly, but it was the blow across its face and Cobalt’s slide that broke its hold. The three slamming and bumping into one another in a tangled mess of bodies and limbs.
Fed up, the creature quickly got to its feet and grabbed at whatever part of Oswald it could. With the intent of dragging him across the ground and throwing the Hunter like he was a shot put at the nearest tree with the hopes of snapping his spine against it. Or, at the very least damage some vertebrae. Scooping up its fist weapons, the creature threw its body on top of Cobalt and straddled him in a mount. Thinking that from such close proximity, there was no way the sly bastard could evade hits from this range as it proceeded to swing at the boy’s face. Wanting nothing more but to bash his skull and brain matter into a bloody pulp.
This time, Oswald had no clever trick or retaliatory attack, instead being bodily thrown into a nearby tree, his body landing with a loud THUD. Whether or not they were before, a few of his ribs were certainly broken now. His only saving grace had been the brigandine protecting his torso, but even that could only offer so much safety. His entire body ached, and it took a good few moments for Oswald to catch his breath as he turned to the fight going on nearby.
