Tierra, Argent, Professor Waldgrun and team VLCN
Running through the woods, Tierra savored the sweet woodland scent and cool breeze as it brushed past her and flew through her hair. It was something she had always delighted in after the first trip to the woods, the world seemed peaceful and calm. The noirette could forget the past, forget what she had seen that day. Though she kept looking back to see where the others were,
“I know I’m fast but not that fast.” So focused on her running and the sensations she could feel, the Cheetah Faunus didn’t notice the light underneath the canopy of the forest growing dimmer. An angry whine could be heard from all around and rustling filled the air. Three small, black, human-ish figures crawled into Tierra’s field of vision; the creatures are no larger than a small child with angry red eyes, and they crawl on unnaturally long arms and slender, awkward legs. The creature in the center of the trio opened its barely visible mouth, revealing dozens of tiny, needle teeth, as it let out an ear splitting scream
As soon as she saw the eerie Grimm, she grabbed her swords while trying for a hop, semblance on, land strategy to slow down. This was an emergency, they would understand her breaking her promise. But she still sled nearer and the cry was earth-shattering, so she panicked and tried a whirlwind blade attack when she got close enough, aiming for the torsos.
The moment the blade struck the first grimms chest, it shattered into a cloud of sickly smog, and all hell broke loose. Dozens of angry cries sounded from the trees, the brush, and the ground around the feline faunus, followed by a skittering stampede as the Dhampir descended upon her. The freakish humanoids came from all sides; appearing from the ground came the smallest. Black and featureless, like a sea of shadows they swarmed around her, grasping desperately for her blades with white tinted palms
The noirette kept swiping away, left and right. But they kept coming and coming. They were endless and all were going for Sola and Luna. The tawny-clothed girl just couldn’t stand it, she hated this kind of fighting in the first place, but to have go on and on. She desperately got her blades free of them and launched up.
As the girl attempted to escape vertically, a larger specimen arose from the swarm, grasping her by the ankle and dragging her back down. Nearly a dozen more, faces imitating angry bone masks, entered the fight from the edge of the pack. Together they unleashed a hellish chorus, maws opening wide to razored fangs as they closed in. Several of the smaller creatures grabbed tightly onto Tierra’s swords, piling on and weighing them down in an attempt to disarm her.
Tierra was going mad. The noise, the enormity, she couldn’t stand it anymore. She couldn’t be dragged back into the swarm. So the feline faunus placed her feet on some of the Grimm’s hands, activated her semblance, released her swords, and attempted to jump clear of it all. Afterwards she would activate it again and just madly run, knowing it would probably kill her but not wanting to suffer anymore from the swarm. Her claws extended in case more Grimm appeared but she madly hoped to outrun their reflexes and death would be from over exhaustion, not as Grimm food.
As the faunus attempted to leap free a second of the larger creatures grabbed her, pulling her once more towards the smallest of them as the other masked creatures approached. A wave of hands carry the hook swords to the edge of the group as two man sized grim approached, walking in sync. The pair, fully clad in plates of false bone, unleashed a horrific bone chilling howl, and the smaller monsters began to gnaw, digging their fangs into Tierra’s ankles and hands and pulling her down into the horde. This was the scene Argent burst into, his eyes widening as he took in Tierra’s panicking face and the swarm surrounding her.
Argent didn’t hesitate for a second, he drew his sword and unslung his shield, and charged right in, aiming first for the creatures that held Tierra’s swords. He shield bashed one in the back of the neck and stabbed the other in the chest, before ripping his sword out with a short twist, the silver knight kept moving as he scooped up Tierra’s swords in his shield hand. The creatures were starting to take notice of him, but the silver knight raised his shield, activated his aura, and ran forward, bulling through the small, seemingly boneless creatures, straight for his fellow initiate. Several times a monster tried to bite him but the silver light emanating from his whole body stopped them. Argent hacked, slashed, kicked and bashed his way forward until he was in range, then he raised his hands and created a shield around Tierra, he just managed to throw her swords in her direction before it hit him, he must have put more into that shield than he’d intended, his aura flickered slightly, and his muscles burned. Breathing hard now, Argent kept fighting his way towards Tierra and those two man-sized creatures, one of which turned his way.
As Argent’s aura depletes, one of the deceptively fast middling sized Dhampir rushes, ramming head-first into the armor clad youths chest and sending him back into a tree. It was only then that Tierra realized the force-field was down and saw the creature as it tackled Argent. Visions of her mom overlaid the silver knight as he was rushed towards the tree. The base of his skull banged against large knot in the tree trunk, rendering him unconscious as his depleted aura protected him from spinal and other serious injuries but failed to keep him awake.
Tierra was still struggling against the nibbling monsters when she saw the silver sheen of a familiar force-shield. The noirette looked up and saw Argent running towards her, cradling something in his shield. Her hook swords were flying towards her. She unsheathed her claws and knocked the rest of the feasting creatures off, then caught Sola and Luna and swiped.
“No!” was her yell as she rushed towards the monster on top of the now unconscious Argent. She was not going to let another death be on her shoulders, not again.
As the girl attempted to reach her ally, several of the smallest grimm clung to her legs, latching onto her clothes with razor like teeth. She watched in horror as one of the pair of large Dhampir approaches the unconscious Argent, only to be stopped short by the blade of a large axe cleaving the skull like mask in half. The weapon lay in the hands of a peridot eyed huntsman.
”Two jobs we give you kids” He started, flipping the weapon over his shoulder as a small aiming sight shifted out of the side,
”Grab a relic,” a small handle folded down from the shaft and he locked it onto the far edge of the swarm,
”And try not to die.” He berated the duo, pulling the trigger. A pale blue tube fired from the hollow shaft, erupting in a wave of bitter frost as it strikes a tree on the edge.
”Is that REALLY so much to ask?” The wave swept across the swarm, freezing the smallest of them.
”One wounded, another unconscious. Send in the evac crew.” He joked, watching as the several larger creatures regrouped around him.
”Stand Back!” Boomed a massive voice from above as a large shadow further darkened the sky followed shortly by a hulking young man landing directly on top of the second of the fully grown grimm, crushing it into a mess of ghastly fog.
”This them?” He asked as he drew a massive weapon from its place on his back and took aim at the frozen swarm. A quick pull of the trigger and the ice was ripped to snow by a veritable wall of buckshot.
”Gauthak, get us a perimeter.” Grey ordered, signaling the massive boy to wave his hand towards the edge of the frozen ground. A line of runes trailed along, rising into a barrier around them just before a copper haired girl arrived, hopping over the still rising fortification.
”No more in the area, sir.” She bubbled, approaching Tierra and making sure to stomp on the frozen remains of several of the smallest creatures.
”You alright?”The feline faunus just looked up for a while at the older girl, too surprised by the rescue. Then she finally replied as she checked herself over,
“I, I should be alright.” The noirette tried to get up and ended up wobbling and leaning against the elder girl. She tried to stand up again, saying,
“Argent. How is he?”Alivia turned and glanced over her shoulder, towards the hulking third year.
”Hey, big guy, how’s the boy?””He’s fine, Liv. just got knocked out; looks like he had just enough juice left to prevent anything serious.” The giant responded in his bass heavy voice, throwing the male initiate over his shoulder.
”So, Professor Waldgrun, how do you think this’ll affect their teammates?” ”Shouldn’t be too much damage done, they did pretty well with the Chimera - managed to scare it off,” The older male answered,
”And they were doing well for coordination until the girl ran off.” The teacher glanced at the forest canopy in thought.
”These two will lose points for reckless behaviour, but the team as a whole did fairly well...” Grey trailed off, scanning over the scene for stragglers.
”Anyhow, grab the girl. Better get these two back to the cliff.”
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