For as long as Arcturus had been alive, he'd always known how he wanted to die. The red light went on as the hatch opened. There was a flash of white—then a sea of green spread out before him as he was buffeted by a wall of wind.
"Go go go!" the guardsman said next to him.
He jumped out of the ship in mid-air as turbulence roared in his ears. It was a two hundred-meter drop to the forest with no time to lose.
Arcturus pulled from the well of his soul and it answered his call. His pulse became quicker and the weight of the wind cleared into an encompassing blanket of force. It came with clarity. And all at once, everything made sense.
The flow of the air and the changes it made on his decent as well where he would most likely fall to became as clear to him as day. The same clarity filled his limbs and hardened his body, and the tell-tale gold of his aura flared. It filled him with strength.
He wasn't just some falling rock, he was a shooting star.
Parachutes were too slow and lives were at stake. In their line of business, risks like these came a dime a dozen. A burst of static. "Remember the plan," said a tinny alto.
"Roger," he said.
"Copy that," answered another.
Falling with him were the two others who happened to be there when the alarm occurred: Senka Yamahashi and Celestine Lupo. He didn't know either of them save they were Huntresses. It needed to be enough. Rescues didn't leave room for second guessing.
Arcturus unclasped two slabs of black from his back and unfurled one to a heater shield with lines of gold. He could just make out the scents of pine and earth before he smashed against the tallest trees in his way to slow down. Meanwhile, Senka and Celestine weaved about the broken branches to break their fall and Arcturus unfolded the other slab into a spear, also in black and gold.
They landed on grass and tree roots with weapons out.
There were none of the Grimm in sight. Shit.
"Go!" Celestine barked, then took the lead.
They all blazed towards the village proper.
Pokto village was a logging community with around three hundred people and they were attacked by the Grimm an hour ago. That was a lifetime out here in the roughs. Grass and dirt became cobblestones and they found themselves amidst a sea of panic and screaming. Blood and torn limbs were everywhere and houses burned all around while the Grimm roared and raged.
Celestine was the first to act and the lady of blue and silver crashed into the shadowed werewolves and werebears with her broadsword, leaving only black mist where they perished. The foul creatures were attacking one of the last standing stone hovels.
"Go on," she said. Her form was wreathed with the color of the sky.
He and Senka barked back affirmatives. First order of business was to establish control.
Senka leapt for the air and brought her naginata up with her, then crashed it down where she landed. A wave of upturned stones spread out before her and stumbled the charging Beowulves and Ursa then she dashed for the creatures and destroyed them with her blade.
Her reach felled the creatures left and right while Celestine powered through them, one stabbed and slashed where the other chopped and cleaved.
"Arc, we'll take care of things here!" Senka said. She was burning a deep rouge. The earth continued to rumble and churn beneath her.
He threw his spear at an Ursa and pinned the bear-like Grimm to the tree behind—and jumped into it, caving its head in with his foot. There was no sensation of flesh giving way, just resistance. "Okay," he said.
Arcturus pulled again from within, and the same well of power stirred and radiated outwards. The creatures of Grimm were the scourge of all mankind, and the cruel shadow spawn of malevolence incarnate. And, they wanted nothing more than to destroy everything that mankind stood for.
He pulled harder and harder and let the edges of his soul blur and roar.
All living things had souls, and so too did all living things have the capability to use their aura—but only with man's do the Grimm go mad for. The Grimm had no souls so to speak, so to them, his burning his own like this was like fanning a great pyre for the creatures to find.
Arcturus shone with the brilliance of the sun.
Senka drew geometric gestures with her weapon in the air.
"That'll do Arc," Celestine said while bisecting three charging Ursa with a great cleave.
His last display drove the remaining Grimm in the area into a frenzy and barreling straight for the two Huntresses. To the creatures, it didn't matter who's aura belonged to whom. As long as there was aura, they'd run after it like moths to a flame.
"I'll go on ahead!" he said.
Pillars of earth and stone shot upwards from Senka's position and snaked about the village square, crashing into Beowulves and Ursa while avoiding the few people startled out of their hiding places. Survivors were always good.
Hope was all they had, really.
Arcturus took a big step—and shot with unbearable force through the flames and rubble.
Carnage flashed past his eyes, and Arcturus' brightly burning form cut swathes from the hordes of Grimm in front. Spear and shield met claws and fangs and destroyed everything in his path. He left black wisps and broken bone plates in his wake.
The three of them planned who would do what when they landed: Celestine was to clean up the area and guard Senka while she set-up an area of control with her Earth Dust and semblance, then Arcturus was on search and rescue then destroy. Killing the Grimm was easy from a simplistic one-to-one view, but the creatures weren't biological in nature and neither did they have much sense for self-preservation. They never tired and never hesitated.
Arcturus leapt from pile of rubble to pile of rubble, flaring his aura in bursts as the Grimm came to him in droves. It was a double-edged sword, but doing this was the only viable way to look for survivors. Aura reacted to other auras touching it, and the only thing that set Huntsmen and Huntresses like him and the team from the rest of mankind was their ability to harness it.
He smashed a Beowulf from its head down into the ground with his shield and the corpse scattered before Arcturus could connect. Then a quick slash beheaded an Ursa next to him and another stab skewered the other one behind it.
Fighting the Grimm too was the only option mankind had. There was no reasoning or taming them even after generation after generation of failed attempts and empty victories. They were beasts with nothing but death in their jaws.
Arcturus pressed forward. There were no survivors in this part of town.
On his way to the next row of houses, another wave of Grimm attacked. Creeps and King Taijitus in their ranks this time. Creeps were bipedal raptor-like creatures while King Taijitus were end to end two-headed snakes with one white and one black head. There was a theory on Grimm having hailed from the corrupted auras of animals—but these two forms were just one of the milder reasons that theory got botched.
He shifted his spear into a shotgun, and loaded a tube of Ice Dust rounds. He'd have preferred Fire, but the proximity to the forest made it stupid to do so. Arcturus channeled his aura into weapon and let the pressure build.
He waited for the Grimm to come at him with gaping jaws.
A King Taijitu came at him with its black head—but he kicked it straight into the ground with a roundhouse. Creeps then followed in together with a pack of Beowulves, and he let loose the charged Dust. Dust was a… resource, that let mankind break the stalemate against the Grimm. It was energy and nature condensed into its purest form, and it reacted with aura to release said essence.
Icicles blossomed from the discharge of his barrel and shot outwards with a wide arc. The sharpened shards pierced the creatures and impaled those it didn't outright obliterate and scatter. Creeps and Beowulves fell, and the other head of the King Taijitu was riddled with holes.
Arcturus then closed the gap to a group of Ursa and shot another charged shell from their flank. The shadowed bears flew like ragdolls and dissolved into mist.
He then jumped towards a tree and perched himself atop a branch. Arcturus flared his aura again and drove the nearby Grimm into a frenzy. Beowulves howled, Ursa and Creeps roared, and they all made their way to his tree. Those that leapt for him he smashed down with his shield. The creatures snapped and tussled each other for a shot at climbing.
He flared one more time before pushing it all into his gun and let the Ice Dust blow a raging torrent of ice shards at the beasts. Arcturus then jumped away to avoid all the rising mist. Arcturus kept flaring and firing until he spent his magazine and put in a fresh one.
There was plenty of ammunition to spare—but no patience. Rescues only got worse by the second, and there was still the Western edge of Pokto where the invasion started.
Arcturus pressed a button on his earpiece, "Sen, Cel, I've already cleared sector two."
They barked affirmatives back and the Huntsman resumed his way forward. Killing stragglers and searching the ruins for any survivors.
It took another minute of this before an explosion sounded in the distance as the thunderous cracking of a falling tree echoed out. It sent a flurry of birds scrambling for the sky. He just arrived at where Pokto Village Hall had once stood. There was only blackened plaster and burning wood in its place now.
He flared his aura—and got a reaction. Somewhere to the left of the rubble. Arcturus leapt and landed with a thud. He flared his aura again, and felt the tug near a collapsed beam. Arcturus jogged over and found a man huddled next to some half-collapsed walls.
The man was mumbling to himself and shaking like a leaf.
"Cel," he said, "I found one." Arcturus took out his Scroll and set a map marker where they stood.
"Received," Celestine said. He could hear a steady stacatto of gunfire from the other line. The Mistral Self-Defense Force guardsmen were to land after they secured the landing zone. All in all, this rescue operation consisted of a squad of ten guardsmen, them three Hunters, and another three Galleons for travel. Given the state of the village though, they didn't need that many ships.
"Help has come," he said.
The man just kept mumbling to himself, neither acknowledging Arcturus' presence or reacting. Such was life in Remnant.
He flared his aura again—but the man jerked his head to Arcturus. "You're a Huntsman," he said, his voice clipped.
Arcturus nodded. Having someone ping your aura was lot like a push in the head, mild when done gently but still surprising to the more sensitive ones. Huntsmen and Huntresses even use it as surprise attacks against outlaws at times.
"Please," he said. "There's still a child back there. I heard someone crying in one of the houses."
"Any defining features?"
"It had a red roof." He knocked on his head. "And a blue mail box out front… there was a row of houses burning across it—right in front of the granary!"
"That'll do," Arcturus said, then a quick shift to spear form and a quick stab killed an Ursa that wandered near.
He looked up and saw more Grimm.
The man shrieked—and it spooked the creatures into attacking. Tears streaked the survivors face as he kept screaming. The Grimm were also attracted to more than just aura: fear, despair, anger, and other negative emotions in general. This was also another blow to the biological origin theory. Nothing else in Remnant reacted to emotions like the shadowed creatures, and their uncanny selectivity made it that much more eerie.
Arcturus swept his spear at the next Ursa and opened a large gash from its snout to its belly. There was only black from the creature's insides. He followed through with his swing and caught a Beowulf by the neck when he recovered, then stabbed the next Ursa through the throat.
He spun his spear around his neck and smashed it at a Creep before stabbing it through its mouth. Arcturus then chopped a Beowulf from the side with his shield and dismembered an Ursa with the same swing. He wielded his aura like a feathered wand, moving it however he wished and with full control.
"Go!" he heard Celestine say, but not from the comms. "I've got this." She'd caught up faster than he expected.
Celestine dashed over to the survivor and picked him up.
"There might still be a kid somewhere deeper," Arcturus said to her and over the comm. "I'm going."
"Good hunting," Senka said.
"Don't die," Celestine said.
"I haven't gotten paid for my last mission yet," he said, "of course I'm coming back alive."
Arcturus flared his aura and pulled more out. He checked his Scroll, he still had about eighty-seven percent left. More than enough to finish the mission with.
He reinforced himself, willing his limbs to drink in the aura and resumed his running, wind whipping in his ears as forest floor and canopy blurred from the sides of his vision. With enough Reinforcement, it was possible to also increase one's mental processing faculties and senses—this was called Attuning.
A horde of Grimm blocked the way deeper, but to a fully trained Huntsman, a pack of a few hundred juveniles weren't much. Arcturus became a storm of spear thrusts and shield smashes, cutting swathes through the enemies' numbers and broke through their encirclement.
He cleaned up after anothrer minute.
There was fire in this area of Pokto. Smoke billowed in heaps from some of the trees and houses nearby, the damage was fresher here. He stopped his advance when he saw a row of generators smashed half beyond recognition. Their sparks were most likely what started the fires.
It was too quiet here. He put his shield up. A Huntsman could never be too careful when dealing with the Grimm. He attuned his senses to their limits and flared his aura once more, searching for signs of life.
Buildings all around were burning, plaster and paint crumbling and bubbling from the heat while a steady staccato of gunfire echoed in the distance. There was wind, but not much, just small eddies from the heat. An energy permeated the air—still and heavy. There was no getting used to the weight of a battlefield. He felt a tug.
It was small, barely even a ripple. But it was there. He pushed again and felt the same reaction, the spark was still alive and kicking.
The forest stilled.
"Tsk." Arcturus jumped away from where he stood, and a tree landed where he was a moment earlier. He readied his spear, arm taut to strike.
A blur of black hit the ground and kicked up a cloud of dust and ash than a great roar dispelled the cover.
He saw thick arms covered in heavy bone plating and a muscular chest that heaved with each breath. In front was a great black ape covered in thick armor and spikes. At least now he knew where the earlier roars came from. Its arms pounded against its solid chest, regal and proud amidst the wreckage, and let out another deafening roar.
Arcturus' felt the sound reverberate in his body. It was a Beringel.
"Shit."
"What was that?" Senka said.
"A Beringel."
"Shit," Celestine said.
"I'll be alright," he said, "I can take care of one easy. Heads up in case there's a troop nearby." The problem with Beringels were they were generally older and wiser Grimm than Beowulves and Ursa, more social too.
"Copy," the two said.
The ape inched forward, slow and careful and deliberate. It circled around Arcturus, sizing him up. He stood his ground. No need to reveal more than necessary.
It stopped and grunted, then raised its neck higher than Arcturus' head. Arcturus lowered his stance, shield forward. An ambush from behind wasn't unheard of when dealing with Beringels. The mirror near his shield's handle was for taking care of just that.
The gorilla waited, its body coiled tight. A monster waiting for reinforcements wasn't a comforting thought.
Arcturus let his aura explode from his feet and dashed forward, spear hidden by his shield. It leaped towards him in kind and he kept the stance until the last moment. He waited till its eyes glowed red hot, then raised his shield—and thrust his spear from over his shoulder and into its face. The ape bent its neck away and avoided the blow, but Arcturus shifted his weapon mid-thrust into shotgun form and blew it away.
The Beringel took a face full of ice landed on its back, but it scrambled back to its feet just as quick. Its face plate was cracked with one eye missing and it removed the rest with a roar. Beringels were also notorious for how dense their bodies were.
"Tough bastard."
It roared again, and a Beowulf shot out from the brush. Arcturus cursed, there was another Beringel nearby. A quick shot sent the werebeast back to oblivion while a charging Ursa met its demise with a sharp swing of his spear.
Another tree flew towards Arcturus which he dodged, and the wood hit another two Beowulves square on their chests. The first ape had already taken to the trees. Beringels were a problem by themselves, but any Grimm that survived a fight was bound to grow only more dangerous with time. Rule number five of Huntsman Grimm Engagement: never let a wounded Grimm escape.
Arcturus leapt after the wounded ape and shot at it, breaking the armor plating on its back and shoulders with great shards of ice.
Another roar sounded to the right.
He caught up with another explosive leap, shifted to spear form, and thrust at his opponent. The ape dodged, and another Beowulf flew at him from the right which he bisected. Battles of attrition were pointless with the Grimm.
Arcturus flared his aura again and bathed everywhere with the glow of the sun. It drove the lesser Grimm crazy, and roars echoed out from everywhere.
He pushed all his stockpiled aura into his weapons and put his spear and shield together, the tip of the heater parallel with the shaft. Senka and Celestine conceded the vanguard to him for a reason and now was as good a time as any.
Arcturus pulled more and let his aura move through his heart before pushing it out of himself as a deeper gold enveloped his body. He pushed the excess aura to his feet and let it explode, again propelling him forward. When he reached the peak of his speed—instead of slowing down to land and push off—he stepped mid-flight and oblique against another branch and shot forward even harder and faster.
Arcturus' Semblance was friction.
He caught up to the ape in the span of a breath just as it landed on a branch and cleaved it from the torso with a flash of black and gold light.
Beowulves flew in from all directions—flying with the unnatural arc of directed force. Beringels. Plural. He fucking pulled the entire troop. A string of curses left his mouth as he swung and split all five Beowulves apart. Black mist swirled with his gold.
The forest deepened into a dead silence, this time, held by the Huntsman. Light filtered in from the canopy, and was devoured by the weapon in his hands: a sword too large and thick, and taller than he, more a slab of metal than a blade. Momentum was something only mass could generate.
"Cel, Sen," he said, "I ran into some company." His large blade rested on his shoulder, burning with the luster of burnished gold.
"How bad?" Senka said.
"Manageable." One by one, more Beringels appeared from behind the trees—nine altogether. "Seventy percent confidence."
"Okay," Celestine said. "And the kid?"
"Still waiting."
"We've got our hands full with guard detail right now," Senka said, "transport in forty-three."
"Of course," Arcturus said.
"I'll treat you to a meal later," Senka said.
"No take backs," he said.
"I stand as witness," Celestine said. "Oh, and I know a good place."
Thirty minutes.
He made sure to flush out all the damn apes, wolves, bears, snakes, birds, and boars in the damn forest. Gigantic Nevermores with wing spans reaching ten meters across got spooked into joining the ensuing chaos, while Boarbatusks joined the fray—charging after the Ursa or Beowulves had lunged or leapt. Things kept coming after him left and right and top and bottom and he'd all but run out of shells. Correction, even ammunition wasn't plentiful enough. Also, it just so happened that a Geist was passing by and the trees the Beringels threw at him kept replenishing its limbs as he took them down.
Geists were one of the most horrible Grimm out there, made of tentacles and sheer tenacity—their bodies took in whatever materials were nearby, like ghosts that possessed inanimate objects that perfectly explained why dolls and clowns were creepy.
Okay, that last one was uncalled for.
"Skirmish done," he said between ragged breaths.
"We're holding out here too," Celestine said—puffing every other word.
"Inbound in seventeen," Senka said.
"Copy that," he said.
Arcturus had to cut down replenishing his stamina in favor of protection during the fight. His large sword was planted in the ground—but with the press of a button, the near twenty-centimeter-wide and one-and-a-half-meter body of the sword split and folded out into his ornate shield and spear of black and gold. The combined transformation made use of Gravity Dust within the shield to increase the weight of the blade, a point of pride for Arcturus for devising a way to shift from light to heavy attacks mid-fight. He collapsed his shield and strapped it to his back, then shifted his spear into shotfun form.
He jogged to the mound of rubble that used to be Pokto village hall. He flared what little aura he still had and found the general area where the kid should've been. Another minute of wandering led him to the blue mailbox—already charred.
Arcturus heard a faint sniffle.
He flared his aura again and got a startled response from in front of him. There she was: a girl trapped under the remains of her house. She was lucky the foundation stones collapsed the way they did, pinning her down with a channel of air open—but hidden enough by the flames nearby. The heat didn't help much, but it distorted the view around her like a glamour.
"Everything's alright now," Arcturus said, "help has come."
The girl nodded. She had bright red hair.
He set his hands against the broken wood. It was both a good and bad thing Mistral construction preferred timber and plaster to mortar and stone. Arcturus pulled, but the wood creaked and threatened to break. No choice. He used his semblance again, coating his body with his power—this time reducing friction.
The light from him complemented the ambient flames. They all reflected against the girl's green eyes. The wood gave way, slid out of place with an extension of aura, and he swatted aside the rest of the rubble with his arms—his aura burning bright. He gave her a quick look over. She didn't look injured anywhere. Arcturus didn't wait for the girl's reaction and pulled her out of the wreckage.
She hugged him tight then, her eyes puffed from crying.
"Let's get you out of here, yeah?"
A nod.
Another roar sounded in the distance. They weren't out of the woods yet—and there was never a good time for a pun. His aura wouldn't last long against another horde like earlier, and to have someone to protect on top of that was a bit much. It was a desperate hour.
He steeled himself for what he was about to do.
Arcturus held her close.
She hugged back.
"I'm sorry," he said, more for him than her, and pushed a trickle of aura into the girl.
She gasped.
He felt for the flame within, and found it, then roused the ember into a blaze.
Her body started glowing, at first like a fine white mist, then its color deepened to a more muted reddish glow. To them learned in the ways of a Huntsman, to do so to a civilian—more so a child—was like lighting a torch in the dark for the Grim.
Arcturus cursed her to grow up with conflict an even more present possibility than it already was just to save her life these next few minutes. He decided he'd regret it later. The glow curled and snaked around her before settling. She was livelier and braver than she seemed.
"We need to go," he said.
The girl nodded, awe in her gaze. She looked at her hands with reverence, her aura kept close around her, neither leaking or milling about. She took to it with a natural sense.
"Grab on and don't let go."
She nodded again, and wrapped her arms around his neck. He in turn wrapped one arm around her, and concentrated a bit more aura to his right as insurance. Arcturus could make do with just his dominant arm, and her own aura should help protect her.
"I found her," he said over the comm.
"Good work," Senka said. "We're also doing alright here." Gunfire and roars, the only constant in a fight against the Grimm.
"You cleaned up better than I thought you would," Celestine said.
"I try to earn my keep," he said. They didn't need to know what he'd done just yet. "Overextended myself though, I'm down to fifteen percent."
"I can spare a trip for you in five," Celestine said.
"Please and thank you," he said.
They exited the row of houses where hers had stood, smoke and ash marking their way. When they got out, the view wasn't any better. There were some patches of blood here and there, and from the corner of his eye—Arcturus saw a mangled arm. He didn't notice earlier.
Her eyes darted left and right taking in the tragedy that befell her home.
Arcturus covered her eyes. "Nothing worth seeing here."
She pulled on his hand and shook her head. To each their own. Children didn't stay innocent for long in Remnant. She stiffened her hold on his neck.
"Let's go."
A grunt.
The least he could do was give her a fantastic memory of her rescue. He concentrated aura to his feet, more careful this time—every second counted.
"Watch," he said with a smile.
Arcturus jumped forward, and reached for the tops of the trees. She stiffened. Then he pushed off a trunk and shot downward for a branch and swung himself over with the momentum to bring them even faster forward and back to the landing zone.
He leaped with agility from tree to tree, using his semblance to add to the flair of his performance. They wove loops and lines and arcs through the canopy of the forest, never touching the ground, or the branches longer than a moment. Her fingers were clutched tight at his arm—little gasps escaping every time they reached the apex of their flights.
"So," he said, "mind telling me your name?" he said while brandishing his spear to vault off too thin branches.
She looked back at him, and opened her mouth: no sound came out.
She frowned.
"Not much of a talker?"
She shook her head.
He shrugged. "Excuse me for a bit." They kicked off from another trunk and this time reached the tops of the trees—the endless blue sky above them.
His aura was dangerously low, treading just above ten percent. Thank the Elder Brother for the Gauge System anyway. Still, Arcturus kept up his theatrics, spending precious aura just to coax her out of her shock.
A few more jumps and she no longer clung to him as much. He'd even seen her playing with the wind passing through her fingers. He said, "Someday, you'll be able to do what I'm doing too."
Her grip tightened again—this time less desperate but more firm. She grunted with a fervor. It sounded like a yes.
He felt a tapping on his arm.
"…ank…o."
"What was that?"
"Th…k y…."
"You're welcome…?"
"P…ha."
"Hmm?"
The girl slapped her cheeks then looked Arcturus straight in the eyes.
"Pyrrha," she said.
"Nice to meet you, Pyrrha," he said, "I'm Arcturus."