HYET Prologue 1: The Martial Artist
Carwyn Hale, clad only in a pair of loose grey linen pants, was standing in a clearing in the Emerald Forest. The tanned, muscular young man was drenched in sweat from the rigorous training schedule he'd set himself at sunrise, three hours ago. Orange eyes nearly glowed under tousled blond hair and a pair of brown cat ears that stuck up from the top of his head, they stood straight up, not even a tremor or the breeze shook them as Carwyn punched the air, attacking imaginary enemies, his pectorals stretched under the tattoo of an ace symbol made of swirling lines positioned over his heart, his personal symbol. Suddenly, his left cat ear twitched as it caught the sounds of heavy footsteps and quiet growls, they indicated only one conclusion for the young Huntsman in training: Beowulves, more than ten, but less than fifteen. Carwyn's orange gaze flicked over to his weapon, a six foot long metal staff leaning against a tree on the other side of the clearing, the cat eared boy cursed his carelessness at letting himself wander so far away from his weapon in a Grimm infested forest, but he quickly let go of that emotion, it wouldn't do him any good, He stood in the center of the clearing, hands at his sides, ready to shift into a fighting stance at a moment's notice, he assessed his situation in seconds, he had a more or less unknown number of Beowulves coming towards him and he was in a forest clearing, there was no cover for twenty feet, which was also where he had set his weapon to lean against a tree.
Carwyn raised his fists in an unusual shape, fingers loose, the index finger and thumb of both hands crooked as if holding something, suddenly he began to tilt to one side, staggering left as a Beowulf burst into the clearing, his jaws closed on empty air where Carwyn's head had been a second before, planting both feet on the ground, the cat Faunus' fist lashed out with explosive force, the heavy punch broke the monster's lower jaw, but it didn't do any lethal damage, four more monsters came barreling out of the trees. Keeping his body loose and ready, Carwyn stumbled right to avoid a claw, then he stumbled to the left and delivered a heavy kick into a third Beowulf's stomach as it tried to bite down on the spot where his head had just been, then he stumbled forward to bend at the waist, allowing a claw to sail over his head, before suddenly straightening and driving his fist into the chin of the offending monster, it staggered backward but a Beowulf claw forced Carwyn to stagger-step back one step and lean backward, lashing out with his forward leg as he did so and catching the attacker's knee, snapping it like a twig. Like a rubber band stretched tight then released, Carwyn's body snapped forward and the cat eared fighter drove a fist into the crippled Beowulf's trachea, the snap of the hyoid bone and the crunch of cartilage sounded around the clearing as the monster's throat was smashed from the force of the punch, it gagged and choked for several seconds before collapsing to the ground and emitting black smoke, however Carwyn didn't have time to watch the creature die, he was too busy staggering and swaying out of the way of a storm of claws and fangs as the four other monsters tried to tear him limb from limb, Carwyn's cat ears picked up the sounds of more monsters approaching, these five had just been the fastest of the pack, the rest would soon catch up.
Shifting his stance, Carwyn raised his fists above his head, facing away from himself, he bounced lightly on the balls of his feet for a couple of seconds, before exploding into motion, his movements were completely different, Carwyn leapt forward and grabbed the head of the first Beowulf he could, it was the beast with the broken jaw, the cat boy performed a perfect Kao Loi: pulling the monster's head towards himself and slamming his knee into the bridge of it's nose with enough force to cause bone splinters from the point of impact to drive into the monster's brain, killing it instantly. Carwyn barely landed before he turned his attention to another monster, twisting his hips into a low kick to the creature's knee that shook it's balance, he used the slight rebound from the kick to perform a one hundred and eighty degree turn and drive a powerful reverse elbow into the Beowulf's chest with a loud snapping sound of breaking ribs, a punch to the throat, a knee to the stomach and Carwyn dropped the injured monster with an elbow to the back of the head that broke its neck, the other two monsters howled and charged, the martial artist met them with the force of a thunderbolt, a roundhouse kick sent the first monster sprawling, an elbow caught the second Beowulf in the throat as the rest of the pack burst into the clearing, Carwyn performed a Teep or pushing kick to give himself some space from the gagging monster, he hadn't been able to crush its windpipe unfortunately. Carwyn returned to his original stance from the beginning of the fight, resuming his staggering motions as well, ducking and stumbling to the right under two separate strikes, Carwyn slammed his forearm into the stomach of a wolf monster, then he let his momentum swing his left leg forward into the monster's right knee before stumbling forward and driving his fist into the creature's chin with enough force to send teeth flying. Another Beowulf tried to slash his spine open, but the martial artist relaxed all the muscles in his upper body and sent his torso flopping forward at the waist, which also served as a counterbalance to the foot he swung upwards behind himself, his heel struck the monster's neck with sufficient force to crack a boulder in two, suffice it to say the Beowulf didn't fare any better than the rock would have, it's neck snapped clean in two. Carwyn didn't halt his momentum, instead he went into a handstand and kept going, landing on his left leg and dropping his right leg down on the shoulder of another Beowulf, the sickening crack he heard as the creature dropped to the ground showed that he'd succeeded in breaking bones, finally, Carwyn allowed himself to fall, left elbow first, onto the Beowulf's spine with a satisfying crunch, black smoke began leaking from the fresh corpse.
Carwyn rolled onto his back, swung his feet upwards and sprang upright, and activated his Semblance for a few seconds, information poured into his head as his mind worked on overdrive to come up with a plan in the few seconds he could allow his Semblance to stay active, then once again raised his fists above his head with the insides of his forearms facing away from himself and bouncing on the balls of his feet. Carwyn exploded into action, closing the short distance between himself and the remaining seven monsters, he drove a hard left straight into a Beowulf midsection, a right knee into the creature's hip joint, and when it staggered, and instinctively lowered it's upper body, drove a left elbow into it's throat, literally tearing it wide open, the cat eared fighter continued his momentum and turned his entire body into a roundhouse kick into the chest of the Beowulf with missing teeth, splintering ribs with twiglike snaps, unfortunately, he was caught by a claw slash which left four gashes down his torso, ignoring the pain, Carwyn spun low and swept the creature's legs from under itself before straightening into his high fisted stance and stomping on the prone creature's throat with all the considerable force he could muster, he felt the cartilage and hyoid bone shatter and the flesh pulp under his bare foot. The cat eared martial artist barely managed to block a claw swipe with his right forearm, the jolt caused his gashes to burn, but he ignored it and sent a left straight into the monster's chest, then low kicked it's right leg, brushed aside the claw he'd blocked with his right arm and delivered three punches in rapid succession, left, right, left, to it's ribcage, kneed it in the gut in the gut with his right knee, and, when he slammed his right foot into the ground, used the force to deliver a nearly vertical high kick to a spot just behind it's right ear, stunning and disorienting it. Carwyn was prevented from finishing his target as the other three Beowulves struck as one, Carwyn was forced back as the three monsters snapped and slashed at him. The cat Faunus activated his Semblance a second time that day, once again the most minute details of his surroundings and his enemies flooded his brain, his perceptions sped up until it seemed that the beasts were moving in slow motion, he was too close to the monsters to have the extra second or two it would take to switch styles, and neither of the other two martial arts he studied would be of much help in this situation, not at this close range at any rate, a plan began to form in his mind as the claws and fangs of his enemies seemed to inch forward, Carwyn closed his eyes as his Semblance ended, he couldn't afford to have his senses scrambled by the jarring return to normal perceptions. Acting on memory his left fist lowered and then shot upwards under the middle Beowulf's chin, as it recoiled Carwyn's eyes opened and he twisted his entire body, narrowly avoiding the left monster's fangs, and at the same time snapped his left foot into the elbow of the right monster, causing it's claw swipe to pass in front of his chest. Carwyn closed the distance between himself and the middle Beowulf from negligible to none, lashing out with elbow strikes as he closed the distance, the young Huntsman stepped on the Beowulf's foot and delivered a chest height (for him) double punch into the Beowulf's solar plexus, pushing, and tripping the monster into landing on it's back, a roundhouse kick smashed into the head of the right Beowulf as a simultaneous punch was delivered to the left Beowulf's crotch.
With all the grace of the cat whose ears he sported on the crown of his head, Carwyn performed a back handspring, as the four monsters stood back up, one dropped to all fours, and Carwyn took a third stance, his feet planted, his legs straight and his hands held open in front of him, in a flash, Carwyn charged in and delivered several rapid palm strikes to the first Beowulf's fifth and third ribs, it's left hip, and just above the right elbow, four loud cracking sounds preceded the monster's yelp of agony, the martial artist kicked the weakened left leg out from under the beast with a shot to the knee, three more cracks sounded throughout the clearing as Carwyn delivered a series of palm strikes down the creature's spinal column, where it was free of bone spikes, the Beowulf collapsed limply to the forest floor, very much alive, but temporarily paralysed and in extreme pain, Carwyn delivered two palm strikes to the second monster before it could react, one just above the right knee, one right on the right hip joint, a cracking noise followed each strike, he leaned backwards and allowed a claw to sail by inches from his nose, and delivered a pair of palm strikes to the offending arm's elbow, a single crack told of the joint weakening, the fighter stepped to the side to avoid the third Beowulf, and landed a palm strike to the hip, one just above the knee, and a kick to the ankle all on the right leg, this weakened the appendage enough that when he grabbed the monster's right shoulder and yanked down, the leg gave out and the Beowulf was forced onto it's weakened knee, where Carwyn delivered a palm strike to the back and side of it's head that shook the brain stem and knocked it unconscious. There were remaining two ambulatory Beowulves, one with a weakened leg, the other with a weakened arm, five palm strikes later and they were immobilized and whimpering in agony as Carwyn calmly walked over to his weapon, Enlightenment. he picked it up, twisted the center of the staff and extended a ten inch blade from one end of the staff, he stabbed three monsters, but the fourth had recovered more rapidly than the cat Faunus had expected, he simply pointed the other end of his staff, which doubled as a gun barrel, at the Beowulf and pulled the trigger that popped out of the center of the shaft in response to Carwyn's aura flooding the Dust rounds in the center of the staff, one gunshot later and the final monster collapsed with a hole the size of a nickel in it's skull.
(Author's Note: Here's my first prologue, takes place at the beginning of Carwyn's second year at Beacon, read, review, and enjoy, flames will be ignored, but constructive criticism is welcome, points to whoever can tell me what the three martial arts he demonstrated are, people who came here from the RWBY wiki are ineligible for this as they got told what they were in his character bio.)