Chapter 2

The Snake and the Manticore

The boy panted as he dashed through the slums of Mistral quick eyes missing nothing the young child dodged and avoided every obstacle while using them to slow his pursuers. "Get back here you little bastard!" He chuckled in between breaths. All according to plan, I'll let them catch up, and then they'll regret ever becoming my enemies. The three bullies and the boy had been steadily building to a head for a long time. You can only stand up to a bully so many times before they become violent and try to assert some kind of dominance. His tawny eyes flickered back and forth as he assembled the fourth stage in his plan. He sped around a corner to a dead end. The alley was narrow enough for only one of his bulky pursuers to enter at a time. Alright now, acting bit don't fail me. He turned and held up his hands in a surrendering gesture. "I give up!" The larger bully and his two flunkies crowded into the alley.

"What did you say Shin?" The boy sighed and lowered his hands.

"I give up, I can't run anymore and you've caught up to me. But don't assume beating me down is going to get me to respect you. I'm not strong enough to stop you." The foolish bully a few years older than Shin took the non-fighting stance as an opportunity to approach and attack unhindered. Shin backed up fearfully. He carefully scraped his back foot along the ground searching for that big piece of wood he had left here earlier. He felt it snag on the heel of his shoe and knew he would win this fight. As the bully closed in and swung a punch the dense sinew of the much smaller person fired like a gunshot. He swayed back to avoid the punch as he flicked his back leg up. Sending the piece of wood flying a short distance into the air, he caught it midflight and in a smooth motion brought it crashing down on the head of his attacker. His first target went limp. Shin grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him flat so he could get at his next target. A trio of vicious stabs to the gut winded the second to the point where he collapsed holding his stomach and gasping for breath. Shin stepped forward and spun the makeshift staff. An upward strike clipped the chin of the final target. Sending him staggering backwards, seeing a chance Shin darted forward and pinned him beneath his foot and leveled the staff at his opponent's neck. "You made a mistake crossing me you idiot. I'm the one kid in this town you don't want to piss off. Now get running!" The bully scrambled to his feet, a sweeping strike cracked him right across the butt as he started to move. Shin smirked at the bully sprinting away holding his stinging rear. Serves them right, thinking they're so big and tough. They haven't been trained by a huntsman, but they're still going to combat school.

The boy hung his staff against his shoulders as he started to head home. He was about to enter the house when he saw his friend, a huntsman come running towards him. He was wounded but he didn't seem slowed by his injuries. "Shin, get in the base now!" The Betram Branwen shouted to him as he was still at a headlong sprint. They quickly entered the house, the door slammed shut, shutters ratcheted into place and the low-class huntsman peered out into the street before collapsing into a chair panting.

"Betram? What's going on? I've never seen you haul ass like that before." He started talking before he recovered his breath.

"Sh- (huff-puff) - Shin… I need to tell you what- what I saw out there." The twenty-one year old huntsman looked at the boy with maroon eyes. "Th-that… thing reminds me of my dad's stories when he was younger. Some of the creations Salem made, this thing was fear itself." He flinched as he adjusted his position to take some pressure off his injured side.

Betram moved through the forest, he had received a notice of a cluster of grimm roaming too close to the walls, he had moved along. But after searching for over forty-five minutes found no trace of any grimm in the area. They must've moved off, or someone got to them before me. Betram hesitated as he heard a crashing and a roar. He readied to draw his dust straight sword as he started to hurry towards the ruckus. Approaching quietly he watched the proceedings. He saw the legs of a person, and the figure's upper body was a monstrous two headed serpent King Taijitu. The sound of hissing and growls and snarls as the odd snake monster appeared to communicate to a group of Ursa.

Shortly after Betram had stumbled on the gathering the Taijitu stopped and nodded in a direction with the white patterned head. The group of four Ursi began to move purposefully in the direction the monster indicated. The huntsman pulled back and hid as the snake gave a hissing breath. A sound of tearing flesh and snapping bone and hisses of pain turned into uncomfortable grunts. The pitch of the voice increased to a woman's voice. There was a sigh of relief and the sounds of human footsteps of someone walking off. Betram gave a sigh of relief as he took off in the direction of Mistral once again. He froze when he heard a voice nearby.

"Hey there! Did you receive the message too?" The voice was the same as what he heard earlier. Betram turned slowly as he tried to keep his voice level. One of his hands rested casually on the hilt of his sword.

"Yeah, but I didn't find anything, did you?" The woman shook her head one half of her hair was black streaked with white and the reverse on the other side. She had angular features that gave her a rustic beauty. She had a silver ring on each pointer finger.

"No, I guess they dispersed after all, I guess we should head back then." Then Betram noticed the strange woman looking at him with the strangest expression as she looked him up and down. "Actually, I've got a better idea." Her voice took a different tone than before, more suggestive. She stepped towards the huntsman and stood within arm's reach. Wow, she's quite shorter than me… idiot! She's a snake! Did you forget already? He found his face cradled between the woman's delicate fingers and was gently being brought down into a kiss. He brushed her hands aside and straightened up.

"Thanks for the offer, miss. But I'm far from being in the mood." He turned and started walking away. He only realized his mistake when he heard the woman speak again. It was mostly in a whisper but still loud enough for him to hear.

"You saw me change didn't you?" He tensed at the sound of a soft whine like a motor. The half-grimm's weapons shot from her sleeves, a pair of yo-yo's attached to fine wire connected to the rings on her fingers. Reacting on instinct the huntsman leaned to the side and ducked at once. The weighted yo-yos smashed a chunk out of a tree where his head had been a second ago. His eyes bugged at the impact the weapons made. What the hell are those things made out of? He drew his dust sword and he triggered his bloodline semblance, a glyph formed under his feet, the glyph triggered and he shot to one side as a follow-up strike came looping in from the spinning weights. The rotating chamber switched over to fire dust as he used a series of small glyphs to maintain his movement speed as he rapidly circled the hostile. A swathe of fire was launched as he swung his dust-charged weapon. Her weapons retracted with audible slaps into the palms of her hands and she vaulted backwards over the wave of fire. The dust imbuing his weapon spun and he struck the ground with the edge, a wave of ice erupted from the ground. The woman collided mid-flight into the ice. He mentally thanked his aunt for some of her fighting tips relating to dust. Dark force spiraled out of one of her arms as it rapidly stretched and thickened. In an instant the black head of a King Taijitu was striking at him with its fangs. It smashed through the ice barrier and tried to latch onto his shoulder, the fangs stopped against his aura. He jumped back to avoid taking any more damage. The woman's second yoyo zipped in and slammed into his stomach, sending him flying backwards. That attack almost broke my aura in one shot! He caught himself on one hand and managed to skid to a stop. He nursed his stomach for half a second as he tracked what the woman was going to do next. Instead of rushing forward to kill him she was casually approaching, her arm turned back into a human form and she was just doing simple tricks with her weapons, dangling them spinning at the end of their threads. Making them do slow, ponderous loops over her head.

"This is the part where you start running little boy." Her voice carried a sibilant hiss as she licked her lips. Apparently her humanoid form was a snake faunus. She had a strangely thin forked toungue. He started to stagger away but one of her yoyos snapped out and slammed into his side punching through his aura and breaking skin, the rotation boring into him. He clutched his side and gritted through the pain as he took off at a headlong sprint with the smaller woman slowly stalking him.

"So yeah, now I'm being hunted by some dust damned snake woman. But I'm exhausted. It won't be long for her to hunt me down." Shin noticed his friend be uncommonly pale. He steadily reached out and felt his forehead. He pulled his hand back quickly.

"You're burning up bro… did you get sick, or cut?" He looked closely at the shoulder Betram was concentrated on shielding. There was shallow, bleeding scratch on the back of his shoulder blade the skin around it was turning green and his bloodvessels were turning deep red around the wound. "Betram, you've got a cut on your shoulder, it looks infected." The huntsman's eyes widened sharply in fear, he held up his right hand, and flexed it. It was starting to twitch and spasm.

"No… no no no. I was sure my aura deflected those fangs. I've been poisoned, the exertion of sprinting back here spread the poison. I'm starting to feel it, my body is starting to break down faster than my aura can heal me." For once in a long time Shin felt fear for his companion.

"Are you going to die?" He asked trying to keep his voice from shaking. The huntsman shrugged.

"Not sure, I might collapse into a coma to stop the spread of the poison while my body very slowly gets rid of it. But that thing is still hunting me. I doubt I can hide from her for long. Listen buddy, I've got something to give you." He suddenly said struggling to his feet and reaching behind him for something. Shin approached curiously at what the huntsman was offering, he put out his hand nervously. Betram grabbed it and suddenly yanked him into a firm hug. Shin came up a little over half his friend's chest. He suddenly felt strange as they both began to glow. He heard a voice that echoed from the real world and back against his own mind. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee." Betram released the boy and staggered slightly as his breathing started to become labored. Shin looked confused and noticed the subtle glow surrounding his hands.

"You just…"

"Yeah." There was a moment where neither of them spoke. "It's been an honor to be your friend. But you really need to get out of here. Use the secret exit so nobody can trace that you had been here. She'll come after you too if she figures out I told her secret to someone. Join the orphanage system, find some parents that you like, and get some education. Stay safe Shin." Shin sighed as he fought to contain tears.

"I guess there's nothing I can do, can I?"

"Well, you can do what I asked, and live a life that doesn't have to involve scrabbling around the streets. Especially without me to help looking out for you, you'd best get to living your own. I'll see you eventually." Betram replied with finality as he drew his sword with his fully active hand. A figure could be seen moving about outside. Shin moved and pulled up a series of planks that were attached to each other but nothing else opening a hole to a dried-up sewer. He pulled the slats back over the hole as he dropped down and started moving. His façade broke as he bit his lip. He took off sprinting for the manhole a few blocks away from the house. He crawled up and looked in the direction of the house.

A massive glyph appeared beneath it, spinning in a snowflake pattern, the Schnee symbol. It started off black as it swirled for a few seconds. Then it flashed a rainbow of colors in an instant and a massive explosion was heard, as the entire house was launched skyward and obliterated in a wave of manipulated gravity. He broke down and sobbed as he solemnly marched towards the orphanage. Despite the massive weight that had landed on his heart, his mind hadn't slowed. Sorry Betram, but I'm going to have to modify our promise. That creature is going to die, horribly at my hands. I need to become stronger first. A small flash of insight wormed its way through his mind. There are creatures that look humanoid in this world, but they're also grimm. Grimm have no soul, yet these monsters have aura. There could be countless numbers of them hiding among the ranks of those with souls. He looked on determined with his teeth gritted. They won't be able to hide, I'm a master of lying, and they won't be able to trick me. He relaxed his features into his saddened face as he began laying out his plans for the future. Under that curly blond hair was a factory of information.

He approached the orphanage and walked inside, he began calculating what he needed to say to get free shelter and maybe a temporary foster family as a real base of operations. He started a tearful conversation with the woman managing accepting children off the street. He did a trick he had learned through practice of baiting his opponents into dropping their guard. He made the truth fly on the wind of lies. He seriously had nowhere else to go, his only guardian had perished in the mysterious explosion not too long ago, and he had been suggested to head here. He lied about small details that weren't really important, but made his story a little more convincing. With a pinch of acting he managed to talk himself into the orphanage.

After a few weeks he found himself lucky. He spotted an opportunity to bunk with a foster family in a big house, enough room for a bunch of kids at once he smiled as he managed to convince them to let him join. Phew… that was easier than I expected, I guess I should count myself lucky. The eleven year-old signed up for combat school that was going to be in session not long from now. Everything is set, I simply need to pull the trigger and ride the momentum. One of four combat schools in all of Mistral was now going to be where he would receive basic training. He didn't care if he was going to have to work himself half-to-death every single day, he would achieve his goal, no matter what.