AN: Hello guys Its Mustafa and I would like to thank you all in reading my story, please leave a review as those are very welcomed and considered helpful by me, I will try to show the answers of all the reviews posted in chapter 5. Now without a further a due, let's start this story in the name of god and bismillah.
The ghostly woman or Olivia levitating right in front of him was rubbing Markus the wrong way, as something felt off yet natural about her. "Is this the fear of the unknown?" Markus thought quickly before his brain registered the woman about to move her hand.
Markus's brain had gone into full blown combat mode in which, the more rational part of his brain was separated and chucked out of the proverbial window, as years of training and combat experience had Markus dropping the duffle bags on him along with the assault rifle he was wielding to the ground.
Go into a combat role with a sizable amount of snow being kicked up due to his larger body mass and cape, concealed his figure. By the time he got up and the snow had settled.
He had a Desert Eagle drawn on his left hand aimed at her head while his right-handed sword was practically inches away from cutting into her neck when It was removed from the scabbard with a *SHIINNNG*, Olivia's brain was too late to register that he had gotten near her and had caused her to gape in shock as her eyes widened in fear with the audible *CLICK* of a blessed Deagle round about to go into her head, if she dared to even move an inch.
His ruby red eyes bored into her skull with his height and gear giving off an intimidating image, with the both of them in a standstill. Markus sub consciously recited surah al-Fatiah and Ayat ul-Kursi which were duas that warded off lesser evil spirits while weakening major demons or jinns to a blessed round or 2 by causing them to deteriorate slowly through burning up.
Detecting no form of deterioration or pain by the ghostly woman right in front of him aside from the rising fear she was expressing through her shuddering body, mortified expression and her arms back behind her back in a rigid fashion.
Markus was a better safe than sorry type of man as he would rather exercise caution that his masters and religion drilled into him than allow a potential threat any form of freedom to do anything.
"I am giving you 10 seconds to explain what you are before I decide that you aren't worth my time." His voice was distorted yet deep at the same time thanks to his helmet, masking his true voice while giving off the demonic and threatening edge that unnerved many people.
The effect was almost instantaneous as she attempted to raise her shaky hands slowly after unclasping them, the right hand held a brown parchment with golden letters inscribed on It.
"Lo-Look stranger, I know that you aren't the most... patient type but I had a real bad day. I also know that you are awfully untrusting of me but maybe this paper with glowing gibberish can help with that?" She ended the sentence with a nervous smile which was followed by nervous laughter for good measure.
Markus immediately recognised them as Arabic letters and had the parchment snatched off her hands after holstering his Deagle. The action got an eep! from the woman as she stood there with her hands raised on her sides in front of Markus, as an act of surrender while shooting a nervous smile to him.
He read the letter aloud as to make sure the both of them could get their curiosity of the parchment sated. "Dear Markus, as the current holder of the title of the soldier of god. You are allowed to see and communicate to deceased aura users but only after the sun has set, be warned that there are certain rules that both parties should abide by. The first rule is that the dead aren't allowed to speak of the angels of punishments or rewards and are exempted from talking about the secrets of the dead. The second rule states that they must remain in a close proximity of Markus and are only allowed to relay information that they knew in their past lives and are only allowed to discuss information that Markus is aware of but can be used to watch over Markus's property and alert him If someone comes from them at the cost of giving his enemies a rough estimate of his location. The third rule is that while communicating with Markus, the deceased soul of the aura users can and will draw attention of the black hand so only necessary interactions are advised. The fourth and final rule is that Markus can heal the image of the body of the deceased aura users by simply touching them as to make sure they are not an evil spirit in disguise, signed by Malak-ul Maut. The angel of death." The parchment lit Itself on fire and was gone before they knew It.
Markus's brain had gone from gunning the woman down for even moving an inch, to a calmer state where he simply bopped her on her head with a vertical fist after holstering his weapons.
Hazel light immediately covered her and after a few seconds a perfectly fine Olivia was standing right next to her maimed corpse on the ground with a pale yet happy face.
"Well would you look at that, ya fixed me up!" She said while jumping enthusiastically off the ground before suddenly her eyes narrowed and she poked her index finger on Markus's chest while leaning in.
"I don't what you have been smoking stranger but It's rude to hold a fine lady on gun point" She accused in a comical manner.
Markus held up his right index finger before speaking. "No, it would be rude to hold a living and breathing innocent woman at gunpoint so excuse me If you don't fit that criteria as your undead brethren have a thing for staging a hostile takeover on my body. Speaking of being dead, you are taking this thing very easily. Your corpse is a crying and maimed mess while you are sporting a happy go lucky attitude, shouldn't you be more depressed or something like that? Even If you are, keep the crying to a minimum and make sure incoherent crap doesn't comes out of that mouth. The both of us need to get a move on or else the living will pay the price for us mucking about." Markus stated in a hostile and final tone as he wanted to assist those men immediately, consoling a dead person would not help so pulling a more authoritative and hard-ass tone should kick in the disciplinary training the ghostly woman had.
Especially If said person intended on "brightening up the mood" in an otherwise serious and grim situation and couldn't shut their traps when needed to while ignoring the situation around them.
He didn't bother looking at the ghostly woman as he picked up his duffle bags and assault rifle before breaking into a jog towards the cave.
Said jog was promptly interrupted when he saw Olivia standing right in front of him with a serious expression yet with subtle hints of anger. "Look mister, I know that you aren't fun in parties but there is no need to be an ass about everything. As you can see I ain't exactly having the best of days so me having this "happy go lucky attitude"". She said in an imitation of Markus's voice before continuing on.
"Was a sort of coping mechanism to me being dead ya know, do you even know how hard It is when an hour ago I was guarding the check point with my men. Talking about our families and how we are going to talk to them as soon as the damn weather clears up but nooooo a Grimm invasion literally came out of nowhere with a golden object falling out of the sky and I have to deal with a 10-foot-tall demon sent by the brothers who maybe knows what the hell in the brothers name is going on around here or what is happening to me for that matter!" She ended her rant by throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation.
"With all due respect misses Olivia but you sounded an alert to deal with an invasion that was heading towards your base, which we need to get to as soon as possible. Fact of the matter is you are dead and are taking up valuable time that could be used in saving the living, I know I am acting like an apathetic robot but that's a necessity right now in getting things done, how about this. If you just tell me the necessary information of what I am dealing with and the amount of people I have to help than I promise to explain everything at a later time." Markus explained while adopting a gentler and diplomatic tone.
Her face had calmed down a bit but her eyes had lost the earlier enthusiasm she displayed and were looking down to the ground, with a huff she said. "Fine stranger but I would prefer If I knew your name and face at that, the name is Gretchan Rainhart by the way. Not Olivia, that name was made up to get away from my family and start a new life here in Atlas."
With a sigh Markus replied. "My name is Markus Obsidian, I will show my face when we are not in the wilderness and in a more isolated location but for the record that golden object was me falling out of the sky." As he begins to jog towards the cave at a cautious pace.
Gretchen's brows furrowed in confusion as she floated by his side. "That was you who fell out of the sky? I have seen people done some crazier things than that but still at the rate and height you fell out off. No aircraft exists that could breach the stratosphere, let alone drop someone off from that height. How did you manage to pull something like that off?"
"For your information I am not exactly from your world so I was dropped off here by god to protect the inhabitants of the world"
The response caused Gretchen to blink owlishly for a few minutes as the thumping sound of Markus's jog and the howling winds was the only thing her brain registered before she replied. "Okayyyy, that's absolutely crazy but can you show me some real proof ta calm my nerves?"
The response led to Markus screech to a halt, heavily inhale and exhale before shoving a hand in his white duffle bag and procuring the Quran and his personal smart phone.
Flipped the Quran open with great care and respect, then showed the contents of It to Gretchen. "These letters are from the same language, you labelled as gibberish while you held that parchment in your hand. Is the language used by God to convey his message to us humans back in my world and I can assure you can't find anything like this, there is more to the book but I promise you that I will offer more explanation later. For further proof that I am not a madman, bring your attention to this phone."
He powered the switch on by pressing the power button and immediately showed her the photos he taken during the first time he was about to go in the first battle of his carrier as this phone was his personal one and as such was also used to store memories.
The photo Itself showed Markus in the standard armour he used back when he trained under heller while side by side with James himself on his left, the rest of Markus's squad were crouched on the dry shrubland with their middle eastern faces, while their helmets were on their sides.
Behind them was a UH-60 black hawk with a M1 Abraham tank and a convoy of 5 machine gun mounted Humvees and troop truck just behind It, while a Mil-Mi 17 transport helicopter was flying in the back ground with the black sky just behind It.
"This photo was taken of a team of service men back when I was about to send them into battle, as you can see the armour, weaponry and vehicle use technology not found in remnant or at least yet to be found or made in remnant." He made sure to deliberately keep his identity hidden as he had no intention of talking about a ruined face that had changed over many years.
Gretchan stood there while analysing the image over and over again with narrowed eyes, trying to compare them with every type of Atlassian armaments and machinery she encountered while drawing out blanks as soon as she did.
"Alright Markus, even though all of this seems pretty crazy. I guess I can believe ya but can you answer me 2 questions?"
With a sigh Markus responded while resuming his pace with the cave becoming clearer and clearer. "Fine you can but hurry up, we will reach the cave in 10 to 15 minutes."
"How is your world Markus, is It infested by the Grimm like ours or is It free from all that and you get live in peace?"
"The world I came from was starting to become a degrading mess. The message of Allah and the spirit of my religion was abandoned in the name of worldly pleasures, a day wouldn't pass where a person wouldn't lie, cheat, abandon their responsibilities while acting as a hypocrite at the same time. Wars, corruption and murders were a common occurrence for centuries and were done in the name of stupidity, ignorance and evil while leaving the good and innocent powerless and confused. No one bothered on stopping the agents of the devil while the handful of those who did, either took the pacifist route and were promptly stomped by an iron fist or were betrayed and assassinated by their own people through conspiracies and psychological manipulation." His eyes never leaving the cave as he said that.
"Walls were formed between people with nations, ideology, culture and religion, dividing them as the world descended into this cesspool of betrayal thus causing people to break away from people they called "families" instead of enduring the storm together and opting solidarity instead of unity." Markus's knuckles begun to whiten as the grip on his weapon became harder.
"As you can see the world had become a bleak mess as such things like mobile and physical entertainment, drugs, sex, intoxicants and other sources of pleasure allowed the masses to escape reality and adopt a more peaceful and lazy approach to their lives while leaving the problems of the world to be handled by a hand few of powerful people that may or may not be corrupt. Accountability and justice only existed to those who were influential, popular and powerful enough to affect the lives of many people at once while the weak, poor and powerless were forgotten even though responsibilities said otherwise. I swear one may never even look family in the eyes unless they wanted something from them. "
A mirthless chuckle escaped Markus's lips as Gretchen started feeling a sense of dread and fear thinking about the world Markus described, emotions she thought she would never have to feel again.
"All that changed 3 years ago when the cataclysm arrived. The gates of hell were opened with demons coming out with the undead in tow. The agents of evil or the Black Hand as they formally introduced themselves to the public started their reign of terror with their leaders the Witches, pulling the strings. Suffice to say a wave of pain was passed around throughout the world that their worldly pleasures couldn't numb, breaking many out of their daze and pulling them back to the religion of Allah to combat the new evil." He finished by sending a glance towards her.
"Tell me my dear sister, is the state of the world I described similar to yours or is It going in the same direction before the cataclysm."
"Well, I-I guess It is. Come to think of It some of the rich folks and in some places, folks in general are eerily similar to the bad people in your world. Well I think It is safe to say, yes. Even though my optimistic side is saying yes but for you It should have been easy with aura, right?" Her shoulders had sagged yet she her voice sounded hopeful for a simple yes.
Another chuckle from Markus surprised her before he replied. "I am afraid not sister, aura doesn't exist from where I come from. It's a world where Allah has promised that those who fight in his name will kill and will be killed with the only thing separating us from death, is his support."
The response had momentarily caused her to be stunned before she rushed Markus's face to his annoyance but he saw something he didn't expect from someone aside from his own people, worry.
"Now I know that just by looking at you, you are one of those warrior type people who go in battles first and crawl out on their hands and knees later but that is something warriors with aura are only capable of doing, hell a movement has been started to make sure non-aura users see less and less combat as to make sure they get live healthy lives so please tell me that you at least have a substitute of aura?" Her eyes taking a more caring and hopeful tone.
Markus merely raised his right hand to her before removing the gauntlet. "Holy shit" she said, as she practically latched on to Markus's hand which startled Markus internally while externally his hand went rigid. The cold didn't bother him but the touch of another person and woman at that for religious reasons, unnerved him.
The hand itself was nothing less than a scarred tissue as multiple scars and burn marks of various sizes were spread all over his large hand. The scars were focused around the back of his hand with large ones going diagonally across his fingers while a mix and match of them were on the rest of the hand. These ones had faded away throughout the years while the recent yet smaller cuts and bruises having scab on them were present on the palm and finger tips.
"That's the same number of scars I would have on my body If my aura didn't heal those up in the first place! by the brothers how are you able to move the thing at all, some of these must have been like a year old and must have hurt like a bitch. How haven't you retired already 'cos I have seen some people take the Atlassian medical discharge right there and leave!" Her voice was filled to the brim with care that Markus only heard from his mother.
"Don't worry about me too much as battles have a tendency of being a brutal affair but enough about me and more about my enemies, how many of them were there and what do they look like?" Markus questioned after withdrawing his hand and redoubling his footsteps. Gretchen had decided to put of the matter of worrying about Markus later and decided to focus at the task at hand.
"Well I sensed about like 4 to 5000 thousand of 'em with the most of them being mix and match of Ursas and Beowolves. A Beowolf is a creature that stands on Its hind legs with black fur and bone like spikes on Its spine, shoulders and joints aside from Its neck and belly. They have claws and a mean looking bone mask that glows red. A Ursa is like a bear version of a Beowolf but much bigger and stronger, at the cost of mobility that is." After trying to remember something she continued.
"Unfortunately for you Markus a new type of Grimm was spotted and unfortunately killed me. It was 15-foot-tall and mostly resembled a jacked-up Beowolf but with more armour on Its ribs, back, fore arms and fore legs. Honestly the armour felt like pads than something natural or spiky at that and It has horns coming out of Its head while there is a red glow on Its veins as well. It also has 7 alpha Beowolves in Its packs which are stronger and bigger versions of Beowolves."
By the time the sentence finished, the cave had begun to make It's destroyed gates known to Markus as It was only 400 meters away from him. The weather felt as If someone had pulled the plug on It and with It the snow storm had stopped kicking up snow altogether with the tornado wall covering fort Maxim being dissipated as well.
*KARBOOM*
An ear-splitting explosion occurred on the cave, with the after effects of the shockwave knocking Markus of his feet. The mix and match colours of yellow, blue, red and black yet with small hints of purple had illuminated the skies with flying burning debris and destroyed chunks of dust crystal of various colours were tossed in the air. A rising cloud of these colours, marked the epicentre of the explosion with the aforementioned objects shooting out of It in various directions, providing more than enough illumination of the surrounding area.
Markus had saw many explosions in his life but this would mostly be classified as a lethal firework show than an actual explosion. The resulting shock wave carried dust, snow, rocks and fragments that caused Markus to simply crouch down and raise an arm covering his head, while the other one was slammed into the ground deep enough to anchor him and not fall down.
After he removed his arm he saw a blazing inferno right in front of with various pieces of metallic foundations sticking out of the caved in cave. A thick layer of black smoke was being formed around the explosion site that blocked the view of the base as the snow did everything in Its power to snuff out the flames that disturbed Its domain.
Markus broke into a run with Gretchen in tow as he sprinted towards the base just behind the hill, he made sure to avoid the burning debris while keeping an eye out of possible Grimm. After breaching through the inferno and smoky mess, his breath died in his throat as he attempted to process the image right in front of him the elevated position of the hill provided.
A 40 feet tall stone wall surrounded the base that was currently besieged by the Grimm on all sides, with the majority of them focusing on the gable roofed gatehouse on the wall in front of Markus. The battlements of the wall were manned by Atlassian soldiers and soldiers who looked more metallic and robotic in nature to be called humans, with at least a 1000 of them spread all over the walls while some of them were behind them acting as reserves.
The 2 conical towers at each end of the walls fired out blue flares that provided illumination to the entirety of the base which allowed Markus to see the rest of It which consisted of 90 military housing and logistic structures with their 4 storied gabled roofing, the 8 hangers and 20 launchpads for the aircrafts the Atlassians utilised on the far right of the base with their barrelled roofing and a communication tower of some sort with a half a kilometre wide mansard roofed military headquarters acting as Its base, being turned online with the blinking lights suggesting that Its transmitting due to no weather interference.
Markus saw honest to god space ship out of a sci-fi film, launching from the barrelled roof of the hanger. The aircraft was like the size of a naval corvette ship back at home and was designed like a detailed brick but a sleek one with Its layered hull and 3 decorative spikes that stuck out of Its engines with one set on each side along with 2 visible guns on the bottom and 3 vertically mounted double barrelled turrets on each side.
Another one mostly similar to It launched but this time carrying cargo of All things along with the SDC label on Its hull and cargo, sped out of the battlefield like a bat out of hell. The first one on the other hand positioned Itself over the battlefield as Its main batteries came online and with a salvo of Its weapons, cleared out the sky of airborne Grimm that resembled oversized birds with blue explosions and *THUMPING* of Its rhythmic volleys, the air borne Grimm Markus had failed to spot due to him being focused on the ship.
A glance just behind the ship made Markus's heart sank, as he saw a graveyard of the larger and compact versions of the ship right in front of him, they were in a burning and scrap metal mess with their structures slammed together and the various parts of them dislodged into the terrain.
As soon as the sky cleared were cleared from the Grimm and the rhythmic *THUMPING* of the batteries had ceased. The rest of the 5 hangers opened up with 15 VTOLs streaming out of them as an alarm was sounded for their take-off, 10 of them resembled like AW 139 but with no rotor blades and had long needle like thrusters on Its side with the side doors just below the cockpit which revealed a pair of soldiers on each side, streaming down bullets from the sides. The rest of the 5 of them were much sleeker and more similar to the aforementioned aircraft, had no notable room for passengers and had a large gun strapped on to Its nose and was acting like a fighter by providing protection to the transport VTOLs that were occasionally attacked by airborne Grimm that still remained.
All in all, Markus felt like that he wouldn't be needed as the Grimm were barely making any footholds or pokes on the defences of the Atlassians even If some did break through the wall of colourful led being poured on to them, they would be immediately be repelled by 30 noticeable soldiers in white uniforms and grey blazers, with their leader wearing a grey long coat and a peak cap. They brandished mecha-shift versions of swords, sabres and other classy weapons with ranged addons while their leader brandished a maul with a shot gun on Its top side.
The battle was intense as the Grimm were screaming, kicking and clawing over one another in order to breach the stone masked wall the Atlassians had become, the *BARK*s and *CRACK*s of their rifles drowned out any other noise the humans made or hear while the VTOL aircrafts circled around the Grimm by picking of both land and air-based Grimm that got too close to the defenders while making sure no Grimm snuck into the base. The warship was positioning Itself right above the Grimm horde to take them out with Its batteries.
*RRRRRAAAAWWWWWAAAAAARRRRRR*
A guttural yet throaty scream erupted from the mass of black fur, claws and bones the Grimm horde had become, which pierced through the sounds of battle both sides were making. Stopping and stunning many Atlassians from what they were doing and instead started focusing on the source of the sound, which was the centre of the Grimm horde.
The same 15-foot-tall Grimm Gretchen described, rose up on Its 2 hind legs after exiting from Its 4-legged prone position. Its body armour resembled that of a human knight but still fitted with Its animalistic body, in front of It was a stack of 20 red dust crystals which glowed brightly against the snow.
A greedy hand grabbed onto a crystal, before said crystal was slammed into Its own throat. Eliciting another roar which both unnerved and surprised the humans as they were not expecting a move like this at all while Markus merely analysed the creature with a critical eye, as fighting against the black hand had made It muscle memory; that his enemies would be versatile and adaptive no matter who they are.
Another hand brought out a crystal but this time It was a lit by a torrent of flame that erupted from the creature's throat. Said crystal was than chucked at the gatehouse, the defenders inside It could only watch in despair as the crystal *WHISTLED* towards them, the left tower of the gatehouse was destroyed with a combustive *BOOM*, most of the 20 soldiers and robots manning It being killed on the spot or slowly dying by the flames and rubble pilling up on them. Shouts of surprise and warning were called out from the humans as the beast prepared for Its next move.
The presumably leader of the Atlassian force with his peak cap attempted to spit out orders but a torrent of flame soon engulfed the battlements of the wall as the soldiers and robots manning It were quick enough to back away from the battlements while a few unfortunate ones were lightly burned.
After regaining his composure, the peak capped leader ordered his troops off the wall by signalling with his maul. Markus didn't agree with this at all as the walls are the only thing allowing the range-based portion of the force to do Its role properly and efficiently, abandon the walls and the only thing separating them and the Grimm are a handful of melee soldiers that can't keep every Grimm at bay no matter how proficient they are.
*CCCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW*
Another ear-splitting roar occurred but this time It resembled that of a bird and was directly above him as well. Jerking his head up he saw the largest form of airborne Grimm he had ever saw in his life as the bird like Grimm could take on the warship hovering above the Atlassians on Its own.
The warship immediately welcomed the Grimm with Its batteries and main canons on Its bottom with blue flak erupting all over the Grimm while the rest of the air support the Atlassians had diverged on the Grimm by attacking It from all side in hopes of encircling It and killing It, the weaponry at best was mostly ineffective in outright piercing Its hide and killing It but progress was being made.
The 15-foot tall Grimm on the other hand had started chucking more flamed crystals at the wall, its first 3 crystals collided against the walls of the fort as a part of It that was just on the left of the destroyed tower, caved in without any warning while also creating a opening
"That walls and gates won't hold out for long, I will have to draw Its attention or else Its going to break through those gates and kill everyone in sight." Markus thought to himself.
Jerking his head to Gretchen, he yelled. "Gretchen watch over my bags while I deal with the mess!" A nod was given in response before Markus broke into a sprint again after tossing said bags to the ground.
The Grimm were 600 meters away from him with the majority of the already scaling the walls by piling on top of one another with even some of them being tossed by the larger Grimm over the walls.
Markus unholstered his M16 while he left the Atlassian rifle in one of the duffle bags. The scoped vision allowed him a clear line of sight to the 15-foot tall Grimm, as he crouched down and took aim. He breathed and as the Grimm was about to chuck a crystal, he pulled the trigger.
The *CRACK* of the rifle had many Grimm at the back regarded Markus, as the round punched through the opening of the armours on the spine and left shoulder blade. The round had punched through and allowed a small drizzle of blood to leave with while taking out a small insignificant, bony chunk of armour as well.
The Grimm's beady red eyes turned to regard Markus with a ferocious growl and proceeded to bark at Its fellows to chase after him.
Out of the horde, 30 Grimm answered the call to charge at Markus. 10 Beowolves spread side by side and 13 Ursas right behind them, with the 7 Alpha Beowolves just in front of them and were much faster than them as there was a good distance away from one another. Their jaws snapping, throats growling and movements at best erratic.
Markus regarded the leading Alpha with a 3-round burst. The rounds were mostly aim at Its torso so Markus didn't really like the odds of piercing through Its armour, but was relieved to see the rounds go through the armour like paper, as the Grimm fell into a heap of Its own blood due to Its momentum and made no signs of getting up.
Seeing their leaders fallen, the alphas immediately broke away from bun rushing Markus, to use their lesser brethren's as meat shields. Unfortunately for them 2 more precise burst fire shots, made sure 2 alphas never got to safety.
"20 rounds" Markus made a mental recount of his ammunition. Waiting for them to get into the 200 meters mark. Markus switched the fire mode from burst fire to fully automatic, allowed his enemies to close in and clump up together and squeezed the trigger.
The continuous *CRACK* of his rifle momentarily illuminated a small area around Markus while revealing the near demonic appearances of his enemies that had bullets slammed into them.
Out of the 10 Beowolves, 3 of them were tore into disintegrating shreds while the 2 Alpha Beowolves behind them met the same fate as their brethren due to the number of bullets and kinetic force that carried over from their cannon fodder brethren.
The remaining Grimm were undeterred by their losses as the 13 Ursas behind them were 300 meters away from Markus while the surviving Grimm were closing in fast. They weren't really intimidating as the Beowolves were barely 5 foot while the Alpha variants of them were 7 foot at best but he was still cautious of them.
Markus immediately holstered his M16 back his back after reloading It from 4 non-blesssed clips while leaving the 4 blessed one alone, tightening the rifle sling to make sure It stuck on his back and didn't interfere in combat. Deployed his sword with a nostalgic *SHIINNGG* and adopted a back-right sword stance.
The leading Beowolf pounced on Markus with Its claws wide and jaws outstretched, in a feeble attempt of ripping out his jaw, Markus merely intercepted It with an upward sweep that cleaved the Grimm into an arc that travelled from Its left paw and exited from Its right. Rending through bone, flesh and muscles with ease.
Markus paid no attention to the blood that splattered onto him and disintegration that was occurring from the corpse, as the Beowolf just behind It growled out in an attempt to tackle Markus with Its arms outstretched and claws wide.
Markus swiftly sidestepped It to the right while keeping his attention to the rest of the Grimm and allowed his longer arms with a sword just about Its length to expand outstretched from his left, cleaving the Grimm in half as It ran Itself through It. The sharp *SHUNCK* of metal going through flesh gave Markus all the conformation of the Grimm's demise he needed.
The rest of the Grimm approaching him were practically meters away from one another or at least the Beowolves that is while the 2 Alpha variants were keen on acting as the finishers and allowing their younger and rage driven brethren to take the brunt of Markus's assault, meaning that he would need to use the rest of his limbs as well to handle them at the same time.
3 of the Beowolves approached Markus from the centre while the 2 of them flanked from the sides. Markus darted out a kick to the middle Beowolf aimed at Its head, his boot connected with Its white bone mask with a sickening *CRUNCH*, sending It flying with a cracked mask to the Beowolves at the centre and leaving them in a mess of staggered bodies.
Markus's honed senses had already registered a claw approaching his right gut while at the corner of his eyes a Beowolf about to pounce on him, adrenaline coursed through Markus's veins as time appeared to slow down for him.
His right sword hand positioned the sword on his right leg for a slash while his left hand had already latched on to the incoming claw, he pulled the Grimm closer while his head turned to regard the Grimm on his left which was about to be airborne.
The sword had already cleaved the Grimm he was holding in two, as Markus used the upper-half of Its body like a projectile and tossed It at the Beowolf that was already mid-air on his left,
The collision for the Grimm was like being hit by a truck as the wind was knocked out of It mid-air when It was tossed back to the ground, snow piled up from Its impact while a sound reminiscent to whimpering erupted from Its throat to Its shame due to the fear and pain It was witnessing, somewhat mimicked by his brethren that was cleaved in half.
A thrust to the face by a black sword soon silenced It while a sickening stomp of a boot silenced his counterpart.
Markus whipped his head just in time to see all 3 of the Beowolves jumping at him at the same time, his sword proved to be much faster as he shoulder bashed the far left mid-air while his sword cleaved through the other two Grimm at the same time with a echoing *SHLLLCK*, the shoulder bashed Beowolf was sent flying after the report of bones snapping had reached Markus's ears and lopped Its head off after It attempted to get up.
The 2 Alphas were attempting to take down Markus in a coordinated attack by going for his lower and upper sections at once, Markus braced against the two attacks as he dug his heels to the ground and angling his sword near his body, to make sure their attacks slide off.
The force was barely felt by Markus as the Alpha tasked with attacking the lower half immediately retreated as It realised what was about to happen while the other Alpha attempted to bite of Markus's armoured face.
It was too late in realising Its folly, its right claw was too close to the human's left hand. As such It was immediately pinned in place by a spiked gauntlet. Before its brain could even register what was happening, the Grimm found itself pinned on the ground by the sword that had lopped of its right claw when it was being brought overhead and slammed down to the ground by the human.
Before a scream of sheer terror could even escape its throat, its head was reduced into a decaying gore of brain matter, bone fragments and blood by a spiked gauntlet with a loud *CRACK*.
The final Alpha seeing his brethren annihilated by the human attempted to run before a swift lunge from the human led to a timely yet silent death.
Markus regarded the Ursas that were approaching him in a more cautious manner after seeing the death of their fellows, by raising his sword and making a 'Come over here' gesture with his sword while slowly regaining his stamina.
The Grimm didn't rise to the bait and with a strict schedule of saving people, Markus decided to aim his Desert Eagle at them that chambered .50 Action express blessed rounds.
Markus was very reluctant in using any form of blessed ammunition as a production of any form of blessed round was only done on Fridays and him only having 4 blessed clips of It while excluding the one in the gun, made It so he will have to use It wisely.
"There is always a first for everything so might as well see how this does against the Grimm" Markus reassured himself as he took aim one last time and squeezed the trigger of the 9-round gun, at the lead Ursa which was larger than the rest.
The bullet left with a mighty *THWACK*, leaving a trail of dissipating white light behind It while the bullet Itself gave off a faint white glow. The shot connected at the exposed underbelly of the Ursa and the results were to Markus's surprise, explosive or combustive would be the better word.
The Grimm had immediately exploded into a mess of gore in a flash of white light, Markus knew that they were effective against black magic and the undead at that but not making them explode into pieces effective, the next shot was aimed at another Ursa's shoulder armour to confirm a theory in Markus's mind about the effectiveness of said blessed shots on armour.
With a *THWACK*, the round immediately pierced through the armour due to its scientific factors while making the Grimm explode thanks to its religious factors thus confirming that against a heavily armoured Grimm, he would need to shoot at their exposed sections for deadly effect.
*THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK*
Before the Grimm could even react, Markus's recoilless hands due to his strength and experience with the gun were a blur in firing of 7 more rounds in quick succession. Nearly all his targets were hit in the torso or the head and by the time the remaining Ursas had saw the fates of their brethren with guttural growls, whipped their heads towards Markus.
Who had reloaded and holstered his weapon while brandishing his sword in a right-shoulder guard stance, not even a sound was made but the Grimm knew he was taunting them but their animalistic natures had broken free as a larger Ursa howled in the air and rallied its comparatively smaller brethren that were at size of Beowolves while itself was 6 foot 5 inches at best.
Markus had smirked behind his helm as he deliberately let the second largest Grimm live as he knew that the larger one was too experienced and powerful to not be baited into charging at Markus and mostly influenced its pack, while the second largest one was mostly powerful but couldn't keep its bloodlust in check at all.
The Grimm stampeded towards him with the larger one taking lead with the 3 smaller ones just behind It side by side.
Markus darted back as the Grimm attempted a fruitless slash at him with its left claw, it over extended as it didn't expected Markus to dart back like a caped mannequin that it could barely track, exposing its entire left side to him.
The Mujahideen proceeded to quickly plant a boot on its left forearm armour, he grabbed onto the set of spikes growing on its back before he slashed his sword in an upward manner on its neck, decapitating the head within seconds with a visceral *SHHTCK*.
He leapt of the back with the 3 Ursas stunned by the human, with his sword already swinging in a vertical motion on the Ursa in the middle.
With a *CLANG*, the sword pierced through its heavily armoured body while splitting its entire body in half with one swing.
Markus immediately let his sword go and darted to the Grimm on his right as he delivered a brutal right uppercut that sent it sprawling backwards with a broken jaw, he spun on his heel and delivered a left round house kick on the jaw of the surviving Grimm, the kick sent the lower portion of its jaw into the snow while the Grimm stumbled around due to the pain and shock of losing its jaw.
Markus went for his sword and silently executed them with no sounds behind made by thrusting at their hearts or at least the area where their hearts should be and turned his attention to the horde of Grimm that still remained while sheathing his sword.
The fires on the wall had somewhat died down leaving scorched remains while doors of the fort were shredded into peices by the horned Grimm with a loud *BOOM*, as after 7 consecutive misses of red crystals which resulted in 5 stacks of black smoke behind the walls while 2 marked pockets of fire on the wall itself. It finally found its mark and triumphantly roared at the air while spitting fire out to signal to his underlings to attack the fort.
The Grimm horde obeyed its command and charged through the gate that allowed 3 Grimm at a time meaning that Markus had to immediately draw their attention.
Markus was about to take aim and open fire with his M16, until the familiar screeching *NEEEAAAWWW* sound of a falling aircraft right above him caused him to look up.
The VTOL that had been designated as a troop transport by Markus was spiralling out of control due to its left turbine engine being pierced by a large feather quin of all things that was eerily similar to the airborne Grimm that was seen before.
The VTOL had lost control but its right engine was allowing it to have some form of stability as it spun in a clockwise fashion. The machine's mechanical failure outweighed the pilot's endurance in keeping the thing afloat as It started to crash while leaving a thin trail of smoke in front of Markus. The crash would potentially leave survivors so it wouldn't hurt to check it out.
Markus took a glance at the air battle where the rest of the Atlassian air force that was right above Markus's head, was having a ranged duel with the air borne Grimm that was at the dust quarry site Markus was previously as feather quills and dust rounds were being exchanged between the two.
Markus sprinted towards the crash site, the main body of the VTOL had thankfully crash-landed tail first as the design decision of the doors being directly below the cock pit would had made it so the crew would have a hard time getting out.
The tail had been broken on impact while piled up snow somewhat covered the body of the VTOL after the snow was forcibly moved due to the crash. The door refused to budge so Markus was forced to break it off with a heave and tossed the door to the ground with a thud after strapping his rifle.
He came face to face with 4 rifles being pointed at him by the same metallic soldiers he saw previously but with green outlines. The men in front of him were dazed by the landing but had recovered quickly thanks to it not being a harsh landing.
The one in the middle croaked out "Identify yourself immediately and please for the love of god not be a Grimm."
"I assure you, I mean you all no harm. I came here to help as soon as possible and would like all of you to get out of this craft immediately, as Grimm will be converging on It." Markus replied in a levelled tone while raising his hands up in surrender.
"Fine If you do intend to help us then grab the red flare on your left and fire It in the air." He said while still having his gun levelled at Markus.
Turning his head to his subordinates. "Jackson! Gregory! Get the pilots out of here, Mina make sure he does as we say while I help them out." A "yes boss" and "yes Michael" was heard before they went to work.
The smaller and nimbler one of them that Markus had written off as a small man which was in fact a girl, followed Markus out of the craft when he retrieved the red flare.
Markus aimed the flare at the air and twisted its handle which allowed the flare itself to shoot out of the sky.
Turning around to regard the soldier behind him, his chest had a gun levelled at by the woman who seemed to be nervous of Markus due to subtle shakes of her gun and slight twitches of her head.
"Alright no subtle movements and no one gets hurt." She attempted to intimidate Markus into not doing at all, Markus merely responded with a chuckle that brushed the soldier the wrong way as the voice didn't sound anything like human.
Markus turned on his heel and scouted the position for any incoming Grimm while the soldiers hauled the pilots out one by one and had them lain down on the edge of the ground.
"Look big guy, we have been hearing reports of a 10-foot-tall Grimm that has been tagging behind the horde of 'em and had single handily killed 30 of them at the same time. I am assuming it's you that's been doing that so I am going to ask you to remove your helmet and slowly at that to prove you are human." He ordered the man in front of him to comply as he raised his rifle at him.
Markus turned to him and crossed his arms as his red eyes bore into his skull. "I am afraid that all of us have bigger problems to deal with than a man who is trying to help you."
"It wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't against Atlas law to begin with that huntsmen with hidden identities and vigilantism at that, is illegal. Don't make me say this again but remove your helmet." This time 3 more rifles were aimed at Markus with audible *CLICK*s.
Markus however ignored the soldiers as he focused around the area to see 50 Beowolves and 30 Ursas being sent to deal with him while the horde of Grimm attempted to file through the gates while being bombarded by strafing runs done by the fighters and occasional battery shots by the warship.
Markus craned his head to the direction which was caught on by the soldiers as they cursed under their breaths.
"Shit, a bull head will take 10 minutes to arrive here but overwatch fire from the fighters and other bullheads is available. Fine we can work together but don't try anything funny." The probable commanding officer of the squad of soldiers told him as Markus had already crouched down and aimed his rifle at the advancing Grimm that were spread out.
The soldiers had taken up position side by side with Markus as they aimed their guns as well.
"Focus on the faster ones as they are lightly armoured!" Michael yelled as he and his men opened fire with a flash of red dust rounds erupting from Michael's and Mina's rifles while Gregory and Jackson fire yellow dust rounds from their rifles.
The rounds were fired singular shots and depended on how fast the user can pull the trigger as they were released with *CRACK*s and *BARK*s. With each round fired from them 7 Beowolves were burnt to death while 5 of them were electrocuted as their thick hides and armour protected their nervous systems from frying up while doing minimal burn damage as well.
Markus on the other hand fired at the larger Beowolf's head, the results were expected by Markus as the Grimm's head exploded into pieces thanks to the 3 burst shots but was a total shock to the soldiers.
"You don't see that every day now do ya sarge?" One of them commented.
"The list of conundrums is piling up with this man with every second. Jackson focus on the fight and as for you, what type of dust are you using that pierces through stuff instead of exploding?" The man inquired as he nailed a Beowolf in the chest.
"I am afraid that is classified." Markus said as he fired a 3-round burst at a Beowolf that was covered in scars.
"We will see how tight lipped you are when tossed into the Brig." Michael retorted which was answered by a light chuckle from Markus.
3 individual sounds of aircraft engines appeared from over head of Markus as he looked up to see a bull head shine light at him while the 2 fighters flanking It rained down fire on the advancing Grimm with their rhythmic *THUMPS*.
Markus honed senses detected the barrels of rifles about to be aimed at him again. With an internal sigh, he spun around on his heels while grabbing hold of the rifle on his right and clubbed the soldiers on the left with It in one go (thanks to how close they were) so hard that the rifle broke and the 2 of them were sent sprawling to the ground, clutching their guts while Markus merely grabbed the 2 on his right by their faces and had said faces slammed down to the ground in one giant *THUD*.
He was so fast that none of them even had the time to shout in surprise or pain. Markus's brain registered the sounds of 2 ropes dropping down with people on them while his sixth sense registered a person about to drop on him.
Markus rolled out of the way as light was shone around him and came face to face with a tanned woman in similar uniform to Gretchen's, had black hair done in a bun with deep green eyes while another green stripped soldier grappled down.
The second soldier to grapple down being similar to the former one but had a star shape on his helm and chest plate with 4 stripes on his arms, small faded out scars covered his exposed chin and looked like a man of age and experience from looks alone.
He was about to say something but the woman who had to be an aura infused specialist darted forward with 2 short sabres being outstretched behind her back.
This action would had been nearly untrack able by normal humans or novice aura users at that but Markus wasn't exactly your average human as he had experience of fighting fast demons that would had killed him if he didn't adapt to them right on the spot, the scars showed his trials and errors.
Unfortunately for the woman he, had fought things that were much faster and lethal than her as she was about to slash Markus's head clean off.
Her comparatively smaller hands were seized by large one as they were harshly twisted upwards by Markus in an attempt to drop her weapons but he failed, streams of light covered her hands and her expression was lightly in pain.
As such she attempted to get away from Markus by planting her boots on his chest and jumping away, this barely effected Markus as his brute strength made sure her efforts of pulling away were in vain while her heels dug into powerful armour. Struggling noises could be heard as she
Markus instead glanced at the soldier who seemed more authoritative. The both of them sized up one another while the fighters just above their heads laid down fire on the Grimm with subtle streams of red light while the bullhead shone the spot light on Markus's position as the sound of Its engine drowned out the sound of anything that could have been heard.
The soldier that grappled down went to check on the recently wounded while the soldier with a more authoritative demeanour reached into a pocket and lit a cigar of all things while inhaling smoke.
"Name's petty officer George tin, you smoke brother?" He said offering a cigar and a light.
"Ah a man who knows that he may get what he wants through peaceful actions, instead of actions that may or may not result time in the ICU ward. I don't smoke but the peace offer is appreciated soldier." Markus replied with amusement.
The petty officer let out a few puffs before he replied. "Don't mind my wife's antics here but shouldn't you be paralysed right now or you have a powerful semblance that over powers my wife Jenna's semblance, as she can paralyse an opponent by having their own aura choke their bloodstreams out." He said while pointing his cigar hand at him with the butt of the cigar acting as the finger.
"I am afraid to disappoint your wife but I don't have an aura." Markus replied casually.
"Well you see here I don't exactly have the time to test this out so I am just going to shoot you in the leg to confirm that you aren't another new breed of Grimm that came out of the wood works to screw us over, hope you don't mind." The man asked as he unholstered the pistol in his back pocket.
Markus without looking at her, dropped Jenna with a dull thud after releasing her wrists and raised his left leg towards the direction of the officer. "If it keeps your trigger-happy soldiers in check than by all means."
The red dust bullet had left the chamber with a *POP* and collided against his leg armour, the round barely did anything aside from heating up his armour and leaving a scorch mark that could probably be scratched off.
"Well I be! Looks like you're just a wanna be Grimm, your armour is really intimidating and you have some unique weaponry as well as an impressive kill count for an aura-less user but aside from that, cosplaying at a time like this is really not appreciated right now." The man said in a sassy tone which earned a sigh from Markus as he wasn't really in the mood.
"Look I just want to help you all out and be out of your hair as soon as possible." Markus reasoned with the man.
"Look brother, I have orders right now to bring you back to the warship immediately for questioning. The higher ups won't leave you alone If you attempt to run away or fight us as they want to know what your deal is, just listen to us and I will make sure that you get rewarded and even get in a spot inside the specialists while leaving the punishment part of attacking my boys out." The pleading tone of the petty officer gave Markus subtle hints of not telling the truth.
He was about to respond until large *BOOM*s and *CAW*s stopped Markus to look up, the sight made his blood ran cold.
The oversized air borne Grimm with its dying breath, had grappled onto the starboard engine compartment of the escort classed warship with Its claw and started clawing at the engines with each slow claw strike heralding an explosion, the beak of the Grimm was smashed into the command deck which led to the ship losing control and slowly going down also coupled with the weight of the Grimm.
The ship was falling towards the walls of the fort, with fires on the command bridge and engine compartment leaving a black smoke trail as It fell while the decaying corpse of the air borne Grimm left a trail of black visibly withering flesh. The only thing Markus and his guests could do was stare in sheer horror.