Fight for Your Life
The six of them held perfectly still, as if they could become part of the scenery so long as they didn't make any commotion. The Nevermore glared into Teresa's eyes, and then finally opened its beak and shrieked; high and piercing, deafening and disturbing, shattering the quiet like any other pane of glass would have from the noise.
Obaz covered his ears for a moment, but was the first to recover from the startling cry by firing at the Nevermore as he approached it, shouting to the others behind him;
"This Grimm will track us easily if we run now! We have to kill it before the others arrive!"
He wasn't sure if all of his acquaintances had heard him after that shrill voice, but his actions should have been enough to understand upon seeing them. The Nevermore got to its feet, flicking one of the enormous wings it had out toward Obaz and launching dozens of sharp feathers like darts his way. He leaped to the side, avoiding the projectiles and sliding on his chest in the grass and flowers, continuing to fire on the Nevermore from where he lay before attempting to stand.
Only now did he hear the onslaught of Sophia's Matenlock blasting bullets at the Nevermore, and unlike the Mk. III this was actually doing something to it- the stream of lead was causing enough discomfort for the Nevermore to put up one of its wings as a shield, blocking its sight in that direction for the time as Teresa, Nicole and Helena all dashed for the opponent. Steven was backed against a tree, eyes wide, frozen by terror.
Helena ducked beneath the defending wing of the beast, jumped up, and dug both her blades into its chest, using them like climbing picks to slash and yank herself up the creature as it shook and stepped erratically to get her off. Teresa came soon after, taking swings at the Nevermore's ankle that she enhanced with the recoil of her shots, arms wildly hacking at blurring speeds. The Nevermore's weight buckled to that side as it lost strength, but it flapped several times attempting to take off, the wind pressure pushing Nicole away and the violent motion was halting Helena's progress up at the Grimm's shoulder blade, hanging on in a panic.
Obaz was slid back on his feet after he stood from the gale made by the wing beats, and knowing he could not advance to help the girls already attacking it he turned to face Steven. Clutching the boy's shoulders, he shook him a bit to snap him out of his daze and get his attention; "Steven! We don't have any time! We need to kill this Nevermore- and we need to do it fast."
Obaz let his voice drop as the Nevermore managed to become airborne, the wing beats no longer forcing a whirlwind in the area and making Obaz yell over the roar of it. Steven's eyes flickered between Obaz and the Nevermore repeatedly, and after the small pause Obaz added a final question.
"Those four are risking their lives right now. Even if you survive, can you go on after this, knowing you could have helped? That you may have made the difference between her life carrying on and ending here?"
He pointed up to Helena, dangling from the Nevermore's body as it flew awkwardly above the trees. Sophia was reloading Matenlock while Nicole and Teresa both fired up at the creature, hitting the side Helena wasn't on but causing no change. It was too high for Nicole's close-ranged firearms and Teresa's were too weak. At the rate it was going, the monster would either swoop down and knock the three on the ground into disarray or carry off Helena to a place they could not help her. Steven looked down at the ground, trying to steel himself.
"They will watch your back if you decide to put yourself at risk. That is a sort of code they seem to go by, assuming those three hadn't known Sophia before this."
"What about you?" Steven asked Obaz. "Would you trust me to keep you alive right now?"
Obaz mouth straightened into a line. "... You are not afraid of the Grimm. You are afraid of an ally dying under your protection, or possibly by accident at your hands." He said it as a statement despite still considering it an uncertainty, but Steven's body language all but acknowledged it as the truth. Obaz turned to face the Grimm as it continued to ascend, setting a fresh clip into his weapon.
"To answer your question... no, I would not trust you with my life. However, choosing who trusts us as their comrade is not a luxury we have. This is where we better ourselves, Steven- it is all we can do for those who make the decision to rely on us, the decision to tie our hands to their fate." He shot up toward the Nevermore, most shots striking it as it was a large target but they were making little difference, the strength behind the weak shots still lacking. And yet, he continued to fire.
Steven mulled over what Obaz said to him, but as he saw Helena nearly lose her grip his indecision ceased. He took a flat rectangular object off the back of his shoulders, and releasing the sides of it allowed the rest of the object to slide into place; it was a massive, rectangular plate, three wide barrels within the confines of thick blade edges, each of which were open on the right and loaded from the left. As he held the blade's hilt above and braced the loading side with his free hand, Steven knelt to aim the weapon up toward the Grimm and pull the very long trigger between the handle and hand guard, a muffled whisper coming from the barrels as they let loose three bright flares.
At first it appeared this might be a hopeless attempt at saving Helena, but once the flares reached up to the Nevermore they stuck, two to the abdomen and one to the middle of the wing, and spread flames out from there. Its feathers alight, and the flames quickly growing in size as oxygen was fanned to them by the winds of flight the Nevermore shrieked in pain and began to falter, descending. Steven raced over to the three girls still bound to the earth, eyes burning with the will to fight.
"Obaz! Where will it land?" Obaz caught up to Steven as he posed the question, and looked up to the still struggling creature, the movements it made tough to take into account. He soon made a sweeping motion with both index fingers coming close and drifting apart, indicating a surprisingly restricted area of the clearing they were in.
Steven ran up close to where Obaz predicted it would fall, raising his giant blade over his shoulder with both hands and keeping his legs wide. He stood still, eyes on the Nevermore as its wing burned up and it eventually faltered in its flight. As he tensed up, Steven was enveloped in a soft orange light that increased in intensity two times, and as the Nevermore crashed into the ground the aura dispersed. Steven's blade flashed with orange as it came down like a guillotine, mere seconds after the Nevermore landed, the blade rending deep through the beast's flesh at the base of the wing with relative ease.
Helena had dislodged her kukris as the Nevermore dropped from the sky, and jumped from it once it had settled on the floor. Nicole rammed her spetum blade into the Nevermore's throat as it writhed, and Teresa supported Helena as she gave in to the exhaustion of clinging to the enormous bird for dear life.
"Nicole, Sophia! Pin the wings!" Obaz bellowed, sprinting to the Grimm now on its back. They did as instructed, using their spears like nails to fasten the creature's wings to the ground. It thrashed and fought the restraints while Obaz jumped up onto its torso, stumbling once as he sifted through the feathers there, but once he found the area just above the heart he set the Mk. III into flamberge form, driving the tip of it into the Nevermore's chest and backing away.
"Steven! Drive it in!" Not having to be told twice, Steven leaped up from the ground and stood at the side of the Mk. III stuck in its chest, raising his sword over his shoulder as he had before but sideways, the flat loading side facing up. He allowed his aura to build three times now, the wait almost unbearable as Sophia and Nicole held down the beast. When Stephen hammered the Mk. III into the Nevermore's chest it released one last, ear-splitting scream that died down to a gurgle, lifeless. The flames bathing its body did not catch any of the fresh greenery nearby, rather it slowly sputtered and died much like its host in all the upturned dust and dirt.
Obaz hurriedly retrieved his blade from the Grimm's chest, setting it to gun form so it would retract the blade from the flesh and heart by itself. Already seeing Beowolves starting to fill the edge of the clearing, he had a feeling he knew why they weren't already flooding the place, so he slid down the blood-soaked feathers nearest the southern side of the clearing.
"The Grimm are close behind us. Come on, we need to move." The group holstered their weapons, Teresa still assisting Helena from under her arm as they vacated the clearing. Steven was loading new flares into his sword before he put it away, and subsequently had to be yanked aside by Nicole as an enormous set of talons nearly scooped him up like an insect; the other Nevermores had arrived... All three of them.
Nicole and Steven caught up as the rest of the team made for the denser trees, and Obaz frowned slightly, now more certain of his theory.
'These Nevermores are smaller than they should be... They must be adolescents. The Nevermore that was slain in the last initiation was their parent, and when it did not return to its young they needed to learn to fly, likely taking them a few days. That is why they were not able to get here before we killed the first, why they weren't present before our arrival, and why this one had been resting here- their stamina is insufficient for extended flights, so one lands to get its strength back while the other three hunt. Though most species of Grimm do not attack the others, these Nevermores are probably hunting after humans with reckless abandon; the Beowolves and Ursa do not want to get caught in between...'
Sophia dove forward, out of the way of another attack from a Nevermore, which uprooted a number of trees in a path past her as well. This one landed, however, and separated her from the group. Obaz turned to see what had happened when Steven shouted her name, and stopped where he stood. She was being cut off from the rest of them, one Nevermore smack between and two more soaring overhead. The other species of Grimm were not far behind... The best option open to them here was to leave her behind, and honestly he wanted to. However, he doubted he could convince the other four - especially Steven, whom he had just talked out of cowering - to abandon the girl.
"Steven! Blind them!" Obaz raced toward the Nevermore, the shade of his brim intensifying as one of Steven's flares shot up toward the standing Nevermore's face. It flinched, rearing back from the bright light and dodging the object itself as it lost track of Sophia, who circled to the left of it. The bird was still too hazardous in this state to attempt getting around, though she was looking for any openings. She would have made for the trees untouched by the Nevermores if they weren't lined with hungry Ursa now.
Obaz, on the other hand, was getting as close to the grounded avian as he could; after the flare had struck dirt and fizzled out he had looked to see the ones that were aloft; one of them had been drawn to the flare and were flying outside their usual pattern. Obaz took a chance, jumping up to latch on to the grounded Nevermore's leg and whistled loud once firmly in place. Being blinded still, the flying beast zeroed in on the sound that had caught their attention prior, and it flew down to dig claws into its sibling. Twin shrieks, one of agony and one of attack, sounded out and silenced Obaz' noise as the two Grimm toppled over one another from the force of the tackle.
Luckily, by this point Obaz had released the creature's leg, directing Sophia toward a beaten path nearby. The third Nevermore was flying lower to the ground, watching over the wide open space its brothers had occupied and ready to shred any living thing trying to cross it. He grimaced a little.
"This is where we will have to part ways, then. Be careful."
Speaking just loud enough for the other four to hear, Obaz took himself to the east, the closest set of trees to them that was intact. He hoped the four of them would have the sense to continue north, as he wanted the many pursuers to divide after them as well as himself and Sophia. The girl in question took a moment to realize where he was going and follow after. Focusing northeast on a sharp angle, there were already Beowolves catching up to the two.
"What should we do now, Obaz?"
Mk. III was already in his hands, and he pulled the bolt carrier into place as he moved. "We improvise."
Sophia feigned shock; "You ran out of ideas? 'Bout time."
"I do not 'run out of ideas'. My current plan is to formulate another plan in more favorable conditions; such as a pack of Beowolves rather than a trio of Nevermores."
"And how long will that take you?"
Obaz took a few shots to his side, halting the progression of the closest Beowolf before it went to pounce. "One minute. At most."
One of the wolves came close enough to swing a claw out toward Sophia, at which point she slid to a stop and drew Matenlock, driving the lance's tip into its chest. The speed it was going at was enough to impale it to the gun frame.
"We could just kill them all."
"... That may be a reasonable course of action. For now."
Sophia swung her lance to chuck the corpse on it into another wolf approaching, followed closely by another powerful jab to one on her right side, damaging its leg.
"Can't you just say 'Sure'? I mean, come on."
Obaz stepped back quickly, a set of jaws practically snapping up his face, and rammed Mk. III's blade into its stomach. He switched to spear form, sliding the body back across the blade as the frame retracted it and flinging it off like a catapult- almost as strong as Sophia's brute force. Deflecting a claw coming up from below with the spear's shaft, he lodged the spearhead into the newest foe's skull, wrenching it free after.
"I would prefer not to."
One of the canines had crept around the others that were falling, and when opportunity struck it lashed out from behind Obaz, getting a clean pair of gashes across his back with crossed arms. Grunting, he fell forward but turned the stumble into an evasive maneuver, taking no further injury and forcing his attacker back as it tried to push him into a corner. Sophia was nicked across the collarbone as her attention was pulled to her wounded partner.
"You gonna hold up?"
Obaz winced, but kept his guard up. "Hoist what? If you mean my weapon, then yes. My back was torn, not my arms."
Sophia took her opponent to the ground with a thrust through the shoulder which she tilted down, and stomped on its throat to choke it. While she did this, she risked turning her head toward Obaz just so he could see how impressed she was with his joke. Her blank face of disapproval became an actual expression of disbelief when it was apparent he was serious.
Stepping to the side, he avoided the lunge of another Beowolf to stab it through the back and pin it to the ground. Grasping the muzzle and back of the head, he gave a hard jerk that snapped the beast's neck. More were coming, but significantly fewer were close at hand.
"To the cliffs. These ones may die another time." Obaz reverted the Mk. III to gun form and beat feet to the south, Sophia close behind.
"So those things were the kids?!" Sophia asked rhetorically. When they had gotten a safer distance ahead of the Grimm, their pace had slowed, though the two were still keeping a quick one. Sophia had brought up the Nevermores as a topic, to which Obaz clued her in on what he hypothesized.
"I could not be sure until we had seen the others; I thought it possible the first one we met with was merely stunted in growth. This would be the most fitting scenario to support the facts." They should have been nearing the cliffs soon, judging by the time elapsed moving faster than usual. Sophia sighed, showing little sign of fatigue.
"You're still bleeding, you know. Why didn't you use your aura?" Obaz glanced over as she spoke, noting that the scratch below her neck had already vanished.
"I was using it... I still am." She looked more closely at the tears in her teammate's back, and though they weren't healing at an accelerated rate, they were scabbing over faster than normal. It seemed Obaz' aura was simply weak.
Sophia scoffed, not knowing whether to be impressed he made it this far or distraught that she was stuck with him. "You know, if not for that head on your shoulders, you'd be less than qualified to be here."
She watched him make that almost invisible frown, wondering if there was some way to get him to do the opposite.