A.N.: It has taken me a long time. And it is only 6k long. However, we advance in the plot, we have new characters (minor ones) and we have something for those of you who need blood. It's the fifth real chapter, I think.
If you like it, please tell me, give a word of praise, critique, whatever. If you don't like it, tell me why. Maybe I can make the story better.
Die vierarmige Bestie - The four armed Beast
Lilian Gray was an open minded individual, she was sure. There were no major prejudices anchored in her mind and her parents had always taught her to respect everyone, regardless of their heritage, appearance or ideology. She also liked to think of herself as a good officer. Someone the people could trust and she would help. She would help anyone if they needed help. She would protect and she would die if it meant saving another life.
How she despised the creatures in front of her.
She was ordered to escort a foreign specialist and his entourage to the morgue where these... things, that the VSRG had killed were kept. Cool and dark, but the air was somehow moist and stunk with something she was unable to place. Rotten saltwater was what came to her mind when she tried.
The 'specialist' had introduced himself as Johannes to her and seemed uncanny in his own right. He was accompanied by a black haired girl named Cinder Fall and the local coroner Dr. Halbert. The doctor was a slim man in his forties, with greying hair that was tied back in a loose ponytail and sharp eyes that suggested a lazy intelligence. Someone who had mastered his medical doctorate with his left while his right was busy learning languages and traveling the continent. He was also the one who had opened the bodybag and the only one except for Johannes who had not recoiled sharply by the stench that escaped the plastic encapsulation.
"It's been less than fortyeight hours since this specimen has been brought in and it has already suffered severe degradation." The doctor noted as he held a cloth to his nose in a futile attempt to shield it from the nauseaus gas.
"Such rapid decomposition is most unusual, except for the Grimm. Peculiar..."
All present watched as Johannes brought his hand up as if to measure any nonexistent winds and, after a few seconds of contemplation, rested it on the forehead of the repulsing creature.
"We have gloves if you need them." Dr. Halbert spoke calmly upon the sight of the Hunter's bare hand on the slimy skin of the thing. A kind of friendly nod was his answer before he, with what just seemed like a slight push, shattered the skull and broke through the bone.
Cinder stepped back in surprise while Lilian let out a soft shriek as a bit of sickly brown blood sailed through the air next to her. The doctor, though caught off guard, only twitched slightly and resumed his observation of what the Hunter was doing.
Johannes retracted his hand from the grey mush and all of them saw what seemed to be a small piece of pale flesh. He held it against the light.
"What is it?" Halbert asked, curiously studying the bit, still dripping with ghastly iquor, while Johannes muttered his soft answer.
"...amygdala."
"I'm sorry?"
"Here." Johannes dropped the piece in Halbert's gloved hand, who immediately started his observation on the object.
"The amygdala. Terribly degenerated though, I am afraid." The Hunter clarified, this time louder so everyone could listen.
"I fear it confirms my suspicions. I have to see the tombs where this specimen was found, as soon as possible."
"What suspicions?" Lilian asked quickly. She had been left completely in the dark about the purpose of this so called 'specialist', other than that he had to see the bodies. He looked at her and smiled the weird smile that sometimes crept on his face.
"Oh, miss Gray, it seems I have temporarily forgotten about your presence here. I apologize. As for your question: it is better if you don't ask. Though it is my mistake that has peaked your curiosity. For this I apologize as well."
"What if I insist?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, meeting the needles that were his eyes. He stepped in front of her, their difference in size becoming apparent. Cinder recognized this instinctively as the attempt at intimidation that it was. And she had to admit, it worked. Though she only did silently and begrudgingly and was still unable to understand it completely.
She had faced larger, more aggressive and supposedly stronger opponents than Johannes, but sometimes, something was terribly off about him. Something that didn't occur with his partner Maria, despite all their similarities. A distortion at the edges of his silhouette or a slight mismatch with his shadow and his movement. But still, Lilian Gray seemed not impressed. A mistake.
"If you insist, who would I be to withhold the truth from a promising young lady like yourself?" How he could speak so clearly as his smile widened was a mystery to both Cinder and Lilian. The latter who just noticed the rows of sharkish teeth that rimmed his mouth. Not quite inhuman, just off. Lilian didn't believe in fairytales, she thought.
"But oh, you should." He answered her thoughts. "They are all true. Still interested?"
She would never admit it, but cold sweat was running down the neck of Lilian Gray. She couldn't place it right, but it had probably to do with the place, the smell, the lack of light. Maybe with the way said light broke around this man's form as ifhe was made of glass. Yes maybe it was this.
"I think I will pass." She finally pressed the words through her lips and felt the image before her return to what she was used to see. A dark silhouette of a tall man. She had dealt with individuals like this hundreds of times. In the end, they are all the same, small men when confronted with superior will and training. Reflexively, without intent of actually drawing it, her hand fell on her gun which was holstered at her right hip. Should be holstered at her right hip.
She frantically patted at the empty polymer. Unwilling to break eye contact.
"A wise choice almost followed by a foolish habit." A click. Her eyes flickered down on his hand. There it was, her gun, held by the barrel with the grip pointing towards her. He motioned for her to take it, but it felt light.
She flipped it around. The magazine was missing.
"We will leave now. Don't follow us." He said as he strode away, placing the ammunition on a nearby tray, his coat billowing in a non-existent breeze. Cinder nodded a short goodbye and followed.
"She challenged you." She said as both stepped outside into the cool air. Autumn was coming and the temperatures were falling.
"She did. I enjoyed myself with her." He answered and the girl was surprised to hear a trace of very human, genuine amusement. Sometimes she forgot that he had at least been a normal human at some point.
They walked a bit farther until Cinder couldn't go anymore. The feeling was returning again. The fear, not of Salem, not of the authorities or Ozpin, but the fear of realisation. A feeling that she had tried to bottle up and stow away since they had joined the Good Hunter and Maria. Those two, who stood so tall next to them.
Johannes too had stopped, standing there motionless, his eyes surely twitching all over her in an attempt to find what was wrong.
It had been weeks. Weeks in which she had tried to keep her mask from falling. She knew Emerald and Mercury didn't understand her plight. They didn't share her hopelessness, at least not until she broke down. And now, where she was alone with the Hunter, something in her decided it was time to let it go. And then she cried.
They had sat down on a bench in a nearby park, overlooking a small lake that was fed by a little stream that snaked itself down from the nearby Lethem canal. To Cinder's surprise, two birds had joined them and were now pecking at the ground, seemingly oblivious of the two people. Both were crows, young ones still, but already large animals with impressive wings. She had calmed down from her outbreak as she observed the birds looking for food. Johannes hadn't said a word since they left the morgue. He had just put his hand on her shoulder and guided her here. Now he was smiling a less predatory smile. Almost soothing even. They must have been sitting her for at least fifteen minutes by now.
"I am sorry. I have lost my temper." She said softly, looking at one of the crows curiously examining the ground in front of them for the third or fourth time.
"Yes, you have." Came the reply, flat and dull. He wasn't even looking at her, instead he stared at the water. What did she expect?
"But you and Miss Belladonna have been given a cruel gift. Insight." He continued, surprising Cinder, who had expected the matter to be over. Today, Johannes seemed in the mood to talk.
"I know who you are Cinder Fall. I know what you have done." No accusation, just a statement of the facts. "The knowledge that is to be gained when one is faced with decisions as grave as you made them, is often underestimated and put off as the beginning of insanity. But I think the path to a useable understanding of the world leads all people through madness."
"If your speech is supposed to cheer me up, then it sucks." She stated with a tired smile. "What do you want to say?"
To her further surprise, Johannes reached into his coat and produced a pack of cigarettes, removed one and lit it. She denied as he offered her one for herself, so he hid them again and took a long drag, blowing smoke into the air that shimmered in more colours than it was allowed to.
"As I already stated. I know who you are. I even know your real name..." She stared at him alarmed and he smiled back at her. A look that confirmed her suspicions. Not even her thoughts were free.
"You are not weak, Cinder." He continued unfazed. "Nor am I more powerful than you are. We are merely different in our abilities and when all of this is over and we are still alive, nothing will have changed. You will still be free to make right and wrong decisions and I will still go back to my house in the woods."
"That doesn't sound very uplifting."
"Lucky then that my job is just to hunt beasts then."
Cinder couldn't help but smile at the reply. But she wasn't convinced of the finality of the sentence. She also had another question.
"What is the plan? Now that your suspicions have been confirmed?" She asked as he extinguished his cigarette on the sole of his boot and threw it in a trashcan. He was getting up and for a few seconds, she was sure that he wouldn't answer.
"I am going to make sure that Salem's plan fails and I will kill her. If her rituals have been successful, I will kill whatever beast she has unleashed and then I will kill her."
"Just like that?"
"Yes. However, I'd like to be sure that you are aware of the scope of our operation. This is not just a villain to fight and a monster to kill. This is the beginning of a war." There was the smile again, the other smile. The sharkish rows of teeth.
"Metaphorically?" She asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Very literally, I am afraid."
There was a long pause before the Hunter spoke up again.
"You care for a word of advice?"
"Yes... I guess?"
"Power won't bring you happiness. But look for that. Happiness... from within. It is almost impossible to achieve, but one of the few, undoubtedly noble goals. Also a fleeting one. But if you find it, you can go to rest, assured that because of you, a lot of people have been brought closer to this goal themselves."
/
"Hey!!! Uncle Qrow!" Ruby cheered as she saw the familiar figure of Yang's mothers's brother, standing in front of the creepy building as valean police officers buzzed around.
"Hey you two." He nodded at the sisters, but eventually was not able to escape from the inevitable hugs.
"You not surprised to see us?" Yang asked with an eyebrow raised as she let go of him.
"Ozpin told me you might be around. If it was up to me... forget it. This your team?" He nodded in the direction of Blake and Weiss, which Ruby happily introduced. Blake just nodded at him while Weiss, strictly by her noble upbringing, curtsied slightly.
"Hello, Mr. Branwen. How nice to see you again." Qrow's eyes widened as he noticed the remaining three persons of the group. One gray haired boy and a green haired skimpily dressed girl, who both hello'd at him and then her.
Fucking Maria. Which meant-
"Lady Maria. You I didn't expect. Can't say if that's a good or a bad thing." He said while bowing slightly to her, one foot stepping back and his left hand softly touching his chest.
She returned the gesture, though more elegant and gracious than him.
"A bad thing I am afraid. We are here to investigate the doings of this... cult, the VSRG wiped out so professionally." She replied, her smile only wavering a bit.
"And your... guardian?"
"He is already involved."
"Oh... damn." Qrow's visage grew serious instantly at the answer to his own mention of the man. "I guess it is serious then?"
"It concerns an acquaintance of Johannes and enemy of your's and Ozpin." She said as she stepped closer to him.
"You have modified your weapon I see." Mentioning at the convertible sword on his back.
"It seems heavier. I hope you had not to sacrifice agility for this change."
"I have advanced a bit since we last met. I assure you that my effectiveness has increased." Ruby and Yang, more than their teammates, noticed the change in Qrow's posture. He stood straighter as the girl scrutinized him with her usual smile still present.
"You two have met?" The younger sister interjected and her uncle scratched the back of his neck as he looked towards his nieces.
"Y'could say that. Only wish it was under different circumstances." He started but was silenced by a meaningful look from Maria, who added the closing statement. "And we hope you appreciate that there is nothing more to add to this matter, except that it greatly disgruntled the Good Hunter."
But Qrow was a man with great capabilities when it came to hiding his insecurities. "By the way, how is the old man? Still as grumpy as I remember?"
"That's how he is." Maria answered with a goodnatured laugh. "Also he is growing tired of this world's rules. He might approach things quite differently than back then."
The man just managed a wry smile at that, before he turned back to the four girls of RWBY.
"Be careful, okay. I know you can watch your backs, but you need to remember that retreat doesn't equal giving up." The four nodded, Ruby more enthusiastically as the others, who might have had a better grasp on her uncle's implications.
/
October one, this is Hammer. Test call. Do you copy?
"Hammer, this is October one. Good copy." Mary Decker whispered into her headset attached to her helmet.
"We are now below the inner entrance hatch. We'll advance through the crew quarters towards the main bridge."
Copy, October one. Control call every fifteen minutes. Godspeed, marines!
"Thank you sir." Decker switched to the dedicated channel of their entry team. The U332 was a large ship. Pride of the second Atlesian defense fleet, with several control centers, full bridges and battle stations dotted all along the hull.
High command had been shocked to find that the U332 had been found, not on the bottom of the Mantlean sea, but floating almost five thousand kilometres away, just east of the faunus dominated island state of Menagerie.
It had been a massive diplomatic undertaking to not only soothe the faunus' mistrust of the militarist Atleasian government, whose heavily armed main battle submarine had just surfaced just at their shore, but also to get the council's go to investigate the matter themselves, without an international task force. Nobody within the Atlesian government wanted the insides of a high tech battle structure such as the U332 to leak.
The submarine had five non-emergency entrances, labelled one, two, three, four and "main". All were currently open and being breached by recon marine teams of the Atlesian special forces. All geared up in full kit and expecting trouble. General Ironwood was able to connect the Good Hunter's resurfacing and the vanishing of the U332 rather well.
Mary Decker raised her gloved hand and motioned for her team to stack up behind her. Even though the submarine was a large ship, the corridors would only ever accommodate two men shoulder to shoulder.
Decker was tense, she always was when she was in action, but the three men and one woman behind her made her feel safe...er. All four of them were trained professionals, top of their classes, expert marksmen, veterans of many anti terrorism operations and combat missions. Armed and armored to the teeth.
"I don't like this Em." Gabe Dieter said as he creeped past her to position himself in front of a hatch. A tall, lanky man, with muscles like steel rope in his arms and legs. He was also an animal in close quarters combat, making him the perfect pointman.
"Scared, Dietz?" Decker grinned behind her balaclava, the NVG hiding the wrinkle in her eyes.
"Fuck off, Em." They raised their rifles as Dieter unlocked the hatch and opened the hatch and slowly swung it open, his own handgun peeking past the metal. One by one they stormed in, Dieter up front, gun sweeping the empty room.
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
"Call me the Hammer! There's nothing here!"
"Sure thing, Em." That was Ron, her communications specialist, who was currently assembling the high powered radio. It was needed to penetrate the thousands of tons of steel, to achieve a signal at all, but luckily the connection was bearable where they were.
"Hammer, this is October one, do you copy?"
October one, it... a bit choppy but we r...d you, over.
"Hammer, we are currently within the officer's quarters. It's empty. We have combed six hundred crew beds and there is no one here. The whole boat is clean. There aren't even personal items here or equipment strewn around."
October one, are yo... ...ecording?
"Alternating, yes sir. Jameson's camera is rolling right now."
Good. We need ... unbroken video ...cumentation. Proceed to the bridge, exit-...int is entr...ce ...r.
"Hammer? Please repeat! Which exit point?"
Exit poi... four. Do you copy?
"Good copy. October one out."
It took them the better part of two hours to traverse the rest of the crew quarters without any further incident. The first real finding, apart from finding absolutely nothing, was in the captain's quarters. It was a small detail that they almost missed and it was only in the context of the situation that it made them curious.
There, on the captain's desk, was the small statue. Only about ten centimetres in height and five in diameter, it was made from a dark, semitransparent, glass or mineral that broke the light around it, like it was trying to avoid it actively. But what was actually interesting and shocking to equal parts, was the image on display.
Four hairy, sceletal arms, one on each side of a roughly rectangular shape, the main body, elevated the "torso" up to roughly eight tenths of the thing's height. The upper third of the torso was covered in a seemingly wandering mass of orbs which seemed to be eyes, while the lower part opened up into a large beak, like a kraken's. Between where the arms sprouted, an uneven number of tendrils snaked themselves along the arms and torso and terminated in hollow claws.
It was grotesque to look at, especially since the whole creation was meticulously crafted. Without a doubt, a result of exceptional craftsmanship.
October one made detailed video recordings of the statue, before bagging it for further examination, back at the Hammer. The space around them seemed to become more and more sinister, oppressing even, as the shadows seemed to seep further towards their feet.
It might have been almost comical as all members of October team started movement in unision, to chech their weaponry. Bolts were pulled back and magazines inspected. A normal person might have noticed first how the hair on their neck started to stand up, or the cold sweat that accumulated over a brow, but not Atlesian recon marines. To them, the instinct to fight or flight was a conscious choice. Here they prepared for a battle.
"Em-"
"I know, Dietz." She whispered back, ghostly soft but still audible over their own radio frequency.
"Guns up. Check your corners. Dietz, you're up front. Ron, behind me. Sia and Jameson: watch our backs!"
She received a subdued "Hoorah" from her team and turned back forward. Dietz's shotgun pointed down the hall, unwavering, waiting for instructions. One could have balanced marbles on it.
"Forward. Next junction: left." Decker commanded mechanically as she lowered her PDA, which contained a map of the deck and brought her own rifle to bear.
"Go." And as one, they moved.
/
Fourty five minutes later, the five marines were still rushing empty corridors. They were near the exit. Fact. They had the feeling something was wrong. Gut.
Exit point four was a mere one hundred and fifty meters away, when the environment started to change. It was almost invisible, until it wasn't anymore. It had crept it's way into their vision without them even noticing, as they had concentrated so hard on possible movement and potential ambushes.
The floor of the metal corridors were now covered in a deep coloured, green slime, almost like algea. Only that algea didn't normally move on it's own like that. It's sticky tendrils followed them as they slowed their advance, and even started to creep up the boots when one stood still. It was not hard at all to resist the green substance's grasp, but it was nevertheless disconcerting, even more as they spotted thicker, wiry tentacles of algea, which hung from ceilings and lazily tracked their movements.
Some steps later, they reached a spot, that was entirely befallen by shells, carapaces and other hulls of sea crawlers. Crabs, cancer, amonites and seashells littered the floor and accumulated in one corner into a mass of writhing, disgustingly even, steaming segmented extremities and tentacles. It was here that October team found a speck of what had happened to the crew of U332.
Below the mountain of crustaceans, Sia, an exceptional marksman and a woman with an eye for details, noticed a formless, black object amongst the animals. She retrieved it with the boltcutters from Jameson's backback, since the infernal creatures were snapping at her hands with tiny claws and beaks and finally held it up to the light of their helmets.
It was a piece of synthetic leather, of a shoe's sole to be found out under further examination. Especially sole as on shoes as they were wearing right now, combat boots. A further look into the pile made them freeze in shock.
It was, vaguely but definitely, shaped like a humanbody. Deformed enough that it wasn't obvious, but defined enough that anybody with a bit of suspicion was able to discern it.
Dietz was immediately on it, shortly after joined by Ron, who helped him remove the sea critters from the deceased comrade, even though the claws were cutting into their skin. Decker looked on while Sia and Jameson were securing the two entrances to their section of the corridor.
Peculiarly, the crabs and amonites seemed to perish instantly as they were removed from the body. Some even fell apart, dispensing a foul stinking ooze from the fresh wounds, which dissipated soon after, leaving the empty shell behind. No flesh or matter left behind, safe for horn, pearl and chitin.
The bodies hand shot forward and it rise to it's feet, helped by Dietz, who was stumbling backwards while the corpse hung on to him. At the earliest glance, Decker thought the man to be alive. It took a second look to find that his head was hanging loosely behind his shoulders and one arm was missing from the elbow down. The corpse's grip was iron though.
Dietz managed to kick the body off, into the corridor ahead and immediately pulled the shotgun from where it hung at his side. Decker, Ron and Sia were a step further already and discharged precise, but rapid fire into the corpse's remaining vitals. A blow from the shotgun folded the dead man in half and made him collapse on the floor.
The clatter of falling magazines filled the air as four of five reloaded their weapons.
"Contact, rear." Jameson droned from behind. He had been watching the other corridor the entire time and had now thrown a chemlight to illuminate the hall further.
At least four other bodies in different states of decay shambled towards them. Their movements were slow and sloppy, but they were nearing steadily.
Decker thought. A dozen scenarios playing out simultaneously and each time they were outgunned, outmanoeuvred and outnumbered. The amount of ammunition that it had taken to pacify a single corpse, suggested that they had no fighting option. So the other choice: tactical retreat.
"Demobilise them! Shoot the legs!" She yelled and snapped her rifle up to blast two shins to pieces. The dead mariner collapsed on the floor, momentarily disoriented.
"Two fire, three retreat! Dietz, you're vanguard."
"Understood."
They brought about nine tenths of the way behind them like that. Two firing at the increasing numbers of the dead, while two retreated after the tall marine. Now they heard the gunfire from all over the ship too. It seemed like other teams had met the enemy as well.
Almost there. Behind them a towering wall of legless zombies, crustaceans still sticking to them. They didn't bleed, instead they emitted the same, foul and pale substance like the crabs. But they were almost through. She could see the light of the hatch, even though it was a good climb up the latter, to the surface.
Dietz was smashed aside by an unseen force. Something from the shadows, something else had struck. She took a look and saw his mangled form, crashed into ont of the steel doors. She looked away, no use for empathy now, he was dead. Her eyes darted around frantically, while her three teammates continued to hold back the tide of dead men, as she looked for the thing that had killed her friend and colleague within the blink of an eye. She felt rage bubbling up inside her before she layed eyes on it.
Somehow, without her noticing, it had manoeuvred itself right below the cone of light that their exit casted into the darkness of the submarine. And she recognized it.
She recognized it's form from the small statue that they had found on the desk in the captain's office.
Four hairy, sceletal arms, one on each side of a roughly rectangular shape, the clawed tentacles were acting obviously like syringes, able to pierce a victin and either suck it dry or inject something. It's bulbous eyes were filled with milky, slightly luminescent liquid that swirled and made Mart Decker feel sick, apart from the appearance of the thing itself.
It's hind legs were perched lower and it's front legs stretched out, so that the mouth or beak was pointing at her, snapping with force that she was sure, would take her apart without effort.
She fired.
Projectiles vanished in the body with dull thudding noises, indicating that the damage was minimal, until a bullet hit an eye, which splattered apart and painted the walls with splotches of grey, slightly shining liquid.
It screetched and thrashed, moving towards the team at an unnatural speed, before grabbing Decker by the waist and throwing her back. She landed right below the hatch. If she wanted, she could climb right out. Whatever this thing, possibly these things were, they could not be allowed to get out. The A.A.S. Hammer above was equipped with 380mm anti armor batteries with fire-ice dust warheads, more than enough to destroy the U332 and take a good chunk of the ocean floor with it. But what about her team?
She had already lost Gabe. A good friend. She would not loose the other three. Groaning, she turned around on her back and felt that her right arm was broken. Her assault rifle lay in parts next to her and behind the disgusting creature as it stomped towards her, it's "eyes" throbbing and squelching. She drew her pistol and emptied the magazine into the mouth of the thing as it bared its sharp beak once again and showcased the barbed, disgusting tongue that sat within it.
The slide locked back and she flipped the magazine out, before putting the gun on her chest to grab another magazine. It was painfully slow, but she kept the thing occupied. She racked the slide on her vest and fired another dozen if shots, but this time the creature didn't stay back.
It charged her, screetching and stomping, only to stop right before her and reel its front legs back, ready to smash her body apart.
Her eyes whipped up, to meet with a shadowy silhuette, descending upon her from the hatch of entrance four. A dark coat bellowed behind it, behind him as he fell towards her, his face obscured by a piece of cloth, but his eyes. The eyes pierced right through her.
Heavy boots planted themselves left and right to her hips and a knee smashed into the metal next to her chest, leaving a sizeable dent behind. The feet of the creature came down upon her and the stranger above her and impacted hard on his back. The dent deepened. The thing drew back a few meters, obviously appalled by the obstacle between itself and it's prey.
Mary Decker looked up, right back into the eyes of the man who had shielded her. She expected his chest to be ripped apart, his shoulder to be missing, but he was fine. Tall, maybe even taller than Dietz had been, lean and pale. At least judging from what she could see behind the black mask. His eyes were a pale blue with sharp pupils, staring right through her and apparently through the whole ship to the core of Remnant.
"Collect your team and go. I will manage this." The man growled at her. The voice vibrating within her chest and waking her up while numbing the pain. She didn't even question his authority. She was witnessing sheer power.
He got up and the beast immediately became more tentative. It acknowledged him as a threat between itself and it's prey, as it shuffled from side to side to catch a glimpse of Mary, who clambered to her feet.
She called the three remaining soldiers to her side, Jameson carrying Dietz's body in a fireman's grip, while the four armed beast was occupied with the newly arrived opponent.
A rope fell down the hatch and one after another, October team hooked in and were pulled up, Mary staying for last, mesmerized by the sight before her.
The dark fabric of the coat, seemed barely enough to contain it's inhabitant. Not physically, as it was impeccably fitted to his form, but from the energy he emitted. Every step was laden with aggression as he drove the alien monstrosity back with his sheer presence. The undead had long vanished, scared away by the fierce implication that scared even Mary.
The beast lunged into nothing as the man stepped aside while simultaneously withdrawing a ridiculously long sword, much too long to be hidden, from his coat and swung it, with a two handed grip at the thing, before it vanished again into thin air.
It screamed as one of it's extremities was chopped clean of and fell to the floor. Luminous blood sprayed the wall and the man, but he didn't pay it any mind as he stepped back and crouched slightly for the next attack.
Any trace if fear that the monster might have had was now gone. As it charged the dark silhouette of the newcomer who had crippled it, it let out a fearsome howl that reverberated in the bowels of the entire ship, before it, snapping it's beak, stomped again on the man.
Dust and sparks flew and hindered any clear sight at the result of the attack. Mary held her breath and glanced at the rope. All her teammates were accounted for and exfiltrated, but she was nailed to the floor. She would not be able to go, before she knew what happened to the thing, who had killed one of her's and the stranger who had saved her.
A soulshattering screech came from the cold metallic mist. One that left Mary's hair standing up straight and her bowels turn. Within the clearing mist was the stranger, clothed and standing on two feet like a person, but otherwise indistinguishable from an animal. He snarled still as the smoke dissipated, the attacking limb of the monster split down the middle like a tree struck by lightning, blood pooling on the ground.
Then he attacked. One moment he was there, a blink of an eye later he was on the four armed beast, materialising and dematerialising blades out if thin air to take the thing apart and sometimes ripping into it's flesh with his bare hands.
A savage style to kill, like a rabid dog. The thing didn't manage throw the stranger off of it and grew more and more sluggish in it's movements. One of the remaining three (two intact) legs was kneeling, while the other swiped at the killer in a futile attempt to do some damage.
In a way it was a pitiful sight as the stranger stood in front of the crippled monstrosity, it's remaining eyes whipping around in fear and the kneeling leg pushing it farther away from this... nightmare of a man.
A hunter for the wolf.
A monster and a god.
One last time the thing lashed out, only to have it's strike parried with the blast of an ornate double barreled shotgun. It didn't have time to reorient itself as he dashed forward and buried his arm to the shoulder in it's flesh, before ripping it out, taking a large organ with him, which pumped one last time before dying in his hand, where it was crushed and vanished.
The thing collapsed in a heap of spiderlike limbs, tentacles and blood.
He looked at her, blood still dripping from his hat. A worn tricorn with a piece missing at the back. It was ancient but it fit him. Almost a full minute of mutual staring passed. Mary was unable to move, to think. The sheer animalistic strength that had followed her brush with death and her first encounter with the anomalous, had made her mind go into a secure state. Working at minimum capacity to avoid becoming insane. Still, what happened next would be something she could never forget.
"Show me your arm, my dear." The fatherly, deep voice inquired and she obeyed. With practiced ease, he cut open the uniform to take a look at the broken appendage. From the outside, the upper arm looked relatively fine, aside from the noticeable indentation, where the two parts of bone had separated.
"This might sting a little." He warned her, but she was calm. She trusted this man entirely and only whinced a little as he took her upper arm in both hands and pressed, putting the bone exactly back together with precision which would require surgery elsewhere. A warmth filled her arm, then her shoulder and her bosom, before it stretched out into her entire body. With embarrassment, she noticed her own body misinterpreting the feeling as her cheeks lit up in arousal, all while still standing on a battleground, a freshly broken bone on her, a dead beast behind the stranger who was treating her and a dead comrade abover her on the airship.
"Don't be ashamed." The stranger droned on with a smile. He had removed the mask somehow, without taking his hands from her arm.
"It is natural to feel like this during the procedure. If you want, I can stop. The bone is almost healed though."
She shook her head and left him to continue. The feeling washed over her and soon ebbed away as he removed his hands and instructed her, not to strain the arm to much, until the soreness had vanished.
"Who are you?" She asked as she came to her senses again and hooked herself into the cable for extraction.
"I am called the Good Hunter." He answered in his soothing voice.
"I will not tell you more right now. But if you need to find out, my dream is always open to those who seek."
The wire began to pull her up and he stepped forward, still on eye level with her. "But don't enter the nightmare, that is not how it works."
She was now high above him. Sunlight engulfed her, but her gaze was fixed on the Hunter below, down the hatch, where he turned and readied a cruel sawtoothed cleaver and a large pistol. The voice still as clear as if he was standing right next to her.
"The nightmare comes to them."