This story is not dead, just lost some steam. Nothing bad, happens to the best of us.
Anyway, have fun picking this story apart for what ever you want. I know some of you are.
Roosterteeth created a great web show. To what extent is up to the individual but I like it as a whole that includes both the good, the bad, and the ugly. R.I.P Monty Oum... too late for that? oh well pay respects now then later.
I do not own RWBY, that privilege goes to Roosterteeth.
In the auditorium, Jaune yawned at being woken up this early. Pyrrha was fine for some odd reason, Blake was much worse then he was. Cinder yawned lightly showing she was no stranger to waking at odd times but not adapted to it so much.
Jaune had to catch Blake by her back to keep from falling. Righting her, the combat instructor Glynda Goodwitch appeared on the stage and got everyone's attention with a 'ahem'.
"Students of Beacon, a month ago you stepped through these doors in hopes of becoming Hunters and Huntresses. Today you will prove yourself by shadowing a huntsman or huntress on missions to gain experience fighting the Revenant. Taking a mission is entirely up to the individual team and will count as credit to my combat class in place of the normal sparring matches. But you will have to make up for any time lost in your other classes but our staff will be made aware that you are on a mission and upon your return, any assignments and their subsequent material will be dropped off at your dorms. On the sides you will see these bounty boards. Each settlement has one which allows any hunter or huntress to acquire any mission the settlement needs you for. It is best you familiarize yourself with the layout. That is all, if there are any questions me and two other staff members will be here to assist you"
Other first year students started talking to each other as they gravitated to the bounty boards. Guiding a lethargic Blake to such a board JPBC waited a good three to five minutes so a board had less bodies in front of it.
Looking over them, he saw certain missions were locked to first years. Namely any mission that operates in Revenant territory. Scrolling through, he heard voices behind him which reminded him to ask Ruby to tone it down.
Turning slightly to peer over his shoulder, RWBY and JNRE were walking toward his position. Shrugging, returned to the board and found a mission that stood out. The gist of the mission was: a Revenant incursion was bearing down on a settlement and requesting help evacuating. First year teams are to help protect and get the citizens to safety while the Vale military holds the Revenant horde at bay.
Touching the mission, and entering his team's initials, Jaune's scroll pinged letting him know his team was signed up and slated to leave on saturday. 'Which is in two days' turning around looked to the two teams as they finally got to him.
"So what did you guys sign up for?" the reaper said Yang smiled wanting to know more. "Simply helping a settlement evacuate from a impending Revenant horde, they aren't expecting much so we're not expecting to fight many Revenant head on" Ruby seemed to be ecstatic.
"Shame that most search and destroy missions are locked to third and fourth years…" Mercury complained. "Which is both a handicap and explanatory, we are, after all, only just starting to train and it is best-" Mercury groaned "Stop with the long winded explanations… it's starting to give me a migraine". Weiss fixed the boy with a glare.
"Don't mind him, big words always gives him a migraine" Emerald said over her shoulder as Joan was searching for a mission for them. "Weird most of these missions barely have anything to do with the Revenant, only ones that have any mention is missions like JBPC is taking… well we can take a similar one but in the opposite direction" Joan said as she signed up for a similar one.
Ruby walked forward and perused the board. "Well we're going back to the dorm to get some last minute sleep" yawning to prove his point while having to piggy back carry Blake as she crashed onto his shoulder. "Yea I hear, we had to leave Ren back in the dorm cause he needs his sleep" to hear that from Nora of all people did not surprise some.
Leaving the auditorium, Cinder eyed the bullhead return and departure to see a third year team: CFVY. The team walked, obviously exhausted from the mission. They ignored the team and just walked toward their dorm to get at least 30 minutes of rest before they had to waste time in Port's class.
[/V\]
On the continent of Anima, a figure was atop a horse who was colored black in all aspects but the eyes were red. The figure wore a grey cloak that obscured their form from the neck down, and a hood to obscure the features from the sides and back.
The rider moved their hand to view their scroll, the hand was covered in many bone plate armor pieces bearing a resemblance to the Revenant. Checking the time, it was noon and the person put the scroll back into their pocket and continued along the path.
But in the forest someone watched the rider with suspicion. For this individual knew they were being tailed as they exited the past series of settlements to hunt down the sources of Revenant activity. But something about the rider, and the horse, set off all her alarm bells.
Stalking the rider, they tried to gauge them but that damn cloak prevented it and she had no choice but the only choice was to directly confront them. Letting the power manifest, the eyes flared orange and a gust of wind picked up blowing the cloak and hood back.
The watcher's eyes widened at what was under the cloak. Revenant bone plates adorned the arms, chest, and judging from the foot, so were the legs. What shocked her the most was the smirk they wore.
Then they jumped off the horse which started to morph growing something from the back. It grew a humanoid shape that grew two bone breast pieces, large curved horns. The horse's lower jaw melted to reveal bone and the front most melted to also revela bone. The humanoid head snapped to hear and screamed. The watcher jumped out of the way of a strike from the new revenant creature.
Looking to the impact, it could stretch the arms, and strike with shattering force. Dodging several more strikes, she was on alert for the rider, wherever they went. But for now they had to focus on the Revenant before them.
Touching the cloak, it burned away leaving no ashes. To reveal the watcher was female, light brown in complexion, shoulder length brown hair, and brown eyes. Glaring at the revenant she concentrated as several leaved from nearby trees were broken off, glistened in the air, before being shot at the back of the revenant getting the humanoid head to snap to the back to look for the assailant.
But left it wide opened for the women to das to the beast, but had to back off when the arm struck in front of her. Looking at the Revenant the head was in the process of turning and she realized: the horse.
Her eyes glowed as she pushed off and levitated in the air and grimaced under some invisible strain. Clouds gathered around their battle and series of lightning strikes hit the revenant causing it immense pain but it persisted, albeit smoking in some areas.
Falling to the ground, her eyes flashed again as three balls of fire appeared behind her and was shot at the horse's head burning the eyes away. Charging in she created a gust of wind to send ice sharpened leaves to force the humanoid head away.
Getting no retaliation, she reached behind her to her waist and pulled out a shifting blade. Her eyes glowed one last time as she jumped, using a burst of wind to propel her, she decapitated the humanoid attachments head. Landing several feet away the Horse started to buck in blind pain filled rage.
Raising her hand, only her right eye glowed this time and she lunches a spear of fire that made a hole through the head sending the revenant crashing down and it began to dissipate. Allowing herself a moment of reprieve, she looked around to find its rider but they were nowhere to be found.
Then a twig snapped, acting on instinct she send a wall of flame at the sound. But nothing moved and blinding pain flashed in her right shoulder. Looking a white blade was protruding from her body. Then her back was kicked and sent into a burnt tree.
She overexerted her self again, looking at her would be killer, the dead red eyes looked at her while smiling in some perverted sense of glee. She went to throw a steel dart from her sleeve but something restrained her arms. Looking, fear overtook her. Coming from similar pits that revenant spawned from: was a tendril, purely black and emitting a gaseous miasma.
She looked to the Rider "I finally found you… he will be so happy that I have found you… do not worry my dear" she bent down and pushed her face up with a finger under her chin. "You won't die, you have use to my beloved" and her other hand hit her on her temple knocking her out.
[/V\]
Amara stared at the girl, Amber, if she remembered the name. Fighting the creation she herself made to test if she was this 'Fall Maiden'. And she was proven right, glaring at the unconscious body she scowled. A pool of her beloved's essence formed under her and she was quickly brought under. Amara looked around and dropped into the entrance and both vanished from the world.
A Pack of wolves and a Ravager swarm were created to look like she was overtaken by extreme numbers and subsequently killed.
Back to Amara, she was picked up by a large white hand. As she was hoisted out by her beloved's avatar. She felt his satisfaction and was set down. He looked to the unconscious body of Amber as she was hooked to some strange machine Arthur concocted.
Staring at the disgrace scientist's contraption, a crackling sound emitted behind her. Looking it was a creature Grimm created to act as proxy. "Arthur Watts, this machine better keep her under and hide her power" the man flinched slightly but nodded vigorously. "I am sure my liege! Her power is drawn from her aura which is drawn from her body. Merely suppressing the body and aura simultaneously is not easy yet not impossible." Grimm merely stared and it came online.
The body of Amber was placed in a tube and the glass froze and a layer of frost covered her body. "There her aura is suppressed and body is in a comatose state" no trusting the man, Grimm stared at Amber and still noticed she still very much alive, but her aura was faint, almost invisible.
"Very good Arthur, now go attend to your other duties" the mae nodded and walked out as a Warbringer walked in to maintain Amber's stasis pod. The translator revenant floated off somewhere and Grimm waved for Amara to follow him. Walking out of the room, a pair of scarred Knights stood guard. The Knight's bone armor had a few scratches and chinks but their blades looked much more savage, their time fighting a multitude of hunters, huntresses, and various militaries honed these two specific knights to guard the chamber.
Ignoring the two, a essence pool appeared and the Avatar dropped into it with Amara doing the same. Taking some time the two were pushed out into wilderness. Looking at the landscape, and the sand between her feet, they were in Vacuo's borders.
Looking to Grimm, she waited a explanation. "There is something I need to test. And it requires live subjects" the women was confused and a somethin like a geyser sound off behind her and she saw a large contingent of wolves, bears, Ravagers, and a few scorpions crawled out of large tar like pools. There was a 1:3:5:8 ration. For one scorpion she saw, and there was four, there stands three bears. For every three bears were five wolves, and every five wolves were eight Ravagers.
She looked at the amount of revenant, there was at least 70 here. With a mere gesture the Revenant took off to a settlement that was far away from any 'frontline' of Revenant incursions so they were not expecting or equipped for a small horde let alone any higher than 20.
The town's walls were broken by the scorpions in four separate sections, Bears stood at the entrances as the wolves and Ravagers started to kill off the guards and corral the civilians into the center.
"Amara, go check the status of the civilians and drag a prime looking specimen. I require time to perfect a creation" Amara nodded and jumped on top of a wolf, with proper modifications of course to allow such a thing. Arriving, she got off and the bears at the east entrance parted for her, the town was not small or large. At best there was 600 or 800 total residents. The guard made up 20 of them, leaving 580 or 780 for her to look through.
The silent fear was normal to her, but she started to feel elated. Most likely due to Grimm's influence on her.
Ignoring the line of thought, several wolves and Ravagers stepped out of her way, as a odd warrior or two seem to bow and hissed in submission to her presence. Some of the corralled looked and were torn between hope and fear. If they reacted in such a way to her, a human, then something was wrong.
She merely stared at them, and paced with her hands behind her back. She was looking through several other eyes. Mostly Ravagers, their eyes were strangely more acute at discerning such minute items she was looking for.
And she found a specimen. She was near the edge most toward the Revenant. She appeared to just reach the legal drinking age, short grey hair, light tanned skin, green eyes, and no other noticeable marks anywhere. Disconnecting herself from the ravagers she slowly and agonizingly walked there with two wolves waiting.
The fear was rolling off them in droves, and she was surprised the Revenant was not going into a frenzy. Must be due to her beloved's command, stopping in front of the women, she knelt down to her and got a closer look.
Her eyes were dilated in fear and she wanted to scoot away out of fear. Finding nothing she disagreed with she stood and the two wolves grabbed her and dragged her, flowing Amara. There were screams, mostly from the parents, siblings, or family friends.
But hissing and growls instantly stopped it before it escalated much. Dragging her to a point, she was restrained, and still in clear view of the others. Amara waited patiently, so she passed the time by sprucing the captive up as much as she can. Smoothing out her clothes, coming the hair, and wiping away any dust that may be on the person.
The loud thundering steps alerted her to his presence and looked to him smiling. The captive's fear reached its fever pitch. Grimm walked carrying something in his hand. Looking at the captive he stared at her and the wolves picked her up, and her feet dangled in the air, Grimm opened his hand more to reveal a object one would find on the face of his Revenant.
Turning it so the black abyss face the captive he moved it closer to her face. Nothing happened till it was 6 inches away from her face. Then it sprang to life, four black tendrils shot to from the four corners of the item and coiled around and met at the back. Then the rest of it collided violently to the captives face.
Blood seeped from the chin then was stemmed as the tendrils tightened. Then several spikes above the tendrils sprouted and shot out and dug themselves into the temples, lower jaw. The captive twitched ever so often and the wolves dropped her. She hit the ground with a thud and did not move, only twitched. Then the bone plate that covered her face sprang to life. A single line 'broke' and a large red-yellow eyed appeared, a jagged line where the mouth was appeared.
It opened to release a hellish shriek. Then it started to haphazardly, and wobbly, stand up. Then a flash of light appeared from the former captives body that slowly dissipated and reformed into a colorless mist and vanished.
"It works" was all Grimm said. Looking to the others he conjures up a essence pool and the former captive wobbled over to it and pulled out two more of the same thing that adored her face.
It vanished, and the captive 'walked' toward the others and held them out. Grimm ignored what happened next as multiple shreeks were heard. He got nothing from them aside from surface level thoughts from the former humans had on their mind. He oversaw the process as 680 of the humans had on these 'masks' and were standing aimlessly.
Which perplexed him, mortals always had the ability to think and act on their own. Why weren't they moving on their own. Looking over the procedure the first one undertook, everything went like it should.
As he started to think on the subject, Amara was busy investigating the strange event that took place. She walked to the captive and its large eye moved to look at her without moving the human's head. 'Near 180 degree view' she thought and looked it over, from where she stood the veins under the skin was black and the skin closest to the mask was starting to loose its color.
Then it began to twitch, two more spiked appeared but more to the middle on the sides and attached itself to the cheeks and dug itself in more. She backed away from surprise as the mask started to adapt to the contours of the human face. The line the eye exists in now allowed for a 177 degree line of sight and the 'mouth' that was hanging open started to move. Each time it closed, a click was heard, and when it opened it moaned like something out of a zombie flick.
She felt Grimm's presence behind her and looked to him. "That's what it is, they are adapting to the bodies… explains some. Now Amara, we are leaving… as for these husks. Leave them for the mortals to find." Amara nodded and the Revenant cleared out. Leaving the 'Husks' to wander aimlessly around the town. Before they adopted what they were doing before the revenant appeared.
[/V\]
Jaune shuddered suddenly, and looked out the bullhead. "Something wrong?" He shook his head. "No just, had a thought about my dad" Cinder looked worried but let it go. Pyrrha looked out the bullhead as well. Their Huntsman was sitting on a provided seat for prolonged trips, he was looking through his scroll.
His right arm was covered in plate armor,and a leather vambrace on the left. He had on a orange shirt that was under a brown jacket. He had jeans that had bits of plate on the sides of his thighs and shins and had black combat boots on. His weapon was on the left arm and that was all they were told.
His name was Verm Cauldron. "Jaune, in the event that Revenant appear what are you to do" Jaune looked to their huntsman "assess the type, status, and see if it's injured before killing it while not wasting time." the man looked then went silent again.
Jaune returned his attention to the outside of the Bullhead. They were near the settlement, Heragoth. Already some Valeian soldiers were guiding some of the civilians onto trucks, according to Verm this was the second load. They had to guard this one and a third before leaving. The bullhead circled before finding a place to land.
It hovered several feet in the air, JBPC and Verm jumped off and the Bullhead left to aid the defensive line some ways to their west. Looking around he spotted Verm looking at him, "Don't stand there help evacuate" Jaune walked off "Blake, Cinder go help ease their woes. Pyrrha we're going to help the guard keep watch. After a hour we will switch" Verm raised a eyebrow but let it happen. He looked to the west to see flashes of lights and the faint sounds of explosions from mortar fire.
He climbed up a house and watched JBPC do what they signed up for from the roof. He expected them to lock up in someway, the Cinder girl did but that was to be expected. But the others obviously did not look like they locked up. More or less waiting for some divine que for them to act.
Then the explosions ceased. Looking up from his scroll, he saw some of the soldiers tasked with aiding civilians break off and head to the west entrance. 'The line fell this early?' he got off the house and ran to the west entrance.
Once there, he tapped the shoulder of the squad leader. "What's going on" the squad leader looked from the corner of his eye then back to where the defensive line stood. "The line broke down the middle, and Revenant are pouring through. And were last seen heading in our direction."
Verm looked and his eyes glowed. His semblance lets him see farther than most, and pull something like a out of body experience to let him see around better, he saw smoke. "I'm going to get a closer look, team JBPC from beacon is currently here, if they ask for my whereabouts tell them I left to evaluate if I need to send them back or not" the squad leader merely nodded and Verm walked past the other soldiers moving to form a defense line. Once free, he gradually got into a run toward the previous defense line.
He stopped to where he first glimpsed the smoke, turning back it was a good 150 meter or so. Jumping up to the top of a nearby tree he activated his semblance again and looked at the old defense line.
He was used to death on a large scale, but what he saw was among the top 15. The chryssalids ate just about anything that had meat, the beowolves toyed with their prey, you were lucky if a Ursa were to kill you. Not to mention some of the stronger Revenant, the Deathstalker and Nevermore come to mind, have so much defense that you have a better chance of fleeing then fighting. Then there were the goliaths, they brought down Mountain Glenn supply depot in only a month. It would have taken longer if the Revenant had not attacked the supply convoys.
But something else stood out, sure there were a few Goliaths here but there was a new player on the field. Some of the soldiers were left alive and 'guided' to some new Revenant type. It reminded him of a octopus.
It was doing something to the 'capture soldiers'. It pulled white objects out from a mouth and brought it close to a soldier's face and saw that tendrils sprung out and wrapped around their heads, helmets were knocked off and they fell to the ground trying to get it off. Then they stopped and the Revenant moved on.
Staring at the dead, they began to twitch and stand back up. His mouth hung open when the started to move like they no longer had a grasp over how to move. They looked around and picked up their rifles like a toddler would.
Once the had them in hand they slowly shuffled with the other Revenant. Then it dawned on him 'This is not good' he deactivated his semblance and booked it back to the settlement. Once there he singled out the squad leader. "The defensive line fell but something else happened, they gathered those who were alive and affixed some new Revenant type to them. Trust me when I say: you will know what i am talking about soon. Tell your men to kill any human wearing a Revenant bone mask" he ran back leaving the man outright confused but headed and began to disseminate the information.
Finding Jaune "Kid get your team together we are leaving" the boy looked puzzled but nodded, Blake left to gather everyone. Verm brought out his scroll to call for pickup. The call got through but was met with clicking and groans.
Looking at his scroll, it connected and was answered, but no one was 'speaking'. There was movement and someone was moving but just clicking and the moaning was all that graced him. Glaring at the scroll he ended the call and dialed Beacon.
When the call was accepted a voice greeted him "Look I don't have much time but I need a Bullhead redirected or sent now. I have a first year team who is in need of evac before shit hits the fan. Our location is quadrant 3, town Heragoth. Now" he got a confirmation and the nearest Bullhead transport will arrive in a hour.
JBPC gathered by him "What about the civilians who get left behind?" Verm looked and saw about 20 or 30 odd non combatants who were ordered into the local tavern till transport could be redirected here.
"We have a Bullhead enroute, odds are it's probably the one they were sending for them… which means…" he looked to a passing officer. "Hey you called evac for the ones in the building?" the officer shook his head "all other transports are either full or heading back for refueling, it's horrible what i am about to say but its all we can do: in order to cover our retreat some had to stay behind. The ones in that building are the elderly and others who can not move on their own." the officer was about to leave when Verm grabbed him by the arm and applied pressure.
"WHAT?! You just left them here?" the officer glared at him and ripped his arm from the steel grip. "What do you want me to say! We have no way of safely moving some of them and the elderly volunteered for this. If anything it will buy us time to get out of here to fight and save even more lives." he stormed off leaving Verm to growl at the officer.
But he sighed letting the anger go "Unfortunately he's right, let this be a lesson to you kids. You can't save everyone. Now come on we got about a hour till our ride gets-" the alarm sounded.
"REVENANT! WEST SIDE! 50 METERS!" Verm tsked "Well boys and girls here's your first real taste of combat with the Revenant" he motioned for them follow him but a explosion sounded to the north. What he saw would haunt him.
The very men and women that were masked stumbled through the fire and wreckage of the north wall wielding dust rifles in one hand. They opened fire on their former allies. Springing into action his right arm started to shift and a blade appeared above his hand. "JBPC take the ones on the right I got the left. Do not hesitate to kill them" he ran toward the masked individuals and swung his blade at one and knocked him down. He was going to move on to the next when his blade was not coated red.
Looking to the body and started to get up, jerking every so often, and there was a black glow that moved like a liquid from the point of impact.
'Aura… these things are using their Aura' "TEAM JBPC! THEY HAVE AURA, ADAPT ACCORDINGLY" Jaune seemed to already be doing so, using Cinder's semblance to shatter groups at once leaving JBP to start cutting them down.
Staring at his foe, he kicked the dead man walking back and the arm shifted again revealing a barrel replacing the blade. Tensing his fist, it fired in a shotgun pattern, from his shoulder a clicking was heard and grabbing a metal piece, he pulled and the blade from earlier was in his left hand.
Jaune ripped his blade from the chest of a downed masked human, he looked at the mask which was clearly revenant and it began to shrivel and dissipate. What it left was enough to make him back away and cover his mouth with the back of his palm. All he saw of the 'face' was just bone, skin and meat looked like it was eaten and then repaired to where the mask ended which was just to their temples and back of their jaw.
But the masked Valeian soldiers all had the same 'face' and Verm was yelling to them. "HOLD THIS POINT! I need to help the Main line" he moved to the west entrance, and Team JBPC guarded the new north entrance as a small number of Vale soldiers, who had to resist the urge to barf at the bloodied skull faces of their fallen comrades. But they moved them off to the side and set up rudimentary barriers. Jaune and Pyrrha were at the front acting as walls of metal, Blake was behind them to catch any Revenant that got past them, and Cinder stood with the Vale soldiers to provide ranged support to help make the battle much more manageable.
All that moved to the North entrance were a few Chryssalid swarms and beowolf packs. But each were easily cut down by JBP, while a few were singed by Cinder's fire or filled with holes by the Vale soldiers. Then that's when the ground shook and two Ursi appeared with a Knight behind it.
"Blake. Pyrrha: the Knight, Cinder help me with the Ursi" the three nodded and two large fireballs hit the ursi letting Blake and Pyrrha slip past them and engage the Knight.
Jaune ran to the left Ursa first and slashed at the joints on their forelimbs severing the tendons, collapsing his shield into a sheath, putting the sword into it, he activated its other function and the sword became a claymore. Swinging the new blade with ease, the overhead slash cut the head of the ursa off and the other was burnt to the bone and dissipated with the smoke.
Looking to the Knight, it was proving to be a problem. Pyrrha was able to force it to focus on her, but Blake was unable to get the precise hits to bring it to the needed point to kill it in one blow. 'This one knew of the weaknesses' but its strength is also a weakness.
"Cinder! Roast it! Blake. Pyrrha. Fall back" Cinder nodded and poured enough of her aura to fuel her semblance, and there was small eye like image below the knight and then there was a explosion of fire. The Knight was cooking under its own armor, not long after did it fall to the ground and dissipated into the normal gaseous remains they always turn into. Having returned his claymore back to his tower shield and longsword in the respectable hands. Walking with their backs to the Vale soldiers, they slowly returned to their previous established positions.
There were a few engine roars from above them, Cinder looked back and saw several bullheads hovering over the settlement's center. "JBPC LET'S GO!" the team covered the soldiers retreat and when their bullheads were loaded, they covered JBPC's and Verm's retreat. Once they were loaded the bullheads took off, and what they saw would haunt them. But not the Nexximus triplets.
Below, at the west entrance was a large surge of black and white Revenant overtake the entrances, and some scaled over the walls. Heregoth was lost but the neighboring towns were already evacuating to other, safer, settlements. Verm stared at the town as it grew smaller, cursing the Revenant to damnation.
[/V\]
Arkaley, the town he first town he showed himself in, and admittedly, the one other place he sees as a safe haven. Exiting a essence pool some way out of sight from the town guard, he began walking around a sand dune he looked to the town and there were sounds of fighting.
Reacting quickly, a swarm of Ravagers, three knights, and a pack of wolves crawled out of separate essence pools and charged directly to the town to save the residents. He only heard passing rumors from his people watching about some… broken individuals sometime after his Revenants came onto the scene. They found anyway to cope be it suicide, drinking, prostitution or this: raiding and pillaging. As he reached the main gate, a Guard on duty was nursing a fatal wound.
He looked to see who owned the loud footsteps and smiled at Grimm, but paled at the Revenant behind him. Conjuring a proxy "Do not fear Sebastian, I am here to help. The town showed me warmth and mercy. Damn me if I don't repay you all for the kindness" the guard looked wide eyes and smiled.
"Thanks… Grimm…" and he passed. Looking at broken down gate, he made a gesture and the Revenant they screeched or howled before charging. The knights charged in, finding the biggest pockets of hostages and securing them.
Entering the fray, he used his senses to pick up on the bandits and townspeople. And found a mortal who held a… peculiar nature. Zeroing in on the individual, he hid his surprise at a red clothed female, long spiky black hair, and a mask reminiscent of his Revenants. He stared at her, he readied himself for a fight.
The female mortal noticed his presence, looked back and was momentarily surprised. Facing Grimm she stared "What the hell are you supposed to be" she mumbled to herself. Flexing his fingers, this mortal had something strange. From what he sensed she was mortal yet also a bird, her Aura was all over the place.
He needs to run tests to figure out how this came to be. To achieve that, she needs to be incapacitated. Locking eyes on her, they stayed locking eyes as his Revenant were hunting down her comrades. He regularly opened essence pools outside the town's borders that spewed the more agile Revenant to protect and secure the townspeople.
There was dead bodies around her, all guardsmen as well. The man she was standing over before his arrival died due to a wound she inflicted.
Seemingly unnerved by the staredown she launched herself at him blade raised. Raising his left arm to block the strike, she fluidly moved around the block and slashed at the exposed joint. Severing the his arm at the elbow. Growling, his right hand was thrown toward her gut and connected at a speed he was sure she widen her eyes at.
The force sent her through a building. Grabbing his severed arm, he brought it to the stump, a hissing was heard, and the arm was reconnected. Flexing the appendage it had full functionality back. He would perfect the avatar soon but he need to deal with this mortal.
Walking to the hole in the wall, a blade exploded from the darkness and pierced his left eye. Staggering back, the blade reappeared and he made a attempt to grab the damn toothpick but the loss of his eye made him misjudge it and it struck at another gap in the bone armor. His right arm was severed at the shoulder. Grunting, he needed to end this now. Several essence pools appeared around the house and black, smoking, tendrils appeared from them and collapsed the house on top of her. He forced her out of the building and following her with a reformed left eye, something struck the avatar's right side and felt his arm again.
A tendril sprouted from the stump, burrowed into the shoulder joint of the right arm and pulled it back to the avatar. The mortal women seemed to grow agitated at her previous attempts to harm his form were being repaired. Sensing she would lose in the long run, she made to leave by slashing the air to her right.
A portal appeared, but Grimm knew a chance to flee when he saw it. A black tendril grabbed her leg and tripped her. Capitalizing on this he ran toward her and a right fist slamming into her back. The aura shattered and the portal closed with a thunder clap. Somehow the mortal was still conscious, if barely. Picking up the women by her neck he ripped the mask off her face revealing red eyes.
'Strange, a mortals shouldn't have this purity of red' filing it away for later, the sounds of battle died down and keeping his grip on her neck-chest area, he viewed what his Revenant saw and was pleased to see most of the townspeople were safe. Albeit wary of their saviors.
Returning to his Avatar he looked to the glaring mortal in his grip. "Kill me already, it's what you Revenant do best" she wanted death, that won't be happening. She demonstrated to him how easy it is to harm the avatar, pointing out weaknesses and flaws. She was valuable now in pointing these out. A hissing sound emerged from somewhere behind him.
The proxy floated by his side "You won't be dying. No that would be a disservice to you. You taught me much today. Not to mention you decided it would be a good idea to raid this town that I owe a great deal to. So in light of these facts, your coming with me" the mortal's eyes shrank and began to get out of his grip. He grabbed the sheath from her side and ripped it off her person before tossing it to the side. And for good measure her discarded blade crushed under his heel.
Looking at the still struggling women a essence pool appeared under her. He let go and she went into yelling out of surprise into the murky abyss. The essence pool closed, and he felt her every movement in his self. But ignored it as he surveyed the town, a crow was staring at him with fear, odd seeing as crows never looked like they held fear when staring at him.
Something was not right with the crow. But ignored it in favor of personally finding where the survivors congregated. Emerging around a bend the Revenant began to back off, and it eased the congregation's worry.
But much to his sadness, out of the 600 only 70 were left. Walking to them he saw old lady Amber. She was okay save for a minor bruise, kneeling before her, he checked her over for any obvious wounds. The elder seemed to put the sudden appearance of the Revenant and how the react to his presence, even the Chryssalids stopped their occasional hissing.
"Grimm... what is your relationship with… the Revenant" the remaining people looked at him wanting it answered as well. He looked away ashamed and the proxy floated over. "I created them" he stood up and backed took a hesitant step back. The elder processed the information while staring wide eyed at him.
"What caused you to do this? What made you start all this bloodshed?" she asked with not a ounce of hostility, just genuine curiosity "The Grimm I know wouldn't allow senseless slaughter stand". And the elder was right "The Belladonnas, they invited me to Menagerie the day before raiders attacked the city. Ghira and Kali were killed leaving Blake orphaned and…" bending the truth a little "I found out I was able to create the Revenant that day, and in my anger I lashed out, vowed to end who was responsible. The gods who let it happen, so I started killing. In hopes to get them to fight me" Grimm waited for their condemnation.
"..." the silence was starting to wear thin on his mind. Amber rose, shaking as she did and he noticed she was without her walking cane. A wolf came to her side to help balance her. She was fearful at first but seeing what it was doing she smiled at Grimm. "Grimm, you are a merciful individual. I know this which makes what I am about to say even harder" Grimm accepted the outcome.
"I still remember the gentle giant I met when you first came to this town, and I still see him before me. I don't fault you, grief makes us do many things… for you you witnessed the deaths of friends and a whole island of people. What you may be doing as a result may not be justified, but I know you are doing it to right the wrongs of our society" she smiled and a bright glow enveloped her then vanished. The elder's eyes widened and she started to fall.
Catching her, he mentally scowled. Looking to the others either bursts of a bright light or a black void emerged from them and he knew what was happening. Thinking fast essence pools appeared around them and began to heal them. Repeating the procedures he used on those he used on Arthur, Hazel, and Gretchen.
He did the same to Amber. Her eyes opened and she took deep breaths. Looking around she stated to stand and the wolf who helped her before acted as her crutch. "What…" and she heard a Grimm's voice, without his proxy by him.
"The gods, Light and Void. Forsaken you, you either casted them out or they revoked their mark on you. You would have died if I did not place a similar mark on each and every one of you. You are free from them." they all looked to him and he began to heal any injuries they may of had. Amber's pain started to subside and her bruise vanished.
Suddenly, her wrinkles started to disappear, and she started to feel like she did back in her prime.
"Grimm what…" she was at a lost of words. No longer did she stare at her frail, wrinkly, hands. But at what they used to be when she was thirty years of age. Same for the others "I saved all of you… you showed me kindness. I will never be able to repay it but I can try" looking at the destroyed town he thought of something. "Head northeast to the tip of Sanus…" a knight placed a map in Amber's hand and when she opened it, a x was placed at the greenery north of the large desert. "Head here, you will be safe there. My revenant will protect you all the way" Amber smiled and began to get people together and to grab what they can carry.
Grimm just observed them, his revenant helped in any capacity they could he turned around and left through a essence pool. The town of Arkaley would be labeled as being destroyed Revenant which was caused by a bandit raid.
But deep down Grimm felt at peace knowing the people of Arkaley still accepted him. But onto another matter. Depositing his comatose avatar in the sanctum, he focused his attention on the anomaly of a mortal. Separating her aura soul from her body he began to analyze it, she bore no mark from Light or Void, yet had a Aura and semblance.
Same thing with the Fall maiden, this was very interesting yet very perplexing.
Oh I love my fucked up mind so much... what? your opinions are invalid.
Anyway, I have been reading the Bleiss discord anthology started by Aetheling. Shameless promotion? yes. Do I care? fuck life. I never knew how much I liked Bleiss as a character, maybe it adds a level of comedy to the RWBY world that most would want to never exist yet it does. I support it with my approval but I can never emulate what is needed to 'properly' write a Bleiss, why am I talking about this? hell if I know.
Red, review, Rage, Piss, moan, Complain. Whatever the fuck makes you sleep better at night. any questions I will try to answer. Tootles!
