Chapter 6: Relics
Luci stops suddenly, causing Artemis to slide to slow down fast enough so that she doesn't hit him. She gets ready to yell at him but looks up and sees the temple, or a few pillars at least, with a half-circle of pedestals around the edge, some with golden items on top and some with black ones. Luci scoffs at it, walking over to the center of it and looking at all the chess pieces around him.
"Do you mind if I look around a bit more?" Luci asks Artemis, who is playing with one of the golden pieces. "I'll take that as-"
"I have a question." Artemis interrupts. "What do you think this mean?"
Luci thinks for a second, not about what they mean but about how to respond. "Maybe it means that once we pick one, that will be our role at the academy, like pawns on a chess board."
"That's stupid." Artemis says. "I hope I don't get a stupid one." Luci stays silent. "Whatever, we just need to take two of these, right?"
"What? No, we only take one."
"But don't we need one each?"
"For each pair! Did you even listen?" Luci exasperates, genuinely surprised that she misunderstood so badly.
"Fine, whatever! Which do you want then?" Artemis says.
"Well, there aren't too many left so..." Luci thinks, walking over to the remaining black pieces. "I think we should take the black knight piece."
"Is that the horse one?" Artemis says. "Because I want this gold one." She says, picking up the golden queen piece.
"Why? You want to be royalty or something?" He says, raising the black knight. "Plus, it's white, not gold. Have you ever even played chess?"
"Shut up! This one looks nice! It is probably worth more!"
"We can't sell them! They belong to the academy!" Luci says, shaking his head. "Look, let's just play rock, paper, scissors to see who chooses." He says, placing the piece down and walking back to the center. "Although I will tell you, I never lose."
"Yeah, sure." She says, copying him. "It's based on luck; how can you possibly win every game?" She says, continuing without waiting for an answer. "Rock! Paper!" She yells, before he can catch his bearings, quickly getting his hand ready. "Scissors!" She yells, throwing a rock forwards as he reveals his scissors.
"That was a dirty play." He says, almost impressed.
"Well, I still won, so-" She begins, walking back to the pedestal before a loud crash stops her in her tracks. The pedestal she was walking towards collapses into the canyon behind it, as does the floor around it. A boy suddenly materializes where it was, jumping up just before the ground around him slides down.
"I found the relics!" He says, holding up the white queen relic.
"Hey! That's ours!" Artemis complains before they hear a sound behind them and turn to see Judy running towards them. Luci quickly runs over and grabs both black knight pieces.
"Catch!" He yells, throwing one to Judy before putting the other in his pocket. "Let's go!" He says, pointing to the cliffside, that he can see because they are in a large clearing.
"Wait!" Judy yells at him. "There's something behind us!" She yells as a grimm charges through the tree-line towards them, running at full speed.
"God damn-it!" Luci yells, recognizing it as the one that has his knife. He charges towards it, running past Judy and jumping at it before grabbing onto its head. "Don't make me get serious!" He yells, pulling on its mask-like bones before getting thrown off into the forest.
"Get back here!" Artemis yells, beginning to run after him but is cut off by Judy.
"We need to handle this first." She says, spreading her arms out. "Dalos! Go and get everyone else!" She yells to nothing as the boy is already gone.
"What are you doing? I've taken out loads of grimm before, I can take it." Artemis says.
"This beringel's smart, it ambushed us on the way over here, I'm only okay because Dalos took the hit for me." Judy explains. "From analyzing its attack patterns, it looks for the right time to attack before it attempts to strike, like when you let down your guard or when you get tired out."
"Then we just have to kill it before it kills us." Artemis says, clearly not listening very intently. She pushes past Judy, bow in hand, and fires a barrage of arrows at the beringel, which it easily blocks with the bones on its arm before picking up a nearby tree and throwing it at them, but must have overestimated the weight because it goes flying over them and over the edge of the cliff behind them. "Okay, what's your plan?"
"Lu- Damien's knife is in its back, if Luci can take it out, that might kill it, if not then we can work from there but that should be our target right now... So basically-" Nixi's arms quickly extend, picking up a fallen part of the temple and using it to block another tree. "- survive until everyone else gets here." She finishes as Nixi throws the stone at the beast, throwing it back towards the tree-line. Judy immediately pulls out her guns and begins to fire, aiming one at its leg and the other at its arm, firing both together. "Problem is, we're both long range fighters, unless that stick of yours can change into a chainsaw or something."
"Well... I can turn it into a whip." She says, untying the string on one side.
"That doesn't really help much. Anything else?"
"It's getting dark." Artemis says.
"It can see in the dark, all grimm can." Judy says, turning to see Artemis walking towards the beast.
"We just need to distract it for a few minutes, the moon should be up soon." She says, whipping the beast and wrapping the string around its arm, pulling the beast forwards. "Many beasts have fallen in front of me, through death or respect." She says, looking into the beast's eyes. "You won't be my last." The beringel suddenly kicks forwards, which would have sent Artemis flying if she wasn't attached to the beast, instead it gives her momentum to throw the beast up into the air before whipping it again, around the neck, and swinging it down. Judy fires as soon as it hits the ground, running forwards so that Nixi's better weapons are in range. Nixi equips a sawblade on one arm and a chainsaw on the other. Judy jumps forwards while firing at where she thinks its legs are while Nixi activates the saws, targeting its arms to cut through the bone. The beast jumps back, avoiding almost all the hits heading its way, getting the bone on its right arm ripped off, while upper-cutting the chainsaw with its left arm, cutting its arm apart but also breaking that metal arm as well. It charges forwards while they are both distracted but is suddenly stopped in its tracks as Luci jumps at it from the side, grabbing onto its head for grip as he yanks the knife out as hard as he can. The beast collapses with a whimper as Luci jumps off its back.
"Well, that was annoying." He says. "Judy, this is Artemis, Artemis, this is Judy."
"Oh yeah, it is you." Artemis says, remembering the girl asleep in the corner. "So, you his girlfriend or something then?" She says, expecting some type of reaction but instead Judy and Luci continue talking, catching up on what's been going on. "Hey, don't ignore me." She pouts.
"We should probably get back on track." Luci says. "Also, dodge." He says as a large fist comes crashing down where Artemis is stood. Artemis rolls out of the way, just barely dodging its fist. "It's still alive by the way."
"Why couldn't you tell us sooner!?" She yells, preparing her bow.
"It hadn't started to disintegrate yet." Judy says. "It was clearly alive."
"You too!?" She yells again, readying a few arrows. "Whatever, you got a plan now?"
"That depends, what happens when the moon is out?" She asks.
"I would prefer not to say." Artemis answers.
"Then I guess we survive until the rest get here." The beast roars and backs away towards the tree-line. "Unless it just leaves, then we can go back to the cliff I guess." Judy continues, still training her gun on the beast. A blue spear suddenly flies towards the beast, pinning its arm to a tree, and Vak jumps out from behind the tree-line.
"We need to run!" He yells, looking behind him. Another fire starts behind him and four more people emerge from behind him, followed by a horde of beowolves.
"What happened!?" Judy asks.
"We found a cave, it had some injured students inside but when we tried to get them out these beowolves started chasing us!" Vak says. The fire spreads quicker than before and quickly surrounds them.
"I guess running is out of the question." Luci says, readying his knife. "By the way, where's Judy's partner gone?"
"I'm right here." Vak says, standing by his side.
"But... then..." Luci says before sighing with the realization. "Guess team JADE isn't happening." He shakes it off, running towards the closest beowolf, quickly stabbing it in the head before ripping the knife out from the side. Vak and Artemis run towards the beast but as soon as Vak gets close enough to get his weapon back, the beast swings at him with his other arm, knocking him back across the field. Judy watches from afar, firing at any beowolves that get too close, observing how the three of them are acting together.
"Vak! Artemis!" She yells to them, calling them over. "I'll distract it with my bullets, Vak, run at it but dodge its attack, Artemis, shoot and arrow into its arm as soon as Vak gets his spear back." She says, readying her aim on the beringel and firing as much as she can. Vak charges forwards, dodging its swing but immediately being kicked instead. Artemis panics and fires her arrows into the beast's arm, missing and hitting the tree behind it. Unable to slow down fast enough, she ends up running straight into it and it grabs her, smashing her against the tree, more importantly the spear, pushing it through and releasing its arm. She pulls out an arrow, but it grips harder, stopping her movement and causing her to drop it. Judy watches, knowing that if she shoots then she might hit her. Artemis' aura goes red for a second and Vak charges forwards without thinking but as Judy watches, she sees her aura change again, this time to a glowing silver.
