Chapter 7- But help is always needed.
Maven looked on at Ray with his purple glowing eyes with a smile that could be classed as affection?
Either way he crouched down on his all fours, raised his hind legs and leaped at the Idol, screaming "Mary!"
The Idol couldn't move, she was frozen at the creepy sight of Maven as he flew to her, she didn't have time to react but was saved when Claus ran in front and landed a blow into Maven's abdomen with his tonfa's, setting off an explosion from his weapon and sending the ringleader up into the air which he rapidly recovers and hops onto the trapeze, jumping from wire to wire, stopping to briefly to say a sentence.
"Oh… it's you again intruder, you dare keep me separated from Mary?!" He screeched, his eyes wide in anger but this time like a predator staring down at its prey though when he screams it's hard to take his voice seriously because it just sounds like he was kicked in the place where the sun don't shine.
"Don't think I'm running away this time you damn puppet." Claus pointed his weapon at him.
He's not going to back down now, he felt enough shame running the first time and leaving Gort by himself so this time he will stand and fight.
Ray stumbled back slightly, recomposing herself and took a deep breath.
Wave pulled back on his bow with two yellow tipped arrows and fired them at Maven in rapid succession, the arrows giving off a electrical static as they flew in the air, but the ringleader simply leaped out of their way and swung around the Circus with a heinous laugh.
"There's always an obstacle in our way Mary but no matter, I'll dispose of them like I always do, and we can be together."
Still… his voice is ridiculous.
"Just who the hell is Mary?! My name is Ray Golden-Wind! Popular huntress in all of Vale!" Ray snapped, she was now more bothered about being called someone else as if she's being compared which is what she hates the most.
For her being compared to someone else means they are more interested in the other person than herself which just screams that they are not interested in Ray for who she is but who she mimics and that pisses her off greatly.
Maven leaped forward with two daggers and took some slashes at Claus where the faunus had no choice but to block and stand guard until he found an opening and went for it but Maven just swung around his arm and leaped back onto another wire.
Sky realised this could turn out really bad if they were to fight Maven together with the corpses, observing how Gort was strung up and was surrounded by them when the team got into the tent, she tapped on Wave's shoulder and pointed him to the mob.
"Claus, Ray can you two keep that guy busy? We're gonna keep the walking dead at bay."
Claus blocked another of Maven's knife attacks and swiped back but missed as Maven as he leaped back into the safety of above once again, Claus, getting sick of him and started shooting his rockets out at the ringleader where he was flipping around on his wires, stringing them around the tent like in the fight with Gort but of course the team isn't aware of Maven's unusual planning.
"Got it, he seems fixated on me and Ray anyway so go, be careful these things don't feel pain from what I've gathered." Claus advised them, backing up closer to Ray, thinking about protecting her at all costs even though she was fine now.
Sky simply nodded, and she and Wave ran ahead to the mob of corpses, Wave split his weapon in half with the string in the middle keeping them together so it's a nun-chuck sword and the two started fighting the mob with ease, taking them down one at a time, Sky being careful not to get blood on her and trips over her weapon since she's not used to its length but quickly gets back up with an upwards kick to a corpse's chin and continued fighting.
"Claus, I'm fine now, I'll fight by your side." Ray let out a discouraged sigh and put her back to Claus', weapons ready as the two observed Maven's movements while slowly edging away from the walking dead.
"I know, I was just waiting for you to get your butt into gear."
"W-what?! Well excuse me for being frightened of a stalker that's trying to behead me!" Ray retaliated, flustered but that gave Claus a new idea.
"Hey you know, since you're an idol and stuff, wouldn't he technically your fan?"
"What?! What?! You really think I'd take this fool of a guy for a fan!? Not. A. Chance! though I can't choose my fans."
This caught Maven's attention and now he started spinning himself down above the two like a spider on its web in hope of listening to what they had to say, it was Claus' plan to slow Maven down enough to get close to him but he didn't think it would work this well.
"Mary? What are you talking about? I am your biggest and closest fan, we used to play together, laugh together and sing together."
Ray looked up and erked, thinking she could never be friends with someone like that.
Claus took this opportunity to swing around his tonfa for a blow but instead angled up and shot at Maven before he could escape in which he got him mid movement and sent him crashing into the floor before Ray.
Ray took this chance to rush at Maven where the two-clashed blade and got into a lock.
"Why must you reject me Mary?! Why?"
"That's because I am not Mary, my name is Ray!"
"Lies! LIES!"
The two separated and Claus leaped in front of Ray with the next attack but missed as Maven flipped backwards and caught on another of his wires and spun up.
"You are the one I seek! You are my maiden that I lost so long ago, so why?!" He screeched in anguish, tears flowing down his face though his voice is still ridiculous.
"That's because you're mistaking her for someone else, and for your information I am her first and only fan thank you" Claus declared out loud with pride, rendering Ray speechless and forcing Maven to go blank in an awkward silence with the noises of Sky and Wave fighting being heard in the background.
"What… was that?"
"You heard me right, I am her first and therefore best fan, you got a problem with that?" Claus looked back to see Ray with her hands over her mouth and the fact she was crying, not because of the situation but over the fact she realised that she has her first ever fan ever since she wanted to be an Idol, well one that actually confessed they were a fan of her.
Upon Maven seeing that reaction however sparked something else within him, Jealously, jealous of the fact that Ray gave Claus that reaction while only rejecting him, he just accepted that to get the others out of the way, he would have to be a bit more rough than usual, now letting the wires flow out and tying them around beams, now leaping at Claus, emotionless.
Claus turned back and had no choice but to block Maven's knife attacks while being careful of the wires around him, trying to not get caught while Ray leaped back and put her weapon into gun form and insisted on providing cover fire instead.
Maven while dodging the bullets was moving swiftly through the air, Claus was struggling to keep up and was forced to go on the defensive against the constant knife attacks until he stepped back onto a pile of wires, in which he found out why there were so many as multiple wires suddenly trapped and tightened around his leg and hoisted him up by his leg.
"Claus!" Ray shouted, turning back into blade form and ran to his aide but was instead met by Maven's now blank expression and the two clashed blades a few times but Maven had speed on his side and did a low sweep to Ray's shins and kicked her on the floor, leaping on top of her.
The Idol braced herself, squeezing her eyes shut until she felt something drag up her neck, it was wet and slimy but also warm until she opened her eyes and saw Maven was licking her neck while also keeping her arms down.
"This taste… is the taste of my maiden alright."
Ray couldn't believe what the hell just happened to her and all she could do was scream, kicking and trying to move her arms to get away from him until her semblance unconsciously activated, giving Maven and Claus the image of Ray as a child, with her back facing them, crying.
"I'm sorry… don't look at me like that…I'll do better, I promise…" she spoke.
Maven was dazzled by the golden image, he didn't notice Claus taking aim at him from behind while upside-down, taking a shot, forgetting about Ray's situation of not being able to activate her aura until the shot landed.
The two were engulfed in smoke in which one person leaped out but it was Maven once again, escaping into the darkened corners while Ray was laid on the floor with what seems to be golden aura surrounding her before fading, it was her aura and she had unintentionally activated it and that protected her.
"Claus?" Ray's mirage had worn off.
"Your aura activated." Claus smiled but felt dizzy from being hung up for so long.
Ray just looked up at him and smiled.
The wires holding Claus up had been cut and he fell to the floor with a thump, he looked behind him to see Sky stood behind him, both panting slightly, just finished immobilising the mob.
"Are you guys okay? We heard Ray scream and well, we had to rush over." Sky said.
"Well we are fine for now… just this guy's too much for us." Ray sighed, feeling defeated as she rubbed her neck with her shirt and then looked over to where Maven had retreated to.
"His combat style seems to be a hit and run, it shows he can't take us all on at once and he knows that, using this place to his advantage." Sky said, she had actually been watching the two fight while taking on the mob, there was some cut wires around her arm, showing she got caught in one of his traps too.
"How the hell do we beat him then?" Claus turned back and asked.
"We will just need to hold out till help arrives really."
Claus looked behind Sky to notice Wave had gotten Gort down and was tending to his wounds, he felt a moment of relief flowing through him and eased his worries.
"Silence"
"Darkness"
The 3 looked up at Maven in the darkened corner, with his knives across him as he began chanting.
"Lonely"
"Heart"
"Get Ready." Sky tensed up, holding her weapon across her body, ready to block whatever attacks are gonna be coming.
"Mary"
"Beloved"
"He here comes!" Ray called out.
"Love"
"Christopher Marionette!"
Maven leaped from his position at lightening speed, first targeting Claus, getting a successful first strike in, then leaping to another wire for his second strike, aiming at Sky but just barely misses with a hair width, landing on another wire and repeated the same moves, targeting only Sky and Claus four more times before landing on the ground like how a cat lands on the ground on their feet and waits idly, his face was still blank, it was like something broke in him.
Sky fell to her knees while Claus fell flat on the ground, his aura shattering, him now vulnerable to Maven's traps.
"What the hell was that?" Sky panted, using her spear as support as she stood up, noticing even more wires on the ground and was careful about moving.
Though it was clear he wasn't targeting Ray at all.
Maven raised one of his hands with a few wires on his fingers, then pulled on them causing breakages and creaking to echo around the circus as things snapped and tensed up. Claus noticed what was about to happen and what was probably the same fate that Gort succumbed to for when he lost.
He didn't think about himself, he was for the first time in his life, content on saving others, it threw away his rationality as he struggled to his feet and ran to Sky, her turning to look at Claus, surprised as she was pushed away while the wires from the ground tensed and snapped to snare Claus, wrapping around his body and tightening around him, enough to cut through his clothes and cutting into his skin as wires tightly bounded around him and held him still.
He tried to not scream out, biting his lip till it bled as he hung there, trapped but luckily not bleeding a lot but the pain is unimaginable every time Claus makes even the slightest of moves, somehow his sunglasses managed to stay in place by some miracle.
"Claus why?!" Sky called out but there wasn't enough time to react for Maven ran up and thrusted his knife forward.
Sky knocked it out of the way and with the other side of her spear, she swung it up to counter, making Maven leap backwards and again to dodge Ray's sudden attack.
Ray focused on wild and quick attacks at the ringleader, she was angry, showing it through her uncoordinated attacks, like a child swinging a couple of sticks, she was worried about Claus yet knowing that she couldn't just sit there and do nothing, yet for Maven, dodging these attacks were pure child's play.
"Mary, why are you doi-" Maven broke off mid-sentence upon noticing Sky coming in from above, for a downwards slash and dodged out of her way.
Sky had been able to lower Claus onto the floor using her semblance to untangle some of the wires but left others that were cut into Claus deeper than others to be safe and had placed a sheet underneath him to keep the dirt off him.
Next Sky proceeded to kick Ray and face back to Maven to spin her weapon, getting it caught on a wire, thus proceeding to change the sword from to get free.
"Take some time off!" She yelled, running forward to fight Maven, at this point Sky was effectively fighting alone again while Ray calmed down.
Ray sat on the ground and took a deep breath, she looked over to Claus who seemed to have passed out and stood up, watching the two, then looked at her scroll to see Sky's aura levels slowing getting lower and lower every time she gets hit by the wires or the knives but then also noticed a green Icon on the map that is said to be a huntsman nearby, that's what professor Mint told her in class a week ago anyway.
Ray then thought to take a couple of shots at Maven, hoping she could attract that huntsman's attention, unable to approach the two due to their fast-paced movement as Sky clearly got used to her lance, now being able to thrust it quickly and spin it to fend off Maven's wires.
Though it makes the Idol remember what Gort said about Sky, that she's better facing humans than Grimm and that is evidently true as Sky thought with quick reactions like she's predicting Maven's attacks, intuition, something gained from fighting a long time.
Ray she thought to help in other ways, running over to Claus to cover for him, looking over to Wave and nodding at him.
Now it turned int between Maven and Sky now, the two were locked in a fierce struggle to gain the advantage over one another, Maven using his wires to flip over Sky and to get out of her range before jumping in for lunge attacks that just get knocked away and then ending up with Maven getting punched in the face.
Sky couldn't move as much as she wanted to, being careful about the wire traps being laid around but her aura was now low but assuming Maven's was too at the two clashed again yet Maven getting the upper hand for an uppercut of Sky but she returned that with a headbutt.
Maven stumbled back and got caught on one of his own traps that snared his arm, giving Sky the opportunity to strike but Wave ran behind her and threw her back to Gort saying.
"Time to switch out, if you lose your aura, you lose against this one."
It made sense to switch out after seeing the results of what happens when someone gets caught in one of Maven's traps and Wave clearly had the most aura right now.
Wave ran at Maven with his weapons together now and swing at Maven's stomach.
Maven leaps up to dodge and lifts himself up to release himself from his own trap and somersaulted down to kick Wave, but his kick is blocked as Wave raises his weapon and threw the ringleader to the side and took a step back, awaiting to receive another attack.
Maven did just that, coming at Wave with a spinning attack, only being able to hit the weapon as Wave maneuverers to receive each attack, not being able to find any openings to counter attack, all he can do is block and buy time until someone came, then something clicked in his mind, he got the string out while still receiving the attacks and pulled out a red tipped arrow and then another arrow with multiple ends on it.
First shooting off one arrow to force Maven to retreat and then pulling back on the second arrow and fires it, but this arrow was a special one as on being shot, it split into 15-30 different, smaller arrows but in a much wider direction in which Maven couldn't dodge as he took the attack head on and fell to the floor and got snared by another of his traps, now struggling and panicking as they were around his neck and one of his legs, his air pipe slowly being crushed.
Although the stubborn ringleader wasn't done just yet.
"Fools… how dare these fools make a mockery out of me, in front of my maiden!" Even though he's a mockery to humanity at it's finest, he shifted his attention back onto Ray and didn't move, because he couldn't but instead just gave her a smile.
"One day… I will return and maybe we can meet under better circumstances… I'll evolve once again for you"
Then a shot screamed through the air and exploded onto the side of Maven's head but the size of the explosion was like a cannon shot out of nowhere, sending Maven a distance from his current spot with his aura shattering.
"Looks like I made it in time!"
Wave focused his attention on the entrance into the circus where there was a large man of a very muscular build, wearing a green sleeveless shirt, wearing some black baggy trousers with a huge belt to compliment it, he had a short but sharp brown beard and short spiky brown hair to match along with a scar on his cheek and many scars on his arms but most importantly.
His weapon was massive, it was a medieval cannon with two large blocks on the back in where he was holding it from, now transforming it to be a giant hammer with spikes decorating it, it seemed like a weapon that no human could use, even Wave with his insane strength couldn't confidently wield it, yet here is this mysterious man using it like a child's toy.
He gave a smile and looked around to see the two injured and the girls only slightly injured and then Wave with his weapon up, pointing it at Maven and pretty much got the jist of the situation and facepalmed, like he regretted coming here.
"So that call I got was to rescue come little chicks learning to fly, what a waste of my talent but hey you guys are hanging in there so that's a bonus."
The unknown huntsman put his huge weapon on his shoulder and approached Maven, when he was met by a surprise attack as he stabbed the huntsman, but his aura prevented the knife from piercing.
"Is that it? I don't even need to use this weapon against you." He sighed, tossing his weapon aside and proceeds to punch Maven in the face multiple times and kicks him away, now Maven gasps for air as the wires around his neck get tighter around him.
"Whoops, I guess I hit him too hard." The man laughed out loud.
"You think?! Anyway I'm assuming you're the help we asked for." Wave said, worried for what Maven might do and is keeping an eye on him.
"Names Wulf, that's all you need to know kid, anyway I need to get this one out of those wires and in jail."
"Another huntsman… troublesome, time to quit, game over, Mary…." Maven had risen himself up by his wires, holding himself up with his hands, now bleeding from the wires.
"That idiot! Kids, look away!" Wulf yelled out, covering Wave's eyes, Ray and Sky doing as told.
Click
That sound echoed through the air, soon afterwards, some of the security burst into the tent, getting a grasp of the situation and immediately ran to the injured to check their injuries and brought in a medical team to get Claus and Gort on stretchers, the other guards escorted Ray and Sky out while Wulf and Wave were taken out too, the team trying their best not to look up, assuming that Maven just committed the greatest sin.
The guards checked around the other parts of the tent and one was surprised by the sheer amount of bodies there were around the place and surely had many questions to ask but it was best to get everyone evacuated first.
"Hey wait, I left my weapon in there!" Wulf yelled out to the security.
"You'll have to wait after we're done inspecting the place."
"You shittin me? I need it!" The huntsman tried pushing back but it took 4 officers to get him to go the direction they wanted him to go.
"You'll get it back very soon, just wait!" One of the officers said, struggling to push Wulf back.
"You better not scratch it you hear I just got it restored!"
"Out of all huntsman, why did we get to have the loudest one?" Ray sighed as she was being lead into an ambulance along with Claus and Sky, Wave was being kept back for questioning and Gort was put into another ambulance and driven away swiftly meanwhile Wulf was being a handful, wanting to get his weapon back that he accidentally left in the tent, but as of right now, it was a journey to a hospital… again.
Probably one of the hardest chapters I've written since Maven's attack pattern is just so weird, why do I do this to myself? Oh well it was fun thinking about it all and his twisted personality, stay tuned for next week!
