Chapter 8 Vale's Keep
It's been a week or two since we last check up on the students of Beacon, especially our foxy fellow. Kituma is with Scorch right now and they were going to explore one of the sites that were in the tale of the Berserker Knight, it was Vale's Keep, after looking it up it turns out was the castle the king and his army lay during the great war. It also stated the castle was high on the mountain in very Grimm infested part of Vale.
"How much longer until we reach it Scorch?" Kituma asked out of boredom. They have been hiking for three hours straight. Both weren't tired they were more bored than anything else. Scorch answer Kituma's question with. "We are a couple minutes out and can it with your questions!" he yelled at the end. Kituma got the message very clear and they continued to mark onward in silence.
Few more minutes of hiking the finally made it to Vale's Keep. The castle was pretty huge, it took most of the pick of the mountain to support it. There was a bridge so they can get across. The bridge was large and made of stone, but it was clearly falling apart. So both got across and made sure it didn't collapse. Then both entered the castle. When they enter through the front gate this caught the attention of every Grimm in the main hall entrance. And there was a lot of them.
"I'll take the fifty on left and you take the fifty on the right," Kituma said to Scorch as he drew Rebellious ready to slay some Grimm. Scorch then said as his gauntlets and boots start to be covered in fire. "No I take the 51 on the right, and you take the 49 on the left." As he said that Scorch charges towards the Creatures of Grimm. Kituma said to himself mostly. "Whatever." As he charges in to fight the Creatures of Grimm too.
The Grimm that they are going to fight were Beowolves, Ursas, and even a couple Death Stalkers. Kituma uses Rebellious to slice through the Beowolves with ease, he would cut them clean in half or just behead them. Scorch's fighting style was very… Stylish, he would punch right through beowolf with his fire enhance fist. Or slice one in half with a single hook kick. Kituma was impressed but he didn't let that distract him.
Next, they dealt with Ursas. Kituma just kept attacking their chest and avoid the strikes. When the come even closer, Kituma would stop Rebellious right in their face. Scorch would just punch their legs to bring them down. Once he can get up close to their faces, he would jab his first into their mouth shot many blasts down their throat, then this causes there neck to burn their head detach from the rest of its body. Before they could get to the Death Stalker, some Griffons comes through open windows and were ready to swarm are two hunters.
"Well, this defiantly got more interesting," Kituma said as he drew Kitsune and Neko and start to rain bullets on the Griffons. Scorch launch balls of fire from his gauntlets like Yang and her Ember Celica. Some of the Griffons try to eat up the young huntsmen but each time they tried they lose their head and a wing, or both. While Kituma and Scorch were dealing with the Griffons a Death Stalker went up to Kituma and send its bright yellow stinger towards Kituma while his back was turned.
Kituma notices this and brought out Monjiro and got in a stance, with legs bent hand on the grip of the blade. Before the stinger could hit Kituma. He drew his blade and cut it clean up at the end of it. Then Kituma kicked it right into one of many eyes of the Death Stalker. Then he did a vertical slice and sheath Monjiro. The second he fully sheathed his blade the Death Stalker he was fighting was cut clean in half, right down the middle. This was enough to force the Grimm to retreat which was odd for Kituma at least.
They continued to explore the castle killing Grimm if they see them. They soon found a library inside the castle. They looked around the library in search of anything important. Kituma then found a journal that belongs to his ancestor Eden Kishi. I flip to the first page and it read.
"During one of my many walks around in the forest near Vale's keep, I have been hearing rumors of a Grimm made of metal rather than flesh and bone. I decided to look into if this creature is real or not. And I was in for a surprise of the results I got." Then we went back in time to the day that Eden Kishi was talking about. We see a Faunus in medieval armor with his fluffy orange fox tail hanging out from his armor. He had metal helmet over his head. He had had a classic knight sword with a kite shield on his back. He was wandering in a forest clearly trying to find any evidence of this metal Grimm's existence.
As Eden continued to explore he was soon surrounded by some thieves with their black clothing. They dual wield knife, and revolver in their holster. These must be a more experienced band of thieves. Eden was not intimidated by these thugs. Without any warning Eden charges at one of the three thieves, he tackled him at a tree and start to punch him, as the thief's aura was deleting he took his revolver and shoot him in the head killing him. The other two thieves recover and drew their revolver and start to fire at Eden. He quickly took cover behind a tree near him.
He looks at the revolver and sees he only has four shots to at least disarm their revolvers. He looks from behind the tree and got a good idea where to shoot. He turns to face them, he misses his first shot but got one of revolver out the hands of one of them, and same thing for the next one. He shoots the one he was about to take out in the foot. He kicks on to a tree which he bounces right back at Eden, which causes him to be impaled by Eden's sword he drew and extended. After he pulled out his sword from the thieves. Then he beheaded the last thief. Then he tosses the revolver away since he was not a gun-wielding type.
Then he felt he was being watched by someone. Then Eden saw a shadowy figure hiding amongst the trees. The only part of the person Eden could see was it Dark red Z shape eyes, those eyes had hatred, angry, but also curious. After a few moments of staring at one another, the thing left and Eden couldn't tell where it went. He knew that was likely the Grimm he was searching for and would keep searching for it, because he wants to know why it didn't just attack him, also why was it just watching him.
Kituma decides to bring it with him to finish later. He continued to explore the castle, Scorch had left the library and continued to search somewhere else. Kituma heard a quite growl and he sensed there was something large in this castle. Then from a hole in a wall came a large serpent-like head. Kituma quickly hid behind a bookshelf and look from the cracks in-between the bookshelves.
It was a head of a Hidora, they are a powerful type of Grimm. Unlike the Troll who is a nearly unstoppable force of nature and takes entire armies to even slow it down. A Hidora is a beginner's death trap with the ability to gain two heads when losing one, and with fire breath. Also, the only way to stop it is by killing the alpha head of the Hidora. Kituma didn't know the strengths of a Hidora so he decided he would just cut off the head and get it over with.
Kituma quickly snuck towards the head but before he could silently cut off its head, the Hidora head notices him and swallowed Kituma with one bite. Do you really think Kituma would have gone down so easily? Kituma then pushes the mouth of the Hidora open. He then said to the creature. "Sorry, my lizard friend. But this fox is not on the menu." Once he pushes it wide enough for him to escape. Instead, he pulls out from behind him as he said to the Creature of Grimm.
"Well if you want to swallow something. Then you can swallow this." Then he drew a custom Chiappa Shotgun, it had a dragon design on the barrel, the lever in the gun was made of gold like the barrel. The grip is black. Then he let loose. This piss off the Hidora. Kituma escaped the mouth of the beast. After he landed back on the ground he looks at the head he had escaped from. So the fox Faunus launch some shells at the beast.
The Hidora was getting piss, so it bit kituma and dragged him out the Library. The Hidora den was in the thorn room of this once great castle. The Giant Grimm toss Kituma to a pillar, Kituma crash right through it. After recovering from crash through a large pillar of stone, Kituma got a good look at the Hidora in all its glory. It had eight heads and this was defiantly an ancient Grimm with it being very armored and huge. Then the Hidora was getting by blasts of fire from Scorch was from a floor higher in the room. Some of the heads of the Hidora face Scorch, then unleash blasts of fire at him which he ran to dodge the attacks.
Kituma took this time to charge up his Drive attack and once he had generated enough energy. He swings his sword so the energy slashes cut right through some of the heads of the Hidora. To Kituma's surprise, the Hidora gain back all the heads it lost, plus a bonus one for each one he cut off. Scorch landed next to Kituma and said to him. "Hidora gains back the heads they lose plus an extra for each one cut off." Kituma rolled his eyes while saying to Scorch.
"Thanks, Scorch, that information is very welcomed." He said very sarcastically. Then both hid behind a pillar closest to them to avoid the fire the Hidora was using on them. Kituma then asked Scorch since he seems to know more about Hidoras then he does. "Aim for the alpha head, once that's gone the others will go with it." Scorch said to Kituma. Kituma Look from behind the Pillar and notice a Head that looks bigger and older than the other heads.
Kituma had an idea to take down this Hidora. He first brought out Monjiro and said to Scorch. "Distract it I need some time to charge my attack." Scorch nodded in agreement and so h kept raining hell on the Hidora's many heads. Kituma got into a stance as blue energy start to gather around the handle of Monjiro.
Scorch kept fire those blasts of fire at the Hidora. Some of the Grimm's head start to chump on Scorch but he would dodge them and punch them away. One of head try to get him from the front of him, so Scorch jump back. Then he shot a blast of fire to its face from his foot. Then he starts too quick rapidly which send multiple balls of fire at the Hidora's heads. Kituma finally got the attack fully charge and shouted to Scorch.
"Get out of the way!" Which Scorch did with gusto while Kituma drew Monjiro and slash at Hidora's multiple heads, mainly the alpha one with an energy wave coming from Monjiro. Kituma then kept slashing at until he ran out of power and sheath Monjiro. Once he did, All the Hidora's head explodes from being sliced so many times. The Hidora started to dissolve into nothing. Kituma then notices on top of the throne stood a large golden statue that was holding a black Kite shield with three spikes on top of the shield. The Symbol on the shield was of two demonic swords the form an X. On top of the X is a demonic helmet.
The Statue was armor that had a wolf head for a helmet. Then the Z shape eyes of the statue started to glow red and the shield pop off the statue and attached to Kituma's left wrist, how it attached to the fox Faunus's wrist with black tentacles coiled around his wrist. The shield was very light and it was better for defense than the other guys who have shields. Then it disappeared Like Monjiro since I am not using it at the moment. Scorch then said to Kituma.
"We should probably get going." He saw all that and smiled because everything is going according to the plan. Kituma agreed and they exit. Once they got across the bridge the entire castle and the bridge collapse and was almost completely gone. "That was sudden." Said by Kituma. Then he turns to face Scorch but he was gone. Kituma needs to legit since he was out of range of anyone's Aura signal that he is familiar enough to Shade Dash too. He kept walking deeper into the forest around the castle, killing Grimm that were attacking him.
Then he notices a green fog form around him. Then he notices a figure on a horse coming closer to him. He got Kitsune and Neko out, and ready to fire at this stranger. The stranger was riding a demonic horse with metal armor covering it, with torn black robes over it. The man itself was in a full metal suit, the armor was skeleton like in design. His head was a skull with glowing red eyes in its eye socks. It was creepy but awesome as well. Kituma was amazed by this guy's stuff, but also on guard because he doesn't look the friendliest of people.
"We finally meet the Struggler's child." The Knight like thing said in a very deep voice. Kituma then said to the skeleton knight. "What did you call me?!" he was little upset being called the Struggler's child. Then the stranger continued to speak to Kituma. "You are like a sheep away from your horde, clearly lost and unsure who or what you are." Kituma then said to this strange person in a skeleton armor. "well this little sheep is about to kick shiny metal ass." He said as he sent a red wave of energy at the stranger. The knight simply drew his sword and deflect the attack away. Then his charge at Kituma.
Their sword clash! Kituma was being pushed back as he digs up dirt with his feet. Then he was pushed against a tree and was completely overpowered by this stranger. Then the stranger sheath his sword which was connected on the back of his shield. Then he said to Kituma. "I am not your enemy. I helped your father and I'm here to help you." As he said that his horse backed up a bit to give the fox Faunus some space. Kituma then asked. "What's your name?" the stranger didn't answer for a few moments. He answers Kituma's question with.
"You can just call me Skull Knight. Before I go you keep on your guard. Because the queen's pawns are about to set everything in motion." Skull Knight was slowly riding away. Kituma shouted towards Skull Knight. "Who is the queen you speak of, what you know about my dad!" But Skull Knight disappeared and didn't answer Kituma's many questions. As Kituma continues to head toward Beacon as he said to himself. "Why is good help so hard to find these days."
Back in Vale, we see a figure in almost completely covered in black. He was sitting on a bench across the street from a book shop called Tukson's book trade. He was doing a crossword puzzle, so far he got the words Freddy, Dragen, Red and Blue. Then he notices a brown girl with green hair, along with a man with silver hair. They started to leave and the stranger then tosses the crossword puzzle into a trash can and enter the book shop and saw a corpse on the floor.
Then with his demonic hand, he uses a single figure that had red electricity formed around it, he pointed at the corpse and shot a blast of red energy at it. The corpse came to life and brought back Tukson back from the dead. Needless to say, Tukson freaked out. Then the stranger snapped his figures, then two suitcases appeared in front of Tukson. "You have some importance to me." The stranger said as gave Tukson a ticket to Vaccuo and then the stranger continue to speak to Tukson.
"Go to Vaccuo, but I will call on your assistance since you owe me your life." Then the stranger left and walk into the morning sunlight as he wonders what the queen is planning, and how can he calls her plan to collapse on top of her. But for now, he will wait and watch how the next events play out.
Changes I made to Kituma and Rebellious.
Kituma 5.10ft Now 6.0ft
Rebellious 5ft long. Now 5.3 ft
