All right, calm down. This will be the last author note for a wile I promise. I just needed to inform you that the chapter length will now (after this chapter) be going back up to it's original length of 3,000 words, apart from that I would like some reviews on how I'm doing. Make about anything, just gimme some feedback. I would appreciate it and honestly? Feedback does help me improve! And if I improve the writing will get better; that's a win win
The rhythm of Ruby's feet pounding against the ground smoothed and studied, as well as increased in tempo as the ground level. Just a moment before both Ruby and Weiss had come upon strange landmark, rocks seemed to be buried underneath the ground; that or they forced their way up and created uneven hills.
At first Ruby had been afraid that the uneven terrain would slow them down, but it seemed to affect the pack of Ursa more than them. Not only did it slow the Grimm down considerably but it also made the angrier. Their howls of bloodthirsty could be heard for miles now, so many going off so loudly that just as Arashi and Holly made eye contact a great distance away they heard them.
"What the bloody hell was that?" Holly screamed almost with surprise. Despite the sound sounding like a great many monsters, Holly didn't shrivel up in fear she knew that she needed to prove herself. "Wait don't answer that, I'll probably find out myself."
"What do you mean? You intend to go and find out what made that sound?" Arashi asked, for the great Ursa howling had stopped and the forest was somehow more silent than before. No animals stirred in Forever Fall, for fear of the Grimm had driven all but the most untouchable of wildlife. However in the aftermath of the howling even the trees seemed to be afraid to even creak. Arashi strained his expertly attuned Faunus ears, he heard nothing but Arashi could still remember the exact direction the sounds had come from.
"Yeah I do, got to prove ourselves right? What if those monsters are attacking another partnership, if that is true than think how much better our performance will look of we go and help them!" Holly insisted, what she didn't tell Arashi was that she knew the exact reason why the Ursa had been howling. Being an expert in all things concerning the Grimm Holly knew and recognized the exact howling for what it meant.
The Ursa were indeed following a partnership of students, who else would be stupid enough to even venture out here? What Holly knew for a fact that an Ursa, or any Grimm for that matter never got that angry unless they were literally on the warpath. No Grimm howled with that much fervency or great volume, unless they had seen one of their own kind slaughtered. Grimm were very connected to each other, no Grimm was more connected to another than to a Grimm of the same species.
Thanks to this fact Holly deduced that the pack of Ursa were currently focusing on two threats, assuming it was only on partnership in danger, and taking them out. A Grimm if not provoked openly would stay away from humans, that's only because the Grimm knew the general masses to be guarded against them. And thanks to multiple Grimm slayings, which unknown to the hunters the entire Grimm population currently writhing on Remnant had felt.
This weariness was abandoned when the Grimm saw someone encroach upon his or her domain (yes there were confirmed genders among the Grimm, Holly didn't like the implications of that), the current domain being Forever Fall. Now the Ursa were more docile they wouldn't attack any human or Faunus unless approached. Even then if a human or Faunus was to approach a pack of Ursa the only Grimm that would attack the unspeakably stupid person would be the one they approached directly.
This instinct of the Ursa was completely overridden and changed when a pack of the witnessed one of their kind being slaughtered, then they went into a calculated rampage that is best know for driving the human and Faunus races to the edge of extinction. It's what the Grimm is most commonly known for, as Holly knew however that wasn't their most dangerous weapon. Holly rushed off yelling to Arashi, "We have to go see what's gong on anyway! We obviously landed beyond the relic pile perhaps whoever is being chased by those Ursa knows where the relic pile is!"
"How do you know it's called a relic pile? Ozpin or Goodwitch didn't tell you did they?" Arashi commented as they ran through the forest. The sound had only been a few miles off and the Ursa had fell silent, Holly knew this most likely meant that the Ursa knew they had their prey cornered. When this happened the Ursa would become silent and stalk their intended victims, that's how the Great Slaughter of old had began; a great force of Ursa weeding their way into society and then once the rest of the Grimm arrived they struck.
Holly shook her head of this; both her and Arashi had finally come upon the Ursa right as they discovered two girls hiding just outside of the trees they were in. Nor Holly or Arashi could see what was beyond the trees…well they could've if they had just moved sideways until their view wasn't blocked by the massive Grimm, but out of fear of sending the Grimm into an even more impotent rage they dared not.
One of the girls screamed and an Ursa roared, suddenly as if waiting for this queue half the Ursa pack went beyond the trees…and the other half turned towards Holly and Arashi. Once of them stood a ways off from the rest of the pack, it looked to be the largest of the Ursa. "Is that the leader? I wonder how he ended up bigger than the rest…" Arashi thought aloud. 'Yeah keep wondering, no solid evidence has ever been discovered as to why or how or when packs started forming, but now it seems that all Grimm types have packs.' Holly thought to herself, remembering the long and complicated book she had read detailing the pack patters of all known types of Grimm.
Holly knew of a small few types that had either gone unmentioned or undiscovered, and she had learned their pack patterns through careful study. Granted after a while Holly nearly went mad, she hadn't gained a complete knowledge of everything about the known Grimm Holly know knew everything there is to know about every Grimm, even the 'undiscovered' ones. These mysterious Grimm had passed over the perception of every mortal, well almost every one thanks to Holly.
However despite knowing all this Holly really disliked telling anyone, it made her cringe when she saw the stupidity among many humans and Faunus when it came to their greatest threat. With the recent uprising of a group calling themselves the White Fang, about 30 years previously, many of the population of Remnant began to suspect the opposite race. Humans began to distrust Faunus, and that was only started about 15 years ago.
15 years ago had seen the White Fang nearing its goal of securing peace and more equal right for the Faunus. This was a history lesion currently running through Holly's mind, she always thought of things like this as she fought. Holly inside wasn't a very violent person, but she knew that in order to improve and evolve and ultimately break away from the shell she had become when she had cancer, she had to become someone fierce.
And who was fiercer than a Huntress? No one was fiercer, Holly had searched and searched but nowhere in the history books or recordings of Remnant was there any mention of a more iconic or fierce icon than the two first Hunter and Huntresses. In total there had been four, two Hunters and two Huntresses. It was said that they formed a Hunter pair and Huntress pair, each member was everything the other was not; but each of them matched each other in skill.
That was the standard that all Hunter and Huntress training had been based off of ever since the still hotly debated end of the Great War. Holly slew her second Ursa singly handedly, Arashi and her had been separated and they had been desperately fighting their way towards each other. When they finally slew the Ursa between them, they finally heard the silence again. What worried Holly and Arashi most was the fact that they couldn't hear the two girls fighting at all.
Deciding to check things out Holly went behind Arashi as both of them headed through the blood soaked patch of trees. When Arashi came upon the spot where the two girls and the rest of the Ursa pack lead, he stopped hand held up a fist. Holly knew this was a military single for company halt, and so she didn't walk past him to see what had caused Arashi to stop.
Holly did this because she knew that trust was needed in a partnership, but the real reason she did it was because she idolized the first Huntresses. Holly, all her life had wanted to be exactly like them, however when she had been diagnosed with cancer and had went through the ensuing depression that had followed Holly attempted to commit suicide multiple times. This was after her grand idea of becoming a Huntress had dwindled; the depression had contained a feeling of self-loathing that had torn down Holly's self esteem until almost nothing was left except self-loathing.
To this day Holly was still battling the self-loathing and depression, it was still there and the weight of it hadn't changed. Holly had managed to move it aside thanks to her obsession of learning everything there was to know about Grimm. Arashi signaled to Holly that she could now move beyond him and she did, but only a few feet beyond before she stopped completely. In front of Holly was a great hole.
A perfect circle naturally formed, it fell through the earth with straight and almost smooth sides. Holly stared at it and realized that she remembered coming here to this exact spot before. Holly knew all there was to know about Grimm, but she didn't like to remember how she had come across all that knowledge.
When Holly had seen her first Grimm she had become obsessed, to this day Holly still couldn't figure out why her mind had zeroed in on the mysterious creatures called Grimm. Sometimes (when no one was around) Holly would have very heated debates with herself about why she had become obsessed, but what Holly knew for a fact was that she had made Grimm knowledge her obsession.
Luckily for her parents the obsession prevented Holly from focusing on her depression and committing suicide. Right when the obsession had started Holly had been about to die from cancer. When Holly began…doing whatever she had done to acquire all the knowledge of all there ever was to know about the Grimm, it focused her mind. And eventually Holly's body focused and moved away from her hospital bed and out into the world.
Right before she left the doctors diagnosed Holly with clinic insanity, however the next morning Holly had disappeared, much to the worry of her mother. Her father on the other hand had seen Holly depart and had confronted her, he had been told by his daughter of her newfound obsession. And despite the recent encounter with a Grimm, Holly's father let her daughter indulge in her obsession.
It was a year ago that Holly had come out of her obsession and back into her parent's life, when she did however she discovered her period and the fact that she was a woman now. Holly had grown up, her childhood had been all spent up when she had gotten cancer, and her teenage years had been consumed in her obsession. Even though Holly was now 17, as of the current day, she had started her adult life a year ago.
Holly being at the maturity level of an adult plus a year of experience acting and being an adult was naturally above even some of the most mature girls her age. This fact separated Holly from her class mates even more than the fact that she always wore he fedora, and had paler than albino skin. The second reason wouldn't have been a problem had Holly told anyone who had asked the real reason why her skin was so white.
"Why is you skin so pale?" Arashi asked. They were now away from the pile of dead Ursa corpses and heading back towards the relic pile. The two girls, who were know known as Weiss and Ruby to Holly and Arashi, were currently leading the way. Holly was stunned at the question, but she answered Arashi honestly mainly because he was her partner, "I was diagnosed with malignant cancer when I was 7 years old."
Arashi looked at his partner Holly with concern, and asked, "You don't sill have it do you?" "I don't know, I became obsesses with something it took my mind off the cancer. I guess I might still have it, but that was years ago! The doctors said it was malignant, that means deadly! They also said that when I was 7, I'm 17 now." Holly responded.
Holly was about to tell Arashi more when she realized that they were coming upon the relic pile. "Alright partner! This is it, time to choose our relics!" Arashi said them beamed a genuine smile at Holly, it held hope for her getting better and had nothing to do with what he had just said. 'I've told him so little, and yet he still is very concerned and wished me better.' Holly thought. She had never met someone like Arashi before. Holly wasn't romantically inclined towards Arashi; it's just that every time Holly had told someone anything about what had happened to her after the age of and at 7 years old, they demanded to know more.
Arashi on the other hand hadn't pressed Holly for more information about it, and Holy had a feeling that he wouldn't anytime soon. As Arashi and Holly grabbed the last two relics and the last remaining group of students trudged back to Beacon, Ruby could be visibly seen with a limp. When Holly asked if they should stop, Weiss Ruby's partner insisted that they all went back to Beacon, whatever test they had just completed it was finished.
