Hello, and welcome back to VENM, hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Sorry for the delay in posting this, but it took ages to write, and I didn't have that much time on my hands. As always, have a pleasant read.

Chapter eight, blood on the snow.

Vasren shivered in the blistering winds, his heavy coat drawn tightly around him, and buttoned up for once. Beside him, Nerada and Malik stood, arms tucked under their armpits to conserve heat. Nerada was even using her shield, Aeris, as a windbreak. Electra was using Vasren as a windbreak, standing with her back against his, teeth chattering.

They were standing on one of the circular landing pads at the front of the school, waiting for a series of small transports to take them on a field trip to the mountains north of vale. Goodwitch had called it wilderness survival. With extra Grimm.

Their combat lessons had been more interesting as well lately, adding environmental factors into the fights. Terrain, weather conditions, fatigue, sleep deprivation. It was a grueling course, but one that Vasren excelled at. He was top of the class, his long years as a mercenary lending him invaluable experience in the field.

Malik was doing almost as well, showing uncanny adaptability and seemingly infinite endurance. Nerada had a knack for being able to bull straight through obstacles and adverse conditions with admirable stoicism. Electra was flagging though, often simply unable to cope with some of the scenarios. Although, in saying that, she was one of the deadliest close quarter fighters in the entire academy, her weapons easily able to disable opponents and blast away their aura in short order. Only yang xiao long, the blond that had accosted him on his first day, rivaled that deadly competence.

They had been notified of the trip during their last class, an exercise in the forests near the academy, where Vasren had been pitted against four opponents, who had had time to dig in and wait for him.

He smiled at the memory. That had been an enjoyable class. He had quickly turned the tables on them, easily guessing their hides and ambushing them one by one. Goodwitch had used the display as an example of exactly how to approach a possible ambush situation, and had roasted CRDL over the coals for their predictable hiding spots and poor communication. Cardin hadn't taken that well, still nursing his pride after being saved from an Ursa Major by jaune in forever fall.

Vasren had apparently handled the situation poorly, though he had thought he was giving helpful advice.

He shook his head and scratched his ear under his hat. The wind picked up, stinging his exposed face and ears. He shivered and turned up his collar in an attempt to assuage the issue. It worked for the most part.

Electra shivered against him, he could barely feel her diminutive frame through his armored coat. She had been acting a little calmer since her escapade at the club two weeks ago. A little. She was still an unpredictable hothead.

But she had been acting weirdly as well. She was unable to maintain eye contact with him, she rarely talked to him, or volunteered to spend time around him, refused his help. It was puzzling.

He was jerked out of his thoughts as professor goodwitch walked onto the landing pad, black and purple cape flying in the wind like a banner.

She turned to face the class, and swept her eyes across the sixteen assembled students. Teams VENM, CRDL, TOPZ, and OPAL. She began to explain the mission, but between the wind and his raised, flapping collar, he couldn't hear a word she said. He shut his eyes, extending his senses outwards as he had been trained to. He could hear the roaring wind, the flap, snap and clink of combat gear, the snippets of words from goodwitch. He could feel the rushing air past his face, the gale stinging his skin with tiny droplets of water. He could feel the impression of his teammate pressed against his back. Her tiny frame only reaching his upper back, her head between his shoulder blades, pressing his sword against his back.

He heard the engines of an airship, and the welcome heat of the engine's backwash. He opened his eyes to see a pair of bullheads landing by them, ramps descending to touch down on the platform.

Vasren rolled his shoulders and advanced towards the closest one, his team at his back. Electra maintained her position behind him, out of the worst of the wind. Nerada held her shield forwards, the wind splitting around it as she walked forwards, just to the right and a step behind her team leader. Malik was to her right, his golden brown hair flapping in the wind, his olive skin slightly reddened by wind chill.

Luckily for them, the interior of the airship was much warmer, the heat from the engines washing through the cabin. Vasren walked to the section nearest the nose and grabbed one of the overhead loops to balance himself.

Across from him, team CRDL walked into the cabin, dressed in full battle gear. Except that one guy with the Mohawk, he just wore a sleeveless shirt and goosebumps.

Cardin stared daggers at Vasren, who glanced at him indifferently.

"If it's this frickin cold in the mountains, I'm gonna freeze to death." Shouted Electra over the scream of the engines as the bullhead took off.

Vasren shouted an answer. "It's your own fault for wearing such thin clothing"

"Shut the hell up Vasren, I was bitching about the cold not asking for a lecture."

Nerada smirked. Malik rolled his eyes exasperatedly.

The door slid closed, finally shutting out the howling gale.

Vasren breathed a sigh of relief, his breath frosting in the frigid air. Electra relaxed a little as well, but still had her arms hugged across her chest for warmth. Nerada set Aurum aflame for a moment, heat rolling off it in waves to fill the cabin with a pleasant warmth.

The screen on the back wall of the cockpit bleeped, and an image of professor goodwitch appeared on it.

"VENM, CRDL, your missions will be to scale the mountain you will be dropped off at, the first team to reach the top will be the winner. The bullheads will be on standby, but calling for one will forfeit your grades for this class. May the best team win."

The screen shut off abruptly.

Vasren sighed and rolled his shoulders, popping his neck left and right. Nerada put out Aurum and sheathed the angular golden blade. Electra and Malik just stood normally, one hand gripping the handholds hanging from the ceiling for balance.

CRDL were talking quietly amongst themselves, and Cardin was casting venomous glances at Vasren constantly.

Vasren, however continued to ignore him .

The flight lasted a little over an hour, and was pretty comfortable for the most part. Vasren found Electra a small snow cloak in one of the onboard lockers, draping it around her shoulders and showing her how to fasten and unfasten it quickly.

Malik also retrieved one, but obviously knew his way around the garment already.

Nerada waved them off, pointing out that her own cape, and padded jumpsuit were warm enough as it was.

Before long Electra felt a subtle change in the foot-numbing vibrations felt through the deck plate. Then the pull of centripetal force as the bullhead made a banking turn. The door popped open, allowing them a view of the mountain.

It wasn't huge, for a mountain. But it was still easily a kilometer and a half of broken, jagged snow covered rock. Looked fun...

Vasren, who was standing next to her, was studying the rock face intently, deep, inscrutable violet eyes scanning across it. Documenting. Memorizing. Analyzing. It was kinda funny to watch, the way his face screwed up around the eyes and his lips moved slightly, as if he were talking to himself. Except, he was talking to himself. She could hear him, just barely over the wind.

"... Chasm. Ascend the switchbacks to the- no, avalanche. Perhaps the scree slope on the other face, which is even worse for avalanches, so that's gone. Maybe the rockfall there, no no no..."

How strange. Kinda almost cute though. Almost. Electra was definitely not interested in Vasren, whatever that pest Nerada said. That just wasn't who Electra was. Surely.

Electra caught herself staring, but even worse, Nerada caught her staring. Damn her and her patronizing little smile.

The ship slowed and descended to only a couple meters above ground. The pilots voice came through the intercom.

"VENM, go"

Vasren didn't need to be told twice, and leapt from the craft, landing in the snow below safely. Nerada and Malik jumped down next, Nerada clanking loudly as she hit, her skirt probably accounting for most of the racket. Electra landed next, almost flattening Nerada. Oops.

Nerada pulled Electra from the snow drift she was half buried in and looked up towards the mountain.

Vasren was stood ahead if them, head angle towards the mountain. He half turned to look over his team, analyzing. He shuffled slightly from the cold, then motioned towards the mountain up ahead. "Let's go, times wasting."

VENM nodded collectively and followed their leader into the oncoming snow.

The mountain was treacherous, the snow covered rocks and cracks that stole their footing. Malik was better used to this terrain than anyone else though. He had been climbing mountains since he was a small boy, back on his home island. His feet instinctively found the best footing, his claws digging into the ice next to the path, or what passed for a path here. His team struggled through the snow around him, the wind plucking at their clothing and blasting them with snowflakes and tiny pellets of ice. He felt right at home.

Nerada was standing at the front, shoulder to shoulder with Vasren, her shield raised against the howling gale. Electra struggled behind them, her snow cloak pulled tight around her, the fur lined hood pulled up over her head. Her smaller frame was of no help to her here. Up in the mountains, bigger is better. And Malik was the biggest of all of them, giving him the best heat conservation.

Ahead of him Vasren stopped and called a halt, raising one fist over his shoulder. Nerada stopped immediately, shield still up and cloak flapping in the wind. Electra wasn't looking where she was going and walked into Vasren, tripping over his foot and falling face first into the snow. Vasren knelt down and helped her up, brushing snow off her cloak. Malik pulled abreast of Nerada and looked ahead, whistling softly.

The break in the rock they had been following was cut across by a scree slope, the loose boulders sharp and jagged, like they had been blasted from the side of the edifice by explosives. Vasren assessed the terrain carefully. Nerada cursed softly. Electra just hugged her arms across her chest and shivered.

Vasren took two steps forwards, testing the ground with a foot. He turned around, the wind now blowing at him side on.

"Alright, the terrain here looks treacherous to say the least, be very careful where you place your feet, one misstep could cause an avalanche here." He turned and looked pointedly at Electra. "Electra, you are going to be carried across this part, your turning blue and you need to rest."

She glared back at him with fire in her eyes. "I'm fine dammit. I don't need your pity."

"But you do need my help, like it or not your freezing to death up here. Also your clothing is the least suited for the cold, and your short arms and legs aren't doing you any favors on this terrain either."

Electra looked ready to rip Vasren's throat out.

Vasren sighed and cast his eyes heavenward. "I'm not budging on this, you won't make it across the scree, not in snow this deep and wind this bad."

Electra looked out across the slope, her fear beginning to creep into her fiery gaze. She shivered, and hugged her arms across herself.

"Fucks sake fine." She spat, trudging towards Vasren angrily.

Malik had to suppress a laugh, seeing Electra humbled in this way was quite entertaining. Reckless little hothead. Vasren looked over at him, expression hidden behind his coat collar.

"Malik, you take point. Let us know if you find anything... unstable."

Malik sighed and walked abreast of Vasren, who had picked up Electra and hugged her close to his chest.

Electra was miserable. This was so far beyond embarrassing it wasn't even funny. She walked up to her team leader and glowered at him. If Vasren cared then he certainly didn't show it on his face. His normally death-white skin was reddened from the cold, and his too-deep violet eyes were still creepy. His unreadable, blank face was still blank and unreadable and annoying and unreadable. He stooped down and picked her up, one arm under her knees, the other around her shoulders. He pulled her tightly against his chest, inside the folds of his coat. Fuck this was annoying. She wrapped her arms around her chest and tucked her chin against her collar.

"Wrap your arms round my shoulder, try and support some of your own weight."

Electra glared at Vasren. Then complied. Grudgingly.

She pulled herself close against him, trying to shrink their silhouette. Vasren did up his coat, her still inside it. She rested her head on his chest, and closed her eyes. He wasn't wearing the thick ceramic chestplate he generally wore. Just a tough, serviceable black shirt. His coat wasn't sewn with the usual armor either. Weird. Almost as weird as...

"Your shoulder feels funny."

"What?"

"Your. Shoulder. Feels. Funny."

"Don't distract me, we're traversing a dangerous scree slope by footprints over a five hundred meter escarpment during a light blizzard."

"But it feels really weird, it doesn't have any give to it at all. And it's cold."

"We're in the snow, maybe it's frozen solid."

"Have I hit a nerve?"

"Hit anything, and with your semblance, we will tumble down this slope to our painful deaths. Not even quick and painful, just painful."

Electra made a dissatisfied noise and tucked herself further into his coat. It was still cold here, but bearable.

Vasren breathed a sigh of relief. Electra looked round and saw that the ground was once again solid under their feet. She squirmed, trying to free herself.

"I wouldn't, snow has collected here and it's thigh deep on me, you'd drown in it."

He turned his head up.

"Nerada, take point, use your shield to bash us a path through the snow."

Nera nodded and overtook Malik, the big lion Faunus stepping gracefully to the side.

Vasren looked above them.

"Looks like the trail hits a broken section up ahead, we can use that to climb up to the other trail, about fifty meters up from here."

Malik called back. "A hundred at least, the path slopes up towards the rockfall. Good news is that it looks stable, bad news is that we're gonna be fully exposed to the wind up there, this high up..." He blew a breath out through ballooned cheeks, only obvious because of the fog breath that billowed out of his mouth. "Keep a tight grip on the rocks."

Electra sighed and burrowed deeper against Vasren's chest. Fuck this class.

Electra hated the ascent. Every damn one of those twenty five minutes. She felt so useless, bundled up inside Vasren's god damned long coat. The worst part was that he was right, she couldn't have made the climb on her own, she simply wasn't tall enough. She hated that. They were on flatter ground now, but the snow was still exceptionally deep, even Malik was struggling. Up ahead was another scree slope, this one even less stable looking than before. At its base was a wide plateau, covered in smooth, undisturbed snow.

Electra wanted out, but somehow couldn't muster the will to say so. She just stayed inside the coat, clinging to Vasren like a child, safe and warm. Or as safe and warm as you could be on an unstable scree slope in the middle of a howling blizzard. She felt a change in Vasren's gait. More careful, slower.

Vasren unbuttoned his coat and gently set Electra down. She immediately hated it. The snow was shallower here, but still reached her knees. The wind was a bitch too, ripping across her pale skin and lashing at it with remorseless fury. Vasren looked down at her, violet eyes like wells of night.

"Don't worry, I'll carry you after this. But this scree is made of much smaller rock, and I can't be dexterous enough to traverse it while carrying you."

"F-fine, Just, p-pick me the fuck back up afterwards."

Vasren nodded and ushered her forwards.

"Follow the footprints, it's a lot easier going."

Electra nodded and started off, placing her feet carefully down on the snow covered rocks. She was breathing hard by the time she was halfway across, her legs shaking and muscles spasming as she shivered inside her cloak. Malik and Nerada were already across. Malik was looking up the scree slope towards the peak.

Vasren was only a step behind her, his coat billowing in the wind to stream out behind him. He occasionally reached over to steady her on the rougher sections.

Electra stepped forwards tentatively. Her feet slipping easily into the footprints already there. She shivered and took another step forwards.

Nerada called out encouragingly from the stable trail on the other side. Malik was still looking up at the peak, squinting into the blizzard. Suddenly his face drained of color.

"GET OFF THE SLOPE, NOW!"

A deafening rumble sounded from further up the slope, and a faint flash of orange could be seen, then swiftly forgotten as the dark, amorphous mass of an avalanche came rushing down towards them.

Electra felt herself yanked upwards into the crushing warmth of Vasren's coat. He then ran forwards, crouched low. The rumbling was getting louder very quickly.

Electra's world was reduced to flashes of bright images and indistinct impressions for the next several seconds. Vasren, head down and shoulders hunched, arms protectively around her. Nerada and Malik, tantalizingly close. Chunks of ice and rocks exploding across Vasren's back, sending shards of shrapnel everywhere. The blizzard wind stinging her face, each tiny piece of malicious snow stinging her like a red hot felt herself twist and start hurtling forwards. She saw Vasren get batted off the side of the mountain like a fly, a rock the size of a small car smashing him from his feet to tumble down the slope. She landed in the snow by Malik and Nerada, arms and legs akimbo. She immediately rolled over onto her back and looked down towards the scree slope, panic rising from her chest to force its way up her throat.

Vasren was hurt. Badly.

She ran to the edge of the ledge, looking down over the slope. The Avalanche had subsided, only a few small pebbles and bits of snow still gently rolling down the mountain. Vasren was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Vasren?" Asked Nerada, her face white with worry.

"I'm looking for him, but don't go down the- DAMMIT ELECTRA GET BACK HERE"

Electra wasn't listening. She had to get down the slope, she had to make sure he was alive. He had to be alive. He had to be.

Her ankle suddenly caught between a pair of rocks, trapping it painfully. Her body kept going, and she fell forwards, her head smacking the rocks painfully. Her vision went dark.

Nerada cursed furiously. This wasn't going well at all. First Vasren got caught in the avalanche thanks to Electra being slow, then the hothead herself runs down the unstable scree slope after him.

Malik coursed after her, his feet sure and stance perfect. Nerada followed him, sword sheathed and shield readied in case of any other rockfall. Electra had gone down, tripped over in the scree.

"Malik, find Vasren, I'll take care of Electra."

The Faunus nodded, then moved down towards the base of the scree, near the plateau. This was really not good. Vasren was probably buried under a layer of rock and ice.

Electra wasn't moving, the wind blew gently across her, rustling her clothing and hair. Nerada went to one knee beside her, and checked the small girl for a pulse. It was there, strong and regular. Then she looked across the rest of her. She had a bad cut across her scalp, which had bled down across her face, covering one eye. The blood was freezing, and looked like wax across half her head. The rest of her seemed fine except- oh no...

Her leg was trapped between two rocks, the shin was broken, without a doubt. The knee upwards was fine, if scratched and bruised.

This really wasn't good.

Nerada fished her scroll from the pack at the small of her back, hidden beneath her cape. She flipped it open and struggled to read the screen through the howling blizzard. She pressed the screen and checked on her team's aura levels.

Both hers and Malik's were basically fine, though depleted by about a third due to the cold. Electra's was down, and had been almost gone the whole time anyway. The mountain hadn't been kind to the slight girl. Vasren's was totally down as well, but his vital signs were still there otherwise. That was good news at least.

Malik shouted from further down, then pointed.

Vasren was barely visible to her through the overcast darkness and now furious blizzard. He had crawled from beneath a pile of small rocks and chunks of snow and ice. His right arm was dragging, useless. His hat was gone, blown off in the wind somewhere. He staggered to his feet on the plateau, some fifty feet below them.

Nerada sighed in relief and began extricating Electra from the rocks. She had just picked her up when a deafening roar sounded from lower down on the mountainside. Nerada turned to peer through the snow, her eyes squinted against the blisteringly cold wind.

What she saw made her stomach clench in fear.

An Ursa Major was shambling out of the snow. It was huge, even hunched over it was twelve or fifteen feet tall. It's claws were as long as short swords, and it's arms and back bristled with long, jagged spines and armor plates.

It snuffled the ground, pushing its nose through the deep snow and across the rocks. Then it stopped, and stood stock still. Oh no.

It roared again, and charged off into the snow, bone blades flashing and clawed feet throwing up flurries of snow with each step.

Nerada began to dash down the slope, Electra cradled in one arm, Aeris held ready in the other. Malik was ahead of her, leaping and bounding down the slope with inhuman balance and reflexes, he seemingly moved faster than was possible, feet barely touching the ground.

Nerada was slower, but just as sure.

She could hear the sounds of battle from further down the mountain, on the plateau. The unmistakable boom of Vasren's heavy cannon, the enraged screams of the Ursa, Malik's own war shouts.

Nerada tripped and fell, a rock simply giving way and crumbling under her weight. She twisted midair and landed on her shield, the massive armor plate skidding across the rocks. Electra slipped free of her grasp, the slight, badly hurt girl hurtling down the face of the mountain. They both landed in the deep snow of the plateau.

Nerada stood up, dazed and struggled to regain her balance.

She shook her head to clear it and looked towards the fight.

Malik smashed into her, the big Faunus knocking her from her feet and then lying across her chest, pinning her. He stood up slowly, shaking his head in a daze.

Vasren was fighting the Ursa alone. He was retreating slowly, his right knee bent at an angle that it physically shouldn't be able to exist at. His right arm gripped his heavy double bladed sword. Or what was left of it. Both the blades had been snapped off near the hilt, only leaving about six inches of blade. The cannon seemed intact, though he had clearly run out of ammo. The Ursa mayor swiped at him, the claws raking across his chest. The impact tossed him backwards into the rockfall, dazed. Nerada rushed forwards, shield raised and sword trailing behind her, the fire dust within the blade igniting, bathing the golden blade in fire. The Ursa lunged forwards, jaws agape. Vasren raised his right arm to block, but his leg gave out and he fell backwards. The Grimm's jaws clamped around him upper arm, the teeth puncturing his coat to sink deep into the arm beneath. Then, it shook its head, tearing the arm from its socket in a spray of blood.

Nerada heard a scream behind her, a horrified, desperate scream. She summoned her semblance, calling on the force of the relentless gale that had been battering her all day, focusing it to her right fist. She slammed it against the back of her shield, in the centre. Her semblance exploded outwards, releasing the pent up force gathered about her fist straight into the shield. The layers of crystallized dust and interlocking steel plates focussed the force towards the boss at the centre of Aeris. The force exploded outwards, shaped roughly into an expanding dome, its apex directly over the boss of her shield. The shockwave blasted towards the gigantic Ursa, scraping snow from the ground and carrying the slowly falling particles with it. The wave hit the Ursa like a truck. It was flipped over on its side, it's spikes digging into the snow. Nerada charged forwards and buried Aurum deep in its belly, the fiery blade hissing as the Ursa's flesh cooked and swelled. She jacked the sword out and prepared for a second strike sword point aimed for its rib cage.

The Ursa, however, was not dead yet.

It kicked her with one of its stubbier hind legs, the impact throwing her backwards through the snow. Malik ran next to her, out of breath and still a little dazed from his short flight across the ice.

"Nerada, go get an airship, I've got the Ursa."

"You sure?"

"Positive, now go."

Nerada nodded and sprinted towards Vasren, her left hand covering her side with Aeris, her right hand grabbing for the flare gun she had been issued.

Malik was wreathed in a reddish gold light, and was staring down the Ursa as it roared at his face in a bid to intimidate him. Malik grinned a feral grin, then charged the gigantic Grimm head on.

He moved with unnatural speed and grace, every movement precise, choreographed. The red-gold glow of his aura suffused his muscles with unnatural speed and precision.

The two feral being clashed in a flurry of churned snow and vicious roaring.

Nerada's hand closed around the handle of the flare gun, and she fired it straight upwards, the golden projectile arcing upwards, trailing an intense glow. She hoped against hope that the pilots would be able to see it.

She reached Vasren a moment later, and was stopped short at what she saw.

He was a mess.

His body was covered in abrasions, bleeds and breaks from the tumble with the Avalanche. That alone must have depleted his aura and then some. But his whole left side was ripped open, the skin torn open to reveal the muscles and blood vessels beneath. She could even see a couple of his ribs. And his arm, Dust his arm. The rip was covered by the shredded remains of his coat, a fact for which she was immensely glad. She gathered armfuls of snow and packed them into his wounds, trying to stop the bleeding. According to her scroll he was still alive, barely. But his dreams of becoming a huntsman were over, there was no way he could fight without his right arm, or the use of his right leg, which, from the angle it was at, would never function properly again.

She heard a rustle next to her, then a horrified gasp.

Electra.

The short, violent, hotheaded girl was stood there, staring at Vasren's ripped and torn form with utter, and total shock. She fell to her knees and screamed. It was a gut wrenching, grief stricken sound. She keened and cried and screamed at the top of her lungs.

Nerada felt her heart reach out for the poor girl.

She turned and saw Malik still battling the giant Ursa. He was amazing. His burly, muscular frame belied the grace and speed of his motion. He dodged around the clumsy sweeps of the Ursa's paws, and struck back with his own strikes. The dual blades mounted above each wrist sliced easily through muscle, tendon and bone. The huge, curved knives in each hand were also at work, cleaving away at the Grimm in concert with the claws.

The Ursa collapsed. The tendons in all four limbs parted with sickening ease. Malik finished it quickly, driving his claws into its neck and severing its spine.

Nerada turned back to Vasren, who was still clinging tenaciously onto life, though he was mercifully unconscious. Electra hadn't stopped keening, and was still crying onto his chest, her arms cradling his head in her lap.

She was a damned mess as well. She had a cut on her scalp, which had bled profusely all down her face and through her hair. The blood had frozen before it had dried, and was currently matting her hair together. Her leg was broken badly, and her desperate run over to Vasren had turned a badly broken leg into a full blown compound fracture. Nerada suspected her tears and screaming had more than a little pain in them. She hoped the cold was numbing the injury.

Malik arrived over by them, breathing hard, and Grimm blood evaporating off his blade. He cursed when he saw the other two members of VENM.

The howling wind was suddenly cut through by another noise. The backwash of jet engines. The bullhead appeared out from the blizzard. It was the most gladdening thing Nerada had ever seen.

The ramp lowered to reveal professor the interior of the ship, a pair of medics already waiting for them. Nerada waved them over desperately. The bullhead landed directly next to them, the medics running out to inspect the wounded students.

Nerada rocked back on her knees and leant against Aeris. She spoke just loudly enough for Malik to hear her.

"Malik... Go get... Go get Vasren's arm, and his sword as well if you can find it."

Malik blanched, then nodded and walked off into the snow.

The medics swiftly transported Vasren and Electra into the airship, both sedated. Nerada rushed aboard as well, dropping Aeris against one wall and pulling off her gauntlets hurriedly. She rushed over to the two medics, who were moving about franticly. She tucked her copper colored hair behind her head and moved over to help the medics.

One of them looked up at her gratefully, the other had her back turned and was fussing over Electra. Nerada pulled a dagger from a sheath at her thigh and split Vasren's shirt open, pulling the fabric from him to expose the wounds.

What she found, just about stopped her heart.

The entire right hand side of his body was horribly scarred. But not the thick, ropy scars of old cuts, the rippling, rendered scars of old burns. What was more, most of the scars were covered by steel plates which wrapped around his torso, fixed to his rib cage. No. Not fixed to his ribs, replacing them. About half of his ribs were steel. In addition almost his entire right shoulder was made of grafted on steel prosthetics. His right leg was metal, as was a part of his hip.

Whatever had happened to the poor boy, it had all but torn him in half.

Malik rushed aboard, gingerly holding Vasren's wrecked arm, still covered in a blood soaked sleeve. In his other hand was the shattered remains of Vasren's sword. He skidded to a halt inside and urged to pilot to take off.

He put testament down in one of the onboard lockers, and rushed over to Nerada and the medics, who were still working on stopping the bleeding from Vasren's chest. He stopped short once he saw the state of Vasren's right side, the hideous scars and prosthetics that stretched across it. Nerada reached up and grabbed the arm from his grasp, setting it down on the deck next to Vasren. She tore off the sleeve and gasped in horror.

The arm was metal as well, the stump at one end was a mess of twisted gears and shattered metal. But running through it were pipes, filled with blood. It was these that had produced such the spray of Crimson when the Ursa had torn off his arm.

Nerada sat back and laced her blood soaked hands behind her head, the rust colored liquid matting her coppery hair together.

What the hell was going on here?