Misadventures with a Sleepy Hunter, Pt.4
Silent, stealthy steps. Laera had to consciously try to conceal herself and the sounds she may make, but Kitsune looked as if any old stroll in the park would be taken the same way as she did now. She was at home in this terrain, graceful looking in her confidence. Laera felt like a clumsy wildlife photographer trying to blend in.
In Kitsune's eyes, she was a step or two above that; sure, she was struggling, but the Fox had come to expect the human girl to in comparison to herself. However, Laera was surprisingly not slowing her down. Finding their neck of the woods quiet to her heightened senses, Kitsune felt it safe to speak; "So your semblance is the use of glyphs? Which kinds are you good with?" She had judged from the dust compartments on her Basilard, which were integrated with the weapon in a way that suggested no other methods of using them.
Laera smiled at the girl despite her not looking back to talk, glad the tension between them seemed less. "Yeah, I use physical augmenting and barriers mostly. I could do some earth elemental, but I'm not confident in those just yet." She paused, then hopped into her own inquiry since there was little else to add on her Glyph usage. "I don't see a weapon on you anywhere. Do you use your hands, like Elaine?"
"No, I wield this." Kitsune withdrew a small cylinder with multiple grooves on it, which opened to extend multiple fine wires. With a press of a button, they went rigid and stuck together, shaping a blade; in loose form, they could wind together and become a long single strand, and from there could straighten into a longer sword, and when the cords were multiple but shorter they solidified to a shorter but broader edge. 'First Light', as she called it, was quite multi-purpose and impressive.
"Obaz would have a heyday with that... He designs and builds all of his own equipment, and loves to analyze others." The fact seemed to intrigue the Faunus girl, but they chose to remain silent for a time as she became more alert. From the look of her, she could hear or otherwise sense the presence of something close by.
Sophia and Elaine were making less time than the others, though since Sophia knew beforehand that they were going for a tentative approach she left the majority of her ample munitions and gear that made a racket behind, for once not wearing her pale blue longcoat with the rest of her Huntress attire. It was primarily because they had been cut off by the minor Grimm roaming about more than once already, and had to silence the beasts before they could raise an alarm. Fortunately, these were once again minor Grimm rather than major, so the stopping power of both Sophia and Elaine was almost too much.
Elaine had been skeptical when Sophia had arrived with what to her looked like a lump of hardware built solely to demolish opponents. When its melee form grew even bigger, she wondered just how the smaller blonde would actually heft the weight, but found by this point she knew her way around the massive machine. With this in mind, she said; "You're not exactly little, but that thing is the last I expected you to show up with. Isn't it a little big for you?"
"It's an heirloom of my family... And I think it's the perfect size for me, even after considering some other things." Sophia replied. They carried on without words for a while, but Sophia had something she needed to get out there it seemed;
"I like animals."
Elaine stopped, gave her a look of part confusion and part suspicion of insult. "That was random..."
Sophia continued; "Animals don't hurt each other needlessly. They don't covet things just because they don't have them. They definitely don't judge you... so, if a person seemed to share the traits of an animal, I can't consider it anything but an improvement. I wouldn't go as far as Obaz, but I can say for a fact that I like Faunus. So... you can trust me out here, okay?"
Elaine had halted altogether to look straight into her eyes. It took a few seconds, but it eventually seemed that she believed her, or at least didn't distrust her at all. It was relieving, as at first Sophia was afraid to say such things now, in case she might take them as lies to ensure Sophia's own protection. The Lioness continued forward, and Sophia babbled on a bit further; "I couldn't say for sure about Laera, but the boys on my team agree with me to some extent. We know Obaz already, and Regis likes anyone with lady parts, Faunus or not."
Elaine was startled by this. "Your team's leader? Regis... Is a womanizer?"
"The lowest skirt-chaser I've ever met. Hands down." Sophia said with some clearly founded assurance. Which would mean they paired him up with...
"Oh god, what have we done?..." Elaine could already feel a migraine coming on for what she knew would happen after the mission, for however long those two were still inseparable. Would any female be safe?
Since having been stuck together, Regis and Zephyr were absolutely focused on the mission for the first ten minutes. Once Zephyr had joked about wishing for the warm embrace of a female companion and Regis wholeheartedly sympathized, they both had been sharing stories, tips, and ratings of their more curvaceous allies. Zephyr was spotting Grimm for them to sneak by or assassinate with Regis' silent projectiles or leg blades switched off, but for the most part had to do this very little.
"Honestly, though, if I could just land one night with that leader of yours... damn, I've got a soft spot for redheads." Regis half-chuckled, half-said to the Hawk Faunus.
"Yeah, well good luck with that. If you were to pull it off, you would be the undeniable master of courtship my friend... That said, you can probably guess what the chances of victory are. Choose your battles wisely." He nodded sagely, as if they were on a deep and righteous topic of conversation. Regis made a shrug-like gesture.
"Hey, a man can dream."
"A man can dream." Zephyr agreed. They sounded like fans of the same sports team that had failed to bring home the cup the last several years. Regis went onto a different subject for the time being from there;
"Speaking of dreams, what's going through that Arden guy's head? Passes out at the drop of a dime; I've never seen anything like it. I mean, it's admirable, trying to be a Huntsman while overcoming a crippling weakness like Narcolepsy, but come on." His feathered companion laughed at the gift for description that the Human had, taking that moment to put together a reply.
"Guy has his reasons. Though Obaz might be carrying him around right now, if push comes to shove he'll do what he needs to do. Despite appearances, he's dangerously strong." Somehow, the last part of his own statement seemed to hit a nerve for the Faunus boy, as his expression darkened.
Regis changed the subject yet again, after his own demeanor changed in light of their current environment. "It seems a little too quiet out here, given this Grimm threat is big enough to warrant a mission of this scale..." It weren't as if they had met no setbacks or monsters at all, but the number was less than they had come to expect.
Zephyr nodded in agreement, eyes peeled for any signs of danger.
Obaz had been thinking the same thing, but until he had a definitive notion on why the Meadow seemed so scarce of Grimm he was simply sticking to their original plan. Arden was trudging alongside him, and between the four pairs this was the only one led by the Resolve member; Obaz had memorized the in-depth map of the meadow itself and Arden had slept through any and all experiences his team had had with the locale. All he knew were the places most comfortable, and even then couldn't show you exactly how to get there; only recognize one if they came across it.
While normally, since the peril of this mission had thus far underwhelmed them, Arden would have gone on a daydreaming autopilot behind Obaz. The Beacon student had talked incessantly since they entered the Meadow, and unlike any other person that might try to chat his ear off, he found it impossible to ignore Obaz; mainly, because the conversation had started with something that caught him off guard and continued to be of interest to Arden afterward;
"That is an interesting dream you have." Obaz had said casually, which caused Arden to take his small, leather-bound notebook and pocket it while glaring at his current partner with distaste. "Oh, I never meant to pry into your private matters. I could see the text reflected off the lenses of your glasses."
For the first time, Arden's larger-than-life spectacles had done him a disservice. He was about to suggest they merely keep moving when Obaz carried on; "as I mentioned before, I have no firsthand experience in the matter, but I believe you are going about your current goal of 'sleep research' wrong –if the accounts of your teammates are true."
"I wouldn't say I'm... researching it. I just like to sleep." Arden replied, hoping things would end there.
"Your notes suggest you should be refining the technique, considering. And a place as trying as Aspire Academy should be a perfect testing ground." His spiky-haired accompaniment looked confused.
"If there's a 'technique' for sleeping, I have it pretty well down by now."
Obaz held up one hand, index finger skyward, like any teacher. "On the contrary; while one such as yourself can fall into slumber multiple times a day, and find better positions to do so, your lethargy in classes and training actually hinder these experiences."
"How so?"
"Sleep is a mechanism for the human body to recover, revitalize, and reset. If you were to think of yourself as a sort of battery, the frequency at which you recharge despite having spent yourself very little should be shortening your overall energy lifespan. Furthermore, your decisions to avoid all exerting tasks and activities required of you merely to sleep impacts quality; if you were to exhaust yourself as much as possible, your sleep will be less easily interrupted, and yield more emphatic results upon waking. Simply put, if you worked yourself as hard if not more so than your peers between your times of rest, you will go into and come out of sleep with far more appreciation and enjoyment of the act. In theory, anyway."
He had a point, though the last thing Arden wanted to do was go about his favorite pastime scientifically. If anything, were Arden to follow this advice and start 'experimenting' with his sleep, it would probably be an unknown number of years hence, after he was done procrastinating against it in an ironic fashion. Obaz gestured silence for both of them, the rendezvous point fast approaching but perhaps he had seen something between them and the location.
Three trees past the thicket ahead of them were larger than the surrounding ones, and the centermost was hollowed out near the base and up for about twenty feet, before the empty wood and bark met a point where it had snapped. There were six Balmung present here, all facing the hollow tree; a seventh was occupying the space, one that was covered with scales that both spiked up and hooked forwards. Its claws were longer, tail much thicker and spikes protruding from all sides for the whole length of it. It was at least three times the size of the others, barely being able to fit in the hollow, and the six before it looked as if they were subservient.
"That is more than an Alpha... It must be some anomalous growth, or a subspecies. A 'Sigma' so to speak." Obaz whispered to himself more than anything. The Grimm becoming more of a problem in these parts must have been because the Balmung were being coordinated by this greater one, and likely spreading into the Ursa's territory, causing agitation in both breeds. They needed to slip by here unnoticed, and explain the unexpected creature to their other members; there had been no reason to single out any given Grimm in this mission until now, and that could severely affect the plan.
It could take more time than he would like, but Obaz chose to try and go around nearly to the point of doubling back a bit, as the senses on a Balmung were acute. Before leaving their vantage point, however, Obaz could see the Sigma Balmung looking straight at their position from where it lay, through its peripheral vision, but not moving to act yet; it was aware of them, and aware they were watching, waiting for them to move before beginning any sort of chase.
"It sees us..." Arden seconded the thought, either more attentive than he made himself out to be or with a good intuitive sense. He had that Falchion of his gripped tightly, Obaz' own hand ready to spring back for Mk. IV.
Obaz, instead, reached for his scroll. "Hold still. Sudden movements may trigger them." He withdrew the object and began typing a message without looking at it, sluggishly as possible. His finger hovered over the Send prompt once he was done.
"Are you ready?"
Sophia, Elaine, Obaz and Arden had yet to make it to the rendezvous, while the other half of their forces waited patiently. Zephyr was making another quick sweep of the immediate area being the best set of eyes when a ping came from their scrolls, signifying a message received, and hardly seconds after Kitsune thought to check what it was a deafening chorus of roars shook the Meadow like a hunting horn sounding the discovery of prey. Kitsune hurriedly checked her scroll while making her way toward the sounds, the other three just behind her;
|Six Balmung along with a seventh unknown variant. More dangerous than Alpha. Unable to avoid, forced to engage. Find the other Grimm and draw them in as needed.|
Obaz was telling them that he and Arden had found the most dangerous Grimm in the Meadow, but was telling them to stick to the plan. That would go over well... she craned her neck to look at the other two males; "Regis, Zephyr, I need you two to finish what we started; start making some noise and bring the Grimm to the ambush squad. Laera and I will find Obaz and Arden."
They both nodded and broke formation, planning to take as many enemies away from the havoc zone as they could. Elaine and Sophia were probably already rerouting toward the cries of bloodlust, so it would be six-on-seven within the next few moments... but for the first however short period, it would be a measly two versus, and she hoped to herself that would be enough for now. As she shot through the underbrush before her Laera was hot on her heels, and they soon came out from either side of a hollowed-out remnant of a massive tree.
The first thing to notice was that of the two comrades they were looking for, only one was in sight; Arden was avoiding claw swipes with some difficulty from the abnormal Balmung, the beast's much bulkier tail swinging violently to smash the surrounding growth. Several meters to their right, was a roiling mass of skewer-like scales and spines fighting over the same small space, and from here it sounded like talons were wrenching the very flesh from something's bones. Laera looked terrified to say the least.
Kitsune caught the Sigma Balmung's arm with First Light's whip wires, holding it back long enough for Arden to get in a glancing blow with his falchion and dart over to her side. The pile of lesser Grimm to the side shifted greatly upon the sound of an explosion beneath them, and five were tossed in multiple directions from the location as the sixth was shown to have been ripped apart rather than a Huntsman in whatever confusion there had been. These remains were charred from the detonation of something underneath it, and Obaz rounded the other side of the tree nearest the three others here with him.
There was no time for words as the Sigma roared, gaining the attention of its underlings and showing them the proper target. The four Hunters bolted, heading south to even the odds a little bit further. When one of the Balmung lunged forward for an attempt on Kitsune's back, Laera blocked it with a Glyph, and another leaped off the side of a tree to try to land on Arden. The boy jumped to the side and rolled to a disadvantageous stop in a prone position, Obaz bringing up the rear kicked him hard in the ribs, in a way that brought Arden up into a stumbling sprint that he soon righted; no time to be stopping and helping someone stand.
They rushed over a decline where Sophia and Elaine were taking another Balmung to the ground; Sophia was drawing her lance tip from the neck area when the Sigma overshot the decline itself, nearly crashing down on Elaine who ducked the rampant Grimm. Skidding to a halt ahead of them, the Sigma Balmung stood barring their way toward the ambush squad; arms open wide in preparation to intercept while its followers closed in. Elaine cracked her knuckles, Sophia reloaded, and Obaz had somehow faded into the background again.
Upon the other five Balmung making it over the hill now behind them, Kitsune snared one with her whip again and propelled it in its fall headfirst into the ground. She followed this by straightening First Light into a broadsword and driving it into the creature's open mouth, slicing through the gums, tongue, and finally the left cheek on the way out. It writhed sporadically, and she hopped back to dodge the jaws snapping after her once it had rolled onto its hands and feet. Laera used a motion Glyph to zip around another, leaping to avoid the barbed tail and making a slash for the underarm, drawing blood but not making a very good strike.
The three behind these made it down to their level, Arden keeping the first of them off the other girls' backs. Elaine was searching out a way for her claws to get past the Sigma's defenses while it was blocked at every turn by Sophia's upsprung shield, the Lioness finding a possibility where the tail met the small of its back but nearly getting demolished by the enormous limb behind the beast. One of the other three Balmung intended to trample Arden and jump at Kitsune with the massive claws on its feet, and might have succeeded were it not attacked by Obaz from above; he fell from the overhead branches once he had been thoroughly forgotten and drove the blade of Mk. IV into the monster's eyeball. It thrashed and nearly threw him off, but he pressed his weight further down on the hilt of his sword until he hit vitals and the Balmung dropped motionless.
To both allies and Grimm alike something became apparent now that Obaz was out in the open again; his left sleeve fluttered empty, his arm lost. This made him a prime target for those not making any progress with their feistier meals, and he knew it well. Withdrawing the Mk. IV, he stepped back from the approaching Balmung and used his weapon as a crowbar to lift the dead weight of the one he just killed, ramming into the corpse's chest and putting the wall of standing scale blades between himself and it. There was a moment of his opponent grabbing its fallen kin and tossing it aside before Arden was now standing in its way, ready to make a whirling throw of his falchion that caught it in its exposed lower throat. With a yank of the chain, he brought the Balmung to a kneeling position, and finished it by grasping the sword and dragging it upward through the tough scales like butter along with the rest of the Balmung's larynx. The beast gurgled and clawed at the rended throat shortly.
Using First Light's whip form, the elongated version was keeping Kitsune's enemy at bay easily, and when it got fed up with the stinging rope it tried to brave the flurry of attacks and devour her. She sidestepped the lunge with hardly a centimeter to spare, switching her whip to a blade and stabbing it beneath the shoulder blade, up into the heart. Sophia was struck by the Sigma's massive tail and flung past her toward the hill, and when this took Elaine's eyes elsewhere she had to catch her opponent's hand by two fingers as it tried to snatch her up. Though she snapped both the digits, the rest of the hand enclosed on her frame, and squeezed tightly enough to squash a lesser man. Elaine only showed signs of being unable to break free and a small amount of pain, but the Sigma brought her up to bite the girl's head...
A Glyph formed in the air between Elaine and the maw about to engulf her upper half, startling the Sigma. Circling behind it, Obaz directed Laera to attack the back of the knee which brought it to a kneel; using the opportunity, he deflected the free hand trying to rake him while aiming for the one holding a captive. Stabbing the tip of Mk. IV into a space between two of the scales at the wrist, he made sure it was secure before letting go, backing up, and giving a wild drop kick to the hilt forcing the scales to part and the blade straight through bone and tendon, bursting out the other side.
A screech of pain escaped the Sigma as the nerves spasmed in its arm, causing it to release the Lioness from its clutch and roll onto its side fully, holding the wounded wrist with its other hand and screaming in agony. Obaz clambered over the mutant while gesturing for the others to follow, and soon they all had passed through where it had been stalling them. Ahead was the edge of the Meadow, where they could already hear combat with Ursa and other Balmung that Regis and Zephyr must have baited this way already, but even as they had dropped the number they had with them to three out of seven the Sigma and its remaining two lackeys were dead set on destroying those they were after. Obaz held out his only remaining hand to Sophia, who unholstered the pistol from her thigh and slapped it into his palm.
Breaking the treeline, the edge of the Meadow was a warzone; Hunters were battling any Grimm that had passed the traps unharmed, which only consisted of those that had climbed over their brethren that already filled these many emplacements, but these were still fairly numerous and dropping like flies. The Sigma Balmung and its entourage burst out onto the scene, which scared just about everyone but Zephyr, who popped it three times in the face with ice-cold sniper rounds that froze the contacted areas via dust.
Regis finished sawing through the neck of a downed adversary when he saw their remaining number make it in one piece, though he noted one of them was a significantly smaller piece. The hesitation would have cost him dearly, having the tail of a Balmung coming in hard for his legs, if not for Elaine catching the scaly length. She roared once turning with all her might, lifting the Balmung attached off the ground and slamming it into a boulder sticking out of the ground nearby, its death resounding a meaty thwack and pleasant crunch. It feebly tried to get back up, but she gave a spin kick to the creature's jaw as a courtesy.
The Ambush teams felled one of the extra Balmung while Kitsune pulled Arden out from the reach of the Sigma. They both stood ready for the monstrosity, but just as quickly the beast sized up the many Hunters around it and chose to flee back into the Meadow. At this, all the Hunters that had turned toward the menace gave chase despite Kitsune's warnings, their near victory drowning out her words as they gained on the wounded Grimm. Having lost sight of it in the foliage, they had been about to fan out when most of the forest and shrubbery near the mob was blown to pieces by a maelstrom of rage; the Sigma had sunken into its environment and waited until they had gone just past it, and would now eviscerate at least half of the many Humans and Faunus now blinded by panic.
Strings of fine wire flung out to trap the limbs of the Sigma Balmung like a violent puppet, and this restraint gave the other students a chance to collect themselves. A symphony of steel through flesh and gunshots breaking scales sounded the end of the anomaly as it finally fell bleeding to the Meadow's mossy floor, and for good measure Elaine punched it in the head a half dozen times more. Obaz himself finished off an Ursa minor with Sophia's sidearm before tossing it back to his partner and retrieving his own lost weapon from the Sigma's wrist. Within a few minutes, the final checks had been made, and though there was minimal damage to the Meadow no Grimm remained in the area.
"Quick and dirty. I like it." Regis said, turning off his greaves. Amid the landscape of utter carnage the other students began chatting about their kill counts and other such trivial matters, while Kitsune called in the success and a good number of eyes were regarding Obaz' lack of a limb. He in turn reminded them that a very large portion of them had been saved by Kitsune, who had forgone the race barrier and simply saved their lives. Each and every one of them grumbled as their glory was dampened by the Beacon student's lecturing, but couldn't argue the fact.
Two ships landed a fair distance from the students, and one bore Beacon's imagery; it would seem that their transport had been waiting for things to be wrapped up, and would now take them from here immediately. Regis fake sobbed that he would hear of every score Zephyr made from here on out or they wouldn't be friends anymore, to which the Hawk Faunus obliged with a chuckle and the girls pointedly ignored. The two teams' cooperation had been well-documented, though, and that was their job done here; a few final goodbyes and they would likely not see each other again for a very long time, if ever.
As Kitsune spoke at length with Sophia and Laera with such formalities as when they should best choose to visit, Arden stood by Obaz without really looking at him, near the Beacon shuttle's hangar door.
"What happened to your arm?" The bespectacled teen questioned.
"What happened to yours?" Obaz rebuked. Arden looked surprised, but shook that off quickly enough. Both stood in silence for a time.
Sighing, Obaz explained. "I've been using a mechanical replacement. If I exert it too much, such as when I fend off a screaming Balmung, the limb can explode; so I detached it before it would."
Arden nodded. That was more than he had expected after the first comment. Turning to face him, Arden shook his hand. "Come back anytime... just keep your voice down."
"Duly noted." Obaz waved slackly with his one hand and climbed aboard the airship to take him away from Notus. The last to board his own back to Aspire, Arden thought of something, taking the notebook from his jacket. In one of the pages farther back, he found the page titled; 'The Day After my Ideal World'. Below some other small sentences, he quickly scribbled down a note;
'Teach Obaz how to sleep.'