"Keep yourself still. Don't slouch. Make sure the tip is on point where you want it to be." Weiss instructs me.
"Got it." Days have passed since my fight with CRDL and to be honest, things are better than I initially thought. As obvious as it was, the news spread like wildfire about the one student that could control Grimm and I've kind of been bugged about the whole thing since then. In order to properly get the student body acclimated to Grimm creatures being in the school, it was suggested I let them roam free so everyone knows what my Grimm look like. I was also only supposed to do that only with assurance that they won't cause any harm or trouble to anyone. I replied by making it so that MY Grimm were docile and smart so the only way they would attack someone is for them to be attacked or be threatened in any way.
Whenever a bunch of people begin questioning me about how I'm able to have Raven and Shadow at my beck and call, I just went ahead and told them it was my semblance when in reality its not. I could say they aren't a part of my semblance but I don't want to tell everyone my family's history. Not really in the mood either to explain to everyone by backstory, especially to randoms. My friends of course are the exception to that, my team especially.
So while some people are scared and worried about my pets, some prefer to give them a wide berth but not really make conversation per say to them. Others also don't care about them and focus on their own things while the rest are genuinely curious about them. So sometimes they'll return and have a small entourage follow them out of curiosity. I can pretty much feel the annoyance they feel from it all but in the end I'm sure it'll work out well enough.
Even so, it's about time I get to working on my cooperation with my teammates, which brings me to where I am right now. For a bit of peace and quiet, Weiss and I find ourselves on the outskirts of the Forever Fall forest closest to the academy. That way we can work and train to our hearts content without anyone bothering us, especially considering everyone wants to know about my ability. As per our arrangement before, I am currently working on the proper techniques and positioning needed to make the art of using a rapier both beautiful and deadly at the same time. While holding her sword was nice, I was worried I would possibly break it and offered to using possibly a training sword instead.
"When we go into combat, should the situation call for it you won't be using a training sword. You could be using MY sword. During your training, I want you to be as familiarized with Myrtenaster as I am. It's speed, weight, how it moves through the air and what it feels like to strike your enemies. Besides, I know my weapon inside and out. I'm pretty sure a brute like you won't be able to 'accidentally' break it."
While her words just might have stung just a little bit, there is some truth to them. My style is up close and personal with powerful hits. From what I can tell, hers is around movement, speed with precisions strikes. She doesn't stick right up against her opponent to continue the assault against them and usually opts to strike, pull back, size them up before going in for another strike. This is perfect for her because she can use her Glyphs to help her control and move herself across the battlefield with relative ease. Since I don't have Glyphs to help me move, I'm gonna have to somewhat use my own speed and movement to try to attack my enemies.
For now though I'm simply getting used to the feel and movement of myself using this weapon. Kind of hard to considering my fighting style and weapons I've been using for nearly my entire life beforehand. By that way, I've been trying to do some thrusting dashes with her weapon of my own skill in order to gauge how well I can do. Even doing some stationary attacks if I ever take on other human opponents up close. After a few minutes of getting the feel of the thrusting attacks, I pull back and take in a few deep breaths.
"Well, I can safely say that you're doing surprisingly well in adapting to my weapons fighting style." Weiss compliments me as she comes up. After being drilled into my head about the proper stances and footwork best used with her rapier, I'm starting pick up on how to fight well enough.
"Glad you think so." I reply while still in my ready to thrust position, whereas the weapon is held close to my chest and the blade is out ready to strike.
"Go ahead and try to some attacks around yourself and maybe some trees. Give yourself a feel for how your going to move and fight at the same time." I give a small nod at the recommendation and prepare myself to let out some attacks.
I do a thrust ahead of me quick and forcefully. The point of my weapon cuts through the air before I retract and go for another strike but lower. Once I pull myself back, I thrust forward but pretend I get deflected away. I quickly right myself before turning around and going for a slash followed by a stab. This goes on for several long minutes as I constantly get a feel for how the weapon moves to me. I even do a couple jumps and dodges so I can gauge how well I can right myself back into a fighting position. I need some work as I'm not making it work as well as I'd prefer but considering the original owner uses Glyphs to help, I'm making progress, and so does Weiss. I finish off my moves by jumping close to a tree and proceeding to launch a rapid series of stabs and punctures to the trunk of a tree. What makes it more visceral is the fact that each of the stabs come accompanied with sap that begins to flow from the holes. I slash a couple times along the tree before I reel back, concentrate my Aura through the weapon and with a yell, I stab the tree.
This time the long thin blade of the weapon goes easily enough through the bark until around the half way mark of the weapon. Many leaves fall from above around me from the force of me hitting the tree. A quick jerk of the weapon and I manage to wedge it out of place before pulling it the rest of the way out. Thankfully the tight seal that was created from the stab let the blade be cleaned of any debris or sap that may have been collected on it. Even so, I pull the weapon vertically up in front of me where I closely examine it before pressing my fingers on both sides of the blade and running my fingers tightly along it, collecting anything on it before flicking it clean.
"Very nice." Weiss compliments as she walks up to me with a smirk. "You're doing well in making your own fighting style with my weapon. From what I see, it looks almost as if you won't have trouble taking on any of your enemies should the need arise."
"Thank you. I'm taking to it well enough." I reply and casually walk up to her. "So teach, what else do you got for me?" I ask, just a little bit eager to get to know other ways to master this weapon.
"Well for one, I have to show you how to use the revolving Dust chambers." She points to the revolver apparatus embedded in her weapon still in my hand. Its fully equipped with the basic amount and type of Dust because I haven't used that part of it yet. Because of her use of Glyphs, she can make the Dust attack targets from a distance when she uses it. Me though, the only thing I can use it for would be to coat the blade and give an additional boost to my strikes with whatever Dust is used. It's not as simple as that but that's the main gist of it basically. Before she can teach me anymore, the sounds of growling nearby get our attention. A lone Beowolf, nothing too big or spectacular about it, makes its way out of the tree line and stalks up to us. "I thought your pets were supposed to keep the area clear?" She asks.
"They are. I had them patrol far around us so we wouldn't be distracted my nearby fighting. Apparently, one got by them." We are in the middle of the forest, theirs only two of them and from the distance I asked them to focus around, guess I shouldn't be surprised some were able to slip by. I flip the weapon around and grab at the base of the blade where it meets the hilt before offering it to Weiss.
She reaches out to take the weapon but stops just a few inches, then retracts her hand. "No." I look at her confused on why she's declining. She gives me a confident smile. "I think this will be a perfect opportunity for you to put what I taught you to the test."
"Wait, here? Now?" I ask if I'm hearing her correctly. Besides that one time we talked in the forge training area, its only been a couple days of me getting proper lessons in her weapons use and now she wants me to go up against an actual Grimm already.
"Yes. I do. Your going to have to fight them eventually and this seems as good a time as any." She confirms what I heard and while I know I've down alright so far with the weapons use, I'm still not as confident as I'd like.
"Is this really such a good idea?" I ask one last time but I really don't like the smile she has.
"We won't know until you try it, now will we? Better hurry." She nods past me and takes a step back. The sound of a growl and lunge is the only other indicator that I need to be ready right now! I turn around with my weapon with my left hand grasping end of the blade. Because of that, I'm able to hold it firmly and keep the Grimm from tearing into my chest with its outstretched claw. I slide back a foot from the force and push of it before the Grimm begins to lean in a growl, opening its maw wide straight towards me. This gives me a clear view of its deadly sharp teeth as it leans in.
"Crap." I grunt before I quickly pull my weapon up, its claw included as it hits itself and momentarily frees me from the deadlock. I quickly bring my leg up and execute a roundhouse kick straight to the side of its jaw. I can hear the Grimm whine slightly from the hit but it doesn't stay stunned for long as it quickly strikes out with swipe to my head. I quickly duck under its strike before standing up and curling Myrtenaster against me before launching a series of stabs right into its chest. The Grimm lets out a guttural roar of pain as the first two stabs go in mid-way through its chest while the last set only use a few inches of the tip before the beast is already moving away from me. It jumps back several feet and lets out a low angry growl at me as I can see the holes I made in its chest.
Theirs no time for me to do any other assessment of what I need to do before it charges me once again. Seeing it charge me this time instead of when my back was turned, I can better prepare to counter. I stand straight with my weapon held up to my right behind me as I get ready. Because of my attacks, the creature of Grimm is completely angry and fueled by rage so because of that, that tends to make anyone reckless in their attacks. The Beowulf comes in close and moves to hit me with a slice from its right claw. Before it can connect I bring the sword towards it and slice off the appendage in one swipe. The limb flies away as it roars before it tries to hit me with its left claw. With my weapon still outstretched from where its limb once was, I bring the blade down and up on the other side, catching its last attacking appendage before it can hit. Like before, the appendage slices right off and the Grimm lets out another roar of pain mixed anger. Not wanting to let it continue to scream, I bring my free hand up, concentrate a portion of my Aura into it, and launch a palm strike directly into its stomach. The hit shuts the Grimm for a second as it falls to its knees.
*Shink*
Before it can fully fall to the ground though, I thrust the rapier upwards right through the underside of its jaw, right through the skull and out the top. In an instant all means fighting and trying to kill me are completely stopped as the Grimm falls limp against my blade. As the smoke starts to emanate from the body, I rip the blade out and let the body fall to the ground as I step back. Finally I let out a breath of air I didn't know I was holding in. "Very good." Weiss comes up to me as she slowly claps her hands. "See? You were worried about nothing."
I shrug my shoulders and nod slightly. "Yeah, I guess so." I watch as the last of the body disappears and I let myself relax a bit. 'Okay. That was… alright… I guess. Still need more work but at least I have some know-how on taking them out one-on-on—'
My body freezes. My pupils shrink as my hands clench tightly closed.
"What's wrong?" I still manage to hear her ask but mentally I start to get myself ready. I hold out the handle of her rapier for her to take as she looks on confused.
"Shadow and Raven were just killed." As soon as I say that, her eyes widen and she quickly takes her weapon back before giving me both of mine. As soon as I strap them on, our enemies come out of the woodwork. Classic rule to remember when dealing with Beowolfs: they always travel in packs. Rarely you'll ever find one wandering around alone and more often than not it will have a pack not too far away. Apparently it would seem the one I just killed packs engaged my Grimm and while they killed a good number of them they are still sorely outnumbered. Ergo, that's why we are staring down at least around a dozen Beowolfs that have us surrounded. "Well, this wasn't on the agenda." I comment as I unsheathe my weapons and set them to serrated.
"What was your first clue?" She replies as she takes her stance ready to engage.
"Let's just get this over with quick. We technically aren't supposed to be here remember?" I can't help but be reminded of that little bit. We may be capable of taking on Grimm more than the average person but that doesn't mean we can go just about anywhere even if it is infested with the dark creatures. Beacon academy no doubt doesn't want to send information on some cocky dead huntsmen in trainings next of kin because they wanted to go take on a couple Grimm and ended up running into a whole pack… just like us.
"Yes, I remember." She replies annoyed and the Grimm become more agitated from the waiting. "Just becareful alright? I would prefer to not tell everyone how you died." She coyly replies with I think a smile. I can't tell because we are back to back getting ready to fight but I can almost feel her smile at the gest.
I too smile right back as I reply. "Back at you. Plus I wouldn't like to be known as the guy who got a Schnee killed!" 'Although I think the White Fang would be somewhat alright with me since a good most Faunus still harbor some resentment for the Schnee family.' Of course I can't really on that train of thought as one Beowolf lunges at me. We push off each other and move in to engage our enemies. First blood, figuratively, goes to me as I twist myself around a couple times, slicing the Grimm a few times until it falls over dead. As soon as it does, I activate my blades further as two Grimm come on from both sides of me to attack. I sweep my arms from side to side as they come close enough for me to hit them. Their claws tear off as the spinning blades cut them down in one sweep before another sweep cuts open their chests dead.
A couple more Beowolfs try to attack me from above as their dark shadows are the only indication I have that they're going for an aerial attack. I duck low under their swipes before rolling myself backwards to put some distance between them. Once I do they jump towards me to hit me again but I quickly swipe my blades against their legs, cutting them off as they stop in mid-air before falling onto their backs. A slash from my spinning blades while they're down quickly ends them before they can get back up or try to hit me from down low. The fight goes on relatively simple like that in hindsight. Some try to slash and stab me while I simply deflect or dodge their attacks. After felling one more Beowolf, I give a quick glance over to Weiss to see she's already dealt with her enemies quite handedly. For a second she turns around and still sees me having to deal with my own group of Grimm and gets ready to help me out.
That thought is completely thrown away as a particularly loud growl and tearing wood gets our attention. Anther Beowolf, this one much bigger, meaner and downright scarier tears down a tree as it stalks into the open area we are in. Seeing the many additional bone protrusions that it has, as well as the many healed scars on said bones, I already surmise just what it is that we are now dealing with. "Oh come on! An Alpha." I groan as I block a random claw strike before countering the Grimm with a kick to its face. 'Should have known. Every pack has a leader and it was stupid to think this one was different in anyway.' "Weiss! We need to—" Whatever I was going to say is halted as I look on surprised at what's on my partner. As it stands, we may be somewhat on the outskirts of the Forever Fall forest but we are still in it and that means the trees are still filled with the sap we gathered last time we were in the forest. The tree that the Alpha tore apart and flung away accidentally splattered several drops of sap on Weiss's dress. She looks down at the stains before looking up at the menacing Alpha. The drops are small enough that not every Grimm is attracted to her but the Alpha is close enough that it can smell the sweetness and wants her. "Weiss." I mutter out her name in worry.
"I got this!" She replies as she readies herself to fight one-on-one with the leader Alpha of this pack of Beowolfs we've been fighting. Before I can even think to try to help her, a Beowolf tries to take me out while I'm distracted. I quickly deflect the claw strike with Razor in my left and follow up with slicing its head off with Revolt. I move all over as much as I can to try to take out the last of these pack members so I can help out Weiss with the Alpha. She's good I know that for sure, but I'd rather not take the chance of her being bested by the creature. After all it is the leader of its pack for a reason. The numbers for mine quickly dwindle but I'm starting to become winded from the continuous fight. My breathing starts to get ragged. 'Damn. This going on for too long. We need to finish this now.' While I would like the idea of calling in my friends again, problem is it does take a little bit of my stamina and concentration to bring them in, even more so considering they were killed not even a few minutes ago. The cost may be a little at the beginning but now as my fatigue is starting to set in, I can't afford to waste any of it. After putting some distance between me and the last few of my enemies, I take a glance towards the other fight.
Weiss does a backflip to dodge the Alpha's attack before stopping and launching herself forward, delivering some stabs and slices at the Grimm a few times. The Alpha brings its arms up in defense and takes the hits before lashing its arms outward to try to hit her. Luckily she sees it and ducks back, narrowly avoiding the dual claw slash at her. She continues to duck and dodge backwards as it continues to relentlessly try to hit her. Soon, she ducks forward, making the Alpha miss before she comes up with a backhand slash and slashes a nasty cut into the creature's face, making it roar and recoil as it cradles the wound. She smirks at the wound she inflicted before she takes a few steps back and gets ready for one final strike as she gets into a position ready to launch herself forward. "Whoa!" Unfortunately she takes a misstep over a rock and trips hard. "Arh!" She yelps painfully as she hits the ground hard against a tree.
"Weiss!" I yell as I watch her fall to the ground. Again, my opponents tries to hit me but I quickly block the strike before cutting it down. A quick turn back and I watch as the Alpha has already gotten its bearings and is moving to cut her down while she's on the ground. 'I don't think so!' I reel my right arm backwards before launching it straight at the monster. The weapon curves slightly in the air before it strikes the Alpha straight into its back. The Grimm lets out a roar as it tries desperately to dislodge my weapon from its back, completely forgetting about the downed huntress on the ground. She looks in my direction and I to her where I give her a nod. She returns it with a smile before her eyes widen and she pulls up her sword.
"Watch out Ethan!" Accompanied by her warning, with the aid of one of her Glyphs she throws her sword straight at me like a spear. I just barely angle myself out of the way of the speeding projectile as it soars past me and embeds itself right into the chest of a Beowolf trying to sneak up on me. I quickly activate my last weapon before grabbing the handle of Myrtenaster and slicing its chest before ripping the blade out. As soon as I do, I stab into the Grimm's head for a quick kill before kicking it away from me into a couple more of them.
"Here! Take it!" I completely turn around and launch my last weapon at Weiss, making it stab right into the right next to her. For a second she's almost confused but its when she sees the Alpha forget about trying to dislodge my weapon from its back that it refocuses on her again. She barely has enough time to pull my weapon from the ground, activated its helicopter blade function and hold it up as the first strike commences. She does what she can to hold it up as the blades begin spinning but the start up wasn't fast enough as the punches somewhat slow and stop it from fully spinning. That's all she can do right now is hold the weapon up as best she can in a defense from her position on the ground.
I refocus myself back on my opponents as they are the last members of the pack and once they're dealt with, I can back up Weiss and take out the leader. I move forward and begin slicing and cutting one of the Grimm before it can retaliate against me. After launching a devastating stab through its chest, I pull back just as a claw comes up and nearly takes my head off. My Aura flares up for a second as the sharpened bones nearly cut me. Because of that my Aura feels like it's almost completely depleted and I really can't afford to drag this out any longer. With the claw still stretched out, I stab into its arm before grabbing the appendage and pulling the Grimm closer to me where I angle the sword against its chest and run the blade further into its arm and through its chest. I duck as another Beowolf misses and finishes off its friend before I kick it away and rip out the blade from the already dissolving corpse and slice its throat the same time. I end it by stabbing it in the chest several times before stepping back and catching my breath. There is only one more pack member and then all that's left is the Alpha. Speaking of…
"Weiss no!" I yell as the Alpha continues to beat her down with no way for her to mount a proper defense against it. The blades have almost completely stopped by this point and once it's grown frustrated, the Alpha grabs one of the blades and pulls the weapon from her grip and tosses it right at me. I duck as my personal weapon flies over me and stabs one of its blades right into my last opponent. It isn't spinning anymore but its enough as just one blade has stabbed clean through the Beowolfs head and killed it. I quickly examine the kill as it falls before watching as the Alpha rears its claws back to end my partner. "Noooo!"
Weiss watches in horror as she's now left completely defenseless against the monster right in front of her. All they wanted to do was do a little training in peace and now it turned into them fighting for their lives. As the monster gets ready to hit her, she places her hand on the ground, placing a glyph on the ground. 'Please work.' She closes her eyes and waits for what's about to happen.
"Raah!"
*Shink*
Following an angry yell, she hears something slam into the Alpha. Opening her eyes she manages to see the Grimm is barreled away from her and slams into a nearby tree. Following her moment of stunned surprise, a closer look shows Ethan pressed right up against the Alpha, pinning it to the tree with her own personal weapon in hand. The Alpha lets out a growl of pain but doesn't look ready to give up just yet as it stares down angrily at Ethan as it brings its jaw and claws to tear into him.
Unfortunately for it, the familiar sound of Myrtenaster's Dust revolver function spins as Ethan activates one of the Dust compartments. He quickly pushes himself off the body but keeps his hands pressed against the handle and activates it. Weiss's eyes widen as she watches electricity course through the entirety of the Grimm's body, making it roar, convulse and jerk from the lightning Dust being injected directly into its body. Ethan grits his teeth as he keeps the weapon and in doing so the Grimm pressed against the tree but its tiring after everything else they had to do the whole time here.
After several tense painful seconds for the Grimm, things quiet down as the last of the Dust application wears off and the creature goes limp. As soon as it starts to list to the side, Ethan tears the weapon out and takes a step back, letting the body fall to the ground with a massive thud. The only other sound that can be heard is Ethan's slow ragged breathing as both the students stare at the body, almost waiting for it to get back up and attack them. They both let out breaths of relief as they watch the black smoke start to emanate from the body and it begins to dissolve.
Seeing as the danger has finally passed, Ethan slouches as he visibly relaxes and Weiss lets herself lay against the tree. Ethan calmly walks over to the dissolving body and pulls out one of his weapons before going over and grabbing his last one before walking over to Weiss as he sheathes them. All the while she stares at him as he gathers his stuff before he walks over to her and stands there. They both stare at each other before he smiles and offers him her hand. Returning the smile, she takes his hand and he pulls her up to her feet. "Ahh!" At least she tries to. As soon as she tries to put pressure on her right ankle does she let out a cry of pain and almost fall to the ground.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa!" Ethan quickly grabs her before she collapses and holds her up as she hops on one foot. "You okay?" He asks, worried after hearing her cry of pain.
"Yeah, but…" She begins to try to reassure him but as soon as she puts a little pressure on her foot, she hisses and recoils it back into the air. "Ow. I think I sprained my ankle."
"Really? Aw man." He mutters sadly at the small injury his friend sustained. He takes a quick look around to make sure they are clear before he hands her her sword back. "Here. Hold this."
"Uhh, okay." She replies as she takes her weapon back. "What are you- Hey!" She shouts in surprise as Ethan proceeds to pick her up bridle style in his arms. "What do you think your doing?!" She asks loudly and slightly annoyed at the new position she finds herself in all of a sudden without her consent.
"You wanna walk all the way back to the Academy on your own feet?" He asks staring right at her.
"…" She doesn't even look at him as the ground seems far more interesting.
"That's what I thought." Seeing as theirs no argument from her, he trudges along a path back to the Academy, being careful with his charge and possibly not trying to attract anymore attention. They delve into a small relative silence, neither of them outright moving to engage each other in conversation after the near-death experience they just went through right now. "When we get back, we say we were doing some evading and dodging training using Shadow and Raven and you tripped on a rock." He proposes what their excuse will be.
"Agreed." Weiss doesn't see the problem with that excuse and is on board with it. Although soon she looks down at her clothes to see the red sap droplets on her. "But what about these? If the teachers see this on me, they may accuse us of having gone to this forest." Ethan quickly glances down before looking back up at the other piece of evidence that just may break them of their excuse.
"Maybe… we can say I had some leftover from the field trip and I gave it Raven and Shadow. You know for the training and some was just spilled on you." He proposes they say.
"… That could work." As good excuse as any, besides sneaking into their dorm room for a spare of clothes but the excuses seem the most plausible and best chance for them to work with right now. Plus the fact they are still pretty tired and beat up from the fight so actively sneaking in just doesn't seem like something they are willing to do right now. In any case, they fall back into silence until one of them comes up with something to talk or comment about.
"Hey." He soon gets her attention. "Nice one with that Glyph by the way. Really helped out." He thanks her. Just as the Alpha was going to end her, Weiss was able to conjure up one of her Glyphs close to where Ethan was. It was enough for him to launch himself straight in her direction and save her at the last minute.
"Well, in that moment it was pretty much all I can do to help. Really the only thing I could do in hopes of you helping me." She replies.
"You mean save you?"
"Don't push it."
"Hehehe." He chuckles good heartedly at the banter as they delve back into silence as they continue to make their way back to the Academy. All the while though, Ethan doesn't notice the continued blush that Weiss has while she's being carried, opting to focus on the path back to the learning institution while she's forced to being helped along.
Took longer than I originally thought to do. In fact, I was actually working on the beginning chapter for another story I plan to publish hopefully soon. I don't really have the title set up among some other things but it was just something that was stuck in my head and I just really wanted to go ahead and get into written words already. I don't want to spoil what it is but it involves a recently released game of a series and anime this year. Don't know when I'll publish the story exactly but I guess all I can say really is keep an eye out in the coming days for something new I'll release.
But I'm getting off topic. It looks like Ethan's bonding with the rest of his team is starting to come to fruition. Already he's starting to learn the move set and workings of using Weiss's weapon and fighting style, along with getting close to her. A much better improvement than their first impression on the first day they got to Beacon Academy. Now he's just got to start worrying about other school work and eventually finding the time for the other members of his team.
Cf96: Thanks. I try my best.
Thank you everyone for your support and I'm sorry things have been kind of slow lately for me. My drive for writing has kind of taken a hit lately for whatever reason and so how much content I put down has been relatively little each night in comparison to what I usually do. Stopping altogether isn't an option, not that I want to anyway, as it just makes me anxious to get writing again. Even if it is maybe a few hundred words a day or so so hopefully this slowness won't stay with me for long.
Thank you again. Go ahead and fav, follow, review if you wish, and as always for everyone reading this, have a great day and have fun reading.