DISCLAIMER: Those that ought to belong to others shall belong to their respective owners. Those that ought to belong to me, if any, shall belong to me.

AN: The second part of the arc is out. Do enjoy!

-x-x-x-x-

A Hunter's Duty: part 2

I was having the time of my life. Walking among the greens, basking in the moonlight, away from the pesky people. What's not to like? And the company I was with: absolutely grand. Weiss Schnee was a gem to be around. I assure you that every second I spent with her was a second deeply etched into my memory. Very, very deeply.

She was the worst companion I've ever had, and she earned that title by a landslide.

'We are definitely lost.' I deadpanned for the fourteenth time.

'We are not lost. Stop saying stupid things,' she stabbed back, just like the previous thirteen times.

'Look, princess. Why don't we admit a few facts in life? You don't like me. My feeling is mutual. The moon is full tonight. These woods are full of dangerous monsters that fantasize about devouring us upon sight. And we are bloody lost. There, not too hard, was it?' I snapped.

'Not only are you dimwitted, you've got a nasty personality.' She crossed her arms.

'Oh boohoo. You think my personality's nasty, let me just write that in my diary and cry myself to sleep.'

The anger on her face was neon. 'Screw you.' She stomped off.

Knowing how life threatening separating in this forest could be, I had no choice but to follow. We meandered through the forest trails in complete dead silence. I was aware I had been particularly acidic – even by my standards, mind you – but I really wasn't in a good mood. The entire affair of having to be in this forest in this ungodly hour on this Friday night was rubbing me the wrong way.

Right. I was downright sick of being led around. Time to solve the situation intellectually. I spoke into my mouthpiece. 'Alex, this is Balthazar. Do you copy, over?'

'Loud and cl... for Oberon's sake. Yang, if you don't cut that out, I swear I'll brain you.' Aw nuts. They were still having their little tiff going. It must be so nice to get along with your partner. 'Sorry boss. My partner's a twit. Anyway, hearing you loud and clear.' Ah. It seemed finally I had my team member's undivided attention. 'How can I help, over?'

'It seems we've lost our way. I'm gonna need a rough coordinate if I want to get anywhere before the end of the day. Do you think you can give me my rough location if you saw my surroundings, over?' Although I wasn't happy with the fact that I had to ask for help, I also wasn't willing to aimlessly wander with Weiss in tow.

'Now you're just abusing my talents, over.' Talent in question was Alex's photographic memory, of course. My guess was that Alex had already memorised the topography of the area while plummeting rom the airship.

'O thee of many talents, deliver upon thy miserable comrades respite and salvation, over.'

'Can it, you conman. Just tell me what I need to know. Let's see if I can whip up a miracle or two, over.'

Yes! He agreed to help. I wouldn't be lying if part of me had been expecting to be refuted. Alex was sort of a friend who would toss me into a volcano to teach me the power of fire. It was rather surprising that he would so simply grant me assistance. Maybe hanging out with Yang was distracting him somewhat. Anyway, I wasn't going to question a good thing.

I linked the visual capturing to the communication. 'Alright. Take a look. You can probably get something if you looked at the...'

A frigid voice appeared from behind me, bringing along a sense of deja vu; it was so reminiscent of how we had first met in the Schnee Warehouse that hearing it made a shiver run down my spine. 'What do you think you're doing?'

'Yo, leader man. What's with the pause, over?' Alex inquired about the pause. I paid him no heed. My attention was on the angry girl in front of me.

'Talk to you later, over and out.' I killed the comms and proceeded to answer her, 'I'm asking for directions from Alex, because clearly only one of us is concerned about being lost.

She crossed her arms. 'I told you; we're not lost!'

'Look, you can tell me the sky is pink, princess. Doesn't mean I'll believe you. Doesn't make it true neither.'

'You're intolerable,' she spat the word out. I kept an eye on the rapier now; it was waving around in the air too much for my liking.

'Maybe, but at least I know when to ask for help.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'I'm saying, your pigheaded pride is getting in the way of our mission objective. ' The gates were open now; I was going to let out everything out while I was at it.' We've spent the last two hours pointlessly trekking the forest because you insisted we can find the way around ourselves. I'm pretty darn sure we've been walking in circles. '

'Watch what you're saying. My pride isn't getting in the way of our mission.' She paused as if she was considering her next words, 'and it's not pigheaded.' I did notice that she didn't tackle the rest of my points. Maybe she did agree with me internally.

'Let me just ask for directions.' I suggested.

She refused, 'no, we don't need to. We're not lost.' Goddammit. Why Fortune? Why did you pair me up with her?

'What is it with you and asking for directions?' I wanted to rip out my hair. Why can't people be rational in difficult situations? 'It's because of you that we didn't even find a single Grimm ever since we've arrived!' I know, I know, I was complaining about not encountering a Grimm. However, the punishment for being last in this assignment – of having to redo a mission with Weiss – was one I did not wish to incur.

A howl echoed into the night, cutting off whatever Weiss was going to retort. Answering echoes reverbated all over the surroundings. They howls were getting closer.

Weiss glanced at the Myrtenaster briefly and gave it a flick. 'Well, here we go, Balthazar. The Grimm you've wanted so much are finally here.'

I wasn't really happy about it though. 'Let's just get them and get out of here.' I loaded the tranquilizer rounds into Fiasco.

-x-x-x-x-

Stay alive till the drug takes place indeed. Well, Weiss and I were soon learning that this was easier said than done.

'They're everywhere!' She yelled as another wave of beowolves burst forth from the nearby foliage. With a deft wave of Myrtenaster, fires snarled at them before they even landed.

'Yes, princess, I kinda noticed.' I shot thrice with Fiasco. Having kept track of number of rounds – it's not that hard when there's only seven in total – I knew it was empty. Splitting the gun into half, I removed the revolving chamber and inserted another pre-loaded chamber inside. They were all tranquilizers though; I had not prepared any other types of bullets in my preemptive chambers. It was a decision I was deeply regretting at the moment. No matter how many Grimm we manage to capture, if we died in the process, they are worth jackshit to us.

Another swipe came from my left, forcing me to dodge. If I didn't make room soon, the blasted beowolves were going to box us in. I produced a smoke grenade and primed it. Fiasco roared seven times, blessing the nearest seven beowolves with its indiscriminate love. Then I tossed the grenade.

I had timed it perfectly, of course. Years of using these grenades made me well aware how long their fuses lasted. Soon after it left my hand, the grenade detonated and engulfed the area. The opaque smoke filled my vision, hiding Weiss and me from the Grimm's view. Furthermore, my smoke grenades overloaded olfactory senses with its thick smell. For those especially gifted with a sensitive nose, the effect was worse. How did I knew this? Because I have used these grenades on faunus before.

With the time I bought, we could escape and regroup. I began searching for Weiss, relying on my sense of hearing. I really wished I had my visor; locating her with thermal vision would have been cake. As it happened, however, the very reason why I could not use the visor was the person I was currently trying to find in the smoke. Oh, Fortune, you and your tendency to make jokes out of my life.

Never bitch to Fortune about how bad your life is, she can always make it worse. As I was painstakingly looking for the heiress, a wave of flame sprouted from somewhere in the smoke and swept it all away with its heat. Not only did it almost scorch me, it exposed the two of us to the hostile beowolves in the area.

'What the hell are you doing?' She demanded, looking annoyed.

'Me? I should be the one asking that. We could have escaped under the smoke!'

'How can we escape if we can't see?' She snapped.

This might have become another addition in the series of arguments we've been having today if it wasn't for the beowolves. They threw themselves at us like a school of piranhas. There was no time to reload – revolvers took way too long – so I kept the gun and brought out my knives. I grimaced; I really did not like close quarters. Not for the first time, I wished I had a semblance more useful in a fistfight.

Enough time for lamentations later; concentration was survival. Another beowolf was coming for me. I let it bite my vambrace, fully confident it could withstand a mere jaw strength of the humanoid beast. It took the bait, giving me time to stab its throat and open it up. Well, that was one down. Only about... uhm... I'll say twenty-two more to go. I loaded Fiasco, this time with more lethal bullets.

A slash stretched across my back, shallow but painful. I reacted by firing upon my assaulter, opening up a hole in its head. Damn it. I needed to watch my surroundings more and the inner monologue was probably not helping me concentrate. I backed away, only to almost run straight into the open claws of another beowolf. Before my mistake turned fatal, I twisted myself away.

I wiped the perspiration on my palms. This was quite the pickle I had gotten myself into. Fighting them head on was out of question; that kind of a thing was possible only for people like Alex. The prudent thing to do would be to bail. However, before I could do that, I needed to get Weiss.

Avoiding engaging with beowolves, I scanned the battlefield for the girl in white. It wasn't hard to find her, her attire lit like a beacon in the darkness of the night. What was hard was reaching her. She was in the thick of the pack and they were all dying to kill her – somewhat literally.

Two beowolves leapt for her. They approached her from both sides, not giving her room to dodge either way. Unfazed, she produced a glyph and launched herself into the air. Then Myrtenaster glowed with yellow before she shot down towards one, impaling it before it could react. Dexterously, she pulled free the rapier and ran it through the second without hesitation.

Four more were converging on her. The revolving chamber at the centre of Myrtenaster glowed to a light blue. With a flick, a curtain of ice trapped two of them. Without wasting a moment, the chamber changed color again to red. Another flick shot forth a jet of fire. It swept towards the remaining beowolves but one of them managed to dodge in time. It then rushed upon her.

She gave another swing with her now reverted-to-white rapier. A glyph formed in front of the attacking beowolf, blocking its lunge. The glyph vanished instantly after the deflection and before it could recover, she stabbed it in the chest.

Damn, she was good. She might not be overwhelmingly strong like Alex or agile as Lestia but she was strong in a more ordinary way. She had an accuracy in her fighting style that granted efficiency to her strokes. Her movements were crisp, her attacks economic and her evades exemplary. In fact, her precise footwork and clear cut offense sort of reminded me of Circe, if I ignored the fact that the latter never fought with a sword. Those two were extremely similar, I thought.

It might be good to keep this particular opinion to myself.

Still no matter how good, she wasn't Alex or Lestia. There was only so much she could do alone. For each she killed, two more bound forward to have a go. I needed to help; how was the question. The best way to control a hostile crowd was with a grenade, of course. The tricky part was not getting Weiss injured from the blast. That took any form of lethal grenades out of the question. I mentally browsed through my list of possibilities.

This one will have to do. Weiss will not be happy about this. I pulled out the most powerful stink bomb in my arsenal. I smirked; she was definitely not going to be happy.

Frankly speaking, I hated this grenade. I only kept it because it was the simplest way to incapacitate enemies with superior sense of smell, such as faunus – trust me on this, I have plethora of incidents to prove this. I assumed it would be just as effective against beowolves, if not more so. With this firm conviction, I tossed it into the Grimm pack. Before its detonation, I wore the miniature gas respirator I always carried around.

Holy shit, she actually screamed. I forgot how nasty that thing was even to humans. However, the beowolves were in total disarray, so I had no regrets. I raced into the rapidly fleeing group of Grimm and headed for the girl. Taking in a deep breath, I pulled out my gas respirator and shoved it into her mouth. If she knew what was good for her, she would keep that in. Not willing to wait around for my breath to run out, I dragged her and made off in the general direction opposite of where the beowolves ran.

Thank goodness that was over. We regrouped by a rather large tree and plopped down exhausted.

'That was outrageously awful,' were her first words once she was finally able to speak. I thought it summed up the situation quite well.

'Don't mention it.'

She glanced at the unconscious beowolves. 'How many did we get?'

I shrugged, 'about thirteen. A lot ran away from the stench,' I stretched my sore muscles. 'Whew. I've never seen so many beowolves together.'

'Me neither. I never thought I would feel threatened by beowolves before.'

'That's some pampered life you've had then. It's a risk people who have no home in sanctuaries face all the time.'

She frowned at my criticism. 'Look Balthazar,' there was a firm quality in her words, as if she wanted to tell me something. It made me listen seriously. 'We got off the wrong foot. You shouldn't have stolen my apple.' Now I was frowning. Noticing my expression, she raised her hand to halt my argument. 'Hear me out. I also was not at the best behavior during our interactions. Why don't we just stop bickering? Let the bygones be bygones,' she offered.

I'll be honest. Of all things I expected her to say, this was not one of them. I took a moment to digest what I've just heard. Then I laughed. It wasn't the giggly sort neither; I was laughing out loud.

Of course, she did not take the laughter well. 'You find this funny?' Uh oh. She might get genuinely offended if I did not explain myself.

I shook my hand maniacally. 'No! It's not that. I'm sorry if the laughter offended you. I'm just... I just never expected you to be so... mature, if you can pardon my saying so. You're a much bigger person than I am. I really didn't expect that. I always assumed you were pampered, considering your background.'

A confused expression surfaced, as if she was considering taking offense or taking it well. In the end, it seemed she chose to take my comments as compliment. 'Excuse me, I refuse to be called immature while on same team as Ruby. Take that back.' I could see she was no longer upset.

'Yeah, yeah. I take it back. And I accept your offer. Team?' I offered my hand with a smile.

'I guess that's acceptable.' She stretched to take it.

A rustle from the side. As one, our weapons appeared. It seemed that our welcoming committee was not done with us. Somewhere in the distance, an almighty howl resonated in the air.

Well then, time to greet the hosts of the party.

-x-x-x-x-

There are a lot of beowolves in this damn forest. Compared to this place, the Emerald Forest was barren of Grimm. We slayed and slayed but their numbers refused to decline. I didn't need to be a genius to know how this was going to end if the attacks continued.

'How many beowolves can you handle on your own?' I asked. We were back to back, covering each other's blind spots. The ferocious glares from the beowolves bore into us savagely.

Her replies came amidst the lulls in the fight. 'About five to seven. I think a bit more if I concentrate. Why?' I felt her move. An agonized howl followed soon after.

'I think we should split up. I'll draw off a coup...' another one came for me, interrupting my words. I dispatched it with a shot to the chest and a stab in the throat. The blade was embedded too deeply for me to retrieve the knife. Damn it; I was getting low on the knives count too. The situation was getting worse by the second. 'As I was saying, I'll draw most them and you can get rid of the rest.'

She didn't take make suggestion seriously. 'Do you listen to yourself? You're not telling me you can fight off most of these beowolves alone, are you?'

'Who said anything about fighting them? I'm going to ditch them.' Another pair of them was inching too close for comfort. I kept my eyes on them especially as I reloaded Fiasco.

'This is their forest, you know. They're at the advantage at their home ground. I don't think you can lose them.'

Despite the serious situation, I chuckled. 'Princess. Do you know how hard it is to find me if I don't want to be found?'

She answered with a curt 'yes.' Oh yeah. There was that apple incident. I guess she really did know. Her next words held a trace of irritation, probably because she was recalling that exact incident. 'Fine, you can try your method.'

'Meet back here once we're both done?'

'Don't keep me waiting.'

'Aye, aye. Princess,' I promised. If everything went according to plan, there was no reason it would take long anyway. I darted through the beasts, making sure to grab as many of their attentions as possible. Time to play the pied piper with these bestial children.

-x-x-x-x-

It felt like such a good idea at the start. The thing is, I had underestimated how fast these things were in the forest. Or how numerous. Or how tenacious. My lungs felt like it housed a colony of hornets. Thank goodness I was good at running or I would have become wolf chow long ago.

I was running like my life depended on it. It was like one of those movie scenes where the wimpy guy was getting chased by the mindless zombies, if you can imagine the beowolves as the mindless corpses. I didn't like comparing myself to those wimpy guys though. Actually, now that I thought about it, didn't those wimpy guys always get killed in the end? Ugh, I did not like where my train of thought was taking me.

A snarl from behind informed me of impending attack. I was just barely fast enough to evade that one. Time to refocus my attention in escaping. A galloping pack at your heel was a great way to get your mind off distractions.

I did have a plan, of course. With Weiss out of the way, I now had the leeway to use whichever grenade I wanted. Beowolves didn't seem to be particularly resistant against my grenades' effects any more than humans and faunus were. That gave me quite a few options.

This should be far enough, I thought. My hand went for a particular grenade. Oh, I've seldom got to use this one before. I checked that the respirator was firmly in place, then brought out the sleeping gas grenade and pulled its pin. The prospect of using it was making me bubbly with excitement.

You see, it's awfully inconvenient to use a sleeping gas grenade against humans or faunus. Even though it wasn't lethal, it was considered harmful so if the authorities were to detect traces of it in the crime scene, there would always be extra effort in the investigation. Most of the time, it was much more worth it to just chuck a flashbang; no lingering residue for the police to get all anxious about.

But sleeping gas on beowolves? That was a fair game.

As the beasts swarmed closer, I let go of the bomb, counting down to its detonation. The reddish-green gas quickly engulfed the area. The world drowned in it, the tranquilizing mist swallowing all its inhabitants. It enveloped everything; the trees, the earth and the puny creatures of flesh. I reconfirmed that the respirator was firmly in place. This stuff was potent; if I fell under its effect, I would be out for a long while.

From within the gas cloud came the sound of bodies hitting the floor. The gas must be working. About time too, I was worried it for a second there. All I had to do now was to sit tight and wait for the whole mess to end.

Eventually the noises stopped. All was silent around me, only sound the rustling of vegetation under my feet. So it was over at last. All that was left was to clear the mess. If left alone, the sleeping gas would stay in this place for hours – it was denser than most gas and therefore diffused slowly.

As I usually did, I had a grenade to solve this problem. It was what I called a tempest-nade. As the name indicates, it was a grenade which releases a strong gush of wind upon detonation. It was mostly harmless, as long as you stayed outside the epicenter of its area of effect. But then again, that could be said for all explosives, couldn't it? I was going to find a place to hide first. Once I found a tree looking sturdy enough, I tossed the tempest-nade and braced myself. Even so, the detonation almost tore my grip from my anchor.

Well, at least the air was now clear. As I expected, a horde of unconscious beowolf pack carpeted the ground. Man, this felt good. There must be a couple dozen here. I didn't know how long the sleeping gas could sedate these things so I should shoot them all with the tranquilizers Melanis got for me.

As I got around tagging my catches each with a bullet, I noticed something at the corner of my eye. Amid the fallen bodies of the Grimm, it stood out like a sore thumb; a rather disturbingly familiar sore thumb. It was utterly dazzling in its whiteness, harshly in contrast to the darkness of the night. I felt my breath quicken; I was starting to panic. And why wouldn't I? After all, it seemed that my partner, Weiss Schnee, was rendered unconscious by the sleeping gas.

Fuck my life, seriously.

Really? After all that effort to make sure I could use whatever I wanted to without affecting, this happens? Ugh. Why doesn't anything ever go easily for me? Sigh. No use mopping, as Harmony used to say. Nobody's interested in a sob story except on a television. If Fortune dealt me with this, I had no choice but to just make lemonade out of the situation.

I examined Weiss. Her pulse seemed normal, nothing erratic. It looked like there was no complication of being knocked out by the grenade. Thank goodness for that. Now, the problem was deciding on what to do. I could try to force her awake – I did have something to that effect – but the method wasn't really reliable; I wished to avoid it if possible. The prudent thing to do was to simply call for help.

I switched on the radio transceiver. 'This is Balthazar speaking. Anyone around, over?'

The response was immediate, 'Oberon's throne, Balthazar. Why the hell was your radio off, over?' I recognized the incensed voice as Alex's.

Oops, the truth was that I had forgotten to switch it back on when Weiss confronted me about asking for direction just now. From the urgent manner Alex was speaking, something must have happened. 'We had a small incident since then. What's the matter, over?'

'Your location is the matter, you moron. I watched whatever you've sent me and matched the place with the map. That place is bad news, Balthazar, over.'

'Why? What's wrong with this place, over?'

'Is there an unusually high amount of beowolves there, over?' His question sent a shiver down my spine.

'Yes.'

'Damn it. I was hoping I was wrong.' I heard him mutter.

'Tell me, Alex. What is wrong with this place, over?'

'Look, start getting the hell out as you listen,' I would have if I could have but a certain unconscious teammate rendered the task rather difficult to accomplish, 'that place is a haven for beowolves. They are especially vicious and territorial, attacking even other Grimm who venture too deep. Not even Death Stalkers or King Taijitus go there. That place is bad news, over.'

I found that a bit hard to swallow. 'Not even other Grimm? That's hard to believe, over.'

'I know it sounds unbelievable but trust me, I know what I'm saying. There's a beowolf there with a bounty on it, Balthazar. You know what that means, don't you?' I did, and I was not happy to hear it.

'How many?' I asked.

He picked up immediately on what I was asking. 'At least seventy-two confirmed kills. Four of them were hunters sent to hunt it. This one's apparently very familiar with how deadly humans weapons are. Reports say it's very wary of people and that's why it's hard to kill.' This was bad. According to Alex, there was a beowolf in the vicinity which had successfully killed full-fledged hunters before.

A Grimm with a bounty was nothing to scoff at. Although people like Melanis may mention them lightly, they were serious issues. If you thought about it, the fact that these monsters were able to obtain identities among its peers was commendable, or terrifying – depending on how you looked at it. Only the most wretched of the creatures were given such recognition.

Grimm with bounty had been a topic covered by Professor Peter Port a few weeks back. When I say covered, I meant his boasting about how impressive he was for having killed so many of these in his youth; you know, typical Professor Port stuff. However, in between the self-worship, he did go about how deadly these things were. The statistics and case studies were alarming. Here's one of the alarming facts; around the world, the number of people being killed by Grimm with bounty is easily twice the number of those killed by mundane ones. Considering only about five percentage of the whole Grimm population gets a bounty, you can tell just how much damage these things were doing. All in all, Grimm with bounty were bad news.

'What's this one called?' All Grimm with bounties had names.

'Lycan,' Alex told me.

As if on cue, an almighty roar ripped the sky apart, making me flinch in surprise. Answering howls rose, pale in comparison to the first but threatening in its sheer numbers. There indeed were many beowolves in these woods. 'I gotta go, over.'

'Do you need reinforcement, over?' I thought about it. Surprisingly, my first thought that occurred at the offer was how much Weiss would hate the idea. I really was starting to see her as my partner.

'No. I can handle this, over,' despite all logic, I uttered these words. I could already feel the giggles of Fortune regarding the rash decision. The regrets were already preparing themselves, ready to pounce me at any notice.

Alex was not the sort to insist. 'Get out safe, over and out.' I was alone in this forest but for a bloodthirsty pack of monsters with a highly dangerous one in their lead and an unconscious girl to protect. Well, there was something I could do about the heiress.

All denizens of the undermarket were self-taught in medicine to varying degrees. For us, who might not be able to afford legitimate medical care due to financial or circumstantial reasons, it was imperative to learn how to keep ourselves alive in sticky situations. I had my fair share of close shaves in the past and had adequate medical knowledge to justify surviving those scenarios. In my kit, there were some items of life preservation that I could use to wake Weiss.

I pulled out a packet of powder from my pack and checked the label: No Rest for the Wicked. Yup, this was the right one. On top of my palm was the most potent smelling salts I had at my disposal, designed to be able to override every anesthetic equipment on me. The stuff kicked like mule but in other words, that meant at least it got the job done. I probably wasn't going to be earning thanks using this on her, but then neither would I be letting a beowolf chew on her.

The body's reaction was instant. With a cough and choking sounds, she was up. Confused and woozy but up, nonetheless. I shook her to gather her focus on me; it was helpful to provide a focal point to those who just emerged from unconsciousness. 'Weiss, look at me. Can you understand?' Her face was a mess, thanks to the powerful stimulant. With a handkerchief, I wiped the tears that trailed down. 'Look, we got to move. There's a Grimm with a bounty nearby. It's called Lycan, it has seventy-two kills under its belt and it's not something I wanted to be acquainted with in this lifetime or next. Come on,' I pulled her to her feet and held her as she wavered, 'pull yourself together,' I commanded.

The glare she shot at the command informed me she was back in business, despite her appearance insisting otherwise. 'Ugh. What was that?' She seemed as if she wanted to vomit.

I explained concisely, 'that was my smelling salt. It hits like a kicker for awhile but there won't be any permanent effects. Just try to ignore it.'

'Wha... what happened just now?' She took a moment to gather herself before continuing, 'I was following your path after taking care of the beowolves but then there was smoke everywhere.' Her question made me squirm uncomfortably.

'That's not important,' I covered up. I passed the handkerchief so that she could clean up by herself, 'Lycan's nearby. We need to leave.'

Weiss frowned, as if in pain. She massaged her forehead. 'Wait, slow down a moment. This is all so very confusing.'

Frustration welled up within me; we did not have time for this. 'Please, Weiss. We won't live to see the morning if we stay here. I know everything's confusing but you've gotta trust me, okay? We need to leav...' In the backdrop of the moonlight, on top of a small mound not too far away, a silhouette of a beowolf caught my eye. A massive beowolf. A colossal, gargantuan beowolf. Okay, maybe I exaggerated a bit with colossal and gargantuan. However, it was definitely massive.

The monstrous thing ripped the air apart with a howl. Weiss gave a startled yelp at its roar and turned to see the creature. 'That Lycan?' She asked, a slight tremble in her voice.

'I'm gonna say yes,' I replied. As we watched, it jumped down from the hill in our direction. Out of the moon's rays, it disappeared from our view. Still, I didn't need to be rocket scientist to know where it was heading. I grabbed her hand and began dragging the stupefied girl. 'We need to go,' I pressed.

We fled in the opposite direction. I made sure Weiss stayed ahead of me, making sure Lycan would not get a chance to jump on her. It wasn't chivalry. Predatory beasts always went for the weaker prey, which happened to be Weiss at the moment. By having her harder to be attacked, it would give me a second or two more reaction time if we were caught.

An idea occurred to me; I should impede its progress with some grenades in our wake. Although mines would have been the optimal choice in this situation, I did not have mines – a correction I should consider if I ever survived this ordeal. Not dwelling on the matter longer, I did the best I could in the circumstance and dropped some combinations of explosives which I thought would be most effective at delaying our pursuer.

Even with all my efforts, when the attack actually happened, I was barely able to do anything. It was intimidating just how fast it was. From the thickets, it burst forth, its claws outstretched. As I had expected, it lunged for my partner, aware who was the easier target. Weiss was yet unaware of its presence.

Not on my watch, you piece of shit. I sprinted to intercept, my legs pumping away. Nothing loaded into Fiasco had the stopping power to halt it so it wasn't going to help me. My knives might have done it with an appropriate bomb pellet but the chance of me hitting Lycan with my throw were close to zero. My grenades weren't going to cut it either; whatever was strong enough hurt the beowolf would injure Weiss in its blast and whatever that wouldn't hurt Weiss wasn't going to take down Lycan. Regretfully, that left me only one option.

I placed myself between the canine juggernaut and the girl in white, faced the incoming juggernaut and braced for impact.

If anyone of you ever got bludgeoned by a freight train, you would have an idea how it felt like. I flew, crashing painfully against a tree trunk. The wind was knocked out of me, and I think I actually broke something.

'Balthazar!' Weiss yelled with concern. Idiot, now was not the time to be distracted by anything. Well, I guess that applied to me too. I forced myself up despite my body's vehement protest at the prospect. At least it wasn't my legs that were broken; otherwise, Balthazar's story would have ended right there and then.

'Keep moving,' I instructed before following my own advice. Weiss blocked a few swipes from Lycan with her glyphs before infusing Myrtenaster with yellow dust. Speed! Yes, that was good. That should at least let her stay ahead of the beowolf's clutches for awhile. Now all I needed to worry about was my own survival. No pressure.

But then again, who am I? I am Balthazar "Breaker" Venarius. I may not be the strongest around or the fastest around, but I was definitely the best one at running away. Needless to say, I did have an escape plan.

I waited for Weiss to get ahead of me. To my irritation, she paused as she passed by me. Holy crap, I needed her out of here. 'Go! Don't worry about me, I have a plan!' My expression must have been really intense because after taking one look at my face, she complied without any argument. Then she was gone.

Now, for my own escape. I rummaged through my bag and grabbed what I was looking for. Despite the seriousness of the situation, a corner of my heart ached at the thought of the lien replacing this gear would cost me. Survival over wealth, Balthazar. Dead man spends no cash. With all hesitations dealt with, I pulled out a couple of decoy-nades.

Decoy-nades were grenades that produced holographic images programmed into them upon detonation. Currently, the images programmed were of me in various motions. There was even a small AI in these things to ensure the hologram's actions were as realistic as possible. As it can be imagined, the tech involved was expensive. If it wasn't for the fact that my life was hanging on the balance, I wouldn't be using them.

It took me less than a second to prime them before tossing them overhead. Of course, the holograms by themselves probably wouldn't be enough; the damn thing could smell me, after all. For a good measure, I chucked a few smoke grenades and stink bombs. With my scent masked, hopefully the only way for the beowolf to search for me was by sight.

A howl from behind sounded more frustrated than usual. Although it hurt to smile – it hurt to do anything with my body at the moment – I still looked back to gloat. What I saw made me regret it. The bloody thing was seeking out the grenades and destroying it. This must be what Alex meant when he said Lycan was familiar with human weapons. It definitely knew the grenades were causing the illusions somehow. At the rate it was going, the amount of time I had bought was lesser than I initially thought. Nothing's ever easy, is it?

I ran like hell.

-x-x-x-x-

End of the line, it seemed. Before me was the most intimidating beast I've seen in my seventeen odd years. Behind me was a cliff overlooking a river. Who knew my life would ever become so dramatic, like a scene from a movie.

I was such a fool. As I made my escape, I had kept up the belief that if I extracted myself from Lycan's field of vision it would start chasing after Weiss. What was I thinking? It had completely skipped my mind that after that business I had with the tree trunk, I was now more injured of the two. Instead of keeping myself on the edge of its radar, I should have focused on running away when I had the chance. Now the chance was gone, and that was a mistake that might cost me dearly, even fatally.

It was glowering at me, as if aware I had no route to escape. Mocking, jeering. Well, I was never the one to take those well, even from those much stronger.

There had been so many times in my previous career when I almost died. Overly-eager security guards, facility sabotage gone wrong, unforeseen circumstances of disastrous misfortune, I've seen them all. As you might have realised, I have survived through them. The how was simple; I judged the options for the higher chance of survival and took it without hesitation.

Right now, I had better chance in the river. So what do I do?

I jumped.

-x-x-x-x-

AN: You know, I thought breaking up the arc would lessen the word counts per chpt. Not really, apparently. Oh well.

Originally I was hoping to break this arc into 2 chpt – meaning I was supposed to be finishing the arc with this chpt. Nope. Apparently not happening.

Also, grenade everything. I realised Balthazar is abysmally weak against Grimm. Haha. He lives on my sufferance. Muhahahaha. Hopefully when he starts fighting people, he wouldn't be so wimpy.

Well that's everything.

Oh special thx to DamagedGlasses for the great villain idea. Thx to him, I can finally materialilze the main villain more or less completely.

And extra special thx to Armyx since he's the reason my writing improves.

Well that's all for now, folks. Cheers.