Chapter Ten: Inspired
Shai-Hulud
Shaitan of Gara Kulon
CR 16 Alitta Virens
Oh shit.
That was all Pyrrha Nikos could think as she stared up at this huge monstrosity. So big in fact that its shadow covered Pyrrha, blotting out the sun. That wasn't the scariest part of it, no. This was the first Grimm she had seen that had a name, Shaitan of Gara Kulon. She had heard of this particular Grimm before, which in itself is terrifying. Unless they are particularly old, you tend to not hear about specific Grimm, nor do they get named, and Shaitan of Gara Kulon has destroyed whole villages! For now its focus wasn't on the students who seemed like insects compared to it, rather it was looking around, its maw the only discernable aspect of it that might constitute a face, as it swept back and forth, seemingly looking across the flat forest area and the destroyed temple. It might not even be looking around for all we know! Her focus was so deep on Shaitan of Gara Kulon that she brought up its character page, regretting it immediately.
Shai-Hulud
Shaitan of Gara Kulon
CR 16 Alitta Virens
HP: 9,836/9,980
AC: 30
Emotions: None
Status Effects: None
Species: Grimm
Age: 8443 Humans 2358 Faunus
Biography: Inari Buckwheat, Tara Auren, Sirce Chemest, Basilius Albus, Silke Cristallo…
Pyrrha's mouth dropped at the age. T-that's over ten thousand sentient beings! I heard the rumours about the devil of Gara Kulon, how it wiped out entire villages… but seeing it in person…it's an entirely different experience. It's so… big.
"W-what is that?" a small voice asked, Ruby, as she had a look of wonder in her eyes, "It looks awesome!"
"The Shaitan of Gara Kulon" Ren's voice was barely above a murmur, equal measures of awe and fear.
"You mean the Shai-Hulud that wiped out Gara Kulon?" Yang gave her partner a look, "I thought that was a legend…"
"It would appear the legends are true."
Click-click
"Let's kill it." Ruby's large silver eyes locked on the hulking black mass that towered over them. Everyone turned to Ruby with a mix of expressions; Weiss and Jaune both shared a look of incredulity, for Yang, it was concern, while Nora seemed to be… gleeful. Blake and Ren both looked at her with merely an upraised eyebrow. Pyrrha couldn't help but be impressed. Ruby has courage, that's for sure. Not many people, even huntresses looked at a massive Grimm the size of a skyscraper and think: 'let's kill it'.
"Alright Ruby, do you have a plan?"
Ruby realized that everyone was staring at her, a frown forming, "Hit it till it stops moving?" Pyrrha could FEEL the face-palm that Weiss was doing. She could definitely hear at least someone hitting their face as well as several sighs. Nora on the other hand…
"I love this plan!" before reaching behind her and pulling out a grenade launcher that transformed into an over-sized gravity hammer. Somehow I couldn't imagine Nora with any other weapon Pyrrha thought, thinking back to her insane strength. Ren shook his head, which might have seemed to be disapproving if it hadn't been for his smile, before pulling out his own weapons, two green bladed hand guns from his sleeves.
Shaking her own head, Pyrrha drew her own weapons, Miló and Akouo, "I'll follow your lead" giving Ruby an encouraging smile. Pyrrha heard the sound of a weapon being loaded before looking over at the source. Yang's weapon seemed to be large gauntlets, from what Pyrrha could tell through the exposed parts of it large ammunition rounds.
"Let's do this."
"Are you all insane?!" That would be Weiss, heiress staring at all but Jaune and Blake as if they had grown an extra head. "That-that thing is responsible for the deaths of thousands! We're students not trained huntsmen!"
"Which is why we should fight it, we'd be making a difference!" retorted Yang.
16 + 9 Perception Skill modifier + 3 WIS modifier = 28. Successful Perception check! You have beaten the DC 25 check!
Pyrrha could have sworn she saw Blake's bow twitch, as she pulled out her own weapon, a sword-gun-chain of some kind. "I'm in." The look of on Weiss' face was that of betrayal. Weiss turned her last hope, with more than a little disgust: Jaune Arc.
"You're a…reasonable person right? We shouldn't fight this."
Jaune stared at her, then the Shai-Hulud, before back to her, drawing out his sword. "This is what we are training for; it's our obligation to fight it." Pyrrha noticed that even as he said it, his own hand was twitching, almost shaking.
"How do you fight this thing?! It's so big it blots out the sun!"
Pyrrha gave a cool response, "Then we shall fight in the shade."
Weiss let out a long exasperated sigh, defeat evident in her voice. "I suppose…I'm outnumbered." Holding up a finger, an edge entered her voice, "But let me just say that this is a terrible idea."
"Duly noted."
"So how are we g-"
"NORA SMASH"
BOOM
Nora had taken her hammer and slammed it into the side of the Shai-Hulud, causing some kind of pink explosion. Shaitan of Gara Kulon did not appreciate this, as it stopped what seemed to be a search, as the tower like Grimm fell forwards, towards the group.
5 + 9 DEX skilled modifier + 4 DEX modifier = 18. Successful Dexterity check! You have beaten the DC 10 Check! Take no damage!
Pyrrha, Jaune, Blake and Ruby dodged by going to the right, while Weiss, Yang, Nora and Ren had gone to the left. Pyrrha saw that the side she was on, everyone was fine, and she did see eight successful checks in the action log. Was that it? It's not very threatenin-
The protrusions she had called legs then started to move, with a sickening motion, the ones closest to Pyrrha suddenly shooting out at her, as if trying to skewer her, the bony substance moved almost as if they were independently being controlled. Rolling to the side, Pyrrha pulled up Akouo, blocking one of its legs as if it had anticipated where she was going. The force of the leg hitting her shield caused Akouo to slam into her arm, pushing Pyrrha back a few feet [-30 Aura]. Barely getting a moment to breathe, four more legs shot out at her, grazing her armour.
9 + 4 Insight Skill modifier + 3 WIS modifier = 16. Successful Insight check! You have beaten the DC 10 Check!
It took Pyrrha a moment to notice, but each of the legs had a stat block floating over it.
Maxillae
CR 6 Pereiopod
Each of its legs is a CR 6 creature? Every single leg is considered tougher then a Beowolf or Ursa? There are hundreds of them! Pyrrha pulled up the in-depth character page for the 'Maxillae'. Armour is twenty five, and except at the joints where it's twenty. The weak points are the joints then. Maybe I could back out of their range, Pyrrha thought, as she pivoted away from another one. The legs are about forty feet long, if not more, and they have incredibly good accuracy. The joints are the only parts that seem to be the least armoured. Attacking the joints seems like the best possible idea.
Letting the next strike graze Akouo, Pyrrha used its momentum to spin around, bringing Miló in a downward diagonal slash into the joint of the leg as it kept going past her.
14 + 9 Attack modifier + 3 STR modifier = 26. Successful Attack check! You have beaten the defender's AC!
Miló embedded into the leg, doing some form of damage to it, but getting stuck into the leg to such a degree that as the leg kept moving, it wrenched Miló out of Pyrrha's grip. Shit. Now armed with only a shield, all Pyrrha could do was dodge or block. Having used so much of my semblance's power on the Nevermore, I can only use it sparingly. Waiting until the next strike came, Pyrrha lunged for Miló in the embedded leg, pushing hard on it, [-10 SP], cutting through the leg. That takes care of one; that leaves seven more to go.
It was at this point that Pyrrha took a look to see how her fellow classmen were doing. Ruby had cut off two of its legs already, and was working on a third leg. Blake was dodging through….was that after images? She had damaged one of the legs to the point where it was hanging by nearly a thread. Jaune on the other hand was being pushed back, blocking each of the strikes with his shield, his footing not holding. He must have a plan…he can see what we're doing, so he MUST know where the weak points are.
The ground started to rumble, as the Shai-Hulud started to move, more of it come out of the ground, the part that Pyrrha's group was fighting slowly starting to slide away from her. Where there had been legs that had been fighting her, or cut off, were new ones. Great, this is going to take a while isn't it?
8 + 9 Perception Skill modifier + 3 WIS modifier = 20. Successful Perception check! You have beaten the DC 15 check!
Dodging another attack, Pyrrha set about cutting off the new legs, as she started to back up, she realized she could hear something behind Ducking, a leg from behind shot out, right where her head had been. Looking behind her, she realized that the Shai-Hulud had curled itself around them, and was slowly closing its body around the four students, trapping them with the legs. This is bad, this is really bad. I can deal with attacks from the front, but not from all sides. Slowly they were being pushed together, with each one defending a different side. Weathering the attacks, Pyrrha yelled at Ruby. "Do you have a plan?!"
Ruby gave her a brief, tight smile, not stopping her attack, slashing through another leg, "No… not really!"
Pyrrha couldn't respond as she blocked another leg with Akouo, slicing at it's joint with Milo. The process repeat itself over the next five minutes, for every leg the trainees cut off, another one appeared taking its place. It felt like they were getting no progress done, yet Pyrrha could see that the Shai-Hulud's health was slowly decreasing, as they cut off bit by bit. Each of these Maxillie have fifty hit points, at some point it needs to run out of them, in which case we can start attacking the main bo-
"We need to move now!" Blake yelled.
A shadow descended on to the group, Pyrrha looked up, and was shocked seeing to the head of the Shai-Hulud, it's maw directly above them. This close to its maw, Pyrrha could see seemingly hundreds of teeth inside of it, moving, similar to the Shai-Hulud's legs. It had closed them into a single area, trapping them, before moving into to consume them all in one go. The legs that had been attacking them started to recede, as the maw descended.
We can't get escape it, if we try and go, the legs will start attacking again. If we stand here the maw will get us. Going on the offensive might get it to back off, but the sheer fact that it has a distributed nerve system makes it hard to have it react to pain. That's what makes them so hard to kill! You have to dice a Shai-Hulud to mincemeat for it to die! Ho-
"Get behind me" That was Jaune. Pyrrha looked at him, as well as the others, before quickly moving behind him. He sheathed his sword, before getting a two handed grip on it. Jaune's shield started to glow white, as the twenty foot maw descended.
A deafening noise, an unearthly sound, caused Pyrrha to flinch, briefly close her eyes. When she opened them, Pyrrha noticed two things; the Shai-Hulud was reeling back, and a single update on the action log.
A party member has successfully made an opposed Strength check!
What in Oum's name…
Jaune on other the hand was staggered; he was on his knees, leaning heavily on his shield. He had undoubtedly come out as the victor, but had still suffered a bit from it. Giving a tight smile to the others, "That's the best I got."
The Shai-Hulud went crashing back into its own cylindrical body with a crash, its legs spasming, shooting out in all directions. Pyrrha started to duck and weave as the bone white segmented legs stabbed and sliced the air.
The prospective students split, Ruby twisting through the mess of them, propelling herself with Crescent Rose. Blake picked up her partner, before turning into an afterimage, dodging through the tangled spasming legs. Pyrrha on the other hand was had been dodging and blocking as she was separated from the others. Soon she could only keep up with their progress in the action log.
11 + 9 DEX skilled modifier + 4 DEX modifier = 24. Successful Dexterity check! You have beaten the DC 15 Check! Take no damage!
A party member has made a successful Dexterity check!
A party member has failed their Dexterity check!
Oh crap! Pyrrha had a few seconds to figure out who. It's probably not Ruby; Blake is being weighed down by Jaune. It could be the others… With that thought in mind, Pyrrha jumped, using the legs of the Shai-Hulud as stepping stones, to get a better vantage point.
16 + 9 Perception Skill modifier + 3 WIS modifier = 28. Successful Perception check! You have beaten the DC 20 check!
Pyrrha could see Blake and Jaune; Blake was able to effortlessly dodge the whirling legs. The use of some form of after-image power, probably her semblance, only furthered her already impressive ability to dodge. Ruby on the other hand was suffering. She was clearly being swarmed. That must be who the failed check is for. Pyrrha thought, as her jump reached its apex, and she started to descend. Detaching Akoúo̱ from her arm, Pyrrha used it as an addition platform to spring off from, getting her closer to Ruby. She could see the leg that was going to hit; Ruby had gotten turned around after her last dodge, with her back facing the mass of legs. Pyrrha Nikos did what she always did when asked to think fast; mecha-shifting Miló into its javelin form, she hurtled it at the leg, aiming for its joint, aiding in extra power [-35 SP]. Pyrrha glanced at the action log before looking at it;
14 + 9 Attack modifier + 3 STR modifier = 26. Successful Attack check! You have beaten the defender's AC!
Yes! Pyrrha watched as Miló soared through the air. A notification alert popped up, as Miló entered the melee between Ruby and the legs…
…directly into Ruby's torso, horror dawning on Pyrrha's face, as she watched it dig into the girl's stomach. Ruby's silver eyes focused on the red-gold spear sticking into her.
Warning, the target is currently engaged with another opponent, this action will be done with disadvantage.
1 + 9 Attack modifier + 3 STR modifier = 13. Complete Failure! Due to disadvantage, you have failed this action, with an automatic failure. You have failed the DC 20 Check!
Pyrrha watched in horror as the leg she had been trying to save Ruby from, sliced into her partner, before she fell too far towards the ground to keep an eye on what she had just caused. Did... did I just kill Ruby? No, if I had, the action log would be saying I had, or it would be telling me a party member is out of health or is making death saves...
A party member has no more health remaining; they are now doing death sav-
"NO!"
Pyrrha's mind raced as she thought of the resources at hand. There was one option, something that Pyrrha had never done before.
A humming noise overrode everything that Pyrrha could hear. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Where she had just been about to hit the ground and go into a roll, her body froze right before contact. As if slowly rewinding time itself, Pyrrha felt an odd sensation, as if she was going up. Her descent reversed itself, as she started to ascend. Not of her own volition, rather, her body was on autopilot, going through the previous movements she had just done. It felt like Pyrrha Nikos was trapped, having to repeat her actions in reverse, her emerald eyes forcibly looking at the action log, before glancing back, her eyes once more in view of her partner. Seeing the pain on Ruby's face as the Shai-Hulud's legs cut into her.
No… no...
Watching reverse of what she had just witnessed, Ruby's face faded from pain to shock, before Miló slowly, very slowly, pulled itself out of Ruby's stomach, and glided silently back towards its owner. Pyrrha felt it come into contact with her right hand, as her arm started to pull back into the motion it had done prior to the attack. The motion of everything started to speed up again, as if time had been dilating. Control over her own body returned as Pyrrha found herself beginning to throw Miló.
Instead of throwing it, she flipped her grip on Miló, shifting it into its sword from, turning her throwing action into a spin, applying her control over polarity on herself, accelerating towards Ruby [-60 SP]. Coming out of the spin, she found herself close enough to the leg that she brought Miló down onto it, in a slashing motion, severing it at the joint. The momentum continued to carry her in spin, Pyrrha reached out, grabbing Ruby as a second leg entered the spot the young girl had been occupying.
So this is the power of inspiration?
Omake VII:
Ruby realized that everyone was staring at her, a frown forming, "Hit it till it stops moving?"
Nora stared at Ruby then Weiss and finally on Pyrrha. "Can we trade partners?"
"I-"
"THAT IS THE BEST IDEA YOU'VE HAD ALL DAY NORA" Weiss screeched.
Beta: Super Saiyan Cyndaquil
AU: This chapter took a while, and I'm sorry. I've been sidetracked with real life and my two other stories, the fluffy Blake/Ruby story and a rather serious Pyrrha/Ruby story.
I'm really sorry that this took something like ten days. On the other hand, it has now been 30 days since I started this story, so its been a whole month. In that time I've gotten 80 followers, 8,200+ views. I'm proud to say the least.
I've been writing some other stories, mostly because this was a particularly hard chapter TO write, and I wanted to write but couldn't for this. If you guys and gals want to know more, check out my profile. The two stories are Acceptance, which is a Pyrruby story and Dilation a really fluffy funny Blake/Ruby story.
I look forward to reviews, because this is a chapter that should add fuel to the fire about what is Jaune Arc and the limits of Pyrrha Nikos' power. Just a favour to ask of new viewers, how long does it take you to go through this story? Like an hour? Two hours? I'm curious, if you don't mind. Now I'm going to go to a con for the weekend, and see what new thoughts I can come up before I started chapter 11, prepare for more awesome!
Next time on Skyros: Pyrrha Nikos discovers that fighting giant sandworm-centipede-Grimm hybrids is really REALLY horrifying to fight.