POV Malachai Goshay
"Jeez Malachai, you look like shit."I hear Graham laughing as we leave Grimm studies.
"Aside from how that class is all theory that day by day we learn is wrong. I'm trying to find an opening to ask Roz to the dance. As it stands Maria has been putting stalker in the word deathstalker ever since she heard about it."
Graham snorts at that sad truth. "Yeah she really has. Odds are you will have to make a bet of it through a spar to get a chance. Lucky you, we are heading to lunch and meeting with everyone." I notice that Graham's voice catches slightly at mentioning everyone.
"Hmmm what was that? It sounds like our Papa Bear has somebody in mind." I can't help but laugh as we enter the cafeteria.
"Hold that thought, I'll be right back." With that Graham hastily goes to get food and meet up with team TRLL.
I decide to ignore his plans as I head over to where our team normally sits; in a back corner that gives us a full view of the cafeteria with nobody able to appear at our backs. As I take a seat and pull out my lunch I see Maria approach with the head of what looks like a very unlucky victim. "Umm, the fucks that?" I ask in a mix of horror and awe at the gory mess that looks very cleanly done.
"Well, I figured since Roz won't acknowledge my question each time I ask, I'd give her a gift that she'd appreciate and want to say yes. So at first I thought a rose, but that is way too cheesy for her to take seriously and then this poor bugger tried hitting on me," she lifts the head splashing blood all over the table, "and thought that a severed head would be perfect."
"Yes, severed head, completely fine… Won't attract the wrong kind of attention. Especially since Al is here."
"Yes, yes I am and where young lady was it you killed said 'poor bugger'?" Alizarin's head sticks through the window right over my shoulder.
"Downtown Vale, some random back alley, said he had candy so - naturally - I decided to see what was for sale. I did not want any lollipops, so I took his head."
"Ok, I guess that makes it self defense. At least I don't have to do any more than I already am, blighted OCLT." He sighs, "Who in their right minds casts rituals on top of a school where we can clearly see them," Al shouts the last part apparently hoping that they notice him climbing the building to stop them.
"Have fun with that Al." I wave him off as he resumes his climb via swords on a wall. "Anyways, back on topic, although yeah Roz would love it…"
"What would I love… Oh hey thanks for getting me lunch Mary." Roz immediately grabs the severed head and starts eating it. Maria and I pass each other a confused look at this turn of events. "So, what'd I miss?"
"Next class Maria and I are going to fight for the right to take you to the dance." I say smugly looking at Maria.
"Ummm sure but you won't win Mal." Her dazed response gets me ready to prove her wrong.
"Awwe so you two plan to fight over a sweet rose." Team TRLL decides to join us and Raisa chimes in. Her hazel eyes shine with humor as she brushes a lock of her short auburn hair over an ear. Graham wraps an arm around her clearly as a warning to not push it any further, but the way she leans into him with her head fitting right into his shoulder really leaves me wondering.
"So you decided that the bear would get caught in some thorns this weekend, eh Graham." I can't help but laugh finally catching on that they are a sharing with their teams their relationship.
"How do you manage to make something harmless appear sexual? And why must you Mal?" Graham let's out an aggravated sigh.
"Oh come on Cracker you know that the thorns are all cleared out so that you can get to the honey pot if you want." The way she says that like a purr, and the look of pure horror on everyone else's face is priceless.
"Hold up, hold up, hold up. Since when were you two together and more importantly how long have you been doing the nasty." Maria asks mortified.
Roz mumbles barely audible into the now empty eye socket of her meal, "it isn't that nasty, heck I've watched my Moms a time or two." By this point I don't know what is more disturbing Graham and Raisa or just Roz in general.
"We started going out about six months after I got bit and you don't need to know anything about our free time." Graham growls like a true bear only adding to the growing maelstrom of weirdness today.
"I'm afraid for later now. We Are all a nightmare." I sigh surrendering to the beckoning insanity in my head. "Which reminds me, we have sparring with third years because Lady Death here decided that one versus twenty was too easy. I swear Beacon is going to hate us by the time we leave."
"Nah, they will love us because Atlas hates enough for the entirety of Remnant. They still shoot Roz death glares if ever they cross paths." Maria says beginning to recover from the realization that Graham has been in a rather long relationship under her nose.
"Really I didn't notice, I thought they just don't know what it feels like without a stick up their rear ends." Trey says trying to recover from realizing just how naughty his partner is. After that the mood swiftly settles and we all finish our lunches in what I assume to be peaceful silence.
"Well, time for class, gotta go Ray." Graham gives Raisa a quick peck on the forehead before we part ways with team TRLL.
"Soooo, what's happening again? I'm kinda lost…" Roz asks really confused.
"Nothing Angel, just showing that the boys don't stand a chance against us in a fight."
"Oh, okay Mary." Roz looks even more confused after that as we enter the classroom. "Hey mom. Umm why are you teaching, aren't you a guest of honor or something? Also why are you like at seventy five percent Grimm right now?"
"That I'll let Wiess explain, gods I hate distant relatives especially her's." Ms. Rose let's out an angry snarl before calming enough to look up showing a pair of silver and gold eyes. "Anyways Professor Arc thought I should teach to 'enlighten' his students about hybrids and also show that you can always improve your combat skills, so of course I thought it'd be fun to beat up new people for a change."
"Soooo, since you are teaching Ms. Rose can I ask that Maria and I demonstrate hybrid combat, we have an issue that needs resolved." I state more than ask, to which she gives an energetic nod, her eyes alight with humor knowing exactly what I'm talking about.
"Be my guests I could use a show since I couldn't shred that Krov Schnee earlier." Her eyes become even more vibrant shades of their respective colors and her skin darkens. The barely contained rage causing us and any other students to rush to their seats feeling that we may not live otherwise.
The class bell rings briefly after, breaking the tension in the room. "Ok so for all you third years welcome team GRMM. They are going to be joining us as of today because as I'm sure you have heard one of them single handedly took out an entire class of first years. It was not brought to the Beacon faculty's attention that this particular team was taking classes equal to yours up until now, so they should be placed accordingly." Ms. Rose let's out a sigh as she resumes her lecture, her Grimm half still not fading at all. "With that being said I figured that they should help with today's lecture. Mr. Goshay and Ms. Alph will be demonstrating how hybrid combat is different than expected and that we hybrids fight ourselves as we fight our opponents. So I hope you enjoy as much as I will. Also please you two don't lose control."
Once Ms. Rose goes to take her seat Maria and I approach the ring. We take separate sides and ready ourselves. "You may think you will win, Maria, but I'm not holding back either." I shout as I unleash the Taijitu and the familiar sizzling feeling as two heads rip from my back.
"Good let's dance." She immediately lowers herself stinger overhead, posed like an actual deathstalker as her Remains act as the claws. She immediately breaks into a sprint that I use my Nashira to stop by honing aura to catch the stinger and drain her darkness out, removing her favored weapon.
"Can't have you use that can we." I say as she lashes out with her sword arms that I catch with my own Grimm, however she anticipated it and shadow jumps disconnecting her swords from her arms, holding them by the barrels, and goes to sever my serpent limbs. They are stretched too far forward to block quick enough and the constant redirection of energies makes it hard to guard the oncoming strike. My snakes hit the ground hard and fade away, the pain barely noticeable in my mind as I channel the raw darkness.
"Tit for tat boyo." She snips as she hears the heads crash underfoot. Without warning she reconnects Remains to her arms and starts to for close range jab shots, only building the darkness inside me.
"Now class normally I'd stop a match here however as you can see both Ms. Alph and Mr. Goshay are still in the green with aura that you measure. This is because of the Grimm in us it gives us what is either refered to as the essence of Grimm, or for simplicities sake darkness. Darkness is a Grimm's aura, and it only builds with anger, think of it as a true polar opposite to aura where you would lose they would gain and vice-versa." Neither of us notice Ms. Rose address the class, fully enthralled in the fight. However once I hear silence, I snap my semblance. "And that'd be Mr. Goshay's semblance, darkness redirection. This really is getting good." The room is engulfed in the darkness as the surge blasts Maria clean off the stage all the way to Alizarin in the back corner of the room. "That's the match."
"Don't worry, I'm still human." I say with my clothes slightly singed from the pulse and Nashira still pitch black from all the darkness I stored inside it.
"I see that, so that was hybrid versus hybrid now are there any takers on hybrid versus normal person out there." As I go to sit down I notice Al raise his hand after guiding a dazed Maria to her seat next to me.
"I'm game. Hey Graham up for going a round?" Graham grins eagerly.
"Wanna see that I'm not that little wuss anymore huh?" The excitement from Graham shocks me, he is never this eager to fight.
"Okay, looks like Alizarin Silversmith versus Graham Major will be round two." As Ms. Rose says Graham's full name the entire class apparently takes a deep breath not realizing that the giant man before them was the kid who went missing back in their first year.
"Alright let's go Al, ready to settle the score?" Graham stands tall and proud approaching the ring, Alizarin right behind him.
"Gladly. I want to see what has changed to turn that little guy I used to know, into a freakin brick house."
The two square off, looking ready to unleash hell upon each other. Alizarin quickly unsheathed his bow and points it towards the sky, as Graham readies Exodus, the blade cracking in half. "En garde." Both shout as a hail storm pours down upon the arena with arrows and an occasional spear. At first it looks like a mismatched fire fight with Graham hiding behind a pillar poking out occasionally, sword held at his hip, firing a spear towards his prey. Meanwhile Al just appears to be toying with Graham learning how much his semblance can take and striking Graham's armor to learn how it worked too.
Then Al does something… odd. He readies not one, but three arrows, one of each dust he can use. As if that wasn't enough, he then seems to coat them in some excess aura, making each appear as a dark red. He waits for a minute, and then fires them in a completely random direction, a red trail following each.
And then, they arch themselves to point at Graham, already having passed the pillar.
"...Thats new." Graham says with a look of confusion, then shock, as he seems to realize what just happened. Apparently, deciding to take it like a man, he slams Exodus into the ground and stands at attention, hands resting on the pommel as his Grimm unleashes, encasing him in bone armor. He stares down the oncoming barrage.
Al slightly snickers, and blows them up before they can reach. Now, a wall of ice, fire, and electricity, as well as his own pillars block him from moving. On the aurameter, Al's aura takes a slight dip from detonating his own aura like that.
"Come on then! With your new set up, you should be able to walk straight through that!"
"Eh, bugger off Al! Also, when'd you learn that trick?"
"I figured it out last year, been practicing behind even my own team's back. I'll explain the rest of it afterwards. So you care to explain why you look like a nuclear blast survivor now?" The explosion finally begins to clear and I see what Al meant. Graham took the blast head on, he even used his semblance to pin his feet to the ground to not be knocked off guard from it. However only his head piece and chest plate remain of the Grimm bone armor. I look up to see Al's aura at about 75%, whereas Graham's more towards 60%."Well that looked fun, glad to know that training was worth it." I hear Ms. Rose mumble similar to Roz's earlier statement. As that thought crosses my mind I look to Roz and notice that she still has blood coating her lips from lunch, making me quickly look back to the match, hoping to forget about that particular weirdness.
"Oh, come on! You guys got special training?! Also, you're not sneaky Graham." Al says as he ducks a strike from behind. I didn't even notice Graham move from his statuesque position. Al pulls apart his bow, and tries to get inside Graham's defence.
Their swords are a blur as the two dance a brutal duo of speed vs strength. Eventually, Al and Graham both mess up, and they both see the other's before their own. Striking out at the same time, they hit their marks simultaneously.
Al drops from seventy-five to thirty-five percent, and flies across the arena, stopping just before he rings out. Graham drops from forty-five to thirty-five percent, and skids back an inch. Al is quick to stand, reassembling his bow, and readying aura-infused two arrows, a storm and frost by the looks of it, and tinkering with a toy on the side of the bow.
Next thing I know Al screams, "Cover your ears folks!" And he releases the shots, colliding in the air causing an indescribably painful noise, even causing Ms. Rose to drop unconscious briefly from its effect. "Whoops." He lets out as his aura drops another five percent. Graham appears to be seriously messed up from whatever just happened, his body trapped in ice and appearing to be gasping for air. He reinforces his Grimm to cover him as he imbues Exodus with a burn crystal stored in the handle, to melt the ice.
Al repeatedly pelts Graham's sword with ice arrows, trying to delay. But he eventually runs out, accidentally firing off a burn arrow instead.
Graham, finally freed of his prison attempts to start up his charge again, but can't seem to catch his breath.
"Geez, Graham, shouldn't you be unconscious by now? I mean no offense but damn you just - quite literally - walked through hell and back." Al says miffed and slightly at a loss for what to do now.
"You know Al, when your teammate goes by the epitaph Angel of Death, and you practice daily with her, endless storms of pain become bee stings in the Graham scheme of things."
"Props for the bad pun." Al says as he decides that melee is his only option left. With a quick distraction storm arrow, he rushes in trying to finish this quickly. He seems to try and lunge with both swords, and Graham seems to as well. As the two go to collide they kick up some ice debris from earlier and some lands in my eyes. As I rub it away I hear the sounds of a collision mixed with the bell for class to end, and the sound of somebody's aura dropping below twenty. As I look up to see what happened, all I see is the two combatants at each other's backs swords outstretched in front of them. I then note the aurameter, seeing Al at nineteen percent, and Graham at twenty-one percent, barely the winner.
"Ummm what'd I just miss?" I ask in sheer disappointment of the epicness I must've just missed.
"Well it seems class is dismissed and with it Graham somehow won." Ms. Rose says trying to pick her jaw up off the floor, as is the rest of the class, clearly satisfied with what they just saw. "Now I need to go find my wife-real-quick-well-gotta-go-bye." And she immediately darts out the door leaving a trail of Rose petals in her wake.
"That. Was. Awesome!" I hear every girl in the room squeal in delight at Al and Graham, who are now supporting each other to keep from falling from exhaustion.
The following massive onslaught of women is terrifying, but somehow Roz gets there before anybody else, opening her wings to keep all the others at bay. "So Al I got a question for ya, since I am clearly holding a mob of hormonally overloaded women off of you, mind going to the dance with me?" She says as she flicks her wings to launch a few feathers at the bold mob's approach.
Graham uses the shock of Roz beating all the girls to them to gather us up and book it from the class. Roz is clinging to Al, who looks torn between shock, joy, and horror. Maria looks exactly how I feel, lost and defeated.
As we round a corner and get outside to avoid the mob, that for some reason grew in the hallway, I decide to make a break for it with Maria.
"So, it seems even though you got permission you didn't get a chance to ask her." Maria says apologetically and somewhat upset. "But I didn't get her either." I notice that she can be really cute when her mood isn't channeling negativity at me.
"Hey, now Scorpion Queen, just cause you couldn't grab the Rose doesn't mean you're out of options." I chuckle as I feel the pun roll out without my control, "just don't aim for the thorns, Graham would get mad."
Our cheeks start to redden as we realize that we are still holding hands, and more to the point I pulled her into a very close embrace. Our faces are now inches apart and neither of us seems willing to break the growing awkward tension in the air.
Eventually she lowers her head into my shoulder and snuggles it in, "This feels nice actually, thanks Mal. Maybe you and I can go together? What do you think?"
I decide to just answer with a tight squeeze and a peck on her forehead exhaling "gladly" as I do so.
Notes: the authors note are down here because while SecretlySilentEvil and I wrote this chapter it was a blast and the urge to give spoilers would have been strong I hope it was as enjoyable for you guys to read as it was for us to write. I'd appreciate it if you gave reviews and shared thoughts on the story especially now that I feel confident in it and it looks better than it started.