WOOHOO. I break my 100k word limit for this story. It is even the 20th chapter as well. Thank you to everyone who has followed this story since its infancy. Truth be told, I'm still surprised it is somewhat popular. 230 followers and 153 favorites with 64 reviews. Man. I thought this story would die after like 3 chapters. Without further ado, enjoy this new chapter. Thanks again for all the support guys.

P.S. I'm glad someone (Grademaster) realized the serious undertones. I thought I was too vague or I overdid the comedy in masking the seriousness that is bubbling underneath so I was wondering if I had to slowly crank up the seriousness. The 20th chapter is the starting point of the shift. For now at least. Also, don't expect frequent updates like this. I'm only updating like this because of the holiday season and time. It usually takes me about 3-4 hours to crank out a chapter if I already have the idea down. Much longer if I have no idea what I want to write.

A bandaged bear Faunus slowly opened his eyes and looked around. The last thing he remembered was the Dust in the mines exploding due to a machine malfunction, and the cave walls collapsing inwards. 'Damn Schnee. Giving us faulty equipment.' This was his last thought before he died. Or should have died. He heard the scraping of a chair as he heard metal clanking as someone sat next to him. There was only one man who made that metal clanking noise when sitting.

"So what does the head guard have to do with visiting some lowly Faunus? Hmm?" The armored man merely leaned back into his chair.

"Is that any way to talk to your savior?"

"You saved me?"

"Yeah. So."

"Why did you risk your life for some Faunus?"

"That's where you are wrong. I didn't risk my life. I was in no danger whatsoever. Two, I might as well do a couple of good deeds… Although overseeing a work camp like this probably isn't going to do me any favors. This place is like Auschwitz."

The Faunus gave up trying to understand the eccentricity of the replacement head guard that arrived about a week ago. Unlike the predecessors, he actively helped out and interacted with the Faunus and did not call them derogatory names. Many Faunus were still suspicious of him as a result. He winced in pain as he tried to sit up to a better position on the bed.

"Hey, you should be careful. The doctors refused to give you Faunus the good painkillers so I wouldn't be moving around as much if I were you." He merely grunted in response. Nothing new.

"Did anyone else survive? I need to know how many letters I need to write."

"You personally write those letters?"

"It's the least I can do for the families. I would hate to send them a letter written by a machine. It's just so wrong. Things as delicate as death deserve a living touch to them."

"You're a good person, but… Nobody died if that's what you're asking. I saved them all." The Faunus's mouth dropped as he endured the pain to look around. Sure enough, his friends and mining team were all in the hospital ward. Most still had their limbs attached.

"T-Thank you."

"No problem. As for your painkiller problem, I couldn't find any drugs in this backwoods part of the country, but I got this. Undiluted Scotch Whiskey. Here. You'll probably be able to endure the pain better if you're drunk a bit." The man poured him a cup and gave it to the Faunus. His nose scrunched up at the strong alcoholic scent, but he accepted the gift nonetheless.

"Why are you so kind to us?" There was a small pause as the armored man contemplated telling the story.

"You should already know this from the fact that I am working here that I am not a good man. I've done lots of nasty things. Things that a dear friend of mine would never approve of. I owe this dear friend of mine a lot. She saved me and look what I am doing with the life she saved. Working at a death camp. Well, not anymore soon. I'm going to resign from this position tomorrow. I'm trying to reduce the number of sins, not increase them." A pitiful chuckle came out from the helmet. The Faunus merely watched in silence.

"So, I guess I wanted to do some good things for once, and I saved you guys. It doesn't change much, but… I guess the little things count?"

"Don't be like that. Because of you, I can continue to support my family with my meager earnings. Don't belittle your efforts. You're making me feel even more insignificant." The two men looked at each other before laughing.

"Yeah. Ahhh. When was the last time I laughed like that? Thanks for that." The head guard poured more whiskey for the Faunus as he spoke.

"Everyone needs some laughter in their life."

"That I agree with. Proper laughter. Not maniac laughter though. Mind if I ask for some advice?"

"I'm not sure how much 'advice' I can give, but I'll hear you out. The least I can do after what you've done for us."

"That friend I've mentioned. I want to see her and say thanks. But I'm too embarrassed to meet her. What should I do?"

"What's this friend like?" The head guard then launched into a fictional story about a girl who met a skeleton in a cave filled with death and doom at every corner. "She's like that main character."

The Faunus closed his eyes as he contemplated the story. "That's the first time someone described a person using a fairy tale. Hmm. From what I can figure, that girl will probably forgive you. You just need to own up to your past deeds. Whatever they are."

"Easier said than done."

"What isn't?"

"Touché."

"However, the fact that you feel regret for your actions and are trying to actively stop adding more crime to your name speaks volumes. I think she'll understand. It's up to you to decide whether you'll take the first step or not. That's my two cents on your little problem." A sigh escaped from the helmet before it turned to allow the wearer to see the setting sun.

"Thanks. I'll keep your words in mind. I do hope you live a long happy life. From the little I've seen, you're one of the people that deserve it."

"Hah. Give those compliments to my child. I want him to grow up to be someone better than me. It's why I'm saving up some money to allow him to become a huntsman. With us Faunus who lives in the outskirts, it's either be a huntsman or a miner." The helmet nodded in understanding.

"Well, best be off. I better pack up my things."

"I'll be sorry to see you gone." With a slow wave in response, the armored man stepped out of the hospital. Once the door closed and a quick look to make sure he was alone, he took out a dead spider, and it began moving once more on his hands.

"Watch over him. Report his condition through standard code." The undead spider saluted before jumping off and scurrying to the hospital room.

Lich put down his pen as he finished up his paperwork and looked at the time. It was 2 am in the morning. In one more hour, his undead scouts will be bringing in reports of his enemies and people he kept an eye out for. While he waited for the reports to come, he decided to work on touching up on fighting with four arms. Lich attached two additional skeletal arms to his armpits and began throwing punches at a dummy. His current focus was throwing four punches at the same time without tangling up his arms. The fact that he did not sleep or grow tired meant that he could train for 24 hours straight.

By the time his flock of undead sparrows came with paper stuck to their legs, he had demolished the dummy. He quickly grabbed all the tiny pieces of paper from all the sparrows and began reading them. Lich cursed at how difficult Roman's schedule was. He was trying to find a pattern to his movements in order to find out what he was doing and hopefully find a time to meet up with him alone, but there was some sort of woman that was hounding his movements. Trying to find a time to talk with Roman while he was alone was proving to be difficult. In addition, in the recent months, it seemed that Roman had entered a period of inactivity. Perhaps it was time to try a different approach.

Lich turned back to his other reports. No change, no change, camp movement, and then suddenly… murder. He sat up straight and double-checked the information. Immediately, he stood up and began making some calls and got the gist of what just happened. Lich's hands tightened into fists. Of all the people, it just had to be that guy who dies, but it didn't make sense. Not at all. Lich sent more of his undead spies to the surrounding area to get a clearer idea of what just happened. Lich himself was about to go out the door, but a message popped up in his scroll….

Mr. H was not having a good day. Not at all. First was the morning intel from his spies informing him of the murder of an acquaintance he was close with. What he should be doing was assisting his undead insect spies in gathering evidence to take down the offenders. He has already identified the culprits after all from the constant stream of information his undead bugs were bringing back. However, he was stuck doing something else instead.

Cardin Winchester with his team behind him was standing with a smug expression in front of Mr. H in his office as he waited out his weekend detention. Mr. H, on the other hand, was impatiently tapping his feet as he stared at Cardin. It seemed that Glynda was handing off punishments to him as well. He guessed that she got sick of handling the school's problem child and decided to hand him over to Mr. H. Truth be told, Mr. H was sick of seeing Cardin's face. His attitude and behavior were irritating and grating on his nerves. However, he controlled himself. It wouldn't do for the other students to see the other side of Mr. H.

"Mr. Winchester. Do you know why you are here?"

"Mrs. Goodwitch sent me here."

"Do you know why she sent you here?"

"Because I was bothering some animal posing as a human." Mr. H sighed as he read the report. Jaune got into a fistfight with Mr. Winchester at lunch today as he jumped to a rabbit Faunus's rescue. It seemed that now Jaune was actually able to put up a fight, he was far less hesitant on standing up against bullies. For crying out loud, he even went against the third year which landed him in the nurse's office for an entire day. On the other hand, it did make him more popular in the faunus community as a result.

Mr. H couldn't help but grumble at how Glynda took the easier student to discipline. Of course, Glynda gets to chew out the blond knight while he was stuck with a student who didn't give a jack squat about authority. Somewhere down the hall, Glynda sneezed as a pot called the kettle black.

"Mr. Winchester. Why do you believe that faunus are below that of humans?"

"Because they are animals parading as humans." Cardin spat in disgust for emphasis. Mr. H looked at the gob of spit on his floor with growing annoyance.

"You call them animals just for their one animal characteristic? Just because they are a little different?"

"Yeah so?" Mr. H looked at Cardin's team and saw that they were indifferent to their leader's declaration.

"You do know that humans are animals as well? That our genes are not different from faunus genes? That we can interbreed?"

"Humans don't have rabbit ears growing out of our head."

"So humans that don't have blonde hair and blue eyes aren't human? Is that what you are saying?"

"No. Humans are humans, and Faunus are animals. That is what I am saying." Mr. H sighed in frustration. It seemed that racism was deeply entrenched within Cardin.

"Ok. Let's put aside the Faunus issue for now. I know that Faunus are not your only victim. You have bullied humans as well. Don't tell me you were just fooling around or you were pranking others. There is a fine line, and you crossed it when you ruined that girl's heirloom. I'm going to seriously ask you right now. Why did you apply to be a huntsman?"

"To be strong. Huntsmen are the pillars of this society, and to be one is a major accomplishment."

"So it was for the glory and reputation you joined." Cardin just rolled his eyes and didn't even respond as he collapsed into a chair. Mr. H watched Cardin with a cold gaze. If this attitude and viewpoint weren't nipped in the bud fast, there is a high chance that Cardin will be either a rogue huntsman or one of the morally corrupt ones. Once more, Mr. H was questioning Ozpin's choices regarding admissions. If he could only approve his request…

Mr. H's scroll beeped with a message. Mr. H sighed with relief that Ozpin accepted his request. Due to the severity of this request, he was afraid that Ozpin would reject it. Mr. H looked up at Cardin. "Mr. Winchester. You and your team will be coming with me to a town that is on the outskirts of Vale. Barely within the kingdom's jurisdiction. Your 'official' punishment will be to assist me with something. You have 15 minutes to get ready and meet me at the bullhead's launchpad."

"Uh? What? Mr. H?" Mr. H didn't even look back as he quickly made a few calls to some of his contacts as well as send a lump of money to a mysterious bank account.

As the bullhead zoomed through the sky, there was an awkward silence between team CRDL and Mr. H. This was a new experience for them. Usually, detention was merely sitting with a teacher helping out with some paperwork, but Mr. H was actually taking them out somewhere. Eventually, they landed at a small village in the middle of a forest. In the distance, smoke from the machinery used in a dust mine aggressively rose. A couple of villagers curiously looked at the intrusion before shrugging and going back to work.

As they landed, an important looking man was waiting at the landing zone. "Hello, Huntsmen. My name is…"

"You are the mayor of this village. I don't give a jack squat of your name. Where is the tree?"

The mayor was flabbergasted as his face suddenly twisted up at the strange request. "Umm. Sir? We are surrounded by trees?"

"No you blithering idiot. Last night, the tree." At those words, the mayor showed a face of disgust.

"Ugh. You mean the tree where we hanged the rapists? I don't see…" Mr. H grabbed the mayor's collar and pulled him to his helmet as close as possible.

"Say one more word. I dare you." The mayor wisely shut up and pointed in a direction.

"Thank you. You boys. Grab those bags and follow me." Startled by their student-teacher's sudden aggressiveness, they quickly grabbed the bags and began following their teachers. Some distance into their walk, the four boys grabbed their nose and began retching.

"What?"

"Mr. H. The smell." One of the boys Russel squeezed out a response before gagging once more.

"Oh, I guess the smell of rotting dead bodies isn't that good is it?" At these words, all four boys froze and stared at Mr. H. With a small gesture, the armored man beckoned to the boys to continue following him until they came upon a tree with three mutilated bodies hanging from a tree. All hell broke loose as Team CRDL struggled to keep in their lunch.

Mr. H stopped and faced the boys. He raised his arms and said, "Welcome to the results of a lynching. Anyway, your jobs are to cut these three bodies from the trees and give them a proper burial."

Sky looked up with blurry eyes and asked why he brought them out to the middle of nowhere to bury rapists. Mr. H sighed as he beckoned them to sit. A small wind blew causing the bodies to sway in the wind like rotten fruit.

"First, these guys were framed. The actual rapists were a team of huntsmen." An expression of shock was present on all four of the boys. Mr. H took out a scroll and began reading out the records of the true culprits.

"These guys were the graduates of the school in Vacuo. They had multiple detentions due to bullying and attitude problems. Teachers reported difficulty in disciplining the students and how they paid little attention in class. They were also reported to be highly discriminatory to Faunus. Sound familiar?" Mr. H sent the four boys a glare.

One of the boys Russel gulped and spoke up. "But we would never rape somebody."

"You'll be surprised at how much can change in a couple of years. And alcohol can impair judgment."

This time it was Cardin who interrupted. "Then why were those men hanged?" Cardin pointed to the hanging bodies.

"They were never given a fair trial. Why do you think that is? You guys should be very familiar with the reason. Heck, you guys practically stink of the reason." The student huntsmen looked at each other in confusion. One of the boys actually sniffed himself.

"Umm. We don't know, sir." Dove cautiously answered.

"Those men hanging up there were Faunus." Once more surprise was evident on all of their faces.

"I know right? Shocking how when you cut off the animal parts, how similar Faunus are to humans. Just shocking." Mr. H slowly spoke with sarcasm dripping out of his mouth. He then continued with his story.

"A 30-minute walk to the East is a Dust mine. Many Faunus are brutally treated at those mines. Yet, they work there because they have no other choice. If a Faunus isn't lucky enough to be born in one of the big cities, they have no choice but to work in those mines because nobody in the surrounding area will hire them. Racism is highly prevalent in the rural areas of the kingdom." Mr. H paused as he glanced at the village in the background.

"Of course, in these rural places, it makes Faunus very vulnerable to being framed, especially regarding cases of rape. Heck, these Faunus have to be careful with how they even look at human women because the wrong message and…" Mr. H made a mock slit across his throat.

"So of course, these huntsmen get drunk one day, take out their sexual desires on a village girl, and then simply blame it on a couple of Faunus. Nobody would blink twice in stringing them up." Mr. H watched as the boys including Cardin grew uncomfortable as the story went on.

"Now, I don't expect you boys to fix that racist attitude from just this story. I really don't. Heck, I am the last person who should be lecturing you boys about moral issues and shit like that. However, I am going to warn you right here, right now. Be very careful with how you tread should you continue treating Faunus like trash. You see those bodies up hanging up there? I was friends with one of them. We met when I was on a job, and he helped me out with a problem I had." Mr. H's voice turned sour as he recalled a couple of memories.

"I have an arrest warrant to get those huntsmen. Ozpin gave me one recently." Mr. H showed them his scroll.

"As you guys know, I don't need to turn those huntsmen in alive." Mr. H rolled out the last words and team CRDL gulped.

"A-are you going to kill them?" Mr. H stared at the students.

"What do you think? I have a lot of Faunus contacts and friends. Right now, you are under Ozpin's protection, but as soon as you graduate, and you hurt the wrong Faunus…. You may end up facing me. Or someone as strong as me. Keep that in mind the next time you mistreat a Faunus. There are huntsmen and huntresses out there who treat Faunus like brothers or sisters. Vengeance can be a very, very scary thing. Now go and give those poor men a proper burial. Once you are done, take the bullhead back. I'll be a bit late. I will check to make sure that you gave them a proper burial. Just a warning." Mr. H walked away without even looking back. The boys looked at each other and quickly went to work. Although Mr. H lacked the explosive anger of Mrs. Goodwitch, he more than made up for it with the smoldering anger he expressed through his dangerously calm words and actions. The boys decided to never get on Mr. H's bad side starting from that day.

Over the weekend, some people were confused at the absence of Mr. H. They had some questions for him regarding the field trip, but he was nowhere to be found. Of course, Mrs. Goodwitch found out about his absence and took over his job temporarily. She was half-hoping that he wouldn't show up on Monday so she could fire him. However, on the day of the field trip with all the students waiting outside the bullhead, he showed up.

"Alright, students. On the bullhead. Sorry for being a bit late." One of the Faunus students raised a shaky hand.

"Uhh… Mr. H., You smell like blood." Team CRDL paled at the statement.

"Not mine. Ran into some trouble over the weekend." Mr. H hurriedly reassured Glynda as he walked over and whispered that Ozpin would explain. A brief nod later, she gave him another brief rundown of what he needed to do and walked away. Without any other difficulty, they were off.

On the bullhead ride, Team RWBY and Team JNPR were having a staring contest over who would confront Mr. H about the revelation a couple minutes ago. Jaune, Nora, and Ren were staring at Pyrrha while Yang was staring at Weiss and Blake was staring at Ruby. Pyrrha wanted to go talk with Mr. H, but not with so many students crammed into one area. Weiss didn't feel like pushing Mr. H's privacy. In the end, it was Ruby who folded and got up to sit right next to Mr. H.

"Hello, Ruby."

"So about that blood…"

"I'm alright if that is what you are asking. It isn't mine."

"Whose was it?"

"A bar fight. Got drunk, fought, and ended up in a ditch in the middle of nowhere." Pyrrha frowned at the lie. She knew that he didn't drink, and if there was a bar fight, he would be the first one out of there.

"Are you okay then? My uncle always complains of hangovers…"

"I shook it off on the walk over here. It's really nothing."

"But you really don't seem to be the type of person to get drunk and pick fights. Did something happen?"

"Someone I knew died…" Everyone's ears perked up at the revelation.

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. We barely knew each other to be honest. He just gave some advice to me. That's all." Ruby was silent before she spoke again.

"I never really knew my mom before she died. I didn't know her very well, but I still visit her grave. I found out that talking about it helps a lot with dealing with people you've lost." Mr. H looked up at Yang and cocked his helmet in confusion. Yang mouthed the word 'later' to him.

"I just wanted to say that we are friends, and I always will make time for you Mr. H." Mr. H chuckled as he patted Ruby's head.

"Thank you for the pep talk, but I am truly fine. Trust me. Do I look sad to you?"

"It's hard to tell because you are always wearing that helmet of yours."

"I pinky-promise that I'll talk with you if I ever feel bad. I have never broken a promise, have I? Okay?"

"Promise." The entire time this was going on Pyrrha was staring at Team CRDL. They were acting extremely weird ever since they had detention with Mr. H. Perhaps they knew what he was up to over the weekend.

Surprisingly, despite it being the blood moon season, there were no big difficulties. A couple of Ursas and some mildly strong Grimm that were quickly taken care of by the students. This gave Mr. H a bad feeling. The blood moon season wasn't called the blood moon season because the moon turned red. No, it was because of a popular poem that described how the villages ran red with blood during a particular season in which the Grimm were far more active and stronger Grimm crawled out of their hellholes… and the students were gathering a syrup that attracted Grimm like moths to a flame.

Of course, Lich wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth so he wisely kept his mouth shut and oversaw the field trip. Of course. Of course! It was Jaune who ruined it by saying, "Huh, this was easier than I expected."

As soon as those words left his mouth, something went wrong. The school's transportation bullhead wouldn't lift off. A couple of calls later, a lightning storm had settled over the region preventing any bullheads from the school to take off… and it was getting bigger by the second threatening to swallow up the entire region. As a result, Mr. H had to hire (with his own money) a bunch of local taxi bullheads to quickly take the students back to a nearby hotel that he reserved (with his own money). Mr. H was going to have words with Ozpin about his salary… As Mr. H watched the smaller bullheads arrive at varying intervals and taking off with four students at a time, he turned to Jaune and said, "You really couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you?"

A nervous chuckle came from Jaune as another bullhead arrived and took off with a team. After an agonizing hour, it was finally JNPR's turn to take off. They volunteered to wait with Mr. H to be the last team off the ground. Of course. Of course! A nevermore took that time to attack their bullhead which resulted in the taxi barely escaping to the safety of a minor city minus three individuals…

"Ren! Ren!" As the sounds of Mr. H's engagement with the Nevermore echoed throughout the darkening sky, Nora crawled over to the where Ren was lying with blood slowly seeping out of a stab wound due to a nevermore feather through his abdomen. The sounds of an autocannon plus the death scream of a nevermore signaled the end of the fight.

"Move aside!" Mr. H had to practically peel away Nora as he began administering basic first aid onto Ren with the remains of his shirt. Mr. H left the feather inside Ren as he struggled to stabilize the wound the best he could.

"Damn it. We need to get him to a hospital fast!" As soon as those words left his helmet, a crack of thunder and rain began trickling down from the sky. Mr. H cursed. No bullhead was going to come anytime soon. Especially not in this weather. In the blood moon season, flying with limited visibility and thunder was a death sentence. He turned to Nora and paused at the sight.

"Nora. We need to get out of here to some shelter, but you can't walk right?" Nora looked down at her leg in confusion and paled. Her left leg was pointing the wrong way. A whimper erupted from her lips.

"Hey, hey. May I take a look at it?" Nora nodded as Mr. H walked over and gently laid his hands on her leg.

"Nora. Look at me." She obeyed. "Have I ever told you the story about a…"

He did not finish as he wrenched Nora's leg back in place. A wordless scream erupted from her lips as she bent over into a fetal position to cradle her reset limb. Mr. H carefully lifted up Ren and picked up Nora with one of his mechanical arms. He then sped away to the nearest cave system which was a km away. By the time Mr. H reached the caves, the rain had turned into a downpour with a couple close calls with some lightning strikes which Mr. H used Nora as a meat shield for. Due to the lightning, Nora was in far better shape than before. The same could not be said for Ren. He was beginning to enter shock from the loss of blood.

"Ren. Stay with me! Don't you dare!" Nora desperately yelled at Ren, and she turned to Mr. H with tears in her eyes.

"Help him. Please!" Mr. H wavered. He weighed the cons and pros of the action. He decided.

"I might be able to help him, but you will keep your mouth shut about this. Am I clear?" Nora merely nodded desperately. Mr. H walked over and took out a necklace with a box that grew in size. She watched breathlessly as Mr. H pulled out the nevermore feather and quickly placed the box on Ren's wounds. A sigh of relief came from Ren's lips as the box glowed its black light, and the wound began closing. He sank into unconsciousness soon after.

Nora watched in wonder as the mysterious item continued its work only to be shaken from her trance when Mr. H collapsed next to Nora. "Go ahead. I know you have questions for me."

"What was that?"

"Magic. Seriously." Nora continued looking at him with a blank face.

"I'm not lying. It really is magic."

"Fine. Don't tell me. You saved Ren. That's all that matters."

"Believe what you will. Just don't tell anyone about it." Another awkward silence fell over the surroundings before Mr. H decided to break the silence.

"So what's your relationship with Ren? Is he your boyfriend." Nora blushed at the accusation as she desperately tried to convince him otherwise.

"Really." Mr. H drawled out the word dryly. "I had to peel you away from his body Nora. Peel you away. In addition, you didn't even notice that your leg was pointed the wrong way because you were far too worried about Ren. You are telling me that…"

"We're orphans." Mr. H stopped talking as Nora finally opened up. "He's all I have left for family."

"So, is he your brother?"

"No. It's complicated."

"We have time." Nora took a deep breath and began retelling her story as a child on the streets, meeting Ren, and Ren's family's death at the hands of a certain Grimm. At the end of her story, Nora herself was a complete mess with tears pouring out. Mr. H awkwardly hugged Nora, and she began crying on the cold metal plate. The sounds of pattering rain and the rolling thunder created a cacophony of sound with Nora's sobbing.

"I'm guessing that your love for pancakes has to do with Ren then?" Nora merely nodded at the question. Lich sighed as he looked over the sleeping body of Ren. He felt a slight twinge of regret that he actually considered letting the boy die in order to keep his secret. Lich had no confidence that Nora would be able to keep a secret for long. It simply wasn't in her nature.

The grumbling sound of Nora's stomach snapped Mr. H out of his thoughts. Nora quickly covered up her stomach and looked away. Outside, the rain only worsened. Mr. H sighed in exasperation since it appeared that they would be spending the night in Grimm territory during a really bad time… in a cave. A strong sense of Deja-vu ran through his bones.

"Here." Mr. H put a hand inside his breastplate and pulled out a couple of protein bars and a powerful glowstick. Nora quickly snatched up the bars and ate a third of them in rapid succession. Mr. H gestured to Nora to eat more. "You can eat more you know. I'm not going to eat."

"You need to eat though! You have to keep your strength up! I can handle it." Nora's stomach revealed her lies at the sound of another loud growl.

"Before you attract more Grimm, eat my share. I can't eat anyways. Medical reasons." Nora's resolve wavered before she broke and ate a couple more bar. While she was eating, she kept an eye on Ren's sleeping form.

"How long do you think we will be stuck here, Mr. H?"

"Judging by the rain, it looks like we will have to spend the night here. Keep your weapons close by. I am certain that we will get visitors." With a hardened face, Nora gripped her hammer. Nothing was going to hurt Ren as long as she was alive.

"Wow. I think this is the most serious I've seen you so far. Normally you are all over the place with all that energy."

"I may be hyperactive, but I'm not stupid. There are a time and a place for antics and now is not the time. Not with Ren like this, not in a cave in Grimm territory during the blood moon season with no back up in sight." Mr. H pulled back in surprise at the ferocity that poured out from Nora. He then began nodding as he connected the dots and realized that Nora's antics may be a coping mechanism after all. She did say she was an orphan, and Ren seemed to be her emotional anchor.

He walked over and flicked Nora's forehead. "Stop being so serious. Go jump around, go sing that stupid pancake song which is grating on my ears, and stop frowning. The Nora I know isn't like this at all."

"How do you expect me to smile in this situation! We could be attacked at any moment and killed! Ren could die at any moment! Am I supposed to just laugh…" Mr. H quickly put his gauntlet on top of Nora's head and rubbed it.

"Yes. Because you are in no danger at all since I am here. So go ahead and smile. You two aren't alone anymore." A weird mixture of sobbing and laughter erupted from Nora's lips.

"Stop acting like you're some big shot." She walked over and put a fist on Mr. H's chest plate and smiled. "Thanks for that."

"Now go in deeper into the cavern. Quickly."

"Why?"

"I hear them coming. An entire horde. All that negativity you were producing has attracted them." Nora's eyes widened as she quickly stood up. Mr. H walked over and handed her a key.

"This will allow me to find you later. Go deeper into the cave. I'll hold the entrance. Not one will get past me. That being said watch out for any potential Grimm that already inhabit this cavern. Now go."

"Will you be okay? You did say an entire horde was coming."

"They are nothing compared to me. I can take them all. You are talking to a student-professor after all." Nora was about to argue, but one look at the confidence spilling out from Mr. H and Ren's unconscious form… Nora picked up Ren and began traveling deeper into the cavern.

"Be careful! I won't forgive you if you die!"

"It'll be cruel to take more away from you two. Like hell, I'm going to die!"

As he watched the light of the glowstick disappear into the interior, Mr. H sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "What the fuck am I doing? I'm not some stupid hero of a game."

With no warning, an alpha Beowolf pounced into the cave and charged at Lich. Without even looking at the attacking monster, a mechanical arm grabbed the mask and crushed it. With a howl promising death, Beowolves, Ursas, Sphinx, Manticores, and King Taijitu were making their way inside. At least they tried to before a massive red laser burst through the entire front row.

"Tch. I hate how this stupid laser is only single use." Lich then brought up another arm that was a modified 20mm autocannon which fired a mine shell that wasn't made out of dust but guncotton. It tore through the next rank of Grimm with explosions lighting up the darkness of the cavern. Sadly, Lich could only fit so much ammunition into his ribcage before he quickly ran out. It was time to enter melee. He charged in and began smashing Grimm left and right with his mechanical arms. Fireballs and lightning flashed everywhere as Lich zoomed around, Grimm unable to touch him. Soon, a laugh erupted from his helmet. A crazed laughter. One of a player drunk on his power. An explosion of darkness consumed an entire cluster of Grimm. And the slaughter continued…

By the time the rain stopped and the sun shined its rays upon the lands once more, a bullhead was speeding towards a smoke signal. Three figures were waiting to be lifted back to civilization.