Interlude A
Rain and Blood saturated the Dirt beneath their feet, and the sounds of panting filled the Training ground. Under the Roof of the Front porch of the Hunter's Lodge sat a few of the older or injured members of the Huntsmen Corps, those who were considered bigger assets off the Roster than on, and they were either mingling among themselves or throwing out jeers from farther off the Mound. Titania through a glare their way and was rewarded with a temporary reprieve from the insults, and had the eleven year old that was being beaten black and blue had been anyone else she would've had them strung up by their balls for the coarse language aimed at a young man.
"Fuck!" came the hoarse voice followed by a few deep breaths as her ward stumbled to his feet, "Off! You mangy old Bastards!" He yelled at them, and they responded with hardy laughs or teasing. She narrowed her eyes and flicked a hand out towards the back of his head while making a note to try and figure out where he was learning all of these words from to put a stop to their use.
Had this been three weeks ago, he would've taken a hammerfist to the base of his neck, but once again the child displayed that, at the very least, he had developed a keen sense of her movement. What anyone watching would regard as a sense of Danger. He threw himself under the blow and charged towards her, the shiner he was sporting and the split lip ignored in his fervor to strike. A feeling that had been well honed in the time they had spent together, as she had made it clear that a defense against her wasn't really an option. If she controlled the speed of the fight, the tide of motion, then he was doomed.
With practiced ease she danced through his wild strikes and rocketed her knee up into his stomach, only for him to barely manage to raise his hands in time to catch the blow and mitigate the damage. He flipped end over end before crashing into the piles of Dead leaves that he had raked into position before the beginning of their "fight". She let him determine the flow of the fight, as she usually did, and settled into a seemingly relaxed position from which she could easily defend herself and stood ready to counter anything that he threw at her.
For this was the method that worked.
Whether it was her own ineptitude or impatience that made her unable to talk through simple exercises of fighting forms or martial arts that were simple to perform, some unholy fighting spirit that resided in the child or his own stubbornness, or some ungodly combination, but she couldn't seem to get a single bit of information to stick in the young man's head without beating it into place. So here she was, waiting for him to attack, picking apart the offensive and exploiting the obvious weak points in his form to deliver just barely blockable hits.
She had expected this to be a single day exercise, with her destroying the little brat and teaching him not to hit people because there is always someone out there that could do the same or worse to you. It was supposed to be simple, informative, and humbling for the young man that had recently been expelled from his Elementary School.
She should've known better.
The young man had taken to the training like a fish to water, absorbing information and techniques like a sponge, and becoming stronger and stronger throughout the process. She was impressed despite herself that he could even walk home with her most days, but the kid was nothing if not crystallized obstinance, so it was fitting that he never complained or whined or asked her to slow down. He simply adapted, molded himself to the pace that she was setting, before doing it again the next day when she invariably upped the ante.
Annoyance was quickly replaced with respect, the same respect that had made her adopt the little tike all those years ago, but it still left a question that burned at her insides.
"Oi!" she called over to the shuffling pile of leaves, that returned a muffled grunt in response as a hand shot out to begin extricating the boy that was stored within. "Why are you fighting so hard?"
The muddy, bloody, and now leaf covered boy gave her a tired glare as he got to his feet. His red eyes that had been tired before seemed to gather light as he stared at her, and growled in a way that made him seem more like a puppy than a predator, "What do you mean? I have to fight hard," he responded in confusion, his emotions so easy to read that the rather angry young man could now be seen as the truly confused child he really was.
"No, you really don't," she responded, making no sudden moves. She had done that before, and the wary way that he was watching her told her that he remembered the ambush well. "You could just stop fighting, we could go home and you could be a normal little boy who plays with toys and cries when he stubs his toes and all of that. It's still a possibility for you," and one she had struggled with herself to make sure he knew was still on the table. She could only wince at the assault of memories and emotions that overcame her for a moment as she thought of her own options as a child, but it was ignored in favor of the young boy in front of her. He still had a layer of baby fat on his chin, his nose was still small and button like most young noses were, but his eyes were nothing like a Child's.
And that made her a tad bit sad.
"I am normal," he declared without a hint of doubt, as though the concept that he wasn't normal hadn't even been considered.
"No you aren't-" she tried, but was swiftly interrupted by her ward.
"The world has made things and people like me, those who fight and are good at it, become the normal. To survive, to protect, I have to fight, and I have to fight hard. If the kids in my class had been better, had been more like most of the world, they would still be fine," he tilted his head to the side, his bright red eyes shining through the dull blue light of the overcast Field like beacons and the birds nest of Gray and black hair shifting about on his head with the movement, "You fight. You've fought for most of your life. You fight for the same reason. Was I not supposed to think you were right?"
For a moment she could only smile at the honest answer that he gave. Such a dour and cynical view for a child, but it was the only one he knew. To earn and gain one must fight, losing and winning never came into the conversation for him, but not out of some arrogance or confidence. He simply saw the fight as life, to stop fighting was to lose, to struggle even when beaten was truly a victory while becoming complacent after the fight the true loss. The fight was only lost when you stopped fighting, not when you were beaten.
She gave him a look up and down as his breathing began to even out, but wasted no more time before slamming into him, all defense forgotten in favor of trying to beat the child out of his cause. Elbows, haymakers, knees, and headbutts were dealt out to cause as much damage as she could while still keeping the kid in one piece. By the end of the Fight he was a bruised and dirty mess, but when she picked him up he spit blood into her eyes and got at least one last hit in.
She sighed as she slung him over her shoulder and declared the day's training over. He fell asleep almost immediately on her shoulders, but she could only shake her head at what she was doing.
A promise made long ago broken by the obstinance and willpower of a child.
"Never put someone through what we went through, Ti-Ti. No one deserves that hell."
And yet here she was, nearly seventy years later, left with no other option than to break her promise.
She would train him until he would be terrifying and powerful, just as her father had done for her and her sister, and her grandfather had done to him. Methods that had been passed down through generations of Huntsmen and Warriors that had long stood between the masses and their deaths. The methods that breed those that fight monsters are monstrous in and of themselves. And those that employed those tactics had to be monsters themselves.
Hers, or more accurately their's, was a family full of monsters in the truest sense.
She sighed a deep and tired sigh.
She was just the next in line.
End of Interlude
"When're you gonna stop gettin' in trouble?" came the scratchy and twang filled voice of my partner, Keith the Handyman, as he tried to help me carry the Vending machine that I had riding on my shoulder with the Debuff [Encumbered; Stage 1] for carrying something outside of my maximum Carry Weight. Thankfully, it seemed that the Carry weight listed was only what you could carry without a penalty to your movement speed, which for me was 365 lbs. For each stage, dictated by how many multiples of my carry weight I am in the process of hauling, I lost twenty-five percent of my movement speed. So I could theoretically I could carry 1460 lbs and still be able to move. I hadn't found anything that I could begin to try and carry that was heavier than that by a small amount, everything else was heavier than that by thousands of pounds. I tried moving a Bullhead, just to see what would happen if I tried without any [Skills], and just began to hemorrhaging Stamina as opposed to actually moving it at all.
"When people stop fuckin' with me," I answered with an easy smile, sliding the screws that I held in my mouth to my right side closer to the Vending Machine, so as to not interfere with my speech. "When you gonna stop smokin' them deathsticks?" I returned easily, the flow of busting balls putting me at ease.
"When life stops takin' a dump on my life," He responded as he took the cigarette out of his mouth to flick the embers in my direction in mock irritation before sticking it back in his mouth and finally giving up on helping me haul our catch to the Maintenance Department, "So, I'll be smoking until I die."
"I feel you on that one," I replied as we came upon the Double doors of our destination. He opened up the Doors and I quickly moved into the room to place the Busted machine onto the nearest clear table with a muted thump onto the Dulled Metal slabs. Immediately I wiped the grease from my hands on the front of my School issued brown Jumpsuit that was the uniform of the janitorial staff.
Keith blundered past me and began to disassemble the project with an efficiency that I admired and knew that I'd never be anywhere close to, still smoking like a chimney stack as he did so. The scrawny man barked over his shoulder, "You shouldn't be so cynical, you're so damn young that everything should be rainbows and sunshine! Now get on outta here and do whatever it is that you do when you ain't dickin' around with me," he said as he casually waved a hand towards the door before returning to his work with a fervor, all the while grumbling under his breath about me doing his job for him.
I smiled and rolled my eyes, as though I was nearly skilled enough to take his job, I just happened to be able to carry more than him and he happened to take it personally. "Yeah, Yeah, Oldtimer. I'm goin', I'm Goin'. Ain't gotta tell me twice."
"Still hear you yappin'!" he called over his shoulder, causing a laugh to escape my mouth. I left him to his job, the actual fixing of things, that he had tried teaching to me for about two months before labeling me lost cause. And I felt for the man during his tutelage because I knew what he was telling me to do, I understood where things were supposed to go, and I could fix a fair bit of simple mechanical errors, but no matter what happened something else entirely would become an issue.
A lot of money and machines were scrapped during those two months before Keith declared me a lost cause. When the Head of Maintenance, a large tattooed man by the name of Rusty, did a follow up to clear up the reason of the Report, as Keith simply could not think of a way to explain the phenomena, I was tasked with replacing a few brackets and tightening a few pipes after a routine inspection of a water fountain. Neither of the three people in the Hallway expected the Fountain a mixture of metal and water to explode out of the wall and into my face.
The resulting mess took me two hours to clean up, and managed to convince Rusty that I was not to be tasked with anything that required skill or finesse. I'm half convinced that the man had tried to have me removed from the Maintenance and Custodial Department entirely, but Janette had ruled that I needed to serve my time somehow and the custodial department seemed like a good place to do it. The man didn't dislike me, but made it clear that I wasn't to touch anything important.
I shook my head of the thoughts as I entered the dorm, activating [Instinct] to pinpoint where everyone was on campus, but more importantly to find Ashley. Taylor and Cosma were in the Cafeteria, one chowing down and the other scheming something that I would either ignore or not even notice as usual. Roman, Luca, and Shebul were studying in the Library with Ms. Mourie, along with a few other people from our class learning about Wartime History and the function of Huntsmen in War. Emily was in her room sitting on her bed… Reading? Hell if I knew, I couldn't see through walls, I could only hear her breathing- and there was a page turning, so reading in her room.
I walked past her door and left her to it, instead opening my own room's door and beginning to pull myself out of the insulated jumpsuit. Once I managed to get the thick material off of my shoulders I expanded my senses out further, finding my partner where she had spent the last two weeks since the Outing. I pulled some jeans on before putting on a pair of sneakers, sorely missing my pair of steel toed boots, and walking out the door to make a beeline towards my destination.
I passed by a few of the younger students, most of whom gave me a wide berth but there were a few that I had met while working and they gave me cheery waves. Apparently, it didn't matter what you looked like as long you clean clogged toilets, fix air conditioners, or just perform general maintenance you were accepted by those you helped, which was a nice side benefit of my line of work. I spied a few members of the staff who looked at me begrudging acceptance and twisted lips of disapproval for being a nuisance, and I smiled their way with a wave just to show how little I cared.
I walked towards the front of the Combat building, and held the door for the veritable flock of wee tots that surged forth, all chirping thank yous and laughs as they were released from their last class of the day. I walked past after the last stragglers had cleared the building and made my way towards the main arena where Combat classes were held, but also acted as practice grounds and places you could claim for sparring purposes. I pushed open the door and immediately felt the temperature spike by about fifteen degrees from the rather pleasant sixty degrees outside of the room.
I watched as my partner wove her way through a smattering of old service robots that were programmed with basic maneuvers, smacking them in the cushioned area that acted as lethal areas to disable them while avoiding their undercharged cattle prods. She wielded wooden swords about the length of her arm in place of her usual Dao, but wielded them with an ease that still surprised me.
The usual swirl of clothing that accompanied her style of fighting and dress was absent as she had foregone her usual attire for the more form-fitting School issued uniform, but still managed to seem to blur about with her hair let down. It was odd to see her as anything other than a tornado of steel and cloth, but she was no less deadly or skillful for it.
And I'd seen Nan take on a bar full of rowdy hunters with only a barstool and a glass of whiskey.
She dodged nimbly and performed acrobatic feats that I couldn't hope to achieve all the while attacking the dummies. She twisted around her weapons and jumped off of the heads of downed enemies, using their lack of group-think to her advantage as she danced her way through them. If she stopped it seemed to be timed with a robot's own algorithm not quite being fast enough to cope with her movement, and even then it was only long enough for her prey to turn towards her in a way that would limit their mobility. I imagine that this was the result of years of training against them, and she had simply gotten down the exercise to a science and used it as a warmup.
In under a minute she had disabled the group of thirty robots, having hit each one at least twice in a Lethal spot and not having taken a single hit. In the end she stood in the middle of them with only a light sheen of sweat and barely breathing any harder for the display. I waited a moment before approaching the Arena and calling out to her. "You ready to spar yet, Girlie?" was my opening, choosing as I usually did to get right to why I was there.
She turned towards me and shot me a smile, one of the few the girl ever wore. This one was the bow before me mortals smile that she wore during and after spars where her adrenaline was running high and she let lose her inner narcissist. A small quirk of the lips and a narrowing of the eyes along with a minutely tilted chin so she could stare down her nose at you, it was an impressive display of arrogance or confidence.
Seeing as she had only been beaten twice and they had both been ring outs, I'd say she had room to brag.
"Of course I'm ready," she replied haughtily as she pulled hair back up into a ponytail with a hair tie, "Get on up here, we have things to do after this." Her amber eyes twinkled in excitement while I let out a sigh, knowing exactly what she was talking about and how much of a headache it was gonna be.
"How about we go slow so we miss the dinner? They'd forgive us if we missed it because we were training, right?" I pleaded with my Leader for what felt like the fiftieth time.
She responded by laughing loudly, "No, I doubt they would. All of the Board members are coming in to see this year's Hunter's Corps, and as I am a Leader," She emphasized the word with two swings of her swords, having replaced the Wooden pair for her own after the end of her training, "And you are my partner," She executed a kata of five sword swings that ended in a front kick, "We have to go to the Dinner to rub elbows with the Board members."
I only groaned as I began to go through my own warm-up routine of activating [Thundering Blows] with 68 Stm, the amount I regained in a second, and began shadow boxing on my side of the arena.
Unfortunately, the crashes of my skill going off weren't enough to stop her from taunting me about the dinner, "Oh, what's wrong? I remember you showing off how well you could gather information on the road?" she asked with false sincerity in her voice as she sent small waves of flames in her very literal warm-up.
"Shut it," I barked out as I unfurled my Chain a few feet and began swinging it, "I can talk to people who don't care about manners just fine, and most people who don't live in cities don't give a flying fuck about my profanity or my overall inability to handle myself like a human. Those moneybags we're gonna be eatin' with almost certainly will, and it's only a matter of time before I misstep and say something wrong."
"Then let me do the talking," she spoke with true sincerity, now a much more serious tone in her voice as she came out of her warm-ups, "I've been going every other month to these dinners for years, and I've been told many times by some of the more verbose board members that I'm very charming if I put my mind to it."
I gave her a look as I spun the Chain back up and around my arm, "I'm sure that the fact you could roast them alive at any point has nothing to do with it?" I shook my head as she simply ignored my response and pointed at me with her right Dao.
"You know the rules, First to five hits wins, no maiming or destruction of the ring," I nodded in response and she graciously bowed at the waist from her position fifty feet away from me. I grumbled and spit to the side, and she took it as a sign of my ascent.
She leapt to the side and began sending scything waves of flame towards me, and I responded by throwing out my Chain to shoot through and disrupt them before they could reach me. I twisted and pulled with my weapon as the flames that were drifting down from projectiles I had disturbed began to litter the Battlefield, burning only on aura as they stayed, so no Smoke wafted up to disturb my vision.
There was enough flame to do that job well enough though.
I burst a projectile that Managed to make it within ten feet of me, but was shocked when Ashley came hurtling out towards me with both swords, sliding into my guard and scoring a two glancing blows across my chest. I growled before Slamming my palm into her back as she landed in response, sending her tumbling away into the Fiery Arena. I stepped backwards as another sword appeared from my left in the flames, and spun my Chain at full length around my body and scything it through the flames.
It was met with no resistance, but I heard where she had rolled under the blow from the vlang of her swords off the tile floor. I reversed towards the noise and slammed the weapon up over my shoulder before slamming it down at about half of my strength. The blow whipped away the fires in its path and a good distance away as [Splash] made the blow act like I was slamming a big paddle down for the purposes of air resistance. Ashley dodged out of the way of my probe, so I spun around as I took a few steps towards her, dragging the weapon up and around once more.
This time the weapon struck true and she was force to bring up her weapons to block before it could actually cause her damage, and I took the opportunity to launch myself over the twenty that stood between us. I landed with a knee outstretched and she countered by slipping to her right and swinging her right blade at my side, which I caught under my arm and pinned it to my side. Her eyes widened as I smiled viciously at her as my foot drove into her stomach and sent her tumbling away.
I stepped towards her but she called up a sheet of fire in between us to use as cover. I grabbed her sword with my right hand and flung it through the Curtain of fire where I heard a yelp as it shot past her position. I laughed before a line of fire not unlike her Curtain appeared between where I stood and where I assumed she was, and I was blasted upwards by the attack but tried to mitigate the maneuver by jumping to the side. I was entirely unprepared for the vertical slash of fire that followed it, singing me with the blast as I rode it out.
I fell back in a tumble and rolled into a kneeling position.
My eyes were fixed upon the blade that tickled my throat, and I shot a disgruntled look at the young woman holding it. She spared me a smile before tapping me under the chin and stating clearly and concisely, "Five. You're still too slow, Austin. I thought you'd been working on it?"
I slapped her blade away from my neck as I stood up growling, "I have been working on it, I went from no hits on my side to two in two weeks. I think that's a pretty good achievement, thank you very much," I also didn't mention that this particular form of sparring was something I wasn't familiar with at all, as I had been trained in a grueling marathon method that focused heavily on staying upright after a hit, with dodging being next to impossible after the first hit.
Nan simply moved too fast for it, but now that I had opponents more My speed?
Apparently my clear lack of Agility was something wouldn't be tolerated by my Partner and Leader, and she had very politely demanded that I train with her, and she had spent the entirety of our sessions the first week dancing around me after telling me not to use Area based attacks. "These sessions are about finesse and Control," she had said when I demanded an explanation. Yet another way I didn't act like a Huntsman, as they were paraded as exemplars of precision and finesse, but I regularly destroyed cans of soda while I was drinking them and tear doors from their hinges when I walk through them.
Control is not exactly my strong suit.
For instance, I had suffered for about five months, having been privy to basically everything that happened on campus, everything, because I had forgotten that [Instinct] wasn't a passive skill. I had simply forgotten that I could turn it off, like an idiot. A mishap it may have been, but it did demonstrate my point precisely; I had tendency to forget to control my strength and skills.
Ashley continued with her haughty smile as she walked towards the edge of the ring, bobbing her head rhythmically side to side as she walked as though she was listening to victory music that I wasn't able to hear. She grabbed two towels and threw me one as I walked over, "I don't know why I didn't start with this form of training, it's doing wonders for my ego," She drawled imperiously.
"Because when I can fight like I usually do I wipe the floor with you," I answered without hesitation, "And seeing as I go for loud and concussive attacks, I wouldn't be surprised if you came away from all of our spars with at least a minor concussion."
"Right, knew it was something," she spoke through the towel as she wiped away the sweat and soot on her face, "Whatever, let's clean up and get ready for tonight. We got some bigwigs to impress."
I couldn't even muster a groan even as she laughed her way out of the Arena.
"Have fuuun~" Cosma called as we walked out of the Dorm in our uniforms as Janette had told us to wear. I snarled at her as I closed the door, and she stuck her tongue out at me in retaliation. I shook my head and turned, pleasantly surprised to find that both Taylor and her partner Luca were, in fact, wearing their uniforms as well and Janette had not been trying to embarrass her daughter.
According to Ashley, it was a viable possibility.
"'Sup," Taylor Greeted with a nod and a smile towards us, while her partner was much more subdued.
"Ashley, Austin, are you ready for tonight?" Luca asked, doggedly averting his eyes from me, but not to stare at Ashley or do anything untoward. Just avoiding me, as he always did. Just a quirk, one that I'd become used to. I couldn't make heads or tails of the behavior, as I had never had anything but cordial conversation with the guy, and I certainly hadn't done anything violent towards him, but still he voided eye contact with me beyond the briefest of moments, during which I saw something close to Terror in his eyes. But he didn't run away or attack, so I was just extremely confused on the subject of Luca, and decided it was best to wait it out.
I moved over towards Taylor and casually bumped knuckles with her as the four of us began moving towards the Door while Ashley and Luca had a very polite and meaningless conversation. When I rounded the corner I saw the weaselly form of one Davis Nilah, a meaner and more conniving son of a bitch I have never seen, as he held the door open for the other three people that would attending the Dinner. He saw me and gave me his too perfect smile with a hint of disdain and cruelty mixed in before I activated [Project Bloodlust] and blasted him with it to send him scurrying from the building.
"Is it necessary to do that every time you see him?" came Ashley's exasperated question, one which I had heard more than once from the prim and proper nag, who held the belief that appearances are to be treasured, utilized, and maintained most of the time, "I know he is a bully, and he's baited you into getting in trouble more than once, but today he has to be on his best behavior."
"His best behavior is your worst behavior, which is why I'm worried," I declared monotonously. Honestly, the Craven man was bound to make me snap and actually kill him, but as it stood the game was still afoot and I was still winning. The moment I lost it, however, would not be a good day for him. We followed the other four down the path to the Main Hall, chatting about what we would be doing or talking about, or what we hoped to do on the next month's outing all the while. We passed the Stairs that led to Janette's Office, then the double doors that opened into the Cafeteria, and finally ended up in front of the Teacher's Cafeteria.
It reminded me of the Officer's Mess of the Huntsmen Corps, but with slightly less drinking and infinitely less bar fights. Also, no bar, which all alcohol I smelled teachers and other staff drinking in here were brought along, not provided. And as The school didn't buy or sell alcohol, that means that they were flying out to Vacuo to pick some up, and bringing it back with them.
They were determined drinkers, that was for sure.
The four students stopped just beside the Door to the room and began straightening themselves out, tucking their shirts in and smoothing out perceived wrinkles in their clothing, but I ignored them in favor of moving past them. I swung open the door, slightly tempering the force of the action from Howitzer strength to T-Shirt cannon as that was the best I could do, and found myself staring at the bewildered expression of Janette and the defeated expression of Raul as they sat at the head of a long table filled with graying old men and women wearing stuffy suits and dresses that probably cost as much as a car.
"Ah, Mr. Stain," Came the unaffected voice of Mr. Gibraltar from the seat to Janette's right, his choice of clothing for once looking to be in style with the Board members who were watching me with an array of different emotions, "How nice of you to join us. Please take a seat anywhere there is an open seat, dinner shall be served shortly."
"Can do," I looked about the room before someone pulled out a chair and patted it on armrest. It was all I could do not to take the seat that at the foot of the table in protest of my being there, but Ashley appeared at my elbow and moved towards the board members. I sighed and focused myself on being as placid and non confrontational as possible, as I knew nothing about these people. For all I knew they were saints upon the earth and deserved my praise, but I couldn't shake the antagonism that was rearing its ugly head.
It was people like these, after all, that condemned people to Mount Glenn, and then left them to their deaths.
I was a little biased on this subject, and I resolved to let Ashley manage the talking. I sat down next to her and watched as she began talking and rubbing elbows with the board members with the biggest, brightest, and fakest smile I had ever seen on her face. In a moment she had managed to change from my hard nosed and disciplinarian Leader turned into socialite, all smiles and pleasantries that gave me mental whiplash from the suddenness.
Subconsciously I leaned away from the display, and I heard Taylor having the same reaction I was in the seat to my left, "What the fuck..?" she whispered as she leaned around me to watch the odd performance piece.
"It's her brown-Nosing Voice," Luca said as he pedantically fixed the table setting around his plate for lack of anything else to do, but me and Taylor turned towards him in obvious interest, "She used to use it one Teachers when she first got here so they liked her and they'd side with her whenever something came up. She's pretty good about it though, she doesn't just demand teachers do what she wants, and she tries to be responsible despite how easily she could just force people to bend to her will, so I don't have any issue with it."
"Doing what is needed to gain power," I muttered as I slid my eyes back over to my Partner as she finally stopped laughing at some inane joke with a sound that made me nauseous, to look over in my direction, "Sounds about right."
I had seen it in her, the blanks looks or narrowed eyes when someone did something that annoyed her, before her calm and mostly pleasant face was back and she was talking as she always did. The briefest twitches of her hands when Davis insulted me or Cosma, as though she was physically holding herself back from immolating the young man. The way that she spent almost all of her time training or learning, specifically about how best to fight or strategize. She was a walking weapon in the truest sense of the word, and tried at almost every opportunity to maneuver herself into a position where she wouldn't be as easily beaten or attacked.
I was just glad that I had managed to get her to shake the humble and calm appearance when it was just us two, allowing me to see what I was sure was who she actually was; a vain and judgmental person that prided herself on her ability to protect what was hers. I imagine that the Change in her behavior was in response to how I treated her not as a superior or an inferior, but as an equal to be respected, which was a concept that seemed to be mostly absent from the Student body of the Academy, save for outliers like Roman and Cosma.
Everyone saw the place as a competition and thought that you could rank everyone and place them in a list to describe who was better and who was worse. What was worse was that because of how selective the process was to get in when most of them were accepting, they all saw themselves as the cream of the crop and very few could actually acknowledge when they were beaten.
Everyone thought they were on top, for one reason or another.
Thankfully the newbies weren't accepted under those conditions, and saw competition as I and Taylor saw it; a way of improving oneself. It was never a way to demean others, never a way to place yourself at the top of the Pyramid. Taylor had heard of me back at our last school specifically because we were both good at something, and she sought me out to prove that could beat me to herself. No one else.
I looked across the table and was met with the sneer of Davis as he emulated Ashley to a much smaller degree as he made small talk with the Board member sitting to his right, all the while shooting looks at every other student at the table. The board member was a kindly looking older lady, and she seemed to enjoy the conversation more than anything else. I looked at the other three people on the other side of the table and found them looking unsure of themselves and entirely unwilling to socialize with the others, looking defeated and jealous like Ashley and Davis had won simply by virtue of sitting closest to the Board Members.
Bloody fucking lap dogs, the whole lot.
"Dinner is served," came a polite voice of one of the servers as they placed a plate in front of me. The plate was home to very nice looking meal and I nodded in thanks towards the server. I moved to begin digging in, obviously trying to be slightly more dignified than the savage I was, before my attention was stolen by the sound of someone tapping on glass.
"Before we eat, I'd like to go over a few things about the school, perhaps even get a few statements from you students," Janette spoke in a authoritative tone of voice, and her words threatened to drag a groan from me. The board members all smiled and nodded along, somehow possessing the self control to not even look at their food.
The food would be cold by the time this was done for Oum's Sake.
Interlude B
The rhythmic banging of metal on metal was the metronome of his heartbeat as he flattened out the small sheet of metal on the Anvil with a pair of tongs. Thankfully, his Orange hued Aura protected him well enough from the sparks that flew off of the Anvil with each strike of the Hammer. Roman still wore the Thick Gloves as he worked, determined not to make the mistake of many other foolhardy students that had attempted to forge without the proper protection.
Aura required control and force of will to activate and hold steady, and both of those things were sapped by the oppressive heat of the Forge.
He continued to bend the red hot steel until it was folded into itself and was about five inches long before he placed it on the Horn of the anvil and began curving it to the appropriate shape to fit his needs.
He looked over his shoulder at the Mastermind of the late-night forging as the petite girl continued to stitch more and more padding onto the Rugged pair of boots that they had managed to have delivered to the School. He smiled behind the Blast Mask he wore as Cosma stuck out her tongue in concentration as she came across a particularly rough spot of Leather and turned his attention back to the forge to continue the project.
After a few more minutes of Hammering he placed the metal in the Bucket of water with to the side of the Anvil which released a gout of steam and bubbles as the Metal rapidly cooled alongside the other piece of metal in there. He was glad to see that the sudden tempering hadn't warped the thick metal in any crazy manner, and he pulled it out to inspect the rather thick piece of metal. He placed it on the Anvil and pulled out a file to begin weathering away the imperfections of the Metal and make it an appropriate thickness.
It was an idea that Roman had been thinking on since the Outing, but like most of his plans he hadn't implemented it until Cosma came along with a similar idea. There was a thrashing of cloth as the Boots were placed on the floor with the Toes unsewn, looking like depressing sock puppets made of leather, and a Sturdy Slate-coloured Cloth jacket was pulled up onto the Table. She picked it up and it clinked a tad bit as she moved it between her hands to inspect it, before nodding after apparently finding it to her standards.
Her thought process, as she had described it, was amazingly simple; "Austin doesn't have money or stuff, so let's get him stuff."
He had been startled by the revelation, but he hadn't truly thought about their friend's situation quite enough to think that one through. When he and Taylor had shown up they had immediately eaten enough for eight people and had looked remarkably scuffed up even before their entrance exams, not to mention that he had only worn clothes that he had brought with him or had been explicitly given.
The nerve of that man, going into a fight without any proper equipment. Especially fights where the lives of comrades are potentially on the line. He set to aggressively taking the file to the Metal with a vigor that was fueled by irritation, intent on getting the Boron infused Steel to yield to his whims.
Roman suppressed the shiver that crawled down his spine as he thought back on how Austin had described how he had found his weapon.
"I tore it off of the winch of a truck, and It's served me pretty well ever since."
Austin may not have been in any position to arm himself, but Roman certainly was. And Roman knew that Austin would argue against them "wasting time" on him, as he about sparring with Ashley before she put her foot down, so they had decided that forgiveness was easier to earn than permission. And seeing as the material had come in this afternoon and the Big lug was off being bored to death by a Dinner, that Ashley may have forgotten to him was entirely optional to attend, it seemed like a perfect time to start.
Interlude C
"The Loach will descend upon the world with radiant golden wings to fight the forces of darkness and Chaos, bringing order and Light wherever he went. The Loach will bring peace to the World and gain strength for every person saved until he will be able to save them from anything, even themselves. The only Obstacle to him shall be the Beithir, a monster of no described form that shall descend from the Mountains and leave a path of destruction in its' wake. The Monster shall tear apart the world and any that stand in its way, and it shall be the ultimate test of the Loach, for he either defeats the monster and returns a glorious hero or dies and leaves the Monster to rampage about the world.
The Texts aren't exactly clear on which will occur."
-A translated excerpt from the Book The Many Mythologies of Remnant, by Marsha Mourie.
End of Interludes.
Austin Staín
Class: [Protector]:
Title: [Main Tank]
Lvl 21: 1125/2100 exp to Next Level.
Hp: 40784/40748 HP Regen: 880 Hp/Sec
Stm: 1697/1697, Stm Regen: 69 Stm/Sec
Ap: 7140/7140, Ap Regen: 179 Ap/Sec
Str: (119) 126
Dex: 41
Con: (154) 162
Agi: 8
Int: 1
Wis: 5
Cha: 1
Res: 84
Free Points; 0.
Attribute Points; 0.
Atk: 850
Max Thundering Blows Damage: 23934
Pistol Atk: 289
Def: Phys; 80%.
Mag; 0%.
Debuff; 80%.
Shell: Phys; 235 Damage.
Mag; 17 Damage.
Attributes:
[Iron Will]; 50% decrease of Debuff effects applied to Austin. Ex. [Cripple]; 30% decrease to speed → 15% decrease in speed. Inherited from Nan.
[Big Bad Wolf]; +2 to Con and Str per level, -15 to Cha. +100% to experience gain to the [Osteogenesis] Skill. Race set to [Half-Grimm]. Inherited from Fenrir.
[?]; ?.
[Relentless]; Immune to [Fatigue]. 2*Str when Hp below 50%. Gained through Staying Below 20% Hp for 24 hours or more in one period.
[Self-Respect]; How can the World respect you if even you don't respect You? Gained Through The Little Things.
[Guardian Angel]; + 10 Cha in relation to those that you have saved [Effects can Stack].
[Regenerator]; When most people lose limbs it's permanent...
Regenerate a eighth of your Con score worth of Hp per Second, Quarter of your Con's worth Stamina per second.
[Deadened]; I Will still fight...
Become 2% more resistant to Debuffs and Status Effects for every point of Res.
Receive -1 points of Damage per attack for every 5 points of Res.
Once per Thirty seconds, upon hitting 0 Hp or Lower return to 10% Hp.
[Juggernaut]; Wade through Blows…
For Every 1 Str take .25% less physical Damage.
+5% Atk
A/N: To the particular guest and anybody who agree with them (As they have assured me it is a lot of people, apparently) who left a comment about Interludes and the usefulness of them in relation to the Story, You can read the story with or without them, but they are useful for Characterization and Lore Building, and they let me write from someone with hindsight or actual deep thoughts as opposed to the Main Character.
Also, they're fun to write and read for me, so they shall be staying.
Now, there was another Guest that pointed out that the building was only twelve stories tall, but he claims to have fought through twenty-three, If I were lazy I could say that the mechanics of Dungeons made it screwy and actually effected the layout of the Building, but instead I'll be honest and admit that I made a mistake there. I had it written down as two dozen stories tall, but I think I read the note as a dozen stories in Chapter 5 and read it correctly the next chapter. Nice spot, though.
To AgFox, I can only glean so much from a one word review, but I read the chapter you reviewed on and I assume it was directed at the description of hair being a "Bush", as it's the only thing I can even consider to be "Diverse" about the chapter. To be safe, I may go back and change the description as it doesn't exactly do its job well, as I meant it more like the Harry potter Bush of hair with it being wild and uncontrollable rather than, say, an Afro. He had just taken off a headdress after all.
Just another example of me needing to be more precise in my language, I guess, if it was enough to make me second guess the wording.
To DeliriousDingo, if you ever decide to read this far after leaving a rather... scathing(?) review, I would like you to know that me and my friend had a good chuckle over your remark, as well as another from Scaunders from a while back. Honestly, that you took enough time to write out the Review makes me happy, as it means that you cared enough to leave a comment. And the reason we laughed wasn't because you were wrong, or we knew better or some other pretentious reason, quite the opposite.
You were right, he is unlikable, he is an edgelord based on power fantasies, he is a caricature of Animoo and Vidya game protagonists that I've come into contact with over the years. You understand exactly what the character is supposed to be, but you didn't see it as the Joke that I meant it as and instead thought that it was supposed to be taken seriously. And the planned character arc was always planned as someone who was an uncharismatic asshole slowly maturing and becoming a better and more enjoyable person. Either way, thank you for the review.
So, from the bottom of my heart, Thank you.
In relation to the Fic, I believe that this next arc shall showcase exactly the actual drawbacks of his Stat Configuration fairly well, with a bit of an emphasis on his Teammates and friends strengths.
Obviously, if You've seen this you have read, but if you have an issue or even just wish to insult me or the fic, please leave a Review.
Alright, I've said enough.
Jericho Out.