After some time, the Hunters began slowing down, not any less deadly, just using less bullets, switching mecha-shift weapons to melee form, being more conservative in general, String Guy just weaved a sword and began fighting with it a while ago.
I guess they finally noticed this was going to turn into a fight of attrition.
Earlier in the fight, I had Manifested Levant, so she could use her own power to help everyone, some bullets found their targets better, as if guided by invisible tubes, Grimm that should have stood fell, Hunters that almost got knocked down found themselves held up by invisible hands, some of the faster Hunters may have noticed the air almost parting away from them where they were running, sometimes pushing them faster.
All of this was orchestrated by the small flurry of wind, whirling quickly in place in the middle of the clearing, which had gotten much clearer since the fighting started.
The ground was littered with smoking Grimm corpses, literally and just dissipating, smoking craters from the more explosive Hunters, smoking Hunters that somehow hadn't dropped their cigarettes any time in the fight, and perfectly fine, neatly stacked money and health potions randomly, but neatly, stacked around the battlefield, that could only be seen or grabbed by me.
I had gotten some levels in Unarmed,Acceleration Manifest Elemental, as well as Summon Elemental and Air Affinity in the middle of the battle, as well as one level, which was kind of surprising.
I learned that Levant didn't just control the wind, Levant was the wind, meaning that she could 'tell' me where things were, at least if they were displacing air.
The fighting briefly stopped, Hunters on guard but unsure of where the next attack will be, some gunners had decided to start bashing things with their guns, which works I guess.
And then the air moved a ways away, in the forest, the air was moving quite a bit, more than an Ursa would move it, but not too much more, and it was in a strange pattern as well.
"There's something coming from that way, it's still a ways away, unless it speeds up." I said, surprised by how many Hunters followed my gaze and focused on lookout.
Although, I suppose it doesn't matter if the Intel comes from your superior or a stranger on your side in the middle of a battle, does it?
The air was still moving, the thing was getting closer, I couldn't see it, sadly, but I could see it was definitely big.
"It's moving in a weird pattern, a bit taller than an Ursa, seems to move like multiple creatures, any ideas?" I asked, it was worth a shot.
One lone Hunter's eyes widened, throughout the fight he had the least synergy with everyone, just fought on his own and tried not to get in the way, I figured he hadn't had a team here, and now I might know why.
"It can't be..." He mumbled, quiet, although with the silence his words carried. "It has to be... It's the Cobra Hydra."
Everyone went dead still.
"It's still moving towards us, quickly, and we definitely cant run." I said, this thing was definitely moving towards us. "We'll have to fight."
And just then it broke the treeline, one head came first, then another, and another, each like the King Taijitu but a bit larger, and attached to more than one, judging by the amount of heads coming out of the treeline, this thing had a lot of heads joining one point.
I look around, seeing Winter being one of the few un-phased by the creature, or at least acting like it.
"Winter, you're with me, everyone, pair up, fight one fight, swap when it would help either save your life or get a good strike, we need to take this thing down." I said, Levant knowing to carry my voice.
And then I told Levant to carry my voice to just Winter. "We fight the connection point, everyone else will probably choose a head, when we see an opening, I'll charge in, when I signal you, go for the kill, alright?"
She nodded.
"Okay, let's do this!" I shouted, turning Katar into my favored sword form, rushing valiantly into battle, an army of Hunters behind me.
Funny, considering I was just a thief, at least in this suit.
Hunters with melee weapons charged a head, we nearly had a pair for a pair of heads, so me and Winter kept those extra heads busy.
I ducked under a sweep of a head, chopping it off in the process, it didn't do much to the beast's massive seven health bars, considering it had heads to spare, and besides, it still had the stump to swing around.
We couldn't have that, so I Flash Stepped further just after cutting through it, to cut it off near the center by swinging the other way.
A quick look around told me the Hunters were having trouble, so I began cutting through as many heads as I could.
I got through five before it spotted me, slammed a head into me, nearly squishing me against it's core.
I flash stepped away, but not without a hit to my health bar.
The hunters started fighting the heads near the slightly less-dense area, and started having an equal fight.
That's how we do this.
Flash stepping again behind the guard of a preoccupied head, I slice through it once more.
But the Cobra Hydra was prepared, hundreds of smaller heads sprung from the core, trying to attack me, I got bit a couple times, my health about half, but I kept cutting, the attacks only meant numbers, but my attacks meant damage and less attacks from the beast.
Five more heads gone, hundreds to go, but more importantly, that area was much clearer a battlefield, the String-Guy would push away a strike, just to leap back and have someone else cut into the head, this was working, even more importantly, the heads were growing back, albeit slowly.
But the health bar was still nearly full, so something about this wasn't working, so I tried stabbing my sword to the hilt into the core of the Grimm.
It only got about half way in.
"SWITCH!" I yelled, projecting my voice to Winter.
Pushing myself backwards with the wind, Winter leaped over me, piercing her Rapier into the core, having it burst into flames, activating the Dust canister within the rapier.
The health bar dropped to nothing, but still six to go.
On another note, every head nearby turned towards Winter, standing on the core pumping Aura into the Dust, flames still burning, still pushing the rapier further into the beast.
I tried to use my power to push her out of the way with the wind, but I couldn't, the heads were moving too fast.
The wind pushed her a little, and she noticed what was going on, trying to leap away, but she was still too slow.
She jumped, back flipping away from the beast, two health bars down, five left, I couldn't see Human's health bars, but she was probably low on aura from pushing so much into the fire.
One head missed, another missed, five more missed, but the next was heading straight for her head, preparing to strike.
Winter tilted her head to the side, away from the snake, but not far enough, a fang raked through her skin, carving a deep cut along the side of her face, just narrowly missing her left eye, cutting just above her ear, around the back of her head, the rest of the teeth managed to slightly scratch her shoulder.
I threw her far away, towards the cliff, pausing my own movement to make sure she landed safely.
Ontop of a tree, but safe.
I kicked Accelleration to the highest, accelerating me, my cloths, and a small pocket of air in front of my mouth and nose, poured Aura into my muscles, and charged, forming Katar into dual blades as I ran, the balls of my feet barely touching the ground before I took the next step, the speed I was running at the air felt like it was burning.
I charged straight at the empty area, clear of heads, prepared both swords to swipe from my left hand side, to the right.
And then I cut, and then I cut the other way, to the left, slicing faster than anyone could see, using both swords just to effectively cut twice for one swing in a direction.
When I next realized what was going on, the Cobra Hydra looked like it had been pushed through many, many tennis rackets, I had Katar grow larger, now wielding two large swords, I had cut off a few more normal heads in my rage as well, as well as rolled the beast over and stabbed it directly through the center with both swords, blades pointing to my right and left, standing on top of it, every Hunter had backed away a good distance.
And I cut.
The whole beast just vibrated in, presumably, pain, as it was completely cut in half, save for a sphere floating in the dead center of where the beast would be, I turned by hands, and cut the sphere twice at the same time, two power strikes, the full force of my aura, the wind, The Holy Flame, all poured into effectively one attack.
The sphere shattered, and the beast started dissipating.
"Ironwood, Winter was injured, she's that way, in a tree, safe, but you should probably get medical attention to her, quickly." I say, Levant boosting the sound to everyone, not even bothering to funnel it towards Ironwood.
Ironwood ran into the forest in the direction I pointed at from atop my dissolving corpse-throne.
"Should we be ready?" String-Guy said.
"No, the Grimm know this place is just a death trap for them now."
Territory Earned
Open World Map to view extent of your territory!
By enforcing your power over the Grimm within this area, they now know you own this place, and will leave it alone, for now.
You will receive an alert if your territory is under attack, and will be transported into a Territory Defense Instance if you wish to fight for the territory.
"They just know." I say.
