Vivian squirmed from pain in her shoulder and turned around to see her teammates.
"Do we really need to do this?" Lilac asked, seeing Nachrichter's actions.
"Orders are orders," the hulking man answered her.
Everything that followed happened in an instant. Raymond pulled out his sword to be tackled by Petrichor. He stumbled and rolled down the slope while the half-Faunus followed him. Granola and Nina jumped towards Nachrichter to help their teammate. M0N5T3-R fired a blast that set a portion of the forest on fire, creating a scorching wall separating it, Victor, and team SYAN from the rest of the fighters.
The moment Gran and Nina pulled out their weapons, Nachrichter tossed Vivian aside and blocked their attacks. After a nimble dodge, the hulking man kicked the Faunus girl and took a swing at the remaining fighter. Their weapons clashed, and they started to wrestle.
"Unlike a blade, a warrior needs to fight to keep their edge," the Huntsman said, slowly overpowering Granola.
Raymond was stumbling down the slope and stopped at the bottom. He quickly composed himself and got back on his feet only to spot a blade heading his way. He swayed to the side to avoid the attack, but the edge grazed his chest. Blood started slowly pouring out. Nachrichter's semblance came through his mind as he was forced to deflect another attack. Lilac was relentless and continued her advances without giving him time to think. Dodge, deflection, another dodge, a sting in his leg. She was way too fast to avoid all of her attacks.
The moment the fire bursted, M0 charged its cannon and fired a blast towards his enemies. Amethyst prepared for the impact, and the burst sent her flying. Her weapons were devastated, and she could feel her arms pulsing with pain. The rest of the team took cover behind the trees to avoid the droid's sight. Victor used hard light dust to create two sabers.
"Nothing personal, kids," Viridian shouted out. "If I had a choice, I would let you go, but unfortunately, this is where we are." He closed his eyes and concentrated. "No one using dust in their weapons? Seems you were prepared for a fight after all."
Scarlet jumped out of her cover and fired a bolt towards Victor. M0 quickly slashed the projectile with one of his arm blades and fired his dust cannon at the girl. The redhead jumped back behind cover, avoiding the shot.
Our auras are deactivated, and this robot's attacks are deadly.
Yangochi sent out to all of his teammates. They all were too far to communicate freely. Scarlet started to think.
"We need to take care of the droid somehow," she started talking, hoping that Yan can hear her. "Yangochi, can you distract the old man while the rest of us get the robot?"
I can try.
"I hope the rest gets the idea." She said and again dived from her cover.
Granola was pushed back by the huge Huntsman. The moment his axe was heading at him, Nina whipped the attacker to change the trajectory of the attack. The Faunus boy rolled aside and stood up next to his friend. Nachrichter smiled and dashed towards the duo.
Vivian was looking at her fighting teammates, scared to intervene. She had no way of activating her semblance, and that was the only means of fighting she possessed. Nachrichter was fierce, and even Gran had problems keeping up with him. If it wasn't for Nina, he would be overwhelmed by the mountain of a man. Still, they were being pushed to their limits, and she had to do something.
Granola deflected a powerful attack to the side while Nina dashed and slashed at the enemy. Nachrichter let go of the axe to avoid the attempt, clutched the Faunus girl by her leg, and chucked her aside. Gran sensing an opportunity, attacked the Huntsman. Leaden grabbed the Crimson Tide and headbutted the attacker in the face. He then pulled the weapon form the kid's grasp and used it to sweep the opponent's legs. Gran fell to the ground without his weapon in hand, while the hulking oppressor aimed the blade to strike its owner. The moment Nachrichter was to pierce Gran with Crimson Tide, Vivian jumped in and tackled the enemy.
Nachrichter groaned and grabbed Black by her throat. He then smacked her against the nearest tree. A scream tried to escape her mouth but could not pass her clutched neck. Nina moved in for the attack, but Nachrichter noticed and blocked the blow with Gran's weapon.
Vivian tried to move, but a sharp pain in her side made her scream. She looked down to notice a branch sticking out of her abdomen. A wave of panic started to dawn on her. Granola, seeing the situation his team leader was in, tried to pull her out.
"Stop!" Vivian was hyperventilating, "If you just force me out, I will bleed to death."
The Faunus started to think, at the same time glancing at Nina and Nachrichter fighting each other. He did not want to waste any time, but what could he do in a situation like that? A random thought came to his mind.
"Ok, I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a try." He said to Vivian and pulled her.
She screamed, shocked. "What are you…"
"Trust me," he put the girl gently on the ground and held her profusely bleeding wound with one of his hands.
Vivian felt a strange sensation that she could not recognize. Even though her heart was beating faster, for some reason, her whole body was strangely relaxed. She looked down at the spot where the branch went through her and noticed the blood clotting.
"Are you using your semblance on someone other than yourself?" She was amazed that Gran could even do that.
The Faunus was very focused. "It's the first time I actually tried…" She could see sweat slowly dripping down his forehead.
Raymond deflected another attack. His eye could barely keep up with the movements of the Huntress. Another slash, his back this time. He was slowly losing strength, and with it, his confidence. His mind went back to the fight with Pyrrha Nikos at the Mistral Regional Tournament. For some reason, this situation reminded him of the finals where he couldn't even scratch her. Pyrrha wasn't as quick as Lilac, but the way she moved resembled her greatly. Another cut in his flesh. I'm going to die here? A moment of realization that he could not accept.
With the mounting wounds and anger boiling in him, he suddenly felt a familiar sensation. He looked at his hand and noticed a slight golden hue. Lilac stopped her onslaught for a moment, puzzled by the sight. Raymond removed his eyepatch, and where once was a gaping hole, now was a golden eye. His body surged with power, and he took on his signature stance.
"Time to even the odds."
Scarlet fired a bolt towards the droid, who fired back in an instant. She was barely able to dodge the blast. M0 cut the bolt in the air before it could hit its mark. In the meantime, Yangochi, hiding in the treetops, used his semblance to confuse Victor.
I'm here.
Viridian threw one of his sabers in the direction he heard the whisper from. Confused for a moment, he quickly turned back towards his creation. Neil used his Kusarigama to swing from one of the branches to promptly shorten the distance between him and M0 just after he fired on his sister. Victor started to form a dagger from hard light to throw it at the kid, but there came a swift attack from the sky. He was able to block the strike with his other saber and saw as Yangochi span around to attack him. Viridian used the hard dust to form a wall between him and the attacker and infused it with lightning dust. Atgeir banged at the construct, and its owner was promptly shocked. After the blow, the Faunus retreated to the treetops.
Neil, in the meantime, was able to kick M0, disrupting its balance. Amethyst was ready for that moment and jumped in for the attack. Without any interruptions, the bot fired a precise shot from his dust cannon, blowing the Faunus away. She landed in the shrubbery next to the fire created by the first shot of the robot. Neil used one of his ice dust crystals to freeze the cannon. After the arm was frozen, the droid slashed at the twin wounding his arm. Scarlet fired a bolt that pierced M0's leg. The robot turned around and aimed its cannon, but the ice would not allow it to fire.
Scarlet dashed towards the droid, but a sudden explosion nearby pushed her back. She hit the ground and noticed a set of daggers flying at her. Quickly rolling to the side, the huntress-in-training fired a bolt in the direction where the blades came from. Victor stopped the bolt by creating a hard dust shield. Meanwhile, Neil tried to take down M0N5T3-R, but with a wounded arm, he had problems keeping up with the assault. He jumped away to hide behind a tree. M0 cracked the ice and started to reload its cannon.
Amethyst slowly stood up, feeling the rising heat of the burning forest. The flames were spreading slowly, engulfing more and more of the thicket. Her tonfas were practically unusable with the damage they've taken, and her arms were searing with pain. A quick glance at the battlefield revealed that her teammates were still in decent condition. At least in better than she was right now. But the team needed her, and she had a plan that just might work.
Nina was trading blows with Nachrichter, who was using Gran's weapon. His usage of the bladed staff was careless, and he just swang it wildly. His attacks were strong, but Nina was capable of deflecting them. When the Faunus girl deflected another sloppy attack, she noticed an opening and slashed at the opponent's leg. The impact had no effect on him, which surprised Nina. He still had his aura barrier up while he deactivated others. Now that's just cheating, she thought.
He continued the fierce assault, but Nina was able to deflect the attacks. In the heat of the battle, she thought of something that might tip the tides. When Nachrichter attacked with a vertical slash, Nina pirouetted to the side. She then triggered the switch on Crimson Tide that hid both the blades. Nachrichter, confused, tried to activate the weapon again, but the Faunus girl slashed it with a precise strike blocking that possibility. She knew exactly where to strike to disable the staff. She built it, after all.
"Garbage!" The Huntsmen shouted and tossed the now broken weapon at the girl.
She dodged the Crimson Tide flying at her and quickly noticed that Nachrichter picked up his original weapon. With surprising speed, he delivered a powerful slash. Nina tried to block the attack but had not enough strength to deflect it. Her sword was sent flying with her now lying on the ground with a bleeding arm. The attacker stood over her.
"We won't be needin' you, missy," he said, raising his axe.
Nina closed her eyes and braced for impact in hopes her death would be quick. She heard a swing and flinched, but the blow never came. She opened her eyes and saw Granola right on top of her with Nachrichter's weapon lodged deep in his left shoulder.
"I told you," he said, smiling. "I would rather die myself than leave you."
Nachrichter tried to take the blade out, but Gran grabbed the handle and kept the axe rooted in his shoulder.
"You stubborn cunt," the Huntsman cursed.
The Faunus blood started slowly flowing through the blade to the handle and finally reaching the hand of the attacker. When it did, it dispersed into several needles that started to pierce Nachrichter's arm. With a sudden scream of pain, he let go of the axe, and Gran spun around to deliver a dynamic punch to his head.
"You'll pay for this," the Huntsman was furious.
Granola took out the axe and held it in his right hand. It felt heavy to hold, but with the adrenaline now rushing through his body, he did not mind. In the meantime, Nina picked up her Orchid Flame and stood next to her friend. She was impressed that Granola could stand straight with such a deep wound.
Nachrichter dashed towards the pair screaming, "You two are dead!"
Scarlet noticed that the droid started reloading his dust cannon and saw this as an opportunity.
"I need a distraction!" She shouted, not caring if Victor could hear her.
She dashed towards the robot. She heard a swish of a flying dagger and a silent grunt to her right. However, she did not look. Her eyes were glued to M0, slowly filling up his arm cannon with dust pellets. She activated her semblance but did not close the distance fast enough. The enemy was ready to fire, and she had too much momentum to change her direction in time. An iron ball hit the robot's arm just as it fired. The shot missed Scarlet, who touched the foe and electrocuted it. The light in M0's visor faded, and it was no longer moving.
After deactivating the robot, Scarlet looked around to evaluate the situation. Neil was half standing, keeping his balance on one of his knees. One of his arms was covered in blood. Yangochi was holding his balance on Atgeir with a hard light dagger in his leg. The moment she assessed the surroundings, a sharp sting pulled her out of her thoughts. Victor slashed her leg and attacked again. She had the presence of mind to block the next blow with one of her pickaxes.
Yangochi pulled out the blade from his thigh and moved in to help Scarlet, but Victor threw a dagger in his direction that exploded on contact. Yangochi fell to the ground.
"You bastard," Scarlet was furious and started attacking the Huntsman.
Victor, now using two hard light sabers, traded blows with the leader of team SYAN with relative ease. He noticed that Neil was preparing an attack and that he had a dust sash at his belt. The Huntsman smiled and detonated all fire dust the boy had on him. A spectacle of colorful explosions filled the air.
"No!" Scarlet turned toward her brother in shock.
Victor used the distraction and slashed his opponent again. He cut her arms, forcing her to drop her weapons. She tried to pick them up, but the oppressor kicked her, forcing her to the ground.
"You fought valiantly," Victor was slowly moving towards her while she tried to back away from the range of his blades. "But, you're no match against real Huntsmen. Look at yourselves!" He gesticulated at the battlefield. Neil was lying in a ditch created by the dust explosion, trying to pull himself with one hand as the other was mangled and lifeless. Yangochi was motionless with his back leaning against a tree. "You think you're Huntsmen, but you're nothing but a joke!"
"If we're a joke, then this is the punchline!" Amethyst surprised him from behind and delivered a powerful punch to the back of Victor's head.
The moment he wanted to retaliate, a bright flash disoriented him. He felt another blow to his face.
"Activate auxiliary power!" He shouted quickly and faced the Faunus girl.
M0's visor lit up, and he raised his dust cannon. Amethyst saw the action and ducked the shot to the side.
"Oh no…" Victor noticed that he was now in the line of fire.
The blast ripped his arm off. With a scream of pain, he looked at his creation. Tears in his eyes, he collapsed to the ground, lifeless. Amethyst, not wasting any time, grabbed the droid by its leg with her tail and smacked it against the nearest tree. M0 was still trying to aim at her, but she quickly destroyed its head under her heel. It started to rain.
Raymond dodged a direct slash. Everything around him felt like it moved in slow motion. He could see Lilac's attempts at him without any issues. He was in complete control. Another slash. He easily deflected it. He started noticing that his enemy was not moving fast. She was literally teleporting from place to place. Another block. Seeing her attacks and being able to deal with them was not enough to win. A slash from behind. Ray ducked, avoiding the blade.
Lilac's patterns of offense started to look distinguishable. Every time she blinked in for an attack, no matter if it was successful or not, she teleported back. Ray needed to check something. The moment Petrichor went in for another advance, he dashed towards the location she vanished from. He sliced the air before him just to notice that she was there. His blade went through her armor, cutting her flesh. She jumped back. So she returns to her original point after teleportation, he concluded. But he needed to be sure that was the case and not a trick to lull him in a false sense of security.
"I think I got you figured out," he taunted.
Lilac went for another attack. This time she did not use her semblance. Ray avoided the slash and cut her arm. She pirouetted to the side and swiped her sword in his direction. He deflected the blow to the side and counter attacked. From his perspective, she was moving as slow as molasses.
She suddenly blinked behind him. He bet all on this single attack and ignored the blow. Her blade sliced across his shoulders, but he grabbed his sword and pushed it in the direction where his opponent disappeared from. Lilac returned to the original position. His blade directly in her heart. For a brief moment, she was shocked, but the shock made way for a smile.
"I can finally see her…" She let go of her weapon. The katana fell to the ground. The light in her eyes faded away as life left her body. Raymond tried to push her from his sword, but he collapsed right next to her, pulled by her weight. He was too tired to move a muscle. He was looking at the sky when a raindrop hit his face. It was over.
Granola raised Nachrichter's weapon to block the blow. The force pushed him back. Nina dashed to the opponent's side and slashed his arm. Granola swiped his leg to make a rotating motion giving momentum to the weight of the axe. With a mighty slash, he connected with the opponent. Nachrichter took the blow on his shoulder. The force of the impact made Gran drop the weapon. Leaden quickly attacked, but his punch was slowed down by Vivian, who appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his hand. The blow was cut short and gave enough time for the Faunus boy to deliver a blow of his own.
The punch to the face disoriented the Huntsman, and before he could compose himself, another one landed. He fell to the ground, his aura shattered. The man tried to get up, but before he could even raise his head, another blow from Gran put him in his place. The impact was fierce, and the attacker's fist did not stop until it smacked the ground. Another punch, and another. Nachrichter fainted after a while, but the Faunus did not stop his assault until Nina grabbed his arm.
"Gran, stop…" The terrified look on her face at what was happening to her friend was enough to stop him.
Small raindrops started to fall on all of them. Granola looked up to see the sky, and the rainwater slowly dripped down his face. With emotions down, he began to feel dizzy. When he stood up from the unconscious body of Nachrichter, he collapsed.
"Gran!" Nina jumped to him, wanting to see if he's alright.
His breath was shallow. She shook him a few times, and when that didn't wake him up, she slapped him in the face. A feeling of panic started to overcome her as he was not opening his eyes. Tears now flowing to hers.
"Please wake up…" She held his head in her arms, rocking back and forth. Not knowing what else to do, she kissed him.
After their lips parted, the Faunus boy opened his eyes.
"What was that?" He was groggy and confused. But Nina just embraced him.
The rain got stronger, and the fire created by M0N5T3-R slowly died down. Vivian tied Nachrichter to a tree and informed her teammates that she wants to see what is going on with Raymond. Team SYAN joined Gran and Nina, looking devastated. Scarlet had lacerations on her arms and legs while Yangochi hobbled slowly, using his spear as a cruth. Amethyst had severely burned arms and helped Neil, who could not stand on his own. One of his arms was hanging lifelessly covered in blood.
Vivian moved down the slope that Ray rolled off and noticed him lying next to the Huntress. She jumped to him and saw that he was still conscious.
"You've got to do better if you want to play the hero," she said, smiling.
"Yeah… I know." He replied with a grim tone, which surprised Vivian.
She looked to the side and noticed that Lilac's chest was pierced, and the blood now stained the grass. She was dead.
"I'll take you to the others," she said, activating her semblance. The feeling of being able to use it again made her calm.
She used the tentacles like a forklift to lift him and started to move up the hill. Her side was still hurting, and the wound was slightly open, but she pushed forward. It was still far better, thanks to Gran's semblance. When she got back with Ray in her 'arms' the rest of the group discussed something energetically.
"I told you, I don't have a semblance," Neil was looking away from his sister, who looked angry.
"Stop messing around! I want to know what that was all about!" Scarlet was almost furious. "I don't care that you hate it, we need it!"
The twin took a deep breath. "Ok then…"
He got closer to Nachrichter, who was tied up. The man looked up to the kid who took another deep breath. He closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them, his left eye turned hazel, mirroring his sister's heterochromia.
He smiled. "Hi, my name is Neil Regolith. What is your name?"
Nachrichter looked confused but answered quite quickly. "Nachrichter Leaden."
"I need to know why did you attack us," Neil asked, still smiling politely.
"We are ordered to 'recruit' people with strong semblances. Vivian 'ere, has one of the most versatile ones we 'ave seen, so we wanted 'er." The Huntsman was shocked that he just divulged something like that. But his eyes were still locked with Neils.
"Is that your only goal?" the redhead continued.
"No," Nachrichter was still befuddled that he did not stop answering the boy's questions. "Our main objective is to find and nab the Summer Maiden."
Neil dropped to one knee, looking more and more tired. "Summer Maiden?"
"Aye, one of the four."
The boy blinked a few times, and his eyes returned to bright blue. He now held his head, massaging one of his temples.
"That's not much information to go on," Scarlet sounded disappointed.
"You think this is easy?" Her brother boomed. His demeanor completely changing from what team VNGR known him for.
"Summer Maiden?" Nina was curious. "What's that about."
"Fuck you," Nachrichter spew in her direction, which startled most of the group.
They looked among each other, not knowing what was going on. Everyone was wounded and tired. Yangochi suddenly started speaking slowly.
"I've heard about a tale about the four Maidens, but it was just a story told among some folks. Why would someone want to chase a fictional construct?"
"Are you sure that this story is fiction?" Vivian asked.
"It has to be. It says that the Maidens are magic."
"You know what, we'll deal with it tomorrow," Scarlet interjected. "We need to rest and patch ourselves up."
The whole gang agreed and started to prepare for the night while the rain was still heavy. Granola tried to help in the preparations, but his arm was in a dreadful condition. He and Amethyst gathered their damaged weapons and threw them near the tent that Vivian raised.
"Fixing these will take forever," Amethyst said, sitting next to Gran.
"Neil and I can do something about them later," Nina chimed in when she threw some branches for the fire.
"Those are wet," Scarlet scolded her. "We can't start a fire with those."
The girl was annoyed at the remark but went on to search for more dry wood. As if that was going to happen in the rain like that.
Neil and Amethyst were slow in assisting with establishing a camp. Raymond was too banged up to move but still had the fortitude to throw a sarcastic comment now and then.
The rain slowly died down, and everyone tried to start a fire.
Amethyst noticed how much Neil was squirming during even the easiest of tasks. His left hand was in a pretty bad condition.
"You can't just have it like that," she threw in his direction and took out one of her shirts to make a splint out of.
"Thank you," Neil was grateful, and with the arm now immobilized, he didn't have to worry about it too much.
Yangochi suddenly jumped on his legs like a startled meerkat. He turned his head in one direction and suddenly stated to all: "Nachrichter escaped."