He rolled through tightly-packed snow and recently-disturbed ice, tumbling until he ceased tumbling, a sharp pain running up his side from the impact.
His Aura had buckled somewhat, but was still well above half, but it was draining slowly, and despite his resistance to cold, something felt frozen against his side.
He stood, drawing his shield and holding it steady even as he checked where a wound would have most likely been, eyes widening. No wonder he could feel a sharp pain, it was coated in a thin layer of sharp ice.
A quick check of his bars showed a rather tell-tale icon, and though he really didn't have the time to read into the details, he could at least check the name.
'Frostbite?' He read out, though unvocalized. Whatever it actually was, it was sapping his Aura slowly but steadily, some kind of damage over time effect that was really gonna hurt if he let it get any worse. A few more solid hits from whatever it was that had struck him would definitely break through his AP, and that was never a good thing.
It wasn't stalking him anymore, though, instead deciding to surface from wherever it had been hiding, the hulking form of what looked like an Ursa Major if it had been snap-frozen standing squat on all fours in front of him, red eyes gleaming out from under white bone and equally white fur. No wonder it had been able to blend in with the snow so seamlessly, it looked the part, as if it was partially constructed of the terrain, spikes of frozen water in the place of the more typical Ursa Major spines.
It stood up on its hind legs, letting out a bellowing roar before it began moving closer, the intent in its eyes as evil, in the most literal sense, as any other Grimm he'd faced before.
He observed it as it moved closer, bracing himself behind his shield.
[Elder Nanuk, Level 80 Grimm]
[HP: 56,000/56,000]
Well, at least he'd found one of his targeted Grimm. He sighted down Predator and pulled the trigger from behind his shield as the icicle-clad ursine Grimm charged towards him, and then rolled to the side, continuing to get a plentiful helping of snow to cover him as the Nanuk was unfazed by the shot, narrowly missing a swipe on Naruto.
He fired a second shot into its flank as he moved, only to trip and stumble as another cluster of ice and snow moved, sharp claws raking across his leg. He scrambled out of the way of the follow-up, canine jaws snapping shut on cold air as he barely managed to pull himself back.
Another new foe, it appeared, this time a Beowolf-lookalike, remarkably similar to the Nanuk, all white fur and enfrosted spines.
[Elder Direwulf, Level 80 Grimm]
[HP: 40,000/40,000]
His leg was burning with that same frosty pain that his side was lit with, and his Aura was draining faster now. Definitely not a good thing, if he was being honest.
He fired a third shot, the ding of a critical hit ringing out as it impacted, tearing a massive chunk of flesh, bone and ice from the Direwulf's head, and it slumped over into the snow, black blood staining irrevocably dark against the pristine white.
The air was lit up from a beam of green energy that shot past his shoulder and carved a swath of fur and flesh from the Nanuk, and Penny landed next to Naruto, swords hovering in spinning trios above her, one group aimed and spinning, building up the charge for another shot.
The Nanuk roared as it charred, still bounding towards the two of them, and Naruto braced once more, holstering Predator and anchoring his free hand against the flat of the only line of defense he had between the Nanuk and himself.
Penny's second shot lanced out and cut deep, but even still it wasn't enough, and Naruto felt the Nanuk hit his shield a moment later, furious claws swiping down on the plate of metal he kept upright.
The Nanuk out-sized him considerably, though, and when it realized it wasn't going to get through his shield from the front, it simply tried to crush him underneath its weight, throwing both fore-paws down onto the top of his shield to try and force his arms down.
He rolled with the motion instead of resisting, and he emerged from beneath shaggy-white legs, spinning and firing off a Gravity Infused Mana Blast into the Nanuk's back, launching it forwards, untethered from Remnant's gravity.
Penny took the time to spear it out of the air, her blades splitting and puncturing the Nanuk, only to then wrench them out through the sides, cutting the Nanuk apart.
Or, it should have cut it apart. Somehow, despite the large gashes that covered its body, the Nanuk was still alive, fighting the urge to give up and die, shakily landing on all fours and giving a weak but furious roar.
Penny seemed surprised it was still able to move, but Naruto had no hesitation, withdrawing Crocea Mors and slashing at its neck, cutting between bone and ice, carving through flesh like a hot knife through butter, though not far enough, as the Nanuk tried to take a swing at him.
It didn't even get close, and Naruto swung again, this time completely severing the head from the rest of the body, and only then did the Nanuk stop moving, flakes of shadowy particulates turning to ash in the air and getting caught up in the cold wind.
[Encounter Complete!]
[You've gained 2,329,691 XP and 14,080 Lien! You've acquired 9 Inert Dust, 2 Elder Nanuk Pelts, 1 Elder Direwulf Claw, 3 Elder Direwulf Spines and the Bound Weapon Skill Book!]
[You've unlocked two new entries in the Grimmonomicon!]
He checked himself over briefly, brushing away some of the leftover ice from the parts of his body that had been affected by the frostbite status, wincing at the slight burning sensation that was still lingering.
It was concerning that Grimm could cause status effects like that, and even more so that they were so effective against him, even with his resistance to the cold.
"Penny, you alright?" Naruto asked, looking over his shoulder to the mechanical woman behind him, her green glow slowly subsiding as she kept a wary eye on their surroundings.
Penny nodded an affirmative. "There appears to be no more Grimm present, as far as I can detect!" She paused for a moment. "Although that didn't seem to help the first time."
Naruto shook his head. "We're clear, for now. At least, according to my Semblance. C'mon, we need to find those files."
He cast his gaze skywards, his Bullhead orbiting the skyline lazily, Blake at the helm. He gave a wave and a thumbs-up, despite knowing that neither Blake nor Ilia would be able to make it out from that distance, and then began moving forward, one hand resting comfortably on the holstered grip of his handgun, Penny sticking close behind as they moved towards the black-and-grey domes that littered the snow-coated area.
Most were small, and Naruto peeked inside one, able to make out two small beds and a mid-sized desk, obviously some kind of residential dome.
They were scattered haphazardly across the terrain, the small domes placed in between the larger ones wherever there appeared to be some kind of space, and it was the larger ones that caught Naruto's interest.
"We should split up, cover more ground. I'll take the big array to the left," Naruto spoke aloud over the sound of the wind, which was starting to pick up, scooping handfuls of snow into the air and splattering it around like some kind of micro-blizzard.
Penny nodded in response, breaking off from the main path and heading to the right, so Naruto turned to the left, staring at the nearby entrance to a large cluster of connected domes, each set of linked hexagonal plates much larger than the high-tech tents he'd peered in just before.
The door to the main entrance slid open to reveal a sort of airlock-like room, and he stepped inside, a pneumatic hiss sounding out behind as the door closed, another hiss in front of him sounding out as the second door revealed behind it an expansive series of desks coated in various Scrolls, stacks of paperwork and various bits and pieces of old materials, bricks and chunks of ancient metal halfway through being examined.
Something had passed through here with purpose, and it definitely wasn't an archaeologist with anything but fear. One of the tables further down had been clawed into chunks, and even deeper in was a chair that looked like it had exploded, one wheeled leg having punctured through a metal shelf a good couple feet from the rest of its remains.
There had been a major struggle, that much was obvious, and the deeper into the connected domes Naruto got, the more it became clear that something terrible had happened. Splotches of red that were most probably not someone having a condiment-related accident became more common, and Naruto was getting progressively more and more concerned.
And more and more disturbed, seeing as he'd not found any bodies, despite the rather copious amount of blood that stained the black polymer flooring and grey steel walls of the domes.
Even just statistically speaking he should've come across a corpse by now, and he found himself in a rather morbid state of mind wishing that he could, in fact, discover any cadaver. He'd never hoped to find a dead body before now.
Naruto rounded a corner and found his prayers answered.
Well, he wouldn't exactly have said they were prayers, but he found whatever they could have conceivably been called answered.
"Oh for-"
He barely had time to speak in response to what he'd previously assumed to be a cluster of bodies as it began to stir, arms, legs and other as-of-yet-unnamed limbs stretching, bending and contorting in various ways as the bodies began to move independently of each other.
He backed up a step, glanced about the room, noticed a large tablet-like black Scroll on the desk furthest from where he was standing, still plugged into an outlet.
If that wasn't the file, he would eat something he wouldn't want to eat. Unlike what the moving corpses seemed to want to do to him.
"Nuh-uh, I've seen enough zombie movies to know the undead when I see 'em, no thanks," He uttered, raising his hand and tossing a Mana Grenade into the approaching crowd of black-tar-covered cadavers as they approached slowly, shambling towards him with long-forgotten muscle-memory.
He didn't need his semblance to tell him what these were, they were a long-since known problem, once described to him by his own father.
Husks, the corpses of deceased victims of Grimm, given some kind of hive-mind sentience and ability to move once more, albeit limited in both aspects. Much like the rest of the Grimm, nobody knew how they came to be, but it was pretty clear that it wasn't every time.
Luckily, he'd've hated to have to deal with the knowledge that every person who'd died to the Grimm would come back, in one form or another, as the thing that killed them. So to speak, at least. He doubted the person who'd once inhabited the corpse was even aware that their body had essentially been hijacked, but then again, he didn't exactly have a way of knowing if that was true or not.
For all he knew, the people weren't even dead- no, that was a poor line of thinking, one that would probably get him killed. The Grimm gave no mercy, and they deserved even less.
He watched as the Mana Grenade detonated in a blast of blueish-purple energy, practically mulching the foremost of the shambling Husks. They were low-level, it seemed, he didn't even need to observe them to be able to tell that.
He was going to observe them anyways, of course, any XP was better than no XP.
[Husk]
[Grimm, Level 30]
[HP: 1,200/1,200]
Well, at least they weren't exactly intimidating stat-wise. They were only really intimidating when you considered the moral and spiritual implications they held for people as a greater whole, rather than the actual physical threat they presented in any given situation.
He was doing something, right? Not just going off on a mental tangent without any real regard for his surroundings?
The Husks had gotten closer in the time he'd been distracted by internalized philosophical debate, and so he punched the closest one in the face with a Mana Punch, nearly severing its head from its neck as he did so, leaving a mess on his glove, which he winced at. Perhaps punching the moving rotten corpses wasn't his greatest plan.
"Ignatius, torch 'em."
He stepped back, folding his arms as a wave of heat wafted off the tall Elemental as it appeared in front of him, glowing that particular shade of bright red, the one that Fire Dust gleamed with when it was at its peak of heat, just about to combust.
He looked away as the room was lit up by the torrent of fire that spewed forth from Ignatius's crystalline arms, setting the rest of the Husks alight, the guttural screams of anguish giving him good reason to close his eyes.
No one had ever said the Grimm weren't good at psychological warfare. It took a lot of willpower not to command Ignatius to stop, and even more so not to buckle and mourn for those lost. This was not the time, nor the place for that kind of action. That would have to wait.
A minute later, the only remnants of the Husks was the slowly disintegrating ashes that were drifting lazily into the air, getting sucked into the internal air-conditioning that ran throughout the dome-like complex.
Naruto pushed through the thick scent of smoke and overcooked putrid flesh to the far desk, unplugging the thankfully-unharmed device, giving it a once over.
The moment he finished making sure it wasn't some kind of weird semblance-related red herring, he received a notification.
[You have acquired the sealed file ASR83!]
[Return it to Doctor Shae Black in Atlas to complete the bounty!]
[Encounter Complete!]
[You have gained 529,200 XP and 2,310 Lien!]
[You have acquired 20 Inert Dust, 6 Husk Cadavers, 3 Husk Skulls and 2 Anaxis Herbs!]
Well, that simplified it quite a bit. No need to open it up and check in detail, he supposed, even if he was a little curious as to what was contained within the file.
Then again, it was probably just some archaeological details concerning something they'd found on one of their digs, so maybe it wasn't as juicy as he was suspecting.
"I've been watching too many Spruce Willis movies," he muttered under his breath, backtracking through the facility as Ignatius vanished behind him once more, returning to whence it had come. Wherever that was.
He was beginning to doubt he'd ever find out exactly where that was. Not that it mattered too much, he supposed.
He pushed those thoughts aside yet again. Getting distracted in this kind of environment was not a good idea.
The freezing air hit him as he stepped back out into the open, wincing as the flying flecks of ice and snow hit him. His resistance wasn't anywhere near enough to prevent this from being uncomfortable, and the weather was getting worse.
He could see Penny approaching quickly, her green glow cutting through the thickening snowfall as she hovered over towards him.
"The weather is getting worse, Naruto!" Penny began, once she was close enough for Naruto to hear. "My sensors are picking up a blizzard incoming, we should depart!"
Naruto couldn't agree more. "I've got the file, I'm ready to go!"
He could see the lights of his Bullhead overhead, and he gestured for Penny to go ahead, already reaching into his inventory and equipping XII. The Hanged, the grapple launcher wrapping around his arm as he aimed, beginning to run.
The cable fired out from the end of the launcher, sailing into the air and wrapping around one of the Bullhead's wings, and he hit the retraction trigger, pulling himself into the air, the grapple launcher whining as the internal motors spun, the ancient, mysterious design functioning without any issues, even in the below-freezing temperatures.
He flipped himself around as he landed, boots slamming against metal plating as he activated Surface Walk, carefully navigating the underside of the wing and into the open door on the side of the aircraft, shutting the door behind him.
Penny shut the door on the opposite side at the same time, gently brushing a layer of ice off of her shoulder. "That was certainly an experience, Friend Naruto!" She exclaimed, taking a seat. "Are we certain we're done here?"
Naruto brushed some snow from his hair. "I think we're good, thanks for the help, Penny. We're off to Frostwreath now, I think."
He had more to say on the topic when the entire Bullhead shook violently, nearly throwing Naruto into the wall.
The door to the cockpit opened, and Ilia stumbled out, a panicked look on her face. "You're the only one who knows how to properly fly this thing!"
Right, yeah, incoming blizzard and a very inexperienced pilot. He pulled himself past Ilia and into the cockpit, taking his seat from Blake, who'd been clutching the controls a little too hard.
"Here, take the file," He ordered, holding out the black Scroll as his other hand found the controls, wrestling the aircraft against the winds that buffeted the Bullhead.
Blake took it carefully, slumping into the seat opposite and letting out a sigh. "You weren't down there long. What happened?"
Naruto didn't answer for a moment, throttling hard and tilting upwards, trying to escape the worst of the blizzard down near the ground. When he felt like they'd reached an adequate height, he slowed the craft slightly, leveling out and finally answering.
"I don't really know what happened. Penny and I got ambushed by a Direwulf and a Nanuk, big ones, but I don't think they're what wiped the camp out. The place was full of Husks."
Blake cocked her head slightly. "Husks?"
"You've never heard of them? They're corpses infected with some kind of Grimm essence, reanimated. Basically Grimm zombies, like those old films."
"So there were no survivors?"
Naruto shook his head sadly. "Not that we saw. Place was pretty much empty."
Blake seemed just as despondent as he felt, but he tried his best to cheer her up. "We did what we could, it's not like we can save everyone. Besides, we don't know how long ago that place was even attacked. It could've been before we'd even left Menagerie."
Blake hummed in noncommittal agreement, opening the recovered device and browsing through.
"That was supposed to be sealed," Naruto remarked off-handedly.
He received a shrug in response. "It was open when you found it."
The blond sighed, knowing he'd probably end up paying for that. He kept an eye on the aircraft's readouts, but spared a moment to glance Blake's way. "Anything interesting?"
"If you let me read it, I'll tell you."
Naruto decided it would just be safer if he shut his mouth and concentrated on flying.
The blizzard had thinned out the further south they headed, and while it was hard to say the weather had 'cleared up', by any means, it was getting better and better with every passing moment as they escaped the worst of the freezing winds.
Atlas, and Solitas as a whole, were never exactly clear of winter weather, but this was definitely better than getting the aircraft simultaneously battered and frozen solid.
"Blake, I've seen the speed you can read Ninja's of Love, surely that's not any more interesting."
He didn't even have to look in her direction to know she was glaring at him, a faint blush on her face. "A; I don't know what you're talking about, and B; it's not that. I'm trying to come to terms with what the document is describing. It's… complicated terminology, and it didn't exactly come with a translator."
Naruto took the proffered device from Blake's outstretched hand, checking once more that the Bullhead wasn't pointed at the ground, and then quickly skimming through the document.
"This is about that lighthouse we saw, right?" He asked, pausing his rapid reading.
"That's part of it, and that's the part I sort of get. The rest is a little more obfuscated."
Obfuscated was right, as Naruto read on. "Triplets, aligned stars, unknown metals, mysterious energy… This sounds like my specialty."
Blake cocked an eyebrow. "Triplets are your specialty?"
"I have a twin, that's close enough."
He kept reading, frowning further. "Wait, they're saying there are three of these lighthouses? World's Peak has one, Frostwreath has another, and…"
Naruto paused, rereading the sentence to make sure he hadn't misread it the first time. "Wait, Mantle has the third? How does that work?"
Blake motioned for him to read further.
"Buried deep beneath Mantle, within a pocket of magma? Gods, that's a hell of a place to build a lighthouse. Not much use down there, I imagine."
He handed the file back to Blake, unconcerned with the more nitty-gritty archaeological details, favoring instead to pay attention to flying once more.
Of course, his Semblance had something to say about that.
[You have learned of the locations of three new dungeons!]
[High Tower (Raid) - Frostwreath]
[Grand Tower (Raid) - World's Peak]
[Inverted Tower (Raid) - Mantle]
Blake noticed his surprise. "What is it?"
"Take a wild guess."
She frowned, thinking. "Your Semblance marked these towers on your map?"
Blake might've been right, Naruto had no idea. "Close. Those three towers are Dungeons. Raids, specifically."
Blake stared at him for a moment, silent, before the words she was searching for came to mind. "No, we don't have the time to explore them."
"What, you think I don't know that? You're the one who took so many contracts, Blake!"
"We need a solid cover!" Blake fired back. "If we don't do a few at the least, it seems like we just took the one as a cover!"
"We did take them as a cover!"
"And they don't know that. That's the whole point of a cover!"
"That's a fair point!"
Blake rolled her eyes, leaning back in her seat. "Besides, I'm sure your Semblance is giving you some good rewards for it regardless, and I know you're not one to turn down a chance for more experience."
Damn, Blake was getting too good at seeing straight through him. "You really can read me like a book. Luckily for both of us it's not a specific book. Or, well, series. I hear there's at least a few of 'em."
Blake nearly threw the Scroll at his head, but thought better of it, and instead hit him over the head with the back of her hand.
He deserved that.
Blake switched tacks, peering out the semi-iced-over windshield. "How close are we to Frostwreath?"
Naruto checked his instruments, the Piloting skill giving him the knowledge to understand exactly what they meant. "We're pretty much above it now, it should come into view pretty soon. The weather's not really helping visibility, though. At least it's not as bad as it was. I doubt we'd be able to see anything until after we hit it if we were still flying through that."
"And you left me to fly around in it."
Naruto shrugged. "You only had to go in a circle. Not like there's much to hit in the air, aside from the occasional Grimm. Penny had you covered."
Blake didn't believe most of what he'd just said, but that was pretty much their status quo, so he wasn't particularly concerned.
He was going to continue to fail at assuaging Blake's doubts when the radio buzzed, a burst of static quickly being cut out to leave a voice.
"Unidentified Aircraft, this is Frostwreath Air Control, state your callsign and purpose of travel."
Naruto quickly grabbed the transponder, responding quickly. "Frostwreath Air Control, this is Alpha Romeo Charlie Seven Seven, ferrying Hunter Team-"
He stalled for a moment, realizing that only he and Blake were members of AWBN. "Shit. Uh…"
He turned to Blake. "I have absolutely no idea what our team name would be."
He grabbed the transponder again, retransmitting. "Ferrying Hunter Team AWBN to Frostwreath for a contract."
Static retook its hold on the audio, and there was a pause to the transmission, before whoever at Frostwreath Air Control had been talking replied once more. "Permission to land granted, ARC77, follow your heading until you see the yellow lit pad. That one's yours."
"Much appreciated, FAC. ARC77 out."
He released his grip on the transponder, slumping back in his seat. "I still need to get better at that."
Blake didn't respond, lost in thought. After a minute, she did speak up. "You're right. We really don't have a team name. And I really don't want to go around as Team PAAB."
Naruto laughed. "Sometimes I really do feel sorry for whoever has to come up with those names. Do you think it was Ozpin, or Goodwitch?"
Naruto saw the yellow lights cutting through the snow, and began setting the aircraft down.
Blake stood and stretched as the Bullhead touched down with a thud, finally answering Naruto. "Definitely Ozpin. Otherwise there wouldn't have been two Team Auburns."
He chuckled at that. "At least we know we're the better Auburn."
He stepped through into the rest of the Bullhead, shaking Ilia awake. "We're here. C'mon, Team PAAB, let's go check out Frostwreath, and maybe find a place to stay."
Penny seemed confused. "Team PAAB?"
Ilia, for her part, just seemed offended. "If you ever refer to me as a member of Team PAAB, you will be waking up without some significant body parts."
Naruto grinned. "It's either that or you and Penny get your names changed to Penny Nolendina and Ilia Wamitola. Then you really can be a part of Team AWBN."
He slid the door open to the freezing air, which to him felt rather brisk. "Up and at 'em, Wamitola."
Oh, he was definitely going to pay for that later.