澄んだ水に浸る
(Sundamizu ni hitaru)
-]:Start:[-
"Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality,
but of attempting to make reality fit one's motions"
-]:...:[-
"Nia, Report"
The young woman started in place, having lost herself in her observations.
"All Clear," Was her response a moment later "No Grimm yet"
"Clay, Report"
Nia rolled her eyes slightly and tuned out the noise from her radio as responses came pouring in from the other lookouts when asked.
She focused on the scenery once more, clicking a switch on her bow as the scope zoomed closer to the tree line while she scanned it once more, sighing in resignation when she saw nothing.
Crackle!
Nia turned from where she sat, facing the orange glow of flames and the crackling that accompanied it. She could feel the heat, even with the distance that separated her from the fire and the tree canopy that surrounded her, she could feel it.
On her skin it was a comforting warmth that staved off the cold night wind, yet on her soul it was a stain that tainted her heart.
Her emerald eyes winced at a sudden burst of light as a house collapsed in on itself and sent cinders and flames flying into the air, the orange glow reflected in her eyes burning even brighter.
"Southside Lookout, come in"
Her gaze returned to the forest and her hand clicked on her radio, already wondering what the main group was calling her for.
"Southside, answering the call"
"Nia?" Whoever they were sounded displeased for whatever reason, though Nia could probably take a guess as to why "You'll have to do, I guess. Some villagers managed to get away, they should be running your way. Aqualin wants them dead, don't screw up"
The radio went silent and Nia hooked it back on her waist with a shuddering breath. Her bow folded backwards and she tucked it under her cloak, making sure it was secured before leaping out of the tree canopy and onto the forest floor.
Barely a second later she was sprinting her way through the forest in search of the escapees.
-]:...:[-
Flames flickered and crackled, wood hissed and snapped, brick cracked and shattered.
Bodies burned and screamed and thrashed and begged.
And a single man stood tall over all of it.
"Sir?"
The man turned to face one of his subordinates, one that held a radio in his off hand and a rifle in the other.
"Are you sure about sending her after them? She might let them get away"
"She might," The man nodded at his subordinate, acknowledging the validity of the question "However, she knows what would happen if she did, and she isn't one for unneeded risks I don't think"
"But what if she took them to a-"
"Just because you had a valid question does not mean you have the right to question my judgement," The man spoke sharply, a dark tone lining his voice "Am I clear?"
"Y-yes sir" His subordinate nodded, gulping at the man's image.
"Good, now get one of the more competent men to take Nia's position while she's gone, she was posted there for a reason"
The subordinate nodded and walked off while throwing orders at his radio.
The flames crackled loudly once more and the sound of a collapsing house roared through the air once again.
The man stared unflinchingly at the storm of cinders being thrown through the air.
A cinder landed on his cheek and an orange shimmer obliterated it from existence.
And an approving smile overlooked the blazing village.
-]:...:[-
A rogue Beowolf suddenly appeared, small and lightly armored. A youngling then, one that must have been separated from the rest of its pack.
Nia barely gave it notice, sliding under its torso and dragging an arrow through before rolling and sprinting further through the forest.
The Beowolf didn't even notice as it vanished in a puff of black mist.
Nia merely returned the arrow to its quiver and continued searching for her targets.
"Leon!"
And those were her targets.
Kicking off a tree to redirect her momentum, Nia pivoted towards the scream.
A bow was pulled from its resting place and unfolded into its proper form while an arrow was pulled from its quiver and rested in its place.
Emerald eyes swiftly checked over the weapon.
A black, thick customized grip that held a triangular arrow rest, a built in scope and a pair of switches on opposite sides of the scope.
A pair of azure, cylindrical, metal bow limbs that strongly curve forward from the grip before abruptly turning 90 degrees outwards and shifting to a rectangular shape with angular designs and engravings of running wolves to match the snarling wolf heads that disguised the abrupt angles and pointed inwards.
And a trio of black strings connecting the tips with two criss-crossing and the third sitting perfectly straight.
Azure Hush was ready and raring to go.
Nia nodded, midnight- shoulder length hair bouncing slightly, happy with the brief inspection of her weapon.
"Stay away from him!"
Nia snapped back to attention at the sudden shout that sounded far closer than she'd expected. A quick leap followed by a springboard off a sturdy branch and Nia was quickly hidden within the canopy of a tree, a tree that bordered a small clearing where two figures and a pair of Grimm were gathered.
Nia shifted slightly, making sure her cloak covered as much of her body as possible, and watched. Maybe she wouldn't have to do anything after all.
Brothers, she hoped she wouldn't.
The Grimm were simply a pair of Beowolves, larger and more armored than the one she'd killed earlier but not by much.
Yet, one lay dissolving on the forest floor while the other stared down the edge of a blade.
The two figures were a young man and woman. The man lay bleeding on the floor, clutching at his stomach, while the woman held the blade that the Beowolf was staring down.
Except, the blade was shaking and the woman's entire body was faintly trembling as she watched the Grimm. The woman was scared, deathly so, and barely seemed able to hold the blade much less use it well enough to fatally wound a Grimm.
So…
"How did you do it…?" Nia muttered to herself, scanning the area once more to see if she'd missed anyone.
Except, instead of finding someone she found something.
There, behind the dissolving Beowolf, was a deep and long gash in the dirt, almost as if someone had dragged a greatsword through the ground.
But no blade even nearly that size existed in the clearing and from what Nia could tell neither of the Beowolves had done that either, so what had happened…?
"I said stay away!"
The woman shouted once more, sounding so very desperate and scared, and swung the blade in a diagonal down slash.
Nia blinked in surprise when she noticed the gale of wind that had suddenly enveloped the blade and then blinked once more at the slice of wind that burst from it that severed the surprised Beowolf in two.
Except, that was also the moment when she realized that her curiosity had gotten the better of her once again.
And that she'd have to kill them herself.
The young woman dropped the blade she'd been holding and ran to the man's side, Nia took a shuddering breath and raised Azure Hush into position.
The pair embraced each other, Nia clicked a switch and pulled the bowstring back as she took aim.
And just as the pair smiled, elated that they'd managed to escape the bandits that had attacked their home, Nia let the metal arrow fly.
"...I am my arrow, and my arrow is me…"
Crshh- Snk- Snkt!
In the quiet of the forest clearing, the sound of her arrow piercing the duo's throats was louder than anything Nia had ever heard before.
Her hand trembled as she folded Azure Hush into its idle form and placed it back under her cloak. Then, with a gentle wisp of wind following her descent, she dropped out of the tree and slowly approached the corpses.
She came to a stop and just stood there, unable to take her blank gaze off of the peaceful image of the dead duo embracing each other with a smile on their faces.
Then there was her arrow that had ripped through the young woman's Aura and ended both of their lives, just sitting there as more and more blood dripped down the small length of it Nia could see.
An arrow that she had fired, an arrow that she had forged with her own hands, an arrow she knew would eventually be forced to do this!
Drip! Drip!
"...I am my arrow, and my arrow is me…" She recited once more, even as her tears flowed down her face "...and that which my arrow causes, I am the sole creator…"
Another shuddering breath ripple through her body, and she knew what she had to do.
A sprinkle of Burn-Dust was pulled from a pouch on her hip and spread on the fletching of the arrow.
"Ignite," A shimmer of blue bloomed across her hand as it retreated from the arrow "And Burn"
Flames erupted and quickly spread, enveloping both the arrow and the corpses.
Nia took a step back and watched as the flames slowly burned everything down to ash and cinders before snuffing itself out, just like she wanted.
And as she stared down at the pile of ash that she'd created, Nia could only cry.
-]:...:[-
"Nia here, escapees are dead, returning to my post now"
-]:...:[-
"Tonight, we feast!"
Nia flinched at the roar that burst from her radio from some careless idiot having left their own one turned on.
Of all the times that she wanted peace and quiet this fucktard had to ruin it for her.
And now she was pissed off as well as sad.
"Great, just great"
Crash!
"Woah!"
Nia barely managed to stop herself from falling off the branch she was sitting on, the sheer surprise nearly knocking her off the tree.
Azure Hush was pulled out within a second and the scope's zoom was cranked to the max as Nia scanned every inch of the area she was watching over in search of what the hell just happened.
And she found it rather quickly when she saw another tree in the middle of falling over.
"Ho-ly shit…"
A damned Hoard of Beowolves were practically blitzing through the forest towards the burned remnants of the village.
Exactly where most of the tribe was gathered and Nia was directly in between the two.
She practically ripped her radio off her waist and started broadcasting on the main channel.
"This is Southside Lookout. There's a brothers damned hoard of Beowolves blitzing through the forest towards the village, I repeat, a Hoard of Beowolves are blitzing their way towards the village"
For a brief moment it almost seemed as if time had frozen in place and Nia could only stare at her radio, waiting for whatever response she'd get.
"This is Aqualin, listen up and obey, we don't have much time here. East and West scouts, join up with the Northern scouts and secure us a route out of here. Use Channel 12 to coordinate, confirm"
A brief moment passed where five voices all voiced their confirmations at once.
"Southern scouts, link up and do what you can to delay the hoard. Use Channel 11, and Nia, you are approved for Tower-Level Enchants, confirm"
"Confirmed" Nia spoke, two other voices overlapping with her own, before switching the radio to the designated channel and hooking it back on her waist.
A quick click of a switch lowered Azure Hush's scope zoom by a level and Nia quickly checked the hoard's progress. Not even a second later another tree was toppled in the distance and Nia knew where they were.
"Elain, south-west scout, checking in. I know Nia's here, who else was on the south end?" A feminine voice spoke up, sounding slightly winded.
"I was on the south-east side," A masculine voice said, suddenly shouting 'Woah!' before continuing "Name's Hazan, I'm heading to the south end of the village now. Nia are you able to make a flare for us to rendezvous on?"
Nia narrowed her eyes at the question, already working on a way to make it work.
"...Gravity for the force and… Combust- No, Electric and Burn for the signal," She muttered aloud, nodding to herself then activating her radio "I should be able to, but it'll probably alert the Grimm to my location and I won't be able to control how long it lasts"
"Do it," Hazan ordered "We need to link up and we can't do that without some kind of signal"
Well, there was nothing she could say against that.
Hanging Azure Hush on a short branch above her, Nia pulled an arrow out of her quiver and started the enchanting process.
First came the force needed to send it into the sky. A pinch of Gravity Dust was pulled from her pouch and spread across the fletching her Aura blooming across her hand as she did. A direction imbued and a condition set.
A flare of Aura and the enchantment was set, the Dust having embedded itself into the fletching.
Then came the Electricity and Fire. A pinch of each was mixed together in her hand then spread across the arrowhead. A timer was set and once again a condition was set alongside it.
Her Aura flared once more and she was finished.
She fetched Azure Hush from where it sat and set the arrow in place. The second switch on the side of the scope was clicked twice and a small noise of gears shifting echoed from within the bow.
"Nia, hurry up!"
Her eyebrow twitched, would it kill him to have a tiny bit of patience?
Letting a sigh fall from her mouth, Nia aimed her bow high and pulled back on the bowstring with all her strength. The bowstring creaked in protest as Nia pulled at its limit trying to get as much power as she could from the bow.
Then she let go.
Thwa- Pshh!
And a purple wave of light pulsed through the air as the arrow disappeared into the night sky.
Then the sky erupted in flames and electricity.
"I see it!" Elain shouted, sounding amazed.
"Good Job Nia," Hazan spoke quickly,"Elain follow that as quickly as you can and make sure you kill any Grimm you see on the way, Nia do what you can to hold your position until we get there"
Nia barely heard Elain confirm her instructions before everything went to hell on her end.
Grr- Bark!
Nia barely had a chance to react to the bark before a black mass tackled her out of the tree and knocked Azure Hush out of her hands. Though she did react quick enough to pull an arrow from her quiver and impale it into whatever Grimm had tackled her but she doubted that she had managed to kill it with that.
Then she collided with the forest floor. Hard.
"Ooph!" The air was pushed from her lungs and coughs were forced from her mouth.
For a moment, Nia could do nothing but lay on the floor as she regained her breath and recovered from the rough landing. Then she remembered why she was on the ground.
"Shi-" She couldn't finish the word as she was kicked with a clawed foot that sent her flying towards a tree, her Aura preventing any true damage from getting through.
Nia managed to recover in midair quick enough to slam her feet into the ground and prevent herself from colliding with the tree. An arrow was reflexively pulled from the quiver she wore and held like a knife in a reverse grip while emerald eyes snapped to whatever had attacked her.
A Beowolf, large and with plenty of bone-armor, one that had kicked her instead of trying to bite or impale her on its claws. So an old one, then. One with plenty of experience battling against fighters or Huntsmen, or both. One with a disabled arm from an arrow stabbed into its shoulder.
Easy enough with Azure Hush, except it sat behind the Beowolf.
So, just arrows and Dust then. She doubted that it would let her colle-
Bark!
Nia jumped over the sudden slash aimed for her legs and kicked the paw into the ground, quickly following up with an axe kick into the Beowolf's head. Stunned from the powerful kick, The Beowolf could do nothing when Nia leaped over and behind it, a sparkle of glimmering red specks trailing behind her and her hand sparkling blue.
"Combust and blaze!"
One second Nia was dashing for her bow as the Beowolf howled in pain from the fire blazing on its back.
The next second Nia crouched and collected Azure Hush from the floor at the same time the Beowolf had done a one-eighty and sprinted towards her.
Nia's handheld arrow was notched in its place- powerful jaws opened to take a chunk out of her body- she whipped around to face the jaws and pulled back on the bowstring, falling backward and away from the Beowolf.
Then she grinned, a cocky sure-of-herself grin.
And her arrow drilled straight through and past the Beowolf then embedded itself deep into a tree a few feet away as the Beowolf poofed out of existence.
"Well," Nia muttered, climbing to her feet "That was something"
"It certainly was, wasn't it?"
Nia only barely managed to suppress the instinctive shout at the sudden voice instead flinching violently. Then she actually turned in place to look at where the voice came from, raising an eyebrow when a young man- a year or two older than herself with dark eyes and orange-brown hair- holding a customized rifle stepped out from behind the tree her arrow was embedded in.
"Hazan?"
"Yep," He confirmed, hefting his rifle with one hand and resting it on his shoulder "That's me. Elain not here yet?"
Nia barely managed to open her mouth before:
"I'm here!"
A woman a few years older than herself- seemingly in her early twenties with light eyes, bright green hair and small round ears sat on top of her head- came dropping out of the sky. Landing directly in between Nia and Hazan with a katana in her hand and a firearm holstered on her hip.
The two blinked at her, thinking the exact same thing.
"Whatever, we've got more important things to focus on right now" Hazan eventually said, catching both the two girls' attention.
"I say we split up" Nia said quickly, earning a raised eyebrow from Hazan and a curious 'Hmm?' from Elain.
"...wait, that actually might be a good idea," Hazan muttered, cupping his chin with his free hand "All we need to do is buy time for the rest of the tribe to escape, then we can get out of her, and the tribe can handle a few Beowolves so we can afford to let a few through if needed," Hazan nodded, seemingly confirming the plan inside his own head "Nia"
"Yes?"
"You got a good look at the hoard, yeah? How big is it?"
Nia blinked and glanced at Elain then back to Hazan as her mind went back to when she'd seen them through Azure Hush's scope.
"...I didn't get a proper look," She eventually said, her voice quiet "But… around half the size of the village, I think"
"Oh" Elain said, suddenly a lot less cheerful than she had been a few seconds earlier.
"Okay," Hazan sighed "All we can do is try our best to slow it down. Having said that, I think I've got an idea"
-]:...:[-
All Nia could do was keep her breath steady and wait.
Hazan and Nia were already in position and ready to do what they could and Nia had spent a large chunk of her Aura enchanting things. She was nearing her Aura's limit and this situation was so fucked that it was nearing irreparable status.
"Incoming" Was Elain's quiet whisper through the radio.
It was good timing as well. The second Elain had finished speaking Nia caught the sound of stampeding feet trampling everything underfoot at the edge of her hearing. Before long the Hoard was within sight and Nia's nervousness only grew.
She'd fought before, she'd… killed before.
She'd even lost before, far more than she'd won. She couldn't do that here.
She'd never fought on this large a scale before, she'd barely killed anyone, and she couldn't lose here.
She- she- she-
"Remember Nia, you are your arrow and your arrow is you, nothing will change that"
"I-i am my a-arrow," A shuddering breath was pulled into her mouth "and my arrow is… me…" A calm breath woosh!'d away from her mouth.
Her eyes gently closed, and she took a deep breath once again.
When they opened, the emeralds were sharp, focused to a razor edge.
"Everyone ready?" Hazan spoke, a pair of confirmations quickly followed "On your mark, Nia"
Nia stayed silent, merely notching an arrow on Azure Hush. An arrow that had an arrowhead radiating a spiral of dark red and brown light, an arrow that was practically tearing at the seams.
A Tower-Level enchant, just like she'd been authorized. One that was incredibly volatile and had cost the most Aura out of everything she'd enchanted today.
Some machinery clicked within the bow, and the bowstring was carefully pulled into position.
Thwang!
The arrow flew through the air, her aim having been pointed high in the sky. She watched the iridescent glow of her arrow as it flew fast and high before eventually coming to a stop and starting it's descent.
It was like a star with how it shone so brightly, and just like a falling star it burned through the sky as it fell.
"Brace for impact" Was the only warning she gave her fellow scouts.
KA!-BOOM!
The explosion was massive, dwarfing anything else Nia had ever created before in both size and strength.
As she learned when the shockwave collided into her and forced her to dismount the branch she'd been perched in till then.
"Holy shit, Nia!" Elain shouted in what sounded like shock and anger "That fucking deafened me!"
Oh right, Faunus hearing. She had completely forgotten about that.
She'd apologise later, if they survived this.
"Go! Go! Go!"
Hazan's shouting kicked Nia into action. Just in time too, as the Hoard seemed to just ignore what she'd done and continued running, closing in on Nia by the second.
Nia responded with the only thing she could think of and followed their example, charging head first towards them and firing arrow after arrow into any and every Beowolf she possibly could.
An arrow went through a heart and embedded itself inside another that was trailing too closely behind, two.
Another pierced through some bone armor protecting a head, one.
A third arrow, enchanted with gravity Dust, collided with one of the larger Beowolves and sent it flying backward and it bowled into a cluster with enough force to kill every single one, nine.
A fourth and fifth enchanted with ice Dust embedded themselves into the ground before activating. A cluster of ice spikes erupted from each of them and numerous Beowolves were impaled, twenty-four.
Nia continued firing and firing, rushing forward the entire time. She only managed to fire eleventh arrows before they got close enough to attack her.
A swipe aimed for her neck was slid under and punished with an arrow fired through the heart. Another Beowolf tried to bite on her legs but was interrupted by another arrow being fired down its throat.
Side-step, duck, jump, weave, parry, block, endure.
Punch to the skull, arrow stabbed through the heart, arrow fired through the neck, a trail of Combustion Dust was left behind and activated, riposte with an arrow through the skull, arrow to the shoulder then an arrow through the jaw, let her Aura take the blow and make some space with a Gravity Dust enchanted arrow.
There was a small moment where Nia was able to hear a pair of explosion's- pitifully small compared to the earlier bomb she'd set off- ring out. Presumably from the grenades she'd enchanted for Elain and Hazan earlier. Gunfire quickly followed but that was all she could make out before a Beowolf leapt at her and she was forced back into the fray.
Then it happened.
She knew it would happen eventually, and she'd done everything she could to prevent any damage from hitting her Aura but things slipped through and eventually something had to break.
Krshhh!
And that thing just so happened to be her Aura.
For a moment, everything had frozen in time for Nia. She'd just dodged another slash aimed at her legs but the Beowolves had eventually learned and started timing their attacks to chain together.
"South Scouts!" A voice blared from her radio pulling her attention for a moment "We're out! Disengage and get the hell out of there!"
Except that moment of distraction was enough for a Beowolf's claws to shatter her Aura.
And now she could only watch as those same claws shredded her hip with laughable ease. It burned. It burned and burned and burned.
All she could do was scream.
"AGHHHHHHHHHH!"
Everything blurred.
Ratatatatat!
"Grab her!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Run!"
Then everything went dark.
-]:...:[-
"...She's proved herself to the Tribe, that's all I need…"
"...Fine, but at least let her wake up before you start making…"
"...it'll be fine. It will scar but nothing major was damaged beyond…"
"...Academy is where. A little raven finally returned, that's what…"
"...need a new outfit. She doesn't look like one, not to mention what happened to her other clothes…"
"...you want. I care little what she has as long as she does what she's…"
"...a Huntress to fight them. That's what they did, so that's what…"
-]:End:[-
澄んだ水に浸る
A Dip In Clear Waters