Ok, let's see here, last we left off Link and Noctus were busy fighting the headhunters who had finally shown themselves, being Kyrin and Leoan Rex from Oni's personal army. And it looked like they were having a pretty rough time, too... I wonder how they're gonna get out of it?
Oh, and uh, tread carefully around this chapter. Heavier stuff than usual here. You've been warned.
Chapter 43
Armor
This was no good.
Slate was suddenly woken not long ago when he heard a glass shatter, followed by Knight rushing in and telling him to lock everything up and hide before running downstairs. As he did that, he saw the two fighting off one of these headhunters, a man dressed mainly in blue. He thought he'd heard the name 'Kyrin' get thrown around, so he figured that was at least the names of one of them.
"Damn, Knight and Midnight seem tough, and even they're having a hard time with these two..." Slate muttered, glancing through a set of blinds on the second floor. He took note of the fact that his bodyguards had split up, suggesting that the other headhunter that was supposedly after him was nearby and being confronted by Midnight. "I'd better stay back, won't do them any good if I run out there and get killed after all they've been through to protect me..."
Slinking back down, Slate sighed. He wasn't used to just sitting there helplessly while other fought for him. That wasn't what he trained for, he trained to help people. But sadly, he feared he may be out of his league on this one, as these guys seemed to specialize in anti-personnel combat.
"I just hope those two can do this..." he sighed, leaning back against the wall.
Outside, Link was still having trouble with whatever Kyrin was doing to him, still mimicking his movements as he made them.
"Now then, Valion, I've been tasked with killing you by your uncle," Kyrin said, cracking his neck as Link did the same.
"I noticed," Link groaned, copying Kyrin as he spun a knife on one of his fingers.
"You see, Oni realized he had made a mistake when he let you live at Beacon, as he knew you'd become an issue in the future," he continued, tossing the knife into the air and catching it a few times as he did. "To that end, he decided he needed to get rid of you so that you wouldn't interfere with his plans moving forward."
"I'm not stupid, Kyrin, I know why you're here," Link growled, staring at Kyrin. "I don't need a rundown of why my uncle wants me dead, he made it pretty clear during the Fall."
"Just wanted to make things clear here, I didn't want you to think this was personal. After all, I rather looked up to you, you know," Kyrin said, Link looking at him weird. "Your strength was impressive, yes, but I envied your ability to more or less live your life as you wished. But you taught me an important lesson as well."
Catching the knife once more, he threw it at Link, holding his right arm up as Link held his, the knife getting buried in his arm and causing him to wince in pain.
"You taught me that living in any way he doesn't see fit is nothing short of killing yourself," he said, pulling another knife and preparing it. "And that lesson with stick with me to the day I die."
"You'd better tread carefully then, Kyrin..." Link said, looking at the knife in his arm and then back to his opponent. "If you misstep, that day will come sooner than you think."
"We'll see..." Kyrin muttered, throwing yet another knife at Link.
OOO
Noctus was in an equally difficult position, having been unable to track down his assailant while being peppered with gunfire despite usually being able to react to it in time. Due to this, his aura was beginning to suffer. After all, despite him having rather monstrous levels by today's standards, even he couldn't get shot repeatedly before it started to drain him.
Getting shot once more despite actively blocking it, Noctus groaned, looking around once more in the hopes of finding Leoan. He didn't, as per usual.
"I don't know if what you're doing has something to do with a Semblance or dust or something else I don't know about," Noctus said, looking around the area, "but I don't like it. Knock it off before I knock you off."
"You'd have to catch me in order to do that, and so far you haven't exactly given me the impression you can do that," Leoan jeered, Noctus swinging his sword in the direction the voice had come from and knocking down a few trees. He still saw no evidence he'd hit his target though, making him a bit more annoyed.
"Correction; I don't just not like it, I hate it. And you by extension," Noctus groaned.
"Hey, you don't have to like it, you just have to deal with it," Leoan chuckled, shooting Noctus once more. "You don't even have to deal with this for long, we'll be done here soon."
"Whoa whoa whoa, now just hold on a second," Noctus said, holding up his hand. "You think this is enough to take me out? You can't really be serious. Sure, the bullets hurt and all, but I can do this for a while."
"You and I both know you're bluffing," Leoan said, looking at Noctus from his spot in the tree, the Huntsman still being unable to find him.
"You and I both know I'm not," Noctus shot back, glancing around with his eyes alone. "I've been doing this for most of my life, a punk with a gun and a weird Semblance or whatever isn't exactly new to me."
"But this punk with a gun is," Leoan said, raising his gun and aiming at Noctus.
"So you admit you're a punk, that's a start," Noctus said, tightening his grip on his sword. "But when will you admit you've made a mistake?"
"Huh?" Leoan said, being taken off guard as Noctus suddenly shot towards him with Rush active, Striker taking its place as he swung at the Strife soldier, finally making solid contact and smashing him back through a few trees.
"Oh come on, you can't be that dumb, can you?" Noctus said, starting to walk towards Leoan as he struggled back to his feet. Clearly, he was a bit dazed from the hit he'd taken. "Wait, you actively made the mistake, of course you're that dumb."
"The hell do you mean?" Leoan stuttered, Noctus getting close and kicking him in the stomach, nearly lifting him back up to his feet.
"You're talkative. Way too talkative for a guy who seems like he's trying to be stealthy, at least," Noctus said, lifting Leoan by his collar and headbutting him. "It doesn't take an expert Huntsman to figure out where you are after listening to you ramble for so long."
"Point taken," Leoan said, aiming the merged form of his weapons at Noctus only to find that he wasn't there anymore.
"You hit me in the face with that once, I'm not gonna let you do it again," Noctus said, rushing up behind Leoan and swinging hard, knocking him back into another tree. When he looked up again, he still couldn't find Noctus.
"You're gonna call me afraid of fighting head on then hide from me the moment you've got the lead?" Leoan shouted, splitting his guns back apart and holding them up to both sides.
"Every time that thing happened- whatever it was, still don't know- you were looking at me. So I figured, 'hey why not try and blindside him a few times, see where that gets me?' And what do you know, you haven't done the thing! So that must mean it needs a direct line of sight to work right," Noctus said, making sure to keep moving around Leoan so he wouldn't figure out where he was based on sound; if he got caught that way, he'd feel stupid.
"You may have figured out how my Recall works, but do you know what it does?" Leoan asked, quickly turning around in the hopes of finding Noctus behind him. He didn't though.
"No, but who cares? I don't need to plan around it if you can't use it," Noctus said, laughing a little to himself.
"Who said I can't?" Leoan said as he smiled, Noctus suddenly finding himself unable to locate Leoan anymore and being shot more, turning and seeing nothing but the trees lit only by the moonlight.
"Oh fuck this," Noctus groaned, gripping his sword and holding it up defensively.
"Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming..." Leoan chuckled, aiming his guns at Noctus once more.
OOO
"I'm impressed, Valion, you'd think loosing this much blood would have made you pass out by now..." Kyrin muttered, clearly surprised that Link was still standing despite the substantial amount of blood he'd lost from getting stabbed multiple times in his bad arm with knives.
"You should know how stubborn I can be," Link growled, clenching his teeth and he copied Kyrin as he reached to his right arm to rip the knife free. "Besides, I stayed conscious after what Oni did to me at Beacon. You've got a long way to go before you can start comparing to him."
"You know, now that you mention him, something comes to mind," Kyrin said as he looked Link over. "Didn't Oni use your own weapons to subdue you? Maybe that's why this isn't going anywhere, a few knives aren't anything compared to your load out..."
His eye widening, Link could do nothing but watch as Kyrin held up his left arm, doing a few movements before flexing, likely trying to figure out how to activate Link's gauntlet. He did, the claws coming out as he smiled. Bracing himself, Link had to force himself to endure the pain of Kyrin forcing him to stab all five fingers into his bicep, made all the worse since fire dust was still the active type.
"There, now that seems to be doing something!" Kyrin shouted, taking note of Link breathing heavily and shaking a little, his body starting to react to the damage he'd received. "My, you've put some work into those gauntlets of yours."
"Shut up," Link said through gritted teeth, trying his best to try and rip his hand free of his arm, though Kyrin refused to let him, instead dragging down a bit and opening the wound more.
"Now now, that's no way to talk to someone who's gone out of their way to compliment your weapon design," he said, shaking his head as he did. "Honestly, I'm jealous. That's doing far more damage than my knives could have."
Link simply glared at him, gritting his teeth as he tried to block out the pain. If he could just wait out Kyrin's aura and by extension his ability to continue using his Semblance, maybe he could turn the tide. But it would still take a while...
Inside the house, Slate had taken another look outside, regrettably finding that Link was still in the same boat he was earlier.
"Oh, jeez..." Slate muttered, worried. If these two could take out his bodyguards, there's no telling what they'd do to him... And then it hit him. If he's going to wind up dead by just sitting here and doing nothing, then doing something may be his only chance.
Scrambling back over to his room, he opened his closet to reveal a worn case that he quickly opened. Said case contained a large bolt-action rifle that Slate readied and loaded, looking down the sights to make sure they didn't need to be reset at all. Figuring they were fine as is, he chambered a round and returned to the window. He took a deep breath, sliding the window up and barely poking the muzzle out as he aimed at Kyrin's head. He knew that he probably wouldn't take him out, but if he could give Knight just a moment to get back into the fight, then he'd do it.
"I hope this helps..." Slate whispered, taking the shot and hitting Kyrin straight in the head.
This ended up doing just as he expected; he may not have done any physical damage, but he had definitely weakened his aura and broken his concentration. And this let Link run loose once more.
Ripping his hand free of his arm, Link immediately drew his sword and ran forward to catch Kyrin as he stumbled, knocking him back and causing him to drop the knife he was holding. Link scooped it up as he continued his chase, adrenaline kicking in and letting him throw said knife with his right hand without much issue. This just so happened to be an electric knife that stunned Kyrin for an additional moment to let him get close and ram him with his shoulder, smashing him through the wall of a vacant house and laying him out on the floor amidst the rubble.
"I don't like accepting help, but I guess I'll take it if it's offered," Link said, flicking the blood off his gauntlet. Kyrin attempted to throw another knife at Link from his position on the ground, but he easily dodged it and started approaching his foe as he tried to move away. "You know, Kyrin, all of this has left me in a rather sour mood, so forgive me if I'd rather take care of this sooner rather than later."
"I'm a bit miffed too, things were going so smoothly until this town's defender decided to mess things up..." Kyrin muttered, trying to rise to his feet. "I suppose I should do something about him before I keep going..."
Link was going to continue pressing Kyrin, but he was taken by surprise when he pulled a wire that was connected to the knife he'd thrown. This knife came back and hit him as he tried to dodge, breaking and trapping him in a block of ice with only his sword arm poking free.
"There, now you can wait here for a moment while I go take care of this town's Huntsman. After all, he's technically another target for Leoan and I to take care of while we're here," Kyrin said as he rose and dusted himself off, passing by Link and patting the ice he was now trapped in. "I'm sure you have no objections, correct?"
Naturally, Link couldn't respond from within his frozen prison, a fact Kyrin was fully aware of.
"Good. I'll return once the Huntsman is dead," he said, turning to head towards the house.
Slate checked outside once he heard the noise die down, sadly seeing Kyrin standing there looking at him from his spot on the ground.
"Son of a-" he said, though he was cut off by the sensation of his body moving against his will. Looking down, he saw that Kyrin was miming the motion of chambering a round on a bolt action rifle, noticing that he was doing the same thing. Trying his best to break free, he was unable to do so as Kyrin forced the barrel of the gun into his mouth, smirking at Slate as he pulled the trigger and hearing both the gun clatter to the ground and Slate fall to the ground.
"There, no more interruptions," Kyrin said, smiling to himself.
Turning back around, he saw that the ice that Link was in was starting to crack, the swordsman's thrashing taking its toll on his confinement.
"Oh, shame, you couldn't get out in time to save him. Just like those girls at Beacon."
This made Link furious.
Focusing on his arm, he managed to break free enough to activate the fire dust in his gauntlet, thus allowing him to basically vaporize the ice around him as he charged Kyrin, grabbing him by the face and slamming him into the ground as hard as he could. Kyrin kicked him away, not only because Link was easily capable of overpowering him, but also because that little stunt had lit Link on fire, though he quickly put himself out, sparing his clothes from any real damage.
He would have tried to do so again, but Kyrin quickly got back up and took command of Link once more, forcing him to stop dead in his tracks as he attempted to force Link to stab himself in the arm with his gauntlet once more.
But this time, the claws stopped upon hitting his skin.
"What the...?" he mumbled, taking a closer look at his arm. He knew he still couldn't generate aura there, as otherwise his wounds would be closing. But as he looked, the claws on his gauntlets just... stopped when they hit his skin, no matter how hard Kyrin forced him to do so.
"Why isn't this working?" Kyrin said, trying once more to drive Link's fingers into his arm, though once again they just stopped before going through. "What are you doing? I know your Semblance isn't defensive!"
"It's not..." Link muttered, something finally popping into his head. Honestly, he was angry he hadn't thought of it before; would using his own Semblance cancel the effects of Kyrin's?
Giving it a shot, Link was relieved to see that he could now move freely, Kyrin stopped alongside the rest of time. It made sense, honestly, as Kyrin's Semblance was an active effect, not a passive one. Deciding to think about it later he ran over to Kyrin and drew his sword, taking a deep breath and winding up before swinging as hard as he possibly could, being satisfied to see that he had drawn blood.
No more aura, no more Semblance. A good place to start.
Deactivating his Semblance, he watched as Kyrin was slammed to the ground, a large wound on his chest. He was still alive and in otherwise decent shape aside from that, however.
"You've made a lot of mistakes today, Kyrin," Link said, sheathing his sword. "First of all, you attacked me, my partner, and Slate. Second, you made my arm worse than it already was. Third, you killed Slate. But worst of all, you had the audacity to mock the deaths of my friends."
"My only mistake was taking my time with you, Valion," Kyrin said, wiping the blood from his chest as he looked back up at Link. "I should have just killed you and been done with it."
"You should have just moved on. But that can't be helped now," Link said as he approached Kyrin. "I'm almost done here."
Kyrin had no choice but to watch as the swordsman approached him, knowing full well there was nothing more he could do.
He'd lost.
OOO
"I really, REALLY do not like your Semblance," Noctus groaned, slumping forward a little bit in annoyance. "Man, some people just have the weirdest Semblances..."
"You're one to talk, I've heard about your weird Semblance," came Leoan's voice followed by another gunshot, which once again of course Noctus was unable to block. "You've got like five Semblances in one, you don't get to complain."
"You know, I'd agree with you, but there's one tiny thing you've got wrong," Noctus said, Leoan glancing at him weirdly through his sights.
"And what's that?" Leoan said, Noctus being wreathed with a new color with a new symbol filling the hollow of his sword.
"I have more than five," he said, swinging his sword into the air with an accompanying clap of thunder that startled and momentarily deafened Leoan. "This is the Ivory Oath, Burst."
Having been more or less flash banged, Leoan took a moment to regain his senses and finding that Noctus was once more nowhere to be seen.
"We gonna try this again? How well did it work last time?" Leoan said, making sure to keep moving through the trees.
"You saw my first attack last time, so I'm not going to make that mistake again," Noctus said, staying true to his word and remaining unseen as thunder continued to rumble and lightning continued to strike around Leoan, keeping him blind and deaf as he hunted him down. Leoan did his best to feel his way through the surrounding forest, trying to remain as quiet as possible. But as he moved, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. The ground continued to rumble though, so he figured he was still in the clear. But something was different about it, the rumbling seemed to have... intervals, one moment it was basically raining lightning, but the next it would stop. And then it would pick back up, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.
"Shit, shit, shit..." Leoan mumbled, completely unable to hear himself over the sounds of crashing lightning. But then out of nowhere, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.
Finally regaining his sight and hearing, Leoan looked around to see that many of the trees in the immediate area had been felled, explaining what happened in those lapses in lightning; Noctus had taken those chances to swap Arts and cut down more trees before keeping back up with Burst. Clever. But that didn't answer his most pressing question. Where had Noctus gone? He wasn't amidst any of these fallen trees, and being back in the standing forest would probably have given Leoan too much time to get back to safety. So where was he...?
"Gotcha," Noctus said, Leoan quickly looking around in the hopes of finding his foe. He sounded really far away, but he'd already ruled out the distant woods. So that would only leave...
Looking up, Leoan saw Noctus high in the air, his sword split into its mirrored blades. Leoan was going to attempt to use his Semblance now that he could see Noctus, but once more he was blinded by a streak of lightning behind him before he came hurtling down, blades spinning wildly. As per usual, Noctus shifted into Reaver before he hit Leoan, the double blow making absolutely sure that Leoan's aura was no more. This led to him being thrown back into another tree, his guns being blown from his hands.
"There," Noctus said, linking his swords back together and throwing it over his shoulder. "I'll give you credit, you were right; we finished up here pretty quickly. And admittedly, that was a lot more annoying than I thought it would be."
"Yeah yeah, whatever," Leoan said, rolling his eyes. "Now what? You gonna take me to jail or something?"
"I think you misunderstand who exactly I am," Noctus said, glaring at Leoan. "I'm an assassin, or at least I was until about a year ago. And I'm a man of principle. I don't really like people trying to kill me, let alone someone who's actively killed several innocent Huntsmen."
"H-hold on a second, we can talk this out!" Leoan shouted, holding his hands up in fear.
"How many of those Huntsmen did you spare? How many did you watch as they begged for their lives before you killed them? Did you talk it out with them?" Noctus asked, knowing full well what the answer was.
"I- Uh..." Leoan said, Noctus simply glaring at him as he reactivated Reaver and heaved his sword off of his shoulder.
"I hope they remember you," Noctus said before swinging down, Leoan screaming in horror as he did.
OOO
Link and Kyrin wound up stopping in their tracks when the forest nearby began erupting with lightning and thunder before calming down for a moment. The silence was immediately broken by a scream, the few birds that had stuck out the lightning finally fluttering away.
"Looks like Noctus is done too," Link said, glaring back down at Kyrin.
"He's do-" Kyrin said, realization hitting him. "Leoan!"
"Just think, this could have all been avoided if you'd just moved on," Link said, shrugging to himself. "But no. You had to be a good little lapdog and do exactly as Oni said."
"You of all people should know there's no refusing Oni Strife," Kyrin said. "Especially once he's done with Mistral, anyone who could even hope to stop him now will be absolutely nothing to him!"
"Mistral, huh?" Link said, Kyrin realizing he'd said too much. "So that's where he went... Good to know."
"Big man went to Mistral?" Noctus said, approaching the two as he left the forest, wiping blood off of himself. "I guess once we finish up in Vale we're gonna head there."
"Wait, if he's already investing so heavily into another Kingdom, then that must mean he's found something he wants," Link said, brow furrowed in thought. "We have less time than we thought. We'll need to hurry."
"That's up to the boss, not us," Noctus said, shrugging.
"We'll have to convince him to our terms a little prematurely then," Link said, looking back to the house for a moment. "Slate... I'm sorry."
"What happened?" Noctus asked, Link looking back to Kyrin.
"Kyrin killed him," he said, all but spitting on him. "We couldn't save him."
As he said this, people started to come out of their houses, woken by the sounds of lightning and fighting. Many came up to Link and Noctus as they stood over Kyrin, seeing the fighters bloodied as they loomed over the failed headhunter.
"Who's that?" someone asked, Link sighing and closing his eye.
"He's the one who came for Slate. And, well..." he trailed off, looking to the side. Though he didn't say anything, those who had gathered knew all too well what he meant. "At the very least, he won't be a problem anymore."
"Yeah, we can probably take him to a local jail later on or something," Noctus said, shrugging his shoulders. "I'll carry him."
"We can finish that up later, at the very least I want to make sure Slate gets a proper burial, plus I have to grab my cloak before we leave," Link said, turning to head into Slate's house.
"What about this one?" one of the townsfolk asked, Noctus turning and putting his hand to his chin in thought.
"Gimme some rope or some chain," he said, walking over and kicking Kyrin in the face hard enough to knock him out. "We can make sure this little shithead doesn't get up to any more trouble."
As for Link, he made his way through Slate's house and found the room he and Noctus had been staying in, grabbing his cloak and any other gear he and Noctus had left. Then came the part he knew he was going to upset him the most; Slate. Going to the room he figured Slate was in when he'd shot Kyrin, he was met with the sight of Slate laying on the ground with his rifle laying next to him. He couldn't help but stay there for a moment and look, Kyrin's words ringing through his head. He'd failed to protect those around him once again, just like at Beacon.
"I'm sorry, Slate," he said, leaning next to his body. "I know this may have just seemed like us doing a job, but I hope you believe me when I say we really wanted to keep you safe. You were a good man, and you deserved better than... better than this."
Sighing, he grabbed Slate's body and prepared to move him outside, but something stopped him. Groaning.
"Ahhh, easy now, I've got a headache like you wouldn't believe..." Slate groaned, wincing as he did. "A gunshot in the mouth will rattle you like you wouldn't believe."
"You're alive?" Link said, admittedly a bit startled that he was still... well, alive. "But he made you put a bullet in your mouth, how'd you survive?"
"I may be old, but I was still a Huntsman in my younger days, and since my Semblance wasn't the best for combat I had to be able to take a hit," he chuckled, wincing once more. "I'm serious though, my head is killing me. Aura or no, that'd hurt anyone."
"Heh, I'm sure," Link said, gently getting him up and leading him downstairs.
"Hey, when'd you get those new earrings?" Slate asked, Link looking at him rather oddly.
"I've always had these, what are you talking about?" he asked.
"No, you had blue ones, these are black," Slate said, looking at Link's ear. "Plus they have little dangly parts with little blue gems in them, I know these are different."
"I really don't know what you're talking about, but so long as you're fine," Link chuckled, leading Slate outside. Noctus, having been under the impression that Slate had died, turned to them rather surprised.
"Wait, I thought you said he...?" Noctus mumbled, Link shrugging as he passed Slate off to a grateful townsperson who then took him over to their local doctor.
"Aura," Link said, Noctus nodding to himself.
"Oh yeah, a retired Huntsman is still a Huntsman," he mumbled to himself. "Well hey, looks like we're leaving here on an absolute win then. Glad to see you're fine, Slate."
"Yep, I'm glad to be fine too," Slate said as he was led away, chuckling a bit to himself. Noctus then looked over to Link, apparently taking note of the same thing that Slate had.
"What's up with the new earrings?" Noctus said, gesturing to Link's ears. "When'd you even have time to get those?"
"Ok, seriously, why do you guys think these are new? I've always had... these?" he said, reaching up and taking one off. Looking at it, he took note that, well, Slate's description was spot on. They were shiny and black, with smaller sections suspended from the clasp with translucent blue gems in them. "What the hell? Since when did I have these?"
Reaching up and removing the other one, he found that the moment he did his arm started hurting again, blood beginning to flow once more.
"Uhhh, what's wrong with your arm?" Noctus asked, seeing this and taking note. "Did he really get you that good?"
"Yeah, Kyrin made me stab myself with my gauntlet, and it hurt," Link said, shrugging it off and putting his earrings back in. But the moment he did, he found that the pain in his arm subsided and the bleeding trickled to a halt. "What the hell?"
"What's up with those earrings?" Noctus asked, seeing the same thing. "Did your arm just get... better or something?"
"I'd consider that... accurate..." Link said moving his arm around. "Now that I think about it, at some point my gauntlet just stopped getting through."
"Can you finally generate aura there again?" Noctus asked, a bit excited. That'd make their missions easier AND make sparring with Link more exciting!
"No," Link mumbled, Noctus sulking back down and mumbling 'oh' back. "If that were the case, I wouldn't be bleeding like this."
"Forgive me if I sound stupid, but I think it might be those earrings," Noctus said, shrugging as he grabbed the unconscious and bound Kyrin. "However they work at least."
"...I think I know what's going on," Link said, realization hitting him. The Strife family was known for their incredible power, that power being the result of a second Semblance.
Before he could continue, he saw that Mayor Williams was on her way towards them, a smile on her face.
"I honestly can't thank you enough, you kept our dear Slate safe and captured those headhunters," she said. "I'm sure it'll make other towns happy to hear, and it will give those who they'd hurt proper closer."
"Well, we only captured one of them," Noctus said, gesturing to Kyrin slung over his shoulder. "The other won't be a problem anymore though."
"I trust your judgement. If that's what you thought needed to be done, then it needed to be done," Rosa said, pushing her hair out of her eyes. She hadn't had enough time to brush her hair considering what had been going on outside.
"Anyway, as much as we'd love to stay, we really need to get going," Link said, Noctus nodding to himself.
"We've got other things to take care of," he added.
"I completely understand. You have our thanks, and we'd be more than happy to see you again if that day were to come," Rosa said, smiling to Link and Noctus. "I'm sure Slate would love to see you again as well."
"We'll definitely keep him in our thoughts," Link said, doing a final equipment check and nodding to himself. "I'm all set to go, you?"
"I've got my sword and the dipshit," Noctus said, offering a thumbs up with his free hand.
"Alright. We'll be off," Link said, offering a farewell wave to Rosa and the other townsfolk.
"Yep, see you later," Noctus said, doing the same.
"Safe travels, you two," Rosa said, waving at the two as they left the town.
"So," Noctus said as he and Link got out of earshot of everyone in town, "what's up with those earrings? You said you'd figured it out."
"I think I have, yes," Link said, nodding to himself. "So, you know how Strifes have two Semblances?"
"Of course I do," Noctus said, almost sounding offended. "Sure, I figured a few things out based on my time working with Cinder, but I'd done a fair bit of research on them beforehand. Are you telling me that your second Semblance is... a pair of earrings?"
"No, I'm telling you they're part of it," Link said, removing and earring and holding it up. "When I'm wearing these, I feel something weird. Like another Semblance I know of."
"Wait, wait wait wait, are you saying those earrings gave you someone else's Semblance?" Noctus asked, a bit surprised, Link nodding to him and putting the earring back on.
"Yes, I think so. This feels like part of Sebastian's Iron Will, at least the defensive aspects of it," he explained, holding up his right arm and poking it with his clawed gauntlet. "My skin feels harder, otherwise this would go right through."
"It stopped the bleeding too, that's a good bonus," Noctus said, feeling Kyrin start to stir. "Wait, hold on a second." Without missing a beat, he turned such to smash Kyrin's head into a tree and knock him back out. "Ok continue."
"One of my uncle's Semblances allows him to steal the Semblances of those whose blood he drinks," Link explained. "I guess my second Semblance... grants me the Semblances of others... somehow. I really don't know the criteria."
"That's... huge for us," Noctus said, looking a bit awestruck. "Part of why your uncle is so strong is that he's one guy with like a department store's worth of Semblances. If you can build yourself up with more too, then you might be able to stand against him."
"You may be right, but I've only got part of Iron Will to use for myself," Link said, thinking more to himself about this feeling. "Plus, I feel like these things are draining my aura to keep my arm from hurting or bleeding. It's not a permanent fix, sadly enough."
"Ah damn. Oh well, being able to mitigate it just a little bit is definitely better than nothing," Noctus said, shrugging as he continued walking. "And there's still the possibility of getting more."
Link couldn't help but nod along as he walked, now absentmindedly playing with his new earrings as he did. He'd never wore earrings with free hanging parts, after all. "I'll have to figure out how it works, but I'm sure it won't take me forever to do that."
"I'll be more than happy to give you a hand, though I can't really promise anything," Noctus said as he stepped over a fallen branch. "My Semblance may be weird, but it's still only one Semblance. A second one is... a bit more than I'm used to."
"You and I both..." Link said, consciously halting the aura flow to the earrings, his arm bleeding once more.
"You uhhh, you sure about that?" Noctus said, turning and looking skeptically at Link as he arm started to drip once more. "You should probably keep your blood in your arm, you kinda need that."
"I don't need to be any more drained than I am now when I end up fighting Carmine, and this isn't doing anything about the wounds," Link said, gesturing for Noctus to stop walking. "I just need to redo my dressings. I can get stitched back up before we leave camp on the way to Mistral."
"Yeah, I guess that works," Noctus said, dropping Kyrin and helping Link do just that, replacing the torn and ruined bandages with new ones and new antiseptic.
"Honestly, I'd like to get some sleep before we get back too," Link said, Noctus thinking for a moment before nodding.
"Yeah, me too. It's around when I'd sleep anyway..." he said, finishing the new dressings and helping Link get the sleeve back on.
"Then this'll work out fine," Link said, looking at Kyrin and thinking for a moment. "We should probably gag him and tie him to a tree before we sleep, we don't need him running off or keeping us up..."
"Consider it done," Noctus said, smirking and grabbing the rest of the rope he'd been given and strapping him to the tree, making sure to gag him as well. "Man, he looks pretty good up there."
"Don't get attached, he's coming down when we wake up," Link said, removing his weapons and leaning up against a different tree. "I wouldn't really worry about Grimm tonight, the folks in town are probably very happy right now since they're all safe and sound again."
"Yep, fair point," Noctus said, laying against another tree. "Well, at least we can actually get back on the move soon."
"Finally..." Link mumbled, leaning back and finally drifting off to sleep.
OOO
"My Lord, it seems that the Rex twins have failed," a scout said, kneeling before Oni.
"While it may not be the preferred outcome, it was the expected outcome," Oni said, sighing to himself. "They were certainly skilled by today's standards, but that boy is a budding Strife. They stood no realistic chance."
Rising from his throne, Oni began pacing the room for a moment before stopping.
"How did you come to this conclusion?" he asked, the scout nodding.
"Lux was able to discern Leoan's death and Kyrin's defeat via the use of his Semblance," the scout said, Oni nodding to himself.
"So, Leoan is dead... Though this does harm our overall strength, I already have his and his brother's Semblances," Oni said, thinking for a moment. "What else do we know?"
"It would seem that Kyrin told Valion and Hale about your plans in Mistral," the scout said, Oni looking decidedly angrier.
"Did he now?" he asked, his tone getting darker as he did. "This complicates things. Depending on how quickly he gets here, he may prove to become an issue. So, what to do, what to do..."
Oni began pacing once more, thinking to himself as the scout spoke up.
"Uh, My Lord, if I make a suggestion?" he said, Oni stopping and looking towards him.
"You may," he said, the scout releasing his pent up breath.
"At the moment, it's entirely likely that he doesn't know you're aware of his plans to come to Mistral," the scout said, risking looking up at Oni only to find he was actually listening intently. "He may be moving as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on your supposed lack of information while still taking care so as to not make any mistakes. If he knew that you were aware of his plans to come to Mistral, then he'd either take care to plan out his every action to maximize his chances of winning or rush to beat you to the goal and make mistakes. He either gets here without being ready or he never gets here at all."
Oni thought this over for a moment, playing with the idea in his head. "Yes, I believe that would be our best course of action. Be on your way, and spread the word that this is currently the plan."
The scout honestly just couldn't believe he'd spoken out of turn with Oni and got away with it, even receiving something close to praise, all without dying. Deciding not to push his luck any further, he ran out in order to do as he was told. Oni himself simply stayed where he was and turned to face out through a window.
"But now the question rises, how do I pass this message along...?" he said to himself, suddenly smiling deviously. "Oh, I have the perfect idea..."
OOO
The following morning, Link was woken by Noctus shaking him awake, Link opening his eye and more or less glaring at him.
"I'm rather content here, thank you," he said, now noticing that Noctus seemed rather distressed.
"You're gonna want to take a look at this," he said, pulling Link to his feet and turning him to face Kyrin, something horrendously wrong. Specifically, he remained tied to the tree, though his head hung there lifelessly, blood coming from his eyes.
And on the ground in front of him was a message written in blood that simply read 'I know'.
"Oh no," Link whispered, quickly grabbing his weapons and turning to run back towards the mercenary camp, muttering 'no no no' the entire time.
"What the hell happened?!" Noctus shouted, even more worried now that he saw Link's hysterical reaction. "What was that?!"
"He knows!" Link shouted back, still running as fast as he could. "He knows we're coming!"
"What do you mean he kn-" Noctus muttered, taking a second look at Kyrin with realization finally hitting him.
Oni Strife knew they were coming for him. And he was going to be ready.
So yeah, heavier chapter than usual. Death, attempted murder, not exactly the most happy go luck of things. But you were warned, so don't blame me. ANYWAY-
Regarding Kyrin and Leoan's Semblances, let me go more in detail, as though I think I did a pretty ok job explaining them, I'd like to make sure I fully explain things in case anything got lost in translation.
-Kyrin's Semblance, Impulse, allows him to override the electrical impulses of his targets and replace them with his own, forcing his them to mimic his every action. As you saw though, not only are some people easier to override than others, but Semblances that aren't controlled via electrical impulses can still be used regardless of Kyrin's control. It's also entirely possible that people can brute force their way out of his control, and some people are immune to it via their borderline indomitable wills. He also deliberately wore his weapons in an unusual place to make sure that if he so pleases, he can use his own while the enemy remains unarmed.
-Leoan's Semblance, Recall, gives him the ability to retroactively undo actions. Despite its apparent power, Recall suffers from three huge drawbacks: he needs to see the exact action he is attempting to recall, he needs to wait a few seconds between recalls before he can do it again, and some actions are so demanding a task that they require direct physical contact. Additionally, he can't undo non-physical things, such as seeing something or hearing something. He developed a very indirect fighting style such to make sure that his opponent was always within his line of sight but he was out of theirs, giving him enough breathing room to allow him to use Recall again.
Leoan's was definitely the more complex of the two, but that's besides the point, as it doesn't exactly matter anymore. Because they're, y'know. Dead. Fun stuff.
Speaking of Semblances, Link's finally getting onto his Strife bullshit! Yep, so far his second Semblance by virtue of being a Strife has manifested as a pair of earrings that give him the defensive benefits of Sebastian's Iron Will. No metal control though, just tougher skin. And they require aura in order to work properly, otherwise they're just fancy dangly earrings. Oh, and they have a name, but it isn't fancy. Just gonna call them the Armored Earrings. Nothing special. Oh well.
Oh, and Noctus used another Art. He said himself that he had more than five, so unless you forgot this should come as no surprise. I hope you didn't forget. I'm sire some of you did though. YEAH I'M TALKING TO YOU-
OniHelix out!