Author's Note: Good sized chunk of combat in this chapter. Still not as much as I wanted to write, but still pretty solid. I just need to stop being called in to work on my off days, and we'll be good...hopefully.
Chapter 61
Carol sidled up to the town's wall, carefully rolling his feet as he made his way to the entrance. Nicholas and Sky were behind him, just in case the Grimm made their way around the corner suddenly, their positions accounting for the different weapons they carried. Across from them, Cardin and Russel were approaching their end of open gate. Carol thought 'open gate', but what he really meant was 'gaping hole where the gate used to be'. The object in question was lying in the middle of the road inside the compound. For a moment, he wondered just what could have knocked it over.
Carol peeked his head around the corner briefly, to note how many Grimm there were and where they were. The vast majority were Beowulves, as was normal. From what he remembered from Port's class, while Grimm did work together, packs were usually one type of Grimm or another. The only exception was what he saw before him; Ninety percent of the Grimm were Beowulves, while the rest were Canis. It was funny how dogs tended to stick together, even if they were manifestations of shadow.
There was another curiosity, however. The Grimm were looking around in odd ways. They sniffed the air, pawed at rubble, and held their heads up, ears twitching. It was almost like they were looking for something. If Carol's gut gave him any more ill signs, he was fairly certain he was going to have to chug a bottle of antacid when he got back to Beacon. Other than that, in the rear of the town, the Beowulves were centered around a particular building, with most of the habits he noticed being performed around it. So, either they were performing a ritual, or they were trying to make sure the entire town was ruined. But why that particular building, and why weren't they performing it to other ones?
The questions would have to wait, as Cardin was waving to get his attention. Carol responded with a nod, tearing his attention away from the Grimm. Cardin pantomimed knocking on the wall, then at Carol. Carol pointed towards himself, tilting his head inquisitively, only to have Cardin do an energetic nod, fake knocking again. Carol looked back for confirmation with the senior member of their party, and Nicholas gave a nod. Shrugging, Carol took the back of his hand and rapped on the wall, holding his sword up and at the ready. On the other side, there was an almost curious keening noise from what had to be a Beowulf, and a rhythmic pounding that told him it was one.
The thing started sniffing as it got closer to his section of the wall, and Carol could see a shadow pooling on the ground edging towards him. His heart started beating faster as it closed, and he could barely see the tip of its muzzle when Cardin whistled from the other side of the gate. The thing's head whipped away from Carol's corner, looking directly at Cardin. Carol figured this was a sign, and stepped around to bring Rex down neatly on the thing's neck, lopping off the head without even a skip in the motion. It fell onto the ground, lifeless, but the whistle tipped everyone of the others off. As the pack howled, he spared a glare towards Cardin. "I had him, you know."
"Yeah, but all this sneaking around and taking them out one by one would take forever." Cardin said, bracing his evening star and making ready for the next poor Grimm to come around his corner. "That, and this is more fun."
"You could say that again!" Russel joyously exalted, twirling his daggers in his own ready stance. Carol could only grumble out a few nonsense words, which fell off as a Canis shot around the corner, turning and scrabbling in his direction. He took a quick step towards it, swinging his other foot and punting it towards his friends on the other side. Russel's daggers flashed silver in the afternoon light, bisecting the poor thing before it could reach the ground. "See? You can't say that wasn't awesome."
"Shut up, Russ." Though, he had to say it while fighting a satisfied smile, one that quickly disappeared as something much larger slid around the corner. A Beowulf, one that began to coil up to pounce at him, and would have, had he not cut off one of the foremost support arms, sending it springing forward at an odd angle, where it got minced by Nicholas and Sky within seconds.
"We can't just sit here and keep chopping them as they come." Nicholas chided, not even bothered by the fell blood staining his shirt. "We're not defending the town, we're reclaiming it."
"You heard the man." Cardin puffed, spinning his evening star's head. "Let's clear this place of Grimm." Carol just shook his head. What was wrong with letting the Grimm come to them? Then again, they were pretty easily dispatched, so, what did they have to fear? He didn't want to say they walked into the compound, but it was the only thing that fit. It felt odd to not go running headlong, honestly, but the times they'd slain Grimm before they happened to blunder into them, so there wasn't much besides the heart pounding bliss of combat. Regardless, he turned the corner to find a Beowulf charging towards him. Not wanting to stop the charge head-on, Carol pivoted to the side and let it run into the more experienced people behind him.
From the shadow of the Beowulf, or at least where it had obscured, a Canis leapt towards him. In the middle of dodging, Carol had nothing he could do to avoid the attack without falling over his own feet. So, he just let muscle memory take over, and quite literally knocked the thing's block off with a quick undercut. The headless corpse flopped lifelessly onto the ground, Carol stepping past it, directly into another Beowulf. Remind me again why we just didn't let them come to us at the gate? A mighty claw was lifted into the air, heaving down towards him but it missed, as he'd have been a massive idiot to stand still and let it hit him. Another one followed, and he rolled under while moving forward into the thing's guard...or, at least, what would be it's guard if it knew hand to hand techniques. Regardless, he punctuated the roll with a hook, stunning the creature but leaving it otherwise unharmed. The gladius, however, was much more effective, lopping off one of the legs of the Beowulf, and a shoulder charge knocked it to the ground.
No fancy technique was needed now, a crushing boot would suffice. A disgusted sneer crawled onto his face as the Grimm's head was pulped, sending crimson everywhere. The only reassurance he had was that it would fade very soon. The relief was broken not long after, as a sound almost like tires squealing mixed with a truck horn erupted from one of the knocked over buildings, detritus from the ruin shooting up into the air and falling down like rain. Looking almost like a dark mass rising from the ground itself, an utterly massive Boarbatusk emerged. It bellowed loudly at the sight of its slain brethren, hateful eyes gleaming crimson as it pawed the ground.
"Well," Carol started, "-looks like we found what knocked over the gate." His voice sounded strangely calm to himself, and apparently his team thought that too.
"You sound unimpressed." Sky said, pulling his halberd from a Beowulf's corpse and spinning it to dislodge the Canis impaled on the haft.
"I'm seconds from pissing myself in fear."
"Glad to know I won't be the only one with an embarrassing encounter with the Grimm." Cardin remarked, if only to keep a handle on his own nerves. "Split up! We don't want to give him a nice set of bowling Huntsman to knock over!" Carol didn't need to be told twice, running away from the center of the village's road to a building to the side. Halfway to it, a sound like squealing thunder erupted from the Boarbatusk, and Carol chanced a look to see it charging towards him. Yelping, he redoubled his pace and made it just past the building when a tusk shredded one of the outer corners of it. The force of it knocked him head over heels, and when he rolled over, he saw the thing pawing at the ground as it prepared another charge.
Gods-damnit, why me?! Carol looked left and right for answers, or at least a way out, and found one in the form of a closed door belonging to the building that just had one of its wings 'redecorated'. Scrambling to his feet, he planted a shoulder to the door and knocked it off it's hinges as the Boarbatusk steamed past, a dull thudding noise and the cracking of timber signifying it just added another hole to the outer wall. He didn't stop, however, diving out of a window on the far side and landing ungainly onto the ground. A Canis was waiting for him, leaping and snarling as it went for his throat. Carol countered by grabbing it by it's throat, slamming it into the ground and punching it until it stopped struggling. In the few seconds that that took, the Boarbatusk appeared again at the end of the alley, this time with a tree impaled on one of the tusks.
"Come the fuck on! There's other people you can chase after!" The end of the alley was too far away for him to retreat, and there was no door for him to break down. So, there was either to face it headon and stop it mid-charge (not likely to work), or somehow dodge it. With it's size, he couldn't go left or right because it could just thrash his head, and boom, Magnusson parfait. So that left up or down. And because he wasn't a skinny little waif like Russel, that wasn't likely to work. So, underneath it was. Which just so happened to be the Boarbatusk's weak spot, so well demonstrated by Weiss...eventually. "Alright, then, you want me?! You got me!"
The Grimm bellowed it's hatred, pounding it's cloven hooves on the ground as it charged towards him. Carol's heart lept wholly into his throat as he forced himself to run headlong towards the thing. The timing would be very tight, as too early and he'd be paint for the ground, too late and he'd be a fine hood ornament. He matched the roar of the Grimm with his own wild scream, heart pounding louldy in his ears and almost overpowering the deafening call of the Boarbatusk. The thing grew closer, looming over him ominously, and he counted the seconds until he needed to slide. Closer, closer... The Boarbatusk was not even a meter away when he sprung into action. Now!
Carol dropped onto his rear, blading his legs to carry his momentum, sliding underneath as the thundering mass sped over the top of him. The soft, or at least, unarmored belly of the beast sped above him, and he jabbed Rex into the Grimm above. A sound not unlike steel twisting squealed from the Boarbatusk, and fresh crimson spilled forth from the wound, covering Carol in his entirety. Despite the grievous wound, the Boarbatusk wasn't dead. Just incredibly pissed off. It made to charge again, but was knocked onto it's side by the head of a evening star, knocking it over with such force that it rolled over again, hooves scrabbling as it went to stand again.
"Took you long enough!" Carol called out while running to rejoin his team. Cardin spared a glance towards him, and a upturn of the brow indicated concern, but he couldn't elaborate. "Next time, don't leave me with the probably several ton Grimm."
"Stop being such a good piece of bait, then." Cardin said, eyes still focused on the Boarbatusk. "You got a good cut on it. That thing is way too massive for us to take out, but with how much it's bleeding, it probably won't have long."
"Grimm can bleed out?" Carol asked. Being that they were alive but not alive creatures, he wasn't sure they worked like that.
"I sure hope so. The rest of the team are busy taking care of all the rest of the Grimm, and Nicholas said you'd need some help." Another glance was spared, this time with a warm smile. "I figured you wouldn't mind." Being trapped with a massive Grimm bearing down on him alone was almost unbearable, and it would be only a matter of time until he got gored or trampled. But with two, however...
"Yeah. Thanks." Carol genuinely felt relieved at his partner's presence. "So, what's the plan? Run it around until it bleeds out?"
"Yeah. Unless you wanna try Hammer and Anviling it?" Carol side-eyed his friend and leader. "Figured as much."
"Ask me to do something not physically impossible, and I'll give you a better response." Carol said, spinning Rex about his wrist as the Grimm finally recovered enough to face them. And it was angry. It began to charge again, Carol and Cardin splitting in opposite directions from where they were standing. This time, however, it went to charge at Cardin. Carol stopped his run, spinning to actually chase the massive Grimm. The weight of the evening star, combined with Cardin's excessive strength, slammed into the Boarbatusk's face, knocking it off course as Carol carved another deep wound into the flank of the creature.
Unfortunately, Carol hadn't been raised around horses, so he didn't know what happened when you went behind something with hooves. In the midst of it's flailing, Carol didn't notice a hoof raise. He did, however, notice it when it slammed into his midsection, sucking the air from his lungs and flinging him across the town square. Carol forced himself to stand as his rib cage creaked in an awful way, forcing himself to ignore the burning pain. After all, pain was preferable to crushing death. Every step hurt, but he wasn't going to leave Cardin alone with the massive beast.
It was still fixated on Cardin, but like he had said before, it was beginning to slow down. It's roars were more laborious, it's footing not as steady. Despite the pain in his lungs and ribs, Carol spent what energy he could muster to chase after the thing again, getting in another cut on the flank of the Boarbatusk. This time, Carol expected the hoof, ducking it and cutting into where the 'sensitive' bits would be, if Grimm had them. He tossed himself to the side to dodge the other one, and it turned to face him while he was on the ground, only to find itself spun again as Cardin's evening star slammed into it's hind quarters, and Carol found himself with a nice view of the underside of the Boarbatusk not too far away from him. Despite precious little air in his lungs, Carol made his body charge forward and slide under the Grimm as before, cutting a perpendicular cut to what he did before.
The squeal that sounded out was nigh deafening, and as soon as Carol got clear of the beast it started thrashing madly around in no particular direction. Even Cardin, who was by no means the fastest of the group, was easily able to get clear as the beast tried to crush whatever was near it. But, blood pooling underneath it, it quickly tired from it's last spurt of energy, slowly listing to one side and collapsing as it chuffed on the ground. "Huh." Carol began, watching the thing's massive chest heave up and down, gradually beginning to slow. "So they can bleed out. And breathe, apparently."
"Or it's just mimicking it."
"Why would someone mimic breathing?" Carol paused. "Something, my bad." Though, with the threat passed, Carol could finally breathe deeply again...and feel the pain. "Agh, shit. Remind me to never let myself get kicked by a Grimm again. Not fun." Thankfully, his Aura was still up, so he wouldn't have to deal with his probably cracked ribs.
"Hey, it was your fault for standing behind it."
"Couldn't just let you get gored. Wouldn't have anyone left to lead the team."
"Yeah, right. You know you couldn't live without me." Carol just grumbled, unable to refute. Instead, he changed the subject.
"We should probably help them mop up the rest of the Grimm. The sooner we clear them out, the sooner we can rest." He said, going to where he heard the resounding sounds of weapon hitting bone and shouting voices.
"Who's the team leader again?" Cardin asked, raising an eyebrow. He received one in turn from Carol, making him clear his throat. "It's a good idea, I guess."
"Alright then, let's go." The pain in his ribs had resolved to a dull throbbing, to the point where he could move without cursing existence. Although, that may have just been the adrenaline working it's magic. And, while it was exhilarating to fight the Grimm, they still had to find whatever the client wanted. Maybe in the process, they'd find out why the Grimm had such a vested interest in the town, despite no one being there.
End note: The rolling that Carol did was, once again, a traditional boxing roll. Also, Grimm biology was never really explored in the show (there were a few charts) but I like to believe that they still have a working organ system, if still drastically different than normal living creatures. They don't have the meat cross sections when they get cut open for nothing, after all.