Hunt
Hunters
Aside from the massive railgun cannons, tesla towers and anti-air guns, Hunters are also another part of Bans' defence. They're the ones responsible for scouting out locations that could potentially threaten the floating city. Once they discover these locations, they will relay them to Bans'. Bans responds by levelling that particular location with their long-range artillery guns. This method has been used for decades already. Even the ever-adapting menace known as the Ravagers are not safe from Bans' artillery, the attack is just too sudden and too powerful that it doesn't give any of the Ravagers time to adapt.
While Hunters are looked up on becoming one is no simple task. Once a Hunter, you cannot go back. Dangers can come in many shape or form. A Hunter has to be capable of handling these dangers without any hesitation. Should a citizen of Bans decide to become one they will have to throw away their humanity to become a Hunter. Their organic bodies are disposed of except the head as it will be the one who will control the machine.
The first Hunters that were created were more machine and less human. The populace didn't like this idea at the time but had to deal with it just for their safety. At the time, families would weep and mourn as their beloved sons and daughters are taken away, only to return months later merely as a box of scrap metal, sometimes not even returning.
As years progress, Bans' technology improved and after 25 versions, the 27th version was introduced. At the time, Hunters still looked like machines but this time there was a difference, conscious thought. The 27th version had allowed Hunters to regain some semblance of humanity. Hunters were able to restore and form relationships, despite the back draw of completely forgetting their loved ones, the fact that they can feel was an improvement.
As it stands, there were 342 models of Hunters with the lasted one Model 343 being the latest. The Hunter's body is made up of synthetic skin that matches their original bodies. Their weapon systems include an ion blaster on their right arm, missile pod on their back shoulders and a heated blade on their left arm. Mobility of the Model 343 was dependent on the user and this would segregate Hunters into what classes they have.
Nimble Hunters are named Kleiner Hunters, slow Hunters, Wolyn Hunters and people who stand in between are simply called Hunters. Kleiner and Wolyn are equipped differently than average Hunters. Kleiner Hunter specialize in scouting and quick and clean assassinations. Lockdown grenades are used to secure anything that's metal, ion blasters on both arms but the output is weaker than the standard ion blaster, heated blades that are capable of reaching insane temperatures. What separated Kleiner Hunters from others is the fact that they have an overdrive mode that allows them to amp up their weapons and mobility systems by 2000%!
The backlash for using overdrive however is painful for Kleiner Hunters and would leave them vulnerable to the next attacks. As powerful as the overdrive is Kleiner Hunters are advised to use it only when they are sure that there are no other enemies in the vicinity after using it and their enemy should be on their last legs.
Under the shadow of the academy's walls, Louise watched the festival. It was already reaching it's end as the line of students vying for the princess's approval get shorter. She had seen every familiar and even recorded all of them. Reference for Bench as he told her that he wanted to analyse some of the familiars that were interesting. She didn't know what would catch the pod bot's interest so she just recorded all of them.
It started off simple enough, just some house pets like dogs, cats, birds and the like. As it went on, the familiars that were presented were becoming more bizarre. From a floating eyeball ironically called 'bug-bear' to something as large as the blue haired girl's dragon. While Louise would like to question who named the species 'bug-bear' the dragon was the one caught her attention. It wasn't as large as those dragons that she fought when she first arrived, so she assumed that Tabitha's dragon was still young.
Somehow though, she doubted that the dragon was old. From time to time, she had seen it display emotion. Either it was from Tabitha giving it more food or looking timid when it was being scolded by her. Louise assumed that it was of a different species then. Once Tabitha's presentation was done then came Kirche. She looked better than yesterday, she managed to finish her bit without any trouble.
The awarding ceremony had finally arrived and Louise could see Henrietta walking up to the stage and placing the medal over Tabitha's head. The other contestants clapped showing good sport, though she could see a handful of them not even hiding the scowls on their faces. Henrietta then walked up to the centre of the stage and proceeded to give the closing speech. Wind mages at the back used their magic to amplify her voice.
"That was a wonderful show and I hope that all of you had enjoyed it as much as I had. This festival isn't only a competition but to show how strong out bond is with out familiar. These faithful companions of ours will be the one who protects us from anything. Be it through physical or emotional, they have been our companions for centuries and they will continue to be for another,"
The audience applauded at the speech. Princess Henrietta bowed which prompted the contestants in line to bow as well. It was here that Louise took her leave. When Henrietta straightened herself, she saw Louise leaving, a small look of worry formed on her face but was immediately removed when she realized she was still in front of a crowd.
Louise gave out a heavy sigh as she made her way back to the warehouse. A confrontation with Henrietta, while not welcomed, a necessity. She needed to tell her that she has changed ever since their last meeting. Which reminds her, how long had it been since they had met under casual terms. The mind recollected as hard as it could but not one memory appeared. Louise found this weird but it wasn't enough to warrant a concern.
Becoming a Kleiner Hunter or any Hunter in particular had its perks but also their drawbacks. One in particular is memory loss. Due to the massive information being fed to them as they're being converted to a Hunter, a loss of memory is to be expected. Bans doesn't have the time to train their Hunters since the Ravagers are always on the move, as a solution, while being converted into a Hunter a training simulation is implanted in the brain. The training is equivalent to a year's worth of experience. What separates a good Hunter from a bad Hunter is how fast they can implement their training.
Upon reaching the warehouse, Louise opened the door only to meet two more people she didn't want to meet at the moment.
"Louise, we need to talk," Eleonore said, a neutral look on her face.
Cattleya on the other hand didn't say anything and opted for giving Louise the same expression as their eldest. Louise made their way towards them, with each step that she took the uncomfortable feeling inside of her grew stronger. Nevertheless, she had to face them. Better tell them now than later. Now standing right in front of them, Louise tried her best not to make eye contact with them. They seem to notice this but didn't tell her to look at them, thankfully.
There was a moment of silence with the only sound being the humming of Bench's propulsion systems. Louise tried her best to make herself presentable to themselves by standing straight while Eleonore and Cattleya were thinking long and hard about the questions that they were going to ask her. Impatience finally taking over, Louise spoke.
"Is there anything that you guys want to ask?" Her tone told them that she wanted to be somewhere else.
Cattleya and Eleonore looked at each other. The eldest one sighed and looked at her. "I won't question what you did… you told both me and Sister Cattleya what you've been through while living on Earth,"
Louise clenched her fist, "Don't you feel ashamed of me!? I-I killed that boy!"
"Y-you did…," Eleonore stuttered.
Usually, she would've scolded her for doing something wrong by now. Killing another noble should've warranted a disowning of her but then she remembered what Bench told them weeks back.
"You know… she talked a lot about all of you… in her logs that is,"
"I don't know what's happening within your family – and I'm not going to pry but from old medical records I had taken from my memory, emotions like that are usually because she's being ignored,"
"T-then why are you guys not giving any sort of reaction!?" Louise shouted. "Why don't you hate me! Scold me for killing a noble! Get angry! Disowning me is better than this treatment you're giving me!"
SLAP
Louise's head snapped to the left her body unprepared to harden from the slap. She straightened her head to see who was the one who slapped her. Standing just eye-level of her, Louise took a moment to realize, wondering that maybe she might have something wrong with her eyes because from the looks of it, the one who slapped looked closely identical to her.
"I will not allow you to pursue that line of thought any further, Louise de la Valliere," Cattleya scolded her. "While I agree that killing that boy is bad, you need to understand that what you did is the right thing,"
Louise lowered her head. Shoulders shaking, the only indication that she was crying since they replaced her organic eyes with artificial ones. "B-but... he was a noble…,"
"He was going to commit a heinous crime, that will warrant death anyways," Eleonore said. Louise's head snapped to her making the blonde Valliere uncomfortable. "D-Don't get me wrong, I am upset that you saved a Zerbst… but even I wouldn't wish that on her, she should be thankful that you saved her. She should learn from this,"
Once saying her bit, Eleonore left the conversation and joined Bench, eager to be taught more. Cattleya giggled at the eldest before looking at Louise and grabbing her shoulder. Once she was sure that she had Louise's attention she spoke.
"No matter what you do… know that me and Eleonore still love you… she just shows her affection in a different way,"
Coming to terms with that, Louise apologized to Eleonore for looking so pathetic. They stayed for a while, learning more about Bans and Earth until eventually night had fallen. Her sisters bid her goodnight and left. As the night went on, a knock made itself known. Rising from her slumber, she tiredly made her way towards the door. Opening it she was greeted with a shade of crimson.
"Kirche?"
"Some of these creatures are interesting, like that bug-bear," Bench said.
Said pod bot was floating still as he processed the recorded data that Louise had transmitted to him. Louise on the other hand was sitting on a nano created chair, giving the biggest bored expression she could conjure up. She had tried everything in the warehouse to stave off her ever-increasing boredom. Leaving flying away from the school is an option but she can't really do that at the moment due to an intruder being inside of the academy.
"Say, Bench, can we do another simulation?"
Before the pod bot could respond to her request, the door was busted opened. Louise and Bench looked towards the door to see a dishevelled Cattleya. Her breathing was ragged, her body was leaning on the door for support. Louise immediately came to help her.
"L-Louise…,"
"What's wrong?"
"I-Intruder…,"
As if on cue, something large broke through the warehouse's roof – a large boulder. Louise carried her sister and laid her down on her straw bed so that she can catch her breath. Afterwards, she walked outside to see a large rock golem hitting the main tower of the school. Aside from that, she can also see magic spells being casted but doing nothing on the elemental construct.
Her eyes zoomed in on the shoulder of the golem to see a hooded figure on it. Connecting the dots and understanding that the golem is being controlled by the figure, she immediately went to action. Going back in the warehouse, she made a glance at the boulder. She placed her hand a little further from her body commanded the nanomachines to construct a sledgehammer.
Once the tool was formed, she brought it up with two hands and smashed the boulder to pieces. She rummaged in the rubble for a suitable rock. Finding one that covered her palm she took it and went outside. Now standing outside, she zeroed in on the massive golem. The core in her chest glowed a bright pink as the nanomachines went to work.
First off, her legs started to thicken more and more weight is being distributed to her legs. The ground bent underneath the intense weight. Once she was sure that she won't get blown away with the idea she had she proceeded to form the next plan. She clasped her arms together and told more nanomachines to form a weapon. A deadly weapon that had been created just for the sake of piercing heavily armoured targets.
The railgun
The length of the weapon was three meters, it had two prongs and a space big enough for two hands to fit in the middle. At the very tip of each prong stood a stabilizer that will help Louise steady her aim. While the railgun was being formed the nanomachines also formed a thick wall behind her, a safety measure, ensuring that even with the added weight on her legs she can still right herself up when she's thrown off by the weapon's recoil.
This all happened in the span of three seconds. The space between the two prongs sparkled with electromagnetic energy. She created a floating claw to pick up the rock that she had taken from the smashed boulder and brought it to her hands. Her hands were located at the very back of the of railgun. Letting the rock go, it began to hover at the base of the weapon. While it wasn't the prefect ammunition, it'll have to do for now. The rock started to spin faster and faster. Once it had reached a whopping 500,000 rotations per second, she proceeded to aim it at the large golem.
An, reticule appeared on her sights, zeroing in on the golem she aimed directly at the centre.
"Eat this," Louise said while wearing a manic grin.
A loud splitting crack tore through the air followed by a deafening boom.
A/N: What a way to start the battle. Tell me your thoughts, a lot really happened except for the heart to heart talk with Louise's sisters. Tell me your thoughts about today's chapter. Also, I want your thoughts about how Hunters are created. Personally, the Hunters bit is something that I really want your opinion on as it is part of the world that I have created.
Without further ado let's get into the reviews.
AnimeA55Kicker: Any assassin sent to Louise is easily dealt with. Louise isn't also one to slack off, once she finds out that assassins are targeting her, she'll make sure that connections with her family are immediately cut off. In the event that Louise's family gets in harms way, she'll immediately take action.
Indeed, I find the theory of Louise's lifestyle quite interesting as well.
Lucian Naruto: Let me put it out there right now. Louise will not get hurt by anything in Halkeginia, her nanomachine body's too advanced for the world. That's not to say that Louise is invincible, powerful as she may be, she's only one person.
I sure that this chapter explains the second question you have about Eleonore and Cattleya's thoughts about Kirche.
With all of that said and done, I bid you all adieu
Peace~