The Dreamer Gate

by Malignent

Thousands of Uruk-Hai are drawn to Remnant after a ritual gone wrong, and are more than capable of bringing their own taste of war to this new world. Now the people of Remnant must deal with this new and numerous threat. As the Tournament draws near, and the actions of the Uruk Leaders grows ever bolder, can peace truly be maintained?

8. Chapter 8: The Blood - Storm & Axe

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of The Rings, the Middle-Earth universe, Shadow of Mordor or RWBY.

This work will contain moments of intense violence, dark and dirty humor, and canonical divergences.

---

Blood - Storm & Axe

Dozens of Uruk corpses lay scattered around the repository of the Talos Mine, the only building to withstand the test of time. Covered in gashes that could've only come from a notably sharp blade, the frozen looks on their faces ranged from confusion to primal rage. Some still clutched their weapons while others seem to have lost them in the skirmish, evidenced by the random assortment of weaponry scattered about almost as haphazardly as the dead Uruks themselves.

The trail of dead led directly to the front door of the repository, where the sound of frenzied gunfire could be heard within. Through broken windows figures could be seen moving quickly, a quick figure darting between three others until eventually it dashed towards one of them and sent Ogbur flying out of one of the crumbling windows. The Uruk tried steadying himself as he skidded along the roofing, pushing himself to his hands and knees and looking up just as Adam darted out towards him. He raised his gun to defend against the sudden slash of Wilt which spun him to the side. Adam dashed by him as he spun, slicing into his aura as he did so. He spun around with Blush to continue the combo until the sudden oncoming rifle round forced him to raise Wilt to deflect it.

In that time Gimub managed to race past a still-disoriented Ogbur and charge Adam with the bayonet of his gun, Adam spun past the laughing maniac just in time to take several pot shots at Dush, who had been keeping to the edge of the battle the entire time. The movements of a shadow at the edge of his view signaled for Adam to dodge out of the way of Ogbur, who swung his shotgun like a club with enough force to smash through the first story roof of the repository.

"Stop moving so much you filth!" the Uruk barked as he moved to tear his gun out of the roof.

Adam couldn't capitalize, as the sudden loud laughter to his side brought his attention back to Gimub who was already mid-leap with his weapon raised. Adam ducked under the swinging bayonet and shoved the butt of Blush into the soaring Uruk's gut, forcing him back onto the ground. Gimub recovered quick, swinging his machine-gun through the air whilst pulling the trigger. Adam leaped over the arcing spray of bullets and landed behind Gimub,who quickly spun with his gun. The Faunus spun, sweeping the Uruk's legs out from beneath him while raising Blush towards him. A single shot sent him flying towards Ogbur,making them both stumble off the roof to the ground below as the red-headed swordsman walked to the edge and looked down at them.

Gimub was still laughing like a madman, even as Ogbur shoved him off himself and scrambled to his feet. Adam merely raised Blush towards them when a poorly broadcasted pair of footsteps made him sigh before sweeping his leg behind him. Dush's attempt at a sneak attack soon shifted to him spinning head over heels off the roof while flailing wildly.

The well-spoken Prowler crashed into Ogbur, who had just been getting his bearings, forcing the larger Uruk to stumble back before he could angrily throw his smaller accomplice off him. The shotgunner raised a fist and prepared to yell at Dush before a dust round impacted with his head and forced him back once more.

Dush yelped before noticing the growing dark circle around him and rolling to the side as Adam crashed into the ground beside him blade-first. Before the Uruk could raise his rifle, the bottom of Adam's boot connected with his chin and flung him into the air. The Faunus spun as his quarry descended, and pulled his sword through Dush's throat before he could even touch the ground.

"Dushy boy down! Dushy boy down!"

Adam turned back towards the more manic of his three opponents, who seemed humored at the sight of his partner's death. He slid another magazine of dust rounds into his machine gun, the larger Prowler growled at the sight before turning his anger on his giggling cohort.

"Don't just stand there laughin' at him!" he yelled before gesturing towards the Faunus with his shotgun "Get to the killin' already!"

Gimub smiled wildly before dashing towards him swinging his bayonetted weapon, it clashed against Wilt several times until Adam carved into the Prowler's aura and sent him spinning. Still maniacally laughing, he turned with the spin and swung his machinegun whilst pulling the trigger.

The swordsman ducked under the arc of bullets before dashing past him. Gimub turned to continue firing before suddenly stumbling, he struggled to catch himself as the smile momentarily formed into a confused frown. Glancing down, the Prowler saw that his lower right leg had been entirely lobbed off.

Capitalizing, Adam raced towards him as he tried desperately orientate himself with his sudden lack of limb. A large hand reached from behind Gimub and tossed him away as Ogbur raised his shotgun. Adam lunged forward and kicked the barrel of the weapon upward as it fired, bullets spreading harmlessly into the air as Wilt was dragged through the Uruk's aura again. Ogbur backed up and fired again, only for Adam to slip past his gun and thrust his blade into the large Prowler's gut. Aura failing, the shotgunner upchucked some blood as Wilt's tip pierced through his back. Spinning Blush, Adam prepared to finish him when the tip of a bayonet entered his vison.

The Faunus leaped out of the way before turning to spot Gimub, who had resumed giggling as he turned his weapon back on him. Raising an eyebrow, Adam glanced down to see that the Uruk was using his dead ally's rifle to steady himself without the support of his right leg. Behind him, Ogbur gawked at his ally, even more shocked than the Faunus was.

"You're still going?!" he yelled incredulously as Gimub laughed harder and opened fire.

It was a trivial matter for Adam to deflect the bullets as he dashed towards them, but he hadn't been expecting the laughing Uruk to began spewing dark fog from his mouth. The shock of it made Adam slow to a stop before immediately throwing an arm over his mouth, so it would seem at least one of them had discovered his semblance. Still, the mad Uruk must have severely underestimated his hearing, since the footsteps were still prevalent over the smoke screen he'd thrown up.

So when Gimub threw himself at the Faunus, Adam was easily able to easily swing back. The Uruk must have noticed his plan, as his laughter turned into a gasp of shock as he fell upon Wilt chest-first. Adam prepared to finish the Uruk before he could start laughing again, but the sudden cocking of a shotgun at his side made him forego that entirely in favor of releasing Wilt's handle and leaping up just as a spray of shotgun fire tore through Gimub.

The Faunus nimbly sailed over Ogbur, who looked up in disbelief before panicking and trying to swing the barrel of his gun around. Adam landed and immediatyely fired a round into Ogbur's arm, throwing his aim off before he could even hope to set it. The Uruk tried swinging his fist, only for the red-haired radical to duck under that and fire another round into his chest. Adam rolled past a shotgun blast and spun Ogbur around before firing a flurry of bullets into his chest, the last one tossing the Uruk against the wall of a nearby building which he slid down pitifully as his black blood stained the ground around him.

Adam stepped over the dying Uruk, who hacked up more blood violently before looking up to see the barrel of blush trained him "Guh..." he muttered weakly "...should I even... be surprised?"

The incoming bullet seemed unwilling to give an answer.

---

The Sandy Expanse: Abandoned Drilling Station

"Let her be remembered!"

A clash of metal cans.

"Let her spirit live on!"

Clash!

"Let the mighty Uruk-Hai keep her fury going strong!"

Uthug felt the veins in his head popping as the merry song continued, sitting amongst the four Uruks who were now sitting around a small fire in front of Gretchen's grave. Borgu had insisted she be present, and apparently the only way to get that to happen was have their little farewell ceremony right in front of her. Honestly, if the Poet didn't have some makeshift grog on hand, the Musket-wielder would have no reason to stay amongst these fools. Tuka seemed adamant in appeasing Borgu for the time being, at least till they could nab some of the rations he'd been sitting on, and was even joining in the merry song between him and Zog. Seemed like he was in heaven, his own voice mixing with the Poet's with gusto.

"This is what you monsters call a funeral?"

The song tapered off as the Uruks turned to their fifth associate, the Faunus tark Zog had been lugging around.

"Ugh, why couldn't we just toss her outside while we's do this shrakh ceremony?"

"And risk her getting away?" Tuka rolled his eyes "Your lack of foresight is becoming familiar."

"'Sides," Borgu stood tall and patted the crashed loader behind him "my Gretchen deserves as many attendants to her farewell party as possible!"

"How is this a farewell?!" she barked "Bad enough you're giving that demonic creature any form of respect, but all you've done is drink and sing!"

"We's Uruks, lady." Zog spoke up before scooping more food out of his can "We celebrate nearly anything with a good ol' feast. Say your boss is dead, you get ya pals together and commemorate him by filling ya belly nice and full, in honor of all the weaklings he'd crushed in life!"

"And if he was shrakh then ya drink to finally being rid of him." Uthug tossed in while drinking some old alcohol from a filth-covered canteen.

"Respect should be given to anything capable of slaughter," Tuka said evenly as he looked to where the deathstalker died "despite how weak it was to fall to a party of disorganized travelers such as us. No doubt a beast of its size must have bathed in the blood of many an enemy. Oh if only their bodies stayed, I'da made a nice suit of armor from her bones."

"Hey!"

They turned to Borgu, who glared at Tuka before folding his arms "Weapons! Gretchen would've wanted her body to be weapons! So she could keep takin' lives after death!"

The Faunus coughed as she listened to them prattle on, eyes twitching in fury. These things were disgusting, horrific creatures on par with the Grimm an humans, but they didn't even bother hiding their ill-intent behind some silken sheet of false sympathy like humans did. In some ways she guessed that made them better, but that did nothing to staunch the hatred that formed the longer she was forced to be near them.

"So what exactly do you plan to do once we leave?" Tuka questioned the Poet after stuffing some more canned meat into his jaws.

"Hn, haven't thought too much on that actually." Borgu conceded before flopping down beside the fire "Originally came here to wait out the trouble the boys would dreg up while getting used to the place, then after that I just wanted to be with Gretchie. Now that she's gone I guess I'll have to get back to me usual routine."

"How you gonna be a wanderin' minstrel if ya don't even know the land that you're in?" Uthug laughed mockingly

"You think I knew where I was when doin this back in Mordor? I'd just walk until I found someplace."

"Perhaps, but maybe you could find some assistance before simply wandering off." the Berserker spoke as he wiped some stray meat from his lips and glanced towards him "Bet the Warchiefs know more about this land than any of us."

"You lot are fitting to get back to the Warchiefs?" the lyricist asked with wide eyes "But didn't you leave 'em in the first place?"

"Back then it seemed more ideal to hook up with the deserters," Tuka admitted "with Hork out of commission and that fool Tugog runnin' things, I was certain they'd all eat each other in due time. However, more and more chief-less gangs have been antagonizing this world's higher players, folks with militaries behind them. If they kick the hive too much the pests will end up eating them alive."

"Its what you foul things deserve!" the girl shouted through bared teeth "Attacking the Fang like this! Killing and stealing from us like savages. I hope you all get hung and shot for this!"

"Zog," Uthug groaned "please shut this emergency meal up before I dig in too early."

"But wasn't you guys doin the same thing to the humans even before we showed up? Killing and stealing from them like gutter trash they are?" Zog felt compelled to ask before turning to his peers "That sounds far more like some kinda hilarious irony, eh?"

"Don't even compare us to those racist bigots!"

"Sorry lass, but you look like filthy tarks for the most part, act like filthy tarks, and make me want to vomit just because you exist...like filthy tarks." Uthug shrugged as he picked at some left over meat, pausing for a moment to smirk in the face of her growing rage "Only real difference being that ya smell like some shite hybrid on top of it. As if a tark gave into his baser urges and bedded some brain dead animal and produced your disgusting race of sub-human garbage in the process."

"Save some breath there," Tuka commented off handedly "as fun as it would be to watch, you passing out from lack of oxygen would be a hassle to deal with. I was merely making the point that at the rate things are going, joining back up with the Warchiefs will be our best bet."

"Oh really?" Uthug called out as he stood straight and walked into a crumbling storage room in back to procur another can of old meat, hee came back already digging in as he issued his next question "Well how exactly are we supposed to get them to let us back in anyway? In case you haven't known, Horkie boy's got a real thing against deserters."

"Because we'll be coming back with information beneficial to him."

The warrior was in the midst of scooping out some more sustenance from the can when he paused at his words and glanced to the side thoughtfully "Ah, so that's why you brought the body."

"What body?" Zog asked with a quirked eyebrow

"Yep," the Berseker leaned back with a smirk "I saw those responsible for Captain Ashgarn's death, we give up their identities and Hork's anger will turn to them instead of us. Everything else just relies on you lot not making asses of yourselves, so let ME do the talking."

"What body?" Zog was standing now

"Leave it to you?" Uthug scoffed "I'll have you know that I can be surprisingly silver-tongued when stricken with terror."

"Probably loose-lipped too if your track record says anything."

"Come on guys, what body?"

"The fat one you've been lugging around!" shouted the Faunus "God I'm not even supposed to care and I picked up on that already!"

"You've been carrying the corpse of a Warchief's sibling all this time?" Borgu asked in shock before smiling "I could probably make a right fancy ballad about that!"

"There will be no ways to accurately describe what hell I will put you through if you do." Uthug bit

"Come now, the poet waved it off "a small group of Uruk-Hai trying to find their way back to their master to tell him that his brother tragically lost his life in battle, it practically demands a musical adaptation!"

"Then why don't ya come with us?"

All eyes were on Tuka now, who casually sniffed at a can of peeches before using one of his nails to carve the lid off.

"Really?!" Zog asked excitedly

"Have ya lost ya damned mind?!" Uthug yelled before jerking a thumb back towards the Shield-Barer "I'm having a bad enough time with one of these musically inclined worms, you want to just cram in another?!"

"Sure, why not?" the Berserker answered casually before glancing to the Poet in question "We'll get you to the Warchiefs, I know a select few still with them who'd probably love having some more drinking songs."

"No, we are not doing this!"

"I suppose there ain't nothing keeping me here," Borgu said, patting the engravings on the loader before shrugging "I don't see why I wouldn't hook up with you lot, oh we'll tell so many a tales together!"

"No no no!"

"Perfect, guess we should take your stores of food with us when we leave tomorrow then, eh?"

"Oh, I can handle that! Lots of things to carry cans in 'round here!" the Poet hopped to his feet and strode into the storage room whilst humming a tune.

Tuka smirked, now that they didn't have to steal his food, all that mattered now was picking up a bit of metal for the road. Suffice it to say that their weapons were going to lose effectiveness long before they reached the tower if they kept using them. He'd be a fool not to plan for such. None of them were tried and true blacksmiths but he knew enough about personal weapon's maintenance to know feel confident in his ability to maintain them. All he needed was metal, and a quick glance around proved that to be in abundance around here. The tricky part was finding the most durable metals, as these had been exposed to the elements for quite some ti-

"How could you do that?!"

His thoughts were interrupted by Uthug, who stood in front of him with his scowl deepening "You know how much of a pain these music types can be, what in shrakh's name would possess you to do something like that?!"

The Berserker regarded the shorter Uruk with a raised eyebrow, locking eyes for a moment before sighing and gesturing towards Zog "Oi, since we're prepping to leave soon can you do me a favor and find a way onto the roof?"

"Don't change the subject!"

The Shield-Bearer walked over with a quizzical look "What for exactly?"

"I need you to pull some metal from that thingie what was holding the loader up," Tuka folded his arms before glancing up to the ceiling "might need it for some mid-travel maintenance if you know what I mean."

Zog shrugged before walking by "Fine, gives me somethin' ta do while I start thinkin' up songs me and Borg can sing, haha!"

"Yeah and move the girlie away while you're at it, that stink eye she's got is too infuriating to keep in my vicinity for long."

With his free arm, the joyous defender scooped up the angry Faunus as he walked off. Now alone, Tuka turned back to the agitated warrior and sighed "You wanna' know why I'm doing this? Huh? You sure you can keep ya damned ears trained on me long enough to soak up these next words of mine?"

"Just tell me already!"

Tuka leaned down so that they were finally at eye level before tilting his head to the side and grinning "Survival, you worm, it's all about survival."

"How is a deadbeat lyricist supposed to increase our odds of survival!?"

"Ya see? That short-termed idiocy is why I'VE been leading this little excursion of ours." the Berserker walked away to pick up a forgotten can, poking a finger in to check if there was any food left inside "If you feel this heated by the mere presence of a poet, then how do you think the Black Gate Commander himself will feel?"

"He'd probably mangle him on the spot." Uthug muttered as he glanced to the side for a moment "What's ya point?"

"My point being that after killing Borgu, Horkie's likely to go easier on the next worm who incurs his wrath."

Starting to catch his drift Uthug's frown deepened "And who exactly would that be?"

"Zog, obviously." Tuka said as he pulled some meat from the can and nipped at it "With how much he's drooling over that lyricist, he's much more likely to throw himself in the Caragor pit trying to save him. Hopefully the slave gives the big sod something else to vent on before he gets closer to us, but then you decide whether or not to act a fool and get ya self killed."

"And let me guess, then he'll see you bringin' back Ashy boy's body and welcome you back with open arms?" Uthug pointed accusingly at him "You must be thinking of another Hork, the one I know would just add you to the rest of our corpses."

"Pssh, you haven't lived long enough to know this, but Hork can only focus his rage on so many individuals at once without needing to constrain himself. He won't be able to lump a loyal, respectful Soldier like me with the rest of you Chiefless muck. He'll be more than willing to forgive a determined trooper like me after getting his anger out on you lot."

"You're chiefless too! You abandoned them just like the rest of us!" the Musket-Wielder's snarl was spreading to critical levels as his voice rose.

"Yes, but the difference is that unlike the rest of you I can at least ACT like an effective warrior, you lot are like a bunch of lazy worms trying to look useful so your master don't play Cliff-Toss with ya!"

"And what if I tell the others about this stupid plan of yours to use them as hate sponges?" Uthug threatened as a sneer spread across his face. Tuka gave him an incredulous look before gesturing to him and replying blandly.

"You've solidified yourself as a horrible source of information this entire trip, the fact you'd even attempt something like that only reaffirms how capable I am in comparison."
the Berserker raised the can and shook it a bit to check the meat inside "Now quit your whining and finish up your meal, I don't wanna hear you complain about it when we get moving."

He went to poke inside for more of the filling old meat when the can was smacked out of his hand and sent flying far by an enraged Uthug.

The can clanked on some debris and rolled across the substation's decimated floor until finally coming to a stop next to a covered lump. Staring at it from a nearby wall was the unhappy Faunus who'd been dumped there by Zog before the Shield-Bearer left to find a way to the roof. She tried tuning out the bickering of the Uruks as best she could. She also made a point to shift as far away from the lump as possible, she'd known what had been inside it for a while but sill disliked the idea of resting near a corpse, even though it was technically the body of an enemy to her people.

And the smell, ugh.

But her eyes did go to the can, which even from her position she could see had some of its meaty contents dripping out. She'd never ask for food from her captors, didn't want to give them the satisfaction of making her plead, but her stomach had been empty for far longer than she knew was healthy. Now that it was out of their sight, they wouldn't be able to comment on her rolling to her side and crawling over to the can, trying to ignore the smell of the lump. Once she was close enough, she reached with her bound arms-

-only for a green arm to shoot from the lump and snatch up the can first.

Her scream was enough to make Tuka and Uthug halt their argument and turn towards it, the Berserker glared back at his smaller cohort "This conversation is over." he growled before turning away. Uthug clenched his fists before groaning and following behind.

Seconds later they found their captive shivering against the wall with a distraught look etched into her face. But more importantly-

"Where is it?!"

Following Tuka's gaze, Uthug flinched when he saw that the covered corpse of Ashgarn was missing "Fattie's gone? Somethin' crawl in and snatch him or something?"

The Berserker didn't answer, instead he turned his furious glare on the White Fang Grunt before stomping over "You saw what happened, where is it?!"

The Faunus seemed to still be recovering from what she'd seen, shaking her head a bit before glancing up at them "I-...he just-gah!"

Tuka's hand dug into her throat as he lifted her up "Spit it out you cur! That fat bastard was my ticket up! Where's the body?!"

"Is Zog gonna be okay with you tossin' his slave around?" Uthug folded his arms as he looked on critically

"Don't care! Corpse, now!" he hissed while drawing one of his axes "At this point, you either start talking or I start Hacking you apart as painfully as physically possible you-"

Another crash from elsewhere made the Berserker stop, head snapping back towards the sound of the noise. With a 'tch' of annoyance, the berserker threw the Faunus to the ground harshly before storming in the direction of the sound.

Uthug glanced between Tuka and the girl, who tried rolling onto her good side while still having this incessantly disturbed look on her face, before shrugging and following behind.

He found the Berserker standing beside a fallen Borgu, both Uruks looking up at the crashed loader "Oi, what exactly are you two globs doin'?" the warrior asked as he approached "Lyin' around paralyzed like a bunch of lazy weakl-"

He halted once his eyes reached the top of the loader, where Ashgarn sat digging into a sack of foodstuffs.

A scream tore its way out of Uthug's throat as he flinched back, tripping over a piece of debris.

The Gorger looked filthy and battered, not much worst than the rest of them honestly. Being wrapped up for so long did not do him any favors, and then there was his eye. Well, perhaps the proper phrasing would be his lack of an eye. His left eye was completely gone, a sickly looking hole being the only thing left from the White Huntress's lethal blow. It looked as bad as an untreated wound of that caliber could get, as the skin around it seemed to have rotted in a few places. The meat inside it seemed grotesque and if one looked hard enough, they could see the movement of insects moving about inside the socket.

And yet he simply continued digging in as if he hadn't been apparently slain in the first place, looking at them all with his one good eye as he yanked another can from the bag and looked it over before stuffing the entire thing into his mouth and crushing it with his jaws before swallowing it, metal meat and all.

"Ah, so you made it as well." he commented upon spotting Uthug, rolling his one good eye before slurping some of the meat from his fingers "I figured since the big boy over here made it then maybe some other worms survived that little incursion of ours."

"A-Ashgarn." Tuka forced a smile to his face "We thought you was dead...how...pleasant it is to see you up and about again!"

"Pfft, you don't just live with the same blood as my brother's and expect to die from a measly head gouging." the All-Eater shook his head before jumping down, standing straight before devouring another can "I woke up a few times en route, but the fool carryin' me kept dropping me on my head, smacking me into walls, tumbling down cliffs! I think I've been knocked unconscious more times in the past week than I have my entire life."

"Sir, I apologize for Zog's idiocy." Tuka uttered, still in the process of getting over his disbelief "If I'd known-"

"Shut up, don't care." the glutton groaned before walking to thee side of the loader "Listening to explanations from underlings is much too draining, where the shrakh are we?"

"Uhhhh..." Uthug tried forming an answer

"Last I checked that white cur downed me in a village surrounded by woodlands." Ashgarn glanced back at them "Why is it the next time I wake up we's in the middle of a damned desert?"

He turned back to face them with a scowl.

Tuka had gotten over his shock, Uruks survived usually lethal wounds all the time, he should've damaged him more when he was unconscious. Now he was more concerned about his plan, Ashgarn's unfathomable stomach would starve them all in a week. Beyond that, bringing him back to the Tower alive was monumentally more difficult than bringing him as a corpse, and the Berserker suspected the Glutton wouldn't be as easy as Zog to string along.

"Oh," their gazes were drawn to Borgu, who let a smile cross his face as he scrambled to his feet "the story of a brother denying death's sweet kiss to return to his own family, the lyrics just write themselves!"

Ashgarn narrowed his eye before turning to Tuka "The hell does that mean?"

Tuka blanched as Uthug regained his senses, the shock of his Captain's recovery outweighed by his desire to see the Berserker put in his place "Yeah, big shot. Mind tellin' the boss what that means exactly?"

Even from the corner of his eye, the larger Uruk could communicate his rage quite effectively.

Damn you Uthug, he thought you had a place in my plan and seek to squander that gift. I promise you that if I can live through this I will see to it personally that the Warchief tears you to pieces with his bare hands. Perhaps I'll have me some cooked meat while I watch, seein' a glob get what's coming to him always necessitates a hefty meal.

And so, Tuka stepped forward before coughing into his hand and smiling at the Captain "Well sir, you see-"

"You plan on dragging me back to Hork?" Ashgarn grunted out "The same Hork who made my life a living shrakh heap? Who constantly treated me like muck on his boot?"

"You're not seeing the context here, Ashgarn."

"Do you know what happens the second that massive bastard sees me on his property? First he gathers up those lap dogs of his, shouts in my ear, then beats me to a pulp in front of them all in the name of proving a point."

"We thought you were dead!"

"Why?"

"I saw that tiny wench drive a blade through your head!"

"The same thing happened to Krimp when he fell off a catwalk and landed face first on some poor sap's halberd." the Glutton pointed out "If I do recall it was the sap who ended up with half his body flattened into paste while the dumb grub just continued prancing about like a brain-dead tark."

"Yeah well, he's Krimp." Tuka pointed out "And you're..."

He trailed off while looking Ashgarn up and down, the Captain taking note of this and immediately deepening his frown "Oh, I see. Just because I ain't big like me kin you assume a tiny blade through the skull would be enough to put me down!"

"Its just that in comparison to them, everyone can agree you don't really... measure up?"

Ashgarn just stared at him with enraged disbelief as the other Uruks gaped.

"You..." Ashgarn raised a figer towards the Berserker and growled "I'm going to swallow your still-beating heart whole."

"Wait wait!" Tuka instinctively reached for his axes as the All-Eater began advancing on him when suddenly a loud creaking sound echoed from above. Both Uruks glanced upwards, but Tuka was the one who lunged backwards as a massive chunk of the ceiling careened downward and crashed into Ashgarn.

The berserker shook his head as he leaned up and groaned before catching sight of the glutton's arm sticking out of a pile of metal and roofing, the other three Uruks frozen in different stages of shock.

"Wh-...how-?" Uthug began until a voice called out from above.

"Hey Tuka!" Zog yelled down to them "Did I get the right piece?"

---

Vacuo-Desert Tower

Ishga stared at the Helmet in his hands, not with fondness or sadness or any of those other silly weakling feelings, but with contemplation like a true Captain. This helmet belonged to one of his colleagues, who he put up with similarly to any other Uruk in Sauran's army, and that colleague had been led to his demise due to the direct action of their master. He'd undoubtedly be taking Dushrat's place in the chain of command, he'd been there watching as the Black Garrison Commander had practically torn the unfortunate advisor to pieces, the only other option was-

"I know mate," Skak spoke to his weapon as he followed behind the hunter "they'll be making the rest of the armor into some fancy new weapons, blacksmiths are probably going frenzied over the opportunity."

Yes, it benefitted him and his master greatly, in fact there seemed to be little to no downsides to betraying their ally... and yet...

Ishga looked up to his Master, who walked in front of them, leading the way back to his quarters.

Tugog had been struggling with his clairvoyant abilities for some time now, and it had only seemed to worsen after arriving in this realm. It had only been recently that he'd shown signs of recovery in that department, but Ishga had been unprepared. He remembered back when he was just a regular grunt serving his master long ago, watching as he'd position them with such foresight and knowhow that there would hardly be a way for the enemy to counter it.

But what happened up there, the way Tugog seemed to know exactly how to act in order to get out of that risky situation Hork's underlings had put him in, Ishga had been unprepared to experience it firsthand.

"Amazing sir, seems your power's returned to you in full force." he mentioned with a bit of awe seeping into his tone "Showed them Defender folk why you're a Warchief."

"Yes," Dreamer replied with a distant tone in his voice before looking up with a thoughtful expression "I did, didn't I?"

Ishga raised an eyebrow at this, but once again glanced down towards the helmet "But sir, tell me... when you saw what had happened... in ya dreams I mean, what would've happened if Dushrat survived?"

"I know not what it may have been like." Tugog admitted with a sigh as they approached his quarters, the two Defenders giving Ishga dirty glances from the sides as the Warchief invited them in "But I suspect someone up there'd be wearing me around their fist."

"Blood-Axe and I wonder how you got them mind-powers back so quick anyway?" Skak asked as he glanced around the room they entered, immediately eyeing a rickety wooden desk.

"Skak! Do not ask that in such a manner, show your master some respect!"

"His confusion is understandable."

The two blood-based Uruks turned back to Dreamer, who pointed towards a large marking on the wall. It had a bluish liquid smeared in a series of shapes which looked kinda like a-

"A Dreamer Gate?" Ishag asked as he approached the marking, giving it a critical look.

"Ya know, I suppose I'm growing used to that title." Tugog gave a nervous chuckle "But yes, I got a sudden visit from the Storm-Bringer."

Ishga jerked his head back in surprise "The Grand Shaman?"

Tugog nodded before sitting upon the massive tattered mattress and reclining "Came by to personally reaffirm his devotion, and while he was here he told me about Semblances."

Ishga still couldn't get over the idea of the Shaman being in this very building and none of Hork's boys going wild over it. Had he really been here simply to promise loyalty?

"Semblances, them's the things the Tarks here got right?" Skak tilted his head to the side as he placed a finger to his lip in confusion "He talked to you 'bout that?"

"Yes, but the Storm's been gathering more information than I'd expected them to." Dreamer sat up before turning to his underlings "We can use them too."

This snapped Ishga out of his thinking "We what!?"

"Yes, apparently those chief-less worms have been discovering Semblances left and right, mostly in the midst of combat. Even some of the Shaman's own soldiers have discovered their own talents."

"B-But that doesn't make sense!" the Blood-Storm argued before gesturing around him "How could this entire tower's population work here for so long and not discover a semblance!? What about Hork's boys? They've been getting sent out to slaughter dark beasts en masse since we got here! Shouldn't they have at least found something?"

"They have."

Ishga halted "...What?"

"Speaking with the Shaman, I'm almost certain that those of Hork's garrison who survive the hunts have at least discovered some matter of semblance, probably some of our own as well. But you also know how Hork thinks of magic."

Ishga glanced down, those among the hunters who've garnered an grasp of their semblance... they've been hiding them out of fear? Hork had always despised those who make up for their weaknesses with magic and tricks, even before he was a Warchief. If it wasn't for his past serving under a Captain with Tugog, he'd probably have never thrown in with the Dreamer in the first place. But as his duties as Warchief eroded his patience, he'd become more and more harsh on those with ties to the mystic, slowly losing faith in even his old friend.

If Hork's boys showed their semblances to him, would he consider that just magical enough to despise? In all honesty, the answer to that probably didn't matter. What did matter was that the Garrison wasn't willing to take the chance.

Dreamer sat up and turned towards them "Anyway, while here he informed me that despite being a good motivator, raw combat ability wasn't the major factor in awakening a semblance. From what he learned a semblance is like an aura in that it's based heavily on the soul of its user. And after that he offered to help me...find myself."

Ishga blinked slowly as Skak shared a look with his weapon before stepping forward "Mind going into detail a bit?"

"I don't know how else to describe what he did really, we sat down together and he talked and...I may have blacked out a bit or something but next thing I knew I was sleeping and could finally see... everything... in perfect clarity."

"Blood-Axe finds that mighty suspicious, boss."

"As much as I hate to show signs of disloyalty," Ishga stepped forward as the Dreamer began pulling his limbs into a more meditative position "I have to agree with my colleague on that."

"I am just as curious as either of you are, though my clairvoyance feels stronger than its been in years, the potential cost of awakening it is a source of worry." Tugog looked between the duo for a moment before raising a finger "Which is why I would like the both of you to take notes of sort."

Ishga and Skak merely stared, until the smaller of the two shook off his initial confusion and leaned closer with a hand to his ear "I'm sorry?"

"Simply stand there and keep watch over me while I slumber, I am curious to see if whatever the Shaman has done came with...side effects of sort."

"I don't get it either," Skak shook his head at his weapon before glancing to the Warchief "Why's you ain't calling the big guys outside to help with that?"

"Well," Tugog glanced to Ishga before nodding "I suppose I can admit to putting a tad more faith into the last of the Blood-Storms than I do to my chamber guards."

Said Hunter took a second to process that compliment before letting his eyes grow wide, he immediately kneeled "S-Sir! I am honored to have your faith, this quest will be nothing for me!"

Skak quirked an eyebrow "Wait, are you seriously-?"

"Thank you, Blood-Storm, I knew if anything I could trust you to stand by me through such confusing times."

With that Dreamer closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he tried to relax.

Ishga stood once more, watching in Awe as his master began attempting to reach his clairvoyance once again.

But this awe was interrupted by a hand turning him to face Skak, who didn't seem to share his enthusiasm "Blood-Axe and I would like to know why we's wastin a good day of brawlin just to watch the boss sleep."

Ishga snarled "That doesn't matter! He asked us to complete a very simple task, I shall not let your boredom ruin a chance to gain favor!"

"From the sounds of it, it already seems you's his most trusted boy! Come on, can't we just go pick a fight with some o' the guys down in the shanties? We can come right back after Blood-Axe gets his fix, eh? Boss'll never know!"

Ishga pushed past him "You have no idea whether or not we can do all that in that timeframe," he muttered before standing in front of the door, turning back to him, and folding his arms "I won't allow you to risk this mission we have been tasked with-"

"The mission o' being glorified sleep alarms?"

"It is an order! I don't care if he wants us to grab him some meat and a warmer blanket, when the master asks then we serve!"

"Ain't there a damn limit?!"

"Hush, your incessant whining will make it hard for our master to-"

He paused as loud snoring began emanating from Dreamer who, despite still holding his meditative pose, was quite obviously asleep. The two blood-themed Uruks watched for a moment in silence before Skak turned back to his partner and uttered "We ain't doin' this."

"Oh for-"

"Blood-Axe gets antsy when he's bored, and I have to deal with his complainin'. I already spent all that time hearing him moan and groan whilst you was havin' your family moment. Ain't ya got care for ya long time buddy?"

"Do not misinterpret my gracious mentorship as anything resembling companionship, grub. You'd best remember that you're the sole reason I'm the last of the Blood-Storms, correct?"

"I thought I was the sole reason ya got for stayin alive?"

"Impudence!"

"Wasn't it the Shaman who took everything else from ya?"

"He wouldn't have had that chance if not for you!"

The delusional Uruk shook his head before glancing to his side and holding his weapon up to his ear "Heh, I know right?" Skak chuckled before turning back to his peer "Is you under the impression that Mogg would've had any chance to stand up to the Shaman?"

"Of course not fool," the hunter got up in the larger Uruk's face and snarled "but perhaps we wouldn't be in the situation we're-"

"Hold up." Skak said after glancing to the side and letting a confused expression spread across his face

Ishga fumed "Oh how dare you believe you have the right to-!"

"No, I means shut it for a bit and look!" he pointed

The Blood-Storm followed his finger to their master...

...who seemed to be glowing.

"Blood-Axe doesn't like how that looks." Skak mentioned as the two turned to look at their leader, whose body seemed to pulse with a faint reddish glow as he slumbered.

"Shut up!" Ishga grumbled before frowning at his master's state "He's... this is probably part of his power!"

"He glow when he slept back in Mordor?"

"No but- Hm, this is surely the works of this lands magics working their ways."

"So... should we be... helping him?"

"I- I don't rightfully know." the Blood-Storm finally confessed as the two looked on "He said he's already done it this way, so I guess it won't hurt him. I guess we just tell him about it once he-"

"So that's it!" The Dreamer said as his eyes shot open, the two Blood Uruks flinching back at his sudden awakening. The Glow diminished almost immediately, the Warchief having not noticed it as he yawned and began climbing out of his bed.

Ishga shook off his surprise almost immediately, remembering that he'd had a job to do. He immediately kneeled "Master! We did as you instructed, we found that in your sleep you... well you glow."

"Glow?" Tugog glanced towards him as he began getting his bearings "In what manner?

"Red glow!" Skak called out before pointing towards the Warchief's red trousers "Like that but less."

"Interesting," the Dreamer commented before shaking his head "we'll need to look into that later. But for now."

"Oh!" the Blood-Storm stood up, ready for another chance to prove his worth "What did you see this time, master? We are ready to aid you!"

"I see that the Chiefless have been busy, they seem to be holding a tournament soon. And we will be in attendance."

Ishga raised an eyebrow "Sir?"

His master turned back to them both "Have the Surgeon ready a Dreamer Gate, I'm going to need the both of you to get me something."

---

A Cave Somewhere...

Yang backed away from a moment to let loose some heavy breaths before raising her fists once more, ahead of her several Uruks in various tattered garbs slowly approached while moving around the fallen bodies of their comrades. Around them all were the walls of the pit, dug deep into the center of the factory floor with several assembly lines nearby, around its edge stood a small crowd of White-painted Uruks including-

"Doing great Lady!" Krosh called out as he watched her charge into the group with renewed fervor "You'll be ready for the Tournament in no time!"

As Yang fell to the ground with one off her opponents struggling in her grasp, she couldn't help but glance up at the Warmonger. A tournament? He couldn't possibly mean the Vytal tournament, right?

He noticed the confused look in her eyes and smirked before crouching down besides the pit "Ah, I see somebody's interested now." he stood before placing his hands on his hips and pacing around the pit "See, those chief-less idiots have been getting hammered lately, and not the good kind that involves grog and a fist-fight. White Fang haven't exactly taken to kindly to having boots in their business, and may have been reacting with some heavily expected retaliation. So one of the stronger gangs have decided some good morality raising brawling is necessary. Uruk by the name of Ishmol the Slave-Driver is holding a tournament, and we're going to remind all of those lesser why the Storm's not one to screw around with by winning."

Yang ducked under a swing and shoved her attacker into another Uruk "Well if you guys are entering, why not join up yourself?" she asked before ramming her fist into the jaw of yet another opponent "You seem so smug about being stronger, why don't one of you Warmonger guys do it?"

Krosh shrugged "If I could I would, but he ain't known as the Slave-Driver for nothing, captives and restrained beasts only." he glanced around at the assembly-line workers around him "Most of the slaves we got here are used for labor, not fighting. And the beasts we got ain't exactly at tip top shape if you catch my drift. We could dump one of them dark beasts in, but the Great Shaman himself doesn't seem particularly keen on trusting our victory on them."

"And since my vile spawn here's got a thing for enslavin' strong women-folk, he was trusted to find a strong slave to enter on our behalf." yet another familiar and unpleasant voice reached her ears.

The Warmonger seemed displeased with this as well, frowning as he spotted none other than Raltug approaching with a smile. In one hand he had a dirty clipboard, in the other a bloody fountain pen, slung over his shoulder was a wet towel which soaked water into the stolen doctor's coat he still wore.

"T'was by pleasant coincidence that Bubol showed up when he did." the Sawbones said as he fixed his lens-less glasses then peaked into the pit to view the fight "Offerin' us a huntress? Seemed too good to be true, your lot are renown for being apt combatants, perfect for this little Tourney. I doubt those Chief-less fools can manage to obtain something of your level, but just in case they do, you'll have to pull your A-game... that's how men-folk here say it, right?"

Yang narrowed her eyes at the two before returning her attention to the last standing Uruk, who brandished two thick wooden boards. He crossed them in front of himself as he stepped forward, adopting a much more defensive stance than his brothers.

"So these guys I've been beating on for the past twenty minutes?" Yang asked as she sized her opponent up

"Chief-less fools who got the stupid idea that they were good enough to challenge the Storm." Krosh explained as he leaned against a nearby support beam "Often we just send them running with their tails tucked between their legs, but often we'll pluck a few from the crop to use as practice dummies."

"Ya know, that sounds exactly like something you guys would do." She said with a smirk and a sigh before charging.

As the duo watched, the Swordsmith looked down at Krosh with a raised eyebrow "I'm rightly surprised you decided to switch to this type o' trainin'." he said as he looked over the clipboard "Usually ya hog your toys all to yourself and have me put 'em back together when ya get too into it."

"This one's for the Shaman, I wouldn't risk jeopardizing his plan and you know it." the Warmonger glanced at the clipboard in his elder's hand "Whatcha got there?"

"Oh, just some records o' mine. Can't keep building if we ain't got shrakh to build with, got's to keep all o' that in check." Ratlug said before smirking down at him and flipping a page "Also got the results back from MY entry into the tourney."

Krosh frowned at that and turned on the Swordsmith "You're still going on about that?"

"Of course, though a minister of medicine, I'm an engineer by trade, young'un." He leaned down to wave his clipboard "And by my readings MY entry's gonna be eatin' yours alive durin' that tourney."

"You know I can hear you two, right?"

Once more their brewing quarrel was halted as their attention was drawn to Yang, who tossed the now-unconscious board-wielder away before placing her hands on her hips.

"Ya know this whole thing would go a bit easier if you gave me back my gauntlets." she said in an encouraging matter

"If you can survive in our arena without them then fighting with them in the Tournament should be a cakewalk." the Warmonger said ass he glanced back to something approaching and gave a smirk "Now keep your head up, next round ain't gon' be as easy as the last."

The brawler rolled her eyes and groaned, as fun as beating down a bunch of goons was, the fact that she was doing it on Krosh's behalf soured the experience greatly. Despite this she could appreciate the momentary distraction, as it gave her time to puzzle out more pieces of her location. It had to be a factory somewhere, built into a mountain somewhere if the stone walls making up her cell were any indication.

Some muffled mumbling could be heard approaching the pit, breaking Yang's concentration for a moment as her next opponent appeared at the edge. And almost immediately the Blonde's eyes spread wide as a sickened feeling struck her right in the gut.

"The hell is that thing?!" she couldn't help but ask as the monstrosity before her seemed to take offence at the title, if the insulted look in its oddly bright green eyes said anything. Standing between Krosh and Ratlug was a skinny humanoid with various blotches of mismatched skin, in some places looking soft and smooth and in others looking rough and leathery. Where its arms should've been were nothing but several slender fingers growing from its shoulders, which seemed functional if the occasional twitches of the appendages were any indication.

It wore nothing more than a lengthy tattered skirt which seemed even filthier than the cell she'd recently been in, and the same went for the heavy straps which were wrapped tightly around its chest. And on its face it wore what could only be described as an actual bear trap as a mouth guard. It looked as though it had been modified heavily, as it moved in time with the creature's mouth, a mess of regular human and jagged teeth which was mostly obscured by the trap. Raggedy patches ofblack hair jutted from the many straps holding the trap in pace, singed at the very ends in some places and chopped haphazardly in others.

With several more groans and babbles the creature dropped into the pit, landing atop one of the downed Uruks with bared feet before standing to its full height... which wasn't that much actually. Though it was short and even worryingly thin in some places, the sheer giddiness in its illegible mumblings betrayed its enthusiasm.

"This is Mincemeat, I guess you could call her my longest lasting slave. And trust me when I say she went through some definite shit to get that title." Krosh commented from above as Yang tentatively raised her fists in front of her "Usually I just have her eat any toys that I lose interest in, but she's still deadlier than the fools you spent the last half hour wailing on. So I figured if you could stand up to the dog here then your victory in the tourney is practically assured."

Mincemeat nodded vigorously at that, so she could at least understand them it seemed.

"Uh, is that thing on her head-"

"Yep." the Warmonger answered as more Storm members wandered over to watch "Used to be just a regular mouthpiece we put spikes on, but thankfully this guy's a better engineer than a doctor."

He elbowed Ratlug, who glared back at him before distracting himself with his notes.

"Hm," Yang didn't like looking at this thing, Mincemeat's visage was more unsettling than a lot of Grimm she'd fought before "and I'm just gonna take a shot here and say that a lack of arms isn't going to be too much of a problem for her, eh?"

To her surprise, the reply was uttered from the subject of discussion herself "Nuh-uh." Mincemeat managed to muble through the device on her head before ducking low and darting forward.

Momentarily shocked by the Slave's comprehensive words, it took Yang a moment to steel her stance as her opponent launched herself into the air. Following her movements, Yang gulped audibly as Mincemeat suddenly dive-bombed towards her metallic jaws open.

The brawler dodged to the side as Mincemeat slammed into the ground face first, but was caught off guard when she suddenly swung her leg out towards her.

Blocking the stray kick with her arms, Yang tried capitalizing on her opponent's downed position before she could throw anymore surprises. This proved futile as the Slave's spare leg swung to the side with enough force to dislodge her metallic headgear from the ground and send her rolling away out of the young huntress in training's reach. She didn't stay down for long, as she slipped her legs underneath her armless torso and pushed herself off the ground into a run with practiced ease.

Yang slid to the side as Mincemeat chomped at her, sending her fist into the side of the slave's headgear with enough force to make her stumble. Yang refused to give her enough time for a recovery, charging knuckles readied towards the off-balance biter. A second punch connecting with her jaw nearly sent her off her feet, one leg failing to hold her up as Yang dug in.

But just as she got in range to continue her barrage, one of Mincemeats legs shot forward and locked around her own. Momentum of attack lost, Yang realized what was happening too late as the other leg latched onto her as well.

Legs restricted, the Brawler immediately tried pulling an arm back as Mincemeat swung her entire head into the blonde's like a battering ram. The force coupled with her barred legs led to her falling onto her back as Mincemeat reared back jaw open. Yang had taken strong hits before, even to the face, that allowed her recover far faster than the Slave had anticipated. Yang caught her by the throat as she swung towards her, immediately squeezing down to cut off as much air as possible while the metal jaws jerked open and snapped shut right before her eyes over and over.

"Hey Lady!"

Out of the corner of Yang's eye, she spotted Krosh calling to her "Just so you know, choking her doesn't work as much as it used to Lady so don't go banking on it."

Her eyes went back to Mincemeat, who kept struggling to sink her jaws into her, and she cursed as she considered the truth behind those words.

"Munchie! Munchie!" the Slave choked out as she pushed forward still.

Well... great...

Yang tried finding a better grip on the biter's torso in order to better shove her off, yet once again the armless girl's stubbornness presented itself once more.

"Hey! Somebody get me a drink and some Hybrid-meat." Krosh gestured to one of the other spectating Uruks before being distracted by the approaching sound off chains "Huh, I didn't call for anymore slaves."

Approaching was none other than Ogthrak with a look of mild curiosity, also for some reason baring large industrial chains wrapped tightly around both of his forearms "Well well, what's goin on round here? Some worm showed up while I was training some runts and said 'Oi boys, Krosh got 'is little champion wailin' on some Chiefless scum. Who wants to see them break 'er face?!' and now I find my class huddled around your toys gawking like a bunch of shrakhs."

"I'm surprised they weren't busy gawking at those fancy weights you have there," the shorter Warmonger pointed to one of the thick chains "the hell do you have those for?"

Ogthrak raised an eyebrow before shrugging "What, you never see training weights before?"

"Usually training weights are heavy slabs strapped to the limbs you work out with, I'm positive we got some of those around."

The bulkier Uruk waved it off as he walked past "Well I like 'em, they make good marks in grunts when I beat 'em, so deal with it." he urged before glancing into the pit "So tell me what's so much more important than my classes, eh?"

Krosh folded his arms as a snarky smirk crossed his lips "Well I don't exactly think I have enough time to go through the list, so I'll just direct your attention to this brawl we got going on here-Oh oh! Look at this!"

He pointed in just as Yang finally managed to dislodge Mincemeat from her, shoving her back before cramming as much of her fist into her stomach as possible and forcing air and saliva out of the Slave's mouth.

"Ain't you worried that one o' your girls gonna get some permanent damage? You've had Mince since before ya joined up with us."

"Yeah well if some unarmed blonde is enough to beat her then obviously she hasn't learned enough from our time together." Krosh waved it off as he watched the two charge towards each other once more "Besides, she's got plenty of permanent damage already, who'd possibly be worried for her wellbe-"

"Mincey!"

The voice drew the attention of the entire crowd as a figure burst through a door on an upper catwalk before frantically look around "I heard, Mincey! I ain't gonna let her hurt you!"

The voice even affected the Slave as well, her eyes going wide within her headpiece as her head turned towards it. Yang could relate, that voice was just familiar enough to tug at her attention, however her opponent's momentary distraction proved too much of an opportunity to pass up. And so before she could think twice, she tackled the metal-mouthed muncher to the ground.

"Ha!" she exclaimed as she held down the writhing Slave's legs with her own and used her arms to keep her deadly headgear locked in place "Try wiggling outta this one!"

"No!" that voice called once more "Don't ruin that delicious mouth of hers!"

"Hey, the hell are you-" She heard Krosh yell in shock "Wha-! Grab him!"

"Oh come on! Please, she's too precious!"

Wait... It was only now that her opponent was marginally subdued that she truly thought about that disgusting, annoying voice and how familiar it was.

Turning her head while maintaining her hold on Mincemeat, Yang glanced to the edge of the pit before letting the anger spill into her expression.

She could see Krosh angrily glaring at something writhing in another Uruk's chain-wrapped arms. The thing was actually a bony Uruk who wasn't wearing the storm's blue and white colors, good thing because she couldn't imagine the body paint working with the massive sores growing on his bod-

"Bubol!?"

The diseased Archer paused in his struggling to glance down at her, blinking before a sick grin spread across that grotesque face of his "Oh, its the yellow one!"

"Why can't any of you just say my name?"

"Well cram me in a Caragor gut!" he exclaimed before giggling to himself "When I heard that Kroshie-boy had my dear, sweet Mincey goin against one of his other slaves, I had no idea it would bee you!"

He laughed until a painted fist sank into his grotesque face and sent his aura flaring as it snapped to the side from the force "Damn it Bubol!" Krosh shouted as he tightened his fist "You can't just come barging in here screaming bloody murder every time I have MY slave go up against someone!"

"But I can't let anything happen to that-" he paused to groan lustfully, causing Ogthrak to immediately lean his head away from him "-that damn near delicious mouth of hers!"

He giggled at his own thoughts as Krosh placed a hand to his forehead and sighed.

Yang had sorely underestimated how annoying seeing that pervert again would be, her grip on the armless woman beneath her tightening without her even realizing it. Mincemeat didn't seemed to mind, in fact the cannibal seemed more inclined to direct her own snarling and growling towards the Archer as well.

"You distracted her! The entire battle is incon-fucking-clusive because of you!"

"I am more than willing to take blame for this," Bubol said solemnly before that expression was once again drowned away buy another vomit-inducing smile and he glanced into the pit once more "Ya hear that Mincey!? I may have ruined ya little fight! I sure do hope you don't get mad and... and..! Sink those succulent teeth of yours into me!"

"For Sauron's sakes, get him out of here!"

---

Vale-Beacon Academy

"And this one is of Mr. Ironwood and you showing me how ta use crayons and whatnot, and here's one of me and muh Beacon Friends."

"Interesting."

Krimp looked up from the very haphazard crayon drawings he had scattered around him and smiled at Ozpin, who looked over the various images with a look of interest. Off to the side stood a critical General along with the remaining three members of Team RWBY.

"How about you show us the one you made of that friend of yours who was recently on TV?"

Krimp lifted an eyebrow as he looked down at the pictures for a moment, then dug through them to raise a single haphazard crayon drawing of a thin Uruk with dark armor and spears strapped to his back "Ya mean Gundzie?"

Ozpin looked back at Blake, who tried to take as many of the childish depictions details into account "I can't say for certain, I only saw it for a split second after dislodging it from the Hijacker." she said before glancing to her Headmaster "It's definitely similar to it."

Ozpin gave a small hum at that "Krimp," he gathered the Uruk's attention "could you tell us about this friend of yours? He seems to have stirred up a bit of trouble around here recently."

"Aw, he's just angry I'm sure!" Krimp gathered his pictures and rose to his full height "He's been angry ever since getting into a bit o' trouble with his Warchief, got himself and his pals exiled. He's been trying to get back in his good graces forever now."

"Tell me," General Ironwood spoke up "does he have a way to take control of others?"

"Hn?" Krimp smiled at that "You mean the dark aura thingie? That's his semblie talent! Don't know how it works, been hanging round here too long to check up on him for a while."

"What do you know about it?"

"Just that its kinda like mergin' with someone's Aura stuff, don't know much else other than that."

The General sighed before turning away and utter a sarcastic "Perfect."

Krimp put a finger to his lip as he looked up in thought "Though I don't know why he'd do somethin' like this, he was always a tad on the aggressive side but usually it'd take some proddin' to get him to act out in the open like this."

"Hm," the Atlesian folded his arms "so far you're people have proven exceptionally susceptive to prodding."

"Yeah, Uruk rage is quite the thing, ain't it fellas?"

"In any case Ms. Belladonna," Ozpin spoke after sharing a glance with his fellow headmaster "the actions of both you and Team SSSN should be adequately rewarded."

"We...we only-"

"Were at the right place at the right time?" Ozpin quirked an eyebrow "Perhaps, but nevertheless good deeds simply must be rewarded in order to propagate their repetition, no?"

Blake gave a small smile at that, glancing to the side when Ruby playfully nudged her "Yes, Thank you sir."

"After these events we simply have to reinforce our previous recommendation." The General's expression softened "Go out and have fun, enjoy this downtime. Hopefully without another one of these things showing up."

"Yeah, I'm feeling almost one-hundred percent now!" Ruby said before patting her abdomen "And now that my stomach's no longer achy, I think it deserves some filling, how about it girls?"

"It has been a while since we've just gone out to eat." Blake commented before the two of them glanced to Weiss

The Heiress raised an eyebrow "What? Were you expecting me to say something to discourage an outing with my teammates?"

"Well it's just that every time we wanted to go out before you'd always bring up studying so..."

"We are recovering from a personal tragedy! If anything we deserve this." Weiss insisted, taking precaution not to mention how most of those previous scenarios were her response to Yang's attempts to include the rest of their team in her partying.

"Well then I believe you girls will enjoy this," Ozpin smiled before pulling several strips of paper from his desk "I hear many students praising this shop for it's meals and figured you'd all enjoy the downtime."

Stepping forward to accept the offered papers, the girls found themselves in possession of large coupons for a noodle-shop in Vale, one that they and most of their friends had visited at some point or other.

"Ah, you guys get's to go having ya'self a nice meal and all?" Krimp spoke up before pouting "I ain't have a good meal like that in so long, even after we's done come here."

"Oh?" Ozpin glanced to the side "Perhaps I'll get you a bowl if I find myself with the spare time."

As the Uruk clapped his hands together in a pleased manner, the Headmaster turned back to the girls "Please, enjoy yourselves for the time being."

Giving their thanks, the teammates made their way to the elevator as Ozpin leaned back in his chair and glanced to the ceiling with a thoughtful expression.

"They shouldn't have to be dealing with this." Ironwood stated as he turned to his old friend

"I know James, nobody should. Especially at this fragile time in-"

"Oh! Excuse us Ms. Goodwitch."

Weiss's voice drew attention to the elevator, where a stressed looking Glynda nodded to the girls before striding past them to the two Headmasters with a large file tucked under her arm. Ruby gave a worried look at them before joining her teammates in the elevator.

"Glynda, I feel like its been forever since I last saw you." Ironwood commented

"For good reason, I've been busy trying to keep track of these things and their movements." she said before turning to Ozpin and dropping a file on his desk "Here are all known abandoned villages and structures between here and the Vacuo border."

Ozpin opened the file to find page after page of possible hiding locations for their opponents to put to use. His expression steeled with every one he glanced through.

"So many..." Ironwood said with a hint of worry working its way into his tone.

"And that doesn't even count the camps and outposts the White Fang have littered about." She said before folding her arms "We'll never be able to comb through all of them in a timely manner, by the time we track down one group another could've moved three consecutive times."

"At this rate we'll never be able to track down the captives." Ozpin conceded with a sigh "The manpower necessary would have to rival the Uruk-Hai in numbers."

"Now do you see that we need to start calling in for more AK units?" Ironwood asked "I'd like to keep this under wraps as well, Oz. But with no other way to effectively track down those captives then we'll need to-"

"Why not just check for 'em at the Slave Tournie?"

The three paused and turned to Krimp, who was in the middle of sucking on a crayon "I betcha most of them'll be there!"

"Slave...Tournament?" Glynda began

"Yeah, me good buddy Ishmol's got a big arena built outta an old lookin factory. Had it for fights and the usual, but now he's gone and demanded all the chief-less fellows to come along and bring their slaves to fight in it!"

"And you didn't happen to bring this up before why?!" Ironwood glared at him "And don't say because-"

"But nobody asked buddy."

"That's it!"

"James, please. Let's take what we can get." Ozpin said before folding his hands together and turning on the smiling giant "Now why don't you tell us a bit more about this Tournament?"

---

A Cave Somewhere...

The door closed with an all encompassing thud behind her, and Yang glanced back as the locks were set in place.

"Hey!" she called out, hearing the locking pause

"Lady," Krosh's voice came from the other side "I swear you better have something important to ask."

"Why are you guys putting up with Bubol of all people?" she asked, turning to face the door with her arms folded " He's not one of you, I mean like he doesn't have your colors or any of that. You Warmongers don't exactly seem like the guys who'd put up with that kinda stuff from an outsider."

"Hey, the Shaman thinks he's entertaining so he stays alive... for now." Yang heard him mutter that last part "Besides, annoying or not he's still deadly enough for me to respect him to a certain degree... unlike some people."

Yang narrowed her eyes at that before stepping closer to the door "Oh yeah? Well then what about that armless chick?"

"What about her?"

"You keep her around despite an obvious weakness, aren't you guys all about eliminating weakness or whatever?"

"That's different," he said quickly "she's MINE. I get to decide when she dies. Nobody else, me!"

Yang heard him finish locking up, "Is she..?" She trailed off as she heard his footsteps going away, then sighed before turning. She was about to go find somewhere to nap until her next brawl, but paused when she heard familiar laughter down the hall. Pressing her ear against the door, yeah...yeah there was no denying it.

"Good lord, does he ever stay quiet?" she heard an Uruk utter over the giggles

"Only when he's trying to get that look about him." another replied

"Oh boys, I assure you I can be as quiet as ya need me ta be!" came the unmistakably disgusting voice of Bubol "You two could do whatever ya want to little ol me and the others won't ever need to know!"

"J-just get him in there already, there's a corner somewhere that requires my vomit ASAP."

"How hurtful!" Bubol cooed as his voice was somewhat muffled by a closing door "Why not lock another one of ya slaves in here to keep me company, eh?"

"You's lucky the Shaman spared one, we can't just have you infecting all of our labor like that." one of the Guards groaned "Come on, let's get outta here before he starts groaning again."

Two pairs of footsteps moved past her cell, but Yang was more focused on the sounds coming from right next door to her. There was no way, right?

Against her better judgement, she slid to the side of the door and called out "Hey! Uh... Bubol? Is that you?"

There was a second of something clattering on the ground before the vile voice spoke up again "Yellow! It is you! Looks like we're neighbors! Goody goody!"

"Did-were you in that cell this whole time?"

"Nah, they moved me after a slave somehow ended up lodged in my ol' cell's wall. I told them it wasn't me but..."

Yang sighed, just when she was sure her day would get quiet, at least she had a source of information so close. Though the legitimacy of what he says would always be up for debate "Why are you even in a cell? Aren't you buddy buddy with these guys?"

"That's exactly why I'm here sweetness! What better place to wait for the Tournie than in a Storm Cell? These things are so deluxe! Why, ever since coming here I've had me belly consistently full with the finest!"

Yang's own stomach grumbled at that, the schlop they called food here could only go so far. It was like gruel had committed suicide and she'd been forced to feast upon its melted remains. That was what he considered deluxe?

"Yeah, listen I-"

"Oh, hold on one sec though missy!" Bubol said, the faint sound of footsteps disappeared for a moment before returning.

"Okay, got me beverage with me, let's have us a talk!" the grotesque Uruk cheered followed by a snapping sound that made Yang's eyes widen. That sound was unmistakable, she'd heard it so many hundreds of times before.

Previous questions forgotten, she pressed against the door "Bubol...is... that a can of soda?"

"So-da? That's whatya call this stuff? Ha! I like it!" the Lustful Archer chittered before pausing to take a loud sip

"Y-You have soda in your cell?" Damn it, just how lackluster was her cell in comparison to his?

"Oh yeah, nice little box thingie has them. I hear it keeps 'em nice and chilled."

A mini-fridge... he had a goddamn mini-fridge in there.

"Bubol... is... where do you sleep?"

"Oh! They hauled me bed in from the ol' cell, pretty comfy place. Probably feel comfier with a slave waitin' for me under those sheets."

His fantasies aside, the idea of there being a comfy bed and a mini-fridge right next door to her reminded Yang of just how much Krosh seemed to go out of his way to make her despise him.

Biting back the curses, Yang tried to get back on track before she lost focus "Hey, w-what happened... after you beat me?"

"Oh? curious aren't we, love." Bubol chittered before pausing to drink "Well, guess I should say that ya sis tried helping ya valiantly after she saw you in that mess a trouble she did."

Yeah, that sounds like something Ruby would do. Hell, if she had gone down instead of her then Yang would probably tear through anything and everything to keep her out of his hands. But that still meant...

"I take it you stopped her then?"

"Yep! Nearly killed each other tryin' to reach ya!" He paused to laugh "Oh she was a flighty one, took some time to beat her down nice and good-like."

Gritting her teeth, Yang tried not to think of this disgusting pervert hurting her sister, but Bubol seemed keen on continuing

"Like, she was hoppin' all over tryin' to stick me with that oversized scythe of hers. But I crushed her betwixt two thick trees, staying as nubile as I've ever been oh yes. She's nice and alive though, should've seen the way she looked up at me all sad and like, watching her own blood get carted off to and unknown fate!"

"You asshole!" she couldn't hold it back "Soon as I find a way outta here I'm gonna introduce my fist to your jaw, and trust me when I say that their gonna have an intimate relationship."

"Ooooh, I like intimate, doll." Bubol said with a lusty sigh

"Bet you won't like when I beat the teeth out of you!"

"Oh? What else are you gonna do to me?" he asked through increasingly heavy breaths

"I'll-!" Yang paused in her spiel "Just forget it."

"What? No no, sweetness I was soo close! Keep threatening me, damn it!"

"Why would you even... Oh... Oh god... Are you-?!"

"Yes! Yes I am, now talk about how much ya wanna crush me under ya boot!"

"You're sick!"

"And you're deliciously violent, we can help each other out, darling!"

Yang groaned before standing and walking away from the door, having heard more than enough to keep her disgusted for the rest of the day. As Bubol called for her, she moved as far away from the door and slid down to the foot a wall. Now safe from his perverted demands, she curled up and began trying to get some sleep. It was hard, as images of Ruby lying defenseless at the feet of that bastard kept popping into her head. After some time, she managed to replace those images with ones of her beating the ever-loving hell out of both him and Krosh. It was a pleasant thought, of both of them getting some good old fashioned physical come-uppance. Though even that was dulled down once she imagined Bubol demanding she hurt him more.

Damn it! How was she supposed to feel good about beating him up if he enjoyed receiving pain just as much as giving it? How does one win!?

At just that moment the locks on her door began opening, and her head jerked up as two figures stood in her doorway. She watched as one of them patted the other on the back before exiting the door and closing it behind him leaving the other alone with her. She clenched her fists, ready to get out some aggression on someone after having her day thoroughly ruined by her neighbor, but instead she let her eyes go wide in shock once she realize who exactly was standing in front ofher.

It was Mulgrim... the camera guy.

Wasn't he supposed to be dead?

Yang opened and closed her mouth like a fish as she watched the Uruk walk over, noting the changes in appearance. His body paint seemed smudged in various places, the once intricate blue and white designs mixing in uglier ways, and his eyes looked bloodshot. He stumbled a bit as he walked, but finally came to a stop before sitting down in front of her to resume watching her as if she hadn't watched him get accidentally gunned down. Once he had taken his seat, the most notable change became all the more noticeable.

Around his neck was a wet towel which seemed soaked with both water and his black blood.

---

The Desert Tower

"Spear Check!" Ishga called out to a band of hunters sporting the same red tattoos and body paint as him. At his words, many recounted the number of spears in their sacks, one tested his by running his tongue over the sharp tips, cackling dumbly when one managed to cut into the thick flesh of his oral appendage.

They were gathered on a large balcony protruding from the side of the tower, much of it had been crumbling when they'd arrived, but over time hard-working slaves had managed to reinforce and replace many of its parts. Now sitting around it were two distinct groups of Uruks, ones garbed in the same red and white as Ishga, and-

"Blood-Axe says this ain't sharp enough, runt." Skak was looking over a large dagger wielded by a shorter Uruk who had the same red markings as him "You'd do best to get ya self another weapon."

What Skak called his Blood-Brothers, a bunch of common warriors dressed in garb similar to his. They were much more numerous and Brawny than Ishga's Blood-Hunters, but they lacked the skill or diligence his own followers had.

The Hunter sighed, having to once more remind himself that this was all that was left of the once insurmountable Blood-Storm. These two Captains and their underlings, the few who hadn't gone crawling to the feet of that Shaman.

Ishga remembered a time when only the name of them would send worms scuttling back to their hidey holes, when walking into a room meant instant fear and respect from every glob who saw them. Even the Garrison knew to see them as equals, respected their territories and their captains. Back when both Hork and Tugog were still like the battle-brothers they'd been on the field. They'd been there to aid in Dreamer's overthrowing of the last Warchief after Skog the Corruptor had given them a perfect avenue of attack. They were there to enforce his first rules onto the Army he'd taken, and under the strict command of their leader, Mogg the Elder, they would've been unstoppable for years to come.

But then...

Ishga's eyes flitted to Skak, who was taking the time to taunt the runt along with some of his underlings, the warriors taking turns having a laugh at the smaller Uruk's expense.

Mogg had been the father Ishga and his brother needed to become strong despite their small statures, it kept them from becoming useless like that runt. As a less than muscular individual himself, the Elder trained every Uruk under his command in using tools to make up for what they might lack. The brothers would of course be included among his ranks, and if they died then Mogg would consider them failures. Maku had idolized the Blood-Storm's glorious leader far more than his peers, Ishga always figured that's why he took it so hard when Skak entered the scene.

He'd joined the storm for feats of physical power, and had been expected to rise through the ranks despite his occasional jokes. Skak the Funny One he'd been called until he found that damn axe. Nobody ever really figured out how he got ahold of the weapon, but once he did the occasional jokes became a twenty-four seven act between him and the Blood-Axe. Nobody could take him seriously, and having him amongst them was starting to make Uruks in Hork's forces talk.

Mogg decided to deal with it personally, and would put the embarrassment down to prove that the Blood-Storm did not abide humiliating acts such as this.

Ishga remembered that day as if it were yesterday, a crowd of Uruks from both the Blood-Storm and other Warchiefs' armies, a bridge upon which Skak had stood arguing with that ridiculous weapon of his. Mogg looking back to his two personal protégés and Maku calling for the Axe-Wielder's blood as the Elder strode forth to engage him in battle.

It had been going perfectly at first, Mogg dodging and weaving between Skak's powerful swings and avoiding his grapples. The Elder wore him down over time through cleverly placed stabs of his spear, and eventually Skak had fallen to one knee before the superior Uruk. He was barely able to hold his axe, blood mixing with his red markings, he should've been dead right then and there.

And yet the battle ended with Mogg dying in Ishga's arms, his Elder's final words cementing a goal in his head.

After that, watching the Blood-Storm's leader be slain by such a laughing-stock, they had all been labeled as a mockery of what true warriors should be. It was then that Hork's Garrison began looking down upon Dreamer's forces, and then that Shaman showed up and all but ripped whatever power they had left out from under them. The Blood-Storm had become stripped of its old blooded ways and simply became the Storm, with many of its members running to swear allegiance to the Grand Shaman, including-

"Oi!"

Ishga's irritated remembrance was interrupted by his approaching sibling, Maku cast a curious glance around them both before coming to a stop "See you and the reds are busy, what for?"

"We're going to go try out a Dreamer Gate," Ishga responded before returning his attention to his own spears "the Master wants us to go grab something for him."

"Oh? Going on a big mission eh?" Maku chuckled for a bit before glancing at Skak "Mayhaps that fool of yours makes a good shield, eh?"

Ishga didn't respond, causing his brother to look at him for a moment before shrugging "He will be the death of you one day."

"One of us has to honor Father's last words." Ishga retorted

"Ha! Still worrying over that dead incompetent, eh?" Maku gave another amused shrug before turning and walking off "Only thing you should honor about the old bastard is the lesson his death taught us."

His brother may have forgotten what a great and powerful Uruk the Elder was, but Ishga was not one to forget the old glory. Going so far as to take Blood-Storm as his title in order to have a living, breathing representation of what they once were. Mogg's last words would not be forgotten as long as he'd live, the old Uruk had demanded he do his best to aid Skak...

Aid him in becoming one worthy of the accomplishment of slaying the Leader of the Blood-Storm.

---

The City of Vale

As the bus doors closed behind them, the three girls glanced to one another before beginning the short walk to their destination. Weiss glanced at Blake for a moment, the Heiress looking between her and the retreating form of the bus for a moment "Are you sure you're-?"

"I'm fine, Weiss." Blake assured "It was just a bus and that whole deal with Gundza wasn't even in the top five most traumatic things I've witnessed."

"Aw, Weiss is just worried." Ruby waved it off before pausing and looking back at the Faunus "You guys were going so fast that the news crews had trouble keeping up, but from what we did see, things got really tense."

"It was," Blake admitted before lifting her head to look at their surroundings "can't believe we were speeding along these streets just yesterday... Everything looks so normal."

"Yes well, officials were lucky enough that the Cretin you faced had chosen that host in particular." Weiss commented as she followed the Dark-haired girl's gaze "What with his less than savory past and the recent destruction of his previous place of employment, they had an easy way to stake everything on him having a mental break."

"But we'll know... We'll know what's really going-"

"Up up!" Ruby interrupted before turning to them and placing her hands on her hips "We're here to relax, cover ups and mental breaks do not equal relaxing."

Her teammates shared a look before the Heiress shrugged "She isn't wrong."

"Exactly," the young leader composed herself "would Yang really want us feeling all sad and sorry for ourselves?"

Blake glanced down before giving a small smile "She'd probably drag us to a fast food place and have us eat till we can't feel bad about anything other than bulging stomachs anymore."

"Mhm!" Ruby nodded before jerking a thumb towards a nearby door "So that's exactly what we're going to do."

Seems they'd arrived at their destination.

A Simple Wok had once been a small food stand, but the scores of satisfied customers had led to it eventually growing into a larger eatery. Due to its convenient location, it had also become a frequent hang out for Beacon's students whenever they came to the City. It was run by one single old man who seemed insistent on running the entire business by himself, shockingly the lack of staff did nothing to harm his sales...what a determined guy! Rumors say the reason his noodles taste so good is because they are laced with an air of sheer determination.

And Ruby planned on calling for the largest bowl of the most stomach-stuffing noodles he could make, but halted immediately once she spotted a group of familiar faces taking up a large table not too far away. In fact, a certain blonde spotted them as soon as they entered.

"Hey guys!" Jaune called to them as the others sitting near followed his gaze to them "You planning on dining too?"

The table he was sitting at was populated by the rest of his team, Pyrrha waving to them politely as Ren looked over the menu beside her. Beside him was Nora, who was adamantly recapping the entire incident with the hijacker to a pair they hadn't been expecting. Across from their hyper companion sat Yatsuhashi and Fox from Team CFVY, everyone had apparently ordered and now waited for their meals. Yatsuhashi was sitting straight in his seat with his eyes closed and an unreadable expression on his face while Fox was busying himself trying to decipher the authenticity of Nora's tale.

"This is... quite the collection of characters." Weiss commented as the three walked over.

"Yeah." Jaune gave a laugh at that

"We had been planning on joining Team SSSN in their celebration of taking down that Hijacker with you." Pyrrha said to Blake before turning to face them all "However, Scarlet apparently demanded they come with him and help pay for his car repairs."

"Wait," Ruby quirked an eye as she and her teammates took their own seats across from their neighboring team "I don't remember Sage being with them during the bus thing."

"He wasn't." Blake commented

"Then why did Scarlet drag him along?"

"Morale support." Ren noted without looking up "Apparently being alone with Sun, Neptune, and his damaged vehicle was simply impossible."

Pyrrha nodded before gesturing to the CFVY boys "We did however run into these two on the way here and decided to invite them."

As if on cue, the pale-eyed boy held up a hand to cease Nora's explanation "Hold up hold up." he gave her a skeptical look "He had a... a wheel blade?"

"Yep." Nora chirped

"What's a wheel blade?"

Nora groaned at his lack of knowledge on the topic "It's a steering wheel with a blade as a rim, duh."

"He didn't have that." Blake pointed out as the Owner approached, they took a moment to give their own requests to the old man. After writing them down, he gave them a nod before rushing off. With him gone she turned back to Nora and continued with "Why would he have a Wheel Blade in the first place?"

"Because of the whole Mad Bus Driver motif he had?" Nora said with surety before leaning closer to Fox and whispering in an ominous manner "He needed it to exact revenge on the school children who drove him to madness in the first place."

"Not the motive." Ren stated before setting his menu down in front of him "He was just some small time thug who went mad after his boss disappeared and his job went under."

"Obviously a cover up!" Nora flicked her hair dramatically before gazing out a nearby window "A cover-up designed to protect the identities of the ones he'd wronged!"

"Real or not, looks like we missed out on a lot." Fox shrugged before leaning back in his seat "Catching mad bus drivers sounds pretty epic."

"I know right!" Nora gasped before pouting at Blake "Why didn't you guys call us in? I mean, from how the camera guys caught it there was already a whole lot of SCREECH and CRASH and Explosions, but there could've been more!"

"Sorry Nora," Blake replied with a side-glance "I had just been giving those hostages a bit more priority at the time, but you're right in a way."

"What do you mean in a way?"

"If we had asked for more help then the Hijacker wouldn't have been able to put up as much of a fight." Blake admitted "But I couldn't stand the idea of waiting for back up while those civilians were still trapped with him."

"And you did indeed help them." Ren stated "No matter your decisions at the time I'd say you ended up on top, with or without our intervention."

"Yeah, you handled it better than most would give you credit for being a first-year and all." Fox pointed out "Glad to see we've got some good replacements for when me and the crew head on out."

"Where exactly are Velvet and Coco, anyway?" it was Weiss who had asked.

"Well the reason we were kinda wandering Vale was because the girls decided to have some kinda Girls Day Out type of deal." Fox stretched as he spoke "They'd been planning to go with that Krimp guy who's been all over campus, but he couldn't make it for some reason. So they just decided to make it gal time or something, so with them gone for the day me and Yats over here were planning on going to an arcade."

This made the heiress quirk eyebrow "Yatsuhashi...at an Arcade?"

She turned to the massive senior student, whose impassive face remained as he slowly opened his eyes and nodded slightly in affirmation.

The idea of the giant playing whack-a-mole briefly popped into Ruby's mind and she fought to restrain her laughter before she accidentally insulted him or something.

"What about you guys?" Fox asked as he looked them over with a curious look "I see we're one blonde short, so where's Yang?"

The question made the rest of the table go silent for a moment. Fox picked up on this almost immediately, Yatsu quirked an eyebrow at the others' reactions as Jaune started rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh... right." Jaune let out a breath before gesturing to the dark skinned student "Okay, so remember how Yang wasn't with them when you spotted them coming back?"

"Right..." Fox said slowly before turning to the rest of them "I just assumed she was with Oz or something. Nobody said anything."

JNPR's team leader made eye contact with Ruby, who gave him a forgiving smile before glancing at Fox "You see, the trip didn't exactly go as smoothly as we'd hoped it would."

And so she began relaying the story of their encounter, omitting certain details. They'd encountered bandits, defended a village, chased after them to free their hostages, bandit leader took Yang. She felt as if no words she could use could accurately describe the way she felt during the plenty of tense moments they went through when fighting with those Captains. She didn't want to bring down the mood, they were supposed to be getting over all these negative airs for Yang, but the subject matter all but made that impossible. Thankfully, reassuring looks from both Weiss and Blake settled her nerves.

Once she was finished, the others began giving the appropriate condolences.

"Yang is durable," Ren said sympathetically "I'm nearly positive she can handle whatever these criminals throw at her."

"Yeah!" Nora piped up "When we go after her, I'll bet ya a million lien she'll have already pummeled those guys into submission."

The enthusiasm was greatly appreciated.

"But still." Fox glanced up in thought "We've had some close calls before, but I don't wanna think about one of my team getting hauled off like that."

"Would someone even be physically capable of hauling Yatsuhashi off?" Pyrrha questioned

"Hey, you'd be surprised how unexpectedly strong some people are." Fox smirked before looking at his teammate "Not everyone's so noticeably beefy like my pal here. But seriously, I'd be kinda pissed imagining Coco or Velvet in that kinda situation."

Yatsuhashi gave a low hum, then turned to his pale-eyed companion "Are you sure you'd worry about Coco?"

His teammate opened his mouth to speak before pausing and adopting another ponderous expression "Actually now that you mention it she'd probably handle it better than either of us could." he shrugged "Guess we're both worried about that one specific teammate then, eh big guy?"

Weiss and Ruby exchanged looks for a moment before the heiress spoke to the duo "You mean Velvet... right?"

Yatsuhashi got a strange look in his eyes, and Fox scratched the back of his head "Yeah, I don't think she likes anyone else knowing but we all kinda worry about her a lot. Big guy especially."

The large huntsmen in training merely hummed in acknowledgment.

"Why?" Jaune asked

"You of all people should know why Arc." Fox gave a low groan "That whole business with Cardin and his boys."

Yatsuhashi audibly grumbled at that, though his strange expression remained. He folded his arms across his chest before speaking "She never told us... she always said she had a weak constitution, that she had to keep missing certain classes because of sickness."

"The big guy over here respected her personal space, Coco didn't want to scare her off and I guess I just didn't know enough to really put much stake into it." Fox shrugged "I always just assumed she was some extreme introvert. She'd flinch whenever Coco or I tried hanging out with her, would only speak with Yatsu when she needed to, and demanded to sit alone at lunch."

"I do remember her being quite antisocial early on in the year." Weiss commented "Timid seems an apt description, I could only think up a few moments where I'd actually heard her voice back then."

"Yeah," Jaune agreed before turning back to them "So what changed?"

"What do you mean?" Fox looked surprised "After that stunt you pulled with the Ursa, Team CRDL left her alone in order to go on some kinda self-improvement binge or whatever. Less pressured and under some prodding from Coco, she finally came clean to us that they'd been tormenting her for weeks."

"What a horrible partner I am." Yatsuhashi sighed "Not once did I think that she was under such stress, I had assumed she would speak if anything had truly bothered her."

"You were just raised to respect other people's privacy." Ren pointed out before turning his gaze to the Fox "If anything, Its more surprising you and Coco didn't notice anything."

The Dark-Skinned boy just released another groan, "Anyway, Coco basically forced Velvet to be her gal pal after that, wouldn't let her ever be without some kinda positive source nearby. I guess over time Vel started siphoning off some of Coco's confidence, it's been doing her good as far as I can tell."

"But still, we should've done more." Yatsuhashi looked down for a moment "Perhaps challenged those CRDL boys to a duel and given them a real opponent."

He paused for a moment before glancingto Pyrrha "Not to say that your battle with them wasn't gratifying, Miss Nikos."

"Oh!" Pyrrha waved it off "No worries, it was gratifying for me as well. Cardin and his friends have quite the tendency to get on people's bad side."

"Yeah," Jaune leaned back with a questioning look on his face "which makes it even more shocking how fast Krimp managed to befriend them."

"Pssh," Nora gave a small laugh "Krimp could befriend a starving Ursa if he wanted to, the guy's just got the charm."

The mentioning of the disguised Uruk made a lump form in Ruby's throat, and a quick look at her teammates proved that Blake also seemed uncertain of the sudden direction of the conversation. Weiss on the other hand...

"I don't know."

All eyes were on the heiress now, who had placed a hand to her chin in thought as she pondered over the interactions she'd had with the Massive and overly childish Uruk "Its just that... well, he does indeed seem excessively compassionate to everyone he meets. But there's just something off, its like he's... disconnected."

"He's what?" Blake asked

"I can't describe it properly and that's exactly what I don't like about it."

"Maybe its got something to do with his family?" Pyrrha said, which made Jaune's eyes widen a bit

"That's true, he always did say that he lived around a pretty rough crowd." Jaune pointed out "Maybe its just how he coped with being the odd man out?"

"He said that?" Ruby asked, realizing she really didn't have an idea how much the friendly Uruk had disclosed to her friends.

"Yeah, from how he spoke of them they... well they didn't seem like the nicest of people."

Ruby thought for a moment, glancing down at the table before her before saying "Those bandits that took Yang, Krimp sorta came from them."

And now the mass of stares were directed back to her, and she shriveled a little as her eyes darted from dumbfounded expression to dumbfounded expression.

It was Fox who broke the silence "Hold up, hold up." he raised a hand "You're telling me that the dude who helped carry Coco and Velvet's stuff on their last shopping trip rolled with a bunch of crooks like that?"

"Yeah," Ruby said with a nervous laugh "they didn't really see eye to eye."

"The same guy who helped me and Jaune with our training and consistently offered to buy drinks whenever we tired?" Pyrrha questioned

"Mhm."

"The boy who's got a bear hug which rivals mine?!" Nora gasped

"Yes, Nora. Krimp came from a band of bandits."

It was silent for some time after that, until Jaune leaned back his seat "Ya think you know a guy." he glanced towards the members of Team RWBY with a questioning look "But the guys you described. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how Krimp of all people could possibly come from a similar background."

Weiss shrugged "I've been mulling over that since we initially met him. No matter how you cut it, Krimp's disposition should not be possible to cultivate in an environment such as his. The Sheer difference between his ideals and those of someone like Bubol leave much to consider."

"Bubol, he was that guy who took off with Yang right?" Pyrrha asked, and when she received confirmation she placed a hand to her chin "Was he really so bothersome?"

"He was disgusting." Ruby said with a frown "Every chance he got he kept making these really off-putting innuendos, not only to us but the guys working with him too."

"He was pretty sick with something, had boils growing all over." Blake commented " But he certainly didn't fight like it."

Oh Ruby was more than aware of that, thinking back to that leering grin stretched across the Archer's face as he stood over her. Ruby had never before held contempt towards anyone in her life. The criminals she and her friends fought to stop, they were terrible yes but many of them she knew were just misguided. It didn't keep her from kicking their butts when they put people in danger, but she liked to think she was doing them a favor by stopping them before they could cause too much trouble. The Grimm who threatened everything and everyone she cared for, she always just saw them as a terrible consistency in nature. She hated that they preyed upon the People of Remnant, but always figured that it was just the way that they were designed by nature. She hated that they had to deal with them, but she didn't look upon them with the sheer disdain that she knew many of her peers did.

And she tried seeing the Uruks like that too!

She wanted to think they were just like this naturally, that she could just lump them in with the Grimm. There were already plenty of similarities there in the first place. But the Grimm didn't inspire the same burning sensation of anger in her that a certain Uruk did.

When she thought of the many ransacked villages that had been attacked by the Grimm, it made her sad for its former inhabitants and reaffirmed her choice of occupation. But when her thoughts drifted back to that... that monster hauling her half-drowned sister off to an uncertain fate-

"Ruby?"

The red-head realized she'd been silent for a while, and glanced up to Jaune, who was staring at her along with the rest of the table.

"You uh... you okay there?" he asked as Weiss rolled her eyes

Ruby glanced to her teammates, who both were giving her concerned looks, before swallowing "Yeah, yeah no I'm fine." She said before placing a hand on the table and casually drumming her fingers on it "Just thinking..."

Before anyone could ask her to elaborate, massive bowls of noodles came flying onto the table, landing with astonishing precision in front of the students. So deep into their conversation, the sudden introduction of their meals surprised many of the hungry huntsmen in training. Once the final bowl landed in front of Yatsuhashi, the group turned to the end of their table where the owner stood. He took a single glance at their meals then looked at a notepad in his hand. After confirming he'd gotten the orders correct, he shot the group a small smile before darting back into the kitchen.

"Oh my," Pyrrha looked over the large bowl in front of her "I'd forgotten how big the portions got at this particular location."

"Maybe some could split?" Weiss pondered, glancing to her partner whose eyes rapidly widened at the bowl in front of her "Hey, Ruby are you-?"

"No talking!" the Team Leader suddenly yelped before snatching up the nearest utensil and letting a jovial smile return to her face "Just eating."

As she dug in, Blake and Weiss shared a look before following their teammate's lead and digging in.

Soon noodles were consumed and the pleasant hums of satisfied taste buds replaced the ponderous thoughts uttered previously. Talk shifted to comments on the food or Ren's insistence that Nora pace herself lest she choke on her meal, a far cry from the previous topics which dominated the discussion. With a much less tense atmosphere, the three members of Team RWBY could feel an air of relaxation one could only get with good food, good talk and good friends. It was quite therapeutic.

"Man," Jaune said as he leaned back from his bowl, taking a break from the menacing task of finishing such a monster of a meal "Sun and them would've loved this." he sighed before glancing towards Fox "Hey, think the rest of your team would be into this?"

The Pale-eyed boy chuckled "I think Coco would be down for anything really, and Vel would probably go along with it just because she would."

"Really now?" Blake seemed a bit skeptical "Just because Coco would?"

"Yeah Coco could make almost anything look appealing, its why she's got that fan group who keeps sending her letters." Fox mentioned casually before turning and nudging his teammate in the side "Hey, bet you she dragged Vel to some clothing shop and made her do one of those dressing montages."

"How does one simply do a dressing montage?" the larger student questioned

"Would you honestly be surprised if Coco somehow found a way to?"

Yatsuhashi actually paused at that before shrugging "No, not really."

---

Elsewhere in Vale

"-and then after we get you into the one with those chocolate colored cuffs we may be able to match it up with the skirt." Coco concluded whilst reclining on a bench at a bus stop, shifting her glasses for a moment before eyeing the girl who shared the bench with her. Sitting on the other side, Velvet seemed to nervously sift through the information her team leader was putting forth. At their feet were several excessively large bags, the result of their recent stops at several of Coco's favorite stores.

"S-so, that's good right?" she asked hesitantly, to which Coco shrugged

"If by good you mean it'll finally give those hips the attention they deserve, then yes oh so very yes."

"What?" Velvet went wide-eyed at that "But I thought these were supposed to be casualwear?"

"Listen hun," the fashionista waved off her friend's worries "if there's one thing I hope you take from ol Coco, its that casualwear shouldn't be underestimated or denied its ability to bring out the best curves possible."

"But I-" the Faunus was silenced by a finger pressed to her lips

"Shhh, young one." Coco shushed her before lifting one of the shopping bags with her "Do you hear that?"

Velvet shook her head.

"That, my friend, is the call of the cloth, begging to be warn and strutted in just the right way by just the right girl." She spoke with the wizened words of an olden sage as she removed her finger from Velvet's lips "You shall be that girl."

"Okay, I guess I can wear them." Velvet gave in, unable to resist the expectant look aimed at her "But can I do it when its just the two of us?

Coco looked as if her favorite beret had just been stepped on in front of her "Vel, what use is there for clothes if not to be seen wearing them?"

"Well," she reached for one of the bags and pulled out a top to look over "it's just that I don't think I'd look good in all of them."

"Heh." Coco chuckled before reaching over and pulling the Faunus into a one armed hug "You'll be downright mouth-watering when I'm done working my magic, you'll be so irresistible that guys will be asking you out right in front of their girlfriends."

"I don't want to cause troubles for couples."

The Fashionista rolled her eyes before suppressing a snicker and reaching over with her other hand "You really are the cutest little thing ya know?" she said before pinching her teammate's cheek playfully.

"Ack! No Coco, we're in public!" Velvet protested while trying to push her team leader away

Coco was about to give a snarky reply, when pounding footsteps drew her attention from her teasing. Glancing away, she spotted a bunch of people scrambling to get away from a nearby train station, racing down the stairs to put as much distance as possible between them and it. Her grip on Velvet loosening, the Faunus managed to push away from her companion only for a moment before also being distracted by the fleeing citizens.

"What were those things?" One shouted

"Who cares, just run!"

"Are they following us?!"

The two girls watched the fleeing civilians for a moment before Coco sighed and released her teammate from her grasp. She glanced over to the train station with a smirk as Velvet rose behind her, one hand massaging her cheek as she gave the building a cautious look.

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

"Idiots!"

Ishga paced in front of several Blood-Brothers, who rightfully looked meek in the face of a superior's anger. They were gathered beside a row of benches inside the Train Station, which had been hastily vacated by many of the civilians once the group of Uruks had charged in unannounced from seemingly nowhere.

"You were supposed to grab them! Now we have even less time before retaliation draws near!"

One raised his hand "I thought we was s'posed to just grab the stuff on the metal thingie?"

He jerked a thumb back to the train currently stalled there, which most Ishga's hunters had already boarded and begun picking through the contents. The last one was busy helping one of Skak's boys with his part of the mission.

"Yes but until those runts get that conductor talking we aren't going anywhere." the Blood-Storm growled as he folded his arms "I don't know how to operate this machine and they can only torture him so much until he becomes incapable of doing it on his own, they'll need all the time they can get."

"Blood-Axe says not to worry none."

Ishga sighed before glancing to Skak, who was kneeling besides a Kiosk and looking over some of the pictures on it curiously. He raised his axe and pointed to it whilst continuing to look "Weak man ain't gon last too long, he says. And he's quite the knowledgeable one in these kinds a things."

"Oh yes," Ishga shook his head "how very so helpful."

"Sides, look at this place Ish!" The brawny Uruk stood and walked around the large station floor before spreading his arms wide "We's inside a human city, didn't have to break no walls or dig under it either. Just one drawing and BAM! Instantly here."

"This is no time to appreciate the glory of the Dreamer Gate." Ishga insisted as he strode over to his partner "We must keep on our guard and hold this position until this machine can get running."

Skak was about to answer, but paused and raised his weapon to his ear instead. He nodded to something before glancing down at Ishga "Oi, he's still wondering why we ain't carting this stuff back to the gate instead of beating on the that driver guy? Probably go easier."

"Did you not listen to a word the Warchief said!?"

The larger Uruk paused at that, raising his free hand to his chin and glancing to the side as he tried to recall.

"Ugh, you brainless-!" Ishga paused to take a calming breath before pointing at the Axe-wielder threateningly "Just make sure your grunts have all entrances surrounded, we don't have time for-"

"'Sup guys?" Coco asked

"In a minute tark I'm busy." Ishga waved her off before returning his attention to Skak "We can't let anyone-"

The Hunter's head jerked backwards to find two human women standing near the entrance of the Train station, one staring at them wide-eyed while the other gave them a casual wave. They both seemed to have small boxes strapped to their sides, and the wide-eyed one's hybrid nature was immediately noticeable due to the out of place rabbit ears.

"Oh hey Blood-Axe, look!" Skak raised his weapon and pointed them out "Pinkskins!"

"Who was supposed to be watching that entrance!?" Ishga wheeled on the rest of the Uruks, zeroing in on one of the Blood-Brothers he'd previously been scolding

"We were, but ya dragged us away to give us a scolding, remember?"

Ishga groaned out loud.

"Coco!" Velvet whispered urgently from behind her team leader "What a-are those things?"

"Dunno, kid." Coco replied with a curious grin as she watched the shorter one berate his peers "They look pretty cool though."

"Cool?!"

"We could probably ask them." Coco winked back at her before calling out to them "Hey guys!"

Ishga paused in his angry spoutings to glare back at them, narrowing his eyes as he watched the one with the eyepieces speak.

"So are you guys monsters or-?"

"Silence!" Ishga interrupted before striding forward and drawing a spear from his pack "Your nascent curiosity has forfeited your very lives, surrender now before you make even more of a mockery of yourselves!"

"Yeah, better do what Ishga says." Skak chuckled as he spun his axe "He's been havin' himself a hectic day and all, so getting away with this dust stuff here would really make things simpler for him."

He barely finished before receiving a palm to the side of the face from said Hunter.

"You idiot!" Ishga barked "Why in Sauron's name would you just go giving away information like that?!"

Coco's eyebrow rose notably, a bunch of random humanoid creatures just come out of nowhere and hijack a dust shipment? She'd known since becoming a huntress that her line of work would lead her into some pretty strange scenarios, what with the ever changing dynamics of Grimm, Crooks and the people she was sworn to protect. Even so, this wasn't even in the top twenty wacky scenes she'd expected to find herself in. Well, the whole robbing dust thing was, it was the fact that she had no idea what these things were that mixed up the game. Still...

"Hey Vel," she spoke to the concerned Faunus at her side "I don't know about you but the idea of these guys making off with that much dust doesn't really sit well. You feeling up to it?"

Velvet didn't immediately respond, still staring in disbelief at the... the things currently standing before her. The smaller one, Ishga the other called him, was still yelling at his cohorts, while the one with the absolutely gruesome looking Axe just cackled at his partner's rage.

"I-I don't know what they are." She finally said before taking a breath and nodding "But what they're doing isn't right, we have to stop them don't we?"

"That's my girl." Coco patted her on the shoulder encouragingly before glancing at their quarries "Hey boys! Don't think we can let you get away with that stuff you've got there."

Ishga paused in his rantings to turn his glare on them "Do you foolish beings imply that you even have the capability to stop us?"

"Eh, seems pretty obvious that's what they were going for." Skak scratched his head as he watched the two humans adopt ready stances and gestured for his Blood-Brothers to do the same.

Ishga shook his head at that and gripped his spear tightly in his hand "Subdue them." he called to the grunts with a scowl before stepping forward and pointing to the two girls "The both of you have placed your lives under the boots of the Uruk-Hai, remember that when we're crushing them out of those pitiful bodies of yours."

With that he released a loud roar which sparked the Blood-Brothers into action, giving their own battle cries as they charged the two huntresses in training.

Velvet faltered a bit at the unabashed display of blood-thirst from these odd foes, but a single reassuring glance from Coco was enough to steel herself and intercept the first of the oncoming attackers.

Ishga glanced to the train, wondering whether he'd have time to check on the progress of the Interrogation before he'd need to get involved.

He turned back to the brawl and watched the two girls hold off the onslaught of Skak's underlings, the hybrid dodging the swings of swords and clubs before retaliating with her own quick jabs and punches while the other one was fending them off with that box of hers.

Skak looked on as well, nodding as he watched before glancing to his weapon "Fight good for measly women folk." he said before turning to the Hunter "Hey Ish, ain't these two-?"

He had halted when seeing the massive grin spreading across Ishga's face, unused to seeing happiness in his partner's expression except when dealing with his Warchief "Ishga? You okay, mate?"

"He was right!" the Hunter clapped his hands together once more "Yet again our Warchief's power shows no bounds!"

Skak raised an eyebrow until a spear was pointed at him "You, crush that bespectacled harlot!" Ishga ordered, "I shall subdue the Hybrid."

Coco dodged to the side when one of the Uruks tried grabbing her, spinning and cracking him in the jaw with her case before swinging it down on another's head. A roar from behind prompted her to raise her case and catch the incoming swing, raising a leg and planting her foot in the attacker's gut before leaning out of the way of another swing.

These guys weren't too bad, a lot hardier than the usual thugs she'd beaten down before but she could manage. The saving grace here was that none of them seemed to have firearms, what with their arsenal consistent mostly of medieval albeit deadly looking weaponry.

Glancing to her teammate, she smirked at the sight of the normally nerve-ruled rabbit maneuvering her way through the attackers and fighting back with a level of intensity most would assume impossible for the former bully-victim. She allowed herself a small modicum of pride at this display, which immediately switched to concern when she spotted the figure sneaking inbetween his underlings towards her.

"Hey Vel! On your right!"

Velvet just finished kicking an Uruk in the back of the head when she heard this, immediately spinning to her side just in time to slide out of the way of a spear. As soon as it passed her it suddenly changed momentum and swung towards her once more. As she dodged it, a red and white hand shot out towards her. Without enough time to doge, she instead swung her forearm into the Uruk's wrist before he could latch on. With enough time to get a good look at the attacker, she recognized the one the others labeled as Ishga.

Narrowing his eyes at her, the Captain let his grin grow wider "The Master saw you! Saw you both. If you think that an Uruk gifted with his knowledge could possibly fail, then allow us to rectify this abhorrent misunderstanding... through pain!"

The spear came swinging again, and Velvet lunged backwards out of its range just as Ishga raised his free hand to his mouth and whistled, at once the Blood-Brothers around them darted towards her again.

"All at once, deny her retaliation!"

True to his orders, the Uruks began swinging their weapon simultaneously, forcing Velvet to focus entirely on dodging.

Spotting the sudden shift of strategy, Coco rolled her eyes before cracking another Uruk in the side of the head with her case and moving to transform it. Before she could do so a sudden battle cry caused her to glance behind her just as an axe came swinging at her. Twisting to raise her case, she was thrown off by the excessive force put into the swing, which knocked her case to the side.

Sensing an impending follow-up, Coco spun with the momentum in order to bring her case up again just in time to catch the downward swing which had nearly befallen her. Releasing a small breath at the strength she needed to stave off the attack, she gave a smirk to its perpetrator.

Skak released a hearty laugh as he tried forcing his weapon through her's to no avail, "Oi, Blood Axe!" he called out to his weapon "Take a nice long look at this tark! The stupid wench brought a box to a battle!"

He laughed some more before locking eyes with her and grinning "Let's show her just how much of a mistake that was."

Though Coco was often one to whole-heartedly partake in the noble game of battle-field trash talk, she was so distracted by the sight of a fighter literally chatting with his weapon mid-battle to offer one of her usual retorts. She had a deep fondness for her beautiful bringer of pain too, sure, but that's the kinda thing you keep private lest you have your opponents laughing at you... which she was trying not to do at this very moment.

Skak finally reared back with his weapon for another swing, giving Coco the opening to kick him back before turning to beat another Uruk out of the way.

Velvet was managing, growing accustomed to the timing of the Uruks and their attacks, she'd managed to work around their simultaneous attacks and go back on the offensive once more. Though it was a tedious process, her attacks didn't have enough of the force her leader's did, and Uruks who'd been beaten to the floor would push themselves back up after several seconds of dazed cursing. She'd had to start kicking downed opponents before they could get back up, using their startled states to break through their surprisingly hefty auras more effectively.

But even that didn't stop them from getting back up, though it was easier to beat them down afterwards. Their sheer stubbornness drawing the fight out for far longer than she was comfortable.

Then there was Ishga, who would capitalize on every opening the bunny girl left.

Jamming her elbow into the side of one's head only led her to immediately glance around for the hunter, her eyes moving around the attackers before spotting a raised spear and immediately rolling out of the way as it sailed towards her. She stood just in time to lean out of the way of another Uruk's fist and ram her elbow into the attacker's nose.

Once again she turned to spot Ishga, only to find him right before her mid-jab. She jumped back, only to be pushed forward by an Uruk behind her towards the spear. Thinking quickly, she leaped over the attack towards the Captain, whose eyes widened as he anticipated what she was doing. He raised his arm to intercept the spinning kick, but was still sent rolling from impact.

He stood with a growl before clenching and unclenching his fist, he turned to check on Skak just in time to see the brawnier Uruk tumble away from Coco holding a hand to his head. His eyes traveled to his partner's quarry just in time to see her case shift forms, to which the Blood-Storm narrowed his eyes as she watched it shift into a much larger weapon.

He didn't know what it was, but the way she was holding it reminded him of something. As it began revving up, his gaze immediately shot to Skak "Move!"

The Axe-wielder had just shaken off the last attack when he heard the Hunter's call and, seeing the weapon aimed at him, he complied. All of a sudden bullet holes appeared in the ground he was previously standing in.

He was nowhere as fast as his partner, and Coco began hefting her massive Gatling cannon towards him, wouldn't take much to blast him then help Vel-

Ishga collided with the barrel of the weapon feet first, throwing her aim and the trail of bullets high as she stumbled back. As her rounds chewed into the station's ceiling, Coco released the trigger just as the blunt end of a spear cracked her in the jaw. Immediately letting the weapon shift again as her aura flared, Coco sought out the smaller Uruk. Spotting him mid-throw, she swung her case and smashed the oncoming spear out of the air, snapping it in half in the process.

Ishga stood with a contemplative hum as he grabbed another spear from his pack. He glanced to a winded Skak, then to the Hybrid who was still dealing with the underlings who had gotten somewhat uncoordinated without his influence.

"Skak," Ishga grunted "Deal with the Hyrbid."

The Axe-Wielder merely shrugged before glancing to his weapon "Welp, ya heard em."

As Skak ran towards the brawl, Ishga raised his spear and spoke "Why not run? Your chances of holding against us are nil."

"Eh," Coco shrugged "Guess the danger's just too enticing."

The Spear-thrower groaned "And just when I thought there were no other ways for your race to disappoint me."

He shook his head, crouched, then darted towards her.

He ducked under her case and prepared to jab her again when catching the subtlest of shifts in her footing prompted him to slip back before she could kick his legs out from under him. Grumbling, he lunged back in as he sought an opening for attack.

Velvet meanwhile, was having a much easier time now that Ishga was focused on her leader. Skak's swings were much heavier, but slow enough for her to dodge with relative ease compared to his nimbler counterpart. With more room to focus on downing the underlings, the Blood-Brothers were downed several more in number as Skak struggled to keep up with the Faunus.

And then it happened, hearing the now-familiar swish of an axe through the air Velvet ducked under it before spinning and jamming her elbow into the Uruk's ribs. It was when her attack connected that she saw it, the Axe-wielder's Aura was flickering dangerously.

Seeing an opportunity to take one of the Captains down, Velvet quickly spun again, this time rising so her forearm slammed into the side of Skak's face before he could recover. He straightened his jaw and swung his axe once more, which she ducked under before swinging her leg high.

The impact of her foot and the Uruk's jaw sent Skak reeling back to his knees as his Aura finally gave out. Hoping to render him unconscious before the incoming Blood-Brothers could give him a chance to recover, Velvet rushed to him rearing back for another kick.

Skak on the other hand was massaging his jaw as he spotted the incoming Hybrid, eyes transfixed on her for a moment before being drawn momentarily to his axe. He looked at it for a split second before his expression was stretched into an intense snarl, and he glanced back up at Velvet right before his arm shot above him.

Before her foot could connect with him the arm came down and pinned her leg to his side right before he lunged forward, using his own weight to force her on to her back. Though shocked by his sudden recovery, Velvet had enough foresight to worm her other leg in-between them mid fall. Though the impact of her back onto the station floor was bad, the sight of Skak raising his axe high once he was on top of her was worst. Sending her free leg cracking into the bottom of his jaw, she managed to stun him long enough for her to wiggle out of his hold and drag herself to her feet.

"You ain't gonna deny Blood-Axe a meal!" Skak bellowed as she turned back towards him "Ain't gonna happen!"

Swallowing nervously as a certain feeling of dread became present in her gut, Velvet raised her fists just as Skak came charging at her whilst swinging his axe Wildly, the blade of it cutting off pieces of the floor as he passed. Velvet darted forward and slipped underneath one of his swings. Before she could aim for the back of his legs his elbow immediately shot backwards and buried itself in her spine.

Pain lancing through her despite the blunting of the attack via aura, she hastily rolled away from his side just as his axe buried itself where she previously was.

"No no!" Skak barked before tearing his weapon out of the ground and pointing at her with it "Get back here so we's can mulch ya!"

Before she could consider his sudden swiftness, the Faunus had to dive out of the way as one of the Blood-Brothers' weapons cleaved towards her. As her attacker glared at her, a presence at her side clued her in to another's presence at her side. Leaning out of the way of another Uruk's upward slash, Velvet prepared to send her fist into one of his joints when he was suddenly shoved aside by Skak.

Eyes widening, the huntress-in-training pulled back. His fist sailing just over her chin. Growling, Skak planted his axe in the ground beside him and used it to balance himself as he raised his leg and kicked her away.

"Vel!" Coco called out as she watched the Faunus skid along the ground before shakily getting back up "Just hold on, I'll-"

"Rude not to focus on your quarry!"

Coco spun as Ishga dived past her spear swinging, he slid on the ground before righting himself "Usually the goal is to focus on surviving when so overwhelmingly outmatched."

"So your pal's a tough customer, big deal!" Coco replied, noticeably less snarky than before "We've dealt with tough customers before."

"Ah, but the thing about my dim-witted friend here is that the idea of losing sickens him to quite an astounding degree." Ishga said before glancing away with a frown "Not that his often lackluster performance would indicate this, but at least he knows where his strength counts:"

Ishga gripped his spear tightly before settling his gaze on her once more and sighing "When an opponent least expects it."

Coco narrowed her eyes behind her glasses, readying her Case for another onslaught as she called out to her Teammate "Velvet, use it!"

Still dodging Skak's swipes, the Faunus glanced to her teammate even as the Blood-Axe continued slicing through the air at her "I thought we were saving it for-!"

"I feel as though living may be more of a pressing matter, hun." she said as she leaned out of the way of a thrown spear just in time to back out of the way of another "Just do it!"

Swallowing nervously, Velvet leaped back away from another cleaving strike as she reached for her own case. A roar from the side drawing her eyes to one of the Blood-Brothers who'd managed to sneak around her while she was busy with his Captain. The second it took her to dodge a swing of his club was apparently all it took. The second she felt the club swishing through the air past her, she was rocked by an impact to her hip which was held back by her Aura.

Glancing down quickly, Velvet's pupils shrank as she saw the Blood-Axe buried in her case.

"No toys ta turn to Tark!" Skak yelled as he planted a boot to her stomach and kicked her away while simultaneously pulling back on his weapon and yanking the now destroyed box from her hip.

Velvet stumbled back, eyes still glued to the remnants of her case still stuck to the Axe as Skak lifted it and slammed it onto the ground, fully cleaving through the box and her weapon inside. The two halves clattering to the ground on either side of the Blood-Axe before Skak pointed it towards her "Just you!"

With that he ran at her again with another flurry of axe swings

Velvet tried focusing on the fast swings of the axe as Skak continued pressing, the worry presented by any of the surrounding Blood-Brothers now mingled with the shock of being disarmed before she could even draw her weapon. Suddenly Skak lunged forward with his free hand, prompting Velvet to leap back as his fingers dug into the solid ground. How? How was he still this much of a threat without an Aura?!

That single thought gave one of the other Blood-Brothers the opportunity he needed, as suddenly Velvet found a pair of arms sliding under her own and restraining her.

"Got her boss!" the Uruk behind Velvet called out "Gore her! Gore her good!"

In the midst of the other fight Ishga had lodged a spear inside the handle of Coco's case, and was currently trying to keep her locked there as she attempted to get her case back.

"Remember training with Fox, Vel!" Coco called out as she pulled, "You know how to get out of that one!"

"No you idiot!" Ishga called out to his partner as well "We need her alive!"

Skak didn't seem to be listening, rearing back to lunge into Velvet's restrained form Axe-first.

But Velvet was listening and, after a brief moment of shaking loose the dread the incoming Uruk inspired, leaned forward before ramming the back of her head into her captor's nose.

Immediately his hands reached for his face, giving Velvet enough space to slip out of his grasp and dive to the side just as Skak plowed into him. Looking up, Velvet was briefly stricken by the sight of the axe now lodged inside her former Captor's chest, his aura apparently not enough to hold back such direct force. The Uruk let loose a roar of pain as his hands went to the axe to try and pull it out. They stopped once Skak yanked on it, finding difficulty in retrieving his weapon. The Blood-Brother hissed at Skak's unsuccessful attempts, and was about to release another yell when Skak's boot was planted firmly on his neck. With a sickening meaty sound Skak tore the weapon out of his underling's chest.

"Captain's gone Blood-Thirsty!" one of the other Blood-Brothers shouted out "Back up ya globs, or you'll be next!"

As the underlings began backing away from the two, Skak took the moment to rub some of the black Uruk blood from his axe with his thumb. As he stuck his thumb in his mouth to taste it, the wounded Uruk below rolled onto his side clutching the chest wound and cursing.

Velvet was stuck staring as he savored the taste, but not out of fear. She was thinking about the way he'd struggled to free his weapon, a plan forming in her head as she glanced about the station. Once her eyes settled on something she knew she could use, she stood straight and readied herself for Skak's next attack.

"Blood-Axe ain't never had no Hybrid blood before." he said as he tapped the blade of his axe to the ground

"T-then I guess he never will." Velvet replied, watching as Skak's burning rage returned in full force.

Holding Blood-Axe in two hands he barreled towards her, swinging at her once she leaped out of the way of his charge. She landed on a nearby bench made of wood and metal, one of the many places passengers would wait until their train arrived.

"Get back here and sate him already!" Skak growled before crouching.

Velvet narrowed her eyes as the Uruk lunged towards her Axe-raised, and immediately leaped past him just before the weapon was buried in the wood and metal. The Brawny Uruk tried to turn towards her, but found his Axe stuck in the wood and metal of the bench, the very bolts holding the seat to the ground now effectively anchoring him and his weapon there.

Now was her chance, watching as Skak crouched and yanked hard in order to free his weapon, she dashed towards him to capitalize on his momentarily disarmed state. Skak glanced back at her, seeing the incoming Faunus made his anger flare up once more.

Before her very eyes, Velvet watched as he released another roar and pulled harder. Veins and muscles tensed tightly under his hide as the sound of torn metal reached her ears.

He was pulling so hard that the entire bench was being uprooted.

But she was still mid-dash, as she watched him spin with the now dislodged bench hanging off his weapon she realized that there was no way she'd be able to dodge in time.

He finally dislodged the bench from his weapon mid-swing, sending it sailing towards Velvet. Thinking quickly she dropped to her knees and skidded underneath the piece of furniture as it careened over her and collided with the side of the train.

Before she could rise Skak's boot reared above her and sailed down, she crossed her arms over her chest to keep him from breaking her ribs, but found him pressing down upon her and pinning her in place. Struggling for a moment, the sight of him raising his axe prompted the Faunus to toss his boot to the side and roll to her feet.

But it was as Skak stumbled to the side that a memory surfaced, one of a similar situation only moments ago. Putting what he remembered into practice, the Uruk spun into the stumble, gripping Blood-Axe in both hands as he used his own momentum to swing it back around.

So when Velvet got to her feet, she was unprepared when the weapon connected directly with her head.

She was blinded with pain as her aura practically screeched under the sudden effort, but she could feel herself colliding with the ground as her vision slowly returned. Knowing the dangerous position was in, she struggled to push herself back to her feet when she paused at the slightly blurred sight of red drops on the floor below. Bringing a hand to her face she winced at a large gash going along her cheek. It was nothing compared to the damage she could've sustained if her Aura hadn't been up, but what made her pause was the fact that her Aura was still up.

He'd carved through it!

"Get up, Vel! Before he-!"

"Be careful with her you braindead whelp!"

Before the Rabbit Faunus could ponder the sheer amount of force he must've hit her with, the sound of boots behind her prompted her to rise and lunge away. Before she could even hope to get to her knees meaty fingers dug into her scalp before rearing back.

She saw the ground incoming right before another blinding pain left her dazed. She tried blinking the stars from her head as she felt the grip on her head tighten, she tried to push herself from the ground or do anything to keep that from happening again. Skak merely raised her off her feet before driving her head against the ground once more, watching the Hybrid's Aura finally fizzle out as her attempts to struggle out of his grasp weakened.

"Blood-Axe says you're done!" He called out as he planted his axe in the ground and lifted her in his grasp, free hand clenching into a fist as he reared back "And I agree!"

Velvet went limp the moment the Captain's fist collided with her unprotected face, the repeated attacks having opened up the gash in her cheek to worrying levels.

"Finally get you a meal now, eh?" Skak gave a hearty chuckle as he reached for the handle of his weapon.

"No!"

Skak blinked and looked over to Ishga, who was still holding back a now enraged Coco.

Wait, she had been the one who yelled at him, so why did the Hunter look so angry?

"Dreamer said Alive!" Ishga cried out as he dodged the fashionista's case some more "Don't go killing her you daft fool!"

At that, Skak glanced over to the limp girl in his grasp before bringing her to his ear and listening, pulling away only when a shaky breath escaped her "She's breathing."

"Can't say the same for you once I get my hands on you, big shot!" Coco spoke up as she tried breaking through Ishga's defense.

"Forget about her, get the Hybrid on the train before-!"

Suddenly the large doors on one of the train cars slid open and two Hunters poked their heads out.

"We got's Tark beggin for mercy!" One called out with a cackle "We's can go whenever-!"

They paused at the sight of Ishga locked in combat and Skak holding an unconscious Hybrid in his hands.

"Is we interrupting something?"

Ishga shoved Coco back and yelled back to them "Get us moving!" before turning to Skak and his underlings "Board it now!"

One of the Hunters nodded and darted back inside as the other one raised his own spear.

"But what if the others ain't done with the Gate?!" One of the Blood-Brothers called out as their wounded already began stumbling towards the train.

"Then they'll be the ones who are done," Skak said as he hefted Velvet over his shoulder and tore his weapon out of the ground "obviously."

Coco steeled her gaze as Ishga tossed his weapon in between his hands, if she could just get past this one.

Movement from the edge of her vision brought her attention to the train, where two smaller looking Uruks with spears clambered on top of it before readying their weapons.

One threw his spear, to which Coco dodged easily only for her to immediately have to bring her case up to deflect several more jabs from Ishga. Seeing her about to retaliate, the Hunter leaped out of the way of her swing and pointed his spear skyward.

"Can't break through MY tactics worm!" he cried out just as three spears sailed past him. As soon as she finished dodging them he charged in once more, jabbing at her with his spear just as she leaned out of the way and brought her elbow down on the spear, snapping it in half and pulling him over her shoulder before spinning towards the train.

The Hunters were now jogging across the cars as the train began moving, keeping her in their range. Below more Hunters could be seen helping the Blood-Brothers on board, reaching out from several cars to haul their brawnier counterparts in. Skak merely approached with a casual walk, holding a full conversation with his weapon about all the fights they'd get into once they were back.

Coco gritted her teeth as her weapon shifted again, as tempted as she was to shoot him she knew that with a wounded Velvet there'd be more risk than reward in that line of thinking. Instead she turned the growing barrel towards the three hunters, if she could just scatter them then she'd be clear to charge the rest without having to worry about their spe-

Ishga darted past her and jammed his spear directly into her weapon before it could finish transforming, a sickening crunching sound bellowing from the large gun as the wooden weapon snapped and clogged its innards. Ishga merely released a cackle as he raced for the now departing train. Though the pained sound of her weapon tugged at her, the sound of his laughter forced the Team Leader to make a split second decision.

Tossing her battered baby to the ground, she took off after him.

Skak opened the door to the pilot's cab, where a hunter had his spear aimed to a bloodied and beaten human in uniform who was shakily working the controls before him.

"Faster Tark!" the Blood-Hunter prodded the man with the tip of his spear, Skak noted the other spear wounds on the man's back "Work good and maybe you might have chance of seeing ya runt again!"

Having dumped the hybrid in the previous cab, Skak took a moment to appreciate the beating that Ishga's boys put the man through. Skak glanced past the Man and Uruk to the tracks directly in front of them, what he saw ahead made him raise his weapon to his ear and smile "Impressive ain't it? Guess the Boss's Dreams are that accurate. Never would'a thought about trying it this way."

Dodging spears, Coco tempered her breathing as she kept the back of the Uruk in sight. The train cars passed both of them, Ishga edging closer to it as the Hunters kept pace with them. Soon they reached the caboose, and two halted in their throwing to reach down over the edge just as Ishga leaped to them. Grabbing both of their hands, the Blood-Storm laughed as his soldiers struggled to hoist him up.

Ducking under another spear, Coco dropped onto the tracks and followed after them "If you think I'm letting you out of my sight!" She called out to the cackling Uruk "You're wrong! I'll find where you guys ditch the train and-!"

"You thinking we was planning on leaving this beauty?!" Ishga actually looked surprised before laughing again "Oh no, you dimwitted incompetent!"

"We're taking the whole thing!"

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Dead ahead of the train, a single Blood-Brother finished tightening some leather binds before brushing some sweat from his eyes and stepping back, folding his arms over his broad chest as he looked over the finished structure.

Attached to the tracks was an arc built out of wood several metal supports in key positions. Standing tall, it was by no means something which could stand the test of time, but then again it wasn't intended to last for long anyway. All it had to do was support the large tarp hanging in the center of it for just a few more moments. And the Builder was confident it could in those regards.

Standing atop the arc was the Blood-Hunter who'd aided him in the lifting, currently watching the approaching train grow closer as he swung around the large hook in his hand with anticipation "Almost here it is! Gotta hook it, must hook it for Captain!"

"Calm down ya rascal." the Blood-Brother called to him before grasping the side of the structure and climbing up the arc as well "Save that energy for the run, lord knows ya used a bunch of it helping me get the pieces of this thing together."

"Used gate! No effort for me, no effort for you!"

"Putting it in place would take too long for a single Uruk. Even one as crafty as I." the crafter turned to the incoming train and readied himself "Here it comes, lad, better get it right!"

The Blood-Hunter merely raised the hook in his hand, the movement causing the long chain attached to it jangle "Me speedy! Get it good I will!"

The brawny Uruk merely shrugged before picking up a torch he'd left strapped to the side of the arc.

Then pressed it to the unopened Dreamer Gate drawn on the tarp.

The Gate seemed to swallow the train as it passed inside, the Crafter taking a moment to marvel at the sight before flinging himself on top of the train and being pulled inside as well.

The Hunter on the other hand merely stood and swung the hook one more time before leaping onto the metal transport and imemediately racing along its top. His wrapped feet slapped against the metal surface as he darted towards the caboose, leaping from car to car as he kept right ahead of the gate but never too far where the chain in his hand could pull him back

Coco wasn't getting any closer, she knew that by now.

Ishga continued with a mocking grin as another Spear was thrown at the fashionista, this time she reached out and grasped it mid-flight before spinning and tossing it at him.

Ishga's laugh cut out as he released one of his subordinates' arms in order to swing himself to the side. The spear instead cracked the Uruk he'd released along the jaw, making him flinch back in annoyance as his partner struggled to hold his Captain on his own. It was unnecessary, as Ishga used his free hand to grab hold of the train itself.

Coco cursed under her breath and came to a halt, knowing the futility of catching up to them at that point. As she watched Ishga climb aboard, she took note of some odd structure on the tracks ahead of the train that she was unfamiliar with. She also noted a frantically waving Hunter who raced to the caboose to pass his brothers before kneeling and attaching a hook to the very end of the train.

Then they were swallowed by a portal.

Coco had to take her glasses off for that one.

Before her very eyes the entire train just drove directly into the seething red portal with absolutely no indication of coming out the other side.

But before Coco could begin thinking up her first set of questions, she spotted a chain going from the portal to a large hook attached to the top of the arc. But it was just after she spotted it that the chain suddenly went taut, and she immediately realized what the frantic Uruk had been doing.

The entire arc crumbled in on itself as the train's inertia pulled it down from the other side, the portal vanishing in the process.

---

Vacuo- Sandstone Cliffs

Tugog watched and waited, tapping as he stared out over the rolling sands.

"Dreamer!"

The Warchief glanced behind to spy Maku approaching, behind him rose the Desert Tower's imposing form about a minute's jog away. The Hunter gave him a curious glance as he pocketed a scroll.

"Word's getting around that ya think lot's o the guys here got Semblances." The Warmonger pointed out

"I see my Quarter guards have been both listening in and spreading information." The Dreamer sighed "I expect it of them of course but still."

"Whatever, I came by to offer my help in breaking the news to Hork." Maku folded his arms "The Shaman says he knows ya gonna do it anyway so might as well put something in between you and him in case he has one of his moments."

"He knows me frighteningly well," Tugog chuckled before scratching his cheek "I'm sure Hork could appreciate the benefits of having our forces training in these semblance abilities."

"Or he could have them all executed for tainting battle." the Warmonger shook his head "He wouldn't let any of the Mystic tribe set up near the Black Gate solely because he found their practices disgusting."

"Even so," Tugog looked up for a moment, wincing at the sun's heat "I've already seen his soldiers using them in my dreams. Whether he reacts to it poorly or favorably he'll warm up to it eventually."

"If ya say so. By the way, what exactly are you doing out here anyway?"

Tugog turned back to continue watching "Just waiting."

Maku took a moment to look around before turning back to his Warchief "Waiting for what exactly?"

"For them to get back."

"Oh," the Warmonger waved it off "ya mean Ishga and his pet idiot. Gone on an assignment I heard, yeah I hope they get back safely too."

Tugog didn't even need to comment on the dripping sarcasm laced within that final statement, for it was at that moment a large Dreamer Gate appeared hovering several inches from the ground in the distance. Maku didn't even have enough time to be surprised when a train suddenly lurched through it and immediately careened into the sand below.

Both Warchief and Warmonger had to steady themselves as the force by which the train collided with the sand caused the very ground to tremble. It skidded through the sand, kicking up the grainy substance as it dug through.

As the two Uruks watched the rest of it slide out of the dreamer gate, they spotted the Hunters on the very edge who were gripping on for dear life as the caboose passed. One crying out in victory as the portal soon closed behind them.

Ishga stood and hopped off the train as it continued sliding, the entire thing nearly capsizing as its momentum carried it closer and closer to the Desert Tower.

The Blood-Storm came to a halt beside his brother and master as he watched with them as the train reached the very edge of the Sandstone Cliff before stopping, the very edge of the front car threatening to tip over and spill into the shanties below.

The hunters who were with him rolled off the side as soon as it stopped, many shaking their heads except for the Runner who was shaking his hook chain, the other half of it having been cut off once the Dreamer Gate had closed.

Seeing that he hadn't accidentally caused massive damage to the Shanties, Ishga doubled over as he released a breath he hadn't known he was holding. He turned to Dreamer and swallowed as he readied some confident words which would no doubt inspire the faith his master had in him, when movement caught his eye.

On one of the Desert Tower's balconies, the doors were thrown open as Dharg the Hell-Hawk charged out with several more Garrison soldiers. He glanced over the edge to the train before glancing around immediately spotting them.

The Garrison Captain rushed to the railing before roaring "WHAT THE SHRAKH DID YOU DO?!"

Tugog raised a hand "No worries, we were just-!"

One of the train car's nearest to them shook as its door was slid open from inside, Blood-Hunters and Blood-Brothers alike spilled out. Most were still shaking their heads and groaning from being inside the train once it landed, several stumbling away to throw up.

Climbing over most of them was an unaffected Skak who stepped over the downed forms of their underlings before tossing an Unconscious Velvet at Tugog's feet "We got's the lass." he said before turning and pointing back to the Train "We got the dust."

He hefted his Blood-Axe over his shoulder "Nice fight, but Blood-Axe needs him some real pinkskin blood after all that teasin'. Gonna go find a slave to chop up."

As he walked off, Ishga finally found his words "Where are you going?! We must relay the details of our efforts!" he yelled to the Brawny Uruk who didn't even look back.

"You have fun with that! Blood-Axe needs his feedin'."

Maku and Tugog watched as Ishga growled and chased after him "Get back here and kneel for congratulations you petulant imbecile!"

The Warchief shook his head "As lively as ever those two." he commented before glancing down to the Faunus "Lively and effective."

"No, but seriously."

Tugog glanced to a still shocked Maku who was looking between the wrecked train and the battered girl at their feet before turning to the Dreamer with questions buzzing around him.

"What did you just do?"

---

AN: These chapters just seem to get longer and longer. Finally got this one checked ad ready for posting. Maybe I should have some sort of smaller in-between chapters which I can post between full chapters like this in order to tide some over for the duration. I know many stories can live and die by their post time and I know for a fact that mine is almost absurdly long. Sure there's plenty of meat in each chapter to excuse some of that time and I know of other large stories who do something similar, but it doesn't quite feel write.

Anyway, on to this Chapter's Namesakes.

The story between Skak and Ishga was developed after experiencing some noteworthy events in one of my own runs of Shadow of Mordor, namely the one where I started having troubles with the Storm. Before them there was this extremely deadly Hunter I'd fought named Mogg the Elder who wiped the floor with me twice, on the second time soon after he killed me he died in a duel to Skak who at that point wasn't really a concern of mine. He had a hate of defeat and pain but he also had a high number of exploitable weaknesses which made me save him for later. Well once he somehow managed to slay Mogg he leveled up and most of those weaknesses just vanished. Seeing him as a threat now I tried fighting him only to find Ishga ambushing me every time I tried. Seeing how Ishga had nearly an identical list of strengths and weaknesses that Mogg did I came up with this tale of how Mogg was actually his mentor or father figure and he was plotting revenge against me as his Father's rival. But then I had to explain why he was working with Skak, the guy who actually killed the Elder. So I conjured up this new idea where Mogg, being the old-blooded type, demands that Ishga assist Skak instead of kill him. Make him more powerful and respected so losing to him wouldn't be as shameful as it was.

And since Maku looked kinda like Ishga they became estranged siblings who took drastically different approaches to Mogg's death. But Maku is a story for another time.

Anyway, hope you enjoy, any and all criticisms positive or negative are welcomed in full so leave a review if you are so inclined to do. Follow or Favorite at your leisure and I will see you all in the next installment of The Dreamer Gate.

Next Chapter: The Wait