SLVR

by saundersmarcelo

If you watch RWBY, then chances are you are familiar or have heard of the popular fan made team known as Team SLVR, created by Mark Zhang. In my first ever fanfiction (which is set in the main series/timeline of RWBY), this story will follow the lives of Simin Megistus and his team (Lycan Arcadia, Vella Moisia, and Ragora Cinarum).

7. Volume I: Chapter VII: Oniyuri

*Heads up! This one's a long one.*

Volume I: Chapter VII: Oniyuri:

Oniyuri should be coming up any moment now… or at least I hope. I would love to find some shelter before it starts pouring rain. I mean, it's already raining right now, but it is pretty light but I don't know for how long it'll stay that way before it picks up. The sky also looks really gray with dense, heavy clouds that look like they could give way at any moment. Almost like you could snap your fingers and then next thing you know it'll start— …

[Rumble!]

Next thing you know, my thoughts were interrupted by a distant rumble of thunder as the rain started to gradually increase in density. Okay, maybe I should stop talking about the weather for the rest of the day— or at least, until I get there. I don't want to jinx anything. Let's change the subject, shall we?

It feels nice to walk on an actual road for once and not up a steep hill, or a cliff, or a treacherous ledge. Just a nice, manmade, road for our convenience. But there's still something a bit strange about this trail. This trail is oddly...quiet...for one that is this close to a village— especially a rising one. You would think this trail would be loaded with people for us to run into who would be going back and forth with supplies and stuff to help develop the village and establish supply chains. Hmm. Maybe they've already finished development of the village early and are relaxing? Or maybe no one is awake yet? It is pretty early after all. Hopefully, I didn't get turned around and we are actually walking in the opposite direction. It took us a while to reach this trail and make this much progress on it. I estimated that we would reach Oniyuri on September 2nd after I took my break when we reached the top of that hill and today is the 2nd. So we should be reaching it today (assuming I was correct and we actually didn't get turned around).

I look over to see Bruno who was trailing a bit behind me. He still looks very malnourished and skinny. I've been giving him most of my food for the past few days, which honestly leaves me going hungry sometimes, but I don't care. He's all that I have left and I will do anything to keep him with me, even if it means starving myself. I don't know what I would do if I lost him too. Hopefully when we get there, we'll find someone who will be able to give us some food that will be able to feed both of us.

I slow down to let Bruno catch up to me and I give a scratch underneath his chin. He loves it when I do that. He was so wet from the rain, but I wouldn't say he was soaked though. His golden brown fur is lightly coated with little rain droplets almost as if he had walked through a wall of mist. You could almost say his fur looks white or transparent… or even silver. It's actually kinda pretty. I hand him a bit of food from today and he eats it out of my hand and we continue down the trail.

. . .

(Sigh.)

Well this is one boring nature walk. I'm starting to think we got turned around and we just wasted our time. We've been walking for hours and still haven't arrived at Oniyuri and the fact that we haven't seen anyone on this road is starting to give me a sinking feeling that my suspicions are right. Well, at least the rain isn't getting heavier-wait! Don't talk about the weather. Remember? I don't want to jinx it. But anyway, like I said, we might be going down the wrong direction and I'm really starting to get worried. I know I could simply just turn around and go the other way, but then there's the slight possibility that I am going the right way and turning myself around will do anything but good—

(Gasp!)

"What is that?" I thought to myself as I saw something white in the distance.

"Is that…?" I think out loud as we begin to approach a clearing in the distance— the same clearing that I saw from atop that hill a few days ago. It looks like there is a white, stone wall with an open gateway, but it's a bit hard to tell due to the rain slightly blowing in my face and getting into my eyes. I kept walking closer and soon became very elated to confirm what I was seeing as I could now get a clearer visual..

"This must be it!" I say in excitement, barely able to contain myself. I begin to gradually quicken my pace (while being careful not to run too fast because- you know- my ribs still hurt) and jog over to what must be Oniyuri with Bruno surprisingly being able to keep up in his physical state.

As I got closer to my destination and reached the end of my journey, I couldn't help but shake this feeling as my excitement started to slowly transition to uneasiness. The closer I got, things started to feel...strange— like how I felt when I was going on about how barren this road was despite being so close. I guess you could say it's a gut feeling where, in this case, you know something isn't right, but you don't know why. As Bruno and I neared Oniyuri, it was still as dead silent as it was when it first came into our sights on this path a few seconds ago. And we're definitely within ear-shot of any hustle and bustle that would be going on and it's definitely not too early for people to be up at this point… but it's still so dead silent.

The only things I hear are me and Bruno panting, the rain lightly hitting the ground, and the slight rustle of leaves in the trees as the wind gently brought them to life.

I decided to stop early when I was about 50 yards (45.72 meters) from the open gateway and decided to lean on a wooden fence post nearby on the side of the road to catch my breath a bit. Man! Running with bruised ribs can really take a lot out of you! As I catch my breath, I pick my head up to get a look at the exterior walls.

The walls surrounding the place look to be in fine shape from what I can now see. They even look to be completed recently— maybe a few weeks ago—as they were coated in a fresh coat of white paint. Nothing really seems to be out of the ordinary at first glance. But besides that, why is it so quiet?

After catching my breath, I walked the rest of the way to the entrance.

With every step I took toward the gateway of Oniyuri, my uneasiness and unsettledness only worsened while my stomach sunk lower and lower into an empty abyss. I then stop in front of the gate for a few seconds and then set one foot in and enter the village. As I looked around me all I was greeted by was not the sight of everyday village life, but a ghost town in place of it— nothing more than an empty husk. I look around hoping to see someone— anyone or any sign of life in this barren place, but I only see around me nothing but empty, incomplete buildings... or at least I think they're just incomplete. They didn't look damaged from what I can tell. No, they clearly weren't. They were just incomplete, but still in pretty good shape. It looks like it was abandoned during development. But why? What reason would they have to abandon this place?

No. No, I'm jumping to conclusions here. I shouldn't think like that. I haven't even been here for a minute yet. It can't be abandoned right? Or at least not completely. There has to be someone here! I know I didn't come all this way for nothing! Or perhaps...

"M-maybe I'm in th-the wrong place?" I say to reassure myself, this time actually hoping that maybe I actually did get turned around. I then see some kind of post or sign sticking out of the cobblestone ground with a tablet with an inscription on it. I walk up to it and read it out loud:

"Oniyuri."

"No." I say out loud as my fears have been confirmed.

This is the place. What happened?

"HELLOOOO!" I scream at the top of my lungs, ignoring the pain it caused in my midsection, hoping to get some kind of response as I searched throughout the village. However, the only thing that replied back was my echo as it travelled through
the village in vain search of a response.

This place can't be completely empty. There is no way they would just up and abandon it like this right? I just heard how the village was on its way to being established a few months ago when Dorado was still up and they clearly made significant progress so what on Remnant happened?! There has to be someone here! I came too far! I need to get my life back…

I just want my life back.

. . .

I've been walking around Oniyuri for almost an hour now searching every building, house, nook, and cranny, desperately hoping to find some sign of life. But everywhere I've searched only ended up exactly like the last: empty and lifeless. I decided to start circling back to the entrance to see if I missed anything. I also sent Bruno (who was waiting for me at the entrance) to sweep the village one more time to see if he can possibly sniff out and find anyone. Am I really the only living soul here?

At that moment, my hand started to tremble as I was now fuming with frustration.

"Arghh!"

Letting my frustration audibly and visibly show, I kick a door to a house right by me as I passed by it. The door would fall to the ground, making a heavy thud that rang throughout the vacant village, kick up a small cloud of dust in the process. At first I thought I kicked the door off its hinges, but I then realized that the door wasn't hinged at all and was just standing up on its own as if someone had meant to hinge it, but never got around to it. This is crazy! It's like they just vanished off the face of the planet.

As I began to head back to the entrance of Oniyuri, I began to hear a strange, distant sound coming from one of the empty, incomplete homes. What is that? I didn't hear that before when I first entered. While Bruno was busy, searching the rest of the village, I took it upon myself to investigate the noise.

As I approached the home, the sound became clearer. It almost sounded like something in pain or anguish, but also muffled as if someone was crying or weeping and trying to hold it in by covering their mouth. I take a look through the doorway and I see the dark silhouette of what appears to be a frail woman hunched over in the center of the main room, back turned to me. As I step through the open doorway, thunder begins to rumble again as the rain once again slightly increases and gets a bit heavier. Huh. I guess I walked in at the right time. I decided to stay where I was at the doorway and softly called out to the figure instead of approaching so I wouldn't startle her or catch her by surprise.

"Umm e- excuse me, miss? Are you okay?" I softly called out.

The silhouette instantly became silent, making the rain the only audible sound between us, and just sat there motionless. It was mildly unsettling, but it didn't stop me from trying again, but a bit louder and with a bit more confidence in my voice.

"H-hello? Miss? Are you okay? Where is everyone? Why is the town so empty? What hap-" I immediately choked on my words as I noticed there was something very strange about the woman's hair. Am I actually seeing this? Though pitch black, her hair looked... barbed, resembling the stems of roses or the vines of a thorn bush or barbed wire.

Just then, the silhouette slowly looked over its shoulder and turned to face me as it stood up. What I was staring face-to-face with froze me in place. Two red eyes silently glowed in the darkness, looking back at me. The instant that my eyes met its face, I was petrified as a feeling of dread involuntarily hit me. The creature wasn't very tall and looked to be about 4.5-5 feet (1.3- 1.5 meters) tall even though it stood slightly slouched. Locks of its thorny hair were also hanging over its face, but I could still see its red eyes peering through. It had a frail, skeletal frame, but as it stepped into the light I could see that it was because on certain parts of its body below its neck, it had bone-like armor that very much made it look like it was wearing parts of a human skeleton. The only parts that were uncovered were its arms and the femoral regions of its legs. Instead of hands, it had one long blade-like appendage on each arm below the elbow that each resembled one half of a pair of scissors. But there was one thing about this grimm that made it especially different from most that I've seen or heard of. Although it had that mask-like bone structure that most grimm have on their faces, this one's bone structure covered the lower part of its face instead of its whole face or its eyes, very much resembling a surgical mask. This grimm was another humanoid type grimm called a slit-mouth. And the fact that I just looked at its face means that I am now at its mercy, a word that these creatures (or any grimm for that matter) know nothing about.

Maintaining its eerie silence, the slit-mouth slowly and lackadaisically moved toward me as it subtly swayed side-to-side as it inched closer and closer until it was literally staring down at me. I was still so frozen at the sight of this thing, that I didn't even move my head to meet its eyes as it approached, still staring directly in front of me. But it was too late. Whatever the thing had done to me, I was now at its mercy as I couldn't move, frozen with an insurmountable amount of fear and dread. My mind was screaming at me to move and do something, but my body once again wouldn't listen, just like on the night I lost my mother and just like the night Dorado fell when that man got eviscerated. Once again, my mind and body were at odds with each other.

"Come on! Damn it!" I thought to myself, trying to encourage my body to do something. "MOVE! Please?"

It was no use. I was petrified. I couldn't even bring myself to grab my weapons as the grimm slowly lowered its head to mine. I could feel its thorny locks rubbing against my scalp and forehead and dangle in front of my eyes a bit. It then slightly crouched to my eye level and cocked its head to one side as if it were trying to get a good angle on me, examining me like a cat. Then, to my shock, the surgical mask-like structure on its mouth began to split perpendicularly into four pieces, revealing an unhinge-able jaw filled with razor sharp teeth. Its mouth was so large and wide, it almost looked like someone had cut a line through each cheek from the corners of its mouth to its ears. I think it means to swallow me whole! At this moment, my heart felt like it was about to leap out of my throat.

"I-I can't move! Why can't I move? Come on! Move, body! I'm going to die! Please just move! Ju—"

My mental pleas were then interrupted by the loud booming sound of thunder followed by a flash of lightning that reflected off a puddle on the ground. Just then, after the flash that reflected off the puddle briefly filled my sight, I suddenly felt the courage to move again. Upon realizing that, I wasted no time trying to move back away from the slit-mouth. But unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough as the creature hooked me with its scissor-like appendages and basically threw me back against a wall in the house. It tried multiple times to skewer and slice, but because of my height and the length of its appendages, I was barely able to avoid being hit. It tried to impale me by thrusting its left arm toward my stomach, but I moved to the outside of it. Before I could follow up, the creature was too fast and spun around, bringing its other appendage toward my face, almost grazing my cheek as I leaned away, which would have carved an ear-to-ear grin onto my face if it had landed. It then followed up by bringing its other arm down to try and cleave me in two.

I tried to take that opening to pull out my weapons and strike, but the thing is so damn fast (not to mention my physical limitations due to my injury) that it quickly ducked under my attempted strike and used its speed to swiftly knock both weapons out of my hands. It then used its scissor appendages to pin me against the wall by pushing me against the vertical structure and pushing and holding my arms to my sides as it thrust its blades into the wall and turned its bladed arms horizontally. Because of that, I physically couldn't move my arms unless I was content with either losing them or flaying them. I'd kick it, but I know damn well that I wouldn't be able to get any power in the kick because of my position and the best I could do is give it a shin kick in one of the few places where it has armor.

As the slit-mouth grew confident that it won this small skirmish, it unhinged its jaw again, ready to swallow me whole and blend me up in its mouth of razor sharp teeth. But as the end seemed near, I remembered that I still had mom's knife in my pocket. But in order to live, I can't mess this up.

Moving only my hand, I pinch the knife and use my fingers to gingerly slide it out of my pocket while being careful not to let my nerves get to me and drop it. After securing a firm grip on the knife, with a flick of the wrist, I toss the knife in the air and catch it by the handle with my teeth. Before the slit-mouth could swallow me, I spit the knife at it and the blade found it's mark in its eye as the thing immediately backed off shrieking in pain and freeing me in the process.

Taking advantage of my opening (and forcing myself to ignore my injuries), I leap and yank the knife out of its eye, causing it to give a pained yelp. It tried to make another swipe at my legs to get me on the ground, but I lift my legs off the ground and moved them to the side at the same time, allowing my body to hit the ground sideways, but using my hand to stop the fall and rebound back on my feet. It tries to go for another shot, this time with its other arm, trying to decapitate me. This time I duck and leap as it then brought both appendages together, now resembling a large pair of scissors, trying to cleave me in two. But I timed my jumped just right and ended up just barely making it through the gap before it could cut me in half. As I jumped I twisted in a sort of corkscrew motion with my blade. Using the momentum of my spin, I make a strike for its head (although I couldn't tell exactly where I hit it due to my spinning).

When I landed on the ground, I looked up at the slit-mouth as the red light started to leave its eyes while it stood there motionless. After a couple seconds, the top half of its head slid off its lower jaw and hit the ground in front of me with the rest of its body following suit. Hm. So that's where I hit it. How poetic.

After a few seconds passed, for the tensions to die down, the realization of what just happened began to set in. I instantly dropped to my knees and my heartbeat started to race again (but not as fast as when the thing tried to swallow me). I then started to hold myself as I tried to regain my bearings. A few seconds later, I heard Bruno return from his sweep of the village and he located and approached me in the abandoned house. Upon seeing him, I instantly basically pounced on him and wrapped my arms around his furry body, holding him tightly.

"Come on! Pull yourself together, Simin!" I thought to myself as I tried to mentally recover. I began trying to take deep breaths (which was a struggle due to the pain it caused me) to prevent myself from hyperventilating. Eventually, after a minute of squeezing Bruno and moderating my breathing, I was starting to get myself back together. I don't know why but having him here makes things feel easier than they really are.

Just as I managed to calm myself down, I then feel Bruno's body language and breathing change as his head perked up in a sort of alert manner. This left me confused because I couldn't see or hear anything dangerous nearby to cause him to react in such a way. Suddenly, Bruno shook himself free from my grip and headed toward the open doorway, stopping on the threshold in a guard-like stance as he gave off an aggressive grow that I could hear reverberate through the sound of falling rain. Not long after, I realized what had Bruno in defense mode. Because after Bruno gave off another growl, I heard another one— a lower, deeper growl that most certainly did not come from him. I looked in the direction that the other growl came from and it came from just outside the entrance to Oniyuri. Seconds after, in came crawling another grimm that was now facing us and heading right for us. The same type of grimm that caused my trauma, the same type of grimm that has tormented and haunted me (even in my dreams) more than any other grimm I've encountered, the same type of grimm that brutally killed my mother right in front of me: the beowolf. And just like that, due to being faced by the monster that started it all, my composure shattered as soon as I recovered it.

As the dread started to return while my mind started to spin like an uncontrollable whirlwind, I slowly backed into a corner, Bruno with me, as the beowolf crept closer with us in its sights and began to enter the front door of the abandoned house. As the black, hulking beast drew near, Bruno vainly increased the volume and intensity of his growls. Knowing what this monster was capable of, I grabbed Bruno and held him back so he wouldn't charge at the thing and meet a similar fate to that of my mother. Plus, in his current physical state, Bruno wouldn't stand a chance, even if he were fully healthy. The thing could easily rip him in half with just brute strength alone if it got its hands on him. And as for me, I, in my current physical (and very much mental) state, I'm not sure if I will win. I can hardly keep myself together.

Eventually, Bruno, whose fur was still wet, tried lunging at the monster, which allowed him to slip free as I lost my grip on him. Bruno leapt up at the beowolf and sunk his teeth into its neck. The beowolf slightly inched back almost like it was a bit surprised by Bruno's actions, but it didn't take long for the thing to fling Bruno off with its strength as if it were swatting a gnat. Bruno's thin frame slammed into the wall with a heavy thud, leaving a crack behind as he let out a pained yelp. The sight of that sent flashes of my mother being slammed into the wall seconds before she was ripped to shreds. While I stood there in the middle of having a panic attack, the beowolf decided to briefly switch its attention to Bruno and move toward him. But why? I thought grimm are normally never concerned with animals. Unless… it aims to finish him so he won't get in the way again!

Just like that night, I was having trouble finding the courage to move as I stood with much fear in my eyes. But as the beowolf headed toward Bruno, I was then brought back to the present as I could hear his faint whimpering underneath the bellows of the monster… and that was enough to snap me out of it.

If I don't do something now, I'm going to lose Bruno too! I've already lost too much to the grimm… and I won't allow myself to lose another!

"Nooo!" I yelled as my body felt like it went into autopilot and charged the beast, picking up my weapons that were still lying on the ground when doing so.

As I ran toward the beast, it sharply turned its head to look at me. My mind was still a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions right now, but at this point my body was the one in control. I leapt at the creature, avoiding its jaws, and repeatedly started blindly stabbing it in the back and neck, desperate to save my friend. However, the stabs (which hit no vital areas) seemed to only agitate the grimm as it also flung me into the opposite wall, knocking the wind out of me. I hit the ground with a hard thud and the pain in my ribs almost became unbearable. I then began to also feel a warm, thick liquid start to well up in my throat and fill my mouth with a metallic taste. I started gagging as I coughed up blood onto the ground, watching the puddle grow with every drop that I ejected from my mouth.

I look up and see the beast is approaching me again. As I look behind him, I can see Bruno, who was still on the ground, but no longer in the beowolf's crosshairs. On one hand, I don't have to worry about him getting involved or hurt at the moment with the monster now focused on me again. But on the other, I now have to take on my mother's killer by myself, injured, while amidst having what I imagine a panic attack would feel like.
The beowolf leapt at me and I took my small window of opportunity to roll under it and end up behind it, now switching our positions. It then sharply turned its head to look at me again and took a swipe with the back of its right hand. I moved backward (not as fast as I normally could) to dodge and it quickly turned around and caught and pinned me to the ground with its left paw, knocking my weapons out my hands in the process and making it almost impossible for me to breathe. I struggled to reach for my weapons, but to no avail. Well, I guess there's only one thing I can do now.

Once again utilizing it in a sticky situation, I am able to slip my mother's knife out again and, just like I did with the slit-mouth, I dug the knife into the creature's left eye as it tried to bring its head down to bite mine off with its massive jaws. The thing howled in pain but didn't release me yet. I then pulled the knife out and repeatedly stabbed the wrist and palm of the left paw that was pinning me until it had no choice but to release its pressure. As soon as it did that, I took the knife again and stabbed it into its left palm again, this time leaving it there. It shouldn't be able to put pressure on that paw now so long as the knife is stuck—like trying to walk with a splinter in your foot.

As I tried to get back up in my brief window, it immediately batted me out the door, causing me to roll onto the pavement into the moderately heavy rain, leaving scrapes on my arms and legs (however, I did manage to recover my weapons before it took a swing at me). Luckily though, I managed to use the momentum of my last roll so I can get up and recover to prepare myself for the creature's next move. I'm not even sure if I can even fight this thing in my current mental and physical state, but I don't have a choice. Like I said the day after Dorado fell, "weakness is no longer an option. Meanwhile strength has officially become a requirement."

As soon as I got up, the beowolf leapt out from the shadows of the abandoned house and tried to pounce on me, still with the knife lodged in its hand. Once again, seeing the thing rush at me, arms spread and paws waiting to envelop me, my body froze again, as the dream I had a month back flashed before my eyes.

"MOVE, DAMMIT!" My mind yelled at the top of its lungs (if it had any) to instill some courage within myself. I immediately snapped back into it and barely got out of the way by dodging to its left. My mind and body are still not up to speed with each other, but are starting to get back on the same page.

It's fast. But not fast enough due to the knife in its paw slowing it down a bit, giving me a bigger chance to react. I specifically moved to the left side of it since I knew it wouldn't be able to see me on that side, which (I predict) meant whatever strike it would make would most likely be a backward swipe with its left paw out of pure instinct.

Just as I predicted, the beowolf took a swipe at me with its left paw and I moved slightly inward toward its tricep area to try and lessen the impact on me as I grabbed on to its arm, which practically caused my body to slightly whip as I was taken off the ground. I then proceeded to reach for the knife in its paw before it tried anything else and, instead of pulling it out, I dug it in deeper, twisting the knife as I did so. The beowolf howled again in pain and flung me to the ground. I ended up landing right in front of it as my body slightly bounced off the solid stone, its shadow enveloping me in darkness and its body serving as an umbrella from the rain as it was about to come down on me again. Despite the pain it caused, I still had an open window and couldn't waste it. I pulled out one of my sais and aimed the gun end to it at the beowolf's head to finish it, taking me half a second to steady myself due to the pain and nerves of my shaky hand. Just as I pulled the trigger, the thing managed to catch on and barely dodged to the side, causing the bullet to go through the space between its right shoulder and neck causing it to give another pained howl as it retreated a few yards away to regroup.

"Damn!" I thought to myself. "I only have two bullets left."

I guess I will take this opportunity to regroup as well (mentally that is). From the looks of my situation, staying on its left side would be the ideal thing for me to do right now. But, there is a high chance it will be more wary of that side, so I need to tread with extreme caution. I can't afford to make another mistake. Luckily though, keeping up with it won't be as difficult anymore since the knife stuck in its paw will prevent it from putting pressure on that side, slowing it down by a lot and increasing my window of opportunity whenever I get one. But the shot I landed on its right side seems to have done a considerable amount of damage judging from the chunk of "darkness" that's missing, maybe even slowing that side down too.

So right now, I have two options: attack the blinded left side and chop it down or attack the wounded right side where it will see me coming. The former makes it easier for me to hit, but might make it take longer due to its likely caution on that side while the latter will get the job done more quickly due to the seriousness of the wound on the other side, but will make it more likely to hit me due to it being able to see me on that side. I don't know. Levelling the playing field here may have proven to be a double-edged sword now that I look at it. Yes, it is now injured, but now it will be slightly more difficult in terms of anticipating and reading what it'll do next in how I approach or counter it. But regardless of which side I pick, if I'm going to take another shot at it, it has to be one that I CANNOT POSSIBLY miss, which means I will have to drastically immobilize it. This is going to be a tough battle. My body right now doesn't have the stamina to last a war of attrition with its left side nor the current physical capabilities to combat its right. My only option seems to be to come up with an alternative option: complete immobilization.

After a few seconds of regrouping, the beowolf then gets into a pouncing position to make another attempt at me. I'm not really too sure which arm it will try to grab me with. There's even a chance it will just try to clamp its jaws on me and try to end it there. Looks like I'm going to have to make a guess. As it makes its lunge, I dodge to its right side as it, with its jaws wide open, attempts to bite my head off. It wants to end it quickly now. At least it's slower now. Otherwise, that would have been it for me.

As I turn toward it to take advantage of the opening, I see that it had twisted itself in mid-air in a sort of corkscrew, counter-clockwise fashion so it could both attack me with the back of its left hand coming down on my head, while guarding its right side at the same time. I didn't think it was capable of that in its state. I barely move back enough, narrowly avoiding the arm coming down on my head like a heavy club. The beowolf landed right by one of the abandoned homes and I look up to see a wooden platform suspended above it carrying some crates. Maybe I can end this early and beat it the same way I beat the colossus. Placing confidence in my throw, I hurl one of my sais at the rope holding it up, causing the platform and crates to crash down on the creature, presumably killing it. I look into the cloud of dust caused by the platform and crates falling, I see no black mist. I didn't kill it. Damn!

(Gasp!)

"Wait…!"

I just made a mistake. Assuming that the beowolf didn't get crushed just now, even though it is still wounded, I just gave it a smokescreen to hide behind and it can now blindside me if I'm not careful. I need to find a wall or some flat, vertical surface and back myself against it that way it can't sneak up on me. I quickly glance around and see a small slightly higher elevated ledge and back myself against the wall of it to prevent it from sneaking up on me while also sneaking glances over to make sure it wasn't coming.

A couple seconds later, the area where I was standing briefly went dark as I looked up and saw the silhouette falling from above, accompanied with a growl. I barely get out of the way again, at this point, ignoring all pain in me due to adrenaline, dodging a swipe from one of its right claws as it leaves its marks on the stone ledge that I was just using for cover. I thought about trying to shoot it again with my sais but I only have two shots. It NEEDS to be an impossible to miss shot. I can't risk wasting another bullet.

At this point I think I have angered and frustrated the thing by lasting this long because now, at this point, it is only trying to slash me blindly and wildly with its claws, disregarding its own injuries in the process. I dodge a swipe from its left and scurry behind it, but it immediately- almost instinctively- turns around and gives me a swipe with its right claws. I duck and, to my surprise, it follows up with a downward strike with its left claws. What?! It doesn't even care that it still has a knife lodged in its hand anymore!

I jump backward but ended up stumbling due to my body starting to give away from my injuries and exhaustion starting to conquer me. I fell backward but still managed to recover by rolling with it and getting back on my feet. The beowolf tried to take advantage of my split second of vulnerability and tried another lunge at me. Instead of dodging this time, I get my leg up, foot pressed against its torso and grab the thing by its collar bone and fall backward again, using its momentum against it and pushing the thing off with that same foot and sending it over my head (just like I did with dad when we were training, only this time, successfully). After realizing I slightly disoriented it from the move, as it was getting up, I ran up and side rolled over its back and drove the sai into the back of its left leg and through its knee as I made my landing behind it. I almost have it immobilized. But I think I made it even more angry.

It immediately turns around, ignoring the pain (though still slowly succumbing to its injuries), and tries to unleash another flurry of wild and quick swipes at me with its claws at my face and body as if it's running on fumes at this point. One of those times, it almost slices my stomach open but only ends up grazing the front of my shirt. I'm not sure how long I can keep this up. If this keeps going, I'm not sure I'll even be able to even stand to defend myself. With every swipe it makes and every dodge I make, both our breathing becomes more and more labored and tired. I'm even having trouble finding an opening on the thing due to the fact I don't have the time to think.

After dodging a few more head and body strikes, I then realize it's only going for my torso and head. Since it's only swiping for my torso and above and not going below that, I realize that I still have an opening to at least attack its legs. I dodge one of the swipes by leaping backward for space and as it tries to charge me again (ignoring the pain from the wound I put in its knee), I exploit its leg injury and run back toward it and take advantage of the slippery pavement due to the rain and do a sliding sweep and knock it on the ground again. But as it is falling to the ground, I quickly get up and turn to aim my pistol at its head. Unfortunately for me, the beowolf, in a last ditch effort, turned itself mid-fall, and extended its arm and parries and grabs control of my right wrist, pulling me to the ground and making me land on my back with my head bouncing off the solid stone ground, severely stunning me and making me cough up more blood. I had never seen a grimm move like that before. If I had to describe it, it was like a 360 motion mid fall where it grabbed me halfway through and took me to the ground as it completed its rotation.

It then gets on top of me again and opens its jaws, ready to send me to my mother and father. At this point, I was done. I'm exhausted, hurt, coughing up blood, and might have a concussion. I didn't even have the strength anymore to put up a fight. I just closed my eyes and waited for the beowolf to complete the cycle by killing me.

But just when I thought it was over for me, I feel the beast jerk a bit as it got off of me like it was in some kind of pain. I then begin to hear muffled growls, but not from the beast. I open my eyes and see Bruno, miraculously back up, sinking his teeth into the beowolf's injured right shoulder/neck area, tearing away at the damaged dark tissue like an excited child ripping up the wrapping paper of a present. The thing lets out another shriek as Bruno desperately tries to attack it, sinking his jaws deeper into its wound. In a desperate attempt, the beowolf managed to fling Bruno off again followed by another, even louder, yelp by my companion.

"B-Bruno!" I struggled to cry out, sounding almost akin to someone gasping for air after taking a gut punch.

The creature tries to come back for me, but Bruno, desperate to keep his family alive, was relentless and charged back at top speed and pounced on the thing again, this time taking it down and managing to damage its right arm to the point that it was practically hanging off by mere threads. Even more angry the creature flung Bruno off again and barely slashing him in the thigh with its dagger claws followed by another yelp by Bruno that was somehow even louder than the last.

After knocking off Bruno again, I thought the beast would turn to me once more, but it didn't. The thing seemed to have lost interest in me for the moment just like in the house. It completely ignored me and completely focused its attention on Bruno again. At this point, the beowolf doesn't want to kill Bruno to keep him out of the way, it wants to kill him for pissing it off even more than it already was. The beowolf, with its exhausted, beaten, heavily damaged body, then slowly limped over to an injured Bruno who was struggling to get back up, whimpering and yelping, as the creature was licking its chops at the mere idea of tearing his helpless, wounded body to ribbons.

I could only helplessly watch as my body was too exhausted and battered to move or even scream.

"Please." My mind pleaded to my body once again. "I just need a little more energy. Please get up. Move. Do something! Don't let him die! Don't let the grimm take him too!"

I can't let Bruno die. I've lost too much. What I fear more than anything, especially more than the grimm, is losing everything I hold dear. For a time, I thought that had already happened in Dorado. When I started this journey to try and get my life back, I thought I had nothing more to lose. I thought the grimm took everything I held dear away from me. But I was wrong. They didn't take everything from me. I still have Bruno. When I found him on that beach, he gave me hope. He gave me back some of the life I lost, which is now all that I have left of it. I can't lose him. I can't let anything or anyone, especially the grimm, take him from me too. And if I don't do something right here right now, then I will have lost everything. I still remember the following words that my father told me: "If you want to live the life you want, you need to be strong enough to fight for it and defend it, as well as the people you want to live that life alongside, from those who want to take it away from you."

And I will do everything in my power to make sure the grimm take nothing and no one else from me!

As a last ditch effort, with my blood now rushing through me, I take one of my sais in my hand and pull my arm back to throw it as that was the only thing I had enough strength left in my body to do. But suddenly (and strangely) as I made the motion to throw my weapon, I felt a split second surge of energy course through me that caused my arm to move so quickly and forcefully, it almost pulled my shoulder out of socket. When I released my grip on the sai, it flew with such tremendous speed that when the weapon hit the beowolf's leg, instead of lodging itself in, it knocked it clean off as if it's body were made of paper. The creature then fell to the ground with a heavy thud, not yet fully aware of what just happened.
It probably went through its leg so quickly, that the pain didn't even set in until it hit the ground as it made a loud yelp as its black mass hit the pavement, now with only one leg.

I slowly pick my somewhat limp body up and start to hobble toward the downed beowolf. The creature then started slowly turning to me with its only intact arm while also desperately and weakly trying to get back up, yelping and whimpering with every desperate attempt. I didn't even know a grimm knew how to whimper. Is it whimpering because of the pain? Or is it whimpering because it's afraid? Perhaps both?

As I finally reach the monster, standing only a few feet away, it reaches out and weakly wraps its torn up paw around my ankle. (It didn't wrap its good paw around my ankle because it still had my mom's knife lodged in its palm.) After everything, it still wants to try to kill me— even when I stand above it. In what appeared to be a final act of defiance, the creature opened its massive jaws and bared its fangs as it looked up at me. I couldn't tell if it meant to devour me or if it just wanted to strike me with fear to get the last laugh.

Instead, I just willingly sat down in front of it, legs crossed and looked my mother's killer dead in the eyes, my face only a mere foot away from its own. With a calm face, I simply shook my head "no", silently telling it that I wasn't afraid of it anymore.

With its weak grasp still wrapped around my ankle, I get back up and stomped my mother's knife through the beowolf's left hand, pinning it to the ground. It lets out another howl of pain and I take one of my sais and stab it through its bottom jaw, pinning its head to the ground in the process as well with the gun end facing up and the barrel pressed against the roof of its mouth. Because of that, it couldn't close its mouth anymore. The beowolf still had its paw on my ankle and I just casually kicked it off, as if it were nothing more than a stone in my path. The only noise the creature could make now was not the roars and growls that used to strike me with fear nor the yelps and whimpers it was just making. It was just tired, labored breathing. I sit back down and reach over and, looking it in the eyes one more time, I place my hand inside its maw and place my hand on my weapon with my finger resting on the trigger. With just a little bit of pressure, I pull it.

[BANG!]

One bullet left.

For a very brief second, my body was engulfed in the black mist of the evaporating corpse of the beowolf before it dissipated around me and vanished.

I didn't feel the surge of emotions start crashing into me just yet, even after what just happened. I couldn't even find the strength to even express any emotion. All I felt was the rain hitting my throbbing head, pain all over my body (especially in my ribs), and tears starting to flow down my emotionless face. I then pick up my weapons and knife and put them away before getting up and limping toward Bruno, who was still whimpering and trying to get up.

"It's okay, buddy. It's all over now. Just take it easy alright?" I say as I kneel down and gently pet Bruno, letting him everything was alright and settling him down. I'm going to have to find a way to take care of his gash from when it scratched him. Maybe there's an abandoned pharmacy here. Hopefully, I can find some bandages and some medical supplies. For now, I take Bruno's scarlet bandana and press and hold it on the wound to stop the bleeding and tie it around his leg. Bruno didn't take too kindly to this and let out a loud, sharp yelp and continued to whimper even more intensely. If it were anyone else doing this, he most likely would have bitten them.

"Easy Bruno. I know it hurts, but you'll have to bear with me here, alright? Just bear with me, okay? Just please bear with me! Please bear with-" I say repeatedly, each time my voice breaking more and more as the wave of emotions started to finally overcome me like a tsunami as I let out labored wails of emotion through my pained ribs as I held him close and tightly (but not too tightly).

The only thing I have left of my old life is Bruno. And that is as close as I will ever get. He is the one thing holding me together.

On this day, my dreams of getting my life back were shattered… but I have Bruno here to hold the pieces together like a mosaic, allowing me to have the courage to keep searching for and see a brighter tomorrow.

That is… if there is one.

*CHAPTER END*

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Grimm Profiles: #2: The Slit-Mouth:

(inspiration: Japanese urban legend, The Kuchisake-onna)

The Slit-Mouth is a humanoid type grimm that resembles a frail woman with long black hair at first glance. It is also the smallest of the humanoid type grimm as it's height is usually around a minimum of 4 ft (1.2 meters) to a maximum of 5 ft (1.5 meters). They also have barbed, thorny hair and a mask-like bone structure on the lower half of their face that many say resembles a surgical mask, which is meant to protect their head during combat. As for protection below the neck, it does not have much armor, but people mainly say that the bits of armor it does have around its body make it look like it is wearing parts of a human skeleton. The only places on its body where it has no armor at all are the femoral regions of its legs and its arms (specifically between the shoulders and elbows), which are popular exploitable strike points when huntsmen and huntresses encounter them. Because of its physical vulnerabilities, instead of hands, the Slit-Mouth has two bladed appendages below its elbows that resemble one half of a pair of scissors that they can be utilized for fighting. The Slit-Mouth is said to have moderately fast strikes and that their scissor like appendages are sharp enough to cleanly cut through flesh and bone in a single swipe. They also sometimes use them to cut up their prey (while they are alive) if its too big for them to swallow.

Back to the topic of strike points, another popular strike point is the space where its jaw meets the top half of its head. However, the only way to hit this spot is if the Slit-Mouth reveals the lower half of its face, leaving its head vulnerable to strike.

When it comes to durability, the Slit-Mouth is one of the least durable grimm, which makes them very easy to kill. Because of this, they tend to avoid combat unless they absolutely have to and mainly rely on capturing prey via their passive ability: petrification. If you look into the face of a Slit-Mouth, your body will instantly freeze as a massive wave of dread overcomes you and renders you completely motionless. During this time, the Slit-Mouth takes advantage and eats their prey by opening the bone-like structure around their lower face, revealing a massive jaw that can unhinge to swallow people whole. This is also how they got their name, "slit-mouth". When they reveal their massive maw, some say it almost looks like someone had slit their mouth by cutting a line through their cheek from the corners of its mouth to its ears.

Another thing to note about the Slit-Mouth's petrification ability is that the only way to break the state of petrification is to flash natural light in the eyes of the person affected (i.e. a flickering flame, flash of lightning, sunlight reflecting off a surface, etc.) Also if you ever happen to miraculously survive an encounter with a Slit-Mouth after being petrified, it is imperative that you vacate the area as quickly as possible. When a Slit-Mouth petrifies you and instills that wave of dread in you, not only does it basically paralyze you with fear, it also essentially turns you into a beacon for grimm (due to grimm being attracted by negativity) and will attract them to your exact location.

Slit-Mouths are mainly found on the continent of Anima and like to hang around abandoned civilizations such as abandoned villages, districts, kingdom outskirts, etc. In a very rare case, there was one found roaming the shadows of the slums of Mistral. There was once a time in the Mistral slums where a lot of missing persons cases were arising after many people suddenly went missing without a trace as well as a grimm attack taking place every time a missing persons report came up. When a huntsman named Shiro Wan was assigned to find out what was going on, he noted that at every scene where the person was reported to have gone missing, there was no sign of a struggle. He also picked up a trend: every scene was either in or near an alleyway or behind a building. Because of this, Shiro would spend days staking out the Mistral slums and would eventually find the cause of the disappearances when he found a Slit-Mouth roaming near in an alleyway behind a pub
where he swiftly put an end to its spree.

Overall the, Slit-Mouth is a tricky grimm to come across if you don't know how to deal with it. If you look in its face, it will take a lot of luck if you want to survive. But however, due to their substantial lack of durability, they are not much of a problem in a fight, especially if you have ranged weapons. It doesn't take much to kill a Slit-Mouth and you can even kill one with a mere pocket knife if you are daring enough. In short, if you run into a Slit-Mouth, don't look at its face. If you can avoid looking at its face, defeating it should be a fairly simple and easy task.

Danger Level: C

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Hey everyone!

Sorry to keep you for so long. But you are in the home stretch of this page so I hope you'll stay around for this last part. Or you could just skip to the end for fun fact #7 if I'm going on too long. I understand I can be a bit of a windbag.

So funny story, instead of the beowolf, the Slit-Mouth was originally going to be the one to have the big fight scene with Simin. But I ended up swapping it for the beowolf at the last second when I was revising because I felt it narratively made more sense since it was the beowolf that killed Simin's mother and gave him his ptsd. Because of that, I was pretty much at a crossroads because I had already written the fight scene for the Slit-Mouth and I didn't want to scrap the Slit-Mouth because it was a grimm that I was very much looking forward to using. Because of that, I tried to give myself the best of both worlds by creating the Slit-Mouth's petrification effect so that I could be able to use both the Slit-Mouth and the beowolf and Simin could have his scene with the Slit-Mouth and move on to fight the beowolf after.

Anyway, the Slit-Mouth scene was slightly different than the one you read. Originally (after swapping it out for the beowolf) everything with the Slit-Mouth up to the part where it walks up to Simin was the same. After that, Bruno was supposed to come in and tackle the thing and then Simin just gets down and stabs and kills it. When I looked back at it, I was like, "Nah! That's lame!" So I cut that part out, extended the scene, and gave it a mini fight scene, all resulting into what then became the final product of what you actually read here in regards to the Slit-Mouth. Overall, I think it was definitely better than it just being taken down by a malnourished dog and taking a single stab to the chest by a pocketknife. I actually had a bit of fun redoing that scene because it's probably one of my top 10 (maybe even top 5) favorite grimm that I've created.

Also, we are almost done with Act 2 of Volume I. I wanted this chapter to feel very bittersweet with Simin reaching his destination, but failing to achieve his goal while also confronting the creature that killed his mother and killing it. Also very soon, we will be getting some more characters. Some old ("old" as in canon), some new ("new" as in a few OC's I made). Some minor, some major. I think you'll like them and what I do with them... or at least I hope, considering I haven't written that many character interactions in this volume since Simin was a silent protagonist in Act 1 and has pretty much been alone with a dog for almost all of Act 2. I actually tried avoiding writing character interactions in the first two acts because I wasn't so confident with it, which is why Act 3 is going to have a lot of. character interaction and dialogue since I needed to work on it and get comfortable with it. Overall I think I've gotten more comfortable.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You are probably wondering about the whole "surge of energy" thing where Simin gets this sudden burst of energy and throws his weapon and takes off the beowolf's leg. Yeah, even though Simin does not have a semblance in the SLVR trailers, I'm going to give him one. But don't worry. There is a method to my madness. It is all part of the process. If you want to know more as to why, just ask and I will tell you. But I have to warn you, my reasons are very, very spoilery in regards to how far I've planned ahead.

Oh! And one more thing, I normally I don't do this, but because of the nature of the next chapter, I think it's fair that I warn you that Chapter 8 is going to be very graphic in terms of violence. Probably more violently graphic than chapter 4 and we all know that one was a bloodbath. Anyway, without further ado, here's fun fact number 7:

Fun Fact #7: The closing words at the end of this chapter are pretty much (although heavily paraphrased) a straight up reference to the opening words in Mark Zhang's first SLVR Trailer.