Volume I: Chapter XIV: Chatareus:

"We're almost there, Simin…" Raven assured me, sounding a bit frustrated for some reason after I asked her how much more distance we had to cover until we reached our destination. "Just hang on a bit longer. I'd say we have about another hour of walking left."

"So Raven…" I speak, initiating conversation.

"What?! What is it now?" Raven said with much audible irritation as she was no longer in the mood to entertain my constant update requests.

"Why do you sound so annoyed?" I ask her with an oblivious tone.

"Why?" She said exasperatedly. "Maybe it's because you've been asking me the same goddamn question every ten minutes since we've started walking! 'How much longer, Raven?' 'How much longer until we get there, Raven?' How about this? We'll get there... when we get there! So stop asking me! Got it?"

As Raven let out her frustrations, I was left speechless for a few seconds as I wasn't aware I was annoying her. I mean I knew she was getting annoyed, but I didn't know I was the cause of it.

"...That's not even what I was going to ask this time…" I clarify with my voice a bit lowered as I was still feeling the initial shock from her snapping at me.

"Oh, well then what were you going to ask then?" Raven asks as she changes her tone, not even bothering to apologize once she realized her mistake. Though there was a bit of remorse in her voice, so I let it go.

"I know you won't tell me exactly who it is we're seeing or why, but could you at least tell me what it is we're going to do when we get there?"

"You'll find out when we get there." Raven answers my question while, again, simultaneously not answering my question just like she has with all my other questions regarding the topic.

"Raven, please just answer my question. Why are you being so vague?" I ask as worry and concern are now starting to enter my mind due to the anxiety that I have no idea what I'm getting into.

"You sound worried." She picked up as she easily read my tone.

"It's because I am…" I bluntly answered.

"What are you worried about? What's on your mind, Simin?" Raven asked, as she slowed our pace down a bit so she could turn more of her attention to me.

"Because I don't know what I'm getting myself into. And it's making me increasingly anxious that we're getting closer to whatever it is we're doing and I still know nothing. I can't help but feel I'm underprepared not knowing. I just want to know what's about to happen."

"Simin, what's about to happen is that I'm going to teach you a very important lesson- arguably the most important lesson in my book and probably the toughest one." Raven said, keeping it vague.

"Raven, why won't you just drop the vagueness and just tell me everything?" I plea.

As soon as I said that, Raven stopped dead in her tracks as she knelt down to eye level and said with a cold voice:

"Because if I did, you would refuse to take another step forward."

With that, she stood back up and turned around, but I was left standing there as that sentence echoed in my head. I then spoke up as she took a few steps back into the direction we were just heading in.

"Raven, I trust you with my life. But I want to keep trusting you." As soon as I said that Raven stopped again. "So please just tell me?"

Raven stood in place for a couple seconds and simply sighed as she turned back to me and she removed her mask, revealing her pale face, her nose slightly red from the cold, as she looked me in the eyes with her crimson red irises.

"The person we are seeing is a young man named Chatareus. I found out something recently regarding him and I need to pay him a visit."

"Judging from how you said that, it sounds like you're going to rough him up..." I say a bit nervously.

"Yes." Raven bluntly answered.

"So I take it he's pretty powerful or something, which is why I'm tagging along, right?"

"Oh don't worry. I won't need you until the end." Raven tells me to my slight relief of not wanting to get involved with brutalizing some innocent person. "I can handle him myself."

"So where do I factor in?" I ask, now wondering why I'm even here then.

"Once I have incapacitated Chatareus, I just need you take something from him…" She said with an avoidant coldness.

"That's it…?" I ask, a bit surprised as I was expecting more.

"Yes, that is it." She simply replies.

"If all I'm here for is to take something then why can't you just do it?" I question her logic.

"Because I need you to do it." She emphasizes as she puts her hand on my shoulder to further her point.

"I don't get it." I state, prompting for further explanation.

"You will soon..." Raven coldly responds. "Now come on…" Raven says as she stands and not very gently ushers me in front of her as we continue our walk as she places her mask back on.

"Is… is that everything, Raven?" I feel compelled to ask as I turn my head back slightly to look up at her.

"It's… the basic gist of it." She tells me a bit aloofly as she keeps her attention in front of her.

With that, we continued on and marched in silence as I spent the rest of the time contemplating to myself as to why she wants me here to do something she could easily do herself. I also couldn't help but shake this feeling of uneasiness the entire rest of the way as well despite her telling me. Those words Raven told me yesterday when we were about to head off echoed in my head again: 'There's no point in getting acquainted with the dead.' I can't help but feel there's a connection between those words and where we're going.

In about an hour or so, just like she said, we eventually reached our destination. As we came near a clearing, the snow would begin to shrink in level as it slowly went from knee high for me to about just below ankle height. I could see through the treeline that there was a small hill that seemed to flatten a bit toward the top as the snow thinned out, the little green tips of the grass poking their way out the surface. Sitting atop the hill was a lonely small house that looked more like a large dilapidated shack than anything given its rickety appearance. Just behind the house was a decently sized field that seemed to be used for growing crops to live off of. Judging from where I'm standing, it might be used for growing corn… but that's just a guess.

"Now Simin…" Raven spoke as she crouched down to me with her mask held to her hip. "I want you to stay put. I don't want you leaving this spot under any circumstances. Unless I specifically call for you, I expect you to stay here. Do I make myself clear?"

"I understand." I answer her.

"Now repeat what I just said." She says, making sure I was listening.

"You want me to stay in this spot and not leave it under any circumstances unless you specifically call for me."

"Good." Raven then stands up to her feet as she proceeds to remove her jacket and hold it out. "Here, hold this for me." She requested of me as I hesitated to grab it.

"I thought you said you wouldn't let me have it." I mention, referring to yesterday when she shut me down for alluding to wanting to wear her jacket.

"Don't get the wrong idea, Simin. I'm not giving it to you so you can stay warm. The jacket just restricts my movement and I have nowhere to leave it except with you." Raven clarified.

"Oh." I say a bit disappointed by her reason. "Can I still put it on though?" I ask, hopeful that she'll acquiesce.

"It's not like I'll be here to stop you." Raven says in a sort of indifferent tone.

"I'll take that as a yes!" I thought.

"Now I'll say this one more time: stay put until I call you. Okay?" Raven said as she put her mask back on with a stern, but hushed voice.

I nod in response, hearing her message loud and clear as Raven stepped out into the open and climbed halfway up the slightly snow-covered hill.

. . .

*Raven's perspective*

While I leave Simin to his own devices as he's probably already putting my jacket on the moment I stepped out, I head up the hill and stop as soon as I reached the halfway mark and just stood there motionless for a couple seconds before I decided to call out to him.

"Chatareus!" I shouted loud enough to create an echo that repeated itself a couple times.

After about thirty seconds or so passed as I heard what sounded like a lot of movement in there, the old, beat-up door to the shack opened with a creak and out came the young man, whose name I had just called. He's 17 years old and is a little taller than me as he stood at about 5'10 (1.78 meters) or somewhere close to it as he also had a bit of a thin frame. Although I'm partially to blame for that considering I've been shaking him down for a portion of his crops for a little over three years as I've been paying him occasional visits. The pale boy had unkempt viridian green hair and tired eyes as he looked at me, attempting to put on a straight face to hide his nervousness. However, he didn't put up the front too well as I could feel a nervous vibe from him as he knows what usually happens when I come here… although this is the first time I've come in Winter, which he must not have been expecting and has put him more on edge.

He also wore blue, stitched up pants that were so dirty, you could barely even tell they were blue until you got a closer look at them. For his upper body, he simply wore an ocean blue tunic with a brown leather strap around it. I could also see a bit of what looked like a gray, metal object poking out from his back. He's armed this time. That's new. I guess coming at such an unusual period really did put him on edge.

"What took you so long? You should know better than that. I know you at least heard me." I spoke so he could hear me.

There was no wind blowing by or any other natural noises, so there was a bit of a faint echo with my words.

"What do you want, Raven? Why are you here?" Chatareus spoke with a tired voice. I could sense a bit of apprehension and defensiveness in it as well.

"You should know why I'm here, Chatareus." I answer him bluntly.

"Well I'm sorry, but I don't. If you're here for the corn, I should remind you you already shook me down for it at the turn of Septem-"

"I didn't forget. No need to remind me." I cut him off. "That's not what I'm here for anyway. In fact, I'm actually here for something else of yours."

Just then the kid raised his hand slightly as he tried to make a subtle move to put his hand on his weapon to get ready.

"And what would that be?" He replied as his voice now had a heavy tone to it.

"Why so nervous, boy?" I taunt him. "You're not in any danger… not yet at least."

"Raven, what are you here for?" His voice shook.

"You sound scared." I speak up.

Chatareus didn't say anything that time as he only placed his hand on the object and tightly gripped it. It's almost like he's trying to threaten me.

"You know Chatareus…" I speak up again, my voice maintaining its initial tone. "... you made the biggest mistake of your life when you decided to apply. And now it's going to cost you dearly… and I'm here to 'collect the debt.'"

As soon as I said that, Chatareus had a look of shock, fear, or surprise (or all of the above) on his face as if he had just been found out as he quickly pulled out the grey, rectangular object sitting on his back and it unfolded into a strange-looking bow with blades on the top and bottom and what looked like a firearm of sort peering down the center.

"Are you shocked?" I ask him. "Did you think I wouldn't know?"

"H-how did you-"

"Because, Chatareus,..." I interrupt him again. "...you're predictable. I had a feeling you'd try something like this once you got to around this age. So I decided to make a quick flight to Mistral, more specifically to Haven academy. All I had to do was wait for Leo to head home and break into his office and get my hands on the roster of accepted applicants, and lo and behold, your name was among them. You'll be surprised by how I get around. It makes gathering information a lot easier."

"Raven you don't have to do this." He begged, trying to avoid his death.

"And that's where you're wrong. I do have to do this. This isn't personal, Chatareus. It's survival. And sometimes survival means playing it safe by eliminating potential threats. And because of what you did, I now see you as a potential threat. Maybe not now, but sometime in the future."

"Raven, just hear me out-" He spoke frantically.

I simply ignored him as I put my hand on my hilt and drew my sword as I took a step toward him.

"What if I joined your tribe?" He blurted out.

"Excuse me?" I scoff.

That honestly surprised me a bit. But I highly suspect he's bluffing. It's just a desperate ploy to try and get out of the situation or get me to lower my guard. He's not a sellout. After all, I killed his father over a year ago last February, so I know there is no way on Remnant he'd join me, even if he was held at gunpoint. But I'll play his little game and turn it on him.

"What if... I joined your tribe?" He repeated, this time uttering it.

He couldn't even look me in the eyes as he said that.

"I'm listening…" I tell him as I play along.

"You let me join your tribe, and in exchange, you let me live. I could be a useful asset for you. Just think about it. The fact I was good enough to get in to the academy shows the potential that I have. If you were to let me join in exchange for letting me live, I could pull my own weight and help the tribe in any way possible."

"And how do I know you're not just planning to stab me in the back the moment I lower my guard?" I feign my skepticism to continue to play along, otherwise he'd get suspicious that I'm onto him if I relent too easily.

"Because I don't plan on dying today."

I let out a slight chuckle to myself out of slight amusement. I actually liked that answer. But still, it won't change anything.

"You know, you make a pretty good point, Chatareus." I lead him on as I now sheath my weapon to get him to relax and think I've fallen for the trick. "And it would be a shame to just let your potential get snuffed out like that. I could make good use of you. So you know what, I'd like to thank you for suggesting such an alternative for me. You've made things easier for me. So you can join my tribe. All you have to do now… is take my hand."

I then hold out my hand for Chatereus to come and take it as I slightly shift the position of my feet. But little does he know, the way I'm standing now is actually a subtle fighting stance as I'm preparing for him to try and attack me off guard so I can counter.

Chatareus then glanced back at the house and proceeded to nod to himself as if he was accepting what he's about to do- or at least what I suspect him to do. The kid's probably feeling sentimental or something as he knows this will likely be the last time he'll ever see his home as a living being. He then turned to face me again and lowered his weapon and slowly walked toward me as the weapon sat in his right hand. But I could see that there was caution in his steps. A clear sign he is picking his moment and angle to try and strike. I could also tell from his positioning that he is going to attack me by bringing the weapon up and will either try to shoot me point blank or try to hit me in the head with the blade. The weapon itself does look like it could make a few dents so I'll be a bit careful regarding that factor.

As Chatareus appeared to be taking my hand, his weapon suddenly took a smaller form that resembled a rifle with the bladed parts of the bow turning into a curved guard at the bottom of the barrel as he quickly raised it and attempted to blow my head off, point blank, just like I predicted. I quickly dodged it by ducking and leaning to the side and launched the hilt of her sword into his gut to knock him back a little and wind him so I could get an opening to deal a devastating blow. I then attempted a slash as I drew my sword as he got knocked back, but the kid blocked it as his weapon took the hit as he turned it back into its bow form. The kid's a bit fast than I thought. We moved so quickly it almost felt simultaneous.

Chatareus got knocked back by quite a bit that I had to raise my voice a bit so he could hear me.

"You know you can't beat me." I delivered him the brutal fact.

"I can try." The boy stated, with trepidation in his voice.

"Then I guess it's time for you to face the consequences." I tell him.

"Speak for yourself, Raven." He challenged, not backing down despite his almost nonexistent chances. I can't help but respect that.

But still, he's brought this on himself. I had a feeling he'd try this someday.

Chatareus and I stood apart from each other, endlessly waiting to see who would make the next move. He's clearly waiting for me to make the first move and adopting a defensive strategy from how it looks. I guess I have no choice but to give him what he wants.

To kick the fight off, I decided to go for a straightforward attack as I rush straight up to him with my sword in hand. I, still holding my sword, rush him and make an upward motion when swinging as an attempt to cleave him in two. Just as I expected, he leapt over me and tried to fire another round straight down at me. I used my sword and kept following through with the upward motion and brought it around over me, deflecting the bullet instead as it headed down. I still kept following with the motion of the swing, and brought it down as I turned around, hoping to get him this time as he landed behind me. Unfortunately, he saw it coming and managed to parry my blade to his left side at the last second while lodging the bottom part of his bow into the ground, essentially creating a barrier between him and my blade on that side as his barrel pointed straight at my leg.

I should try to boot him before he tries anything, but I know that he'll shoot before I can do that. So instead, not even a second after he's blocked my follow up strike, he attempts another shot directly at my knee hoping to immobilize me and I quickly spin out of the way and bring my sword around to his open side to try and decapitate him from behind. But the recoil of his shot dislodged his bow from the ground as he used the momentum to quickly whip it behind him on his right side as he turned it back into its rifle form midway, blocking another attempted blow with the guard. He attempts to pull the trigger again, but I boot him this time before he takes another shot as I had a big enough window that time.

This kid isn't half bad if I'm being honest. I'll give him that. He has pretty decent defensive and counter offensive skills. But it's only a matter of time until he's done for when he cracks under his own pressure. He knows he can't beat me in a long drawn out fight, so he wants to try to end it quickly before I can even do anything as his best bet, hence why he's making full use of his defensive abilities and counterattacks.

Ultimately, his lack of combat experience compared to mine will be his downfall. I can literally just let him wear himself out. The longer this fight lasts, the more his stress will increase, which means the more frantic his attacks will become as the reality of the scenario begins to set in, leading to sloppiness and creating more openings as he tries to deal a heavy blow to me. It's only a matter of time until he gives me that opening I need as he rushes to finish this fight and tires himself out. In other words, I don't even have to try hard. I'm not going to waste too much energy here. So in the meantime, I'll just try to pace him until he trips up.

Also judging from how he uses his weapon, when up close, he seems to use his bow for defense, but switches to his rifle when he attempts a blow. Granted this is only based on the fact he's only used the bow when blocking so far, in the first few seconds of this fight so I could be wrong. He must not have enough confidence to be able to land a hit on someone like me. Which means if he brings it out, it is most likely going to be a diversion or defensive tactic. Let's see if I can put that theory to the test.

Chatareus and I rush each other and I attempt a horizontal slice to his upper midsection. As I closed the distance he slid right under, leaning back to avoid the blade. But instead of putting the bow back like I anticipated, he tried to sweep my legs with it. I didn't have any time to avoid it so I just had to let the sweep hit me so I could prepare for his follow up.

I fall forward with sword in hand, but for the split second, I was completely off the ground, I twisted my body 180 degrees so that I was now facing the sky and held my sword in front of me to block the anticipated follow up strike. No more than a split second later, I see the bladed part of his bow come down on me and hit my sword head on. I used this blow as momentum for me to flip my body backward and plant my free hand down so I don't land on my neck and spring backward to dodge his second follow up, which was an upward slash with the bottom part of the bow. He briefly let his entire right side open because of this and I take advantage of the opening and cleave him, sending him flying a few yards.

Before he even hits the ground, I dart up to him again and slam into the ground with another blow. As I am about to plunge the tip of my blade into his heart, he parries it with his bow as he turned it back into a rifle. In less than a second later, with my blade now stuck in the ground, he brings up his legs and kips up, knocking my hand off my weapon and slightly moving me back. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little impressed with this kid. It's a shame I have to kill him.

Immediately after landing on his feet, he brings the bladed part of his rifle around and tries to swing for my head. I lean back and leap backward to gain some distance between him and me to see what he'll do next as I am now about 10-15 yards (9.1-13.7 meters) away from him and my weapon. Surprisingly, he hadn't rushed me for another follow up or made any movements to get closer to me at all for that matter as I leapt away. I expected him to try and rush me and attempt multiple shots, but it looks like he's more concerned with me getting my weapon back, which means he's guarding it and goading me to come back in and open myself up. Not too bad of a strategy, I'll admit. He knows better. That means he will most likely attempt and rely on ranged shots to keep me at bay or even beat me. But he's in way over his head right now. The fight's not over yet. So if he's daring me to come closer, I'll do just that.

Chatareus pulls the trigger of his weapon as the bullet hurtles toward and I swiftly sidestep the shot and rocket up to him right before he had time to do it again. He didn't even have time to give a facial reaction as I palm struck him in the face, slamming the back of his head into the hilt of my sword that was still lodged in the ground behind him. He then tried something clever by rolling the rest of his body with the blow, practically backflipping with it as he took advantage of the momentum to try and recover. I'm not worried though. The blow combined with the impact of his head hitting the hilt should have a major effect on him now.

Before he landed on his feet, though he was very visibly shaken by what I just did, I quickly grip the hilt of my sword and kick it out of the ground hard enough that it whipped in a way that the blade was heading straight for his head as he landed. He barely noticed it in his slightly groggy state and immediately brought his weapon above his head to guard it. As he took the bait, I then pulled back right before it made contact and very swiftly brought it to his body, taking advantage at his temporary slow reaction time and hitting him with a flurry of blows while he was still stunned and unable to even defend himself.

He should be almost out of aura at this point. As I finish with my attack, he bounces back up, not allowing any time for either of us to recover, and immediately rushes me, making multiple futile attempts to slash me.

As I predicted, his attacks are now poorly coordinated and sloppy, not to mention that he is out of breath after I dealt that flurry of heavy blows to him. Now he's getting desperate and this is his last gasp. I casually block or dodge them as he slowly wears himself out with his flurry of strikes as he goes all offense and tosses all his defense out the window with every blow getting more and more labored than the last. Almost out of breath, he attempts a strike toward the right of my face and I duck to the side a bit as the bladed part of the rifle glosses past me.

In response, I quickly grabbed Chatareus' wrist while he held his weapon and flipped my sword so the hilt was facing his arm. He may still have his aura up, but that shouldn't make a difference with what I'm about to do. I bring up the hilt to the middle of his arm and hit it with such force that I could hear a clearly audible pop as I dislocated his elbow to disarm him, causing him to immediately drop his weapon as his left arm went limp, accompanied by a loud yelp as he hunched over and held it in pain.

"Agh! You bi- agh!"

I cut him off as I hit him in the temple with the hilt of my weapon knocking him off his feet. As he tried to get up, I flipped my sword back around and hit him with a final heavy slash, knocking him back and sending him not too far from the bottom of the hill. As I did this, I noticed his aura, which had a viridian color to it, fizzle and fade around him upon my blade making contact with him. Looks like I took out his aura.

"It didn't have to be this way, you know." I coldly tell him as I give him another slash, causing him to scream in pain as a large gash made an appearance on him as his clothes started to turn red. In all honesty, I don't exactly enjoy this nor do I want to do this, but if I feel I need to brutalize this kid in order to ensure the safety of my tribe, then by all means that is what I will do without hesitation.

I suddenly then hear a sort of pop and a yelp from Chatareus as I look over to see that he's popped his elbow back into place as he was trying to pull himself back up.

"What do you think you're doing?" I ask him as he tries to get back up and make a move for his weapon, with a look of determination, blood pouring from his mouth with some dirt covering his face.

I then kick him back down right in the gash on his chest to ensure he didn't try to get back up again before he fully got back to his feet as he falls back down with a pained groan.

"Stay down. It's over now." I order. "In fact, this fight was over long before it even started. But before you go, Chatareus, I will leave you with this message: When you live in a world where the strong survive, it isn't the weak who die first. It's the stupid. Maybe if you had just been smarter and thought about the consequences of your actions, you wouldn't be on the ground about to die."

"I… w-wont…. let you…. k-kill me." Chatareus struggled to say through his agony and the blood welling up in his throat.

"Defiant to the end. I respect that. You have grit, kid, and I like that about you. You didn't try to run or cower and even in this state, you won't even beg me to spare you. You stood your ground and fought to the end. It's a shame you have to die today..."

Anyway, I think I should go call for the kid now. It's time for him to do what I brought him here for. He'll probably hate me for a while, but it's important that he learns this lesson.

I put my hand in the air and look back to where I told Simin to stay and gestured for him to come out.

. . .

*Simin's perspective*:

"That was… uncomfortable to watch." I mentally commented. "He didn't stand a chance. Not only was he not able to land a single hit, but Raven was pretty much in control of the whole thing, if not most of it at the very least. He looks really messed up lying there in a pool of his own blood. The guy barely lasted even a minute."

"SIMIN!" I hear Raven call me as her voice echoed among the snowy landscape.

I immediately shake those thoughts out of my head as my train of thought was halted and I remove Raven's very soft and comfortable jacket (mainly because I didn't want her to yell at me for wearing it) and step out from where I was told to stay as I then make my way toward Raven and the bleeding out Chatareus.

"Hurry up and get over here!" Raven yells as she removes her helmet and holds it to her side.

I then quicken my pace to a jog and rush over to the two. As I got closer, I looked down at Chatareus' wound and I started to feel a bit of sickness at the sight of red chasm in his body.

"Is… is he-"

"I didn't kill him. He's still alive." Raven says, cutting me off and taking her jacket back.

"Okay. So what am I taking then?" I ask Raven nervously.

"Are your weapons loaded?" She calmly asks me.

I sheepishly nod my head as the feeling in the air instantly felt heavier to me. Raven then holds out her hand and I give one of them to her as she opens the chamber to make sure as the nod must not have been very convincing and then she hands it back. Just as I was about to put it away, Raven stops me

"No, don't put your weapon away, Simin. Keep it out. I want you to take his life."

"...W-what...?" I muttered as I could hardly believe what I'm hearing as it echoed in my head as I just felt myself mentally take a few steps back.

At that moment, it finally clicked. That's why she's been so avoidant whenever I would ask her questions regarding this! That's what she meant when she said I'd be taking something of his! If I had known beforehand I was coming here to kill someone, I'd have refused to come with her.

"You heard me, Simin." Raven repeated her order.

"B-but w-what did...-" I say fumbling over my words. "What did he ever do to us?"

"Nothing." Raven replied coldly.

"Then why does he have to die?" I stall as I was trying to find any excuse to get out of this.

"Because he is a potential threat, Simin. It's not what he's done. It's what he can and might do."

"W-what do you mean?" I continue to delay.

"You'll find out after you've killed him." She says, growing more irritated.

"But Raven-"

"Simin, I am not going to entertain this any longer. I will only tell you once. Pull. The damn. Trigger. Now." She said adopting a colder and more serious tone as her patience wore thin.

I really can't get out of this, can I?

As I slowly turn toward him and shakily aim my weapon, I couldn't help but look into Chatareus' glassy eyes as they stared into mine. Just then, the images of the six bandits I killed started flashing through my head. It was literally sickening to think about. And then I thought of Mari's words during our talk:

"'What's done is done. You can't change what you did in the past. So instead of lingering in it, learn from it. Grow from it. Don't let it control you and don't let it define who you are. The person you are today and the person you will be tomorrow doesn't have to be the same person you were yesterday. Don't let the person you were yesterday hold back the person you are today or you end up hurting the person you will be tomorrow. Don't let your past become your anchor. Yes, Simin, what you've done is something that can never be undone as there is no going back from it. But you still have your humanity. You have the power to let it stop there and leave it behind and move forward. I know it. But what matters is do you think you have what it takes to move on and grow?'"

"There might be no going back for me if I pull the trigger and kill this guy." I then think to myself as I feel a wave of anxiety come over me. "What would Mari think? Would she hate me forever if she found out I killed again… especially an innocent person such as this? I can't do this!"

"I- I can't, Raven! I can't do it! I can't kill him!" I plead as I shut my eyes.

This visibly irritated the bandit leader.

"Dammit, Simin!" She turned to me, taking her eyes off Chatareus for a second. "With every seco-"

In that second that Raven directed her attention to me, Chatareus took his opening and kicked my weapon out my hand, causing it to fire above his head, and swiftly caught it with his uninjured arm as he ignored the pain that must have been coursing through his body. He immediately attempted to shoot Raven before she could do anything by firing five more shots at her, but Raven blocked and shoved me away from the area of danger as she was doing so before attempting to deal a crippling blow to him.

But Chatareus, through his actions, revealed what he was really trying to do. He wasn't trying to keep the fight going. He knew he couldn't win. He was instead looking for an escape.. through me.

After Raven had shoved me out the way and took the time to block the bullets, her attempted blow to Chatareus narrowly missed as he instantly rushed toward me while I was getting up and pulling out my other sai to defend myself. As soon as I was back on my feet, he was already on me as he skillfully disarmed me and fired another five shots rapidly at Raven to keep her at bay for a moment longer as she was about to make a move to reach him. As Raven blocked the bullets fired from my weapon, he took the time to effectively restrain me while also holding me by the neck so that I couldn't even make a noise and holding the smoking barrel to my head.

But there was something off with his actions. I noticed as he ran up to me, he purposely put the safety of my weapon on before he held it to my head. Not to mention how he was holding me, he was firm, but I was still clearly able to breathe. He only applied enough pressure so that I wouldn't be able to make much noise without straining. It's a bluff! Which is why he's trying to make it so that I can't make a noise, otherwise it'll run the risk of me notifying Raven.

"Raven..." He said, his voice shaking as he was clearly desperate and still in a lot of pain. "I don't want to do this, but you've pushed me this far. If you don't leave… for good, then I'll have no choice but to kill him."

He sounded like he meant it, but I could feel his hand tremble a little as he held the barrel against me.

Raven didn't say anything as she stood there, her expression turning into one of slight shock from the sudden quick event that had just occurred and pure anger, though I couldn't tell if that was more toward me for refusing to comply or Chatareus for essentially taking me hostage. What Raven ended up doing was simply raise her sword as she slightly angled her body as it looked like she was preparing for something.

"Is she planning to just rush him?" I assumed in my head.

"I mean it, dammit! Get out of here or he's dead!" Chatareus threatened, the fear revealing itself with every syllable that escaped through his bloody lips.

Ultimately, what Raven did with her sword was something that genuinely surprised and bewildered the both of us. As the crimson-eyed woman lifted the blade, she made a slash behind her and a strange red and black rift opened up in the space where she glided her weapon. It was like she created a portal in thin air and the sight of seeing it created left me too confused to even think.

I could feel his body tense up a bit and freeze in place as he was very nervous as to what Raven was planning. As Chatareus stayed where he was, Raven kept his eyes on him as she thrust the sword through and swung it downward. Upon that happening, I heard a thump beside me accompanied by an agonizing scream as I felt him release me as something wet and thick got on my arm.

As soon as he released me, I step away a bit and see that my arm has bits of blood on it and I turn around as I am greeted by a grisly sight. As I turn, I see Chatareus fall to his knees as he was now missing an arm, which was lying beside him, my weapon still in its bloody hand. Just behind him, I spot the same rift that Raven had created with the end of her sword poking through with blood now dripping from the already crimson blade. No more than a couple seconds later, Raven herself then steps out through the portal as well, still gripping the weapon.

I was still having trouble processing what just happened. I had never seen anything like this before. Is this that "semblance" thing Raven talked about? Is this her semblance? I sat there dumbfounded by what just occurred until I was snapped back into reality as the portal behind her vanished as it closed.

As he managed to quiet his screams, the last thing Chatareus would do was slowly look up past me and at the dilapidated house on the hill he had walked out of a few minutes ago before meeting his imminent demise. Then, he quietly muttered under his breath his last words:

"I'm sorry, Vella…"

As soon as he said that, Raven raised her sword one last time and brought it down on Chatareus' head and decapitated him as his body fell to the ground in front of me, the white snow now cloaked in his blood.

**CHAPTER END**

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Hey everyone!

I'm really sorry for this one being late. I spotted a plot hole during my last day of editing, so I worked on the chapter some more for a few extra days to patch it up.

Anyway, let's start off by talking about one of the major things in this chapter:

I think it's pretty obvious that this chapter has a direct tie to future SLVR team member, Vella Moisia. In this chapter, we basically just witnessed a very major moment in Vella's backstory. I should still let everyone know that we will not be officially meeting Vella until next volume, so she will not be appearing next chapter. She only really gets mentioned by name and makes a brief "cameo" via a kid's drawing since Vella has just turned 8 at this time. Now as for who Chatareus is, he's Vella's older brother.

Also, as to why she wanted Simin to specifically kill Chatareus, that will also get revealed next chapter as well. But if there's one thing that we all know already, it's going to be pretty awkward when Simin eventually meets Vella in the next volume and finds out she's the little sister of the guy Raven tried to make him murder. And it's going to be even more awkward when Vella finds out Simin was there for her brother's murder and was part of Raven's tribe. Although that won't happen until much later. But regardless, I hope I can make that interesting when we get to it.

Now let's talk about the fight:

Raven vs Chatareus was easily my least favorite fight scene to write and it's mainly because I struggled with it when writing it for the first time and it took me about a week to choreograph and write the whole thing. The reason why I struggled with this fight is because it hadn't dawned on me until I first started writing this scene that this is the first real deal fight scene between two skilled fighters, which meant I was going to have to step it up with this one, so I felt a bit out of my element and awkward with this one as I had to think of some new things and get a bit creative. Because of that, this fight scene feels a little clunky to me and a little slow paced for a fight that was supposed to last almost a minute. Funny thing is the fight was supposed to be even shorter in the original at 30 seconds.

The other reason why I felt I struggled also had to do with the fact I wanted the fight scene to be accurate as to how Raven's style is. And since she literally has only one fight scene in RWBY, there wasn't much to go on, so I rewatched Raven vs Cinder multiple times to try and figure out and replicate her fighting style. I also had to rewatch the Viridian trailer multiple times as well (sometimes in slow motion) so I could get a feel for [what will soon be] Vella's weapon and how it works. I'm not sure I have a good feel for it yet, but that's just something I'm going to have to toy around with more to get used to it.

Going back to Raven, I think a get a better feel for her fighting style in the future chapters and I think you'll like the next full fight scene more. Her next full fight scene is in chapter 16, which I had a lot of fun writing as that one is Raven in a 2v1 training session and she uses her portals in the fight, so I got to some creative things with how she utilizes her portals in combat.

I wanted this fight overall to feel very one-sided and have Raven absolutely dominate and be mostly in control of it. I hope I did a good job on that. One of the main purposes of the fight scene itself was meant to show how skilled and experienced Raven is as she picks apart a [soon to be] huntsmen academy student throughout the duration of the fight and quickly beats him in about a minute with almost no struggle. I guess you could also say that pretty much means this chapter also serves to show the power gap between someone at pro huntsmen level vs someone at barely a student huntsmen level.

The other purpose was to show to Simin Raven's brutal and ruthless side. And the last purpose this fight was supposed to serve was be a major moment in Vella's backstory as her brother's death will give her a motivation as to what she'll try to do in the next volume when we do meet her.

Anyway, it's going to be a while until we see Raven actually trying in a fight scene. So I would say in regards to fight scenes, a chapter to look forward to is chapter 19 as there will be a huge fight scene. The fights scene will last throughout almost the whole chapter, and it is an extremely close fight between Raven and her opponent. I won't say who she'll be fighting yet, but I will give a hint: It's not Simin.

Now with all that said, Act 4 is almost over. That means after chapter 15, we will have just the "anthology chapters" and Act 5, which is chapters 16-20. When I do eventually start posting the "anthology chapters", I plan on posting them throughout the week of rather than how I do my normal chapters, which means after chapter 15, it will be a little while until the next chapters are out. Anyway, I'm done rambling. Here's the next fun fact.

Fun fact #15: Originally, I was going to have Chatareus' name be Apollo. The reason I changed it to Chatareus is because Vella's weapon in the SLVR shorts is named Chatareus and I wanted to add some heavy significance to the name of Vella's weapon and I liked the idea of Vella naming her weapon after her deceased brother. Another fun fact is this chapter takes place on Vella's birthday, December 29th. The reason I made Vella's birthday December 29th is because that is the day the Viridian trailer was posted.