So once again, I fell into a routine as the time passed.

But instead of working I spend most of the week training, only the last day being my day off to do whatever I want with it. And Blake did improve her approach to teaching since it is no longer brutal sparring sessions, but she shows me and makes practice new combat moves.

And she also became a regular visitor just to get a nice dinner, which I'm all open for since it helps me in improving my cooking job and she gets her favorite dish.

A win-win situation.

But moving back to my free day, usually I spend it returning to the old schedule of fishing in the morning, cooking in the evening and weaving at night. But today was different. During the weeks I gained confidence in my abilities in fighting off the monsters of darkness and I decided to go fight them alone without her supervision.

Decision which I deeply regret as I find myself running through the jungle as fast as my legs can carry me.

"Fuck!"

It turns out Blake was in the right to always oversee my weekly fight against the grimm. To avoid situations like the one I'm currently in.

Something really hard hit the back of my head, but I was still able to shake it off and continue not before quickly looking back at my chasers.

A trio of ape-like grimms with big twisted skull heads and ridiculously large limbs jumping from tree to tree with extreme ease, occasionally throwing any object at me whenever they get the chance.

While I can maintain the gap between us, each time they land their shot, I lose speed as I need to recover from the pain and it depletes my aura. The bugs must have learned to call in reinforcements because never once they appeared when Blake was around.

It is a situation like this. I wish I had a gun or my weapons were like Blake's Gambol Shroud and switch to fire back at those bastards who are probably reveling in my pain.

Of course, I tried to fight back at first when they appeared, but a single punch sent me flying like a pebble, so I immediately ran away from them.

The good thing is that I am nearing the walls, which are probably manned by some members of the garrison. But I can't stop running or trying to avoid their shots.

"Get down!" A voice cries out in the distance, which I quickly obey and drop on the ground, covering my head with both hands, careful with my claws to not cut myself.

The effects are instantaneous as I hear a barrage of bullets pass above me and hit my pursuers, who shriek in a very high pitch that hurt my ear drums forcing me to cover my ears.

When thunderous noises came to a halt, I let out a sigh of relief and rolled onto my back, groaning in pain as it was the most afflicted area by those grimm projectiles. My strained body can finally have a break and recuperate.

Is not really something I want to repeat any time soon.

'Status'

Ma'iq Rakhan

Race – Feline Faunus

Age 17

Class: The pugilist

Level – 4 (33%)

Mentor – Blake Belladonna

Apprentice – None

HP – 360/410 [45 regen per minute]

MP – 312/1650 [350 regen per minute]

SP – 551/1850 [200 regen per minute]

STR – 26

END – 33

DEX – 30

INT – 27

WIS – 24

CHA – 25

LCK – 10

I'm a very lucky bastard.

Blake told me the dangers of aura breaking, especially in the middle of a fight. The fight against the bugs wasn't that dangerous as they barely scratched me, but the apes brutally decimated my aura. A few more hits and they would have succeeded in taking me down and ripped me apart.

That thought alone terrifies me. I should just stick with Blake in the meantime to avoid this from happening ever again.

While gasping for air, my ears don't fail to hear the approaching steps of a small group.

"Hey look, the rookie is trying to impress someone." A deep voice with a mocks my plight as I turn to look at the idiot with a frown.

Their white and black robes made it apparent that they were from the White Fang, if their white upper mask hadn't said so already. Only the leader stands out, as he is very tall. Even from my downed position, I can quickly tell how taller he is compared to my own height.

I couldn't tell what faunus they were thanks to their hoodies tho.

"Thanks for the help." I grumble, slowly getting up from the muddy ground.

The leader waves his hand dismissively, "Don't mention it, is a pretty common occurrence. Recruits believe themselves all hot shit and try their luck only to realize how outmatched they are."

"I wasn't outmatched. I just didn't expect monkeys to appear." I try to explain myself while checking my body, my clothes totally ruined by mud. When I get back home, I will take a shower and a change of clothes.

However, everyone else burst out laughing while the tall guy pats my shoulder before using a bit of strength to push me in the right direction.

"That's what everyone says."

Jerks…

A quick shower solved most of my issues since my aura took care of my body. I felt good as new. Blake explained to me that aura wasn't the solution to everything and I shouldn't over rely on it very much, but still the perks were too much to ignore.

But the last fight, if I could even call it that, left me a bit shaken. Despite the sun still up and burning in the sky, I didn't feel like going out. And I would rather spend the rest of my day working on my weaving skills, which I have been slacking thanks to my new training schedule.

One thing I had to admit about my head was how strange and erratic it used to be, and my work was the proxy to the many confusing memories as a small spherical red bird plush was staring at me with the eternal angry face.

A knock on my door catches my attention.

"Ma'iq? It 's me, Levi!" The lynx's voice is easily recognizable, while it is a surprise visit is not an unwelcome one.

"Is open!" I shout before placing my work back on the desk.

I hear the door unlocking and closing before I watch my friend enter with a smirk. "I thought you would be lazing off in your bed at this hour."

"And you would be right if it wasn't for a slight change of plans."

She grows confused and looks around, "What did you do?"

"I tried to fight the grimm alone in the jungle." I confess my minor crime with a daring smile.

"You what?!" She exclaims, as she gets closer to check on me.

I let her do her thing as I chuckle, "In my defense, I didn't think of the possibility of a higher grimm would appear. Good thing that the white fang was patrolling the area."

She lightly punches my chest before sitting on my bed, "You shouldn't go alone to that place. The walls are there for a reason."

I rub the back of my neck thinking of the not so heroic escape, "Yeah, I learned my lesson. Thank the gods for my aura, or I would be purple as a blueberry."

Technically, I should be on my bed moaning in pain for all the damage I have sustained.

"So did you manage to catch anything today?" I ask, trying to shift the topic of conversation.

"Of course I did! I had a lot of time to get better, you know?" She happily declares, making me smile.

I still remember the days when she struggled with just keeping the right posture.

"Ah, so where is it?" I ask since there was nothing with her when she arrived.

"...I ate it." She replies after a moment, looking away with a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Raw?"

She nods.

"Well, that's kinda a bummer. I would have loved to cook it for you." I lean on my chair, rather surprised. Is not like faunus cannot eat raw meat but it can be messy and blood stains are hard to remove.

Her attention quickly turns to my work on my desk and stands up to pick up one of the angry-looking birds, "Wow, you made this?"

"Ah yeah, I've improved quite a bit with the whole knitting thing. These little guys aren't that hard to make."

Knitting with two colors at once was a problem at first though, but figuring out the techniques instantly increased my job level.

"Can I keep it?"

"I don't see why not." I shrug while accepting her request.

[Affection with Levi Fang increased by 2 20/100]

Girls like cute things. Who could have thought?

"Say Ma'iq, haven't you thought about selling these? They are cute. I'm sure people will love them." Her suggestion brings a solid point which I barely think about when working,

"...no?"

She rests one hand on her hips as she stares at me with a grave look, "How will you ever buy that scroll if you don't think bigger? The Vytal festival is weeks away."

I could feel my ears drop in embarrassment since I didn't consider the option once, "Okay, but how would I even sell them? I'm not a salesperson, and standing in the middle of a city shilling for them doesn't sound appealing."

"It might work, though?"

"I don't want to embarrass myself and people may tag me as a con-artist of sorts." I sigh, thinking back to the days when catching fishes, being a salesperson has a lot of different responsibilities which I don't want to deal with.

"Don't be so negative…" She pouts as she brings her plushie closer to her chest and wraps her arms around it for a small hug. "What about the beaches?"

"That doesn't sound so bad actually…." I trail off thinking of the simplicity of just walking around with them and kids will flock to me in curiosity and goad their parents to buy them. "It can definitely work."

"So with that solved how many of these little guys you made?" She points at her plushie.

Her question makes me look at the roof in thought. I can't recall the number just the time when I started working on them as a form of practice.

"I don't know, to be honest with you, after filling my workspace, I just throw them in the closet so they don't occupy space." I point at the only closet in the room.

Levi goes to my closet and opens the doors wide, only to be greeted by a small mountain of red plushies falling to her feet.

An awkward silence follows.

Levi slowly turns her head around with an inquisitive look, "Ma'iq…"

"I didn't keep count."

It shocked even myself since I use the furniture to store and grab clothes on the daily basis. How I didn't notice the growing mountain of toys forming right under my nose?

Just how many did I make in all these weeks?

No wonder my funds didn't move that much.

-Neo Politan-

Leaving a small house, she smirked as she looked over shoulder and caught sight of her last client's temper tantrum while his subordinates were trying to hold him back.

Oh, how much she wished for him to break free and attack her. It would be the perfect chance to stretch her legs.

With her work done, she finally got some time for herself and while Menagerie is not the best place for entertainment, it has a few redeemable qualities such as the vast beaches and the opportunity for a zoo tour. And she wasn't disappointed.

Her umbrella always proved useful as it perfectly protected her skin from the sun, walking across the streets and appreciating the fauna. However, she is aware of her unique appearance making her stand out like a sore spot, which is why her semblance did a quick work to alter a few aspects of her persona to blend in, like single hair color and a fitting summer outfit.

However, she is quite giddy with her extra ears at the top of her head.

She was ready to explore the beach at her leisure.

However, that plan came to halt the second she noticed many carrying a red toy, which she had never seen before. The kids were laughing while carrying a red bird with oversized eyebrows, giving it an eternal angry had seen the stores at Vale and not a single design matched.

Her curiosity piqued. She kept walking in the direction where the kids came from, but it wasn't much of a trip as there was a crowd gathered around a particular looking faunus carrying a large box between his arms filled with the same toy she had seen moments prior.

It had always been a slight issue of her to maintain interest in a single thing for a long period of time, but it intrigued her enough with the faunus selling those unique plushies and, by the look of it, he was about to run out.

So she stood there and watched the crowd buy more of those red bird plushies until he ran out of them and everyone dispersed, rather disappointed.

Except for him as he was checking something and looked very excited, a sentiment he shared with a faunus girl who showed up and took him away. Of course, she followed the duo to wherever they were going and much to her delight, it was the faunus home.

She patiently waited for the girl to leave before she sneaked her way in before the cat could close the door, being none the wiser of her intrusion.

Just like the outside, the inside wasn't any impressive, but it caught her eye another bird plushie on the desk. This one was different but sharing a similar style, rather than looking like a ball, it had a triangular shape and it was yellow.

She shifted her attention to the faunus who was approaching the desk and finally took a better look and she could use one word to describe him: exotic.

It was common knowledge that faunus only possessed a single animal trait, but he had two, which made him unique.

He could make an exotic pet, a nice souvenir to bring back to Vale. It would be so easy to just knock him and put a collar on him. He hadn't even noticed anything wrong since her arrival, after all.

He was more focused on giving shape to a doll made out of the same material as the birds.

But she knew Roman would make a fuss if she didn't consult with him first.

She picked up one of the yellow plushies and pulled out her scroll for a selfie, her semblance working wonders, as he never noticed the missing toy.

She attached the picture to a message to her only contact and clicked 'send'.

Neo: Look what I found!

Roman: Yeah yeah, it looks cute. Did you check on our contacts?

Neo: I did. Pretty boring, they didn't attack me when I handed the new terms.

Roman: Good to hear. Come back, I need extra hands for a new deal with Junior.

She frowned at the last message. Roman was always busy with work, it wouldn't hurt him to lay off a week or two.

And the beach was nice. Leaving it so soon was annoying to say the least since she didn't have the chance to swim or take a sunbath.

She deserved some compensation and, taking another glance to the focused faunus, gave her the idea.

Neo: Can I bring back a pet?

Roman: No.

Neo: Aww why not? I promise I will take care of him and declaw him if he gets naughty!

Roman: No kidnapping Neo. Is too much of a hassle.

Neo: You will live.

Roman: Fine, I will buy you all the ice cream you want after you return.

Neo: :)

Texting the last message, she smirked in victory. Roman was so easy to goad. But it was rather disappointing that she wouldn't bring the exotic kitten back with her.

But she had a feeling that it wouldn't be the last time seeing him as she knew he had more secrets in him.

-Sienna Khan-

The high-leader of the White Fang wasn't having a good day, her desk filled with reports.

Casualty reports.

With the new Atlas bill, the war machine was put into work overtime and it quickly produced results in a short amount of time. Multiple outposts across Remnant were reinforced with both heavy and light equipment, and the Atlas Knights increased the numbers of patrols.

She knew it was for the best to pull out her forces, as they would inevitably clash with the newly produced army and reveal their positions. Supposedly the heat would lessen and then they could return, but what he never could have expected was that those bastards had deployed a new drone to their ever-growing army.

She watched the poorly taken pictures of the new enemy, a small compact sized box propelled by razor-sharp blades. All the reports agreed on their cruelty of design, drones designed to maim and cut. Many of the injured brothers and sisters were put out of commission if they didn't die of infection or blood loss.

At least she could take solace that none of the soldiers with an awakened aura suffered any casualties against those drones. But that didn't change the fact that the majority of the Atlas sect was crippled and incapable of carrying out any mission.

Of course, such a setback wouldn't stop her, and she already devised a plan to compensate for the losses. While not liking the idea she would have to pull out Adam from Vale and relocate him to Atlas, it would be a huge loss of dust and weapons supply, but they can't afford to lose the Atlas sect.

And since the initiation ceremony is getting close, Adam would have a platoon ready to take them to Atlas and relieve the troops. Even if they were fresh recruits she can trust him to lead them well enough to make a comeback from the dire straits.

Her mind now focused on the new recruits, she quickly grabbed another paper reporting the little escapade of a recruit, Belladonna new project. She might be a capable fighter, but she wasn't so smart as getting all the information regarding Ma'iq wasn't so difficult to achieve.

However, she had to recognize Blake's ability to adapt and become an acceptable instructor or it was the faunus' natural talent. Either way, she had a new potential hunter in her ranks.

Her scroll ringed and quickly pulled it out as they sent only emergency reports through it.

She scowled as she read the flash report, feeling anger build up inside her to throw the scroll in frustration. The detachment charged to resupply the Mistral sect was wiped out by the infamous Branwen tribe, which would set them back for at least a month.

She quickly swiped the report to the second, which resulted in an article extract, unconsciously she growled as it was a successful agreement between Vale and Atlas in the purchase of a single war hound.

She still remembers the day when Atlas unveiled their latest creation to fight the grimm, a quadruped robot with a strong resemblance of a loyal dog. They quickly proved to be superior to the mass produced Atlas knights, possessing a versatility to evenly match hunters, turning them into killing machines against their enemies.

Her people.

She knew from the get go that the Vale council's purchase wasn't with the intention to fight off the monsters of darkness, but they would program it to search and destroy her forces stationed in the kingdom. And Atlas was always happy to provide.

But there was still a chance.

The war hound might have been announced but not yet put into active service. Meaning it was currently stored somewhere.

It was safe to assume that they stored the machine in the most secure location to dissuade robberies, but if that was the case, then her informants would have told her of convoys moving massive cargo or any sort of massive deployment of the Vale police force.

Which didn't happen.

So it was logical to assume that they stored it outside the city where few would dare to look as the ever lurking grimms are the perfect deterrent.

It might be a gamble, but it was worth the shot rather than sit idle with her arms crossed.

A preemptive strike.

She dialed a specific person on her scroll and soon after, the face of a young redheaded man wearing a white mask appeared on the other side of the screen.

"Adam, I have a mission for you."

AN: Thank you for the 100 follows now is time to level the odds with the favs, but seriously speaking thank you since it tells me how much you like the story.

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