Good evening everyone, welcome to another chapter of 'The Darkling Thrush'!

As always before we begin, I'd like to thank those who left a review! Thank you jin0uga, noon297, Baoh joestar, Guest, SanShine and Bagration! I appreciate the words, I mean it.

Although ,I must say, I am a little surprised by all the Russel/Pyrrha love. I never said you wouldn't see anything along those lines in the story, particularly I have something planned in Arc 13. It's called 'Eidolon'. I hope that will satisfy you all.

Also, I think I just confirmed there's 13 arcs. Hm. I'm going to go one step further and confirm there's 20. Exciting right?

Well enough with that now! On with the story!

XXII

Who Dares Wins: Part 2

There should've been four dead bodies where Russel stood. Deep within a dark and damp cave, with his only source of light being what shone out of the screen of his scroll, the young Thrush found himself faced with a rather disappointing and somewhat worrying sight. Only half an hour earlier did Team CRDL and their Huntsman chaperone set out to do their job, locate any Grimm and eliminate them. They'd set out into the neighboring woods that surrounded the town and so far hadn't seen neither a red eyed beast nor evidence of such Grimm being in close proximity of Oakwood.

Playing on a hunch, Russel had snuck away from the group, recalling the Ursa that he'd stumbled upon that one night after graduation. Thinking it might've been the beast that had caught the eyes of the townsfolk, Russel came into the cave well prepared to finish it off. Though he doubted such an act would deal with the Ursa for long, after all, this was the second time the damn thing roamed free.

So that was the story of how Russel came to be in this dark, isolating and mildew ridden environment. But as luck had it there was no sign of the Ursa. That didn't rule out the possibility of the Ursa's presence nearby, however, but what puzzled the young Thrush was the lag of floor decorations. Last he'd been here, Russel left four White Fang members to their deaths. Without a doubt three were slain, but with the last one there may have been a chance of his survival.

Of course, the Ursa could've gobbled their bodies up whole, Grimm were known to devour their victims. But if Russel recalled correctly, some of them got chopped to bits. The Ursa could've been thorough in its work, leaving no trace but the blood that stained the cave floor, which was the possibility Russel secretly wished for. After all, the alternative meant something different entirely.

The alternative being that someone came back to collect the bodies. Now that possibility was one that Russel feared. He hadn't told anyone about what happened that night, everyone busied themselves with dousing the searing flames that night, and there was the matter of his Father's death. With his immediate attention elsewhere Russel couldn't be bothered with it.

Russel recalled that day when Blake had gone off the deep end and kidnapped him. The whole thing was started after she'd realized his daggers belonged to a member of the White Fang, which they technically did. They belonged to that one guy who could coat his skin in metal, who just so happened to be the one whom Russel was uncertain had died. In Blake's own words, she said the guy couldn't die. So maybe he didn't and had the self-respect to come back for his friends. And that meant one of them was still running around.

And then there was the other more disturbing alternative that popped its way into Russel's head. Now if it wasn't some seemingly immortal crazed zealot with a hard on for arson, and if the Ursa didn't very well eat them, then that would mean someone came looking and found the bodies and before taking them and doing god knows what. And that was a scary thought. The last thing anyone needed was some guy wearing a burlap sack running around collecting dead bodies. No one wants that. No one needs that.

Of those three possibilities, Russel couldn't decide which one sounded worse. Maybe if he had time he'd look into the matter, but for now he'd keep quiet. You'd have to be mental if telling your team the dead terrorists you left in a cave were missing sounded like a good idea. So now that his present business was concluded, Russel turned back and walked out of the cave.

Russel blinked repeatedly, his eyes adjusting to the sunlight once more. He hadn't noticed the passage of time, too lost in his thoughts. Deciding he'd better get going and track down his team rather than let them worry and come looking for him, Russel set out deeper into the woods.

As a kid after chores he'd come out here and eat lunch. He'd climb trees and get into all sorts of trouble. But it was after he'd gotten attacked by the Ursa the first time when he'd start venturing out into the wilderness less and less. There was a cabin that had since fallen into disrepair after the owner had passed out in the woods. Time to time the kids would dare each other into going inside, claiming his spirit haunted in or some other nonsense. The young Thrush passed by the old cabin and was surprised to find it laying in ruin. Mother Nature had uprooted the foundation, vines covered its fallen walls while the wet wood rotted away to a swarm of insects that had decided to call it home.

There was a lot of history to the cabin, some if it fond the rest not so much. It was the birth of Russel and Ruddy's so called friendship, if you could even call it that. It was always a mystery to everyone else back in Oakwood Academy how the all-around decent guy like Ruddy could put up with an asshole like Russel.

When they were kids, Russel and Ruddy were both dared by the other kids to go into the cabin. They did, but Russel wasn't planning on staying too long. So the young Thrush left, abandoning Ruddy to the place. Later that day, while they were playing kick ball with a can back in that clearing outside of Oakwood, Ruddy showed up looking bruised and beaten. As it was, the floor of the cabin had corroded and he fell through. He blamed Russel the most out of everyone because he'd left him.

Ruddy then pulled out his dad's revolver. All the other kids went running, leaving Russel to his fate. The young Thrush didn't recall anyone getting help that day, they just ran and left him to his fate. Even at a young age, Russel was conscious of the concept of death, his Father did a good job of reminding him of that.

Scared out of his mind but too naive to succumb to fear, Russel stared beyond the barrel of the gun. Turned out Ruddy was just as scared as Russel, he was trembling even. He just stared into Russel's eyes and broke down crying. He tossed the gun aside and fell into Russel's arms and the young Thrush just held him.

You point a gun at most guys and it paralyzes them. It's like they're hypnotized into staring down the barrel, thinking about what'll happen next, what it'll do to them. But it's never the gun that's going to tell them that. But rather it's the guy holding it and his eyes. And that was the beginning of their 'friendship'.

"Hey Russel! Where've you been?!" Dove's shouting snapped Russel out of his thoughts. The green haired Huntsman in training looked to his left, finding Dove along with the rest of his team and Port gathered atop a small hill.

When faced with the question of his whereabouts prior, Russel thought about lying but then he doubted they'd buy him getting lost in the woods. So the young Thrush opted to tell the truth. "There was a cave a coupe ways back, I decided to check it out." Russel said casually.

Russel watched as Dove raised a brow skeptically but he accepted the answer. With that bullet dodged, Russel joined his team and found them all gathered around in a circle looking down at the ground. Russel was about to question just why they were standing around doing nothing, but then he followed their gazes downward and found themselves standing around tracks in the dirt.

"What do you boys think?" Port turned to Team CRDL and gestured to the tracks. "You've taken my class. What kind of Grim mare we dealing with here?"

Russel stared at the tracks left behind by the Grimm. Most of the nightmarish creatures took after animals, like the Ursa or a Beowulf, their tracks often resembled those of a bear or a wolf however distorted. But these tracks were misshapen and grossly inhuman. They appeared be overgrown bird feet, but then there was the deep punctures in the ground left behind by claws, as well as the impression left behind by the grooved feet.

"Creeps." Cardin answered. "We're dealing with a pack of Creeps."

"A pack?" Sky asked, confused at Cardin's seemingly firm stance on the matter. "Where'd you get that from?"

Cardin raised two fingers and pointed down the other side of the hill. Everyone followed Cardin's instruction, with most eyes going wide at the sight of a plethora of Creep tracks going in several direction. "Oh."

"Ah! Splendid!" Port let out a hearty laugh. The senior Huntsman raised his ax-gun weapon and held it ready before descending from the hill in order to inspect the rest of the tracks. Team CRDL exchanged glances but said nothing of Port's overzealousness. They just all calmly walked down the hill and joined the stout professor.

"Now, here's the real test. You can tell a lot about your prey just from their tracks." Port said as he crouched beside a series of Creep tracks. He gestured for the boys to come closer and get a better look. "Some egg head scientist might make the argument for the more abstract, that Grimm are just mindless killing machines. But they're animal killing machines. They each have their own independent thoughts, they answer to their own hierarchies of alphas and betas. You could tell a lot about Grimm just because of their tracks."

"So what can you boys tell me about this one?" Port pointed at the series of tracks beside him. They all took a look at the tracks that went off into the forest. You had to really study the drag in the right tracks to get a sense of the Creep's state of mind. Every third step and impression in the ground was sluggish, as if the Creep had to stop and gather itself before continuing on.

"Looks to me like this poor bastard's starving." Russel said aloud crassly. "Its movements are too erratic, it's trying to keep up with the others but the damn thing probably hasn't eaten in weeks."

"Correct." Port nodded before standing back up and shouldering his gun. "You said it wasn't keeping up with the others, Mr. Thrush, why would that be?"

"Because it's the beta." Russel answered clearly. "It eats last."

"Take a look at the other tracks boys, see if you can pick anything else out." Port said before giving them free reign to play detective.

Team CRDL quickly broke off to inspect various other tracks. Russel himself took on searching for the leader of the pack. If there was a beta, there would most certainly be an alpha. Creeps could theoretically grow as big as they were allowed to be, but most sightings of an Alpha Creep have attribute their peak height to at least two meters. So Russel just went looking for the biggest pair of feet around.

Russel found a sizeable pair of tracks off further ahead, which was easier to identify once he'd gotten away from that crazy soup of tracks back a ways. Russel quickly took to identifying the Grimm's movements, he was half expecting the Alpha Creep to be in better condition than the beta, but found quite the opposite. In fact, their movements were eerily similar. And that didn't bode well at all.

"Hey guys! You better come take a look at this!" Russel shouted over his shoulder. Soon enough they all came running, wondering just what had deserved their attention. "We got ourselves a situation."

"How so?" Cardin asked, quickly raising his mace.

"Check it." Russel pointed at the Alpha Creep's tracks. "The Alpha's in just as bad a shape as our beta friend back there."

"That would mean the entire pack is as well." Cardin groaned, catching onto Russel's train of thought. "Hey Professor, packs of Creeps aren't as big as Beowulfs right?"

"They usually travel in bands of eight, no more than ten." Port answered. "Creeps aren't too agile, nor do they possess the frame to pose as serious a threat as say a Deathstalker. Because of this, they don't venture often into human settlements. They're essentially overrated scavengers doing hit and runs."

"So we gots ourselves a bunch of hungry scavengers. What's that mean?" Dove scratched the back of his head, still unaware of the gravity of the situation.

"It means the damn things are more than likely to do something stupid." Cardin shook his head. "If they're hungry enough, what's to say they stop playing by the rules? No more hit and runs. Full frontal assault."

"Who wants to bet where these tracks lead?" Russel muttered darkly. "Ten lien says they're heading to town."

"We'd best be off then." Port said before quickly running after the tracks. "If we hurry we might be able to cut them off!"

"You heard the man." Cardin looked to his team and raised his mace. "Let's move!" He shouted before rushing into action.

To that the rest of CRDL resigned themselves to joining both their leader and Port in the act of running through the woods. There must've been something funny about the situation, as Dove burst out laughing. Russel spared a glance at his teammate, part of him wanting to ask what the youngest member of Team CRDL found so amusing. But then it clicked with Russel and he too joined in the laughter. It was funny actually, form an outsiders perspective it just looked like a bunch of heavily armed men running without reason.

The mad dash back into town was shorter than the hike into the woods. Before they'd all been careful not to alert any nearby Grimm of their presence, after all, they were the hunters and they were the prey. But now what they desired was the attention of the Grimm, just as a means to distract them from the town.

As they drew closer to town, they could hear a number of wails and high pitched screams. Adrenaline pumping, they all ran as fast as they could hoping they weren't too late. When they finally reached the town, they found The Creeps ransacking everything and giving chase to the townsfolk.

The misshapen bipedal monstrosities tore through buildings and snapped at the town people. By the looks of it the attack had only just begun and there appeared to have been not fatalities, at least not yet.

"Alright students." Port flashed Team CRDL a smile. "Put these Grimm down, quickly, before the panic attracts something worse!"

"Understood!" Cardin shouted before raising his mace into the air, as if rallying his team behind him. "Let's get in there!"

Russel drew his daggers and set his sights on the nearest Creep. The whole situation was less than ideal, they were reacting to conflict, doing their best to keep destruction and death to a minimal. The Huntsmen weren't in control, it was the Grimm. As established earlier, they could be dealing with the bare minimum eight Creeps, or they could be dealing with more, and from what Russel could see with his own two eyes, there were only three present. That left most of them unaccounted for.

No doubt the rest of the Creeps had gone deeper into town, these were just the stragglers. Russel ran forward at the closest Creep, a bruised angry looking fellow, no doubt this was the beta of them pack. The thing saw Russel and turned its attention on the boy. It came running at him acting like it had something to prove. Or maybe it just wanted to kill for shits and giggles, after all that's what all Grimm did.

The thing about Creeps though, was that they had a very basic means of attack. If they couldn't gnaw your leg off then they'd just head-butt you, and if that didn't work they just throw themselves at you until something happened. So as long as they all avoided its mouth, then they'd be alright.

The Creep closed the distance between Russel and itself. I lunged forward, aiming to wrap its enormous jaws around one of Russel's limbs. Russel dodged and spun around and struck it with the edge of one of his daggers. The Creep let out a pained screech and landed on its feet. It spun around and came running in for another attempt. Russel ran it with both daggers outstretched, he aimed to run it through. They rammed into each other, with Russel impaling the Creep with his daggers and being forced to set the dying beta onto the ground due to its weight.

As soon as it quit kicking, Russel removed his daggers out of the beta's body. It began to disintegrate before Russel's eyes, becoming dust to the wind. With the Creep dead, Russel turned his attention elsewhere, looking for another of the monsters to slay. Russel then looked off to the left to see if his team was faring better than he had.

Cardin was currently removing his mace from the base of a Creep's skull. Because it wasn't disintegrating, Russel could only assume it was somehow still alive. As soon as Cardin dislodged his weapon from the creature, it began to stir some fight still in it. Cardin them promptly brought his foot down, quite literally actually. There was a sickening crack and the awful sound of a squishy matter being mashed by the bottom of Cardin's metal boot. The Creep the burned away.

Dove and Sky had tag teamed one of the Creeps. It wasn't as gruesome an affair as what Cardin had done with his. Sky had sweeped its legs with the sharp end of his halberd, leaving the Creep immobile. Dove then came in for the killing blow, just impaling it with his gun sword.

It went unsaid between the team that there were still more in the area. They quickly joined together and rushed off, following the shouts for help. As they drew closer to the town center, the destruction became more and more apparent. There was a couple of teenagers trying to get a bleeding elderly man out of the area while another man was pinned under some rubble.

"Dove, Sky, lend a hand over there will you?!" Cardin shouted. Dove and Sky did as they were ordered and split off to aid the injured.

Russel and Cardin kept on going, following the Creeps' path of destruction. It soon became apparent to the duo that Port had seemingly disappeared. Before either could poise such a question to the other, a disintegrating Creep body was flung in front of them. It had completely evaporated into the air before it even hit the ground.

The pair of Russel and Cardin looked to where the Creep had been thrown from and found Professor Port walking out of the local tavern with a smile on his face, his ax gun in one hand and a mug of beer in the other. "Ah! There you boys are!" Port let out a hearty laugh. "I'd caught two of the blasted things behind the counter! You could say I got the drop on them. But it was them that got the drop on you! Ha ha!"

"Yeah, sure Professor." Russel deadpanned.

"I presume the other one was dealt with?" Cardin questioned.

"I'd have skinned the damn thing then and there, but sadly they turn to dust." Port frowned. To cheer himself up the stout man took a swig of his drink, downing it in its entirety. He then tossed the glass over his shoulder and set out forward. "Come along boys, there's more prey out and about!"

"You think he's enjoying this?" Cardin asked as soon as Port was out of hearing distance.

"He's having the time of his life." Russel said before the two of them hurried off to join their Professor.

Along the way the trio of huntsmen caught the remaining Creeps with their backs turned. Port obliterated one with a pointblank shot from his gun. Cardin snared one with his mace's claws, plucking it off the Inn Keeper before incinerating it with the magma crystal at the center of his mace.

With that seemingly being the last of the Creeps, Team CRDL and Professor Port regrouped at the center of town. They looked around and found the town in a disoriented state. No doubt the town doctor would be busy this evening, and there would be need of reconstruction to repair damaged buildings.

"So, did we get them all?" Sky asked as he and Dove returned from aiding the civilians.

"By my count, we killed seven." Russel muttered. "I haven't seen an Alpha Creep, have you?"

"Then we've got one still roaming out here." Port twirled his moustache.

And then, as if on cue, the assembled huntsmen heard a loud chewing bone snapping noise. They all looked down a nearby alley and saw garbage cans dancing around. The noise grew louder, resembling the noise of Cardin putting his boot through one of the Creeps. Cautiously, they all began to funnel into the alley with Russel taking point.

Amongst the garbage lay the Alpha Creep, in its mouth was a dead cat. "That's unnerving." Sky muttered as he raised his halberd. The Alpha Creep got back onto its feet and swallowed what was left of the feline. Its nostrils flared angrily, its eyes turned another shade of red.

Without a word, Dove preemptively struck the Creep with his sword's secondary function. And thus began the slaughter of the lone Creep. Team CRDL ganged up on the beast before it could catch its bearings. It had gorged itself and was now unable to defend itself. The last of the pack died there amongst the trash.

One by one they all funneled out of the alley and once more took in the sight of the ransacked town. It wasn't the first time something major like this happened to it. Russel could attest to that. He recalled the actions his neighbors made, rushing into danger to combat the fires that threatened their crops. He could see that sentiment now as the town buzzed alive to aid their own.

"So…" Dove droned one awkwardly. "I think we did good."

"I would say you did marvelously!" They all turned to see an elder man in blue overalls and a white dress shirt approaching them with his cane.

Russel cracked a smile, recognizing the man. He stepped out from behind his team and revealed his presence and greeted the man. "Oi! Marlowe!"

"Oh? Russel!" The old man's eyes went wide in surprise. A wide smile grew on his face as he quickly rushed to meet the young Thrush. "What're you doing back in Oakwood?!"

"Oh, it's my first mission." Russel answered simply. He then looked around, seeing the torn up buildings and the ash covered spots where the Grimm had died. "Yeah, It's going well."

"You couldn't have minimalized the destruction just a little bit there could you?"

"Eh." Russel shrugged.

"Uh, Russel, who's this?" Dove asked pointing at Marlowe.

"Oh, where have my manners gone?" Russel mentally kicked himself.

"You had manners? Why was I not told?" Marlowe chuckled.

"Marlowe, these are my teammates and one from my Professors from Beacon." Russel gave a wave over to his team. "That's Professor Peter Port. He's a real nice guy, one of the best minds Beacon has to offer. The tall guy's my partner Cardin Winchester. Beside him is Sky Lark, he's great. And beside him is Dove Bronzewing. Everyone, this is Hegemony Marlowe, the largest land owner in Oakwood and a close personal friend of mine."

"Hello everyone." Marlowe waved. "I see you've been taking care of Russel here. I hope he hasn't been causing you any trouble. He's know not do that."

"Oh you've still got that sense of humor of yours old man."

"One of us has to." Marlowe smiled kindly. "I came down to see what all the shouting was about, I heard from Mr. Cherri there was a pack of Grimm running loose. I see you lot handled it."

"Just doing our job, sir." Cardin spoke up.

"'Sir'? Oh I like him." Marlowe pointed at Cardin. "Reminds me of when I was running around as a Huntsman. Oh dear that was a long time ago." Marlowe chuckled somewhat nervously. "Seeing as you all had very much just save the town from the Grimm, why don't you all come over for dinner tonight?"

"Marlowe, you don't have to. It was no big deal."

"Whoa, we're getting offered dinner and you're rejecting it? Where's the hospitality Russel?" Sky snickered.

"I like that one too." Marlowe pointed at Sky. "How about you, Professor Port? Would dinner at a friend's house be okay within mission parameters?" Marlowe asked the stout Professor.

"Who are we to refuse such great hospitality!" Port laughed cheerily. He'd just killed a number of Grimm and was now getting offered a free meal. He was absolutely ecstatic.

"Then it's settled! Dinner at seven o'clock." Marlowe declared. He then turned to Russel and patted the boy on the shoulder. "You remember the way don't you?" Russel nodded. "Splendid! See you all there!"

With that said, Marlowe walked off, vanishing in the mob of townsfolk who'd quickly gotten around to repairing the damage to the town. Not too far away, the Inn Keeper stood watching Russel and the others talk amongst themselves. There was some conversation between them, where Russel explained to them his relationship with Marlowe, which actually surprised many to find out Russel actually had a legitimate friend.

The Inn Keeper brushed her disheveled hair with a free hand. Gently she patted the trimmed antlers hidden beneath her bob of hair. The sacrifices she'd made for the White Fang were many, but in the end they would all be worth it. With her other hand she withdrew a scroll out of her pants pocket and pulled up her contact list. She quickly sent a message to an individual labeled under 'Nail'. Everything was going as planned, she typed.

There was some debate on how I was going to start this chapter. And for some reason the most appealing way to do it involved four dead bodies. It certainly beats opening with whatever else I had drafted up. The Cave scene was something I enjoyed writing as a whole. There's a lot more meaning to the words if you think of the cave as a character. He's standing in there alone with his only source of light being his scroll, which isn't native to Oakwood. There's a lot more there.

I hinted at the whole Ruddy thing back in Arc 3. When Russel stared beyond Gambol Shroud and into Blake's eyes, there was a bit where it mentioned how he'd learned once before that it was the person behind the gun that mattered, not the gun itself.

During writing, It became apparent I had to show Marlowe as pretty much the only person Russel has maintained a healthy relationship with. And I hope it comes across as that.

The next chapter should be out sometime this week. 'Til then, Later Days!