Coco cursed under her breath as her scroll flashed red. She kept one eye on the ground as she hiked along the mountain trail and the other eye on her scroll, as she checked her team's aura levels again. She watched Yatsuhashi's bar dip lower while Velvet's held steady, evidence that they were already busy hunting while she and Fox hadn't reached their concentration yet. She glanced at Velvet's bar one last time, which flickered at three-quarters before turning gray. She sighed and put the scroll away.
"Can you check your scroll? My signal is barely coming through on this side of the mountain," she said to Fox as he caught up to her.
Fox agreed and they stopped for him to check. She wiped her brow and drained the last of her water despite the stiff breeze and cool air as they made their way through the sparse forest, heading deeper into the valley that the mine bordered, on the opposite edge of the mountain that shielded the village. She panted and she nudged a few loose rocks free from the steep, overgrown path before stepping down.
She watched Fox pick his way along the overgrown path with skill that continuously impressed her. He paused once he found a solid footing and glided his hand over his scroll, tracing the ridges of the map that rose from the thin piece of rubber where his screen would have been.
"There's a water source ahead, we should stop. Then it's downhill until we reach the most recent concentration."
Coco nodded, but caught herself. "Sounds good, I'm out of water too," she said. She rolled her shoulder, stiff from the strap digging into it, and shifted her weapon onto her other shoulder before quickening her step to keep pace. The belts of ammunition looped around her swayed with her step, bouncing awkwardly and weighing her down further in the still wet ground.
They kept hiking a short time until high noon when they reached the small creek that cut through the mountain rock, where the trees parted and the grass was permanently pressed down from the wildlife coming and going. The creek swelled from the recent rain, winding down the mountain and merging with others until it formed the river that circled around the village. Coco grinned, cupping her hand into the water and drinking her fill once they reached it. Fox did the same, stopping after a moment. He leaned forward and tried it again, more cautiously, and felt Coco's curious gaze on him.
"That tasted funny, did you notice?"
"Nope," Coco said, kneeling down to refill her canteen, having already downed it once. She pulled her hand out of the uncomfortably cold water and squeezed it as a chill ran through her arm. She stood up and shook it dry, deciding to walk upstream for a few minutes before they headed back onto the trail. "The path follows the water for a while, right? We should keep going if we want to get jn any hunting today."
"We'll have most of tomorrow too now that we checked the pass and ridge. We can take the lower path from now on, save time getting here."
Coco didn't respond, stepping down and feeling something squish beneath her boot. She stopped in her tracks and kicked away the knee-high grass to reveal a mess of black fur, shredded and matted with blood with her crisp footprint pressed into it. She frowned, more out of annoyance than disgust, and watched with a passing interest as a bit of blood trickled through the grass and into the creek.
Fox caught up, recognizing the thick smell of a fresh kill and sliding his weapon into his hand for good measure. "What is it?"
"A bear." Coco nudged the piece that she stepped on with her foot, rolling it over to see that it was a detached paw. She stepped back, spotting a few more pieces scattered in the high grass where the clearing gave way to the thick bushes and trees of the forest. She follows the parts a few feet into the forest, careful in where she stepped while Fox followed in her steps.
"It really had a number done on it," Fox said, ducking under a fallen sapling that was lodged between other trees.
"Check this out." Coco ran her hand across several gouges in the base of a tree before guiding his hand to them.
"Too deep for a bear."
"It wasn't eaten, either—just torn apart."
"It's odd, but let's go. Not here to hunt bears."
Coco agreed and they turned around, following the bloody grass back to the water and hiking alongside it into the valley until they turned off the path and into the woods a short while later. Coco shuddered, taking a final glance at the riverbank as the mutilated bear flashed through her mind, even though it was long out of sight. She pushed down the unease that threatened to show its face, but still brushed her thumb over the latch on her handbag, taking comfort that such stopping power was less than a second away.
A bending and snap pulled her attention back, and she saw Fox toss a branch to the ground as he forged onward; he had long given up trying to move quietly as they picked their way through the ever-thicker underbrush, the tangle of weeds and ferns masking the layer of mud and loose rocks beneath. Coco swung her legs over another fallen tree, spotting the flat grey of bare rock through the thicket of trees that always surrounded them.
Fox checked the map again and turned to her. "See anything up ahead?"
"Yeah, is that where we're heading?"
"If it's a ridge, then yes. You lead, I'll follow," Fox said, waiting until he heard Coco pass him and sticking close behind her.
They continued for another few minutes until the dirt gave way to bedrock, the sun coming down and offering its warmth once they left the dense forest canopy. Coco walked along the ridge and onto an outcropping that overlooked the valley, flipping open her handbag and pulling out her gun's individual barrels to assemble them into a new form. Fox sat down next to her, taking the leather sheaths off his own weapons and keeping an ear out for anything approaching, having her back while she finished setting up her own weapon—three barrels screwed together into a single one, another fitted as a scope, and the last two as the bipod.
She laid down with it and peered through the scope, searching between the small breaks between trees until she spotted one. She exhaled and squeezed the trigger until the rifle recoiled hard into her shoulder, nicking the smooth outline of a wing that stood out against the trees below.
A sharp cry pierced the air and a nevermore rose from its perch, only to be cut down by two more shots through the bone of its wing. It pitched towards the ground, knocking a tree into the stream and landing in the water. Coco smiled, a shiver of excitement running through her as she nestled the rifle closer to her, finally being able to do what they had trained to. She pushed a dust round into the chamber and placed it into the back of the grimm's neck, sending it off. The wind shifted and she could smell the faint musk of grimm blood before she spotted a griffon rise above the treetops, centering it in her crosshairs.
Fox winced as another dozen shots rang out, only broken by Coco reloading and shifting to a new target every couple minutes. A squawk echoed as another hit the ground, followed by two more and the clatter of new bullets being loaded.
Coco waited until the grimm began to dissolve until she began searching for another target, this time searching along the winding path of the stream that split the forest below. She saw a flash of black pass her sight and latched onto it—a bear, running as fast as it could along the stream. The bear raised its head to the sky, trying to see behind it as it fled.
"What the hell?" Coco muttered to herself, watching the scene play out through her scope.
"What do you see?"
The bear squealed as a griffon dove on it and tore a chunk out of its back. It spit the flesh out and dove on it again, swerving away from the bear's frantic strikes as it rose on its hind legs to fight. It was a lost cause against a beast born only to kill.
"You'll never believe this. A griffon is attacking a bear, just beating on it."
"That—what? Grimm don't just do that."
Coco shrugged as she adjusted her scope. "And yet is it."
The air held an eerie stillness when the light wind turned away from them and the persistent crack and thud of the rifle came to a halt as Coco laid there, transfixed by the chase before her. The mutilated bear from earlier flashed through her mind and her eyes went wide in realization.
The griffon went in for the kill, striking the bear on its side before it jerked up and took its neck in its talons, breaking it. It pulled back up to leave the carcass when a bullet punched into its neck, only to flatten against a bone plate. Bad luck. She tried another, but she lost her element of surprise and the griffon was already searching for them.
She cursed in frustration. The would-be kill shot fell to the ground and the next one only clipped its wing as the griffon became frantic and defensive. Then it spotted her, and dove straight for the ground. For safety.
Coco grunted and jammed in the closest clip of dust rounds without checking. She pulled off two more shots before the grimm tumbled and disappeared below the tree line, weighed down by the ice crystals forming on its wings.
Coco jumped up, cursing as she rushed to break down her rifle.
"What's wrong?"
"I thought that clip was fire dust, not ice," she said, with her weapon already packed down into its typical form. "We have to get down there."
"For a single grimm? We didn't plan to go into the forest today."
"No, now," Coco said over her shoulder as she started to run, ready to slide down into the valley instead of taking the winding path.
"Coco, slow down." Fox stopped her, holding her back by the shoulder. "I need to know what you saw."
She took a breath, afraid for a moment to put her thoughts into words as if it would make it true. "It knew how to fight, and it was attacking a normal animal. A dangerous one. And the one we saw before, and the fight we heard yesterday. I think they're teaching themselves how to fight. Why else would they do that?"
"But grimm can't—"
"Learn, yeah, but they can become experienced. This one figured that out. We need to kill it before we lose it."
Fox only nodded, giving her instant support that Coco had come to appreciate. Still, he pressed. Coco was on edge, and it was clear in her voice. "Was that all you saw?"
Coco hesitated. As if saying her suspicion would make it true. "I think I saw streaks, like the one that mutant ursa had. But it was beneath feathers, I can't tell. We can't let it live."
"Let's go."
Coco ran down the steep slope, ignoring the winding path that zig-zagged up the side of the mountain and letting her speed keep her from falling more than her balance. Fox was on her heels as they took the fast way down into the forest below. She sidestepped right, then left around another tree as she tried to run through the forest, but mostly dodged around trees, rocks, and shrubbery. They made their way towards the stream, their only landmark for where the grimm had fallen, while Coco filled in Fox on what Port had told her the day before in small snippets in between grunts and heavy footfalls.
Without warning the forest parted and the stream was before them, invisible through the thick brush until they were on top of it. Coco grinned, spotting the trail of blood from the bear as it fled for its life. With a quick glance she figured out which way it was going and followed the trail, finally able to run without obstacles every few steps.
The trail of blood grew thicker and they spotted the carcass around the next bend, along with shards of ice and loose rocks strewn across the stream.
"Is it gone? I don't hear it."
"Yeah, it got away." Coco overturned one of the shattered ice crystals with her foot, seeing the imprint of the wing in its underside before clicking her weapon open.
Fox took a step back and looked to the sky, thinking he heard something. He turned, trying to pinpoint the sound again while Coco joined him. It came again, a gust of air forced through the treetops by the powerful wings of a beast.
"You sense it?" She glanced between the looming trees that lined the narrow clearing, the same that masked the grimm and left them in the open.
Fox pointed to their left and Coco let loose a volley, making bare spots where the smallest branches fell away and the clear sky shone through from behind.
A cry came, strong and brimming with anger. The grimm came down on them from behind, the tips of its wing scraping both sides of the narrow clearing.
They flattened to the ground, the stream lapping at their sides as the bird passed overhead, one of its talons tore the back of her shirt and her aura pushed back when it hit her skin.
Too close.
Coco shot back up with another volley, hitting nothing but air.
"Do you hear it? Where'd it go?" Coco said, feeling her heartbeat rise in her chest.
"Yeah, it's circling."
Her grip tightened on her gun and she aimed it to the sky, searching for movement.
In an instant the grimm was on top of them, rolling into the valley and hitting Fox to the ground with its wing.
It drew a hail of bullets before it turned up and away, back into the shelter of the skies.
"My rounds can't get through its bone, and, and it knows how to hunt." A pit started to form in the bottom of her stomach.
"Well we can't stay here in the open."
Coco nodded and they retreated back into the forest, picking up their pace and desperate to get out of sight with no care for direction. They fumbled through the brush and kept going until they couldn't hear the stream behind them, deeper into the forest with each step.
She pulled out her scroll and dialed Port. It rang once, then twice and the line went dead.
No service.
She tried again but to no avail, sucking down her battery as the scroll tried to boost its own signal.
She grunted and focused back on their own dilemma, flicking her weapon open and twisting around. She hefted the gun to the sky and squeezed the trigger, hoping for something to hit.
She cut down twigs and leaves as she buzzed the treetops where she felt the grimm was. Nothing.
She gave up on a lucky shot and caught up with Fox, ditching an empty ammunition belt and her canteen along the way.
They began to slow to a stop only when their lungs burned for air when they couldn't hear the beast overhead any longer.
"Think we're good?" Coco said as they slowed to a halt.
Fox shrugged, supporting himself against a tree as he caught his breath. "It's not like we were being quiet getting here."
Coco looked back at the mess of footprints and hacked away branches, shaking her head to herself. "Nobody could, going through that."
"Where are we?" He pulled out the map.
"Oh, crap. We crossed the stream when we started running, right?"
"I didn't think so."
"Oh, then…"
"It doesn't matter, the stream isn't on this map "
"Well we're north of the town, if we can—" She fell to the ground, hard, and laid stunned for a split second. Fox had shoved her.
The ground shook. Her vision cleared and she saw the griffon, its beak stuck in the ground, where they were just standing.
Fox dragged her away by the collar before it lunged at them. She jerked her weapon up, clubbing it away before stumbling to her feet.
"I thought we lost it," Coco shouted over the snapping of branches as the grimm beat its wings and pulled back up to the sky. One look at Fox told her he didn't believe it, and after a moment neither did she.
"It's still hunting us. And it only sticks around long enough to keep us moving. Like…like it did to that bear. It's trying to wear us out
The griffon circled high above them, following the stench of panic and diving down to skim the treetops when their pace slowed.
Coco and Fox picked up their pace, thrashing through the thickets of brush and thorns with the beast on their heels. A yipping sound came from their right and a wall of lead shredded apart the trees. Their cries turned to growls and the beowolves came out of the darkness, unhurt.
Coco sighed. It was bound to happen. She turned and fled, her gun pulling her back as it got caught against a tree branch.
She dropped it and ducked behind the tree, letting a beowolf pass before digging her heel into its neck from behind.
An ursa flashed past and Fox met it.
Coco grabbed up a fallen branch and lunged, ramming it down the closest grimm's throat and kicking it's head. Its neck cracked and she pulled it up to block its claw.
The grimm fell back before she could finish it, bleeding from a shredded back. Fox fired into the darkness, distracting the grimm and letting Coco fall back to recover her weapon.
She made quick work of another young ursa and took cover behind its carcass. Fox followed and fumbled over the body, his breathing ragged and labored. He barely hit the ground when Coco unleashed on the charging pack. Her barrel slowed to a stop after a dozen short bursts, leaving the forest in a fragile silence. Dissolving limbs littered the trail, their blood splattered against the splintered trees. Fox unplugged his ears, they both stood, and Coco's heart leapt.
Sunlight dotted the forest floor where bullets had trimmed away the canopy above, and through the holes was the flat, light brown mountainside that they had crossed through earlier that day.
She bolted towards it, to open land and open skies, with a renewed strength.
They emerged into a long and narrow clearing backed up against a mountain, with several alcoves carved into its side and a long rock shelf that spanned most of the mountainside. Coco felt a weight lift off her shoulders and she looked to the sky, the afternoon sun shining down on them with nothing to stop it.
"Finally, no more stupid trees.".
She clipped in a belt of ammunition and flipped up the sights with a grin. Her confidence revived: this was what she knew, what she made her weapon for, her element—not the crowded forests and narrow skies.
A five shot burst and an ursa collapsed before it could get ten feet out of the forest. Another burst and the pack of beowolves halved. Fox put a hand on her shoulder and pointed up, where almost a dozen nevermore and griffons were gathering.
She had this.
In a few short steps she backed herself against the mountainside with an alcove behind her, not about to let a minor grimm flank her on the ground should it get past Fox. She shot a few rounds along the far edge of the flock, herding the grimm to one half the sky.
Another short burst and she began to pick them off, one by one.
Ten more.
Nine.
She glanced to check on Fox, who was dancing between the grimm. This was his element, too.
Eight left. They were scattering.
She swung to the left and shot another
Seven. And the rest of her easy pickings had disappeared. She swung around, searching for where they had gone. Or more importantly, why.
The familiar beating of wings answered for her and their menace glided above them. The griffon turned into the sun and tucked its wings, falling fast.
About time, Coco thought.
She pushed up her sunglasses and held nothing back. Her ammunition belt clicked empty and she slotted in her last one without a break in fire.
The griffon unfurled its wings and pulled out, losing its own game of chicken.
Coco returned to short bursts, punching holes in its exposed wings as it tried to roll and dive out of her grasp.
Half a belt left, drum's long empty, she noted to herself.
Her grin broadened, its bone mask began to crack away. It reeled back, its once mighty roars replaced with cries of pain.
Six more bullets and its left wing buckled, limp.
Her belt ran empty and in went her last dust clip.
The griffon skimmed along the mountainside, relying on the updraft to stay aloft.
Coco tensed as the recoil kicked back harder than normal.
Ice dust again. "Useless junk," Coco muttered.
The grimm fell fast into the mountainside, weighed down by the ice and skidding against the rock face until it crashed, out of sight high above them into a overhanging rock self.
Her smile faded as the mountain let it a low rumble. A few stray rocks tumbled down the slope, gathering soil and picking up speed. The rock shelf groaned, unstable from the days of storming and pushed over the edge by boulders pounding down on it..
It slumped and began to slide, leveling the few trees that dared stand in its way. She reached for Fox, who was frozen as he tried to make sense of the new sounds, and threw them both into an alcove with all her weight.
They skidded across the dirt and scraped open their knees, their aura too worn out to shield them from all but the worst of blows after their extensive chase.
The mountain shuddered around them as the rock shelf pulled completely free and fell to the ground, pulling the mountain side with it. Dirt kicked into the air and filled their noses. They started hacking and spitting out the dust until they could manage to stand and look. The largest boulder was over half the height of the opening it blocked, another just as wide balanced precariously on top of it and leaning inward only supported by the dozens of smaller stones wedged against it.
Within seconds, the flow of mud and smaller debris caught up and settled into the remaining gaps. Coco squeezed her eyes shut and coughed out the dust kicked up from the mud and rocks pouring in, casting them into darkness.
"Shit."
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