Misaka Phenex : Neo's fighting style has never been meant to fight grimm in the first place, and that grimm was level 20, that's what gave Neo her own level 20.
YuuKi D. Blazer : level 21 is when there's the Destiny and improved damage though.
It took Ruby and Neo a few more days of travel to reach a point where going any further would be suicide, considering the concentration of grimm that they faced. They had a few close calls, but managed to get a fairly good idea of the limits they could explore to westward.
"I thought you said three months Neo?" asked Ruby.
You asked for the worst case scenario.
"I didn't think there'd be that much of a difference," noted Ruby, "Why is there that much of a difference?"
We're lost Ruby.
"Oh… Do you have a better idea of were we are then now?" she asked.
Neo shook her head. She had no way of knowing exactly how much of the forest was inaccessible to them, the most she could do was, considering the Amity Coliseum's flight path, guess that if it had crashed then it must be at most a week's travel away from their initial camping site.
"So we're going back, just like that?" asked Ruby, "Without having found anything?"
Neo rolled her eyes and nodded. They were on a wild goose chase in the first place, so they shouldn't hope too much, even if the possibility was still out there.
Ruby pouted at that answer, preferring if they had found a solution.
"Fine… but can we at least go by the big tree again to see if anything changed?"
Neo didn't like that idea one bit, but she could do nothing as Ruby didn't even wait for an answer and left in its direction.
"Say, why do you think there weren't any grimm on our side of the forest?"
"Are you okay Yang?" asked Blake.
"No, there has been no light from Ruby's camp in over a week now," she said, "I'm worried something happened to her."
"She's been gone before," noted Blake.
"But that was only for a day or two at best, never this long," said Yang, "We shouldn't have left her with Neo, what if she was just playing her? What if she was simply waiting until we were separated to kill her?"
"Yang, calm down," said Blake, "Ruby can defend herself, and in the worst case, flee."
"But…"
"Listen," cut off Blake, "If you're so worried, then why don't we go look for her tomorrow? She can't have gotten that far."
"I… don't want her to think I'm not at mad at her anymore," weakly admitted Yang.
Blake stood there for a moment, stunned, before facepalming.
"That's it, we're going to find her tomorrow," said Blake, "You get some sleep, I'll find Weiss to take over watch tonight."
Yang opened her mouth to reply before giving up.
"Okay."
Blake smiled and took Yang's hand, pulling her back to her tent.
"Thanks Blake," said Yang as she set foot in her tent, "I'm really lucky to have a friend like you."
"Yes… friend…" mumbled Blake as she left towards Weiss' tent, "Goodnight Yang."
Before Yang could answer, she was gone, and the blonde let herself fall on her sleeping bag with a grunt.
"Dang I'm so stupid…"
Blake found Weiss already awake, staring to the sky.
"Weiss, can you take watch over tonight please?" asked Blake, "Yang and I are going to check if Ruby's alright tomorrow, and she really needs the sleep."
"You're not asking me to come?" asked back Weiss, genuinely surprised.
"Sorry, I thought you probably didn't want to," answered Blake.
"You're right," admitted Weiss after a moment, "I… it's hard to forgive her."
"I knew you weren't taking it well, but I never though it was that bad," noted Blake.
"Winter always meant a lot to me," said Weiss, "When she initially sided with Ironwood against us it was bad enough, but now… I have no idea if she's even alive anymore."
"I…"
"And you're the weird one!" said Weiss, her pitch getting higher and higher, "Ruby lied to us! We were supposed to be friends, I thought she was my best friend! But no, for some reason, she couldn't be bothered to tell me that she was working with one of our enemies!"
"Weiss…"
"For how long have they been working together?" continued Weiss as if she was uninterrupted, "Did they start in Atlas? Before? Beacon? Did she actually know about everything before it happened and we were the only ones out of the loop? She didn't react much when we learned the truth about Salem and the Relics."
"Weiss, stop it!" interrupted Blake, "You're extrapolating!"
"Sorry," apologized Weiss, "I guess I did. But why are you defending her in the first place? You were left in the dark just as much as the rest of us."
"I… I guess I can understand where she comes from," explained Blake, "I was hiding a lot of things back when we first met at Beacon, including my ears, and was too afraid of your reaction to reveal anything, trying to do everything on my own."
"Blake…"
"And there's that time with Adam," she added, "Yang and I… killed him… His death still haunts me, and even though I know that he wouldn't had let go without us dying… I sometimes wish I could have spared him. What Ruby says about not wanting to kill people… I know it's naïve, but part of me wishes I could act the same as she does… wishes that I had acted the same."
"I can't say that I understand the way you feel," admitted Weiss after a while, "But I was raised by a sociopath that made his fortune abusing faunus workers, so I can't say if that's right or wrong."
Blake silently nodded, acknowledging Weiss' stance.
"I'll take watch," said Weiss as she left her tent, "You take some rest, and… maybe I'll come with you two tomorrow."
"Thanks Weiss," said Blake as she left for her own tent, "Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
The following morning, the three Huntresses left the camp, confident there wouldn't be any grimm attack while they were only several hundred meters away from it investigating Ruby's own campsite.
When they arrived, they noticed that there was barely anything left of the former camp. The make-shift tent, similar to the ones they had made, had been dismantled, and the fireplace was completely cleared out. Had they not known before-hand that this was where Ruby and Neo had made camp they would have never guessed there had been one there.
"Wherever they went," said Blake, "They probably aren't planning to come back for at least a good while."
"She's been gone for over a week," said Yang, "How much longer is she planning to take before coming back?"
"Maybe never," drily said Weiss.
"Weiss!" shouted both of her friends at the same time.
"What? I said that I would come check on her, not that I forgave her," she answered.
"Anyway," said Yang, moving on, "Do you have any idea where they might have gone Blake?"
"It's been too long," admitted Blake, "most of the traces are gone, and if there are any left they're barely discernable from those left by wild animals."
"So no lead?" asked Weiss.
"Well, knowing sis," said Yang, "If she's leaving for long then I guess she'll be going for that huge tree. If someone would never give up leaving this place it would be her."
"So what?" sarcastically asked Weiss, "We leave the refugees to go check on her at that tree? Who knows how long the trip will make?"
"She's my baby sister!" shouted Yang, "I can't stay her not knowing what kind of danger she might be in!"
"Calm down, both of you," said Blake, "Let's just… get back to camp and think of solutions, we'll discuss this later."
"Fine," said Yang.
"Agreed," said Weiss.
The three Huntresses then came back to their campsite, and all their disputes disappeared as soon as it came in sight.
A large Kraken grimm was currently attacking the refugees.
"Yang, Blake, get the refugees out!" shouted Weiss.
"On it!" shouted back Blake and Yang as they ran up ahead.
Weiss started summoning immediately, creating several small white grimm to occupy the creature's tentacles while her friends got everyone to safety. To her surprise, however, her summons were quickly overwhelmed by the beast.
Blake noticed it and tried to slash one of the tentacles near her, but to no avail. It was too thick and oily for her blade to do anything but skim over it.
"Yang!" shouted Blake, "Help us!"
Yang, who was still trying to help some refugees escape turned back and saw Blake and Weiss try to hack away at the creature to little success. She joined the fray as well, but quickly realized that her shotgun didn't do anything either.
"We need more firepower!" shouted Yang.
Where was Ruby when they needed her… Well, they had pushed her away, so she guessed it was kind of their fault, but she really would do anything to have her by their side right now.
A tentacle slammed down on Yang, and she met it head on with all the fire Dust cartridges she could muster. This wasn't time for clever tricks, but rather brute force.
The blast pushed the tentacle back, roasting it slightly but not enough for any significant damage to it. Weiss followed by summoning her Arma Gigas which slashed down it's sword on the retracting tentacle. The slash pinned it down, but wasn't enough to cut fully through it yet.
The summon withdrew its blade before slashing once again, and the cut was deepening. However, the tentacle had also retracted further and, to follow it, the Arma Gigas was nearly at the ocean already.
"Keep it there!" shouted Yang as she ran up the tentacle.
Weiss had no idea what Yang's plan was, but she trusted her teammate and kept her summon pinning down the tentacle. Yang jumped over the sword, and with a powerful right arm punch she forced the sword down the tentacle.
She punched again, actually forming a small dent in her robotic arm despite her aura, and again, until finally the tentacle was fully cut.
An earth-shattering screech came from the ocean and the three Huntresses were forced to smash they hands over their ears. Then, all seven remaining tentacles, which had been rampaging around the camp until now, collapsed on them.
Weiss and Blake managed to quickly pull away, but Yang was a bit further in and was about to get crushed when she saw Blake's weapon flying towards her. Yang instinctively grabbed it and was pulled out of the tentacles range and next to her friends.
"I'm not letting you die again," weakly said Blake.
"The refugees are all out!" shouted Weiss, "We should leave!"
The other two nodded, and the quickly ran away as the furious Kraken was destroying what little was left of their camp.
When they reunited with the refugees, they noticed that many of them were missing. They hadn't been gone for that long, but that had been enough. One thing was clear to everyone, they weren't safe anymore.
"Weiss, I think I can answer your question now," said Yang.
"What?"
"We bring the refugees with us to that great tree."
Now, why did the Kraken only attack after a full month?
Well, there are two answers to that question, like for every question. The story one and the meta one.
The story one is that the Kraken was out of it's usual lair, and just came back.
The meta one is that I hadn't planned for them to be attacked at first, but to simply bring the refugees to the great tree once they were fairly certain to have gathered everyone that had fallen.
Also, while the initial reason that there weren't any grimm was that they were all attracted to the great tree and didn't go further towards the coast, the Kraken makes for another good argument for it.
To be continued on December 11th
Name : Neo Politan
Age : 18
Level : 20 (100%)
Class : Illusionist [You add both your Intelligence and Dexterity modifiers to your AC and to Dexterity or Intelligence based attacks as long as you can still cast illusions]
Path : Me, myself and I [You live for yourself first and foremost, no matter what pain you might cause others]
Title : The Gamer
HP : 10/10
AP : 105/105
STR : 11
CON : 10
DEX : 19
INT : 22
WIS : 12
CHA : 16
Semblance : The Gamer
Status effects :
Gamer's body [Your body follows game-like mechanics. You can restore 1/4th of your total HP (rounded down) by resting 15 minutes. You can only die if your HP reach 0 and you fail your last breath]
Child of Remnant [You are from Remnant and follow different rules than other worlds. Your HP is always equal to your constitution and any bonuses that would normally improve it are transferred to your aura]
Words that shouldn't be said [Your last words almost caused you to lose your life. You cannot talk until you overcome your trauma]
Defenses:
AC : 27(31)
For : 20
Ref : 26
Will : 24