Misaka Phenex : What are you on about?
Ruby and Neo had initially thought they were going back on their tracks, but they soon realized that their surroundings were nothing like what they had first went through. Yet, they were walking towards the large tree, so it must have meant that they had went in circles for a bit as they explored outwards.
This meant that the zone on the map where they could potentially be was even larger than Neo had first expected. She had calculated for if they had been walking in a straight line, but apparently that wasn't the case, so she had no idea how much distance they had actually travelled.
What a pain. Any small kind of information they tried to get was flawed and getting out of this place was becoming increasingly unlikelier.
Not everything was bad news though. Both herself and Ruby were on the verge of level 21, only needing to find how to break through. That would allow them to have a better chance at breaking past the masses of grimm that existed between them and Vale.
Honestly, Neo was a bit jealous as to how fast Ruby was improving. She knew that a lot of it came from her own teachings, and that Ruby's fighting style and weapon meant she was the one taking on most of the grimm, but it was still annoying that she had caught up to her in only a month when they had nearly half a dozen of levels between them.
Not that she'd lose in a fight. Her own fighting style was much more suitable against other humans, and if it came down to it she still had some Dust she could use in an emergency.
"Watch out!" shouted Ruby, startling Neo out of her own thoughts.
The warning allowed Neo to react, just barely, to a cane being swung right at her head, crouching to dodge the strike. In the following motion, Neo swung her parasol up and was blocked by that same cane again. Or blocked it, she wasn't all that sure.
"Stop, Maria! She's with us!" shouted Ruby.
Turned out that the one that had attacked her was the old level 30 woman she had fought before.
Wait, that meant the Amity Colosseum was nearby!
"Hmm… really?" asked the old woman, "I must have missed a lot of things then. I'm glad to see you again kid, you found us quick."
"Uhm… that's actually just some dumb luck," explained Ruby, "We were on our way back to the great tree."
"I wouldn't if I were you," said Maria, "There's some nasty grimm over there."
"We know," said Ruby, "I'm hoping there's been some change since we last passed by it, maybe I can find a way to the top without them noticing, or the world might end before we get out of here."
"Wait, you didn't come here to rescue us?" asked Maria, "Then why are you here?"
"That's… a long story."
Maria led them to the crashed Amity Colosseum where Pietro and she were currently living. From the looks of it, they had restored the parts that were the least damaged into a living space, and Maria was the one hunting for food and water.
Ruby explained what had happened after they departed, including the part about her having known about Neo and Cinder being in Atlas long before the attack, not that any of them actually cared.
Pietro couldn't be happier to know that Penny had made it safely to Vacuo, and Maria was quick to accept Neo as an ally, maybe? Well, she was never sure with Maria if her teasing was friendly or a way to get back at someone that she didn't like.
"Are you sure you want to go back to that tree?" asked Pietro, "From what Maria told me this sounds the opposite of safe."
"I have to agree," added Maria as Neo nodded, "Any one of those grimm would already have been a tough fight for me during my prime, taking all of them at once is reckless."
"I'm not trying to fight them," argued Ruby, "I just want to go up there to see if we can find a way out of the forest. We can't just live here forever."
"There has to be another way," said Maria.
"Actually, did you get to see where we are before you crashed?" asked Ruby, "If we know where we are exactly we can know where to go."
"Do you have a map on you?" asked Pietro, "While from up there I could only see forest all the way to the horizon, I can calculate fairly accurately where we are."
Neo nodded and brought up her scroll, with the map opened on it which still had the straight line between Atlas and Vale along with the somewhat circle shape of where they could be.
Pietro took the scroll and quickly removed the straight line to replace it with a slightly curved one of their intended flight path.
"You forgot to account for the curvature of the planet, which you can't see on a map," he explained, "As for the actual area the tree can be in you were mostly right there, although I can probably reduce it by quite a few dozen kilometers."
Neo was impressed by how much he managed to precise their current location, but he wasn't finished yet. Pietro took out a tablet he had that till worked and started working while the others stayed there in silence. Minutes later, he was back with another slightly curved line next to the original one, but that deviated a bit.
"This is the actual flight path we ended up on because of the damage we suffered," he explained, "If we only look at the part where the great tree could be located in, then we should be around there."
For the small section concerned, the line was colored in a different color, making it clear how precisely they had managed to figure out their current location. The city they were closest to was Vale by quite a margin, but Ruby and Neo had already found out that going West was hardly an option.
"That's great!" said Ruby as she now knew where they were, "We only have to get back to everyone and we can start our journey out of this place!"
Neo tapped Ruby on the shoulder and made a tiny wolf with her hands.
"Oh, yes, the grimm," noted Ruby.
"Well, about that, I have a good news and some bad news," said Maria, "Which one you want first?"
"How about the good news?" asked Ruby.
"Well, the good news is that, while you all were moping at the beach I was busy searching for a way out, so I know which parts of the forest we can best travel through," explained Maria.
"And the bad news?" asked Ruby.
"It's near the great tree," answered Maria, "The grimm nearby are all focused on it so they hardly take notice of any humans, but that also means there are a lot of grimm going towards it. I was able to move through just fine but I don't know if the grimm might not just decide to target a large group of humans passing through."
"Oh…"
Ruby weighed her options for a moment before speaking up again.
"We'll go back to everyone and tell them," she said, "They'll decide whether we go through there and try to escape or not. I don't want to make the decision for them."
"Fair enough kid, so when are we leaving?" asked Maria.
"Is there anything of Amity we could use to move around?" asked back Ruby.
"Nothing is working anymore," explained Pietro, "And I don't have the parts to repair it. Outside of a roof the only thing useful here is the Dust we can still salvage."
Neo lit up at the mention of Dust. Finally she could stock up.
"Then we leave once Neo finishes taking the Dust she needs," said Ruby who noticed Neo's change of expression, "We'll just make a slight detour towards the tree to find out when it's best to get through before going to the beach.
Once they were at the tree, they stayed there for several days to find a pattern in what the grimm were doing, and find a pattern they did.
Every morning, just after dawn, the grimm would slowly stand up and go towards the tree before sitting back down in their original spot, one after the other. Neo had observed them, and while their levels ranged from 21 to 25, there was a single one that was level 30. Every day, it was the strongest one that stood up first and then it seemed the grimm walked up from strongest to weakest, leaving the only level 21 to go last.
They weren't sure why the grimm were going towards the tree at first, but they found a vantage point from where they could see exactly what was happening.
It seemed that the grimm were eating the tree's sap. The first grimm would walk up and cut it open, and only after he ate his fill would the other grimm stand up, and so on. By the time the last grimm got to the tree, the cut had almost healed and he was left with only scraps, even though it was clear that each grimm ate less than the last.
"How are they so…" started Ruby.
"Organized?" guessed Maria.
"Yes."
It was true, the grimm didn't move a single bit away from their routine, and actually hardly moved at all once the cut had healed up.
"Why'd they even not all try to eat their fill?" asked Maria, "Why would mindless beasts purposefully leave the food they want for others?"
"They're… kind of acting like they're wary of every single other grimm," noted Ruby, "Maybe they're afraid that if they didn't leave enough they'd lose their chance at getting any."
"Since when are grimm smart enough to understand the idea of compromise?" said Maria.
"Well apparently those are," said Ruby, "At least this means the best moment to pass through is probably when they feed. I don't think the grimm would take the risk of missing their meal to attack us."
Neo nodded. Technically if they could find a way to distract the grimm that would be best, but the tree's sap worked as good enough of a distraction already, she guessed.
"Then, if everyone's good with the plan, let's take the rest of the day to gather supplies so we can go back to the beach as fast as possible," said Ruby, "We'll leave tomorrow."
The following morning, however, just as they were about to leave and the grimm were starting their morning ritual, Yang, Blake, Weiss and all the refugees walked in.
They were all shocked, and although the grimm ignored them completely, the refugees did exactly the one thing you'd expect them to do in that situation. Scream and run.
Despite all of this, the grimm ignored them regardless, all but one, the weakest one.
The moment it left it's seat and ran away from the tree towards the terrified humans was the moment all hell broke loose. It seemed it leaving broke the fragile balance of power between the grimm, and once the strongest one had its fill and sat back down the other grimm started attacking each other, starting from the neighbors of the grimm that had left.
Some grimm started helping each other, others were the unfortunate victims of the former ganging up on them, and the level 30 grimm just sat there as if nothing was happening.
Neo grinned, now that was a distraction that would allow them leave.
Ruby, however, took out her scythe and prepared to attack the grimm that was chasing after the refugees and that her team was currently fighting.
Neo grabbed her arm and shook her head.
"We need to help them!" objected Ruby before Neo showed her what she had written on her scroll.
There is no better moment to run than now! Helping them is suicide!
"I won't let anyone die!" said Ruby as she pried her arm away from Neo's grip, "This is what I trained for. No more deaths under my watch."
The sudden strength in Ruby's arm surprised Neo enough that she observed her one last time as she ran towards the fight with Maria while Pietro went to hide.
Name : Ruby Rose
Level : 21 (0%)
Destiny : One for all [You'll do everything in your power to save everyone]
Neo turned around and left. If Ruby wanted to die, then so be it. She was living, even if she was doing it alone
[Congratulations, you have found your Destiny : All for one]
Damn you have no idea how long I've waited to give those two their destiny.
And with this, time for a long break for the holidays, see you next month!
To be continued on January 8th
Name : Neo Politan
Age : 18
Level : 21 (0%)
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]
Destiny : All for one [Everyone can die, if it means you get to survive]
Title : The Gamer
HP : 11/11
AP : 110/110
STR : 12
CON : 11
DEX : 20
INT : 23
WIS : 13
CHA : 17
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 : 29(34)
For : 22
Ref : 28
Will : 25