Hello everyone! How are you doing? Chapter 29 is up! I hope you enjoy it.
I also wanted to say one more time, thank you so much for taking time to read Rise of The Eldergrimm. It reached 20 followers last week; something I never expected for my first story. I am grateful to all of you, even the ones who simply read it; you are all amazing!
The night had passed without any more incidents. Morning and the minuscule light it brought with fell once more on Grimmwater, slightly illuminating the island.
The abnormal humidity had also returned along with the grey vapors that engulfed the village, hugging the houses like a menacing, wet blanket of silence.
Until one of the mentioned houses' doors slammed open, allowing a young girl dressed in red step out, stretching her arms as she took a couple breaths.
"Wow, that's gloomy" Ruby exclaimed, rubbing the back of her neck with her bandaged arms, despite the itchiness it brought her. Her entire body was stiff from exhaustion and the atmosphere didn't help either.
However, she felt her spirits lifted. With Blake's help, she had managed to sleep at least a few hours and that had worked wonders for both her mind and her soul. If only her body could follow suit…
"It's even worse than yesterday" the faunus, dressed back in her normal clothing, walked next to her. "It feels as if we can swim through it."
"Yeah- it makes me feel like wrapping in cozy blanket with a carton of milk and a tray of cookies by the fire." Ruby took one more step forward and felt her boot nearly sink into the muddy ground.
"Say Blake; was the place like this when you brought me here?" she asked as she tried to kick the sticky substance off her footwear, to no avail.
Blake narrowed her eyes "no, it was muddy but not like this- I had no trouble walking on it." She moved trying to step on the most solid spaces, when her cat eyes spotted something weird.
The mud was not only very wet and sticky; it was also filled in scattered shells and small, round rocks- the ones one would normally find in a beach. Dark green leaves were scattered around, some even clinging on them.
"Now that's weird" she picked it up and examined it. It was a piece of… algae? She turned to Ruby "there are sea shells and seaweed on the ground."
"That far from the coast?" Ruby asked in disbelief. "In Patch you have to get your feet wet to go sea-shell hunting!" she added. "Is it like this in Menagerie too?"
The black-haired girl nodded. "I think it is common sense in every coast Ruby." She put a couple of them in her pouch "so many weird things in this island, and we don't even know if they are important or not."
"Well" Ruby drew Crescent Rose and looked at her friend. "Let's do something we know for sure will be important, then. Let's go find some information."
"I agree, but where? If House Red maintained the place, they most likely are the ones who kept all archives and log books for the island. I doubt there is going to be any useful information in this place."
"I think there is one place we can search before that; you said the newspapers mentioned there were professional huntsmen at the village, right?"
Blake nodded "I did, yes. I am impressed you remember that." Ruby playfully winked "then there should be at least one small supply house and there is a possibility someone among them would keep a log book."
The faunus grabbed her chin between her thumb and index finger, thinking "you know what? You might be on to something here. Many professional huntsmen keep archives of their work, especially in remote places like this."
"Good then" the red-caped huntress smiled "let's see if we can find anything here; and then…" Blake looked at her "and then, what?"
Ruby let a great sigh escape her lips "and then we go to the mansion." "On our own? Didn't you say we should regroup first?"
"Time is passing and I believe the others will think to follow with our plan of saving Jaune if we spend at least one more day here; there is good chance of finding them there if they are around."
"And if they are hurt? Or…" yellow eyes looked away in worry. Ruby didn't turn back to look at her. She just gripped the handle of her scythe, her bandage-covered palms trembling in pain.
"I trust them to be fine. I really do. But if anything has happened to them… Eldergrimm or not…" she announced grimly "…I will tear this place to the ground."
-o—
Weiss cursed under her breath as the door she opened revealed three more skeletons- two of them of tragically small proportions. She flicked Crown and three little red sparks of dust lit up the old-looking lamp.
In the weak, mist-covered light of the dust, Weiss examined the room. It was an average children's room, with lots of once-colorful pictures and images decorating the walls.
She knelt next to the moldy bones "I am so sorry… I hope you are happy wherever you are…" and stopped to catch her breath when she turned one of them around.
She repeated the same motion with all three of them, the initial shock being replaced by confusion, and when realization dawned on her, pure, raw anger.
She stood there, kneeling in front of the three skeletons, each one with a large, round bullet hole in their skulls, gritting her teeth in blazing fury, when Yang entered the room.
"The same thing up as in the previous three houses" the blonde said. "Both parents are dead and the place not even trashed- I even found some jewelry inside their cases."
"I found the children" her voice was filled in well-concealed emotion that Yang could easily detect. "They were murdered by someone who obviously knew how to use a gun" she got up and showed the blonde her findings.
A disgusted snorting sound was the tall woman's reply. "What sort of trash executes children?!" she added after a while. "The worst sort" Weiss turned around and looked at the wall where once happy photos were hung.
Why would anyone do something like this? She pondered as she gazed around the place, trying to suppress the urge to scream. But then her eyes fell on a strange mark on the wall; a black mark ascending the rotting wood up to the ceiling.
"These are the first ones we found with bullets in them, but it kind of explains why every corpse we found was in such a good state- Grimm didn't kill these people."
Yang's words barely reached the girl's ears as she followed the trail of the mysterious mark. It was large; actually it was so big, she had to take a few steps away to entirely view it.
She narrowed her brows in deep thought. The pattern occupied half the wall, having a pseudo-conical shape that became thinner as it moved upwards.
It goes up… dyed the wall black… as if it… "Hey is that a burn mark?" Yang's voice snapped Weiss out of her thoughts. "You think so?" she immediately asked her girlfriend.
"Well, it looks like the one we had in my old room back in Patch." A pair of cyan eyes opened wide as she turned her head in confusion.
"Very Long story, no need to know the details, baby. This is much bigger than ours, for the record."
"I… see" the pale girl replied before turning around "did you find anything else? Anything important- maybe something that could indicate Blake and Ruby were here?"
Yang's shoulders immediately dropped "tough luck, no. I only found another bottle of these weird Bromosomething pills. You know, the ones like Blake used to take."
"That makes it four out of four houses with an insomniac inside- definitely not normal" the ex-heiress replied. "Maybe that Seamen Disease was a much bigger deal than we first assumed."
"Is it important, though? Shouldn't we focus on finding Rubes and Blake first? They might leave this place if we waste too much time around here."
Weiss rolled her eyes "this is what we are doing, Yang. And yes, when we are investigating a hostile place with weird mutated Grimm and a nutcase wearing a Nuckelavee mask wandering around, every piece of information is important."
Yang didn't reply and the petite woman continued "plus, if Ruby and Blake are in the village, it means they have only one place to go to; Red Mansion. We will go up there after we are done searching for them around here."
The blonde nodded meekly, making Weiss stop and look at her in worry "what's the matter, sweetie? Did I say something wrong? I am so-"
"Please swear you won't kill me when I tell Blake and Rubes you used the word 'nutcase' while describing another person."
Weiss' eyes flared in embarrassment as she pointed towards the front door in an angry manner. Deciding to not anger her emotionally overcharged lover even more, the brawler complied and left the building.
-o—
"You know Blake this is getting really annoying" Ruby groaned as she once more stepped on a puddle of mud, filling her clothes in large brown stains.
A few meters behind her, the cat girl simply shook her head. "There are not many things we can do. With such poor visibility we have to search slowly and steadily."
The brunette pouted but immediately started walking again. Without knowing the whereabouts of the huntsman outpost, Ruby had proposed the possibility of it being at the top of the village, for better monitoring of the area.
Blake wasn't so sure about it, but this sort of action would allow them to pass through most of the place anyway, so it had at least some merit. Even if they failed to find it, they would make a quick scouting of the place.
The only real problem was the dense fog; she hadn't gotten used to such poor visibility and the situation unnerved her a little. The continuous silence, disrupted only by her team leader's complains, didn't help too.
"It can't be helped- we even climbed on a rooftop to try and get better view." Ruby deflated "yeah...and I was so proud of this idea too..." she whined, earning a sincere smile from the faunus.
They walked a little while, passing by abandoned moldy houses, only occasionally stopping to check. The results however were all the same; remains of murdered humans and an alarming amount of sleeping pills.
Both of them couldn't quite ascertain how much time had passed, when Blake saw a small change in the scenery- a dark, immovable shape the size of a human. She pointed it towards Ruby who nodded before moving forward.
What the faunus had spotted, apparently, was nothing more than a park. As they walked in, Ruby felt the pleasant sensation of sturdier ground under her feet, and let off a small satisfied sound.
Blake's immovable object turned out to be a tree trunk. It was black and charred, even mold barely forming on its surface. She traced it with her fingers; it was totally carbonized despite the humidity.
A few meters away, the red-caped girl stared at a tall object. It seemed familiar to her, with two reverse V-shaped posts connected together by a long metal bar.
She moved closer, managing to see a few rotten ropes hanging from the bar, seemingly cut in various heights. She moved even closer-
"OW!" and screamed in pain as her foot hit something very, very hard, well-concealed on the ground, behind the fog blanket. "Are you ok, Ruby?" Blake, visible under the tree corpse, shouted in worry.
"Yes, I am fine, sorry! I just hit-" she knelt over the object. It was a small mass of rotten planks and metal bars- shaped like a child-sized chair. "-the remains of a swing" she finished, rubbing her throbbing toe.
"A swing? I guess it makes sense. I just found an old bench here." The faunus walked next to her, as Ruby moved forward. They slowly advanced with weapons in hand, only to find another object coming out of the mist.
This time it was a rotating platform, very simply designed, with once-colorful pictures drawn over it and red bars, now rusted and nearly falling apart. It had fallen down its axis, its left side deeply buried in the ground and covered in leaves and fungi.
"A merry-go-round" the younger girl said. "This is truly a children's playground." Blake's eyes narrowed as she examined the broken ride. "I really hope we find no clues here" she exclaimed sadly.
"I agree..." Ruby walked forward, weapon always in hand, as her silver eyes caught sight of something much larger. She froze at first, but as she took one more step, identified the nostalgic outlines of a slide, momentarily smiling.
"That brings back memories" she told her teammate. "Does it?" Blake asked a little confused. "Well, Patch had only one slide in the park and we always fought for it with the other children."
She giggled at the fond memory "Yang would always win and then let me go first and even do three slides before she allowed anybody else to come by."
"Sound like Yang, yes" Blake nodded in amusement. "What about you? Did you like slides as a kid?" The yellow-eyed girl sighed "I… didn't have enough chances to go to such a place."
Ruby realized her mistake in asking a little too late "owie...sorry about that." However the faunus brushed it off "it's fine, Ruby. No need to make a deal out of it."
Before the silver-eyed girl could reply, however, she saw Blake freeze. "Do you smell that?" she asked her team leader, who replied by sniffing the air.
"It smells heavy… and metallic… iron?" Ruby scrunched her nose in confusion. "Yes- and it definitely isn't the rust. The smell wasn't here before."
Cat ears twitched as a faint sound entered the area. The smell started to become stronger. Mixed with the natural musty odor of the place and the thickness of the fog, it was a very disgusting feeling.
Ruby cocked her rifle, and stood with her back on the slide. The sound grew, becoming more distinct, as if coming closer. It was a loud, heavy sound of-
Blake's face became white in horror, as she felt one of her greatest fears resurface. The sound was a heavy, hungry growling- accompanied by the baying of a pack of hounds.
"Shit" Ruby hissed under her breath. She knew very well that Blake's fear of domesticated dogs, like the adorable Zwei, was mostly her own exaggeration and stubbornness.
Her fear of wild dogs, on the other hand, was a totally realistic and very bad issue. "Are you-" she asked, seeing her friend grab her sword handle.
"If it is Grimm, I will be fine" the answer came as the growls became louder. "If they are normal, living wild dogs, we are running out of here."
Ruby nodded in agreement; she wasn't eager to fight animals herself too, even if her reasons might have been different than Blake's. She quickly reached out to her backpack, picking a thin metal tube out of it.
The baying and growling grew louder, as their enemies grew closer. They were on high alert now, expecting them to appear at any moment… and suddenly both huntresses found themselves surrounded.
Without any indication, dozens of red eyes at once appeared in the mist around them. Blake held her breath and Ruby gasped as she tried to take in the information. How did they- I should have at least sensed them coming so close!
The growling continued, as the red dots stared hungrily. Faint baying echoed in the distance, causing even more of them to appear. Red filled their vision; a gleaming wall of hatred and malice peeking at them through the fog.
Ruby took action, with inhuman speed and accuracy. She shot one between her eyes- and stood confused as she saw her bullet passing though the place where the head should be, the eyes vanishing without any sign of impact.
"Did I get it?" she asked, earning no answer. The red dots grew closer, a few of them sneaking up to the pair from behind. The sound of metal cogs spinning was barely registered by them.
Her body tense in anticipation and fear, Blake sliced backwards with Nightfall, slicing through the mist. She felt no resistance as her blades cut through empty air, the gleaming eyes disappearing without any trace.
But still, the growling grew. The pair's hearing got repeatedly assaulted by the sound of teeth gnashing and jaws screeching. The hateful, malevolent eyes returned, growing closer with every-
Three loud, metal 'clank!' sounds disrupted their advance. Ruby turned around to her friend, who was trembling in tension- and winked at her. Blake saw the safety mechanisms cock in place as the gun's engine roared with power.
"Follow me!" the girl smiled as Gatling Rose flared in action. Using air instead of fire dust, Ruby opened fire at the horde of advancing Grimm, showering them in blasts.
She didn't have to aim at all. Using the power from the mechanism, combined with high-grade SDC dust vials, each blast created a small whirlwind resulting in a literal tornado fired from her weapon.
Ruby ran forward, Blake on tow. She used her weapon's power to clear off the fog, as both of them ran down towards the buildings. Three sets of eyes that tried to pray at her were swiftly dispatched by the faunus.
After a few meters, when she made sure all enemies were behind them, Ruby stopped. She turned around, grabbed Blake, and burst forward in a black and red spiral of petals.
Blake held tight, the sensation of Ruby's high-speed burst running through her veins. She didn't know how much time had passed when they stopped and her friend let her on the ground.
"Are we-" she tried to say, before a very different kind of scream assaulted her ears once more. "YANG!" Ruby's cheerful voice echoed in the village as a red and golden burst collided with each other.
"OHMYGODYOUAREOK!IWASOSWORRIED!IAMSOGLADYOUAREFINE!" "Geez, Rubes, I am happy to see you too, but please get off me! Rubes are you listening? Rubes, there is mud all over my hair! RUBES GET OFF ME NOW!"
Blake let off a small laugh at the sisters' antics before helping them both get up. "Hello, Blakey! Good to see your pretty face well too! I knew it was Rubes' weapon when I heard it!"
"It's good to see you in high spirits as well, Yang, but we have to go! We-" "I know" she cut her off "we heard everything." Blake tilted her head "we?'
"Yes, we" an annoyed voice came down from above them, as a large white Nevermore descended, breaking through the mist, with Weiss riding on its back. "Unless you forgot about me already, Belladonna."
Before anyone could answer the pale girl's humorous accusation, the faint sound of growls filled the area. Baying and screeching followed after it.
"Everyone, board Weiss-express, now!" Yang screamed even as her teammates hopped above the Nevermore. The summoned Grimm flapped its wings and team RWBY soared through the cloud and up into the sky.
"So, where to?" the ex-heiress asked as the rose above the dense mist. All three of her passengers suppressed an awed gasp as they saw the thick fog bank spread below them as a carpet, the screams of their enemies still being heard from within.
"I wanted to check the huntsmen outpost logs before we try to go after Alizar" Ruby replied, making the cyan-eyed beauty smile. "You are in luck."
She pointed towards the edge of the village, where the roof of a tall building was barely visible above the gray cloud. "We were looking for it as well- hoped we would find you there" Yang explained.
"Let's go then!" Ruby cheerfully announced, as the Grimm carefully started its descent.
-o-
The heavy smell of blood, iron and copper was the first thing that came to Cherry's nose. The growls and baying of wild mongrels followed soon after.
You have to be kidding me! She groaned in anger as she removed her mask. The fog surrounding her was as thick as ever, now dozens of hungry red eyes swarming the area, ready to feast on her tender flesh.
The predators jumped at her. She neither grabbed her weapon, nor activated her semblance. There was no need to, after all. She simply pressed two delicate fingers on her Leviathan medallion.
Kneel. For this is the might of your Progenitor; and I am His humble retainer!
Green light burst through the pendant, pulsing and immediately purging all the monsters lurking inside the fog. The wave annihilated all traces of Grimm around her and then vanished, before her emerald, shining eyes.
"You are in deep shit, revenge-obsessed freak! I hope you have a very good explanation about this!" she hissed as she turned around and started walking towards the mansion.
P.S. Due to me finally going on a vacation, next update will most likely be on Friday 22/11, instead of Wednesday 20/11. Until then, I hope you are having fun and are as much excited with volume 7 as I have been so far!