Hello again everyone! I hope you are doing as well as possible.
Chapter 59 is here. As always, I hope you enjoy it!
Thank you all so much for reading/ following/favoring the story- it really means a lot to me and I am really glad to see you appreciate it!
Next week I will upload on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, so until then have fun and be well!
If one was to listen to the stories about the great huntsmen and huntresses, they would envision teams of smiling, joyful individuals who jumped around killing Grimm and saving the day.
This last year, Yang had been the subject of quite a few displays of idolization herself. Quite the lengthy amount of fans and followers seemed to romanticize the exploits of her team in an idealized way.
Most of the times, Weiss would come to her rescue. Using her natural charms and elegant attitude, she would casually explain such theories were nothing more than misconceptions.
'OOOOOOOOOOOO!' As the horrendous monster's roar filled her ears and the cold wind snapped her face, Yang took an oath to strongly flick the next person who would ever ask her such a stupid thing.
Next to her, Albus was running like a maniac through the uphill forest. The three faunus girls of the team were a few meters in front of them, dashing madly away from the altar and its green wicked flames.
The trees here were scarcer and save for a few bushes and vines on the ground, nothing else seemed to be around in order to slow them down. "Is it still after us?" Ilia screamed, as Alex opened a small flashlight.
A burst of wind struck them from behind, forcing them to stumble. Albus fell down, but the brawler grabber and dragged him up with one single movement, without breaking her speed.
"I think that's a 'yes'. Keep running!" Alex's voice commented, having lost all of its usual playfulness. Blake, trying to assist the bat-girl in finding any sort of proper path to move away, sped up to reach her.
"Not that I want to accuse you of something, but why aren't you two taking it down?" the chameleon faunus asked as she jumped over a log. Blake simply rolled over it and Alex followed suit.
Albus jumped up and offered his hand to Yang. Grumbling and hoping she would soon find that hyena bastard and retrieve her right arm back, the blonde accepted his offer and let him drag her over the obstacle.
"Are you joking?" Blake reprimanded her friend. "This thing radiates power and malice- don't you remember what it did to the armored car and Blood Moon members?"
Alex jumped forward and cut off a large vine to open a path with her axe. "Blake's right; it is too risky to fight it. One more reason, that we have you three who are wounded and exhausted" she replied.
A gust of wind passed by them again, but this time didn't hit. Rather… "Watch out! Duck to the left!" the raven-haired girl screamed as the Morkvind appeared in front of them.
Alex jumped away, while Blake simply activated her semblance and let her clone get sliced to pieces. The creature rushed forward, aiming for Yang, as Alex turned her light towards Albus' direction.
Tendrils of shadow burst out of the closest trees' shadow and grabbed the Grimm. They contained its large body and pinned it to the ground- for a few seconds. After the initial surprise passed, it simply moved up and destroyed the black restraints.
But those precious few seconds were all its prey needed to gain a few valuable meters. 'OOOO! 'The stag-shaped maw opened and let out a ferocious screech, as the humans once more quickly ran away from it.
"It can teleport! This damn monster can freaking teleport! I wasn't seeing things back then in the opening!" Yang roared in anger.
"Why didn't it use it from the start to catch us when we fled the altar?" the boy asked next to her. "Less talking- more running!" Blake shouted for the xth time those last days.
"I am tired of running!" Ilia cried. "Feel free to stop; want me to pour you some tea?" Yang commented from behind her. "That would be lovely, thank-" "ILIA!"
Blake and Alex's screams were just on time, as a huge array of vines rushed to the chameleon girl from the surrounding trees, throwing snow all over the place.
Ilia rolled forward and activated her weapon, using it to latch to the closest trunk in order to propel her body forward, faster than the branches.
A burst of air appeared once more behind the rest of them and the Morkving materialized. Immediately, the vines lashed towards them.
"Catch!" Alex tossed Nightfall towards Blake, the same moment Albus gave Yang the left part of Ember Celica. Both women grabbed their weapons, appreciating the familiar feeling of wielding them.
"We must cut through- follow me!" Blake rushed forward, away from the Morkvind and towards the sea of vegetation trying to apprehend them. The others had no time to waste and followed suit at once.
The cat-girl whirled the sword's blade, cutting through the vines like knife through butter. Alex's axe cleaved with ease the surrounding branches as well.
Albus' air blasts and Yang's propelled shots from behind them blew the massive appendages away. The four of them kept moving forward, cutting, slicing and blowing up everything in their path.
From the corner of her eye, Blake could see Ilia's form in the dark. She seemed like she was… waving at her? She stopped looking at her next moment, though; as she had to teleport in order to avoid impalement.
"Gah! Why isn't it following us? We should be pretty easy to capture, trekking through the branches like this!" Alex, flashlight still on, screamed.
"Wanna ask it?" Albus replied, blasting off a wave of thorns trying to overcome Yang. "Nah, I am not one to look at a gift horse in the mouth, honey."
Nightfall cut through another wave of vines. Blake took advantage of that and stole a glimpse- wait; was Ilia telling her she found a way out?
"Albus! Do you have enough dust to blow all them away for a few seconds?" "More or less yes. But-" "Do it please. And then run straight after me with everything you have! Ilia has found a path!"
"Ok! Incoming!" the black-and-white haired boy adjusted his staff's output and slammed it on the ground. A huge wave of air dust immediately discharged, blasting the area around it.
Before the blast could envelop them, Albus waved the staff and hurled the energy towards the massive sea of vines and branches in front of them, hurling all of it away in a small makeshift hurricane.
"GO!" Blake screamed and all of them made a mad dash after her. The vines returned and lashed out, but the huntsmen were fast and had a considerable head start.
The two faunus moved as fast as possible, feet barely touching the ground. The humans behind them were equally fast, having significantly better stamina than their partners.
And, after a few seconds, they all saw Ilia's form illuminated by Alex's light. "There is a tunnel straight ahead! We may be able to escape in there!"
"Or get trapped and killed!" Blake shouted. "We don't have a lot of options" Alex retorted, immediately as the entire of the forest around them shook. 'OOOOOOOOOOOO!'
"Shit! RUN FASTER!" Of course something like that was really hard to do since they were already running as fast as they could. Yang gritted her teeth as she saw from the corner of her eye the white skull running towards them.
Then, she looked forward. At this point, they would barely step inside the tunnel before it caught up to them. Unless… An idea flashed though her mind.
"Albus, do you have easy access to fire dust?" she asked, not breaking her pace. "Yes, but-" instead of waiting for an answer, he narrowed his eyes "you are not thinking what I think you are thinking, do you?"
"You always told me I have a booming personality, didn't you?" their friends reached the entrance and stepped in without as much as taking a breath.
The two humans were a little behind, at this point listening to the Morkvind's breath and the sound of its footsteps. Why it didn't teleport again was a mystery, but they had more pressing matters at hand.
"NOW, AL!" A few seconds before it reached them, both humans jumped inside. At once, Albus threw a fire shard towards the roof and Yang punched the wall with all her might.
The three faunus stopped when they saw what their friends were actually doing and ran back. "YANG!" "ALBUS" "ARE YOU MORONS?"
The ceiling collapsed at the entrance and the large Grimm stopped. The cave-in was not massive, but the immense amount of rocks, dirt and snow entirely covered it.
The Morkvind stood in front and sniffed heavily. Its altar had been messed, its sacrifice had gotten away and it was running out of energy from fighting all those pesky huntsmen who refused to die. 'OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'
Leaving a mighty howl once more, the ancient Grimm left the area, trying to find something else to quell its hunger.
Its footsteps echoed even through the sealed entrance, much to the relief of the five people on its other side. "We… did it?" "I think it's safe to say we did. Unless this place has no exit and we just got trapped."
"Nothing we can do now" Blake's voice interrupted Yang and Ilia as she sat down. "Let's get a really short rest here and exchange some information before moving" she turned to Alex and Albus.
"I am so happy to see you two" she smiled. "I take it Ruby is here as well?" Alex nodded "she is picking up Weiss- and probably kicking Carmel's ass as we speak."
A smile, brighter than the bat-girl's flashlight, appeared on Yang's face. "Thank Dust…" the brawler finally allowed the tension leave her body, as she crashed on Albus' arms who struggled to break her fall.
"I am thankful you guys found us" Ilia interjected. "Were you not there to help, we would have been Grimm food. But I have a question; how did you know where were we?" she asked.
As the boy helped Yang sit better to calm her strained muscles, his girlfriend replied. "I may as well tell you about it since we are resting. It all began when we found the remains of Carmel's convoy…"
-o—
A few hours passed with each party resting and taking advantage of the valuable free time they found to share their respective experiences.
Yang, Ilia and Blake were visibly impressed when Alex explained they located them by tailing the spider Grimm and waiting for the perfect chance to strike after they saw Fenris apprehending them.
Oh their part, the three girls recounted how Ilia snack inside Carmel's house on Blake's request the night of the ball and dressed like an armed guard to provide backup if necessary.
"Cham here literally saved our asses" Yang patted a blushing Ilia on the back. "It was all thanks to Blake's tendency to have a plan B; I barely did anything" she replied, slightly embarrassed.
"That barely matters" the mentioned faunus solemnly cut them off, having just woken up from a short nap. "Blakey; did you rest well?" her partner asked, visibly more chipper than before.
"Well, more than the previous days for sure" she rubbed her eyes and cat ears, earning a giggle from Alex "That's so adorableeeee~" the bat girl giggled, making her blush even more than Ilia.
"A-Anyway! We should get going!" the cat-girl jumped up. "I take it you are all ready to move on?" Everyone nodded and slowly got up. "We didn't sleep much, but I feel much better as well" Yang smiled.
Albus and Alex distributed some dust cartridges for their weapons and gave a couple bars to Blake who was the only one who hadn't eaten yet. After that, the makeshift group started moving deeper inside.
The tunnel was as dark as it was cold. Thankfully, despite tattered and bruised, all five of them still had enough clothes to properly deal with it.
As for the darkness, Alex's light and the guidance of the three faunus were more than enough for the two members of the group who lacked night vision.
"Any idea where this is going? Assuming there is a way out of course" Ilia asked after a while. "I can't even start thinking what we might do otherwise."
"Well, judging from the general direction we have been going, it must be leading all the way to Gloomharrow Valley" Alex explained. "Unless the path turns at some point and we lose any sense of direction."
Neither Yang nor Blake who were walking behind everyone else commented. "This is the third time we are visiting some creepy tunnel in the last two months" the brawler whispered in concern.
"You said the exact same thing in Grimmwater" her partner replied. "And I was right about it, wasn't I?" the next question immediately came. "I am sick of getting swept in our enemy's pace, Kitten."
"On that I agree. We have let our adversaries- whoever they are- take control of every situation we have lately found ourselves in. As soon as we are done with this place, we need to have a lengthy discussion about our course of action from now on" the cat faunus exclaimed, earning the blonde's approval.
The tunnel was slowly uphill and made walking a little more taxing than usual. The stone walls and ceiling surrounding them were wet with moisture and-
Alex stopped moving at some point. She had been seeing this for quite a few minutes, but dismissed it as mere shapes made of running water and natural corrosion. But, at this point, she wasn't so sure.
"Alex? Is something the matter?" Albus asked, seeing her stop. "Just give me a few seconds" she replied before turning her attention to the weird patterns her faunus eyes had noticed on the wall.
They were very rough, indicating they had been carved by some sort of primitive tool. But, after examining them closer, she had no doubt about their origins. "There are familiar-looking carvings on the wall."
Everyone else got closer to her, examining the wall as well. She was right; they could see harsh lines, probably carved by a jagged rock or a blunt blade, stretching in great arrays.
"They are like the ones we found on top of the weird monoliths inside the forest!" Ilia stepped back. Blake rubbed her chin. They truly were familiar; Yang had told her that before…
"Holy Shit!" the tall girl's swear made everyone turn towards her. "Is everything all right Yang?" her partner asked. "I just realized why those things look so freaking familiar" she replied.
"The carvings back there in the monoliths and the circles in the ground… their patterns are like Weiss' glyphs guys!" she explained the sudden flash of inspiration that had just hit her mind.
Ilia gasped. Alex and Albus raised an eyebrow and Blake just turned back to the carvings at question. Now that Yang had mentioned it, they truly reminded her of her friend's summoning arrays.
"But what does that mean? Is the Schnee family involved into this?" Ilia asked, visibly confused. "This place is way too old. I bet not even Nicholas Schnee was around when these were made" Albus replied.
"Yeah, but what about before him?" Blake asked. "What do you mean, Blakey?" She licked her lips in nervousness; those things unsettled her for some reason she couldn't completely understand.
"I mean that there may be a connection to Nicholas' ancestors; that's what I mean. After all, let me remind you that Weiss' semblance is hereditary and no one remembers how it came to be" she explained.
"That's a reasonable assumption, but doesn't help us at this point; we should get moving" Albus commented again. All four girls nodded and started walking again.
The patterns continued as the tunnel went deeper and deeper. Stopping only momentarily to check them, the team was more than eager to leave this place behind.
Alex had given her light to the boy quite some time ago, when he decided to accompany her as the vanguard of their formation. Ilia was in the middle and the Bumblebee pair was in the rear.
They carefully but steadily moved, letting the light guide them as it revealed more and more wet stone walls they were forced to trail in order to keep moving.
The uphill nature of the path had faded quite some time ago and they were sure they were moving straight and deeper inside Gloomharrow.
I just hope there is an exit after all that walking… After examining the ceiling, the boy turned his light to the opening- and came face to face with a ferocious-looking lizard head.
"GAAAAH!" everyone jumped back and grabbed their weapons, ready to attack the monster. A dreadful second passed without the head moving at all.
And how could it? A couple seconds later everyone lowered their weapons after realizing they were looking at a very realistic statue.
It resembled a two-legged Grimm with the head of a monstrous lizard and the body of a monstrous human. It was carved on top of a podium that was filled in the glyph-like carvings.
"That scared the life out of me!" the maroon-haired girl gasped as they reached the statue. "What sort of depraved artist carves that into a statue?" Yang added to the girl's complaining.
"Judging from all we have seen, I would say a worshiper" Blake replied calmly. "Remember what Cherry and Fenris both said? Some religious cult has been operating in Remnant; Dust knows for how long."
"That is possible, but on the other hand it would mean Carmel and Fenris are working together and from what has happened so far, I seriously doubt it" the lilac-eyed woman protested.
"Maybe there are many different cults?" Alex asked. "Could be, but I still-" "Sorry to interrupt but you have to come here now" Ilia's voice was heard from behind the statue.
All four of them ran to their friend's aid, passed by the statue- and froze in awe.
The tunnel ended just where Ilia was standing. But what stood beyond it was not the surface- instead, it was a large cavern.
The ceiling was barely visible, an immeasurable amount of meters above them. The interior was rocky and stale, with no vegetation or signs of life, and great monoliths scattered all over the area.
And in the middle, there was an array of stone houses, carefully built around a large building that looked like an ancient temple. A central road seemed to be leading towards it.
It was taller than the other establishments, and had a triangular roof. No details were visible, but Blake swore she could detect some pretty elaborate ornaments all over its walls and pillars.
All these were eerily highlighted by the large green flames burning around the temple. They lit the entire village and dimly illuminated the cave with their sickly light team RWBY had lately come to hate.
The cat girl held her breath. Her heart was pumping as the images of her team sitting next to each other in the rowboat tending to their wounds tried to overwhelm her.
Yang sensed her partner's distress and tenderly rubbed the yellow-eyed girl's shoulder with her left hand. "This is very familiar to us" the blonde explained to their friends "and in a very bad way" she added.
"Still, this is the only place we may find any clue as to what is going on around here" Alex insisted. "If we are lucky enough, we may even find a way out- they can't be having one single entrance for that huge cave."
"She is right" Blake nodded. "Are you-" "Yes, Ilia. Thank you for your concern. You too, Yang" she smiled as the brawler nodded as well and lowered her hand.
"Lead the way Alex; we keep the same formation" Blake announced with determination. The bat girl winked in approval and the team started moving towards the green-lit underground city.