I'm currently walking through the emerald forest with Glynda by my side watching the students from behind.
'Hey Ker.' I call him through my mind.
'Yes Kratos, what is it?' He asks.
'Can you check if there are any strong grimm around? If you do, then tell me where it is so I can kill it. Because this trip is bound to be uneventful' I say.
'Alright, I'll tell you when I find something out of the ordinary' he says before I feel him getting farther and farther away from me.
"So, how long do you think this will take Glynda?" I ask.
"Well, depending on if the kids listened in class on how to collect sap from these trees, then it shouldn't take more than an hour or two." She answers.
"Then I'm hoping I won't have to stay here longer than that" I say
We continue to follow the students who are too busy talking to each other and not paying attention to their surroundings. Maybe I should teach them a lesson and go ahead and set some traps for them. That way they would learn to be more on guard when out in the wild, even in large groups like this one.
"Hey Glynda, since those kids are busy talking to each other, how about we teach them a lesson?" I ask.
"A lesson huh? Alright I'm listening." She says intrigued.
"We're going to teach them to always be on guard when they're in the wild, even if there doesn't seem to be any threat in sight." I say.
"And how do you propose we do that?" She asks.
"Simple, by putting an lot of traps in the path that we're heading, like pitfalls and the like." I say.
"Hmm, I can see that working. Alright let's do it." She says agreeing with me.
"Alright just make sure to be quiet so they don't notice us leaving." I say.
She nods before we silently go around the group and run ahead. After some distance we stop and start setting up the traps. I set up the pitfalls and Glynda sets up traps of her own, and she gets it done faster with her semblance.
And just as we finish, we can already hear the group of noise going our way. So we split up and let the chaos ensue. The first unlucky few gets their legs caught by a rope of vines before being pulled up. And due to the shock, they dropped their weapons.
The group starts to panic and some run forwards but fall into the pits I made which are at least double my height. The rest of the group get their weapons out and finally put their guard up. But that doesn't stop a lot of them from tripping on some very thin but strong wire and falling over piling onto each other.
This makes the remaining teams of a few students really pay attention to their surroundings. Then with as little noise possible, Glynda sends a couple of trees flying at them at very fast speeds. Some of them were able to react and dodge but the rest weren't so lucky and gets sent flying away.
And that was the last of our attacks. We slowly come out and the remaining students face in the general direction on where we are. Once we come out their faces turn into ones of shock but then relief.
"Congratulations on being the survivors of this little lesson." I say and they look at me dumbfounded.
"Could you please explain, professor?" One of the students ask.
"It's simple really, you were all so busy talking to each other, so much that you weren't paying attention to your surroundings. So me and Glynda took the liberty of teaching you to always be aware and on guard when you're out in the wild or unknown territory, even with such a big group like this one." I explain.
"I guess we deserved it.. but did you have to go that hard?" Another one asks.
"Yes, we did, it was to really make the point stick in those little heads of yours." Glynda answers and they nod.
"Alright everyone get up and get over here! I know those traps would do little to nothing to you!" I shout and not long after, all the remaining students who either got caught or got sent away are now back in the group.
"Now I do hope that all of you have learnt to always keep your guards up?" Glynda asks.
They all said yes, and we continue our little trip down the path. After about 10 more minutes of walking with them now being slightly on edge, we arrive at our designated spot to start the assignment. The students immediately get their jars and other equipment out and start extracting the sap from the trees. And as they do, me and Glynda go to another area so we're more alone but we can still keep an eye on the students.
"And here comes the boring part." I say sitting down and Glynda does so to.
"Well it isn't gonna be that bad is it?" She asks
"If nothing happens then I think it will be." I say.
I start looking at the forest and once you just take a seat and look at it, it really does look amazing, the canopy of red leaved trees only letting some sunlight through, and the breeze that feels just right to want to make you fall asleep in its embrace. We enjoyed the comfortable silence until Ker contacts me.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Glynda says after noticing me observing the forest.
"It is, just like a certain someone." I say smirking.
"Oh~? And who could that possibly be?" She asks with a playful tone.
"I'm looking right at her." I say which causes her to laugh lightly with a small blush on her face.
'Kratos, I have found an extremely dangerous creature.' Ker says with an urgent tone and ruining the mood with it.
'What is it?' I ask
'It's an agni which translates directly to fire. I've only ever seen this creature once in my many thousand years of living. And the first time I saw it, it destroyed one of the original 5 kingdoms which was Nirvanos all in one night. And nothing was able to even damage it, even by a little. I'd say that the creature comes from the deepest and darkest pits of Tartarus itself.' He explains with the same urgency.'
'This is going to get serious if I don't handle it now then, hold tight I'll be there as quick as I can.' I say before slowly getting up.
"What's wrong?" Glynda asks.
"There's something I need to take care of, watch over the students. I'll be back as soon as I can." I say.
"Alright, don't take too long, I might get bored to death without having someone to talk to." She says and I give her a thumbs up with a smile before dashing away.
I keep my speed up and not long I can feel Ker close to me, so I slow down. Ker senses me and goes back into my shadow.
'So this is it?' I ask.
'Yes, and this looks to be the same one from all those years ago. And luckily, it seems to be dormant.' He says.
'Alright when I attack you follow in with your own when you think it's the right time to, understand?' I say.
'Understood' he says.
I get my blades out and I can see the fire underneath the cracks of its skin pulsating as it breathes slowly. I don't know if this will work but if it does then this will be great for my blades. I get closer and I jump on it and impale both of my blades into the crack in its neck.
This of course immediately wakes it up, and it lets out a large and slightly pained roar that's so loud it knocks the surrounding trees off their roots. Ker quickly comes in and bites down as hard as he can under its neck.
Now while its distracted I imagine my blades absorbing its flames. After some trouble I manage to make it work and it's now draining the agni's fire. The agni had enough of it and flung both me and Ker away.
I land and now I can get a good look at this foul creature. It's at least twice as big as Ker, it's walking on four legs, the front legs have skulls near the base of the feet and the hind legs have sharp claws. Its whole body is covered in hardened molten armor with fire and magma spewing out of its cracks endlessly.
Its body isn't even fully intact, the top of its back is gone and is just very thick fire that you can't even see through. Its head is heavily armored as it seems very thick and huge spikes are protruding out the side of its head. Its front is like an opened rib cage, the ribs being shaped like daggers and in behind the ribs I can barely see an orb of fire. That must be its core, so I'm going to focus on that.
'Ker, when I knock it over keep it down for as long as you can' I say.
He nods and I prepare to charge the beast again. I dash at it, and it shoots out a fireball at me, I ignore it and put my blades in front of me in an 'X' shape and charge through it while absorbing some of it.
I get close enough and it brings one of its front legs down at me, but I quickly dash to the side. I hook that same leg and pull it making it slightly off balance. I quickly jump onto its neck and stab both of my blades in before jumping off all while they're still absorbing the flames from it.
I pull my chains and slam its head into a rock completely smashing through it. I run at it before punching very strongly upwards causing a small shockwave to appear and it getting flipped onto its back. Ker holds it down by its neck and I rip the ribs out causing the agni to roar and flare its flames.
I can feel the immense heat, but I bear with it as I take my blades and plunge them deep into its core and start absorbing as much as I can as quickly as I can. Ker couldn't hold it down any longer and gets kicked away and I jump away.
It roars loudly flaring its flames, but the intensity has died down considerably, but that doesn't make it any less threatening. It charges at me this time while spewing out flames from its mouth. I quickly block it with my blades and jump up and through the flames again to the back of its head.
I quickly hook my blades onto it and start absorbing again. Ker then rushes in and slams the agni's head down giving me more time to absorb its flames. When its stun wore off it flung me off it and I land next to Ker.
'Just a few more times, its flames are almost gone.' I say and Ker nods.
The agni slams both of its legs down and causes a shockwave which cracks the ground and sends chunks of it upwards making the battlefield uneven. I tell Ker to distract it, he nods and runs at it going left and right.
He succeeds as the agni's attention is now on him. I quickly pull out a large chunk of earth before throwing it at the creature. It reacts a few seconds late and is hit right in the face sending it back through multiple trees.
We both run at it and Ker holds it down while I absorb the last of its flames. We back away and this time the creature weakly gets up. It seems that the flames are what gives it strength. Well I better end this now.
I dash at it one last time before smashing its head down into the ground before ripping off one of its legs and smashing it into its head repeatedly until it's just a pile of dust.
'Wasn't that a little overkill' Ker asks.
'There is no such thing as overkill, Ker. There is only fight it until it dies.' I say
'If you say so, I'll get back in your shadow now. That fight is bound to get the attention of the others.' Ker says before returning to my shadow.
And true to his words, moments later I hear multiple footsteps, must be Glynda and the others. When I see her, she has a worried look on her face. She shouts my name before running into me and giving me a hug. I hug her back and I can feel some tears.
"Wh-what happened? What did you fight that was able to cause this much damage? Why did you fight it alone and not call for help!? You could've died!" She shouts crying into my chest.
I gently stroke her back, "Sorry Glynda, but if you fought with me, I'm not sure you would have survived. And the last thing I want is another person I care about die. Now come on, it pains me to see you sad like this. Can you smile, just for me?" I ask gently.
"Just don't worry me like that again." She says getting a grip on her emotions and slowly stops crying and we stay in the hug for a few more moments before we separate.
After we do, I can see that beautiful smile has graced her face again.
"There it is, the face I love to see." I say.
(Timeskip)
We are back at Beacon and Glynda and I just parted because she has classes to teach while I don't. I'm walking down the hallway but then Ker contacts me.
'Kratos, someone else is trying to enter your mind and make an illusion and they are definitely not allies, they are leaking with malicious intent.' He says.
'Is there a string of consciousness in the connection they're trying to make?' I ask.
'Yes there is, although not a lot, it's still there.' He says.
'Is it enough to pull just her entire consciousness into my head?' I ask.
'I should be able to do that.' He says.
'Then do it.'I say.
And not long after I can hear another voice inside my head being confused. And it sounds like a girl and she's still young from what she sounds like.
'Ok good, now since you have access to my memories, and you have yours. Why don't you conjure up some scenes and force her to watch them until she breaks. With your memory and mine along with some imagination, it should be easy enough to do.' I say.
'Understood, I'll get right to it.' He says.
And not a moment later I hear that same voice scream in my head in fear and confusion and all other emotions.
'Oh and one last thing, make sure she only responds to me.' I say.
'Got it.' He says before the shouting continues.