Ch. 42
In another part of the Emerald Forest, during the battle between Abaddon and Cuchulainn….
"Are you still able to track it Riku?" asked Anise.
"As long as at least one of my blades is embedded in the Grimm, I'll know in what direction its going."
Riku and Anise had been following the Grimm they saw crawl out of the gorge: A large octopus. For its size, it was ridiculously fast. The siblings were jumping from tree to tree, hoping that they would fare better than running on foot, but it wasn't a major difference. The Grimm was still ahead, but now it was well within their sights.
We've been running for almost two miles and we've yet to catch up to it," Anise stated in mild impatience. "Is it going somewhere specific, or just blindly running away from us?"
"I don't know," Riku answered. "This Grimm is new to us, so it may be smarter than the ones we've encountered."
They followed it for another seven minutes before it suddenly disappeared.
"What?! Whered it go?!" Riku wondered.
The duo landed on the ground where they last saw the octopus Grimm.
"My blade is still embedded in it. It stopped in a location straight west of us, but where did that burst of speed come from?"
Anise gritted her teeth. "That's not it. Something grabbed it."
"Say what?"
"For a moment I saw something swoop in and grab the Grimm. I couldn't make out what it was, but it was large, and it wasn't a Grimm. I could see its aura."
"Is that possible? The only monsters here are the Grimm."
"Hey, you two!" said someone from above.
Anise and Riku looked up as Erza, being held up by Raze, glided down to their position.
"What're standing around for? Weren't you going for the Grimm we saw earlier?" Erza asked.
"Yes, we were," Anise said, "But we may have something bigger to deal with. Would you like to lend a hand?"
"What is it? One of the bigger, older Grimm?" Raze asked.
"Maybe you could just follow us and see for yourself," said Riku.
With that, the four of them ran off with Riku in the lead at first, but then Anise surged forward, now sensing the aura traces of the being that took the Grimm. They traveled a short while before reaching an open area containing the remains of a massive cathedral, although the only thing standing of it was the large main floor. It was centuries old with clear signs of weathering and most of the walls and pillars had collapsed. The entire structure may have been larger, but the main room was clearly open to the sky. In the middle of the room was a circular stage, about three feet high, and sitting on it was something that surely was not a Grimm. The being before them was a huge muscular, humanoid creature with dark purple skin. The tips of its feet were red, and it had small, grey wings on its back. It also had an orange wing on each of its elbows. It had a long tail that ended in a silver, circular, pendulum-like blade. It had small gleaming yellow eyes, and on its head were two large, conical, dark purple spikes on either side. There were also two horns with orange tips on its head, right above its eyes, that connected to each other and formed a heart shape. In its left hand was an ornate, orange sword with a grey cross guard and black edges. The creature was using the end of Riku's aura blade as a toothpick, picking bits of flesh out of its mouth. That's when Anise saw what lay at the creature's pointed feet: the mutilated and bloody remains of some of the students.
"What. The. Hell. Is. That?!" Raze asked out loud.
Anise fell silent, Riku was completely on edge, Raze felt extremely cautious, and Erza felt completely overwhelmed.
"This sure as hell isn't a Grimm! It must've killed the one we were chasing! Anise, you said this thing had an aura, right?!" Riku gazed towards his sister, but she was staring dead at the creature before them. Riku followed her gaze and saw the bloody remains below the beast's feet. Without missing a beat, Anise withdrew a dagger from her pocket and threw it at the creature. The dagger hit Riku's blade out of its hand, destroying it in the process. The creature stopped and finally took notice of the four huntsmen in training. It gripped its sword tightly as it floated into the air on its small wings. Several spheres of dark purple energy manifested around it and began circling it.
"Erza! We should probably make our exit!" Raze yelled at her, but she was frozen.
"Anise!" Riku screamed as he shook his sister, but her eyes remained locked on her target. "If you plan on avenging those students, I suggest you wait until we come up with a plan of attack!"
The creature unleashed a volley of dark spheres all at once. They flew at high speed at the group before making impact, hitting not only them but also the stone around them. The attack kicked up a great deal of dust, obscuring the area. Their opponent stood still in wait. When the smoke cleared, the four huntsmen were surrounded by light blue and white glyphs with a symbol of a five-pointed star with a three-pointed crown in the center, which protected them from the debris and the attack.
"Anise! You used your glyphs!"
"The hell!?" Raze thought. "Is she a Schnee?!"
"I'll make this clear to you two," Anise said to Erza and Raze, albeit in an angry tone. "I don't care if you leave, me and Riku can fare by ourselves. But I implore you to help us. Running away from something like this won't make you a coward, but I will reward you in any way I can."
Anise then moved her glyphs forward, causing the stone rubble in front of them to float in the air. She punched forward, and the debris flew towards the creature. It easily slashed through the debris, but it was a distraction for Anise to get close using two glyphs to jump up to the creatures' head. She had another dagger in her hand, aiming to stab it in the face, but it immediately flew back to avoid her. Riku joined in, wielding his bat wing shaped sword. His blade met the creature's blade, and the creature used its physical strength to swing Riku into the air above it. Anise used a glyph to jump into the air and caught him, then used a black glyph to launch both at the creature. However, before they could strike it, the creature swung its sword in the air and disappeared. Anise used several glyphs to break their fall, but once they landed, she was immediately attacked by its sword, sending her into a wall. The sword was now flying around on its own. Riku began dodging the sword as it was fast and could make tight turns quite quickly. Soon enough, the creature reappeared. It grabbed its sword and suddenly stabbed the ground, emitting a powerful shockwave. Riku had the wind knocked out of him and was thrown across the room.
Still near the entrance, Raze was trying his best to get Erza to move.
"Erza, come on! Move dammit!" Raze yelled, yet she refused to respond.
Knowing he might regret it sometime in the future, Raze raised his hand and slapped Erza across the face. Startled, the light returned to her eyes as she looked back at her partner.
"R-raze…I-"
"Erza, now's not the time to be fearful! It's the time to act! W can either run away from this situation to guarantee our survival or help those two humans and kill that monster. I've made my decision to help, but I'm not taking action without you. What do you say?"
Erza looked past Raze at Anise and Riku as they continued their fight against the monster. When she caught view of the beast heading her way, she felt another tinge of fear. But she then saw the face of someone she had held dearly to her, someone she had lost, and that fear slowly turned to anger, then finally, hatred.
"I-I'm with you!"
The monster threw its sword at Erza, but then a light green portal opened in front of her. The sword went in, another portal opened near the creature's chest and its sword flew out. It dodged, but not without receiving a long gash along its chest. The creature looked at the wide cut as black ooze began to spill out. The creature snatched its sword out of the air and charged at Erza once more, but Riku jumped in the way. Creating thirteen golden blades, Riku launched towards the beast with the blades swirling around him like a saw. The creature ducked but failed to see Riku throw two blades at Anise, who was floating in the monster's blind spot. She caught both blades and landed on its back, then executed a cross slash that sliced through its back and destroyed its wings. The creature writhed in pain. It tried to grab Anise, but she had already put distance between her and her enemy. The creature tumbled to the ground, coming to stop on some rubble. It quickly sat up to see Erza leaping towards him with her naginata raised above her head to stab it. The creature moved to raise its sword but found that it was being restrained to the ground. Small daggers, one each in its wrists and heels allowed Anise to use glyphs to keep it down. Erza stabbed the creature in its chest wound and she was caught in a spray of black ooze that blinded her. The creature's tail whipped up and slashed Erza across the back. She fell off the monster's abdomen and raze swooped in to catch her. He went over to Riku and Anise and set her down.
"This is crazy! A stab to the heart and its still not dead!" Riku exclaimed.
"I won't be able to hold this thing down for much longer. Erza, how many portals can you set up at once?" Anise asked her.
"Six," Erza quickly answered.
"And Raze, can you shoot fireballs or do something fire based?"
Raze looked confused. "How'd you guess-."
"I can see your aura trail on the ground and its reminiscent of fire, so its just a lucky guess. Answer my question please!"
"Yes, I am able to manipulate fire! What's your plan with this information?"
Anise threw four daggers out into the walls, two to the left and two to the right with a glyph forming where each dagger was embedded. "Erza, open a portal on each of my glyphs. Raze, shoot a fireball straight into one of the portals. Riku, I need you to deflect any projectiles that thing sends our way. On my mark, Erza, you will open a fifth portal to direct the fireball towards that bastard! Everyone got the plan?!"
Everyone nodded, then moved to perform their tasks. Riku stood in front of Anise with eleven of his golden blades around him, Erza opened a portal at the location of each glyph and Raze created a fireball in his hands and steadily increased its power. After thirty seconds had passed, Raze fired his attack into on of the portals, then he and Erza stepped back. The fireball moved in between the portal pairs, gaining speed with each cycle thanks to Anise's glyphs. The creature saw this and began firing volleys of dark spheres at the huntsmen. Riku created a wall by spinning his swords in the air before him at high speed, but it wasn't impenetrable. Whenever one sword broke, Riku would create another to fill the gap, but it cost a bit of aura.
Once the fireball had completed sixty-five rotations, Anise made the call. "Now!"
Anise dispelled all her glyphs, including the ones holding the creature. It began to get up, slightly levitating off the ground. Erza created a fifth portal where the fireball shot like a shooting star into the creature's chest. It stuck but did not explode.
"Raze, what the hell!" Anise yelled.
"Hold on, I'm not done." Raze put his arms forward and formed a circle with his hands. Six tennis ball shaped white fireballs formed in the air around his hands before flying off and embedding themselves into the creature, surrounding the larger fireball he shot off earlier. The creature began to writhe in agony as the balls in its flesh burned. It fired off more dark spheres at the kids, but Anise grabbed a vial of hardlight dust from her pocket and punched the ground, surrounding her and the others in a dome. Inside the dome, she then touched the surface to create a wall of glyphs to create a second wall of defense.
"Raze, would you do the honors?" Erza asked.
"Eruption."
BOOOOOMMM!
Everyone except raze shielded their eyes as a massive explosion of fired engulfed the area around them. Once Anise, Riku, and Erza could see again, they could see the damage. Their foe had been incinerated, but the ruins had been scorched and toppled as well. Even some of the plant life outside the ruins was either burnt or on fire.
With the battle officially over, the four huntsmen were finally relieved. Riku sat down as his scroll went off. He took it out and found an emergency broadcast sent to his scroll telling all students taking the initiation test to head to safety and wait for immediate retrieval.
"And I thought Beacon initiation was gonna be a piece of cake," Erza said. "Not like this."
"Our father did say that someone could die during the initiation test….," Anise told them.
"But you didn't take that warning seriously did you sis?" Riku asked.
"No, I didn't."
"Everyone who commits to such an occupation always knows the risks of it," Erza said. "It is always a tragedy when those with potential lose their lives. Hopefully help comes to those who have also passed, including us."
As if on cue, two bullheads were seen headed towards them on the horizon. Riku got an audio message on his scroll directly from one of them.
"Attention students! We have an intrusion in the testing grounds! There are bullheads in route to pick you up! I repeat, we are in route!"
