Got some action this chapter. Hope you enjoy.

Also, in my writing style I have realized that the way Darren/Death's power works has become unclear. Let me explain. Darren has a base level, a heightened level, and two limiters. His base level is what he is naturally at. This way he is much stronger than even some of the best hunters and can take down some of the largest Grimm with little difficulty. This slowly increases into heightened.

Darren's heightened state is bearing down upon his first limiter. Like this he is an army of hunters converged into one man. His power borders on the bearest hints of what it means to be a primordial force.

The first limiter. This is what separates Darren's power from his body being able to take it, and then being elevated beyond the limits of living flesh.

The second limiter is something I can't talk about yet.

Another thing I noticed was that some people think Darren is weak and has bouts of strength. No. Darren seeks the thrill of a fight in most cases and will limit himself below heightened in order to achieve this. He prefers to rely on skill rather than strength, until you piss him off.

With that said, I hope you like the chapter.

The pounding of this new Grimm's footsteps reached me fast. I could see trenches dug up where the hoof and human mix of feet dug in for speed. I got a good look at it. Its body was covered with inch long fur that waved in its motions. I could see parts of its body that had protrusions looking like... Stonework? I could see circular temple grounds along its mid-section, miniature obelisks where Grimm bone-spikes should be. Plates of granite where caps of bone should be.

There was also sporadic black and grey dust formations along its body that exuded a somehow ancient feeling power. Its eyes though, were a polished black, large with specks like a night sky in the desert, just an hour after the first star had appeared. They held a very cold anger to them.

People who became loud and violent when angry were bad, but someone who just went quiet, who's stare intensified? They were dangerous. I got my guard up, holding my sword in front of me in a defensive position.

A puff of hot breath came from the bull-like nose on its face as it stared at my sword. "Don't like that do you?" I said cockily. The creature huffed again and rushed me. I jumped up a few feet upwards and rebounded off the boulder and past it. So I thought. A grip came onto my legs and dragged me backwards in my jump and directly into the stone.

Headfirst I hit the rock, face-first. My body carried behind me and smashed through it entirely, shattering off a large chunk like a melting glacier. I tasted the impact more than I felt it. Iron.

My sword had fallen from my hand, but that didn't matter. Gritting my teeth which sent an ache up my gums, I focused my power and pushed it outwards. A black wave shunted off me and pushed the vise-grip of the humanoid Grimm open. I fell to the ground in a heap and tried to get my bearings. No time it seemed, as another huff signaled a punch from the being in front of me, downwards this time.

I was punted off my feet and onto my back, but my position never changed. Now I was staring up at it from a half-foot trench in the ground, the taste of copper becoming stronger in my mouth. I spat a solid lump of something out and raised my arms in defense of the coming blows. And come they did.

The first was stronger than the last, and broke through my defense. With a rush I sent a surge of strength into my arms as well as bulking my defensive power so my arms would not break under the strain. The block barely held and a growling yell of pain broke out of my throat. The next blow came, a left hook.

I aimed to try and catch the fist by pumping my strength into my right arm, but I had miscalculated. An impenetrable grip closed on my hand and forearm. A cold slithering closed around the gaps, and I could see that the fist had basically become a lump of cement around that hand. Stone growth?

I tried to dodge the next hit, pulling my arm to my chest instead of where it lay by my side. That only got me a solid punch in the chest for my efforts, and my left arm was locked. The next thing I knew I was held up to eye level with the Grimm in front of me.

"That all you got?" I asked, knowing that my strength had a good chance of outmatching his. I say chance. At this point, I couldn't be sure if it was holding back. I did however get my answer in the form of a tearing feeling in my chest.

A scream managed to force its way out of my throat as I tried to force more strength and durability into my chest and arms. I could feel individual muscle sinews tearing, and the masses of muscle separating from my bones. With a loud *POP* I felt my shoulders dislocate. My vision blurred for a moment and I realized something. I was losing this fight, and not on purpose.

I choked back another yell of pain and lowered my eyes to the creature in front of me, and I went all out. From what I saw, the Grimm in front of me had no reaction to me unleashing some of my true power other than a slightly startled grunt. Slowly, ever so slowly, I reattached my muscles to my bones and repaired them, pulling.

Even with my eyes glowing from the power I was using, it was still a stalemate in terms of raw strength. But I had had enough of this. My hands burst into a dark purple flame inside of their stone prisons, exploding them and the beast's hands with it. I dropped to the ground and stretched my arm muscles back into place. In front of me, stone regrew into flesh around the hands of the creature. We had the same thought, but only I had the ability to voice it.

"You shouldn't have done that." I said, my voice echoing slightly in the forest, and much deeper than normal. My eyes were a pure black with a glowing white purple for irises. The creature in front of me roared this time, a loud and trembling sound that shook the earth under my feet. Standing still, I called for my blade. The bone-white crossed out names glowed a similar purple in their etchings and flew towards my open hand.

Once again the beast looked at my sword and a sort of understanding passed through it. I was about to attack it when the stones on its right hand began trembling and growing outwards. Only moments later a sword of Grimm stone had formed. It was longer than mine as it was scaled for him. It didn't matter though. If I had to cut through them both, then so be it.

With a flurry of motion I was on the creature, hacking and slashing with cuts strong enough to fell great-oaks. It matched me in kind, blocking and countering with the sword that should have broken under my might but held strong. I may have been impressed if I wasn't filled with rage from the pain it had caused me.

We continued to clash. I swing my sword in a deep arc up from the ground, cleaving a small trench in the ground on its way up. A ringing boom echoed as our blades bounced off of each other with a few sparks. The creature's blade was lifted upwards and I acted fast. With a blast of movement I rushed to its side and dug my sword into the ground, latching for a moment.

The catch was enough to start a double spin that cut deeply into and through the creature's achilles tendon. With a small roar it fell to one knee and some of the stone on its body and the spikes began crawling towards the wound. Seconds to spare, but only a single needed.

I vaulted upwards a few feet over the Grimm's back and came crashing downwards, spinning again for momentum. Instead of a slash though, a driving pierce hit the nape of its neck, and bounced off. Stone had crawled over the area of the impact, angling perfectly to deflect my blade to the side. Though the stone shattered from the impact, it did no damage.

I landed roughly on its back and my free hand grasped as deeply as I could into the black fur. Then I grabbed a small patch of the stonework near my hand. A mistake. My hand squished through it like wet clay before it solidified with my hand incarcerated within. Well it wanted me, so it got me.

With as much movement as I could manage, I threw a slash into the opposite shoulder and it dug in slightly. At the same time the creature stood up, its ankle obviously healed. I felt the turning motion as it swiveled its head to look for something. Finally it stopped for a moment and spun 180 degrees around.

Wind was in my hair as the creature began a backwards run. A mere second after I felt a sharp crushing feeling and my ears were filled with the sounds of splintering wood. With a very uncomfortable position I shoved off of the tree, bucking the weight of the beast forwards and onto the ground. While it regained its composure I broke free of the rock prison it had made for me.

The enormous creature dug its hands in and pushed up, and I jumped out of the way. Once on its feet it roared another challenge at me, the sound so powerful it broke nearby branches around it. I was already done playing games, but this time I was done with everything. I gripped my blade with two hands

Pulling more vestiges of my power, I focused it into my blade, honing the edge further and heating it. Then I burst at the giant in front of me. It swung once, the blade burying deep into the ground as I let the strike slide down my own and spun to attack. It had landed in a crouched position when it swung and the mid-section of the creature was at shoulder height.

With a growl of rage I drove the blade deeply into the gut of the creature, smiling as I heard it howl in pain and the fain sizzle of flesh filled my ears. I felt the hand that wasn't holding a sword grope at my back and I charged my own sword, releasing a small burst of ghostly purple flame into its body. I could see the glow of it under the beast's skin for just a moment.

The hand at my back gained a grip and lost it, gained it again. Even while dying the Grimm wanted me dead. With a sick smile I twisted the blade more, hearing the weak groans in the monster's chest. Slowly I slid the blade out and stepped back, burning the blood off with another flash of purple fire.

The creature stood hunched over, hands still in position to grab me. Its head cocked slightly upwards and it made a motion to step at me before falling to one knee and supporting itself with its sword. Rock slowly crawled to the wound, but there would be nothing to heal. I had cauterized the wound when I had stabbed it, but even so there was a great amount of blood dissolving off the ground.

Amazingly though, the beast began to stand. It rose not to its full height, but instead the figure of an old man on his last journey. The granite great sword raised and a slow swipe at me was attempted. I glided back on my heels a foot and let the blade stick into the ground. The creature began to pull it free, but I struck and broke the blade in half.

It looked at the sword in its hand and I saw the stone fracture as it was dropped to the ground like the useless instrument it was. More rock crawled to the hand in which the weapon was held. A glob of rock hardened and the arm reared back. I sighed as the beast was reduced to throwing rocks. With another twirl I sheathed my blade and let my power ebb away from the surface and my glow faded.

The rock was thrown at me and I simply stepped to the side, fully expecting it to bounce into the woods from the point of impact. Instead the rock became a liquid as it touched the ground and flowed towards me before I could react. The thick liquid like so much cement coiled around and encased me from my elbows down and rooted me.

Then the creature rose to its full height, and I realized that I was a fool to believe such a monolithic creature would be weakened so easily by a single stab wound. I began to struggle to break out of my small prison and found I couldn't, at least not with this power. Hurriedly I pulled my energy from my core again. Meanwhile the creature grabbed my sarcophagus and more stone flowed onto it, taking all of the stonework on the body and moving it.

I craned my neck and tensed every muscle in my body trying to break free, but the stone was strengthening faster than I was. In mere moments I my face was covered and my vessel began to struggle for oxygen in the earth. Consciousness became less and less potent in me and my mind began to fade into the void.

"NO"

I released one of my few natural barriers I had placed against my own power. The effect was immediate. Sigils blazed to life in my blade and my pale skin glowed a deeper purple than before. My irises returned to their ghostly spectrum and my strength became immense. I flooded power outwards, welling up like a canister too full.

The coffin the beast had created exploded and the chunks of stone flew through his body like shrapnel, too fast to be reabsorbed. The shockwave of it broke nearby trees and scorched the grass. I was free again, but this time I didn't draw my blade.

"Fall" I commanded, raising my hand towards the creature who was bleeding from several holes with no stone left to recover. An immense gravity settled over it as many sigils wrapped themselves around my outstretched hand. The being kneeled first, then bowed. My respect for it increased as it was still fighting the 12x gravity I had put on it.

The sigils on my hand burned brighter, slightly scorching my skin. A form of flesh and blood was not meant to wield power such as this, but I refused to ascend against a single being. I watched the fight leave the muscles of the creature and it lay spread eagle on the ground.

More

I raised my other hand, a new line of sigils appearing and searing into my flesh. The structure of the Grimm began to break down in the same way as the grass around it did. Trenches appeared in its body like it was being sandblasted, but it was worse. It was decaying.

An arm severed, then a leg. The sigils kept burning until all that was left of the creature was a simple pile of decaying fluid and flesh. Only then did I let them die and my power shrink back down. Only then did I replace the barrier that kept my power limited.

My breath hitched for a moment before heaving. This body was exhausted from my efforts and pain signals were shooting off like fireworks. My shoulders burned like fire and my wrists and hands were more than likely branded with the sigils. Every molecule felt torn in some way due to the amount of power I had conducted through it.

Nothing that couldn't heal with a bit of time and effort, I supposed. Then I chuckled lightly. Salem sure knew how to make some powerful creatures, especially when a few humans helped her out with it. If she ever managed to get whatever organization that was led by Darhk then humanity was screwed.

Another chuckle, and then I stopped. I heard more rustling around me. It was possible that my display of power had managed to attack the attention of the Grimm in this forest. I didn't even bother readying my blade, knowing I could beat them off easily without.

"We found a guy out here. According to the maps we're right where the lightshow was coming from." A pause. "Yes sir. Move in." All this was spoke in a hushed voice around me. I couldn't hear whoever was talking to the voice, but I got the obvious meaning. They were here to investigate the recent fights. I guess I had showed up on some sort of radar.

"You know I can hear you." I called out, and the shuffling stopped. "Come out here and I might let you live." I was lying of course, but it never hurt to have some fun.

Surprisingly a single soldier clad in white armor with black highlights and a powerful looking rifle stepper out of the thickly leaved area. "Let us live? I've got half a dozen other men surrounding you with high-powered rifles. I think you best-" He stopped and pressed a piece in his ear. With him being closer I was able to make it out.

"Scan his face."

Shadows.

My body faded to blackness as soon as I comprehended this. I wasn't sure of their technology, but if the order was given then they had the ability. He turned his head twice before moving two fingers in a circle and taking aim at my last position. Six sets of footsteps came with the man as the other men moved in. While I was effectively invisible, it actually wouldn't last long. I could see the beginning light of the sun and it would rise soon.

While I could lower my visibility, it would only work so well in the dead of light.

So I moved, drawing my blade and catching a bullet in my arm. Wait, what?

It stung lightly and I realized I had grossly underestimated their technology. They could see with sound somehow. Not sonar no, but something similar. The reversal of that. They could pick of my sounds and pinpoint my position fast. I guess I would have to be faster.

I rushed forwards, my feet shuffling momentarily on the ground. Two bullets landed there after I had gone. I'm sure each footstep appeared on their devices as well, but none of them could lead me enough to take a shot. The first man however knew where I was going.

"Jax, to you!" "I see it I see it!" He yelled, gripping his gun tighter. He swung the butt of his gun near me and I weaved around it, bashing him with an elbow and then throwing him a few feet upwards with a slash. No blood though. His armor was a good grade, but I could see a definite trench in his chest piece.

While he was still in the air I launched myself and dodged the bullets heading for me. With a little more power in my swing I struck vertically and relieved him of his head. Two distinct thumps hit the ground before I did. My lips curled in a smile as one of them yelled his name in a grievous tone. That smile frowned as two more bullets struck me and more were on their way.

"Melt the bastard!" The friend said and I realized why. A distinct heat was coming from two of the bullets that had hit me. Red dust. The movement was agreed and I felt the peppering flecks of fire hit me from all sides. While it didn't do much it was still enough to annoy me, especially after my troubles with the last creature. Some mindless slaughter was just what I needed to brighten my mood.

With another rush I went after the grieving friend with a deep laugh. First I swiped at his legs with my sword and noted that they were less armored than the chest. Most people only went for the body anyways, right?

Wrong.

He made a very pleasing grunt of pain as he fell to the forest floor and grabbed at his bleeding calf. I kept laughing to myself as I drove the sword through his upper leg and twisted slowly. His screams were even better. Throughout he pain he grabbed at a small pistol in his belt and fired shots at where he guessed my hand was. Even bleeding heavily his aim was true and peppered my knuckles. I twisted harder for his troubles, the edges of my blade tearing out now instead of cutting. In just a few seconds the only thing holding his leg together were a few stray chunks of meat and skin.

"DIE ASSHOLE!" Someone next to me screamed and I felt a jarring impact throw me into a tree. It hurt a bit, but I was more curious at the red embers and electrical sparks stuttering around me. Then I figured out what hit me. The man I first saw, most likely the captain, was holding a slimmed down and shrunken version of the Atlesian Rail-gun, and it packed a punch.

"How'd that taste?" The captain asked. He was now looking dead at me and I tried to figure out how and why, but the buzzing particles around me where annoying. Then it hit me that that was in a way just a tracer and now they could easily tell my position.

"Delicious." I replied in a growling voice. I saw his jaw open and close before he rolled to the side. "Cover me!" And just like that the bullets were on me again. The captain was reloading another cartridge into his rail-gun. The dust on the outside was somewhat depleted and starting to show black spots. About three shots left, I estimated.

Wasting no time I leapt back into action against the remaining four gunmen, the one on the ground would bleed out soon.

While their armor could partially protect against my slashes, being run through was much more focused and damaging. Blood pooled in the etches of my blade and I caught the glimpse of a patch that read 'Peterson'. Then I flung the wriggling body off my blade and at the feet of another gunman.

The soldier took a step back and I bolted at him. The elemental particles were still around me and alerted him to my motions. He raised his gun in a defense of my overhead slash that shattered his weapon. Like a true soldier he brought his hands to bear, one gripping the handle of a combat knife. I cocked my head to him, though he probably couldn't see a movement that refined.

Digging his boots into the ground the soldier took a stab at me with the knife. I stepped back and deftly cut the knife blade in half. "Could use a bit of help here!" He yelled as he threw the blade into the grass and came at me with bare fists.

"Nothing can help you now." I told him as I swung horizontally to his neck. He could see me better than I thought so because he ducked under the strike and delivered two heavy-handed punches against my sternum and one aimed at my face.

His knuckles connected cleanly and pushed my head slightly to the side. Laughing I grabbed his forearm and crushed it in my hand, feeling the ellipse of bones break individually. Then I shuffled to the side and sliced down easily through his arm. He screamed at the site of me holding his bloody, still twitching arm in my hand.

A dull pressure found itself on the small of my back and I turned my head to look at it, dropping the arm. "My orders were to bring you back alive, but I think Ironwood will be satisfied if I carry what's left of you back in a soup can!" The captain pulled the trigger and my world briefly turned to pain. The miniature railgun he was holding was definitely not loaded with a tracer round.

My body flew through a good three trees, but the impact isn't what hurt. The combination of fire, gravity, and lightning dust made for an absolutely crushing hellfire that consumed me for a moment. My sword flew from my hand somewhere in my flight and I didn't care. Maintaining my cover of darkness was key to keeping my identity.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I retained the name 'Ironwood'.

I however found myself wanting them to see me. To see my face. I wove another illusion of a pale and bloody face with split cheeks and jagged teeth. Hollow black eyes would stare into their souls. Slowly I stood up with my shadows falling around me like a thick black liquid. "Now you've gone and done it." I told them in a growling voice deeper than before.

"We were having such a good time as well, but you had to go and make me mad." Rapid footsteps stopped near me and I realized they couldn't hear my ramblings from before. I heard a few gasps and one whimper before the captain spoke again. "I don't know how you're alive, but I'm gonna kill you you sick bastard!" I hung my head back and laughed echoing and crazed laughter into the air.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this." I said before I rushed at the commander and stopped a mere foot in front of him. His face contorted in surprise before he got his nerves under control and threw a punch. I caught it and crushed his hand ever-so-slowly, savoring the crunch of each digit under my palm. Then I moved his arm closer and used my other hand to snap his arm downwards.

No, not hyper-extension, but the direction that arms aren't allowed to move.

He screamed deliciously as I pulled him even closer and braced my hands on his shattered elbow joint and began pulling. A deep, vicious ripping crunch signaled itself from deep inside his torso and he screamed louder than ever before. I looked him dead in the eyes. "Watch closely now, this isn't something you see every day."

Then I pulled harder, barely registering the clips of bullets hitting me in the back. That gory tearing sound happened again and the joint pulled farther from its socket in his arm. Only muscle and skin now. The captain was still screaming and crying. I could see his skin stretching like a living rubber.

The captain's screams changed abruptly as his free hand clamped onto the back of my neck and a surge of electricity momentarily halted my movements. The sizzling on my spine stopped after a few seconds and I gave him a look. "An unlocked semblance, why am I not surprised?" I yanked some more and off came the arm. He screamed a final time with blood flying from his throat before he passed out in the shock.

I dropped his arm and gripped his head in both hands and twisted. A few lovely snaps later and I watched the light leave his eyes. Turning around to face the bullets peppering me, I flashed my bloody smile at them. Two uninjured soldier were reloading and another with his arm cut off was using his teeth to replace the cartridge of a pistol.

He would also bleed out soon.

The other two would need to die... Scratch that, one. The second soldier would be my fountain of information as to who ordered this and why. I might as well make a show out of the first one then.

With deliberately slow steps I walked towards him, my sword scraping over pebbles in the soil. His teeth were grit and there was a tear streaming down one side of his face. The name 'Wayne' was engraved on his metal chest plate. He stepped away from me, trying to gain distance. "Stay back!" He yelled while his voice quivered.

I felt a dull thud as the other soldier smashed the butt of his gun into my neck. With my left hand I reached upwards and crushed that end before ripping the mangled mess of metal out of his hands and tossing it hard enough to impale shrapnel into the one-armed man. "Wait your turn." I told him and lashed out with my leg.

His broke at the knee and he dropped with a grunt. I continued on my way towards Wayne while still flashing my smile. "I must say I'm impressed that you haven't run. None of you have." He shook his head and yelled with a broken voice as he pulled his trigger once more.

*click, click, click*

"Oh, a jam. It's not like it would have helped you anyways." He yelled again and grasped the gun by the barrel and swung. I was getting quite tired of this move and batted the gun into pieces mid-swing. A broken squeak came out of his mouth as he looked down at his hands which had held the useless gun. Then his hands dropped to his sides and his figure slouched. He was giving up.

"Oh by all means keep fighting." I ordered and he remained still. "Kill-joy." I muttered to him before I slashed twice fast. His breath hitched both times and he flinched as I removed his strapless helmet. My own grotesque illusionary face was reflected back at me through his blue eyes. "I am an artist." I mumbled.

"Just get it over with already." He said, voice still breaking. "As you wish." I dropped my sword and blasted my open hand upwards through his stomach and into his chest cavity. I felt the slimy feeling of his intestines before the oddly spongey texture of his lungs. My arm had stopped in its momentum now and I slowly forced it deeper.

My sleeve stained red as well as my glove. I would have to wash that off soon.

I could see the pain in his eyes as my hand crawled its way past his lungs, but he only screamed when my fingers brushed the outside of his heart. I respected him for that.

The normally faint beating of his heart was now very apparent as my fingers wrapped around it and between the tangles of valves. "Last chance, are you sure you don't need this?" Only screaming. With a smile on my face I ripped it out, a tide of blood rushing out of severed valves following the tunnel my hand had carved in his body.

The dead man stumbled for just a few moments in so much pain that his mind couldn't even register it. He did not scream but instead let out a few odd squeaks before falling dead onto the forest floor. I nonchalantly tossed his heart back onto his body where it bounced and rolled to a rest by his head. I could see his pupils focus in on it before he truly left this world.

My attentions shifted back to the soldier whose leg I had broken moments earlier. He was now crawling into deeper thicket of the trees and bushes in order to hide from me. Such a futile effort. My steps were painfully casual as I strolled over to the crawling solder. When he noticed my presence he gasped in shock and tried to crawl faster. I smashed his first reaching hand under my boot and crouched down so we could be face to face.

"I'll make you a deal. Answer my questions and I'll make it quick." There wasn't even resolve in his eyes. "W-What do you want to know?" he asked, his voice steady by his own stubbornness to be a man even in death, at least a little bit.

"Who is Ironwood, and where is he?" Without missing a beat he spoke. "General Ironwood is the leader of the Atlesian Army and Headmaster of Atlas Academy. He is actually on his way to Beacon now." He told me these words like a small child spilling his guts after a bit of pressuring. "Really. When is his transport ship supposed to arrive."

"The coming afternoon, about 12 hours from now." He answered. He was too afraid to even risk lying and that made everything easier. "I-Is that all?" He asked hopefully. I nodded and put down my sword. With two hands stained in blood I grabbed his head, my thumbs over his eyes. There was no countdown, no laughter or words, I was true to my word. Two blades summoned themselves in his brain before splintering outwards, tearing apart his brain and killing him instantly.

Now then, if Ironwood was coming Beacon then I might just be able to have some fun with that.. I let my illusions fall after I had taken my sword and walked a good distance from the bodies of the solder. There was no way to tell if any of the cameras or scanners in their helmets were still active.

There were no more Grimm in the immediate area despite the large amount of misery the soldiers must have put off. No more people either. Maybe I had killed most of them, maybe they had. Either way I was alright with it. I had things to do and people to see. The sun was rising now and I had to find a way to repair my clothes and wash the blood off of, well, everything.

I laughed into the approaching sunlight at the state I was in and reveled in the memories of my recent slaughter.

Welp, there goes another dark chapter as well as some more plot on the way. Please make sure to leave a review or PM for the chapter, I live off of those you know.

I'd also like to know whether ya'll would like any questions answered by response to PM or mentioned in the next chapter.

Other than that, have a great day!