Disclaimer: Disclaimer: RWBY and Hollow Knight do not belong to me. They belong to RoosterTeeth and Team Cherry respectively.
Chapter 14: The Hunt
Could she be...a hunter?
"Again…?"
Velvet Scarletina was fond of photography. Generally fond of film in fact. This wasn't particularly a secret to those who knew her. After all, her entire weapon was based off of the art.
In view of all of this, it was no surprise that Velvet often volunteered to mind the security for Beacon and its properties. The Emerald Forest, filled with grimm as it was, required constant surveillance due to its unique position as technically being within Vale's borders. It was not a wall that stood between Vale and the expanse of the Emerald Forest, but Beacon and her cliffs.
Surveillance like this might've been among the least glamorous realities of being a Hunter. None of her team aside from Yatsuhashi were fond of it, though Fox at least had an excuse. Sitting for hours in front of monitors, keeping track of footage and a deluge of data from the wide variety of sensors that Beacon had installed. It could be described as mind numbing, except it was expected that one should be ever alert when on surveillance duty.
Velvet was too polite to actually say anything, but it seemed this was a point that the Atlesian Army technicians, who were now manning Beacon's security in conjunction with the Beacon students and graduates, hadn't internalized. In the middle of a school night, Velvet was one of the few students on duty. With the Vytal Festival approaching, the teachers were throwing a battery of tests and papers at them. Better to have hard work before revelry, so to make it sweeter.
Fox has theorized that Professor Goodwitch just liked making up for time lost to the festival.
In any case, here Velvet was. In a room full of tired Atlesian soldiers nursing mugs of coffee while absently staring at their screens. Velvet couldn't prove that they were actually bored, seeing as they were wearing masks, but she had a feeling.
It would explain why no one else was making a fuss over what she'd just seen.
Or rather, what she wasn't seeing. The motion sensors in sector three of the Forest were going off. The readings indicated a particularly big, fast creature. But on the security feed itself-
"Nothing," Velvet muttered.
Nothing but silent woods on the regular feed. Nothing on the infrared either, which ruled out those grimm that could turn invisible. Grimm weren't hot like humans or faunus, but they could still be seen on infrared cameras calibrated correctly.
Now, she'd have chalked it up as a glitch. If it weren't for two things. One, the increased caution that both General Ironwood and Headmaster Ozpin had asked for. And two, that this exact same thing had been happening for the past few days.
Velvet stared at the footage for a moment, as though if she stared hard enough it would become clear. But it didn't. Leaving Velvet tapping on the desk with her finger while wondering what to do. She'd tried to bring it up with the security team, only to be told that it was probably a glitch. She'd managed to pester them enough that they had assured her that they'd recalibrate the sensors...in a day or so.
As she absently noted the time of the "glitch", the doors to the security room opened and Professor Port entered with a bombast that was normal for him and wholly incongruous for the hour.
"Hello there, my fine fellows! How's it all going? Jolly good, I should hope!"
The Atlesian soldier who was in charge tonight stared at the Professor the way one would a dancing beowolf.
"Uh-"
"Glad to see things are going smoothly!" Professor Port barreled on, "Though, I haven't come here for a social call. Wouldn't bother you unless it was strictly necessary, of course! What you do here is disastrously important, remember that! Why, back when I was a fresh faced student-"
The few Beacon students in the room rolled their eyes and began to tune Professor Port out. The Atlesians, especially the one in charge, watched in bewilderment turning to despair as the Professor continued to ramble. Velvet's small smile faded as she looked back at the list of "glitches" she'd noted down, and she continued staring at the list and the monitors as the professor droned on.
"-And that is why it's important to be vigilant, even off the field!" Professor Port finished.
"...Right," the soldier in charge shook her head, "Er, Professor?"
"Yes?"
"Why are you here?"
"Oh, but of course! Like I said, this is no social call! I'm here to ask if you all have noticed anything...strange going on in the Emerald Forest."
Velvet's ears twitched and she turned her attention to the conversation.
"Strange?"
"Yes, quite! A peculiar grimm, or perhaps an animal out of place."
"We haven't notice anything like that. Why?" the soldier asked hesitantly.
"Well its the darnedest thing, but several of my traps have been sprung. Broken in fact, with nothing caught inside them!"
"...And?"
"Well, its most peculiar! My traps are foolproof, or as near as you can possibly get. Lots of effort, trial and error. I spent a great deal of my youth designing traps, so I know a thing or two. Why it reminds me of a time when I was a child-"
"Okay!" the soldier began to firmly, if politely, direct the professor outside, "We haven't noticed anything amiss on our end, professor, but we'll let you know if that changes! Perhaps you should check your traps again?"
"Well I suppose-"
"Perhaps immediately?"
There was an audible sigh as as the door closed. The soldier in charge was almost to her deck when Velvet intercepted her.
"What do you wa-?"
"I need to go talk to Professor Port real quick," Velvet said, notepad in her hands.
The soldier raised an eyebrow.
"Knock yourself out. Not for too long though!" the soldier called as Velvet made her way to the door.
"Thank you, I'll be right back. Professor!"
Could she be...a hunter?
'So these squishy creatures finally leave their stronghold...'
He could hear the strange creatures stomp around in the forest. With the amount of noise they made, they were either superbly confident or incomprehensibly stupid.
'Soon I will find out,' he thought, opening his eyes.
As expected, the bodies of the dark creatures he had slaughtered moments before had disappeared. It was vexing, to not be able to enjoy the fruits of a good hunt. Not that those dark things had been particularly good fruits. The one time he had been able to bite into one's flesh before it turned to smoke, all he got was a mouth full of ash.
'Even the bloated corpses of Hallownest's infected were better than that,' he noted. Then, silent as a phantom, he moved through the underbrush to get a better look at his prey. Something more material than the surveillance he'd been forced to do at a distance.
Soon he caught sight of them. His prey. Two of those squishy creatures. This close up, he could confirm what he had only guessed before – these things had no carapaces to speak of. Only squishy flesh covered in cloth.
'Perhaps they will taste like flukes?'
He hoped not. Even if nothing in the world quite beat the feeling of eating a fluke whole and feeling it pop between your teeth, fluke flesh was hardly tasty.
'Still, these things look like they have more succulent flesh,' he took a breath, 'They certainly smell better that flukes.'
Better smelling, but odd too. The larger thing had a smell that, for some reason brought to mind sharp scented plants crushed in the earth. It was musky and overbearing, and frankly not the most appealing scent he'd ever encountered. Though far from the most unappealing.
'Smell or not, its girth is promising,' he smiled, eyeing the rather prodigious size of the musky creature. By comparison the smaller creature looked more like an appetizer.
But looks could be deceiving.
The smaller was dressed in bright blacks and reds, eye searing compared to the larger's muddy browns. Totally useless for camouflage. If it weren't cloth, perhaps he would have though it a warning display. 'Don't eat me, I'm poisonous!' Which, for him, translated to 'delightfully spicy'.
'Considering the size difference,' he wondered, 'is the smaller one a different sex? Offspring?'
If the later, then the larger creature would put up a delightful fight after he killed the smaller. He was practically drooling in anticipation, especially once he saw the weapon the larger held. Strange it might have been in shape, but a weapon no doubt.
'Pah, let us see if its edge can compare to my claws and fangs! First I will kill the smaller. Tear it in two, or perhaps snap its neck. Then the real hunt-'
The smaller creature turned its head towards him. He stilled, not even breathing. The creature continued looking in his direction, but not directly at him. After a long, breathless moment the larger creature called to the younger.
"Tally ho, Miss Rose! No time to waste!"
"Coming!"
The smaller one's voice resembled that of a young female. The older sounded like a male.
The Hunter watched as the two creatures walked away, further into the alien greenery.
'Those silver eyes,' The Hunter could still see the red one's gaze in his mind. The spark that sat within them. Nothing at all like the light that poured forth from the diseased bugs of Hallownest. More like-
'The eyes of a hunter?' the Hunter moved to follow them, 'Then perhaps...this hunt will be more interesting than I thought.'
Could she be...a hunter?
"Whatever is following us is gone."
"Not gone Miss Rose," despite his jolly tone Ruby could how tense the professor's shoulders were, "No. Whatever is following us has simply...slipped our attention."
Ruby nodded silently, watching the woods for any sign of movement.
This was starting to seem like a bad idea.
'Maybe Team RWBY really is cursed,' Ruby suddenly recalled the joke Blake had made the other day. She'd clearly made it in jest, not knowing that it hit a little too close to home for Ruby and Yang. Not that she couldn't have known…
'Then again, I knew what I was walking into.'
Indeed, Ruby knew fully well that something was prowling the Emerald Forest. It was the entire reason she was joining Professor Port on his excursion to see exactly what this something was. Because Ruby had a hunch it might have something to do with Hallownest.
"Something on your mind, Miss Rose?" Professor Port asked.
"Oh, its nothing. Just...stuff."
"Stuff eh? I could tell you a thing or two about stuff, why in my day-"
Professor Port's story washed over Ruby, going in one ear and leaving the other without even acknowledgment in a habit that she'd perfected over the long course of the professor's lectures. A habit that she knew for a fact Weiss did not like. But it was necessary! You had to ignore the Port Childhood Story(TM) to keep any of the useful information from the lecture.
Ruby's eyes snapped to the underbrush as she heard something. The snap of a twig. Maybe nothing. But ever since they'd walked into the woods, Ruby felt on edge. The fact that she was tensed made her more tensed. She knew, intellectually, that most people did not like to spend their time walking in woods that they knew grimm were in. She knew that is was normal for normal people to be tensed about those situations. But she'd grown up on Patch! An island big enough to have grimm but not big enough to have a large population of hunters! She'd lived with and killed grimm since she was old enough to swing a weapon!
Compared to walking to her mother's grave on long dark winter nights, the Emerald Forest should've been a walk in the park! Heck, it should've been better! Here she was allowed to use Crescent Rose with impunity!
Something rustled. It was the barest sound, easily could've been branches moved by the wind, and yet Ruby couldn't help how her hand twitched towards Crescent Rose. When nothing, grimm or otherwise, pounced out at them, Ruby couldn't help but feel silly.
'Maybe I'm just off my game today,' she resisted the urge to squish sense into her face, 'Professor Port didn't seem worried when I decided to tag along with him. It's probably just some wild animal messing the stuff.'
"-Miss Rose."
"Hrm, er, what?"
"I said we'll be coming up to my traps soon, Miss Rose," Professor Port raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you're alright?"
"Fine fine! I'm fine!" Ruby looked to and fro, trying to find a plausible explanation for her inattention, "It...It just feels like something's wrong with the forest today."
"Ah, so you noticed," Professor Port nodded, "Excellent instincts, Miss Rose."
"You noticed too?" she blinked in surprise.
"But of course! One can't get to my position without sharp instincts themselves. Of course," and here the gave her a look, "One cannot get to my position without a healthy habit of paying attention as well."
"Er-" Ruby felt her face turn as red as her namesake.
"Hohoho! Only messing with you, Miss Rose!" Professor Port guffawed, wiping away a tear.
"O-Oh," she laughed weakly.
"Aha! Here we are then!"
They had come across a clearing. And it was just a clearing. Ruby frowned, unable to see anything special about the location. The professor most have noticed her expression because he chuckled.
"Ahh, to trap a grimm one must make their trap cunning!" Professor Port motioned for her to follow him. As they made their way across the clearing, Professor Port lectured her.
"The difficulty is in luring the grimm in the first place. A simple cage trap won't work because nothing but the misery of a person will bring one in, as you know! Much more unreasonable than an animal. And the traditional method of beating one into submission and hoping that neither of you die, well, I don't need to tell you that it is less than ideal. I certainly grew fed up with it when I was a young hunter, which is why I began to devise a new method of capturing live grimm, inspired by a time from my childhoo-"
Just as Ruby was once more being lulled into a stupor, the ground beneath them fell apart into a yawning pit. It was only quick reflexes and her semblance that stopped her from falling into it. Professor Port wasn't so lucky.
"Professor!" she called out, scrambling towards the edge of the pit. From a moment she heard nothing and feared the worst. Then from the darkness she heard the Professor's voice.
"I am quite alright, Miss Rose! How are you?"
"I'm alright!" she yelled down, "Is this one of your traps?"
"It most certainly is not!" The distant voice of Professor Port sounded offended, "Pitfall traps are the most primitive and crude of traps! No one but idiots fall for them!"
The ground shook and trees branches cracked and crashed behind Ruby.
"Primitive perhaps. But seeing as how you fell for it, it would seem that you are the idiot here."
Ruby whirled around. A claw lashed out and sent her flying into a tree. The breath driven from her lungs and phantom pain exploding across her back as her aura took the brunt of the wicked blow, Ruby fell onto the ground. Though stars might have been dancing across her vision, and her lungs burned as she tried to draw a breath in, she could see her assailant clearly.
He was from Hallownest. Had to be, with that black carapaced body. But he didn't look like any bug she'd ever seen before, Hallownest or normal. He more looked human, albeit only in the roughest sense. Two spindly arms, ending in massive five fingered claws. Two long legs, beginning from something that almost looked like a pelvis and ending in nothing but sharp stubs. Its main body was nothing but a spinal cord, so thin it was. If the creature had a head, she didn't know what it looked like. His entire body from where the chest and shoulders would be in a human was covered in heavy leaves so thick it looked like an entire shrubbery was growing on him. It was like a hood, a single opening where his face was and framed by massive teeth like structures.
The only thing Ruby could see of his face was three pairs of glowing white eyes, sharp and narrow. Everything about him was sharp and narrow, not a single gentle edge in sight. As Ruby managed to prop herself onto her arms, taking in a heaving breath, the thing just watched her.
"Miss Rose!" she could barely hear Professor Port, "Are you alright!?"
The thing gave the barest glance towards the pit where the professor was.
"I had been expecting more from you, girthy warrior," the thing's voice was harsh and hoarse, and deeper than any Ruby had heard before. And he sounded disappointed.
"I beg your pardon?!"
"Beg," the monster turned his attention to Ruby, who'd managed to get onto her feet.
"Hmph...You have curious eyes little sprout," he said, "That light...That spark..."
"So I've been told," Ruby ground out. In a flash she had Crescent Rose in her hands, twirling her weapon till its expanded into its full shape. Slamming the point into the ground, the barrel pointed behind her, she glared at her assailant.
"So...what's your name?"
"And why do you care?" he asked, bringing a claw to his face as if in thought.
"I'd like to know who's butt I'm about to kick!"
The thing stared at her for a moment. Before laughing. It was a loud, rolling sound, full of equal parts of glee and malevolence, and it sent a flock of birds fleeing into the sky. Ruby just stared impassively at him, grip tensing on Crescent Rose.
"Your spirit...You show true spirit, little sprout! I wonder if you too, are a hunter?"
"Huntress, actually."
"Oh?" the thing slowly stood up to his full height. He was much, much bigger than the Hollow Knight. "A huntress? We will see about that. For I, little sprout, am the Hunter."
In a flash the Hunter was looming before her, claws raised high above him.
"And you are my prey."
The Hunter swung, and the tree shattered, falling to the ground with a massive crunch. Standing on the other side of the clearing, Ruby Rose was very glad she'd avoided that blow.
"Fast!" the Hunter sounded approving. Then he leapt, almost clearing the clearing in one bound and forcing Ruby to dash away once more.
"But speed means nothing if you cannot strike your prey!" the Hunter roared, giving chase. Ruby hesitated for a split second, wondering if she had time to get Professor Port out of the trap. When the Hunter's claws cleaved through the air where her head was only seconds before, Ruby knew that she didn't. Hoping that she'd read the Hunter correctly, Ruby dashed into the forest.
"You will not escape me!"
'The good news,' Ruby thought, the world an emerald blur around her, 'Is that he's definitely chasing me. The bad news is that he's really, really fast!'
And judging by the cacophony of crunching wood behind her, the trees were not stopping him at all.
Ruby glanced behind her, and saw the Hunter right behind about her. With a shot from Crescent Rose she managed to jerk to the side, the Hunter barreling past her.
"You will not escape me, tiny sprout!" the Hunter gouged through the earth, whirling around and leaping at her. Twirling Crescent Rose, Ruby launched herself above the canopy and continued firing, bouncing into the sky. In an explosion of wood and leaves, the Hunter perched onto the crown of the tree. Ruby, still firing, looked down to the see the Hunter watching her. Gauging-
Ruby spun and shot, the whiplash as she plummeted towards the forest causing her to grit her teeth as the Hunter sailed just inches over her.
"Gah!" she cried out as she slammed into the first tree branch.
Painful moments later, blinking back tears as phantom aches across her back faded away, Ruby rocketed up to her feet. She was deep in the Emerald Forest now. Where the canopy was so thick that sunlight barely reached the ground. In the distance, she could hear crashing branches, and then it became all too silent.
Quickly as she could, Ruby changed her ammunition.
'Fire? No, I don't want to burn the forest down. Not while I'm in it at least. Lightning? Might be able to stun him-'
Not a single bird was singing.
Ruby quickly changed magazines. The gravity bullets were ready just in time for the Hunter's eyes to glare at her from the darkness.
"Done with running, little sprout?"
"As a matter of fact?" she twirled Crescent Rose so that it pointed behind her. The scythe's blade rose into war scythe form. "I am!"
Gravity bullets were funny. When they were shot, the sound was muffled and warped. So too became the world. The Hunter barely had time to react as all five feet and two inches of Ruby Rose rocketed towards him. Crescent Rose's blade sheared through the air that seconds ago the Hunter's arm was. Hitting a tree, Ruby bounced up just as the Hunter slashed at her, gouging deep wounds into its trunk. Once more a shot, the recoil of the gravity bullet causing her to go from the bottom of the canopy to the ground in less than a second, going between the Hunter's arm and his body as she did so. Finally she got a hit, the edge of Crescent Rose slicing into the Hunter's spine. The Hunter gave a cry of pain. Boots touching the ground she wasted no time twirling Crescent Rose to point to the ground. Shifted into sickle form once more, Ruby fired before the Hunter could retaliate.
This time, as she flew through air, the center of Crescent Rose's blade slammed into the Hunter's spine rather than just the edge. With her momentum, she should've cut clean through. Were the Hunter just a regular creature of grimm, that would've been the result. Instead, Crescent Rose snagged the Hunter, the impact sending shudders up her arms even as Ruby fired again. With a warped sound, both Ruby and the Hunter shot towards the sky.
'I got you now!' she thought viciously as she timed another shot. This was a move she'd been practicing for months.
"Red Reape-!" Ruby's battle cry cut into a choked splutter as the next shot, rather than propelling her further into the deep blue, sent her whirling around the Hunter. Time slowed down, as it did when she used her Semblance, and as she spun wildly around the Hunter she saw him grasping hold to a thick branch, nearly torn free from the tree. She finally stopped spinning when the Hunter's other claw caught her, and time snapped back as the two of them fell back to the earth.
Ruby's aura shattered, as the full force of the Hunter, aided by gravity, slammed her into the ground.
Could she be...a hunter?
"Ah!"
"Ah, crud! Are you alright?"
Velvet Scarletina shook her head of dizziness, letting Fox help her back up to her feet. She caught sight of the person she's bounced off of, and recognized Jaune Arc. The rest of his team was behind him, varying levels of concern on their face.
"Oh, I am s-so sorry!" Jaune stammered. If it weren't for the look of wretched apology on his face, as if Velvet was gonna shove him in retaliation, she'd have thought it was another bully pulling off a "wounded lamb" bit.
That, and, well, Velvet thought Jaune as a sort of. Kindred spirit. Next to her, he was Cardin Winchester's favorite punching bag.
She immediately felt bad at thinking the thought. Uncharitable didn't even begin to define it.
'You alright?' Fox's voice echoed in her head, the hair on the back of her neck rising. It was part of Fox's Semblance, feeling like countless invisible eyes were gazing at you. Eerie though it had been at first, now it was reassuring.
'I'm fine.'
"Are you alright?" Pyrrha Nikos asked, taking a hesitant step forward.
"Fine, fine!" Velvet assured.
"A-Are you sure?" Jaune made to step forward as well, only to glance away from her and take a quick step back. Just from Jaune's expression she knew that Fox was doing his 'death stare' thing, and she elbowed him.
"Just fine!" she smiled.
Judging by the look Lie Ren was giving them, she hadn't been subtle with the elbow.
"I-If you're sure..." Jaune trailed off.
"Where are you guys off to in such a hurry anyway?" Nora Valkyrie shared none of her teams hesitance, leaning in close towards Velvet despite Fox's presence. "Is something wrong? Is there a fire? Oh, or maybe your bathroom has flooded! Or you're trying to grab the cafeteria cupcakes before they're all gone!"
"I, uh-"
'Crud, there were cupcakes today?'
"There's no problem," Velvet tried, ignoring Fox's commentary. Under Nora's intense gaze, her mouth seemed to run automatically. "Well, at least, I hope it won't end up being a problem. J-Just have to double check-"
'Velvet.'
Too late. Now Team JNPR were giving her looks of interest.
"Double check what, exactly? Hmm?" Nora leaned in further, and would've fallen if Jaune didn't grab her arm to steady her. This didn't tear Nora's eyes from Velvet's face.
"Er-"
'Just tell them to scram, its none of their business.'
"Does this have anything to do with Professor Port going into the Emerald Woods?" Lie Ren asked before Velvet could phrase Fox's suggestion in a polite way.
"Pardon?" Velvet asked, befuddled.
"We ran into the professor like an hour ago," Jaune began, "H-He looked like he was in a hurry, saying he had to make sure something wasn't a problem. They went into the Emerald Woods-"
"Emerald Forest," Lie Ren corrected.
"-Forest."
"They?"
"Uh, Ruby went with him?"
Velvet's heart sank a little.
"Uh, excuse me, I really have to be going!"
She pushed past them, Fox hot on her heels. As always, outwardly he was silent and aloof. Internally however-
'Shit, this isn't good.'
'It could just be a glitch! Or I made a mistake!' What Velvet's thoughts lacked in confidence it made up for in hope.
'Velvet, you're too smart to make a mistake like that,' The surity in Fox's 'voice' warmed her heart and caused her to smile despite the circumstances, 'And what are the chances that it is a glitch?'
'It has to be!'
They finally reached the security room, and for the second time that day Velvet slammed into something accidentally. This time it was the door to the security room as it swing open, and she stumbled back, phantom pain sparking across her face as her aura shielded her.
"Watch it bunny!" the soldier who had just slammed the door open snapped, before booking it down the hall.
As Fox cursed the soldier to high heaven in her head, making sure Velvet was alright in between swears, Team JNPR caught up to them.
"Jerk!" Nora called after the soldier.
"Are you alright?" Lie Ren asked.
"'m fine," she said, scrunching her nose as tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.
"Uh, guys?"
Jaune Arc was looking into the room with wide eyes, and Velvet shook her head and as polite as she could all but pushed him to the side.
'Velvet, what's wrong?' Fox asked her urgently after a moment of silence, 'Talk to me, ADA can't connect to the feed and tell me what's going on.'
"I-It's not an invisible grimm," she said at last.
'But it's not a glitch?'
Velvet stared at the screens. All of them where showing the same view. Of a massive elder boarbatusk tearing its way across the Emerald Forest, trees falling in its wake, as it marched towards Beacon Academy.
"No," she said at last, "Not quite."
Could she be...a hunter?
Ruby Rose woke up and wished she hadn't.
Every inch of her ached. It was agony on a scale she'd never felt before. Bone deep like when Uncle Qrow first taught her how to use a scythe, but so much sharper. Just moving sent molten threads of pain jolting through her body. Jaw clenched so hard that she was sure she'd crack a tooth, Ruby managed to prop herself onto her knees, till the pain became too much and she fell back against a tree. Her aura crackled against her skin, torn between soothing her and reforming her shield.
Crescent Rose sat on the ground, just out of reach. Valiantly she tried to stretch and snag it, only to wince as her back flared up.
"Ow ow ow..." she hissed, blinking away tears.
"So you are alive."
Ruby's eyes snapped open and she lifted her head as much as she could. In the shadows of the overgrown grove she was in, three pairs of eyes opened. For a chilling moment, Ruby was sure the Hunter he would attack her, and the fear and adrenaline that flooded her veins took an edge off the pain.
Then, as her eyes adjusted to the gloom of the grove, she noticed how the Hunter was sat. Leaning against a tree, same as her. White blood trickled down his arm, and down his spine, from the wounds Crescent Rose had inflicted on him.
"Take pride little sprout," the Hunter rasped as she stared, "Your blows were deep and cutting. Well done."
"Well done?" Ruby blinked, "That's...a strange thing to say."
"Is it?" the Hunter sounded genuinely curious.
"Uh, yes?"
"Ha!" the Hunter's laugh was more a susurrant bark than anything else. "You said you were a Huntress, little sprout. And you're skills have quite impressed me."
"Yeah? Wasn't my goal," Ruby said bluntly.
"Why would it have been?" the Hunter was just as blunt, "We do not know each other. I thought you prey, and you've proved yourself a hunter. You cannot fault me for hunting prey."
"And what, now that I'm a "Hunter" you won't kill and eat me?" she might've said that last part with heavy sarcasm, but part of her – the part that quite liked avoiding unnecessary agony – hoped for that.
"Hunting a hunter is not something I often do, but there is no thrill quite like it," the Hunter shrugged with his good arm, "As for consuming you, I am hungry and your kind are novel. I am quite curious as to how you taste."
Ruby stared at the Hunter. The Hunter stared back.
"That's messed up," she said at last, at a loss for woods.
"I see you share the weak ideals of those soft bugs of Hallownest," the Hunter grumbled, "Tell me, little sprout. What is so wrong with consuming prey? Unless you are one of those hunters that hunts for the sport of it, and the sport alone," the growl that had entered the Hunter's voice was minuscule, but still sent shivers up Ruby's back.
"I – It's – Eating people is wrong!"
"Why? The only difference between a sentient being and a beast is ennui. If you hunt and eat beasts, why not others?
Ruby gaped at the Hunter.
"Hmph," he huffed, "I see we shall have to agree to disagree."
"I don't think I shall," Ruby said faintly.
"Then why do you hunt, little sprout?" the Hunter's eyes narrowed, "I am most curious."
"I'm a Huntress," Ruby repeated.
"So you've said."
"No, you don't understand," Ruby sighed and winced as her side flared, "I-I don't know what the word means where you're from, but here...Here a Hunter is someone who protects people from the Creatures of Grimm."
"The Nightmare King?" The Hunter grunted, "I've heard of him and his troupe. Creatures that hide in the darkness and drag unsuspecting victims to their doom. Clever, if cowardly. While traveling the wastes, you might meet a cloaked bug carrying a dying lantern, who will ask for some food and company. Should you give it to him he would reward you. Should you not...it doesn't end well, so they say. Stories about how in those howling wastes beyond the kingdom's borders, one might hear on the wind frenetic music and dreadful singing, and that if you do you mustn't go towards it."
"R-Really?" Ruby asked, surprised at this treasure trove of information about the guy that had messed with her sister.
"So the stories go," the Hunter hummed, "Strange that you would fight him. From your colours, I would have sooner pegged you as one of his followers."
"He and I have a score to settle," Ruby muttered, "But that's not what I mean. When I say Creatures of Grimm, I don't mean that Grimm. It's – It's just a phrase. Used to refer to the soulless monsters that roam Remnant."
"...Those pitch black creatures," the Hunter said at last.
"Yeah," Ruby nodded, "Them." She wasn't surprised that the Hunter knew about them, not really. Anytime spent in the Emerald Forest, and you'd at least run into a beowolf or something.
"Soulless, you said? Fascinating. To be so animate, to ape such vitality and life! And without a soul? What are they?"
"Nobody knows," Ruby was aware of how absurd the situation was, to talk about Remnant's greatest monsters with someone who was for all intents and purposes an alien. That too an alien that had tried to eat her. But...so long as she was talking, he probably wouldn't eat her.
"They've been here from the beginning of Remnant. Hunting us down."
"Us?"
"Humans. Faunus. People."
"And why do they do this?"
"No one really knows. How can we? The grimm are soulless monsters. All we know is that...they hate us."
"Hatred? Is that all?" the Hunter sounded puzzled.
"Hatred for mankind and all of our achievements," Ruby confirmed.
"Not sustenance? Territory? Some bizarre mating ritual?"
"Nope."
"Truly?" the Hunter had gone from puzzled to mystified, "What Higher Being must your kind have enraged to provoke such a thing?"
"Er-"
"Hallownest and now this...Remnant. Is it the fate of Kingdoms to meet such ends?"
"What are you talking about?" Ruby asked, as polite as she could.
The Hunter stared at her for a long moment. Ruby tensed as he lifted his good arm, and then watched in confusion as he reached into his mouth-hood-thing. The Hunter rooted around for a moment before pulling something out. Something he tossed at her. Something that turned out to be a crudely bound collection of various oval shaped hides, shells, and leathers. On the cover was an insignia and writing that Ruby could not read but recognized. It was the same script that the Hollow Knight wrote in. At least, it looked the same.
"I-I'm afraid I can't read the writing from your Kingdom."
"Hallownest was not my Kingdom. It died long before I was born. And you do not need to be able to read my journal, little sprout."
"This is your journal?" Gingerly Ruby reached out to take the journal. The "pages" of the journal weren't made from any material she recognized, and some of them she was pretty sure were like. Bug shells.
"Mine. A text on every bug and beast to roam Hallownest," the pride was clear to hear in his voice, "Filled out by me, with some help from my protege."
"Protege?" Ruby said, turning to a page at random and finding a rather detailed drawing of a vengefly.
"Yes. They were quite like you, in many ways. A tiny, elusive shadow."
"I'm not that small," Ruby grumbled, turning another page.
"Little sprout, I could gobble you out in two bites," the Hunter gave a dry chuckle, "Of course, my protege was so slight that even one bite would've been excessive."
"I...see."
"You wonder why I would show this to you. A valid question. Turn to the page fourth before the last."
Ruby stared at the Hunter for a moment, before doing as he asked. What she saw was a picture different from the detailed ones she had seen before. This one was a blob of white and cream, a painting of...something.
"The Radiance," the Hunter said, "As depicted by my protege."
"Oh, it's, uh, really nice?"
"The little squib got it in their head to paint the prey they had discovered that I had not," the Hunter grunted, "Though the painting might be theirs, the writing is mine."
Ruby glanced down at the strange script as the Hunter cleared his throat.
"The plague, the infection, the madness that haunts the corpses of Hallownest...the light that screams out from the eyes of this dead Kingdom. What is the source? I suppose mere mortals like myself will never understand."
Ruby stared at the blob on the page as the Hunter spoke, and despite how ridiculous it looked she felt a prickle of unease at the Hunter's words.
"That sounds...very different from the Hallownest we've seen," Ruby muttered.
"Oh?" the Hunter asked.
Before she could respond, or better yet lie, a great sound echoed across the forest. It was a high pitched squeal and a terrifying roar rolled into one, and it shook the very leaves of Emerald Forest.
"What the heck was that?" Ruby asked, alarmed. In her attempt to try and get up her legs caught, flaring in pain, and she slid back down with a wince.
"I do not know," to her astonishment, the Hunter got up. Quickly scaling the tree he'd been leaning on, he disappeared above the canopy. Ruby waited for a moment, wondering what was about to happen, when the Hunter descended.
"It is one of these creatures of grimm you spoke of," he said, "Heading towards that castle of yours."
"Really?" Ruby asked, alarmed, "H-How big is it?"
Another great squeal tore across the woods.
"Massive," the Hunter sounded excited, and he tore across the grove. Not at random, Ruby noticed. This must have been his grove. Which meant that he must've taken her here, despite his threats of eating her. Which was strange, though good. Ruby preferred not to be someone's dinner.
The Hunter shifted a curtain of branches to reveal a little hidden space filled with large sacks of silk. Something from within them was staining them neon blue, and as Ruby stared at them one of wriggled.
"Uh-"
"Lifeseed cocoons," the Hunter cut into one of the pods with a finger, and from the small opening wriggled out what Ruby could only call a blob with legs, the same neon blue colour. It squeaked as the Hunter caught it, carefully pinched between two fingers. Then, as the other blobs tried to break free of the cocoon, the Hunter picked it up with his other hand and squeezed them all into his maw, like it was a freeze pop.
The blobs screamed as they went down.
Ruby blinked out of her shock as the remaining blob was dangled in front of her face.
"Eat it," the Hunter commanded as he wiped away the blue juice dripping from his maw.
"Uh, no?"
"Eat it," he repeated. The blob tried scrambled to escape his careful ironclad grip.
"I said no! I'm not eating something alive!"
"They're best alive," the Hunter growled, "This is a lifeseed. These creatures contain lifeblood, some of the most potent medicine you shall ever find little sprout. If you want any chance of hunting this grimm, you will need it. Unless..." and here the Hunter's voice went deadly quiet, "Your words about fighting to protect others from these soulless monsters was just that: words?"
Ruby stared at the wriggling pod. Before groaning.
"Give me it!"
Could she be...a hunter?
"How the hell did this happen?!"
Velvet winced as General Ironwood had words with the soldiers and technicians that had been on security. Big, loud, angry words.
'He's very eloquent,' Fox noted, 'Most people aren't when they're dressing you down.'
Velvet felt a brief smile tug at her lips. It disappeared as she glanced at the screen.
"An Elder Boarbatusk," she said numbly.
The grimm on the screen tore across the Emerald Forest. Not only did the trees fall like matchsticks in its wake, but the very earth was churned and torn apart. It looked different from the boarbatusk's she'd seen before. This one had massive tufts of fur across its spine and belly, and it was deep red rather than black. Rather than the regular three pairs of curved tusks, this one had five pairs – all but one of which curved up into the air. The longest just barely touching the grimm's forehead. Spines like ribs rose from the grimm's back, buckling the armor plating, and Velvet wasn't entirely certain that they weren't ribs. Grimm grew in strange ways.
"Not just any Elder Boarbatusk," Lie Ren breathed, "I know this one."
'Uh, how?'
"How?" Velvet repeated Fox's snarking for everyone else to hear.
"That's Okkoto," Lie Ren hissed. Next to him, Nora Valkyrie bit her bottom lip.
"Uh, who?" Jaune Arc asked.
"Erymanthius," everyone turned as Headmaster Ozpin strolled into the room. The Headmaster for his part only had eyes for the Elder Grimm on the screen. "At least, that's the name Vale gave it when it was spotted in the mountains, years ago. It came as a bit of a shock to learn that it had crossed the ocean from Mistral."
"They changed its name?" Lie Ren asked.
"Apparently some found its old name...Difficult to pronounce," Headmaster Ozpin shook his head, "That, and for a couple of year we weren't sure if it was Okkoto or if it was some other Elder Boarbatusk."
"Wait, back up? Cause, I-I didn't know Grimm have names. Or, well, obviously they have names but, like, name names. Y'know?" Jaune babbled.
'Comic relief,' Fox insisted. Velvet elbowed him.
"It's common tradition to give Elder Grimm names," Pyrhha Nikos explained, "It helps identify them, it's...it's a sign of respect."
"Respect?" Lie Ren asked quietly.
"In a way," General Ironwood walked up to them, his eyes on the screens, "It is hard not to respect an enemy that can cause such destruction. Though respect hardly means admiration."
Lie Ren exhaled, eyes never straying far from the screen and the Elder Grimm.
"Erymanthius...That's a north Mistrali name isn't it?" Pyrrha asked in the silence, "Not Valish."
"It seemed appropriate at the time," Ozpin said absently, "James, how exactly is it that Okkoto left the mountains and came this close to Vale without us knowing?"
"That's what I'd like to know," the General growled, glancing at the security team. "Though I admit I am curious as to why you all are here," the General turned back to them.
"U-Uh, we were following Velvet-" Jaune stammered, immediately pointing to her.
"U-Uh," Velvet began as the General and the Headmaster turned their eyes on her.
'Breathe Velvet. You got this.'
"I-I'm here to double check on s-some glitches-" Fox poked her and she scowled at him.
"Miss Scarletina? General Ironwood asked.
"...I've been noticing some...disrespectancies in the footage."
"Disrespectancies?" the General asked.
"A-At first I-I thought it was glitches," Velvet began, "But I started having...doubts."
"And you didn't bring this up?" the General's voice was low.
"N-No, I did!" Velvet said. Behind her, Fox tensed. "B-But they thought it was a glitch too. T-They said they'd send a team later to make sure that the system was doing alright. B-But-"
"Something was still bothering you," Headmaster Ozpin said.
"...Yes sir."
"Headmaster," Vevlet and the other's startled as Fox spoke up, "Velvet doesn't make mistakes. Not when it comes to stuff like this."
"Don't worry, mister…?" General Ironwood began.
"Fox Alistair."
"Mister Alistair," the General smiled, "I happen to know Miss Scarletina's father. He's done amazing work, and Miss Scarletina here is a chip off the old block." Velvet flushed under the praise. The General's smile faded as he turned to look at his soldiers again.
"Which is why I am most...disappointed that she wasn't listened to."
"James, we have bigger fish to fry at the moment," Headmaster Ozpin said. On screen, the Elder Grimm screamed towards the sky as it continued its march.
"Don't worry. I'll have the aerial units prepare for a bombing run. I bet your happy about my caution now, eh Oz?"
"N-No, wait, you can't do that!" Velvet blurted out.
"Why not?" the General frowned.
"P-Professor Port is out there in the forest right now! A-And Ruby Rose!"
The General blinked, face paling as the words sank in. Headmaster Ozpin on the other hand-
"Oh for the love of-" the Headmaster's following words drowned in a frustrated growl.
"S-Sir?" Jaune began, hesitant.
"James, I need some of your best soldiers at the ready. We need to get those two out of there, now-"
"S-Sir?"
"What, Mister Arc?" the Headmaster snapped.
Jaune pointed at the screens. Everyone stared for a moment.
"Is that Ruby?"
Could she be...a hunter?
Up close, the Elder Boarbatusk was even more of a nightmare.
The size of a large tank, and in spite of this its speed was nothing to scoff at. Not as fast as either Ruby or the Hunter. But not that much slower.
Ruby was starting to have doubts about the plan. She was starting to have doubts if it could even be called it a plan.
"Do not flag, little sprout!" the Hunter bellowed as he leapt from tree to tree. Ruby kept pace with him with a rhythmic shot of Crescent Rose.
"Same thing to you! Er! What! Is the plan again!?"
"We hunt!"
"That! Is! Not a plan!"
The Hunter landed on the crown of a large tree, and Ruby nearly fell trying to stick the same landing.
"Whoa!" Ruby took a few breaths as the Hunter stared at the Elder Boarbatusk. This close, the air was filled with the dust and debris from the Boarbatusk's rampage. Ruby winced as it threw its head back for another shriek.
"Hmm," the Hunter said.
"Look, I guessing that you're sort of a lone wolf guy? But, a plan?" Ruby gestured wildly, "A plan is more than just "Kill the enemy!" You need, like, steps! Strategies! Y-Y'know, a plan?!"
"Armor covers its back in all areas but from where the spines pop out," the Hunter said.
"Huh?"
"Look closely, little sprout. Tell me what you see."
Ruby stared at the Hunter for a moment, before turning to the Boarbatusk. Incredulity gave way for something calmer as she noticed a few things.
"And look. Over there," she pointed at the armor closest to the grimm's hindquarters, "the posterior lateral armor plates. They're broken."
"Incredibly so," the Hunter sounded impressed, "It must have been quite the force to have done so. It save us trouble. Even your weapon couldn't pierce through that armor."
"No," Ruby admitted sourly, "Crescent Rose probably couldn't."
"And I do not know about you, little sprout, but I am no user of the arcane."
"Also no," Ruby narrowed her eyes, "Hey, what's going on with its...eyes?"
The Hunter leaned forward, eyes turning into slits as he stared.
"Oho," he said. Ruby shifted Crescent Rose into sniper form and looked down to scope to see what he was seeing.
"Are those?" she blinked, pulling away from the scope before looking again, "Plants?"
Green shoots, sprouting from the grimm's empty eyes and curling around its head. It screamed once more, and Ruby realized that it was in pain.
"What-?"
"So the Mosskin are here as well?" the Hunter grunted, "They must be deeper in this greenery then. Our prey must have run afoul of them on its way to level your Kingdom."
"...Not just run afoul," Ruby said.
"Oh?"
"No," she said as she watched hundreds of tiny green figures poured out from the surrounding woods to swarm between the grimm's hooves, "It's in the middle of their assault."
The two of them watched the battle before them unfold, a horde of green attacking the massive boarbatsuk.
"What do we do?" Ruby asked, looking to and from the battle and the Hunter.
"We could always wait for either the Mosskin to win or loose," the Hunter adopted a position of cupping his chin even though he didn't have one, "No matter the result, the winner will be weakened."
The Hunter glanced next to him, and watched rose petals fall to the ground.
"Or we can battle both of them," despite the Hunter's words his voice held nothing but glee, "A delicious, if foolish, choice!"
Could she be...a hunter?
Ruby winced as the boarbastusk shrieked once more. This close – close enough to see the countless scars across its hide, to feel its breath as she zoomed across its face – she was close enough to see the Mosskin.
They were nothing like the solitary knight she'd seen when team RAYN and Ozpin had gone searching for Ren. That knight had seemed something out of a fairytale. Some sort of old, world weary creature, the last of its kind.
There were Moss Knights down there, with their bushy beards and weary eyes, but there was nothing sad or weighed about their movement as they weaved and danced between the grimm's thrashing, slashing at its legs and belly. And crowding the Moss Knights, supporting and shielding them, were hundreds of fuzzy balls of moss.
The army of Mosskin was impressive. Intimidating even. But they were clearly loosing ground to the boarbastusk. The grimm squealed again, raising a hoof to crush the Mosskin. Ruby landed on the side of a tree and wasted no time propelling herself towards the grimm. She'd been hoping to score a crippling blow by carving into the boarbatusk's leg and belly. What she hadn't expected was for Crescent Rose's blade to barely sink into to the grimm's hide. Enough to draw blood and a wretched roar from the monster, but nowhere near the damage she hoped for.
As she landed, rather precariously, on one of the shattered logs that the grimm had left in its wake, she turned just in time to see the boarbatusk turn this way and that furiously, sending Mosskin flying in its rage. No doubt it was searching for her.
"A blind foe," Ruby tried not to startle as she heard the Hunter behind her, "Crippled, but not a death sentence. The same could be said for the blow you dealt it."
"Okay, so its hide was tougher than I was expecting," Ruby gritted out as she watched an unfortunate Moss Knight fly into a tree and not get up, "Got anything other than smart comments?"
"If your claws are not sharp enough to cut your opponent," the Hunter said, "Then your blows must be strong enough to turn their insides to pulp!"
The Hunter launched himself at the boarbatusk with a roar, claw reared back. Ruby and several mosskin reeled back as the Hunter gave a thunderous palm strike into the hip of the boarbatusk. The grimm released a shriek like nails on a chalkboard, stumbling to the side as its leg crumpled under it, plates of armor falling into shards. Thrashing, the boarbatusk managed to clip the Hunter, who tumbled across the clearing before leaping into the canopy of the trees. As the boarbatusk whirled around, useless leg dragging a furrough into the dirt, to face the looming Hunter, the mosskin rallied. A green tide of fuzz and steel mobbed the boarbatusk's back, knights attempmting the drive their nails through the thick hide of the grimm while smaller mosskin climbed onto their shoulders and onto the back of boarbatusk. In their hands were vines that, when Ruby followed, lead to the thickest trees of this patch of the forest.
As Ruby turned back to the boarbatusk, she saw the monster – exhausted and battered and blind – take a breath. Her eyes grew wide and she whirled Crescent Rose, launching herself at it as the boarbatusk screamed and pounced.
Despite how fast she knew she was going, the world felt maddeningly slow as she watched the vines binding the boarbatusk snap, scything down the surrounding mosskin. The very forest shuddered as the boarbatusk crashed into the ground, sending boulder clumps of earth into the air as it curled up into a ball.
Ruby stumbled, avoiding being buried by just a hair, and was unable to do anything as the elder boarbatusk slammed into the Hunter like a canonball.
The two went far, a blur of black, white, and green. Trees bowed away in their wake, cracked in two. There was a loud snap and the boarbatusk unfolded, crying out as a crack in its armor radiated out from the Hunter's blow. Before the Hunter could press on or retreat, the boarbatusk lunged, crushing the Hunter's arm in its maw.
The Hunter roared, planting himself into ground to prevent being bowled over by the boarbatusk. The grimm struggled to push the Hunter to the ground and gore him, its injured leg now fully useless. Here the two titans grappled, locked like tectonics right before an earthquake.
The Hunter was going to loose.
Ruby felt herself move before she was cognizant of it. The world around her blurred, the only clarity the sight before her. Her eyes watered with lazer focus, and she could feel something inside her shudder.
Ruby hit the boarbatusk boots first, slamming herself into its damaged mask and right over its empty eyes. She could feel herself slipping from the stark material of the mask, Crescent Rose already whirling in her grasp. The barrel aimed true, Ruby fired. And the world turned white.
...we need you now…
When she came to, it was to the general feeling of tonnes of weight on her chest, crushing the breath from her lungs and preventing her from moving even an inch. For a dizzying, heartpounding moment Ruby tried to draw breath into her burning lungs, to no avail. Finally the moment ended and she managed to take a shuddering breath. With a shaky sigh Ruby's head lolled to the side.
The boarbatusk, half its mask shattered and ichor falling from its eye into a viscous pool around its hooves, rose to its hooves. Something stepped in front of her, and at first Ruby thought her mind was playing tricks on her with the sight of a walking tree. A moment later she could only stare at the cold gaze of the Hunter. His coat of foliage ruffled and covered in mud, his arm a ruined pulp of white blood and shattered carpace.
The two stared at each other, even as before them the boarbatusk sniffed the air and caught their scent.
"I must truly be growing weaker in my age," the Hunter huffed, turning away from Ruby and towards the boarbatusk. His good arm raised, the Hunter snarled a warning even as the boarbatusk gouged the ground with its hooves.
'Run,' Ruby wanted to say, 'Run!'
She didn't want someone dying over her, even someone like the Hunter.
But her energy was spent, the effort of lifting even her hand too much for her.
And a small, selfish part of her didn't want to die alone.
The boarbatusk charged with a maddened shriek. The very earth shook.
It took her a moment to realize it wasn't shaking from the grimm.
The sun itself was blotted out as the forest behind the grimm bubbled and rose. A gargantuan, bulbous body of mottled greys and greens cast a shadow over them for a moment. Then, the world holding its breath, the mother of all slugs fell to the earth with a thunderoud crash, crushing the boarbatusk under its body.
Trees bucked and collapsed, and Ruby tumbled over the ground from the force of the blow. When she came to a stop and spit the grass from her mouth, she turned her head to see two beady stalked eyes staring at her.
Slug and human stared at each other, silver eyes into unfathomable depths. Ruby's breath caught as the slug tilted her head, as if pondering the tiny slip of a thing lying before it.
The slug's mouth, a tiny thing – though more than enough to slurp her up in one go – puckered and a glob of green slammed into Ruby.
'Grossgrossgrossgrossgro-!'
It took Ruby a skin crawling, spin tingling moment to realize that she wasn't drowning in slime, and that her skin was actually tingling. As Ruby stared at the slug, she felt something in her shift, and the world filled with gentle green glyphs.
Still helpless to move, Ruby could only lie in the ground as the slug, content with whatever it had done, undulated away. Still helpless to move, Rub could only watch the green glyphs float around her as the surviving mosskin surrounded her. Blank black eyes watched her for a moment. Till, one of the knights stepped forward, placing its shield onto the ground. The world became a fuzzy green blur and Ruby found herself on the shield, being carried away by the mosskin. The remaining knights a barebones phalanx around them.
"Wait..." she managed to croak out, "What about…?"
"You should worry about yourself, little sprout."
The Hunter loomed over Ruby as he stepped in stride with the mosskin. Several knights gave the Hunter a look, before coming to a decision not to come to blows. The Hunter, for his part, only gave the mosskin a passing predatory gaze before turning back to Ruby.
Ruby couldn't help the smile that broke over her face.
"You're not...so bad a guy after all."
"I could gobble you up at any moment."
Ruby only hummed, staring into the bright blue sky as the mosskin marched.
"Hey…?"
"Yes?"
"Where...Where are we going?"
"Towards that castle," the Hunter grunted, "Towards your kingdom."
"Thats...good," Ruby felt her eyes grow heavy, and felt more than she heard the Hunter's next words.
"Rest, little sprout. Rest, and be assured that you have won the day."
'Rest, little bud,' a gentle voice echoed in her head, 'Sleep, and bide your strength.'
Hidden Unn, we need you now.
From moss and leaf our life is drawn.
The greater mind once dreamed of leaf;
The Green Children walked from the dream unto these lands.
Been a whopper of a time lately.
"Red Reaper" is Ruby's ultimate finishing move in BlazBlue CrossTag Battle. She didn't get to pull it off here though.
The Elder Boarbatusk was inspired both by initial concept art of boarbatusks and also because at some point we had watched Princess Mononoke while fighting with writer's block. The idea that Ren and Nora know more about named grimm than the average student just came to us one day - considering their backstory it made sense. Named grimm themselves is a concept borrowed from Xenoblade's Unique Enemies.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next time for: "The Queen".