After completing his nightly prayers Hansel felt a week of running, marching, and over all fighting catch up to him. Eating that wonderful food early didn't help either, if anything it made him sleepier than he was before.
Hansel tried the bed they had given him but it was too soft for his tastes, he hasn't been attuned to beds for a while now, most Grenadiers like him preferred the floor for no other reason other than it just felt normal for them to lay against a hard surface, although it wasn't the hardest of floors it was still tougher than the bed.
Several hours later the sun rose into the sky, sending its life giving rays all about the world that rotated around it, usually around this time the Professors of Beacon Academy were rising from their beds and readying their coffee to really wake themselves up.
It was also at this hour Glynda Goodwitch was going to check in on Beacon's new student, a task she dreaded dearly; this was the first time a student has ever terrified her and of course Ozpin wanted her out of all professors to check in on him this early in the morning.
She wasn't in the dark about his origins; Ozpin had a habit of recording all of his conversations, for what purpose? She didn't want to know honestly. But he did play the recording for her, and it shook her to the core, how could a society be so monstrous to force its own children to fight to the death against whatever enemy Hansel's people fought? Never mind, it doesn't matter right now she just needs to make sure he's alright.
Oddly enough he wasn't on the bed, no he was…on the floor? She was about to wake him up to ask why he was on the floor but something about him lying there kept her from doing it; he had looked stressed when they first found him and from what she heard from the recording Hansel was a soldier that recently came off a battlefield, so that means he was still in a battlefield mindset and found the bed not to his likings.
Still, it was very troubling for her to see a child behave like a war veteran; she regretted all of the times she wished for her students to act more mature because now she has a student that never had the chance to be immature.
She honestly did feel sorry for him.
Extending her riding crop to its wand form she waved it about, the energy the wand released levitated the bed sheet off of the bed and she gently placed it over Hansel just underneath his mask. A small smile crossed her face as she left the dorm room.
Glynda pulled out her scroll and requested a chat with Ozpin, the screen popped up with the Headmaster looking semi-awake, "(yawning) Yes Glynda, what is it?"
She had her regular school expression on before answering, "I checked on Mr. Hansel liked you asked."
"And how is he?"
She bit her lip sighed closing her eyes, "Could we possibly… give him twenty more minutes to sleep, he looks like he could use the rest."
A small smile crossed Ozpin's face, "I was thinking the exact same thing. I wonder what someone like him dreams?"
"I don't want to know." Goodwitch answered glimpsing back to the Krieger's door.
Hansel's dreams…
The rhythmic sounds of artillery fire sounded in the distance going Thump! Thump! Thump! Every several seconds, the loud chattering of Heavy Stubber rounds conversed with one another between No Man's Land. Gunships made their flyby rounds harassing the enemy plaguing the planet on the other side of the wasteland.
Hansel never felt more at home, everything was just perfect; being treated to the orchestra of gunfire, the symphony of bombs dropping, and the operas of the dying screams of heretics filling his ears. Yes this was the life to live indeed, at least for a Krieger.
The orders the Watchmaster received from the presiding Commissar ordered that they would wait several hours for their eventual trench raid come night fall; so with some time on his hands Hansel inspected his interchangeable Lasrifle gear, making sure everything was nice and shiny ready to be used for whatever creature he set his sights on. He also took a couple peaks at his 'Guardsman's Ambition' novel a friend from Armageddon sent him; it was a love story between an Imperial Guardsman and an Adeptus Sororitas stranded on a planet crawling with xenos and heretics. It wasn't really something a Death Korps of Krieg Guardsman would read but it at least helped him waste time, although he would have to question his friend about where in the Warp did he find such a thing in the first place.
He raised his head up hearing a loud screeching noise coming close, 'Best get to get cover' Hansel closed the book and shoved it into his coat pocket, the Kriegsman casually walked over to a fox hole and sat inside of it humming a tune to himself. The screeching round only got louder and louder, perhaps today will be the day he dies?
Nope.
Hansel sat up straight on the floor checking the room from left to right; he wasn't at the frontline anymore, that's right, that damn Warp Gate sent him to this damn Emperor-less planet. Oh well, at least it wasn't a Tomb World, or at least he hoped it wasn't.
But where has this bed sheet come from? He doesn't remember draping this thing over himself, then again he might've pulled them down subconsciously. Screw it. It's not worth the time trying to figure out; if Hansel remembered correctly he had a mission today.
He poked his head out of the doorway and looked both ways finding the halls empty, not that he was complaining those poor excuses for uniforms were just irritating to look at and the people in them weren't any better.
From what Hansel remembered on his tour from yesterday their little 'arena' was down a couple of halls; that was when they explained and demonstrated what exactly their sembalance and auras were, after a brief panic attack of believing them to be psykers he begrudgingly accepted that maybe it was some sort of mutation because after carefully reading the characteristics of a psyker he found that they lacked greatly in those departments.
That didn't mean he trusted any of them, never did and this most certainly proved his case with these people. He'd keep a close eye on them just to be certain, the Ruinious Powers were always tricky; that girl Ruby for example could've been possessed for all he knew and rip him in half like a piece of wet paper.
"U-um ex-excuse me? Are you H-hansel?" The Krieger stopped and turned to the owner of the meek voice, if it was humanly possible his eyes would've popped out of his head.
An abhuman with rabbit ears was addressing him trembling like a leaf in the middle of a storm; he crossed his arms at the mutant forcing whatever nasty comment he had boiling in the back of his head.
"Ms. G-goodwitch wants to s-see you by R-r-r-ruby Rose's l-locker…" The poor Faunus girl shrunk as the walking manifestation of death passes her by without so much as even acknowledging her existence, a fact she was for once grateful for.
'Filthy abhuman.' Hansel thought not wanting to look at the creature any longer even if they were the most human looking of abhumans they still had aura like the other humans, so it most certainly had to be a mutation spawned from the Warp. Yet they have not had any cases of Daemon possession and had absolutely no idea on what the Warp was in the first place.
Strange people.
The locker that housed Hansel's weapons had its owner by it along with a Professor Goodwitch, "Good morning Hansel!" Ruby waved ecstatically as per usual.
He stared silently at the girl for a moment before gesturing his head towards the locker, "Oh, right." Ruby started off the combination of her locker speedily almost unable to contain the excitement she felt, she very badly wanted to see the weapons Hansel had in action.
Carefully Hansel removed the chainsword, bolt pistol, Monoknife, and shovel. He set them on a bench and pulled the Uplifting Primer out from his coat, with a couple of turns he found himself on the litanies and blessings pages.
At first the two females in the room wondered what Hansel was doing until he made it evident when he knelt down and started to bless the weaponry, for reasons of study Goodwitch started to record Hansel and how he blessed the weapons; while he may've mentioned the Imperium of Man and Krieg he never did go into full detail about the universe outside of Remnant because out of all studies and arts in their world astrology was one of the ones that fell the farthest from glory.
After he was done Hansel holstered the pistol, sheathed the shovel and Monoknife. The chainsword he however leaned against his shoulder, "Ready."
"I see, Miss Roes please go to your seat, Mister Hansel follow me." Goodwitch ordered pushing her glasses up higher and gesturing for the Imperial to follow to the arena prepping area.
"Good luck Hansel!" Ruby says before disappearing into a flurry of rose petals. Hansel opens his hand and catches several petals.
"Rosenrot?" He more or less asks himself staring dumbfounded at the petals, never in his life had he actually seen a flower outside of history books and now he had rose petals in his hands. In truth one species of flower managed to survive on Krieg but nobody ever had the time to find them as they were rare and seen as a blessing from the Emperor.
"Yes, like her namesake Miss Rose leaves rose petals whenever she uses her sembalance, it also unfortunately leaves quite a mess, at least until they disintegrate." Glynda raised a brow at Hansel as he didn't move from where he was standing or even seem to acknowledge her presence, "Are you alright Hansel?"
He shook his as if ripping himself out of a trance, "I'm fine… it's just that flowers are a sacred thing in Kriegan culture. Our world used to have miles of them before the civil war that happened thousands of years ago, and I've seen them outside of history books so I guess I just lost myself for a second."
A sympathetic smile crossed Goodwitches face for a second, "You know Beacon has a garden on campus," Hansel stared at her with an expecting gleam on his eye pieces, "perhaps after your initiation you can visit there and see what kinds of flowers we have there."
For once a smile began to form on Hansel's face, "I would very much like to do that." But it disappeared as soon as it appeared underneath his mask, "What is this Beowulve I will be facing?"
Glynda pulled up an image of a creature that had boney spikes and black fur covering its body, "The Beowulve is one of the most basic and deadly of Grimm, they prove exceptionally challenging in a group. You however will be facing just one."
"Understood." He stated simply as the door to the arena opened; the lights from the stage sent a blinding light into his lenses reflecting outwards so the light wouldn't disrupt his vision, all around in the stands were students from different teams and years. A certain red black haired huntress in training was easily seen in the crowd waving at him along with her team, the team was however less enthusiastic about supporting him.
"Go Hansel!" Ruby shouted waving around a little sports flag with his name on it… wait how'd she get that? Whatever.
The Kriegan reguarded her with a questioning glance before he focused on the big cage in the middle of the stage with a portly gentleman with facial hair that a Vostroyan guardsman impressed.
"Are you ready to face your enemy?" The comical looking mustached man asked, Hansel revved the chainsword in reply.
The man raised his blunderbuss axe hybrid and slashed the lock off dashing as far away from the cage as he could. A mass of white bone and black fur sprung from the entrance roaring as its red eyes shone with unnatural hate. The poor thing had no idea what was going to happen to it.
It snarled towards the crowd gnashing its jaws and displaying its fangs; relishing the fearful stench the audience gave off it tried to go closer but an energy barrier forcing it back, the beast snarled in irritation at the barrier and began to search the stage for a victim.
The Beowulve however did not find that victim in the thing standing across the stage, it looked like a human but it gave off no fear, no anxiety, not even positive human emotions. It was almost like it felt nothing at all. The Beowulve began to whimper at the creature at the other side of the stage; something like this shouldn't exist, almost like those metal creatures that would be sent to fight its kin but this was not a metal being, it had a heartbeat a very steady calm heartbeat.
Every member of the crowd was silent; never have they ever seen a Beowulve behave like this, it was like the beast was afraid of Hansel and all he was doing was staring it down, even tilting his head like he was trying to figure out what it was doing.
'This is what all the fuss is about? This pup?' Hansel was severely unimpressed with this creature, even more unimpressed with the denizens of Remnant. How could these things be driving the greatness that is Humanity to extinction here?
Hansel upholstered the bolt pistol and decided that he needed to teach a lesson; with the sights aimed he fired off a sound barrier shattering round that struck the Beowulve in the knee, the round itself tore the leg off of the body and shattered its femur.
With a loud thud and even louder roar of pain the Beowulve tried frantically to escape the emotionless void that began to slowly walk towards it.
'No mercy, no remorse, no penance, no survivors.' Hansel thought to himself as he fired another two rounds from the bolt pistol, both rounds severing the Beowulve's arms from its body, one final round broke right through the Beowulve's last leg, but this time only scant remains of flesh kept it on.
By the time he was upon the Beowulve it was thrashing and sputtering in pain, but its red eyes were on him, "Jaeger." Hansel said pointing his thumb to himself, "Prey." He pointed down to the Beowulve as it started to die from its wounds.
However its death would not come swiftly.
The chainsword roared to life, Hansel brought it to the Beowulve's crotch and pulled it all the way up to its neck shredding its body in half splitting and shattering the bone armor it had as if it was wet cloth. The teeth of the saw stopped at the Beowulve's neck, Hansel lifted the sword out and swiftly and removed the head from the body.
Hansel turned the mighty weapon off. He bent down and dug two fingers into the Beowulve's eyes and clutched tightly at the back of its head and lifted it into the air like a trophy showing it to the crowd. More specifically at Ozpin, "Inferior to Mankind."
*Drops the mic* The Gimm are by default inferior to the greatness that is Man! I wonder who Hansel shall be dueling next?
