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On with the show!
(? POV)
Istrus was a relatively peaceful village to live in for its residents. It was a village surrounded by and made up of old, besmirched brick and drab, grey walls, with the ruined remnants of collapsed stone walls that had encircled the established community in a broken circle. The village had a river that seemingly gleamed as it shifted through the centre of the village with various bridges and twists, compounded by the natural defences of the forestry and large hills that have claimed the land around. Outside the village was an open field, perfect for a decent amount of farming and agriculture, and whilst many showcase the benefits of living so close to the wildlife by coming back with whatever they went out hunting for, others would rather seek to not be surprised attacked by a pack of Beowolves, or worse.
Istrus was located on the outskirts of the continent of Anima, more specifically Mistral, but to the scouting party that was headed towards the gates of the village, it could've been their whole world. Reports of Grimm being thinned out across the majority of the area had the high ranking members of the militia worried, some were grateful that whatever huntsman or huntress had come, had helped to stave off the danger of the surrounding woods.
That was quickly thrown out the window as soon as one of our scouts, going into a seemingly "cleared out" area to track and hopefully, talk with the individual, had never came back to the village. The only thing left was a shattered landscape where he was last, and the distinct smell of stale blood to accompany it. Them holding valuable information about our resident huntsman / huntress had sparked a debate on whether this person is actually here for the good of the village, or whether it was just an unlucky attack by a Grimm that was seemingly out of sight.
But if the latter was true, surely the scouting teams would have found his body by now?
Saturn, the recently promoted captain of the scouting forces of Istrus, cleared out of the forests with several of her men in tow as they finally reached the large, mossy gates that kept Istrus safe. Climbing up the steps to the entrance, two guards standing side by side at the entrance saluted to their arrival.
"Captain Saturn." They spoke in unison. Saturn offered them a smile in return as she looked around and inspected her surroundings.
"Where are the other two guards that are meant to be stationed here?"
The two seemed to freeze up with this statement, neither one of them willing to say where their fellow guardsman and guardswoman had attended to.
Saturn's smile soon turned to ice as they stood silent. "Do you want me to repeat myself? I'll only ask one more time. Where are those two idiots at?"
As the seconds ticked by with the only sounds being of each others breathing, one of them had finally decided to open their mouths, but all they heard was a deep, unrelenting sigh.
"You know what? It actually doesn't matter anymore, we've got bigger issues to tackle rather then to figure out where Tweedledee and Tweedledum have all but ran off too." She looked behind to the guards with a sneering look. "But know this. I will get my answer eventually. I always do."
As the gates groaned and closed behind the group, she deemed to disband them all from their duties for now. She needed to get a report to the actual head captain of the militia, not parent a bunch of unproven children.
As she walked through the town, she winded up going along with a hum as she went on her way. The atmosphere and smells of Istrus had always done its damned best at calming her down, and she would be a massive liar if she said that it never had its charms on her. She could smell the aromas of the unique flora and life that hung around the open window sills of buildings and around each corner, the stuffy and stale odor of the nearby tavern halls when she went by it and the laughing of children as they ran around to do as they pleased. The crowds were only made more apparent as she wandered up to them, each one of them making an effort to acknowledge the captain in some respects, even if she repeatedly said it was unnecessary to do so. She could tell that today was gonna be a headache already.
The wide, cobblestone laced streets she walked upon were buzzing with activity as cheerful and content citizens were carrying on their day and filled the surrounding walkways with the comfortable noise of undistinguishable conversations.
She knew that the militia building was located on the western side of Istrus. It was a shame that as soon as she arrived within central Istrus, dark, volatile clouds had already decided to make their presence known, and has casted a large shadow over the majority of the village.
It was probably going to rain soon. That only made the walk to the building even more of a mental chore then it already was. She overheard the same sentiment with a few of the other villagers, as they groaned and put on hold their hushed conversations in favour of keeping them indoors.
The pathways towards the militia building grew less crowded and quieter as she continued on. Conversations and gossip became more private, individuals loitered around the narrower paths in the village too. She crossed by a forge as she went by her way, the sporadic clanging and shaping of metal could be attributed to the forge-master as he went about his way into creating several weapons which the growing militia had definitely needed, and still do as they expanded further and further into the surrounding forests.
The other captains within the militia wielded such optimism in their ideas to expand further and further, to disregard the labelling of a "frontier town" with their constant pushing for expansion and growth.
If only she could be as certain of their future as they were.
Soon after, she finally reached it. The militia hall.
It was a grand building compared to the rest of the village, placed at the western walls of Istrus. It was built much like a pyramid and unlike the standard architecture of a regular Mistralian building: with the main floor of the building being the largest and each subsequent floor above that becoming smaller and smaller. Dust lanterns had littered their way across the rising stories of the building, the only exception being the main floors. An older style of flying eaves had made their way to the top of the building, the only part of the building that resembled Mistral in turn, with its deep maroon tiles that made themselves distinct from the rest of the drab colours that covered it. The top held nothing but a singular tower-like dome with an abnormally sized bell inside.
Saturn hoped she would never hear it rung in her lifetime.
As she walked up the stairway towards the main door, she recognised the glint of movement and color behind the numerous glass windows as they peered down towards her. Seems like someone's already causing a raucous inside.
Another pair of guards were stationed here at the entrance, though this time, it looked like everyone who was meant to be here, was actually here. That at the very least improved her mood slightly, no need to start writing up even more citations for her fellow guardsmen. The two took one look at Saturn, stiffened up and nodded to each other and shifted to the side, allowing her entry within.
As soon as she got past the two, she looked around as she entered the hall.
And what a hall it was.
Various members of the hall had already taken up their residence within the inner depths, on one side, a group of people were inspecting their weapons and offering advice onto how to improve each one of them, seemingly fired up to head to the forges to test out their new theories. Others sat in comfortable silence as they relaxed and rested upon the various benches and tables, content to snooze away blissfully till it was their shift.
With the amount of people inside, it had created a very cozy atmosphere so as to accompany those who went deeper inside. Floorboards would creak underneath as she walked and banners with variations of symbols and meanings had laid waste to the wooden walls. One had two spears crossed over each other onto a blank canvas, another had the image of a rat painted atop a teal banner, and the one that Saturn had fell under had the image of a black eye, surrounded by various pieces of weaponry. A bold message was sewn onto the bottom "CRAS ES NOSTER"; each one of the banners had a different message attached onto them.
In the centre of the room was a chandelier that was there ever since Saturn could remember entering the place, it was immaculately decorated and constantly burned throughout the days and nights via the usage of fire dust supplied by the forge-masters.
To the right there was a door that led out to the main training grounds of the militia building, various pieces of broken down equipment had already been scattered around the halls leading up towards the makeshift training area. Someone was bound to get chewed out for that.
To the left there was a makeshift bar, it couldn't compare in quality or quantity to the taverns and inns that had took up residence within the districts of Istrus but it did its job well in keeping all the new recruits and officers company after whatever shift they came from. To some, it was home away from home as they stayed in the halls.
She walked through the numerous halls with purpose, to find the actual captain of this rowdy lot.
She walked and walked, greeting any familiar faces along the way and politely waving off those that held no significance to her. She's one of the captains after all, and whilst it was nice to deal with the general rabble from time to time, she had important information to share in the end.
She reached the office eventually, only to open it and discover that it was totally empty, the chair inside was empty and the room seemed like it had only recently been evacuated, a scroll was left unattended atop a darkened table. Seems like she didn't catch her in time.
She closed the door as she backed out the room, there was no need to go snooping around her superiors quarters out of pure curiosity, she knew that she'd be let out to get eaten by a Beowolf if she was to be caught in the first place, either by her superior or her adviser.
Speaking on the latter... It'd make sense to check up with them so as to get an idea of where she was? Wasn't it?
The door to his own private quarters was just on the right side end of the hallway, only a couple steps away from the head captains own.
A young man was sitting by himself at a lone table in the middle of his quarters, he was sifting through what seemed like an insurmountable amount of paperwork, piling high on both sides of his workspace, it looked like he had his hands full. He wouldn't look out of place in the higher echelons of Atlas society, with his immaculate white suit and a preposterous amount of jewelry adorned across his wrists and body, he looked as if he'd rather be anywhere but here at this point in time. With a bright red scarf adorning his neck, the lower half of his face was obscured by it whilst it dangled off the left side of his back.
He was the type of person where that everyone had once asked within themselves when they first saw him: "What on Remnant is someone like that doing here?." He clearly didn't care to try and blend in within the militias own ranks, displaying such a weirdly... Flamboyant personality?
He peered up from his paperwork at the interruption, his light blue eyes finally focusing on the intruder in the room, allowing the scarf to fall off the lower half of his face and letting Saturn behold a slight smile underneath it all.
"Hello Karl." Saturn greeted with a smirk. "Nice to see that you've been swamped with work whilst everyone else has been freaking out with what's been going on outside."
The stone faced man known as Karl only breathed a wordless sigh. Before Saturn could say another word about their situation, he pulled out what looked like another massive batch of paperwork from one of the many drawers that were attached to the underside of the desk. It landed with a heavy thud on-top of his wooden desk.
"This my dear, is all the work involved with what our inexistent benefactor is currently doing within the forests surrounding Istrus." Karl started to twiddle a pen around his fingers as he looked down at the batch. "Believe me love, whilst you may think that I stay cooped up here like a trapped maiden awaiting her saviour, I do know what is happening on the outside walls of this Oum-forsaken village."
Karl looked up towards Saturn and his eyes took on a darker note as he inspected her fully.
"However, there is a bigger transgression that I believe needs attention at once!" Karl stated as he snapped his fingers and pointed his pen at Saturn.
Saturn only raised an eyebrow in response.
"That dreadful outfit my dear. What kind of captain are you meant to be when you look just like the general rabble of this mere frontier town? No. No. No. This will not do. You need some color! Some flair! Some imagination! You're a captain now love. You at least have to look the part, don't you think?"
Saturn's eyebrow only raised higher as she took the time to inspect herself. She wasn't that bad surely? She wore a set of specialised silver armour that was lightly plated along her chest, legs, ankles and wrists that offered her a large amount of mobility and armour in the face of her aggressors. Leather straps bound the pieces together tightly that made it a relatively snug fit for Saturn. Two sets of shoulder guards and an imprinted insignia onto the chest piece in particular signified her status within the militia as a captain, as two pieces of Onyx embedded itself into the wrist plates of her armour. She thought it was relatively fine?
Wait a minute. She couldn't get hung up on Karl's obsession with clothing. She had a report to give the head captain!
Saturn shook her head and slammed her hands onto the desk in front of her.
"I'm not going to get into this argument with you again. I just came back from my mission into the outer banks of the forest and I've got some developing news for the head captain, however, she wasn't in her quarters when I checked..." Saturn noted as she watched Karl continuously twirl his pen around his fingers.
"And since you're the chief administrator and are also the main advisor for many of the head captains decisions, I'd have hoped that you would know where she was currently located?"
"Ah. Her?" Karl stated as he soon began inspecting his nails instead: "She'll be back in but a few moments my dear. She told me so as I was attending to my much needed paperwork that she'd be proceeding to the training grounds this afternoon."
Saturn winced at this realisation. Since the Grimm in the nearby area's were being exterminated in mass by the mystery person or persons, newly trained recruits couldn't officially become part of the militia as they were needed to have tested their mettle in teams of fours against a lone Beowolf at the very least. Seems like the captain got a tad restless with this realisation and decided to break them in herself.
Poor things. Almost makes me feel bad for them. Almost.
Saturn took her residence in his quarters as he did say that she'd be back soon enough, sitting down on the opposite end of Karl's desk. She leant back and took her time in looking around with increasing curiosity into inspecting Karl's room.
The room was adorned with multiple varying sizes of candles that populated each corner of the room, along with the small chandelier hanging pretty on top. Various banners were attached to it that resembled those that had too populated the main halls of the building, though these were of a smaller size to fit the tighter interior of the room. Maps of differing size and scale were hung up around the walls of the room, modifications and the details of different coloured markers linked up various sections of the map surrounding the forests in particular, detailing each and every point where we specifically knew that our mystery benefactor had been to. Pins marked each spot accordingly in random patterns across the landscape, it looked like both our administrator Karl and our head captain were trying to wrack their heads around it to no avail.
As the various thoughts were passing through Saturn's mind. The door behind her suddenly slammed open with the force of a thousand Deathstalkers. And with that, something with extreme quickness and power had already latched onto Saturn's neck and pulled her towards the cold wooden floor.
"I missed you Saturrrrrrrrrrrnn~."
Saturn's mind quickly went from shock to a calm acceptance as she slowly realised, just who was actually straddling her in front of Karl.
Head Captain Violet. To the people of Istrus, she was their icon, their figurehead.
"The Fist of Justice."
And right now, she was anything but.
"Oums-sake Violet. Do you really need to dive straight for me whenever we meet up after a while?" Saturn groaned out in discomfort. "My backs gonna give out eventually if you keep slamming me to the floor like this."
The newly introduced head captain: Violet, merely rolled her lavender eyes at the accusations laid her way. "You know you missed meeeeeeeeeee~." She giggled as she sounded the word out.
Saturn could only sigh as she got back up from the floor, dragging the smaller frame of Violet along with her as she was still latching onto her neck. For as small as Violet actually was compared to her counterparts, she made up for that in spades with her leadership and combat abilities.
If only she could keep up that same level of maturity when in private as well.
That was only when I noticed that Karl was a thing still in the room with us, peering up towards him, it seemed like he was mostly content with pouring himself a cup of green tea in the meantime. How he actually got a cup of green tea or how he managed to brew it that fast was a question for the ages.
Violet sighed as she finally released her captor from her clutches, allowing Saturn the piece of mind to not lug around a mentally incapacitated child for the rest of her days.
"Sorry about this Karl, but I'm going to need you to lend me and Saturn your quarters for a little while." She eyed up Saturn and noticed the distinct lack of paperwork attached to her. "We've got some important information to discuss, I trust you'll leave us be till we may call you back?"
Karl blinked and developed a soft smile on his face as he stood up from his desk. Grabbing his steaming teacup, he took one last sip of the holy beverage before gracefully making his way towards the entrance of his room, checking his clothing and accessories all the way as well.
"But of course Violet." He stated as he looked back for the last time. "However bizarre this interruption is to my schedule, if you deem it important enough to do so then I'll leave you ladies be for the time being! Just make sure not to have too much fun without me!" Karl happily stated as the door was promptly slammed shut in his face.
"I seriously can't stand that guy Violet."
Violet breathed another sigh at his behaviour. "I know how he acts much more then you do Saturn. But for as annoying as he is with his... Everything. He actually knows how to do his job well. Really well. Which only makes him even more insufferable to listen to."
Violet turned and proceeded to jump into what was Karl's seat, staring at Saturn in turn with a sudden, serious expression.
"So..." Violet drawled out. "What have you got for me?"
(Nekros POV)
You know, up until today, I'd have never thought a Grimm could ever get mentally drained. Nor that they ever had the capacity too, but it was just a thought.
Now? Now all I wanted was to lay down and sleep for eternity.
After I put Titan to sleep and inspected the "Letter" that had dropped from the humans corpse, all I found was drawings and diagrams of... Me? It was thorough with it too, it must've been since I had gotten out of that cavern beforehand since Titan was still but a small ape with these representations of him. Dates and timestamps were plastered all over it as well, marking each and every change in my shape or size as accurately as it could. Inspecting the letter only revealed a couple things for me. One, I was being tracked by some group of humans, those from the nearby settlement are the most likely culprits.
I also salvaged a "Scroll" from his corpse with it too, granted, because of Titan, it was completely and utterly shattered beyond repair from what it could have done but I kept it on me anyway. It seemed like one of the few important pieces that he left for us. I had no idea what it was for but it looked unique!
[Quest Complete!]
You have found out the reason to why your minion was near death! This anomaly has been dealt with accordingly.
Rewards: 5 Skill Points. 5 Biomass. 2000XP. Increased relationship with Titan!
…
Well there's a silver lining to this situation at the very least.
But now I was worried. Very worried.
Humans were actively looking for me. Humans that likely, already had their aura unlocked and had much more battle experience then I do. I can't imagine that the loss of one of their own would make them docile in any way, they'll be hunting for me soon enough. If they aren't doing so already.
They'll be coming for me and Titan.
As my mind was racing and I was thinking on the possibilities of a possible human incursion, a new thought had seemed to cross my mind at this realisation.
Since I was an "Overlord" race of Grimm, I had only seemed to test out my abilities on the mindless beasts that surrounded me and Titan. It was mostly coincidence after all that Titan was chosen to be my first victim to my processes, though I wouldn't take it back. Titan's fun, even if he is as dumb as a Beowolf pup.
But could I use this skill on a human? And if so, how would it work?
Would it be the same as Titan in that he's not so much as bound to my hips as he is just a mindless killing machine that kinda worships everything that I do or say? It's tough to think of all the ideas that comes with it, Titan being so mindless doesn't help the situation either.
And neither does him snoozing the day away!
I started pushing and pulling against him to no avail, how is he so heavy all of a sudden? He was little more than an ape a couple days ago!
We have things to do Titan!
Wake up! Wake up!
…Nothing?
Alright, I'm using the Aura connection, this'll get the lazy beast out of his slumber.
"WAKE UP!"
And with that final declaration, he jumped up into the air, scaring the absolute life out of me and leaving me on my rear as he went and looked around frantically in the search for what just interrupted his beauty sleep all of a sudden. The same seeping bloodlust that occurred not but to a couple minutes ago appeared in his eyes as he did so, with them finally softening as he looked down to hear me both irritated and annoyed.
Why does this always happen to me?
I thought he was a minion, that he was meant to help. Not cause me a bunch of trouble and annoyance by cause of poking the human settlements for no apparent reason.
Titan seemed to get the message through my thoughts, as he let out a soft grunt and looked away whilst I was eyeing him up. Can I just not get knocked out of balance at least for one week? Thanks system for making this happen.
[Much Obliged.]
…
…
Moving on.
I guess I was an idiot to hope that the human settlements nearby wouldn't send out a couple of their own to check up on the forests. Even in my own pack beforehand, special humans with Aura's that stretched out like blazing fires of glory frequently had their way with the members of my pack, and since many of us were still pups at the time, it was a slaughter to behold.
If the Alpha's weren't there to protect us, I might have never had this... Unique chance lets say, to experience all that I am at the moment.
Now however, Titan has crossed the line of no return. They'll be searching for us, with the amount of people that I estimated already, it seems like it'd be quite a few that wants our bony, skull-faced heads.
But now I have the experience, I have gained many Skill Points and a numerous amount of Biomass to spend along the way. If they had information about me and my changes, then it'd be likely that they had info on Titan as well. And for that, I will protect him as my pack did for me.
For the sake of my and Titans survival. I will change.
I have a pack to maintain and a system which is rooting for me!
So now, I know what I have to do.
I'll kill every single Grimm lurking within these forests.
I'll collect their experience and Biomass and I'll become bigger.
Become stronger.
Become strong enough to turn into their living nightmares if they come for us. Strong enough so that they'll run away screaming when they see me. Strong enough so that I can taste their palpable fear as I close in on them.
I'll do it all for my new pack.
The first question is however. Just what do I invest all my Skill Points and Biomass into now? And how do I get the most out of it?
I kept thinking and thinking of all the combinations and stats, bringing up my own Status and looking at my own skills. I decided first to look at my bodily improvements that I could purchase.
[Body improvements available to purchase are:
Fangs +1: Toughen your fangs and improve their ability to pierce;
Legs +1: Improve your agility;
Eyes +2: Improve your eyesight;
Claws +1: Sharpen your claws and improve their ability to deal mundane damage;
Hide +3: Harden your hide to improve resistance to mundane damage;
Nose +1: Increase sensitivity to air current, scent and negative emotions;
Bone Plating +3: Develop the Bone Plates around your body to improve resistance to all kinds of damage.
Overlord +1: Develop your newly made horns and establish your domination to all that are chosen and those that oppose you. (Increases the chances of passively & actively dominating an opponent. Also, larger horns are cool!)]
How much Biomass do I have collected?
[Biomass: 17]
Wow. I'm a massive idiot for annoying Titan so much for not spending his Biomass when I'm literally doing the same thing. Not anymore at least!
Sigh...
I have made my decision.
Select: Bone Plating +3 , Hide +3 , Overlord +1 , Fangs + 1 and Eyes + 2.
[Would you like to purchase Bone Plating +3, Hide +3, Overlord +1, Fangs +1 and Eyes +2?]
With this, I still have some Biomass left for experimentation, but for right now I need a much more general boost to my overall physique and body. The Hide and the Bone plates in particular have done wonders for me in my pursuits against the Grimm. But against humans? Even I don't know if that'd be enough to turn the tide.
It was time to spend some big money.
Yes, please.
And with that, a sensation I had grown familiar with has finally come back for another round of absolute mind numbing torture.
That itch. That maddening, one of a kind itch.
I knew it was coming as soon as I spent all that Biomass, but I can never ever get used to this feeling.
It spread all over my back, my face, my arms, my mouth and my eyes like a plague upon my body. A thousand mosquito bites erupting everywhere at once.
And just like that.
I was out for the count for what felt like the millionth time this week.
Well this was meant to be up a couple weeks ago. Sorry for the long wait. I know last time I said that I'd try and keep things consistent with time and chapter releases but work and college has just been pilling up constantly for me, meaning I've had little time to actually sit down, plan, and write out the things I wanna write. Sooooooooo. Yeah.
Sorry about the wait. :(
But for right now, this chapter is a massive change (i'm sure I keep repeating that) but, I hope it is a welcome one. Felt like the monotony of our two Grimm boyos was getting to me a little, so introducing a couple new faces to the mix will help. As well as the things I've got planned for a couple of them in the future.
Just have to wait and see how it goes in the end.
Also, we breached 250+ followers at the time of me finishing off this AN, which is... Insane. It is incredible to see you guys like this dumb little fic so much. But know that I still love and appreciate you all, for those that favourite, follow or leave a review, you're doing me a wonder of a service to no avail.
But anyway. Thanks for reading and like always.
Reviews and Critiques are always accepted.