Kiiro was unfathomably tired. The mismatched duo had been walking for hours now, and whenever Kiiro would ask "Why this path?" Grimm Slayer would simply, yet stoically, respond with, "Safety."
It was here that Kiiro had learned just how cautious Grimm Slayer could be; what would have taken a couple of hours, has now doubled and they're barely halfway there. It was starting to grate on her nerves extensively, and she was starting to wonder what would happen in the coming hours. They had seen plenty of Grimm in their travels thus far and she started to wonder just when their luck would run out.
And it didn't help that Grimm Slayer was eerily quiet throughout their journey. So far, he had barely said a word since they left the ruined village, and she had started to wonder if her treatments even had any effect on him.
It was here that Grimm Slayer had suddenly stopped in his tracks, and started looking around, as if he was searching for something. But after taking a moment to investigate the area, he seemed to relax, at least more so than he was before.
"We will stay here for the night," was all that Grimm Slayer said as he walked off to do… What did he go do again? She had it on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't quite wrap her head around it.
After a short while, he had returned with a bundle of sticks in hand and a trio of dead rabbits in the other. Grimm Slayer set down the bundle of sticks and promptly searched through one of his pouches, taking out some flint and steel. Shortly after, a fire was born, and both Kiiro and Grimm Slayer sat down near the newly lit bonfire.
With nothing to really talk about, Kiiro kept to herself and simply hovered her hands above the warm fire, briefly forgetting that the armored man was sitting beside her. Yes, she could feel it, all of her troubles simply being washed away by the welcoming silence of the world around her, it was a strange way to cope with her current troubles. But it didn't have to make sense to her, or to anyone for that matter. All that mattered was that it worked.
"Mr. Grimm Slayer, if it's alright to ask, why are you still wearing your helmet, er- You can't eat with it on, right?" Wordlessly, Grimm Slayer brought up a cooked rabbit leg, lifted his helmet above his mouth, and then proceeded to tear a large chunk of rabbit meat from the bone before quietly chewing.
Kiiro let out an involuntary snort to suppress her giggle at the bizarre sight. Grimm Slayer stared at the young girl in confusion, if the slight head tilt said anything about it. But he promptly ignored it and continued eating.
As their short dinner came to a halt, Grimm Slayer wrapped the leftover rabbit meat in cloth before putting it away into one of his pouches. He was about to do the same for Kiiro's leftover rabbit, but was stopped as something caught both of their attention. It was a howl, followed by one more and then another on top of that.
Without hesitation, Grimm Slayer grabbed his double barreled shotgun, loaded two shells and turned to Kiiro. "Stay here."
Before Kiiro could say anything, Grimm Slayer had already disappeared into the forest. She stood there awkwardly with nothing to do, so she simply sat down on the log again.
It was short, but the silence she was given didn't have that distant air to it when Grimm Slayer was there. It was simply nice… Well, as nice as a Grimm infested forest could get.
Two thundering cracks sounded throughout the midnight air, shattering the silence and provoking a murder of crows into a fit of rage. Kiiro curled herself into a ball and covered her ears.
A small period of silence followed, which Kiiro took as a sign to relax. The peace did not last long as the report from Grimm Slayer's shotgun was heard twice more, though further away.
This cycle repeated several times, after a while though, the booming noises stopped, but the sound of Grimm had gone up substantially. All Kiiro could do was wait until it was taken care of.
Sitting by the fire was far better than actually being in battle, though. Not like she could do anything but hide behind him anyway, maybe flail around a bit and pray that her medicine actually worked and was not a load of snake oil that hindered the Grimm Slayer.
"Look on the bright side Kiiro!" She began, muttering to herself as her eyes widened and the blood quickly left her face, leaving her pale. "At least he's keeping the Grimm away from you with all the fighting... I mean sure, I have no one to protect me, stray Grimm could come out and eat me in one bite, maybe get torn apart by the younger ones first… I'm just going to shut up now."
Kiiro continued to patiently wait, poking the fire with a stick as the commotion of battle died down. She didn't bother looking up as the Grimm Slayer silently came out of the bushes covered in a black substance; she hesitated to call it Grimm blood.
"We'll move at dawn. Rest." Grimm Slayer simply sat and stayed still, absolutely still.
"He's asleep, of course he is," Kiiro whispered to herself as she laid down on her log, her small frame shivered as the cold midnight air brushed against her skin.
She hoped they could reach some sort of civilization by tomorrow, all of this death and Grimm was something she wanted to quickly leave behind. For good, if possible.
The pair had hit the abandoned road once more, intent on making this their last trip. Grimm Slayer quickened his pace with the little apothecary girl following closely behind, Kiiro nearly fumbling over her own legs as she tried to keep up with the long strides of the armored warrior.
There wasn't much to be seen besides the trees that had been aggressively shadowing them, a leaf or two strewn about the dirt road, maybe a broken cart, and the occasional ruined building as they trudged along the path.
Grimm Slayer didn't stop to inspect them, of course. He knew how long they would have stayed in these places if he did. Besides, there was no reason to bother, the Grimm would never lower themselves to using man made structures as a home, the Grimm were strangely prideful in that sense.
Morning quickly turned to noon, and noon then turned to afternoon, and yet one thing remained a constant. The two were still walking, the road looking as endless as ever, the trees becoming more numerous, their roots spilling onto the road and the dense foliage almost blocking the sun entirely. The feeling of being draped in shadow left a pit forming in Kiiro's stomach, the sight of the light being all the more rare the further they trudged.
"Um," Kiiro whimpered, "Grimm Slayer, Sir? How much longer until we make our way out of the forest?" She asked, her voice shaking as her legs burned, not once had they found the time to rest as they marched towards… wherever it was that they were going. Kiiro remembered that Grimm Slayer spoke of a village not far from her own, but from what she was experiencing, it was not nearly close enough.
And yet, Grimm Slayer responded the same way he always did whenever she asked about their progress. "However long it takes." He curtly responded as he marched ahead, the sound of his armor clinking against itself as his armored hand rested firmly against the pommel of his blade. The blade was in rapidly deteriorating condition, Kiiro noticed. Whenever Kiiro thought of the sword a knight would use, she imagined a blade with a perfect shine, the kind where if you held it up towards the sky, the Sun itself would go out of its way to shine down upon it.
And yet, whenever she stared at Grimm Slayer's weapon, all she could see was a rusting, dulling piece of thin metal, the edges chipping and the cross guard battered from use, the sight of dry blood could still be seen on it. Unlike what she imagined, Grimm Slayer's weapon was battered, breaking, rusted, brutal, uncaring.
Funny, it reminded her of the man that wielded it.
Although, as Grimm Slayer and the (aspiring) Apothecary walked down the quiet road, the silence was quickly broken. The sounds of swears and clashing steel echoed from up the road, deeper into the thick wood.
"C'mere you big sumbitch!"A young voice echoed down the road, quickly followed by the whining of a Grimm. The sound of howling filled the air, seemingly coming from every direction. "Aw shit! Here we go!" At the sound of the Grimm howling, the Grimm Slayer was quick to draw his sword.
As Grimm Slayer clenched the sword in his left hand, drawing his sawn-off from the holster on his thigh, he spoke a word through a clenched jaw, "Hide." His voice as cold as ice, and with that, he sprinted down the road as the sounds of howling grew louder and louder.
And so she did, hiding behind a broken cart, watching as Grimm Slayer charged into the forest. But, each time that Grimm Slayer left her, Kiiro was always left with the same nagging thought whenever he left. The one that always gnawed at the back of her mind as she tried her hardest to stay strong on her own. As Kiiro hid, she could feel her legs tremble as her lower lip quaked, her eyes threatening to spill tears as the thought seeped into her mind.
"Please don't leave me alone." She thought.
As Grimm Slayer rushed through the dense wood, he didn't have to wait long to commence his battle as Grimm started leaping out from the treelines with their mouths wide open, ready to snap their jaws shut on their unsuspecting victim.
What they got, however, was a sawn-off double barrelled shotgun forcefully shoved into their throats before the owner pulled one of the two triggers, making the grimm's white bone armor scatter everywhere along with the mysterious black substance as what remained of its quickly dissipating cadaver thudded against the dry grass.
Grimm Slayer barrelled ahead, the sound of his shotgun rang out through the wood as bodies began piling up more and more. With his offhand, he ran his blade into the open maw of a leaping beowolf, before quickly turning around drawing his sawn-off on another of the charging canine-like beasts.
With a pull of the trigger marked two, a nasty slash to the throat marked his third, another beowolf overstretched and stumbled onto the grass, and with a heavy boot to the cranium marked his fourth. A swift decapitation marked his fifth, and with another pull of the trigger, marked his sixth. After his sixth kill, he deemed it unnecessary to use any more of his ammo and opted to use his sword. He felt no need for such measures, preferring to keep the rest of his shells on hand should the situation deteriorate.
There was no hesitation in his actions, only proficient brutality as he decapitated beowolves, stabbed them through the throat, stomped on their heads when they were on the ground, ripped their spiky bone armor off their backs to stab them with, no action was wasted as the Grimm Slayer carved his way through the dangerous path, the only thing that showed he had ever been there were the few spent shells that he left.
As he stormed ahead towards the center of the howling, the sounds of more screaming and clashing steel sounding the clearest it had ever been, an Ursa barrelled towards him from the dense thicket. The beast roared as it charged, and once it was upon him, it took its massive paw and swiped at him, to which the Slayer ducked beneath it, quickly jamming his blade into its chest area, and with a hard pull, opened a massive wound as pools of dark and thick liquid poured out of the massive beast. Grimm Slayer harshly yanked the blade from its chest and heard it whimper as it crashed against the grass beneath them, stomping on its head with his left boot, resounding in a deafening crunch as it began to disappear.
After he mercilessly gutted the Ursa, Grimm Slayer rushed further into the forest until he was out into a clearing, where he saw an abandoned warehouse.
It seemed the Grimm had been piling up along the warehouse's walls, and when he looked up to see what had riled them so much, he saw a young boy barely fending off a Nevermore with a half broken short sword while the Grimm below were slowly climbing their way up.
He reached into his bag and shortly after pulled out a handful of firecrackers. Grimm Slayer had come to recognize their usefulness over the years, they were great tools to distract and gain the attention of Grimm with. It may not attract all of them at once, but it would divert attention from the boy.
Grimm Slayer then lit the fuse, but instead of throwing it, he simply let them fall to his feet, and as the sounds of popping firecrackers filled the air, he watched as a tide of black fur and stark white plate turned to face him, the sight of burning red eyes ingrained itself into his mind, his breathing grew faster as his hand tightened that much more around the grip of his blade.
He watched as perhaps half of the horde began to charge towards him, and it was in this moment that he cooly reached for his sawn-off and raised it to the sky, his teeth clenched as he began to march ahead with heavy steps, loading two new shells.
This would do.
He did not wait for them, as he threw himself at the first Grimm that was closest to him, shoving the sword into its skull with a sickening crunch and roughly taking it out.
The horde seemed to pause as they watched the armored figure throw himself at the first grimm he saw like a wild animal, but quickly resumed their stampede as they watched the armored man steam ahead with his bloody blade.
As he met with his hated enemy, Grimm Slayer began his carnage. With his blade in hand, and as his eyes glazed over, his body began to burn up as he used his sword to slice, stab, puncture, tear, maim, to destroy whatever stood in his way. A beowolf lashed out a claw at him, so he dodged beneath it and jammed his blade into its throat. Another made way to tear at his arm, so he kicked its knee out of its socket and watched as it fell to the ground, yanking his blade from the throat of one and jamming it into the back of the other.
As an Ursa barrelled towards him, it stood on its two hind legs with the intent to crush him, and Grimm Slayer threw his weight into the Ursa, knocking it off balance and onto its back, plunging his blade into its stomach as he used his shotgun to fire a cluster of pellets into a small group of beowolves rushing him.
With every movement he made, he felt himself begin to slow down, with every successful kill, a beowolf would scratch at his armor, go for his helmet, only for him to fell that beast too.
But because of this reckless way of fighting, his armor became highly dented and in some parts it was completely gauged open with visible claw marks, but it didn't stop him as he ignored it and kept on going.
And so, their numbers had quickly began to dwindle, none of the Grimm could match this single man's ferocity, as they saw their numbers decreasing rapidly. Sensing their fast losses in numbers, the Grimm that had stayed behind to harass the boy decided that the armored being took more precedence, and rushed off to help their pack.
Noticing the Grimm turn their back on the boy, Grimm Slayer withdrew from a pouch on his belt a flash bomb and threw it towards what remained of the horde in an effort to disorient them. It was clear this was a battle that they could not approach head-on. This man had full control of the battlefield, and he would be damned if he did not utilize it to its fullest potential.
The once powerful horde of many was quickly being reduced to few, as the beowolves and few Ursa that were left were clawing at their ears to stop that abhorrent ringing, trying their hardest to shield their eyes, only for the sound of clanking metal to become louder as they felt steel embed itself into them, one after another, whine after whine, thud after thud. Many became few, and few became one tiny, insignificant beowolf.
Grimm Slayer was slowly walking to it, his sword ready to plunge into the creature, ending its life. But before he got close enough, a single arrow had lodged itself inside the beowolf's head, killing it instantly, "Fuck, I missed! Wait, nevermind, I still hit something!" The boy from atop the old warehouse exclaimed, the sight of several nevermore corpses riddled the rooftop as the boy used the overgrown foliage to climb down.
With a bit of a stumble, the young man hobled over to the battered armored man, a careless grin resting on his face, an empty quiver against his hip, and a bow nicely resting along his back, "Howdy there, Mister. You, my friend, seem angrier than a Beowolf getting its behind ballista'd. But I 'preciate the help." The boy extended his hand to Grimm Slayer, who simply looked at the hand, then looked back at the stranger, who at this point was getting nervous, as the armored being's unreadable stare felt like his very soul was being looked at, but nonetheless he kept the conversation going.
The young man was dressed in a simple brown tunic, which was worn over a white undershirt, along with blue jeans and a pair of brown rough leather gloves, their color matching that of his heavy work boots. The boy's face was still developing, a mark here, a blemish there, Grimm Slayer thought he could barely be older than seventeen. With eyes as rich as the grass beneath them, the boy stared up at the Slayer, his gloves hand rubbing against his long, unkempt brown hair as he stopped himself from shifting uncontrollably.
"The name's Ranger," the young man, now named Ranger, said, "A native of these here unexplored lands. Gotta admit, never seen someone tear these things a new one like you." The boy then went to retrieve his lodged arrow from the slowly dissipating corpse of the dead Grimm, placing it back in his quiver. With a dagger in hand, he had begun to skin the corpse and occasionally rip out parts of its armor.
"Ooh boy! Now these are in pretty good condition! You wouldn't believe how much some folks are willing to pay for these things." Grimm Slayer watched as the boy kept on talking, seemingly not caring about the boy's enthusiastic remarks. He had finished what he set out to do in the first place, and the boy looked dependable enough. So, without a second thought he left the boy to his own devices and went back to the road to find Kiiro.
Of course, it didn't take him long to find the poor girl shaking like a leaf behind the broken cart he left her in. Having not noticed Grimm Slayer approach, he put his hand on her shoulder, which made her flinch visibly, but otherwise didn't elicit any sound from her. It did however cause her head to turn on a swivel, her eyes the size of dinner plates as they darted all around her.
As Grimm Slayer stared down at her, he slowly spoke, "It is safe now." He wasn't entirely comfortable with children, nor was he informed in what manner it was acceptable to deal with them.
Kiiro, with a shaky breath, quickly wiped away her tears and stood up to follow the armored figure down the road in the hopes of finishing her long trek back to civilization. But before either of the two could say any more, a loud voice had made itself known.
"There ya are! Damn, and here I thought you'd just up and bugged out on me." The sudden voice caught Kiiro off guard, causing her to hide behind Grimm Slayer.
"I tried to." Grimm Slayer replied, causing the boy's eyebrows to shoot up and his lips to twitch, proceeding to laugh it off.
"Ya know, for the strong and silent type, ya sure can crack a joke!" Seeing as the stranger was rather light hearted about talking with Grimm Slayer, Kiiro deemed it safe to come out and greet the person.
"Oh crud, didn't know ya had a little kid with ya. Sorry 'bout that little miss, didn't mean to spook ya none." He kneeled in front of her and reached out for her hand. Kiiro timidly shook the young man's hand. With a smile, Ranger stood up and addressed Grimm Slayer once more.
"Say, I never did catch why y'all'er in these dangerous parts of the forest, and it don't look like the both of y'all are the Grimm hunting type, well, at least for the monetary reasons." To emphasize his point, Ranger bumped his right shoulder up to show his haul to the duo, carrying a bloated brown sack which was slung over his shoulder.
"Oh um, that's because we're trying to find our way to a nearby village, we just happened to be traveling down this road." Kiiro answered the young man, maybe he could point them in the right direction?
"S'that so?" Ranger stroked his chin as he seemed to mull over something, but soon after he had a face of realization and smiled at the group. "Well, I do know of a place that y'all can hunker down in, but I wouldn't call it a village if I were to be honest with ya." Kiiro for her part didn't say anything, but was internally very grateful that there was finally a place they could finally rest properly. Nice food, a warm bed, and some time alone, she couldn't wait.
"That is fine, all we need is shelter, nothing more." Grimm Slayer said, much to the dismay of Kiiro, to which he simply shrugged in acceptance and motioned the two of them to follow. With no other choice, they followed this strange young man off the road and deeper into the dying wood, and into what seemed to be a broken down bunker with a hatch inside of what little remained.
Grimm Slayer wordlessly went up to the hatch and with a bit of effort, managed to pry it open, the sound of creaking rusty metal caused Kiiro's arms to have goosebumps. The hatch revealed a pitch black hole underneath, and after a moment Grimm Slayer jumped in first with sword in hand, shortly after both Ranger and Kiiro made their way down into the hole as well, but they simply took the rusty metal ladder down.
As they were both climbing down, Ranger decided to call out to the armored man, "If yer worried about the Grimm, don't be, the bastards ain't smart enough to get in here, s'why we're using it in the first place!" His voice echoed down the ladder as the two climbed down, with each step down, the ladder creaked and moaned as they laid their weight into it, but there was no reply, making Ranger sigh in resignation.
"Er, sorry about that, he's not known to be much of a listener." Kiiro awkwardly clarified, to which Ranger nodded in acknowledgement.
"Yeah, I can see that, man's more stubborn than a bourbatusk I tell ya." Said stubborn man had now reached the bottom of the ladder, busy scouting out the tunnel that the hatch had led them to, no rock was left unturned as he looked for any sign of activity, Grimm or not.
But after an extensive search, there seemed to be nothing to indicate any hidden danger, so with reluctance Grimm Slayer sheathed his sword, but kept his hand on the pommel, just in case.
The tunnel's walls were lit by candle light and lanterns, the roof was nearly covered in webs as pipes ran down the tunnel's walls. The scent of dust and grime was quickly overshadowed by the smell of lavender- or was it strawberry, maybe it was vanilla? Kiiro couldn't tell, there were so many different smells that it wanted to make her head spin.
As they ventured further into the tunnels, Kiiro couldn't help but notice details about the place that made it feel rather off for a lack of a better word. First with the giant holes on the ground that suddenly started to appear the deeper they went, it just didn't seem natural to her that a tunnel would have various holes leading down into even further depths, an abyss that beckoned to her, to descend into the unknown paths that her morbid curiosity demanded she explore. It was a strong sensation, one that she almost gave into, if it wasn't for something else that took her rapt attention.
The smell, or rather, the lingering smells of things that would come from candles and the like, vanilla, mint, and cinnamon, those were just some of the things she could barely smell, now that they made it farther into the tunnel. Of course, that didn't change the naturally abhorrent smell of the tunnel, what with all the dust and cobwebs.
When she turned around to ask Ranger about the bizarre phenomenon, she grew even more confused when she saw the young man's features suddenly turn into a scowl. "Both of you's, stay here, something don't seem right here."
Ranger made his way to the arching walls of the decrepit tunnel, eventually stopping at a large crack along the wall. Ranger took a peek inside and after a few seconds of silence, he let out a curse.
"Oh you hafta be shittin' me!?" Ranger practically bolted back to Grimm Slayer and Kiiro, who were bemused by Ranger's sudden outburst.
"W-what's going on?" Kiiro asked nervously, to which Ranger proceeded to answer the only way he could.
"We're fucked is what, we gotta high tail on outta here, and fast!" Before Kiiro could prod any further, she felt something moving… Below her?
When she looked down she saw the concrete floor begin to develop cracks, those cracks becoming more numerous by the second, but the poor girl was too shocked to move a muscle.
If it wasn't for Grimm Slayer picking up Kiiro, she would have been torn to shreds by the boney claws that emerged from where she once stood. Once they were at a safe distance, Grimm Slayer put Kiiro down.
"Stay here, do not move under any circumstances." He said as he ran towards the emerging creature. Ranger, fast on the draw, had already taken out his bow and retreated to a safe distance, ready to take potshots at the creature.
But, the creature never did resurface. All it left behind was a malformed crater, and the noise of it's digging. Eventually, even that faded into obscurity.
Where could it have gone? How could it dig so easily through something as hard as concrete!? Those were the questions scrambling about in the mind of the poor girl, but to no one's surprise, no answer came. In a bit of anger, Kiiro bit into her satchel, too afraid to simply let out even a grunt of irritation and risk the mysterious attacker going after her again.
As for Ranger, he was dead focused on the hole the claws emerged from, beads of sweat slowly making their way down his face. Grimm Slayer's reaction was not visible to anyone, nor did his stance betray his seemingly calm and aloof nature.
It was clear as day that only the one encased in metal was ready for any upcoming attack. The less experienced of his two prey was too focused in a place he shouldn't be, while the last of them was too young and afraid to be of much help. She would make a fine snack for later. Truly, this was a battle stacked toward his favor.
For months, he and his brethren had been ousted from their territory, no, their home, with nothing but odors so strong that their noses simply could not take it. It assaulted them in a way they never thought possible, and they could do nothing but to move as far away as they could from their haven. It was something that cost him dearly, his pack, his family, all slaughtered by the same creatures that the wretched witch had tried to force him to work with.
Yes, they were all creatures of darkness. All willing to destroy humanity and its creations, but not him, all he wanted was to dig a home, live his life, and die a peaceful death without doing what he was meant to, to destroy and kill with no remorse. But ironically enough, he was going to do it, to kill a human in cold blood, all in the name of revenge.
But when his claws reached the surface, he felt nothing. It seemed the humans managed to relocate themselves just before his claws emerged. With a grunt, he retreated back into his tunnels. They could only evade him for so long, he would be patient.
After all, he had waited this long, what's another minute or two more?
As he pushed through dirt and rock, breaking through the man-stone, he took another swipe at the human encased in metal. As the beast slashed at the metal man, the metal man had brazenly leaped between the gap in its claws, the sounds of bone scraping against metal was disorienting for everyone in the tunnels, and with a screech, the beast retired back into the hole he made, then he started digging another tunnel. Only for his next attack to miss as well.
"Shit! Bastard's popping up and down like a damn whack-a-mole, and we can't do squat to it!" Ranger cursed out as he hesitantly notched another arrow on his bow, one of the very few left on his quiver. He aimed at the retreating mole-like creature, its dark tufts of fur and bones sparsely jutting out from its back, but before he could let the arrow fly, Grimm Slayer lept into action. Jumping onto the creature's back before it could retreat again, grabbing a hold of one of the large ivory-like bones as he jammed his blade into its back. One, two, three, with each stab, he felt the beast begin to slow down.
The beast didn't take it well, as it started to move around wildly, trying to shake the human off its hide, but it was of no use as it didn't seem to affect the man in the slightest. If anything, it just exacerbated the issue further as the armored being began stabbing him all over his exposed back. The intensity of the stabbing and his sudden decline of energy made the beast panic all the more. With all the strength it could muster, it started flailing even more, occasionally rolling on its back to try and crush the human. It did not work.
"Would ya look at that, the table's been flipped again," Ranger spoke under his breath, his voice full of awe, taking aim at the mole-like beast, "Guess I ain't joining Grandpa Terry just yet." He let the arrow fly, and even with the creature swinging around wildly, it hit the intended target, which ended up being one of the creature's front shoulders.
The screech was bloodcurdling, forcing Ranger and Kiiro to block their ears as they watched this creature tumble to the floor with Grimm Slayer still on its back with his sword embedded into the slain beast. With a forceful yank, he freed the sword from the beast's back, which only managed to get a tired whine out of it.
The battle was finally over, the humans triumphed, and there it laid, battered and barely breathing. All it could really do in these moments was to take deep breaths, trying to cling to even the tiniest sliver of life it could, but for every breath it took, the pain intensified two-fold. Eventually it had to stop as the pain was too unbearable to handle. Yet, even with its imminent death, it did not feel anger, nor any malice towards their would-be killers, as if instinctively its body had already accepted death.
Who knows what thoughts may have gone through the beast's head as the sword of the metal man plunged deeply into its skull, maybe it felt sorrow, maybe anger, or perhaps it felt nothing as the blade bit through its cranium, destroying any thoughts it could have had.
It didn't take long for the body to start dissipating, it took even less for Ranger to start stripping the body of its most valuable parts, and while that was happening, Kiiro was busy patching the Slayer up as best as she could.
"Does this part of your body feel any sort of pain?" She asked as she lightly palpated Grimm Slayer's left arm. He simply shook his head in denial. And after repeating the process on a few more parts of his body, she came to the conclusion that Grimm Slayer had sustained no real damage besides some light scrapes and bruises, something that could be easily remedied by the leftover medicinal ointment she had left in her satchel, along with time.
"Um, there seems to be no major injuries on your person Mr. Grimm Slayer, at worst you have a few cuts here and there." Kiiro meekly told Gtimm Slayer as she quickly rummaged through her satchel, eventually pulling out a small glass vial. "B-But I can treat them with this medicinal ointment and some bandages!"
However, Grimm Slayer simply shook his head, and promptly started to don his battered armor back on, "That is not necessary, my injuries are too light for you to be wasting your medicine." He spoke as he grabbed his sword and shotgun from the wall they were leaning from, putting the both of them away in their sheath and holster respectively.
He motioned for Kiiro to follow, and after packing up her supplies, she did so with jittery steps.
Understandably, the young apothecary did not want to be near the corpse of the now deceased Grimm that tried to tear her apart just a few minutes ago, but she suppressed that fear and approached it with great hesitance.
Without even taking his eyes off the Grimm corpse, Ranger greeted the two, "Well I'll be, the claws on this damn rat s'meant to cut through tough shit like stone and concrete!" He exclaimed as he moved away from a roughly cut-off claw for Grimm Slayer and Kiiro to inspect.
"Gravediggers," Grimm Slayer said as he knelt down to look at the claw, "Abnormal, even by Grimm standards. They keep to themselves and try to avoid humans as much as possible," he then stood up, and hobbled over to the corpse, "So, for it to attack us implies that something aggravated it beforehand." As Grimm Slayer went on to dissect the already stripped body of the dissipating gravedigger, Kiiro, ever the curious one, was watching with morbid curiosity as he carved a slit into the beast's stomach, and then shoved his arm up to the elbow, and moments after he did so, he yanked it out, with a faintly beating black heart in his hands.
Despite the gruesome action, Kiiro didn't feel as disgusted as she thought she would be. Rather, her curiosity and a mix of the adrenaline from the battle suppressed her fear. She continued watching as Grimm Slayer proceeded to squeeze the heart, causing some sort of thick black ichor to start slowly pouring out from the crushed vital organ, the liquid slowly seeped its way into a vial that Grimm Slayer held out, and after filling it up, he put it away, and brought up another empty vial and repeated the process a few more times until the heart was fully drained.
"Uh, I don't want to rush y'all, but I really don't wanna stay here long enough to have another one of these big 'ol rats pop up again." Ranger said as he made his way over to the duo, his brown sack still slung over his shoulder. He even gave Grimm Slayer a brief pat on the shoulder to get his attention. He replied with a curt nod, and stood up. Rather than wait for his two companions, Grimm Slayer continued walking again.
"Damn, that man really likes walking at the beat of his own drum. That's a hell of a guardian ya got there." Ranger spoke with awe as they followed a fair distance behind the Slayer.
"He certainly doesn't feel like one." Kiiro's eyes trailed down, finding the ground beneath them very interesting, her voice faint and every second word cracking. Whether it was from the dehydration, or the adrenaline coming down, she couldn't tell.
"True, if anything he looks and acts like a man that came straight outta hell." Ranger shrugged as he strided alongside Kiiro, keeping his steps short enough for her to stay alongside him.
"... I wouldn't be surprised if he was." The tiredness in her voice was clear for Ranger to hear.
"Cheer up Missie, once we get on out of here, I'll talk to a friend of mine that owns a cushy little Inn in Sherwood, tell her to save a spot for the both of ya." Ranger smiled at Kiiro, giving her a small thumbs up in reassurance.
Kiiro looked up at him with wide eyes, her breath shaky and her arms trembling, and as she tried to smile, tears threatened to break out from the corners of her eyes. She tried, Lord knows she tried to keep herself together, but she couldn't stop the tears from falling no matter how much she wipes them away. She then threw herself at Ranger's waist, wrapping her arms around him as she sobbed into his tunic.
Ranger was taken aback at this, but he gently smiled as he rubbed her back, letting her cry into his tunic as he felt the cold, wet spot on his shirt grow.
"Well, you been through a lot, now haven'tcha, Missie?" He spoke softly, and he heard her sob that much harder after asking. He couldn't understand what she had gone through in the past few days. In that short span of time, she had watched her home go up in flames, her family was mauled by Grimm, and all the people she had grown up around torn apart, and to hear that there was a light at the end of the tunnel made her break down in relief.
It took her at least a minute to regain her composure before she broke away from the hug, rubbing the tears away as she muttered a quiet apology.
"How about we go and catch up to your armored pal?" And with a quick nod, the two of them quickly caught up with Grimm Slayer, who was still marching through the tunnel at a subdued pace.
And with everything being said and done, the group had fallen back into a silent march, no words were spoken as the trio were more busy looking out for another surprise attack. But to their surprise, no attack ever came.
And to make matters even better, "I-It's the exit! Look, we finally reached the exit!" Kiiro's eyes suddenly swelled with life once more as she sprinted to and climbed up a rusty ladder leading to a manhole cover. But try as she might, she couldn't lift the darned thing. Luckily Ranger was there to help, as he made his way up the ladder as well and moved the manhole cover for her.
With no time to waste, she scurried out of the hole and was practically ready to start running in circles. She was out, she was finally free from the damp and scary place that was the tunnel that she was stuck in and it was the happiest she has ever been. But as much as she wanted to simply start running and relish the freedom of the surface, there was something blocking her way. A better way to put it would be, there was a wall obstructing her path.
The wall was a crude yet sturdy construction of logs stacked along one another, towers went along corners of the wall, and the sight of people patrolling along the palisade was a sight that Kiiro was happy to see. The men that patrolled the wall all wore a different style of dress, each of them holding a different kind of weapon. Some held old hunting rifles, others held with them weapons from the Great War period, and there was one who held a pump-action shotgun as he leaned against the edge of the wall, a lit cigarette held between two of his fingers.
A chuckle came from behind Kiiro, and when she turned around, she saw Ranger and Grimm Slayer approaching her.
"Y'all see that giant ass wall made of tree trunks? Well, that's the wall that protects Sherwood from all the Grimm that harass the poor bastards inside, but I'll save all the boring talk for later, c'mon, it's not long 'till we reach the gates!" Ranger exclaimed as he started running towards the wall, with both Grimm Slayer and Kiiro following closely behind.
It seems that the duo will finally be able to catch a break.
Merry christmas ya filthy animals.