Rogue Huntsman
Hydra
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We found Arex sleeping in her room, curled up beneath the blanket of her bed in the afternoon light of day. I was well aware of her early morning escapades, considering I got back when she was leaving the room.
She looked startled then… she looked peaceful now. She seemed to finally be getting a wink of sleep over however long she's spent in perpetual turmoil with her inner demons.
I let Anoel wake her up as I made my way over to Kitsuki. She was reading one of the textbooks. I couldn't care which considering I memorized them all before returning them.
"Feel free to sit this one out," I said, stepping my way between the beds and brushing the curtain of our window aside, "You don't want to face this thing."
"What thing?" I felt her ask, but her response was as predictable as the sunset.
"When you feel Beacon begin to shake and its towers shudder, you can make your decision then," I responded, not really needing to look toward her sign language. I could feel her responses either way.
"I… don't understand. What are you talking about?"
I didn't respond, my eyes just watched the horizon and the forest beyond our school's ridge. The trees were swaying unnaturally, acting as a flooding wake in a pool of water behind a beast beneath its surface.
18 minutes until arrival.
I closed the curtain and turned, "It's better off you don't understand what I'm talking about. Just know this thing can kill every student here if it's underestimated."
My eyes turned to see how Anoel was faring and saw her straddling Arex's waist under the covers, slowly turning the girl onto her back to make her sitting position a little more comfortable. If Arex wasn't awake… she would be in the next few seconds.
I didn't stick around to see any more. Anoel already knew what Arex had been requested to do. I needed to be the welcoming party for the Drakian Hydra. If it started tearing into Beacon's walls without much warning, I'd have to expend the energy to repair what was broken.
I'd rather just snap this thing's necks if it so much as reached for a single loose stone littering the walls of this Academy.
At least that way I'd have a little fun.
My fun was ruined when I got a message from Ozpin saying I couldn't take part in killing the Hydra.
Fine, but I'd be leaving an unknown threat for everyone else to face. Maybe, that way, someone would actually die. I'd get my fun somehow, even a moment of it… Ozpin can't stop me from at least doing that.
The fear of the unknown was the worst fear of them all. Pit a man against an army he knows, and he'll show no fear in his suicidal advance to decimate all opposing forces in his wake. Pit a man before a single enemy of unknown origin, unknown aptitude, unknown appearance, and unknown size…
And you send a lamb to the slaughter.
Preparation, anticipation, planning, tactical integration, it all requires prior knowledge of a situation before its happening.
Nothing was more dangerous than unpredictability.
If you can't see it coming, then it's the most dangerous thing in the world to go against. It's the unknown that strikes us where we can't see… the veiled that leaves us in the shadows…
The hidden that kill us the moment we try to conceive its existence… or the moments where we don't.
Kitsuki will stay put because she's afraid.
She knows nothing of what's coming, nobody does. That's what gave me the greatest advantage of them all.
The wind reeked of upturned remnant, accompanied by splintered roots and crumbling dirt. All Dremoha were born and bred with an element… this creature was covered by a thick pungent wave of sea water and humid gases.
It was a byproduct of the sea in name and in appearance, and it was 40 meters out past the immediate tree line before me.
Beneath me spanned a rocky outcrop, nothing but a cliff separating this creature from my boots. Behind me spanned the entirety of Beacon Academy, glinting beneath the light of the evening sun as I stood there in silence.
A silence stifled by the cracking of trunks and the shuddering of trees… broken by the sound of timber cascading and plummeting to the forest floor in heavy crashes of groaning forestry.
This thing sought me out, of all people, it sought me out. It was after the negativity exuding from my skin like a nuclear reactor, radiating from my aura in a permanent glow.
It wanted nothing more than to kill me, to lure itself to the presence of my being and sate its bloodied cravings for darkness and dread. It was among the second to most powerful Grimm in existence…
And it was rushing to its death.
"A-anoel, stop pushing."
Arex's voice graced the wind from behind me and around the corner of a building, her presence only growing nearer as I flexed my gloved hand.
It was nearly time.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop. You have your sword?" Anoel took Arex by the shoulders and turned her around as they walked, checking her back and her waist and finding the forger's weapon attached to the former.
"O-of course, just… what are we doing out here?" Arex reached over her right shoulder just to reaffirm herself of her weapon's presence, gripping at its handle before letting it go.
"It's your initiation, of course!" Ano exclaimed, skipping in my direction as I felt her speed accelerate.
I side-stepped her approach, not really needing to look her way at all to gauge any sort of reactionary response. She slipped past me and nearly tripped over the cliff side, but her balance was staggeringly unparalleled…
Only resulting with a soft click of rocks descending down the outcrop below as she turned and pouted at me.
"Niro! I just wanted a hug!"
"Your hugs are lethal," I muttered, turning to see Arex walk up to us in a confused demeanor. The fact that she had just woken up was evident in her eyes and flushed cheeks, but her hair still seemed soft and well-managed.
Probably Anoel's doing.
"That's why I like to hug you! You can survive them," Anoel continued, making another reach for me, only to grasp at air.
I stood atop Beacon's wall, standing near one of its towers as my boots stood upon the thin stones.
"That's no excuse to hug me in the first place," I spoke lowly, glancing down to see Anoel pout a little more… before turning and snatching Arex into a heated hug of pure affinity.
The poor girl was the only other person who could survive such a capture.
Well, one of those hugs anyway.
The trees in the distance suddenly leaned and toppled, crushed downward under the approaching mass of black scales and glistening hide.
I guess it was here, but it took its sweet time doing so.
I placed my hand on the tower beside me, Ahrulian's fabric bursting in a glowing lime green light as the entirety of Beacon's masonry shined in a crystalline hum. Three pulses were all it needed of my aura, bathing the school in a brief flash of a shining overlay before it faded into a soft shimmer.
The light of the sun reflected off the surface of the school now, basking the forest before us in a suddenly brighter glow as I stepped down, impacting the ground below and moving my way forward.
It would take an amplified orbital bombardment thirty tries to put a dent in that shield I just gave the school's entire structure… and all it took was a small fraction of my aura.
If anyone else tried… they'd sacrifice their life to build up even half of what I just did, and that's with 90 years of training in aura-proficiency.
I learned that trick when I was 7.
"Is that… what I think it is?" Arex asked, drawing her blade from over her shoulder as she enwreathed it in a gushing blaze of orange fire.
"It's a Drakian Hydra honey, and you have to kill it," Anoel explained, taking a step back as she placed her hands behind her neck, "Ozpin's watching, so make sure to put on a show."
"A show, huh?" Arex asked, lowering the tip of her weapon to her side as she turned toward us, "I never liked it when others watch, still don't."
"You'll do great!" Anoel gave the girl two thumbs up and a proud smile as our grave and dangerous threat loomed closer with overaggressive, reptilian strides.
It was hardly worth noting that it had 9 heads let alone towered 22 stories high. Those facts were meaningless. What mattered was that it easily reached us atop this cliff's ridge, reaching even higher than that with ease as it stretched and craned its necks.
Its skin gleamed in the light, dripping with water it exuded naturally as it swept its way across the forest below. All of its eyes streaked in a solid red hue, draining the life around it as it took the atmosphere of Beacon's grounds and staunched it in a stifling blanket of tension.
Four legs roamed forward as its elongated, jagged tail split the ground and slithered behind it. Its body was draconic in its entirety, its heads moreso than any other part of its anatomy.
This thing had an affinity to water… a direct contrast to Arex's affinity. Even moreso, it was one of the elemental counters that clashed with fire in the strongest possible way.
While, fire against water… was a weak altercation at best.
Arex had her work cut out for her in a setting like this. My only job was to lay the groundwork and set up her arena.
The school was at no risk of being touched.
"Arex," I said, catching her attention after a moment's gaze at her opponent, "Fire will be your only way to kill this thing."
"How am I supposed to get through its water though? It's a counter to my own affinity," she responded, quickly turning her gaze to the Hydra as it pushed its way closer to the base of the cliff before us.
Its eyes locked onto my position as if I was the only thing standing between it and a feast that could satisfy its cravings for eternity.
"Its scales and everything inside it are weak to fire if you can break through its sheen of water," I replied, crouching down to the ground as I took a stone from the dirt at my feet.
"But effectively useless if I can't," she sighed, analyzing her target with her eyes.
"I can fix that," I stated, standing back up as I lightly tossed the stone into the air. It was roughly the size of a golf ball, fitting snugly into my fabric-clad palm as I let it fall into Ahrulian's grasp.
"How? It's not like you're going to take away its water or boost my fire, not like you wanted to anyway," Arex retaliated, grabbing her arm as she turned away from me.
Like hell I'd ever do that.
"No, but this thing's too stupid and powerless to stop me from doing this," I tossed the stone one more time and waited another second, watching as the Hydra finally reached the cliff's base and reared its heads back.
Its front claws dug into the cliff's face, eyes all targeting me as it took in a nasty breath of my air, gulping it all down as a bright blue glow suddenly festered in the opening maws of this titan-sized grimm before us.
Each and every head nursed a growing light, eyes narrowing as its heads reared back further…
"Good luck, Arex," I growled, caught the stone… then flicked the solid pebble at the creature's chest.
Our ears were suddenly wracked by the harsh, crashing concussive feedback of the stone breaking the sound barrier. Dirt and air around us suddenly kicked back in its immediate whiplash, blasting away any stray pieces of debris littering the ground around me.
The stone whipped forward and punctured the creature's chest cavity, punching straight through one of its supposedly unbreakable ribs and digging its way to its heart in a single moment of its beating muscle.
Each of the lights before us suddenly faded as its maws slammed shut, a burning whimper rushing its way through its necks as its body crumpled forward from the force of the impact…
All of its weight now forced to its shaking hind legs.
The aura I slipped into the stone burst from within the creature's body before it could regenerate, blazing in a hot embrace before strands snaked out and wrapped around the creature's heart… cracking its hard exterior and nearly shattering it from within.
The core of a Hydra was the only thing keeping it alive and regenerating. The only other method was to burn the flesh of its necks after hacking off its heads, stopping them from regrowing.
This… gave Arex all she needed to fight this thing on even ground.
"A child can kill this thing now," I stated, turning around as the creature fell forward, slamming into the cliffside as it choked on its own spurting, toxic blood, "I expect you to be no different."
It was a colorful lie considering I just enraged it. Not even an army could take out a Hydra in its final throws of its dying breath.
Everything about it amplified in the moments of its own destruction.
If Arex couldn't face this thing alone, then she didn't deserve to be on my team in the first place.
She has every opportunity to impress… but every opportunity to fail. Either way, I didn't need to be here anymore.
So… I left and found my way to the cafeteria as the entirety of Beacon's grounds shook beneath the pained, vengeful wail of a lizard I threw a rock at.
Luck wasn't what Arex needed.
Arex suddenly kicked back as soon as Niro left, throwing herself away from the creature before her as it slammed one of its many heads into the dirt she once stood upon. Its head was harder than iron… the ground stood no chance as its maw crushed it into a crater.
I'll… I'll kill him! Arex growled, rolling to her feet as she took off in a hastened dash to avoid a geyser of razor-blasting, boiling water. It was a torrent that could easily melt through a mountainside…
But all it did was crash harmlessly against the shining masonry behind her and flow away from the school's walls.
She grumbled as she leaped over a second sweeping torrent of water, tucking into a roll as soon as she landed to slide beneath a third.
She knew what Niro was doing… but she couldn't do anything to stop him from doing it. Literally helpless before his actions to piss this thing off.
Her only saving grace was that the Hydra was basically half-dead.
That was her only saving grace.
She gave her hair a shake as she glared up at Beacon's high wall, seeing Anoel sitting on top of it with her legs crossed.
The info-broker gave her a calm wave as Arex dug her sneakers into the dirt and changed direction, saving herself from a world of hurt that suddenly impacted the ground before her.
The Hydra seemed to like throwing its head into things… maybe it was to help build the fact that it was a rampaging menace.
She had enough of it.
Arex's sweater suddenly fluttered and pushed outward as the slits sewn into its back were brushed by a flash of something black. Not a second had the opportunity to pass before two slender, sleek black wings slipped out of the back of her light sweater.
Her feathers immediately shot out and stretched to full wingspan, both wings extending past 8 feet in length individually as she ran up the wall in front of her.
"Throw yourself into this you mutated snake," she growled, running up masonry as not one- not even two- but four of its heads bashed into the stone wall as she dodged from side to side.
Those very heads caved in on themselves and gushed with black, acidic blood… only for that blood to seep harmlessly down Niro's glowing green shield.
That was the only good thing Niro did recently.
Arex immediately capitalized and reached the apex of her run, turning at the peak of the wall beneath her feet and slowing to a gravitational limbo…
Before using her wings to capture the air and surge her downward, emblazoning her weapon in an overwhelming amount of fire as she slashed passed the heads crushed against the wall and cleaved through every single one of the four.
Cauterizing the wounds in the process.
Five active heads remained while those four were stunted of their regeneration.
Arex let those necks recede and fall limply against the creature's body, landing softly onto the ground below as she flexed her wings.
She was tired, she was hungry, and she definitely didn't want to be here of all places… fighting against a Drakian Hydra.
Oh sure, it'll secure her place on team ELA, but she wasn't even sure if she wanted to be on their team anyway. Part of her wanted to, but that very same part of her pissed her off in the process.
She gave an aggravated swipe of her blade, spewing flames everywhere as she audibly growled… then took a breath.
Focus now, take it out on them later. Her moment of reasoning was the only reason why she was suddenly able to throw herself out of the way of a combined triple torrent of blasting water.
"Where the hell is everybody anyway?! The school's under attack!" she called out, voice laced with annoyance as she took a dive to the side and flew into the air.
"They're on their way, honey! So be a dear and kill this thing fast, okay?!" Anoel called up to her with cupped hands, watching Arex's frame disappear into the clouds, "You can do it!"
"I don't want to!" Arex called back before exiting earshot range.
Arex cleared the space between the cliff and the clouds in seconds, pushing herself even higher beyond that point even easier as her speed increased exponentially. Her wings helped her climb higher and higher before reaching the point she wanted to ascend to.
Then she killed all her momentum in a single, off-beat flap of her wings… throwing speed and air away in front of her as she closed her eyes.
She sensed something from Ruby earlier… something that explained the smaller girl's jitters.
Her mind had adapted to accommodate a shift in the perception of time, only working to accelerate its thinking processes and confusing the owner as a result. Ruby was the kind of person to find focusing on something boring to be an impossible task…
Especially if her attention span was running as rampant as her body and muscles.
There… that was it.
Speed.
Something inside of Arex clicked as her eyes opened, the sky falling away before her as she slowly turned herself around.
Her irises shined beneath a sheen of her own aura as they melted into pools of bright silver, matching Ruby Rose's eye color exactly as her momentum multiplied itself thirtyfold.
Terminal velocity was non-existent as the sound barrier shattered, emitting a shockwave that dispersed every cloud in the area as Arex descended in a streak of bright red light and fluttering rose petals.
The air resistance only provided her sword more friction to increase in heat, smoldering its hearth beyond the melting point of steel as she crashed back down to Remnant in a blaze of blinding light.
A distant, homing whistle was all the creature heard before its legs were crushed beneath a sudden downward force slamming into the base of its necks. Its red eyes bulged for a moment as hot steel melted through almost all of them, stopping after severing three trunks of scale and flesh.
One of the trunks was already headless while the other two weren't. All three suddenly fell limply to the ground below with sickening thuds on the forest floor, covering it in splatters of acid.
Three active heads left.
"That was awesome, Arex!" Anoel called out, the tip of a bright orange foam finger blazing with fire as she waved it back and forth. She seemed content to just spectate.
The info-broker watched as Arex stood up with shaky legs, wings hanging loosely at her sides as the grip on her blade loosened. Her fire was dulling, and from this distance, Anoel could sense Arex's aura quickly draining.
She frowned at that. So, this is the extent of her affinity and semblance in tandem… we need to work on that.
Arex was draining her energy far too quickly for her liking, and Anoel noticed the Hydra recovering faster than the girl on its back.
The disorientation from the fall kept any hope of balance as far away from Arex's mind as possible as the mass of black rocked forward, throwing Arex from its hide before it swung its remaining three heads back…
And slammed them into her.
The impact sent out an audible crack as Arex's body was hurled into the ground, slamming into the dirt atop the cliff as she bounced and rolled. Black wings cradled an already frail body as the girl skidded to a stop, lightly bumping into the base of the wall beneath Anoel.
She wasn't moving…
The Hydra took every advantage it could get as all three remaining heads tipped back and festered a bright blue glow. Each throat began to steam, billowing white mist for only a few moments before they tipped forward and pushed together.
Three torrents of scorching water burst from their maws as each blast swirled together into a twisting, surging geyser.
"Duty calls," Anoel sighed, slipping from the wall she sat upon as she fell toward the ground below.
An identical set of wings slipped from the confines of her jacket, only staying out just long enough to instantly propel her beyond terminal velocity.
Each expanse of slender feathers disappeared back beneath her jacket as she crashed into the ground below, fingertips digging into the dirt as she lowered into a forceful crouch.
"Let me show you what you're missing, Arex," she muttered, her angered red eyes brimming with fire as her pupils burned like embers in the night.
Flames flickered from her irises as the combined blast of water drew nearer… only to suddenly waver and evaporate as the temperature around Anoel surged.
A sea of fire suddenly erupted from Anoel's aura and flooded outward like an emerging ocean of orange light, crashing against walls and towers and overflowing from the cliff's ridge across the entire expanse of the school's borders they stood upon.
Every stream of flame suddenly pulled inward as Anoel stood up, all of it redirecting themselves upon the creature against the cliffside in an overbearing tidal wave of matter reducing heat.
In seconds, the Drakian Hydra was forced to its knees and thrown back, toppling over into the forest below as a blazing sky descended upon its exposed hide… scorching it beyond regeneration and cracking every scale covering its body.
Every breath was choked on, its eyes long since incinerated, and its body no longer harder than steel… but more brittle than the dry branches of a burning bush.
It was only a matter of time before it died.
So, Anoel left it like that, whimpering beneath the throws of its own pain as she let her flames die out. The light in her irises faded, what was once red now quickly turned into a concerned dark blue as she made her way over to Arex's curled form and kneeled before her.
She finally recognized an alarm blaring from somewhere behind the wall… now that she was closer to it.
She was also faintly aware of the cascade of footfalls behind her, several more descending from the wall above her as she sensed the presence of students finally arriving on scene.
She'd leave the Hydra to them.
For now, she took Arex into her arms and disappeared into the Academy, letting students pass her by as they rushed to defend their school.
I pushed my way into the cafeteria, the alarms not blaring yet for some reason. Ozpin was probably biding his time with actually setting them off to see Arex's independent skills.
He was willing to go that far just to test us, to test my team…
I couldn't tell if he was a strategic genius or an ignorant madman. Either way, there were still students in here mingling about during their moments of downtime. Some were eating, most were talking.
That was usually how it went.
At least a few of them actually sensed what was going on, considering a girl with scarlet hair was busily, and demandingly, dragging a reluctant boy in a purple beanie in the direction of the Drakian Hydra outside.
I was surprised the collar of his jacket didn't rip with how quickly she charged down the hall, dragging him by the edges of his canvas shoes for most of the way.
Great, who let a ticking time bomb and a wannabe into Beacon Academy? She was volatile… heart-wrenchingly so. The girl's aura fluctuated between a calm repression and a ravaging storm, something only the truly brave or the truly suicidal would go up against.
All in that short, petite body of hers…
Her partner must have wanted to kill himself to save most of his sanity.
Either way, they were the first on call, it seemed. I'll give them a little props, considering they were the first people I've seen that actually sensed what was going on.
I sat myself down at a corner table, back to the windows as I pulled out my scroll. Over time, more and more students began to file out of the cafeteria in varying degrees of rushes and jogs. Finally, someone had the decency to run back and yell to the rest of the occupants of what was occurring outside the walls.
That got everyone moving.
The cafeteria emptied itself in seconds as every student disappeared down the hallway, leaving it devoid of life… save for me.
That was how I preferred it.
The sound of Jaune Arc slamming unceremoniously into the window behind me didn't deter me from playing my game. Not even the pathetic sound of his whimpers as he slid down the pane of glass brought my attention.
He must have been thrown pretty far… considering the Hydra was over 70 meters away.
I was more impressed with the glass, considering it didn't break beneath his hard, stupid head.
Did I downplay a Dremoha? Maybe, but it was definitely dangerous, lethal, and destructive. Niro's just… well… Niro.
It stood no chance, even when he wasn't there.
I hope Arex is okay, though. She's not very durable, so taking a hit like that should never happen. She can't take those.
Sheesh, here I am trying to write for Flame and out comes another chapter for RH. Gah, I forget what motivation feels like sometimes... it's so fleeting these days. I need to find a way to motivate myself to write for my main story now, this one always feels so easy.
I blame RWBY and the fact it didn't release a real episode recently, only a World of Remnant informational blurb about... something. I haven't actually watched it yet.
For now, Favorite and Follow.
I look forward to seeing REVIEWS for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.
Cya XP