Chapter 6- One strike is all you need.
In Gort's past life, he was known for being quite a strong fighter before being a detective or teacher, he studied a type of martial arts at a fighting school that utilised his aura output to deliver the strongest of blows without needing a weapon that were effective against both Grimm and humans, that was the beginning to his early day fame.
His aura was quite exceptional among his class, he had more than many had at the time, he was able to strike harder and faster than all the others with his semblance helping him predict where his opponents would strike next or their next move.
He would often have the upper hand in a fight, he was proud of his strength, but others grew jealous of him and talked behind his back, wanting to beat him in a fight no matter what after being shown up many, many times in practice fights, even trying to ambush him during his walks home but that only lead to failure where he did his famous one strike take down.
Until one day, they changed their focus and targeted one of Gort's loved ones, his mother, they broke into her house, thinking she was a strong fighter too and had been secretly training the man and left her on the floor with a fractured skull and multiple bruising on her body and having to be hospitalised for a long time while she recovered.
This drove the young man to action and he used his semblance for another purpose and lead an investigation on his own while the police did their own thing, in the end being able to trace it back since his enhanced sight meant that not only can Gort predict movement but he can also see things in much finer detail than most, he used that to find evidence of the break in with belongings that traced back to the few that hated him.
From that incident he decided it was best to change his ways and become a detective for a few years with being assigned to a variety of tasks, from search and rescue to solving murder cases but he never showed his real strength to others in fear he would spark that jealousy and recreate a similar incident so instead he wielded a weapon to hide what he specialises in.
Now with a wife and child, he only aims to train his family in a way so that they can defend themselves while passing on his true techniques onto his only son Shun to help him become the best huntsman there is.
Although right now at this moment, it was different, it was a life and death moment with no need to hold back, it was kill or be killed, he wanted to return home to see his family and sit down with a cup of tea after a day of hard work.
Stood in the circus, outnumbered, he has to fight his way to freedom, his heart beating with the burning passion to go all out.
He bent his knees forward and leaped over to his first opponent, planting his left foot into the ground, forcing himself to a stop as he thrusted his right fist into the corpse, blasting her away with a red aura burst, his eyes flicking over to his nearest opponent and his body following along, swivelling around as he got in a left aura punch into the corpse, repeating his last move.
Another female corpse with a metal pipe in her hand limply ran over and swung at the professor but Gort already saw though it, effortlessly knocking the pipe away with the back of his hand and driving his foot into her stomach for a powerful aura kick, Gort then went ahead to single handily punch, chop and throw the next few corpses than ran at him blindly while Maven sat on the wire, focusing on Gort's movements, analysing how he's moving.
The professor didn't pay attention to him as he was busy with the corpses as they don't seem to respond to pain if they feel any so with a blow that would normally cripple someone, they would get back up, even if their limbs are broken and bent, they wouldn't give up, there's even one with their head completely twisted around that's clumsily running around.
"No how many go to him, he won't stop, he predicts their attacks, future sight? No, he'd know what I'm planning by then, instinct? No, he moves to coordinated for that, must be combat experience, a fighter…hmmm troublesome." Maven was pondering over what Gort's semblance could be and how to fight him, using his "puppets" as decoys to figure out.
"Puppets keep fighting, fakes should be broken anyway, now, now how do I fight this one? His eyes work well, too well, his curse must be to let him slow down the world around him, a truly troublesome curse, only fought few with that." By "curse" Maven meant Gort's semblance, he never had a grasp of what a semblance was but often referred to them as a Curse.
While this battle goes on, Maven's mind reverts back to the past when he was all alone, with a different body of a man with a large build and seemed to be in his 50's with grey facial hair but bald, wearing dirty green cargo pants and a torn grey shirt.
He confronted a man who was smooth with the sword, a simple double sided one with gems on the hilt as he was able to cut through leaves in a forest, he was the definition of elegant but Maven specifically remembered how fast he was and how easily he lost to the man, his last thought was the tip of his blade going into his throat before snapping back into reality, wobbling on the wire but just about managed to regain his balance.
"That's how I fight him, speed, speed, speed, something he can't dodge, even if he can see it, his body be too slow, bodies have limited reactions speed is key." The ringleader giggled to himself with a sinister tone as he leaped from his wire and started swinging around the tent, clipping his wires on beams and around pieces of equipment while Gort was busy with the corpses, Maven was being particularly careful that Gort wouldn't notice him, using the shadows as best he could as he set his sneaky trap.
"I think I got my rhythm back." Gort smirked to himself, his form looking much more refined than earlier, when he delivered his next wild blow, it was so powerful it blasted a hole right through the corpses body with a huge shockwave bursting from behind it, enough to shake the surrounding environment, the professor was back in his zone, almost like he was losing his mind when he turned to the next attacking corpse and struck her head with enough force to make it fly straight off her body with little to no resistance.
Although Gort let his cockiness get to him when the only male corpse brought his fist down on him but the professor luckily blocked it but was now in a deadlock with him while the other females jumped onto his legs and tried to pin him down, Gort now cursing his luck and now noticed the wires around the circus, realising that what he was fighting was purely bait.
The trapped professor managed to shake one of his legs loose and kicked the male's shin with an aura burst from his knee, forcing him to collapse, now low enough to get his face blown off by one of Gort's famous punches, managing to set himself free from the corpses grasp and looked around for Maven, finding him sat in the darkness, things were looking fine till…
"Silence"
"Darkness"
"Lonely"
"Heart"
"Mary"
"Beloved"
"Love"
Maven chanted from above, knives in hand and his pitch-black aura shadowing over him as he leaped at great speeds in one direction onto another wire that launched him at Gort, their clashing of weapons and gloves sending sparks through the air but the freaky ringleader wasn't done yet.
"Christopher Marionet!" The ringleader yelled out while carrying out his succession of attacks, each being parried or dodged by the professor.
Gort grew tired of his tricks and waited for one more strike and timed it when he stepped aside to narrowly dodge the blades this time brought his fist down in the middle of Maven's back, bringing him down to the ground with astonishing force, send a shock through the earth, disturbing the earth and the fabric throughout the whole tent, shattering Maven's aura like tearing through paper as Maven gasped out all of his air in his lungs and fell.
"That should take care of it." Gort adjusted his gloves, looking at the other corpses, noticing they were still moving but kept their distance.
"Complete." Maven smiled a huge grin from where he laid although he coughed up a little blood, the impact seemed to have had a toll on his body, the wires snapped from his body, with creaking and wires breaking being heard throughout the whole tent, instantly putting Gort on guard as he quickly looked around to find what's happening.
"You bastard, what did you do?!" Gort asked angrily but before he could listen, he noticed a wire flying at him at speeds faster than his body could react but he could see it coming as it flew onto his body, tangling around his legs, joined by other wires doing the same thing around his arms and waist, Gort tried evading the others but it was a useless effort as he kept being slowed down further and further until he could not move any more while completely trapped by the wires.
"Ahahaha…. AHEHEHEHEHEHEEEE, Fell fooooooooor it!" The wicked Maven rose up and snapped his neck sideward at the professor with his large grin, proud of his little trap as he laughed and screeched in his triumph but keeled over slightly with a cough, the blow from earlier still affecting his body.
"Christopher Marionet… did you say earlier?" Gort seemed to remember the name from long ago, in his situation right now he had to buy time now, hoping Claus will bring the team over to help him while he was there, trapped, knowing that if he tried to struggle to get out that would only lead to his aura getting damaged and eventually broken, he couldn't afford to lose it at this moment.
"That was a name from long ago, I go by Maven Marionet now thank you." Maven stopped his laughing to reply, seeming very annoyed at Gort.
"There was a story I heard about him, over 200 hundred years ago, he was a nobleman that fell for a princess, he was devoted to god but even more so to his princess Mary Valhalla, correct?"
Maven's eyes immediately widened with surprise and grief, grabbing onto Gort with a furious expression, something definitely triggered him.
"Shut up… SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!" Maven glaring in anguish at Gort, began striking him with his bare fists yet his physical strength is quite weak, like a toddler could hit harder.
"Don't you bring up the past so casually!" Maven continued his weak punches instead of using his knives, reacting like it was HIS past Gort was talking about.
"But little did he know, she was a witch in secret, using her status and poor old Christopher as her test pawn, she let him get close, pretended to love him and eventually deceived him, when the day came that the kingdom found out, the country revolted and rebelled, as her body burned, she transferred her curse, or should I say, her semblance to move souls and combined with him who's semblance was to raise anything to do his bidding, like a Geist and is cursed to live eternally, it was a myth I read up on back when I started teaching." Gort continued speaking to make Maven lose his mind even more and hopefully breakdown into a freeze.
"I hate… Hate…. Hate…. HATE being reminded of our separation, you don't understand our love, the connection we share! We will reunite believe me!" Tears streamed down Maven's face as he screamed out at Gort, clawing at his face like a child.
"She deceived you, still it's hard to believe if you are the one from so long ago, it would normally be impossible"
"Shut up! I'll make you pay, I will!" Maven said in anguish as his mind snapped and split, losing all reason, he had lost all sense of mind and reason.
"The professors in trouble!" Claus burst through the door where the rest of the team was waiting, minding their own business nut now staring at Claus in surprise at his sudden appearance where he just collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.
Sky took a step forward but stopped herself and retreated back slightly.
"Say what? Professors in trouble?" Ray was the first to break the silence, putting down her hair brush, trying to act calm.
"Yes…. Me and professor went to go investigate…. circus tent… we were… attacked… he's all alone…. We gotta help!" Claus spoke in a panicked voice, him being out of breath did not help the situation.
"Hold on, take a moment to calm down first and explain slowly again for us all to hear." Sky tried to calm Claus down, to tell the truth, she couldn't understand what he was saying.
"There's no time… just follow me." Claus slowly stood up and walked out the room, he had no chance in running in his current state.
The team looked at each other and hopped out of their beds, grabbed their weapons while Ray picked up her hair brush to brush her hair on the way and followed behind.
"I hope he's just not fooling us." Ray pouted, annoyed about being interrupted from her hair grooming.
"He wouldn't just burst in and say that and try run out in a panic, he's never done that sort of thing before." Sky mentioned, she knew of Claus' behaviour and this was very unusual of him.
"We've just got to put our trust in him." Wave added on.
"Okay…" Ray agreed with them with slight hesitation, she still couldn't trust Claus.
When the team caught up, Wave grabbed Claus by the back of his coat and hoisted him on his shoulders and began running through the town.
"Tell us the way." Wave asked, Claus looked confused at Wave's actions but realised he was allowing him to take a breather in case they go straight into a fight.
"That way, you'll be able to make the tent taking that road."
"That's the main road, kind of obvious." Ray said, vaulting over a crate, having one of her weapons in her left hand in the gun form that with the blade pointing backwards to reveal the gun barrel.
Well, she wasn't wrong.
"Tell me Claus what was you doing with the professor?" Sky asked while she had the opportunity, she was worried but also annoyed.
"He wanted to talk-"
"About what?"
"Stuff.."
"What stuff?"
"I- can't tell you…"
"Jeez put some trust in us will you? We're teammates you should trust us, you better tell me after this."
Claus didn't know how to respond and just nodded, Ray was going to save something but thought to leave it for now.
With the tent in sight, Sky had a sudden thought to signal in for help as her intuition tells her this could be messy, she grabs her scroll and calls the local Vale security for possible back up to the circus tent, but they only responded that they will send over a guard to ask for more in a few minutes in a quick call, feeling like they may not come at all Sky also sent out a distress beacon in hope a nearby huntsman would come.
"They don't seem to realise how serious this situation is!" Claus yelled, suddenly losing his balance but managed to right himself as the team now stopped outside the tent.
"It can't be helped, we are only students after all, they don't seem to fully trust us." The engineer sighed and took out her weapon, unfolding it into its spear form, checking the components so that the transformation will be smooth.
Claus jumped down from Wave's shoulders and equipped his tonfa's and cautiously approached the tent.
"Security or not, I'm going in, you guys ready?"
"I seriously do think we should wait for the guard, he should know more about that tent than us, plus it's extremely creepy." Ray felt nauseous about going into that tent, looking around at the dead and creepy atmosphere is pretty much enough to throw her into a panic attack if spooked.
"I sort of agree with her, this might be dangerous." Wave agreed, trying to reason with Claus.
"guys, the professor is in danger, come on!" Claus gritted his teeth, he was determined to go in by himself if the others refused if he had to.
"Claus, I'll come with you, we will take a look and if it's too dangerous we'll back out, okay?" Sky now trying to be the voice of reason, patting Claus on the shoulder and looking over at the other two.
"Come on, we'll go in first and you two just follow."
She smiled at the two and they relaxed slightly and then nodded to Claus to take the lead but really Ray wanted to wait outside the tent for a couple minutes before going in.
Claus was the first to enter the tent along with Sky and they couldn't believe what they saw.
A huge number of wires strung up around the circus like spider webs, the lights flickering and the pieces of wood and the benches broken and chipped, showing signs of a large battle that took place there earlier, in the performance circle was about 30-50 bodies stammering around or crawling from their legs being blown off or broken, all circling one boy, standing or laying still like dolls, awaiting instructions in the middle which was indeed Maven, hunched over, sobbing to himself as his wires began spinning back into the devices on his hands and legs.
Most worrying of all was what was hung up before him.
It was Gort, being held up by one of his arms with wires wrapped around his arm and throughout his body.
He was slowly bleeding from multiple cuts from the wires digging into his skin and stab wounds from knives as drops of blood dripped from his lifeless body, he wasn't moving but it was unknown if he was alive or not although looking at the environment, although it looked like he put up a strong resistance before being caught.
Both Sky and Claus were frozen in place, their throats unable to make any noise for they couldn't speak until a certain noise suddenly erupted through the circus.
Claus started to panic, coming out from his shock and was more concerned about the condition Gort is in than anything else, he wanted to save him but doubted his own skills upon looking at that horde and Maven since if they can bring down the professor then Claus is led to believe he's have no chance.
He didn't have enough confidence, he was too scared, realising his throat was sore, it hurt a lot, but he didn't know why but he can hear someone calling out, they were screaming for a while, someone screaming until he realised.
He was the one screaming.
This snapped Sky back to her senses, focusing on calming her teammate down, grabbing his shoulders and shook him violently in an attempt to get him under control.
"Claus snap out of it! Take a breather, Hey!" Sky desperately called out, looking over to Maven briefly to notice he started turning slowly in response to the scream, causing Sky to panic even more herself as she desperately shook her teammate.
She even slapped him, hard enough to knock his sunglasses off just as Ray and Wave rushed into the tent upon hearing the noise but also froze at the sight that Sky and Claus just witnessed.
Claus finally stopped screaming and looked at Sky confused and afraid, not even aware that the engineer saw his secret, he then gripped onto her shoulders and gave a pained expression as he mumbled.
"Help"
Sky was surprised upon seeing her teammates eye for the first time but had no time to ask about it as she quickly put the sunglasses back on him.
"So… calmed down yet?" Sky asked, concerned for his feelings, she showed a little smile as Claus was about to say something...
"More intruders?" Maven now staring at the team, neck snapped to the side, his ominous purple eyes wide and red with tears of blood streaming down his face as he stood in the spotlight while surrounded by his puppets, he was clearly mentally unstable.
Sky let go out Claus, pointing her weapon at Maven, her hands were trembling as it was clearly shown with her shaking weapon, this was the most she could do without collapsing on herself since the vibes Maven gave off were almost too much for the girl.
"Sky, who is he?" Wave asked but got no response, so he ran over to her and patted her shoulder, scaring Sky as she screamed and turned to point her weapon at Wave in fright, causing Wave to have a flashback to his past and grabbed his head in pain, taking a step back but took a deep breath and calmed himself before facing Sky once again.
"Come on, I just did it, just take a deep breath, don't let your emotions control you..." Wave have her a brief smile while talking to himself, taking his weapon out and let the two blades inside the handle shoot out and the string to form the bow.
"Oh… I'm sorry, I guess I lost it…" Sky looked down and turned around to face Maven, taking a deep breath and on in the inside, regret about her sudden action boiled up as she felt really bad just then for one showing herself up in front of her team but also triggering Wave's mind since the wolf faunus has been taking some therapy at the academy to control his emotions to help his PTSD.
Though thanks to this Sky regained her composure.
"S-Sorry to ruin the moment but there's a really creepy guy other there with some friends looking like they want to string us up!" Ray screeched, having her weapons up shakily, waiting for Maven to move.
"His names Maven… he's dangerous, be careful." Claus said, unsure why Maven isn't taking any action till now.
"Maiden… blonde… come… closer" Maven spoke, cracking his neck straight and tilted it in the other direction, wanting a closer look at Ray.
"Blonde… I think he means you Ray." Claus said, baring his weapons at Maven still.
"Well obviously, but I don't want to take a step closer to that creep though" Ray refused.
"I'll guard you, just move forward a little, maybe we could talk a bit and buy some time." Wave suggested, getting an arrow out and putting it by the side of his bow, he was thinking about trying to buy time to get the security here as backup.
"But I still don't feel safe going near him." She added.
"We'll protect you and stay close to you, there's nothing to fear, come on." Claus said, knowing that if they do anything wrong at this situation could lead to a much worse situation.
"If an Idol can't handle stepping forward a few steps then she can't really handle standing on a stage isn't that right?" Sky teased to provoke Ray into moving.
Ray stood conflicted but sighed heavily and stood forward
"First of all, what I want to do doesn't involve a stage, but I'll be trusting you all to keep me safe, okay?" The Idol said, taking a step closer towards Maven until she was in one of the many spotlights dotted around the circus.
"Leave it to us." Wave gave a smile.
Upon seeing Ray, Maven's eyes started to narrow slightly then widened, his mouth beginning to grin wider than anything seen and took a step forward, dazzled by Ray's golden beauty like he just found the most beautiful woman in the world.
"Oh Mary… I've found you."
Sorry for the week delay, been busy and editing these chapters can take awhile, it's possible that next week will be delayed too since I am at a convention for a few days and moving house, all is fun, anyway hope you enjoyed this chapter!
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