AN: Thank you all for checking my story out as I am an amateur writer, reviews will help me out in learning how to improve my writing and what you think of the story so far. If you like my story than you can also follow me as well by making an account that takes 40-80 seconds at best or you can use said account to leave a review that will provide me with much-needed feedback. Aside from that let's get this show on the road with a bismillah and may Allah bless you all!

PS: I will be bolding sounds in fighting scenes only to make sure they don't get repetitive.

Markus body went into overdrive as he grabbed a hold of Jenna and George by the scruffs of their neck, the close proximity of the resulting explosion would send in fragments of metal towards them that would potentially hit something vital.

He would wish to avoid any harm of these men for the sake of Allah even though them being potentially injured and as such being less of a pain in the hide to Markus, by them not being able to stop him properly from fighting the Grimm; thanks to their injuries.

"FIND COVER IMMEDIATELY!" Markus yelled in an attempt to break the marines out of their fear-induced stupor.

He sprinted towards the downed aircraft with long strides as George and Jenna were dragged behind him by his brute force, their shrill screams ignored by the armoured titan as his subtle thuds carried him forward.

Markus saw that the 2 marines he struck with the rifle were slow in getting up and were mostly unreachable by the rest of the marines who had already begun sprinting for cover haphazardly, as such he tossed his current occupants with enough force to get them over the ridge formed by the downed bullhead.

He clasped his hands around their waists and practically dove into cover where the rest of the marines were located, the sound of a large thump of Markus colliding with the soldiers was muffled by the louder sounds of the ship's explosive crash, metal screeching and groaning violently while the ammunition depots of the ship exploding followed by the ground shaking as well.

Markus ducked his head out of cover to survey the scene of carnage before him. Various pieces of metal fragments and other scorched chunks littered the field, the grey gatehouse which was at first proper and pristine with various Atlassian banners and flags dotting It, was now a resting place of the Atlas escort ship as the ship had forcibly lodged Itself into the structure and had become a part of It by reducing most of It to a mix and match of rubble and rent yet scorched metal with the former being more than the latter. Top It all of dust and snow had caused a literal fog to take place blocking visibility, though it eventually settled down after a few moments while leaving crackling golden fires in its wake.

The sounds of rampant gunfire had practically halted yet occasionally could still be heard over the sounds of fire and still exploding sections of the ship, meaning that the Grimm had still survived even though a sizable chunk of their force was gone.

The entire section of the ship that was exposed to Markus had various fires on It with certain sections having Its lights flickering followed by subtle blue sparks, signifying that there was somehow power remaining in the ship even though the impact should have destroyed any form of power system, to begin with, or conventional power systems back at home at least so he didn't give It too much thought.

He felt a tug on his cape to find George having his hand on It. "Get down you idiot, the reactor is about to go out!" The rest of the soldiers were already doing what the officer haggardly told them and were lying prone on the cover with none of them peeking out of It.

Markus did what the man said as he knew that he had no reason for lying and trusted him. The bullheads that were near them performing various tasks were pulling away from the escort ship crash site like a bat out of hell with roars of their engines.

Many of the bullheads had already cleared the base with the bullhead right above them was slow in doing so but made It to safety a good kilometer away, by that time a growing flash (lens flare) of ethereal blue light appeared on the ship's heavily damaged engine section that the airborne Grimm had clawed at.

It intensified by the second with short bursts of *WHOOP**WHOOP* sounds accompanying It. After 10 seconds a circular wave of ethereal blue light appeared that expanded like a dome, Markus noticed subtle sparks that accompanied the wave and seemed to sap the electricity out of electronic devices. 'An Electro. Magnetic. Pulse discharge.' Markus mentally came to a conclusion as the wave approached him.

As the wave passed through him, his E.V helmet flashed with various text of binary data flickering on his screen before white text that he could actually understand appeared. "EMP DETECTED, REBOOT IN PROGRESS." It stated and with that Markus's E.V helmet rebooted while his present company's electronic devices short-circuited as the marines tossed their phones, microphones and earphones on the ground with curses accommodating them while Jenna simply chucked them all with a calm yet tense expression.

'Excellent, more important things I may have forgotten about my own stuff. Hope the tablet can cover me in that regard.' Markus mentally scolded himself for more forgetfulness while he and his company rose from their cover.

The entirety of the base had gone dark thanks to the E.M.P, the only illumination the human defenders can get in the burnt charcoal grey cloudy sky is through the fires that dot the walls and burning wreckage of the escort ship. A thick fleshy layer of black smoke with chunks of still decaying Grimm flesh from the corpses of the lofty bird Grimm and other Grimm covered the destroyed gatehouse with the fires casting a very dark shade of orange on the surrounding areas.

Markus knew that the soldiers were barreling towards despair and couldn't believe the sight in front of them due to him theorizing It was their first time facing horrendous casualties as most of the soldiers remained rooted to their positions, stiff like stone and jaws open with fast breathing.

Slowly, some of them had their weapons dropped to their sides one by one while the rest of them had their shoulders sagged in shame for allowing this travesty to happen in the first place, George and Jenna remained unmoving as well with their gazes locked at the burning inferno.

'These men are not mentally strong enough to put the mourning of their comrades on hold If they idle for too long, I will need to put them to work immediately or else they will decide It's a good time to deal with that task right now and further decrease our chances of survival than It already is.' The armoured Mujahedeen concluded his next course of action.

"MARINES!" His shout gained the attention of everyone as they jerked their heads towards him. "Form a perimeter around the area and make sure you keep your eyes peeled out for any movement, engage If anything comes towards you and signal friendly aircrafts that you have eyes on." He finished his order by turning his gaze towards George for permission to order his men, who was having the eyes of said men on his back while he looked into the flames.

"Do what he says." The answer came out after a short pause while Jenna rested a hand on his shoulder for support, the soldiers and the now conscious pilots fanned out slowly with pistol and rifles drawn. 'At least they are doing something now, their training must have been less intense than back at home or else they wouldn't need me doing something but they are soldiers that have training none the less so It will kick in sooner rather than later.' Markus thought as he approached to talk to George however, Markus heard the now familiar sounds of a bullhead's engine above him.

It landed a few meters away from Markus and Its doors opened immediately with 2 soldiers rushing out and forming a perimeter with the rest while the male pilot of the aircraft approached George, his expression like everyone's else, blank by his wide visor helmet.

He spared a glance at Markus while muttering something about "An off-grid huntsman" before approaching George and offering a salute.

"Sir I have some valuable intel from the headquarters, Lt General Ironwood is en route with a mechanized infantry division and a fleet that will arrive in one hour, 2 If the newly founded reports of the Grimm harassing them is true."

George turned his head towards the pilot and removed his helmet. Revealing light brown hair styled in a buzz cut with a square shaped face and blocky jawline. His grey-blue eyes were dull yet held a sense of warmth for the man in front of him, which Markus knew was mostly reserved for friends in dark times.

"Well Tim, that's just about great but how do they expect us to hold this place for so long without any form of reinforcements? That escort class ship was the only thing with enough firepower to keep the Grimm at bay, with It gone the base is as good as dead." His voice was half-hearted and a sheer contrast to the authoritative yet calm demeanour Markus witnessed today.

With a sigh Tim replied. "When comms was up and running while the ship was going down, air chatter reached HQ and It immediately ordered a full evacuation of all military personnel in fort Maxim to the nearest combat free outposts. Within the given circumstances of all remaining evac areas not being overrun, no reports of large airborne Grimm forces converging on us and if the there is no major dust supplies left that cannot be airlifted out of here. In short, the "reinforcements" are to be used to retake fort Maxim instead of actually reinforcing It." A scowl on his face of mentioning the last bits of his report while Markus' face was morphed in confusion.

George brushed a hand through his hair while repressing the urge to shout as he exhaled in frustration before replying. "Unbelievable, no doubt they put a heavy emphasis on the remaining dust cargo containers, didn't they? First, those SDC bastards fly off with their own ship instead of helping out and now they want to save more dust than people, they put a huge emphasis on getting the dust part... didn't they?" He replied with his eyes narrowed and after a short pause.

"A full promotion and everything really but they also emphasized on the part to evacuate military personnel only because as far as they are concerned, all civilians left on that SDC ship that flew to the capital." Tim left the words hanging in the air with George having a look of disbelief on his face which Markus was again confused by.

"You're kidding, right? There are practically 1000s of Faunus inside that base! We can't just leave them to die!" He roared while grabbing Tim by the shoulders while Markus soon realized that blatant racism was at play by the Atlassian high command.

"Sir they specifically told me that any bullhead carrying a Faunus inside It instead of a soldier will have all its occupants court marshalled, with little to no civilian coverage or help meaning the council has shafted us all big time." A scowl covered his feature while his tone was bitter as well while ignoring the hands on his shoulder, his gaze then looked over at Markus who was, for the most part, thinking about the Faunus.

'Racism is something which is the broad term of incompetence due to the simple fact that It is done on laughable reason, it's pitiful really that things like that exist in front of annihilation but alas stupidity and ignorance reign in a faithless world where the illusion of security is established.' Markus bitterly thought.

"They also reported a golden meteorite spawning from the sky and landing on fort Maxim they described It's shape as humanoid with a black centre and wanted us to mark Its impact site. Why do I get the feeling that he is the thing that HQ described?" His voice was shifting more to an exasperated one by each word.

Letting go George was about to ask Markus before Jenna of all people talked. "I can assure you he didn't as he has no aura to survive a fall from that height." Her speech and eyes alone told Markus of how much skilled and intelligent she was as they held a certain predatorial feeling to them and he further concluded that her first attack was nothing less than a mock attack that would gouge his skill.

Markus was very keen on letting the Atlassian military make up Its own harmless assumptions about him rather than risk alerting his enemies through an easily corruptible and power-hungry government that may or may not be infiltrated by the black hand. "You are absolutely correct madam, I am just a random huntsman that decided to take up arms and help his fellow people out though the reception by the military has been... less than tolerable."

"And that's a conversation for another day, we have to focus on getting the hell out of here." George locked his gaze with Markus. "What do you intend to do?"

Markus ran the information inside his head while cupping his chin. 'Come on Markus, the Black Hand has a tendency of having a powerful and intelligent leader commanding the rabble, take the leader out and the rabble becomes prey to skirmish tactics and internal strife. What's the Grimm you have spotted that fits that category?' He mentally inquired himself before the answer struck him like a bullet which he thanked Allah for.

"What's the status of that 15-foot tall horned Grimm that was spotted earlier?" His question was directed at George.

"My friend, the fiery breath that Grimm has will burn you to your bones even with your aura, which you don't have by the way. Try to get close to It and use the best hunter grade dust bullets and melee weaponry on It and those will ping right of It like a rock on metal. We lost 3 specialists to that thing and our best fighter Danial was fighting a losing battle against It by the last time I still had contact with him. There is this weird recent wound on Its neck that somehow resembles a hunters grade dust round that pierced through its neck armour but..." He trailed off as realization donned on him with his eyes widening behind his helmet.

"Don't tell me that you somehow caused that?" The conversation had caused nearby eavesdropping soldiers to subtly shift their head while his current company were wide-eyed.

"I have a new form of dust round that can pierce through targets instead of exploding on Its surface, does less damage on the outside but vital areas are shredded when an exit wound is formed." Markus replied nonchalantly, leaving no hints of doubt about his made-up façade.

"Warrior, don't take this the wrong way but that Grimm is the definition of brutal and cunning as It has orchestrated a fall of an Atlassian Base of all things! Don't you think you are way over your head in hunting down a Grimm like that? Besides you haven't exactly fought with what the best I could offer while men way above me are struggling with the Grimm" Jenna said attempting to dissuade him from hunting down the Grimm.

"The offer still stands, come with us and we will provide you everything you need. Fort Maxim isn't worth dying over no more." George's voice had a pleading tone to It that hinted at not wanting more bodies thrown in the meat grinder.

As if on cue a guttural roar was heard from the destroyed gatehouse with the flaming wreckage of the ship on top of It, debris and chunks could be made out from a far moving with each grab of an infamous clawed hand. It continued upwards with the occasional sighting of the large Grimm climbing up and moving in and out of destroyed debris until the horned Grimm's silhouette was barely made out from the fires and smoke on the devastated command deck of the ship.

Pure rage could be felt from the beast as Markus saw Its eyes scanning for something like a predator about to catch Its prey until It's raging red eyes found his. It visibly pointed a clawed finger at him and uttered words that only he could understand.

"هل ستسمح بحدوث هذا مجددًا؟" The voice was twisting and echoing with each spoken letter, resembling that of a dying whale while giving of a bastardized mocking tone that mirrored one of a human.

Suddenly Its veins exploded with blood coming out of them like a fountain, red energy sparked and rippled on Its whole body, shaking It and piling up around It until all of It was fired upwards in a pillar of blood and red energy.

The red pillar pierced through the clouds and cast a shade of crimson on the sky, interestingly a string of red energy had tethered on the Grimm while providing further illumination to the area which the humans found even further unsettling things revealed.

Roars erupted all over the area with silhouettes of Grimm being made out in the distance stampeding towards fort Maxim. Their eyes that at first showed hints of anger befitting of beasts like them were now the pure definition of pure primal rage, their eyes resembled that of a berserker with their jaws snapping and opening accompanied by growls while their bodies and claws were a blur as they did everything in their power to find footing in the snow and end the lives of the miserable humans as soon as possible.

The blood red pillar acted like a beacon from Grimm and remained there even after the horned Grimm retreated back to the inside of fort Maxim with the tether on It, drawing monsters and other demons to a literal hellscape while unexplainably energizing them to the point of causing them to go into a wild frenzy.

Each and every human with Markus were having collective chills roll down their spines, despair and fear ran rampant in their hearts with the sweat dropped looks they were giving to one another, moments before an argument started over 'what to do' and 'how to reach safety'. Jenna was about to ask George on when they will leave until she found Markus, he had his left hand covering his face with a fist while his right was clawing at his neck with light weird cough sounds.

It looked as if he was choking on something so she moved near him to give help him out only to realize the sound he was making wasn't that of choking.

It was one of stifling laughter.

Her eyes widened out of shock and she backed away from him, this action had not gone unnoticed by him as his eyes locked onto hers and started laughing which was hoarse and unsettling to his present company. On the spot, some labelled him as crazy while the more experienced troops labelled him as a soldier who had lost It to the situation.

For the first time she met him, she felt her disciplinary leash on her fear loosening by each laughter that stung at her ears. Her brain went into overdrive in attempting to decipher the person in front of her, her deciphering skills were something taught to Jenna by birth and never failed her. She prided herself in deciphering people and situation in a matter of minutes and using the revealed information to defeat them and claim the position for fort Maxim's 5th most dangerous fighter.

'He was doing fine just before the situation had gone to hell but his body language was calm yet ready to spring into action in a moment's notice when I saw him fighting against Grimm, his movement was calm and fluent while he was opening fire and tearing Grimm to pieces. Meaning he's a skilled warrior who must have survived overwhelming odds before but that horned Grimm, it had Its eyes and finger pointing at him as If It was challenging him..." Her eyes widened at the conclusion of her mental investigation and after finding confidence by inhaling and exhaling asked him.

"YO-You understood it didn't you?" Her answer was still filled with fear and a strong sense of panic. The accusatory answer had drawn the attention of others around him.

Markus abruptly stopped his laughter as soon as It abruptly had begun and returned to his normal position, all of the attention was drawn to him as nearly everyone was unnerved by him. He tilted his head and replied.

"Well aren't you very perceptible miss Jenna." It sounded as If he wasn't exactly impressed by that. "It mocked me when I am at my strongest which I found really funny that is and didn't mean to unnerve any of you. To answer your question, I did as it spoke in a twisted version of my mother tongue and bellowed 2 challenges at me." He held up an index finger and middle finger on his right hand.

"The first challenge It spoke about was "Can you truly stop this from happening again?". You see my nation was overwhelmed by incursions of the... Grimm." As he made sure to repress the name of the black hand after a short pause. "The streets ran red with blood while centuries of hard work and dedication was lost overnight, back then we weren't prepared and the ones accountable for our ruination were ourselves as we had abandoned our own religion in the name of mortal distractions and ignorance," His eyes then shifted from the intently listening troops to his body. "But now, a new generation of soldiers have come forward from the flames of our damnation that serve no one but our god Allah and he demands the destruction of evil, falsehood and hypocrisy from within our ranks."

Retracting his middle finger with a sigh while leaving his forefinger up, he continued. "The second challenge would be is the use of my beloved religion's tongue from Its foul mouth and bastardizing the words of It. You see many sacred religious sites and texts were defiled with blood and flesh, preachers and followers had their corpses strewn about on streets while the Grimm made corrupted religious texts that resembled the dialects of our holy verses on the walls of our cities. This is a punishable offense that is only answered through by death for evil beings like the Grimm who are far gone for forgiveness and taunt us again and again by using our sacred language" Venom dripping from his words that was apparent enough for everyone while the weak-willed paled on the spot thanks to the horrific details, from the man's recount of his past.

"So, it gave off 2 challenges. One of killing it and preventing the fall of fort Maxim and the other one of using your religious tongue, am I correct?" George attempted to make sense of the statement.

"You are mostly correct Mister George but the prevention of the fall of fort Maxim part is where you are dead wrong, as I intend to prevent the fall of Atlas itself. How may you ask? Well, the answer is very simple. The fall of fort Maxim will orchestrate a chain of events that will mostly cause anarchy and mass panic in all of Atlas, Grimm activity would spike too uncontrollable levels and other precedented factors would come out to play. Not to mention the fact that if news got out of the ill-treatment of the Faunus than any form of civil activist movement would have the basis of going violent so I would like to ask you this to confirm my suspicions, is there a movement like that and do the Grimm hone in on fearful or angry humans as I didn't really have the time in interrogating and dissecting many aside from one." The question seemed abrupt and confusing to Markus's accomplices as they were giving subtle glances to one another with confused expressions until George spoke up.

"Well those things are true, in the form of the White Fang as the current largest Faunus rights movement but you would have to be living under a rock to not find out by now..." George trailed off as his head started connecting dots in his head.

"You are the one that fell from the sky, aren't you?!" George asked the question with his voice raised and forgetting about his fear.

"There is no point in lying so I am going to keep this brief, I am a warrior sent by Allah in aiding you all in your darkest hour and purge you from internal and external threats. Tell your superiors that I will hunt down the Grimm where ever possible and do so in the service of our god." George ran a hand over his face while the rest of the group stared blankly in an effort to process the information through their now apparent fatigue.

"This is getting crazier by the hour, with a brothers damn Grimm invasion and a man claiming to be sent by them." George muttered under his breath.

"I believe all of us have more pressing matter to do so let's wrap this up. I need a message sent to this Lt General Ironwood, that he is to proceed with caution and under any circumstances not to rush into Fort Maxim until reports of Its death are called in 45 minutes. If he refuses to comply than persuade him as I believe the horned beast has more tricks up Its selves to destroy his forces If the time comes." Markus said while sending a lethal glare to Fort Maxim.

"And what If we refuse to listen to you and go kill the Grimm ourselves while detaining you?" A marine questioned him.

"Simple we all suffer and die horrible deaths that are caused more due to stupidity than honourable last stands and besides your evacuation period has expired as the horned Grimm has finally revealed Its ace." He replied ominously while pointing to the west.

A whole black feathery mass of near uncountable flight capable Grimm had formed at the west side of fort Maxim, blotting out the horizon in doing so. Airborne Grimm of various sizes flapped their wings with the large one's cawing and pecking at the smaller rage induced or ill experienced Grimm to hold their positions.

Said bird-like Grimm were darting all over the ever-growing flock of Grimm, leaving trails of feather and fighting one another to get near their leaders or attack one another as substitutes for humans, while the Grimm who were the clear lapdogs of the leading Grimm fought to maintain order by outright killing Grimm that didn't fall into line; providing much-needed examples to the chaotic flock.

The leading Grimm or elders the locals like to call Grimm that are powerful and intelligent were the size of a bullhead. They gave off a feeling of intelligence and years of experience that Markus could easily classify them as something to be killed on the spot, their methodical flaps of bone armoured wings with the opening and closing of claws spoke wordlessly that they had enough patience to know when to strike as they didn't even bother to send in Grimm to chase down fleeing bullheads or assist the Grimm already inside fort Maxim but were still eager enough to kill.

Their eyes were trained in front of them, with their heads for very brief moments swinging back and forth from fort Maxim to the west. It was clear enough to Markus who they were waiting for as the air borne mass of Grimm was unmoving.

The reinforcements led by Lt General Ironwood.

'Looks like the Grimm has one hell of a communication network to keep tabs on the upcoming reinforcements, got to look into that later.' Markus filled away his thoughts and turned his head to the soldiers.

George gritted his teeth and called his men to board the bullhead the flew off after a moment while Markus marched towards the base with grim resolve growing in his heart with a thought. 'Either I bring victory in the name of Allah by dying a martyr or dispel evil from these lands, either way, Allah calls.'


Time: 2:20 (10 minutes later)

Region: Airspace between fort Maxim and the Capital

Lt General Ironwood smashed a gloved fist on the armrest of his command chair, frustration was seeping through out his body as the command deck of the ship was a cacophony of various reports from the crew manning holographic screened consoles, on the status of the ship's power systems and other important systems by the engineering officers, targeting gunners calling out each and every shot they were taking, the security officers redirecting knights, marines and specialists to malfunctioning hanger bays thanks to them being used as beach heads by the Grimm and communication officers keeping track of friendlies and coordinating bullheads against the mass of Grimm. The light-skinned black-haired captain of the ship effortlessly gave off orders in response to the incoming reports with a stoic demeanour.

The fleet had come into direct assault from all directions, main turret and weapons of the ship didn't even have the chance to do significant damage as the enemy ambushed them under the cover of the night. The flagship Ironwood in was a standard Icepick class cruiser that had large turrets and cannons that were used to deal with long-range combatants and only had 4 flak turrets on the upper and lower levels of the ship to fight off any Grimm that got too close. This unfortunate weapons loadout was also mirrored by the rest of the ships in the fleet as well.

The fleet Itself was in a tight arrow formation meaning that flak turrets were the only thing that could not risk friendly fire to other ships but that meant the Grimm would be dispatched in a time-consuming manner that James did not want, in that regard James rose from his seat and turned to the captain of the ship. Blue and red lights of flak fire were peering through the dustproof windows of the ship as he walked towards the captain.

"Captain, we need to hurry as soon as possible so why aren't the main turrets being used to target the Grimm?" He inquired.

Without even turning the captain replied "We will risk friendly fire thanks to the close proximity of the fleet and that is something I am not willing to risk."

"Well spread them out and get those main batteries online and firing or else the Grimm will pick them apart!" Ironwood shouted and motioned to the lower deck and upper deck security cams where the Grimm were clawing and slashing at the batteries.

"Sir the ships are covering one another's blind spots thanks to the flak turrets we have in the range of one another, spread them out and we leave the fleet exposed. Which I am not going to threaten them for a base that has been deemed lost by the council and especially not for the lives of stinking animals inside It." The captain finally turned to James and offered him a glare.

'You mean you are not going to threaten your flawless reputation and promotion, you deluded idiot.' He thought with annoyance and rage before the task at hand stopped a harsh rebuttal and replied to him.

"Then have the brothers damn ships on different altitude and then open fire! Or are you that fearful about your precious ships that you can't even use them when push comes to shove." The Lt General replied in an attempt to bait the man in action.

"Listen here you piece of shit! Those guns will be down and out by the time the ships get into position unless you have an answer to that. The fleet will go slow and play it safe." James was about to respond but was cut off.

"Sir! We are receiving an emergency message from fort Maxim; a bullhead is in range!" A female voice cried out to distinguish herself from the mess of sounds, with both the men turning to the comms officer.

"This is petty officer George Tin bringing in news for Lt General Ironwood, a new breed of Grimm has successfully breached fort Maxim with a horde and has an entire armada of airborne Grimm and a handful of elder Nevermore waiting for the reinforcements arriving at fort Maxim. The fleet is to move at a cautious pace and deal with each threat one step at a time unless the death of the new breed of Grimm spotted in fort Maxim is reported in after 35 minutes. I suspect to believe that It is the leader of the Grimm and as such have men working on It to kill the damn thing. The bullhead is running out of juice thanks to the load so we are making a landing at the flagship just in case the message isn't heard, George tin out."

The newly founded intelligence report had the captain smirking while James simply stretched his body to the side with the metallic armour on his uniform and utility belt that contained his ammo and hand cannon rattled. He reached a hand in his back pocket and retrieved his scroll.

"Commander Hanz have your men and any available reserve marines, knights and specialists that are on standby on each ship, prepared to move out on my orders. Have each and every one of them equipped with the newly supplied magnetic boots, if they aren't available than have the on-board ordnance engineers make them on each ship's ordnance station as soon as possible and shipped to the quartermasters ASAP. We will clear the decks of each ship out and have the batteries firing again once the captain gets the ship into position, if he doesn't then I am sure he won't mind the insubordination complaint I will file in the military court that may or may not put a heavy strain on his spotless record."

"I am sure he won't mind that sir; just give me five minutes and I will get the boys mobilized, I can't wait to use the new snow transport trucks and recon cars after helping the air boys." The mature voice answered from the scroll with excitement in It.

James walked towards the door out of the command deck with the sound of his metallic boots clicking against the floor and a satisfied twitch of a grin on his face, If Ironwood had turned towards the captain at that moment.

Then he may have spotted his pale green eyes turning red irises that promised pain and suffering, before quickly returning to their natural colour and shifting back to the crew.


Time: 2:24 (14 minutes later)

Region: Fort Maxim

Danial Bronze awoke from unconsciousness by a slap to the face, his vision was the very definition of groggy and his hearing was filled with noises of gunfire as a deep gash at his forehead oozed blood on his ash-covered light-skinned face that sported a military haircut fate.

After waiting for his eyes to clear up, he found that his wound was being worked on by a field medic with a medkit opened up on his side and 2 marines with one of them holding him down and the other one shining providing light on him with a blue dust crystal.

The three of them were blocking his field of vision with the sky behind them going crimson, the pain that was coursing through his body was slowly going away as his aura was doing its job.

"Hold him down! I am going to apply disinfectant, field dress that wound and apply an aura booster for good measure. It may ache a bit sir as I have run out of painkillers so stay with me."

The medic worked for 5 minutes as the sounds of battle raged on in front of him, Danial gritted his teeth as the roars of Grimm could be heard over the barks and cracks of rifle and metal going through flesh, signifying that the Grimm were closing in on an unspecified force of marines and specialists that may or may not be chopped in half.

After the medic had done his job and ran off to other cries for assistance, the Marines pulled him up and gave him his peak cap which he put on after brushing dust of It and his maul that he called "Hale Swan". The aura booster was coursing through his veins and would be active for an hour or 2 before aura fatigue would kick in but immediate body movement would cause a cramp, as such he inspected his weapon for damage before moving out.

The maul resembled an industrial sledgehammer with It being openable on the top section of the maul Itself, which allowed the 2 double-barreled shotguns (arranged in rows) to poke out of it as an opener or an ender of a fight as the maul Itself would be exposed in its range state thanks to how weak the section with the shotguns poking out would become.

The maul was white in colour with the Atlas insignia inscribed on the 2 striking sides of the hammer, the pole Itself was in a simple grey and had a pommel attached on Its back end that could also open up and accept 8 shotgun rounds with a pump attached on the pole section that was near to the maul.

His muscles were starting to relax a bit as the aura boost that he felt started becoming more controlled and natural instead of a torrent of raw energy. His grey swing coat with military decorations on the left breast and the map of Solitas that had his base marked with a blue dot was dirty with ash and dust, the coat ended just above his knees and was split from the back to allow for full mobility.

The blue army trousers he wore were sporting cuts on the lower half meaning that someone pulled him out of rubble, looking around he found that his right-hand bald and spectacled man Nava White was organizing a defence by rounding up troops and getting them to spread out in the snow-covered courtyard of the base. A troop of 12 specialists were marching just behind him and towards Danial.

Danial shifted his gaze to the red pillar just above the courtyard, the pillar up close was ominous and evil with each swirl of blood and red energy that coated It. He couldn't stand to look at that thing and he didn't even bother to deduce what that pillar was but one thing was clear from It.

They were on their own for more than an hour with that horned creature breathing in on them, the best part is that a good chunk of the security forces mechanized forces were out thanks to that E.M.P blast including communications with It, how many remained to be seen though as Nava mostly kept track of up to date things.

The specialist's expressions were grim, their uniforms which consisted of grey blazer jackets and simple blue trousers were stained with sweat and dust while his uniform was snow cameoed.

"What's the status of our forces and how many injured do we have?" Danial questioned with his navy-blue eyes looking around.

"Not good sir, out of the 600 deployed knights. 256 of them were killed in the initial stages of the siege with the rest now offline thanks to the E.M.P blast, their bodies are spread out all over the base." His ball head shifted to the destroyed gatehouse or more importantly the rubble where robotic bodies stuck out from piles of rubble with varying degrees of body part sticking out to the cold air.

"Out of the 800 humane security forces, 400 private S.D.C guards evacuated with the non-military administrative staff through the S.D.C 's private escort class ship, 19 marines have been confirmed KIA with over 111 of them pulling back inside the base due to panic or evacuation of the wounded out of the battlefield while the remaining 370 soldiers are setting up at the courtyard." He gestured to the marines who were placing 15 sandbags in an arc around the breach point of the fort and taking up position on the buildings just behind them.

The buildings in front of the gatehouse were 3 heavy duty warehouses which were barrel-roofed and took up so much space that the only thing between the gatehouse and the warehouses was a small processing facility and a former fleet of transport trucks and forklifts just behind It.

Why former may you ask? What is the first thing a company like the S.D.C should think of If one of their financial assets is about to be destroyed? Why do everything in their power to salvage anything that isn't bolted to the ground with no regards to sentient life!

Danial still remembered the sound of his teeth churning when he was ordered by the onsite S.D.C director Conrad Sunray, to have his men drive those shit for stained S.D.C trucks and forklifts that carried dust and state of the art machinery to their ship and when he refused and told them to do it themselves or have the Faunus do It and take them as well while they are at It.

He was told one thing that nearly flung him over the edge. "Mister Danial, this is a luxury class S.D.C ship that is only reserved for the best and brightest. We won't allow filthy animals besmirching our prized asset and we won't sully our hands of transporting things reserved for animals. Besides you don't want the good General losing support in the council now do you?"

Danial relented to him for the sake of his old man and smiled at the activities of his men and the Faunus, who now had converted the processing facility to a makeshift supply depot where the Faunus would bring in any form of ammunition, weapons and medical supplies they could find scattered all over the base with the tension that once existed between the two group was now abandoned in a vital effort to stop the Grimm.

*CRRSSSH*CHUUSSSH*CRRSSSHH*

The sound of glass breaking got Danial to look at the warehouses again, 20 marines were currently taking firing positions on each warehouse's upper level wide horizontal windows by breaking them while 3 squads of 15 marines were scaling the aforementioned warehouse's roofs individually through the use of the ladder on the side of the buildings.

Soon dust rounds started pouring from the Marines elevated position while the grunts on the ground were double timing in setting up the sandbags with the rest of the grunts on the ground opening fire on any Grimm that managed to pass through the flames or navigate through the rubble on the destroyed gatehouse and the destroyed scorched metal remains of the ship.

Varying degrees of ice, fire and electricity dust rounds were fired that illuminated the crimson snow-covered courtyard with a splash of different colours before returning back to its crimson like self, thanks to the red pillar that had spawned on the breach of the fort.

"Good job Nava but have those Marines and the Faunus start fortifying those sandbags in height with anything not bolted down, aside from that what is our air support doing? And how many specialists do we have available?"

"Sir only 5 bullheads and 5 fighters have decided to stuck around to help us and are currently engaging forces that they called out before the E.M.P blast while the rest have taken off with wounded and dust, orders from the capital."

"I have sent Yana and Tera to gather the marines or anyone who can fight for that matter inside the base and bring them here, their speed semblances should help out in that regard. Skimmer and Schefter are right now gaining intel of what we are dealing with if we are lucky than a green flare should go up. As for how many specialists? You are seeing them; the rest were killed earlier." Nava adjusted his spectacles and looked towards the walls where the aforementioned specialists were.

A red flare was shot and screeched through the air, Nava had his brown eyes widened before they returned to their usual drowsy self.

"Please tell me that is good?" Danial hoped even though a surprised demeanour from his friend meant bad things.

With a chuckle Nava replied. "I am afraid not sir, a green flare would have meant that there would be nothing that could stop us I.e. no overwhelming Grimm force which the red flare unfortunately signifies. Basically, all hope of survival is lost and the only thing we can do is make sure the supposed cause of this doesn't survive."

"You mean the Grimm? But they are numberless." One of the specialists, a female one asked.

"Not necessarily but a certain horned one, I theorize the red pillar that It made is linked to It and also linked to the sudden surge of aggressiveness in the Grimm as well." Nava replied.

"Now If I was a 15-foot tall Grimm where would I hide?" Danial thought to himself out loud.

As of on response a red dust crystal the size of a human's chest was chucked through the layer of smoke from the fire, the grouped up human defenders were too late to react as an explosion consumed 15 of them due to how close they were, the majority of them were killed immediately while a few of them were set on fire and being put out by the nearby marines.

Officers immediately cried out for focus fire from where the dust crystal originated from. A large piece of metal was instead forced through the flames and with It, the 2 horned Grimm stomped out.

The non-armoured section of its body which were the joints and other body parts that allowed for mobility, as well as its eyes, were glowing with bright red intensity, signifying blood and raw energy pumping through it.

The head-up close resembled that of a Beowolf with its long bone face mask and razor-sharp teeth, it lacked a tail yet its height and muscular body spoke of great strength and resembled more of a human than a standard Grimm especially the fact on how forged the armour looked. An unexplainable tether or line of some sort that reached to the bloody red pillar was hooked on its back. The claws on its armoured hand were glowing red and with each step, It would soon show what the upgraded versions were capable of doing.

"Nava, space the men out and have them hold fire once we engage the damn thing! The rest of you with me!" Nava nodded and ran off while Danial took off towards his target with his men in tow.

The beast realizing that the humans were about to engage It, tossed its cover at them. Most of the specialists dogged It while Danial stopped It with a downward strike of his maul as to make sure It didn't drift off into the soldiers behind them.

Seeing its move as ineffective, it shot a torrent of flame in an arc that stopped the specialists in their tracks, one of the specialists was too close to the flames and as such had raised his sword instinctively. Unfortunately for him, the armoured Grimm pounced into him with a role that ended with his throat ripped out before he could even realize his doom and tossed his body away like trash.

The humans weren't allowed time to process what had happened as the second specialist fell when an armoured hand slammed her to the ground, blood spurting from her mouth with the red energized claws tearing through her aura like Papier-mâché. The sword-rifle hybrid weapon was dropped immediately by the kinetic force of the impact and the ground cracking underneath her.

The Grimm instead of letting go spun around with her grappled body on an outstretched arm and by using the action's centripetal force. Sent her body rag dolling towards Danial's chest before he could get his guard up, the force of impact was so brutal that It took out half his aura while nearly cracking all his ribs and sent him flying to the marines.

It must have taken him at least 6 marines to fully stop his and the specialist's bodies as a mosh pit of soldiers were covering him and he honestly felt bad for them because they didn't have any aura to protect themselves with.

The marines he injured were on the ground and moving in pain by clutching their stomachs or knees with cracked armour on the respected areas. More marines moved in to check up on them while he powered through his pain and stood up to inspect the specialist on his side.

The blood that was coming out of her was too much so he turned his gaze to the armoured Grimm with a clenched fist while using his maul as a support for walking.

The specialists were circling around the Grimm with standard swords drawn, their movement was swift and untraceable to a normal eye while 3 of them who carried the assault rifle variant were taking potshots at the Grimm through openings of the human tornado. The reason Danial knew this is because It is a textbook attack pattern practised by huntsmen all over the world and was used against a powerful foe that proved to be difficult in a one versus one scenario.

The tactic was as followed, shooters were spread out in different directions so this way attention was drawn to them and after 15 seconds, 2 melee fighters would engage It simultaneously before retreating back information and 2 more pairs would do the same thing before a simultaneous assault from all the melee fighters would execute It.

Danial smirked knowingly as no Grimm was known to survive against this tactic and as such waited patiently for the attacks and even stopped Nava from attacking while the rest of the soldiers watched in awe.

The first strike came towards its left leg, one of the specialists slid for an attack on the back of the knee which was unarmored while her pair jumped and did a midair swing of his sword on the beast's armoured kneecap in the front. The specialists passed over one another with the blood of the Grimm flying on them, the formation shifted direction to account for the pairs switching position.

A cheer erupted from the Marines with various "Hell yeah!", "Make Atlas proud!" and "Go and get them, specialists!". The Grimm itself, however, was glaring vividly at the humans while gritting its teeth.

The attack provided much-needed information to the specialists that their weapons could pierce the Grimm's armour and an overreliance overexposed bits was not needed meaning that they could keep their attacks multidirectional.

2 more strikes followed on the right leg and left arm 15 seconds apart with even more cheers erupting while the Grimm was on all four. The execution phase was soon approaching while Danial was inspecting the Grimm with a critical eye, the Grimm seemed to be in deep concentration as the red energy on its armoured hand was slowly travelling to its leg and throat like those parts were being powered up.

As if it sensed the commander's inspection, it bared its teeth in a mockery of a smile with the opening in its teeth revealing a bright red light that was mostly associated with a super aura powered dust crystal used in ship cannons. Danial didn't like that one but and was about to have his men back off, the sudden pain of his broken ribs soon proved to be too great to ignore and he screamed in pain.

The specialists moved in together, their swords bared and ready to slice the Grimm into pieces. What they weren't expecting was the Grimm to jump and dislodge the red dust crystal in its throat and fling It on the attackers that couldn't move out of the way in time.

The one thing that was dangerous about the dust used in ship cannons was not the mighty explosive damage done by It nor the fragments of it. No, it was the elemental effect of the fire that made it dangerous due to the simple fact that fires created from this type of dust crystal would last for hours or even days.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Danial saw the way the dust crystal exploded on his men, the explosion caught all of them with tiny dust fragments trailing through the air and cutting into his men easily thanks to their auras attempting to stop the explosion. The dust pieces that pierced their skin exploded in a chain reaction thanks to the fire.

Their bodies were sent rag dolling in all directions with missing limbs and destroyed weapons, the ones that were fortunate enough to die on the spot were burning peacefully while the living were trembling in pain. Kicking and screaming as they saw their skin melt from their bones while nothing could be done for them before moments late their screams died down.

A silence had befallen the battlefield, no one dared move a muscle as all eyes were drawn to the fires. Sweat and even tears dribbled down the humane defenders' eyes, knowing that if the best of the best couldn't stop them, how could they? They knew death was waiting for them, Danial, on the other hand, was stunned as well yet the embers of a last stand were growing inside him, he shifted his eyes to Nava. Who was sporting the same look he was, the look of grim determination. 'Me and Nava could buy time for the reinforcements to have someone to save when they eventually arrive.' Danial thought to himself and was about to go in an attack with Nava until the 2 horned Grimm roared.

*GGGGGGRRRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH*

In response to it, 3 Elder Beowolves and an Ursa Major came forth from the now smoking ruins of the gatehouse. Their arrival was nothing compared to the intimidating presence of the horned Grimm. It was about to give a roar to charge before the sound of gunfire halted It.

*THWACK*THWACK*THWACK*THWACK*SHRCK*

With the sound of metal going through flesh, a head resembling of an Ursa Major was tossed out of the smoke, the head rolled out towards the Grimm which caused the Elders and Majors to back away while the horned Grimm barely sifted and instead looked on intrigued.

2 beady eyes made themselves known from the smoke before the form of a 10-foot-tall human finally revealed itself, the humane figure jumped down to the ground with the burning bodies of the specialists illuminating his figure.

He had an unrecognizable pointed helmet with a never before seem non-metallic armour that looked more than likely to be made out of leather yet had a sneaking suspicion that there were other materials at play which were even better than the alloy metal Atlas used.

His spike knuckles were reflecting the fire, with the unrecognizable model of a rifle in his hands the safety trigger switched off.

Those eyes of his were the most intimidating thing about him, he had 2 beady red eyes which were surveying the Grimm. The armoured man's breathing was even like he didn't give a damn what was standing in front of him and after his eyes travelled to the burning corpses on the ground. He aimed his rifle and squeezed the trigger in a movement that would have put many marksmen to sham.

*FFFRACK*FFFFFRACK*FFFFFFFRACK*FFFFFFFFFFFFFRACK*

An uncountable burst of bullets flew through the air, the Elders and Major sported holes on the torso and head, their bodies were slowly falling to the ground and already beginning to disintegrate with blood oozing out of them.

The horned Grimm, on the other hand, was slow in processing what had happened to it. 9 rounds had pierced the now cracked armour on its torso which had blood leaking out of it, the Grimm itself was having a hard time in staying conscious before sudden red energy started flowing inside it through the tether on its back.

A bright red blanket coated the Grimm and it let out a head-splitting roar. The wounds that covered its body were filled back up, armour that was sundered repaired itself while the energy it had spent was renewed.

The black geared human merely adopted a middle longsword guard stance, the sharp edge of the sword gleamed red thanks to the Grimm.

The Grimm was a blur, barely untrackable to everyone that it crashed into the armoured soldier within seconds. The soldier blocked the swipe of its claws by the skin of his teeth before kicking the raging beast in the chin and rolling away from the force of the blow, the human offered a swipe that was effortlessly backhanded and instead a punch to the guts was gifted to the human by the Grimm. The punch sent the man flying to the stone wall until a layer of dust was created by the impact.

Daniel couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the soldier get up at record speed and begin charging at the Grimm with blood seeping out from his chest.

He had no aura.

Danial and many others immediately summarized as the man's movement were at best that of a dying tiger forced to fight its final battle.

No sound was made by the soldier when the Grimm chopped his left leg out.

No sound was made by the soldier when his body was crushed and stomped on repeatedly body.

No sound was made by the soldier when his head was separated from his body.

The head was raised towards the human defenders, some of them had started puking on the Gorey site while other kept it in.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

Laughter erupted from the beast's throat who had slain the warrior, further terrifying everyone. Many covered their ears to block out the horrendous sound while those who were still brave started backing away.

"See you pathetic creatures of god and see well! This is the state of your pathetic excuse of a shield. This man you see here was set to destroy and banish evil from his world and yours but now he is nothing better than a puddle of blood and gore!" The Grimm tossed the head back to the mutilated body while everyone living were rooted to their place and sweating profusely. The scariest Grimm they ever knew was talking and mocking them, terror ran free in their heart while hushed whispers on "what to do?" were running free.

"If only there were more people like this man I slew today than humanity and Faunus kind may have stood a chance. Why? That's simple really, this leech you see here is the reason why my beloved mother has painful weeping nights. A month wouldn't pass, where the death of her beloved daughters wouldn't reach her doorstep. Her mind was fractured to the point that she had pooled all her effort into hunting down this man and finally she can rest easy now." Shifting its gaze to the corpse of the soldier the Grimm spoke again.

"The funny thing is that most people would be having the emotions of regret, fear or some form of darkness spiralling inside of them like a sweet perfume to us Grimm. Instead, this man was happy! Content! In dying." Each word was rippled by a stomp on the corpse.

"In all my life I have yet to kill a living that didn't have its hopes and dreams crushed by me, the fact that he would throw away everything he had for an unloving God as easily as breathing air. Is something that I despise to admit, scares me and my brethren." The news of the Grimm's fear had caught everyone off guard, their brains couldn't even comprehend on what to make of the news.

"I shudder to think of fighting an army or humanity as a whole who are even a small piece of him but alas that is not worth thinking now as everyone will be dead. Now, who to kill? Who to kill? Who to kill?" The Grimm walked on its 2 legs back and forth in front of the terrified humans, repeating the question over and over again to keep the humans afraid. The fear they gave off was the only thing that kept the humans alive as fear was something a tamer and more intelligent Grimm loved to relish in, the sense from the humans was intoxicating to it and was something it loved to enjoy during its free time of not murdering armed combatants.

During that day, one may have considered the light slowly glowing around the corpse of the soldier by the minute, something insignificant or a huge folly on the Grimm's part.


AN2: Hope you enjoyed and may you review or follow my work, thanks for reading and may Allah bless you all!