"But give it time, and people will begin to realize what is happening around them, and they will question it."

Elic roared and charged forward, thankfully stopping the flow of grenades. The grenade machine gun became a hammer. Stark could quite tell if that was better or worse. The Harpies didn't seem very pleased about it. They attempted to swarm him, but getting in range of his hammer was not a good idea. Three Harpies turned into black mist and feathers. One of them latched on his back and tried to tear at him through his armour. Elic just grabbed it and threw it on the ground before stepping on it, effectively stomping out its existence.
"Die!" he shouted again as he chased at a few more of them down the street. They seemed to be getting the message as more and more of them were hammered into black paste. Suddenly the dozen or so that were left took to the skies and began to flee. They made it a little way until sniper shots began picking them out of the sky.
Suddenly a long shaft of light shot through one of the fleeing Grimm, and it spun into the ground. Stark looked back over and saw Elic holding giant glowing rods of light. He hurled another and another Grimm fell. He drew his hand back and a new rod of light materialized in his hand.
"Stark!" Tecaelis shouted. Stark whirled around and saw another Goliath charging on their position with a horde of Grunts charging before it. Stark was about to shout his orders at Tecaelis when Elic's thunderous feet came storming up past him.
"I got it!" He cheered.
"What are you going to do?" Stark shouted as Elic charged past.
"I'm going to rip its trunk off and shove it up its ass!" Was the only response he got. It was at that moment Stark realized Elic had put his hammer away.
Stark had seen Hunters before. He had worked with many Grimm Control Units. But he had never seen anyone of them kill a horde of Grimm by ignoring them. But such was the case when Elic trampled the Grunts under foot as he charged the Goliath. And then he grabbed the Goliath by its tusks. Tecaelis gaped as he manhandled the Goliath as it struggled to free itself from his grasp. Elic laughed like a mad man as he twisted and threw the Goliath on its side.
"All. Goliaths. Must. Die!" He punched the Grimm in between each word and then keep punching until its skull crumpled like a tin can. Elic straightened up and dusted off his hands and smiled.
"What the hell is he?" Tecaelis asked incredulously. Unfortunately, a Goliath is probably one of the few creatures that can survive having over half of its head being turned into the inverse shape of Elic's armoured fist. Elic had his back turned when it came to its feet and charged him. Elic stumbled slightly as the Grimm came to an abrupt and violent halt against his back. Apparently annoyed by this, Elic turned around and grabbed the Goliath by its trunk and what was left of its face. And then he tore its trunk off and threw it on its back. Tecaelis turned paled at what he did after that.

"By Royal command, you are to pick up weapons from the fallen guards and defend the town against Mistral traitors. Don't surrender, and protect it with your lives." As soon as Stark released the button on the intercom system, people grabbed whatever weapons they could get their hands on and began milling about, finding defensive positions. Elic had collapsed the tunnels into the town, so at least for a small time they only way in would be to come over the ridge.
"They aren't going to last long," Lucas mumbled as they prepared to leave.
"It doesn't matter," Stark said as he cleaned off his spear. "Dying while fighting what Mistral did to them is all that matters right now."
"But they aren't fighting because of Mistral did." Tecaelis pointed out. "They don't have enough brain power left for that. They are only fighting because you told them to. And now they are going to die when Mistral comes to put them down, all because you ordered them not to surrender."
"It was an admirable thing to do," Elic stated in his deep, rumbling voice. "We cannot hold off an entire army, and even if we could it would not reflect well on our Queen. This is why they fight for a noble cause, even if they don't know it."
"Your telling people to die while we run away."
"If nothing else it covers out retreat back to extraction," Stark said quietly.
"And you're okay with this?"
"Yes Schnee, I am. Death is better than what these people are being put through."
"And who are you to make that call?"
"Then one pressing the intercom button," Stark replied simply. Tecaelis frowned but said nothing else.
Stark nodded. "Then let's move out before they come to see why the town has gone dark." Elic grinned as Stark lead them out of the control room. Before anyone could stop him, he whirled around and fired at the radio tower. One two-second long trigger pull and fifteen explosions later, what was left of the tower collapsed.
"Just in case," Elic said as he swung the strap of the large gun over his head so the weapon rested on his back. Lucas rolled his eye and drew his revolver. Tecaelis stocked up on scrap metal and maintained the augments he built around his arms. Stark threw up a shield as they went over the ridge and on top the plateau. Elic gave it an amused glance and walked on without it, completely unbothered by the wind.

They ran to the extraction point and cleared the area of Grimm. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be getting out until tomorrow. But hopefully Mistral will have its hands full trying to recapture the town, put radio towers backup, and reinforcing all the defensive points they took down on their way to chase a team that was probably already gone. All and all, it was a pretty productive mission. The bad thing is that Mistral would likely blame this on Vale and tension will increase. But Stark was prepared to do everything he could to get Mantle on the side of Vale. What he saw there…
"No," Stark said to himself.
"No?" Tecaelis asked. He was in the middle of cutting a new camp out of the face of the mountain.
"No, I can't let what is going on here pass. We have to convince the Queen to support Vale and hope we can take down this… thing that has taken over Mistral." Tecaelis said nothing, just nodded and continued defacing the mountain side.
The first place Tecaelis carved out was a sniper nest high above them. Lucas was having a competition with himself to see what ran out first, bullets, alcohol, or Grimm. So far, Grimm were winning.
Elic was out smashing things. They could hear his laughter from where they were, normally it was followed by the thump of his hammer. At the very least, he was leaving his mark on the land by bombarding everything that moved with grenades. Or rather, mostly only things that moved.
When night came, they were able to enjoy a hot meal for the first time since they entered the canyon. Elic found an actual wild boar and brought it back nearly completely intact. Apparently, he thought they way it struggled and tried to tear his guts out hilarious. He held down with on hand so the other could kill it with less explosive methods.
"So, a telekinetic, and shield maker, and a noise canceller. I have to say, that is one of the more sound Grimm Control units I've seen." Elic said as he bit into a piece of cooked boar.
"Oh?" Stark asked.
"Yeah, you lads are missing just one thing," He grinned widely. "A hammer!" At this, Stark raised an eyebrow. "You lot are fine for a stealth mission, but if you actually get deployed to fight Grimm you'll need someone like me." He laughed loudly, Stark would be concerned if he didn't know that Lucas was containing the sound. "You all barely handled those tiny Goliaths. You would have been destroyed if it wasn't for your man hiding behind peashooter."
"A peashooter that could cut through you," Lucas grumbled.
Elic laughed and slammed a large fist against his chest, "This chest plate is six inches of Dust and aura reinforced steel. Try shooting through it, I doubt you'll even dent it!" He let out another deep laugh. Apparently, all his laughing was annoying Lucas, perhaps somewhat ironically he liked the quiet. Suddenly Elic quite down and stared at Stark. "Although I wouldn't want to try it against your kind."
Stark frowned, "My kind?"
"Of course you silver eyed fighters. You get them same eyes as The Queen's Guard. You lot are some of the strongest damn people I've ever seen."
Suddenly, Tecaelis jumped into the conversation, "The Queen's Guard? I've heard of them, but nothing about silver eyes."
Elic stroked his beard in thought, "Hm, you must not have paid attention. Or else Vale schools are better than Mantle's." He shook his head. "A long time ago we realized what the silver eyed people were capable of. And every since any Hunter with silver eyes gets assigned to The Queen's Guard. Meaning all the Hunters daughters get put on The Guard if they become Hunters. The way I hear it some bloodlines are older than the royal bloodline. At least, that is the story in Vale."
"But what is special about the silver eyes?"
Elic looked at him like he was crazy, "Are you serious? Ain't no one ever told you about these things?"
Stark cleared his throat, "It may be that this is one of those subjects The Queen thought inappropriate to teach young men."
Elic stroked his beard again. "Yes, I can see our Queen doing that." He thought for a moment. "There is actually a lot of debate on what the silver eyes can do. Like I said, they have them long bloodlines and tend to get a lot of results.
"I hear talk of them being able to stop feeling emotions. And another story of them being able to give shape to their aura. A few people seem to think they gain power as they kill Grimm. I think there may have been one account of one Hunter who absorbed the souls of her enemies." Elic grinned. "I would take all their souls if I had that! Ahem, but the one thing we know for sure is that they are able to make Grimm turn and run." All eyes turned to Stark, who remained impassive. "Surely you heard the stories that Grimm flee from The Queen's Guard. That's because they have some glowing eyes powers that make the Grimm turn and run!"
"Then they steam roll the bastards." He roared with laughter, "A Hunter able to use operate without restriction! They destroy everything in their path and still come out with barely any aura lost!" Lucas cast a wary eye at Stark. Stark created a bowl out of his shield and began to fry some of his rations in the grease dripping off the boar.
"Elic," Stark said, "you mentioned you went to school in Vale." Elic stopped laughing and gazed down at him.
"Yes, my father was a royal paper-pusher until I was done with school. Then me mother arranged for us to live in Mantle where my… talents could be put to better use."
"You know now that you mention it," Tecaelis asked around a mouthful full of boar. "What were you doing when you got captured? And what about the rest of your team?" Elic smiled down at him and pulled off another piece of boar.
"I was chasing a Grimm across the ocean." Tecaelis furrowed his eyebrows.
"That doesn't make sense, the only Grimm that we do that for are-"
"A Hydra." Tecaelis started, making Elic laugh… again. "When a village is under attack from a herd of Goliaths or Tauros they'll send out a few teams or a squad of Hunters. When a rebellious village gets a Mistral mech, they send out several Hunter teams. When a Hydra pulls up onto the shore, they send every last Hunter and Grimm Control team they can spare.
"But in any of those cases, they can send one of me."
Luas rolled his eyes, "Is there anything that you can't fight?"
Elic stroked his beard, "They insisted on sending a hunter team with me when a Leviathan surface off the coast of Vacou. Didn't help when I got swallowed whole by it."
"How did you get out?"
"I blew its throat out. Ain't a single problem I've had I couldn't solve with a grenade." Stark turned away from the conversation they were having, deciding he was going to patrol the area. The moment he was outside the camp they had made the sound died into nothing. Stark gave the camp one look back and allowed himself a moment to think about what was going to happen to Black and Schnee after they return to Mantle. He stopped himself and turned away, now was not the time to think about that.