Chapter VII-AVGRs Assemble? (Part 2)
'This just isn't my day, is it?'
It was still morning and Adam had already came to this conclusion.
As the bovine faunus was trekking through the forest towards the temples, with wide and furious steps displaying his displeasure and a chilling atmosphere around him to boot, his thoughts traveled once again to the recent events of the Initiation, which only made him grit his teeth as he tighten his grip on his weapon.
'You would assume that finding a teammate wouldn't be this complex considering how it's done.' Adam tried to rationalize his current predicament, only to let out a grunt. 'But this level of inconvenience is starting to smell like bullshit.'
~17 minutes earlier~
Adam had not landed too long ago before he began to wander the Emerald Forest in search for his potential partner and, in the midst of his search, his hearing caught on a few subtle signs of human (or faunus) activity nearby. His hearing might not be on par with other faunus species (Blake coming to mind, obviously), but it was still more accurate than a trained human Huntsman and it's enough for him to to have an amplified awareness of his surroundings or even hunt down specific targets if the need arises.
The ex-Major tried to focus his sense of hearing again and was able to make out the sound of rustling bushes along with faint footsteps, although the footsteps seem to click on the ground... almost as if the person was on high-heels.
'I swear I'll never understand why some people insist on fighting in those...' he smelled the air a bit and besides the fresh oxygen and the general scent of the surrounding vegetation, he was able to perceive the faint scent of... 'Perfume?'
At this point Adam gave in to his curiosity and quickened his pace, thumb slightly pressed against Wilt's guard, getting ever so closer to the source of interest until something...or rather someone popped out the bushes in front of him. He barely stopped himself from colliding into the person in front, who let out a feminine gasp, and when his sight laid on the smaller frame of Weiss Schnee, the little traces of good mood he had today went to shit.
They stared at each other in an awkward silence. Weiss's eyes still held a surprised gaze, scanning his overall towering frame, until they traveled upwards and stopped at his horns, at this point her eyes narrowed ever so slightly and Adam swore he noticed a subtle undertone of disgust behind that cold frown. The faunus gave his own cold stare in return.
"What? Is there something wrong with my face?" Adam growled his words laced with venom and watched in satisfaction as she slightly flinched. "Or are you not used to seeing animals out of their leash?"
The heiress winced at the venomous remark and hesitated for a moment, before letting out a huff and forcing her words out. "It's nothing."
"Of course it isn't..." he muttered bitterly, ready to let out another response until a particular but obvious detail clicked in his mind only now that made him freeze:
She's the first person who he laid eyes upon after landing.
'Ohoooooooo no...' his mind went overdrive 'Shit, this is happening... Okay calm down, you can always just walk away. Or feed her to an Ursa and nobody will need to kn-'
He his current line of thought was cut short as his amber eyes caught a shinning glimpse of a camera-lens hidden behind the leafs of a tree. '...Crapbaskets.'
"If I'm being such a bother to you, than you'll be glad to know that I already have a partner." Weiss said, her scarred eyebrow twitching at the mention of partner.
...
'...False alarm then.' he held back a huge sigh of relief and instead let out a humorless laugh. "Oh that poor, unfortunate soul."
"Excuse you!?" Weiss's response was enough to make Adam smirk as walked passed her without a care.
"Give your partner my best regards." the faunus dryly said. "God knows he or she will need it."
An indignant huff in the distance was the only response he got, and it was enough to lift up his mood a little.
'Dodged a bullet there.' the former terrorist sighed as he contemplated his luck. 'Alright, no more running around like a clueless fool.'
In a more cautious manner, he resumed his walk and after a few meters his hearing picked up a pair of voices close to his vicinity. Adam eyed the pathway covered in bushes where the voices originated from, approaching it with careful steps, and the closer he got, the more comprehensible the words exchanged between the voices became.
"So, huuuh...How're you going to get me unstuck from here?" a nervous male voice was heard.
A brief feminine giggle followed. "Don't worry about it, I can manage."
After the latter's response, the bull faunus heard the sounds of sprinting footsteps against a wooded surface, which suggested that the female presence may have leaped up a tree. Adam pushed passed the bushes and finally into visual contact with the presences.
High up in a tree, the blond 'knight', which he recognized as the Vomit Boy from the ship, was stuck by a javelin through his hoodie...again. Beside the blond was Pyrrha Nikos herself, with both her hands gripping the javelin in an attempt to pull it out of the wood, with her feet firmly planted on the tree for support.
In the midst of this process, the blond noticed Adam, who had a blank look, and tried to get the Mistral's champion attention.
"Huh, Pyrrha?"
"I'm almost there, Jaune."
"It's not that." Jaune said as he awkwardly pointed at Adam.
Still gripping the javelin, she turned her head and met the faunus's amber gaze. After a moment, she gave a nervous yet polite smile was she waved with one of her hands. "Oh, hello!"
Adam did not respond, he stared blankly at the pair stuck in the tree for a few seconds before he turned his back and walked away, leaving the said pair dumbfounded.
'Well, I guess SHE'S out the list.' he mentally grunted. 'And with that idiot of all people... No matter, there are still plenty fish in the sea.'
Once again, he continued his search, focusing all of his senses, and after a while the sound of rapid gunshots could be resonated through the area.
'An SMG by the sound of it.' he mused as he hearing also picked up the faint sound of something massive slithering on the ground. 'And if I was a betting man, I would say the fighter is currently dealing with a King Taijitu.'
Now this peaked his interest quite a bit, a subtle dose of adrenaline going through his veins and his fighting instinct demanding him to seek a challenge, so he hastened his pace towards the battle. His interest only rose higher as the sounds of gunshots and monstrous hissing became more clear.
He came into a clearing just in time to witness a black-haired boy with a ponytail stab a broken fang into a King Taijitu's head (the remaining black one, he noted) right in it's eye before driving the fang through the Grimm's skull with a Aura-powered palm strike, obliterating the head into a dark bloody mess. As the headless body falls over, Adam analysed the fighter from a distance while said fighter slid his dual SMG's into his sleeves and casually brushed them off.
A smirk grew into Adam's face. 'I think I just hit the jackpot.'
Before he could make a move, however, an noise akin to an animal rang above them, making the boy look around in wonder.
'What the hell is that? It's not a bird, that's for sure.' Adam wondered, it didn't sound like any animal he recognized, although the annoying voice sounded familiar...Wait a minute.
His eyes widen in realization. 'No, you don-!'
At that moment, the orange-haired girl from this morning swung upside-down from a tree branch right in front of the boy with one of the goofiest smiles.
"I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like." the magenta-eyed boy stoically said with a hint of amusement.
The girl only touched the tip of his nose with a finger in response. "Boop!"
The ex-Major could only stare, with his nostrils flaring and his gloved fists clenching, before he suddenly lashed a fist to the tree beside him with a loud crack that startled both humans and made the girl fall off the tree.
'FuuuuuUUUUU-!'
~Present time~
Adam scoffed at his case of misfortune, it was times like this that he almost regretted being guilt-tripped by Blake into abandoning the White Fang, but little could be done at this point, he could not turn back now.
All of the wandering through the forest that he had done up to this point was becoming incredibly tedious for his patience, and other than being closer to the temple, he accomplished little to nothing in these spawn of minutes. Although, he had an irking felling travelling through his spine for a little while, almost as if something was following him.
This was further proved has he began to hear other set footsteps besides his own behind him, but the faunus kept his calm and pretended to being oblivious as he kept walking forward. The footsteps only kept getting closer, the bushes surrounding him were being rustled in the process, and Adam's hairs were standing on it's ends as his instincts screamed at him of the imminent danger.
Adam's movement came to a halt, his face remained impassive has his cold eyes scanned the surroundings and his muscles became tense and ready to react. He quirked an eyebrow as the rustling of leaves came to a dead stop.
Suddenly, four Beowolves shot out of the bushes and lunged themselves at Adam, with teeth snarled and claws aimed at him. But as soon as they were too close, Adam swiftly battered them back with his sheathed weapon, before noticing a fifth Beowolf running straight at him, to which Adam aimed his weapon by the hip and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The beast's head snapped back as the pommel of Wilt hit it straight in the snout. In a blink of an eye, Adam had already caught the blade mid-air and decapitated the Grimm with a horizontal slash before shifting Blush into it's rifle-form and laying waste to the knocked back Beowolves with rapid burst-shots. The bovine faunus sheathed his blade as the headless, bleeding corpse fell over and the other bodies started smoking away.
It was at that moment that more Beowolves began to reveal themselves from their hiding, and as the ex-terrorist analysed them he let a cold smirk cross his face. Regular Beowolves were far from challenging for him but they still provided a decent warm-up, of course they could still be dangerous in big numbers, especially with an Alpha involved.
"Attracted to my anger, are we?" he let out a low chuckle. "Good, I needed to let off some steam anyway."
His remark was met with howls as they began to charge the lone faunus. The first beast that reached him leaped high in the air, to which Adam unsheathed Wilt at blinking speeds and bisected the Grimm in half with an upper slash. Without skipping a beat, the bull faunus aimed Blush to his right with a twirl and stopped a charging Beowolf in it's tracks with a shot in the head, before sensing another incoming threat from behind, to which he spun on his heels and made quick work with the beast with a descending slice, cleaving it diagonally from the shoulder.
Just as Adam has dealt with his last attacker, another one attempted to swipe with his claws from his right. The ex-terrorist ducked under the swipe, flanking the beast and sheathing his blade in the act, before he lashed the blade out again with a dash that cut through both the current beast and another unfortunate one in that stood in the path.
As the bleeding upper halves fell over, the bull faunus took this opportunity to swipe the blood off Wilt and gaze the snarling Grimm surrounding him as he sheathed the blade. He noted that the creatures seem a bit more hesitant in approaching him, which was a bit odd considering the younger Grimm are usually more reckless to the point they forsake their self-preservation.
'But they're still reckless enough to approach me of all people.'
As if to prove his point, a Beowolf took initiative and and lunged at Adam for a bite. The faunus merely leaned his upper body back, letting the wolf bite nothing but air, as he partially unsheathed his blade and slammed the beast's sternum with Wilt's pommel, knocking the beast back a couple meters.
Turning around, Adam faced a charging Beowolf to which he swiped it's feet with his sheath, sending the beast airborne, before spinning with the momentum and cleaving the monster with a horizontal slice. Not stopping there, Adam swatted a Beowolf's incoming claw with Blush before tearing the Grimm apart with three swipes of his blade. Another Beowolf tried to lunge at him, but Adam delivered a vicious roundhouse kick to it's jaw, rewarding him with the sound of bones being cracked and a pained whimper. The beast crashed into the ground, and before it could get up, the bovine faunus shifted Blush into it's rifle mode and blew its's head apart with a burst shot.
Adam turned to the next Beowolf who had also lunged at him. The faunus performed an upward slice that sent the Grimm skyward, following it into the air, and delivered the beast a combination of cuts airborne before blasting it away with a shot from Blush.
Feeling the gravity doing it's function, Adam raised Wilt above his head as he rapidly descended and brought it down to a Beowolf upon landing with a powerful slice, cleaving the monster vertically in half as it's blood sprayed the soil. Another Beowolf swung his claws at Adam from behind, only for the faunus to cut them clean off with a swat of his blade before he bisected it diagonally from the shoulder, said cut body falling apart as soon as Adam clicked his sword into his sheath.
The bull faunus turned around and was met with several Beowolves standing not too far from him, various pairs of red eyes practically screaming their desire for the faunu's death. Adam grinned as he took hold of Wilt's handle and his bent his knees, lowering himself into a Iaijutsu stance.
Adam's feet kicked him forward at blinding speeds into the Grimm pack that also began to charge at him howling. As soon as the two forces were about to clash, Adam lashed his blade out and his slashes became a crimson blur as they cut right through the horde.
"Hyaaaaa!"
With one final dash, Adam finished his charge with an horizontal slash, sliding his feet to a stop. The Beowolves stood there paralyzed for a moment, until various cuts started spreading through their bodies before they all fell to the ground in bloody pieces.
Seeing the deed done, the lone faunus swatted the blood of his blade, slowly sheathing it, and began to walk away. However he was stopped in his tracks as several more snarls resonated in the area and more Beowolves began to reveal themselves.
'For the love of all things holy... Where do these pests keep coming from!?' his amber eyes narrowed in annoyance.
Aaaaawwwwooooooooooo!
A dreadful howl brought Adam out of his thoughts as his widened eyes immediately snapped to the source. Standing behind the horde of Grimm was an Alpha Beowolf in his massive glory, staring at him as if determining his next prey.
'...Of course.' he sighed as rubbed the bridge of his nose, before his eyes snapped open into a cold stare as his thumb popped the blade's guard of Blush. 'I guess I'll have to teach this nuisance who's the prey here.'
BLAM!
An Ursa's head was blown into bloody chunks by a round of buckshots, courtesy of Vino's 10-gauge shotgun, before it's massive frame slumped down to the ground with a heavy thump.
"Nice try, Papa Bear."
Vino stood there with his smoking gun in one hand, his wine-colored eyes scanning the current area that was decorated with the smoking corpses of a few Ursai that he recently dispatched, which were either blown apart or cut to pieces. Realizing by the silence that there were no more imminent threats, Vino smiled in satisfaction as he shifted Woodsman Sin into it's axe form and slung it to his back as he relaxed his shoulders.
"Thanks for the warm up, pals." he muttered, stretching his arms and feeling the satisfying sensation of his joints cracking, before he turned around and walked away.
'Walking through a green forest infested with flesh-eating enemies, just to retrieve some artifact to prove that I'm a capable warrior...' Vino hummed in thought, a certain movie coming to his mind. 'Yep, seems familiar. All I need is a spirit animal guiding me, a dad looking for me and I'll have the whole set.'
Amusing parallels aside, things have been going smooth so far for the young axe wielder, as smooth as it can be with a few Grimm in the middle. But he still hasn't came in contact with another soul, although he didn't allow something that minor bother him.
'But I wonder, who could I partner up with?' Vino curiously contemplated during his walk. ' I know very few people: Ruby, Yang and Jauney. Hmmm, I wonder how are they doing.'
A powerful gunshot ringed in the distance in that instance.
'Oooooh, anti-material round.' he guessed with some excitement. 'Probably Little Rose Grimm-reaping some fuckers right now. Shame she's too far away, could've been fun working with her.'
'Who's next? Jaune seems like an alright guy, but I feel like he's not gonna last long.' He sweatdropped as Jaune's clumsy hold on his weapon came into mind. Vino may not be a swordsman, but he applied some of the basics into his style when using the axe, although it only takes half a brain to realize that the blond was somewhat of an amateur.
'And Yang, I just met her an hour ago.' Other than the possibility of her being an up-close fighter (if the shotgun rounds she was carrying were anything to go by) and her bad tendency for puns, the wine-eyed young man knew next to nothing about the blonde bombshell.
BANG-BANG-BANG!
Another round of gunshots brought him out of his thoughts and made him stop, but this time they were close. Real close.
'Sounds like an rifle, 9mm.' Vino tried to guess once again, his hardened eyes scanning the source, as his hearing also picked up the bestial cries of Grimm. But what really stood out for him was an intimidating, dreadful howl that spread throughout the area: an Alpha's howl.
An Alpha's howl function is usually to call and attract reinforcements not only by sound but also by an negative wave much akin to a negative emotion, so should any Huntsman come across a pack of Beowolves with an Alpha the Huntsman should take out the Alpha first.
Vino's mouth split into a predatory smile as a felt the negativity spicing up his hunting appetite.
"Hehe, a decent prey... it's practically asking to be hunted down." he let out a low chuckle as he skipped to the danger zone. "Can't leave someone with all the fun now, can I?"
'I'm starting to believe that Fate likes to bend me over...' Adam thought as he parried an Ursas swipe and got pushed back.
Staring coldly at the horde of Grimm before his eyes, or more specifically the Alpha behind them, he huffed when he noted that there were still quite a few alive.
'Not even two months since I left' and I'm already getting sloppy.' He scolded himself. 'Look at this mess! This could've been avoided' if I noticed the bloody Alpha sooner!'
Adam had tried to deal with the Alpha as soon as he noticed it, but the younger Beowolfs always got in his way and kept him occupied, preventing him from fighting the leader properly, and the more nuisances he slaughtered the more the Alpha kept calling. Fighting an Alpha with Beowolves crowding him was already challenging enough, so it did not help him at all when Ursas were also attracted to the fight.
All in all, this little clusterfuck was stating get on the ex-Major's nerves.
"At least I have a decent challenge." he muttered, gripping Wilt, and readied himself as the Grimm were about to pounce on him.
SNAP!
The massive racket of wood being split made Adam and all of the Grimm pause. The bull faunus glanced to his left just in time to see a massive tree about to tumble over. And another detail he noted... some of the Grimm were in it's crashing path.
Adam quickly jumped back as the tree fell.
SMASH!
The ground trembled as two Beowolves and an Ursa were crushed underneath the massive log, blood splattering over the surrounding grass and some even reached Adam's boots. As the dust settled down, Adam's gaze shifted from the bloody remains beneath the tree to the tree stomp when he heard someone stepping on it, and his eyes narrowed as he spotted that someone.
The former terrorist recognized the trenchcoat wearing human from the cliff before they were launched. The young man had a foot on the tree stomp with his forearm rested on the knee while his other hand was holding his large axe beside him. The human made eye contact with Adam for a moment with his fierce eyes before looking at the surrounding Grimm, raising his scarred eyebrow at the snarling Alpha in the back, and then turned back to Adam with a roguish grin.
"Hohohoho, ho-ly shit!" the axe wielder chuckled, amusement clear in his eyes. "Today is really not looking up to you."
Adam could only growl at the human, clearly not amused, not taking his eyes off the Grimm. "I may have noticed..."
"Then you wouldn't mind if this old chap here joined the fun." he pointed at himself.
The faunus considered for a bit as he narrowed his eyes. He was skeptical of this human, not because of his race (well not mainly), but due to the fact that the he was unsettling him at this moment, he doesn't know what but the ex-Major swears there's something in this human that's irking his faunus senses. But on the other hand, he needed a partner and he wanted to be done with this mess, so he accepted any help at this point.
He huffed. "I might need a hand in disposing a few unwanted party crashers."
The the wine-eyed warrior's grin widened. "Sweet! So, shall we?"
Almost as if it understood the impending doom, a Beowolf gave a sprint and lunged at the axe wielder. The human quickly twirled his weapon into shotgun mode with one hand and blew the wolf's head off with a round of buck shots.
"Slaughter time, ya chumps!" he yelled as he pumped the empty shell out and charged full speed at the horde of roaring beasts in his way.
He kicked the headless corpse on the way, sending it crashing straight to the first horde. Taking advantage of the stunned enemies, he shifted his ax readied on his side, and unleashed a vicious horizontal strike that cut through three Beowolves, sending their top halves flipping in a gory shower. Using the momentum of the swing, he spun around and swung the axe down to a charging Ursa that crashed it's head to the ground and split it open, before noticing two Beowolves lunging at him, to which he quickly drew a large revolver from his coat and fanned the gun's the hammer with the palm of his hand.
BANG!-BANG!-BANG!
Three rapid shots roared from the barrel, two hit the first Beowolf's chest and head, killing it, while the third shot found it's mark on the other Beowolf's shoulder, halting it's momentum as the beast whimpered and crashed to the ground. As the Grimm attempted to raise, the young man took no chances and blasted beast's head with another round. He quickly took the axe off the Ursa's corpse with his right hand when another Beowolf ran up to him and cleaved it's upper-jaw with an outward swing, before dodging another wolf's swipe with a sidestep, slamming the barrel of his revolver up his jaw and tearing it's head with another shot.
Holstering his revolver, the young man held his axe in front of him to receive the full blunt force of an Ursa's paws. They held a brief strength war trying overpower each other, the Ursa trying to bite the human's head off in the midst of it, until said human growled with a smile through his gritted teeth. Shoving the the weight of the Grimm with a sudden burst, the wine-eyed man slammed the beast's head, knee and chest with three shotgun-blast induced strikes of his axe's knob.
BLAM!-BLAM!-BLAM!
As weakened Ursa cried in pain, the axe-wielder swung his axe down diagonally at the beast, carving it's body halfway from the shoulder, only to mercilessly rip it out and bring it down again with a fierce shout, finally cleaving through the beast.
Another Beowolf roared as it charged at the human only for him to cut it with two axe strikes before sending the beast airborne with with a rising strike. The human quickly shifted his axe into shotgun mode and set the iron-sights on the flying Grimm with a predatory grin.
"PULL!"
BLAM! SHICK-SHCIK!
The fiery buck shots blew the wolf's abdomen apart during it's crash landing. The human let out a barking laugh.
Both human and faunus continued to decimate any Grimm that got in their way, Adam dealing them with fatal but precise slashes while the trenchcoat wearing man dealt with them with a much more bold and brutal style with his bloody weapon.
Two minutes later, they were side by side analyzing their progress with the beasts. Their numbers have significantly diminished with both their efforts combined, but they knew this wouldn't be for long if they don't deal with the big issue.
"So, got any master plan up your sleeve?" the young man asked nonchalantly as he rested his axe on his shoulder.
"Dispose the Alpha, obviously" Adam dryly replied.
"No shit, Sherlock, I know that." the wine-eyed man responded, not affected by the dry reply. "Are you thinking of flanking or-"
"We'll charge straight."
The human was taken back, his eyes snapping to the faunus. "Pardon me?"
Adam sighed. "It's bold, but it's efficient. I'll go finish off the leader while you will help me dispose of any small annoyances that come near us. Any objections?"
The young human stared at the ex-terrorist for a second before shrugging his shoulders with a smirk.
"Nope. I like your style, actually." he lifted the axe of his shoulder and held it to his side. "I wanted to take a crack at the big guy, but I guess I'm gonna have to help my self with these lambs."
Adam resisted the urge to roll his eyes and tighten his grip on his sheathed Wilt. "Let's do this then!"
The axe wielder gave a toothy grin as he growled in approval and both dashed forward with their weapons drawn.
The Alpha sensed the enormous amount of danger approaching fast and snarled to it's lesser kin, forcing them to intercept the danger themselves, and this sense of danger only increased further as it witnessed a shower of gore heading to his way.
Adam drew Wilt in an blink of an eye and cut through four Beowolves with a combination of swipes before blasting a fifth one with a shot from Blush. While the last Grimm's body was dropping, he immediately noticed an roaring Ursa closing in.
"Duck!"
Adam did not hesitate and crouched down, letting an wide axe swing pass over his head and knock the Ursa aside with a part of it's head missing. "And that's a home-run, folks!"
The wine-eyed human took the lead temporally as he passed Adam. The first Beowolf near him was maimed with two horizontal axe swings before he spun around with the momentum and shot the wolf away with the axe's end-knob. Not stopping there, the trenchcoat-wearing human brought his axe up and swung it down at a second Beowolf, cutting it in half like a log, before dodging a third one's swipe and decapitating it with a following axe swing. The forth Beowolf leaped at him, only to have a shotgun barrel shoved into it's opened mouth as the young man held the beast above him like a flag.
Click.
BLAM!
As the human was showered with blood, a fifth Beowolf came charging at him with his claws out and swiped at him. The human dodged it with a crouch and, shifting his weapon, cut the beast's legs off with a wide swing. Before the legless Grimm could hit the ground, Adam jumped over the human and kicked the beast away, sending the body crashing into the last group covering the Alpha Beowolf. The ex-Major did not waste a moment to jump over the stunned horde and sprint to the Alpha, two Beowolves tried to lunge at the faunus and just as he was about to cut them down...
BANG!-BANG!
The two wolves crashed to the grassy ground, Adam looked back in surprise and found the trenchcoat-wearing human giving him a mocking salute with the smoking barrel of his revolver along with a smirk before he swung the axe with his other hand to a Grimm behind him.
'Unnecessary, but appreciated.' the red-haired faunus thought in mild amusement as he continued to run up to the Alpha, ignoring the pained cries from the slaughter happening behind him.
The Alpha roared and began to also charge at Adam, and as soon as the two beings were only meters a apart, the massive Grimm lunged at the faunus. Adam crouch slid under the the beast's tackle and unsheathed two quick slices under it's belly, before he slid back up to his feet and shot a few bursts from Blush at it. Although affected, the Alpha shook the pain off and charged at Adam again with a series of swipes and bites, to which Adam either dodged or parried skillfully with both his blade and sheath, counter-attacking the beast with slashes and shots in between.
This went on for half a minute before the injured beast roared in rage and swung one of his claws into a powerful swipe, only for the bull-faunus to block it with Wilt half unsheathed to his side. Adam let out a cold smirk as the force of the strike was absorbed, the crimson of his hair, attire and blade glowed ominously with the added power. Shoving off the Alpha's claw, Adam kicked the beast's feet off the ground that lift it's body airborne, before unsheathing a vicious slash that cleaved through the armored body with ease.
The bull faunus swiped the blood out of his blade before he sheathed it and as he was about to look at the human's progress he noticed the upper half of he Alpha's body still moving, desperately crawling towards Adam at a slow pace. Adam grunted in annoyance, approaching the Grimm.
"For fuck's sake, die already!" he sneered and slammed his foot on the beast's neck.
CRACK!
When all was said and done, Adam and the axe wielder were surrounded by smoking corpses, bullet casings and empty shotgun shells. The two initiates met up with eachother as they took in the destroyed scenery decorated with broken trees and burned patches on the ground.
"That's all of them." the red-haired faunus concluded.
"Geez, I kinda feel bad for Ozpin." the wine-eyed human said with a wince, the Grimm blood still evaporating from his clothes and hair. "I bet the amount of lien spent on environmental damage cover alone every year is enough to sacrifice a few vacations."
"And that might be putting it mildly." Adam dryly stated, amber eyes regarding the human beside him, if it weren't for the human's current demeanor, Adam could've mistaken him for a beast with all the smoking blood surrounding his tall frame. "...I guess I own you one."
Honestly, it was the best "Thank you" he was able to force out of him at the human who helped.
"Nah, don't sweat it." the wine-eyed human shrugged it off. "Although you could leave me with the next Major Grimm we find."
Adam gave a snort. "Whatever pleases you."
"No, I'm serious. Sure, young Beowolfes and Ursai are good as stress relievers but other than that, they're almost pushovers at this point."
"Hm, I can't disagree on that."
"Anyhoo, nice work out there." the human turned to the faunus. "So, what's thy name, oh thou mighty samurai... or ronin, I wouldn't know."
"...Adam." he hesitantly responded with a raised eyebrow.
"Adam." the axe wielder repeated, as if tasting the name before extending his hand with a lopsided smile. "The name's Legna, Vino Legna. Pleasure to meet ya, partner."
Adam, instead of immediately taking the offering hand, he narrowed his gaze at it. This would be the first real bond he would be creating with a human, and it comes to no surprise how wary he was of it, it was hard not to after all those years of abuse he was subjected.
On the positive note, the axe wielder hasn't commented on his heritage so far, nor does he even seem bothered by it and he's a decent fighter so far, despite his less than good habit of cracking jokes during a scuffle. And another thing he noted, the feeling he had earlier of Vino was now gone.
He could already imagine what Blake would've said in this situation.
'Come on Adam, stop being a stubborn bull and just make an effort.'
He sighed.
Adam stiffly raised his own hand and clapped into Vino's into a firm handshake, although the faunus may have applied some unnecessary strength, the straining of his gloves being the proof. "Likewise, I suppose."
By the slight shift of Vino's gaze, Adam could tell that he noticed the discomfort behind the excessive strength but doesn't seem bothered by it.
"Strong and firm grip, I like that." Vino smirked before releasing the hold. "So where do we go from here?"
"The headmaster instructed us to go north. If we take in cosideration the position of the sun, we will be able to determine the general direction of our objective." Adam pauses for a bit as he looks around notices the majority of the sun rays being blocked by the trees. "Although, we could use a clearer view."
Unbeknownst to Adam, Vino started casually strolling around and humming a tune, gazing at the trees in a simular manner of a person determining what he should grab from the stands of a market. He stopped in front of a thick tree that caught his eye, and nodded his head in approval as he reached for the handle of his axe.
"We should find a-"
SNAP!
CRASH!
Adam whirled around in a split second, his wide eyes rapidly searching for any kind of danger only to fall on Vino not to far, with his weapon in hand and a fallen tree beside him.
"Oh, would you look at this." Vino pointed up at the sun rays passing through where the branches once were. "The sun is shinning through this man's heart."
Adam could only stare incredulously at the human in front of him that was taking the term "pragmatic" a little too far. Rolling his eyes with a sigh, he approached the tree stomp and both initiates gazed up with squinted eyes at the blinding sun.
"It rises from east and sets on west, soooo..." Vino spoke.
"...The relics must be over that way." Adam finished, turning his head to their left.
"Groovy." Vino hanged the axe on his back. "Lead the way then, patner."
Adam frowned at how casually the axe-wielder was throwing that term at him like they were old acquaintances, that amount of laid-back attitude was starting to get under Adam's skin, and from the smug grin that Vino had plastered on his face, the bull faunus had a suspicion that the human caught on to that.
A grunt from the depth of Adam's throat was the only response that Vino got when the ex-Major began marching to north. Shrugging his shoulders, Vino followed him with his hands shoved in his coat's pockets, the same grin still present in his face.
"Ya know, this looks like a start of a beautiful patnership."
"Might be too soon to make assupmtions like that." Adam stated with a stoic face.
"And a bit too early to be dramatically pessimistic." Vino responded with a chuckle.
The ex-terrorist could already feel the beginning of a migraine as they strolled away from the scene with a slight wind blowing on the length of their coats.
"Jesus!"
"Seriously, how many idiots are gonna burn this place besides me!?"
Gale and Roxo were struggling through the thick smoke of another fire they came across, beastly growls undoubtedly from Grimm resonated from the other side of the flames.
"Man, fire prevention campaigns are gonna have a field trip with this." Gale joked, gazing at the flames and the blazing trees.
"Yeah, no shit, they're gonna try to rip Ozpin a new hole by the end this." Roxo commented.
Gale chuckled. "Which makes me wonder, how much cash does he spend to deal with this bullshit every year?"
"Probably enough to leave him with a semi-depression state."
Glynda broke her gaze from from the camera feed and looked at the headmaster beside with a deadpanned expression. Ozpin, on the other hand, had shadows cast over his eyes, no doubt affected by the initiates almost accurate descriptions.
The headmistress shook her head.
Gale looked at the fire again as more Grimm cried out from the other side. "But if there's one one good thing about this fire, it's keeping those fuckers at bay."
"It's gonna force us to go a bit off course though." Roxo stated.
"I mean, yeah, but not too much... hopefully."
The pony-tailed bomber narrowed his eyes at Gale, who had a sheepish undertone hidden behind his yellow eyes . "Well, that's reassuring as all hell."
The sniper shrugged. "Hey come on, it could be worse. And it's not like we have that much of a choice."
Roxo sighed. "Ugh, fine! Any longer in here and my prosthetic is gonna fucking melt my stump."
With a decision made, the two teens sprinted out off the flaming area before the fire surrounded the zone they were previously standing. Seven minutes after, they were relatively safe from the fire as they made their improvised alternative route towards the temple and the more they walked the more Gale noted that the forest became denser.
After a while, the two teens paused for a moment to decide the next route, in the midst of it Gale's piercing gaze spotted something from the corner of his eye. Curious, he approached a boulder that was covered in branches and cut few of them with his machete, displaying his point of interest into full view.
"...Huh."
"What? You found something?"
"I may have just found some pre-Great War stuff."
Roxo walked beside the sniper and his eyebrows rose slightly in surprise.
The boulder in front of him was carved with a rock painting, the painting consisted of various stick figures, some were running away and some were armed with spears, and all of them were surrounding a massive figure resembling a gorilla with a tail that had his arms raised above his head, clearly portraying it's rage.
Roxo peered at the painting for a few seconds before directing an accusatory glare at Gale.
"Now, why do I have the feeling that you just jinxed us?"
"Naaaah, you're just being paranoid." the atlesian sniper waved his hand dismissively, analyzing the painting a bit more thoroughly before an thought came in to mind. "Hey, you think they've predicted Harambe's death this far back."
Roxo snorted loudly and looked incredulously at Gale, with the corners of his mouth curling up. "Are you fucking serious?"
"What?"
"Of all the shit they could supposedly 'predict', if that was even a thing back then, why would they come up with a death of a zoo animal." the bomber couldn't hold some chuckles escaping during his sentence.
"I'm just sayin'." Gale pointed at the painting with an amused smile, specifically a curled up stick figure right below the ape. "They even got the kid near the gorilla."
"Fuck off, that's is not the same kid." Roxo retorted, letting out a wheezing laugh. "And seriously, Harambe jokes? Give it a rest, dude."
"Fine, but still, dicks out forever."
"Stop!"
After the odd ordeal was settled, they traveled deeper and into the woods, at some point the forest was dense enough to block most of the sunlight, and with fog to top it all off, it left the two humans with a limited amount of sight. It also didn't help the fact that ever since they stepped into the foggy woods no natural life could be heard, the two teens were surrounded by a spine crawling silence, their footsteps crushing the semi-dry vegetation was the only sound accompanying them.
Roxo shot his daggers out of his sleeves, his eyes darted from side to side. "I'm getting the chills here. Are we even supposed to be here?"
"I don't think there's any off-limits, so I doubt it." Gale responded, grabbing the AWP from his back and cocking the bolt action. "But I'm pretty sure we're following the right direction now."
"Then off we go, away from this cliché horror scenario bullshit." Roxo said as he resumed walking.
Crack!
The bomber took only three steps before he felt something splitting beneath his shoe. Looking down in curiosity, his purple eyes widened when he saw a broken bone near his foot before he paid more attention to the path in front of him, which only made his eyes widened further as we was met with the appalling sight of various bones scattered in the ground, human and faunus bones. His eyes traveled through the various degraded skulls, femurs, ribs and even bony tails and claws, before he finally uttered.
"Holy shitty titties..."
Gale walked behind with his weapon at hand. "Hey, what's the hold uuuuuuuuuuuuuuoooooooooh fuck."
"Yeah, what was that about me being paranoid." Roxo regarded the bony graveyard again and paled a bit as something clicked in his mind. "...Jesus Christ, are these the guy's that didn't make it past Initiation?"
Gale winced at the possibility. "Probably, I mean Ozpin did warn us that we could die in this shit."
"Alright, let's get the fuck outta here." the bomber proclaimed.
"Wait. We're still going that way?"
"It took us this long just to get here, we would waste too much time if we backtrack." Roxo said as they hastily marched. "And let's be real, most of the forest back there is on fire right now."
"Huh, you have a point."
"Damn, creepy woods and dead people." Roxo cursed with his daggers halfway raised in precaution. "If I had lower morals I would be probably filming this shit."
Gale let out a high pitched laugh. "Ha! And you judge me making an Harambe joke!"
"Hey, mine is appropriate for the context, yours was kinda dumb."
"Heeeeeeh, that's debatable."
Before Roxo could respond, Gale came to a sudden halt, his wide yellow eyes sharply darted over his surroundings like an eagle. Roxo stopped beside him with a questioning gaze.
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Roxo asked, focusing his hearing as much as he could until he picked the faint sound of something akin to snoring. "Yeah, what the hell?"
The sniper looked around a bit more thoroughly, cross markings appearing over his pupils, as faint white outlines began to fill his field of vision outlining some trees and branches that were obscured by the fog. Pin pointing the point of origin of the sound, Gale's eyes shot wide as he found the source... in a form of a massive shadowy frame, a section of it rising and descending softly as it let out grueling snores.
Sweat started dripping from beneath his hat as the danger sank in. "Uuuuuuhmm..."
Roxo raised an eyebrow as his eyes followed Gale's outstretched finger until they finally settled on the massive creature not too far from them. "...Oh, my, god."
Gale raised an index finger to his lips before pointing at the direction they were previously going. Understanding the message, Roxo nodded as they began to move with carefully placed steps, the dry vegetation beneath their feet crushing slightly by the weight. Both teens faces had pure concentration written on them with sweat dripping from their foreheads, every once in a while a misstep made the creature hidden in the shadows stir a bit, one even forced them to hold their breath as the creature almost seemed to wake up, only to slump back down.
Letting his suppressed breath in form of a relieved sigh, Roxo resumed his walk...
Crack!
...only to step on an unnoticed tibia.
Gale's head shot to Roxo, giving the bomber a mix between a glare and a mortified gaze.
"Uh oops." was the only thing that Roxo could utter.
The two initiates paled at an impressive rate as they heard the snoring coming to an abrupt stop, the massive creature covered in shadows started raising itself from the ground, shaking off a few trees that were too near them. A pair of red hot, raging eyes glared at them through the fog and darkness with huge amounts of hate as the marking covering it's body also glowed crimson.
The teens stared silently at the towering creature for a few seconds, unable to respond.
"Hehahahahaaa..." Gale let out a sarcastic laugh before his tone became dry as the Vacuo desert. "...We're fucked."
ROOOAAAAAARRRRRRRR!
A mighty, monstrous, dreadful roar rang out through the Emerald Forest.
Is it now a good time to mention that some of my "humour" might be a bit offensive? Then again, this a M rated Story, so some of you might have already expected that.
Let me tell you, I enjoyed watching the RWBY Black Trailer again and other gaming/anime media (namely Devil May Cry and Afro Samurai) for inspiration for Adam's fighting style, it amazes me the amount of wasted potencial that Adam is in the show and the fact that he's just a generic villain for someone who has amazing fighting sequences (only in trailers unfortunately).
On the side note, got bored of the summary and changed it into something that was more to the point.