Chapter 3.2- Side Stories 2
*The second part of the Free Hunt which happened simultaneous to the previous chapter. Weiss and Gavin's side of the story.
Weiss and Gavin started their trek through the forest, looking around the beautiful scenery of the dark forest. The moon shown bright, lighting their path to wherever it is they're going. Weiss looked at her partner. He's been silent since Ruby paired them up to go on this side of the forest. All he's been doing so far is loading bullets into Bakunawa and looking around the scenery. Weiss decided that it was time for her to break the ice and have a conversation with him.
"So, um, Gavin…" Weiss said, still trying to think of something say to him.
"Yeah, Weiss?" he asked, still looking at his weapon.
"Do you know where this path leads?" she asked, "Seeing that you're a geography buff, I think you know where this path leads."
"I believe that the path leads up to the abandoned outpost in the north area." He told her.
"Abandoned outpost?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah," Gavin said, "It was a small hunting and storage outpost built long before you were born and it was abandoned due to something big attacking the place. No one knew exactly what it was, even until now."
"I see…" Weiss said as she processed Gavin's explanation.
Gavin then placed his attention back to his weapon, but he looked at Weiss. He didn't realise that the spoiled little heiress can be nice and chatty at the same time, but that still didn't change his view of her. Gavin never liked rich people, since they were spoiled, mean and very bossy and, to them, just because they have wealth, they treated the world like their servants and slaves and that just made Gavin mad. He's encountered a lot of bitchy rich kids back in Sphere, most of them heirs and heiresses to their parent's wealth and such and they kind of treated him badly no matter what kind of approach he used. Whether it was nice or aggressive, they still treated him badly. But, when he first came to Beacon and met Weiss, he didn't view as one of the rich spoiled brats he met before, but it seemed to him like she lost all that bitchiness when she met her team and that turned her into a new person. But, Gavin still seemed to keep the view of her, denying that she has changed at all.
The two soon reached the abandoned outpost. The whole place had a lot of guard towers and they were crumbling already. There were several large metal crates all over the area, forming a maze of rusty, vine growing piles of metal. Gavin readied his weapon as Weiss readied hers. Gavin gestured her to move quietly, knowing that something will ambush them later. She nodded and they proceeded to move. Suddenly, they heard the sounds of something eating something. They moved closer to the sound and found the source. The sound came from five Fate Spinners, the small spider-like Grimm that they just discovered before. They were eating the remains of a dead Beowolf, battling each other for pieces of the carcass and gorging on every single piece of it. Gavin aimed his weapon at them, but Weiss gestured him to stop. She then pointed to a humungous black web behind the gorging Fate Spinners. There was no doubt that there was a bigger Fate Spinner nearby and they should back out of the others before it returns. They decided to sneak out of the outpost and find another place to hunt, but Weiss accidentally steps on a branch, which alerted the Fate Spinners.
"Wait to go, Weiss!" Gavin said, giving Weiss an angry look.
"Hey, it wasn't my fault! I didn't even see it!" Weiss said, raising her voice.
"Well, we got bigger problems now." Gavin said, gesturing towards the spider Grimms behind them.
The Fate Spinners roared at them, blood flying from their mouths as they roared. They advanced towards them slowly with Weiss weapon positioned to guard position. The spider pounced at Weiss, but she swings her rapier at it, knocking it to the ground. It got up and moved towards Weiss again. Gavin took fire with his weapon, but the shot deflected because of the Grimm's bone plating.
"We should run now!" Gavin yelled.
They ran towards the maze of crates as the Fate Spinners pursued them. Weiss rotated the revolver on her rapier and it landed on a red cylinder. She created a wall of fire using the Dust on that cylinder. It stopped the Fate Spinners in their tracks and Weiss took this as an opportunity to escape. She suddenly realized that Gavin was not with her and Gavin noticed the same thing.
"Gavin!" Weiss called.
"Weiss! I'm at the other side of this crate." Gavin told her.
"How'd you get there?" she asked as she saw the Fate Spinner's shadow.
"No time to explain! But, whatever you do, don't go straight forward!"
"Why?" Weiss asked.
Suddenly the Fate Spinners go through her wall of fire and began to chase her. Two of the Fate Spinners noticed Gavin's scent and climbed over the crate to chase him. Weiss ran straight forward until she stopped cold on her tracks. In front of her was another Fate Spinner, but this time it was enormous, four times the size of the ones they are currently fighting. It roared at her. All she could do was watch in fear as the giant Fate Spinner raised it's head. Suddenly, a ray of lightning came out from nowhere and zapped the spider Grimm in the face. Weiss turned to see Gavin firing lightning out of his trident. His blazer had satins of green blood, suggesting he killed the two Fate Spinners that chased him. Weiss saw something under the giant Fate Spinner. It was a locket, with a rose symbol on it. Weiss immediately identified the symbol as Ruby's.
Was Ruby here?, Weiss thought.
"Hey!" Gavin yelled, snapping Weiss back to reality, "Get out of there!"
She dodged the moment that the humungous Fate Spinner's body fell. Gavin grabbed Weiss by the hand and ran. The three little Fate Spinners followed them, eager to kill their prey. Gavin switched Bakunawa from trident mode to rifle mode. Weiss spun the revolver to which it lands on a violet cylinder. Her blade began to glow violet as she darted forward at one of the Fate Spinners. She sliced it in the middle, splitting it's head from it's abdomen. The other pounced at her, but she jabbed Myrtenaster into it and rotated the revolver to a teal cylinder. She pulled the trigger on the hilt in which the spider Grimm instantly began to freeze up from the inside. Gavin shot the frozen Fate Spinner causing it to shatter into plenty of dismembered pieces. The last one shot acid at it's mouth at Gavin, but she protects him using a glyph shield. The spider Grimm fell backwards, giving Gavin the opportunity to fire at it's unarmoured belly. He shot the Fate Spinner multiple times, green blood erupting from it's chest with every shot. Weiss began to notice Gavin's behaviour as he fired at the helpless spider Grimm. He seemed more hell bent than usual and the scar on his right cheek began to glow. Weiss stopped him as he ran out of bullets. She looked at the dead Fate Spinner Gavin shot. A puddle of green blood flowed out of the corpse's body. She could see that Gavin actually manage to shoot of it's legs as well, not just the body. Gavin loaded fresh bullets into his rifle and turned to Weiss who was staring at the kill he made.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine. It's just…" Weiss replied.
"Oh, you mean what just happened to me while I was killing that Fate Spinner?" he asked.
"Yeah…" she responded.
"Well, you see-" he began to explain.
But he was cut short when the humungous Fate Spinner came into view. It gave them a glare as it looked onto it's dead children. It then turned to Weiss and Gavin and gave them an ear piercing roar. Weiss and Gavin covered their ears to withstand the sheer power of the roar.
"I think mommy's very angry!" Gavin said, aiming his rifle at the beast.
Gavin began to fire at the creature's mouth. Blood erupting from it's mouth after every shot. Weiss launched blast of fire from her weapon at the spider Grimm as well. The Fate Spinner then turned backwards and fired a web at the two. They were immediately trapped in the spider's black and gooey web as they struggled to free themselves. The Fate Spinner continued to spin it's web at them which was slowly making it's way to covering their entire body with the web.
"The web's too strong!" Gavin said, desperately trying to cut himself and Weiss free from the web.
Weiss then noticed that some of the scattered webs were burning in the embers that she left when she blasted fire at the Fate Spinner.
"I have an idea, but it'll sting a little." Weiss said.
"Wait, what do you mean-" Gavin asked.
But he was cut short when he started to smell fire. Fire which was coming out of Weiss' weapon. Instantly, the web began to burn and they were set free from the beast's grasp. The fire soon made it's way to the source of the webs, the Fate Spinner's abdomen. The creature began to groan in pain as the fire reached it's innards. Gavin aimed his scope at the hole on the Fate Spinner's abdomen which was currently burning up. He fired at the hole, sending the bullet heading straight for the fiery hole. Then, the backside of the abdomen exploded once the bullet came in contact with the fire, leaving a rather large hole on the Fate Spinner's back. The Fate Spinner began to stumble on the crate it was standing on, unknown to it that there was a pile of pointy and sharp rubble on the other side of the crate it was standing on. It landed on the rubble, the sharp pieces penetrating through it's bone plating and stabbing the creature completely. The dying Fate Spinner cried out in pain until the cries died down as blood flowed out it's mouth. Weiss and Gavin sighed in relief, knowing that they finally manage to defeat something in their time in Free Hunt.
"Thanks Weiss for, um, saving me back there." Gavin said, placing his weapon at his back.
"No problem, Gavin." Weiss said as she sheathed Myrtenaster, "Surprised a little rich girl was able to save you, huh?"
Gavin eyes widened after what she said. Oh, crap! She saw right through me, he thought.
"Yeah, I knew what you were thinking all along." She said, her voice drifting into more serious tone, "Am I right, Gavin? Did you not think of me as just a spoiled rich girl like the ones I believe you've encountered?"
"How'd you know?" Gavin asked nervously
"I can read your face expressions Gavin." Weiss admitted, "Ever since we first met, I noticed you kept giving me firm looks and cold shoulders. Look, I'm not like those people you've met before."
"Really?" Gavin asked, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, I mean I was like that before, but now I've changed. Sure I can bitchy sometimes, but I normally do that for the welfare of my being as well as my teammates. But, all in all, I'm not one of those spoiled brats you've met before, I'm just a huntress in training whose keeping her profession as heiress under wraps." She sighed, "So… are we okay with that?"
Gavin reached out his hand and Weiss shook it. Weiss smiled at the thought that Gavin finally changed his mind, but Gavin still had that serious look on his face.
"If you start acting like that, I swear to god, I'll strangle you in front of your teammates." He said seriously.
Weiss gulped and nodded to his agreement, then Gavin shifted his attitude back to happier mood.
"Now, I'm glad we're in the same side of things now." Gavin said with a smile. He then noticed the locket Weiss was holding.
"Weiss, where'd you get that?" he asked, pointing at the locket.
"Oh, this?" she asked, holding it up, "I found it under that big Fate Spinner when I first saw it back there. It has Ruby's symbol on it. I think it's hers."
Gavin opened up the locket and it revealed a picture of Ruby in it. But she wasn't alone in this picture. Next to her was red haired woman that looked almost like her except she wore a white cloak instead of red and instead of a scythe on her back, it was large broadsword. He looked curiously at the picture and wondered: 'Is that Ruby's mother?'
"Is that her mom?" Weiss asked, also looking at the photo.
"I think it is, Weiss." Gavin told her.
Then they realized that their two hours were up and decided to head back to the entrance. Gavin closed the locket and gave it back to Weiss.
"Keep it. It's your team leader's, not mine." He told her.
She nodded and placed the locket in her pocket and the walked away from the abandoned outpost, somewhat satisfied at the wreckage they left behind. From the skies, a huge black figure loomed over the forest. It looked over at Marco's team and then at Gavin and Weiss and then at Ruby and Stephen. It growled and then sank it's head back into the forest, his red eyes illuminating the dark woods.
End of Chapter 3.2
a/n: Sorry for the short chapter, my working schedule is pretty bad right now so I'm just trying to post a new chapter whenever I can. Anyways, I've been formulating a new story for quite sometime and it's hard for me to work on two stories already, but I'll see if I can push through with it. Reviews are appreciated, no spam as always. Thanks!