As I hear the sounds of explosions go off in the distance, Lyte and I decide to go and look for the source. As soon as we get through a thick clearing, we saw a large man wielding two axes charging towards a wounded deathstalker. After slamming his axes into the deathstalker, he jumped off and a barrage of explosions came right on top of the deathstalker. I think that was a bit of overkill, but better safe than sorry. The man than formed his axes into a shotgun and holstered it on his back. Out of the distance a woman's voice yells out "Nice job Bartholowmew!"
"It's Buster…. Buster!" the large man yells out.
We start walking towards Buster and out of the corner of my right eye a woman starts walking towards us. I grip my spear a little tighter and kept an eye on her, but she's just walking carefree. Her stance and the way she walks show that she knows a bit about battle. I wish I'd seen her first. After getting into talking distance the air grew silent as we all awkwardly stared down at each other.
I look towards the woman first. She had long maroon hair that ended towards her lower back. She wears a sleeveless tank-top with a tattoo of a dragon breathing fire down her left arm. She has black eyes and smiles awfully a lot. Going down she has the same logo as her tattoo on her jeans and wears sandals. She's about 5" 6' just a bit taller than Lyte, but she's more built than her that's for sure. She has a small compact flamethrower that she carries around with her. It looks similar to a light machine gun, but the more noticeable features is the dragon that is drawn on it and the different barrel.
"Carmine Veili's the name, and this is my partner/little brother Bartholomew Martin" She says
"It's Buster, Sis…" Buster replies in anger.
"Bartholomew?!" Lyte says. Lyte then starts laughing really loud.
"Ugh… Sorry about Lyte is… different. Archie Ruvle." I said
I went towards her hand and we shake hands and I take a closer look towards Buster. Buster could go toe to toe with most men I know and win easily. He is 6"7' and is built like a monster. His coat is really thick and has a logo of two axes crossing it. He doesn't wear a shirt underneath the jacket. He wears torn blue jeans that expose his kneecaps. He also wore really old boots that looked like they needed replacing. He has that massive shotgun he wields on his back, but I've also seen them transform into axes.
"So heading off towards the relic?" Carmine asks
"Yeah. It's a five minute walk from here." I reply towards her.
"Well let's get going then." Carmine says
Lyte slowly gets up and stops laughing. She then walk towards Buster and compares her size to his. I think Lyte could be tossed by Buster really easily. I should probably try to shut Lyte up. I'd rather not have her killed by Buster.
"Okay let's go… Bartholomew!" Lyte happily taunts.
She then laughs out loud and starts walking with the group. The path was generally clear and there was no resistance. In fact for the most part we took our time going there. Then we came across the relic chamber. There are 16 pedestals with only two of the pedestals have chess pieces on them though. It's clear we are last. The two chest pieces are white bishops. Lyte then run towards a pedestal and grabs the piece.
"What is this stupid thing anyway?" Lyte asks
"It's a chess piece. More specifically the bishop." Carmine says
"Well the bishop looks terrible." Lyte comments
"We should get out of here soon." I hastily say.
"Nah bring'em on. I can handle anything." Buster says.
Then a really loud growl sounds off in the distance. Then the ground starts to vibrate with each footstep that goes off. Something big was coming our way and I really don't want to risk our lives for glory. Carmine looks towards the sound and after three footsteps she steps out in front and motions us to follow.
"Archie is right. We have to leave." Carmine says. "About 4 waves of grimm are heading towards us. I think I pissed off them by burning a friend of theirs."
The roars got louder and the vibrations became larger. I'm pretty sure whatever friend she burned is probably sending everything it has against us. We all decide to flee towards the way we came. We all never ran so fast. Lyte barely kept up with us while I was ahead of everyone. We got to the river bank and the vibrations seemed to have stopped. I remember the base camp where we finish was two miles away from here. I look at everyone in the camp. Lyte is out of breath, but everyone else seems fine.
"There's a base camp two miles up north." I say out loud.
"Well I bet there is a whole parade of people waiting for us." Lyte sarcastically comments.
"It's also getting dark." Buster commented. "We should move out before it's nighttime."
"Sure, but just give me a few minutes okay." Lyte says breathing hard.
"What's wrong Lyte?" I ask her
"I'm not… exactly built… for long runs while grimm… are chasing us." She quirks
"Come on lil'Lyte. We're so close now. Just imagine getting to eat something when we're out of here." Carmine says.
"Oh man… I could go for a really juicy burger right now." Lyte replies.
She slowly stands up on her feet and we decide to walk towards the base camp. We traveled one mile, but the sun is about to go down. I'm starting to get tired. I forgot to fill up my flask of water the last time we were at the river. It's a ¼ full of water. Then I notice Carmine starting to slow down. I stop in my tracks and give Carmine my flask.
"There isn't much, but make it last." I say to Carmine.
She drinks up the rest of the water and wipes off the sweat from her forehead. Then she hands back my flask and I put it away.
"Thanks Archie." She says.
We walk the last mile to the base camp on top of the cliffs. I see the rest of the students there all exhausted just like the rest of us. Lyte falls down to the ground and starts sleeping. I smile a bit at Lyte. She just went through a hell of a journey. I grab Lyte and put her on my back.
"Come on Lyte. Let's get you to a bed." I tell her.
"… But I don't want vanilla ice cream dad…" She murmurs out loud.
She's definitely unconscious. So I found an unoccupied tent and put her on a cot. I step out and gather by the fire. Near the fire, Buster and Carmine had decided to sit together. I go and join them along the fire. I sit down and try to drink from my flask, but then I realized that it was out of water.
"Thanks for helping me out back there Archie." Carmine says.
"Don't mention it." I say towards her.
"So how'd you get the scar?" Buster says as he points towards my left eye.
"I don't want to talk about it." I reply in sadness.
I gaze towards the fire and stare into it. I make out some memories of when I was a kid of me training with other legionnaires. I remember me getting beat senseless every day until I was able to withstand the legionnaire's attacks. Each bloodied wound made me stronger they said. Each broken bone made me quicker and each defeat made me smarter. This scar on my eye though… It's my ultimate reminder. I shouldn't linger too much longer on this though. I tend to lose myself in thought. It's bad while there might be an attack.
"So Carmine why do you call Buster your little brother?" I ask
"Our families lived right next to each other in a small village of the capital city. When the Legion threatened to destroy our small town, our families decided it would be best to stick together and defend it." Carmine says.
"That's when the damn Legion attacked our home village. The only people who survived were Me, Carmine and Riko." Buster adds in.
He starts tearing up. After a few tears he wipes his eyes and clenches his fist hard. His look turned into sheer hatred. Riko must have been important for him.
"Riko saved us… He was my older brother. He'd always taunt me for having such a complicated first name. He's the one who called me Buster before I did." Buster says.
I look at him and his mood completely changed. Now he's calm. Seems he's able to maintain his composure while under emotional duress. I applaud him for that. I don't mind him having hatred against the Legion. I shouldn't say anything about my past though. It might provoke him to kill me.
"So now that we told you something how about something in return." Carmine says.
She then points towards my scar. I have to admit I fell for it, but I'll have to skip out on a lot of details. I can probably do it though. Then I see Lyte come rushing down from her tent and put her arms around my chest. Then she points towards the scar across my left eye.
"I want in. I asked first and he didn't even say anything." Lyte says. She then unwrapped her arms and sat right next to me.
She smiled at me in anticipation. There is one thing though that I like about Lyte. Besides her gun, she can really make me feel guilty. It also doesn't help that Carmine is giving me the same look, but Buster is just giving me the death stare. He's really intimidating to look at. So I let out a deep sigh. Then I stared into the fire. I started seeing how I got this scar. It was a warning.
"A friend of mine gave it towards me. We were playing around some old ruins and one day we found some old rusty swords. So we started to play with them and sword fight. He took it a little too seriously and cut my eye." I said to everyone.
"His parents found out and treated my eye and made him apologize for the scar. He didn't apologize though. Something changed in him that moment."
Lyte gasped in excitement. "What changed?"
"He wasn't the friend I grew up with anymore." I replied. "Ever since that day he'd always been interested in fighting. His parents didn't do anything to stop them. Sadly enough, they actually encouraged him to continue."
I then got up and decided to head towards the unoccupied tent.
"I'm going to bed." I tell everyone. "Wake me if you need me."
I then got inside the tent and took of my shirt. I got on the cot and stared at the dark green canvas. I lied right in front of them. It wasn't an accident. It was training and he did it because I was weak… I hate the term weak. It is one of the first things I learned in the Legion. If you are weak it meant certain death or worse. I vowed to live and that's what I sought to do. So I lived by killing the weak. That was my ultimate reminder: That the weak will struggle while the strong will triumph in glory.
"Hey are you okay?" Lyte said as she entered the tent.
She got on the other cot and looked at me with a concerned look.
"I know we're partners and all, but I hate seeing you sad." Lyte said. "Trust me I've seen sad growing up. You have sad written all over you."
I look towards Lyte and smile a bit.
"I'm fine. It's just an old scar that was brought up. It will heal." I reply. "We should get some sleep though. Tomorrow we return to Beacon and you get to eat that burger." I say.
"Look at you making a joke. You just might not be terrible after all." She says.
Lyte then falls straight asleep. Just might not be terrible after all; those exact words my friend said to me. One day Ali… one day I'll find you Ali. Then we'll settle things for good. For now though, I got to rest. I got to let old scar's heal after all.