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Bullshit.
There was no way that monkey could have predicted the somersault Ray was about to perform, but lo and behold, it did and now he was paying the price.
"'Cut them down' she said. 'We need to make our comrades' lives easier' she said." The boy mocked his partner's orders.
"They're no fucking comrades of mine..."
Ray slowly pulled himself up out of a newly formed crater with a groan and his eyes tracked the beringel slowly stalking towards him.
The bastard's lucky hit had instilled an aura of confidence in the beast. This confidence was severely misplaced.
"Ray will you stop with the theatrics and kill it already?!"
Ray dismissed Kyzal's complaint and tightened the grip on his swords.
"Very well..."
Ray's eyes skimmed over the terrain and latched onto an upturned boulder. Knowing it would give him a height advantage, he rushed forward, jumped off of the tip and soared over the beringel's head, watching as it's bulging iris tracked him. He landed softly behind the Grimm and was forced to dodge an overhead swing from the creature's huge arm. This move allowed him to take the opportunity to rush inside the beringel's guard, delivering unto the beast a series of fast, light attacks, attempting to wear down the thick, plated bone armour concealing its chest.
Unfortunately, it did nothing, despite the blades Ray wielded being sharper than an obsidian dagger – mind you, those are some of the sharpest things known to man – the hard light wasn't even able to scratch the surface.
Instead of wounding the beringel, Ray only succeeded in pissing it off.
This was demonstrated by Ray getting once more sent through several trees, destroying the trunks as he careened through them and crashed landed into the last, burrowing into the base of the trunk.
"Okay..." Ray grumbled as he destroyed his light blades and brushed off the debris that had stockpiled on his once pristine jacket, "Time for a different approach..."
He knew that beringels - especially those of the alpha variant - were exceptionally strong, their arms alone were capable of shattering bones, effectively turning the skeletal structure of its victims into powder.
That was but one of its offensive capabilities. He did not want to find out the others.
Those previous hits he received had done nothing but piss Ray off. He was furious, tired, and denied the opportunity to have a relaxing drink before getting attacked by a stampede that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
Honestly, where did they come from? It's like the fuckers all just randomly spawned in and collectively agreed to fuck with us.
Fucking outrageous...
Shaking his head to remove the cobwebs, he focused on the creature's other statistics.
Aside from its strength, it was deceptively intelligent and fast, meaning he would have to outplay his opponent, rather than brute force it.
It's hide was dense and its armour was unyielding.
If he couldn't cut through it or smash it, he needed to find a useful alternative.
The question was; where were its weaknesses?
Nothing is ever built to last and while beringels were by far some of the more uncommon Grimm variants, they have been slain before.
Ray mulled over this during his brief time inside the carcass of a former tree before sighing. He was down to 44% Aura strength, tired from all the walking, and just wanted to get this over with so he could take a nap.
You know what? To hell with battle strategies, he was furious at this thing and it needed to die.
"Fuck it, I'll improvise."
Ray stood up after pulling himself out of the tree and waited for the beast to approach him, watching inertly as it stormed towards him on all fours.
It was none the wiser to what Ray had in mind, he wasn't quite sure himself, but that didn't matter right now.
The second it reached striking distance, a nexus of violet, interlocking hexagonal cells appeared right before Ray's body. Anchors spawned behind him, digging into the ground and fortifying his construct. The nexus materialised in a few short moments, creating what was effectively a hard-light barrier, shielding him from the beringel's assault.
When the Grimm collided with the shield, its momentum was killed instantly and the bastard face-planted the barrier with the kinetic energy of a freight train. Its face was immediately crushed beyond all recognition, heavily stunning it with the most efficient possible headache inducer… ramming an immovable object with your head.
It had a face only a mother could love to begin with, but now?
Let's just say this beringel's romantic career was just about over.
Taking this brief moment of respite to breathe, Ray lowered the shield and proceeded to generate multiple tendrils – at the expense of his already deteriorating Aura reserve – intent on stabbing each through the beringel like a damn pin cushion.
The beast before him had less than a second to recover before every single hard-light strand forced their way through the flesh beneath its armpits, piercing the thick tissue like hypodermic needles.
From there, Ray had what was essentially multiple probing tools for the anatomy of this hideous monstrosity, mapping its vital organs out like a cartographer would for an undiscovered landmass.
Ray found that, ironically, the biggest weakness the Alpha had, was the weakened structural integrity of its ribcage, most likely due to a past injury.
The chest was both its best defence and worst weakness, who knew?
Quite funny, considering its entire chest was covered by nearly two inches of heavy bone armour.
Using this information, Ray relocated the tendrils and began drilling them through the bone like a surgeon, locking themselves into place once they had found their designated positions.
"Open wide~" The boy taunted menacingly in a lilting tone as he commanded the hard-light strands to begin expanding inside each rib.
The pain the being was going through must've been unimaginable, as Ray's physical connection to each cable allowed him to feel the bones slowly fracture and break as the shards began to tear through flesh.
At this point, the Alpha was no longer stunned, but in so much agony that it was physically incapable of moving. It wasn't long until Ray felt the ribcage begin to fail and witness the chest of the beringel start to lacerate.
This created holes to insert dangerous objects into.
The beringel was at the perverted mercy of Ray now.
Whatever the boy decided to do, it would die all the same, where its ribcage once held its chest aloft, preventing the bone chest plate from crushing its organs, the skeletal structure was now as good as fucked.
It was only Ray keeping this thing alive in absolute misery.
Ray spared a moment to smirk sadistically and take a look inside his messenger bag, ignoring the pitiful whimpers and irregular breaths the beast released as he ransacked the accessory. His fingers brushed against steel vials of Dust, small canisters he would use as an emergency battery for Darkstar and Helix.
Without hesitation, he pulled each one out, holding them between his fingers and maintaining his vice-like grip on the beringel as it was essentially crucified by his semblance.
Ray noticed numerous gashes running the length of its chest, each puncture wound secreting a gelatinous, dark liquid that held the consistency of tar.
He took two steps forward and inserted two Dust vials into each cut.
He was going to turn this brute into a bomb.
Ray took a single step back and studied his work, still ignoring the beringel's pleas for a quick death.
It was going to get anything but.
He felt as though it was wanting something though, something that would add even more insult to injury. An inquisitive finger curled around the boy's chin as he mused over whatever nefarious addition he could make.
Many things came to mind, including, but not limited to; force feeding it a lightning Dust crystal, performing electroshock therapy and simultaneously detonating the other Dust, though, that was far too merciful in his eyes.
He could scalp the being with his knife and feed it the remains before once more igniting the Dust.
However, his fingers snapped together as his mind came to a just conclusion and his hand once more dove back inside his bag and grasped the neck of his liquor bottle.
He slowly pulled out the litre bottle and stared into it with a modicum of regret before unscrewing the cap and taking a nice long swig.
"You know… this liquor is some of the strongest consumer alcohol you can buy," Ray spoke informatively, addressing the beringel with such carelessness, "It's called Acolyte, the very best whiskey Atlas has to offer."
The boy held the bottle in the air, observing how the sun's rays passed through its green stained glass.
"Officially, the drink is supposed to be 45% alcohol. Though… chemical analysis suggests otherwise… fifty to sixty percent. Enough to kill a small child. Crazy, right?"
The hacker received nothing but gargled chokes in response from the Grimm before him, as if it was even capable of speech to begin with.
"There's a reason this alcohol is sold only to Huntsmen and Huntresses. Apparently, anyone without Aura that decides to drink this will become wasted in five minutes, contract alcohol poisoning within fifteen, and partial liver failure within thirty if they don't get their stomach pumped beforehand."
The boy chuckled. "It should be worth noting however, that just one bottle of this stuff costs upwards of two hundred and thirty Lien, but you?" Ray's eyes switched focus from the bottle of Acolyte to the beringel. "You can have it for free..."
The way Ray's tone dropped an octave painted him as a complete sociopath. If Grimm were capable of emotion, of fear, it would have most definitely soiled itself.
Just the sinister atmosphere Ray exuded, the pure apathy, and utter boredom whilst torturing a defenceless creature – soulless beast or not – would have made many a grown man shed a tear.
Ray quickly closed the distance between him and the Alpha before forcing the remains of his drink down its open mouth and throat, the orifice attempting to regurgitate it as the Alpha's lungs tried desperately to remove the foreign contaminate.
Unfortunately, they did not possess enough strength as soon as Ray ordered one of the strands to immobilise its diaphragm, preventing it from contracting in order to draw oxygen into the lungs.
He was tormenting it by causing untold amounts of physical trauma to its skeletal structure and suffocating it by completely removing its ability to breathe.
Helpless didn't even come close to describing the Alpha's state, as it's lungs and stomach filled up with a burning liquid that was capable of acting as an aggressive catalyst for the fire Ray was about to ignite.
Ray stopped and downed the last little drop of liquor in the bottle before peeling the beringel's mouth open even wider and shoving the whole damn bottle down its throat, the strength in Ray's arm crushing and shattering the glass, carving into flesh as the pieces slid down its throat, causing even wider and longer slashes in the process. Ray may have cut himself on the glass shards, but what remained of his Aura cleaned it up before a problem was presented.
Ray took a step back from the Alpha beringel and focused Aura into his right hand as he destroyed the tendrils inside the creature's chest.
He could hear the beringel attempt to flush its lungs with a fresh supply of oxygen, only to choke and splutter due to the alcohol and glass splinters inside the fleshy airbags, and the black blood running down its throat.
Ray pushed his violet Aura into the tip of his fingers as he brought them closer to one of the many Dust batteries stuffed inside the Grimm like a turkey. He coiled his middle finger and held it back with the tip of his thumb, storing kinetic energy in his tendon before releasing it all, striking the end of the power cell with a small flick and setting a chain reaction in motion.
The Alpha was launched backwards into several trees, bouncing off of each like a pinball before settling in a muddy ditch. The Aura stored in the tip of his finger had dramatically amplified the force of his flick, driving the beringel back much harder than it would have normally.
Ray figured that if the beringel had no qualms over hurling him around like faecal matter, then surely it wouldn't mind if he returned the favour.
The Dust had begun to ignite like sticks of thermite, producing a violent exothermic reaction that roasted the beast like a suckling pig.
This, in turn, led to the ignition of the highly flammable spirit Ray had forced down its oesophagus, slowly combusting and building up pressure inside the creature's body.
This pressure would only be contained for so long.
Smoke and sparks continued to violently surge out of the creature's mouth, building up the improvised explosive device he had just created.
Ray loved theatrics, showing off was something he thoroughly delighted in because it inflated his ego and encouraged him to go bigger.
"Bottoms up asshole."
Ray began to slowly turn and walk in the opposite direction, smirking to himself as he followed the sounds of combat in the distance.
Before he knew it, the explosion arose. And boy did Ray underestimate its force.
The shockwave alone shook Ray and disturbed his balancing, the hacker, as a result, instantly staggered over a loose twig and faceplanted the soil.
Thank the gods no one saw that, right?
Ray opened his eyes to witness a black vapour painting the adjacent area like a modern art piece, and little wet masses of flesh and serrated splinters of bone flew unpredictably through the air, striking him in the back and legs as they pinged off of everything else, settled, and began fumigating a black smoke in deterioration.
Ray's beanie had also been knocked off of his head, embarrassingly exposing his curly golden locks to the world.
Short back and sides, slightly longer on top. Efficient, cheaper and far more suitable for combat and hacking than long, unkempt hair will ever be.
A lock of blonde hair obscured a part of his vision as he pushed himself up and leaned against a tree for support. He brushed it out of his face and quickly reclaimed his violet beanie, brushed it off and pulled it back over his head.
Ray plucked the scroll out of his jacket pocket and gauged his Aura.
Things were… not looking too good for the hacker.
"20%?!" The boy exclaimed, "I need to work on my resource management..." Ray exhaled heavily as he flicked through his biometric readouts.
Another issue made itself known too, the mechanical hemisphere of his mind had used up a good 67% of its stored power from overeager usage.
The boy had pushed his mind and body too far and he was now starting to feel the after-effects; fatigue sank into his muscles and his knees buckled against the weight of his own body, his eyelids now felt heavier and he could physically feel his thought processes gradually slowing down to compensate for the lack of power.
He was crippled now, decisively so, and only reliance in his current teammates would be able to grant him survival during this initiation.
For now? He was just going to stand there for a moment and rest or something…
Scarlet leaned back to avoid yet another swipe from the beowolf she was facing. The clawed hand just glancing past her face and barely avoiding her nose.
In fierce retaliation, she brought Crimson Brigade forward and leapt as she jabbed the beast in the crook of its neck, her blades wounding it, but not enough to kill it.
Still, it must have hurt like a bitch considering the minor howl the beast released.
"Scarlet! Watch your left!"
Gabriel's warning was enough to convince her to roll under the legs of the beowolf she was facing and steer clear of an underhand swing from another.
Luckily, the second beowolf had managed to successfully uppercut its friend in the jaw, dazing the creature and additionally initiating a fight between the two.
Scarlet's red eyes watched curiously as the two creatures actually began to duke it out, the one from before bouncing back with a swipe of its left paw, clawing the second beowolf in the chest and spilling black blood across the ground.
Beowolf A then charged beowolf B, snapping and biting at its brethren in pure, undiluted hatred. Beowolf B managed to redirect beowolf A's maw and swiftly kill it by biting down on its neck and twisting until a revolting snap occurred.
Before the beast could even revel in its small victory, a golden arrow struck it between its eyes as Kyzal leapt on to a branch above Scarlet and wolf whistled, drawing the girl's attention and redirecting it towards an Ursa making its way towards her.
"I'll give you a boost!" The boy offered, holding his hand towards the girl.
Scarlet took his cue, readjusted her grip on the shaft of her weapon and leapt towards Kyzal's hand.
She grasped his forearm with her left hand and he did the same. His calloused fingers locking around her arm and refusing to let go.
With a grunt, Kyzal swung the smaller girl with as much strength as he could muster underneath his perch like a trapeze.
When he released her, she performed a flawless backflip and brought her bardiche above her head with both hands, preparing a stabbing action as she neared the Ursa.
The oblivious creature had become distracted by the many glowing cards orbiting Gabriel Stryker like an asteroid field, striking down Grimm in a 360-degree area around him.
He was controlling them with the tips of his fingers, which were glowing the same tyrian hue as his eyes. The Reapers were cutting through Grimm with effortlessness before he recalled them and rerouted them towards another wave, shredding them too.
Scarlet reached the Ursa and plunged Crimson Brigade's spear tip through the base of its skull, penetrating all the way through and embedding itself into the dirt below the creature.
It body-slammed the ground when Scarlet landed between its shoulder blades, knocking whatever wind out of it before she withdrew her weapon and turned to Kyzal with an approving nod.
This coincided with Gabriel finishing of the last of this wave by pinning a creep to the ground with all 52 of his playing cards, turning the thing into mincemeat and reforming the whole deck before slotting it back inside his holster.
"Does anybody know where you can find a lazy, beanie wearing asshole?" Gabriel asked between heavy breathing.
Kyzal leapt down from his branch and dusted himself off beside Scarlet before shrugging. "I don't know, maybe that Alpha creamed him and left only a pink smear in his memory."
Scarlet swatted the boy on his shoulder with a scowl. "Don't say that! He could be hurt!"
"On the contrary..." A monotonous voice called out from behind a bush. The trio turned to the right and saw the source brush past the plant and collapse on the ground in exhaustion, "I'm still alive. Sorry to disappoint."
"Actually, I'm glad to see you're still with us, pal. That Alpha give you some trouble?" Gabriel questioned, sitting on the ground beside him.
"More than I care to admit. Cost me my whole damn bottle of Acolyte too, bastard..." Ray sluggishly replied.
"Ray!" Scarlet's frame came crashing down on top of the boy, straddling his waist brazenly as she firmly cupped his cheeks and assessed him. "Are you okay?! A-are you injured?! Do you need any medical assista-"
The girl was cut off by Ray's hand covering her mouth and throwing her off of him as he laid on the ground.
"Scarlet, I'm fine."
"Your Aura strength suggests otherwise, you're down to 19% and you only fought one Grimm." Kyzal argued, speaking matter-of-factly as he held his scroll before his golden eyes. He shrugged his hood off and approached Ray coolly, placing Deliare around his shoulder.
"I've had worse, been a while since I've fought Grimm anyway, I expected to be a little rusty." Ray replied, folding his arms behind his head as he closed his eyes.
"Rusty? That was an Alpha beringel and a small one at that. You should've only lost about 15%, if that." Kyzal eyed the boy suspiciously, feeling something was off about the hacker but couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"My Aura is paper-thin and I use my semblance consistently, did you seriously expect me to punch it to death? Of course not, I'm going to bleed Aura when I'm using it to fight." Ray countered, not even sparing a moment to glance at the marksman.
Kyzal frowned, "Then you need to work on that, if we're on a team, I don't wanna be the one to drag your ass out of trouble when you inevitably burn through your supply."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll work on it, whatever."
Ray sat up and opened his eyes to observe the area out of boredom. To say the least; it was destroyed, trees had become uprooted and splintered, the ground was unsettled and pieces of mud were kicked up with craters littering the surface.
"Seems like I missed out on all the fun, what a shame."
Gabriel chuckled, "Hell, you probably had the easiest task, those beowolves are relentless bastards."
"Yeah? Try getting thrown through several trees, Gabe, let me know how that works out for you." Ray replied with a strong indication of antipathy.
This was not a wise choice of words.
The gasp that arose from Scarlet's ajar mouth only confirmed it as the girl went from counting her ammunition to throwing herself at Ray again.
"You were what?!" Her level of concern was expressed with the high pitched screech the erupted from her mouth and her lack of understanding the concept of personal space as her face was essentially pressed up against his, her aggressive manhandling bordered on groping as she viciously patted him down in search for even the slightest contusion.
"Scarlet… would you please..." Ray struggled to breathe against her petite frame.
Credit where credit was due, she was a lot stronger than she led others to believe.
With a grunt, he attempted to push her off of him, but fatigue from semblance overuse rendered it no use. The boy lamented in his hard luck and decided to just consent to her examination – not like he much of a choice – much to the amusement of the other two, who had taken the liberty of snickering in the background.
A lime green wave silently swept over the four of them, sending both calming comfort and shivers through their bodies, specifically Kyzal's.
It was bright, fast, and unexpected, leaving more questions than answers as it continued on its path, illuminating everything as it went.
"Did you… feel that?" Kyzal asked hesitantly, watching the pulse as it passed and slowly faded.
"No, but knowing that I'm definitely not tripping on anything and vividly hallucinating a green light is a nice reassurance of my sanity."
The four of them all subconsciously decided to huddle a little closer and grip their weapons a little tighter.
"I have a bad~ feeling about this..." The dull crystalline hum that passed with the green light almost made Gabriel's comment hard to hear, though it fell on deaf ears anyway as no one seemed focused enough to reply.
Ray's sensors were quick to begin blaring a series of urgent and downright terrifying warnings.
"Uh oh..." Ray murmured to himself as his head began pointing in the direction of the relics, eyes widening at the torrential wave of pure, destructive energy rushing towards them at unhindered speeds. He stood up, continuing to gaze in the direction his sensors warned him of. His violet orbs thoroughly scanned the forest, desperately searching for whatever was heading towards them.
The other three soon followed him and got to their feet, fingers delicately lingering over their respective weapons.
"What is it?" Scarlet asked, looking anxiously at Ray's resolute face.
Ray, without looking, placed a finger against her lips as he strained his ears. Muted sounds of popping and crackling could be heard, though it was very familiar…
Ray's memory banks tried hastily to identify the sound.
He had heard that sound before, but where did he recognise it from?
It was… it was almost like the kind of sound you'd hear from wood…
Specifically, when it was set on… fire…
"Hit the deck!"
Ray spun 180 degrees and tackled his companions to the ground as a glaring orange wave shot past them, followed by temperatures of extreme magnitude.
Using what little Aura he had left, Ray forced light into his gauntlets and formed a shield that covered them from all angles, the dome-shaped shield defending them from… nothing.
What?
Ray slowly peeked an eye open to see that he had done all of that for nought.
What caught him most off guard was the amber glow that had swept over and lingered on everything around them; the terrain, the trees, the grass, and every single leaf in sight, and it was emitting temperature so hot, he could have roasted marshmallows from 25 metres away.
That was the issue though, everywhere was rapidly increasing in temperature, except the one spot Ray and the other three occupied.
"What the hell...?" Kyzal pushed himself up and sat on his knees as he examined the area around them.
"Don't see that everyday… what is this Ray?" Gabriel questioned the hacker.
After deeming that it was safe to do so, Ray dispersed his hard-light shield and brought his left arm before him, lightly pressing a capacitive button along Darkstar's surface.
The four hard light fabricators began to shift around, the two on the top slid to the back using rails and the two on the bottom rotated round in a clockwise motion, taking the empty space the first two left behind.
A panel on the outside of the vambrace opened up and out popped a series of scanners, sensors and cameras used to analyse the environment. As soon as the gauntlet had reconfigured, a holographic display appeared on top and had begun the procedure of scanning the ground and foliage.
Information about this energy began flowing into Ray's heads-up display ruthlessly and the boy's mind suddenly went into overdrive as the readings came through.
Scarlet, too curious and naive to know when not to do something, slowly reached out her hand to touch the glowing blades of grass by her feet.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you..." Ray alerted her, his violet eyes flashing her a warning she could not ignore.
"W-why not?" She asked nervously. Closing her fist and drawing her arm back.
"Because the area around us, excluding this little air pocket we're in, has just exceeded 1000 degrees. Unless you want your Aura melted through and your body turned into soup, I'd suggest you don't touch it."
Kyzal and Gabriel snapped their arms back without hesitation, not wanting to risk incredibly severe and excruciating burns.
They didn't seem to take much heed of the power that exuded from the energy blanketing the forest, as far as they were concerned; it was hot and shouldn't be touched.
Ray, on the other hand, was more focused on the fact that despite its scorching properties, not a single flame was produced from this orange veil and neither did the heat produce any embers, ash, nor smoke.
He recognised this energy, not this one in particular, but his mind didn't take long to flood with a host of memories he'd rather have forgotten.
Tall, unyielding waves of freezing water towering over him and an unconscious Ly. Desperately clinging onto her limp body – bordering corpse – as he tried endlessly to reach the surface. His brain succumbing to oxygen starvation and his consciousness struggling to remain.
Merciless typhoons and torrential downpours drenching them both right to the core.
His lungs burning, crying out for one gasp of air...
And at the centre of it all… A woman… Seemingly more powerful than even the legendary maidens themselves…
No… He knew exactly what this was…
A force of nature in every sense of the word, though nothing about it was natural at all.
It was an Affinity.
Ray's fear of water was hydrophobia, his fear of fire?
That was just common sense.
Author's note:
So, Ray's fear of water stems from a previous experience he'd never want to relive again. He knows about Affinities, and despises them for how stupidly powerful they can be.
Scarlet has also taken a seriously defensive role over her peers, she likes to make sure everyone else is okay before making sure she's fine herself.
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Have a good one.
- Hydra