Battle and power displays a head!
Chapter six: The Test
Air rushed by me.
I was flying again.
That feeling of suspension, like gravity had no hold over me, was without a doubt the best feeling I knew.
Extending my hands, I gripped at the air compressing and decompressing it again and again. A feeling of peace overwhelmed me, like all my troubles had stayed on that cliffside, unable to catch up to me. I closed my eyes, savoring the moment.
A rustle of feathers and a disturbance in the wind forced them upon again. Darting past me, a shadow split the air. Kokuran, inconceivably, was in front of me. A blur on his back and a dark mass seemed to sprout forth from between his shoulder blades only to disappear again.
Where those feathers? Surely my mind had tricked me. A dark grin spread over my face; the race was on. Letting my self drop, I picked up speed waiting until the moment before the trees to compress, and quickly decompress, air under my left foot. The actions catapulted me upwards a prodigious speed. My friend Flare had once commented on that technique. He said it looked like I was jumping from an invisible platform to the next.
He called it Air Running.
I got closer to my racing opponent and observed him more closely. It was not just my imagination, great black wings erupted from a point between his shoulder blades. They flapped once and disappear in a puff of feathers only to reappear when they were needed next.
I couldn't believe my eyes. All my life I had wanted to fly and my new friend literally had wings. I extended my Aura towards him. Was this his semblance? When It came into contact with him, I felt no burst of Aura. Worse than that I felt nothing... no aura at all.
I spotted a clearing to our east and signaled to him that this was our destination. He reached it ten seconds before I did but, as he turned around to face me, there was no victory gloating. There was only fear in his eyes. I touched ground and stormed over to him only stopping an inch from his face
"You!" I took a breath to gather my thoughts. His eyes betrayed his fear of my reaction and they cooled me off.
I sighed "You have a lot to explain. Like how you can summon wings and why those are Grimm wings..."
He looked away from me "You could tell?" His voice was almost breaking
"Only Grimm negate aura and, when I tried to sense your power just now, I felt it... the emptiness of Grimm." He kept his gaze averted from me.
I stepped back and slumped my shoulders "Look, I'm sorry. I just… spent my whole life fighting Grimm so this came as a bit of a shock. When we are done here you and I are gonna have a talk."
He turned to me, his gaze betraying his disbelief, though not quite as much as his gaping mouth. "Yo- You are OK with my power?"
I nodded.
We stood for a moment in awkwardness and scream broke the silence. Looking at each other, we nodded once in agreement. There would be a time for talk later, we had a job to do. He turned on himself smelling the air, and I could swear I saw his face grow longer, almost lupine.
I struck the ground with my fist, sending a wave of Aura into the ground. I had learned, a long time ago, that Aura was common to all living things and that, with enough practice, I could communicate from one owner to the next. Sending such a pulse through the ground, I let my aura reverberate through the land, every time it hit another important source it would flare up.
"So?" Kokuran's voice broke through my concentration.
"Four groups... one just a little north of us, two to the east and one to the southeast" I answered, brow furrowed in concentration.
He nodded in agreement and added "I picked up Grimm at three of those locations. A massive one was recently killed up north, so there's no danger there. Whoever is to the southeast has Grimm fleeing from them. The two to the east seem in trouble. I smell fire and one of the two groups is headed towards a massive Grimm presence."
I focused my aura to the east. The fire would spread out of control if not acted upon I turned to Kokuran. "You take care of the fire and I'll go to the Grimm!"
His wings sprouted from his back and, without another word, he flew off. Repeating the maneuver from my take off, I aimed straight up. Waiting for the moment I reached the peak of my ascension, I hooked my feet over a ball of compressed air and just hung there for a moment.
The world was sprawling below me.
To the East, I saw the caverns and could discern the two small figures entering them. My blood froze with realization. According to Ozpin's reports, there were only three types of Grimm that had attained massive size in the region: A king Taijitu, who roamed in the forest, a pair of Nevermore's who nested atop the tallest trees, and a nest of Death Stalkers... located in one of the caves of the Emerald Forest.
Launching myself towards the caves, I hoped I wouldn't be too late. A single Death Stalker could grow to be a problem on its own, given that he got old enough, a nest could be a nightmare for unprepared hunters.
I let more of my aura flow through me in an attempt to gain more speed. I tasted metal in my mouth and knew I would pay for the excess later on.
As I reached the caves, I launched blades of highly compacted air at the ground, hoping it would cave in and allow me quick entrance. The ground was rapidly approaching. I renewed my attempts to create a hole and I felt the blood in my arms start to boil. Something was gonna give and it was either the ground or my body.
A small hole In the ground appeared and I could see the darkness below. I sent a few more shot making it just big enough to pass through.
Adrenaline can do amazing things to a man's body. Passing through this hole that was barely big enough for me at the speed of a bullet must have released quite a bit of it in my system. When I burst through, I took in the size of the cave and everything seemed to slow down.
In a moment, I saw Jaune, holding on to the stinger of a Death Stalker, and Pyrrha in front of them looking shocked. I also saw the three Death Stalkers that were stirring near them.
Flipping my body over, I angled myself self towards the nearest one and landed, knees first, on his carapace. A sickening crack was heard and I sunk into the body, the carapace unable to withstand the shock, killing the Death Stalker on the spot.
As I pulled myself out of it's remains, I took in my surroundings and noticed Pyrrha, wide eyed at my entry, looking at me while deflecting a blow from the Scorpion on whom Jaune was still dangling. Movement behind me alerted me to the fact the other Stalkers were now fully awake and angry.
"Run" I screamed to Pyrrha. "I'll take care of those two! You'll have to deal with the last one."
She nodded and took off towards the exit, the Death Stalker still carrying Jaune in her wake.
I turned to face my to opponents. The one on the right had a major crack along its left pincer, rendering it almost ineffective. The one on the left seemed to be younger and have a thinner shell.
I sent a condensed ball of air under the one on the right sending it flying backwards and crashing against the wall. The resulting crash shook the cavern wall and a few stalactites fell. I noticed a bigger one shaking but still attached to the roof.
A plan formed in my head and I knelt down dropping my defensive stance. The younger Death Stalker fell for it and charged me. My hair stood on my arms as power rushed back in only to be directed in short burst of air at the base of the Stalactite.
A thunderous crack was heard as the base gave out and it started falling. The Death Stalker was almost on me when the deadly spear of rock impaled it. It's death throes lasted only a few moment before it stopped moving.
I turned to find the giant scorpion getting back on it's legs. It charged at me and I couldn't get away in time. The hit sent me flying across the cave and I landed harshly on my back. Only my fathers training allowed me to roll out of the way as the beasts stinger struck the ground where I was.
Hastily standing back up cost me awareness and a claw struck me again as I was sent tumbling backwards. That time, I was too slow and couldn't get out of the way in time. The left pincers stabbed the ground on either side of my neck, the wound on the claw stopped it from closing fully, holding me in place. It's stinger struck and only a contortion of my body allowed me to dodge.
It must have hit a softer patch of dirt as it buried deeply in the ground preventing the Death Stalker from pulling it out. As it struggled, I realized that it would kill me once it managed to remove his stinger.
A desperate idea crossed my mind. Grimm, unable to carry Aura, were also very weak to it and an overload of it could be very dangerous to them. I had only done this with smaller Grimm but I was out of options. Both of my hands went to the claw that was pinning me down and I opened the floodgates.
I let me power rampage through my body as I struggled to direct it into the claw. The Grimm's angry hiss proved me right as the crack began glowing turquoise, the glow around my hands seemingly seeping into it.
I drew more power still and my head felt like it was splitting in half. The anger in the Stalkers hiss turned to pain as I started screaming.
"FUCKING DIE ALREADY AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" I felt my vocal chords giving out under the pain that seared my body. Darkness crept around the edge of my vision and what little I saw shined incredibly bright. The whole claw seemed to burn from the inside as turquoise color filled my eyes. Just as I was about to pass out, a snap was heard and I saw the entirety of the claw evaporate in Turquoise fire.
Silence slowly on the cave as the Death Stalker slowly fell on its side. I stayed on on the ground catching my breath. I couldn't feel my left side and wished it was the same for my right side. 'I'll just take a nap now... I've earned it'
My eyes slowly closed. The sound of wings disturbed me a few seconds later. I opened one eye to see Kokuran standing above me, he whistled while taking in the surrendering scene then extended a hand
"Come on... were not done yet."
I grabbed it.