Chapter Twelve: Hunting
Present Day
Viper bounded joyfully ahead of her comrades, soaking in the warm Vacuoan sun. She might not love cold, but this was her element. She always felt much more energetic in the warmth, one of the many reasons she usually operated in Menagerie's deserts. Looking back, she frowned at her significantly less energetic comrades. The snow fox looked about ready to die in the heat, the silly Atlesian, while the golden knight, reined in by years of discipline, suffered in silence, no doubt boiling in her armor. Oberon, as ever, seemed unfazed by the weather, but was keeping pace with the others, apparently in no hurry to get anywhere. Viper rolled her eye, stopping to wait for the others to catch up.
The four warriors were on their way from one of the villages in the deserts of Sanus called Harena, a rather uninspired name that translated as Sand. In order to cover the costs of their operations, the four often posed as a team of huntsmen and took jobs protecting the small villages that surrounded the kingdoms. By choosing small, out of the way villages, they reduced the likelihood that their actions would be discovered by anyone in authority. Harena had recently been afflicted by creeps, and had gladly agreed to pay "Team CRVO" to rid the village of the Grimm. To this end, Viper had been tracking the lizard-like monsters to their nest, a task which would be so much easier if her teammates weren't so damn slow.
Eventually though, even the slowest journey must reach its end, and Viper at last spotted a cave, nearly hidden in the dunes. The creeps' trail led right to it, and there was no doubt in her mind that this was their goal. She pointed it out to the others as they came up, indicating that they needed to go inside. Oberon silently moved to the front of the group, leading them into the cave. Viper might be the best at tracking, but Oberon could actually sense Grimm, in the same way he could sense people's souls. At Rin's prompting he had once described it to them as souls having a certain gravity to them, a draw that he could feel, while Grimm felt like an emptiness, a hole in the fabric of the world. Shaking herself out of it, Viper followed along, then Corona, and finally Rin. Viper and Rin could see in the dark, due to their faunus heritage, and Oberon always seemed to find his way, but Corona, on the other hand, could not see in the dark, and needed the gentle guidance of her girlfriend to show her the way. Together they made their way deeper into the cave. Oberon led them down farther and farther. They could see signs of habitation, spent torches lay scattered around, while crude railings and boardwalks lined the path. Someone had been spending time down here, enough to actually put in rudimentary walkways. Oberon vaguely wondered at the identity of these unknown actors, but figured it would be best for now to focus on the task at hand.
Following the path deeper into the cave, they eventually found themselves on the edge of a cliff leading into a large cavern. And by large, I mean that the entirety of Beacon could fit inside the cavern without touching the walls. And as they looked down, for the entrance was actually quite high above the floor of the cavern, the ground seemed to be shifting, twisting, heaving, but as they continued to stare, they realized it for what it really was. The entire floor was covered in hundreds, even thousands of Grimm. Creeps made up the majority of the population, while King Taijitus slithered through the masses. Even worse, there were some massive, hooded Emperor Taijitus in the mix.
Viper, looking over Obi's shoulder, saw the mass of reptilian Grimm and shuddered. Her team was strong, no doubt about that, but going up against that many Grimm was impossible. She turned to look at the others. Rin was silent and still, but her knuckles were white as she gripped Corona's shoulder. Corona, of course, couldn't actually see what was front of them and so was completely unfazed. Oberon, though, Oberon worried her. Oberon was quivering. Not out of fear of course, she had never known him to betray any sign of fear, but out of barely repressed excitement. He turned to her, presumably looking right at her. "No," she said warningly. Oberon conjured his sword, four feet of curving black steel, with a recurve, guard-less hilt. "No, no, no..." Oberon started backing up, "NO, NO, NO..." Oberon ran forward, leaping over the edge of the cliff, down towards the Grimm, "GODS FUCKING DAMMIT."
Turning to her companions, she said, "Guess stealth's out of the question. Corona, you're up." Nodding the woman drew her sword and shield, and her entire ensemble began to glow with golden light, bathing the entire cavern in a close approximation of natural sunlight. Without a word, she leapt down into the fray, the other two women following closely after. A creep charged for Corona, only to be to be blasted by Viper's guns, Duncan and Hardin. Corona kept close to the wall, allowing it to guard their rears while she protected the three of them from frontal attacks. This allowed the others, whose weapons were more long-range focused, to take the time to carefully choose their targets, picking off the enemies with mechanical precision. They easily mowed down several waves of Grimm without even breaking a sweat, due to their precision, coordination, and teamwork.
Meanwhile, in roughly the middle of the cavern, Oberon was also racking up the kills. It was honestly easier for him to fight alone. The only reason he ever took hits was if they would hit someone else otherwise, so as long as no one else was around, he could simply flit through the battlefield, slipping in and out of solidity as easily as a penguin transitions between land and sea. All the while, his sword, Dullahan, did its bloody work, slashing through limbs and torsos, the force of his slashes causing the blade to cut through even thick bone plates as if they were little more than butter. He used his unique command of the battlefield to his advantage, melding into the ground at times, getting under the Grimm only to spear it from below on the tip of his blade. It was little more than butchery at this point, and he was honestly a little saddened at the lack of challenge. At least, he was, until the snakes joined in the fight.
Back with the others, everything was going okay, until Viper saw a blur of motion out of the corner of her eye. Time slowed down as she turned, spotting the Taijitu head darting straight at them. Before she even fully registered what the creature was, her reflexes had already sprung into action, lining up to fire. Twin revolver barrels barked as her silver dust rounds flashed out, spinning at a much faster rate than normal rounds, boring through the thick plating and shredding the Grimm's insides. Rin, behind her, was contending with the other head. Unfortunately, her Seppun were not well suited for this kind of work. Or else they wouldn't be, except that they were coated with a mixture of Viper's extracted venom, and other, unknown poisons, then deliver with surgical precision to the Grimms' vital areas, delivering swift death to her enemies. As frivolous as Rin often seemed to be, she was quite studious in her study of anatomy, for both Grimm and sentient species, that she might always know the best targets for her attacks. The Kings were not too big a threat, and all in all the three of them were just glad none of the Emperors seemed to have noticed them.