RWBY: Light Extinguished
Chapter 15
oxoxoxo
In the midst of their march to the Firebase, Fantine had Team EMAD break camp. They were a short distance from the base, far enough that enemy sentries wouldn't spot them, but also close enough that they could easily make their move when they were ready. The hunters had set up three tents, one for Thatch, Francois and Ben, one for Maria and Alison and one for the professor himself. After setting up the tents, Fantine had them build a fire, but specified that it had to be kept small enough as to not let up too much light or smoke. His first reason was obvious, the light and smoke would catch the attention of the White Fang in the Firebase, and since it was getting darker, the light would be more visible. The second reason was more disturbing. If there were too much smoke, then it could attract the Inferri. Even now, the distant sounds of shuffling hordes of ghouls could be heard through the trees. Fantine warned that they got more active as night drew closer, so they should move as soon as possible, resting just long enough to be fresh for the mission.
Team EMAD and Ben sat on logs around the small fire, the young hunters having emerged from their tents and taken them down just as the moon began to rise. The four youth sat around the slowly dying fire, the light gradually fading as the canopy of trees blocked out most of the sky, though allowing small shafts of moonlight to shine down on the soon to be hunters as each one examined their weapons. Maria put a hand up to the open boss of her shield and gave the barrels within a spin. "I never imagined my first mission would be in a place like this." She said, just loudly enough for the rest of the group to hear. "Always thought I'd be charging into battle alongside my team, gunning down Grimm by the dozen as we did."
Ben looked up from slipping rounds into his sword's magazine. "Not what you expected when you turned down that military position, is it?"
The centurion chuckled lightly. "Not in the least, but it's still the right thing to do and that's what counts." She said as she closed the boss of her shield and leaned it against the log she sat on. "Hey, that reminds me, you all know my reasons for coming to Beacon, what inspired all of you to become hunters?"
The remainder of her team exchanged a glance before turning to face her. "You want to know all our reasons?" Thatch asked.
"You heard me." Maria replied, leaning forward, her face illuminated by the slowly dying fire. "Why don't you go first?" She offered, gesturing to the renegade.
"You want to know why. I'll tell you why." Thatch said, sheathing his swords. "Though I have to say, my answer might seem a tad boring to the rest of you."
"I'd still be interested." Alison said, offering the swordsman a smile.
Thatch returned it before continuing, a far off look in his eyes and a wistful, nostalgic smile on his face. "To be honest, it was for my mother. She raised me on stories of explorers of old. I swore that one day I'd see all the kingdoms, just like all of them did. Figured the best way to do that was to go to combat school and become a huntsman, that'd give me an excuse to travel as much as I wanted."
"Juste une seconde," Francois interrupted. "Yang said you were, how you say, an idiot at Signal academy, how did you plan to travel the kingdoms with a record like you had?"
The renegade chuckled. "I suppose you could say Yang set me straight. When I got to signal, I figured I'd half arse my way through classes, graduate on a C and buy myself a ship and get going. Then Yang got a hold of me." Thatch leaned forward and smirked. "The lesson in my story here, is never to skip out on group work. Especially when your partner is not afraid to literally hunt you down and drag you to class." That got a light chuckle out of the team, even Ben. Thatch allowed himself a quick smirk before continuing. "After that, I slowly cleaned up my act. I still want to travel now, but I think I'd like to do that with the lot of you beside me. Maybe even you Ben, once you work that stick out of your arse at least."
Alison smiled at the thought of flying away with the renegade and the rest of the team. The thought made her more than happy, and happiness was something they all needed in this place. That's when a thought occurred to her: wasn't Thatch's father an explorer? His mother had told her he was, so why didn't he mention his father? She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped herself just short of saying a word. There must have been some reason the renegade never talked about his father, maybe she should ask him in private instead.
Francois rolled his eyes at Thatch's story. "First you need a ship, mon ami, and those most certainly do not come cheap."
Thatch snorted. "Alright Noble Boy, what's your story?"
The nobleman frowned. "Very well. As you may have presumed, I was born to a fairly well off family. What I may not have mentioned is that my uncle was a huntsman, the one on my mother's side at least and I grew up on tales of his adventures."
"Let me guess." Thatch said. "He trained you to be a huntsman and now you're here?"
"Perhaps I should tell you what happens when you assume, mon ami." The nobleman replied. "Non, my uncle died of a heart attack when I was young, but those stories stuck with me, so when I was old enough, I requested to be taught to fight. My father was against it, but my mother managed to convince him to hire a tutor. He was one of the best men I've ever met."
"Was?" Ben asked.
"Oui." Francois replied. "He was killed, jailed for his part in the White Fang and then killed in prison." He said, clenching a fist. "He left the White Fang and even turned on them, but even then the prison guards did nothing as he was murdered in his cell. From that day forward I swore to never let that happen to another person, and becoming a hunter seemed like the best way to do that." With that, the marksman turned to the final original member of their group. "What about you, Alison, why did you take up arms as a huntress?"
Alison blushed slightly and kicked at rocks in embarrassment. "Well..."
"Come on, Alison," Maria encouraged, putting a hand on her partner's shoulder. "No one will judge you here." She said, giving a very pointed glare to Ben, the soldier whistling innocently as she drilled holes in him with her gaze.
"Well..." Alison said again, this time a little more confident. "I feel like my story is kind of boring, I mean, you all have your own philosophical reasons for coming out here, but me... I'm just following in my parents' footsteps. They were both hunters, so I thought it would only be right if I did the same, right?"
Maria smiled and put an arm around Alison's shoulder's, pulling her partner into a hug. "I'm glad you did. I think we all are."
Alison could only smile. Knowing that Maria broke with the tradition of her family by becoming a huntress and not a general, she knew just how much she valued making one's own decision. Even still, she had praised her for deciding to follow her family. "Thanks Maria."
Ben watched as his new teammates talked about their pasts, wishing more than anything that he could just sink into the ground. Part of his story was similar to theirs, but there was just one key difference. Their choices were willing ones.
"What about you, big man?" Thatch asked, pulling Ben out of his reverie.
"Huh?" The giant soldier sputtered. "What?"
"You heard me." The renegade replied. "What made you want to be a huntsman?"
"Oh, uh, it's in the blood, you know? Military family and whatnot."
The other team members were silent after Ben's words. "That's it?" Asked Francois.
"Yeah, that's about it. Followed my calling and it led me here." Ben insisted.
The others gave him a sceptical look, but unbeknownst to them, they weren't the only ones observing his reaction. From above, perched on a tree branch twenty feet off, two other pairs of eyes watched the students around the fire. "So these are the people who landed." One of them hissed. "Human, the lot of them." She said, eyes narrowing.
"The commander said to report back to her with our findings, Cobra." The second one replied, though her sister did notice she had gripped the handle of her axe.
"Seems like you're ready for a fight yourself, Taipan." Cobra replied, never taking her eyes off the intruders.
"I'm ready if they spot us." Taipan explained. "Anyway, we should leave before they do, after all, they outnumber us three to one with the one in the tent."
"The commander wanted to know what they're here for." Cobra said. "We can't just report back with half the information."
Micca rolled her eyes at her sister's actions. "You just want a shot at the pretty boy again, don't you?"
Wun nearly spat, only stopping herself as she knew it would attract the wrong sort of attention. That is to say any attention. "So?" She hissed.
Her older sister smirked. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you had a crush on him." Micca joked. Her sister just huffed. "Look," Taipan continued. "If we want to find out why they're here, we'll need to get closer, but we also need to stay quiet. The distance has saved us from being noticed so far, but once we get in close we'll need to stay silent."
"I'm ready when you are sister." Cobra replied, readying her wrist mounted crossbows just in case.
"Quietly now, let's move out." Micca said.
Wun nodded wordlessly.
"Why are we hiding?" Asked a third voice, this one male and cheerful.
"We don't want to be spotted. Shut up." Wun hissed.
It took the two sisters about three seconds to realize that someone else was with them. As one, the two of them turned to see a very familiar black mask.
"Hi." The Axman greeted. With a shout, he swung his axe, severing the branch they all stood on, sending all three of them crashing to the ground, all three landing in crouches in a small clearing below, readying weapons for battle.
Meanwhile, at the campsite, Team EMAD and professor Fantine shot up at the noise, each one grabbing their weapons. "What was that?" Fantine mused, emerging from his tent. "Perhaps we should investigate." He said with a smirk as he drew his rapier.
Maria nodded and beckoned her team forward. "EMAD, move out. The noise came from over here."
As Team EMAD mobilized, the Axman was engaged in combat with the two sisters. He swung his axe in a pendulum pattern at Taipan, knowing her firepower could take him out easily. He also kept nimble to avoid the occasional bolt or stab from the other sisters. "It's been too long since I've gotten a good fight out of the White Fang." The Axman quipped. "Usually they're so much easier, but you two are an actual challenge!" He said, locking weapons with Taipan. "I just have one question:" The vigilante said, glancing over at the charging Cobra, leaping aside just as the younger girl would have stabbed him. "Don't you already have a dance partner?"
"Why is everyone asking that?" Wun hissed at her sister.
"There they are!" A new voice declared. The snakes and Axman looked to see Team EMAD and Professor Fantine arriving, the students' weapons all aimed at them while the professor merely stood back with a savage grin on his face.
Cobra and Taipan backed away slowly, neither one making any sudden motions as they made their way closer to one of the larger trees in the area. "This could be a problem." Taipan whispered.
"You might have a point." Cobra replied. A couple of hunter initiates, they could deal with. One vigilante they could take easy. They might even have a chance against the professor if he was careless. However, all of them together would be a problem.
"Weapons down." Maria commanded. "All of you. That means you too, mask."
The Axman just gestured to himself as if looking for confirmation she meant him. Maria just nodded. The vigilante sighed. "Does this look like your standard issue White Fang uniform to you? Also, they attacked me! Shouldn't you be helping me?"
"I said weapons down." The centurion repeated, the boss of her shield opening to reveal the minigun within. "I won't ask a third time."
The Axman sighed and dropped his axe, the blade biting into the earth next to him. The snakes, meanwhile, turned to one another and nodded grimly. As one they turned to the assembled hunters. "Let us go!" They both cried, their order ripping through the minds of their enemies, making them all step back, minds ringing as the semblance of the two sisters tore at them, making them listen. Knowing it wouldn't last long against so many foes, the two sisters leapt up into the tree and ran, leaping from branch to branch as they made their way back to the base.
Fantine and Maria were the first to recover, catching one final glimpse of the fleeing sisters. "They're headed for the Firebase." Maria noted.
"Indeed." Fantine replied, nodding. "It seems you were correct."
"What about this one?" Thatch asked, guns still trained on the Axman. "He's not running with the other two."
"Ever occur to you that I might not be one of them?" The Axman said, slowly rising to his feet. The second he tried to rise, five guns and a zhua were trained on him, making him sweat slightly. "You guys mind maybe dropping those?"
Not a single student moved.
"That's what I thought..." The vigilante muttered, putting his hands behind his head.
"On the ground," Francois demanded. "Tout suite."
The Axman looked at the nobleman with a confused expression. "What?"
"Now!" Maria barked, raising her shield.
"Alright, alright..." The Axman said. "Not."
With that, the vigilante pulled a small, grey crystal out from under his hat and threw it on the ground, sending up a thick cloud of grey smoke. With his opponents distracted by the smoke, the Axman turned and bolted, leaping up into the lower branches of a nearby tree. He was about to climb when a rope shot out from the smoke and wrapped itself around his wrist, pulling him down to earth and into the cloud of dust he made, just as it began to clear. The vigilante turned to see it had been the caped one who pulled him back, the rope around his arm coming from his coat's sleeve. "So that's the kind of stuff you're into." The Axman remarked.
"Shut up," Maria spat, smacking the vigilante with her shield. "Or the next shot goes around your neck. Got it?"
The vigilante gulped. "Uh, got it, yeah, let's go with that."
Maria narrowed her eyes at him before beckoning Thatch forward. The renegade stepped towards the vigilante, a smirk painted on his face. As he got close, however, he was stopped by Fantine putting a hand on his shoulder. "Before you make the poor sod scream, I want all of you to be silent for a moment and listen. What do you hear?"
The students and vigilante went silent as they strained their ears to hear what the Professor was talking about. They didn't need to work hard before they heard it, the quickly approaching sound of masses of shuffling feet, twigs snapping beneath the innumerable feet, moans of pain could be heard over the shuffling, creating a cacophony of sound as the hoard drew closer. "It seems we made a little too much noise." Fantine explained, drawing his rapier and readying a throwing knife. "Remember what I said, aim for the heads, otherwise they'll just get back up."
Maria growled in frustration before slashing the rope off the Axman's arm. "Try and escape and we'll throw you to the hoard. Got it."
The vigilante nodded, getting to his feet and readying his signature axe. As he fell into formation with Team EMAD, the hoard drew closer, close enough that he could smell them. The foul stench of death and decay, rot and blood, it seemed to awaken something deep within him, a scratching in the back of his head which, despite the situation, brought a grim smile to his face. 'Get ready, here they come.' Said the voice in his head. For once, he was more than willing to listen to it.
The first of the Inferri soon emerged from the trees, and the weapons of Team EMAD roared to life rounds from their weapons quickly tearing through the monsters, Maria's minigun and Ben's LMG doing the most damage, while pinpoint dust powered explosions from Alison sent the walking corpses flying, Thatch, Francois and the Axman cutting down any who got too close.
Maria gunned down one of the monsters with her shield, stabbing another in the skull as it got too close. "I hate these things already." She grumbled.
Ben switched his gun to its sword form and cut down an entire line of the dead. "Less talking, more killing." He said, shifting his weapon back to gun form and opening fire.
Thatch emptied the remainder of a clip into the head of an Inferri, stabbing another in the skull and kicking and third square in the nose and stomping its skull flat as it hit the ground. "As much as I love the whole 'impossible odds' thing, does anyone see a way out?"
"I'm working on it, Mister Edwards." Fantine growled, seeming to be more annoyed than anything. "Just keep them occupied."
"Not too difficult!" Francois replied, putting another round in a ghoul's head. "Just remember we don't have limitless ammunition."
"I'm working on it!" The professor shot back, growing frustrated. Team EMAD was holding back the hordes for now, but it was only a matter of time before they got closer. Someone would make a mistake. They'd run out of ammo, something would go wrong. They needed a way out of this clearing and quickly.
That was when the ground began to shake.
About once every two seconds, the earth would shake with a mighty 'boom.' A low growl from the direction of the sounds confirmed what EMAD feared: something huge was coming.
With a mighty roar, the massive creature began to speed up, the earth shaking as it charged through the forest, trees falling in its wake. Finally, the monster burst into the north side of the clearing with a bloodcurdling bellow. It was at least twelve feet tall, its skin black as night with bone white plating across its chest and arms and massive spikes emerging from its back. Each limb was as thick around as a man, and the armoured arms looked like they could break a person in two as casually as one might break a dry dead stick. The nightmarish image was completed by the blood red eyes full of hate on its face. However, the most disturbing part of the beast wasn't any of these features. No, what truly frightened the hunters was that this creature had a very familiar form. It was one of the Inferri, their curse having spread out of control, mutating the victim into the massive Grimm like being that stood before them. This thing had once been human.
They didn't have time to worry about this, however, as the massive behemoth bellowed once again and charged at them.
"Scatter!" Fantine called.
Seeing that their options were either get flattened by the creature or dive into the oncoming hordes, the students and professor took the death they could fight off easily, leaping weapons first into the ranks of the ghouls. All but one, that is. Summoning her aura and raising her shield, Maria Gaia stood her ground, the behemoth raising a massive fist to flatten her, but Maria managed to raise her shield and block the strike. The force of the blow nearly knocked Maria off her feet, but the leader of EMAD held her ground, digging her booted feet into the dirt and pushing back. The monster roared as it attempted to overpower her, but the centurion just smirked, opening the boss of her shield and letting loose a torrent of hot lead into the beast's chest. The monster roared in agony as it stumbled back, giving Maria just the opportunity she needed.
Getting a running start, Maria leapt into the air right for the monster, batting aside a massive hand as she aimed for its face. Landing shield first on the head of the creature, the force of her attack managed to knock the wounded beast onto the ground, the creature giving a loud roar of pain as it hit the ground.
The centurion removed the shield and was about to raise her sword to finish it, but then she saw its face. Time seemed to slow as she took in the features of the beast's face. It was disfigured and mutated by the curse, with fangs where teeth should have been, skin turned the colour of a midnight sky and eyes glowing blood red, but the creature she was attacking was still very clearly human. In fact, striking Maria as hard as a blow from this thing's fists was the fact that every single one of these creatures had once been human. What right did any of them have to murder them? They were just as human as they were.
Maria couldn't think on this for long, as the behemoth was still very much alive, and raised a meaty fist to flatten her. Closing her eyes, Maria raised her blade and, with a loud war cry, drove it down into the creature's eye, giving it a violent twist to make sure it was dead, the loud thud following that told her that it was, as the creature's arms fell to the ground.
Pulling her blade back as the monster began to disintegrate like all Grimm did, Maria looked around the battlefield. Her teammates were beginning to push the creatures back.
Francois stood behind Ben, the nobleman using precise shots to drop any Inferri he saw, with the massive soldier using his blade to cut down any that got too close, cutting them in half and stomping on their heads to ensure their deaths. Thatch and Alison stood back to back, the artist using dust blasts to destroy the creatures, while Thatch jammed his fingers down on the triggers of his blades, a hail of rapid fire bullets tearing through the skulls of any monster in his line of sight. Meanwhile, Fantine moved like the phantom many called him, wading through the hoards, his blade seeming to dance in the faint light of the moon, plunging his rapier and dagger into the heads of any Inferri in range.
However, the one contributing the most to the fight was the new arrival: the Axman. The vigilante was a force of nature, his axe flying about in a seemingly random pattern, though every swing of the blade was swift and would land the head of the axe directly in a ghoul's skull. The Axman turned to face her for just a brief moment, and for that half second Maria caught a glimpse of the crazed smile adorned on his face as he waded through the ranks of the undead.
To tell the truth, if anyone had asked the Axman if he knew what he was doing, the vigilante would have had to answer no. Ever since the giant ghoul crashed into the clearing, the voice in his head had given him direction, telling him just what attacks to use, how to use them and where to go to cause the most damage. He could feel wounds from when the creatures got too close, but the pain only inspired him to keep fighting. 'Good' the voice said 'Keep going, kill them all! This is what you were born for! Their blood will make the grass grow!'
That was all the vigilante needed to hear, his axe a whirlwind of motion now and corpses beginning to pile around him
To Maria, it looked like they might just take this battle.
But she could see between the trees, and on the south side of the clearing a massive hoard was beginning to form. They needed a way out now, lest they be devoured by the hoard. Getting desperate, Maria cast her eyes about the clearing before she came to the perfect solution. The creature she had just killed had already provided them their escape. "Everyone, run to the path the giant made!" She cried out, pointing with her blade to the path of fallen trees the behemoth had knocked over in its rampage to get here.
The other members seeing the path got the message, firing one last collective barrage into the ranks of the undead, the members of Team EMAD made their escape, Fantine using a length of rope to pull the Axman out with them. As her teammates ran past, Maria stopped Alison in her tracks. She looked the artist dead in the eye. "They can't follow, understand?"
Alison nodded silently and turned to the south side of the clearing. In one swift motion she fired a blast of flame from the claw of her zhua, the blast igniting the trees on the other side of the clearing, burning through the ranks of the dead. As the flames grew brighter and hotter, Alison switched the dust in her zhua, spun it above her head and plunged it into the ground, a wall of earth rising from the ground to cut them off from their enemies.
Maria nodded grimly. "Let's go, the others will be waiting."
Alison nodded and the two followed the path of fallen trees after their companions.
oxoxoxo
After what felt like over an hour of walking in complete silence, the team came to a halt at the mouth of a cave. The students each found a wall to lean against, along with the Axman who nearly collapsed against his wall, letting out a heavy sigh. "Well," He said "That was fun."
Thatch took of his hat and fanned himself with it. "So, fearless leader, was that more of what you expected for your first mission?" He asked, smirking in spite of the situation.
Maria panted as she replied. "This is a bit closer to what I expected, yes." She said, looking over the front of her shield where the behemoth had hit her. As usual, the surface of the shield remained undamaged aside from scratched paint. Her arm beneath it... She could feel her aura healing her, but it was going to sting.
"Are you okay?" Alison asked, approaching her leader.
"Just a bit bruised, that thing hit hard." The centurion replied. "I don't suppose you can spare a little frost dust, can you?" The artist nodded and reached into her robe, producing a small, white translucent crystal. Maria took the crystal and held it over her left arm, allowing the chill the crystal produced to aid in her recovery.
"Professor Fantine, sir." Ben piped up, standing at attention.
"At ease, Mister Aparte." Fantine replied, the soldier's stance relaxing somewhat. "What is it?"
"What was that thing?" Ben asked. "When Erwin told me he wanted me for the mission here, he never mentioned anything like that thing."
"I don't know." Fantine replied, staring back in the direction they came from. "I was marooned here and in my entire stay, I never saw anything like that."
"Yeah, those things are pretty new here, old timer." Said a new voice. The group turned as one in the direction of the speaker. He stood just shorter than Fantine with long, wild black hair running down the back of his head to his mid back now, the beard and moustache on his face were crudely cut, and they framed a crazed grin topped with a pair of red eyes, the crimson orbs holding no warmth, only madness. He was dressed in a blood red robe with plated chainmail underneath. The hunters were sure his robe had once been a fine piece of clothing, but time and countless battles left their marks and the garment was now covered in claw marks and what looked like bullet holes, the chainmail being broken in some areas, likely where this man had taken injuries. Completing the image of the madman was the weapon held over his shoulder, a lengthy staff topped with an axe head and spike, a halberd. "It's not too often I get company around here, let alone company that can take down a Behemoth. That's what those things are called, by the way, Behemoths."
"Who named them that?" Asked Maria. "And more importantly, who on Remnant are you?"
The man with the halberd looked confused for a moment, as though trying to remember his own name. "I named it of course, I was the first one to run into one of those things, missy." He said, placing a hand on his chest in seeming pride. "And as for my name,"
"Vlad Paler." Ben said, stepping forward. "Supposedly killed in the attack on Vale's army here. I can only wonder how you survived this long, Vlad."
"Is that..." Vlad muttered, stepping closer to the giant soldier, the smell of blood on him growing more pungent with every step. "Benny Boy?" The madman's eyes widened and he grabbed the soldier in a bear hug, lifting the massive boy off the ground. "It is you! Oh, it's great to see someone from the good ol' days here. Been awful lonely here with just the dead for the last few months. Of course, there's those animals in the old Firebase, but you can't really talk to them when you're killing them, you know?"
"Wait a minute," Maria piped up. "You knew the White Fang were in the Firebase, but you didn't try to do anything about it?"
Vlad unceremoniously dropped Ben before moving to stare down Maria. "Who's this one, Benny Boy? Your girlfriend? Not bad at all, she is..."
"She is his leader." Maria said, cutting off the mad general. "And she'd like to know why a general didn't go after the biggest threat on this island."
"Girly, you have no idea just what's on this island, do you?" Vlad asked. "Oh wait, yeah you do, you just spent some quality time with them. Anyway, yeah, they're the biggest threat on this island and I've been trying to put a decent sized dent in the population for a while now. Trouble is, the horde is massive, so that's been a bit of a tall order in just a few months. And about why I haven't gone after the animals, there are a lot of them too. And they have guns. I might be crazy, but I'm not an idiot, you know."
"Well, Mister Paler," Fantine said, using the same tone he would use to speak to one of his students "The White Fang know we're here now, so there's little point in hiding, and the knowledge that there are more people here will likely make them speed up their plans here, whatever those are." The phantom explained. He turned to face the entire group. "Team EMAD, you came here with me to investigate the enemy's activities here, and while we don't know exactly what they're doing, we now know where it is. That said, whatever they're doing here, we know it can't be good, and now that they know we're here, not only will they accelerate their plans, but they'll more than likely come looking for us."
Maria took a moment to wipe the dead Behemoth's blood off her sword before sheathing it. Fantine was right, if the White Fang knew they were here, they'd be sending out troops to track them down. They'd want them brought in for either capture or execution. Right now, that wasn't an option.
"Whatever their plans are on this island, they can't be good." Maria said, looking at the shape of the Firebase in the distance. Her eyes narrowed before she continued. "And I might just have a plan to stop them."