Chapter Fifteen
The next day team DRGN arrived at their first class of the day; it was a combat class with Lafayette.
"Morning kiddos." She said as she entered the room. "Today as you should be aware is your first combat class. Timothy grab these booklets and pass them around. Now today we will be reading this," she let out a disheartened sigh, "These bundles of notes are what the higher ups think you should know to prepare your selves." She collapsed into her chair. "Start reading until you find something that interests you, no questions, good." She pulled a flask out form below a pile of books took a swig and flopped over her desk. Damian and his other classmates looked around the room at each other in shock.
"Mmm Miss Lafayette aren't you going to, you know guide us through this?" Scarlet asked timidly.
"Man I'd love to doll but this stuff is dull as shit." She replied causing most of the students to giggle.
"But as our-"
"Look here Scarlet, I know you and everyone in this class for that matter can easily kill Grimm. Your entrance exam proved that. But just because you can beat a type of Grimm doesn't mean you can beat all types of Grimm. You need to learn how they work better than we currently do, as we don't know that much." Scarlet looked disheartened and opened her book, most of the other students followed suit.
After a brief pause Ryu spoke out.
"So after we read all this drivel will we be able to fight?" Lafayette slowly lifted her head.
"Well you see Green Gunner there are exactly TWO things you must do to complete my class. First compile a report with a combination of your team your findings and currently existing data on a certain subject surrounding Grimm or Grimm related things. Then you must put your knowledge into practice by destroying a powerful Grimm or pack of Grimm by exploiting what you've learnt. In some cases, you may have to fight Grimm to test your theories ad from new hypothesis." Lafayette replied with the enthusiasm of reading a long bill.
Ryu flicked through his pile of notes and exhaled unenthusiastically. Until something caught his eye. He nudged Damian
"Look at this," he said pointing to a very small section in the notes.
"What is it?" Damian asked.
"It's a small report on Grimm that somehow possess the ability to manipulate dust. Sounds interesting right?" Damian looked into the document all it contained was a question for a heading and a few badly documented cases of grimm potently manipulating elements or showing powers similar those found by hunters and huntresses who exploited dust.
"Well we were talking about the idea of dragons the other day and this could be an interesting lead." Ryu said eyes full of curiosity.
"I guess some old tales involved Grimm which could control the elements." Damian said thinking to himself.
"It looks like anything we add to this will be contributing a lot to it as it's so shot." Nathan said.
"Okay were not going to find anything here." Ryu said before jumping off his chair and heading to the door. Lafayette looked up.
"Where are you off to?" she asked.
"I'm gonna find a fire breathing dragon grimm and kill it and see how it works."
"Well I'm not saying id condone that but-." Lafayette replied before Ryu sped off.
"Back in a few." He said as he jogged out of the door.
"Miss Lafayette aren't you going to stop him!" scarlet exclaimed. She replied with a shrug of her shoulders.
"I was going to warn him but he ran off. Aye Damian you should probably go catch him." Damian got to his feet and grabbed his bag.
"DRGN Roll out." he said as he left the room. Gagana looked at Nathan who chucked his notes in his bag and ran out the door after his leader. The three of them jogged down the corridor and caught up to Ryu.
"So what's the plan Ryu?" Damian asked
"Well as I see it," he took out his scroll and brought up his time table, "we have just under 3 hours to do some recon." Damian over took Ryu and stuck his arm out to block his way.
"Look here Ryu I know you think your tough shit and all but could you please bring up your crazy escapades with your team before you speed off."
"I'm sorry but I don't need to sit in a room reading crappy note when real world work is to be done."
"Guys shut up." Nathan whispered heatedly as he pushed the two of them into a cupboard.
"Nathan the fu-."
"Damian shush!" Gagana opened the door a crack then immediately closed it and put her finger over her mouth. They all stayed dead silent then they heard something outside. The sound of footsteps coming down the hall. Then they herd the muffled sounds of voices.
"James I know you don't see my project finishing anytime soon but I assure it's almost done I'm just one brake through away."
"Joseph you have been one brake through away for the last five years what makes you think you're any closer now?" the footsteps stopped and their voices got more heated.
"Well that's just rude, you're acting like I've given you nothing up to this point, every six months for the past five years I've updated and improved the prototype."
"Alright but what makes you think your any closer now?"
"This!"
"Wait? Is that, what I think it is?!"
"Yes, this is how she will gain an aura."
"She? Why not give it to Nick?"
"Nick is your son not mine and to be honest he isn't very well suited for this. I mean he won't be compatible."
"I'm not sure how well he'll take it but if that's the case let's get down to the work shop and start on this right now."
"Ha ha ha ha, oh James you do love playing with your toys." The footsteps died off but the team still stayed dead silent until a minute after voices were out of reach just to be sure.
Gagana opened the door and they all fell out.
"Why do I have the feeling we just heard something we weren't meant to." The others go to their feet.
"We," Damian said trying to stay calm, "did not hear anything and we won't speak of it again. Right?"
"Got ya" Nathan replied.
"Now what were we doing before we decided to inspect the cleaning closet?" Ryu asked.
"Something about taking down a big ass Grimm." Damian replied.
"Hey," Gagana Called, "there is an empty room over here let's have a little chat." It didn't seem like she was going to take no for an answer so the boys walked in and closed the door while Gagana grabbed some bits of paper and a pen.
"So what exactly is the objective?" she asked politely.
"We have to find and destroy a mythical fire breathing Grimm." Ryu replied. Gagana wrote his exact sentence down on the paper.
"Now let's break this down into more manageable tasks. Number one, we will have to find a class three Grimm."
"Question," Nathan said with his hand raised a little, to which Gagana nodded, "Does it even exist? I mean we can't be sure."
"I mean we have a few leads but nothing concrete, am I right?" Damian asked the group at large.
"We'll add that to the list then." Gagana said cheerfully, "So Step one look in to find out whether or not it is even real, Step two find out where it would be, Step three … find a way to most effectively deal with and document it?"
"Wouldn't that be step four, three being getting Lafayette to see us defeat it?" Ryu said. Nathan picked up a pen and circled the new point four.
"I'm not going to lie our current level of teamwork," he said with air quotes," has been us all just attacking the same thing and hoping for the best so can we work on that."
"Good idea, I'll start." Damian said grabbing a piece of paper
"Start what?" Nathan replied curiously.
"I am Damian Carmine-,"
"We know that." Ryu interrupted.
"Shush I'm not done. My weapon is a missile launcher called Fenrir, because of this I specialise in ranged combat but I am not hopeless in melee due to my semblance, Beast mode-."
"Beast mode seriously?" Ryu chuckled. Gagana slapped the back of his head and motioned to Damian to continue.
"Beast mode, which increases my offensive capabilities in melee combat. Now you can ask your freaking questions."
"Doesn't Fenrir transform in some way?" Nathan asked
"Nope I doesn't need it to. When me and my dad originally built it we had the idea of if this doesn't kill it what will."
"Ok I'll go next." Gagana said in a chipper tone
"Gagana Arkid here, I use Indara's Might," she showed off her gauntlets, sandals and head piece, "they allow me to infuse my attacks with dust. The dust comes from these little cards, which are just compressed and shaped dust. They fit into the sockets on Indara's Might." They boys gave her blank and confused looks. "I'll show you how they work in a second, now my semblance is teleportation which I use to swap between different kinds of dust and reload." She could see that the boys were still not quite getting it so she laid out five dust cards on the table then one by one teleported them into her weapon without touching them. Once all locked in she performed some practice punches and kicks, with each movement she sent forth fire, lightning, ice and blasts of wind.
"That's pretty cool but too complicated for me." Damian said with a grin.
"That's probably because all you do is point your weapon at things and make them go boom." She replied
"I mean you're not wrong." Ryu chuckled.
"Okay me next." Nathan declared.
"Nathan Glas first time speaker long time listener, self-proclaimed mid-ranged specialist I use Thaw Hammer to suppress and destroy my targets. In ranged mode it is a fully automatic shotgun and in Melee it is a breaching hammer which uses the shotgun shells to provide a little extra punch on impact. My semblance allows me to drastically increase my defence at the cost of my speed. If I gave it a name, I'd call it castle stance."
"What do you mean if? All semblances need names." Damian said enthusiastically.
"Damian I think that's a you thing." Nathan replied.
"Guess it's my turn." Ryu said as he stood up and transformed his weapon. "This is Zang Jishu, it is three modes; a Melee combat mode which is a Kwan dao, a ranged mode which is an Anti-material rifle and its third form is a compact travel mode. My semblance is visible spectrum augmentation."
"What on Remnant is that?" Damian asked.
"I can change what wave lengths I can see so I can see infrared, ultra violet and X-rays, even specfifc things like people's Aura. This allows me to see the invisible and find their weaknesses."
"Well that makes a little more sense. So what was the next problem?"
"Are these Dragon Grimm real." Nathan replied. Gagana got to her feat. "To the library."
"That would be the best place to look." Nathan added
"Guys where is the library?" Ryu asked causing Gagana to stop mid step.
"I have no clue actually."
"Isn't it on our scrolls?" Ryu said pulling his out. "Yup down third left then second right."
"Couldn't you have just used your semblance to find it?" Damian asked.
"I can see X-rays I don't have X-ray vision, big difference." Ryu replied shakily.
Later in the library they gathered a load of books on Grimm knowledge.
"So turns out that a Grimm we are looking for are slightly more noted then the report would have you believe but most of these sightings, if you could even call them that, come up in fairy tales." Nathan said sounding a little disgruntled
"The common themes are, a snake like body, sometimes with wings sometimes not, but can always fly, zero to six limbs and the ability to control the elements in some way." Ryu added.
"Good work guys." Damian said.
"It seems like we don't have many options when it comes to Location." Ryu said bringing up a page in the book he was reading, "Only options are cliff sides, mountains and fissures."
"We don't really get many Death Stalkers in these parts so Nevermore or Mountain Pounder I guess." Damian commented.
"Does anyone know the story of the boy and the black beast, it keeps coming up but I can't find it." Gagana said while jotting in her book.
"Yea I know it, my dad told it to me a couple times it goes something like this." Damian said then cleared his throat.
"There was once a fishing village who rested at the base of a large mountain. life in the village was simple, it was ruled by a powerful chef who had a meek son. One night the son dreamed of a terrible evil would engulf his people, burning their huts, drowning the elderly and crashing the mountain down on the town's hunters. When the son told his father his father simply passed it off as a bad dream and left to the sea to hunt. When he returned later that day he came back with a large black serpent, he paraded around the town showing it off. His son and the rest of the village came to admire his catch but when the son gazed into the serpent's eyes he heard a voice in his head.
Set me free! It said. He tried to persuade his father against eating his prize but his father would not listen. He stabbed the beast with his trident and spear. The voice howled in the boy's head again.
I warned you! Know I will be back and I shall kill you with your own weapons! it screamed.
Five years later when the boy went on his first hut in the woods near the base of the mountain the boy was confronted by a large black beast with blood red eyes, for powerful limbs which ended in talons and a jaw full of sharp teeth. It roared at him and he heard a voice in his head.
We meet again! If you let me feed upon you I shall let your people live! The boy jumped high into the trees and cried for help, then attack the beast with his whip. Quickly his father and a group of hunters arrived and killed the beast, this time burring it to ash.
Every time you kill me I gain more power! My ashes shall spawn a new form of terror and will make you wish you had simply let me eat you!" the voice screamed before disappearing again.
This marked the arrival of two things; the grimm and an endless stream of nightmares for the child hunter. Over the next fifty years the boy became chief of his village and thought the grimm until the faithful day the voice returned to him. It came to him as he slept. With his wife and his own family.
Your doom has arrived! I shall be upon you by sundown! Come to the top of the mountain and fight me! Do not tell a soul or I shall bring it down and kill all that you hold dear to you!
He woke and grabbed his sword, some rope and ran to the mountain climbing it as fast as he could in his old age. When he reached the top of the mountain he found a polished flat plain as if the mountings tip had been cut off by a godly blade. He stood there and looked around for the creature. There was a flash of darkness as something shot into the air and crashed right in front of him. It was the beast that had been haunting him all his life. Now it stood on limbs the size of tree trunks, great black wings that blocked out the sun and its head extended on its long neck touched the sky.
I know you've been waiting for this day, I've been feuding off your fear, your anger, your doubt! it said fire spewing from its mouth.
Your right. The now man said. But I fear you no more! he shouted dropping his word by his side. And I now know how to defeat you. He said his voice ringing across the mountain.
You arrogant fool! The beast shouted and engulfed the man in fire. The man stood their unharmed. The beast looked shocked but followed it up by sending tremendous gales down to crush the man but yet he still stood unharmed.
What are you! the beast screamed as it lashed out with its claws.
I am a man with nothing to fear, I am a man who has no regrets, I am your nightmare. He said as he walked to the beast which quivered.
How I've terrorized you your entire life! I've killed your people and haunted your dreams! How are you fear less are you just dumb! it screamed calling down lighting. The man walked closer.
A man who is prepared to meet the unknown and evil head on, who has already seen the worst has nothing to fear as the fear of the unknown is the most powerful fear of all. So you a creature of fear have no power over me. The man then placed his palm on the beast and the beast shrunk and quivered into a tiny worm.
One-day ill return! the worn shrieked
Well my people heard me and know how to defeat you, they shall tell their children of it so you may never rise to power again. The man then turned into pure light and encased the worm in an egg, which rolled down into the centre of the mountain where it waits to this day. waiting for humanity to lose hope and become engulfed by fear so the beast can return and rule."
"Man I love stories!" Damian looked up to see Scarlet sitting across from them. Gagana put her finger to her mouth to remind Scarlet they were in a library. "oh sorry," She said more quietly, "Lafayette told me to find y'all, we all assumed you'd just be goofing off, but it seems you were serious about going out and actually killing a Dragon."
"Well we are hunters." Ryu said from behind his book.
"What I'm saying is I think teach only let you off so easily because she didn't actually think you'd all actually try to do it."
"So does she want us back then?" Damian asked.
"I think so but can I ask why you chose this specifically?" Scarlet asked.
"Well it was something most if not all of us found interesting and seemed simple enough."
"Are you sure it's going to be that simple, what if you get in trouble out there? You could die!" Scarlet asked anxiously.
"You think we can't handle it?"
"Well I'm not sure, that's why I'm concerned."
Mary popped up next to Scarlet.
"What's taking you slowpokes so long?" she looked a little peeved to say the least. "Scarlet was taking too long, Lafayette thought you must have found a magical cupboard or something to get lost in for her to take this long."
"Sorry about that Mary, Guys can we head back to the class room."
"Fine Scarlet well come along."