Stardust

Chapter 4

Jump

The next morning Cerise awoke in a rather grumpy mood. His faux pas last night, his encounter with Professor Rust, the Initiation today, and most of all the discovery about his mother Clare were the reason.

In the far corner of the ballroom, there were about ten pots of coffee, tons of sugar packets, cream packets, and stacks of styrofoam cups. Grabbing one, Cerise poured himself a cup guzzling it down and headed to the locker rooms to get ready. He changed into the spare sweater and blue jeans he had packed tucking Open Star along with some of his dust supplies in his sweater. He did hesitate for a moment as he considered the wooden box inside his locker. He shook his head closing the locker door. As he did, he noticed that most of the other teenagers were finishing getting ready too. More than a few of them were done grabbing second or third cups of coffee.

The speakers crackled to life with an announcement, "Will all first year students come to Lighthouse Cliffs for Initiation! All first years students come to Lighthouse cliffs!"

Seeing the others leaving, Cerise followed them outside to a cliff overlooking a green forest finding Professors Blank and Rust waiting for them. After everyone was gathered there they were ordered to form a line and stand spaced out. Looking at the two, they watched as Professor Blank took a sip from her mug while Professor Rust stepped forward to talk.

"Listen up, Kiddos! Here's how Initiation goes down. The forest behind me there is called Vibrant Woods. Once you're in there you're to find another person from this group to partner up with. How? Easy, the first person ya make eye contact with is your partner here at Lighthouse for the next four years and quite possibly beyond that. After forming your duo, in the heart of the woods, you'll find a shrine with a mechanical box. That box will dispense one object. The two of you are to bring that that object back up here. Then we'll match your duo with another one to form your assigned team and you're officially enrolled. There's enemies down there so be ready. You better kill them or they'll kill you. As for getting down, well, you've trained to be a warrior so jump and manage. Got it?!"

Blank looked at all of the gathered first years who seemed stunned at this rapid onslaught of information. She lowered her mug saying one word. "Begin."

Everyone looked at her and as one realized that the two of them were dead serious about everything that was just said, including the jumping. After some hesitant looks a fair number of them charged forward and jumped. Cerise even heard one shout cannonball as they fell through the air tucked into a ball.

Coming back to himself with a start, Cerise looked around to see that he was one of the last ones to go. Looking around he saw Professor Rust staring at him. Cerise, remembering last night and for some reason he couldn't place, blushed lightly. Maybe because of the look the Professor was giving him. It seemed to say, "What are you doing, kid?"

Looking at the cliff, he took a deep breath and began focusing his aura. Running forward as his right foot hit the edge of the cliff, his Glyph appeared underneath it and as he swung his left foot over the edge the glyph launched him forward. He went up into the air then dropped, sending him into a dive down towards the woods.

As Cerise reached the tree line, he called up his glyph and passed through the center slowing his fall. He also activated his aura to protect himself as he dropped down into the trees. As he reached the forest floor Cerise called up his glyph and his arm got suspended in the center as the glyph held it in place. However with motion's rules, Cerise had his arm yanked one way while his body went the other and as a result he nearly dislocated his shoulder his cry ringing out. "Agh!"

Whimpering from the sudden pain and waiting for the world to come into focus, Cerise dangled in the air. He dismissed his glyph dropping him to the floor. When he was safely on the ground he tended to his shoulder. No permanent damage. Everything's just sore. He checked everything else for any injuries and was fine. He ended up making an unpleasant discovery, however.

The burn dust crystal he had been given for his birthday was gone. Cerise groaned realizing it must have gotten lost in the jump. There was no chance of him finding it now, but all his other dust supplies seemed to be OK. Taking out Open Star, Cerise unfolded it and set off.

He wasn't sure how to find someone to partner up with but since they were all heading towards the same destination, he figured he'd run into someone before long. He looked at the sky deciding to try and head northwest taking the meaning that what Professor Rust meant by "heart" was the center. That direction seemed as good as any anyway.

He got about twenty minutes in when he heard a squealing noise. Cerise turned to face the noise jumping to the side just in time to avoid a black and white wheel of doom. It stopped spinning and hopped to land on the dirt upright his orange eyes now gazing at a Boarbatusk.

As its red eyes found him it snarled and charged, but Cerise had expected this reaction. Summoning his glyph right in front of him he waited until the thing stepped on it and then flicked Open Star up sending the thing skyward. Dismissing the glyph on the ground he called one to his right hand which still held Open Star and turned it into his energy blade. As the Boarbatusk hit the ground on its side, Cerise was instantly there jamming his weapon into the Boarbatusk's stomach. It squealed loudly, jerking for a moment then went still and closed its eyes.

Cerise's blade vanished as he turned to put some distance between the site of the battle and him. He walked along noticing the foliage getting thick really fast. He was having a hard time seeing the sky now, so the world was a mixture of greens, shadows, and light. Though the light was getting more dim.

Cerise sighed as he walked on when he could see a path or way through clearly. Reaching a small shadowy clearing he got to the center of it. Then he heard it; growling, sniffing, and snarling. He looked around finally seeing the dozens of pairs of burning red eyes that surrounded him. Cerise grunted readying himself for the attack that was about to ensue. He held his weapon in front of him protectively as he waited.

He looked around seeing about nine Beowolves come into his line of sight. The others stayed hidden as he felt his nerves twinging. Despite his training, and having plenty of combat experience with Grimm, this was a bit too much for him to handle. At most he'd only handled four at a time by himself, even though the two headed snake Grimm, the King Taijitu, didn't count as four.

I think I regret not using what was in that wooden box… He shook his head at the thought, No point in regrets now. You have to deal with this. As a Huntsmen you'll end up dealing with worse.

Looking at them fiercely one of the Grimm charged and soon enough the other eight did too. Taking the first one Cerise used a glyph to grab it and toss it to his left knocking over another Beowolf.

Summoning his energy blade he called his glyph to his feet and using it dashed forward at two Beowolves and swung his blade and got some satisfaction as one went down chopped in half and the other was knocked to the side clearly injured but still up and going.

Spinning sharply his glyph appeared underneath and with it he jumped up high and landed in another part of the clearing as the three jumped at him. Turning sharply his Glyph appeared around his waist and waving his fan Cerise sent it outward like a shockwave knocking the last two back Beowolves back as well as kicking over the others he hand stalled and down as the ring vanished.

Moving quickly Cerise grabbed a small pouch and poured its small contents out into his left hand in a hurry. Fisting the red dust he tossed up into the air his glyph appearing spawning from his middle finger for a split second.

As the red cloud glowed in the air Cerise closed Open Star and with his right hand pointed the closed fan at the monsters and gritted his teeth as he felt the results of what he wanted.

The cloud of red dust swirled and turned into streams of flame that Cerise gestured and sent it swirling towards the Grimm.

As the clearing became a miniature inferno Cerise kept gritting his teeth so hard he was afraid they may break. He felt aura exhaustion to be sure but it was a mental issue he was having now that was more prominent.

Using dust raw like this was powerful but it required a level of discipline that Cerise could only maintain while in top form and he was from it but he needed an edge and this was it.

Feeling a twinge in his aura reserves and a pulse in his head he let go of the swirling flames and with a whoosh the fire around him settled so he didn't have to worry about his own mistake overwhelming him.

Now he just had to worry about the fire he had now started and the Grimm he could still hear howling through the smoke and flames. Luckily he had something for this and with luck it would solve both problems.

Taking out one of his few dust crystals he had left. He held the pale blue gem up high and summoned his glyph around it levitating the stone and held his still closed fan over the ring of light and the gem suspended in it. Flicking the closed fan he sent it soaring through the swirling storm and then once he felt it get far enough along he opened the fan and got results.

Cerise felt the crystals energy activate as cold air blew past him with a whoosh sending his vision white and smoke and steam swirled and hissed around him. Using Open Star to bat away the clouds around him Cerise smiled as he got the effect he wanted quite well.

The Beowolf he injured earlier was dead the explosion from the gem seems to have killed it and it seems to have been joined by another one who had been burned pretty badly.
Two of the others were burned alive and the bodies already deteriorating.

And the last four were too close to the ice dust crystal since they were frozen solid now. Cerise walked up to the ice block ignoring the blacked foliage around him as well as the dying fire and summoned his energy blade and made it incredibly long ignoring the drain on his aura in the process.

He did not want to have to deal with those things if they somehow got loose. So he swung the blade horizontally and cut the ice block and the Grimm inside it in half. Closing Open Star shut Cerise sighed feeling mental and aura exhaustion hit him. Cerise knew he'd be better soon but it still sucked. So letting out a breath he dropped his guard for a moment and this proved to be nearly fatal.

With a snarl a black and white blur flew towards them and Cerise barely got his glyph up in time to block the attacker and immediately realized how bad off he was in two different ways. First off, his attacker was a Beowolf that was a few sizes bigger than the ones he just dealt with and had more armor on it. He was looking at the pack leader no doubt.

The second was his glyph. For starters it wasn't spinning like he's known it to do and he could feel it starting to shake almost shrink in the process. Cerise could only think, oh hell I'm gonna die here…

Then a voice cried out "HAH!" A golden blur flew past him and knocked the Beowolf off of him and his glyph shattered the colored light vanishing and he felt to his hands and knees and gasping he looked on as the golden blur made a circular motion and the pack leader hit the ground dead.

As the golden glow died down the figured lowered his weapon and headed back towards Cerise and the blue and silver haired boy could only stare as the figure revealed itself to be a boy like him and his orange eyes met bright green-gray ones… The boy held out his hand offering him help "I'm Citrine."

Cerise took it and pulled himself up and said "Cerise."