jamesb497: Glad you're excited for it, hope everyone else is too. It will take time for that to fully develop, but it's coming, don't worry.
RedBurningDragon: Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, thanks again. Glad you liked it. Yep. Pretty much. Well, here it is. Hope you enjoy it.
Apex85: Thanks. Oh, the backup plan is a coming. Just you wait.
Sor-Rin: Good, I'm happy you like this story. I promise you, it's going to get much, much better as time goes on. No need for waiting any longer, here's the next one.
Once again, thanks to all those who reviewed, and allow me to thank those who have added this story to their favorites and alerts since the last update. Winata09, slickman, HotFudgeAndPies, Saint of vice koncor, Soanevalcke, bberr88, cynder93, and XLord31, thank you!
UPDATE
More touch-ups, but that's it. Should still flow a bit better.
Let's get into it. Part four of chapter one, here we go. Please read, review, and enjoy.
ACT I - CHAPTER I - PART IV
...
The group of students was met with little resistance as they trekked through the Lunaria Nature Park, only halted by the occasional wild animal that decided it didn't like their presence in it's territory and got violent as a result. The scuffles that ensued because of such instances didn't last long, Rean, Fie, Laura, or Gaius putting them down with little difficulty. Elliot wasn't too big a fan of the encounters, but that was to be expected, so he simply dealt with it. At the very least, he didn't feel as shaky around enemies as he had during their first foray into the old schoolhouse, so he wouldn't be collapsing anytime soon.
As swiftly as they dealt with the hostile beasts that crossed their path, it still took Group A over an hour to reach the depths of the forest.
There they finally caught sight of the people they had come looking for.
"There they are!" Laura whispered harshly, taking cover with the others.
Peeking out from behind the wall of rock they hid behind, the students took in the sight of the end of the park, a rather large, wide open grassy clearing, surrounded by walls of rock forming small cliffs that encircled the area almost completely.
Within this clearing, they spotted five Provincial Army soldiers, who they recognized as the same men from the earlier in the market. More important than that was the fact of who was with them, the other four men they saw, the bandits from the market.
Something was amiss...
'I could've sworn I sensed ten people...' Rean thought to himself, his brow furrowing as he double checked the headcount of the men present.
'Where's the tenth?' He wondered, trying to sense them again, to no avail. 'Did I make a mistake?' He was leaning heavily towards yes, as it wouldn't be the first time it had happened. He was aware of just how prone to mistakes he was. 'But didn't Fie, Gaius, and Laura sense the same number of people?'
Before he could think any further on it, his attention was pulled to the nine men in the clearing, as their voices reached his ears.
"Did you really have to keep us tied up the whole time? Those ropes were tight, they dug into my sides something fierce." One of the bandits complained.
"Would you shut up about that already? It's not important, stop whining about it." His fellow bandit chastised him.
"I'm with him. Those ropes were tight, more than that though, we were sitting ducks the whole time we were walking through this damn park. All it would have taken is one slip up by these soldier boys, and we'd have been done for. Can't defend ourselves when we're bound." The third bandit pointed out.
"I have to agree. You should have at least allowed us to shed those ropes once we had entered the park. No offense, but we would rather not leave our lives in the hands of others." The fourth bandit said.
"I see now how you were bested by two kids, you're all completely incompetent!" Barked the Provincial Army Officer, scowling deeply.
"Excuse me?"
"What was that?"
"What'd you say?"
"Care to say that again?"
"You heard me!" The military officer snapped at them. "You had one job and you couldn't possibly have bungled it any worse than you did!"
To say the officer was angry would be an understatement.
"Hey! You don't know ho-" The first bandit attempted to explain, only to be cut off.
"One! Job! Steal the merchants goods, smash the stalls, and get out of there before anyone saw you. We would handle the rest from there. The most difficult part of such a job would be dealing with the provincial outpost, and we were looking the other way! And you still managed to fuck it up!" Nostrils flaring, the highest ranking of the provincial soldiers was clearly on the cusp of a conniption fit.
"Those two were really strong!" One of the bandits tried to defend. "How could we have possibly known tha-"
"They were children!" The provincial officer cut the man's defense short. "How in the blazes could you lose to children!? Two of them at that!?" He demanded to know.
"We had no idea some military students would suddenly show up in the middle of our job, if we had-"
"Just go!" Suddenly shouted the military man, not giving them any further chance to explain themselves.
Taking a moment to compose himself, the officer continued, much calmer as he did. "The deal is off. We'll apply pressure to the citizens some other way. We have no need for buffoons such as you."
"Buffoons!?" Repeated one of the bandits, clearly more than angered by the comment.
"Let's just calm down, we can work this out. We'll get the job done, just as we promised. Just give us a few hours, and then we'll-" The fourth bandit, the leader it seemed, attempted to negotiate.
"We are done here." The provincial army officer shut their exchange down. "We'll be taking our leave. I suggest you do the same."
With that, the five soldiers prepared to take their leave.
Before they could, Group A made their move.
"You're not going anywhere." Rean spoke with authority as he came out into the open, the others following his lead.
"What!?" The first bandit exclaimed in surprise.
"I-It's those students!" The second bandit almost stuttered, their presence clearly making him nervous.
"Them again?" One of the provincial soldiers spoke, their annoyance all too clear.
"Didn't we tell them to stay out our business?" Another soldier added, sharing the sentiment.
"You kids should get out of here, if you know what's good for you." A third soldier told them.
"I don't know what you kids think this is, but it won't do anyone any good to go jumping to conclusions." The fourth soldier advised. "We were just-"
"We've caught you red-handed!" Exclaimed Elliot, interrupting the soldier. "Don't try and deny it."
"And just what is it that you've caught us doing?" The commanding officer queried, eyes narrowing.
"Do not take us for fools. It does not take a genius to figure out what's going on here." Laura retorted.
"You've obviously struck some kind of deal with these bandits." Gaius candidly accused. "You would look the other way while they robbed the Grand Market. They would be allowed to keep the goods, and in return, they create a problem only you can solve. Not to mention the distress it would cause the people of Celdic."
"My guess would be to force the citizens of Celdic to give in and accept the tax increase." Fie supplied.
"Right. All you would have to do is sit back and continue to withhold your aid, until it got to the point where they had no other choice. You already refuse to help them with the monsters in the area, and now with this latest incident, the stolen goods, damaged property, and squabbling merchants would hurt the Grand Market's image, especially if it went unresolved. You planned on strong-arming them." Rean surmised.
He hit the nail on the head, judging by the growls that came from the provincial soldiers.
Scowl deepening, the provincial army officer's aggravation became almost palpable. "You were warned to keep out of Provincial Army business." He reminded them. "I've had enough of your meddling. Men, apprehend them!" He commanded.
Snapping into position with affirmative sirs, his four subordinates moved to do just that. The bandits, however, had other ideas.
"Better yet, let's just take them out!" The third bandit put forth, eager to do so.
"Yeah, I second that. And since it's just us out here, ain't nobody gonna see a thing." The first bandit agreed.
"The nine of us against the five of them, shouldn't be too difficult." The second bandit remarked, gaining confidence at the aspect.
"I'd say they know too much to be kept alive. All it would take is a few minutes with the right person willing to believe them, and then the nine of us would be in some deep shit. Even rumors of this would be bad... We have to kill them." The leader of the bandits reasoned, drawing his weapon, a semi-automatic orbal rifle.
His underlings followed his lead, drawing their orbal rifles.
"You make a fair point. " The Provincial Army Officer admitted, eyeing the students as he considered this.
Despite the threat of death, they looked remarkably unafraid as they drew their weapons; Elliot was the outlier, visibly anxious.
"We won't go down so easily." Laura warned them, her bastard sword now at the ready.
"We are military students after all, we are quite familiar with the concept of combat." Gaius added, his cross-spear at his side.
"We won when it was two on four, you really think you have a chance this time?" Fie posed to them, her boredom worn out on her sleeve, twin gunblades clasped tightly in her hands.
"Y-You g-guys sure are confident, huh?" Elliot questioned his classmates needlessly, his hands shaking a little.
He was worried, sure, why wouldn't he be? This was a real combat situation, with real people, who, apparently, were going to be trying to kill them. It would make anyone nervous, anyone normal, that is. He was able to stop the shaking though, as he tightened his grasp on his orbal staff.
"We don't intend to just stand here and let you kill us. We will fight you, and we will beat you." Rean assured them, confident in his classmates strength, dropping into his battle stance as he did.
"Cocky one huh? Fair enough. Let's get'em." The bandit leader ordered.
"You brats. You won't be talking like that for long. Men, attack!" The officer ordered.
And with that, the five on nine skirmish began.
Atop the walls of rock that surrounded the clearing, obscured from view by the plentiful trees, stood the blue-grey-haired, bespectacled man.
"Hmph. This is just starting to get sad." He remarked to himself, as he watched the nine grown men below being manhandled by the five teenagers.
Averting his eyes from the pitiful sight, he looked toward the opposite direction of the town of Celdic, taking a moment to search the area with his eyes. 'Where is he?' He wondered to himself, looking for a sign of human life or just general movement, of which there was zero. 'He's late.'
The sound of the beatdown going on below drew the man's attention back below, to see it going exactly as he'd anticipated it would.
"They truly are pathetic." He remarked further as the soldiers and bandits were dispatched, shaking his head.
The fight, if you could even call it that, was over, and the students stood victorious over the downed adults. As words were exchanged between the groups, the violet eyed man once more looked away from them and toward the outlying area of the forest.
'It seems I'll be waiting for plan B a little while longer...' He thought to himself.
"That's alright, I'll just take care of these brats in the meantime." He said, pushing his glasses back up on his face, before pulling something out from his jacket.
Taking a moment to inspect it, the thirty-something man gave a little grin.
What was it? A simple, silver flute.
If only that was all it was...
Within the span of only a few minutes, the nine grown men had been handily defeated by a group of military students. And now, they lie on the ground, disarmed, battered, and bruised.
"This has to be some kind of joke... They're kids!" One of the provincial soldiers exclaimed incredulously.
"Five teens beat the nine of us...that really does sound like some kind of joke." One of the bandits commented.
"How pitiful. That hardly even qualified as a warm-up." Laura vocalized her disappointment.
"Tell me about it." Fie said with a yawn.
"Well, with Instructor Sara's training exercises, warm-ups take on a whole new meaning."
There was a good deal of relief in Elliot's voice, as well as a dash of levity. That little fight had gone a lot better than he thought it would. He didn't even get a single scratch on him!
"True." Gaius simply agreed.
"What kind of curriculum do you have!?" Demanded one of the soldiers, wanting desperately to know what they were being taught that would let them come out on top in this situation, without breaking a single sweat at that.
"We got beat by kids! TWICE! What the hell!?" Another of the bandits vociferated.
"At this point, I think we might as well give up on being bandits. I just don't see how we'll come back from this." The bandit leader told his three fellows piteously, clearly crushed over their second defeat by teenagers.
"I can't believe this! We are soldiers of the great provincial army! To be brought our knees by a bunch of children, how humiliating!" Growled the provincial army officer, his face contorted with anger and shame.
"Bottom line. We won, fair and square." Rean bluntly stated. "I'd suggest you all turn yourselves in and spare yourselves the further humiliation of being handed over to the proper authorities by us 'children'."
This was met with several choice words from the men, almost all of them curse words, but that was to be expected. They were angry, hurt, humiliated, and above all else, they were going to be forced to comply, one way or the other. All they could really do was lash out verbally, so they did so.
The group of students were hardly bothered by the fact that they were being sworn at, judging by their lack of reaction. However, it did pose a problem, in that it all but drowned out the sound in the distance...
"Hmm...?" Elliot looked behind him, as if hearing a whisper in his ear, before turning around completely and beginning to scan his surroundings, a look of confusion on his face.
"Elliot?" Rean spoke his friend's name, curious as to what he was doing.
"Is there a problem?" Gaius questioned
"I-I don't know, I just...I just thought I heard the sound of a flute..." The timid violinist answered, his confusion intensifying, as he just couldn't figure out where it had come from.
...
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Huh!?" Rean exclaimed in bewilderment.
"What was that!?" Elliot half whimpered, half squawked.
"Sounded like the roar of a giant beast." Fie answered nonchalantly, clearly not worried by it in the slightest.
"I concur." Laura agreed, though still composed, was clearly more worried about the silver-haired girl.
"A g-g-gia-giant b-b-bea-beast!?" Elliot stuttered fearfully. "Aidios, why!?" He inquired pathetically.
"What the hell was that!?" The bandit leader queried, evidently very concerned by it.
His men shared his concern, it made apparent by their echoing of his question.
"Oh, no...no...no, no, no!"
"This is not good. This is not good! We've gotta get out of here!"
"Oh shit, oh shit! It's that monster! It's coming!"
These fearful reactions from the provincial soldiers most certainly piqued the teens curiosity on the matter, but more importantly, it gave them more reason to be on their guard.
That was when they felt it.
Rean, Fie, Laura, and Gaius all whipped their heads in the opposite direction of the entrance to the clearing, as they all finally felt the presence of the beast.
"I can sense it, here it comes!" Gaius hurriedly warned the others.
Not a moment later, the utmost back wall of rock was knocked in, hundreds of pieces of rubble flying in every direction as a result, while a dust cloud of large proportions was kicked up.
The clumps of rock that rained down on the clearing almost failed to even register, as the shadow of a monster loomed within the cloud of dust, occupying most of everyone's attention.
"I-It's G-G-Grunoja..." The CO of the provincial army men muttered, eyes wide as dinner plates, frozen with fright.
"Grunoja...?" Rean repeated the name, looking back at the scared witless man as he did.
The other eight adults weren't faring much better, gawking at the huge shadow in the cloud of dust, while making no attempt once so ever to run away.
Returning his attention to the beast, the diffident swordsman was finally able to catch a glimpse of this thing, as the cloud had dissipated enough to allow mild visibility.
This Grunoja was a massive baboon with black and fiery-orange fur spread across it's hulking form. It also had yellow fur running down the sides of it's neck, and white fur down the length of it's throat till it faded into it's chest, which led into it's white-blonde colored underbelly. The only part of it not covered in fur, were it's crimson colored knuckles. and ebony log-like fingers. It also possessed stone-like pauldrons protruding from it's shoulders, dozens of strange growths coming out of it's back and running down it's spine, and two sets of flat-ended horns sticking out of its head. The first pair was relatively small, pointed upward and darkly colored, while the second were somewhat large, pointed straight out from it's face and were lightly colored. Finally, it had a mouthful of razor sharp teeth, and frighteningly wild, yellow, bloodshot eyes.
"We're dead, we're all dead..."
"What the fuck is that thing!?"
"We need to go! We have to run!"
"HOLY SHIT!"
"No! NO! AIDIOS, PLEASE, NO!"
As the provincial soldiers and bandits vocalized their terror, the monster began sizing all the humans up, it's nostrils flaring, clearly not happy with the fact that they were in its territory.
"A giant baboon...?!" Elliot squeaked with incredulity.
"It's nearly ten arge tall." Gaius noted aloud.
"I believe we are now dealing with the ruler of this forest." Laura assessed.
Looking back at the frightened men , she could clearly see they were rooted in place by their fear, the soldiers and bandits weren't going anywhere anytime soon. And with that creature, which would surely turn hostile at any moment, they would undoubtedly be slaughtered.
Turning back to Rean, she asked him, "What would you suggest, Rean?"
"Ugh..." The raven-hair swordsman wasn't too keen on the only course of action left to them, rather annoyed at the fact that they would have to protect their recently defeated opponents, but it was better than the alternative of letting them be killed. "Well, they may be criminals, but we can't just leave them to die! We're going to have to fight it!" He informed his classmates, as he drew his sword from it's sheathe once more.
"Understood!" The well-spoken swordswoman replied, before proceeding to draw her blade.
"Fine by me." The stoic maiden responded, getting into her battle stance with her twin gunswords.
"Looks like we don't have much of a choice." The soft-spoken nord acknowledged, as he brandished his cross-spear.
"Aidios, help us...!" The timid violinist implored the goddess, his orbal staff at the ready.
Letting loose a roar, the baboon creature finally came to the conclusion that the humans were worth killing and proceeded to charge.
...
Having concealed the flute in his jacket once more, the bespectacled man simply opted to stand back and watch as the scene unfolded below.
"I might have riled the beast up a bit more than I needed to, but regardless, it'll get the job done. And that's all that matters."
...
As Grunoja rushed them, the five teenagers scattered.
Rean and Fie leapt to the right, while Laura, Gaius, and Elliot dodged to the left, effectively avoiding the mountain of a creature.
Now behind their enemy, they took the few short moments it bought them to link up with their ARCUS units, Rean and Fie linking together, while Laura and Gaius did the same; Elliot was the odd man out, since trying to link up with either pair could prove detrimental in the long run.
Coming to a hasty stop, the beast whirled back around to face them, growling as it did; it was met with lead, as Fie opened fire with her gunblades, pelting it with bullets. The metal projectiles hit their mark, colliding with the creature's right side, however, they did little more than aggravate it. They lost their momentum after colliding with its skin, falling to the ground shortly after, leaving little more than tiny bruises.
Not that Fie let that stop her from continuing to unload on it.
Big eyes focusing in on the one attacking it, the huge simian had every intention of squashing the pest. Before it could try, though, it was assaulted by several balls of blue arts energy, popping as they collided with it's left shoulder and the side of its neck. They served as nothing more than annoyance, but they did get its attention, even if only for a moment.
Gaius took advantage of this, closing the distance between him and the monster, and beginning to carve away at its tree trunk of a left arm. Tearing at its wrist with the side-blades of his spear, before following up by stabbing into it with the head, managing to inflict a superficial wound, a noticeable scratch. Unable to pierce it's flesh deep enough to draw blood, the nord opted to jump back some feet, just in time to avoid the rising and dropping of the arm he had been engaged with, the savage beast obviously having intended to crush him with it.
Distracted, Grunoja failed to notice Laura, who had come up on his left leg. Winding back, she swung her blade a full hundred eighty degrees, and lodged her bastard sword into the back of its ankle, managing to break its skin. First blood drawn, said ruby liquid covering the edge of the sword maiden's blade, it was a small victory.
Not that it mattered for more than a moment, as the blue-haired teen pulled her weapon from it's flesh and proceeded to backpedal a dozen or so feet, for her safety. For good reason, as the baboon lashed out, bringing it's huge right fist around and slamming it into the same spot she had previously been standing.
Meanwhile, Rean had encroached upon the monster's right leg and began slicing it up, his blade barely doing more than his soft-spoken friend's spear had done. Not that he let that deter him, continuing to whittle away at the massive limb, cutting and cutting at it's rock-hard hide, until he too finally drew blood from the towering beast.
Going even farther than his fellow swordsman, he dealt multiple minor wounds to the gigantic simian: three slash marks that bled. He would have dealt it more, but was forced to retreat, as the ruler of the forest lifted the same leg he had been attacking, and brought it back down for a ground-shaking stomp.
Letting loose an enraged roar, Grunoja brought both arms up and brought them racing back down, slamming them into the earth with enough force to shake the ground beneath those who stood upon it, in doing so, it finally got the two long-range attackers to let up.
Not wasting a moment, it broke into a wild sprint, gunning for them in particular.
Fie wasn't perturbed in the slightest and jumped out of it's path with little fanfare, landing close to her childhood friend as she did.
While Elliot's reaction was, well, much less composed. Eyes wide as dinner plates, he was horrified by the creature galloping toward him, intent on crushing him into nothing, and proceeded to yelp and run for it. Nevertheless, he managed to get out of the way in time, just barely, and really, that's all that mattered.
Both of the youngest members of the group were effectively able to avoid the speeding beast.
Far from done, the creature skid to a stop, and spun back around to face it's little enemies once more. Rather than charge them again, it instead opted for a long range attack of its own. Driving it's hands into the ground, punching through the earth with it's thick fingers, it scooped up palm sized chunks of dirt, grass, and rock; leaving craters as a result.
Taking aim, it tossed the big chunks of earth at them, one sent hurdling at Fie and Rean, and the other at Gaius, Elliot, and Laura.
Diving to safety, the five slid across the ground a few feet after hitting the ground, nearly meeting in the center of the circular clearing as they did.
Meshed together clumps of rock, grass, and dirt impacted the spots the teens had just been standing, and broke apart, causing the remains of said clumps to scatter across the area.
Its tactic having failed, the violent beast quickly came galloping toward them again.
Jumping to their feet, they hauled ass.
Three of them: Elliot, Laura, and Gaius, hurriedly got out of dodge, running one way or the other to escape their enemy's path.
Rean and Fie, however, instead chose to break into sprints, continuing to flee in the same direction the creature was charging, despite the fact that it was catching up far too quickly for comfort. Nevertheless, they continued this pursuit for a number of heart pounding moments, their classmates watching them with disbelief at the insanity of their actions, until, suddenly, they figured it out.
The duo split up at the last moment: Fie leapt gracefully to the left, and Rean threw himself to the ground to the right, rolling several feet as a result, before recovering mid-roll and getting to his feet.
Grunoja had no time to slow down, or try and change direction, as it careened right into a section of the wall of rock surrounding the clearing; the impact crushed a significant portion of the wall, nearly tearing it down as a result.
Hundreds of pieces of rubble crumbled to the ground, and a great dust cloud formed as a byproduct.
...
Group A regrouped in the center of the clearing, preparing for their next offensive.
Fie and Elliot got a head start on the others in that regard, firing a salvo of bullets and orbal energy, respectively, at the back of the wild beast through the dust, hitting their target more often than not in spite of the poor visibility.
Pulling itself out of the debris it created, more rock tumbling down and hitting the ground as a result, the monster turned around, clearing most of the dust away with a swipe of it's massive left arm as it did.
Zeroing in on the ants it had yet to crush, the enormous primate snarled viciously, somehow looking even more crazed and angry than it did before. Its eyes almost completely bloodshot now, it was clear that what little patience and composure it had was now gone, the fact that it was being bombarded with more metal projectiles and orbs of energy didn't help matters in that regard.
They would now be facing the true extent of it's strength and savagery.
Anticipating this, they were prepared to act, not hesitating for even a moment as it let out a roar and came speeding towards them yet again.
First Fie ceased with her firing, before breaking off to the right, circling around, Gaius did the same to the left, while Laura and Elliot backed up a number of feet.
Leaving just Rean, who had sheathed his blade and pulled out his ARCUS unit. "ARCUS, activate!"
As it began to lightly glow in his left hand, he threw his right out in front of him, taking aim at the giant enraged baboon. "Fire Bolt!" A split-second later, a large fiery orb had taken form in front of the dark-haired teen, before being sent flying at the oversized creature.
It had little chance to dodge with the speed of the man-made magic, the orb of flame hitting it dead in the chest, immediately expanding upon impact. The attack dealt a decent amount of concussive impact, as well as scorching the area it covered: the entirety of the space between both of the beast's shoulders.
This effectively stopped the ruler of the forest in it's tracks, even if only for a moment; the creature hissed in pain and slowed to a stop, the flames fading away and leaving only minor burns behind in their place.
Singed fur, a negligible sense of pain, and perhaps a first-degree burn beneath said fur, that was all the basic art had dealt to the monster. Regardless, it served its purpose, as it bought them the few moments they needed.
Elliot and Laura began casting arts of their own.
The sword maiden used her ARCUS to launch her own Fire Bolt, while the musician raised his orbal staff a little, it glowing for a brief moment, before pieces of the ground began uprooting themselves and slamming together in front of the orange-haired teen. Suspended in front of the staff user as they continued to lump together, the forming chunk of rock grew larger and larger until it was bigger than a person's head, with a sharpened tip to boot.
"Needle Shoot!" The moment it finished forming, it was launched at the group's shared enemy, ramming right into it's face, just moments after Laura's Fire Bolt had. Breaking apart upon impact and dealing further concussive impact, the rock clump failed to pierce it's skin even with it's pointed end.
Grunting in pain, the beast was wide open as it's head was knocked back from the impacts, which Rean, Fie, and Gaius all quickly capitalized on.
Rean attacked from the front, managing to drive his blade into the wild creature's right knee with a strong stab of his blade, sinking it almost to the hilt in it's flesh.
Gaius did about the same, finally managing to puncture its flesh with a mighty thrust of his spear, forcing the entirety of its head into the side of the simian's right leg.
Fie attacked the left leg instead, burying the whole of both blades of her gunswords into its left kneecap.
Crying out, Grunoja let its assailants know they had finally done some real damage; the three leapt away to safety.
Unconsciously, the combatants formed additional combat links: Elliot had linked with Rean at the same time that Gaius and Laura linked with him.
It wasn't until several moments later, after the monster had lashed out trying to get one of them, and failing, that they realized they had linked.
They understood that this would make things more difficult in the long run, as it would eat away at their stamina, according to their instructor. However, in the heat of battle, with little time to work it out, they just went with it; using their links to their advantage, and got to work.
They attacked: Rean from the front, Gaius from the left, and Laura from the right.
Elliot began casting needle shoot over and over again.
This gave Fie the freedom to attack from anywhere, and however she saw fit. Blasting the savage animal with her gunswords, circling around it continuously.
Acting in sync, they divided the monster's attention amongst the five of them, making it incredibly difficult for the simian to halt their assault, or do any of them harm.
And when Grunoja did commit to trying to squash, mash, or crush one of them in particular, Fie made him pay for it. Leaping up and delivering multiple slashes to its arms, shoulders, or back, and sometimes its exposed neck, drawing blood with each and every slice.
This occurred numerous times in an extremely short period, just a few minutes, but it started to add up. Whether the beast was aware of this, or was just fed up with being cut up, it forced them to break their formation. Letting out yet another roar, it slammed both arms down onto the ground, causing it to shake, and even crack where it was struck.
While Rean, Laura, and Gaius had to retreat to avoid getting smashed into gory messes, Fie did not: once more she punished the creature for such actions. Only this time, she used a much more bold method: bounding upward almost a dozen feet, she buried her weapons into the monster's lower back, bringing more blood.
Snarling venomously, the savage simian turned its head to try and get a look back at the source of this new pain it felt. Only to suddenly feel more, as the weapons were pulled from its flesh before being implanted again, this time higher up.
Growling to further state its displeasure, the animal raised its right arm, and tried to reach back and grab hold of whatever was causing this. Yet again though, before it could, the offending objects were removed and then planted in its back, even higher this time.
The other members of Group A attempted to get Grunoja's attention away from her, but were forced back as it smashed its fists into the ground again. This allowed Fie to climb higher, now getting close to the top, and sink her gunblades into its hide yet another time.
Fed up, the monster began trying to shake the pest off, all the while reaching back with its arms in hopes of managing to get ahold of it. This did pose a problem, as the former jaeger was nearly knocked off, the young girl having to abandon her grip on her gunblades, and instead grasp onto the growths coming out its back to continue holding on.
This didn't stop Fie though, keeping cool as ever, she reached out with her leg and kicked one of her gunblades in the back of the grip, in an attempt to pierce the monster's flesh further and inflict more damage. And it most certainly worked.
Making a noise somewhere between a growl and a strangled gasp, the creature whirled around, managing to dislodge its tiny assailant as it did; she'd been in the middle of retrieving her weapons when it happened. But rather than let her fall, the beast acted quick and snatched her out of the air, wrapping it's giant, meaty fingers around her tiny body, enclosing her completely, with the exception of her head, in it's grasp. And to make matters worse, her twin gunblades had fallen to the ground below, leaving her defenseless.
Grunoja immediately began to squeeze, exerting pressure with the intent to crush her small form. And while she did struggle, using all her strength to fight and try to force herself out of its hold, she made little headway; it was rather futile.
The sheer pressure being exerted down on every inch of Fie's body was agonizing, it felt like her bones would shatter at any moment. Gasping in pain, she shut her eyes tight, fighting back the scream that was threatening to force its way out of her throat.
"FIE!" Her classmates cried below.
Rean was the first to take action, his fear for her safety driving him to act. Bending his knees, he assumed the fourth form stance; sheathing his blade, he kept a tight grip on the hilt of his weapon, and held onto the top of his scabbard with his free hand. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the flow of his energy, focusing it, causing a hue of white-blue energy to begin emanating from his sheathed weapon.
"Fourth Form..."
Eyes snapping open, Rean drew his blade with great speed. "Arc Slash!"
In doing this, he created and unleashed an arc-shaped shock wave of energy; it was sent flying at Grunoja, going too fast for the monster to do anything more than take notice it, before it made contact with it's left leg. Cleaving into it's flesh with bloody success, the crimson liquid splattering all over the ground, the arc shaped energy shock wave attempted to sever the beast's leg from the kneecap on down.
However, it lacked the necessary power to do this, and dissipated into nothingness before getting more than halfway through all the flesh, meat, and bone in its path. Nevertheless, the most damage yet had been dealt, a serious wound finally inflicted, leaving a deep, bloody gash on the leg as proof.
Howling in agony, Grunoja's grip faltered to the point where Fie was able to free herself. Taking the chance to leap off its hand and land gracefully on the ground, she scooped up her twin gunblades.
Not wasting a moment, she began unloading on the huge baboon, firing continuously as she backed away.
Balance lost, Grunoja stumbled for the briefest of moments, giving them the opportunity they needed, and that Gaius seized. Sprinting toward the monster, the soft-spoken nord came to a hasty stop, now just under the beast, taking advantage of its position and exposed underbelly.
Pulling his cross-spear back, Gaius focused his energy, causing wind imbued with a green glow to begin swirling around the head of his weapon, building and building in strength as he continued to concentrate.
"Gale Stinger!" Thrusting his spear forward, he launched the green blast of wind at his target, the center of the gigantic simian's underbelly, where it made impact, pushing against the resistance it met from the stone-like skin.
It pushed on for several moments, beginning to dissipate as it did, only seconds away from fading out of existence, when, finally, it gained ground. It managed to pierce the tough hide of the king of the forest, spilling even more of its blood in the process, only adding to its accumulative blood loss as it pushed even further in.
The wind twisted, turned, whirled, and spiraled, digging deeper into the monster's flesh and lacerating everything it came into contact with, inflicting visible trauma.
By the time it dissipated, the wild animal was crying out in pain once more.
The second serious wound inflicted, Group A was officially now on a roll. Adrenaline pumping, they once more linked unconsciously, finishing their formation by Fie forming one with Laura, Gaius, and Elliot.
Moving in unison, they all performed several backsteps, in spite of the fact that they were all varying distances from each other, to put distance between them and Grunoja.
The beast lashed out wildly, swinging both arms in a rage, attempting to hit at least one of them, to no avail.
Refusing to allow their momentum to fade, the teens remained on the offensive, in the hopes of keeping their enemy on the defensive, and ending this battle as quickly as possible.
In that regard, Fie stuck to her tactic of constant fire, covering the animal in bruises galore, some bullets even hitting previously struck spots and managing to break the skin.
Elliot went with another art, raising his staff a bit, it glowed for a moment, and a large orb of water formed in front of him.
"Aqua Bleed!" In that moment, the orb was sent flying at the big baboon, striking it in the face, dealing concussive impact as the water structure broke apart, wetting it's fur.
Gaius too opted for long range, retrieving his ARCUS from his pocket, it glowing as he threw his right hand out in front of him, and a large green ball of compressed air formed adjacent to him.
"Air Strike!" It was quickly sent soaring, aimed at the beast's face. It struck a moment later, breaking apart upon impact and pelting the target with wind, creating minor lacerations and dealing concussive impact.
Once more, the gigantic creature was left completely open, head knocked back and balance questionable because of its mounting injuries; it was all but defenseless for a single moment.
Rean capitalized on this, having rushed over to the monster, stopping just a few feet from its right leg. Bending his knees, he assumed the fourth form stance, holding onto his sheathe with his left hand as he sheathed his tachi with his right, shutting his eyes once more.
Eyelids snapping open, Rean kicked off the ground and dashed forward at full speed; drawing his blade, he slashed the monster's leg as he passed by it. "Autumn Leaf Cutter!"
Coming to a stop a foot or so behind the mammoth sized simian, he straightened his legs and stood upright once more, turning around just in time to see the deep slash mark he left in his enemy's flesh spurt blood. It wasn't quite as deep as the nasty gash he had left on the animal's other leg, but it would do.
Voicing it's renewed pain, Grunoja howled, stumbling, before losing balance completely and falling forward, slamming it's fists into the ground, creating several medium-sized cracks in the earth as it attempted to keep from landing on it's face. Its height almost halved by such a position, it was left vulnerable.
Capitalizing on that, Laura came rushing in to deliver a follow up attack, getting a running start before leaping upward, gaining more than a dozen feet of air, lifting her bastard sword high above her head as she did.
"Armor Breaker!" Gravity bringing the blue-haired girl back down, she assisted it by forcing her weight downward, putting her entire body behind a downward swing of her blade, hacking into the back of Grunoja's exposed neck with great force. The weapon tore into the baboon's flesh to the point that steel met bone, inflicting a grave wound, a large amount of blood spurting from it as a result.
No roaring or howling ensued, the only sound coming from the noble girl's feet hitting the ground as she landed.
All eyes were on the silent beast, watching as it remained stock-still for a number of moments, before finally, its arms gave out and it proceeded to collapse on its face, the ground shaking from the force of the landing.
Rean, Fie, Laura, Gaius, and Elliot, they were all panting. Fie noticeably less so, and Elliot noticeably more so. Regardless, they were, for the most part, completely free of injury, with the exception of minor scrapes and bruises. That, combined with the fact that the monster was down for the count, and this was most assuredly a victory for Group A.
Only one thing left to do.
Taking a moment to locate the nine adults they had thrashed earlier, they noticed them cowering against an untouched part of the rock wall surrounding the clearing. Now they just had to drag them back to Celdic, and-
"There it is again!" Elliot exclaimed suddenly. "That's the same flute I heard being played earlier, I swear!" He insisted, eyes darting about as he attempted to locate the source of the noise.
"I hear it too this time." Rean commented.
"So do I." Gaius informed.
As the three teenage boys began looking about for the source of the sound, they almost failed to notice the movement behind them, just barely catching sight of it in time, and jumping back to safety, Laura and Fie doing the same.
Slamming it's fists into the ground, Grunoja raised its head, its eyes now entirely consumed with red, being bloodshot to hell and back. Forcing itself off the ground, it proceeded to open its maw and let loose a deadly bellow, one so intense and powerful, that the sound waves it caused almost seemed to physically reverberate through the air. "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"COVER YOUR EARS!" Elliot shouted at the top of his lungs.
The bellowing rang throughout the clearing, wreaking havoc on the eardrums of those present, the nine men having fallen to the ground and begun writhing around in agony, blood leaking from their ears as they screamed their lungs out. Even Group A, who had their ears firmly covered, were unable to escape the pain inflicted, grimacing as their bodies felt like they were being shook about from the sheer force of the sound waves.
This went on for who knows how long, to the point where the five teens were able to regain their wits and focus on what they needed to do, in spite of their state of shakiness and pain So, following Rean's lead as they did, said raven-haired teen being the one to move first, they made their way over to the suffering men, keeping their ears covered all the while.
Before they even made it over to them, the earsplitting cry of the beast had come to an end. Uncovering their ears, they chanced a glance at the monster, to see it dashing at the men they were supposed to keep alive, moving faster than ever before.
Upping their pace, they managed to intercept the king of the forest, cutting off its path to the men.
It gave them no chance to attack, flying into a frenzy, it flung both fists at them from opposite directions, managing to nail both Laura and Gaius.
The blows sent them both flying, the former to the right, and the latter to the left, the teenagers taken off their feet with nothing more than a yelp of pain and surprise.
Landing at nearly opposite ends of the clearing, the two teens rolled a number of feet before finally coming to a stop. Even though they had partially dodged, preventing them from taking any major or lethal damage, just being scraped by the huge fists was still more than enough to send them packing.
"GAIUS! LAURA!"
Giving them no more time than it required to call their classmates names in concern, Grunoja proceeded to bring its arms up and slam them down fist first into the ground. Not stopping there, it pulled them back up and smashed them back down, one after the other, before raising its arms and doing the same thing again and again, cracking the ground more and more each time, beginning to riddle it with fissures.
It kept going and going, beating on the ground violently and rapidly, roaring furiously as it went berserk.
The soldiers and bandits, far too close to the impact zone for anyone's comfort, all scrambled to their feet and tried running for it, screaming for their lives as they tripped and fell over themselves in their attempt to get away. It was messy and unorganized, but they did manage to at least to put a decent amount of distance between them and the rampaging beast, before their attempt fell apart completely and they collapsed onto the ground in a heap. Due to loss of equilibrium, courtesy of the simian's cry from before, it should have been expected.
The ground shaking from all the force of the mammoth sized animal pounding it with its fists of fury, to the point it felt like an earthquake, Rean, Fie, and Elliot had to fight to stay on their feet. Struggling to keep upright, they tried to maneuver to safety and get out of dodge, and once they had done so, they fully intended to regroup and take the offensive one last time and end this battle.
It didn't go as they had intended it to, however...
Finally losing out to the tremors, Elliot lost his balance.
Grunoja spotted this instantly, and abandoned it's task of turning the ground into dust, instead pivoting forward, bringing it's right arm careening toward the sixteen-year-old.
"ELLIOT!"
Acting quickly, Rean rushed forward and shoved his friend out of the way, the boy hitting the ground and sliding a number of feet, just as the hulking arm of the beast reached him.
Slamming into the Schwarzer heir with more force than an orbal-powered automobile, the length of the simian's arm crashed into Rean's body with crushing impact, shattering all of his ribs instantly, taking him off his feet and sending him hurdling backward.
The seventeen-year-old only came to a stop when he collided with part of the wall of rock surrounding the area, his form driven several feet into it, creating an indentation in the shape of his body.
"REAN!" His friends screamed his name, only to be drowned out by his cry of agony.
Elliot hurriedly scrambled to his feet, grabbing Rean's sword as he did, which had fallen from his grasp when he was struck, and ran to his friend.
Laura and Gaius reached their feet as well, before they went rushing to their classmate's aid.
...
Meanwhile, Fie, who had leapt away from the danger out of pure instinct, directed her attention to the monster who had just harmed her best friend.
Scowling, her eyes narrowed; she proceeded to rush the damn thing. It attempted to swat at her, but she merely jumped and leapt to and fro to avoid its attacks, putting her acrobatic prowess on display.
Bounding up onto its swinging arm, the silver-haired girl kicked off its fist and shot herself up towards its head, where she landed right between its eyes, on its nose. Not giving the monster time to shake her off, she pulled a brick of plastic explosive from her blazer and planted it directly on its forehead.
Kicking off its face, she used the momentum to backflip away, avoiding another swipe of its monstrously big arms as she did; she landed ever so gracefully on the ground. Pulling the little black detonator from her skirt pocket, she pressed the button on it, and set off the explosive device. "Payback Time."
As the brick exploded, consuming the creature's head entirely in smoke and flames, it let out an ear-piercing shriek of anguish.
Beginning to stumble, clawing and grasping and pawing at it's face, its body shook and trembled; critical damage had been dealt.
...
Finally managing to free his body from the rock, Rean fell an arge down and hit the ground, catching himself on all fours. Hacking up a mouthful of blood, it splattered on the ground between his hands.
The searing agony he was in was horrifically incredible; every inch of his torso felt like it was on fire, his upper half sending shocks of intense, hot pain through him continuously, without end. An ordinary man would have passed out from such a thing.
"Rean!"
The concerned voices of Gaius, Elliot, and Laura reached his ears, causing him to look up to see them coming to a stop before him. Without him even asking them to, they reached down and began hoisting him up onto his feet.
"Are you okay?" Elliot inquired, voice a little shaky, visibly worried out of his mind.
"Can you walk?" Gaius asked of him, tone thick with concern.
"We need to get you medical attention, posthaste." Laura stated.
"I'm fine, don't...don't worry about me." He brushed their concern off, wincing in pain. "How are the two of you doing?" He went on to query.
"We were able to avoid the worst of it. We were already halfway through the process of dodging by the time we were hit." The well-spoken swordswoman informed him.
"We've probably got a few broken bones, but we'll be fine for now." The soft-spoken nord added.
"Good." Rean said with a nod. "Then you should be fine to back Fie up."
"Right, you guys do that, I'll stay here with-" The timid violinist began, only to be interrupted.
"No, you go with them."
"What!? But you're injured! Someone needs to get you somewhere safe!" Elliot argued.
"Elliot's right. Gaius and I will assist Fie, while you-" Laura, like Elliot, was cut off.
"I'll be fine. Please, just go and help Fie." Rean insisted, making it a point to look each of them in the eyes as he did. There would be no argument on this. "We need to focus on taking that monster down. Once that's done, then we can deal with my injuries."
Silent for a few moments, none of the three were sure what to say. Eventually though, they reluctantly agreed.
"I appreciate it." He told them with a small smile, it completely evident to the others that he was fighting to not show his pain as he did.
As they, reluctantly, left him to go rejoin the battle, Elliot hung back for a second and returned his tachi to him.
"Thanks."
With that, the orange-haired teen followed after the others, leaving Rean to support himself.
Stumbling as he attempted to stay on his feet, Rean winced while sucking in a sharp breath of air, suddenly feeling breathless due to the pain flaring throughout his abdomen. At this point, it was a safe bet that more than just his ribs were broken. But, obviously, the swordsman wasn't sure of the specifics. All he knew for sure was that he was in a hell of a lot of pain.
Forcing himself upright, the black-haired boy turned his attention to Grunoja in the distance.
The king of the forest stabilized itself, the smoke from the explosion long gone, snarling wildly as it whirled its head to and fro. The explosion had destroyed one of its eyes, the socket just a chunky, gory mess.
Blinded in one eye, its field of vision was now halved. And as Gaius, Elliot, and Laura rejoined the fight, the four went on to take advantage of that fact, attacking it from its blind spot while also dodging it's wild swings, the beast howling in rage as it continuously missed its targets.
Unable to hold it back, Rean proceeded to cough up more blood, as he began forcing himself forward, walking ever closer to the action, no one noticing due to being preoccupied.
After making it two dozen or so paces, the black-haired teen began taking several rapid intakes of oxygen, ignoring the bitter taste of iron on his tongue, wiping the blood from his mouth onto the left sleeve of his jacket, and came to a stop
Tightening his grip on his tachi, Rean took one last deep breath, before closing his eyes and beginning to focus intently.
Raising his sword arm over his head, he bent his elbow, pointing the tip of his blade downward, his weapon barely more than a rege in front of his face; bringing his left hand up, he let it hover over the center of the steel. Using said hand as a focal point, he channeled his energy, semi-consciously imbuing his weapon with it.
Energy coursing through him, a blue aura began to emanate from the swordsman's body.
"Flames, gather on my blade!" He commanded.
And so they did, the blade of the tachi igniting from nothing, flames roaring to life as they consumed the steel of the sword.
The heat from the orange and yellow element was intense, as the fire dared to lick the swordsman's free hand, but he did not flinch, nor did he so much as spare a thought to the possibility that he could get burned. He had trained himself to be capable of this, and now was the time to really put it's capabilities to the test.
Ignoring the constant, severe, and faculty hampering pain his torso was in, Rean's eyes snapped open, as he brought his right arm down and pulled his tachi behind him, his left arm returning to his side as well.
"Everyone, get back!" He ordered his classmates.
Thanks to the fact that they were all linked together, the four did just as he told them, their instincts driving them to, before even questioning what he was up to. That said, it didn't stop them from doing so after they had done as he bid them.
Blocking their voices out, Rean's eyes narrowed, as his vision honed in on Grunoja, the beast bewildered for the moment, before taking notice of the tiny insect staring it down, flames crackling along it's weapon. Beating its chest and giving a furious roar, it proceeded to come barreling at high speed toward the Eight Leaves One Blade swordsman.
Standing his ground, Rean joined his left hand with his right, grasping the hilt of his tachi with both hands. Bringing his right foot back, he raised his sword overhead, positioning it just above his right shoulder.
"Strike!" Kicking the ground with all the strength his legs could muster, he surged forward at his maximum speed; meeting the monster head on, he delivered a powerful downward-diagonal slash while passing by it, leaving a small trail of fire in his wake.
Screeching in anguish, Grunoja stumbled to a stop, blood bursting from the slash-mark carved into it's hulking form, stretching from it's right shoulder down to its left hip. Simultaneously, the flames that had accompanied the wound burned away, scorching its flesh and fur alike, seemingly burning hotter every moment, as third-degree burns rapidly set in.
Finally, unable to bear all the wounds and injuries it had sustained, Grunoja collapsed on the ground, causing it to shake once more, smoke rising from its burning form as its screeching finally came to an end.
Shortly after its screeching ceased, so too did the flames, suffocated by the lack of oxygen, courtesy of being trapped between the massive simian's body and the ground.
And with that, Grunoja had fallen. The king of the forest was dead.
...
His blue aura and the flames covering his blade dissipated into nothing.
Rean sheathed his tachi and proceeded to let out a breath he'd been holding in the entire time. Then, injuries catching up with him, he lost the strength in his legs and fell on his ass, vocalizing his pain with a yelp.
As his classmates came rushing to his side, Rean held up a hand, getting them to slow to a stop, as he let them know he was alright. "It's fine...I'm fine, it just...it just really fricking hurts." He informed them, wincing once more.
At that, Gaius, Elliot, and Laura all shared a sigh of relief.
Fie, on the other hand, didn't look too convinced. Nevertheless, she didn't push it.
"I-I'm not gonna lie, I though we were done there for a while..." Elliot confessed between pants, as exhaustion caught up with him.
"It certainly looked bad there for a few moments. We were down an ally and were starting to tire. If it had gone on much longer, while I'm sure we still would have won, we would be in far worse shape than we are now." Gaius assessed, he too panting once again, allowing his tiredness to sink in now that the fight was done.
"Regardless, we were able to emerge victorious. That is all that matters." Laura put forth, reigning her breathing in to bring her panting to an end.
"Yeah, we beat it all right. Just took us awhile is all." Rean said with a chuckle, wincing in pain yet again.
Turns out laughing when all your ribs were broken was a bad idea.
"..." Fie remained noticeably silent, merely continuing to stare at Rean.
...
The smell of burnt flesh permeating the air, the timid violinist of the group was unable to keep from turning around and looking at the source of said smell, even though he knew he wouldn't like what he saw.
The beast's smoking carcass, blood pooling beneath it, not to mention all the lacerations and other wounds littering its corpse, combined with the not so pleasant smell, had the sixteen-year-old feeling queasy.
Feeling like he might lose his lunch, Elliot remarked, "I think I finally have something good to say about the old schoolhouse."
"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Rean questioned his younger friend, curious.
"Those monsters in it, or whatever they are, just...up and disappear after we kill them. Not like the ones in the outside world, which leave corpses and blood...and a smell..." The orange-haired boy stopped there, as he fought down the bile rising in his throat.
"Elliot, you cannot be telling me you're squeamish." Rean replied, his tone containing disbelief and mirth in equal measure. "I mean, we've fought more than a dozen monsters since we've been here in Celdic, and not once did you even look uncomfortable."
"I knew I'd be seeing this kind of stuff when I enrolled in a military academy, so I-" Managing to keep the contents of his stomach, in his stomach, he continued. "I mentally prepared myself for it. Or, I thought I did anyway. But this, this might be too much for me to handle." He told them honestly, averting his eyes from the animal's cadaver as he did.
"That aside, Rean, what was that skill you just performed?" Laura changed the subject, her curiosity getting the better of her.
Rean, in spite of the fact that it hurt to even breathe, decided to answer her. "Oh, that?"
...
"Hmph. I can hardly believe it. They actually managed to slay it. Impressive." The bespectacled man acknowledged. "Perhaps I was too harsh in my judgement of the competence of those bandits..."
One look down below at their cowering forms, however, quickly had him changing his mind. "Or perhaps not." He dismissed the notion.
"Regardless, seeing as that man has yet to arrive, this has put our plans back a touch. How annoying." He stated with a sigh.
Closing his eyes and taking a few moments to think, all the blue-grey haired man could hear was the back and forth between the teens below. Though he'd be lying if he said he could actually understand what they were saying, being too far away to really make their words out.
"No matter, I will deal with this myself." He assured himself then, reopening his eyes, drawing a large, grey colored orbal handgun from his coat.
"It pains me to pull still-budding flowers up by the roots." He said, as he took aim at the black-haired boy and silver-haired girl below. "But it must be done."
And with that, he pulled the trigger.
END NOTE: If anyone is wondering why they had such trouble with Grunoja, remember that in the game they defeated the beast, but failed to kill it during the first field study. Which was why it was around for Rean and Toval to fight it during Cold Steel 2. So, considering they fought it to the death, and Gideon played the flute to manipulate it even further, it would only make sense for it to cause more trouble. So...yeah.