"Something's off." I said, finally announcing my suspicion as I stepped carefully out of the devastated corpse of the Grimm. Its spiked wings were slashed off, and I'd taken a few precious seconds to stomp a hole through its chest. It gurgled another screech from the head that lay limp on the ground, and as I passed, I sliced through its neck with casual indifference.
A bang shot off, evidence of Jessie blowing the skull of a legless bird Grimm to pieces. The casing clinked against another as it landed on the ground.
"Off how? I mean they're dying just fine." Jessie retorted, stepping away and keeping her eyes on the trees. I frowned, thinking about how to word my thoughts.
"They're… not dissolving." I grumbled, put-off. That caught her attention as she paused to look at me. Pointedly, I glanced over at the Grimm that I killed. Despite all the damage to the thing, there wasn't a hint of ash or smoke coming from it. Even the gore stayed in place in the snow. "Is that some special ability they have?"
"… no." She answered after a second of tense silence. "The Snow Larks are big and heavy, but the only real ability they have is to move in complete silence. They're tough, but they can't survive that."
"That's what's weird. Even the first one that got killed with the grenade hasn't started disappearing yet." I commented.
"What are you talking about?" Her confusion caught my attention, and I made a point to make eye-contact with my partner. She glanced at me oddly before she jabbed a thumb away. "You should take another look."
I snapped my head to look further into the forest, and felt more suspicion than ever at finding nothing but snow. There was no evidence of smoke or decay throughout the past minutes. My eyebrows furrowed at the oddness.
'Nothing this entire time, and then it's suddenly completely gone? Something's definitely off… they don't dissolve that quick, and Grimm absolutely don't take this long to start turning.' I kept my process silent, unable to put my reasons for the feeling into words. A huff left my lips, and I forced myself to look away from where the first Snow Lark should be. As I glanced back to Jessie, I immediately noticed something new.
"Where'd your Grimm go?" She turned behind her when I pointed, and stared in shock. The Snow Lark she'd put a series of bullets in just moments ago was gone without a trace, and without any sign of decay or smoke.
"Wha-? It's head was split open, there's no way it was alive!" She exclaimed. I watched her oddly as she jerked her head from side to side, looking for her kill. "How could it have gone anywhere?"
"Something's off…" I repeated to myself, suspicion rising. My grip tightened on my weapons, the battered shield and sword hilt squeaking from the pressure.
"KRAAAEEglg!"
"eeeeAAAARLRLCH!"
Two disgusting yells exploded from the trees, and with that I knew multiple decided to hunt. One of the ostrich-like Grimm was dead ahead so I wasted no time in focusing on it. It charged towards me at speed, passing iced trees in a single-minded pursuit. Its head was level with its body as it charged, the open beak still spewing gurgling cries. I followed in kind, rushing towards it with speed of my own to get it over with faster. The snow and ice crunched with my steps, unlike the Grimms.
"BEHIND!" My Partner's shout was followed by a gunshot, and I didn't hesitate to glance behind me. Black and white was the first thing I saw, a second Snow Lark charging from behind to make a pincer maneuver with the first. A scowl cropped up on my face at that, and only deepened when I saw Jessie dealing with her own pair.
'They're getting smarter.' I thought to myself, looking back at my first target. 'Or were they just scouting before?'
I scowled at the thought, and leaned in to my pace. My run became a sprint and I glared down the Grimm that responded in kind. The distance closed in the blink of an eye and with only feet between us I made my move. My leading foot slammed down forcing a puff of snow up from the ground, and I reeled my arm to the side. My limb whipped across my body and my shield smacked the lowered skull with unruly force. The bone plating on the side of the skull shattered with an uncomfortable crunch ending the drawn-out screech of the monster, and its head slinged to the side wildly. It was barely kept attached by the long neck that reeled after it with a snap.
Despite all of that, the legs of the Snow Lark still pounded on silently. I lunged to the right and spun backwards then ducked. The flared-out wing of dangerous spikes waved inches above my head, missing me just barely. I glanced over at the passing bird and lashed out with my sword, a cold scowl on my face. My edge bit through feathers, dense muscle, and bone plating, fairing much rougher than Crocea Mors did. A powerful leg separated from the body, and the beast was impaired. It fell harshly to the ground and ploughed a path through the snow from the momentum of its charge, right into the legs of the Snow Lark that was following from behind.
I popped to my feet and watched the magic happen.
The Grimm slammed into each other. To the credit of the Snow Lark, it tried to trample its companion, but wasn't quite good enough. It hopped off its foot as it was set to be tripped and managed to step over the tumbling body of the ostrich Grimm, but the back foot wasn't so lucky. The claws weren't pulled up quick enough and in turn were caught and impaled by a shard-spiked wing of the grounded Snow Lark. The creature squawked and tripped, its momentum slamming it down into the ground unforgivingly. A set of fleshy rips and boney cracks told of the foot tearing free from the wing of the legless bird, letting it tumble through the snow on its own. I watched calmly as it began to slow, and made my way to it when it came to a stop not far from me.
The tell-tale red eyes were closed, but I knew it was still alive. It must have been dazed, and I took the moment to study it. Without the red eyes, the thing was a canvas of blacks and whites, made up of brutalist spikes and ergonomic plates of bone. I waited in silent patience. In a mere second, the pinprick eye blinked open and the glowing red zeroed in on me. Instinctually it let loose a slurry-like screech and made to get to its feet, aiming to stab forward with its massive beak.
I was faster.
My blade was plunged through the middle of its neck and down into the frozen ground, pinning it there even as it tried to put weight on its ruined foot. It writhed, gurgling out cries as I let go of my sword and drew my shotgun. I fired without hesitation, sending a solid slug through the crown of the head into the dirt. The bird skull shattered from the large hole blasted into the center, and the movement of the Snow Lark ceased. Once again, the corpse didn't smoke.
I frowned at the sight, but holstered my shotgun and yanked my sword free.
"JAUNE!" Jessie shouting my name knocked me back into the situation, and I looked up in her direction.
"Huh?"
She was hightailing it, moving as fast as she was worth. Behind her were her two adversary Snow Larks with differing damage between them, chasing her down like prey. Jessie ran with all she could… directly towards me.
"GUN JAMMED! QUICK, BOOST ME!" She shouted at me, throwing me for a loop. I must have had a look on my face from the open-ended request, because she rolled her eyes and jabbed her finger upwards. The gesture towards the sky made everything click, and I readied myself. My blade slid into my sheath which freed up a hand for support, and I planted my feet widely in preparation. I held patiently, but didn't have to wait long as Jessie was upon me in seconds. My partner leapt off the ground towards me, and I caught her feet with the face of my shield. In a breath we synchronized, and I bucked my shield the moment she jumped. She flew high behind me to her targeted area, and I was blindsided by a memory with a head of red hair.
'Pyrrha…' I remember seeing that exact move from her before. To replicate it so closely feels like a blast from the past. Solemnly, I rip myself from reminiscence and turn a glare to the Grimm approaching me. They only kept a slight distance from each other, one lagging slightly behind the lead, and both were considerably wounded. The one lagging behind had a good portion of its beak broken, and a large chunk was missing from the side of its head. A wing was gravely damaged, hanging limply by strands of flesh and bouncing around as it charged. It didn't seem impaired by the injuries. The second appeared to have every jutting spike systematically shot off its body, from its wings to the spurs on its feet. It was littered with pockmarks and holes, even missing an eye from the obvious mag-dump it experienced at the hands of Jessie. It was only slightly slower thanks to a wound glancing its high ankle.
At the rate they were going, they'd be bearing down on me soon. I glared at the two Grimm and decided to sheath my sword as a plan formed in my mind. My hands gripped low on the sides of my shield, careful to avoid the dents and stress marks in the metal. I leaned forward towards the charging beasts, my feet digging into the snow as I braced myself. With a breath, I leapt.
A jolt of surprise hit me.
Though it wasn't anything ridiculous, I soared far higher and far faster than I ever had before from a jump. A feeling of raw excitement twinged to life in the core of my stomach, and a grin crawled its way across my lips as I looked on with wide eyes. My trajectory was still sound, so I continued my plan as I dropped from my apex onto my adversary. I came down on the ostrich-like Grimm hard with my tower shield raised high, only to piston it down with all the fast-twitch strength I could muster. All of that force crashed down on the crown of the Grimms bone skull, releasing a loud metallic THUNK that exploded through the forest and made a dent dead-center on the shield. The lanky neck supporting the head held no chance of resisting and it ricocheted off violently only to ram directly into the frozen ground beneath. My feet hit the ground, and the skull bounced from the collision, cracking.
Immediately my shield was thrown to the floor and I tensed, driving my shoulder into the body of the Snow Lark. I skidded back through the top-layer of snow, absorbing the momentum of the dazed Grimm and bringing it to a stop quickly. The second wasn't far, so I hurried in action. My fingers wrapped around the neck of my captive bird with a rough grip, and I yanked the entire beast into a spin with a grunt. It spun around me once with considerable effort on my part, the bone feathers flying wildly at the base of the neck as I dug in my heels. I brought it around again harder than before, and my captive rammed into the side of its backup like a freight train.
My grip left the second they'd connected, as a series of gurgling screeches and loud cracks punctuated the collision. They flew through the forest with the grace of a pallet of bricks, tumbling across the snow and ice and smashing into a tree to stop.
"Finally, some breathing room." I huffed to myself, swiping my shield off the ground and drawing my sword once more. I watched the two Snow Larks, now even more injured, scramble up to their feet. The bird without spikes had its wing bent backwards, likely from the collision. The other was in rough shape with its head hanging limply at its side. Its neck was visibly broken in multiple places, being narrowed and skewed and in some places even hanging like sausage casing on the jutting vertebrae. Those red eyes were sign enough it was still kicking, the way they glowered at me.
I glowered back and rushed towards them, and they responded in kind. The broken one and I met quickly, the other struggling with a limp behind him. Its silent movements were hard to read, even more so with the stray head that flopped along its wing as it ran, but a brief misstep tipped me off. My gaze narrowed as the muscle beneath the bare black flesh of its legs tensed and the massive bird launched off the ground. The Grimm cleared my height easily and brandished the massive talons on each foot in the air, the intention obvious to rake them across my face, but I was ready. I raised my battered shield above my head and bent my knees to crouch just beneath it. With no way to see through my shield for the perfect time, I decided to wing it and bashed up with the slab of metal. A grin flashed across my lips as I felt the oddly shaped claws scrap against my protection, and soon enough its ankles and under-carriage impacted as I thrusted upwards. The Snow Lark was thrown to the side, falling gracelessly into the snow and leaving its partner charging alone. My pace quickened as I leaned into it and sprinted towards the bird, dropping my shield arm to my side and drawing my blade across my body.
"GRRRlurlaaaooeeer!"
It gurgled a roar as we were set to meet, and a foot away I stepped to the side and ripped my sword through its stalky neck… unsuccessfully.
"Huh?" I muttered out in surprise. Instead of seeing the metal edge slice through the neck of the Grimm, I saw the damn things head fall flat against its back, drawing its long neck with it just a few inches under the passing weapon. The only thing I cut off was the tip of its beak which plopped to the snow. "They're learning… that can't be good."
"ON YOUR RIGHT!"
My companions voice called out from her perch, and I didn't hesitate in following the call. I jerked to action and yanked my shield in front of me, barely managing to slam it into the approaching mass in time. I leaned into it, gritting my teeth and putting my weight into stopping it. I wasn't skidding back in the snow at all, so I dared to peek over the edge of my tower shield. One of these ostrich Grimm stared back, and a familiar one at that. Atop the gangly neck sat the typical cleaned bird skull all the others had, but the similarities ended there. Only half its long white beak remained and its edges now jagged, marked by where it shattered.
'The one that ran away!' I thought to myself, having nearly forgotten about the first Snow Lark we encountered in Nevermelt. It stared at me blankly high over the rim of my shield, and oddly it was unmoving. Its feet weren't clawing at the snow to try to gain footing against me, it simply held its weight against the face of my protection. I studied the monster more closely, now noticing the fact that its red eyes weren't quite as vibrant as any of the others were. In fact, I'd almost call the sickly pale eyes cloudy. '… something isn't right.'
My intuition was right. In that moment, the entire body of the Grimm jerked and its head twitched forward. The tip of the jagged beak was obviously meant to gouge into my face, but I watched in confusion as it fell just short. The Grimm reeled back and tried again, and then a third time, but none landed. They were all just slightly off, one even jabbing passed the side of my head. My hand rested on the handle of my sword, but I was so caught off-guard by the sudden incoordination of the Snow Lark that I simply studied it expressionlessly. A final attempt had its neck caught on my shield, and it went back to its starting position with a series of twitches before going still again. A beat passed, and I now noticed it eyes weren't pointed towards me in the slightest.
Then it shuddered.
"ggggrrlrlsggrelgr-"
Its beak snapped open wide as the Grimm went rigid against my shield and it let out a different sound than any other the type had made so far. The gurgling was far more than an undertone, and it sounded brutal. It was strangled and painful, and sounded off. I studied the Grimm with intensity, completely taken aback at the odd behavior. It's with this intensity that I caught the movement in its neck. It was subtle, a series of undulations that writhed under its skin, quickly picking up pace. I flicked my eyes to look at its wide beak again, and I barely had enough time to act.
Scraping metal grinded directly next to my ear.
A foul, writhing black mass erupted out of the Snow Lark's mouth. It poured from its mouth violently, and all I made out in that moment was a large blade of bleached bone. I managed to draw my sword just in time to angle it at the side of my head and lean away, and I felt sweat beading from just how precise the attack was. The bone scraped horribly against the flat of the sword and screeched. Instinct screamed at me, and bashed it harshly away then leapt back to get space between us. As it fell, I hopped back twice more before I finally deigned to study the thing. When I did, I felt sick to my stomach for reasons I can't describe.
"JESSIE! What the hell is that thing?!" I shouted, unable to tear my eyes off it. "Is it supposed to do that?!"
The Snow Lark had changed in more ways than just cloudy eyes. Its legs held its weight awkwardly at odd angles, and the Grimm shuddered at strange intervals. The neck was crushed and bunched up like a sleeve, and the beak that had been gaped open now had the flesh holding it together ripped widely apart to accommodate. A long, gangly mass of pitch-black musculature and rubbery tendons extended from the torn opening that used to be a mouth. The writhing had stopped, but the body of the Snow Lark seemed to sink in on itself like it was malnourished or simply missing chunks from the inside. The lanky mass ended with a long bone blade that was bleached and littered with messy connections from the inky tendons, some which drooped loosely from the thing.
It was an arm. One with an elbow joint, and one that was slashing blindly back and forth from the mouth of the Grimm.
[AN- Sup guys. Enjoy another chapter, the ride isn't over yet! Poor Jauney-boy.]