Yang could feel the sense of fear permeating through the air. It was contagious in that it started from one member of the group before gradually seeping its way through everyone. Admittedly, she herself was growing affected, her muscles stiffening and breath growing heavy. For all of her bravado and self-confidence, her common sense dictated a fine line between what was and what wasn't possible for her to achieve.
She retreated slowly; Ember Celica raised in a defensive gesture as she glanced wearily at her surroundings. Soon, Yang's back pressed up against Blake's who was mimicking Yang's actions except for choice of weapon. Unlike Yang, Blake had a sword which she readied in apprehension, golden coloured irises revealing traces of unease.
Grimm were everywhere and the two of them had been isolated from the main group where Ghira was hurriedly yelling for everyone to get into a defensive formation. Even for someone as stout and gruff looking like Ghira, the man visibly panicked when he realized that his daughter wasn't anywhere nearby.
"Think we can break through and group up with the rest?" Yang tried to sound upbeat, but all that speaking did was reveal the noticeable tremor in her tone.
"…" Blake didn't respond, but Yang could hear the tightening of Blake's grip over her sword. Tense would be a loose term to describe Blake's present appearance. Unlike Yang, Blake was taking into account the likeliness of survival and it wasn't anywhere near good.
Optimistically, if only a dozen or so people that formed the convoy of Faunus that Ghira was leading were able to make it out alive, then that could already be counted as a victory. As for the rest, they'd have to pray that death would come quickly.
Blake and everyone else in the convoy had known that danger was going to be a constant in the journey to Vermillion, but they'd accepted the risks anyway. However, that didn't mean that Blake wanted anyone to die. Not her father, not her mother, and most certainly not her people who were only migrating in hopes for a better life.
"How could so many Grimm have had showed up all at once?" Blake's tone was filled with misery.
Yang shut her mouth and released a long breath. There was no use dwelling over why a situation ever played out the way it did. What mattered was taking action in the present, and that meant fighting Grimm.
Inwardly, Yang felt her body begin to tremble. She wasn't scared or overly terrified at the prospect of fighting so many enemies, but rather, her body was reacting out of trauma. She could still recall her first encounter with Grimm in her childhood, just before the incident where she thought that she'd never be able to see Ruby again. Just thinking about it brought chills to her person.
Ruby had almost died, and in the midst of it all, the Grimm had knocked her unconscious. Her uncle Qrow had said that if it wasn't for some random Huntsman that had chanced by on her and Ruby, then the two of them would have had died.
Till this day, she still felt sudden bouts of panic when a Grimm came in view. In which case, she buried her insecurities away under a heavy layer of self-confidence and bravado. A bravado and self-confidence that would help her no longer against so many Grimm.
She and Blake were stranded alone, twenty feet away from where Ghira and the rest had formed a defensive circle.
"Careful," Blake warned quietly.
Yang grunted. She wasn't stupid.
The Grimm were circling around, looking for an opening. However, in the face of the Grimm's numbers, they didn't have any real caution to speak of.
'Here they come.'
They directly lunged forward, employing human wave tactics.
The boarbatusks came first, pig-sized grim recklessly charging forward in a line with sharpened tusks gouging the earth.
Sweat matted Yang's brow as she cocked her fists back, Ember Celica's bullet chambers loading in place and igniting with the scent of Fire Dust. Mechanisms shifted, metal clanking with the howl of thunder and elongating the golden bracelets over her forearms into formidable gauntlets.
Yang had always been a brawler by heart. She preferred to get in close and personal against her enemies.
Her feet twisted beneath her, years of early combat training for a future as a Huntress all aiding her in this single instance.
She ducked low, swerved right, and punched her fist against the side of a boarbatusk that had intended on striking her. For a fraction of a second, she closed her eyes, channeling her inner energy, her aura, through her body and bolstering her physical capabilities. Her muscles braced for impact, her entire arm tensing.
A spark lit up at the edge of her vision, Ember Celica's revolver-like bullet chambers rotating as an internal hammer cocked up and suddenly cocked down at the impact of her fist.
Dust came next, and from Dust humanity had arisen to evenly combat the Grimm.
'Explode.' The hammer lit a fuse that ignited Ember Celica's Dust round. From the muzzle of Ember Celica's barrel, the explosive force of a shotgun caved the boarbatusk's chest and sent it careening towards the other Grimm in the area.
Ember Celica's metal braces shook violently from the impact, but Yang's Aura made her strong. She didn't feel any discomfort at all, rather, she punched again and again at the incoming Grimm.
Behind Yang, Blake wasn't staying still. It was like she was teleporting. One moment she'd be beside Yang, and in the next she'd be pulling her sword from out of a Grimm's body.
If Yang's fighting style was pure fire power, then Blake combined technique with stunning lethality.
"We have to push them back and group up with the others," Yang called, her legs getting into a forward stance. "I'll charge forward and blow them away if you can cover for me?"
Blake landed by Yang's side and wordlessly nodded.
Good. At least they had a plan.
Yang checked her reserves of explosive Dust rounds and nodded her head. She had enough magazines on hand and only twenty feet of enemies to cross through.
The Grimm primarily consisted of Beowolf, Ursa, and Boarbatusk. They didn't have much in variety, but they had plenty in numbers.
"Avoid the Ursa," Blake advised tensely. "There's no way that you can blast them far enough for the both of us to be able to slip through."
"Not a problem." Yang grunted pounding a fist over her hand in a show of keeping her spirits up. She even pulled out a pair of black sunglasses. "You can just call me, Ms. Blond Kickass. This First-Class Merc never fails."
"I'd be more confident if your friend said that." Blake said flatly. "At least he seemed more credible."
Yang grinned but didn't say much else. In truth, she was feeling nervous. One mistake would not just cost her life, but Blake's as well. No. This wasn't the time for doubts.
"Alright, let's do this!" Yang crouched low, arms at her side. Blake positioned herself at Yang's back, her sword at the ready.
Wind stirred between them, their bodies abruptly moving in tandem in a streak of yellow and black. Yang's fist cocked back and exploded forth with the furor of a freight train.
Aura and Dust were the very tools of mankind that had allowed humanity to forge their path and destinies within a world filled with dangers. Yet more than just Aura and Dust, was human tenacity.
Yang thought of Ruby and of how devastated her father and uncle would be if she died. She couldn't allow it to happen. Never.
Her Aura swelled from within her, rising alongside her emotions and steadily shifting into anger directed at those that sought to kill and take her away from her loved ones.
Flecks of red began creeping up her hair, embers dancing in the wind.
Tactics and rational decisions were always practical in any fight, but such methods would never allow Yang to reach her full potential.
Rage was her strength. The Semblance of a Berserker that multiplied her physical capabilities.
"GET OUT MY WAY!" She punched forth at the Grimm in front of her, not caring about how many there were in the heat of the moment.
Her punch was fury itself. The charge of a mad bull. When it struck, it struck with the impact of a rocket-powered sledge hammer.
Never mind just Beowolf and Boarbatusk, Blake momentarily stilled in shock when Yang violently sent an Ursa hurling through the air. Blake blinked, but quickly followed in order to complete her task.
If Yang was the bulldozer carving the way through a jungle of Grimm, then Blake was the machete that cut apart the branches seeking to strike Yang from the back.
As a team, they were working unexpectedly well together, not that Yang was paying attention to anything else but punching the Grimm in front of her. Blake wouldn't be surprised if Yang was only seeing red at this point. Inwardly, she wondered if Yang was part Faunus? Maybe Yang had a bull's tail hidden somewhere?
Regardless, the plan was working well despite the odds. It almost made Blake forget that nothing ever goes well, and when a situation goes bad, it generally gets worse.
UGH! Yang inwardly screamed, her teeth biting down on her lips to prevent the outburst threatening to spill out of her mouth as a Boarbatusk blind-sided her left foot with a spinning charge. Its bone-armoured back had violently impacted against her ankle bone with such force that she heard a distinct cracking sound. Blake paled from beside Yang, but there was nothing that she had been able to do.
Unlike Yang, Blake could not afford to test her strength against a charging Boarbatusk head on. Instead, she'd redirected most of the Boarbatusk's momentum away to no result.
Yang's ankle looked either broken or twisted despite the natural Aura she had protecting her body.
Stubbornly, Yang tried to put weight on it, only to collapse on her side and end up in an even more precarious position with Grimm looming over her.
"Damn it," Blake grimaced. She moved to help Yang only to be flanked by Grimm that had taken the opportunity to separate her and Yang.
If only Adam were here. Blake couldn't find any method to reach Yang in time. Worse, Three Ursa were surrounding her.
Yang stiffened as the shadow of three Grimm encompassed her form. She spun on her elbows and lashed out with a shot from Ember Celica that disorientated the nearest Ursa. However, there were still two more and the empty clicking noise she heard in her ear was indicating that she'd run out of explosive rounds.
They'd been so close. Another few feet and they would have had made it back to where Ghira and the rest were fighting desperately to reach them. There was something about Ghira's panicked gaze that Yang could see through the bodies of Grimm that separated them.
It was the face of a despairing father.
Yang wasn't the only one in danger, Blake's situation was no better. Worse, Blake's parents could only watch on despite all their efforts.
The expression on Ghira's face made Yang think of what expression her own father would be making if he saw her now moments away from becoming a pancake.
Flipping fantastic right?
Yeah, now wasn't the time for puns.
She desperately rolled around to avoid the Ursa's attacks raining down on her. It was at that point, that an object that she'd been largely ignoring since the fight began clattered free from where she'd secured it around her waist.
It was the dagger that Archer had given her.
"Think strongly of me, and I will come."
The words that he had said resounded from deep within her. He'd made a promise, and Archer had never appeared to be someone who lied.
Against her better judgement, she picked the dagger up and twisted out of the way of a Beowolf attempting to bite her.
Blake had been right. There were no Dust chambers or anything remotely resembling Aura around it. For all intents and purposes, it was just a plain dagger, yet in her desperation, she continued to believe.
She thought of Archer, of all the times that they'd spent together and all of the things that she'd seen him do. Most of all, she thought of how he believed in her. A stranger that he'd only ever met in order to help.
If it was him, then maybe he could pull off the impossible.
Much to Blake's astonishment, the dagger in Yang's hands began to glow dimly despite the sheer impossibility of it.
Once upon a time, there had been a tale of a girl and the Huntsman that she loved. It was a folktale, one that every little girl in Remnant was told as a bedtime story at least once in their childhood. Yang knew of it, Ruby knew of it, and so did Blake.
Emotions born of desperation.
Remnant was a world enshrouded by a blanket of Evil known as the Grimm who fed on the negative emotions of humans. Proud Huntsman and Huntress rose to combat against them, and in the story of the girl and the Huntsman, the Huntsman promised the girl that even if he wasn't around, he'd always be there to shield her from harm.
A Guardian protector.
One day, the Huntsman gave the girl a large brooch as a gift, but never returned despite the passing of numerous seasons. The girl became a Huntress and in honour of the Huntsman that she loved, she had the brooch melted and reforged into a dagger that she'd always carry. It was ordinary, unable to carry Dust or act as a medium for Aura, but when her life was ever truly in danger, the dagger would shine brighter than the moon.
A Beacon in the Night.
Regardless of time and place, the Huntsman of the girl's youth would always arrive. For it was a promise of true love.
The first time that the folktale was read to Blake, her child self had swooned. However, she knew that something like that wasn't real. Well, it shouldn't have been, but the dagger glowing in Yang's hands and the words that Archer had said prior were causing her to start doubting.
In truth, it was just coincidence that the dagger that Shirou had given Yang possessed a similar function as the one from a popular Remnant folktale.
Regardless, it didn't change the fact that the dagger in Yang's hands was growing brighter and brighter. It was a mystic code whose light would increase in intensity the closer the owner came.
"Archer!" The name escaped Yang's mouth in her desperation. She was getting exhausted and knew that she couldn't keep repelling the enemies away for much longer.
A raven soared through the sky; its gaze never leaving Yang's form as if intent to intervene if only once for the sake of Yang's safety.
It would never get the opportunity.
A shadow suddenly blotted out the light of the sun from above while rapidly accelerating down from the heavens and breaking the sound barrier. The raven and the shadow made eye-contact before the raven recoiled back, a strange feeling of shame welling up from within it.
It was as if the shadow had asked why the raven hadn't helped if she had been around since the beginning? The raven had no answer.
It didn't matter, because what had once been a shadow soon became discernible as it crashed into the ground and produced a plume of dust and debris while nailing a crimson spear through the bodies of the Ursa directly around Yang.
Yang blinked up at the figure that appeared before her. The dagger that had been shining in her hand dimmed as if its purpose had already been served, and for the first time in a long time, Yang was starting to believe that her foster mother had been right.
Heroes did exist.
Archer stood protectively in front of her, clothes torn and in tatters from how fast he must have had been sprinting through the forest to reach her. He almost looked sort of cool. Yang realized that she was staring, but she just couldn't bring herself to tear away her gaze. The feelings bubbling from within her were too strong.
Blake, in comparison, was dumbfounded; her mind starting to revaluate the authenticity of every story and every book that she'd ever read pertaining to Remnant's myths and legends. Subconsciously, she couldn't help but eye the dagger in Yang's and consider 'borrowing' it in hopes that Adam would just spontaneously appear in the sky and land protectively in front of her.
Considering how tightly Yang was gripping the dagger, Blake realized that her chances weren't high and simply refocused her mind. She'd 'borrow' it later if she could. It seemed handy.
Meanwhile, Yang felt her mouth suddenly dry.
Just like Archer had promised, he had come when she had needed him the most.
No, more than that. Yang could still recall what Archer had said to her biological mother. Where her mother had admitted to discarding her, he'd opted to protect her for her own behalf as if appalled that such a heartless mother could exist.
She felt an arm steady her to her feet. She didn't resist.
"Don't worry, I'm here," Archer said gruffly while pulling the crimson spear from where it stood erect pierced into the ground where the bodies of the Grimm had disappeared.
Yeah. He was right here in front of her. Yang's expression softened; her eyes almost dazed while looking at Archer.
He was someone who's life circumstances must have had been far harder than her own to be living in the slums of Vale at such a young-looking age. Moreover, based on the way that he talked and never mentioned the names of any family members, he must have had been living on his own. Yet, still, he went out of his way to help her when he himself didn't even have the luxury to attend any schools.
Her lips quivered, her expression flushing as she gradually came to a certain realization in her teenage mind. Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest, affection permeating uncontrollably from within her for the first time in her life.
She liked Archer. Like in a crush sort of way. Like the 'like' like sort of like.
Dammit, she wasn't even thinking straight anymore.
Thanks for reading! And thanks to my newest Patron: Jr. Rangle!
Note: I woke up feeling dizzy this morning and it has slowed my writing pace. I'm hoping to sleep it off but for the time being I don't want to leave everyone with nothing for today so i decided to post the Huntsman's update in 2 parts. Part A today and part B tomorrow.
See ya'll tomorrow
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