A/N: Hello, my friends. This is revised version of Scars, chapter 1. Uh, it's slightly longer and I do think the fight is better paced now. Enjoy.
RWBY is owned by Roosterteeth and the Late Monty Oum
Scars
A figure stood by bluffs off the coast of the Forever Falls forest, silhouetted by the light of the shattered moon of Remnant, pondering over their career and past mistakes. Clad in a full suit of scarred, grey plate armor, with a massive mace resting on his shoulder, the man stood there, brooding. The armor's only bit of color was an Emblem, a stylized motif of a bird, a cardinal, with its wings spread in flight on its chest plate.
The man, one Cardin Winchester, now somewhere around twenty years old, flexed his left shoulder as it started to go numbed under the weight of his massive black mace, Executioner. As it rested there, the red Burn Dust crystal within glinting dimly from the light, he stood there brooding as he looked out over the dimly lit waters.
He… really had no idea what he was doing anymore.
There was a time when he wanted to be a Huntsmen. Not necessarily because he wanted to be a hero, or even to help people, like certain others that he knew. He grinned at that .No, it wasn't anything noble like that, but it also wasn't to be famous either. Not that he had told his teammates that at the time.
No, he hadn't wanted to tell them the truth. Thought it would make him seem lesser, somehow, in their eyes.
And so he had lied. Lied that he wanted to be famous. To be the Best, and all the things that came with that, like the money, and the women, of course.
He did finally confess his real reasons for doing so, after he had had a heart-to-heart with Jaune Arc. About how the only reason why he was at Beacon, was because his father had paid for it.
"A Winchester," his father had instilled repeatedly over the years. "Is the best. They have no equal. Not among the nobility, not among the commoners and, certainly, not among those Animals, the Faunus."
His father had paid the best private tutors to train him as a Huntsman candidate, to make him the Best. To bring even more honor and accolades to their name than he had himself during his time as a businessman, before he became one of Vale's City Council members.
That… never happened.
Oh, he was a Huntsman, alright. Had been for a while now, in fact. Ever since Headmistress Goodwitch had officially promoted him and his teammates to Huntsmen status last year.
But he wasn't famous. And he certainly wasn't the type of Huntsman that his father wanted.
And, he never would be.
For one, he hated his father these days, him and his lies. He hated how he had acted when he first went to Beacon Academy, thinking that he was some hotshot. That he was the Best. That everyone else was beneath, especially the Faunus.
It had taken help from the most unlikely of sources for him to change. It had taken Jaune Arc, a boy he had constantly belittled and bullied, saving him from something he ill-prepared to face, for him to start to think about just how wrong he was in everything.
…And, that wasn't all.
Through Jaune, he and his teammates learned to be better. Better classmates, better students. Better people.
They were by no means the Best at Beacon. That honor belonged to the likes of Weiss Schnee or Blake Belladonna. Or, the late Pyrrha Nikos.
Bu they were better, smarter. All thanks to one Jaune Arc. A kid just as bad as them, going out of his way to help out people that had bullied him for no reason than because he thought that it was the right thing to do. And through him he actually met and befriended… her. Velvet Scarletina.
He closed his eyes as the memories of a willowy girl with long, brown hair, brown eyes, and long rabbit ears. Ears that he learned were very sensitive, like painful tug on kind of sensitive.
He sighed and rubbed at the back of his head where the slicked back hair always itched.
He… was recently coming to terms with the idea… that he still wasn't all that great of a person. Not in the past, and not now, but not for a lack of trying.
He certainly wasn't that great of a team leader.
He closed his eyes tightly as the memory of his first, and last, mission as the leader of Team CRDL flashed before his eyes once more. When he had still had a team.
/ /
They had been sent out on a simple Seek and Destroy kind of mission. They had gone on dozens by then, always with a Huntsman, a professor, like Port or Oobleck shadowing them.
But, not this time. This was their first one alone.
As professionals.
Right away he knew it was going to be different. He should've called it as soon as they saw the village in its current state.
He blamed himself for that the most out of everything that had gone wrong.
He'd always been bad at doing research for an assignment. He had used others for that, like Jaune Arc. Or Velvet. Or even one of his own teammates.
He had never really learned to plan ahead.
It had started out like any other mission of the same vein, except with the added caveat of being the first in a series of missions in the area. His team was to set up a short term operations center at the village of Cerulean Cove where they would lead a local group of Huntsmen in clearing out minor threats in the area like Grimm, slavers or bandits.
They had gone in knowing that they would be on their own for the most part. There was a couple of local Huntresses in the area, but they were considered retired, and were not often found at the village, anyway.
What they hadn't known of at the time was that the local CCT tower was down due to faulty hardware, and the short ranged radio he had been given didn't have the power to transmit back to Vale, or any of the other, larger villages around the mission area.
No. They thought that they would just go in and kill a few Grimm, and be done with things for a while as they waited for the rest of the Huntsmen squad to arrive at the base that the technicians and engineers had already set up.
At first, when they heard nothing on the radio from either the village or the tower, they had simply written it off as the locals not following procedure. It had happened plenty of times before. Even the pilot wasn't worried, or at least, he didn't show it.
Then, as they got closer and still heard nothing Cardin began to get a feeling. A bad one.
When they finally arrived at the village they had been stunned by what they saw. Even the pilot, a veteran who, like them, had been there at The Breach and The Fall of Beacon.
It was like nothing they had seen before.
The village was on fire. The walls Breached in three separate locations. Bodies littered the streets even as they watched the few survivors left being slaughtered by a host of Beowolfs, Creeps and Boarbatusks.
His team wasted no time in gathering their gear as he told the pilot to descend as low as safely possible for them to jump out, his team had never been good at the HALO jumps that made RWBY and JNPR so excited. And, he was terrified of heights, anyway.
They dropped as one right in the center of the town's square. As soon as everybody landed, Cardin ordered the pilot to stand by in case they need a hot pick up, or a strafing run. The Bullhead was armed for Grimm.
He quickly ordered his team into formation just like Headmaster Ozpin had taught him. Sky Lark held the rear with Feather's Edge, the modified Halberd's rifle would hopefully deal with any ranged threats. Meanwhile, Dove Bronzewing and Russell Thrush took positions at his left and right respectfully, their speed and teamwork would alleviate his own short comings in any fight, while his size and Aura reserves would tank whatever theirs couldn't.
How wrong he had been.
The first few battles went well, more than enough for he and his team to get their confidence back. The Grimm they faced were all young and inexperienced. Easy to fight, easy to kill. Just like they had been taught.
Even the couple of Alpha Creeps had been nothing to sneeze at. Merely bigger, dumb targets.
On top of all that, they had been able to save a few civilians. A few humans and Faunus villagers, including a child, Neha. They had gathered them all together and were leading them back to the square after fighting off waves of Grimm.
They were tired, low on ammunition for Feather's Edge and Hallshott, but they were feeling pretty confident, all things considered.
That's when things went wrong, fast.
Cardin was just about to call the Bullhead to pick everybody up when they were attacked out of nowhere.
At first it was nothing.
A pack of Beowolves. A large one, sure, but only twenty.
They picked them off by ones and twos. Even the Alpha fared like better against his Executioner, its titanium flanges and Burn Dust crystal designed specifically to crunch the armor of older Grimm like it.
Then they heard a hideous scream from behind them. They turned to find another Grimm, a larger, armored Beowolf charging at the group of survivors, its black hide almost completely covered in the armored, bone plates and spikes of an older Grimm.
They had thought it was yet another Alpha.
Sky shot at it, expecting it to fall just like the last one, and was stunned to see it shrug off the heavy caliber rounds like they were nothing. He snapped off a few more before he was forced to turn his attention to another group of incoming Grimm, a mixture of Beowolves and Creeps, that were attacking from their rear.
Without being asked Dove and Russell had charged it, blocking it from the survivors.
As it closed with them, he had watched as Dove and Russell moved as one, diving, spinning and striking at its armored hide from every which way. The display seemed to stun the creature, but Cardin saw no visible damage being done at first. A few small sprays of black ichor from simple cuts, but nothing like the heavier black smoke trailing wounds.
In fact, the creature seemed to realize how its heavily reinforced bone armor was protecting it and turtled-up, shielding its more vulnerable sections with its spines and armored forearms. He never seen a Grimm that smart before,and it took him a moment before he realized what he was dealing with, not just an Alpha, but an Elder Grimm.
He had called it in as soon as he realized the severity of the situation, asking for help from Goodwitch or any of the other available Professors, on stand by. Only to hear nothing on the radio.
He tried again, on a different channel, calling the local Huntresses, or even the other towns in the area for aid. Again, nothing. Trying not to panic then he had ordered the pilot to bring the Bullhead in for a landing in the square for rapid evac.
Only to hear nothing.
He had panicked then, thinking something was wrong with the radio. He had unslung the heavy, unwieldy box to look at it, only to realize that he hadn't switched back to the original channel.
As he was going to he was blindsided by a Grimm, a Creep.
The thing had gotten under Sky's defense as he reloaded his rifle, Feather's Edge could only hold one round at a time.
After it had knocked him to the ground it had then clamped down his forearm and wouldn't let go. He had cried out in pain as he felt the metal begin to warp, groaning audibly under the pressure of its bite even with his Aura there to strengthen it.
He had reached for his weapon, groaning all the while, only to find that it was missing from its holster, having been thrown to the side when he had been hit. He tried to reach for it but the Creep pulled him away as it began to worry at him like a dog with a rat. He screamed in pain as he thought his arm was about to be broken only for the Creep to stop, and sag, before finally letting him go as its body collapsed into a pile of black smoke.
He looked up to find Sky there, having cut the beast in half with his pole-arm. He grasped Cardin's outstretched arm and heaved the big man to his feet. Cardin had clasped his shoulder and shaken it in thanks, too out of breathe to speak, when they heard a scream.
The two had turned just in time to watch as Russell was flung towards them, his weapons scattering from his grasp. Cardin ran forwards in a futile attempt to catch his partner as he hit the ruined streets and didn't move, his chest a massive, open wound.
The two of them had run up to their fallen teammate. After checking to see if he was still alive, Cardin had ordered Sky to aid the unconscious Huntsman as he looked up to find a badly outmatched Dove fighting for his life against the towering Elder Grimm.
He had taken up his weapon by then and charged into the fray, ignoring the pain in his arm as he did so. Just trying to get to his friend and teammate before things got any worse.
But, no luck.
Just before he could get there, Dove's Aura shattered. He still fought on, though, bleeding from cuts all over. Cardin activated his weapon as the Beowolf shattered Halshott's blade, ripping away one of Dove's pauldrons in the same swipe, and throwing the younger, no longer quite so doughy young man to the street.
As it raised its arm to strike at his fallen teammate, the Beowolf seemed to sense what was coming. It stiffened as a rolling blast of concussive force and fire blasted it. It had stumbled back, momentarily stunned by the attack, its armor blacked and scuffed.
It had shaken its head before stalking towards Dove once more, only to stop as it sensed him coming up on its flank. Or, maybe, it just heard him as he rushed up, screaming at it. It turned and raised its arm to block his strike just as he swung, the Fire Dust within igniting for a second time.
With a tremendous blast of flames and concussive force the mace impacted upon the Elder Grimm's body at point blank range. Cardin screamed as he felt the bones in his injured forearm break under the recoil of the exploding Dust. He groaned as he staggered backwards from the smoke-obscured remains, dragging The Executioner as he did so.
Then there was silence.
He smirked confidently as he began to make his way to Dove, the fallen Huntsman struggling to get to his feet, winded as he was and bleeding profusely from his injured shoulder.
At the subtle sound of movement behind him, and Dove's warning gaze, Cardin turned just as the still living Grimm attacked him. Cardin ducked under the wild swing, but was unable to raise his mace as he flinched from the pain in his arm.
That was all the Grimm needed.
It backhanded him mightily, throwing his bruised and tired body all the way across the square. He landed, hard, but rolled back to his feet in an instant. He shook his head and took a step forward. Only to immediately fall into a crouch, burying the bladed head of his weapon into the pavement, panting from the sudden pain in his chest.
He blinked, staring as blood dripped down from his nose and chin. Even through his Aura, he had been heavily injured. The creature was just that strong!
Now, what were they to do? He and Dove were the two strongest members on their team, and both of them were injured. And Russell was out of the fight.
"AAAaaAHH!" He jerked his gaze up as he was snapped out of his thought by the horrified screams coming from Dove. He looked to find the Beowolf lifting Dove up off of the ground by his wounded arm as it clutch it in its mouth. He was stabbing at it with what was left of Halshott's blade, the metal doing little against its armored torso.
Cardin groaned as he struggled back to his feet and started to make his way over once more. He pumped his legs and arms as fast as he could, fighting through the pain.
He had to save Dove!
As he slowly began to pick up speed he could only in horror as the Grimm took one of Dove's legs in its clawed arms, gripped it tightly before it then proceeded to rip Dove's left leg away. It followed that stunning display of power up with biting clean through the humerus of his wounded arm.
Dove fell to the pavement, screaming in shock and pain, blood splurting from both injuries. The Grimm seemed to bask in the agony it had just inflicted on the best fighter in Team CRDL as he laid there writhing in pain and torment.
Sky cried out to his fallen partner as Cardin finally lumbered past. The blue-haired member of the team shot the Grimm with Feather's Edge, then. Once , twice, thrice! Each projectile blasting fire and smoke against its hide, slamming it backwards by the sheer concussive force.
It took them all without even flinching, eating up the trauma it was making. Feeding on the Negativity.
One of the remaining villagers screamed then, telling them to kill it, kill it now!
It turned towards the group of survivors then at the burst of negative emotions, and seemed to almost grin as it began making its way towards them, even as Sky kept on shooting it, hitting it with every round.
The villagers screamed at it and Cardin to do something, to make it go away. They were beyond terrified to see such a things. Grimm were horrifying as they were. To see something like this? A seemingly unkillable monster that had taken on three Huntsmen, and won?
It was too much for them. They began to scatter and flee, base instinct telling them to save themselves.
It worked, though.
The Grimm seemed to pause at that, looking between them all as it sized up who it wanted to kill first. The wounded left behind? The child? Or the ones running away?
With the villagers distracting it, Cardin was able to get to Dove's side in time to save him. He quickly undid his friend's belt as well as his own to make a couple of tourniquets and wrapped them around the stubs of his arm and leg. Dove groaned in pain as he tightened them, Cardin trying to ignore just how badly this all looked, just how much this had ruined what was to be a promising career for Dove.
At the sounds of screams, Cardin looked up to find the Beowolf ripping into the villagers' ranks, tearing the few men and women still standing apart like so much confetti. His face paled at all the blood and gore being flung about. He knelt there, frozen. Unable to think of what to do only to look back down at Dove as he grasped his forearm and squeezed.
"S-Save them. D-Do wha-whatever y-y-you h-have t-to, Boss." Dove struggled to say before he fell into merciful unconsciousness, the bloodloss and shock taking their toll on him. Cardin patted his uninjured shoulder tenderly before rising to his feet.
He grunted as he hefted his mace above his head before bringing it down on the pavement as he once more activated the Dust within. A succession of Dust explosions occurred, erupting out of the ground on a straight path towards the Grimm just as it was about to attack one of the villagers, a little girl with a leopard's tail.
The explosion rocked the Grimm forwards, throwing it off-balance. Flames flew up its back, alighting it. It straightened, hissing in pain as it turned towards him. Just as Sky fired once more.
The bullet blasted it right in the face, right in the eye! Where it wasn't armored.
The Grimm howled in sudden pain as it clutched at its ruined face, turning instinctively towards the one who had injured it. Sky ready Feather's Edge as he patted his satchel for ammo. His face paled as he found none.
As the Grimm turned to face him fully, Sky blew out a breath and took a protective step over Russell unconscious form, shouting out to his team leader, "Out of ammo!"
Cardin started as the Grimm then lurched into a full on sprint towards Sky. He grunted as he began to run himself, limping along slowly. Something in his leg preventing him from going any faster.
Sky screamed at the Grimm in defiance as it closed with him. He swung at it, closing his eyes as he did so. He grunted as he felt Feather's Edge bite into something before stopping.
The Grimm let loose a warbling cry unlike anything it had made before.
Shy had opened his eyes to find the creature screaming in pain as it struggled against the blade imbedded in its side, his weapon. Black ichor and smoke continually poured from the wound as it continued to struggle with the heavy, biting blade, opening the wound more and more as it did.
He had looked to Cardin and grinned in triumph. Cardin had smirked at that, as he ran towards them. So, the Grimm wasn't invincible, after all.
Then they could win this.
His sudden celebration was cut short as the Grimm backhanded Sky as it continued to flail about. His Aura, already weaker than the rest of his team's, had shattered under the heavy blow and knocked him out.
Cardin had watched, unable to do anything, as the blow snapped Sky across the chin, lifting him up and flinging him through the air, shattering his Aura as it did so. He had flown, lifeless, across the square before smashing into and through the walls of one of the surrounding buildings, collapsing amongst the rubble.
He had lain there, still and unmoving.
Cardin had bellowed in anger and grief at that, at all three of his teammates being downed by this, one, Grimm. He had somehow found the energy through the grief and rage to power through into a true, full-on sprint of his own as the Grimm finally tore away Feather's Edge, shattering its shaft in the process.
It then turned its attention to Russell, his friend and partner, unconscious and vulnerable on the ground.
As it raised its bloody, clawed hand to swipe, Cardin reached the two, and swung.
He swung Executioner without regard for his own injuries, with both hands. Without taking a proper stance. With everything he had left.
It hit the wounded Grimm and exploded as he activated the Dust within.
The blast of energy and flame knocked Cardin away, ass over teakettle. Flinging him once more through the air. He crashed through some sort of debris, landing hard on his injured arm and leg as he rolled and tumbled away.
He felt something hit him in the head, knocking him out.
When he came to, he blinked, finding half of his vision gone. He blinked once more in confusion and wiped his face on his shoulder, finding blood as he did so. He noticed that his armor was covered in dust and blood, and, he was lying in a pile of rubble.
There was smoke all around, and the distant sounds of Grimm approaching. He tried and failed to lift his arms or legs, groaning dully from the pain, everything hurt now, he couldn't pinpoint where anymore.
Then, he leaned forwards so he could look around for his weapon, and the Grimm.
His weapon, the Executioner, was broken beyond all measure. The final, Dust-infused strike blowing the head to smithereens. All that was left, was a busted, bent metal stick.
He had groaned at that, and fell back against the brick wall behind him. The Lien it would cost to fix would be unbearable. He might even have to call his dickhead dad.
He huffed a breath out before struggling to get out of the rubble once more. He had to find everyone else. Had to get away while there was still a chance.
As he got up he saw Dove's unconscious form, then Russel's and, finally, Sky's. none of them had moved from where they laid. All were accounted for as far as he was concerned. As were the dozen or so dead and dying villagers.
He had been too slow to come to their rescue.
But, at least, the Elder Grimm, the Beowolf was de-
He snapped his head around as he heard the distinctive sounds of a Beowolf growling. No. It wasn't possible! That was everything he had left!
But, there it was.
Beaten, bruised and bloody, though it was, the Beowolf still stood, a great, gaping hole in its side where Feather's Edge had struck, and whose head was still imbedded within.
It was dragging its way towards him. It was missing an arm and one of its legs was broken. Utter fury, hatred for him, was in its one remaining eye, the other, a blacken, gaping hole.
He knew then, that, regardless of whether or not it would stick around and kill the others, it would kill him. It meant to.
It growled at him, revealing a mouth full of broken fangs, still bloody from where they had bitten through Dove's arm, and devoured the civilians. More of that black ichor fell from its wounds as it made its way towards him, the last three claws on its hand, twitching.
Cardin panicked,struggling to get to his feet. Whether to fight, or run away, he didn't know. The damned thing had taken everything they had and was still coming! He tore at the rubble holding him in place, but had no real strength left, his hands feeble as they clutched at brick and stone.
He looked up to find it right there! He had closed his eyes as it lifted its arm, clawed fingers outstretched to cleave his head from his body, not wanting to see the blow that took his life away.
His life had flashed before his eyes then. And he realized, he didn't want to die just yet. He still had to talk to her one last time! To Velvet!
He still needed to thank Jaune for setting him on the right path, his path. And not the one his father wanted for him.
He had snapped his eyes open then, as he grabbed a piece of rubble, a dusty, half-buried bit of brick, and flung it at the Grimm. It struck it right in the face, right in the eye!
It howled in agony, stumbling back a step.
As it looked up he throw another one. The brick broke its nose. It howled once more and tottered back, clutching at its face.
He had then used the opening to tear himself away from the debris, stumbling to his feet. He moved, struggling, and in pain with every step, as he made his way away from the Grimm. It followed.
As it closed with him, its gait and longer reach allowing it to, he snatched up what was left of his weapon and spun, swinging it in his grasp. The broken shaft struck the Grimm in the face, snapping it to the side.
The Grimm turned face him, what passed for blood and drool leaking from its broken jaw. He swallowed as he clutched at the Executioner and shouted a war-cry at it in defiance. It howled back at him before lunging towards him. Cardin ducked under and away from the feeble attempt, the creature now much more manageable.
Slower, weaker.
But, still deadly, he realized as it once more backhanded him when he failed to dance out of the way, ripping a trio of lines across the front of his armor, desecrating his family's crest as its claws shredding the metal. He dodged away, yelling through the pain of torn muscles, and broken bones, feeling the blood drip down his chest from the wound.
As the Grimm turned to swipe at him again, he dodged to its right, staying in its blind spot. Then he swung with all his might, smacking it upside the head once more. It yelped in pain, broken bits of teeth flying away.
The Grimm then growled at him as the two circled, and swung once more. He dodged under the blow and stabbed at its wounded side with the jagged tip of the Executioner. It screamed as he shoved the jagged edge in and twisted it around before ripping it back out again viciously.
He danced away from the next feral attack. The Grimm howled its rage at him as the two circled once more.
Cardin was gasping for breathe now, feeling the burn of what clearly felt like broken ribs from his last, explosive, disengagement. His injured arm ached and his left leg was starting to feel really numb. He was shaking, and realizing that he was going into shock.
It wouldn't matter much longer, anyway.
He was running out of steam now, his brief bout of adrenaline fading away. Meanwhile, it still coming. Its unnatural nature making it have nearly unlimited stamina.
Which was something he just didn't have any more as his leg finally collapsed under him. He fell with a groan, clutching at his ribs and blinking up at the Grimm as it stalked towards him, triumphant, his vision starting to blur.
He tried to stab at it with his improvised spear as it reached for him only for it to disarm him with one swipe of its paw. Huh, he had thought then, that reminded him of when he had been rescued by Jaune, while they had been fighting an Ursa Major. Who was it that had informed the others about the Grimm? He thought as he blinked up at the creature before him. Ooohh, yeah. It was Russ-
The Beowolf suddenly howled in agony as two daggers were plunged into its back. They impaled it through the chest. Cardin blinked at that, too weary to produce much emotion at the sight.
Huh he thought. Those look like Russell's Daggers. He blinked again as he realized what that meant. Russell's daggers, Shortwings.
"R-Russ-ell." He gritted out as the creature had continued to howl in pain. He saw then, the smaller, green-haired Mohawk Huntsman on the creature's back, twisting his arms as he dug the blades in further.
The Beowolf shrieked with pain as it begun to dance about, frantically, trying to toss off its latest opponent. Russell held on, even as he tried to pull his blades back out. This was not the kind of fight he had trained for.
Though he tried jump away from the screaming, pain-maddened beast, he couldn't. Just like Cardin, he was too weak to do so. The loss of his Aura, and his injuries having sapped his strength.
He looked about seeing what was coming, and knew, that there was only one thing he could do. So, he did the only thing left.
He had grinned at Cardin with a Devil-may-care smile and said, "Your buying tonight, Boss." Then, he activated the Dust within the blades, Fire and Wind Dust.
The resulting combination exploded, blasting apart what was left of the ancient Grimm, and flinging Russell's form far from Cardin's dimming point of view. He had blinked, so unsure of what had happened in his delirium, that he thought that he must've imagined the whole thing.
The last thing he remembered before consciousness had left him was the roar of a distant Goliath followed sharply by the sounds of explosions going. Then there were the sounds of a Bullhead coming in overhead.
Then nothing.
/ /
He was later told that the Bullhead pilot had come back for them, uneasy with the fact that he couldn't raise them. He had arrive just in time to see the rather explosive finale to their battle with the Elder Beowolf. He had promptly set down after strafing the area with his weapons and began to help the survivors gather them up, including the remains of their weapons.
A good thing, too.
Even before the Fall of Beacon Huntsman class weapons were considered extraordinarily expensive. At least, those that were built by their owners.
The last thing the pilot had done as he took off was to level the surrounding area with whatever missiles and heavy machine gun fire he had left, killing who knows how many other Grimm, and survivors, waiting in the rubble.
The man had saved their lives, and the lives of the few survivors left.
All total, out of some three thousand residents,the remaining survivors of Cerulean Cove numbered a mere five. Four adults, and a child.
Of the some twenty something survivors they had initially rescued, over a dozen had been slaughtered by the Elder Grimm when it had set upon them. Of the remainder, the rest had died of their wounds, either in transit to the next village over, or at the the hospital later on, too injured for the medical care to do much good.
Overall, their first mission as officially licensed Huntsman mission had ended in failure.
While he was told that the mission could have ended far, far worse, it did little to comfort him. He had failed. Failed to complete the original mission, failed to save anyone.
And, he had lost his team in the process.
The Best? For the longest time he couldn't even consider himself good enough!
/ /
"Cardin!"
Cardin shook himself from his reverie with a blink and turned to look over his shoulder. There stood Russell, with a deep, jagged scar across his chest and another across his face. Both, from the blast that killed the Elder Beowolf.
Cardin turned and started walking towards him. His partner, and the only other remaining member of Team CRDL that was left.
As he walked over to him he continued to ruminate over everything that had gone down that day, and after.
A creature that old, he had later been told, was classified as a Fenris. A Grimm that only teams of Elite Huntsmen were allowed to hunt, if at all. That's how powerful, how dangerous the thing had been.
A Grimm, a Beowolf, that had probably seen centuries of life, taken down and killed by four newly promoted, B-rated at best, Huntsmen.
Two of which had never recovered, and were quietly retired from field duty.
Dove had lost both limbs, his arm and leg, and even with prosthetics, would most likely be unable to continue on as a Huntsman. The pain, and more likely the PTSD of the event, simply too much for him to handle right now.
For some reason, Cardin held out hope that he would eventually recover. He had always been the best of them. The best fighter, the better student.
The better Huntsman
As for Sky, the impact with the building had been beyond severe. Without his Aura to cushion the blow it had broken his back. He had been crippled from the neck down.
Not that it mattered, really.
He had been unconscious ever since that day.
Once the doctors looked over his x-rays and CTs more thoroughly, they believed that they might be able to return him to some semblance of normal life. That's what they had told Cardin and Sky's parents at the time.
He had immediately offered to pay for the treatments with his own money. The doctors told him not to worry about it. His father, they said, was already doing so.
For the first time in his life that he knew of, his father had surprised him with something. He never said anything to him about it, unable to comprehend something so out of character for the man.
And, Wilhelm never said anything back, never offered to make a deal, a bargain for his friend's life.
Maybe the man just didn't know how to act, to respond to such an unexpected act of kindness. He certainly didn't.
He smiled at that as he walked up to Russell. Maybe there was hope for the two of them, for their relationship, after all.
He swung Executioner down and impaled its newly reinforced head into the soft, loamy dirt as he stood before his friend. "Well," he asked. "What is it?"
"It's time for the meeting, Boss." Russell responded quietly. He pointed back the way he had come with a thumb. "Ya ready to go?"
Cardin looked back out over the cliff face again, hearing the sounds of the surf below. After a moment, he nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, let's get on with it." He answered as he then led the of them into the forest beyond.
He may not have been the Best. He may not even be that good. But he was a Huntsman. In the end, that was all that matter.
A/N: To anyone who stayed here till the end, thank you. The next chapter is less dark, trust me.
Esster Out.