(Patriot POV)
A massive figure of an ancient Wendigo warrior was making its way through the snow covered forest, unbothered by the howling winds and raging blizzard, and large, roughly made sleighs with several smaller figures on them were dragging behind it.
Dark shapes of Grimm tried to approach them sometimes in an attempt to attack, but they were easily destroyed by the halberd in the hands of the warrior. However, despite the fact that neither the creatures of the dark or the winter were a serious threat to him, they were to his companions, which forced him to march through the snow in hopes of finding some form of a long term shelter.
"P-Patriot!" - the voice of Alina called to him through the wind. - "I-I think I see something t-to the right!"
Casting his gaze in that direction, he certainly could see something through the blizzard. Rectangular shapes, several meters high and continuing to sides further than he could see. That almost certainly was man-made, perhaps walls or some kind of building.
Cautiously, he made his way towards the structure and soon it became clear that it was a wall, although it certainly was old, with the signs of destruction from the outside. Choosing a direction, he continued along the length of the wall until he found a hole large enough for him and the sleighs.
"...Is that… a settlement?" - asked his companion quietly, looking at their surroundings. Old buildings made of stone and wood surrounded them, many of them seriously damaged, most likely by these Grimm creatures, judging by the damage. He quickly assessed the surrounding area and made his way towards the house that looked at least somewhat undamaged.
The insides were mostly empty with the furniture and items in disarray, as if someone was frantically trying to escape. The roof was destroyed in some places and snow was lying everywhere, but it was safer than outside.
He and Alina closed the door behind them and found the more undamaged area which seemed to be a bedroom. There weren't any windows here and furniture was mostly destroyed but there also wasn't as much snow so it would do, for a temporary shelter.
"Alina, are you feeling well enough?" - He asked carefully, knowing that the journey was hard for his companion.
"I'll m-manage." - she said quietly as she sat beside the sleighs where four more people were lying unconscious. - "I'm more worried about them…"
He nodded, silently sharing her worries. Then, howling and roaring began to be heard from the outside.
"Grimm. Alina, stay here and be quiet. I will be outside, but close. If something happens, use the shotgun like I showed you. It will defend you and alert me. Be vigilant." - he said, before taking his shield and halberd. The young woman gave him a stiff nod and took the shotgun that he looted from the crashed ship in her trembling hands.
"B-Be careful, Patriot…' - she said in a barely audible whisper. He nodded in acknowledgement and left the ruined house before flaring up his dark red aura.
Outside, the red glow of the beast's eyes could be seen all around. Sabyrs, Beowolves and even Ursai approached the house from all directions, although their attention was concentrated on him. He mentally counted their numbers, noting that there were two dozen enemies here already.
The Grimm around him regarded him for a moment, before charging with the primal aggression. He countered their advance, moving like the wind itself and striking the monsters down before they could retaliate. Already used to fighting the Grimm, he easily attacked their weak spots, his blade effortlessly slicing the bodies of Beowolves and Sabyrs, and even the fearsome Ursai couldn't last against him for long.
However, he knew that there was still danger lurking nearby, which proved to be correct when several Nevermore feathers struck his shield from the cover of blizzard.
The monstrous birds screeched loudly as they attacked from the sky, claws and beaks trying their best to reach him, but bouncing off from his shield and aura.
Fighting all these Grimm in such visibility would be difficult. It seems like I have no choice but to use the wide scale Aura attacks…
His halberd blade shone brightly as he released several wide arcs of light around him, killing and wounding every Grimm near him.
Roars, screeches and howls of pain from the dark beasts could be heard from every direction, and using the moment of distraction caused by his attack, Patriot struck like lightning cleaving through the bodies with practiced ease.
~Tremor~ ~Tremor~
Ground shook slightly around him as he dodged to the side, a black and white human-sized centipede burst from the ground, trying to bite him with its large jaws. More of these creatures soon followed, each trying to catch the old warrior unguarded, snapping their jaws as they burst out of the snow covered ground.
Another type of Grimm? Let's see…
His halberd cut through the monster carapace, ripping it into two as the hissing green liquid poured from its corpse.
Acid? Aura should protect my weapon and armor, but best to deal with these ones from afar.
He released arcs of crimson light at several centipedes, cutting them apart with splashes of acid as they tried to flee back under the cover of snow and earth. Some of them however attacked him in retaliation, spitting globs of acid at him from a distance, while other Grimm continued to attack him.
—-
The battle started to slowly conclude, dozens of dissipating corpses of various Grimm lying around as Patriot cleaved through yet another monstrous centipede, the ground around him ravaged from their burrowing.
These ones are troublesome… Especially in such numbers.
The ground shook slightly again, but this time the enemy burst out from another house, several dozen meters away from him.
Three Grimm, who looked similar to the centipedes, but larger, with long scythe-like arms and a bloated grin underside, hissed unnaturally before releasing three streams of deadly acid at him.
Moving quickly, he darted away from the house where Alina was, before releasing an arc of red light at the monsters, who dodged to the sides.
Even from this brief confrontation he knew that these ones were at least somewhat smarter and more dangerous, and so he moved quickly, striking one of the monsters, trying to behead it with the blade of his halberd. However, the creature was fast and managed to block his strike with one of its claws before releasing the stream of acid at him, forcing him to dodge. Two others attempted to flank him, attacking with both acid and their deadly claws, but he avoided them too, retaliating with his arc of aura that cut deeply into the underside of one of the creatures, as it screeched in pain.
Looks like I may have to block their acid if I want to end this quickly. He mused silently as he charged the beasts again, this time blocking their streams of acid with his shield and aura, before a quick slash of his halberd almost split the body of one of the Grimm into two, while two others retreated further away from him, one still healthy while the other missing one of its large scythe-claws.
~CRASH~
A sound of destruction came somewhere from the side, and with a quick glance he saw that the wall of the house where Alina and the others were was completely destroyed by the explosion of ice and wind. Several half-frozen Grimm centipedes laid around on the ground unmoving and another of the large acid-spitting centipedes could be seen, partially frozen in ice and partially shredded by it, acid hissing as it dissolved the ice crystals.
Quickly taking control of his emotions, he once again concentrated on the two Grimm in front of him, releasing two arcs of radiant light before charging and easily blocking their acid.
The monsters tried to strike back, spitting acid and slicing with their claws, but with his halberd moving faster than the wind, Patriot dispatched the strange creatures within a couple of moments of struggle.
Looking back at the explosion of ice, he saw a small figure of a young girl through the falling snow. Two large rabbit ears stood straight atop her head and silver Aura shone dimly around her. In her hand was a dagger and she carefully scanned her surroundings until her eyes met his.
She hesitated for a second before she released the dagger and ran towards him.
"D-Dad!" - She yelled, somewhat confused but happy nonetheless. He walked towards her at a brisk pace, and when she jumped towards him he caught her in a warm hug.
"Yelena. I'm so… happy to see you…" - He murmured quietly, while his daughter hugged as hard as she could.
—-
(Frostnova POV)
It has been two weeks since… my awakening. My memories still felt hazy and incomplete, most likely as a result of me becoming so much… younger. Reunion, Rhodes Island, my… death. All of this feels so strange and distant right now.
And the current situation? Apparently we are in a completely another world, called Remnant, on a continent called Solitas and there are also these monsters called Grimm.
The young girl sighed deeply as she continued to stare at the fire burning in the fireplace.
We managed to find a pretty good undamaged house in this abandoned town, although it took two whole days to clear it from the Grimm. Mephisto, Faust, Skullshatterer and Misha have also awakened, so now we all are free to make a plan for future actions. Future, huh? There is no Originium in this world, so there is no Infected… What does that mean for us, I wonder?
"Yelena, can you come here for a moment? I need some help." - A voice of a young woman called from another room.
"Alright, give me a moment." - She called back to the woman, who she thought to be dead for several years before.
The house where they lived right now had two stores and even three bedrooms, so it had more than enough space for all of them. It was even somewhat comfortable if you ignored the very old furniture and damage to the walls, floor and ceilings.
Coming to the kitchen, she saw Alina standing over a large pot of hot water, adding some of the herbs and spices that they managed to find in the city.
"Ah, Yelena, can you help me with cutting this meat? I found some more spices, so broth hopefully will be better today". - The woman said as she pointed at the piece of deer meat on the table.
"Okay". - Yelena replied simply, as she took the knife and began to cut through the meat. It was harder than she wanted, all because of her child body, but her Aura helped with the strength. - "How is Mephisto doing by the way…?"
Alina sighed deeply at this question. "He… hasn't changed… He still eats and does what I ask, but… other than that he only stares at space and sleeps…" - The young woman said with sadness in her voice.
He is still like this after almost two weeks? At least Faust, Misha and Skull-, Alex are more or less fine.
Frostnova mused quietly, remembering the state of her comrades. Faust was mostly fine, but his memory was somewhat hazy and incomplete like hers. Alex and Misha were having more serious memory problems and acted more childish. Mephisto on the other hand… he was mostly unresponsive and hasn't uttered a single word since his awakening. Even when her father threatened to kill him, he just… stared into nothing with empty eyes.
"I cut the meat, Alina". - She called out as she finished her job.
"Thank you, I'll do the rest. I will call you when the dinner is ready".
Yelena nodded in response before going back to the living room where the fireplace was located.
At least for now we should concentrate on survival and gathering of information, but maybe in the future… we all could finally live in peace.
—-
(Faust POV)
Two month later.
Welsber was a small town, barely large enough to not be considered a village. It was located to the northeast of Mantle, on the shores of the largest lake on Solitas. The town wasn't especially important, but it served as a place from where the freshwater was transported to Mantle and from here to the city of Atlas itself.
Faust himself wasn't really interested in this information, but it could prove to be useful in the future. Right now, he was sitting quietly in the corner of the cheapest bar in this city. His goal for today was to collect the latest rumors among the more unsavory people of the city, and after that he was going back to their base of operations in the abandoned city.
Doesn't look like there will be many people today… Probably going to finish after a couple hours of observation.
The hours went away quickly, with only a couple of drunks complaining about the bad conditions of work at the sawmill and 'a couple of these stuck-up Atlesean assholes', which probably meant soldiers, or maybe some huntsmen in training.
Deciding to end his information gathering for today, he swiftly walked out of the bar, with nobody paying any attention to him thanks to his 'Semblance', as they called it here. Once on the streets, he turned it off and made his way towards a particular place of the city walls.
As he walked, most people simply ignored him, brushing him off as a 'dirty Faunus kid', although some looked at him with an unconcealed disgust. It wasn't surprising to him, not after a month since he was in this city for the first time, after all, the population of Welsber was almost completely human.
These people have Grimm to worry about, and yet they still have time to waste on discrimination against Faunus. It seems like the nature of people is still the same even in different worlds…
Finally coming to his destination in one of the darker corners of the city, Faust found his hidden stash, taking out his crossbow and other items.
Everything in place, good. Now, time to meet up with Patriot.
His Semblance activated as he became completely invisible and with a slight running start he jumped onto the town wall and quickly climbed over it.
Once on the other side, the young boy moved swiftly towards the forest north of the town.
With the information and items we have, we should be able to reach Mantle at the end of winter. Hopefully we can find someone to sell all the things from the abandoned city to make more Lien.
—
Faust reached the meeting spot quickly and after a couple of minutes of waiting the massive figure of Patriot walked from the forest.
"How is it? Is there any news?" - Asked the old warrior in his deep rumbling voice.
"Everything is good in the town. Seems like nothing major is happening in Atlas, although there are more complaints about the SDC Faunus workers treatment". - The boy answered, scoffing at the last part.
"I see… Well then, let us go before the sun begins to set." - Patriot said after a moment of thinking. - "Have you met any younger Faunus?"
"No, only elderly and a couple of middle-aged men. All of them are workers, they say that everyone younger left either to other parts of Remnant, or at least to Mantle." - Faust said as he reminisced on his talks with other Faunus in town.
Why does this country treat them so badly? The Grimm are attracted towards negative feelings, shouldn't the authorities do everything possible to prevent this stupid racism?
–