A/n- Review

Jose Blas- I think you already knew what's gonna happen.

Guest- I'm glad you like it. The friendship with Adam is something i wanted from the start because A: Adam would be trained by Raven so he'd make friends with Corvus like he did Blake. B: Adam wasn't always a nutjob, that's just all we see him as. i wanted to show a descent into that in this fic. And I'm glad you like how I'm handling Raven and Corvus. Raven is my favourite character, but she was shafted by the writers, so I'm glad you think she's close to what Monty likely had in mind.

Chapter 15- Rescue Mission


Bruno had assembled his team for the rescue mission. Adam had insisted on coming along, and Bruno wasn't going to stop him. Adam knew how to handle himself, and could take out other, more experienced members of the tribe with ease. Bruno wasn't worried about him.

He was, however, worried about Corvus. He too had insisted on coming along and had faced expected and very obvious pushback from his mother on that idea since she believed he wasn't ready to face any Grimm they may encounter, and while Bruno couldn't refute her on that, he knew Corvus' concern and care for Adam outweighed his fear. He had faith in the boy, but couldn't help but worry. Despite his stoic demeanor not showing it, Bruno did care about Corvus, more than he'd like to admit. His rational mind knew Corvus was up to the task, but there where whispers in the back of his mind saying that something was going to go wrong, that someone was going to get hurt. He pushed those thoughts aside. If anybody was getting hurt, it'll be him. Nobody's dying on his watch.

He saw Corvus exit his mother's tent, said woman had an angry yet very worried expression on her face as she watched him head towards Bruno's group. He gave Bruno a nod as he approached which the Faunus returned. Bruno also gave a quick, reassuring look to Raven before he led the group out of the camp in pursuit of their missing scouts.


Their trek through the forest had so far been uneventful, thankfully. Corvus was not exactly at ease, and was sticking to Adam and Bruno like glue but he was not cowering, he was still prepared for any enemies who may show up.

Corvus was dressed in a red and black wrap-style top, like the one his mother wears, but sleeveless. He also has loose fitting grey pants that don't hinder his mobility. He has his nodachi in a sheathe on his back. He also has armour on his shoulder, to compensate for his blind spot. He didn't bother wearing any sort of patch over his eye, leaving it bare and exposed, not that it bothered him.

Adam was wearing a red shirt with a ragged black trench coat and black pants. He had an eyepatch over his branded eye to cover it almost entirely, the outer parts of the burn scar being barely visible. His sword was sheathed in a scabbard on his hip.

Also joining them was a newer member called Shay D. Mann, who was a skinny man with dirty blonde hair, wearing a blue and grey jacked over a long sleeved shirt, with a bandana around his neck and a leather pad on his shoulder.

Finally there was Airin, who is the daughter of Cecil, the tribe's blacksmith and armourer. She's a tracker, like Bruno, but specializes in melee combat with her katana and wakizashi. She wears a kimono that's been slightly modified for battle.

They were getting closer to their missing scouts, clearly as they could hear raised voices in the distance. As they neared, they saw a group of people holding their scouts hostage. Bruno immediately recognised them as members of a rival bandit tribe, one of the more unsavoury ones. They're called the Karnika tribe, led by a woman of the same name. They utilise slaves frequently, using electric dust collars to control them and use them as combat fodder. Safe to say that the Branwens were not on good terms with them.

Still at a distance, Bruno communicated with his group, giving them instructions to ambush the slavers. Once enacted, the Branwen group wrecked havoc on the slavers, Adam, Corvus and Airin descending upon them like vultures, while Bruno and Shay attacked them from a distance.

"Boys. Check on our people. Airin, with me." Bruno says as he advanced towards the single remaining slaver to question them. Corvus, Shay and Adam checked on their scouts. Unfortunately as they checked on them, they found they were dead. One by one, they checked the bodies and it was not long at all before the two boys heard Adam's defiant and concerned mutterings. They looked towards him to see his father, Acton, laying limp, bloodied and bruised.

"D-dad…?" Adam whimpered in a tone neither had ever heard from him.

Corvus gestured to Shay to leave it, and approached Adam, planting a gentle reassuring hand on his shoulder as he began to sob over his father's lifeless corpse.

Shay, fortunately, managed to find one living scout, Darren. The leader. He was tied up, beaten and bloody like the others. Shay cut his bonds and helped the injured man up.

"Hey, you okay?" Shay asked.

Darren nodded in return, speaking in a strained voice. "I'm fine…." He looked towards his team with a solemn expression before his eyes fell on Adam. "They… they were hunting us. They were trying to find the location of our camp."

"Did they get it?" Bruno asked, looking to Darren.

"I didn't say a word… I can't speak for the others…"

Bruno turned to the remain slaver, who had a sword held to his neck by Airin.

"So you plan on raiding us?"

The slaver grins madly at Bruno as he responds.

"You and your pathetic tribe will burn under the might of Karnika! We will slaughter you like the animals you are! And you'll-"

His angry ranting got cut off, literally, by a very pissed off Adam decapitating him. The boy stared at the slaver's headless corpse for a few moments before giving Bruno a look, which the older Faunus returned with both annoyance and pity in his eyes. Adam then went back to his father, sinking to his knees beside him.

Corvus approached Bruno with a solemn expression.

"We… should go. Right?"

Bruno looked at him and nodded.

"We're drawing in Grimm. We should return. But let us not leave the bodies here. They deserve a burial."

Corvus nodded and went to pick up one of the deceased tribesmen, as did the other members of Bruno's team, and started to make their way back.


A/n

Quick one, thankfully did not take three months. Consider it a Christmas gift for you guys.

I've got a roadmap of sorts for the story going up to chapter 30, which would mark the end of this arc and lead us into the 'Beacon arc' time of the canon story. We've still got a ways to go until then, but at least I have a rough outline to go off of for a while.

A little fun fact, the design I went with for pre v1 Adam is both based off of some concept art for him for v5, as well as some more for I think a mobile game? I dunno, but I'll leave the links at the bottom.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this short but quick chapter, not much to this really, I'm just trying to not lose my momentum again. As always if you have a comment, critique or anything like that, leave a review. I love reading and responding to them.

See you next chapter!

Links:

Game (?) Art

https/search?client=ms-android-gotron _esv=593588080 =adamtaurusconcept =isch =lnms =ivnbmtz =X =2ahUKEwi10az63qqDAxUaVEEAHYU7DHUQ0pQJegQIERAB =360 =692 =2#imgrc=vQSgX0Iq1nWIBM =ohZ7CoUESJIViM

V5 concept art

https/search?client=ms-android-gotron _esv=593588080 =adamtaurusconcept =isch =lnms =ivnbmtz =X =2ahUKEwi10az63qqDAxUaVEEAHYU7DHUQ0pQJegQIERAB =360 =692 =2#imgrc=4uA6S15jvMc7DM =W59dvK7mE4O6RM