Chp. 11: Strange Magic

"Looks like we've got ourselves a bunch of rats sticking their noses in places where they shouldn't be," Sil said.

"You're the rat, Sil!" Pyke yelled.

"Oooooh, Nice come back there," Marton sarcastically said, while waving his hands around. "But in all seriousness we'll be taking those artifacts off your hands now."

"And what makes you think we'd just give this stuff up?" Asher asked.

"Because in case you haven't noticed, we have you all outnumbered," Sil answered.

"Well, do you care to bring more friends and make it even?" Fenix asked.

"Look who's full of jokes today," Khaki said.

"At least we have a sense of humor unlike you lot." Pyke retorted.

"Now who said we can't be funny?" Mina asked.

The spider Faunus fires a shot from her weapon at the base of a column as it then tips over a falls towards the Huntsmen, Teachers, and students. They all scattered away, avoiding the column as it crashed to the ground. Team SMMK and the gunmen with them all laughed at the situation that had occurred.

"See? We find that funny," Mina said with a chuckle.

"How is this funny?! You could have killed us! My students!" Laura shouted.

"This all could have been avoided if you just hand the artifacts to us," Sil said.

"That's not going to happen. Especially not after that stunt you just pulled a second ago," Samuel said.

"Fine. Have it your way," Sil said while flicking his hair away from his face. "Kill them!"

The armed mercenaries all rushed down the hill towards the Huntsmen and students. The Whitlocks and Teams SLAA and HDAA pulled their weapons out and prepared to defend themselves. Team SAFR charged over towards the oncoming mercenaries.

Arrastra pulled out her weapon, Windlass, a large pickaxe, and swung it at an oncoming mercenary, knocking him down to the ground. Another mercenary rushed over and swung his sword at the cat Faunus as she ducked away from the attack before she swung her pickaxe at his sword, knocking it out of his hands. Arrastra then swung her weapon upwards at her opponent's chin, knocking him backwards onto the ground. She turned around to see three more mercenaries charging at her. Arrastra transformed her pickaxe into a crossbow before shooting a fire Dust arrow at the three mercenaries. The arrow struck the ground in front of them and exploded upon impact, sending the three mercenaries flying.

Pyke readied his arm-mounted drill with four mounted cannons, Rasen, and shooting at several mercenaries with his shots exploding upon impact. A mercenary, armed with an axe and shield rushed over towards Pyke and swung his weapon at him. Pyke notices the attack coming and weaves away from the attack and lunges his arm drill at the mercenary. The mercenary raised his shield to block the attack, but as he did, Pyke used his semblance, Fate's Hand, to Rasen for an outcome (11). There was a positive outcome for Pyke as the drill penetrated through the shield and into the mercenary's chest, killing him. Another mercenary charged at Pyke to attack him, but the Huntsman sees him coming and swung his weapon at the mercenary, knocking him down to the ground.

Fenix pulled out his weapons, Pandora's Aegis, a pair of bronze, arm-mounted brass claws. A couple of mercenaries charged over at the lion Faunus as he swung his claws at the two mercenaries, knocking them down. A mercenary armed with a pair of large axes charged over towards Fenix. As he was about to swing his axes down at his target, Fenix transformed his claws into a pair of round shields and blocked the attacks. The lion Faunus pushes the mercenary away before giving a couple of bashes to him with his shields before giving him an uppercut, knocking him out.

Another mercenary covered head to toe in armor and armed with a mace charged in and swung his weapon at Fenix, knocking him into a boulder. Fenix gets up growling in anger as his eyes started to glow and lets out a beastly roar. Fenix had just activated his semblance, Beast Mode. He charged toward the armored mercenary, while transforming one of his shields back into his claws. Fenix bashed the mercenary in the head with his shield, then slashed at his chest, slicing through his armor in the process. Fenix then grabs the mercenary and throws him straight into a column, which then breaks apart and collapses on top of him. A few more mercenaries watched how comrade had been massacred by the lion Faunus and flinched as he turned his attention on them.

"WHO ELSE WANT SOME?!" Fenix roared.

The mercenaries all turned around and ran away, not wanting to face Fenix's wrath.

"That's what I thought," he said as he deactivated his semblance.

Asher saw three mercenaries charging towards him. He raised his hands at them as he flashed a couple bright lights from his hands with his semblance, blinding the mercenaries. Asher then pulled out his weapons, Fortune's Fangs, a pair of swordbreakers with one of the pair shaped like a hawkbill knife and the other like a hook. He rushes at the three mercenaries and slashes the first one in the chest, before swinging one of his blades at his throat. Asher approaches the second mercenary and swung the hook blade down onto his back. He then swung the second mercenary into the third, knocking them both down. Four more mercenaries ran up and surrounded Asher with their guns drawn at him.

"Gotcha now!" one of the gunmen shouted.

Asher then pulls out a cloak and puts it on over him, and just as the mercenaries were about to open fire, Asher suddenly disappears. The mercenaries looked around in confusion before one of them suddenly jerked his head back and fell to the ground. The three other mercenaries looked at their comrade, wondering what happened to him. Another mercenary felt his collar getting grabbed and then was sent flying into another mercenary. Panicked, the last remaining mercenary began shooting in all directions, hoping to hit something. Behind him, Asher reappears out of thin air and swung Fortune's Fangs at him, killing him.

The Whitlocks, and Teams SLAA and HDAA all watched Team SAFR fighting off Team SMMK's men, and then saw more of their men charging towards the teachers and students.

"Heads up. Company's coming our way!" Samuel said.

As the mercenaries approached, Mitra got in front of her friends and teachers and shot a couple streams of fire, creating a wall of fire in between them and the mercenaries. Atar stepped forward and started to flap his new wings thanks to the cloak he had discovered. He flapped his wings harder and felt his feet no longer touching the ground. Atar was starting to fly. He went up higher and higher until he could see everything around him down below. Atar swoops down towards the mercenaries and swung Belize at a few mercenaries knocking them down before he flies back up. Samuel and Laura ran up and jumped over the wall of flames before Laura began shooting at the mercenaries, while Samuel swung his sword down to the ground creating a shockwave, sending a few mercenaries flying and leaving behind a crater.

Yasu and Deriko readied themselves as a few mercenaries hopped over the wall of fire and charged towards the two boys. The two boys swung their swords at the mercenaries one by one knocking them down. A couple more mercenaries hopped over the fire and charged over at the two boys as Deriko transformed Mind Charger into his pistol and rifle and fired a couple of shots at the two mercenaries, killing them. Another mercenary hopped over the fire and jumped and rushed at Yasu. With his semblance, Yasu swung Amateras and Tsukiyomi in front of him and shot out a couple streams of frost at the mercenary as he then froze in place.

Athena projected a mace from Armament and swung it at a mercenary's head, knocking him down. She then swung her mace at another mercenary in the stomach, before swinging it upwards into his jaw, sending him flying into a wall. Another mercenary charged at Athena from behind and just as he was about to attack, Amethyst shot a blast of wind from Hurricane at him, sending him flying. Amethyst looked down to the ground and noticed something next to her foot. It was a silver ring with a black lining on it. She picks it up off the ground and examines it.

"Another artifact?" Amethyst wondered as she then put it on her finger.

Amethyst heard somebody yell and looked up to see a mercenary charging towards raised her hand with the ring on as the lining on the ring started to glow, then followed by her hand. Suddenly, a fireball shot out of her hand and struck the mercenary to the ground. Another mercenary rushes at Amethyst from behind. She turns around to face her opponent and as she did, she waved her hand as a blast of wind shot out from her hand, knocking him to the ground. A third mercenary charged over at mercenary at the Huntress-in-training. Amethyst gave a below hand wave of her hand as a large chunk of rock rose up from the ground beneath the mercenary's feet, launching him into the air and then falling back to the ground. Amethyst looks down at the ring as it and her hand stopped glowing.

"I like this thing. The ring seems to let me control the elements," she said.

Mitra shot a pair of green vines from her arms and grabbed a couple of mercenaries and tossed them away. She then shot some lightning at three more mercenaries, electrocuting them and knocking them to the ground. Mitra turns her head to see Lloyd swinging Shinigami over his head, slashing at a couple of mercenaries in the process. She pulled out the necklace that she and her friends found at the temple from her pocket and put it on.

"Lloyd!" she called to her blind friend as he faced her. "Climb on my back when I come to you!"

Mitra then starts running towards Lloyd and as she does, her appearance swiftly changes as she turns into a white horse. As she approached, Lloyd quickly hopped on to her back. As Mitra charges towards a few mercenaries, Lloyd rides on top of her, slashing at the mercenaries as they pass by.

"This is amazing!" Lloyd exclaimed.

Siavash slashed at a mercenary with Simorgh Wings in the chest, knocking him to the ground. He noticed a couple more mercenaries charging towards him. He quickly summons a couple of Grizzly bears as one of them pounces on top of one of the two mercenaries and proceeds to maul at him, while the other summon swipes its paw at the other mercenary's head, knocking him down. Before he could move on, Siavash heard a voice speaking to him.

"...The gauntlet..."

Siavash looked around in confusion wondering where the voice was coming from as it spoke to him again.

"Use the gauntlet..."

When he heard the voice again, he was confused and felt like something was wrong with him. Because he was hearing the voice in his head. However at the same time, he wondered why the voice was telling him to use the gauntlet. He pulled out the gauntlet and put it on his left wrist.

"Unleash its power upon your foes before you."

Siavash looks up to see several more mercenaries charging towards him and his friends, teachers, and Team SAFR. He raised his hand at the oncoming mercenaries as the gauntlet, then followed by his hand started to glow. Then a large blast of magic shot out from his hand as all of the oncoming mercenaries were sent flying. Seeing this, the remaining mercenaries began turning around and running away, much to Team SMMK's anger, who had been watching everything from up the hill.

Teams SAFR, HDAA, and SLAA, and the Whitlocks all gathered and turned their attention to the team of rogue Huntsmen. Lloyd hops off of Mitra's back as she then changes back to her human form. Atar's wings retracted and changed back into the feathered cloak.

"Now it's down to you four!" Arrastra said.

"This won't go unresponsive," Sil replied as he flipped his hair away from his face.

Marton swung his club around, creating a large cloud of smoke around them. When the smoke cleared away, Team SMMK was gone. The Huntsmen and students all faced each other.

"Is everyone okay?" Samuel asked.

"We all seem to be fine," Fenix answered.

"Good thinking with the gauntlet, kid," Arrastra said to Siavash.

"Yeah... " Siavash replied as he thought back to the voice that spoke to him earlier.

In the woods, a figure in a black cloak was watching the students and Huntsmen for a moment before turning around and walking away.