The road to Eclipsis seemed longer than it was for the group of nine after their late start. The sun had already passed its apex and began its slow descent, signaling that the day was mostly over. Everyone had overcome their hangovers and groggy morning mostly thanks to aura and its natural healing abilities. Even the already familiar sound of Neptune heaving onto the roadside had become a distant memory as the crisp autumn air caressed their skin on the old trodden path and Ports' words grazed their ears. Say what you will but the man's stamina was surprising as he talked and kept pace at his age.
"Now lads, as you know, the nights are growing longer, and around here you may be lucky enough to see something that the area is well known for! As you can tell from the black bark and red foliage around us, the flora in this environment is similar to the Forever Fall forest. Though not directly connected and subject to its namesake, this forest is believed to be a long separated extension of the forever fall."
"So what's the interesting part?" asked Sun. with a dreary tone of boredom.
"Why I almost got sidetracked! The infamous 'Crimson Fog' is what I am referencing! Are any of you familiar?" The students exchanged looks. Team SSSN was from Mistral and Team CRLN was from 'Atlas,' the western, Northwestern territories of Vale, and Vale proper itself. None knew of the southeast.
Port's mustache wrinkled as he faced forward once more. "Allow me to explain then! It is a strange phenomenon within this forest that when night sets and the fog of dusk or dawn emerges, it floods the area in a crimson blanket of said fog. Some theorize it is the effects of lighting on the reflective nature of the flora and other scientific nonsense. Locals, however, have legends of its purpose to ward off or even trap evils! But it is quite breathtaking once you move past its ominous nature, haha!"
The students were interested in Ports locale relevant trivia but the general attitude amongst them was the same. Aside from Caelum, Niel, and Sage who were accustomed to long treks, the other five hoped they would find lodging as soon as they arrived and fix the communications tomorrow. The mission's deadline was set for a week after all.
As the sun's rays dimmed into the final wisps of evening light, a rigid structure came within view out of the horizon. A sense of relief washed over the students at their destination coming into view, Sun himself jumped, pumping his fists in excitement despite the mundane nature of their mission.
"Alright lads!" bellowed Port, turning on his heel and clacking them together as he addressed his entourage. "Keep alert and professional! We are here to help these people and strike an image of reliability! No diversions, bickering, squabbles with locals, infighting, and especially! Follow. My. Instructions. Understood?"
The majority of students nodded silently aside from Sun and Neptune who shot finger guns and gave worringly half-hearted assurances. The town front gate came upon them soon, a large arching structure made of stone and iron bars that held carvings of the town's founding. A cursory glance at the rest of the town from outside showed a small stone wall reinforced with watchtowers around its border and a smaller wooden stake parapet outside of it for defense.
The town was small but according to Professor Port, it held significant value in its heyday and so was heavily invested in by the city of Vale. Hence the majority of its structures were old stone standing vast in contrast to the newer wooden structures closer to the walls
Standing before the gate, the men stood silently for a moment then two as nothing happened.
"There's no one manning the gate?" asked Scarlet aloud.
"Something is not right" muttered Port as he observed the stone structure.
Sun's shoulders slumped as he groaned. "Man~ nothing is ever simple is it?"
"Goodbye easy lodging" complained Neptune in tandem.
Caelum stepped forward and pulled on the large metal gating. It didn't move, still well maintained. Glancing back at Port who nodded for them to continue, Caelum turned to Niel.
Acknowledging his silent order, Niel focused his aura, his body shimmering a slight white as he took off at a sprint. In a feat betraying the expectation of his size, he lithely climbed over the large gate and landed on the other side. Glancing side to side he jogged off after finding his target, the electronic system that opened the gate. Once again his aura focused, this time a dull black as he smashed the motor and ripped out the chain and locks from within. Grabbing the barred gate he slid it open with ease and bowed, welcoming his teammates within. "Welcome to Eclipsis" he joked, mimicking a town guard.
Caelum walked past, intently observing the strangely quiet entrance as Raiden followed. Lukas patted his partner's shoulder in solace as even Port's mind seemed to be elsewhere, only saying "Expertly done."
But this was all expected aside from Port. It was team SSSN who came with surprising compliments and interest in his performance and occupied him with conversation as the teacher and his team proceeded.
The sun was now descending faster as the lengthy night began to creep in. Yet as they had just broken in no one had come to apprehend them. The boys began to walk the streets of the outer homes first. Red leaves lazily wafted across the stone streets as the evening fog began to drift. True to Ports word, it already had a pinkish tone to it.
A few comments were thrown about in mild interest to the architecture, the fog, and curiosities toward their sleeping circumstances. Amidst the innocent thoughts of the students, Port remained silent as Caelum and Raiden hovered near him at the front of their venture and began to state their observations aloud.
"There is no movement or sound. The town's outer quarter seems abandoned." declared Caelum with suspicion.
"There's no power on the street lights either. A town this size should have generators that can run for three days without standard refueling" recounted Raiden.
As the moon rose bright and commanding in the sun's absence, strengthening the red tinge to the fog lining the streets, the two boys listed more and more observations drawing further contemplative murmurs from their Professor.
The remaining six students behind seemed to have progressed from irate boredom to mild anxiety as the cold night air grazed them and the fog thickened below their knees. Scarlet was the first to snip at their teacher. "Can we stop wandering around the abandoned part of town and head to the center?! Find an actual place where I won't have to sleep on a bench or the road?"
Port wrinkled a bushy brow at the boys' demanding request before conceding. "Very well. Let us head further in lads." As Port backtracked and began leading Team SSSN the other way, Caelum and Raiden joined their teammates.
"Aint been a peep nor a single light. No shudders closing, no curious eyes. Ain't a damn soul here" complained Lukas. "This place is too well maintained to have been abandoned more than a month at best.
"Nor has it the sense" noted Niel. "Old homes speak as they say. Yet the wood is maintained, there is no trash or looting. All is cared for. Yet I can't shake the feeling… nor this terrible smell. As if something is rotting."
"Are we the only ones who notice?" asked Raiden in a hushed tone.
Caelum pointed ahead and muttered. "Ports just as concerned as us. That Sage guy seems to have also picked up on things. As for the rest of his team, I think their main concern is comfort at the moment. I'll say this once, I may not get another chance to do so. Stay alert and be cautious. I don't like how familiar this feels."
"Care to expand on that?" asked Lukas.
"No" answered Caelum. "Niel, inform Port of the smell. The rest of us will watch the rear and keep guard."
The orders were sensible but absent from everyone's mind for as soon as Niel spoke to Port, a loud sobbing came from further down the cramped street. It was feminine, and young, somewhat distorted as if in pain. But it was close. The nine men looked around the red-cloaked streets for the source when Sun pointed in a direction and ran, calling them to follow.
There lying in the grass yard of a stone building with new wooden renovations lay a small body, motionless and silent. The fog drifted lazily over it, nearly obscuring it from sight as Sun sprinted over, Port right behind him and the other seven students setting up a cordon around the area. Weapons were drawn with varying sounds as Sun reached down and turned the girl over. A shocked gasp escaped him as Port gave a displeased frown.
Team SSSN instinctively looked back as Team CRLN was ordered by Caelum to focus on security. Port looked at Sun who seemed terror struck and pulled him by his shoulder. "Mr. Wukong, join your teammates, please. And send Mr. Hyalus over."
Sun glanced at the figure as Port demanded his attention. "Mr Wukong, Now."
"Yes, Professor" replied a deflated Sun.
Being summoned, Caelum got off his knee and jostled over to Port and the figure with his MG drawn. "Mr. Hyalus, I trust you have some severe experiences your peers do not. So I ask, what do you make of this?"
Port spoke as his eyes watched the figure unwaveringly. Propping his MG on its bipod, he stopped low and examined the figure. It was a child. A little girl to be precise. Doused in blood from head to toe, the only clean skin present was that on her cheeks where her tears had trailed as she showed the horror frozen on her face at death.
Kaiser rolled the body onto its back and wiped his gloved hand on the grass. The girl's throat was crudely ripped out and her limbs broken evident by the rigor mortis. The skin had begun purpling and small maggots had begun infesting the open wounds.
Looking over the body once more, Caelum gave his diagnosis. "Female. Ten to twelve years old and dead at least twelve hours. The open wound on the neck was done roughly akin to an animal or Grimm injury but the limbs show otherwise."
"And what would that mean my boy?"
"Four broken limbs and fractured ribs protruding under the clothes. Something with intelligence did this. The neck wound may be a cover-up for a murderer. May explain the town's silence at dark. Perhaps local authorities are even consolidating the populace for safety. But it doesn't explain why she's been dead for so long."
Port let out a deep exhale, shaking his head at the tragedy of this young girl's death. "Quite astute. It seems I was right about you Mr. Hyalus. Join your team as I find something to cover her with. Seeing your unusual calm, I ask of you to see that your peers attempt to remain so as well."
Caelum looked past his teacher to see the obvious tension in his peers. Hunched over with frantic eyes, they all seemed to be looking for what may have done this. As if it was still here they were on high alert, his diagnosis and theories setting them precariously on edge.
Scarlett turned to Sage and asked an innocuous question. "Do you hear something?" Sage gave a blank expression in response as Scarlett insisted he had heard something. "Like a whisper, ya know?"
An epiphany struck Caelum, his sudden change in demeanor did not go unnoticed as his partner and Port watched him in curiosity. "Perhaps we should call the mission here sir" he suggested.
Port hummed to himself, thinking over the oddities they had discovered. Staring at the diminutive corpse blanketed in red mist, he muttered aloud and barely audible "Perhaps you are correct."
Neptune Then heard a melancholic sobbing in the distance. Shrieking, he jumped in his own skin. "Did you guys hear that?!"
The questioning glances he received showed none of the others had. All except Sun who jumped to his feet with a look of determination. "There's someone else!" Without any further details, the faunus took off at a sprint running with a vague sense of where the source had emanated.
"Mr. Wukong wait!" ordered Port.
The faunus didn't slow as he shouted back. "We can't just leave them!"
Not waiting for the rest, Sun was already down the road as Port grumbled to himself. "Blasted boy! Alright, you lot! Get up and follow! We can't lose him!" With surprising speed, Port ran ahead of his students as they tailed Sun who was in a dead sprint.
Caelum ran alongside Port and voiced his concerns. "There wasn't enough blood."
"Pardon?" asked Port as they ran.
"There wasn't enough blood around the corpse. Dead half a day and mauled to that severity? There was hardly any blood. It was moved there. Like it was meant to be seen."
Alarm became prevalent in Port's eyes as he stared at Caelum. The enigmatic student himself showed an unease that the professor nor his teammates following them had seen in the young man. That frightening realization and Caelum's revelation were forgotten with the piercing scream of a young woman filling their ears.
With newfound urgency, Sun began to use his aura to propel himself as he increased in speed and turned a corner out of sight. The eight men followed to find Sun standing just around the corner, frozen in place and staring down the road.
All eyes turned from the petrified look on the blonde faunus to the object of his gaze. Down the wide street with the shattered moon at its back and crimson fog swirling at its feet, stood a black, sickly figure. Tall and gnarled it look akin to a tree in the center of the road were it not for the sunken hollow holes where its eyes should have been. Instead two pulsing red lights, similar to two hearts, quietly stared back at them.
The nine men stopped in place, their breaths hitched. An instinctual fear took their bodies as if their sense of survival screamed to remain passive and let the overpowering presence pass them by. Those not completely overwhelmed looked closer at the beast in the bright moonlight.
As its shadow loomed over them, they could make out its features. The legs were bent backwards with reversed joints while its arms were twice as thick. All four limbs were lengthy and eerily warped as if broken and healed hundreds of times. The creature's claws were similar to small saws, both a clean edge at the tip before becoming serrated at the base of thin spindly digits.
The torso, as with the rest of the creature's body, was covered in a patchy surface of skin and fur. It seemed emaciated as the epidermis clung to its skeleton like a wet cloth. No armor was upon the Grimm, if it could be classified so lowly. Instead, bones, grey and scuffed, broke through the surface of its skin across its body providing it protection.
A thick neck bent low, hiding its true height, held a dreadful sight. Fleshless and soulless bone, shaped like a deer skull with large tangled horns faced them. Watching and waiting. There was only one thing clear at the moment. Along with the pulsating eye sockets, the creature's atrophied stomach shifted restlessly.
The beast hungered.
Niel spoke with a shaky voice, not taking his eyes off the Grimm. Throat dry and eyes dilated, every hair on his body bristled as his aura flared instinctively. He could only sputter one word. "W-Witch."
The monicker only heightened his comrade's fears as they gripped their weapons in battle-ready stances slowly. The creature did not react to their movements, only as its jaw showed a brief incision that separated into four mandibles and its teeth began chattering in rapid succession.
Port cast a sideways glance at his students, hopeful they hadn't cowed considering the situation. What he saw was disparaging. Of all people, Caelum seemed the most shaken.
His breath became short, his pale skin sweated profusely. His usually indifferent brown irises stared with a desperate intensity at the Grimm. Preparing themselves, Port was prepared to have Caelum fallback due to his mental indisposition. He didn't know why Caelum was affected worse than the others but there was no way Port could know after all.
Caelum was ignorant of his teacher's plans and his peers worried glances. His mind instead rushed back to Borealis. The mission that had him reassigned to Beacon. The mission that had nearly cost him his life. The mission where he had seen it, this. Perhaps it was the same species? But then that meant there were more of these. Surely it couldn't have traveled all the way to Vale, surely!
Yet there it stood before him, now black fur instead of white and with few differences, but the same skull stared at him as it did when he was aboard that bullhead all those months ago. Suddenly a loud "Crack" emerged as the Grimm's head rotated clockwise, the snap sounding like a bone splintering in an instant.
Sound seemed to flee their presence as the creatures' chattering teeth stilled. Instead, its throat undulated, rising slightly and deflating. The sound of a small girl crying in fear emitting from it mockingly. Then its neck snapped back into place again.
At the second "crack" Caelum's instincts took over. Leveling his barrel, he unleashed a torrent of gunfire at the beast as his teacher and peers joined in. The firing line relentlessly fired as the beast stooped unnaturally low, more loud cracks emitting from it as it took to all fours and leaped behind a building, the sound of a crying child disappearing with it.
Shocked, everyone greedily breathed with heavy chests as if a pressure was relieved, adjusting their haggard breaths. Caelum however shouted at Raiden. "Why didn't you shoot?! We could have killed it!"
'Could we have? Can it even die?" he asked himself as he yelled.
Raiden, still shaken, fumbled for his answer but barely formed a sentence. "I-I couldn't afford to miss. I-I J-just aimed and it moved so fast that I coul,- couldn't think right and it was gone so-"
Caelum clicked his tongue and slapped the drum out of his MG, vigorously reloading it as he turned to his professor. "We need to leave. Now!"
"Wait a minute! What was that?! How did it do- do that?!" demanded Sun, shaken and wanting answers.
"Mr. Wukong!" shouted Port furiously. "Now is not the time for questions!" he glanced at Caelum with his bushy eyebrows. "Which we will appreciate once we are out of here. But for now, I couldn't agree more. Let's get a move on lads! Now!"
The nine men then retraced their steps to the town gate, an urgency to their steps none but Port and Caelum had felt in quite some time.
-Chapter End-