"The dawn's not coming on time today, is it?"
The albino man laughed at his small joke without a breath and resumed his soft wander through the woods. Behind him was the damaged remains of nature gouged and clawed by the Grimm.
"Come, Avero. We have your cousins to greet."
Ilmar walked ahead of Brother Oak and his partner, rotating through the borrowed satchel's weapons with a ready hand, sliding through the forest .
When their eyes saw their quarry, Ilmar's form rippled like water, and the shape would reach out with a weapon and dice, stab, or crush the creature.
… After sliding under and behind a Grimm, levering the Creep into the air with a dual pronged wood stick and a sickle, they bundled up their now oversized robe. A quick knot kept the robe around their waist, while a head stroke back put curling hair behind their ears and out of their eyes.
"Tail?" They called out.
"Massive one. Bushy."
Bushy. That's always fun.
"DUSKY! You found the child?"
….
"DUSK?"
"DUUUUUUUUUUUSKY!"
Wish my dumbass sister never said that in front of you.
The other Lilong was systematically searching for the child Mal. The Grimm were definitely reacting to his annoyances, and he heard multiple sounds of footsteps trailing him. He'd occasionally remove one of his single shot pistols and fire a round at a particularly foolhardy Grimm that got too close to him.
This current Beowolf snarled, and pounced at his chest after surviving his perfect shot. Rolling to the sides would stop the Grimm's attack easily, but Dim was starting to doubt his equipment.
They should have been dead. He contemplated what went wrong, and the Beowolf crashed into his chest, knocking him down to the ground, sliding a few feet as the momentum of the leap kept them going for a short distance.
Dim Lilong breathed a sigh of relief. His shield was maintained. Checking it revealed it would barely stop a claw strike, but he was proud of it working so well after marking 16 people with his Semblance.
Dim paused slightly, wondering where to explore next as he removed another single shot and fired it into the Grimm from his leaning position. The Grimm was three feet away from the firearm.
This was, compared to other hunters, an incredibly dangerous method to fight the Grimm, but Dim wouldn't try to change it. His technique was a very simple one in concept, but it took him most of his academic studies to polish it to a working method:
Anything he uses could, and must be possible to be used by a frightened child being attacked by a Grimm.
His weapons were single shot pistols, handcrafted and developed to fit as many hand shapes he could find. One of the longest conversations he ever had in his student days was when he gave one of his teachers paroxysms of horror from using the stovetop to develop an incredibly effective dust compound that, if the .45mm bullet didn't stop the Grimm, getting burned alive did.
Dim's semblance was similar to his sister's as both could modify the body drastically through their abilities. Ming made her paths that helped the walker, and Dim shared his Aura between the people he touched, allowing the siblings to evacuate the injured from combat with ease.
Now, after dispatching the Beowolf, he stood up and called out "No kid."
…
Are they fine?
…He scoffed at his foolishness. Of course they are. Oak's a menace to Grimm and Ilmar's practically a god of weapons.
… Dim Lilong prepped another pistol, checking his ammunition. "Seems good." He muttered, seeing at least a few hundred small white pellets in a small bag knotted, chained, buckled, and tied to his arm. He snapped a few obviously unbroken branches to make a stick arrow pointing towards the town's approximate direction, infusing his Aura into the green branches illuminating them a vivid purple.
A soft light broke through the forest, and Dim turned to look, momentarily distracted by what appeared to be the sun rising with the dawn.
"Is this the end of the night, or just the sibling returning?" He murmured.
…
Brother Oak and Ilmar were in an annoying situation. Oak's dog was killed after it went against one too many Grimm, and he found a new pet to play with. Ilmar was waiting for Oak to get back to work, but now they had to sit through this.
Again.
There was a Creep, gazing dead eyed at the cloaked man as he reached with bony hands towards the vile creature.
"You're quite a nice reptile now, aren't you?" He called.
His voice whispered like the cold wind. "Come closer. I won't hurt you."
Ilmar sat on her long clawed legs, occasionally itching at a few scales.
"Oak. Could you not have just done a new dog? This is… a bit uncomfortable right now."
"Avero. Come on, Avero. I'm here. Brother Oak is here."
He called in a low, pleading call.
… "Oak. Do you always have to sound so depressing every. Single. Time? "
…
His mourning face turned to look at her.
She just stared, ōkhra eyes unblinking.
The Creep was unused to creatures just… standing there doing nothing. Thus, it selected the far more attractive of the two targets, clearly the older individual that was looking away from it while exuding melancholy in a near constant flowing radius.
It just took the clear opportunity to attack, and charged at the man kneeling towards them, burrowing into the dry ground before fully reaching the man.
Okay, that's new to us. Ilmar ran at a full tilt towards their ally, trying to detect where the burrowing Grimm would try to surface. "Oak! Get back!"
He stayed kneeling, ears tilting a millimeter closer towards the earth.
"It's fine. She's just afraid."
Ilmar froze slightly. This isn't time to experiment with a new method of Grimm attacking! If you fail, you WILL DIE.
Brother Oak knelt in penance, whispering softly. After two slow breaths, he turned face slightly to the right of his companion's position. "Please step slightly to the left, Ilmar. You're a bit too close to comfort."
Ilmar thought for a moment, then returned to her natural form, taking a step to the right.
Oak watched unblinkingly as they changed. "No… Please don't."
The towering antlered being stood with a grim look at their kneeling friend. This was accompanied by a low bursting of rocks; the actual Grimm launched through the air towards the target and was calmly backhanded by the feather robed figure's hardened arm.
He wept.
He cried for her suffering.
Oak rose and ran towards the creature, as the flailing creature was launched through the air, landing in a heaped pile on the ground. "Avero."
The Faunus loped to the man, as they turned and stared with a neutral face over the Grimm. The Grimm twitched slightly as a half second flooded the area with rage, before settling to regret.
Ilmar fell with their stride to stand next to Oak, red hair bouncing, feline ears quivering slightly in worry.
"Don't just behave so irresponsibly. You have a sister to support."
His mouth twitched at the rebuke, and softly brushed the Creep clean of dirt.
Ilmar turned from the response, gagging slightly as the temperature fell and the Grimm became snow white where he touched. When Oak was finished, he stood.
The Grimm stood with him.
Oak began talking with a persistent look of joy. "Avero, it's good to have you here! Please forgive my companion, her action was uncalled for. I hope you can find it in your heart to pardon her. She was just surprised at your new talent in digging. Where did you learn it?"
Ilmar went away and called her other companions. He needed some good news. While waiting for Dim or Ming to pick up, they heard an… unusual noise from the surroundings. Quickly searching the trees, bushes, and ally, and their phone, they noted with confusion that no call went through: everything was quiet. It was just them, Oak, and Avery in the clearing.
…
They checked their other application, RemNet, which they mostly used for engaging with the wider human world to find interesting aspects of the world. Ilmar had been trying to watch a stage production of The Hunter's Children when Ilmar found a video link given by their modified search engine. Since it had been remembering the scroll number of the young woman that had called their team, their device showed new messages as soon as they were sent, Ilmar's scroll opened an interesting little video.
Ilmar was able to watch the video of Vice commander Mal of the Children's Dream Hunter Development and Playtesting Team when they had gotten in range of the devices filming.
The video was, in fact, still being sent out and playing on their Remnet video link. The audio was a stream of vitriol which Ilmar identified as the strange hissing sound they noticed.
{whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhyantlerswhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhyicrushedyouwhyyousaidyou'djustshuffleoffwhy-}
His ears flattened. This was just a glaringly obvious signal flare for Grimm. They had briefly discussed why it would've been so hard to last until dawn if this paltry amount of Grimm is what they had found. Now they knew exactly why it was so paltry.
They grew to their natural form once again, initially preparing to run towards where Dim was trying to find the child. While they tensed to start sprinting, a light came from behind them.
Ah, I guess it's dawn.
The golden light rose through the forest, accompanied by a loud shouting voice.
…
OHBROTHERSI'MSOGLADIDIDN'TJUSTDIETHERE.
"I'm late. Sorry, team. Had to face-" Their flustered companion ran to where they stood, lantern whistling and light streaming wildly.
She paused for a second, leaning towards the two legged reptile by Oak and waving, calling out "Hello Avero! You have a very nice new tail now!"
Avery nodded and hissed abruptly in response.
Ming Lilong searched the area with furrowed eyes. "Where's my annoyingly lovable brother?" She asked.
Ilmar pointed towards the quiet sounds of destruction they had been searching for.
The other two started walking towards the direction highlighted, halting when a bone chilling set of cracks were heard. Ilmar dropped two white antlers, old, large and intricate works of art. Saying nothing to the startling looks of their companions at such sudden mutilation, they ran into the woods, preparing to use the rest of their safely usable Aura to perform a large and incredibly fast change.
Ilmar was trying a human.
...