The tower was a stone creation that was a circle in base, but quickly transformed into a square shape towards the top. Jaune gave it a long scan over, something about the scene feeling off. The ranger gave a quick glance to the windows, searching for the source of his nerves. His hand rested on Glassvain instinctively, ready to strike at whatever came at him.
Sebastian Cortez had also stopped, some 30 feet away from the tower. He seemed to also be picking up the terrible vibes that the watchtower was exhuming. The two teams also slowed to a stop, looking at the two seasoned warriors.
"Uhh, why have we stopped?" Reese asked, looking at the dark gray tower. Peering over Arslan's shoulder, she half expected some massive Grimm to break through the door.
No grimm came from the bowels of the tower. Arslan, now put on edge by how her friend and her teacher were acting. She took a sniff, trying to sense what danger there was. Her nose twitched, and her brow furrowed with concern.
"Is… Professor, am I smelling blood?" She asked warily, very concerned as to what that ment. She could only assume the worst. It was at that moment that Arslan realized that she didn't actually know what the worst looked like. Sebastian pulled out one of his handguns, a revolver, and moved towards the door. Turning to look at his students, he gave them some instructions.
"Y'all stay right there. You don't take a single step closer to this building without my say so." He told them, his voice lacking any of the usual mirth or relaxed notes it normally had. "Am I clear?"
There was a series of serious nods, all of them fully understanding the seriousness there was. Jaune almost moved forward, his ingrained lust for danger and the unknown driving him forward. "Yes." he managed once his feet had stopped shuffling. The teacher gave his student a squinted look before turning back to the door. He pushed open the door, leveling his gun though the doorway at any foe that might be on the other side.
A pool of blood gushed from the open doorway, gushing over the gunslinger's boots. He gave the room a quick scan. A drop of crimson fell from the ceiling, triggering Sebastian's lightning fast reflexes. The revolver went off, shooting up into the roof with a tension breaking crack. Something fell to the floor with a meaty splat, sending the pool of blood on the ground scattering across the room.
Sebastian looked down at the thing he had removed from the ceiling and blanched. It was a huntsman. Or well, half of one. The man had been severed in half, his top half being hanged by the neck with someone's entrials. Sebastian assumed his own. He stepped over the half corpse, which was spilling the rest of his organs out on the flagstones. The poorly fated huntsman had already lost most of his lower interstitial track, and what was left could have been recognizable as the stomach, lungs, liver, and half a kidney among other things. If one had the stomach to inspect the corpse. All the students, save the one with significant psyche damage, turned rather green. Everyone but Bolin and Jaune turned away and averted their eyes. Nadir straight up emptied his stomach on the nearby ledge. The smell of blood was overwhelming even for those without the natural smelling power of most mammalian faunus. Dr. Cortez pinched his nose, revolver still held out as he looked at the first floor living room. To call it a bloodbath would be like calling Menagarie and "island", or Crack "slightly addictive". The room was drenched in blood and gore, bits of flesh and the after effects of a rather aggressive disembowelment was strewn across the floor, walls, and furnachure. Sebastian picked up half a leg, inspecting it for the damage.
Cut off with something sharp. Cleanly cut to, for the first half. He thought as he looked at the cut. Whatever this was lost the shearing power about midway through, relying on sheer cutting power to rip out the cutting apparatus. Sebastian looked up around the room, looking for particular signs of a rather annoying kind of grimm. The drapes had been closed, tied shut to prevent blood from getting on the windows. The doctor really hoped that it was done by the victims and was just an unfortunate coincidence.
"Well, it ain't face huggers." He sighed, thankful for small miracles, seeing none of the usual suspects. He moved through the first floor of the tower slowly, making his way to the kitchen. He was careful to not step in any particularly large chunks of flesh, and stepped over another half of a huntress. A vertical half. He wasn't sure where the hell the other half of her was. Probably the liver stapled to the wall, the splattering of ribs stuck in the ceiling, and other awful bits and pieces strewn about. The smell of iron and rot was permeating, removing the ability to smell anything else. Sebastian breathed through his mouth in slow, long breaths to keep calm. He would not fail. There were poor, tiny, tiny child soldiers outside that really had no business being within a 100 yards of this desecration.
This was supposed to be a normal, cushy third year mission. Sebastian lamented as he moved through the small hall. Someone's head had been placed on the windowsill, intentionally, like some macabre form of decoration. It had been split down the center, whatever was left of its brain was slogging in the base. The rest of the body was folded over upside down in the corner by the door. A door, that if he remembered correctly, led to the kitchen.
I suppose that this mission would have gone wrong. The gunslinger lamented. I did meet with Qrow, after all. One nice, cushy recon mission, relieve these poor bastards, kill some grimm. Hell, i even went early to avoid the migration period! For fucks sake! This should have been doable by second years without teacher supervision! But nooo, we have to deal with the mystery murder of an entire squad-Dr. Cortez pushed open the kitchen door, seeing a surprising lack of blood in the room, along with the scattering of glass from the only broken small windowpane. Not that that meant there was a lack of violent evidence. But that's not what had Sebastian start cursing under his breath.
Drawn in blood on the wall was a spiked eye, a symbol of evil that Sebastian had been keeping an eye on recently. It was boldly adorned there, mocking the deaths of these pour souls. "Suddenly, this got a lot, lot worse." He cursed. He inspected it a little further, before a thought rushed urgently though his mind.
THE KIDS! Running back through the house without regard to the decaying corpses on the floor. He accidently put his foot through someone's gallbladder, but he was going to ignore that for now. He rushed out the house, sliding the last couple of feet through the door. His students, bless their obedient little souls, had reminded right where they were, huddled together and looking at the tower, except Jaune, who was looking at the side of the slope the tower was built on Their wide eyed attention shifted to their teacher.
"What's going on? We saw a body-" Reese started, sounding panicked. Sebastian marched over to her, placing his hands firmly on her shoulder. "No one panics." he ordered as seriously as they had ever heard him.
"This mission has officially gone FUBAR in every possible way. I will explain later after I make the evac request. For now, we are going back to town and staying there." He said, the explanation not placating his students whatsoever.
"Professor." Jaune said from the sidelines, still looking at the side of the mountain. "There is a trail of blood heading down the mountain. Injury to the leg, most likely the left, along with heavy bleeding coming from the upper right torso, if I had to guess. The amount of blood does not indicate a lethal wound, assuming first aid was applied in some form." he said, turning to his teacher. "If it is a survivor, we should pursue it. Assuming the corpse in the doorway is a day and a half old, the victim should be near enough to find within the immediate vicinity." Jaune could feel B leaking out in his voice, adding a cold kind of calculation to it. Someone might have called it robotic, but it wasn't that. It was just a devoid, suppressed, graveled tone. It was suppressing the very real fear that he felt bound deep in his gut. The fear that he might fail someone again, that he might look again into dim eyes that were too human to be comfortable. If one believed his Sendal, he had already earned his orange stripe, he needed not another.
"You seem rather comfortable with all this." Bolin said, the accusatory tone in his voice as sharp as a knife.
Jaune turned to look at the blue monk, his eyes as cold as Arslan had ever seen them. "I have seen enough death in my time, Mr. Hori. More than I hope you will ever see."
Sebastian raised his eyebrows at the edginess that Jaune was giving off. He knew that Jaune was kind of a gothic weirdo, but every huntsman had their vibe. Jaune's went out of style some couple hundred years ago. But he had to give credit where credit was due, Jaune was right. There was a blood trail that did favor the right side.
"Good job. Now let's head back to the Inn, I need to make a call." Sebastian said, ushering him away.
Arslan looked at their teacher with a frown. "Are we not going after this? If Jaune's right, then we can at least save someone from this wreck."
Dr. Cortez turned to the lioness, taking a deep breath in through his nose. "Now is not the time to be questioning me, Ms. Altan. You nine are in far over your heads right now, and frankly one dead huntsman is a lot better than eight dead students."
They blinked for a moment, Sun picking up on the comment's context last. "Hey! There's nine of us here!" he called out at the teacher, who was still looking at the blood trail. But ten surviving huntsmen is best. And I don't really think that Salem's pet Fucks bothered to stick around. He rubbed at his right eye, thinking about the scenarios.
Sebastian thought heavily, trying to decide the best course of action. He really would like to have everyone make it out, but if he had to cut losses, he would make the best tactical decision. That was his job, to be the man in charge. "Because Jaune's going to survive, idiot." Scarlett's voice broke the gunslingers train of thought, the elbow the pirate themed man threw making even more sound. Sebastian wheeled on them, snarling quietly. "You two be quiet and let me think!" He snapped, returning to rubbing his eye. The attentive person could notice the use some aura flowing through the ocular organ. Straightening up, apparently coming to a decision, he gained the attention of his students. "Everyone, we are doing something very stupid and following the blood trail." He stated, much to Jaune and Arslan's moral relief. She was scared, of course, but glad that they were doing the right thing. "If, and only if, you do what i say, when I say it. I tell you to run, you run. I tell you stop breathing, you stop breathing and don't start until I say so." He said, looking everyone in the eye. They stood ramrod straight, the threatening presence the gunslinger excluded being more than enough to have their obedience. "If things go south, your standing orders are to get the van and find a CCT connection. Call for Evac."
Nadir raised his hand nervously. "Yes, Nadir?"
"Uhh… How-how do we-" He started, stumbling over his words. "How do we call for Evac?"
Sebastian nodded, giving a smile. "Smart question." He said, pulling out a small notebook. Scribbling in it, he handed a page to Arslan. "That is the direct connection number, code, and password to the Haven Emergency Response team. That's the number you call."
Arslan looked it over before tucking it into the black sports top she wore. Sebastian scanned the group for more questions and found none. "Follow me, and be on your guard. Weapons ready. Jaune, Arslan, the moment you see anything, alert us."
Arslan nodded, closing her eyes and activating her semblance. She couldn't sense anything in the immediate vicinity, something to ease her nerves. While Arslan and her team took the front end of the pack, Jaune took the back. The pale green aura he put off overpowered the usual dimmed yellow tinge he perpetually painted the monochromatic world with. He kept a shifting eye on the group, splitting his watch between the ridges and the group. Dr. Cortez was like a bloodhound as he followed the trail. The ten man team tracked the trail down the steep hill, occasionally Jaune and the other students would somehow lose the path, but Dr. Cortez would find it after a moment or two of standing still, eyes closed and thinking. It took about 15 minutes before Arslan's sensitive ears picked on a labored wheezing coming from just beyond a cliff face. It was fairly sheer, and if one were to look down they would see a small, thin outledge that led to a small cave. Really more a crevice, but it apparently was working for whatever poor soul was down there. A starburst of blood was displayed on the ledge, like a kind of morbid doormat.
"DR. CORTEZ! I FOUND HIM!" She called over her shoulder, sending the teacher rushing over. He looked over the side, giving Arslan a nod.
"Good job. Don't yell next time. Just signal me." he instructed, pulling out a rope from the side of his backpack. "Hold this." He gave Arslan the rope, shrugged off his backpack, and started descending.
Arslan wasn't there, but she could smell the blood from the cave. She wasn't sure if that was more worrying than Dr. Cortez's groan of "ohh, that is just nasty man." Eventually he stuck his head out to yell upwards.
"I think his condition is stable enough to bring up. So I'm taking him up. You might want another hand."
Arslan shook her head, giving him a tensed smile. "I will be fine, professor. Just bring him up."
Sebastian nodded, ducking back into the cave, and pulled out a man who was larger than the gunslinger. Not that it was a hard bar to clear, consider his small wiry five foot seven frame. With a light grunt, he started pulling himself up. Arslan stumbled forward a little with the shift in weight, but stabilized herself quickly. With a heave, Dr. Cortez lightly tossed the poor man over onto the top of the cliff before clambering over. Jaune moved quickly over, looking down at the man. He looked up at his teacher, which still put his head at a downward facing angle. "Should I be doing something, or do you got it?..."
Sebastian chewed on is lip for a moment before turning the gaze. "Go ahead." He said after a moment, thinking Jaune's oddly innate ability to be decent at everything or busted ass semblance would be a better tool than Sebastian's hastily applied first aid experience. "I can supervise."
Jaune fell to his knees, scanning over the injuries. Shaking his head and feeling distincly overwhelmed, he pulled out a glass bottle. Popping the cork, he gave it a quick swirl and chugged it down, feeling the burning injection of dream juice flow through his veins in a way that probably was more reminiscent to stimulants than alcohol. His eyes dilated in, focusing entirely on the victim in front of him. Feelings and emotions that he did not own welled up inside of him, a kind of lens being put over his ability to think, tinting and drawing it in ways that Jaune didn't think, no, knew was not of his own expirence. "Broken collarbone and ribs on the right side, along with a singular laceration approximately 25 centimeters in length and 5 centimeters deep. Cutting pattern indicates a chop to the rib cage, scabbed over, but has broken semi recently. Deep puncture wound in left thigh, with associated gash. Upper thigh is infected" He analyzed, holding up the limp limb deftly. Pulling out a knife, he scraped away the puss and unsavory ooze from the wound, and had to give a slight grimace at the blackened flesh he saw.
"Poison." Jaune grumbled, a frown forming on his face. "Great. Just great." was his complaint. Shaking his head, he put his hands on the leg and began reciting under his breath.
"Acob, The Farmer of Nath, turned his voice to the heavens. "Spare me such wrath, Lords" He pleaded. "Spare me the wrath of the great plague you have sent! A plague of poisons, bugs, and disease."" The silvery words dropped like whispered fog from Jaune's lips, pulling an ethereal from the depths unto this woken world, the story slowly being woven into this world. Those that were skilled in the ability to see betwixt planes would see the entirety of the landscape shift under Jaune's utterance. The mountains became a sea of salt, laid low into a different narrative. Only one of them could see such a potent change, and even they were only on the cusp of such a realization. "The farmer made his case, relieving himself of his sins. "I have done you no wrong, nor foul." The humbled man kneeled. "Withdraw the unfortunate infection you have cursed me with, oh great lords, in thy mercy. Let it be that this flesh be cleansed from the poison, the disease burned and the maggots siphoned off."" jaune's hands were glowing with a glittery grayish light, pure and clean, but not so arrogant as to be white. It acknowledged what it was. A flamsicle of an energy, a shadow projection across the unfathomable separation, cast into existence by the most unlikely bridge of all. "Let such a mercy be bestowed upon Acob, and in such I name you, Acob, relieved from poison." Jaune's muttering had finished, but his concentration was still required for the spell's function.
The venom-blackened portion of the flesh began to recede from the flesh, spilling out like a small river onto the stones. Once the purification spell had pulled as much infection and venom it could, Jaune switched over to a more physical healing spell. One rooted a little more in the Arcane arts, instead of holy Dream scripture, the invocation was not of a language yet heard by mortal man on this earth. Sebastian's brow furrowed as he listened to the ranger's chant, more overwhelmed by the miraculous knitting of the flesh. He had heard near every language spoken in the modern day, and most of the known dead ones, and this was entirely foreign to the gunslinger. Fucking great. Dr. Cortez thought quietly once the shock of having acts of biblical God happen in front of his eyes. More questions that I have no idea how to even start with. First the unexplained jump in skills, then the semblance, and now this. Why must god throw wrenches at me like this? He looked exasperated at the sky. Whatever higher power up there did not design him an answer. Shaking his head, his attention was drawn by a rather hopeful noise coming from the injured man. The patient let out a cough once Jaune had pulled his hands away, letting the glow die out. Letting out a strained breath, he looked at the little cardboard sign he had made jokingly earlier. "Awe, shit." He said, letting the Dreamforced strain leave him with those words. Arslan looked incredibly concerned at those words, as that was not something you wanted to hear from the healer of the group.
"What's wrong?" She asked hastily
Jaune pointed at his cardboard. "Has that always been misspelled?" Arslan let out a stressful sigh, looking at him with wide and infuriated eyes.
"Don't scare me like that." She managed, looking at the sign. It read "Jaune's Completely Legic Medical Assistance and Healthcare ™", of course missing a T. "How do you even misspell legit anyway?"
The ranger shrugged, standing up. "English is not my first language." He responded, turning to his teacher. "He'll be ok, but I expect a full day or so of rest before he's able to do anything."
Sebastian nodded, motioning Sage and Sun over. "You two, cary our friend back to town. We're putting him in a bed, and then I suppose I owe everyone an… explanation." he decided on. The two huntsmen picked up the injured huntsman, lugging him over their shoulders. Jaune stood back with Dr. Cortez, watching the eight students start walking back.
"Why did you decide to rescue him?" Jaune asked once they were fairly out of earshot. "It was a tactical mistake."
Sebastian raised an eyebrow at the ranger. "Oh? I thought you wanted to save him." he commented, the question laced with a sly skepticism.
"I did." Jaune responded, standing as stoically as he was stereotyped to. "I do. But it does not mean that it was safe, or tactical." Jaune shook his head a little, eying the parade of huntsmen. "Why did you decide that? I thought you were supposed to be the one that was the tactical one of us."
Sebastian nodded, already starting to walk. "I knew it was going to be fine." He said. "And besides, there are ten of us, and y'all've got me with you."
Jaune took a moment to consider that statement. By the time he had come to an answer, Sebastian had already joined the rest of the group. Letting out a small sigh, one that turned to vapor in the chilling mountain air. The town was warmer, with fires burning in their braziers and fireplaces. The huntsman, who, one could argue loosely, was conscious. He had managed to tell them that his name was Grant, and that a microwave was on the council.
Jaune wasn't sure if that testament was a great example of consciousness. Although, considering the quality of politicians, if his parents' griping was anything to go by, a Microwave might have actually been elected to the council, for fear of the other candidates. If a Horse can be put into a position of power, why not a microwave? B asked with a shrug.
Jaune frowned at the fact. Wasn't the horse granted the position of an advisor by a mad man?
B shrugged again, waiving it away. Potato patato, Council member advisor, what's the difference.
One of them is an elected position, to start! Jaune rebutted. Reese leaned into Arslan.
"He's doing it again." She whispered to her leader. Arslan gave her a slightly skeptical look.
"What is he doing?" The lioness asked her teammate. Reese looked back at Jaune worriedly.
"He's making faces at himself again." She commented. Arslan turned to look at her friend, who was making an argumentative face to some imaginary figure next to him. She turned back to Reese, and just shrugged. Leaning her head to whisper back.
"I think it's just one of those quirks Huntsman ends up inheriting. Remember what Dr. Cortez told us about this line of work?"
Reese squinted at her briefly, not remembering that tidbit during their first day at all. Arslan filled her in. "The only people that become huntsmen are either going to go insane, or are already insane."
Reese looked backwards at the frowning ranger. "So, Jaune's already insane?"
"Probably."
Reese looked at Arslan's little dopey smile. "Remind me why you like him?" She asked, fully concerned for Arslan's preference in men. Unsettlingly tall, willowy, Cthulhu-like cut up man with more angst, and what was likely depression than most Grimm would shake a stick at. Arslan blinked, a red starting to creep up.
"I don't like him." She said finally, looking straight ahead of her, stoned face. Reese raised an eyebrow, but decided not to press. She could tease Arslan when they weren't carrying a mostly corpse back to an inn in the middle of timbuck fucking nowhere. She was happy to see the comforting lights of the town, although there was a lot of awkward standing around when the Innkeeper started inquiring about Grant, being moved like a large rug. Sebastian ended up paying another set of lien to cover the man's room and board.
Grant was dumped into one of the beds. Dr. Cortez let out a growl, clearly disappointed by something. "Of course the Connection tower relay is out." he snarled, pocketing his scroll. "As if this weapon couldn't get worse. Fucking Qrow" Shifting volume to address the group, he continued. "Alright kids, I'm heading out west to fix a stupid piece of tech so I can send a message. You all stay in the inn, and don't do anything stupid." He said, already heading out the door. Reese looked confused for a moment.
"Wait, what happened to telling us what was going on? You owe us an explanation, or something!" She yelled after him, standing up. Sebastian nodded, agreeing.
"Yes I do. After I make sure we're leaving, you all will be getting a full bodied explanation." He said, tipping his hat. "In the meantime, tootles!"
Everyone just kind of looked at each other, confused as to what they did next. Sun made a decision, standing up. "Well, I'm hitting the bar. Anyone joining?"
Arslan looked at him from her sitting position. "Are you sure that is wise?"
"Why not?" He shrugged. "We're huntsmen, for the most part. I think we could all use it." the line was delivered with a shudder, remembering the sight of half a corpse falling from the ceiling.
Arslan pursed her lips, knowing that she really couldn't stop Sun or his team from going down to drink. She shared a glance with Jaune, who was leaning on the window pane. He watched as Dr. Cortez left, heading northeastward to wherever the relay was. He didn't quite understand why it wasn't in town, but he supposed that it would be wherever the connection was strongest. Feeling Arslan's gaze on him, he shifted his eyes to meet the gemstone pools. They had a silent moment, as though they were sitting at a negotiation table. With a sigh, he pushed himself off the wall. "Alright. I'll watch them." He agreed to, making the lioness beam brightly.
"Thank you Jaune." She said, "Best of luck." The ranger only gave her a nod before following the more rambunctious team of boys. Arslan hoped that they didn't, as they'd all had enough of the day as it was.
Another chapter done! It ended up a little more violent and gory than most other chapters, but last time I put a TW warning it ended up being entirely unnecessary, and I really think that this level of gore was expected at some point at least. But we finally get to the good part of this arc! OOhhh I am quivering with excitement for the next chapter or two. And regarding some comments from last chapter (Thank you NyaNyaKittyFace) about some mistakes: I like taking things in stride, and if I can incorporate my mistakes into the story. Most noticeably being Mistral VS Minstral, and in this chapter Legic. that being said, Unhuman in last chapter was not a spelling mistake, but an intentional choice. Have fun with that tid bit.
God I loved writing a scene that was mostly from Dr. Cortez's perspective, and some little hints about him as well. it is a rare treat for me, and really almost a foil as to what / who Jaune could be. I don't think the story on it's own is quite there yet with that analogy, but I am working towards it. We are also nearing the end of our time with Bolin, he will not be missed. We also see a bit more explicit blurring of magic in this chapter from a readers perspective, and I think some good Reese development. At this point I'm going to have to give nadir some love to not leave him in the dust.
50 points to the person that can guess the next big fight. I am hoping I made it predicable, but not obvious. Place your bets in the review, along with your comments, ideas/ headcannons, and suggestions. (I am looking for Jaune X Arslan scene ideas for future filler use, because I kind of suck at writing romance, particularly slow burns.)