Chapter 20: Dammed if You Do
The train station was packed with people rushing off to the various platforms. There was only one set of train tracks that led into Argus, but, from my understanding, that track branched off into several different sets at some point outside of the city.
Trains had a very strict schedule for when they left and when they arrived to avoid any accidental collisions. The only time there would ever be a delay was if either the track had been damaged or a train had somehow derailed and was the way for more trains.
"You're sure that you've got everything?" Maria asked. "Your sword, your scroll, a change of clothes?"
"Strapped to my side as always, in my pocket and in my backpack," I replied, patting each spot for emphasis. "There's not much point in worrying now. I won't be able to change anything if I've forgotten something, my train leaves soon after all."
"Eh, true enough," Maria hummed.
I was heading out to complete the second half of the Huntsman licensing exam.
The first half hadn't really hadn't been anything special. I was given a written test at a neutral location, the military base, had a checkup with a doctor and finally I was required to answer a few questions in order to determine if I had the right mindset to be a Huntsman.
"Then again, if you've forgotten anything, I get to nag you about it and hold it over you once you come back."
I had to chuckle at that. I was going to be gone for a few days and Maria's first thought was to figure out how best to annoy me.
"But seriously. Keep a cool head and try not to show off too much. You're more than strong enough to handle Grimm on your own now, but you can still get hurt if you don't take things seriously," Maria said. "Anything you want to add, red?"
The third and final member of our little group in the train station stood to the side with her hoodie pulled up, covering her conspicuous red hair.
"Um…" Pyrrha began nervously. "I… don't really know what to say, the two of you have more experience when dealing with Grimm and traveling than me."
Seeing Pyrrha look to the side awkwardly, Maria sighed. "I'm going to go get a drink… I think I saw a vending machine back there," She announced before lightly swatting my shoulder. "If I don't see you before you leave. Good luck and be sure to leave some Grimm for the rest of Mistral. I'll see you in a few days… after you've become a Huntsman."
Watching Maria leave, I turned my attention back to Pyrrha. "So…"
Taking a quick breath, Pyrrha stepped towards me and pulled me into a tight hug. "Be safe out there… alright."
"I will," I nodded slowly, returning the hug. Several moments passed and I released her and tried to take a step back, but she only tightened her grip. "Oh, we're still going. Alright."
Several more seconds passed by before the familiar light of a scroll taking a photo flashed over us.
"Mother," Pyrrha whined, releasing me from the hug, she turned to the lights source.
"Nope, just me," Maria grinned, holding an opened can in one hand and her scroll in the other. "I figured it was the only way to gain your attention. If you held on any longer Coal would end up missing his train."
Missing my train? Slipping my scroll out of my pocket, I saw that Maria was right. There were less than five minutes left before the train departed. I needed to go… right now.
"So I'll…"
"There's no need for any goodbyes or heartfelt speeches," Maria interrupted me. "None of that mushy crap. You're only going to be gone for a few days."
"Right," I smiled. "Then I guess I'll see you later. Thank you… for all your training and your help."
"Yeah, yeah. Hurry up and go already," Maria waved me off.
"Pyrrha," I began. "There's something that I want to talk to you about when I get back… A form of training might be able to help you out."
"Alright," Pyrrha nodded slowly. "I'll… look forward to your return then."
Since Pyrrha wanted to tag along on missions, it gave me the perfect opportunity to begin teaching her Total Concentration Breathing away from prying eyes.
Initially, I'd been worried that others would realize that Pyrrha's Aura regeneration rate had increased, but the only way for it to actually become apparent would be if she took damage in a fight and seeing as her nickname was the Invincible Girl… everything should be fine.
Having said my goodbyes, I headed off to boarding the train. Showing my ticket to the attendant, I was directed towards an empty compartment.
Taking a deep breath, I placed my backpack on the ground, leaned my sword against the wall and sat down, staring out of the window as the train started to move. This was the first time that I would truly be on my own. Ever since waking up in Remnant, I'd always had Maria at my back, looking out for me and now… I was by myself.
It was a sobering thought.
"You two are lucky that you got here when you did, you almost didn't make it on time," A woman's voice sounded as the door to my compartment slid open revealing a pair of children, a boy and a girl with silver hair and a set of what appeared to be wolf ears on their heads.
"Can we get anything to eat," The girl asked. "My brother and I… we skipped breakfast to make it here on time."
"Lunch will be served in a few hours, anything ordered outside of that time will cost extra," The stewardess patiently informed them. "Outside of that, we do offer snacks… chocolate bars… between meals."
"Then can we have the chocolate… please?"
"I'll get right on it," The stewardess replied. "Would you like anything, sir?"
"A menu please," I said, shooting a glance towards the siblings. I had more than enough Lien for this and it wasn't like Maria and I were heavy spenders.
…Breathe…
"This way, just a little further now."
"Blizz, I think we should leave him to do his own thing. He did say that he's on a schedule after all," The wolf eared boy spoke up.
"You've seen the way he looks and how he thinks. People here will take him for an easy mark, Mell," The girl… Blizz shot back. "Besides, we're almost there already."
Buying the Wolf Faunus siblings breakfast had been a… to say ordeal would be putting it lightly. They had both been incredibly wary of me when I offered to buy them breakfast and had asked me what I wanted in exchange.
It wasn't necessarily a bad attitude to have. There were a lot of people out there that had bad intentions after all. It took me a while to convince them that there weren't any strings attached to my offer.
Once that became apparent, the sister, Blizz, deemed me an idiot that wouldn't last two minutes in Wind Path without getting pick pocketed and offered her and her brothers services to safely escort me to their fathers store in exchange for the meal… which I'd already offered to pay for free.
"This way," Blizz said, tugging me into an alley. Exiting the other end, we continued walking down the street, before coming to a stop in front of a small general goods store. "There, I said we would safely escort you to this shop. That makes us even."
"The breakfast was free," I replied.
"Rule number one when living in Wind Path. Nothing is free, if someone offers you something and doesn't ask for money, they're going to ask for something else," Blizz explained, nodding sagely.
"She's right," Mell hummed, standing at my side. "Even if you're just passing through, you're going to need to be careful of some of the people here. You might run into the wrong type of person and get on the bad side of the Spiders. You really don't want that."
"Daaad, we're back from visiting mom," Blizz called out as she stepped into the store. "And we've brought a potential customer."
"Your sister is really lively, you know that," I chuckled lightly.
"Try living with her for thirteen years," Mell deadpanned.
…Breathe…
The trees rushed by me as I ran along an old road north of Wind Path. According to the directions on my scroll, I was heading in the right direction and only a few minutes away from the dam itself.
Even with the extremely short amount of time I'd spent in it, Wind Path had certainly left an impression. When compared to a city like Argus, Wind Path left a lot to be desired, but it wasn't all bad. It had some decent walls around it and the anti Grimm guns seemed to be in good condition.
The people though… that was an entirely different story. Wind Path was crawling with gang members, specifically members of the Spiders which were currently in some sort of conflict with what appeared to be Xiong lookalikes.
Spotting the dam wall in the distance, I let out a relieved sigh. Wind Path was a complicated mess of rival gangs and regular people trying to live their lives. Out here things were simple.
Coming to a stop, I placed my backpack down and reached into it, pulling out a camera which I secured to my cloak. Linking it to my scroll, I noticed that there wasn't any signal here. Wind Path did have a CCT tower, but I was a few dozen miles outside of the city.
Double checking that the camera was recording to my scroll, I continued to head towards the dam at a slower pace.
There was something eerie about this place. The forest in front of the dam was completely silent with the exception of a breeze blowing through the trees.
Besides the trees, there was no life here. Nothing wanted to stay near this dam. There was a faint smell of Grimm, but even that was somehow muted.
My instincts were telling me to leave immediately. There was something really wrong about this place.
Placing my hand on my sword, I continued forward. The Grimm I was hunting was a Nuckelavee, a type of Grimm that I'd never faced before. As far as I knew, it didn't have any special powers like the Apathy, but not very much was known about Nuckelavee, they were too dangerous to keep alive and study.
Heading deeper into the woods, towards the abandoned dam, the urge to leave grew stronger. It wasn't long before I began to notice something strange.
This place… these woods, they were abandoned by everything, including Grimm, but the ground looked like it had been disturbed. It couldn't have been the Nuckelavee, there weren't any hoof tracks and the tops of the trees hadn't been disturbed.
Closing my eyes, I focused my senses and took a deep sniff of the air and found my answer to what had been here. Human… more than one. There were at least two different people, maybe more. It was difficult to differentiate the scents with the sheer wrongness of this place.
Following the bulk of the tracks, they seemed to head towards the dam. Keeping my senses open to any potential attack, I briskly made my way through the woods. It didn't take long at all before I exited forest and caught sight of the full dam, top to bottom.
Seeing something shift just outside of my field of view, I caught sight of one of those that had been disturbing the woods.
A massive man with a dark complexion stood at the left end of the clearing, heading towards me intently. From the moment I saw him, I immediately knew who he was. Hazel Rainart an agent of Salem.
This… didn't appear to be an assassination. At least, not yet. Salem's group wanted something from me or else they would have already attacked me. Hazel wouldn't be heading towards me like this if he wanted me dead.
"Coal Calavera," Hazel began slowly. "There's no need to be alarmed. My name is Hazel Rainart and all I'm asking is for a moment of your time."
Taking a slow breath, I released my grip on my sword and relaxed my stance. Things were heading in an interesting direction.
"Pretty extreme lengths for a conversation," I hummed. "If you wanted to talk to me so badly, we could have done this at a coffee shop."
"That would be too public," Hazel shook his head. "I represent a woman, one who began noticing your skills starting from the Mistral Regional Tournament. My… boss has grown interested in your talents and wishes to employ you."
I blinked at that. That was definitely a thing. Salem wanted me to working for her, I hadn't been expecting that. This… probably wasn't an offer that I could say no to without being attacked. There were pros and cons to both accepting the invitation and declining it.
On one hand, if I accept it, I would be able to get inside information on Salem's plans and leak them to Ozpin, but on the other hand, I would be marked as a criminal.
Accepting might be helpful, but I felt that I had more to offer than simply acting as a double agent. There was also the risk of me being caught which would make the whole thing pointless.
Declining the deal would likely lead to me being attacked and being on Salem's kill list which wasn't exactly ideal, but I could live with it.
What I needed to do right now was buy time. When I entered the forest, I smelt two different scents. My best guess was that Tyrian was waiting here, somewhere. Ready to strike me down when I refused. I needed to find his location before that so I could be ready for his attack.
"What can you tell me about this boss of yours? If I'm going to accept your offer, I need to know who I'm climbing into bed with first." In hindsight, I could have worded that better, but I imagine the image I just put in Tyrian's head is pissing him off.
"The first thing I could tell you is that she wouldn't appreciate your phrasing," Hazel replied. "The necessary thing that you'll need to know about her is that she's a woman of immense power. You should never take her lightly or think you'll be able to one up her."
"You're not really selling me on this," I deadpanned. "You haven't even answered my question properly. All I know about this woman is that she's powerful and that she wants me to work for her. Not what her goals are, what her business is or even her name."
"Salem… her name is Salem," Hazel replied. "And what she wants is everything."
"That's still not much, but it's certainly more than you were telling me earlier," I noted. "Tell me about this 'everything' and how she plans on obtaining it."
"That's irrelevant," Hazel said gruffly. "The main point is that Salem desires to have you work for her. She's offering you your Huntsman license and eventually a place as one of her trusted subordinates."
Feeling the wind change, I took another slow breath and found what I'd been looking for. The muted scent of the other person in the woods, it was coming from the top of one of the nearby trees behind me.
"I think I'm going to have to decline her offer, sorry," I announced, giving a small smile. "You're just not giving me enough information on this Salem and also… She's not asking me herself. It's the least she could do if she really wants me to work for her."
"Now hold on, this isn't something that you should reject so quickly," Hazel warned. "Take some time to think it over."
"My answer isn't going to magically change in five minutes," I replied. "It's sheer laziness on her part, not being her trying to convince me herself. You can tell her I said that by the way."
Drawing my blade, I spun around and brought it up, blocking a pair of pincer wrist blades. Stepping to the side in order to avoid a stinger, I swung my blade only for Tyrian to avoid it by jumping back.
"Tyrian, you were supposed to…"
"You heard him, he declined. That means I get to kill him," Tyrian said gleefully. "You know the rules."
"Yes," Hazel grunted. "I'm sorry it has to be this way, you would have made a great Huntsman, but we can't risk Ozpin getting his hands on you."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," I shrugged. "I'm sure the one that you tell yourself that you're doing this for would be horrified and disgusted at the man you've become."
Hazel clenched his fists and glared at me. "You know nothing."
"I don't know," I hummed. "I apparently know enough to get under your skin."
"You…" Hazel growled, stepping forward.
"No, this is my kill. I'll call you if I need you," Tyrian snapped. "Now get off the field, we're almost ready to start rolling."
Watching as Hazel left, I raised an eyebrow. They couldn't really be planning on fighting me one on one, could they? Together, they stood a great chance at being able to overwhelm me, I would need to… Oh, I would need to retreat. They didn't want me to retreat.
Once Hazel was out of sight, Tyrian wildly charged forward.
Ducking under his first slash, I brought my blade up to block his second before stepping forward, avoiding being struck by his stinger only to realize my mistake when I caught sight of the glee on Tyrian's face.
I took a glancing blow from Tyrian's wrist blade as I dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding being struck by his stinger.
-1000 AP
…
Ping!
Iron Soul has resisted Aura Disruption
…
"Interesting," Tyrian grinned maliciously.
From our brief exchange, I could see that fighting Tyrian was going to be difficult, he was nearly as fast as Raven, but didn't seem as strong.
His Semblance allowed him to cut through Aura as if it wasn't there and while I was able to resist it, it still took a massive amount of Aura to shield what amounted to be a glancing blow.
"I guess I'm going to have to take you much more seriously," I said, holding my blade at the ready.
I observed the way that Tyrian held himself.
He was a scorpion Faunus that fought much like a Death Stalker without the limitation of needing to turn slowly. If he fought like a Death Stalker, then I wonder if he had the same weak spots as one.
"Sun Breathing: Flash, One Step"
-50AP
Taking a low stance, I shot off at high speed towards him. Ducking low under his blind swing, I brought my blade up and landed two heavy slashes to his waist.
"Sun Breathing: Raging Sun"
-200 AP
Tyrian stumbled backwards as I passed by him. Turning around, I darted back towards him, thrusting my blade forward.
"Sun Breathing: Sunflower Thrust"
-50AP
My blade hit his back and bounced off it. It seemed that Tyrian had a good amount of Aura, but I doubt he had anywhere near as much as Raven. Jumping back to gain some distance, I took a low stance and prepared to finish this fight.
"Sun Breathing: Flash, Godspeed"
-2000 AP
Rushing forward at high speed, the air cracked and the ground shattered beneath me. My blade met resistance with Tyrian's Aura as he was taken along for the short ride. His back made contact with the dam wall, his body flashed a bright purple as my sword sunk into his chest.
"Bas…dard," Tyrian grunted as he gave one final attempt to swipe at me with his wrist blade before slumping forward.
Pulling my sword back, my world went sideways as something hit me hard enough to send me flying.
-200 AP
Righting myself in the air, I found myself face to face with Hazel who had a pair of lightning dust crystals rammed into his arms.
Landing, I blocked one of Hazel's punches with my blade and was sent skidding backwards. Much like how I hadn't given Tyrian any time to counter attack, Hazel was sticking to me, not giving me any space whatsoever.
"Sun Breathing: Flash, One Step"
-50AP
Tensing my legs, I darted off in an attempt to gain some distance, only to find Hazel following close behind, determined to keep me from gaining the upper hand.
AP:6524/10375
I still had more than half my Aura, so the situation wasn't desperate yet. There had to be some kind of limit that Hazel had to using dust in the way he currently was, some kind of time limit or strain that would tire him out.
Slowing down, I twisted at his speeds, shifting it out of the way of Hazel's punch leaving an afterimage behind.
"Sun Breathing: False Rainbow."
-100 AP
Spinning around, Hazel, in a single mindedly haze began throwing dozens of punches in an attempt to land a single one while I brought my blade up, moving rapidly to block all his hits.
"Sun Breathing: Burning Bones, Summer Sun."
-500AP
We both began to move faster as the fight stretched on. Hazel boosted by dust crystals while I continued to push myself using Sun Breathing, sharpening my techniques against an equal opponent.
It wouldn't be long before one of us gave out.
"Sun Breathing: Solar Haze"
-100AP
Bringing my blade down rapidly, I struck Hazel's arm as he brought it up to block my strike. Hitting the dust crystal, several cracks began forming on it.
I'd managed to land several blows on it before and nothing had happened, it seemed this fight really was nearing its end. Hazel's Aura was finally starting to run low, but then again so was mine. The only difference was that my Aura regenerated at a much faster rate than Hazel's and wouldn't stay at zero for long.
Moving at high speed, I rapidly slashed at Hazel, landing a pair of heavy blows against the dust crystals imbedded in his forearms.
"Sun Breathing: Raging Sun"
-200 AP
The cracks began to spread further at a rapid rate, before the nearly depleted dust crystals burst, exhausting whatever energy remained.
Hazel's Aura flickered and deactivated while my own had briefly hit zero once more, before it began to rapidly refill. It was a hard fought battle, but in the end it was my win.
"It's a pity that you have to die, we were almost perfectly even in our fight," I said. "I don't get to fight many people that can keep up with me like you."
"All my strength meant nothing against Salem, you'll find that out soon too."
"Maybe," I nodded. "But the difference is, if I'm fighting Salem, I'm not going to give up and become her servant."
"Then you'll die."
"Everything dies eventually," I shrugged, raising my blade. "It's who we are in the face of that death that's the important part."
Before I could bring my blade down, I was distracted by the sound of several large explosives going off. Glancing toward the dam, I found myself staring as large massive cracks began to form on it with water spraying out of them.
Turning back to Hazel, I cursed when I found that he was no longer on the ground and instead was rushing off into the distance.
The sense of wrongness had returned and accompanying it was the scent of Grimm coming from behind the dam. I think I was starting to understand why this dam was abandoned.
And so Coal's Huntsman Exam immediately goes to hell within the first ten minutes.
Tyrian's death might have been abrupt, but the way I see it, he's a little over reliant on his Semblance's ability to cut through Aura. Take that away and while he is still dangerous, his threat level is reduced significantly.
Hazel however is a whole other beast.
Big fight coming up in the next chapter.
Anyways, I'm up to chapter 25 on the P word website.
P
A
T
R
E
O
N
I go by the name of ThatKircguy. Just copy the name and paste it in the Patty Rio On search bar. It'd help me out immensely, but don't worry if that's not your style. I will be uploading weekly, so it's not going to be stuck there permanently.
Also, I post my original stuff there as well. It's nothing much, just two short stories for now, but I'll post more as I write them.
The next chapter will be posted on the 16th of September.
See you all then.