The Sun Sets
AN: I'M BACK! I'm glad to say that Finals are FINALY over (By the time I started writing this chapter)
I will try my best to not take forever between chapters.
The explosion shockwave hit Jaune's back like a steel door slamming into him. The blast wave knocked the obsidian dagger out of his leg, which gave him the opportunity to extend his wings out and fly his way though the falling debris from the floating island. He flew as fast and as hard as he could until he was clear of the debris. His wings glowed brighter and shot him forward in a burst of speed, leaving a brief trail of light as he flew.
Once he was clear from the debris he started to fall in and out of consciousness, he lost track of time, he wasn't sure if he had been flying for one minute or ten between eye blinks. He just knew that he was getting closer to a coastline in the Grand Lake of Anima, he just didn't know which one, or for that matter which direction on a compass point he was going.
His wings were fading as he was loosing altitude quickly. He looked ahead and was surprised to see that he flew fast and hard enough to be near a beach, he wasn't sure where, just that he was near land.
As he glided closer to the water, he suddenly touched the surface and started skidding all the way to the shore. Luckily, he stopped skidding right before he could hit any rocks on the shoreline. As Jaune fully submerged himself, he immediately started swimming for the beach with what strength he could muster.
The waves helped carry him up to the sand. As he crawled up the beach he felt a powerful pain in his lower left abdomen. He rolled over so that his back would be in the sand as he looked down to see a wooden branch impaling him. "Well that's just great…" He reached for it briefly but then realized, if his body was still bleeding from the small cuts and scratches on his hands, a wound this big wouldn't heal right away.
He lay there on the beach for a few minutes to collect his strength as he stood up. Once he was up he reached down to his holster and was relieved that his pistol as still there. He pulled it out and opened the magazine and saw he had only eight rounds left and no other magazines to use.
He looked up to see that it was already dusk and that the sun was going down to his left, which meant that he was facing north. "Helms Deep is that way… better start walking…"
The wound on his leg from the obsidian knife was mostly healed, but he still was forced to limp. As he began his way north, he was unaware of a small pack of creatures that saw him as tempting prey.
In the tower of Haven Academy, Saruman and Peter Slate were discussing Helms Deep. Saruman used the Palantir to form a holographic image of the fortress, and when he zoomed into the outer wall.
"Helms Deep has one weakness. The Deeping Wall stands twenty feet high and made of concrete roughly six feet thick, with its main support being steel rebar on the inside," Slate pointed at a section of the wall for Saruman to see it, "A small opening, near one of the guard towers, acts as a drainage system for the river behind the fortress."
Saruman motioned for Slate to follow him; "Prior to his death, Locus had some ideas for specialized bombs created for such an occasion."
"How big are we talking about, exactly?" Slate was curious; he knew little of Locus so he didn't know what kind of person he was to design a weapon.
"Originally, he intended it to be used it on the walls of Minas Tirith, but I guess this will have to do for now." Saruman then revealed two large spherical containers, he opened one of them up to show that there are two Dust crystals, one fire and one lighting, the size of basketballs in the core. The casing around the crystals were shielding and would act as shrapnel when the bombs were ignited.
"Impressive," Slate said with awe.
"Once the wall is breached, Helms Deep will fall," Saruman said as he closed the bomb and walked off, with Slate following.
"Assuming the bombs do their job, it would take thousands to storm the main Keep." Slate said with absolute certainty.
"Tens of thousands, I would guess," Saruman said with a small grin.
"And where, pray tell, we can find such a force?" Slate asked and was immediately answered when he looked out the window of Saruman's office. Down below he could see thousands of Uruks Hai around the academy.
Saruman chuckled at his subordinate's shock, "50,000 units, am I correct?"
Slate turned around to see whom his master was talking to and found a wolf-like Uruk Hai standing there, wearing armor and standing at attention.
"That is correct, my lord," Alpha said with pride, "Our troops stand at your command."
Saruman walked up to Alpha, "You will command our forces to Helms Deep, take 20,000," he then turned to Slate, "The rest will be sent to Mordor."
"For the Queen?" Slate asked.
"Yes. She is already making headway in Atlas as it is, and her generals request that we send them our first batch of perfect soldiers to them." Saruman then walked towards the Palantir on his desk and picked it up, he held it high and projected a small globe of Remnant, "I intend to use Helms Deep as an example of how perfect our force is, and I will become Salem's top General." He then looked to Alpha, "You'll need this." Handing the detonator to the bombs, "Now… lets go address the troops."
Saruman, Slate and Alpha walked out to a balcony that looked out to all of the troops as they chanted to their master. He held out his hand for them to stop chanting, he then gripped the Palantir and used it to project his voice to the army, "A new power rising. Its victory is at hand." The army cheered in agreement, "Tomorrow… Anima will be stained with the blood of Mistral! When you march on Helms Deep, you will leave NONE alive! ONWARD! TO WAR!"
The army cheered and chanted a war chant that could be heard for miles in every direction, Alpha howled along with thousands of other Beowulf-Uruks. Slate looked out to the army and couldn't help but quake in his boots at the sight of such horror before him.
Saruman began to smirk, "This will be the last day for Mistral, and it will be the first kingdom to fall."
The army of Uruks began their long march to Helms Deep. Given that they would have to march all the way around the Great Lake, Saruman knew they would arrive by nightfall of the following day, leaving Theoden between the army and the mountains. The trap had been sprung, and now it is on its way to finish off the kingdom.
Not far from Haven, Weiss, Blake and Treebeard were making their way through the forest. Blake heard a noise and looked in the direction it came from, it sounded like chants and animal howls. "I see something…" she tried to focus her eyes as best she could. "Looks like smoke from the south."
"There is always smoke rising from Haven these days…" Treebeard said with a sad tone. "Lionheart used to visit my forest, but now he has a mind of metal and fire…"
From what she could tell, she saw the smoke rising from Haven, and a large column of dark figures. Weiss climbed up Treebeard's body to meet up with Blake at the top and saw what she was seeing, "What is that?"
"Saruman's army… He's already going to war with Mistral," Blake said with a bit of anger in her eyes.
"And here we are, in a forest, on a walking tree, going to what, exactly?" Weiss asked with a bit of frustration.
"We are going to the Ent Moot, something that we cannot miss, young Schnee." Treebeard said as he continued walking.
Pyrrha and GMBL have spent the past three hours trying to get as close as they could on land, where they last saw Jaune. The sun was already beginning to set; the sky was turning purple and orange in the distance.
As they stopped, Pyrrha got off her four-wheeler and ran up to the top of a tall rock, she pulled out her binoculars and looked on. From what little the GPS system in the armored truck could tell them, they were somewhere in the western side of the Grand Lake. She looked on for the fourth time and began to grip her binoculars tightly.
"Three hours of NOTHING!" Pyrrha shouted with frustration and fear, "We could be going the wrong direction for all we know! WHERE THE HELL COULD HE BE?!"
Grun walked up to her and rested his hand on her shoulder; he could fully understand her frustration, "Easy, youngin. Easy," She looked to him with a face he had never seen before on her, true fear. "We'll find him, we just need to keep a level head. Letting emotions run wild will lead to panic, and panic can lead to missing important things."
Pyrrha began to relax a bit; she had only known Grun for more than a year, but she learned that he had more wisdom than he usually lets on.
"Boss," Blitz called out from the car, "nightfall is coming down fast."
"We should have a better change in the morning," Leere added.
Grun quickly turned to his team; "We'll set up camp after we find Jaune."
His team didn't argue, when he was in this kind of mood, best not to start anything. Pyrrha lowered her binoculars and started to think, "Come on, Jaune, where are you… give me something…"
Unknown to Pyrrha, a small section of the fabric on her left sleeve began to glow; something was shining from underneath her sleeves. Macht caught the sight of it almost instantly, "Hey, Boss?"
"I said we'll make camp after we find him! PERIOD!" Grun growled at his teammate.
"No, Grun," Leere began to point at Pyrrha, "Look at Pyrrha's arm!"
Pyrrha looked down and almost immediately knew what was making that glow as she pulled it out. She rolled up her sleeve and showed her white bracelet with the black gemstone was glowing; the gem on the band was glowing bright. "Maleficent's gift…"
Mother? Grun then shook his head, "What gift?"
"She said she couldn't give us anything that could match the bond between me and Jaune, so she gave us something that would strengthen it." Pyrrha started to turn the direction of her arm and saw it glower brighter in one direction and darker in the other. " 'Simply think of the other, and you will find them'…"
She turned her arm until the stone glowed the brightest, "That way…" She and Grun both hopped off the rock and ran to the vehicles.
Blitz started to chuckle, "It's like the Hot and Cold game, but with death."
"More like against time," Macht said in response.
Both vehicles engines started up quickly and both drove as fast as they could, following the glow of Pyrrha's bracelet.
As Jaune continued his way north, at least he thought he was going north; his leg healed enough for him not to limp anymore. He could feel his aura rising again, but the branch in his side was too big of a wound for his aura alone to heal. And he was still bleeding from it. Not too much to get light headed, but enough to leave a trail of red droplets on his path to Helms Deep.
As he walked through the grass field, he felt an unnerving feeling that something was stalking him. He looked back and saw nothing, but he knew something was out there, and it was after him.
He turned back around and kept walking, walking as fast as he could without making too much noise. He looked ahead to see some large rocks and made his way to them. As he reached them he saw that there was a small spot were three rocks were stacked like a mini cave.
Jaune ran into it and hid behind a small hole in one of the rocks and hid behind the edge. He held his left hand over his side while his other hand reached for his pistol and drew it from the holster.
He waited for what felt like an hour, light a screech sound, what sounded like cracking sounds and the sound of hoofs walking on the dirt. Then he heard a loud shriek that could almost match the Banshee's scream.
Before he knew it the top rock that was above him was swatted away by the creature, as its arm retracted, it grabbed Jaune's boot and pulled him out from between the rocks. It held him up high and slammed him into the ground on his back.
He coughed from the impact and looked to see it was a Nuckelavee Grimm and it did not look happy. It lashed its arm at him again, this time he half rolled, trying not to push the branch deeper into his side.
He pointed his pistol at the beast's arm as it came down and shot at its palm. The arm was deflected and was retracted as the beast groaned. He then fired two more shots and the main body but they bounced off like they were rubber. He looked down at his pistol and saw that there was no glow, "No aura to spare, and no special bullets."
The Nucke raised its front legs up and then began to charge at Jaune. He quickly stood up and ran towards the rocks, hoping to get into a wedge where the Nucke couldn't follow. As he reached the others side he was grabbed again by the creature's arm and was pulled back towards it. He reached around with his pistol in his hand and fire two shots right through its arm; it immediately let go.
He fell forwards and quickly recovered before he could fall. He then was knocked over as the creature landed right behind him; evidently it jumped over the rocks landed hard enough to knock him off his feet.
He turned around to see the Nucke raise its front legs to stomp on him; but then a spear hit the horse's throat and hit it with enough force to push it back. Jaune recognized the spear's color scheme, as he turned around to see Pyrrha running as fast as she could with her shield up with Grun right beside her.
Both ran as fast and as hard as they could as she held her shield up and they both provided to shield-ram the Nucke's humanoid body. As it backed off, Pyrrha pulled her sword out of it's body and held it at the ready.
Pyrrha looks down to see Jaune on the ground, holding the branch in his side, keeping it from coming out or pushing any further into his body. "Are you ok?"
"Now that you're here, I'm fine." He said with a raspy voice and a bit of a smile.
"Stay down," Grun said as he was focused on the Nucke, the rest of his team arrived and formed up on the two that were standing. "Pyrrha, Blitz and Leere; pin its arm to the ground. Macht, keep its voice low."
The Nucke didn't give the team a chance to acknowledge their orders as it spun both of its arms around like helicopter rotors. Everyone was scattered until it retracted its arms. It then started lashing out at each of them, not letting them stay in one place too long.
Pyrrha motioned for Blitz to give her a boost, she ran at him and he pushed her up with his arms, but he was then knocked down by the Nucke's arm. The fingers of it's arm wrapped around Blitz's body and started to squeeze hard. Blitz was using all his strength just to keep from his body from being crushed.
In the air, Pyrrha aimed her spear at the wrist of the Nucke's and shot her spear down hard like a nail on wood. As the spear went through the wrist, its hand let go of Blitz and allowed him to move. The beast howled in extreme pain as both Pyrrha and Blitz held the sword in place.
Leere gathered a gust of wind that blew near her and used it to get the monster's attention. It looked at her and snarled. It slung its other arm at her and landed near her feet, luckily she dodged it before it could land a blow. It kept slinging its arm repeatedly as she kept jumping around.
After the fourth jump, she threw her Duel Sais at both of its fingers, straight through, pinning them to the ground. She then landed on them with her feet to make sure they were buried deep enough into he ground for it to not be able to pull them out so quickly.
The Nucke began to growl and tug on both its arms to release them, but it had no torque to pull them free. Its horse body bucked up and started walking forward, in an attempt to rip itself out of the restraints. But before it got too far, Macht ran right in front and lashed both his bladed whips around the horse head.
The Nucke's horse pulled away but the whips were beginning to cut deep into it's hide as both the Grimm and Macht pulled away from each other. In a desperate attempt to get all of the hunters off of it, the Nucke started to screech as loud as it could.
The screech quickly began to be unbearable for the hunters, forcing a few to their knees until a sonic wave formed around the Grimm. Showing off his semblance, Match held his hands out and created sonic from his hands and surrounded the creature in a bubble of sound. Once he had it surrounded in sonic waves, he began compressing them down on the monsters body.
Once he was sure it was clear for him to move in, Grun gave Macht the signal to stop. Now that the sonic waves were gone, Grun ran up behind the Nucke to try and stab it from behind with his gauntlet claws, but the horse head saw him coming and donkey kicked him with its hind legs.
In a last attempt to free itself, the Nucke pulled hard on its arms again. It howled as the blades ripped through its hands and fingers, but it succeeded in breaking out of its restraints. Before Macht could react the creature charged at him with malicious intent.
Macht retracted his whips back into their kukri swords to block the horse head's teeth from chewing on him, but the strength from the monster was too much for him. The horse began to press downward on him, forcing him down to his knees.
Leere and Blitz started running to come help, but were swiped away by the Nucke flinging its arms like a helicopter. They were sent hard into a nearby bolder, Blitz landing first and his wife landing on top.
After the spin, the humanoid head of the Nucke was hit a few times from Jaune. He used both hands and managed to hit one of its eyes, causing enough pain to screech even louder. The horse head gripped its teeth tighter on Macht's blades, quickly picked him up turned fast and hard as it threw him into Pyrrha as she was running towards it.
Grun got back up after the kick to the chest and started running at it with a loud growl. The Nucke turned towards him and shot both its arms straight at him, one hit near his feet and missed, but the other hit his chest as he was in mid air. Grun was almost hit hard enough to knock the wind out of him, and landed in the dirt after tumbling a few feet.
The Nucke quickly set its sights back on its original target and flung one of its arms at Jaune's chest, hitting the branch in his side. His eyes widened as he felt the branch cut deeper into his body, and then felt himself being flung off his feet. Jaune was pushed hard and crashed into a large rock, creating quite a few cracks in it. The impact made him lose his breath, he was gasping for almost a minute, just to breathe.
Seeing it all happen in an instant, Grun bared his teeth and growled with blood-thirty intent. As if he wasn't mad already, this creature made him reached a whole new level of 'pissed off'. He got back up and charged at the Nucke at top speed, claws out and eyes blazing with rage.
Grun jumped on the back of the horse and started stabbing its humanoid body repeatedly, in the back, in he head, in the side; he kept jabbing both his arms, on after the other. The Nucke tried to shake him off but his claws were cutting too quickly for it to move. It wasn't until he finally slashed its head off with both claws that it slumped to the ground and began to disintegrate into oblivion.
Pyrrha was surprised at how much rage could be within a person, she'd seen berserkers fight Grimm before, but this was almost terrifying. She then looked to see Jaune out could, "Jaune!"
Everyone gathered around Jaune and saw that the wound in his side was bleeding a lot. Leere held her hands out and used her semblance to try and stop the bleeding. "When I say, remove the branch fast… 3,2,1, GO!"
Blitz pulled fast and removed the branch, and Leere did her best to block the blood from exiting through the wound. Grun didn't like what he saw.
"How bad?"
"Not good," Leere replied without hesitation, "I've stopped his internal bleeding, but he's lost too much blood already. He needs more blood in order for his Aura to recover and repair the rest of the damage."
Macht looked to Pyrrha, "Do you know his blood type?"
Before she could answer, Grun spoke up, "You don't need it, I'm a universal donor."
Leere motioned for him to stand beside Jaune, "We don't have any IV tubes, so we'll have to do this directly."
"How do you mean?" Blitz asked in confusion.
Grun opened his left hand and cut his palm, not enough to leave a scar, but enough to bleed the amount Leere wanted. She then used her semblance to move the blood that was leaving his hand and placed it into Jaune's wound.
No more than a minute went by of her doing so and they already saw his body start to glow from his aura rejuvenating. "That's enough," She said to Grun as he gripped his hand tightly around some gauze that Macht handed him.
Pyrrha helped Leere placed the bandage and antibiotics incase the branch carried any infection when it was lodged in his body.
Pyrrha brushed her hand across Jaune's brow and saw him smile for a split second, she looked to Leere as she smirked, "He should be fine, he just needs rest."
"We all could use some of that…" Blitz said as he sat down in the grass.
Grun smirked, "Macht, let's set up camp here…"
All the way in the north, inside the Fortress City of Minas Tirith, General Ironwood, Winter Schnee and Penny Polendina discuss the current status of Atlas in this time of war. Faramir Numenor was speaking with them on a localized radio system they were able to get running for this occasion.
Ironwood spoke up first, "Supreme Commander Numenor, are you reciving?"
"Copy that. A bit of static, but I can live with it, General. What's the status of our home?" Faramir said over the radio.
Ironwood activated the holomap to show the kingdom, Faramir's scroll was synced up so he could see what he was explained the current situation, "At the moment, all border villages and minor basses have been over run or abandoned to spare our people. The enemy force has more than made itself known to us, but from what I can tell, no major settlements have been attacked."
"Why do I get the feeling that that's the a problem?" Faramir could tell that there was a lot more to this invasion than minor attacks.
Winter replied for the general, "From what we can tell, this force is slowly, but surely, carving a path to Minas Tirith…"
"Which leaves us to only one conclusion," Ironwood added.
"Rourke Numenor is leading this assault," Faramir finished with slight frustration in his voice. For a long time his family has tried desperately to over come the scorn that was the Black Knight of Mantel. Rourke was a proud knight and a brilliant leader, until he got greedy and thought himself a better king than the one he knelt to. "This is his style of warfare. He'll know exactly how to hit the capital, and with Grimm under his control, he may actually succeed."
Penny felt the need to speak up with her own suggestion to the situation, "If we know he's coming, then maybe we should start attacking his army? I'm not saying a full assault, but guerrilla tactics could do more damage. Drive the enemy away from the main force and make it smaller?"
Winter admired her ingenuity in tactics, but it wasn't going to work, "The Hoard is too big, any force we stray away would be replaced a day later. Wild Grimm from the tundra fall in line with the army every day."
"That's not all. I've only been here for two weeks and made contact with several White Fang cells," Faramir said as he sent them images of their Goliath mounted soldiers. "They are getting better with their Grimm-taming, and now they have creature mounts."
Ironwood pounded the table in frustration, "We knock them down and they keep getting back up worse… Umber Kahn is really pushing for this alliance with Salem."
Penny then spoke up, "I may have not as bad of news, but you may need to hear it."
"Go ahead," Ironwood said with a slight hope this news is any better than the last.
"The Reds and their platoon stayed in Vale, Sarge refused the recall order and deployed his troops to help protect Vale instead," Penny said with slight embracement, she knew the Sarge meant well to stay in Vale, but to refuse the general was a bit of a risk.
Ironwood gripped his hand tightly, "Honeslty I can't say I'm surprised…" He shook his head like a parent that was disappointed with their child, "Sarge never did follow ever order, but we need to focus more on Atlas' protection than his insubordination."
Penny nodded, "Yes, General."
He then looked to Winter, "Anything else for this update?"
Winter cleared her throat; "It would appear that a large cold front is making its way towards our continent of Solitas. And as far as we can tell, its on a straight path from the sea and heading inland."
"The Winter Witch…" Ironwood guessed correctly, "Two Nazgul in one campaign, Salem isn't holding back in this fight."
Penny pulled the hollow map to show the rest of the world, "There is more news, about the rest of the world."
"Go on," Faramir said, he was interested in how well the rest of the world was doing in this war.
"From what our drones tell us over Anima, Saruman Lionheart has been staging several attacks on Mistral," Penny highlighted the attacks on the Anima portion of the map. "King Theoden escorted a great amount of people North to Helms Deep; I believe he intends to hunker down there until he is sure the rest of Mistral can get back on their feet."
Winter pulled the map towards the western half of Sanus, "Vacuo isn't doing any better: several attacks along their coast indicates that someone with great tactical mentality is commanding their foresees too."
"Radcliff Smith, obviously," Ironwood said, "He's the third Nazgul to make command a theater of war, and it's only a matter of time before the last two make their moves too."
"What about Vale?" Faramir asked.
Winter answered, "General Arc is doing her best with what she has, including the Reds. So far all the boarder cities have been hit hard, but they've formed an adequate defense from any attacks further inland."
"Some of the intelligence calls it a full scale 'boarder war'," Penny added.
"No leadership?" Faramir asks with confusion.
"So far no sign of any," Ironwood stated with a bit of surprise to match Faramir, "just that all the hoards are attacking more frequently than usual."
Faramir starts to recognize their enemy's strategy; "Salem is keeping all us on the defensive while her generals push us on every front… She doesn't want any two kingdoms to help each other."
Penny looked at the map, "If Rourke continues down the path we've predicted, that would leave the city of Aletsch being the only stable base in his way."
"Wasn't that one of the first cities that was attacked?" Winter asked, she then realized why it was the first, "Of course, they softened our defenses there, so that the main force could come in and overwhelm us."
"General, order what troops you can to Aletsch, Schnee do the same. We loose that city, the Capital will be next," Faramir said with a serious tone, he then spoke directly to Winter, "General Schnee… Be careful out there."
"You too, Commander." Winter said with a bit of fear in her throat.
"Roger. Over and out." Faramir cut the transmission.
Ironwood walked out of the room to go make a few calls, leaving Penny and Winter alone. Penny saw that Winter was getting more and more worried, "Don't worry, Winter, Faramir is going to be ok."
"I just can't help but feel that this is only going to get worse before it'll ever get better," Winter said as she looked to Penny with fear in her eyes. Penny tried to smile at her to get her not to worry, but she couldn't help but feel worried too, over her friends and where they could possibly be at this point and if they were safe.
Ruby and Yang had their black bags that were over their heads taken off and they realized they were in the middle of a Sky Knight camp. They could tell from the Sky Knight of Atlas flags on some of their tents and symbols on some of the soldiers.
They then saw Faramir walk up to them with a very serious glare, "My guys say your spies for the Dark Queen."
"Spies? Really?" Yang asked in a bit of a frustrating tone, "DO WE LOOK LIKE SPIES!?"
Ruby elbowed Yang's arm, "Yang, don't start a fight with this guy, please…"
"If you're not spies than why the hell are you in Draco?" Faramir knew that all civilians that used to be on the continent before the war were all evacuated, so there was no other reason he could believe for someone to be there that wasn't wearing Atlas colors.
Ruby and Yang remained silent; they could tell Faramir was starting to feel impatient, so Ruby broke the silence. "We are from Vale. My name is Ruby Rose, and this is my sister, Yang Xao Long."
"Where is your skulking friend?" Faramir asked with a bit of a skeptical glare, "My troops said there was a third person with you, if you'd call it a person…"
Ruby didn't hesitate, "We were alone, just us. It's been like that for weeks. Unless you saw something following us."
Faramir didn't believe her for a minute, but he felt he'd get nowhere with this conversation, "What brings you too all the way up here?"
"We're on a mission," Ruby said bluntly, "We set out from Rivendell in Vacuo with eight others. Two were our teammates, Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna. Four were another team of hunters, one being the Star Knight of Vale. Another Knight from Atlas. And the eight we lost in the pits of Moria."
"Weiss… You're her leader?" Faramir started to remember, Winter once told him of her sister's team and 'childish' leader. He then realize that she mentioned his brother, "The Knight from Atlas, was it Boromir Numenor?"
"Yes… do you know him?" Ruby hadn't talked about Boromir since they parted ways, she was often afraid to think of what he almost became.
"He's my brother." Faramir said with a bit of grief in his tone, "He's dead."
"Dead?" Yang exclaimed, "When? Where?"
"As his friends, I thought you could tell me." Faramir gave them a skeptical look.
Yang rolled her eyes, "If we knew he was dead, why would we ask?"
Faramir turned away and sat down on a folded chair, "Less than a month ago our drones detected his beacon west of Anima. When they found his body, it had been buried in rocks and his sword stabbed into the ground beside it. Whomever left him there made sure he'd come home."
He could see the look of sadness and shame on Ruby's face; he could see she felt guilty over something. Whatever happened to his brother, she may know why he died. "You two will stay with us until I say otherwise," he looked to his first lieutenant, "See to it they get some food and beds, but keep their hands tied." The soldier nodded as he motioned for them to follow him.
Faramir put down the radio and walked away from the radio tent in the camp, he walked back into the cave they turned into their base camp and sat on his cot. "Brother…"
(Start of Flashback)
Two months ago, the city of Aletsch was attacked with a siege that lasted two whole days from constant Grimm attacks. Thousands of lives were lost, countless more were missing, and the city was on the verge of collapse. That is, until Boromir rallied the surviving defenders and lead a counter attack that held off the hoards long enough for General Ironwood's reinforcements could arrive from Minas Tirith.
The victory was symbolic to some, that despite the size of their army, they managed to achieve a victory nobody saw coming. Boromir stood at the top of one of the tall towers and spoke into the radio to all the troops, he held his family's sword, Cold-Fury, high and said, "This city was once the jewel of the Kingdom of Mantel. A place of life, of beauty and music we remember from the Kingdoms of Old, and so it will be again!"
The masses cheered with him, "Let the armies of The Enemy know this: Never again will the land of our people fall into her hands! The city of Aletsch has been reclaimed, FOR ATLAS!"
"FOR ATLAS!" the masses chanted back.
Faramir walked through the troops as they were dealing with the aftermath of the battle, tending to the wounded and repairing their vehicles. He kept going until he reached his brother and the two ran into each other with a strong hug.
Faramir let go, "Good speech. Short and to the point, defiantly your style."
"Speeches are your thing, little brother," Boromir chuckled, "You got a higher grade in that class."
"That's only because I paid attention in that one," Faramir said as they both pounded fists.
"Besides, it leaves more time for drinking!" Boromir then shouted, "BREAK OUT THE BEER! These soldiers are thirsty!" Some of the troops cheered with him as the barrels were brought out and whole pint glasses were passed around for everyone to use.
Boromir and Faramir got some for themselves and walked away from the main group to talk, Boromir put his arm around Faramir, "Remember today, brother. Today we proved that Atlas has as much muscle as the rest of the world."
They both drank their drinks but quickly stopped when Boromir saw Faramir lower his cup, "What?"
"He's here…" Faramir said with a dim tone.
Boromir looked into the crowd and saw Chancellor Denathor Numenor walk towards them. Boromir rolled his eyes, "Can't he let us enjoy one victory without ruining it?"
"It's not in his nature," Faramir said quickly before their father reached them.
"Where is Atlas' hero? Where is my son?!" Chancellor Denathor said with joy and pride in his voice.
Boromir turned towards him and put on a false smile, "Father."
They quickly hugged, "They say you almost fought off the Grimm by yourself."
"Troops will say anything to make a good story," Boromir then pointed to his brother, "but we wouldn't have won if Faramir hadn't brought our reinforcements in time."
Faramir walked out with a smile, but it quickly vanished when his father pointed out, "But wasn't the city under his charge in the first place? Look what happened."
"We would have held them," Faramir replied with slight agitation, "but we didn't have the men."
"So you ran and left your brother to deal with your mess," Denathor insinuated.
"I was following my Commander's orders," Faramir snapped back.
Denathor didn't seem amused, "Orders that allowed you to play the coward."
"That's enough!" Boromir spoke up, "He fought as hard as any soldier under my command, if it wasn't for him the city would have already fallen by the time I arrived."
Boromir stormed off and Denathor followed, they met up in a small doorway where Boromir spoke his mind to his father, "He loves you, father! Whether you do or not, he TRIES to make you proud of him!"
"Now is no the time for a son to win the pride of his father," Denathor spoke with a very serious tone, "This war is just getting started, and next time we lose a city we may not get it back as quickly."
Boromir seemed confused, "What do you mean?"
"Headmaster Elrond called for a meeting in Rivendell; he called all major members of the four kingdoms." Denathor then started to have an ambitious tone, "He wont say way but I'm sure of what its about, The Ring of Darkness has resurfaced."
"Isildur's Bane…" That object always haunted Boromir in the days of his historical studies. How a ring managed to make their ancestor fall out of grace and die.
"And now it's in the hands of Vacuo, VACUO!" Denathor sounded agitated, "The other kingdoms will try to claim this prize. But it MUST be granted to Atlas."
"You want me to steal the ring?" Boromir asked in confusion.
"Not steal, offer our services to use it against Salem herself," Denathor truly believes that it is a simple weapon that can be used by anyone, "And with it, we can finally make Atlas into the proud country it was meant to be."
"Father…" Boromir started to get scared.
"I know it's dangerous, son," Denathor put his hands on Boromir's shoulders, "It is said it can corrupt the hearts of lesser men, but YOU! You are strong! When Salem decided to lay siege to Atlas, we may not be able to drive her back. We need this Mighty Gift here to help drive her back and win this war!"
"NO!" Boromir walked away, "My place is HERE! With my people! Leading our troops in this war! Not going to a meeting in Rivendell!"
Denathor chased after him, "Would you deny your own father?!"
Faramir came out from behind one of the walls, he heard the whole thing, "If you need someone in Rivendell to spare, I can go."
Denathor looked at his second son, "And risk you failing again? I think not. This mission is too dire to be risked on anyone less than a Star Knight."
Less than an hour later, Boromir readied a plane that would take him to Rivendell; his brother was there on the landing pad to see him off. Boromir walked off the plane, ordering the pilot to wait a few minutes.
He unbuckled the belt that held Cold Fury and its sheath, wrapped the belt around the sword and held it out to Faramir, "Take it."
"But this sword belongs to a Star Knight…" Faramir pushed the sword back to Boromir.
Boromir pushed it back to his brother, "It belongs here, protecting our people. And I can't think of anyone better to use it to its full potential."
Faramir clasped his hands around the sword as Boromir let go. He held it tightly, "I won't let you down, I promise…"
Boromir put his hand on his brother's shoulder, and then pulled him in for a hug, "You never will, little brother." He looked behind him and saw Winter standing behind him. Once he let go he smirked at her, "Take good care of this one, he needs you more than me."
"Yes, sir." Winter said with a friendly salute.
As Boromir walked up the ramp, Winter walked up beside Faramir. She didn't see it, but she felt his hand tough hers, she opened it for him to hold hers tightly. Prior to the ramp closing, Boromir waved them off one last time as the engines revved up. They waved back, not knowing that this would be the last time they ever saw each other.
(End of Flashback)
Faramir gripped Cold Fury tightly in his hands; not a day goes by where he wished he had taken that mission instead of Boromir, "At least if he stayed, Atlas might be in a safer position than it is right now…"
Faramir then heard a soldier approaching from behind, "Commander, do you have a moment?" He then stood up and listened to what his soldier had to say.
Ruby and Yang were sleeping in on cots the Sky Knights provided. Faramir walked over to Ruby and tapped her to wake her up as gently as he could. Once he saw that she was awake, he spoke in a serious tone, "You will come with me, only you."
Ruby didn't say a word; she saw that Yang was awake and motioned for her to stay as she followed Faramir.
The two walked though the cave until they reached an open area that had a river. They followed the river until it reached a waterfall, and down below was a familiar face, eating raw fish.
Ruby saw Smeagol and immediately got scared, "Oh, no… they found him…"
"I have no reason to believe he hasn't scouted my encampment… which makes him a possible spy and informant for The Enemy," Faramir points Ruby out to a sniper on the opposite side of the river, who has her sights pointed at Smeagol.
Ruby looks back at him, he continues to say, "She never misses, so I suggest you speak now while it still lives."
"He's our friend!" Ruby exclaimed. Faramir was taken by surprises at how quickly she spoke up. "He helped us when we got lost. Please… If you promise you wont hurt him, I'll get him to leave. Just let me go down to him."
Faramir motioned for her to go, and she went. But after she left he motioned his troops a hand signals that meant 'capture alive'.
Ruby made it down to the bottom of the waterfall and walked along the rocks to see Smeagol. "Smeagol" she whispered as she got closer, "Smeagol, it's Ruby."
Smeagol turned around with a raw fish in his mouth, still wiggling at its tail fin. "Huh?" he voiced with a mouth full of fish.
"You need to leave, now!" she whispered sharply, "This place isn't safe for you!"
Smeagol turned around to face her, he dropped the fish from his mouth, "What about Lady Rose? And yellow hair?"
"We'll be fine, now go!" Ruby appreciated that he asked but she really wanted him to leave right now.
Before they knew it, a large net opened up above them and came down on Smeagol. He screamed as the rope wrapped around him and forced him to the ground.
"NO!" Ruby shouted as she saw troopers drop in from the higher ledges, and other coming out from behind the waterfall. One of them ran up to Smeagol and was about to knock him out with the butt of his gun. But from what Smeagol saw, the soldier was quickly hit by a red streak.
Ruby tackled the soldier into the water and quickly got back out. She picked up the pistol he dropped and stood beside Smeagol, who was still held down by the net. She held her gun out at everyone as they were all aiming theirs at her.
Faramir came out from behind two soldiers, "You promised you wouldn't hurt him!"
"That depends on him," Faramir said with a serious tone. "Besides, we can't risk him running off and blabbing what he knows about our encampment to the Enemy."
"What makes you think he knows anything at all?" Ruby asked with confusion and frustration.
"We'll find out soon enough, after we question him." Faramir then walked towards Smeagol in the net but Ruby got between them and pointed her gun at his chest.
Faramir looked down and then looked her in the eye, she looked at him with a serious glare, "You aren't torturing him…"
"If you're going to point a gun at a Star Knight," Faramir quickly snatched the pistol out of her hand before she could react, "then keep your finger on the trigger."
He turned away, "Cuff her, and take the creature with us." The other soldiers followed his orders and proceeded to take the two back to camp.
Smeagol was taken to an area in the cave and kept in the net where two soldiers held him down as a third placed a metal collar around his neck and chained it to the wall. Once it was placed the two others released Smeagol from the net and let him jump around like a dog running at the end of his rope repeatedly.
It kept up until he tired himself out and curled up in a corner of the cave. Faramir walked up to him and knelt down, "Where were you three going? Why are you in Draco?"
"Smeagol…" Gollum's voice came out of Smeagol's mouth again, once it left, Smeagol started crying again. "Why does it cry, Smeagol?"
Faramir looked at him with confusion, "Is he talking to himself?"
"Cruel Men hurts us…" Smeagol sobbed into his arms. "Lady Rose tried to warn Smeagol, Smeagol didn't listen fast enough…"
"Rose BETRAYED Smeagol! Just as Rose BETRAYED Gollum!" Gollum started coughing his name with a raspy voice and pure rage in this throat.
"Rose is our friend…" Smeagol tried to plead.
"She stole it from us! She is not OUR FRIEND!" Gollum shouted loudly.
"It?" Faramir walked closer, "What did she steal from you?"
What was once Smeagol sobbing quickly turned to Gollum as it looked Faramir with a vengeful glimmer in its eyes, "My… PRECIOUS!"
Ruby was placed back with Yang, with her cuffs still on. Yang sat beside her, holding her sister close as Ruby stared down at the floor.
They both looked up to see Faramir with a rather curious look on his face; he draws his sword and points it at Ruby. Yang stands up to get between them and ends up having the sword just barely touch her coat.
"Of all the reasons to be in Draco, yours is the most important…" Faramir looks directly at Ruby, overlooking Yang completely, "You have her ring, don't you?"
Ruby didn't answer, but the look on her face was enough for him to know the truth. "And you were bringing it to her? You'd bring the end for us all!"
"No, you idiot!" Yang exclaimed, "We brought it here to destroy it. It was made in Mount Doom, it can be destroyed there. This is the mission we were given in Rivendell, that's what your brother fought for!"
Faramir didn't like being called an idiot, but he had to continue with the task at hand, "What of the creature? What is his purpose in this trek?"
"He's our guide. He's been to Mordor, when they tortured him about the Ring…" Ruby spoke up and got out from behind Yang, she allowed Faramir see the ring briefly before tucking it back under her shirt. "Let us go, and we'll continue our mission."
Before Faramir could say anything, a soldier approached him from behind and spoke, "General Schnee is reporting an attack in Aletsch, she's calling for reinforcements."
Faramir lowered his sword and put away his personal ambition for a moment, "We need to pack up our camp; we leave at daybreak." The soldier nodded and ran off to inform the rest of the men. Faramir turned back to the hunters, "That Ring will go to Atlas, where it will be used to save our people…"
Jaune felt some pain in his back, but the pain in his side was greatly lessen. He felt something warm behind his head, as he opened his eyes; he looked up to a very beautiful woman with red hair and green eyes. She looked relieved and happy, "Glad to see you're awake…"
Jaune lifted his head off Pyrrha's lap as he sat up from his spot. Pyrrha helped him lean against a bolder that was behind her and let him get a good view of the whole group. Leere stood up from her spot near the campfire and walked over to him.
She pulled his head up by his chin and looked him in the eye, and then down at his bandage, "Safe to say the blood transfusion worked. Once the amount of blood in your system returned to normal, it allowed your aura to heal your other wounds." She then points to the bandage, "But even with your enhanced aura, it'll take another day for this to fully heal."
"Blood transfusion?" Jaune asked with both shock and confusion.
"You lost too much blood by the time she started working on you," Grun said as he held up his left hand to show the bandage around it, "Had to give you some of mine so that you'd survive the night."
Leere stood up and started walking away, allowing Pyrrha to take over and sit beside her boyfriend. Grun couldn't help but say, "Fair warning, side effects of the receiving Faunus blood may include behavior changes. You may start to growl when you're angry or feel the compelling feeling of scratching behind the ear."
Jaune chuckled, "You know, now that you mention it," he then points up at the night sky, "I do feel the need to howl at the moon lately."
Grun smirked as he pointed at Jaune and then to Pyrrha, "Just try to resist the urge of humping Pyrrha's leg… at least while we're around."
There was a slight moment of silence, as Jaune rolled his eyes, "You had to make it awkward."
Grun couldn't help but exclaim, "I will teach you the art of snark if it kills me, boy!"
"Better you than me," Jaune chuckled and started coughing.
Leere held her hand out towards him, "Try not to laugh too much, the branch did some damage near your lungs."
Grun then stood up and started walking towards Jaune, "That reminds me, I honestly thought I'd beaten the stupid out of you…" he then walked up to Jaune and slapped him.
Jaune's turned back and looked at Grun with complete confusion, "Did you just slap me?"
"What in the deepest level of frozen hell were you thinking?!" Grun shouted, his voice almost echoing.
Jaune then gave Grun a serious look as he answered, "Did the Grimm back off after their leader was killed?"
"More or less, yeah," Blitz answered.
"Then I guessed right," Jaune said with a calm voice.
"You Guessed?" Grun clenches his fist in both anger and frustration, "You threw yourself into that horde on a guess?!"
Jaune glared at Grun, "I chased and singled out their leader and took him out! Wasn't my fault he had another one of those black knives…"
"Black knives?" Pyrrha asked with curiosity.
Jaune pointed at his pouch that Pyrrha had beside her, "Pass that over, please." As he opened it, he explained, "It's what Locus used to bypass Boromir's aura and mine, in our fight… he used bullets made of the stuff on Boromir, and a knife on me. That Uruk leading the attack had one too." He pulled out a broken fragment of black glass; it was a piece of the knife Locus used on him, he kept it because he wasn't sure what it was and wanted to find out.
"Can I see that?" Macht asked. Jaune tossed the shard to him and he examined it near the fire to get a better look at it, "This… this is Obsidian. It's as brittle as glass, but sharper than steel if carved correctly."
Macht passed it over to Leere when she held her hand out for it, "Where does it come from?" She asked while looking closely at it.
Macht thought for a second, "Normally… areas with volcanic activity…"
"There aren't that many active volcano's on the planet…" Grun said, but then he realized, "But there is one that has been active for over a millennia…"
"Mt. Doom," Pyrrha finished.
"That stuff went right threw our aura like it wasn't even there…" Jaune said, he wouldn't have believe it if it didn't happen to him, twice already.
"As much as I want to talk more about this, there is something else I think we should address…" Grun said as he pointed to both Jaune and Pyrrha, "I would like to clear the air on something that I can't help but notice the both of you are ignoring… why were you two arguing so much on the flight from Mistral?"
With complete honesty, Jaune answers, "I don't know what I'm supposed to be sorry about, specifically! I wanted to know why she hid her pyrophobia and it escalated from there."
Before Grun could snap back, Pyrrha raised her hand, "Actually! I was the one that made it go out of control."
Both looked at her with surprise, "Really?" "YOU were the one who went overboard?" Grun added.
"Why did you say it like that?" Jaune asked with an initiated look.
Grun gave Jaune an obvious grin, "I've known you for ten years, and you've gone overboard over something petty before." Jaune had no comment.
Jaune then looked to Pyrrha, "So why did you escalate it?"
"My uncle…" Pyrrha said with a bit of shame, more towards herself for keeping it from him for that long, "He told me that I'm next in line to rule as Mistral's monarch."
"You'll be the next queen…" Jaune felt his heart sink a bit.
"So?" Blitz asked with confusion, "What man in their right mind wouldn't want to be dating a queen?" Leere swatted his shoulder, and he gave an apology grin.
"Star Knights and Royalty can't mix," Grun explained, "It's a law."
"Why?" Leere asked with still no clue as to why.
Jaune answers, "It always ends bad; both times a Knight either became a monarch or married into one, they became Black Knights."
Grun started to remember what Jonah said about this, "I remember now; that's why it became illegal. Knights already have power over most of a kingdom's military; but to have power over the political theater, would grant them absolute power over the kingdom."
"Which brings us to our current dilemma…" Pyrrha pointed out with a sad tone.
Jaune started to think it over, "Is there anything your uncle can do? Eowyn is older than you…"
"But my father is older than hers," Pyrrha responded, she knew that was the real reason why Theoden didn't consider that before. "Line of succession is clear…" she quoted with a bit of bitterness.
"Can't you just deny it?" Macht asked, he never cared for politics, "I mean, can't you give it to your cousin?"
Pyrrha shook her head, "And risk scorning the family? If I refuse, it'll damage my family's reputation, and could cause people to lose faith in the monarchy…"
"At the moment," Jaune added, "I imagine that's really the only think keeping Mistral together right now… isn't it?"
Grun nodded, "I would say so…"
Leere then spoke up, "What if you step down from your status? Can't you just resign?"
Jaune shook his head, "Being a Star Knight isn't a rank, it's what I am. I can't relinquish my status no more than Grun become human. Poor example; I know, but it's the best I can think of…"
"I wish there was something we could do," Grun said with a bit of sadness for them.
"I appreciate that you want to help, all of you," Pyrrha says with a smile, "But I think we should be more worried about my country's current state of being, over our love life."
Jaune was about to ask, "How bad is it?"
"When we arrived, there were a lot less than we were hoping for," Pyrrha stated.
"The Fortress isn't 'undermanned'," Grun added, "but it wouldn't last against a siege of Grimm if they came for us."
Jaune let out a sigh, "And here I thought I was about to be taken to a luxury resort… after you found me." Some of them chuckled, and wished the same thing.
Grun then stood up from his spot, "Well, I think that's enough of camp-talk for one night. We leave at first light."
As he said, the group packed up the camp and rode off as the sun rose over the hills. They followed the tracking beacon that Helms Deep has been broadcasting for all those that still have yet to arrive.
Pyrrha decided to sit in the truck with Jaune while Blitz rode the bike she used. She sat closely to him, putting his arm over her shoulder and letting rest his head on hers.
As they were driving, Grun couldn't help but feel something off. In his hunting years, he developed a means to detect when something hostile was nearby. His 'animal instinct', he liked to call it. He pulled over, and signaled Blitz to stop too.
"What is it, boss?" Blitz asked with confusion.
Grun turned off the engine and held his hand to his wolf ear, "You hear that?"
Everyone looked up as they started to hear what he did. They all got out of the car and made their way up a tall hill. They began to crawl as they reached the top, and what they saw terrified them.
Tens of thousands of Uruk Hai, marching in battle formations. They could see that they were supplied with heavy weaponry, sharp blades and hammers, and thousands of feral Grimm marching beside them.
"My god…" Macht said under his breath.
"There must be thousands of them," Blitz said with disbelief.
Grun pulled out a small spyglass and looked at the head of the army. "This is insane… How could Saruman build in army this big in only a few months?"
"It doesn't matter how," Jaune said as he glared at the army with anger, "It's here, now, and from the direction their marching, they're going to Helms Deep."
They all climbed back down the hill and started walking back to the vehicles. "Do you think we'll make it in time for an evacuation?" Pyrrha asked.
"One can hope," Grun said under his breath.
It didn't take long for them to reach the fortress, after they saw the army. Once they arrived at the front gate, the doors immediately opened. As Pyrrha helped Jaune exit the truck; they both found themselves being applauded by the crowd of soldiers and civilians that greeted them to Helms Deep.
As they were walking through the crowd, they something with orange hair carve a path through the people while shouting, "Where is he? I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!"
Jaune and Pyrrha recognized the voice, and Jaune started to brace himself for what is to come. Out from the crowd came a panting, partly crying, Nora with tears welling up in her eyes. Once she was ahead of the people, she looked at her teammates and tackle-hugged her leader, "You are the luckiest, stupidest, and most stubborn man I'll ever know! DON'T SCARE US LIKE THAT AGAIN!"
Jaune started to groan as Nora began to squeeze too tightly, "Nora… Nora! Can't breathe!"
She immediately let go but then gave him a second hug, less painful this time. Sun and Neptune walked up to them, Neptune smirked, "Where did you guys find him?"
Grun walked up and answered, "Sleeping by a beach, the lazy jerk."
"Lucky bastard," Sun said with a joking grin.
Jaune smiled at the joke, but then his face got serious, "Where's the King?"
Sun pointed towards the keep of the fortress, "In the command center."
Jaune nodded and started making his way, Pyrrha followed, along with Nora. As they were walking up, more soldiers and civilians greeted them. They were happy that their princess came back and she returned with a Star Knight. Jaune would normaly be smiling a 'thank you' at the people, but the news he had to bring kept him from doing so.
As they reached the top, near the main entrance, Ren intercepted Jaune. He stood at the top of the stairs and smiled at Jaune with relief. Jaune walked up to his teammate and gripped his forearm as Ren did the same. "I knew you'd be back…"
"I almost didn't…" Jaune said with a half smile. His face then turned to shock when Ren held up Joyuse before him, still in it's sheath.
As he gripped the sheath, Ren looked up and down on Jaune, "What?"
Ren couldn't help but chuckle, "You look terrible."
Jaune nodded in agreement. He then turned towards the main door and walked up to it. The soldiers by the doors didn't have to be asked, as Pyrrha walked up to the door too and waved them off to open the door.
As the door opened, they could see King Theoden, Robin, Cardin and a few other generals talked as they were looking over a holo-map of Mistral.
Jaune walked into the main hall with the others and saw the look of surprise on some of their faces; Theoden and Cardin were the only ones that weren't surprised. Jaune glanced at Robin and said, "Don't look too disappointed, Loxley, I almost died."
Robin rolled his eyes, "It's nothing against you, Arc… I'm just doing what's best for Mistral."
"And if I hadn't gone, we wouldn't know what we know now." Pyrrha snapped back with a bit of an angry glare at her old friend.
"What do you know?" The King asked with curiosity.
Jaune walked up to the holo-map and placed his scroll on the table. Once it was placed, it projected a new image on the map, showing thousands of red blips in lines, "Saruman has sent an army from Haven, and it's on its way here."
Robin, Cardin, all the other generals stared at that hologram with fear in their eyes, Theoden broke the silence, "How many?"
Jaune looked to Grun as he answered for him, "From what I could see, no less than ten thousand, maybe more… and with all the feral Grimm forming up with them, we're looking at a long fight."
King Theoden couldn't believe the amount, "Ten Thousand?"
"That's impossible!" Robin spat in disbelief of his own, "Grimm can't gather no more than a thousand before they start turning on each other. How could Saruman gather such a hoard?"
"He didn't gather them," Grun corrected, "He bred them, like dogs. 'Uruk Hai', I believe they're called?" Pyrrha nodded to his question.
Prior to his departure at Mistral City, Ozpin told the teams of what Saruman managed to achieve at Haven. And now they are going to see first hand how powerful of a 'monster factory' Haven Academy has become.
"This army was bred for one reason, and one reason only," Jaune added, "To wipe out the Kingdom of Mistral in one battle… They'll be here by midnight."
Right then, King Theoden realized the trap he had just lead his people into. With an army coming for them, and nowhere else to go; there was only one thing he knew that they could do now that would give them a chance at survival, "Let them come…"
AN: And that's it for this chapter.
I hope it is satisfactory.
I must say, there were some parts I felt I rushed, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that.
I'll try to be more frequent with my new chapters, wish me luck in doing so.
And as always, ARKOS!