Hello, been a while. i'm just going to have to accept that this is going to be a sporadic release schedule aren't I? I've been having to combat burnout as well as the fact that my creative juices aren't flowing consistently and it usually hits me like a truck. Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter, if you can please give me your thoughts in a review if you have criticism or a way I can improve my writing or story telling. I do not own Bloodborne or RWBY and they are owned by they're own respective studios.
Just Underneath The Surface.
The ones in the mine were probably already dead. Then again she wasn't an expert on these kinds of situations but people usually didn't last long closed up and underground without an air vent.
She expected to see people come calmly and dig to recover the bodies. She was wrong on that part, she saw more of those strange metal carriages come up and she saw people get out of them while pulling things out from the trailer attached. They were bulky and looked heavy, but the people still rushed, getting shovels as well.
A few minutes later there was a bright yellow machine, louder than the other vehicles and had a big scoop in the front. She was surprised to see very advanced glasswork on those strange carriages but at the same time now wasn't the time to be marveling at engineering.
No one really paid attention to her right now, but they turned on those bulky machines and the pickaxe tips at the bottom of them began hammering away at the rubble like a repeating stake driver. People with shovels began shoveling dirt and smaller rocks away to give people more space to work with. When a particularly large rock was broken people backed away and the machine with the scoop took that and a whole lot of rocks and dirt out.
People got back to work and they were working frantically, making Alaine think that they trusted their friends and family still being alive in there. She had one concern however, this was a lot of vibrations and noise, she couldn't feel the subtle vibrations she felt a little while ago. They were overshadowed by the bulky stake drivers and the bigger machine. They were very noisy, she didn't like it, it covered her sensitive senses.
But that wasn't the biggest problem, she was worried about the subterranean beasts. These vibrations would attract their attention even if it's only out of curiosity. Sure their intelligence was fun for her, but when they could hide Alaine wasn't sure she could kill the things in time before they did lethal damage.
She was cautionary because she didn't know what these things were capable of yet. She just knew they were skulking around under the ground. She watched intently, straining her ears for anything unnatural right now.
She actually very well hated this, she was but a single being, it's hard to cover every possible place they could come from was all over. No sight, no feel, hardly any hearing she wanted a second pair of eyes and ears to catch what she may miss. Just as she finished that thought she heard a familiar voice behind her. "You should relax. Take a deep breath." The odd thing was that Qrow's voice was deathly serious and unlike any tone she had heard before from the charismatic drunk.
She took his advice and took a deep breath but she did not relax. "I can't relax. Those grimm beasts are below us.. I could feel their subtle vibrations before but now I can't feel anything over the machines. I can't watch over them all at the same time. Help me." Alaine didn't put on a commanding tone but she wasn't asking either. It was the tone someone had when they expected the other to do their job too.
Qrow fell in surprisingly quick, it was like a coin flip of what she had seen so far. He sobered up or something, she gripped her hammer tighter and decided if something were to happen she wouldn't have time to ignite her weapon. Should she even? The power behind the blow might cause problems. She growled softly out of frustration, she needed to swap her weapons out for something less devastating.
She couldn't believe she even thought that. If she were in any other situation Oswald would have laughed at her. She ran circles in her mind, she calmed her thoughts, she trusted Qrow to handle his half on the other side of the yellow machine. Alaine rested her hammer on her shoulder for but a moment to open the breach of her pistol to check if she had put quicksilver in it and then flicked the barrel back into place as she returned to her stance, behind the workers but not far from the yellow machine and the people readying more equipment at the trucks.
She was less concerned with the people at the trucks since they weren't nearly as loud. She turned back to the workers, they were half way into the rubble, they had put scaffolding up to the top of the door but still outside it. She didn't know the reason behind it but found out as they began shoveling from the top and pushing it down. More rubble replaced what they were shoveling down, they were all still working at the same time, trying to cut as much time as they could.
An hour had passed, she checked her watch, she then put it back into her pocket quickly. Alaine wondered how they could work so calmly yet desperately. They were obviously putting everything into this, their faces strained with stress and worry, their bodies and clothes drenched in sweat but no one panicked and no one slowed or stopped out of hopelessness. By now the workers in the mines should be long dead, it meant that the people here either knew something she didn't or they were horribly desperate but didn't show it.
It wasn't her job to articulate the futility of their actions. It was her job to protect these people in case her fears become reality. Seven more minutes passed before something happened. A patch of ground behind a woman shoveling rock suddenly gave way and Alaine wasted no time, she bursted into a sprint and when she was close enough winded up a swing, she did not wait for the thing to even peak.
Just as rose above the ground and opened its savage jaw to take a chunk out a woman Alaine slammed the things mouth shut, it looked like an alligator except it only had two legs instead of four, and it four had eyes on her. She stared back and that damnable smile returned to her face as she ignited the gastly furnace and set the thing ablaze in arcane flames. It screamed and ran back into it's hole to die, those flames defied reason, they'd burn inside it until nothing was left but bone.
She hadn't heard the woman scream bloody murder in shock at being so close to death. Alaine turned to her and offered her a hand, the woman took it and got back up, she picked up her shovel and got back to work. She heard more hollering over the loud machines but she hoped that the drunk was competent. If not and something happened, she would make sure Ozpin knew. She would be be furious if that drunk decided to blame it on his luck of all things as well. There is no excuse for incompetence.
Alaine slammed her hammer down on the hole hoping to cover the hole with debris. When she backed away and returned to her position alongside the yellow machine she saw that the woman was covering it further in whatever she pulled from the rubble. Smart. Alaine continued to watch the area, and if it weren't for the fact that her gut wrenched and the subtle vibrations just under her feet she would have been unsteady and torn apart by the alligator grim that broke apart the ground around the yellow machine.
She managed to jump away from it just in time to see a group of four of the things sprawl across the side and back of it and begin attacking it, tearing into it and trying to climb it to get to the person inside.
Alaine put her hammer across her shoulder and was careful to wipe it across the beasts and not the machine, she completely brained the first one, splattering its boiling blood across the others before it dissolved into the air. The second one was grazed by the hammer but bathed in the flames and boiling viscera of its kin. It writhed in for a brief period and then fell onto its back, it rolled and squirmed pathetically as its head melted and the body was consumed into ash. The third one caught the hammer straight in the chest and was flown off the machine from the impact.
She couldn't worry about it and would just hope it stayed down for a moment since the fourth had broken through the back of glass and was about to take the head off the man in one bite. Alaine quick stepped to the right and shot it with her pistol, the quicksilver splattered against the creature and it staggered from the force of the semisolid liquid spreading its poison touch. Her first nickname 'Mudblood' was attributed to her abysmal bloodtinge.
She wished she could have been blessed enough for it to go straight through but she had to settle for it to be stunned for a second. Alaine put the handle of her gun into her mouth and grabbed a spike of the creature, it took a good amount of her might but she managed to throw it off the machine and throw it onto its back. The things were helpless as turtles for a moment before they began to flip itself around.
Alaine grabbed the gun out of her mouth and then jumped down to crush the throat of the one she threw onto it's back but it rolled out of the way and then lept at her with it's jaws open and ready to take her entire top half off! She was much more used to this savagery that these grim displayed than there usual intelligence. She only just managed to slip through the attack, being just at the side of it's head. She tackled the thing onto it's back and just as she was about to smash it's jaw and brain at the same time she had to roll off of it as the other tried to bite and tackle her.
She rolled and got back onto her feet but was given no reprieve as the one that attacked her continued it's assault. It nipped and bit at her, giving her no room to work with as it snapped at her. She was barely avoiding the things teeth, she couldn't think, she had no time to reload.
She ducked to the side of it's jaw again but took the second to put her gun away and grab the fist of Gratia from her jacket. It was essentially a molded iron bar with finger holes inside, she didn't have time to throw a punch as it whipped it's head in a horizontal bite. She managed to jump back to avoid the bite and then slam the oversized knuckle dusters into it. It stumbled back with a cough and then tried to begin it's assault again. Alaine would rather not have that so she slammed the hammer into it's jawbone, breaking it and making it so it hung loosely and permanently open.
The beast whined and screeched in pain as it fell, the other beast was behind her and she knew this since it had jumped and it's legs were currently on her shoulders, it raised it's jaws and was about to close them around her head. The thing underestimated her strength and it was thrown off, she didn't have the time to pick her weapon up just yet. She wrapped her free arm around it's head and she kept it's jaw shut. She slammed the fist of Gratia into it's teeth if anything just to keep it in submission.
She then fell onto her side with the Grimm under her, She picked up her weapon while keeping it pinned under her body. Alaine pressed the hammer against her chest and cocked the hammer. She couldn't do much with such close proximity so, she did what she could, pressed the arcane furnace against it's throat. It singed and burned through it's skin, working through it until she could place her foot on it and then draw her hammer back and slam it onto it's throat.
While she had been struggling against the beast she looked back to check on the situation. The scoop machine was sitting at an odd angle and part of it had fallen into the holes that the grim made. It was shifting, all she could do was call out to the man inside, waving her arms and yelling. "Get out of there, it's going to sink!!" The man wasn't looking at her and only heard her hollering but it was drawn out with all the other yelling and the loud sounds of the machines at work.
The ground under the machine seemed to sink and crumble and both the man and the machine was dug into the ground. It wasn't too deep but it kicked up a lot of dust and buried the machine up to the tracks. It sputtered and then the machine stopped making noise. The man inside looked shaken up but other than that he seemed okay. Now she could see over to the other side and see that Qrow was having similar difficulties as she was.
There was no time to relax, and she couldn't leave her position. She loaded a quicksilver bullet into the pistol and locked the hammer back. She checked on Qrow himself, he seemed alright, she expected no less. She saw three corpses of grim dissolving into black smoke and two were left circling him and growling as they did so. Alaine knew that since she didn't know him too much that she should just stay out of his way for the most part or become a hinderance rather than a help.
She watched Qrow, his blade was odd, it was segmented like the beast cutter but instead of a cleaver it was a greatsword. She encountered the threaded cane on her hunt but this was like the middle child of the two. He fended them off with the blade but his style was most peculiar, strangely elegant but also mocking which she found strange. There were times where he slinked just out of the way of something like he was still drunk but then he would act with precise movements just after.
It was a style that made him seem vulnerable, and when they took the bait he attacked with a hunter's precision. The grim was quickly killed and dissolved in a fast two handed swing before the second one could cover for its now dissolved comrade. It was the last one for now, Alaine watched Qrow but she mainly was paying attention to the people she had to protect.
The man from the yellow machine managed to get out and stand on top of it to jump up and out of the sink hole with some help. And they got back to clearing out dirt, breaking up rocks and moving the debris. For now it seemed that the situation was under control. With the final grim Qrow took a much more aggressive approach to the fight. The two legged, no armed grim couldn't do much when it came to defense and with every slice it was glanced by Qrows blade until it couldn't keep up when it tried to jump back and had its throat slashed. If this was back at Yharnam that kind of move would have her drenched in blood. She watched as it turned to black dust and was carried by the breeze.
A woman called out "I see an opening! Keep digging!" Only people who were close to her could hear over the loud noise of machinery but the message seemed to spread and a new surge of hope along with it. Hope was such a bittersweet thing, it made people vulnerable to manipulation and malleable in a way that you could reshape someone as long as they are willing to do anything for one goal, even if that goal is noble. She should know as an old hunter better than anyone that a noble goal can be used to bend someone into something they never wished to be.
Alaine dwells too much in her own head she thought as she nodded her head when Qrow looked around to gauge the situation. She acknowledged his skill even if she disagreed with his personality, not an uncommon thing among hunters.
Now though it wasn't the time for celebration, she turned to look and Saw that while most continued to move the rubble Alaine saw a few people run back to their carriages and get things out of.. she didn't have the exact word for it but a compartment. They pulled out a canister and a flexible clear tube leading to a clear mask with a couple strings. She had no idea of their purpose but that wasn't her problem right now.
From the look of things, they were just about done making enough of a gap for a person to get through.
Sorry for the cliff hanger, I have a good idea of what I want the next chapter to be so hopefully it will be out sooner rather than later but no promises as who knows when i'll have a block. Thank you anyone who read through this.