Chapter 4: Yes, this is an edgy fanfic. Warning: this fanfic contains uncomfortable subjects.
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Team RWBY rendezvous with us at the plaza of Oldtown. Despite the sensitive subjects we had broached upon in the briefing at near afternoon before, they looked kinda hyped.
Before they can even greet Soren, he immediately cut them off.
"Before we start the mission, I want to give the chance to you back out."
"Wha???", asked Ruby, confused.
"Look, Ozpin is an asshole for assigning a flipping Goblin Quest for you chuckleheads. There are many more assignments he can pick to test out your guts. Goblin Quest however is messy. It's not pretty. If you back out now, I will vouch for you to be assigned to another questline. You don't need to do this.", Soren offer them an escape ladder.
The girls looked at each other. Weiss obviously wants to back out, while Blake is indifferent. Yang is conflicted whether or not to bring her cousin along for the ride. According to the personnel file I read from Soren, Ruby is actually 15, as she had somehow skipping two grades because of her prodigious talent. So I get that Yang would like for her to not get involved with a quest that involves sexual assault like this.
However, Ruby is the leader if team RWBY, so she's the one that has the final say in the matter.
"We know that this mission is sensitive in nature. But, there is four women that need to be saved, Prof Coldforge. We don't want to delay any more time!", Ruby declared their team resolution.
Soren just shrugs. "Well, it's your funeral. Don't expect a happy ending from this. When you finished this quest.", Soren looked at them grimly. "You will wish you had taken my escape offer."
Being the de-facto Lord of Oldtown, Soren just barge into a drug cartel den and went straight to the cartel boss office. Team RWBY had almost fight the gang before Soren warn them off to back away. They can do their heroics later.
"Priotize what do you want to do. You said you want to save those poor women, right? So ignore the junkies for now."
"Why are we in this den of scum?!!", Weiss screamed her question incredilously.
Soren just look at her with a deadpan face. "To borrow their airship obviously."
Soren then enter the boss' office and close the door. We heard some arguments before a Faunus, Welkin if I remember correctly get thrown out of the window.
RWBY who had not been familiar with Soren's antics was very concerned over what's going on.
"Sir Coldforge! I swear I had nothing to do with selling Euphoria to the highschoolers! It's all our boss idea!"
Soren went out of the office, wiping his bloody hands with a shirt who knows where he had taken from.
"Well, he's dead now, Welkin. So I can't really confirm now if you're lying or not, did I?", he hums. "Well, congrats, Welkin! You're the boss now! Isn't this a happy day, dont you think?"
Ruby looked like he's about to vomit as she saw the glimpse of a beheaded corpse bleeding on the floor.
"I-I will do my best, sir!"
"Good doggo.", Soren patted Welkin the Wolf Faunus on the head. "Now, I need to borrow your airship."
"Yes yes! Here's the key, sir!"
"Good doggo.", Soren toss the key to Ruby. "Go upstairs and warm up the engine. I need to talk with the goons over a change in management."
We go to the rooftop with nausea.
"He..He just killed the boss just like that!", Weiss is the first to break up the silence.
"Yea, you get used to it if you hang around him long enough.", I replied absent-mindedly.
"We're supposed to capture bad guys! Not kill them! People has the right for fair trial!"
I am a villager from the boonies, so i get the Frontier version of justice system. Most settlements don't have a reliable justice system like it is in the cities. So whenever there's bad guys around, the general consensus is us villagers either take them down ourselves or hire some Hunters to do it for us. While Ansel was a pretty peaceful settlement, we do get some occasional outlaws messing around and the stronger among the villagers will take them down one way or another.
I keep myself quiet, not sure how to argue in favor for Soren. Personally I do think Soren is too trigger happy. Over the two weeks I apprenticed under him, I had seen him murdered someone four times, including just now. Which, after talking to Velvet a bit more, that is just how he always had been. Taking down monsters is just instinct for him. There's no point trying to make him see another way.
Soren entered the airship and order Ruby, the one who has piloting experience to take off.
"Well, you're in luck. I went above and beyond and even secured a map for you. The goblins had made lair in the Esmer Mine. And old abandond mine that we aren't not going ot bother to elaborate the history on. It has been taken as monster lairs several times and I dont know why no one had not collapsed the damned mine already."
He handed us the map of the mine. "My duty to prepare you is over. Now, you may discuss how to take down those damned bastards.
Ruby had set autopilot on course as we reached an ideal altitude. I taken a look at the map but keep my opinion to myself. This test is for Team RWBY and Soren mostly just brought me along as a spectator.
It took us 2 hours to arrive to a clearing near Esmer Mines. It is 5:36 pm, and its already dark.
Team RWBY discussed over what their game plan is. Goblins are nocturnal, and will venture outside their lair during nightime, leaving behind minimal sentries to guard the lair.
On the other hand, goblins sleeps during daytime. There will be too many goblin to fight to take advantage of that particular trait, especially with them being in cramped cavern.
Team RWBY already has a problem with their main weapons. Their combat style involves utilizing big wide moves, which is hindered by the cramped space.
So it is ideal for them to infiltrate the lair when it has minimal sentries. Get in to save the abducted women quick and destroy the lair with a time bomb as they get out of the mines
I looked over Soren and he looked disapointed. I share the same opinion, even if I didn't like it.
By destroying the lair when most of the goblins are outside, you scatter most of them away, and the scattered packs of goblins may be mostly picked off by other wild beasts and monsters along the way, but eventually some of the packs will established colonies somewhere else.
By exterminating them in one fell swoop in daytime, you get rid all of them in one move. However, you greatly risked the safety of the abducted victims, as well as it is highly risky for the Hunter.
Both options has their merits and risks. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Soren is strong. He can pull off a full extermination by himself if he wants to. But team RWBY is just near-gradute cadets that's just at the high end of Rank 2. Its clear what is the better choice for them.
Team RWBY hastily raced toward the mines, already having route plans to chambers they suspect to harbors the victims. Soren and I follow behind and he had already facepalmed.
I didn't get what he was pissed about until I noticed a goblin guard at the entrance of the mines sniffed out the girls and get excited. Blake noticed this first and hastily killed it before it can sound the alarm to call on other goblins.
Yang cursed as already their mission had taken a bad turn. I wet my finger with my saliva and raise it to determine the wind direction. They're fortunate that the wind flows out from the mines, not flowing in.
Team RWBY backed away as they rethink their gameplan. Forgetting about goblins' keen sense of smell was a mistake that almost derail the mission from the get go.
They asked if Soren can tell them how to conceal their smell, to which Soren declined. Blake suggessted to use goblin's innards and bathed themselves in it to cover their smells, but the other three vehemently denied the idea.
The next best thing they figured out is to collect wet mud from the nearby swamp. It took them several minutes to warm up the frozen mud. The mud is smelly but it beats being covered in goblin's innards.
Team RWBY offered the wet mud to us, to which Soren just pulled out a scentless deodorant spray from his backpack and sprayed us both.
Team RWBY has this stupid look on their face for not even thinking that simple solution.
Note to myself, always prepare deodorants. Seriously, even I didn't think of it.
Anyway, team RWBY went back to the mission. They had Blake taken care most of the sentries. All of them are too loud in their fighting style and only Blake has a stealthy bone in her body. I can see Soren marked more demerits as team RWBY had really badly prepped. They didn't even bring alternative weapons thats better for stealth, tossing all that work to Blake. This make our infiltration slow as Blake has to take down sentries one by one on her own.
I dread over RWBYs overall score. I seen so many demerits that I dont think they will be passing with flying colors.
However, all hell broke loose when we come into a chamber where I can only describe as the breeding chamber.
It was... Hell.
The smell make me puked on the spot. The mix of rooting corpses, jizz, excrement and vomit is thick in the air.
And the worse was there is six extra women that were being violated by a group of 30 goblins. Six more women that was not accounted for due to outdated intel.
Yang sees red, and came blazing in, like literally blazing and punch the goblins to smithereens.
All hell broke loose.
The good thing for them was that the chamber has more room for them to maneuver. However, while goblins may had been infamous for being stupid, that doesnt meant they don't understand basic strategy. Some of them hold crude rusty knives to the women throats, taking them hostage. More and more goblins rushed in from the many other entrances to the breeding chamber. By estimate, we are surrounded by 60 more goblins.
Damnit! Its a huge colony!
"I'm taking over. Team RWBY, you take 4 points and take down the surrounding goblins, I'll take the middle ones. Jaune, provide cover fire."
Team RWBY hesitated.
"Follow my orders or scram! Now fuck off!!"
They all scrambled to take 4 defensive points and began to take down the surrounding goblins, some of them is fairly powerful enough and has good spells. I provide cover fire whil I can but my aiming was not too good to really make a difference.
Soren on the other hand with lightning speed thrust his sword to the goblins that's taking the women hostage before they can even scratch them. He then take down the remaining goblins in the middle.
"Everyone! Regroup to me!"
We all backpedal back to Soren, and then he raised up his left hand.
[Simple Sign: Ignition]
With a fingersnap, a red spark jumped to the nearby goblins and they ignited into a burst of huge flame. Soren casted [Ignition] 12 times rapidly and just like that he took out all of the goblins surrounding us.
Team RWBY was stunned. Most of the best Hunters are middle to high end Rank 3. According to Soren, He somewhat just a bit above Low Rank 3, having promoted into the Rank a year ago. Still, it was startling to see the difference of power between the Ranks. I honestly thought RWBY was not that far from Soren in strength, but clearly the gap was so much more huge than I thought!
"Who's the medic?"
Tram RWBY looked over one another.
"Fucking Beacon, I swear... You at least know basic first aid right?", He asked again.
"Oh... Err.. yes! Yes!", Ruby hastily replied.
"Get to it then.", Soren dismissed her. We collect the six women as Soren stood guard. None of them looked visibly pregnant, so they must had been recently taken. We didn't see the four women we supposed to save though.
"Team RWBY, open the door over there."
We all feel dread from the sight of the door.
"Si-Sir! Can we not?!", Ruby begged him.
"What? You're chikening out now? You choose this. You want to be heroes, right?"
Soren opened the door.
"This is what it means to be a hero."
All of us vomited on the spot. I dont know if its the smell of the sight, but it was pure horror.
2 of the women we aimed to saved had already died. The blood where the goblin babies had burst out from looks fresh... dont tell me...
Our attack provoked them to gestate early?!!
"This is what being an idiot hero do. Two of our priority objective had died because of you.", Soren stated coldly.
The goblins babies are devouring their surrgate mothers like maggots with legs. Dear god! This is so wrong! What kind of monster created this abomination?!!
The two other women are writhing in pain, as the goblins inside their womb are trying to eat their way out of them.
Soren took 2 syringes from his side pouch and injected it into their wombs.
"W-What did you inject them, sir?!", Ruby asked us in a panic.
"Poison."
"Poison?!!", Weiss yell in disbelief.
"Because of you chuckleheads, I need to kill off the babies right away. You better pray they dont bleed out on our way back.
The goblins inside the two women wombs stop writhing, died from the poison Soren had injected. Sure that it had all died, Soren injected the antidote to stop the women from dying from the poison.
"Now, carry them all out. Corpses included. Get to the airship and leave to the nearest town immediately and seek medical treatment. I'll catch up with you all later.", Soren began carving runes, probably explosive runes over the chamber walls and leave to carve more. He did say they should have collapsed the mines a long time ago.
I helped the girls to bring all the victims to the airship, however I decide to stay. I think RWBY has it handled now, so my presence is no longer needed. I think I am better of waiting for Soren by the entrance.
Soren finally come out from the mines after three hours. It must have been a deep mines if it took him that long to place all the runes.
"Huh, you didn't hitch a ride with them?"
"I thought maybe you need some help later.", I replied.
"I don't need any, but thanks for the thoughts. Lets sit on the tree branch right there."
He hopped unto the fairly tall branch easily. Me on the other take a bit of time to climb up
"I take it that Team RWBY completely failed?"
Soren chuckled. "Yeah, big time. Not that it matters. That is one of Ozpin's pet team. This test is just a formality and what should I say? A way for them to get acquainted with me."
I stare over the mines entrance.
"I think I understand a bit why you dont like Lake Lullaby."
Soren took out some chewing gums and give me a strip. While I didn't feel like it, I do want to get rid the taste of vomit in my mouth.
"I especially hated Beacon. Ozpin isn't raising professionals. He's raising a cult and a beauty pageant."
"I don't get it. If you dislike Ozpin so much, why work with him?"
"As I told you, stupid old pact. Since you are affliated with me, I will reveal you a big secret. Ozpin is 6000 years old lich."
"A lich?!!"
Soren gestured me to keep it down.
"Yep. Now, I wouldn't say Ozpin is flat out evil, but he is not really that good of a person either. Back in the beginning, there are many Drifter Clans. Not really united, mind you, they all have their own agendas. My clan in fact had been feuding with Ozpin for probably 3000 years."
"Then why did you... Your family work with him now?"
"Because there are worse enemies to deal with "
Soren took out a jar and toss it over to me. When I gleen on it, I nearly dropped it! Its a human heart, but-!
"The Grimm Heart."
Its a human heart but black veins had blackened most of the organ. There is a small skeletal mask over it. It is... Dreadful.
"I know you had wondered why I casually kill those people. It's because they're turning into Grimm."
"Is... Is this where the Grimm comes from?!! Are we all?!!"
Soren smirked.
"Yes Jaune. We are all infected. You. Me. Everyone. The toads at the pond. The cats at the backalley. The birds flying up above the sky. All of us has the Seed of Grimm inside us."
"Why was this kept a secret?!!"
Soren shrugs. "Used to be its common knowledge. But, the fact that people know they are infected only accelerate the corruption. So, we bury the truth. The Seed grows the more evil you are, but it also recede when you repent and redeem yourself. You can say that the Seed of Grimm make the consequences of your deeds more real."
"So that's why you kill off those guys?"
He nodded.
"When you become proficient enought with Aura sensing, yiu can somewhat start to read the heart of other Aura users. If you dig even deeper, you can sort of smell how much the Seed of Grimm has spread. I generally take them out when they reached about 80% corruption."
"If you leave them be, they will be Grimm?"
"Yes and no. The last 10% is really hard to pass over. You can say its the last remnant of their own humanity in their soul trying to fight back the corruption of their heart. Besides, most criminals dies one way or another. Its not a safe lifestyle. If they survived that, their heart usually gave out before they can turn. You will see that many old evil people die of heart attack. Humanborn Grimm is very rare."
"But there are some that managed to turn, is it?"
"Thats right. We call the The Wesen. The Grieving Mother, Salem. The Ever-Hunger, Lycanus. The Peaceful Sands, Seth. Those are some of the known Wesen of old times."
"And the Drifters has taken them all out, right?"
Soren looked at me with a resigned face.
"No, Jaune. There is seven Wesen that we know off, and we had only taken out one."
))))))))
"Soren. I think thats the last goblin to enter."
"Is that so?"
"I'm sure. Its been two hours since sunrise. If there's any goblin left outside, they're not coming back."
"I guess so."
Soren snapped his fingers, and the ground shook as the mines is collapsed. No monsters will be able to use this lair anymore.
"The nearest village should be in 30 minutes walk from here. Let's go Jaune, I want to fucking sleep
Finally, this dreadful quest is over.
I would never take a Goblin Quest lightly ever again. I don't think I want to take one ever again...