…
…
…
…and…. Branwen gestured his arms in a spiral of conveying more details.
"And this witch is a mannerless woman that foolishly instigated a rather significant problem for her allies."
"I-" she cried out, but was quickly silenced.
The creature, Nemo, took a large metallic object from their lower body and aimed it at Lucille. "If you were a member of my ship, lass, I would have killed you by now. Do better. There's a lot riding on you, and this is currently a unique opportunity."
…
…
…
…
The silence was rather thick now.
Nemo holstered their object and stood there, fiddling at a lapel on their soaked coat.
…
Branwen turned around to leave, and calmly explained his reasoning. "I'm not going to try to be threatened by a massive Faunus. We're leaving."
…The Faunus followed his group.
Branwen dully rotated and spoke in a monotone. "Why are you following us after you threatened one of us?"
Nemo leaned down to speak to him, ducking past branches. "I made a promise to work alongside this witch, and I was never able to accomplish it properly, to my deep shame-"
"HOLD IT!"
The girl did a full heel turn and stomped back to the massive Faunus, getting into arm's distance in a few seconds. Her face was heavily offended.
"You ran away after EVERY SINGLE ENCOUNTER you old man!" Lucille shouted out.
Branwen's eyes tightened for a second.
"Because I physically could not fight them, but that is in the past now." Nemo said. "I followed her tactless escape route and ended up here."
They raised an arm and gesticulated at the girl in front of themselves, the girl ducking down to dodge the swinging hand. "-and now I'll have to work alongside her until we get our goals accomplished."
…
…
…
Her eyes twitch as she glared at the Faunus.
"About time, old man! What took you so long?!" the girl shouted out.
…"You threatened to shoot her with a…"
"She would survive." the Faunus excused.
…
"…What's wrong with your people?" Branwen muttered.
Branwen stared at the two of them, unsettled and astonished.
The larger Faunus turned to watch his face, and slowly raised an eye wider.
The walking became quieter as the girl returned to further up the path.
…
…
….
They tried to get some information, so Branwen tried to communicate.
"-So… you're her supervisor?"
The Faunus sighed. "I joined her organisation, and I was allowed to join in return for helping her in her work."
To… which you did nothing?
"A coward, yes, I am aware." the Faunus muttered.
"I thought this militaristic kingdom wouldn't really raise a strike force of Faunus-" Branwen began.
"Why? We are all… mostly united against a common enemy and their leader," Nemo said. "If a group is willing and capable, why would the kingdom not allow assistance?"
"Lucille mentioned that some of her coworkers could create significant environmental damage." Déa reminded him.
They quietly looked at the new person.
"That is… true." he said. "However, there is an issue I have here."
"What's the problem?" Déa asked.
"I am not a 'Faunus', whatever that may be. I was a man, and now I am a frog." the massive Faunus replied.
Branwen paused.
…however, it would be more appropriate to say that his brain shorted out.
….
"Are you telling me… that Atlas can just… make Faunus? That's possible?"
Lucy groaned at his question and stopped moving. She scuffed the earth and waited for the others to walk further ahead before annoyedly tromping next to Branwen. It caused Nemo to walk slower in order to avoid her.
"It's not this Atlas that does it. It's Taurus. He made Nemo into a frog."
…
Branwen quietly walked along the path.
…
…
"That…" he began, before swinging his arms about."No! That is still equally insane! I know the group they had is all supposedly about equality, but… that?!" he cried out.
"The man is unfathomable after anyone hears of his feats. Just know that he is a threat to all things."
"Like forming a star shaped lake." Déa suggested. "It impacts the ecosystem."
"Worse." Lucy clarified. "Like giving machines human souls."
"Far far worse." Nemo further noted. "A better example would be the creation of twisted facsimiles of animals cursed to never fully die."
Lucy turned to squint at the frog.
"He did that? You can't die?"
…
"Not myself, witch. I meant the others."
"Others? That… is a weird name."
"You fought hundreds of them before meeting me, and many after."
Lucy stilled, trying to think of everything she fought.
Skeletons… machines… lizard people… wolf men… centaurs… aquatic creatures… Ezekiel… Fiona… Baku… Captain Arya's evil cosplayer… What's Others?
…
…
…
… Oh. He means monsters in general. That makes much more sense.
Lucy nodded at that, and the new quartet now collectively started walking back to their origination.
"I'm going to have you clarify that statement." Branwen declared, after straightening up and standing to the side of their path. "What did you say… this Taurus created?"
"Witch. What do you three call the creatures here?" The frog asked.
… she turned to him-
"-Ah. Grimm. They're darkness creatures." she explained. "Wrap an animal skeleton in tar and make it a dumbass."
Nemo nodded briefly. "That seems… rushed."
"Yeah. Branwen here said they can't preform ambushes. Honestly, you hear that? Can't preform ambushes!" she complained. It was like a child complaining that the test used too many questions they already memorised.
Branwen glowered at her, and calmed himself before looking back ahead to the other edge of the forest.
…
One.
He flinched and whipped out a blade in an instant, gripping his knuckles white.
….
The girl's complaining faltered, and their new "member" quietly spoke.
"As you were saying, witch?"
He watched a bone faced creature, dripping in malice, as it slunk into their path.
…without making a sound, it had approached them with incredibly secrecy.
…
…
…
"Where's Déa?" Branwen suddenly realised.
..
..
..
….
The two senior cartography supporters quickly saw their delivery walking calmly through the clearing before them.
"DÉÉÉAAAA?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Lucy shouted out.
She didn't move.
Branwen charged ahead and plunged a blade into the beowolf eye socket. After he made sure the hilt was flush, he ran straight into the clearing.
Two.
His eye stung and Branwen flung himself to the ground, sliding along the snow as a creature lunged over him. He sent a blade as a parting gift-
THOOOOMMMM.
A loud rumbling shot through the forest and Branwen was momentarily taken aback as the Grimm spontaneously… died.
It just died in a second.
Branwen quietly recalled the last time he thought that, remembering a sword swing with such ferocity it could cut a hillside like clay.
His back itched for a moment.
Something's behind me that I need to track.
He did a full rotation, and saw a Faunus exiting the forest with a large metallic object…
It was obviously a firearm, seeing that kill.
Branwen shuddered, exhaled, and continued his charge towards his target, drawing on everything he had to reach them.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he roared, reaching out for them.
…
One.
He was slowly reaching out, arm extended. His face turned at a small gust of wind against his face.
Warm wind.
His eye unwillingly saw teeth.
Branwen started sluggishly moving his hand to attack the creature.
-THWACKK.-
He unhesitatingly took the opportunity of a stick intervening, threw a blade at the flying dog and impaled the lower half of the thing.
"I am assisting in the battle, Branwen." his companion said, calmly like he was just going on a stroll. He took three steps, aided by his stick.
"By running away from us?"
A walking stick appeared next to his eyes. He looked at it with a look of offended disgust. "-and?" he replied.
"It is to avoid injuring you three."
Branwen glowered at the calmness. "Then tell us first. Nobody is communicating anything clearly right now."
Déa sighed in a familiar way. "I'll work on that issue for next time."
Branwen looked around at the clearing and scoffed. "I'm not going to let this become a 'next time' event. I'm going to slaughter these animals."
…
"If you want to." the small Faunus replied.
… "Please move ten steps to your right?"
…
Déa looked at the fading enraged silhouette as it greyed out.
"Thank you."
….
Nemo aimed a round at a small black creature in the tree line, calmly adjusting until-
THOOOOOOM.
A large projectile shot from his weapon and cracked a tree, black particles rising from the shattered wood.
"What happened to your spells?" he asked, turning to watch her stab her staff through a dog's back.
"What happened to your aiming, old man?" Lucy asked. "I thought you couldn't fight!"
… he quietly tilted down the barrel of his firearm, waited a second, and flipped it back into a closed position. Then, after a low cough, a second shot was fired.
THOOOOM.
"These creatures… are weak." he said.
… she pouted and extricated her staff, lifting it up to guard against a pair of lunging wolves. The witch flickered away, materialising a moment later behind the wolves. He never really appreciated that ability of hers, always trying to trick him into wasting his best ammunition by vanishing away before anything hit her.
He respected this use of it, but noted that this wasn't anywhere in her old tactics list.
Why? Why use it at all? Freeze the dogs alive, lass.
The… Grimm, were they? The two creatures were standing, flanks touching after their combined leap. Nemo raised his own weapon to assist, but she held up a hand and muttered at his gesture.
"Where is your staff?" he questioned her.
"Shush."
She calmly began to pull away at the flesh of the wolves, eventually tearing her staff out of their bodies. She sneezed as the emanating particles flew into her face.
Impressive.
He wasn't impressed with her sneezing, no. Nemo just noted that she was learning more. It was always good to have a well rounded crew. Despite the warm feeling of a trainee's growth, he needed to get her to do some of her
more… specialised talents for the rest of the battle.
"How many are left?" he asked.
She looked up at him speaking and stared straight in his eyes.
"What? There shouldn't be many left. There were only a few-"
"Ech…."
Her mouth dropped some sort of frog like cry for some inexplicable reason. He didn't understand it, and tried to think of how to get the witch to talk coherently.
"…None?" she whined.
"None." Nemo repeated, "None at all?"
The look of despair on her face was not the sign of no enemies. That look was what he believed he had looked like when his ship was being torn apart.
"I…It's either zero or… hundreds. There's little danger markings all around and it's going to make me go mental." she cried out, hunching herself slightly.
Nemo looked ahead, and watched the black smoke drift through the clearing.
Almost like petals.
Almost soothing to witness.
Almost quiet peace.
…
…
"I think you, witch, are trying to focus on every burned piece of flesh in the air."
"GROSS! I'm not trying to do that! Can you just get everyone to stop trying to fight? Y'know… end the battle officially?" she asked.
… "Why?"
"Because I don't want to deal with magic forcing me with minutely following SEVEN HUNDRED PARTS OF A STUPID BASTARD'S MUTT."
… Nemo paused for an instant, and frowned. "You… aren't free from him yet?"
She levered herself up and glared at his question.
"Are you, Captain?"
… I know I'm not… but…
"We… thought you had left because you finally confronted him." Nemo spoke, as they walked towards their new compatriots.
…
"I did confront him."
… "-and returned to your original home, curse broken." he amended.
The witch stayed quiet.
"This is, from what the others told me about your realm.. much different." he pointed out. "Your companions explained that they had no monsters at their point in history. I know I'm… heh… 'old fashioned' but I know that our planet still had a moon."
She frowned. "Why would I just… leave all of you out of confronting Taurus?"
Nemo spoke softly. "Pardon? You're missing something." He said it quietly, raising a shining pad in the air.
Tsku tsku. "Is your body removed from Taurus's influence? Is your curse cured?"
The witch stalked alongside him, approaching their destination.
"Yes."
-…-
"What-"
"Yes."
Her eyes glinted as she turned to face his confused look down upon her. "Now my goal is to end his madness and save you all."
..
..
..
….
Déa swung with vigour. Most of their attacks were hits in the backs of Grimm, increasing the speed that they flew across the clearing before becoming a large malevolent pincushion.
Branwen threw knifes into the centre mass of each stymied creature, and occasionally cut off a few legs in a mismatched order.
Nemo just calmly took aim, as he always had done, and hit the most obnoxious targets.
Lucy killed seven Grimm.
… in total.
The journey was nowhere near over, but she was hauntingly aware of how long she had been away from the town. She didn't have a timer tracking everything, instead she just had… a feeling.
She swung her staff, the current guiding away a few of the rapidly collapsing ashes.
I failed.
Lucy, inside, was a failure. Outside, she was stoic as she approached the centre of the clearing, waiting for some sign of the mission being over.
Phew.
Someone exhaled. Lucy turned towards the breath and watched their leader rotate around their walking stick. "That… was not what I was expecting." he said to the group. Glass glinted as she caught his eyes.
"Are you all…"
"I don't want to do this again." Branwen sighed.
"Noted. I should have remained calmer." Déa replied.
"You two are quite skilled in physical combat." Nemo declared. "I appreciated your presence."
"Thank you. Will you be trying to stay around here, or do you have a destination elsewhere?"
The conversation lessened for the response. The silence was, depending on the person, nervous, or patient.
"I should keep my promise to the witch," he said. "So… I suppose I shall stay near your team."
"party."
The three of them turned to face the girl. She stood there, suppressing her emotions at the edge of their small knot.
"We're not a team. We're a party." she whispered.
…
"Do you want to name our impromptu party, then, Lucille?" Déa asked.
Her eyes momentarily brightened, before fading out.
"I don't think I will, sorry for interrupting."
Déa nodded halfheartedly.
The group began to leave their battleground and head back to home.
…
…
Déa asked a few questions during the silence.
"Branwen. Your last name, correct?"
Branwen glanced up. "Why are you asking?"
"Oh. Just… curious."
Hmph.
…
"Yes. It's my last name."
"Hmm."
…
Déa, after striding ahead, slowed and walked alongside Lucille for a minute.
"Here. It might not be… entirely correct, but it follows the basic rule of what I remembered."
A glove passed her a slip of paper, folded in half.
Lucy felt confused. This seemed… like a secret, so she slowly opened the paper and read the contents.
…Cypher? she thought, briefly, before noticing a few details on the scrap.
"D, myself, standing for the leader, technically. I felt that it could work, but I'd be ignoring your training and the degrees of how others may feel."
She frowned, and read the minute script further.
"Branwen is next, ignoring that all I met before over the years had first names for the acronym. Sorry of this upsets you. I chose them for the point in time of joining."
"L. (Apologies, again, but consistency.)"
Lucy, finding nothing else, tilted over the paper to read a small scrawl:
"Our new individual, Mr Nemo. Now… the word?"
She looked up at the writer of the paper, and raised her eyebrows.
"It's already an acronym though?" she called out.
…
…
Déa slowed down, and rotated around.
"It is?"
Lucy frowned at the confusion, and handed the small paper to Nemo.
"What word is this?" she asked.
He silently looked at the paper, and handed it back to her after a moment.
"Is this your little party name?"
"Hmm?"
"It works." Nemo said. "Déa is the respectful one there with the glass spectacles."
"I am" they called out.
"Branwen… is that man, the knife-wielder." Nemo gestured at Branwen, walking quietly.
"Then there's you with your staff, and myself with the contextual background." Nemo concluded, gesturing at the witch then themselves.
"Doubloon is a perfectly fine single word, if that is what you were planning." Nemo said.
"Then there's the name." Déa said.
"…"
…
She stared at the three men, bouncing between them all.
…
"Eh?"
…
"What?"
…
"How is that the entire na-aaaa" She cried out. For some reason… she sputtered, and stared at something in the middle distance, quietly mumbling as she gaped.
"Huh! I'd take that as a name! Definitely piss off the friends back home!" Branwen crowed.
Déa smiled slightly at the sounds. "Everyone is fine with our little 'team'?"
"-a…aaa-"
"I accept. It's rather fine."
"…oh. Ah… that's… hmm."
"I, Branwen, completely accept!"
"Good. Now, let's head back." Déa said, before skidding to a halt in the snow.
…
…Or... perhaps it'll be longer than I thought first.
Déa then looked up towards the large grey mass far before them, and sighed.
"I forgot about the hillside."
"I brought everyone slightly off. We need to go more to the right. I made a mistake." Déa spoke clearly, and strode off to the right, where they had originally walked from.
….
"What about a hillside?" Lucy muttered, before speaking up.
"The path ended up covered. We can't go that way. It would've been faster, but we can't go there."
…
Lucy smiled slightly, and wiggled her fingers in anticipation. "Excuse me! I have some errands to do!" she cried out, and sprinted towards the hillside mentioned just moments before.
Loud thudding booms followed her, so she flickered ahead in time with it and she soon crouched, sliding to a halt at the base of the hill.
Throwing up her hand, she aimed her staff perpendicular to the hillside mentioned just, and shouted at it.
"BLIZZARD! FURIOUS WIND!"
Her staff slammed into the ground, lighting up a blue ring shockwave. After that, the hillside was illuminated by a large circle of light in front of the girl.
The circle then began to rotate. Now, this may just be simply visualised as a ring spinning around the staff, but that fails to describe exactly what happens after this rotation begins.
Firstly, the 'rotation' is not a calm one, like slowly tracing a circle with one's finger. This circle spun like an air turbine and the wind from the rotation alone started scouring the snow off the ground and up into the air.
In the last moments, she swung up her staff and flung out her arm like she was over theatrically skipping a stone. The floating ring of light followed her gesture and, rotating by ninety degrees, it drove itself up the hill, melting away the snow, and a few layers of cold earth.
"Path cleared!" she cried out, pumping her fist in the air. "You just faced the power of sorcery!"
…
"Why only now?" a voice asked her, annoyances perceptible.
"I wasn't allowed to, Nemo!" Lucy turned around and spoke clearly to the captain.
"The curse? Or something else?"
…
"I can't cast magic in the town, or around… some category of person, I don't recall exactly. New people, I think. I couldn't cast any spell during this mission."
She grinned, and smugly spun around. "But no-ow I'm in a party again!"
"That appears to be a good th-" Nemo began, before a loud shout covered his voice.
"HA! BEAT YOUR STUPID MAGIC YOU BASTARD!" Lucy cried out, pointing her middle finger at the sky in an English question-mark shape. "THAT'S FOR HAVING TO WALK THE ENTIRE DAMN CAPITAL CITY FOR HOURS! LET ME RIDE THE LIGHTNING FOR ONCE!"
She then went quiet and bowed, spinning her hands around and ending with a gesture up the hillside. "Your new path…. awaits!"
Lucy looked up at her team.
…
Then she looked behind Nemo to the two men standing, watching them both.
"HEEEY! It's what you wanted, right?" she shouted over, waving an arm back and forth at them. "
….
..
..
..
..
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