“Alright students, now that you’ve had some time to unpack and relax let’s get into things!” Leon exclaimed as the two teams found their way down to the main floor of the tavern, Yuri and Brandford at his side. Lilac looked on apprehensively from the bar, whilst cleaning a glass.
“Yes!” Shin exclaimed as he entered the room, grinning a toothy grin.
“Love the energy!” Yuri exclaimed, throwing out a thumbs up.
“Yuri, Branford. I’ll leave you to explain things for today.” Leon said, stepping aside and taking a seat at one of the tavern’s tables.
“Alright guys! Today we’re gonna split you both into groups of four… But not by team! Half of you are gonna go with me, and the other half will be with Branford!” Yuri explained cheerfully, putting a hand on the guard’s shoulder. Branford simply grunted and nodded. “My team will head out to the eastern wall. Plenty of Grimm like to hang around the heavy forests around here, and if they catch us outside the wall they won’t think twice about snapping us up! Makes it difficult to build defences. If we had some super cool huntsmen and huntresses to help, it'd be much smoother.”
“The other four will be with me.” Branford spoke up in a gruff and slightly raspy voice. “We’ll be heading to the walls and barracks to perform patrols and rounds. I expect you to respect my authority as any of my men would.”
“Right! Now how about you four come with me.” Yuri quickly pointed at random, picking out four from the group, those four being Thalia, Robert, Bruno and Scarlett. “Awesome! We’re gonna have a great time today! That leaves you four with Branford!”
“I look forward to working with you sir!” Shin said, saluting with a grin. Merlot, Geralt and Ash all looked at him slightly apprehensively.
“Damn right.” Branford said, before turning around to face the door. “Let's get a move on then.”
“Us too!” Yuri said, following behind him.
“Oh, one last thing before you go students!” Leon quickly spoke up, waving them down before they could exit out the doors of the tavern. He reached into his pocket and extracted his scroll. “I forgot to mention it on the way up but… This town has a signal tower that connects to Mistral’s CCT, but it’s the only way to contact the city. You can communicate within the town and the general area with scrolls, but they won’t be able to get through to the main kingdom. Just keep that in mind, alright? I’m always a phone call away if you need me!”
“Of course Mr. Leon sir!” Shin said in response, as the two teams finally made it out the door.
“And what’ll you be doing Mr. Huntsman?” Lilac asked, leaning over the nearby bar counter and looking at Leon. “Not lazing around the bar I hope.”
“Of course not. I’ll be around, monitoring them and stepping in if they really need help.” Leon replied happily. “But for the most part, I have faith in them. They seem like promising individuals…”
*
“Here we are!”
Yuri said cheerfully, traversing the snow covered grounds, on the outskirts of town. Large wooden wall sat directly behind them, as the group traveled to the small section of flat ground between the town and forest. They were joined by a small army of construction workers, most dressed in heavy winter attire, moving large amounts of wood, metal and brick. “Phew! You kids are lucky to have those auras of yours! Doing construction work in the winter time with these heavy coats is the worst!”
“Why are you building all this stuff now then?” Bruno asked absentmindedly.
“Weren’t you listening? They have to build it to defend against the Grimm.” Thalia finally spoke up, rolling her eyes.
“Oh yeah.”
“What she said!” Yuri said, before stopping. “Alright, here we are!”
Laid out before them were a series of battlements, battered and broken. Some of the workers got to work repairing them with fresh wood and metal. Others began to remove smaller, sleek metallic devices from their carts.
“What’re those?” Bruno wondered.
“Glad you asked! They’re barrier generators, freshly imported from Atlas! Tech like this is pretty rare out here, most of it goes to the big cities.” Yuri replied.
“So all we have to do is guard your workers against any Grimm that show up?” Thalia asked.
“Essentially. I’m sure some will pop up soon.”
Thalia nodded and reached to her back, removing a wooden bow. It was elegantly crafted, sleek and beautiful in its design. It came equipped with a full quiver of arrows. She narrowed her eyes, immediately beginning to scan the tree line.
“Prepare yourselves.” She advised her comrades. “Danger may strike at any moment.”
“You’re being weirdly talkative now.” Bruno said.
Thalia turned slightly to look at Bruno with a cold expression. “My word isn’t valued much while around Geralt.”
“Don’t say that, he isn’t that bad!” Scarlett protested, reaching to her belt and extracting a pair of daggers connected by a chain.
“I don’t want to get into it. It’s not the time or place.” Thalia said with annoyance. Next to her, Robert reached to his back, whereupon a large shield was located, as well as a sword which he gripped in his left hand.
Bruno grinned slightly as he reached into his pocket, extracting a pair of small gauntlets, before putting them on. Immediately, four blades extended from above his knuckles on each side.
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“You look excited.” Robert commented.
“You’re the one who said it Robert, we finally get to be badass cool huntsmen!” Bruno replied.
*
“Welcome to the barracks.”
Brandford said, as he trudged along in front of his group. The four found themselves within a small compound, enclosed by a thin wooden wall and placed directly against the interior of the much larger wooden wall that surrounded the town. The area consisted of two buildings, one much bigger than the other, as well as several crates covered by tarps and a large fire pit in the middle. Training dummies, targets and a sparring pit were found off to the side. The compound had a staircase and ladder directly leading to the wall’s walkway. Various soldiers populated the barracks, some on guard, others training or casually talking. All dressed in the same leather armour and clutching either a bow and arrow, gun, sword or spear.
“I’d like to make one thing clear before we begin. You are not above any of my soldiers and you are certainly not above me just because you’re training at some fancy academy.” Branford said gruffly. “You drop any self importance you might have, you listen to my orders and you do your job. Am I understood? Good.”
Without waiting for a response, he pressed on. “Now. I’ll be stationing you folk alongside the wall in order to-”
“Actually sir, I don’t understand.” A voice spoke up. The captain turned around to find Geralt, a smug expression on his face with his hand raised.
“And what is it you don’t understand?” Branford asked slowly.
“I don’t understand how a filthy faunus like you thinks that he can order me around like some dog! The irony here is just sickening…” Geralt spat.
Shin, Merlot and Ash’s eyes immediately went wide as they all turned to Geralt. Branford too look surprised, but his eyes narrowed down just as quickly.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say to me?” He asked, his voice raising in tone.
“You’re a weak and decrepit faunus, just as worthless as the snow underneath my boots. Shall I say it one more time? I thought you’d have better hearing with those ridiculous ears of yours…”
“Geralt! What is wrong with you?!” Shin exclaimed, stepping in front of his partner.
“You rich Mistralian brats are all the same, you can’t even get creative with your insults anymore…” Branford smirked slightly. “Alright. So you won’t listen to me since I’m a faunus, eh?”
“Not just that. You’re weak. A lowly guard with no formal combat training I’d say.” Geralt added.
“Oh I see. Would you like to test that theory?” Brandford asked. Geralt raised an eyebrow. “How about we have ourselves a little spar. The pit is open, shouldn’t take too long… Why not?”
“You want to fight?” Geralt grinned. “How barbaric. But if you really insist…”
“Geralt, what are you doing?” Shin said. “We are supposed to be here on a mission.”
“Hey, he’s the instigator… I might as well accept his offer.” Geralt pushed past Shin, heading towards the pit.
“I don’t know about you Merlot… But I really wanna see this…” Ash whispered to his leader.
“Me too. Who do you think is gonna win?” Merlot replied.
“I sure hope it’s that Brandford guy. He’s gotta have something up his sleeve…”
Brandford took a step into the fighting pit. Geralt joined him. Many of the guards in the area took interest in the altercation, surrounding the pit, in particular a black haired girl with the same wolf ears as Brandford. Shin looked on in anger, while merlot and Ash watched with curiosity.
“Let’s finish this quickly, I have a mission to attend to.” Geralt said, his grey aura flashing to life as he reached to his back. From there, he extracted a long metallic trident. With a flick of a button, hard light blades emerged from the end.
“I assure you, I don’t want to waste my time with this either…” Brandford said. He reached to his belt and unsheathed a simple falchion shortsword. From there, he sunk into a fighting stance, his black aura appearing around him. "...But sometimes spoiled children like you need to be put in their place."
“This is ridiculous…” Shin said with a grimace. “But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in the outcome of this fight.”
*
“I see one!”
A construction worker exclaimed, pointing towards the edge of the forest. Immediately, Yuri and the four students snapped to attention, their gaze turning to where the man was pointing. Emerging from the tree line nearby was a familiar sight. Dark fur, glowing red eyes and sharp pointed teeth, all traits found on a beowolf. The creature stalked forward towards the closest group of workers, several hundred meters away from the students. The civilians immediately began to panic.
“We have to do something!” Robert said, alarmed.
“Thalia?” Scarlett turned to her teammate.
“Done.” Was all she said in response. The faunus reached into her quiver, drawing a wooden arrow with a perfectly sharpened metallic tip. Pulling back the drawstring of her bow, she took aim and let the arrow fly. It sailed through the air, only coming to a stop when it embedded itself within the skull of the beowolf, ending the Grimm before it could cause any havoc. It collapsed to the ground, its body beginning to slowly disintegrate.
This was far from the end of things, however. Following the first, several more dark figures emerged from the tree line.
“It’s a pack!” Thalia exclaimed, loading another arrow.
“Come on! We need to defend the workers!” Robert said to Bruno, raising his sword and shield and charging towards the creatures.
“Yeah let’s do it! We’re gonna look like the coolest heroes ever to those construction guys!” Bruno exclaimed, dashing forward a small distance behind his teammate.
Scarlett too joined the first years, gaining distance on their opponents as Thalia let another arrow fly.
The first beowolf to exit the trees leapt towards the closest construction worker, but an arrow to the skull put it down. The next in line was met head on by Robert. It swung its clawed paw towards him, but the attack was blocked with the boy’s shield with a loud clang. A stab to the chest ended the Grimm’s life.
Bruno came next, rushing not at one of the Grimm but at Robert. He expressed a look of confusion at first, until the faunus’ actions became clear. Bruno jumped towards Robert’s shield, using it as a spring board of sorts to bounce off and launch himself towards the nearest Grimm. The momentum of his jump allowed him to embed his blades in the creature’s head.
Robert grimaced, but focused back on the task at hand. With his thumb, he flicked a switch on his sword. The blade began emit a faint blue aura, just in time for the next beowolf to attack. With one slash, Robert cleaved through the Grimm. Not only that, his blade emitted a curved shard of ice that flew through the air, decapitating another.
Scarlett readied her blades, clutching one in her hand and using it to spin the other. The chained weapon flew through the air, slicing up a pair of beowolves from a distance, and chopping the arm off of another. The disarmed beowolf was promptly shot down by Thalia.
“I haven’t fought Grimm since the initiation… Strangely, I was getting more used to sparring with other people.” Robert commented, raising his sword and slashing it through the air, leaving behind an icy trail that cut through one of the Grimm. Another attacked him from the side, but it was promptly met with a stab through the chest. The beowulf began to freeze from the inside out as it toppled to the ground, dead.
“Sounds like an excuse to me!” Bruno exclaimed, stabbing one of the wolves in the throat with his blades. He met another head on, the creature’s claws swinging towards him. He threw out another attack at the same time, cutting lengthwise through the Grimm’s arm, before reaching its head. The creature fell in a pool of ichor.
“That was the last one.” Thalia called to Bruno as she drew slightly closer. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled but I believe the area is secure.”
“Woohoo! Nice work!” Yuri cheered, pumping her arms up in the air a small ways away from the battlefield. The other construction workers joined her, giving the students a round of applause. Scarlett let out a sigh of relief.
“Yeah! I am awesome!” Bruno said, before turning to Robert. “I could get used to this…”
“Well… I’m glad you’re happy.” Robert said, sheathing his sword as it returned to its normal state.
All of a sudden, the applause abruptly stopped. The students stood bewildered for a moment.
“BEHIND YOU!” Yuri exclaimed, urgently pointing past the four. The students immediately whipped around, just in time for Robert to get swatted to the ground with a resounding clang of his armour. The other three jumped to attention, finding themselves face to face with an Alpha Beowolf.
However, something was different about this particular alpha. It was slightly larger and bulkier than expected, but that paled in comparison to its other visual differences. Several dozen bony spikes stuck out from the creature’s back, each one coloured a sickly green. That same green radiated from the Grimm’s mouth as it roared at the students, before charging forward.