Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction based on multiple existing anime/manga series. The characters and settings used in this story belong to their respective owners and creators, and no copyright infringement is intended. This story is purely for entertainment purposes and is not intended to infringe upon any existing intellectual property. I do not own any of the original works that inspired this fanfiction, and I fully support the original creators and their works.
I'm also exceedingly rarely chilling in JaxWolf4's (Author of Nah, I'd Adapt and Zenin Days) Discord Server. It's a chaotic lobotomy mess. Not for the faint of heart.
Here's the link:
Disc: HrPrTeam
Ahem.
KOKUSEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Story Start-
It was humid.
The stench of rust and ozone permeated the cavernous depths of the mine as Alex rushed through.
His steps, however, were much more careful and measured, still moving quickly, but not enough to destabilize the ground or create a whirlwind.
The fury and frustration lingered; however, his hold on Excalibur's hilt tightened with a crushing force - yet the blade shimmered ethereally, almost reassuringly, without issue.
He fixed his gaze forward, the sounds of combat getting louder and louder with his approach, until eventually he came across a rather large opening within the mine - one that opened a little vertically and went a little down.
It was spacious enough to hold a two-story building, and the metallic pillars that kept it from collapsing seemed to still be in decent but not ideal shape.
Two huntsmen, seemingly older and not just 3rd or 4th year students, stood before him, fighting against a Grimm that appeared like a large gorilla - a Beringel.
They weaved and bobbed and seemed to try and carefully eliminate it, and struggled to do so, but the wounds were piling up on the furious Grimm.
But, in a way, they were also guiding the rhythm of combat.
"They're trying to avoid hitting the pillars," Alex confirmed after a moment of contemplation, not wanting to rush into action after...
Shaking his head, he moved with incredible restraint, his speed comparable to the huntsmen before him as his approach signaled the surprise of the combative party.
Their gaze nestled on Excalibur momentarily, and the Beringel roared an almost earth-shaking roar, Alex's appearance or, more so, his Aura, grabbing its attention.
It charged towards him, to which the two huntsmen chased as well and sliced the careless Grimm's legs, causing it to fall, Alex moving in tandem and piercing its head with a lunge from Excalibur, driving it through the skull.
"What's the situation?" Alex asked immediately, regarding the older men.
"Jade's setting up the explosives," one of them mentioned, pointing a thumb at an unnaturally large hole in the cavern's walls. There were a couple of them, but this one appeared as if a few large Grimm had pierced their way through.
"Alex Andrite, right? Are things fine back there?" The other asked, wiping a sweat from his brow.
Alex gave them the truth, with a bitter look, "I can't say it's fine. But the fighting has ended."
The two men exchanged weary looks, to which Alex answered. "No one's dead. Just badly injured."
The relief on their faces was instant, but Alex pressed on with haste. "Does Jade need help?"
"No, Jade's semblance lets him hide from detection with obvious downsides; he's been doing back and forths with the Dust-"
"I know what his Semblance does. Does he need help?"
"No, except holding the ground for him, nothing else-" He then turned to his partner, who nodded with a similarly uneasy expression and added, "and we should hear an explosion any time now, but if he takes too long-"
"Then head out, I'll take care of things from here-" As Alex spoke, the cavern shook as a reverbrating boom echoed across the large hole in the wall. It sounded like it came from real deep in the cave.
And out of the large hole, just a moment later came Jade, with an oddly suspicious lack of... presence and slow, controlled pace.
"Damn jackass, those are some sharp instincts. You looked at me before I even turned this off?" He complimented as Alex's gaze narrowed down at him, whilst the other two huntsmen directed their eyes at the hole where the explosion came from.
"We should hurry out of here; there are many injured." Alex asserted gravely.
Jade blinked. "What bullshit are you spouting? I know I turned my comms off, but how bad could it get? We're all professionals here! This should've gone swimmingl-"
He paused, noting a key detail. "But if you are here... fucking hell."
"Is the job done? If not, I can go and topple the roof-"
"It's blown to kingdom come, you'd need a Grimmole armada with the brains of an Atlesian Scientist to dig through that shit with how much Dust went in there. Stop doubting your seniors and let's hurry up."
With that said, they rushed out of the cave, Alex keeping pace with them.
-----------------------------
"Bloody. Hell." Those were the first words that left Jade's lips, as he barely held onto his helmet with a single hand.
"The fuck happened? Did a hurricane sweep through this place?" He rushed towards the assembled party of the injured and their caretakers.
Alex and the two older huntsmen followed suit, with one of the less injured answering the inquiry.
"We were surrounded-"
"By what? Beowolves? What fucking happened!" Jade barked with utter dismay.
"Hell if I know! I thought we did a decent job of clearing out all dangerous Grimm within the valley, out of nowhere, Grimm as old as someone's grandparents just upped and coordinated an attack on us. Even a damned Burrowbone showed its ugly mug."
The disbelief wasn't visible on Jade's features, as his helmet hid all semblance of them, yet every syllable of his words oozed that very emotion. "The. Fuck."
His anger was palpable, as well as his confoundment, "Clever old fuckers. WAS THIS WORTH YOUR DAMN LIVES?!" He shouted at the sky, where the presumed 'dust' of Grimm disintegrates into.
Taking a deep breath, he approached the injured, eyeing every single one as Alex did much the same, although pausing for a moment.
"What then? Andrite took care of the rest?" Jade asked, pointing at Alex with a calmer grateful note.
Alex's expression hardened, and a genuine trace of shame crossed his features, mixing with his contempt and subdued fury.
The report was swift. "We had taken care of most of them, but he managed to take care of the last ones giving us trouble... I'm not sure if we'd have come out without any casualties without him." The medic mentioned with a look settling on Alex, that slowly grew more hesitant, nay, fearful.
"But I won't sit here and lie and say all he did was fine and good. He... moved. It's hard to believe, but like a literal hurricane, he nearly swept all of us off our feet with just taking action... sent a lot of us flying; he's damn lucky no one without aura got his back broken or head pierced by something in the way, but a lot of bones were broken, we might even have cripples on our hands."
Jade turned to Alex with a mixture of gratitude and chastisement, "Cripples... beats death. Sincerely, thank you for saving their lives, but try not to be the human equivalent of an elephant. Watch where you move, you got that?"
"That's not the only issue." The medic pressed on, the fear in his face finally being recognized by Jade.
Alex's grip on Excalibur tightened even more as he ground his teeth.
Jade's eyes widened beneath his helmet as he almost instinctively took a step back, much to his own shame, alongside the older huntsmen who were not present to see it all.
The uncertain dread permeating the crowd of both conscious and unconscious huntsmen practically contaminated him.
All their eyes settled on Alex Andrite, as one of them barked out with genuine unease.
A contradicting mixture of both fear and pity.
"The kid's unstable. Although he saved Calla from the Burrowbone, he turned her entire right arm into mush-" He pursed his lips, his words coming out measured. "Mist even. There was no mercy in his swings; he was intending on erasing that Grimm and her hand into nothing, at least that's how it looked."
"But what came later was worse and confirmed my doubts... he was about to finish the job and do the same to her, the loss of her hand was no accident, at least, a sane one."
The third-year senior lowered his gaze at the unconcious Calla, the blood loss, pain, and anguish taking her consciousness away.
Fury emanated from every syllable, the more he spoke the more furious he became, the prior pity or slight understanding he had for Alex diminishing before him, "It wasn't until she dropped into her head to the mud, pissed herself, and begged for her life before Andrite broke out of whatever terrifying trance he was in... but if she makes it through this, you can hear it from her own mouth."
A whisper, barely audible, left the infuriated young man's lips. One Alex shouldn't have ordinarily heard.
Whether it was said in the heat of the moment or not, it still left the man's lips:
"Fucking Monster."
Alex's lips pursed tightly.
The implications of it all were heavy, as the air was downright suffocating, and Alex?
He stood truly and utterly alone.
A cacophony, a maelstrom of emotions swirled within him, as fury, shame, indignation, and visceral disdain overwhelmed him.
But Excalibur's light shone nonetheless.
Resolve crossed his dull amber, as they had suddenly sharpened into a peculiar amber gaze. As he, despite the shame in his visage, regarded each and every person in this clearing.
[Such a lack of gratitude to their Hero, huh? Such is human nature. But, as a Hero, you must learn to accept such things.]
No.
It wasn't about gratitude for Alex, not right now.
He didn't care about that, not from this situation, and not from them.
Not when he messed up.
Wholly, totally.
But Excalibur's light shone nonetheless.
"I'm sorry, all of you. I'll apologize to Calla when she wakes up and try to do something about it. And... I'll try to get better." He gave them a nod, and his words left no room for argument - they were as transparent as one could get.
He was truly and utterly sorry.
He should have been careful.
Moreover, he should have been more careful in... thinking that he could deal with the hell the System inflicted upon him.
'If there was one thing, one damn thing I could hold onto without Excalibur...'
That would be his sense of self.
But now?
Even that came into question.
Because of that... thing.
The air had suddenly turned awkward at that, as the gazes that had regarded the younger boy before them as a monster had softened considerably.
The monster, the hero, whatever it was that was capable of such power, the unstable thing was, as the more experienced and older fourth-years and the two licensed huntsmen had suspected.
A poor, damaged thing.
But a danger, nonetheless.
"Is this any damn time for these investigations? We've got injured, you idiots!" One of the two older huntsmen barked out like an audible voice of reason.
Jade caught on quickly, "Did you call in an emergency bullhead?!"
"Yes, that's why we're still holding up here. We sent the request to CFVY; they should relay it forward, they don't have a bullhead on hand in the town right now."
"Good, but still dammit!"
The older huntsman turned to Alex with a reassuring and gentle tone. "You, stay put and don't do anything, my partner and I still have half a tank of aura on us and ammunition, we'll take care of anything."
Alex's frown settled into a calmer thin line as he nodded gravely. "Alright."
The two huntsmen pressed forward as they went ahead to hold some chokepoints where Grimm might possibly appear from, as Jade approached Alex in turn.
"I usually don't doubt the big man, but I don't know what Ozpin was thinking, sending you here. But I'll have to relay to him what happened here, I'm not expecting a protest, alright, kid?" His words were deadly serious, lacking all of the usual obscene slurs he would usually hurl.
"I understand. It's for the better." Alex didn't protest in the slightest, as he nodded his agreement.
The helmeted Jade scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "Bloody hell, how'd it all go to shit like this? Something ain't sitting right with me about this."
Alex wasn't in too much of a mind to actually value what Jade was saying, but he offered something else:
"Once you're all out of here, I'll eliminate every single Grimm in this valley."
...
"Rejected. That's too much, and a lot of ground to cover. And... as much as I'd like to say I'm pretty sure all the dangerous stuff was taken care of with this ambush, first time this has ever happened to me, you'll probably be running around hacking at Creeps and Beowolves as old as my breakfast." Jade held no doubt as to Alex's capability of actually achieving that goal.
"Doesn't matter, it's the least I can do," Alex stated with a close-eyed nod.
Jade huffed, almost good-naturedly, as he, much to Alex's dismay, patted his blonde hair before moving away from him, leaving him to his devices.
Jade's voice created an opening for the respite Alex had sought, "I'll consider it, hold off on running off on your own."
"Alright."
-----------------------------
It'd take a while until the emergency bullhead was set to arrive, at least an hour. Alex's eyes carefully scrutinized the injured, some of them in a worse state than the rest.
While they waited, the two huntsmen took care of any Grimm that had approached, and due to the negativity and Alex's presence, a decent amount had approached, but the two partners managed to deal with them rather well, as the ones who were rushing in were young and weak ones.
Nevertheless, Alex stood conflicted. He heard that when the Grimm were rushing in far earlier than all, he could take care of them; he felt obligated to do so, even when these huntsmen were capable of dealing with it - but that, he knew, was his shame speaking for him.
What held him grounded was the far more powerful emotion of fear.
Fear of himself.
He doesn't know what he'll do if he rushes into this once again. Going into the mine to help was a state of emergency when the situation was simply unclear.
Ordinarily, he should feel relieved that he gets to kick back and relax.
But now?
He feels revolted.
"Be honest with me. Are they going to make it?" Alex asked the medic amongst the fourth-years, as his amber gaze nestled on the more terribly injured - obviously not all of it being his fault, but some had gotten worse due to the hurricane he had swept them under, not to mention Calla herself lying armless and having lost excruciating amounts of blood.
"Most of them, I can confidently say so. But we don't have a healing semblance on hand, and no one here has Calla's blood-type or one that is fit with her. The equipments pretty damaged, so I wouldn't risk doing it on field. As for survival... It's likely, but I'm being levelheaded here, it all depends on how quickly we fly to the hospital and how quickly the hospital will get a blood transfusion going-"
Alex's eyes widened, "Blood-type? What is her blood-type?" He also had a rather rare one - the same one in both his lives.
"AB-. But, again, I wouldn't risk it with the equipment unless-"
That same as his.
Alex immediately voiced, "Then we can-"
[If you give her your blood. She'll die, guaranteed.]
'If you're bullshitti-'
[You have the blood of Dragons flowing through your veins. Humans will die from that.]
He was not going to argue the fact that he was Human against the wretch right now... but it was right, he couldn't risk it.
The fact that he had magical blood flowing through his veins wasn't a fabricated falsity by the System.
"Then we can what?" The medic inquired.
Alex sighed, shaking his head, "Nevermind."
But he could try something else.
His time in dreams, his time in the mission, wasn't all wasted willy-nilly.
Alex's eyes closed as he reached his hand into his chest for the umpteenth time, his aura beginning to mysteriously fluctuate in a wave-like pattern, alongside his breathing.
Unsurprisingly, he was rather talented in meditation.
Concerned, deeply concerned even, looks nestled onto his visage, yet he stood unmoving.
[You...]
He could feel it, within the depths of his very soul.
It felt eerily familiar to the very air he breathed in the Utopia it led to.
The Mana.
He couldn't grasp it with his Aura.
That feeling, he converted his Aura into it.
And then, he could finally see it.
The Sheath Of The Holy Sword Of The Planet that lingered within his soul.
A phantom hand within his consciousness extended towards it, to grab it, yet it failed once more.
Indeed, once again, he had failed.
He failed.
Not quite, however.
[You shouldn't be capable of this so soon.]
[Skill Acquisition Detected!]
[Aura <> Prana Conversion LVL 1 UNLOCKED!]
Yet, the satisfaction from the System's utter shock or from his actual progress never came. He had to make it work.
He tried again.
The air he exuded was different, anomalous even from the almost mystified and concerned onlookers.
He tried again.
With each attempt, his Aura unconsciously converted into Prana almost amateurishly and in tiny quantities before returning into Aura.
[You didn't come into contact with Mana often enough... Purgatory... it has an abundance of Mana, is that why the progress accelerated...?] The System did little to hide its musings.
He tried and tried to reach out to it.
But he had still failed.
But he could see it; the irony was palpable.
The Everdistant Utopia remained outside his grasp.
He stopped, opening his eyes to regard the slightly confused looks without issue.
"I should have just carried the injured, carefully." He let loose an agonized sigh.
"No one would have let you."
-----------------------------
"Are you sure you want to go through with this? We were planning on tidying up here after the breach was blocked-" Jade, alongside the two older Huntsmen, repeatedly asked Alex as he stood outside the bullhead, and the injured were being swiftly carried into it.
Alex confirmed, interrupting the explanation, "I'm sure. Let me at least do something right."
"This is outside regular rulebooks or protocol, but considering you are... a special case and we're pretty low on manpower right now-"
He paused as he mentally calculated the right way to go about this, his visage screaming that he wasn't all too happy about this arrangement, but he pressed on. "You are to report hourly and keep comms on at all times."
"And if, which I'm sure is the case, you don't finish by nightfall, you are to return to town regardless of progress, you got it?" The older huntsman carefully instructed.
"I got it." Alex nodded in agreement, pocketing his communication device.
Nodding, the three turned around and headed into the bullhead, pausing at Alex calling out to them momentarily, "I hope to return to good news." He voiced out honestly.
"That makes four of us."
With that said, the bullhead swiftly shot into the air, leaving the scarred battlefield with an audible flight.
Leaving Alex alone within, as only the silent forest ambience and the wind accompanied him.
No one accidentally injure by taking a simple step.
[The Hero stands alone, against all peril, as it should be.]
He didn't like it, nor would he consider himself one - but he found himself in exactly the situation the System had preached.
It revolted him.
But a few outliers will exist - he stood here on his own accord, and it didn't matter that it aligned with the System's interests.
Because...
Excalibur's light shone nonetheless.
And the darkness of the valley was purged with a flurry of slashes and wind.
The Grimms, but lambs to the slaughter, none were spared.
Annhilated down to the last one within three hours.
...
But there was an outlier.
As he ran through the forest without restraint, levelling the surrounding forests with his mere movements, he felt a strange gaze settle onto his figure, forcing him to pause.
It was peculiar, since it didn't come from any of the surrounding area, like some odd Grimm sighting him and charging at him.
In actuality, it came from the sky, forcing him to lift his gaze to the large, cloudy evening sky.
With his superhuman eyesight, even amongst Huntsmen, he could see what was looking at him.
"That's a rare one."
It was a recognizable Grimm, in fact, an ultra-rare one.
So rare that no one actually knew what it could do, yet it was well known due to its scarcity.
Some argue it actually did nothing.
"As if." Alex spat out.
A jellyfish Grimm.
Apparently, it held some impressive eyesight, considering it was looking straight at Alex.
"I don't know what it can do, so... better safe than sorry," He lowered his upperbody to the ground, lifting a stray rock.
And with a casual swing with all his might, it shot like a bullet towards the Grimm Jellyfish, kicking up the wind around him.
He missed, but the wind pressure sent its fragile figure flying into the distance.
"...Good enough." He mumbled before deciding to carry on with his purge.
Yet, had it truly been... good enough?
He took a sharp step forward to continue his job, only to pause as he felt that direct gaze once more.
Lifting its head, the Grimm Jellyfish seemed to readjust itself and fly back, keeping its eyes on him.
Alex paused, his amber eyes transfixed on the strange jellyfish.
It paused as well.
He stood on guard, for... anything.
But nothing came.
It simply... observed.
[The worm dares lay its impudent gaze on the Dragon, unaware that its squirming serves nothing more than to delay the inevitable.]
He lowered himself to grab another stone, as he inquired, "Not a Dragon. And how exactly is a jellyfish a worm?" Alex's voice held no humor; the system was either playing with him, or trying to say something... or both.
[Figure of speech.]
As he was about to throw the rock, the jellyfish, as enigmatic as its behavior is, began to float away.
He threw the rock anyway.
This time, it blew up into grimm-smithereens.
[Just so.]
"Shut your mouth."
Even when that Grimm was slain, however, Alex couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.
The jellyfish, although dead, looked at him - it felt oddly intelligent.
He'd love to just ignore it; no one really knows what those Jellyfish Grimm can do.
However...
"I'll just ask Ozpin later..." He mentally noted.
To Be Continued!
-Author Note Start-
Nothing much to say, well, I might have something to say, but I prefer not to speak because if I speak,k I'm in big trouble.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chappie! This lil arc should be over in the next chapter, and we'll move on to more important things.
Next chapter within 24-48 hours!
Bu Bye my lovelies!