Dust, Gunpowder, and Ashes (OPEN) [Challenge Hunt: Multiple Encounters]

Akui had quite possibly over stepped her bounds by continuing to get up close and person with the giant snake creature, and it would seem it was tired of her crap as it would have crushed her against a tree had she not already been performing a roll of it's head. That wasn't to say she got off scott-free...but it could have been much worse...

When the snake threw it's tantrum, Akui went flying, her being such a lightweight and all. She trying to land in a tree by catching some branches, but they most definitely broke under her momentum, so she did her best to land gracefully on her feet...but she was forced to bit of a roll as her ankle twisted a bit to far under the pressure. She gracefully recovered from her roll, but as she attempted to fully stand up, she immediately collapsed down on one knee as pain filled her entire leg.

"F***! S***!" she swore loudly, breathing slowly afterwards to try and bring the pain to a minimum. There was no way she could stand on her ankle, so since she was already low to the ground she rolled to a nearby tree and used it to help herself stand up. She then propper herself up against it and gave Agony and Infamy a look-over to see if they had been damaged in any way. They both appeared to be fine, although the little fire symbol she engraved was flashing black in color, which was a bit of a bummer: Out of Fire Dust for gunpowder.

She needed a distraction for both herself and her team so that they could finish this thing once and for all. Instead of opening fire on the Grimm she decided to do something she hadn't done in a while: use her Semblance in a battle-related manner. While there was no way she could make a bullet that has already been fired travel at the same speed and provide the same amount of penetration, she could at least do something here, but the pain in her leg kept her getting a proper stance and her eyes were watering from the pain so there was no way she could aim properly.

Akui closed her eyes and did her best to shutout the pain coming from her ankle, then she opened her eyes and saw her plan envisioned in front of her...but unfortunately, the old man was in the way, which seemed to be a trend. He had even transported underground somehow with what seemed to be his semblance, some weird and freaky plant power. Akui concentrated on trying to move him, but she was struggling against the pain so she holstered Infamy around her wrist and held out her hand to help her concentrate on the dumb, medieval weapon the old geezer was wield.

She felt a form of contact, and moved her hand to the left, attempting to drag the wrecking ball to the left and pull the man out of the way so the Grimm could be fully focused on what she was preparing to do. She envisioned it again: a carbon-copy of the giant two-headed snake, right in front of the Grimm itself. Then she attracted all hundreds of bullet shells that had been fired in the area, including pulling out any of those that may have embedded themselves into the beast. She closed her eyes tight as she focused and assembling them in the right order, and she felt a tightness in her chest and he pulse becoming a bit more rapid all with the massive throbbing pain in her ankle.

Still, she envisioned it: a giant metal duplicate of the two-headed Grimm, moving and wriggling like it was alive, right in front of the real deal to distract it from the rest of her team. The creature was a beast after all, hopefully it would feel challenged or in the very least confused that it was viewing what seemed to be another of it's kind that looked a bit odd.

To those looking onto this feat, they would see hundreds of bullets flying through like worker bees, moving around and weaving and stacking in place to form a giant two-headed snake that heavily resembled the one they were currently fighting, only being made out of bits metal and resembling chain mail in regards to texture. Then, Akui envisioned it motioning as if it hissed at the fleshy copy, and then having the left head perform a whipping headbutt to the black head as if in some effort to assert superiority. She then envisioned the right head going for a biting attack and pushing down into the ground to attempt to hold the white head in place. Those looking on would see this exact event take place in real life, while Akui kept her eyes closed and fought all the negative feelings in her body.

Akui wanted to try more, hoping that at least something close to what she wanted was taking place, but her envisioning was getting a bit foggy and the pain in her ankle was overwhelming her senses, so she just put all her energy in trying to hold down the white head with her much more solid snake.

Damage:

At its speed and momentum as well as the state of the battlefield there was no way the whitehead would have known whether it was successful in crushing its target underneath its force or not. What it did know though was that it was too mighty of a being for a petty human to have managed to survive through the attack. That's why it came as a huge surprise when the man delivered a blow to its head. The kick itself was harsh enough but the following punch to its eye made it screech loudly in pain and react violently by bashing its head against a tree both to alleviate the pain and to kill the peasant responsible for its loss of sight.

Meanwhile, the blackhead wasn't exactly having the best time of its life. Right after recovering from its attack it searched for any of the two that was lucky enough to still be alive. The man was nowhere in sight which left the King with a vulnerable female to be its next target. Or so it thought. The pesky metal ball managed to bash through its beautiful scales again and it reared in agony, tongue hissing out in aggression.

But then it was confronted by a snake-like creature alike its own. It stopped for a moment caught in confusion until the attempted bite managed to make it realise it was one of those humans' capabilities. It wouldn't be a King if it was dumb enough to be fooled by such a cheap trick. Its swift reflexes made it able to slip through the attack but the whitehead was too busy killing its own prey to react against the strike. Right after the whitehead's attack to the man in black, it was pinned against the ground.

The black head snapped its gaze towards the other two humans as it knew one of them was responsible for the creation of the King Taijitu-wannabe. Its own body was weak from all the damage it'd gone through, but its pride and capabilities as the real King were the only ones allowing it to strive through. With a whip-like motion, it slammed the side of its body against the man in green, then grabbed a tree with its mighty jaws and hurled the object towards the female.

Once again Alex only managed to hit the beast once before it recoiled away from Oblivinator. He had to aim a bit better then that, otherwise this battle would drag on quiet a bit longer. That was when he heard Akui's string of pain filled profanity, and looked over just in time to see her claw her way into a standing position with the aid of a tree. She took a bad hit, and was now clearly in trouble. However in trouble and helpless almost never went in the same category for a hunter, and for that foul mouthed gunslinger this was certainly the case. Seeing the metal snake form to attack the Grimm was impressive, and Alex knew it could've only come from Akui since he was aware that Kei's semblance was electricity and his was controlling plant growth. Unless a fourth hunter has arrived, the only explanation was that this was Akui's semblance.

Using the few split seconds she had bought him, Alex started to run over to her while taking out one seed from his belt and grew it into what resembled a leg splint. It didn't take much power to create it, and it wouldn't cure her leg, but it might help her stay upright... unless she was capable of using her semblance to give herself a suit of armor which would work far better then a simple splint.

"Here, this might hel-WHOA!!" Alex start to say but cut himself off when the Grimm came at him again. Using his semblance to command the lone seed that was in the ground nearby, a stump shot out of the ground beneath his feet at a 65 degree angle. It launched him horizontally across the ground and away from the Snake, which destroyed the stump and the seed that came along with it. Alex had lost two seeds during this battle and a third was being given to Akui for her leg. he still had 17 left but still he had to be careful. The professor landed several yards in front of Akui so he was between her and the snake. He tossed the splint emerald glowing splint towards her, then turned to face the snake, his emerald aura glowing brightly as it swirled around him. He glanced towards Kei to see him now on the sidelines of the battle, and glared at the Grimm. "You are not harming any of my students again!"

As the King Grimm grabbed a tree to throw at the gunslinger, vines started to grow out of a seed located on the back of Alex's magic belt and it started to wrap itself around Alex, increasing his strength. It also wrapped around the chain and wrecking ball of Oblivinator, and large thorns grew out of the vines that had wrapped around the wrecking ball. As the tree came flying at Akui, it was clear it would have to get through Alex before it reached him. Alex gave his weapon one swing to build momentum then punched the wrecking ball with all his might to send it towards the flying tree, his left hand still holding onto the end of the long chain for the weapon. As the sphere rocketed towards the tree all sound seemed to vanish for Alex... then the two attacks connected and Alex's over powered the Grimm's. The tree broke into splinters as Obliviantor flew threw it and rocketed towards the Grimm. Alex yanked downwards on the chain and the wrecking ball came down on top of the Grimm's head. Another quick yank to pull the wrecking ball back towards Alex cause the sharp thorns of the wrecking ball to drag along the Grimm's flesh, ripping it apart as the weapon returned to it's master.

Oblivinator landed with a thud at Alex's right side, though he quickly picked it up with his right hand in preparation to attack again.

OOC:

Akui's pulse was racing and her chest was tight, two feelings she encountered only when using her semblance in combat. She hated that it happened, but she hardly ever used it in combat to try and work on such things, and to be fair she usually was victorious without needing to wield her semblance so she had even less a reason to practice it in battle. However it seemed like things would have to change in that regard, as the difference between random thugs and wannabe gangsters and hunting Grimm was a lot bigger than she originally thought. Still she did her best to hold that feeling of a giant snake holding down the white head of the snake, even after she felt that half of it had been destroyed by an attack from the beast itself. She was having a hard time breathing, but she still kept going, and she even decided she would go a step further.

She opened her eyes just briefly to locate the black head of the creature and she noticed a giant tree coming her way. She was about drop the bullet-built snake ruse and at least try and hide amongst the trees when the weird old plant man tossed a plant-made splint her way and destroyed the tree headed her way, shouting something about not hurting his students. What an idiot: she wasn't HIS student, this man didn't own anything about her at all, and of course students were going to get hurt...they were hunting human-thirsty beasts who loved nothing more than to tear them apart for kicks.

She lifted her good foot and crushed the splint beneath it, then located the black head and once again closed her eyes. Still maintaining focus on holding down the white head of the snake, she kept it as only one head of bullets and used those that were dispersed but not destroyed to conjurer about a rather disturbing-looking skull. It's lower jaw jiggled up and down, as if performing some sort of silent cackle, and then she instructed it to kamikaze into the black head...meeting it face to face.

She then focused all she had on holding down the other head so that she could at least do something to help take this creature down, the tightness in her chest starting to turn into a sharp pain in her lungs.

Damage:

While the whitehead was successful in delivering quite the fatal hit against its target, it found itself trapped underneath the force of a snake look-alike. It hissed in annoyance as it couldn't do anything but stare with one good eye at its bleeding target who simply stood there all vulnerable for it to savour.

At this crucial stage of the King's pride at stake it's up to the blackhead to struggle to make up for its other sides' immobility. Thus when the tree broke into splinters, the final flame holding it up died down along with all chances of survival. The ball collided against the snake's head and dragged brutally against its scales. As if that wasn't enough, the King-wannabe smashed against its face, causing the blackhead made one final cry before flopping down on the ground dead.

This caused the whitehead to slip away weakly. It coiled around its fallen brethren into a perfect circle and laid on the ground softly. Despite its imminent demise and failure to kill anyone of them, the King could do what none of them couldn't. Dying with style.

Kei

Kei sighed in relief when the fallen King Taijitu began to fade away in a black ashes. Sure, Kei knew that the oversized snake was on its last legs a few moments ago, but assuming an enemy was facing defeat as opposed to an enemy facing defeat were to different things. Knowing was always much better then an assumption. Fight now over, Kei took the time to wrap his scarf around his head wound, to keep the blood from getting too messy. If there was one good thing about a red scarf, it made it hard to see bloodstains afterward. Kei then proceeded to stretch his arms as he casually spoke to both Alex and Akui. "Its always a pleasure hunting with you Alex," Kei told Alex, not bothering to properly address him as proffessor, "Hunts with you always seem to roll smoothly." "And you," Kei continued, this time addressing Akui, "Well, I'm not gunna lie, you scare me a bit. Good thing I'm fighting alongside you eh?" "Anyways," Kei said talking to both Akui and Alex, "After fighting a Deathstalker and King Taijitu, I can't imagine there would be too much more trouble in these parts of the woods for a while. We could probably be fine with calling this mission accomplished." Kei pulled out his scroll as he sent a signal that the group had cleared the area of Grimm. After sitting around for a bit, a dispatched Airship appeared over them. A platform lowered from the hovering airship in which the group of hunters were meant to hop aboard and be lifted into the hull of the airship. Though cold, the metal walls of the airship were very inviting, giving off a temporary sense of safety as if the entire threat of Grimm was just a dream... -exit-

Mood: Unwinding Condition: Wounded, Winded Health: 130 Aura: 90

Character Profile

Damage, Health, Aura:

[OOC: I just wanted to end this hunt because all of Kei's combat related stuff was getting out of date lol. I'll start up another challenge hunt in a bit, so if either of you want to, you should join.]

As the Grimm died, Alex rolled his right shoulder as he pulled Oblivinator back to him while coiling the wrecking ball's long chain. The weapon had more then served it's purpose, though Alex was wondering if he should upgrade it soon. It packed quite the punch but he was wondering if it could pack an even harder punch so he could stop wrapping himself with vines all the time to give him the needed boost in strength to get through his opponent's armor. Using the vines did make him stronger, but it also made it harder to hit his opponents. "Don't give me too much praise Kei. You've done quite well yourself. All I did was make this battle end faster. The two of you more then had this handled. It always amazes me how you can take on so many Grimm mostly barehanded." Alex stated as he transformed his weapon back into backpack mode and slung it over his shoulders. He then glanced over at Akui. "And I second that. You're one terrifying gunslinger." Alex stated with a nod of respect, though it was clear that he was also twitching out of being nervous around her.

Hoping onto the airship that would carry them back to the academy. Alex surveyed the area and nodded. "This place should remain clearer for a few weeks. Taking out two powerful Grimm in this area should see to that." Alex commented, then glanced over at Akui again. "And I'm gonna shut up now before I get my mouth shot off..." he said with a nervous gulp, and was sure to give Akui more then enough room. She was skilled, had a temper, and hated men... bad combo for him.

(exit)

As the twin-headed beast collapsed and breathed it's last, Akui gave a sigh of relief and pain: the tightening in her chest The body turned into dust, which danced in the wind for a bit before evaporating completely. It was bit of self-revealing irony, as she saw it: the raging and destructive creature brought not but pain and suffering, yet in it's final moments it gifted them with beauty and grace in such a simple way, that for a while she just stared off into the sky for a bit until that stupid male with the masked face spoke up. She simply grunted a response to him, not even bothering to respond in any fashion to the geezer.

It was followed by the summoning of an airship, to which she hobbled over to and climbed into herself even though she was offered assistance, despite the struggle and pain it caused her. Once she finished boarding the airship, the old man talked about how the area was clear, then shut up as she looked at him. A small smirk appeared on her face, but it faded just as quickly as it had shown up: She never could get a man to respect her, not truly, but she could always get one to fear her...and frankly, that was good enough.

She slowly made her way to a seat and propped her bad leg up, keeping to herself as the airship took off towards the academy, thinking about what she saw off in the distance beyond the trees. Sure, the old geezer said that would ward them off for a bit, but she wasn't so sure. The black that appeared beyond was gone, but it could have very easily hidden amongst the forest trees. She pondered about this and the true nature of the Grimm as the airship made it's way back to the academy.

[Pissy Punk, Out~!]