Man & Machine (hunt/Veilin)

"Hm... calm day..." Alex mused out loud as he slowly breathed in air through his nose and then gently let it out through his mouth. It was cold, enough to make him shiver if he wasn't wearing long underwear underneath his combat gear. The winder break had arrived sooner then he had expected, only getting to teach one class before the students got to leave the academy. Normally the professors also got to take a break but thanks to the fact that Alex was responsible for the student Lucy, he's winter break came in the form of him diverting all of his attention to her. However with her sleeping in so much since classes ended Alex found himself with free time. All he had to do to make sure she was safe was have Lucy fall asleep in his academy office and then lock it down with a few Atlas mechs nearby to protect her.

So now he was in the Finnek Forest out on a much needed walk, and possibly a hunt if he ran into any Grimm. Very rarely did a Grimm cause him much of a challenge these days with his old skills coming back, however he was still a shell of whom he once was so he had to keep his guard up. As he walked through the blue forest though it began to snow, resulting in a light coating of snow on the leaves, turning them from blue to white with blue trim... it was actually rather beautiful. If someone knew how to survive out in the forest they could enjoy this beauty all the time.

As he continued to walk, Alex noticed a set of foot prints on the ground, and they seemed a bit off to him. Kneeling down for a closer look, he realized why they seemed so odd. They were clearly the footprints of a human or a faunus, and from the looks of it their feet were slightly bigger then Alex's own feet. However what was so strange about them was how deep they went into the ground, as if the person who made the footprints weighted over 500 pounds. It didn't make much sense. Sure some people got big, but a person with these foot prints couldn't be much bigger then Alex himself... but he or she or it was much heavier.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Alex started to follow the foot prints deeper into the forest.

OOC:

Veilin had been wearing a big black coat, leather boots, wool gloves and a fur hood, just to stay give off a false sense that he needed warmth, though him being an android, this wasn't the case. "Wonder if there are any Grimm around." he'd say, as his boots would sink into the snow. His weight was getting the better of the old android. "Initiating weight standardization. Now relieving .99 pounds temporarily." his inner workings would activate. He was.. sort of lighter. But his blade had been getting heavier, and his temporary weight standardization had turned off. He took out the dust in a vial which he had, and stared at it. He was a good 50 meters into the forest, but he could go back to Syne easily if he wanted to. He heard footsteps coming toward him. "Tracing reasons for footsteps. Reason found. Footsteps left in snow." he'd rush and speculate, as he hid behind a tree, which was oddly his size.

OOC:

READ:

Dashing through the Snow. Spikes upon there back. Through the forest they go. Chirping all the way!

"Gyah, Gyah, Gyah!"

Bones upon tails swish, searching for bad vibes. What joy it is to chase bad vibes and slay some fools tonight. Oh! Rend and tear! Rend and tear! Kill hunters tonight! Oh what joy it brings to kill with all their evil might! Rend and tear! Rend and tear! Kill hunters tonight! Oh what joy it brings to kill with all their evil might!

The creeps, thoroughly enjoying a romp in the snowy forest, caught sight of a man with rather strange blonde hair and a large sword. Admittedly this pair was neither the smartest, nor the strongest, of their kind. Their communication skills were also rather lacking... but this surprisingly played to their advantage. As one of the grimm split off from the duo, running ahead, it would most certainly fall in the man's line of vision. Excited by the snow it let out loud chirps, almost as if to draw his attention even more so.

The other Creep however was out for fun and, using the trees as somewhat shoddy cover, ran head first to smash into the man's side. With the Creep's height the blow would be around lowed chest level.

The other creep however, continuing it's dash, caught site of a man who was looking at the ground. The best let out a his at him, turned on it's tail, and ran back to look for it's fellow Creep; stopping in front of the tree the man hid behind.

As Alex continued to examine the tracks he noticed that the distance they sank into the snow and mud seemed to decrease, as if the person that was walking was getting lighter or had put some stuff down. How was that possible? Alex started to look around but didn't see any dropped belongs so the person had to be getting lighter... and that made no sense at all. How could something like that happen? As Alex continued to look around he saw a tree in the distance that the tracks seemed to vanish behind. Alex was sure he found the person the tracks belonged to and he was sure they were behind that tree. "I'm not sure whose there, but I'm not going to hurt you." Alex said out loud in a calm tone, wondering if the person he was following was hiding out of fear.

However before he could hear an answer he spotted two creeps, both of them seeming to be newly born, or hatched, or formed... or what ever Grimm babies were called. And much to Alex's surprise the two grimm seemed to be... playing in the snow? Now that was something he hadn't expected at all! Since when did Grimm play and dance in the snow?! In the entire decade he had been a huntsman he had never seen anything like that before, and he wondered if there was something wrong with them. However when they started to act differently as if they were on the attack, it was clear to Alex that they were still creatures of Grimm... and they were after who ever was behind the tree.

However Alex had a clear shot at the Grimm that was intending to attack the person behind the tree. He crouched down with Oblivinator in his hands, and an emerald glow appeared in his eyes and on the ground under him. A tree stump glowing with emerald light shot out of the ground under him, growing at a 65 degree angle towards the Grimm. The force from the semblance tree stump shot Alex horizontally through the air towards the Grimm, and as he flew passed the Grimm that intended to attack the man behind the tree Alex swung his weapon at it's face, stopping the Grimm's attack. Who ever was behind the tree was now home free to run away or go on the attack.

Instead of landing on his feet though, Alex instead allowed himself to somersault on the ground which helped slow him down. Alex then used the remaining momentum to help him turn around on his heel, and he caught sight of the person behind the tree; a man that was taller then Alex and he had a rather massive sword. Clearly a warrior, maybe even a huntsman. "Hey! Don't just stand there. Let 'em have it!" Alex called out as he spun his wrecking ball weapon around once to build up some speed before punching the ball with all his might, sending it flying towards the Grimm that had hissed at him. Struck home or not, the ball would continue to fly passed the grimm until Alex grabbed the chain with his left hand and gave it a yank, causing the ball to fly back towards Alex... but for it to reach Alex it had to get through the Creep he had just tried to attack. It was a cleaver tactic; to hit his targets both on the attack and on the return. Hit or miss, the titanium spiked wrecking ball bounded back towards Alex who lifted it off the ground by the chain and started to spin it again, clearly ready for this fight.

OOC:

[Exit, Sorry]

Unfortunately the initial creep's daring assault was brought to a sudden halt by it's own stupidity. The first creep tripped over it's own feet, narrowly avoiding a stampeding man who had been shot forth by a barrage of trees. It had ended up tumbling beneath his weapon's arc, grinding along the ground as it did so. Quickly rising however, hissing to itself slightly, it turned it's head toward the man; chirped in surprise, before barreling head first toward his side; just as the ball left his hand for it's brother.

Said brother narrowly sidestepped the initial blow, having heard it's brother's dismay it moved to check on him... the return of the ball however caught the grimm; knocking it face first into the snow. Outraged; the beast sprung to it's feet. It chased after the ball with it's tremendous speed; nigh catching up with it before dropping down onto it's side and attempting to slide kick away the man's feet in a scissor kick style. They weren't exactly masters of strategy... but perhaps strategy wasn't needed for this assault. Some pure brute force may allow the weak minded to prevail.

For a moment there Alex was sure he had seen another person behind the tree, someone that was armed. However much to his surprise when the professor had looked again that person had vanished. Had he hallucinated another huntsman being there, or was the person that had been standing there really good at vanishing under someone's nose. Either way, the person was gone and Alex was alone facing two Grimm. However he wasn't too worried since a pair of Creeps were easy to handle, especially this pair since they seemed to be new born... or what ever you called a Grimm that just came into existence.

The first Grimm that had charged at Alex didn't get far when it came to attacking him since Alex wrapped himself in vines and gave the approaching Creep a swift kick that was strong enough to break a boulder. When the second Grimm came at Alex he kicked that one away too, then threw Oblivinator at the Creep that he didn't hit during his last set of attacks. Alex had no intentions to let such small and feeble Grimm get the better of him. Sure the most Grimm this young could do to him was give him a scratch, but quite frankly Alex felt as Grimm of this stature even getting a single scratch on him would be insulting.

OOC:

2 Level 1 Creeps 35 and 0 hp respectively

As the first creep was shot back by a powerful kick the second felt a boot plant viciously upon it's belly. It's momentum was stopped, the foot ripping clean through it... however, disintegration would take a period. And so it would be stuck until the man removed it. The beast let out a loud final screech before the life faded from it's limp and soulless body.

The first beast, assuming it's brother to be alive by his loud shout and general closeness to their prey, chirped happily. Finally, they were wining. It's brother had caught the wicked human by the leg, soon after it would rend his toes clean off. As the large metal ball lurched into it's path it easily sidestepped and then, riled up and excited, it ran along the weapon's chain. The man's fingers were it's target, jumping into the air to snap at them as they held his weapon's chain. It hoped to at least latch on to one palm, that way the brother that it assumed to be alive could deal the finishing blow.

Huh.... that's a new one!  Alex couldn't believe that this had happened!  His foot had actually gotten stuck in the stomach of the Creep he had kicked.  His food was actually stuck!  The situation was almost laughable!  Alex found it so funny that he lost his hold on his semblance causing the vines to retract back into the seeds on his belt, and he actually started to laugh.  Still though, he was without a foot now until he got the thing off of him.

The creature being stuck on him distracted Alex from the Creep that had actually managed to run up the chain of Oblivinator, so when Alex turned his attention back to it, the creature was already at his hand causing Alex to drop his weapon in surprise.  The Grimm bit down on his hand... and Alex felt like a child was trying to squeeze his hand in a very firm handshake.  Enough to cause a little pain, but not enough to actually hurt.  With his hand inside the Grimm's mouth, Alex used said hand to grabbed the Creep by the tongue and lifted it so he could look it in the eye.  "Rock a-bye Grimm, in the blue woods..." Alex started to sing as he swung the Grimm hard to his right, keeping a firm grip on the tongue so if the creature let go it couldn't escape... unless the Creep's tongue was too slimy in which case it would slip through his fingers.  "When the tree breaks, the Grimm will scream..." Alex continued as he slammed the grimm into a tree.  "A down will come Creepy, splattered and all." Alex finished as he tossed the Grimm skywards, then drew an X on the ground where he thought the Grimm would land.  After a moment he brushed away the X, took a step the left, and drew another X on the ground where he had been standing.

OOC:

The beast was glad to find it's opponent's fingers in it's jaws. Soon they would be destroyed! Brother! Deal the finishing blo-

The Creep only now noticed that it's brother had been torn straight through by the man's foot, a gaping hole blasted through the beast's underbelly to it's spine. It had begun to fade from existence, little bits of it slowly flaking away and being lost to the world around it. The beast clung tight, enraged, it hoped to tear the hunter's arm clean off as it's feet flailed and scratched at his arm and chest with it's talons. It was a last ditch effort as the man swung it into a tree, the beast's body immediately separating from it's head. It was dead before he could even throw it into the air, as he did the two halves of it's jaw separated. The first half landed where he had assumed the beast would initially fall, the second half where he had left the X mark.

Huh... that was a new one. Alex had punched, kicked, bashed, crushed, maimed, sliced, diced, and hacked apart Grimm before, but this was the first time he ripped a Creep in two by slamming it into a blunt object. The physics needed to do such a feet wasn't an easy one to pull off. As the Grimm fell from the sky and towards the ground, Alex found himself laughing that the Creep's ripped apart body managed to land on not only the first spot that he had predicted that it would fall, but the second spot as well. "Okay, seriously, what are the odds of that happening?" Alex said with a laugh as he kicked the other Creep off of his foot.

As the two Creeps faded, Alex walked back over to the tree that he swore he had seen another person standing at only just a moment ago. Sure enough stuck to the bark of the tree was a tuff of blond hair and on the ground there were several foot prints of someone that had taken off running. Was the person a huntsman in training that had turned chicken? Maybe they saw that Alex had it handled and chose to let him handle it? Or maybe Alex had seen a civilian and that person took off running at the first opening they got. One thing was for sure though... their tracks had vanished not far from the tree and there was no sign anywhere of that person anywhere nearby. With it getting late and Alex knowing full well that Lucy would be waiting for him, the professor was forced to abandon his search for the stranger and headed for home.

(exit)