Akashic

Weiss's eyes had slowly begun to open, the moment she did she felt like she had been hit with a truck, every part of her body ached and was stiff, her mind hazy as she tried to lift herself from her bed of snow, her body shivering at the intense cold that seeped through even her aura, "What… happened?" she muttered, her hand going to her head feeling a slight wet sensation.

Pulling her hand away she saw the tips of her finger were covered in blood, realization begin to come within her grasp as she looked around her, seeing she had awoken within the Schreien forest, surrounded by trees and the many shattered parts of her shuttle that was supposed to bring her home.

Yet one thing was missing, "Arthur?" she weakly muttered as she looked around not getting a response, "Arthur!?" she shouted, pushing herself up from her crimson snow bed, spinning around on the spot whilst looking around, searching for Arthur, her hand also going to her hip only to find her own weapon wasn't there as she had placed it within the luggage, not expecting to have a need for it during the trip.

Still getting no response Weiss checked her pockets, finding her scroll, "Useless piece of junk" She mumbled at the shattered screen of the scroll, both half's having been separated from each other and shattering the screen, effectively destroying any use it would have to her.

Looking around once more to possibly direct her, Weiss felt her body shiver once again causing her to cross her arms in an effort to keep her body warm. Her eyes wandering through the open canopy of evergreen's above her, but unable to see the sun.

"I need a weapon" she mumbled as she put direction to the back of her mind and looked around for anything she could use as an impromptu weapon in case of a grimm attack, only finding her best decision would be a fallen branch or a sharpened chunk of the shuttle.

Walking up to one of the larger chunks of destroyed shuttle, Weiss held her nose, "What is that smell?" she locked in on a powerful charred smell, like someone had left a steak on the grill for too long and let it burn.

As she got nearer to the piece of debris, Weiss felt her body turn even colder when she saw a familiar pitch black hand with a white cross on the back of it, peaking through the snow under the debris.

"Arthur!" Weiss quickly ran to his side, her hands graspin at the edge of the sheet of metal, quickly pushing it away, her already weak body having an even harder time from her head injury and aching body.

But once she had the sheet off of Arthur she felt her stomach drop as the stench of burning meat grew even more powerful, powerful enough that her eyes began to water, and when her eyes locked onto Arthur's back she had to cover her mouth as she ran to the side, heaving as she held her c.h.e.s.t, nearly about to vomit at the horrific sight of Arthur's skinless, charred back with numerous yellow boils already dotting the wound where the third degree burns turned to second degree burns.

"Come on Weiss, you're a huntress… you were going to see something like this eventually" she tried to talk herself into gaining more confidence, taking slow, steady breaths as she tried to block out the stench from her nose.

Taking one last deep breath Weiss hesitantly turned around and walked back to Arthur, her steps unsteady as she approached Arthur, "Okay Weiss… what first" she spoke to herself as she tried to wrack her brain for answers to what had happened and what she was to do, in the distance she could hear a raucous of howls sending shivers down her spine.

Fear filling her as her hand once again moved to her hip missing her Rapier making her feel powerless and terrified, as she heard more howls coming from the forest, "We can't stay here" her voice began to tremble as she took quick glances around her searching for whatever was howling.

Seeing nothing, Weiss hooked her arms under Arthur's shoulders, her fingers coming close to the raw flesh and boils that covered the majority of his back and shoulders. Yet she found herself unable to move Arthur any decent distance as her own strength failed her only letting her drag him a single centimetre with every tug.

The howling began to get closer along with the sound of crashing trees and the crunching of snow. Weiss began to panic as she dropped Arthur and lunged for the closes piece of metal she could grab, that being a long chunk of sheet metal that had been sharpened from the crash.

Even more howls and the sound of crashing trees getting closer as she spun on the spot, seeing numerous black figures had surrounded here, her hands outstretched as she grasped her metal shard in her trembling hands, never had she felt so helpless before in her life as this moment right now.

She could even swear the fox like grimms had been laughing at her, each of them beginning to circle her and Arthur, but not a single one charging forward, except every now and then one would lunge forward to which Weiss would jump in front of it, her makeshift knife held up ready to attack, but yet that same grimm would then quickly re-join the group, never finishing with it's attack as it continued to circle.

Every now and then another would do the same thing, getting Weiss to jump around to defend Arthur as more and more joined the rising army of fox like grimm, the ground beginning to shake as whatever was crashing into trees got nearer.

This continued for near ten straight minutes, giving Weiss no time to rest as the wound on her head continued to bleed out, covering the snow around her and Arthur in drops of red blood, "They're… having fun…" Weiss finally collapsed onto her knees, her head trailing up to the opening in the treeline above her, tears dripping down her cheeks as she felt hopeless.

The grimm were toying with her, they knew she was weak, they could easily have just torn her and Arthur apart when they first arrived, yet here they were, circling like vultures playing with their food, picking at its mind until it finally lost all hope.

Weiss's tears continued trailing down her cheeks as she began to weep, "Why does my life have to be so terrible!?" she shouted to the heavens, the fox like grimms seeing her last string of hope dying out charged towards her, the massive jaws that seemed to make up the majority of their bodies opening wide as the lunged towards her.

Closing her eyes Weiss awaited her inevitable demise at the jaws of the grimm, yet, for some strange reason she found no pain filling her body, confused, Weiss opened her eyes seeing the grimm had begun to shiver and took steps back from Weiss, "They're-they're scared?" she muttered whilst the fox grimms turned towards where a tree had fallen over onto their encirclement killing numerous.

Each one growling as a large ox like monster of a grim stepped into the clearing, it's body massive, almost half as tall as the trees in the forest, it's entire body covered in numerous bony plates from which black fur poked out.

It's mask made up the entirety of its head, with large, many, large, sharp, curved horns dotting its entire head. Yet this grimm also seemed to lack the same glowing red sphere's that all grimm had as it's mask didn't appear to have any openings for the grimm to look through, effectively making it blind, yet still somehow able to find its way around the forest.

The ox grimm ignored the numerous fox grimm as it 'stared' in the direction of Weiss and Arthur, steam coming from its nose as it huffed, it's hooves scratching at the ground as it prepared itself to charge her.

Soon it's hooves came stomping, causing the ground to shake and shatter where it stepped, Weiss already accepting her fate as she resorted to just watching the last moments of her terrible life.

Yet right then a loud crash resounded besides her as the ox grimm seemed to stumple and fell onto its side sliding across the ground and into some of the fox grimm, near instantly disintegrating them, in its side a large smoking hole, not deep enough to actually kill it as a dark liquid began to spill from the wound and filled in and replaced the damaged defensive plates.

"Get up, we need to run! I've got the boy!" Weiss turned her head to the side where she saw a a hooded figure of a woman running towards her, the woman ran up to Arthur throwing him over her shoulder, Weiss was left dumbfounded by the mixture of emotions going through her mind, from terror and acceptance turning to relief.

"We don't have time! The Vulpe's won't do anything and the Panzer will get up any moment now! So f.u.c.k.i.n.g RUN!" the woman shouted and grabbed the still dumbfounded Weiss's arm, not wanting to waste any more time on her as she force Weiss to stand and began to run through the forest.

Quickly leaving behind the fox grimm known as Vulpe and the large Panzer grimm, behind them Weiss could hear the Panzer smashing it's hooves onto the ground in anger, soon followed by it smashing through trees as it chased after them in anger.

The woman looked behind her, seeing the Panzer getting closer, "Girl, turn right in three… two… ONE!" she ordered and jumped to the side out of the Panzer's charge, immediately running down a different path along with Weiss who followed her orders to a T.

"We're nearly there!" She shouted, "Left, Now!" she shouted and dodged to the left whilst Weiss dodge to the right letting the Panzer charge between them before she joined the woman in their escape.

As they were running Weiss's sides began to hurt, her poor stamina being put to the test harder than even what Beacon had put her through, her eyes slowly beginning to turn blurry as her consciousness began to fade from her exhaustion and the combined blood loss, "We're here! Jump" the woman shouted and leaped into a large crack in the earth like a bottom less pit, narrowly entering a small gap in the wall of the hole, Weiss seemed to have not heard her as instead of jumping she fell unconscious, her body falling over the edge.

"F.u.c.k.i.n.g children!" The woman shouted as she threw her arm to Weiss, grabbing her arm. Rocks crumbling around them from the giant Panzer's charge as it was moving to fast that it was unable to stop itself in time sending it over the edge of the ravine, its head crashing into the wall above the small cave entrance where the woman was quickly pulling Weiss into.

The Panzer falling down the pit, it's horn narrowly missing Weiss's leg as it created a gouge in the stone of the platform, the Panzer's body crashing against the many smaller ledges as it fell into the dark abyss below, "And f.u.c.k you, you overgrown cow" the woman spat down the hole.

Taking a deep breath the woman turned around to the unconscious bodies of Weiss and Arthur, "Still after children…" the woman growled angrily as she lifted both Arthur and Weiss over her shoulders and began to walk deeper into her earthy abode.

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Weiss's eyes slowly began to flicker open, the intense pain from her head and stiffness in her body still remaining, her eyes slowly trailing over where she was, finding herself in near pitch-blackness if it weren't for the fire next to her that illuminated the large open cavern she was laying within, her body resting on what looked like a pile of clothing that had been torn and turned into a make shift bed and blanket.

Weiss looked across the fire where could see the same woman who had rescued her and Arthur tearing up pieces of fabric and throwing them into a pot of boiling water, "So you're finally awake, took you an hour" the woman said, not even turning her gaze to Weiss who had begun to sit up.

"Who? Where's Arthur?" Weiss questioned, her hand going to her head feeling the rough texture of fabric wrapped tightly around her head.

"Doesn't matter who I am, if you're lucky, I might tell you later… if you can survive long enough" the woman said, her voice uncaring, "And the boy's over there" she nodded to the side of the fire where another bed of fabric was located atop which Arthur was resting on his belly, the wounds on his back mostly covered with steaming pieces of fabric.

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Alternate Chapter names: [Olly olly Ox-en free] [The cave woman]

Words: 2,182

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