Rusty Blade (Hunt/Open)

”Huh. That’s interesting!” Alex mused as he knelt down in the blue grass of Finnek Forest, dropping a couple of leaves into a glass vial and seeing the solution within the vial turn from clear to pink. It wasn’t just the trees that had that blue coloring, but all the plants within the entire forest. While it was true that Alex was Syne’s grounds keeper and was technically on call for nearly the entire week, even he needed a weekend day to rest and recharge. However instead of spending it sleeping, reading a book, going to the movies, or even talking to the professors at the academy. Instead he was here in the famous blue forest with a portable chemistry set. Some of his old hobbies when he was a hunter never really vanished, such as his fascination with plants. He could’ve easily become a botanist if he tried.

At the moment he was trying to figure out why all the plants in the Finnek Forest were blue while the chlorophyll in most plants turned their leaves a lush green. Something was changing the property of the chlorophyll so it was a lush blue instead of green. While a scientific reason had been found decades ago, Alex had chosen not to look at the results and examine the forest himself to satisfy his curiosity. He had it during those years when he wasn’t a hunter, but during that 5 and a half year gap he never left the safety of Bellmuse. Now a hunter again, Alex was exploring and examining stuff like this by himself again. He had to get his old skills back.

However he did do one rather foolish thing; he came out here alone, and was currently in an area where grimm movements were reported to be high. However he had come out to such an area on purpose though. He had been getting his old skills with his wrecking ball weapon, and now he thought was the time to see if he was ready to be a hunter again. If he was then great… but if he wasn’t, he’d join his old team wherever people go when they die.

Hearing some of the nearby plants rustle, Alex stood up and reached behind his back to ready his weapon Wrecker, only to see a small squirrel pop out of a bush and started to munch on a blue acorn. ”Sheesh. Gotten rusty enough I can’t tell the difference between a squirrel and a Grimm.” he muttered under his breath as he lowered his hands away from Wrecker.

It didn't take long for the squirrel to run off, but from the way it ran Alex was wondering if something was nearby, like a Grimm. However the moment he heard a human's voice he knew the reason why the rodent ran off. Turning on his heel Alex saw a tall man dressed in dark clothing with a maroon mask over his face. He really couldn't tell what they man's age was, but then again telling someone's age was never the Grounds Keeper strong suit. Still though the man's comment made him smile.

"I'd have to agree with you there. The composition of the soil is actually making the vegetation of this forest less nutritious then their standard counterparts. Also, who would want to eat blue lettuce or have blue chives on their food?" Alex said in response to the man as he started to pack up the chemistry set. He had been in this location for a while, so he wasn't going to find any more good plant samples here. A smirk crossed his lips as he added, "Also this place will give you a bad case of blues in the night." With a chuckle Alex hung the closed up chemistry set on his left hip, thus allowing his arms to remain free if a Grimm showed up.

"Puns aside, I'm Alexander Davis. Just call me Alex. Judging from your appearance I'm gonna assume you're from Syne like myself." he stated as he grasped the chain of his wrecking ball weapon so he'd have it in his hands. He had been out here for over an hour, and hadn't run into any Grimm, which was a surprise. If there were any nearby they be showing up soon.

OOC:

Alex had seen enough reactions to his puns to understand the young man's reaction. He wasn't surprised, though, after all he was holding a wrecking ball and chain weapon, and the weapon was a third his own height. "Yeah, I know... that one was bad. It's alright to tell me if my puns stink. Don't give them out unless you're willing to take it, or so they say." Alex stated with a smile. Words to live by if someone wanted to cause trouble for their fellow humans and faunus.

Alex started to glance around at their surrounding as he listened to the student's response to his inquiry of him being from Syne, then chuckled. "I never said you looked like a student; I asked if you were from Syne. Truth be told you don't look like a student, but you do have the look of a huntsman. Not really gonna be able to hide that with you attempting to give off a bad-ass vibe. " Alex stated, then picked off a leaf from the branch that was above his head.

"By the way, nice trench coat. I take it that it's a form of armor, no? At first glance it looks like a normal cool coat, but-" Alex let go of the leaf in his hand to let it flutter to the ground, and instead of heading straight down it got caught up in the breeze and fell at a 45 degree angle. "- It's barely affected by the wind even though it's a considerable amount. Meaning it's made of a much heavier, and thus stronger, material then normal. If you want a suggestion on how to improve your image I'd say figure out a way how to keep the coat's protectiveness while making it lighter." Alex finished, finally getting to the point as to why he was commenting on the trench coat.

Alex smiled warmly at the young man's comment. "Yes and no. You're correct that I'm not a student, but I'm not a professor either. I'm the grounds keeper and the custodian, and I'm also new. A very few have noticed me yet, even among the very observant students and professors." Alex looked like he was about to say more, but a leaf fluttering passed the young man's shoulder made him pause. It has at first gone in the same direction as the leaf he had dropped, but it had changed it's angle of decent half way down. "The wind's shifting. Anything in that direction will pick up our scent now." Alex stated as he looked in the direction the wind was now heading, which was to the student's right. "We should stick together from now on. We'll have a better chance against any Grimm if we stick together."

At first Alex just stared, then he chuckled. "That bad? My pun was that bad? Wow... okay, I need new material. Too bad that I can't take out the Grimm with bad puns though, right? That would be rather grimm wouldn't it? And that one was even worse. Okay, I'll stop for now." Alex said with a smile, clearly proud of himself for being able to make such horrid jokes.

The jokes pretty much stopped at that point as Alex listened to the young man's observation about him. A small part of Alex wanted this guy to introduce himself by now, but he really didn't have to. However the Syne student did have a point. "True, in a way. I'm a full fledged huntsman, but don't exactly qualify to be a professor. So instead I help out anyway I can. Be it simply whipping up a puddle so no one slips and breaks open their skull, to removing some gunk from the bathrooms so bacteria can't build up, or simply removing ugly weeds so the more squeamish of those that want to join the academy aren't discouraged by an ugly campus." Alex stated calmly as he rolled his shoulders, feeling a little stiff. "Doctors might cure the sick, but my job is to make sure you don't get sick in the first place." Alex finished.

With a quick tilt of his head to the right, Alex was rewarded with a satisfying crack from the vertebra, then did the same with a quick tilt to the left. "Well then, shall we set out and find us some Grimm, or shall we continue to wait here to see if something comes to us?" He said as he gave his wrecking ball weapon a lazy lateral spin to loosen up the chain on the weapon, but made sure that it didn't go anywhere near his new hunting companion. "Speaking of which, you gotta name?"

ONE BEOWULF | 125 HP | HUNT LEVEL: EASY | GRIMM LEVEL: 3

This Beowulf had already had an interesting adventure today, having scared off some unprepared hunters earlier in the morning. It had been a rather hilarious occasion, making a bunch of grown humans run in fear with his packmates, humans that were trained to fight them and should have been prepared.

This Beowulf was venturing off on his own now, in search for another morsel, and that's when he peered through the bushes in the distance and found the perfect one: and slightly older human than he normally encountered, but even more weak than the ones he chased off earlier. This human was so pathetic, he jumped at the site of a little forest rodent. This Beowulf knew he would be easy prey, and he was about to charge after him, but another human approached him so he hid back into he brush. The two humans began talking in their gibberish language, and this Beowulf began to sneak closer and closer behind the brush until he noticed he was just to the side of the two humans, and waited for the opportune time to strike.

This Beowulf lay in the brush and wait...and he waited...and he waited...finally, the new human put out his hand. This Beowulf wasn't sure what it meant, but he new that the weak and scaredy human would likely also put out his hand and take his, so while he was distracted he would pounce-NOW!

The moment he noticed the weak one's hand move, this Beowulf jumped out of the brush in an attempt to tackle him. Once tackled, this Beowulf would attempt to slash open the weak one's throat with his claws, then move on to the other human afterwards.

Alex responded by letting a smug grin spread across his face.  "I donno about that pal, but it's doing wonders for my moral." Alex said with a chuckle.  Yeah it was true his humor at times was only worth a groan, a thrown pillow… and at times it had earned Alex a slap to the back of the head, but he wasn’t stopping.  That was the point of puns and bad humor in his opinion.  With a shrug Alex decided to stop making jokes for a little bit… but only for a little.  His smile went from smug to warm though and stated ”Why wouldn’t I have pride in my work?  My actions are going to allow the future protectors of our world keep going so they can become those protectors.  Besides, one is more likely to keep a job if they like it.”

As he reached out to accept the hand shake though, Alex noticed a moment out of the corner of his eye, and when he realized what it was he yelled ”Grimm!” as he grabbed Kei’s arm and pulled him back away from the Beowolf Alex’s emerald aura started to swirl around Alex like a bunch of fluttering leaves.  There was no way he was going to dodge this, even without trying to pull Kei to safety, so he did the next best thing he could.  Vines quickly grew out from Alex’s belt and wrapped around his body, encasing him within a second, and since the vines were also glowing Alex was basically a bright emerald beacon within the blue forest.  However even with the vines giving Alex extra strength, he just wasn’t fast enough to prevent the Grimm from knocking him flat on his back, knocking Wrecker from his hand, though the chain of the wrecking ball landed within arm’s reach.

However just because the Grimm was on top of him didn’t mean that Alex was finished.  Before the Grimm could slash him Alex grabbed the Beowolf’s clawed limb and held it in place with his now massive strength.  Reaching out with his right arm Alex grabbed the chain of Wrecker, which resulted in the glowing vines to grow down along the chain and wrap around the wrecking ball just as fast as they had grown around his body, thus making the weapon grow.  Alex then yanked the chain to the left and pulled it across his chest, resulting in the ball flying into the side of the Beowolf.  ”Knock knock ya stray flea bittin mongrel!” Alex bellowed as his hand quickly slid up the chain, grabbed it at the base of Wrecker’s ball, and slammed the weapon into the Beowolf’s head. The grounds keeper’s old accent was coming back during this stressful moment, the same accent he had back when he was a fully-fledged hunter, and his voice was powerful enough to have been heard over a mile away. ”Don’t want ya as a pet!  Leaf me alone!” Alex yelled as he slammed Wrecker into the Grimm again, this time straight on to knock the wolf off of him while simultaneously letting go of the beast.

With the wolf off of him now Alex quickly jumped do his feet and started to quickly spin his weapon around in preparation for another strike.  ”Ya shouldn’t of strayed from yer pack mutt!”

OOC:

This Beowulf was indeed correct that he could pounce the one human, but he was very much incorrect assuming he was weak. This Beowulf had pinned him down alright, but he had bitten off more than he could chew once he received not one but two blows to the side of the head. The made have received a third, but he wasn't even sure as he flew backward off the human...not to recover, but to get snagged around the throat by some metal wire. Normal this Beowulf would be able to get out of a predicament like this, however the previous blows had actually injured it's neck and made it weaker. On the second tug, this Beowulf next saw the sky...then the ground, and then the sky again, over and over in rapid succession until his head landed on the ground and he saw the second human for a split second before he saw nothing, his last thought fill with regret that he wasn't able to rip out the throat of the human. Then...there was nothing, as the black dust dispersed into the air and floated away.


[Bleh, dead! x_x]

"Oi! Helps with stress relief! Ya outta try it sometime!" Alex shot back as he scrambled to his feet after the Beowolf was thrown off of him.

When Alex had kicked off the Beowolf, he had expected the Grimm to fly off of him and then fall to the ground. He had expected Kei to run around him wielding some sort of collapsible weapon, either a sword or maybe a gun, and attack the Grimm. The last thing he expected was for Kei to jump over him, latch something around the Grimm before it even reached the apex of it's wrecking ball induced flight, then do what could almost be considered an assassination attack that sent the Grimm flying. It didn't even reach the ground before it had started to vaporize into the nothingness that it had originated from.

As the vines that surrounded Alex's body stopped glowing and retracted back into his magic belt, the grounds keeper turned to face Kei and gave a nod in approval. "Impressive attack. Excellent timing too. That Beowolf didn't even know what hit it after I threw it off of me. Sorry about throwing you by the way. I can get overprotective." he stated, his accent fading away now that the battle was over so Alex could focus on how he presented himself instead of focusing on combat.

Alex's emerald aura was still glowing though, recovering the minuscule amount of aura he had used up during that very short fight. "What I find strange is that the Grimm had come from the North. Upwind so there's no way that it found us by scent before or after the wind shifted. Was it out here alone or was it with a pack?" Alex thought out loud as he walked over to the bush the Grimm had tried to ambush them from. "Just because we took that thing out doesn't mean the danger has passed."

After searching around the bush for a moment, Alex found what he was looking for, any sign of a trail. "Bingo. The start of a trail." Alex knelt down to get a closer look at the overturned leaf that was on the ground. Most of the leaves seemed to be dry, but this one was wet like the ground under it, indicating that it had been turned over at one point by either a foot or a paw. Too much moisture for the wind to turn over a leaf that was already on the ground. Problem was that the leaf was already drying out. "... make that a cold trail. This is going to go only 20 feet before it fades away. That Grimm would've had to been waiting here for at least 15 minutes for the trail to be this cold already." Alex stated as he stood up, though it was unclear if he was still thinking out loud or if he was teaching Kei about tracking Grimm.

Still thinking, Alex couldn't help but frown. The trail was too could to find out where the Grimm had come from, either a pack of Grimm or maybe some sort of nesting grounds, if Grimm had such a thing. He wasn't going to find it now, even with Kei's help.

These Creeps were definitely bored: they hadn't encountered a pathetic human in almost a week. The desire to break through the bones and cover their muzzles in the delectable red liquid that spurted out of them when torn apart just right...these Creeps screeched over the joy of just the thought.

These Creeps apparently hadn't been the only ones, as the Creeps were attracted by the noise of those stupid humors and the screeches of what sounded like a Beowulf. These Creeps ran at their top speed, and came just in time to see two humans take on a Beowulf, and see the Beowulf get his head sliced clean off. These Creeps screeched, and then charged at the two weak humans. That Beowulf had to have been a weakling, the one human looked like he would be scared of his own shadow, and he had been foolish enough to attack by himself.

These Creeps stayed together, however deciding to focus down the weaker one first, then after the lifeless pieces of his body were strung about the forest floor and had painted the grass and leaves crimson red, they would focus the stronger afterwards...if he had the guts to stay and fight.

Alex couldn't help but smirk at Kei's comment. "Yep. Overprotective describes me to a 'T' pal. I am the human meat shield, the first guy to attack so attention of the enemy is on me, and the official Leroy Jenkins of the group... expect I actually know when to and when not to do it." he said with a shrug and slight chuckle. It was kinda true... and stupid at the same time. He was tough and it took a lot to bring him down but at the moment he really didn't have any armor to protect him so he felt the full blow of what ever would hit him. It was actually kinda foolish for an unarmored man to act as the shield for everyone. He had to learn to sometimes let others take a few hits for him. They just might be able to handle it better, just like Kei would most likely could with that coat of his.

Alex nodded at Kei's comment, but he kept his eyes on the ground looking for anymore signs of the Beowolf's trail. "True, but rarely to Grimm venture too far from their pack. Also tracking skills are useful for finding criminals and the like if we hunters ever run across a crime scene. And believe it or not that will happen more often then you'd think it would. If you'd like I could teach you a thing or two about tracking." the young adult offered.

However before he could hear the assassin-like huntsman's response, Alex saw 3 creeps burst out of the foliage and started to head for him. "Looking for us indeed! I don't wanna hit you so duck!" Alex bellowed before he started to spin his wrecking ball above his head to give it some momentum, and then swung the ball and chain weapon in a wide arc, intending to strike all 3 Creeps in the legs in one fell swoop. It was a big risk, and it wouldn't do that much damage to them if it did hit, but he still had high hopes of tripping all of them. The moment his weapon had done it's job Alex yanked it back to him so it wouldn't get in Kei's way.

Spoiler:

These Creeps were for sure that victory would be easy for them, but the 'weak' human proved otherwise, having swung around some sort of ball thing and knocking them all over like bowling pins. By the time they had all gotten up, the Creep most to the front who had been leading them into battle had also taken two frontal attacks from the other male human...who had escaped by some sort of trick before his allies could get to him.

Beaten up but not finished, the head Creep screeched to get the attention of the other two, and they followed him as he charged after the human with the ball thing. One of the creeps in the back branched off and went to the other side of the 'weaker' male human. The lead creep attacked the human by trying to take a chunk out of his right leg, while the creep assisting him leapt up and attempted to bite down hard into his left arm. The creep that left the rest of the group and attempted to flank the human, jumping up high and trying to chomp down on the back of his neck, possibly encompassing his entire neck from back to front.

The instant that Alex had struck with his attack he was pleasantly surprised that his attempt to attack all three Creeps not only connected with all three Grimm, but had actually done what he had wanted to happen; it knocked all three of them off their feet! Seeing that made him grin, however as he pulled his weapon back in by it's chain he watched Kei strike the alpha Creep with a pair of punches and then using that cord of his again to get out of reach of the Grimm. I used to do that trick with a vine... but it would grab my ankles and pull me upwards upside down so my arms were free to swing my weapon back then. Alex mentally remarked, though he had gotten slower over the years so when the Grimm had charged at him, he knew he wouldn't be able to avoid them that way. However for him to do this he had to let go of Wrecker again.

Instead he once again wrapped himself in his vines as his aura started to swirl around him again, and he intended to force back the 2 Creeps that were charging at him. He managed to catch the Grimm that was heading towards his leg by the forehead plate and used his now great strength to hold it at bay... but he wasn't so lucky with the second one that headed for his arm and as the creature's maw clamped down on Alex's left arm he sucked in a sharp breath, but other then that he didn't flinch considering how tough his body was. "Sorry but I'd make a lousy chew toy for ya pal..." Instead he used his left hand, which was inside the Creep's mouth, to grab the Grimm by the tongue, lift up both beasts, and slammed them together as hard as he could. "... unlike most I bite back!"

After that Alex jumped backwards while pulling his left arm hard and managed to yank it out of the Grimm's mouth, and grabbed Wrecker by the end of it's chain and swung the weapon at the first Creep, attempting to land a hard blow onto the top of it's head to flatten the beast. While it was true that the second Creep was more of a threat because it was a little closer the fact of the matter was that the first Creep had taken a few more blows then the second so Alex was hoping that strike would finish it off. A drop or two of blood trickled down his left arm towards his hand, but it was having trouble getting to his hands thanks to it getting caught up in the vines that were wrapped around that arm.

"Don't worry about me! I've got 'em! Focus on yours!"

OOC:

The Creeps that had decided to take on their older male human had found a rather small amount of success, followed by a rather large amount of suffering. While one of them only got it's tongue jerked on and slammed into it's pack leader, the pack leader himself not only was slammed into a pack mate, but also had is skull caved in before he could reestablish some sort of defense. Out of the corner of his eye, This creep saw his pack leader begin to blow away in the wind, and in a rabid state of anger he launched him at the older male human, in an attempt to pin him done with his claws and rip his face off with his sharp teeth.

The lone Creep who had attacked the other male as he was trying to do some flying trick had managed to bite down into his arm as the human had put it in the way of his neck, and he took some pretty big hits as well, what with being shocked by some sort of machine or something...and then flipkicked right in the face. They both landed, and the Creep took a moment to regain his senses before he haphazardly lunged at the younger male human.

One down, two to go! Alex thought as the alpha grimm's head caved in the instant it was hit by Wrecker.  It wasn't that the blow had killed the Grimm that Alex was surprised about though, it was the fact that the attack had actually hit.  Using his semblance to increase his strength always resulted in Grimm falling at his feet... but it also seemed to make it harder for him to hit his target.  So the fact that Alex had finished a grimm like this made him rather happy to say the least.  "How's that for a crushing defeat?" Alex called out to the dying Grimm before it started to fade, then shifted his attention back at the other Creep that was right next to him.  The plant manipulator started to pull back his weapon, but the Creep jumped at him before he could bring it to bare on the Grimm.

Hoping to move faster, Alex pulled his power away from the vines that were wrapped around his body, resulting in the vines retracting back into one of the seeds on his belt... but it didn't help.  The Creep was too close.  Once again a Grimm had managed to tackle him to the ground, but this time the beast's leg had pinned Alex's right arm to the ground thus preventing him from using Wrecker.  The Grimm's other leg landed on his chest.  Trying to prevent the Grimm from gnawing his face off, Alex slammed his left hand against the Grimm's chin, forcing it to look up and not bite at him, but he couldn't hold the Creep like this for long with just one arm.  He might of been strong even without the vines, but he wasn't Hercules.

However Alex had far more up his sleeve then just wrapping vines around his body to increase his strength.  On his magic belt a pair of seeds started to glow with emerald light, one on each hip.  An instant later thick branches with no leaves and sharpened points grew out of each seed, curved upwards, and attempted to strike the Creep in the sides.  It was a pincer attack.  That was the main advantage of Alex's semblance; he could attack from multiple angles simultaneously.

OOC:

The Creep did his best to assault the older male human, and it looked like he might have been able to rip at least part of the human's face off, but he was stopped as the human's palm force his head into an upward staring position. He was struggling to adjust himself to rip open the male human, and had just gotten his head off and around the human's hand when the Grimm suddenly cried out: he had two rather sharp vine-like appendages just pierced through him and either side, and not long after that it was all she wrote for this Creep. The red light fading from his eyes, his head dropped down and rest on the chest of the older male before he began to disperse into black dust.

Once this younger male human has sprung up on his feet, the last Creep in the pack stood no chance. After practically getting hung, his head was then slammed into the ground and fried with an electrical surge. Were Grimms to have brains, which is unconfirmed, it's would have been sloshed and fried up quite nicely. The Creep just laid there for a moment before it began to disperse, the black dust of this Creep seeming to meet up with that of the other ones, all the particles flying away together.

[We Three Creeps of Majorly Dead! bleh~, x_x]