Stalking death (closed)

The trees before her practically screamed out to her in pain. Broken off limbs scattered the ground before her, sap and chlorophyll oozed out of the demolished trees, appearing almost like blood. Salem gripped onto the metal brace beneath her thin, white jacket sleeve. The Gaia driller, she reminded herself as she continued running through the woods. Salem, truthfully, didn't have much experience with actual hunting. In fact, she didn’t have much experience at all on the field.

“A bit ballsy of Syne, sending in someone who hasn’t taken a single medic class at the academy yet to accompany three combat majors on a hunt…” She sighed, thinking about how she hadn't even attended her first day of school at the Syne Academy. The moment she put her stuff down in her room, she was told that she was needed on a hunt. All the other medics were busy. A small smile etched its way into her face.  “I guess they do thoroughly read the applications,” Salem smirked. She had been studying her mother’s medical notes for years, and had been practicing on her father ever since he got back into the huntsman gig.

It was then she slammed on her breaks, digging her feet into the ground to stop her dead in her tracks. She had reached the meeting point, approximately 2 kilometers into the forest. The deathstalkers home was only about half a kilometer away.

Looking up, could see the birds flying full speed in large colonies out of the forest, as far away from the center as possible. "The Death stalkers haven’t been here long," She spoke, her a voice a little shaky, a combination of how fast she was running, and her fear. The Deathstalkers had murdered 3 people in a nearby village, and had taken away two children she looked around.

“We need to hurry…” She spoke, lowering herself closer to the ground as she waited for the group of combat majors to arrive.

Varialis ears twitched as he picked up a bit of noise through the treas and brush. He had the advantage of some extrasensory abilities from his heritage. This didn't remedy the fact that he had little to no idea where he was actually supposed to go. 'The Forest' Not exactly the most concise directions for him, but he had to assume that it was probably just a teachable moment for the instructors. He moved toward the noise that he had heard and pushed through the brush to see a girl crouching there. He stopped for a moment, before closing his eyes and smiling. 'Cute.' He thought before moving forward and sitting on the ground cross-legged.

 He pulled out his scroll and pushed a button. "Recording: Arrival at rendezvous point Alpha. No hostile contact thus far." He whispered to it before hitting the button again and pocketing his scroll. He smiled at the stranger he had just met. Varialis Blackfort. I take it you are one of my comrades for todays mission. I look forward to working with you. Hope we all perform well." He laughed lightly and scratched the back of his head, closing his eyes and leaning back a bit.

Azrael was lost. He tried searching for his comrades at arms and found nothing. He walked a few more miles to see something extraordinarily odd. He saw trees snapped like toothpicks."Alright what could have done this?"Azrael thought. He looked at the trees closely."Ok this was not done by a small Grimm like a Beowulfe. It had to be done by something larger like a Deathstalker. Now according to the mission statement, two Deathstalkers rampaged a village, killed five people, and took two children. So I might be near their nest. So I better hurry and locate them as fast as possible!"he thought. Azrael's keen eye vision came into play. He saw fresh footprints. "Ok let's see. If I were to follow these footprints I should be able to locate them!"he thought. Unfortunately Azrael wasn't looking where he was going and ran smack dab into a tree. Azrael lost consciousness. The last thing he saw was two faces peering at him. Luckily their faces did not look like the hideous face of the Grimm that he was supposed to hunt with his comrades.

Warm winds brushed against Roux’s skin, the clouded sky shielding his eyes from what could have been an otherwise harsh heat. Warm tracks. Scratches, grazes along the trees. No wildlife. They must have come through here recently. Reaching back, he takes Bas Pushka in hand, anxiety and caution intermingling within him, extending his sword to its full length with a sharp clanking sound. With renewed vigour, he stepped forth, following along again, occasionally glancing at his scroll to make sure he hadn’t already passed the rendezvous point. It’s hardly another minute of too quiet trekking that he comes across it, only two of his party already there. At the least, I won’t be the last one here.

Taking a step forward, he waves his sword high overhead, swishing it about against a few trees before letting it hang limp against his shoulders.  “Hey, I’m Roux. I’m guessing you two are here for those deathstalkers too?” Awaiting a response, he glances them over, the Faunus among them clearly a warrior of sorts from his wears and arms. The second, harder to determine, armed with a giant drill but dressed more like a cleric or medic. “There’s supposed to be four of us, right?”

"Hi, everyone," Salem spoke, her drill being deactivated as she walked over to the unconscious faunus on the ground before her. "The four of us are all here," She uncomfortably smiled, pointing down at the man on the ground. Her face was a little red, filled with blush due to her fear of social interaction. "My... My name is Salem." She spoke, sitting on her knees as she placed the Faunus's head on her lap. "I'm the medical student assigned to the hunt." She gulped in a bit of fear, falling silent. 

"There are three deaths on the hands of these two Deathstalkers, and two more will be added to our hands if we don't hurry." She then raised her hand above the Faunus's face, "I'm sorry about this... but I don't have any other means of waking you up here," She muttered, then slamming it down across his cheek in hopes that the force waking him up. 

Salem then sat there, awaiting to see if he were to wake up. "If... If you two want to go on a head and try to scope out the terrain, or find the location of the Grimm... You don't have to wait for us... I-" She let out a sigh. 

"I don't want to slow you all down..."

Varialis looked down at the unconscious faunus with a quizzical look. "Oh." He says as his compatriot slaps the stranger. He has to stifle a laugh at these antics, although soon after hearing her words his face drops and his eyes stay closed. He sighs and stands up, smiling again soon after. "Be quiet. This is my first hunt too, and I don't know how effective I'll be either. Don't put yourself down, not when we have something else to deal with. We need to focus on the Deathstalkers, not just because it's our job but also for the people that it hurt." He gives a toothy grin and flicks his tail behind him.

 "So help our friend up, pick yourself up and just do your best okay?" He pops one eye open and looks at the other faunus. "We are here for the Grimm. That means that we're all here then. Once our friend gets up we can begin the hunt."