Grimm Hunting (public)

[Grise Heldar]

*Grise was walking around in the forest, her gigantic weapon tied to her back as she was walking alone.
Her teammates did not want to accompany her, for several reasons, so now she was alone, tracking the Grimms.
She had to promise to each of them that she wouldn't get too deep in the forest by herself, but today Grimms seemed to be shy, as there was only a very few near the edge, so she started to get deeper and deeper.*

[Ethan Sagol]

Ethan was familiar with the Grimm native to Vacuo, but the varieties local to Vale were new to him. As such, he decided to head out into the Emerald Forest and see what he could learn about them. If he got into trouble, he would either fight his way out or stage a tactical retreat. If things got really bad, the Founder would save him, just as she had when he was a boy.

He'd been out since dawn and encountered very few Grimm - they seemed either to be avoiding the edges of the forest or to have been wiped out by a previous expedition. He hoped it was the former, or this exercise would be wasted. As he made his way further in, he encountered another person who had apparently had the same idea that he had. "Hey there," he called out as he approached, not wanting to get attacked. "Are you out looking for Grimm as well?"

[Grise Heldar]

*She looked at him, but in a weird, emotionless way as she walked closer. He realized that this woman in armor was taller than him, and there was something unsettling in the way she looked at him so intensely.*
"Hello. Yes, I am, but there seems to be very few around. Do you have any idea why ?"

[Ethan Sagol]

"Not a clue," Ethan admitted in answer to her question. "I'm Ethan, by the way. May I have your name?"

Her armor was well-fitted and looked cared-for. Ethan guessed that she spent a lot her time wearing it. As to her weapon: "Is that an iron maiden?" he asked. "That's an unusual thing to see being used as a weapon." His own weapon was much more traditional.

[Grise Heldar]

*She stared at him a bit before answering.*
"I am Grise Heldar, and I study at Mistral, though I was sent here as an exchange student. My weapon is called Nyctophobia."
*She waited a bit before adding.*
"Would you care for a closer look ?"

[Ethan Sagol]

"A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Heldar," Ethan said as he came to inspect her weapon more closely. "If you're offering. I'd rather not find myself on the business end of something this intimidating - a sentiment I'm sure is shared by the creatures of Grimm, with a name like that." It was a truly fascinating construction.

[Grise Heldar]

"I don't think the creatures of Grimm have feelings, and don't let my teammate tell you otherwise."
*She answered as she laid the weapon on the ground for closer inspection. By pressing a button on the handle, the 'doors' opened, revealing the inside of the weapon, with a half-dozen of spikes hidden in it.*
"I can shoot those."
*She explained as she also unsheated a long knife out of a hidden compartment.*

[Ethan Sagol]

A solid ranged option: the weapon was also versatile.

"My own weapon is much more traditional," Ethan explained as he held out his staff for her to examine. "A little gravity dust makes it useful as a traversal tool as well."

[Grise Heldar]

*She nodded.*
"It reminds me a lot of my teammate's weapon. Her name is Nero. She is a snake faunus with red hair, I'll tell her about you if you wish."
*She closer her weapon and hanged it in her back.*
"Still no Grimms to be found. Yet I tried to speak as loudly as I could. This is not normal."

[Al Ciendra]

Suddenly, a loud explosion ripped through the silence, as part of the Emerald Forest was set ablaze.

In the midst of the Emerald Forest, Al was getting herself some stress relief, she was tired of theoretical lectures, hallways cramped with people, and sitting still on the creaky classroom benches. She was due for some good physical exercise, and what better exercise was there than to slaughter Grimm?

Al was a blazing blur, running through the horde of Beowulfs that had just gathered after she had sent their Alpha to kingdom come with a mighty blast of her semblance, the aftermath of which would probably cause a forest fire, if it weren't for the clever use of her semblance.
Al raised her hand, the sizzling flames eating away at the flora, leaving their wooden feast as with a yank of her semblance, Al threw the flames at the pursuing Grimm, incinerating two of the six pack members.
She drew her axes, spinning the weapons between her fingers. With mad laughter, the wolf faunus set herself and her weapons on fire and launched herself towards the unfortunate beasts, set on massacring the last of this pack.

[Grise Heldar]

*Grise immediately picked her weapon and started to ran towards the fire.*
" Jack ! You liar ! You told you did not wanted to.... Oh, you're not Jack."
*One of the Beowulves tried to jump on her, but she caught him by the throat as her hand started to shine. The flesh on the Beowulf's throat started to sizzle and smoke, as it tried with no avail to claw at her armored body and face. After a few moments, it's head simply fell from it's shoulders.*

[Ethan Sagol]

Beowulves. The most common Grimm basically anywhere, they were cannon fodder for essentially whatever you wanted to throw at them.

Ethan watched as Grise and the new arrival blasted their way through them with ease. "Oi vey," he commented quietly as he readied Kotev Cherev - he'd come here to learn about Vale's Grimm, not to just kill more Beowulves.

[Grise Heldar]

*With a measly six Beowulves against two experienced hunters, all it took was a few seconds to wipe them out. Once it was done, Grise sheathed back the knife that she'd used. No need taking out Nyctophobia for just that. Then she turned towards the girl.*
"An impressive display of strength. You remind me of one of my teammates. Still, so far deep in the forest and just a few Beowulves, that is not normal."

[Al Ciendra]

Al didn't care much about anything else besides having fun!
And that she did!
She lunged at the Grimm, her axes red-hot and tearing through their flesh like a hot knife through butter.
Flames shooting out her mask's slits, as the only thing that really rung out louder than their roar, was her laughter.

Sadly, it was over all too soon, guess that's what happened when she had to share her fun with equal or better playmates.

"Oh cool, another fire user?"
She asked, somewhat absent-minded.
"Oh well, if they're not gonna come to us, lets go to them!"
Al cheered, as she hopped and skipped deeper into the forest, whistling a song as she went.

[Grise Heldar]

*Grise threw a look at Ethan, before following her.*
"I'd advise you to turn back ! It is dangerous that deep in the forest, and we still don't know the reason for the scarcity of the Grimms. It could be an ambush set by older ones, or.... Stop ignoring me !"

[Ethan Sagol]

The pyromancer raced off into the forest, closely followed by Grise. Ethan watched them go, then sighed and took off after them with a shrug. "Leave some for me, ladies!" he called as he raced to catch up.

[Grise Heldar]

*After running for a while, Grise managed to catch the crazy flame-wielding young girl. She grabbed her shoulder and forced her to turn around.*
"Listen to me please ! It is dangerous that deep in the forest, we should head back before we attract anymore than we can chew. I know what I'm talking about, I made the same mistake before."
*Still, no Grimms. It was not normal. Usually, so deep in the forest, it was crawling with them, but right now, it was as if they were all gone.*

[Al Ciendra]

Al, swirled around but quickly pulled herself out of Grise's grip, she didn't like being touched out of the blue by a stranger.
But, Grise did have a point, there were barely any Grimm around and Al had gone much further into the forest than she usually did, the terrain was starting to look unfamiliar.
Maaaaayyyyyyybeeeeeeeeee she should heed her senior's advice and get out of here, it could get dangerous if the Grimm were being led by a smarter and older Grimm who might be planning an ambush or some such.
Al tilted her head at Grise, then looked to Ethan, they both seemed like competent huntsmen, so they could hold their own if they were to get into a fight, Al herself was of course plenty strong and while having no experience fighting side by side with these two had been practicing to avoid friendly fire, regardless it wasn't ideal.
Al shrugged, without saying much, she turned back, making her way out of the forest.
"You're right, there's none of them here, guess they must have realized keeping territory next to a huntsman academy was a dumb idea, this is boring, imma head to the training room, thats more exciting than this, c'ya!"
Al waved goodbye as she had walked past the other two, walking to a small clearing between the trees she gathered her flames around her hands and feet as with a mighty roar the pyromancer lifted off, shooting back towards the school in a bright orange streak.

[Ethan Sagol]

The masked pyromancer rocketed into the air and headed back for Beacon. Ethan shaded his eyes with his hand as he watched her go.

"Wish I could fly..." he mused. Oh well.

"There are usually a lot more Grimm around, aren't there?" he asked his original companion. "I don't recall there having been any kind of expedition lately - I wonder why we aren't seeing any."

[Grise Heldar]

"It might be an ambush. They seem to getting smarter those last days. Or.... Something is already hunting them."
*The young woman seemed anxious.*
"I hope that's not it. What would Hunters do without Grimms to fight ?"

[Ethan Sagol]

"It's not as though Remnant will run out of Grimm," Ethan replied with a shrug. "We are rather close by to a very prestigious Hunter academy, however," he pointed out. "It may well be that our extremely competent peers have picked this area clean for the time being. We may have to come back later."

[Grise Heldar]

*She nodded, lost in thoughts.*
"Right, but I did read somewhere that the sudden lack of Grimms was a foretelling for... Something bad, I can't remember. Ever heard anything about it ?"

[Ethan Sagol]

Ethan 'hmm'd thoughtfully. "It's not as though the Grimm left, though - they were all killed. I haven't heard anything about that being a problem."

If they weren't killed, though. "Grimm aren't scared of anything - they never attack each other, either. If they weren't all killed, what would make them leave an area?"

[Grise Heldar]

*She shook her head.*
"I do believe that having them all killed is already strange enough. Even though this place is used as a training ground by a Hunter Academy, there are always some to be found. To annihilate them so completely, a grand scale operation would've needed to happen, and I haven't heard anything about something like that. Did you ?"

[Ethan Sagol]

"I would imagine that it wouldn't take too much effort from the upperclassmen to clear out an area such that us underclassmen wouldn't find anything," Ethan replied with a shrug. "It could also just be Professor Noire rounding up specimens for her lecture," he added after a moment.

There were just too many possibilities to speculate on.

[Grise Heldar]

"Still, I am... Something feels wrong. I am sorry, but I will return to the school. I need to talk to a teacher. I would advise you to follow me back."

[Ethan Sagol]

"Trust your instincts: they're what keep Hunters alive." Ethan knew this better than most, coming from Vacuo. He signaled for Grise to lead the way.