Episode Arri: Chapter 3: Poison

Chapter 3 of Arri's adventure.

            Arri charged forward as the villagers fired their weapons from the ramparts and began cutting through the smaller Grimm that made up the front lines, and prepared to strike the giant Grimm with vines.  As she cut through a Beowolf, she then found herself face to face with a Goliath Grimm.  She took a deep breath, and raised her hand up causing a powerful vine to explode out of the ground and pierce the Goliath’s head, causing it to dissipate almost instantly.  And while destroying such a powerful Grimm was normally a cause for celebration for most Huntresses, Arri didn’t have time to revel in that victory as five more Goliaths and several more Beringels were bearing down on her.  And of course the giant Nuckelavee was off in the distance slowly making its way towards the village.  The villagers bullets were doing incremental damage to some of the other giant Grimm which meant Arri didn’t have to rely too heavily on her Semblance beyond her initial kill which was vital because as she carved her way through several of these monsters, she felt her Aura slowly being chipped away by tiny hits the creatures managed to land.  And given the leviathan-class Grimm that awaited her, she knew every bit of Aura counted.  She then came face to face with a Beringel, and she immediately recalled her fight with one when she first met her teammates in the Emerald Forest.  She quickly used her vines to bind the creature and quickly cut its head clean off.  And as the monster dissipated, it seemed the last remaining piece was simply defeating the Nuckelavee.  Arri took a deep breath and charged the monster, all while the villagers continued to fire upon the monster, forcing the creature to focus on defending the onslaught of bullets giving Arri a window to attack.  She ran up alongside the horse part of the monster and quickly cut into its legs, causing the entire creature to buckle, leaving the head exposed.  As soon as this happened, she jumped up, and cleaved through the neck of the monster, causing it to dissipate.  The villagers on the ramparts cheered as the giant monster fell to Arri’s scythe, but Arri herself was not celebrating.

            “That was too easy” she pondered aloud.  Suddenly, a bell deeper within the village began ringing.  Arri snaped back into focus and used the vines to launch herself towards the giant tree.  As she flew through the air, she saw several Blind Worm Grimm burrowing out of the ground near the roots of the tree.  Arri landed a safe distance away from the worms to avoid getting attacked during landing and rushed towards the creatures.  Blind Worms were not the most dangerous Grimm, but they could be quite numerous and erode the ground you stood on.  In tandem they had a tendency to shoot acid on their enemies which could burn through Aura in a matter of seconds if not dealt with quickly.  Arri charged in and cut through some of the worms furthest away from the tree, while also focusing on each step she took because she realized if the worms got this far into the village, there may have been potential pitfalls created by the monsters burrowing beneath the ground.  She continued to charge through the monsters and the villagers she was defending were making their way over as well.  A few of them did seemingly fall into the pitfalls Arri tried to avoid, but when that happened she would use her Semblance to lift the villagers out and keep them from being harmed.  But this left her open to more attacks, and these attacks along with having to spend Aura on trying to keep the villagers above ground meant she knew it wouldn’t be long until her Aura completely deteriorated.  And the worms were not decreasing, they kept popping out of the ground like weeds, just to get their heads cut off.  But then, when Arri went in and cut off one of the creatures heads, she felt the ground beneath her feet give way, and she fell into a tunnel.  She tried to catch herself with some vines, but her Aura was almost gone, and the most she managed to summon was a small bed of vines to break her fall.  She immediately got up expecting to have to brush off several globs of acid from her body, but surprisingly the tunnel was dry as a bone.  And instead of reaching back up to the surface where the worms were still fighting the villagers, it seemed to go deeper into the ground.  And she wasn’t sure, but Arri was almost certain she could hear the faint sound of cackling in the distance.  She decided to move deeper into the tunnel as cautiously as possible knowing she needed whatever Aura she managed to regenerate in the interim of not fighting monsters.  After about a minute of cautious walking, the cackling grew louder.  Eventually she saw a strange glow in the distance, and then saw a strange sight.  A Faunus with a scorpion tail wearing a white shirt and pants with brown belts adorning his body was cackling over a bubbling Grimm pool.  The room was roughly the size of a basketball court with one half of it being covered in Grimm goop and the other half patted down dirt.  And all around the walls and ceiling of this chamber were roots which made Arri realize that she was right beneath the mighty tree itself.  But then she noticed the cackling had stopped, and the stranger slowly turned around revealing he had golden eyes as well as a long ponytail, and his shirt had a gap in the middle revealing a scar in the shape of an X on his chest.

            “I didn’t think anyone would find their way down here with my pets keeping the rabble busy” the stranger said with a slight cackle.

            “So you’re controlling the Grimm then?” Arri said pointing her scythe at the stranger.  “How is this possible?  The number of people who are able to effectively control the Grimm has dropped dramatically since the Battle of Vytal.”

            “Yes, those self-righteous fools removed the White Queen from the board, leaving the Grimm without direction or purpose.  And given the fall of the Order, there seems to be no one willing to take the throne of Darkness!”
            “What does the Order have to do with all of this?” Arri asked as she kept her weapon primed while checking her Scroll, hoping by keeping him talking she could recover even more Aura so that she stood a chance.

            “My child, the Church of Shadow was once a part of the Order” the stranger said with a sick smile.  “And my ancestors of the Callows family were the ones who were able to talk to the White Queen without fail!  We could touch the Grimm pools without fear of being consumed, we were granted boons of power and ability.  My gift was to be a Faunus with the power to slay my enemies with precise and painful precision!” the stranger swung his scorpion tail around as he said this.  “But the Order lost faith.  They believed in a new power, that of the Wizard, so they cast my family and my faith out of their ranks!  Instead determined to kill our goddess for the sake of them attaining more power!  And because of their arrogance, the queen is gone!  Ah, but perhaps not for much longer, now that I have found this.”

            “And what exactly is this?” Arri asked starting to move towards the side of the wall, her Aura almost completely restored.

            “This child, is an Origin Pool.”

            “Looks like a normal Grimm pool to me.”

            “Because you are uninitiated fool!  Grimm have existed ever since the creation of Man in this world, they have lived here far longer than any other living being!  And our goddess was the one who taught those of us with faith how to listen to the words of these ancients.  The goddess created more of the Grimm pools that you Huntresses fight today, but this, this existed before the world itself.  Very few are said to remain, but here is one hidden beneath a hideous monument to the world of Light!  But once I lay claim to it, I will use its power to begin my plans to change this world forever!  Tyrian Callows will usher in a new Church of Shadow, and begin a new world order!”

            “I’m still standing here you know” Arri said giving her weapon a twirl.  “Besides, you’re just one guy, my parents literally killed a god.  Even if I fail here you won’t be able to stop everyone else out there.”

            “Oh child,” Tyrian said with a sick smile, “your death will only be a drop in the bucket compared to the lives I’ve taken before and after today.”

Author's Note

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