Chapter 126: Silver Eyes

Sitting in his seat aboard the Bullhead, Daniel took out a notebook and a pen from his inventory.

“Dear diary,” he began writing. “It’s been twelve hours since we boarded this ship. We’re currently leaving the ocean behind and heading into the cold, desolate, snow-covered lands of the continent of Solitas…”

He gazed thoughtfully out the window, observing the landscape as he reflected on his situation.

“Life aboard the Bullhead has started to become a sacrifice for everyone. The things that used to make us laugh, like destroying Grimm with the ship’s projectiles, have now become a nuisance…”

“Even worse, our food supplies have run out, including the ones I had in my inventory. Who would’ve thought a werewolf, a ghost, and a tuna girl could eat so much?”

He lifted his gaze from the notebook to look at Gura, who was staring at him with predatory eyes while swishing her tail in a feline manner, reinforcing his suspicion that she was a chimera.

“I’m sure Gura is planning to eat me… although she’s not the only one.”

Glancing sideways, he clearly saw Sadako watching him while sharpening one of her katanas and licking her lips.

“Those damn girls think I’d make a good source of food…”

He couldn’t blame them. Thanks to his regeneration, they could probably keep themselves well-fed for a long time. However, that didn’t mean he was willing to give up an arm or a leg just to keep them satisfied.

His gaze settled on Aegis. “Well, I suppose I can understand them…” he thought, feeling his own stomach beginning to growl.

After all, he had also considered eating him in an emergency. Just imagining him boiled and served with butter was enough to make his mouth water.

However, he quickly shook his head to dispel the thought. There were too many things to consider before eating him, starting with the lack of butter and, more importantly…

The bastard was the only one who knew how to pilot the ship.

If he ate him, they’d all end up crashing into the frozen wastelands. He had no doubt the girls would probably be fine, but that wasn’t the case for him. Most likely, he’d get lost and end up wandering around the entire continent of Solitas for an awfully long time before finding his way out.

Brrrr!

Daniel’s pen stopped moving as the ship was rocked by a strong turbulence.

BRRRR!

A second jolt, much stronger than the previous one, sent the girls jumping out of their seats. Daniel, firmly anchored to the floor, didn’t even flinch, although he stopped writing and approached Aegis to find out what was going on.

“What happened?”

“What do you think?”

Barely had he finished answering when a Nevermore, a crow-like Grimm of spectacular size, attempted to ram into the Bullhead. The ship barely managed to dodge it, suffering another jolt as the enormous creature flew past them.

Daniel scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I guess it’s the Nevermore.”

“Bingo, genius!” Aegis mocked.

Daniel didn’t appreciate the sarcasm. It was only funny when he did it, although he decided to let it slide for the moment.

“Why don’t you fire a projectile or something?” he complained, dropping into the seat beside him and pressing the weapon buttons, although none of them did anything at all.

Aegis shook his head.

“Don’t you remember that we used up all of them when we found that Beowolf?”

Daniel closed his eyes for a moment as he recalled how they had gone off course after finding a lone Beowolf. They had chased it while laughing, firing projectiles at it and deliberately missing over and over again, simply because they found it amusing to watch it run.

“I don’t regret it. That was fun.”

“Hahaha!” Aegis laughed. “Yeah, it was, but what do we do now?”

Daniel thought about it for a moment. He could go outside and punch the Grimm, but he didn’t feel like leaving the comfort of the ship, so he decided to go with plan B. He pointed toward the mountain range stretching out below them.

“Take her down and lose it in the ravines… or crash into the rocks like a loser. I don’t know, it’s up to you.”

With that, he raised his feet and rested them on the dashboard, settling in to enjoy the show.

Aegis took the challenge personally and moved the controls, sending the Bullhead plunging into a steep dive. The sudden descent caused the girls in the back, who weren’t wearing their seatbelts, to start floating around the cabin while the Nevermore remained hot on their heels.

Once they reached the ravines, Aegis kept the ship at full speed while maneuvering between the rocky formations. Despite the fog covering the area, he had no trouble dodging the stone pillars and avoiding the dead ends that appeared along their path.

The Nevermore, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. Relentless in its attempts to bring them down, it crashed into the walls and destroyed several pillars during the chase. However, not even that was enough to stop it.

“That bastard is persistent!” Aegis growled as he saw the Grimm was practically right on top of them.

Daniel let out a sigh as he realized that, after all, he would have to go out and kill it. Reluctantly, he began to get up, but stopped when he spotted an unfamiliar figure in the distance.

“Wait, what’s that?” he asked, pointing ahead.

Through the fog, they both spotted a wooden bridge connecting the walls of the ravine. However, what was truly interesting was the person standing on it.

[Image]

It was a woman who, judging by the two scythes hanging from her belt, they assumed was a Huntress. Her appearance was also quite striking, with a skull mask and a blue dress in a Tabasco-style design.

Upon seeing her, Aegis got an idea. “Let’s see if she can be of some use to us,” he remarked with amusement while keeping the Bullhead on course toward the bridge.

They didn’t take long to speed past underneath the structure, just as the Nevermore crashed into it. Of course, the bridge wasn’t enough to stop the Grimm, but they hadn’t expected it to.

Both kept their eyes on the Huntress, who, as she fell into the abyss after the bridge was destroyed, threw one of her scythes and managed to lodge it into the Nevermore’s wing.

Almost immediately, the handles of both weapons began glowing with a purple light and started pulling toward each other. The effect slowed the woman’s fall, but it also altered the Grimm’s trajectory, causing it to lose control of its flight and eventually crash into the side of the Bullhead, tearing a huge hole in its hull.

Seeing that the ship was beyond saving, Daniel jumped to his feet.

“Everyone, abandon ship…!”

BOOOOM!

His words were abruptly cut short as the Bullhead exploded, sending everyone flying through the air.

Emerging from the explosion’s smoke, Daniel, still slightly dazed, managed to form a gravity glyph beneath his feet. As soon as he located his companions, he used it to propel himself toward them, catching Aegis first, then Sadako, and finally Gura.

With everyone safely secured in his arms, he propelled himself again to get away from the debris and landed perfectly on his feet in the snow.

“I’m going to assume you’re all okay,” he joked as he put them down, leaving only Aegis on his shoulder.

Sadako responded by giving him a thumbs-up to indicate she was fine. Although her clothes had been slightly singed, she hadn’t suffered any injuries. The same couldn’t be said for Gura, who lowered her gaze to look at her hoodie, now completely destroyed.

“GARRR!”

She growled angrily as she tore off what was now nothing more than a pile of rags.

“I’m going to kill her!” she cursed, visibly furious. “I was actually starting to like wearing clothes!”

She cracked her knuckles menacingly. “We should find her and make her pay for this…” she suggested, looking at Daniel for his approval.

A smile appeared on Daniel’s face. He liked that Gura asked for his approval before acting, as it showed that she took his opinion into consideration and acknowledged his authority.

Even so, he didn’t answer immediately. He remained thoughtful, considering the possibility of going after the Huntress to get revenge on both her and the Nevermore, assuming the latter was still alive. However, after weighing it for a moment, he eventually shook his head.

“It’s not worth it. She’s just a Huntress. Chasing after her would be a waste of time…”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence before Sadako, with a slightly frightened expression, moved behind him and used him as a shield.

Daniel didn’t need to ask what had frightened her. At that moment, an enormous explosion of silvery light erupted from the place where he had seen the Huntress and the Nevermore fall.

Although they were relatively far away, its effects didn’t take long to reach him. His werewolf nature reacted almost immediately, manifesting an instinctive aversion to that energy.

He recognized the ability almost immediately. “Silver Eyes…” he muttered to himself, genuinely surprised.

And rightfully so, since he had obtained it from Summer herself, Ruby’s mother. However, he had never managed to activate it, and for fairly obvious reasons, he couldn’t exactly ask her for advice on how to do it either, assuming she even knew how herself.

“The power to turn entire armies of Grimm to stone…” he thought.

Of course, the Grimm weren’t really a threat to him at the moment, but expanding his repertoire of abilities was never a bad idea. Especially when fate was practically putting someone capable of using them right in front of him.

“Well, let’s go find the Huntress,” he announced, excited at the prospect of finding her.

Upon hearing him, Gura jumped with excitement, raising her fist into the air. “Revenge!”

“No killing!” he warned, making it clear that he needed her alive.

Gura immediately lost interest. “Boooo!” she booed, dropping to the ground like a sack of potatoes in protest.

She wasn’t the only one showing her displeasure. Sadako also shook her head several times, since she really didn’t like the effects Silver Eyes had on creatures of darkness like herself.

Of course, Daniel didn’t care about that. In the end, he had to pick them both up again and carry them by force. Gura let herself be carried like dead weight, while Sadako, thoroughly annoyed, didn’t stop hitting and kicking him throughout the entire journey.

—/—

Meanwhile, on the other side of the mountain, the sound of metal clashing against metal echoed throughout the area.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Maria Calavera, the famous The Grimm Reaper, was fighting for her life against Tock, a green-skinned crocodile Faunus wielding two twin sabers.

She moved skillfully across the terrain, dodging her opponent’s attacks while making sure not to trip over the bodies of her henchmen. She had already taken down at least a dozen of them, and none had posed any real challenge. The Faunus, on the other hand, was proving to be a much more difficult opponent.

Taking advantage of an opening in her opponent’s defense, Maria swung her scythe, tracing a perfect arc that struck Tock directly in the chest…

Or at least, she was certain she had hit her, since she couldn’t find a single wound or sign of damage to her Aura.

Tock burst into laughter.

“Is that all?” she mocked, showing no signs of fatigue, unlike Maria, whose Aura was beginning to run low.

Without giving her time to react, she delivered a kick that sent her flying several meters backward. Maria managed to stay on her feet, although her Aura was on the verge of breaking. This didn’t go unnoticed by her opponent, who, after taking a quick glance at the watch hanging from her waist, decided to hurry things along.

She didn’t have much time left.

But before she could close the distance again, Maria took advantage of the gravity Dust built into her weapon to make both halves float for a brief moment before bringing them together into a single piece, forming a staff. The transformation was completed just as Tock lunged at her with her sabers pointed forward.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

The new form of her weapon gave her a defensive advantage, allowing her to block every slash with the shaft while counterattacking with strikes aimed at her opponent’s body. However, no matter how hard she tried, her attacks continued to have no effect.

Tired of doing nothing but blocking her attacks, Tock swung both sabers downward in a vertical slash, forcing Maria to position her weapon in front of herself to stop the blow with its shaft.

She succeeded.

Unfortunately, that was exactly what her opponent wanted.

With a smile on her face, Tock opened her mouth, revealing her steel teeth. Before Maria could pull away, she closed the distance and bit down on the shaft of her weapon, snapping it with surprising ease.

Maria was caught off guard by the unexpected move and lost her balance, an opportunity Tock immediately took advantage of to deliver a headbutt.

CRACK!

The impact was strong enough to shatter her skull mask, exposing her face and silver eyes.

For an instant, time seemed to slow down for Maria. Through the fragments of her mask, she managed to make out her opponent’s sabers, one of which was heading straight for her face. She didn’t have time to dodge, and her already depleted Semblance couldn’t protect her either.

SLASH!

A clean cut.

“AAAAAAAHHH!!!”

Her screams echoed throughout the area. Tock had just sliced off her eyes, causing her to writhe on the ground as she clutched her face with both hands, unable to endure the intense pain.

At the same time, Tock’s watch beeped, and her Aura finally broke.

“UUUFF!” she sighed in relief. “You were close, I’ll give you that,” she mocked as she began walking toward her. “A few more seconds and you might have actually made it.”

She shook her head as she watched Maria, who, now completely blind, was desperately struggling to find her weapons on the ground. After several attempts, she finally managed to retrieve them and activated their transformation mechanism, changing their shape from scythes into pistols.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

She fired several times in the direction of the voice, but Tock dodged the bullets without any difficulty. Maria continued pulling the trigger until the weapon was completely empty.

“You know? The only reason my mistress wants you dead is because of your eyes. But now that you’ve lost them… perhaps you can still convince me to spare your life.”

Frustrated, Maria threw one of her weapons in her direction, although she missed by quite a bit.

“Well… I respect that. A warrior until the very end,” she praised her as she raised one of her sabers and prepared to execute her.

However, just before bringing the blade down, Maria activated her other scythe. The gravity Dust kicked in, pulling the weapon she had thrown toward it and launching it with tremendous force straight into Tock’s back.

She didn’t realize what was happening until the blade plunged directly into her back.

“GAAAHHH!” she screamed in pain.

Guided by the sound, Maria gathered what little strength she had left and lunged forward with her scythe raised high. A direct strike that would have ended the fight…

Except he never managed to complete it.

ZAP!

The scythe came to a complete stop, held between two fingers just before reaching Tock’s neck.

“Hey, hey! This is getting way too violent!” Daniel laughed, holding the scythe’s blade with one hand while supporting Tock’s limp body with his other arm.

Tock’s eyes widened as she looked at Daniel’s face and recognized his silver eyes.

“Another Silver-Eyed Warrior…” she managed to say before coughing up a large mouthful of blood.

“Hmmmm…” Daniel examined her for a moment, assessing her condition. “Looks like you’re dying.”

His gaze shifted toward Maria, who was still lying on the ground.

“And you seem to be missing your eyes. What a mess…” he complained.

He took the scythe from Maria’s hands and threw it away before pulling out the weapon that was still embedded in Tock’s back. That turned out to be a terrible idea, as the wound immediately began bleeding, leaving the Faunus on the ground, slowly bleeding to death.

Daniel rolled his eyes.

“Alright, calm down. Don’t be so dramatic,” he complained as he took a bottle of berry juice out of his inventory and quickly poured its contents over both women’s bodies.

Maria tried to move away when she felt the liquid running over her head, but stopped when she noticed the stabbing pain in her face beginning to disappear almost instantly. She still couldn’t see, but her wounds had healed.

Not only that, she could also feel her Aura reserves replenishing. It was a wonderful sensation, although she had to push it aside when she realized she hadn’t been the only one receiving that treatment.

“Watch out for her!” she tried to warn him.

But it was already too late.

SHLUCK!

Tock, now completely recovered, drove her weapon straight through Daniel’s chest.

“I don’t know what you did, but thank you so much for healing me,” she whispered close to his ear before stepping back to enjoy the show.

Daniel, still with the saber impaling his chest, staggered forward.

“Aui! Iua!” he complained, exaggerating every movement in an extremely dramatic fashion before turning toward Tock. “You stabbed me, partner,” he reproached her in a broken voice, staggering again until he collapsed into her arms.

“Hold me tighter, Ed… It’s getting dark,” he murmured in a pronounced Southern accent.

Tock had to admit that this wasn’t what she had expected. People’s deaths were usually much less… theatrical. She didn’t even bother asking who Ed was, as she was certain he didn’t have much time left.

Daniel coughed several times into his hand.

“Tell Aunt Em to let old Yeller out…” he continued, although his accent changed once again, this time to a British one. “Tell little Timmy I won’t be coming home for Christmas. COUGH, COUGH!”

He brought a hand to Tock’s cheek and gently caressed it, adopting a much deeper tone of voice.

“Tell Scarlett I do give a damn!”

With those final words, he let his head fall backward and stuck out his tongue, bringing his performance to an end.

An awkward moment of silence followed, eventually broken by Tock herself.

“That was weird,” she commented, still holding his body.

The situation became even stranger when applause suddenly began to fill the air.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Turning her head, she found a naked girl, a pale girl, and a mantis shrimp clapping in her direction.

As strange as the scene was, Tock decided she’d had enough. She moved to drop the corpse and retrieve her weapon, but never got the chance. The supposedly dead man suddenly rose in her arms, the saber still impaled through his chest.

“Thank you! Thank you!” Daniel exclaimed in a tearful voice. “They love me! They really love me!”

He even gave a few bows and blew kisses to his audience before finally calming down.

“Well, that was fun…” he commented with a chuckle, wiping a small tear from the corner of his eye.

Suddenly, his head twisted in an unnatural manner until it completed a full rotation, allowing him to look directly at the spot on his back where he’d been impaled. After examining the wound, he turned his gaze toward Tock and wagged his finger from side to side in disapproval.

“What a naughty girl.”

Without losing his smile, he extended his arm backward, bending it at a grotesque angle until he reached the saber’s hilt and pulled it out in one swift motion.

Tock had a bad feeling about this.

“Now, jokes aside…” Daniel said, adopting a much more serious tone. “Could you tell me where the Silver-Eyed Warrior is?”

[Image]

—//—

Author’s Note:

Short chapter, I admit, but if I make it any longer, you probably won’t get it until Wednesday, if you’re lucky, so I think I’ll leave it at that. I hope you enjoy it!

I’m looking for female characters with a fire/demon theme. If you know any that fit, leave them in the comments. I need ideas!

Have a nice day!

Hugs and kisses! Bye!

Tu regalo es la motivación para mi creación. ?Dame más motivación!