10 Chapter 10

-[Rowan]-

It had been a few hours since they left Vale and they were closing in on their destination. With nothing to do, Rowan sat patiently in the airship, Julius in front of him looking more serious than the boy had ever seen him.

"Um…sir? There's a little problem." The voice of their pilot came as Julius immediately got to his feet.

"What's the problem?" Just as the man asked the question, he saw the answer with his own eyes. Following Julius' line of sight, Rowan paused at what he was seeing.

"What the hell…" he muttered as he looked out the window and down below to see a ridiculous gathering of black in the forest around their destination.

'Why are there so many?' Rowan wondered, staring down at the gathering of Grimm.

"We have to get down there. At this pace, they'll reach the village in a couple of hours and that will not be good for anyone." Julius said as he took a hold of his large claymore sword that lay innocently against the ship walls.

"This isn't training anymore Rowan. From here on out, the kiddie gloves are off." Julius said as he turned to his son. "I trained you to be a student at Beacon, now you'll learn what it means to be a huntsman."

With that, he pulled open the airship door, the wind slapping against his face and blowing his hair to the side as a violent red aura engulfed Julius just before he jumped out of the flying vehicle.

'You see Grimm, I say EXP.' Rowan thought as he followed suit, jumping out as well. On his descent, he made note of how far Shion was from his predicted landing spot.

Activating [Aura Augmentation], his body was engulfed in a powerful golden aura. As if it wasn't enough, he activated [Big Bang Impact], the aura becoming even more powerful around his fist.

"Sorry dad." He muttered wryly, the air pressure not allowing his words to come out properly.

*BOOM!*

A violent shockwave exploded outward from where Rowan landed, decimating the Grimm around the area.

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

…

Standing to his full height, he ignored the barrage of notifications as he looked around at his surroundings.

He was standing in a decent sized crater, Julius staring down at him dryly. "Really?"

"It was a quick way to get rid of a lot of them. It worked, didn't it?" Rowan shot back as he climbed his way out of the crater to see a destroyed forest around him.

'Maybe it wasn't the best idea.' He thought as he observed the outcome of his attack.

"No point in dwelling on it now. This forest is crawling with Grimm. We'll take out the ones we can before heading into the village." Julius said as they began moving at high speed through the forest.

A Beowulf shot out from behind a bush only to be felled in one swing from Julius who didn't break stride. "Stay alert. They're all around us."

"Yeah, I know." Rowan answered as he unsheathed his blade, beheading a Beowulf in one movement.

His eyes narrowed as he noticed something odd. "Is it me or do these Beowulves look bigger than usual?" He asked as he cleanly cut another Beowulf in half and continued with his movement.

"You're right but it's not something we have time to dwell on." The older Arc said with narrowed eyes as he punched through the head of a Grimm, the red aura still flaring around him.

'His semblance…' Rowan noted as he slid under a Beowulf that jumped from the bushes to seemingly ambush him.

As the creature sailed above him, he stabbed his blade through its head, letting its forward momentum do the rest.

Rolling to his feet, he spun on his heels, easily tearing through another Beowulf that leapt at him. More of the Grimm poured in from the forest around them.

"I don't think we have to worry about getting their attention anymore." Rowan muttered as a golden aura coated his blade.

He swung the weapon in front of him, a golden arc of aura shooting out of it and racing into the horde.

Julius leapt forward, heaving his claymore into the air and smashing it onto the part of the horde he was facing.

The man was a blur as he effortlessly tore through the Grimm. The violent red aura only made the scene more awe inspiring. The large blade decimated multiple Beowulfs with each swing.

On his part, Rowan mowed through them at a slower yet still amazing speed as he nimbly dashed at the horde. He parried a claw with his blade, a golden aura taking shape in his other hand as another blade appeared in it.

He quickly spun, cutting the creature in half and letting the other blade dissipate. He pushed forward, taking down three more in a slash before dodging into a backflip as two Beowulfs crashed into each other.

He smirked as he remembered the change to one of his skills.

•••

[Aura Construct(Active)][Level 94]

A skill that allows the user to create weapons and other materials made of aura, capable of reforming them with complete control and creating anything they need. Your constructs now look like real items.

•••

Landing back on the ground, he immediately shot forward, a single swing taking them both down. Another use of [Aura Slash] saw a large number of them decimated in an instant.

The roars of more incoming Beowulves caused a grin to appear on Rowan's face as his aura surged through his blade. Using [Aura Augmentation], he ran forward to face the creatures head on. 'They just keep coming.'

-[Later]-

The father-son duo made their way out of the forest and towards Shion village. Had their abrupt landing not caused a huge impact in the forest, nobody would think that they just fought their way through it.

Julius had a serious expression on his face which was mirrored by Rowan as they saw a small crowd of villagers close to the entrance of the village.

They each held varying looks of fear, worry and concern on their faces as they saw the two make their way towards the village.

"Where are the huntsmen? Aren't they supposed to be here?" Rowan wondered out loud as Julius' eyes searched the crowd.

"Something'a wrong." The man said immediately as someone pushed to the front of the crowd.

A black haired man in a brown jacket and tattered pants squeezed himself forward, running to Julius who had a look of recognition.

"Thank god you guys are here! Where's the rest of the reinforcements?" The man asked frantically.

"It's just the two of us. Where are the others?" Julius questioned but the man seemed not to hear the question as his eyes widened.

"Just…the two of you? This isn't the time for jokes Julius! We need more than two people to deal with this, especially when one of them is a kid!" The man ranted to which Rowan stayed silent, content with watching Julius and the man interact.

"It's not a joke. It's not possible to gather a lot of huntsmen and huntresses on short notice and from your report, we don't have time to wait for them to gather." Julius argued.

"So instead you decided to bring a child into this?! Have you lost your mind?!" The man shot back.

Waving off his complaint, Julius put his hand on Rowan's shoulder. "Trust me, the kid's good. He'll give you a run for your money if you're not careful."

The other man only glared harder, causing Julius to sigh. "Besides, there's a reason I brought him along. Where are the others?"

"Gerard and Devon are seriously injured. Jaye's tending to their wounds but…" the man trailed off, covering his mouth emotionally.

"What about Elma?" Julius asked, dreading the answer.

-[Minutes Later]-

The man quickly led them to a room in one of the buildings. As they entered, a small gasp left Julius' lips.

A woman with light brown hair laid on the bed in the room. The fact that she was only in a black bodysuit didn't distract them from the large piece of wood embedded in her stomach.

"What happened? You didn't say anything about this in the report." Julius questioned as they neared the girl.

The black haired man could only look to the floor as he answered. "The Grimm didn't stop. We had to slow them down to give reinforcements time to get here." A small trail of tears fell from the man's eyes.

"The strange Grimm came again. We couldn't do anything to stop it. Elma tried to buy us time to get away but this happened. It was a few hours ago." He explained as Rowan moved closer to get a proper look at the injury.

"She's still alive." Rowan said in slight surprise.

"The doctors here did everything they could but they could only do so much. She's just barely alive and going to bleed out in a matter of minutes." The man said, on the verge of breaking down. "It's a miracle she survived this long, if you can call this surviving."

Rowan had already stopped listening to him as he turned to Julius. "I think I can heal her but I'll need your help in getting the wood out."

While Julius nodded, the other man looked up, not quite recovered from his state of depression but their attention was off him at the moment as Rowan's hand gained a golden glow, raising it to the point of the injury where the wood was still embedded.

•••

[Aura Healing(Active)][Level 46]

The user is able to give their Aura healing properties and use it to heal others. You heal (INT x skill level)HP per minute.

•••

'My INT is at 200 so hopefully it should be more than enough.' Rowan thought as he turned to Julius. "When I give the signal, pull it out."

He kept his eyes on the body in front of him as the gashed area around it quickly healed, skin reforming. The area around the wound was also visibly healing, leaving no scar behind.

"Now!" He signaled as Julius quickly pulled out the piece of wood.

With the bloodied piece item no longer in place, the skin and tissues visibly closed up with each passing second.

Barely a minute as the other wounds and gashes on her body healed up, leaving her good as new, not counting the dried blood on her skin.

Stopping his healing, Rowan let out a sigh of relief. "All done. She's unconscious but she's okay."

At his words, Julius released a breath he didn't know he was holding. The other man stood in utter disbelief as he looked at Elma's now completely healed form.

He brought his ear close to her chest for a moment, completely speechless. "She's alright." He muttered, still in his trance.

"Before you get all mushy on us, take us to the others. He's still got enough energy for two more." Julius said.

"Of course! Of course!" With that, he escorted them out of the room to another room in the same building.

Upon entering, they were greeted by a woman with dark red hair. She sported a few bandages on her arms and legs but they looked mild in comparison to the other two in the room.

There were two beds lying opposite each other, carrying a brown haired man and black haired man, both unconscious with bandages all over their bodies.

"You really think he can heal them?" She asked, causing the man who brought them to turn to her, still not calm from his previous episode.

"He healed Elma. Elma's fine now!" The man exclaimed, causing the woman's already teary eyes to widen.

"They did?! Are you sure?!" She asked in disbelief.

Rowan, who was in front of the beds, noted a few glaring things. One man was missing his arm from his elbow onward along with a foot. The other man was missing both arms and hand bandages all over his face.

Julius turned to Rowan seriously. Though Elma's injuries were more fatal, this was the loss of whole limbs they were looking at. "Can you do it?" He asked.

"I can try." Rowan said, only 65% sure that he could do it but that seemed to be enough for his father who nodded.

"Start healing, I'll take off the bandages." Julius said as Rowan's hands lit up once again in his golden aura as they began the process.