Ep. 33 – Grimm Hunting Festival

Never thought I'd say this but you want to know something? Maybe that wish about engrams wasn't such a great idea as I thought.

Currently I was facing a storage area packed full of engrams. I could see all sorts of engrams: legendary, prime, umbral, etched, etc. These only those I can actually see in the pile of stuff.

"Hey, MoonRay. Mind reminding me what I can do with these engrams?"

"You can decode them, change them, increase their quality… Basically, use them to create equipment. To be honest it's redundant with your other abilities."

"I see. Well, they should make creating more complex stuff easier and more manageable. If I wanted to build another ship or- MoonRay, I just got the best idea I could come up with, but we need to go back to the Traveler's shard to put it to use."

"Why do I have the feeling you'll do something absolutely preposterous (*sips tea* verily, the surprise shall wait)?"

Anyway, after having my absolutely genius, preposterous, and godly idea, I did a test with a couple (read as 'a few tens') of engrams. I noticed that the results were better than I expected and just got better if the base was of higher quality. This will be a little surprise. Probably my wedding gift. I decided to get married at the end of the year, then I might go on a little adventure for my honeymoon. I do want to bring my friends with me, but I will wait to ask them.

Where was I? Ah, yes. I tested my idea and it worked out just fine. I just need one last element which I will find back in my universe. While doing my little experiments, a month soon passed and the time for the Huntsman assembly arrived. The rendezvous point was in Atlas, since they have the best tech to coordinate a worldwide hunt. Teams RWBY and JNPR couldn't be bothered to actually go there, so I contacted Ironwood. We were put in charge of Vacuo and the 'Land of Light'. 'Hell, we are the best, that's not in discussion, but isn't this a little too much for just two teams?'

At any rate, we decided to split up: RWBY will go to Vacuo along with JNPR. They will use the ship and the scanners to find every single Grimm infested area and wipe them out, either manually or using the weapons systems. If you're still wondering, over the last three years everyone learned how to pilot the ship decently, the best being Yang, and operate the various instruments. I momentarily disabled the Universe Jump Drive (UJD) because I can't have them stranded in some random universe. Currently, my future wives have the highest order of authority over the ship and MoonRay after me. The others have partial authority over the ship, which means they can trasmat there and pilot it in times of need.

I'm digressing. Hasn't happened in three years, I swear. RWBY and JNPR will do a carpet sweep in Vacuo, while I will head to the 'Land of Light and plant one of my improved-and-redesigned Anti-Grimm bombs. In the past three years, I decided to make the most out of my semblance, so I went around cataloguing as much knowledge I could, while a secondary thought process would process it. I found a nifty bit of tech in Atlas, which helped me actually modify my initial Anti-Grimm bomb. Now, it isn't as reality breaking, so I could set one in each continent and be done with it… But where would the fun be in that? Back to the new bomb. If I don't fire off two in rapid succession, reality will be safe and sound in a day or two max. Now, it targets directly the existence of the Grimm, not all soul-less existences in an area.

The quantity in the 'Land of Light' is crazy. After all these years, it is still estimated that millions inhabit the land. Many Huntsmen would be needed to clear out the place, and many would die in the process. Grimm don't actively target humans anymore, but they won't just sit there and be killed. Anyway, I will clear out that place and, if I find it too difficult to do the old-fashioned way, make use of my bomb. It will be fun facing off millions of enemies at once. Actually no, it won't. I still remember that time on planet Resort and it was less than fun but good exercise, nonetheless. So, I'll go there and blow off some steam I accumulated during the years.

I was currently on my sparrow, going towards my hunting grounds. I must have committed a little miscalculation when dividing the group, as I wasn't sure whether my sparrow could cross the ocean. My worry wasn't needed as it worked just fine. A couple of marine Grimm surfaced from time to time, but I blasted them with the modified laser cannon I had installed back in the Destiny universe. The rest of the gang just arrived at the far end of Vacuo and will soon start their sweep. They decided to leave someone on the ship at all times to provide logistical support (aka finding targets) while the rest actually went to the surface and went around killing. They will switch every couple of hours.

When I arrived in the 'Land of Light', I saw groups of Grimm peacefully walking around. 'What a beautiful sight… Let's make them explode.' I thought while taking out my HMG, the 'Super Good Advice'. I put the weapon on my back while channeling Arc, Solar, and Void energy into my whole body. I was preparing myself to enter a modified version of 'Stormtrance'. I was planning on a mix of 'Nova Warp' and 'Stormtrance', with an added Solar element. I will teleport in the middle of the groups of Grimm and fry them up real well, if I haven't blasted them to smithereens already. To be honest, mixing two different super abilities is not currently a viable move in battle, since I need a couple of seconds to prepare. If I add all three elements, the time needed spikes to a whole 7 seconds.

'I'm lucky the Grimm changed and don't attack on their own, otherwise I wouldn't be able to have fun like this.' Is what I thought as I was warping from one group to another, annihilating everything in my way. I can't cover a whole continent quickly, but I have my bomb ready for when I am getting bored of playing around. 'Oh, there are some new faces. Never seen those guys before. Probably something the old will was creating for it's invasion.' I thought, as I looked over to about 40 legions of very Roman-looking legionaries. 'I hope it's not the new will or that will be a problem.'

I stopped my modified 'Stormtrance', which I should really name but not now. Right now, the only name that comes to mind would be 'Element Warp' just because I noticed the 'Stormtrance' part isn't too useful if I blast everything to pieces just after warping. Anyway, I stopped doing that and started gathering only pure Void energy. I condensed it as much as possible, bringing a 'Nova Bomb' from its initial size (quite big) to about Frieza's 'Death Ball' from Dragon Ball. Which means real small. I repeated the process 9 more times, until I was surrounded by 'Nova Ball's (*sips coffee* Shitty naming sense as always I see). 'I think each ball will cause quite the explosion, so I better distance them a little.'

I took aim, raised my hand, and swiped down. This ability, like many supers, needed a determined motion to actually work. I decided to go with that. The 'Nova Ball's basically teleported to the legions, though it was just due to the insane speed at which they travel. The balls stopped in the middle of the legions, then exploded.

'I think everyone saw that, no matter in which part of the world.' I thought as I watched the purple light recede, completely erasing any and all trace of the stretch of land occupied by the legionaries. 'I like it.'

I started creating more of my new favorite super, but I will just fire them one at the time for now. I ran around launching the little balls of annihilation, having a blast while blasting Grimm to pieces. 'The landscape will never be the same anymore but, hey, at least I left my mark on this world!' I covered about a third of the continent between sparrow, flying, and running around. Other than my new favorite toy, I used a variety of pre-existing abilities. 'Fist of Havoc' and 'Thundercrash' proved to be quite useful to travel between groups of enemies and smashing their heads in. I was about to do it myself when I received a message from Weiss: "Hey there, Hubby! We're about done in Vacuo. We saw the explosions, so we'll come there when we're done. Don't hog all the fun!"

So I answered: "I was about to ask you guys what you wanted to do. I'll wait for you at the lake. We'll spread out from there and get rid of as many Grimm as possible."

And so I traveled towards the lake while shooting some Grimm that were in the way. I waited for an hour at the lake before seeing the ship arrive. The gang trasmated to the surface and we shared our experiences. In particular, Yang wanted to know what that big explosion was a few hours before.

"That was me testing a new attack! I had no idea it would be that powerful or fun! You should totally see the landscape there. One word: total annihilation. Ok, those are two words but that's exactly what happened." I said excitedly. It was cool and I want no counter-arguments about how 'dangerous' that was or how it could have possibly brought more damage than the Grimm if fired off too many times.

"That explosion was Yang-tastic! I want to fire off explosions like that too!" said Yang, her eyes shining.

'Oh, you will. I assure you that it will be possible soon.'

"Sure, I'll make it possible, but you will have to work hard to get it right. Now, let's spread out from here and finish clearing the area. Please try not to get overrun by Grimm. In case you do, use the emergency signal in the bracelets. Let's go now!"

"I really think I've gotten too used to your craziness, Tula. Let's go!" said Jaune. Pyrrha patted his back in response.

We actually managed to cover the entire 'Land of Light' by the end of the day. By the time we finished, the gang was all lacking in bullets and covered in dirt. It wasn't too dangerous for the current us, but clearing hundreds of thousand of Grimm was still pretty taxing.

"Shower and celebratory drinks?"

"Hell yeah, I need it." Said Ren, looking pretty exhausted, though he was not injured in any way.

That day would be remembered as the 'Grimm Hunting' and celebrated every two years, between two Vytal Festivals, as the 'Grimm Hunting Festival'. Common parts of the festival, mainly intended for students, will be hunting fake Grimm made by Atlas, a tournament, and a shit-ton of food. Grimm were officially extinct on land (at least it was said they were extinct) and only the marine types and flying types remained. Huntsmen were still a thing, though they now acted more like some kind of law enforcement organization than actually hunting things. The Academies were restructured to teach their students more about actual history and investigative skills, which were much more useful in modern Remnant.