Mud, Death and Arguments

"I shall claim thy souls and add them to mine collection! How does that sound?" Grim wondered aloud as she rode on her spectral stead. Having searched through the forest of Havensbane for the anomalies, she had come up rather empty handed, having only claimed a few already dead guardsman souls. 

"I shall curse the wicked and drag them to the infinite void! Yeah, that's good." She quickly wrote down her line on her company issued phone. If it wasn't for her horse, playfully named Slayer, she probably would have gone mad. Or perhaps she was already mad, no one really knows.

If Grimm was going to try and do her job solo, she would need resilience, grit and situational awareness. She had the first two down to a T, yet while caught up in her own dialogue, Grimm failed to notice the ruined bandit camp and something sniffing about for food. 

Yet thanks to her ever loyal stead, she was thrown off the horse and landed in a pile of mud. Slayer quickly vanished into the mist, frightened by whatever was lurking. Grimm stared in the direction her horse had run off to, somewhat pissed that she was now alone.

"Are you KIDDING ME!?" 

Her voice was booming, causing both birds and bugs to flee from the area instinctively. Yet that didn't stop whatever was behind her.

"Turn around... Nice and slow." The voice said in a quiet whisper. Grimm, without anything else to do, did as she was asked. With a dramatic twirl of her mud covered cape, she stood before a fox eared guardsman in red. 

"Who are you to dare speak to me?" She made sure to try and look as tall as possible, despite the fact she was already 7ft tall. The guard gave a playful snicker at the woman, looking at her dignified appearance with curiosity, having never seen an outfit like hers before. 

He put a hand out to shake, one of his ears flicking at the wind. "I'm Pit. Monster hunter. And you are...?" He spun his wrist around, hoping to get an explanation of her outfit. There were rules to what Grimm was allowed to say on her occupation, but a good default she had picked up was to just call herself; 

"A bounty hunter. You may refer to me as Grimm."

"I know every bounty hunter in this country. Never heard of you though."

"I'm new." She sighed, rubbing the mud off her brown boots as she looked around the surrounding area. "I assume you're here over The Beast of Havensbane, correct? Lotta hunters have been after it... And I bet you want that sizable bounty." Pit asked as he went around the ruins of the camp, inspecting a few bodies that looked to have been torn to shreds. 

"Sure. Yeah. Yep yep." Grimm nodded her head along, looking around the camp with him. With no actual knowledge of the world (since she decided to write up her 'menacing' lines instead of reading up), Grimm decided to use the tried and true method of asking without making it obvious you're a woman who's head will fall from the lightest punch.

"Really?" Vinea groaned. The four of them had come across a raging river that Mammy had guided them to. They didn't exactly know who they were after, since Lucy had drunkenly made the bat with her already little understanding of Titania's ability and it showed. 

"Is it broken?" Nvr wondered aloud as she grabbed it, shaking Mammy to try and figure something out. "Give it here." Avis squawked, despite the fact she was currently reaching out towards a decrepit tree.

Grey clapped his hands together to get their attention and pointed out the fact that they could all very easily cross the river. "But what if the bat thing is-" Before Vinea could finish, Grey clapped his hands again to silence him. 

With little effort, Nvr grabbed Avis and jumped across the river, followed by Grey and Vinea, who used just kinda stepped over it with the power of stretchable limbs. "Why did I choose the blind woman..." Nvr chuckled to herself, and with a few sarcastic comments from Vinea, they continued stumbling and bumbling behind Mammy. 

As night had finally fell on our four 'intrepid' hunters, the arguing and anger had only just begun. From Avis stepping on Grey's tail, Nvr accidentally ripping Vinea's vine arm off when she tried to lift him, and Mammy's constant beeping over detecting something...

"Should it be making that noise?" Avis asked, pushing up her glasses a bit to closer observe Mammy. "You're blind! Why are you getting closer to it?!" Vinea yelled and yanked her back with a bit of force. 

"I use the wind to see, dumbass! I'm like one of those old hermits in movies." She shrugged. He stared at her for a solid few seconds before sighing. "Yeah but... You were staring at my chest." He said flatly. Nvr seemed confused, as Avis was actually staring at Mammy. He waved for Nvr to not say anything, continuing to gaslight Avis a bit more. 

"You're probably right then. Sorry." Avis sighed, taking her glasses off for a bit. Vinea gave a heartfelt smile, his vine slowly creeping across the floor. "It's okay... You'll see this coming." 

"See what-" She was tripped up, falling face first into mud. Grey was actually stunned. He never thought Vinea would have the balls to trip a blind woman, yet it seemed Avis took it in a good way... Because she used her Ego to make his own vine limbs strangle him. 

"Stop fighting... Please. The beeping has ceased."

The bio weapon casually pulled the two away from each other, trying to get them to stop acting like children despite the fact that both of them were in their early forties now. Nvr was almost tempted to use her heart on them, but in the time it took for her to blink, the sound of something squelchy being ripped away was more distracting. 

When she opened her eyes, she saw her body lying limp on top of Avis and Vinea. Yet most distressingly was that Fox was gone. 

"Shitshitshitshitshit." Avis mumbled as she and Vinea tried to push the broad, heavy body off of themselves. Nvr, meanwhile, was trying to comprehend what could have almost killed her so quickly while a black, inky substance leaked from her neck that slowly pulled her back to her body. 

As everyone tried to regain their bearings, the lack of Grey was obvious... Despite the fact he was incredibly quiet. "What happened...?" Nvr asked as she put her head back on her shoulders, letting her regeneration take care of the rest. 

"I didn't see what happened." Avis said with a sigh, grabbing her guitar off the floor. Vinea explained that he saw something drop down above Nvr's head and ripped it off with a single swipe. He mentioned it was like a scythe and that whatever tried to kill her, quickly grabbed Fox and Mammy before it ran off. 

"Whatever it was, it's something from our world. I could feel a heart power being used." Avis remarked while cleaning a bit of dirt out of her guitar. 

Nvr took a deep breath and began thinking over what it could be.

"Adversary's strength capable of cutting my head off. With the speed in account, it means opponent has intimate knowledge of their power. Kidnapping Fox means it was planned or spur of the moment. Yet the use of a heart means they understand it.

Possibility of sub-mind user; 75%

Chance of opponent being from The Iris; 20% 

Chance of Fox's death in the next four hours; 40% and rising.

Opportunity recovery of Fox, Mammy and a sub-mind success in the next forty minutes; 60%"