Chapter 62: In the Mouth of Madness (Part 3)

They were trekking through the mountains, guns in hand. They were observing the masked men besides them, they attempted to strike a conversation but all they got was a nod. This creeped them out. Some kind of eerie feeling that they couldn't explain.

Jack was walking behind the carriage a few meters away, He was observing the movement of those masked men. They were moving in unison, it's as if they were as disciplined as a soldier. There was a rhythm on the way they walked, "I don't like this..."

Carson narrowed his eyes, "What do you see? Are they making a move?"

As the best marksman of the squad Jack has sharp eyes, but he only shook his head. "That's the thing Sir... They're not making any other movements. It's like I'm staring at a bunch of lifeless robots."

Carson sighed, "Well if it's nothing then we can't make a move either..."

"But we could make a move we could catch them off guard." Jack said as he slowly undid the safety of his rifle.

"Just give me the signal sir and I'm going to light this whole parade up." Carson blocked his gun with his arm, "Don't... This might be what they want that we would be moving first."

Jack nodded his head as he continued staring at the masked men. Winter on the other hand was bored out her mind, but she kept her vigilance up. She might appear lax but she could sense that everyone was observing the masked men.

But she did the opposite she observed her superiors, on how would they react on certain situations such as this. True she had combat experience, but it's only against Grimm, and a simple spar on the vytal festival. But a life and death situation was a first for her.

She wasn't even sure that she could do it, but if push comes to shove she has no choice but to do it...

As she was focusing on her superiors, the white hooded priest, raised his hands and rang the bell on his hands. The carriage stopped. The masked men all knelt, They were silent but they looked like they were praying. The hooded priest approached the carriage, He touched it caressed it slowly as he brought out his dagger and cut his palms open. He poured his blood around the edges of the carriage.

Jack looked around and furrowed the rain got stronger, and to be honest they were on a disadvantageous position. this wasn't an ideal place to stop. He kept his finger on the trigger ready to fire at any moment.

Then suddenly the carriage shook, it kept shaking and as time passes the shaking grew more fervent. One of the soldiers upfront asked the priest what was going on but he was ignored. The priest didn't cover his wound as he wiped his blood towards the soldier who went near him.

Then the shaking stopped, The soldier who got wiped with blood stepped back and let the rain wash away the blood. Then the black box opened from the lid on top.

What happened next was what they didn't expect the most.

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On top of a cliff near the top of the mountain, Two figures stood opposite of each other on the fierce rain, "Well? the fights not going to resume itself you know..."

Haruki said, at his waist hung his katana tempered by the blood of his enemies, The Life Reaping Katana. Both the sheath and the blade we're crimson red. It lacked any decorations, when sheathed it looked like a wooden sword painted red. Unfortunately It was an Unholy class weapon.

On his hands was the guandao Doctor Watts made, He was taunting the masked man with blue horns. The man just stared at him, "So it's just going to be a one man show huh?"

He slowly walked towards his opponent, "Alright blue horns... I'll just call you blue horns, if there's no difference for you. I won't bother to know your name seeing that you'd be dead soon anyways."

Then as he was saying that blue horns moved, His right hand that was holding the blade ring was covered in a dark miasma, drawing closer to his head.

The thickness of the dark miasma was hard to see, since the rain was in the way. Haruki spun his guandao and blocked his strike, but the miasma shot through his weapon and directly hit him in the chest.

He stepped a few meters back, what hit him damaged his aura greatly, he furrowed his brows, "What the fuck, that's a nice semblance you got the- -" Before he could finish speaking another blade ring covered in dark miasma flew towards him once more.

He rolled forwards to avoid and threw his guandao towards the enemy. The weapon hissed through air, following the arc drawn by the spinning slash. The masked man blocked the strike using his blade ring. But Haruki has already used his lightning form to appear behind him and caught the parried off blade.

They exchanged blows, Haruki's strikes were getting faster and sharper as his body gets used with the new weapon.

*Clang clang*

Blue horns was getting pushed back, and he went near where he threw his other blade ring, so after blocking Haruki's downward slash he flipped backwards and took the blade.

"Hoohh, not bad for a dead man..." Haruki said as he dashed towards his enemy. Blue horns accurately blocked Haruki's slash aimed at his right arm.

But Haruki used Gravity I on his blade and on his opponent, He put pressure on their clash.

With a sharp sound and sparks flying about, His guandao sank on the enemy's shoulder. Before Haruki could push his blade downwards, Blue Horns expelled black miasma from his whole body.

The blade stopped before it cut all the way through. And pushed Haruki away a few meters away.

He channeled the lightning on his Lightning form and charged towards to his enemy once again. Blue horns threw his blades towards Haruki bit he used the life reaping katana sheathed on his waist to parry of the blades.

Blue horns covered his arms with dark miasma and tried to block Haruki's lightning imbued blade. Sparks flew as their semblance clashed, but Haruki's lightning was a lot stronger it was only a few seconds until the blade went through the black miasma and through his arms.

Haruki spun his guandao cutting off Blue Horn's arms whole. "Well blue horns? feeling a little chatty?" But blue horns didn't speak as he stared at Haruki.

Haruki put his hands on the mask and pulled it away. "What the fuck!" His face grimaced as he looked at the mangled face in front of him.

His face was riddled with burn marks, scars, and his eyes were empty, As if he was staring into the abyss. The mouth was also sewn shut. It was as if his enemy was just using his instincts to fight him.

Haruki grimaced and cut off his head, "Poor bastard... That's the best I could do for you." He gazed towards the mountain pass, He thought to himself they should be arriving now but there was no soul in sight.

Just the black puddles of his kills...

He rushed towards the mountain pass using his lightning form searching for their whereabouts.

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When the black box opened, what came out were faunus and humans that had a lot of scars and missing limbs. But their eyes were filled with bloodlust and a creepy smile was plastered on their face permanently.

They crawled out from the black box and charged towards The phantom squad. "What the fuck?! Fire!! Open fire on everyone!!" Carson shouted towards his whole squad.

One was caught off guard and got his throat bit out by a faunus woman. "Shit!! Rick!!" The other beside the guy fired at the faunus woman riddling her with holes. Everything went into shit as they phantom squad was fighting off the frenzied people that were stuck inside the black box and the masked men at the same time.

Jack fired at them but the masked men had aura protecting them, so his rifle turned into a spear and he charged into the fray, Carson also noticed that his bullets were ineffective so his dual wielded machine guns turned into two massive axes.

"Cut them down!!" But every masked men he killed slowly turned into black goo, he was weirded out but he kept cutting them down, as he stood in front of Winter protecting her.

Winter on the other hand was shaken, the rabid Man who came from her flank tried to bite her. So she flipped and cut off the man's legs. The rabid man crawled towards her, roaring as if eyeing it's prey.

She closed her eyes and cut off the man's head. It felt weird, she kept herself from puking. She killed off her emotions as she cut down everyone who came at them. She summoned all the past Grimm she has killed to add some fire power to her squad.

But the masked men were more powerful than expected, Jack tried to stop all the masked men charging towards Carson and Winter, but he was only human.

He did his best stabbing multiple enemies with his spear, He spun his spear and stabbed through the throat of the white hooded priest who tried to sneak past him.

But once his aura was depleted the hits he was tanking passed through him. He was cut down...

Carson looked at Winter and sighed, He felt sorry for this girl, she has killed so many on her first mission, this would probably haunt her...

"Miss Schnee please run to the base of this mountain, don't go back to that village. Please call for back up once you have successfully ran away from these monsters, I'll hold back as many as I can."

Winter screamed towards her CO, "But sir!! I'm helping! look at my summons!"

He shook his head, "That wouldn't hold them for long... please, and please tell Commander that the phantom squad did their best. I hope that I could protect you at least..."

He pushed winter away,He looked towards the nearing enemies. His body grew bigger and his muscles contracted. He weilded his two massive axes towards the charging enemies.

One swing took three lives almost immediately, He roared towards the heavens echoing his last stand along with his brothers and sisters who died or about to die in battle. They took their final stand on that mountain.

But they didn't last that long, Winter kept running while puking on the way, she maybe not affected a while ago, but her actions finally sunk in.

She killed people...

They might even have families, those might be the missing people that the atlas military were looking for. Some were even children, She thought that her actions were unforgivable as she puked out her breakfast.

Her hands were shaking, she has tripped multiple times, the wet ground surely didn't help her case. She found a small opening beneath a fallen tree, as she hid inside it.

She was shaking. She hugged her knees, For the first time in her life she was afraid. She laughed at herself thinking that she might escape her father's grasp once she joined the Atlas military.

This was far worse, the look they gave her as she took their lives, they were terrified and Happy at the same time. For the first time in her life how deeply she wished that should have just accepted her fate instead of defying her father's wishes.

She remembered her family, Her mother and Her little sister Weiss how deeply she missed them badly, She laughed at her self as tears poured down. "Hehehe how ironic...The life I thought would give me freedom the most would be the one that kills me..."

She was shaken down to her core, as she silently sobbed beneath the Tree, "Weiss... I'm sorry... big sister won't be seeing you grow up...

*Hics*

Mom... I'm sorry I couldn't be the daughter you wanted me to be..."

Then a rustling sounds came from somewhere, she held her dual sword tightly as she prepared her self. Then countless footsteps were marching towards her direction.

She covered her mouth she was really afraid as she stopped herself from sobbing, but tears kept falling. Then the sounds stopped.

She looked up and there was a masked man standing in front of her, she wanted to raise her sword but she couldn't muster up the strength. Thinking that this might be the end for her she accepted her fate. She probably was surrounded.

But...

She won't go down without a fight, She's a schnee! She will Never back down.

She gripped her blade, But before she could strike the masked man in front of her. A red streak flashed, followed by a beautiful red arc. The man was split in two.

"Whew! that's the last one! Are you okay princess?"

Winter was surprised she looked at the man with a white fang mask in front of her, and relief finally overcame her body. She fainted, but she was smiling.

But before she fainted she uttered the words, "My prince..."