章 57: 58
RWBY: Forever Fall
Day One
It turns out that what I had initially thought was some sort of enchanted suit of armor was nothing of the sort. Instead it was a magical creature with the curious ability to 'possess' a physical object. The creature was called a 'Geist of Grimm' and I unfortunately ended up incinerating it, though thankfully only after I'd already gained a Blueprint from it. I hadn't meant to do so, but the Geist's true form reminded me a tad too much of a dementor, so when the creature had slipped out of the tightly bound suit of armor, I had reflexively killed it.
With that taken care of and Zatanna busy healing the wound one of the geists had left in her arm, I returned to examining the rest of the items in the tomb. The sword, staff, crown, and lantern all went into a pocket of my expanded bag, along with the pedestals they'd been standing on and the single remaining suit of armor.
None of it seemed magical, but the items both looked very valuable and rather aesthetically pleasing. I'd been meaning to decorate my new home and what better than treasures gathered in a distant world to adorn the home of a Planeswalker? I could even enchant the armor, then stick a geist in it (or just animate it manually) and it would serve as an extra line of defense for my home in case someone ever penetrated the wards.
After that, I'd decided to examine the room itself. There were some really beautiful murals on the walls, most of them featuring a crowned man done in solid white, often carrying one or more of what was clearly the same sword, lamp, or staff that I'd just tucked away in my bag.
Sometimes he was standing in front of a giant building, other times he was fighting hordes of black monsters, and yet other times he seemed to be holding court or at some other important event. He was often pictured with four other figures, young women from the shape and size, who were also depicted in white. Had the king had four wives? Or perhaps four daughters? Or the number could have some other significance.
I assumed these murals depicted important scenes from the life of whoever had been buried here. I honestly didn't care much, but, just in case any of this was important in the future, I made sure to commit the scenes to memory so I could look at them more closely with my occlumency if a reason arose.
There didn't seem to be anything else to look at, so eventually I found myself standing beside the coffin, Zatanna a step behind me. I started by examining the stone sword lying on top of the coffin, which proved to be…just a big hunk of stone, apparently. It didn't seem enchanted or anything, and was completely solid all the way through near as I could tell. Weird. It weighed probably fifty pounds and was completely dull, but I shoved it in my bag regardless. Feather-light charms combined with expansion charms were such an amazing combination.
I took a deep breath, oddly worried for some reason, and flicked my wand. I'd scanned the box with a half-dozen detection spells, but none of them had come up with anything out of the ordinary, though that still didn't fully settle my nerves. The stone lid lifted slowly up into the air, polished stone gliding almost soundlessly across polished stone. No trap triggered, no enchantments activated, nothing.
I carefully levitated the lid to the side, then lowered it to the ground. Despite its great weight and size, it landed nearly soundlessly on the floor, my levitation charm controlling its descent from start to finish.
Inside the coffin lay a desiccated body, barely more than a skeleton. Its arms were crossed over its chest and a short, ornate staff was clutched between its boney fingers. A silver circlet sat lopsidedly on the corpse's head and the remnants of a fine robe hung in tatters on its body.
I squinted curiously at the corpse. I hadn't noticed it before, but now that the lid was out of the way, I could detect just the slightest glimmer of magic in the staff and sunk into the core of the bones. It was faint, barely a remnant of a shadow, but my senses and spells were keen enough to pick it up.
"Huh," I said softly, "He was a wizard." I paused, "Or maybe he just had some enchanted clothing or something. I can feel some magic in the body."
"I guess that at least means that there are wizards around here somewhere?" Zatanna said softly.
"Probably. Or at least there used to be."
I bowed my head slightly and closed my eyes. "May you have found peace on the other side," I whispered.
"Amen," Zatanna added, bowing her head as well.
I opened my eyes and raised my head, then used another levitation charm to tug the staff free of the corpse's hands, followed by the circlet. This man clearly didn't have any more use for his mortal possessions and I was interested in examining the staff. There was no active magic on it now, but perhaps I'd be able to learn something about whatever traces remained.
After a moment's thought, I ultimately decided to just reseal the casket and leave the body behind. I didn't really have a use for such a decayed skeleton at the moment and I could always come back for it if necessary. I still hadn't gotten all the corpses out of Slaughter Swamp, and there were plenty of muggle graveyards I could raid if I needed more materials to work with for whatever reason. Plus I didn't want it bouncing around inside my bag and I wasn't sure how far I was willing to trust the spellwork on my bag. I was a talented amateur, not a master enchanter.
With this room fully searched and looted, Zatanna and I continued onward. I used a simple unlocking charm to open the door leading into this chamber, but unfortunately it seemed as though the hallway beyond it had become filled with dirt in the many, many years since the door had been sealed. We could potentially clear the way with our magic, but there were still several other already-excavated paths we wanted to explore and it was more than possible that the rest of this level hadn't survived half as well as the burial chamber itself.
We backtracked to the room with the buried sphinx and once more chose the next door on the left to explore. Along the way, we bounced ideas back and forth about what the nature of the connection between the geist and the sphinx might be. They were both called 'Something of Grimm', and looked slightly similar with their black bodies and white masks.
My leading theory was that they were both the creations of some long-ago wizard. Something about their appearances and abilities just felt artificial. Zatanna on the other hand raised the idea that all the people and animals on this plane looked like that. After all, all of the carvings and murals we'd seen so far depicted people only in stark black and white. Perhaps these were perfectly ordinary magical creatures and we'd be the odd ones out with our cream and tan skin tones instead of the bone white and pitch black everyone else would have.
Both options seemed perfectly plausible, so we eventually decided that we would just have to wait and see. So far this plane was already rather different from the two that I'd visited so far, so perhaps the differences extended to the people as well. That discussion eventually took us down a rabbit hole of imagining all sorts of exotic magical races that might exist throughout the multiverse. Blue-skinned amazons with horns, man-sized dragons that walked on two legs, four-armed lizard people with too-many eyes, and much more besides. Zatanna had a powerful imagination, coming up with ideas I never would have considered on my own.
Unfortunately, our exploration didn't go nearly as well as our conversation. The next tunnel we tried led nowhere, but it took us nearly twenty minutes of walking to reach the dead end. I apparated us back to the cave and we tried again, only to once more walk pointlessly for fifteen minutes before finally reaching the point where the path forward was simply too short and narrow to keep going.
I once more apparated us back and, after a brief stop to eat some of the food packed away in my bag, we headed down the last of the tunnels we were interested in exploring. Unlike the others, this one led upward instead of deeper into the earth. I was initially hopeful that it would lead us to some as-of-yet unseen portion of the ruins, but soon realized that the angle and direction were all wrong for that to be the case.
After some time, light and a fresh breeze began to appear, followed soon after by individual red leaves that crunched under our feet and gave a pretty clear hint of where this particular tunnel would emerge. Still, we continued walking, hoping that maybe there would be something worth finding, but alas.
The entrance we eventually reached was also nestled in the roots of a tree, this one considerably larger and older-looking than the first. There was a narrow slit in the earth with a deep drop that led down into the tunnel itself and I ended up levitating Zatanna up and out, then doing the same to myself. It was a bit unpleasant to get hauled into the air by my clothing, but unfortunately I was not yet proficient with Logomancy or Order magic to fly unaided and a broom would be too big.
Zatanna and I were stretching and enjoying the sunlight trickling through the canopy, tentatively discussing what we wanted to do next, when suddenly Zatanna gasped and pointed up towards the sky.
I followed her hand and my eyes widened when I saw the large, clearly-artificial metal vehicle flying through the air above us. Well, if that wasn't a sign of humans––or perhaps some other sapient race like the Atlanteans––I didn't know what was. It flew quickly over us and off into the distance, but it was clearly slowly descending towards the canopy. Perhaps the people onboard were planning to land somewhere not too far away?
Zatanna and I exchanged looks. We'd discussed going looking for the Plane's native peoples, but hadn't expected for them to all but come to us. What were we going to do?
RWBY: Forever Fall
Day One
My original plan was to head back to the tomb. I had a gut feeling that such an old, historic place would be sufficiently meaningful to connect with as a land, and one of my highest priorities on this plane was forging a new bond so that I could return here in the future after I left.
If that didn't work out, this forest also seemed like a potential option, though something about it didn't feel as compatible as the ruins had. If I understood what I'd learned from studying my Spark and the motes of mana I drew from Shadowcrest, connecting to this forest would probably give me access to green mana, the color I felt least connected to of the five. That wasn't necessarily bad––flexibility was a wizard's best friend––but both black and white, the colors that I believed seemed most associated with the ruins, would be more immediately useful.
Now however, a new option had appeared, one that came with a very short time to make a decision. If we didn't follow after the vehicle immediately, there was little chance we'd be able to find it again in the future due to the thick canopy of red leaves that covered the entire area like a Gryffindor quilt.
As much as I wanted to bond to a new land, that was not something that fundamentally could not wait. The forest was enormous and I didn't see too much difference between one spot and another. I could even just apparate back to the ruins at any time if the vehicle eluded our efforts to track it or the people on board proved to be hostile or useless.
This, however, was something that wasn't going to wait for me. "We're going after it," I told Zatanna, already reaching to dig around inside my bag."
"Well, duh," was her answer, and I raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"
I sighed heavily and drew the broom I'd enchanted yesterday out of my bag. It was not a particularly fancy broom, nothing like what a quidditch star would fly on, but the materials were of good quality and I'd used a single mote of Blue mana to really tie everything together into a cohesive enchantment scheme.
"Ooooo I'm finally going to get to ride your broomstick!" Zatanna exclaimed, "I thought that was going to be something reserved for the real me."
I sighed again. "Quietly," I added. "And stealthily." A tap of my wand on her head disillusioned the copy, leaving both of us all but invisible. "We don't know that they're necessarily friendly, so I'd rather make introductions on our terms, not theirs."
I mounted my broom and Zatanna quickly climbed on behind me, wrapping both her arms around my waist. She shifted slightly and I felt her lean forward against me, her chin on my shoulder. "Your broom is so big and hard between my legs," she whispered, her hot breath tickling my ear."
"Zatanna," I said warningly, but she continued on regardless.
"Oh, am I being a bad girl?" she asked breathlessly, "Are you going to…punish me?"
I couldn't quite fully suppress my physical reaction to her words, particularly combined with the way she was leaning against my back, but now really wasn't the time. I'd discovered over the past two weeks that my dear Zatanna was an insatiable minx, and it seemed her copy was the same.
"Behave," I ordered firmly. It wasn't a tone I would typically take with Zatanna, but this was not my Zatanna, but just a construct created from my magic that simply looked and acted like my beloved. My voice softened. "But maybe if you're good…" I trailed off, but it was enough. Zatanna immediately sat up, finally allowing me to lift off the ground and slowly hover up past the treetops.
If things went well, then perhaps both of us would deserve some time to relax. I would admit that I had missed Zatanna's company the past two nights, and a copy offered opportunities to try things that I had not necessarily been willing to attempt with the real Zatanna.
My dearest witch had a scarily large number of ideas for how a couple could enjoy their time together and, while we'd attempted many of them, I'd drawn the line at anything that could potentially cause any real pain or damage. No matter how much some of those ideas appealed to me and how many times Zatanna begged me to 'just give it a try', I simply couldn't bring myself to hurt her in such an intimate way.
However, if it wasn't the real Zee but a copy…Well, perhaps I could build up the needed confidence to blow Zatanna's expectations out of the water the next time we met, and if things went wrong I could always dispel and resummon the copy. It was just…practical. Yes, practical.
I shook my head. Such thoughts could wait. Right now, the vehicle was quickly moving away and I would prefer not to lose its trail after having just decided to follow it.
The flying metal vehicle was fast, faster than my broom, but it was also large and rather visible against the vivid red background. I wasn't a great flier, and Zatanna's added size and weight would usually make the broom handle awkwardly, but I'd specifically designed it with the idea of a passenger and even I could manage a relatively straight line.
We sped through the air, the tree tops whizzing past beneath. I made sure to stay just above the canopy, my magic rendering both of us little more than a hazy blur that blended in with the leaves beneath us and the sky behind us.
After several minutes of flying, our target was little more than a black speck in the distance, but my supersensory charm ensured I never lost sight of it. Still, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it slowing down and then begin to descend, the odd rods on its sides rotating to point downward. If it had decided to keep flying for ten-or-so more minutes there was a real chance I would have no longer been able to follow it. The thing was fast, rather small, and quiet, making it difficult to track.
No longer needing to struggle to keep up, I slowed down slightly and moved even closer to the canopy, Zatanna and I's feet occasionally brushing the scarlet leaves. Where before we had looked like a slight blur, now we were all but invisible, our disillusionment charms no longer needing to work as hard to compensate for the rapidly changing backdrop.
It took another few minutes but eventually we stopped about a hundred meters from the small clearing where the flying vehicle had landed and descended back down to the forest floor. Before landing, I cast silencing charms on both of us, ensuring that we wouldn't make any noise as we crunched through the ankle-deep layer of bright red leaves that covered the forest floor and that our breathing and movements wouldn't give us away to someone with keen senses.
Then I cast another revealing charm, and this time it came back positive. There were fifteen people within range of the spell, Zatanna and I, of course, plus thirteen other human or human-like beings who were clustered together not far from their landing sight. That was good––it meant that the vehicle actually was a vehicle and not some sort of strange creature or unmanned drone.
I communicated my findings to Zatanna as we finally landed, stowing my broom in my bag. Now it was just a question of how exactly to approach these people, or if I should do so at all.
RWBY: Forever Fall
Day One
Ultimately it wasn't really much of a question at all. I was no Gryffindor to just run in with no plan or information like a loon. Nor was I a Ravenclaw, content to watch and wait and never bother to actually accomplish anything. I was a Slytherin, and Slytherins carefully chose their moments, then struck at the optimal time to achieve maximum results with minimum costs.
Step one was gathering information. I needed to know who these people were, why they were here, how long they planned to stay, any potential weak points and vulnerabilities, and so on. Were they criminals here for a secret deal or to retrieve some catch of illegal goods? Explorers searching for ancient secrets? Travelers taking a short break from a long voyage? Or perhaps something else entirely. Each required a different approach.
It was also important to assess how dangerous these people were. I was confident in my magical prowess, and having an expendable version of Zatanna with me was a large advantage as well, but two-on-thirteen were not good odds against even moderately competent opponents. And if they were wizards it was entirely possible they had some form of magic capable of stopping me from just apparating away or some method of tracking me down afterwards.
What came next would depend on what I found. If I decided it was too dangerous to approach, I may try to place a tracking charm on the vehicle or one of its passengers and see if they would lead me to somewhere interesting. If that wasn't an option, perhaps I could try to keep following them on my broom. If I left Zatanna behind I was pretty sure I'd be able to keep pace with the craft without too much difficulty and I could always apparate back to retrieve her once they arrived at their destination.
I may also just end up heading back to that ruin I'd originally Planeswalked into. There was no guarantee that I could bond with it, but it seemed likely and I really did want to bond to a new land as soon as possible. If these were criminals, or perhaps jumpy travelers in the midst of a great voyage, it was unlikely that following them would be too productive and I could simply attempt to seek out civilization myself over the next day or two.
On the other hand, if they seemed like a good group to make contact with, my plans for the coming week could change drastically. I still knew almost nothing about this plane, so it was hard to make any concrete plans. Hopefully they would have interesting magic I could learn, and perhaps a few more novel magical creatures to acquire blueprints of.
And if they didn't? I could always default back to bonding the tomb, then head home and try again on a different plane. It would still be some time till I felt fully comfortable Planeswalking again, but I was certain that Zatanna and I could find some way to entertain ourselves for that duration.
Zatanna and I moved cautiously towards the cluster of people. Neither of us were stealth experts by any means, but magic had a way of handling many such problems. We moved soundlessly across the leaves, our bodies blending perfectly into the background and Order magic ensuring even our barely-their outlines seemed to fade into the surrounding trees like we belonged here. It would take very, very keen senses or powerful magic to detect our presence. Even with my sixth-sense for her existence and my supersensory charm I could barely tell that Zatanna was following along behind me, and I knew exactly what I was looking for.
We stopped about twenty meters from where I'd felt the group and I peered at them through the trees, my head tilted towards them to help me hear what they were saying. My view was partially obstructed by trees, but I could make out a tall, shapely, middle-aged woman wearing glasses, a white blouse, and a black skirt facing a group of armor-clad young men and women that all looked to be about my age.
They were an eclectic group, divided evenly between young men and women. A few had relatively similar features and armor, while others wore completely different styles that set them apart from their fellows.All were armed or had weapons close at hand and those varied wildly as well. There were swords and shields, spears, odd-looking maces, and one of them––a short, pale skinned and dark-haired girl in a dress and waist cincher––had an enormous crimson scythe slung across her back.
It seemed as though Zatanna had been wrong. The people around here weren't monochrome in coloration. There were certainly a few people amongst the group with very pale or dark skin and hair, but there was also a freckled redhead who could have easily passed for a Weasley or Prewett and another girl with bright yellow hair.
I could see no particular uniform or cohesive design choices among the group. Several of the young men wore similar-looking armor, but not all of them. A few of the girls wore similarly-cut skirts, but others had armored bustiers or completely differently styled dresses. That likely meant these weren't any kind of soldiers or law enforcement officers, though perhaps there was some other commonality between them that I just couldn't make out from this angle.
I put the thought temporarily out of my mind. The woman was speaking, her voice loud and clear like that of a trained and experienced orator. "––however, this forest is full of the Creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We'll rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Have fun!"
The group began to break apart. Five of the boys––the ones all wearing comparable armor––went one way, while the other seven youths went another way. The older woman meanwhile stayed where she was, what looked like a riding crop held loosely between her hands.
I frowned in annoyance. Splitting up was going to make them harder to surveil and I wished I'd heard the rest of the woman's speech. Still, there was plenty of time yet to learn more, and Zatanna was around so she could keep an eye on one group while I watched the other. Or perhaps it would be better to keep an eye on the woman? It was hard to judge.
Then there was that name. Creatures of Grimm. So it seemed as though the geists and sphinx I'd run into were not a one-off occurrence and such creatures were endemic to this area. Were there more types of Grimm than the ones I'd run into? Were such creatures common in other places as well, or only in this specific forest.
The comment also raised a number of other questions. That sphinx I had run into was a large, powerful creature, and yet these youths seemed perfectly at ease with the idea that such a monster may be lurking nearby. Was their relaxed attitude brought by certainty that they'd be perfectly fine fighting such a creature alongside their 'teammates', or by ignorance of the threats they faced? It was hard to say one way or another, but I would make sure not to underestimate them if things did turn hostile.
Zatanna and I spent the next half hour watching the two groups and listening to their conversations. The woman––whose name I learned was 'Goodwitch', a rather bold choice––ended up disappearing inside the vehicle the group had arrived in which was sitting in a small clearing less than a minute's walk from where she'd been speaking with the youths. I ended up casting a tracking charm on the big metal machine and then leaving her be since it was hard to surveil someone inside a small metal box without being found out and I doubted she would be talking to anyone since she was along inside the craft.
I learned a lot in that time, most of it pieced together from context clues and off handed remarks. These youths were students at a nearby school for 'Hunters' called Beacon and they were in this forest on a field trip to collect some sort of valuable sap from the surrounding trees for one of their Professors. I made a mental note to gather some of the sap for myself as well––it seemed easy enough to harvest.
The woman with them was another professor at their school, one who taught some sort of combat-related class. Students at the school were split into teams of four––which made the five-seven split seem particularly strange––and the twelve that had come on this particular field trip were all first years, though I didn't know if that meant one year out of two, four, seven, or perhaps even longer.
I was starting to consider how to introduce myself to the group, ideas flying through my head, when a perfect opportunity arose. It seemed there was some division amongst the two groups. Cardin, the leader of the five boys, had some kind of grudge against Pyrrha, the red-headed girl with the spear and armored bustier and mini-skirt. It seemed as though he'd lost to her in some kind of duel or spar? I wasn't fully clear on the details.
In any case, he'd come up with a plan to get back at the girl which had ended up going wrong when the fifth boy, a member of her team, decided he wasn't willing to go along with things and the two got into a physical altercation. No weapons were drawn, but the boy threw a jar of sap at Cardin's chest and then they began to fight and argue. Cardin was doing quite a number on the boy––Jaune––and seemed to be threatening him with some sort of blackmail, the details of which eluded me unfortunately.
And then their brawl was suddenly interrupted by what I assumed was another Grimm. It certainly looked like the other two I'd seen. It was a massive bear-like creature, its face covered by a bone-white mask with red lines around the eyes. Dangerous-looking spikes of the same material grew from its back and its arms and legs were protected by the occasional craggy armored plate. Its claws were massive, each one the size of a butcher's knife and looking more like spikes strapped to its fingers and toes compared to what I'd expect from a bear.
The creature roared as it rushed into the clearing, its jaw open to reveal a mouth filled with sharp teeth and gums the color of dried blood. It huffed and briefly reared up onto its hind legs, then came down with a crash, its beady red eyes glued to the sticky sap covering Cardin's chest.
For all that their professor had told them to stick with their teammates, Cardin's didn't seem keen on following that advice. They took one look at the creature and fled, one of them shouting "That's a big Ursa!" as he vanished into the underbrush.Ursa. I rolled the name in my mouth. Ursa of Grimm. That certainly seemed like a fine addition to my growing collection of blueprints.
A moment later, only Jaune and Cardin remained in the clearing, Jaune laid out on the ground and Cardin standing directly in front of the creature. Saving these students seemed like a good way to buy myself some favor from the locals. First though, I wanted to see what the students could do. Hopefully they didn't die before I could save them. It would be even better if some of the other students arrived before I had to step in––it was always best to be seen by as many people as possible when doing something heroic.
The ursa swiped its paw through the air, an almost lazy motion that still sent Cardin flying ass over teakettle across the clearing. My eyes widened and I raised my wand––that blow could have easily shattered the arm and ribs of a muggle––but then I noticed the flashes of color just above his armor when the Ursa hit him and each time he bounced against the ground.
Though he'd been sent flying and was now lying prone, he didn't actually look hurt. Some sort of magic shield or enchantment had protected his body from the blow. I lowered my wand slightly and leaned forward with interest. So they weren't just muggles with mundane weapons. Even if they weren't wizards and witches themselves, it was clear there was more going on than what I was seeing.
Jaune stared up at the Ursa in terror, his arms held in front of his face as though to ward off a blow, but it seemed content to ignore him for the moment, turning to where Cardin lay prone and loping towards him across the carpet of leaves. For something so large, the Ursa moved with impressive speed, covering the distance between it and its target with just a few swift steps.
Cardin, for all that he looked rather terrified and clearly had the air knocked from his lungs, was not beaten yet. He drew his weapon, a rather odd-looking flanged mace with a seemingly hollow head, and brandished it at the ursa, but the creature simply knocked his weapon aside, slapping it out of his hand and sending it spinning through the air away from him.
I raised my wand again, mentally judging the distance, angle, and force of the creature's blows. I was pretty sure an Aspidano shield would be able to hold up to one or two blows, I'd just need to position the relatively small shield correctly.
Cardin scrambled to his feet and began to run. The ursa seemed amused by his attempts to flee, chasing after him at what was clearly not its top speed. When Cardin had made some distance, it leapt after him, landing just behind him instead of crushing him under its bulk and then sending him flying with another swipe of its paw.
Cardin pushed himself off the ground and tried to crawl away, but the Ursa was right behind him in an instant, giving him no room to breath or stand up. So far I was rather unimpressed by both of their performances. The Ursa was playing with its food and Cardin was doing nothing but running for his life.
In the distance, I noticed three of the girls from before appear on the other side of the clearing. The pale-skinned, white-haired one drew her sword––some sort of elaborate-looking rapier––but the red-head, probably Pyrrha, stopped her and the scythe girl with a raised hand and a quiet word. Oh, what was this? Was someone trying to blamelessly rid themselves of a rival? Very interesting.
The creature reared up and raised a paw, its bone-white claws flashing. Well, at least I had an audience, even if it seemed as though saving this boy's life may not please his classmates as much as I would have liked. It took an impressive amount of dislike to have four of your fellow students just stand around with their weapons drawn as you were torn apart by a giant black-and-white bear.
Unfortunately, it seemed as though only three of Cardin's classmates were willing to let him die, and not the ones I would have expected either. Jaune, who had at some point climbed to his feet and drawn his sword and shield, dashed forward and interposed himself between the Ursa and the boy'd he'd been getting slapped around by less than five minutes earlier.
He caught the ursa's blow on his shield, a flash of gold showing signs of the same magical shield that had protected Cardin from the beast's first few strikes, then slashed at it with his sword. The ursa reeled back, then slashed at the boy once with each paw. He rolled out of the way of the first blow, jumped over the second, and promptly got sent flying by a third hit that got him clean in the chest.
Breathing heavily, he sprang to his feet and charged at the Grimm, only to get sent flying again, this time in the other direction. The ursa gave Cardin a parting look and turned to lope towards its new target, who had scrambled to his feet and was staring determinedly at the approaching Grimm.
Then the two charged at each other. Jaune raised his shield to block the ursa's swing, but even from a distance I could see the angle was all wrong and I remembered Cardin's magical barrier had flickered out after less punishment than Jaune had just endured. Plus, that sword looked sharp and I didn't want to risk killing the creature before I could get a blueprint.
Well, this seemed as good a time as any. I let the disillusionment charm around me drop and slashed my wand. "Flipendo Tria!" I poured magic into the spell, pushing it far beyond the schoolyard jinx that was its base version.
A whirlwind emerged from my wand, tearing through the air between the ursa and me. A tree between us was torn partially out of the ground in the spell's wake and it slammed into the ursa's shoulder side like a battering ram, sending it flying the same way it had launched Jaune and Cardin.
Jaune stopped mid swing, surprise written all over his face. The three girls began to look around and black-haired one with the scythe called out, "Professor Goodwitch!"
Before they could attribute my work to someone else, I charged out of the trees and towards the ursa, Zatanna following closely behind me. "Stand back!" I called out in the language I'd heard the students using, "Are you hurt?"
Jaune blinked at me blankly and I decided to ignore him for the time. I waved my wand again and ropes flew from my wand, wrapping around the ursa's arms and legs and binding it to the ancient trees around it. It struggled mightily, roaring and clawing at the trees, but a weaker flipendo to the side of the head seemed to disorient it and gave me enough time to wrap its limbs in layers and layers of rope.
The trio of girls began to move towards the bound ursa, their weapons raised, but I managed to beat them to the creature and did my best to casually brush a hand across one of the armored plates on its hind leg. "Is everyone okay?" I called out loudly, scrambling to mentally reach for my Spark and pouring a thin trickle of magic into the bone-like armor.
The redhead was the first to reach me. She stared dispassionately at the grimm and, even as the Blueprint appeared within my Spark, stabbed her spear through its neck. I mentally gave a sigh of relief––just in time––then watched curiously as the creature's body slowly began to dissolve into black mist.
I smiled charmingly. "Thanks for finishing it off. I didn't think it was going to be so tough."
She gave me a complex look. It was not a particularly happy look. She was clearly upset that I hadn't given the ursa enough time to finish off that Cardin boy, or perhaps it was something else?
Regardless, my smile didn't waver as the other girls approached the dissolving Grimm. I turned to face all three of them, Zatanna a step behind me. "Hey, I'm Hydrys, and this is Zatanna. I heard the fighting and it looks like we got here in the nick of time. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
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