Perilous Arc |AU|

Puppet Master [Chap. 28]

There was silence in the forest after their laugh ended.

The familiar shade of their eyes put me off and wiped anything I had planned to say from my mind. I fell back a step unconsciously, and my hand instinctively came to rest on the handle of my blade. My face remained expressionless though from no small amount of effort.

Flickering light from the lantern washed over the figure holding it, doing nothing to cut through the shadows hiding their features. The red eyes locked on me were so bright they were nearly shining.

"HeHeHeh..."

My eyes narrowed at the half-pint as it laughed. Its shoulders didn't bounce, and its chest didn't raise. My instincts were screaming at me to fight, but I kept myself in check. Still, the grip on my sword made the leather squeak as it tightened. A gurgle tore me away from my stare-off and towards a stray Snow Lark that bounded in from the side of the clearing. With a tempered sigh I prepared to throw away my suspicions and protect the creepy brat from the Grimm. Something odd hit me as I studied the bird though, and my sword was only half free of the sheath when I thought of what it meant.

The Snow Lark wasn't going after the brat. In fact, it didn't even seem to register the kid's presence in the forest and instead focused on me. It was like they didn't even exist. The bird seemed to be faster than the others, as in the time I refocused it had halved the distance between us and passed the half-pint entirely.

I drew my loaner fully and prepared myself to cut down my opponent without a second thought, but a chime cut me off. In tandem with the noise, the forest shook. The ground beneath my feet quaked sending vibrations up my legs through the snow and ice. I felt the shakes and withstood them as my adversary charged into range. I reeled back and readied a death-dealing slice...

... only for a spike of black to beat me.

It was long and thin as a pike, and burst up from the snow swiftly beneath the Grimm. The pointed tip impaled the bird effortlessly through the bottom of its torso and exited through the back, rising high enough to rival the height of the trees. My face felt cool against the frigid air, as I stared at the sight in complete shock. A series of thoughts ran through my head with a particular few nesting in and standing out.

"KRRRGLrrglreah-!"

The sound from the Grimm was of surprise. Understandable, considering its charge was ended by sudden impalement. It writhed on the spike and its odd feet scraped against the ground while its long neck lanced out, single-mindedly trying to snap at me. A scowl scrawled across my lips and my teeth grit all while I took a step away. All movement paused in the flailing Grimm, as though a switch were flipped, and suddenly the spike engorged in diameter. It doubled, then tripled, quadrupled, quintupled, and even further! My mouth felt dry as I watched the spike impaling the Snow Lark quickly become a sharply tipped pillar that pierced through its center mass. The flesh and bone spikes bowed out and deformed, swelling and creaking as muscles and organs were ripped apart from the inside out. The ground quaked familiarly with each change of the towering black monument.

"Holy shit..." I muttered gruffly under my breath. My eyes were locked and my sword held at the ready, for all the good it would do as I watched. I heard snow crunch, and I knew Jessie was watching the spectacle unfold as I was. Probably shocked into silence...

Black musculature at the edges of the impalement splintered along with the pillar, and I saw every bit of it. The Grimm showed no reaction at all, frozen with its beak open in a silent screech. The splinters shivered, then moved. The splayed flesh waved and wobbled just before digging into anything around it. The pike-turned-pillar, the bone-white armor, the flesh of the Snow Lark, nothing was safe. The appendages wriggled and fought against any surface they could reach, all to worm just beneath the surface.