Breathe Chapter 5: Big fish in a Small Pond

I ducked under a lunging Ursa Major and watched as it sailed over me. They were physically stronger than me, fast when they lunged and durable to the point where I wasn’t strong enough to harm them without using Sun Breathing, but they had one major failing, the same one that all the Grimm I’ve faced up until now have had.

They were predictable.

With the numerous Ursa Major that I’d fought in the past week, I’d quickly noticed that they all had the same attack pattern. There wasn’t a single one that deviated. By understanding their pattern, I didn’t need to be stronger or faster than them to be able to fight them.

Twisting my body around, I planted my feet firmly into the floor and kicked off towards the Ursa Major at high speeds, my blade aimed forward pierced cleanly through its throat.

“Sun Breathing: Flash”
-50AP

“Sun Breathing: Sunflower Thrust”
-30AP

The Ursa Major let out a gurgle as it swiped at me in an attempt to take me down with it, but I wasn’t finished there. Channeling my strength to my legs, I firmly held onto my blade as I sped to the side, using the built up momentum to lever my sword through the Grimms flesh, cutting its head off in one smooth move.

“Sun Breathing: Flash”
-50AP

Flicking my sword to the side in order to clean it of any lingering Grimm essence, I readied myself for the next Grimm to attack. Glancing around the clearing, I caught sight of several Grimm bodies that were still evaporating.

“I could have sworn there were still some Grimm left,” I hummed to myself. Hearing a low growl, I momentarily readied myself, before realizing that the sound was coming from my stomach. “Right, I skipped lunch today… and it’s already getting dark? How long was I out here?”

“All day,” Maria called out from her spot up in a tree. “You’ve been killing Grimm all day.”

I had? Glancing up at the sky which was beginning to darken, I realized Maria was right. I went out to hunt for Grimm with Maria just after breakfast and I hadn’t stopped until now. In my defense,  I had been in the zone. I didn’t stop for a break because I didn’t need to, my Aura regenerated faster than I used it and I’d been less wasteful with using my Sun Breathing techniques, using them only on Grimm that I couldn’t cut.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize the time. You at least had your lunch, right?”

“Yep, I’m actually a little stuffed to be honest,” Maria smirked as she jumped down. “Since you didn’t stop for lunch, I got to eat your share as well. You seemed to be having so much fun that I just couldn’t bear to interrupt you.”

Yeah, I should have expected that. “So, are we going home now?”

“You got that right. I’ve been sitting in that tree for so long, that I’ve got splinters in my ass!”

“… I really don’t need to know that!

“Well it’s your fault that I had to sit in a tree for so long,” Maria replied. “You’ve cleared out an entire section of Grimm from the forest in one day. It was supposed to take a week at the very least.”

“Wait,” I began. “Are you mad because I’ve been killing Grimm too well?”

“Not really, just annoyed that we’re going to have to actively search for a new area that is teeming with Grimm, which is unlikely. The Grimm will eventually come back when Black Rock is being repopulated, but as it stands now, we’re not really going to find any more Grimm of this level here.”

“Then what about stronger Grimm?” I asked. “I mean, there are a ton of Beowolves and Ursa, but they’re not really a challenge anymore.” The only reason why we were out here so long was that there were just that many.

“Stronger Grimm,” Maria hummed as she rubbed her chin. “Well, you have mastered the basics… and Ursa Major no longer phase you. I suppose we could give it a shot. There are a few areas around this place that contain a… different class of Grimm that no one really bothers killing because they’re self contained.”

That sounded interesting. “What kind of Grimm?”

“You’ll find out when we get there,” Maria paused. “Tomorrow, that is. It’s a bit too late right now and I doubt that you want to skip another meal.”

My stomach growled in agreement.

…Breathe…

Lying on my back with my hands resting comfortably behind my head, I stared up at the ceiling. The fire smoldering at my side was beginning to feel a little unnecessary. The seasons were beginning to change. The snow was melting and the air was growing warmer.

With the snow melting, the forest began to look a little different. The area that I’d been cutting down trees in looked almost entirely different now.

Time felt like it was moving fast, but that was probably due to me throwing myself into my training without paying the world much heed. I’d been here for about two months now, not counting when I was unconscious.

Hearing a soft snore come from Maria who was perched in her chair, I shot a glance her way before returning my gaze to the ceiling, focusing on nothing in particular.

If I could, I’d be outside right now, continuing to train, but I knew I needed to get some sleep. Although my body didn’t feel all that tired, my mind would eventually tire and seeing as tomorrow was the day that I was going to fight a different kind of Grimm… I needed to be in my best condition.

Giving one final glance to my stats, specifically total concentration breathing, I smiled when I saw that I was only five more levels away from maxing it out, soon I would be able to keep my Aura activated permanently, training it throughout the night and the day.

Closing my eyes, I let my body relax as I slowly drifted off to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

…Breathe…

Hiking through the forest, I briefly lost my footing and had to rebalance myself. The ground was beginning to turn to mud from all the snow that had been melting. We’d been for about an hour now and hadn’t caught sight of a single Grimm.

“Huh, that’s strange,” Maria noted as she came to a stop. “I could have sworn that it was right here.”

“What was right here?” I asked. Maria hadn’t exactly told me what we were looking for. As she put it, she ‘didn’t want to ruin the surprise.’

“You’ll see in a minute,” She replied. Looking around, she glanced at a particularly tall tree. “I might just need to get a better view of the area.”

Before I could say anything, Maria jumped onto the tree and quickly scaled it. Shrugging, I resigned myself to wait until she was done getting a lay of the land, before quickly drawing my sword.

It was brief, but I saw a flicker of movement from the corner of my eye. Perhaps this place hadn’t been as Grimm free as I’d initially thought, It also made sense that Maria decided to remove herself from the area… after all, we were out her for me to fight against a stronger Grimm.

Seeing the light shift in the forest, I shot a glance towards Maria one last time before I turned back and began my pursuit. I was determined to hunt down whatever Grimm was out here.

Regardless of how long I chased it or how fast I went, the Grimm always seemed to be just out of sight. The forest was silent with the only exception being the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind. Whatever it was, it didn’t make a sound and it didn’t leave any tracks.

My instincts kept screaming at me, telling me that something was wrong. I’d stopped several times to take a look around, to ensure that I wasn’t entering some trap that a more intelligent Grimm set, but each time found nothing.

I finally broke through the tree line and found myself standing in front of an old, rickety and rusted fence that surrounded a frozen lake. Looking around for the Grimm, I froze when I caught sight of it.

There, standing at the center of the frozen lake wasn’t a Grimms, but rather an inky shadow that resembled a person. I’d seen it before, but written it off as some form of hallucination. It was the thing that led me to the house with the body back when Maria and I went to Black Rock.

Back then, I’d just thought of it as some form of repressed memories. My mind was still partially fragmented, so that could still be the case, but something about this entire situation was off. Something felt unnatural here… and frighteningly familiar.

It hadn’t been particularly hostile before, so I decided to humor it. Leaping over the fence, I took a cautious step on the ice, seeing if it would break and when it didn’t, I took another step.

Walking towards the shadow, I stopped just in front of it, watching it while I kept my hand on my blade. “What are you?”

I couldn’t tell if it was looking at me or if I was even facing the right side of it. Nothing happened for several moments until it finally moved. It held a single finger in front of me and then pointed downward.

Looking down, my eyes widened and I jumped to the side just as the ice shattered and a large, fishlike Grimm bit the air.

Sliding on the ice, I struggled to gain traction as I ran towards the lakes bank. The ice began to crack and rupture in several areas, exposing the churning water that was filled with various underwater Grimm. Most seemed to be a kind of large fish wish an almost round body, large spiked teeth, looking like a boney, black version of an anglerfish.

Slipping to the lake side, I quickly climbed back onto land, just as the final pieces broke apart.

“You found it by yourself?!”

Glancing up, I was relieved to find Maria standing right in front of me.

“And you’ve even broken the ice. That should save us some time!”

“It was the Grimm that broke the ice,” I replied, feeling a little shaken up.

“By the way, how’d you even find this place?”

I momentarily considered not telling her how I ended up here.”I… saw a shadow… it was a lot like when you and I went to Black Rock for the first time and I found that… my old house.”

Maria stared at me, before patting me on the shoulder. “Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“You wouldn’t?”

“Nope,” Maria grinned. “This place has become something of an urban legend that was often talked about in Black Rock, so it’s probably just your old memories resurfacing… Even if it wasn’t and there was some weird shadow stalking you, what would worrying do about it?”

“So I should just ignore it?”

“Just deal with it as it comes,” Maria replied. “Agonizing over it now won’t solve anything.

I suppose that I could get on board with that. I took a breath and focused myself. “So, this place is an urban legend?”

“Kind of,” Maria nodded. “You see, back when Black Rock was being built a few decades back. They sent Huntsmen out to eradicate all the Grimm from the area. The Huntsmen stumbled across several lakes just like this one and found that they were filled with Grimm, so they killed them all, only, the Grimm kept coming back. It was assumed that there was some kind of underground stream that kept bringing in more Grimm, so the area was fenced off to let people know that it was dangerous. Anyone that entered, did so at their own risk.”

“But what’s the legend behind it?”

“Oh, right. There were a few, but the one I remember best is that there isn’t actually Grimm in the water, but rather some kind of failed super human mutants that were dumped in the lakes during the great war.”

That seemed like a stretch… then again, things do get embellished with time. That did bring up an interesting question though. “How long ago was the great war?”

“I don’t know, nearly eighty years… I think,” Maria replied, scratching the back of her head.

Alright, if it was that long ago, then I think I could honestly say that I wasn’t too far in the past… That didn’t exactly bode well with what was coming. “And… have there been any recent wars or events that I should know about?”

“None that I can think of… Now, are we going to talk about history or are you going to start killing Grimm?”

Well that was good. I’m sure that Maria would have heard something if Beacon fell already. Now, back to killing Grimm… There was a slight problem. I was using total concentration breathing and these Grimm were underwater. How the hell was I going to fight them?

“I… don’t have to hold my breath, right?”

“Hold your…” Maria trailed off. “Ha, no. We’ll start you off standing in the shallow section of the lake. You need to get used to these kinds of Grimm first before we get you to the hard part.”

I almost dreaded to ask. “The hard part?”

“Using the Grimm as platforms. It’s easier with larger Grimm, but if you can master this on small Grimm and you’ll never have to worry about your footing when fighting larger aquatic Grimm.”

Yes… That did sound much harder. Leaning down, I pulled my shoes and socks off, before rolling my pants up. Although Aura did protect me from being hurt, it wouldn’t keep my shoes dry and I’d rather not have to walk all the way back to Maria’s cabin in soggy shoes.

Cold… was my first thought when I took my first step into the water. I didn’t really have to worry about the cold temperatures due to both my breathing and my Aura, but I did still feel the immediate difference in temperature. Taking several more steps, I stopped once the water reached my waste.

“Now what?” I called out, glancing over my shoulder to Maria who stood comfortably on the dry ground.

“Now you wait,” Maria replied. “The Grimm will come eventually.

I began focusing on the water, looking for any shifts or ripples, but found none. On any other occasion, standing in a lake and feeling the subtle current might have been relaxing, but this… actively waiting for Grimm to attack… this was the opposite of relaxing.

I was beginning to grow restless when I finally spotted it. A glowing red dot that was floating towards me. Readying my sword, once it entered my reach, I swung down, cutting straight through it all the while creating a large splash.

The Grimms bisected body floated to the surface and I immediately recoiled. Its body, unlike Grimm on land, seemed soggy and waterlogged. It looked like an anglerfish, except several times larger… large enough that it would only need two bites to eat a person, one if they caught the person at the right angle.

All in all, while it wasn’t very strong, it was creepy looking and definitely not something I wanted to spend my time in a lake with.

Seeing several more red dots moving towards me, I readied myself, only to feel something bite down on my leg.

-30AP

It didn’t really hurt, but just knowing that it was one of those creepy fish that was attached to my leg filled me with an uncomfortable feeling. I swung my blade down hard enough to push the water around me back slightly as I cut through the fish. The sight of it trying to gnaw off my leg disgusted me.

The worst part? Even though the Grimm was dead, its head was still latched onto my leg. I couldn’t exactly take it off right now as I was too busy trying to prevent that from happening again, so I was going to have to wait for it to dissolve.

I began to cut, slash and stab everything that approached me with great apprehension. The water made it difficult to see where they were going to be next and made it more difficult to swing my sword, but that was easily solved by swinging harder.

“Coal,” Maria called out. “You’re supposed to be trying to use them as platforms for jumping, not kill them all.”

That was easier sad than done, especially when dealing with these disgusting things… but she was right. The whole point of coming here was learning how to fight a different kind of Grimm. Not to kill them all in my regular fashion.

As much as it disgusted me, I was going to have to at least try and do this.

Spotting one of the anglerfish Grimm, I jumped towards it and landed heavily on its slimy body. Crouching down, I launched myself off it and onto another Grimm. I managed to get to three before I fell into the water. Briefly being fully submerged, I came face to face with one of them and cut it in half on sheer instinct.

Pulling myself to the surface, I tried to stand up, but found that I’d gone too deep. Dozens of anglerfish Grimm surrounded me, a few tried to take a bite out of my feet, but I kicked them back.

“You’re going to have a hard time fighting them and keeping yourself afloat,” Maria yelled. “You need to be able to launch yourself off them and find a spot that you can stand on!”

Glancing around, I found a sheet of ice that was floating in the water, it seemed large enough and more importantly, thick enough to support my weight. Glancing at the encroaching Grimm, a plan began to form in my head.

Just as one of the Grimm neared, I twisted my body and brought my foot up before kicking down, forcing it to sink underneath me. Crouching down, I focused a massive amount of strength to my legs.

“Sun Breathing: Flash, Four Steps
-200AP

Kicking off the Grimm, I bounced between three more before landing as gently as I could on the ice sheet, doing my best not to accidentally break it.

“That’s more like it!” Maria cheered from the shore.

Seeing several more anglerfish Grimm swimming my way, I glanced around and found another sheet of ice that could support me when this one was inevitably shattered. One of the Grimm launched itself out of the water in an attempt to take a bite out of me, but was swiftly cut in half.

I fought to keep my balance as the ice beneath me tilted with each swing of my blade. I’d grown to enjoy fighting Grimm, but this wasn’t fun at all. It didn’t take long for one of the Grimm to break the ice beneath me. Stomping down, I used the Grimm that broke my ice as a springboard and leaped between the Grimm, landing on my new platform.

…Breathe…

“Never again,” I growled as I climbed out of the lake. My hair was matted down, my clothes were clinging to my body and an anglerfish Grimm head was still attached to one of my legs, slowly evaporating.

“What’s that?” Maria asked, smirking. “I thought that you wanted to fight tougher Grimm.”

Piercing the Grimm still attached to my leg, I dislodged it. “These things are weak, they’re barely as strong as a Beowolf, let alone an Ursa. How are they tougher?”

“They’re tougher because they exist in an environment that you had no experience fighting in,” Maria explained. “Sure these Grimm are individually weak and they only exist in water, but they hunt in packs. An inexperienced Huntsman that falls into a lake with these would soon find themselves overwhelmed if they didn’t know how to react. When I first saw them, I didn’t really think anything of it because I could have handled them all in an instant… but now, I understand how dangerous they can be.”

She must have been talking about when she still had her eyes. I could see how most Grimm would seem weak when you could just blink and instantly petrify them. I decided to change the topic.

“Once I learned their pattern, they became much easier to handle… are all Grimm like that?”

“Pretty much,” Maria shrugged. “The older ones will occasionally change up their attack pattern if they see that they’re losing, but even then, it’s just a matter of learning their new pattern. The ones you really have to look out for are the Grimm types that are more intelligent, like a Geist. They’re capable of possessing objects which makes them tougher to fight. You generally have to figure out where it’s keeping its head or destroy the constructed body first in order to kill it, both are difficult to do.”

“Any other Grimm that I should be on the lookout for?”

“None that you’re going to be facing anytime soon,” Maria replied. “While your growth has been phenomenal to say the least, there are still quite a few Grimm out there that I’m not going to expose you to… at least not until I know that you’ll be capable of escaping!”

I wonder if Apathy fit into that category. They seemed problematic enough, what with the whole draining your willpower to the point where you’ll be so apathetic that you’ll just stop breathing. I wonder how they’re dealt with… probably with a ranged weapon, something that I didn’t currently have in my arsenal.

“But that does bring up an interesting point. I wholeheartedly believe that you’ve outgrown the Grimm in this area. At this point, killing Grimm is more like physical exercise to you, so you’re going to have to start facing stronger, more difficult to fight Grimm.”

“Not in the water, right?” I asked. I was beginning to feel a little apprehensive about water… it was a lot like when I watched Jaws as a kid, now that I thought about it.

“No, not in the water,” Maria reassured me. “There aren’t many places that spawn Grimm like this that are easily contained and none of them are any stronger. If I brought you to the ocean, there’s a good chance that you would run into a Feilong and you’re not quite ready to deal with one of those!”

Well that was better… I mean, I’d rather not have to deal with any more aquatic Grimm ever again, but I’d settle for not having to face one anytime soon.

“We’ll have to have you fight a King Taijitu first, that way you’ll have more experience with a serpent like Grimm…” Maria trailed off. “Now that I think about it, we’re going to have to leave this area if we want to continue your training.”

“Leave?”

“Yep. You can’t exactly hunt Grimm in an area that has no Grimm, so we’ll have to travel to places where there are more Grimm. Simple, right?”

When she said it like that, yeah, it did sound simple, but I knew there was a lot more to it than that. Food and water being the main issue while where we would stay being the second one. “Maybe we should think about this for a little bit before committing,” I suggested.

At least that way, I would have time to help her plan the trip. I wasn’t exactly against it… I was actually interested in going to other towns, that way I would be able to see if anyone famous, like Weiss Schnee, was in Beacon yet and when the Vytal festival was being held.

“I’ve been thinking about it for the past week,” Maria waved me off. “Just focus on your training and I’ll handle everything else.”

Well… she is a professional Huntress. She should be able to handle everything… I mean, she has done this before. Maybe I should just trust her on this.