[Riven]

Doing his best not to visibly respond, Rory listened intently to what Gaud had to say. She certainly knew her history about these villages and their issues, though the root cause was still something of a mystery. Still, that was often the way of things with feuds -- some mistake or slight is taken out of context, the response is seen as unjustly heavy-handed, and retaliation leads to retaliation in a nearly endless cycle of vengeance and "honor". That certainly seemed like it could be the case here... but the fact there were three sides was a bit peculiar. An asymmetric situation like that usually prompted alliances of convenience -- "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", however briefly. Was the distrust so complete, so entrenched, that all sides refused to work with each other even to their own detriment?

That, and Gaud's "thirst for battle" worried him a bit. If she was setting up traps for come-who-may in Grimm-prowled lands between three hostile villages... well, he couldn't help but think the Grimm would be drawn to that. Had she been "fishing"... and using the students as bait?

"So you either think that Cami can sway the villages towards peace, or you just plan to leave with her when she's done here." Rory pointed out the two most likely interpretations of Gauds 'none of that matters now'. Certainly, Gaud's assessment of the situation didn't lend itself to a diplomatic solution... but she did seem quite enamored with the impact of music, Cami's in particular. Rory had heard Cami play before and thought very highly of her, but he honestly had a hard time believing she could turn this around for these people. A note of clarity from Gaud might help.

"The village chief back in Vona seemed... eager... to have her play, to the point where we had to step in when he tried to force her to. Do the villages think Cami's music is going to settle this feud somehow?"

[Mikelobmike]

It was an intriguing idea. This woman was eager to hear him play. It appeared that she had never heard of a violin, much less heard the sound of one being played. Setting his case down, he clicked the hinges. A beautiful wooden violin lay inside, with a shine reflecting the sun through the weakened fog. Justice took her infectious emotion and copied it for himself. Curiosity and hope. It made Justice smile, if only for a second.

Justice had anticipated playing today, but he figured it would be by himself in a quiet area while on watch for the group. Thankfully, his bow was prepared and his instrument tuned. All he needed was to play. While the chances that a simpleton like this woman could appreciate or even enjoy the complexities of the violin, he hoped that it would at the minimum be a cause for deeper thought.

And with that, he played.

Spoiler: ShowHide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VOkrddp6M8

[nathan67003]

Gaud's second 180 was still just as unsettling to Camelia, unsurprisingly. The 'thirst for battle' she admitted to seemed to fit her dress style better, anyway.

The real interesting bit came when she started giving some exposition to the troubles surrounding the three villages. Apparently, this feud of sorts was of (somewhat) ancient origin and very deeply-rooted in everyone. Not like she knew the source of the conflict, though, just its current status.

Rory's last question was pretty much spot-on with Camelia's own. Why the heck was the village leader so eager - borderline malicious, even? What was his goal here? What was Gaud's goal here? Her train of thought continued for some time, until Justice got his violin out and started playing.

...Damn, that was such a relaxing melody. She caught herself, though, turning around to watch her and everyone else's back. You never knew, with Grimm.

[Ordelis]

"So you either think that Cami can sway the villages towards peace, or you just plan to leave with her when she's done here."

"Both" Gaud replied simply with no further explanation.

"The village chief back in Vona seemed... eager... to have her play, to the point where we had to step in when he tried to force her to. Do the villages think Cami's music is going to settle this feud somehow?"

"I'm the one that suggested to the villages Cami is able to end this conflict, perhaps Donna is just desperate? When Cami plays, her music has a certain power to it. It's not simply sound harmonized to notes, those who hear it are... whatever it was Cami could do would have to wait, as Gaud suddenly noticed Justice taking out his violin.

 it's small...what is the stick for? she wondered. She realized he was about to play on the spot and while she didn't want to, she called out to stop him "Stop! This is not the place for... the melody was fierce for such a small instrument. Every sound was deliberate, strong, and graceful. Highs and lows went at a rapid pace, but wild was not the word to describe it. It was different to the slow way Cami played that Gaud was used to but she was still fascinated nontheless.

About a minute went by and like a wild beast that was laid to rest Gaud...nodded off. While her eyes were hidden by her hat, her head bobbed back and forth stopping her from fully falling asleep standing up, from what could be seen her expression was so at peace it was obvious she wanted nothing more then to lie down and rest.

A twitch of her ears set off a sense of danger, though now drowsy her powerful hearing could sense something, albeit alot slower then usual, a number of...something quickly walled the group off the direction the group came from. Waking up from her slumber Gaud rapidly grabs her spear off her back, and with a twirl the back end of her spear opened up in a Y shape with a band of rubber inbetween. She grabs three grenades off her belt, places it in the band, pulls it back and slings them off into the mist. Three explosions blew off in the general direction of the approaching mass, the mist dissipated for a brief moment but something akin to a set of red eyes hovered, then another, then another, the red eyes were soon everywhere. A look of panic crossed her face. "Whites...so many of them...Go! Run! Head right on the road Anov is the closest from here!" Gaud yelled at the trio, she backed up with them but grabbed a few disc shaped devices off her back belt clicked a button on it and tossed them in the direction of the eyes.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Thank you all for sticking with my story this long, I hope you'll reach the conclusion soon!

[Riven]

So Gaud herself was actually the impetus behind Cami's current "tour"? That certainly wasn't what Rory had expected, although in retrospect it made a measure of sense. He tried to imagine the situation which would have led to Gaud speaking to each of the villages and found it far more plausible than he'd expected: with such a Grimm problem each of the villages had probably been hiring Huntsmen, Huntresses, and anyone willing to take up the fight, which definitely fit what seemed to be Gaud's modus operandi. Had she just been kept out of the loop regarding the arrangements? Or maybe her "web" was a way of testing them...

He'd been formulating additional questions to ask while listening to Gaud's take on Cami's music when their savage guide suddenly stopped mid thought; Rory looked where she was looking to see Justice pulling out his violin, then was perplexed by Gaud's sudden concern. The music which followed was, truth be told, a welcome relief from the chaos that had followed since the students' arrival... and, he had to admit, Justice clearly knew his way around that instrument. The song he played was both soothing and invigorating at the same time, and despite himself he found his opinion of the upperclassman improving somewhat. Gaud, meanwhile... well, wow. The reaction that the music had on her was striking -- it seemed that music really did soothe the savage... er, Faunus.

The moment's serenity was, however, abruptly shattered. Gaud's leap to action caused Rory to spring to full alert as well, pulling his goggles down and switching to thermal in a bid to spot whatever was threatening them this time; sadly, between Gaud's grenades and the haze that had crept back in all he managed to make out were indistinct shapes... a lot of them.

"Whites...so many of them...Go! Run! Head right on the road Anov is the closest from here!"

" 'Whites'? What are we up against??" It was possible she was talking about some type of Grimm he hadn't heard of, but it was clear enough that going back to Vona this way wasn't a good idea. Heeding Gaud's advice, he turned and began to run, though he kept his speed down for the moment so the others could get ahead; as a defender it was his obligation to get between others and harm, after all. Rory activated his right-hand shield, the overlapping metal plates springing to form as his left hand reached for a small control toggle on his goggles, activating call mode. "Calen, this is Rory. We've been cut off from Vona and are withdrawing to Anov, with Gaud in tow." He couldn't be sure the signal was getting through, but he had to try anyway. "Keep the situation calm over there -- we'll rendezvous as soon as we're able." Terminating the call, he signaled for the others to move ahead of him and glanced over his shoulder, trying to get a glimpse at the enemy and make sure Gaud was keeping up.

[Mikelobmike]

Justice was certainly pleased with the results of his performance. An insight into the mind of the savage, a few minutes of good music, and a nice break from having to deal with guitar girl's errands. It was a real shame that these 'Whites' had to ruin the occasion.

Justice quickly went to work packing his violin. On the whole, he cared about that violin only slightly more than his current compatriots, so it needed to be taken care of first. With it secured on his back, Justice set forth with a steady pace. Firing his weapon in the air, he activated his semblance to its maximum range.

It was always interesting seeing the emotional state of the Grimm. Cold and angry beasts which lack a soul are never the most complex of creatures to study, but they tend to leave those who do in a state similar to theirs. The knowledge of how little the beasts have other than the desire to end every man, woman, and child on the face of Remnant is a burden that many men are to weak to bear.

[nathan67003]

Camelia was half in the middle of watching the back quarter when, looking to the others, she noticed Gaud fighting the urge to nod off with all her might. She stared at the odd sight for a second or two before resuming her previous position. Huh. Guess you really can tame mythical beasts with music.

Her fantastical musings were cut short by the abrupt interruption of the violin's sound, followed by what sounded like light metallic clangs. Next thing she knew, explosions were going off. Pivoting, she barely had the time to glimpse the vague shapes within the mist.

Oh. Well this was just dandy. Of course Grimm would show up uninvited. Seeing that Gaud was handling her own front and was instructing the teammates to leave the other way, Camelia remained where she was, hoping no Grimm would show up on her end. She waited for Justice to pass and when Rory was about to do so himself, she started running behind him.

Well, she tried. He seemed to be trying to take the tail end of the formation. After a few seconds of one trying to get behind the other, she took his wrist as he finished a call and pulled him forward. "For Gods' sake, Rory, will you run in front? I'm the one with the big shield here!", she said aloud whilst putting Orion on her back.

[Kingnoname1]

Calen had worked up quite a sweat running through his dances displaying controlled and elegant bladework rarely seen by the townspeople. Unfortunately this caused some people to even applaud at the particularly flamboyant flourishes shocking Calen out of his reprieve. Despite this Calen continued his exercises, simply to give him something to do while he waited for the others to return. Cami had come down and one stage and cycled around the slowly recovering town which let Calen always keep reasonable tags on the singer. Finishing one of his more intense dances Calen felt is scroll start to ring painting on a fake smile for his new obnoxious fans the gaunt boy gave an exaggerated bow and answered while walking away. 'I'll pass that on, I'm sure Miss Unis will be thrilled. Not that I don't mind being paid for doing nothing but do you want me to make my way over, perhaps with Cami in tow?.' Calen responded, short of breath from his exercieses but coloured by an almost lazy drawl.

Regardless of Rory's, if any, response Calen will quickly make his way over to Cami. Using his semblance to shoot high in the air Calen found her quickly sitting by herself and after landing with a heavy thud relayed the information on to his employer. Offering himself as a supportive listener if needed Calen sat down close to Cami then went on to explain the possibility of going to Anov themselves.
 

[Ordelis]

Explosions went off one after another as the things Gaud tossed started going off. Presumably mines set off by the 'Whites' moving too close to them. "Albino Beowolves, they blend into the mist perfectly, they're nearly impossible to see here and stronger then the ordinary kind" Gaud quickly answered Rory. I've never seen this many at once though she thought. She lept up on above the tree branches just above Justice who was the farthest ahead of the group. She lobbed more grenades from up above in the general direction of the sound of movement. "Will you two hurry up!?" she yelled at the two sheild fighters who both seemed intent on protecting the rest, despite Gaud's covering fire four of the white Beowolves reached the pair and took hard swipes at them, if they stayed too long ten more were to follow. "It's not far now just beyond this clearing!" she called down to Justice. Just as he was able to make it out one of the albinos blocked his way, barely noticeable by the rushing wind of its claws and red eyes.


CALEN

Spoiler: ShowHide

"Gaud is in Anov? Yes let's go!" It was the first time since being back in the kingdom Cami wasn't feeling scared or useless, the hope of seeing her friend again brightened her back up.

"Absolutely not" From seemingly out of nowhere Donna Stibnite had appeared."If you are to leave it will be after you play for my people" a growing anger boiled up beneath his voice. Momentarily surprised and confused where Donna had came from Cami nontheless had her reply ready. "I'm sorry but I made a promise, once I play for Anov with Gaud I promise I'll come back and play for your people" Cami said as kindly as possible, but this turned out to be the wrong thing to say. "You. Will. NOT" Something Cami had said snapped Donna, he grabbed her by the wrist with one hand and reached for his gun with the other, but only kept his hand on it, the weapon still in its holster as if contemplating. His face contorted to an expression that was something inbetween rage and fear. Wrinkles appeared on his forehead and beads of sweat spilled down his nose. The gears in his head turned as he tried to come up with something to convince her to stay but nothing came as his emotions overtook him.
"Hey that hurts!" Cami pried at Donna's grip with her free hand and looked to Calen for help.

[Riven]

'I'll pass that on, I'm sure Miss Unis will be thrilled. Not that I don't mind being paid for doing nothing but do you want me to make my way over, perhaps with Cami in tow?.'

"Stay put for now. We don't have a secure route yet, and even with your speed --" Glancing warily behind them after Camelia pulled him up to speed, the shieldmeister was just barely in time to see fangs and claws seemingly materialize out of the mist, coming right at both himself and her. Not good. He did what he could to put his active shield between himself and the Grimm while pouring himself full-heartedly into a sprint, but even so he still felt claws rake at his Aura from behind -- glancing swipes, not close enough to successfully grab or slash, but not something to take lightly either. There was no way he could manage the call and stay ahead of encroaching death at the same time; the line stayed open on his end as he ran for his life.

He was too preoccupied with the rending horde behind them to spot the one that had gotten ahead -- that would all be on Justice and Gaud.

[Mikelobmike]

It is difficult to describe the exact sound that is created when Hanlon's Razor slips through the skull of a Beowolf. There is a mixture of sounds happening in quick succession. First, there is the impact upon the skull, which is usually a dull thud. Very closely thereafter, there is a cracking sound as the skull splits, almost like the wishbone on a carved turkey. Following that is a wet slapping sound as the rest of the weapon finds its way into the creature. And finally, the creature would presumably let out a whimper of pain as it slowly dissipated.

In truth, Justice would have been far more effective at dealing with the beowolves if he had the opportunity to stand still for a few moments. As it was, he was only able to pick off one for the time being, slowing only for a second as his weapon came down from the sky and through a beowolf. "Move up! I do not wish to fill out the paperwork chronicling your demise, so let's keep it from happening!" he shouted at the two first years.

[nathan67003]

Camelia started running as fast as she could once Rory had picked up the pace, which was still rather impressively fast considering her equipment's weight. Despite this, she was still shoved forward when the Grimm' claws harmlessly bounced off her shield, nearly making her faceplant - though she caught herself at the last moment with a burst of speed.

Trying to speed up even further, she started using her semblance's lowest power around herself and the equally running Rory. A very pale purple glow surrounded the pair and, after about half a second, they started to get pulled forward slightly.

Damn, did she need to move her legs now.

[Kingnoname1]

Calen nodded thoughtfully at Rory's response, pocketed his scroll and continued over to Cami. Honestly he was a bit disappointed about not being asked back out into the wilds, it was getting boring here and although training might work up a sweat it wasn't exactly cranially stimulating. The gaunt boy couldn't help but smile at Cami's outburst of happiness upon hearing that her friend was alive. Their relationship is a special one, it's comforting to see such can bloom even in this dark world. Calen thought to himself as Cami almost jumped for joy. Unfortunately for Donna he decided to interrupt this moment by latching on to the singer and try to make her stay.

Immediately stepping forward Calen grabbed the same arm that Donna had but rather than pull immediately he sort to brace Cami's wrist against the coming pressure. What pressure you might ask? Grinning cruelly Calen twisted for a kick against Donna's gun hand and then used his semblance to launch himself and Cami backwards. Donna was welcome try to maintain his grip but the sudden pull would be hard to deal with and even if he managed it would only result in a swift jab to the face as they all landed around a dozen meters away.

'Miss Unis has made her position clear Master Donna. I would recommend you accept it. You are hardly increasing the likelihood of getting any concert at this stage, how would your people feel about their leader letting them down so badly.' Calen remarked offering a peace solution to this quickly worsening ordeal. If he was being honest with himself Calen would want nothing more than a fight to break out, although he knew that a civilian would be no match, just simply for a break to the monotony.

[Ordelis]

Gaud let loose one more precisely aimed grenade right behind Camelia and Rory, perhaps a little too close to the pair as it singed the two but clearing out the immediate vicinity of the Grimm behind them.
     With the last obstacle out of the way, Justice was the first one out of the forest, and free of the mist, he had a view of what could only be assumed to be Anov. It was presumably much larger then Vona, as the wooden wall that stretched further beyond the mountain canyon suggested it was much bigger then what could be seen. While the wooden walls didn't look all that different to Vona's, two things were apparently different aside from it's size.
   First was the double gate that served as it's entrance was lined with metal plates, its defensive capabilities clearly given more care then the rest of the wall.
     Second was the machine gun and the guard stationed directly above the metal gate.The gun was belt fed, loaded, and clearly ready to fire off its dust rounds at anything it was pointed at, which happened to be Justice coming out of the forest. A barrage of small explosions instantly went off, along with a hose of light that erupted from the weapon and burst its way in Justice's direction. The weapon was loud, the detonations from the dust rounds and the way the ground would burst clearly suggested each bullet would cause devastating damage to anything hit by them.
     
     Gaud moved to stop the weapon, she took a position high up on a tree for an angle and let loose her spear in an upwards arc. The weapon landed inbetween the gunner manning the weapon and the gun itself, piercing through its housing and completely dissabling it. With a yank of her hand, the string attached to the weapon tightened and her weapon flew back into her hand. She stood atop her tree so the guard could get a good look at her.
"You Fools! It is I!Cease your fire and let them in! they are not from the other villages!" Gaud yelled at the guard now accompanied by his partner, both now armed with rifles pointed at both Gaud and Justice. The two guards looked at each other with a look of resignation and dissapeared behind the wall.
     A moment later the entrance gate was opened allowing haven for the group inside. "You'll want to speak to Master Vita I assume? I'll get him" one of the guards said not waiting for an answer or so much as a greeting and walked away. The other guard stood blankly watching the rest of the group emerge from the misty forest, his expression seemingly annoyed.


"What's going on here?" A passing villager had witnessed what just occured. Donna taking notice of being found panicked, he looked between Calen, Cami, and the villager and while his face expressed a great disturbance his face completely betrayed his next words "That woman will return soon do not be so hasty, you've seen the danger out there" he said as calmly as possible. "Oh yes the Grimm are certainly still a problem out there aren't they? Haha silly me" Cami replied with as much sincerity as she could. "Let's just go, we'll come back later" she whispered to Calen. Donna to his credit narrowed his eyes at the pair and apparently decided he couldn't do anything rash while seen "in that case would you not care to rest in the main hall? I'm sure your friend and the rest of your team can find you there when they return" Donna offered as generously as he could.

[Riven]

Their escape had been a narrow, harrowing thing. Even with Camelia's Semblance boosting them Rory was sure he'd felt the "Whites" breath on the back of his neck more than once, and if that hadn't been enough to kick his adrenaline into full-on then having one of Gaud's bombs narrowly miss had certainly done the job. Rory had been too preoccupied with not dying to the threats behind them to fully register the threats ahead until they'd already been dispatched, running past the dissolving White Beowolf corpse and immediately spotting the heavily defended wall and its freshly-ruined machine gun nest. So that's what Gaud had been shouting about...

When they were finally inside the gates and once again safe, the shield fighter was breathing heavy -- whether from exertion or the many near-misses was hard to say with certainty. Still, the first thing Rory did was turn to Camelia with an apologetic expression. "Thanks," His gaze travelled to Justice and Gaud. "All of you. That... was a little terrifying."

Reaching up with his free hand, he pinged Calen's Scroll again. "Calen, we made it to Anov. There are albino Beowolves on the roads between here and there -- they're extra nasty and like to hide in the fog, so unless you can get a vehicle I don't recommend heading out here with Cami yet. We'll see what we can do on this end to secure a safe route. What's the status of things over there?"