Malina said nothing as she made her way to where Teddy was going to land once Calen began to make his way into the swamp. She collapsed her staff and holstered it to her side, feeling the cathartic
tink as the metal locked against the magnet.
"
You do remember me saying that the air was full of avian Grimm and that was why we couldn't stop or slow down, right?" She called up as she crossed her arm and looked up at the impromptu leader with a single raised eyebrow. He quickly opened his mouth to speak but Malina cut him off with the raise of one of her hands. "
No, no." She uncrossed her arms and wiped several small droplets of water from her face, letting her see the first year floating slowly down more clearly. "
You made a bad decision." She said as his feet touched the ground and the chute thwumped onto the ground behind him. "
It's not the end of the world, we've all made our fair share of bad decisions." Something panged at the back of Malina's head as she spoke but she ignored it. "
As the leader you have to put extra effort into taking notice of everything around you so that you don't do something or order something that would put you or your team in unnecessary danger." She stepped closer to Teddy and helped him undo the parachute. "
I understand that this all might be a bit new for you, but it's necessary, believe me." She spoke softer than before as she unlatched something she wasn't entirely familiar with but was fairly certain would help undo the parachute.
The parachute eventually came completely undone and set Teddy free. "
I'll be following all of you, Calen already made his way into the swamp to scout ahead." She pointed off to the edge of the swamp where Calen had entered. "
Look's like Helena's already followed him in." Malina looked off to the side and saw Cobe making his way toward her. "
And it looks like it's just you and Cobe. You'll do fine, I'll be right behind you all." And she gave Teddy a genuine smile, or at the very least attempted to make it appear genuine.
Malina smacked her cheek, crushing yet another mosquito attempting to bite into her. A disgusted sigh escaped her lips as she pulled out her scroll from its pouch to check the time once more. Almost an hour had passed and almost nothing had happened. Several beowolves had attacked about twenty minutes ago but they hadm't even made it past Calen and Helena's arrows. It would have been great if she could get her nerves in check, she never liked quiet missions. Always reminded her of that old saying, the calm before the storm. She supposed the environment didn't help. The light rain had continued to fall, scattering little droplets of water playfully across her tail, making it sound like the roof of a car in the rain, and despite the lightness of the rain, the clouds above them were dark, incredibly so. At times she could swear it was nighttime for how dark the clouds were making the swamp but with each check of her scroll she saw a bright light
10:46 AM that stared back her.
A drop of rain splashed against the hardlight "screen" of her scroll and she quickly wiped it off and slid it back into her pocket. It wouldn't be too long now until they got to Jackson and as far as Malina cared, the sooner the better. She'd been on hundreds of missions, but something about this, the oddly dark sky, the rain slowly falling down, the twisted trees that at times looked like they were reaching out toward her group, it all made her unusually uneasy. She looked ahead to the four ahead of her. Cobe close by with Teddy slightly ahead of him and Helena ahead of him, and the vague shadowy shape of Calen. She watched Teddy specifically for a few short moments, surely he had to be feeling the same as she did.
Far ahead of Malina, Calen scouted ahead of the group. Watching out for patches of wet much, he chose his footing carefully and deliberately while still keeping an eye on area ahead of him. One light step, quick glance downward, a look around, another step, quick glance downward, etc. It was a tedious process but a necessary one. The beowolves earlier had been easy to take out, but they'd also been loud, who knew what else might lurk in the swamps.
As if on cue, the sound of something, something nearly indistinguishable, caught his ear. It sounded like the cracking of a branch but at the same time it sounded just
slightly off, unnatural. Calen whipped his head to the left, where the sound had come from.
There, in a clearing in the swampy trees and much, surrounded in darkness was... nothing. The first year's eyes darted around for a moment, trying to see if something had fled or moved away and just as he did, another crack sounded, this time larger with more of a crunching sound. It had come from above the spot he'd originally heard the sound. His eyes followed the sound upward.
There, in the trees, clinging to one of the branches with massive clawed hands was... something. A Grimm for sure, it's black body and four red eyes, shaped in a large square on it's unusually flat face, proved that much. But the rest of it was shrouded in the darkness of this oddly dark cloudy day.
As Calen locked his eyes on the beast's piercingly red eyes, it let out a scream. A scream like nothing Calen, nor Teddy, nor Helena, or Cobe, or even Malina who'd been on missions to the harshest swamps of Mistral had ever heard. It was like the high pitched scream of a man and women overlaid on one another but at the same time extremely animistic, savage, barbaric.
Calen was frozen for just a moment, despite everything in his body telling him to move away or attack, he found himself unable to get a hold of himself as the beast dropped down from the tree and into the clearing, a horrible cracking noise sounding from its limbs as they bent and compressed.
Now on the same level as the monster, Calen was able to get a better look at it's details. It was enormous, standing on two legs and at least twice his own height despite the curved back and bent legs. Had it been standing straight up would have easily reached over fifteen feet. The thought shook him for a moment but only a moment before he pushed it away. From what he could see, its entire body was the black fur that made up most Grimm, and if its grotesque height hadn't been enough then its arms would sure send a lesser man running. They were bent now, but he was sure that if it extended its arms they would nearly reach ten feet long. The only white parts he could see in the darkness were the faceplate, which was almost like a square if not for the rounded bottom, and its claws. They were
enormous. Each of the five claws on each hand had to be at least half his height.
The creature let out another loud roar from seemingly nowhere, nothing about it moved when the roar was released, and then it took a lumbering step forward, sending another ripple of cracks through the air, and leaving behind it a fine black mist.
In the next moment, the Grimm had launched itself up into the air above Calen with surprising speed. As it came down with claws primed to shred through its prey, Calen finally got a hold of himself once again.
UNKNOWN GRIMM:
▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉(Posting order is Calen, Helena, Teddy, Cobe, with the Grimm being posted outside of any order. So they could go once wait a turn, then go again, or wait an entire rotation.)