Breathe Chapter 7: Plans and Action (Patreon)

Sweat poured down my face as I ran laps around the farm. The Grimm in the forest, while strong enough to kill civilians were far weaker than the Grimm that lived around Black Rock. There was no challenge in killing them, so I had to find other ways to keep improving.

Instead of focusing on my ability to kill Grimm, I focused on improving my stats. Anything that required effort or hard work around the farm was something that I handled specifically. There was an issue initially with the rate at which I improved my stats, but I quickly caught on to the cause of it.

My stats were too high when I had my Aura activated. My muscles weren’t being strained when I was using it, thus I wasn’t growing stronger. It was like I was lifting heavy weights in a zero gravity environment, almost completely pointless. So, while I was training my body, I kept my Aura deactivated.

The same could also be said for Total Concentration Breathing, but that ended up helping me more than it hindered. My stamina returned at a much faster rate allowing me to train harder with it than without it. The only issue I had there was that I couldn’t keep it active while I slept, something that I’d been working on with some help.

I shot a glance towards the barn and found Oscar right where I left him, sitting cross-legged practicing his breathing.

Oscar was both my helper and my contingency plan. He was assisting me in being able to keep my breathing active while I slept by waking me when I stopped using it. I was also training him for a worst case scenario where I fail to make any change and die.

With a few short months of using Total Concentration Breathing, I’d been able to grow at an… as Maria liked to stress… impossible rate. My Aura capacity grew rapidly and I was able to regenerate it ten times faster than the average Huntsman. If Ozpin gains access to this through Oscar, then there likely won’t be many things that will stand in his way.

I’d initially offered to teach Maria, but she declined, saying that she had no use for it as she wasn’t planning on continuing as a Huntress. Her only interest was in training me, not learning something herself.

There was the problem of others like the White Fang or Salem’s group learning the breathing technique, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Oscar was fairly isolated out here and didn’t exactly like the idea of going out into the world, so there was no issue of others learning it from him…

Not to mention, I did kind of undersell the technique to him. All Oscar knows, it’ll only make him a little stronger and give him a bit more stamina, something that would seem useless to the average Huntsman.

Once the burning sensations in my muscles became too much to bear, I stopped and activated my Aura, feeling an immediate sense of relief as my muscles were quickly repaired.

…
Ping!
Due to intense exercise, DEX and CON have gone up by 2 points each
…

…

Coal

Semblance: Gamer Lite
AP: 5135/6467

STR: 32 => (143.2)
DEX: 35 => (156.7)
CON: 34=> (152.2)
AUR: 65 => (129.3)

…

“Alright,” I muttered as I felt my muscled finish healing. “Let’s do that again.” And I continued running laps around the farm.

…Breathe…

“Finished training already?” Maria asked as I entered the house.

“Pretty much,” I replied. “Is Oscar here?”

“Last I saw, he was in the barn practicing that breathing technique you showed him.”

I winced as there was a loud crack of thunder. “I’ll go get him.”

“That would probably be for the best,” Maria hummed. “If Oscar gets sick, June will be pretty mad at you!”

I quickly hurried out before it started raining again. June hadn’t exactly been pleased when she heard that I was teaching Oscar, but had been placated when I explained that it wasn’t so that he could fight Grimm, but rather have a better chance at running away. I’d also needed to reassure her that I hadn’t unlocked Oscars Aura.

Doing that would honestly be the worst thing for the duo. Aura attracts Grimm, Maria unlocked my Aura as a last resort in an effort to save and while it worked I did become a bit of a Grimm magnet. I had Maria and her training to fall back on in the event of a Grimm attack. Oscar… he would have me for a while, but I wasn’t exactly going to stay here forever.

All it would take is one Grimm that he couldn’t handle and Oscar would die, something that I couldn’t allow to happen.

“Oscar, you still in here?” I asked as I stepped into the barn. Walking in further, I found him sitting in the back with his eyes closed, still practicing his breathing. “Oscar.” Still no response. Placing my hand on his shoulder, Oscars eyes suddenly opened and his body jolted.

“Aaah,” Oscar let out a short shout, looking around wildly. “What… why does it feel like my heart is in my head?!”

“You just overdid it,” I explained. “Just give it a few minutes of breathing normally and you’ll feel normal again!”

Nodding, Oscar took steady breaths as he placed his palms on his knees. A minute passed before he looked up. “That… That felt horrible. I thought I was going to die!”

“Yeah, well. The more you use it, the easier it’ll become,” I replied. “You might want to try running a few laps around the farm and increase your cardio, that should help as well!”

“That was only a few hours though,” Oscar muttered. “And you keep it active all day… you want to be able to sleep doing that! That’s just insane!”

“Well it does help with my fighting,” I shrugged. “Trust me, you’ll see the benefits once you get the hang of it!”

“If you say so,” Oscar replied. “So why’d you come out here anyway? I thought you would still be training.”

“It’s about to start raining,” I said, pointing outside. Almost as if the world wanted to accentuate my point, there was a flash of white which was immediately accompanied by the crack of thunder. “Maria pointed out that your Aunt wouldn’t exactly be happy if you got sick because you stayed out here during a storm!”

Oscar winced. “Yeah, she probably wouldn’t.”

…Breathe…

I stood in front of a large map of the farm and a good portion of the land surrounding it. The map had been June’s idea. The surrounding land had been divided into section, every time Maria and I cleared out a section, we would come back and mark it off the map. Apparently, it this was the method that a full squad of Atlesian soldiers would use when clearing out an area for an operation.

I had to admit, it did actually help. This way, Maria and I knew exactly where we had been and what areas had Grimm in them. Looking for the next section that I would be clearing out, I raised an eyebrow when I found that the next one was scratched out.

“What’s this?”

“What’s what?” Maria asked.

“This, the scratched out section,” I said, gesturing towards the end of the map.

Maria hummed as she examined it. “My best guess would be… that it’s an area that we don’t have to clear out.”

Yeah, I kind of caught onto that. “But why?”

“Well, that’s something that you’ll probably have to ask June yourself.”

“Ask June what?” June asked as she walked down the stairs.

“Why there’s a entire area that’s crossed off,” I replied.

“Oh,” June hummed. “Yeah, you don’t need to clear those areas out.”

Yes, I knew that, Maria knew that. We all knew that. But I didn’t want to know if we should clear those areas out.

“Why not?”

“Because, if there are Grimm in those areas, they’re not a threat to us,” June explained. Walking closer to the map, she grabbed a marker. “You see, there are several different ways to mark a map that have different meanings. If an area has a check marked next to it, that means that it’s been patrolled within the last six days and is all clear. Two checks means that it’s been patrolled within the last three days and an X means that it has been longer than a week since it’s been patrolled.”

“This area doesn’t have any of those marks,” I noted.

“That’s because that area doesn’t need to be patrolled,” June replied. Bringing the marker up, she drew a thick line along the borders of the crossed off area. “You see, the Grimm in this entire area here pose no threat because they’re in a valley beneath a cliff… they can’t reach us.”

I see. So killing the Grimm that lived there was pointless. Looking closer to the map, I found another area that seemed interesting. “But what about this? It seems to be a path that leads to the area under the cliff!”

June nodded. “You would be correct, however, the pathway is so narrow that Grimm are unable to pass through. Most of them migrate through other paths.” June traced the area with her finger, showing the route that the Grimm used.

It seemed that the Grimm took quite a long path around the cliff to get near the forest. It was no wonder why there were so few Grimm here.

“This area over here,” I said, pointing to the section of the map that was crossed off. “It seems to be the first area that Grimm come to before walking around the cliff. Are there constantly Grimm in that area?”

“From my observations, yes,” June replied. “Why.”

“I’m just thinking… It seems like the perfect area to cull the Grimm.”

“He’s got a point,” Maria agreed. “You said it yourself, Grimm can’t use that path and they migrate through that area. All it would take is a single person with a strong enough gun to keep the Grimm at bay.”

“I suppose it could be worth a try,” June sighed. “I’ll have to dust off some of my old equipment.”

“You should take Coal,” Maria volunteered my help. “I’ll stay here and look after the farm while you’re out.”

“I think I might just do that,” June nodded, before turning to me. “I’ll meet you outside in fifteen minutes!”

“O…kay,” I agreed as June marched back up stairs. I shot a questioning look towards Maria.

“What? You think that I’m going to hike through the muddy woods when I could just sit here and look after this place?!” Maria asked. “Just think of this as training. You’ve learnt how to fight and use your Aura. Now you get to learn how to scout areas out… and from a former Atlesian soldier no less.”

In other words, Maria was just lazy and didn’t feel like doing any hard work. It’s a pity she was right.

…Breathe…

June and I hiked through the woods in an uncomfortable silence. The equipment that she’d had to ‘dust off,’ had turned out to be a white pistol and dagger along with a small beige backpack.

“So how are Oscars lessons going?” June asked suddenly.

“Uh… fine,” I replied.

“I’ve met a few Huntsmen and Women during my time in the Atlesian army,” June hummed. “And I’ve seen a few soldiers request to have their Aura unlocked, thinking that it’ll give them higher odds of surviving an encounter with Grimm… It never went well for them. You see, the Grimm specifically targeted them first, often killing them in drawn out ways.”

“That sounds horrible,” I muttered.

June nodded. “It was horrible, but it taught me a valuable lesson. If a person has Aura, they need to be trained in how to use it properly or they’ll just end up being bigger targets!”

I was pretty sure that I knew what she was getting at, but decided to ask anyway. “Are you worried that I’m going to unlock Oscar’s Aura?”

“Among a few other things, yes,” June replied. “You’re training him, it would only make sense that you’re planning on unlocking his Aura. I wouldn’t have a problem with that if you were going to be staying here, but you’re not! You and your mentor are going to be leaving and I can’t have Oscar become a Grimm magnet that doesn’t know how to defend himself.”

“I’m not going to unlock his Aura… I’m teaching him… something else that won’t attract the Grimm… A technique of my own creation,” I explained, choosing my words carefully. “It won’t do much without Aura, but it will give him more of a chance with Grimm… especially if he masters it.”

“You want him to fight Gr…”

“No,” I interrupted. “I don’t want him to fight Grimm, not unless it’s absolutely necessary. I want him to be able to survive a Grimm attack, whether that be by running away or by killing them. That’s all!”

For a moment, all that could be heard was the crunching of dead leaves and twigs under our feet as we continued to march through the forest.

“Unfortunately, that might not be the case,” June sighed. “I see now that you’re not trying to train Oscar to be a Huntsman, but that might not be the way that Oscar sees it… In the few days that you’ve been on our farm, you’ve made a real impact on Oscar. He looks at you like you’re some kind of invincible hero.”

“I’m not!”

“I know that,” June hummed. “But he doesn’t. Grimm took his parents away and he saw you toy with a full hoard without a hint of fear! I’m worried that Oscar might try and emulate you!”

That would be bad. He didn’t have any fighting skill. It took me using both Aura and Total Concentration Breathing to even stand a chance against a single Alpha Beowolf. I only became confident after Maria taught me how to fight, something that took quite a while. Oscar didn’t have any of that and I couldn’t exactly stay here and teach him. I needed to grow stronger and help stop Salem!

“I can’t stay and train Oscar,” I muttered. “But I also can’t leave him to try and take on Grimm.”

It was a real problem. I almost wanted to give him Aura so that he would be better protected in the event that he went out hunting Grimm on his own, but that would just attract the stronger ones.

“I don’t think he’ll seek them out on his own,” June said. “The thing I’m worried about is him attempting to fight Grimm that wander onto our farm.”

“Maybe I should have a talk with him. I’ll explain to him that the technique I’m teaching him is for his survival, not so that he can try and fight Grimm! Oscar’s reasonable, he should listen.”

“That would probably be for the best,” June nodded. “But that means you probably shouldn’t teach him how to use a weapon. What a person knows they should do and what their body is trained to do are two very different things!”

“I could teach him to run,” I suggested. “That way he should be able to escape Grimm… In the worst case situation, he could serve as a distraction that will keep Grimm away from you, so you can take them out!”

“So he can run away! Nothing else,” June said firmly.

“So he can run,” I repeated.

“Good. I’m glad that we understand each other.”

We continued to walk in silence for several more moments, before suddenly coming to a stop at a sheer cliff that was overlooking a small valley. There were no warnings, or thinning of trees, only a sudden, sheer drop. If I hadn’t been paying attention to my surroundings, I would have fallen straight off.

“This is it,” June announced. Placing her backpack on the ground, she quickly began to riffle through it, before pulling out a pair of binoculars, before handing me a pen and notepad.

“What’s this for?”

“It’s so you can write down my observations,” June replied, having already began using her binoculars to examine the valley. “Back in the military, these were normally hooked up to a transmitter that would let base camp see what the scout is seeing… Seeing as we don’t have access to that kind of technology, we’ve got to make do with a pen and paper.”

“Is this what you did when you were in the army?”

“Among other things, yes,” June nodded. “Although scouting probably isn’t needed anymore… Soldiers might become obsolete in the next few years.”

“Because of Huntsmen?”

June let out a sigh and held the binoculars to her side. “Because of the advancement of technology,” She replied. “When I left the Atlesian army, scouts had been replaced by drones and mechanical soldiers were being introduced… That was a few years ago, who knows what General Ironwood’s using now!”

“Probably bigger and stronger robots… maybe some that could even be piloted,” I suggested. “But there will always be a need for people. A robot’s programming can only take it so far while a well trained person could go much farther.”

“You know… you’re an odd person. I’ve only known you for a few days and it seems like you’re always trying to cheer people up!”

“It beats being miserable and focusing only on the bad parts of life,” I shrugged.

“I suppose it does,” June hummed before shaking her head and lifting her binoculars again. “Alright, I see a pack of five Alpha Beowolves at the northern quadrant… There appear to be two Ursa to the east near the narrow pathway that leads to the valley. There also appears to be a small pack of regular Beowolves and... Crap!”

“Crap?” I asked. “I’m confused. Did you see something down there that’s big or do Grimm actually crap in the woods?”

June shot me a look that suggested that I was an idiot.

“There’s a Death Stalker that’s buried itself, waiting for unsuspecting prey!”

“Death Stalker,” I hummed. The name itself sounded intimidating. “It’s a giant scorpion Grimm, right?”

“That’s the one,” June nodded. “They’re extremely difficult to deal with. The Atlesian army generally use missiles and large guns on bullheads in order to deal with them… that or a team of Huntsmen. It seems like we’re not going to be able to use your plan of thinning out the Grimm… Even if we tried shooting from here, we risk attracting it and that would be extremely dangerous! That thing could climb this cliff if it was aggravated!”

“What if Maria and I took care of it?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I doubt the two of you could do that,” June said. “Maybe if your teacher was a few years younger, but not now!”

June hadn’t seen Maria fight yet, so it’s understandable that she didn’t think Maria could take out more powerful Grimm. That didn’t change the fact that Maria could likely toy with a Grimm like that.

“She’s a lot stronger than she looks,” I said. “And I haven’t gotten a single challenge out of any of the Grimm here. I’m sure that we’ll be able to kill it!”

“If you fail and try and retreat, it will follow you... and there isn’t exactly anyone strong enough to deal with a Death Stalker that lives around here. Best case scenario, you die fighting it, worst case, you lead it around town and it kills everyone and then you! The risk is too great!”

“And if we do kill it, then Grimm become much more manageable around here,” I retorted. “Look, I’m just going to bring it up with Maria. If she thinks that we’re capable of killing a Death Stalker, then that means we can do it! If not, then I’ll drop the subject entirely.”

June let out a pained sigh. “Fine.”

…Breathe…

As it turned out, Maria had very much been for the idea to facing a Death Stalker… For me to face a Death Stalker, that is. The Grimm in the area were quite weak and the whole point of the trip was for me to face stronger and more trick Grimm, so she was happy that I would have that chance so soon… although, she didn’t think that I was going to be able to kill it on my own, not that she wasn’t going to let me try.

That’s how I found myself walking into the valley a day later with my sword strapped to my side with Maria walking behind me.

“Remember, I’ll only interfere if it looks like you can’t handle it… other than that, go nuts,” Maria said. “I’ll keep the other Grimm off your back, so just focus on the Death Stalker and do your best to kill it!”

“Thanks,” I hummed, unsheathing my sword.

I glanced at the cliff and caught sight of June. She hadn’t exactly been happy that Maria and I were going to be doing this. She’d come today in order to watch us fight the Death Stalker, with the intention of making sure the Grimm didn’t come towards her farm if we lost… As I understood it, if it did decide to head towards her farm, she was going to take Oscar and flee.

I suppose that, to June, this looked like a very selfish thing to do, disturbing a powerful Grimm that could destroy her farm. If we just leave it alone, it probably wouldn’t bother anyone… probably being the key word.

There was always the chance that someone else stumbled across it and would get killed… there was also the chance that they could initially escape it and lead the Death Stalker right back to June’s farm. Those possibilities were something that I couldn’t allow. Not only because Oscar was the next vessel of Ozpin and my backup plan, but also because they didn’t deserve it.

June took Maria and I in when it was getting late and about to rain. Sure we would have been fine, but that’s beside the point. She didn’t have to help us, but she decided to anyway… even if she was getting something out of it.

Oscar on the other hand… he’s a good kid. He’s lost a lot and still keeps on going. I suppose I’d grown a little attached to him… After all, he was one of the first people that I’d talked to after months of isolation with Maria as my only company.

Initially, I’d wondered how June had been able to spot the Death Stalker so easily, but now that I was on the ground, it was easy to see. The earth had clearly been disturbed. There were several mounds of dirt that hadn’t been filled back in and the ground was loose.

It would likely be much more difficult to spot if it had stayed here for long enough and the ground had time to blend back in, but as it was now, it stuck out like a sore thumb. I couldn’t help but think that it would be much more difficult to fight if the Death Stalker had been hiding in a desert.

I cautiously knocked the ground with my foot, before stepping forward. This Grimm was different, it was waiting for me to enter its trap.

Taking several more steps closer, I felt the ground shift and immediately jumped back, avoiding a massive white claw that jutted out of the ground. It stayed unmoving for several moments before the dirt began to shift.

The Death Stalker easily towered over me, being several times bigger than an Ursa Major. Its pincers snapped loudly as it turned towards me, several sets of glowing red eyes glared towards me.

I took a breath. My hands trembled with both excitement and nervousness. “I wasn’t expecting you to be so large... What’re you just standing around for, let’s get this party started!”

The Death Stalker let out a hiss and charged forward.