Stingers and Hunters [CLOSED]

Xarias shrugs while accepting the compliment from Kandata before noticing someone come out of the brush. "Yo there." Xarias says waving towards Varius, "Had some pig trouble? I saw some on my way here and I heard a few shots earlier." Slinging his rifle to his back, Xarias looks around, expecting some others to come out as well.

Spencer leaps from the wall of growth with his legs kicked out in front. He is a little bit out of breath from running far, fighting, and then running even further, but he's used to that by now. He looks at the others and smirks. "Man, was it a battle to get here."
*Buhdum-tss*

*Buhdum-tss*
Kail couldn't help but press the comedy button of his scroll as he emerged from the same nature growth as Spencer and chuckled a bit at the pun, and stated "Boarbatusks; More of an annoyance than any real battle...." and he continued with "Too bad they weren't on our target list." he then stopped, and looked across to the others, asking "Any interruptions getting here on your ends?" as he put his scroll away, pulling out his right pistol once more, letting his arms stay at his sides by the holsters.

Varius smiled at the group and replaced Umbra on his back. "No trouble at all. Thankfully it was only a small one and I ended it painlessly." Varius looked at the others and noted that they all seemed to be unharmed from the attacks. What a shame. "So when does the real action start?"

Kandata observed the others, and looks like they've encountered a few enemy. Though, it kinda dissappointed him that those were not their targets. Looks like, it'll be a long day for them, he thought.

"Don't ask me." Kandata shrugged.

"You guys got any plans? Or we just beat the crap out of em'?" Kandata said as he punches his palm.

"I didn't see any so far but we didn't scout the ruins that well yet, they might be lurking in the shadows or most probably have changed their positions. This happens a lot since all the info we have is the last known position." Xarias said "I suggest we take a good look around, and stay frosty, they might jump on us at any time."

Slinging his rifle off his back, he rests it on his shoulder before heading towards deeper in to the ruins, towards some broken pillars and debris. Looking around, Xarias spots some prints in the dust, leading towards a canyon. "I think they went this way." He said. "The prints look a bit old but they're the only lead we have."

Kail looked to Kandata and smirked under his mask; "That is my plan." he stated, and he looked up, seeing a baby nevermore extremely high up. He put his pistols together, they formed into his sniper rifle, and he quickly aimed at the unsuspecting Grimm. A single trigger-pull sent a bullet rushing to the bird, hitting it in the chest, tearing out it's tiny heart. Kail then lowered his weapon and waited for someone to have an idea.

Spencer looks around. Might as well do the only thing I'm good for right now.
"I'll take a look around." Thinking back to the tiny bit of hunting he did with family and what he learned, Spencer goes off on his own to analyze the grounds of the ruin.
Single set of tracks equal a single animal so the tracks that Xarias are looking for must be something larger. Probably an ursa major since his reaction tells me that it was a moderate-sized paw instead of a few round prints like what a deathstalker makes.
What we're looking for is a large amount of small tracks if we wish to start with the packs. Spencer takes his eyes off of the surface and over to the other tracker. "Hey, my guess would be to watch out for ursa majors!" Spencer turns back around and continues to scan for prints. Damn, do I wish I had more background in hunting right now.

(OOC: Just a reminder. Targets will be GM'ed by me so no autohitting of the grimm.)

"Shhhh." Xarias shushed the group just as he saw a black figure run in the distance and suddenly hide in what looked like a broken down temple. Making his way through the debris and dust, Xarias urges his companions to follow with a hand gesture followed by, "This way."

Those tracks weren't of any Ursa's. They were too small, but it's odd that there were so few.

While thinking through the possible circumstances, he was interrupted by a sudden howl in the distance followed by more howls, as if they were alerted by the presence of multiple people in the area. Readying his rifle, Xarias scans the surroundings for movement while keeping his senses sharpened by his semblance, waiting for the grimm to strike.

Here we go then.


_____________________________

Having followed the progress of the group through the forest, the ranger makes his way through the tree canopies and finds a suitable spot where he could get a proper view of them at the ruins. Smiling a bit he takes out his scroll and makes a quick entry followed by some quick typing and commands. Satisfied, he takes out some high-tech binoculars and takes note of their positions as well as the positions of the grimm. "Let's see how good you are."

Kandata followed his group, making sure to set up traps on every opennings they pass through. They stopped by near the broken down temple as they hear the howls echoed throughout the forest.

"Looks like we're in for some fight..." Kandata smirked and unloaded the threads from his belt. He quickly launches his threads, surrounding the entire area where his party at. He weaved an invisible barrier made out of threads, that surrounds the party. Though, barrier is passable, he can control the threads so that he can attempt to slice anything who try to get pass it.

"Do we attack now? or do we wait for them to make the first move?"

Ah, so it was a pack after all. Strange that there would be so few...
Spencer runs back over to the group. "As creatures of shadow, they work well hidden. Let them approach us as to make use of your threads." Spencer draws his weapons. The enemy will be too far away for a quick-attack from Delilah so he opts for both pistols. "Try an' thin 'em out with ranged attacks and cut down whatever makes it passed the traps."

--------

[If anyone wants to take over for AkaiOtaku, I'll gladly hand over control but I also offer to do it. I just don't know how good I'll do with him since I don't know his preferences for long-term combat with his low amount of ammo.]

With a twist of Umbra's handle, Varius reveals what might as well be an artillery piece. The ends of his sword fall and pierce the ground.
"I'm saving ammo for some of the larger enemies so I won't be firing too much. Not that I'll need to, anyway," Varius says with a smirk. Let's get this over with. Maybe I'll accidentally set them on fire. That would be fun to watch.

-------

Spencer turns around at the sudden tiny quake under his feet.
"Is...that a cannon? Lord almighty-that's a cannon..." Chicks dig cannons. I hear the grimm love 'em even more, though.

Kail nodded in agreement with Spencer "Ranged attacks are generally superior when it comes to fighting Grimm."

In the distance, a group of red glowing eyes glare at the hunters, carefully studying their prey, waiting for the right moment to strike. They weren't typical beowolves that attacked on site, they seemed to be smarter than the rest, cornering their prey and gathering them up in a single place. One of the masked grimm shows itself and howls, the others howl in unison and follow their leader. Spreading out, surrounding the group of hunters, the wolves begin their assault, about a dozen of them still hidden in the shadows as one half attacks the hunters. The leader of the pack jumps forward to attack but is stopped short by a bullet to the head, the now lifeless body lying on the ground as the other wolves stop in their tracks, fazed by the sudden death of their leader.

________________________________


Be it a pack leader or a ordinary wolf. They're still not bulletproof.

Grinning as he aims for another wolf, Xarias readies his sights on two wolves gawking at them, not knowing what to do. Letting two bullets loose, both of them find their way to the skulls of the grimm, knocking them down cold as a puddle of blood forms beneath them.

"Be ready for the pack fellas. Seems like there are more than we thought there would be." Xarias said, switching his rifle to it's bi-ended lance mode.


________________________


Jumping out of the shadows, the last dozen beowolves go for the group in a frenzy, enraged by the trespassers and the death of their alpha. Now 22 wolves remained but with all of them heading for the group at once, chances were a few wounds would be sure to be inflicted. Now in an enraged fury, the wolves ignore the appearances of the hunters and their weapons and charge forwards, 6 heading for Varius, the largest of the group and dash towards him on all fours. 5 of the wolves head for Kail and Spencer while another 5 flank them from the side and start running towards them. The rest of the wolves head for Kandata and Xarias, fangs bared, and claws ready to dismember and tear.

In the heat of battle, Spencer tallies up the details of his engagement. Ten charge us. Five for each of us. Traps still surround us. Five shots per cylinder. Means two shots available per enemy while only one needs to hit a kill/incapacitating spot. The wolves are unusually fast. His lifetime spent practicing marksmanship with high-caliber pistols has made him an expert at close-range shooting but these are way faster than usual.
Kail has a rifle. He probably works best operating toward a single direction. I may not be able to fend off two sides at once...
But you bet I can damn-well try!
"Kail! Front!" Spencer throws the hammer down on Candy with his thumb and points it to his left side, at the head of the leading beowolf. I got your back. The percussion cap of the chambered bullet sparks. Three shots go to the left. First flies to its target, second whizzes past the leader's head, and third is put into one's leg. Spencer turns his attention to his right with Delilah. Two close in as he fires a shot at the closest one.

--------

Fast. Very fast. But what good will it do you? A single shot of flame dust-enriched shell gets launched in front of the six beowolves coming after him. The projectile explodes into a large fire ball on impact.
I swear, if any of them survived that, I'll be very annoyed. Varius pulls back the mechanism and a huge shell flings out into the air. You won't like it if I'm annoyed.

Kail takes no time and fires at the heads of each Beowolf charging at them, before running out of ammo, growling in annoyance "Switching weapons" and he fragmented his Sniper Rifle, both pieces forming a pistol each. 'okay, fifteen shots per magazine, ten beowolves, three shots available for each, along with Spencer....' and he starts firing simultaneously at two beowolves.

without a word Kandata just smirked and nodded at Spencer as the pack assaults them.

"I guess its showtime!" Kandata grinned and and stretches out both of his arm in front of him, activating his threads at the moment the group of beowolves charges at him and Xarias.

As Spencer's bullets fly, two of them hit their targets. One hits a wolf straight in the chest causing it to collapse and end up tumbling on the ground, another bullet grazes another wolf by the ear, causing it to growl in anger as it jumps at Spencer while another wolf is now limping on the ground having been hit in the leg, still eager to get to them. The last two shots hit a wolf and it goes down without a fight, sprawling on the ground as blood gushes out of the wound. The last wolf heading for Spencer joins the other one and attacks Spencer from the side aiming to get to his neck while he's distracted.

Varius manages to let loose a huge explosion which causes the group of beowolves to start flying in all directions while some being completely destroyd by the blast. The aftermath leaves only one alive, missing one leg while crawling towards Varius.

Kail shoots down 2 beowolves in the head but one manages to only get grazed by the bullet and manages to get out of Kail's sights just as he switches weapons. Having switched to dual pistols allow the multitude of bullets to find their way to the 3 others and they collapse to the ground, no movement visible from them but allowing the last one to flank Kail from the right and aim for his leg, swiping a claw at him as he shoots.

Kandata's wires amputate most of the wolves, even the ones that managed to try to get to them from the side, the now limbless and some headless grimm lie on the floor, painting it red with their blood. Only 2 manage to get through the minute openings in the wires which missed them but are quickly dispatched by Xarias' lance, having stabbed one and shooting it off before using the impulse of the gun to slash at the other.

Xarias quickly dispatches two wolves but is a bit disappointed having only gotten two, Kandata's wires leave little room for the grimm to close in so he only got a few kills. "Good job, now to finish these guys!" Unlatching the lance from the hinged portion, he switches to his dual gun blades and shoots down some of limbless wolves. Hearing an explosion in the background he sees Varius having unloaded a shell while seeing the others taking care of the rest of the wolves. Not bad for a bunch of strangers.

TOO CLOSE!
Spencer roles forward and twists so he comes out of the role facing the two. He fires at the one now on his left. At such close range, it's an easy job to hit it in the head. He aims to fire at the now left one but it had foreseen Spencer's dodge and coordinated his attack upon the chance that his brother might fail. As a result, the beowolf is practically on top of Spencer and swipes at him. Spencer ducks under the hand like he's in a boxing match but the hand is being brought back to swipe with the back of it. It's almost all over until he lifts his gun up by his head and squeezes the grip.
A blade slides out the bottom and locks into place as the hand almost voluntarily lets itself get stabbed by the blade. Spencer then pulls the gun back, pulling the beowolf's arm and exposing his back. Using this opportunity, Spencer stabs it in the right shoulder, pulls out his blade from it's hand, gets up on it's back, and expends Candy's last shot into the back of the wolf's head. It's life being immediately snuffed out, Spencer pushes off, shoving the grimm's face into the grass.
A growl erupts behind him a little waze. He turns around to see the grimm he shot in the leg limping toward him.
"Awww! It's a pewppy!" The creature roars at Spencer in frustration but the sound gets cut off by a shot to the head. The creature immediately falls limp like the last creature. "-'D I SAY YOU COUL' RAISE Y'VOICE AT ME LIKE THA'?!"

--------

Varius is indeed annoyed by the insolence of beowolf not obeying his command for it to die. The bipod comes up and clicks into it's sword form. He walks up to the grimm and lifts whats left by the neck, really letting the creature know just how much trouble it's in. Its one leg still touching the ground.
The huge sword is then thrust into its chest and brought back out, leaving the beowolf to do all it can do: fall forward and die surrounded by the bodies of it's friends and family.

The last Beowolf caught Kail by surprise and it's swipe did two things; one, it scratched his right leg through his clothes, and pulled his legs out from under him. He grunted in pain as he reflexively fired several more times into the Beowolf, and if it died/fell, he'd fire at it once more. Afterwards the adrenaline would wear off and he would wince at the damage to his leg,  reaching to his wound and placing a hand on it, gritting his teeth and his hand glowed gold slightly, healing what wound he had in a few seconds while muttering "That...was too close....need to do better..." and as soon as his leg healed he sat up, then stood, scowling at the Grimm that nearly took him out.

As the remaining grimm were shot and cut down by the hunters, a sudden calm suddenly overcame the place, no more sounds of growling, howling, or gnashing. Just the sound of the wind blowing and the hunter's conversations among themselves. Making more quick notes on his scroll, the ranger takes note of the hunters and the number of grimm slain, also the time it took them to do so. Not bad, not bad at all., he thought to himself, a slight grimace forming on his face. Scanning the immediate area around the hunters, he spots some movement in the thicket. Whatever it was it would take a few minutes for it to reach them but it will undoubtedly reach them, the smell of blood in the air and the cries of dying grimm alerting it to the presence of the hunters.

Xarias holsters his lance in it's rifle form and slings it against his shoulder while slowly clapping at the progress they made. "Bravo, now for the dirty work." He said, unslinging his rifle again and aiming the blades at the end to a beowolf skull. "Ugh, collection was never my thing. For some reason there were way more than expected. Now everyone, grab a corpse and start cutting." Dropping the blade to a skull, he gets started with the gruesome ordeal.

"Woahow! Look at all these loot!" Kandata said as he examined the corpses lying on the ground.

Keeping an eye on the surrounding Kandata decided to lay another set of traps in case they were ambush in the middle of looting. After setting up his threads, he then took out a survival knife and a small pouch then he starts collecting the spoils of war.

"...Guess we can split the loot evenly, if you guys want. Or do we split it according to kills?" Kandata smirked.

Kail turned his Pistols into chakrams and hacked away at the last one he killed, saying "I'm fine either way, someone else decide."

"We split it so when it comes to the few big ones there wouldn't be any trouble with the spoils." Xarias said, dropping his blades into the beowolf's jaws. Taking out a small knife from his satchel he starts cutting away after putting on some gloves. Don't want to get my hands too dirty, I don't want to attract any other beasts on the way home, though that might be a bit fun.

Spencer reloads his magnums before putting them away and unsheathing his ornate bowie knife. "Time to play den'ist," Spencer says to himself as he goes up to the one he shot in the back of the head. He roles the beast over and ducks down to inspect.
"Ah, bloody hell. Mud, blood, an' broken teeth." Spencer looks around in its mouth. "*Tsk-tsk-tsk*, looks like this one'll only harvest a few from the back. Don' help when your bullet exits in the mouth and then you shove it face first into the ground." Spencer removes a tooth with the knife.

--------

Varius looks around at the remains of his exploded foes.
...
You vote to divide spoils based on the bodies of the ones you brought down and I kill you all. He then starts on taking the teeth out of his single salvageable kill. "Lets divide the packs and base the large ones off the kills."

--------

Spencer, confident in his weapons' sheer strength, agrees with Varius. "Sounds good to me."
After finishing a couple teeth, Spencer starts on another, paying too much attention to the task at hand to notice something in the woods.

"So I guess that counts the ursae as part of the pack. I'm good with it." He said, though a bit unsure at the prospect of being able to get a quick and easy kill with possible crossfire from his companions. I didn't want to be greedy but I guess laying back wouldn't be too fair anyways. Now done with the first wolf he heads for the next and begins cutting, taking his time in his collection and pocketing one tooth as a souvenir from this hunt.

Leonard Strave looks through his binoculars and spots a few dark figures heading for the hunters position before stopping in the thicket, quite aware that they'd be in trouble in the open. The forest was their battleground, not some broken man made clearing. Eyes glowing red through the thicket they start sniffing the air while quietly waiting for their prey to leave. Seems like these ones are a bit smarter than the rest. Leonard said, chuckling a bit at the grimm's behavior. "Now for round 2."

Finished with his last kill's spoils, he moves across to the next one, getting faster at it while doing so, saying "You know, carrying all these plus some more is going to be a challenge down the line." and he tore what he wanted from the Grimm, walking over and crouching by another, getting into a rhythm.

[Time Skip - Few minutes after collection]

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Xarias gathers the last of the teeth in his satchel before wondering why their stalkers haven't attacked yet. The grimm in the woods have been there for a while but they haven't moved nearer to our position. Usually they'd just outright attack us, especially with this amount of blood in the air. Scanning the thicket he notices some rustling but it suddenly goes away after a few seconds, as if thy were being monitored by their opponents. As if they were wary of them.

"I don't know about you guys but I've noticed a couple of things in the thicket right there." Xarias says, motioning with his rifle. "They might be a bit shy, why don't we drop in and say hello?" Splitting his rifle in two, he gets his grappling blades ready but waits for the rest to start moving. He had to be more wary now, this wasn't how the grimm usually reacted. Better safe than sorry. I'm betting these are the Ursae but they seem a little too smart.