Chapter 11

-[Julius]-

No matter how many times he saw it, he couldn't help but be amazed. The ability to heal practically anything, be it as simple as a scratch or a complete loss of limb.

That was what he thought as he watched Rowan heal the two men back to full health in a total of five minutes…five minutes!

'People would kill for a power like this…' the man thought as he turned to Quint and Jaye who were currently in a happy trance after seeing their teammates fully healed.

"Now that that's taken care of, why don't you tell us in detail what's going on here." Julius said, snapping them back to attention.

Quint, the black haired man who brought them here, coughed into his hand. "Right. After we sent out the report, the Grimm became even more active. I'm sure you saw them on your way here."

Julius nodded in confirmation, allowing the man to continue.

"They're getting closer and it won't be long before they reach the village. A few hours ago we went to try to at least stall them for a while. They outnumbered us but we were surviving, that is until it came."

"The strange Grimm?" Julius asked, Quint nodding.

"What did it look like? When you say strange, what do you mean?" Rowan asked from the side.

"It was…huge. Bigger than any Grimm I've ever seen, stronger too. It didn't look like a normal Grimm. If I had to describe it, I'd use the word cyclops?" The man said, unsure of how to describe it. "It only had one eye and held some kind of club as a weapon."

"A weapon? It's intelligent, old and that makes it even more dangerous. How did you guys escape?" Julius asked curiously only for the man to look away with a strange look.

"We didn't." He answered, confusing the two Arcs. "After it did that to Elma, Devon and Gerard, it let us go. It watched as we ran for our lives."

Julius couldn't hold back the look of shock on his face. A Grimm letting people go? He'd never heard of that before.

"From what you said, it sounds like it's the one controlling the other Grimm. If this Grimm is intelligent, what does it want?" Rowan threw the question out there.

"It's smart enough to wield a weapon and command that many Grimm. What would it gain from letting you g…" Rowan trailed off, his eyes widening in realization.

"You look like you've got something." Julius said in a questioning tone.

"Grimm are attracted to fear, you could even say they relish in it. It beat you to the point of near death and then let you run away back to the village of people who would see you in that state." Rowan started as Julius caught what he was thinking.

"Letting the villagers see their protectors being powerless would raise panic and fear. Fear being the one thing they love." Julius finished.

Seeing the shocked look on the huntsman and huntress before him, he sighed. "Though, these are only speculations at the moment. There's no concrete evidence to prove it."

His eyes trailed to Rowan who looked at him with a raised brow. Julius subtly shook his head before turning back to the two.

"Give me a call when they wake up. Rowan and I are going to find a place to stay for the night." Julius said, gesturing for Rowan to follow him as they left the room.

-[Rowan]-

It didn't take them long to find an inn to stay in. After Julius paid and they got to the room, Rowan turned to face his father.

"What was that all about?" He asked. Julius sighed, knowing what he was referring to.

"I know I said they were strong but thinking isn't exactly the Quint's strong suit, neither is it Jaye's. That's Elma and Gerard's role and both are incapacitated."

Rowan looked like he was about to complain but Julius wasn't finished. "Besides, did you see their faces? They're scared. Who knows what would happen if your theory turned out to be true. They'd be more of a liability than assets until the others wake up."

Rowan didn't pursue that front, opting to focus on other matters. The Grimm that Quint described wasn't one that he could picture and that was worrying.

"What are you doing?" Julius asked him, suddenly pulling his attention to the man who was still geared up. Rowan had only just set his sword down beside the bed.

"What?" He couldn't help the confusion that he showed.

"Pick up your sword, we're going back out there." Julius announced.

"Now?" Julius only nodded in confirmation.

"You heard what they said, the Grimm are getting closer. We're the reinforcements so let's go do our job." A grin emerged on the man's face. "Let's go and exterminate some Grimm."

Rowan threw Julius a dry look. "Old man, you're going to get me killed sooner or later." He pulled out his scroll as he felt it vibrate in his pocket.

"Not going to happen. You're stronger than that…besides, your mom would kill me." Julius said with a visible shiver.

Rowan frowned lightly at the text from an unknown number, pocketing the scroll and picking up his weapon.

•••

Name: Rowan Arc

Title: [Huntsman in Training]

Level: 62

HP: 9170/9170 [262 per minute]

AP: 19,000/19,000(20,000) [645 per 30 seconds]

STR: 122

DEX: 159

VIT: 131

INT: 200

WIS: 129

Points: 45

•••

'I can't say I'm not looking forward to another grinding session.' He thought as he allocated his points.

•••

Name: Rowan Arc

Title: [Huntsman in Training]

Level: 62

HP: 10,500/10,500 [300 per minute]

AP: 19,000/19,000(20,000) [650 per 30 seconds]

STR: 130

DEX: 176

VIT: 150

INT: 200

WIS: 130

Points: 0

•••

No matter how slim it may be, there was a chance that they could encounter the strange Grimm. He didn't want to take any chances with it.

-[Blake]-

Why was he always so hard to find?

After Glynda Goodwitch had escorted Rowan out of the cafeteria the previous day, no one had seen or heard from him.

People were spreading rumors that he had been expelled. It was only after a statement from the woman that it was confirmed that he wasn't expelled. Any further details were withheld even from his team.

Even Jaune didn't know what happened.

Rowan's words had replayed themselves multiple times in her head over the past few weeks. She just needed some to talk to, someone who was aware of her being a faunus.

She'd go and talk to Pyrrha but the other girl already had her hands full with Jaune. Looking down at her scroll which showed a very short chat between her and a certain person, she sighed.

She jolted just a bit as the scroll vibrated, a text popping up from the person. She took a glance around her room, making sure that Yang, Ruby and Weiss were asleep.

Who knew how they would react if they found her awake so late because she was texting someone.

-[The Next Day]-

-[Rowan]-

The two Arcs walked out of the forest, their clothes dusty and dirty but they were unharmed.

Rowan turned to Julius. "What was the point of paying for an inn when we spent the whole night in the forest?"

With Julius in charge, they had fought for the better part of the night, only taking short breaks to rest in the trees before continuing.

Though it was rewarding when he looked at the points he had amassed, he would've liked a warning before such decisions were made.

"Honestly, I'm asking myself the same question." Julius answered, earning himself a glare from Rowan.

-[Julius]-

Staring at his son who didn't even look winded after their all night extermination, he had a strange look in his eyes.

'Talent or not, this kind of growth isn't normal. Just how does he do it?' Julius wondered.

No matter how much he tried to make sense of it, he couldn't. The rate at which his son was growing was clearly abnormal.

Power and skill that took years to learn, he acquired and mastered them within months. He had noticed when they were dealing with the Grimm, Rowan's natural speed was almost on par with his own when under the influence of his Semblance.

Berserker, a semblance that immensely boosted his physical capacity. It was only when using it that he could outmatch him in speed. Even that was only temporary as Rowan seemed to have put together a technique similar to his semblance.

With it, even he couldn't match up to the boy's speed.

It shouldn't be possible. The ways Rowan found to manipulate and use his aura were things that were considered almost impossible and unheard of.

Adding that to his skill with his weapon, Julius only wondered what the outcome of a serious fight between both of them would be.

'To think that a few months ago you couldn't even hold a sword.' He thought nostalgically before a frown appeared on his face. 'If he keeps growing at this rate, it's only a matter of time before Salem takes note of someone with his kind of strength and potential.'

He had already determined that Rowan's growth wasn't ending any time soon. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Rowan's strength would be useful in their battle against Salem.

'Sometimes I wish we were just born as farmers.' He thought half jokingly.

-[Rowan]-

"What were you thinking?! You could've gotten yourselves killed!" Quint yelled.

They had stopped at the inn to freshen up before going back to meet the group of huntsmen. Upon hearing of their 'adventure' this was their reaction.

"You're overreacting. We're here, aren't we? Besides I had Rowan there to patch me up if anything happened." Julius defended lightly.

"Am I just a portable nurse to you?" Rowan muttered.

"Though I'm grateful for his help, I still think it was a bad idea to get him involved in this." Quint argued.

Rowan tuned them out as a hand landed on his shoulder. Turning around to see the owner of the hand, he found himself staring at the brown haired woman he healed earlier.

"It may not seem like it but he means well." Elma said with a sigh.

"Well he has an odd way of showing it." Rowan said with a hint of sarcasm.

"I still can't thank you enough for what you've done. I'm in your debt." She said with genuine gratitude.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just happy we got here before it was too late." Rowan replied. "Speaking of which, where are the others?"

Jaye, Gerard and Devon weren't present when he and Julius returned, leaving him a bit curious.

"They should be-" her answer was interrupted as the door opened, the three in question walking into the room. "Oh, here they are."

"Where were you guys? I was beginning to get worried." Julius asked, ignoring the still displeased Quint.

"Sorry, we were just taking a stroll. We needed the fresh air." Devon said as he walked further into the room, now standing beside the two arguing adults.

"Now that you guys are here, let's get down to business." Julius said, his usual hint of humor leaving his tone.

They spent the next few minutes recounting what had happened so far and their guesses about the situation. With the 'brains' of the five huntsmen and huntresses awake, Julius explained the theory that he and Rowan talked about previously.

"When you look at it like that, it makes a bit of sense but there's a chance that it could be wrong." Devon said, stroking his chin. "Still, there's one thing that doesn't change. We have to eliminate that Grimm or it will destroy the village."

"And how do you expect us to do that? In case you didn't notice, it didn't go so well the first time." Quint said.

"Last time you didn't have me." Julius countered confidently, visibly irking the man but he continued nonetheless. "If it's as strong as you say, then we need everyone on board to beat it."

"I'm still not sure how I feel about you roping your son into this. He's just a kid." Gerard said, making his opinion known.

"I think you of all people should understand his value. Besides, I trained him myself. He's tougher than you think." Julius praised Rowan who leaned against the wall as he watched them deliberate.

Devon released a sigh of resignation. "Fine, but if anything happens, it's your responsibility."

"I've been carrying that responsibility since he was born. It's nothing new." Julius waved off lightly. "Now, the first thing's first, we need to smoke it out. We have to either lure it out or find it by ourselves."

Devon nodded in agreement. "We'll move in two groups. If anyone encounters anything strange, radio for help and the rest of us will be there to back you up."

They all nodded in agreement as Rowan's scroll vibrated discreetly. He sighed as he directed his gaze out the window. 'What I wouldn't give for a day off.'