Shaded Red

In the past week, I, Silva, have been working with Raven and Vernal to plan the attack on the Hati and Lindwurm bandit tribes. Raven will be hitting the Lindwurm tribe with the best of the Branwen tribe because the current leader is a battle harden veteran that took part in the Faunus civil rights war or more commonly known as the Faunus war. While Vernal and I will handle the Hati tribe with what's left of the tribe and I have been combing through my books on how to design elemental Dust bombs for a plan I have in mind.

The Branwen tribe gathered in the encampment, and soon a red and black portal opened in front of me and a few others. Soon the tribe went through the portals, and I found myself in a dense forest with the sun setting soon. Raven called for me, Vernal, and Cain to inform us of what to do next.

" The Hati and Lindwurm tribe are not far from each other, so our attacks on them need to be simultaneous to throw them in disarray. Cain and I will handle the Lindwurm tribe as planned while Silva and Vernal strike the Hati tribe."

Raven looked amongst us and asked.

" Anyone wants to add anything?"

I then told Raven my plan with Vernal, and as she heard it, she approved of it.

" It could work, Silva, and if you do this well, it will limit the casualties on your side while heavily damaging the Hati tribe. If you succeed in wiping out the Hati tribe before I finish with the Lindwurm tribe, lead your group back to the Lindwurm camp and provide reinforcements."

" Understood, chief."

Raven then looked towards Vernal in doubt and asked.

" Vernal, can you do what Silva has planned?"

" I should be able to."

Raven nodded, then ordered everyone.

" Move out! Elites with me and the rest of you with Silva and Vernal!"

The tribe went their separate ways, and we soon found the Hati camp after an hour of walking. As we waited for nightfall, Vernal's eyes lit up with magic as she started manipulating the clouds and wind as planned. Soon a heavy downpour rained down on the Hati camp, and that was my cue to start; I then asked everyone following me.

" All of you know the signal?"

I saw them all nod thanks to my night vision; I loved being a Faunus at times. I covered myself with a heavy black cloak and sneaked towards the Hati tribe with a large bag in tow. I used my claws to help me scale over the log-lined wall and entered the Hati tribe's encampment. Thanks to the downpour, aside from a few guards, everyone else is in their tent to stay dry. I went around the tents and planted my bombs of Lighting and Ice Dust near them. Thankfully there were a few odd crates scattered around, which made hiding my explosives easier.

I set the timer on the bombs for one hour, and soon I finished setting them and headed outside the wall to avoid getting hit with my explosives. Minutes later, the bombs went off, and I saw my handy work. Large pillars of ice and blackened spots of lightning strikes dotted the Hati tribe's camp, and panic ensued. So far, nothing has gone wry, and the forces that followed me charged into the camp to mop up what's left of the Hati tribe. I dove in and saw a lone bandit looking at the destruction I had wrought.

I skulked closer to the bandit and mentally prepared myself for what I was about to do. As I got closer to the dazed Hati tribe member, I drew my longer glave and thrust at their exposed back. There was a pained cry, and I felt their struggle against my glave, then they went limb and fell to the muddied ground. I felt slightly nauseous but not overly so as I processed the first time I took the life of another person. I soon heard the war cry of the Branwen Tribe, and I shook myself out of my stupor. I can think about this later, but first, I need to keep on fighting as there are still a few survivors left.

I felt the hairs on my neck stand on end and was soon sent flying into the encampment's wall. I felt the damage to my Aura from being hit and crashing into the wall. Thankfully, I kept it up throughout the mission just in case. Otherwise, I would be significantly hurt. I looked to see who my attacker was, and it was a tall, fair woman with braided blonde hair and yellow eyes. Her face had a few scars on her, one at the right corner of her mouth, another across the bridge of her nose that crossed with the one over her left eye.

She was wielding a large, heavy bearded ax and tower shield. She looked towards me with pure unbridled fury and demanded loud enough for everyone to hear.

" ARE YOU THE ONE THAT DARED ATTACK MY HATI TRIBE, YOU LOWLY ANIMAL?!"

I decided to make her more angry to keep her off balance by joking about the situation.

" Oh, no, it wasn't me. It was the other Faunus that came around and planted explosives around the camp."

" YOU DARE MOCK ME?! YOU DARE TO MOCK ME, THE CHIEF OF THE HATI TRIBE, HELGA HATI! YOU WORTHLESS BEAST!"

She charged at me with her tower shield held high, but I tumbled away as she slammed right through the wall, leaving a gaping hole in it. Not long after, she made another hole with her second charge and came back into the encampment. She pointed her ax at me and declared.

" YOU WILL DIE HERE LIKE THE DOG YOU ARE!"

" But technically, I am of the feline persuasion."

She growled and came at me with her tower shield raised, and I quickly got ready for the fight ahead of me. I struck the ground with my longer polearm and created a veil of mud in front of me, and quickly leaped to my left as the blonde bandit chief charged through the mud. I thrust my shorter glave at her exposed arm, holding her ax. As I landed a hit, she shrugged it off as if it was nothing and swung her ax at me. I countered by pull vaulting over her with my longer glave and swung at her from the air, but she raised her shield and batted away my attack.

Helga's tower shield then sent a pulse out and blew me away. Her ax mech-shifted into a machine gun and opened fire on me. I ran around her left to avoid getting belted by bullets, and as I kept this up, she changed her machine gun back into an ax and struck the ground. The muddied area soon transformed into a sheet of ice which made me slip on it. I then saw spikes come out of the blonde bandit chief's boots and charge at me again. Unbothered by the newly formed ice Helga bashed her tower shield against me, and I skid across from the ice into the wall.

The blonde bandit chief's ax switched back into its gun form and fired on me. I couldn't evade as I kept on slipping on the ice, and as I was hit with a rain of lead, I sent a slash of Aura at her to counter. Helga blocked my Aura slash with her shield, but the point of it was not to hit her but break the icy ground. As the ice cracked, I hit it with a shock wave of Aura and shattered the ground, and regained my balance. I charged at the bandit chief and struck at her wildly.

My assault put Helga on the defensive as she hid behind her shield, and I saw it light up as it was about to send another pulse out, so I leaped back out of the pulse's range. Helga and I stared each other down, but then I suddenly heard something from above me. I peeked above me and saw an airship overhead equipped with guns, and the blonde bandit chief said with a bloodthirsty smile.

" About time that lazy bum got up and moving."

Drat, they have an airship, an armed one at that. Raven missed an armed airship in her recon of the two tribes, so this is on her because if I knew about it, I would have made plans to steal it. But unfortunately for the Hati tribe, I have a secret weapon. I drew in a deep breath and called out at the top of my lungs.

" VERNAL! I NEED YOU TO TAKE OUT THAT AIRSHIP, HURRY!"

As Helga cleaned her ears from my shouting, I charged at her to continue our fight.

***

The situation took an unexpected turn with the appearance of the gunship of the Hati tribe. The Branwen tribe members allied with Silva and Vernal soon turned tail and ran at its sight to avoid being gunned down. Vernal heard Silva call out to her, and while looking winded from conjuring the heavy downpour, she helped Silva out. Her eyes lit up again with magic and used the clouds she previously manipulated to create a lighting storm. Not long after, a single lightning strike brought down the gunship and crashed into the Hati tribe's camp.

Helga Hati seeing this, made a hard decision and bitterly called out.

" HATI TRIBE SCATTER!"

The last surviving members of the tribe heard their leader and split off into different directions. The blonde bandit chief glared at Silva and said.

" I won't forget this; you butchered my tribe with your explosives and took down our remaining airship."

Helga took out a canister and threw it as smoke soon filled the area, and Silva coughed from the smoke as the bandit chief made her escape. With this, the Branwen tribe won their battle and started to make their preparations to join with the rest of the tribe at the Lindwurm camp.