27 Becoming an aspirant Grimm slayer

As we made our way through the woods, the peaceful silence that I had enjoyed while on top of the cliff changed into the various sounds that comes from the forest be it the vegetation being blown by the wind or the small animals that made their home here.

As this was my first time traveling into Grimm territory, I couldn't help but be a bit nervous and excited for the new experience that I'm about to have. But I still keep a straight face and control my emotions, on the battlefield I can show no weakness.

After walking through the jungle for a few minutes, I started to be able to hear faint sounds created by creatures much larger than the forest's native fauna, the sound was pretty hard to discern but by enhancing my senses with aura I can confirm that it comes from the same direction that my aura sonar has pointed me to previously.

And those sounds only became louder as we aproached the destination, turning to look towards master I see that despite the sounds of footsteps and faint growling being now quite obvious he shows no disturbance in his expression and continues forward in the same pace.

When we finally arrived at the destination, I could see that we were standing at the edge of a small clearing and judging by the sound of running water then there's probably a river running nearby, but my attention wasn't on the terrain but elsewhere.

At the other side of the clearing, there was a group of three beowolfs wandering seemingly aimlessly, by observing I could see that none of them were an alpha just some regular ones, they were probably searching for some source of negativity in order to find their preferred prey.

Beowolfs are a common type of Grimm that can be found across all continents, they have an appearance that is similar to an anthropomorphic wolf with a bone white mask within red markings, chilling red eyes, bone like spikes and armor spread throughout its body and pure black skin.

And they quickly found it, as they turned their heads towards us almost as soon as I made eye contact with them. By seeing them, even at a distance, I can already tell that they're much more intimidating personally then seeing them through a glass screen.

Realizing that I'm the one that attracted them when I made eye contact, I quickly try to stuff the small amount of fear that I'm feeling with other thoughts in order to not attract any more grimm but in regards to the nearby group it is too late as they already saw us.

This didn't escape Ryu-Bang's perception as he quickly turned around and consoled me.

"Don't worry, this is your first time seeing grimm and it's understandable that you let your emotions overcome you for a moment, you're 9 years old afterall."

"I'm sorry master, next time I won't make the same mistake." Despite my teachers understanding and gentle words, I just couldn't allow myself to not care about a mistake, so with this as motivation I managed to ward my mind from any further interferences.

"So... can I go fight them?" I ask entering in a combat stance and preparing myself to advance into the enemies

"Don't be too hasty student, just wait here and let me adjust the odds and prepare the battlefield beforehand, you'll get your chance to fight groups of Grimm later but you must first walk before you can run." After saying this Ryu-Bang starts walking towards the group of beowolfs while I stay behind and watch the surroundings and even send out a few aura sonars just to be sure there's no other Grimm nearby.

But my attention is quickly returned to my teacher who is still walking nonchalantly towards the group of Grimm, meanwhile the group of beowolfs that were already alerted thanks to me had also started to make their move and spread out to try to surround him but they didn't charge in immediately.

Many see grimm as completely mindless creatures but this is mostly due to propaganda by the kingdoms in order to try and reduce the overall fear of the grimm, the truth of the matter is that grimm do posses an intellect even if a very simple one that becomes gradually greater proportionally to the longer it lives.

But the three beowolfs caution only lasted a few seconds as they quickly advanced on master to try and attack him from all sides, judging by their level of aggressiveness they're probably very young grimm and had never experienced battle before.

But the beowolfs wouldn't realize their mistakes as master didn't look the least bit concerned with them and remained walking steadily with his hands on his back, to a renowned and experienced huntsman like him, such a small group cannot be considered even a minor inconvenience.

"...!!!"

In a single instant, Master completely vanishes from the position he was currently on and appears next to one of the beowolfs like a blur, the beast is momentarily startled by the sudden movement but it quickly tries to pounce on to him.

Master just casually raised one of the hands that were behind his back and struck towards the beast in a blinding speed. Despite the velocity of the attack the movement itself was very casual and unremarkable slap, like if he was swatting away a pesky fly, but to someone like me that was trained to sense aura, the aura control he was demonstrating was just mesmerizing.

The slap struck the beast at the side of the head before the beowolf's attack could land and the result of this casual move was the complete destruction of the head with nothing being left over, the rest of the body then followed suit and disintegrate quickly.

And in the blink of an eye he vanished once again from my field of vision and when I turned to look he was already in front of the next beowolf, the beast this time tried to swipe at him with his claws but it just wasn't fast enough when compared to Ryu-Bang.

The old hunter then with an arm still behind his back once again moved one of his arms this time raising it above his head and performed chopping motion bringing his hand downwards into the beast's head.

The attack passed through the beast's body like a hot-knife through butter and completely split the beast in the middle with both halves quickly tumbling to the ground and starting disintegrating.

The display of power just now, although not very flashy, just by seeing how casually everything was executed was enough to leave me shocked. This was my first time witnessing master's power other than when he is sparring with me and obviously then he never attacked with the intent to kill, but looking deeper into it I could feel the aura control in each of his moves. Suffice it to say that I was quickly reminded that I was being trained by one of the foremost aura expects in the entire world.

The third and now last beowolf of the group seeing it's kin being killed so quickly, stopped his advance and remained more cautious, Grimm are not as smart as human/faunus but they're also not completely mindless, the younger ones may be more reckless and aggressive but unless they're being driven crazy by a big source of negativity they won't just throw themselves into certain death with no gains and may instead choose to retreat to preserve their numbers and instead strike a more vulnerable location.

Master then vanishes once again this time appearing right beside me before he started explaining the purpose of the test.

"Now, you shall fight the enemy that I have left for you, the beowolf is the most suitable type of Grimm for you to fight right now since although it isn't the weakest type of Grimm physically out there they're easily the most straightforward ones to fight, those weaker grimm usually sport some trick or another gimmick that they can use while the beowolfs aside from hunting in groups have no especial tricks hidden, so everything it can use is perfectly visible."

He then looks at me meaningfully and I nod to him, a beowolf is pretty simple as far as grimm are concerned, at least the regular ones, and the only forms of attack it has are its claws and teeth, so they're much easier to fight despite being decently fast and being strong when compared to someone that is still in development like me.

"I will observe you from a distance and deal with any other Grimm that try to show up, so if you are in any real danger then I'll step in to help you but don't get conceited or grow careless because of it, I'll also be evaluating you so show me your best performance." My teacher further explains in order to assure me that he'll be protecting me.

"Understood master!" I firmly reply before turning to the beowolf that is still standing in place unwilling to recklessly charge.

"Good luck." Master says before vanishing into the forest and leaving only me and the grimm remaining in the clearing.

For a brief moment my opponent and I just stare at each other, the creature probably wandering if the dangerous one had really left and still being a little startled and I used this time to adjust my breathing, get into my combat stance and use my semblance to start amplifying my own aura reserves.

The beast then finally seems to lose its patience and starts to make its way towards the smaller and weaker human in a sprint. But he isn't the only one as I also start charging in and prepare to meet it halfway.

My speed is blindingly fast, being superior to the grimm's. That being a result of using the same technique that my teacher had used before 'flash-step', my usage technique is still much inferior to master's, as I still couldn't move so fast to the point of vanishing from someone's vision since my current body just wouldn't be able to handle the strain, but it was still enough to elevate my mobility to a different level.

As we aproached each other, the beowolf wound up to try to bite me while I reinforced my left arm with aura and wound up a punch, the grimm then struck forward and tried to bite my head off and I thew a punch towards its open maw.

The Grimm didn't mind it and tried to close its mouth and take my arm off but before he could do so I dispersed all the aura in my arm outwards suddenly creating an 'Aura detonation' inside its mouth, the Shockwave resulted from it was enough to momentarily stun my opponent and interrupt its attack.

The beowolf was forced to take a few steps back and with an roar it sent out a flurry of blind swipes in its daze in the hopes of one of them reaching me. But he would be disappointed as I used of my height to my advantage and effortlessly ducked under its attacks.

As I was right below it, I quickly empowered myself with my breathing and started to saturate my right arm with aura in preparation to attack, as the beast had just barely recovered from the last attack it then received another one from its blind spot.

I performed a strong uppercut hitting the beowolf right in its lower jaw and almost lifting it off the ground with the force of the attack, this forced the beast to take several more steps back and let out a painful yelp as it clutched its mask.

Seeing that the beowolf was still alive after the attack, I couldn't help but sigh and compare my attack to master's, with a casual slap enhanced with aura he was capable of making the beast's head explode while I with an attack that although wasn't 100% of my power behind it, it still was a lot of aura and effort into it was only capable of inflicting moderate damage.

This is because while my technique focused on reinforcing and enhancing my own strength and body which could only do so much to compensate for my lacking strength, the technique that my master used instead injected aura into the opponents and made them explode from the inside.

The reason my master chose to delay the teaching of such techniques in favor of ones focusing on enhancing physical capability is that knowing that I have a great physique for someone my age, once my strength naturally increases as I grow up, then enhancing techniques will become much more powerful since this technique is based on someone's initial strength, so I'm sacrificing my effectiveness on the short-term in favor of the long-term.

But my opponent, even if alive, wasn't on a very good state either. The beowolf's jaw had been broken and left hanging, across its mask there were several cracks and it looked as if with a few more attacks it would completely shatter and many of its teeth broke and fell off with the force in wich his jaws hit each other.

Overall its appearance was no longer intimidating but instead pitiful.

Now feeling a bit more confident, I put one of my hands behind my back and perform the 'come at me' gesture to the grimm. I know that my teacher is watching right now and probably won't approve of pointless taunting but I just couldn't resist the urge to do it.

"Now, let's get things started shall we?"

The beast howls full of murderous intent and prepares to attack me once again.

While I stand still with a smirk on my face and my self-confidence on an all time high.

The battles had just commenced and there was still much to come.