There was a knock at the door.
I lazily raised my head from my desk and turned to the door.
The handle turned and Weiss walked in with two cups, one in each hand. The heiress placed one of the two in front of me.
"I didn't know how you liked your coffee, so I've given you the same as Ruby, which is five sugars." I took the cup and looked into it.
'coffee will be necessary to stay awake.' I took the finished luger and placed it into my coat's shadow. Then, I downed the entire cup.
"thank you, Weiss." The girl nodded her head.
"I wanted to ask, how did you find Ruby's mother?"
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"after getting hit by the Grimm, I lost consciousness. Then I woke up in a desolate wasteland. After resetting my arm, I headed for the castle I saw in the distance. I broke open the door with a shadow soldier and went through the halls until I found summer." Weiss wanted to ask more but she could see that hans was tired, eventually, she decided to leave him alone.
"get some rest hans." He nodded as Weiss left.
'sorry for hiding things.' He pushed open the window and leapt out.
As he fell, his shadow grew and out rose Tier, which he landed on. The captain gripped tightly onto Tier.
"head to the... forest where I... killed you..." hans pulled the halberd out again and began to funnel his aura.
'this will be the key.'
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Weiss walked back into the room and saw he was gone.
"I'm disappointed that he didn't listen to my advice, but he's a very determined man." Ruby and Summer walked into the room, both were confused.
"Where's hans?" Summer saw the window open and seemed to have a guess.
"I think he jumped out the window." Ruby looked at her with wide eyes.
"is he alive?" Her tone was shaky after last night's events.
"definitely."
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I looked out the window of my office.
And a wyvern flew by. I saw hans günsche on top of the creature with his halberd grasped tightly in his left hand
It flapped its wings and flew back towards the forest of its rebirth. Hans stood to his max height... and saluted me.
Like a soldier.
"he would willingly go back there... even after the injuries he sustained. How willing is he to complete a mission?" Ozpin took a sip of his coffee.
"a martyr complex... maybe. what happened to make you like this?" There was a look of pity on his face. "Even I never reached that low point in any of my reincarnations. The worst I had was becoming a hermit."
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It only took an hour on the wyvern. To arrive that is.
But hans was pale. He needed to rest before fighting the giant.
"hymn of the blazing fire." A deep voice shouted out and Hans's location was bombarded with several explosions.
Hans barely escaped the explosions and hung from a tree.
"hymn of agony." Intense pain shot throughout Hans's body. Nothing he wasn't used to though.
He grit his teeth and leapt towards the giant ogre. It swung and hans had been launched into another tree.
He fell from the massive trees that stood even taller than the caster. Upon hitting the ground, his shadow elongated. Out came kommandant, dauerhaft and monsoon.
Monsoon helped the ruler to his feet.
'can't even see it move... too fast...'
The ground rumbled as the caster walked towards him.
"hymn of blindness."
All hans could see was darkness. Nothing.
Kommandant leapt from tree to tree, slashing at the caster. His wounds were noticeably large on the caster, but they quickly healed.
Caster swung right for the werewolf. Dauerhaft blocked it with his shield but the ground shattered under him and the shielder found himself being quickly overpowered.
Monsoon could understand his attacks would do little to nothing against this monster and instead resorted to moving hans out of danger.
Hans could feel himself moving and hear the ongoing battle, soon, his vision began to return. He saw the hopeless battle his two subordinates were locked in and wondered.
What could I even do?
It was a good question.
Hans landed on solid ground once again and reached into his shadow. Almost losing his balance, he pulled out khamsins axe. Using his aura, he strengthened himself, then he threw it right at the caster.
It sailed through the air as white circuit-like effects ran through it. The blades began to move again.
"Dauerhaft!" The shielder understood his Kings intent and jumped for the axe, leaving his shield behind. The former Grimm gripped the axe tightly with both hands.
And he swung with all his might.
Dauerhaft cut cleanly threw his chest and even flew right through.
But he healed again.
"pitiful runts! Hymn of frenzy!" Caster spun around, his mace blew dauerhaft to bits and lodged khamsins axe into the dirt.
The feedback on hans was awful.
He vomited blood and that formed a small puddle. Monsoon returned to his Kings shadow, aware of how useless he is in this fight.
He was just straining his King.
The günsche's condition didn't improve at all. All that was left was kommandant.
He was more like an annoying fly to the mighty caster.
Kommandant finally went for a strike right at the Grimms neck.
A shallow cut.
Then kommandant was crushed into the dirt.
"your soldiers are gone. You can't compare to me! You pitiful human! Hymn of lethargy!" Hans's whole body froze in place.
He couldn't move. He couldn't turn to Mist. He couldn't escape his death.
The mace came down.
And he was gone.
Then, he reappeared behind caster's head. Halberd held high, ready to strike.
Wearing kommandants armour.
"release!" His throat was dry, his body was heavy, he could taste his blood so well you'd think he was a vampire.
The halberd head enlargened as he swung. It cut deep into his chest, but not all the way through.
The ethereal axehead shattered, and the wound healed again.
"Impressive! You managed more than either of your soldiers!" An invisible force took hold of hans and slammed him into a tree.
He came face to face with caster.
"tell me your name, human. You have entertained me well!" His halberd had landed back down on the ground.
No more aura was left in the weapon.
Hans fell to a last resort.
His face became more wolf-like but the armour remained.
A humanoid wolf form. Only accessible to natural werewolves. It doubles hans physical capabilities.
But in this form, one can easily lose themselves to bloodlust. But not hans, he had complete control.
Through practice.
His white fur glistened in the light. Revealing that some of his fur had become black, the strands ran down his fur in lines.
Though, there was another irregularity. A single red vertical line over his right eye.
Casters mace swung towards him in a panic.
In contrast to the last few times, hans could see the attack.
His body glowed a bright white before he disappeared again. He leapt directly for caster's head, digging his claws into the creatures eyes, ice shot across the monster's head.
Caster screamed in pain, his skin froze over and every cell became cold to the touch.
Hans fell to the ground, content with what he had completed, his body began to return to his humanoid form and kommandant's armour broke away from his body.
There was nothing left of his coat.
'sorry about the coat... dad...' a reformed dauerhaft leapt from his shadow with only an axe of pure darkness in his hand.
The shieldless shielder shattered the caster ice statue.
Monsoon arose and sat his King against one of the large trees.
"entstehen..." His mouth was covered in blood and now he had broken into a fit of coughing blood.
His gloves still were intact but he took them off as to not bloody them.
'this familiar cold... am I dying... again?' Hans let a content smile spread across his face, caster's body had started to be devoured by the shadows and the Victor's shadow had grown large enough to fit him.
His shadow soldiers had retreated into his shadow, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
'finally... I can rest now...'
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A scroll rang out in the headmaster's room.
"what is it qrow?" The line was silent for a moment.
Qrow:"there have been reported disturbances in the forests of mistral. Specifically, the one that hans and I went to." Ozpin took a deep breath.
"I'm sending bullheads there, hans headed over there. I need to ensure that he is alive. So you should head there as well." Qrows disapproval was audible from the noises of bottles breaking.
"are you crazy oz?! There's no way in hell that he's alive!"
"I have hope qrow!" The line went silent again.
"you're the only person I trust oz, so I'll listen. Make sure summer knows though, the Queen has pawns."
"I will qrow. I will." Qrow hung up and ozpin pressed the intercom button. "Can Ms summer rose come to my office please?" He let go and ozpin dialled a number on his scroll.
"I need you to send bullheads to recover a man named hans günsche. He's 7ft 1, red eyes and white hair. Send them to the forests on the outskirts of mistral."
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Neo was sitting in a bullhead next to roman, flying over a forest in mistral.
"hey neo. That forest is pretty wrecked. Do you wanna check it out?" Neo nodded her head vigorously.
She needed something to relieve her boredom after all.
Roman lowered the stolen bullhead to the floor and landed with a small thud. The door opened and made a ramp to the ground.
The father-daughter duo walked down it and observed the wrecked area.
"Do you smell blood?" Neo slowly nodded her head, holding hush at the ready.
A small trail of blood led behind a tree and neo held a finger over her mouth as she looked at roman. Neo took great caution in approaching the tree, being careful to not make a sound.
As she reached the tree, neo drew hush and held it to the injured man's throat.
Immediately, she regretted her actions.
Neo sheathed hush and looked over her crushes wounds. They healed ever so slowly which confused Neo but she didn't question it further.
'how did this happen?' Neo tried to lift him, but she could barely move him. Neo looked at his pale skin and the blood around his mouth.
'what happened here?' The dual-haired woman looked around and saw a massive, mechanical chainsaw axe. Then, a fancy-looking halberd.
Roman came around the tree and looked.
"oh, it's him... I'll drag him onto the bullhead. After all, can't let your boyfriend die." Neo blushed heavily as Roman struggled to even drag the 7ft tall man but he was managing.
Neo was amused by the situation and her blush had vanished. Hans's legs left lines in the dirt from where he was dragged but eventually Roman dragged him onto the bullhead.
"Neo, get the bullhead ready!" Roman finished dragging him onto the bullhead before falling backwards. "My oum! How can someone be so heavy! Well, with his build, I should've expected him to be heavy." The bullhead started up and the door closed.
"we're off!" Hans didn't awaken from his slumber as they took off. His breathing was incredibly faint to the point it wasn't even audible.
He didn't seem to be getting better. Roman placed his head where the captains heart is...
"his heart... it's stopped!"
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