SOEL Trailer-Scarlet

Act 1:
Waves crashed.

The sky, misty blue tinged with gray, flickered with clouds. Her feet, just inches above the blue waters swayed back and forth to the beat of the music booming from her headphones. Even though they were in clear danger of being short-circuited by the salt water, she didn’t mind.

Today was practically the perfect day for her. Birds were singing (albatross), flowers were blooming (hibiscus), on days like this kids like her...should be accepted into Beacon, the most prestigious combat school in all of Vale. The only thing to do right now was to wait for her father to return with the precious cargo needed to support her small village.

Being a huntsman, was of course, quite an odd occupation, when the majority of her home town tended to choose jobs with...less flair. But she liked flair. To be honest to herself, the reason she was leaving was more than to help the town of Strelitzia. She wanted this adventure. She loved Strelitzia, and by extension, Hibiscus. After all, she had been there since...well, forever. But was it a place she was willing to spend her entire life? That she was definitely not going to do.

Beacon was the perfect place to go.

It used to feel like a Fairy Tail, now it seems we were just pretending.

We’ll fix our world, our on our way to a happy ending.

Soul ripped off her headphones the moment she saw the smallest bit of what looked to be a ship move into the horizon, jumping up in excitement. She waved her arms around, trying to get his attention. The ship neared, and she clearly saw the script on the side. Albatross. It was definitely her father.

As the ship neared, Soul began to notice a steady noise somewhere behind her. Discordant and jarring. She was tempted to put her headphones back on but decided against it. The ship was nearing the docks. She could almost make out her father’s face, and could definitely hear his cries.

She didn’t realize he was crying for help.

Soul watched in horror as the ship suddenly split into two. She couldn’t make out was happening, only that it was as if something had suddenly pulled the ship part. She could only make out that the dust-powered craft had been pulled apart by something black...with an armor of white bone, and glowing tainted veins of a burning red.

''Aquatic Grimm? That’s impossible!'' The water’s should be too shallow! Soul’s mind raced with thoughts. Even if the water was, or had been, too shallow for Grimm, it was definitely deep enough to drown. Her father was a good swimmer, but the icy water was impossible to swim in for more than a few minutes.

She made out one last shout from her father before the ship went under. Behind you.

Act 2
Soul heard the sound of whistling claws swinging toward her head. There was no time to think. If she thought, she would get hit. She leaned backwards at almost an impossible angle, letting the claws pass over her, before springing back up, slamming her leg into the dark wolf behind her, knocking it back.

The Beowolf rushed at her again, only to fall as Soul raised her arm, flicking the trigger from the armor on her arm into her hand in one fluid movement, and squeezing her hand into a fist, blasting out a single bullet from the blasters attached to her arms, which killed the beast instantaneously.

Soul reached behind her, pulling out six high quality curved blades. Throwing them into the air, she quickly caught each one with her limbs. Two on the sides of either arm, and one on each sole of her two. The magnetic clasp clicked as the blades slid into place.

Now she recognized what the noise had been. Screaming. Looking at her village, she had to hold her hand over her mouth to refrain from screaming. Her village was in flames. Grimm ran threw the village, snarling. Ursai. A few King Taijitu. She noticed that there were even some Alphas thrown into the mix.

The fear left her eyes, replaced with a look of pure fury and determination, yet one of infinite patience. She didn’t have time to be scared.

Soul ran through the village, waving her arms, unleashing the canisters of water dust held in the armor covering her forearms, extinguishing the flames. “Over here!” she yelled at a sloth of Ursai (A/N: This is literally the term for a group of bears) lumbering towards a few of her village friends.

When that didn’t work she quickly shot several of them dead, relishing the noise the guns made as she unloaded her clip. Her new weapons, the Pulse Rifle Blade Armor (PRBA), or as she liked to call them, Ocean Break, were serving her well. The first lumbering bear which came her way was quickly sliced in half as she swung her arm into the thing’s body, dashing forward and spinning, beheading and slashing several others.

Another Beowolf came her way, biting and slashing. Dodging it’s blows, she grabbed it by the back of it’s head, repeatedly slashing it open with her left hand before finishing it off with a point-blank headshot. Four of them surrounded her, slashing as she quickly ducked, kicking out with her legs, bifurcating two of them, and finishing the remaining with two shots from the blasters attached to the back of her combat boots.

“Run!” she yelled. “Get out of here! I’ll handle them!” They heard her and understood, just as she jumped into the air, gunning them down repeatedly before flipping her body and slashing open a leaping Beowolf, jumping off of it’s disintegrating body and plunging the blade of her boot into another, only to be pushed on the defensive as a claw smashed into her arms, only able to protect her face.

The pain, even with aura, was immense. If her aura hadn’t kicked in, they would both be broken. She needed to clear these out, and she needed to do it as quickly as possible. Buildings were already collapsing. Utilizing a bit more of her water dust, she flung her arms out, creating crescent blades of high pressure water which soared towards the creatures, cutting them to pieces. The last Grimm that came her way, a Creep, was vertically bisected with a kick to the head.

Soul quickly used the last reverse of her dust (she normally would have a lot more, but it wasn’t normal of her to carry so much when she wasn’t expecting a Grimm attack of this size), scattering it into the air and extinguishing the rest of the fires.

“Okay guys it’s safe now! You can come back!” Soul yelled, before realizing that her father could still be in danger. Running back to the docks, she yelled for her father, realizing that the remnants of the boat were still there. So maybe he could still be alive…

The teeth bit into her just as she reached it. Her aura just barely protected her, but it still hurt an incredible amount. One of the head of the snake Grimm bit onto her, trying to wrap it’s jaws around her while repeatedly clashing them with the scarlet force field around her. Giving up, the King Taijitu threw her to the ground before lashing out with it’s other head, knocking her over the dock and into the icy water.

Act 3:
''I’m drowning. Oh Oum, I’m drowning. No. Imayfallbutnotlikethisitwon’tbebyyourhand. No. Not like this. Oh Oum. No.''

''Water stinging everywhere, ice cold against her bare flesh, soaking her and pulling her. ''

''I’m going to die. Yes I am going to die, thisistitimgoingtodie.''

Die.

''But then she felt it. Her father’s arms pulling her up, pulling her up to the surface and dragging her up, even if it pushed him down. ''

Just like when-

I was five, wasn’t I? Falling into the sea, choking on the salt water and there was something there with me in the water i know it he was there to save me, wasn’t he yeah he always was and I’m never going down like this I’ll always get back up and this won’t stop me

THIS WON’T STOP ME

A spark.

Bursting forth, a scarlet flame deep in her soul burning through every pore of her body. She felt her aura slowly grow back until it was a shield around her, felt stronger than she had ever, and knowing, knowing for damn sure that this was not how she was going out. Knowing that she was going to protect everyone that she loved.

A canister of dust floated by. She had no idea how it got there, but she wasn’t complaining. She quickly slammed the glass canister into her armor, which glowed as it integrated it. Quickly jumping out of the water, she looked at the Taijitu with an expression of infinite patience. As she began to manipulate the crystals of dust, the King slithered around her, hissing. You’re mine now.

No. The water is my domain.

Soul formed the dust into a sphere of high pressure water, sending the ball straight into one of the heads. The other one darted around, only to stop as her right leg unhinged at the knee and fired-

-into the thing that had gripped her so tightly that day all of his shots rang true, and finally, the thing had relinquished its grip on her yet she was not conscious, not with the stump of her leg bleeding out into the icy depths

-several high speed metal spheres which crashed into the other head, one shooting right through the thing’s eye. Flicking her wrists and legs, she shot off each blade on her arms and feet, each one ringing true against the beast’s tough scales. She formed the dust once more, this time forming it into several chains and-

-at that moment knew the surge of energy she had felt in the water knew that that was what had kept her alive all along

-hands which pulled the creature down, slamming it into the wood of the dock, restraining it and allowing her to shoot it several times at point blank range. Slithering free, the enraged creature leapt at her only to form the chains into a pair of military straight sabers. As the creature leapt towards her, she jumped forwards as well, the patience in her face breaking to show pure determination.

In midair, she twisted, avoiding the creatures first strike before kicking off of it’s head and spinning, cutting it’s scales and flesh to pieces. The second head lunged at her only to be cleanly bisected down to the midpoint where the two snakes connected.

The other head slithered towards her, only to recoil in pain as one of the sabres flew from Soul’s outstretched hand and into the thing’s eye. Jumping forward, she and the snake flew at each other colliding in midair as Soul brought the saber to it’s neck, cutting straight through it in a clean diagonal cut.

Soul rolled as she hit the ground, letting the remaining saber dissolve in her closed fist. It only took her a moment to run to the docks. Her father’s ship was completely gone, but she quickly surveyed the water, finding him swimming to the docks.

Soul smiled, mentally chastising herself for thinking that her father would not be okay and reached over the docks as he swam towards them, clearly terrified. “Soul,” he panted, “Soul, you need to listen to me.” As she pulled him up she noticed that his arm was hanging at a crooked angle and there was a vertical gash tracing its way from his forehead to his cheek, only barely missing his right eye. “I need you to take Elaine, and my children and leave Strelitzia. You need to leave.”

“What? Why?” Her mind raced with questions. She quickly noticed that there was a wooden staff reinforced with steel attached to his back, a miniature sculpture of metal adorning the top.

“No time.” Nicholas gave a smile, pushing something into her hands. “I love you...Soul.”

Before Soul could react, a massive jet black tentacle rose from the water and wrapped around his waist, pulling him straight into the water. She screamed as her father was suddenly lost to her, being pulled with a smile on his face into the depths.

She dropped to her knees, in complete shock, as the skies opened up and rain poured down. Strangely, some of the raindrops tasted salty. She quickly looked to what he had given her in his last moments and was surprised to find a beautiful red scarf in her hands. On closer inspection it had a tinge of orange.

Scarlet... 

Even though any normal person living on Remnant would have marveled at the beautiful garnets and turquoise lining the end of the scarf, she was much more focused on certain threads of the fabric which seemed to...no, definitely did, glow a light blue color.

Water dust…I don’t know how to use this in clothing

But I’ll learn.

She stood up tying the scarf around her neck and wiped the salt rain off her face, striding back to her village.