Ares Masters's Story

Mai raised her hand to shield her eyes from the setting Australian sun as she surveyed her surroundings. Her and her classmates were standing beside a lake that was supposedly home to the Bunyip, the creature the people in the nearby town blamed for several disappearances. The area the lake and the town were in was a mix of grassland and desert, the town the only civilization for miles. Mountains surrounded them on three sides, making Mai feel like she was in a giant bowl. The local wildlife was not shy about show itself, particularly the creepy-crawlies.

“All right,” she said, addressing the rest of the party. “Let’s figure out what’s going on and get out of here.” A brown lizard scurried across her foot and she screamed. “Soon!”

She turned to look at her partner. “Oh, sorry, Mei,” she whispered. “Look, I highly doubt this Bunyip creature really exists, so we’re going to have to figure who or what is really behind the disappearances.”

The lake itself was medium size, big enough to that several boats could float on top of it, but Mai highly doubted that monster like the Bunyip would care live in a lake that small. She walked along the edge of the water and spotted something floating. She picked it up and saw that it was a green, ruffled cloth bracelet.

”This must have belonged to one of the missing people.” She turned to her partner. “Hey Mei, we should ask some of the townspeople about this. Maybe they’ll know who it belongs to.” She started running towards the town, but stopped long enough to wave the bracelet at her classmates. ”We’re going into town,” she called, “We’ll be back soon.”

She quickly closed the distance between the lake and the town. She showed the bracelet around, but after talking to over a dozen people, she concluded that it didn’t belong to any of the missing people.



Erzsébet watched the DWMA students from atop from behind a bush while in her fox form. She had to keep her distance, though, as the species of fox she shapeshifted into was not native to Australia, and would be suspicious.

”They’re ruining it,” she said to her companion. ”Death’s lackeys are keeping people away. Now we’re going to have to find a new spot to find the souls for our Kishin eggs to eat.”

She watched one of the students grab her bracelet that she had dropped from the water, and bared her teeth in snarl.

Out in a faraway desert, a group of six students and two of their teachers stood looking for the legendary creature known as the Bunyip. A boy with bright white hair, crystal blue eyes, and pale skin stands out among the group. Even out in blistering hot weather, this boy, otherwise known as Dante Roth, wears a large black cloak to cover the delicate white skin. The boy never really cared much for weather, for he has unimaginable tolerance to hot and cold. His parents taught him to be a meister, and a part of being a meister is going out to places with extreme weather.

Dante stood next to his partner, Jun Andras. Both of which strayed a little from the group as to keep interaction with them as little as possible. He looked carefully at his surroundings, studying everything he could about where he was at. He took particular note to the unusual mountains that surrounded them. In a desert like this, mixed in with what seemed to be grass, truly gave the place the feeling of being in the outback, but mountains?

After taking note to the mountains, he went to examine the lake. The Bunyip was apparently supposed to live in this particular lake, but the lake looked way too small to harbor something that had the title of a Legendary Creature. He sighed and turned back to his partner.

"You really think this thing actually lives here?" Dante asked Jun. He crossed his arms and watched his classmate, whose name he thought was Mai, take off with a bracelet of a supposed missing person. She made a comment, one of which Dante could care less over. He shrugged the comment off and turned around to face Jun, and awaited her response.

Felix

Felix sat in his Raven form in a nearby tree as he closely watched the students and the teachers investigate the lake. He kept the illusion of mountains on all sides of the lake to give the feeling of being trapped and dishearten them. Of course this was both an easy illusion to cast and an easy illusion to see through, and Felix didn't even have to call off his Soul Protect or change forms. Now that the DWMA caught wind of the trimulative's experiments, they might have to find a new spot for experiments. Although a problem like this is easy to solve, it still is a setback nonetheless. Felix jumped off the branch and flew over next to his foxy partner not caring if he was spotted for Ravens were native to Australia. She made a comment about the DWMA 'lackeys' and snarled at the Japanese lady who walked off with her bracelet. He laughed in a low voice.

"Looks like we will have to find a new place and a new bracelet for you, eh Foxy?" He said in a light carefree voice. "You think they are on to us, or just here to investigate our little 'pet'?" He went on to ask her. He didn't really care if he had to move to a new location for his kishin eggs. In fact, it may just be for the best. Once a town has been harvested out, we could move on to the next one in an even more remote location. Wash, rinse, repeat.

"Heh," He laughed quickly, but the laugh was just as sinister as ever, "How about we let our pet have a little fun with them? It will throw them off our trail and give us a good show." He said in a low, even more sinister tone, and awaited her response.

---

-It was rather warm in the Australian sun, and by warm, it's bloody hot. Mei Ling with her headphones, was not in a pleasant time, since her headphones were relatively large and covered her ears. Topping it off, the rest of the class was near, which made her a little on-edge since her English skills lacked quite a bit. Yet her partner was taking charge almost before she saw a little brown lizard scurry by and Mai's reaction, it was amusing to her, a tough girl whom was her meister, would jump at the littlest of reptilians. Mei Ling watched the lizard until it disappeared into the heat of the desert. Mei Ling soon though, scanned the lake, she wasn't much of a strategist in her mind, but she still liked to know her own surroundings. she kept her eyes open until a voice spoke to her, causing the young girl to jump,

"Oh, sorry, Mei, Look, I highly doubt this Bunyip creature really exists, so we’re going to have to figure who or what is really behind the disappearances" Her partner, spoke with a hushed tone, as if she were telling a secret, Mei Ling knew what they were hunting for, and was smart enough to tell it was a witch, thus she spoke with a kind, and softened tone,

"I would guess it's either a Keishin or a witch. Either way, it's probably not going to come out since there are DWMA people here." Mei Ling replied, her accent was present, and heavy, but her English was decent. At the least one could tell what she was saying through the accent. Soon after, her partner went for the town. To which Mei Ling followed. The two asked about to find the owner of the bracelet. As Mai did so, Mei Ling looked about, before seeing something, in a shop, laid the same bracelet. Mei Ling looked to her partner and spoke, with a sense of urgency in her tone,

"Hey. Mai, come here for a minute. I might have found a lead..."

For once, Max wasn't wearing his fur lined coat but had replaced it for a simple hoodie. He tied his hair back and put a head band on to protect himself from the heat.The boy with the bright orange hair looked around. Not caring much about the sun, he just looked at the ladies leaving. "I hate not being able to do anything." He said, removing his jacket and showing off his toned body to anybody who actually cared to look. "Who wants to go in for a dip?" He asked, looking at the people behind him with a huge grin. With that, he took off his shirt, shoes and socks. If this is a monster hunt, he thought, might as well knock on it's door! He looked back to look at his companions and overheard the emo-looking guy's partner talk. "But I doubt all 'Legendary monsters' would all be huge and scary... so we shouldn't underestimate it's habitat either."

"I am so bored!" He said, then turned around and ran into the water, not caring much about safety. He swam into the lake, not caring very much and then stop and froze, giving the others a look of fear before forcing himself under water. Then he got back to the surface and laughed.

"Oh boy! You should of seen your faces!" He said with a laugh. A huge grin on his face as he splashed the water around. "So yea, no monster here." He laughed going back deep under. Once under he looked around, not knowing what to find. The lake was indeed bigger then he would've thought and a peculiar shadow was forming on the lake bottom. He swam to it, not knowing what it was. He was about to get to it... but quickly came back up to take a deep breath of air.

"There's something down there!" Max said, switching into, for once, serious mode. He went back to the bottom, now knowing his objective. Another failed attempt as he got back up. "To deep for me to do anything. Anybody's got an idea?" He asked looking back down and hoping to make sure the thing wasn't moving.

"Feckin' hell," Samantha Hales mumbled, mimicking the local accent. Ripped from her room at the DWMA, thrown onto a plane, then dumped just east of bumblefuck nowhere, she was in a less than favorable mood. Yes, Lord Death, she loved her students. Yes, Lord Death, she would put her life on the line for them. And yes, Lord Death, she realized she simply could not be allowed complete freedom. But did that mean she had to appreciate being sent to the arse-end of the world? Bloody no. Australia. Ridiculous continent. And to think that they were searching for a mysterious unidentified creature – as if the natural fauna wasn't abominable enough! Crocodiles! Sharks! Snakes! Mosquitos everywhere! For her own sanity, it was best to not even think of the spiders.

Seated on a rock, Samantha looked over her students from a distance, and pondered if Maximilien's impromptu swimming warranted a deduction from his grade, or if it should be credited as showing initiative instead. Did it even matter? The entire trip might turn out to be one big wild goose chase, so how could she fault her students for horsing around? She might've gone for a dip herself, if this weren't, you know, Aus-bloody-stralia, where everything wanted you dead.

Remembering her situation, Samantha grit her teeth and fumbled for her smokes. SMOKING KILLS YOU, the cigarette pack preached at her. Wonderful. Very subtle. Maybe she’d visit the manufacturer one day – show them just who’s getting killed when she doesn’t smoke. Unbidden, gruesome visions of bloodied suits entered her mind. Samantha took some hasty drags of her cigarette and breathed out the negativity of her soul. It wasn’t good for her, this place with mostly her own thoughts to distract her. Where was Jacob? Looking for clues in town? Surveying the M&M sisters?

Samantha rose from her seat and started downhill towards the lake. A small, brown lizard crossed her path, and without giving it any thought, Samantha stomped at it and crushed it underfoot. She looked down at the creature with practiced regret, but simultaneously savored the crunching of its bones. Samantha did not enjoy needless killing, but there was an undeniable peace in the death of things.

Jacob



Jacob came walking from the direction of town, he had passed Mai and Mei Ling on his way over. He seemed to be having a conversation with someone walking beside him yet no one was there. "Yes, well, if it is an animal then it's most likely extinct now, though it certainly isn't impossible for it to still be around, just in small numbers." He said before waiting and seemingly listening to a response. Then he continued speaking. "Could be, but I think it's more likely some sort of kishin egg or witch's creation, if it's here at all." The conversation went on for several minutes, switching topic more than once.

The conversation Jacob was having came to a sudden end as he gazed towards a raven which landed oddly close to a fox. Then his head snapped to the side and he waited a moment before speaking. "You're right, that species isn't native to Australia, wonder how it got here. Oh well, not what we're here for." he shrugged as he turned and walked over to Samantha. "So have the students found any useful information yet?" He asked. "I'm curious to see how well they perform with investigations, if they can pick up on subtle details or not."

Then Jacob looked at Samantha's shoulder and after a moment of staring he reached over and made as though he were picking something up off her shoulder. He then held it out in his hand, but there was nothing there. "Poor guy, he says you stepped on him." Jacob said. Then he used his other hand to hold open one of his pants pockets and moved the hand holding nothing down to the pocket so the nothing could crawl in. "He's going to stay with me for a while." Jacob concluded with a smile.

"Hey. Mai, come here for a minute. I might have found a lead..."

Mai looked at Mei Ling and saw her staring into the window of a jewelry shop. There laid the same kind of bracelet that she had found in the lake. She pushed open the door and looked around inside. The place was packed with all kinds of jewelry, mostly handmade, and with not a real or valuable rock or mineral in sight. She approached the only person in there, a large man with gray hair reading a newspaper. She assumed this was the owner of the shop, and went over to him and held out the bracelet.

“Do you know who you sold this bracelet to?” Mai asked.

The man briefly glanced away from the newspaper to look at what she was holding up. “Sure. It’s the only one I’ve sold so far,” he said in a thick Australian accent. “This real tall girl came in a few weeks ago with another bloke. They kept whispering to each other, then she bought the bracelet and left. She barely said two words to me, but I could tell she was really nice, a real good person, you know…”

“Thanks,” Mai interrupted, not really caring to hear anymore. She walked back out of the shop without another word to the man and leaned in close to whisper to Mei Ling. “You’re right Mei Ling, witches must be involved. I knew this Bunyip thing was stupid, witches are obviously the ones kidnapping people. We need to report back to the others.”

At that, Mai started back towards the lake, when she heard a whistle…




Back at the lake, Erzsébet morphed into her human form, not really caring if she could be seen now. The Bunyip would take care of the problem. She put her fingers in her mouth and let out a long, piercing whistle. She smiled as ripples appeared in the middle of the lake and the huge tusks of the Bunyip came into view. It’s huge, crocodile-like head came next, followed by its fat rhino-shaped body held up by long scaly legs with webbed feet.

Erzsébet looked on the scene with exasperation. “You know,” she said to Felix, “This all their fault that they’re about to get killed, really. If they hadn’t come here and disturbed us, they wouldn’t have gotten eaten by the Bunyip. It’s almost sad that they’re dying for nothing. It’s such an easy fight for the Bunyip that I probably won’t have to release my Soul Protect to join in.”

Leaning up against the tree, Erzsébet watched the ensuing chaos, not with joy, but with mild pity that these kids were essentially sacrificing their lives by blindingly following Death’s orders.