Rwby: Child of Grimm: Volume 3 (complete)

Chapter 18: Losing Heart

"So loud...So tired...would it be so bad if I went back to sleep?...no...I have to keep going...I have to get up...It hurts...Ryu...."
"You can stand. Only accept yourself. Discard your weak, human emotions. Rage. That is all you need. Become Beautiful. Become Grimm.

After listening to the calm female voice inside his head, Sol's eyes begin to open ever so slightly. In his current view, is the exhausted figure of Gwenn crying by the side of her team leader and Nul standing in front of them, protecting her with all his might as his armour becomes progressively more damaged.

[Sol] "have...to...stand.."
"Accept it."

Using his arms to lift himself from his stomach, a sudden unbearable pain and dizziness overcomes him and he remembers that he has a hole in his chest that had been leaking blood the entire time he was unconscious. His clothes weighed down by the blood soaked into the white fabric but his will unburdened, he resumes his attempt to stand.

[Sol] "kh. Ghhh...mmmhph."

A feeling of liquid rushing to his throat, burning it's way through, he throws up not blood, not vomit, but a pitch black liquid that begins to mix with his blood.

"Accept it!"

The voice, now displeased by Sol's continuous struggles is adamantly trying to convince him through shouts.

[Sol] "n-no...I'm...not Grimm-ghk."

The blood leaking from the wound in his chest has become the same pitch black ooze. He spews out more of it from his mouth and it begins to leak from his eyes.

[Sol] "I'm...Human..."

The pool of black liquid around him is now twice as large as his body, bringing forth the attention of Zaf.

[Zaf] "still not dead? Fine, this one will just have to hit your head!"

Zaf throws Gungnir; electricity running rampant along the metal surface.

[Sol] "I'm Human!!"

As Sol yells out to the heavens, the spear makes a small scratch on his forehead but goes no further. A black hand rises out of the black ooze and grabs ahold of the spear; the blue sparks become more violent and shifting in colour to a deep black. The rest of the creatures body then emerges from the darkness. A humanoid creature with pitch black skin, red eyes, half a mask on the left side of its face, the beginning of what looks to be a pair of skeletal wings emerging from its back yet with their incomplete state look more like a pair of branching spikes and small bone-like protrusions, almost like scales, appearing in many places. It's left arm, shoulder and part of its torso is covered in the white armour creating a deadly pseudo claw. It hunches over in a bestial position as a sharp horn sprouts from the left side of its head and it lets out a terrifying roar filled to the brim with killing intent.

[Zaf] "h-huh?"
[Ser] "what is that?"

The Creature looks to the dead carcass of Dan, then towards team Z3RO and finally resting its eyes on Zaf, snarling as if to say it had chosen its prey. Getting to his feet, Sol looks at the Grimm that sprang forth from his own being with curiosity and a sense of unplaceable familiarity.

[Rouge] "It's just another Grimm. Doesn't matter where it came from."
[Zaf] "...you're right. And besides. It still falls under my power. You will-"

The creature sprints at Zaf with nigh unreachable speed, disrupting the boys train of thought and preventing him from finishing his sentence before the electrified steel of Gungnir impales him through the chest and takes him to the ground. The Grimm stands over him as everyone slowly catches up with the reality of what just happened.