"Grimm." Haruka abruptly announced after a few minutes. The two had come to a small clearing, which Haruka had stopped in the middle of, to check her map again.
Neither of them had spoken, which had both suited and put off Weiss in equal measure.
On one hand, she did want to learn more about this strange girl, but on the other, she wasn't very good with social interaction, and knew it.
"Where are they?" Weiss asked, drawing Myrtenaster, and idly spinning the revolving Dust-chamber mechanism, as was her habit.
In response, Haruka raised the massive weapon she wielded. The—barrel?—split into two halves, then the halves slid slightly apart. Blood-red lightning surged between the split barrel sections, then, with a loud lightning-bolt noise, a bolt of something too fast to see lanced from between the sections, the only indication of its passage being the blood-red trail it left behind, and the effect on the unfortunate Beowulf it hit as the Grimm emerged from the treeline.
The Grimm detonated as the projectile hit it, punched through with enough force to vaporise a large percentage of the thing's body, and kept going, straight through several more Grimm, the noise of something exploding reaching Weiss's ears about the same time a very large tree behind the Beowulf pack toppled over.
The weapon's wielder winced, as Weiss stared at her partner. What the hell kind of weapon is that? So much power…
"Ich habe nicht erwartet, dass der Grimm so zerbrechlich ist… Vielleicht sollte ich die Kraft auf den Schienen senken?" Haruka wondered something aloud, albeit quietly, in a language Weiss didn't recognize. What are you saying? Or even, what language are you speaking in?
A growl reminded the heiress that a few of the Grimm had not been killed by whatever her partner's weapon was, and she turned, raising Myrtenaster as she did so, assuming a fencing stance.
"Stirb, verfluchte Kreatur." Haruka's voice sounded next to her, again in some unknown language. A clunk of metal indicated that the 'barrel' of her weapon had slid closed again.
As Weiss charged forwards at the nearest Beowulf, she was aware of Haruka moving alongside her, the strange girl wielding the massive weapon as if it were a lance.
As Weiss impaled the Beowulf she'd charged, a wet noise indicated that Haruka's weapon had found its own target, though she rapidly focused on the Beowulf before her, as impaled did not mean dead, which the creature reminded her with a swipe of its claws.
She ducked under the blow as she pulled Myrtenaster from the Grimm's chest, slashing the blade's tip through the Beowulf's throat, dropping the beast. She spun to the side, searching for more targets, and only saw Haruka pulling her hand trom the last Beowulf's chest, the other—two, huh, not very many for a Beowulf pack, even with the dead—lying dead, the bodies beginning to smoke.
"Haruka?" She asked, surprised, sheathing Myrtenaster.
"Hmm?" The other girl looked up at her. Was her hand silver there for a minute, or am I just seeing things? "Yes?"
"How did you kill three Beowulves that quickly?" Weiss asked.
Haruka hefted her massive weapon again.
"This is big enough to kill two at once." She smiled, slightly.
"Just what is it, if I may ask?" I've never seen a weapon like that before…
"This? This is the CFW-X-02-F/M/AB Formula Cannon. Her name is Rosenkreuz."
"The what?" Weiss was confused by the sudden jumble of numbers and letters. She could recognize it was a weapon's designation, but beyond that it meant nothing to her.
"A railgun firing metal spikes that can also be used as a lance or claymore." Haruka's smile widened very slightly, even as she began to walk away, continuing in the presumed direction of the Forest Temple.
"Railgun?" I have no idea what a railgun is…
"A railgun is a weapon that utilizes pulsed electromagnetic force to launch a projectile accelerated by the aforementioned pulses between two or more conductor rails."
"So it's like a coilgun but with rails instead of coils." I think I understand.
"An oversimplification with several inaccuracies, but some of the principles are the same, yes." Haruka told her.
"Close enough. And that would explain why it was so powerful…" Weiss mused. If coilguns powered by Dust were considered heavy anti-material weapons, a similar weapon, even one 'man-portable', would be overkill against most Grimm. Though, I understand the temptation for overkill where Grimm are concerned.
"A little more powerful than expected, I will admit. I may have to adjust the power output to the rails to avoid mass collateral damage, should we even find ourselves fighting in an urban environment."
Weiss winced as her partner said that. Yeah, that kind of destructive power in a city would not end well…
"This will take too much time, at our current rate." Haruka abruptly noted, changing topic quite suddenly.
"What will?"
"Walking to the presumed location of our objective. Were I alone, I would be able to move much quicker." Hey, now.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Weiss asked, growing annoyed again. She couldn't tell if she was being insulted or not, due to the other girl's flat tone, but it still annoyed her that her partner was insinuating that she was being slowed down by the heiress's presence.
"It means…" The other girl hesitated, then asked another question.
"Do you mind heights?" Huh?
"Uh, no? Why do you—"
"Do you mind being carried?"
"Wait, what?" Weiss looked at her, confused by the questions.
"Please answer."
"Depends on the circumstances…" She trailed off in confusion.
"I shall take that as an 'I do not mind'." Haruka stated, slung her weapon onto her back—so it can compact, at least—, and walked over to the heiress.
"What are you—" She didn't manage to finish her sentence, as the smaller girl abruptly lifted her into a princess carry. "Hey! Put me down!" What the hell are you doing!
Haruka ignored her, and leapt into the air. Her four black wings began trailing red, and the two rose up into the sky.
What the hell. What the hell. We're flying. What.
"How?" Weiss asked in shock.
Haruka just gave her an enigmatic smile, before they stopped simply gaining height, and launched off in a burst of speed that made Weiss shriek and wrap her arms around the winged girl.