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Chapter 14: Vytal Festival (Part 1)

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Currently, Robin was riding inside of the moving trailer. This trailer was his home, but today the village was moving towards the Kingdom of Vale in celebration of the Vytal Festival.

“Dad, what's so special about the Vytal Festival?”

“Well Robin,” Joseph began, “the last Great War was fought between the Four Kingdoms 70 years ago. Some issues were over territory, others wanted money or power, some even wanted to fight just to fight. A large issue of the war was over treatment of its citizens and rights of the people.

When the government started to become oppressive, the citizens fought back and began forming their own powers independent of the Kingdoms. They became the Hunters and Huntresses. That's why there are two separate entities of power: the military and the hunters. By the way, we're also Hunters and Huntresses, but they're officially trained by the Kingdom so employees find their work more reliable.

Anyway, one of the ways people started fighting back was by expressing themselves in art. In turn, people began naming their children after the core of art itself – color. That Robin, is why you have the middle name Silver. After the war ended, the Vytal Festival is a way of expressing peace and unity between the kingdoms. Hunters and Huntresses from all four kingdoms come and fight to display their strength and skill while citizens enjoy their comfortable lives.”

“Wow, that sounds pretty cool!”

= Celebrating peace and unity huh? What an easygoing world. A common enemy really does bring people together. =

Christina sat in the living room which was near the drivers seat, so she could speak with his father as they drove. Robin sat in the seat next to Joseph, and he looked out at the window at the scenery. Currently, his skills and level had improved immensely.

-Robin S. Wolfheart-Race:Faunus (Wolf)*Class:MercenaryLevel:12Experience:98/140Semblance:Bloodlust

Health:345/345Aura:515/515

Strength:69(+7)Dexterity:105Agility:62Endurance:60Vitality:94

MercenaryYour aura has given insight to your true nature as a person. Thanks to your past experiences, you tend to doubt others and closely examine their purpose for getting close to you. Thanks to this, the only things you can trust is money and a few people whom you know very well. As a mercenary, you enjoy using all forms of weapons and can grasp how to use them very quickly and efficiently. This results in extra bonuses depending on the weapon. Furthermore, you are able to learn general skills of any kind.

Current Bonuses: (+2) Hand-to-Hand Combat, (+5 Inactive) Sword Combat, (+7 Inactive) Dual Sword Combat

Current Skills: Identify, Enhance

Wolf:As a member of the wolf faunus, you fight stronger in a pack. The more members in your pack the stronger you are. Your strength increases +1 per member. As you reach certain levels, the bonus per member increases.Current Strength: 69(+5)

Bloodlust (Passive):Thanks to your experiences and innate ability, you've gained the sixth sense able to sense animosity towards you.Bloodlust (Active):When activated, you are able to sense the presence of anyone within a set distance. However, in return they are also made aware of you. Upon activation, there is a chance of foes being Intimidated. Weaker foes are more prone to the status effect than stronger ones.

Cost (10 Aura/sec).

Enhance (Active):Your training with Aura has given you fine control over it. Thanks to this you are able to send varying amounts of Aura to specific locations on your body to strengthen it. The performance of the location is proportional to how much Aura is sent.

Cost: --- Aura/minute

Contrary to what he originally believed, skills were few in number and came mainly due to his class. So far, Robin had been training his body and didn't learn anything new from others yet. Fighting ability is heavily oriented on individual skill than reliance on Skills themselves.

“We're here.” Joseph announced.

Looking out the window, Robin found himself staring at huge walls of steel encircling the Kingdom of Vale. As they entered the gates, the village chief showed a passport and documents indicating why they were there. The guard gave a sympathetic look towards the faunus village and let them in after giving a prayer for a safe time in the kingdom.

“Dad, why did that man seem sorry for us?”

“So you noticed huh?.. One of the main disputes in the last Great War was between faunus and regular humans. The kingdoms wanted to spread their control over the villages outside, but they refused. As a result, fighting broke out between the races. This resulted in a deep hatred for us faunus. It even drove some of the faunus to go into hiding or leave the kingdom and start a nomadic lifestyle, even though we were born and raised inside of Vale.”

Robin was shocked as reality was once again put in front of him.

= So humanity has an ugly side no matter what world it is. Bullying and discrimination still exists huh? Unforgivable. =

The village went to a huge designated area for trailers just like theirs. They went inside the building and parked. Leaving the building, the family met up with others and decided their route for the day.

“Alright kids.” Mrs. Kertenkela announced.

“First we'll do a small little tour and tell you guys about the kingdom. Then we'll set you free with your family after they finish filling out forms and such.”

They started walking among the streets. It was nothing too strange. The buildings were similar in construction to his world. Vehicles were the same too. Cars and trucks could be seen driving to and fro on the streets. The things that were new to Robin were the holographic traffic lights and displays. Being in their small village, Robin always knew they were technologically advanced but never really saw much. The other kids had similar reactions. Blake could be seen bending over and feeling the concrete floor with her hands. Ophelia and Conner were listening to all the new sounds. Adam was staring at a weapon shop down the street. However, near them they could hear the sounds of voices of other pedestrians.

“Heh. Are those more of those faunus? They look like a bunch of country bumpkins.”

“Hey don't speak too loudly, they'll hear you. Don't want those monsters starting a fight.”

Many kids were flustered at their insults. Blake and Adam were shocked speechless. They had never been treated in such a way before. Robin was furious, but calmed down thanks to his experience. Before, he restrained himself due to being shy. Now, he didn't want to make trouble for the people he cared about. Conner and Ophelia exchanged worried looks.

“That, children, is how a lot of humans looks at us. Do not be confused. We are just as much human as they are. We just have developed some traits similar to animals. Their reasons are just like you heard from your parents. It's unjustified and cruel, but I want you kids to understand that not all humans are like that ok?”

They all nodded. As they walked on, Mrs. Kertenkela pointed to a huge building down the street.

“That is the Hunter's Guild. There, Hunters and Huntresses of all kinds gather and take requests for jobs. This is also where our village gets requests. The people there are nice and understanding towards everyone so just visiting there will show you that not everyone is bad.”

“Over there,” She pointed up into the horizon. On top of a cliff, there was a huge waterfall. Next to the waterfall, huge buildings that could be seen. One of them stood above the rest and had a pointed top.

“-- is Beacon Academy. The best and most famous Hunter Academy designed for training the best to become professional Hunters of the Kingdom of Vale. The other Kingdoms also have their own academies, and who knows. Maybe some day all of you will attend that academy and show the world how strong kids of the village of Rakshata really are. The headmaster there is kind so that might happen.”

A hint of pride could be seen on her face. These kids showed a lot of promise, especially Robin and his gang. It wouldn't be wrong to say they had the greatest chance of getting into the academy.

“Unfortunately, they generally accept students after reaching the age of 16 years old. That will be when you've received training from combat schools and the like. That's enough of that for now. That concludes the lesson. Look, your parents are waiting for you. Go and have fun kids.”

They said their goodbyes and left for their parents. After walking around, Mrs. Kertenkela brought them to meet up at the entrance to the center of Vale. There, they found a lot of stalls and games set up for the citizens to enjoy. Robin and his family roamed around.

They went from stall to stall eating various food and playing games that varied from horseshoe to shooting balloons. There was even a reverse hammer game. Since many people could control their aura and become strong enough to defeat Grimm, they invented a game where it tested how weak they could make their strike. The hammer is extremely heavy and had a magnet that attracted to the end of the spot where they hit. The finer the control of strength, the lower the score, and the better prizes they got.

Some stalls refused to serve them, but they found many that were open-minded and let them eat. It was very enjoyable. Currently, the parents left to find an acquaintance, and Robin was hanging out with Blake and the others in an open dining area. They sat at a table and were chewing on snacks and drinking carbonated soda.

“This is so fun! We should come more often!” Conner exclaimed.

Ophelia nodded in agreement.

“Yeah there were many kind people and the food is so delicious. Don't you agree Blake?”

Blake nodded while chewing on her fish snack. In front of her was a huge pile of different snacks. There were gummy fish, sour fish, hard candy fish, and a small can of tuna.

= Just how much do you like fish? =

“I found a bunch of cool sword replicas. They're made of plastic and are colored so it looks a lot realer than our wooden ones.” Adam said.

At that moment, voices were heard.

“Eeew. It's more of those faunus. Why are they even inside the kingdom?”

“I know right Cardin? They're just a bunch of animals. I doubt they understand what this festival is for anyway.”

A group of four kids could be seen mocking the kids about six feet away. Since their group had distinct features as faunus, not many people sat near the kids. This made it easy to discern the source of the insults. Robin and Adam glared at the group threateningly with their eyes.

“Whoa, they look angry. Maybe they might hurt us?” A thin kid said in a mocking voice.

At this point, the group of four had walked closer to them. Robin and Adam stood up. Ophelia grabbed Adam while Conner did the same to Robin.

“Calm down Adam.”

“Yeah Robin, we don't need to start a fight here.”

“What's this? Picking a fight doggy?” The kid named Cardin said while looking down on him.

Robin's blood was boiling. His innate violent nature started to show and his body was trembling.

“You look like you understand speech, but you're all a bunch of monsters anyway.”

*Splash*

The kid's face was soaked with Coke. It was dripping down his face and on his shirt. The kids turned to the culprit. Surprisingly, the one that snapped was neither Adam nor Robin, but Blake.

“You look a little thirsty. Have a drink.” She said with cold eyes.

Yay Kiddy fight! Well I tried to make it start out as natural as possible. Tell me what you guys think of the chapter. I decided skills are unnecessary so I made skills to exist merely for each class and profession. After the time skip I'll give him more skills that he learned from the group. As always comment on your thoughts, rate, etc. Thanks for reading guys!