Almudron



A/N: Thanks as always to qazse for reaction ideas.


"Before we begin, I think you should know that this leviathan is widely considered to be Mizutsune arch nemesis/rival." Katana decided to give the group a head's up.


"Really, why?" Pyrrha asked.


"Oh you'll know once you see it." Katana said.


"Whatever it is, I am certain that together, we would be able to defeat it!" Ren said confidently as he petted Sakurai's head.


(Yes! I refuse to fall to an Almudron. And with your assistance, Ren, it would never defeat us!) Sakurai declared, letting out a howl.


"Why don't we see what it is first before declaring war on one." Ironwood said as they started the video.


A Bullfango was seen walking into a shallow swamp. "Heh heh. Being a Bullfango is awesome!" It declared proudly, before it heard a strange noise.


"Playing in the dirt after a hard day's work..." A narrator's voice spoke as if performing a poem, almost like a haiku.


"Hello? Who said that? Wait, what? Hello?" The Bullfango asked, looking around a bit as it continued, before a serpent-like creature rose up from behind it in the water. "Huh?!" The boar monster questioned fearfully at the noise.


Many of them laughed as the boar heard the narrator. "I always thought it was funny when the characters talked back to the narrator." Jaune admitted.


"Especially if the narrator's saying dumb stuff and the person calls them out on it!" Nora giggled.


Then, they saw a serpent-like creature following the pig. "Well, looks like that pig's getting turned into bacon." Coco said.


"Coco! Don't be so quick to write him off! He might make it out of there." Velvet scolded her leader.


"A grumpy old beast rises from the murk." The narrator continued to speak his poem as the creature slowly moved through the water towards the Bullfango.


"Okay, dude. Seriously, where are you? You can't just-" The Bullfango began to complain, before hearing a noise behind it as the creature submerged. "Wait- wait a minute, what? Hello?" The boar creature asked as it turned to look behind itself. However, it saw nothing. "Huh. Could've sworn that I heard something-" The fanged beast dismissed, starting to turn around, before massive mud pillars emerged all around the small monster, causing it to scream in panic while trying to find a way to safety.


Then, everyone jumped when the mud walls started shooting up. "Oh no! Run little piggy, run!" Ruby cried out.


"Yeah, Piggy better get his pork butt out of there." Yang agreed.


"You know, Pork Butt actually comes from the shoulder of pigs." Neo pointed out. [1]


"How and why do you know that?" Ilia asked.


"Hey, I have a very refined palate. I did my best to make sure Neo and I ate only the best." Roman declared proudly.


"Are you all ignoring the fact giant walls of mud are launching out of the ground?" Ren asked.


"Perhaps its moving at such fast speeds, it's displacing the mud in large walls like what we're seeing here." Ironwood theorized. "Too bad we don't have any muddy ponds near Mantle. Maybe we could get them to fix the holes in the wall. A nice thick wall of mud, then some fire dust to dry it and harden it almost to cement. That should keep out everything up to Megaliaths." He said.


"Begone! Begone! A booming voice resounds. None shall ever enter this creature's holy grounds!" The narrator finished as the serpent creature sliced through its own mud walls with its tail, revealing itself in all its muddy glory. The screen then froze as the creature's name and title were revealed: "Hermit of the Swamp. Almudron".


Some, were quite grossed out by the creature, but non more so than a particular set of siblings dressed in white. "Disgusting! It's absolutely drenched in mud!" Winter said in horror.


"And that sloshing sound is horrible! It's an assault on all the senses!" Weiss cried out.


"It might look better with the mud rinsed off. The whiskers look kind of majestic." Pyrrha tried to defend the beast, although she, too, found the sloshing noises disturbing.


"But it's also powerful. Those mud walls were huge and probably thick, but it cut through all of them like nothing." Adam noted.


"Hermit of the Swamp. Sounds like something you hear in those old Kung-Fu flicks." Qrow chuckled, fondly remembering those movies.


Summer giggled and sighed in remembrance as well. "Oh, man. I remember you and Tai acting those out all the time in our dorm and getting on Raven's nerve. Or that one time Tai flipped you over his shoulder and broke your collar bone." She giggled.


"Yeah, that... wasn't as much fun." Qrow admitted.


Aylia was shown crouched down a decent distance from Almudron as Rage spoke. "Oh, yes! It's Almudron! The Hermit of the Swamp! And he is just-" The host began, before breaking down into a bit of laughter. "Just magnificent. I would say my favorite new monster I've fought in Kamura and... Well, I think it's also easy to see why. Our Mudbender and... Look, look- it's hard to express what fighting this guy is like more than this." Rage explained, before a clip of a dark-haired, dark-skinned girl with the words "The Hunter" was shown below her, before she rushed in and threw some attacks at an old lady with Almudron's head superimposed over hers, who easily dodged all the attacks while surfing on mud and fling the hunter away with it, a patch of grass hitting her face, which fell to reveal a very disturbed face, before it turned to annoyance as a strange creature landed on her shoulder, the words "Endemic Life" written over the creature.


After seeing it use mud and seeing that avatar clip, it dawned to them what Katana meant. Ah, I see now. Mizutsune uses bubbles and soap in battle, while Almudron uses mud." Glynda realized, understanding the implied rivalry between the two.


"And from the looks of it, it uses it more affectively then Barroth." Ozpin added.


"Exactly. Barroth only shakes the mud off its body, but Almudron can actually make the mud do what it wants. That's a way more useful skill. And if it's anything like what that old lady did, a way more dangerous skill." Blake noted.


"Oh goody. Another monster that fights dirty." Weiss said sarcastically.


Yang and Neo looked shocked at this. "Gasp! Weiss just made a pun!" She realized.


"What? Wait... No, no-no-no! I meant literally! It literally fights dirty!" Weiss tried to defend her actions.


"To late, you already made the joke. You're just like us now." Neo declared.


Penny smiled and hugged Weiss. "I believe your joke was superior to any of theirs, Weiss. At least you were not trying overly hard." She defended the heiress.


It returned to the footage of Aylia as the mighty beast leapt towards her and she narrowly avoided it. "While it may be a leviathan, he is unique even beyond that. He has snake-like movements and the way he operates in and out of the ground is truly wonderful. Just the fact he sits in the murk, half-up and then his tail lunges up to get you from different random locations in the ground that you can't see, it's almost like there's two different entities there. He looks absolutely gorgeous, the different ways his body undulates up and down, in and out, bulky then lithe, then bulky again, then lithe, he has an absolutely fascinating shape and those MIGHTY whiskers accompanying that MIGHTY beard really don't harm him." Rage explained as the creature slid all around on the ground and even went underground, attacking with large chunks and spurts of mud. Rage then became somewhat lustful in the end as romantic music played to a slow clip of Almudron's face.


"That is some impressive facial hair." Hazel admitted.


"Being able to attack from two different directions would be useful as well. It would be like having Sun's Semblance. Or yours in some cases, Blake." Ilia said, her former crush nodding at this.


"If there's one thing you've got to pull off to come off as smooth, yet intimidating, it's the look. And I gotta say, this guy's got it." Roman said.


"The tail, on one hand is very cool, it's like an artist's brush, swishing mud back and forth and he does all of his most impressive attacks with it. However! It looks a bit... it might just be me, but it gives me sort of... I can only really best describe it as a noise and that noise is-" Rage explained why the tail made him uncomfortable, making an awkward, disgusted groaning noise as Almudron attacked wildly with its tail. "Like, the idea of having it press slowly against you, all the tendril-y, hairy bits sliding up and down-" Rage explained, before letting out another disgusted groan. "I just don't want to be slid by Almudron's hairy tail!" He cried out as Almudron was shown with his tail in front of the screen, slowly and disturbingly dripping. It was then shown even closer with romantic music playing, accompanied by a disgusting slosh sound.


"I kind of like the brush tail. It's pretty cool. I loved painting when I was little." Ruby said.


"And it takes A LOT to dig through and swim in all that mud. I should know. People thought I was a mole Faunus when I was younger because of how good I was at digging through mud." Nora said.


"Bath time was horrifying." Ren said, shuddering at the memories.


"Ugh. I thought it was impossible to be more disgusting than Mercury, but this guy really takes the cake." Emerald groaned.


"I swear, if he was here right now, I would barbecue his gross butt!" Cinder growled.


"You've said that for just about everyone you don't like. Get new threats, Cinder." Adam told her, to which she stuck her tongue out at the masked Faunus.


"His colors are great, I love the ridging all the way down him and, generally, he is just unlike anything I have ever seen or hunted before and, really, that can be said for nearly every creature I've faced in Kamura so far. And, of course, where would we be without-"Rage began, before a rock song briefly played, singing the word "Mud!". "Because this guy does mud right! He has used it better than I've ever seen any other monster use it... JYURATODOUS!" Rage declared, yelling with an echo at the mud fish.


Jyuratodus then briefly appeared on screen. "Hello." He said peacefully, before it cut back to Aylia and the Almudron.


"What's wrong with him?" Qrow asked.


"I'm assuming its yet another mud monster, whose abilities are far weaker and less diverse than Almudron's." Penny theorized.


"Hey! That's the monster that chased the Barroth out of its home! Someone beat it up!" Ruby insisted.


"Is one action worth truly hating a monster?" Ren asked. Ruby glared fiercely at this, causing the boy to gulp. "Down with Jyuratodus." He said.


Ruby turned her glare away, allowing him to calm down. "I think if they don't like an animal for being mean, we should just let them." Jaune said nervously.


The beast jumped out of the ground in front of Aylia. "So firstly, of course, he makes the usual piles of mud, which thankfully do not suck you in and make you fall over, unlike the mud from other monsters has been known to do, they just quite literally slow your movements sand that's all well and good. They are definitely annoying and you do want to be avoiding them. But, of course, it goes better than that, because he makes little constructs out of mud itself. They are kind of irritating, they can get in your way, but they're not really an attack so much as, you know, a feature. And that feature is SO, SO much fun! There is a muck resistant skill to not be slowed by his piles of dirt, but that just basically makes them the solidified ones, but that at least gives you a platform to leap from. In the old days, that would be amazing, but now we have Wirebugs, so it really only is a kind of style points type attack and I'm okay with that because he gets maximum style points." Rage explained as Aylia maneuvered around the aforementioned platforms.


Coco crossed her arms and nodded confidently when Rage brought up the creature doing what it does for style points. "I can totally respect that. If there's one thing that leaves an impression, it's style." She said.


"Damn right." Yang agreed.


"Absolutely." Neo concurred as well.


"Or, it could be for actual useful things, like distractions or tripping up your opponents, maybe putting blockades in their way." Blake listed other possible reasons.


"Irrelevant." Coco, Neo and Yang all said dismissively.


"Chiefly then, he makes a little model of the pyramid in the Flooded Forest where he lives! I mean, is that not just like- gold star, Almudron! You creative little mud wizard, you!" Rage cooed as it created a pyramid of mud Aylia was able to stand on. Suddenly, everything went black. "And I never thought I'd say that sentence in my life, but no..." Rage admitted, an echo in his voice, before it went back to showing Almudron in the pose it was in when it was given its title and name. "Almudron! Creative Mud Wizard!" Rage declared dramatically.


Summer giggled at this. "Never thought I'd hear a title quite like that." She said.


Glynda even smirked as she thought of something. "Tell me, Ozpin. Did you ever have such a title? You were a wizard after all?" She asked.


Everyone was shocked at this. "Goodwitch made a joke." Winter whispered in shock.


Ozpin chuckled at this. "I may have been known as a wizard at one point, but no, Glynda. I never possessed such a title. Still, it's nice to see your sense of humor coming out. Just a shame it's at my expense." He said.


"Well, you were a good sport about it." Ironwood told him.


Aylia was fighting the beast again, running to the side as it sent a wave of mud at her. "And then, we get to his enraged where he goes full gold secretion and the fluid is flowing and it flows... fluidly." Rage explained awkwardly, the screen briefly going dark again as he sighed at his lack of diction. "And that is when things really kick up, on top of just looking amazing. Now, it infuses all of his mud with the golden dissolve-y goo, which makes the mud piles not just slow you, but also, BURN you! Tssss! Away at you and melt your armor and weapons. Making them that much deadlier." The host warned as Almudron flung more and more mud with a golden sheen at Aylia, catching her in a few mud piles, causing steam to rise from her.


"It can melt armor!? It's not like Shen Gaoren's acid, is it?" Velvet asked fearfully.


"Don't worry. While the gold fluid is devastating to equipment, I'm pretty sure it's not capable of melting bodies." Katana assured them.


"Oh good." Ruby and Velvet sighed in relief.


"Thank goodness." Pyrrha said, equally relieved.


"But it will sting like hell if you get it on your skin. And it will most definitely reduce Penny to scrap." Razara warned.


"Oh..." The cinnamon trio, plus Penny now, said in fear.


"One more reason they should NEVER be brought to Remnant!" Weiss declared quickly.


"Aww, how cute. Ice Queen's being protective of her girlfriend." Nora said with a smirk. Weiss simply huffed at this.


"His beard also gets goldified, his crest gets goldified, his tail gets goldified and then he picks up a giant, hardened ball of golden-veined mud to smash against you like the world's filthiest wrecking ball! And it is amazing! And it is painful!" Rage cried out in excitement as the beast then indeed picked up a massive ball of mud and smashed it on Aylia, knocking her unconscious.


Yang smirked. "Goldified? That is an awesome word! I should start saying that to everyone I beat up, 'You've been goldified!" She declared.


Summer rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Yang, sweetie, I love your enthusiasm, but that doesn't make any sense. It's not like you turn your enemies to gold." She told her.


"But if she did, she'd be my favorite person in the world EVER." Roman said.


Neo's jaw dropped at this. "Gasp! Traitor!" She yelled at her boss/father-figure. She then looked at Yang. "Although, that would make her even more amazing, she was already up there to start with." She said


Aylia was then being wheeled back to camp on a cart, before being unceremoniously dropped on the ground. "This culminates in his most potent attack where he jumps into the air and slaps it down underneath you. Essentially, you don't want to be anywhere near him when he's got this out and a nice little flash will get him to drop it. Other than that, you want to target the ball itself in order to get it to break and make him lose the opportunity to do said big attack. His tail is also his weakest part, so that really nicely doubles up. For the most part, it is just avoid his sweep-y swipes and his swoosh-y swipes with mud and get in there and attack him, you are quite safe, sort of, in between his legs and especially so when he's half-in, half-out the ground, you can get right up to him and start wailing away." Rage explained as Aylia tried to get in close while avoiding the beast's attacks, but was constantly knocked back.


"Giant mud ball! That's awesome!" Ruby said.


"I've thrown giant rocks at Salem before. Mud's not too different. A ball that big has gotta be pretty solid and heavy. I could see it doing some damage." Hazel admitted.


"And he uses it to defend his weak point. Nice." Qrow said, knowing well how to use his weapon as much as a shield as it was a sword.


"That's impressive strategy and versatility for a monster." Pyrrha said, a bit amazed.


Aylia was then seen using some kind of glowing strings to ride the beast. "Riding him, you can make him do the muck sweeps and, in fact, you can make him make mud pillars for after you finish the Wire Ride, which I think is an absolute treat! That is really, really cool!" Rage declared happily as Aylia had the creature sweep its tail and make mud waves as Cotton watched from a safe distance.


"You can ride him, too?! That's so awesome!" Ruby cheered.


"I'd definitely want to wash that mud off first, but it looks like it'd be a smooth ride." Roman agreed.


"It's literally called Al-MUD-ron, you're almost as prissy and obsessed with your clothes as the Ice Queen." Cinder told him.


"Stop calling me that!" Weiss whined.


This was ignored, however. "Seriously. All the rest of us are more than willing to get our hands and clothes dirty, so you can't keep acting like the big, though guy in charge if you can't stand a little filth. Maybe Neo should be in charge instead. She's willing to grubby her hands" Emerald told him with a smirk. Roman grumbled and simply slumped forward at this.


"And he can also artillery lob huge globs of mud all around him. In fact, this forms one of the basis for his TRUE ultimate attack. And while its not more threatening than the mud ball smash, it's much more of a- sorry, it's MUD more of a- no, that doesn't even work- It's MUCH MORE OF A SPECTACLE, OKAY?!" Rage stammered, trying and failing to make a pun, but what came next MORE than made up for the bad joke. The Almudron raised four MASSIVE pillars of mud, as well as firing no less than SIX giant mud balls into the air and having them rain down into the channel in between the pillars it intended for Aylia to go down.


The capabilities this beast could reach with the liquified dirt really turned some heads. "Seriously. This leviathan is only using mud to fight. MUD! How is it able to use such a method SO effectively?" Winder demanded.


"Just another example that these creatures can take whatever they got and use it to their advantage, with such voracity." Qrow said, impressed.


"If it could arrange the mud walls in a way to be able to box in targets, that could be a really great way to trap and destroy a lot of really big, but not massive Grimm. Like, it could definitely catch anything up to Deathstalker or King Taijitu sizes." Jaune noted.


"Interesting strategy, Mr. Arc. Well done." Ironwood praised.


"Great work, Jaune." Pyrrha said with a smile.


However, she instead ran up one of the pillars and got on top of it. "He raises FOUR HUGE, GINORMOUS pillars of Earth, full-on bending style, sits at the back of them creates a total wipeout course of 'Come get me. Oh and by the way... Look up!' And starts lobbing this mud artillery at you so you have to wall-run, climb, Wirebug dodge through this maze-of Earth- I say maze, it's a straight line, but you know, he's an animal, give him credit- And get to Almudron, hit him and end it. And it is an event. It is glorious, HE is GLORIOUS! What an experience! And if all of that wasn't enough, he also creates this swirling mud vortex that pulls you into the center before exploding out the middle of it! He's just-" Rage explained Almudron's ultimate control over the liquified dirt, before laughed at the incredibleness of the beast's abilities. "I love him!" He cried out as Almudron indeed created a whirlpool of mud that soon exploded.


"Water and dirt. Neptune would be paralyzed with fear." Blake said.


"Maybe that would stop him from hitting on anything in a skirt." Ilia said, causing the two to giggle and Weiss to grumble in anger and annoyance.


"After ignorant, greedy businessmen like Jacques, shameless flirts like him are the kind I hate the most. If we get them here on Remnant, I'll be sure to introduce this Neptune to an entire family of Almudron." Adam said in annoyance.


Aylia was then following Almudron atop what seemed to be a dog that should be at least chest-level with the Huntress and clearly powerful enough for her to ride on. "So, there's probably a question you are asking: Mizutsune. Mud vs. Bubbles. Dirt vs. Cleanliness. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes- they, uh... They don't have a Turf war." Rage said sadly as sad music played and the screen went black.


"What!? Booo! What a rip-off!" Nora yelled.


"Yeah. From that kind of description, it sounds like the only reason they're there together is to fight!" Coco agreed.


"It is quite unfortunate. I was looking forward to seeing Sakurai defeat the filthy creature." Ren explained.


"But isn't it better when monsters don't fight and just get along?" Velvet asked.


Everyone looked at her like she had grown a second head. "No." They all said, even the teachers.


"They don't have a turf war. THEY DON'T HAVE A TURF WAR!" He cried, before it returned to Aylia fleeing from Almudron on the Palamute's back. "At least not one that we could make happen. And we have tried. And tried. And tried. There's even a hunt that has them corralled in the Shrine Ruins! And it is called 'Ruckus in the Ruins' And it has got the description of and are you ready for this?! 'Whoa! It is TOTALLY going down in the Shrine Ruins! One minute, there's mud everywhere. Then the next, there's bubbles everywhere. Mud. Bubbles. Mud! Bubbles! I think you need to go out and clean up this mess!' Yet, they don't turf war! It's like the biggest tease EVER!" Rage complained as Mizutsune and Almudron were fighting, but not like the full-on turf wars they occasionally seen in some videos.


"Well, at least we get a small glimpse of a fight." Yang said.


"But I want an all out brawl! Who do you guys think would win? I'm going for Mizutsune." Ruby said.


"After seeing that mud wrecking ball, I have to go with Almudron." Cinder said.


"The size advantage is significant, but Mizutsune is likely far faster and its water jet could split through the mud like nothing." Hazel stated.


"Cleanliness is righteous and shall always be victorious!" Ren declared.


"But apart from that, he is an absolute 10 out of 10 SUPER MONSTER." Rage finished, giving praise to the monster as it began to attack Mizutsune again.


"Yeah, he is!" Nora declared.


"He's dirty, but so epic! Those mud pyramids and other platforms were smart and interesting. And don't forget the mud walls and the rain of mud balls." Neo said.


The sheer volume of mud the creature is able to control is absolutely staggering! And the metal melting liquid could be used to target a Grimm's armor to make them more vulnerable. While they may not be metal in nature, the fact it can burn human skin and bone, I have no doubt it would also work well on their armor." Penny said.


"A very practical use for such a liquid Miss Polendina. Well done." Ozpin said.


"So, thoughts?" Katana asked.


"That was awesome! Those giant mud boulders are amazing! And those mud shenanigans are really funny and cool!" Nora said.


"Yeah! I'd love to fight one!" Ruby cheered.


"It'd definitely be an interesting experience." Qrow admitted.


"Eh. I'm on the fence. It'd be a fun fight for sure, but I don't want to get my hair all muddy." Yang said uncertainly.


"I would like to fight one with Sakurai, as I said before, but I'd rather not have them in Remnant." Ren said.


"Exactly. Do you have any idea how expensive my dry-cleaning bill is? I'd have to be able to buy Beacon to handle the costs if those things were around!" Roman complained.


"You know they're not going to be an every day sight, right?" Tekko asked.


"Still, no way I'd take the risk of running into one. These clothes will never be ruined with mud." Coco said.


"Not to mention, mud contains countless bugs, bacteria and parasites. Being hit by a wave of it would be a guaranteed trip to the hospital." Winter said.


"Or, all of you are just babies, too scared of getting a little dirty." Neo taunted.


"Well, I for one refuse to fight such a beast. I spend good lien on my line of clothes, and will not get a spec of mud them." Weiss declared proudly.


"Then it doesn't make sense why you wear on missions?" Blake asked.


"Excuse me?" Weiss demanded.


"Weiss, your outfit probably costs more Yang's motorcycle. Yet for some reason it's what you wear when we're hunting Grimm. Where they're likely to either get dirty, or ripped to shreds. Yet getting mud on them is where you draw the line?" Blake questioned.


"She does have a point. Why do you wear such expensive clothes for fighting?" Pyrrha asked.


"It does seem like a huge waste of lien." Ren agreed.


"I just want to wear nice clothes." Weiss admitted.


"I can understand the need to look good, but there's a time and a place for it. And slick clothes like ours deserve to be taken care of, not worn into missions to be ruined and destroyed." Roman said.


"I hate to say it, sister, but he is right. You really do need to learn to control your vanity. Wearing expensive clothes on missions, even though you can regularly replace them, is an ugly show of wealth, as it shows you know you can wear them on missions and replace them if they are ruined, which makes you come off as arrogant, flaunting your money and careless at taking care of important things such as clothing, what else might you allow to be ruined?" Winter explained.


Weiss sighed at this. "Very, well. What's the next monster?" Weiss asked.


"Monsters, actually. I figured we should cover these ones now before we get around to the most epic ones. I'd hate to hype you up with all these incredible monsters, only to let you down with a bunch of disappointing ones later."


"Then, I'm guessing these ones are... less than stellar?" Adam questioned.


"That is correct. So, prepare yourselves to witness..." Katana began, then sighed. "The Piscine Wyverns." She finished, playing the next video.


A/N: Thank you for reading and as always, I hope you enjoyed this!


Also, I've come up with a new challenge! The Joestar line watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. There's a few fics of others watching the show (mostly RWBY and MHA), but there's absolutely no fics of JoJo characters reacting to anything, so I figured this would be a good place to hopefully jumpstart some fics of that nature.


The main idea is this: all of the JoJo's are brought in to watch the series, so Jonathan can see his lineage and all the other JoJo's can see the adventures that came before theirs, occasionally bringing in people important to that part of the story (for example: George Joestar and young Speedwagon in Phantom Blood, old Speedwagon, Ceasar and Lisa Lisa in Battle Tendencies, the Stardust Crusaders in... Well, Stardust Crusaders and Josuke's group of Stand Users in Diamond is Unbreakable. And others if you want, but careful not to go overboard (trust me, I know)) to have their additional commentary and see scenes they weren't around for and/or oblivious to. Lisa Lisa won't be happy to learn her own son peaked in on her! Lol!


[1] Yes, this is true. The original cuts taken from pig shoulders were called "the Boston Butt", because the barrels that these cuts of meet were held in were called "butts".

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