Somewhere nearby, a young girl's scream of pain erupts. It's loud enough to pierce through the deafening thunder and roaring fires which have begun to encompass homes and shops, but is soon lost in the amplifying sounds of terror filling the night; almost instantly forgotten in the chaos. The White Fang Lieutenant, a burly and intimidating man, saunters out from around a corner, lugging his intricate greatsword around on his shoulders. Dark red blood is lightly smeared across its main blade, while a few of the smaller hooked points protruding from it continue to drip. As he joins the march, the Lieutenant quickly pulls out an already blood-stained cloth and quickly wipes off his greatsword, not wasting any time on intricately cleaning what will just become dirty again.
"Thought I might as well warm up," he grunts to the masked faunus next to him. He places his own mask back onto his face, hiding his scars and damaged eye, as his masked comrade draws his own sword at an agonizingly slow pace. The sound of metal sliding against metal fades together with the screeching.
Cinder rolls her eyes and furrows her eyebrows as she lights another building on fire and brushes her hair over her shoulder. A frightened family with two small children quickly exit the house, screaming. So much annoying screaming. "Do you always have to waste time like that, Adam?" she hisses, turning back to face the two White Fang members. The glass swords on her hips clink together, matching the sound of her glass shoes on the ground.
Adam shrugs, admiring his unique red blade. "I'll do it as long as he gets to waste time killing off annoying kids," he jokes dryly, gesturing to the Lieutenant. Cinder eyes the larger man with a slight annoyance, but she quickly turns back to look at the path ahead of her. She hears the other faunus, some cat girl Adam brought with him, exhale with exasperation behind them.
No huntsmen are headed their way yet, despite the entire western half of Vale's outskirts being on fire. Ozpin just continues to fail again and again, she internally gloats. With a quick glance up to Vale Castle's tallest tower, Cinder sees that the characteristically sickening green glow from within still remains; a small shadow crosses within it and for a brief moment she thinks someone stands to watch the horror, but whatever moved quickly vanishes. It won't be much time now.
Cinder quickly turns on her heel without warning and holds up her right hand, signaling her army to halt. Confused, frightened, and injured citizens continue to dash around them. Cinder pays them no attention and decides that this brief moment will be their one chance to flee and get help. It probably wouldn't do them any good, though.
She takes a deep breath. Smoke burns her throat, but the scorching almost feels good. It reminds her of the hunger she's felt for months.
"Everyone quiet down," Cinder orders. Without further coaxing, the army falls quiet immediately and all that can be heard is the crackling fire and distant rolls of thunder. "Huntsmen are about to appear, though that is no surprise. Stick to your assigned groups and leaders, taking your discussed paths through the town into the castle. Fight admirably, and you shall be rewarded. Some of you will die. But you will die to save your faunus brethren and advance whatever your personal causes and reasons for joining us may be. If anyone sees the Queen, Ozpin, or that sickly girl attempting to escape, alert me immediately." Cinder pauses, emotionlessly looking over her soldiers. Mercury, the assassin's child, watches her intently and looks ready to begin the mission. Emerald on the other hand allows her vision to dart around a bit too much, and Cinder reminds herself to speak with the girl when everything is over. "The Grimm will be here soon. Begin your assaults."
And with that, hundreds of White Fang members, underground criminals, and recruited huntsmen take off in several directions. Cinder turns around and takes her first step onto a maintained cobblestone road, noticing how far they've advanced in such a short time. Behind her, the strongest fighters follow with silent and deadly footsteps. Emerald, Mercury, the two White Fang higher ups, the quiet faunus girl, and a few supporting huntsmen watch Cinder, awaiting her specific instruction.
An angry cry breaks out nearby, and a few men with various weapons come running down the main road towards Cinder. She puts out a gentle hand to her side, signaling her soldiers to do nothing. The men continue to sprint closer, and Cinder steps carefully among the shoddy stonework so as not to get the heels of her shoes caught in a crack. hesitation in the men's shouts and knows that they are confused by her behavior.
She looks up at them, only a few steps away now, and her orange eyes begin to glow their menacing yellow hue. One of the men almost trips with surprise. The closest one to Cinder now raises his axe, preparing for a close fight, but Cinder instead immediately knocks all of the men backwards onto the road with a single blast of fire. Their weapons scatter across the ground, and the men groan in agony as they attempt to stand again. Cinder bows her head to them, and gestures to those behind her to do their jobs.
Cinder keeps on walking ahead, ignoring the sounds of death behind her. It's not that difficult; she's heard so many of those sounds that they've almost become normal. Giant Nevermores call in the distance, but before she can turn to watch the creatures arrive and see her handiwork finally come to fruition, two more men come rushing at her.
"Lieutenant! Take care of these ones for me," Cinder calls out, noticing that the two men must be related. One is older, with graying hair, but they both have blondish hair and blue-gray eyes. They must be a father and grandfather attempting to protect their family. How pitifully weak they are.
On cue, the White Fang Lieutenant launches himself at the two frail men, immediately knocking them against a wall with his greatsword. They crash against the wall and crumple to the ground, but barely a moment passes before they're hit again... and again. Cinder guesses their auras are almost depleted just due to how much force the Lieutenant can put into his attacks, because they're both already groaning with agony. He digs the many pointed edges of his sword into their necks, the greatsword being big enough to handle both men at once.
Just as the two men's auras deplete at the same moment, both of them glowing a distinct golden yellow color, a woman jumps out from a doorway holding only a small knife. She is about the same age as the younger of the two men, and her arms shake as she points the knife at the Lieutenant. Her eyes dash between Cinder and her target, but when he grabs the younger of the two men by the neck and holds him up, choking him, the woman shakes even more and can't take her eyes off who Cinder assumes to be her husband.
The Lieutenant throws the young man into the air with one hand and continues to hold his greatsword in his other. The next moment almost happens in slow motion, as the woman drops her knife, begins to shout, and runs towards her falling husband. Before she can get anywhere close enough, the Lieutenant swings his sword around with a flash. The brilliant metal reflects the orange flames around them, but the reflection is quickly dulled by the younger man's blood. The woman stops in her tracks and collapses in shock as her husband's head rolls across the ground towards her. She jumps back in shock, silently crying, her mouth open in a shout that nobody can hear. Her trembling becomes spasms.
The White Fang Lieutenant kicks the decapitated body aside as he grabs the older man, who had attempted to crawl away, and runs his pronged sword through his chest. The older man dies almost instantly, though his body becomes mangled as the Lieutenant attempts to rip it off of the sword's many bladed hooks. The woman's dead eyes see everything, but she cannot do anything.
However, as soon as she is approached, she grabs her knife and scrambles up to her feet, jumping back as far as she can. Soon, she begins to glow in a pale yellow light, similar to that of the auras of her two fallen family members. Cinder watches with interest, leaning against a nearby wall that has not yet fallen.
As the White Fang Lieutenant gets close to the woman, she begins to shout in anguish and sprint towards him, knife clenched tightly between her shaking hands like how a hawk would grasp its prey with an unrelenting grip. Her effort is meaningless; the Lieutenant dodges her initial attack easily and slips behind her, making him able to grab her from behind. He uses his free hand to grab her by the neck and hold her up in the air. The yellow glow of her outward aura begins to fade and the knife slips out of her hand.
"Don't waste so much time. We've got a castle to take," Cinder calls out. The Lieutenant nods and throws the woman against a wall, causing her to cry out in pain once again. Cinder turns to look at the castle's green tower again. As before, a small shadow occupies a space in the faint green light, but Cinder blinks and it is gone. She hisses under her breath.
"What have you done?!" Yet another tortured scream. Cinder almost doesn't hear it; she's become used to these noises of destruction so quickly she almost surprises herself. She turns slowly, fingers playing with a flame that she summons in her hand. What is truly surprising though is who stands in front of her.
A young boy, probably not much older than fifteen, stands outside a doorway and watches as his mother's mangled and torn body falls to the ground. Cinder waves the Lieutenant away, signaling him to continue their main mission and not waste anymore time with this family. He slowly nods, and jogs away. It's only then that Cinder notices that the boy carries a large sword and shield, both much too large for his scrawny body type. His arms shake with the physical and mental weight of the situation around him, and sweat drips down his face, visible in the flickering lights from the fire around them.
"Your hair is a nice yellow, just like your mother's aura," Cinder comments, causing the boy to gasp and turn to look at her.
"Did you do this?" he shouts, tears beginning to fall from his eyes. They quickly mix with the sweat on his face and disappear.
Cinder doesn't reply, and continues to admire the fire in her hand.
"Why? Why are you destroying everything? Why did you murder my family? Why? I'm going to kill you!"
"That's a big declaration from such a scrawny boy," Cinder comments. She extinguishes the flame in her hand. "The Grimm will be here soon. Are you sure you want to sit here and act like a valiant huntsman? You want to stand here and die? Don't you just want to run?" The boy stands up a bit straighter and glances towards the doorway he emerged from, which Cinder notices. "Ah, so you still have family left. You want to protect them. I'd advise you to run, though. It would be foolish to stay here and try to stand up to me. I could kill you right now." She glances into the sky, and sees a few Griffons flying in from the south. "Or, if you'd prefer, a Grimm could."
The boy takes a step forward. "I'm not running from you. I will protect them."
Cinder readjusts her stance and her eyes begin to glow yellow. She inwardly groans at the hunger that's been residing within her for the several months she's possessed only half of the maiden's power. "I don't have time for this. You are nothing to me. Have you accepted your death?"
He doesn't reply, and simply raises his sword and shield with shaking arms. Cinder rolls her eyes. Before the boy can even blink, she knocks them out of his grip by frightening him with fire sent at his face. He dropped them just out of fear. Pathetic. He shields his face from the fire with the arm that previously held the shield before he realizes what has happened. When the fire is gone, the boy opens his eyes and sees that his weapons have clattered to the cobblestone road beneath his feet. Frantically, he goes to grab them, but Cinder knocks him to the ground with another fire blast, this one slightly more forceful.
"You want to protect your family? Run. This is your last chance." Cinder didn't really know why she was offering the child one last, final chance before killing him off, but she did know that she was definitely wasting time. When the boy attempts to get to his feet, she quickly walks up to him and kicks him square in the jaw, forcing him back down to the ground.
The boy clenches his jaw with his hand and writhes in pain, quickly trying to crawl away from Cinder. "Never," he whispers. His leg muscles tense, and Cinder immediately knows he will try to kick her feet out from under her. As his leg moves, Cinder reaches for one of the swords on her hip and bats his leg away with it.
A Giant Nevermore shrieks overhead, followed by the calls of a few others who begin to assemble in the sky above. Cinder looks down at the boy beneath her and places a firm foot across his chest, making sure the heel digs into his chest where his heart is. She looks into his watery and fearful eyes before summoning every bit of power she has within her and focusing a wild discharge of fire into his face. He attempts to get away, but Cinder puts more pressure on his chest and his efforts are futile.
It's taking a bit longer than usual to break the child's aura, and Cinder almost stops and walks away from him; but as she ends her fiery assault his aura appears and fades over his body, signifying the loss of his protective force. Her heel breaks the skin and sinks into his chest, causing him to cry out with a choked voice and cough up a bit of blood. This scene, surrounded by the burning city and gathering Grimm, is enough to reignite Cinder's drive. She holds her glass sword above the boy's heart and removes the glass heel of her shoe from his chest, causing him to cough again.
The gray color of the translucent sword glints in the firelight as Cinder thrusts it into the boy's chest in one swift movement. Blood flows. He tries to gasp for air, but Cinder punctured one of his lungs. As Cinder twists the sword around, the boy's eyes fade and become glossy. The tenseness of his muscles fades, giving way to a limp and lifeless body. She takes out her sword and places it back on her hip, not even bothering to clean the blade.
"I told you to run."
