Weiss groaned as she came back to reality, her head felt like a ursa had tried to smash her head open. Deciding against sitting up she turned her head to look around her.
She was in the school's infirmary and she could see a large number of the beds were occupied, swallowing Weiss turned to face the other way she came face to face with a shell shocked teammate. Ruby her partner, was just sitting on top of her own bed holding her knees to her chest slowly rocking herself back and forth with a blank look on her face, the most shocking part was the number of weapons she was holding on to. Her own scythe Crescent Rose, the rest Weiss didn't know the names of but it was the entirety of team Cardinal's weapons.
Taking another look around the infirmary Weiss couldn't see any members of team Cardinal. Turning back to her teammate Weiss called out to the girl.
"Ruby... Ruby you dolt RUBY!"
This grabbed the red themed girl's attention who upon noticing that Weiss was awake dropped everything sending the weapons clattering to the ground with the sound filling the room, before Ruby slammed into Weiss with a hug. Weiss attempted to pry the now crying girl off, as Ruby started talk through her sobs. After giving up removing Ruby from her Weiss started listening to Ruby but could only make out a few words, piecing together she got that Ruby had thought she might die like the ones she had found in the forest, and something about dog ears before Ruby just broke down into more tears after something about Yang getting knocked out and she couldn't see her anymore.
Resigning herself to her fate Weiss began trying to calm down the hysterical Ruby, rubbing her back and whispering to her that she wasn't going anywhere. Eventually Ruby calmed down and passed out still in Weiss's arms. When a nurse came over a short bit later she commented that Ruby had been up nearly two days.
When they went to place Ruby back in her own bed she began thrashing and crying out for her teammates, after a few attempts Weiss just waved the nurse off saying that it would best if Ruby just stayed where she was.
After the nurse had left, pulling closed a privacy screen, and Weiss finished getting herself and Ruby as comfortable as possible; Weiss leaned back into the bed trying to remember how it came to this.
Thirty six hours ago.
"Yes students the forest of forever fall is indeed beautiful but we are not here to sightsee professor peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest." Miss Goodwitch spoke. "And I'm here to make sure that none of you die while doing so." at this she turned to face the students who had been following her. "Each of you is to gather one jar of red sap, however this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rondayvu back here at four o'clock, have fun."
with that the team's split up with team RWBY and the NPR of team JNPR heading out together they soon began gathering sap it was a largely quiet affair with the mood still rather brought down by Jaune's absence as team JNPR was quite somber with their leader staying with team CRDL.
They had been largely quiet after the started gathering sap other than a few indignant yells at Nora for eating the sap.
They were finishing up replacing the sap Nora kept stealing when Dove, sky and Russell came running through screaming about Ursa before running into Yang who grabbed him.
"What? Where?" she asked holding him up by his shirt.
The boy pointed the way he came "Back there it got Cardin"
At this Pyrrha dropped the jar a sap she had been holding "Jaune"
Ruby and Pyrrha began letting out orders, "Yang, Blake you two go tell professor Goodwitch." "You two go with them there could be more." Pyrrha added. at this they split up with Yang. Blake, Nora and Ren going to warn the professor and with Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha going to save Cardin and Jaune.
Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha came across the sight of Cardin about to be killed by an Ursa Major.
"Oh no" Pyrrha let out as they stood in shock as the Grimm closed in on their classmate. Only for Jaune to block the blow. Weiss moved to interfere but was told to wait by Pyrrha, as Jaune continued to poorly attack the Ursa with two failed attacks sending him across the clearing, on the last attack Pyrrha did something redirecting Jaune's shield to deflect the Usas blow enabling him to decapitate the Grimm.
Both Ruby and Weiss looked at Pyrrha.
"Ah what."
"How did you do?"
"Well Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs my semblance is polarity." Pyrrha explained
at this Ruby looked amazed "wwaahh you can control poles"
"No you dunce it means she has control over magnetism."
Any farther talking was cut off by a low growl behind them. Turning around the girls came face to face with several Ursa on pare in size with the one Jaune just killed, the three pulled out their weapons, as they all wordlessly chose their targets before attacking.
Weiss lunged at the one on the far right dust empowering her rapier, dodging a strike she got within the Grimm's guard and stabbed right into its gut before jumping away as the Ursa exploded from the inside with ice, looking about she selected her next target only to start backing up into the clearing behind her.
Pyrrha took hers out in a similar manner to Jaune deflecting the Ursa's strike before killing it in one clean strike, a stab through the throat severing the spine, before she pulled Milo free and got clear of the falling beast before turning to face the next one, only to find several waiting for her.
Ruby simply fired a shot enabling her to speed past hers cutting the legs off the Ursa before, flipping around and firing another round into an Ursa to stop before shooting another Ursa's face sending her flying back the way she came taking the head off the one she immobilized on her return trip. landing Ruby looked back to see that while they had downed only four of them, as the one she shot in the face was still standing even with half its mask missing, they hadn't made a dent in the number of Ursa that were coming at them.
And so the three fell back into the clearing followed by the Ursa. Cardin upon seeing this jumped up and grabbed his mace before he ran off. Leaving the four remaining students to glare at his back, until the Ursa Ruby shot roared bringing their attention back to them.
"Shall we run?" Jaune asked.
"Fighting retreat then?" Ruby asked
At this they nodded and began backing across the clearing waiting to see what the Ursa would do. when had taken only a handful of steps the half faced Ursa let out a roar and charged them followed by the others. They broke into a run three of them firing attacks barely slowing the horde.
Yang and Blake ran through the trees with Nora and Ren hot on their heels, they had lost track of the members of team CRDL when they had run off. Suddenly they caught sight of the members of team CRDL running back at them screaming about more Ursa. As they passed them Yang and her group slowed to a stop after they passed and just looked around.
"So I think Goodwitch already knows at this point" Yang stated as several Ursa burst from the underbrush intent to crush anything in there way as they chased after the three boys, Yang merely flicked her wrists causing Ember Celica to deploy. Before upper cutting the first Grimm to reach her sending it up in the air its scull shattered. Nora ran by seconds later Magnhild ready to wing followed by a blast ending several grim.
Yang felt a grin grow on her face as she rushed in after her ready to crack more than a few Ursas skulls open.
Blake and Ren looked at each other than their partners before shrugging and pulling out their weapons and charging after them.
Glenda was not happy she was currently missing nearly a third of her students and she was now in combat with the largest group of Ursa ever recorded, something had drawn them all here and now they were in the thick of it.
Waving her crop at another group of Grimm she caused the earth to rise up and crush them. Taking a quick glance over her shoulder showed that her charges were making good use of the walls she was making turning them into a makeshift fort to bottleneck the Grimm giving them a chance to fight off the tide that she couldn't stop. Mentally applauding her students Glenda closed her eyes and calmed herself drawing on a large amount of her aura before unleashing it into the ground, rocks, and trees around her drawing them together forming walls and ramparts for her students to fight from safely.
Taking a moment to survey her work Glenda could see the relief on many of the faces around her. "Don't let your guards down were still surrounded and these walls won't hold forever." she yelled out then second later as if to cement her claim a roar tour through the forest.
It was an Ursa's roar but so loud that everyone was forced to cover their ears at the sudden sound.
As the students recovered and began looking around, Glinda stayed looking at the ground while not well known the volume of a roar and duration of a creature like a Ursa was determined by its size with small variations and from the sound of the roar the creature that let out that roar its shoulder would come near the tops of the trees when it stood up. Without even thinking she pulled out a flare gun and pointed it straight up and fired sending a trail of black smoke into the air.
"Alright everyone get ready to hold I've called for backup and an evac we just need to hold out if you're not here when it arrives you're on your own for escaping, I'm going looking for the missing students good luck."
With that Glinda ran at one of the walls jumping on top before leaping off over the expanse of Grimm that were starting to rip into the walls creating pillars to land on and killing whatever Grimm she could as she went.
Ruby looked over the group they were in rough shape, running low on supplies and lost. They had attempted to loop around to the left to meet back up with the others only to find more Ursa. They had been forced to fight their way through them. In the end they had carved a swath through the Ranks of Grimm only to find that for every one that fell, another was always there waiting for its chance to kill them.
They had thought they had heard another group fighting but the sounds had ended shortly after they had started. None of them were overly keen to investigate for fear of what they might find. An Ursa's roar suddenly ripped through the forest deafening them they managed to keep their weapons at ready despite flinching.
The Ursa around them only seemed to grin before charging them however this showed that there numbers where nearly spent as a gap appeared at the back of their ranks and none came forward to fill it. Seeing this, the Hunters in training tried to renew their efforts however exhaustion had long since set in, making their form sloppy. Weiss was the first to fall an Ursa getting behind her before she noticed, while she was able to dodge part of the blow it still clipped her across the top of her head sending Weiss flying across the small clearing they were in blood trailing behind her.
None of the Grim were able to capitalize on this as Ruby began pushing herself harder to finish them all off. The number of Grimm soon dropped to fifteen when Juan lost his sword however he was still on his feet and started working to create openings for Ruby and Pyrrha and tanking hits for them.
Weiss was able to get back on her feet but was too disoriented to do much, soon Ruby ran out of ammo severely limiting her combat abilities. This also happen right in front of the half faced Grimm who despite Ruby's best efforts sent her flying out of the clearing. This wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact a cliff sat just out of sight from the clearing they had been fighting in. The hunters moved to go after her only for the Grimm aside from half face to stand in their way. Pyrrha and Jaune did their best to make short work of them knowing seconds counted.
Ruby was tumbling down the hill uncontrolled; trying to get her feet under her was proving difficult with the terrain of the hill. In a slightly desperate move, do to the rapidly approaching ground at the bottom of the fall, she activated her semblance only to have the opposite effect from what Ruby wanted as her decent accelerated and Crescent Rose was torn from her hands. By some miracle Ruby hit a patch of angled ground sending her flying away from the cliff with a surprised cry until she landed in something soft wet and warm. Reorientation herself Ruby could smell the metallic scent of human blood. Her thoughts were pulled away from that as something dropped from the cliff, it was her baby Crescent Rose lying with the head on the ground and the haft propped up on a rock. Rising to retrieve her weapon Ruby was instead treated with the sight of half face landing on her scythe snapping the handle in two just before the bolt mechanism on her.
Ruby felt her anger rise at this looking about from her crouched position for a weapon her gaze landed on a handle following it up it was attached to a mace head. Grabbing it Ruby began charging her semblance; this Grimm had been after them from the start targeting her the most of everyone, now she was going to end it.
A pained cry of "behind you" pulled Ruby out of her tunnel vision to feel another Grimm behind her. It didn't change her plan. Disappearing in a shower of rose petals Ruby reappeared above Half face mace already connecting with its skull. The hit spattered the Grimm's head on the grass as Ruby flipped over the falling body. Looking at the mace before the remaining Grimm reached her she quickly became familiar with the weapon. No form shift teck, three buttons working as triggers, a single red dust crystal set into the center of the prongs on the hollow mace head lead her to believe there was a hidden internal mechanism for what she couldn't identify but she had targets to try them out on.
Turning about she came to face the Grimm that had killed someone two of them were standing over two of the three dead, Ruby didn't look at the human bodies simply noting where they lay and what was around them a long sword with a revolver cylinder, a hauberk sat near a bloody tree and a pair of dust daggers. She could work with this. taking a quick look at her ruined weapon she could tell it was the breech mechanism that had broken, rent in two in the chamber of the barrel, pulling the but cap off the mace she flipped the free handle from Crescent Rose into the air with her foot before screwing the two together with her semblance. Before the Grimm could react Ruby was moving appearing by the one near where she landed she smashed her new weapon into its knees pulling the middle trigger only to lose all momentum stopping her dead.
The Ursa just looked down on her as she gave a sheepish grin before it growled at her slashing at her, rolling to the side Ruby dodged the strike before disappeared again. Showing up buy the other Grimm swinging, this time hitting the center button as the blow connected, only to hit with enough force to cave the Grimm's body in.
At this Ruby smiled she had figured that the first button worked the dust crystal from the use it had. And now she knew what the other two did. they worked something Ruby had been trying to get her hands on since she made Crescent Rose, commonly referred to as a momentum battery or energy battery. they could store any amount of kinetic energy as potential is a substance known as Dead Dust, judging from the dust crystal it also ran that.
Ruby began spinning the mace around tapping the last button from time to time watching the glow of the dust crystal set into the center of the mace head. The last Ursa watched her trying to find a way to get her. When she judged there was enough energy stored up to really let loose. Ruby vanished in a shower of rose petals.
The Grimm didn't have time to react as the girl appeared in front of it swinging the weapon upward crashing into its jaw before the Grimm vanished as Ruby finished her attack. Taking a moment to admire the flying Grimm she then remembered the voice that warned her of the other Ursa.
Turning back to the battlefield she began looking for the survivor.
Skipping the two that were partly eaten for the third. Only to find that while the person was alive they had been knocked out since before her arrival. Looking around she saw blood dripping down a tree, while her head was blocking out some things Ruby still knew that trees don't bleed blood. Jumping upward she found the source of the blood, sky was laid out on a branch blood seeping out from where his back was propped up on a snapped off branch.
Checking for a pulse Ruby pulled back as the boy stirred. "Oh it's you"
"Don't speak I'll see if I can get help"
At this he nodded, "Just one thing keep our weapons use them better than we did, leave us something good to be remembered by."
"You're not dead yet quit talking like that." Ruby countered
At this he nodded staying quiet this time. Hearing movement below in the clearing Ruby dropped down to see Pyrrha moving through the clearing.
"Pyrrha we have two injured both critical any way we can get help out here".
At this the Spartan let out a sigh having feared the worst after seeing Ruby's weapon, and while relived the young girl was alive two more injured were not something the three of them could handle.
Yang was taking a breather after all the fighting her group just went through; she hadn't even bothered to count the number of Grimm that had come for them. Blake sat nearby on at stump, of a tree Nora had hit, her weapons leaned against it; she would have been reading if they weren't in a hostile environment. Nora was sprawled out under a tree her hammer resting by her side, she was quiet for once just calmly watching the clouds. Ren was lying next to her completely spent of energy.
In short none of them had any plans to move short of someone's life being on the line, none of them had so much as flinched when the ungodly loud roar had ripped through the forest. That is until Nora spotted something in the sky that wasn't a cloud.
"Flying Ursa"
And with that they all looked to see that indeed there was an Ursa tumbling upward in the air before reaching its apex and starting to fall back to remnant.
"I'm goanna find its catapult"
And with that Nora was off. Letting out a groan the group got up to follow after the crazed girl.
Goodwitch had found several of the missing students, most were in bad shape but we're alive and had been directed to the evacuation point. Unfortunately a few students hadn't been they had wound up isolated and getting overrun, there was little left of them. Scanning the trees for any sign of combat her gaze stopped when she spotted a flying Ursa, now that simply said someone was still kicking and winning from the looks of it. A quick application of her semblance and Glenda was flying towards the launch point of the Grimm.
Nora had be running full out with the rest of the group trailing behind her. Bursting into a clearing where she figured that the Ursa had come flying from she stopped seeing the carnage in the field. Ren stopped beside her hands on his knees looking at the ground unaware of what was in front of him. Yang came up next "so what did you fi...nd" she had pushed a branch out of the way only to stop in shock at the remains of team CRDL nearly losing her cookies. Blake upon seeing the field hung back unsure of what to do.
Pyrrha having caught movement at the edge of her vision turned from checking on Russell wounds to see her teammates and the rest of team RWBY at the edge of the clearing. "Guys we need help we've got three wounded with us."
At this Ren looked up and immediately regretted it throwing up at the sight. Yang, Blake and Nora rushed forward.
"Where's Ruby" Yang demand at Pyrrha, not seeing her sister but her ruined scythe.
"Up in the tree trying to help sky"
At this a red figure dropped from the tree seeing yang it charged.
"YANG!"
Yang recognized the voice as her sister picking her up in a hug as ruby ran into her. After a moment Ruby remembered just what she had been doing.
"I don't think sky is going to make it the branch is in deep"
Pyrrha let out a sigh "We can't move Russell ether his back is broken."
"Um where are Weiss and Jaune?" Blake asked "You said you had three wounded so is one of them injured?"
Ruby made to answer only to be cut off as Weiss burst from the tree line followed by Jaune.
"I told you I am capable of moving just fine on my own." Weiss shouted at Jaune who was trying to assist her.
"Sorry guys I couldn't stop her" the grouped nodded dumbly at what Jaune said more focused on Weiss half her jacket was covered in blood trailing down to her skirt before it dripped off to land on her skirt, boot and ground, her face had blood running down it and most of her hair was stained red and coated in slightly congealed blood. Weiss seemed not to notice how bad off she was, swaying slightly from side to side as she stood at the edge of the clearing.
.
"Um Weiss I think that's the adrenalin talking." the brawler spoke up.
"I said I'm fine" the heiress shot back while storming across the clearing somehow staying up right. "Now what's happened?"
Pyrrha informed her of what was going on "We have two critically injured from Team CRDL and two dead, Ruby is using Cardin's mace. We can't move Sky or Russell with what we have. And Sky is still trapped in the tree."
"Well its good the rest of you are still functioning at least, I've lost too many students today already." Everyone present turned to see Glenda dropping out of the sky. "I'll handle moving them gather their things we need to move fast if where to get back to the rest of the class. I've set up an evac point however there's a lot more Grimm in these woods than we you'll need to defend me as i move them." at this the students nodded. Ruby quickly gathered up the weapons as well as the parts from Crescent Rose, clipping them to her belt or the magnetic lock for Crescent Rose. In the end she looked like a pincushion, with a hauberk sticking out up over her shoulder, a gun sword sitting perpendicular to her spine on her back under the collapsed head of Crescent Rose and two dust daggers slipped into clips on Ruby's belt ended the look.
"You know Rubes if you need help I can take something. "
At this Ruby just smiled and shook her head "Sky entrusted these to me if they died, he said that they wanted to leave something worthwhile to be remembered by." the subject was dropped at this point those who heard Ruby could tell she was in shock.
"Alright everyone get ready to move." They all turned to see Miss Goodwitch suspending Sky and Russell in the air, blood was pooling in the air around them.
The group started moving Pyrrha and Yang taking point Blake, Ruby and Jaune formed up around Glenda, Sky, Russell and Weiss who while they didn't tell she was not on guard having her monitor the two boys. Nora was bringing up the rear with Ren.
They didn't speak with each other their eyes always moving keeping track of their surroundings weapons at ready, each covering a general area as they moved.
They covered ground quickly, after checking out the area ahead they would rush up as fast as they could with wounded to the next piece of cover before repeating the process.
As they were nearing a half mile from the evac point they stumbled across a lone Ursa moving towards the point. They all stopped dead and looked towards Glenda hoping for instructions. Only to find their teacher stunned at the size of the Grimm, it was the one that had killed most of her lost students and was now heading to where the rest were holding out against the Grimm of the forest.
"We need to kill this thing" it was Ruby who broke the silence
"And how do you think we will do that," Weiss spoke up keeping her voice a harsh whisper," it's armor must be a foot thick in places and it's covered in it."
Indeed the creature was covered nearly entirely in bone plate; the black fir of the Grimm could only be seen sticking out around the joints, large slabs of armor covered every flat surface of the Grimm leaving small gaps. Hardly anything of their current weapons would be able to do more than scratch at the Grimm.
Looking around Ruby pieced together a plan
"Nora please tell me you have some armor piercing left"
At this the girl thought for a moment "Yea I got a few rounds left. Why?" At this Ruby just smiled "here's the plan. We need to deal a lot of damage to it so we only have three, four, options. First we break its legs will need to hit right on the joints or have Weiss freeze it, then we get Nora to fire shells into the gaps in the armor or down it's very throat, if that falls I could try breaking its neck, Yang and Ren might be able to try as well, after that Weiss could try something with dust. I don't Know after that but as long as it can't move even if we can't kill it won't be able to go after us or anyone else."
At this the group nodded it was a solid plan with a good bit of flex in it and several trade out spots, the creature also hadn't moved far from where they spotted it.
Ruby started charging up her attack, spinning her new weapon with her semblance creating a blur of death and sound as it moved through the air.
Nora switched out several shells in her grenade launcher as everyone else checked their weapons Yang was manually putting the last of her shells in Ember Celica, Ren was checking his ammo for storm flower, Pyrrha already knew what she had left, Weiss was trying to figure out if she had enough dust for any large attacks. Jaune was looking at his sword before just letting out a sigh he had lost it once and while the sword and shield were highly resilient he lacked a more appropriate weapon.
At a unspoken signal Ruby, Nora and Yang rushed the Grimm. The movement caused the Grimm to notice them; it turned slowly as if unconcerned about them. It lazily raised a clawed hand to swat them aside, only for Yang to meet it head on stopping it dead. Ruby and Nora took advantage of this as they speeded forward Nara going for the closest back leg while Ruby went for the farthest one from her.
Nora simply swung her hammer into the knee of the Ursa a sickening cracking sound could be heard from the joint however the joint held.
At the same time Ruby used her semblance to speed over to the other leg stopping using the kinetic battery, and charging the battery farther, before unleashing all the energy amplified further by her semblance, the joint barely stood a chance the mace shearing deeply into the space between the armor plating nearly tearing the weapon from Ruby's hands.
As the giant Grimm roared in agony they cleared the area Nora looking to get shells into the mouth only for Weiss to take a shot sending a stream of orange and green dust into its mouth.
After a pained roar the creature dropped to the ground still.
The group stood ready not quite believing they took it out so easily, slowly Yang moved forward alone when she was nearly upon it. getting within a few feet of it she let her guard down only for the Ursa to snap back to life swatting her aside sending her flying through the air and flying out of the clearing through a tree.
The Group was shocked as the Grimm pulled itself to its most the way off the ground, its rear never leaving the ground, black ichor dripped from its mouth. it let out a roar before it lunged at the last two of the girls that attacked it pulling itself forward and into the air, the leg Ruby hit trailing behind with blood flowing from the wound.
Nora and Ruby cleared the landing moments before impact. The rest of their group was upon it as soon as it landed Pyrrha, Jaune and Blake where going for its eyes seeking to blind it, Ren brought a hand charged with Aura down onto the top of its muzzle slamming it's head down into the dirt, managing to crack the bone slightly, for the others to get better shots. Only for the Grimm to thrash before they could properly blind it, knocking them aside.
Blake got clear using a clone, Pyrrha blocked the hit with her shield her stance failing but her guard remained strong. Jaune managed to bring his shield up in time however was unable to brace for the hit, his sword arm had remained extended and in some stroke of luck he dropped the sword point down into the path of the Grimm's head just as it hit him sending him flying away.
The Grimm let out a roar of pain as they landed, Jaune noticed that his sword was missing again, climbing stiffly to his feet looking around to locate his weapon. Only not to find it anywhere near him, he looked back to the enraged Grimm only to see it finally lock its one eye on him as Crona Mora was stuck up to the hilt into it's now dead right eye.
Swallowing Jaune readied his shield as the Grimm readied itself to attack when a fireball burst from the shattered trees slamming into the Grimm and sending it staggering away the fire ball let out a yell of "come get some" showing it to be the brawler before charging the Grimm again knocking it down before Yang began smashing into the Grimm with enough force to damage the plates of armor. Yang stopped for just a brief moment to let out more of her semblance only for the Grimm to lash out again sending her flying this time into a boulder shattering it the inferno around Yang flared to new heights before a scream of pain erupted from the shattered rock. Yang stumbled out seconds later they couldn't see her properly from the glare of the flames but they could tell she was hurt bad, Yang charged forward only to stumble and fall before she could reach the Grimm.
"WHY DOES IT BURN." was the last they got from her as she hit the ground.
The whole group just stared at the human bonfire that was Yang unsure what to think they knew that the flames couldn't harm Yang, but still they had never seen her taken out so fast before. The Grimm let out a roar of triumph before turning to look at the other hunters. Ruby moved first turning to look at the Grimm with a look that promised death, her eyes were glazed over as she started swinging the mace around faster and faster with one hand, pulling Dove's sword out with the other, red and black rose petals soon covered the ground around her piling up at an impressive rate.
"You hurt my sister now you die." her voice was flat stating a truth not a promise.
Everyone took a step back from the red clad girl knowing something just snapped in the small girl at seeing her sister taken down in such a manner.
Nora acted first knowing Ruby wouldn't stop she began raining grenades down on the Grimm pulling its attention away from the young girl as she prepared her attack. the other's soon opened fire as well peppering the Grimm with bullets pulling its attention away from Ruby for a few seconds before their munitions ran dry.
Their cries of out where Ruby's quew to move dashing up at the Grimm appearing by its legs and slashing at the with accelerated sword swings cutting through the legs of the creature dropping it to the ground before she appeared again over its head and bringing the overcharged mace down on the top of its skull turning it into a black mist.
It slowly cleared to reveal Ruby standing on top the crushed head. Weapons in a relaxed grip.
Most of the standing students let out a cheer before hearing how few voices joined it; Weiss was passed out along with Ren. Jaune was slumped from where he fainted after they pulled the Grimm off him. Yang was still down and covered in flames.
Nora ran to Ren the moment she knew he was hurt, Pyrrha was moving to Jaune, Blake and Ruby started trying to get to Yang but were forced back from the flames. Ruby turned to Miss Goodwitch for help only to see her holding Weiss up in her arms and looking shocked at the body of the Grimm that they had just killed.
"Miss Goodwitch please help Yang."
Glenda slowly began coming out of her stupor, "Miss Rose take Miss Schnee and all see what i can do." Ruby rushed over and Grabbed her partner from Miss Goodwitch who then slowly made her way over to Yang the last two of team CRDL still floating behind her.
stopping near the burning girl Glinda slowly began drawing on her power before grabbing the flames with it and pulling them away from Yang sending them straight up into the air where the formed a massive fireball showing just how much energy was in the flames.
For a moment Yang was completely bare of any fire however small sparks could soon be seen moving in her hair.
"We need to move now, grab your teammates." Things were now as full fubar they had no combat ready people no one had any munitions left and everyone was forced to carry someone.
As they were finishing up Jaune woke up, they were still drastically short on manpower.
"Let's move fast we won't last long if we miss the evac." They started moving, Nora carrying Ren, Blake supporting Yang, Ruby holding Weiss, Pyrrha and Jaune taking up guard around them.
This had just started moving when several Ursa burst from the trees to there right, Pyrrha and Jaune moved to intercept with Blake getting ready to leave Yang with a clone.
Only for the Grimm to erupt into a cloud of black smoke and flesh under the firepower of a chain gun.
Turning around they were greeted with what they would call the best site they've ever seen for years to come, a bullhead cresting over the trees guns still spinning from the short burst of fire. The ship dropped down as soon as it was clear of the trees, the doors sliding open with them being waved on. "We got to good now, nevermore's just got spotted heading for us!"
The young hunters needed no further encouragement moving as fast as they could to get on to the bullhead. Nora made it first laying Ren down before heading to help Blake with Yang, Ruby got Weiss on board just in front of Sky and Russell whom the on board core man rushed to seeing their states, followed by Glenda before Yang was pulled on next by Nora and Blake. Pyrrha and Jaune were last having guarded the rear from any more surprises.
They were in the air before the door closed. The medic who had been working on Sky and Russell called to the pilot after a quick check over the rest of them, "redirect to the hospital and call in for possible ten. five critically injured, two massive trauma, one head trauma, one internal bleeding, all unconscious and five unknowns." They couldn't hear the pilot's response but the increase in speed told them what they needed to know they weren't heading back to Beacon any time soon.
The flight was quiet no one was talking, Nora just sat by Ren with his head on her lap, Ruby sat between Weiss and Yang glancing between the two, Blake sat nearby trying to comfort the small girl. Glenda was still holding Sky and Russell in the air as the medic worked on them.
Once they arrived at the hospital there was a fury of activity, as they were set upon by nurses and orderlies. Sky and Russell were rushed off to surgery with Weiss and Yang following shortly after. Ruby tried to follow but was pulled aside told she had her own check up to have and would see them later.
Ruby, Blake, Nora, Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ren were rushed elsewhere and were soon given a thorough check up. Ruby and Blake were cleared right away with heavy bruising and a few pulled muscles being the worst they had, Ruby was still in shock however as long as someone kept an eye on her she was free to go. Ren was to be held overnight or until he regained consciousness, Nora passed with only fatigue.
Pyrrha and Jaune were in similar condition, Pyrrha not taking much damage and Jaune recovering from it before they arrived.
None of them were in a hurry to be sent back to Beacon without at least hearing about those that came in with them. They sat around outside of the surgery wing waiting for any news. Several people were moved out several they recognized from class, others they didn't. Eventually a doctor came out and called for Ruby and Blake.
The two looked at each other before standing and following the doctor.
"Both Yang and Weiss will be fine; Yang ruptured her appendix and had large amounts of internal hemorrhaging. We closed everything up and with rest she will be fine. Just her semblance is energy absorption correct?"
"We always thought it was damage absorption because Yang would get stronger when she got hit, but we could be wrong." Ruby supplied.
At this the doctor nodded writing down notes. "I was wondering because the room dropped several degrees while Yang's surgery was under way. I suspect that your sister finally started using her semblance to its fullest extent and over loaded herself and is now trying to restore her normal energy levels by pulling it from her surroundings. Now Weiss was a different story, she'll be fine, don't worry; has she told either of you about her heritage. "
At this Ruby and Blake just looked at each other confused, Blake spoke for them. "Not much other than whom her parents are and being heiress to the Schnee dust company. Why?"
At this the doctor let out a sigh, "I was afraid of this, Weiss is a Faunus and it appears that her family went to great lengths to conceal this from the world, and Weiss. We found two thin steel plates placed under her skin over her Faunus set of ears, they are actually what could have very well have saved her life. We removed the plates and set her ears so they should grow, she's lucky enough that they didn't grow in inverted, Faunus traits have a habit of growing back."
The girls could only nod at this.
"Point is we need someone to break it to her when she wakes up. We expect her to take it rather poorly to say the least. Anyhow both Yang and Weiss have been cleared to be moved to Beacon within the hour as we expect more people to end up here unfortunately. I hope you're day improves from here, that is all." he turned to leave.
"What of the others who came in with them?" Ruby asked
"They are still under it will be tomorrow before we find anything definitive."
And with that he walked off, no doubt on a tight schedule for what could happen later.
Both girls stood there for a moment "We should go tell the others." Ruby spoke getting Blake to nod. They walked back to their friends in silence.
"What did he tell you two is everything alright?" Jaune asked the other's looking over at them hopeful.
Blake spoke first. "Yang and Weiss are fine and out of surgery and are being moved over to Beacon, we got no news on Ren, Sky or Russell. We're going to head back to Beacon with Yang and Weiss. We should be able to get you a lift if you want to come with us."
Ruby looked at Blake a little strange at what she said but didn't say anything about it after Blake gave her a look of I'll tell you later.
Pyrrha and Jaune were trying to convince Nora to go get some rest however she was having none of it refusing to leave until she knew Ren was fine. Eventually they gave up Pyrrha volunteered to stay with Nora and Jaune couldn't argue with her.
"So Looks like I'm going with you two we should probably get going then." at this Blake and Ruby nodded before heading back towards the landing platform. After getting permission and directions they found the ship that Yang, Weiss and several other students would be sent out on. They sat together as slowly students where filed in, some injured others not eventually Yang and Weiss were wheeled on stretchers, Yang was under a heavy duty heated blanket and sparks were dancing all over her hair, as the ship finished filling. Ruby was immediately moving over to them.
She was handed the bags of their personal effects Ruby did a Quick check to see if everything was there, while Yang and Weiss were strapped down.
They were in the air in minutes after the door sealed. Ruby simply stayed by her sister and partner holding their bags and the weapons of team CRDL to her chest.
The adrenaline of battle had long since worn off and seeing her team mates like this was starting to eat at her mind, Blake hoped that one of them would wake up soon just so Ruby would stop panicking. Looking around Blake could see that a lot of the students had some form a injury either favoring a side or sporting a cast or bandages, most had fallen asleep after the events of the past few hours. Ruby and herself were about the only ones still awake, herself from being used to such events do to her old life, and Ruby from the stress. Blake doubted that much of anything could pull Ruby from their sides. Reaching to pull out a book Blake found it missing having fallen out some time earlier on in the day. With a sigh she leaned back with her eyes half closed looking like she was asleep.
When the bullhead touched down at Beacon only a handful of students started moving, Blake got Jaune up and began getting Ruby ready to go, picking up the bags from Weiss and Yang. Blake didn't bother trying to take any of the weapons off the girl knowing that they were the only thing giving the distressed girl any comfort in some strange way.
As aide's started filing on to help students off Blake made sure that she stayed by Ruby's side. Nearly everyone was being directed to the school's infirmary, and no one was stopping teammates and friends from following.
Reaching the infirmary the students were checked for their injuries before being assigned to a bed or told that they were free to go, most stayed to help their teammates. When Weiss and Yang were rolled up they identified them by injuries alone. They didn't try to move them right away trying to get Ruby's identification; Blake provided it for them as well as her own.
When they were told Ruby was in shock still after seeing two of team CRDL dead and the other two still in surgery the head nurse cursed low enough that only Blake made it out clearly.
"Yang was slated to be placed in a private room so we could isolate her if her semblance got out of control, however we can't put Weiss next store as we could need the other rooms. Best we can do is have Weiss as close to the private word as possible."
At this Blake could only sigh and nod "Call me if things get out of hand, just make sure Ruby knows she can go back and forth between them or she will find a way."
At this the medic nodded "Tell Miss Rose then for us." Blake nodded before walking to the small girl still fretting over everything.
Placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder mind full of the amount of steel that the girl was still carrying she got Ruby's attention, "Hey how are you holding up?"
"Alright I guess Blake I think I'll stay with them tonight if there's no problem with it. "
"Do you want to get cleaned up?" Blake asked. Ruby just shook her head "No I'm staying here." Blake nodded "Do you want me to bring you anything?" "Nope," was Ruby's response. Blake let out a sigh "did you hear that they need to isolate Yang in case she starts freezing everything."
"I heard that, don't worry I'll be fine."
Blake nodded before saying "Alright just don't push yourself too much we've a rough day." She stood around for a bit unsure of what to do "I'm going back to the dorm call me if they wake up, I'll come back in the morning alright." Ruby nodded absently.
Seeing she wasn't doing anything Blake let out another sigh before leaving for her dorm, knowing that it would be a long restless night.
Blake woke to a empty room, to a slight panic thinking that she had wound up the only survivor, before she remembered. "Yang and Weiss were injured and Ruby stayed with them." Sitting up she pulled out her scroll seeing a message, opening the message to see it was from the infirmary staff and that Yang and Weiss were now awake and Ruby had finally fallen asleep.
Let out a sigh Blake hopped out of bed and stretched before heading to the bathroom attached to the dorm room. A few minutes later she walked back out fully dressed in her casual clothes, before heading off to the infirmary.
Arriving Blake could see that many of the bed's where full, walking down to the back end of the room she stopped in front of the bed Weiss occupied and started laughing, there was Weiss half asleep and stuck with Ruby curled up into her side.
