The Tödlich Flüstern was bustling with activity in preparation for the upcoming assault on the White Fang fortress. Bullheads came and went transporting troops and vehicles to the ground while other ships were armed and fueled for an airborne attack. The Atlesian warship wasn't the only one on the warpath as it was accompanied by an assortment of smaller Mistrali air units and hunter owned craft. There were many hunters that had been called upon to assist in the attack and though many had turned their heads or outright declined the request enough had answered the call to tip the fight in favor of Mistral.

"I've got a bad feeling about this one," Weiss had been nervous since the airship had left Mistral "We don't know what to expect down there and we all know that the White Fang in the city were mostly new recruits which begs the question: where are their main forces? The answer is most likely here."

"Come on Weiss quit worrying, we've got this handled. Not only do we have the full light of this entire warship with us but we've got some of Mistral's forces as well plus a few hundred hunters, not to mention us," Alton attempted to reassure Weiss to hide his own mixed feelings "It's not like they're an actual army anyways, they're just a bunch of criminals and rebels."

"You're wrong. The majority of Mistral's White Fang are ex-military or were once among the bandit tribes which makes them on par with if not equal to a qualified fighting force which gives them an advantage defensively considering that half of their facilities are below hundreds of feet of rock," Tiphany walked into the armory where Alton and Weiss had been preparing.

"Lemme guess, you've been hanging out with the analytics crew again," Alton said turning away from his half disassembled weapon to his teammate.

"Nope, communications," the blonde corrected her leader before continuing "They were relaying some info from the Mistrali forces to Winter for some plan she's got cooking."

"I wonder what she's up to," Weiss finished loading dust cartridges into Myrtenaster before standing up from the weapon table.

"Probably something to do with the countless hunters that just arrived, there was a group of about twenty hunter registered airships that just showed up," Tiphany pulled up a diagram of the fleet with her scroll and showed it to Weiss and Alton.

"As I was saying before we've got this."

"Keep telling yourself that but I'm sure that something is going to go terribly wrong," Weiss looked at her scroll before gesturing to her temporary teammates "We're due for departure in ten minutes, we should finish up and get to the hangar."

"Sure, you two head on I'm going to top off Fulgur Mortem's charge and check on Carla before we leave," Alton nodded before he and Weiss left Tiphany to her weapon.

Once the pair had left Tiphany set her weapon on a table and connected its power core to a outlet in the wall before sitting down and resting her head in her hands.

"Oh what did I do to deserve this," Tiphany sighed as she talked to herself "First Carla gets hurt and now there's a good chance of me dying before I can say sorry. At least I've still got my weapon and a very real opportunity to kill the bastard responsible for the bombs," Tiphany was interrupted by the beep of her weapons battery at full charge.

"Well back to the front I guess," Tiphany plugged the large battery into the railgun and left the small armory to visit her crippled partner before the battle.

"Cream if anything happens to the Adder your pint sized ass is mine, got it?" the minuscule mute gave a mock salute as her fellow pilot rants about proper treatment of the Adder.

"Also be careful firing the auto cannons they tend to jam in low temps and honestly at high altitudes you're better off with the rockets anyways," Cream nodded in agreement while the pair walked across the hangar to where the Adder had been docked and prepped for the HALO drop.

"I'm glad you'll be our pilot for this op, there aren't many pilots I'd trust with my ship but you're one of them."

"Thanks Nadia, I'd say the same for you but I'm not that attached to my ship," Cream made use of her scroll's text to speech function.

"Why not?"

"Well I was only transferred here just after my graduation from the academy and just before we were deployed so I was given a secondhand ship that was originally assigned to someone else who had been reassigned but their ship hadn't been moved yet so it's mine now."

"Sounds like some paperwork was mixed up."

"Yeah, paperwork. Hey look your team is finally here," Cream pointed out where Alton, Tiphany, and Weiss had entered the hangar and were heading towards them.

"Hey Tiph, how's Carla doing?" Nadia asked the solemn looking blonde when she approached.

"Her condition is stable and right now they're putting the prosthetic caps on for when the doctor gets here, they said he'll be here in a day or two, other than that there isn't much else to be said," Tiphany spoke as they walked the rest of the way to their ship.

"Look I know everybody has their own levels of self blame as far as she's concerned but this is an important battle and we all need to have our heads screwed on right so leave the dwelling for later when we tell Carla how badass we were, alright?" Alton tried to put on a brave smile and it helped, somewhat.

"Thanks chief," Tiphany hugged her leader quickly before strapping into her seat.

The moments before the Adder lifted off felt less like seconds and more like hours. The stress was almost palpable in these few seconds before the storm amassing above the White Fang fortress broke loose. Below the Faunus were waiting in their fortifications for the onslaught, looking into the distance they could see the barest glints of running lights on some of the airships but the Tödlich Flüstern was completely invisible to the naked eye and sensors alike with its Atlesian stealth tech.


"How much time do we have?"

Adam Taurus was anxious, he knew the coming battle would cause heavy losses on their side and they simply didn't have the resources to evacuate their entire force.

"By our calculations there are two minutes until their weapons are in firing range and another ten after that until they can effectively deploy ground troops, they could however attempt to launch a bombing run but they wouldn't dare with the sheer amount of anti-air weapons we have," one of the officers in the central command station deep within the fortress answered the bulls question.

"Good, that gives us some time to evacuate our more valuable assets. Give the command to load up our best warriors and all of our sensitive data aboard the ships, I will be along shortly there is a matter I must attend to personally," Adam strode out of the dark command station and into the dimly lit hall and proceeded to a elevator which would take him directly to the deepest chamber of the massive stronghold.

The elevator door opens upon a long chamber lined with scientific equipment being monitored by many Faunus in lab coats.

"Sir, we received your order to destroy all replaceable equipment and transport everything else but what do we do about the subject?" the lead scientist wiped sweat from his brow while gesturing erratically to a massive metal door at the opposite end of the hall.

"Leave a few guards and someone who knows how to open the door and tell them to release it as soon as the ships have left," Adam nodded grimly with his hand gripping his sword tightly.

"But sir they'll die!"

"A small sacrifice to keep it busy until the hunters arrive."

"Hunters?"

"They've sent hunters to fight us, no doubt the best of the best, the thing in there will deal with them."

"Ah, very good. I'll make sure they're equipped with the best suited equipment to last as long as possible."

"Good, now hurry up and pack what you need and burn the rest, we leave in five minutes!" Adam turned and entered the elevator once again while the scientists and their guards scrambled to pack the most important equipment.


"We are approaching the drop point, make sure your oxygen is fastened correctly before equipping your chute, keep in mind that it's going to be cold as hell out there, like in the negatives cold," Cream spoke through the comm system with her scroll.

"Got it," Alton unbuckled himself before walking to a rack on the wall and retrieving his and Weiss's parachute "Come on Weiss you're dropping with me."

"Why do I have to go with you?"

"Because I'm the tallest and have the most wind resistance so we'll fall slower before we pull the chute," Alton began tightening his half of the parachute harness around his arms and legs before gesturing for Weiss to step into her half so he could strap her in.

"Ugh fine, but you'd better not get us killed!"

"You insult me with your distrust," Alton feigned mock offense "I've performed this maneuver hundreds of times and never once has there been an accident, well except that one time I sprained my ankle but that's because I landed on a loose rock."

"He's done it twelve times and he didn't sprain his ankle he dislocated his entire leg," Nadia cut in with a snicker from across the cargo bay.

"Not helping Nadia," Alton shot back.

"Neither of you are helping so shut up," Weiss had finally strapped in and after Nadia's remark her face had gone paler than normal.

Tiphany and Nadia had strapped their oxygen masks on and Alton helped Weiss with hers before he did his own.

"I'm opening the door, step back."

The ramp lowered and the sub zero wind of the stratosphere roared in whipping hair and clothes around before it settled and became a steady flow of cold air. Alton could feel Weiss tense at the sight of the inside of the massive thunderstorm that hung in the air around them.

Alton thumbed his earpiece and spoke into the microphone attached to his oxygen mask "Alright, is everyone ready because it's now or never," Nadia and Tiphany nodded and Weiss simply clutched her harness tighter.

"Come on Chief, you know how I love to fly," Nadia spoke into her own mic.

"In that case, three, two, one, bail!" The four of them ran forward and jumped from the open door of the airship.

The wind howled and it was then they realized the clouds had opened up and rain was falling with them. All around it was only darkness and cold for a few seconds before lightning flashed illuminating the soon to be battlefield below.

"Oh, shit," these were the last words Weiss spoke before she passed out.

"Weiss is out, I repeat Weiss is out," Alton notified his teammates.

"Acknowledged, we should change formation to account for that. Tiphany and I will take lead, Alton you pull back so you've got more time to deal with Weiss," Nadia suggested already angling further down to take her position.

"Agreed, Tiphany take the left, Nadia you've already got right."

They glided down in near silence while they could see explosions and gunfire growing ever nearer where the advance drop teams were dealing with the anti air emplacements. Alton switched his earpiece to the advance team radio channel.

"How goes the assault?"

"So far we've destroyed or sabotaged an estimated fifty percent of their defenses and cleared a path for you to the entrance. We have only sustained minor injuries to our men and the androids have taken a few casualties and minor damage while the paladins have hardly taken any damage and are currently tearing through their main artillery batteries," the commander of the advance force answered among the chatter of silenced gunfire and tearing metal.

"That's good to hear, my team will be arriving soon we're pulling chutes now. I'm signing off now I'll meet up with you on our designated landing point."

"Understood sir, be careful around there though we've seen Grimm activity around there lately," Alton clicked off his comms system before pulling his ripcord just after Nadia and Tiphany.

The four of them glided down below the anti air fire that was targeting the airships that had begun to open fire and their constant barrage pounded the mountainside with tons of ordinance. The anti air was severely outmatched against the heavily armored airships as the heavier guns had been destroyed by the advance crew. A flight of heavy bombers roared overhead dropping their payload across the top of the plateau and caving in hundreds of chambers and tunnels and destroying many gun emplacements.

"Tiph, we've got a welcoming party," Nadia pointed at a group of White Fang who were entangled in a massive melee with a pack of Beowolves.

"I see em'. Nadia light up those Grimm, I'll handle the Fang."

Three volleys of missiles tore the Grimm apart while a few well aimed shots of Tiphany's railgun punched through the few White Fang who remained. Nadia and Tiphany hit the ground running and unhooked their parachutes before making sure the landing zone was cleared. Alton came in behind them and once he had released his chute he unstrapped his unconscious passenger.

"Weiss, Weiss, Weiss you've gotta wake up," Alton shook her in a vain attempt to rouse her from her shock induced fainting spell.

"I've got this," Nadia cocked a pistol she had retrieved off a dead White Fang soldier and fired it next to Weiss's head "It's time to WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

Weiss scrambled to her feet and pulled Myrtenaster on the snake Faunus.

"Holy Oum! Why would you do that?" the heiress was gasping for breath and clutched her ear which was still ringing from the rude awakening she had received.

"You passed out during the drop, Nadia woke you up. Now let's get moving," Alton turned and drew Abbysus Ignis in its dual smg form and jogged towards where the entrance to the fortress would be.

They reached the entrance and waiting for them there was a squad of Atlesian spec ops.

"Captain," Alton nodded in greeting to the captain of the advance group.

"Alton. My men are at your command."

"In that case head in ahead of us, clear the most immediate rooms and corridors, we'll be in as soon as we deal with something up here

"Understood. Let's move in!" the captain and his soldiers kicked open the door of the entry stairway and went down guns blazing, cutting through the few White Fang who stood to oppose them.

"Alton what are we waiting for?" Weiss questioned.

"Nadia senses some Grimm coming and we don't want anything coming in after us and we definitely don't want to be fighting this King Taijitu inside,"

"Wait, what?"

Before Weiss could ask any more questions the ground in front of them burst open and a massive King Taijitu slithered out before swinging its other head around to bear.

The ebony head struck out at Nadia before anyone could react but she was ready and jumped out of the way before slamming its head into the ground with her kanabo. Alton turned to the ivory head too late and only saw its fanged maw before being thrown into a stone wall. The ivory head reared to finish him off but when it struck nothing happened. Alton opened his eyes to see that Weiss had blocked it by skewering the snake through its jaw. The monster struggled to free its mouth from the blade that pierced its lower jaw and protruded through the top of its head.

"Now, now, we can't have you struggling can we," Weiss pulled the trigger of Myrtenaster which released and ignited a canister of ice dust and froze the snakes head solid.

In response to its head being incapacitated the King Taijitu thrashed in a vain attempt to smash the block of ice, Weiss was having none of it however and quickly pierced the snake in other places along its thick sinewed body before igniting more ice dust to fully immobilize the half they were fighting.

"Alton, are you okay?" Weiss turned to her friend only now realizing how bad the hit he'd taken had been.

Alton pulled himself to his feet and merged his weapons into their naginata form, "Yeah, I'm good. Thanks for the save."

"No problem, now let's skin this two headed freak!"

Weiss struck the now freed head with a flurry of blows which gained her its undivided attention while Alton used its distraction to activate his semblance and leap atop the snakes head.

"Let's see how you like this new feature I added," Alton experimentally twisted the shaft of his weapon and to his relief it spun around the central grip as he had intended.

Launching himself into a string of acrobatic leaps and tumbles Alton ducked and dodged his way along the length of the Grimm carving chunks out of it with his spinning dual ended blade. After landing from a back flip Alton glanced over at the other head where his partner and other teammate were having about the same amount of difficulty except that Nadia had smashed the beasts fangs through its snout. Turning back to his own head Weiss had blocked it with a wall of ice spikes and Alton could only watch as she vaulted the construct and stabbed the snake through the eyes before setting them ablaze with a massive gout of dust fueled flame. Alton jumped back on top the blinded beasts back and cut into it once more carving a path of blood into the scaled creature. The King Taijitu bucked and writhed in pain attempting to hit one of the huntsmen in its blind fury but it's attacks were only used against it when Alton used a bucking coil to spring into the air and spear the Grimms skull with a downward thrust putting the head out of its misery.

Meanwhile on the other end of the snake Tiphany sunk her flails blades deep into the remaining heads lower jaw crushing it slightly and pulling it open at the same time and Nadia took that opportunity to fire an entire volley of rockets down its throat the detonation of which completely decimated the base of the creatures skull removing the head entirely.

"Man that bastard was tough," Tiphany stretched before changing her weapon back to its ranged form.

"You think? I mean it's not like he literally smashed through the ground to fight us," Nadia laughed and gestured at the hole it had emerged from.

"It was a difficult opponent but we pulled through and that's what counts," Weiss wiped Myrtenaster clean before walking over to Alton and putting her hand on his shoulder "Sorry about passing out earlier, I hope my save back there made up for it."

"It's fine Weiss, you handled that thing really well in my temporary absence though."

"Thanks, we should probably get moving though before more Grimm show up."

The four of them picked their way past the bodies that crowded the stairway into the stronghold and began to descend into the cold stone depths.


"Adam you've gone too far. Blake realized it first and I'm disappointed that I didn't realize it then either. You just keep getting worse don't you, first it was an accident, then self defense, then it was justice, but now? Now it's just slaughter, that's exactly what you did in Mistral and don't try to sugar coat it! You killed innocent people, you killed children for fucks sake! You even killed fellow Faunus just because they were trying to defend their friends and loved ones. Is this the world you want, Adam? Is it?! A world where a Faunus is afraid to love a human not because the humans will ridicule them but because they'll be killed by their own kin? If that's the case then you can count me out of he White Fang, and after you sent me of all people to kill Blake and her family that was the last straw, she almost died but I figured out where my loyalties lie Adam and they sure as hell aren't with you! Now the twins are in prison and Menagerie knows who you are. You, Adam Taurus, are a murderer and a criminal, not a revolutionary, not a savior, just a monster. Ilia Amitola signing out once and for all," Adam listened to the voicemail click off after playing Ilia's message.

"Oh Ilia, you've made a great mistake. You've allowed dear Blake to live and now you're both going to die. Maybe not now but definitely later if I have my way. A monster I may be but all monsters have a reason and from one view a monster is just a misunderstood hero. One way or another you will bleed and I'll have you bleed with every last human in Remnant," Adam spoke to himself aboard his personal Bullhead.

"Did you say something sir?" One of Adams crimson clad elite guard asked from where he sat across the Bullhead.

"Hmm? No, I did not. How much longer till we reach the base?"

"Another hour sir."

"Good."


"Is this a dining hall? Really, a dining hall here, underneath a mountain? They could've at least put it close to the surface so they could more easily remove fumes from the stoves and ovens," Tiphany looked around the massive room they found themselves in on their way down into the mountain fortress.

"I don't think that they had thought that far ahead during construction and with a facility this big there are undoubtedly more than just this one dining hall," Nadia stood up on top of a table as she spoke to Tiphany.

"Is that really necessary, I mean the room isn't that big," Weiss complained to Nadia who only looked down on the shorter girl.

"Come on Weiss just because you'd like to feel tall sometimes doesn't mean you need to get on peoples backs about getting some high ground in situations like this," Alton chuckled as he looked under a table.

As the four of them made their way across the dining hall a large crash came from the kitchen in the back and a large jet of flame shot from a stove, then more crashing as whatever caused the original noise scrambled away from the fire knocking over more pots and pans along the way.

"Nadia check that out, we'll check the rest of the kitchen while you deal with whoever, or whatever that was," Alton pointed in the direction of the cafeteria kitchen.

"You got it Chief," Nadia ran across the rows of tables to reach the kitchen and drew her kanabo as she vaulted the counter to search the area.

"Be warned I am armed and ready to kick your ass if you don't surrender immediately," Nadia was surprised to see a pair of feathered hands shoot up from behind a sink.

"Please don't kill me, I was just getting a snack," a feeble voice called from where whoever they were was hiding.

"And why would I kill you for that? I don't give a damn what happens to this place."

"So you're not one of my superiors here to berate me for deserting?"

"No, I'm a hunter with the Atlesian warship that's currently tearing this place down pebble by pebble, now get up from behind there before I do shoot you," Nadia drew the pistol which she still had from earlier and pointed it at the feathered hands and then the boy they belonged to.

"Please don't shoot me, I'm unarmed, see?" The gangly boy stretched his feathered arms as if to demonstrate his lack of weaponry.

"What's that in your pocket?"

"What d'you mean?"

"I mean show me what's in your damn pocket."

The brightly colored parrot Faunus slowly reached into the pocket of his White Fang uniform and withdrew a few candy bars and a bag of chips and Nadia gave an internal sigh of relief.

"Ok that's fine, now explain what you're doing down here and why you deserted your post."

"Well it started with my parents forcing me to sign up with them and that was a few weeks ago so I'm a pretty new recruit. I was assigned to one of the artillery stations for the battle but when I saw one of those paladins coming our way I split. Next thing I know I'm hiding in here and you four come in. To be honest I didn't want to join the Fang in the first place but my parents said they wouldn't let me move out until I'd killed at least one human for the White Fang and that's why I'm here in the cafeteria stealing snacks."

"Cool, well your shitty parents are probably dead or arrested by now if they were posted here or involved in the riots. Why don't you tell us where your 'supreme leader' Adam Taurus, is?"

"Oh he's long gone," the young Faunus had opened a bag of chips and begun eating them noisily.

"He's gone. When did he leave? Where did he go?" Nadia puts her hands on her hips growing annoyed at the amount of info she's getting.

The boy swallows before continuing, "I've got no fucking clue, they grabbed a bunch of stuff from the basement and then flew off, they left about five minutes before you four got here," the boy offers Nadia a chocolate bar from his collection of snacks "Chocolate?"

"Sure. Is there anything you can tell us about the lowest level?"

"Well they occasionally take Grimm down there and there's a lot of weird noises been coming from down there lately and a lot of screams a few minutes ago other than that they keep it completely off limits, there's an elevator that takes you straight there down a few more levels though."

"Well thanks for your help, we'll make sure you don't get in any trouble for being here just lay low and stay here and we'll make sure that our men come and get you soon, got it?"

The Faunus boy nodded before combing through his feathers as the team walked out of the mess hall.

"Nadia that chocolate could be poisoned I don't suggest... Oh my Oum you're eating it." Weiss chased Nadia down the hall attempting to make her spit the chocolate out but failed and Nadia flipped her off as she wolfed down the last of the candy.

"Chocolate is my favorite and I'll be damned if anything, even poison, keeps me from eating it," Nadia laughed before doubling over and begins retching.

"I knew it was poisoned! Alton get over here and help me!" Weiss shouted scrambling to help Nadia before she realizes that she had begun laughing.

"Oh my gods! You should have seen your face! You were all like 'Oh no she's going to die! I totally called it!' Was I really that convincing?"

"Ha ha, very funny. I thought you were actually sick. I guess next time something serious actually happens to you I'll just leave you to laugh it off," Weiss turns and stomps off down the hall in the direction of the staircase they were looking for.

"Too much?" Nadia asked turning to her teammates.

Tiphany and Alton only shook their heads. They continued on down the dark corridor and down the staircase at its end. At the bottom of the staircase another corridor stretched into the distance but at the end they could see the flickering of sparking wires and a small electrical fire. Weiss stood near the damaged elevator at the end of the hall.

Weiss gestured them over before speaking, "There were gunshots when I got here and then the elevator came up like this," Weiss pointed at a massive bloodstain in the elevator and then to the bloody hand prints on the floor looking as if they'd been dragged away.

"What do you think we're dealing with?" Alton pointed out the gashes in the walls of the elevator, "These don't look like anything I've even heard of."

"I don't know what it is but I'm definitely sensing something really strong down there. It's big too, probably almost as big as the Terrortuga," Nadia shook her head.

"Whatever It is we've got to deal with it so we'd best be getting down there," Tiphany put her hand to the elevator control panel and strained its systems so the brakes failed letting the elevator drop straight to the bottom, "Ladies first," Tiphany smirked before dropping down the shaft.

Weiss, Nadia, and Alton glanced at each other before going down after her. There was a thunderous crash from the bottom that sent dust flying up the shaft blinding them and then impact as they came down on top of the smashed elevator. The smoke and dust cleared to reveal before them a massive corridor lined with burned and smashed computers and almost every surface was stained with blood and peppered with bullet holes. Casings littered the ground and the stone walls and floor were gouged with massive sweeping cuts. At the end of the room was a massive slightly ajar blast door, standing in front of the door was a woman in a stained and bloody lab coat clutching a pistol like it was the only thing keeping her heart beating.

"It's too late for me, just kill it," the woman had barely spoken when a tentacle like limb snaked across the floor through the doorway and stabbed her through the chest with the massive blade on the end of the appendage.

The woman was dragged screaming through the gap in the door leaving a trail of blood in her wake.

"I'm not sure I want to know what did that but we don't really have a choice, do we?" Tiphany stared at the freshly spilled blood in horror.

"If it's Grimm we kill it, if it's something else we still kill it because whatever they were doing here definitely isn't natural so we destroy whatever it is they left in there," Alton started walking towards the door with Abbysus Ignis drawn in its smg form.

"Brrzt- Alton? This is Captain Lime of the advance force, we've encountered some hunters that have made it this far, would you like their assistance?" Alton's mic crackled with interference from the caverns around them.

"Yes send them down, I assume you found the command room alright with our feathered friends help."

"He was very cooperative and the command room is clear with no casualties on either side all command officers are accounted for except Adam Taurus and his lieutenants but the Faunus kid explained that to us. Good luck with whatever you've found down there."

"Thank you Captain, Alton Goldenrod signing off," Alton clicked off his mic and turned to his teammates and Weiss, "We should have reinforcements here in a few minutes, other hunters too so that should make this a hell of a lot easier so now instead of killing it ourselves we just have to wear it down until those hunters get here."

"Good, let's just hope they're competent and not just lucky," Weiss scoffed while drawing Myrtenaster "Now let's just get this over with it stinks down here."

The four huntsmen ducked under the blast door and were greeted by more blood and a crater. At the bottom of the crater was a pulsing black blob the size of a tank surrounded by bodies. Watching in disgusted awe the four hunters did nothing as a limb detached itself from the strange creature and reached out to pick up one of the bodies with its blade. The grafted steel cut into the Faunus's flesh like butter and the limb brought the corpse to the main body where a portion of its tarlike flesh opened up revealing a maw lined with teeth on every inch of open surface. The body was torn to shreds and swallowed in an instant as the mouth became a blender when the teeth spun.

Nadia doubled over at the sight heaving what little she had in her stomach onto the floor.

"That is just messed up," Weiss looked away in disgust.

Then the creatures mouth sealed shut and two beady red eyes pushed through its flesh and locked onto the young hunters. It's mouth opened again and this time nothing went in but out of it came an earsplitting shriek that rattled the eardrums of all who heard it.

"Well I guess that's our queue!" Alton launched himself into the crater and opened fire on the blob of oozing flesh.

Another blood curdling squeal from the creature before a few dozen limbs pulled themselves from the flesh and began to move jerkily as if they were the death throes of a massive spider. Each spindly limb was tipped with a massive blade either metal or the strange bone like armor Grimm had. The limbs leaped and jerked in truly unnatural ways but they were still capable as evidence by the long sweeping attacks and blindingly quick jabs they made at Alton who could only block them unable to dodge with the sheer frequency of the attacks. Weiss ran along the edge of the crater casting glyphs and firing fire balls and bolts of ice into the pulsing writhing mass of gross. Nadia fired rockets into the main mass while swatting away limbs that came her way. Tiphany ensnared limbs that went after her and ripped them from the body of the Grimm but the limbs only melted into the same liquid that made up spawning pits and seeped back to the main body where they reformed the limbs.

"Guys the tentacles just grow back if you remove them so don't bother trying!" Tiphany shouted while switching to range so she could at least deflect the attacks with railgun slugs.

"My dust isn't doing anything either, the fire is just going out and the ice is shattering," Weiss leapt away from a sweeping blade and cut another with a spinning glyph.

"I've got an idea! Weiss if you have any gravity dust we need to sprinkle that in the puddles the destroyed arms that way the just get lifted into the air and can't reform," Nadia called from where she and Alton were back to back in a tangle of slashing blades.

"Or you can freeze the puddles to give us an opening to attack the main body. From what I've seen that's the only way we'll do any damage," Alton called over a burst of gunfire from his bladed smgs.

Weiss nodded and jumped into the fray cutting limbs loose and spraying the ensuing puddles of Grimm essence with ice dust. Alton activated his semblance and carves a blazing path through the forest of bladed limbs leaving puddles in his wake. The creature is screaming constantly now in both pain and fury. Suddenly the creature stops moving entirely and the everyone stops attacking it as well in anticipation of what it will do next. An even louder shriek than all before erupts from the monster and all the frozen shards of its limbs shatter and are sucked back into its body. Now just a screeching orb a rumbling in the ground can be felt and just as suddenly as it stopped there is movement again but this time from the door. The team turns to see the commotion only to watch the door get smashed in by a swarm of smaller Grimm. Many are cut down by a hail of gunfire but many make it into the room unhindered but what's strange is they aren't attacking the hunters but they are being attacked by the strange Grimm in the crater, many Grimm are snatched by the regrown limbs and sucked into the mass of tar like flesh that is growing at an alarming rate. Most of the Grimm are eaten in moments but the last Grimm, a lumbering alpha Ursa is making its way into the room but is interrupted by a flash of bullets cutting through the limbs that reached out to trap it. The Ursa is distracted and turns only to see a flash of red before being cut clean in half leaving its fading halves laying on the floor in the midst of hundreds of rose petals.

"Who the hell is that?" Tiphany asked in reference to the quartet of hunters that had arrived in a blaze of gunfire and dead Grimm.

"That. That is Ruby Rose, and a few others but I could care less about them right now," Weiss ran across the battle scarred room and leapt onto a red hooded girl who had appeared in a whirlwind of rose petals, "Ruby!"

"Agh! Who is on top of me and why?" the young girl Weiss had called Ruby muttered from underneath Weiss.

"Ruby I've missed you so much!"

"Wait, Weiss? What are you doing here? We were told a team of Atlesian hunters were down here."

"I am Atlesian you dolt!"

"I know that but I thought he meant a team from Atlas specifically," Ruby stood up and dusted herself off.

"I'm standing in for one of their injured teammates right now, but we can catch up later right now we have to kill this thing."

Weiss was right the disturbing Grimm had healed its wounds and was bigger than before now taking up most of the crater.

"Well now that you two are caught up and our reinforcements are here let's kill this spiky bastard! Attack!" Alton charged into the crater and activated his semblance to avoid the flurry of limbs that swung at him.

The Grimm began to spin as the other seven hunters and huntresses began their assault on the strange beast. The Grimm would not give up easily, it was going to be a long night.

Authors notes:

I finally finished this chapter! Man that was a pain in the ass to write.

To summarize they've begun a massive attack on a huge underground fortress in the middle of the night and there are tons of Grimm in the middle of everything.

Ilia has figured out what she's doing but that's a different matter entirely.

Nadia loves chocolate more than life itself and would rather die than give up chocolate.

Weiss is the overprotective mom friend.

I'm getting pretty good at fight scenes I think.

Team RNJR has arrived and they're here to help!

As always follows and favorites are greatly appreciated and reviews are your best way to give me feedback on how you think the story is going.