An Ursa broke through the tree line with Draksis on its back. It landed face-first into a clearing before its head was decapitated with a sharp slash from Lyssa.
"Umm ... Guys? I think I found it." Draksis called out behind him as he looked up to a large clearing. The sight that greeted him certainly surpassed the meaning of 'destroyed'. Splinters from trees and dust crates were scattered everywhere, ashes on the grass posed as evidence for fire. Yang caught up with Draksis, Ember Celica smoking from its very recent shot.
"What? No way. I found it first." Yang argued. Draksis raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"Okay? How does that work?" Yang took a moment to come up with an explanation.
"Well... I was the one who threw you into the clearing."
"No, you didn't! I jumped on the Ursa as you punched it in the gut with the strength of a fucking train." Draksis scoffed.
"Exactly! I knew you were gonna jump on it so I 'sent' you to investigate." Yang proudly explained.
"Ah, but you can't prove that. The others saw me fly through here therefore, they witnessed that I found it first." Draksis remarked snidely while Yang grew irritated.
"Y-you can't prove that either! I didn't exactly see you take a selfie of the site-" Yang was interrupted when Draksis pulled out his scroll and shoved it into her face to show a picture of himself smiling with the mine behind him.
"O-okay. But I don't see your name marked anywhere." Draksis responded by pointing at one of the trashed man-made offices. Yang reluctantly followed his finger and saw that the steel wall was riddled with bullet holes that spelled 'Drak :)'.
"W-when did you do that?"
"While I was on the Ursa." Draksis stated triumphantly with a cheeky grin. Yang gave up as she huffed in annoyance and her shoulders hunched in defeat.
"Whoa..." Ruby's voice broke through as she stared at the destruction with Weiss and Blake behind her. Her eyes turned to Draksis and smiled brightly at him. "Good job, Draksis. You found it."
"Why, thank you, Ruby. I do my best." Draksis replied as he sent Yang a mischievous yet innocent smile.
"L-let's just g-go." Yang growled, more in irritation than anything else, as she stomped off with her face turning red.
Draksis couldn't help but laugh at his successful teasing. He looked back at Ruby and gave his mischievous wink to which she responded with a thumbs-up and a toothy grin.
Yang entered the main facility next to the mine that led into a mountain. Her eyes scanned along the walls of the hallway that seem to split off into multiple rooms. Gashes, scratches and dried blood were littered all over, ranging from the porcelain white floor to the steel grey ceiling. She could just about imagine what happened here. Miners and researchers foolishly would have ran and hid for their lives while the creatures of Grimm ransacked this place. Searching for other evidence, she opened the nearest door that was almost unhinged. She happened to walk into a conference room, or at least what's left of it. Sheets of paper were thrown into utter disarray, mottled with blood splotches or torn to shreds. Cushioned chairs with missing legs were stacked by the door as a poor attempt to barricade entry into the room. It was quite similar to the hallway. The walls were also streaked with crimson and littered with gashes. She examined the marks on the wall closely and identified some of them as claw marks that belonged to Beowolves, some from Ursai. However, there were gashes that she couldn't recognise. They were straight, short and even; far too clean and precise to match a Grimm's claw.
"They're blade marks." A voice stated. Yang turned to see Draksis standing in the doorway with his arms folded.
"They stay even whereas claw marks don't." He continued as he approached Yang. He unsheathed Lyssa and slashed just above the mark.
"See? They're almost the same, only Lyssa is a bit thicker." Draksis traced his fingers long the edges to prove his point. Yang only nodded at his explanation, not feeling the need to speak due to their closed distance.
Draksis sheathed his black sword as he examined the conference room. He noticed a computer sitting on the large broken round table. The screen was cracked and it was covered with burn marks. Draksis carefully opened its panel and saw that the circuitry was fried as red sparks spurted out every so often.
"Is it working?" Yang inquired from the opposite end in the room.
"Nah, the circuit's shorted out. It looks like it was shot with red electricity or something." Draksis replied with his brows furrowed at the strange find.
"Red electricity? Maybe it's someone with an electrokinesis semblance?"
"Yeah, probably. It's pretty powerful too. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that thing."
"Can't handle a little spark, Draksis?" She teased with a smirked.
"Well, I think that's a teensy bit more than a spark." Draksis replied offhandedly. Yang giggled before another question popped into her mind.
"Speaking of sparks, what's your semblance?" Draksis froze and hesitated for a second before he regained his composure.
"You'd hate me for it."
"No, I won't. How bad can it be? I mean, it's not like your semblance can kill people in a blink of an eye, right?" Yang assured with a curious smile. Draksis' brows furrowed into a thoughtful look.
"Actually, you can kill people in a blink of an eye with a semblance. It just depends on how well you use it."
"True, but you still haven't answered my question."
"Well, I don't exactly want to reveal all my trump cards yet."
"Oh, come on! Just tell me!"
"Nah, torturing you with suspense is far more entertaining." Draksis answered snidely.
"You're an asshole." Yang retorted mirthfully.
"It's one of my greatest charms." Draksis cheekily quipped. Yang rolled her eyes humorously.
"Draksis. Yang. We found something. You've got to see it." Blake leaned into the conference room with a sullen look in her face. Draksis and Yang frowned as they followed Blake deeper into the facility, worried about what was found.
Blake led Draksis and Yang to a large locker room. The minute they turned the corner, Yang was tackled into a hug by Ruby who had tears streaming down her face.
"R-Ruby? What's wrong?"
"A-all t-tho-those people ..." Ruby whimpered.
Yang and Draksis gave each other a concerned look before they looked at their other teammates. Weiss sat against the wall with her eyes blank and tearful from shock and horror. Blake only gave them a nod before she lowered her head; her black hair concealed her sorrowful expression. Draksis nudged Yang and gestured to the double door labeled 'Lockers'. Yang reluctantly let go of her sobbing sister and followed Draksis. She readied Ember Celica and mirrored Draksis by gently leaning against the door. After a moment to mentally prepare herself, she gave him a nod. Draksis shouldered the doors open and drew out Gemini while Yang did the same with Ember Celica. They froze as soon as they realised what they were looking at.
About a hundred mangled bodies were scattered across the floor, all sharing an army of flies. The whole room was painted with their own blood and rotting stench. Researchers and miners were festooned with gashes and burns.
"Oh, god..." Yang gasped as she put a hand to her mouth.
"Looks like they had their last stand here." Draksis calmly deduced as he noticed that some of the corpses had guns in their hands.
"What could have caused this?" Yang whispered, horrified.
"We were told that it was Grimm. As to how many or what kind, I don't know; but I have a feeling we'll find out very soon." Draksis replied. He heard a number of slow and hesitant footsteps and turned to see Blake, Weiss and Ruby with him.
"You kids good?" Draksis addressed to all of them. They replied with a slow nod.
"And yourself, Walker?" Weiss inquired. She recovered enough to ask but her voice was still shaking.
"Well ... Just as good as anyone could be in this situation." Draksis turned away. Yang and Ruby accepted this as the truth but Blake and Weiss frowned.
"Which is surprisingly very calm for you." Weiss pressed on.
"Look, Schnee. Is this really a good time right now?" Draksis deflected without turning an inch.
"But Draksis, you-" Blake tried to push but Draksis cut her off.
"Just stop. I'm not repeating what happened in your dorm, especially now of all times."
Hearing Blake's silence, he approached a uniformed corpse and flipped it over.
"Damn it ..." He muttered when he saw a particular emblem on the back of the uniform. It was a wolf head which had three diagonal claws across its face, all in a red colour.
"What is it?" Yang asked as she looked over his shoulder.
"These guys are White Fang."
"What?!" Blake reflexively exclaimed in a whisper.
Draksis raised an eyebrow before gesturing her over. "Look. On the uniform."
Blake reluctantly approached Draksis and checked the corpse. She immediately paled behind her hair once she saw the emblem.
"What were they doing here?" Blake struggled to stop her voice from quivering.
"Well, that's what I'm gonna find out." Draksis stated as he began to search other corpses while the others tried get over the horrors in the room.
A particular body of a researcher caught his attention. A young blonde boy sat lifelessly against the corner, his pale complexion was free of any injuries other than the bullet hole on his temple. In his right hand was a pistol and in his left was a voice recorder. Draksis snatched the recorder from the corpse and pressed the play button. The young man's voice played quietly through the speaker.
"Okay. This is Voice Log One, Day Seven. Just finished my first week here in the mine. My job is pretty simple: get the dust from the miners and process as much and as fast as I can. I didn't ask questions because the guy in charge looks like he could kill me without a second thought; despite his somewhat ... eccentric demeanour. Only telling me that I'm helping the cause. I think the guy's name is Roman Torchwick. At least, that's what I keep hearing. Anyways, I gotta head to bed; still have a lot of work to do."
"Voice log Two, Day Eighty-Four. I think I'm only gonna make a voice log when something unusual happens. It's basically the same thing, day in day out. Despite being repetitive, it's a pretty great and fun job for me. So, I've been working here for nearly 3 months. It's pretty amazing seeing the kinds of dust that we get. They're so many in that mine and beautiful too. At least, when they don't threaten to blow up in your face. Unfortunately, there was an accident. The Grimm around here are getting pretty aggressive and plentiful. There's an unusual increase in their number since the last month; it costed us two guys out in the field. They were quickly replaced but that just shows you how dangerous our jobs could be. Anyways, wish me luck that I don't get mauled by a Beowolf tomorrow."
"Okay. I don't know what day this is but I know that it's been a month since my last voice log. There's only so few of us left. The Grimm just came out of nowhere with an army of thousands. Every fucking kind of Grimm is out there. There's a different one that I've never seen before, it's called a Vartai. I looked them up: they are humanoid Grimm that have thick bone armour in their shoulders and legs. Their chest is exposed and their face mask is very thin, if a well-placed punch breaks it, then a bullet shouldn't be a problem. They have bone blade attached on their forearm like a permanent sword. They are very fast and dangerous. What's worse is that they can shoot red electricity from their hands. Whoever listens to this, you better be an amazing fighter. Those things have killed so many of us like it was nothing. At the moment, we are making our last stand in the locker room among the bodies. I hope that someone finds this voice recorder if we don't make it because I suggest that you blow this place to kingdom come. It should cut the numbers by a lot. I have a horrible feeling about this so, wish us luck."
Draksis finished playing all the voice logs and transferred them to his scroll. Now that he knew what he and RWBY were up against, he needed to get out as soon as possible.
"Guys!" Draksis called out as he approached RWBY.
"What is it?" Blake asked.
"You all need to get out of here. Call four-seven-niner for evacuation and get to the LZ as fast as you can."
"Why? What's happening?" Yang questioned with concern in her voice.
"We are looking at an army of a thousand Grimm with a new breed among them known as Vartais. I'll explain what it is later but, whatever you do, avoid contacting it as much as possible. These things are fucking dangerous. They might be waiting to ambush you the minute you get outside so, you be ready for anything." Draksis explained with a clear and commanding tone.
"What about you? Are you staying?" Ruby inquired worriedly.
"Just for a few minutes. I need to rig this place to explode like hell to kill as much Grimm as possible. This is a dust mine, so finding explosives shouldn't be hard at all." Draksis gave her a reassuring pat on the head. Ruby felt her worries immediately vanish but, at the same time, she strangely felt a little weak at his touch. However, the weakness vanished as fast as it came. RWBY nodded as they began to leave. Draksis turned to find the explosives but he was stopped when Yang gripped his arm.
"You better be there the second that pilot gets there." Draksis put a hand in Yang's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile.
"I'll be fine. Now hurry up and go!" Yang complied and rushed out of the building.
Draksis' search was incredibly quick. He only walked around the halls for about 5 minutes before he found a very large room, labeled 'Explosives'.
"Wow! What an unbelievable stroke of luck!" He laughed as he saw the insane number of crates filled with explosives. Just blowing everything up in this room is enough to destroy the entire building and everything else inside a 10 mile radius. He set one of the bombs' timer to 10 minutes and immediately rushed out of the facility. He answered his scroll which began ringing the moment he stepped outside.
"Draksis, where are you? We're already in the Bullhead!" Yang's voice sounded from the scroll.
"I'm gonna be a bit late because, right now, I'm staring at about 200 Grimm who are staring back at me. On the bright side, I don't see any Vartais."
"Damn it! Fine. We'll come and get you. Just hang on."
"Got it. Hurry!" Draksis disconnected the call and drew out Gemini. Beowolves, Ursai, Boarbatusks and King Taijitus growled and hissed at him.
"So who wants have my first bullet?" Draksis smirked as he twirled Gemini in his hands. He was answered by seven Beowolves sprinting towards him, immediately having a chunk of their head shot off.
He back-flipped to evade a swipe from an Ursa on his left and used Gemini to execute it. He reloaded his pistols and rushed towards the King Taijitu. Draksis dodged the giant snake's bite and climbed on top of its head. As the King Taijitu reared its head back, Draksis launched himself high into the air with an aura-boosted backflip. He aimed Gemini towards the army of Grimm and emptied both clips to rain lead, effectively reducing their numbers by thirty. He landed into a crouched position and reloaded Gemini with incendiary ammo. He holstered his pistols and scanned the Grimm surrounding him. With a smirk on his face, he unsheathed Lyssa and began to use his semblance. He laughed evilly as the veins on Lyssa glowed brightly before he vanished with a trail of emerald green rose petals.
"Look! I found him!" Blake yelled over the loud noises of the Bullhead's engines.
"Holy crap! He's killed about a hundred of them and he's still surrounded!" Yang exclaimed in awe.
"He's moving as fast as you, Ruby!" Blake called out.
"We have to help him! There are still a lot of them!" Ruby commanded as she, Weiss, Blake and Yang equipped their respective weapons and fired upon the Grimm.
Draksis bisected the black twin of the King Taijitu and shot an Ursa in the gut, releasing a dying roar as it combusted into flames. Draksis was about to attack the white twin of the King Taijitu but it suddenly had its head shot off completely.
"Draksis! Get on!" Ruby shouted as her team kept firing. Draksis used his semblance to boost his speed and sprinted towards the Bullhead.
"Shit! Nevermore!" The pilot shouted as she spotted a Nevermore hurtling towards them on a collision course. RWBY froze in fear as they saw the gigantic bird closing in on them with no way to avoid it. They braced themselves for the worst. However, their eyes suddenly widened when Draksis, with a streak of emerald green rose petals, tackled the Nevermore out of the sky.
"DRAKSIS!" Yang screamed out as she watched her friend and the Grimm crash much deeper into the forest.
Draksis groaned as he sat up, his head throbbing in pain. He looked at his surrounding and found the dead Nevermore as well as five destroyed large trees. He figured that he passed out for a while from the impact and exhaustion, judging by how the shattered moon shined in the night sky. He slowly stood up as he rested enough to gain some energy back. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood. He slowly turned to look behind him to find three humanoid creatures staring at him from the tree line. He noticed their armoured shoulders and legs as well as the bone blades on their forearms. Remembering the description from the voice log, he realised that he found the Vartais. Or rather, they found him.
He tried to use his semblance to sprint away, only for the enhanced speed to fluctuate and eventually stop altogether, causing him to stumble.
"Shit ..." He cursed as he kept sprinting in his normal speed.