Chapter 10 – Beware the Nuckelavee, My Friends
Ruby dashes off towards the camp saying "We have to help them!" Pyrrha snapped back into focus, quickly deducing what had happened. Her negative emotions brought the Grimm in. She was such an idiot! There aren't any city walls or defences to protect them here and she just let her feelings spiral worse and worse, not even thinking about what would happen.
Pyrrha stood up and started running towards the camp, Ruby already out of sight having raced ahead of her. Pyrrha ducked past some low branches in her way and then dived to the side to avoid a black mass that crashed right through where she had been. It had been almost impossible to see past the trees and the dark night, only Pyrrha's highly honed battle senses warned her to avoid the creature in time. Whirling to face it with her spear drawn she saw that it was a particularly large Beowolf. Not quite an alpha, but larger and more armoured than most regular Beowolves. Pyrrha struck out a few times with her spear, testing it's defences, and the Grimm managed to ward off the blows as it waded in. It's movements were still clumsy, however, and Pyrrha was able to duck under it's swing while shifting Milo into Xiphos form and cutting deep into the creature's flank as she moved past it.
The Beowolf howled and shifted to cover that side, injured but not dead yet. Pyrrha took a single step to move in when she felt the ground quake beneath her. Jumping up as she used Polarity to send the shield from her back under her feet, she guarded herself against the Alpha Creep that lunged upwards from the ground. It hit her shield and launched her upwards, Pyrrha using the momentum to lift her over the Beowolf and attacking it from behind, slashing it twice as she fell. The Beowolf whirled around and tried to smash her aside, but Pyrrha saw the attack, pulling her shield up to her free arm and bracing herself to take the hit. The beast had plenty of power, but so did Pyrrha, and her skill let her use it better. The trees were hemming her in too much to move greatly around the creature or avoid the attacks, but it also kept the Beowolf in-between her and the Creep.
Or so she thought, while she was able to hold off the Beowolf's flailing, the Creep just charged straight through, killing the Beowolf and snapping it's jaw through the disintegrating beast to hit her, Aura flashing as it absorbed the blow. Pyrrha backed up raised her shield to block it's further attacks while jabbing at it with Milo in spear form, striking at the weak points in it's armor, pricking it repeatedly, but unable to land a decisive blow. The Creep tried going underground again, leading to Pyrrha pinning it's tail with it half buried underground. She heard the sounds of battle intensify over by the camp and knew she had to end this fast to help them.
The Alpha thrashes and rose up out of the ground, and Pyrrha meet it with her shield, bashing the creature's head twice and then once more with the edge of shield, cracking the left side of it's face plating. Pyrrha accepted the swipe it gave her with it's claw as she pulled her spear out of it's tail and through the Creep's head, slicing through the broken armor and out of the back of it's head.
With the enemies in her way dead, Pyrrha moved to the camp but found it empty of people, just filled with a few young Beowolves that were moving towards the muzzle flashes off to the side of the camp. Ruby and the others seemed to be there but Pyrrha could barely make them out from the mass of Grimm descending upon them. Most of them seemed to be Beowolves or Creeps but her night vision was nowhere near good enough to say those were the only ones. Pyrrha dispatched the young Beowolves with a few slices when she heard a bird cawing behind her. She thought it might be a Nevermore but couldn't see it when she turned. Her attention was caught by a tree being felled to make room for a new enemy in the clearing.
Her team was still some meters away, but Pyrrha readied her stance to deal with the more immediate threat she saw, bursting through the trees. It was a large equine Grimm with a humanoid body. It could be mistaken for a centaur at first before she realized the horse like head and neck were also attached to the body as well as the human like torso sticking up out the middle of it's body, like a rider and horse fused together. There's a small set of spikes running down it's human torso barely visible from her angle. It's bony plating took the form of ribs on both horse and human side, the lower horse jaw, and large mask with great curved horns on it's human head. It let out a piercing shriek upon seeing her that sent chills running down her spine (distantly she noted that it must have affected the others hearing it as well as the rate of fire slowed for a few moments after that). This was a Nuckelavee, a very powerful Grimm and likely the one that gathered in and 'led' so many others here. The ancient Grimm that Ren had warned them about a few hours ago, and in dire tones the likes of which Pyrrha had never heard from him before.
Pyrrha faced the creature and prepared herself. She knew that if it got to the mass of Grimm it would be able to make plans, use the other monsters, and kill her friends. This foe would be far cannier and wiser than the other Grimm attacking them, it might take Pyrrha a while to kill it before she could get to where the others were. The Mistralian waited, as did the Grimm, before it stretched it's arm towards her rapidly. Pyrrha ducked to the side, she hadn't known what the Nuckelavee could do, only having heard a few tales of the destruction a Grimm this type had dealt to towns nearby Haven (and it likely was the very same Grimm, it still having weapons from those settlements sticking out of it's back, not having bothered to remove them), but she knew it was old and would have more than just that trick ready.
She moved forward, her shield raised as it's other arm stretched towards her. It grabbed the shield and pulled it away, Pyrrha not fighting it's grip, just using the tug to get closer to it and stab it a few times before avoiding a swing from the first hand that snapped back and using Polarity on her breastplate to pull her away from a kick it aimed at her. The Grimm tossed away her shield, but she just gave a slight wave of her hand (she was getting better at not needing that, but it still did help) to send it flying at the back of it's head. She focused on dodging the arms and it charged towards her, the horse head swinging up to the left to crash down right towards her. Pyrrha leaped over it, ready to land a heavy slash that could deal some actual damage to the beast when it was distracted by the shield hitting the back of it's head, when suddenly the human torso flopped over.
Her attack was interrupted by this completely unexpected behaviour and Pyrrha barely managed to stop her own shield from hitting her in the face with it's intended target lying down under it. The Nuckelavee's left arm rose up and caught Pyrrha as she's falling, extending out to slam her into a tree. How? She wonders through the pain as the Grimm starts squeezing on her body, before it comes to her as she hears the horse head snort. Of course, the horse head saw the shield when it lifted up to swing at her. The creature is a Grimm, both of it's heads are important, she can't just focus on the humanoid parts. Her aura is dropping rapidly from it crushing her, she has to deal with that first. Her sword is still in her hand but pinned at an awkward angle to strike. Focusing everything on her semblance she raises here shield, spinning it rapidly before sending it flying into the Nuckelavee's arm, cutting deep into it like a buzz saw.
Howling, the Grimm lets go of her, Pyrrha landing on one knee and her free hand, charging forwards towards the Grimm almost instantly after landing. This creature isn't dumb, it uses the fast, extendable arms as the main threat to try and get anyone foolish enough to charge in, she can see it's clawed front feet tensing up at her approach. She couldn't just ignore the arms though, they were fast and strong, bound to catch her again if she kept her distance. She raced forward, as if to close the gap, and then when it feinted with it's arms, she reversed her momentum, diving back to strike at the arm that she had already hurt with her shield… only for the blow to barely do anything. It backhanded her aside, and though she rolled with it, her Aura still took a fair amount of damage.
This Grimm was strong, but more importantly too tough. She can easily see now how such a creature could have led to the destruction of Ren's village. Her weapons were better suited for accurate low damage attacks, not heavy wilder strikes like Mechanical Rose or Magnhild could deliver. She glanced over at the others fighting over just thirty meters away. The Grimm were still swarming them, but she could see more glimpses of them through the remaining trees and horde of darkness. They were carving their way through, protecting each other. She saw Qrow slice through two Ursi and then falter, clutching his wound. Before a Deathstalker could move in and finish him off, Nora batted it away with her hammer. Ruby and Ren fought back to back, whirling dervishes of death each of them, cutting apart the younger Grimm and causing the older ones to back off.
They had the situation in hand over there, but if she brought the Nuckelavee over there, they could die. Someone at least would likely die, even if they had the tools and skills to take it down, and Pyrrha wouldn't let that happen. She'd make sure that this creature never got to hurt her teammates ever again, no matter the cost. She noticed the Nuckelavee looking the same way and turned Milo to rifle mode, firing her shots off at it's two heads. It's gaze snapped back to her and it let out an even worse howl, the spines on it's back growing as it's body spasmed. The howl felt like it was attacking her very being, but for some reason she wasn't as affected this time. She switched Milo to javelin form and launched it through the creature's neck. The blow didn't seem to hurt it nearly as much as it would have a human, but it at least got it to stop screaming and just eye her maliciously. Pyrrha pulled Akouo back to her and moved around to attack it from the side. At the same time she reached out with her hands to direct her spears (and they were her spears as much as they were sticking out of the creature's back, any metal in her vicinity was her weapon) to rip them out of it's flesh and send them into the arms that stretched out towards her. They didn't have enough force to pin them or even really do much damage against the Grimm, but they do knock it's arms off course. Before Pyrrha can capitalize on that, the Nuckelavee has rapidly spun around to angle it's back towards her, one of it's cloven feet rising up to kick her from behind.
Pyrrha barely manages to raise her shield in time, and even that only serves to slow the mule kick down, not stop it as it breaks through Akouo and hits her, sending her flying back against a tree. (Dimly, she notes that her shield arm is starting to swell, and if she lives through the fight, it will likely hurt incredibly. For now though, her arm still obeys her directions, which is all that matters.) She manages to recover fast enough to avoid it's arm coming in to grab her again, but she doesn't have a chance to counterstrike as she regains her balance. That was a lesson in not underestimating it's speed. The Nuckelavee could seem to lumber about at times but it could actually spin around pretty quickly when it needed to, giving it a better range with it's back legs than expected. The Nuckelavee turns around quickly, so as not to give her an opportunity to strike at it's flank, but Pyrrha doesn't even bother with that, just using the moment to pull Milo out of it's throat. It makes a hissing sound, but doesn't move to attack her immediately, just keeping an eye on her as it starts to walk away, facing her team.
She can't beat this creature, but she can fight it defensively, buy them more time. Like… like Ozpin did. Like how Qrow is fighting for her friends right now. She might still be angry (more than a little bit) at the secrets they kept, but she can see now that they still fought, the same as her. They didn't set her up as a pawn to be discarded, Ozpin even told her and Jaune to run from Cinder. Instead of using the time he bought for them and getting to safety, she went back in and dragged Jaune in with her. It was foolish and it cost her the life of the boy she loved, but she won't make that mistake again. Her negative emotions brought this Grimm here, the least she can do is buy time for everyone else.
Reloading her gun, she moves around the clearing, directing her broken Akouo to smash into it's heads repeatedly. The damage isn't great, but it keeps it's attention on her. The Nuckelavee is sending it's arms at her as she moves, the motions fast but obvious, barely missing her as she raises her gun and fires, this time directing all of the strikes to it's left humanoid eye. The combined force pierces it's hateful orb and causes it to wheeze out. The arms are flying more rapidly now, knocking away the broken piece of metal that was once Akouo. They lash out towards Pyrrha, mostly missing her but clipping her a few times. She had no time to check her scroll whatsoever, but she knew she could feel her Aura dipping from the hits she had taken and her semblance use.
She looked up at the Grimm, staring at it's three remaining eyes, and she could tell it was too late for her. The Invincible Girl would fall, and the Nuckelavee would descend upon Ren and Nora and- No. NO. She may have been foolish enough to think she could beat the beast by herself, but her loss would be the only one her friends would be burdened with. Her end didn't mean she couldn't at least land one more crippling blow on the beast, something that would let the other hunters take it down in turn.
It was hard to tell it's injuries from the constantly rising faint black shroud that seemed to come off from the creature, but she remembered the arm her shield had cut into. She backed away from that arm as it missed her, turning towards it as she shifted the rifle into her sword. Pyrrha hurled her blade at the arm, enhancing it's speed with Polarity, the blade a gold and red blur as it cut clean through the creature's hand, the arm snapping back like a broken elastic band. Before she can exult too much in her victory it's remaining arm grabs on to her and smashes her against one of the remaining trees. Idly, Pyrrha notes that most of the others around the camp clearing have been broken by the Grimm. She also recognizes, in that same detached manner, as it squeezes that her bones are starting to crack, which must mean her Aura is fully broken.
Pyrrha's head drifts to the side and she catches a glimpse of Ruby scything her way through the Grimm in between her and Pyrrha, but there are still too many of the creatures between them, the Beowloves rushing in almost as fast as they are killed. Pyrrha gets pulled towards the horse mouth, the skeletal jaw opening up to reveal too sharp teeth. Pyrrha thought she was ready for this, that she had given up any hope of living through this, but as she's placed within the Grimm's jaws some survival instinct kicks in. She struggles, twisting and turning to break free of it's grip, to no avail. It's hand lets go and the teeth begin to close down on her when Ruby screams out "NO!" Silver light bursts out of her eyes and something incredible happens. It's like a wave sweeping outward, the Grimm disintegrating at it's touch, the Nuckelavee is the only one not instantly destroyed by the light, petrified instead. Everyone nearby is shocked still, a nearby raven even falling out of flight in shock the only sound that's made for a moment. Until trembling cracking sounds start coming from the stone Nuckelavee, the plates shifting and breaking, the creature within trying to escape it's stone cocoon.
Qrow dashes in, shattering the stone instantly and cutting the creature in half with one swing of his scythe. He moves over to catch Pyrrha as she falls, no longer held aloft as the Grimm disintegrates. It's a very nice gesture on his part, but utterly ruined by him collapsing instantly after grabbing her, his wound catching up to him. Pyrrha's feeling pretty weak herself, but she works to pick herself up off of him and sees that he's paler than usual and there's a nasty purple discoloration on his bandages. "That's… not a good sign." Understatement of the century.
Pyrrha doesn't have much time to focus on that when she sees Nora and Ren run towards them, Nora carrying Ruby in her arms. Ruby doesn't look injured or dead, just appearing to be unconscious. Just like she was back at Beacon, when she destroyed the gigantic Wyvern. They've survived somehow, but they weren't out of the woods yet.