Chapter 11. Part 1: The Battle of Beacon

Ruby stared in horror as one of Beacon's towering spires collapsed to the ground. The Corrupted Grimm roaredin triumph as he circled back, preparing to slam the building again. But before anyone could do anything, the horde of Grimm charged the waiting group. "Gems, Go!" Garnet said, lunging at the nearest Ursa and bashing skull. Pearl and Amethyst immediately obliged, moving to a nearby pair of Boarbatusks and began tearing into them. "Bumblebee! White Ro- I mean Ice Flower, go!" Ruby commanded. The respective pairs dived head first into the oncoming horde and began their assault. "Steven, commence special tactic!" Steven directed himself, who happily obliged. With all the force he could muster, Steven leaped over the battle taking place in the courtyard. Slowing himself down, he landed on part of Beacon's roof, right in front of the oncoming Corrupted Grimm. "STOP!" He yelled, pulling out his shield. The monster merely snorted and continued barrelling towards the school. Without hesitation, Steven dove in front of the beast, shield outstretched. Closing his eyes, he braced himself for impact.

Steven was immediately thrown back, pinned in the air by the monsters' momentum. Instinctively Steven formed his bubble right before he and the beast smashed into another part of Beacon. Quickly activating the spikes on his bubble, Steven heard the Corrupted Grimm roar in pain. It raised a claw and swatted the pink bubble away. Steven landed right in the middle of the Grimm pile below, falling onto a couple of Beowolves and squishing/piercing them in the process. The Corrupted Gem gave an angry shriek as it started turning back to the school for another assault. "I don't get it!" Blake yelled as she drove her weapon right through a rampaging Griffons' head. "Why does it keep attacking the school?" "Who cares? We have to stop it before it destroys the whole school!" Ruby cried, slashing a King Taijitu in half, killing both heads immediately. "Yang, quick! You have to-" But what she had to do, Yang never found out. At that moment, the Corrupted Grimm put on a huge burst of speed and dove at the fortress of a school. With an unimaginable force, the creature tore right through Beacon like it was made of paper. With a heart crushing groan, the enormous towers started to crumble. Team RWBY could do nothing but stare in horror as their school fell, almost in slow motion, collapsing to the ground. Beacon was destroyed, completely levelled.

And from the pile of rubble, all that was left of the once great school, emerged the reason the Corrupted Grimm had been trying so hard to open up the school. Out of the rubble emerged a horde of Grimm even bigger than the one the group was fighting in the courtyard. Except, these Grimm were all Death Stalkers, Nevermore which were furious with being unable to fly, and Beringels, who shook the earth as they pounded it with their fists. "Where did all those Grimm come from?" Steven yelled. Everyone seemed too utterly shocked to answer him. In fact, everyone of them just stood there, eyes wide open, completely frozen in fear. "You guys, we have to keep fighting!" Steven called out. None of them answered, none of them moved, even with the first horde of Grimm circling them, ready to begin a fresh assault. "Everyone, snap out of it!" Steven cried in desperation. When they still refused to move, Steven dove towards the tightly knit group. He managed to activate his spiked bubble just as the Grimm lunged.

Inside the bubble, everyone still just stared at what was once Beacon, gone in a matter of minutes. Steven still couldn't get them to move, even with Grimm throwing themselves at the bubble, regardless of the spikes. Unable to think of anything else to try, Steven joined the others in watching the Corrupt Grimm approach. It swooped down and opened its massive mouth, entrapping countless Grimm inside. As it made a swallowing motion, Steven noticed that it grew even bigger, with more spikes, bigger claws, and it seemed to have developed a giant stinger on the end of its tail. At this frightening sight, Garnet and Pearl seemed to finally snap out of the trance. "Steven's right," Garnet said, "we still have monsters to kill." However, she said it with a bit of an edge, like their was a spark inside her that she was itching to unleash. "Alright, here's the plan," Pearl said. She leaned in so only Steven, Amethyst and Garnet could hear her. "Alright, are you all ready?" Garnet asked. The Crystal Gems nodded. "Team RWBY, are you ready?" While speech still seemed beyond them, all the huntresses managed to give a nod. Everyone readied their weapons. "Alright. Steven, lower the bubble!" The bubble disappeared, and the group was buried in a pile of Grimm.

All of a sudden, they were all thrown back by a blinding pulse of light. In the newly formed clearing, the Crystal Gems had been replaced by two looming figures. "Well, isn't this a beautiful day to kick some monster butt?" Smoky Quartz asked aloud, forming their powerful yo-yo. "I couldn't agree more, my little darling," Sardonyx replied, creating her massive war hammer with one set of arms while stretching out with the other. "Look out! It's coming back!" Yang shouted. Everyone turned to see the now larger Corrupted Gem coming back for seconds. "Leave that to the fabulous gem that is myself!" Sardonyx said. Everyone else resumed fighting the lower horde, falling Grimm after Grimm, spurred on by their rising desire for revenge. Sardonyx on the other hand, made her advancements on the oncoming giant monster. She chose a SPECIFIC Ursa to smash on the head, using the upward momentum to propel herself into the air. Next she made the INTELLIGENT decision to avoid an incoming Nevermore by diving back to the ground. She made a quick calculation on her path to the Corrupted Grimm, which turned out to be very ACCURATE. She performed a series of dives, rolls, jumps and ducks that were FAULTLESS, followed by an ELEGANT jump right in front of her target. In a CONTROLLED decent, Sardonyx aimed with the precision of a SURGICAL knife and delivered a GRACEFUL blow so POWERFUL it knocked the creature high into the sky.

(Note: for full experience, imagine I Burn is playing during the next paragraph. Or better yet, pull it up on YouTube.)

While the beast was still flying limp in the sky, Ruby and co. Had started moving through the crowd of Grimm. Their aim was the massive beasts that had come out of the school. Being the most deadly, they would undoubtedly bring unwanted power to their massive foe. Moving in a line, Yang lead the charge, punching through any Grimm that made the mistake of impeding their progress. Next was Weiss, using a combination of gliffs and dust to prevent any Grimm from attacking from the side, although an Ursa Major did almost breakthrough her defences, had it not been for some quick shooting by Ruby. Behind their hooded leader and bringing up the rear was Blake, utilizing her ribbon to make wide swings with Gambol Shroud, effectively cutting down any Grimm they'd missed going forwards. They eventually made it all the way across the courtyard to the massive mountain of rubble, stopping right in front of a particularly large Beringel. As it raised its fists to smash Yang, she motioned for her teammates to leave it be. "I've got this," she said. The others nodded, as they went and charged one of the remaining Deathstalkers. Yang braced herself as she was smashed into the ground by the monster's two gigantic fists into the rubble. The Beringel let out a roar of triumph and began pounding its chest. It moved to start attacking the rest of Team RWBY. Out of the rubble, Yang burst out, eyes burning red. With a blood curdling battle cry she dove at the Beringel and hit it so hard it simply burst apart. Yang turned to face the rest of the monsters. "WHO'S NEXT?" she screamed.

(One more note: this paragraph is better suited for I May Fall)

Meanwhile, Smoky Quartz was showing off their impressive yo-yo tricks to the two dozen Ursi, Beowolves, Griffons and Boarbatusks that remained in the courtyard. "This one's called walk the dog," they said, letting the weapon roll across the ground before snapping it back so fast it split a beowolfs' head clean in two. "And then this one is the breakaway," they continued, destroying a couple more Grimm. "And finally, a personal modification of mine, the triple threat around the world!" Summoning two more yo-yos, they spun them rapidly around their head while charging the Grimm, slaughtering all that were left in the courtyard. "Thank you, thank you. You've been a wonderful audience," Smoky Quartz said suavely. They sank into a half bow half curtsy before splitting back into Amethyst and Steven. Steven raised his hand for a high five. "Worst gems?" he said. Amethyst grinned as she smacked Steven's hand in triumph. "Worst gems."

The two turned to watch Sardonyx prepare to strike the now falling Corrupt Grimm. Just as she was about to bring her hammer down, she paused. "Enough of this fancy talk. Now it's time to SMASH!" She yelled this last word as she brought the hammer down over the monsters' head. It spiked into the cobblestone below. It seemed to be in a daze as it attempted to stand up. But then something curious happened. Out of the Corrupt Grimm fell a Deathstalker and a Beowolf, and Steven could see a couple of spikes on the monsters' body retract. Sardonyx quickly destroyed these two new challengers just as the Corrupt Grimm found the strength to get up and start flying. Team RWBY, having finished off the remaining Grimm with the help of Yang's semblance, joined the group as Pearl and Garnet defused.

"Alright, listen up!" Garnet said. "I have a plan. Every time we hit the gem enough, a Grimm it's absorbed falls out and gem loses its power." "Yeah, uh pretty sure we all figured that out," Amethyst said dismissively. Pearl shot Amethyst a reproachful look that somehow screamed exposition. "Oh, gotcha," Amethyst nodded. "Anyway, here's the plan. Ruby, Weiss and Blake, you're going to get on the gem's back and dish out as much punishment as possible. You'd better use gliffs to make sure you don't fall off. Amethyst and Pearl, you fuse. Your bow should help take down the gem even faster. Finally, Yang, Steven and I will follow you, destroying any Grimm that you release, to make sure their not absorbed again!" Everyone nodded. "Alright, let's do this!" Yang and Garnet gauntlet bumped, the rest of Team RWBY discussed the best placements for the three of them on the back of the Corrupt Grimm, and Amethyst and Pearl disappeared into a ball of light and emerged as a giant woman.

Steven, deciding that he wanted to lead the charge this time, stepped in front of the group. "I just wanted to say that, I think everyone here is now a Crystal Gem," he said, looking at Ruby, Blake, Yang, and Weiss. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl all nodded. The huntresses blushed and looked at the ground, smiling. "And with that in mind," Steven continued, "Crystal Gems, let's go!" Everyone joined in a war cry as they charged, chasing down the flying death in the sky ahead.

Author's Note:

For those of you unfamiliar with what a Beringel is, it's the giant ape Grimm from the Volume 4 trailer. If you haven't seen that yet, go watch it on YouTube as it is amazing! Final week of Summer of Steven, and what a ride it's been! I wish you all enjoyment in the final few episodes of Season 3, and as always, stay fabulous!