Hello hello and welcome back
To those of you who care… i'm sorry this took 2-3 weeks to get out. I've had some serious writing block and just no desire to write. I've also been a little sad over the end of the volume.
I could care less about Pyrrha dying (She was towards the bottom of my character list) and am more concerned over Weiss. When Yang said she was going back to Atlas i slapped my couch in anger and when her father showed on screen i yelled at him. Lol i know i'm a loser.
Before we get to the chapter i have to sincerely apologize for the ending of this chapter. I just wanted to get this chapter over and done with so the ending is very very poor and i completely apologize for it. Though the first half is still good… i hope.
Anyhow, on to the chapter!
Lindsay stood watching the brave townsfolk fire upon the never ceasing Grimm attack. She watched as a few Grimm broke the defense and rushed the defenders. She felt her anger boil as she rocketed towards the Grimm. She slashed at a Creep, sending it sprawling across the ground. She then turned towards a Beowulf and turned the spear into a bow and sent two arrows into the beast, killing it before it hit the ground.
Suddenly, Grimm guts rained down on Lindsay as another Beowulf flew over her and onto the ground. Lindsay turned around to see Mark behind her with his shotgun smoking.
She stood panting as she stared at Mark. "We need to push them back."
Mark nodded, "We will when Crimson returns with the rest of the army."
Lindsay looked across the open plain that separated the town from the forest. She watched as the field turned almost entirely into Grimm. Those in the front falling as their bodies turned into ash, floating into the clear blue sky. The one's running up to take the place of their fallen brothers suffered same fate as them.
"Do you know where Flame went?" Mark asked through the hail of bullets. "We could really use his help."
"He said something about going after their leader, so I assume that's where he is." Lindsay replied as she began to let dust tipped arrows fly to the Grimm. The arrows exploded, killing large pockets of Grimm.
"That man is suicidal." Mark sighed. "It's best Crimson hurry up so we can get to Flame faster."
"Don't worry about it Mark, for I have arrived." Crimson said, flanked by several armed town folks.
Many more of them poured from the surrounding trees, running up to the makeshift defense line.
"You're timing is impeccable Crimson." Mark said with a laugh. "Are your men ready?"
Crimson nodded, "We're ready to take back our home." The Atlas flag that was once on his back now began to move. The pole of the flag began to push itself inward, forming a sharp edged blade. The bottom of the pole formed a large hilt. The material that made the flag slowly became one long string that formed around his wrist. In the end the Atlas flag turned into a bastard sword with a strong line of cloth around his right wrist.
Elizabeth whistled in awe. "That's quite the weapon you got yourself there, isn't it Crimson."
He chuckled. "It gets the job done, and that's what matters."
"Alright, you ready Crimson?" Mark asked.
"It's time we take back what's ours!" Crimson yelled, loud enough for the whole line of defenders to hear. They cheered, waiting for the order to charge.
Crimson walked up onto a small incline in the center, tall enough for everyone around him to see. He held up his sword as he spoke. "Tonight, my brothers and sisters we fight! We fight for our town, our kin. Let your life be taken to save that of others!"
The men and women cheered loudly.
"The time is now! Charge, for Timonium!" Crimson yelled, running and charging into the Grimm, who stood still. The men and women pooled over the battlements and fired and swiped at the Grimm, doing everything they can to kill the foul beasts.
Mark charged as well, firing at the Grimm with his shotgun before swiping at a few of them with his staff. Elizabeth followed close behind, swiping at anything thing in her path.
Lindsay sighed as she began to hover off the ground. She quickly flew over the Grimm and continued to rain arrows down on them. She flew low enough that she was able to kick the Grimm with her heels.
Elizabeth jumped and flipped over an Ursa Minor and quickly slashed its backside. The beast erupted into ashes as a Beowulf ran through the ash catching her by surprise and sending her sprawled on the ground. Quickly turning her machetes into their shotgun forms, she let of a burst from each shooting into and through the Beowulf.
Mark, on the other hand, was slicing through Grimm with ease. A griffon tried to jump onto Mark, but he quickly stabbed its exposed stomach and impaled it. With a flick of the wrist he sent the Grimm flying into the others that were charging him. The Griffon made contact with two Beowulves and sent them sprawling onto the ground, all three of them soon becoming ashes.
Lindsay was still flying around uncontested. A man's yell was clearly audible over the sounds of the fighting. "NEVERMORE!" He called. Before Lindsay could react she felt, rather than saw, the deadly feathers of the nevermore rush past her and into the small pockets of the townsfolk.
She stared down in horror as she watched feather after feather impaling the townsfolk. Some even stayed standing with fear as feathers went right through them. Their faces etched into a painful expression as the feathers buried into them.
Lindsay turned around quickly and fired two arrows at the nevermore. The arrows made contact with the Nevermore and sent it flying away, leaving them alone for the time being.
Mark eyed a Death Stalker at the end of wave. He made a dash for it, taking a swipe at any Grimm between him and there.
Elizabeth noted this and quickly followed Mark.
Mark was a few feet from the beast when his whole vision became yellow. The ground shook as he lost his balance and fell to one knee. The stinger disappeared as he was lifted into the sky and was primed for another attack. It came down with force but was stopped mere inches from Mark. His hands held the stinger back, preventing it from being buried into him.
Slowly he got up, hands still on the stinger. He took one hand off the stinger and pulled his staff up off the ground. He used his other hand to shove the stinger into the ground. Two hands firmly on his staff he cut the stinger off from the rest of the Death Stalker.
The Death Stalker howled in pain from the loss of one of its weapons. It quickly pushed Mark away with the use of its claws. Mark was sent flying, sliding on the icy ground. He slid past Elizabeth who now charged the Grimm.
She ran up to the Grimm and ducked under each of its slashes with its claws. Running up to the stinger, she quickly mounted it and jumped onto the Death Stalker, landing on its back with an audible thud. Tightly reverse gripping her machetes, she stabbed both of them into the Death Stalker's head silencing the beast.
"Thank you for assist, but I still got the kill." Mark said with a chuckle.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "Of course your majesty."
"Not now lovers." Crimson said, appearing next to Mark and Elizabeth. "You have all after this battle to make goo-goo eyes at each other."
Elizabeth blushed and Mark let out a deep laugh. "You really are perverted aren't you Crimson."
Before Crimson could respond he was attacked by an Ursa Minor. He was caught off guard and fell to the ground. Suddenly the Ursa turned into ash as Mark stood over Crimson and offered a hand to him. "You should watch you're back, you know."
Crimson accepted the hand and got to his feet. "Ya, ya, now let's get back to the battle at hand."
A female screech sounded out loudly behind the two males. Lindsay was being constricted by the white head of a King Taijitu. Mark quickly charged at White half but before he was in striking distance of White half he was thrown backwards by the Black half.
With Mark preoccupied with the black half, Crimson charged the White half, which held Elizabeth hostage. The Grimm held Elizabeth with its long body, leaving its head and tail to attack Crimson with. The beast flung its tail at him, which he blocked with his bastard sword. It then tried to attack Crimson with its head. He jumped up over the beast, as it wasn't fast enough to stop itself. Its tail continued forward and as did his head. The best bit down on its tail and let out a horrific howl.
He took this opportunity and quickly cut the beast in half, freeing Lindsay. The beast howled in pain louder before being silenced and turning into ash.
He picked up the dazed Elizabeth and quickly returned her to a safe spot to be looked after. He found a tree well behind the fighting and laid her down. He did a quick medical check-up and found that she had bruised ribs. Although her Aura was hard at work fixing her and should be fine within the day.
Mark swiftly took care of his half of the King Taijitu and ran over to Crimson and Elizabeth. He quickly knelt down next to Elizabeth and trying to fix her.
"It's not going to work, she needs some rest." Crimson said placing a hand on Mark's tense shoulder.
Mark let out a long loud sigh. "I guess you're right, but I'm not leaving her."
As if on command all the Grimm retreated back into the edges of the town. They were still all in view, but none of them were attacking. The townsfolk were confused, but relieved that they could rest.
Flame was looking out a window at the carnage of the battle. Ash filled the air as bodies littered the ground. He watched with confusion as the Grimm pulled out. He turned towards the woman he was oh so familiar with, "Why'd they stop?"
The woman, Molly, laughed. "This town is mine, I don't need any more Grimm to die for it."
"So why did they stop? Wouldn't it be better to just let them kill the townsfolk?" Flame said.
"In that sense yes, but I have a better tool." Molly said before walking over to Flame. "I'm sure they wouldn't want to damage there prize Huntsman."
Flame shifted back as far as he could get from her, his eyes never leaving hers. "Why? Why are you going through all this trouble?"
Molly suddenly turned angry. "You know good and well why I do this!"
It took him a few moments to realize what she meant. "About Atlas? Molly we were all devastated about losing you, Jake even visits your grave at least once a month."
"If you cared, then why didn't you come looking?!" She snapped back.
"I'm sorry to say Molly, but it wasn't worth it-"
"WASN'T WORTH IT! I NEARLY DIE BECAUSE OF YOU!" Molly yelled at Flame.
"It wasn't worth it to risk any of our lives for just yours, I'm sorry." He said, hanging his head down. He felt a whip connect with his face as it was forcefully ripped back and his body sent sprawled onto the floor. When he regained himself he looked up at an angered Molly.
"How could you leave me behind, like an animal?!" She spat out.
"One sacrifice can save thousands of lives." Flame simply replied.
Molly retorted by slapping him with the whip once more. The whip cracked against Flame's chest. His Aura took the damage and absorbed it but he still felt the full blast of it.
"Why didn't you come back?" Flame asked. "You obviously lived, so why didn't you come back to us? You're family."
"Why would I come back to the people who abandoned me?" Molly stated with a tone laced with venom.
"Who are you mad at?" he asked.
"What?" she said, confused to what he meant.
"Who are you truly mad at? The organization for authorizing the mission or me for giving the order to not go after you. Who are you truly mad at?"
"I…. uh…." Molly said before wiping Flame more violently than the last. "Now for the real questioning." She said with a wicked grin as she walked towards the downed Hunter-in-training.
"Why is the organization so interested in Weiss? I know of your mission to get her, but why her? Isn't she too high classed of a target? And why send a child instead of a trained Hunter class Mercenary?"
Flame smirked. "Need I remind you that I am clearly more skilled than you in every department?"
Molly let out a laugh. "Why do you think you're like this then? But really, why you?"
"I thought you knew of everything about my mission." He said. "How come you don't know about this?"
"This was but the only thing I didn't find out." she responded.
"There's not much to hide though." Flame shrugged his shoulders. "They want someone to get close to her, key word close. So who better than a man her age and has the skills to enter Beacon."
"Hmp, I guess that makes sense." Molly replied. "And how goes your progress?"
"Oh wouldn't you love to know." Flame teased.
"Yes, I would very much." She replied, cracking her whip at the air.
"I don't know about that Molly, I think the information is a little above your pay grade."
"You're always one tough nut to crack Flame." Molly said with a laugh.
"You'll know you're going to fail right?" Flame said suddenly.
"Come again?"
"You're going to fail Molly." Flame said. "This, all of this will fail. If not by me, my team, and the townsfolk, then let it be by Atlas, who will surely come and take back this town if we fail. Whatever the outcome is, when the sun sets tonight, you're going to lose either way."
"If I do indeed fail, then let me take down as many as I can." The cat faunus stated.
"If you do intend to get back at the organization, they why attack this town it serves no real purpose to them. And did you suspect for me to come as well, or was that just a stroke of luck?"
"I will say it was a stroke of luck that you happened to be sent out here to deal with my little incursion." Molly stated. "Genius it is, that I have their best member in my custody and he can't do anything to fight back."
Flame smirked. "You really never look at the big picture to you?"
"Why indeed were you sent up here? If I am correct, you attend Beacon Academy."
"Ozpin wanted me to deal with you since I have fought against you before." He replied. "Now why don't we get to our real business?" Suddenly he encased Molly's lower half in pure ice.
"B-but how!? This room blocks out semblances!" Molly said caught completely off guard.
"Well then, you forgot about my past didn't you." Flame said. "You can go quietly and I promise things won't go bad or you can fight back and potentially get seriously injured, your call."
Weighing her options Molly sighed. "I'll go quietly."
He smiled. "Excellent, now first call off you're Grimm. I don't want any more deaths added to my record."
She sighed and called off the Grimm making them back off from the Huntsman and townsfolk.
Flame grabbed her arm and lead her outside. They were walking down an empty street when suddenly Flame was thrown onto the cemented hard, breaking his aura. He was too disoriented to think straight as he felt a blade pass through him and the soft clang as it made contact with the ground. The last thing he saw before he fell unconscious was Molly, running away out of the town and into the forest.
Well… i hope that was at least bearable. I once again apologize for the ending and such hope to have the next chapter out by Friday or Sunday.
If you have any comments questions or concerns about this chapter or my story in general just PM me or leave a review and I'll answer as quick as possible.
See ya next time folks.