Well damn, the boss rush of Blazblue Central Fiction is hard! Been playing Grimm of Abyss mode for quite some time and even after this long, it feels like I'll never finish up to depth 32 in the boss rush; the characters are stupidly strong and smart for one of my skill level. No choice but to just keep practicing, I suppose.

That said, if any of you have the game, any idea if you know if the Stat Boost skill has a level Max? If so, any surefire of getting it or do I just have to be really damn lucky? I figure if pure skill on my part won't help for the time being, then boosting my stats as much as possible is the only way to go for now.

Heh, well that aside, how are you all liking RWBY vol. 4 right now? Certainly a lot of interesting new plot twists being unveiled, though for now they're simply raising a lot more questions than ever before. Here's to hoping they get answered by the end of this volume, ha ha ha.

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 21

Emerald had been observing one Jaune Arc for almost the entirety of class now and she still wasn't quite sure what to make of the blind young man.

It's been just two days since she, Mercury and Cinder had arrived here at Beacon and in that time the three of them along with all of the other visiting students had been warmly welcome to Beacon's classes as according to their own years.

And in these very brief two days, she and Mercury could already claim to be annoyed by the ensuing schoolwork, not that they'd ever complain much to Cinder about it.

Especially not when, the risks of being here aside, they were provided the opportunity to observe their surprisingly young (assistant) professor up close.

Heh, it was hard to believe even now that the one who'd interrupted their plans so much was here of all places. At least it would save Cinder the trouble of having to find out his identity now, Emerald silently reasoned.

Now if only she was able to actually sit back and observe the man quietly instead of having to take part in this stupid exercise of his!

Seriously, sparring with blindfolds on?! Originally with their weapons and now without them due to the number of accidental strikes?! How did he come up with this idea?!

Thankfully, the class had been provided a brief reprieve in the form of a five minute long break right now allowing her and the other students time to remove their blindfolds.

And now sitting cross legged on the ground with one equally annoyed Mercury next to her, Emerald focused as subtly as possible on Jaune Arc as he appeared to be in the midst of giving a few students some pointers after observing their particular spar.

She had no idea how he was able to do that though – he was blind, after all, right?

Well, that aside… she could only look upon him, taking note of his apparent personality and simply not seeing how he could have caused Cinder this much grief. He was just too nice and sort of nervous and kind of happy-go-lucky to be any sort of real threat.

His body, however, told a bit of a different story.

When he'd greeted their arriving group two days back, he'd been wearing a pitch black coat that hardly flattered his physique. But yesterday and today he was going without said coat, presumably because it was just a tad bit warmer than usual. And while the long sleeve black shirt he wore underneath was quite baggy, every now and then he'd stretch or in general move in such a way that the shirt would end up suddenly looking snug against his upper back, chest, and arms, showing off slim yet still fairly large and powerful muscles that could only have been achieved through intense training and battle.

And no, she wasn't checking him out, despite how Mercury had immediately teased her about this yesterday when she'd initially pointed it out.

Well, okay… maybe she was just admiring his form a little bit. Not too hard to admire a physique like that, after all; just looking around briefly was enough to tell her that a number of girls were checking him out behind his back.

But that being said, the teal haired girl still wasn't sure how to categorize this guy at all. His personality thus far indicated a rather mild mannered and otherwise unassuming man. But his body was that of a warrior. The only real link between these two contrasting things was the surprising amount of combat knowledge he seemed to possess as was evidenced by what pointers he'd given out thus far.

Not to mention that video…

At this point, Emerald couldn't help but shiver just a little bit, only enough for Mercury to really notice and mercifully, the guy didn't mock her for it.

In the time not long after being shown to their rooms, Cinder had tasked her and Mercury with going about and making contact with the other students, build up trust and reliability so that it'll be all the easier to blend in and not be detected by the ones they had to genuinely worry about. And during this time, she and Mercury had asked about Jaune, having noticed how a lot of people seemed to be talking about him.

That had been when they were shown the video, which they had later shown Cinder.

Needless to say, all three of them had been shocked by how the fight between Jaune and the Grimm Studies professor had ended up turning out. It had been this video, more than anything else, that had convinced them of Jaune's power and subsequently, his threat level to the plan.

…Which still didn't make it easy to try reconciling his combat prowess with how he acts off the battlefield.

But then, she nor Mercury were meant to treat him as a sort of psychological case-study – they were watching him with the hopes of a potential slip up, anything and everything that could be used against him. A potential weak spot on his body, a small opening in his fighting style, a psychological issue or personality trait that they could manipulate to their own benefit… that is what she and Mercury were meant to try and find.

And so far, Emerald could say that the two of them were having no luck. Or at least, she didn't appear to be having any luck.

So with just a smidgen of hope within her, she turned to Mercury, wondering if perhaps he was seeing something that she was missing. After all, she was just a thief when it came down to it; he was the one raised by an actual assassin.

But when she turned, it was only to see an expression just as lost as her own promptly looking back at her.

Emerald grimaced. That had been expected, but still hadn't been what she wanted to see.

"Okay, break time is done! Time to get back at it!" Jaune then said, clapping his hands once to get everyone's attention prior to this.

Inwardly groaning, she and Mercury slowly stood up along with everyone else.

And if there was one other thing she wasn't liking about this thus far… it was having to spar with Mercury of all people while blindfolded.

Seriously, those prosthetic legs of his hurt.

Cinder, meanwhile, wasn't in any class and was instead taking her sweet time traversing Beacon's grounds.

Having easily lied and claimed to feeling ill due to a combination of 'her long travel here,' and 'having to adapt to Vale's particular climate', Cinder had been able to worm her way out of class and rather than head to the infirmary like the professor had believed she'd do, she was intending on using this time to explore as much of the academy as possible, get a feel for where their target may be at.

While dealing with the CCT was the current main objective, Cinder also wished to know the location of the Fall Maiden as soon as possible, that way she may go and kill the comatose woman and obtain the entirety of her power.

All for the sake of her mentor's grand plan… whatever that may be.

Just as she kept many of own underlings out of the loop on certain things, she too was being kept out of the loop on a number of things her own mentor had in mind. Oh well, contrary to what some would probably think of her, this didn't bother her too much; she's more than happy to help tear this world apart for the sake of a better one.

But alas, to accomplish that, making sure the Fall Maiden dies and passes her power onto her was key. As for the other maidens… well, that was something to worry about in the future.

So while it did somewhat worry her to leave the observation of that blond punk up to Emerald and Mercury for now, it was something Cinder was just going to have to live with for now.

At any rate, finding the location of the Fall Maiden shouldn't be too hard, if only in theory. Despite the size of the academy, there were only so many places that Ozpin could conceal the comatose woman without risk.

Therefore, she could immediately dismiss any potential location that was near classrooms or other spots that students and faculty favor.

"Which likely means…" she began to mutter.

She peered out a window nearby and her slowly smoldering gaze focused on the tower not so far off from where she currently was at.

"The headmaster's tower…" she finished saying, a small smile making an appearance on her face.

Surely, that must be where her target was at. After all, the only people that could truly come and go from that tower with impunity would be the headmaster himself as well as his deputy headmistress.

Well, on the off-chance that the Fall Maiden wasn't in there somewhere probably didn't matter too much either. For at one point or another, that tower must be brought down as well for the sake of the plan.

But in any case, just how to enter such a place? No doubt the tower will be well-protected regardless of whether or not the maiden is being kept hidden there… so sneaking in wouldn't be easy and going in guns blazing would also not be a good thing to do.

For she knew that while she was strong, the headmaster was likely much stronger, strong enough to require a maiden to actually defeat. Which only made her goal of fully obtaining the Fall Maiden's power that much more important since taking Ozpin out of the picture was also something that her mentor would very much like to see happen.

Her mind whirring like a well-oiled machine now, Cinder slowly began to walk away, already trying to scheme about all the ways she could finally turn things to her favor.

A pity, however, that she didn't seem to realize she wasn't the only one prowling the halls.

From its place among the shadows, the blackness watched as silently as it usually did as its target walked away from the window, the one known as Cinder smiling ever so slightly. If the blackness had to take some kind of guess, it would say that perhaps the pawn was finally beginning to think of a way to turn this situation to her advantage finally.

However, it highly doubted that things would go anywhere near whatever the woman may be planning.

Over the past 2 days, it had detached itself from Jaune under the guise of its champion saying that the weather had become a little too warm to be wearing a coat, which certainly made the slight spike in temperature a convenient thing to have happen. And the blackness had subsequently been using its time away from its Apostle to closely observe the one called Cinder and her two lackeys – Emerald and Mercury, their names appeared to be – from within the confines of shadows and darkness, which for all intents and purposes were but offshoots of itself anyways.

Over these past 2 days, it had watched them as they went to classes under the guise of students. It had watched them eat in the cafeteria. It had watched them – mainly Emerald and Mercury – trade banter as they walked the halls. It had watched them simultaneously unwind from dealing with classes and plan their little plans regarding their time here in Beacon.

It had even watched them take their turns in the shower. And it had to say that in spite of its own lack of emotion, it had to appreciate the singing voice Mercury had.

That aside, in this brief yet around-the-clock observation it had put them under, the blackness had come to learn a fair bit about the trio.

For one thing, all three of them definitely weren't capable of sensing it even when it had followed them within the confines of their own shadows, such as in the shower due to the lack of other shadows in the bathroom. For another thing, their 'grand plan' had hit a number of speedbumps, if not outright bordering on the verge of collapsing; with Roman Torchwick and his little helper dead, they were bereft of a way to gather more Dust for this train of theirs and the White Fang was becoming increasingly difficult to keep in line. Furthermore, based on some words spoken quietly between the pawn's pawns, it seemed they didn't have a real plan on dealing with Jaune, who had been the one to sabotage their plan at the more recent points.

Very interesting, to say the least, though the blackness certainly wasn't capable of feeling elated at learning all of this. It could certainly imagine Jaune feeling happy once it finally returned and reported its findings. Perhaps it would even soothe the young man's increasingly frazzled nerves in the wake of his newfound (in)famous and now well-known reputation.

However, while it could be reasoned that it had gathered enough information, the blackness still stalked after Cinder with the intent of finding out more. After all, just now the woman was clearly beginning to plan out something regarding that tower of the headmaster's. No doubt, she wished to kill the Fall Maiden and take her power for good.

A shame then for her that the maiden was no longer comatose. The blackness had the distinct impression that this pawn would be in for quite the surprise whenever she did find the maiden.

But there was more to this than just finding out her plan for the tower; just late last night, she had spoken very briefly and vaguely to her own pawns about something called the CCT. If the blackness remembered things correctly, the CCT was in charge of electronic communications across vast distances. Surely this woman and her two pawns aimed to take it out, which would make sense given that disabling communications is a standard warfare tactic…

…Yet it was one that it nor Jaune could not ultimately allow.

While it highly doubted the three of them could truly take down Jaune – another thing that they clearly intended to do – if they could at least succeed in taking out the CCT, then that would keep vast portions of humanity from communicating with one another over exceptionally long distances.

That wouldn't do, especially since contact of some kind between the kingdoms would be most necessary for the not so distant future.

But what to do about this? Cinder hadn't elaborated much on their plan regarding the CCT last night, having no doubt already gone over it many times prior to ever coming to Beacon, and now that she and her two lackeys were posing as students, outright disposing of them would draw attention from other students and especially the faculty since three students from another kingdom – or so says their falsified records – going missing or turning up dead would certainly make for an attention-grabbing incident. More so if or when it was discovered that they weren't actually students from Haven, should such a scenario ever come to pass.

This meant that it couldn't simply have Jaune directly confront and kill them nor could it do so itself since that would draw the maiden's attention and possibly send her on a warpath unknowingly towards its champion.

…

…Unless the maiden's warpath could be guided towards someone else instead.

The blackness, struck by what humans would call a flash of inspiration, now continued to follow after Cinder with something akin to a renewed energy, as it now began to dwell on a countermeasure for this pawn.

Now how best to get the Fall Maiden to come to Cinder, it wondered, and when to do so… the possibilities now seemed endless.

Now if this forming plan does work, all that would be left would be the pawn's two pawns… and then the White Fang in full, just to play things safe.

And then, once Jaune grows more in bodily strength, the two of them could finally think of directly confronting the so-called Queen.

"Uhm… how can I help you?" spoke one Jaune Arc, who was currently looking a little confused for some reason.

Mercury couldn't help but eat this up for some reason, finding an ever so tiny amount of satisfaction in being able to confuse the young blond before him. Call it pettiness on his part or whatever, but after the sights he'd seen in that factory, being able to return to something like this felt very nice. It allowed him to focus on other things.

Like potentially finding out any faults in this Jaune guy's body or mentality.

"Ah, nothing much really," Mercury replied as casually as possible. "I was just wondering if you could give me a few pointers about something."

All throughout combat class today, he and Emerald had futilely tried to observe him from afar for anything that could be used against him and had only succeeded in hitting each other or others several times over thanks to that stupid blindfold exercise that had been going on.

Seeing as dealing with this guy was something that should – in theory, so to speak – be seen to as soon as possible, Mercury had decided to take a different approach from what Cinder had recommended and had instead gone up to the (assistant) professor after class to ask him some random questions.

Which is exactly what he was doing now.

That being said, he will admit albeit silently, that he was feeling a little nervous in spite of his own innate smugness. Something about this blond guy's blind eyes… it just set off something in him that couldn't quite be identified.

If the assassin had to say anything about this, it was almost as if the blond man wasn't blind at all, the way his dull blue eyes focused so keenly on him making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

He watched then as calmly as possible – with a not so calm Emerald at his side – as Jaune then blinked a few times. Then the blond craned his head to right, the action unintentionally causing his neck to crack a bit. At least, Mercury sure hoped it was unintentional because it honestly kind of put him on edge a little bit and he couldn't imagine how well he'd hold up to this guy actually trying to intimidate him.

He'd seen that video after all and he'd rather not find out if this guy could fire aura beams at will, thank you very much.

"On kicking? I don't think I can… I mean, you already have pretty good form on that front," Jaune then said.

Mercury's eyes narrowed just a little bit. How could he make a comment like that? It only further made him question this guy's blindness. "Ah, no… the blindfold thing."

"Oh! That! Right…" Jaune rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Once more, Mercury and Emerald shared a look with one another as this happened. Was this guy for real? "Well, there's honestly not much I can tell you there either, I think…"

"Really? But surely you can give us some advice. I mean, how else do you get around?" Emerald now chipped in.

Mercury nodded in agreement. Smart thinking on the girl's part, no matter how much she may annoy him sometimes. By so suddenly calling out his blindness even if indirectly, it puts this blond enigmatic on the spot. Maybe he might slip up on something.

"Err, well when you put it that way…" Jaune's dull blue eyes closed as he folded his arms across his chest. "Well, in my case, my other senses simply sharpened naturally since I had to focus much more on them than before to get around. So I'm afraid the only advice I could really give is try to focus your all on at least one sense that isn't sight and go from there."

Mercury inwardly grunted. Simple advice for not quite a simple thing. Easier said than done, really. Oh well, he'll make do somehow. Kind of amazing though how of all the things his asshole dad taught him, relying much more on his other senses had never really been one of them.

A shame that this guy didn't seem to give anything away though.

"I see," Mercury then said. "Well thanks anyways, prof-."

"O-Oh, right!" Jaune suddenly said, interrupting him. "S-Sorry to cut you off, but just one quick thing on my part."

Jaune's dull blue eyes focused on Mercury, making the boy inwardly once more.

But it was the young man's next several words that made the grey haired man's blood run arctic cold.

"You might want to adjust the gears in the ankle portion of your prosthetic legs. They seemed a little stressed earlier."

The resulting silence was so great that a pin drop would've been deafening. All Mercury could do was stare at the man with a newfound level of interest, suspicion, and even horror. He heard a breath from beside hitch up as well for a brief second, telling him that Emerald had been just as shocked as him to hear what the professor had just said.

"…You could even pick up that little amount of sound? Your hearing must be pretty sharp," Mercury eventually managed to comment in as casual a tone as possible.

"…O-Oh, it's nothing too special," Jaune said just a little too quickly. "It's just something that I got really good at over the years."

His left eyebrow twitched almost microscopically as he said that, his dull blue eyes opening just a centimeter or so more than they were before.

Mercury right then and there knew that the professor was lying.

"Well, I'll make sure to check that out later then. But first, our other teammate beckons. She isn't feeling too well, after all," Mercury said as he turned around, Emerald immediately following suit. "See ya around, teach!"

"Right, until then!" Jaune said.

Mercury and Emerald then proceeded to walk on without turning back around at the blond man, walking at a normal pace until they had fully exited the arena.

Only then did their pace become a bit more rushed, a little more filled with worry. And with very good reason.

"Merc…" Emerald began.

But she didn't even need to finish that thought at all. Mercury could only nod, his face appearing remarkably grim. "Oh yeah…"

The professor had lied just now. And while that was very little to go of off, he and his cohort immediately leapt to one conclusion:

Somehow, that son of a bitch was able to see.

"Just what was that all about?" Pyrrha asked, her green eyes narrowing in confusion.

"Don't know…" was Jeanne's equally confused reply.

"Can we please go now?" muttered a tired Ren.

"Not now, Renny! First we need to figure out what just happened!" half-whispered an excited Nora who was all but using Ren as a standing platform.

Jeanne paid the following tired mutterings of Ren little mind as she tried to process what exactly had happened.

Ever since the fight between her brother and Professor Port, she had made good on her promise to herself to try and figure out what was going on, having immediately tasked herself and her team with tailing Jaune as much as humanly possible outside of class.

And this was no different today.

When combat class had ended and he'd ended up staying behind to talk to those two Haven students just now, Jeanne had immediately grabbed her friends and had hidden themselves on the opposite side of the arena, where Jaune's back had been facing. Thankfully, on this end of the arena lied another door to lead to a convenient locker room. It was here that they had hid and had pressed their ears against the door to listen.

And while the conversation her brother had been having with the two had been pretty normal, something about their tones at the end there seemed off somehow.

"But what could it be?!" she muttered, not for the first time feeling frustrated. So far, their tailing of Jaune had yielded little success.

"Maybe they were talking in code!" Nora offered her opinion excitedly.

"Nora… just how would they have done that?" spoke a fatigued Ren. Wow, Jeanne sure hoped he got some rest tonight; he looked so much like a zombie right now. "They were just talking about the blindfold exercise."

"Mhm. Would be pretty hard to add a code into that," Pyrrha added, apparently taking Nora's idea seriously.

"Muuuhhhh….! This is driving me nuts!" Jeanne said, a little louder than before.

"Jeanne, he might hear us!" Pyrrha said with a bit of worry, Jeanne noted. And something else that she couldn't really identify. But Jeanne did notice that her partner was blushing again a little bit. And fidgeting. Maybe she had to go to the bathroom?

In any case, though, the blond leader at least had the decency to blush. Being caught by her brother certainly wouldn't do, to be sure. It would put an end to her 'follow him until we find out his secret!' plan and just how else would she be able to ultimately help him since he won't tell her what's going on?

"R-Right! Whelp, time to leave!" she then declared, pointing skywards. "Nora! Check if the coast is clear!"

"Aye, aye! Let's take a pea- gah!" Nora began, only to actually shriek upon opening the door just a crack.

Jeanne, being close enough to Nora when this happened, equally screamed when she saw her brother's dull blue eyes peering at them through the crack in the door.

"Jeanne? Just what are you and your team doing?" he asked, his voice tinged not with annoyance or anything of the sort, but merely curiosity.

Having not expected this sudden change in the situation, Jeanne's mind failed in providing her an adequate answer, so all that left her mouth was: "U-Uh, Uh, Uhm, Uh, Uhm, err-!"

"W-We'd simply been taking our time changing back into our uniforms is all," Ren managed to answer, the boy stuttering only slightly. Apparently, the sudden appearance of Jaune who now fully opened the door had managed to startle the normally tired boy too. "We were quite worn down from today's practice session."

"Ah," Pyrrha now began. "And that was when we overheard you talking to those two students just now. We didn't want to interrupt the conversation, so we just… sort of stayed behind?"

Jeanne had never felt so utterly grateful to her friends. Even though her partner had sort of lost steam there at the end, Pyrrha and Ren had both managed to give a reply in her stead.

"Oh, okay. It just sort of began worrying me when I noticed just how long you've been in here," Jaune said, smiling a little.

"…Huh?" Jeanne couldn't help but say.

"Sir, did you know we were in here from the start?" Ren suddenly asked.

"Hm? Oh yeah. I noticed you guys walk in here with the rest of the students, but when I never noticed you four leaving, I started getting a little worried," was Jaune's reply.

"…Oh," was all Jeanne could say in response. So much for being sneaky today.

"Well, we should be going now that your conversation is done," spoke Pyrrha with disarming smile. "I'm sure your advice will help them out greatly!"

Jaune chuckled a little. "I sure hope so, because I honestly felt otherwise about that." He moved aside so that they all could leave. "Well, off you go, I guess."

"A-Ah, yep!" Jeanne laughed awkwardly at that. "I'll see you later then, okay Jaune?"

"Sure."

Embarrassed at having been caught and at how the situation had ultimately turned out, Jeanne made no attempt to disguise her rushing out of the room, her teammates following behind her with awkward expressions on their faces, even Nora.

The leader of team JNPR couldn't help but shed comical tears.

One day, she swears, one day she'll find out what her brother's secret is! And then she'll help him with whatever troubles he has, whether he likes it or not!

Jaune wasn't quite sure to make of what had just happened, not with those two 'Haven students' nor with his sister and her team just now.

But as he now took his time exiting the combat arena, he found himself focusing on those two students from just a moment or so ago much more than on his sister's odd antics just now.

Those two had been walking alongside that pseudo-maiden when they'd arrived 2 days ago. They were also the woman's 'teammates' as well, meaning they were in actuality the pseudo-maiden's pawns.

…Which in turn meant that they'd be gunning for him in one form or another, he supposed.

And it was at this thought that his face scrunched up with marginal worry. In immediate hindsight, he probably shouldn't have commented on that guy's robotic legs or whatever they were exactly, but he hadn't quite been able to keep the concern for the genuinely grinding gears at bay. And he knew that the guy and girl knew that he had lied at the end there.

"So they know that I can 'see' in a way…" he muttered to himself.

There was no doubt that they'd go and tell that pseudo-maiden this particular detail right now. How exactly that would then come to bite him in the ass, he couldn't fathom, but he knew that it was going to happen somehow.

With that in mind now, he had to wonder just how well his friend's observation of the pseudo-maiden was going. He sure hoped his friend would finally give him an update soon now that he had this current issue to worry about.

But even if his friend came back tonight and told him whatever he had found out… just how best to proceed? With the spotlight still on him thanks to that video his fight with Peter, he couldn't exactly do much during the day with nearly everyone watching him for one reason or another. Not to mention there was still the Fall Maiden prowling about the campus now, thankfully nowhere near him for the time being.

Though knowing his luck, that was probably going to change in due time…

Jaune sighed, suddenly feeling tired. His newfound fame, the Fall Maiden, this pseudo-maiden and her two cohorts, the 'Queen,' and his sister as the 'Beacon' and Ruby Rose with those eyes of hers… he and his friend certainly had a lot on their plate right now, especially now that he considers a majority of these issues were gathered here at Beacon of all places.

At least the only real issues would be placating the Fall Maiden and dealing with the pseudo-maiden for now. After which, the only real threat left would be the Queen, though he highly doubted she would remain inactive that long.

Scratching the back of his head in worry at that last thought, Jaune held back the grimace that threatened to come forth. For much like his friend, he himself liked to try and plan things out, but alas he wasn't much of a planner either just like his friend was.

No choice then but to continue winging things until a clearer course of action could be decided on.

He just hoped this decision wouldn't cost him or others dearly.

"Sir, we're almost there. About another half hour at our current speed."

"Good," came the brisk reply of one Adam Taurus.

As a bull type Faunus and as one who had suffered unjust prejudice and discrimination growing up, Adam had very little patience for things in general. But now, he was able to display a surprising amount of it as he and a small handful of others were being flown in their illegally obtained bullhead to their destination:

Mount Glenn.

The mountain in question slowly appearing in sight, Adam gripped his weapon – Blush – tightly in barely suppressed anger.

Ever since Cinder and her two infuriating lackeys had managed to coerce him and his own men into aiding her, he'd been barely holding back his rage at having to work with a human as arrogant as her. It had only been the woman's power, cunning and resources that had stayed his hand at every point in time.

Until recently that is. Apparently, the ever so confident Cinder wasn't as capable as she had projected herself as being, with that scum Torchwick being thwarted in his Dust heists for good from what he'd been told. Never mind the fact that whatever scheme Cinder truly had in the works seemed to have hit a few significant snags if the woman's subtly hidden looks of frustration during their talks were anything to go by.

Add in the lives of more than a dozen White Fang soldiers being ended alongside Torchwick's own and now Adam felt he had more than enough reason to believe that it was time to step up to the plate himself. Cinder had boasted of everything being able to go according to plan back in the beginning, but now that clearly wasn't the case anymore. With the illusion of her apparent invincibility now shattered in his eyes, he could now saw the fire-wielding human for the overly smug bitch that he had always thought her to be in full.

She had no idea of his going to Mount Glenn and Adam planned to keep it that way. After the number of resources and Faunus lives she'd wasted, Cinder was no longer to be trusted no matter how much she tried to butter him and the others up with her words. She'd thought she had subdued him with the details of their last conversation, of how she would now be working to kill the blond enigma that had had a hand in the death of his fellow Faunus and Torchwick.

She was wrong.

The words had honestly enraged him at the time unlike almost anything that had come before. She really expected him to trust her to get rid of this unknown variable? She must truly be out of her mind if she did believe that. But while Adam fully intended to hunt down and kill this blond man, it is something that was going to have to wait for now.

For he intended to start the first part of Cinder's plan earlier than she expected. Admittedly, the woman was right to hold off on sending the train until Beacon Academy had sent out a majority of their students and professors on their missions, but at this point in time the plan had already been stalled significantly. Waiting any longer would likely result in it being halted outright for one reason or another.

And that was something Adam would not stand for. Even if the number of human casualties and the overall impact wouldn't be much, launching the train as soon as possible would still be bound to have an impact on Vale's overall morale, would still be bound to grab enough of the Grimm's attention to get them to slowly head towards that disgusting metropolis.

He and the rest of the White Fang will not see their efforts lead to nothing.

So with this determination quietly burning away within Adam, he leaned back into his seat, ever so eager to get to Mount Glenn to personally oversee the completion of that damned train.

With the number of extra men and woman also riding with him in this bullhead eager to help out, the train's final tweaks should be completed in just several days.

And then… then, he'll make sure that Vale burns.

Heh heh, talk about a gambit pileup, right? All of these people trying to figure out their next move all at the same time… oh boy, even though I'm the author, even I can scarcely imagine how it'll ultimately turn out. Hope I can write the next several chapters out well enough for everything to make sense.

Whelp, if one thing is definitely certain, it's that the action is going to start cranking up again pretty soon! Hope you will all enjoy it!

Until next time, everyone! Take care!