Chapter 24
It didn't take long for Pyrrha to regain consciousness. She slowly blinked open her eyes, and the world slowly swayed into focus. Only, the swaying wasn't because of the spinning headache she had (though that certainly didn't help), but a result of being suspended in the air in a knot of thick ropes. Pyrrha looked down at the floor twenty or thirty feet below, and saw a White Fang heaving on the rope that was holding her in the air, bouncing her back and forth with each pull. She hit the wall behind her a few times, and scowled.
"Alright, you're good, hold it there!" A familiar voice ordered, and the rope stopped.
Pyrrha looked back up as she swung in place, and saw her captors standing on a catwalk on the wall opposite her. It was the green haired girl, whose name escaped her at the moment, who had sent the order down. Mercury was casually sitting on the railing, gleefully unaware or uncaring of the steel's dilapidated condition. The young woman with heterochromic eyes stood behind them, holding her umbrella on both ends and grinning at Pyrrha.
The man in the black robes was not standing among them. Pyrrha looked around and spotted him back at the portal. The fourth stone had been placed, and he held a fifth in his hands while he chanted in a rasping whisper that reverberated through the abandoned mill. In the short time Pyrrha had been unconscious, the portal had lost its rounded edges and began to take a more rigid gate-like shape, large enough to drive a bus through. Even from her position, it was large enough that she could make out what was on the other side; a twisted landscape of bloody hills, dark crystals, and scarlet clouds, that looked to be slowly crossing from Remnant to Earth.
A black goo oozed from the bottom of the portal, slowly dripping onto the concrete floor and leaving it heavily stained. It had yet to spread beyond the four Blackstones, but the closest edges boiled and bubbled as they neared them. Thin scarlet lines had appeared in the concrete, forming an ornate circle on the inside of the Blackstones that branched out and touched each at its base. Every hair on Pyrrha's body stood on end just looking at the spectacle.
Where in the world did that portal lead?
"Hey look, she's awake," Mercury snickered. "That didn't last long."
Pyrrha looked up from the portal back at her captors, and frowned at him, "I remember you now, from the Vytal Festival. You were a Mistral student, I think."
"Oh, you remember me? Hey Emerald, Pyrrha Nikos remembers me!" Mercury said in mock excitement.
The green haired girl, Emerald, rolled her eyes and said, "We're not from Mistral. After what you saw at Beacon, that should be obvious."
Pyrrha stared at her, blankly. Emerald folded her arms and slowly raised a brow, "You… never saw us, did you?"
"I… don't think so."
While her memories were better, Pyrrha still had no idea what had happened at the Vytal Festival after her talk with Jaune, a fact she intended on keeping to herself. Mercury she remembered briefly sparring with, but Emerald she'd only seen on campus once or twice. Given the former's odd behavior during their session though, them being villains made sense. Kind of.
This also meant that they knew what had happened at Beacon, and that Pyrrha could get the answers she was looking for, if it weren't for the stupid spell that threatened to shatter her mind every time she gave the event serious thought. If either of them found out about that, Pyrrha would be at their mercy; she had to escape before that became a reality.
Her mind set to work analyzing her situation, obviously the three of them had some idea of her Semblance, which was why they had her suspended so high up and away from the machinery. Pyrrha had a soft limit on her Semblance, anything over fifty feet grew difficult, a hundred was sketchy at best, which was one reason she'd worked to keep her abilities, at the very least, subtle. It certainly wasn't a great range, but if others believed that she was limited to close combat, it was a tactical advantage she could exploit when need be.
Like if she was captured by the enemy, obviously. Pyrrha focused her mind and began taking stock of her location. The first thing she realized was that, decades of work in the mills had infused the entire structure with flecks of metal, too tiny for most to notice, but to Pyrrha they were a thousand gleaming stars in the darkness.
Emerald spoke, briefly catching Pyrrha's attention, "I guess it doesn't matter. What does matter, is what you're doing here. You're supposed to be dead."
Pyrrha blinked, "Um… I got better?"
Mercury snickered and the pink haired girl smirked. Emerald elbowed him and glared at Pyrrha, "You can joke if you want, but when Cinder gets here, she'll rip any answer we want from your mind. So, my advice? Tell us what we want to know, it'll save you some trouble."
She glared at the man at the portal, "At this rate, you have plenty of time to answer, too."
The man turned his hooded face to look at Emerald; he didn't stop his chanting while he did. The distance between their groups was far enough that making out his facial features within his hood would've been impossible. Yet even then, Pyrrha could feel the utter disgust radiating from the man, and maybe it was her imagination, but the dimly lit room seemed to grow even darker for a moment.
Emerald averted her eyes from his gaze. He slowly returned his attention to the Blackstone, and resumed chanting.
"So… who is that?" Pyrrha asked.
That got her a withering glare from Emerald, "You're not the one asking questions here, we are. How stupid do you think we are?"
Mercury snickered again, "Well…"
"Oh don't you start!"
Pyrrha immediately tuned them out and began focusing again. Most of the steel she could actually use was either too far away or too small to be of any immediate use. They'd been smart in tying her up where she was. However, they had forgotten to check for one very important detail. In larger buildings, concrete alone wasn't enough to support the structure, they were often interlaced with steel rebar to create an even stronger building. This old abandoned mill was no exception, and a particularly large girder was located almost directly behind her, a stroke of luck so good she'd question it more thoroughly if she had the time.
Focusing her Semblance on the beam was the easy part, that much steel in one area was a blazing beacon compared to tiny sparks around that littered the factory, and she easily managed to 'grip' it. Pyrrha tested her grip of the beam, willing it to contract. The wall shivered, sending tiny flakes of dust raining down from what was left of the ceiling. Pyrrha suppressed her smile and relaxed her Semblance for the moment.
She immediately realized that the argument between Emerald and Mercury had ceased, with the former glaring daggers into Pyrrha's skull. "Yes?"
"Are you even paying attention?" Emerald demanded, "I asked how you knew we were here? We're impossible to track from this world, unless someone told you about us."
Pyrrha smiled innocently, "Oh, I'm sorry. Since you two were arguing, I figured I'd use the free time to plan my escape."
Mercury snorted, "Right. We know about your Semblance, Nikos. You're not getting out that easily."
"Oh? Is that so?" Pyrrha asked.
The base of the concrete wall behind her promptly exploded into dust and rubble. The girder erupted from the wall, sending debris everywhere and filling the factory with smoke. Pyrrha felt solid ground beneath her feet, and the rope supporting her went limp. She willed the beam up another five feet or so, until the catwalk was below her.
"Because that was pretty easy!"
Over her hacking coughs, Emerald's shouted, "Quick! Stop her!"
Mercury shot out of the cloud of debris, his jump arching over Pyrrha, and landed on the girder behind her. Pyrrha whirled around, and stepped backwards, away from him. While they hadn't bothered to tie up her legs, her arms were still pressed tightly to her side, keeping her at a distinct disadvantage.
Mercury spun on his heel in a roundhouse kick aimed at Pyrrha's head, only for it to go wide and hit the girder with a harmless shower of sparks. Maybe it wasn't that distinct a disadvantage. He followed through his kick's momentum, twisting into the air and bringing his other leg down on Pyrrha's head. Her legs buckled from under her and she slammed her jaw against the iron beam, star's flashing behind her eyes.
Her vision cleared in time to see him raising his foot again to slam her face into the beam. Using her Semblance, she seized his boot and pushed. Mercury went flipping backwards across the beam and landed on his feet, unharmed, but surprised. Pyrrha struggled back to her feet, difficult with her hands bound, and looked over the side.
The dust was settling and the White Fang below were milling around in confusion. They hadn't noticed her yet, which meant-
Her train of thought was cut off by a sliver of steel sliding between her arm and torso, nicking her corset and cutting through the rope. The pink haired girl planted a knee in Pyrrha's back and slammed her back onto the beam face first. Pyrrha rolled to her side, and would have free-fallen to the ground below, only for the rope to snap taut. She gasped for air and looked up.
Mercury had pinned the rope to the beam with his boot and smirked at her. "End of the line, Nikos!"
He seized the rope and heaved her back up to the duo. Pyrrha let him. The moment she was back on the beam, she shoved his legs out from under him with her Semblance. Mercury face planted into the beam before tumbling to the ground below.
Her other assailant stabbed her umbrella-sword towards Pyrrha's face. It would have killed her then and there, if not for Pyrrha's Semblance protecting her again. She didn't normally use it that often, and hardly in such obvious fashion, but this was a life and death fight, and her arms were pinned. Screw subtlety, she was not going to die and leave Murphy and Harry unprepared for what was coming.
The blade stopped an inch from her eye, quivering with restrained energy. Pyrrha took a brief moment to swallow nervously, never taking her eye off the sharpened steel, and willed it to the side. Her attacker pressed harder onto her weapons hilt, to no avail. Once past her face, Pyrrha released her Semblance. The blade scraped off the side of the girder, jerking it from the pink-haired girl's hand.
She glared at Pyrrha and raised a closed fist. Pyrrha quickly focused her Semblance on the girder and willed it to fall away. In a screech of protesting metal, it did just that, folding under her attacker's feet. Only last minute instinct kept her from hitting the floor, instead, grabbing the edges of the beam as she fell and slid to a stop at the bottom.
Pyrrha didn't spare her a second look, instead she focused on getting her knees under her until she was sitting up and grabbing the fallen weapon with her Semblance. With just a few quick motions, the ropes binding her arms fell free, and Pyrrha got to her feet, weapon in hand. The balance and length was off, but fighting barehanded was out of the cards.
A quick glance at the ground below showed the White Fang had finally started to organize themselves. Mercury was nowhere to be seen, which rang a dozen warning bells in Pyrrha's head. She removed her gaze from the ground and blinked. Across from her, Emerald was crouched on the beam, slowly creeping forward with her pistols in hand.
"What in the world are you doing? Is that… is that supposed to be stealth?" Pyrrha didn't mean to sound rude, but… She hadn't expected anything so...bizarre.
Emerald, for her part, looked caught off guard by Pyrrha's statement, but didn't say anything. Instead, her eyes narrowed and…
A very faint tingling sensation arose at the base of Pyrrha's skull, slowly flowing through the rest of her head. Were it not for her painful headaches and seizures over the past few days, she never would have noticed it at all. She rubbed at her eyes, and blinked a few times. The image of Emerald flickered and began to fade from Pyrrha's sight, until a river of ice coursed through her veins and froze the sensation in place.
It wasn't a painful sensation, more of a surprise, like stepping into a cold shower. But it stopped the sensation in her skull, and washed it away. When Pyrrha focused her eyes again, Emerald was back in place, an expression of shock on her face.
The wires sparked a connection in Pyrrha's mind, and ignited a hidden source of anger and frustration that had been building for days. Pyrrha screamed and slammed her foot on the beam, and the entire structure folded like paper, slamming into Emerald and pinning her to the wall.
Pyrrha jumped on top of the bend and grabbed her by the throat, "Don't you ever try and get inside my head again, understand!?"
Emerald choked and grabbed at Pyrrha's hand, but the young woman's grip was like iron. The iron rebar folded at Pyrrha's command, and she lifted Emerald overhead with both hands, and threw her down to the floor below.
An unfortunate White Fang was crushed by the falling Emerald, His luck only grew worse when Pyrrha launched herself after her and slammed both feet into the girl's back. The concrete floor exploded into dust and chips, fractures racing along the ground. Pyrrha took a few steps back, breathing hard and glaring at Emerald's form.
A part of her felt horrified at her reaction. Another felt satisfied. Lea's gift had paid off, saved her from a potentially very dangerous foe, and protected Pyrrha from another attempt at mucking with her mind.
"Never...again." She breathed. No one would ever malevolently sabotage her mind like that if she could help it.
Pyrrha knelt by the crater and picked up the White Fang's weapon, a broad bladed machete. She glanced at the umbrella, shrugged, and tossed it deeper into the facility. It hadn't even hit the ground, when Mercury made his presence known again. Primarily by introducing his boot to the side of her head.
She hit the ground and rolled on instinct, barely dodging a follow-up kick from Mercury that left a hole in the floor. When she got back up, he didn't let up. Mercury moved with the liquid grace his name implied, showering Pyrrha with a barrage of punches and kicks assisted by the weaponry built into his boots.
Her borrowed blade was a blur as she met or deflected his hurricane of attacks. With her Semblance, she was able to keep him from landing any serious blows, but his stamina was unbelievable. Mercury showed no sign of slowing, even after Pyrrha redirected his foot into the ground, burying it to the ankle. He just shot his other leg up in an axe-kick that just grazed the edge of her chin.
The worst part though, was that this wasn't a one-on-one fight, Pyrrha had forgotten that. The White Fang had fled when she flattened one of their members with Emerald, but her other captor hadn't left, and reminded Pyrrha in the best - or rather, worst - way possible.
As the redhead backpedaled from Mercury, something hooked the back of her ankle. Before she could even yelp, Pyrrha's leg was yanked out from under her and she slammed the back of her head against the concrete floor, flashes of light filling her vision.
By the time she could see clearly, it was in time to see Mercury arch into the air, flipping as he did, and bringing the base of his boot down on Pyrrha's gut. Concrete shattered and the air shuddered; Pyrrha gasped for air and felt her dinner threaten to come back up.
Mercury stood up and off her, smirking, "Nice one, Neo. I had her though."
The pink haired woman, Neo, sent Mercury an annoyed look. Without a word, she grabbed the hilt of her umbrella, and drew a slender blade the width of Pyrrha's middle finger from it. The blade gave off an eerie light in the abandoned mill. Pyrrha started struggling to get up, still gasping with every movement.
Neo's eyes flicked to Pyrrha's struggling form, and her face twisted into a sadistic grin, Mercury noted it and gestured for her to proceed, "Be my guest."
With a few breaths in her now, Pyrrha gasped and said, "I...remember you now… You were one of… Roman Torchwick's lieutenants. You were on the news."
Neo's sadistic grin quickly changed into a furious scowl, and she raised her sword. There was a faint tremble in her grip, unnoticeable to all but the most well-trained eye. Pyrrha caught the motion and mentally smiled.
"Did you know he's alive?"
The expression on Neo's face didn't change. But there was a hesitation in her stance now, an unsureness to her posture. Mercury saw it this time and rolled his eyes. "For the love of- Come on, you can't be that stupid. Torchwick's gone, she's just trying to save her skin."
He took a step toward Pyrrha to finish what Neo hesitated on. The tip of her sword flicked to the apple of his throat, not quite touching it, but sending a clear message.
Pyrrha smiled, "Thank you Neo."
She launched from her crouch, slamming her shoulder into Mercury's chest, sending him tumbling. Pyrrha didn't even bother stopping to finish him, she just ran. A prolonged engagement was out of the question, obviously, she just needed to get out of there as quickly as possible and warn the others.
At her crater, Emerald was slowly pulling herself out of the hole, when Pyrrha went sprinting by. Again, the green-haired woman was ignored, leaving only the man in robes between Pyrrha and her escape.
That was all it took, to stop her dead in her tracks.
Pyrrha got within maybe twenty feet of the man, when he turned his hooded head towards her, and gestured with his free hand. An immense pressure of invisible force seemed to fall from the sky and promptly crush Pyrrha where she stood. Her Aura kept her from being reduced to pulp, but she went flat to the floor in an instant.
She quickly realized that, no, she hadn't been crushed by some sort of invisible weight. Rather, the man had somehow affected gravity to increase exponentially on Pyrrha. The bits of broken plaster and steel around her casually floated through the air, bouncing off one another and drifting farther away.
Behind her, Mercury yelped as his feet could no longer find traction and he drifted upwards into the sky, flailing his arms and legs uselessly. Emerald and Neo were smart enough to, at the very least, stop at the edge of the anti-gravity zone.
The hooded man looked past Pyrrha at Emerald, and halted his chanting, for the briefest moment, to speak to her. "Control your prisoner, child. I cannot do your job for you."
He promptly went back to his chanting, and the weight vanished. Mercury fell face first into the floor a moment later. Emerald and Neo ran past him toward Pyrrha, the former only pausing long enough to say, "Quit lying around and get moving!" before going after Neo.
The pink haired woman reached Pyrrha first, as she sat up and struggled to get her legs under her. Neo stabbed her blade at Pyrrha's vulnerable chest, but was deflected by a clumsy parry. That didn't really stop Neo, as she hit Pyrrha with her backhand after a quick recovery.
Pyrrha staggered and nearly fell over, catching herself at the last moment. She scrambled and got her feet under her, quickly putting distance between herself and the others. Just in time too, Neo had come in for another attack, and missed just barely.
Emerald flanked Pyrrha from her left, two green kusarigama in her hands, curved sickle-like weapons. The first blow bounced off Pyrrha's borrowed machete, the next missed her face by an inch and scraped the edge of her tiara. Pyrrha whirled to the side and slashed at Emerald, who quickly jumped away.
Neo filled in the gap, slashing and stabbing at Pyrrha. Her adrenaline was pumping, her senses burning into overdrive. She was truly ready for a fight now. Neo's blade slid off the machete, leaving her open for Pyrrha to knee her once in the stomach, before spin-kicking her across the room.
The moment she was gone though, Emerald came right back swinging. Their blades whirled through the air, too fast for the untrained human eye to follow. Pyrrha ducked, dodged and weaved through the barrage of blows. Sparks erupted every time their weapons connected. Emerald was fast, and she was agile, but she just couldn't hit Pyrrha because of her Semblance!
Emerald spun both her kusarigama in an upward slash. Pyrrha used her Semblance to casually deflect them, and hit Emerald across the face with her open palm, sending her stumbling into the wall. Pyrrha brought back her sword arm, and felt Neo hook the end of her umbrella around her wrist, whipping Pyrrha away from Emerald and into Mercury's boots.
The silver haired youth was back in the fight and slammed into Pyrrha's face hard, firing the built-in shotguns at the same time. Pyrrha whipped backwards, into Emerald's range. The hilt of her weapon came off, revealing a long chain that she wrapped around Pyrrha's ankle in a flash, and heaved.
The chain went taut and sent Pyrrha flying through the air and slammed her into the concrete wall. The entire structure shuddered and flakes of dust rained on them. Pyrrha was aware that the fight had very quickly turned against her. She was outnumbered and outgunned, she needed Miló and Akoúo̱ to tilt the odds in her favor.
Easier said than done.
As she struggled to pull herself off the wall, Mercury sprinted full speed at her and jumped. Time slowed for the briefest moment, giving Pyrrha time to register exactly what was about to happen; then he hit her, and the wall gave way.
Pyrrha tumbled through the new opening and hit something hard. When she was able to make out the world again, she realized she'd hit a White Fang and knocked him out. The dozen or so White Fang that had been acting as watchmen now surrounded her, armed to the teeth. One of them though held a very familiar bronze sword and shield in his arms...
"Too much Mercury," Emerald chided. "This place is barely holding together as it is, we don't need to add anymore holes to it."
Mercury rolled his shoulders, and cracked his neck, "Sorry, got a bit into it. That should've done it though-"
A White Fang flew backwards out of the hole, screaming, and crashed between the trio. They looked at the groaning man, then back up at the hole he had emerged from.
Pyrrha emerged with her shield firmly secured and her spear in hand. She stopped on the threshold, and her grip tightened on her weapons. Behind her, the White Fang lay scattered across the floor in various positions, all of them unconsciousness. Mercury, Emerald, and Neo scanned over the wreckage for a moment, then looked back at Pyrrha.
For a tense moment, neither they nor the redhead made a move, and the only sound was the robed man's chanting and the groaning of the factory walls. The removal of a support beam, and the fresh hole in the wall had taken its toll on the factory wall; even before it had been abandoned, a fight like this would've been a bit much for it to handle. Now, all it would take was one wrong move, and…
A fist-sized chunk of concrete fell from the ruined wall, clattered to the floor, and that was all she wrote.
An entire section of the structure promptly gave up and made the long fall to the ground swathed in a cloud of roiling dust and debris. Pyrrha shot towards Emerald first, blindingly fast. Emerald parried the thrust of her spear, sliding around her at the same time.
Pyrrha leapt up, twisting and swinging her shield out to catch Neo's attempted attack. The blade bounced off it with a hollow 'bwong' and Neo retreated. Pyrrha slashed at Emerald, quickly switching between sword and spear from each swing and stab. A piece of concrete fell between the two, forcing them to disengage.
Mercury suddenly emerged from the smoke, planting both feet on her shield and pushing. An explosion rent the air and Pyrrha went sliding across the room. But she did not lose her footing, even as another chunk of concrete crashed in front of her with a thud.
Neo landed on the far end of it and sprinted forward. Pyrrha thrust Milo up at her, but Neo cartwheeled out of the way and tried to kick Pyrrha's leg out from under her once she was on her feet. Pyrrha dodged the attack, jumped back, and leaped forward as another chunk of concrete fell right between them, hitting it with her shield. It went spiraling at Neo, forcing her to dodge to the side.
Pyrrha threw Akoúo̱ at Neo as she came out of her roll, knocking the little woman off her feet. She recalled the shield with her Semblance in time to block another kick from Mercury. At the same time, Emerald seemed to appear out of nowhere from the clouds, slamming both of her sickles down at Pyrrha's head. Milo expanded to spear mode, and Pyrrha blocked both weapons with the hilt and blade, holding Milo in the middle.
She held them both like that for a brief moment, struggling against their combined strength. With only one arm available for both, she simply couldn't hope to match their individual strength. Her Semblance was the tipping factor of course,.
Pouring it into her sword and spear, Pyrrha shoved and shoved hard. Emerald yelled in surprise and went tumbling back into the smoke. Mercury used the shove as a springboard, backflipping through the air. The moment he hit the ground, he jumped and kicked.
He was too far to have any chance of kicking Pyrrha, but that wasn't the point. Instead, he fired the weapons built into his boots, sending a streak of white energy searing through the air and slamming into Akoúo̱. Pyrrha stumbled in surprise, and Mercury smirked.
As fast as he could, he started throwing out more of that white energy, practically dancing as he filled the already crowded air with spinning white fire that spiraled around him like a school of piranha, with Pyrrha as the main course.
When he felt he had fired enough, Mercury sent every 'shot' screaming at Pyrrha. She put up a good challenge, he'd give her that. She knocked aside the first one and began dodging and weaving through his barrage, using her weapons to deflect or block the attacks. But he'd been thorough, and Pyrrha found herself quickly overwhelmed. The barrage hammered her, knocking her senseless and off her feet.
It was Emerald who took advantage of Pyrrha's stunned state, the chain of her weapons wrapping around her waist and yanking her out of the cloud. Pyrrha flew into a large steel chimney, denting the metal and bouncing onto the floor below.
She barely caught herself, falling to one knee and using Akoúo̱ to support herself. Mercury, Emerald, and Neo emerged from the cloud a moment later, forming a half circle surrounding her. The wall finally finished its collapse, leaving only the chanting of the robed man to fill the air.
"Good fight," Mercury admitted. "But we knew what to expect from you, Nikos."
"Plenty of footage from your best fights and we knew what your Semblance was." Emerald agreed. "You never stood a chance."
Pyrrha let out a tired laugh, "That's...that's it? Just the footage from my...tournament bouts? And my sparring practices?"
She laughed again, "I was always taught...never to escalate a fight. Restraint and control were the foundation upon which I built my skill. You've seen how I in tournaments, friendly competitions…"
Despite the protest of her aching muscles, Pyrrha pushed herself to her feet and glared at her attackers, "But only a handful of people have ever witnessed what I'm really capable of."
They never got a chance to react. Pyrrha had pulled every ounce of her strength, her Semblance, into gathering the millions of iron particles that were a part of the buildings very core. Individually, they were too small to be a threat to anyone, but there was indeed a strength and numbers.
Pyrrha gathered them all under her Semblance, and without giving her attackers a chance to react, unleashed her swarm on them. A sea of living iron erupted from the floor and walls, from every nook and cranny the building had to offer. They coalesced around Pyrrha first, a pulsating mass of steel that rapidly rose behind her.
Chunks of iron were ripped from the abandoned machines, chains whipped into the swarm at Pyrrha's whim. Never before has she tried something on a scale this massive, it had been impractical, and she personally believed, impossible. Yet here she was with a fire burning in her chest as she reminded the trio just who they were messing with.
Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl from Beacon Academy, unleashed the full might of her Semblance on Mercury, Emerald, and Neo.
They never stood a chance.
Chains dragged Emerald off first, wrapping around her arms and legs and slamming her into the nearest wall, then dragging her off into the swarm. Neo was smart enough to turn and run, only for a piece of railing to hook her legs out from under her and send her flying down the length of the mill. Mercury launched himself away from the swarm, managing to dodge a dozen reaching and grabbing tendrils of steel. His shotgun like kicks tore gaping holes in the swarm, but it was useless.
He found brief purchase on a wall and launched himself at Pyrrha, sending a rippling shockwave through the air that disrupted the lesser swarm of steel particles. Pyrrha raised a steel plate in front of her that Mercury hit, hard. It crumpled like tissue paper, and wrapped itself tight around his legs.
"What the!?"
With a wave of her hand, Pyrrha slammed Mercury into the ground, into the wall, into what was left of the ceiling, tossing him about like a ragdoll with her Semblance. After he bounced off the ceiling, she sent him careening through the nearest wall.
Suddenly, Pyrrha felt cold. Not the icy cold from her tiara or from proximity to a Blackstone. No, she felt numb in her hands and feet, all the feeling simply gone. The fire she'd felt burning inside her, the passion that had given her the strength to utterly destroy her opponents was fading and fast.
Pyrrha fell to her knees and her swarm began to collapse, piles of steel dust accumulating around her. But she wasn't done, not here, not yet. The portal still stood, and the air was beginning to quiver. The cowled figure was finishing his ritual, preparing to let Mercury and Emerald's superior through. Even if she could handle this 'Cinder', the man had made it clear he was in a league all his own.
She couldn't get near him without being flattened. But then again, she didn't need to. With the last of her strength, Pyrrha seized the chimney she had been flung into only minutes earlier, and pulled with her Semblance. The steel column groaned, its surface holding firm for only a moment, before it buckled and began the slow fall towards the Blackstones.
The hooded man's chanting halted, and he looked up at his descending doom. He looked back at Pyrrha, right as the column crushed him, and the Blackstones underneath its colossal weight.
The world roared with fire and lightning, and then everything went black.
A/N: Whew, this one was a doozy folks. Long long fight scene I spent a while reworking several times. I'll probably rework it again sometime in the future, but for the moment, I'm satisfied with it. And don't worry about Pyrrha's obscene power at the end. That was a result of... things.
If I say anymore, spoilers.
Anyway! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter even if it mostly was just lots and lots of fighting, but hey, wouldn't be a RWBY crossover if it wasn't.
Next up, we see the aftermath of five Blackstones exploding and Pyrrha deals with the consequences of setting off explosives in the middle of a city.
See you all next time!