Tracing Opher's path through the chaotic city was easy for the airborne Pyrrha. She watched the lanky man jerk and twitch his way through the streets, obliterating any Grimm that happened to get in his way. Not even a Death Stalker stood much chance against him; as she watched, the giant insect shattered into jagged shards of carapace as Opher's Aura treated it like a woodchipper would treat a tree. The redhead swooped down after tracking him for another moment to report to Ruby. "I think he's heading for the derailment site," she noted.
Yang growled unhappily at the news. "Oh, great. If he blows that hole open again and goes underground, Vale is screwed."
"Vale looks pretty screwed now," Nora interjected as she shifted Magnhild to her other shoulder. They looked around at the scene with various levels of anxiety; Nevermores, Griffons and the airships fighting them circled above in the smoky sky. "I'm just saying," she added.
"Anyway… we've been following him for eight blocks." Weiss looked at the others before laying eyes on her tight-lipped leader. "I don't think he's going to wake up. What should we do?"
"No choice," Ruby sighed at length. "All right. We gotta stop him. Jaune, Blake, get to the rooftops and get ready."
"Hold on, I should find some rocks to throw at him first," Jaune quipped darkly.
Pyrrha didn't appreciate his humor. "Jaune, this isn't the time."
"Hey, we have to laugh or otherwise we're gonna start crying." He offered his partner a weak smile. "If it goes wrong, it's not like you're not used to bailing me out anyway."
Qrow ignored their conversation and watched Opher round another corner. "He's going down 57th. Lots of apartment blocks to box him in. I'll fly on ahead so we can hit him from two sides at once."
"Right. Pyrrha, just go with Jaune. He might need a lift up there anyway. See you all in a little bit." Ruby watched her uncle take his bird form and flutter away into the smoky air for a moment. The redhead's flight with her partner also earned a few seconds of thoughtful examination. "I guess this is what they pay us for, huh?"
"Uh, they don't pay us," Blake noted flatly.
"After this, they better start," Weiss grumbled under her breath.
"We're about to save the city! There's gotta be some money in that, right?" Ruby holstered Crescent Rose in preparation to dash. "I'm off. Yang-"
"I'm right behind you," the blonde assured her.
"Just checking." Ruby inhaled one last breath and started walking. "Ready, steady…"
There was no need to say go. The girl turned into a twirling crimson smear and blasted around the corner, where she found Opher lumbering along down a narrow side street between two tall red brick buildings. Ruby gave him a tentative smack on the way by to see if he'd react; his Aura did, but she proved too quick for it and evaded the gossamer threads that came after her. She slid to a stop in the middle of an intersection at the other end of the road. "Hey!" she yelled at Opher, stalling a bit until Yang, Nora, and Weiss came into view. "Wake up!"
"I am awake," his Aura replied. Its words reverberated off of the walls.
"I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to him!" Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and held it in front of her with both hands. "Wake up!" As Yang charged in from behind, Ruby dashed forth and tumbled head-over-heels. She'd effectively become a living buzzsaw by doing this, but Opher's essence deflected her blade. The impact fired her into the wall to her left, leaving her stunned.
By this time, however, Yang had arrived. While her ready fist connected with Opher's back, his Aura absorbed the shock and the subsequent gunfire. While his body jerked around to retaliate, Weiss streaked in.
"Get back!" she yelled at Yang, setting up a haphazard array of glyphs around and above him. Between these, Weiss bounced like a pinball, slashing blindly on the way by and trying to keep the gray ghost's attention. "Catch me if you can!" she taunted.
Nora took her cue and charged forward, joining Yang in a renewed attack as Ruby fired herself into Weiss' glyphs. The two girls formed a swirling pink tornado as each tried to keep Opher's Aura in check. Ren dropped in from above and inserted himself into the maelstrom as well, hacking or shooting Opher whenever he could find the chance.
This assault gave Yang and Nora plenty of time to set up their attack. They charged forward with angry screams, timing their steps with the sparks that Opher's Aura shed anytime it was struck. With a thunderous racket as Yang drove her fist into his back, Nora launched a swing right at his head.
Unfortunately, his soul stopped both. Even worse, Ren had to take an abrupt detour to avoid getting flattened by Nora's swing; Weiss stacked up behind him, losing her momentum and the focus to continue her rapid series of glyphs. This left her, Ruby, and Ren flat on their feet in front of Opher, while Yang and Nora were forced to retreat behind him.
"Reinforcements!" Ruby yelled at the sky. "Now!"
Blake descended from the heavens, evoking hardly a whisper of air as she landed on Opher's left. Before the lanky man could even pivot, there were six clones standing right next to him. Each glittered a different color of Dust. She needed to use the ribbon end of Gambol Shroud to tug Yang and Nora clear of the resulting explosion. "Jaune!" she called up.
All they could see of the screaming Jaune was his shield; he stood on it and dropped like a stone, straight into the dissipating cloud of smoke left behind by Blake's attack. While he made contact with something, Jaune had no idea what it was. Nor had he long to wonder, as a torrent of water fired him clear of the scene and back into the sky. "Crap!" Ruby growled. "Try again!"
Weiss unleashed enough ice Dust to coat Opher in a layer four feet thick from head to toe, while Yang and Nora backpedaled to gain some more run-up distance. The heiress bought them only a few seconds; cracks began to form in the ice as they charged forward again. The construction exploded just as they arrived, pelting everyone on the sidewalk with shards of ice. Blake managed to dodge through the hailstorm and wrap Gambol Shroud's ribbon around both of Opher's arms. "I've got him!" she yelled to her teammates, her arms trembling as she held it taut. "Someone strike!"
Before Opher could prove Blake wrong, a screaming Pyrrha descended from the heavens, bringing Jaune and Qrow with her on a tidal wave of air. She dumped her passengers a second before slugging the lanky man directly in the face. Her punch carried such force that it launched him in a tumbling arc above the buildings; Blake barely had time to recall her weapon before getting carried along for the ride. They watched him land six or so blocks away near the skyway bridge. "Oh, man, why… why did you hit him so far away," Yang complained between breaths.
"Take a minute. We'll go get him." Qrow nodded to his nieces, then to Pyrrha. Both took to the air one way or another to chase Opher down before he recovered. To their surprise, they found him on the roof of a completely intact office building, lying flat and apparently out cold. The old Huntsman was the first to land. "Wake up," he called to Opher. "We're not done kicking your ass."
"You're a long way from managing that," Opher replied snidely. He sat up and regarded Qrow with bitter derision. "You've got some nerve, lumping yourself in with the Fall Maiden." His muted green eyes slid to Pyrrha. "I must have pissed you off. You really let me have it just now."
"I don't appreciate what you did to Jaune," she replied coldly.
"Oh?" Opher stood as he filed that away for later; right now he had a Maiden to continue testing.
Pyrrha wasn't the one that struck first, however. Qrow beat her to the attack with swings of his scythe so fast they were merely glittering blurs. Despite their speed, each hit glanced off of his iron will before Opher reached out and caught the blade between his fingers. "Flea," he muttered, slinging Qrow to the side weapon-first.
The old Huntsman easily caught himself and slid to a stop on his feet. "You tellin' me to run?" he asked, "because I'm not gonna."
"I'm telling you how much of a threat you are." Opher pointed his tattooed hand at Pyrrha next. "Come on. For the blood of your sisters."
"For the blood of her past lives, too," the redhead answered. Her resolve faded an instant later. "But…"
This hesitance went unappreciated by Opher. "Eh? You tried to murder me in a friendly spar, but now there's a but? Why?"
"I was much weaker back then." Images of the unwitting carnage she'd wrought in the ruins of that destroyed apartment block weighed on her soul. The Fall Maiden's spirit gently tried to brush those pictures aside. "We are too strong now. If we keep fighting here, we-"
Opher's eyes became stone; if he wanted Pyrrha's best, then one of the screws to turn was the same as ever. The Maidens, and their shepherds too, really hadn't changed much over the centuries. "I'm not taking this fight out of the city. You either kill me here, or everyone dies while you try."
"You-" Pyrrha's words caught in her throat as she cast her eyes over Vale's skyline. Pillars of smoke dotted the horizon, through which flocks of Nevermores wandered. Some of these birds dove on targets she couldn't see, yet she knew what they were after all the same.
"Damn, and people call me a jerk." Qrow wound up for another go, but was stopped by the arrival of Ruby Rose. He watched her clamber onto the roof of the building with a frown. "Hey, kid, you might wanna-"
She cut him off with a tired, but chipper, "Cavalry's here!" as Yang and Blake climbed up right behind her. Jaune was the next to show up, breathless and stumbling over his own feet. Ruby produced Crescent Rose once she realized Opher had regained consciousness. "It worked! Now maybe somebody can talk some sense into-"
Opher decided now was as good a time as any to start making Pyrrha mad. He fell upon Ruby with such speed that she barely had the time to gasp, much less bring up her weapon in self-defense. He discharged a full crystal's worth of fire Dust through his fist as he slugged her. The resultant explosion fired her straight up into the air.
Before anyone else could react, an enraged Pyrrha tackled him and hauled him into the sky. The redhead saw Ruby on her way down, but had no hands free to help her. She could only pay a second's worth attention to the tumbling girl before looking at her foe. "If you will not move," she hissed at Opher, "Then I'll move you!"
"Much better," he replied through a smirk. After a moment of struggle, he wrenched one hand free and placed it on her forehead. "Let's go."
Pyrrha felt a faint but growing heat through her bronze headpiece and reacted swiftly. She released her hold on him just long enough to seize him by both wrists; with eyes squeezed shut, she tapped into the Fall Maiden's power and entombed him in thick, dark wood that sprouted from her hands like a tree. The feat startled her after she found a second to realize what she'd done; with a loud snap, she separated herself from the wood and let Opher plummet to the ground. "How?" she breathed, looking at her palms. An instant's worth of introspection made her gaze at the ground below. "The planet?"
"It speaks to us," the Fall Maiden confirmed quietly.
"I… You can explain later." Pyrrha allowed gravity to take hold of her again so she could find where Opher had landed. Just after she'd started off, however, Ruby entered her mind. "Wait!" she snapped at herself, glancing around desperately for the girl. "Ruby! Where are you?!" Another look down gave her a clue. She saw a fiery Yang racing toward Opher's impact site along the rooftops; tracing her path in reverse led Pyrrha right back to the building where they'd started. Ruby had gone straight up and straight down, now merely a black and red dot among a circle of her friends and teammates.
Too concerned about her friend to press on, Pyrrha descended rapidly to see what had happened. "It's not good," Jaune admitted as the redhead's feet touched the roof. "He knocked her out cold."
Weiss had Ruby's Scroll in her hand. "Her Aura gauge is reading zero," she confirmed. "Blake, perhaps you should try and stop Yang from getting herself killed?"
She watched her partner disappearing into the distance. A trail of fire whipped out behind her. "Do you want to put yourself in front of that? I sure don't." Weiss had no answer for this.
"I'll go after her," Nora said after a moment of awkward silence. "I'm probably the only one of us who take a punch from her anyways."
"I'll go with ya. Better to have backup." An incensed Qrow cast a brief look at Ruby before falling in with Nora in her journey across the rooftops.
Pyrrha watched them depart for a moment, realizing they were in danger if Opher had broken his containment. Yet, when she looked at Ruby, her urge to chase them was met by one just as strong to stay. Part of her felt at fault for the situation; this internal conflict froze her. "I…" she began, trying to work it out, "I think I have to go."
"Don't worry about us," Weiss said. "You have to go get him out of Vale before things get even worse. I'll-I mean, we'll take care of Ruby."
"All… all right." One more halting glance went toward the unconscious Ruby before Pyrrha took flight after Yang. At first, the redhead kept her distance, opting to stay high in order to find out exactly where Opher had landed. At this altitude, she was forced to dodge Bullheads and Nevermores alike; their aerial battle caused Pyrrha to lose her bearings as well as sight of Yang, Nora, and Qrow. "Oh no," she muttered to herself. "Where did they-"
A brilliant yellow and orange explosion on the ground got her attention. After a moment's examination, she realized, to her horror, that it seemed to be placed about a block away from the derailment site. The area was in Yang's path, if she'd kept going the way the redhead had last seen her traveling. Pyrrha had no idea that Opher had landed so close. Perhaps he'd escaped her bonds already. She hurled herself at the cloud of smoke on the wings of a gale-force wind to find out which.
Control was beyond Yang now; despite her latest furious straight getting stopped by Opher's tattooed forearm, she kept trying to hammer him into the ground. Terrified civilians scattered in the face of her enraged onslaught. "You son of a bitch!" she roared over the crackling fire in her hair. "If you killed her-"
"You'll what?" Opher and his Aura replied coldly. He grabbed her next punch and shoved her backwards out of his latest impact crater before using a burst of wind Dust to launch her into the air.
Yang easily tumbled into a graceful landing and charged him down again. "I'll kill you, that's what!" Now her fists went right at his head as she tried to back up those words. While Opher made no effort to block them, his Aura did. Her knuckles scraped repeatedly off of the ghostly fog as if it were stone.
"You're not doing a very good job of it." Opher pointed a palm at Yang, not to attack, but to set up a subtle cushion of air behind her. Once she launched another right hook at him, he flicked her arm straight up and drove his left hand into her stomach. She slammed into the wall of wind at her back and bounced forward again, only for her torso to meet his other ready fist. The blonde was robbed of her breath and curled up defensively. He used another jet of air to spike Yang into the pavement like a volleyball.
Now firmly on the back foot, Yang was forced to retreat in order to catch her breath. She launched herself into a nearby alleyway with two shots of Ember Celica. "Shit," she wheezed, stumbling away. Her Semblance, though casting a dimmer light, continued to remain active. "Keep it together," she told herself. "Should be able to let his ass have it now."
So Yang lay in wait, staring daggers at the corner of the granite building as she waited for Opher to round it and come after her. Seconds passed without his appearance. Then minutes trundled by. While everywhere else in Vale seemed to be embroiled in battle, including the skies above, this piece of the city was suddenly, and frighteningly, quiet. "What gives?" Yang finally blurted out. As she started to walk toward it, however, a blinding blue flash and a clap of thunder made her retreat. A second later she guessed at its source and ran out to confirm it.
Sure enough, she was there, crackling with electricity as she and Opher stood locked in a struggle. Her downward swing of Magnhild had been stopped by his two hands; the impact still managed to sink his feet into the street by a few inches. Nora tried to yank her weapon free of his grasp. "What did you do with Yang?" she demanded angrily.
"She ran," he replied through a smile.
Nora didn't buy it. "She never runs!" One more tug and Magnhild was free, though the effort required to release it caused her to stumble backwards.
While she recovered, Qrow launched himself past her, displacing enough air to cause the parked cars on the sides of the street to move slightly. Like Nora, Opher caught his broadsword on the downswing and stopped it cold. "I'm tired of you little idiots," he grumbled to the old Huntsman. "Where is Pyrrha?"
"Here I am."
While Opher, Qrow, and Nora all looked at the descending redhead, Yang used the opportunity to get in some revenge. Her Semblance had finished converting Opher's punishment into power; she dashed forward, trailing bright yellow fire and screaming all the way. Opher turned back in time for his jaw to meet her fiery fist. The contact was so violent that his Aura outshone the sun for an instant as it radiated its energy, leaving everyone blind and stumbling. The man himself, however, remained standing right where he was. "Well," he muttered, rubbing his cheek, "You're hitting a little harder than usual."
"Opher!" Pyrrha bellowed after another moment's passage. "We're taking this into the Emerald Forest or the fight is over. I won't destroy Vale just to kill you."
Opher stared the redhead down as Nora and Qrow collected themselves behind him. "Should I smack him again?" she asked the old Huntsman.
"As much as I want to say yes..." Qrow glanced over as Yang walked up, her Semblance fading. "Hey, kid. How you holding up?"
"I shattered a Paladin with that kinda punch, but he didn't even flinch," she replied weakly. Feeling so helpless only served to re-ignite her anger. Before she could catch fire again, however, a hand came to rest on her shoulder. She looked up at Qrow. "What?"
"Don't feel bad. We couldn't crack him either. It's up to the Maiden. Has been for thousands of years." His brow furrowed. "Might be for thousands more if she can't take him out."
While they chatted, Opher considered and rejected Pyrrha's demand. "Forget it," he said coldly. "You stop me here, or you don't stop me at all."
"Then…" She paused to gaze at the smoky sky as a few Bullheads streaked over. Her green eyes then went to the empty square to their right, the site of the tunnel derailment. He'd saved the city once; perhaps she could pressure him to do it again by placing the burden on his shoulders. "I won't stop you. If Vale dies, its blood will be on your hands, not mine."
"What are you doing?!" a shocked Yang shouted. "You're the only one who can stop him! Are you fucking insane?! He's already taken out Coco and Yatsuhashi!"
"What's the point of winning if I have to flatten the city to do it? The Grimm will just kill off whoever is left alive!" Pyrrha screamed back even louder. "I've already…" She hid her eyes and turned away. Yang had a point. Her friends were in serious danger so long as Opher walked Remnant. Everyone was. But the overwhelmed Pyrrha found herself seized by indecisiveness. "I don't know what to do!" she shrieked with frustration.
"Maybe I should have stuck with Cinder," Opher muttered to himself. Despite Pyrrha's anguish, however, he was convinced he'd not yet seen her full strength from a fighting standpoint. If she needed more convincing, there were at least two good reasons standing right behind him. Up went his left hand, which he initially aimed at Pyrrha.
"I will not-did you not hear what I just said?" she warned him, crouching in anticipation to defend herself. What she couldn't see was the phantom tendrils of his Aura snaking out along the ground in the opposite direction.
Yang and Nora were too winded to detect their presence, but Qrow noticed a vague pricking sensation along his arms. "Hey, what's-" he started to wonder out loud.
As Opher and Pyrrha made eye contact again, he ignited every ice Dust crystal in his body. An explosive formation of frozen shards jutted out from his back and covered the street all the way to its end, tapering off at a height that rivaled the nearby buildings. They were solid white, leaving Pyrrha unable to see what had happened to his victims. "I will fill as many graves as it takes to make you kill me," he said quietly.
"Nora!" was the first word out of the redhead's mouth as her brain finally processed the scene. Her eyes flashed orange as the Maiden's might took over and launched her skyward. From her hands erupted blue-hot pillars of fire as she tried to melt her friends out of the ice, but Opher kept producing and eating ice Dust from his pockets. Despite the well of power at her command, he was able to keep up with her efforts through sheer efficiency. "Damn you!" she and the Maiden screamed at once, before Pyrrha added, "Let them go!"
"Make me!" he yelled up at her, swallowing another ice crystal right afterward.
Whispers of the Maiden's wish for revenge were necessary to push Pyrrha into further action. She abandoned trying to free her friends and attacked the source of their trouble, slashing down on Opher with a tornado of burning leaves at her back. "You never change!" the Maiden shrieked at him as she carried him off the ground. They crashed through one building, throwing punches at each other all the while, until he lit a lava Dust crystal and consumed the structure and its occupants around them. Pyrrha, or more correctly the angry spirit within, replied with a hammer of earth that sent him into another nearby building. He fired himself out of the hole and tackled her, punctuating the effort with a tremendous discharge of electricity.
With the Maiden's help, Pyrrha endured the thunderstorm and grabbed Opher by both wrists as he kept trying to electrocute her. "Every year that passes just makes you a bigger monster," the Fall Maiden spat at him.
Opher knew he couldn't penetrate her Aura with his lightning, but he kept the tongues of blue electricity arcing between them. Their trembling stalemate continued for another minute until he began to smile. Pyrrha took his smirk poorly and tried to electrocute him in return. Yellow and blue surges of energy danced around their Auras, bouncing off into the distance. Everything they struck caught fire; as the moments stacked up, the whole city block began to burn. "They're probably dead by now," he finally stated.
"Who-" A spark of realization stole Pyrrha's focus on the clash. She took the full brunt of Opher's electrical surge and flew screaming out of the ruined apartment block. Precious seconds ticked away as the redhead collected herself among the rubble. Once her bearings were collected, however, she flew not at Opher, but the massive white ice sculpture he'd left behind. "No," she breathed. "No… no!" She latched onto the first frozen spire she could reach, gripping it so hard her fingers sank into the ice. With a shrill scream, she unleashed the full might of the Fall Maiden and shattered the entire formation, flinging chunks of it into the sky. The feat startled her a bit until she hit the ground. While the hailstones fell around her, Pyrrha searched the now-empty street for her friends.
Yang was the first she found. Blue-skinned and trembling, the blonde was at least still alive. Breath left her purple lips in little clouds. Her skin was frigid to the touch. Nora's orange hair caught the redhead's eye a moment later. She was unwilling to leave Yang so soon after finding her, but something spurred her toward her teammate. "Nora?" she asked too quietly, her words lost to the pelting sounds of the ice. "Nora!" she said again. The stout girl's chest was still. Like Yang, her skin was chilly as a winter's day. With the sweep of a finger, she brought Yang over to Nora with burst of air. "Warm them up," Pyrrha muttered to herself. "I need heat." She placed one hand each on Nora and Yang and concentrated.
And the Fall Maiden provided her warmth, but that was all. A gaping sense of regret filled Pyrrha as she tried to work the cold out of the two girls. "If only Spring was here," she sighed, understanding the sentiment without really knowing why. While she worked, the redhead looked around for Qrow, but couldn't find him. A few moments later, she glanced up and saw a black bird hopping along on the broken pavement.
This creature unfurled into the old Huntsman as she watched. Qrow stumbled a few steps after his transformation and groaned. "Where the hell is Ozpin when you need him?" His disdain only grew when he realized he'd lost his weapon. "Really?" All of those concerns fell away as he finally registered his niece's condition. "Yang!"
"I'm trying to warm them up," Pyrrha explained. She shifted a bit so Qrow could kneel beside the blonde.
Nora startled to life just after she spoke. "W-w-w-w-w-what happened?" she chattered out, trying fruitlessly to sit up. "Every-everything got c-c-c-cold."
"Easy, kid." Qrow searched his pockets and eventually found two white pills. I'll give 'em these and stabilize them. You need to find Opher."
"I can't just leave-" It suddenly hit Pyrrha: where was Opher? He hadn't followed her. A cursory look at the sky didn't reveal his presence either. "Where did he go?"
"Dunno, but he can't be up to anything good." Qrow stood up and smoothed back his hair. "I've got this. You'd better get going."
"All… all right." A reluctant Pyrrha withdrew her hands and also stood up. "Are you sure they're-"
"Trust me." He pointed to the sky. "Go take care of business. If you see Ruby and the others, tell them we'll meet up at the derailment site."
"Very well." Pyrrha floated gently into the air, giving Nora an awkward little wave as she went. "I'll hopefully be back soon."
Weiss stood guard over the still-unconscious Ruby as Jaune and Ren kept tabs on goings on in the distance. They had seen it all: Nora's lightning display, the huge formation of ice spring into existence and Pyrrha shattering it minutes later; in fact, the last event was the reason Blake had departed. She wanted to know what had happened to Yang. "I don't like this," the heiress stated abruptly. "It got very quiet after Pyrrha broke that ice." Despite knowing it would be fruitless, she checked her Scroll for the tenth time. "Now we don't even have short-range communications. What on Remnant is happening?"
"They've probably destroyed the lines," Jaune suggested, "or the towers got broken." He looked over at Ren for a moment. "Maybe we oughta go check-"
"I'm not sure we should split up too much," Ren cut him off gently. "In case Opher returns."
Jaune watched Ren for a moment; despite his blank stare, he knew his teammate was worried about Nora. "Yeeeaah." He rubbed the back of his necked and frowned. "Can't really leave Weiss here by herself, I guess."
Normally she would have made a remark about being more than capable of defending herself, but Weiss couldn't muster the words. She crossed her arms and watched a pair of Bullheads shoot down some juvenile Griffons. "I wish I knew what to do." She cast a long look at Ruby. "Wake up, already, lazybones. We need your planning skills."
"You know, I'm a little surprised she's still in one piece."
Weiss and the others whirled around upon hearing Opher's voice. They saw him walking slowly across the rooftop, tossing an ice Dust crystal in his left hand. He smirked a little as their weapons went up. "No, no," he added, waving them off. "Not yet."
"Stay where you are," the heiress ordered nervously.
Jaune and Ren quickly moved to her side. "Haven't you done enough?" the latter asked through a snarl.
"Apparently not, I'm still here." Opher engaged the three in a staring contest, but made no effort to strike. "I'm gonna give her a minute."
The tension eventually cracked Weiss, who found herself barely able to stand pat while Opher stood so close. She subtly put herself between him and the unconscious Ruby. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "What are you waiting for? If you're going to attack us, then attack us!"
"Don't encourage him!" a frantic Jaune interrupted. "Don't listen to her, man. No need to rush. Or to do anything at all, really."
"Oh, don't worry, I'm gonna fuck you up. In a minute." Opher shielded his eyes and searched the air for Pyrrha. "Huh. I wonder what's taking her so long. Maybe I actually killed Yang and Nora."
"Excuse me?!" Weiss took one stepped forward before stopping herself. Opher wanted Pyrrha here for some reason, but they needed her here if they wanted any chance of surviving the encounter. She glanced to the side just in time to see an angry Ren coiled up for an attack. "No. Ren, no. We have to-"
He ignored her pleading. "What did you do to Nora?"
"The same thing I'm about to do to you." He finally saw the redhead's approach from the north and smiled. "Here she comes. Okay, then, looks like your time is up."
"Wait-why us?!" Jaune exclaimed from behind his shield. "Er, I mean, I know we've been attacking you for like, the past hour, but…"
"Actually, I'm not really mad at you for trying to stop me. What else were you supposed to do?" Opher lit a blue flame in each of his hands and strode toward them. "No hard feelings. You guys are just the means to my end."
"We're not objects to be used!" Weiss dropped a glyph right under her feet and fired herself at him, leading with the point of Myrtenaster. A gray appendage shot out from his chest and grabbed her blade, forcing it upward. She dangled from it while trying to trigger a Dust release, but her weapon's mechanism jammed. "Don't just stand there!" she screamed at Jaune and Ren.
"Right! Coming!" Jaune led the charge with an awkward yell, only for Opher to smack him off to the side.
The infuriated Ren was a far harder target to hit; he became a green and white blur that swirled around Opher and stole his concentration. This forced his Aura to let Weiss go. She used the chance to clear Myrtenaster's Dust ports and regroup. "Ren! I'm on my w-"
Ghostly fingers wrapped around her throat and lifted her off the roof. Ren slammed into a ready ashen fist as he tried to slit Opher's throat. Jaune recovered and stood up just in time to find himself wrapped in gossamer threads that tugged him closer to the lanky man. "Hey! Let me go!" he yelled, the only one of the three still able to speak. He got off one or two hacks at the Aura holding Weiss before Opher's right hand knocked Crocea Mars away. "No!"
The sound of Pyrrha's shrieking rage reached them before the redhead herself did. She and Opher clashed again, producing a conflicting storm of ice shards and red leaves so thick they blocked out the sky for blocks around. Her Aura and his gleamed like magma; they made contact with a screech so violent it blew out the windows of the building upon which they stood. That glass wasn't the only thing to give. Jaune and Weiss found themselves in a world of silent chaos as their eardrums failed. The heiress experienced this quiet for only a moment before losing consciousness. Ren, knocked out by Opher's ghostly fist, woke up to it before the pain took him away again. Blood poured from all of their ears.
Opher discarded Weiss' limp body, tossing it over to Ruby to give him a few free hands. He managed to force Pyrrha backwards on a sheet of ice and showed her the bleeding Jaune. "Well?" he asked while throwing him aside.
"You will cease to exist!" Pyrrha snapped at him. She reached down toward the building and clenched her fists; the strain in her muscles made it seem as if she was trying to lift the structure through sheer force of will. Her arms thrust skyward as the Maiden's might exploded through her hands, giving birth to an instant forest of oak and maple trees whose branches all reached out to ensnare him.
He easily cut through the wood with blades of blue fire. "You love your trees, don't you Fall?"
Pyrrha only growled in reply as she continued to tap her new power. Trees sprang up as fast as he burned them down. In mere moments they were surrounded by burning stumps. In order to protect her unconscious friends from the heat, she tried to keep Opher occupied and stifle the conflagration simultaneously with jets of water. Controlling all of these at once proved too tall an order for her rudimentary grasp of the power. Instead, she unleashed a concentric blast of ice and air to snuff out the flames and knock Opher down. "Go…" she spat between heavy breaths, "go back to your precious valley and rot, monster."
Clouds of steam billowed from Opher's skin as he dried off from her outburst. "What did you say?" he asked, growing agitated at the weakness in her voice.
"Go…" Pyrrha dropped to a knee as her chest grew tight. "What-?"
"Are you kidding me?" An angry Opher stormed over and snatched the redhead up by her long ponytail. "I gave you an eight hundred year head start and this is the best you've got, you fuck?!"
"Perhaps you should stop fighting children," the Fall Maiden replied snidely. "Or give me a chance to find my sisters."
A few feet away, Ruby's eyes fluttered open. Her vision was cloudy, but the hellscape she woke up to startled her to her feet before she was ready to stand. Pain nearly brought her right back down. "What the heck…" she breathed, clutching the sides of her head. "Tree stumps?" Ren was the first casualty to catch her eye. A mumbled "Hey?" escaped her lips while she tried to find her ability to yell. "Ren?" She stumbled toward him, only to trip over Jaune with a gasp. Her initial reaction was joy, until she saw the puddle of blood under his head. And then her blurry sight fell upon Opher, who still had Pyrrha by the hair. "Him!" she gasped, searching blindly for her weapon. "Gotta… gotta fight. Gotta-"
She saw a white blob next to a red one and knew instantly it had to be Weiss with Crescent Rose. When her fingers touched the crimson patch, however, they drew back the blood that had pooled under Weiss' head. Ruby could only stand and blink until at last her vision cleared to reveal the truth. "Weiss?" she said. "What happened?" Sounds to her right gave her the answer. A visibly angry Opher still had Pyrrha by the hair. Ruby's face went blank. "You." Her partner was down. Her sister and uncle were nowhere in sight. Vale burned like a giant candle around her. Grimm and the screams of their victims continued to fill the sky. "You," she stated again, her heart afire with misery. "You…"
Anguish contorted into rage. It felt like literal flames were searing Ruby's lungs as she stumbled toward Crescent Rose. She picked it up with trembling hands as tears fell from her eyes. They burned like molten starlight; in fact, they seemed to be casting actual light. Her vision started to fade to white. "What," she screamed, so bellicose and powerful it visibly rattled Pyrrha's and Opher's exposed Auras, "have you done?!"
