The battle that raged on was unlike any that had ever been and would be. Such a ferocity could never again be found, though times would come when some would get close.
But this could never be properly described by words alone. These students had transcended into warriors of ferocity and determination, fighting with skill and grace yet carried on by an indescribable rage inside them, an anger stirred up at the thought of their loved ones being at the mercy of the Grimm.
Their weapons shown and their cries were taken up by the wind and into the sky, echoing out over the demolished school and down into Vale. It seemed the only way to bring any of them to a stop was to separate their heads entirely from their bodies, for many were jumped upon by beowolves and deathstalkers and given wounds so grievous the mere thought would make a normal man's head dizzy. But nothing the Grimm did could stop them, their auras burning with unknown energy, preventing some hits from breaking skin and healing any injuries with god like speed.
Though even without the healing the fighters would have never noticed the damage done to them until it was all over. Pain was nothing more to them now than a long distant memory, some vague fear they had purged from their minds completely. Now they only knew the unbreakable will to protect.
On the far left side of the battle was Yang, now separated from her team in the chaos, going toe to toe with Mercury. Shotgun shells fell all about their feet as the two spun around each other in brilliants flashes of orange and yellow and silver. They were each skilled in their own ways and so were evenly matched, neither able to knock a hole in the other to put in a finishing strike.
"Good footwork, though your kicks could be more accurate." Mercury said as the two bounded away from each other momentarily, breathing a little heavily but still standing strong.
Normally Yang would have given some witty remark in return, but she was in no mood to be her usual cocky self. Instead her aura flared as she dashed forwards and let out a flurry of kicks, ending the attack with a punch that caught Mercury off guard and hit him square in the chest, sending him flying back through what was left of a wall off to the left. Yang followed quickly and disappeared inside the broken remnants of the building, intent of finishing the fight as quickly as she could.
Meanwhile Weiss squared off against Emerald, though this fight went much differently. Weiss was in no mood to fight with the elegance and grace that had been drilled into her as a child; she remembered clearly what Emerald's betrayal had done to Ruby, how badly she had hurt the young girl, both physically and mentally. Now Weiss had no mercy to give.
Her rapier moved nearly too fast to see as she darted around her opponent, glyphs forming all around that launched Weiss in every direction, relentlessly laying into Emerald. But despite the rate at which the attacks came Emerald held her own, blocking and dodging as she waited for her chance to break Weiss's defense and counter. She could hold out for as long as it would take for the princess to slip up.
Elisabeth had now been driven back and into a crumbling building a little off to the right, now starting to sweat slightly as she found her foe much more formidable. Neo moved faster than she could keep up with and her clones left the faunas confused and straining her senses to find which direction the next attack would come from.
For the few moments that Elisabeth did pinpoint the real Neo she could manage well enough. Her knives moved far to quickly to block and gave practically no time dodge, and with her aura the blades looked like little more than slight purple streaks that one would see just before they hit their mark with nearly impossible accuracy.
Every knife Elisabeth let loose found its mark in some way, be it just clipping Neo's shoulder or side or shattering one of her allusions with devastating force. Yet this was not something Elisabeth could do forever, and so she racked her mind to find some way to catch her foe off guard. At this rate she would run out of knives and aura before her enemy so much as broke a sweat.
Towards the back of the fight still near to the hall Blake sought revenge against Roman, and their fight was by far the closest matched. Both moved with deadly speed, spinning round and round in a flurry of blades as they traded blows. Blake left shadows of herself all around yet still Roman was ready to parry her attacks, and after doing so would either counter or take a step back and recover slightly before jumping straight back in. Either way the two moved nonstop, one always going after the other as they fought for their separate purposes.
And dead center of this maelstrom of violence Cinder and Roland fought with a burning fury unlike any other. But this fight was not fast like the others, the attacks were not flashes of color and small sparks of auras. This was slower, heavier, each strike putting new cracks into the ground and causing the world to howl in agony. The fire around each of them blazed brighter every time their blades met until each was nearly consumed completely.
Roland couldn't tell if he'd been injured yet or not. His vision was dark and his teeth clenched as he focused to keep himself in check. Inside his heart burned and raged and his mind felt stuffed and overworked, yet still he pushed on as again his swords met Cinder's and he felt the stinging race down his arms and put needles all throughout his body. Every single time he so much as came close to the raging fire that covered her he felt a pain unlike any other; white hot and lasting that seemed to suck every ounce of strength out of him. Yet each time the two separated he felt a renewed desire to win, to crush the vile light that radiated off her, and so each time he'd charge forward again to meet her and send a new wave of terror through the air.
Cinder had it no easier as she had greatly underestimated Roland's strength and so at first had felt the effect much more. When the two touched it sent a cloud over her eyes and a mix of searing cold and melting heat gripped her heart. It had felt like a mix of fire and ice had covered her and for a short moment the woman faltered, pushing back weakly and dashing away, using the precious few seconds she had to send a wave of heat through her. It helped, but still something made her body feel heavier, her reactions just a fraction of a second slower.
But still the fight between the two raged on and the energy let off grew so great that a large circle was starting to form around them, growing larger each time they came to blows. Not even Grimm dared to go close now, making a direct effort to stay away from the two as the radiating pain in the air became too much for even them.
The creatures furry was great and horrible, but whatever had awoken inside the students was on an entirely different level. Their strength seemed infinite, their auras limitless as they pushed back the creatures of night.
It was still hard fought and neither side showed any signs of coming anywhere close to being beat, but one thing was clear:
The students of Beacon were making progress.
