Akame rushed forward and attacked, Mercury blocked the strike and kicked at her, Akame dived back avoiding the blow, running forward she tried to pass him, but he moved in her way, quickly sliding under him she slashed at his leg but it felt like armor and his Aura held strong, it seems that even now if she cant cut directly into her opponent their Aura will hold, standing she ran past him Akame made her way as quickly as possible to the other end of the hall, as she moved she dodged blasts of wind and bullets
"Come on, I thought you were a killer too?!" Mercury called after her as she ran, turning around briefly Akame slashed horizontally sending an Aura arc at him causing boxes near him to collapse in his path, leaping over it he fired a round at Akame who leaned back just enough to dodge it, as she bent back she kicked off the ground swinging up her own attack catching Mercury in the chin with her foot she then slashed at him again he moved his legs in the way and his Aura still held. Turning again Akame ran towards her true quarrel, dodging his attacks once more, Akame began to use Aura arcs to break things and drop them in her path; crates, pipes, lights, machines, whatever was in her way, so she could slow him down, she had no time for combat right now.
(o)
Qrow leaned back and watched much closer now, Pyrrha and Penny were growing more and more heated by the second; this was actually getting interesting
Penny blocked strikes using the blades of Floating Array while attacking at the same time, Pyrrha wasn't effected by this in the slightest; stabbing at Penny with Milo while defecting attacks with Akouo it seemed like she knew where the weapons were coming from already, flipping backward Pyrrha deflected a blade with Milo while she threw Akouo at Penny who defected it, sprinting at Penny, Pyrrha transformed Milo from a javelin into a blade as she rushed her swinging the blade at Penny who jumped back and threw all her blades like a disc at Pyrrha who rolled out of the way and called Akouo back to her allowing it to sheath itself on her back blocking a strike from Pennys' Floating Array, placing her hand on one of the blades Pyrrha pushed it away from her and rolled out of the way of the rest of the attack, drawing Akouo again she rushed Penny who called her weapons back a little too slowly and suffered a few strikes before the blades returned to her, rolling back again Pyrrha looked for an opening in Pennys' defenses, she couldn't find any; so she decided to make one, rushing Penny Pyrrha spun Milo and threw it at her, Penny leaned out of the way and launched a barrage of blades at her, Pyrrha looked shocked briefly but instincts took over and a wave of black energy shot off of her sending the blades back at their owner, the wires used to guide the blades to their target made their way around Pennys' body and ripped her to pieces
Qrows' eyes widened as he realized what just happened, getting to his feet Qrow ran out of the bar and vanished into a flurry of black feathers that quickly became a crow that began to fly towards Beacon
(o)
Ozpin stood from his desk as he realized what just happened, but he recognized that her body didn't spray blood or react at all like it should have, sitting back down he began to watch intently as the screen flickered red and a black chess piece appeared on it
"This is nota tragedy. This was notan accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than men. Our Academies' Headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both. They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference, and what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither. Perhaps this was his message to the bloodthirsty dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is... equally undesirable. Our Kingdoms are on the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark. So I ask you: When the first shots are fired... who do you think you can trust?" after the speech ended the screen became static, Ozpin could barely contain his anger, as he reached for his scroll and began to type in Esdeaths' number
(o)
"What!?" Ruby shouted as she stared at the screen of static in front of her she then turned her attention to Esdeath
"It's time." Esdeath said as she turned and looked at Beacon "Everything here now comes to an end! Let your bloodlust and fear become your strength. Slaughter all who stand in your path." Esdeath ordered her voice holding an old convection in it as she drew her blade and looked over head, Nevermore had already begun to enter the city, the dread and fear seeming to grow by the second as screams began to resound through the streets, but all Ruby could focus on was the growing excitement she was feeling
Esdeath reached into her coat when a ringing began, drawing her scroll and answering the call, she silently waiting for the person on the other end to speak
"Esdeath... you know what to do." Ozpin said before hanging up, Esdeaths' smile quickly became sadistic as she pressed a few buttons on her scroll and she began to walk away
"Esdeath! Where are you going?!" Ruby called after her not knowing what to do with herself in this kind of situation
"I have a few things in the city I have to do; run around, have some fun, I'll find you when its time." Esdeath answered as she began to walk in what seemed to be a random direction
(o)
Winter looked down at the ground as she heard shrieks of Nevermore
"Winter! What do we do?" Weiss asked as she looked to the older of the two
"I..." Winter began weakly, closing her eyes she took a few breaths then spoke again her tone far stronger than before "I need to ensure the safety of the citizens here, you need to go protect Beacon. I'll help organize things here then come and join you." Winter ordered as she drew her blade
"Got it, be safe sister." Weiss agreed as she turned and began towards the airdocks. Winter let out a sigh then she darted off to find solders or the police to help organize them into a repealing force, if it were possible
(o)
Taiyang stood, he looked at Zwei then whistled and bolted to the door pulling it open as the two began to make their way to Vale
(o)
After the stands were vacated Akame let out a growl, turning back to Mercury who smirked at her as he flickered from existence, but his presences was still there, attacking Akame felt the strike stop and she leapt back as she sensed danger from in front of her, as she moved back she slashed behind her and felt Murasame deflect two attacks she looked behind her and saw no one, jumping into the air she planted her feet on the wall and kicked off attacking nothing but air, Mercurys' presence vanished and the presences she felt in her mind also vanished with him, running over to the stands she searched for Emerald but found her seat empty, they had gotten away. Again Akame felt such burning rage towards herself for failing again, this time though, she couldn't mope about failure, she had to move.
[Warning, safety barrier failing.]
"PYRRHA! SNAP OUT OF IT! YOU GOTTA MOVE!" Jaune shouted, looking down at him Akame shifted her gaze to follow his, Pyrrha was staring blankly at Pennys' body
[Barrier failure imminent, please retreat to a safe distance.]
"PYRRHA!" Jaune shouted as he leapt over the railing and ran towards Pyrrha who was still zoned out, looking up Akame drew Murasame and Due Process as the Nevermore broke through the barrier before it could land a gunshot could be heard and the beast turned to dust, Akame landed in front of Pyrrha who slowly looked up at her
"If you cant keep fighting because of a single death, then you have no right to carry a weapon." Akame said coldly as she sheathed her blade and let Due Process weigh in her hand
"She was our friend." Pyrrha tried to reason as she felt tears swell in her eyes
"Then stop crying, and start fighting." Akame ordered "If I gave up every time someone I loved was lost to me I would have given up when I was seven." Akame added as she pulled Pyrrha to a standing position "Don't think, just fight. Mourn later when people aren't counting on us to keep them alive." Akame ordered as she turned and began to walk away but stopped next to Penny bent down and closed her eyes before continuing away from them
"Pyrrha!" Jaune called as he reached her "Pyrrha, are you okay!?" Jaune asked as he looked her over
"I'm fine. Come on we gotta-" Pyrrha began but was cut off by the sounds of roars from Griffin, Akame stopped in her tracks
"Get your weapons. I'll hold them off." Akame ordered as she prepared to slash any Griffin that got too close and sent Aura arcs at the ones that she couldn't reach, the rest of the huntsman-in-training quickly began to pull out their scrolls and call their lockers
(o)
Ruby ran down street after street killing any Grimm that she could find, they had gotten into the city so quickly and people were panicking making things worse, as she made her way down an alley she looked at the walls, they were stained with fresh blood, people had died here recently, with a sigh Ruby leapt up to the roofs and continued from there but she was shocked, while the battleships were firing on Grimm and dropping off solders there were still so many Grimm flooding the city, it was almost like an ocean of death, Ruby rested Crescent Rose on her shoulder and summoned a blade of ice and held it in her off hand as she dropped into the main street; men, woman, and children were running past her; away from the advancing wave of Grimm. With a wave of her hand large spears of ice rose from the ground and impaled large numbers of Grimm, the people slowly stopped retreating to stop and gawk, Ruby began to walk towards the barrier of spears she made
"Mommy! Look! Its a maiden!" a little girl called in awe as she pointed at Ruby as she summoned spears of ice to rain on the Grimm that survived her first attack, Ruby ignored her call but she smiled knowing that meant the plan was working.
(o)
Qrow landed back in Vale, Oz ordered him to get to the city and calm things down before returning to Beacon so that's the plan. Jumping onto the roofs Qrow began to walk along firing Harbinger at the fliers and any Grimm that got too close to people, it was the best he could do, thanks to his semblance.
(o)
Blake rolled to the side of the Alpha Beowolf while Yang punched its head down onto a piece of rubble killing it, letting out a sigh she turned to Blake and smiled. Things would be better if the rest of the student body would stop panicking and help them, but they didn't have much choice right now
"Guys!" Weiss' voice came from behind them, turning to her Yang quickly rapped her arms around Weiss and let out a sigh
"I'm glad you're okay." Yang said then released her
"I'm glad too. But we can't celebrate yet, the White Fang are releasing Grimm into the school." Weiss quickly explained, earning a surprised look from the other two
"Right... I'll go see what I can do about their transports." Yang said after a few seconds "You two cover the tower for now if you see anything that seems to be... you know... not good... kill it." Yang said slowly losing momentum as she spoke clearly not used to giving orders
"Inspiring." Weiss commented with a deadpan stare
"People are dying." Blake said causing the other two to refocus
"Shes right, lets get moving." Yang agreed as she turn and ran towards the landing pads, Weiss sighed and ran towards the other side of the tower where she heard calls for help, Blake leapt forward and cut down a couple of Creeps that tried to attack her as her teammates left for their own missions
(o)
Ozpin watched as everything he had built began to fall apart, but he knew that he had to wait until the time was right to help, he wasn't as young as he used to be so if he started fighting now he'd be too tired to protect Amber and that was the most important thing right now
(o)
"I see you survived your run in with Akame." Cinder commented as Emerald and Mercury ran up and joined her as they watched the destruction
"Yeah, it turns out her semblance isn't instantly breaking Aura." Mercury commented as he pulled the extra armor off
"Oh, what is it then?" Cinder asked raising an eyebrow at him
"No idea, but whatever it is it must take quite a bit of energy if she doesn't use it very often." Mercury shrugged off "So what are we waiting for?"
"Patience, we have to add to the confusion a bit more. We just have to wait for Neo and Roman to finish their task." after a few seconds her scroll got a message, pulling it out of her dress she saw it was from Neo
[YSOL]
"What does this mean?" Cinder asked holding it out to Emerald
"It means 'You're Shit Out of Luck'." Emerald answered causing Cinders eye to twitch
"Don't we have a plan for this?" Mercury asked looking at her
"No, we barely got access to the CCT thanks to Esdeath. Watts warned me about her, he told me to watch out for Esdeath, that she was built for war. I didn't believe him, so we'll have to work around this... here." Cinder said as she tossed her scroll to Mercury who caught it and looked at her expecting orders "Record the chaos and broadcast it too every kingdom, if we cant get them to distrust Atlas we'll sure as hell get them to panic."
(o)
Akame stood inside the airbus and stared at the destruction below, they had to defend Beacon but they also had to survive what was coming, it felt like she was in the empire again, she was scared for the people she had bonded with but she trusted them to get through this
"Akame whats the plan?" Sun asked as he walked up next to her
"Kill everyone who attacks us, and protect the CCT, after that make sure Beacon is safe then set it up as a safe zone and evacuate Vale to Patch and Beacon. I don't think we'll be able to hold onto the city." Akame answered as she stared down at Vale, which was currently burning and in pure chaos "We have to regroup before trying." Akame clarified as the airbus shifted
"WE'RE HIT!" called Neptune as the airbus continued to shift more
"I'll go kill whatever thought it was a good idea to attack us." Akame quickly said as she ran towards the back of the bus and opened the door, climbing onto the back of the airship, there was a nevermore stabbing at it, walking up to it she let Murasame cut across it causing it to turn to dust. She then sat down and held her stomach, she wanted to throw up so badly now.
(o)
Ruby elbowed a Beowolf spun and cut the head off of it along with two others, they were slowly starting to out pace her, continuing to summon spears of ice she launched them into crowds of Grimm cutting them to shreds but more just kept taking their places, with a growl Ruby summoned a wall of ice blocking herself off from the endless stream of Grimm, she then turned and began towards Beacon
"Kid!" Qrows' voice came as he landed near her
"What are you doing here!? Shouldn't you be protecting Beacon!?" Ruby questioned looking at him in confusion and concern
"Oz wants me to help settle things down here before I go help him, you should make your way to Beacon and make sure its safe." Qrow answered as he turned away from her and stared at the wall she created "Also... never mind." Qrow waved off as he turned and began down an alleyway nearby them, Ruby nodded and began towards Beacon
(o)
Esdeath closed her eyes and listened closely, the screams for help, the roars of Grimm, the sound of fire burning wild and untamed, she smiled, this was the world she dreamed of, turning around she stared at a Beowolf that began to circle her
"Your master is as weak as you, and just as foolish if she decided that you alone would stand before me." Esdeath commented confidently as she looked around at the hundreds of Grimm that surrounded her, they all dived to attack but turned to dust before any of them knew what hit them, she hadn't even stopped time and now she was bored again, turning around she began to make her way towards main street as she drew he scroll and called William after hearing several of the spears of ice she summoned begin to fall apart
"Master?"
"Do you think there's anyway we can make this more fun?" Esdeath asked as she walked down the sidewalk and occasionally looking into abandoned storefronts for things she thought Ruby would like
"We could set the androids to go haywire. But Mich wouldn't be happy with that." William answered after a few seconds of thought
"Hmm... no that would be what our enemies want. Stop firing our guns and call back all airships, leave the solders." Esdeath said a sadistic smile growing "Lets see what'll happen when all our air support vanishes. Because of dust shortages." Esdeath commented
"Yes, master." William answered it was clear she was smiling by her voice
"Lets see how you handle this Ruby." Esdeath said to herself as she returned the scroll to her pocket
(o)
Akame ran from the top of the air bus towards the commotion, she was quickly followed by all the huntsman-in-training, she found Weiss first she was surrounded by White Fang corpses and covered in their blood
"Weiss, are you okay?" Akame asked as she began to look over Weiss
"I'm fine... wheres Ruby?" Weiss asked tiredly
"Last I knew she was in Vale." Akame answered as she let go of Weiss
"Cant you do that weird... mental GPS thing?" Weiss asked earning confused looks from Everyone but Akame
"This isn't a normal set of circumstances, so no. I cant. Also I don't know what is GPS." Akame answered then turned to everyone else and spoke "Set up a defensive perimeter around the tower. Kill anyone or anything that gets too close, Jaune I'm delegating the set up of defenses to you." Akame ordered
"M-me?!" Jaune questioned, clearly fearful of the task
"You may not be a fighter but you're a tactician, start acting like it. If you need more motivation remember; all the deaths that occur in defense of this tower are now on you and if you fail all those deaths are on me." Akame said causing Jaune to nod and begin to shout out orders
"Are you sure he can handle this?" Weiss asked as she panted and looked up at Akame
"He doesn't have a choice." Akame avoided as she watched him leave "Where are Blake and Yang?"
"Blake was defending the other side of the tower, near the cafeteria, Yang went to stop the White Fang from landing more airships." Weiss answered as she sat down and began to breath heavily
"I'll find them and bring them here, along with anyone else I can find." Akame said as she took off towards the general area she saw Grimm and White Fang coming from
(o)
"What the hell is going on." Qrow asked himself all the air support in the city basically vanished and now they were short staffed and transports were beginning to slow
"QROW!" Glynda called up to him, leaping down Qrow stabbed an Alpha that tried to slash her
"Yeah, whats up?" Qrow asked as he joined her in fighting off the endless onslaught of Grimm, none getting past them, after awhile the tide retreated to regroup
"Where is our support?" Glynda questioned tiredly, Qrow looked behind her as a man jogged up to them
"Well... we have one supporter... but he's not that great." Qrow answered looking Tai up and down
"Yeah well we all got jobs to do. How can I help?" Tai asked coldly glaring at Qrow
"We're getting pushed back by this horde, we need to scatter them." Qrow explained as he gestured at the massive number of Grimm that were regrouping behind him
"I'd bet we can take 'em." Tai said looking over the Grimm across from them
"My thoughts exactly." Qrow agreed as he transformed Harbinger into a Scythe
"Just try not to get in my way. Like you usually do." Tai commented as he walked up next to Qrow
"I recall saving your ass more times then 'getting in the way' as you put it." Qrow snarked as he rolled his eyes at his teammate
"I'll back you two up as much as possible." Glynda said clearly fearing what was going to happen
"No you stay here Glynda, these people still need cover more than us, once they are taken to Patch, then you can come help us. Plus Zwei cant hold off much more than a Beowolf on his own" Tai ordered earning a nod from Glynda
"Just like old times." Qrow commented as he and Tai began to rush the now charging Grimm
"Yeah... 'cept-" Tai didn't get to finish his statement because the roars of the Grimm in front of them
(o)
Esdeath sat on the rooftops watching the Grimm flood a large majority of the city, turning her gaze back down to Qrow and Tai who were expertly fighting off the tide of Grimm seemingly with little trouble, but it was clear that Tai was starting to slow
"I suppose now is a good time for me to join." Esdeath commented as she dropped between Tai and Qrow as she landed she placed her hand on the ground causing spikes to launched from beneath the Grimm that were assaulting them impaling a large majority of them
"Holy shit!" Tai commented after he elbowed a Beowolf and followed up with a kick sending it into one of the spikes of ice
"Yeah, that's the typical reaction most people have. Where the hell is our support anyways?!" Qrow shot while cutting two Beowolf in half
"We've begun to run out of dust." Esdeath lied calmly as she stabbed a Ursa through the mouth turning it to dust, and with the swing of her blade she sent an Aura arc cutting a large number of the Grimm to pieces
"Whats the situation in the rest of the city then?" Qrow asked as he punched a Griffins' head in causing it to turn to dust
"We've been pushed back to two fronts in the city; here and the Beacon water docks. The Grimm have almost complete control of the city otherwise." Esdeath answered excitedly as the Grimm in front of them retreated and began to regroup
"Hang on a minute..." Qrow muttered looking between Esdeath and the battleships above them, things started to click in his head, and Esdeath silently cursed herself for being too vocal
"You wanted this to happen. You stopped the air support on purpose! Didn't you!" Qrow shouted grabbing Esdeath by her coat and lifted her off the ground, he didn't get a response in words, she just smiled at him "YOU HAVENT CHANGED AT ALL YOU FUCKING PSYCHO!" Qrow shouted as he cocked his arm back to attack
"Qrow! Calm down, why would Esdeath stop helping for no reason? Besides Rubys still out there." Tai questioned grabbing Qrows arm preventing him from punching her
"TAI! Let go of me!" Qrow growled as he continued to try and attack
"QUIET QROW! We have more important things to worry about then your vendetta. Right now you're not helping." Tai reasoned causing Qrow to drop Esdeath who let out a sigh that quickly changed into a growl
"Honestly Qrow, you could do with more discipline, now if you're done with your baseless accusations, let me finish what I was saying; Ruby is holding the other front alone." Esdeath said causing Tai to glare at Qrow
"I'll go help her, you two stay here and protect these people." Qrow ordered as he began to jog away, after he left Tai looked over to Esdeath and spoke
"I don't know whats going on between you two but I trust Qrow more than I trust you and I'd rather you two not start fighting again." Tai said coldly "Ruby trusts you, so that earns you some points, but I hope you have an actual good reason for stopping our support."
"I'm sure I'll think of something." Esdeath waved off as she turned back to the regrouping force of Grimm
(o)
Ruby growled at the waves of attacks, they were growing stronger by the second and she was protecting so many people all alone, add in the fact that the air support stopped so now she couldn't count on the support keeping the numbers low, thankfully the nevermore seemed to be attracted to Beacon and what she could only assume the other dock, so it wasn't her problem anymore, she just had to wait for the ships to get these people to safety, she thought about making a ship from ice, but decided against it because it would take too much time and effort. Things could be going better right now, but luckily they couldn't get any worse... right?
(o)
Roman sighed as he leaned back in the seat of the airship they... commandeered, looking over to Neo she smiled at him
"So... where are we going? Cause I wanna get very far away from that." Roman asked as he gestured over his shoulder towards the general direction of Vale, Neo shrugged
Romans sighed as he leaned back in his seat "I'm going to assume that you didn't actually have a plan for after getting me out of there." Neo nodded with a bright smile, causing Roman to sigh again
"One of these days you're going to give me a heart attack." Roman mumbled to himself as he watched her fly the airship "So... did you seal the deal with red eyes?" Roman asked causing Neo to blush a bit and nod Roman let out a laugh at the look on her face
"So whats got you all embarrassed about it? Did someone walk in?" Roman asked again earning a pout from Neo "Well it cant have been that bad. So who was it? Little red? Or her team?" Neo shook her head but when she blinked her eyes they become tired and change to a faded tint of red as she glared at him
"Oh... yeah... that's an awkward one. Qrow has a habit of not knocking, and he always seems to walk in at the worst of times." Roman said causing Neo to slouch a bit as her eyes returned to normal "Well, look at it this way, now you don't have to worry about having that talk with him." Roman said trying to get her to look at the brighter side of things "We can start over in Mistral, I have quite a few contacts over there so its not like were starting over from scratch." Roman added causing Neo to look slightly depressed, a few seconds after that she shifted from her normal form to Akame and looked at Roman, who blinked at her
"Look. I know you like her and all. But we gotta think about us first, and others second. Lets get set up in Mistral then, if you want to set a net for her after that, I wont stop you." Roman said earning a nod from Akame as she turned back to Neo who turned her attention back to flying the ship
A/N Here we go, I figured that I cant focus too much on one fight at a time or else we'd be here all week doing this is the set up for the next chapter, the attack on Beacon might last until chapter 12 it might last until 11 or it might last until 10, it depends on what I can think of and what I want the story beats to feel like, I'm sure you'll all enjoy this though.
