Main theme: Death Hymn by Lucas King
Arc theme: Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack
Theme: I May Fall by Lamar Hall and Casey Lee Williams
{KA-BOOM}
Another explosion rippled through the air near her, and Pyrrha ignored it as-
"危ない！"
-She threw herself to the ground, avoiding the roaring charge of an undead Ursa, slicing her blade, Miló, through the neck of the zombie Grimm, only for its severed head to suddenly fly back onto its neck stump and reattach itself, its veins threading themselves like strings through its skin. Pyrrha had to resort to throwing her shield into the exposed guts of the Grimm just to get it away from her, tossing the creature across the battlefield and into another zombie Grimm that she could barely recognise the shape off, before pulling her shield back into her arm via the use of her semblance.
Thank goodness she had a high aura count. If it had been almost anyone else in her position, they might've burnt through all of their aura already.
Overhead, a string of red dust shards began to rain down on her, and Pyrrha rolled to the sides as-
{BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM}
-All of them exploded into shards and smoke as they hit the ground, creating a ripple effect of detonations all around them as fire and ash continued to spread like a domino effect, ripping up the ground and shredding everything around them, before finally falling silent.
Of course, that didn't end the battle itself. Far from it, it only seemed to escalate it. Bullets and blades continued to rain out and blossom into flowers of flame all around them as initiate met Husk thrall, slicing them apart only for them to regrow instantly.
A mortal crowd, vs an immortal horde.
It was a loosing battle, and they all knew it.
"新しい計画が必要です," went her- Her familiar? The blonde-haired, red-eyed young girl that had spawned from her belly, now polishing her dagger that seemed to hum like it was made from pure aura, "なぜなら、こんなふうに戦い続けるなら、ハスクに殺してもらうのも同じだから。"
"I know that we need a new plan!" Pyrrha shot back with, still utterly confused as to how she was able to understand this girl despite the fact that she was speaking an entirely different language that she had never heard before, as well as the fact that she had somehow just, you know, spawned from her stomach and all that.
"妹-"
"Why are you calling me 'Little sister'?" Pyrrha asked, before shaking her head, and going, "What's your name?"
"ハリティ。ハリティニコス。"
"'Hariti Nikos'? I don't..." she shook her head again. Now was not the time.
"野戦でこれらのものと戦っても無駄だ," 'Hariti began as she sliced her dagger blade into the skull of an undead Dreadlock, throwing it to the side as she continued, "ハスク・グリムが生きている限り、我々は決してこれらを殺さない。"
"I know," Pyrrha went as she looked to the back of the crowds of undead Grimm up ahead, and focused herself on the towering walking corpses that were the Husk Grimm, lording themselves over their zombie hordes and firing sniper rounds of dust into the crowd of initiates as they scrambled for life and cover.
Behind them, their masters, the Cult of Silver, hid themselves behind walls of smoky ice, recovering and healing themselves as their cold walls shielded them from any stray bullets and explosives that might try to kill them.
The Husk Grimm, of course, remained as impassive as ever, standing tall and still as the initiates busied themselves in combating their slaves hordes of monsters and nightmares. Grimm flies flew around them, picking apart the skin and flesh of the Husks and burying themselves into the ruined creatures as their ravaged mouths drooled blackened blood and silver saliva, like some sort of nightmarish mixture of light and dark that somehow went wrong along the way to whatever goal their creator was hoping to accomplish.
Pyrrha then looked around to the chaos around her, as initiate met zombie Grimm with blade and bullet, and were beginning to fall. Arms and legs were torn off by undead Beowolf and Dreadlock and Goblin and Theropods. Bodies were felled left and right. Bullets did nothing against these hordes, nor did the blade.
Next to her, an undead Beringel crushed an initiate in its grasp, their blood splattering all over Pyrrha as she fell to the side and threw her shield at the beast.
It merely caught it in its hand.
What was she supposed to do what was she supposed to do what the hell was she supposed to-
Around them, the cheers of initiates against their cultist would-be-oppressors filled their hearts with renewed vigour and hope.
Jaune looked at Pyrrha, his white cloak of aura glowing saintly in the air and smoke around them as he said, "Here that?"
"Yes?"
"They're cheering for you."
Pyrrha didn't stop forming the giant bullet above them as she said, "They're not cheering for me."
"Then make it for you."
She remembered something that Nana said to Jaune earlier in the day.
'As long as the lead Husk lives, the dead Grimm under its control are functionally immortal.'
She knew what she had to do.
Above her, Hariti threw herself around the undead ape Grimm as quick as lightning, slicing through tendons and skin and bone before pushing them all into a mutating and healing pile of blackened gore, before cracking her neck, rolling her shoulders, and then looking down at the girl below, "妹よ！"
"I'm here," Pyrrha went as she picked herself back up, and pulled her shield back into her hands from the regenerating ape zombie underneath her.
Cracking her head and narrowing her eyes on the line of Husk Grimm in the distance, she took in a deep breath, and then yelled out:
"EVERYONE, HEAR MY VOICE AND LISTEN!"
Any initiate who wasn't too busy trying not to lose their lives to the throngs of zombie Grimm looked to Pyrrha, a single spark of hope now growing within their eyes.
"ALL MELEE FIGHTERS, KEEP THESE UNDEAD ABOMINATIONS AWAY FROM US!"
There was a chorus of nods and agreements, and a cheer of hope sprung up once more.
"EVERYONE WHO HAS A GUN OR EXPLOSIVE: RAIN DOWN FIRE UPON THE HUSKS AT THE BACK!"
The Husk Grimm at the back of the crowd began to react, and Pyrrha replied with as much confidence as she could muster.
"WE SHALL CUT THE HEAD OFF OF THESE SNAKES, AND SEND THEIR BODIES BACK TO THEIR GRAVES!"
DUCK!
Jaune did so, and rolled across the cold silver and blue hull of the troop carrier beneath him, scraping his feet across the metal floor (Roof?) As overhead, the red tendril whipped at where he had just been before slamming into the ground, the metal bending and snapping underneath the weight of the blow as he jumped over to Rens side, just as he-
{BANG BANG BANG BANG)
-Unloaded a series of rounds into the red mass that was the fake-Ruby, severing multiple tendrils with just a few bullets, only for them to grow back and lash out at them as fast as-
{SLASH}
-They could just them down, throwing blades of all sorts around to block and deflect attack after attack, whilst nearby, Ruby, Yang, and Nana busied themselves-
{CLASH}
{BANG BANG}
{BOOM}
-With fighting the 4 Aspects on top of the ship with them, throwing blade and bullet around as they ducked and weaved between each other in a symphony of battle, an orchestra of war joining together into a show of light and sparks.
The almost nude girl- Who had identified herself as 'Draugr', the Aspect of Interest- Used her arms to tank a charged blast from a flaming Yang, before she smirked, and threw said arms out, and-
{SLOSH}
-Turned them into some kind of floating jelly like substance, before they reformed into a long pair of blades that stretched down from their elbows and curved into a scythe-like blade shaped like a question mark.
Mass shift. Her semblance must be that she could shift the mass of her own body.
Draugr smiled at the shocked Yang, before the latter girl recovered herself and threw another punch at the girl, only for the shapeshifter (Mass shifter? Whatever) To turn her own body into an ocean of liquid in human form and stretch her stomach out into a thin line, before reforming into a gaping, salivating maw filled with hundreds of razor sharp teeth, forcing Yang to jump out of the way as-
{CHOMP}
-The giant thin maw slammed down where she was just standing, before reforming into Draugr once more, and throwing her arm blades at the blonde-haired girl, whist said blonde-haired girl threw a series of blasts from her gauntlets at the mass-shifting girl, right before-
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
-The young boy in the bloodied smart suit, with the bug eyes and the jaw that was just too wide- Whom Draugr had, earlier in the fight, identified as 'Upyr', the Aspect of Joy- Clamped his jaw around Yang's bloody arm, and began to tear apart the skin to suckle on the crimson blood beneath.
"AHAHAHAHAHA BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD-"
"GET OFF ME!" Yang screamed as she physically ripped the abomination of a boy off of her arm and threw him to the side, almost throwing him off of the roof of the troop carrier itself, only for the boy to rip his nails into the metal floor below and keeping himself on the ship, before his back began to ripple and undulate, and his skin began to pulsate and ripple, before-
{SPLISH}
-Splitting open in a splatter of blood, only for that blood to reform itself-
{SHING}
-Into several long red tendrils of pure shining blood, with thin, razor sharp barbs on their ends as they wriggled their way through the air like worms, the boy whom they belonged too smiling widely.
Yang just growled as her aura began to heal the ravaged skin and bloodied flesh, filled with puncture holes, on her arm, "You've got to be shitting me..."
Over on the other side of the troop carrier's roof, Ruby and Nana busied themselves with fighting the twin Aspects of Amusement, Lamia and Lilith, of which they found themselves to be tiring from it.
It wasn't that Lamia and Lilith were strong fighters. It was that they were incredibly persistent fighters. On top of that, their apparent shared immortality meant that no matter how many times the 2 were shot, stabbed, and sliced apart, they would just heal almost immediately and stick themselves back into the fray, duel-welding swords and cutlasses as they fought against the 2 other women.
Twirling her Crescent Rose around in her hands, Ruby blocked a twin swipe from the one called Lamia, and then-
{BANG}
-Fired a round right past her head, grazing the skin right next to her eye, and then bloodying it. Of course, this just immediately healed, and Lamia laughed as she cartwheeled back and quickly crouched to the ground, swiping her blade at Ruby's ankles, not cutting them, thanks to her aura, but it was enough of a strike to knock the Little Red Riding Hood off balance for just a second, which was long enough for Lamia to plant a sharp kick in her stomach, and send her flying across the troop carrier, the harsh winds of the air above threatening to push her off of the airship if she wasn't careful.
Nana, meanwhile, was blocking blows and firing shots at Lilith, whom just sliced her bullets in half whilst they flew towards her with a smirk, as she then light-heartedly commented, "'Nana Shaula'? Now isn't that a lovely name?"
Nana just growled like a jackal, and fired off a pair of rounds into the hyena-like Lilith's knees, only for them to immediately heal as Lilith launched another pair of slashes from her blades at the onyx-haired girl, who growled once more, and continued their fight once more.
(There was a symbol on the back of Nana's leather jacket that he only just realised was there, of a crown placed over a blade. It reminded him of the symbols of many of the old settlements and towns out in the frontier.
Jaune hadn't really been let out of the Arc family home throughout much of his life there, and many of the books that he had been given about the world aside had probably been heavily edited and censored- Due to none of them mentioning the Grimm at all- But he was able to learn a lot about the Frontier of Remnant, and the feudal towns and settlements that populated it, including some of the most famous.
The Frontier was the designation for most of Remnant outside of the reach of the kingdoms and their cities walls, with the wildlands being populated by scattered trading towns, stray settlements, and the occasional roaming village. Here, the law of the kingdoms and the councils only went as far as their cities, their academies, and the few watchtowers and listening outposts that they had in place.
Out in the Frontier, the wildlands truly lived up to its name.
With no true word of law out in the wild, apart from the rule of common decency (And even that was pretty loose in the wildlands), Settlements went feudal, and tended to fend for themselves. Add to the regular banditry from clans and tribes, and many settlements became like that of warlords, ruled by the most powerful of their number, and regularly made war with each other because of it. Settlements regularly looked out less for each other and more for themselves, constantly seeking to take control of the major trading towns and claim more land and resources for themselves in constant brushfire conflicts.
This was a regular occurrence from even beyond the creation of the 4 kingdoms, stretching from the times of the Faunus Empire, to the Golden Empire and the Great Houses, to the Age of Dragons, the Time of the Samurai, the Elven Rule, the Eleventh Hour, all the way towards the Ancient Times and even the Dark Times themselves. Feudal towns and warlord realms would constantly vie with each other for power and survival, against bandits, presumably Grimm, and even themselves, all so that they could see the sunrise once more.
Jaune had learnt of a few famous settlements that had existed over the years, such as the current small alliance of settlements known as the Neo-Empire, the old town known as Delivery, which the Arcs had teamed up with to protect Faunus from Human slavers back during the Faunus Rights Revolution, the settlement of Link, which had been used as a staging ground for Vale and Vacuo's joint armies before their march down the path known as Hero's Trail for their invasion of Anima, the old city of Vivarium, which served as the central capital of the old Faunus Empire, right before its fall and the formation of the 4 kingdoms, and then the ancient, supposedly mythical city of Evernight, the seat of the Dark Empire back during the Dark Times.
So many places lost to time and wear, become mythical thanks to the throes of history. Jaune would've liked to have known what they were actually like, if only out of curiosity, but, of course, he would never get the chance.
However, another quick question came to mind, and this time, he had the means of answering it:
Hey.
YES?
If you're actually Summer, or the spirit or ghost of Summer Rose, or whatever...
WELL, IT'S A BIT MORE COMPLICATED THEN THAT, BUT SURE. WHAT'S WRONG?
I imagine that you knew about the Grimm, right?
…YEAH. YES, I DID. I DO.
…Then, if you knew about them, then why didn't you tell me about them?
…
Summer?
…JAUNE... YOU AND I BOTH... WE KNOW WHAT YOUR PAST WAS LIKE.
…Yeah, I know. I know better than anyone else... Though, that's not true now, apparently.
YEAH... BUT, BECAUSE OF THAT, I-
You didn't think I'd actually ever become a Huntsman, did you?
…I WANTED YOU TO JUST HAVE A PEACEFUL LIFE, OKAY?... I MEAN... I COULDN'T BE THERE FOR MY DAUGHTERS... I FIGURED THAT I COULD BE THERE FOR YOU, AT LEAST...
…
I KNOW THAT I DID A TERRIBLE JOB... WHAT WITH TIPOCA, AND ALL...
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
I'M SORRY.
Jaune didn't know if he believed her.
Too much had happened with the voices in his head to convince him to just believe him.)
Jaune growled as he sliced Crocea Mors through yet another red tendril and jumped from another lashing one, "This is getting us nowhere," he commented about the fight. They were wasting time with the Aspects, not when there were people in the ship, and even more down below that needed their help. Turning to his side, he then yelled out, "Yang! You and Nana head down into the ship and free everyone inside! We'll take over the ship and-"
"We've got Lancers inbound!"
Jaune looked to Ruby to ask what she was talking about, but then saw it. A swarm of giant evil-looking hornets coming right for them, coloured black with white bones and glaring red beams and eyes, all of them led by a even larger, even more evil-looking hornet, like some kind of queen bee.
Grimm, lots of them. It looked like there was an entire hive of these 'Lancers' coming at them. They must've been drawn to the chaos of Emerald Forest.
"...Oh you've got to be kidding me."
GRIMM ARE ATTRACTED TO NEGATIVITY. THEY MUST'VE SENSED WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THE EMERALD FOREST AND CAME IN BY THE- OH GODS, THAT'S A LOT OF THEM.
"Yep, I noticed."
Ren looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "Noticed wha-" but was stopped as another red tendril whipped at him, flinging him to the side with a harsh grunt of pain. Seconds later, a series of- Harpoons?!- Harpoons slammed into the roof of the troop carrier like bullets from a machine gun, almost hitting him thrice over, before Jaune once more collected his aura into his hands, and-
{VOMPF}
-Created his aura bubble shield as the harpoons rained down on them and shattered and bent against his pure white aura, the rest of the Recovery Team collecting and sheltering themselves within his shield, just before the harpoons finished raining down onto them- Or at least lessened- As the Lancers busied themselves with attacking the gunports on the troop carrier, the ship in turn shooting back with blue lances of fire and ice, whilst far away, on the other side of the Emerald Forest-
{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}
-The flying warship's cannons flashed as bolts of sapphire light flew across the forest and slammed into the horde of Lancers in the air, scattering them, and filling the air with blue bolts and blackened harpoons as-
{VOMPF}
-Jaune's bubble shield dissipated, and the Recovery Team stood tall, before they looked to the side and saw the small swarm of Lancers heading towards them through the blue anti-air and tracer fire flying through the air, headed by their larger Queen Lancer as they glared down at them with blaring red eyes.
Nearby, a gun was reloaded and cocked-
"I've got this!"
-And before Jaune could say anything, a flutter of rose petals exploded next to him-
"Hey, greenie meanies! You want me? Come and get me!"
-And then darted off of the side of the troop carrier, and then onto a nearby Lancer, Ruby reforming and wrapping her Crescent Rose around its neck, and then-
{SLICE}
-Cutting it clean off, before jumping onto another Lancer and cutting of its head as well, and then repeated this process with another Lancer, and then another, and then another, all the while down below-
"Oh no you don't!"
-Lamia and Lilith moved to follow her, jumping onto 2 fading Lancers corpses, before leaping onto 2 live ones and manipulating them into flying upwards, playing hopscotch in midair and with evil monsters as tracer fire and explosions sounded off around them.
"Are all Huntsmen and Huntresses like this?" Jaune muttered to himself, "This kid..."
"That little moron!" Yang called out in anger as her eyes flared a raging ruby red, flailing her arms around as she then called out, "Ruby, I swear to god, you are so grounded when I get my hands on- ACK!"
Applying a punch to the wide mouthed boy that had clamped his mouth around her bloody mouth once more, Yang threw him off and growled, but Jaune stopped her with, "Yang, you and Nana head into the ship and free everyone inside."
"What?!" Yang looked at him with a twitchy-eyed glare, "Are you-"
"Serious? Yes. Ruby can handle herself," of course she could. She was a trained Huntress, wasn't she? She was a progeny, surely. At least, that's what Jaune was telling himself. That was what he was hoping, at least, "Get downstairs, free everyone else. Now."
He twirled Crocea Mors in his hand. Huh, he didn't know that he could do that before.
"Ren and I will handle these jokers."
Yang grimaced, but with a tug of the arm from Nana- "C'mon, let's go"- she acquiesced, and then jumped down through a nearby hatch into the bowels of the ship, gunfire erupting within as Nana followed shortly behind, guns cocking as she flew down.
Jaune then cocked his head to the side, looking to where Ren was as well as the 2 remaining Aspects, Draugr and Upyr, flanked Ruby Alter as she stared them down with that ever present look of apathy on her face as the red tendrils that flowed off of the equally red mist at her feet whipped and squirmed in the air, ready to snap at them once it got the chance.
"How do we free Nora?" Ren asked as he pointed his guns at the ruinous effigy to Ruby Rose.
"I don't know."
"What does that mean?"
"We'll figure it out."
Aura crackled at Jaune's hands, and he prepared himself for the fight.
Aura crackled at Ruby's hands, and she got stuck back into the fight.
Actually, was it aura, or was it something else? She didn't know, but at the moment, she couldn't find the time to pay it any mind.
Not when she was too busy playing mid-air hopscotch with Lancers as the hopscotches and with a pair of psychotic murderous twins as her opponents.
{BANG}
Went the sound of her Crescent Rose as the bullet broke through another Lancer's skull, sending fading black ichor to the ground below as she leapt off of its fading corpse and burst once more into a fluttering cloud of petals, dashing up into the air as she reformed and-
{CLASH}
-Used the blade of her weapon to block Lamia's swords from swiping down on her as they flew past each other in the air jumping onto their own fresh Lancer, as nearby, Lilith leapt off of her own, and-
{SHOOM}
-Unleashed a great volley of silver light from her eyes, right towards the Lancer that Ruby was perched on like a crow. The Little Red Riding Hood was barely just able to jump off of the Lancer and dash once more through the air as the Lancer was consumed by the light and turned to pure stone, falling down like a missile to the planet below.
What was that? Ruby asked herself as she jumped from Lancer to Lancer, each one of them turning to stone as they were caught in silver blast after silver blast, falling down to the ground below as she continued to dance and fly through the air in a continuous stream of bursting rose petals, What that a semblance? No, I thought that their semblance was... Was that their silver eyes? Was that the power of the silver eyes?
Ruby didn't have enough time to think about it as the Queen Lancer narrowed its eyes on her as she darted through the air, and then-
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!"
-Gave chase.
Harpoons began to fly around her as explosions and blue tracer fire lit up the air surrounding them, Ruby darting from Lancer to Lancer as their Queen continued to knock them away, Ruby in turn sending volleys of fire from Crescent Rose into the giant hornet as it flew right behind her, all the while-
"You are not-"
"-Getting away!"
-Lamia and Lilith continued to chase after her through the air, jumping from Grimm after Grimm as they danced over and around her, swiping at her with their blades when they clashed and duelled, Lamia in particular jumping onto a nearby Lancer and giving her a wry grin-
"Hello again."
-And then cartwheeling through the air and landing on the same Lancer as the Little Red Riding Hood, the 2 warriors clashing their blades together on the swirling and twirling Grimm as it began to soar into the air and throwing the 2 of them off, just before-
{SLINK}
-Launching a harpoon from its bladed rear into the air, and launching it-
{CRASH}
{SCRASH}
-Right through the unfolded Crescent Rose, shattering it and reducing the weapon to nothing but a sparking metal pole, its remains falling down to the ashy yet frozen world below.
…
Her baby.
Her baby!
MY BABY!
Ruby swore bloody vengeance on that particular Grimm as she burst into a cloud of rose petals, and with a fanatic scream of anger-
"YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
(Her eyes flashed red for just a second.)
-She swung the broken remains of her weapon down with such tremendous force-
{CRACK}
{SQUELCH}
-That it pierced right through the bone mask of the Lancer and went all the way through its head, splattering its body with black gore as Ruby then jumped off, the wind of the air swirling between her locks as she burst into a cloud of rose petals, and-
{STAB}
"AAAHHHHHHHH!"
-A blade went right through her stomach, splattering her waist with crimson red blood.
Ruby bit her tongue through the pain, and then refocused her aura on healing the bloodying wound, only for the owner of that blade- Lilith- To press it further in, and wrap her other arm around her throat.
"I'm sorry about this, Ruby," she could make out over the wind, "But, unfortunately, sometimes a little pain is needed to- How do you say?- Make the point."
Ruby growled-
"Fat chance."
-And then burst once more into a flutter of rose petals, escaping from Lilith's grasp, but now loosing the sword in her gut, the only thing that was keeping all of the blood in her body where it should be.
Ruby bit down on her tongue hard enough to almost cut it off in response to the pain, but she didn't let that stop her as she continued to dart around in the air like a crow, only to see a Lancer narrowing down on her, red eyes glaring and blaring with the intent to kill.
Ruby's arms crackled and hummed with silver energy, so much so that it was beginning to burn her sleeves and turn them into ashy glowing ribbons of heat and fabric, exposing her bare arms as she, instinctively, wheeled one of them back, similar to how Yang would when she was sparring, and then, as the heat and silver light began to grow more and more and more, she roared in anger-
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
-And her eyes flashed red with rage.
Her fist impacted with the skull of the Lancer mid-air, and immediately shattered, only to be healed again by her aura as the silver light from her arms danced down the entirety of the Lancer, and-
{SQUELCH}
-Popped it like a balloon, covering her in fading black gore and ichor as she continued her descent downwards.
"What the heck!?" Ruby got out as the wind continued to bellow past her cape, looking down at her arms, still sparking with silver electricity as she went, "How did I do-"
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!"
Oh yeah, the Queen Lancer.
She had honestly forgotten about that.
She looked down below, to the fast approaching ground, and saw the Queen Grimm soaring up towards her, its barbed mouth opening up as it gave off its own roar at the slaughter of its kin and children.
Ruby didn't have time for this.
She instinctively went for Crescent Rose, but then remembered that she didn't have it on her anymore, "Dammit, I need a weapon, I need a weapon, I need a weapon right right now-"
As if on que, her silver eyes flared, and a baring light manifested in her hand, before manifesting-
{SHING}
-Into a silver scythe.
"What... How did that-"
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!"
Ruby pushed the thought out of her head as the Queen Lancer roared again, and threw her new energy scythe back, waiting for the right moment to strike, as the Grimm flew closer and closer, as she grew closer and closer, as the blood continued to trickle out of her stomach wound and down her waist, right before-
{SWING}
{VWOOSH}
-She swung her new weapon down, and-
{CRACK}
-Impaled it right into the Queen Lancer's neck.
The Grimm screeched and threw itself around as Ruby flipped herself around to stand on top of it, twisting the blade from left to right as she tried to-
Holy guacamole she was actually trying to steer a Grimm.
Once again, Ruby didn't put much thought to it as silver light spread like veins throughout the Grimm-
In the Grimmlands, Salem looked up from the scroll in front of her and frowned in annoyance.
-Making it screech out in pain as it buzzed from left to right and left again with no coordination as Ruby tried to pilot the stupid thing, throwing it from side to side as it twisted in the air, only for-
{STAB}
{STAB}
-Lamia and Lilith stabbed their blades into the Grimm's hide and growled in unison.
"Going somewhere?!" Lamia asked.
"You're not going anywhere!" Lilith growled.
The green-haired twins began to climb across the Grimm, stabbing their swords into the monster for that extra grip as they crawled across the Queen hornet monster, the wind bellowing past them all as Ruby spotted where she needed to be.
There. The troop carrier. There was a hatch in the bottom of it. She had killed dozens of the monsters, reducing them to just a few, and now they weren't going to be able to interfere with their efforts. All she had to do now was steer the Grimm to flying below the troop carrier, and then-
From the airship, several gunports swivelled to where her free ride was- Currently flying right towards the airship in question- And then-
{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}
-Began to send sapphire anti-air rounds through the sky-
{SQUELCH SQUELCH SQUELCH SQUELCH SQUELCH}
-And into the Queen Lancer.
The Grimm screeched as it began to die, black wisps of smoke flowing from its body as it began its descent downwards. Ruby grimaced, but kept her focus as tracer fire continued to whizz past her, crackling and banging like fireworks as the Lancer continued its descent downwards, tipping further and further down as it began to drift into a nosedive towards the world below.
But, as they began to pass under the opened belly of the troop carrier, Ruby began to twist the glowing silver blade in her hands, and then-
"There we go!"
-Forced the Queen Lancer to fly upwards.
Whoever was manning the underside turrets on the troop carrier seemed to panic, as they all swivelled downwards and looked like they were all about to fire upon the Lancer below them, only to pause at the sight of the Aspects of Amusement on the dying Grimm, which was perfect for Ruby, as she-
"C'mon..."
-Stood straight up on the decaying Grimm as it zoomed towards the engines of the ship, the wind flowing fast through her hair and past her cloak as she-
"C'mon..."
-Crouched down, clenched her hands into fists, and then-
"Yes!"
-Burst into a cloud of rose petals as the Grimm collided with the engines of the ship, rocking it to the side as the Aspects jumped and clung to the rungs at the bottom of the ship, whilst Ruby jetted herself up into the internals of the ship, planted her feet into the necks of 23 cultists that were aiming their guns at her, just before she darted through the corridors of the airship, following the sounds of chaos and battle that was echoing through the hallways, before finally-
"Ruby!?"
-Finding a bloodied Yang and Nana fighting against the black-haired set of twins from before in a tight corridor, dents and fracture lines lining the walls, the lights above flickering and flashing as Ruby vaulted over her elder sister, and-
{SLAM}
-Planted her feet into the 2 twins' jaws, sending them falling back as Ruby backflipped onto her feet and stood straight, before turning to her 2 fellows- One looking in better condition than the other, for some reason- And yelled, "Yang, free the prisoners!"
"I'm on it!" Nana called out as she stepped towards what must've been the door to one of the cells, and then, after punching in a code next to it, opened it up, and looked at the dozens of initiates crammed within, "Hello there, everyone! Who's up for a cozy little jailbreak?"
"..."
"...Guys?"
Ruby peered in, and saw that all of them were just looking at the 2 of them with shackles around their hands and unconsciously narrowed eyelids, and glowing orange collars around their necks. Their heads lulled from side to side drunkenly. Their eyes were as dull as coal. Their skin was paling as something sickly highlighted their veins. Connected to their collars was a tube each that ran all the way up to the ceiling, pumping them with an ugly black substance.
They'd been drugged. They'd all been drugged.
"Impressive, isn't it?"
Ruby, Nana, and Yang wheeled to the side, to see the 2 black haired twins picking themselves up from the floor, cracking their necks as the red-themed one smiled sweetly at them, while the white-themed one growled and bared her teeth.
It was the red-themed one who spoke, "The drugs keep them docile. Can't have a bunch of superpowered teenagers running amuck now, can we?" she laughed, "The collar around their necks, though? An extra bit of insurance."
Ruby looked to the collars around the initiates' necks, eyeing the glowing orange portions intently, "That's combustion dust, in there?"
"Yep. If the initiates get too rowdy, or- Or!" she held up her hand to stop Yang from making a wrong move as she flinched, "If anyone tries to remove them, then the collars tick down, and-"
"They explode and their heads roll off."
"-They explode and their heads roll off, yes. Thank you, Melanie."
"How could you... How could you do that?! This?! All of this!?" Yang roared out in anger as she threw her hand towards the woozy initiates in the ship's cells, "You're drugging people! You're threatening them with-"
"Oh hush, Yang, you needn't be so-"
{KA-BOOM}
{CLATTER}
All of the girls in the corridor were thrown into the wall as the ship lurched to the side, the lights around them turning red as a warning siren began to blare around them.
"What the hell- What was that?!" Nana called out as the ship tried to level itself out, only for a sinking feeling to overcome all of them as the ground suddenly became lighter.
"Oh, er, that might've been... That might've been me..." Ruby nervously laughed, "I might've... Rammed a Queen Lancer into the engines."
The red-themed twin's eye twitched, "Oh my god, the ship is going down."
"...Woops."
"FIRE!"
{BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM}
Ribbons of fire and bombs flew through the air above as they slammed into the lead Husk Grimm, detonating the world around it as it let out its gurgled roar.
And yet, still, it pushed on, trudging through the flames and coming out of the fire, completely smothered in it, like an angel of death walking out of the depths of hell itself, the undead Tempest Grimm- A jellyfish-like Grimm- Mangled and broken, it's jelly-like top deflated and leaking, and the ends of its many arms fragmented and shattered by a rainbow on unhealthy looking dust, surging forwards once more, its tentacles whipping out and latching onto initiate after initiate-
{CRACKLE}
{FIZZLE}
-Smothering them with electricity and turning them to smoking husks as it continued to gracelessly float towards them. From its back, 2 additional tendrils had spawned. One of bone-chilling ice, the other of burning hot-
"FIRE!"
{BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM}
Another volley of explosives went into the undead Grimm, detonating against its crippled sides as it swayed from side to side from the sheer kinetic force of the explosives sent against it.
And yet it did not budge.
It did not falter.
It did not waver.
It was but one of the many Husk Grimm that were now slowly encroaching on their position ever since they had shifted their tactics. The initiates' melee fighters had done a good job of holding back the hordes of immortal undead monsters as their peers with explosives and bullets began to rain down all hell upon the hordes' masters in the back lines. The Husks, upon sensing the battle's change in pace, began to march forward, joining their lessers in the fray as they continued to rain down their own deadly retaliation onto the humans and Faunus before them.
Pyrrha tried not to let that deter her as she threw her arm forwards, and once more, she called out, "HIT IT AGAIN!" and once more, another volley of explosives and bullets shot out from the lines behind her, and slammed once more into the closest Great Grimm that was approaching them. And once more, none of their attacks made a dent against the monster as it continued to lash out against them.
Each Husk was a powerful Great Grimm, and each Husk commanded a giant horde of undead slaves. If the initiates just wasted all of their efforts on battling the hordes, then they would just be wasting ammo and effort on killing that which could not be killed, hence why just their melee fighters were fighting against the horde, keeping them away from the firing lines as the initiates poured their fire into the lead Husk. They were also focusing all of their fire onto one of the Husks instead of spreading their fire out amongst all of the Great Grimm before them, and that was because of something that Anima Senterra had said about the Husks, or rather about every Great Grimm in general last night:
"They're extremely rare, but it takes multiple teams- Hell, it takes an entire guild's worth- Just to bring one of them down, and they're not always guaranteed a full victory... Or any victory at all."
Great Grimm were incredibly powerful, and it would take so much of their firepower up just to kill one. If they could concentrate their fire in just one of the Husks- If they could kill just one of them- Then they could lessen the horde, and at least make things easier for themselves.
But now, that plan was failing.
Pyrrha looked behind herself to see that their lines were breaking. They were running low on ammo of all kinds, and their morale was at an all time low. It looked like they were just a few seconds away from cutting and running.
Pyrrha couldn't blame them.
Had she made the right choice? Had she been right to try and stand up and fight these things?
Or had she just doomed them all?
…
She refused to believe that possibility.
As much as she hated the title, she was their champion. She was their... Invincible Girl.
She refused to be cowed by these monsters.
And so, she threw her hand back out, and yelled, "FIRE!"
And once more, the sky was filled with tracer volleys and flares of explosive light as they slammed into the Great Grimm.
And once more, they had-
They had an affect.
The Grimm...
It did something miraculous.
It began to bleed.
Jaune once more used his blade to carve through yet another tendril, only for it to instantly grow back and lash out at him, as he dashed to the side and-
{SLICE}
"AUGH!"
-Felt a long blade carve itself along his back, not breaking through his aura cloak and armour, but enough to throw him off as a long tendril of fleshy mass began to swallow his arm, and then-
"Heheheheh…"
-Began to swallow him whole, consuming him in an ugly mass of thin mess that he, in a panic, proceeded to stab his sword into repeatedly the pink and clay mass of skin and blood, only for the clay-like flesh to move itself around the blade, and then catch his arm completely, beginning to swallow him whole and working to seep its way into his pours, threatening to swallow him whole-
"Come to me, my f-"
-But was stopped by a pink wave of- Aura?- Of aura from above as Ren backflipped over the fleshy mass-
"-What the-"
-And allowed his wave of aura to crash into the moulding flesh, scattering it like a puddle across the roof of the troop carrier as Jaune stepped back in a hurry, and then looked to Ren, "Thanks!"
Ren nodded, but was stopped as-
"HYAH!"
-The Aspect known as Upyr slashed at him with the tendrils of blood that sprouted from his back, whipping them at him as long razor blades of solid blood formed around his hands and scraped across the ground, throwing up sparks at Ren, almost blinding him, just as he sliced at him, the 2 of them locking forest green and crimson red blades as the mass of flesh known as Draugr attacked him as well, whilst nearby-
{SLICE}
{CARVE}
-Jaune threw his blade through another round of tendrils as Ruby Alter continued to attack him, throwing tendril after tendril at him, whipping at the air around him as he blocked and deflected as best he could and-
{KA-BOOM}
{SHUDDER}
The ship rocked to the side, and began to tilt downwards as smoke bellowed from the back of its hull where the engines were. A low whine escaped from the troop carrier below as the fighters on top of it fell to the metal ground beneath them, clinging on for dear life as the wind around them began to bellow even more than before, the ship beginning its slow descent to the ground as-
{SLIDE}
"Ah, shit!"
Jaune began to slide across the ship's hull, having nothing to grab onto across the smooth hull as he clawed for something to keep him in place, but then remembering that he had a sword on him, as he moved to stab it into the metal hide of the ship-
{SHUDDER}
-Only for the ship to violently shudder once more as he was thrown off of the ship, flailing through the air as he screamed in fear at seeing the ground below, only for-
"I have you."
-A red tendril to whip out and wrap around his ankles, and then threw him back onto the top of the troop carrier, and throwing him down hard into the metal, winding him as his back ached and his aura instinctively reacted, trailing up his back, but then, for some reason, travelling down his legs and up the red tendril of the Ruby Alter, making it all the way up the thing's body as-
"Ah."
-A white pulse of energy flickered through her, and a gap in her head formed.
A turquoise eye and ginger lock peered through.
Jaune gasped, Nora...
The red tendril retreated from him as the Ruby Alter stepped back, her emotionless face broken for a second as a flash of... Something, came over her, though he had no idea what emotion it was. Cracking her neck to the side, she then released dozens of tendrils from the mass of red smoke beneath her, and then threw them down at Jaune. The boy in question threw his shield up as they came for him, before deciding to dart to the side as-
SEMBLANCE: PETAL BURST.
Suddenly, he was broken apart and remoulded as he sidestepped to the left, pure white fading petals fluttering from him as he looked at himself in sudden confusion, "What the... What was-"
I SAID THAT THERE WERE MORE THINGS THAT WE CAN GIVE YOU.
THAT WAS ONE OF THEM.
Summer... What that-
MY SEMBLANCE?
YES.
THERE ARE 8 IN HERE, WAITING FOR YOU.
8?!
YES.
BUT ONLY A FRACTION OF THEM.
A SINGLE PERCENTAGE OF THEM, THANKS TO THE LIMITS OF OUR CONNECTION.
AS SUCH, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE FULL POWER OF THOSE SEMBLANCES THAT WE ONCE USED.
How will I... Can I make them more powerful?
WITH TRAINING, YES.
BUT FOR NOW, WE HAVE OTHER MATTERS TO ATTEND TO.
NORA NEEDS YOU.
Jaune nodded to himself, Roger that.
The Ruby Alter was shaken by this sudden burst of power as well, momentarily confused by it, but wasn't deterred for long as it unleashed another wave of red death towards him, sharp and invasive. But then, this time with more control-
{BURST}
-Through a burst of rose petals, he sidestepped to the left, towards Ren, as he-
Augh, motion sickness! Ugh, that sucked!
As it turns out, turning into a cloud of rose petals and then turning back into a person?
Not a pleasant feeling.
YEAH, IT'S TAKES TIME TO GET USED TO.
YOU SHOULD KNOW?
I SHOULD KNOW.
Jaune shivered, and then decided to physically roll to the side as another tendril slammed down like a hammer onto the hull of the ship as they began to descend downwards, rocking all of the way there.
The ship was going down, and they were still on it.
He had no idea what the others were doing, but he had a sneaking suspicion that they had something to do with it.
No matter.
Jaune and Ren still had their own problems to deal with.
Darting to the side, he looked to Ren, who had just delivered another concentrated burst of pink aura into the fleshy mass named Draugr, and he yelled to him, "Ren! Alter just reacted to my aura! I don't know wherever it's just mine or if it's aura in general, but I think if we deliver a strong enough burst of it into her, then we can separate Nora from Alter!"
Ren looked at him and nodded, a shine of hope in his eyes as he flipped away from the 2 Aspects that they were fighting, and both charged the red mass that was Ruby Alter-
{BOOM}
{CRACKLE}
-Only for the ship to shudder and shift to the side once more, curving to the side as the opponents on the top of the ship clutched the metal once more, threatening to slide off of the troop carrier before it evened itself out once more.
As Jaune managed to find something to grip onto as the ship tilted on its axis, pointing downwards, he heard a, "JAUNE!" right next to him, and suddenly found Nana right next to him, clutching onto the ship below her as she then went, "Ruby and Yang are trying to take control of the ship, but the engines on this boat are screwed! The best that we can do is try to soften the blow when we hit the ground!"
"Well, we were going to use this thing against the Husks below," Jaune replied with, almost slipping from his grip on the troop carrier, "Tell them that they know what to do."
Nana paused, nodded, and then in a flash, she was gone.
Jaune then looked to Ren, who was now beginning to pick himself off of the hull of the ship as it continued to float down to the ground below, the wind continuing to bellow past them, whilst nearby, the Ruby Alter positioned itself at the front end of the ship, where it was pointing downwards towards the ground, and continued to stand against the wind, its tendrils lashing out in the air at them, forcing the 2 to duck, roll, and then hastily begin their descent (Or slide, if you will), Down the roof of the airship, one of the red tendrils-
{CRASH}
-Slamming into and denting the metal near them as the 2 Aspects lunged at their closest target from behind, that being Ren, as they grabbed him-
"REN!"
-And began to roll down the sloping ship, the boy in question looking for purchase on the ground below, whilst the other 2 Aspects merely mutated themselves with new blood tentacles and arms sprouted from their mass, whilst Ren continued his tumble as-
"Shit shit shit shit shit!"
-Jaune quickly ran down to where Ren was, trying not to slip up as he skirted alongside the vents and freshly made potholes within the ship itself, his sword clung in his hands as he-
"Got you."
The tendril in the ground made a grand sweeping motion, and Jaune was flipped up in the air, the wind screaming past him as his aura cloak began to swing and sway and flail uselessly and-
CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP
WHAT DO WE DO WHAT DO WE DO WHAT DO WE-
Guys.
WHAT?!
I've got this.
His aura began to collect in his hands, his cloak dissipating into nothingness as his hands were overcome with a pure white glow.
"REN! WHEN I SAY CATCH HER, GO FOR IT!"
And, with a confidence that was completely alien to him, and perhaps a hint of suicidal hope...
He allowed himself to fall.
Within a few seconds, he was screaming towards the Ruby Alter at such high speeds that his mind had to slow everything down into slow motion just to keep up with everything. The Ruby Alter's eyes widened in something that didn't betray the rest of her emotionless face as he pooled all of his aura into one hand-
"Give-"
-Threw it back-
"-Her-"
-And then, with one mighty, sun-making punch-
-BACK!"
-He slammed his fist into the Ruby Alter's face.
There was an immediate reaction. His aura began to spread across the fake-Ruby's body, not healing anything but... Separating them. Deconstructing them as if they were a child's toy blocks. His aura spread through the black and red creature like hot white veins. Every single piece of it.
Something like this- Whatever he was even doing- Couldn't just be done regularly. Whatever this thing that was Ruby Alter even was, it was sucking away his aura like a baby to their mother's breast. Draining it, absorbing it like a sponge to water.
How much aura did he have? A lot, apparently. So much so that this thing eagerly drank away at it like it was a fine ambrosia. He felt himself begin to wither and waver. He felt like his very soul was being ripped out of his body and his mind was being flayed and ripped apart into meaty, bloody chunks.
This was why he said that this couldn't be done regularly. Such a process like this... Of trying to find someone in a sheer metaphysical presence, or entity, or living effigy that had long since achieved transubstantiation...
It was killing him.
…
He wasn't quite sure wherever to be pleased or not at that fact.
But he couldn't die just yet.
He had a job to do after all.
And so, as he was slowly withered and torn into nothing, his mind coming closer and closer to oblivion, and yet that did not deter him, as he pushed himself through the muck and mud, and-
…
Where was he now?
He was standing on an open plain, next to a cliff as the trees swayed behind him. In the distance, the setting sun coloured the sky a mixture of yellow to orange to pink to purple, cresting down into its shelter, in between the 2 cleaved halves of Mountain Glenn.
What?
In the distance was Mountain Glenn, and it had...
It had been divided into 2.
Down below, beyond the cliff, the ground was filled with old craters and long scar marks. The world was filled with fresh and old ravines, overgrowing with trees and vines and grassy fields. Further away, where he might've once been able to make out spires and skyscrapers within the walls of Vale... He could only make out nothing in the long distance.
Only ruins and a pile of rubble.
And yet, there were 2 people in front of him, looking out over the Vale-that-was-not-Vale, across the Remnant-that-was-not-Remnant. They were both-
FAMILIAR
-Yet-
DIFFERENT
-And yet also-
DIFFERENT
-Yet-
FAMILIAR
-And he couldn't understand why.
Couldn't, or wouldn't. The reason why was alien to him.
"We need to hide them," one of them said to the other.
"We need to protect them. We need to teach them how to protect themselves."
"Are you- We took them away to-"
"I know. But we can't keep her away forever. Sooner or later, she will come for them. Both of them will."
"Then we'll fight them."
"Do you hear yourself? We've tried fighting them head on, and it hasn't worked."
"It has to work!"
"And yet here we are."
"Then what are we supposed to do?"
"...I don't know. What we can. What's right-"
"Fuck what's right. Fuck what's right, and fuck what's wrong. Right and wrong: They've failed us. Let us down. Every time someone has said that they're 'Doing what's right', it's all been a load of horseshit so that they can justify all of the evils that they commit. To hell with what's right: We've done 'What's right' for years, and look where it's got us. I'm done with it all. I'm going to do what's good for me, you, and everyone else... We deserve that much."
"..."
"Don't we?"
"...You've changed."
"Yeah."
"I'm not sure if I like it."
"Yeah, well, these are my true feelings. You're just seeing it for the first time."
"I don't believe you for a second."
"...I'm tired."
"So am I."
"I just want to rest."
"So do I."
"...How much longer do we have to go on like this?"
"When we've bled ourselves of every sin, so that we might repay all of the wrongs that we have done, even if it is just a fraction."
And then, just as soon as the apparition had appeared before him...
It was gone.
-There she was- A single figure being smothered in red and black, with ginger locks of hair and turquoise eyes.
Nora Valkyrie.
With an outstretched hand, he pulled himself in closer to her, through the stiffling horror that sought to impede him, and then...
He tapped her.
Nora's figure exploded with light, and with that, the creature that was named Ruby Alter shattered and shed itself like a cocoon. Ribbons of red and black cloth fell away and dissolved into nothing, as the Ruby Alter exploded outwards, and released the girl called Nora Valkyrie from her prison.
And then she began to fall.
"REN! NOW!"
The green-dressed boy began to move, sliding and running down the front of the ship as Jaune stabbed his sword into the hull of the ship, stopping himself from falling any further and almost dislocating his shoulder again from the sudden stopping force, whilst Ren dashed down the ship, allowing gravity to do much of the work as he-
"RAUGH!"
-Dodged the swiping grasps from the fleshy mass known as Draugr as she took hold of the glowing silver light that was Ruby Alter once more, only to whip a pair of tendrils at both Ren and Nora as he jumped over one of them, reached out his hand to overtake the other, and then-
"Got you!"
-He grabbed Nora by the ankle, reaching over the domed beginning of the ship as the wind continued to bellow past them in an oboe tune, Nora dangling from the edge of the ship, held within Ren's tight grasp, as Draugr loomed over them, fleshy-pink tendrils moving to wrap themselves around them both, as-
{TSCHE-CHU-CHU}
A pink blast shot past Ren and slammed into the fleshy mass, scattering it over the hull of the ship as it screamed.
Ren looked back down, and saw Nora staring up at him, a glowing copy of Magnhild in her hands as it let out a stream of smoke.
Only a few seconds back in the land of the living, and she was already up for a fight.
"Nora! You're okay!" Ren didn't bother putting up his mask of stoicism as he spoke in relief to her.
Nora, as peppy as ever, just smiled, "You really think that you can get rid of me that easily, Renny?"
And then, with her free hand, she-
"Boop."
-Booped him on the nose.
Ren almost laughed, but then he looked over her, and finally noticed... A glaring issue.
"Nora."
"Yes, Ren?"
"...You're naked."
She looked over herself.
Oh yeah, her clothes kind of... Melted, when she was possessed by that Ruby Alter thing, weren't they?
"Oh yeah."
She had forgotten about that.
Then, the ship lurched downwards once more, and continued its increasingly violent descent below.
"Keep it steady keep it steady keep it steady keep it steady keep it steady-"
"Ruby, will you please stop being such a backseat driver!?"
"Sorry!"
Ruby took the time to block off another blow from a Deacon with a knife, throwing an electricity covered fist into his armoured face, almost breaking her knuckles, but not before sending him flying backwards down the corridor, into a new pair of Adherents, as Yang- After relaying Jaune's message to them- Pulled on a Bishop's leg with enough force to dislocate it, and then threw him into one of the black-haired twins- The white-dressed one- As she continued to duel with the red-dressed one.
None of the cultists dared try and shoot into the cockpit. Even they knew that it would be pure stupidity to fire into the ship's cockpit and ruin the only thing that was still keeping this bird somewhat afloat.
Yang and Ruby, however- Since they were guarding, thereby facing away from, the controls now, and peering down into the corridor of cultists- Had no such worries.
Nana, meanwhile, continued to dart between the controls of the troop carrier, jumping between the 2 seats at the front of the cockpit and over the 2 unconscious pilots as she fiddled with controls and pulleys and levers and buttons and so on, flipping switches and tuning dials as the ship-
{SHUDDER}
-Violently rocked, indicating the loss of another engine-pod.
"I thought-" Ruby stopped herself as she copied Yang's movements (She had trained with her for most of her life, after all. She knew quite a few of her moves), And then decided to try something. Cocking her arms back in a facsimile of Yang's movements, as if she was reloading her own Ember Celica, before throwing them forwards and-
{ZAP ZAP ZAP}
-Allowing 3 shots of silver electricity to shoot out of her arms and into 2 Adherent cultists, while the final shot bounced off of a Deacon's shield and into the ceiling.
Yang looked at Ruby's with wide eyes, "How are you-"
"Don't know."
Yang took that as a good enough answer, for now, and got back into the fight.
Ruby then continued to Nana, "I thought you said that you were a good pilot!"
"Hey, this is not a ship anymore, this is a brick! A fly- Falling! Not even flying! This is a falling brick! How about you come up here and try to fly this thing?! Then we can exchange notes!"
The ship's controls began to blink and fizzle. A console nearby frizzled and exploded in a shower of sparks.
Nana swore in shock, and then looked out of the blue tinted viewport in front of her.
"Well, we're on course now, and the autoguns are prepped. Let's just hope they find their targets," she muttered to herself, before looking back, "Everyone! Get ready! We're about to land hard!"
Down below, the remaining initiates were fighting for their lives.
They were no longer the strong and the prideful, now. They were the leftovers. The muck. The lost souls and the trauma ridden. The wasted and the broken. The remnants.
Their ammo was almost out. Their blades were dulling. Even their teeth were blunting, and their claws were ripping themselves free from their fingers.
They were the largest pocket of initiates remaining within the forest, and even they were being beaten. What hope did the rest of them have if even the strongest of them could fall?
It was here that Pyrrha finally realised that she was going to die.
And yet she did not falter. She could not falter. She was the Invincible Girl, the undefeatable champion. She did not lose. She could not lose.
And yet was she also not Pyrrha Nikos?
For the longest time, Pyrrha hated her moniker of 'Invincible Girl'. It was a name that was hers, but it also wasn't hers. It meant to be undefeatable. It meant to be immortal, a forever shining beacon of light to those around her. A champion, forever selfless, forever putting those around her before herself. Something that could never be selfish, could never have flaws, could never be in the wrong...
Could never be a person.
Pyrrha wanted to be what the Invincible Girl couldn't: A person. A person with flaws. A person with hopes and aspirations. A person who could be both selfless and selfish at the same time. A person with friends. A person with hobbies and silly habits. A person who could lose. A person who could love instead of constantly being loved...
A person.
And yet, at the end of her life, staring down the mutilated husk of a Grimm that sought to bring about her own demise...
She found herself unable to part from the Invincible Girl.
She wanted to be the Invincible Girl more than she wanted to be Pyrrha Nikos. She wanted to be the undefeatable champion. She wanted to be the immortal Huntress that stared death in the eyes and barked out a laugh at its cowardice. She wanted to be that which would hold the rope for the fears of humanity to hang themselves from. She wanted to win, forever and ever and ever and ever.
She did not want to lose, for the Invincible Girl could never lose.
So, in the end, that begged the ultimate question:
Did she want to be Pyrrha Nikos, or did she want to be the Invincible Girl?
She felt everything that she thought she knew about herself going from known to unknown. She felt herself being asked a million different things about herself that she knew not the answer to.
Except one:
What will you do?
And she responded the only way she knew how:
She attacked.
"FIRE!" she screamed out, her throat already raw from yelling so much as another volley of fire stretched out overhead, slamming into the undead Tempest Husk as its jelly-like shell continued to crack itself open, exposing the pulsating brain underneath as it swayed from side to side, disorientated and dizzied from the fire spreading across it.
Just one more volley... That would be enough to kill it.
"FIRE!"
Nothing happened.
She looked back to the lines of initiates behind her, and realised the horrible truth:
They had all run out of ammo.
Their faces were wretched with despair, their bodies slumped over and wracked with fatigue. Their weapons were smoking and red hot, their bellies empty of bullets and explosives.
Their lines were breaking, splitting apart as swarms of zombie Grimm poured into them like ants to food. Their queen ants, the Husks, continued their relentless march forwards as the initiates began to break apart, panicking and fleeing and falling to their knees in fear.
She should've ordered them to retreat. She should've fallen back when she had the chance. She should've done something other than stand and fight against this nightmarish horde.
Pyrrha Nikos would've done that.
But the Invincible Girl?
The Invincible Girl would've stood and fought.
Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at the sight of the pulsating Tempest Husk, and then threw her shield to the ground-
Behind her, Anima shifted out of her animal form, and looked at her with wide eyes, "Pyrrha? Pyrrha, what are you-"
-Jumped onto it, as Hariti, her familiar, latched onto her back-
"Pyrrha, what are you do... Oh, don't you dare."
-Whilst a black glow overcame the shield beneath her-
"No no no, don't you dare do what I think you're about to-"
-And then, with a surge of aura-
"Pyrrha! Don't you dare-"
-She flung the 2 of them high into the sky.
Pyrrha and Hariti launched up into the air, and then began to quickly fall like a mortar round, leaving a trail of aura-light behind them as they covered themselves in a shield, Pyrrha shifting her Miló into its xiphos sword form, and then, recalling her shield, Akoúo̱, the 2 of them-
{CRASH}
{SPLATTER}
-Slammed themselves into the pulsating brain of the Tempest Husk, and began to run across the long beast, dragging their blades through the creature as it howled in pain, torrents of fowl, rotting blood spraying from its fresh wounds like a torrent as its electricity shredded tentacles began to reach out from below itself and stretched up to grab and kill them.
Neither of them would give it the chance.
The 2 of them reached the end of the Tempest Husk, and-
{DASH}
-Leapt off, flying through the air as the mangled tentacles reached where they once been standing-
{ZAP}
-And touched its own brain.
The electricity reached through its body via its exposed insides and let out a gurgled shriek, and down below, the undead Grimm down below that belonged to it fell down and died their final death. The Husk Grimm began to gurgle and cry as blackened rotting blood leaked out of every wound like waterfalls, and then...
It died its second death.
The Husk went limp and collapsed to the ground, turning into stinking smoke, then nothingness, and then less than nothingness. Pyrrha and Hariti then landed on the ground, rolling and groaning as they picked themselves up, coughing as they got back up to their feet, just as-
{SLAP}
-Anima walked up to her and punched her in the jaw.
Pyrrha didn't even budge from it, but Hariti quickly got between them with her dagger drawn, aimed at Anima, before the blonde-haired woman growled, her sharpened teeth showing and her boys at her back as she looked at Pyrrha and went, "What the hell was that?!"
"Ani-"
"Goddammit Pyrrha, I know that you've got a death wish or something but would you mind letting the rest of us know when you're going off to commit your spectacular suicide?!"
"I-"
"Or better yet, can you actually act like a goddamn leader and, I don't know, lead us?! Try not to get us all killed or something?!"
Pyrrha looked around, and saw that the remaining Husk hordes were still swarming them. They had wasted so much time trying to kill the one Husk, that all of the others were moving to encircle them as they pounced on her fellow initiates.
They were loosing. Pyrrha Nikos had brought about their end. Their loss (But not the Invincible Girl, because the Invincible Girl did not lose).
Anima didn't even give her any time to collect her thoughts as she turned to the lines and went, "Everyone, fall back! We'll regroup at a better location, break out of the forest, and-"
"Incoming!" one initiate yelled, and pointed up into the sky at... Something, and as Anima, Pyrrha, and everyone else looked up into the sky, they saw it.
One of the troop carriers. The one that Jaune and his team had gone off to hijack and use against the Husks. It's back was flaming, it was leaving a trail of thick black smoke towards it...
And it was swerving down to the ground below.
"Hoh boy."
Jaune clamped his hands down onto the vent that he was holding onto. Around him, the others did the same.
"This is going to hurt.
"GET DOWN!"
{CRASH}
{KA-BOOM}
The troop carrier hit the ground hard, its weapons firing wildly into the Husks before it as it left a massive dent in the ground, kicking up dirt and flames from itself as it bounced slightly off of the ground, and then-
{CRASH}
-Slammed back into the ground, scraping up the dirt and muck beneath them as it-
{SLAM}
-Crashed into the first Husk-
{SLAM}
-And then the next-
{SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM}
-And then into the rest of them.
The troop carrier slid onto its side and continued to scrape through the ground, threatening to roll over as it crushed all of the Husks onto its sudden weight and force, shattering bones and organs as the ship's remaining engines-
{KA-BOOM}
-Exploded behind it, giving the ship more sudden force as fire trailed behind it, mud and muck staining the metal and earthly colour as it continued to push the Husks closer and closer to the ravine nearby, the Husks in turn trying their best to stop the troop carrier from pushing them into the ravine, forcing all of their weight into it.
However, it wasn't enough.
The troop carrier finally came to a stop, rolling onto its side, right at the edge of the ravine, but not before-
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
-Pushing every single Husk down into the deep chasm below, the sounds of them crashing and being crushed underneath their own weight echoing through the chasms in sickening crunches. Thankfully, it only lasted for a few seconds.
Almost all of the undead Grimm dropped to the floor, and died once again.
The crowd of initiates couldn't find the spirit in them to cheer.
Up on top of the ship, a single figure got up onto their shaking feet, and was then joined by 2 more. From the cockpit, 3 more bodies wormed their way out and onto the ground, tired and battered.
Jaune, on top of the ship, just waved apologetically, "Sorry for leaving you guys," his lips said, before he turned his head to the side, and-
{ZWIP}
-A blue laser sight narrowed itself on his forehead.
And then one on Nora.
One on Ren.
One on Nana.
One on Ruby.
And one on Yang.
Around them, the initiates looked, and then gasped.
Whilst the initiates had been busy fending off the Husks, they had completely forgotten about the cultists on the ground.
The Cult of Silver had been using the Husks as a distraction, to heal their forces, and then completely encircle the initiates.
They were all trapped underneath a dozen rested, and well supplied guns.
The complete opposite of the tired, ammo starved initiates.
Baobhan Sith stood in front of this horde of cultists, her arms behind her back as her fellow Aspects stood besides her. On the wrecked troop carrier nearby, Draugr and Upyr glared down the 3 on the roof as they recovered themselves, whilst nearby-
"Grrrr… RAUGH!"
-The last Husk Grimm, once a mutilated Beowolf, now reduced to just a barebone skeleton with ribbons of bloody meat sticking to it, picked itself out of the ravine and stood tall, blackened ichor dripping off of it as it twitched manically, its remaining horde of undead Grimm snarling and howling.
Baobhan just said one word:
"Surrender."
And they did.
Well, they were about to, before-
"RAAUU- Gugh!"
-A purple aura grabbed a hold of the Husk Grimm by its head, and then effortlessly-
{SNAP}
-Twisted it to the side.
The Husk Grimm collapsed into nothingness, and the Grimm that it commanded died as well.
Everyone, from cultist to initiate looked up, and their eyes widened.
One side felt muted surprise.
The other felt a different emotion stirring.
Hope.
Dozens upon dozens of Bullheads. Over a hundred of them. All of them filled to the brim of Huntsmen and Huntresses and other fighters.
And in the lead Bullhead, Miss Glynda Goodwitch was standing outwards, her riding crop in hand as she looked down at those who would dare harm her students, and felt barely restrained anger.
The cavalry had arrived.
Review response time:
Xealchim: Is that my nickname now? 'Captain Civil'? I like it.
Ravell Aqim: Well, now you got your wish. And as for team leaders, I see what your talking about, but, as you can see in this chapter, they're going to have a lot of improvement to do.
DNWorks: Thank you! As it turns out, it's a lot harder to pull out original badass one-liners than you would think.
ReDestroBo: I did include a bit about Cinder in an earlier chapter. In case you couldn't tell, she's plotting a very violent revenge on the people who ruined her looks. It's a whole thing. And yeah, a lot of people are going to be taking advantage of the chaos.
merendinoemiliano: They might've, but in this timeline they haven't. I don't think Cinder would've shown then Salem yet, or really revealed her plans to them in case they get captured, or if she just expects them to do what she says without ever asking or questioning it. Probably both.
OverseerOfHimself: It's fanfiction. Weirder things have happened. And who says it's anything to do with the dragon?
"We're in the endgame now, boys."
I know that I've included some real Hollywood tactics in this, but to be fair, our future team leaders are only just learning the ropes, are complete newbs at all of this, and I don't think that the initiates' collective Huntsman pride, as well as young, inexperienced arrogance would've allowed them to do anything other than 'Shoot at all of the things', so bear with me, will you?
Anyways, with all of that, leave a review, follow, favourite, stay safe, stay healthy, and I'll see you all next time!
Titanmaster117 out!