-Semblance of Brotherhood-
Chapter 10: I May Fall
Two and a half hours until help arrives...
Sky dropped to a knee, shoving the pommel of his halberd into the dirt behind him as an Ursa Major barreled into him. Its gaping maw swallowed the blade, black ichor spraying forth as he severed arteries. With a firm tug, he ripped it from the already dissolving beast and gave the polearm a twirl, parrying a Beowolf's claws as Russel rushed out from behind him and drove one of his blades into its throat.
Sweat and rain soaked his body, grey hair fell from its usual slicked-back style, damp and stuck to his face. Half an hour of consistent combat was tiring, but still well within what he'd trained with his Team to handle.
"Think simple. Kill simple. Conserve yourself however possible without compromising effectiveness."
Silva's words echoed in his mind as a pair of Ursa locked onto him. Letting out a quick huff, he jutted Feather's Edge out, the spear-end piercing the closest's neck. Within the next second, he tore it back out and slung his weapon around, the wicked azure axe-head decapitating the second Grimm just as it came within range.
He felt Russel's shoulder collide with his own, a light bump to get his attention. Sky looked over to him, "What's up?"
"Cardin's having us back up Team RWBY. Their down a fighter, not handling it very well, and the Grimm are thicker on that side of the hill." He explained. Sky gave him a nod and fell into step with his partner, thankful for the very brief break. As he jogged, he gave the hilltop a quick once-over.
Their defense was holding, but only because everyone's Aura was still up. Various Team's were encircling the hill's crest, where the wounded were given relative safety. It was all they could do, though he loathed to admit it.
This was just too damn sudden. Where the fuck did they all come from?
That god-awful rain wasn't helping, either.
When they made it to RWBY's post, the two were met with a chaotic mess. The blonde and the Heiress were slaughtering the Grimm in a vengeful fury, while the black-haired one, Mrs. Goodwitch, and Silva were knelt next to the Team's bloodied and crying Leader. Her arm looked funny, almost definitely out of socket, and a deep wound was carved into her side. They had her layed on her good side, his own Leader getting a grip on the bad arm as he spoke.
"Keep pressure on the gouge, and hold her still. I'm going to re-set her shoulder, and it's going to be extremely painful." He stated, tone dead and clipped. They did so, Glynda gripping the poor girl's hand and bracing her by the back of the neck while the other girl maintained pressure on the flesh wound with an already crimson rag.
Silva didn't give any warning, driving her dislocated appendage back into its original place with a sickening pop.
"AAAHHH!" She screamed, body reflexively convulsing in agony.
"Sky! Get the fuck over here!" He heard Cardin bark, snapping him out of it. He moved over to them, stopping beside Silva's partner as the goliath finished turning yet another Ursa to a broken pulp.
"She was on the Bullhead when it got snatched, didn't tell anyone her Aura was down and got hit." Cardin explained to him simply, and Sky couldn't help but grimace.
Poor kid.
There wasn't time to think on it further, the Grimm didn't allow for it.
He dipped behind Russel as the bladed whirlwind started carving into Grimm, choosing specific moments where his arms raised to strike from unexpected angles. Cardin bulldozed any that tried to slip by, and just like that they fell into their roles. Russel was the buffer. Sky kept them both covered. Cardin ran interception on any Grimm who thought better than to fight them.
It was a machine they'd been oiling for a month, built to be simple, unexpected, and effective. This formation was perfect, given the situation.
Until it wasn't.
Something fast and sharp bit into his Aura from above, two more slamming against him before he could even look up. They buckled his stance, throwing him to the mud along with Russel.
"Nevemore!" He heard Cardin shout, gritting his teeth before shoving himself to his feet. His partner rose a second later, eyes glinting dangerously.
"Piece of shit!" Thrush roared, his Aura spreading to one of his daggers before he hurled it at the low-flying creature. The blade sunk in between the armor-like feathers, a sudden bang followed as the weapon spontaneously exploded, blowing a meter-wide hole in its left wing.
Wait... what?
It had to be his Semblance. Regardless, now they had to put this thing down for keeps.
The instant the Nevermore landed, he and his Teammates rushed it. He fell back a bit, letting Cardin and Russel start the melee. The former opened with an overhead smash to intercept the thing's good wing before it could unleash any more feather-missiles. Russel used the opening to slip underneath it and tear his remaining dagger across its right Achilles tendon. The beast's footing crumbled, and in that moment Sky saw his opening. He burst forward, lunged to the side of the disabled bird's head, and then drove Feather's Edge into its eye socket with all his strength.
He kept it there until it started dissolving.
Two hours until help arrives, with Blake...
"Just keep looking at me, Ruby. I know you're tired, but you need to stay awake." She breathed, the dull, silvery eyes of her Leader dragging a lump up her throat. Ruby nodded lightly, purposefully trying to widen her eyes.
"Where's Yang?" She asked, her voice small, tired. "Is she okay?" Blake felt her chest pang, but did her best to shove it down.
"Yang's fine, she's just paying those Grimm back for hurting you."
...
"I'm sorry." Ruby blurted out, casting her gaze downward. "I should have told you guys my Aura was gone." Blake was going to console her, even if she wasn't sure what to say, but someone beat her to it.
"You're right. It was foolish to ignore your Aura like that, even if you had good intentions." Silva was uncompromising, detached, even. "But reiterating the obvious is pointless. What you should be focused on is what you can learn from this mistake. Don't say 'I should have.' Say 'I will.'" His words, blunt and apathetic as they were, seemed to strike a cord in the young Team Leader. She looked up at him, her weary expression stretching into a soft smile.
"Yeah. I won't do this again. Ever."
"Good. Now quiet down for a bit, I know how painful it is to talk with a shredded diaphragm." Ruby giggled, instantly flinching as the sudden motion agitated her injury. Blake noticed Silva look over to her, meeting his gaze.
"Keep her awake for me? I'm not exactly a medic." He joked, and for a moment she wanted to slap him for making light of this. But, she'd be a liar if she said she wasn't smiling at the quip.
"I got it. Looks like the bleeding's pretty much stopped, at least until we have to move her again." Silva nodded, fading into nothingness before her eyes. She nearly jumped out of her skin.
Ugh, that's creepy!
With Silva...
Back to what I do best, then.
He tore from the shadows, teeth bared and his blade pulsing with the chilling hum of Ice Dust. Regalis stayed close, the slightlest flick of his wrist slinging the sword in a fluid stream of momentum that never strayed more than a foot from him.
He was covering a gap in their defenses, an area where the Grimm had overwhelmed his fellow students and forced them to fall back. No so great an area that he would overextend himself trying to keep the tide at bay, yet wide enough that he had more room to fight than he could have asked for.
Silva had never been a fan of teamwork, in truth. Given the chance, he would almost always handle things himself if he knew he was up to it. It wasn't that he disliked help, or that he had some arbitrary honor-complex. Silva knew the advantage held in superior numbers, the benefit of multiple minds working in tandem.
Yet, in spite of all that, the boy couldn't help but feel so much better when it was just him. He never had to look away from his foe to keep track of an ally, instead his focus was constant and pure. With so many Grimm rushing him at once, he didn't even allow himself to blink.
No flesh wounds. No double-tap. He didn't give the fuckers a chance to get back up.
Perhaps it was the stress, or maybe just adrenaline, but his veins hadn't felt so electrified in years. Each flourish of his blade felt fluid, yet unstoppable. Every blink of his Semblance seemed even more accurate and responsive than the last.
The gunfire was starting to die out, now. He could hear the numerous 'clicks' as people ran out of ammunition. It was in that small gap, that moment in which half of their defensive force completely stopped firing, that the line they'd all been holding until now shattered like glass. The Grimm, almost as though they recognized the opportunity, went into a mad frenzy. Black bodies began throwing themselves ferally at their prey, those who weren't prepared were already being swarmed by Beowolves before their teammates could lift a finger.
The repeating sound of Aura shattering echoed around Silva's ears like the applause of death. He didn't stop. With the tide turning south like it was, he couldn't afford to let his section of the line be overridden until the last possible moment. He flickered from one beast to the next, Regalis mowing through their bodies with every ounce of strength and efficiency he could manage. His muscles were starting to really feel how hard he was pushing.
You can keep going, Taro. Give them a chance to regroup.
He knew that they didn't have much longer. Pretty soon the only people still fighting would be their best, and then they would fall not long after that. Even if the Bullheads arrived right then, more than half of the Freshman-Class were either dead or injured.
People should be catching their second wind any minute now, though. That might buy us just long enough, hopefully.
In the midst of his thoughts, something slipped in his posture. His left foot shifted a bit farther to the side than it needed to, and just like that his boot lost any traction it had with the mud. His ass slammed into the ground, an Ursa's jaws latching onto his shin before he could catch his bearings. Its maw scraped against his Aura, the sheer pressure of the bite felt un-ironically like a beartrap. He kicked savagely at the beast's nose, but it was like the thing didn't even feel it. It just kept grinding its teeth against his leg. He could feel his bones creaking under it.
"Get the fuck off of me!" Silva growled, his blade shearing into the Ursa's skull. It didn't make it all the way through, he just didn't have the leverage he normally would.
"Fucking," He yanked it out, then slammed it back down into its head. It reflexively clamped down with new vigor, a piercing pain shooting through his leg. Something audibly snapped.
"Die!" A third, wrathful cleaver-strike severed its head from the rest of its body. Ichor spurted into the air, speckling his body. Those vice-like jaws finally fell slack, and Silva scrambled back to his feet. His leg nearly buckled, but it didn't outright fold at the fracture.
Not totally broken. Fucking hurts, though. Keep going.
He switched feet, letting his weight fall on his other leg. Rapid footsteps approached from behind, he turned and let out a sigh of relief as the rest of Team SCRL rushed past him. Cardin spared a brief glance back at him, but there wasn't anything to be say. The three of them worked like a machine, fanning out in a trident. The instant a larger Grimm got involved, that trident shrunk back into a three-layer phalanx. They swept through the Grimm like executioners, crushing, skewering, and dicing without missing a beat. Their coordination was the best he'd seen since they'd started training. They weaved through each other to switch position and cover each other's backs like water.
Wow.
It was a certain affirmation. That he'd prepared them for this, and it actually paid off. They weren't just scraping by, in this do-or-die moment, they were thriving.
They've got this line for now, I'll back them up after I check in with Goodwitch.
Blinking over to the center of the hill, the first thing he noticed was how few students had actually made it out of that surge. There was Team JNPR and the remnants of RWBY, defending the southern line about midway up the hill, and a couple of Teams he didn't recognize covering the rest. As opposed to the dozens of incapacitated or blatantly dying that littered the crest of the hill.
For all of their efforts, he didn't see how they were going to make it. If the Grimm decided to rush them again, they were fucked. His own Aura was riding at about one-fourth capacity, and the rest of his Team were just as close. The other Teams were even worse off, they hadn't exactly trained for this.
We need a new plan.
Even as he thought it, the answer clicked in his head.
It's all we've got. I need to at least try.
Even then, it didn't make anything certain. But it would definitely help buy them enough time.
Don't fuck this up, Silva.
He jogged over to Professor Goodwitch, coming to a stop as the woman finished dressing another student's wounds. She looked over to him, wiping her hands against her now muddied and blood-stained clothes. "What is it, Taro? Are you hurt?" She asked.
"I'm fine. Listen, I have an idea to buy us some time, but it's going to kill the rest of my Aura. As soon as I'm done, I need you to get a smoke signal going somehow. We'll be somewhere else, and Ozpin has to be able to spot us. Got it?" He explained, and she nodded. He turned away at that, time was burning.
Silva glanced up at the sky, rain speckling his face as he analyzed the clouds. It was almost black, so thick was the storm. Not the slightest sliver of sunlight.
Looks good. Alright, Silva, deeep breath.
He drew air into his lungs, a steady, slow inhale that was reflected in his pale Aura's glow blanketing the immediate area. He stretched his Semblance as far as he could, making certain he wasn't forgetting anyone. He counted thirty or so, and he didn't have time to comb through corpses looking for survivors. A grimace crossed his face at the realization.
Sorry.
With that, he let his breath out all at once. In the span of single second, every person he could account for vanished from the hilltop, melting into the shadow of the thunderstorm.
PAIN
It felt like he'd been struck by lightning and dipped in salt water, then frozen and shattered all in one. His bones ached down to the marrow, his head throbbed worse than it had the morning after killing those crime lords.
KEEP IT TOGETHER, DAMN IT!
It took every fiber of his will to not let his grip on them slip, and yet still he reached deeper into his Semblance. With an audible, raspy growl, he shoved everyone back out nearly a mile away, near the edge of the storm. The sudden relapse of pressure hit him like actual whiplash, the intensity of his Semblance shorting out as his Aura finally shattered.
Then he felt relatively fine. The absence of Aura meant his body couldn't feel the exertion his Semblance had caused. He was still tired, even more than he'd expected, but he wasn't out of the fight yet. He looked around, a smile weakly crossing his lips as he failed to see any Grimm around them. No doubt the Grimm were already heading their way, fuckers could probably sense the desperation and pain as clearly as a lighthouse.
That...
It took a moment to fully get over what he'd just done.
That fucking worked!
A weak smile broke into a dumb grin, he fell to his back and just laid there for a moment. It wasn't long before he heard footsteps approaching him. A single eye flicked open to greet them.
"Hey, Mutt!" Cardin half-barked, nudging Silva's shoulder with his boot. "The fuck did you do? I don't recognize shit around here." He gestured to the surrounding trees as he spoke. "Actually, you know what? Don't answer that." His features became stony, like he was absolutely livid but trying to be civil about it. "No, what I'm more confused about is why the fuck you didn't do that two hours ago, when everyone was still alive!?" His voice was heavy, ragged. Pained. Silva understood why he was so conflicted, so angry.
"Cardin, two hours ago we had everything under control. I may have experience, and skill, but I'm not fucking psychic. We all did what we could, and because of that at least some of us made it out." The Winchester glanced away at that, his face scrunched in frustration.
"I hate this. I fucking hate it."
"If you didn't you wouldn't be human." Silva's words surprised himself, even if it didn't show. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to think any differently.
Human.
Human.
The word looped in his mind. He'd used it a thousand times, but now it left an entirely different taste in his mouth.
With Blake...
She didn't know how they were off that hill. She didn't care, either.
We're alive.
That was all that mattered. The last few hours had been such a nightmare that she wouldn't dare try her luck.
"Blake." She opened her eyes just in time to catch a plastic water bottle, which she tore open and began guzzling hastily. Weiss gracefully sat on a nearby exposed root, and the way she bothered to brush leaves off of it while being covered in mud caused Blake to nearly choke to death as laughter bubbled up from her chest. Mirth quickly turned into a violent coughing fit, which got the Schnee to start silently chuckling to herself in turn.
She felt so... out of it. Like that euphoria you feel when getting over something extremely hot. She chalked it up to the exhaustion.
Yang joined them a little later, no doubt she needed some time with her sister after... that.
"Ruby okay?" She asked, the blonde brawler flopping out onto the leaves.
"She'll be alright. Just gonna have to watch her arm for a while, but even that should be covered once her Aura gets back in shape." Yang explained, letting out a thorough yawn and rolling onto her side. "So, that happened." That last bit brought a hazy reverie over them all.
"Yeah."
"It did."
"..." None of them knew how to express what they were all feeling. The exhaustion, the fear, the anxiety, the desperation, where did you even start broaching all of that?
Yet, she still felt like they understood each other. Even without words, just being there, together, made it all okay.
They'd survived.
Hello again!
Sorry for the big hiatus, Graduation really threw off my writing process for a while, got caught up in real life.
I promise to update a bit more often, now I've got more time to write than I know what to do with.
Short AN this time, I'll probably add more if I feel like it. Just want you guys to know I'm not done.
Buh-Bye!