The ambush on Cinder had turned into an unexpected battle, and the battle had turned into a debacle of the highest order, which had resulted in a full rout for all the Huntsmen and trainees. The Atlesian soldiers were also gone, not like the ones mind controlled by Fina did anything at the start. Running away didn't sit well with some of the huntresses, but they had no choice. Standing in the crossfire of a duel between a giant magical monster and a warship was a sure-fire way to end up as collateral on the next report. Furthermore, dead bodies would put unneeded strain on the subsequent media cover up, especially dead huntress trainees.
Thus, a few bullhead air transports had disembarked from the airship and were currently trying to evacuate everyone on the ground. Currently a fair distance away from the duel, Alma along with her schoolmates and professor was on one of these transports, strapping themselves in as the machine began to lift off.
"Hold on, everyone", the pilot's voice came through the intercom.
The leader of team ABEL looked out the doorway toward the broken ground and damaged buildings as the bullhead slowly lifted off. There was no one left on the ground now, except for the terrible amalgamation of the Pursuers and Atlesian steel. Its magic barrier was flashing briefly every time a shot from the ship impacted. From time to time, this protection faltered, leaving the monster vulnerable. However, the window of opportunities was too short for any real damage to be done before the barrier went up again.
On the opposite side, the Atlesian warship was also doing quite well despite the deficiency in its damaged engine. A hard-light shield had gone up in short intervals to deflect the grand Pursuer attack into some of the nearby buildings. The ship was also surprisingly nimble for something of its side, evading beams of magic here and there. However, there were still hits from time to time and the airship was more susceptible to crash and not as partial to taking wounds as the giant below.
The street and houses between the two colossal combatants were faring much worse. The asphalt was suffering under each heavy foot fall of the monster and stray energy beams from the ship. Cracks ran along a jagged footprint and craters formed as the fight dragged on. Some houses along the street were also falling apart every time the monster was staggering and stumbled into the wall. The roofs were al-
Alma's eyes snapped to a set of cat ears on top of long flowing blonde hair belonging to her twin sister, Lisbet. From her seat in the bullhead, the older twin could see the girl running on the rooftops toward…the general direction of the giant Pursuer. She instantly snatched the scroll in her pocket.
"Liz! Stop! Where are you going?!", she practically screamed into the device only to realize that the thing was cracked and broken.
Alma turned to ask the others for their scrolls, but her eyes noticed the bullhead doors beginning to close.
"Wait! My sister is still down there!"
"Sorry, young lady. I can't risk hanging around that thing any longer", the pilot was right but being right doesn't make him persuasive.
With frustrated growl, Alma ripped the seat belt off with one burning hand and jumped out of the vehicle just as the door shut behind her. Using her aura to absorb explosions created with pyromancies, she propelled her body through the air toward Lisbet at a rapid pace. It didn't take long for her to close the distance with the younger twin.
"Liz! What are you doing?!", she shouted, running a few meters behind her sister.
"I saw someone trapped ahead with my semblance, we need to get them out!", the reply could barely be heard above the roar of the pursuer.
Alma glanced up to the side and found that they were getting very close to the giant and the epicenter of its duel. With a growl, she broke into a dead sprint after behind her sister. And as the pair got closer and closer to the giant Pursuer, energy beams and shrapnel began falling around them. The rooftops were falling apart under the intense fighting, forcing the twins to weave between shots and torn up concrete. At one point, a roof collapsed, and they fell on to the top floor of a small townhouse.
"Turn back, Liz!", Alma said as she shook the concrete dust off her ears, "It's too dangerous."
The only response was a huff as Liz pushed herself up and leaped through a broken window toward a balcony on the adjacent house. Alma groaned in frustration and rushed after her sister amidst the exploding debris from the firefight. Pushing her leg and aura to its limit, she weaved through the narrow doorways and furniture with the intent of turning the younger sibling around. Yet, even with the occasional boost from exploding fireball and red dust, Alma was still trailing behind her twin. The girl was unnaturally fast, staying just out of reach of the increasingly frustrated sister.
Meanwhile, pandemonium was happening all around them. Windows were exploding from the constant blast waves and deafening, sending glass shards flying in all directions. Energy beams tore the brick walls apart, revealing the thrashing Pursuer giant who was responding to the airship with its own magic bolts. It was becoming extremely hazardous.
With a burst of three dust explosions from her tong fa, Alma finally caught up and grabbed Liz's forearm, turning the faunus around.
"We have to get out", there was an uncanny look in her sister's blue eye but, the older twin didn't have time to mulled over it, "We can't save them."
"We have to try, sis", Liz tugged at her arm.
"No, we don't, it's too la-
"YES, WE DO!", the girl snapped back, "you pushed me to be better huntress I can be. Well, great huntress doesn't leave others behind."
"What?! Where is this coming fr-HEY!", with a sudden pull, Liz wrangled free from her sister's grip.
Alma reached out after her younger twin, but the world around was suddenly jumbled in a flash of purple and her hearing was deafened by a constant ringing.
It took several seconds for the faunus's vision to stop swirling and for her to realize she was lying flat on the broken floor below where she once stood. Her head was ringing constantly and the sting on her left arm forced a hiss out of her. There was a large gash running along the length of her left forearm, made by the shattered tong fa she was holding. However, none of that mattered when she finally pushed herself up and got a look at her surroundings.
Her blood froze at the sight of an arm sticking out of the rubble at the edge of the circular gap carved into the building. In its grasp was the Twin Fang in its favored bow form. She immediately stumbled her way over, ignoring her pain in her ankle and the wound on her arm, which was leaving a trail of red on the broken tiles. The only thing that could be felt was the sinking pit in her stomach.
"Liz! Say something!", the injured arm painted the concrete in a shade of crimson as she pried at the rubbles, "No no no no no…"
Her mumbling stopped for a brief second when Liz's face was revealed under the broken debris, eyes closed and looking almost serene under the dust. Alma pulled the concrete away from her sister, one piece at a time, until the full sight made her breath hitched and her fingers lost their strength.
A bloody piece of steel rebar was jutting out of Liz's chest, staining her cloth in a shade of crimson. Alma could see that the piece had gone up through her lower back and pierced the heart along the way. There was no doubt that the wound was fatal. Liz was dead before her.
Alma touched her sisters face with trembling fingers as her lips moved, trying to say that she was hallucinating, that everything she was seeing was fake. However, the words just wouldn't come out and all she could do was to pull her sister's body close to her chest with a strangled whimper. She sat there on her knees, sniffing Liz' blonde hair, marred by the blood from her wounded hand. She sat there, rocking back forth gently as if trying to put the girl to sleep. Her distorted and grief-stricken face was drench.
Then, Alma heard the Pursuer howl. The low rumble in its voice shook the air, suffocating the sound out of everything.
With her sister still in a tight embrace, Alma's gaze slowly shifted toward and locked on the colossal abomination trampling through the boulevard. The ballista on its back arm were steadily throwing bolts after bolts of magic toward the listing airship, every shot punctuated by a resounding thunderous crack. The magical bubble shielding its form flicker out occasionally, but the sound of the explosions from high above indicated far more damage was being done to its adversary in the air. The monster was winning, and its triumphant roar was announcing it to the world.
Alma laid her sister's body with as much gentleness as her trembling arms could muster before standing up and making her way to the edge of the ruined house. Blood was still dripping out of her left arm, but it was boiling, literally, as the crimson liquid began to sizzle on the broken floor. Then, the blood started glowing brighter and brighter with every drop and soon, Alma was bleeding molten metal out of her gash on her arm. Her skin was being seated at the edge of the wound and the smell of burnt flesh rose through the air above the dust and grime, but the young faunus didn't care. Her eyes stayed locked on to the armored monster and her face twisted into a furious snarl as a hatred and fury began to consume her mind.
It will die.
All her muscle coiled with tension as Alma lowered her stance, her right arm pointing the remaining tong fa's exhaust to the floor.
The dust ignited in a thunderous explosion and she blazed a trail through the air.
The giant turned to face the noise with one bladed arm swinging, only to cut the empty air as Alma changed her course downward with a secondary blast. As soon as she was within the magic shield, her left arm instinctively shot out and the molten metal swung like a whip towards a jagged piece of armour on the Pursuer. The molten whip wrapped around the jagged edge and Alma found purchase to swing herself up and around the giant with her tong fa wreathed in flame, cocked back for a punch.
The Pursuer barely had time to look before the right side of its face was shook with an explosion of fire and molten metal. The face plated was deformed into a shallow crater of enchanted steel and magma with Alma's fist firmly in the center. Her tong fa and also her arm was lined with cracks that spewed out searing flame, but the faunus hardly had time to notice. Too wrapped up in her own fury and preoccupied with the dark spikes shooting up from beneath her feet.
She dodged and weaved between the foul magic, making her way down the length of the monster's arm with occasional fireballs to do as much damage as possible. It howled as pieces of metal and corrupted flesh broke off with every blast like shrapnel. Its arm swung wide at a building in an effort to swat the lithe faunus as she was closing on the less-armored joint at the wrist. It failed.
Using the momentum from the arm, Alma launched herself out of the way and swung around on the back of the monster with her molten steel cable. Grabbing on to the overlapping plates covering the Pursuer's spine with her left, she reared back her right arm, now charred, cracked and dripping with crimson fire.
The explosion shook the air like a thunderclap and the armored giant staggered forward as chunks of corrupted metal melted off its back plate. Alma's fist was pummeling the monster back with an unbridled fury and her scorching pyromancy was ripping the armored apart layers after layer.
She pulled her right arm back for another hit only to be hit by a violent Soundwave emanating from the Pursuer. Her ears were ringing, and Alma found herself launched through the air. The faunus clipped a building but managed to roll back to a crouch when she slammed onto a nearby rooftop, nail digging a long trail along the tiles.
The pursuer turned around and began trampling its way toward the young girl. Alma responded with a snarl and broke into a dead sprint toward the monster with a furious voice consuming her thoughts.
It will die.
Under the rubble of the ruined house, Liz's body began to shift and change as the duel raged on outside. Her skin and clothes slowly turned into dark ichor that flowed down to the broken ground, painting it in the colour of deep black. When the outer layers were all stripped away, there was only an effigy of the girls body, made of still burning ash. This too soon collapsed in a gust of wind.
