The Battle of Monstra

Hello everyone and welcome to a new chapter of the Adventures of Team WA Vol. 2! First off, apologies this is coming out a day later than intended, but hopefully you'll all find that it was worth the wait. And for those wondering about the Demon Slayer chapter, also a mild delay on that so it probably won't be out until early next week. Lastly, in answer to our guest review, at the moment all I can really say is they will likely be heading towards Atlas at some point. Though it's still mildly early to tell. Now then, onto the story!

Within Monstra

The sounds of battle could be heard faintly through the walls of the massive Grimm as three huntsmen and one huntress ran through the 'corridors' that seemed to stretch for miles inside the stomach of the beast. They had just managed to slip by a herd of Megalioths and even some Apathy Grimm before bolting inside of the Whale's mouth, the part that wasn't spewing out more Grimm. No one knew how long it had been, but the moment they felt safer they all stopped to catch their breath. "Well," said Yang breathlessly, "that was fun in a harrowing sort of way."

"We're not in the clear just yet," Jaune pointed out as they looked down the current 'hallway' they were in, "we still need to search this whole, thing, and get out of here before the Ace Ops blow us to bits."

"Aegis," said Yang as she turned to her boyfriend, "do you think you can track Oscar down by scent?"

"About that," said Aegis before leaning towards a hole in one of the nearby walls and blowing a couple of chunks into it, "I might be able too once we get a little closer. But the smell of rank, Grimm carcass is so dense in here that I'm doing good right now to not loose the rest of my lunch."

"Please don't," said Yang before turning back to Ren and Jaune, "okay, so the original plan's a bust, now what? Oscar could be at the very back of this thing for all we know. Finding him is gonna be like finding a needle in a giant, whale. Someone wanna remind me why we thought this was a good idea?"

"We didn't," said Aegis, "this was probably one of the worst ideas we've had today. Doesn't mean it can't still work."

"Aegis is right," said Ren, "and I, might be able to help. This will sound, odd, but I think I can sense spikes of people's emotions. It's hard to explain but it also happened on Winter's ship. I should be able to keep it up if I focus my aura."

"Okay," said Yang, giving her normally quiet friend a blank stare, "that's, uh, new. Maybe one of them is Oscar."

"I can sort of tell where they are but not who they are," said Ren with his hands to his head as he tried to focus on where they needed to go, "They're more or less in the same area though."

"No problem then," said Aegis, "get me close enough and I should be able to pick out whether or not it's Oscar by scent."

"Then I'll lead and you stay right next to me," said Ren as he started walking forward before Jaune stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, you don't have to drain yourself trying to do both at once," said Jaune, "I can help lighten the load a bit."

"Yeah," said Ren with a light smile, "good thinking. Thanks Jaune."

"Well, uh, sure thing," said Jaune as he struck a pose, "lead the way." Aegis and Yang both rolled their eyes before the group proceeded down the tunnel at a slow but even pace.

The Skies of Atlas: About the Same Time

"Warning, warning, warning," said a computerized female voice, "possible collision ahead, possible collision ahead."

"I am literally falling towards Remnant like a meteor," grunted Wayne as he felt the mass amount of G-force pulling at his body, "of course there's a collision ahead!" Any further comments were cut off by a nearby explosion as an Atlesian capital ship, which had tried flying excessively high to escape the swarm of Grimm attacking it, went down in flames right next to the falling pod. The blast was enough to cause the metallic escape vehicle to to veer in another direction, spinning somewhat from the sudden force of the blast.

"Alert, alert," came the computerized voice again, "pod has drifted off course, pod has drifted off course. Correction impossible at this time, correction impossible at this time." 'Just great,' thought Wayne, 'I'm either about to be the first huntsman to ever make a successful drop from orbit, or the first huntsman to splatter from orbit. Won't this be one for the history books.'

But he hadn't come this far just to die in a firey crash, and while there wasn't much he could do about the location of his landing, there was something he could do about the landing itself. Tightening his grip on his weapons, the Elder Ursario brother began to focus his aura into the pod. 'Let's see what kind of impact this makes,' he thought as he glanced at the quickly dropping numbers on his ETA.

Inside Monstra

'This is going well so far,' thought Aegis as he glanced around with Yang while keeping an eye on Jaune and Ren, 'at least we have some direction now. But I feel like there's a slight problem we're overlooking.' Said problem became evident when Jaune's aura suddenly faltered and he stopped to put his hands on his knees. "Sorry," said Jaune, breathing as if he'd been running for a good while.

He made the mistake of putting his hand on one of the 'walls' within the whale, immediately regretting it as he pulled away and had to shake off some of the nasty goo which was now stuck to his hand. "It's not your fault," said Ren, "masking and tracking at the same time is way more taxing than I would've thought."

"Do you guys need a minute," questioned Yang, easily noting her friend's exhausted states.

"If we weren't on the clock I'd say yeah," replied Jaune, "but we don't know how much longer we have."

"Then give masking and aura boosting a break," suggested Aegis, "I'll scout ahead and see if I can't sniff out anything useful."

"Well the good news," said Ren, "is that we should be heading straight for a while yet."

"Easy enough," said Aegis as he took off at a light jog. The group watched him head off for a moment before speaking.

"You sure you don't want to go with him," said Jaune with a glance at Yang.

"Aegis is one of the toughest people I know," said Yang, "and one of the noisiest. If he does run into trouble, we'll know one way or the other. And he'd probably want me to stay here anyway to make sure you two don't get into trouble while having no aura."

"It is okay to be afraid, you know," said Ren suddenly, "you don't always have to hide it with a joke. It's only natural you'd be concerned about Aegis."

"Oh, well, guess you caught me," said Yang, "yeah I'm worried about my boyfriend going off on his own, but like I said, he'd probably want me here keeping an eye on you two. Upside, at least now I know I'm not the only one who's scared."

"I've been scared this whole time," said Ren, "and even Aegis is a little afraid about our chances."

"Uh, what about me," questioned Jaune with a raise of his hand.

"That's the funny thing," said Ren, "I don't see any fear in you at all. You believe wholeheartedly we can pull this off."

"Oh, wow," said Jaune as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "I just figured no one here was scared. Guess you learn something new every-." The blond was interrupted by the sound of running footsteps coming their way.

"Everyone, get to the wall," said Aegis as he came into view, "Ren, mask us!" The other three didn't argue as they all moved back against the wall with their weapons prepped. Jaune took a knee with his shield held out in front while Ren closed his eyes and concentrated, cloaking their presence against the senses of what they now saw was an orb-like Grimm.

Even with the masking, no one dared to breath as the floating creature passed by them, taking no notice as it went further down the hall. At least, that was the case until Ren's aura suddenly shattered, a result of him overusing his semblance. The Seer Grimm stopped then, clearly sensing that something was amiss as its body rotated around. Aegis quickly formed a spear point on his weapon and leapt forward, throwing it right as the Seer gave off a high-pitched squeal.

The noise lasted for only a moment before being quickly silenced as the glass spear jammed into one side of the orb and out the other. Aegis quickly ran forward and grabbed his weapon from the dissolving Grimm, quickly changing it to his signature ax form while looking around. "Ah crap," said the Half Bear Faunus as he heard the sound of running feet and claws scratching the ground, "I think it managed to alert a couple of Grimm!" No sooner did he say this than a collection of Sabyrs and Beowulves came around the corner from either side of the hallway, fangs and claws bared and ready to tear into the intruders.

The huntsmen and huntress reacted in kind as they tore into the mob with Jaune and Aegis cutting through several from one side while Yang and Ren focused on the other side. Limbs, heads and even teeth went flying as Yang smashed through several Grimm with Ember Celica while Ren switched between shooting and slashing depending on the range of the Grimm. Aegis swung through two to sometimes three at once, his weapon making wide arcs in front of him while Jaune blocked and stabbed any that managed to get too close. In hardly two minutes time, the melee ended as the last two Grimm were blasted and dissolved.

"So much for sneaking around," said Ren tiredly, still feeling the effects of his drained aura, "what now?"

"We keep doing what we do best," said Yang as she pumped a fist in the air, "charge blindly into danger!"

"Here here!" Affirmed Aegis with a quick banging of his weapon on the floor.

"I mean I would've gone with keep moving forward," said Jaune while rubbing the back of his head, "but that works too. What about you Ren?"

"Forward," said the Martial Artist as he stood up straight, "no matter what." With that settled, the group continued on further into the whale. Surprisingly, they didn't meet a huge amount of resistance as they continued to run at a breakneck pace. What did finally stop them, was an unexpected pair of individuals they nearly ran into upon turning another corner.

"You," said Yang as she held up her fists while Jaune readied his shield and Ren aimed his guns. But for some odd reason, Aegis didn't raise his weapon. The reason it was odd, was that right across from them was Emerald Sustrai, in a new white outfit with her own weapons raised, and Hazel who was also sporting a new short-sleeved outfit.

"NO, WAIT!" Said Aegis and Hazel at the same time.

"What, why," said Yang as her boyfriend stepped in front of everyone else, "Aegis, that's Emerald and-."

"Oscar," said the Half Bear Faunus as he approached, sniffing the air, "what the heck, did Salem make you gain weight while you were in here?" This drew more than a few confused stares in his direction until 'Hazel's' body suddenly shimmered and disappeared, revealing none other than Oscar Pine.

"OSCAR!" Exclaimed Jaune as he rushed forward and picked the boy up in an excited hug.

"Oh, careful," said the boy as Yang patted his head, noting that his face was pretty bruised up along with the rest of him, "I've had, something of a long day."

"No kidding," said Aegis, "you smell like a blown electrical outlet, and ya know, Grimm whale."

"And now I know why I sensed some weak minds nearby," said Emerald as she put her weapons up. This didn't stop Aegis from raising his and keeping it ready, looking for the slightest sign that she was still casting an illusion.

"What's, going on here exactly?" Questioned Jaune, voicing the thought currently on everyone's mind.

"It's something of a long story," replied Oscar.

"You're just gonna have to try and summarize it," said Yang, clearly not satisfied by such an answer as she stepped up next to Aegis, "because I don't see any reason we should trust her."

"What if I said I'm finally listening to what your brother's been trying to tell me, Aegis," said Emerald, shifting her attention to the younger Ursario, "I imagine he'll love rubbing it in my face."

"Sadly and fortunately," said Aegis with a growl, "my brother isn't here right now, so don't think you can go relying on what he might say about your supposed change of heart. Besides, he's over you."

"Well wouldn't you have him tell me that in person," said Emerald, "because I can't really do that if I die. And believe me, Salem will kill me for what I'm doing now if she catches me."

"She's telling the truth," said Ren suddenly as he read the emotions coming off of her, "she's just as scared as the rest of us."

"And, I also happen to know the fastest way out of here," said Emerald as she marched forward, going right past them, "anybody coming along?" The rest of the group exchanged glances before finally shrugging. Aegis had confirmed that it was Oscar with them, that was no illusion based on his smell and stature. Now they just had to hope that Ren's reasoning was right as well.

Atlas: Battlefield Outside of Monstra

'At last, it's finally here,' thought Winter as she approached the Atlesian science vessel as it landed and opened its doors. Inside was a large, cylindrical-shaped device which was laying on its side with a rectangular frame around it to allow for transportation by hand. A soldier handed Winter a scroll with the specifications for the device which she scanned over quickly, taking special note of the blast yield and radius before turning around to face the assembled soldiers and the Ace Ops. "This is it everyone," she said, "our objective now is to clear a path to that monster, get this payload aboard it, set the timer, and then we're out."

The soldiers all saluted before moving out to fulfill their part of the new objective. Marrow, however, had a couple of objections he decided to voice as he walked up to the Atlesian specialist. "They're not out yet," he pleaded, "if we just give them a little more time I'm sure-."

"I gave them their window," replied Winter, "I even went against my original orders to do so. But we can't wait any longer."

"Would you be saying the same thing if it was your sister inside that monster," countered Marrow, "do you really want to face her and tell her what you did to her friends?!" Winter didn't answer at first as she let out a long sigh, doing her best to keep her thoughts clear.

"Yes Marrow," she said, her voice lacking its usual authoritative tone, "I will, because that is my duty." She put a hand on his shoulder then, "now you do yours." The Ace Ops member frowned at her answer as logic and emotion conflicted inside of him. He knew they needed to do this, the longer that whale remained the more Grimm it spewed out and the more lives were lost. But at the same time, he didn't want to lose anymore friends today because of orders from his superiors. He said nothing as he turned to exit the ship back out onto the field. As he was about to reenter the recently dug trenches, though, something caught his eye. 'What in the world is that, it can't be, a shooting star?'

Close to the Same Time: Monstra

"We're almost out," said Oscar as the rest of the group continued to run at full tilt towards the exit. This particular section of the whale seemed like a landing pad of sorts and even had openings where the night sky was visible. They just had to make it a little further and-oh no. A sudden noise caught their attention as the whale began to shake, almost as if something angry was approaching.

"What is that?" Asked Jaune as the group looked around for the source of the noise. But the horrified look on Emerald's face told them everything they needed to know.

"It's her," she said. A high-pitched wailing sounded then, forcing everyone to cover their ears at the sheer magnitude of the noise. The wall was blasted open then with enough force to throw some of the group onto the ground as purple smoke temporarily obscured their vision. It cleared quickly though, revealing the most feared and powerful being on all of Remnant, her arms held out to her sides as her red and black eyes swept over them. Her predatory gaze lingered on Oscar for a moment before focusing forward on Emerald.

The green-haired girl's eyes widened in fear upon realizing that Salem wouldn't be fooled as she turned and bolted for the bony bridge leading out of the whale. But she'd barely gotten a few steps before Salem seemingly flew across the room, her arms stretching to twice their normal length as she seized Emerald by her shoulders and yanked her back towards her. "You have been honing that semblance of yours," Salem said, her voice lingering between impressed and annoyed. Ren made the first move, unloading bullets from both of his Stormflowers at the witch.

Salem whirled around as the bullets passed by her, swinging Emerald to the side with her right arm before holding up her left hand and shooting a rainbow colored stream of magic energy out of her left hand. Jaune quickly moved in front of Ren, activating the light dust in his shield just as the blast slammed into it. The force behind it was incredible, enough to send both Ren and Jaune flying back into the nearby wall, destroying their already depleted auras. But Aegis hadn't been idle during this time as he sent a glass dagger into Salem's forehead, slowing her reaction to Yang's attack slightly as the blond leapt in and hit the Grimm Mistess's midsection with a quick series of jabs.

Salem didn't seem to take notice of the hits as Yang jumped back and moved around behind her before pumping both of her fists. The Witch realized her true intentions then as she looked down at the explosives that had been activated, blowing apart her upper torso and causing her to fall back. But instead of blood, black ooze rose out of Salem's body as her lower half remained standing up right. A cracking noise sounded then as the Grimm Mistress's right arm popped back into place and shot out a black, stickly liquid.

Yang was just barely able to raise her arms in time to block it, but this turned out to be a mistake as it stuck to her gauntlets, allowing Salem to reel her in. The Witch's body continued to put itself back together as the rest of the ooze retreated back into her while her wound began to close. Or at least it would have it Aegis didn't jump in behind her and jam an extra nasty three-pronged glass spear into Salem's back. But that was only the beginning as he channeled even more of his semblance into his weapon, causing numerous glass spikes to begin jutting out of the Witch's body.

This particular move had been good enough to kill even large Grimm, but Salem merely growled as her head turned a full 180 degrees to face Aegis. "Oh good, one of the troublesome brothers is here," she grunted as more black ooze shot out of her body and stuck to the younger Ursario brother, "it appears you're still unwisely trying to get under my skin." By this point, she had also finished reeling in Yang as her hand grabbed onto one of her gauntlets.

"Let them go!" Yelled Oscar as he held up his hands and fired a burst of green magical energy, hitting Salem in the stomach. She actually winced in pain from the magical attack, her temper flaring as she angrily threw Yang at Oscar. The blond crashed into him at high speed, knocking them both to the ground as Salem waved her hand, summoning five red-eye glyphs which sprouted arms resembling the Apathy Grimm's. Yang, Oscar, Ren and Jaune were all grabbed and pulled to the ground while Salem threw Emerald into a fifth one, binding her as well.

She would have turned and bound Aegis too, but the Half Bear Faunus managed to spin up energy dust before pulling the trigger, causing the glass to glow brightly before exploding and tearing up Salem's body even more. This also managed to free him as he formed a flaming glass ax while also activating his rage mode, slamming his blade into his hated enemy again and again, snarling as he tore at any part of her that started to regenerate. His barrage didn't last long, though as Salem's arm suddenly shot out from her mangled body inbetween one of Aegis's blows, seizing the huntsman by the throat and slamming him into the nearby wall. This served to hold the enraged half Faunus for only a moment as he sliced Salem's hand off and charged forward again.

Salem had already made her move, though, summoning two more red eye glyphs on the wall which produced Grimm arms to seize her opponent. Aegis formed a blade on the other side of his weapon while also using energy dust to strengthen their cutting power as he slashed through arm after arm, his progress slow but sure as he got ever closer to the Witch. He also produced glass armor on any part of his body the hands managed to grab, causing them to lose their grip as the glass shattered. His progress, though, was not quite as fast as Salem's regeneration as she produced a third eye glyph on the floor.

These hands came up and grabbed at Aegis's weapon, finally bringing him to a halt as he had to wrestle it from their grasps. "To think the rage mode was once so useful," said Salem as a black orb of energy appeared in her hand before she blasted Aegis in the chest with another ray of multi-colored magic. The Half Bear Faunus roared in pain as it felt like all of his nerve endings were on fire, even despite the protection from his aura. "Now I run into the same problem over and over whenever I have to deal with a wielder of it," continued Salem as she stopped her attack, leaving Aegis to collapse to his knees as the Grimm hands held onto his body, "you're all so irritatingly hard to restrain."

She turned to Emerald then, producing a black orb in her palm once again as she spoke to the master thief. "What have you done with the lamp?"

"I…..haven't done…..anything with it," said Emerald, finding it hard just to speak due to the fear currently coursing through her veins.

"And yet it is missing," said Salem as she held the black orb closer to Emerald's face, "so I'll ask again, where is it?"

"I told you," said Emerald as she tried to move her face away from Salem's hand, "I didn't take it, or even touch it."

"Then who has I wonder," said Salem as she turned her attention to Oscar. The Grimm hands readjusted and lifted him up so that he was closer to eye level with the witch as she approached. "Just look how you've diminished. How you've lessened yourself, all for what? Children like these, this pitiful ruined world?" She suddenly grabbed Oscar's head in her hands, glaring at him as she continued to speak through gritted teeth. "Why do you keep coming back?"

"Why do you," Said Yang suddenly, doing her best to raise her head off the floor, "keep doing all of this? All this endless death, because you got the short end of the stick once upon a time? No one gets a real fairytale ending, and everything I've lost, every person who's been taken from me, is because of you!" The blond's outburst seemed to intrigue Salem as she took her hands off of Oscar and strolled over to Yang with a much calmer expression than before.

"And who was it I've taken from you, girl?" Questioned Salem.

"Summer Rose," said Yang, "she was my mother, and you took her from me!"

"Hmm," said Salem as she leaned forward slightly, "her yet again. Just how many children did she have?"

"She might've had more if not for you," said Aegis suddenly despite his head hanging low, "and if not for your own petty pride, your daughters could've grown up too?" This caught the Witch's attention as she turned around, a frown crossing her face as she slowly approached Aegis.

"Ah yes, I do recall you and your brother had quite the laugh at my expense," said Salem before forming a black orb in her hand and slamming it into Aegis's chest. The Half Bear Faunus yelled in pain once again as he was electrocuted by the Witch's magical energy. It only lasted a few moments, but it was enough to nearly drain all of Aegis's aura as Salem grabbed his throat and forced him to look her in the eye. "My plan with the Grimm tick may have failed, but I can still find ways to make you into something useful for me. In fact, now that I have a Faunus with a rage mode again, I think I might revisit an old experiment. Have you ever heard of the Wendigo Grimm?"

"What for," coughed Aegis, "you're already so close to repeating the same mistake you did centuries ago. You'd be wasting your time."

"Oh, and how's that," questioned Salem, mild curiosity getting the better of her.

"Seriously, you've had centuries to think about it and you haven't realized it," said Aegis, "or you just never thought to ask yourself: what if it's just like last time?"

"You're generalizing," said Salem as she increased the pressure of Aegis's windpipe slightly, "what if what's like last time?"

"Last time the deities of light and darkness wiped all life from the world leaving only you to suffer in loneliness," said Aegis, "now you're inviting them back to do the same thing. You think they just forgot about last time or the punishment they gave you? All you might wind up doing is getting life wiped off the face of the planet, again, and walking the land by your lonesome, again. The big difference this time, is no matter how many centuries pass, life will never be returned. You ask why we keep coming back, because we don't want to watch our loved ones die all because some witch was too stupid to think ahead and thus proving said deities right, AGAIN!"

Salem narrowed her eyes then, mildly baring her teeth before clenching her other hand. Grimm sludge began to seep from the eye glyphs then and slowly started working their way up Aegis's limbs. But before she got too far, a voice interrupted her. "Your grace," said Hazel as the large man entered through the new hole in the wall.

"Ah, Hazel," said Salem as she recomposed herself, the Grimm sludge falling off of Aegis for now as she released him, "I found our guests, and a traitor." She indicated Emerald while forming another black orb in her hand, "this one was helping them it seems." A quick wave of her hand caused the Grimm arms and eye glyph holding Oscar to disappear as he fell to the ground with a grunt. "Take the boy back to his cell, I have some work to do with these two."

She slowly waved the orb in front of Emerald's face, mere inches from her skin as the green-haired girl tried to keep from hyperventilating. Tears streamed down her eyes while glancing pleadingly at Hazel. "Of course, your grace," said Hazel in his usual deep tone before marching over to Oscar, sparing a glance at Emerald as he did so. His eyes also wandered over the other captive huntsmen and huntress before he picked Oscar off the ground by the front of his jacket, leaning in to whisper a few quick words. "No more Gretchens boy," he said before dropping Oscar to the ground and starting back towards Salem.

Ozpin's currently confused vessel glanced first at Hazel and then to his hand which now held his retracted cane, better known as the Long Memory. Meanwhile, Emerald was trying one last time to explain that she really didn't know where the lamp was, but Salem wasn't having it as she readied to press the orb into her body. That was when Hazel did the unthinkable, by slamming his fist into the side of Salem's face with a powerful uppercut which sent her flying several feet away. The Witch recovered in midair, summoning a small tornado beneath her to levitate in as she glared at yet another traitor.

The Grimm arms released everyone then, either due to the surprise of Hazel's fist or the Grimm Witch deciding it necessary to use more magic for the current battle. Either way, everyone was up with Yang quickly rushing over to Aegis to help him off the ground. "Go now," said Hazel as he yanked off his vest, revealing the numerous scars on his frame. He then proceeded to stick several dust crystals into his arms and shoulders, forming spiderwebbing lines of multiple glowing colors.

"Hazel," said Emerald in disbelief, likely realizing what so much dust could do to even a giant like him. Despite that, the man turned around and gave her a reassuring glance.

"Go," he said with a small smile before turning back to Salem.

"So after all this time, you've suddenly decided against vengeance, Hazel, after what happened to your sister?" Said the Witch as she adjusted her still floating position in the air.

"What I'm doing now," said Hazel as he lit both of his fists on fire and held them up in a fighting stance, "is what Gretchen would've done!" The battle began in earnest then as Salem released several bolts of magical energy towards the man, who ran forward while dodging and rolling around the attacks. He then released three fireballs which Salem avoided before firing more magic bolts from her black spheres. Hazel avoided those as well before changing tactics by pulling out a wind dust crystal and slamming it on the ground.

A small tornado erupted under the large warrior, propelling him into the air above Salem before he summoned a molten boulder from a lightning and fire dust crystal. He quickly chucked the large molten orb at Salem who took the brunt of the attack which knocked her out of the air and onto the ground. Hazel didn't let up on his attack as he landed on the ground with a powerful hammer swing into Salem's chest. He continued to pummel the Witch's face with his flaming fists, smearing her tar-like blood over the ground with each punch.

But his barrage wasn't to last as Salem raised two fingers and summoned an eye glyph beneath her, producing four large Grimm arms that seized Hazel by his arms and legs and lifted him high into the air. Salem took that time to regenerate, reseting her jaw with her hand before firing another blast of magical energy at Hazel. He was able to block it by producing a hardlight shield around himself, courtesy of the light dust in his body. "We've done this once already Hazel," said Salem, "you already know you can't-what?!"

Salem turned around, her eyes widening in actual surprise as an object cloaked in blue energy was hurtling out of the sky at incredible speed. So fast in fact that Salem didn't have time to raise any kind of defense as it slammed into her, quickly stifling her yell of pain while letting out a powerful blast that sent Hazel flying through the wall and knocking everyone else over. A mass of dust and debris was sent up as a mass number of cracks were produced by the impact with a large crater now marking the epicenter of the object's landing. "Ow, what was that," said Emerald, one of the closer ones to the blast.

She got her answer when the sound of breaking metal met their ears as a door of sorts was kicked off the object that had fallen. "I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!" Yelled a familiar, and very welcome voice as Wayne Ursario came walking out of the dust cloud, his weapons raised in triumph.

"WAYNE?!" Exclaimed the majority of the group upon seeing the huntsman's arrival.

"Oh hey guys," said Wayne, mildly surpised himself at their presence, "what in the world are you doing here? Come to think of it, where is here because I don't remember Atlas smelling quite so much like, decomposing blubber."

"Atlas, Giant Grimm Whale/Salem's lair," said Aegis, "Also, Hazel and Emerald are with us now." Wayne gave him a mildly surprised look before speaking again.

"Okay, I have a mass number of questions," said Wayne, noting the exhausted states of his friends, "top of the list: if this is Salem's lair, where is-?" The sound of the escape pod being ripped out of the ground and tossed into the wall told Wayne all he needed to know as he turned around to face the Queen of the Grimm.

"URSARIO!" Yelled Salem, her body snapping and contorting itself back into place while her tar-like blood repaired the rest of the damage, "Just when I thought today couldn't be anymore annoying. But I'll grant you this, I've never been struck before by a pinpoint shot from orbit."

"Wish I could take the credit for that," said Wayne with a shrug, "but honestly me crashing down on your ass was, kind of an accident."

"Worry not," said Salem as she conjured several black spheres around herself, "I shall ensure that it will be your last!" She unleashed her magic then, sending bolt after bolt at the huntsman as he dodged out of the way, summoning the aura shadow while also returning fire with his weapons. Salem shrugged off the damage from his bullets before lifting herself into the air with a tornado again, this time releasing her magic in constant streams which carved up the area like lethal searchlights. Wayne dodged and rolled around those as well, sending up four energy boomerangs with his semblance which all curved towards the Grimm Witch.

Salem maneuvered around in the air, avoiding each one before focusing her attention back on Wayne, only for her to realize he'd unleashed a scattering moonlight attack while she was distracted. The orbs struck her in midair, causing her to fall to the ground where she landed on her feet. She recovered quickly, though and summoned two eye glyphs on some standing rubble next to her, producing several long Grimm arms which shot towards the Elder Ursario brother. Wayne activated the dust in his weapons upon seeing the incoming attack, his left blade heating up from fire dust while his right blade became electrified with lightning dust.

He cut through arm after arm in quick succession as he sped towards Salem. But the Witch produced two more glyphs along the floor as he got closer, barring his path with even more Grimm arms. Wayne reacted by joining his weapons together into their staff form and unleashing several small crescent blades which carved the rest of the way through the arms, a couple even managing to land a hit on Salem. The Eldest Ursario brother capitalized on this opening jamming the electrified end of his weapon into her stomach, a roar sounding from him as he unleashed the energy of his semblance through the blade, blasting a massive hole in Salem's body.

It was so large that the Grimm mistress was nearly split down the middle from the attack, but it was a short-lived victory as she seized the handle of the weapon with one hand while her other stretched across and grabbed Wayne by the throat before he had time to react. "Such a shame," said Salem before pulling him up and slamming him on the ground, "in a way it's almost sad that I know the exact expression you're making right now even with that helmet on." Magic coursed through her hand then as she electrocuted him much like she had Aegis, and much like that time she was rewarded with a pained scream from her opponent.

"Your face right now is one of defiance," said Salem, "that annoying look in your eye that says you won't stop fighting even when it's obvious you can't win." She yanked him off the ground then and slammed him into another upturned piece of rubble. "I once found such a look endearing when your ancestors were fighting for me and Oz. How they managed to keep that annoying spirit going throughout the generations is a mystery I might try solving with you as an experimental piece."

"Actually," coughed Wayne, "my face isn't one of defiance under this helmet. Just intense, concentration!" Multiple energy orbs erupted from his body then, blasting several holes in Salem and destroying her grip on him. This also gave him an opening to charge forward, swing the flaming side of his weapon downward, the energy of his semblance amplifying the power of the cut as it sliced Salem in half down the middle. He ended this attack by releasing several small crescent blades from his weapon, further eviscerating Salem's body before he leapt back to put some distance between him and her.

"Such impressive control of your semblance given how you started out," said Salem as her form rose back up, her black blood connecting all of her body parts as she was quickly pulled back together, "I'm going to enjoy continuing my Hound experiments with you as a subject!" A much larger eye glyph formed in front of her then, producing a giant Grimm hand which raced towards Wayne. The eldest Ursario brother took a deep breath as he held his dual-bladed staff above his head in a one-handed stance, shaping the energy of his semblance once again.

'Compact and focus the energy,' he told himself as the power of his semblance and the Aura Shadow swirled around the blades, 'unleash it all in an instant.' Just as the fingers of the hand began to enclose around him, Wayne thrust his weapon forward, unleashing his power in the shape of an arrowhead. It wasn't much larger than his javelin technique, but more energy was concentrated in the front, allowing it to tear a large hole in the Grimm hand, blasting through it with incredible force and speed, so much so that it even blew a hole through the glyph and Salem's body where her heart would be. Despite the success of the attack, it still left Wayne winded as he separated his weapon back into their sickle forms while breathing heavily.

"Don't tell me you've run out of steam already," said Salem as the hole in her chest closed, "did you really chain so many powerful attacks together thinking you wouldn't exhaust yourself?"

"Who's exhausted," said Wayne as he adjusted his fighting stance a bit, "I was just enjoying the chance to cut loose a little. It's not often I get a live dummy who can offer me feedback."

"All that talk before and now that we're actually face to face all you can rely on is your whit," said Salem as she readied to charge, "that'll be the first thing to go after I break some of your limbs!" She glided forward then as Wayne readied his weapons. But their bout was interrupted by the return of Hazel as he grabbed the Grimm mistress from behind in a powerful bear hug before igniting a fire dust crystal in his teeth, engulfing the both of them in flames. Salem howled in either pain or frustration, Wayne couldn't tell which, as she struggled against Hazel's grip while also summoning Grimm arms to try and pull him off of her.

"Wayne," said Oscar as he ran up next to the huntsman, his cane at the ready with yellow particles dancing around it, "you need to get out of here with everyone else. Hazel is buying us time and so am I."

"You know they won't leave without you," said Wayne, "and I'm not too keen on the idea myself."

"I'll be right behind you," said Oscar as the energy continued to charge up in his cane, "but you do not want to be around when I let the stored power loose from this thing." And he wasn't kidding, Wayne could practically feel said power radiating from it.

"You'd best not be lying about that," said Wayne as he ended his aura shadow before turning and heading for the exit, glancing back several times as he felt his feet hit the grass of Atlas's farmland just outside the whale. Not long after that, he caught sight of the rest of the group. Then, Monstra exploded in a massive blast of light.

MAGICAL NUKE, INCOMING! Yeah we were all thinking it. But at last, Wayne is back and none too soon as the rest of our heroes manage to escape from Salem's now doomed lair. But they're not quite out of the woods yet, as we shall soon see. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter and as always, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as our heroes are presented with yet another terrible choice to make. 'Til then.