Kali leaned upon the railing of the balcony outside of her shared bedroom, staring out over the dunes in the distance beyond the driveway. The desert seemed still and serene, with no signs of life in sight other than the sparsely concentrated cacti. Warm night air buffeted her transparent black nightgown around her thighs and gently tousled her short hair. The lingering, flowing heat of the desert worked to almost lull her to sleep as she listened to the sound of the shower from within the bathroom behind her. Suddenly, as the water shut off, her feline ears perked up and she smirked.
It took less than a minute for the glass door of the balcony to slide open, and mere seconds for Roman's hands to touch lightly upon Kali's hips. She tilted her neck to one side as her friend planted a kiss upon her neck, and her right ear flicked as she felt his teeth gently seize a bit of flesh. Roman bit lightly before pulling away, pressing his towel-covered crotch firmly against her rear.
"Someone's all porked up," Kali observed with a grin.
"Well, what do you expect?" Roman asked as he rubbed slow circles along Kali's hips. "A few days in the air, and finals right before it. We haven't really had much time to mess around."
"Maybe you haven't," Kali teased. "I make time."
Roman stopped rubbing, suddenly feeling almost nervous as he kept his eyes on the short road leading away from the beach house.
"…like alone, or…?"
"I don't have to answer that," Kali replied as her grin widened. "Use your imagination."
"I'm not sure if I want to," Roman grumbled. Movement across the dunes caught his eye, and though the mostly unobstructed desert allowed him to see quite far in the moonlight, he couldn't quite make out what he was looking at. "Hey, Kal? You see something out there?"
"Hm?" Kali asked, finally tearing her eyes from Roman and squinting into the darkness. "Oh. Oh. Oh, shit! Grab my guns!"
"What's going on!?" Roman called as he frantically slid open the glass door and began to search for Kali's lugers.
"Myrmidon!" Kali called back as four ethereal arms sprang from the small of her back. "I've heard about these!"
"Myrmi… what!?" Roman asked as he brought Kali her guns, holding his towel tight around his waist as he tried desperately to keep the cloth in place.
"Bigass antlion grimm!" Kali answered as she took the golden guns and did a quick check of their magazines. "Wake up the others and grab your cane! The weaponized one, not the penisy one!"
Kali leapt off the balcony, her nightie billowing behind her as a series of controlled explosions of air propelled her forward and into the night sky.
"Yeah, thanks for the clarification!" Roman answered with a roll of his eyes as he turned and began to rummage through the bedroom for his clothing and weaponry. "Shit! Cockblocked by a fuckin' grimm…"
"On your left!"
"It's on the right," the burly leader of Team BASS deadpanned with a roll of his eyes. "Either your semblance is malfunctioning, friend, or you're just being an ass."
"Little from Column A, little from Column B," Fox replied with a smirk as he held on to the other man's waist while the dunecrawler sped along. "I can't sense my environment at speeds like these. I'm essentially… blind."
"Just essentially, huh?" the leader replied with a roll of his eyes. "Somehow, you still continue to find ways to keep it from getting old…"
"Part of my charm."
Sage pulled ahead on the other bike, carrying Velvet with him as the pair continued to give chase to the fleeing grimm. The leader and Fox's earpieces crackled to life as Sage began to speak, his voice coming through slightly garbled.
"Alright, Vel's got eyes on it. Follow us! We'll have that thing's skull bagged and… what in the hell is that!? Up top!"
"I don't see anyth-" Fox began.
"Hush, not right now," the leader warned as he squinted his eyes. He thought he had seen a brilliant flash, almost like a falling star, before the skies were unoccupied once again. Suddenly, another flash blasted across the horizon line, followed by an entire series of flashes descending at a diagonal down toward the sand. "I see it! Give chase!"
"On it!" Sage replied as he kicked his specialized bike into high gear.
Gunshots rang out through the night as sprays of sand formed obscuring plumes just ahead of the speeding vehicles. The guard tower of the Schnee beach house was under a quarter mile away as the myrmidon finally came into view, its white bone jaws catching the moonlight as it raised its head out of the sand. The leader of Team BASS watched as Sage's dunecrawler skidded on its side and the man leaped from the vehicle with Velvet in tow, both of them landing near the gargantuan grimm.
"Fox, jump now!"
"You got it!" the redhead called as he stood up upon the seat of the bike. "See you in the fray, Ghira!"
"You will," Ghira acknowledged as he mirrored Sage's movements to send the bike skidding sideways through the sand.
Without a second thought, Ghira planted his foot down into the seat of the bike and leapt high into the air. Long black panther claws extended from his fingers as he soared through the night sky, his eyes locked upon the target below. He watched as Sage drew his thick two-handed sword from his back and began to circle the beast, while Velvet followed along with her camera. Fox had crouched low, the curved blades attached to his wristlets running back along the lengths of his arms as russet pulses of aura emanated from him down into the sand. Just as quickly as Ghira had assessed the situation, he landed and began to run forward, leading the charge on the giant insect grimm.
The myrmidon was a beast the size of an average bus, and twice as big around. Its oblong body was a black, pill-shaped mass of black fur with twisted white spikes of bone protruding seemingly at random all along its length. Spindly, segmented legs covered in bone plating were anchored into the sand, partially hidden along with the back end of its abdomen. The head of the beast was coated in armored bone with several rows of eerie yellow eyes peering through natural holes. Extending from the front of its face were two curved, bony mandibles twice the length of an adult human, with razor-sharp teeth along the inner edges. Balanced atop a mandible while the beast screamed at her as she unloaded a hail of bullets into the myrmidon's face was Kali Moonglove, wearing nothing but her nightgown, panties, and a shit-eating grin.
"Who in the hell…?" Ghira considered as he watched the other cat faunus backflip out of harm's way just as the myrmidon snapped its mandibles together. "Never mind! Get in there, BASS!"
Sage was the first to react, tracing a suspended circular glyph through the air. As the circle closed, the entire construct burst into flames and twelve arcane symbols appeared around the border. Dissecting lines criss-crossed through the center of the glyph, dividing into equal sections as a shorter spoke erupted from the central convergence point and began to spin. The blade of Sage's sword burst into flame and began to pulse along with the glyph every passing second, synchronized with the movements of the 'hand'.
Velvet was the next to leap into action, her camera flashing brightly as a hard light copy of Sage's claymore manifested in the air. The blue wireframe blade dropped gracefully into Velvet's outstretched hand, and she stored her camera on her belt as she stood shoulder to shoulder with Sage, ready to charge. The pair nodded to each other and began their advance, circling in opposite directions as they began to cut away at the gargantuan grimm's fur-covered abdomen and sides.
Fox was next, his curved arm blades flicking forward and past his fists to function as long, swordlike claws. Aura pulsed all around him, causing his hair to fan out and ripple gently in the unseen force of his spiritual energy. He sprinted across the sands and charged in to distract the myrmidon, flipping high over its snapping jaws as he vaulted to the beast's rear and plunged his blades into its thick hide.
As Ghira watched the other man land cleanly in the sand, the metallic pauldron upon his shoulder sprang to life. Metal plates crawled down his left shoulder, forming a flexible, scaly covering that extended all the way down to the back of his hand. Ghira waited patiently for an opening as the myrmidon flailed and thrashed at his companions, only for his concentration to be broken as he felt something light leaning into his bare arm.
"Hey there, big guy. Come to help out?"
Ghira looked down at Kali with surprise, unsure what direction she had come from within the swirling sand and flailing limbs all about. He blinked several times as he looked her over, unsure what to do as she leaned into him while reloading her pistols.
"We've come for a bounty on this grimm," Ghira explained. "I would suggest you stand back and let us handle it, ma'am."
"Pff," Kali replied flippantly as she tossed her hair to one side and did a check of her reloaded lugers. "Ma'am? I'm right up on 19, not 40. And you'd have to fight to keep me out of this one."
"Point taken. Ghira," the young man offered. "Other introductions can wait."
"Kali," the other faunus replied. "And they most certainly can. Let's get in there and help out!"
Kali's statement and subsequent advance was punctuated by a yell from Sage as he spun into a forceful, flaming cut across the myrmidon's back side. The beast let out a scream just as Sage's 'clock' ticked over to the next section, turning the entire glyph a bright blue and coating his blade in shards of ice. A massive clawed leg lifted and aimed to slam down upon Sage in retaliation, only to be met by the grip of a spectral hand. Kali's ghostly arm shook with effort as it held the beast's limb aloft, and she gritted her teeth with effort as she began to slip backwards in the sand.
"Can't hold him… move!"
"I've got it!"
Velvet flew through the air in a flipping motion, cleaving straight through the myrmidon's leg just above its segmented knee. The grimm let out another echoing scream as ash began to spew forth from the open wound, and Kali was flung backwards and into a nearby sand dune. Sage sank his frozen blade into the myrmidon's side with a powerful thrust, and Ghira ran up to springboard off the pommel. Ghira reached upward and grabbed the stump of the myrmidon's leg as he returned to the sand, yanking the grimm's limb downward and setting the beast off balance. Fox leapt high into the air and began to run along the elevated side of the beast's body, dodging flailing limbs as the myrmidon tried to knock him off of itself.
Finally, upon reaching the middle of its body, Fox flipped downward and dug his blades deep into the grimm's exposed stomach while Ghira the myrmidon it in place. Fox raked his blades upward toward the giant insectoid's head, tearing open its gut and effectively disemboweling the creature. Just as Fox reached the neck, the entire myrmidon burst into a cloud of ash, leaving nothing but a giant skull atop the sand. Fox was quick to backflip atop the bony structure, sitting casually and brushing his hair out of his face with a smirk.
"Well, that was exciting. We done here?"
"It looks like it," Kali said sullenly as she brushed the sand off of her nightgown and from her arms. "And just as my backup gets here, too."
Ghira looked over to where Kali was pointing to see the rest of Teams STRQ and OKRA sprinting toward him from the direction of the beach house. They were almost all clad in an unfitting, somewhat off-putting combination of pajamas and combat boots, and most of the men were shirtless. Roman still had his bath towel with him, the cloth stuck between his belt and pants as it fluttered behind him like a small cape.
"A shame, truly," Ghira said with a roll of his eyes. "Well, sometimes, an uneventful hunt is the b-"
"We're not done!" Sage called, his voice uncharacteristically frantic.
Team BASS and Kali whirled to where Sage was facing, only to see several more raised lines of sand speeding toward them. One after another, a series of four myrmidons erupted from the moonlit dunes, each screaming furiously as their mandibles clicked and gnashed.
"Oh… oh, that is a lot of bugs…" Velvet said with trepidation as she began to walk backwards. "Um…"
"One day. One day of relaxation just cannot happen," Raven griped as she came up behind the rabbit-eared faunus and stood at her side, katana at the ready.
"Did you honestly expect anything less?" Willow questioned while running up as a glyph manifested beneath her and she pointed Myrtenaster at the approaching targets. "Time to earn our keep, people!"
Author's Note:
In two weeks- a big fucking fight with 13 participants…
Why do I do this to myself.
-RD