"Die!" Jaune exclaimed as he struck several blows.
Cinder Fall dodged the attacks and responded by firing ice bullets. Nora and Ren took over from Jaune and tried to keep the woman busy.
"Jaune, help the wounded, we'll take care of her!" Ren ordered.
"But ...!"
"Just do it!"
Jaune did it with a hint of remorse in his mouth.
Nora managed to hit Cinder at least twice and had managed to stun her, thus allowing Ren to inflict more blows which, however, didn't break the woman's aura. Cinder, with a wave of her hand, raised a wall of fire that hit her opponent in full.
"Ren!" Nora yelled as she came to his aid.
Cinder snapped her fingers and that wall of fire took the shape of a sword that the woman held. Cinder attacked Nora with that flaming blade and after several attacks, she was finally able to disarm Nora and even broke her aura.
"Nora ... no!"
Ren got up and tried to hit the woman from behind but she, cunning as a fox, had foreseen such a move and took off, then hit the opponent with a kick and finally beat him with several ice bullets until she broke his aura too.
"This is easier than expected, don't you think too, blondie?" Cinder asked with a grin on her face.
Jaune had just finished regenerating Winter and Weiss's aura when he was attacked by Cinder Fall.
"What do you think you're doing, blondie? Your Semblance is really annoying, do you know that?"
A glyph cast by Weiss paralyzed Cinder allowing Jaune and Winter to attack the woman. Despite the blows taken, the aura of Cinder Fall was still not wearing out.
"Why does this bitch keep resisting?" Winter asked, annoyed.
"Because … I'm superior to you … WORMS!"
Cinder unleashed an ice storm and, after freeing herself from the influence of the glyph, she decided to increase the strength of the chill wind. The temperature began to drop dramatically and everything in close proximity to Cinder Fall froze.
Jaune, impulsively, threw himself into the storm and, to Cinder's surprise, he was unaffected by the low temperature. The boy then hit the woman with a blow, in this way he interrupted those cold winds, and in the end he tried to pierce her chest.
The woman stopped the blade.
"My compliments, blondie, I never expected to have an opponent with an aura level as high as yours. You're practically immune to many attacks. Just like me, now. However ... while my powers derive from the Maidens, yours are nothing special, just like you, I guess."
The blade of Jaune's sword took on a vermilion color that lit up to a yellow hue. The blade broke. Cinder, therefore, was about to attack the boy but then Weiss intervened along with the knight summoned by her. The woman had to leave and, at that moment, she decided to target Weiss.
"Time to take a stroll, princess!"
Cinder grabbed Weiss by the throat and threw her against a wall.
"Weiss!" Winter exclaimed.
Winter immediately had the instinct to throw herself at Cinder but the woman, holding the girl by the throat, placed her in front of her like a human shield. Winter stopped.
"You're a damn bitch!"
"Oh-oh! Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
"Let my sister go!"
"Or …?"
Cinder Fall began to tighten her grip around the girl's neck. Weiss squirmed and with her mouth open began to look for air. Cinder took off.
"Do you really want your sister?" She let go of Weiss. "Then go get her!" She kicked Weiss against the wall.
The girl's aura broke again.
Winter, infuriated, went off to attack; but despite the several blows she unleashed, she was unable to injure the opponent; Cinder wasn't even paying attention to Winter, in fact her eyes were focused on Jaune. As soon as she saw the boy approach Weiss, she, without hesitation, avoided Winter and threw herself at him.
Jaune didn't have time to notice. The Grimm claw of Cinder's hand pierced his armor ... and his body.
The poor boy let out a cry of pain and was crushed against the wall.
"This is the problem with your Semblance, you see ... when you heal people you're vulnerable. So now you're my bitch, blondie."
"Damn ...!"
"It hurts? It must hurt. But what's hurting the most? Your body or your pride? You just realized you won't be able to avenge that girl, right? Oh, yes I can see it in your eyes."
Winter attempted to save Jaune but she was stopped by a fiery wind.
"No! Jaune! JAUNE!"
The woman, turning to the boy, said to him:
"Don't worry, no one will interfere, you will die like the nothing you are."
Jaune punched Cinder in the face but it didn't help. She, with a sadistic grin, said to him:
"You thought you were special, didn't you? Did you think you were the hero of the moment? Well that's not the case. You were born to be little more than a pawn and you will die knowing that you were destined for nothing great. Those like you are just a waste of air, irrelevant beings who will never change the world and who will be forgotten by everyone."
He continued to punch Cinder but his energies were starting to wane.
"Do you feel it? You're dying. And now one last show for your friends!"
A flame began to burn Jaune from within. The screams of indescribable pain frightened everyone present and in an instant he became ashes that the woman blew away from her hands.
The macabre silence that fell was torn by Ren's scream of anger.
"CINDER! I KILL YOU!"
The woman, with her fingers, invited the boy to face her. Nora overtook Ren and delivered a blow with such force that it knocked Cinder down into the void beneath the vault. The woman, however, emerged from the abyss and with that arrogant grin printed on her face, said:
"You cannot defeat me, don't you understand? I have the power of two Maidens, which means that no one is strong enough to face me!"
At that moment an Atlesian aircraft appeared behind Cinder Fall. When the woman turned she saw James Ironwood standing, Due Process in hand, in front of the doors that had just opened. He looked the woman straight in her eyes and said:
"If you don't mind, I'd like to check it out for myself."