Chapter 17: Wild Huntress Chase
AN: Sorry for the unusually long time between updates, I hit a real writer's block on this one. Also Kassidy had been looking way more powerful than she actually is, and after rereading some of the chapters I wasn't too happy with them. Once this arc is done, expect a rewrite of the K teaser and probably Breaking the Ice.
Short one for you today. More changing of perspectives here. Kassidy has a really, really stupid idea for how to get everyone else out, then an even dumber idea for how to survive.
(Perspective: P)
A spear stab brained the Beowolf to her left. Switching to a sword, she sliced clean through another that was diving past her right side. Twirl, stab, duck, stab, spin, slice. Pyrrha Nikos was a veritable whirlwind of steel as she darted around and among the greenery, spelling doom for any and all Grimm that so much as dared approach her friends. Jaune had gotten run over by a Boarbatusk earlier when they were too far apart, and was now without a functioning left leg. As she was helping her hobbled team leader through the forest, the pair met up with Yang carryimg Ruby, who was still recovering from her earlier incident. Weiss had also been with them, firing off impressive amounts of dust and glyphs at anything that got too close for comfort.
The warning Kassidy had sent them probably kept the casualties lower than they could have been, though. None of them, not even the Invincible Girl herself, was ready to deal with thousands of monsters. As Weiss held Jaune up and Yang carried Ruby along, it was up to Pyrrha to keep the ever growing numbers of Grimm at bay. Dust, there's so many of them. First I didn't take Kassidy seriously, and now this. I really should put more work into my conditioning. She had lost count of how many monsters she had killed, and the fighting was starting to take its toll. Her guard was the slightest bit less firm, her swings a hint slower, footwork barely starting to lag.
Bursting out into the clearing, the five teenagers would've gasped in relief had they a moment's rest. Noticing another Boarbatusk curl up into a ball, Nikos dove between it and Yang, letting her shield catch most of the blow. Fighting to get her feet back under her, she drove her spear into its unarmored stomach.
"Thanks P! We'll get these two over by the beacon, then we'll give you a hand. Right Weissy?"
"Stop calling me that!" The heiress was more than a little cross, though given this morning's events so far, anybody would be. "But yes, we will."
Pyrrha collapsed her weapon into its rifle form, then shot behind her as she raced to the sensor that they were supposed to be repairing right about now. Weiss and Yang joined her after Ruby and Jaune were set by the beacon. For the first time, the teenagers had a clear look at the odds being stacked against them. There had to be hundreds, pushing close to the thousands, of Grimm throughout the clearing. Where are Ren and Nora though? And how is Kassidy doing? It's been minutes since any of them last spoke up. Almost immediately, the Mistralian champion pushed those thoughts down. Ren and Nora were more than competent, and as for her aura-less friend… she's fine. She has to be.
(Perspective: K)
"Wow, those explosive rounds were definitely as advertised. Good work Bob."
"Mine are still bigger."
"That's because your grenade launcher is bigger than my rifle. Now c'mon, we're almost there."
It was a stroke of luck that Kassidy had stumbled into Ren and Nora when she did. The smaller Grimm on their own, she could shoot. The scorpion the size of a large house, she could outrun on its own. But outrunning an oversized Deathstalker, combined with having to fight dozens of the smaller monsters? It was all she could do for those couple minutes not to lose any body parts. She would certainly have a few more scars when all was said and done. So naturally, the gunslinger felt way more confident about not dying when bullets and grenades started ripping through the underbrush.
The scene that greeted them at the clearing wasn't much of an improvement, though. The Grimm could tell their prey was gathering there, and were starting to show up in force. Already Kassidy was wishing she had more ammo, and she knew things were just getting started. After fighting their way through pockets of Grimm, they managed to make it to the sensor. Pyrrha, Yang, and Weiss were up fighting, while Jaune was nursing an injured leg and Ruby was trying her best to snipe with her oversized cannon while exhausted.
Weiss managed to get out in between attacks, "Well, it seems you've managed to avoid dying thus far. Thanks for keeping her from doing something stupid, Ren."
"Hey, not dying happens to be my specialty." Loading another magazine, Kass sighted an octet of Beowolves coming from the north and dropped them.
"Still, she had plenty of baddies for us to smash whenever we met!" Extending her grenade launcher into a hammer, Nora leapt in to fight an Ursa.
"And don't even get me started on her brilliant idea to deal with that Deathstalker." Reloading his machine pistols, Ren swiped at some creeps near him before unloading on more Grimm coming his way.
"Come on man, luring it over a cliff was a great idea and you know it. One of many times I was thankful I built a grappling hook." Helping Nora take down another Ursa, the gunslinger emptied her last magazine before backing off from the front line and getting her pack from off her back. "I'm out of ready ammo; need to get more out of my bag. Cover me."
"You got it partner!" As the tankiest member of the six standing, Yang was right in the middle of things, keeping multiple Beowolves and Creeps busy with high explosive-aided punches. "That one's for my partner." An uppercut sends a Beowolf flying. "And that one's for my sister." A left jab caves in a Creep's skull. "And that one's because you smell bad!" A right hook literally tears an Ursa's jaw off.
"How long until our ride, professor?"
Ozpin took a few seconds that seemed way longer than they actually were. "Still five minutes out, I'm afraid. How's your situation?"
Kassidy looked around at the clearing, at the hundreds of Grimm pouring in all over the forest, and god knows how many still on their way. She peeked at her scroll, seeing that Yang was the only one with her aura not in the red. "Not good enough for five minutes." Alright, think girl. I need an idea, and fast. Otherwise, there's gonna be eight corpses here to clean up whenever they get to fixing the sensor. Need to find a way to get the Grimm somewhere else. "Hey, what're stuff that Grimm are attracted to?"
Weiss fired ice dust at a trio of monsters making their way up, then answered, "The usual stuff most predators are, in addition to negative emotions."
Hang on, what was that? This just might be what we need. "What kind of negative emotions?"
"Anger, fear, pain, all that stuff. Are you seriously asking stuff on our next Grimm Studies exam while we're fighting for our lives?"
Now that, I've got plenty of. The gunslinger evaluated her options. Standing and fighting was more than likely going to get everybody killed, and as much as she hasn't become close friends with anyone yet (having only just recently getting comfortable with Yang's and Ruby's presence) she didn't think it a good start to her Huntress career to leave her compatriots to die. Anything else, though, would require her getting out of the clearing and into the forest. After that… well, I've got many years of experience being on the run in forests. And as long as Mr. Giant Scorpion doesn't show up again I should be able to give these Grimm the slip.
Having made up her mind and finished refilling her vest with more magazines, Kassidy got up and made her way to Ruby. "Hey, I need you to do me a favor."
"Uh, sure, what's up?" The poor girl was doing her best to shoot stuff, but it seemed like she could barely even hold onto coherent thought.
"I need you to look after Bob for me. It'll be best if he stays with you guys so comms stay up."
The scythe wielder looked perplexed, but had trouble thinking of why. "How come? Are you going somewhere?"
"Yup. Please, just take him." Kass ended the argument there by handing off the computer.
"Please tell me you're not actually considering running off and attracting the Grimm." Damn that AI being able to put two and two together so quickly.
"Wait, what?!" Weiss, Yang, and Pyrrha all reacted simultaneously. Apparently Bob was still talking to everyone in the group.
"There ain't no way in hell we'll still be alive by the time our ride comes. Need to get the Grimm away from here. You said they're attracted to negative emotion? I've got those in spades." A quick roll of each ankle, a stretch of the calves, and the gunslinger was looking for the thinnest line of Grimm to run through. "I don't suppose you could help me get to the trees, Weiss?"
"No, she can't!" Yang had given up fighting at the events taking place and ran to her partner. "K, I can't let you do that. If any of us tried that, we'd be dead. And we have aura. If you go out there…" She trailed off at that point.
"Yang, don't even try to argue with me on this. I'm no stranger to running through the woods. Besides, don't forget who you're talking to. It's gonna take more than a little ill-tempered wildlife to put me down."
"Please, don't do this." The blondes broke up their little conversation as they needed to fight back some Grimm before continuing.
"Hey, worst that happens is you find a new partner. Not like I've been doing you too many favors anyway."
"Are we doing this or not?" Weiss was very visibly strained – actually, they all were. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora had all run out of ammunition, while the heiress was out of dust.
"Yes, we are." Kassidy fought past her muscle bound counterpart and faced straight down the thinnest concentration of Grimm. "Alright, what's the game plan?"
A series of white circles appeared on the ground. "Just run as fast as you can. Those'll help you move quicker."
The gunslinger gave one last look at her comrades. "Also, Ruby's got Bob right now. See y'all on the other side." Sprinting as hard as she could, Kass could feel the line of glyphs under her feet pull even harder, causing her to almost fly through the clearing. In no time flat, she was in the trees and dodging all manner of claws and tusks.
Alright, need to find a ways off from the clearing, find a big tree, and I should have some peace and quiet. Reasoning she was already far enough away from the clearing, the gunslinger found her way to a nice, thick tree nearby and started climbing. About thirty feet up, she found a branch to perch on. Negative emotion, negative emotions. Okay. Time to dredge up some history. Kassidy hadn't even been focusing on her more traumatizing memories for five seconds before she was jolted by the sound of dozens of Beowolves and Creeps clawing at the base of the tree.
Bob was still able to talk to her through the scroll signal her earpiece was pirating. "Whatever you're doing, it's working."
Focusing again, another thirty seconds went by. Whatever negative emotions she was broadcasting was apparently some potent stuff, as the ground beneath her was positively swarming with monsters.
"What…" Weiss was absolutely dumbfounded. "They all just… left."
Ren's voice cut her off. "And there's our ride."
"Wait! We still need to wait for K!" Yang sounded like she was practically panicking at this point.
Kassidy decided to speak up at this point. "I've got the entire damn forest on my ass right now. You seriously expecting me to make it back to you?" A crash drowned out the answer, as a very familiar giant scorpion came charging through the trees. "You again, seriously? Time to run. Don't wait for me; I'll find my own way out."
Firing her grappling hook across and swinging to a different tree before dropping to a significantly less hazardous patch of forest floor, the gunslinger took off running. In trees this thick, the scroll's signal was failing. The last thing she heard on comms was Pyrrha talking to Yang. "Don't worry, we'll get everyone safe and then we can come back for her."
Alright, starting to get a little tired of running. How far from that ledge? The past fifteen minutes had been a blur of branches, fur, and claws, with the occasional scorpion stinger whenever she wasn't running fast enough. Kassidy had decided her best chance of survival was making it to the same cliff she dropped the Deathstalker off of earlier, which evidently took a while to climb back out but otherwise wasn't injured much by the 'short' drop of forty feet.
Dropping a pair of Creeps in front of her and sliding underneath an Alpha Beowolf while shooting out its hip, she jumped to her feet and kept sprinting in the direction she knew to be the drop. But even for her impressive stamina, fifteen minutes of sprinting – after a good half hour of fighting for her life beforehand – was taking its toll. Kass nearly slipped on a slick patch of moss, deciding to follow it into a roll at the last instant when that golden stinger shot through where her head was.
Suddenly, there it was; the same drop off, even the same tree she grappled onto earlier as the scorpion fell off the edge. Is it really so stupid as to fall for the same trick twice? Shooting her cable over and swinging onto a branch, the answer turned out to be yes. However, just leaving it there was at best a temporary solution, and the gunslinger needed a more permanent answer to the gargantuan arachnid trying to eat her. Finally having a moment to think, she spotted a large outcropping that looked like it was just barely hanging on to the rest of the ledge.
Sliding down the cable, she reloaded her half-used magazine of explosive rounds. As soon as she hit the ground, she took aim at what looked to be the weakest part of the earth and fired the other four rounds at it. The result was greater than her wildest imagination – it seemed that the cliff wasn't held together well, and several dozen tons of rock came crashing down. The Deathstalker was quite literally buried alive. Looking closer, she could see that it wasn't dead yet, but with broken legs and a severely fractured carapace it wasn't a threat any longer.
But the smaller Grimm were still a threat, a fact which made itself painfully obvious when a Creep chomped down on her leg. Kassidy brained it with her pistol, then tried to half run, half limp away. God fucking damn my tunnel vision. I can't outrun frozen molasses with a leg like this. Way to get yourself killed, Kass. Loading regular bullets and shooting the few Grimm that had made it down here so far, the gunslinger was out of time and out of ideas.
The arachnid trying, and horribly failing, at extricating itself from the earth sparked a thought, however. Triggering another collapse of rock was suicide, but maybe something more controlled was possible. Digging in her pack, the gunslinger pulled out her ice dust ammunition and started liberating the frozen payload from the bullets. Hobbling over to where the cliff met the ground, she backed herself into a corner and fired off more shots to dissuade the rapidly swelling numbers of Grimm.
Alright, how did they say this stuff was supposed to work? Guide it with my aura or some crap? More Creeps came charging up, and more bullets flew to buy more time. Screw it. I don't have aura, but I do know one thing that's proven to make this stuff work. Gathering the small handful of dust in her hand, she killed a couple more Grimm before her pistol ran dry. Out of time, out of options. Only one chance for this. Curling into a ball and pressing herself into the corner as tight as she could, she threw the dust into the air in front of her, as though she were making a curved wall out of the stuff. Then she sneezed.
Kassidy's world was replaced by ice, as the dust coalesced into the substance and covered her in a frozen tomb.