Chapter 34: The Bigger Monster

AN: Two chapters in three days. Don't expect this to happen again. But with the Monday/Friday schedule being the winner of the poll, figured it would be wise to start today. Again, don't get spoiled, and don't expect a two day writing time to happen again.

So, Thanksgiving Break. Means a couple things. First off, I have about nine days of no work to do. It also means I have two weeks of classes before final exams, which will be two weeks I'll be horribly busy with studying and paper writing and a whole bunch of crap I'd rather not deal with while also writing a story. So I'm not going to do everything at once. Let's find out just how many chapters I can get written over these nine days, eh?

In tonight's chapter, the Hunter-Killers return to finish the job. Can Ruby and Kassidy protect their partners and put the beasts down? Or will these new Grimm live up to their title? Will Yang pull through her injuries? All that and more, in these 4000 words.

(Perspective: Kassidy)

Kassidy mulled over their current situation as the very first rays of dawn stretched through the forest of Forever Fall. Two facts had made themselves known over the course of her watch: firstly, that the Hunter-Killers weren't too eager to leave them alone. For the past three hours, the non-Alpha had been stalking around the very edges of where it could watch her, looking for a weakness while also apparently aware of the fact that she was watching it as well. Secondly, the other Grimm were afraid of the Hunter-Killers, which became obvious as the previously mentioned specimen tore apart a Boarbatusk that decided getting close to it was a good idea. Well, at least they've kept company away. Hooray for small miracles.

Some rustling a bit behind her and to the left caught the briefest moment of her attention, before she decided it was Weiss. Too small to be that Alpha, and Ruby was trying to keep Yang warm over her right shoulder. Never keeping her eyes off the Hunter-Killer that was suddenly interested in a staring contest, Kassidy waited for Weiss to drag herself closer before talking quietly. "How's the leg doing?"

"It's not infected, at least. And most of the bleeding's stopped. I still lost more than I probably should have, though. I feel a little light-headed if I jerk around too much."

Kassidy winced. "Yeah, sorry about that. Yang was worse."

"Speaking of which, where did you learn to perform expert field surgery?"

Despite the situation, Kassidy chuckled slightly. "You mean that abomination of modern medicine that would make any competent doctor faint from how poorly it was done? I didn't learn how. But having downloaded the entirety of my people's equivalent of the RemNet means Bob knows basically everything there is to know. He told me how to do everything, I just provided the steady hands and weak stomach."

Weiss gave an impressed hum. "Is there anything that computer of yours can't do? Besides speak civilly, I mean."

"Nope. I'm omnipotent and omniscient."

"He also can't get that ego of his in check. Seriously, I'm not even sure how I coded in an ego for him." The Hunter-Killer lost their staring contest, giving a tell as its eyes flicked to the right. A quick turn of the head to overtly look over revealed the Alpha had tried sneaking up on them, and aiming her rifle at it got it to begrudgingly back off. "Could you get Ruby up?"

Having to keep her attention split among both monsters was more difficult, and the Hunter-Killers knew it as they grew bolder and crept maybe a third closer. There was only a good a hundred fifty feet or so separating the Grimm from the Huntresses. A bit of rustling and mechanical clinking told that Weiss had returned with Ruby and Crescent Rose in tow.

"You've been up all night? And aren't you cold?"

Kassidy shrugged at Ruby's questions. "Not the first all-nighter I've pulled, nor will it be the last. And I like the cold. How's your sister doing?"

"Yang's same as she was last night, mostly. A bit paler and colder, though. Any luck getting through to Beacon?"

"Nope. Alright, let's focus, both the Hunter-Killers are smelling blood in the water, and they're getting tired of waiting." Crescent Rose unfurled in all its red, black and silver glory, blade being planted in the ground as Ruby took aim at the smaller Grimm. Kassidy instantly nudged Ruby to dissuade her from starting to shoot. "We gotta play this smart. We're down two, don't forget."

"Yeah." Ruby looked up from her scope and stuck her tongue out in thought. "I really don't want to ask this…"

"I'll take the Alpha, if that's what you're about to ask."

"Are you sure?"

"Depends. Weiss, do you think you have enough aura to give me a haste glyph or two?"

"Maybe enough for one." Weiss stuck Myrtenaster in the ground and used it to prop herself to sitting on the stump as well.

"Okay. That fight went from suicidal to just a bad idea. I can handle that."

"Alright. I can take the smaller one easily enough." Ruby seemed pleased with the plan until her eyes went wide and she gasped. "What about Yang and Weiss, though? We'll be leaving them wide open if any other Grimm come!"

"I've been watching the Hunter-Killers over the course of the night. The other Grimm are even more scared of them than we are, which is probably why you three got a good night's sleep. Still, you're right in that Yang and Weiss are going to be targeted. If we're fighting them and get knocked aside or something, they'll tear into our partners in a heartbeat."

"Yeah…" Ruby thought for a minute. Meanwhile, the Alpha had started stalking off towards where Yang was lying, and it took another few seconds of posturing to get it to back off to where it was. "I suppose I should probably hang back and let the smaller guy come to me?"

"And fight it right on top of me and Yang? Gee, thanks you dolt." Weiss huffed and crossed her arms.

"Not to mention you'd be letting it take the initiative, which is never a good thing." Kassidy snapped her fingers in a eureka moment. "Weiss, have I ever taught you how to fire the Garand?"

"No, you haven't."

"Well, congratulations, you're about to learn how to use my rifle. Ruby, can you make sure those guys don't get too frisky while I work with your partner?"

She spent the next five minutes showing Weiss everything she would need to know about using the rifle: how to aim, how to reload, how to adjust the sights, and how to clear a jam. Fortunately, Weiss was an excellent learner, and took no time at all to learn the subjects. After digging around in her backpack for the entirety of her Dust ammunition, Kassidy swapped out the standard ammo in her bulletproof vest with the specialty ammo before pulling it off and pulling it on Weiss. Of course, the heiress was quick to voice her complaints about how Kassidy would need it, but the frayed Kevlar fibers would provide little in the way of protection against something like the Hunter-Killers' claws.

"Hang on a moment! You're just going to fight them with your sword? Don't take this the wrong way, Kass, but I don't think that's going to be enough for you." Ruby did raise a fair point. Even with only one arm, and even with the benefits of a haste glyph, this was easily going to be the most dangerous fight Kassidy will have been in up to this point – and she's going into that fight with no meaningful firepower.

"Yeah, that might be a problem. Still, Weiss needs my rifle to cover herself and Yang… that's it!"

"What's it?"

"Ruby, could you do me a favor and get the right half of Ember Celica for me?"

"Wait, what?" Weiss evidently wasn't pleased with the idea. "Do you even know how to use it? Not to mention the recoil will obliterate your arm without an aura to protect it!"

"I can't do that fancy little flourish reload Yang does, but I can manage it sitting here before the fight. It'll be more of a last resort weapon if I absolutely need that kind of firepower. And besides, don't forget how fast I heal. Even if I do destroy my arm using it, I'll just need a bunch of food and twelve hours to fix it back up." Ruby returned with the requested weapon and a clip of high impact ammo. Kassidy knew full well that Yang's explosive ammo was even more potent than her own after she gave the other blonde the recipe for the special thermite mix she used. In the close quarters she would be in, that kind of explosive power was suicide, ridiculous biology or no. "Yeah, this'll do nicely."

"Alright, so I'll take the small one, Kass'll take the big one, and Weiss will use the rifle to keep them honest. What if Beacon gets here, how will we be able to contact them?"

"How about I leave Bob with Weiss? I'll kinda be busy fighting for my life to tell them all about what kinds of trouble we're in and what I did to Yang."

"I can manage that if you keep those things off me. By the way, they're getting closer." Kassidy and Ruby raised their heads at Weiss' warning, and sure enough both Hunter-Killers were getting bolder.

As Ruby fiddled with getting Ember Celica clipped onto Kassidy's wrist and getting the shells loaded, she voiced a final concern: "Are you sure you're up for this, Kassidy? I'm asking an awful lot of you."

"Be worried for that Alpha, not for me."

"You're feeling awfully confident about this fight. Care to explain why?" Weiss had an air of disbelief in her question.

As she loaded a shell into Ember Celica's firing chamber, Kassidy brandished her sword while standing up. She snarled, "They'll wish they never met me." At seeing Ruby's and Weiss' shocked glances, Kassidy elaborated. "What, you thought Yang was the only one with anger issues? I'm fuckin' pissed right now. I'm going to demonstrate to this guy the extent of my anger issues. I'm going to beat him to a bloody pulp, and make sure this Alpha lives exactly as long as it takes to regret attacking me and mine. Sometimes, you need a monster to kill another monster. And I'm the biggest monster there is."

Ruby swallowed thickly and brought Crescent Rose around for a fight. "Uh, yeah. I'm ready on my end."

"Ready."

"Ready."

"Alright. Let's show them what we've got, team!" Ruby fired behind her and used the recoil, plus her Semblance, to rocket into the fight. Kassidy took heavier, more menacing steps towards her opponent. Gonna need every advantage and then some for this one. Psychological warfare it is. Intimidation is always a good way to start.

Predictably, the Alpha Hunter-Killer wasn't exactly intimidated, as it started striding out to meet her. As the two opponents slowly closed the gap between each other, Kassidy tapped her earpiece. "Weiss, think you can hit it a couple times to start things off?" In response, a trio of bullets flew uncomfortably close over her shoulder. The first two did a marvelous job of detonating that hedge, but the third found its target and actually managed to be a headshot, no less. As the Alpha reared back in the pain of having something blow up on its face, Kassidy leapt in to plunge her sword into its bloody stump.

Her triumph at doing damage to it was short lived, as its intact arm came swinging in so fast that she had to leave the sword buried in its stump as opposed to pulling it out. However, as the momentum swung the beast around, she darted around behind its back and retrieved her weapon before hopping back. As it growled at her, she took note of where its armor was compromised… which happened to be a whole lot of nowhere. Its left arm was mostly nonexistent, but there wasn't a way to turn the bloody hole into a fatal wound. It swung at her, and she ducked under it before swinging for the hamstrings.

The sword clattered off the still thick armor, and Kassidy had to backflip to avoid a kick that would've taken her head off. Well, a backflip was what she attempted, but her lack of flexibility lead to her instead faceplanting into the dirt in front of it. As the Alpha moved to finish her off while she was on the ground, a series of bullets left icy payloads on its body, with the extra weight causing it to be off balance and it missed its swing.

Using the opportunity to take a stock of the fight in general, Kassidy wasn't happy with what she saw. These things are learning how to fight us. Indeed, the smaller Hunter-Killer seemed to be focusing the entirety of its absorbed power in durability, strengthening its bony armor to where Crescent Rose did little to it. The Alpha she was fighting was even more devious. As seconds dragged to minutes, the head monster made no attempt to guard its left side, and little effort to be aggressive. It knew she didn't really have anything that could hurt it, and kept forcing Kassidy to be on the attack, drawing her into exposing more and more of herself. Still, however, the fight was not completely one sided. Small scratches added up into noticeable gashes, as more and more strikes from her sword found their way to the beast.

C'mon, Smith, you're better than this. And you're definitely faster than this fucker is. Turn up the heat. Feinting to its left, she dove under a right straight and came up slashing at its legs. Predictably, it went to kick her again, which she jumped aside of and swung her sword at the back of the knee joint. Yet again not accomplishing much, Kassidy ducked a backhand and swiped three times at its torso. She missed the knee raising into her ribcage, and nearly got carried off her feet by the force. Stumbling backwards, she clutched her midsection while holding her sword out in a pathetic guard. Alright, who needs a ribcage? I don't need a ribcage. Let's see how it likes the bait.

The Alpha seemed to like the bait a lot, and it abandoned its passive mindset in favor of ending the fight immediately. It launched itself into the air, and snapped its jaws only to bite down on air. Bracing her arms as she ducked, Kassidy drug the sword along its chest, letting the Hunter-Killer's momentum do the work. She was rewarded as a deep wound was gouged into her opponent. Her ribs let loose a wave of agony, however, and she dropped to a knee while holding her ribs again. For its part, the Alpha was far more hesitant to fall for the bait again.

"How're you guys holding up?"

"Can't talk, too busy fighting!"

"Ruby is rather occupied. I'm doing well enough, I suppose. Still no contact with Beacon. How about you?"

"Stalemate, but I can't hold it much longer. Got a good shot on my ribs."

"Do we need to switch?"

"Absolutely not, Ruby. Even with only one arm, this guy will tear you apart if you give him an aura to feed off of."

"Please tell me you have a plan."

Kassidy suddenly had to dance around the Alpha engaging her again, trading blows as she dug a furrow a bit deeper into its hide while getting a nice gash in her stomach. "I could really use that haste glyph right about now. I can't keep trading blows with this guy and come out on top."

"You better make this work. I don't have enough for a second one."

Weiss' warning came as a ticking clock manifested underneath Kassidy just as the Alpha pounced again. As it was only a few feet away, time slowed substantially. Oh, yeah. Let's do this shit. Again, she brought the sword up and followed the same gash she cut earlier, this time getting the sword to draw blood as it barely pierced the bone armor. While the Hunter-Killer was still flying past here, she ran back and started chopping like a madwoman at the beast before it had even hit the ground. Her body screamed its protests as pain flooded her senses, but she ignored it in favor of making the most out of the glyph.

Simple physics. Mass times acceleration yields force. And I have a lot more acceleration now. Not giving the Alpha time to pick itself up from the ground, Kassidy kicked its head and sent it sprawling on the ground, before slashing at its exposed back. More slices, more furrows, deeper and deeper each time. The monster managed to scramble to all fours, but she kicked it again and got to work on its front. Blood was being drawn as the Hunter-Killer failed to fight off her crazed assault. Fighting through pain, fighting through its defenses, Kassidy felt like she could do this forever.

The glyph could not last forever, though. As Kassidy continued her attack, time felt as though it were returning to normal, and her slashes had less and less force behind them. Thinking quickly, she quickly twirled the sword around, pointed it straight down, and aimed it straight at a gash that crossed over where she guessed its heart was. Throwing her whole body behind it as well as the last of the glyph's energy, she went for a final knockout blow. A final knockout blow that missed. As the sword clanged off the bony armor, she wasn't able to get out of the way of a punch that sent her flying backwards and the sword flying out of her grip. Waiting for the world to stop spinning, Kassidy could hear more chatter over the communications.

"Weiss, if I bring it closer to you, can you hit it a bunch with the rifle? I've almost gotten through its armor!"

"You're going to… have to bring it pretty close. I'm… getting tired after that glyph."

Coming back to, Kassidy's eyes widened at a set of claws going to decapitate her. Thinking quickly, she brought up the only thing she had that could block the attack: Ember Celica. Claws rasped against steel, and once again she praised Nora for helping her with strength training. The tips of the nails scraped tiny scratches along her face, but did no more. In a gambit to buy herself more time, she threw her fist forward and fired a blast from the shotgun gauntlet. In addition to the glorious sound the weapon made and the pained howl the Alpha gave, a very distinctive snap and jolt of pain manifested in her forearm.

Kassidy stood up and looked at her broken arm. It was already starting to bruise in multiple places where the recoil fractured the bones. However, the pain also started dying down as Kassidy's second wind kicked in. Looks like my body's finally realized it's in a bad enough situation to really let loose the adrenaline and painkillers. Staring the Alpha down with a feral glare, Kassidy walked forward with renewed conviction. You tried to kill my partner. You tried to kill my team. You tried to kill me. I will take EVERYTHING from you. Recognizing an unexpected bounty, she ducked under another paw before firing again with a punch that sent it to the ground. More pain, more damage to her arm, and more adrenaline and painkillers. A perfectly vicious cycle.

As the blonde straddled over the Alpha's chest and started pumping fist after gauntlet-powered fist into it, it truly did become a fight between monsters. One punch, two punches, three punches went into its right shoulder before she got kicked off with deep gashes carved into her chest. Kassidy stood back up, not caring about the bleeding, not caring about the fact that her arm was practically unrecognizable. After the damage to its shoulder, the Hunter-Killer wasn't much better as its remaining arm now hung limp from its joint. Realizing her opportunity, she roared an animalistic roar and charged her opponent. Dodging its snapping jaws, she buried her fist into its chest as Ember Celica gave another loud report. Another yell, another punch, and another shot. The spider's web of cracks across the Grimm's torso would give after one last hit. Kassidy cocked her fist for that one last hit, before watching the golden gauntlet simply slide off her arm, revealing a pulped forearm. The repeated recoils had caused so much damage, her arm had so little structural integrity left, that there was simply nothing left holding the weapon where it was. The bloodlust left Kassidy long enough for her to watch the Alpha lick its lips as it kicked her away into another tree.

Well… there goes my arm… and the rest of my ribcage… and probably most of my internal organs, for that matter. She could tell that it wasn't fatal damage – the CPH4 that was her body's last means of survival and that always triggered in the event of her sustaining fatal injuries never released. Still, with her sword still lying a couple dozen feet away, and with a pistol that even still had zero chance of penetrating its armor, Kassidy was defenseless as the Alpha Hunter-Killer closed in for the kill.

The killer was not it, however. A flash of red, so fast that even without blinking she was sure she missed it, heralded the Alpha falling into two separate pieces. Exhausted eyes looked around, trying to find the source before a loud boom echoed around her and a pressure wave knocked her over. From her now prone position, Kassidy smiled. Ruby apparently knew how quickly it would absorb aura to make her attack impossible, and simply went faster.

Ruby Rose just broke the sound barrier.

"Hey, Rubes," Kassidy called weakly. "You there?"

"Yeah. We did it." Ruby's reply was just as weak. It likely took every last drop of her aura to go that fast.

"Awesome. Knew you could do it, Scythe Girl." The two giggled for a little bit. "Hey, Weiss, you there?" Kassidy became more concerned at the lack of a reply. "Princess? Hello?" Fearing the worst, she fought to her feet, wondering what that sudden, dull roar was. A firm set of hands pushed her back down, however. Instincts told her to start shooting, and she drew her pistol. Like hell she was going to go down without a fight.

"Kass, relax, it's me!" Blonde hair danced near the top of her vision. Yang? No, too short, too dark. Blue eyes poked out next.

"Jaune? The hell are you doing here?"

"We just found Bob's distress beacon, and got here quick as we could. Weiss and Yang are already on the Bullhead, Narud's tending to them as we speak." The boy took stock of her injuries, before looking over his shoulder. "Guys, Goodwitch, Oobleck! I've got Kassidy and Ruby over here! Kass is hurt really bad too, someone help me!"

A pair of strong hands lifted her up, and Kassidy felt herself being carried a ways before being lifted further and staring at a metal ceiling. Fighting to a seated position, she glanced at Weiss sitting opposite her with a syringe of sedatives and painkillers being injected by a medic, while Narud was on the floor with a still bleeding, still unconscious, but still alive Yang. Another medic hovered in her vision, pulling out some cloth and trying to work on her injured torso. Kassidy tried to wave him off, to tell him that her teammates needed the help more, but the adrenaline high she'd been riding for the past ten minutes crashed hard. Through darkening vision, Pyrrha helped Ruby onto the craft while everyone else got on board.

Alright, everyone's safe, good. Got the job done. Yay team. And ow does everything hurt.

Sleep. Cures. Everything.

AN 2: Shame on you guys, thinking I would sink the Yang x Kass ship literally the chapter after it's announced to be the official ship.

Alright, teasing out of the way, holy crap that was harder to write than I thought it would be. So ends the Hunter-Killer story arc, with two out of four members critically injured, another with a broken leg, and an exhausted Ruby piling onto the escape ride. Coming up next, team RWKY recuperates. Surely, with Yang in need of such intensive care, everything will go according to plan, right? Right?

There's more that needs to be said, but it would probably be more appropriate to talk about it next chapter, so let's finish things off with Reader Responses.

Guest 1: It's more along the lines of what she can do. And what she can do is pretty much limited to shooting well, running well, and doing computers well. Everything else can pretty much be chalked up to Bob helping her cheat.

Guest 2: That would be a good idea… if I didn't already have something in mind for that. A very big, very important something.

Baconlord53: You don't even know the half of it.

annjames: Yang lives! Glad to hear you enjoyed the chapter so much, I must admit to being kinda proud of how I wrote that one.

Tykene: Kassidy and Bob definitely have some interesting interactions, and more are on the way.

James: If you think this is lots more info, then prepare your anus. The next major arc tells all.

Iron-ninja: Yeah, I've been pretty mean to her, haven't I? Don't worry, she'll be better come next chapter.

Guest 3: Lucky for you, you will only need to wait for exactly one hour and thirty two minutes. Had a good chuckle at the timing myself.