-I personally own nothing of RWBY, nothing that can be considered 'canon material' that the CRWBY themselves already created. Which in this case, Team ABRN totally belong to them, despite the little they've been doing with them so far...
Anyway! Before any ranting starts, enjoy this chapter!-
A small explosion of rock erupted from a section of the ground. Small to medium sized chunks or rock rained across the ground from where the Diamondback's head struck. From the force it had delivered, it was obvious that a single strike from it would've been enough to permanently end whomever was unlucky enough to have been caught by it.
Fortunately, Reese Chloris was one hundred percent a lucky girl when she rode on McFly!
This giant ugly snake Grimm was getting a little close for comfort, but it still was too slow! While it was literally eating rocks, she was riding forward and well away from its head.
Inside however, in addition to her usual carefree and thrill-seeking side, there loomed a much heavier feeling within her as well. It was a feeling of... uncertainty, fear even. Like, what would happen if she wasn't as quick on her board as could be? What would've happened if she'd ended up between this Grimm's teeth?
'Naw, definitely can't be thinking like that; that stuff before was enough of a downer,' she mentally chastised herself, 'I've got McFly with me, and we're faster together!'
The Diamondback had pulled its head loose from the ground and shook it free of loose debris from the ground. It's unblinking, red slitted eyes refocused back on the purple-garbed girl again. Or rather this time, as well as the other three students that were directly in front of it as well. It's forked tongue slipped out with a deep hiss, challenging them.
"Reese, are you good?" Nadir called out, "That thing almost got you!"
"No way, it was nowhere near me!" Reese dismissed with a wave of her hand, "I just really am too fast for it, aren't I?"
"Admittedly, I'd have to agree on that," Arslan spoke up, earning looks from the other two, "The Diamondback being a snake-like Grimm, it would likely tend to chase after those who move just as fast as it can or even faster." The mint-haired girl put a hand to her hip with a tilted head, looking at her incredulously though with mock as well.
"Oh I see, you're saying I should offer myself up to that thing as a fast-moving target," she said.
"What? Arslan, you can't mean that!" Nadir spoke up, "We can't just have Reese put herself in danger like-"
"Because I could totally out-race this thing, anytime, anywhere!" Reese interrupted the pink-haired boy with her addition. This caused Nadir's face to twist in almost complete confusion.
"Or, nevermind..."
"Be that as it may," Bolin quickly cut in, spinning his staff in one hand briefly, "What exactly would... using her as 'bait', hope to accomplish, Arslan?"
"Whoa, look out!" Nadir suddenly cried out. Everyone looked up to see the head of the Diamondback rear up and strike towards them again. The four students quickly scrambled away from their singular spot on the ground and spread out. The giant Grimm again bit hard into the ground, causing chunks of rock to explode upward again. The red, unblinking slitted eyes bore into the ground where it had struck at, while then slowly pulling up to gaze at where its prey had moved.
Bolin had quickly flipped to the side well and out of the way, completely missing the Diamondback's head strike. A direct hit from this Grimm would be fatal, but at least it telegraphed itself easily enough. Simply stay out of range of its head, and all would be-
Suddenly, movement could be seen out of the corner of the boy's eye. He snapped his head upward, and his eyes widened at what he saw. The massive, multi-spiked tail end of the Diamondback was swinging down to slam down on him this time! Quickly, he bent backwards and supported his weight on one hand to backflip. Through his hand, he could feel the intense tremors felt through the ground as the spiked tail crashed into the ground as well. The vibrations felt so strong they almost rattled his very bones!
Regaining his feet, Bolin regained control of his senses. So this thing could strike with both its head and its tail? That would be useful information to know, though it would've been better to learn this without the risk of being crushed himself. He made a mental note to stay alert from here on out.
"What the heck?! It can use its tail too?!" Nadir could be heard calling out. By now the Diamondback Grimm had pulled both its head and its tail from the ground and was recoiling its massive form on itself again. Its head was held up above its body, as was its rattling spiked tail.
"This is no good...!" Arslan said, "Anyone see any weak spots on this thing? Anywhere?!"
"Nothing! It's just on giant... hide of... well, scales!" Nadir's widened eyes scanned the creature.
Suddenly, the Diamondback's head practically poured out of its coiled form again. It did not strike at the students this time; instead curving itself along the ground on a more or less course straight for them.
Reese's heart beat rapidly in her chest, and even her cocky smile twitched a little at the sight.
"Oh, I see, this is the part where I 'out-race' this thing?!" she said as she hopped onto McFly again, "Game on you big ugly Grimm! Catch me if you can!" With that her and McFly zoomed outwards and away from the group. With a rush of air, the massive form of the Diamondback slithered well past the other three students, the scales on its body a massive blur of white. The form of the body slowly grew smaller, and the three quickly realized the tail was fast approaching them. Arslan, Bolin, and Nadir quickly jumped back to avoid being struck by the massive spiked tail, the latter letting out a yelp in the process.
"I hope Miss Chloris here can back up all that big game she's boasting..." she said to herself. Her response came in the form of Reese's excited laughter, echoing off of the chamber walls. The platinum blonde girl let out a sigh, then glanced towards the two boys, "Alright, at least its direct attention is not focused on 'us', so try and find weak points and hit it hard!"
"Simple enough," Bolin said with a nod.
"Uh yeah, sure, gotcha!" Nadir said with a little more unease in hsi voice. With that the three other students took off on foot behind the Diamondback. The speed its slithered along the ground thankfully was just barely at running speed. Within seconds the three of them were maintaining a consistent running speed along the mid-section of its body, well out of range of its spiked tail dragging behind it.
Nadir himself would spare a few glances behind him at the spiked tail, ripping up hard, solid rock of the ground as if it were dirt. Each time he did only encouraged him to run just a little further and keep up his own pace, and also redirect his attention to the main target.
In between his running, he looked carefully at the Diamondback's body. It was true, hundreds of overlapping scales comprised its entire back. However, the scales appeared to be far fewer the further down along its underbelly.
"Let's try there..." he said to himself. In one hand he reformed Yamato into its submachine gun form, and in the other he formed a trio of Floweriken in between his fingers. He swung his arm inward to loose the pink, razor projectiles towards the Grimm's body, while letting that same arm travel to Yamato to grip it as well. At the same time, Nadir unleashed a barrage of bullets upon the Diamondback's underbelly scales at the same location the Floweriken themselves struck.
Nadir's feeling of pride quickly sank as he saw both of his attacks did not have the desired effect. They struck a little against the scales to impact them a little, but they did not pierce the body. Instead, the Floweriken and the bullets were ricocheted into the ground.
To his credit though, the giant snake could be heard uttering some deep-throated grunt from its head at the front. He suddenly snapped his head to the side to see that the spiked tail itself was suddenly swinging inwards to strike at its attacker. Nadir was forced to leap backwards again to avoid being impaled.
"Drgh, it's no good! Our attacks just bounce off of it!" Nadir called out. He suddenly glanced out of the corner of his eye to the wall where the Diamondback had first emerged from; or rather the elevator shaft built into the wall it had cleaved straight through, "Man, I wish Eleanor and the others were still here, helping us! Did they even get clear of this thing-?"
"Nadir! Focus!" Arslan sternly called out from nearly across the chamber where she was.
"Y-Yeah, I know!" he said, running along to catch back up with the slithering Diamondback.
"The others definitely survived, but we can't worry about them now!" Arslan continued. In between the strides of her running, she too was letting out a series of punches upon the Grimm's scaly hide. Unfortunately, to her chagrin, they were mostly ineffective. In fact, the Diamondback hardly seemed to even register her blows being dealt upon it! It's namesake diamond-shaped scales on its back seemed to mock her with each attempted hit. Arslan frowned as she was forced to admit it, but Nadir was right, attacks just weren't cutting it!
'I doubt any one of these three possess considerable strength on par with my level...' she thought to herself, 'The only other possibilities would be Miss Etna, or even that one faunus brute; Victor... Rataxes, I think...' Even in the midst of her thoughts as well as her present-moment striking, she found herself wincing from the memory. She remembered having caught his fist in her hand after he had 'attempted' to blindside her. Still, what he lacked in subtlety, he seemed to more than make up for in brute strength. For the sake of witnesses however, she was forced to put up a façade of indifference before everyone. She could not allow them to see just how much effort she had been showing in keeping his fist at bay. After all, if one faunus' fist would be enough to do her in, then why was she even here? At a school dedicated to protecting people from Grimm.
Much like the very Grimm before her that she needed to slay.
'If only this thing weren't moving, and I was permitted to be stationary!' she thought to herself, 'I could deliver a Lion's Paw to it!'
At the very front of the Grimm, Reese continued to lead the Diamondback on its chase. The girl by now was simply smirking, instead of bearing her usual toothy grin, as she glanced back behind her. This big ugly monster was sure desperate to catch her. Once or twice it could come close to actually catching her, but that'd be of course if she let it! And besides, how well could it do some of 'these' tricks?!
As she flew forward on McFly closer along the nearby wall, she pulled in to angle her and her board to be more parallel with it. With a hand gripping McFly, now she was sporting her grin: she was wall grinding! Or better, she floating straight off of the walls! Gravity wouldn't be getting her down today!
A quick glance behind her showed her that the Diamondback was somehow hugging the wall tightly as well. It was almost like it was playing 'follow the leader' with her of all people! How was it even doing this?!
"So you can keep up with me, huh?!" she called out to the Grimm behind her, "Alright, try and follow THIS!" She pushed her weight off of the wall so that she and McFly perfectly corkscrewed off of the wall and back along the ground. A mental cheer for that totally stuck landing would have to come later as she glanced behind her again. She watched the Diamondback suddenly lurch its head off of the wall and bite into the ground where she had landed. It was almost uncanny how perfectly it was following the path she was leading it on! "Alright seriously guys, this thing must really like me a little too much!"
"It's a Grimm! It doesn't 'like' things! Especially not people!" Bolin found himself exclaiming in the middle of his run along the Diamondback's side. This girl, this... completely rambunctious, absurdly dressed girl! She's been continuing to prove to Bolin beyond all doubt how ridiculous she is compared to all else!
"I mean, I don't like this thing either, but I'm not going out of 'my' way to chase it down...!" Reese could be heard calling out in reply. Before Bolin could vocalize a groan, another voice suddenly rang out.
"Bolin, look out! Above you!" the black-haired boy instantly heeded Arslan's voice and looked straight up. There was no strike from the Diamondback itself, but Bolin's eyes widened as he caught sight of a small number of rocks falling straight from the ceiling directly above him, threatening to crash straight down upon him. He flipped to the side once, then again, to avoid one after the other.
His motion of running was halted as he took the time to catch his breath, while also inspecting the rocks closer. These particular rocks weren't like those born of the surrounding walls; these appeared more... smooth, rounded even. It was then that he looked straight up at where they had fallen from, to see that there were plenty more.
"Stalactites?" he said aloud, "Those were stalactites that had fallen? How had we not seen them before...?"
"Wait, what?" Arslan said suddenly and halted her run as well. She looked up at the same place that Bolin had pointed out. It was true: the ceiling itself was littered with numerous spike-shaped stone stalactites. The flattened yet jagged section of one 'pad' indicated where one of them had been yet had broken from. The dark-skinned girl eyed the ceiling curiously, "Hold on... those things can be 'broken' from the ceiling? And with enough force?"
"So it would seem," Bolin said with a shrug, "But what of it? Aside from one more thing we'll need to avoid?" Arslan's eyes narrowed in thought, then slowly they began to widen. A grin began to spread across her face as well, which only served to confuse Bolin more.
"I think... I think I have an idea!" she said, "Our own attacks are not doing enough damage to this Grimm, so maybe something else is needed? Something 'heavier'...?" She gestured a finger back up towards the stalactites. Bolin raised his eyes upward, as well as an eyebrow, as understanding began to set in with him. He smiled in agreement as well.
"That would be a sound plan," he said, "Except I doubt the Diamondback would likely just remain still enough long enough to allow one of them to fall on it?" His comment caused Arslan's smile to fade into a frown, and her eyes to furrow again. She must have not considered that. Bolin's hand then slipped to his side and pulled forth the shard of yellow Lightning Dust, holding it in the very tips of his fingers, "Not to worry though; leave immobilizing this thing to me, I have an idea for how we could get it still long enough...!" Arslan's frown disappeared instantly, and she nodded to him this time. As one, the two broke away in separate directions: Arslan ran backwards, while Bolin returned to running towards the Diamondback itself.
As he ran forward, he could see that the giant Grimm was still in pursuit of that green, spikey-haired Reese on her hoverboard thing. The girl in question was still making strange noises as she practically raced the thing; somehow she was finding that amusing?
'And this girl is really to be my teammate? As if her choice of attire wasn't appalling enough...!' he thought to himself as he skidded to a halt, 'At least she makes for a sufficient distraction!' From his standing position, he now stood in what was a predicted pathway that Reese and the Diamondback were racing down. The purple-hooded girl and her goofy grin grew closer and larger in view, while the Diamondback itself simply grew larger as it drew closer as well. Bolin held the Lightning Dust crystal in the tips of his fingers. He could feel the tiny pins feeling of electricity emanating from the miniscule Dust shard. Such a small mineral was still able to hold so much power within it, 'Now I'll just need to time this right...!'
As she raced forward, Reese took notice of the yellow-robed Bolin guy, just standing there before her and her 'giant Grimm admirer'. What the heck was he doing, just standing there? Was he acting as some racing referee? And what was that little yellow thing he was holding...?
Purely on instinct, her head shot around to look over her shoulder and behind her. Thank the Brothers she did that, as she just then noticed the Diamondback was rearing up its head again in the middle of its slithering! Boy it was lucky she'd looked behind her and saw that! With a quick press of her foot to the back of McFly's end, she put in a quick boost of speed to power forward. No sooner had she done that than she somehow felt tremors through the ground, again despite the fact that McFly wasn't even touching the ground! A glance over her shoulder again and she could see the Diamondback's head had again tried to bite downward where she was. Its two massive front teeth had dug down deep into the rocky ground, but from the way it was angling its head it seemed to free itself.
"Miss Chloris! Clear the way, now!" Bolin called out to the hoverboarding girl. Reese pulled her head back forward to glance at him as he had called out to her. She drifted herself so that she was floating around and behind Bolin and his field of vision, but that didn't matter to him at the moment. She was out of the way, and he could now commence his attack.
He held the lightning Dust shard in his finger tips, dull yellowish gold color somehow maintaining a glow of its own in the dark chamber. He then tossed the shard into the air, gripped his staff with both hands, and smacked the shard out of mid-air straight towards the Grimm. Its intended target was the Diamondback's slitted eye, quite possibly among the only vulnerable locations to be seen on the Grimm's white scale-armored hide. Bolin smirked as he watched the Dust shard sail through the air. With the speed it was traveling as well as the Diamondback's teeth still lodged into the ground, it was all but guaranteed that it would-
The giant head suddenly ripped its mouth clean from the ground completely, causing chunks of rock to burst upwards. Bolin was caught off-guard by this sudden motion, then his eyes widened in horror as he saw the Dust shard itself end up bouncing harmlessly off of the white scales. The Diamondback shook its head in response, yet showed now signs that it had suffered from any sort of electrical shocks.
"No...! A miscalculation-?!" Bolin found himself exclaiming, while also catching sight of the yellow Dust crystal shard flying through the air at this point. It wasn't possible! At the very last minute that blasted Grimm decided to move its head and throw off his intended attack?! Now what could he do-
"Oh, hang on! I think I see what you were trying to do!" he suddenly heard Reese's voice from behind him. As he turned around to look at her, he felt a whoosh of air rush past his side. The girl in question had zoomed past him on her hoverboard already! "Check this out!" His widened eyes of horror snapped to complete confusion in that moment; just what was she doing?!
Reese sped forward on McFly in the direction of the Diamondback. A bit ironic how just moments ago she had been speeding 'away' from the giant scary snake! Maybe doing this particular thing she was trying to do wasn't the best idea in the world? But still, she had lived most of her life doing crazy and stupid stuff, so this shouldn't be all that different.
As the Diamondback had finally stopped shaking its head after dislodging itself from the ground, the yellow Dust crystal was beginning its complete downward descent to the ground. Reese kept her gaze half-trained on its descent, while also keeping her gaze fixed on the Diamondback as well. If this super-cool trick she was looking to pull off was to succeed, now was not the time to mess up. She she neared closer to the head, she bent legs to lower herself slightly, then pushed off hard to jump both herself and McFly into the air. She then quickly reangled her legs so that McFly itself was now perpendicular with the ground, with one hand held onto it to support herself.
In the span of a few mere seconds, the descending lightning Dust shard found its way into the bottom base of McFly's entry chamber, where it was immediately absorbed. In a flash the entire board changed colors from neon teal to bright yellow. With her forward momentum, she was then ready to press both her feet and McFly onto the very scales of the Diamondback's head themselves. The giant Grimm's slitted eye focused itself on the hoverboarding girl and a heavy hissing sound practically burst from its maw. However, rather than be intimidated by this display, Reese's huge grin from before had returned in force: her trick was working!
"Yeah! Now take this-!" She kicked herself and McFly off while bending herself backwards into a backflip. From this motion, the 'impact' she created took the form of a transparent yellow wave of electrical energy. A wave that the Diamondback's head took the full brunt of. The massive head and even the very tail of the creature spasmed in place.
Bolin could only stare in continued astonishment at everything that just transpired. Every moment that passed was a greater bewilderment for him. Not only did he stare wide-eyed, but he was faintly aware that his very jaw was hanging open. This shock was slowly broken as he noticed movement within his field of vision; he watched as Reese had not only stuck her landing but was floating back over to where he stood.
"Awesome! I totally stuck that landing too! Did you see that?!" the girl exclaimed as she hovered to a stop next to the black-haired boy.
"I... I cannot believe..." Bolin tried and failed to form words.
"Well believe it, guy! That just happened, and I just did it too!" Reese declared with an outstretched finger towards the still spasming Diamondback. She then took the time to jump off of McFly and let one foot press down hard on the end of it, flipping it back up and into her hand, "You hear that, Diamondback?! I ain't scared of you! In fact, I just gave you a taste of my sweet, new boarding trick!"
"It's paralyzed! Now's the time!" Arslan said from off to the side. She quickly glanced over to the nearby Nadir, "Quickly Nadir! Throw your little finger-held projectiles up at the largest stalactite up there!"
"They're called 'Floweriken'! And, up there-?" Nadir protested at first, with his gaze leading up to where Arslan indicated. A quick hard look from Arslan quickly shook him of confusion, "Ah, r-right! I can do that! But what all good will...?"
The platinum blonde gave no reply at all. Instead, she immediately ran towards the section of the wall that was more curved at the point where it met with the ground. While running at top speed, Arslan quickly curved herself slightly so that she was running as best she could along the side of the wall! Or at least the part of it that was not as sheer a drop.
Nadir shook his head and focused back on what he was tasked to do: Arslan told him to throw his Floweriken at that one stalactite? The rather large, looming one that was shaped like a cone pointing straight down. He pulled his open hand close to his chest and materialized a trio of Floweriken in between his fingers. At the same time, he watched out of the corner of his eye Arslan's continued traversal up the wall. She was using that rope attached to that knife to actually swing outward and advance closer to the stone structure in question. There was no more time for delays!
He swung his hand back out and let his Floweriken fly straight upwards. With the added spin he put into their throw, the miniaturized, sharpened flowers curved a little along their trajectory. Their mark was true though, as each one embedded themselves at the very base of the large stalactite.
Arslan quickly took note of the projectiles hitting true. Those same flower-shaped razor projectiles had soon after faded away into nothingness upon hitting their mark, leaving the small yet clear cut lines. Nadir had come through from down on his end, now she needed to capitalize on that. From where the Semblance-based projectiles had impacted, they were actually beginning to widen a little, producing a larger line horizontal at the base as they met with each other. A crack had started to form, well around half the side of the stalactite!
Arslan then leapt out through the air, close to the ceiling, and avoiding other smaller stalactites. Her face was a firm mask of stern, yet there was a slight twitch in her jaw as her teeth had threatened to chatter together.
Her and the cone-shaped piece of rock met each other, with her body nearly crashing into it. She felt the air almost being driven out of her body even before her arms sn legs had clamped themselves into solid grips around it.
In a flash, the world suddenly froze all around her, and Arslan was suddenly very aware of what exactly she was doing. Against her better judgement, she cast a look straight down beneath her, and instantly regretted it. Below her lay the massive white form of the Diamondback, with Bolin, Reese, and Nadir standing in various positions around it. But her view was accompanied with a rather heavy vertigo effect, making everything appear so much smaller. Arslan's stomach suddenly felt heavier, her teeth started to chatter in spite of her attempts to calm herself, and her limbs clamped around the stalactite so much tighter. She was afraid of heights! Terrified even! Why was she even up here in the first place?! This was a task better suited for that Miss Gail Nacht person anyway; she could openly fly up here herself and-
'No, no, NO! Get it together Arslan!' she suddenly shook her head harshly, 'Now is not the time for fear! Not when there's a job that needs to be done! People are counting on you!' She spared one more glance back down at the humans still on the ground, at her team. Her team... Brothers, such a strange thing; she was on a team! A team of others that were counting on her to do her part, just as she was expecting them to do theirs? That does it, failure is not an acceptable option at a time like this! Her mental pep talk hadn't broken her internal shivering completely, but she was at least reminded of what she needed to do.
Carefully, she wedged her fingers of both hands in between the crack of the stalactite, and pulled with all her might. There was plenty of break in between the rock already, yet the dark-skinned girl had nearly underestimated the sheer strength she'd need to separate them. She tugged harder, harder, and harder, every second feeling just the tiniest bit of give.
"Arslan? What are you doing up there?! Hurry!" Nadir's voice could be heard calling out from below. The girl's teeth were openly barred by now and she was grunting loudly. The rock was almost broken...!
With a massive cracking sound that echoed across the entire chamber, the stalactite tip broke completely away from the separated base and proceeded to fall straight down. Arslan also moved quickly by planting her feet on the base of the ceiling and kicked off hard. With her arms stretched out, she grabbed onto the base of the now downward falling stalactite and pulled herself inwards towards its center. She planted herself with her feet and her hands to better secure herself. Her hair was free-flowing straight up from the downward motions of the air that passed her by. In defiance of her fear, she peered over the edge of the rock's edge to watch where exactly she and the rock were falling. The action alone caused her stomach to nearly leap out of her belly and out her mouth!
"Is it working...?" she asked herself. She felt her self-assurance rising as she could see the Diamondback's body growing larger beneath her as she rose to meet it. As long as she kept the very point of the stalactite facing downward, then it would surely stab straight through even the Diamondback's hard body! Now let's just hope those other three were smart enough to clear the way!
"She did it!" Nadir exclaimed as he watched Arslan Altan personally deliver a sharpened stalactite from the ceiling straight down. He turned his attention to the other two, "Hey guys! Clear the way, Arslan's coming down!"
"Arslan...?" Bolin said, as he looked up to where Nadir pointed at. It was true, there Arslan was! But, riding on the 'back' of a stalactite?
"Whoa, incoming!" Reese herself called out. She hopped on McFly and hovered away from where Arslan was due to drop, with Bolin following her example as well. The Diamondback on the other hand had only now just shaken off its electrical-induced paralysis in its head. It suddenly twitched its head as it noticed movement out of the corner of one of its eyes, but was far too late to do anything.
With a massive sound that was a mix between rocks scraping against each other, mixed with the squishing sound of flesh itself, the sharpened and of the stalactite drove itself hard into the tail end of the giant snake Grimm. This was shortly followed by the Diamondback itself letting out a massive shriek of pain, completely differing from its usual hissing sounds. In fact, its very maw had opened wide as it let out its painful cries. The tail's rattle in turn rattled helplessly in place, before finally falling limp to the ground.
Atop the flat of the stalactite piece, Arslan slowly and cautiously rose to her feet. The other three humans noticed her movement.
"Holy... You go girl!" Reese flashed her a thumbs up from her open hand. Before Arslan could reply however, the Diamondback had finally finished its shrieks and had shot its head towards its assailant. The platinum blonde girl quickly jumped up to avoid being snapped at and landed completely atop the giant snake's head. She then quickly ran fast-paced along the length of its head and its back until she front flipped off completely and landed back on solid ground.
Within seconds, the other three had rushed back to her sides.
"Incredible...!" Bolin exclaimed, "Simply incredible! Miss Arslan, you've managed to pin it in place? With a piece of hardened rock no less!" He looked again at the snake's still thrashing body while pointing a finger out, "Now that thing is not only crippled in movement, but it no longer can utilize that spiked tail either!"
"Indeed, that was the general gist of it," Arslan said, before glancing at Nadir, "And, I suppose I should thank you for your assistance. With the stalactite."
"O-oh yeah! Yeah sure, no problem!" the pink-haired boy rubbed his free hand behind his head. This in turn earned a look from Bolin, a tilted head with an eyebrow raised in confusion.
'She's 'praising' him? Him?' he thought to himself, 'For what? What had he done just now?'
"Oh boy! Guys? This giant snake's not looking real happy right now-!" Reese brought everyone's attention back to the Diamondback. The giant serpent by now had coiled a little of its main body around the offending rock that was firmly anchoring its tail end into the ground. It could be seen tugging itself there as well, trying to free itself, but to no avail. This was only reinforced by the fact hat the spiked rattler of a tail even now continued to remain limp and unmoving.
As for the other end however, the Diamondback had cracked its mouth open to show off its massive fangs to the humans, a massive angry hiss accompanying its unspoken threat. It then thrust its head forward to try and snap at them again. Its attempt at a strike towards them was noticeably weaker in comparison to its previous strikes. This in turn allowed for plenty of time to allow the human students to more easily avoid its attacks.
Nadir didn't even need to exert that much strength to his legs in his evasion. The Diamondback was just moving that much slower and predictable. It was still big, powerful, and lethal, but a little bit of its metaphorical 'edge' was taken off of it by now.
He reformed Yamato into its submachine gun form and unloaded a clip onto the front of the Diamondback's face. Unfortunately, every round he fired off completely ricocheted and bounced completely off of its hard scales. Not a single one of the shots sunk into any sort of softer flesh.
"What?! Grgh, come on-!" the boy cried out, quickly moving to reload.
"Stop attacking this thing at places where its skin is hardest!" Bolin admonished from the side.
"Well where else can we hit this thing at, huh?" Nadir fired back, "ALL of this thing is completely hard! We've gotta hit it somewhere!"
The Diamondback lurched the front of its body to strike again, forcing the four students to jump around yet again. Despite being immobilized from the location it was pinned down at, the sheer size of this Grimm still allowed it to reach a distance that was sufficient to stretch outwards for a good distance. The silent Arslan flipped to the side herself as she avoided the strikes.
'This is no good. Even with this thing not able to move, we're still no closer to killing it!' she thought, 'And Nadir and Bolin are right, this thing is too armored all around for any of our attacks to deal any sufficient damage! We need to turn this around somehow...!'
She again was forced to flip to the side to avoid an opened-maw strike from the Diamondback. As she moved however, she got a somewhat clearer image of the creature's exposed mouth as it was opened wider. The two large fangs had been exposed completely to bear down on its targets, but the surrounding tissue was strangely a different... texture, than the white they had been seeing. It almost appeared... softer...! Arslan's eyes practically lit up from the revelation, 'That's it! That has to be the one place that its hide is not at its strongest!'
"Hey you all, listen up!" she suddenly stopped her evasion movements to indicate to the other three, "I think I have another idea! Did you all see it when it opened its mouth? The inside of it definitely looked softer in comparison to its exterior!" The other three's expressions slowly changed, first from surprise, then to realization that mirrored her own she'd had not but a second ago.
"You have got to be joking..." Bolin said, "'You're seriously proposing attacking 'inside' this thing's mouth?!"
"Hey, all other places we've attacked it at have failed!" Nadir said.
"Then perhaps you would volunteer to be first into its awaiting maw, Mr. Shiko?" Bolin prompted. His comment earned him a fuming look from the darker-skinned boy. His attempt at a retort was cut short however as the Diamondback let forth another great hiss from its mouth, as well as opened it wider for another lunging strike.
From behind the view of the other three, Reese was already moving as well. Though she was not moving to 'avoid' the maw; she was reforming McFly into its two separate guns! The frames of the two handheld weapons both still held their light yellow glow as they did in the hoverboard form. She took quick yet careful aim at the mouth of the Diamondback, then fired off the remaining rounds they held within.
The yellow colored rounds managed to find their mark as they impacted in the inside of the Diamondback's mouth. Each shot that impacted caused a small wave of electrical energy to burst from a small ring wave originating from the initial point of contact. In addition, each shot that hit caused the Grimm's head to spasm a little in place, its hissing sounds becoming more distorted beyond recognition.
Depleted of ammunition, Reese lowered her bladed guns to her side, the yellow color having faded completely and transitioned back to its standard neon teal color. The results of what she had just done earned her a big grin, which she maintained even when the other three had glanced back in her direction.
"Hey, looked like it wanted to eat, so you could say I let it eat my bullets!" she declared.
"How... why didn't you tell us you had Electrical Dust among your munitions?" Bolin forcefully asked her.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Reese said, holding her weapons up before her and the other three, "That yellow Dust was just from that one lightning Dust I helped you out with! That was just the last bit of it from the looks of it..." She rotated her wrists with the two guns in them back and forth, "Oh and hey, it looks like Dust put into McFly stays in there even if I make it into its sweet two-gun form!"
"'It looks like'?" Arslan questioned incredulously, "Wait, do you seriously not know the capabilities of your own weapon-?!"
"Arslan, look out!" Nadir suddenly exclaimed. The girl quickly spun around, instinctively raising her hands to defend herself. What she was not expecting however was the Diamondback lunging at her, a little too close for personal comfort. The head was tilted a little to the side so that its intent was to bite at her from the mid-section, and possibly cleaving her clean in two!
Reacting quickly, Arslan quickly grabbed a firm hold of the first object available to her: one of the Diamondback's exposed four foot long fangs. She then planted both of her feet wide apart and firmly to the ground as hard as she could. Before her eyes she could see a flash of yellow as her Aura no doubt took a hit from that. From the close contact she now held, she could feel not only the sheer strength behind this giant Grimm's singular movements, but also the tiniest of spasm movements no doubt caused by the lightning Dust that Reese had fired upon it. In between her gritted teeth and half-closed eyes, Arslan winced also at the absolutely terrible breath that was now being leveled directly at her! Brothers, how could something smell so absolutely disgusting?!
"Whoa, that's some grip she's got there-!" she could hear Reese's voice from somewhere behind her.
"Hold on Arslan, I'm coming!" she then heard Nadir's voice from closer next to her in comparison. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed his form fast approaching her with his weapon reformed into its one-handed blade form. He was charging towards her with a face of both worry and determination, but what was he planning to do...?
"Nadir, what are you-?" Her sentence was finished for her as the pink-haired boy ended up slashing his blade clean through the very fang that she held in her hands! The immediate force of pressure was lifted, and Arslan quickly shifted her weight around to compensate the change in motion. At the same time, the Diamondback let out a more guttural hiss of pain in comparison to before. The four teens could even see that from the grievous injury Nadir had inflicted upon its fang, that a black, gaseous substance began to leak profusely from the stump area. Yet despite the serious pain it was no doubt experiencing, the movements it made were still no different from sporadic spasms. It twitched in place with every bellow of pain, spewing out a burst of black, formless substance in different directions.
In the midst of her spin, Arslan caught sight of the now severed fang that Nadir had cut. Before her mind could fully process her action, she had reached out and took hold of the stray Grimm body part. Now that she had come to a stop from moving, she looked closer at the object. It was a good four feet in length, with a razor sharp point on one end. She looked back up at the immobilized Diamondback, still twitching from the effects of the lightning Dust rounds with its mouth helplessly held open. Her eyes narrowed with determination; it was well past time to end this.
She gripped the fang hard with both hands as she shot herself forward, back towards the Diamondback's mouth again. The offending smell of the Grimm's mouth blasted her again, but she bore the discomfort. With all her strength she could muster, she thrust the entire fang itself straight up and forward, easily piercing the roof of the giant snake's mouth.
This time, rather than any offending smell, a great burst of sound practically exploded from deep in the Diamondback's throat, which Arslan unfortunately caught the full brunt of. Her eardrums felt like they were close to rupturing from the cries. She took the opportunity to practically backflip herself well and away from the Diamondback, making sure to put plenty of distance between them this time.
"Brothers...!" Bolin breathed as he and the other two watched. Before them, the Diamondback's sporadic movements persisted, twitching its head back and forth and spewing forth more black gas particles from its injury points. Eventually, all movement gradually slowed down to deathly stillness, as death itself began to overtake the creature. As the light from its eyes actually faded in color and intensity, so too its body began to disintegrate into black and white particles.
"Brothers nothing! 'We' did that!" Reese exclaimed as the last of the Diamondback faded away into nothing, "Whoo! Totally took down the biggest Grimm anyone's ever laid their eyes on! We're practically pros now, eh?" Arslan slowed her panting while rubbing her ears to loosen the pain they still bore.
"I don't believe it! We really did do it! I-" Nadir spoke with a still-shaking voice. He then turned to Arslan and noticed her panting as well, "Arslan! Arslan, are you alright?"
"Huh? Oh um, I'm fine, I think..." the platinum blonde said, rubbing her ears one last time, "That thing just roared at me a little too close is all. Ears are still ringing..."
"Oh, um I'm sorry," the pink haired boy said.
"We really did do it then," Bolin said, looking upon the spot where the Diamondback once lay, "We've slain such a massive Grimm. And we didn't even require the aid of those other four girls! There might be potential here after all..."
"You could say that again! Just wait til we get to brag this to them!" Reese added, "They're gonna be so jealous!" At Bolin's comment, Nadir's head snapped over to look at the side wall, and the twin elevators. One of the shafts that ran up along the length was still a complete mangled mess from when the Diamondback had first bust through and bent the metal outward completely, while miraculously, the other elevator shaft was still untouched.
"That's right! Eleanor and the others!" he said, "You say they had gotten clear when that Grimm had come through? Not gotten destroyed? Then they probably are already up to where their elevator took them! We could use that other elevator to follow along right behind them!"
"It is possible, however unlikely..." Bolin noted.
"Hold on, before anything else," Arslan said, then turned to Reese, "I meant what I'd asked earlier to you."
"Um... what was that?" Reese asked.
"Your weapon!" the blonde clarified while pointing a finger to Reese's McFly, "Did you seriously not know the very functionalities of your own weapon?!" Bolin crossed his arms over his chest as well. Reese simply returned their looks with raised eyebrows of her own. Just what was going on here?
"Well, of course I'd know my buddy McFly here like the back of my hand!" she held the hoverboard in one hand with the other hand indicating to it, "Can I help it if sometimes it surprises even me with tricks of its own?"
"And I'd say that answers that..." Bolin noted softly under his breath where none of the others could hear him.
"And who are you trying to call me out on my weapons- what have you got yourself?" Reese pointed back at Arslan. The blonde girl wasted no time in pulling forth her weapon and presenting it before the other girl.
"Here it is," she said simply. Reese simply regarded it with narrowed eyes, a scoff escaping her throat.
"So... where's the rest of it?" she half-heartedly asked. Arslan maintained her straight face and her presented weapon before everyone, "Wait... You're serious? That's all you've got? Just a knife-looking thing with a rope tied to it? Lame! Why you giving me so much grief about me and McFly when all you got is that?!"
"Well, looks nice to me..." Nadir commented.
"My rope and dagger are all I need to carry into battle with me; they're simple, yet efficient," Arslan explained while putting her weapon away, "And I'm explaining this just as well to prove a point; we're not likely to get anywhere if we don't know nearly enough about our own equipment, much less anyone else's..." She paused for a moment, taking a moment to breathe, "Maybe now is not the best time to discuss this, given where we stand."
"Really? I dunno, you seemed to be doing fine so far..." Reese sarcastically remarked with a hand placed on her hip.
"No no, Reese? Arslan's right," Nadir spoke up while shaking his hands, "We can totally talk about this another time. So how about we all get in the elevator there and get out of this mountain finally?"
"Assuming that one itself is functional in spite of everything, that'd be a good idea," Bolin added, "We've all got our control stone pieces on us stil, right?"
"Of course," Arslan said.
"Got mine," Nadir made the show of presenting his piece before putting it away.
"Um, wait, where did mine..." Reese slowly said. This gained alarmed reactions from the other three, as they all turnd back to her. She was patting at different parts of her body, as if she were feeling for her stone fragment. All the while with a strange look of worry on her face.
"Unbelievable; don't tell me you actually-"
"Psych! Just kidding!" Reese suddenly exclaimed with a bright smile on her face. She made a quick and dramatic show of pulling her piece from behind her back, as if it was hidden there the entire time. The massive, mischievous grin did not leave her face, even in front of the faces of the other three showing various levels of irritation.
"Reese! You can't just go and scare us like that!" Nadir cried out, "I really thought you'd- whoa!" His protests were cut short as the mint-haired girl had quickly jumped onto McFly and floated her way towards the elevator, giggling like crazy the whole way, "H-hey! Wait for us!" The pink-haired boy quickly chased after her, leaving Arslan and Bolin to bring up the rear.
"That girl... she is absolutely insane..." Bolin said.
"Childish, irresponsible, annoying," Arslan added, "And it looks like I'm to be teammates with her... I get the feeling someone somewhere is having a good laugh about this."
"And she fights with little to no discipline," the boy said, "How does someone like her even hope to become a huntress? Her, or that Nadir?"
"I wonder the same thing sometimes myself..." The two then ceased their chatter as they had finally caught up with the other two inside the elevator car. Once all were inside, Nadir quickly pushed the up directional button, sealing both sets of doors. With a creaking of metal and a lurch of motion, the car slowly but steadily began to rise.
Nadir pulled his shaking hand away from the control button, and as he turned back to face the others, the shaking of his whole body could be seen better.
"Um, guys? This car will get us straight up, right?"
"What do you mean 'will it take us up'?" Bolin skeptically asked.
"You know! What if it's the next one to get smashed? By some Grimm that bursts through the wall, like how it almost got Eleanor and the others!" Realization struck with that statement. Arslan, Bolin, and even Reese exchanged looks between each other; admittedly, that was a good point. The mint-haired girl then waved her hand while also blowing a raspberry.
"P-shaw! I'm sure we'll be just fine! And if one does, we'll just feed Arslan to it!" she pointed a thumb towards the dark-skinned girl, earning her a glare from her.
"And pray tell why we would do that...?" she asked low and dangerously.
"Because... I'm pretty sure Grimm don't eat sour stuff!" Reese spoke in a way as if she delivered a punchline. The others, including Arslan simply gave her complete looks of confusion, "Get it? Because you're a sourpuss! Come on, get it?!" The elevator car was instantly filled with a mixture of heavy groans and uproarious laughter by Reese. That was a bad joke, an absolutely terrible joke, something that even fathers would be ashamed to tell.
So why was Arslan struggling to keep the corner of her lip from curling into a smile?
'Fools... I'm surrounded by complete fools..." she thought to herself, looking at everyone she currently shared the same space with, 'And it looks like I'd best get used to them... It's gonna be a long few years...'
-Just to clarify, a Diamondback here is basically just a giant rattlesnake with a very spiked tail that rattles. I figure not every type of snake-like Grimm 'had' to be a variant of the King Taijitu, so this is another form of stretching creative freedoms.
Also in addition to the created Semblance I gave for Nadir, another bit of inspiration for it was Noob Saibot's shuriken from old school Mortal Kombat. During those times he'd throw out his shuriken, they'd hit someone, but then they'd fade away into black smoke a second later. Just another thing to keep in mind. Anyway, read, review, all the standard things I hope you'll do, and I'll be back real soon!-