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Chapter 149: Our Darkest Hour
Explosions, the shrieks and screams of the Grimm and thick trails of smoke left by both the monsters and destroyed aircraft filled the air above New Vale as the battle for the city raged on, not that Felix or Carcharodon could truly pause to appreciate the scope of the carnage given their current situation. It was, in almost perversely bleak way a welcome distraction from the gaping sense of grief, emptiness and simple impotence that they had felt as they had watched Professor Goodwitch's airship fall from the sky whilst entirely unable to stop it.
In truth the battle was not going well.
Team FADE and GORE had initially been intended to provide fast and manoeuvrable support to larger vessels, winnowing flocks of smaller Grimm that might try and harass them before deploying from Team GORE's Bull-head to bolster the cities' forces on the ground or target strategic points and larger Grimm as needed; this plan had fallen by the wayside early in the conflict as the barrages of javelins that Salem had hurled towards Goodwitch's ship had sent the fighters gathered around it scattering and the creeping darkness which the entire city seemed to be sinking into made landing a risky prospect as well as making the initial plan to evacuate the cities' populace through the breach in Salem's Grimm Spires unworkable. A new plan had been put into action however, Qrow had been overseeing the entire battle from his command centre within Halo Academy and was planning to use civilian airships to fly people to safety as several stories of the Hive-City had been entirely swallowed by the void and vanished without a trace already and time was clearly of the essence; though this could not be done until air superiority had been achieved.
Which was easier said than done.
"Behind you!" Carcharodon warned before simply letting out an annoyed snarl and charging forwards as he activated his Semblance, body rippling as he simply ran through Felix and slashed with the Red Waves to decapitate an oncoming Griffin; the Lion Faunus catching him as the body of the now headless Grimm collided with him. A large flock of screaming and winged horrors had focused their attention on the small craft and forced Onyx to bring it into a series of steep dives, sharp banks and spiralling evasive manoeuvrers whilst Hellion fired what weapons the Bull-head had with ruthless precision and Diamond fired from an open hatch, explosive rounds picking off Grimm with ease though as the flock began to overwhelm them through sheer weight of number Felix and Carcharodon had found themselves on the Bull-heads' wings tearing at any monster that drew close to keep them from its' engines.
"We've got another one!" Felix called out before sprinting across the Bull-Heads' entire wingspan in an instant to deliver a crushing knee strike to the beak of another Griffin, unwilling to fire his weapons or swing their chainsaw blades in such dangerously close proximity to an engine as the Grimm dove towards it. A fraction of a second later there was movement behind him which he felt as much as heard, whirling around he saw that yet another Grimm had swooped low only for its' wings to be torn away in a single fluid motion from Carcharodon before the Shark Faunus grasped firmly by the midsection and leapt from the wing of the Bull-head, sending the now flightless monster tumbling to its' end whilst Felix watched in first icy, immobilising dread and then relief as Carcharodon used his Semblance and his liquid form of his body travelled through the crevices between each armoured plate of the crafts' hull before pooling and reforming on the wing.
"Is this really the time to be showing off?" Felix demanded, punctuating the question with a volley of gunfire that ripped several Grimm from the sky before the could draw close.
"Can you think of a better time than right now?" Carcharodon answered as he weaved around the Lion Faunus and into two quick flashes of his weapons reduced a Grimm to rapidly disintegrating portions; Felix being less surprised than he might have expected to see that beneath the ornate helm that served as his peoples' crown Carcharodon wore a savage smile and his obsidian eyes gleamed as he cut through the tide of monsters.
That thrill of battle soon vanished.
"LOOK OUT!" Felix bellowed as another Grimm lunged at Carcharodon, talons extended and as his fellow team leader evaded the oncoming attack, his body liquefying to avoid it time seemed to slow down and Felix knew exactly what would happen but was powerless to prevent it. The Grimm collided with the engine mounted on the Bull-heads' left wing and tore it away in a deluge of sparks and trail of smoke and the craft immediately began to tilt and spiral as it fell despite what were Onyx's best efforts to keep control.
"INSIDE!" Carcharodon roared "THERE'S NO MORE WE CAN DO HERE!" Felix found himself agreeing with this sentiment and quickly climbed back into the Bull-head, he and Diamond sealing the hatches whilst Carcharodon seeped into the cockpit and reformed himself
"Hold onto something!" Hellion called back to them from the cockpit as she and Onyx both wrestled with their controls, the Dragonfly Faunus opening fire on something below to clear a path whilst the Puma Faunus fought to make their crash landing at least somewhat controlled.
"WE CAN'T LAND ON THE GROUND, THE GROUND IS GONE!" he roared "I'M BRINGING US DOWN ON A BRIDGE!" barely a moment later they were all jolted and almost thrown from their seats by the thumping impact of their landing and could hear nothing but the deafening screech of metal as the Bull-head continued to skid across the bridge they had landed on, coming perilously close to overshooting and slipping over the edge but eventually coming to a halt.
Onyx rampaged out of the craft without drawing his weapon and simply unleashed his Semblance, the force of the roar he let loose distorting the air around him and shattering the bones of an entire flock of Grimm.
"Coast's clear!" Diamond called out, snapping off a quick shot to dispatch a lone Manticore that had been circling worryingly close before hopping out of the Bull-head and taking in the scope of the battle going on in the city.
There were no words to describe it
New Vale was continuing to sink and entire levels of the city, an area that had been home to thousands had simply disappeared into the abyss that continued to devour everything in its' path whilst fires raged as far as the eye could see, the cities' ability to partition off entire districts doing nothing in the face of such an all-consuming threat.
"What do we do?" she breathed out, struggling to find a shred of hope to cling to in the face of such overwhelming odds. Felix let out a slow, wavering breath as he stood beside her and took in the utter devastation all around them before simply readying his weapons as he answered.
"We're Hunters….we're gonna do our job" he made it seem so simple that, for a moment at least it almost seemed as though they could win this battle like any other.
Elsewhere in the raging maelstrom of fire, steel and fury that was New Vale's sky Nickel and Team CLIR fought their own battle.
"Come one! We've gotta CLIR 'em out!" Corvid's voice boomed out above the cacophony of war, an amused edge to her voice making it clear that the play on words had been intentional and despite the sheer, unmitigated havoc being wrought around her she was managing to no only keep a cool and level head, but also allowing herself to enjoy the rush; she gave everything she had not because this battle was more dire than any she had faced, but simply because she had never given anything less.
A lone Grimm exploded into mist as a hulking shape simply tore through it.
"It doesn't even feel like we're making a difference….this is bullshit" the irritable tone of Nickel's voice seemed odd coming from the hulking monstrosity that her weapon had turned her into. Whilst wearing the Omega Destroyer battle-suit Nickel was nine feet tall with arms ending in monstrous three pronged claws and fitted with powerful lasers and a flamethrower; winged and sporting a helmet stylised to resemble an obsidian skull with a visor in place of eyes.
"I thought you wanted to give your toy a test run, try out the upgrades?" Corvid noted mockingly before returning to the matter at hand; Team CLIR had been tasked by Qrow with targeting airborne Grimm closest to those Hive-Towers from which civilian evacuations would be taking place, with the airship terminals lost to the void New Vale was sinking into new makeshift landing and boarding areas would have to be made from the bridges between the monolithic structures and to that end she unleashed a salvo from the rail-guns of the Omega Wing which reduced a pair of Nevermore to nothingness as they prepared to fire their quills before Iris brought 'Old Unreliable' the teams' personal transport arcing back around to eliminate the rest of the avian horrors in a hail of rockets and gunfire.
Leaving the small matter of a veritable swarm of Teryx to be attended to.
Corvid continued her offensive without hesitation, bringing her weapons' forcefield generator online and simply hurtling into the midst of the flying saurian terrors, their bodies being outright annihilated as she collided with them before she deactivated the shield again, using it sparingly to conserve energy before deploying her arm mounted blades and cutting a swathe through the Grimm only to see a particularly large example of the species had honed in on her teams' transport and was giving chase; trailing close behind and above with its' jaws snapping wildly. Glowering behind the featureless visor of the Omega Wing Corvid swooped towards the Bull-head and prepared to activate her Semblance as she expertly readjusted her angle and velocity, timing and positioning herself so that she was in the path of the Teryx when it tried to tear into the Bull-head; her feet connected with the hull of the transport and her Semblance came into effect, making her immovable and shattering the bones of the Grimm as the force it expended had nowhere else to go.
With a single well placed shot the Teryx disappeared into a cloud of ebony mist. The skies were still far from clear however and as she kicked off the roof of her Bull-head Corvid cast her eyes around in search of the most pressing target, only to momentarily stunned by the sheer might of Nickel Polendina.
The android was simply a rampaging juggernaut.
The range and power of the Omega Destroyers' weapons had been improved and its' once lumbering and unwieldy movements were now smooth and graceful in a way that nothing of its' stature should have been as the android wearing the battle-suit ploughed through the countless Teryx in the area, shooting, incinerating, cleaving through or in several cases simply crashing into the Grimm by the score until, in a rare but disturbing display of intelligence the beasts displayed a level of cunning and attempted to simply swarm their opponent, attacking from all angles.
They failed.
Corvid was stunned and begrudgingly impressed as Nickel showed off the upgrade to her weapon that had taken her so long to implement as she simply ejected herself from the Omega Destroyer and deployed her own wings and weapon; it was not simply remotely controlled it had been made a part of the android to such an extent that she wielding it like her own body and the two machined fought back to back, Nickel's photon weapons illuminating the sky with their ethereal green glow until not a single Grimm remained.
Then a flash of light somewhere in the distance preceded a dull, booming explosion.
"That was Ruby, it couldn't have been anything else" Nickel declared as she flew beside Corvid, the Omega Destroyer whirring and clunking as it wrapped itself around her once again.
"We should go help-"
"No" Nickel interrupted "You've got a mission, I should go and help her" the two of them stared at one another, eyes locked together even through the visors' of their respective masks until after a moment that felt like an age the immovable Corvid Xiao Long relented.
"Go….try and come back in one piece, the twins like you" with that Corvid turned and flew towards Team CLIR's transport which circled around them, rejoining her team so that they could update Qrow on the situation and receive new orders.
Nickel paid them no mind and instead glanced down at the armoured claws covering her arms, beneath which she still wore the friendship bracelet given to her by Tai-Jaune and Summer-Pyrrha; Ruby was almost certainly fighting Salem herself and despite all her bravado it was a fight that Nickel was not sure she would walk away from if she intruded upon it. She grimaced and set off anyway, streaking through the air as she prepared to fight beside the Silver Eyed Warrior she had been intended to kill.
Nickel was performing the exact opposite of her intended purpose and had never felt less defective.
As well trained and equipped and as fiercely determined as they might have been, White Fang insurgents still fell to the ground in great numbers as Arctus and Eagle continued to fight alongside Neon and Squish; ploughing through the attacking forces who found themselves utterly outmatched and overpowered.
"TRAITOR TO THE FAUNUS!" one of their number, some form of Reptilian Faunus accused as they charged at Arctus and swung the butt of their rifle at his face like a club only for Arctus to block the blow with his sword in his left hand before driving his fist into his attackers' forearm with bone-breaking force, quickly following up by smashing his elbow into their scaly snout and leaving the crumpled on the ground unconscious.
Arctus was continuing to use non-lethal tactics and techniques as much as feasibly possible, though the Bear Faunus was certainly more than capable of disabling his opponents without killing and so this choice was little hindrance, as was proven when his next opponents orchestrated a coordinated attack against him. A Rabbit Faunus charged towards him with a wordless war-cry and their weapons at the ready whilst a Gecko Faunus whose inhuman, padded and webbed fingers allowed them to cling to walls prepared to leap down and attack from above; without hesitation Arctus turned to face the Gecko Faunus as they fell and promptly conjured a Glyph directly in their path, blood smeared across its' incandescent substance as his attacker lost several teeth and fractured bones in the collision before another Glyph was created, this one being the deep black colour of Gravity Dust and sending the injured Faunus crashing downwards at dangerous speeds and into the path of an oncoming kick to the ribs. The Rabbit Faunus fell with little trouble, Arctus driving the handle of his weapon into their skull with an overhand strike and following up with a kick to the knee and then the gut that left them crumpled on the ground and the Bear Faunus free to focus his attention elsewhere; preparing to summon one of his constructs as he saw where his talents might best be used.
After years at war Squish showed none of the restraint or hesitation to use killing blows that Arctus did, a fact that was proven as two opponents fell in quick succession. His signature weapon 'Breaker' was slung across his back whilst in his hand was its' smaller counterpart 'Fixer', a high-calibre handgun with a curved, claw-like blade fitted to the underside of its' grip; that blade left a Canine Faunus clutching at their neck and letting out horrible choking and gagging sounds as they collapsed with their lifeblood pooling around them before Squish took aim at a huge, lumbering Ram Faunus with curling horns adorning their skull; simply shooting them in the face before they could draw close only for the diminutive man to realise that it had been his last bullet. An annoyed hiss escaped him as the next batch of attackers came; only for Squish to left blinking in surprise as the towering form a glowing Minotaur rampaged through their midst, seeing Arctus close by he nodded in thanks to Gangrel's son before focusing on the task at hand once again.
"Em-bear-assing" Neon taunted as a Grizzly Bear Faunus attempted to bring her down with a wild and frenzied blow at her skull, only her to weave around it and swiftly disable several joints and knock her attacker unconscious with a punishing blow to the head from her nunchaku. The rustle of clothing behind her was all the warning she needed and she wheeled several feet to the side on her roller-blades as a Rat Faunus attempted to leap on her back; they quickly tried to scrabble to their feet again after the failed attack only to dragged roughly away from Neon by some unseen force which proceeded to beat them to a bloody, unrecognisable pulp
"Babe, babe I think he gets it" Neon's words had the tone of a warning and hearing them was enough for Squish to release his Semblance and drop the now unconscious Rat Faunus that he had been bludgeoning with a piece of debris he'd taken from the ground. Planting a small kiss on his cheek Neon tore off into the fray once more with a rainbow contrail in her wake.
"Just stand down!" Eagle almost screamed as she pleaded before batting the attack of a tusked Walrus Faunus away with Sentinel in his shield form and slashing at her attacker thighs, leaving them unable to stand. With a flash of Aura she activated her Semblance and soared across the battlefield to reappear as herself in front of an enemy readying a weapon for a clear shot at the back of Arctus's head and simply drove her shield into their face and chest, flooring them with a resounding clang only for another attacker to run screaming towards her a moment later. The attack never came, instead it was intercepted by a comet of rainbow light which sent the attacker hurtling through the and smashing into a wall with a horrific crunch before Neon turned and nodded to Eagle
"Okay regroup!" the Feline Faunus called out "We need to get to wherever Null is fighting! they're gonna need our….what the hell?" as Arctus, Eagle and Squish drew close, each checking that none of them were injured and that none of their downed enemies would be attempting to stand anytime soon they found themselves looking around to see what it was that Neon found suddenly more important than their objective of finding and stopping Caliginous Null.
The answer was that Jade Rangifer had come running full-tilt into view.
"Arctus! Eagle! Oscar needs you!" she gasped and panted as she skidded to a halt beside them "You need to come with me right now!"
"What's going on?" Squish demanded
"Something's happening in the Remnant they come from" Jade answered before turning her attention back to Arctus and Eagle "I don't know what and we don't have time to talk, Oscar said he can send you home but it's gotta be right now"
Before they could debate or discuss the idea an explosion sounded close by, followed by the familiar and unmistakable sound of Caliginous Null's Semblance as the flames and debris from the blast were consumed into the endless void that the Locust Faunus manifested within himself; the sound alone enough for Jade's eyes to widen in fright. A moment later those who had been holding Null at bay came into view, in full retreat and a blind panic; Harriet Bree at the head of the group with her right arm hanging limp and blood leaking from a gash above her left eye. The sight seemed to galvanise Squish, who first reached out and squeezed Neon's hand before turning to Arctus
"Go. We'll buy you some time" Arctus looked as though he might object and the smaller man shook his head as he spoke again "Go home kid, you've got a family, a team and your fiancée at home….we'll handle this"
Eagle placing a hand on his shoulder and Jade tugging at his clothes sapped any will to resist that he might have had and, with a lump in his throat and tears in his eyes Arctus turned and ran; abandoning Squish and Neon to their fate.
As much honourable single combat meant to the Nikosi people Kataigida had known from the moment that Yang Branwen had arrived that the fight against the Chimera would follow no such rules or traditions. In her mind the Tribal Ruler dismissed any idea that she and her allies were in anyway dishonourable for outnumbering their foe, Yang Branwen carried the souls of those she murdered with her and could rightly be counted as several opponents in her own right; it was equally valid to argue that anyone who willingly took Grimm flesh into their own body was no longer a person and that one did not parley with beasts and monsters; in reality however Kataigida could accept that if they attempted to fight Yang Branwen alone she would butcher them all with ease.
As was highlighted when the Chimera broke Kataigida's spear in half with a mighty swing of her axe and then unleashed a deafening, concussive blast from her outstretched palm; the shock-wave flinging the redhead back several dozen feet and rolling to a painful stop, yet as Kataigida looked up and drew her sword as she struggled to rise she saw that the Chimera was being given no respite.
Gangrel teleported behind Yang Branwen with a dull crack, only for the broad blade of his sword to be halted by the blade of her axe; the two of them putting as much force as they could muster behind the blows and vying for dominance as the ground cracked around them
"So when you have to teleport all the time, is it hard to get your bear-ings?" the Chimera enquired, her saccharine yet mocking tone making it clear that she had a plan; in response Gangrel simply loomed over her and brought his skull downwards for a headbutt.
He missed.
The space where the Chimera had stood was empty save for black petals and without thinking the Bear Faunus teleported, reappearing some distance away just in time to see the Grimm infused abomination wearing his friends' face tear through the space he had occupied. She was on him again in an instant, the battle becoming a simple game of cat and mouse as Gangrel was forced to teleport to avoid blows that he knew he had no hope of blocking or withstanding until, as the Chimera had suspected the repeated use of his Semblance and the rapid reorientation of his body as he vanished and reappeared dozen of times in a matter of seconds began to take a toll and Gangrel swayed dizzily before collapsing.
She rushed towards him with a predatory smile and a hungry gleam in her eye.
Only to brought to a halt by almost a thousand Schnee Glyphs, their glowing surfaces compacted together so tightly that they formed a wall of solid Dust and Aura that reduced her relentless advance to a torturous crawl as, even with Ruby Rose's speed she couldn't plough through Weiss's defences.
"Oh good, I ran out of Schnees to kill in my Remnant!" the Chimera sneered as Weiss helped Gangrel to his feet. Before the Bear Faunus could teleport he and his wife to safety Yang Branwen came to a halt and switched to using another of the many Semblances she had taken, the geomancy she employed causing jagged outcropping of stone to erupt from the ground and break Weiss's concentration; the Glyphs vanished and the torrent of gunfire that Gangrel unleashed was far from enough to halt her, her eyes blazed and the clawed digits of her Grimm flesh arm twitched in anticipation as she prepared to take two new Semblances in short order.
She never even saw the haymaker coming.
Yang Xiao Long watched with no small amount of satisfaction as her twisted doppelgänger bounced and rolled to a stop; as the abomination pulled herself into a crouch her head was jerked back by crushing kick to the face as Blake made her presence known, slipping away into the darkness again as the Chimera retaliated; she wild swing of her axe hitting nothing but an after-image yet still sending Yang charging in to the fray once more.
"Part of me wants to know what happens if I take your soul!" Yang Branwen declared as Yang Xiao Long slid under the first slash of End-Times and delivered two vicious blows to the Chimera's kidneys before the Chimera swung the shaft of the weapon into her mirrors' gut and the two of them lunged and grappled with each other.
"But I'll be honest" the Chimera continued "I don't really care, you're nothing really….All the power in the world and you use it to babysit weaklings" with a disgusted snarl she kicked Yang in the chest and brought the handle of her weapon crashing against her cheek before preparing to swing the blade of her axe down on her axe as she staggered and span away.
At which point Blake reappeared and delivered a kick that buckled her knee, quickly fading away and suddenly landing a blow to the Chimera's face from her opposite side.
"Oh I am Bella-Done with this" Yang Branwen tapped into the Semblance she had taken from Sun Wukong and sent a pair of burning golden clones made of pure Aura to continue the fight against Yang Xiao Long whilst the Chimera herself shifted End-Times into its' shotgun mode and opened fire almost at random to force Blake out into the open. She had expected the blow to come from behind and so was caught off guard when Blake appeared almost directly in front of her, doubly so by the ferocity of the attack as the Faunus plunged her katana deep into her gut and unleashed a flurry of blows that left the Chimera sinking to her knees with blood dripping from her face and tricking from the corners of her mouth.
"Go on, do it" she sneered as Blake aimed the half of Ember Celica she wore directly at the face of this twisted parody of her wife, yet as she spoke the Chimera activated Neo Politan's Semblance and changed her appearance to the Yang that Blake knew; Yang Branwen became Yang Xiao Long and Blake wavered.
"I-I can't-"
"I can" the Chimera chuckled before surging upwards in a blur of motion, breaking Blake's nose with a headbutt and knocking her weapons aside before shifting End-Times back into its' axe mode and preparing to land a killing blow.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" a golden cybernetic fist closed around the shaft of the axe as Yang, freed from the attentions of the Aura clones rushed to Blake's side. The roar of pure fury that escaped the Chimera seemed to shake the air and with the strength her berserk rage afforded her she wrapped the clawed fingers of her Grimm arm around Yang's Cybernetic before crushing the limb and tearing it away in a shower of sparks; then she unleashed the concussive blast that had been amongst the first Semblances she had taken to throw Blake and Yang aside and give herself a moment to recover.
Instead a wall of crimson light struck her, searing her flesh as it hurled her into the distance.
"I was hoping you'd get involved eventually!" the Chimera cackled, sounding every part the unhinged monster that she was as she leapt to her feet and saw Adam Taurus rushing towards her with twin katanas in his hands whose blades glowed in the darkness.
"I always did plan to kill you" she admitted calmly as a burst of Ruby's speed closed the distance between them "But just out of interest, what did they promise you in return for switching sides?" if she had been brutal and relentless against her other opponents it was nothing to the way the Chimera fought now, geomancy cracked the floor Adam stood on before bursts of speed allowed Yang to strike him like a cannonball and glowing Aura clones rushed at him before he could rise; yet still the Faunus managed to give an answer
"They offered me a new start, they called it peace" he chuckled, amused by the absurdity of the idea "When this is over I can fade away and be forgotten about"
"That was your price?" the Chimera laughed as she raced around Adam before appearing behind him in a burst of petals and hacking into his back with her weapon, his Aura rippling around him as he sank to the ground
"Not at all….I won't be going quietly" he growled out through clenched teeth "There are still plenty of wrongs left to right in this Remnant; I know which one I'll be starting with" his words were a warning that came to late, the Chimera's fiery red eyes widened as Adam took one of his own katanas and promptly drove it into his own gut; the wound bringing his Semblance to a fever pitch as terrifying scarlet light wreathed his body and travelled along the length of the blade in an endless loop. With newly found strength Adam flung himself backwards and tackled the Chimera to the ground, sword still in his gut and axe still in his back as he straddled her and pinned readied his other katana for a downward stab.
"In every Remnant we meet each other and in every Remnant I take your arm" Adam's voice became almost as deranged as the Chimera's own as he gave into rage that defined him for so long "Well now it ends! This is where Adam Taurus finally kills Yang Xiao Long!" with that he thrust downwards; in studying his mirror he had learned of how this Remnant's Adam Taurus had sacrificed himself by channelling his Semblance into himself to create a living warhead of pure Aura, he applied the same technique but instead channelled all of the power directly into the Chimera to make her the epicentre of the blast; scarlet light travelling from the blade in his own abdomen, along his body and into the blade buried in Yang Branwen's sternum until his power reached a crescendo.
The blast turned night into day for a split second.
"Oh my Oum" Blake mouthed as she led the now one-armed Yang to where her allies were regrouping; Weiss and Gangrel merely appearing drained and weary whilst Kataigida's armour was dented and scuffed; all of them looking on in shock and awe at the smoking crater that marked where Adam and the Chimera had been. Of the five of them all except Kataigida had been present when the Adam Taurus of this Remnant had sacrificed himself in a similar way to save the Faunus of Atlas and knew exactly the kind of destructive power that had been unleashed, it seemed impossible that anything could have survived.
And then they heard footsteps, followed by a howling scream of agony.
What staggered forth from the smoking crater could hardly be said to be a person, ripped and burned clothes hung from a frame that was little more than charred bones held together by the last vestiges of blackened muscle and sinew whilst pulsating Grimm matter wrapped around and clung to what little remained of its' host and the empty eye sockets glowed with the same fiery red light of the Chimera's eyes. Then, frozen to the spot by simple fear and revulsion Blake, Yang, Weiss, Gangrel and Kataigida all watched as Yang Branwen's Aura flared into life around her and then began to ripple and become a thick, viscous liquid as Raffia Dirge's Semblance took hold; flesh, bone and organs regrowing at an accelerated rate until, in a matter of moments the Chimera stood before them again; clearly agonised by the ordeal and vomiting blood and Grimm tissue but whole and wreathed in a blazing inferno of pure Aura; the damage she had taken having powered her own Semblance to levels that Yang Xiao Long could only dream off
"Can this monster not be slain?" Kataigida demanded, fear creeping into her whispered words.
"I think we need to call for back up" Yang murmured "I don't think we can win this" as if she had heard their words and sensed weakness the Chimera charged, her destroyed weapon forgotten as she made to tear them apart with her bare hands.
Felix and Diamond, alongside Carcharodon, Onyx and Hellion had taken it upon themselves to contact Qrow and learn of the larger situation beyond the obvious destruction being wrought on the city; Qrow had informed them of the evacuation efforts that he was overseeing and explained that as the city continued to sink into whatever unknown void Salem had created the existing airship terminals and rallying points were unworkable, meaning that they would need to help in the creation of new ones. To this end the five of them had fought their way through Grimm infested Hive-Towers, slaying monsters in amounts that were truly uncountable and focusing solely at the task at hand, paying no mind to the havoc and desperation of the situation until they had finally reached a specific bridge located between two Hive-Towers which needed to be destroyed so that the openings in the sides of the gargantuan buildings could be used as makeshift boarding hatches for arriving airships.
Unfortunately the bridge too had been infested with Grimm.
"Keep 'em back! Keep 'em back!" Diamond called out as she snapped off an explosive round which detonated inside the skull of a lumbering Ursa as it tore through the vehicles that had been abandoned on the bridge, their owners making their way to the nearest shelter on foot. Beside her Hellion hurled dozens of her knives into the smaller Grimm that followed the Ursa, pouring through the gaps in the vehicles only to meet their ends on the Dragonfly Faunus's blades whilst Marauder shrieked and dove, plucking at the eyes of the monsters'. One of Hellion's knives, one of the many fitted with a small Fire Dust crystal tore through the hood of a nearby car and ignited its' fuel, the flames of the explosion being quickly absorbed by Felix through his Semblance before the Lion Faunus simply charged forwards with a yell and drove Hack and Slash into the belly of a King-Taijitu that rose above the rest of the fray, the chainsaw blades of his swords shrieking as he ripped the Grimm in half only to find himself surrounded by a veritable sea of monsters.
"COME ON THEN!" he roared in challenge, almost certain that he could tear through them alone and entirely unworried about the situation whilst he had his friends at his back yet the fight never came; instead Felix found himself subsumed in cold darkness for a moment before being brought back the defensive perimeter that his friends had set for themselves as Carcharodon used his Semblance to pluck the Lion Faunus free of the Grimm.
The reason soon became clear.
Old Unreliable, it's distinctively jarring and vibrant paint job unmistakable swooped low; weapons unloading as it simply ploughed into the Grimm, smashing parked cars aside and no doubt inflicting a considerable amount of damage on itself as Iris used the aircraft as a battering ram before bringing it skidding to a halt on the bridge.
The hatches were flung open and Corvid leapt out, throwing a set of primed explosive charges onto the bridge so that they could complete the objective of destroying it before she turned her attention to Felix.
"Fluffy come on! We've gotta move!" something in Corvid's tone, the raw, unmitigated fear in her words cut through the haze of battle, adrenaline and aching weariness that Felix was suffering and brought his mind into razor-sharp focus.
"What's going on?"
"Aunt Ruby is fighting Salem, Nickel went to help her but it won't be enough-"
"Let's go!" Felix called out to Diamond and Team GORE "Everybody move, Aunt Ruby needs out help!"
"That's not all" Corvid added "It's our Mums….Aunt Weiss and Uncle Gang are with them, they're fighting that other Yang; they need help, the put out an SOS-"
"The monster that killed Raffia?" Carcharodon rasped out, cold fury seeping into his voice with every syllable. Felix for his part stood frozen to the spot as he tried to make an impossible decision; in his mind he knew that the battle against Salem herself was of utmost importance and that tactically speaking they should do everything the could to help Ruby and Nickel, yet he could not bring himself to give an order that would involve abandoning his mothers to the monster that was Yang Branwen, nor did he believe that any of the surviving members or Team GORE would follow such a plan.
All plans and possibilities were pushed from his mind by a fresh distraction.
Felix, along with everyone else present whirled around to face Hellion as she sank to the ground with a sharp inhale, her eyes shifting to the pure milky white of her Semblance as something took hold of her; Marauder however displayed none of the usual signs of being under Hellion's direct control and shrieked agitatedly as the Faunus's wings shuddered and twitched and her Aura flickered around her for a moment until, as rapidly as it had begun the seizure, or whatever it had been ended and Hellion sagged forwards, retching and struggling for breath whilst trying to force words passed her suddenly dry lips
"It's Eagle" she managed to croak out "Whatever Salem's doing, whatever this darkness swallowing the city is….Eagle's using to come home, Salem is the key"
"If Arctus is with her we've gotta help them" Diamond interjected, suddenly frantic those words sent fresh waves of dread through Felix, the idea of Eagle and Arctus returning only to be confronted by Salem herself terrifying him to his core, yet the threat of the Chimera had not been lessened. Eventually however Carcharodon broke the silence.
"Go, take the fight to Salem….Onyx, Hellion go with them" he indicated to the crown of the Frost River Tribe adorning his head "I'll face the Chimera….is settling blood debts and avenging our people not why I brought us to this place so many years ago?" Felix's lip trembled for a moment before he quickly pulled Carcharodon into a hug
"Good luck man" the Shark Faunus merely nodded in silence and shed his hooded cloak, throwing it onto Team CLIR's Bull-head as he stalked away, his body melting into its' liquid form.
"Fluffy we've gotta go now!" Corvid called out, snapping her brother back to his sense and Felix nodded and reloaded his weapons before sprinting onto the transport alongside Team CLIR and the remaining halves of Team FADE and Team GORE.
Despite the bleakness of the situation he found himself clinging on to a glimmering ember of hope that somehow, against all odds they would be able to save everyone.
Arctus and Eagle had followed Jade through the open battlefield that the Resistance outpost had become, the young Spring Maiden keeping the few White Fang insurgents that had crossed their path at bay by binding them in thick roots and vines or simply sealing off entire roads with barricades of thorn and bramble over a meter thick and laced with with poisonous barbs as she led them back towards the half ruined cafe that Oscar Pine had made his temporary abode.
"Whoa!" the alarmed gasp escaped Eagle almost of its' own volition as the three of them rushed inside the building and into a back room where Oscar was waiting for them; the Wizard's entire body glowing with ethereal light as channelled his powers to their fullest extent, mentally reaching across the multiverse and the gulf of time itself to both lend his aid to countless other Wizards in their efforts to halt Salem's attempt to cast New Vale into the abyss and also create a rift between the two points, using the Queen of the Grimm's own abhorrent plans in order to use the city, which was now partially outside of the normal flow of time and space as an anchoring point. Oscar stood in front of what Arctus and Eagle could only assume was the gateway, a swirling and roughly circular nexus of swirling light his outer edges blurred and shifted by a poisonous shade of bright, acid green and a deep, sea blue whilst the centre of the light shone a brilliant light.
"It's not ready yet" the Wizard informed them through clenched teeth and with sweat trickling down his freckled brow, the amount of effort he was exerting to control the flow of time in such a way plain in the way the words were forced through his clenched teeth and the air crackled and roiled around him, charged with some unknowable energy.
"How long?" Arctus breathed out, his palms sweating and hands trembling as he broke his gaze away from the portal for just long enough to see that Eagle was as breathlessly apprehensive as he, the reality that they may soon be returning to their own Remnant and the loved ones that waited for them there being almost overwhelming.
"Trust me, you'll know" Oscar assured him, the group remained silent for a while; the tension hanging thick in the air as much as the ever-shifting magic that permeated it until Jade spoke up.
"What about me?" she murmured, fixing Arctus and Eagle with an imploring stare "We had a deal remember? You promised" Arctus nodded silently and Eagle addressed the Oscar as he turned his attention to them for just long enough to give a questioning look
"Jade….she doesn't want to stay in this Remnant, she wants to come with us and we think it's for the best for her. There's nothing for her here other than being a weapon for one side or the other, it's no way to live" Oscar looked from Arctus and Eagle to Jade and then back to the Hunters who had been stranded beyond their place in space and time and the pair found themselves panicking, hearts hammering as they realised that with a single thought the Wizard could halt his efforts, close the portal before it was ever fully made and leave them stuck in this war-torn and ruined Remnant for the rest of their lives; second passed and seemed to last entire lifetimes until Oscar finally spoke.
"I understand….I'll be sad to see you leave Jade, you're right, you shouldn't have had to live your life as a tool and I'm sorry that it ever came to this. Go, I'll explain it to everyone….they'll understand" Jade nodded and swallowed thickly before wiping her eyes, her body language suggesting that she would very much like to hug the young man who had been her teacher and protector despite being truthfully far too young for the burdens he carried himself; Arctus and Eagle saw this and both reached out to comfort the teen.
Until the door to the coffee shop was flung open with enough force to rip it from its' hinges.
"Harriet Bree is dead!" Neon exclaimed as she skidded to a halt, rainbow light still flickering around her whilst Squish followed her inside, walking backwards as he unloaded a storm of bullets into some unseen opponent.
"She tried to help us buy some time" Neon continued, ashen-faced and aghast "Her Aura ran out, Null….he can eat anything without an Aura"
"There's nobody left to fight him" Squish added as he hurriedly reloaded "Our forces are all tied up"
"Hold the line" Oscar ordered "All of you, you have to….whatever it takes"
"Okay" Squish breathed out, looking from Neon to Jade to Arctus and Eagle before nodding "He's gonna be here any second-" before he could finish a sizeable portion of the buildings' front wall was torn away, brick and plaster being reduced to atoms and unidentifiable specs before Caliginous Null strode through the gaping hole that had been a doorway only moments before, his eyes returning to their natural purple as the void the seemed to fill his body whenever he used his Semblance subsided.
"Indeed I am" he leered before reaching beneath the vest of of his White Fang uniform and producing a pair of collapsed weapons which unfurled into a pair of long but narrow bladed hook-swords.
Arctus and realised that if they ever wanted to return home the Locust Faunus would have to be stopped here and now.
Each blow they traded sounded like a thunderclap that shook the heavens themselves and yet Ruby and Salem continued to wage all-out war against against one another as through the earth-shattering attacks that they landed were of no more consequence than drops of rain.
The force of Salem's attack warped the air around her and sent a shock-wave ripping through the air as she unleashed a mighty swing at Ruby's gut only for the Silver Eyed Warrior to somersault over the blow, her Semblance transforming her into a crimson blur of motion as she landed on the crescent blade of Salem's scythe and aimed Crescent Rose in its' sniper rifle form at her face. Superhuman speed was pitted against subtle manipulations of time as Ruby opened fire, still perched on Salem's weapon yet none of her shots landed; the Queen of the Grimm evading shots with twists of her head and neck that made it appear as though she were in multiple places at once and causing the targeting system of the mask Ruby war to display several error readings until finally she simply leapt and delivered a spinning kick to Salem's chest that sent the Queen of the Grimm skidding backwards. Ruby had barely shifted Crescent Rose into its' scythe form before Salem was on her again, simply vanishing and reappearing faster than the eye could see. Instinct alone allowed Ruby to bring the blade of her weapon around to parry the incoming blow, yet Salem, in a burst of monstrous strength used their tangled blades as leverage to pivot and throw Ruby from the roof of the Hive Tower entirely.
Fortunately Ruby could fly.
The light of her Silver Eyes streamed through the mask she wore as she tapped into both Semblance and her otherworldly and mystical powers in tandem; body glowing as she soared through the air at faster than the speed of sound and put several miles between herself and Salem before rocketing back towards her on a collision course with her scythe held at the ready. Time slowed to a crawl for Ruby as hurtled towards Salem only for her adversary to warp the flow of time around herself, granting herself the speed to simply weave under a slash intended to take her head before lashing outwith an open palm and striking the legendary Huntress in the face with cataclysmic force.
The pain was incredible.
Ruby felt fragments of her mask cut into her face as it shattered under Salem's hand, her Aura flickering around her as she was flung head over heels and left skidding across the roof of the building with waves of agonising pain flooding through her head, neck and back from the simple strike that had felt as though a mountain had been hurled at her. Nevertheless Ruby dragged herself to her feet, Silver Eyes flaring as tendril of living darkness rose from the mass of protean, shifting Grimm tissue that covered the roof; dissipating it before it could ensnare her.
"You have no more magic to save you" Salem purred as she twirled her crescent bladed scythe and advanced on Ruby in slow, deliberate steps "No more tricks, no more friends, no more chances….Just another lone Hunter, destined to die" Ruby braced herself and prepared to charge yet as impossibly fast as she was she made it no more than a few steps.
Salem was faster and Ruby's world exploded into pain.
The Queen of the Grimm relished the sight of the blazing white light vanish from one of Ruby Rose's eyes as her scythe tore through it, her Aura shattering as the blade ripped a deep, bloody wound into her face and destroyed her right eye completely. Ruby's screams were silenced as Salem closed her hand around her throat and began drag her bloodied and beaten nemesis to the edge of the roof.
"I could kill you here, I could carve your heart out or take your head" Salem's voice trembled with barely contained excitement at the thought "But I won't, I'm going to throw you into the same void you left me in where you can perish with the Kingdom you failed….Goodbye Ruby Rose" with that she hoisted Ruby into the air and prepared to throw her down into the darkness.
Only to drop her to the ground as laser-fire ripped through her arm and shoulder.
"WHAT?" Salem's voice became a distorted and enraged roar as she was forced to block an onslaught of ranged attacks with her scythe and twirl to evade them before finally the source of the assault became clear; a large and fearsome looking battle-suit, roughly nine feet tall and sporting powerful weapons arrays on its' clawed arms. The Omega Destroyer dove onto the roof and used the propulsion system of its' drone-fighter form as a flamethrower, creating a temporary barrier between itself and Salem as it gathered Ruby into its' arms and took to the air once again, speeding away into the distance.
"NO!" Salem screamed, preparing to raise a fresh volley of chitinous javelins and tear the sky asunder to ensure Ruby Rose died.
The first projectile was destroyed before she could raise it.
"Sorry chief, but camping is a legitimate strategy" the mocking tone that followed a beam of ethereal green light ripping through her path was familiar, stirring something from the memories of Ozymandias Eldritch.
"You!" she snarled as she glanced upwards and saw Nickel Polendina hovering in the air above her with her wings deployed; the android having ejected herself from her battle-suit and controlled it remotely. Seeing her Salem couldn't help but let out a truly unhinged cackle before mentally reaching into herself and mentally twisting the jagged chunk of condensed and fossilised Grimm matter that rested in her heart; in response to her manipulation two jagged lengths of bone burst from her shoulder-blades, flesh and sinew rapidly beginning to grow and shape itself around them until, within a matter of moments Salem sported a pair of wide and leathery wings.
"I have Ozymandias's memories you know" she cooed as she hefted her scythe and launched herself into the air "You never anything more than tool to be used and discarded, he regretted bringing you online every time you spoke. You truly are an insufferable machine playing at being human….I'm going to enjoy killing you Nickel Polendina and you will not be missed"
Nickel remained silent, simply glancing down at the friendship bracelet on her wrists before the battle began.
Authors' Notes:
Oh boy do we have a lot to unpack here….and only two chapters left of this volume, the crescendo of the finale and the wrap up.
Then it's on the final volume; I've bullet pointed the bare bones for Vol.12 and the epilogue that will go on to become the plans for each scene and chapter and honestly it really does feel bittersweet knowing that we're this close to the end.
But, on the other hand….I have some rough ideas for the main characters of a spin-off which would be the fourth story in the Downward Spiral timeline.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we:
Let's be honest, Salem started strong and set the tone of the fight early.
The idea of Felix and Carcharodon just slugging it out with the Grimm on the wings of the Bull-head was too good for me to not do.
"Can you think of a better time than right now?" I mean can you?
You didn't really think that they'd be staying in the air did you?
Corey and Nickel working together is probably a sign of the apocalypse.
Also, yeah the plan to evacuate people is being adapted; things are bleak but all hope isn't lost yet.
I told you that Nickel was upgrading the Omega Destroyer….you knew I was gonna do something clever with the remote control feature as soon as I showed it off.
Just tugging at your heartstrings with the friendship bracelet.
Insert the Star Wars "Traitor" meme here.
I wrote that fight scene in a specific way, I did a similar thing in the Vol.9 finale where the fight jumps from person to person as they step into each others' fights because in my head it looks cinematic.
There was actually gonna be another Arctus, Eagle and Jade scene in this chapter but honestly it didn't add anything and it messed with the flow of things so it was folded into the two scenes with them we got.
Come on, be serious it was never gonna be a one on one fight.
Kataigida just got overpowered and you've gotta admit it, the way she handled Gangrel was pretty perfect.
Bumbleby versus evil Yang, definitely has the potential to be a finale fight all on its' own if I wanted.
The most Neo use of Neo's Semblance ever.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" for old times' sake.
I could have made the Adam Vs Yang Branwen fight last for an entire chapter or two on its' own as well, but we have plenty of other things to be getting on with….the comment about this being the universe where a version of Adam finally kills a version of Yang is fun though.
Shame he was wrong….She is really hard to kill, but don't worry I have a plan and you'll love it.
With the fights in cities, especially the large scale ones it's a struggle sometimes to balance the fact that every Hunter is a superhero in their own right against the fact that they're fighting a war of attrition and it's going to be a bloody, thankless slog through a literal tide of enemies that don't get tired or feel fear.
Oscar opening a portal triggered a reaction in Hellion, because she and Eagle can still sense each other across the multiverse.
"Is settling blood debts and avenging our people not why I brought us to this place so many years ago?" I mean, he has a point.
Oscar is actually using Salem's own plan against her; or at least to his own ends and using New Vale itself as an anchoring point between the two timelines because it, unlike Hellion will survive the process.
So Jade is going with them….as long as everyone survives.
Can we get an F in chat for Harriet.
Of course Caliginous shows up….Hook swords felt right for him for some reason.
Super speed Vs Time-bending, basically evens the odds and if Salem can recover from Silver-Eyes inflicted damage in an instant….it was always gonna be tricky.
The fight was low-key inspired by the final fight in Matrix Revelations.
And now Ruby has no right eye….Was tempted to completely blind her but decided against it.
Writing Salem getting more and more cliché villain with the speeches was fun, she's losing her grip.
There's a Dues Ex Machina joke here….especially considering Nickel is an android.
"Camping is a legitimate strategy" yes that's an RvB reference.
So, Salem can grow wings….it's gonna be an aerial fight now.
Now let's just sum this all up so you know what you've got to look forward to in Chapter 150; Nickel is fighting Salem and Felix, Diamond, Onyx, Hellion and Team CLIR are en route; Carcharodon is heading to a showdown with Yang Branwen, Team NEON are still fighting Pantheon and Arctus, Diamond, Jade, Neon and Squish are holding the line against a living black hole so Oscar can make a portal….it's gonna be fun.
Thank you to SumoSnipe, 57558585885 and MajorBrony95 for their reviews on the last chapter.
If Kataigida had gotten her honourable one on one she would be a bloody smear on the ground.
Leading an evacuation is tricky when the floor and all your airship terminals were just swallowed by the void, but they're working on it.
Team NEON vs Pantheon rematch is coming.
The fight with Null is gonna be a tough one.
Shutting Salem's power off isn't something the other Wizards can do, they're just trying to overpower her which is easier said than done owing to her a) spending an infinite amount of time harnessing the powers and b) being Salem.
Adam was next, which was probably predictable.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review