The Dreamer Gate

by Malignent

Thousands of Uruk-Hai are drawn to Remnant after a ritual gone wrong, and are more than capable of bringing their own taste of war to this new world. Now the people of Remnant must deal with this new and numerous threat. As the Tournament draws near, and the actions of the Uruk Leaders grows ever bolder, can peace truly be maintained?

10. Chapter 10: The Arena

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of The Rings, the Middle-Earth universe, Shadow of Mordor/War or RWBY.

This work will contain moments of intense violence, dark and dirty humor, and canonical divergences.

---

The Arena

Dressed in tattered brown pants and a filthy-looking white dress shirt, the Arena master took off his oddly shaped leather hat to bow to the two groups before stepping past his two shield-bearers and standing between them.

"Might I say that you both look grand considerin'" Ishmol pointed out as he gave both the Shaman and Tugog once overs "Haven't heard much from either of you, how's Horkie boy doin'?"

The question was directed to the Warchief, who gavce a small sigh "He's under stress, he recently discovered that his brother was slain."

This made the Shaman's head perk up in interest.

"Oh? Wouldn't expect him to stress over something like that." Ishmol tilted his head questioningly "Is it really affectin' him that much?"

As the three conversed, Yang leaned past Krosh to try and get a better view of Velvet "Hey." she whispered towards her fellow huntress-in-training "Vel?"

The Rabbit Faunus just gave her another dazed stare, but seemed as if she was trying to come up with something to say to the blonde when-

"-but let's not get too distracted, eh?" Ishmol gave a small laugh before gesturing to his shield-bearers "Mozu here can show your girls to the holdin' areas while Tuvor shows ya boys to their seats, I still got lots of greetings to give, but we need to talk some more."

With that, Ishmol walked to the edge of the catwalk before leaping to the loading bay ground floor and moving amongst the throes of Uruks.

The two Defenders approached, both of them reeking of alcohol, before giving half-assed bows "Me gonna take to cages," one said "I gonna find ya seats." said the other

Ogthrak gave them a suspicious look before turning to look at the Grand Shaman "Sir?"

"Go..." the Storm Ruler breathed out as he continued looking at Tugog and leaning forward a bit "Want... to talk?"

"Yes," the Dreamer agreed before walking past the Shaman and leading him away "there are quite a few things I believe we need to speak about."

As they walked off, Skak blinked before glancing down to Ishga "Want me ta take her-?"

"No." Ishga stated vehemently "You do not touch the slave again. Since apparently you can't even handle sitting still and watching something for a few measly days, I shall deliver her to her cell!"

Krosh merely turned a questioning gaze to Ogthrak, who merely nodded before he and Ratlug walked off to find some seats.

The smaller Warmonger sighed before turning to Mozu "So where exactly do you keep these things anyway?"

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Mozu led them into the halls adjacent to the Loading Bay and downstairs to what must've been a basement. Krosh and Ishga kept the Huntresses in front of them, but the Alcohol soaked Defender led the group as he lumbered down the halls.

"Ugh, what is that smell?" Yang couldn't help but ask, the pungent odor finally getting on her last nerves.

"G-Grog..." Velvet pointed out quietly as she rubbed at her head

"Seriously?" the Blonde turned back to their guide "Dude, you smell like you went thirteen rounds at the seediest bar imaginable."

Mozu didn't look back, only muttering "Probably..." as he continued his lumbering

"All Ishmol's underlings are like this." Krosh said with a roll of his eyes "Its actually quite genius I guess, but the guy's pretty good at brewing. Has all the more grog dependent quite literally drinking right out of his metaphorical teat."

"Its deplorable, unsightly." Ishga commented angrily

If the Alcoholic Uruk was offended, he didn't show it.

"Oh come on," the Warmonger turned to the red-themed Uruk with a smirk "How're you gonna be lambasting this guy over here when I can smell tons of the miracle beverage on you?"

Yang had been so focused on their guide that she didn't even pick up on the smell coming from Velvet's Escort, maybe Uruks just had better noses for that sort of thing. His accusation was enough to make Ishga stutter.

"T-this is only because my idiot cohort decided to get him and our Entry completely riddled with the stuff!" he exclaimed before steadying himself and growling "I had no-"

"Wait, your boy got drunk with her?" Krosh asked as he held back a laugh

"I'd rather we don't continue this dialogue."

"Then you in luck." Mozu said as they finally came across a large room full of dozens of various cages lined up against one another, the walls of one cell being the wall for its neighbor. There was some odd, empty section of the room near the cages where a single thick metal beam stood off-center.

Mozu gestured to two empty ones next to each other, and soon each huntress was led to their respective cages. Yang took a moment to be thankful that she and the Faunus were neighbors.

Somehow this cell was even emptier than the Storm's but she supposed this could be excused since this was supposed to be much more temporary than her last cell was.

Velvet's cell was on her left side, but the one on her right seemed to contain a single shirtless Uruk who just sulked in the corner of his cage.

For Velvet, her other neighbor was a single caged Beowolf who thrashed at every wall it could as it tried to escape.

"Okay."

Yang turned around to see Krosh stretch "This is it, Lady. You gotta give us your A-game."

The brawler quirked an eyebrow "You know, you never really told me what I get if I win."

"How about I just confirm we're gonna murder the hell out've you if you lose? You focus on that and stay deadly, eh?" he winked at her before stepping back to the doorway He gave her a good old finger gun taunt, and it was then she noticed something she hadn't before.

Instead of his often bare arms, he had a set of metal bracers strapped to his wrists.

It was a small detail, but a notable one.

In the Cell next door, Ishga tried shaking Velvet some more to get that insulting dazed look from her face "Come on you damned hybrid filth!"

Velvet swallowed loudly before focusing her gaze on him "Shaking... making it worst."

The Blood-Storm scoffed before dropping her to the ground and stepping back as she pulled herself to her knees "You listen and you listen good. I was lucky the Master didn't seem to take note of your... condition, however do not expect that to be an excuse for shoddy performance."

"I... I don't even have a weapon..."

Ishga kneeled before her and tilted his head to the side "I watched you take on a crowd of trained Uruk-Hai without a damned weapon,so believe me I expect you to do the same here, Grog or not. And so help me every single failure I see out there will be another hour of torture I put you through if you have the gal... THE GAL... to lose."

With that he stood with a grumble and left.

Soon the cage doors for both were slammed shut and the Huntresses were left to their devices. The minute the Uruks were out of her sight Yang immediately to the bars connecting her cell to Velvet's and called out to the Faunus "Hey! Hey Vel!"

The Bunny-haired girl had tried blinking away more of the blur after Ishga left, but turned to the familiar voice with confusion etched into her features "Yang... what are you doing here?"

The Blonde was taken aback "What am I-? Didn't you hear? Didn't any of my Teammates catch you up to speed?"

"I... I haven't talked to any of them since they got back from your trip, I'd heard Blake helped Sun and his pals stop a Bus-Hijacking but besides that..."

"So... they're keeping busy, eh?" Yang was relieved to hear that her capture hadn't dissuaded her teammates from kicking ass and being awesome, but she still had questions "What about you? How did you wind up here?"

Velvet looked down for a moment before sighing "A bunch of Uruks, they tried robbing a train... me and Coco tried to stop them. They ended up taking me."

Yang waited before carefully asking "Is Coco..?"

"She's fine!" the Faunus insisted suddenly with a surprising amount of aggression, wincing and holding her head before groaning "They said they didn't kill her... so she's fine."

Yang looked at her fellow Huntress-In-Training for a moment before slowly nodding "Alright then." before turning and surveying their cages "So, how're we getting outta this?"

"What?"

"Obviously these guys have enough forethought to trap and keep a Beacon Student," Yang said before raising a finger and winking "But can they keep two at the same time?"

"Yang-"

"No, Vel come on! If we work together we should be able to find a way!"

"...Okay, what do you have in mind?"

Yang deflated a bit at that, then put her hands to her hips as she looked in thought. Casually she glanced over to the other side of her cage and watched her other neighbor enjoying that corner "Hey pal, you got any ideas?

He merely curled up further in his corner with a dismissive wave.

Rolling her eyes, the Blonde turned back to Velvet with a determined look "We'll find a way."

Up above, the Uruks got their seats as Ishmol stood tall on the highest catwalk and gestured "Alright then you bloodthirsty bastards! Who's ready for some brawling!?"

He leaned forward a bit and held a hand to his ear to catch the cries of approval from the audience, then gestured to one of his nearby Drunks who came over with a shoddy metal bowl. Reaching in, the Arena Master produced two slips of paper before handing them back to the drunk and yelling towards the audience once more "Seems we got a simple bout for now! A generously donated Beastie's about to bare its claws against one of the many foolish little animal people who threw their pitiful force against the mighty Uruk-Hai!"

Below the Arena, Yang watched as two of Ishmol's drunkards entered. One checked the strips of paper in his hand before gesturing to the Beowolf in the cell beside Velvet's.

So they're just picking at random?

As his partner went to stand beside the caged Grimm, the Drunk with the strips went to another cage further down on the opposite side. He went out of sight for a moment before coming back with a beaten and battered looking White Fang member clutched in his grasp.

At least, Yang thought it was a Fang member.

From what she could tell from her own interactions with the radicals, the Fang had a very specific policy when it came to dressing. Black and Grey uniforms with Grimm masks, at least for most of the lesser member's. This guy had the mask, but his upper clothing had been torn away and the black pants looked like they'd been dragged through the forest (Which was more than likely). His Shoes were gone and the only weapon he seemed to have on him was a single metal baseball bat and an oddly designed glove.

Now Yang had had her run ins with baseball bats, and knew not to underestimate their effectiveness, but she could only guess as to how effective it would be for the beaten and bruised Faunus.

She watched the drunk usher him to the odd empty space, where the roof above the metal beam promptly gave in.

Stepping forward a bit, she blinked as she realized that it hadn't broken in some way. The Metal Beam simply pulled it down until it was flush with the floor, giving the Faunus more than enough room to be shoved onto it. Soon he was raised to the Arena above, and the platform lowered again awaiting the next challenger.

The two Uruks soon equipped themselves with these two over sized collar staffs which they soon used to haul the savage Grimm out of its cage. Through careful positioning and heavy exertion, the two forced the Beowolf onto the platform and kept it held there until the platform arose. They had to keep their holds on it solid, raising their staves with it until they could safely release it just before the platform reached the Arena.

It wasn't long until the sounds of the Beowolf's howl and a blunt instrument impacting with something was drowned out by the cheers of the audience.

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Right outside the warehouse next-door was a series of large Uruks scanning the tree-line which was a quick walk away from the structure, many of them were either drinking or staring down the woodlands or arguing about alcohol.

One such argument was interrupted by the sound of something drawing near, two of the Grog-Filled guards frowning at the sight of a smaller Uruk leading two others who were pulling a large wagon with a tarp covering it out of the woods towards the Warehouse.

"They're gonna kill us." One of the Wagon pullers muttered

"Soon as they know what we've got here, they'll find it hard not to get on their knees and start begging to serve." the one in front said with a small chuckle

"Listen, Ukbuk." the other Wagon-Puller said whilst nervously swallowing at the sight of the suspicious guards "When you pitched this to me a few weeks ago I may have gotten a bit caught up in the moment, I've been weighing options since then... Gotta say, not feeling as confident as I did back then."

Ukbuk rolled his eyes before turning to them "I worked my arse off for this, guys. Spent long times with no food or drink just to get this right. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't know it was ready. Come on! We earned this!"

To their credit, the Wagon Pullers actually shared a glance for a moment as they drew closer to the Warehouse.

"Oi!" One of the Drunks called out "What- uh... What Cap'n you here for?"

"We haven't come with a Captain."Ukbuk stated as he stood straight before the armed Uruks

The alcohol-soaked Uruk sniffled a bit to clear his nose "You ain't here with a Cap'n? Can't let you in the Tournie unless you's come on someone's behalf."

"We didn't come for that," Ukbuk raised a hand towards the wagon "We came to bring Ishmol the Brewer-"

"Boss prefers Slave Driver."

The smaller Uruk rolled his eyes "Ishmol the Slave Driver, we came to bring him a new and improved Grog to distribute during these festivities."

One of the Wagon-Pullers leaned to his partner "Doesn't that technically mean we DID come for the Tournament?"

"Shut up," the other one whispered "he's doing a thing."

"We's already got Grog." the Drunk muttered before grinning to himself "Lot's of it."

"Perhaps, but do take a quick drink of this." Ukbuk held out a mug before reaching back to tug the tarp aside and reveal one of the barrels within.

The Guard looked him over before shrugging "Sure." and turning to another Guard said "I'mma take a sip. If I start dyin' you's needs to avenge me."

After receiving a nod of confirmation, the Guard grabbed the offered mug and had himself a drink.

Ukbuk and his two cohorts watched in anticipation as the Drunk swished the concoction in his mouth a bit before swallowing. He stood there for a moment smacking his lips, before suddenly his eyes grew wide and he quickly chugged the rest of the brew down immediately.

The other Guard looked him up and down as the Taste-Tester finished the mug and licked the residue from its edges.

Soon the mug fell to the ground as the now wide-eyed Taste-Tester turned to his fellow defender "Get the boss."

"What?"

"Get the boss! He needs to see this."

---

About a mile away from the Warehouses, a massive Military force was hidden amongst a relatively large field which was obscured by the large trees which surrounded it.

Dozens of Atlesian soldiers were moving to and fro, checking on a numerous amount of dropships which were fully loaded with AK-Units. A large number of massive cages were readied off to the side. Trucks, Crates, a few Techies with Computers, the whole-shebang.

And among the large force were the immediately noticeable Beacon Students who were all crowded around one woman in white and red. The woman had her hands on a terminal set up beside a crate, on its screen was a red dot moving amongst a map.

"Looks like they got in," the Woman commented with a small, casual laugh "told ya Maxie could stay quiet long enough to be stealthy."

"Quiet?" Weiss raised an eyebrow "I don't think he's even taken a breath since he got into position. Considering how... animated he's been its a little..."

"Yeah, its really creepy." Ruby said before backing away and turning to the older woman.

Atlas Specialist Riley G. Trost, Team CFVY's chaperone, with her dullish red hair and a signature casual smile almost always present, one would never expect her to be one of the Atlas Elite. Her style of speech just seemed far too forgiving and excepting for a disciplined soldier, no matter what Team CFVY said.

And yet, she still wore the standard Specialist attire, well pressed and immaculate despite not fitting her demeanor at all.

"I hate to be the one to ask this," Fox spoke up as he walked to a pile of crates nearby and leaned against one "but why didn't we just drug all the stuff that guy was bringing em? Wouldn't require all the sneaking around."

"It wouldn't catch as many fish, obviously. If what the General said is true then some of these guys could probably tell if anything was odd with their little drinks, I mean all the Guards practically live off the stuff." Coco said before taking a seat on one of the crates and reclining "Besides, we don't even know how much the sewage they put in that Grog would dilute the sleeping agent."

The mission had been gone over in excruciating detail, so much so that Ruby could practically recite the entire scenario by heart. And she could, Weiss had tested them on it before they left.

Using the Delivery of Grog Krimp's friend Ukbuk was planning on making, a very small number of stealthy soldiers would infiltrate the buildings where the tournament was taking place and would set up canisters of sleeping gas at several key locations. After regrouping they'd activate the canisters with a detonator which would ensure that all Uruks and their captives in the vicinity of the place would be taking a dirt nap for a few hours bare minimum. It would give Atlas the time it would need to swoop in full force and capture the Uruks while also grabbing those they've held prisoner. It would be simple, except-

"-the gas used in this mission does not affect all Uruks the same." Ironwood pointed out as he walked to and fro.

He stood at the front of one of Beacon's lesser-used classrooms, which had been repurposed for this very meeting.

"While testing it for this very task we found that it only has a seventy-four percent success rate. Some of them seem to have an immunity to it, those who do have also shown a resistance to other gas-based hazards in the past so we must assume its some trait they have in the respiratory system."

"Well that's just ridiculous."

Heads turned to a thin yet fit looking Specialist sitting next to Team RWBY, who had one long leg crossed over the other for the duration of the briefing. His hair was an inky blue so finely trimmed one would expect him to keep a plethora of hair products in his uniform at all times.

"How is it that some of these savages is resistant to aerated attacks specifically?"

"From what we've gathered the ones who've developed this resistance have a long history fighting either with or against poisonous substances, their bodies have merely adapted to fighting off strange gases." The General folded his hands behind his back "However, rendering at minimum Seventy-four percent of their forces inoperable for that much time is still something that'll give us a far superior edge."

He gestured to the desk, where a screen displayed a map and colored dots. Pressing at it, many of the green dots began going dark "With their strength in numbers severely crippled and the remaining portion still reeling and partially-blinded by the gas, we'll have a perfect opportunity to encircle and ensnare whoever's left."

Which is what most of the soldiers, robots, and the two teams were for. Their chaperones had chosen to oversee both halves of the mission, with Maxwell taking the lead on infiltration while Riley led the charge once the gas started flowing.

Coco raised an oddly built mask and looked it over in the sunlight "Are you sure this little thing will keep us safe? It only covers the mouth and nose."

"Don't doubt Atlesian Tech." Riley said before pulling out her own and gesturing to it with another smile "Trust me when I say they'll keep you just dandy when surrounded by an overwhelming gas cloud."

"What I don't get is how this place is even here." Blake suddenly said, eyes still fixated on the map "Who would build a dock this far away from the city with so little to protect it?"

"Those with too much money and too little respect for authority." the Specialist said before suppressing a yawn "An overzealous fishing tycoon wanted a docking yard for his boats and Vale wouldn't accommodate him due to some legal malarkey that eventually led to him shirking Vale authorities altogether to try building and funding it himself. Tried hiding it from them by hiring mercs and clearing out a piece of the coast for himself. They only got halfway through when the coast got hit by a storm which ended up dragging most of it into the ocean along with the poor guy's hopes and dreams. After that the survivors were besieged by Grimm afterwards yadda yadda you know how it goes."

"Another stunning tale about not getting too full of yourself." Fox noted before raising a hand "So if the drugged drink thing is out of the picture then why exactly didn't we set those charges at night? You know? Cover of Darkness and all that?"

"Look kid, there's a reason we haven't been able to get in until today."

The pale-eyed boy waited for the Specialist to follow up on that, but when the pause between words actually drew on he raised an eyebrow "Wh-?"

"Parties."

Coco took her gaze from the face mask and stared at their chaperone with a raised eyebrow "Excuse me?"

"Look, while they were setting up for this thing Ishmol's boys were all over the place building stuff and keeping that stuff ready for today." the Specialist began "Of course, once they finished their day work they consistently threw drinking parties every night where they'd crowd about singing and chugging and all that. Now, we initially thought it was a perfect chance to sneak in and set up."

"And... why wasn't it exactly?" Ruby questioned

"Listen guys, we tried three times to get in there beforehand and nearly got caught each time." the Older Woman recounted "Turns out that just because they get drunk doesn't automatically render them less effective like it would for a regular human or Faunus."

"Oh please," Weiss shook her head at that before folding her arms "you can't honestly sit there and tell me that their alcohol-"

"Actually helps some of them be more effective? Why yes, I actually am telling you that." Riley pointed out "Same as the Respiratory stuff the General went over, but to keep it short and simple Ishmol's drunks are surprisingly aware when they've downed a gallon or two."

"Just great." the Heiress sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose

"How exactly would today fare any better?" Yatsuhashi, who had remained silent whilst staring at the screen, finally spoke up "If this has been an issue up until now, what makes today different?"

"I thought it was pretty obvious there, big guy." the Specialist tilted her head to the side and grinned "The Tournament."

She turned and gestured to the map, pointing to the large Loading bay where the Arena had been constructed "With the Tournament in swing most of their Grog is being diverted to the guests and Ishmol's alcoholic lackeys are constrained to their posts and Guard routines for the most part. It makes things easier, but really we have to put the most stock into Maxwell and them being able to exploit today's advantages to the fullest. Thankfully, the guy's got quite the knack for exploiting weaknesses. So I'd say the chance of failure's only in the high twenties, maybe low thirties."

"Guess we're going to find out." Blake muttered as all eyes turned back to the screen.

---

Back in the partially submerged warehouse, the Drunks led Ukbuk and his wagon into a large room.

"This is it boys," the Grog-Maker turned to his two Wagon-Pullers "after today we'll be sitting nice and steady with the Arena Master's gang!"

"Saying it so confidently like that," one of the Pullers sighed "just makes me all the more worried."

"Oi!"

Their conversation was cut short by one of the Drunks, who gestured for them to follow "Leave drink here, Boss'll want sample after you's talks to him."

Despite his cohort's worries, Ukbuk merely shot him a smile before the three left with their guide.

Soon the other Drunks left to return to their posts.

...

...

"Are they gone?"

"Yes, they're gone. Which you should be thankful for Private."

The Wagon creaked as four figures emerged from underneath it, four darkly-dressed Atlesian soldiers rose beside the cart, with only one being identifiable from the rest due to his helmet being much thinner looking than the rest.

"I hadn't given the order yet, you ignoramus." Maxwell pointed out before holding a finger up to silence the younger soldier before he could begin giving excuses "Not... one... word... I'll put it into the report, just worry about not losing anymore of your credibility before the day's over."

The four Atlesians heard a loud series of cheers coming from next door, making the Specialist grumble under his breath "Seems they may have just finished with a bout. Which means we need to move now."

He turned to the others "You all remember where to set them, correct?"

After receiving nods, Maxwell turned to the entranceway "Good, we converge at the set location after all charges are in place. Try not to make yourselves look like jackasses by the time this is over."

---

Bubol watched as one of Ishmol's boys dragged the Faunus back to the holding pens downstairs as the dead Grimm began evaporating behind them. Honestly, the Archer was surprised that the weakened-looking Faunus managed to kill the Beast given how much pain he seemed to be in, but lo and behold it would seem that his particular method of eliminating his enemies was not to be underestimated.

Even then, it had taken him quite a bit of time to kill the Beowolf, but the sight of them smacking each other around seemed entertaining enough to sate the audience. Sure, the Diseased Archer could enjoy the sight of that Tortured body flying through the air as much as he wanted, but there needed to be a bit more variety in order to spice things up after a while.

And so when Ishmol drew the next two slips and mentioned that the next round would be between two captured village folk, Bubol stood from his seat and went exploring. The round would most likely consist of the crowd laughing and mocking the two poorly treated villagers until one either killed the other, or the crowd started throwing things jeeringly and one ended up getting brained by something.

Either way, not stimulating enough for an adventurous sort like him. He made his way into the adjacent halls as the laughter and jeers he expected echoed through them once the fight commenced.

As he wandered, he came across a glassless window that just so happened to have a perfect view of the ocean behind the building. The Diseased maniac was not one to avoid the finer things when time allowed, and so he settled against the window frame and prepared for some good old daydreaming about what he'd do to the next unfortunate sod he caught all alone. But before he could begin picturing the tormented looks on their faces, he heard voices.

Not the usual fantasy ones crying and begging for him to stop, but actual voices coming from the roof.

"When you guys get those parts of the train, a-are you sure you'll be able to use it?"

"... yes."

"Good, because despite Hork's current state, I know for a fact he'll latch onto this if it turns out to be a dead end."

"You... gave him the rest... of the train... why would he latch?"

It didn't take a genius to realize Bubol had just discovered a conversation between two especially interesting Uruks. That breathing growl which could only belong to the most darling destroyer of all time, and that Adorable worried tone that only Tugog could produce. Bubol took a moment to silently thank the Dark Lord for blessing him with such a bounty.

"You don't understand, after he figured out about his Brother's death he hasn't been the same. His burning rage has become some worrying undercurrent and I-"

"Meant to ask... Krimp's dead?"

"What? No no, it was Ashgarn. The short one."

"Good... far less interesting...than the twins... How?"

As Bubol leaned forward a bit to catch their words more clearly, a hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away.

The Archer protested loudly before he was dragged into yet another hall and tossed away from his sudden assailant, but as he turned to them and began letting his wrist mounted bow begin shifting back into place, he paused as he caught sight of two Uruks he hadn't seen in far... far too long. Standing before him was an average sized Uruk covered in bone armor which left his green skin mostly protected. Beside him stood a slightly larger Uruk with a thick piece of armor encasing his torso.

Bubol took a moment to look between the two of them before his eyes stopped on the one in bone Armor, "Felgrat Bone Snapper?" then turned to the other "And Grisha the Large? Why hello there!"

"Still as daft as ever I see." Felgrat sighed before folding his arms in distaste "If it isn't Bubol the Diseased, still refusing to have those pesky warts of yours removed. We'd been under the impression the Storm folk had you locked up so they could finally cure ya for good."

The Archer threw his arms open in excitement before laughing at the two "I haven't seen you two since that bout at the Quarry, how's it been going? I saw Kruk go down, but you two dove in the Quarry with the rest of your boys."

"You-left-us-there-on-our-own." Grisha spoke extremely slowly "Probably-was-the-one-who-sealed-us-in-there."

"That was the plan wasn't it?" Bubol tilted his head to the side and put his hands to his hips "We was told that if we got routed before we could finish mining then to take everything into the mine and seal it up."

"Even after escaping with that Tark weapon of yours, did you even once consider why exactly the Storm had us trap ourselves?"

Bubol looked at the two for a moment before shrugging "Nope. Not really."

"We-waited-for-something-to-happen." the Large Uruk muttered as he leaned against a nearby wall

"Oooh trapped in close proximity with each other and a bunch of slaves in a cave with barely any room? I'm so sorry I missed out on such a grand time." Bubol chittered before sighing "So how did that turn out then, hm love?"

"As expected the Shaman's Elite finally opened a portal in there and came for us." Felgrat sighed before scratching at his horridly bedraggled hair.

"Oh?"

"But-they-did-not-intend-to-reimburse-us." the Large Uruk looked to the ceiling as memories played across his eyes "They-slaughtered-most-of-our-boys. Would've-killed-us-all-if-we-hadn't-bartered-and-begged-our-way-out."

"Thanks to my exceptional talking skills," Felgrat smirked and placed a hand to his chest plate in self satisfaction "I managed to convince the Warmongers that there would be no harm to letting us leave. That we would in no way seek vengeance for our fallen comrades nor recompense for failing to pay for the services requested."

Bubol's eyebrow went up "And they bought that?"

"Because-its-true-ya-runt." Grisha pointed out "We'd-be-insane-to-try-crossing-blades-with-them."

"Yeah, honestly they didn't even have to lie about dust payment to get my help in the raid." Felgrat admitted with a shrug "The moment they showed up to my camp I was prepared to start sacrificing my own boys in order to escape."

"Really now?" the Diseased Archer lowered his arms with a thoughtful harm before looking them quite openly "Well let me just say that for fellows who barely escaped the Warmongers with your lives I must say you both look great. Still doesn't answer my question on where you've been though."

"Hiding. Staying off Shaman's radar. Don't want to risk him changing his mind about us."

"So then why are you two here specifically? This doesn't exactly seem like hiding to me, and I know hiding."

"We-made-a-bet."

"A little deal between the two of us concerning my entry." Felgrat said with another self-satisfied wave towards himself "A gamble I feel particularly confident in."

"Aw," Bubol cooed before poking at the bone dressed Uruk's side "Felsy got himself an Entry?"

Ignoring the demeaning nickname, Felgrat turned to listen to the sounds of the audience "Those two wastes of meat might be done soon, gotta see if my boy gets called." he then glared down at the Archer "You should tag along and tell us more about where exactly you've been."

The Diseased Lunatic cast a glance back to the hall he'd been dragged from before shooting them an Apologetic look "Sorry lads, was kinda in the middle of-"

"Spying on Tugs and the Stormbringer? Yeah, so was we before we realized that monster had already sniffed us out. Didn't want to test him, who knows what he might do if we're still there when they're done."

Bubol openly salivated at that thought, wiping some drool from his lips with a smile he said "Ain't you supposed to be convincing me to go with ya?"

"Who needs convincing?" Felgrat asked with a grin before nodding to Grisha.

Almost immediately, the Boil-covered Archer found himself trapped in the Large Uruk's grasp and was hauled off his feet. After being stuffed under Grisha's arm like a sack, he was immediately carried along with them back towards the Arena.

"O-okay..." Bubol said before giving a small struggle and groaning in delight "I'll play this game, mostly because this hold right here is really doin' it for me, my lads."

---

Yang watched the platform descend, with one of the sobbing villagers being dragged from it and harshly dumped back in their cell by one of the Drunks. Her hands tightened on the bars, this was taking too long. If they really were doing this randomly then there'd be no telling how many times she'd get called out, she couldn't plan against potential opponents, and there was no telling how much energy she'd use when they did end up calling her.

The Storm seemed adamant that no other entry that could contend with her, well... except for whatever Ratlug entered. From her recollection, he was the one who outfitted Mincemeat with that bear-trap mask, so she expected whatever he had entered to look just as distorted if not more so. That was the one threat she could anticipate, wasn't enough. She'd yet to come up with anything beyond using her semblance to break out after one of her rounds.

It hadn't worked back with the Storm guys, but maybe here, with less aware guards...

Soon the cheers of the Audience arose and, like before, two drunks arrived for the entries. One held up the slips of paper before gesturing to Velvet and the White Fang Faunus who'd fought in the first round. The Rabbit-eared student tried her best to swallow her nerves as she matched Yang's worried gaze with one of her own.

She'd done all she could to clear her mind, to wipe away her pounding headache and refocus on the world around her. She was confident that she could fight, but nowhere near on the level that would be expected of her. If it had been a regular Fang Grunt she wouldn't have any concern, but not many regular grunts could take on a Beowolf all on their own.

As the drunks approached her cage, Velvet could only hope that her opponent's previous fight left him somewhat easier to deal with.

Hassled onto the platform which raised her into the middle of the Arena, she was instructed to move to the other side as the platform lowered once more for her quarry.

"Now many of you lads may see these Faunus beasts as an issue for those of us here in Vale." Ishmol called out, the Audience quieting a bit to listen "But here we got one o' there captains, and one of 'em who's a huntress no less!"

Velvet swallowed as the platform rose again, the baseball bat wielding Fang Captain already staring into her. He was a Captain? She'd assumed he was an unfortunate soldier they'd captured, but a Captain?

"Now look at them! Just animals ready to die for their masters." Ishmol called out with a laugh "Just for you boys, they're going to tear each other into little tasty pieces fit for feeding to the beasties they is."

As the crowd cheered Velvet saw one Uruk in bone armor stand up and lean over the edge of the arena to yell over the crowd "Courser! You better win this, you cur!" he shouted "If you make me lose this damned bet I promise you suffering of the finest degree!"

With that he angrily sat back down between an expectant Bubol and a silent Grisha.

Before Velvet could think too deeply on that, her opponent drew her attention.

"You're a huntress." Captain Courser muttered from within his tattered mask as he gestured to her with his free hand, which sported an odd-looking glove.

Velvet gave a slow nod, trying her best to evaluate the Captive Fang Captain the same way he no doubt was doing with her now.

Courser narrowed his eyes within the mask before reaching behind him "Good, then I won't have to feel any regret when I splatter your traitor brains across these monsters, you human-loving whore."

He pulled what could only be described as a baseball made completely out of steel coils from behind him, then tossed it in the air before gripping his bat in both hands and rearing back.

Immediately recognizing his stance, Velvet crouched low as he swung, the bat hitting the falling ball with a loud snapping sound which sent it speeding towards the rabbit Faunus.

Lunging out of the way, Velvet watched as the metal ball impacted with the wall of the Arena and sailed back towards Courser, who merely raised his gloved hand and caught the speeding ball with nary a trace of effort before tossing it up again.

Swallowing, Velvet folded her ears back as far as they could before charging towards him directly.

As soon as the bat connected, she flung herself over the incoming ball and let it pass under her before landing into a shoulder-charge. She careened into Courser, both of them careening into the ground with the masked-Faunus holding his bat between them trying to pry her off.

Velvet could hear the sound of the ball hitting the wall behind her, and leaned to the side as it sped past.

It was as she leaned that Courser pressed a button on the handle of his bat, the very top of it sliding open as a thin but powerful looking flame was produced. It looked like one of those grill lighter flames, but larger, and most definitely painful if she were to let it touch her.

Her momentarily distracted state allowed the Fang Captain to wedge his leg between them and kick her off him. As she stumbled back, the metal ball bounced back towards them again.

Courser noticed as well, and swung his bat through the air as the ball passed. The flame from his bat ignited the ball, giving Velvet more incentive to throw herself out of its path.

From his seat, Ishga was unimpressed so far, and was willing to let her know that "What are you doing you mangy-!"

Ishga was interrupted when Tugog raised a hand and gestured for him to settle "Ease up there, Blood-Storm. Surely she's got this handled."

"Yeah!" from the Warchief's other side, Skak leaned forward a bit to grin at the hunter "He hath foreseen it and all that, right buddy?"

Ishga narrowed his eyes, but obliged his master's request as he settled back in his seat. He glanced to Maku, who sat beside him with an expectant look, only to receive a casual shrug. With a small grumble, the Hunter turned his gaze back to the brawl.

Velvet was beginning to understand how the single Beowolf managed to last so long. As a larger creature with its sheer muscle mass, it had the raw power necessary to keep close-range long enough to interrupt any of Courser's battings. Unfortunately, she found quickly that she did not have the body for that. If she tried to keep out of range of that bat, he'd merely go for his ball and fire until he hit her. With how off center she was, that would most certainly lead to a quick defeat.

However, she did begin forming a plan as she dodged the metal ball repeatedly. Diving past it again, she darted towards Courser once more.

The Captain opened the top of his bat and swung it once she entered his range, Velvet slid to the side as the bat singed the floor beside her. The two of them momentarily backed away from each other as the ball sped between them before Courser rushed her with swings of his weapon.

She shifted out of the way as fast she could, but stumbled when her feet caught one another.

Courser immediately capitalized as she began falling, raising his bat and stepping close. However, Velvet managed to catch herself, sending one of her feet up into his unprotected stomach before he could bring down his bat.

With the wind suddenly forced from his mouth in the form of an angry grunt, Courser stumbled back as his aura shimmered.

He backed up before reaching behind him as Velvet pushed herself back to her feet. The Fang Captain reached back and caught the Metal ball, which had simply remained bouncing between the walls of the Arena, before swinging it back around.

Not expecting it, the ball bounced off of Velvet's head. Though without the raw strength of his bat behind it, it merely left her stunned with a headache after her Aura was done soaking up the strike. However, as she backed away, she saw that the ball had bounced off her head and sailed back towards Courser, who was already rearing back to swing his bat.

Thinking quickly, Velvet merely allowed herself to fall back to the ground as the ball was sent sailing over her once again.

In the stands, among the crowd of cheering and jeering Uruks, the Storm Captains watched with interest. Well, Ratlug and the Shaman watched with apparent interest, Ogthrak merely kept his eyes glued to those around them and Krosh tapped at his knees while waiting for his entry to be called.

"The Warchief certainly picked a determined little thing, hm?" Ratlug commented

The Shaman nodded.

"Nowhere near as great as our entries but I suppose some credit is due to his gaggle of idiots for acquiring quite literally anything."

Another nod.

"Such a sloppy style of fighting she's adopted, yet she still lives... I suppose that counts for something."

"Good god, could you just shut up and watch?" Krosh finally voiced his annoyance

"Oh dear, have you found something new to whine about?" Ratlug asked while shifting his lens-less glasses "How is it that even amongst all these cheering lads you still feel the need to be insulted by me in particular?"

"You're right next to me."

"Not my problem, go sit somewhere else."

"Yeah? Like where?" Krosh asked rhetorically

"I'm sure Bubol would love a strapping young lad like ya'self in his lap."

"You know what? I fucking hate you."

Velvet jabbed her elbow into Courser's side before dodging out of the way of his bat, her ears warning her just in time to slide out of the way of the metal ball again.

The crowd roared for more, sides already forming amongst the audience based on who they wanted dead by the end of it. Resounding opinion showed her as the less favorable option.

The White Fang Captain wasn't doing much better than her, his sheer brawniness must've allowed him to shrug off whatever torture he'd undergone. As a result of this treatment and his previous brawl, Courser's Aura was weak. Velvet focused on guerrilla tactics, she could only dodge for so long at long range and she didn't trust her footing to keep close to him. She might not be able to catch herself next time.

And so she'd keep close only after managing to evade both bat and ball, then dart back to mid-range where she could focus on the ball and ready herself for the next run.

Tedious but effective, she'd gotten good hits in here and there, but she was positive Courser knew what she was attempting and was getting ready for a sudden change of tactics.

It was as she dodged the ball and went in for another quick scuffle that it happened. He readied his bat to intercept her, but instead of its tip popping open to produce flames again, he loosened his grip and grabbed hold of the top before lunging into her charge.

The handle was rammed into her gut and he threw her back before catching his speeding ball out of the air once again.

She rolled out of the way as his boot stomped at the ground beside her, kicking up dirt as he swung his bat down.

Velvet, however, was a spry one, and managed to drag herself back out of range of his weapon.

Pushing herself to her feet, Velvet knew she couldn't take another strike like that. Despite merely being the handle she just didn't have the Aura to withstand his blows.

Courser raised his bat and pointed it towards her as she caught her breath, judging the distance before tossing... his bat.

The top popped open and began spewing flame as it spun towards her. Velvet hadn't expected it, and took a moment too long to slip out of the flaming weapon's path. By the time she diverted her attention back to Courser, he was already mid-jump. And so she threw herself out of the way as his feet connected with the ground she previously stood upon.

It was as she came back up and spotted him getting into a different stance that she realized the dual-purpose of his glove. Mimicking a professional player with no hint of hesitation, he reared back before launching the ball with force similar to that of his bat.

She could dodge it, of course, but he immediately kicked his bat back up into his hand and whipped it towards her as the flame burst forth once more.

Velvet couldn't keep up, he didn't give any tells to whether he'd swing his bat or discard it in favor of a quicker pitch. She'd entertained the idea of going for the bat to use against him, but he always kept it close enough to make nearing it too great of a risk.

But then... every option she had so far was too great of a risk, and so she accepted that she'd just have to channel her inner Coco and throw caution to the wind in favor of getting out of the situation as quickly as possible. And so the next time he pitched, she darted towards him just as he kicked up his bat again. Diving past the flames of his weapon again, Velvet latched onto his head and tried to scale him before he could recover.

Unfortunately, he recognized her plan the second she began leaning him into the direction of his metal ball just as it bounced off the wall.

She underestimated his stability, the Fang Captain planted his boot in the ground and steadied himself as the metal ball spun behind them. Gripping his bat in both hands, he swung the bat directly over his head before the top began opening. Directly in its line of fire, Velvet knew that falling back would send her directly in the ball's path. But moving anywhere else would leave her susceptible to flame.

So she gritted her teeth, released his head and quickly took hold of his shoulder instead before leaning back under the Bat's flame and sending one foot into the back of his knee.

They both went down just as the metal ball rebounded off the walls of the Arena again, and the captive huntress in training took a moment to recognize she'd bet everything on literally milliseconds worth of timing as she turned to see it incoming.

But Gravity favored her that day.

The ball impacted with the side of Courser's head, shattering his aura, a portion of his mask, and Velvet was more than willing to bet a piece of his skull if the horrid sound accompanying it was any indication. The force sent both of the Faunus tumbling to the ground as the ball bounced off...

...directly towards the Grand Shaman.

Ogthrak leaped into action first, lunging towards the Storm's Leader with full intent to intercept the offending projectile. But the Stormbringer merely raised a hand and plucked the speeding ball out of the air a mere moment before it could touch him.

Velvet rose to her feet with only a minor stumble and some heavy breaths, her eyes glued to the Storm Ruler as he slowly looked over the ball in his hand.

Her attention was stolen as cheers went up, whoops and hollers spread amongst the attendees as Ishmol called out from above.

"And there ya have it, lads! Seems the lass ain't as pitiful as I thought she was, guess them other entries gonna have to look out for this one."

"That's right!" Velvet could hear Skak laughing "Our girl knows how to handle a brawl now don't she?"

"Quiet!" Ishga muttered "Don't oversell it!"

"Are you kidding me?!" barked Felgrat, who swung his arms furiously before grinding his balled fists against his head.

From his side, Bubol chittered before raising a hand and patting the enraged Uruk on the back "There there, lad. If it makes you feel better he did look delicious in that torn outfit of his. Could barely contain myself, and that counts for a lot in my book."

The Bone-Snapper was about to turn and let his anger out on the sadomasochistic sicko when Grisha arose from his seat.

Velvet tried to look somewhat stable, but she was more tired than she'd expected. It had only been her first fight, and of course she'd have to end up with the vengeful Fang Captain who just so happened to play Lethal Baseball. She'd have to hope that she'd get weaker opponents, there was no way that she could deal with another-

"Guh..."

A groan from her side brought her attention back to Courser, who clutched at the side of his head as he rolled onto his side.

Velvet hadn't the time to consider the sheer lethality of her plan, mostly trying to end the fight before her sluggishness caught up with her, but she found herself pleasantly surprised that the White Fang Captain managed to withstand it. She had hoped she wouldn't have to kill anyone during this tournament, but Courser's willingness to bludgeon and burn her to death had eased any potential misgivings on her part. She supposed in some ways she should be thankful that a murderous Fang Captain was her opponent, if she were to go up against one of those poor villagers she truly had no idea what she would do. A Beowolf or two she could handle, but a defenseless townsperson provided minimal solutions.

Velvet caught her breath as she watched Courser try and fail to get up, falling back to his knees as his damaged mask slipped off.

"Tear him to pieces!"

Those words clued Velvet in to the change in tone that the Audience had adopted.

"Crush his skull!"

"Paint with his innards damn it!"

Velvet let her eyes roam over the bloodthirsty crowd before going back to the defeated Faunus, she couldn't do that. It was different from when they were fighting, now he was wounded and defenseless.

"Just do it."

Finding her gaze back on Courser, she watched as he slowly turned his head to glare at her "Get on with it you Housepet, do it."

"I... I'm not killing you."

"Good-for-me."

Both of the Faunus turned to see a large Uruk leap from the stands into the Arena before casually walking over to them "I-won-the-bet. You're-mine."

Bubol tilted his head at that proclamation, then turned to a still irritated Felgrat to ask "Oh, so that's what ya bet, eh?"

Those words seemed to stir the Bone-Snapper into action, immediately looking up and pushing past several Uruks to get to the edge of the Arena "Grisha! You don't know what I went through to capture that Hybrid! Please, we need to renegotiate!"

The Large Uruk came to a stop before the wounded Fang Captain before turning to give Felgrat an even look "You-bet-him, he-and-his-weapon-are-mine."

"I didn't know any of these useless imbeciles would have something more powerful!"

"Then-it-is-your-own-fault." Grisha shook his head

The large Uruk settled his gaze on the Grand Shaman, who casually examined the metal ball, before raising his own hand in an expectant manner.

Ogthrak looked as if he was about to say something, but the Shaman acquiesced to the unspoken demand and tossed the ball into the Arena.

"What were you thinking?" Ratlug asked as he gave Ogthrak a cheeky grin "You know something of that caliber would do nothing to the Master, and yet you practically throw yourself in front of him expecting to be necessary."

"I am his shield," the Large Warmonger Stated as he settled back in his seat "if I were not to respond to threats in such a manner I wouldn't be fulfilling my purpose."

"Shield's just a title Oggie." Krosh said with a small sigh "you know as well as we do that the Boss doesn't need defending from anything. So just focus on being entertaining for him, eh?"

Ogthrak gave a small grumble, but said nothing.

Down in the pit, Grisha quietly watched as Courser finally summoned the strength and will needed to finally push himself up off the ground. Hand still pressed firmly to the side of his head, the Faunus glared up at the Uruk.

"Don't care which of you I'm stuck with. I'll find a way to escape." the White Fang Captain quite literally spat out, as Grisha calmly stuffed the ball into his pocket.

Velvet winced as she watched him take a small step towards his new owner, the grunt of pain he gave as he forced his body to stand strong reminding her of the sheer force he must've been struck with.

"I'll come back with hordes of my brothers and sisters." he stated, words dripping with rage "We'll end you monsters, just like the racist pigs running our world! You're no better, no better than those filthy slaver shits! You all deserve to burn in the same pit together, to be wiped away so that we may take our place as the only ones truly deserving of the-"

Before her very eyes, Velvet watched as Grisha's hands rose...

...and tore the top of Courser's head from its body.

She watched his fingers dig into the Faunus' scalp, watched his muscles bulge as he began pulling in two different directions. Courser hadn't even a moment to bellow a scream before his upper jaw and everything above it went with one hand and the rest went with the other. Being so close, the quick and gruesome action sprayed Velvet with a noteworthy amount of the White Fang Captain's inner crimson.

She had merely a moment to blink some of it from her eyes before the crowd erupted into cheers, cheers which pretty effectively drowned out Felgrat's cry of shock.

"You bastard! Lost sixteen Uruk putting him in shackles!"

"Would've-been-a-problem-to-someone-later. Better-gone." The Large Uruk reached down for the bat lying beside Courser's body "His-weapon-however..."

Soon Grisha pulled Courser's glove onto one hand, the very tips of his sharp-looking nails piercing through the end, but otherwise fit reasonably well. He leaned the bat on his shoulder before turning and walking off.

"I'll-be-taking-my-leave-then." was all he said before reaching up and allowing several of the audience to help yank him out of the fighting pit.

Velvet was still frozen, eyes glued to Courser's semi-headless frame. It was when two Drunks grabbed hold of her and began dragging her back to the holding cells that she took a moment to steady her breathing.

Yang shifted in her cell when she saw Velvet, immediately pressing against the bars and staring as her Faunus schoolmate was returned to her cell and the Drunks made their way back out.

"Vel!" Yang called out to her, wincing as the rabbit-eared girl turned to her "Are you... okay?"

Velvet turned to her slowly, but managed a tired smile "I did it, guess... guess I'm sticking around for a little longer, hm?"

"Yeah but... are you okay?"

Velvet wasn't quite sure what Yang was asking her about, and was prepared to question her on it when she took a cursory whiff and smelt something... burning?

She realized the scent was one she'd initially smelt in the Arena, but had simply attributed it to Courser's bat. Had the smell followed her? Her eyes travelled upwards, and her breath halted once she caught sight of the source.

She hadn't been as quick as she'd hoped to be.

A good inch of her left rabbit ear had been completely burned off.

When had that happened? When had her Aura failed!?

Had she just been going solely off adrenaline at the time?

If she'd been hit with the ball in this condition then there was no doubt she would be the one whose body now decorated the fighting pit.

Yang watched as Velvet slowly reached up to her wounded ear and touched it hesitantly, shaking fingers nearing the burnt appendage only until she winced and pulled back.

"Vel-"

"No... Its... I'll be fine..." the Faunus spoke as the numbing adrenaline began fading, leaving her to the stinging sensation of her singed flesh "I just need to focus on regaining some Aura."

Velvet folded her ears back out of sight, curling her legs underneath herself as she tried to ignore the pain. She needed to recover, she couldn't risk being called up again without an Aura.

---

"So... how do you think your girl's doing in the ring?"

Fox lifted his head at that, "The fighting's started already? Why didn't you tell us?"

Riley shrugged "Because if I did you all would be clambering over here asking worried questions and I don't like having to consistently hand out answers."

"Miss Trost," Coco began as she turned to look at the Specialist from atop the pile of crates Fox was leaning against "are you implying that we don't have any self-control?"

"Coco," Weiss sighed before glancing back to the older student "the second we arrived here the woman needed half an hour to convince you that Fox should not be piloting the transport when we storm the place."

"I still believe he has more than enough training in that regard."

"I only took two out of the three year program," Fox said with a groan "we've been over this. Just because I know how to keep a ship in sustained flight does not mean you can just have me flying random ships! Those cockpit sims can vary depending on-"

He was silenced as Coco leaned on her side and reached beside the crate to wrap an arm around Fox's head and squeeze "Ah, can it. You just don't wanna end up being designated driver for us after we graduate."

"I do not believe there is a single bar in Vale which would allow you to park a flying vehicle near it." Yatsuhashi stated immediately before turning back to the Atlas Specialist "Ma'am, if I could pose a question?"

"Go ahead big guy, we got some time."

The large student turned his attention back to the screen they were all gathered around, specifically the red dot on that screen "Why is it that we're only monitoring the location of the detonator? Would it not be more beneficial to monitor all the operatives in play?"

Before Riley could answer, Coco chimed in "Yeah, and what about helmet cams and vital scans and all that stuff we're supposed to see. That's usually how they do it in the flicks."

"Well we're not the ones who're supposed to see that stuff." Riley admitted "All that stuff goes directly to the General, right now Ozpin and him should be gathered back at Beacon in the Professor's Office going over it right now. All we're supposed to do is wait for their signal to charge, quietly readying ourselves and such."

"Then..." Ruby turned away from the screen to raise an eyebrow "what about this? Are we supposed to be seeing this?"

"Hon, I've seen what completely bored kids can get up to, thought I'd throw you guys a bone."

The Kids shared several glances before Fox asked "But is it alright that you're showing us this?"

The Specialist paused for a moment before shrugging "Probably not."

---

Vacuo- The Desert Tower

Right outside a certain Surgeon's lab, a tall berserker covertly observed his surroundings before drawing closer and closer to the door of said lab. It opened suddenly, and the Uruk's eyes went wide before he suddenly blinked away as an ugly Uruk in an apron stepped into the hall with a stretch and a casual flip of the cleaver in his hands.

Tarz the Surgeon lowered his arms and smacked his lips together before looking up and glancing around him, his putrid mouth eventual settled into a confused straight line. He was fairly certain someone had been standing there previously. The pig-faced Uruk shrugged after a few seconds, then closed the door behind him before walking off. Several seconds passed before the Berserker dropped down from the ceiling, thanking his semblance for what must've been the seventieth time in the past four days alone.

Tuka's time with the Garrison's forces had been challenging these past few days, but due to the nature of his semblance he'd mostly been able to avoid any accidents that might put his life at risk. But working in the Gate-Keeper's army entailed more than just the threat of potential assassination by any number of angered Uruks wishing to see vengeance enacted upon those who troubled their master so. He now sported black war paint in the form of stripes which traveled across all of his exposed skin. He'd made sure to do the paints himself, not wanting to risk any others mixing poisons into it.

And now, after surviving the first few days, he finally had a chance to deal with something he'd worried about since they were first dragged into Garrison HQ.

He needed to be sure, needed to erase one particularly large threat to his potential rise to power. A threat which lied just beyond this door, waiting for him to deal with it in a manner only an Uruk with the precision and skill such as his could-

"Ahem."

Tuka froze with a hand merely an inch from the Surgeon's door, his hands turning back to find that he hadn't been caught by anything of import.

Uthug and their little slave companion stood glaring at the larger Uruk, both of them looking worst for wear.

The warrior held his musket in one bruised hand while the other wiped at a fresh claw mark which ran along thee right side of his face, he also sported the indicative black markings of the Garrison. The Fang Grunt's uniform looked even more tattered than it had been when they'd arrived at the tower, exposing her bare knees and most of her arms to the harsh elements. Seems she's used the torn parts of it to try and haphazardly wrap up her exposed limbs.

They both were covered in dirt and bruises, a far cry from the nearly unblemished body of their Berserker Companion.

The two stared at him for a moment, the Dual Axe Wielding Uruk giving a bored yet expectant glance between them every so often "What?"

"You didn't show up for the Executioner's drills." Uthug pointed out

"I had something to do," Tuka said with a shrug "I'll make it up to him by pulling a double shift tom-"

"Oh no, no no my friend. He says its alright." Uthug placed his knuckles on his hips as his eye twitched a bit "He said you can miss all the practice you want, as long as I'm there to fill in for you."

Tuka gave a slow blink "Do you expect me to apologize?"

"Oh no, just maybe feel a little bit of sympathy for the Uruk who spent all morning as a training dummy FOR AN ENTIRE PLATOON YOU ABOLUTE ARSE!"

"Oh come off it." the Beserker groaned before moving towards the door only for a smaller hand to grip his shoulder.

"I have quite literally worked my hands to the bone for the past few days." the Fang grunt said through gritted teeth "I've been whipped, stepped on, beaten, bruised, and covered in filth of varying degree."

"Good, now you can look and smell like the waste of space you are! Now if the two of you could shove off I'm-"

"When will you accept that your plan fucked us!?"

"Fucked us? You's the slave here wench, don't even assume we can be lumped in together!"

"But she's right damn it!" Uthug growled before pinching his upper nose in resentment "Can't believe you got me bloody agreeing with the tark, but we're gonna die at this rate!"

"You're gonna die because you're a weak little bastard." Tuka pointed out

"No, don't even start with that. The Garrison boys are gonna be wearing us in days if not hours." Uthug rubbed at his face before pausing and pointing at the Berserker in an accusatory manner "You was the one who told me on the first day not to sleep in an unprotected area since we might not wake up. How is that not enough for you!?"

Tuka waved him off before turning and peaking into the Surgeon's Lab "Uruks try killing each other all the time, this is par for the course."

"This ain't the same! This ain't like drinking another glob's grog or accidentally killing their favorite slave! We got the Warchief himself seeing red whenever he so much as thinks about us, and his entire army wants to impress him with our corpses!"

"Hork's too rule-abiding by nature, he wouldn't break his own code by actively trying to kill us. As long as we avoid the assassination attempts we can work our way to his favor."

"Didn't seem so rule-abiding when he was dangling your ass off the tower." the White Fang grunt pointed out with a grimace "That looked a lot like actively trying to kill you to me."

"I told you," Tuka said as he looked down and shook his head "I don't know what that was. But now-"

"So much for knowing him, huh asshole?"

"Alright, you know what?" Tuka turned from the door and growled at her "I could quite literally just forego dealing with your shrakh by skewering you right here and right now, damn it."

"Actually, you can't." Uthug interrupted with a snide grin "Garrison can't go wasting slaves without due cause. You actually can't kill her while we're with these guys, so much for that hm?"

"Wait... really?" she turned to look at him as Tuka groaned.

"Aiding the Tark now?" Tuka shook his head before entering the the lab "Have you really stooped so low?"

"You made me do it!" Uthug argued as he and the Faunus followed behind, albeit a bit more hesitantly "The anger she inspires in me can't even hold a candle to the raw rage I feel when you're in my thoughts."

With Tarz gone, his 'Lab' was as still and eerie as one would expect an Uruk Surgeon's workshop to be. His dirty board with the occasional drawing still remained nailed to one wall, several tables had the telling blood and tools which spoke of the 'Treatments' probably conducted here, and an Unopened Dreamer Gate was drawn on one wall with the remnants of several used ones beside it.

But Tuka's goal lay across the room from them, covered in a tarp.

"Your excuses give you no credibility, worm." he noted as he eyed the covered lump now within his sights.

"Aw, sad that you don't have a number advantage over me anymore?" the Fang Grunt chuckled

"Don't..." Uthug began as he turned his glare to her "don't even assume that just because I ain't working with him, means I'm dumb enough to start working with you."

"Hey I don't like you." she sighed as she turned to the Warrior "I mean I really don't like a thing about anything you are or represent. But if it gets back at this asshole over here then maybe... if we work together-"

"You're asking me to choose between swelling tumors or a skin disease," the Musket-Wielder stated "I'd honestly rather have neither of you slowly killing me with your presence."

"I'm trying to bargain with you!"

"I know... why?!"

Tuka rolled his eyes as the two went from arguing with him to arguing with each other, honestly if Uthug just went ahead and accepted the Tark's little offer Tuka could use that as probable cause to dice them up right now. He sighed happily at the thought, but shook his head. Now was not the time to get lost in fantasy, he had a job to do.

He approached the covered lump.

"Why can't you see the advantages here?!" the Faunus shouted

"You mean the advantages of losing a loud, annoying Uruk who's probably gonna end up killing me with his antics in exchange for a loud, annoying Hybrid who's probably gonna do the same thing?" Uthug shook his head, "I want a plan that ends up killing both of you so I won't have to deal with either scenario, thank you very much."

Tuka groaned as their incessant back and forth led to him calling back with "You both perfectly encapsulate why Tarks deserve slavery and Uruks need leaders like me to keep from being just as deplorable."

The two paused to look back at him, Uthug folded his arms before raising an eyebrow "You... a Leader? Don't flatter ya'self. Why were you even coming here anyway?"

Tuka's response was to pull the tarp from the lump, revealing the body of their old pal Ashgarn lying atop the table.

Almost immediately Uthug and the White Fang captive flinched at the sight, with the Faunus almost instinctively inching behind the Uruk to put something between her and the unmoving gorger's gullet.

"I'm here for this." Tuka stated before looking down at the body with a frown "Tying up a potential loose end before it could develop into a problem."

"Damn it!" the Faunus bit as she glared past Uthug towards the Beserker "Is there anything you do that doesn't involve that fatass's body?!"

"Tuka, he's been still for about a week now."

"So?" Tuka turned to him in disbelief before gesturing to the All-Eater "Lad got skewered through the head and was walking around later after we thought he'd been dead for weeks!"

"He got crushed under rubble, and Hork pretty much savaged any bones that were left unbroken!"

"Skewered. Through. The Head." Tuka said as slowly as physically possible before grunting "I'm not risking him coming back and outing us to the Warchief, I hadn't expected Hork to react so strongly-"

"Yeah, because despite your constant bullshit it seems you don't know a damn thing about him or his family relations." The Faunus pointed out with a roll of her eyes

"-but if Ash says even a little lie, Hork'll jump at the chance to have us all executed."

"And this is somehow simpler than just leaving?!" Uthug asked "By the Dark Lord, do you not even consider the possibility that staying here is a damned stupid idea! And by the way, I don't frankly understand how you plan to earn the Warchief's favor by chopping up his brother's body!"

"Don't worry, I planned for today. Had a Blacksmith down in the Shanties work on something for me." Tuka said with a grin before reaching behind him, it was only then that the two noticed a third handle protruding from between his dual axes.

He grabbed that third hilt and unsheathed a long thrusting sword from behind him, raising it up with a self-confident grin "Had him make this, blade's similar enough to the White-Haired murderer's, as long as I line it up with the wound I shouldn't leave much of a trace."

"You know, technically she's not his killer if he died out in the desert via crushed to death trying to devour us." Uthug pointed out as the Faunus behind him peaked out to glare at the body.

"Why the hell is he even here?" she asked "Shouldn't that Warchief guy have him?"

"Oh, Tarz is the best Doctor we got around here," Tuka answered evenly "of course he'd be the one prepping the body of a Warchief for burning."

"The bastard once offered to amputate my legs for an arrow lodged in the shoulder." Uthug recalled "If he's the best we got then it just goes to show how shrakh our current roster of healers are."

"Just because he likes cutting things to pieces doesn't mean he doesn't know how to actually fix someone."

"Look, can we just go?!" the Faunus begged "Forget about stabbing bodies and let's focus on getting the hell away from this tower."

"Oh what do you even have to complain about?" Tuka rolled his eyes "Compared to the rest of the slaves here you're living the high life!"

"Need I remind you of the shit I've gone through the past week?!"

"Exactly! Living the damned high Life!"

This time, Tuka couldn't resist getting dragged into the argument, the trio getting so caught up in their bickering that they didn't notice the movement.

"At least I've been doing something!" The Berserker bit "You two have just been riding on my coattails!"

"You don't even have a shirt let alone a coat." The White Fang grunt spat out

"It was a figure of-"

"I fucking know!"

Uthug tilted his head to the side as he glanced to her "Then what would possess you to use tha-?"

"Oh, you want some too?"

"Want what? Whatcha gonna do? Throw ya feeble little hands at me while trying to loo-loo-l-"

The Faunus and Berserker turned to the Warrior, who seemed frozen in shock as he stared in open-mouthed horror at something past them. Gasping like a fish as his sentence was garbled and choked inside his throat. Slowly the two others followed his gaze...

...and once more locked eyes with Ashgarn, sitting up on the table he once lay prone upon.

A shriek tore its way out of the Fang Grunt's throat as she once more dragged a still gob smacked Uthug in front of her.

"Ha!" Tuka laughed before grinning at the two of them and jerking a thumb back to the death-defying Uruk "Guess who was right yet again!"

The Uruk and Faunus before him remained frozen as they watched a dazed looking Ashgarn slowly shake off the confusion.

"T-Tuka?" the Musket-Wielder began

"And here you two were moaning and groaning about my genius plan," The Berserker continued gloating "but it don't seem that ill-conceived now does it?!"

His two companions meanwhile, watched in horror as the Glutton's one eye soon fell upon them.

"Tuka!" the White Fang Grunt shouted

"And don't even get me started on how much of a pain in the arse you've been!" Tuka rolled his eyes before pointing his thrusting sword at her "Always badmouthing my glorious plans. Acting as if I know nothing when, in reality, its the two of you who don't know a damn thing about-!"

"You."

That voice actually managed to shut the Berserker up, and soon he glanced behind him as Ashgarn finished lowering himself off the table.

"You... brought me here." the All-Eater began as his eye traveled around the room "... Is this brother's tower?"

"Oh... right." Tuka said slowly before givng a small cough into his free hand "Ashgarn, look. I know you may feel disoriented, unsteady-"

"Aren't those the same thing?" Uthug whispered to the Faunus still hiding behind him

"-you're unsure where you stand and crave answers."

"You dragged me here..." the Glutton growled as he reached back towards the table behind him "right back to my brother."

"And while that may initially seems like a bad thing, I implore you look at this situation as a whole."

"Are you-" Uthug narrowed his eyes at the Berserker "-trying to bargain with him?!"

"Its what I do best." Tuka shrugged

"We almost died last time you did that!"

"Yeah," the White Fang grunt muttered "instead of letting history repeat itself, can't you just skewer him like you were planning to?"

"You planned to what?!" Ashgarn yelled, causing both the warrior and the grunt to flinch back

"Oh this just had to be the time to bring that up." Tuka glanced back to them "And you two say I'm the one constantly getting us into messy situ-"

He was interrupted as Ashgarn released a howl of rage before tearing the leg off the table behind him and charging forwards.

He leaped forward, prompting Tuka to release an actual squeak of shock before raising his sword and catching the makeshift club midair. What he wasn't prepared for was when the All-Eater's foot shot forward and promptly buried itself in his gut, launching the taller Uruk back. Before Tuka could steady himself, the club collided with his sword hand and sent the thrusting sword clattering away. Ashgarn raised his club to capitalize on the Berserker's disarmed state when suddenly Tuka blinked away.

Snarling, the gorger glanced around to search for the axe-wielder as a certain shifty Faunus snuck past him.

Eyes locked on the discarded thrusting sword, she kneeled to pick it up. It was a bit large for her, but damn it if she didn't need a weapon right now!

But then she turned to find Ashgarn already mid lunge, and had only a brief moment to think back and question several recent decisions she's made in life.

Raising the sword and stepping to the side, she managed to deflect the crushing blow, the force behind it throwing her balance off. Before she could steady herself again, Ashgarn's foot swung into her shins and immediately brought her to the ground. Having to catch herself, lest she accidentally skewer herself on the sword, the Faunus could hear the plump Uruk readying another swing, and quickly rolled to the side as the club collided with the ground.

She scrambled to her feet and broke into a run as Ashgarn turned to leap at her before she got too far. He was however, interrupted when two axes grazed along his back, but failed to penetrate his aura. Immediately he swung back, Tuka just barley managing to deflect the club.

The White Fang Grunt immediately sought a place to hide, confident as she was that she could somehow escape in the midst of this chaos once the Uruks focused on each other. Her gaze fell upon an overturned table at the other side of the Lab, and she immediately leaped over it before pressing her back to it in hopes that they hadn't seen her.

"Hey!"

Blinking, she turned to find Uthug also hiding behind the table whilst holding onto his musket for dear life "Find your own hiding spot!" he whispered to her

"Shouldn't you be helping Tuka fight?!"

"Fight Ashgarn? If he's killing Tuka I want to throw him a damned feast." the Warrior hisses before pointing at her accusingly "Besides all you want is a chance to book it."

"What? How did you-?"

"Because I know you, Hybrid."

"Oh really? I thought to you I was just 'Sub-Human Garbage.'"

"Exactly, I know your type."

Before she could get angrier at his suppositions, Tuka was sent sailing over the table and skidded along the floor before slamming into a wall.

The Warrior and Faunus blinked simultaneously before the Musket-Wielder sighed "That ain't good."

Against his better judgement, he sat up a bit to peak over the table.

Only to immediately get tackled by Ashgarn, the sheer weight throwing Uthug onto his back while trying to desperately to keep the plump Uruk's jaws at bay with his musket. Unfortunately for him, using both his arms to hold weapon left Ashgarn to rear back with his club. But before he could bring it down upon the Warrior, the thrusting sword collided with the side of his face and sent him tumbling away as his Aura flared.

The White Fang captive took several steady breaths before grinning to herself and looking down at the Uruk "Seems this Sub Human Garbage just saved your-"

"Don't care." Uthug stated as he pushed himself back to his feet

"What?! How can you just not care?!"

"Pretty easily." the Warrior stated as Tuka stumbled over.

"Okay," the Berserker began as he stood straight "We need a foolproof plan-"

"No!" the Musket-Wielder roared "No more damned plans!"

"Ugh," Tuka rolled his eyes before glancing back to them "so you intend to take on the All-Eater without any form of tactical positioning? Even I didn't think you could be this un-apologetically brain-dead."

"Every single time I even step close to one of your blasted plans, I nearly die!" Uthug stated sternly before narrowing his eyes and growling "So ya know what? You and your 'Tactical Positioning' can bite the darkest part of my arse! I'm just going to wing it and try to live!"

"Really?" the Berserker glanced back to him "You'd rather stake your life on that than on a concise and understandable strategy?"

"Yes!" Uthug bit as he hefted his musket "if tactics and thinking are so life-threatening, then I say screw both of them!"

Tuka paused at that and, despite Ashgarn already being back on his feet, turned to Uthug with an unreadable expression "Ya know... despite that being the most inconceivably brain-dead thing I've ever heard... I can actually respect that kind of dedication."

"...really?"

Tuka didn't even have time to answer before a club slammed into the side of his head and sent him spinning away as Ashgarn barreled past him.

Uthug stepped back, narrowly avoiding the club before shoving the butt of his rifle into the Gorger's Gut. The impact forced air from the Eater's maw, despite his Aura absorbing most of it, but soon his jaws opened wide as he leaned towards the Warrior. Uthug went wide-eyed and threw himself back out of the Captain's range, but tripped over the broken table and fell.

Before Ashgarn could capitalize, the White Fang Grunt swiped at him from the side with her sword. He recovered too quickly for her, swinging his club into the side of her head. Despite both of their Auras flashing from the impacts, the Uruk was clearly far more use to taking a hit. He reached with his free hand and grabbed her by the neck. Before she could even try to wiggle free, she felt herself getting lifted off her feet.

"Please for the love of all that his holy," she squeaked, grabbing hold of his arm as she felt his grip tighten "be gentle!"

And then she was choke-slammed through the broken table.

Ashgarn stretched his neck as he approached, grimacing down at the Faunus. Her Aura flickered, dangerously close to failing already, even as she tried to blink away the pain and refocus on the Uruk before her. Ashgarn grumbled unintelligible words before raising his club. Before he could brain the weakened woman, a dust round slammed into his side. Immediately he turned to Uthug, who had regained his footing and was now lining up his next shot.

"Damn it! I was going for his head!"

"And I'm going to be digesting yours in no time you grub!"

Uthug swallowed and pulled the trigger as the Glutton charged him, the Gorger's club intercepting the next set of bullets as if it were nothing.

As the distance between them shrunk, the Musket-Wielder froze as Ashgarn leaped at him club raised. Before it could connect, the Warrior felt a hand on his shoulder and was promptly shoved out of the way as Tuka leaped past him to intercept the Glutton. Uthug watched open-mouthed as Tuka collided with Ashgarn knee first before the Captain could finish his swing.

Ashgarn landed with a stumble, but Tuka's approaching footsteps forced him to raise his club and begin blocking the twin Axes.

"Uthug!" Tuka shouted before blinking out of the way of a strike and resuming his flurry "The Sword!"

"What about it!?" the Musket Wielder questioned as he hastily tried lining up another shot

"We need it once his Aura's down! That has to be what puts him down!"

"Like hell it will!" Ashgarn roared

"Its the only way we can leave as little evidence of us being here as possible!"

Uthug blinked at that before taking a look around the lab "Tuka, there's evidence all over this damn place!"

"Just trust the plan!"

"Screw your plans!" the Warrior shouted before turning to the broken table "Hybrid, can you still fight?"

"I... I... should I hurt this much!?"

"Get up and get in there damn it!" Uthug hissed before turning back to try and get a clear shot

Despite Tuka landing many a hit, Ashgarn showed no signs of tiring. His Aura was a different story.

During one of Tuka's slashes, the Gorger ducked underneath the axe before immediately reaching up and latching on to the taller Uruk. Ignoring one of Uthug's rounds impacting with his weakening Aura, the Glutton hauled Tuka over him and sent him sailing towards the Warrior.

The White Fang Grunt leaned up slowly, trying to get her bearings. She turned to see Uthug firing and was about to say something when she saw his eyes go wide. And then Tuka slammed into him bringing both of the Uruks to the ground.

"Get off of me!"

"Why didn't you dodge you cur?!"

As the two struggled to disentangle themselves, Ashgarn turned to them and growled before taking a deep breath.

Uthug spotted it first, the color draining from his face as he watched the All-Eater "Tuka... is that what I think it is?"

Instead of answering, the taller Uruk merely screamed "Move!"

The trio scattered, with the Faunus scrambling away from the Uruks and Tuka blinking away while Uthug broke into a sprint as what could only be described as a vortex sprouted from Ashgarn's throat, immediately sucking in the various clutter around the room. Tables, drawings, and tools were all dragged into the void, but the three managed to avoid it. But then Ashgarn turned.

Uthug ran along the edge of the room even faster as the vortex followed just behind him, legs pumping as fast as they could to avoid being dragged in with the rest of Tarz's stuff. Ahead, he saw Tuka blink atop one of the remaining tables and nod to him with a grin.

"Glad to see you're taking your role as bait so vehemently!" Tuka smirked before darting from the table and charging Ashgarn "Now you've left yourself wide-!"

Ashgarn snapped his jaws shut, killing the vortex instantly, before jerking towards Tuka and opening his mouth again.

Tuka's eyes went wide, having not accounted for the sudden shift, and Uthug desperately tried to kill his forward momentum and skid backwards...

...but it was far too late.

The Vortex sprang to life again, now with both of the Uruks trapped in its pull. Tuka immediately tried blinking away, but the moment the pull started he slammed his axes into the floor to keep from being dragged in. The Berserker gritted his teeth, distracted momentarily by Uthug sailing past him towards the All-Eater's void of a mouth.

Uthug's cries seemed to make Ashgarn's one eye narrow in anticipation as the Uruk sailed towards him, but they weren't loud enough to cover up the sound of something metal clattering to the ground somewhere behind him. Before Ashgarn could even think about quickly glancing behind him, the White Fang Grunt leaped onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulder.

The force made him stumble forward and his jaws snap shut, the vortex petering out with them. Now free from the pull, Uthug fell on the ground beside the plump Uruk and struggled to get up as the Gorger roared and tried prying the Faunus off him.

Having traded the thrusting sword for one of the filthy Uruk-Hai Surgical tools Tarz had lying around, she reared back before stabbing at Ashgarn's already weakened Aura "Guys! I'm almost through!"

"The hell you are!" Ashgarn bellowed

"Do something!" she yelled as her eyes went to Tuka, who looked up at her before glancing past them and blinking away "T-Tuka-?"

As soon as she began questioning where the Berserker had gone off to, Ashgarn opened his mouth and caught her wrist as she stabbed at him. Her question soon shifted into a scream of pain as his teeth tore a chunk out of her wrist, despite losing her grip on the blade her other arm managed to remain clinging to Ashgarn. The Glutton seemed ready to remedy that as he raised his club to brain her, but suddenly the butt of a musket swung into it and snapped it in half. Uthug reared back out of Ashgarn's reach, having run out of ammo for his musket and no time to search for more, his eyes traveled between the struggling hybrid and the enraged All-Eater before he groaned and charged back in.

"Bind him!" he shouted as he ducked a swipe of the plump Uruk's claw and grabbed hold of it.

Catching his drift, the wounded Faunus bit back the cries she was desperately trying to hold back and moved to hold the Uruk's other arm.

"Tuka!" Uthug shouted as the two struggled to hold the Glutton in place "Where are you damn it?! We got him right-!"

"Oh quit mouthing off."

Uthug's head twisted around to spot the Berserker in question sliding his axes back into the straps on his back, the Plan-lover giving him a self-confident smirk before he nodded down to the thrusting sword the Faunus had discarded. Without words he kicked the blade up into his grasp and blinked past them.

The Musket-Wielder's head turned back around to find Tuka standing several yards away from them.

"Ashgarn..." the Berserker said as he pointed the sword towards them

"Oh no..." the All-Eater's eye went wide as he began struggling violently "Not again! Damn you all!"

"Why the fuck... are you pausing dramatically!?" The White Fang Grunt shouted towards the Plan-Maker as she tried desperately to keep the Gorger as still as possible.

Tuka didn't give her an answer, merely getting in a ready position before taking off towards them.

"You scum-sucking snake in the grass filth!" Ashgarn spat as Uthug and the Faunus struggled to keep him still "Back-stabbing, traitorous, silver-tongued grunt! No taste! No appreciation for anything, you arse!"

As Ashgarn grew more vitriolic with his insults, the Hybrid took note of something "Tuka, I'm right behind him so watch where you-Tuka?"

The Berserker paid her no heed as he grabbed the sword in both hands and steadied his aim.

"Oi! Watch where you shove that thing you Plan-Crazed glob!" Uthug pitched in

As over-dramatic as ever, Tuka leaped towards Ashgarn on his final step, plunging the thrusting sword deep into his empty eye-socket. The blade passed completely through his head and reopened the same wound which downed him all that time ago, grazing the Faunus on its way.

She let out a small scream from the grazing, the sword going all the way along her left cheek to right above her ear.

Ashgarn went still, and soon Tuka pulled the blade from his head. He and Uthug stepped back and watched the All-Eater fall back.

Directly on top of the White Fang Grunt, who released a pained grunt at nearly being crushed by the dead Uruk.

Uthug glared at Tuka, who gave a shrug and another smug smile before saying "You know, if we leave her maybe we can pin this on her and get back to-"

"Oh just shut the hell up." the Warrior grumbled as he walked away.

"You say that now, but ya gotta admit my strategy worked perfectly."

"Your strategy?" Uthug asked as he kneeled down to help pull the tark out from under Ashgarn's fallen body "If anything it was my strategy."

"Oh but you said it yourself, you don't do tactics or thinking." Tuka reiterated with a cheeky smile before placing a hand to his chest "So it had to have been mine."

The Warrior gave a very slow blink before sighing "Ya know what? Fine, it was your strategy all along I'm sure."

While Tuka gave a small humored laugh, Uthug helped the Faunus to a sitting position. She was clutching the bite wound on her wrist trying to keep pressure on it, angrily muttering about not getting a warning before nearly getting gored along with Ashgarn.

Uthug grumbled at the sight of the wound before standing up "Ya gonna need that looked at, I can run ya by one of the Sawbones and see if they can get ya mended."

She looked up at him and swallowed before tilting her head "What?"

"You're going to what?" Tuka snapped out of his self-reverence once he realized what had been offered

"You may think you're gifted by the Dark Lord himself-"

"What? No I'm not..." Tuka stated before grinning "But acting like I was does come with perks."

"-but this little Hybrid saved my arse, I can at least keep her from dying as repayment."

The White Fang Grunt blinked at that... and then promptly fist-pumped with her good hand "Yes! Progress!" she cheered before wincing and immediately clamping down on the wound again with a few muted whimpers.

"Wow... you really are becoming a proper filthy tark aintcha?" Tuka commented

"The both of you can shut up," Uthug groaned "we're all dying once the Surgeon comes back anyway, least you two can do is not make my life any harder before then."

"Whatever do you mean, lad? We silenced Ashgarn!"

"Tuka... just look around us!" the Musket-Wielder shouted "I don't care if he looks the same as the day she bloody stabbed him, we've left evidence everywhere! Face it! That damned white tark didn't kill Ashgarn! We did!"

"True, but not a soul has a way of knowing it was us specifically who did any of this." the Berserker stated before chuckling "And everyone knows that something can't exist as long as nobody knows a thing about it. We merely stay quiet and go on about our day, I'll ditch the blade and then we just let everyone think what they want to think. Come on... my plan worked perfectly."

"Yeah, I know a perfect sod who can melt that blade down for ya."

None of the trio had said that.

Soon all three heads turned to the Lab's doorway to find a smug looking Tarz leaning against the doorframe with a cup of grog in hand.

"And yet the hate for your plans grows deeper." Uthug grumbled under his breath towards a stunned Tuka as the Surgeon strolled in.

"Oh don't worry about me lads and lass." the putrid faced Surgeon said as he walked over and knelt beside Ashgarn's body "I'm great at keeping secrets and all that."

His disgusting lips stretched into what could've been a smile as he prodded the still All-Eater before humming and getting up.

"Tarz" Tuka begins as the Surgeon walked past them to one of the makeshift chalkboards which had been marred during the fight "you don't understand the full story here."

"Oh I would just love..." the wounded Faunus began "Fucking love to hear you try and bullshit your way out of this one."

"I said ya don't have to worry 'bout it none." Tarz waved them off as he hefted himself onto one of the last few tables left standing and leaned back on it with his legs hanging over the side as he took a swig "Ya had issues with Ashy, who seemed to be having a bit of a nap, and killed him... I ain't gonna tell a soul. I'll even patch up ya slave for ya, wouldn't want her dyin' after goin' through a tussle like that eh?"

Uthug narrowed his eyes "And why-?"

"Because I'm great with secrets!" the hideous Uruk cheered before giving a small laugh and raising a finger "For instance: I've been chopping up slaves and smuggling Grog all over the Shanties down below, and neither the Warchiefs nor the Garrison are any the wiser!"

The trio stared at the foul-faced freak as he gave another few hearty laughs and took another swig, Tuka was the first to say "...Excuse me?"

"Oh yes, me and a bunch of the other medically inclined didn't take too kindly to the Gate Keeper's restrictions and decided that what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. So we've been nabbing slaves and pinning their deaths on suicides and Grimm attacks while smuggling as much Grog as we could grab down into the Shanties where it is secretly handed out to all the thirsty lads en masse!"

The trio continued staring before the White Fang grunt asked "Why... are you telling us this?"

"I told ya! I'm great at keepin' secrets, but only as great as the ones I'm keepin' 'em for."

"...No..." Uthug began as his eyes grew wide with realization

"And what better way to show that you's great at keeping secrets than displaying how devoted you all are?"

"No no no!"

"He's not asking what I think he's asking," the Faunus turned to a still stunned Tuka "is he?"

Tarz finished his cup and placed it on the table before leaning forward and shifting his grotesque visage into a grin "And nothing says devoted more than helping us in our endeavors, eh?"

"...Oh god damn it."

Uthug turned to Tuka "Still part of your master plan?"

Tuka looked from him to a still grinning Tarz and winced "Okay... we may have gone a tiny bit off track here."

---

Vale Coast - The Arena

Ukbuk and his pullers stood in an adjacent hall, watching as Ishmol shook the mug in his hand a bit and watched the drink within stir. Flanking him were Mozu and Tuvor, both Shield-Bearers stared as the Arena Master raised the mug to his lips and took a steady swig.

Lowering it, he settled a gaze on Ukbuk "It tastes exactly like real Grog..." he muttered before looking back down into the brew "Even better than some of the swills they got back home!"

Ukbuk grinned as he two Wagon-Pullers looked to each other in excitement "I'm glad its everything you wanted, we've waited forever to actually speak with you and were starting to get worried."

"Apologies mate, I have a tournament and guests who desire entertainment." he said before taking another smaller sip "But this right here... this is truly impressive laddie. How? How is it you managed this?"

"I've always been devoted wholly to the drink sir, back in Mordor I was training under a Grog-Maker and was making headway to being one of the best!"

"Really now?" Ishmol asked as he lowered his mug

"He was busy working with a Warchief in a distant land when Tugog's little spell happened, from the moment we arrived here I was dead set on making some fine drink outta this realm's givings."

"We came to this place many months ago... and all that time you've spent on this?"

"Yep," Ukbuk chittered before pulling a rolled up paper from his trousers "crafted this recipe meticulously and what not. Skulked around past Grimm, Hybrids and Huntsmen alike finding ingredients. There were dozens if not hundreds of failures I had to work through. But I've got it down pat sir."

Ishmol took the recipe and looked it over "Lad... I was a Famous brewer back in Mordor before I started workin' in slaves, and I don't think even I'm dedicated to the drink enough to do all this. Now you've gone and impressed me, devotion like this deserves somethin'"

Ukbuk placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest proudly...

...before a dagger was buried into said chest.

"Uk-!" before the Wagon-Pullers could rush to his aid, Mozu and Tuvor already had them pinned to the ground.

The Grog-Maker's eyes went wide as he glanced down to the Slavemaster's hand currently wrapped around the dagger slicing into his lung, before coughing blood and attempting to reach for it. Ishmol gave a small smile at this before yanking his blade out, holding the recipe behind him to protect it from the spray of black blood which accompanied the blade's exit.

"B-but why?" Ukbuk croaked as he lurched forward onto his hands and knees.

"Obviously ya got a good thing here mate," Ishmol cooed as he read over the recipe again "honestly quite genius in fact. But here's the thing, lots of Uruk would be willing to ditch their current bosses for real Grog. You just don't look like the leader type, ya know?"

"But...but..."

"Ugh forget it, I'll leave the diabolical mugging about to the Ratlugs of the world." Ishmol waved it off before kneeling in front of Ukbuk and smiling "I'm killing you so I can take credit for the recipe and reap all the affiliated rewards. Tons of the good stuff for my boys? Taking it. Loads of new recruits? Thank ya very much. The notoriety of being the first Uruk to fashion proper grog out of the shrakh lying around this land? Why one earth wouldn't I nab it?"

With that he nodded to his two drunks, and the last thing Ukbuk heard before passing out from blood loss was the sound of his allies' necks being snapped.

Ishmol stood over the Uruk and shook his head while he bled out "Tsk tsk, didn't even have his Aura yet." he said before turning to his drunks "I mean what kinda bastard walks around without an Aura in these parts?"

"You said it boss, dumb dumb didn't have no Aura he didn't!" Tuvor clapped enthusiastically "Sure showed him ya did boss! Ya smarter than him!"

"Don't patronize me Tuvor," Ishmol rolled his eyes before raising the recipe before him and grinning "Ya ruining the moment. I mean, with both this and the Shaman's reward for helping him and his with their little surprise I'll be livin' it up after today!"

"About that Cap'n," Mozu began "been thinkin about it."

"Well that's a first."

"But wouldn't helpin' out the Storm disrupt the tournament?" the drunk finished

"Who gives two rats asses about the tournie?! I put this whole damn thing together because it was a perfect way to seek leverage!" he pointed towards the recipe as his grin spread wide "With both this and the Shaman's support, I could well be on my way to becomin' a Warchief boys!"

It was then that the crowd began cheering again, and Ishmol turned to the sound with a grumble before pocketing the Recipe and gesturing to his Shield-Bearers "Move these idiots. Storm's probably nearly done setting things up, and I got me a show to run."

---

She just needed one damn battle!

This was ridiculous, all these fights being randomly chose and she hadn't been picked once? To be fair, from the number of cages down here they hadn't gotten through half of the roster yet, but even so. She'd refrained from interrupting Velvet while the rabbit-Faunus focused on recovering, she knew damn well that going up there without an Aura would be a gamble not to take.

The unfortunate side effect being that she'd been left with her thoughts once again, and damn it if her thoughts get annoyingly worried in situations like these.

Was it really just by chance that she wasn't being picked? Could this be part of some plot? If anything Krosh seemed dead set on showing off how much better she was than everyone else so that didn't seem likely. Besides a few considerably large Grimm and a few other angry White Fang captives there wasn't much she could immediately tell about the possible competitors. Unlike Courser, many of these Faunus still had most of their Fang Uniforms relatively intact, giving her only minor ways to distinguish them from each other.

Besides that were her neighbors, Velvet and the Sulker. He hadn't been called upon either but besides her just sat in one place patiently waiting. In all honesty she'd forgotten about him due to how silent he was, having been still as a corpse the entire time. In fact...

Walking to the wall of her cell which connected to his, Yang grabbed the bars and leaned against them while peering at him "Hey buddy. What're you in for?"

No response.

"So your own guys did this to you? Did you get turned on by your boys or lose a fight or something?"

She'd seen the Storm use Chief-less as practice dummies, so that's nowhere near as shocking as it should be. But still he remained quiet, but at this distance she could clearly see that he was breathing. No problem, she'd had plenty of practice with Mulgrim in the art of annoying stubborn silent types into talking, and if she was gonna be stuck in here then she might as well-

The cheer from signaled that the next names had been called, and soon she waited for the two drunks to arrive and see who was chosen. As anticipated, the duo arrived with the strips and one looked down at the labels.

"Entries from... the two Storm Captains?" one asked the other

And there went her focus once more. What the hell? There's no way this was the first bout she had.

"Swordsmith and the Warmonger, that's them."

Seriously? The first time she's called upon and she's immediately going straight to taking on Ratlug's entry? She wanted to assume this was a coincidence, but her time at Beacon and with the Uruks convinced her that coincidences hardly ever happened like this.

Soon one of the Drunken Uruks walked over and opened her cell, another going to retrieve her opponent.

She'd focus on the probability of this being part of some master plan later, right now she needed to focus on her opponent. Even while being ushered towards the lift, she kept her eyes glued to the other Drunk, watched him walk past her own cell and step in front of the Sulker's.

"Oi, you's ready in there?" the alcohol soaked Uruk asked before lifting up a heavy-looking bag and shaking it "Ya owner wanted me to give ya these before you be goin' up there."

Oh of course it'd be the most nondescript fucking guy in there. Had Ratlug delivered him there first or something? He must've!

She knew next to nothing about him besides the fact that he was a big Uruk! A description which fit pretty much all of the Audience!

She couldn't even get a peak at what was being delivered to him before she was sent up to the Arena.

"Finally!" she heard Krosh shout as she was walked to her place on the other side of the fighting pit "Show them what you got lady!"

Wait, so even he was pissed about it taking so long?

Before she could interpret that any further, the lift rose once more with her challenger on it.

Standing tall with some notable fat and muscle, he wielded two full sledgehammers connected by chains to some odd-looking gauntlets. He was bare-chested like many other Uruks she'd seen, with some notable scars all over his torso. Not the wild and furious ones that Courser had, these ones looked oddly precise cuts. But then she took a look at his head and realized she'd have discovered his role immediately if she'd just gotten a good look at it earlier.

Attached to his square-shaped head were several thin wrappings and another one of those muzzle headpieces she'd so far only seen worn by those associated with the Storm. Mulgrim, Mincemeat, and now this guy? It was smaller than either of the others, only wrapping around his lower face. Even from here she could tell that it was keeping his mouth shut quite literally, practically the exact opposite of Mincemeat's.

"Here we go lads," she heard Ishmol shout "Mug the Muzzled vs the Golden Girl!"

"Golden Girl?" she muttered under her breath as she continued eyeing the Muzzle-wearing Uruk up "Seriously guys?"

At that Mug raised his Sledgehammers, the chains attached to them began retracting into the gauntlets in a manner that seemed far too familiar... in fact-

"Hey Ratman!" Yang called upto the smug looking Swordsmith after getting a better look at her opponent's gauntlets "The hell is this?"

Above Ratlug clapped his hands together in a chipper manner, occasionally glancing to the side to gauge the reaction of the hooded Shaman "Oh, remember when I said I was thinking about doing something with your weapon designs? Well, I may have already done something~!"

Yang's frown deepened as she evaluated her opponent.

"At first I worked on recreating yours, but then we found this little treat here and I had a grand idea!" the false doctor continued as he glanced down to Mug "So I took the loading mechanism made some adjustments then voila! Chainwrap Hammer Gauntlets!"

"The hell did you name them that for?" Krosh asked

"Its what they are really, extendable and retractable chains mixed with a built in launch clasp designed for violent repositionin' of the hammers." Ratlug explained with a smirk before turning back and calling into the fighting pit "Mug! Be a good pet and crush my boy's hopes for me."

The Muzzled Uruk gave some type of garbled response, unable to speak through the restraints of his mouthpiece, as Ratlug whipped out a familiar little remote and pointed it at Yang. She heard a tiny, almost unnoticeable click come from her Gauntlets, and quickly cocked them as the crowd began sheering.

He made the first move, immediately rearing back and launching one of his hammers at her. Yang hadn't been prepared for how much range he had. Even though she was on the other side of the arena she had to throw herself to the side just as the hammer crashed into the ground beside her.

As she rolled to her feet, he grabbed hold of the chain connecting him to his hammer and yanked it to the side. Yang's eyes widened a bit before she leaped once again as the chain dragged the hammer underneath her. He didn't stop there, swinging out his other hammer as the other one zipped back to him. Dodging that one, she fired several blasts at him.

He growled before sidestepping the blasts and whipping the other hammer back to him. The two ran for each other as the crowd's roars of bloodlust increased, fist met hammer as the two began pummeling each other, both dodging and retaliating as much as possible to wear the other down first.

Krosh watched on with a nail in his teeth, not even noticing Ratlug staring at him until catching sight of the taller Uruk out of the corner of his eye "What?" he asked

"Worried there laddie?" the labcoat wearing doctor asked while shifting his lensless glasses on his face

The Warmonger glared for a moment before grinning and folding his arms over his chest "Not at all, I trained Lady myself, she can handle your hammer-wielding meathead any day of the week. Doesn't matter how many toys you give him."

"They are impressive none the less." Maku said

Both Krosh and Ratlug shifted to look behind them, having not noticed the smaller Warmonger approaching from behind.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be with Dreamer?"

Maku gave him a look before nodding towards the Shaman, who was watching the brawl below with full interest "I wished to inform the Master that our new friend is almost ready, and wishes to know how we're doing on our end?"

Krosh gave him a confused look as Ratlug's smile grew wider "Why just gotta have a chat with some of my boys real quick." he said before whipping out a scroll and pressing several buttons, only to frown a bit and stand up "I'll be right back lads, don't bother calling me when Krosh's slaves gets the boot, I'll be able to tell from the anguished cries."

As the Swordsmith wandered off, Krosh glared at Maku "What are you doing?"

"Not much," the Hunter said with a shrug "Dreamer and the boss had a little chat together earlier and worked something out with a few neutral parties."

Krosh turned to stare at the back of the Shaman's hood, eyes narrowing for a moment before Ratlug plopped down in his seat again and reclined with a chuckle "They say everything's a go."

Maku nodded before looking at the Shaman as well "Boss?"

The Shaman remained silent odd eyes still locked on the two combatants as they moved around each other's swings. But after a while of the Storm Captains waiting in anticipation, their Leader finally gave a hum "...Next match."

Yang ducked under a hammer only to find another already incoming, without time to dodge she raised her arms together and deflected the blow as best as she could. The impact was enough to still send her flying, and Mug aimed to capitalize on this by firing one of his hammers at her as she fell. She oriented herself mid-air feeling the heavy weapon fly past her.

He grumbled before pulling tit back, not expecting her to grab onto the chain with one hand while cocking her other. Eyes wide, he raised his other sledgehammer to begin deflecting blasts and block her incoming fist. She sailed over him, stumbling a bit on the landing and immediately aiming ahead of her and firing. The blast of her gauntlets sent her flying backwards directly into Mug. They both fell to the ground, the brawler immediately rolling off the Uruk as he gave a garbled growl and raised both his hammers.

She continued rolling away as the sledgehammers slammed at the ground just beside her. Finally she had a chance to get to her feet as he leaped towards her hammers raised. She blasted him twice and stepped back just as the heavy weapons careened into the ground and kicked up a cloud of dirt. He searched through the falling grains catching sight of the incoming fist just in time to rear back.

He failed to get out of her range quick enough, the shotgun blast spinning him as Yang rushed forward to capitalize. He swung back with one of his hammers as he stumbled, which Yang had to duck quickly to the side to avoid. Just as she went to resume her charge she felt something impact with the ground right behind her leg. He'd fired the other one while she was dodging.

It sped back to him, taking her leg out from under her and bringing her to the ground as the Berserker dove for her again.

She scrambled to her knees before lunging forward underneath him as he slammed into the ground weapons first once again. Turning around she just barely managed to lean back as one of the Hammers nearly careened into her jaw. Before she could get off a shot, the other hammer slammed down onto her rising gauntlet and shoved it down. Mug kept with his momentum, following through with a shoulder charge which sent her reeling again.

So far her Aura was good, but she really didn't want to get caught in too many of those rapid heavy combos. Catching her breath while Mug stretched his neck, the two shared a moment of silence before it was shattered as she released a flurry of blasts.

Ishga paid the battle little attention, instead he worriedly kept taking small glances towards Tugog. Skak had no such problem, as he and Blood-Axe were having one of their usual one-sided conversations, commenting enthusiastically on the battle below. The Hunter was more inclined to pondering.

"Troubled, Blood-Storm?" the Warchief asked

Ishga sighed "Are you sure about this, Master?" he asked before turning to the larger Uruk "Skak and I went through a bit of a hassle capturing and containin' her. What if this doesn't work out? We'll have wasted so much time."

"How so? Even if Pugrish's little demonstration doesn't work out we'll have the train's cargo and a display of power."

"But... What if this-?"

"Don't worry 'bout it brother, I can get a Dreamer Gate up in mere minutes if I need to."

The two turned to see Maku walk over, pushing through several other chanting Uruks to stand before them "Stormbringer and them are ready, we begin next match."

Tugog turned back to Ishga, who gave his brother a concerned look before sighing and turning to his Partner "Skak, come on."

The Axe-Wielder glanced at him for a moment before blinking "Huh? Where we goin'?"

"We're going downstairs... its time."

Yang didn't have time to notice the two Red Uruks getting up and walking away from the Arena, she was too busy ducking forward under another hammer swing and ramming her fist into the side of Mug's face.

The Muzzled Uruk stumbled back with a deep growl.

"Okay Mug," Ratlug called out from above "I notice the blonde ain't exactly crushed yet. Mind picking up the pace?"

But Mug didn't seem to notice, instead his gaze went down to his own muzzle. As Yang took the time to catch her breath, having exhausted more Aura than she would've liked dodging the rapid blows, she watched her opponent reach up and press a thumb to the side of his muzzle. Looks like it was a bit busted from that last hit.

Yang smirked at that, if she managed to graze that thing then his Aura must not be faring much better than her's. His grip on the weapons tightened before he leaned forward and took off at a dead run towards her. Yang released a breath, now even more confident that she could do this, and rushed to meet him head on.

Cocking back one of her Gauntlets, her swing was halted by the handle of one of his hammers. Raising her other fist resulted in the same thing, they pushed against each other, both grunting and glaring at the other as they stiffened their stances.

But it was there, nose to muzzle with the hammer wielding Uruk that Yang saw it. For just a second, she saw Mug's eyes glance quickly to the side in a very deliberate manner. Was there something behind her that would warrant such a thing, he did it slow enough for her to catch it but what-?

He did it again, this time Yang was more easily able to see his eyes glancing to the small piece of the muzzle she'd broken.

The two locked eyes for a second more before the blonde nodded at him.

Mug grumbled something unintelligible before rearing back and slamming his skull into hers... though without the force she knew he could put out.

She stumbled back and grimaced as she saw him launch himself towards her again weapons ready. Grinning, Yang lurched to the side and rammed a fist into Mug's side as he descended.

He stumbled, giving her just enough time to bring back her other arm and slam her full fist into the side off his head again. He didn't seem to take too kindly to that, as he reeled from the hit, his foot shot out and pulled her's out from under her. Still disoriented a bit from the punch, Mug took a second too long to bring down his boot, giving Yang ample time to lunge out of the way.

The Huntress in training came up swinging, the Muzzled Uruk having to deflect her blasts with the handles of his sledgehammers. Mid-block he shifted to the side and rammed his shoulder towards her again, but the Huntress-in-Training noticed this and slid out of its way before ramming another fist into his head.

She could feel his Aura struggling under the successive hits, but it seemed to do nothing but enrage him further. He leaped back and raised both hammers. Eyes widening Yang immediately began running to the side as Mug launched both Hammers, which sailed into the ground right behind her with pretty destructive results. He whipped them back and launched them again, repeating the attack until Yang got in the rhythm enough to fire back. As expected, he slowed down in his attacks to dodge, giving her the perfect opportunity to charge him.

He sent both hammers hurtling towards her, but the Blonde simply let her grin grow once more as she leaped over the incoming hammers before they could slam into her kneecaps. She planted her feet onto the chains, but before she could leap the rest of the way towards him, Mug seemed to figure out what she was planning and quickly pulled the hammers back to him. The sudden move quite literally yanked the chains out from under bher, but Yang gritted her teeth and swung her arms behind herself before she could fall. A quick shotgun blast sent her hurtling towards Mug faster, and it essentially became a race between her and the chainwrap gauntlets to see which would reach the Uruk first: Yang's fist or the hammers?

A second shotgun blast seemed to answer that, as she quickly outpaced the hammers and reared back. Mug's eyes widened and he forewent waiting for his weapons and began raising his hands to defend himself.

But alas, he just didn't have the speed.

Yang's fist sank into the side of his face again, Aura failing to hold up under the force. He went sailing back and collapsed along with his two hammers as the Brawler landed. Taking a moment to catch her breath, Yang crouched over a bit before raising both fists to the sky as the crowd roared its approval.

"And looks like the Muzzled has fallen!" Ishmol cheered over the crowd.

"Ha ha! That's what real training gets ya!" Krosh shouted before turning to his father "Got any wise ass things to say now, huh?!"

Ratlug's smug expression seemed indomitable, as the Swordsmith merely gave a tiny shrug "Oh well, I suppose he didn't have the brawn."

The Warmonger was unsatisfied with that answer "What? That's it?"

"Did you expect me to bawl and cry?" the Engineer gave a small laugh "Oh do act like an Uruk and put your pettiness aside. We haven't even got to the best part of today."

After hyping himself up to finally make his Elder eat his own damn words, Krosh could only growl and hope that winning the Tournament would give him better results.

With that in mind, he turned back to the Fighting Pit and whistled to get Yang's attention "Hey Lady! Mind finishing that bastard already so we can get back to winning this th-?"

"And now on to a special treat ladies and gents!" Ishmol shouted loudly

Krosh seemed to match Yang's look of confusion as two of the Arena Master's guards approached her and the Muzzled Uruk before she could even begin protesting the thought of executing someone.

The Warmonger blinked before looking down for a moment then turning to glare at his father "What did you do?"

"Oh, did we forget to mention the slight alteration to the plan?" Ratlug asked sarcastically before giving a small giggle of self-satisfaction

"What the hell have you done?"

"Me!? Why this was all our master's doing." Ratlug gestured to the silent Shaman before leaning back and thinking for a moment "Well actually, it was concocted by an interesting fellow who got in contact with us."

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Yang was confused, what kinda special treat was this?

She'd spotted the same look of confusion on many of the Audience's faces, so she had to assume that it wasn't made apparent to them beforehand. That was bad, things that she couldn't predict could foil any type of escape plan... not that she'd gotten around to fully fleshing one of those out anyway, but still!

The Drunks guided her and Mug back to the platform, the Muzzled Uruk shaking his head noticeably as they descended back into the holding pits.

Yang's thoughts were interrupted immediately once she spotted Velvet already being guided along by two of the Red Uruks she'd seen with her earlier.

"Hey Vel!" Yang called to her as the Faunus was led past them towards the lift "What is this?!"

"I-I don't know!" the Rabbit Eared girl answered with a confused tone before the smaller of her two Escorts shook her.

"Focus on walking, Hybrid." Ishga bit as he and Skak ascended on the platform with her.

It was only after Yang had already been shoved back into her cell that she spotted something in the Hunter's hands.

Chains... and not the type that Mug used with his weapons... those were restraints.

The cell's door slammed shut just as the dread seeped into the blonde's stomach. Immediately she grabbed for the bars and shouted to the drunk who'd escorted her "Hey- hey what the hell are going to do up there?"

The drunk gave her a queer expression before he heard a grunt behind him.

Mug was giving the other drunk a hassle, having apparently not lost all his energy during the battle.

"He-Ugh!- Moving too much!" the Muzzled Uruk's guard shouted "Help hold him!"

The other Drunk nodded before rushing over, and that's when the hammer-wielding berserker made his move.

Once the Guard was in range Mug leaned back and slammed the side of his head into his helmet. After receiving so much damage during the battle, the Muzzle was unable to withstand the impact and broke into pieces upon contact. While the Guard reeled from the blow, Mug leaned back and sank his teeth into the ear of the one restraining him. A sickening tearing sound followed the Guard's enraged roar as Mug broke free from his hold and immediately raised his hammers again.

Before the drunk could even reach to cover the spot where his ear once was, a hammer slammed into the side of his head and sent him tumbling to the ground. Mug spat out the ear clutched in his teeth just as the second Drunk regained his balance and charged him.

A Sledgehammer slammed into his gut right before Mug launched it and the alcohol soaked Uruk across the holding area, the Drunk was slammed into the wall with enough force to make him upchuck blood before sliding to the floor in a heap.

Mug's hammer raced back into his hand, the Uruk sniffing the air for a moment before spinning and deflecting the other Guard's weapon mid-swing, apparently he still had some fight left in him.

The formerly muzzled Uruk saw to that quickly, as his two hammers found their way into the Drunk's ribcage and lifted him off the ground. Mug spun the dazed Uruk, and Yang backed away from the bars right before he slammed into the door of her cell. She could practically feel the bars rattling from it. Unfortunately for the Guard, by the time he shook off the confusion one would expect to receive from being slammed against a metal cage like a bag of flour, Mug's boot was already incoming.

Mug caved in both the helmet and the head inside with little effort, Yang was lucky enough to be out of the blast zone when the black blood went flying.

That luck would apparently run out immediately as Mug turned from her cage and began making his way to the exit.

"Hey!" She called to him "Come on Mug, hurry up and let me out!"

The Hammer Wielder turned to her and growled "The name's Muggrish the Rock Crusher Tark. Why would I help you?"

The Blonde blinked "Because I helped you out there!" she said through gritted teeth "Busted your muzzle, I thought you wanted my help getting out!"

The Rock Crusher actually turned and scoffed "I did, but never did I once say I would return the favor." he said before pointing a hammer to her " I merely took advantage of Tark idiocy like any other superior being."

"They've got my friend up there!"

"You should forget about her." Muggrish stated as he turned back to the door "If those traitors are really going through with their ploy then she's already dead."

"Wait! What are they planning!?"

But he was already out of the door, "Damn it Mug!"

Yang backed away from the bars before sliding to her knees and swinging a fist into the ground. Uruks... not even the victimized ones seemed to give a shit.

Great, back to square one... except now Velvet was apparently in some deeper crap than expected. So much for comradery winning out in the end. God, the ease with which he just left her... Yang didn't even want to think about how long her list of Uruks who'd royally screwed her would get at this rate.

Letting a grunt of frustration, she swung her fist into the ground again, only this time a familiar blast accompanied it.

It shocked her out of her rage, had Ratlug not locked her Gauntlets?

She cocked her arm back and let loose another blast.

Quickly getting back to her feet, she looked at both her hands before turning towards the dead Uruk lying against her cell. The impact he'd made when he slammed into it had looked and sounded pretty violent.

Tightening her hands into fists, she adopted a stance and took aim for what she was pretty sure was the point of impact.

"Well Mug, you might actually have helped me anyway." she said before rearing back and letting loose.

---

Beacon Academy

"That should be the last of them."

Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood were all crowded near Ozpin's desk, hovering above it were a series of screens. They were live video feeds, most of which showing the Helmet Cams of the Infiltrators as they moved about Ishmol's Arena. They had just watched what should be the last gas canister being prepped and armed, the infiltrators were moving to converge and detonate.

"Honestly," Glynda sighed "I can't believe that after all this time that damn docking yard is still making trouble for us."

"Fontaine may have been a brash fellow, but he knew his construction." Ozpin commented "If that storm hadn't rolled in when it did, who knows how long he could've kept his operation going for."

"What matters now is getting those people out of there, and those monsters in chains." Ironwood said sternly before turning to the Uruk on the other side of the room "If your friend hadn't been so iffy with his timing we could've gotten there earlier, maybe saved more."

Krimp had been asked to stay in his corner of the Office for the duration of the operation, the Uruk had kept himself busy with more of those childish drawings of his. He'd tried acting like his curiosity wasn't getting the better of him, but the suspicious whistling and the glances he kept shooting them spoke volumes.

At being addressed, the Friendly Uruk had looked in their direction before putting his crayons down and scratching the back of his head "Sorry guys, if I'd known Ukbuk would take that long I would've gone down there and asked him to hurry up for ya!"

"You did fine, Krimp." Ozpin stated as he kept his gaze locked on the screens "We just need to focus on seeing this come to fruition."

"If the updates from Specialist Trost are accurate, we are in full position to launch the assault." the General said with surety "Lets just hope we can get enough people out of this to make up for the hold up."

Watching the screens, the three watched as the Atlesian Infiltrators met back up, with Maxwell taking a headcount before going for his communicator.

Ozpin reached towards his desk and pressed at the blinking dot as soon as it appeared.

"Canisters set," the Specialist's voice said with an air of confidence "we're ready when you are General."

The Professor turned back to Goodwitch and Ironwood, who merely stepped forward "Detonate."

And then all their feeds cut out.

The three stood in shocked silence for a moment before James leaped into action.

Immediately he was at the desk "Specialist Rebon? Igor?" he called out

As Ozpin wiped a growing bit of sweat from his brow, he put a hand to his lip and began analyzing the situation as Glynda turned an angered look on the back of the General.

Watching them, Krimp tilted his head to the side "Somethin' wrong over there, buddies?"

---

Vale Coast-The Arena

Standing over a group of defeated Atlesians was a figure, a figure who gave several deep breaths before grinning at his handiwork.

"Wooh boy, ya weren't lyin'!" Entering the room the infiltrators had been congregating in was Ishmol "I thought for sure I'd need to send some of my boys to help you."

The Arena Master knelt beside one of the slain Humans and poked at his helmet "Might want one o' these for myself." he commented cheekily before turning to the figure "The others are waiting for ya, we're ready ta get this show on the road!"

The figure's response was to toss the Slaver the detonator and turn around "Destroy this." he said before leaving.

Ishmol blinked before turning to look down at the Oddly shaped piece of metal in his hands. He examined it for a moment before grinning.

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

"Something's wrong." Ruby said

"Yeah," Fox agreed before pointing towards the screen "weren't they supposed to gas the place after meeting up there?"

The Teams were still watching the red dot, but many had grown confused at its movements.

"Maybe the General's a bit late in sending us the go ahead." Riley said, though she was starting to grow a bit concerned as well. She pulled out her scroll and began dialing "I'll check if there's some kinda communications malfunction or-"

It began ringing before she could finish. She didn't waste time in answering.

"Trost!" Ironwood's voice came through clearly "Are you near a terminal?"

Riley glanced back to the screen the two Teams were gathered around "Yeah."

"Get on and try to link up with Maxwell's Unit."

She paused at that before growing stern in the face "Yes sir, what's happening?" she asked as she pushed past the kids and got to work.

"We've lost contact with Maxwell's Unit, we think someone might've gotten them."

Ruby overheard, her expression darkening a bit. Before she could ask what exactly had gone down a camera feed popped onto the screen.

Riley backed up a bit, surprised, she hadn't been the one to pull that up.

"Wait," Ironwood said over the Scroll "we just got something. Rebon's Helmet-Cam just cut back in."

"We got that here too sir." Riley said as she kept her eyes glued to the screen

"What?"

It was dark, but that changed as the Camera shifted to a hole that seemed to lead to the Arena.

"What's he doing?"

The Camera moved inside, then turned to look down at the Arena from above. The Uruks seemed confused, the confusion multiplied as they noticed the Helmet's owner.

"Oi! What's a human doing here!?" was among the many growls and shouts they began spouting

"Was it one of the Infiltrators?" Weiss commented as the one in the Helmet casually began moving to the seats.

They walked past several Uruks in blue and white body paint and stood beside one in robes before looking down in the Fighting pit.

Inside, two Red themed Uruks were just finishing chaining a certain Faunus's feet to the floor on the other side of the Pit.

"Velvet?!" Fox couldn't hold back as Yatsuhashi and Coco pressed closer to get a better look.

Suddenly the Helmet turned around, revealing the angry face of Maxwell frowning directly into the Camera "As you can see here, you've been outmaneuvered. So let's keep this brief."

Suddenly his eyes shifted, blackness seeping into them before his frown turned into a full on scowl. He opened his mouth again, but it was not Maxwell's voice that came out of it "I am Gundza the Shadow... and I want the Heiress."

Blake immediately stepped back, it had spoken in Maxwell's voice but she'd seen those eyes before "The one who was with Mitch."

"Sir," Riley called into the Scroll "the plan's been compromised."

"I know that, soldier!" Ironwood retorted "Give us a moment to try and work this out."

On the screen Gundza handed the helmet to a nearby Uruk who kept it trained on him, "I've already dealt with your detonator and removed the external triggers. The mind of this man-filth I'm currently residing within proved tough to crack, much tougher than that bastard I worked with last time. But I've had ample time to thoroughly derail your plans."

"That's right folks!"

The Camera was turned to Ishmol, who pointed down at the Possessed Specialist grandly "Seems the Exile's discovered a Tark plan to undo our little get together here."

The Uruks began muttering, most still confused at the Human body wielding an Uruk-Hai title. But that confusion changed as more began realizing the meaning behind the Arena Master's words.

"They was planning ta jump us!" one shouted, as the infuriation spread like wildfire and the state of the Exile's body became much less pressing.

"But we's Uruks lads!' Ishmol laughed "We ain't gonna let this ruin our bit of fun, eh?!"

Various agreements rose up from the crowd.

"If they want a show! Then we'll give 'em one! One that only the Mighty Servants of the Dark Lord could make!"

The Arena Master leaned forward to hear the cheers of the crowd before gesturing back towards the Blue and White Uruks "Thankfully, the Dreamer's Storm brought us a fine little toy to show off for just such an occasion. Folks, may I present the Shaman's Entry in today's festivities."

"You see, my first plan failed because I thought a bunch of guns and human shields would be enough to lure the murderous wench into my clutches." Gundza said as the camera pointed back to him "So after the hybrid thoroughly ruined that plan I immediately swallowed my pride and sought the assistance of the most powerful Uruks I knew of."

He gestured to the Robed Uruk before folding his arms "After explaining, the Shaman here was more than willing to aid me as long as I did it with flair."

The Shaman merely nodded without turning his gaze from the fighting pit. Another large blue and white Uruk in a raincoat climbed out, can of spray paint in hand. He nodded to the Shaman as the Red Uruks also scaled the sides of the Fighting Pit, leaving Velvet to stare in fear at something on the other side directly across from her.

The Helmet was moved until that something was made clearer, a Dreamer Gate had already been painted onto the wall of the Arena across from Velvet and was already burning.

"And with their help I've set up a battle that none of the Tarks we have here could ever hope to win on their own." Gundza stated

The Portal activated, and almost immediately a shocking sight leaped out.

An Alpha Beowolf, covered head to toe in thick looking Armor plating.

It immediately lunged for Velvet, held back only by a plethora of thick chains attached to something on the other side of the portal.

"That's..." Riley narrowed her eyes "What did they..?"

"If I may." the Uruk holding the Helmet spoke, Gundza rolled his eyes as the Helmet was turned to focus on the Alpha in all its violent glory "This delightful beastie is one of my personal favorites. It took a dozen Uruks to restrain it, but I believe it was worth it. I told the Shaman it'd take years if not more to find a way to induce subservience in the Creatures of Grimm, as they prove even more stubborn than the beasts of our land. He, however, decided not to focus on struggling to tame them, and merely to focus on making an already deadly beast even deadlier."

"Boys..." Ishmol shouted with no small amount of dramatization "May I present the Shaman's very own entry into our bout today! The Armored Alpha!"

The Beast thrashed in its bindings, reaching forward with one claw to slash at the air. Each claw seemed to be reinforced with solid metal, no doubt upping the rending power of an already formidable foe. With its limbs and body almost completely suited with armor, save for is joints which were left bare in many places to no doubt retain as much mobility as possible, it seemed more like a Robot than a creature of Grimm. As the Uruks cheered for the Storm's creation, it opened its mouth and howled. The Grimm's angular helmet even had sharp protrusions running along the jaws, giving it a second row of deadly teeth.

"And now, that very beast is going to be fed the contenders of this Tournament one by one." Gundza stated to roars of approval "Unless..."

Now that gave several of the Orcs pause, as they'd been hyping themselves up for a tournament turned execution.

Gundza took the moment of silence to finish "You deliver the Heiress here to me."

Ruby looked down beside her, seeing Weiss's hands balling into fists as she glared towards the screen.

"An heiress? What's he talkin' about?"

It seemed that much of the Audience were unaware of who exactly Gundza was speaking of.

Eyeing the back of the Shaman, the Possessed man steeled himself before stepping towards the edge of the pit and calling out "You wonder who this heiress is?! he roared "She is the White Tark who slaid the brother of Hork of the Black Gate. The Murderer of Ashgarn the All-Eater, and the one who must face true Uruk-Hai justice today!"

"She's the one who killed the Glutton?"

"Heard she gored him on a prissy little blade!"

"She ain't dead already?"

"Sounds like she will be soon mate!"

The students all stared at the screen as the Uruks began chanting, chanting for blood, they didn't care who's as long as they got it.

Riley bit back a curse and walked off with the scroll.

Gundza turned back to the Camera and folded his arms over his chest "I want that Tark here and in chains within the Hour, after that this Beastie here gets a feeding frenzy. Now if ya want you can still try attacking, but without your gas we both know you ain't got much of a chance now do you? One... Hour."

Then the feed cut out after the Uruk holding onto the Helmet dropped it the floor and crushed it under his boot.

---

Beacon Academy

Ironwood slammed his fists onto the desk "Damn it!"

"Can't you just detonate those canisters from here?!" Glynda shouted

"Do you think I haven't tried?!" Ironwood turned on her before pointing towards the screen "That thing is in the head of an Atlesian Specialist, if he really has gotten through to Maxwell then he has more than enough knowledge to disable the long range transmitters."

The General's frown deepened as he looked down in thought "But when did he get in contact with the Storm? Records say he hadn't left Vale at all before the mission."

"They must have people in the city that he contacted."

Glynda and the General turned towards Ozpin, who kept a concerned glare locked onto the screens before him "A troubling thought for later. For now, we have to focus on finding a way to salvage this operation."

"Oz," Ironwood stood tall "we cannot give in to their demands."

"I have no doubt in my mind that they'd merely kill their captives even if we did give her to them." Ozpin sighed before lowering his gaze "A full blown hostage situation, the one thing these stealth procedures are designed to counter."

"We have to get in there before they start feeding people to that thing." Glynda stated

"The whole point of the gas was to lower their numbers!" James retorted "We don't have the man power to beat them in a straight forward, prolonged battle. And that Grimm of theirs..."

"Only Uruks would entertain the insane notion of armoring Grimm." Glynda bit before looking at Ozpin "What are we going to do?"

As the three tried to come up with a way out of this precarious situation, they failed to notice that Krimp had stopped drawing. And instead was staring down at his drawings in relative silence.

"Ashy's... dead?"

He whispered it under his breath, thoughts floating through his head at a rapid pace as his smile melted into a saddened look. Placing his crayons on the ground, Krimp reached for his many drawings...

...and began turning them over.

---

Vale Coast-Attack Camp

"We have to get her now!" Coco said

Riley sighed as she shook her head, eyes moving to each of the Team CFVY Members before her "Look, I know how having a teammate in danger feels, Velvet wouldn't want you guys putting yourselves in danger for her."

"We weren't there for her in the past," Yatsuhashi stated "I won't let that happen again."

"We're doing what we can guys." Riley sighed just as several Soldiers came by, asking for explanations "Look just stay by the terminal with Ruby and them, we'll figure something out."

As the Specialist went to speak to the troops, Coco lowered her glasses. Turning back to her teammates, she turned to see the unsettled look on Yatsuhashi's face and the sheer discomfort radiating from Fox.

"Welp, guess we have no choice, eh guys?" she said before both she and the large Sword-Wielder turned to stare at Fox. The Dark-Skinned boy merely sighed before leading them away.

Back near the Terminal, Blake was keeping her eyes locked on a still frame of Maxwell's form.

"Its definitely him." she reaffirmed

"The madman who hijacked the bus, correct?" Weiss asked, after receiving a nod from Blake she observed him more "I wonder if he truly believes we'd be stupid enough to comply to his ridiculous demands."

"If I hadn't let him get away last time..." Blake sighed

"Hush up about that." Weiss stated "Instead how about you help me figure out a way to stop him?"

Blake locked eyes with the heiress for a moment before nodding "Okay, we know that his semblance allows him to take over a person's Aura, and while fighting him I noticed that depleting it makes it easier to knock him out of them."

"What exactly does he look like outside of someone?"

Blake paused there and thought about it "I... don't think I got a good enough look at him during our last encounter. From Krimp's drawing he's supposed to be thin. And He uses spears."

"But it just doesn't feel right..."

The White and Black duo turned to Ruby, who'd been staring at the Terminal intently for a while now.

"What Gundza said, it doesn't add up." the sniper muttered

"Ruby?" Weiss began just as she heard Riley yell

"Are you kidding me?!" The Atlas Specialist pinched the bridge of her nose as she glared down at the Atlesian Pilot.

"I'm sorry ma'am, they slipped into the ship and took off before any of the Techs could get to them." he said sheepishly "At their speed they'll be at the Arena in a minute or two."

"How did you guys even let this happen!? I mean, which one of them can even fly..." the Woman paused at that and groaned before letting her hand fall back to her side "These kids..."

"Riley!"

She turned back to see Ruby rushing over with her teammates at her side "What is it Ruby? We're kind of in a crisis here."

"I know but they messed up, Riley!" the Huntress-In-Training shouted before screeching to a stop before the Atlesian "We still have a way to win this!"

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Krosh growled at Ratlug, who was picking through the remains of the Atlesian's helmet with curiosity practically radiating off of him "What the hell is this ya old husk!? I thought the whole point of this was to win the Tournament!"

"At first it was," the Swordsmith answered casually before standing and nodding towards the Exile who was walking off to shout to the crowd more and encourage their bloodlust "But then our buddy there got in contact with some of Ogthrak's boys. Next thing I know I'm putting my main project on hold to finish the Armored Alpha."

"Then why did we even enter anyone?"

"To test them of course! Your training against my engineering, of course it doesn't amount to much given the fact that neither of our entries would've been able to stand against a beast such as this."

"Why didn't anyone tell me!?"

"You have... your father's mouth..." The Shaman began breathing out in his odd manner "But also... potential liability..."

Krosh actually fumed at that "I wouldn't have ruined anything! I'm just as loyal as the next guy, Boss!"

"Your Father recommended... not to tell you..."

As he'd expected, his Elder's penchant for screwing with him would reach even this far huh? And the only reason the Shaman would acquiesce to a recommendation like that...

"Don't like..?" The Shaman turned to him "Fight him..."

The Warmonger blanched as Ratlug grinned down at him.

"That is... if you think you... could take him."

Krosh looked between the two for a moment, before looking down and shrugging "Nah, ain't worth it." he stated before standing and walking off "If we're done here, I'm at least gonna grab Lady. She doesn't stand a chance against that thing on her own, would rather all my work at least have some payoff."

He tried acting as if he could just brush off being deceived in such a manner, but both the Shaman and the Swordsmith could see his hands balling into fists as he walked off.

With that, Ratlug focused on the Armored Alpha once more. He took note of the Storm Leader watching the back of his spawn as he left "My apologies Master, he's simply not dimwitted enough to bite at bait that soon."

"You two fighting... would've been so... entertaining." the Robed Uruk sighed before returning his gaze to the subdued Faunus "Despite... the outcome."

"He wouldn't stand a chance sir, we both know that. He knows that. I'm actually fairly certain he's going down there to kill Mug as some form of petty vengeance."

"No concern... Rock-Crusher would've been killed... anyway."

"Even so, I hope the young fool doesn't mess up those gauntlets too much, I worked hard on th-"

Suddenly a blast from above interrupted him.

The Chanting Uruks halted immediately to shout and yell about it, as even Gundza stepped to the edge of the pit to glare as three figures descended into the Arena.

Velvet tried to stare down the Armored Alpha as it thrashed in its bindings to get at her, tried staring it down until what she was positive would be the bitter end. Even with what Aura she managed to regain, there was no way that she could even hope to last against a beast like that. If her feet were unrestrained then maybe she could dodge it for some time but... like this... she'd been served to the monster on a silver platter.

The Faunus tried to find some kind of peace, find some kind of solace in the face of such a savage end to her only burgeoning life. They say the worst thing that could happen to one on their death bed is to be wracked by regrets before their passing. But the chants of the Audience, the roars for her to be maimed and defiled, there was nothing she could do to hold back the thoughts that crammed themselves into her skull. Thoughts about what she wanted to do with her life, the people she wanted to save after graduating with her team, the things she'd never get to do now...

It hurt...

Even as the Grimm's metal and bony jaws snapped violently at her over and over, she considered the pain currently coursing through her veins to be tenfold the misery that the Grimm could ever inflict. This was the pain of regrets at the end... wasn't it?

She'd been so wrought with grief that she almost missed the blast from above, but that grief immediately turned to shock when she recognized those descending towards her.

All at once, the rest of Team CFVY landed around her with the usual stylish flair. Weapons readied and pointed towards the Grimm before them, Velvet thought for only a second that she'd finally succumbed to the stress of her situation and was deluding herself just like Skak.

But then Coco turned around to grin at her "Hey Hon, sorry we're late."

The Faunus blinked once she realized the Audience was reacting to her supposed delusions as well "...Guys?"

"Hey who else? Fox, help me with these chains."

As Yatsuhashi continued staring down the Armored Alpha, Fox and Coco ran to Velvet's sides "Wait... what are you guys doing here?!"

"Aw, we couldn't just leave you to face this thing on your own." the Fashionista said before shrugging "I actually find it concerning you didn't expect this. Maybe I really wasn't as supportive as I-"

"Less talking," Fox bit "help me cut these things woman!"

Up above, both the Shaman and his Captains were leaning forwards in their seats "Hn?... How interesting..." he said slowly before turning to Gundza, who was staring down with open shock spread across his face "did you... plan for-?"

"I never anticipated them to just run dick first into the maws of a beast that intimidating." the Shadow grunted before putting his hands on his hips and growling "A-Plus for moxy, F-Minus for Survival Instinct."

The Shaman hummed at that before glancing to Ratlug "Doctor?"

But the Swordsmith was already tapping away at a scroll "On it boss! If these kiddies wanna play with my pet so much then we'll just have ta make this execution a four-way."

Back down below, Fox's gauntlets made quick work of the chains thanks to some precise striking.

"You guys should've just left me," Velvet said as she felt herself lifted off her feet "how did you even-"

She was silenced once a familiar box was pressed into her hands.

"I ain't much of a photographer like you, Vel." Coco admitted before walking beside Yatsuhashi and letting her own box begin shifting "But I hope what's in there'll be enough to take this sucker down."

"The world wouldn't have lost much if it was just me, guys!"

"Quiet."

Velvet blinked at the suddenly stern word which had been uttered by their resident silent giant.

Without taking his gaze off the thrashing Armored Alpha, Yatsuhashi spoke evenly "We weren't there for you when you needed us before. I don't believe I could've lived with myself if I didn't step in. I believe the same could be said for our cohorts."

"Yeah yeah big guy, love and kindness and all that." Fox waved it off as he nodded forward "Mind focusing on the tank of a Grimm that's about to probably kill us all?"

"Heh," their leader shook her head "Fox my man, we triggered so many red flags at this point I don't even think worrying about it'll help anymore."

"You guys..." Velvet wiped some of her tears from her eyes before tightening her grip on the case "I... Thank You."

"Might wanna hold on to that thanks until we somehow find a way out of this." Fox swallowed nervously

At that moment, the Dreamer Gate closed, cutting the chains holding back the Armored Alpha, who released a massive Roar as it charged the Team with its razor sharp claws swinging in full force.

As the sounds of metal clashing with metal and minigun fire began filling the Arena, the owner of said Arena looked down from the catwalk above took it in stride "Seems we get one final battle after all lads! Let's see how long these Tarks can last!"

With that the Crowd erupted in chants and shouts once more.

---

Beacon Academy- Ozpin's Office

"Those three, willing to risk their lives to prove their developing loyalty." Ozpin sighed after the three Instructors listened to Riley's latest Update "At any other time I would show my undying support of such a venture, however in a time such as this."

"They better hope they die out there," Glynda scoffed "nothing that thing could do to them could measure up the hell I'm going to put them through if they somehow manage to survive their own idiocy."

"That's what I was about to do too," the Specialist's voice came through on one of the desks many hovering screens "but then Ms. Rose told me something I think is of greater import. General, the Detonator is still transmitting."

"What?" Suddenly Ironwood pushed past both Ozpin and Ms. Goodwitch before tapping at the desk's screens "How is that possible?"

"So what?" Glynda asked after brushing herself off and folding her arms "If what you said is true then that Monster's already dealt with-"

"No, you don't understand." the General said quickly before bringing up the same screen showing the layout of the Arena, where a blinking dot was still present "But... there it is. It's still active and primed, they haven't destroyed it."

"But didn't he say-?"

"He must not know it's still active." Ozpin mused before turning to Ironwood "James, I do believe we've been given a second chance."

The General was silent for a moment before nodding and staring at the screen sternly "We have to Bull Rush them."

"We what?!" Glynda was unimpressed with the results of this line of dialogue

"We need to get that detonator and activate it before they notice its still working." James said before leaning closer to the desk "Hear that Specialist Trost? Get everyone on those ships and get to the Arena as fast possible!"

"But you yourself said that there was no way that your forces could stand up to their numbers." Ms. Goodwitch pointed out

"We don't, that's why its called a bull rush. In a prolonged battle we don't have a chance, which is why we use what we do have to hold the majority of them while someone, literally anyone gets that detonator and activates the gas canisters."

"Why can't we just send another small group then?"

"Because if the map says anything, then that Detonator is right there in the thick of those things." Ironwood frowned before turning back to the Screen and saying

"Stealth is no longer an option."

---

Gundza watched the four students dip and dive around the Armored Alpha's deadly claws, constantly repositioning and retaliating against the Grimm's attacks. They seemed to be trying to go for the obviously less defended joints of the beast, but the Beowolf was simply moving too fast for them to land some good hits.

But that wasn't what was upsetting him, the beast would overwhelm them eventually, it was something else.

"Aw, things not going quite how you'd like it?"

He growled as he turned to see Ratlug approaching with both hands stuffed into the pockets of that ridiculous piece of tark clothing he seemed to insist on wearing.

"Even if your little ultimatum doesn't really pan out, just look at all the Uruks we've managed to entice today!" the Fake Doctor gestured around them "You helped many of our brothers today with that talent of yours. Just think of what would've happened if you hadn't told us of their scheming!"

"It would still mean nothing without the Girl. I do not like relying on any of you, but if they refuse to give her to me then I can only trust your backup plan will hold fruit."

"Of course it will, but even you can't say that there are no other benefits to the foiling of their plan. So many Uruks now have you in their good graces, it should be a simple thing to replace those Prowlers of yours."

Gundza grumbled a bit at that before turning to the Swordsmith "Are you positive those bodies were theirs?"

"Indeed, from the looks of it they were killed while throwing a party at the Talos Mine. I'm not much of a betting sort but I could hazard a guess that the smoke of their cooking fires led the White Fang directly to them."

"Lived as imbeciles, died as imbeciles." Gundza shook his head before refocusing on the fight below "I can only hope they put up some kind of fight before they met their end."

"You couldn't have expected them to be too effective now could you?" Ratlug asked with a smile before leaning closer "After all, none of them are like that old partner of yours, eh?"

"We weren't partners, and don't speak of him." Gundza growled before regaining his composure and breathing deeply "I only wish to finish my business here and leave with the Girl without having to encounter that joke of what was once a respectable soldier."

"I'm actually surprised he isn't here right now." Ratlug stood tall and began scanning the audience "I'm positive he was here before you made your ultimatum. I wonder where he's gone off to?"

"Are you purposefully trying to jinx me?"

"No no laddie! Why would I ever do such a thing?" the Fake Doctor denied the accusation with about as much authenticity as a Ghul pretending to be human, then grew a curious look as he ran his eyes over Maxwell's body "Look, I just came over here because I was a tad thoughtful, and wanted to get a good answer from ya before ya ran off."

"So those compliments earlier were just to butter me up, eh?"

"If you wish to look at it that way. I merely wish to know what ya plan on doing with the human once you've no more use for him. The storm is always grateful for contributions, the Arena master would just waste such a fine specimen brawling."

"If ya want him, you can have him once I get the girl." Gundza replied with no hesitance "Soon as she's mine I plan on gettin' in her and walking her pretty little neck directly to the choppin' block so she doesn't have a chance t-"

Before the Shadow could finish his sentence, fast movement from above drew his attention. Careening in from one of the side holes leading to the Arena was one of Ishmol's drunks, panting loudly and looking panicked beyond belief. Almost immediately the drunkard began shouting over the crowd towards Ishmol himself. He was relatively close, but the noise of the crowd deafened his initial words. Luckily, those who were close enough immediately quieted and his words soon reached the Exile's ears.

"Ships incoming boss! Its pinkskins! They's comin'! Its the Tarks!"

Soon the members of the audience who heard began mimicking the Uruk one by one until most the attendees were already out of their seats and reaching for their weapons at the mention of an incoming battle.

"Well... that sounds troublesome." Ratlug commented idly before quickly moving back in the Shaman's direction.

But Gundza didn't care, he was shocked at the tactic chosen. Despite how obviously idiotic and inferior Tarks were they had a bad habit of staying stubborn. While undercover he'd become more than aware that the numbers of Uruks in attendance made a straight forward brawl near suicidal in the long run. He'd considered it one of the final resorts they'd turn to. He knew his thorough unraveling of their plan would force them to try something stupidly drastic, but he'd pictured them trying several other things before throwing caution to the wind and just shoving all their forces in here like cows to a slaughter.

The words finally reached Ishmol, standing above the seats with his grin growing wider at the news. He gestured to his two drunken bodyguards, who began pulling boxes of matches and glasses of grog from their pouches, before turning to the Audience and shouting "Seems the humans want to give us more heads to decorate with boys! Get out your blades and ya clubs and the works! Time to show these bigshots why we ruled Mordor, and why we will rule this land too!"

Though the rest of the Uruks shouted in war cries and the beats of weapons on Armor, Gundza instead felt his face contort in open horror. For when Ishmol turned to address the crowd, Gundza finally focused on him enough to see it, and he immediately knew why the pinkskins had chosen this dick-first tactic.

Several thoughts ran through his head at once, mostly seething anger at both the Arena Master and himself.

Himself because he'd never once told the Brewer how important it was to destroy the Detonator. He'd expected the diligence of a soldier, for the thing to be in pieces seconds after he'd issued the order, but Ishmol wasn't a damn soldier. He covered it up a lot but everyone knew that at heart he was just a brewer and a collector, using slaves and liquor to keep his lack of actual battle sense from making him appear too weak. Someone who used to serve the Black Gate shouldn't have been so quick to trust some pretender with something so important, had the rush of downing the infiltrators really distracted him from such an integral piece of his plan?!

And the anger he dedicated to the Arena Master was generated mainly because not only had that pretending fool foregone destroying the damn detonator...

...but also because he was now literally wearing the fucking thing like a goddamn badge of honor right on his chest!

So in the end, the only thought that managed to work its way into actual speech before the Arena was turned into a Warzone was:

"ISHMOL YOU STUPID, RANCID PIECE OF SH-"

Gundza's wrathful shout was canceled out as dozens more holes were blasted into the ceiling and AK-Units began spilling out of them weapons raised.

Their guns began firing as they descended into the waiting Uruks below.

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Why wasn't this thing breaking already!?

It was the thought Yang found herself asking as she pummeled the gate over and over, fist flying into it again and again only for it to somehow stubbornly stay set. Even with the initial dent that Muggrish had put in it, the sturdiness of these bars must've been the icing on top of the filthy cake she'd been force fed ever since Bubol had outplayed her. She'd stopped using her shotgun shells soon after realizing she was just wasting ammo, and she didn't want to waste much while there were plenty of Uruks to beat down.

If she ever made it out of this, no longer will she question how Uncle Qrow manages to be effective while drunk eighty-seven percent of the time. Because if Ishmol's alcohol laced underlings managed to build this, then obviously there was a hidden technique to being wasted that she clearly hasn't found yet.

Even so, shockingly resilient metal could only stand up to the inferno that was Yang for so long. She kept at it and, just after the strange sounds of blasts from above made her worry even more for Velvet's safety, she finally felt it starting to give. Another bash, this had to be it.

Finally the door was slammed off its hinges, colliding with the cage parallel to hers. She took a small second to congratulate herself before stepping forward.

But before she could make it even two steps from her cell, the large room's door opened and in came yet another example of the worst timing in history.

Krosh tossed an empty bottle of Grog to the side as he entered with a yawn.

He opened his eyes to find Yang out of her cage glaring at him, then promptly turned to Muggrish's empty cage.

"Huh, I see my Old Man's pet's gone." he commented before glancing down at the Rock-Crusher's broken muzzle "You had anything to do with that, Lady?"

The Brawler raised an eyebrow at that reaction before relaxing her hands and stepping farther out of her cage "I might've."

"Hope the old bastard flips his lid when he realizes he's gone." the Warmonger shrugged with a smirk before turning back to the door and gesturing for her to follow "Come on, sounds like something's going on up-"

The Uruk suddenly leaned forward and let a shotgun round pass directly past his head before it slammed into the side of the door frame. In an instant he spun around and raised his arms to intercept a flurry of punches, his bracers allowing him to block the repeated blows fairly simply until Yang leaned back a bit before firing another round at him. Out of his reach, Krosh swung an arm forward and a thin blade extended from the bottom his bracer and caught the arm just as it was preparing to fire.

The slash forced her arm into the air where the round was harmlessly fired into the ceiling, and the two backed away from each other.

"Was hoping you'd try to fight," the Warmonger sneered before flexing his arms a bit "Pop's pissed me off more than I'd like to admit. Feels good having a punching bag at the ready."

"Wrist-blades?" Yang nodded towards his bracers "Since when do you use wrist-blades?"

"Ever since I got 'em from a dead tark a while back." He said before raising his fists "You really thought I'd use weapons when training a human of all things?"

Frowning, Yang matched his stance with one of her own "Just don't expect a new trick to help you against me."

At that the Uruk tilted his head and lowered his arms "I don't do tricks, Lady. I'm a warrior, in fact..."

Saying that he reached down and began rolling up his own trousers, drawing a confused look from the Brawler until she spotted a second pair of bracers on his lower legs.

And as soon as he finished rolling up the legs of his trousers, he stood and raised his fists again...

...just as dozens of large spikes extended from the surface of his leg bracers.

Yang tried not to look as shocked as she was.

"One good thing I can say about that damn Elder o' mine is that his toys never fail to impress." Krosh commented idly as he watched his brace spikes distend then re-extend, he then glanced back towards Yang "That's all of my tricks Lady, so don't go whining about 'em after I still mop the floor with you."

Without warning he launched into a spin that would've startled Yang if she hadn't anticipated a sudden attack like it. Gritting her teeth, the Blonde cocked both gauntlets as a spike-laden leg sped towards her.

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Ishga had tried desperately to catch up on what was going on.

He was fine when the three young Tarks interrupted what was supposed to be a hostage situation. He was fine when word began spreading of something incoming.

But then the metal men began raining from the ceiling, and everything seemed to devolve from there.

The first Uruks made quick work of the Metal Men which first reached them, but then the next few came with the far more agile and well-trained Atlesian Soldiers.

Ishga had lived through battles far more numerous and hazardous than this in his life, despite the commendable size of Ishmol's Arena and the number of Uruks, Menfolk, and machines, this didn't even make the top five. However, the Veteran couldn't exactly let loose on the impudent children while also keeping his Master in sight. He and Skak were currently cutting down anything that got within five feet of Dreamer, who seemed to be deliberating with himself over something unknown while observing the growing madness around them.

Ishga blocked several bullets with his spear before swinging it into an incoming AK-Unit's legs. He pulled the droid's legs out from under it and dodged several retaliatory dust rounds before jamming his weapon into its head.

As he was pulling his spear free, he noticed the Atlesian soldier behind him far too late. But as he turned to try and defend, another AK-Unit went sailing into the Atlesian and brought them both to the ground.

Before he could check on who had thrown the robot, Skak leaped on the two downed enemies whooping and hollering as he began mauling them with his Axe "Aw this is great Ish! Just a bunch of bloodsacks walking around and waiting for us to cut 'em open!"

"Just focus on the Master, you maggot!" Ishga shouted as he turned and raised his spear before sending it flying.

The Spear sped past Tugog before burying itself in the chest plate of another AK-Unit who'd tried to get the drop on him. The droid stumbled before grabbing at the spear with its free hand and raising its gun with the other. Ishga lunged towards it, ducking under the first few bullets and grabbing hold of the spear before swinging it and the robot into the fighting pit below.

Letting out a breath, Ishga grabbed another spear from the sack on his back just as a voice called out behind him "Dreamer, I can make us a Gate back to the Tower."

Glancing behind him, the Blood-Storm saw his brother had apparently made his way through the brawl and was now kneeling before the Warchief "I can set it up nice and quick, but we need to make it out of this melee first."

"Then I suppose we shall make way then." Tugog said with a shrug

"But sir!" Ishga yelled out "What about the girl? If she ain't gonna be executed-"

"Leave her to the Shaman's pet, getting between them would be more trouble than its worth at this point." the Dreameer said with a sigh before turning away "Besides, we had us a back up plan for a turnout like this."

Up above on the catwalk which formed the uppermost portion of the Arena, Ishmol watched with odd glee as the battle raged on. Small little skirmishes were starting to form between those who'd separated from the main brawl in the stands, Atlesian soldiers and their mechs against the entirety of his Audience just made for such juicy fun. He noted Dreamer and his boys make a break for it, but paid them no mind. His eyes traveled over to the Shaman, who's attention seemed primarily focused on the Armored Alpha. He and Ratlug both watched the Grimm take on the four students while Ogthrak quite literally pulverized anything that got near them.

Behind him the two Drunks, Tuvor and Mozu, were fending off any stray droid that tried their luck. Having coated both their halberd blades in grog and set them ablaze, anything so much as pricked was quickly turned into a man-sized candle before being shoved away. Sitting nice and pretty with his bodyguards while the crowd who'd been partaking of his Arena got to joyously tear into the stupid tarks who thought they could take advantage of him, with both the Storm's favor and a recipe for better Grog under his belt, and he had a nice shiny new medal to boot.

Yep, the Arena Master's life was on the up and up.

While basking in how good of a day it'd been, he spotted something odd among next wave of incoming attackers. Nothing too odd, a group of lady tarks with weird weapons.

What was odd was how the woman at the head of them immediately pointed at him.

"There he is! Grab the Detonator and we take this day, ladies!"

They landed on another section of the catwalk, but had a relatively clear shot to Ishmol due to the mass number of skirmishers keeping most of the Uruks out of their way. Riley barely gave the three students following her a chance to nod their acknowledgments. Once they landed, the Specialist immediately took off for the Arena Master, the girls having to tear their gazes from the brawls around them to follow behind.

Ishmol took note of their approach and clapped loudly to get the attention of his two Bodyguards "Oi! We got somethin' incomin' boys!"

Tuvor and Mozu both stepped in front of him shields raised and burning halberds at the ready.

Even with the Shield-Bearers, it shouldn't have been possible for them to hold up against an assault from both a Specialist and three huntresses in the making. If only that spear hadn't come at that exact moment.

"Weiss, incoming!"

Despite hearing Ruby's shout and trying to slow down, it was Blake grabbing onto the Heiress's shoulders and yanking her back that caused the long projectile to miss its mark.

Before the three could move to catch up to Riley, the familiar form of their recent Handler darted in front of them spear at the ready.

Riley bit back a curse at the sight before refocusing her gaze on the Drunks before her, and Ishmol standing past them with a grin spread wide across his face.

As she closed the distance and reached inside her uniform for something, Tuvor thrusted his halberd towards her. Riley leaped over the burning weapon and drew a disk as she sailed over him. Ishmol's smile vanished as she flew over him before landing and spinning as the disk grew to about the size of a plate.

She launched the disk immediately while he was still distracted, only for Mozu to lunge in front of his boss and have the disk bounce off his shield.

Riley caught the disk with a frown as Ishmol regained a cocky smile "Gonna have to try better then that, lass. Boys, be good little dears and bring me her head."

The Specialist readied her disk as the Drunks charged her.

Meanwhile, the three members of Team RWBY faced down the possessed Maxwell, who raised his spear and glared at them while standing between them and the brawl the Specialist had just involved herself in.

"So it seems your gods have gifted you a second chance." Gundza grumbled as he held one hand behind his back and pointed his weapon towards Weiss "No matter, all I really need is her anyway. The rest of these Chiefless scum are nothing."

"I don't suppose we'll have to explain why exactly that's not happening." the Schnee commented

"You had trouble going up against two huntsmen in training last time." Blake pointed out "How exactly do you plan on getting her?"

The Shadow's frown deepened at that.

It had been what she was wondering ever since he'd issued his ultimatum. She and Sun managed to overcome him and Mitch because unlike the Uruk, Mitch didn't have the ability to defend himself as well. And that was after he'd driven the goon to helping him. Maxwell was a strict and stiff soldier of high caliber, there was no way it would've been the same as taking over an addict. There was no way he'd be able to partially release Maxwell in order to pull half of the things he'd tried last time she'd encountered him. If anything, fighting while inside someone more stubborn like the Atlesian should be a negative while fighting multiple enemies.

And from the hateful glare he was giving, he had to know this. Which means he had to have some form of counter-

Immediately he whipped a horn from behind his back and brought it towards his mouth, before he could blow it however, it was sent flying from his hand.

None of the girls had moved quick enough to shoot it, so they joined Gundza in staring at the horn in confusion as it zipped away.

It zipped over to the end of a wrist-mounted crossbow, the grapple clutching it released the horn into an open sore-covered hand "Need some help Gundzie? Why call for the boys first." the grapple's owner said as he walked past several fights to them "All ya need is lil' old me."

Of course it would be Bubol.

Even Gundza seemed to get a sickened look in his eyes as the Diseased Archer sauntered over "You..."

"I was just helping out an old pal, he lost a bet ya see. Wanted to know if he needed some good ol' comfortin' after a loss like that. But then I start hearing blasts and guns and now there's robots and tarks everywhere." the lunatic cooed as he approached "And who would I find amongst all this chaos but one of my favourite old pals, hangin' out with my new favourite tark."

Weiss noted Ruby's grip on Crescent Rose tightening as he spoke of her.

"You two... know each other?" the Red Head began

"Know each other? I'm the one who taught this fella how to use a crossbow." Bubol said before laughing to himself

"You are not the Uruk who showed me how to wield the weapons of range." Gundza spat "As far as I know that Uruk died in that cave with his captain. You're just a repugnant shell of his former glory."

"Oh buddy, I'm hurt." the Archer smiled before turning from him to the girls "But enough about the past, I hear you want the white one. As long as me and that delicious little red head get a second chance to dance I don't right care what you take."

"Why..?"

Bubol gave Ruby a questioning look as she glared at him.

"Why do you care about me so much?!"

"Because we're destined for each other of course!"

Even her rage couldn't hold up to the sheer disgust that formed inside her as Bubol uttered the words.

"It was a feeling that began a growin' when Ashy died. Every time I've been pleasured since then my thoughts always turn back to the image of your cute little face scrunched up in misery. I figured that Ashy was fated to die, that your pasty friend was fated to kill him so that we could meet!"

"Pasty!?"

"I do believe this is what you humans call love, sweetness." Bubol said with a giggle "And can ya blame me? Just watching you look upon me with such open and thorough contempt riles me to levels I never once believed I'd reach. You just look so delectable right now."

"Disease!" Gundza growled as he gripped his own weapon in both hands "If you wish to aid me then so be it, but try not to sicken me with your filth in the process."

"But can ya blame me Gundzie?!" Bubol laughed before gesturing forth with his free hand "Just look at her damn it. Everything about her just begs to be defiled in all the worst ways!"

"Bubol!" Weiss began, but he paid her no heed

"How much of it did ya get from your parents, my love?! Are you just as delicious as them!?"

"I suggest you silence yourself before-"

"Oh do be quiet, dear." Bubol finally turned his gaze on her "Not to say I wouldn't ruin you the same way as lover girl here, darling. But at the moment you're ruining my reunion."

"Both of you need to calm down." Blake interjected before the Heiress could retaliate, having Gambol Shroud shift into its pistol form as she spoke "He's just trying to buy time for the others to whittle down their opponents."

Weiss and Ruby seemed to be snapped from their anger at that, even Gundza seemed a bit surprised at the revelation.

"What? Really?" he turned to the diseased Archer "That... was actually tactically sound there."

"Hn?" Bubol glanced to him "Sorry Gundzie, did you say something? I was distracted by those delectable skirts of theirs."

"Damn it, Bubol!" the Shadow turned on him, "I can't tell if you're being a tactical genius or a flesh-crazed pervert right now!"

"Oh come now, old friend." the Lunatic sighed happily "Why can't I be both?"

Just as he finished a gunshot prompted the Archer to lean out of the way as a bullet whizzed past his ear. Before he could retaliate, the blunt end of a spear found his gut.

Gundza gritted his teeth before lifting the archer up and lobbing him towards the girls with his weapon.

Bubol grinned as he spun towards them, firing bolts wildly while bringing the stolen horn towards his lips and blowing.

The girls scattered out of the way of his shots, but once he sailed past them he fired his hook which grabbed hold of Crescent Rose and dragged Ruby back with him.

Blake moved to help, when the sound of incoming footsteps made her bring Gambol Shroud up instead to deflect a jab of a spear. Gundza raised a foot and kicked at her, only for a clone to shatter as she leaped back from him. He moved to pursue when he noticed someone trying to run past him.

He swung back and caught Weiss in the foot with his spear, yanking the limb out from under her and bringing her to the ground before she could even get close to the fight Riley was stuck in.

Realizing her position, Weiss rolled to the side as the spear stabbed towards her.

Blake took aim and prepared to fire on the possessed man, they just needed to break through his aura then Gundza should be easier to dislodge. Before she could pull the trigger, a voice reached her ears.

"The horn, lads! It calls!"

One of the other Uruks had apparently finished off the AK-Unit he'd been contending with and immediately made for the horn he'd heard.

"It came from here, more tarks to bleed!"

This came from one of two other Uruks who dragged the upper torso of another droid with them as they made their way over. Seems Bubol had managed to call in some reinforcements for them. The thought of the Archer immediately brought her attention to Bubol, who had succeeded in isolating Ruby from the rest of them. The Diseased Uruk was currently slipping out of the way of Crescent Rose as Ruby slashed at him, several of the Uruks were moving to aid him as well.

This wasn't good.

Blake was forced back to her own situation as the two Uruks dropped the bisected AK-Unit and charged her.

Ruby swung Crescent Rose furiously, the sick grin spread across the decrepit monster's face spurring her on harder.

"Come on you little tease," he cooed before grappling past her and firing several more bolts "hurt me harder!"

After slashing the projectiles down Ruby dashed forward, but Bubol merely rolled under the first swing and came up firing another bolt back at her. She leaned out of its way and slashed again, but he merely leaped over the blade and cackled before folding his arms "Oh dear, maybe you'll have a better chance at hitting them, sweetness."

A roar from her side prompted her to slide to the side as another Uruk chopped at her, she swung Crescent Rose down and nearly crushed him under it before dashing out of the way of two more.

Bubol cheered her on as she contended with the two, "Beat them harder! Harder! Put that tight little body to work you damned divine temptress!" he yelled whilst openly salivating over her.

Ruby tried her best to focus on the Uruks, but his words simply fanned the growing anger inside her. As one of her attackers leaped towards her, she dashed past him and swung back, swiping his legs out from under him and twirling her scythe until its blunt end slammed into his head as he tried to rise. Still twirling, she conked the other in the jaw and reared back with her weapon while he was reeling. By the time he turned back to growl at her, she was already mid-swing.

Crescent Rose slammed into him with enough force to send him sailing into the air before slamming into one of the seats on the other side of the fighting pit.

With all the chaos occurring around them, not many had noticed the Uruk go flying. One of the few who did was the Grand Shaman.

One of the few Uruks who hadn't moved much since the attacks had begun, the Storm's Leader had just sat back and enjoyed the consistent fighting around him. He wasn't worried much, Ogthrak had consistently beaten anything approaching them to a pulp. At first his attention had been locked on the four contending with Ratlug's creation, but slowly his odd eyes traveled up into the stands as he watched Gundza and Bubol contend with several young women, one of which being the Schnee that the Shadow had no doubt intended to catch.

"Oh, this is just grand, ain't it?!"

The Shaman turned his gaze to Ratlug, who sat beside him whilst frantically scribbling notes as he analyzed the Armored Alpha as it moved to take on the students "With the data on this the next few sets of armor will no doubt be better!" the fake Doctor said happily before nudging his boss "By the way, ya sure ya don't want me tryin' to break these things? They'd be far easier to suit up if they'd stop tryin' to claw anything near them."

"No... their bloodlust runs too deep." the Shaman said slowly

"Just sayin', I mean the beastie down there will no doubt start digging into the audience once it kills those tark youngsters. If we just get its obedience-"

"No... these things aren't animals... despite tendencies... their obedience can't be gained so easily." the Stormbringer then shifted in his seat a bit as an Atlesian tried sneaking up on them from behind, a large sword in hand "But control can be gained... without obedience..."

As the Soldier's sword came down, suddenly Ogthrak's meaty hands clamped down on it and stilled it mid swing. Ratlug and the Shaman went back to their viewing as the Warmonger swung his clasped hands into the Atlesian's helmet before swinging both him and his sword into the air.

He was sent sailing towards another approaching Soldier, who ducked under her incoming comrade. He slammed into two AK-Units as she stood and opened fire on Ogthrak.

The burly Uruk merely raised one arm to protect his head, closing the distance between them as rounds impacted with the limb.

He swung one fist down into her gun to throw her aim off before ramming his head against her helmet, the sheer force causing her to stumble back a bit before his thick fingers found their way to her helmet before he dragged his knee into her chin. As she fell Ogthrak turned on the next closest threat with grunts and growls aplenty.

"Do you suppose I should've tried sticking guns on it?"

While the Warmonger tore into the attackers, Ratlug continued his calm little conversation with the Stormbringer.

"...What?"

"I mean give it a bunch of guns!" the Swordsmith clarified "We had plenty lying around, if I had more time I could've slapped a big ol' cannon or two onto that baby!"

"No... even if a beast such as that... could muster the brain power necessary to operate it..." the Shaman turned back to look into the fighting pit "Just because we can empower the enemy of Tarks... does not mean we must overpower them..."

"If it turns on us, we could just stick a bomb in its head." Ratlug suggested before being distracted by something in the fighting pit "Hey boss, is that-?"

"Seems your son... has been letting off steam..."

A familiar yellow form had been thrown up through the hole in the fighting pit floor where contestants had been delivered from, barely managing to catch herself on her descent as she crashed into the ground.

"Smack talking, spin-kicking bastard." Yang uttered as she pushed herself from the dirty floor and set her sights upon what could only be described as pandemonium.

She'd been so focused on somehow getting through Krosh that she hadn't been able to think too hard on the various sounds of violence coming from above, but now that she was up here...

...nah, she still had no damn clue what the hell was happening.

First off were the things happening in the fighting pit, Velvet and the rest of her team were darting around trying to fight off what looked like an Alpha Beowolf dressed like a walking tank, trying to attack and dodge its many furious swipes all at once. She saw Coco firing hundreds of rounds into its armor, only to pause as it chased Fox closer to her and shift the massive weapon back into its case form so she could make a break for it as it dove towards them. The two split up to avoid a swinging claw, the Grimm's attention turning to what it assumed to be the slower of the two. Just as its other claw sailed towards Coco, Yatsuhashi stepped in to deflect it with his sword. The Grimm pulled back just as the large student swung at it, only to be distracted as more chain fire pulled its attention to Velvet, who wielded a copy of Coco's weapon.

Yang's eyes traveled up to find the stands in complete chaos, what looked like Atlas forces contesting with the Audience. Gunfire and the clash of weapons filled the air as the Atlesians tried to hold up under the press of the Uruk-Hai. The AK-Units were obviously being used as meat-shields by the soldiers, who let the Robots draw attention while they weaved through the crowds to pick their targets. For the most part it was effective, but Yang could tell just by looking that it wasn't something they could keep up forever. Some of the Uruks were just too much for the attackers, being either too bulky or too aware to outmaneuver.

And then Yang's attention was brought to the highest part of the Arena, where Ishmol and his two alcohol loving bodyguards seemed to be fighting a single woman. Well, fighting was a loose term in Ishmol's case. The Arena Master seemed content with dodging and letting his goons protect him while they did all the fighting. And for guys no doubt wasted off their asses, they were doing damn fine. Spinning and swinging their halberds with precision while they deflected the woman's disks with stern and concise guard tactics. Yet more proof that their was something to alcohol she just wasn't getting.

But then she kept looking along the top, and her eyes practically shrank once she glued them to a familiar little sister of hers. After all those weeks thinking of what reuniting with her younger sibling would be like, suddenly she was just right there. Then she noticed that she was locked in combat with Bubol and that relief soon turned back to that familiar feeling of protectiveness.

"Ruby-!" she began before something hard and heavy slammed into the back of her head. She stumbled forward just as Krosh slid in front of her, she almost managed to block with her gauntlets before his foot connected with her chin and sent her into the air. She caught sight of Ruby again before the Warmonger leaped up to her as she fell back to the ground. This time she managed to block as he slashed at her with his blades.

She sailed back, actually crashing into an Uruk in the audience. She angrily began rising from the unfortunate whelp just as Krosh landed on the seat in front of her.

"Aw, hoping for a family reunion, lady?" he taunted before the spikes on his leg bracers extended again and he leaped towards her. The Blonde lunged out of the way of the spikes and opened fire on him, he retracted his blades and blocked them with his bracers before diving towards her. Yang leaned out of the way as his blades re-extended, and swiped past her. The two traded blows for a moment until a double swipe from the Warmonger caused Yang to back up into one of Ishmol's guards who had been bashing the headless body of a droid.

"Hey ya-!" was all he managed to get out before Yang's elbow slammed into his head and she grabbed hold of him before tossing him at Krosh.

The Warmonger just smirked before spin-kicking the poor Drunk back in Yang's direction, flailing his own sword in a daze.

Yang gripped her hands together before swinging them full force into the Drunk and sending him into the fighting pit.

The time it took for her to deal with him was enough for Krosh to lean down and pry one of the Arena's seats off its support.

As soon as she turned back to him the seat slammed into the side of her head, and she clutched at the point of impact with one hand to steady herself while raising the other to block another swing.

Krosh narrowed his eyes before tossing the seat into the air and lunging forward while Yang was recovering.

Eyes-widening, Yang tried to bring her other arm back to proper position but winced as she felt his blade slashing at her Aura again.

But she gritted her teeth and let the adrenaline and rage keep her focused on blocking the swipes of his blades. She saw the spikes extend on his leg bracers again, and prepared for the incoming kicks when he suddenly reached up and caught the seat he'd tossed earlier. He threw it at her and dove low, Yang blasted the incoming projectile out of the air and grimaced when she saw the incoming leg.

She managed to catch him by the foot, literally the only part of his lower leg not covered by spikes, and tossed him back before charging after him.

Like a cat, he landed on all fours and glanced up in time to scoot back as Yang's fist cracked the ground where his head previously was.

As the two continued fighting above, the Drunk Yang has knocked into the Fighting Pit slowly rose while cradling his head. "Ugh... wha's happenin'?" he muttered before turning around as heavy sounds approached "I thinks I need a dri-"

He was interrupted as a massive maw clamped down on his upper torso and gnawed him to bits. The Armored Alpha's teeth tore into him, chewing into flesh and bone before tossing the rest away.

Panting from running from the beast for so long, Velvet slowed to a stop beside her teammates.

"Its eating them too?" Fox commented after releasing a sigh of his own.

"Must not've trained it well." Coco said before turning her gaze to the battle above with a thoughtful hum "Hey... if that's the case then I think I got a pretty okay idea."

In the stands, the Uruks had gained a lot of ground. Many of the lesser known Chiefless Captains had congregated in the eastern section of seats with their underlings. After putting aside any previous conflicts they may have had with one another in order to more effectively push back the Atlesian forces, they proved too dangerous for the Soldiers to even try getting to. That left the AK-Units to hold them in the east stands, but with the Captains there it would only hold for so long.

One such captain was currently beating one robot with the dismembered arm of another, and was prepared to jump back into battle when suddenly chain fire rained down on several Uruks behind him. He glared down in the fighting pit where it had come from and quickly hauled the destroyed robot up to use as a shield while more bullets peppered him.

"The Brown Tark want's a fight boys!" he heard another Captain above him shout as he tossed another droid off him and raised a thick looking club towards the Pit "Somebody Get some archers-!"

Before he could finish the bench he was standing on creaked, unable to hold after being quite deliberately chewed up by the bullets. Suddenly the bench and any Uruk who was unfortunate to stand on it tipped forward, Uruks fell forward into other Uruks and some even dragged their Robotic quarries down with them. Soon a good number of Orcs and machines had fallen into the fighting pit. Most didn't seem to mind, merely continuing their fights with the AK-Units while others took more caution at the knew position.

"Do I even want to know why?!" Fox shouted as he leaped just as the Armored Alpha slashed towards him.

Team CFVY split up again as Coco called out with a grin "Trust me! Lure it into them!"

Above, Ratlug hummed in thought as he continued writing "Ah, planning on using the beast's indiscriminate desire to kill in order to outmaneuver it?" he commented "An unfortunately optimal choice of action. I suppose we should keep that in mind with the next ones, eh boss?"

But the Shaman had completely devoted his attention to the brawl happening even higher. Sure the Woman going for Ishmol should be of higher interest, seeing as Gundza had spoken of a Female Specialist who was included in the assault team, but Ishmol's goons were doing a fine job of holding her at bay. No, it was the girls who seemed to be trying to aid her that peaked the Storm Leader's interest more.

Well, two were clearly trying to get passed Gundza to help the older woman, but the Shaman was still deliberating on the third. Seems interacting with Bubol had put her in quite the poor mood if the furious way she attacked him said anything.

Ratlug however, was fully engrossed in the situation below them.

Two AK-Units finished mowing down a Hunter before turning their guns on an incoming shield-bearer. The bullets tore through his shield, but he managed to reach them and swung his halberd. One ducked under it as the large weapon cleaved through its partner's head. It tried firing, only to realize its gun was empty and immediately swing it towards him instead. The Uruk raised his shield, only for its weakened form to shatter as the gun slammed into it.

He took it in stride, using his now free arm to grab hold of his Halberd and impale the droid on it. It kept going, pulling itself towards him on his weapon as he prepared to try swinging it off. Before he could do that, the Armored Alpha's maw closed upon both of them, chewing through both Uruk and Robot before seeking out another target.

"Now!"

Just as it turned its head to the source of the sound, the Grimm was hit by another barrage of bullets. Coco continued firing as the beast raised its head and immediately took off in her direction as countless rounds bounced off its armor.

"Come on big guy." she mumbled as it drew closer "Ya know you want some of this!"

Once within range, it snarled as it raised a claw and brought it down towards her. She could feel a hand grab hold of her shoulder from behind and toss her out of the way as Yatsuhashi lunged forward to meet its swing.

Gripping his massive sword in both hands, the Student spun to intercept the incoming claw. Following the clang of blades meeting, the Alpha reared back, its poise momentarily broken. The force of the collision was apparently finally enough to knock the armor on its forearm loose, as evidenced by a broken strap and a larger portion of the black fur below being visible.

Coco took a moment to congratulate herself before shouting "Vel, Fox!"

Once the Grimm managed to get back on all fours, it moved to punish the Large Human tenfold for forcing it back.

But two figures darted from the sides before it could even get close, Fox and Velvet wielding a holo copy of his arm blades.

Twin slashes soon sent the forearm tumbling to the ground as the Armored Alpha reared back and roared in anger at the sudden loss of its limb.

But as Coco prepared to open fire again, the Grimm caught sight of Velvet panting from exertion as her copied weapons vanished.

The fashionista followed its gaze before shouting "Velvet!"

The Faunus lifted her head only to catch sight of the one-armed Grimm charging her, wobbling as it approached but still incoming faster than she'd be able to dodge. She quickly started forming another copy as the Armored Alpha lunged towards her jaws wide... closing her eyes as the Grimm fell upon her, its raw weight forcing her onto her back.

She felt a splash of something after falling onto her back as something landed on her lower leg, but she hadn't been completely crushed like she'd expected. Popping open her eyes, she found a copy of Yatsuhashi's massive blade wedged in the Grimm's maw, having slid between its teeth and kept it from collapsing atop her. A quick glance revealed that what had fallen on her was actually the lower half of the beast's helmet, the blade must've cut through it on its way into the Grimm's mouth. The fluid on her was the dark blood, already beginning to evaporate. But before she could release the tense breath she was holding, she felt movement.

It wasn't dead.

Despite having a massive blade lodged in its mouth, seems the Armored Alpha wasn't quite done yet. A Red eye centered on her as it began raising its good claw, ignoring the horrid position it was in and aiming to gore her before she could even hope to scramble out of the way.

But before it could bring down the armored limb, Yatsuhashi stepped in and swung his sword upwards through the Alpha's now unprotected neck. The head was chopped clean off and the entire body went limp as Velvet scrambled out from under it. The rest of the team gathered together around the slowly disappearing Grimm's corpse, the pieces of armor falling to the ground once the one their wearer ceased to be.

Ratlug lowered his notes and patted the pages appreciatively "And that is the end of my precious prototype." he said with a sigh before grinning towards his superior "Informative wasn't it? Do I have permission to go avenge it?"

"No..." the Shaman muttered, eyes still locked on the battle up on the catwalk "...We're done here..."

The Swordsmith blinked as the Stormbringer arose and turned to find Ogthrak pummeling yet another Atlesian with one hand while crushing a AK-Unit's head with the other "Ogthrak, we're going..." he stated before turning and casually making his way over the Warmonger's many victims "Doctor... have someone open us a gate..."

"Of course sir." Ratlug replied diligently as he pulled out a scroll and followed behind the Shaman.

Down in the Pit, Team CFVY were finally given a chance to catch their breath once the Grimm finally evaporated "Great hustling out there guys." Coco said before stretching

"Yeah, go team whatever." Fox grumbled before gesturing into the madhouse that the stands had become "What exactly are we supposed to do about this?!"

Despite a clear close-Quarters disadvantage, the Atlesian tactic still allowed them to continue contending with the Uruks.

The Uruks who'd ran to Gundza's aid hadn't lasted long, even with the Shadow's help. Seeing that soon they'd have a clear path to Riley and the Drunks, the Exile finally swallowed his pride and called for the help of-

"Bubol!" he shouted while dodging out of the way of another bullet and sidestepping a glyph.

The Diseased Archer finally pried his eyes away from the increasingly infuriated Rose before him and swung his Wrist bow back as his eyes glowed a sickly green color.

Ears twitching, Gundza leaned out of the way as the grapple sailed past him and grabbed hold of Gambol Shroud mid swing. Blake went wide-eyed as she was suddenly pulled towards the Possessed Specialist who rammed the blunt end of his spear into her side as she sped past him before focusing on the Heiress once more.

Blake saw the Diseased Archer rushing towards her as his grapple yanked her towards him, with Ruby already on his heels. She quickly used a clone to escape the hook, and slid to the edge of the catwalk as it shattered in the claw's grasp.

The Diseased Archer took no issue, instead leaping as Crescent Rose was swiped towards his feet and swinging his grappling hook like a whip. Blake just barely managed to lean out of the way as Bubol landed and immediately threw himself back into Gundza.

As the Shadow cursed, the Lunatic rolled over him, intercepted a thrust from Myrtenaster and lunged forward before grabbing Weiss with his free arm and tossing her back to Gundza. The Shadow's fist sent her back towards Bubol who wasted no time in kicking her legs out from under her. Despite being slightly dazed by the unexpected combo, she quickly formed a Glyph beneath her and slid out from between them before the incoming spear could reach her.

In the end the three girls were more or less back to where they began at the beginning, with both of the Uruks standing between them and their goal. Albeit everyone except Bubol was showing signs of exhaustion, the Diseased Cretin wasn't even breathing hard from all the jumping and dodging he'd been doing.

"Should just give it up ladies," he pointed out while casually swinging his grip "might've been a while since we last worked together but Gundzie and I are like a dynamic duo and such!"

"I would appreciate it if you stopped calling me that." the Shadow grunted

"Aw what's the matter, old chum? Feeling a bit-?"

He wasn't able to finish the question as a foot slammed into the back of his head and caused him to stumble towards the girls. Gundza glanced to the side in shock just in time for Bubol's assailant to slash at him with armblades.

Gritting his teeth, the Archer dodged past a bullet and dove under Crescent Rose only to come up and immediately come face to face with an incoming sword. He raised his bow to block, but the sheer force behind the attack sent him sailing from the Arena and smashing into one of the loading bay's walls.

Yatsuhashi hefted his blade and turned to the surprised girls before giving them a silent nod. A grunt of anger brought their attention back to Gundza just as he tossed Fox away from him, the pale-eyed boy catching himself and sliding to a stop just beside them.

"Hey guys," he muttered while keeping his gaze locked on the Shadow "Coco said you looked like you needed help, so-"

"The detonator!" Weiss wasted no time in shouting before pointing with her weapon "He has it!"

Her voice apparently traveled far enough, for Ishmol's confident smile turned to a look of confusion. Even Tuvor seemed to catch a bit of that, for after deflecting Riley's disk again he glanced back and said "Huh? Wha she just say?"

That was all it took for Riley to lunge past his shield, grab hold of his halberd, and ram its burning tip into Mozu's chest as he approached. His aura still withstood the attack, but the same couldn't be said for the Grog in his chest pouch. In a split-second the Uruk was ablaze, and Riley used the moment of confusion to move for a significantly less-confident Ishmol, who backed away as one of his bodyguards stumbled through the crowd and fell into the fighting pit while still burning.

Gundza immediately turned and ran for him, the footsteps of the Students just behind him prompted him to shout "Its the metal you halfwit! They want the metal!"

Ishmol blinked as his hand traveled to the detonator stuck to his chest, then grew wide-eyed. He tore it off him, but Riley charged into him before he could break it. It sailed from his grasp into the air and Gundza swung a spear towards it only for Fox to slash his wrist and cause him to miss, Ruby leaped on his shoulders and jumped for the detonator as it fell, but a thrown shield slammed into her before she could grab hold. The Shield's owner, Tuvor, was about to lunge for the Detonator when Yatsuhashi slammed his sword into the Drunk's side.

Gundza prepared to dart towards it when Riley threw Ishmol into his back, making the Exile stumble forward just as Weiss raised a Glyph. As the Exile scrambled to shove the Arena Master off him he caught sight of the Glyph just as Blake jumped on it and was launched towards the Detonator.

Growling he stood and hefted a spear as she landed.

He tossed it just as her finger pressed at it.

The spear hit the detonator and pinned it to the floor.

Everyone was still for a moment.

And then the gas canisters activated.

Ishmol scrambled back to his feet in terror as he watched the fighting pit almost immediately become filled by the gas, but he caught something out of the corner of his eye which alleviated many of his fears. The Storm Captains currently leaving through the upper hole in the wall they'd used to enter.

Gundza watched him make a break for it, and was about to do the same when a disk slammed into him and tossed him to the edge of the Catwalk.

"Masks on!" Riley shouted as she caught her disk in one hand and reached into her coat with the other.

The others followed her lead, donning the small gas masks as confused shouts rang out from the Uruks. Those shouts eventually turned to groans and murmurs as the gas took affect, a number of Uruks still stood, but their numbers dwindled rapidly as more and more fell to the chemicals.

With the AK-Units left unaffected and the soldiers already donning their masks as well, the battle took a turn almost immediately.

Just when things were looking up, Ruby spotted the fleeing Arena Master "Wait... but he's-!" her words died in her throat, and the other students turned to follow her gaze.

Just as Ishmol stumbled to the hole, a familiar blonde slammed into the wall beside him.

Ishmol dragged himself out of the hole just as a Blue and white Uruk swiped at her with extendable blades. She ducked under them and fired at him , only for him to slip down her arm and ram his knee into her stomach before dragging her out through the hole with him.

Ruby wasted no time in darting after them, but before her teammates could finish properly affixing their masks and call for her to wait-

Gundza left Maxwell.

Riley had him cornered, but the distractions gave him an opening to make another gamble.

Maxwell gasped as the Shadowy figure darted from his body and slipped past Riley before the Specialist could even realize what was happening. Eyes centered on the Heiress, he ignored the panicked shouts of the other humans and tackled the Schnee with enough force to knock the gas mask from her mouth.

"Weiss!" Blake shouted as her teammate and the Shadow bounced on several of the seats before disappearing into the growing cloud of gas covering the fighting pit.

The Faunus looked torn for a moment, eyes briefly following her leader until a hand grabbed her shoulder.

She turned to Yatsuhashi, who merely nodded to her "We'll aid Ruby." he stated.

Blake took a moment to look to Riley, who was looking over Maxwell's unconscious form before turning back and nodding ascent to Yatsu's words.

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Weiss couldn't move, her body too wrought with exhaustion. Despite this she felt herself moving, being dragged across the dirty ground of the Fighting pit. She'd lost her gas mask in the fall, and was only barely staying conscious by holding her breath for as long as she dared.

Turning her head, she saw what appeared to be Gundza trying his hardest to drag her. At least, she was almost sure it was him. Her vision was blurred as her eyelids struggled and failed to fall. That's right... Blake had never gotten a good look at hi. The Schnee heard the Uruk grunting, apparently also trying to hold his breath as he tried to make his escape with her.

Weiss was not a large girl, even she could flat out admit at times, yet the Uruk couldn't have dragged her off by now? Maybe she had gotten lucky, he wasn't as immune to the affects of the gas as she'd feared. She offered some token resistance, trying to snag her heels on any of the unconscious or dead bodies around them. The Exile had to keep from openly snarling at that.

But she could feel his grip slowly weakening, if she could just keep going before he got too far away with her.

"Weiss!"

Despite her murky senses, Weiss could hear the sound of Blake's voice calling for her. The Uruk heard it too, she could almost make out the widening of his eyes as his head snapped up towards the sound.

Weiss slowly turned her head to the side to see a figure slowly approaching their direction through the gas surrounding them

She felt Gundza tug at her some more, his pulls growing more desperate as Blake's form drew closer. Finally he placed a hand to her stomach, her own exhaustion abated momentarily by the fear of seeing it melt into her.

He was having difficulties, she could tell by the angered grunts he released as he tried and failed to slip inside the Heiress.

Just a few more seconds...

The Uruk finally released her, his form trembling with either the burn of a lack of oxygen or the rage at being so close yet so far from his goal. He slammed his hand from her and slammed it into the ground beside her furiously before turning and slowly stumbling away, tripping over one of the bodies before clawing his way back to his feet and disappearing in the gas just as a familiar Faunus in a Gas Mask knelt beside her.

Weiss could only smile as she looked up at Blake, not caring of the severely undignified situation she was in as she finally gave into the overwhelming urge to sleep.

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Yang winced as Krosh and Ogthrak restrained her arms, "Just give it up already, Lady!" the smaller Warmonger shouted "You lost, just deal with it damn you!"

"I can see just how well that trainin' of yours is paying off." Ogthrak muttered sarcastically before glancing back.

Ratlug and the Shaman were near the edge of the factory, in almost identical positions as when they first arrived, only now the Swordsmith was tapping away on his scroll. And in addition to that, Ishmol had taken the place of Bubol and was crouched next to the Shaman talking in a most rushed manner.

"-And then that Exile told me it was just a piece of metal and whatnot! The damn tarks got ahold of it and my whole Arena's a smokehouse now!" the Brewer said frantically before smiling and gesturing towards the Shaman "But thankfully I escaped, ya don't really mind me hooking up with you lot eh? I got me a recipe here-"

"Oi doc!" the Larger Warmonger shouted as the Arena Master continued talking "Mind dealing with this one here?"

"Hn?" Ratlug looked up for a moment before smiling and gesturing to the scroll in his hands "Kind of in the middle of somethin' here big guy."

"Even now you dedicate yourself to making things harder for me? The fuck!?" Krosh growled as he watched the Fake Doctor chuckle at his misfortune and pull a familiar controller from his coat.

"Gate should be opening any second now boss," he said to the Shaman before pointing the controller towards the brawler "should we-?"

"Yang!"

Several sets of eyes turned to the red girl with the scythe standing in the hole they'd all just exited from, scythe aimed towards them as she slowly approached.

"Ruby!" Yang began "Wait don't-!"

The Warmongers both tossed her back, but before she could retaliate with her new freedom a boot was placed against her back and almost immediately forced her forward till she was pressed against the roof, it became apparent the Shaman had suddenly found interest in the situation.

His foot wasn't the same as the grasp of his underlings, it felt as if someone had suddenly built a building on top of her.

"So this is the younger sibling." Ratlug commented before sighing as he glanced towards the Scythe-Wielder "Bubol was quite descriptive when it came to the young one you apparently share blood with."

"You guys are gonna be sorry if you did anything to-!"

"I doubt that Girlie," Krosh interrupted Ruby as he cracked his knuckles and extended his wrist blades "I'm just going to come out and say it right now but I'm absolutely positive you're not going to do jack shit against us."

"Wanna bet!?"

Krosh seemed humored, but Ratlug gave a thoughtful hum "Never take a bet, sonny."

"Seriously, you gotta ruin my dramatic stand off too!?"

It was there, pinned to the roof by the Grand Shaman while watching the two Warmongers stare down her baby sister, with Ratlug reaching into his lab coat presumably for a weapon, that Yang felt a painful stab of defeat.

She couldn't take them... No matter how proud of her younger sister she felt when seeing the Red Head face down an apparently overwhelming force, she just knew that there'd be no way Ruby could take them on. She looked tired and angry, outnumbered and outclassed. Yang wanted to think of a plan that ended with her and her sister heading back to Beacon before the day ended, but instead she could only picture the depressing image of Ruby trapped in a cell like hers.

"Ruby..." Yang said slowly "stay back..."

"What!?"

"Hn?" the Stormbringer tilted his robed head as he gazed down at her in curiosity "What's this?"

"Yang... what are you talking about? Just hang on and I'll get you out of there and-"

"There'll be a better time! Just don't get near them!"

The mere thought of just leaving her there seemed to spur Ruby to do the exact opposite, cocking Crescent Rose and firing towards them in a flurry of rose petals.

"Here we go!" Krosh laughed before charging to meet her head on.

Yang grimaced before raising one of her arms and moving to cock her gauntlets, which was a bitch to do in that position, when the telltale sounds of them locking up made her jerk her head towards Ratlug, who tauntingly dangled the controller in his fingers with a giggle.

Ruby brought her scythe down on the approaching Warmonger, only for him to slip past her blade and ram his shoulder into her, knocking her off her feet. She landed with a stumble as he launched towards her leg spikes extending. Before they could connect a large blade blocked the Uruk's path, and with a sudden frown he instead leaped off the blade and spun through the air back to his comrades.

Ruby blinked before glancing back to find Fox and Yatsuhashi flanking her.

The sight brought a smile back to Yang's face, if it was the three of them then maybe they actually stood a-

That hopeful thought was silenced by the familiar sound of a Dreamer Gate opening behind her.

"Gate's here, we're leaving." the Stormbriner stated evenly in his breathy grunts.

The Warmongers turned back to look at him, Krosh actually looked surprised by the order, before they both nodded and darted back towards the Gate. More footsteps indicated Ratlug and Ishmol were already in motion.

"What? Wait no!" Ruby shouted before she and the CFVY Boys rushed to intercept.

"I'm sorry Rubes!" Yang shouted as the Shaman's boot was replaced by the Grip of the Warmongers "There'll be another time! I promise!"

The last things she saw before being dragged through the gate was her Sister's tear stricken face as she tried to reach her.

And then it closed... and she was back in the damn factory floor. She let out a slow breath before glaring at her captors. Ratlug turned to two Uruks standiing beside the now-closed portal as the Arena Master immediately gaped at their surroundings.

"By the Dark Lord..." Ishmol said in awe as he took in the underground factory "You lot had all this? No wonders you been holding up!"

"Ishmol..."

The Arena Master slowly stood at the sound of the Shaman's voice and turned around.

Yang and the Storm Captains looked on as the Arena Master's face disappeared as an arm rammed through it. The Stormbringer flexed his fingers once they passed through Ishmol's skull, waiting for the Uruk to go limp before pulling his arm free and flicking some of the viscera from it.

"Aw," Ratlug sighed at the sight "he could've at least tried to see that coming."

"An Arena Master without an Arena... to flee from one's livelihood so readily... such a shame...A true Tournament Lord would've died in his own fighting pit... A pretender to the end I suppose..." the Robed Uruk said in his odd manner of speech while kneeling beside the dead Brewer and searching his corpse for something.

That was the most Yang had ever heard the Grand Shaman speak, and honestly, she was starting to finally get the preachy vibes she'd expected from his initial robed appearance. Seriously, the hell kinda point was he trying to make to justify goring a dude right after helping the very same guy escape capture?

"Here Doctor..." the Robed Shaman raised a rolled up piece of paper and offered it to the Swordsmith "this you should find use of."

Yang didn't know if the fact that seeing an Uruk getting ruthlessly murdered before her eyes was starting get old was a bad thing. On one hand there were a lot of them she'd probably be fighting in the near future, on the other hand wasn't it kinda dangerous to get desensitized to this kinda thing or something like that?

"Damn it," she heard Krosh mutter, breaking her out of her worries "I was really hoping I could start building a family set."

Yeah, she could at least be glad that it was her in this position and not her sister. It didn't matter how badly things turned out for her, as long as she knew Ruby was okay then it would be worth it.

"You wouldn't have been able to keep her anyway laddie." Ratlug spoke as he leaned against the wall beside the now closed Dreamer Gate

That peaked her interest, and Krosh's as well apparently.

"What?" the smaller Warmonger asked

"She's an accomplice..." the Shaman stated while walking in front of her and looking her over from within that all encompassing robe of his "... She's still useful... as a gift."

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

"The mission, was a success."

Krimp could hear the three crowded around Ozpin's desk release worried breaths once they recieved the news, but he wasn't paying them much mind. He sat with his back to them idly moving his childish drawings around after flipping them over. Many had what looked like mistakes on the back, lines he'd probably accidentally gotten them while he was fumbling to make them. But now, the Friendly Uruk just released a small little hum as he arranged them, lining up the odd looking markings as they started to form a shape.

Ironwood groaned as he reclined in a chair near Ozpin's desk "Thanks to that damned Shadow more Uruks managed to escape than we planned, not mention the casualties we would've been spared if those canisters had gone off in the beginning."

"I still don't understand how he managed to pretend to be an officer for at least a full day and not anyone noticed." Glynda mumbled

"Its his semblance." the General retorted as he leaned forward and drew a flask from his coat "If he trains with it enough he could be out there impersonating other high value targets within the month. Maxwell was always a stand offish guy, not many close friends who would've noticed any changes he might've had. He got lucky choosing his target, just like we got lucky that the detonator wasn't destroyed. We still managed to nab about a dozen captains and their underlings but..."

"It will be a positive note that we can give to the public." Ozpin said solemnly "We must move quickly, using this we can hopefully introduce these creatures to the people with minimal fuel to the Grimm. Groups like the White Fang and Blue Scarves will no doubt seize upon any chance of Fear-Mongering, but hopefully this keeps their lasting influences to a minimum."

"Speaking of Grimm." Glynda turned to the Professor with a questioning look "The Armored Alpha?"

"From what we can tell it was Just a regular Alpha Beowolf they captured." Ironwood stated "The Armor itself is actually quite ramshackle on the inside, forged of different metals taken from different places."

"And yet it took an entire Team of Students to take one down?" she questioned "The average Alpha Beowolf is a threat with their pack but alone a Trained huntsmen or even two students could defeat one with relative ease. Despite their actions today, Team CFVY is far beyond average Second Years, yet apparently this Ramshackle armor helped it pose threat to all of them?"

"I never said the armor was bad because of its make-up." the Atlesian insisted "The metals, while inconsistent, were structured for durability. The process of restraining a Grimm, while difficult, is possible to many. Its just that nobodies been thick-headed enough to actually try armoring them while they're in captivity. They even admitted to not having control over it, they just felt like making it deadlier."

"Well that's just perfect." Glynda scoffed as she folded her arms in angered thought "Even if the Chief-less Raiders were crippled by today's attack, will we have to start dealing with Grimm running around armored like tanks? I mean where did they even get the materials?"

"What we must focus on now is presenting this to the populace in a suitable manner." Ozpin began before turning to Ironwood "James, I trust that Atlas will be more than willing to assist despite the troubles up north?"

"There are no troubles, I assure you." the General stated with a small smile "Merely-"

He paused slowly as a scent reached his nose, the other two taking note of it immediately before all three turned towards Krimp's corner.

The Giant Uruk was still messing with his drawings as usual, but now the sight was littered with the growing smell of smoke.

"Krimp?" Ozpin began as Ironwood slowly stood from his chair.

When the Massive Uruk didn't respond immediately the General pulled his pistol on him.

"Uruk, what exactly are you doing over there?"

At that Krimp finally began to rise and turn towards them.

The first thing noticed was the uncharacteristically sad smile he wore.

The second was the Dreamer Gate forming at his feet.

"Bye, buddies." he said with a small wave before leaning into the portal.

A riding crop was raised and a pistol fired, but at that point the gate was already closing behind him.

---

Vision returned to her as she blinked away the blurriness of exhaustion. The sky and tress became clearer as she slowly rose and raised a hand to her face.

She had been resting atop a sleeping bag laid beside several crates, as she slowly rose from it she began noting the various noises around her.

Weiss Schnee was outside Ishmol's Arena, in the time she'd been unconscious it seems the rest of the Atlesian Forces had begun cleaning up.

There were several large trucks parked nearby and Soldiers were everywhere, mostly caring for wounded or escorting Uruks in chains. A truck passed by her with a large cage on it, inside several Uruks shouted slanderous words to her while stepping over their other Comrades who still seemed unconscious. As she looked some more, she spotted more of the cages with even more of the violent prisoners tucked inside. She made sure to move away from them, she was still exhausted and did not wish to deal with their jeers on top of droopy eyelids.

There seemed to be a perimeter set up around the Arena, lined with large vehicles with mounted guns atop them. Every so often she'd hear one of the guns activate and the roar of a Grimm being silenced.

She spotted a large number of dirty looking Villagers and chained up White Fang members who were being looked after by the soldiers, were those the slaves who would've died in the Arena?

Her supposition was cut short once she spotted a familiar pair of cat ears.

Blake was leaning against one of the large building's walls, staring down at the ground in thought but occasionally shooting glances to a doorway several yards away that led inside. Her silence was broken once she spotted the incoming high heels of her teammate.

"Weiss, have a good nap?" she asked as she glanced up towards her approaching comrade.

"Lovely." the Heiress responded "I don't suppose it would've been the case if you hadn't gone after me and the brute, thank you."

The Faunus gave her a small smile and a nod.

Weiss matched her smile with one of her own before losing it as she took a look around "Where's Ruby? Last I saw of her she was charging off after her sister."

Blake sighed at that "Yeah, went after the Uruks who took Yang. Before you ask, no Yang's not back. Ruby's..." she paused before glancing to the doorway "not taking it well."

"What do you mean we can't go after them!?"

The inside of the Arena was a farcry from the warzone it had been mere hours ago. The majority of the Audience were either in cages, escaped, or being transported out by Atlesians.

In the lower stands Riley let out a sigh as the huntress in training looked to her with a desperate, questioning gaze "Look kid, I know how it may seem now but we just can't go looking for her at the moment."

"B-But we won, you guys said that if we took this Arena and grabbed enough Captains then the Chiefless would be in disarray!"

"And they are, but it's not that simple!"

"If anything now should be the best time to go looking for her! Before they recuperate."

"Kid" Riley sighed "Those guys who have your sister... they aren't chiefless, they're something else. They won't be affected by today the same way the raiders will be."

"Even so-!"

"We don't have the manpower for it, damn it."

Riley glanced beside her, where an exhausted looking Maxwell sat on one of the benches with one leg crossed over the other and one hand massaging his head "Because of you imbeciles letting that Foolish Uruk outplay you, we lost far more today than predicted."

"I seem to recall that fool managing to get the jump on you." Riley crossed her arms

"He got me in my sleep, what do you want? At least I'm not the one who believed an Otherworldly monster was the same Colleague you've known since basic."

"Hm, so people couldn't tell a violent monster apart from you? Is this maybe hinting to something for ya Maxie Boy?"

"Yes, it tells me that all of you are incompetent and the only way you managed to win today was because our enemy was equally incompetent."

The blue-haired man shook his head before turning his glare back to Ruby "The point being that because you all failed to see through that creature's tricks we took too much damage from today. We can't go wandering about willy nilly looking for a little girl's big sister simply because the big bad monsters have her."

"But what if they kill her?!"

"Oh but what if they kill her! Grow up." Maxwell bit "What if the White Fang decides to take advantage of our discourse and attack leaving thousands dead because you were selfish enough to drag us about looking for one girl? Do you for a single second manage to look at the bigger picture and realize that on the list of Atlas' priorities your sister shouldn't even be in the top hundred?!"

Ruby closed her mouth and struggled a bit, grinding her teeth as the Specialist glowered down to her.

"Be patient, if things go as expected then the General should have reinforcements here and ready within a week or two. If your sister just happens to get herself killed before then, well... that hardly seems like our business now does it?"

"And this is why nobody could see much difference between you and that Shadow guy, buddy." Riley sighed, ignoring his glare and giving Ruby an apologetic look "I'm sorry Ruby."

The young girl looked between the specialists, biting back the slurry of distasteful thoughts and turning away before making her way out of the building.

Weiss and Blake looked upon their leader as she exited the doorway, the two sharing a glance before moving to flank her.

They waited for a moment, not accustomed to silence from the red-head, before Blake reached towards her with a "Ruby?"

The younger girl shook her head before turning back to them with a weak smile "Yeah?" she asked before realizing her White-Themed Partner was no longer unconscious and gasping "Weiss! You're awake! Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!"

The Heiress gave a confused "Hn?" before Ruby stepped towards her with an ashamed look in her eye.

"When I saw Yang I didn't even think twice about chasing after her, and then afterwards I hear that we almost lost you too!" the younger girl did well in not tripping over her quick words "I left you guys behind... just like back then!"

"Ruby," Weiss sighed before placing a hand to her own chest modestly "even I would begin acting slightly irrational if I believed my own Sister was in peril, even though I'm completely confident in her abilities."

"And I'm confident in Yang!" Ruby insisted before glancing to the side and walking away "Its just..."

"Finally realizing what that familial protectiveness she always displays feels like?" Blake offered, but when she received no answer she instead asked "What um... What did the Specialists say?"

The young leader gave another deep sigh before turning back to them "They said-"

"SWEETNESS!"

That voice immediately caused the huntresses to go for their weapons as nearby soldiers turned to see a Familiar Archer rushing towards them only to be tackled to the ground by several other Atlesians.

"How the hell did he get out!?" One Ssouted as others moved to help restrain the Uruk

"Fuckin-Agh!-Slipped through the bars with his own pus!" Another Shouted while gesturing to several others nearby "Somebody get some chains for this one!"

"Darling!" Bubol shouted out, ignoring the soldiers currently hauling him to his feet "Seems we'll be saying goodbye for now! Oh but a love like mine can be restrained by no mortal means! Ha ha!"

Weiss glowered before taking her hand from the hilt of Myrtenaster and instead placing it on Ruby's shoulder "You don't have to listen to this."

Ruby didn't respond, instead keeping her gaze leveled on the Uruk as he was dragged off.

"Oh, that look is good on you! So hateful and spiteful but with so much room to grow!" the Diseased Lunatic giggled before growling lustfully "Ya know I don't see ya sis with ya. Saw her having a bit o' trouble with some Storm boys while we were dancing! They's a great bunch, real good friends of mine. Know what'll probably happen to that sibling o' yours now that you went and ruined our fun?!"

This time Blake stepped forward and nudged her younger teammate before saying "We can have our conversation elsewhere Ruby." only to receive silence as well.

Bubol's face went straight "They'll give her to Ashgarn's brother, and not the forgiving one, the hateful one in Vacuo. He'll have a grand time setting up her execution, have a whole bunch of pals there to watch her head roll!" slowly the straight face gave way to his usual maddened grin "And when you finally get news that her mangled corpse was found, I want you to remember who took her from you in the first place. Me! Oh I can't wait to see the face you'll make-"

Apparently one of the Atlesians restraining him had had enough, as the Uruk's rants were cut off as a fist knocked the wind from his lungs. Gasps and laughs spilled from his mouth as the disgusting, Boil-covered Uruk was finally taken out of sight.

Weiss and Blake shared a momentary glance, the Uruk's silenced yells had brought the area back to the idle state it had been in beforehand.

Ruby turned and began walking away, her teammates hurrying to catch up as she released an angry breath and tried to continue "They said Yang wasn't a high priority."

"What?" Weiss asked before folding her arms

"Riley tried to word it better, but Maxwell was very forthcoming with how unimportant she was to them."

"Seems being possessed didn't do much to improve his lack of courtesy."

"So they're just going to leave her?" Blake asked

"Yeah, and you know what?" Ruby paused to glance back at them "I think I'm going after her without them."

That gave her teammates pause, with Weiss actually holding back a snicker "Excuse me?"

"I'm tired of waiting while my sister suffers!" Ruby said with clenched hands "So I'm going to find that tower and bust her out before that Warchief can kill her!"

"I miss her too, Ruby, but you're talking about scouring Vacuo head to toe for their tower, then sneaking into the ancient Ruin probably crawling with an Army of creatures whose deserters nearly tore us apart today, and hoping that you can get your sister past all of them, then all the way back to Vale through Orcs, Grimm and the White Fang!"

"Exactly."

The Faunus gave a long deliberate blink before turning back to a still humored heiress "Weiss, I think that guy finally broke her."

"I'm serious, guys. If the military won't help then I say I don't need them." the Red Head stated with a determined look in her eye "I'm tired of sitting back and waiting for others to help me. I don't care if there are millions of those guys between us, I won't be able to sleep well without knowing she's okay!

"I want you to pause for just a second and think about this, how do you even know Bubol wasn't just goading you? The Storm might not even give her to Hork."

"Well then, if she's not at the Tower then I'm looking for their base next!"

This time Weiss didn't bother to hide the tiny little giggles.

"Come on Ruby," Blake said, though hesitating a bit "how would you even get there in time?"

"I don't care!"

"I can't believe this is the way I meet my end." Weiss finally sighed as her laughter finally cut out "Very well, I suppose we should find a map then."

"Weiss?!" Blake jerked her head towards the Schnee

"Weiss, I didn't plan on asking you guys to risk joining me." Ruby said before gesturing towards her older Partner "If anything you'd be the most at risk going out there."

"What can I say?" the Heiress shrugged "I suppose the lack of Yang's presence has shown me just how desperately we need her for our dynamics to be complete."

"Besides," she stepped forward before releasing a breath of her own "Ruby's stubbornness concerning matters of family has impressed me from time to time. What kind of Partner would I be to let her run into a hoard of beasts without my assistance?"

The younger girl's eyes widened a bit before she smiled widely towards her partner and nodded.

"If anything," Weiss glanced towards a distressed looking Blake "I expected you to match Ruby's enthusiasm, Yang is your partner."

"Exactly, and I would know that the last thing she'd want is us nearly killing ourselves trying to save her." Blake explained before sighing "I want her back just as much as either of you, everything we do as a team without her feels wrong and its not like the idea of just going out searching hasn't crossed my mind before, but she doesn't like endangering those close to her."

"Well too bad for her."

"Come on Blake," Ruby said "I won't try to force you to come with us, but just think about it okay?"

The Raven-Haired Faunus gave her a concerned look before walking away with a nod.

"Well," Weiss turned to Ruby with a raised eyebrow "implying you don't have a change of heart, how are you planning on getting to Vacuo?"

"We'll just do what Coco and them did!"

"I'm sure there's a way to do this without making enemies of the military, Ruby. Besides, do you even know how to fly a ship?"

Ruby gave Weiss a queer look "Don't you know how to pilot?"

"Why would you even assume that?"

"I mean, you're from Atlas."

The Schnee merely shook her head at the supposition as Blake finally walked back over to them "Okay, while I'm positive Yang wouldn't want us doing this for her... Let's do it.""

Ruby gasped before smiling and fist-pumping "Alright, Team RWBY Styled Rescue Mission is a-go. Banzai!"

Blake gave a small laugh before joining Ruby with a "Banzai." of her own while Weiss just shook her head before reluctantly raising her fist up with theirs.

"So," Cat-Eared girl lowered her arm to look at their leader "what exactly are we doing in terms of transport?"

"That depends," Ruby placed a finger to her lips before pointing towards the Faunus "can you hijack airships?"

"Is there a method that doesn't involve us stealing from the Military?"

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

They'd taken his arm-mounted bow.

Did they even realize how much of a fondness he'd grown for that weapon?

Bubol looked over the pustule covered arm where his recent dealer of destruction once was.

Besides his new shackles which connected with the metal floor of his container, the other occupants of his cage were several Uruks who still seemed unconscious.

Normally an unconscious anything within twelve feet of him made him lick his lips in anticipation, but at the moment he was busy concerning himself with the strapping young soldiers who occasionally wandered past his cage.

He'd whisper sweet nothings to them, pointing out the enticing nature of their bodies whilst dragging his boil-wracked body as close to the bars as possible.

It was as he'd succeeded in unnerving another pair of wandering technicians that he was distracted by the sound of nearby movement. He glanced back to the pile of unconscious Uruks beside him and smiled when one began moving.

"Hello there," the Archer said with glee "seems you were lucky enough to get thrown in a small cage with little old me. Mind comin' over here so I can-"

"Stuff it, you Disease." an unexpected, yet pleasantly familiar, voice came from the Uruk "I've no time to entertain your sickness."

Bubol's momentary surprise was replaced by a wide grin as the Uruk turned on him with a familiar pair of inky black eyes "Well well Gundzie, seems you really can't stay away from me."

The Shadow grumbled as he tried to focus on waking up. In the Fighting Pit he'd wasted too much time trying to drag the Tark off, if he'd only managed to snag her gas mask when they fell then she would've been his plain and simple. He couldn't let himself pass out in open view, so he'd made the decision to slip into one of the many Uruks lying upon the Floor. If they didn't know where he'd gone, then they would assume he'd escaped.

Gundza slowly moved to the bars of the cage nearest to him and began looking at the ground their container was placed upon.

As he looked, he lamented letting a single foolish lapse in judgement cost him so much. But as long as he stayed one step ahead, he could keep his hunt going strong.

"Oi Gundzie."

Growling, he glanced at the walking disgrace that was Bubol "Do not, call me that."

"Just trying to spark up some conversation, mate!" the Diseased riddled lunatic said with a giggle "You hardly ever come around to visit, gotta make the most of the time we have now old friend!"

"You are nothing resembling a friend to me, just momentary allies depending on what's happening."

"Yeah that was fun!" Bubol laughed "Beating those lassies around using teamwork and all, just like old times!"

"Don't assume to be the same Uruk I once enjoyed murdering with occasionally." the Shadow snarled as he focused once more on searching the ground "After what happened to you, I'm not even sure you could be considered a soldier anymore. Don't think you can pull any old acquaintance shit with me, Bubol."

The Archer merely gave another smaller laugh, but Gundza ignored him as he suddenly spotted what he was looking for and reached out of the cage to grab at it.

"For what it's worth, Gundzie-"

The Exile shifted back into the cage and prepared to admonish Bubol once more.

"-I told them she would be at the Tower."

That made Gundza pause "What?"

"The Heiress and her lovely teammates, I may have mentioned it was likely their friend might end up with Hork."

Gundza didn't respond, merely watched as the Archer leaned forward a bit to grin at him "If you do end up tracking them there, do a little old Uruk a small favor. And tell that delicious red-head that I was the one who told you where they'd be off too."

The Archer leaned back and laughed loudly as the Shadow watched, frown slowly deepening as he watched Bubol's maddened cackling grow wilder.

Turning away from the Diseased Uruk, Gundza opened his hand to reveal a beetle in his palm. Before the insect could move, the Shadow leaked out of the Uruk and slipped into it.

The Uruk he'd released merely wobbled before collapsing back onto his other comrades, the Beetle falling out of his hand but managing to open its wings and easily slip out of the cage and towards the forest as the Diseased Archer's laughter grew louder behind it.

---

A.N: Look at that, didn't take me one-third of a year to get this next chapter out, woo.

Mostly because this chapter was actually just the payoff for last chapter that had to get cut off due to how much there was. The next chapter might also warrant being split in half, seeing as its also relatively large. For me its the chapters that'll come after the next one that'll prove more challenging seeing as theres a lot of stuff I haven't fully planned out.

Anyway, still waiting for SOW despite the quote unquote "controversy its started due to its microtransactions. I just loved the first game so much that there isn't much that could happen that would keep me from buying its sequel. In fact, due to how much the devs have been showing off the game there's little possibility I won't enjoy it. At this point it just needs to work in a manner similar to how they've been showing it, which admittedly might be quite different upon release day.

Anyway, enough talking about SOW and on to talking about the Uruks in the Fanfic that its predecessor inspired along with an animated show on the internet.

So, I suppose a lot of Uruks got some form of spotlight this time. For now let's talk about the owner of the chapter's namesake: Ishmol.

I'll admit that I really hated this guy, not because he was difficult or a boring enemy. Ishmol the Brewer's time in my game session consisted of him killing a bunch of other Uruks who I found way more enjoyable for a variety of reasons. If I spent time trying to build an epic Nemesis or Follower while Ishmol was alive, they'd almost always get killed by Ishmol or a Drunk. You can guess that I began associating the Brewer with the number of Grog-lovers. The Drunks were generally easy to kill, but I began developing the idea that the Brewer was specifically sending them to hunt down Uruks I interact with a lot just to spite me. After a while I got tired of killing drunks and hunted Ishmol down, only to find that when he wasn't pissing me off he spent all his time near an Arena watching fights.

And then Ishmol's most annoying quirk became apparent, how much of a slippery little coward he was. He didn't have the fighting capabilities necessary to pose a threat and so he would always summon guys to bodyguard him, but would still get beat down then freak out when faced with defeat. Unfortunately he was a speedy bastard who would run off in the middle of fights and slip away while having his goons get in my way. It worked a number of times until I used a certain brainwashed Uruk to corner and curb-stomp him finally, thankfully he wasn't as stubbornly resistant to dying as others.

Ishmol the Brewer everyone, the guy who killed off some of my favorite characters by bribing addicts with liquor and make for the hills when repercussions come knocking.

Anyway, hope you enjoy, any and all criticisms positive or negative are welcomed in full so leave a review if you are so inclined to do. Like it? Hate it? Any ways you feel I could improve? Expectations for the next chapter? Follow or Favorite at your leisure and I will see you all in the next installment of The Dreamer Gate.

Next Chapter: The Shanties...