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?

17. Chapter 17: The Scorned

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

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

---

The Scorned

If anyone could find a way to use them, it would be Cinder. That was what Emerald kept telling herself over and over. Cinder knew everything, could manipulate anything! And this little chat was going to confirm that, even after how hectic the Uruks were making things, the plan would be absolutely fine.

So as she and Mercury looked to Cinder, the sheer image of silent contemplation as she sat on the side of her bed, one could only imagine the relief which flowed through Emerald once Cinder once more donned her trademark smirk and looked to them, "Everything remains according to plan."

Emerald knew this already, but actually hearing it from Cinder herself brought a wave of relief washing over her. But Mercury didn't seem as convinced, "Seriously? I know I'm not the plan guy, but hasn't Adam and the Fang been getting louder and louder about postponing or something? Considering they know how the story ends if they back out, they must feel pretty convinced that this thing's about to go tits up."

"Merc!" Emerald bit at him, only to be silenced as Cinder raised a hand

"The Faunus know what happens if they try to back out now, so they can yell as loudly as they'd like. It changes nothing."

Emerald smiled at that before turning to glare at Mercury "See? Quit complaining, Cinder knows what she's doing."

"Well excuse me for not feeling so confident here, I'm not about to go bailing either. I'm just saying." He gestured towards the window "With all the extra heat Ironwood's got to deal with the Orcs, maybe our timing could be better? Neo gets what I'm trying to say, right Neo?"

He turned to the other side of the room where Neo sat in her disguise, absentmindedly typing away at her scroll with a smirk. She paused only long enough to casually nod in Mercury's direction before returning to her device.

"See?" he turned back to the others, only to find Cinder nonplussed.

"The very forces which will be sent across the continent to fight a battle far from this city?" Cinder tilted her head to the side "Even if they do return in time, our work will be over. Besides, the very 'problem' those fools insist on worrying about has given our little pets plenty of time to grow big and strong."

Cinder closed her eyes and gave a little shake of her head, "Once more, nothing truly changes." she looked towards the window "Besides... I don't think any of those imbeciles realize how unlikely it is that we'll get another chance like this."

---

The Arceus

If there was something Uthug had known for a majority of his life, it was that change was a necessary evil. Stagnation provided an enemy with opportunity, made a warrior less likely to adapt. Well if there was one thing he had been damn well working on since Kruk had presented himself as a factor, it was adaptability. Which is why even as he looked over a discarded jumpsuit in an empty hallway, he was trying his hardest to be ready at a moment's notice.

He should've been less tense, given how the lads had been taking far more initiative after Kruk set out hyping them up. With how hunkered down the remaining Caterers had become, Uthug had almost feared that chipping away at their remaining strongholds would eat up the rest of their time. But with the Crewmates actively going on the offensive now that they'd been touched by the 'flame of war', he had a surprising amount of free time. Even Bubol had asked him to take a load off while he and the rest of his crew got to work.

Of course, Gundza had been trying to use this new free time to train up Uthug's semblance, but Uthug had immediately indulged in trying to recreate his original Black-Cloth Jumpsuit to no avail. It was almost like the more he tried the worst the result!

This time he tried airing it out a bit differently by quickly racing through the hall before the recently blackened jumpsuit settled. He paused beside a strange, sealed doorway which looked as if it should lead to another hall. Sealed doorways were nothing new aboard this floating prison, but what made this one stand out was that Uthug was certain he'd traveled through here before. With a grumble he realized that some other Inmate must've haphazardly boarded up the hall to protect a hidey hole or something.

Usually he'd take the time to check it, but he wasn't about to waste his free time fighting if he could help it.

You're already wasting both of our time! We should be testing the limitations of your semblance! Not trying to recreate an already horrible clothing design!

Uthug growled before whispering under his breath "Well maybe when you get-"

He was interrupted as a battle cry he'd already become infuriatingly familiar with rang out and reverberated off the walls. A war cry which he was already sick to death of hearing, a cry that silenced Gundza as Uthug stood and immediately began looking around a frantic manner.

"Warborn!"

How? Just how!? This had to be the fourth time today he'd heard that cry ring out through the halls of the Arceus, and every time Kruk would hop out of nowhere and immediately try fighting him. To be fair, Kruk wasn't nearly as hard to fight back against with that damned flamespitter out of commission, and since it had been torn up in their first bout Uthug was convinced his semblance would pose the major problem. But for some reason, Kruk seemed unwilling to light himself up in their following fights.

No, the problem came from just how damned persistent the bastard was. Seriously! Not a day had gone by since Uthug nearly died in his kitchen and already he was making good on his promise. Wasn't it unhealthy to fight the same guy over and over again this much!? Despite only relying on his fists and the occasional makeshift weapon he'd pry from the scenery, Kruk was still a hell of a brawler, and the fact that he could bounce back so quickly after getting beaten down only made hearing that damned war cry more infuriating!

But Uthug couldn't focus on that now, Kruk still hadn't revealed himself. Uthug wanted this done as quickly as possible, so he refused to let Kruk get too much of a jump on him.

That's when it hit him, the boarded up entrance. Would Kruk really go to such effort just to ambush him? He turned to look at the doorway, backing up against the wall opposite of it as he readied his fists, preparing for a large war-crazed fanatic to charge through at any-

A hand erupted from the wall behind him and latched onto his shoulder. Immediately he recognized the burns on it.

"You believe changed thing no safe."

Horror spread across Uthug's face as he looked back at the wall behind him, "Wha-!?"

"But that perfect opportunity for threat hide among familiar thing!" Kruk snickered before dragging Uthug back through the wall into a hallway which had been adjacent to the one Uthug was previously in.

"Threat always changing, Warborn!" Kruk declared as he launched Uthug against the opposing wall before cracking his knuckles "Must always change for War!"

"One of these days," Uthug snarled as he picked himself up and glared at Kruk "one of these days you're going to run out of ways to piss me off!"

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

Watching the fight commence through a screen was a bored woman who called it out as soon as it occurred, "Hot-Head's taking on the Looter again." she murmured, glancing back from her seat.

The Arceus's command center was sparsely populated, only a handful of Atlesian soldiers keeping track of as much of the ship as they could with their current numbers. Many desks were empty, consoles turned off as those who hadn't been called to join the growing fleet in Vale simply cycled through camera feeds. At the room's exits, only one AK-Unit was posted at each. The majority of their robotic forces patrolling any and all of the numerous sealed doors which cut off the prison portion of the ship from the rest of it.

The moment she called out, a man in an Officer's uniform drew closer before glaring past her at the screen.

"Sir?" the soldier asked, "Who do you think's taking it this time?"

"Given their previous bouts, I'd say the Looter's got it in the bag." The Officer frowned, then turned away from her screen to a chair which stood above the other consoles "Keep me posted, that one has a bad habit of wandering out of our surveillance, and given how much of a threat he is to his fellow inmates, I'd say that's a problem."

Propped up beside the chair was none other than the very musket that specific prisoner had been caught with. The officer grabbed it as he sat down before laying it across his lap and staring at it.

"What does it matter?" another Atlesian asked before yawning loudly "They're all sinking soon, who cares?"

"You getting enough sleep?" the first soldier asked "I know we aren't exactly sticking to the handbook now, but you've been getting more and more drowsy by the day."

"Pfft, I'm fine. Maybe the quiet's finally getting to me." he said back to her before nodding to their Officer "You should be keeping an eye on him, he's been ogling that gun since it came into our possession."

"Just reminding myself why we're doing what we're doing." the Officer stated as he looked past the consoles and soldiers in front of him and out the massive window which showed the deck of the Arceus beyond. Given the sheer size of the ship, only a portion was visible from the command center's window. A number of AK-Units patrolled the deck, and he could even see two soldiers gathered around a large ballistic window which showed a portion of the prison below.

Back when the science division still had tests being run on the Arceus, their researchers would often be spotted around windows like those when not engaged in some type of experiment. But now they were gone, using their knowledge to aid the efforts in Vale before any could be sent back to continue working on the ship. Honestly, that just made things easier for those who remained. Though many scientists shared their disgust with their prisoners, they always seemed to concede that having them for research was beneficial.

The Officer shook his head at that, only for a groan at his side to bring his attention back to the tired Soldier who leaned towards his console a bit before shaking his head.

"What is it?" The Officer asked

"Just received a drop request." the soldier replied with a yawn "Looks like those guys that got picked up a few days ago. They're being sent our way."

"What?" the female soldier turned around "We aren't seriously doing that now, are we? We'll be too close to the mainland to sink the Arceus properly. If even one of these freaks get out-"

"Well we can't exactly deny the request for holding," the tired soldier mumbled "that'll look too suspicious."

"Then we accept." the Officer stated

"But... what about the plan?"

"We are wardens, wardens of monsters which have no right to breathe our air." the Officer stated "We must maintain the appearance of servility."

His eyes narrowed as he once more rubbed the musket, "At least until we're able to finally send these monsters to the ocean floor where they belong."

---

The Shanties

"He doesn't belong here."

That was what broke up the monotony of Ishga's investigation. Ever since receiving orders from the Dreamer, he'd shadowed Ratlug's researchers relentlessly. Almost immediately he realized that even if they never noticed him, he didn't really have any way to know what they were doing. They wandered the Tower and the Shanties, tapping at those tark devices, but what they were doing with them were actually beyond him... and it was absolutely infuriating.

"Maybe Pug's gettin' curious about the history o' this place?"

Ishga sighed, he'd quickly grown so tired of staring at Uruks and not knowing what they were doing that he'd actually allowed Skak to come along on these outings, if that didn't prove how utterly disheartened he was by these results then he didn't know what would. But as the two watched a certain Uruk in storm colors move through the shanties flanked by two researchers, Ishga had no choice but to consider the validity of Skak's assumption.

An assumption that probably wouldn't have worked if Ishga hadn't recognized the Uruk as one of the Stormbringer's Acolytes. Not because of the clothing, but because he'd paused to remove his mask for a bit.

Naruk the Seeker, an Uruk who had pined for the Stormbringer's knowledge long before they all had gotten sucked into this blasted world. Ishga hadn't even known that he was here, but he should've expected the Stormbringer's most fanatic devotees to follow him even after being trapped in another realm. His attire was different from the tattered robes he sported in Mordor, this robe was far cleaner, and when had he started wearing gauntlets? No, a single gauntlet with those dust crystals embedded in it.

But the mask concerned him. The blank leather design was such a step away from the traditional armored robes that mystics often sported. Perhaps with more time to pine for the Grand Shaman's knowledge the acolytes had tried imitating his awful mask of memories? It didn't seem like it.

But the greatest question coursing through Ishga's mind as they followed the three Storm Uruks was 'why here?' What reason would the acolytes have for coming here? Ishga supposed there was some merit to Skak's claims, those who followed the Stormbringer seemed inclined to seek out knowledge wherever they could, and Naruk stood out even amongst them. He hadn't been labeled the Seeker for nothing.

"Wait..." Ishga held up a hand, causing Skak to pause behind him "Listen."

Skak did so, raising his blood-axe to his ear as the two stood still, eventually growing a look of confusion, "Some tark crying nearby?"

"No, it's coming from him." Ishga muttered in awe as he focused.

It was true, against all odds, the sounds of sobbing were echoing from Naruk. Suddenly Ishga's confusion was tenfold, Uruks weren't built for such an extensive show of sadness. Even their most miserable of times were often converted into more fuel for their rage. But Naruk, as he stumbled between the ramshackle housing, was closer to actual crying than Ishga had ever seen any Uruk in his entire life. But he couldn't see his face.

"That's impossible," Ishga murmured "not even the first Uruks could shed tears and they had the most tark in their blood."

"Maybe it ain't crying? Maybe he's just trying out some new type of diddy for drinkin' songs?"

Ishga couldn't even bring himself to scold Skak for such a ridiculous suggestion, so confused was he about the proceedings occurring before him.

"Hold up." One of the researchers said, causing his companions to pause as he kneeled and felt the ground "Give it a bit more."

As if in direct response to that, Naruk's wails grew a bit, and his aura began slowly flaring as the Researcher continued feeling the ground. After looking to his scroll, he turned to the other researcher and nodded at him. The other researcher reached for a pack strapped to him. Ishga tried his hardest to shake off his confusion and focus on what the researcher was drawing from the pack. An explosive, some kind of surveillance device? No, it seemed like an extendable meat poker. There didn't seem anything off about it other than its collapsible nature, yet the Researcher wielding it kneeled before driving it straight into the ground up to the hilt.

"Hold." the first researcher said as he checked his scroll again, waiting approximately five seconds before looking up "Retract."

The poker was pulled out, and its wielder brought the very tip up to his eyes for a moment. Try as he might, Ishga could see nothing off about the poker, only that the tip had darkened considerably after being driven into the sandstone beneath.

"Seems it's true," the researcher stated as he and his partner rose "guess we can put some of the Boss's concerns to rest."

"To imitate manfilth to such an extent." Naruk whined as he clutched at his mask "This land never ceases to disgust!"

"Oi mates! What you up to?"

Ishga's eyes shot wide open as Skak waltzed right out of cover waving in greeting to the Storm soldiers, axe on his belt and a grin on his face. Glare tightening, Ishga followed him into the open, realizing that hiding at that point would be moot.

"Hm," one of the Researchers looked to his partner before pocketing his scroll "hear to check on our progress with the repairs?"

"Well we's all comrades," Skak snickered "ain't about to let a lil' tension between our bosses get in the way of hangin' with the lads."

He turned to Naruk, who was still clutching at his mask, "Oi, he alright?"

The researchers also looked to Naruk, who held his position for a few seconds before standing tall and lowering his hands "Perfect, I see you're still letting this meathead tag along with you, Ishga." Naruk gave a contemplative hum "Your adherence to your Elder's wishes are admirable, yet pointless."

Ishga stared at him for a moment, trying to find any trace of the sobbing, stumbling glob who had been hunched over clutching at himself not a minute prior "Call it what you will, Naruk."

"Ah, so you do remember me. Most scholars believe these masks hide our identities rather well." Naruk noted as he pawed at his mask "Some tarks we've cut down never seemed to notice our otherworldly origins."

"I'll say, them scraps seem downright odd." Skak crouched down to give the Scholar a thorough once over "What's with the Storm and ya'lls wearings lately?"

"I'd rather know what it is you're seeking around here." Ishga stated with a raised eyebrow "Never believed you scholars would be interested in a wreck like this place."

"Careful now, wouldn't want the Garrison hearing you refer to their stronghold like that." Naruk pointed out before folding his arms and looking up to the tower "And I suppose you could say I'm extremely interested in the Lord of Lies."

Skak tilted his head "Whozat?"

"The original owner of this place, Bruma the Third?" Naruk looked back to them "I figured that any man who could've amassed a following such as he must've had great wealth hidden away somewhere. Perhaps stores of gold or rare metals. Not all of it could've been destroyed by the Folly-"

"The what?" Ishga interrupted

Naruk sighed "Bruma's Folly, it's what the tarks call the beast which wiped out most of his kingdom once it woke up. I don't care how smart the Grimm can get, there's no way it would know to seek out Bruma's treasures during its rampage. If we're lucky enough that he did have such metals, and that it withstood the Folly's rampage, and if looters haven't made off with it yet, then there's a chance the Garrison won't need to go frolicking off to some Grimm-infested caves to get the ores we need. If anyone could've mined at those veins before the Grimm moved in, Bruma was in just the position to."

"Why'd you lot wait so long to get something like this looked into?" Skak asked "Ain't Hork's boys leaving tonight?"

"Yes, well it's fairly unlikely that potential stores like that would last this long," Naruk admitted "And even if it was, the chances of it containing all the metals we need are slim to such a degree that this endeavor of mine is actually quite an afterthought."

It seemed like a plausible story, but Ishga knew that this had to be a cover. Even if he was looking into the Tower's history, that in no way explained whatever crazy shrahk they were doing just minutes ago. Besides, there was another reason that Ishga wasn't about to just take it at face value.

"You've talked to Torz about this, then?"

Then Naruk made a mistake which all but confirmed a number of worries Ishga had been sitting on. He looked to Ishga for a moment before asking, "Who?"

"Torz the Scholar." Ishga repeated "We sent him along with Skog the Corrupter to work with you and yours on the Dreamer Gates. He was almost as obsessed with hoarding information as you are, so if any of us had looked into this place's history, it would be him."

Naruk took a moment to respond, far too long for Ishga's tastes "I doubt it would be productive to interrupt their research for a problem as small as this. We're mere steps away from making a gate back to Mordor after all."

"Exactly," one of the Researchers piped up "so if you could let us get back to work? That would be greatly appreciated. Besides, this one's got another mission to prepare for any-"

Naruk turned back to him with an intensity that made the Researcher silence himself immediately. When he looked back, he found Ishga's glare waiting.

"Well, then you lot better hop to it." Skak shrugged before turning away "Wouldn't wanna keep the Dark Lord waitin' now do we?"

With nods, the Storm Uruks took their leave, vanishing in the tangle of ramshackle houses. Ishga glared after them for a moment until a nudge from the side brought his attention to a frowning Skak. He was once more holding his weapon to his ear, holding up a finger before shaking his head.

"Blood-Axe says you's too obvious with ya suspicion." Skak nodded to his weapon before lowering it "You figure out what they's doing?"

"No," Ishga admitted "perhaps the Master will understand their strange actions."

"Ha!" Skak laughed at that "If we get more sights like that, this lil' investigation's gonna be grand I tell ya!"

---

Amity Colosseum

"You're still going on about Team CRDL, Coco?" Jaune asked, "I mean, we were all kind of shocked by it. But is this really worth losing sleep over?"

Velvet had just brought it up on the airbus ride to the Arena, well actually it was more like she just blurted it out the moment Pyrrha tried asking about how things were going. As expected, Coco didn't take too kindly to that, folding her arms and glancing at Velvet even as Nora turned around in her seat to coo at her, "Oh! Oh! Did ya remember to get a trench coat and hat?"

"What?" Coco turned her questioning glance to her

"You can't be an obsessed detective without the right appearance!" Nora stated before pausing as if she'd just thought of something "Oh wait, wait! You also need the rest of the cast!"

"Nora..." Ren began

"No no Ren, we've already got them, see?" Nora gestured to the rest of Team CFVY "Fox can be the curmudgeon chief who keeps threatening to fire Coco because of her obsession, yet knows that she's the best damned detective he's ever had. Yatsuhashi can be the wrongfully accused older brother of the victim, just trying to clear his name and find his sister's attackers! And Velvet can be the idealistic rookie who looks up to the detective yet can't agree with their ways until a case just like this forces them to reconcile!"

Coco gave a little applause, "As accurate as that sounds, I'm gonna have to point out that you're missing the detective's deep-rooted addiction to something to dull the pain of previous cases."

"You're right!" Nora exclaimed before giving her a questioning look "Do you-?"

"No." Coco stated whilst waving off her concerns "And I'm not obsessed guys, just giving this the scrutiny it should have."

"But you were up for five hours waiting for Reese to call you back, Coco." Velvet pointed out before looking down "You're always so worried over your beauty sleep, so..."

"Heh, barely did anything." Coco whipped off her glasses and beret before giving an excessively fluid hair toss "Not even any rings under the eyes, I'm too photogenic for a few hours to touch me."

"I'm not sure the affects on your beauty are the real problem, here." Pyrrha noted as she leaned back in her seat "What happens if you're called up today? Those hours could prove inconvenient."

The airbus docked, but even as the two teams departed Velvet continued fretting over Coco.

"Is five hours even enough to have an effect?" Jaune questioned, as he stepped off "I mean I know Professor Peach always talks about keeping track of your teammates and potential health risks they might show. If Coco's usually all about sleep then I'm not really sure how much of an affect it'll have."

"True." Pyrrha admitted

"Well it's still worrying!" Velvet insisted before awkwardly tapping her fingers together "At least to me..."

"Come on Vel, if anyone should worry it's my partner, and do you see Fox callin' me out?" Coco looked to Fox, who just shrugged in response "See?"

"Well..." Velvet murmured to herself a bit "You always told me how important relaxing was...I just-"

"Keeping track of things this inconsistent is just as important, Vel." Coco stated as she paused, momentarily glancing back at the Airbus as its final passengers disembarked before leaning back to her friends "Like, have you guys noticed that Russel's been using bucklers?"

"Wait what?" Fox finally spoke up

"Yeah, but they're so small that they could barely be noticed unless you're up close." She continued "Like, does his fighting style even work with shield-use like that?"

"That... okay, that is admittedly confusing." Pyrrha noted before looking to Jaune "If anyone on CRDL's team would've adopted shields I'd figure it would be Cardin or Dove, seeing as they'd have the room in their arsenal for it."

"See!?" Coco asked, "It's like the more I find out the more inconsistent things get!"

"Guys!"

Coco's woes were interrupted as a familiar voice brought everyone's attention over to Ruby, who seemed to have been talking to two brightly dressed students.

"Ruby?" Ren turned to her as she ran over to them "Your Team got here before us?"

"Yeah! Well, no actually." she corrected herself as she came to a stop before them "Blake's trying her walking exercises early and since Yang stayed behind to help her... it's just Weiss and I."

"Didn't she say she was supposed to wait a couple days before trying to walk?" Nora thought out loud.

"Yeah well, go figure she'd get rid of the crutches as fast as possible, eh?" Ruby shook her head a bit before the sound of approaching footsteps brought her attention behind her "Oh! You guys remember Flynt and Neon from their fight yesterday, right?"

"Team FNKI, yeah." Jaune nodded "You guys have been hanging out?"

"Hanging out's so not even enough to describe it." Neon waved him off before shaking her clenched hands in front of her face "Ruby's been all about questioning us up and down about our weps I wasn't even ready to answer!"

"Oh that's just her way of saying hello!" Nora nodded furiously "Wait until you guys really get close! Then the spec questionnaires become regular occurrences."

"Oh my gosh! I can't wait!" Neon cheered

"Hey I wasn't... only talking about weapons." Ruby defended herself as she scratched the back of her head "There was other stuff."

"Maybe." Flynt yawned "But Neon was still pretty on point."

Jaune raised an eyebrow at him "Is everybody sleeping badly around here? Tell me you aren't on some kind of wild investigation into the competition too."

"It's not wild, its perfectly valid!" Coco defended once more as Neon gasped

"I told you Flynt, didn't I? They can see it too!" Neon stated while folding her arms and shaking her head "If they can see it then I'm not cray cray, I really was just keepin' tabs."

"Hey guys, mind doin' me a favor and not encourage her?" Flynt shook his head before wiping under his sunglasses "I've been getting trash for it already but I've been sleeping as regularly as always, so ain't nothing I can really do about it."

Jaune and Pyrrha shared a look, but the group began making their way into the Arena anyway.

"So you two are fighting?" Fox asked as he looked over Flynt and Neon "I would've expected that DJ chick to be here."

"Eh," Flynt shrugged "she's visiting her old man. Ain't nothing more important than family. 'Sides, Katt and I got a duet that I'd hate to deprive the audience of."

Ruby went wide eyed "Whoa," she said before nudging Jaune "Did you hear that Jaune? He's definitely talking about some kind of awesome combo attack, but he called it a duet because-!"

"I know, I know. The whole music theme, Ruby, I saw their last fight too." Jaune assured before looking sideways at her "By the way, where is Weiss? I know she's not exactly the pal around and make friends type, but..."

"Oh, she said she wanted good seats and wouldn't stand anything less." Ruby shrugged before looking down "But now that you mention it, she was supposed to text me when she found them."

Ruby's confusion wouldn't last for long, soon the group emerged to the numerous rings of seats formed around the arena. The majority of the audience had already filled out most of the seats, but even amongst them the distinctive white hair of their resident Schnee was easy to spot. One look at her made the reason for her radio silence clear.

"Have to say, I was actually quite surprised your team didn't find some loophole to get back in the tournament. Given how Schnee's often treat second place I'd expected you to have daddy getting Ozpin pulled from his position within the hour."

Weiss took a deep breath, but kept her face as neutral as possible as she kept her gaze on the arena before her. She hoped that once the fights began, the boy beside her would go off to his own team and leave her alone. Usually she'd figure a stern talking to from the Atlesian elite would scare off most, but she was almost certain it would only cause this particular assailant to double down on the annoyance.

"But I suppose if your sister can break the mold of relying on daddy, you can do the same. How proud you must be! Breaking those stereotypes, Weiss. If it wasn't such a painful attempt to stand out from the other baby-factories the Atlesian Elite parades around like fur-lined handbags, I might actually share some of that pride."

Another deep breath, she couldn't show just how infuriated she was. Petty insults were nothing to her, she'd received hundreds of death threats already for her origin alone, so trash talk should be nothing for-

"Although I'm not sure someone with a frame like yours will be able to sleep your way into a similar position to her's so-"

"Is this supposed to be some horrible evolution of your terrible flirting, Dove?" Weiss finally hissed as she looked up to the boy leaning against the railing beside her "Because it's absolutely disgusting."

"Flirt? With you?" Dove snorted "I pick my targets carefully Weiss, and trust me when I say I gave up on you at first contact. I'm just trying to see how many buttons I have to push to work through the Heiress of one of the largest companies on Remnant. By my count, it's thirty-seven. Pretty good number."

"I don't think I remember you being this much of an insufferable pain, even back when you and your team were making school life terrible for all of your classmates."

Dove pushed away from the rail and glanced down into the arena, "What can I say? After Cardin got kicked into gear I've found less and less reason to hide my feelings. And let me tell you that being completely honest has just been delicious."

"So the first thing you do once feeling free enough to voice opinions is infuriate everyone you come across?" Weiss asked before her frown deepened "Don't think people haven't noticed how much Cardin seems to glare at you nowadays, even compared to your teammates. What's the point?"

"Oh please, I do it because I enjoy it, duh." Dove looked back at her as if she'd asked the most simple question on the planet "Jeez, you'd think the girl raised specifically to maneuver aristocratic social peculiarities would have a basic understanding of psychology."

Weiss narrowed her eyes, "Dove, there are a lot of battles about to occur today. I want you to know that I will specifically wait for you to get thrashed out there."

"Oh you and many others I've no doubt." Dove laughed to himself as he looked over the crowd "You are far from the first person I've chatted with since this tournament began and I know for a fact that there are dozens out there looking for blood."

"Well maybe if you didn't spend so much time antagonizing people for giggles-"

"Oh I don't do it for laughs, Weiss. Although I'll admit the humor of it is pretty rewarding." Dove looked back to her "I do it to remind myself of where I stand."

Weiss raised an eyebrow, "That doesn't-"

"Except for people like you." Dove interrupted as he nodded to her "Infuriating people like you actually does make me feel pretty satisfied."

Weiss was just about to stand from her chair when a voice brought relief to her ears, "Weiss!"

She glanced to the side and found Ruby approaching with an assortment of other students. Almost immediately Flynt lowered his glasses to look at Dove, "Oh, you makin' trouble for the Schnee here, Bronzewing?"

"More than she'll admit," Dove shrugged with a smirk "you can thank me later. I know her father drove yours to the bottle so consider it a gift from one gentleman to another."

"Excuse you?" Nora stepped forward before being held back by Ren "What gives you the right to-!?"

"Don't bother." Flynt stated before shaking his head and putting his shades back in place, keeping his gaze locked on Dove the entire time "You know, in all the time I've known about you and yours I ain't ever seen a Bronzewing act out without a Winchester ready to back 'em up."

"Wait," Ruby looked back to him "Their families are..?"

Flynt nodded "Every Bronzewing patriarch for the past three generations has served closely under the Winchester family, often times as secretaries or personal assistants. They're practically a package deal."

"Wait what?" Jaune suddenly piped up "You mean he and Cardin knew each other before Beacon?"

"The very reason I've put up with him since we were both children." Dove rolled his eyes and checked his nails dismissively "I could probably name the big oaf's favorite foods, shows and women off the top of my head."

Jaune gave him a long look, "Childhood friends..." he almost couldn't believe it "But didn't you leave him be-?"

"So." Coco pushed past the rest of the group before getting into Dove's face "This is actually pretty lucky for me, since I've been looking into that fight of yours yesterday."

"Marvelous wasn't it?" Dove smirked "I wasn't quite fond of how Russel dealt with that delicious morsel on the board. Can't really put the moves on someone after a beat down like that."

"Speaking of Russel, Cardin was pretty evasive when I started asking about why he seemed so much more aggressive during the fight."

"Oh? Well why would you think I'd have more information than my team leader, they're partners you know?" Dove questioned

"Well if you're his old pal then surely-"

"Gonna stop you there." Dove raised a hand before turning away "Unless your next question is when, where and how long of a quickie you'd like to offer in exchange for that information, I'm not really interested."

Coco sighed as he walked away, "I don't know what I expected, but I should've expected it to piss me off."

"Hey!" Velvet shouted after him

Dove paused and smirked back at her as she stepped to Coco's side. She seemed to struggle for a moment to maintain her composure, during which Oobleck and Port finally announced the next rounds were about to begin.

"Don't..." Velvet paused to take a breath before growing a stern look "Don't talk about her like that!"

"Oh?" Dove raised an eyebrow "Has the rabbit found her feet?"

"She's-" Velvet shook her head "I won't allow you to stand there and talk down to-!"

"Coco," Dove diverted his attention to her "your Faunus is acting up, be a dear and train it better."

Coco saw it immediately, Velvet freezing up a bit, just enough for her best friend instincts to kick into overdrive and place a hand on her shoulder to steady her as she struggled to regain momentum. Before Coco could deliver a suitable counter to Dove's blatant insult, a grunt of effort from behind brought her attention to Neon and Nora, both of whom were being just barely held back by Ren and Flynt.

"Geez, don't let him get to you like this, girl." Flynt commanded as Neon flailed in his grasp

"I'm gonna kick him, Flynt! I'm gonna kick him in all the worst ways!"

"Pfft, only four buttons? Seriously?" Dove turned away again and continued walking off "Jeez, you people are making this too easy!"

He didn't get far before pausing at the sight of the screen projected above all of them.

"First we have: Russel Thresh and Dove Bronzewing!" Port declared

"Oh?" Weiss looked up "Will I be getting my wish sooner after all?"

And then their opponents were chosen, and Nora stopped struggling immediately before sporting a wide grin "I know I will~!"

"Pyrrha Nikos and Nora Valkyrie!"

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

Moments later found Pyrrha and Nora geared up and en route for the Arena, but they weren't alone. On one side Jaune was following them spouting game plans, but not far behind him was Coco.

"Okay, I know you wiped them out last time on your own Pyrrha," Jaune stated "but- And I'm not making light of your abilities here but-"

"Jaune, never once have I ever thought that a previously beaten opponent had zero chance of providing a threat." Pyrrha stated with a small smile "Even before the fight yesterday, I've always given my opponents a healthy amount of consideration."

"Not gonna be healthy for long!" Nora stated, marching angrily forwards "That twerp's gonna pay for talking to Velvet and Coco like that! And did you hear about how he talked about Flynt's dad!? Ooh he's gonna pray that I keep the breaking solely to the legs!"

"As much as I recognize how much of a dick Dove can be," Coco piped up before speeding up to walk beside them "I gotta ask that you guys focus on Russel more. At least when the fight starts."

"You've been asking quite a bit about him in particular." Pyrrha looked back to her

"Because the rest of his team have been acting really damn peculiar whenever he's brought up!" Coco insisted "I don't know."

They approached the end of the hall, outside of which the bare arena awaited them.

"Peculiar or not, he's not gonna stop me from beating some justice into Dove." Nora stated

"Well, Dove was always the most evasive of their team so managing to overwhelm him quickly and put him out of commission should make dealing with Russel easier." Jaune noted "Even if he was able to hold off half of Team ABRN, him against both of you at once wouldn't even be a contest."

"So we mess up Dove first, got it!" Nora cracked her neck with a giggle "Teach him to badmouth the gang!"

Coco frowned at that, only for Pyrrha to pause and give her a nod "I'll keep track of Russel the entire time, promise."

"Guess... that's really all I can ask for." Coco smirked "now go get 'em, Champ."

Pyrrha gave an awkward smile at that before following Nora out onto the Arena's massive stage, she paused as Jaune gave her a thumbs up before walking out to the cheers of the audience. In the very center of the arena Dove and Russel already waited, with Dove casually waving his sword around as Russel glared at their approach. Pyrrha focused on his arms, realizing that Coco had been right. She almost mistook them for elbow pads initially, but Russel was undoubtedly sporting a pair of bucklers on his arms.

From the moment they entered the Arena proper, his glare had been locked on them. Pyrrha narrowed her gaze a bit to match, but found she could not match the sheer intensity Russel was displaying. It was odd. She hadn't seen the video of their last battle that Coco kept referring to, yet the look she saw now matched what one would sport whilst pinning down an opponent and mercilessly slicing away their aura. What was he bitter about? She quickly discarded the idea that it was somehow left over from the last time she went up against his team, as even then he'd been far less concerned with it than Cardin was.

As she mulled it over, they finally came to a stop in the center of the arena, face to face with their opponents.

"Oh you have no idea how much I'm going to enjoy tossing you around like a rag doll, Dove!" Nora snickered "You're gonna be like 'Oh no!' and I'm gonna be all 'Oh Yes!' then you'll be like 'My limbs, I can't feel them!' and I'm gonna be like 'Darn right you can't!'"

As she went on, Dove tapped his sword to the ground before nodding "Probably, but I don't think you busting me up is gonna be enough to impress lover boy up there." he said whilst jerking a thumb back towards Ren in the stands.

"Ah-!" Nora went pink for a moment before stomping her foot on the ground angrily "How many times do I gotta say it!? We are not together-together!"

"So you're single then?" Dove asked, suddenly looking far more interested

"What?" Nora leaned back a bit before shaking her head "Don't you try to distract me, Bronzewing!"

"Why not? I'm plenty distracted already." he gestured to Pyrrha "Unlike the living trophy statue over there, I like my women to move around a bit more."

That continued as screens appeared above the arena, cycling through the potential environments they'd fight in.

Though she wanted to encourage Nora to not feed into Dove's obvious play at irritation, Pyrrha couldn't help trying to find something in Russel's spiteful gaze. After several more seconds of Nora trying to unsuccessfully counter Dove's insults, Pyrrha decided the straightforward approach would do.

"Russel, I hear something's been different about you recently." she began "I hope nothing bad has happened."

"Tch," Russel broke his glare to look towards the screens above them "don't pretend like you care. You people make me sick."

"Well," Pyrrha looked down for a moment "despite our adversity I hope you know that I'm sorry you feel that way. I may not approve of how you treat your fellow students, but at the end of the day we're all working towards a common goal: the protection of the people. We're all to be huntsmen."

"Oh and what a fine job of 'protecting' the huntsmen have done so far!" He bit at that, "Tell me, Little Miss Victory, how many awards and medals and goddamn trophies did you have to win before it wasn't enough?"

"I-Is that why you think I'm here?" Pyrrha's eyes widened, though she noted his increased aggression "I don't know what Cardin's told you but-"

"Cardin doesn't have to tell me shit, all of you don't know a damn thing about the people you preach on and on about, so the last thing I want to hear is a moral message from some walking advertisement." Russel spat before drawing his daggers as the cycling screens finally chose their environment.

Coco was right. Almost everyone gave Team CRDL a wide berth back before the Ursa Incident, but Pyrrha knew for a fact that Russel was nowhere near this openly spiteful.

Around the central platform of the arena, its four sides lowered away before four different environments rose in their place. Behind Dove and Russel were a desert and what looked like a broken down castle. Pyrrha looked back to see a fire biome and some geyser fields as their areas. Looking back to Russel, she adopted a stance before saying "Despite your obviously ill feelings towards me, I hope that our battle is still pleasant."

Russel returned to simply glaring as he too adopted a stance, crouching low until the tips of his blades touched the ground.

"Hmm?" Dove looked away from Nora and gave a curious glance around "Are we starting already?"

"Don't ignore me you jerk!" Nora shouted as Professor Oobleck began counting down.

"3!"

Dove glanced back to the ruined castle behind him and smirked.

"2!"

Nora furiously tapped the head of Magnhild against the ground in impatience "Come on, come on!"

"1!"

For a split second, Russel's gaze darted from Pyrrah to Dove, who gave a short nod as Oobleck shouted, "Begin!"

Pyrrha noticed both of them divert their attention at the last second. Dove whipped his sword towards her and fired as Russel turned and darted to intercept Nora, who had already leaped for Dove. Pyrrha brought up Akouo to intercept the bullets, trying to keep track of Russel as he ducked low. Dove jumped over him, continuously spraying fire at Pyrrha as Russel reared back and launched one dagger at Nora.

She spotted it in time and blocked it with Magnhild's handle, only to find the dagger frozen to said handle and rapidly glowing red. The dagger exploded, launching Nora back as Russel caught his blade out of the air and continued his pursuit.

Pyrrha lost track of them in the fire biome, as Dove was increasingly demanding her attention. Even while partially distracted, she deflected his onslaught of gunfire effectively, blocking some bullets and slicing others out of the air with Milo. Finally she turned back just as Dove leaped at her. She caught his sword on Milo before turning and whipping him towards one of the geysers. He oriented himself in the air immediately, landing on his feet and skidding to a stop mere millimeters from the geyser. He gave a sigh of relief before noticing Pyrrha lunging for him and slipping to the side while firing on her again.

In the stands, Ruby watched in disbelief "Whoa, I heard about it, but honestly I still expected it to be over by now." she looked to the side, "How about you Weiss?"

But her partner was staring down into the arena with confused intensity.

"Weiss?"

"Ruby," Weiss said slowly, keeping her eyes trained on the combatants, "is anything about this striking you as familiar?"

"Huh?"

"Just... keep looking." Weiss murmured "If you don't see it... Well, I could just be losing my mind."

Down below, Pyrrha found it harder and harder to land blows. Not for lack of trying, but Dove seemed to realize quick that he wasn't fully capable of breaking her guard. He switched to the defensive soon after, and Pyrrha found herself facing an issue she remembered well. Dove's ranged attacks might be child's play to dodge, but he was just so light on his feet that actually striking him while he was keeping his distance like this proved irritable.

Plus whenever she did manage to hit him, he'd just block with his sword and let himself get flung away. At first she figured this would open him up to follow-ups, but a small detail became blatantly apparent the more she managed to knock him off his feet. Every single time he was thrown, tripped or launched off the ground in any manner, he always landed in the exact same way.

"You..." she shook her head as she once more managed to swing Milo up into his sword, though he managed to block he was once more launched off the ground only to twist just a tiny bit and end up landing right on his feet and preparing to fire again "You always land on your feet."

Though he had his sword aimed at her, Dove sighed before lowering his blade just a bit as he casually kicked a nearby stone into another geyser "Don't remind me, it's perhaps the most anticlimactic semblance in all of history."

"It's your-?"

"Ironic, I know." He smirked before raising his sword again and firing.

"You're using up a lot of Aura focusing on evading me like that." Pyrrha stated as she darted to the side and reared back with Milo "Even if I can't properly hit you I'm still going to outlast you!"

Switching it to a spear, Pyrrha hurled Milo towards Dove with a blast propelling it faster. He lunged back as it embedded into the ground beside him, causing more steam to erupt from around it. Just as he landed, Pyrrha raced forward and pulled Milo out of the ground and spinning, sweeping his feet out from beneath him before he could land.

Dove rolled back before throwing himself onto his feet again, "What's the alternative?" he shrugged "Even with Cardin's training I can't realistically seeing myself winning against you one on one. So the best I can do here is waste your time."

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at that before noticing that he kept looking away from her. Taking a risk, she followed his gaze to their aura scores projected on a screen above. She couldn't blame him, that last strike was the first she'd actually managed to fully land on him. But looking over, she found the true meaning behind his words.

Nora's Aura was almost halfway gone.

In the Fire Biome, Nora lunged back out of the way of a streak of fire which sliced through the air. Russel bent low before burying his dagger back into a dust formation sprouting nearby. Pulling it out, the blade pulsed red as he raced towards her again.

She spun, swinging Magnhild at him, only for Russel to slip under it. She lunged out of the way as he swiped at her, bringing up Magnhild to block as he leaped at her. The moment his daggers came in contact with her weapon, however, a violent blast of red dust blew her guard wide open as she stumbled back.

Russel landed and twirled his daggers, but just when he raced forward to capitalize on her broken stance he heard Dove call out "Rus, Incoming!"

Russel's head twisted quickly to the side just as Milo flew at him. He quickly crossed his daggers to block the spear, which bounced off them and caused him to stagger a bit as it flew off and got stuck in a nearby rock.

Carefully deflecting Dove's rounds with her shield, Pyrrha drew closer to Nora and Russel while shouting "Nora, switch!"

Nora just finished shaking off that recent attack when she looked to Pyrrha and nodded before racing to meet her. Dove and Russel both moved to catch them, only for Nora to blast herself over Pyrrha and spin through the air before launching herself at Dove, who went wide eyed before throwing himself backwards as the impact of Magnhild hitting the ground launched a veritable tsunami of rock sailing around her.

Pyrrha focused on not letting Russel interrupt her, his attack patterns put Nora at a disadvantage. Russel obviously knew that, for the moment he noticed Nora putting pressure on Dove with her hammer's wide-arcing swings, he cursed before settling his gaze on Pyrrha and racing to meet her.

Yanking Milo from the rock as she darted by, Pyrrha held her shield before her whilst rearing back. Russel still kept close to the ground, bending low before ducking under Pyrhha's first strike and swiping at her back, only for her to turn on a dime and intercept his blades before kicking him back. He skidded to a stop before racing to meet her again, but just as Pyrrha turned to intercept him once more someone blasted her from behind and sent her sailing directly into Russel's knee.

So caught off guard by the sudden attack was she that she almost missed her footing, but still spun before swiping Russel away. With him momentarily recovering, she glanced back to deal with Dove and-

He wasn't there.

Pyrrha blinked, eyes scanning over the arena only to find that Nora had chased Dove into the desert zone. He was still trying to balance evading her swings and firing into her assault, not aided by the uneven sand beneath him. But there was no way he'd managed to fire those dust rounds which had thrown her off.

"Just as mortal as the rest of us."

Pyrrha had turned back to Russel, who crossed his daggers again, "Only so many eyes for Miss Invincible, eh?"

"Seems young Russel managed to get past Ms. Nikos's stalwart defense!" Port noted before giving a hum of thought "But how?"

"We aren't getting anything clear off the replay, Peter." Oobleck stated "Seems he's got some surprises for her, but could it possibly be enough to threaten her streak?"

"Hmph, we'll see."

Coco leaned forward in her seat. Her teammates took note of this immediately.

"Coco?" Velvet asked

"Just like with Arslan." Coco muttered as she focused on the fight. Despite Pyrrha's extreme ability to dodge and outmaneuver Russel's strikes, the moment she tried attacking dust blasts seemed to strike her from behind. It was exactly what members of Team ABRN said happened during the fight in the dust cloud. But, there wasn't any cloud this time. Even from this distance, Coco could tell right away that there was nobody on the battlefield capable of firing those rounds. Dove didn't even have them in his line of sight half of the time, what with how much work Nora was putting into chasing him around.

For a moment, Coco considered outside interference of some sort, but even that didn't add up, as the angle from which the dust blasts were hitting her didn't make sense. She looked away from the fight towards Cardin, who sat several rows away with his hands clenching the rail before him. Frowning, Coco looked to the screens above which showed off the fight. If she could just catch some kind of telling detail then... wait... those dust blasts...were they coming from below?

Wherever it was coming from, it was infuriating to Pyrrha, as there weren't even the sound of gunshots to signal them. They just seemed to happen, and every time they did Russel capitalized. Which meant he had to be doing it somehow. But how?

Before she could think too much on it, their fight was interrupted by Dove being slung right in between them. He once more managed to swing his feet downwards and land on them, though with a small stumble. Russel didn't even give him time to orient himself before scolding him, "Seriously, you let her hit you?"

"It was the sand!" Dove defended before glancing back to the aura levels shown above before groaning "Ugh, I told Cardin this wouldn't work!"

He turned and made a beeline for the broken castle.

"Wait!" Russel called out "Stick to the-!"

"Piss off, Rus!" Dove said as he leaped over a broken piece of gate and disappeared inside the building

"Get back here!" Nora shouted as she charged after him, blasting right through the gate in the progress.

Russel sighed before turning back to Pyrrha and lunging again. Weaving through his attacks once more, Pyrrha focused. If the source of the blasts wasn't external, he had to be throwing them somehow. The swinging daggers might've been hard to ignore, but she tried focusing on his limbs. Was he kicking them? Flicking them from his daggers using some kinda new dust or- wait.

Just as she was jabbing Milo through his most recent attack, she saw them, small holes on the bucklers. They opened and closed rapidly, but almost immediately Russel reared back before swiping again. Just as Pyrrha moved to block, she was blasted from behind towards him again. This time she used her semblance, subtly pulling her armor to help spin her along his strike and leap behind him.

He crossed his blades and swung back to block, stumbling as Pyrrha raced forward to catch Milo. She spotted the holes on his bucklers rapidly opening and closing again, but she still couldn't see what they were firing clearly. As she raced forward, she stomped especially hard sending out a small pulse with her semblance into the ground around her. There they were, slightly reacting to her pull. Small metallic objects were spread along the ground beneath her.

"Mines?" she muttered

Russel's eyes shot open before he threw himself back away from her "How?!"

She looked down once he was far enough away, were they camouflaged? No, no if she squinted she could see them. They looked exactly like regular bits of debris, there was no way to tell them apart from the rubble knocked around by their fighting.

"Did Cardin have those made for you?" Pyrrha asked, keeping her shield raised as Russel rolled his eyes "They're extremely subtle."

"No, you shouldn't have-!" Russel crossed his daggers as a red glow spread across them "Damn it!"

The holes on his bucklers opened as Russel leaped forward blades raised. She readied Milo to deflect when Russel spun forward far sooner than expected, he spun rapidly thanks to his semblance, the glowing blades outlining him as he descended towards her. Considering how he'd managed to blast Nora's guard open when using fire dust, Pyrrha chose lunging out of the way instead. But as he landed, he continued spinning, his daggers carving into the ground as he spun towards her. Pyrrha leaped to the side out of the way again as he curved to swerve back towards her.

She quickly sent out another pulse, noticing that he was leaving a trail of mines behind him as he went. But now that she had a way to accurately locate them, Pyrrha was far more confident in her ability to avoid them.

Inside the wrecked castle, Dove ascended a staircase as Nora burst through yet another hanging door. She looked up and spotted him just as he skidded to a stop as the staircase abruptly ended. Dove looked back to Nora as Magnhild shifted to its grenade launcher form. Seeing Nora take aim, Dove took a chance and leaped from the broken staircase as it exploded behind him. He sailed through a hole in the wall and landed atop a toppled bookcase in a library beyond. He stood tall and looked to a broken window, outside of which he could still see Pyrrha and Russel fighting in the center of the arena.

"Hm," he cupped a hand to his mouth and screamed loudly "Russel!"

Outside, Russel finally stopped spinning, sliding to a stop as Dove's voice echoed from within the broken castle. He looked back towards Pyrrha for a moment before spin-dashing towards the ruin. Seeing what they were trying to do, Pyrrha reared back with Akouo.

Before he could reach the castle's entrance, the shield went sailing into him from behind and swept his legs out from under him.

Looking up, Russel spotted Pyrrha diving towards him and rolled out of the way. Whilst picking up Akouo, Pyrrha made sure to plant herself between Russel and the castle.

Back inside, Dove kept watching them through broken window. Even with the split second he saw of them, it became extremely clear that Pyrrha was denying his teammate access.

Dove smirked at that before turning back to Nora, who climbed to the hole he'd flown through. She glared at him over several other bookcases which made up the ruined library, then hopped in whilst placing a foot on her hammer's head. Seeing what she was setting up for, he pointed his sword just as she blasted herself towards him. Angling her hilt to intercept any of his rounds which got too close.

By the time she took hold of the hilt with both hands, Dove was already diving away from the bookcase. She spun Magnhild in a massive arc before slamming it straight through the center of the bookcase. Magnhild's sheer force tore through the entire bookcase straight to the floor.

As the bookcase fell apart around her, Nora hefted her weapon and stood tall before whilst trying to find where Dove had thrown himself.

She didn't have to look for long.

Nora blinked, rubbing at her eyes whilst trying to confirm what she was seeing. On the other side of the bookcase she'd just destroyed, Dove was standing on yet another old looking bookcase. Perhaps the better term would be that he was standing against it? His feet were planted against the front of the bookcase, yet he was standing up from it as if the concept of gravity had no sway.

Dove looked at her as he backed up, being careful not to let his feet slide into the empty shelves as he ascended the bookcase. Only once he was near the top did he nod to himself and point his sword once again.

Nora shook off her surprise and lunged forward, dodging bullets before leaping towards Dove. He stepped to the side as she buried her hammer into the bookcase, lunging forward to roll over her before landing on the other side of her and swiping back.

Nora used the momentum of his strike to tear her hammer out of the bookcase and swing it back around to him. He leaped backwards off the bookcase before once more landing on the side of another. She launched herself to the ground, narrowing her gaze at Dove before turning her attention to the remaining bookcases.

It doesn't matter how he did it, whether a semblance or something to do with his shoes, she just needed to limit what he could jump to. So when Dove aimed at her again, his sword lowered as he watched her switch Magnhild back to its grenade launcher form. He leaped to the side of the next bookcase as the one he previously stood along was peppered with explosions. Nora followed Dove as he fled, destroying one bookcase after another while leaning out of the way of his returning fire.

Pyrrha glanced back towards the castle as the sound of explosions inside grew, but her attention was brought back to Russel. They'd fought along the perimeter of most of the castle, with Pyrrha doing her best to give Nora the time she'd need to finally bring down Dove. It also happened to give her a chance to wear down Russel, who was using a considerable amount of Aura to try and get in. Keeping track of the mines, his blades, and him was difficult, but she' used her semblance to keep track of multiple opponents before. The major difference being that she had to keep track of numerous tiny explosives, which was considerably harder to focus on than armored enemies.

She stayed defensive, keeping herself between him and the building at all times. Given how fast he was, if she attacked too recklessly there was a chance that he'd slip by her. To this end, the two had worked their way around the building, mostly consisting of Pyrrha forcing him back whenever he dove for an opening.

Finally, they found themselves back at the castle's main entrance in approximately the same position, although Russel looked far more agitated.

Pyrrha glanced at the aura levels, sure that if Nora was able to just hit Dove was one more time then the two would be able to focus on Russel. But as she looked back to him, she raised an eyebrow as she watched him flip one of his daggers around and raise his thumb.

Prepared for anything, she raised Akouo and sent out another wave of magnetism to check if he'd managed to lace anymore mines around her. None around them, but...

She glanced back to the building, feeling the pull of the tiny explosives coming from there instead. Hadn't he detonated all of those trying to get past her? No, if there were still enough of them attached to the outer walls, then-

Inside, Nora took a deep breath whilst swiping some destroyed wood away from her face. After reducing every piece of furniture he could use to dodge to rubble, she found Dove standing on the ceiling, also giving a few pants given how fast he'd had to move to avoid getting caught up in her barrage.

"Get down here and fight me already!" She yelled up to him

"How about No?" He offered with a smug look whilst sauntering along the ceiling "I'm fairly content with keeping nice and safe over-"

He didn't get to finish as numerous explosions rocked the building. The fact that they weren't coming from Nora made both of them pause.

Seconds later their surroundings caved in around them.

"Nora!" Pyrrha called out as she watched the entire Castle topple to pieces with her teammate inside. The moment was punctuated by two simultaneous buzzer sounds.

"My word!" Port sat up in his seat "Ladies and gentleman, with a decisive blow half of the combatants have just been eliminated!"

"Though it's still hard to tell how he's causing those explosives," Oobleck hummed "it seems like Russel's sacrificed his teammate to take care of Ms. Valkyrie as well."

"But..." Ruby looked on, raising an eyebrow "Why would he do that?"

Though she was asking that more to herself than anyone, a sigh to her side brought her attention back to Weiss.

"Surely this is familiar, even a little similar?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow before her turning her attention away. It was then Ruby noticed Ren out of his seat, leaning forward whilst eyeing the ruined castle with concern. Jaune patted him on the shoulder, "She's okay, this is Nora we're talking about. Couple cookies and a back rub and she'll be up and at 'em in no time!"

Down below, Pyrrha was trying to remind herself of that as well. She'd personally seen Nora survive far worst than a collapsed building, but she still needed to be snapped out of her stupor by a low growl. She turned back to Russel, who was glaring out of the Arena towards Cardin. Even from their position, she could tell that Cardin did not seem pleased.

"You buried them." she said, gaining Russel's attention once more "If you had just worked together-"

"Shut up! Only thing that matters is who walks out." he snapped back to her as he crossed his blades in front of him "We fighting or what, trophy girl?"

Pyrrha barely raise her shield as he leaped towards her again, slashing against Akouo and forcing her back a bit before leaping into another semblance powered spin. Pyrrha readied to intercept it when she noticed the red glow and leaped to the side at the last second. Sending out another pulse as she landed, she continued sliding out of the way of several more explosions.

One of Russel's daggers sailed towards her and froze itself to Akouo once she blocked it. Russel dashed in with his other dagger, but Pyrrha was ready to deflect it with Milo. Russel wasted no time in taking hold of his frozen dagger and using it to yank Akouo out of the way as he reared back with his other blade. Pyrrha twirled Milo into its shortened form, pausing only when she saw the incoming blade flash red. Narrowing her gaze, she once more relied on her semblance, subtly pulling the incoming dagger off its mark. With that she was easily able to reach past his weapon and whip Milo along his hand instead.

It was as he reared back that Pyrrha managed to wrench Akouo back out of his grasp before sending it sailing directly into his gut. Russel was launched back from the impact, his frozen dagger snapping off and clattering to the ground beside him.

"Miss Nikos's defense holds true!" Port called out

"Russel's been throwing everything he has at her, but there's still time for him to find an entrance." Oobleck noted as Russel pushed himself back up "His Aura's looking low, but he's lasted this long."

That was a fact Pyrrha wouldn't allow herself to overlook. Even with all of the strange additions to his arsenal, Russel was still making her depend on her semblance more than she usually did. Even after figuring out his weaponry, he was still moving in difficult ways to fully plan around. She kept her guard up as he retrieved his blade and shook off his daze.

She wouldn't take any chances, steeling her stance as his low grumbling returned. He lunged forth and released yet another flurry of slashes, which Pyrrha was more than capable of deflecting rapidly with Milo and Akouo. She looked for an opening, keeping her legs tense in case he released any more mines. She saw it, he leaned forward too much when blocking against Milos, if she could just-

Russel lurched forward and caught Milos in his teeth.

"What is he doing?!" Port cried

He wasn't the only one with that sentiment, as Ruby could clearly hear Cardin shout nearly the exact same thing as Sky struggled to keep him in his seat.

Whether his plan was somehow to restrict her use of Milos or simply catch her off guard, it worked. As in that single moment Pyrrha was too flabbergasted to notice his leg rearing back until his knee came sailing towards her. With both of her arms busy holding his weaponry back, she managed to bring up her own knee to intercept his before it gained too much momentum.

Both of them stumbled away, with Pyrrha growing more confused by the second "Russel, what is this? You weren't like this-"

"Stop talking!" Russel barked as he flipped one dagger before spinning it towards her. She deflected it with Milo only for the dagger to freeze to it before pulsating red. She immediately switched Milo to its spear form before lobbing it at Russel, who ran past the incoming weapon and diving at her as they exploded. Pyrrha brought up Akouo and dove back out of the way of his other dagger before reaching towards her spear. She couldn't pull it to her before he twisted his remaining dagger and jabbed it towards her, forcing her to pull Akouo between them.

As she expected, the same thing occurred, and she sent her shield and the dagger stuck to it sailing away before that blade exploded as well. Russel's fist came flying up at her before she could make a move for either of her weapons, instead leading her to dodge two more jabs as he seemed to resort to bare-knuckle brawling.

His third strike was merely a feint, as he instead charge into her again. Pyrrha took hold of his shoulders and sent him rolling away before he could get a good hit in.

"Why... won't... you just..." he rose again and raised both his arms "fall already?!"

Pyrrha reached back towards Akouo as Russel activated his semblance. He spun towards her, forcing her to slide out of his way as she kept track of the mines he was launching. She spun and knelt as Akouo returned to her, using it to shield herself from the very edge of the following explosions. Once they finished, she looked up to see that Russel had taken the time to recover one of his daggers. She blocked once more with Akouo, only to find him freezing his blade to her shield, and readied herself to throw it a she reached back towards Milo with her other hand.

But when she moved to throw her shield, she found that Russel had also frozen his hand to keep it in place.

Pyrrha wasn't about to allow him to put whatever plan he was concocting into motion, and swiftly kicked out one of his legs as she felt around with her semblance for Milo. But she immediately stopped once she realized he was still dropping the mines at their feet.

"No more running!" he shouted as he dragged himself back onto her shield by his frozen dagger

"Your aura won't hold!"

"Quiet!" Russel barked as he raised his thumb again

Pyrrha didn't have much time, she didn't know what the exact delay of his explosives were, but she wasn't about to allow him to hurt himself just to win an event. She loosened her hold on her shield as she focused on her semblance, placing a foot against the back of Akouo just before the explosions began.

From the audience's perspective, all they could see was the initial blast sending both of the contestants skidding away from each other into different zones, followed by an elimination buzzer which had many immediately glancing towards the aura monitors.

Pyrrha rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself up to check as well, finding relief when she found that Russel still had some of his left.

"After a strikingly tense bout, ladies and gentlemen," Oobleck stated "Pyrrha Nikos continues her victorious streak through the ranks!"

That was when the applause began, and Pyrrha let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding for a while. That last blast was easily the one of the hardest hits she'd had to take in a while, but it wasn't nearly enough to get her Aura down past Russel, even without her shield.

She stood and walked over to a grumbling Russel, who tossed Akouo away before slamming a fist against the ground.

"You were impressive out there, Russel." she stated as she came to a stop "You've come a long way since the last time we've fought."

He glared back at her for a moment before pushing himself to his feet, "Still gonna try and take the high road..." he shook his head before mumbling under his breath "...all useless."

"I'm being serious, Congratulations." she said with a sigh, knowing full well he wouldn't take it.

Before he could downplay her compliment again, a cry brought both of their attention back to the collapsed castle as several Atlesian soldiers and a AK unit were lifting a shattered piece of roof. Dove had yanked himself out with a loud gasp, frantically waving for the Atlesians "She's got my leg, get her off!"

As he struggled out of the wreckage some more, Pyrrha had to cover her mouth at the sight of an unconscious Nora trapping his leg in a bear hug.

"She's cutting off circulation, damn it!" he shouted to the nearest soldier.

"I do believe she mentioned something like that?" Pyrrha called out to him "Right Russ-?"

She found that Russel had used that time to take his leave.

Up in the stands, Ren released a quiet sigh of relief before being nudged by Jaune "Come on, we both know you'll probably have an easier time waking her up than anyone."

As Jaune stood and made his way by, Ren simply nodded "I may have some experience."

As they left, Ruby slowly turned to Weiss, who raised an eyebrow at her "See what I mean, now?"

"I mean, I do get that he was fighting way more ferociously." Ruby admitted "But you're saying it was similar to the Uruks, right?"

Weiss nodded, causing Ruby to scratch her head.

"But that doesn't make sense, team CRDL's never fought them so... how exactly would they've been able to-"

"Let's find out, hm?" Weiss asked while nodding towards Cardin, who was now standing out of his seat and yelling something to Sky.

Sky rushed off as Cardin turned and walked the other way. Ruby only watched him for a moment before Weiss stood up and began following him.

Cardin made his way towards the Colosseum's docking bays, a hand pressed to his head the entire time.

"Hey Cardin?" Ruby called out to him, causing him to look back at them before narrowing his eyes.

"Oh," he rolled his eyes before turning to face them "you guys here to rub my face in it?"

"As enjoyable as that might be," Weiss admitted before waving the allegation off "I'd rather know why you had Russel out there fighting like an Uruk."

He folded his arms before shaking his head "Heh, knew you guys would probably notice."

"So it's true?" Ruby asked with wide eyes before holding her hands out before her "But how? You guys never fought them so... maybe on the news reports? But that wouldn't give you enough to wind up like that!"

"You'd need compiled records from at least one battle with extensive details on their movements and mannerisms." Weiss noted before stepping closer "Given that most huntsmen and military personnel have basically been at war with them even before they went public, I'd say there's plenty of candidates who you could've gotten intel from."

"But you're probably gonna guess that Atlas put us up to it, right?" Cardin raised an eyebrow

"You're being surprisingly forward, yes."

"What?" Ruby looked to her partner "Weiss, why would Atlas ask students from another school to try out Uruk tactics? If they wanted to see how it worked for them they could have their own soldiers practice."

"It's more than just moves, kid." Cardin spat "They asked us for... well... Russel was..."

He went silent for a moment, trailing off as he looked away.

Ruby tried to follow his gaze, but it looked like he was just staring at nothing "Cardin?"

His eyes snapped back to her and his frown deepened "Look, we were asked to help test out a theory. Looks like it went tits up and didn't work. You want more than that you can bother someone else, we're disqualified."

"Was that why you guys did so well?" Weiss asked "Was imitating the Uruks really supposed to help you-?"

"Don't you dare try to downplay how much fucking work we were doing for the past few months!" Cardin snapped "This thing with Russel kinda just fell on us, okay? But don't assume we'd bank on a bunch of bloodthirsty assholes to win a tournament."

"What do you mean it just fell on you?" Ruby stepped forward before adopting a thoughtful expression "I mean, what changed with him?"

Cardin scoffed and he turned away just as an Airbus was docking "I don't want to talk about that, the guy went through a lot to get here." Cardin started walking towards it "Now that it's all gone to waste the least he deserves is some downtime... finally."

---

Vale Wilderness

"How many?"

Adam stared at the scroll lying on the table before him, his hand tightening into a fist before he replied "Seven in total, their clothing didn't match up with anything the Warchiefs have so we can only assume they were remnants of the Chiefless."

"I see," the unpleasantly collected voice from the scroll replied "and how many were lost in the altercation?"

"Four casualties with three dead and one critically wounded, had most of his leg hacked off before-"

"Adam."

He stopped talking, merely waiting until the voice continues.

"Did any of them get away?"

"No, the survivors confirm that all seven Uruks were killed in the fight."

"Then nothing was lost, and your chance to show the world the power of the Faunus continues to draw closer."

Adam looked to his sides, where two other members of the White Fang flanked him, one with his arm in a cast.

"I must once again recommend that we postpone the attack, as long as that one Warchief is even somewhat capable of clairvoyance then something of this scale-"

"Could not be intruded upon until it's already too late, correct?" the voice interrupted "I understand your hesitation, Adam. Having such brutality inflicted upon your people while your hands are needed in Vale must be extremely unpleasant. But once Beacon is in our hands, you may enact your vengeance in full force."

"You cannot rely on Atlesian toys to hold them off long enough." Adam insisted " With how things will unfold there's ample opportunity to-"

"Adam, this same conversation has repeated how many times now?"

He went silent at that, taking a single long breath as he lowered his hands "Thirty-six, by my count."

"And how many times have we reached the same conclusion?"

"I would not continue to bring it up if-"

"I'm aware, Adam. I'm also aware that you will fulfill your part of our plan regardless of these talks."

The massive Faunus with the cast stepped forward, words already on the tip of his tongue when Adam raised a hand in front of him. He snapped his mouth shut as Adam once more returned his hand to the table.

"As you wish." Adam stated "We will inform you when the rest of our forces are prepared."

"...perfect."

The moment the call ended, the other faunus placed a hand to her head as the one in the cast finally let his growl be heard.

"Before you say anything-" Adam began

"Those monsters are literally gnawing at our toes!" the wounded faunus screamed "Sneaking in trying to take supplies, spying on us!"

"I keep telling you, Lieutenant, there's no evidence that they've taken a thing. They're violent, but the ones hiding in these woods are mostly chiefless."

"And what about the ones who've been spying?" the girl finally spoke, panic coursing through every word she spoke "I can smell them, sir. They've been in our camps, snooped through our possessions, felt us in our sleep!"

"You're panicking, Caras." Adam stated "Even if any of the factions we know of had the capability to sneak close to us, the idea that not a single one of our hundreds of brothers and sisters could notice a thing is absurd."

"But I smell them!"

"You've seen the brutality they can unleash on the unprepared, seen the bodies and met their blades." Adam approached and placed his free hand on her shoulder before gripping hard "You need to get a grip, we all need each other focused if we're to weather the coming days."

"Why can't we just leave?" the Lieutenant asked, gesturing with his free hand "You've said over and over that their intervention during the attack is inevitable. If those filthy humans can't even understand that then why not let them get themselves killed?"

Adam turned to look at him, saying nothing for a moment.

"Look, we all know what they did to Outpost-C." the Lieutenant continued "We know that fighting them could lead to more of us dying than you're willing to allow, but we have a window of opportunity." he walked to one of the tent's walls where a map hung "If we ready the ships for escape rather than attack we could have all of us far away from this clusterfuck before they even know it. They can deal with their mess and we don't have to get stuck in a two front battle!"

"That is a fairly well-thought idea." Adam admitted as he allowed Caras to step back.

"Then why don't we-"

"In the short term." Adam finished, much to his underling's dismay

"What?"

"The problem our 'friends' currently face is that they seem to believe the Uruks are merely a third party who's arrived too late to interfere with a plan as choreographed as theirs." Adam approached the map as well "So driven towards completing their master's will that they've acquired tunnel-vision. Whatever mishap occurs during the attack will be more than enough to correct such ideals. At least, if the Uruks act how I believe they will."

"But I don't get it," the Lieutenant balled up his good fist "why do we need them!?"

"Perhaps if you'd have offered such a plan before the Uruks had become a problem I would've set such mechanisms in motion." Adam admitted "But saving ourselves the trouble now would bring it to us twofold down the line."

He turned to the Lieutenant "We've become integral to their scheme, if we were to pull out now they'd be able to shift blame for any inconvenience to us."

"Hopefully they'll get themselves killed during the battle, then." the Lieutenant offered

"We'll still have their associates to contend with, and with the Uruks growing more bold those associates are becoming more necessary as allies." Adam looked to the map "We'll minimize risk as much as we can, but we shall play along to their plans. And when those plans go awry, they'll have nobody to blame but their own incompetence."

He turned and made his way to the tent's entrance "And when they learn from that incompetence, they'll be far more prepared when these monsters make a play again."

"Do we really need them to fight back?" the Lieutenant asked "Even if these damned things are more than just a third party to contend with, are they really so much of a threat that we can't fight them on our own?"

Adam paused and looked back to the Lieutenant before evenly stating, "Yes... the threat they bring to the table is one I don't believe anyone on Remnant could handle right now."

---

Pug-Bringer Studios

"How exactly... is this supposed to help?"

Militia smirked at the question before looking from her sibling to the miserable looking faunus sitting face down at the table between them "What are you talking about, sis? Whenever I'm pissy a good meal always cheers me up."

Bebe released a low moan into the table she was sitting at. It didn't match the decor of the former club, having no doubt been purchased on sale. It had been dragged next to the side of the dance floor.

"Aw, there there buddy." Krimp stood behind Bebe's chair and patted her on the shoulder "We's gonna get you all fixed up, then you don't got's to worry about nothing!"

Melanie narrowed her eyes at her sister "Let me change the question then. What are you getting out of this?"

Militia placed a hand on her hip "What? Can't believe your own flesh and blood could take the time to help-"

"Don't finish that question, because no." Melanie folded her arms "I don't believe it and I know you damn well wouldn't do something out of charity."

Militia shrugged with a smile before leaning against a nearby wall "I'm just sick of hearing her bitch and moan. Before you guys sent her to her brother she at least knew to be quiet about how shit her life was. Now whenever the music isn't playing it's 'What was I even fighting for' this and 'Did anything I even knew exist?' that. It's a pain in the ass, seriously."

"But it's all true!" Bebe suddenly shot up before clenching her head in her hands "I ruined everything, should've just ran after them back in the forest. Wouldn't have had to get dragged through so much-"

"Ugh, this is what I'm talking about!" Militia stepped over and slammed her hands on the table, startling Bebe out of her rant "You've got too much free time to be complaining so loudly."

"Free time?" Bebe whimpered before pointing to herself "I'm being held captive!"

"And who's fault is that?"

"Theirs!" Bebe's finger shot to the nearest Uruk, which just so happened to be Krimp. He gave her another polite pat on the back.

"So you want to feed her to get her to shut up?" Melanie shook her head "No, that's still too charitable for you."

"Not if the chef of the evening happens to be one of our charges, right?" Militia offered with another smirk

"Wait what?"

Militia didn't have time to snicker at her sister's startled reaction as a nearby door was thrown open and Borgu stepped out. Still in his Rolo getup, Melanie expected Zog to come out next in his stupid semi-clown apparel. What she wasn't ready for was the tray he wheeled out with a single skewer sticking up from it. On said skewer was a cooked rat impaled right through it.

"Meal's ready," Zog grumbled as he wheeled it over to them "Just so you know, my character's not supposed to be much of a cook. So having me do it still don't sit right."

"What? You want Rolo to prepare it?" Borgu offered "I'm supposed to be the intelligent sort in our duo."

"Dude," Militia laughed as she stepped around the tray observing the cooked rat "I knew it would be bad but this is impressive."

"Your aptitude for cruelty continues to amaze me," Melanie sighed "though not in a good way, sis."

Bebe stared wide eyed at her intended 'meal', before her eyes quickly darted from it to Militia "I'm not eating that! You-I- why would you-!"

"Simple, the only way to get someone to stop complaining about something is to give them something else to complain about." Militia pointed out "Plus, I really just want to see you eat a rat, pay me back for having to listen to your bullshit."

"What you even talkin' about?" Zog grumbled before gripping the skewer and pulling it and the rat from the tray "This bastard's been cooked to perfection. She should be grateful I ain't eatin' it myself. But I gotta keep to a certain diet, nothing but fancy foods an excess for us!"

He then stabbed the skewer into the table in front of Bebe, then stood back and folded his arms. The sight of it nearly brought her to tears, but then the scent of it reached her nose and her words died in her throat.

"Why is it that ever since we got this gig you've been finding more and more ways to be a bitch?" Melanie asked as she moved around the table to her sister

"I'm pretty sure that just comes with the bigger budget." Militia thought for a moment "Like, I feel as though the hierarchy of people who's shit I have to put up with has significantly changed ever since we started making more money... it's a nice feeling."

Melanie was about to continue lampooning Militia when the sounds of meat tearing brought both of their attention to Bebe, who was already half-way through the cooked rat. She'd completely gotten over the immense hesitation she'd shown seconds earlier, now biting chunks of the cooked animal with fervor. She closed her eyes and savored every bite, opening them to find the twins staring holes into her. Bebe immediately looked away, only slowing down a bit as she continued her meal.

Melanie tilted her head with a sickened expression "What is she-?"

"HA!" Zog interrupted with a laugh "And you doubted the prowess of the flames!"

"I thought you couldn't cook!" Militia asked

"Nobody can cook, it's all in the flame, lassie." he stated with certainty "Old boss always had me tossing our catches in it whenever Ashgarn came around."

"You just tossed it in?" Melanie was not convinced, and quickly reached over to pinch a bit of meat off of the rat, much to Bebe's dissatisfaction. She examined the piece of meat for a moment before hesitantly taking a bite, the moment said food touched her mouth, she went wide eyed and gripped her sibling's shoulder.

"What?" Militia turned to find another piece being held before her, she immediately narrowed her eyes "No way, curiosity's not enough to make me-"

Melanie stuffed it into her mouth mid-sentence. Though Militia shoved her away and went to spit it out, she paused as the taste registered. She glared at Zog, who folded his arms with a smug expression showing through his clown make-up.

"I taste seasoning," she stated

Zog rolled his eyes "Ugh, why you tarks gotta complicate cookin'?" he asked before raising a finger "A good fire's more than capable of taking care of everything, just gotta throw it in then take it out. That flavor you's tasting is the smoke, you just time it well and-"

"How the hell do you get quality like this just by throwing it in!?" Militia demanded "It's not even overdone or anything!"

"I'm sayin' ya just time it and the fire takes care of the rest!"

Melanie watched as the two continued arguing over his cooking capability, "Hm, never would've guessed he could cook."

"Ain't it surprising?" Krimp noted with a chuckle "He ain't nothin' like Zog."

Melanie caught that wording and raised an eyebrow "What do you mean by that? Another one of you running around named Zog?"

"Oh, well probably. There's lot's o' us and only so many names." he pointed out with a chuckle "I know a few Krimps myself! But it ain't good form to refer to 'em by name less they's got some kind of reputation."

Bebe tried to focus on her surprisingly good pity meal, but found herself drawn to the information Krimp was giving "W-what do you mean?"

"Just for convenience, I mean." he explained while patting the back of her chair "The lads sometimes say it's bad luck to refer to some regular grunt by name, especially if a superior has the same one. We's already competitive enough, don't need friends killing each other over who deserves their name. But I was referring more to a much more famous Uruk, he's kinda the reason not many Zogs take that name no more."

Krimp walked around the table and smiled to the two of them before tapping the skewer Bebe was eating from "Zog the Eternal, pretty big in the Mystic tribe. He's lived for a while, most Uruks with his kind of fame sort of lay claim to their titles. Haven't seen any traces of him getting caught up in our little accident, but I know he'd love it here!"

"So... was he a claimant too?"

"Fits the criteria, but he was pretty loyal last time I checked. Been a while since we left though, maybe he's gone and raised an army while we was gone." Krimp cooed as he clapped his hands together "I can just see it now! Riding against his former allies on an army of the dead!"

"What?" Melanie raised an eyebrow

"Yeah! He's a mystic who's real good at raising stuff from beyond, pretty sure that's where he got the Eternal gig from." Krimp nodded before tutting "Real shame stuff like that's why mystics always gettin' suspected and whatnot. If all of us used a bit more mysticism I guarantee that we'd be five times more effective! Like, if Warmongers applied more curses, or if the Beastmasters could catch their beasts easier using some mind mumbo jumbo-"

"Krimp," Bebe interrupted without looking up from the remains of the cooked rat "what exactly does Pugrish do? I mean, would your kind of sorcery even work here?"

The Uruk went silent at that, raising a finger to his chin and humming "Dunno, them wacky gates seem to work here so I'm sure a real brainy type could get other stuff to work too. And Pug's one o' the brainiest! But... Pug's rituals are supposed to be good for changing weather. Like, he can tell when a big old storm's about to roll in. Makes it easy for his boys to plan around em', some say he's got some tricks that can bring snow or floods! Better watch out if the clouds come rollin' in!"

"So you're saying that this guy... one guy... Could just decide to call in floods?" Melanie leaned back "How? I know that where you guys are from all this magic and wizardry stuff is supposed to be pretty natural, but I'm gonna need something more than 'ooh~ rituals~'!"

"But it really is just rituals..." Krimp mumbled before looking away "I mean I've never seen him do it, maybe he's just real good at predicting the weather. Could be he's just using that as a cover for some super secret power that he don't want anyone else guessing, right Bebe?"

When he didn't receive an answer, Krimp looked down to find Bebe gripping the table harshly as she trembled.

"Bebe?" he asked again with a look of confusion

"Krimp, if I do get outta here." she mumbled "Who would I even go to with this? The Fang probably thinks I went AWOL, my ties with them will probably erode any opportunities with the government... somebody has to know about him."

She looked back at him "If everybody keeps fighting like they are, letting him and his Storm guys act out of sight, what would happen?"

Krimp smiled at that "Oh? Asking for predictions, are we?"

"He's your friend, apparently! You should at least be able to guess!" she insisted

"Well then that just depends on what'll entertain him most!" Krimp declared proudly before a raising a finger "Like I said, he's been more rearing to go than I've ever seen him before. Only times he was like this back in Mordor was when someone was getting real close to killing him. I'd say he'd just make a scenario where he gets to fight as many tough folk as possible."

"And that scenario would be-?" Melanie trailed off as Krimp leaned close

"Hey, it's your world which was teeterin' on the edge of war before we even got's here." Krimp stated with a grin "How's about you tell me?"

---

Hork's Tower

Tugog watched out the window as several rather large carts were raised up the side of the crevice, several Uruks urging on slaves who struggled with the thick chains holding them up. Those carts were for the Garrison to use on their expedition, some empty and some full of tools and dried meat. They were to depart later in the day, just as the sun began to set, using the shade of night to get a good start before the sun could bear down on them on the morrow. Who would complete their task first? The Storm had remained tight lipped on their efforts to accumulate dust, so it could be anyone's guess.

As Tugog watched the Garrison prepare, behind him kneeled Ishga, who listed the many odd occurrences the Storm's researchers had been involved with since they'd come to the Tower.

"And then their survey," he continued "the group moving with Naruk has been spotted running some sort of tests on the ground. It could be that they're checking structural integrity of the area, but if they are then we may need to be wary of explosives."

"Oh?"

Ishga's report halted as he glared back at Skak, who was back near the door listening to his Axe once again "Blood-Axe says that they could be usin' Grimm for that too!"

"Excuse me?" Ishga scowled

"Well I know they can't really control the things, but Blood-Axe says if they can lure them or somethin' then they don't have to worry about hiding explosives or nothing."

"We can only hope, at least if they try luring subterranean Grimm nearby we'd be able to hear and react quickly. We got hundreds of our brothers eating, sleeping and fighting down in that canyon, there'd be no way for them to mask the noise."

"And you're sure that they're testing for some manner of ill-intent?" Tugog looked back at them

"Master, I know that we should be uniting in these times, but Uruks should never be given the benefit of the doubt regardless of service or sayings." Ishga stated while bowing his head towards his Warchief "Even if it's just in the Storm's nature to be secretive, they've still yet to earn the benefit of the doubt."

"Correct," Tugog sighed before turning his attention back out the window "Perhaps if we had been more prepared to suspect in the beginning, if I hadn't been so willing to grasp at straws, we could be able to respond differently."

There was something there that made Ishga raise his head "Sir... what do you mean by that?"

Tugog shook his head before looking back with a grumble "I let them in too hastily, gave them a way in because of how useful they could be... now its-"

"No," Ishga interrupted him "you just said that we aren't able to respond differently... why?"

Tugog blinked at that, the Warchief's eyes widening a bit as he realized he'd let loose a slip of the tongue. Ishga stared him down as he stood up, his own frown deepening until a sudden realization hit him.

"You've already seen it." he muttered, loud enough for Skak to hear

Skak tilted his head "He what?"

Ishga stepped forward "You told everyone that you couldn't figure out what those visions mean, about the puppet and Vale and the sick flame. But you ain't acting like you don't know. In fact, come to think of it. Seems more like you know exactly what's gonna happen."

The low glare his master gave him emboldened Ishga's resolve, there were so many time since that vision which he remembered him speaking oddly. More than usual, more than could be reasonably expected. For some of those talks it almost seemed like he was in pain.

"What?" Skak seemed a bit lost, and only after a quick listen to his weapon did he manage to catch up "Well whats gonna happen then?"

Tugog remained silent.

"Master, you can't just keep information like this from us." Ishga growled "I put my faith in your sight before, none of it could be too much to believe. I'm sure that we could stop it-"

"You think I'm not trying?!" Tugog interrupted suddenly, clenching his free hand as his grip on his staff tightened "That I haven't been searching for a way to maneuver out of this?!"

Ishga hesitated "Master?"

"If I could just tell everyone then none of this would be a problem!" Tugog pointed at him "You're right... Hork was right, this lands allowed me to see far beyond my previous scopes. I've seen just about everything about this impending scenario!"

"That far ahead?" Skak raised an eyebrow "You know if Blood Axe ever gets that Bird Hybrid Soup I been meaning to get him?"

"What does that matter?" Tugog groaned as he turned away and braced himself near the window as he pulled off his helmet and wiped at the heavy sheen of sweat which had formed on his brow "What does having such sight matter if I can see everything but the solution? I've tried dreaming up methods, dreaming up choices, all of them lead to the same conclusion."

Ishga stepped forward "Then-!"

"You cannot aid me in this," Tugog stated with a low growl "I've seen how you've reacted every time I tried. I can assure you that satisfying your curiosity will only bring your end ever so closer."

"Wait, that why you being so tight lipped?" Skak grumbled as he leaned his weapon along his shoulder "Come on boss, your thingamajig has been finicky in the past, just cause it says tellin' us makes things go worst don't mean that's gotta be certain, right Ishga?"

When he didn't get a response, Skak turned to his partner to find Ishga's fists trembling, whether from anger or shame he did not know.

"Very well, Master." Ishga conceded "If that's what you've foreseen then I've no choice but to trust it. But if learning from you is what brings me to ruin, then I'll just have to find the answers myself."

With that he turned and left, with Skak watching him for a moment until his weapon drew his attention once more.

"Hey boss?"

Tugog looked back at Skak, who pointed to his Axe with a look of curiosity "Blood-Axe wants to know if you've foreseen this too. Ya know, Ishga figuring you out and trying to push ya for answers and all that."

Tugog's lips tightened before he turned back towards the window wordlessly.

Skak eventually shrugged "Whatever, I guess he'll find out eventually." he brought his axe close to his ear with a smile as he started following after his partner "Ain't that right buddy?"

---

Beacon Academy

Weiss stared down at the piece of meat on the stick in her hand, her eyes and nose telling her two completely different things. She deliberated which one to trust when she became distinctly aware of Ruby's hair entering the corner of her vision. Her eyes traveled to her partner's, and the two stared at each other for a moment until Weiss finally asked "Can I help you?"

"You've been staring at that for almost five minutes now Weiss." Ruby pointed out "Aren't you gonna eat it?"

Weiss returned her gaze to it, "I'm considering it. Though I'll admit its smell is giving me reservations."

"That's because you aren't eating it!" Ruby exclaimed "Your supposed to pop the whole thing into your mouth and chew it quickly before it starts getting cold. If you let the smell drive you away then its gonna go bad!"

"Ah, you seem to know quite a lot about Mistrallian food for someone I need to keep helping study for our culture classes." Weiss sighed before doing as she was told and finally eating it. Though she tried to hide it, Ruby held back a little snicker at the pleased sigh her teammate released.

"I take it it was good." Ruby cooed

"It was satisfying." Weiss stated as she looked around "What isn't is your friend's timing."

Having made their way to the fairgrounds specifically because of Penny calling them out for an impromptu friendship lesson, Ruby and Weiss enjoyed some of the attractions while waiting for her to arrive.

"You know she'd hate hearing you say it like that." Ruby raised an eyebrow "She's your friend too."

"True." Weiss admitted as she once more scanned the area "I guess it's just strange interacting with her so much, especially now that she's taken to Krimp's methods."

"Maybe that can be a subject for one of our lessons?" Ruby wondered before noticing something behind Weiss and smiling "Let's ask her!"

Weiss couldn't even turn around fully before Penny leaped at her and pulled her into a hug, spinning with the startled Schnee and pulling Ruby in as well "Salutations, Ruby and Weiss! I hope you're ready for a special lesson today!"

Ruby was instantly curious, returning the hug with fervor "Special huh? What do you think it is, Weiss?"

"Too... Tight!" Weiss struggled to escape Penny's vice-like hold

"Ma'am please!"

Penny's grip slackened as she turned around to another girl running after her, giving Weiss ample opportunity to escape.

"I knew I could get you to come, Ciel!" Penny cheered

"Breaking our schedule should have nothing to do with this fad of yours." Ciel stated as she came to a stop and glowered down at her wristwatch "In approximately three minutes we were supposed to begin running status updates on all Atlesian teams still in the brackets, not messing around with your 'friend' and-"

She paused as her eyes landed on Weiss, apparently having not noticed her until just that second "M-miss Schnee?"

Weiss raised an eyebrow before turning to Penny "Is this supposed to be part of the lesson?"

"Miss Schnee!" Ciel exclaimed before standing straight and smoothing out her clothes before glancing to Penny "I had no idea she'd drag you into this as well."

Her eyes wandered along the ground for a moment before she took a deep breath, folded her arms at her sides then bowed deeply "I apologize for any inconveniences she's brought you, Ma'am."

"It can't be that much of an inconvenience." Penny noted before squeezing Ruby tighter "If it was I'm sure it'd feel a lot worst than this!"

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered her on, struggling to pull one arm out of her grip and raise it for emphasis.

"Ah," Ciel glanced at them sideways "I can see where the reinforcement of these new proclivities is coming from. Ms Schnee, I once again must apologize for-"

"No apologies necessary," Weiss interrupted, much to Ciel's dismay "I'll admit its not to my usual tastes, but Penny's love for companionship has been... enlightening."

Penny couldn't help but beam, her grip on Ruby unconsciously tightening as the poor girl tried to maintain her supportive smile despite her complexion rapidly turning blue. Thankfully, Penny released her and stood proudly before her partner "See? I told you people would appreciate it! That's why I'm determined to involve you in today's lesson as well!"

Ciel seemed lost, her confusion amplifying the more Penny spoke "What do you-?"

"Ruby, Weiss!" Penny turned to them and raised a finger for emphasis "This is my Partner, Ciel Soleil. She's one of the most well-organized people I know! She's always on time and can follow instructions like no other!"

"Y-You don't need to make statements like that." Ciel frowned, suddenly looking far more uncomfortable with how loud Penny was being "Anyone could do it if they just stayed focused enough."

"You say that, but I'm fairly certain you maintain a high grade-point average solely because most of our classmates are unable to replicate your determination." Penny declared with finality "And I believe that is why you seem determined not to make any friends!"

"I could make friends if I wanted to." Ciel returned vehemently before glancing to Weiss and reacquiring her poise "It's just that maintaining my schedule and making sure you maintain yours makes taking asides for things like that fairly difficult."

"Which is why we need help from more friends." Penny tugged Ruby and Weiss back to her sides "If I can't help you do it, then it's the only option!"

"Wait," Weiss raised an eyebrow at her "that's the lesson for the day?"

"Yeah, you're one of the most organized people I know, Weiss!" Penny stated with a proud smile "Ruby's always going on about how much you've been helping her study and learn and get better with time-management, so having a range of experience like this should help us rework Ciel's schedule."

Weiss leaned forward a bit to look at her partner "Always going on about me, hm?"

"Well," Ruby looked away "She's always asking about friend stuff so of course my teammates would come up."

"Miss Polendina," Ciel folded her hands together and looked away "as much as I'd hate to waste Miss Schnee's time, I can't allow this to interrupt our schedule."

Penny released Ruby and Weiss and stepped forward "But Ciel-"

"We've already cut into our check up time." Ciel raised her wrist and glanced to her wristwatch "It was supposed to be simple, check up on the students still wandering the arena, come down and pass through the fairgrounds quickly before heading to the air docks in time to see the specialist arriving today."

Weiss lifted her head at that, but was unable to form a question before Penny strode forward.

"Come on, Ciel." Penny reached out towards her "I like making friends, but we've already met with most of the specialists for classwork. Whether its kind or not, they'll probably be too busy to deal with us anyway. So let's use that time to help each-"

"I've told you," Ciel brushed away her hands "I can't stop you from continuing to try that... that thing's methods of interaction, especially since your father seemed invested in its applications, but I cannot allow you to use that as an excuse."

"Wait, Penny." Ruby piped up "Your father knows about you and Krimp?"

"Of course!" Penny nodded before placing her hands on her hips "He was one of the first people I told about once I realized Krimp's true nature."

"And he knows that you've been using techniques that he taught you?"

"Yep, he was worried at first, but I told him how much Krimp's teachings have been helping me, so it's all in the clear!"

Weiss looked between her and Ruby several times "And this is surprising to you...why?"

"Oh," Ruby thought for a moment "it's just that. He's very protective of Penny so-"

"Professor Polendina serves Atlas as one of the leading minds of Artificial Intelligence." Ciel stated as if she were reading it from an article "His technical prowess is second only to his vast comprehension of thought and behavior. Given his area of expertise, it should be no surprise that he'd take an interest in the thought process of the creatures."

"Atlas's one-man think tank." Weiss turned to Penny "I knew as much from the name, but besides the eyes I don't think I'd ever be able to tell."

"And yet he cherishes me with all the love I could ever ask for!" Penny declared before leaning towards her partner "And if even he thinks there's merit to making friends then surely you can find something too."

Ciel took a deep breath, looking away for a moment until Weiss approached, "Ma'am?"

"You mentioned a specialist coming in?" Weiss asked

"Yes," Ciel looked to her wristwatch again "Coming in approximately fifteen minutes given how much we've wasted with this. Pulled in from combating the creatures to accompany the last company of troops to join in the western offensive. Details regarding the reinforcements they bring are above the clearance of students, may change upon arrival. Depending on those details they may be able to schedule their send-off date to coincide with the final bracket of the-"

"Can you give me their name?" Weiss interrupted, patience worn thin by the outpouring of information.

Ciel looked thrown off a bit by the interruption, but eventually gave a nod.

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

"Winter."

"Qrow."

He'd been waiting for her at the Air Docks, hands in his pockets and the unmistakable stench of alcohol radiating off of him. Winter wanted to grimace at his haggard appearance, but all she could do was massage the bags under her eyes as she descended from her ship "Rare for you to give forewarning before showing up Qrow."

"Trust me," Qrow huffed as he glanced up to one of the many Atlesean airships patrolling above "it wasn't something I wanted to do until I was sure you guys weren't compromised."

"What changed?" she asked as she came to a stop beside him

"Jimmy's timetable." he grumbled before pointing to her "What's this I hear about you guys setting off before the festival's over?"

"You're that far behind?" Winter gave a small smile as two AK-Units flanked her "We've been set on that for a while now, how long have you gone without checking the news?"

"Too long, apparently." Qrow followed behind her "The General has you guys flooding in by the hundreds, geared up with mechs, droids and enough firepower to withstand a siege; and taking that away from Vale is supposed to be a good idea?"

"We won't be leaving the city defenseless, Qrow. We're trying to eliminate the warchiefs as a threat as quickly as possible before its too late. With the Dreamer's visions and those gates allowing them to teleport seemingly anywhere, this isn't exactly a problem we can let sit."

They made their way along the Docks, travelling the path towards the towering citadel that was Beacon Academy.

"I don't know where you get the nerve showing up out of the blue just to get us to argue over points we've already gone over." She stopped and turned to glare back at him "General Ironwood and Ozpin have both been planning this out for a while now, to say that we've got to go back and rethink this-"

"Let's just say that I think I've caught a pattern that you all might've missed."Qrow interrupted her "It might not have been my mission, but I've been out there asking around and cracking enough heads to think that everyone might just need to slow down a bit."

"A claim like that requires hard evidence to substantiate, Qrow." Winter pointed out

"Once you hear me out then-"

"Uncle Qrow!" cheered a loud voice before a figure barreled into Qrow and sent him spinning away from Winter, whose hand instinctively went for her blade until she recognized the girl hanging from the man's arm.

"Why didn't you tell us you'd be coming!?" Ruby asked as Qrow lifted her up with a raised eyebrow "Yang's gonna be mad when she finds out she wasn't here to greet you!"

Winter took a deep breath as Qrow gave a chuckle and patted his niece's head "Sorry kid, guess she's gonna have to take it out on me after I'm done working for the day."

"You're still working?" Ruby frowned right before letting her feet fall to the ground.

"What? Think I came all this way just to hang out with you?" he asked with a knowing smirk, one which grew the deeper Ruby's pout became.

Readopting her stance, Winter was about to regain Qrow's attention when her own was pulled away by the sound of her name being called as well. Turning, she found her sister running towards her followed by two students of Atlas.

"Winter!" Weiss held back her joy as much as possible before stopping and folding her hands together before giving her a bow "I'm humbled by your sudden appearance."

Behind her were Penny Polendina and Ciel Soleil, a pair that had always seemed to be under special supervision by Winter's superiors.

"So it would seem," Winter finally responded to her sibling before glancing back to Qrow "As necessary as a reunion such as this should be, I had already gone out of my way to not inform you. I'm afraid Qrow and I have some business to attend to, with both Headmasters waiting for-"

"Oh, they don't know I'm here." Qrow suddenly spoke up, making Winter's glare snap towards him immediately.

"Explain." she demanded

"I only told you, Ice Queen." Qrow smirked whilst drawing his flask from his pocket

"And why... would you do that?"

Qrow gave a shrug and popped open his flask "Because I knew that if I didn't we'd have wasted half an hour trying to kill each other. And as fun as that would be, I kinda need to get out of here sooner rather than later."

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

"As fun as watching you writhe would be, you clearly underestimate my generosity."

Neon glared at the bag of chips being offered to her, her glare travelling up to the boy holding them "Can ya really blame me?"

Dove laughed as he popped open the bag and whipped a chip towards his mouth "Of course not, I'd be remiss if people trusted me so easily, but seeing you paw at that vending machine has inspired some deep-rooted sense of altruism within me."

"Now that, I really can't believe." Neon muttered before turning back towards the vending machine and frowning. Situated beside one of the stalls in the fairgrounds, this machine had looked like a beacon of hope for her grumbling stomach amongst the fancy assortment of foods offered. Usually the team would pay together when going for a food run, but Flynt had disappeared on her, leaving her to have to call in one of her other teammates to help 'pitch' in. She'd just gotten used to Flynt paying for her food so much that his strange absence had thrown her eating schedule right out the window. And who should appear to take advantage of her blatant hunger than the loudmouth from the Arena?

"If you're just going to stare at the machine, this is about to get a whole lot harder for you~" Dove cooed as he popped a chip into his mouth and gave it the loudest, most gut-wrenching crunch that Neon had ever heard in her life.

She held up for the first crunch of a delicious chip being whisked out of her grasp, her palms sweating at the second one before the third finally made her spin around towards him "What do you want!?"

"Doubting the altruistic nature of the Bronzewings?" Dove feigned shock "I'm struck by how little kindness is shown by the future huntsmen of Remnant."

" What...do you... want?" she asked again before backing up as a chip was held before her.

"I just want to feed a stray kitten." Dove noted whilst waving the chip before her "Is that really so much of a crime? Just open wide and let me be generous."

Neon couldn't help staring down at it, her body betraying her as her mouth flooded with saliva in anticipation, "Y-You monster."

"On I'm a monster?" Dove pulled back with a roll of his eyes "Not the dumb animal who actually seems stupid enough to consider this?"

He gave a dismissive shake of his head before bringing the chip to his mouth, only for a pair of hands to grab him and drag him against the vending machine. As his back collided with it, the bag of chips flew from his hands before colliding with the ground. Neon pounced upon the bag immediately before running off while flipping him off.

"No! My Leverage!" Dove cried before the pair of hands slammed him against the vending machine again, causing him to glare at his assailant before growing confused "Coco?"

"Enough games, Dove." Coco declared before tightening her hold "I tried being careful with you guys but all of you seem dead set on stonewalling me."

A look of realization crossed his face before his smile returned "Ah, finally taking me up on that offer from before?" he shrugged before reaching down to his belt "I'll admit its been a while since a lady's been this aggressively into it but-"

Coco slammed him against the vending machine again "Damn it Dove, whatever you guys were trying to do with Russel didn't work. So cut the bullshit and tell me what happened to him! It's how you guys got better at fighting, right?!"

Dove rolled his eyes before patting her on the wrist "To downplay Cardin's efforts so quickly speaks volumes, Miss Adel. The reason we started performing so well was because his little pride got hurt."

"What?"

"Winchesters have this bad habit that I've seen in his father and his grandfather both. They only seem to want to improve after they get kicked off their high horse. It's why they need us Bronzewings to help them avoid that, keep them from screwing themselves. Unfortunately for Cardin, he was unable to even consider my opinion above his own in anyway, and so he grew with the idea of me as a lackey instead of a helpful guide."

"Why would anyone consider you helpful?" Coco narrowed her gaze "I don't think we've had one conversation where you haven't managed to piss me off."

"Which speaks volumes of how simple you are." Dove shook his head "Seems wealth and an hourglass figure really don't belay a good brain after all."

"You-!"

"After suffering a severe blow to his pride, Cardin's thirst to regain it led him to finally pull on actual talent." Dove continued with a smarmy smile "And that is simply that. Sky and Russel got better because Cardin's just a really determined guy. He ran us all into the ground, convinced that he wouldn't have to worry about us being weak as long as we could coordinate well. Turns out he was right. Even since we were kids I always doubted claims of the Winchesters' battlefield prowess, but I suppose it really was just buried beneath all that unadulterated ego."

"I don't think you of all people have the right to trash talk other people's ego." Coco grumbled

"Why? You think having one as big as mine means I'm somehow barred from seeing it in others?" Dove tilted his head "For someone so eager to understand how their assumptions failed them, you seem determined to not see the arrogance in thoughts like that."

"Then what about Russel, huh?" Coco pulled him away from the vending machine to stare him down "Even if Cardin's got some latent knack for training, that wouldn't explain Russel changing so much. You and him always outclassed Cardin and Sky, so your training wouldn't have to be as hard."

"It's true that we were always the half of the team who simply outperformed." Dove gave a humored sigh "The problem with Russel was that he had far more weaknesses than I'd ever allow myself."

"What?"

"True, my family may have always bent over backwards for the Winchesters due to our specific relations." Dove closed his eyes and chuckled "But I can guarantee you that there's nobody on this planet I would let control me with impunity. Russel's lived his life among the savages in Vacuo, so his upbringing was undoubtedly less regimented than mine."

"What does that mean?" Coco asked before Dove brushed her hands off of him.

"It means, whereas I was trained not to let my emotions get the better of me, Russel has always let his emotions get the better of him." Dove declared "The only way he'd join in with our little bullying campaign was if he'd taken personal offense with one of our victims."

"What about Velvet?"

"She merely said the wrong thing at the wrong time." Dove shook his head "Trying to deflect a little bit of Cardin's trash talk by saying that the White Fang used to be a force of good."

"But it was!"

"Be that as it may, Russel's got absolutely no tolerance for the White Fang. Their campaign of terrorism has enraged him beyond all reasonable measure, and so your pet's passive defense of their earlier form was all that it took to get on his 'shit list'."

"How does any of this explain him going berserk back in the arena?"

"I'm getting there, Miss Adel." Dove rolled his eyes before turning back to the vending machine and pulling out some lien "Honestly, if you were as patient as you were delicious then you'd be running this place by now."

Soon he pressed some buttons and watched as another bag of chips fell, "It has to do with why the Fang enrages him so much, and honestly if you haven't even considered this possibility before then its only further proof of how different our thinking patterns are."

"I don't need proof for that, Dove." Coco folded her arms "Just get to the point."

Dove turned around and leaned in close before whispering to her "His mother let one of those terrorists put a baby in her."

"What?" Coco took a step back

"I know, hilarious isn't it?" Dove snickered as he pulled open the bag "A faunus half-sister left in their laps by an idealist who didn't even have the courtesy to call. It'd be poetic if it wasn't so funny."

"H-he's related to a Faunus?" Coco looked away for a moment "But if that's true then why-?"

"Oh she hates the animals almost as much as he does if his words are anything to go by." Dove popped open the bag and began digging around inside "Probably because she got stuck as one just because her mother couldn't keep her legs shut."

He nabbed a rather large chip and took a bite out of it before smirking to Coco "So do tell me, Miss Adel. With all the bread crumbs I'm so graciously leaving you, what do you think caused such a drastic change for him?"

Coco stared at Dove for a few seconds before her face grew grim as Dove's smile grew wider.

"What happened to her?"

Dove gave her a small applause "There we go, not hard at all is it?" he asked before eating another chip "Honestly, Coco. You demand I respond seriously when it takes you this long to even consider this possibility? I've no stomach for helping those who can't possibly aid themselves, its not good business. Neither is slaughtering humans in the name of people surrounded by humans, something that little band of murderers seems to have forgotten."

He pulled another chip from the bag and pointed it at Coco "And it surprises you that there are Faunus out there who hate their own people? When it's their own people widening the divide that's kept them segregated all their lives? Selfish... simply selfish. And what of folks like Russel, who's sister never even got to know the vagabond who ran off to kill himself to keep widening that divide? Who's had to watch the Faunus grow more feared, more reviled the longer such actions keep occurring? Who's had to live with the fear that one day he won't be able to stop the repercussions of those actions from befalling her?"

Dove pulled the chip back and ate it whole before smirking again "Who now has to live with the fact that such fears were well-founded."

"Y-You didn't answer my question."

"Because you haven't earned it yet, Miss Adel." Dove declared with a snicker "Just because you think you've done enough digging to necessitate answers doesn't mean you have."

"Then-"

"But watching you play catch-up's been much more fun than I thought, so I'm feeling charitable." Dove pulled another chip from the bag and leaned against the vending machine "It's a shame the Blue Scarves didn't have such sentiments when they found out a member of the White Fang 's offspring was living her life unpunished."

"No." Coco uttered

"Hilarious, isn't it?" Dove looked over the chip in his hand "Killed in a hate crime in response to someone else's hate crime. I swear, stories like these are why I get up in the morning."

"That's why he-?"

"Can't seem to get a hang of his anger anymore?" Dove shrugged "I know, at first it was amusing seeing him get all sad for a while, but then he just started lashing out whenever he could. Cardin simply saw fit to give his rage... direction."

Coco took a step back, her eyes travelling to the ground "So you're telling me that all of this, from chopping up Reese to nearly blowing himself up fighting Pyrrha iss just-"

"An extremely annoying form of grieving?" Dove offered before smiling "Yes. Now are we done here?"

Coco looked back up at him "I-I mean has he talked to anyone? It can't be healthy to act this way after-"

"Geez, you get me to answer all your questions and now you want me to answer for him too?" Dove rolled his eyes before walking "If you want more then take it up with Russel, whether or not he actually cares to answer is up to him."

"Dove, how can you be so nonchalant about this?" Coco asked him, though made no move to impede him

"If I let something like this affect me then I'd never have made it to Beacon, Miss Adel." He waved back at her with a chip "But do try this again, I wouldn't mind having talks like this become a regular occurrence."

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

Ozpin's eyes traveled from Winter to Qrow, whose occasional drinks from his flask were the only sound which reverberated through the office. With his hands folded on his desk, Ozpin could count the seconds pass by as the gears above turned. Winter stood at attention, several feet behind her Glynda paced as time drew on.

Qrow leaned against the window beside Ozpin's desk, occasionally giving a smirk to Winter, only to receive a glare in return. It was like this for some time since Ozpin had called Ironwood, all of them waiting for the General. Eventually a call informed Ozpin that he had arrived. Winter immediately turned to face the Elevator doors, which soon slid open.

"You seemed to make a point to have me informed last, Qrow." Ironwood strode in while narrowing his eyes at him

"Only way to get you Atlesean folk to hop to it is to ram a foot right into those fancy schedules of yours." Qrow declared "Excuse me for being a little unreasonable after seeing how quickly you plan on rushing in on those Tower Guys."

"Qrow-!" Ironwood took a step forward

"Could you please just explain why?" Ozpin said quickly "I'll admit that there could be better ways for us to go about this, but you must understand that the scenario's made it extremely difficult to be lenient with our choices. The General and I have been doing our best to keep the Council from panicking, let alone the people. If you've discovered something that should give us cause to reevaluate, then by all means I'm sure all of us would love to hear it."

"Instead of complaining like a petulant child." Winter hissed

"Geez," Qrow jerked a thumb towards her "And you guys put her at the head of this thing?"

"Winter's been fighting the Uruks longer than most of the specialists serving under me." Ironwood stated "If anyone should have significant input on an offensive like this it should be her."

Rolling his eyes at the pleased smile Winter sported, Qrow shook his flask a bit to test how much was still inside "You guys shut down most of the raiding parties by hitting the arena, right?"

"There have been some incidents here or there," Ironwood looked away "but nowhere to the degree they were once at."

"Either too many of them got caught or the ones left got scared out of being overt." Glynda noted "Either way, it's given us breathing room to focus on the forces based in Vacuo."

After another sip, Qrow finally capped his flask and put it away "Well have you ever noticed the patterns of those raiding parties?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at that.

"We know that they gave the city a wide berth, and were smart enough not to attack major commercial routes until the Quarry incident." Ironwood listed off "They mostly targeted villages or caravans that they'd be able to wipe out quickly. If they hadn't gone for the Quarry it probably would've taken longer for us to learn about them."

Qrow groaned and waved him off "Let me rephrase my question then. Have you noticed the patterns of what exactly they were stealing?"

"Determining that was difficult due to how much they destroyed whenever they'd leave. Hard to figure out what's missing when there's nothing but burnt buildings and ashes to look through."

"I'm pretty certain that's exactly what they were going for."

"What are you suggesting, Qrow?" Ozpin spoke up

"I'm trying to say that these wild lootings weren't as wild as they might seem." Qrow pushed away from the window and stepped in front of Ozpin's desk "It started with me running into some survivors from one of the villages while working on something else, hadn't run into many of the Uruks on my route so I didn't think much of it until one of them seemed to remember where they'd been hit first."

He turned back to Ironwood before glancing to Winter and Glynda "Any guesses on what they tore up first? Food, weapons?"

"Get to the point!" Winter demanded

"It was a shop which just so happened to specialize in supplying mining equipment."

At that Winter and Ironwood gave each other a look. Glynda grew an incredulous expression "Mining equipment?"

"Yep, from what he said almost all of them piled in and took as much as they could before they'd even started ransacking the rest of the town. The owners were the first people they'd caught before thinking about anyone else." Qrow looked back towards the window "And it wasn't just that town where their first target was oddly specific. The next time I found refugees I asked them, they said the raiding party took a clock-worker and all of her tools. Next town was a glass-maker, then a wire-worker. A ton of oddly specific crafts people and their equipment got nabbed first and foremost before the rest of the town were put to the torch."

"But when we looked into things," Winter placed a thumb to her chin and thought "the only pattern we'd discerned was that they were taking people and food."

"You guys only started looking into this after the Dust Quarry got hit." Qrow pointed out "At that point most evidence of their movements had already been destroyed. Whether it was the Quarry take over or something else, the raiders changed gears and started going for more broad targets. The White Fang already gave them a new source of the specific stuff."

"The White Fang?" Glynda asked

"You mean the weapons and armor that was taken from them whenever they'd contest with the raiders?" Winter offered "From what prisoners say its common for Uruks to steal gear from their enemies."

"Then why haven't we been seeing more of them running around with that gear?" Qrow asked "I've only run into a few groups out there, but I can count the number of Uruks I've seen with White Fang equipment on one hand."

"That's true," Glynda looked to Ozpin "Given what we know from Mountain Glenn, the White Fang should have had a higher than normal number of outposts in Vale, at least until Torchwick was captured. It would've taken a while for them to move away, so there'd still be plenty for the Uruks to face when their deserters got here."

"That is if the Fang even planned on fleeing in the first place." Winter folded her arms together, not noticing the way Ozpin and Ironwood glanced to one another.

"So where did all of that stuff go?" Qrow asked them "What'd they do with all those crafts folk and White Fang gear? We know that they took a ton of people captive during village raids, but I've never seen the raiders with captives. You guys saved a good number of them during the Arena, but where are the others?"

"You're saying the raiders were gathering those resources specifically," Ozpin noted "that they tried covering up evidence of what they were looking for, changing their tactics only when the attack on the Quarry brought them too much notoriety."

"Given how unsurprised you are," Qrow leaned back "I take it you already have an idea as to the culprit?"

"The Storm." Ironwood sighed "A name that's been fluttering in the background of our interrogations since we started capturing the Uruks. If anyone could have orchestrated this, then its them."

"Oh, I see." Qrow looked back to him before waving his hands at his sides "So this was something you could've guessed at, something that one of your eggheads probably thought up."

"So in spite of that," Qrow walked up to him "You're still going to take all these ships and troops to Vacuo?"

"The only reason we were cleared to bring those forces was because the council wants those Warchiefs dealt with!" Ironwood defended

"And they aren't the only ones." Ozpin sighed "Communication with Shade academy has been strenuous to say the least. They've been patient for the most part, but the longer the Uruks are allowed to operate within their territory-"

"They've got students here too." Qrow interrupted "I don't know if they've forgotten, but the Vytal Festival isn't exactly something we can be lax about. Literally everyone's got eyes on this, so if something happens-"

"That's not the only thing." Ozpin held up a hand "Though unknown to most, a primary motivator for us acting with such haste is the Dreamer."

Qrow raised an eyebrow "The guy's said to be able to see the future... that true?"

"Given some of the scenarios his name has been linked with," Ironwood gave a deep sigh "we've no choice but to believe it."

"So that's it..." Qrow stuffed his hands in his pockets as his gaze traveled to Ozpin "You're trying to solve all of our problems at once."

"What?" Winter asked

"You wouldn't need this many soldiers and ships if you were just trying to deal with the Uruks." Qrow looked to Ironwood "You're bulking up so you can capture the Dreamer."

Ironwood didn't answer at first, merely giving Qrow a glare before glancing to Winter "You're dismissed."

"General?" Winter grew confused

"You've got a mission to prepare for, might as well get to that early." he said "Maybe then you'll have some time to spend with your sister."

Winter found that she was suddenly in the spotlight, but held back her questions and instead tightened her stance before giving Ironwood a salute. She turned and walked away, pausing at the elevator to look back for a moment. She ignored the small smile Qrow gave her, instead watching as Ironwood leaned against Ozpin's desk while casting a stern look towards the floor.

Finally, she stepped into the elevator, burying her confusion as the doors slid closed.

---

The City of Vale

The doors flew open as Nora was tossed out of the establishment. Rolling onto her knees, she immediately moved to lunge for the upset man who'd evicted her when Ren slipped out past him to hold her back.

"You can't do this to me!" Nora shouted "I almost beat the top score!"

The man merely shook his head at her before looking to Jaune and Pyrrha, who both apologized profusely as they exited the building too. The man ignored them, merely glaring at Nora before shaking his head "Ma'am, the prize hammer was never intended to be brought into the laser tag arena. Ya shoot at people with light, ya aren't supposed to smack 'em with toys."

"Then you shouldn't have offered them right next to the entrance!" Nora declared before the man groaned and slammed the door shut, "You aren't at least gonna give me the hammer?!"

"I told you they'd mind." Ren stated while patting her on the back "Sorry Nora-"

"Don't apologize Ren." Nora stood up and folded her arms "The people aren't ready for innovation! They aren't ready for the future."

"Well," Jaune looked back to the establishment "if that counts as done then I guess you're up next, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha had been gazing down the street absently, looking back to Jaune once he was finished "Well, I'm not sure. I don't really have a place to frequent like Nora does."

"Come on!" Nora threw an arm around her shoulder "Our star student's gotta have a favorite past time, right? Gym? Sports? Unexpected affection for stuffed Grimm plushies?"

Pyrrha looked down, "I'm sorry..."

"T-That's okay!" Jaune said quickly before walking past Ren and gesturing down the street "There's a lot of things to do in Vale, especially with the festival here. How about we just have a look around? I'm sure we'll find something!"

Pyrrha gave a small smile at that, "That sounds grand, I'd be happy to take recommendations."

Nora raised her hand immediately "Oh! Then we could-"

"I'm going to give a preemptive denial to that." Ren stated before turning and walking down the sidewalk

"What!?" Nora immediately ran after him "But she said-"

"Your first two suggestions before the arcade were a canal and the forest." Ren pointed to the sky, the sun partway through its descent "Both of which would be difficult to navigate at night, although for entirely different reasons."

"Danger breeds excitement Ren, we can't let the celebration of our fight be anything less than amazing!" Nora declared as she walked beside him, turning to look back to Pyrrha with a smirk "Of course, the party we're gonna throw when you take gold is gonna be eight times as epic."

"I'd expect nothing less, Nora." Pyrrha smiled as she followed behind, though adopted a worried look once her teammate looked ahead once more.

"Hey," Pyrrha jumped as Jaune placed a hand on her shoulder "You okay?"

"Sorry," Pyrrha apologized again "I'm just thinking."

"About the fight, right?"

Pyrrha looked to him "You knew?"

"Can't really think of anything else, given the timing." he admitted before facing ahead towards their teammates "Russel seemed to be giving you a hard time."

She followed his gaze and walked in silence for a moment, following Ren and Nora as the two continued arguing over where to celebrate. After some time and several streets, Pyrrha finally sighed "He's not doing well."

Jaune had also taken to looking at every store they passed, so Pyrrha's sudden response made him take a moment to respond "Russel? I mean, with who he hangs out with most days I guess it shouldn't be too surprising."

"He nearly hurt himself badly, Jaune." Pyrrha lowered her gaze for a moment "He was just so desperate to win that he even buried Dove just to eliminate Nora."

Jaune's face went grim for a moment, something Pyrrha took note of immediately, "Jaune?"

"Oh, just thinking abut the last time something like this happened." he explained

"You mean with Cardin?"

"Yeah, back then I just thought his teammates were some admittedly cowardly lackeys who panicked." Jaune admitted before frowning as he thought further "And maybe that's just because I was so focused on Cardin, but... Pyrrha..."

He stopped walking, with Pyrrha pausing to look back at him as he gave her a questioning look "Do you think they abandoned him on purpose?"

Pyrrha's eyes widened, but she didn't say anything. The two merely stared at one another until the voices of their teammates reached them.

"Woah!"

"Uh... guys?"

Ren and Nora had apparently something down an adjacent street which had fully peaked their interest. Pyrrha looked back to Jaune, who shook off the sour expression he'd sported and gave her another smile "We can talk later, this is probably just me overthinking things."

He walked past her, and after taking a moment to sigh, Pyrrha followed behind. Catching up to their team, Jaune and Pyrrha were quickly silenced as Ren held a hand up. He gestured ahead, so they peaked ahead to find a nondescript van parked awkwardly on the side of the road. It was running, with a man behind the wheel having a smoke. A woman leaned against the side of the van, occasionally looking towards a nearby building.

"What's happening?" Pyrrha whispered, only for Ren to gesture towards the building.

It was only then she realized that the door to that building looked as if it had been kicked in.

"A robbery?" Jaune immediately pulled out his scroll, if he could get in contact with someone at Beacon then maybe they could get in touch with Ironwood or one of his subordinates. With Atlas's ships they could make it in-

"Wait." Ren said as something began coming out of the broken door. Jaune's finger hesitated as he spotted two more people covering their faces with blue cloth, they came out of the building carrying a third person. Only when he noticed the figure struggling in their grasp did he realize that he wasn't witnessing a robbery at all.

"They're taking her!" Nora said before being hushed by Ren.

The figure was tossed into the Van before the kidnappers piled in, the doors slamming shut as the van sped off.

"Okay, change of plans." Jaune said as his teammates looked to him

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

The van had stopped in the warehouse district, a couple blocks from Vale's water treatment plant. The shadow of the plant was the perfect cloak for Ren to hide in as he kept his eyes on the warehouse. The van's occupants had filed into the warehouse, but Ren merely watched as he waited. Eventually, noise brought his attention to the street below. He looked over the edge to find his teammates, now armed, giving curious looks around them as they made their way along the darkened street. Ren quickly got their attention with a sharp hiss that he hoped wouldn't be noticed by potential guards. He hadn't seen any since he'd set up his perch, but one was never too careful.

He directed them towards the same fire escape he'd used to ascend the building, and soon Jaune joined him in watching the warehouse.

"Why didn't you call us?" Jaune asked as he knelt beside him "Nora freaked when you didn't pick up."

Ren held up his scroll "I tried, they have to have some kind of jammer set up."

"Hm, good thing we called in our weapons before following." Pyrrha noted as Nora offered Stormflower to Ren "What are we looking at?"

"All the windows are frosted, I can't seem to spot any sentries or cameras." Ren explained before glancing back to Jaune "Are you sure its them?"

"The Scarves only have one calling card, Ren." Jaune leaned up and ran his eyes over the building before swallowing down his nerves and turning back to his teammates "The only gang that's said to be operating in Vale since the White Fang pulled out, and they have an affinity for the color blue. Either someone's framing them, or we've just stumbled on one of their operations."

"I didn't see them take her from the van." Ren stated as he looked down to to the vehicle

"What?" Nora asked

"I thought they'd noticed me and were trying to lure me out." Ren pointed out "Because if they didn't take their victim with them when they entered then its either that or they-"

"We'll have to check, somehow." Jaune sighed before turning to Nora "See if you can get out of range of that Jammer then call for-"

Then the gunshots started.

They all immediately raised their weapons, but it soon became apparent that none of the gunshots were anywhere near them. Instead, Ren pointed towards the windows of the warehouse, which was occasionally lit up by a round from within.

"Fighting?" Pyrrha guessed

"Could be a trap." Ren noted

Jaune gestured forwards, and soon the team descended the building and made for the van.

"Nora, check the Van." he ordered before crawling low beside one of the windows and trying to see anything through the frosted glass. He didn't get much time to look, as someone inside was attacked by something out of sight, spraying a good portion of the wall in blood. Jaune pulled away, then pointed upwards as he looked to Ren "See if there's another way in."

"I'll cover you." Pyrrha told Ren before following him to a nearby ladder.

With that in motion, Jaune approached the Van just as Nora pulled a subdued faunus woman out. They really had left their victim behind, but why? As Nora did her best to untie her, Jaune took a moment to look towards the building one more time. As he did, Pyrrha's head poked out from the roof and gave him a thumb's up.

"What the hell do you-!?" The woman started screaming as soon as the gag came undone, but Nora managed to clamp a hand around her mouth and shush her.

"It's okay! We're students at Beacon." Jaune explained quickly. For some reason, the woman's glare seemed to intensify once he told her that, but she eventually stopped struggling after looking between them for a bit. Jaune nodded to Nora, who released her before working to undo the binds.

"Did you have your scroll on you when they attacked? Did they take it from you?" Jaune asked quickly, occasionally looking towards the top of the building. The woman shook her head before massaging her wrists as soon as the binds came loose.

"Okay," Jaune dug into his pocket "I'm gonna pass you some lien, there was a phone booth about five minutes down the road over there. Call the police."

As soon as the woman took the lien, Jaune heard his name being called and looked up to find Pyrrha gesturing behind her "Someone left a door open up here."

Jaune raised an eyebrow at that. Did someone enter in a hurry? He couldn't let his confusion distract him, the fighting and screams in the warehouse seemed to be dying down. After sending the victim off, Jaune and Nora hurried to catch up with their team. So fast were they, that neither noticed the way the woman looked back at them before running off.

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

By the time they made it inside, the fighting was mostly over. Navigating along a catwalk hanging over the ground floor of the warehouse, Team JNPR were able to see the bodies of dozens of Blue Scarves scattered amongst crates and vehicles. Some of the crates had spilled open in the fighting, spewing either weapons or dust onto the ground, neither of which seemed to have helped the Scarves much. Jaune could only wonder how so much of it had gotten into Vale under the watchful eye of Atlas, but voices from the center of the building kept him from thinking on it too much.

"This what you call a defense?" someone shouted before the sounds of heavy impacts preceded a shout of pain.

Gesturing for his teammates to be quiet, Jaune laid low as someone in tattered blue raced out from between two shelves. They didn't get far before a dust round hit them square in the back, causing an already weakened aura to struggle to keep it from killing them. The force sent them face first into a table covered in uncut dust crystals. Some of the crystals fell to the floor, causing the man's pursuer to curse.

"Agh! Tryin' to take us with you, eh?" the pursuer shouted, stepping between the shelves whilst waving an odd-looking sword. Jaune had to do a double take at the attacker's appearance, initially thinking it was an Atlesian Soldier. But as he looked closer, he could see that the armor he was wearing had been refitted to fit its owner. There were patches missing from the standard-issue uniforms that Atlas's soldiers sported, revealing patches of a leathery white skin underneath.

The fake soldier grabbed the back of the Blue-Scarf's head before dragging him back to the center of the building.

"Are those Uruks or some kinda weird Faunus?" Nora whispered her question to Jaune, who merely put a finger to his lips before moving along the catwalk.

There were four other fake Atlesians gathered in the center of the building, all wearing similar armor but different weapons. Two had rifles with oddly shaped blades built under their barrels, one had a sniper rifle with an odd attachment built onto its stock, the last and largest of them had a riot shield and a large halberd which sparked with electricity. There was something off about that last one, besides his taller stature, but Jaune couldn't quite put his finger on what.

They were all standing around another member of the Blue Scarves, one dressed in a long blue robe with a mask that completely obscured his appearance. He was bound to a chair, unmoving until the sword-wielder dragged the man back to them.

"Now I know why the Doc's lackeys ran off to test their tools." the Sniper rubbed his gun with a purr-like snarl "Live practice is just so much funner."

"Still got a job to do, ya glob." The Sword-Wielder growled before pointing his sword to the man on the ground "Oi, Tearjerker! Ya gonna cry if I plaster ya boy here all over ya?"

The figure in the chair lowered its head again without a word.

"Figures," the large one grumbled before looking back to the sword-wielder "Lok, we have no time for this. The master wishes-"

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say Freshspawn. Damned waste of good armor." Lok snickered before pointing his sword towards the two gunners then towards some nearby crates "You two get to grabbin' the dust, still got's a job to do."

The Sniper twisted his rifle around before approaching the downed man "If you're not gonna take it, mind if I mark this tark? Play or not, long as he goes running to his boys it should be good right?"

Lok merely shrugged, to which the Sniper laughed as he approached. Holding his rifle by the barrel, the sniper twisted the odd attachment on its stock. A short, intense flame immediately ignites from the attachment, as if he'd built a blow-torch into the thing. He kicked the man onto his side before rearing back with the rifle, only for a dust round to smack him in the side and make him stumble away. Immediately the rest of the fake soldiers turned their eyes above as Team JNPR descended from the catwalks in full fighting form.

"Get behind us!" Pyrrha called to the Gang Member, who stumbled to his feet before taking one look at them and going wide-eyed.

"Looks like we get more fun, lads!" Lok shouted as the two gunners knelt at his sides, he raised his sword up "Ah! The Shaman's blessing ain't got no limits!"

The gangster looked between the two sides before the cocking of a rifle drew his attention to the sniper, who eyed him with vicious intent. Taking a moment to glance up, the man turned and scurried atop several crates before flinging himself towards the catwalk above.

"Not going anywhere!" the sniper shouted

"Ren, cover him!" Jaune ordered

"For the Master, boys!" Lok cheered before pointing towards them "All for the Storm!"

The Gangster pulled himself atop the catwalk and dove onto his stomach as gunfire erupted from below. He inched himself slowly along the metal grating until a round tore through the metal beside him, causing him to back away just in time to see the Sniper hop onto the railing at his side. Before the sniper could raise his weapon, One of Ren's guns spun at him from the side. He deflected it using the side of his rifle, but then Ren followed suit by darting in from the side and kicking him off the rail. Ren was about to try and move the gangster out of the way, but the sniper had lined up a shot as he fell.

Before Ren could get to him, a round tore through one of the supports holding up the catwalk, causing the entire thing to shake. Ren caught his footing just in time for the sniper to fly up in front of him. One foot perched on his stock as the flame on the butt of his gun flared violently, he literally rode his rifle back up to the catwalk before gripping the barrel and spinning forwards. Ren slid to the side as the butt of the gun slammed into the railing behind him. The sniper swiped the torch on his rifle towards him twice more before Ren ducked under a swing and slashed him back.

"Careful boys!" the sniper shouted as he spun back and kneeled down to chamber another round "These ones are fighters!"

Down below, the Storm Soldiers didn't really need his help to determine that. Even before engaging, the Gunners had made a point to keep distance while Lok and the Freshspawn rushed in. That didn't stop Nora from rushing them with powerful swings of Magnhild. Their armor was deceptively light for them, not seeming to hinder their ability to dodge her attacks at all.

Jaune had quickly deduced that the 'Freshspawn' guy was so off-balance due to his heavy gear that even someone like him could effectively dodge most of his attacks if he just kept focus. So he'd made a point to lead him away from Pyrrha so she could deal with Lok unhindered. But as Jaune kept out of the wide arcs of the Freshspawn's halberd, he realized quickly why he was so off-balance. The Freshspawn's hands were horribly deformed and overgrown, making his grip on both shield and halberd awkward to say the least.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha was already growing accustomed to Lok's attack patterns. He was light on his feet, but nowhere near as light as Dove had been. She was able to catch him in the middle of most of his dodges, but his ability to parry her strikes left him with more breathing room than she liked. So she started pulling his parries of center with her semblance.

The Cocky smirk he'd sported vanished the moment her spear made it past his blade and slashed him across the face. His aura dulling the blow, but nonetheless sending him spinning away. He landed in a shaky kneel before growling, "Mix it up, lads! Mix it up!"

Pyrrha cocked an eyebrow at that until he pointed his sword at her and she realized that this sword's odd looking feature was actually a small barrel. Almost immediately a large blast of dust fired from said barrel, forcing Pyrrha to dodge to the side as it tore a chunk out of a nearby shelf. Below that shelf just so happened to be Jaune and the Freshspawn, both of which looked up as the shelf began falling apart onto them.

Jaune rolled out of the way of the falling crates and metal, while the Freshspawn raised his shield before disappearing under the rubble.

Both Nora and the Gunners glanced to the ruined shelf, but the gunners nodded to each other before one dropped to his knee. Nora looked back to them as he began firing, swinging Magnhild into a nearby table and sending it flying towards them. She used the momentum of her hammer to help her spin out of the way of most of the rounds, but managed to catch sight of the second Gunner hopping on to the kneeling one's shoulder before leaping over the sailing table as his partner rolled out of the way. Nora watched as his his rifle began shifting mid-air, its bayonet extending along the barrel of the gun and its stock turning until he held an identical sword to Lok's. Without missing a beat, he gripped the handle of his blade with both hands before the barrel began letting loose a stream of automatic gunfire which sent him spinning towards her violently.

Nora managed to leap back as the sword embedded itself in the ground, rearing back with her hammer until the other Gunner opened fire from a prone position. She leaped back out of the way of the gunfire while the first gunner swiped at her with his gunblade, occasionally firing his weapon to try and break her guard whenever their weapons crossed. After ducking another swing, Nora spun Magnhild as she reared back with it, swinging it up and finally landing a solid hit on him. The resulting blast sent him sailing away, clipping himself on a shelf which bent around his body.

Watching all of this was the Tearjerker, sitting in his seat and watching the Storm soldiers try to outmaneuver Team JNPR. They were certainly doing better than one would initially think, even managing to do damage here and there thanks to their tools and techniques. But the Tearjerker knew they wouldn't actually manage to win like this, not with so few of them. Still, he found it interesting that the Shaman's grunts could last this long against a foe who's had far more time to train.

But Nora's occasional blows wore down the gunners, who grew visibly more evasive once their aura started to flicker. Lok's initial joy was replaced with agitation as Pyrrha grew more and more efficient at countering every move he made. Even after one of the gunners jumped in to aid him, both ended up struggling to withstand her offensive. The sniper was doing the best out of all of them, and that was only because Ren had to balance fighting him and protecting the gangster who continued trying to scramble his way out of the combat zone. Perhaps the most disappointing of them all was the Freshspawn, so awkward with his weapons, so distracted by the ill-fitting armor that Jaune even managed to get a few strikes in. Small strikes, but against an Uruk like that they were still noticeable.

The Tearjerker had stayed in his seat initially, convinced that if all his objectives could be completed then he had to hold on. But it was becoming more and more clear that the secondary goal would be impossible if he allowed the Storm Soldiers to fall. And so as the battle became more and more one-sided, he arose. The binds burning away as his gaze turned towards the Freshspawn. It was time to see if the legends about Pugrish's stint as a Vat-Keeper were true.

Darting out of the way of the Halberd, Jaune looked up in time to roll out of the way as the Freshspawn slammed his shield into the ground. Glancing back to his teammates, he released a small sigh. Things were doing good, they just had to keep the soldiers busy and the Blue Scarves member safe until that woman outside gets the local authorities involved. These guys had to be Uruks, members of that Storm faction that Ruby and her friends mentioned. They could figure out why they were here, how they knew about this place. Those Blue Scarves members could tell them how they got all these supplies into Vale. The man seemed frantic, but the one in the chair-

-had just appeared right in front of him.

The Freshspawn tried to pause, as he had been swinging his halberd the moment the Tearjerker seemed to just materialize in front of him. It wasn't necessary, as the Tearjerker reared back with one hand which was encased in an odd gauntlet. He lunged forward and took hold of the Freshspawn's helmet, gauntlet glowing bright red as the Freshspawn's movements ceased.

So caught off guard by his interruption, Jaune took a moment to realize the Tearjerker was muttering in some unknown language before whispering "-a crest of rage."

"Naruk!"

Lok had taken notice of his actions as well, his shout causing the other combatants to follow his gaze to the Tearjerker "What are you doing!? The plan is-"

"Impossible, a victim of chance." the Tearjerker growled before releasing the Freshspawn's head "The primary goal cannot be weighed against the performance. I have to step in."

Jaune looked between the two, confusion growing more. The guy in the chair, was he a plant? The name Naruk sounded like it lined up more with the Uruks than anything else. Before he could guess at the goal they were talking about, a blood-curdling scream tore its way out of the Freshspawn's mouth. He dropped both the shield and the halberd, over-sized hands wrapping around his helmet as he trembled and screeched while his fingers dug into the helmet.

Naruk looked back at him before brandishing an oddly-designed dagger in his other hand, raising it up, he then spun forward with the blade. It happened again, one second he was there and the next he was gone. Jaune shook his head, attention drawing back towards the Freshspawn who managed to pry half of the helmet off of himself, revealing an over-sized eye which struggled to turn in its socket.

"Why give it to Belfor!?" Lok cried out "The flawed little mutant is breaking all the master's stuff! I would've-!"

He didn't manage to finish, as the Freshspawn's screech turned into a roar before his hands slammed into the ground beside him and launched him towards Lok. Both of those fists slammed down onto his helmet, obliterating it instantly in a visceral display of gore.

"Scholar forced him into a rage!" the gunner fighting Nora shouted before turning tails and darting towards a shelf "Keep him at a distance!"

The other gunner followed suit, diving out of the way of another swing of Milo before rolling over several crates. Jaune looked to both of his teammates, who seemed ready to pursue their opponents when a shadow descended over Pyrrha.

"Pyrhha, on your left!" he shouted, giving her just enough time to dive back as Belfor's fists crashed into the ground beside her "They won't risk getting close to him. Ren! How're you doing?"

"What's going on down there?" Ren called back, his attention having been solely focused on the Sniper "I can't-"

His words died out as the sound of feet on metal dragged his attention behind him, spotting the Tearjerker leaping onto the catwalk with eyes on the Blue Scarves member. Ren acted quickly, shoving the sniper back before spinning and diving for him. The Tearjerker noticed his approach, then muttered in that foreign language whilst rearing back with his blade. Ren lunged for him, with the Tearjerker flexing his gauntlet before sending the dagger spinning towards him. Ren was ready, swinging Stormflower to the side to deflect the blade-

-only for it to vanish right before it made contact. Ren's eyes went wide right before something searing slammed into his back. His Aura only barely managed to react in time, dulling the sharp edge of what was the very dagger that had disappeared mere milliseconds ago. The strike sent Ren stumbling forward, trying to reorient himself again as the Tearjerker closed in. Ren raised one of his weapons to put some gunfire between them, but the Tearjerker surged forward and wrapped a hand around his wrist before yanking Ren close and driving the jagged nails of his gauntlet into his gut.

"Ren!" Nora cried out, having spotted the altercation amidst the scrap with Belfor. Before she could react with anything else, Belfor's fists slammed into her from the side and sent her crashing into a stack of crates.

Naruk stared at Ren from within the confines of his mask. The Huntsman in training matched his gaze as well as he could, stifling the now panicked breath threatening to slip between his teeth. Naruk glanced down and found the sharpened fingers of his gauntlet, though managing to puncture his aura, had not fully sunken into Ren's flesh. Right before contact, Ren had released his other gun and caught hold of the Tearjerker's wrist before he could shred too much of his insides.

Seeing this, Naruk gave a dissapointed "Hmph" before curling his fingers within Ren's body then leaning back and sending his heel directly into Ren's chest. For his part, Ren managed to wrap his arms around his wound before he slammed onto the catwalk roughly. He slid to a stop beside the Sniper, who raised his weapon with glee.

"Aid the others!" Naruk's harsh command caused him to freeze mid-swing, and the Storm Soldier glanced towards the Tearjerker as he kneeled down and picked up Ren's fallen weapon.

"But he's just lying there!" the sniper tried countering

"The primary objective may have fallen through, but we are still subject to it's time limit." Naruk stated as he studied the weapon for a moment "The others need all the help they can get to ensure that the secondary objective doesn't suffer the same fate. Besides... you know the Master's way."

The Sniper bit his tongue at that, glancing down once more as Ren struggled to right himself, before giving a defeated sigh and leaping over the edge of the catwalk.

Ren struggled to wrap his arm around the guard rail, while he'd managed to keep Naruk's gauntlet from tearing open his stomach he'd still been slashed in a horrible spot. Blinking rapidly, his grip on his remaining weapon tightened as he raised his head. Below, he could spot the rest of his team barely managing to outmaneuver the frenzied swings of Belfor's massive hands, the speed at which he swung them defying expectation.

"I-I don't understand!" the cry came from behind him, and Ren worked to crane his neck back towards the catwalk in time to spot the Tearjerker lifting up the gangster by the scruff of his shirt.

"Shouldn't-! Y-you're-!" the gangster was panicking, eyes twitching in horror as though what he saw was impossible "The boss said...How-!?"

Naruk met his cries by pressing the barrel of Ren's weapon to his chin and unloading the entire clip into him. Ren flinched, tightening his grip on his wounded abdomen as the Tearjerker tossed the body aside.

Jaune had noticed the sound of gunfire above, raising his gaze just as Naruk picked up his blade and leaped down. The sound of Pyrrha shouting behind him forced Jaune to shift out of the way as Belfor was sent stumbling by him. He collided with a large shelf which tilted dangerously for a second while he got his bearings. Naruk landed beside him, eyes still analyzing the weapon he stole weapon.

"Surely there's more rage within you, Freshspawn." Naruk noted while carefully slipping the stolen weapon into his coat "One such as yourself should be grateful for a chance to vent."

At his words, Belfor slammed his hands into the ground beside him before letting loose another primal roar which echoed throughout the entire building. Naruk turned and watched as the rest of Team JNPR gathered their wits, then pointed his dagger at them wordlessly.

Belfor charged once more, swinging one fist down only for Magnhild to slam into it and send him spinning as Nora tried keeping him off balance.

Jaune heard the swish of the blade before a dagger entered his field of view. Raising his shield, he crouched down so Pyrrha could roll over him and kick the dagger off its mark. Naruk caught it and glanced up as Jaune and Pyrrha came at him from two sides. He swung his dagger behind him whilst jumping back, soon disappearing once again. But Jaune managed to catch what was happening due to their proximity. As he swung the dagger, what almost looked like an awkwardly formed portal was created around its blade.

He couldn't ponder this too much, however, as Pyrrha's sudden shift of the eyes brought his attention up towards the top of a nearby shelf just as Naruk dove off of it with his dagger angled downward. Jaune stumbled out of the way as the dagger dug into the warehouse flooring, barely able to raise his shield to deflect the following spin kick. Jaune spun away, but Pyrrha slid in between them before Naruk could follow up. His dagger and Milo collided several times before they darted away as Nora darted in between them. She swung her hammer around, causing the other combatants to back away as Belfor lunged for her. Magnhild came down just as Belfor's hands reached out for her.

The massive hands locked around the head of the hammer just as the trails of the resulting explosion spewed from between his fingers. Nora gasped as she was lifted off the ground, with Belfor stumbling away whilst wildly swinging her around. Jaune looked around before his gaze fell upon the chair that the Tearjerker had previously been sitting in. Locking eyes with Pyrrha, he nodded to her before making a run for the piece of furniture as she turned her sight back on Naruk. He was watching Belfor silently before his gaze turned back to her, slipping his dagger into the grasp of his gauntlet before holding out his other hand in front of his face. His aura began flickering specifically around the gauntlet for a moment as he raised it.

Pyrrha swapped Milo to its rifle form and took aim as Naruk slowly raised his dagger, but before she could pull the trigger, he swung it down. Being easily six yards away from him, Pyrrha was unprepared for the slash along her back which sent her stumbling forward. As she regained her balance, she watched him rear back with his blade again and tried lining a shot up again before his aura flared around his blade and he swung it through the air. Another slash across her ankle sent her to one knee. Before even trying to stand, she whipped Milo in his direction and fired.

He darted out of the way of the round and began to raise his bare hand in front of his face, but he had to duck beneath Akouo as it sailed over his head. By the time he rose again, Pyrrha was sailing towards him knee first. He crossed his arms to deflect, only for Akouo to slam into the back of his head and send him face first into Pyrrha's knee. He stumbled back as Pyrrha plucked her shield out of the air and charged after him.

Nora refused to let go of her weapon, even once Belfor began swinging her into crates and the floor. Her hands tightened as another collision cracked open another crate and sent a stream of dust to the floor. Belfor's screams echoed throughout the warehouse as his hands picked up speed, and he reared back to slam her into the floor again when a chair smashed into him and threw him off balance again.

"Now Nora!" Jaune yelled out,

Nora swung a hand up to the trigger of Magnhild again and finally the resulting blast managed to blast his hands open. As she fell, she swung down and managed to slam Magnhild into the side of his head again before landing shakily on the ground. Jaune came to her side whilst keeping Belfor in his sight, "You okay?"

"Peachy," Nora grunted as she rose, hands noticeably trembling "but... Ren..."

Jaune looked up to the scaffolding above, Ren still seemed to be moving, but he couldn't be sure. He turned his attention to Pyrrha and the Tearjerker, who once more raised his hand in front of his eye and readied his blade. The way he adjusted it in front of his eye, it almost looked as if he was...measuring something. Pyrrha once more rushed in before his aura could finish flickering, forcing him to back out of the way as she swiped Milo towards him. Jaune noticed him occasionally tilting his head away towards something, and managed to trace his gaze to Belfor.

Jaune didn't have long to think, Belfor was stumbling back to his feet and Naruk's extreme evasion offered by those portals left Pyrrha unable to lock him into one of her usual combos. With all the information he'd managed to cobble together,he pieced together a somewhat educated guess and placed a hand on Nora's shoulder.

"Get Ren out of here."Jaune said carefully, Nora whipped her head around to him.

She seemed ready to agree, but gave a brief glance to Belfor "Can you..?"

"I got something I can try." Jaune reassured her.

She nodded before shifting Magnhild into its grenade Launcher form and running straight at him. Belfor finally steadied himself in time to see Nora rushing him, roaring as he swung a hand down towards her only for her to leap over it, tuck her legs in, and blast him. The resulting explosion sent Belfor stumbling again, while she sailed on top of a nearby shelf and hopped towards the Catwalk.

Belfor growled as he tracked her movements, but a loud clanging beside him dragged his attention to Jaune. He was clanging his sword against his shield rapidly, "Come on!" he goaded him on whilst running by.

Belfor's over sized eye twitched painfully in its two-small socket as he released another scream and began scrambling after him.

Ren was leaning himself against one of the Catwalk's supports, arms tightening around his wound whilst he steadied his breathing. His eyes opened as Nora approached, collapsing to her knees next to him whilst relocating her weapon to her back, "H-How's it look?"

"Bad... place." Ren spoke through measured breaths, eyes looking to the warehouse floor below as Jaune lured Belfor closer to Pyrrha and the Tearjerker "What... is he?"

"No time!" Nora carefully slid an arm and helped him to his feet "I'm getting you out of here."

Jaune briefly spotted her leading Ren along the Catwalk, a tiny grin forming for just a second before a massive hand crashed into the floor beside him and encouraged him to speed up again.

Naruk ducked and darted around Pyrrha's attacks, his own fast enough to slip by Milo but would almost always collide with Akouo before they could find their mark. This trade might've continued if Jaune hadn't ran by, his panicked scramble a prelude to the raging stomps of Belfor who swung his hands wildly after him. Neither Naruk and Pyrrha were fully prepared for him crashing into the midst of their fight, but Pyrrha was able to react far quicker, using her shield to soak up the swing and skid away. Naruk had bet against Belfor's speed and attempted to carve open another portal. The swinging fist slammed to him before he could make one big enough, and was sent flying into a nearby shelf.

Belfor's head tilted to the side in angered confusion, but Pyrrha felt more confused as she lowered her shield.

"What?" she muttered to herself as the Tearjerker rose, almost not noticing Jaune rushing to her side.

"Whatever he did to him, it might's made that big guy stronger but his attacks are wide and wild." Jaune looked up at her "If we keep them close, keeping tabs on the big guy should leave holes in the Tearjerker's stance."

Pyrrha caught on to his meaning and readied Milo "Just be careful, he's able to attack with those portals of his."

Naruk gestured towards them again, sending Belfor charging their way once again. Pyrrha rushed forward,sliding under Belfor's swinging grasps and racing towards Naruk. Jaune rolled out of the way of another swinging fist swiping at Belfor's legs as he followed after his teammate. Pyrrha had already lunged for Naruk before he could use another portal strike, and was just about to raise her shield when the telltale sound off heavy footsteps made her leap and swipe at him with Milo. He deflected the blade with his own and seemed ready to retaliate once she landed on his other side. But he noticed the footsteps too, turning and ducking just as a massive fist sailed over his head in Belfor's attempt to swat Jaune to the ground.

Jaune dove out of the way, but Belfor's momentum carried him towards Pyrrha, who leaped out of his way before switching Milo to a rifle and opening fire. Belfor stumbled under the gunfire, raising his hand in the direction of her bullets instinctively. Pyrrha's eyes widened, for the rounds which struck his massive hands didn't even cause his aura to flicker. Even in his manic state, Belfor seemed to catch on as well. Clasping both hands together in front of him like some kind of shield, he literally barreled right through her gunfire and forced her to leap out of the way before he rammed into a stack of crates.

Jaune meanwhile, was doing his best to keep just out of range of Naruk's dagger while also staying close enough to swipe at him if he tried using that portal strike. This was nowhere near the best strategy, as Naruk's blade started slipping past his guard after only seven strikes. But when Naruk glanced over in Belfor's direction and seemed to hesitate in his attack, Jaune followed his gaze to see Belfor hefting a large crate over his head. As he turned and aimed it towards Pyrrha, Jaune noted what had to be red dust leaking from the edge of the crate.

"Wait!" Naruk cried out, but Belfor bellowed another roar and swung the crate before sending it sailing towards Pyrrha. It was no effort for her to slip out of its way as it passed by, but now it was on a direct collision course for-

Jaune was unprepared for Naruk to suddenly leap on him before using his shield as a springboard to launch himself away. As the crate sailed closer, Jaune moved with the falling motion and held up his shield as the crate collided with a nearby shelf and exploded.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called out before rushing over. Pausing only when she spotted him rising from the smoke whilst giving her a slight wave with his shield. Giving a sigh of relief, she turned to see the flames from the explosion spewed all over the warehouse. That was bad, depending on how many other crates had dust in them, the entire place could go up at any second.

Hearing his approach, Pyrrha dove under another swing of Belfor's massive hands before swiping at him again with Milo, this time he was quick to deflect her blade with his knuckles, the rebound forcing Pyrrha to back away as he dug his hands into the ground and tore up massive chunks off the floor. He spun, the added weight helping him build momentum quickly. Pyrrha found herself re-positioning frequently whilst peppering him with round from outside of his range. Despite all the damage he'd taken, Pyrrha found his aura shockingly stable.

Jaune noticed the exact opposite for the Tearjerkers, who came after him with just as much ferocity. It was as Jaune was doing his best to deflect as much of the absolute onslaught Naruk was subjecting him to that he took note of his somewhat flickering aura. Naruk managed to break through Jaune's guard before he could capitalize on this, slipping past his sword before ramming his head against Jaune's and causing him to stumble away. Jaune shook the stars from his vision just in time to see Naruk's gauntlet shoot towards him before taking hold of his throat and hoisting him into the air.

Naruk through him hard against the ground before spinning his blade in one hand and lunging. Jaune raised his shield and deflected the incoming dagger twice as he tried scrambling away.

Pyrrha noticed his position and narrowed her gaze at Belfor before leaping away from him and circling around to try and help her teammate. Belfor swung his hands before releasing the crushed pieces of floor mid-swing, the momentum slinging the rubble towards her. Pyrrha deflected and weaved, using her semblance to help manuever through the hail of debris before leaping at Naruk. Dagger raised to continue his assault, Naruk noticed the incoming figure and darted back as her spear slashed at some nearby crates. Before she could follow, she spotted Belfor lunging for her again. Rolling out of the way as his massive fist crushed the crate, Pyrrha dove for Naruk before he could finish carving open a portal.

Though he was able to deflect the first strike, her seconds strike landed on his ankle and broke his stance. Whipping Milo around to build momentum, she spun around him before striking again. Though his footing was off, he managed to deflect that as well. But he wasn't prepared for Pyrrha to swing Akouo up into his jaw and launch him into the air before another swipe from Milo sent him spinning towards Belfor, who had just finished prying his fist from the ruined crate. He could barely rise before Pyrrha dropped to one knee, swapped Milo back to its rifle and fired upon the dust leaking from the ruined crate.

Jaune raised his shield as the resulting explosion sent chunks of torn up shelves and flame all over. It sent Naruk hurtling into a table, which he tried to pull himself back to his feet with. But Belfor merely walked out of the explosion with his grotesquely deformed hands clenching and opening over and over again. Pyrrha and Jaune raised their weapons as he released another yell, but they'd let his seemingly endless endurance distract them from Naruk.

Though his aura was barely holding up, Naruk managed to pull himself back to his feet before leaning against the table. Clenching his dagger in his bare hand, Naruk cut open another tiny portal before shoving his other hand into it.

Jaune noticed the flash behind Pyrrha, and was only just beginning to call it out when the fingers of Naruk's jagged gauntlet reached out and took hold of the back off her head. Pyrrha moved to swipe back at him, but then the gauntlet began glowing blue and all of her movements halted immediately. Eyes going wide, Pyrrha's arms fell limp to her sides as her weapons threatened to fall from her slackening grasp.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune called out right before Belfor's fist slammed into his side and sent him rolling away. Jaune rolled onto his hands and knees with a heavy grunt as he watched Belfor release another bestial roar. His eyes then went to Naruk, who grunted before tightening his grip on Pyrrha. Jaune clenched his teeth and pushed himself back to his feet.

"Belfor!" Naruk shouted whilst wincing within the confines of his mask "End her!"

Belfor's head swiveled towards Pyrrha, who continued staring upwards as twin streams of tears began leaking from her eyes. Launching his massive hands to the ground before him, Belfor leaped towards whilst rearing back.

Naruk uttered Black Speech under his breath, sweat forming on his brow from maintaining a gate like this for so long. But even in his weakened state, the clank of metal to his side warned him of danger. Jaune charged into Naruk, who quickly released Pyrrha and yanked his hand back quickly, but he wasn't fast enough.

Pyrrha blinked as the world seemed to fade back into view, the sight of Belfor seconds away from crushing her was enough to snap her back to reality, she dove under him as his fists cracked the floor where she once stood. She spun, wiping the tears from her face before readying her weapons. But then Belfor stumbled, the maddened rage in his eyes fading as a roar erupted from Naruk.

Stumbling away from Jaune, Naruk clenched his teeth as he gripped his gauntlet. Both his pointer and index finger had been partially cutoff once the portal closed on them, and they now lay beside the cracked floor where Pyrrha once stood. As his aura flickered and failed, Belfor's Aura began to shiver as well.

He stumbled towards Naruk as his single, over-sized eye seemed to take in the world around much more capably. Soon that eye turned on Naruk, "What... what did you-?"

The conversation was interrupted as Jaune took his chance and ran for the wounded Tearjerker with his sword raised. Before he could even reach them, the shelf beside Naruk collapsed, and the two gunners from before hopped atop it before raising their guns.

Jaune dove behind the table and Pyrrha raised her shield as both of them were suddenly assaulted with gunfire.

"Time's up!" one of the soldiers shouted before gesturing behind them, where the sniper was shoving a crate into a Dreamer Gate scrawled on an overturned desk.

Naruk immediately bolted, calling back to Belfor as he ran, "After the mission! Grab Lok!"

Though curt, Belfor seemed to get the message and stretched one of his hands to the headless corpse of Lok. Easily taking hold of him, Belfor hopped onto the shelf as the two gunners continued firing.

"No!" Pyrrha shouted before tightening her grip on her shield and charging into the bullet storm with it raised.

Seeing them divert their attention to her, Jaune took hold of a chunk of broken shelf and lobbed it at one of the soldier's heads, throwing off his aim long enough for Pyrrha to rush through the remaining stream of gunfire and leap towards them with Milo reared back. Before she could throw it, she caught sight of the sniper lining up a shot as Belfor finished shoving Lok into the gate.

She raised Akouo just as the round slammed against it, using its force to spin herself and swipe one of the gunners back. She landed while switching Milo to it's rifle form and firing open them just as Naruk and the Sniper vanished into the Gate. The other Soldier switched his rifle to its gunblade form and began deflecting the rounds just as his partner leaped in. Slicing another round out of the air, he leaped back into the Dreamer Gate seconds before it closed.

Pyrrha stared at the closed gate unblinking for some time until a hand found her shoulder. Jaune quickly gestured to the burning warehouse around them, "Pyrrha, they're gone, we need to-!"

"I know." Pyrrha said before standing and turning, "I know..."

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

Outside, Nora had just finished laying Ren against a light post a good several yards from the now burning warehouse. Its smoke now drifted into the sky, and Nora could hear the sound of sirens and ships incoming. But her attention was on the building, and she bit her lip the longer it burned without seeing-

Suddenly her eyes snapped wide open as a chair was sent sailing through one of the windows, and two familiar forms emerged from it, "Guys!"

The first responders arrived just as Pyrrha and Jaune were reuniting with their teammates. At the helm was a ship full of AK-Units which quickly spread around the perimeter as firefighters started rushing to set up their hoses. Shouting commands to the androids was Specialist Maxwell, whose gaze almost immediately fell upon Team JNPR. Frown deepening, he marched towards them. Upon noting Ren's state, he slowed down just enough to wave over some medical responders.

"What's happened." he demanded as they ran by to begin evaluating his wounds. Seeing Ren receiving proper care, Nora was the first to respond.

"We saw them kidnap her! But tried following! Uruks showed up! Teleporting knife! Massive hands!" she spoke in a hurried tone before Maxwell held upa hand in front of her.

"Someone who can speak." he demanded

"What took you so long?" Pyrrha asked while watching the firefighters begin combating the ever-growing blaze "We sent that women to call you guys almost twenty minutes ago."

Maxwell narrowed his gaze at her before shaking his head "The anonymous report which led us here was issued by a male, Ma'am." he stated"About five minutes ago by my count."

"What?" Jaune looked to him with confusion, "but we-"

"You're the team leader, correct?" Maxwell asked

"I- Yes." Jaune stood as straight as he could despite the exhaustion.

Maxwell grumbled as he looked over the scene "Then I suggest you start from the top."

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

"We made it..."

It was one of the gunners who released a chuckle whilst leaning against a stack of crates pilfered from the warehouse.

"Damn kids screwing everything up." the other gunner grumbled as he walked by.

Once they'd entered the Dreamer Gate, several other Storm Soldiers immediately went to work collecting the crates. Among them was Ratlug, looking positively giddy at the resources collected. Naruk groaned as he clenched and relaxed his wounded hand, looking over his chopped fingers with distaste. Turning to Ratlug, he grumbled at the prospect of explaining why there were fewer crates than anticipated. But, as a responsible servant of the Master, he began approaching "Doctor-"

He didn't get far before a pair of massive hands locked around his neck and dragged him into the air.

"You!" Belfor growled as he aimed his claw-like thumbs towards Naruk eyes "The Shrahk did you do to me?! One moment I'm trying to fight and the next, I can't do anything but fight!"

"A... Crest of Rage." Naruk answered whilst gripping at the elongated fingers wrapped around his throat like rope "I figured... it would help..."

"Help? You was in my head!" Belfor shook his head violently "I could barely think! Why would-"

"You helped me... hold them off!" Naruk declared whilst gesturing to him "Without it... even that blonde weakling had the upper hand!"

"Lads!" Ratlug greeted while hopping over a crate to them "Great work out there, and from the looks of things... seems there was even more fun than expected!"

Belfor's eyes went from him to Naruk still struggling in his grasp several times before he released the Scholar and walked away whilst staring at his hands.

"Apologies," Naruk managed to say as he arose before looking to Ratlug "The huntsmen arrived far quicker than expected, we had to scrap the primary objective in order to acquire the-"

"Oh who cares?" Ratlug waved him off while grinning at their collected goods "The only reason you guys had to do all that extra shrahk is because you Mystics can't perfect ya little spells around here."

He folded his arms behind his back and began walking around the pile of crates, "After we put all this to use, you lot will have everything you need to fool around with aura and magics and whatnot, but for now-"

His foot hit something, and Ratlug glanced down at Lok's corpse for a second before giving a whistle, "Well well, I knew them huntsmen had some feisty little pretenders amongst them, but this boy looks absolutely demolished."

Immediately the other three looked to Belfor, who balled his hands into fists before looking back "I crushed his head."

Ratlug nodded for a second, looked down at the body again, then looked back to Belfor with a grin, "Nice."

Turning away, the false doctor gestured to two of his researchers who were busy looking over the crates as they were carted off, "Oi! Have them factory folk see if they can reuse that armor. The day's drawing close and we ain't wasteful around here!"

One of the researchers nodded while puffing on a cigarette, he rubbed at the bags under his eyes before hopping from one crate and approaching Lok. Halfway there another Researcher with an excessively large camera followed after, immediately photographing the corpse much to the displeasure of his partner.

"Gah!" the smoker shielded his eyes before giving a wheezing cough "Would you calm down with that?! Ever since you figured out your semblance you and those damn cameras have been the bane of my existence!"

"Just need the perfect shot~!" the photographer chirped while shooting around the body and taking another picture "Preservation such as this is essential for any and every record-keeper. And words cannot convey a scenario such as-"

"Whatever, I get it." the smoker grumbled before taking another drag which resulted in some more coughing. But during his hacking, he spotted Belfor prying off the rest of his savaged helmet "Oi freshspawn, you gonna need replacements for that stuff?"

Belfor looked back before letting the broken helmet fall to the ground, "No..." he looked back to his hands "I already got everything I need right here."

---

Amity Colosseum

Emerald could feel the tension in the air.

After the News reports labeled Uruks as the cause of that fire in the warehouse district, people were once more calling into question Atlas's capabilities. Not helping was the revelation that the Blue Scarves had been involved, as their growing presence in Vale had been a concern for many inhabitants. Things could've gone worst if Ozpin hadn't stepped up, congratulating the brave students for hurrying to put an end to their activities and calling in reinforcements before the flames could get out of hand.

But despite the General's claims that their forces were on the cusp of setting out for Vacuo, Emerald could practically taste the worry now radiating off the civilians as the Amity Colosseum was preparing for its next day of fights. Despite the reassurance of soldiers and students, there was an underlying tone of fear coming from them. Emerald knew this was technically good for them. They hadn't even had to put their plan into affect and already the masses were a powder keg of anxiety. The Grimm were no doubt gorging themselves off of this tension at the very moment, readying to knock down the kingdom's defenses as soon as the day arrived. But Emerald couldn't help but worry.

Because this wasn't a fear caused by them.

Mercury might've had the confidence to just go with the flow, and Neo seemed too crazy to care, but Emerald had to siphon as much confidence as she could from Cinder. Her unshaken demeanor was Emerald's anchor, now more than ever. Its what helped her maintain her own relaxation as they once more made their way to their seats.

They filed in with the rest of the students, pausing to give their sympathies to Team JNPR. Everyone congratulated them for their heroics yesterday, wishing Ren well in his recovery. Emerald gave her most consoling smile she could before taking her seats, the smile disappearing immediately once her back hit the cushion. As Professor Port and Dr. Oobleck welcomed everyone including the viewers from home, Emerald found her eyes traveling to Ironwood. Though she wasn't a Faunus, any one \with basic eyesight could tell from his posture that he must've been pissed.

Emerald might've found it funny were the context different, big boy Ironwood making all these promises while a bunch of gangsters and fantasy monsters ran around making him look ridiculous. But then she'd remember that those very same gangsters and monsters were acting beyond their control as well, then she'd lean just a bit closer to Cinder to try and match her resilience.

Up above, a holo-screen cycled through the candidates for the first battle. And as if there weren't several dozen threats rocketing through the minds of everyone in attendance, the first rounds began.

---

The Arceus

"War Born!" Kruk roared over a chorus of cheers from on-looking Uruks "That all? That not enough for War!"

Uthug found himself groaning at that, sinking his fist into the last fire-starter before turning towards Kruk. Around them were groaning Uruks, all of them members of Bubol's Boys, and around them was a circle formed by a massive crowd of Uruks. Looking over the cheering, roaring faces, Bubol could hardly believe that a number of them had been those pathetic armored up globs who's been content with their stalemate once he'd first arrived.

Now their armor was much more varied, thin here and bulky there, nothing like the walking bricks they were before. And it wasn't even just them, either. Among the crowd he spotted chef hats and aprons, worn by several Caterers who seemed to realize they'd been pushed back too far. While the majority of them still seemed cowed by Felgrat's lies, the fact that Uthug had to consider some allies now had been annoying at first.

Of course, nothing had even come close to the annoyance that Kruk managed to bring to the table. Just when Uthug felt as though he'd been getting used to the fire-crazed warmonger appearing out of nowhere to fight him, he went ahead and switched it up.

First it was just calling him out, then it was the surprise attacks, then Kruk started setting traps for him specifically, and now he's going and getting other Uruks involved. What Uthug had at first considered a small disagreement about his choice of clothing had turned into a one versus twelve brawl in the middle of one of the captured Caterer slaughterhouses. That brawl was only made worst when Kruk just jumped in halfway through. The influence he'd managed to garner over the rest of Bubol's underlings already honestly stunned both Uthug and Gundza. Already several loons had begun calling themselves Fire-Starters and worshiping flames, and most of them understood how to talk better than him!

I believe it's called: Charisma.

"It's a pain my arse that's what it is.' Uthug grunted before charging towards Kruk who laughed before rushing to meet him.

Watching the brawl from atop a nearby counter was Bubol, who clapped and cooed along with the crowd as he watched Bubol and Kruk throw swings left and right. There was a certain level of pride he took in watching Uthug, like finding a starved Caragor and nursing it back to full-strength by feeding it your still-screaming victims. It was something he'd felt back at the Arena, seeing just how much raw disgust he'd managed to instill within his little Rose. Thinking of her led him to sigh as he looked over the crowd Uruks. So many pleasing, blood-thirsty faces, yet the only one he wanted to see was fresh with eyes filled with rage.

Though he sighed, a smile grew on his lips as he stood upon the shelf, gaze falling to Uthug just as he landed a finishing blow which sent Kruk to the ground amongst his other defeated Fire-Starters. A cheer rose up as Uthug stood tall once more, the cheer matched only by the loud sound of Kruk's laughter. He leaned up while massaging one of the fresh bruises now decorating his burn-marked skin, giving Uthug a thumbs up before eyes started turning towards Bubol.

Bubol had been clapping to, but once the battle ended and the other onlookers let their cheers die down, his only rose in intensity, "Yes! Nothin' like watching too of my most darlin' little lads tear at each other to get the blood flowin'."

Several agreements rose from the crowd as Uthug turned to face him, Kruk rising at his side.

"But I'm thinkin' the blood's been gettin' a little dry nowadays." Bubol declared as he turned and walked along the counter "What with Felgrat's little band of merry folk holin' up. Seems they don't wanna enjoy a nice fight anymore."

"Cowardly!" Kruk shouted, several Fire-Starters ranting about how disgraceful it was

"Seems they don't think they can beat us anymore!" Bubol continued

"Yeah! We's got Black-Cloth!" Uthug heard another voice shout, merely folding his arms as Bubol held his arms out to his sides.

"And ya know what?" Bubol asked the crowd before grinning "They's right. We've had them on the run for weeks, more of their possessions become ours by the day, and even now they plan on holin' up in that fancy eatery of theirs and wait for an openin'."

"No mercy in War!" Kruk held up a fist

"And they damn well know that!" Bubol laughed before pointing over the crowd and lifting his finger above him "So how's about we show Felsy just how right he is to hide?"

---

The crowd cheered for each match, but Weiss could tell something was wrong. If it wasn't the occasional worried expression from one of her classmates then it was tight atmosphere. Most didn't seem inclined to bring it up, with her friends all cheering for the battles below, but Weiss knew this feeling. Back in Atlas, whenever she'd see aristocrats put with people they don't like out of necessity, when their children would gaze at her from safe distances, when she'd quietly wait for her father or Winter to finish talking so she could speak without risk of admonishment.

The context might've been different, but Weiss understood tension like this far better than most. Perhaps that's why it didn't bother her as much as the others.

Ruby for her part, managed to mask her discomfort using the matches, excitedly talking about techniques or weapons the combatants would use. While many could excuse this as Ruby being Ruby, Weiss knew her partner long enough to have a thorough understanding of her method of fangirling. Weiss wasn't exactly keen on calling her out for it, everybody had their way of handling stuff. Besides, Ruby still seemed happy enough about the fights, only diminished somewhat by the Warehouse situation.

When it was revealed that Penny and Ciel would be fighting next, she still seemed to explode with cheer before racing to meet them on their way into the arena. Weiss and Ciel stood by whilst Ruby caught Penny in a tight hug and wished every form of luck she could. Once they returned to their seats, Weiss allowed herself a moment to relax and think about a particular chat she'd had with her sister.

Flynt and Neon faced off with Penny and Ciel as the arena changed around them.

Coco leaned forward in her seat as she watched them stat duking it out, but her eyes kept wandering from the fight over to Team CRDL. Despite her assumption that he'd lose interest in the tournament after they lost, Cardin watched the fight with only a hint of the agitation she'd expected. Sky pointed things out to Cardin as the fight below commenced, miming some of the moves while Cardin answered with either curt replies or shakes of his head. Leaning his feet on the seat in front of him, Dove was the one who noticed Coco watching them. Instead of notifying his teammates, he merely smirked at her before leaning back in his seat and enjoying the show.

Russel was nowhere to be seen.

"Coco?" a question from beside her.

Coco turned to find Velvet looking at her with a worried expression, "Are you okay?"

"Hm? Why?" Coco quickly gave herself a once over "Is something wrong? Did I miss a button while getting-?"

"No... its just that everyone's a little on edge after what happened yesterday." Velvet folded her hands in her lap whilst looking away "And you just seem kind of out of it."

Coco shook her head at that and leaned forward again to watch the fight "Let's just say I'm gettin' a whole lot of perspective nowadays and its not exactly nice."

"...Do you want to talk about it?"

Coco looked over to Velvet, who met her gaze briefly before looking down at her hands "I mean, we're your team so we should be helping if you aren't exactly feeling... cool...right?"

"Oh my god." Coco shook her head in disbelief before reaching over and nudging Fox "Yo, yo Fox. I need you to see our girl being all mature and stuff over here."

Fox groaned, "I'm right here Coco, I can hear you guys just fine."

Coco pouted before leaning forward a bit, "Yats! Yats can you see-?"

"I probably heard better than all of you." Yatsuhashi admitted as he watched the screen above the Arena.

Coco and Velvet shared a laugh just as the second aura reading hit the red and Professor Oobleck declared, "Ooh, Sour note for Flynt!"

"Leaving Ms. Polendina and Ms. Soleil as the victors!" Professor Port declared to a rise of cheers.

In the middle of the Arena, Ceil had to steady her breathing as she carefully rose from behind a broken tree. The entire match had been a whirlwind due solely to Flynt. Ciel had spent the majority of the matches recording Penny's times. As a top student and favorite of every teacher, Penny was practically guaranteed to make it to the final bracket, and the rest of her team knew that. It was for that reason that Ciel had spoken with their Team Leader and gotten the okay to start timing Penny, for if she couldn't be challenged by the actual opponents, the least she could do was challenge herself.

So every match, Ciel would keep track of how quickly she'd win, emphasizing her need to maintain or improve said times if she could keep from getting hit too often. Due to the relentlessness of her attacks, they'd find themselves resulting to this for the majority of the matches.

Flynt changed all that.

Whereas Neon seemed convinced that Penny was the bigger threat and should be dealt with as quickly as possible, Flynt targeted Ciel. She'd been dodging the entire match as he kept sweeping large sections of the arena with that trumpet of his, tearing up the environments and causing Penny to split her attention between covering for Ciel and outmaneuvering Neon. Ciel was sure that such a change of scenario would keep Penny from beating her current record time, but she hadn't even had the chance to start timing her so she considered it an exception.

She'd spent an enormous amount of Aura avoiding Flynt, as her own Abilities relied on Close-Quarters Combat, yet Flynt was able to blow her back whenever she tried to get near. Of course, his focus on Ciel left him vulnerable to Penny, which ultimately led to them winning the fight.

"Are you okay?"

Ciel watched as Penny ran to her side, and was quick to wave her off "I'm fine-"

"But your Aura."

Ciel looked up to see that Flynt had actually managed to nearly eliminate her, and winced at the thought before looking over to him as he picked himself off the ground, "I'm fine, he was just... extremely persistent."

"Flynt! What was that!?" Neon whined as she walked over to him "You said we were going to take down the blade girl first!"

"Call it a random flash of inspiration," Flynt shrugged as he sat back and looked over his trumpet "figured the groove would sound better this way."

"God, what has gotten into you lately?" she pouted before folding her arms "Ever since we got here you've just been acting stranger and stranger."

Flynt smirked and gave her a shrug, but before Neon could continue pressing him, she noticed Penny approaching.

"You both fought well! And your style is most admirable." Penny stated immediately before tapping her fingers together and looking down "If there's no hard feelings, maybe we could hang out together and-"

"Oh my yes!" Neon declared before Penny could finish, quickly rushing up to her and grabbing her shoulders "You were absolutely bomb out there! You have to tell me how you were pulling some of those moves because I'm limber as heck and couldn't even think about some of the stuff you was doing!"

Ciel watched Penny and her laugh and chat with each other, and felt her gazer wander to Flynt as he stood up and loosened his tie. She swallowed carefully, knowing that she'd never hear the end of it from Penny if she tried this. But if a Schnee could see the benefits in those dumb Uruk lessons, then...

"Hey," Flynt called to her as he walked over "sorry about being all up in yo stuff back there."

Ciel shook her head before nodding "No, your strategy was unexpected, but eliminating supporting units before dealing with the main target does remove a certain amount of the risk factor."

Flynt looked down at her before rubbing his eyes, "Supporting Unit? You sure got a way of talkin' about yourself."

Ciel gave a little cough into her hand before shrugging, "I'm merely trying to convey as much accurate information as I can in the most efficient manner."

Flynt tilted his head before shaking it with a chuckle, "Man, I don't even know what kinda music you would get down to." he admitted before rubbing the side of his head "Then again, the tunes haven't been coming to me so well lately, so maybe its just me."

Ciel raised an eyebrow at that, but then Penny walked by with Neon on their way out of the arena, "Oh don't worry about him," Neon waved him off before circling a finger near her head "He's been acting out of it for days now, claimed I was just bein' crazy but if you can see it..."

"I'm sure some good old hanging out would be more than enough to relieve such issues." Penny noted with a laugh as the two continued making for the exit.

Ciel began to follow them, glancing back only when she realized that Flynt was still standing there, "You coming?"

He looked to her just as he finished wrapping his tie around his wrist, "Hm?"

"Though it's not exactly my... preferred past time, Ms. Polendina seems determined to befriend you guys." Ciel began walking again "As her partner, its only fitting to provide aid in such efforts, right?"

"Man... I don't even know anymore."

Ciel paused at that and turned as Flynt began walking in their direction.

"The tunes I've been making have just been so horrible lately," Flynt admitted with a sad smile "kinda been bumming me out lately."

"Oh..." Ciel was not equipped for this. She might've been willing to try out the friend-making thing that Penny seemed so obsessed with, but she never signed up for dealing with someone's emotional turmoil "That's... too bad."

"So when they said I could show everybody today, I figured that would finally help get me out of this funk I'm in." Flynt said whilst looking over his trumpet.

Ciel still couldn't exactly find any words that would be of use to him, so she struggled to continue the conversation "That sounds... nice?" she rubbed at her arm awkwardly whilst turning back to check on Penny and Neon, who were still walking away and chatting, "Show them... what exactly?"

Flynt shrugged before raising his trumpet, "Show them why I cry."

It was the suddenly yelp of pain that reached Penny's ears before the shocked exclamation of, "Good Lord!" that Professor Port released. Whatever it was, her eyes immediately followed the gaze of hundreds of terrified onlookers to look behind her. She saw Ciel drop to one knee while gripping her head, saw a trail of blood cascade down her face from what had to be a devastating head wound, could see her already weakened Aura fizzle out, and watched her turn around in time for Flynt to kick her to the ground before raising his trumpet towards his lips and aiming it towards her.

Before he could blow into it, a blade spun in from the side and slashed his trumpet to the side before its sound waves could end her. Noticing the style of the sword, his eyes rose to see Penny speeding towards him with Neon not far behind, "Flynt!" she called out as screams began erupting from the audience "What are you doing!?"

He paid her no mind and instead raised his foot to bring it down on Ciel's neck, again one of Penny's swords threw his foot off mark. Only this time, Penny charged into him and knocked him right off his feet. The two rolled away as Neon hesitated at Ciel's side. Flynt tried raising his trumpet again, but Penny wrapped her arms and legs around his to restrain him. Even then, pressed against the ground, Flynt still brought his instrument closer to his lips before Neon kicked it out of his hands.

"Flynt!" Neon tried again, choking back a terrified cry as she helped Penny restrain him while Atlesian soldiers and AK-Units surrounded them, "Flynt say something, damn it!"

Penny pressed down harder against him until he stopped struggling, a sigh escaping his lips as his muscles slackened and he seemed to give up, "No... no, it's okay."he sighed to himself as he watched medics rush to Ciel's aid "Of course I'd mess it up... couldn't even do one thing right."

"W-What are you even talking about, dude!?" Neon stammered

Flynt just turned his attention away from Ciel, and looked to one of the screens floating around the Arena displaying him getting surrounded while some others showed Ciel being carried away by medical staff, "Hopefully it was enough to show them, I guess." he sighed again "Probably not, but I gotta believe in somethin'..."

Penny couldn't understand what he was saying, and looked around with him trying to guess at what he meant. But all she could see were panicking, startled members of the audience. The more she looked, the more her frown deepened. The disbelief and confusion marred the features of her friends as they took in the shocking sight...

...a sight which had occurred before the entire world.

---

AN: So I'm back, been quite a while since the last chapter.

I'll be honest and say right here and now that a certain fight scene in this chapter gave me a lot of trouble and led me to burn out and put this on hold far longer than it should've. It got to the point where I could only write a few sentences every week or so, but that's not really an excuse to leave everyone hanging. Let's just say I recently found some motivation after engaging with some other RWBY fans over certain things. A quick session in Shadow of War helped me get back into my groove and voila, here we are over half a year later and I'm just getting around to setting the things I've wanted to do for years into motion.

Despite how pumped I am to get back into the groove of things, my absence has probably left me a little rusty. So I'm leaving a preemptive apology here if this chapter feels a bit rougher compared to my previous works. I'm not sure if I'm able to notice the possible differences in my writing style, but hopefully the material's still good to read. That being said, I'm still surprised by how much popularity this work is getting. Sure its big, but I've seen bigger stuff get next to no response so I'll consider myself lucky, especially considering how much time has passed since I last worked on this.

So in keeping with tradition I'll speak about Naruk.

Though he wasn't part of the original storm gang, his appearance in Shadow of War seemed to mesh so much with theirs that I retroactively wrote his backstory along with theirs. Initially I based his abilities off his traits, and sort of expanded on them in this story's canon. What that means exactly I can't go into detail as that could enter spoiler territory, let's just say that his methods of fighting in this chapter aren't exclusive. His obsession with learning and tendency to buff Uruks around him led me to have to fight him a few times, but every time I'd get close to killing him another Captain would show up and give him an opportunity to escape. While not the most memorable nemesis I've had, it was more than enough to earn him a place in this story.

Anyway, hope you enjoy, any and all criticisms positive or negative are welcomed in full so leave a review or comment if you are so inclined to do. Things you enjoyed about it? Things you hated about 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 Bone-Breaker