[Retrograde]
Pyrrha just can't stop smiling, and why wouldn't she be this happy? Everything is downright perfect, she has food! Even water bottles! With actual water!
"Isn't life grand?" She speaks aloud but In the back of her mind she is panicking, there isn't that much to be happy about right now and this makes no sense– the sound of distant thunder cracks
Her body starts to feel buzzy and really nice, she doesn't like the sudden shift in gears "oh? Is this the water? Its so good!" But again Pyrrha knows its not the water, she checked and filtered everything.
In the dark storage room feeling very secure and safe, Pyrrha decides to sit down and shifts the emergency prepacked backpack for hunter missions to the floor, they last a few weeks without you catching anything in the wilderness and gives you all the tools required to do so.
The air thickens, and Pyrrha has to start taking deeper breaths of this amazing air, it feels great, reminding her of her adventures as a child, the earthy smell of the forest with a sweet fresh water undertone.
A shelf down the line falls over with a large crash, spilling valuable cans and bags. It also hits a pillar, the roof shakes and a bit of the water damaged roof falls off in a hefty chunk, spilling a small beam of light into the room. a very large dark patch in the now dim light shifts up and then back down and seems to end up all the more closer to Pyrrha.
"Oh! Company! I thought I was alone!" Pyrrha giggles uncontrollably "silly me" she tries to get up and greet the guest but her legs feel way too sensitive and she wobbles back to the floor, landing on her back with a small thud.
Laughing Pyrrha just smiles and waves over to the shadow "sowy! sowyy!" Her words slur like a drunk while the shadow oozes into the dim light.
The Grimm was large, fat and old. "A wittle wormy!" Pyrrha gasps in delight. The Alpha was a worm in concept but its mouth opens and puffs out a cloud of gas, exposing the many rows of razor teeth in the process.
The gas wafts over to her and she chokes "your wike that fairy tywle" Pyrrhas senses are shiftng so fast and so sharp at the same time! Her vision starts to follows and colours burst into existence as her eyes betray her too.
"Awice an de wonder wand!" She burst out like she just solved the meaning of life and collapses even further into her position on the floor, laughing her throat raw.
The worm towers over the shelves that Pyrrha just a few minutes before had to tip toe in order to reach the top. Lowering its head and making a loud squelching noise it chomps down on Pyrrhas legs her aura drops steadily.
The worms next row of teeth shift up to grab on as well and digs into her ankle area, the first set let's go and oozes further up before chomping back down, making her knee deep in Grimm worm.
Pyrrha can only laugh "that tickles!" She screeches from the feeling of a good tickle fight and can't help feel like a kid again. The liquids from the worms mouth visibly sizzle and bubble on the cement floor as it drips off her leg.
The dark red eyes of the alpha stare unblinking in the dim light. Just as the third set of teeth grab on and sends all the other sets further up her legs the roof shifts and regular old dust rains down in the pale light.
In her thrashing and laughter Pyrrha accidentally activates her semblance to defend herself from the tickle fest, adding a little bit of force to the roofs iron support beams.
Then it happens all in fast forward as the damaged pillar buckles and the roof follows suit, landing on the very large but squishy Grimm.
Pyrrha just giggles "bwoom!" She motions with her hands in a dazzling shake. The Grimm seems to have taken too much damage, with a metal beams sprouting from it like a pin cushion and the large chunks of rubble melting in puddles of Grimm acids.
The new hole does wonders for the air, cleaning it faster than the Grimm was disapating into a cloud of the darkest mist.
Pyrrha must have been lying on the floor for hours before coming down from her high.
She... Nearly died, right there and she wasn't even defending herself! Her breath quickens as she relives the feeling of helplessness without the Poison? psychedelic? She can finally cry out.
Rolling onto her side she breaks down into tears as she brings up her legs in a fetal position, during the ordeal her aura shattered and there were nasty burns and teeth marks covering her now bare legs.
She was the master of control, in fighting style and semblance, part of her very identity and soul was to be in control of a situation. Never before has she ever felt so vulnerable and she can't stop shaking.
If she had almost any other semblance there she probably wouldn't have managed to do that by accident. Pure fluke, she hated it. Feared it. The room darkens again, this time because of the overcast sky and the slow rainfall that starts to pelt her.
Her eyes widen, not the dark, never the dark! Never again! Panicking she scrambles for her weapon and doesn't even register how damaged it is, seeming to have taken a chunk of roof to the mechanical components.
She unloads a bullet from her rifles magazine, with shaking fingers she prys the shell open and crawls over to some of the wooden crates for fresh produce.
The crates where thankfully out from under the open roof and safe from the rain. Breaking off planks she quickly sets up a fire pit and dangerously lights it with a bit of fire dust.
Pyrrha was shaking and very cold, not only from the wind blowing in from the roof either. She remembers how the teeth and slime were so stark in contrast with each other but both oh so very painful.
One grating her skin in long agonizing lines and leaving her teeth on edge the other spreading the heat everywhere that set her skins nerves on fire.
The way the fires form flickers and shifts, ever changing, reminds Pyrrha of how her eyes molded her surroundings and the Grimm into something less scary. But the fire was warm and bright, she needed those things so badly right now, ultimately trumping the uncertainty it stirs inside.
Pyrrha didn't sleep that rainy night, too busy eying the darkness at the outskirts of the fires light and carefully feeding the flames.
When opening her eyes the following morning she snapped them fully open in an instant, how long was she out? Quickly checking her flanks and the still burning fire she calms down. She doubts her eyes where closed for too long, the last piece of wood she put on the fire wasn't even very burnt.
Her hunger and thirst comes back in full strength and she spies the backback. Thinking it over again she moves her gaze to the shelves, best to keep the backpack for when she needs to move.
Getting up flares her burns and stretches her gouges, making her cry out in pain as she sits back down hastily.
Bringing the backpack around she opens it in search of the emergency medical kit, carefully applying the burn ointment and cleaning her wounds before covering them up with bandages.
Through the act of tending to her wounds her situation becomes ever more apparent and hard to ignore, she is so shaken and scared but she also knows that negative emotions are going to get her killed by swarming Grimm, her survival instincts trumping trauma for now, she decides to go eat to distract herself.
Moving to the shelves is painful but manageable, thanks to the ointments and care applied earlier.
Getting there she finds that some of the canned goods have gone bad and others have not. Inspiration strikes and she gets an idea, maybe she can get the date and find out how long she was asleep.
Cross referencing what dates are expired and what dates are still good she narrows it down to something around fives years. She doesn't think the distaction is working anymore, or maybe too well depending on your point of view.
Slowly eating her canned meat in silence she firms her resolve. She needs a plan, she needs control.
Checking her weapon she confirms that it is busted, it was stuck half way through rifle and sword form, with springs and loading mechanisms nowhere to be seen and some vital structural parts bent beyond repair.
Its useless, the current form not even having a single blade fully extended, looking more like an exotic triangular instrument.
With a deep sigh she puts it down. She can dissemble it later when her wounds and aura heal up. For now she needs functional clothes, getting sick with no aura would make recovery ten times longer.
Pyrrhas best guess for her shields location would be under the collapsed roof, something she can't retrieve without aura and semblance.
She does take a long sharp piece of shelf leg that snaped off from the frame, the metal having sheered into a mean looking edge and point that she has no doubt will cut just as well as any sword or spear.
Having no grip or proper hand hold for her makeshift spear and walking stick hybrid isn't optimal, but she feels a little safer during the small trip to the dorm rooms anyway.
Picking up her backpack she makes her way outside into the now glistening forest, the rain having turned the place into a beautiful scene of nature.
She finds her old room and frowns lightly, it was one of the many rooms that have taken a hit from the fall of beacon. What she quickly identifies as laser damage must have cut into her teams room and took out almost everything.
The bathroom and Jaunes bed seem to be all that remains, she then notices the trunk at the base of his bed, where he stored most of his clothes.
Jackpot, even five years later she finds a plastic bag of old laundry, everything else seems to be ruined. Quickly opening the bag she can't get her restrictive clothes off fast enough.
Pyrrha can't belive it, Jaunes famously comfy clothes didn't even approach their former titles of baggy supreme.
They were form fitting at best now, she supposes Jaune was a little on the thin side, she just chuckles with Weiss in her head going on about blonde and scraggly.
This is exactly what she needed after what she went through, a slice of normalicy. Ending up with tracksuit pants and the biggest shirt Jaune had with a hoodie to top it all off.
All of them mostly shades of blue or grey, terrible with her red hair but she isn't going to any fashion shoots any time soon and thinks she can get away with it.
Then there was the bathroom, no water but it has some luxury goods that at this very moment she couldn't have needed more.
Hair? Brushed. Teeth? Brushed. Pyrrha grabs a fresh soap still in its sealed package from a cabinet and the rest of the goods that have yet to expire before making her way out to the hallway again.
All she can do now is wait to heal before deciding what to do, does she leave to vale? Or stay with the large stash of supplies beacon has to offer?
Pyrrha decides to search more rooms as she thinks on it, maybe she can find something useful as she heals up.
Weiss is still in disbelief for her current situation, five long years of frozen hellsacape with the only thing keeping hopes up being her very greasy dad.
When Weiss first got the news of an attack on atlas and that her sister was injured in the defense she couldn't just sit back in beacon watching Ruby recover or head off to menagerie to investigate the news on Blakes lost parents, so team RWBY split up to cover all of the problems.
Weiss, not interested in anything but her sister, was unprepared for what faced her when she got home. Every important atlesian figure had been assassinated behind the scenes during the defensive battle.
Jacques Schnee being the only council memeber left with nobody in his way and the world in collapse, Grimm flooding the streets and total anarchy with world communication down, he thrived.
The monster was bad before, but the apocalypse seems to have brought out the worst in him. He turned the last of atlas into a dictatorship, using the only dust left to hold power over anyone who wasn't suicidal enough to brave the wilderness.
There was no rest for the people of atlas, with very little food grown locally and relying mostly on imports and exports before the end of the world so they were not prepared for the sudden isolation from the rest of the world.
Weiss would have thought being his daughter would have been worth something in his eyes but she was treated the same as everyone else when he realised she didn't agree with his methods.
The worst thing? He could stop this madness at any point but would not give up his life of comfort, it was all greed.
The cities were dangerous and anyone wanting to survive usually feels like they need an out, but with the wilderness and ocean making traveling basically impossible there was everywhere to go but no way to run.
Jacques Schnee promised just that, an escape. The extensive railroad system that once was used for those exports and imports, the very lifeblood of the old kingdom was now being used as a lure.
He kept the leftovers of humanity on the railroads, in a constant dash across the kingdom, if you wanted out of the cities and towns, his train welcomes you with open arms at the request you earn your place during your stay.
But there was no destination, no end goal. He was just using them as a way to live the rest of his life in the apocalypse with comfort. Talking about comfort, the train was more than just an escape from the dangerous cities, it was the only reliable source of heat too.
The secondary effects of running the train are the old heaters built and designed to keep the engine and pistons from freezing over when docked at stations or just idle outside the city for any emergency.
Weiss didn't believe for a second that the dust they were finding in the scavenging hunts is enough to keep them running the train for this long. There was something even more sinister at play, she just knew that glint to his eyes whenever she brings it up.
When all else fails and order is lost? You get the death sentence, but of course Jacques Schnee can't do hanging or even being shot. You are steamed to death, burnt above the engines deck grating as it heats up the moisture and ice buildup.
Its that very thing Weiss had in mind at this moment in time, she could be the next execution if she wasn't careful. There was a resistance force that was lurking amongst the crew and they were going to try overthrow Jacques Schnee's iron clad rule.
It would not be easy. Jacques was a man with a lot of power, and kept it that way through carefully picking out the strongest members and rewarding loyalty. All of them have swayed to his way. Having the same thoughts as her dad, to use them as a labour force for as long as there is food in atlas to scavenge.
"Ready?" Winter calls out from her bunk bed. "Not really" Weiss mutters as she looks down at her hands "I don't have my weapon or even the freedom to keep fit for battle" Winter nods "that is true for all of us in the resistance, but we are not powerless" she seems to have a lot more resolve than Weiss.
The plan they devised about four years ago was a very long term one, wait until they discovered enough semblances powerful enough to threaten Jacques rule.
They might have found that semblance, A boy capable of regulating water tempretures. It was a lot deadlier than it sounds.
For starters they live in snow, there is no shortage of water, and then there is water inside people too. He didn't even have to worry about Aura, because any tempreture that doesn't technically damage you isn't automatically blocked by aura.
Slowing and hampering muscle movement through low temperatures makes for an immediate combat role and starts to sharply damage aura over time if its pushed to freezing point.
Going the higher temperature route? Dehydration and irritation is a great way to get your opponent to make mistakes. But ultimately the semblance is best used when pushing past the no damage threshold.
The aura has to deal with what amounts to multiple major organ failures constantly, along with the nerve pains.
Its a truly broken semblance at hunter on hunter combat, but the boy was young and an inexperienced fighter, thats where they came into play, the Schnee semblance would be perfect for defending the boy.
And Weiss had a few new tricks up her sleeve, being weaponless was a very large hit to her firepower, leaving her with a need for new fighting capabilities.
So naturally she explored with what she had, which was her own body, her sisters consent to being a glorified guinia pig and then a hereditary semblance.
It took an embarrassingly long time to find new ways to use her sembalance in any meaningful aspect, but she blames the fact that it was hereditary and therefore thought her sister would have known all there was to it, with so many Schnees before her you would think every possible way to use the semblance would have been found and documented.
The chances of herself being the first schnee to find these uses are low so maybe it was too horrific to keep around? Its her best guess anyway.
All her thoughts are sent away as the trains horn blows, signaling the fact they are getting near the next stop.
Looking up she sees Winter poke her head over her bunk again "Its time to make our move" just giving a firm nod Weiss gets up already expecting the knocks that starts rattling her door.
"Time for yer' duty lass, better get into the finest scavenger dress" the mocking voice belonging to none other than Hearbreaker himself.
The man didn't get his name for his romance abilities but rather his semblance. Being one of her dads goons was usually an indecator of how powerful a person is and Heartbreaker was a prime example.
From what they can gather, the semblance is a touch based telekinetic package, with him needing direct skin contact in order to trigger a seemingly single purpose ability. To crush a heart. It was that simple, it applied extreme telekinetic pressure to his victims hearts, a person without aura would have their hearts burst in their chests within seconds.
With aura it takes longer, being able to withstand a solid minute before having their aura shatter, then leaving them to bleed out like a normal civilian.
But all of that would be manageable if not for what Weiss thinks is the worst part of his semblance.
It has a timer on it, he can touch you then activate it as much as he wants for the rest of the day as far as they can tell, probably longer if he is keeping the exact time frame a secret.
He touches everyone before they leave or board the train, nobody on the scavenger hunts can run without being squeezed to death. Thats another aspect they didn't know of, how much range does he have? Too many questions that in the end don't matter, he would be the first to die during the overthrowing.
"Will be out now" Weiss calls out to him before stashing her scavenger gear with a few extra stolen items for today.
The trains breaks start to wine as they slow down, coming in for the small towns station.
Nodding to Winter she makes her way to the door and into the hallway. The train was surprisingly well kept, retaining the modern electrical train aesthetic even through the apocalypse.
There were a few modifications, but those were mostly invisible from the inside, the one modification that was always in the back of her mind was the fact there was only one way off and on the train.
All the carriages have nets of chain mesh keeping pasengers from jumping off as they make their way between carriages, the chains have sheets of armour interlinked like flexible scales too.
Obviously they claim its for protecting the crew from a stray Grimm but nobody is fooled.
Making her way to the exit carriage she nods to the other people forming up with her, they all have a mission today, and its more than just scavenging dust and food.
Locating a boy in the crowd was a simple task and she makes her way over to him "Good morning Theo, are you ready? How's your aura level?" Weiss inquires.
"Yeah, and its full as far as I can tell" he no doubt is talking about how one can vaguely feel their own aura status.
"Good" she gets out before taking a deep breath.
"People of Atlas!" Weiss exclaims to the gathering "We deserve better than this! We deserve freedom!" She concentrates on sounding passionate and summoning a suit of armour behind Heartbreaker at the same time.
He should have no way of knowing, the summoning circle is completely silent, but then another grunt pops out of a room and makes things complicated.
"What's going on here!" The new grunt gains the attention of Heartbreaker just in time for him to see Weiss's incomplete summon. By the gods her luck wasn't starting out so well and today of all days.
Hissing to Theo next to her she spits out "Now would be a great time" just as Heartbreaker takes out his weapon and smashes the suit of armour into aura particles.
He nods and throws up his hands, at first everyone felt the tempteture drop suddenly before Theo focuses his semblance on Heartbreaker.
Weiss watches as the moisture in the air and on the surrounding surfaces freeze over instantly, and how Heartbreakers aura flashes up in a hasty defense.
Weiss snaps out of her stare and moves to set up a failsafe, taking a stolen ice dust shard she puts it on a mobility circle just as she pumps aura into it.
The ice that follows was a little more than Weiss planned for, not having a weapon means her dosage isn't exact.
The hallway is filled with an ice wall in seconds, with Heartbreaker himself being partially frozen into place, his left flank stuck in the unforgiving ice.
"I-" Theo hesitates before Weiss places a hand on his shoulder "for everyone who has suffered and died under their dictatorship" taking a quick breath he nods "for everyone"
The uncontrollable shivering that Heartbreaker falls into looked closer to a stroke than his aura speeding up his bodies heat production.
The ice wall made the whole scene completely silent and all the more discomforting to watch, with Heartbreakers goon trying to pull him out of the wall to no avail, not even having his weapon on him.
Then Heartbreakers aura shatters, red flakes bursting off him in all directions and he goes still. Theo drops to his knees and gasps, Weiss doubts its from any semblance strain, he has demonstrated more strength during scavenger hunts.
Kneeling down Weiss tries to bring Theo to his senses "We aren't done yet, nows not the time to reflect" he looks ready to puke but gets to his feet with the help of Weiss.
Just as the goon was about to abandon the corpse of heartbreaker Weiss summons her suit a second time. It doesn't end well for the unarmed goon.
Weiss prefers to ignore the growing body count and gets her suit of armour to work on cutting a path through the ice wall "Won't be long until the whole train knows we are trying something"
Her suit of armour gets through the ice a moment later and gives them access to the rest of the carriage, but more importantly the carriages beyond that and hopefully even the engine room.
Her sister comes out behind them with a few other passengers "the other carriages are secure, time to meet father" Winter pauses before addressing the rest "okay everyone, these deaths are going to be getting Grimm all over the area to sniff us out, get to the roofs and arm the defenses!"
The crowd of miss matched indevidules all nod or give off sounds of affirmation as they head off to the various ladders. The train has some large atlas battleship secondaries modified into the usual double barreled auto cannon mounts, its crude but works well enough for the situation.
Weiss never questioned where all the spare dust comes from, but she hoped to get answers today.
Two of the passengers from the dispersing crowd stick around, knowing that they are part of the infiltration group.
The small group of imposters all make their way to the next carriage, Weiss using her knight summon to kick down the door.
The startled cries of some goons meet her knight that doesn't slow down after breaching, going on the assault immediately.
The goons open fire with some standard issue atlas hard light rifles, Weiss just blinks her summon out of existence before any damage is sustained.
One of the two guys added to the group with Winter move forward and activate their semblance.
It was interesting, Weiss always thought she wouldn't ever see someone faster than Ruby but Weiss was proven wrong a year ago when this guy unlocked his semblance.
It was a light based semblance, partially turning himself into something resembling a living laser, what made her say partially is the fact he can still deal a lot of kenetic force.
He isn't very heavy at all, but the pure speed is fast enough to make him deadly. And did she mention fast? In a blink of her eyes he takes down the last goon with a double punch go the face, one to shatter his aura the next to grossly mangle his nose.
Dropping dead the goons brain must have been impaled by nose fragments. Weiss pointedly looks around to survey something else.
Living quarters, she suspected as much. What they'd gathered from investigating and cross referencing how many carriages can be seen from outside was thus; they lived in the first few carriages then a lot of storage followed by Jacques own personal carriage and engine room.
That wasn't including anyone other than Jacques group, the civilians all shared a hand full of carriges further back, the exit carriage was considered the wall between the two factions.
Theo, Winter, Weiss and the two other guys take position by the next door, with the same plan as last time Weiss kicks down the door and draws attention to her summon rushing in.
This time, as the light guy rushes in past her knight something goes very wrong, he kinda just flashes brighter then proceeds to explode back to the floor as if hitting a wall of dust.
Landing on a poorly disguised bear trap the rest of his aura goes out with a yellow shatter as the trap clamps down on the side of his body, teeth digging into flesh and organs as soon as his last defense crumbles into aura particles.
Weiss has a really bad feeling about this. She feels safe in her guess that the woman on the other side of the storage room is the problem.
"Where is he!" The woman shouts past the empty room towards the freedom fighters "I swear to the brothers if you hurt him I won't let Jacques steam you, it would rather be a very personal punishment" Weiss thinks she knows who the angry woman is now, Heartbreakers sister.
So was the semblance some kind of telekinetic power too? Invisible exploding walls seems a little far fetched. Then how did she react fast enough for Weiss light based comrade? This is troublesome.
"Theo, save your aura for later let us handle this one" Theo himself doesn't seem so let down by the fact, probably still shaky from his last kill.
Just as Weiss was about to make a quick plan of attack with Winter the other guy taking care of the bleeding out light comrade gets up "bitch! Will make you pay for that!" He deploys a conventional firearm of a machine pistol configuration and opens fire.
The bullets spray wide and start to hit what Weiss quickly identifies as Heartbreakers sisters semblance.
This time its almost visable to the eye with so many points of contact you can see where bullets pass through gaps only to hit another piece of her semblance further down the room.
Thats about all she can observe before her reflexes pull up her arms in a hasty shield to protect weaker flesh, the bullets perform similar to the light guy, exploding into shrapnel and making for a deadly rain of metal bits for anything without aura.
Its the gurgles of the light fighter that make the comrade with a gun stop and look down at what he's done.
Just as everyone looked down to the now dead light based attacker there was a very loud crack that echoed in the metal room of the trains carriage, Weiss is all too familiar with the sound of sniper fire and snaps her head back up to witness heartbreakers sister chamber a new round.
Seems like Heartbreakers sister has no trouble shooting between the invisible defense to hit the machine pistol guy in the shoulder, knocking him and his lose stance off center mass and to the floor.
A second and third shot ring out before a new magazine was needed, not for the poor guy, he was long gone, but to deal with Weiss, Theo and Winter.
"Winter, I think her semblance is redirecting Kenetic force, try butterflies" Weiss can see her nod before getting a huge flock of butterflies to summon and swarm the room.
This was performing two purposes, to scout out cracks in the invisible defense and keep sniper eyes off of themselves in a fog of moving summons so thick you can't see the Schnee sisters in white.
There was something people didn't really realise about the schnee semblance, that it comes with an uncanny and very enhanced sense of their surroundings, the ability to summon out of direct eye sight was incredibly useful.
It also kept them informed exactly where the circles or summons were in relation to their position, making navigation inside a storm of butterflies easier than with a clear sky.
Its like they could map out the floor and walls with their minds, a twisted form of echo location based off touching things with the hereditary semblance.
It was this ability that gave them an edge on any sort of sniper, Weiss grabs Theo's arm and whispers to stick close.
Weiss has a few of her own butterflies mixed amongst Winters swarm just so she can feel out where to go as well.
Winter must have found a flaw in Heartbreakers sister's defense because she directs them towards the left of the room.
"Come on out you Schnee bastards! Stop hiding and face me!" Weiss finds that ironic coming from a sniper with a semblance seemingly having too much drawbacks for an aggressive fighting style, must take some time to set up or something along those lines.
Unlucky for her the Schnee family can mostly ignore her invisible exploding walls. Summoning her suit of armour behind Heartbreakers sister was simple.
After her knight takes a swing and explodes Weiss just sighs in frustration, obviously she would have thought of a backstab. Its also at that moment Theo steps in a bear trap, this one wasn't nearly as bad since he still has high aura levels but it makes him trip up and let out a cry of pain.
Leaving Theo to deal with the trap she just calls back with some advice "don't move and stay low, we will handle this" Theo was already prying open the traps jaws with aura enhanced strength.
It was time for Weiss to pull out one of her new tricks. making sure she knew exactly where Heartbreakers sister was positioned with her own butterflies, she starts to summon a Glyph.
But the thing is, it wasn't under or even above her opponent, nor was it to any of her sides... It was in Heartbreakers sister.
At first it sounds impossible and downright weird but Weiss has a loophole, Aura only protects what a human views as part of their own identify, that includes but is not limited to flesh, blood, body in general and weirdly enough sometimes sentimental clothing and weapons.
None of those are the air you breath, or the hole that is your throat and lungs. Nor is Weiss technically dealing direct damage.
After this realization it was trivial to test it on Winter, and it works, Summoning a Glyph outside of sight and through objects is a big point to the hereditary semblance so Weiss demonstrates exactly how well they can do it.
In her sixth sense that is her semblance she feels the glyph start out microscopical in size and spread out in the fancy spiral motion that is the standard procedure.
Hitting the edge of the throat and aura it gets stuck, not having enough force to do any direct damage but it is fine, all it needs to do is block air flow.
Adding a few more for insurance was just her being paranoid, all along the throat with a bigger one positioned directly inside the lung.
Obviously this doesn't go unnoticed by Heartbreakers sister and the surprise in her eyes was a stark contrast to her past confidence.
She tries moving her head but can't follow through with the motion, Glyfs strong enough to lift humans and sometimes Grimm not giving any leeway for the victim.
Using her Aura to boost her strength Heartbreakers sister uses her lower body strength to pull at the Glyfs inside her body. It felt useless as her feet scraped at the floor for purchase but slipped just before getting any desirable amount of friction, it wasn't like punching or kicking something, there was no body weight behind her strength or even the freedom of movement to wind up some momentum.
It was scary, having this little control, never before has she realised how much she relied on her body being able to move freely.
Then she starts to run out of breath, not being able to breath finally being the forefront of her problems. She understandably panics, thrashing around like a fish out of water she desperately tries to find a way to escape.
Just as the blackness was closing in and her body was starting to eat up Aura instead of oxygen to live she gets a desperate idea.
taking her high caliber sniper she fires into the floor and makes a hole in the train, quickly shoving the gun barrel into the hole she uses that as leverage to get more force behind her struggles.
It works! The Glyfs in her throat are breaking one by one! In a domino effect they lose strength in numbers and fail to hold her in place.
The sudden shift sends her falling, but she couldn't care less, her breathing works again and she takes huge greedy gulps of air into her lungs.
Hackling on the floor she doesn't even see the knight before it kicks her over onto her back and stomps on her chest repeatedly, keeping her winded and working down her Aura levels simultaneously.
N-no... She needs revenge! For her brother! Looking past the tear buildup and pain she sees Winter walking up to her.
Shifting her arms away from the weak defense for the knight she grabs the sniper as a desperate last attempt, knowing that her semblance went down in her panic as well as low Aura.
The feelings are all crushed as the suit of armour shatters the last of her Aura under its boot and Winter follows up with a stab of a stolen sword, plunging it into the base of her neck.
She wanted to swear at the Schnee name so badly, but her life drains faster than she can turn gurgles into bad language. Her brothers embrace finds her soon after.