Hello everyone! How have you been doing? I have an important announcement to make; due to me pulling double shifts in work for the next two weeks, there will be no upload of this story on Thursday 25th. For that reason, I am uploading a double chapter today- I hope you enjoy it.
"Ruby… RUBY!" Weiss and Blake immediately sprang into action, the former by shooting fire dust at the floating nightmare and the latter by running towards her team leader.
"Uuuu…" Ruby moaned in Blake's arms, her eyes and mouth quivering in pain. "Ruby, can you hear me?"
"It hurts… but it is warm…am I bleeding?" she asked back. "Yes, but I will stop it" carefully to not hurt Ruby any more, she reached for her emergency kit.
A roar made both of them turn their eyes around as the Grimm swatted Weiss' dust shots away without even putting effort into it, and then turned to Blake, ready to-
"DIEEEEE!" fully clad in gold energy, Yang jumped into the yard, sending a wave of missiles towards it. The explosions made the ground tremble, but she didn't even stop; she knew it wouldn't be enough to take it down.
So, when the smoke cleared to reveal that no harm had been done to the monster, Yang was already on it. She threw a right hook and then furiously slammed her left leg as its ugly head ducked to avoid the punch.
A sharp pain rocked her leg as the enemy snatched her knee with its jaws. "YANG!" Weiss skated towards them but the Grimm needed no more time to slowly let its shadow enter the blonde's mind.
"GAH!" a sharp pain was the only thing Yang said, before her entire world turned to red, anger filling her very being. She didn't even try to resist as the rage enveloped her body.
The Grimm dropped her to the ground and Yang stood up as Weiss stopped just away from her, looking between the hovering entity and her beloved girlfriend whose eyes were glowing like blazing torches.
"Yang…Fireball… please calm down…" the pale girl pleaded, but she didn't hear. She didn't want or need to. She was so unreasonably mad she didn't care about anything else.
Mad at Weiss and Blake for getting beaten by this thing.
Mad at Ruby for rushing forward despite having told them to be careful.
Mad at her own self for failing once more to be there when her teammates needed her.
But most of all, mad at this thing that crawled out of hell and hurt the ones she loved more than her own life.
The Grimm seemed to realize something was off, as instead of waiting for her to attack Weiss it dove forward towards the pair.
Yang's emotional dam broke as she activated the full force of her semblance, her entire body roaring with power.
Weiss moved forward, using the time dilation glyph to add to her lover's attack speed. She then activated Crown, creating a path between the raging inferno and its target.
The Grimm stopped its attack midway, but she paid no mind. Using Ember Celica to propel her body upwards, she ran forward like a comet. A very angry, blazing comet.
The sharp claws raked her body, but the tremendous amount of aura Yang possessed allowed her to reach it without getting skewered. "GO. TO. HELLLLL!"
Her mechanical arm punched Nyctos' other arm away, giving her left one enough time to punch the Grimm's stomach, unleashing a good chunk of her stored power.
A golden explosion followed by a tremendous shockwave blasted the Grimm apart for the second time this night but, unlike before, Yang didn't allow the enemy to recover.
As the figure started reforming, she jumped off Weiss' platform onto its body, sending both of them crash to the ground, forming a large crater in the middle of the yard.
"AAAAAA!" she pounced on it, smashing, punching and kicking, tearing apart away any sort of flesh the Grimm managed to reform. "DIE! DIE! JUST DIE! GO TO HELL!"
She panted, gasped and even coughed blood from the overcharge. Her muscles strained, burning from overheat and the strain. Her mind was boiling as well, her bloodshot eyes focused only on beating up that entity.
Weiss ran forward; she knew this would happen as soon as the enemy had gotten into Yang's mind. She had chosen to assist Yang, hoping her girlfriend's overcharged semblance would be enough to take the thing down.
Seeing the thing effortlessly reform however, she realized she had once more underestimated it. And her Fire Dragon would pay the price if she did nothing.
Yang groaned, her muscles losing power and speed. The black flesh started reforming, her attacks much slower than she wanted to. A large claw swiped at her forehead, nearly rattling her aura.
She bit it, spewing black mud out.
The bone-covered wings sliced at her, making Yang wince in pain. She felt her semblance vanish, as her aura dissipated. The creature hissed in glee, skewering her with its left arm.
Or at least that what would have happened if a white-colored figure hadn't slammed on her first, taking the brunt of the attack.
Suppressing a roar of pain, Weiss used her momentum to make both of them roll on the ground. Behind her, the summoned knight raised its sword to protect them from the enemy as she helped Yang to her feet.
Nyctos made quick work of the hapless summon, before rising up on the sky once more, out of both huntress' reach, visibly unharmed.
"Are you ok?" Weiss sent a side glance to the blonde, smiling as she saw her eyes had returned to its gentle lilac color.
Yang swiped some blood and sweat of her forehead "where are Blake and Rubes?" she asked in worry. "Just behind you" the faunus replied, appearing out of a few rattled tombstones, supporting a hastily yet efficiently bandaged Ruby.
Clutching the remains of Crescent Rose in her left arm, the crimson-tipped girl sent a harsh stare to the floating nightmare that simply hovered far away from them.
"It doesn't even try to hide the fact that it is toying with us" she grimly announced, concealing a wince of pain as she spoke. "Without Crescent Rose there is no way we can shoot it up there."
"And it will take quite some time before I can summon The Queen again" her partner clicked her tongue. Ruby knew that already, as well as the fact that Blake and Yang were not an actual threat from that far.
"Weiss" she turned to her "get Chloe ready." She then let go of Blake, rubbing her neck, her eyes never leaving the Grimm. "Yang, do you have enough strength left to try Bumblebee?"
Her sister raised an eyebrow "it is way out of reach, Rubes. How-" The red girl grinned, her half-bloodied mouth adding a creepy layer to the pure white of her smile.
Nyctos stood in mid-air, its immense power growing as the night grew. It simply had to wait-nothing more nothing less; the humans that stood in front of it would soon be overrun and the others who fled the village would be easy prey after-
"Freezerburn!" a thick, blue mist spread all over the place, covering the four huntresses from its eyes. The Eldergrimm didn't mind, however. It could simply sense them; their pain, their anxiety, their-
A missile shot from the ground, passing through the fog. Nyctos simply folded its wings and blocked it, the explosion doing nothing to its continuously powering-up skin.
Then bullets came; a large spray of bullets from Envelop hit at the Grimm, merely providing a minor annoyance. It didn't even try dodging them; some even sprayed away from its floating form.
Then a series of fire shots went at it; realizing these could actually pose a threat, it used a slam of its bat-wings to propel away. It amused it to no end; toying with its desperate prey.
The thing of nightmares avoided another series of attacks, its black visage flying easily away from the thick shroud of gunfire. It repositioned itself next to the church's tower.
Then the bell rang, sending a loud, eerie sound through the village. "BUMBLEBEE!" the presence of two more mortals behind the large bell was made aware to the Eldergrimm too late.
Yang used the bell's movement to add to her own jump, just as Blake swung Nightfall with all her might. Supported by the unfurled weapon's edge, the blonde huntress was hurled towards her target that turned around to slash at her.
As the sharp claws approached Yang, one of Blake's clones appeared at the edge of the roof, allowing her partner to step on her and maneuver mid-air.
The Grimm opened its jaws to bite at her leg, but this time Yang's mind was clear- and focused.
A shot from her right arm's gun sent her just above the nightmare's head, allowing Yang to land on its back, taking it down with her as she thrust the jagged edge of Blake's weapon through its wings.
The Grimm hissed in pain, as Blake let go of her weapon and jumped off the tower. At the same time, Yang shot upwards, sending them both to crash towards the ground. "Operation; Save Yang!"
Before the monster could turn around, Blake conjured another clone and tackled the blonde away from the Grimm. The huntresses rolled on the ground to avoid the impact, earning a few bruises, but keeping their lives after executing on of Ruby's most dare-devilish plans ever.
Nyctos opened its wings to stop its descent- and got impaled by a large, bluish-white stinger, crashing at the church wall with a mighty shriek.
The huge glyph which the stinger poured out from spun with energy, as Weiss' giant Deathstalker climbed up from it. The whiterose pair rode on its back, Ruby wearing Ember Celica and Weiss holding Envelop.
The scorpion-like summon lowered its left pincer, allowing the Bumblebee duo to climb up on it as well. "Hi Chloe, nice to see you pal" Yang whispered, before crashing on her back, gently supported by Weiss.
"Are you ok, Yang?" she asked her. "Yeah… just exhausted as fuck; this thing is out of this world- I have met Goliaths who were less sturdy."
As another scream came out of the impaled thing, team RWBY stared at their ensnared foe; black liquid oozed out of the circular wound even as the stinger was attached- the first solid hit they had managed to score the entire fight.
As the unearthly shouts continued, Ruby saw the thick miasma around its body increase. "Weiss!" she pointed and her partner realized, making Chloe retract her weapon, coated with Grimm blood at its edge.
"What will it be now?" Ruby whispered, sitting at the base of Chloe's tail, clutching the remains of Crescent Rose. Suddenly, her wounds started burning.
She could feel energy pulsing through them, as if resonating with the primordial power gathering around the place. She gulped; her throat dry and burning.
"Weiss!" cyan eyes turned at her "we have to retreat, now!" Uneasiness spread among the rest of her team; sure, the situation was bad and retreating was definitely a sound plan.
However, for their leader to be requesting them to back away from a monster, it usually meant bad news- very bad news.
But then a loud, cacophonous screech was heard from the woods, as if answering the predator's one. And then another, and another. And then there was movement; but not from the woods.
From the church, figures started moving. Slowly but steadily, horribly slaughtered men, women and children, covered in caked blood came to view, as the Eldergrimm's mist surrounded them.
The hissing miasma entered their bodies, their flesh slowly reforming and turning charcoal-black. Arms became elongated and sharp claws protruded from them.
Team RWBY failed to suppress a scream as the humans' faces started to melt, thick white bone masks forming in front of their heads.
The teeth fell and got replaced by two pairs of blood-red canines, matched only by the fiery color of the pulsing eyes. A pair of long, bat-like ears started growing from their skulls.
"Oh my Dust!" "This…is…" "I don't believe it!" Dozens of Ghouls rose from the bloody field, their eerie howls responding to their kin, slowly moving towards the only remaining living humans of the area.
Chloe dashed. Weiss' brain didn't fail in sending the proper command to her summoned creature and the Giant Deathstalker sped away from the accursed village, as Ghouls started running after it.
Blake took Envelop from Weiss and looked behind them at the pack of hunting monsters. She turned to her teammates; Yang was struggling to stand, her body feeling the aftereffects of all the adrenaline rush from before.
Weiss was sitting on her summons' head, her frightened expression and trembling body indicating she was near exhaustion as well. Ruby had just finished typing in her scroll and stowed it away as she stood up, hands clutching her throat.
"Yang" she walked slowly next to her sister, who had just fallen on her back once more. "Yes, Rubes?"
"Get some rest. I will need you to cover me in a while" she said, moving to the back of their mount. "Ruby, wait! You have no aura!" she screamed; both at her sister and at her body to move "you are injured!"
"You can't move; Weiss has barely enough aura to maintain Chloe and Blake can't hold them all on her own." She cocked Ember Celica, activating its shotgun form. "Still if you get hit-"
"If they climb above Chloe, we are dead" Ruby interrupted her. "If Weiss runs out of aura, we are dead." She gritted her teeth. "At this point, I want you to focus on resting and switching with me when I am out of stamina as well."
She turned to her team, a determined look on her face, as the Ghouls reached closer. Weiss nodded- her face still pale and strained in exhaustion. Yang bit her lips and gave a reluctant ok. Blake walked to the other side of the Deathstalker's back.
"Maintain your ammo as much as possible. Shoot everything that comes too close" Blake cocked dust rounds in the gun and armed it. Both huntresses took aim at the horde- and the shooting commenced.
The first two ones were shot down quickly by Blake, mid-range combat always being her forte. She raised an eyebrow in question when the incendiary rounds blew up their heads and totally charred their remains instead of letting them reform as she expected.
On the other side, Ruby punched in the air and sent a missile to blast away the trio that tried to get on their mount's legs.
Immediately after that, the trio reformed, albeit having lost a lot of ground from the delay.
"Son of Dust…" Ruby murmured, pained gasps escaping her body. She knew Ember Celica's recoil was no joke and she had already used it more times than her injured body was comfortable with.
Two shots afterwards, however, both her body and her pride hurt a lot more than she expected. She shot another one, the explosions meshing with the sound of Blake's gun taking down a few more.
Her entire body now screamed, but Ruby stood. She was the leader of this team; she had faced monstrous adversaries with her team covering her back.
And now, in only two days, she had beaten down her partner and got insta-destroyed by the enemy. Some Leader you are, Rose.
The rustling of leaves on her right, snapped Ruby out of her thoughts. A pair of Ghouls jumped outside of the trees, claws pointed to her throat.
She jumped backwards and shot the first one away, but her right leg literally snapped from the recoil, leaving her wide open.
A split second before the enemy landed on her, however, a golden blur jumped in front of her and delivered a powerful mechanical punch to its gut, throwing it away to crash on a couple more.
Yang turned around, her entire body trembling, as she used her left side to support Ruby's right. "Stupid sis…" she whispered, too hurt to even talk properly.
"Back at you…" They smiled tenderly to each other "left-right, right?" "YuP"
Blake saw the sisters using each other's body as a balancing mechanism as they alternated shots to take care of their own side.
She shot a couple more and quickly reloaded her third cartridge. They are definitely more than expected; when did they all come from?
"Ruby, I don't want to sound negative, but I don't think we can outrun them for long" Weiss' voice was heard from behind. "We- gah- don't need to."
She turned to Weiss "Take a left turn at the passage, and start climbing the hill, towards Cypress Outpost." "Why should we-" the pale girl started but was cut off by her partner.
"All escaping villagers used the main road towards Mangrove; we have to steer the Grimm away from them. And as long as the thing doesn't follow us, we should manage to pull it off."
"That sounds reasonable, but can Cypress Outpost deal with these?" Blake replied as she shot down another enemy. "Blakey…" Yang replied in a pained manner.
"Have you actually forgotten who the two professional huntsmen of Cypress Outpost are?"
-0—
The night sky was filled with fluffy clouds, but the gently falling snow over Cypress, Mangrove City's Huntsmen Outpost, did little to calm down the men who had received Ruby Rose's distress call.
The sound of the emergency alarm for Grimm attack broke through the city, summoning all available huntsmen in the area.
Most of them were still trainees, at their first or second year, having been stationed here for their field practice, so distress among them was not uncommon.
The same thing couldn't be said, however, for a young-looking woman with a bright orange braid and deep turquoise eyes, standing in front of them.
Her white blouse and pink long pair of pants decorated with white hearts were covered by a long black coat with a large pink hammer surrounded by white lightning sewn on its back.
Nora Valkyrie, veteran huntress and commander of Mangrove's strike force, wore her goggles, put her hammer and axe on her back, and straightened her black fingerless gloves before turning to her subordinates.
"All right everyone! Time to break some Grimm Legs!"