Hello everyone! How are you doing? I hope you are all doing fine.

Chapter 77 is here and, as always, I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks a lot once more for reading/ following/ favoring the story. I love you all!

See you next week with Ch. 78. Until then, have fun!

"It shouldn't be that thick" Ruby said, moving through the massive fog cloud that engulfed Cornfield. If the lack of complains and innuendos was any indication, her teammates were equally concerned as well.

Unlike Grimmwater, this one was not a dark wall filled in pure malice, but a yellow cloud, mixing the humidity of fog and the sickening aromas of flowers the silver eyed girl had never smelled before, save for a tiny familiar note at the tip of her nostrils. She wasn't an expert, but she was soon she had smelled it before.

Even worse, it stalled their vision and somehow had covered the entire area faster than expected. They had stepped in about five minutes ago but still hadn't reached the city. She suppressed a groan.

"It wasn't as thick when we were staring from above" Weiss added. "It is one of the times where Blake's overcautious nature shines through" she added, staring at the black-haired faunus walking in front.

All four of them wore face masks with a potent dust filter, courtesy of the cat girl who had decided to add them to their required equipment at the last moment, claiming there was no harm in having them around.

"They are not as strong as military-grade ones" Blake explained, proud of her thoughtfulness "but they are better than nothing. If you are so keen on thanking me, I accept a meal at 'All you can Fish', though."

Yang fixed her mask and tried to reply, when a sudden movement on their left caught her eye. She jumped around and opened her mouth to warn the others- until her voice died in her throat.

The image was definitely Grimm; she had been expecting the Gargoyles to try something stupid while they were hampered, but this exceeded any of the possibilities they had discussed before stepping in.

Its tall body was formed by thick lines of dark flesh, in a human-like pattern except for its lack of hands. Instead, its torso ran thick and sturdy, like an oversized dark tree trunk.

It's head- no; heads- were the most horrifying part, however. Three round disks, each one sporting a pair of sinister-looking red eyes that were protected by white plating.

The mouths were wide open. Their edge was jagged so that a series of teeth-like edges were formed by the plating. It slightly curved upwards, resembling a merry smile that chilled her to the bone.

All three circles had a crown of white leaves on their perimeter and were all connected to the main body through three long black necks. The way it stood and formed made Yang think of a tall flower tree.

A wicked, psychotic-looking, murderous, flower tree.

"GUYS!" She jumped back and shouted, regretting the precious time she lost while trying to focus on that wicked monster in front of her. "We saw it; as well as the other four" Ruby's calm voice replied to her.

Yang stared around with the edge of her lilac eyes, careful to not let the Grimm totally out of her sight. Truly, she counted at least ten more heads, albeit a little further away from the one in front of her, gazing at the four huntresses behind the cloud's protection. She gulped.

"What are those things?" "Survive now, ask later" Blake cut Weiss off. All of them had already their weapons at hand, ready to counter any attempt the monsters made to attack them.

The pale girl gripped her swords so hard that her teammates almost heard her skin rub on the handles. "Calm down, baby. I know it is nerve wracking, but we've got this" Yang whispered as tenderly as she could.

"I am not scared" she gritted her teeth, hoping she could make up for her earlier blunder. The blonde focused her eyes on the monster; it was still standing, like those annoying scarecrows from before-

All of a sudden, Yang felt dizzy. "Wha-" she twisted her body to keep her balance, barely managing to avoid falling down. "I feel sick" she heard Ruby complain "what is this?"

Yang felt her skin crawl. What was happening? Her head was spinning, like she was drunk, but that was not the case. She saw Blake spit out to clear her mouth. What was that burning sensation on her skin?

Her eyes started to sting. Was the mask not working? No, that couldn't be possible so soon. Her aura was- falling? She checked her skin. It was dry and… brittle?

Curse my dizziness! I should have realized it! "Guys! They are attacking us with invisible gas!" She screamed at the top of her lungs in order to be heard from behind her mask. "BLOW IT, WEISS!" Ruby screamed.

A surge of dust filled the area as Yang dropped on her knees. She saw the many faces move back as Weiss raised her swords and activated her semblance, forming a massive air rune from below them.

The wind struck with immense ferocity and overwhelming speed; Yang felt her skin welcome the fresh and powerful sensation it carried with.

With a horizontal motion, the alabaster girl directed the current away and created a massive air dome, blowing all fog- and whatever toxic gas those Grimm had infected it with- away.

The area got cleared, letting the girls see the road ahead of them. They were in the middle of a small, paved path, a straight line to the town. It lasted only for a couple seconds, though, before the air started to fade.

A couple seconds was more than enough for them, however. In total synch, all four girls picked a small vial out of their backpacks and drank its contents, enjoying the cool feeling of the toxins in their body being neutralized and their dizziness getting away.

Ruby stared around; the heads had retreated a few meters. "Can you run?" she asked and received three swift confirmations. "To the large building on the right!" she commanded and jumped forward.

With renewed vigor, Ruby whirled Crescent Rose and burst in front of a large head. Petals danced in the yellow-gray mist as a swift cut- skidded in the rock-hard surface of the creature's neck.

Her eyes dilated in recognition. So, that's what you are. Three towering heads turned and rushed at her, jaws open and ready to rip Ruby to shreds. She was reminded of Jurassic Island a second time today.

A graviton-propelled missile, a series of flaming blasts and concentrated fire from a dust hand gun separated ruby's fate from the poor movie character's, as her teammates repelled the enemy while running to her.

"Make an opening! Hit it at full force!" Blake's voice echoed, making Ruby smile. The black-haired beauty had realized what had transpired and made the same plan as her in a split second, informing the others.

It took less than a second for Ruby to flip mid-air and shoot twice at its torso in order to effectively land in front of her team. The moment she did, Yang jumped at her, gold energy glowing at her left arm.

The blonde landed on top of the prized scythe at the exact moment her sister had started spinning around. She swung full force, catapulting the older girl forward towards the massive, yet slow, Grimm.

Covered by a hail of suppressive bullets shot by her partner in order to hold its heads at bay, Yang landed on the creature's trunk-like chest and punched it with immense force, unleashing her stored energy.

A small explosion followed. The monster faltered back silently. Yang jumped away from the deep, painful hole she had just opened on its body, giving the last member of the team a straight line to the target.

Lightning and gravity sizzled. A pale white scarf, now embedded with her new emblem, waved in the surge of power. Weiss' mismatched eyes narrowed as she activated Lightning Stinger and rushed forward.

The attack found the colossal entity in the opening Yang had made and Weiss literally passed through the monster, melting its flesh and bones and causing it to vaporize. She made a quick, graceful pirouette to land.

"Great job; let's go!" Ruby passed by her and the other two girls were next. She followed at once and the team ran towards the nearest house while checking behind their backs for any indication of enemy attack.

"They are not following!" Yang exclaimed. "If what I believe is right, they are a species of Gargoyles" Blake replied. Ruby nodded at her friend who had noticed the hard skin that had repelled her scythe.

"If that's the case, they do not like fair, straightforward fights, if what we saw in the fields is any indication. They prefer ambushes" Weiss added.

"That suits us fine; get in!" their leader pointed to the entrance and, as soon as they all stepped in, Weiss turned around and sealed the door with some earth dust.

The girls exchanged a few stares. "So" Yang said "Grimm looking like palm trees. The world is going crazy." All four of them blinked at each other- and burst out laughing as their nerves finally caught up to them.

-o—

Slowly and carefully, Vivian's small rowboat reached the shore. The woman jumped on the old, rotten wooden planks and stretched her arms to ease her burning muscles before securing her transportation.

Rowing through the mist was a taxing task on its own. Even more, when one was trying to avoid the monsters residing in the city, as well as not awakening test subject 009 sleeping in the lake.

Not to mention, her. Vivian shivered and double-checked the area. It seemed like she wasn't around; that was a good thing. Even thinking about that accursed witch made her blood chill.

Well, I know she always appears when the fog disperses, but one can't be that careful, can they? She thought taking out her rifle and injecting her body with one vial of antitoxin; the run-of-the-mill one was enough.

Carefully, she took a few measured steps in front. The creaking of the half-destroyed planks under her feet slightly unnerved her, but Vivian knew anything worth being afraid of could find her if it needed to.

She used one old pub's wall to provide cover. The destruction was less horrible near the harbor- probably thanks to 009 keeping the large and bulky Gargoyles at bay, forcing them to hunt in the town suburbs.

She licked her lips and made the building's turn before jumping to a set of vines and using them to climb in a slightly higher place while remain hidden. Carefully, she made her way into the former town center.

Finding Gargoyle-free vines was a rare treat here and she would utilize it as much as she could. Being careful to avoid all the pieces of vegetation that carried any form of petals in them, she climbed even higher.

A sudden explosion grabbed her attention. They got ambushed already. She jumped to the top of the vine and quickly took out a pair of custom made binoculars. She adjusted the fog and dust filters and stared north.

As she expected, Vivian saw the outlines of three- no, four- Gargoyle Colossus retreating as team RWBY annihilated a fifth one before they ran to their closest building.

We are a few kilometers away; they seem to be in the old suburbs. It's time for me to go. She made a last thorough check of her situation, like she always did.

The plan had already been formulated in her mind. The only thing she had to do was follow it with as much efficiency and professionalism as she always did since Azure had hired her five years ago.

Her skin and hair were ragged, filled in grime and dust. Check

Her field suit was torn in places, some self-inflicted wounds evident beneath the torn pieces of blood-stained fabric. Check

Her dust cartridges were few and her weapon carefully dirtied to look like it had been in a series of tough fights. Check

Finally, she took out a small ID card from her pockets. She hung it from her muscular neck, making sure it was as visible as it seemed dirty and worn-out.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR VIVIAN CREM

LAKKARD UNIVERSITY- MINERALOGY DEPARTMENT

Check

-o—

It didn't take them more than five minutes to calm down, open their lights, collect their laughter and start checking out the building they had stumbled upon.

The place they had burst into and sealed behind them was a small area with a staircase straight ahead of them leading upwards. Dust, grime and large footprint marks decorated the stairs.

A filthy piece of cloth spread in the floor, the only notable thing besides a series of boxes in the walls left and right of them. Blake cleaned the surface of one of them with her gloves and frowned at her finding.

"These are mail boxes" she turned around to her team. "So, that's a block of flats then" Weiss concluded. "It would be hard to find anything of extreme importance here."

"Well, on the other hand, if any students have survived, this is the best place for them to hide in since it's built to for people to live in; it may be worth a search" Ruby objected, earning a nod of approval from Yang.

"Going ahead then" Blake said, Nightfall always in her hands. Yang and Weiss followed and Ruby went last, her torch always fixed on top of her beloved scythe as she covered the rear of their formation.

The staircase was circular, slimy and grimy and filled in dirt. The only saving grace was the total lack of immense vegetation except for the ever present saprophytes that graced all decaying places.

As they reached the first floor, however, the image that Blake's yellow eyes stumbled upon was far more gruesome. She trekked a little to the right, allowing her teammates to take a view of the horror as well.

The staircase continued its circular ascension to the next floor on their left and on their right it led to the first floor communal hall via a pair of small doors, thus providing some sense of isolation in the residents.

But not anymore. The double doors were smashed, one leaf completely missing and the other one was down on the floor, soaked in the dried blood of a poor resident whose crunched skeleton remained on its top.

The entire communal hall was a mess as well. Claw marks, bite marks, bloodstains and gruesome spatters on the walls filled the girls' vision, accompanying the bones that were viciously scattered all over the area.

There were six apartment doors, all of them torn apart and splintered, thrown on the floor along with other pieces of furniture, mixed with their last owners' remains. Weiss covered her mouth.

Yang held her breath and took one step forward, lantern held in her left arm. There was very light fog covering the area, not enough to hamper any vision. The windows must be broken she thought.

One by one, all four girls moved forward and split into pairs in order to check the apartments more efficiently. The first one was totally empty so Ruby and Weiss quickly moved to the second.

Its door was tossed inside the destroyed living room. Ruby noticed a single headless skeleton lying on the floor, on top of a crashed table, next to an old musket. She shook her head in sorrow.

All of a sudden, a door slammed behind her. The silver-eyed girl turned around and raised her weapon but the only thing she saw was Weiss who was standing in front of the bedroom, her body slightly trembling.

"What's the matter?" she walked to her, but only earned a shook of the pale girl's head "I don't want to discuss it" she replied, blinking away her tears before she stormed out of the flat.

The third one was rather smaller and consisted only of a single room and a door that probably led to the bath. The scattered bones were present here as well, gleaming among the torn table and chairs.

The pair stepped in and started searching for any evidence that one could have recently passed by here. Weiss entered the bathroom and noticed it was barely touched, despite the abandon.

Ruby's attention, however, was picked by something totally different; she knelt in front of a pile of bones, made a few rounds in the room and finally walked to her partner, confusion evident on her face.

"His head is missing" she explained. "Maybe the Grimm ate it; is it that important?" The silver-eyed girl scratched her neck "I found his torso and the head was removed by a jagged axe-like tool" she replied.

"Are you sure?" Ruby's eyes narrowed "when it comes to weapons and weapon marks, yes." "Maybe Azure then?" Weiss proposed "but what could he possibly want with a human skull?" she asked in disgust.

While team White Rose was pondering over the missing skull, team Bumblebee had finished checking out the fourth and fifth apartment, also confronting images of disgust, brutality and sorrow inside them.

Lamenting at the macabre remains she was viewing and trying her best to not let weird illusions fill her mind, Blake led Yang to the final one. Its door was torn horizontally, so both girls had to duck in order to pass by.

"This is larger than the previous ones" the blonde commented, taking in the view. They saw a small salon-kitchen, now filled in footprints and pieces of rotten wood, two more doors indicating the apartment's size.

The surprising thing, however, was that there were no blood splatters or scattered bones. Were the residents able to leave on time? No, the black-haired beauty thought in that case the Grimm would just pass by.

Yang stepped further in. "I see a well-preserved library; care to take a peek?" she pointed to the far side of the salon. Blake nodded and took a few steps towards the indicated array of shelves.

"Folk tales, religion, bedtime stories, unexplained phenomena, Grimm lore… the owner of this place had quite the acquired taste" she said at her partner after a while.

"And quite a lot of money" the reply came from Yang as she came out of the first door "this bathroom is more well-decorated than my entire apartment."

Blake gave a quick smirk and then grabbed a couple books and put her inside her bag "these are quite the rare pieces; I am donating them to New Vale Library" she explained to her grinning partner.

"Preserving knowledge is as important as preserving humanity itself, Yang" the girl's yellow eyes narrowed. "Yeah, yeah I get it don't worry" the reply came "let's get done with this- place?"

The cause for the sudden change in the blonde's voice and demeanor was the view she had just stumbled upon the moment she gazed inside the last door. "Blakey, you have to come here and see this."

The room was once used as a bedroom; that was evident even now that the bed was shredded and split in pieces, the cupboards torn and splintered and the small window crashed, allowing thin mist to pour in.

What perplexed Yang and Blake wasn't that, though. A headless skeleton, viciously slaughtered on top of a pool of dried blood, was in front on a massive altar whose form sent shivers down their spines.

It was made of carved black rock, in an amateurish manner. But that didn't stop them from identifying a series of runic carvings on its arch-like top or seeing the crude forms of plants and crops sculpted on it.

In its middle, the rather large statue of a hooded woman stood, her thick and jagged arms holding a large plate where the usual offerings would be placed on.

Her head was slightly tilted, forming a small lump that protruded out of her back and her short legs were as equally thick as her arms. On the arch above her, Yang noticed a series of phrases covered by the grime.

'Offer your hearts to the Grand Mother- Enjoy her bountiful blessing- She is the one who gives- But she also can take- Her crimson eye sees everything'

For some unregistered reason, the blonde girl felt her body hair stand on edge. Was that something normal to exist fifty years ago?

"I remember reading somewhere that almost 90% of existing human and faunus' religions in Remnant were based on the worship of local-made deities of food, nature, sex and weather" Blake pointed out.

"Even if you say so" Yang continued eying the human-sized rock and the unsettling hooded figure "isn't that a little too much for a person?" her lilac eyes fell on the blood spatters all over it and she shivered again.

"It is but there some quite devoted people out there; you never know what lengths one may go to for their beliefs" the cat-girl replied as she knelt next to the skeleton. "Doesn't that hold true for us as well?"

"Well" the taller girl turned around to stare at her and her eyes fell on the mist-covered broken window "I can't argue with that. Did you find anything important?" she asked, seeing Blake picking up something.

Wordlessly, the yellow- eyed huntress showed Yang a small string. It was made of some durable, black wire. Originally, it should have been full of small yellow glass beads but right now only a couple remained.

"Is that a rosary?" she asked. Blake shook her head in confirmation "the man was so religious that when the Grimm invaded this place he came here to pray instead of trying to leave the area like the others did."

"And was killed while-" Yang felt a serious nausea and took an audible gulp to force the bile down her throat "-they ate him alive while he was praying for his life?" Blake nodded "Grimm do not care about one's-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The sound cut Blake off and made Yang rush to the window. It was a woman scream and, thankfully, didn't belong to their teammates. She held her lantern and searched, grateful that the mist had started fade.

And then she saw her. A short woman in a black field suit was running away from a small herd of scarecrow- no, Gargoyles. She held her rifle in her two arms but seemed to have no intention of fighting them.

"We have to help her!" Yang pointed at Blake who had walked up and stood next to her. Before the faunus could even respond, a red-white whirlwind burst out of the other side of the building and landed down.

"Stay behind us! We will protect you!" Weiss and Ruby took position between the Grimm and the woman. Both of them, as well as their friends up in the flat, failed to see the woman's satisfied smirk though.

Lure them by appealing to their heroic code of honor, Check.