Big Issues
AN: This is going to be dark towards the end. I may have sanitized what I had planned but some of what is here will hit some of you hard. I know it was bad enough for me to write what's here, let alone how dark things were in my head when planning this chapter. I don't cry easily but just the initial plans got the waterworks primed. But as I said, it's been watered down yet you can fill in the blanks in your minds on how bad things were.
Also, let's here some cheers for Blake Belladonna for winning her Deathbattle against Mikasa Akerman! I knew she would win! Let's just hope that Sun was watching his tough little kitty kicking some ass!
Cloudspire
The city of Cloudspire got its name from the nearby mountain that was as if Remnant itself was trying to pierce the sky with a spear of rock. While the Spire wasn't located within the city limits, it was the landmark people had used for generations to find the secluded mountain pass that offered excellent protection from the elements and Grimm. The pass was partially made from a canyon created by the nearby river which allowed for travelers' fresh water to drink and swift transport if one had a boat that could handle the fast-running currents and occasional rough patches.
Yet the city never started out with the plan to become one. In fact, it had been a simple safe location to stop and rest when crossing the continent of Sanus. First it was simple travelers, then merchants started using the pass. Soon enough, someone established a permanent residence there and others began to follow suite to cater to the traveling merchants. Within a decade, merchants from across the continent would use the Cloudspire Pass to move their merchandise if sailing wasn't an option.
The increased flow of trade and people eventually caught the eyes of a few wealthy people who wanted to ensure their goods made it through to the established kingdoms of Vale and Vacuo. They collaborated to fortify the growing town, building a series of simple walls and watch towers along the canyon floor where Grimm and bandits alike would be forced to run a gauntlet if they were to have any hope of reaching the wealth or people. With the increase of the defenses, safety brought even more immigrants who were wishing for a fresh start and more businessmen.
When the Great War broke out, the town of Cloudspire did its best to declare itself to be independent of the kingdoms of Vale and Vacuo but the forces of Mantle and Mistral saw it as a chokepoint to cut off supplies between the kingdoms of the continent. A few small skirmishes with scouts forced the hands of the people of Cloudspire and they allied themselves with Vale and Vacuo who in turn, spared a substantial number of resources to further fortify the trade hub.
Wooden palisades were replaced with steel walls. Gun batteries were placed in key locations, including at the top of the canyon. Since the bottom of the valley was becoming crowded, the people had begun building up the walls of the canyon itself. The newly constructed buildings made the soon to be city truly start to reach for the clouds and bridges spanned the gaps connecting homes and businesses from one side to the other.
When the war came to Cloudspire, the people were able to defend it as they had done countless times against the Grimm, only this time there were people. More supplies were dropped in by Cloudspire's allies, allowing the defenders to further fortify and hold off the invading armies. Nearly a dozen times during the war, forces from Mantle and Mistral tried to take Cloudspire to cut the supply line and establish a base from where they could expand their presence. Every time they were repelled by the defiant citizens and guards of the city and the armies were always forced to retreat into ambushes by Vale or Vacuo troops that were lying in wait or attacked their rear to leave them no place to run.
After the War ended and Atlas rose to take the crown from Mantle, the new kingdom had created the Cross Continental Transmit System that was housed within towers at each of the four kingdoms and defended by each kingdom's huntsman academies. Cloudspire did not receive a tower like the kingdoms as the system was only set up for the four towers to maintain communications across the globe and knowing that if any of those four were to fail, global communication would cease and that provided them with plenty of incentive to keep the towers defended. Cloudspire did get lucky that they were among the few cities chosen to host a relay tower instead, while it was nowhere near as important or essential as the four in the kingdoms, it ensured that the city would never be in the dark again.
With the rise of the CCT, business flourished and the city of Cloudspire grew to compensate the fresh abundance of wealth among its people and the new folks who moved there to share in those spoils. When the Faunus War began, the city took in plenty of the Faunus families as refugees and refused to tolerate any discrimination. When the war ended, some of the Faunus moved to Menagerie, others stayed as they remembered the kindness granted when they had nothing. It was one of the few places that the Faunus could feel safe to be, the third best place was probably in Vacuo itself as a culture they didn't really care what you were so long as you could survive and they would say you were welcome. Vale had its own share of issues towards the marginalized species but the general conditions were usually better than what Vacuo could offer, so it was a compromise between comfort and true freedom.
Things were peaceful until the Grimm started attacking. Not that Grimm attacks were unusual but they were far more often with larger numbers. As the frequency of the attacks grew, so did the size of the packs. Soon Cloudspire called for help from their allies, Vale and Vacuo, to assist them in routing these attacks. Since most of the attacks were coming from Vale's side of the mountain city, the kingdom sent a force of two hundred of its Defense Force along with fifty Huntsmen and Huntresses. The hope was that they could draw the Grimm hordes away from Cloudspire and hit them from the back.
Vacuo had managed to scrape together some supplies and Huntsmen of their own and sent them in six armed Bullheads, Team DAIT among them. The supplies were mostly so that the Huntsmen wouldn't have to use what Cloudspire had for its own people, they wanted to self-sufficient for their time there. They'd brought enough food to last them all a month and enough Dust and ammunition for a small army. Which as they were a large group of trained Huntsmen, pretty much were.
Approaching Cloudspire from the west, they could see the darkness that the Grimm brought with them. The entire city was shrouded in shadow as if the Grimm's mere presence was enough to prevent the sunlight from reaching the ground correctly. The sight of Ravagers and Nevermore flying over the city was daunting for the pilots until the lead pilot led an attack on the ground-based Grimm, opening fire with the twin machine guns under the aircrafts. Dozens of Grimm vaporized in seconds before the Bullheads pulled up to engage the flying Grimm who'd begun to notice the machines.
Bullets flew fast into the bodies of Grimm, not just from the Bullheads but from the gun batteries that were still operational as well. With the distraction provided by help from Vacuo, the Grimm in the area were cleared to a manageable level so the aircraft could land safely.
"How bad is the situation?" The large Huntsman from Vacuo yells over the roaring of the guns and Grimm. Bruno stood at nearly eight feet tall and carried a massive axe on his back while wearing a flannel shirt, denim overalls and heavy leather boots. He was also the one in charge of the Vacuo reinforcements.
A soldier near the gun battery ran over to speak. "Believe it or not, this is the good side of the city. Not as many Grimm are over here and nearly all of them fly so we just have to keep them back or wait for them to come close."
"What's the fastest way over?"
The soldier points to a nearby balcony that looks to wrap around the canyon wall. Take that street and follow it, it goes the whole length of the city." With that said he turned his rifle onto a smaller Ravager that was swooping in, unloading a dozen rounds into its body and making it fall into the wall below him, dissipating as it fell from there.
"Alright you lot! You heard the man, let's go!" Bruno began running, followed closely by the Vacuoan Huntsman, Team DAIT among them. A few soldiers began unloading the Bullheads as fast as they could into a nearby building.
"How bad do you think this really is?" Denko asks the older man next to him as they ran.
"Bad enough that a fortified city like this to call for help." The taller man responds, the collapsed sword resting on his lower back.
"That was helpful, Old Man."
"Hey! Don't call me old!"
"Still old enough to be my dad if I had one."
"Ha! It's actually scary to think that I'm the closest thing to a father ya got in the first place."
Itazura rolled her eyes as she ran behind the older men. It was a very old transaction of words that she's heard for years, and had her share of similar discussions with the older man. Her teammates barely knew the man but followed their leader anyway.
Upon reaching the eastern wall, the Huntsmen and Huntresses found chaos. Every gun battery was firing at the airborne Grimm or at the waves of Grimm on the ground. Dozens of soldiers manned the walls and were providing cover fire for the few Huntsmen that were on the ground and doing their best to keep the Grimm away from the walls.
"Damn! Let's get down there and clear these Grimm!" Bruno yells before leaping over the edge of the wall, not bothering to look if the rest of the team was following him or not. The big man landed on the back of an Ursa Major, his force actually breaking its back before his axe whipped through the beasts' neck to kill it.
Other Huntsmen and Huntresses rained down from wall, some of them already firing their weapons as they fell, others waiting until the were within melee range to engage. All the while, the soldiers yelled their support before engaging the battle once more.
Denko landed on the shoulders of an Alpha Beowolf, driving Raijin into its back and sliding the blade through the body to slow his fall. Yet as soon as his feet touched dirt, he had to move as another Beowolf was already attacking him. That was cut off at the waist by his double-edged blade before he dove into the fray, careful to stay back away from the arc of bullets from behind him.
Talon's entrance onto the battlefield was far more dramatic as she swung Karakaze and Sirocco in broad arcs, releasing the effects of the dust stored inside and combining that with her semblance. The resulting gouts of flames and bursts of ice shards cut down the Grimm nearby with ease and clearing the vicinity of the creatures in seconds before jumping towards the incoming mases.
Itazura unloaded both barrels into the skull of a Boarbatusk, slowing her fall and redirecting her momentum allowing the small Faunus to roll over the dissipating Grimm's back and onto her feet. Immediately she had to fire again into the chest of a Beowolf, spinning on her heel to kick another in the leg causing it to trip and become an easy target for a Fire Dust round of buckshot. She had no time to rest as more rushed her, splitting her weapon and flicking out the blades allowed her to deal with the pests easy enough.
Sinners Punishment made short work of the Beowolves that Anya had to deal with, her bladed fists and elbows found weak points as the axe-like edges along her arms hacked through limbs. Her bullets were fired at point blank range for maximum impact, her gauntlets were loaded with explosive rounds this time as there was no time to be wasting with killing their enemies.
A massive, segmented sword swept through the ranks of Grimm, never pausing, it's wielder not afraid of occasionally punching a beast when he had to. If he managed to make room, he'd drop the blade and use the built-in shotguns to great effect. The other roughly two dozen fresh fighters quickly helped to turn the tide, the Grimm being killed slowly began to overshadow those replacing them. Within two hours, most of the Grimm horde had been killed or they retreated, a few of the snipers picking them off at a distance to eliminate the chances of them returning.
"How long have these attacks been going on?" Talon asks, not sure if she'd heard correctly.
The nearby civilian humorlessly laughed, "It's been nearly two weeks now. It seems like there are more of them every day trying to get past our walls. Every day we fight them off. But the fighting is taking its toll on all of us, little sleep, food is getting rationed, we're not trusting of the water because of the Grimm that fall into the river." She trails off as she stares into her bowl of stew.
The caped Huntsman drops to the floor next to Denko with his own bowlful of the stew. The younger man looks over as he sips at the broth. "Any word on the troops from Vale?"
"Yeah, they got blocked from coming here by that horde we were fighting. Started hitting the Grimm from behind. It's a smart move but they also have the supplies and food meant for the city with them." He pauses to eat some potato from the bowl. "They're still about three days out, even if the Grimm weren't in the way."
"But isn't it good that they are distracting the Grimm from the city?" Talon asks. Her bowl empty and licked clean and she was munching on a meal bar. The bar was a standard food item for any traveler, packed with plenty of nutrition and calories for an active person, a variant for Huntsmen was created with double the calories with a few extra essential vitamins and minerals and such for their even more active lifestyle. It also helped that it swelled in the persons stomach so they could feel full for a while rather than feeling the hunger that comes after a small snack.
"It may be good for us in the short-term kid, but it also shows how many of those things are out there." He paused to eat a bit more as the civilian left the room.
"If they are three days out and already fighting, then there must be thousands of Grimm gathered in the region to attack us." Denko summarizes.
"Exactly. The worst is yet to come and we better be ready to move at a moments notice. I don't care if you're in the middle of shitting, pinch it off and get to the frontlines with or without your pants."
"Did you really need to say that while we're eating?" Anya gripes, sending the veteran Huntsman a glare that would leave most sweating but he blew it off with practiced ease.
"Nothing wrong with a little potty humor." Denko shrugs before draining his bowl and grabbing a meal bar from his pack.
"Seriously?" Anya was ignored as the team continued their meal.
Three days later…
"Damn it!" Bruno was yelling again, not that it was anything new. The tall man seemed to nothing but furious as of late, thankfully taking it out on the Grimm which kept coming in greater numbers than the day before. The problem was that the army from Vale was barely able to get any closer before the Grimm stopped them and forced the troops to create a hastily built fort to hunker down in.
"Do you think he's gonna blow his top?" Itazura asks her brother as they watched their leader grumbling insults to everyone and everything he could think of.
"I'd almost feel sorry for any Grimm that gets near him right now." The blonde comments as a few gunshots ring out through the canyon. Unfortunately, the fact that they couldn't go more than half an hour without having to shoot at Grimm had become normal at this point. The cost of being in a warzone, some would call it. It also made it difficult to get some sleep, some soldiers and Huntsmen finding that it was easier to sleep when they simply passed out on their feet from exhaustion, they could at least expect to wake up on a comfortable mattress.
Three more days passed with no end in sight with their battle against the Grimm. The forces from Vale had managed to move closer but it wasn't much as they had to deal with the Grimm horde as well. Night was coming closer and they still had dozens of Grimm near the gates with more lurking in the shadows outside of the range of their guns.
Then they came. A pair of Goliaths. The elephantine Grimm easily smashing through the ruins of the abandoned blockades and guard towers, as they drew closer more of the mounted guns became fixed onto them, peppering them with bullets that did little to nothing to deter the massive beasts.
As the Goliaths swiftly approached with their long legs, the Huntsmen and Huntresses redoubled their efforts to cull the smaller Grimm before retreating back up the wall to relative safety. Some of the soldiers ran off in favor of grabbing bigger guns to deal with the bigger threats while the Grimm began to charge through the hail of gunfire, black smoke beginning to waft behind them as some of the bullets broke through their thick hides. Yet they would not stop.
All of the Huntsmen made it to the top of the wall long before the Goliaths became an immediate danger to them. A few of the smaller Grimm still below were actually killed by their large fellow's feet, either by being kicked with enough force to smash into the walls hard enough to kill them or by simply being stepped on and crushed.
Then they rammed the wall. The first Grimm's head smashing into the reinforced concrete wall with steel plating left the plating crumbled and dented as the structure underneath was reduced to loosened chunks that fell to lower levels of the wall, collecting on the lower walkways.
The second Grimm slammed nearby the first, the guards could hear the concrete cracking beneath their feet. Orders were given to move the mounted guns to safe areas. More orders were made for more fighters to prepare themselves inside the walls in case of a breach.
The Goliaths continued to bash the wall, destabilizing the structure with every hit. The smaller Grimm were of two minds- the obviously younger ones rushed the wall, trying to climb it. Some of them were killed by falling debris, others from gunfire, more than a few were trampled by their larger kin. Huntsmen and soldiers rushed to move the large guns to new locations while also trying to maintain constant fire onto the Grimm to keep them in check. That didn't stop an Alpha Beowolf from leaping up onto the wall and begin digging into the ruined structure. Soon more than a dozen Beowolves were following their leader and chunks of concrete were thrown from the craters to the ground, the Goliaths stood back and let the much smaller Grimm do their work.
Yet, as fast as the Huntsmen could cut down the Grimm, there was always another to replace it. The situation only grew worse as more of the larger guns were removed and their firepower diminished steadily allowing more and more of the beasts of Darkness reach the wall. Most of the guns from the central portion of the wall where the damage was the worst were moved by the time the Goliaths trumpeted and charged once more.
All remaining guns turned onto the Goliath in the lead, peppering its thick hide with Dust and bullets to no avail. The beast slammed into the wall, the structure collapsed onto the elephantine Grimm, burying it in the rubble. If there was any chance of it pulling itself out of the tons of concrete and twisted steel girders, it was lost as the other crushed the rubble under its massive feet and shoved its way through the hole in the wall.
On the other side, it was met with a hail of gunfire from every side along with several rockets. While the bullets did little, the explosives tore open the Goliaths hide allowing for black smoke to pout from the wounds and bullets to penetrate the flesh in the area. It barely began to charge the entrenched soldiers when another wave of rockets hit it, removing a tusk and an ear along with ripping more holes into its skin. The Goliath stumbled and fell to its knees, a nearby building was flattened by its bulk. Several Huntsmen including Denko ran forward to deal as much damage as they could with melee weapons while the beast was nowhere as dangerous as normal.
It didn't mean that it was defenseless, one Huntsman was caught by the trunk and slammed into the ground twice before he was thrown through a third story window nearly a block away. Denko's guandao, Raijin, pierced an open wound in its side, the blonde twisting the thick blade to worsen the damage. Another Huntsman attacked the damaged ear with his daggers, successfully removing the remains before the trunk swatted him like a fly. His aura was able to take the hit for him but the blow did break the protection, leaving him open for the following smacks of the trunk that shattered the ground and crushing the man.
Bruno slashed open a massive pair of gashes with his axe before jamming the butt of his weapon as deep as he could and pulling a trigger, releasing an explosive shell into the Grimm. The result was for the flank to erupt in a fireball that shredded the flesh of the Grimm and killing the beast that gave a strangled trumpet as it died and began to dissolve.
Guns had to be turned to the hole in the wall as the Grimm began to pour through. Fortunately, the hole acted as a funnel, keeping the Grimm from truly overwhelming the defenders of Cloudspire with their sheer numbers. The few guns left on the intact portions of the wall were able to thin the horde a bit.
Everyone and everything were surprised when the pile of rubble began to move, the Grimm on top sliding and falling on the already loose debris. The Huntsmen nearby, wisely began to back away and regroup. Even the Grimm had stopped their attacks, mostly, to stop and stare as the pile continued to shift. Huffing could be heard, followed by plumes of dust were ejected from gaps. The pile moved even more as it began to rise, the remaining Grimm on the pile falling and some were crushed by the falling debris.
Glowing red dots and lines could be seen through the haze of dust that had been kicked up from both the original collapse and the recent shifting of the rubble. A loud trumpeting blew a jet of dust towards the soldiers just before the sounds of loud footsteps crunching stones underneath began moving at them.
The first Goliath had emerged and charged through the dust, bellowing in anger and covered in wounds, rebar and steel beams lodged within its hide even as many of the bony spikes along its back had been broken away. Despite its injuries, it ran through the hail of bullets and smashed through the defensive line, destroying two of the mounted guns and killing several soldiers as they couldn't escape in time.
Talon blasted at the Grimm's legs and swept both of her blades into its already limping back left leg, the Dust enhancing her strikes but the attack did little to hinder the Goliath at all as it pushed on through the streets.
"Team DAIT! Keep after that thing while we deal with this!" Bruno orders as the Grimm flooded through the hole in the wall once more. Talon was already in pursuit, jumping off the wall of a building and taking to the air. Denko, Anya and Itazura chased after their teammate, the latter two firing their weapons when they had a clear line of sight on the massive beast.
"Do you have a plan to deal with this?" Itazura calls to her brother as they were running.
"Just catch up to the damn thing for now!" He responds, his arm guards having blue jagged lines beginning to glow on the normally green surface.
Itazura fired off a few rounds, the Fire Dust exploding against the Goliaths backside but did little to such a large creature. Anya loaded a pair of special vials into a chamber on each gauntlet as she ran, noting that the glowing of Denko's armor had spread to his leg guards and vest, the jagged blue lines standing out against the green protective gear.
Ice shards flew again from the blade of Karakaze, barely sticking into the already wounded hide. Talon kicked off the air again, this time arcing so that she'd land on the Goliaths back, being sure to kick a piece of rebar further into the Grimm. A blast of flames from Sirocco was able to rapidly heat the pieces of metal that were stuck into the beast's flanks, black smoke pouring out from the wounds to contrast sharply with the glowing red metals.
The Goliath tried to scrape the chubby girl off using a building, the walls collapsed inwards from the force and some of the metal stuck in the Grimm tearing through the simple constructs. When Talon simply hopped to the other side and did her best to cut her way into the Grimm with Sirocco's searing blade. It then tried to crush her against one of the portions of the cliff face that had not been built over with similar luck as last time.
Denko finally caught up to the Goliath since it's attempts to get rid of Talon slowed it down, the other girls a few strides behind him. The blue glow continued, lighting up the dark streets around him. Another blast of flames erupted from the Grimm's back, serving as a signal of the incoming danger for those up the empty street, if the trumpeting and the stomping feet didn't do the job.
The Goliath's head seemed to perk up as it made a surprisingly sharp turn onto another road, the few walkways that were in its path were like a child's block wall with as easily as the beast broke through them, Talon managing to avoid being dislodged. Looking to see where the elephantine Grimm was heading, her eyes widened with fear.
"Denko! It's charging one of the shelters!" She yells down to her sole male teammate and leader.
"Damn it!" He curses before yanking Raijin from his back and with an extra burst of speed he managed to use his polearm to vault onto the Grimm, digging the blade into its flank and holding on. Itazura and Anya opened fire on the back leg on the other side, hoping to cripple the creature of darkness.
"Ya got a few seconds!" Talon yells as ice spreads across the Grimm's back from Karakaze, it's Dust chamber nearly emptied from all of the fighting and she only had one spare vial to reload it. Sirocco wasn't much better as she began to melt the metal in and on the beast.
"Get off now!" Denko yells, Talon complied immediately knowing what was about to happen.
Mrs. Slate was an elderly widow who had lived in Cloudspire her entire life. With the current attacks happening, she'd opened her home that was partially dug into the cliff face. Today, she housed many of her elderly friends along with most of their younger grandchildren, almost any child over the age of ten had been drafted to assist in some way to defend their home. Anyone capable of firing a pistol carried one as an emergency measure, the children helping the soldiers varied in their duties from relaying messages, bringing ammunition, food and water, or lending another gun to the fight. Last time Mrs. Slate had heard, nearly all of those children had at least a dozen kills under their belts despite not being on the front lines.
But it was when she'd gotten word that the wall had been breached, fear seemed to take hold of everyone in the city. Yet that was muted by the hope that the soldiers and Huntsmen were keeping the Grimm at bay. The lack of Grimm pouring into the city along with the sound of the guns keeping the air born Grimm out of the city proper kept their hopes alive, even turning into pride.
The sound of heavy footsteps drew the old woman to her window, the loud trumpeting cracking the glass with the sheer volume, and the small earthquakes that shook small objects from the shelves sent the people inside into a panic.
"Get back! Get back to the safe room!" Mrs. Slate orders, the children being herded as quickly as possible to the deepest room by their elders.
Through the window, a bright flash could be seen lighting up the street and even the room she was in with the bright flashing lights accompanied with loud crackling. A strangled grunting trumpet sounded just before the wall exploded inwards.
Denko slowly rose from the ground from where he fell, due to a large stone hitting him in the head. The blue glow had faded from his armor back to its normal green surface. Itazura helping him rise with a hand under his shoulder, the other hand trained on the backside of the Goliath that had fallen into a building.
Screams of pain and cries of sadness echoed from the ruins over the huffing of the Grimm. Anya leapt over the pair to slash Sinners Punishment into the Grimm's stomach over and over again, trying to kill the beast before more damage can be done. Talon dropped from the sky, stabbing her scimitars deep into the flank and unloading fire dust into the wound and setting it alight.
Mrs. Slate managed to push a wooden beam off of her leg, the limb was clearly broken but it was her sense of duty to her charges in the remains of her house that kept her going. She saw the massive creature laying in front of her, its hide as black as the void and white bony mask with red lines across it lay in front of her. Its head was laying right there, by some miracle, her pistol was nearby. Though it could hardly be considered a mere pistol but a hand cannon. She took it in hand before struggling to rise to her relatively good leg, having to wipe the blood running from her scalp away from her eye with her sleeve.
The sound of the gun being cocked seemed to bring the Grimm back to life. Before Mrs. Slate knew what was happening, the Goliaths trunk wrapped itself around her body and lifted her to its face as it rolled onto its knees.
Yet the woman wasn't willing to die without a fight and brought her hand cannon up to level it with the Grimm's eye, the eye widened with recognition of the mistake it had made. "Die you son of a bitch!" Slate says evenly before pulling the trigger. An armor piercing high explosive round was ejected from the barrel and into the glowing red and yellow eye, instantly penetrating the organ and drilling its way deeper into its skull where it exploded. The result was for both eye sockets of the Grimm mask to erupt with viscera as more poured from its mouth before it collapsed and began to dissipate.
Mrs. Slate fell to the ground, being caught by Itazura just before impact. "How bad is it?" The young faunus asks her, knowing that the broken leg and head wound were already a bad combination for the elder.
"Never mind me. Check on the others." Slate orders. Itazura hesitated to lower the woman to the ground but did so anyways, at least making sure to sit the woman against a small slab so she could see and keep her bleeding scalp above her heart so she wouldn't bleed out from that.
Talon and Anya were already trying to dig their way through with Denko limping his way over, using Raijin as a crutch. The cries were much louder without the Grimm to drown them out and the rubble being cleared. Denko stowed his weapon on his back before fighting through the pain in his leg to grab a large beam over his shoulder and heave it away, trusting the girls to move the smaller things as he did.
What they found when they finished digging wasn't pretty. If they had anything in their stomachs, they would have lot their last meal… not that their stomachs didn't try anyway in rection to what they had uncovered. Most of the children were relatively safe. One girls' leg was completely crushed by a rock below the knee, she couldn't have been older than six. Another boy around the same age had a large chunk of wood piercing his left hand. But it was the part where most of the adults were that had suffered the worst, most of the elderly folks having been crushed by the collapsing structure with the best thing to be found that night was the twin infants that were protected by their bodies of their grandparents. The sight of another child and their head split open did not help their mood any.
It was that night that everything changed within the city and the Grimm paid for that change with their lives as the defenders of Cloudspire were galvanized in their resolve to defeat the creatures of darkness. Civilians helped to take care of the bodies and the survivors were moved to a more secure location. Mrs. Slate died from her injuries, being hailed a hero. The hole in the wall was barricaded quickly with whatever could be found during a break in the attacks.
Three days later, ammunition and Dust supplies were starting to run low, forcing the Huntsmen and Huntresses to rely more on melee attacks to compensate. Even most of the soldiers carried some form of melee weapon, usually swords and axes along with their rifles. More civilians were manning the walls and getting their kills in, yet the waves of Grimm never wavered in their attacks. Last stands were being proposed as they were unlikely to last the rest of the week if they didn't get any relief soon.
Denko was on the front lines once again, his experience during this siege had forced his style to become far more efficient to deal with the massive numbers of Grimm coming his way. Beowolf, Ursa, Boarbatusk, Creep, Beringal, Ravager, Nevermore, Death Stalker… it didn't matter anymore, he'd figured out strategies to deal with them all as quickly as possible, even taking out multiple Grimm in a single attack or combination before moving on to repeat the process.
Talon had taken to the air as usual, taking on their arial foes, namely the Nevermore, Ravagers, and Lancers. Her aerial maneuverability allowed her to take the fight to where they normally had the advantage, their surprise causing them to be cut down where other Huntsmen would finish them off or they'd be trampled by their kin. Gouts of flames and shards of ice were able to deal with multiple enemies in a single attack.
Itazura swept through the ranks of Grimm, her small stature proving to be useful as she swung herself around from Grimm to Grimm using her blades to hook onto their limbs and necks and cutting through them as she swung and jumped around with the occasional firing of her shotguns to deal with the creatures quickly. In cases like this, her semblance would be nothing more than a waste of aura.
Anya danced a deadly dance as her bladed arms cut through anything that came within range. Rounds fired from her gauntlets helped to take down her foes at range. She even used her secondary chambers a few times, blasting Grimm back with concentrated bursts of wind that sent them tumbling away or into each other to disrupt their charge.
"Just gotta keep fighting!" A broadsword cut through the neck of a Beringal near Denko as he was occupied stabbing his own blade into the lower jaw of an Ursa Major. The man's tattered red cape fluttered in the wind caused by his movements as he continued to cut down Grimm, occasionally blasting a few with the shotguns.
"I know that!" Denko shouts back, his sister and teammate echoing his sentiment. Moments later, a new sound filled the canyon. As if out of nowhere, a pair of Atlesian Manta airships raced through the canyon from behind the city walls and dropped several bombs each onto the hordes below, killing the Grimm by the dozens with each explosion and stunning many more around them.
"I don't believe it. Atlas is here?" The older swordsman says with disbelief, even as he continued fighting the Grimm around him.
"Didn't think they were invited to the party." Denko scoffs as he beheads a Beowolf without even looking at it.
"They weren't but right now I'm not complaining, Kid."
The flow of Grimm into the canyon seemed to slow as the fighting continued, though the new flock of flying Grimm presented a challenge. Mounted guns… those that were still operational after weeks of near constant use, raised their sights and opened fire. A Queen Lancer could be seen within the new swarm of wasp-like creatures.
Streaks of smoke slammed into the new swarm, erupting into explosions that killed many of the bugs and rocked the Ravagers sensitive ears. A new wing of six Manta's entered the fray, firing another round of missiles into the Queen before opening fire with their rotary cannons on the pawns and bat-like Grimm, dropping them from the sky with ease. The roar of approval from the fighters and their renewed resolve alone were like a hammer taken to the heads of all of the Grimm in the area.
The fighting continued once again, including another bombing run by the Atlas ships. With the flying Grimm occupied or killed by the aircraft, the battle on the ground was able to be turned in favor of the humans and faunus, especially with the mounted guns able to spray their bullets and shells far into the horde to thin them out before they could reach the Huntsmen and soldiers. A group of Manta's began dropping AK-200's onto the battlefield, further bolstering the number of defenders and Grimm began to fall left and right at a faster pace than before.
A number of loud explosions echoed through the canyon, but not from any of the Atlas ships or the Huntsmen and soldiers from Cloudspire. But the panic and desperation from the Grimm gave the fighters some idea of what was going on. Their answer may have taken an additional hour of fighting to arrive but the forces from Vale had finally arrived and now had the Grimm within the canyon caught between rocks and bullets. From there, it didn't take too long for the last Grimm to fall and those in the air to retreat.
The next day…
"So, what took ya all so long?" Bruno was understandably pissed. He'd been denied sleep like everyone else he'd come with for days with constant fighting leaving him exhausted. His current gruffness was his best attempt to be nice.
"Sorry about that. We did tell you over the comms that we were delayed by the Grimm, hundreds of them attacking us at once. Apparently, that was the back end of the mass that was attacking you." The VDF Captain explains. Bruno huffed at the memory. "I know, it's not the best excuse but it is the truth. We lost a lot of men just trying to get here at all."
Bruno relaxed at the mentioning of the lives lost. "We lost a third of the Huntsmen that we came here with, Cloudspire's army is down to a quarter of it's former size, they have a huge hole in one of their main walls, guard towers down the canyon have been completely destroyed... at least the comm relay is still working."
"You only gave general figures for the trained fighters. What about the civilian casualties?" The CO of the big Atlesian ship floating overhead asks, Tom Green.
"Kinda surprised that Atlas actually does care about the little people." Bruno scoffs. "But we lost a lot of people, still counting the dead and missing. Last I heard, the numbers were over three hundred." Silence reigned over the table where the leaders sat to discuss what was going to happen.
The acting top-ranking official of Cloudspire's guards spoke up. "Are any of you going to help us rebuild our city? We won't last long if the Grimm return with the state of our defenses."
"Our orders were to assist Cloudspire with the defense of their city. I think helping you rebuild with what we have will fit our orders." The VDF Captain says with some amount of pride.
"Same here." Tom echoes the sentiment.
"Unfortunately, I have a couple of students from Shade to get back to school here." The comment drew the attention of the Vale and Atlas leaders.
"Students were here?" Tom asks incredulously.
"They are still here. Sore, tired, and hungry but they are here. They are already late for another mission but we all prioritized this, not that our Bullheads would have gotten far with all of the Grimm in the way.
"They had all of this and they are going straight to another mission?" Tom questions, he was no stranger to demanding orders from superiors.
"Eh, from what I hear, it's supposed to be an easier job than this was." Bruno leans back in his chair.
"Hey kid." Denko looked up from his bed to see the familiar older man holding a flask over his head.
"Ain't it a bit early for you to be drinking?" The blonde asks, not even bothering to sit up.
"This ain't for me." The man smirks as he drops the canister onto the boys' chest with a thump.
"Y'know, I don't drink."
"Go ahead and try it. Found a little stash that I'm sure you'd at least wouldn't mind. It also helps that its fairly popular so you can find it later in most bars."
"Really?" Denko grabbed the flask as he sat up, his teammates rolling over in their beds to at least watch the interactions between the men.
"What? Don't you trust me?" The drunkard tipped his chair back to lean against the wall.
"You've given me good reason to question ya." Still, Denko opened the flask and took a sip, finding that it was filled with whiskey with a touch of something sweet. Better than anything else the drunkard had gotten him to try. The older man gave a knowing smirk when Denko took a deeper swig before slipping it into his vest.
"I hope you like your little present, word is that the guys in charge of the city are calling in a Bullhead for ya. Gotta get you four to Beacon, already late as it is." He pulled out his own flask and took a large gulp of his choice of alcohol.
"Got anything for us?" Talon asks, sitting in her sleeping bag and already munching on a ration bar. The girl had a small package bounce off her exposed stomach. She held the bar in her mouth as she picked up the object.
"Swiped that from some Atlas supply crates. Concentrated meals the size of a gumball. That's how their troops are capable of carrying so little for long missions." He explains. "One of those is supposed to be worth two of those bars."
Talon's eyes opened wide as she opened the lid to look at the foodstuffs. Reaching inside she found a piece of paper with some instructions on it. "Th-this is how to make them?"
"They're not exactly any kind of state secret, it was kinda easy to convince one of the girls to get me that."
"They even included how to make different flavors! You're the best!" Talon shot out of her bag and gave the older man a hug, nearly knocking him off of his chair.
When the chubby girl released her hold on him and skipped over to her pack in the corner to tuck her present in a secure pocket, he saw the expectant looks from the other two girls, one far more openly doing so than the other. He found it amusing that they had no issues with him 'helping himself' to a few small things… some old habits die hard.
"I got you covered kids." He pulled another small package from behind his back and tossed it to the dark girl.
Anya caught it with ease and opened the simple wrap job to reveal several metal and glass tubes that resembled bullets with an opening at the small tip. Like her sister, her eyes went wide at what she was holding.
The drunkard took a swig from his flask before having a chuckle. "Yeah, their ship had a mini fabricator on board. Managed to get them to make those for you, I know how hard it's been for you to get more."
"Great, she's gonna be taking samples again." Denko mockingly whines, only to be smacked upside the head by Anya. He gave her an awkward smile and laugh seeing that the normally withdrawn girl looking content with her gift despite trying to glare at him.
A wagging tail and twitching mechanical ears drew his attention to the youngest member of the team. He sighed as he pulled out his scroll and typed in a few commands, Itazura's scroll dinging in response to a message being sent. When she checked what it was, she went still as a statue. Denko took notice of his sisters' lack of reactions and looked back at the man who was making a show of deleting something from his own scroll.
"Do I want to know?" Denko asks, unable to read what was on her screen. It's not that he couldn't read what was there per say, but that it didn't make any sense to him. Then again, he wasn't the best when it came to software. His strengths lay in the hardware aspects of technology, maybe not the best around but better than most.
"Let's just hope she uses that wisely." The older man smirks knowingly as he stuffed his scroll back into his pants pocket.
"You do realize who you're talking about, right?" Talon was skeptical. After all, the little fox on their team was known for pranks and setting traps and finding ways to put people in embarrassing situations. Sometimes that was for her own amusement, other times for when she felt slighted by someone. She did not want to remember what Itazura had done to the two boys in Atlas who'd harassed her last year… by the time they had left the northern kingdom the boys were already going to therapy.
"Are these going away presents?" Anya asks, back to the man as she put her gift in a special pouch she'd wear when dressed in her gear.
He sighed, starting to feel his age a bit as the wear and tear he'd put his body through and with how much bad he'd seen in the world. "Pretty much, yeah. You four are officially off duty, even if there are plenty of Grimm still trying to attack. The good thing is that there are a lot less than anything we've seen since we came here." He rocked his chair back on two legs again.
"Look, you kids are leaving as soon as your ride gets here so don't complain. Take the time to rest and heal. Let the others take care of things for now. Maybe finally get used to those nicknames that the townsfolk gave ya." The last part was said with a huge grin, knowing that they were embarrassed by the names.
"Out of the way!" Someone shouts outside of their door. Looking outside, Itazura, Denko, and Talon saw a boy about twelve on a stretcher with his left arm bloodied and mangled, a tourniquet tied high on his arm to slow the bleeding.
"What happened?" Talon had to ask.
The medic treating the boy as he lay there, waiting for a large shipment to pass so they could continue to the hospital. "A Beowolf managed to slip inside the city, attacked him and nearly ripped his arm off before he killed it." The medic explains quickly. With the path clear once more, they moved on to treat the boy correctly in the already stressed hospital.
"Leave it to the others?" Anya drawls.
"Alright, fine. I get the picture. Your ride is due in today anyway. If you want to feel useful before you leave, you can do a patrol of the inner city. Just make sure you have all of your stuff with you, I hear the pilot's not very patient."
End of story…
"It wasn't too long after that when we were flying our way here. Flew through the night to try to make up for lost time." Itazura finishes.
The room was quiet, surprisingly so for a lounge for students in a full and occupied dorm of teenagers. Nora was holding onto Ren with tears in her eyes, his left arm wrapped around her shoulders as they tried to keep their earliest memories of each other suppressed but the tale of what happened at Cloudspire had forced them to remember, it was all to familiar. Jaune held his head in his hands as he was slumped over, nearly having his head between his knees while Pyrrha sat on the couch next to him rubbing his back and trying to ignore the fact that she was trembling and was hugging her legs as tightly as she could.
Blake stared at the now silent team, wondering how nearly two months ago now they had been pushed to their very limits physically and mentally but had been able to arrive with such bright smiles and personalities. Weiss sat silently in shock of what she'd heard. She was no stranger to seeing reports of what happened to many of the attempts to expand the reach of the kingdoms, most ending in tragedy with few remaining to tell the tale.
Ruby had buried her face into her sisters' shoulder, sobbing and allowing Yang to hug her with one arm to try to comfort the young girl whose innocence seemed to have been stolen by the story. Yet Yang's other arm was occupied holding Denko around the shoulders. Partway through the retelling she'd seen his hands begin to shake and legs bouncing in agitation, her touch seemed to calm him, allowing for the shaking to be controlled.
Then a heavy sigh broke the silence causing the teens to look to the source to find Professor Goodwitch standing by the door. They'd been so wrapped up in what happened at Cloudspire that the hadn't noticed the older Huntress enter the room.
"If you must know, I had noticed that none of you were at dinner tonight and came looking." Glynda explains. "Once I heard what was happening, I made sure that this room was locked to everyone else to ensure that you had your privacy."
"Um… thanks." Denko wasn't sure how to respond, he wasn't feeling the best after recounting the events of that mission.
"If it helps, I have dinner being brought to you now. So, until then you can sit back and try to relax with the scents of these lovely candles." The tubby teacher motioned with her hands, showing that there were several fairly fresh candles burning brightly around the room, releasing a combined scent of a calm, flower filled pond just after a light rain. The sound of twelve stomachs growling was enough to break the previous tension as the calming smells were being taken in.
Glynda walked over to where most of team DAIT were gathered, the female portion gathered on a couch together. "I'm glad that the four of you were able to get that out of your systems, it's not healthy to keep everything bottled up inside you."
"Are you going to tell Ozpin?" Itazura asks quietly.
"I'll only mention that you've gotten some of the stress relieved by talking to your friends about the mission. Though I will bring up some of the portions that were… understandably left out of your reports." She says softly. We've gotten reports from the others, what I heard tonight simply helped to fill some of the blanks from a different viewpoint."
"Okay…"
"Still, if you need to talk about it or anything else… my door will always be open to you. All of you." Glynda assures her students.
A knock at the door drew their attention, the teacher opening it to allow a few of the cooking staff to wheel in a few carts loaded with food and leaving quickly. "Dinner is served." Ms. Goodwitch announces with a smile. Sure, the amount of food that was brought in was a fair bit more than the portions that were normally served since the Issue was identified but sometimes food was a good way to cope on occasion.
In the dorm of Cinder and her posse…
"Have the candles been distributed?" Their leader asks.
Mercury scoffs as he does some sit ups in the corner. "Of course, we got them out. Still have that smell stuck in my nose."
"Good. That should help things stay interesting." Cinder was practically purring.
"What do those candles do if you are so concerned about them?" As always, the male was blunt even if he was smacked in the shoulder by his minty haired teammate, her arm jiggling from the impact a bit.
"No need to be so rough with him, Emerald. You see, these innocent looking candles were created by our associates because we knew that something would be done about the formula that was introduced into the water. Those candles, when burned, will stimulate appetite in anyone who smalls them for a few minutes."
"They couldn't use the same stuff that made everyone fat?" Emerald asks, absently rubbing her pudgy stomach.
"Apparently it wouldn't work like that but that formula is already in nearly everyone at every Huntsman Academy and will be for some time. A little extra food down their gullets should distract them well enough for us to move easier."
"Heh, it sounds like you're trying to make this far too easy." Mercury laughs.
"Perhaps, but I'd like to think that it's fun to keep them guessing and pointing fingers at each other while we take them out from underneath."
AN: I'm not leaving this on a cliffhanger but things will be picking up in the next morning. If anyone remembers how canon went, you'll know that we're getting into some emotionally heavy stuff soon. My little twist on things will make things even more emotional, so be ready for that roller coaster.
Also, you can find some of the art I had commissioned for this story on my page on DA along with some of the chapters having the art integrated into the story for better visualizations of the scenes. So check it out if you like. Yeah, I'm going in for the long haul on this one if I felt the need to commission art for this. Even got permission from other artists to use their work on DA because what they have already fits so well. I'll be doing my own art piece soon for what I have planned in chapter or two... it should be cute.