Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its franchise.
A helpful guide incase you get confused:
"Dialogue."
'Thoughts. Definitely Jaune. 100%, trust me.'
[Semblances]
Chapter 20 - The Real Heroes
Everyone knew of the Grimm; even a child who didn't really know more than a few words would be able to identify a Grimm. They were the enemy. The world might be divided at times, but the only constant was that when the Grimm appeared, everyone would band together to fight the common foe.
It was common sense at this point; the Grimm were bad and needed to be stopped, but the finer details were something that I had only learned recently through reading some of the Aura booklet. They were a plague, really. The lands they inhabited for a long time would turn into their birthing grounds, spawning more and more Grimm with each passing day. Still, while that tidbit had worried me, the only thing I was remembering was the sheer terror fighting the Grimm could be. They knew neither pain, terror nor fatigue; fighting them was like fighting machines that only moved for the purpose of ripping you to shreds.
However, beyond their sheer numbers that they always gathered in and their physical qualities, it was the rate at which Grimm grew that caused sweat to gather on my brow. The Grimm didn't grow stronger like normal creatures. Their strength was measured in age, but this quality was not measured in years but in months if not weeks. They would grow, mutate and evolve into more dangerous creatures simply by existing a week longer than most.
Of course, that came with the caveat that if they failed to mutate or evolve, they would simply die. It was a lucky break, but the sheer number and rate at which they repopulated almost made up for that downside. Although, I am sure that there was more to the Grimm than I had read, the most basic facts were enough to cement them in my head as massive threats.
Which made it reasonable that I panicked a bit when the Grimm appeared before us. I knew that this place was close to the Vale walls, but I hadn't expected to see Grimm down here. All of a sudden, it hit me.
This club was a smuggling ring for the Union. That meant there had to be a path from outside the walls into here. And that meant that the Grimm had a highway directly into the walls.
"That's stupid…" I whispered, realizing that the Union had probably pulled back whatever defenses to combat the sudden assault by the Reds. Which then caused the Grimm to have an opening.
However, figuring out why the Grimm were here was one matter, getting out of here was something else entirely.
"Great, I was looking for something to punch." Yang's sudden entrance into my thoughts caused me to pause. I stared at the girl out of the corner of my eye and tried not to look too disturbed by the savage grin that made its way across her lips.
"Is now really the time to satisfy your violent urges, swine?" Melanie's words only caused the blonde girl to frown in her direction.
I sighed. 'Could they pick a better place to do this? Preferably when we're not between a mass murderer and the literal embodiment of death in Remnant?'
Slowly, a thought came to my head and I pursed my lips in worry. 'Yang's Semblance seems to disturb her mental state the longer this goes on… and Melanie is just that caustic when stressed. They are certainly not going to help each other. There is a need to cut in before it gets worse.'
"Now is not the time, you two." I cut between them, physically putting myself in the middle of their argument. Yang huffed, staring hungrily at the swarm of Grimm that were just now noticing us.
And that was certainly another fright by itself. It was like some message had been sent through the entire horde as thousands of red eyes turned towards us before the mass of bodies began charging towards us as one.
"Weston," I snapped to the member of the Reds. The hulking armored figure cut quite an intimidating visage now that I was looking at him close up, but I honestly couldn't really fear him like Lilac or Arie. "Can you use your pillars to make a wall? One with a small gap, if you can."
Weston nodded immediately, but paused as his eyes looked at the frozen Lilac floating next to me. I clicked my tongue, knowing what he was going to say. However, I wasn't given enough time to think this through as the Grimm were already breathing down our necks despite how calm we were trying to be.
"Jaune! Incoming!" Melanie's voice tore me out of my thoughts instantly, and I spun on a dime, shifting my upper body through the stasis applied to my shirt.
I briefly caught the sight of five white talons the size of my fingers brushing close to my face before the sound of a gunshot rang in my ears. The Grimm that had nearly torn me another hole to breathe from has suddenly been launched off into the horde, knocking several creatures to the floor for the horde to trample to death an instant later. I gulped a shallow breath as I stared at the distinctive black smoke that wafted into the air as the bodies of dead Grimm slowly disappeared.
"Watch your back, Blondie." Yang tapped my shoulder with her fist, rubbing some black blood that had come from the Grimm she just punched to oblivion onto me. The blood soon evaporated along with the body that had disappeared, too.
"I'll free her." I said without turning, knowing Weston was already paying attention. While it grated me to let go of Lilac after I put in so much effort, the Grimm killing us was a higher priority in my head.
Though, the Reds knowing my identity was a bit concerning. The situation now was more important; just thinking about the Grimm breaching into Vale was already bad enough. In the end, I had paid the price for my arrogance once again. I had thought I knew enough about Lilac to beat her without revealing too much, and forgoing a mask was only another tick in my head.
The plan had seemed perfect. Weston's Semblance was perfect for capturing Lilac when she was unprepared, and I would be able to subdue her easily by countering her attempts to go intangible. Of course, the plan quickly fell apart when I realized just how insane her reflexes were. If anything, those should be a Semblance by themselves.
I shook my head, trying to forget about how dumb I was being. Once again, I screwed things up by thinking I was better than I actually was. Maybe Alexander was right about me, after all.
I was given no time to brood as almost instantly the effect of my words were seen. Five large, concrete pillars slammed into the unceasing tide of creatures. They formed a makeshift barrier that prevented the majority of the horde from surrounding us as we pressed our backs near the wall.
Yang had taken to meeting the Grimm that came through the cracks in our barricades, punching them so hard that I swore I saw one of the wolf-like, bipedal Grimm almost lose its head to a nasty uppercut. I tasted gunpowder in the air with every one of her punches as the gauntlets she wore had somehow been mixed with shotguns of all things.
'That's definitely a Huntsman weapon…' I mused idly, finally getting a moment to take in the whole scene.
We were in… not the most ideal of situations. Honestly, that was putting it lightly. I couldn't see an end to the Grimm that were flooding into the place from the tunnel, and to make matters worse we were all a bit tired from our previous fighting.
Yang was holding on, but I wasn't sure how much that was her Semblance reinforcing her or her stamina. Either way, there was a limit to them in such a situation. Melanie, on the other hand, was busy catching her breath as Yang took the brunt of the work. Weston was obviously continuously expending Aura to fuel his Semblance in order to give us some respite, so the only option I was seeing was something I hadn't thought I needed to say.
"We need to escape." I said aloud.
"Great idea!" Yang yelled, punching another Grimm that made its way through the barricade. "You want some of this?!" She screamed as another Grimm was blasted by a series of punches.
Melanie huffed, getting up and began trying to divide the Grimm between her and Yang with sharp kicks powered by her inner Aura. I also put in my own couple bits of effort, using the frozen Lilac as a sort of bludgeon to any Grimm that poked their heads through the gaps in our defense. Each swing nearly caused me to double over in pain as a pinch in my ribs alerted me that, yes, I still hadn't recovered from the beating I had endured earlier. It didn't help as Weston's gaze was burning a hole in my back as I swung his teammate around, and I knew that what I was doing was probably only allowed because he knew that literally nothing could affect those put in stasis.
Well, unless you could somehow affect both time and gravity at the same moment, but… right, back to whacking the Grimm like some demented game of whack-a-mole. It would've been comical if I hadn't been terrified out of my mind for the past couple minutes.
However, no matter how hard they worked. There was no end. More Grimm charged behind the ones that died. More bodies fell to the floor, slowly adding to the black smog that was beginning to stain the room as more corpses started to evaporate.
More and more black bodies were pushing against the immovable pillars, crushing the smaller, weaker Grimm with the sheer weight of the horde behind them. They died simply by charging at us, but slowly the gaps we could see were being covered by more and more black. It was suffocating.
Another white pain jammed into my side as I swung my makeshift prisoner/weapon, snapping the neck of a Grimm that got through. This was a losing battle, and we were losing fast. I paused for a moment to catch my breath, looking at Lilac's wrists for a second.
Against my better wishes, her bombs were probably one of the better options right now. I was injured, Melanie was exhausted, and Weston seemed to be struggling to hold back the horde. The only one who was remotely okay was Yang, but she was only getting by.
I pulled back to Weston, catching the gaze of the massive man. He was focused on keeping the frozen pillars in their correct orientations, and I could see sweat beginning to coat his forehead as he held his hands outstretched in concentration. I knew his Semblance didn't really need other motions to control it, but I chalked it up to how the man trained his Semblance.
"I'm going to release Lilac." I said to him as he grunted. His answer was expected at this point, but I continued to stare at him to drive my point further. "Make sure she doesn't try to attack me. Okay?"
The big guy shifted, and nodded. His voice was soft and quiet against the din of combat behind me. "Okay."
That was all I needed before I got up and controlled Lilac's frozen body to float next to her teammate. Slowly, I felt the Semblance release her from its stasis, and the girl reacted immediately.
"D'mmit!" She yelled past her broken nose, falling to the floor as her feet met the ground. Her fiery eyes lasered on me, and I readied myself before her gaze traveled behind me to both Yang and Melanie holding off the Grimm that were getting through the cracks of our makeshift barricades.
"Glad you could make it!" Yang yelled from behind me, and I heard her words accented by gunshots. I had no doubt that she was punching some Grimm's face in, but taking my eyes off off the angry mass murderer in order to check was an idiotic decision. "How! Was! The! Beauty-"
"Shut up and just kill the Beowolves faster!" Melanie cut in as Yang emphasized each word with a grunt and a loud bang.
"I was just making a joke!"
"Now is not time for that, you dumb bimbo!"
"What did you say?!"
Lilac stared as the two went off to argue while fighting. This was embarrassing. I blamed Yang's Semblance for half of it.
Lilac finally tore her eyes off me, and turned to check Weston's body. She patted the larger man's armor as if checking for any nicks and cuts. That gave me pause as I watched them interact. I didn't move to stop them. The action struck me more like an older sibling checking over their younger brother than two mass murderers conspiring something.
After she found nothing wrong, she finally acknowledged that I was still staring at her. She glared back at me with baleful green eyes before bringing a hand up and snapping her broken nose back into place with a spine-chilling snap. I flinched as she snorted a glob of snot and blood, and then walked up to me.
We stared at each other for a second until she shouldered past me. "Let's just get out of this first."
"Good for me." I said, breathing an internal sigh of relief.
"Hey, M!" Lilac yelled into the air. She glanced at me for a moment, and shook her head at my unasked question. "I know you can hear this shit. Go call some Defender Huntsmen or whatever."
"Um… what was-"
Lilac turned back to me. "Friend."
"Fair." I said, filing away that information. The Reds had someone who could hear us despite being so far away, and that put some serious concerns at the front of my thoughts. How did you even protect yourself from someone who could do that?
I sighed and focused back on the Grimm attacking us. With the addition of Lilac, things began to change almost instantly. She snapped off the red marbles from her wrists, and easily threw them through the gaps of our barricades into the crowd of Grimm. Seconds later, explosions rocked the crowd of moving bodies, sending their broken bodies flying and clearing out large sections in front of us.
It was a welcome change to the scene. The Grimm nearest to us were cleared out, and I was given the chilling image of the rest of the room. Everything my eyes could see was a mass of black bodies with interspersed pieces of bleached bone as contrast. Blood red eyes flashed within the crowd, staring at us hungrily.
There were no longer any spaces without Grimm except our corner, and the creatures were even climbing onto the walls, digging their claws into the concrete and even scaling up the ceiling. I felt my heart clench as I saw that they had evidently found the doors leading into the underground smuggling complex. Given how large the place was, they would probably not reach the surface anytime soon, but I wouldn't bet on them taking longer than twenty minutes with their speed.
I could make out different species of Grimm from the horde. The wolf-like Beowolves that seemed to be like a cross between a bodybuilder and a wolf. Larger, lumbering Grimm that looked like the bigger cousins of bears stood out immediately from the crowds; the only difference was that they seemed to be more heavily armored, and if they stood up, I didn't doubt they would be larger than Weston's impressive girth. Faster, smaller Grimm that seemed to be just giant, saw-toothed mouths with long, muscular legs weaved between the clustered horde and raced towards us faster than any other Grimm I had seen.
According to the booklet, Grimm normally followed a set pattern based on the leader figures within the horde, or as they were more commonly known, Alphas. Based on the spread we were seeing, the main Alpha could be a Beowolf, an Ursa, or a Creep. Creeps were known to be notoriously impossible to evolve beyond a certain level, so I settled between the other two for now.
What that meant, though? I wasn't too sure just yet. This was my first time facing Grimm, so I was honestly more surprised with how easy it was to kill them. Of course, the sheer numbers were a problem, but I was beginning to see a slight pattern. Beowovlves were the more all-rounders; proficient in being great soldiers for the horde. Ursas were the heavy units that could weather through many attacks, but were slow and weren't able to get around the rest of the horde that charged us first. As for the Creeps, they were fast. I hadn't seen much from them, but I doubted that I wanted to get caught between their teeth.
As I was slightly preoccupied with my thoughts, the horde of Grimm pushed back against the small gap we created, enclosing us in our corner again. This time the Grimm seemed to stop mindlessly rushing to their deaths and started scaling our barricades in the hopes to drop down on us.
I clicked my tongue, feeling annoyed at the situation. A Grimm horde was a terrifying foe to fight when we were all tired, and I was being pushed to think quickly or else we would find ourselves in a more desperate position.
I turned to the focusing giant next to me. He was busy shaking the top most pillars under his control, trying to knock off the Grimm that were climbing up them. Another explosion clued me in on what Lilac was doing at the moment. "Hey, can you give me the barricade? Just focus on killing Grimm with a single pillar or something."
The man looked at me for a second before I felt the control of the majority of the pillars shift onto me. It was a rather odd interaction for the stasis control portion of Weston's Semblance; we both could "feel" what objects were under stasis, but it seemed impossible for both of us to assert control over the same object. Something that probably never came up since I was the only other one who could use his Semblance.
It came with the caveat of releasing the stasis on my clothes. Weston's Semblance might not have an upper limit on how many things it could freeze, but it did for how many objects you could control. Both my shirt and shoes were too much, so I had to keep the stasis on my pants in order to keep my legs moving despite my burning ribs slowing me down.
In any case, this put me in direct control of four infinitely durable pillars while Weston took the last one for himself. I quickly positioned myself at the back of the group, taking in the situation of everyone else. There were no obvious changes to everyone other than Weston, and the large, armored man was slamming a massive concrete pillar on any Beowolves who peeked their wolfen heads atop our barricades.
However, now that I was in control of our defenses, I understood just how precise my control was compared to Weston's. I maneuvered the concrete pillars, closing up gaps between two pillars right as a Beowolf stuck its head through. Melanie and Yang were the most thankful as they no longer had to run around, and could simply stay in one spot to easily kill a Grimm that tried to force its way through. We had finally reached a stable stalemate only held by our stamina.
I released Yang's Semblance with a second of hesitation. The energy that I had been building up since I froze Lilac would be helpful, but that was only if I was going to use it for combat. At this point, I was stuck as the group's surrogate leader, so having something that would help coordinate everyone would definitely be ideal.
I felt through the Aura's within my range, parsing through all the Semblances when I paused on one. The Aura of the one Union member that I saved from bleeding out was still alive. How he had done that with his Semblance was puzzling. For one, he was right in the middle of the Grimm horde, and I knew for a fact that he didn't have a Semblance that let him hide from the Grimm, and while the Aura senses of Beowolves was considered on the lower end, they wouldn't just ignore the man right in front of their noses.
Shaking my head, I went back to my task at hand. I was going to try to save him now that I knew he was alive, but worrying about why he was still alive could be done another time. Preferably when I was still alive. That was when I found an Aura lingering around the club on the surface. I pulled on his Semblance and then-
[Weapon based omniscience. Intent-oriented short-term precognition.]
Will Rouge's Semblance roared to life in my vision, and suddenly it was like I was seeing through a kaleidoscope. Colors stained my view as everything I saw had the outlines of their future movement perfectly replicated in front of me. There were just too many things to watch that everything quickly became jumbled, and it only made it worse that his weapon omniscience was translating even Lilac's wrist marbles and some vein-like structures implanted in Weston's torso.
They were organic, symbiotic, Dust-based weapons that were engineered specifically for each person by someone named Lacerus Crawson. That was another shock in and of itself, and if it wasn't for the killer headache that Will's Semblance caused by just looking at the massive horde of Grimm, I would have tried to figure more out. Sadly, I had to forcibly cancel the connection to his Aura before the sheer amount of color and information overwhelmed me.
I breathed a sigh of relief when everything cleared up in front of me, leaving a throbbing headache in its place. Well, that answered my question on how to counter the man's absurd Semblance, but now I was back to trawling through the Auras within my range. In the end, I found a Semblance that would help the most with the next steps to my plan.
[Limited two-way portal creation. Enhanced Precision.]
Connecting to the warmth was easy, but the information contained within it was truly absurd. Creating portals was complicated. And this one only seemed to make the portals connect two specified points of space. In other words, I had to personally craft the portal at one place before I could actively use it with any sort of reliability, meaning I also wasn't able to just portal out of our problems as well. While I could look further into it, I was not able to use the portal creation part of this Semblance in our given situation.
Shaking the rest of the information out of the front of my mind, I focused back on my temporary team.
"Hey Lilac, how many more bombs can you make?" I yelled out over the sound of another explosion. Said woman had been throwing out a marble whenever she had the time and whenever the Grimm were clumped up against the barricades, but the intervals between them were lengthening. Not because the horde was thinning but because the marbles on her wrists seemed to grow back slower.
"Not as much as we need!" The redhead grunted. "M says the Defender Huntsmen are on their way, but we won't be able to survive for more than thirty minutes at this rate."
Thirty minutes was probably on the longer end of the spectrum in my opinion. I had hoped that there would be someone on their way faster, but that it wasn't as if staying in one place was a great plan either. Instead, it would be better to make a break for it before we were overrun.
My gaze went to the massive hole Yang created in the ceiling, and felt that my plan was doable. Safe? That was debatable, but between a definite dead end and a chance at getting out, there wasn't much of a choice.
"We are going to escape upwards!" I said, making sure to see Yang and Melanie nod while getting what I hope was a grunt of acknowledgement from Lilac. "Lilac, on my count I need to to toss as many bombs as you can and clear everything around us. I am going to use our barricades as stairs! Yang supports us from the rear while Melanie and Lilac will take front. Weston, I need you protecting me while I maneuver our footings."
"I refuse!" Lilac instantly shot down my plan, and I forced myself to hold back a glare.
"With what part?" I said as calmly as the situation allowed. We were still being besieged by Grimm, so I couldn't really see her expression enough to make a conclusion. However, I did note that the air was becoming… thicker for a word. Something was coming, and I really didn't want to see what it was.
"I'll take the rear. Yang will be in the front." Out of everything the redhead could have said, this was the least one on my list of expectations.
"You know, I hadn't really questioned it, but how the hell do you even know my name?" Yang asked while her fist connected with an unlucky Grimm. She seemed to be taking her aggravation out on the creatures. Good on you, Yang. "I don't think I ever mentioned my name around you… uh, whatever you guys are."
"Did you seriously forget they were mass murderers?!" Melanie seemed to take offence at Yang's stance to forget everything that wasn't currently relevant.
"Putting that aside." Yang countered, ignoring the complaint from Melanie about putting aside a very important piece of information. "What's the deal with you guys? Big guy over there didn't even try to fight me seriously."
I pursed my lips at that information. It answered why Yang and Melanie hadn't been too worse for wear when I finished up Lilac, but that only brought more questions to the front of my mind. They knew who I was. That was a given since I was actively going against them. However, why did they know Yang's name? Did that person with that hearing Semblance hear it and relay it to them? It was a possible answer, but the reactions of Lilac and Weston were the most telling.
They both flinched at Yang's question, and I felt that they seemed almost… scared of her? No, that didn't fit. Instead, it was more like they were apprehensive about her. Why?
It was a mystery that I was honestly seriously curious about, but now wasn't the time to play twenty questions. I forced myself into the conversation, standing between Yang and Lilac. The two girls eyed me oddly but I didn't care. We were still worrying about everything else while the Grimm horde was still breathing down our necks.
"For now, let's get out of here. Yang will switch spots with Lilac." I said, staring at Yang till she realized just what she was doing. I understood it was her Semblance probably skewing her emotions as I had experienced the exact same thing. Though, that didn't excuse her actions.
"On three." I said to Lilac, and she nodded quickly. Probably from how I got her out of the odd situation.
"One, two," I pulled the upper most parts of the barricade down, slamming them into the crowd of Grimm. It gave a moment's respite before the Grimm began clambering over the pillars, but that only made them clear targets. "Three. Get back now!"
Lilac ripped off the red marbles on her wrists, throwing them into the rushing Grimm. They set off immediately instead of on a timer, and I reflexively shielded my face from the explosions. When I looked back up, the Grimm nearest to us had been directly cleared away. Their bodies were already evaporating into black smoke as I started moving.
The first pillar came up, pressing against the floor in front of us. I positioned it lengthwise, and it allowed each of us to stand on it if we all squeezed on. However, that wasn't my plan. Another pillar rose up, floating in the air a little bit above the first one. Yang and Melanie quickly got the memo as they rushed up the first pillar before stepping up onto the next one as I followed them. Another pillar rose up just like the second one, allowing for someone to move up almost like they were ascending stairs. When Lilac finally got on the pillars and joined us in our ascent, I waited until she had crossed to the next pillar before moving the lowest one to become the next step.
This repeated till we were all running across the pillars as I precisely moved them with the help of my newly connected Semblance in order for Yang and Melanie to always have another step upwards. However, it wasn't like the Grimm had forgotten about us. In fact, we were now besieged on all sides by the monsters as we tried to climb higher.
Explosions sounded out from behind us as I knew Lilac was fighting off the Grimm who had jumped up onto the lowest step of our floating staircase. Briefly, I looked down in a panic and watched as the Grimm piled ontop of each other, snarling at us as they tried to form a hill with their own bodies. Ursa used their larger bodies as the base, lining up as Beowolves and Creeps used them as springboards to try to jump up to the lowest pillar. Lilac ducked and weaved the ones that made it close while a large pillar swung in from behind her and smacked them out of the air. If Lilac wasn't constantly bombing them while Weston protected her, there was no doubt in my mind that they would have reached us eventually.
On the upper section, Beowolves who had scaled the walls jumped down from above as Yang and Melanie rose to fight them. I could even see Beowolves and Creeps jumping down from the hole Yang created in the ceiling, dropping on us without a care if they missed and fell headfirst into the concrete below.
The two girls seemed to have formed a truce as they punched and kicked any Grimm that came close enough. Yang took on the Grimm that had been lucky enough to land stably on the pillar, punching them into oblivion while Melanie fought off those still raining down on them.
I was forced to tear my gaze away from watching them as a Beowolf landed on the pillar I had been running on. I hurriedly ducked as the monster pounced at me with its razor sharp teeth aimed at my neck. It sailed over me, missing me entirely even as its front claws tried to swipe at me.
A loud thwack alerted me of its fate as I witnessed its deformed body fly across the room. I offered a mental thank you to Weston as he worked the pillar under his control in order to protect our portion of the floating staircase.
For once, no one talked. We all understood that we were literally running on a tightrope. Albeit, one made of unbreakable pillars stacked on each other, but a tightrope in the sense that there was barely any room to move. These pillars barely gave any space to dodge, so every Grimm that made it was one that we had to fight.
I tried to keep my eyes forwards and upwards; away from the sea of Grimm below. They snarled and roared at us, baring their teeth and hoping for one of us to slip. One mistake and all of us would fall into the writhing mass of Grimm below.
We reached the hole in the ceiling much faster than it felt. The Grimm almost felt endless with how many were jumping at us. Most of them missed, falling down to the floor without achieving anything. Even the ones that managed to get on the pillars were dispatched with ease.
However, they just never seemed to stop. More came from the floor above us, more jumped off the walls of the room, some even managed to climb onto the ceiling and drop down on us. I felt that for every one we killed, two more would take its place and try to attack us. It didn't matter if they failed, enough would keep trying till one succeeded.
Yang and Melanie climbed onto the floor above us using the pillars as footstools with me and Weston following quickly. I glanced at the hallway where Yang had punched through and gave a groan of exhaustion as more Grimm met us. Weston hurried to meet the ones closest to me, using his own body as a weapon. He simply crashed into them, crushing their skulls on his armor.
Behind me, I heard a sudden scream, and spun to find Lilac slipping through the attack of a Beowolf who had somehow gotten on the last pillar. I knew she wouldn't fall through the pillar with stasis on it, but the problem now was that the Grimm was lingering too close to her for her to become tangible and gain traction to reach the hole in the ceiling.
I cursed internally before I jumped down and slammed my shoulder into the Grimm's mask. Pain spiked through my arm as I rammed into one of the spikes in its armor, digging into my skin and drawing blood.
"Go now!" I yelled as Lilac moved the instant she could. Her body flickered in my Aura senses as her hand entered the Grimm's chest before she vaulted over the monster.
Her green eyes met mine for a second before I felt her yank me away the moment the Grimm exploded. The Grimm burst in a shower of gore and black blood not a second later. I gagged as some of its body landed on my tongue, spitting repeatedly to get the horrid taste out of my mouth. I never knew Grimm tasted so bad, but that was a fact that I would have rather done without.
"You guys going to make out now or what?" Yang popped her head over the hole, sticking a hand out to help us up.
"No." Lilac answered without a flinch, ignoring Yang's hand entirely and directly jumping into the floor above.
I sighed before turning to look down at the Aura that was still below. The Union member was still surrounded by Grimm, so it took me a while before I found him. When I did, a perplexed look couldn't help but stain my face.
The man was still fine. Which was obvious considering his Aura still shone in my senses, but more importantly, he wasn't injured in the slightest. Other than the arm that had been blown off, he still had my bandages wrapped tightly around the wound. The Grimm were ambling around him, pushing their noses close to him before turning away and moving along with the horde.
I was stunned. What even was happening? Why were they just ignoring him? It was one thing that he could survive this long, but for the Grimm to just move by him entirely, there had to be something else.
Was it because he was too injured? Did that even make sense? The Grimm would rush a dying man even if they knew he would keel over at any moment. That meant there was something else I was missing.
"Jaune! What are you doing?!" Melanie looked down at me still perched on the floating stone pillar. The other three were still under my control, and I moved them around to stop the Grimm crawling on the ceiling from jumping at me.
I looked up to find a questioning glance from Yang, Lilac and even the armored Weston as well. It was a little odd that they all were waiting for me, so I felt a bit guilty as I looked back and forth between them and the Aura user on the floor.
"If you're still looking at that man, he's dead. There's no way he'd survive down there." Lilac said.
Staring her in the eye, I debated on how her Semblance saw the scene below. In the Aura booklet, the Grimm were notorious for how they interacted with Semblances and Aura. It didn't go into more detail; only stating how Huntsmen need to be wary about more evolved versions of Grimm as they seemed to affect Aura somehow. A part of me wished that she just didn't see him or something, but I knew she wouldn't care if he lived or not either.
"Jaune, you can't go down there." Melanie said, and I turned back to her. She knew that I could sense Auras in the first place, so if I said the man was alive, then she'd believe me.
"But he's just-" I paused as I felt something change. It was like someone was whispering in my ear, but I couldn't hear what was being said.
'We need to get out of here now!' My thoughts warned me, but my desire to not leave the man in front of me kept me rooted in place.
I struggled with the indecision. It ate at me as my thoughts and need to be a hero warred against each other. I hated this feeling. This helplessness that just crushed me. It reminded me of one of the reasons why I needed to be a hero. A memory that came to me like a punch in the gut.
It was not really that long ago; only a couple of years ago, really. Despite how much it affected me, I never wanted to remember it. The details of the memory were always there at the back of my thoughts. Of when I was sitting in my bed with only a fantasy book about heroes to keep me company.
I remembered waiting patiently for my parents and two sisters to come home as a Grimm horde had been seen nearby. They told me it would be quick. Except, the horde lasted till the morning, and I sat in my bed with eyes squeezed shut and ears covered. But, no matter how much I tried to zone it out, I still had my Aura senses. The massive range let me know of everyone fighting to protect me. To protect everyone in the town. And of all the people who died in the process.
With my powers, I could've helped. I should've. I should've done more than just sit in my bed and pray everything would work out. More than anything, I hated the fact that I knew I could do something but stayed inside.
It was one thing for everyone else around me being strong and not helping, but when it was me… It was like those deaths were on me.
Shaking my head, I pushed back the memories. The Grimm horde was getting to me, pulling out things I'd rather stay buried. In an effort to take my mind somewhere else, I focused all the willpower I could muster to turn towards the hole where the Grimm were still spilling from.
Then, I saw it. Or I'm pretty sure everyone saw it, but I felt it more so. Like a heavy weight that settled on everyone's chest. My breathing stopped for a moment as it stepped through the opening into the underground room.
Large was an understatement. Its back was covered completely in a bone white shell with spines reminiscent of spears that poked out randomly in all directions. Arms thicker than the pillars that floated around me moved up and down, shaking the room with every step. Grimm scrambled to get out of the way of the beast, but some weren't so lucky and were helplessly crushed beneath its weight.
From its posture, I recognized it as some supersized Ursa. The monster shambled forwards slowly, almost lazy in its actions. The creature's claws are as large as my forearms, and its head seemed larger than my torso. Some of its back spines trailed against the ceiling, digging gouges in the concrete with ease.
There was no doubt in my mind, this was the Alpha.
I felt my heart seize in my chest as it finally turned to look up at us. Blood red eyes glowed in the light, and I felt like the air froze along with my thoughts. The more I looked at it the more I realized this was the thing that was causing me to panic.
It opened its mouth and almost immediately I felt something wrong in my senses. Trails of warmth were being dragged from the Auras around me, and I felt that their Auras were gathering within the spines on its back.. My eyes widened as I realized what was happening.
"Turn off your Outer Aura now!" I yelled not looking away from the Alpha Ursa in front of me. My thoughts ran circles as I tried to understand what it was doing. Whatever it had evolved into was something that normal Grimm could never compare to.
Melanie followed my order almost immediately while Yang gave me an odd look before slowly doing the same. I smiled as the warmth of Aura stopped leaving them when they switched to Inner Aura. The problem came from the members of the Reds. Lilac gave me an odd look before stopping Weston from following.
The redhead looked at the Alpha Ursa with its open mouth still aimed at us. "We just need to leave quick. We are not equipped to fight an Alpha." she paused as she looked up into the air. Weston was taking care of the Beowolves and Creeps still charging at us through the hallway, letting the girl have the time to space out. "...No, M. The Grimm have been attacking all of us."
I bit my lips at her words, noting the information while also following the flow of warmth from the Union member down below was also trailing towards the open mouth despite it not being pointed to him.
'We still need to leave!' My thoughts screamed at me, but I was focused on the man.
As if to prove my thoughts right, the Alpha Ursa stopped its actions. The spines on its back were warm with Aura in my senses, and I immediately covered the hole with the pillars locked in stasis. A second later, I felt a massive wave of warmth pass through the ceiling.
I patted my body, feeling nothing out of place. Though, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lilac and Weston fly upwards and crash against the ceiling, creating spiderwebbed cracks on the impact. Yang and Melanie also flew, but not as far as the other two. Yet, they still collapsed on the floor with their hands holding their stomachs and trying to catch their breath.
"Mel!" I yelled, rushing upwards. While I had been the only one unaffected so too had the Grimm.
A bunch of fast-moving Creeps charged at me as I stood in front of the group still catching their breath. I angled the pillars on the room below, pointing them up like spears towards the ceiling of the room. Three pillars broke through the floor from below, slamming into the bellies of the Creeps that jumped at us and crushed them against the ceiling above.
I sighed and relaxed slightly as this also created a wall where more Grimm were coming from the floors below. However, the floor, where the pillars had speared through, started to crack and crumble as the Grimm continued to collide with the makeshift wall. Behind me, I used the last of my pillars to block off the smaller amount of Grimm that tried to attack everyone from behind.
Beowolves quickly stopped trying to force the pillar out of the way, and then began crawling under or over it. I was lucky that the area of the corridor was just enough for the pillar to fit length-wise between the walls, digging only slightly into the walls as I moved it up and down in order to stop them from getting to us. However, I knew that, just like the other side, the Beowolves would be able to get over the makeshift barrier if I stopped compensating for them at any moment.
Yang coughed as she slowly got up. Her arms trembled slightly as she tried to prop herself up. She looked around, locking eyes with me for a second before she nodded slightly.
"Look man, I have no idea what's going on with you, but we need to get out of here. That… I don't think we can handle another one of those." Yang spoke out, and I realized that the last impact had broken her out of her Semblance's side effects.
"She's right." Melanie said while coughing. She looked around to see the slowly deteriorating scene around us.
My black-haired friend finally opened her mouth. "Please, just… don't be a hero this time."
I choked back a startled cry at her words. She knew more than anyone that I never liked leaving people to die. Even when the White Fang were targeting those criminals, I didn't want to leave the ones I could save. And I knew that I could try and save the man below. Though, it was at the risk of the people around me.
I bit my lip in indecision. I could feel the man still alive below us, but it was weaker now. Whatever the Alpha Ursa had done had also hurt him, and his previous injuries seemed to have been affected as well. Then, my gaze traveled to the two members of the Reds who were getting up as well, groaning in pain. Whatever that Alpha Ursa had done seemed to have directly affected them without damaging their Aura.
Slowly, it hit me that I wasn't going to save him. That once again, I couldn't do anything but sit there and watch as someone died.
"L- let's-" I paused as a familiar Aura was gathering above us.
It was followed by two others who I had no knowledge of, but the one I knew stood out to me as the ceiling above us trembled. Trails of dust and debris came down as the Auras of the actual heroes grew closer in my senses.
Then, a giant pillar of metal speared down from the ceiling on the side where only one pillar blocked the Grimm charging at us, pulping anything that stood in its path while shearing straight through the concrete like it wasn't there. Its head was conical more than anything with a point that flared out as I looked up. The metallic object stopped expanding outwards at one point, forming a massive metallic stake that slammed down into the room below. A storm of dust kicked up from the impact as I stared at the obscured figures that stood at the top of stake.
"What the?! Who in the Gods' that?" Melanie asked, looking at me for an answer. Yang followed her gaze as the dust slowly fell to reveal three people staring down the entire Grimm horde below.
"Dammit, Sienna! You could have brought down the whole building on us!" One of the women of the trio cursed. "Are all you Arcs so Gods damned insane?"
The other woman ignored their companion's cursing as I found her blue eyes staring back into mine. I sat on my back, feeling all the exhaustion and stress of the situation catch up to me. I hated how I felt relieved for a moment. The real heroes were here, and one of them-
"That's my sister." I said, answering Melanie's question.
So, this chapter took me longer than I thought. Mainly because of how chaotic I made it in order to make things more in terms of Jaune's POV. Also, this chapter made me realize just how long this part was. I wanted too much while also trying to introduce so much in a limited way. I apologize for the long wait, though. Work, this chapter's complexity and plain laziness caused this to take so long. Hopefully, it won't take too long next time...