Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rooster Teeth Productions
Co-authored with ToxicExotic
Breathe No More (Part 2)
The cold blades of grass tickled Yang's shoulders as she laid back on the lawn. She didn't normally feel so out of breath from only thirty minutes of training, but it was always weird when practising under Weiss' time dilation. Everything felt incredibly fast, but also incredibly slow. She hated it. The way the entire world slowed to a crawl, the way the leaves practically stopped midair and sound felt drawn out. It all felt surreal, and the only way that she could cope with the worry of it sending her crazy was to keep moving. Each five second submersion into those blasted time fields felt like five minutes of real time had passed for her, and Weiss had put her into them seven times so far. Five minutes where her body moved faster than it should have and left her muscles aching slightly more each time. But she also knew it wasn't supposed to feel like that.
"Sorry." Weiss groaned and leaned against her sword. "I'm still getting it wrong, aren't I?"
"Just a little." Yang grunted and lifted herself up to her sore elbows. "You'll get it though."
"I know," Weiss sighed and sat down on a stool. "It works fine on me. I'm just… struggling to find what others can handle."
"Hey, I can handle a lot."
"And yet I'm still overcharging you and making you collapse."
"Eh, not like it can kill me," Yang grinned, though she quickly shot her friend a wary look. "Can it?"
"Not if I only keep it active for a few seconds." Weiss replied. "I know Winter can keep it active for nearly a minute and be fine, but she is far more skilled than I am."
"She's also got like… seven years on you." Yang reasoned as she felt her Scroll vibrate and pulled it out to see Ruby's aura drop a tiny bit. The couple had likely just encountered a few minor Grimm on the way to the hill. "You really shouldn't compare yourself to her."
"It's an apt comparison since she is literally me, Yang." Weiss scowled. "Same abilities, same weapon type, same semblance. Everything."
"Except she isn't you." Yang shook her head and sat up. "Trust me, you'll be where she is in no time. And by her age, you'll be even better."
"Maybe." Weiss sighed and stood up again. "It's good to see you are back to giving your pep talks again, though."
Yang chuckled nervously and scratched the back of her head again. It was still a little embarrassing to be reminded of the little freakout she had a few days ago, but having her fears out in the open did feel better. The entirety of the day before had been spent in her room with her girlfriend's, discussing it, and they'd been very quick to point out how stupid she was being. They had talked about plenty of other things too. It was still unclear what was going to happen in the future, since Yang still didn't know what she was going to do herself, but she knew she wasn't going to let Velvet give up her dream of opening an academy in Menagerie.
Velvet and Coco had insisted that they would stay in Vale for a year until she graduated, but Yang didn't want them to put their lives on hold. She herself only had two real plans. Explore Remnant, and maybe find Raven. The latter was still undecided, despite Qrow having already told her that she tends to take up camp near Lake Matsu. But that was all in the future, and until she was sure, she wasn't going to hold the people she loved back. If that meant she spent a year without them, then so be it.
"Yeah, well…" Yang said as she accepted the hand that was offered to her and used it to pull herself up. "Since I attend a prestigious academy, you could say I'm a peppy little preppy."
"I don't know why I bother." Weiss groaned in disgust, though Yang finally let out a little chuckle.
"Relax, Snowflake." Yang grinned as she felt her Scroll vibrate again. "I appreciate you worrying about me."
She pulled the device open to see Blake had taken a hit too. Again, it was only small, but she couldn't help but be curious about what they were fighting. So with a tap of her partner's icon, the map popped up and she saw that they were on the beach next to Breathing Hill. It wasn't uncommon for Croakers to gather there, but she knew they wouldn't give the couple any real trouble and pocketed the device again.
"They okay?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah, looks like they're having fun without us though." She replied and stretched her shoulders. "Ready to go again when you are."
"Alright." The snow-hair girl nodded and raised her rapier to focus on the yellow glyph that appeared at Yang's feet.
The glyph training continued for a few more minutes, and though Weiss eased up on the dust, it was still a little too much and caused Yang to fall to her knees after three more tries. The most disorienting part had to be the world returning to normal speed, since the sudden motion made her feel slightly queasy. However, her weekend clubbing antics had made her very good at holding back vomit.
As she stood again, a tiny bit dizzy, she looked down at her scroll to check her aura. Though hers was still nearly full, she saw that both Ruby and Blake were missing a little more aura than when she had last checked. That wasn't right, Croakers weren't really an issue. So with another tap, she pulled up the map again and saw they were directly on the hill, though from their approach, Yang guessed Ruby had taken Blake inside to the small lake.
"Yang?"
She zoomed in a little and saw that their markers were on the left side, and breathed a sigh of relief as their aura was not moving, so they clearly weren't in combat.
"Sorry," She breathed. "Just making su…"
She cut off as the markers began to move again. She was at max zoom, so she could see the marker's position clearly and both seemed to be edging away from the lake. A little too slowly for her liking. It felt off. Wrong. Her entire body heated up a little as she saw the dots slowly moving around the wall of the caven, like they were giving something a wide berth.
"I'm sure they're fine." Weiss said, clearly having noticed how tense she'd become.
"Maybe." Yang replied as the girl came over and checked the map too. "Just feels wrong."
Sure enough, barely a second after the words left her lips, the dots jumped back and Yang felt her heart stop for a second. They were definitely fighting something by how they'd moved, and they were being cautious. Too cautious.
"Maybe we should…"
Yang didn't hear the rest of that sentence as she was already at full sprint towards the hill. The dot had rushed back in again, and Blake's aura had dropped by a considerable chunk. Whatever they were fighting was big, and very strong. Yang quickly found herself dreading what it could be. An adult Croaker could have crawled from the hole in the pool that led to the ocean, a Milligreed could have inhabited one of the many tunnels, and she didn't even want to think about the other possibility.
Behind her, she heard Weiss. The girl was hot on her heels, and not even questioning the decision to go to help, so with the confidence of having her friend be at her side unquestioningly, Yang increased her speed and barrelled through the woods towards her sister.
As they neared the beach that laid beside a great hill, Weiss saw a Beowolf jump out at her from the trees with a loud growl, but she removed its head without even bothering to slow down. She had no time to slow down since her friends had already taken a few heavy hits in the ten minutes since her and Yang had left the house. The aforementioned blonde barreled ahead of her, viciously smashing aside branches that got in their way.
When she'd first seen Blake take the heavy heavy, Weiss had been a little worried, but hadn't thought too much off it. Grimm were unpredictable of course, and that usually led to the occasional hard hit, but Yang had immediately taken off. She was hardly going to let the girl take off alone, so she quickly followed. She was glad she did, as she too now realised their friends were fighting something they weren't ready for. Every hit the two took drained a considerable amount of aura, and as they jumped down onto the beach, she saw her own partner take another that put her down to just below half.
She had no idea what was on the island, but given Yang's clear worry, she could guess it wasn't good.
"Launch me!" Yang called as they both barreled into a tunnel that led directly into the giant hill.
"We don't know wh…"
"Just do it!"
The order was clear, and though the girl wasn't even looking back, Weiss gave a nod. As they sprinted down the stone hallway, she spun the cylinder of her rapier and prepared the dust she needed. It was barely half a minute before they entered the inner sanctum of the dirt mound, and before she really had a chance to take everything, the first thing she saw was a giant Grimm walking towards the opposite wall. It was easily double her height, and the aura of strength that it exuded made her shiver slightly. Yang didn't care though, and ran straight at it without even bothering to slow down.
With a spin of her rapier, Weiss sent a sheet of ice along the ground at the great beasts feet, then with another spin, produced a scarlet glyph in front of Yang. As the Blonde stepped on it, the red rune exploded. At the same time, the brawler's hair glowed a shining gold and she unloaded a shell behind her from each gauntlet.
"AAARGGHHHH!"
She was little more than a gold streak as she tore through the air and crashed into the beast's side. Due to the ice at its feet, and the force of Yang's shoulder slamming into it, the Grimm stumbled to the side as the blonde tumbled out of sight. Once it was out of the way though, Weiss saw Blake leant against the wall with an unconscious Ruby in her arms. Without wasting a second, she closed the distance and knelt down beside her friends.
"Weiss. She w-won't wak…"
She immediately felt for the girl, as the tears that rolled down her eyes showed just how much she believed that Ruby was severely injured. It wasn't hard to see why from the way Ruby's body hung limp in the girls arms, and even Weiss had to choke back a small hint of worry.
"Compose yourself," Weiss said firmly since she knew that her partner was fine. To prove as much, she pulled her scroll from her pocket and thrust it into Blake's hand. "If she were gone, she wouldn't have aura."
As Blake looked at the device, Weiss pressed her finger to Ruby's throat and found her pulse was still strong as ever. Whatever hit she'd taken had just knocked her out. But they needed her up, and they didn't have time to do it gently, so she placed the tip of Myrtenaster gently against her partner's shoulder and, very carefully, squeezed the trigger. A brief flash of yellow lightning ran over her body and her eyes shot open.
"AHH!" The girl cried and quickly sat up. From the lack of vomit, Weiss felt it was safe to say there was no concussion. "Wha…"
"WEISS!"
She turned just in time to see Yang picking herself up from the remains of a shattered stalagmite and the large elk Grimm, that she remembered was called a Hellk, running at them. She barely had time to react, but a quick spin of her rapier created a hardlight barrier between them. Though, despite that being her strongest defensive option, the force of the impact caused large cracks to appear on the surface and she knew it wouldn't withstand another hit.
"We have to move." She ordered the sniffling Faunus and the dazed leader as the Grimm reared up and kicked its eight inch, clawed hooves. "Now!"
Since Blake was still composing herself, and Ruby was still in a little bit of a daze, Weiss summoned a glyph at her feet, out of which erupted a wall of ice that sent them soaring across the cavern and out of the way of the Hellk. Barely a second later, the beast's heavy body crashed down and shattered both the hardlight shield and the ice wall. Thankfully they were clear of its range, and Ruby seemed to be finding herself again.
"I'm okay." She groaned as Blake fussed about checking her.
"Are you sure?" The Faunus asked quickly.
"Mhm," Ruby hummed, as Blake helped her up. "That hit hurt though."
"Yes, well, ruminate on that later." Weiss cut them off as the older girl was about to respond. "Right now, we need to get out of here."
"That's… Gonna be an issue," Yang breathed as she jogged over and pulled her sister into a tight hug before she pointed at the entryway, where the Hellk had already moved to. "It doesn't seem like it's going to let us out without a fight."
"Then we'll have to fight," Ruby breathed and accepted her scythe from Yang.
"We're really going to fight that thing?" Weiss replied while she watched the Hellk patiently observe them. It was an unnerving sight in and of itself.
"Looks like we don't have much of a choice," Ruby replied and pressed a button on her Scroll. "I just alerted Dad, so we need to either fend it off long enough to find a way to escape, or until he can get here with help."
"Alright." Blake said and wiped her eyes. "We'll follow your lead. As always."
Weiss glanced back at her partner and gave her a small nod. For all her reservation on the girls behaviour and her tendency to act like a child, she knew Ruby took combat seriously and generally led the team well. It had taken a while, but she had finally come to trust her and the plans she devised, so as she watched Crescent Rose extend to it's scythe form, she turned back to the Hellk and waited for her instruction. Thankfully, she didn't have to wait long for the first attack to be called.
"Freezerburn!"
Ruby was vaguely aware of where her teammates were thanks to her training with Fox. It wasn't much, but she had the basic concept of sensing aura down, as did the rest of her team, so was easily able to tell who was who in the dense fog that Weiss and Yang had created. She could also sense the emptiness that stood in the smoke. A complete void of anything that gave away the Hellk's position and how it moved; or more correctly, how it didn't move. It was still standing in the entrance, and though Ruby couldn't see its actual movement, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as a red glow began to emanate from that end of the cave.
The thick stream of fire tore horizontally through the air and Ruby ducked beneath it as she ran at the beast. The one bad thing about the fog however, was that she couldn't see the stalagmites and chunks of dust that jutted up from the ground. Every now and then, she felt her foot slip on a small slab of rock, but she managed to maintain her balance; though there was sometimes a small pop behind her that told her that she'd caught some dust instead.
It only took a couple of seconds to arrive at the creature, and as she did she felt Weiss arrive at her side and a glyph form in front of her. A small torrent of wind erupted from it to clear the smoke around the Grimm's face, and Ruby sent a burst of petals into it. The red ball caught the slipstream to travel upwards, and Ruby glimpsed the telltale red of the beast's flame follow it. Another outline joined it, Yang slammed her right fist into the side of its snout. It barely budged.
Though its head did move a couple of inches to the side, it was barely anything and it quickly snapped its maw back into position and flipped the blonde backwards. Without a second wasted, it slammed her down with its antlers, and even the wind tunnel couldn't slow Yang's descent as she shattered the glyph and crashed into the floor. The impact and expulsion of the wind dust from the glyph forced Weiss back, but Ruby caught her and dashed away as a tail hurtled towards them and embedded in the ground where they had been mere seconds ago. Yang was pulled out of the way by Blake's ribbon that landed in her hand seconds before one of the front hooves slammed down and cracked the ground.
"Well that didn't work," Weiss breathed and straightened out her dress.
"We just need to get it away from the entrance," Ruby sighed, still not used to carrying people with her semblance. "We just need to get it angrier so it moves."
"Yes," Weiss said and deflected a small boulder that was kicked at her. "What we really need to do is to anger that thing."
A small explosion echoed off the side and Ruby looked around to see what had happened. The smoke had thinned quicker than it should due to the fire dust heating the area and causing the air to rise, so she was able to see that one of the dust rocks had exploded where the boulder Weiss deflected had hit it. Thankfully it was a big rock, but it did give her an idea. So with a small look at her sister, who looked back, Ruby gave a small nod.
"Checkmate!" She instructed her partner, who, despite a small groan, ran off without question.
As Blake and Weiss rushed in to attack, both being nimble enough to dodge its attacks but not get in many of their own, Ruby turned to her sister and pointed to a lump of dust not too far away.
"Think you can annoy it enough to get it moving?"
"Definitely."
"Just be careful. We don't want this hill coming down on us."
Yang gave a firm nod and ran at the other wall where there were a couple small chunks of dust protruding. As Yang worked on prying them free, Ruby dashed in to help her friends just as Weiss was slashed across the back by a stray tail. The heiress saw her coming and quickly backflipped out of the way and Ruby took her place. The three of them struggled with the Grimm for almost a minute, but even still, it refused to budge. Even when Weiss summoned her knight, one kick from the ancient beast's hind legs turned it back to smoke.
It really didn't help that their attacks were barely phasing it. While they could dodge most of its blows, they were barely able to counter because their weapons were ineffective. Blake's weapon lacked the power to pierce the tough muscle, Weiss lacked the physical strength, and her own was so big that the strips of thick, red veined armor kept stopping her blade. Even as Blake tried to slash at the things neck, where there was no armor, while Ruby picked Weiss up from another hit, her blade glanced off and the arm was captured by the creature's clawed hoof and pinned against the floor.
"HEY, UGLY!" Yang shouted as Blake struggled to free herself. "EAT THIS!"
She tossed a large dust crystal the size of her fist at its head and the red gem exploded on impact. Blake let out a small cry of pain since she was caught in the explosion, but the Hellk finally recoiled. Its head flung to the side slightly, and it reared up on its hind legs. Yang threw another, and another, until the beast let out a small roar that shook the cavern and threw Blake at her. However, it seemed the plan had worked to a degree, and it took a few steps forward; though Ruby knew that only meant they were in more danger.
The Hellk had clearly been toying with them before, taking its time, but that looked to be over, and it was ready to kill. With another step forward, it shot a burst of fire at her and Weiss, and though Weiss jammed her rapier onto the ground to create a wall of rock, the flames made it crumble in less than a second. They barely managed to roll out of the way as the torrent burst through; but just as it did, Yang hit it with another crystal and the creature changed its trajectory.
The hellfire ripped through the air towards the two and left cracks on the wall as it travelled. However, though both Blake and Yang managed to duck the actual flame itself, it clipped a large dust rock which quickly exploded and sent them both flying as it shook the cave. They landed a short distance away from Ruby with a grunt and slowly pushed themselves to their feet.
"I hate that shit!" Yang breathed as her hair glowed slightly.
"We just need to..."
She was pushed out of the way by a ghostly white Beowolf as a hoof slammed down where she had just been. There was barely time to recover as a tail swung viciously towards her but she dropped to a knee to dodge it and saw the Beowolf get sliced cleanly in two in her peripheral. By that time, Yang had already rushed in to help, but the Hellk slammed it head down and the blonde barely avoided the antlers with a sudden shotgun blast to reposition. She transitioned it into a spinning backfist against its jaw that was quickly turned into a hammer fist.
As the fists were brought down, her hair glowed a dazzling gold and a loud thud echoed around the space as they found their mark and shoved the Grimm's head into the ground. Not that it stayed there for long. Yang barely managed two more punches to its skull before it sharply raised its head and knocked her aside. Before she could even land though, Blake jumped on the large snout and fired off a few shots into its face. The bullet sparkled white and yellow to create a miniature flash that blinded the creature for a second.
Ruby dashed at it, her scythe at the ready as the beast's head flailed from side to side and dislodged the Faunus. A loud snort filled her ears as she hooked her weapon around its neck and swung herself onto its back. The second she landed, the Grimm began to buck angrily in an attempt to get her off.
"Weiss!"
"On it."
Ruby knelt down and gripped a piece of armor to get a better perch as the girl pressed her rapier to the ground and summoned a wall of ice under the front hooves. The sudden glacial eruption pushed the beast up onto its hind legs. A flick of her wrist produced another glyph a short distance from her and a giant, gleaming white sword emerged.
"Yang!" Ruby called.
As Yang ran towards the sword, Ruby looked down at the Hellk and saw a black ribbon wrapped around one of its antlers and followed it to see her girlfriend trying her best to keep her footing. A black glyph appeared at her feet, Weiss' attempt to support her, and she pulled with as much force as she could. Another look to her left showed that Yang had grabbed the sword and was running full speed at the grimm, so she finally let herself slide to the side and secured herself with the blade of her scythe.
"AAARGH!"
Yang swung the blade with as much force as she could muster. At the same time, Ruby fired off a gravity shot and Blake pulled on Gambol Shroud with the help of a pair of hands that were protruding from another glyph behind her. Their combined force finally succeeded in throwing the creature off balance, and Ruby rolled to escape being crushed by the creature's weight as it came crashing down. As she rose to her feet, she brought her scythe up in a smooth arc to sever Blake's ribbon.
"GO!" She yelled as they finally had a clear shot at the entrance.
While the Hellk writhed on the floor and tried to get up, Weiss released all of her glyphs and the four bolted towards the tunnel. All they needed to do was get inside it and Weiss could create a big enough ice wall to stop the creature from following them for a while. It wouldn't take long at full speed to get back to the beach an…
Ruby's thoughts of escape were cut off as she saw a large, red boulder fly past her shoulder. She could still hear the Hellk struggling behind them and figured it must have smacked it by accident, but the dust rock soared over their heads towards the ceiling.
"RUBY, THA…"
Weiss' words were cut off as the boulder slammed into the rock and detonated. Her entire world shook and she was blown aside by the force of the explosion. She barely registered that Yang's arms had wrapped around her as she flipped through the air, but the soft landing and mess of blonde hair told her that she had been caught. There was no time to thank her sister though since a loud grinding noise filled the cavern, followed by a huge tremble as the section of the ceiling that was hit by the dust caved into a rockfall. A cloud of debris tumbled to the ground with an ear-splitting roar, and the other small pieces of dust that were among it also exploded with enough force to blow them along the floor.
"Our opening is closing." Ruby said hurriedly and scrambled to her feet. "We have to go… move!"
She pushed Yang out of the way as she heard it. The galloping of hooves on stone grew louder very quickly, and, just as they fell to the side, the Hellk tore past them; its antlers lowered and poised for the kill. However, the only thing it met was the wall, and its collision was so strong that its hind legs were thrown into the air for a second as the wall itself cracked to reveal another dust boulder. Ruby didn't waste a single moment and aimed her sniper at it.
Yet another explosion rocked the cavern as her bullet struck the rock and everyone was blown off their feet yet again. Even the Hellk was blown aside by the force of it. As she sailed through the air, the shattered remains of black glyphs billowing around her as Weiss slowed her down, she saw a portion of the ceiling come crashing down on the Grimm and bury it beneath a mound of rubble. And it gave her an idea.
"We shoul...d go." Blake coughed when Ruby finally landed beside them, even further away from the entrance when they started. "While it…"
"No." Ruby said quickly and turned to her team. "We can kill it."
"What?"
"Are you insane?"
"Hear me out." She said hurriedly since she had no idea how long the Hellk would be down for. She could already hear rumbling behind them. "This entire hill is filled with volatile dust. If we trigger enough of it…"
"It would bring the entire thing down on us!" Blake finished.
"Exactly!"
"You really are insane." Weiss breathed as she bent over. The girl was clearly tired from the extended use of her semblance, as well as all the running she'd done and hits she'd taken.
"You're talking about destroying one of Patch's landmarks, Ruby."
"To kill a Grimm that has killed thousands of people," Ruby countered her sister's argument.
"And potentially us!"
"We are huntresses! That's our job!"
There was zero restraint in her reply. The choice was simple for her. She had come to terms with the fact that she would one day die to protect people ages ago; and what in Vale had killed more people than the Hellk? How many more would it kill if they just left it again? But she had a plan. A good plan. There was no way that thing could survive having a hill full of explosive dust crash down on its back, and if she didn't follow through with it, even with the risks, then that would be on her. But she also knew it wasn't only her life on the line, it was her friends'.
"I want to do this!" Ruby said firmly and looked each of them in the eye. "But if you all say no, then we'll leave. But please, think of how many lives this will save."
The sound of shifting rock behind them caught Ruby's attention and she turned to see one of the Hellk's tails burst through the rock. The time for decision was now, so she turned back to her team with a desperate plea in her eyes. They each shared a look with each other, Yang's of worry, Blake's of defeat, and Weiss' of exasperation, but they finally gave a nod.
"Fine." Yang replied as another tail burst through the rock, as well as a leg. "But we do this quick. We don't have much aura left."
Ruby felt a massive urge to hug her sister, but she knew she didn't have time. The rocks behind her were already making a huge amount of noise as the beast struggled to free itself. With a quick look at her Scroll, she saw that Yang and Blake were the two with the most aura left.
"Weiss, can you figure out a way to blow this hill in one go?" She asked quickly.
The heiress gave a nod. "Shouldn't be too hard," She groaned and stood up straight. "But Yang is right, I don't have much left in me."
"Okay," Ruby said with a nod. "Yang, you help Weiss with whatever she needs." Yang gave a small nod. "Blake, we need to protect them until they're ready."
"Got it." The Faunus said and split her weapon to dual wield. "We'll draw it to the ba…"
Her words were drowned out as the rocks behind them exploded and the Hellk stood in the cloud of smoke. One of its antlers had a deep crack running along it, and one of its tails was completely gone. It's red eye burned brighter than anything in the room and steam spouted from its nose and mouth. As it glared at them with pure malice it let out a low growl, Ruby felt a shiver run through her, but pushed it aside. The beast would be dead soon anyway. That she was going to make sure of.
"Freezerburn." She called and heard the telltale sound of the smoke cloud being made behind them. With a small glance to her girlfriend, who gave a smile in return, she gave a small nod and they both rushed in.
With the Grimm enraged, they found it much, much easier to kite it around. It was much more vicious with its attacks, and instead of waiting for them to attack, it often took the lead. It chose to lunge with its antlers, its tails slashed violently around the air and left deep gouges in the cave walls. However, though they were trying to attack, it was still incredibly difficult. The ground was littered with stray pebbles and rocks from the cave in, paired with the ever-increasing amount of broken stalagmites falling down and piercing the ground or just breaking on impact, and every other step the ladybug duo took with their bare feet left them unbalanced. And though they still dodged and weaved the best they could, there was only so much they could avoid.
Blake took a nasty hit from a stray tail that had been blocked from sight by yet another exploding lump of dust, the hit sending her to the ground and causing her to pant as her aura flickered. Ruby also felt herself on the receiving end of the antlers yet again, and her body flattened against them before she was thrown into a nearby stalagmite that only made their footing worse. However, she had heard a distinct crack when she'd been hit, so as she raised to her feet, she placed her scythe behind her and called out her command.
"Ladybug!"
She fired off a shot and closed in. Despite the damage the Hellk had taken, her blade still slid off the beasts legs with little to no damage; but that wasn't her target. Every time a hoof slammed down and tried to catch her, leaving cracks in the ground, she was quickly out of range. She was aware that Blake was doing the same on the other side from the purple blur. Finally, the creature's anger seemed to reach its peak and it leapt into the air. Its entire body fell with its full force and the ground around them splintered and shattered when it landed. But they were already out of range, and Ruby was already a blur of petals as she spun on the spot.
They were still practising the move, and hadn't perfected it, but she hoped that her aim was true. As Blake jumped onto her scythe, she spun again once more for good measure.
"Antler!" She practically shouted as her rotation came to an end and she launched her girlfriend at the oversized elk.
Blake was little more than a blur of purple as she streaked through the air. She was on the Hellk before its head had even raised fully, and with the extra propulsion from another shadow clone, she slammed her cleaver into the already damaged antler. A loud snap filled the area as the crack widened and eventually splintered, breaking away to cause a loud roar of pain to erupt from the beast. Despite its pain though, its head twisted and the jagged teeth clamped down on Blake's leg. The girl legs out a small yelp of surprise, but the Hellk quickly twisted its head back and threw her violently at a nearby wall.
Not planning on letting her girlfriend crash into a wall when her aura was already so low, Ruby opened her arms and caught her, then petal burst to get some distance. A few feet was all she could manage, but the Hellk followed immediately and charged straight at them. They barely dodged, and Ruby even felt her shoulder get slammed by the beast's knee, but she remained standing and fired another ice round into its face.
They were almost at a far wall now, and the closer they got, the more dust rocks there were scattered around the floor. As she backed off again away from another stomp, she saw the cloud of smoke that had previously been obscuring Weiss and Yang clear. More dust rocks surrounded them, seemingly purposely placed between them and the walls, and Weiss even floated two of them on her glyphs. As Yang picked one up from the floor, she flashed a thumbs up and Ruby knew it was finally time to go.
"Blind Split." She called and felt Blake take her hand.
They both fired a shot at the beast's eye, but it lowered its head and charged again. She felt her girlfriend's hand leave hers and they both took off on opposite sides. As she ran, Ruby ducked a tail that was swung straight at her head and slipped on a stray rock, but quickly corrected herself. When she was within ten feet of the pair, Blake rejoined her side and Yang tossed the boulder in her hand over their heads.
"Later, Blaz…"
The loud explosion that erupted behind them cut Yang off and was punctuated by a roar of pain, followed by a bunch of smaller pops that Ruby guessed was the dust she had seen littering the floor earlier. The force of it pushed them forward a little more, and they rode the current to boost their speed as Weiss and Yang took off ahead of them towards the tunnel. They were only halfway there when the rapid sound of hooves on stone filled their ears, and Weiss turned to look back.
"SHOOT THE DUST!" She yelled breathlessly.
Both Ruby and Blake spun on the spot as the Hellk approached the floating boulders, and each of them took aim. They fired off a single shot each, and the dust erupted with a colossal boom just as the Hellk ran between them. Before the Hellk could even hit the floor, the explosion triggered a chain reaction of all the other strategically placed dust surrounding it. Once it touched the wall though, the reaction triggered the numerous veins that ran through them and the cavern shook so badly that Ruby fell over.
The sound was horrendous. The ear-splitting sound of grinding rock was all she could hear as the walls split and burst open. Stalactites fell from the ceiling as it crumbled and smashed onto the ground, quickly followed by massive chunks of stone that revealed the network of tunnels that allowed the hill to breathe. Before she could watch too much though, she felt herself being grabbed roughly by the hood of her cloak and dragged to her feet. She couldn't hear her sister at all, but the blonde practically threw her towards the tunnel and they both continued running.
She could hear the devastation behind her, the tremendous rockslide they had caused that was now filling the favoured spot of many people on Patch. There would certainly be a few people unhappy, but there was no way the Hellk was going to survive. Even as they ran through the tunnel, the ceiling and walls around them were cracking and rupturing, and the spray of rock and dust filled her vision. She worked her legs as hard as she could to stay ahead of it, but she knew from how much louder the noise was assaulting her ears that the collapse was gaining on them.
The other issue was that Weiss was falling behind. Ruby knew her partner's stamina was much lower than anyone on the team, and running to their aid and having to fight must have drained her too much. Though she was trying her best to keep going, her legs clearly began to stumble and her speed had dropped significantly. But Ruby wasn't going to let her down, she wasn't going to let her partner's end come in a rockfall that was her own idea, so despite knowing it would take the rest of what she had left, she activated her semblance and wrapped her arms around the heiress' waist.
She boosted as much as she could and raced down the tunnel. She could feel Blake and Yang hot on her trail as they all ran for their lives, but finally, light blazed ahead of them. The end of the tunnel was approaching fast and Ruby didn't bother to slow down until she was clear of it. The smell of salt water and sand filled her nose, and she closed her eyes to block out the sudden blaze of light that threatened to blind her. Just as she did though, she collided with something hard and felt her aura shatter as she spun out of control. Weiss flew from her grip with a small yell of surprise, and a sharp surge of pain ran up her arm and through her body as she landed face first in the sand, very aware that her arm was in a funny position.
"RUBY!"
She couldn't even move to see who the distant voice belonged to since her entire body was screaming in pain from the exertion of the fight, but she knew it was male. Her mind slowly clicked and she recognised her dad's worried tones and a couple of seconds later she felt herself being pulled onto her side. Her eyes quickly found the man with his blonde hair, and she saw the four members of Team CFVY rush past him to get to the other members of her team, who were laid out on the beach too and panting heavily.
"What the hell happened!" He half shouted over the sound of explosions that were still coming from the hill as it continued to fall.
"He… llk." She gasped back as she tried her best not to throw up from the pain that pulse from her arm.
His face creased with worry, and he looked towards the hill with a furrowed brow. As he did, a loud bang came from halfway up and scattered more debris around the beach, and Tai quickly hunched over her to block her from the rain of stone. Once it was done, he pulled away and signalled to Coco, who was fussing over Yang.
"We need to get them back to the house, now!"
"It's… fine." Yang coughed and rose to her feet with the help of Velvet and Coco. "We killed…"
"This is not a discussion, Yang!" His head turned to Yatsu as he helped Blake try to stand, only for her legs to give out. There was blood on her thigh, and while it wasn't much, it was enough to tell Ruby that her aura had broken. "You and Fox help those two, I have Ruby. We have to mo…"
He was cut off by another explosion, though it didn't sound like dust that time. Rocks hurtled towards them at high speed, and had Coco not slammed her bag against a rather large one at the last minute to alter its course, Ruby knew she and Tai would have absolutely would have hit. And with no aura, she likely would have died then and there. However, that was the least of her concerns as she looked at where the explosion came from.
A side of the hill had been completely blown away to expose a cavern that Ruby didn't know existed, and stood at the entryway, slowly making its way into the daylight, was the Hellk. Ruby had no idea how it had survived the cave in, but it had. It's remaining antler hung limply from its head, only connected by a thin piece of muscle, and the previously bright red of its eye was nowhere to be seen as its head swished blindly from side to side. Cracks littered its armor and deep cuts peppered its skin. The entire left side of its chest seemed indented, but it was still standing. And that sent a wave of fear through Ruby.
The moment she felt it, the beast's head stopped its swinging and pointed directly at her. Before she could even take in what it was doing, Yatsu stepped in front of both her and Tai and flames crashed into his chest.
"Sorry, Petal." Tai said quickly and leant down to kiss her forehead before he stood up. "Yatsu, take her. Keep her safe!"
"Wh… No!" Ruby protested and Tai ran at the beast and Yatsu picked her up in his arms. "DAD! Let me down!"
Despite knowing that there was no way she could fight Yatsu's grip, she tried to struggle out of it and only succeeded in hurting her arm more. But she wasn't going to let her dad fight that thing alone.
"Sorry, Ruby." He replied in his deep voice. "I can't do that." His head turned away from her to his team. "Coco. I advise we move."
"We're comi… Yang, WAIT!"
Yang slipped free of her girlfriends' grip and tore after her father. The two girls made to go after her, but quickly found their path's blocked by Fox.
"She'll be fine." He said firmly. "Let's get these three to safety, then we'll come back for them."
It looked like Coco was about to fight back and shove him aside, but Velvet grabbed her arm. "He's right, Coco. It's the smart choice."
Coco glanced to the side, and Ruby could see the glare soften on her eyebrows as she looked at her girlfriend. After a second, her defiance faded and she gave a small nod and turned back to the blind boy.
"Fine. You two get Blake. I've got Weiss."
The fact they were about to leave Tai and Yang, who was already on low aura, to fight something that had survived a whole cave system crashing down upon it, brought her back to reality, and she renewed her attempts to struggle. She didn't care that she had no aura left and that her arm was beginning to hurt more as it hung uselessly at her side, she would happily give her life to help her family.
"Ruby…" Yatsu grunted. "Please stop struggling."
"Let me go!" She cried as her family grew further and further away and she saw her sister take a hit to the chest that put her on the floor. "Let me…"
"Yatsu! Just wipe her."
"I'm not goi..."
"We can't le…"
"Just do it before she damages that arm more." Coco snapped firmly.
Yatsu slowed his pace and panic ran through her. She knew his semblance. What it would do and she couldn't let that happen. But he was too strong, and she couldn't fight him, so as he turned her away from the fight and she felt a hand press against the back of her head, she let out a final desperate plea to the giant.
"I'm sorry."
"Please, don…"
Her mind went blank.
She wasn't quite sure why Yatsu was carrying her along the beach, nor why her arm was hurting so badly, but she assumed she'd been in a fight. Her body was certainly exhausted, and she couldn't summon her aura, so everything seemed to say as much. And she was so tired, like she had been running for miles and abusing her semblance. But as she tried to look up, she found her body was simply too tired. She wanted to sleep, and if she was in Yatsu's arms, then she was safe. So with that in mind, she let her mind drift away as her fatigue took her into darkness.
Yang kicked herself up from the sand as her dad sank his fist into the side of the Hellk's face. A few cracked teeth were knocked out. From the corner of her eye, she saw her team being led away from the fight, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. She'd seen Ruby's aura break from her landing, and knew from experience that her arm had likely broken from the position it was in, but the girl was still trying to go after their father. It was part of the reason she went instead. She was the only member of their team left with enough aura to fight, to help her dad finish what was started.
The Hellk was severely injured, and from the way it was thrashing around, blind. The red eye was completely gone and its attacks missed half the time, but it was still a threat. It bucked wildly in place as its tails were nowhere to be seen, shot off jets of flame in random directions, and charged at the slightest bit of noise. At least before they could predict its attacks, but that was now impossible. As intelligent as it had been before, it was back to being just as smart as the rest of its kind. But unfortunately for them, it still had the strength of an ancient.
"I told you to leave!" Tai growled as she barrelled past him and bent low to deliver an uppercut to the beast's jaw. It may have still had its strength, but it could no longer take the hits as well as it used to.
"And I told you I wasn't!" She growled back. "That's not up for discussion!"
She spat his words back at him with a small amount of venom and ducked below a particularly vicious swipe from the chipped, elongated claw of the creature's damaged hoof. Before it could come down fully, Tai spun on the spot and struck out with his leg. A flash of yellow pulsed from his foot and the elk's body was pushed slightly to the side. As it landed, it twisted its head and spat a geyser of flame. As she rolled out of the way, she heard the sand creak and crack beneath her feet as it turned to glass.
She shot off a blast of her gauntlets as she stood and slammed her fist its left side to feel that it was far softer than the rest where it had been caved in. However, with that change being unsuspected and the roar that was released making her flinch, she didn't move in time as the teeth clamped down on her shoulder and it began to viciously shake her back and forth. She felt her legs smack her dad, but he was quick to deliver another aura punch to it's throat and she was released. As she fell through the air, she twisted and delivered a kick to its injured eye. It reared back with another roar and tried to slam down onto them again, but Yang used her gauntlets to force herself out of the way.
The Hellk charged after her, but due to its lack of sight, it didn't quite hit its mark; instead, it slammed its head into the rock that Ruby broke her aura on, and shattered it to pieces.
"It's weak on the left." Yang relayed to her dad as the fiend turned and sniffed the air.
"Then that's where we target." He responded.
Without another word, he ran at the grimm, ducking below its attempt to smack him away with its head. As he did, Yang saw him reach up to the antler that dangled uselessly by a thin strand of muscle, and rip it off. The roar that was released as it rose into its hind legs made her head ring, but she charged forward anyway. That time she sank her whole shoulder into the left side, and, as it staggered away from her, transitioned into a few shotgun propelled punches to keep it reeling. As it came back down, the body twisted and Yang felt a strong hoof smash into her shoulder and push her back.
However, Tai was already waiting, and delivered an aura-fueled, double palm strike to the ribs that pushed it away and into the side of the now much smaller hill. There were still explosions going off within it as dust continued to erupt and send debris everywhere, so as the beast slammed into the side, yet more rocks and dust crashed down. The Hellk reared its head back and fire gathered in its mouth, and she saw a rather large dust rock drop and cocked her fist back to load a new shell, and punched out. Her rocket hit its mark, and the dust exploded again to leave another large hole in the hill and throw the fiend aside. When it got back up a second later, its bottom jaw hung open and most of the teeth were missing.
But it still didn't care. It charged again and Yang ran out to meet it. She knew how much damage she had taken, and that her aura was almost out, but she also knew that meant she was at her strongest. That was when she burned brightest, but she knew she couldn't burn for long. So as they both drew closer to each other, she channeled her semblance into every part of her body and felt the heat well around her. Five feet away, she stopped and let everything burst free.
"AARGH!"
She summoned every ounce of strength that she could and slammed her fist into the armor of the Hellk's lowered head and felt pain tear through her. Cracks and pops filled her ears as the armor shattered and she unleashed the rest of her shells. But she knew it still wasn't enough.
Despite her giving it her all, the head withstood her attack and the neck pressed back against her. With a great roar, the head snapped upwards and Yang felt herself being thrown into the air. Before she could even land, she saw the hind legs come for her again and she crossed her arms to brace for the impact. However, even though she braced, pain still surged through her as she shot backwards and slammed into the hill. Her head spun as it smashed into the rock, but her aura held. However she knew it wouldn't hold again. One more hit and she was done.
But that was when she saw it. A large shard of dust a couple of feet away from her. It was sharp to a point, roughly the size of her arm and as thick as her head. She knew exactly where that could go, but it was dark and inactive. The red didn't pulse like the volatile pieces that were exposed within the cave, and she knew it would need to be activated. Since she didn't have any bullets left, there was only one way to do that. Manually.
She knew she should stay still, that she should let her dad take care of the rest since she couldn't take another hit without her aura breaking. But one was all she needed to take. Just one. So even though pain ripped through her body as she did it, she crawled to the sharp dust fragment and tilted it up so that she could use it to help her stand.
"YANG!" She heard her dad shout and the Hellk turned towards him. "STAY DOWN!"
"Fuck th…at!" She growled as she finally got to her feet and raised the dust chunk to her shoulder.
Just as the Hellk took off towards her father, Yang took off at a slow run. Tai saw her coming, and instead of moving, planted his feet. Yellow aura flashed around him as he opened his arms wide, only to close them around the beast's head as it slammed into its chest. The force of the impact blew the sand around them away, and the Hellk's hind legs raised into the air as Tai became an unmovable wall. He held firm onto the head as she approached, and summoning the last of her strength, she gave the shard a spin to get a better grip and slammed the sharp end into the soft ribs of the grimm.
It wouldn't have surprised Yang if the roar that filled the area as the shard was lodged deep inside could be heard in town. It made her bones rattle and her eyes shut, but she wasn't finished. The dust needed to blow, so she activated her aura.
"Just fucki…"
The result was quick due to her not being careful in the slightest, and the shard began to glow a violent red. The light pulsed a few times, and then her entire world erupted in pain.
It ripped through every part of her. From her fingertips to her toes, everything screamed at her. Her head spun and pounded so hard that she was barely aware that she was flying through the air, and even the arms that wrapped around her waist to catch her caused even more pain to emanate across her body. For all she knew, it could have been an hour later that they finally landed, and even though she was protected from the hard ground by a squishy body, it still sent even more waves of pain rushing through her. But she needed to be sure, she needed to confirm it, so as the arms at her side began to move, she opened her eyes to check.
The Hellk lay forty feet away, it's head buried in the sand and a massive hole in its chest. It didn't move, it didn't even twitch, and as she stared blankly, she saw the hole begin to smoke. A great plume of black cloud quickly began to envelop the wretched beast, and despite her pain, despite the cost, a small rush of relief ran through her.
"It…" She could barely speak as the blackness encroached on her too and the world began to fade. "... Dead?"
"It is." Tai said, his voice panicked and rushed. His hand moved to brush her hair aside, and through blurred vision, Yang saw it come away red. She could barely muster up the will to care. She hurt all over, and she was so tired. "Yang. Yang! Stay with me! Come on, baby girl."
"I'm g…"
She couldn't even finished her word as the tiredness took her and her world fell to darkness. Before the sound faded, and her thoughts stopped though, a final one invaded her head. One that made her feel comforted.
I saved them. My family is safe.
Raalm's Notes
Hello everyone :D That was quite a chapter, huh?
I really hope the action was good. Writing full actions chapters are tough since they require good pacing and the general description needs to be good since they mostly become a word wall for the most part. So I hope we did that well.
But yeah, for the most part, the actions speaks for itself, but I do want to touch upon a few things. We really wanted to make it clear just how little they were able to do against it themselves. We wanted to show that this was just something they couldn't beat by themselves, that the most they could do what keep it at bay a little, and even there they were failing. I wanted it to really feel like an ancient. So hopefully that worked.
We also wanted to show that, as old as it is, it's still a Grimm. So we tried to have it obvious that as it become more damaged, its intelligence began to lower and it became more animalistic. Hopefully that worked too.
The last thing, kinda in relation to that first, is that we really wanted them to take damage. It would feel wrong for them to come out of an encounter like this without much damage, and I believe Toxic has a little more to say on that.
But I'm really glad you took the time to read. The is arc had been real fun to write, and I sure hope you all enjoyed. There is 1 chapter left of it, and then we are starting the new arc. One thing i will say about the new arc though is that the chapters may be a little smaller, between 3-4k words, so I hope that is okay too. But yeah, that's it for me. Thank you for taking the time to read, and comment, and everything, and I hope you are all staying safe :)
Toxic' Notes
Heyo, Toxic here, its been awhile since you heard from me, The U.S is going nuts, people are being dumb, the media is blowing out of proportion, what's new. My schedule that's what because while everyone else is complaining about self isolation I haven't really changed anything, except now I have a few more people in my cave more often. my brother is out of school indefinitely... or until this resolves... anyway. Last chapter I know wasn't the nicest way to leave you off, but I think we resolved it well enough for those of you that felt cockblocked last chapter. The Hellk is Dead. Just what that means isn't clear to the young team though. And just to let you know, This was meant to be a fight that they got injured in, Raalm and I really don't like the magic of them not getting out unscathed or close to it bc of something happening magically, like jaune's semblance, or a side character getting hurt/dying instead of the main character getting slightly hurt. Anyway I look forward to reading your comments, thank you so much for reading this story and taking the time out of your day.