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Chapter 3: Seedlings

Aiming her gauntlets at the beast's heads, Yang fired, staggering the beast and grabbing its attention. Just what she wanted, as it allowed Blake to sneak up on it from behind. Now all she had to do was make sure that its attention remained on her. She ducked out of cover, bringing out Dawnbreak and fired three electric rounds, disabling some of the hydra's weapon systems but not all of them, as was evident by the set of cluster grenades sent her way. Firing her gauntlets again, Yang jumped back, avoiding the cluster and backflipping onto the roof of a destroyed cabin.

Charging up the charge mod on her gauntlet, she took aim and fired again, this time striking its chest, stunning it. The hydra howled in agony before it began to charge up it's weapons, pointing all of them at Yang. 'Anytime now Blake,' Yang thought, as she jumped down from the roof of the cabin, taking a destroyed piece of metal and throwing at the hydra, which ended up getting destroyed as it was thrown under the combined volley of bullets, burst lasers and a couple of hydra missiles.

Raising its giant heads high, Yang watched as it attempted to charge up another volley of attacks. But before it could even shoot a single shot, it let out a scream of agony and dipped it's head to the floor, revealing Blake. The Faunus had managed to sneak up on the Hydra and as such was able to cripple it with her hardlight sheath. Rushing in to assist her, Yang gave herself an extra boost of momentum using her gauntlets and slammed one of the beast's heads into the ground. Flipping unto the Hydra's back, she was taken aback when the beast suddenly reared it's back, sending Blake to the floor.

Holding on for dear life, Yang used the hooks on her metallic arm to maintain her grip and turning her gauntlets into shotguns, fired off blindly into the beast, landing shots all over the beasts heads and back and even breaking through the armor plating, revealing a piece of its black flesh. But as she attempted to deliver a final blow using Dawnbreak, Yang was caught by a surprise as one of the heads attempted to bite Yang, latching onto her metallic arm.

Surging with rage, Yang swiftly used Dawnbreak and immediately broke out of its clutches with a shot straight to the beast's sensors, disabling them for good. But in her haste, she forgot to take into account the other head. As she was about to punch the Hydra into oblivion, one of its heads struck her across the face and sent her into the wall of a building. As her vision faded, she could barely make out Blake screaming her name.

Jumping off the metallic pipes, Ruby knew better than anyone that she held the best chance against this 3-legged monstrosity. It's slow movements, combined with its equally slow guns meant that as long as she dodged its attacks, her and Weiss would be just fine. All she had to do was make sure it didn't catch Weiss with its sensors.

Speaking of which, she should probably do something about those before her partner ended up on the beast's targeting sensors. Aiming at the Marauder's head, Ruby let loose an incendiary round which ended up burning it through the back of its head.

The beast turned and with its metallic arm, extended it, attempting to catch Ruby in its clutches. Before it even reached a foot from Ruby's location, its arm was frozen by an expert shot from Weiss, who managed to take cover before a railgun nearly destroyed the cover over her. Rushing forwards using her semblance, Ruby lashed out against the creature, slashing its arm off before shooting it with her sniper, using the recoil of the weapon to put some distance between her and the Marauder.

Landing on the floor, she rolled and took out her backup pistol and fired electric rounds into the beast's legs, slowing it down. Ruby rushed forward, seeing an opportunity to finish the fight, only faintly hearing Weiss say "Stop! You're going to-" before attempting to take off the Marauder's head, only to find herself stuck in a trap as a shoulder mounted gun, shot her thrice, sending her to the floor.

As she fell, she noticed out of the corner of her eye, the beast's railgun primed and aimed at her head, ready to blast her into oblivion. Right as the shot came however, she noticed a wall of ice suddenly emerge from the floor in front her, blocking the hit.

Firing with both her pistols, Blake managed to land two lucky shots against the hydra, distracting the attention of two of its heads away from Yang. Looking over to the blonde laying on the floor clutching her head, Blake began firing her pistols more rapidly, hoping to grab the attention of the remaining heads. Luckily for her, her aim today was good and with a few more strikes to the beast's sensors and exposed neck, Blake attracted its full attention.

Of course, that didn't mean she had succeeded in any way. In fact, the hardest part of her plan was going to begin now. Taking cover behind a destroyed statue, Blake sent out her Shadow Clone in one direction, distracting the Hydra. Jumping from cover to cover, Blake used her grappling hook in her metallic blade to slide into what appeared to be a warehouse.

Hearing a roar from behind her, Blake knew she had gained the beast's ire. The gunfire that followed only reinforced that. Using her semblance again, Blake used this Shadow Clone to give her one last boost of momentum before she landed on the roof of the warehouse, entering through a broken part of the ceiling. Swiftly landing without a sound, Blake quickly ran over her options.

She could try to fight the beast outright which was the equivalent of a death wish. She would be overwhelmed immediately by the beast's heads, and that was assuming it didn't manage to strike her down with the weapons attached to its feet and claws. She could try to sneak up on it and disable it. It was Gambol Shroud's original purpose after all, but doing so would put Yang in danger of being killed again and after seeing how far she was willing to go to protect Blake, the thought of letting her die simply didn't sit well with her.

Which left only one option. Her scroll, which had been linked to the scanner in her suit, had revealed that there were a series of Dust crystals in a series of crates. Rock, Ice and Fire. Perfect for what she was planning against the Hydra.

Collecting the Dust and jumping back onto the roof, Blake armed Fire Dust into her suit, causing its power systems and the heads-up display on her sunglasses to turn orange. Technically, what she had in mind was only possible in theory, and without any prior testing, there was no guarantee if this would even work.

Firing incendiary rounds from Gambol Shroud's two pistols, Blake managed to set fire to the Hydra's body and began to melt off some of the protective plating on its chest. Given how quickly it was starting to give way, Blake was lucky that her target was a very young Grimm. As the Grimm turned to face her, Blake ran straight at it from the roof and jumped towards it.

At the last second, she used her semblance and jumped off one of her Shadow Clones, allowing her to fall and roll back towards her injured ally; her clone exploded right in Grimm's face, stunning it. Running towards Yang, Blake immediately took out an aura syringe she had pawned in the warehouse and took it out. Before she set herself down to check up on Yang, Blake sent out another one of her Shadow Clones exhausting all the Fire Dust she had taken and let it again explode on the Grimm, buying some more time for the Faunus.

Using the scanners in her omni scroll, she rapidly checked Yang's vitals and found that thankfully she was still breathing, and her heart rate was normal. Hearing a groan and noticing Yang move slightly, Blake immediately turned her around and helped her up on her arm, asking "Yang? Are you okay?"

"Feel like I just got slammed into a jackhammer… other than that, I'm alright. Where's the Grimm?" Yang replied.

"Take it easy, your aura's at barely 20%. We need to get out of here!" She said to the blonde, who shook her head.

"No Blake. We need to fight. If we don't put that thing down right here, right now, it will be back, and it will keep on hunting us down. These things won't give up until you destroy them and that's what I'm going to do. If you want to leave, suit yourself but I'm not leaving this thing to hunt down any of us." She replied, her eyes turning crimson as she armed her shotgun gauntlets.

"Wait!" Blake replied to the blonde making her stop. "I have a plan! Please, don't just rush in headstrong, that's exactly what it wants."

"It hasn't stopped me from kicking these things's asses since I started." She replied, continuing forward.

"Maybe, but all those Grimm you fought; I can guarantee are not like these ones. These things can't be fought alone. Please, Yang. Please."

Letting out a sigh, Yang slumped over her shoulders and asked, "What's your plan?"

"Take a look at that thing. It's already half beaten down. In fact, I'm willing to wager that you can easily destroy these things with a couple of punches or some shotgun shells."

"Or maybe just one, my semblance does allow me to enhance my power based on how much damage I take. I think I can easily take this thing down if I can get a crack at its weak spot."

"The thing is, we need to get close to it, so I'm going to use my semblance and distract it as long as I can. You try to find an opening and strike its underbelly so that we can make full use of its weakness."

"How do you know so much about hunting these things down?" asked Yang, sending Blake into a slight panic. Her time in the White Fang had given her many skills and one of them happened to be how to destroy Grimm like the hydra. Of course, as far as they knew she was a victim of the White Fang, not a former member. Maybe she could keep that a secret for a little longer.

"Now's not the time Yang," she replied urgently as she used her semblance again to gain a better vantage point at the hydra, which was roaring in agony. And for good reason, as Blake's semblance had destroyed a lot of the armor that was making its underbelly so hard to reach. At this rate, all she really needed to do was distract it with her clones for just a few seconds to give Yang a clear shot to the Grimm.

Arming the Ice Dust into her exosuit, Blake jumped down from her perch, shooting ice rounds from both her pistols. The impact froze more and more of the beast's legs and also managed to create some on its necks, attracting the beast's attention to Blake. Zigzagging towards the Grimm, she used Rock Dust immediately as she spotted one of the Grimm's many attacks coming from the guns on its shoulders and arms.

The rock copy managed to take most of the impact, before allowing Blake to swiftly make her way to the Beast's side. Activating her hardlight sheath, Blake ran her sword right through the beast's neck and shoulder, cutting off one of its arms. Using her semblance again, she managed to get one of the beast's legs stuck in it. Running over the beast's back she slashed relentlessly, cutting through it's armor like paper before deactivating the hardlight sheath upon realizing it was out of energy.

One of the Grimm's arms turned and attempted to go for her shoulder but this time, Blake was ready. Using her semblance one last time, Blake reappeared at the top of the beast's head and ran her sword down the beast's long neck, the metallic blade creating sparks against the metal, before finding flesh. Plunging her sword deeper into it, Blake fired two more rounds into the opening, before jumping off the beast with her sword.

Turning her metallic sword into a grappling hook, Blake threw the sword to Yang. Noticing a slight tug on the string, Blake pulled as hard as she could, pulling the Hydra's attention away from her to the blonde, who came charging in. Her hair glowing like embers of a flame, Blake watched as the beast took the full force of an extremely pissed off blonde.

Seeing the beast crumble from the inside, she watched as Yang aimed her shotgun and handcannon, taking off all of its heads except the last one. With the beast crippled and unable to make a move against either of them, all that was left for Blake to do was to finish it.

And she did it with ease.

Weiss didn't understand why she was stuck with a partner who just so happened to think the best strategy for any situation was to rush in blindly and hope for the best. Using her hold glyph, Weiss focused all her energy on stopping the Marauder from firing its railgun. Raising her revolver to fire, she shot at the Marauder's shoulder mounted gun, stopping it from firing.

Thankfully by this time, the redhead finally snapped out of her shock and used her scythe to strike against the beast's legs, cutting off one before using her semblance in her combat rig and speeding off… carrying Weiss.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asked, as the redhead sped up leaving holographic petals which disintegrated a few seconds after they came. "I could have destroyed that thing!"

"No, you couldn't have the time you had… snowflake, you left yourself exposed to its railgun… if I hadn't moved you, you would've been shot." The redhead puther hands on her knees and breathed rapidly as the two of them hid behind a wall.

"But how? I had that thing's railgun stuck in my glyph."

"The Marauder had already formulated a plan to shoot you and was charged up from before. Even if you managed to land a shot to one of its sensors, it would have still managed to shoot you down."

"How do you know about all this?" Weiss asked, shocked at how Ruby seemed to know everything about the Grimm but still refused to make a coordinated effort to attack.

"Uhhhh, I read a lot of books about it on the CCT network? Also, because me and Yang fought these things before and I know from personal experience just how quickly those things can fire." Ruby replied, taking off a small piece of her dress to show Weiss a scar on her chest letting her come to the conclusion that she got lucky.

Had she been on her own, she would've most certainly, in her hubris, attempted to shoot down the Marauder with her revolver Eispunkt. Which would've left herself open to a counterattack which Weiss which in her weakened state might have actually crippled her.

Had Ruby not been there, Weiss might not have survived. Thinking back, she could only recall either Winter or Klein who ever showed her that kind of mercy.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine! Almost no one even knows about this sort of stuff! I guess you got lucky I was there to help you out."

"Thank you, but how are we going to deal with this Marauder, then. If shooting's not an option, then how else are we supposed to take it down?" Weiss asked, hoping Ruby at least had some idea for talking this thing down.

"I was going to use my scythe to cut it up, and maybe buy you a little bit more time to shoot down the gun mounted on its shoulder, but I guess that's already taken care of. Unless it picks up another gun component from your ship, so I would say I go ahead and distract it while you try to line up a clear shot?" Ruby replied, which made Weiss ponder just how far this girl was willing to go to put herself on the line for someone else.

"Are you sure, you'll be okay?" Weiss asked, concern seeping into her voice.

"Of course! My semblance is too fast for these Grimm things to scan and the petals I leave behind can confuse its scanners! It's the perfect tool against the Grimm! And also, I do this all the time with Yang! So don't worry about me Weiss, just make sure you get a clear shot on the Marauder."

"Where?" Weiss asked, reloading her revolver, taking out the Burn Dust pouch in her coat and reloading her bullets with Burn Dust.

"The railgun. I'll take out the legs and then you and me can go for the finisher together!" Ruby replied, with glee and excitement of a child.

"I don't think there's something called a finisher, but at least it's better than just running in headlong without a plan." Weiss replied as she heard a shot ring out and take out a section of the wall.

Aiming her revolver at the beast's legs, she quickly shifted her aim to the railgun and...

*BANG*

The shot rang out, slamming against the railgun, dropping to the floor. Going in for another shot, Weiss shot the Marauder's grip on the railgun before shooting it once in the chest and ducking behind another set of destroyed cover.

The Marauder let out a cry of rage as it attempted to move towards Weiss, only for it to hear a loud slash, as Ruby came through with her side of the plan, and in one clean stroke, managed to cut off all three legs of the Marauder, leaving it on the floor, screaming in rage. It tried to break the ice surrounding it's shoulder mount but its efforts were met by a quick shot from Ruby who, from out of nowhere, pulled out a pistol, destroying it's shoulder gun.

Tilting her head towards Weiss, she pointed her gun at the beast's head. Seeing the gesture as a request to kill the Grimm with a combined shot, Weiss obliged and fired her revolver at the same time as Ruby, finishing the Marauder for good.

Before she could even holster her weapon again, Weiss felt her vision start to get blurry. Knees shaking and body shivering, Weiss fell to her knees, clutching her stomach as pain racked all over her body.

Falling to the floor, the last thing she saw were pools of silver looking to her with shock and worry as she was lifted up.

A/N: Huge shoutout to my beta readers TimeX13, 0neWhoWanders and Riggy_Minus for all their constant support on this story. Sadly this probably marks the last upload for this month for this story as I need to focus on my exams. However, I do hope to keep you all entertained with this story and can very safely say that I am super excited for you all to see the next few chapters.

As always let me know about your feedback as it always helps keep me going and Keep Moving Forward!