[X] Back up Piran. There were a lot of people in the safe place, and Piran, a girl with a broken arm and a few summons wouldn't hold for long.
...Blast would have to take care of himself.
Sure, he was in danger, but that Cent guy was up there, and Blast should be smart enough to run if things start looking dicey.
Piran and the survivors? They didn't have it as lucky. There was too many of them. If they came under attack, they wouldn't be able to just run for it.
"Yang, Piran, focus on the people that need to be evacuated." Winter ordered. "I'll contact Cent and ask him to keep an eye open for Blast. It's too dangerous for either of you to go up their yourselves. Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am." Yang replied.
She didn't like it. She was leaving an ally somewhere dangerous without so much as trying to get them, and leaving them without knowing what was going on. But she couldn't just abandon Piran and the evacuees either. And they needed her more.
"Piran." Yang quickly called over the scroll. "Is there someone called Two with the rest of the evacuees?"
There was silence for a moment, probably Piran double-checking. "Another person with Aura? No, they're not here. Why?"
"Never mind." Yang replied. "I'll get in contact with her. Focus on getting people to the ship, I'll catch up."
"Understood." Piran replied. "Over and out."
Flicking through her scroll quickly, Yang found Two's information in but a moment. It took another moment for Two to answer.
"Hello!" She said. "Hey, now's not a good time, there's a lot of people trying to kill me right now..."
"Just a heads up." Yang said. "Grimm are coming in, so our leader's called in the airship to the centre of town. My teammate's helping people get there, and I'll be with the group in a moment. Don't panic if you go to the safe place and nobody's there."
"Thanks, Yang!" Two called. "Hold on a moment, just let me..."
A deafening string of gunshots fired out, each loud enough that Yang was hearing them twice- One from the scroll, the other echoing through town a fraction of a second later. Or at least, she assumed so. There was enough per second that it was hard to tell how long the delay really was.
"Last warning!" Two shouted. "Step away from the children!"
There was muffled movements for a moment, and some sobbing, before Two spoke again.
"Centre of town, you said?" Two asked. "I'm close to there. I'll take these kids there now and keep it safe while you and your friend get everyone else in, okay?"
"Got it." Yang said, but Two had already moved on.
"It's okay, it's okay." She said in a soft voice. There was a thud, like a scroll falling to the ground, and Two's voice grew more distant. "Just close your eyes and don't look, okay? It's going to be okay. I won't let anything bad happen."
Feeling that Two was done with the conversation, Yang ended the call and put her scroll away, and started running.
As she ran, Yang observed the area around here.
This village was surprisingly big, all things considered. A lot of buildings with multiple floors, probably home to a good number of people. It had to have been well populated, must have gotten a lot of refugees from other places. The reason they'd been called into the town in the first place was because it was having a population issue, so it was likely there was more people here than the number of buildings would initially imply.
All things considered, the amount of survivors she'd seen at the safe place was rather low.
...Maybe more people had gotten away. Maybe some had found vehicles somewhere and had made a run from it at the start of the attack. Maybe some of them had hidden away where nobody had found them.
The thought didn't help much. With the Grimm approaching and the smell of burning flesh in the air, it was hard to appreciate the idea that there could be people here that Yang didn't know about.
And right on cue, Yang heard a squawk. Looking into the air, her worst suspicions were confirmed.
Nevermores. Multiple, of various sizes, but there was at least one giant one there. The giant was just big enough to swallow a human whole, but even if it was on the smaller end of giant Grimm, it was still enough of a threat that Yang couldn't deal with it.
Hell, Signal had taught that it wasn't unusual for a team of first-year Beacon students to have trouble with a giant Nevermore. That, plus a few smaller ones that still managed to be about Yang's size?
She couldn't kill that.
She could fight it, maybe survive, buy time for people to get away, but this was the kind of threat that led to stories of career-ending injuries, in more optimistic cases.
It was fortunate, then, that Winter was well above the level of a Signal student.
With a ferocious roar, a few ghostly draconic figures rose up from the horizon, making a beeline for the Nevermores. The Nevermores swooped away and fired some wings at the attackers, who spat out phantasmal fireballs and continued on the attack. One of the Wyverns was hit in the wing and began to fall before fading appear, but several of the smaller Nevermores fell as well, and the larger one was pushed into a retreating battle.
It'd be a close fight, and Yang didn't know who would win, but it'd take long enough and take the Nevermore far enough away that it shouldn't be a threat, for a bit longer at least.
When she had more time, Yang would have to take a moment to complain about how experienced Hunters were so far ahead of her. Maybe tell Ruby the story, she'd love hearing about the more battle-focused aspects of this. The mass death, not so much, but the fighting, sure.
Continuing her run, Yang heard the sound of combat somewhere nearby.
Piran, probably.
Turning direction slightly, Yang made a dash for the sound of combat, hoping that everything would be fine. Bursting out of an alleyway, she took a moment to figure out what was going on.
Another mercenary was here, battling Piran. The boy was fighting in the street, keeping the merc away from another alleyway, which was probably where the evacuees were.
Not wasting any more time, Yang broke in.
"Sucker Punch!" She shouted, punching at the air and firing Ember Celica at the sucker. The mercenary turned and drew a line in the air in front of him. The projectile hit the line, split in two, and hit either side of the mercenary.
Before Yang could fire again, Piran took a step forward, throwing something. In the air in front of him, a log of a tree suddenly appeared, spinning as it grew until it covered the length of the street.
The mercenary saw it at the last second, turned and traced another air line, but it was a moment too late. The downward line had gone down the distance between his head to the centre of his chest before the giant log hit, and Yang lost sight of him as he and the log travelled into the distance.
"Neat trick." Yang noted. "Looks like your bark and bite aren't that different."
"Nice to see you, Yang." Piran noted. "Terrible puns aside, thanks. I'm not sure I could've thrown that fast enough if you hadn't distracted him."
Yang looked over at the giant log. "You, uh, gonna fix that?"
"Too big." Piran replied. "It'd take too long to get a good enough grip."
"You need to hold it to shrink it?" Yang asked.
Piran looked at her. "Oh, I never explained just how my Semblance works, did I?"
"You can tell me on the way to the airship." Yang said. "Let's go."
Piran nodded. "Follow me, we'll go around this street."
"There does seem to be a fallen tree blocking the way." Yang noted, as she followed him. "Maybe you should call emergency services to have it moved."
"I imagine they'd be busy." Piran noted drily.
"How'd it go?" Asked a voice from within the alleyway. As Yang stepped into it, she saw it was the orange-haired girl.
"I won." Piran replied. "Now let's go, Nora. No time to delay."
The Nora girl nodded, and turned to the group.
"Alright everyone!" She declared. "Everyone stick with your buddy! Especially the kids! If you get lost, I'm eating your dessert!"
Yang smiled slightly, as the girl marched ahead, leading the group out of the alleyway.
Yang and Piran followed from the back. The group was small enough that they'd be able to get to the front of the group in a heartbeat, and unlike Nora, they were intact enough that a blow from behind wouldn't take them out of the fight.
"So, how does your Semblance work?" Yang asked.
"I can only control the size of things I can spin." Piran replied. "Spin something clockwise, it gets bigger. Anticlockwise, it gets smaller. If it's too big for me to get a grip, won't move or something I can't touch, it doesn't work."
"Huh." Yang noted. "Must be a pain, spinning things."
"It's still useful." Piran replied. "And I don't have to be directly touching it, as long as I made it spin while it's close enough for my Aura to work. My gun's set up to spin bullets if I pull the trigger the right way, and that works. And besides, don't you need to get hurt for your Semblance to work?"
"I do get stronger as I take more damage, yes." Yang replied. "Speaking of which, how's your Aura?"
"I'm good." Piran replied. "Haven't taken too much damage. I'd estimate about... Seventy, seventy five percent?"
"That much?"
"I don't have that much to start with." Piran replied. "And I only lost that much because invisible bomber caught me off guard."
"Ah." Yang noted. "Speaking of, he got away. His Aura was out, and it only took one hit to down him and knock his Semblance off, but I don't know if he's one of those people who can use their Semblance while out of usable Aura, and he might still have explosive traps."
Piran nodded. "I had expected as much. I had warned everyone here to keep an eye out for the explosive wire. Notice how Nora's walking a good distance in front of the group?"
Yang looked ahead, and saw that she was. "Is that safe?"
"Her Aura's fairly strong." Piran noted. "She's confident in being able to take a hit, and thinks it's better her than someone who can fight."
There was a sudden sound on Yang's scroll, and the girl reached for it. A message from Two.
"Yang!" The blue-haired girl called. "I'm at the airship, but so are the bad guys!"
"What's the problem?" Yang asked immediately.
"Well, I got all the children on board, but as soon as I did the airship's turret thingy started firing into a building, I ran in to investigate, but then the building blew up and I had to stop and use my Song to stop the rubble from hitting the airship."
Yang took a moment to process that. "Stay near the ship." She advised. "If the other buildings go down-"
"I know, I know!" Two called. "But making a shield the right size and shape to protect the ship and send the rubble away so I can take it down later is hard, and I can't fight like that! Can you hurry up and get here, in case the next building comes down while we're under attack?"
Taking a moment to calm her breathing, Yang agreed. "Be right there."
"Be right where?"
Yang turned upwards at the voice, looking up to the roof of the ruined building she was walking by.
At the top of it stood a man in the mercenary armour. No, not exactly the same. His was fancier. A sign of importance if Yang had ever seen one. His armour was bulkier, more fancy, and included a helmet that exposed his face, and a rather impressive if sinister moustache and beard. He looked down at the group, and Yang felt a sudden worry.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"The man this town cheated out of his payment." The mercenary replied. "I wouldn't have had to order this if they just kept their promise, you know?"
The leader had stepped out of the shadows.
"You bastard." Yang growled. "You didn't get your pay, so you decide everyone has to die?"
"A Kingdom dweller, I assume." The man replied. "You'd understand if you had lived out here. My men fought and died to protect the people of this town from Grimm attacks. If they didn't have the resources to afford our service, they should have protected themselves."
Yang curled her fist as she looked up at the man.
She couldn't just let him get away with this.
...But she didn't know if she could beat him, either. If he was the leader, odds were he was the strongest.
But that was fine. She didn't need to win. She just needed to hold the line long enough that the survivors were able to get to the airship.
But first, she needed a plan.
[X] Attack immediately. Put him on the defensive, push him away from the group, and keep his attention.
[X] Bait him into a monologue. If he was distracted, some more people might slip away, and then he could be hit mid-sentence.
[X] Run for it. Try to lure him away. If it doesn't work, you can double back and try for a sneak attack.
Of course, Yang isn't the only one present. Even if people have to run for the ship, she will get help somehow. But how?
[X] Nora stays behind and provides covering fire. She won't help much, but Piran needs to guard the airship more.
[X] Piran sends the group ahead and fights at Yang's side. Nora will be less useful at the airship, but Yang will have a better chance.
[X] Both leave, and Piran sends a message to Winter requesting Summons to assist Yang. But until they arrive, Yang will be alone.