[X] There had to be a limit to every Semblance, didn't there? So if they just tried enough brute force, Gawain's Aura should stop regenerating, or they'd notice another weakness to exploit.
Not all Semblances were equal. That was a basic that that everyone knew, at this point. It came with the territory of Semblances being mostly unique. Sometimes, someone would have a Semblance that was just an inferior version of someone else's Semblance, or someone's Semblance would include enough variety that just an aspect of it was identical to the complete Semblance of someone else.
And then there were the Semblances which were just factually more useful. There was no point comparing the ability to run fast with the ability to control metal, it was laughable to compare telekinesis to the Glyphs and Summons of the Schnee, and anything looked sad compared to the showing that just one of the Intoners were able to pull off, just yesterday.
A mountain sized super Grimm restrained and killed in an instant, by an ability that Sun still knew nothing about. Compared to that, what was his little trick? He could make duplicates that explode, but only while standing still.
Or Gawain, for that matter. His Semblance was bullshit. The way his Aura just rejuvenated instantly while in the sunlight was something that, while situational, was also absurd.
But, past a certain point, it becomes unbelievable. Maybe Gawain could be powerful under the light of the sun, but it just wasn't possible that he was unbeatable under the sun. And he'd expect them to run for cover, considering how it was the most obvious solution.
The question was, how do you fight someone like that without going for the obvious solution?
Gawain's sword suddenly burst into flames, and as his posture shifted, ever so slightly, Sun bursted into action.
He slammed his staff on the ground behind him, triggering the gun in the end and shooting him forward with a sudden burst of speed. In a flash, Sun was in Gawain's face, slamming the staff into the armoured combatant. In a flash, Gawain extended his sword upwards, batting away the staff with casual ease. Sun felt a hand grab at his throat, and Gawain threw him into the ground a moment later.
Sun twisted back, using the momentum of his bounce off the ground and get back to his feet as Velvet suddenly charged forward. Sun briefly saw some wires curling around her arm, forming the outline to some kind of fist-based weapon, as she punched Gawain into the chest. Dust flew through the weapon, he noted, and some kind of explosion shot out from the gauntlet as she punched forward, forcing Gawain back a step while Sun retreated back.
The monkey Faunus looked over at Sage, who was circling around Gawain as Velvet duelled him in the immediate moment. His sword was drawn, and his body tense, as he waited for an opening.
Velvet's wires coiled around her hand as they changed, and as she opened her hand. Claws formed around her fingers with the wires, and she slashed upwards, cutting at Gawain's neck.
The hilt of Gawain's sword slammed into her arm, knocking it aside while he brought his knee up. The armoured leg slammed Velvet in the stomach, and she doubled over, just as Gawain brought the sword down.
Sun and Sage moved at the same time, but not in the same direction. As quick as he could, Sun started shifting his weapons form, holding his two nunchucks at the ready as Sage surged forward, blocking Gawain's burning sword with his own monstrosity.
A green shockwave shot out, sending Velvet backwards and into the ground, even as Gawain was thrown upwards and away. He let out a grunt of shock, as Sun jumped up after him.
Aiming for Gawain's throat, Sun positioned one of his nunchucks on his belt, holding the other with two hands as he tried to line up the chain.
First plan of trying to get around that Semblance: He rejuvenated in the sunlight. Did that apply while he was still in the process of taking damage? Could it be stalled out just by applying steady damage to his Aura by trying to choke him out?
Before Sun could even get close to finding out, Gawain extended his sword, and it shifted slightly. A bullet shot out, and Gawain slammed into the ground, even while Sun was still in the air. Sun started to fall a moment later, and as he did so, Gawain brought his sword up, slicing into the monkey Faunus with the combined force of his own might and gravity.
He could feel his Aura drain, in just one hit. The flames lashed out at him burning away at his Aura more and more. Sun felt something wrap around his wrist as he screamed in pain, and all of a sudden he was being pulled backwards, through the sky, until he slammed into the ground at Velvet's feet.
"Stay behind me." Velvet demanded, as she stepped forward. Her wires, which had taken the shape of a whip, quickly reformed again into some kind shield, big enough to cover the majority of her form as she held it in front of her.
"How noble of you." Gawain noted, as the flames on his blade snuffed out. "But aren't you taking a bit of a risk here, lady Velvet?"
"...What do yo-"
"You're not fighting at your peak right now, are you?" Gawain continued, musing. "Well, in terms of your own innate abilities, you've never been better. But weren't you faster than this before? Stronger than this?"
Sun got to his feet, slowly, and started observing the situation, thinking of a new game plan. Getting in close himself wasn't cutting it, but Sage was a defence specialist and right net to him, while Velvet had Gawain's attention. He could try getting his replicas in there, have one try the chain method.
"How long has it been since you heard Five's song, Velvet?" Gawain asked.
The rabbit Faunus froze. "How do you know about-"
"Answer the question." Gawain interrupted. "Two left to see the orphanage immediately, and Three was asleep, so you've been getting nothing ever since the Intoners left, almost a week ago. And how has that week been for you, lady Velvet?"
"Shut up." Velvet growled, his voice taking on a tone that Sun hadn't expected from her. Sure, she'd gotten a bit snappy earlier, but for the most part she gave the impression of a nice little girl who just happened to be going through something rough. What the hell was this song thing that Gawain was bringing up now, that was pissing her off so much?
"Ah, but you've been longer without hearing it, haven't you?" Gawain asked. "Before, at least. I'm told you tried to break the habit a while ago. And what happened, Velvet? Did the memory gnaw at you? Did you want to be that fast again, that powerful again, that satisfied again? Does this little addition of yours cover up all your little insecurities? Does it help you forget, how you're so small in the end, that even your own teammates never noticed your plights?"
"Shut up!" Velvet screamed, as she surged forward. Her weapon shifted as she did so, changing from a shield into a spear, and-
Gawain's sword stabbed upwards, into her chest, sending Velvet flying upwards. Before she could even burn all her upwards momentum, Gawain's armoured gauntlets reached for her rabbit ears, and slammed her into the ground.
"Think about it, lady Velvet." Gawain advised her. "Think more about the Intoner's song. It'll make you feel better, for what's going to happen next."
He stepped forward, driving his boot into Velvet's neck, and she slowly moved to push herself off the ground. The wires in her arm coiled around again, but Gawain sliced downwards, knocking the resulting weapon out of Velvet's hands before she could do anything with it. The ball of wires rolled away a few metres, before they exploded.
Slamming his hands together, Sun created three replicas of himself, his clones ready to move. One on his left and one on his right, both with nunchucks, and an unarmed vanguard to scope out Gawain's reaction time. The one on his right nodded to Sage, and the taller boy nodded back to Sun, before charging forward.
Sun's clones followed Sage a step behind, jumping around in a less predictable route while keeping pace with him. With Velvet at Gawain's feet, Sage couldn't swing his sword downwards, denying him the benefit of gravity, but that wasn't the only way to cut. Sage held his sword in front of him, hilt in one hand and side of the blade in the other, as he ran forward, ready to slam the sword into Gawain with the momentum of his charge.
Gawain didn't even turn back, as Sage slammed into him. His Aura visible shook at the damage it took, but Gawain himself didn't give any clues that he had even noticed Sage's presence.
At this point, Sun's clones arrived. The one in the lead circled around Sage and Gawain, reaching for Gawain's neck, and was destroyed with a casual backhand. The other two circled around, one in front of Gawain and one behind him, and encircled his neck with the nunchucks before either he was able to finish reacting to the first clone. As one, they started pressuring the chain, trying to damage his Aura by forcing it to protect his air flow.
Gawain's head slammed forward, smashing into the clone in front of him with enough force to break it, and Sun could see him getting ready to slam his elbow back into the second. Sage had stepped back when the clones got close, Sun noticed, but if Gawain could destroy that clone, it'd be childs play to follow through on the motion and start stabbing Sage.
...Velvet's Aura would hold, Sage must have seen it too, and this might be the only way to do something to Gawain.
Sorry, Velvet.
The last of the clones slammed itself forward, and exploded, throwing Gawain off balance. Better, when the explosion hit Sage, he was ready for it, and the countering shockwave surged out and hit the already off balanced Gawain. His feet stumbled at the force of the two shocks, and it was enough for Velvet to push up despite behind near the initial explosion, tripping Gawain up and letting her bring the remainder of her wires into the tournament fighters chin.
Another bullet exploded, as Gawain was thrown away. He landed on his feet only a few steps from where he started, but it was enough to get Velvet back to her feet.
"Congratulations." Gawain noted." You've successfully gotten back to where you started. Except the biggest threat here is missing half of her weapon, all of you have taken Aura damage, and I..."
He raised his hand as he looked directly at the sky.
"...Have never felt better."
Damn it, was he already in peak condition?
Sun knew he wasn't strong. He wasn't the strongest in his circle of friends, in his class, or anything like that. He was decent, but in a Kingdom of tournaments and combat sport, Sun wasn't good enough to make it there. He came to Atlas, saw their big expansion against the Grimm, and got to see even more people stronger than him. Hundreds of Hunters of ridiculous power, dying faster than Sun could keep count. And then there was the Intoners, who were saddened by the loss of life, but when they finally stepped in, the battle ended.
Sun had made peace with the fact that he was never going to be that much of a combat monster. But he'd at least hoped that he wouldn't be in too many fights where he was outmatched to such a degree.
A roar filled the air, and Sun's eyes widened as he vaguely recognised it.
It was different, in a lot of ways, but it sounded so very familiar. He'd heard it just yesterday, after all. The black dragon had swooped through the skies, killing thousands of Grimm while roaring that roar.
But, that dragon had gone back to the Intoners, to One. The dragon hadn't returned with Sun and all of the Schnee's guests. So why was there a dragon roar here?
Turning his head towards the sky, Gawain froze, and closed his eyes.
"So, she's already this close..." He muttered to himself, just loud enough for Sun to overhear. "Very well, then. I had hoped that I would be able to hold back enough to ensure that none of you were crippled, but if I can hear that thing already-"
The second the sound left his throat, he was on the defensive. Sage raised his sword to defend, and Gawain slammed his own blade into the much bigger one, forcing it into Sage. The shockwave burst out, but Gawain was already out of the way, slamming the hilt of the blade into Velvet's face. The rabbit Faunus grabbed Gawain's arm as it did so, and in the split second after the hilt had hit and she was unbalanced, he slammed her around and threw that arm towards Sage.
Gawain's weapon transformed as Velvet hit Sage, and a green shockwave burst out of Sage and hit everything around it. Velvet's grip was broken, and she was slammed into the ground, while Gawain used the force of the shockwave to spin around and shoot repeatedly into the ground. Explosions ripped out of where he shot, and even though Sage's shockwave answered the first, he wasn't able to counter them all.
As the repeated explosions ripped through Velvet and Sage's Auras, Sun charged forward, throwing one of his nunchucks at Gawain to try and distract him long enough for Sage or Velvet to do something. It wrapped around Gawain's arms, but didn't provoke any sort of reaction.
Sun fired his shotgun, and as Gawain stumbled forward, he swivelled his arm back, firing in return. Without time to aim, it went wide, but an explosion doesn't need to be precise, and Sun felt his Aura drain to breaking point from the strain. Even though, he ran on, firing again and again.
Gawain seemed to realise Sun was too sure about his charge a moment too late, and when Velvet slammed into Gawain, there was nothing he could do to stop the wires from crawling around his neck, as Velvet shifted them into some form or another that left them trying to constrict inwards through Gawain's throat.
The knight-themed fighter clawed at his throat with one hand even as he used his other to turn his gun into a sword again, and as he swung back at Velvet to force her to jump away, Sun got in close enough to shoot him in the face again.
The blast forced Gawain back a step again, but before Sun could follow up, Gawain's fist shut upwards. An explosion of pain struck the monkey Faunus' chin, as Gawain sent him flying upwards, and as he fell a moment later, he fell neck-first into Gawain's open palm.
The sword stabbed forward before Sun could react, bringing his Aura to breaking point. With a flip of the switch, the sword let out a wave of fire as it ignited itself, and that finished the job. Sun's Aura burnt away, and he felt his clothes start to smoulder for a moment, before Gawain slammed him down.
His head hit the ground, his brain rattled, and everything went black.
Let us return, for a moment, to the current trials of Yang Xiao Long. As tragic as her situation is, the true tragedy is how she will not be given time to mourn. Not with the knowledge worming in her mind, that at that very moment, her sister could be in danger again. But what does she do with the orphans in her care?
[X] They can come for a bit. Get in green-hair's van as she drives Yang to the Schnee manor, then they can get safe while Yang goes in.
[X] They'll be fine here. Yang needs to get to Ruby now. Help will be here soon anyway, someone else could take care of them.
[X] ...Ruby needed her, but so did the kids. She couldn't run just now. She could wait until someone else was here to take care of them, they deserved that much.