Welcome to Ch 44 of TPA

"Ruby!"

The red haired girl tried to get up. Her legs were trembling, her vision was blurry, and something wet and warm covered her right arm.

"Ruby, are you alright?" Firm hands caught her, a familiar and worried voice called from somewhere close.

"Here, drink this. It will help."

Whatever 'it' was, it tasted… she wasn't sure how to describe it. It wasn't unpleasant, not tasty, and it left a strange, tingling sensation in her mouth. It traveled down her throat together with the reddish liquid she tried to swallow, and exploded like inferno in her stomach. She gasped when a hot wave washed over her. It felt as if she was suddenly on fire, the heat increasing every second and then, just when she thought she would start screaming from pain, it subsided, leaving just a faint warmth in her belly, and a strange numbness in her wounded arm.

Ruby let out shuddering breath and stood up on shaky legs.

"I-I'm fine." She stammered out. She wasn't and both she and Yang knew it. Not that her sister was any better.

None of them were.

The last wave of Grimm had been a massive one. When they appeared, all Ruby could do was to gape mindlessly at the black horde rushing toward them. They didn't even try to defend the city walls, even with several Atlas soldiers that came to their aid soon after Jaune left, they would be spread too thin.

So they backed out towards the evac zone, collapsing several buildings to make makeshift barricades. They barely finished when the Grimm came, a massive horde threw itself at their ramparts with reckless abandon. There were so many of them.

Even then they were doing well. There were only two streets leading to evac zone, so it was easy to defend. It was looking good for them - and then White Fang had come. Their soldiers threw themselves at their positions with a ferocity rivaling that of the Grimm, and for some reason the black beast completely ignored the Faunus terrorists. They continued their reckless assault for nearly half an hour, and then suddenly backed off. Ruby and rest of the defenders managed to hold their position, but not without losses. Three of city guards and two the Atlas soldiers died, five more was wounded to the point they couldn't fight anymore.

Even weakened like that, they still managed to hold the Grimm at bay. It was hard, it was exhausting, but somehow they manage to push the dark horde back. Relief almost made Ruby collapse then and there. They did it. They won.

And then Fang was back, this time with prisoners.

Eight people. Young and old, men and women, human and Faunus. Beaten up, hungry, terrified, with only tattered rags for clothes.

One of Fang soldiers, no doubt the leader, made a speech. He told how the time of reckoning had come. How Humans would pay for their crimes, how justice would be served. Then they started killing prisoners.

Slowly. Painfully. In ways that both other prisoners, defenders, and any civilians still waiting for evacuation could see. Or at least hear.

Ruby never hated anyone in her life, not truly. And certainly she hadn't wish death on anyone. But then, standing on the ramparts, clutching her eyes shut to not see the things happening behind her, covering her ears to muffle the screams just a little bit?

She really wished she had some ammo for Crescent Rose left.

The Grimm came back soon after, in even greater force. Ruby, her team, remaining town guards and Atlas soldiers, even a few civilians who volunteered - they fought, they fought as hard as they could, but it was too much. Slowly, but surely they were giving ground.

Ruby huffed and flexed her arm. The numbness was almost gone, along with the wound. She felt weak, and her head was spinning - something Jaune warned them could happen if they used his Elixirs when low on Aura. But Ruby had to admit, even with those side effects, they really saved them a few times already. The first one who had to use one was Blake, when she was too slow to dodge a Beowolf. Second was Weiss, when one of the Fang soldiers impaled himself on her rapier, just so his comrade could stab his spear into her shoulder. Yang basicly punched his head off his shoulders, and dragged wounded and stunned heiress away.

They were all exhausted, low on Aura, Dust, and ammo. But they had to hold on.

Just a little bit longer. Ruby thought, squeezing Crescent Rose tighter. No matter what, they would prevail.

"Here they come!" Someone shouted. The frenzied horde fell upon them soon after.

Jaune stepped back, panting lightly. Everything looked blurry, but strangely clear at the same time. Most of his surroundings was blurry, he couldn't make out and details, but then again he didn't need to. He had other things to focus on.

The dark-brown outline surrounding the Headhunter in front of him twisted, flying towards its right arm and shooting towards Jaune's face. The monster's arm followed the trail of it's Aura an instant later. He ducked, the Headhunter's claw missing his head by mere millimeters. It let out an angry hiss, that quickly turned into a pained one, when Eclipse bit into its stomach. Unfortunately, its body was far tougher than any Harrowed Jaune had faced. Instead of bisecting the monster, his black sword only bit few centimeters in.

It raised its hand again, preparing for another strike. Jaune tore his sword free, and dived under its arm. The Harrowed spun around, ready to face him again, swinging its scythe-like arms wildly.

Jaune started backing off, dodging and deflecting as best as he could, wincing every time one of strikes slipped past his defence. Fortunately, the remaining Atlas soldiers and his team were enough to keep the remaining five monsters busy. That allowed Jaune to fight a single monster at a time.

And try to figure out how to kill it for good.

He winced when his foot caught on something, momentary throwing him off balance. He desperatly ducked, the Headhunter's arm taking a few hairs off his head. Jaune groweld, and pushed onto his feet, deflecting the follow up strike, and cutting the offending limb at shoulder.

Harrowed hissed, then let out an all too familiar sound, as if it was choking on something. Jaune cursed and rushed in, Eclipse taking its head off in one clean cut. The Headhunter's body remained standing for a few seconds, then slowly crumpled to the floor, like the puppet with its strings cut. It twitched a few times, then stilled. He sighed, and focused on the wisp of corrupted Aura that started leaving its body.

When six massive Headhunters fell on them, Jaune could only curse and shout out for the Atlas soldiers to back off. He didn't know if these specimens had the same ability as the one he faced in Spring Valley, but he'd rather not take any risk. Reluctantly, the four men did as he told them, backing off to the corridor leading to this room and doing their best to provide cover fire.

Jaune didn't know what Master did, but these six were bigger, faster, stronger, and dare he say, smarter than the originals. They worked together quite well, covering each other, and trying to separate the four teens. But by far the most annoying thing about them was their ability to resurrect.

Jaune had no idea how it worked, he could clearly see what little Aura was left in their body leave when they got 'killed', but after just a few seconds they would get up. Normally in a situation like that, he would suspect some kind of control-type Aberration - many of them had the ability to animate dead bodies, but it didn't look like that was the case. If it were, he would be be able to see the controlling monster with his Aura vision - but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see any other Harrowed in the room.

Jaune sighed, and readied his sword when he noticed Aura filling the dead body in front of him again. He spared a quick glanced towards his teammates, and relaxed a bit when it was clear they we not in immediate danger. Master ran off somewhere soon after the fight started, and as much as Jaune wanted to follow, he knew that leaving his team here wouldn't be a good idea.

So instead he stayed behind, and tried his best to figure a way to kill these monsters for good. At first it looked bad - they could regenerated at an extreme rate, and even after Nora blew one of them to pieces, it reformed soon after. Seeing it Jaune just sighed, memories of the Harrowed he hunted at initiation flashing in his mind.

Now, how do we deal with it? He thought, dodging the first strike of the newly resurrected Harrowed. He noticed that just after getting up, they were more… vigorous. They moved, and attacked, faster. They were more agile too. But it quickly faded, and they become slightly slower, and slightly more reckless than before. They also seemed to have less Aura in their bodies.

So it's not a perfect resurrection, they grow weaker each time.

Jaune sighed. There was no way of knowing. Maybe using Dust to burn, or freeze them would get better results, but he doubted it. He deflected another another strike, ducked under the swipe, and buried Eclipse into the gap between the plates covering the Headhunter's torso. The beast hissed angrily, and tried to pin him down, but Jaune had already retreated. It lunged after him, but the blond Witcher sidestepped its charge, removing its head with one quick strike.

I guess I'll just have to keep killing you until you die for good.

He thought, watching as the monster he just put down started to twitch, a new head slowly forming in place of lost one. How many times had he killed it already? Six? Seven? He wasn't sure anymore. What he did know was that attacking it in this vulnerable state, as tempting as it sounded, was a bad idea. He glanced at his left arm, traces of the black sludge still present. It didn't eat at his Aura anymore, and looked more like dried up paint rather than a pulsating, stinking, living goo that shot out of the Headhunter's chest after he cut it open.

But it was still enough to bring the memory of Clay's last moments to his mind.

Eventually the Harrowed got up, hissed and charged ahead, faster, stronger, more feral than before. Jaune ducked under a swipe, sidestepped a downward cut, and jumped back when the monster tried to bite his face off.

Another strike came, a wide, reckless attack that left it wide open. Jaune scoffed, ducking under it and scoring a deep cut on the monster's chest. It hissed and lunged at him, both arms raised high. The blond Witcher sidestepped the reckless charge, Eclipse tearing through the monster's chest. It stumbled and fell to the ground, unmoving.

Jaune spared a quick glance at rest of his team. Two Headhunters were lying on the floor, hissing angrily, their legs shattered. The remaining three were locked in combat with the rest his team.

lond sighed. It wasn't the first time he faced Harrowed with extreme regeneration ability, but they usually had some weak point. Either there was a spot in their body where most of their Aura was concentrated, a 'core' as it was often referred to. However, he couldn't see anything like that. Another strange thing was that even though he could clearly see significant amount of Aura leaving their bodies when killed, when they got back up it seemed as if they regained all of it, even though he couldn't see where it was coming from.

He could hear some static when his earpiece come to life.

"Hey Spec, I got word from HQ. They will be beginning assault shortly." asked Stevens.

Jaune readied his sword. The Headhunter was back on its feet again.

"Got it. You reported our situation?"

"Yes. They said they will send some Witcher up here as soon as they clear ghouls down there."

Jaune didn't answer, instead focusing on the monster that was currently lunging at him. He dogged the scythe coming for his head, ducked under next the swipe and cut at the Harrowed knee. Eclipse bit in deep, but he failed to completely cut it off. Jaune jumped back, narrowly avoiding the counter, then jumped back a few steps observing his opponent.

How do you do it? What is your secret?

Harrowed couldn't produce Aura on their own, that was common knowledge. The only way for them to increase their reserves was to absorb it from other living beings - something only Wraiths could do. Some people theorized that by eating living beings, Ghouls absorbed a bit of their Aura too, but if it was true, there was no way to confirm it.

Every single Harrowed Jaune had ever encountered, or heard off, died when all the Aura in its body disappeared. But these things… for some reason they were able to come back to life, no matter how often they fell. He tried to purge one with Eclipse, but not only did they have much more Aura than a regular Class 1 Harrowed, but they regenerated faster than he could absorb. The question how, still remained unanswered. Jaune didn't share his worries with his team, but if Master managed to create Harrowed that could regenerate their Aura faster than the black swords could purge it...

He shook his head. No, it wasn't possible. Some types of Harrowed, like Twins, could sahre they aura with other, but that would require another monster, and one of first things they tried was to kill all six at the same time.

Needless to say, it didn't work.

Just fucking die already. The blond groweld, yet again ducking under a wide swing and thrusting his sword towards the monster's neck. But this time it twisted, narrowly dodging his strike. The counterattack come almost instantly, all Jaune could do was clench his teeth and try to harden his Aura at the place of impact. There was a white flash, and a second later he slammed into the wall on opposite side of the room. He coughed, and tried to get to his feet, but instead threw himself to the side when he saw the Headhunter lunging at him. The beast followed, swinging wildly, not giving him a chance to recover.

Jaune knew he couldn't dodge like that forever, he needed something to distract his attacker, even just for a second. He rolled to the side, avoiding an overhead strike that shattered the floor in the place he was just a second ago. He jumped to his feet, then jumped back, narrowly avoiding a slash aimed at his neck, and cursed when he slipped on a pebble, losing balance yet again. The Headhunter loomed above him, arm already raised to strike him down.

A short burst of automatic fire caught it in the chest, another shot hit its head, yet another its leg. It staggered, and hissed angrily at Atlas soldiers. The distraction lasted only for a moment, but it was all Jaune needed - Eclipse removed the Headhunter's leg, followed shortly by its head. Jaune staggered back, and leaned on his sword, panting. Fighting, and keeping up his Aura vision all the time was draining him fast. With every moment his reserves dwindled, and the risk of Rebound hitting him increased. Sure, he and Ren managed to make new version of Dawn, that had much lighter side effects, but any distraction now could prove fatal.

A sudden explosion shook the building, and soon after they could hear the muted sound of gunfire coming from outside.

Guess the Atlesians finally started their assault…

"Jaune!" Pyrrha screamed in warning. Without wasting a second, the blond Witcher threw himself to the side, narrowly avoiding lunge from one of remaining Headhunters. It landed next to its fallen brethren and hissed at him angrily, but didn't move to attack. Soon after, the remaining four joined up, forming a rough circle.

"What are they doing?" Asked Pyrrha standing next to Jaune.

"No idea, but..." he didn't get chance to finish. One of Headhunters raised its arm and buried it in the chest of the one standing next to it. The impaled beast did the same thing to the next one, then another one joined in. Four Hunters watched in shock as five monsters started tearing each other apart.

"What the…" Nora whispered.

In just a few seconds all that remained from the six Headhunters was a massacred corpses. They all stared at it for a few moments, frozen in shock.

"What the actual fuck!?" Stevens finally screamed.

"I would like to know myself…" Jaune answered, carefully observing the bloody scraps. He couldn't see any traces of corrupted Aura in them. When almost a full minute passed and none of the corpses got up, he slowly approached, and poked the closest one with Eclipse. There was no reaction.

"I think they are dead for good now…" Just to be sure he stabbed every one, draining what little Corruption was left in them. What remained behind didn't even resemble a human body - just a mass of twisted flesh.

"So, it's over?" Asked Stevens, walking up to them. He pointedly avoided looking at the bloody mess that the Headhunters left behind.

"Well, those six will not bother us anymore, that's for sure." Jaune said, taking a few deep breaths. Surprisingly enough, he couldn't feel any nausea, or headache.

Looks like the new recipe works as intended. He thought with a smile.

"Let's get going. Better not give that bastard time to set up more surprises."

They briefly considered taking the elevator, but eventually decided against it. The trip downstairs was short, and soon they stood before two large, wing doors. They stacked up on the door, Jaune as the lead man, Pyrrha behind him, then Nora, Ren, and the rest of Atlas soldiers. When his partner tapped his arm, signaling everyone was ready, the blond Witcher burst through the door, noticing a few things.

The room they were in was unnaturally clean. There was no furniture here, safe for two simple chairs and a wooden table, and everything was so polished it was almost shining. The front wall of the room was made mostly of glass, so they had a good view of the massive hall outside of the room, currently filled with some crates, cages, and Ghouls.

A lot of Ghouls.

But the thing that caught his attention the most was around twenty Ghouls in the room, surrounding them in a half circle.

And the six massive Headhunters standing behind them.

"Fuck" Jaune couldn't help but to agree with Stevens assessment of their situation.

"No..I...can…"

"You can shut up, and stop moving. You will upset your wounds." Yang growled at her partner. Blake tried to say something, or maybe get up from her stretcher. Yang pushed her back lightly, signaling two men to carry her away. The black haired girl struggled for a moment, then slumped, unconscious.

Yang wished she could join her, but she didn't' have the luxury of taking a nap. Weiss fainted a few minutes earlier, due to Dust oversuage and Aura exasution. Blake got swarmed by crazed White Fang soldiers. Her Aura shattered, and the Faunus girl suffered quite a few serious injuries. One of medics still remaining in the evac zone assured them it wasn't life-threatening - as long as she gott treated and tried not to move too much.

The blond brawler sighed, and walked back towards the last barricade separating the evac zone from the horde of monsters. Thankfully, this one was narrow, only three meters or so. Unfortunately, it was manned by only five people - Ruby, two Atlas soldiers, the last remaining city guard and herself.

This… is not looking good." Yang thought, standing beside her sister. They were on the last leg, and new Grimm and Fang were keep coming. Could they really defend long enough for all the civilians to evacuate?

Twenty minutes. According to one of pilots, that was how long they had to hold on.

So little. But as new wave of enemies rushed their position, Yang was sure it would be the longest twenty minutes of her life.

She just hoped it wouldn't be the last.

Jaune cut down another Ghoul, parried the scyther-like arm of Headhunter, and scowled when something bit him in the leg. Just as he was considering which of the two enemies to focus on, something green rushed past him. The Headhunter let out a surprised sketch, his torso swelling a bit. It staggered and fell, suddenly deflating and slumping to the floor.

"Thanks:" Said Jaune, cut off the head of the Ghouls that still tried to bite his leg off.

"No problem." Said Ren with a small smile. He'd long since abandoned his weapons, them not being very effective against the heavily armored targets. And while his Aura Arts were meant for fighting Grimm, they proved quite effective against Harrowed too,

Jaune slumped against the wall of cave -because of course there had to be a cave - and let out a heavy breath. The situation is mostly under control, any remaining Ghouls should be soon cleared out by Witchers that came with the Atlas reinforcements.

"Are you alright?" Asked Pyrrha, walking up to him.

"Yeah. Just tired." Things were looking bad for them for a moment. As soon as the second fight against Headhunters started, they realized the creatures were much weaker than before. They still had this annoying ability to resurrect, but this time they could get up only three times, before they died for good. Unfortunately, new ones were still coming.

It was Pyrrha who first pointed out that there was always exactly six Headhunters. Soon they figured out why - it wasn't that new ones were coming from somewhere.

The dead Headhunters were possessing the bodies of Ghouls. They were much weaker than the first time, but grew stronger over time. The reason why become clear when Jaune took a moment to observe one with his Aura vision. Apparently they were able to absorb corrupted Aura from their surroundings.

So each time they cut down the Ghouls, the Headhunters grew stronger. Each time they cut down a Headhunter, it possessed the body of some Ghoul, and joined the fight again. This was a battle of attrition that their small team couldn't win - thankfully, they didn't have to. After a few very intense minutes, the Atlas main forces arrived, and soon the attention of the Harrowed shifted form them to the much bigger threat.

This allowed Jaune and his team to look for Master and Hawk. They found both of them in an underground room that, according to the plan they had, shouldn't exist. He still could remember the feeling when he looked in the eyes of the man who was plaguing his dreams for over two years. He was close now, so close, only a few meters away. And the only thing standing between them was one Faunus terrorist. Jaune would freely admit to being glad when they refused to surrender. The fight was short and brutal, and soon both Hawk and Master were lying on the ground. The Faunus was unconscious, after having a close encounter with Nora's hammer.

Master was clutching his bleeding arm, and looking in Jaune's eyes, along the blade of Eclipse that was resting on his throat. Part of him, a big part, wanted to end it right there, to see this monster's head roll off his shoulders. But some other part of him hesiated. Was it the right thing to do? Wouldn't it be better to capture him alive, to let him answer for his crimes in court?

This moment of hesitation cost him. Suddenly, one of the walls opened, revealing a long, dark tunnel. They could hear the sound of some machines coming closer and closer and closer…

A single train car stopped just before the opening. Its wall opened, and around twenty Ghouls poured out, one of them turning into a Headhunter. Jaune cursed, and had to jump back to avoid being squashed by one of them. Taking advantage of this distraction, Master boarded the train car, which drove off a few moments later.

It came back around twenty minutes later, carrying another group of Ghouls. Jaune and his team managed to kill them off, but the train car drove off before they could board it. No one knew where the train was going from, but it had to be some other base, and a bigger one, judging by the fact it was bringing Ghouls with it every time.

Jaune sighed. Their only option was to board it, but he didn't want to risk it with such a small team. They were all exhausted, and needed some rest. Thankfully, all the Ghouls above the ground were cleared off, and the Atlesain forces were now forming team to follow Master.

"Hey, Spec." Stevens called out, walking up to him.

"Hey. What's up?" Jaune got up. Stevens glanced around, and then looked at Jaune, expresion serious.

"There is a situation outside. The city you were helping evac before? We got a request for support from them a while back. Apparently they got hit by not only Grimm, but White Fang too."

Jaune tensed.

"Are we going to help them?"

Stevens shook his head.

"No. Brass decided taking out Master is more important. They believe these tunnels lead all the way to Mountain Glen. We suspected they might have a base there, but we weren't able to find anything yet. They want to mount a full scale assault."

Jaune sighed.

He heard some of the Atas soldiers talking about how Faunus terrorist acted. They would drag a prisoner in front of the settlement, where everyone could see them, and then torture and kill them. Then, accompanied by the Grimm drawn by all the negativity, would attack. Could RWBY hold off such an assault?

The answer was obvious.

No. Even with the help of the local guards, The Grimm alone would be hard enough to stop. They wouldn't be able to hold off White Fang too.

They would die.

"Why are you telling me this?"

Steven sighed.

"The old man said that we will need every man for this assault. But, technically, you are still students, so it's a bit blurry when it comes to who you answer to. If you want to go help your friends we can spare a bullhead to take you there."

"But no men?"

Stevens shook his head.

Jaune closed his eyes, thinking. RWBY was in trouble. The chance they got out of this were slim, basically none. He wanted to help them, he really did.

But…

If situation was as bad as Stevens made it sound like, could the four of them make any difference? Even assuming they made it in time, there was a high chance it would be already by over. Even if not, he would just risk the lives of himself and his team.

Alternatively, he could just abaddon RWBY. Join Atlas in their assault on Mountain Glen. It wouldn't be safer, by any stretch of the imagination, but they would be part of a bigger force. Have a better chance of receiving help if someone gots wounded.

Plus stopping Master, and possibly taking out the enemy's main base was far more important than saving a few civilians, and one team of Hunters in training, even if they were one of best of their generation.

Even if they were his friends.

Jaune opened his eyes, looking at the man in front of him. This was it, wasn't it? The moment when he had to make a decision. With far more at stake than just where to go. He had to pick his path.

He recalled all the lessons Leon drilled into his head, all his advice.

A Hero would rush to help his friend without hesitation.

A Professional would calmly analyze the situation, and pick the solution that would produce the best results, all the while maximizing his chances of survival.

Looking at it like that, it was obvious what he should do.

Jaune sighed and gave his answer. Stevens just nodded, and walked away.

Ruby shivered slightly when something cold touched her cheek. She wasn't sure what it was, but welcomed the new sensation.

Mind numbing exhaustion and pain got boring pretty fast. She idly noted that the White Fang grunts surrounding her stopped kicking and hitting her. It didn't really matter anymore, she hurt so much that she could barely feel the new hits anyway. They were shouting something, one of them grabbed her by the hair and lifted her head up.

She looked up at a very angry face of some dog Faunus. He was saying something to her, but she couldn't understand what. Something cold fell on her cheek again, and she realized it was snow.

For some reason she started recalling all those times when she and Yang played in snow. Sometimes just two of them, sometimes with their father or uncle. She even vaguely recalled her mom playing with them too.

Her head snapped to the side, and it took her a moment to realize she was hit again.

Heh. I guess they didn't liked what I did to their leader.

Considering she left man missing an arm and a leg, she wasn't really surprised. Those… Knights, like they call themselves were apparently very fond of the lion Faunus that lead them.

When they prepared in front of their last barricade with five new prisoners, something in Ruby snapped. She knew they had no chance to hold off if even more Grimm came. Especially if Fang soldiers attacked at the same time. She had to do something to stop it, otherwise the people they were protecting would die.

Yang would die too.

She had to somehow make the Fang focus on her, and lead them away from the barricade. With her Semblance she should be able to avoid them long enough for… Well she wasn't sure for what, but at the very least she could buy time. Taking the Fang attention was easy - after she wounded the leader, they went into a single minded fury, focusing solely on the little girl who harmed their 'glorious leader'.

Running away was easy too - at least for awhile. She greatly underestimated how exhausted she was, and how determined they were to get her. She had no idea how long their little game lasted, but she eventually collapsed, too tired to move, and the Faunus appeared soon after.

Then the beating started. At first she tried to fight back, but she was just too tired, and they were too strong, and there were so many of them. She fell and curled up, trying her best to not cry.

She just hoped she bought enough time for everyone else to evacuate.

She hoped Yang wouldn't try to follow her.

But above all else, she hoped the pain will end soon.

She was barely conscious at this point, but she still recognized the sound of bullhead engines. A small smile appeared on her lips. So she did it. She succeed.

She probably should feel happy, or proud, but the only thing she could feel was pain and exhaustion.

So when the Faunus holding her hair buried his sword in her chest? She was actually a bit grateful.

Ok, so I missed one chapter last week, but I hope you can forgive me. Christmas and New Year proved to be very distracting.

Anyway, here is new chapter. Just your normal stuff here, nothing too exciting. See you next week.

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See you all next week.