A.N.)- I think you know the drill by now.


-o Qrow the Reaper o-

"At twelve hundred hours, the Vale Hunter teams will be heading out to seek out the Aberrant and lure it into the range of our gun emplacements." I rolled my eyes as Hav, the green-haired bastard, continued to boom out instructions to the military forces and the two teams over the howling of the wind. The tight-ass had also made himself deliberately audible to the villagers, louder than the howling winds over the walls so that they'd know that we actually knew what we were doing, leading an enormous Aberrant to the walls of the town.

Even as Caldera and Steel's teams were standing around inside the area just inside the gate, I leaned casually against the wall beside it, the two kids near me. Silf was cringing slightly from the volume of Hav standing above us atop the wall, the military dog wasn't exactly quiet.

"Mr. Branwen–" I rolled my eyes at the acknowledgement from my nominal 'superior', "–will be acting as coordinator between the huntsman and the emplacements." The military man looked at Caldera and Steel, "You have your assignments. Remember to avoid initiating conflict with large clusters of Grimm until the Aberrant has been dealt with. Fighting a battle on two–"

"Sir!"

One of the Atlas grunts ran down the walkway, feet flying across the wooden planks stuck into the trunks of the wall. Hav's already dour face added several more lines in an instant, his scowl deepening with the air of one long experienced to bad news, "What?"

As much as I despised agreeing with Ironwood's toadie, I matched his scowl, my fellow huntsmen all looking at the uniformed and armored soldier who had skidded to a halt in front of the the lieutenant. "Nemeans! Incoming!"

A brief instant of dread washed through me, and all of the other Huntsmen stiffened. That was bad.

What was good was that we had all the best kinds of forces here for exactly this kind of situation.

And then that singular moment was over, our glorious commander spinning about, flecks of spittle flying from his lips. "Get the emplacements up! Get the gates open enough for the Huntsmen! Militia to the walls! Civilians to the shelters! Huntsmen, head out! Restrain and take them down!"

Everything exploded into motion, militiamen rushing to the walls even as the rest of the civilians that had been obliquely peeking out from their homes rushed to their shelters. The rest of the huntsmen and myself hustled to the gate, weapons being drawn and activated as we all prepared for battle, quietly waiting for the gates to open.

I tilted my head to address the two students flanking me even as Hav shouted about readying the weapon, the whole reason Atlas was here. "Silf, Yin, you two stick with me, okay?"

"Don't worry about that," the brown haired Silf muttered, griping his staff-spear tightly.

"It's alright Silfy," Yin said with a grin, simply radiating confidence as he gave his shorter friend a shove with his elbow. "He just wants to take the credit for our kills."

The brunette gave his blond partner a weak grin, but it was better than nothing. The kids understood though.

Stick close to the fully trained Huntsman that wasn't part of a team.

It might be the two seniors' only chance to survive.

The gates cracked open and Caldera was the first out, her team right on her tail and the rest of us not far behind.

-o Hav the Arsenal o-

Squad Two was in position, Squad Three was nearly set up, Squad One was hustling to get the prototype in position, and the Huntsmen were heading out to buy us time. But I still had a terrible feeling of dread as I watched the approaching Nemeans from the wall of Blue Belle.

I counted at least six, no, eight Nemean Lionesses' black forms so far as they slinked through the trees. I cursed my lack of Atlas helmet, the cameras on it would have helped, but my men would be able to pick them out better, and they were the ones in charge of the gun emplacements. A Nemean King loomed behind them all, its bone-white back peeking out over the tops of the trees. All of them were large, with the King easily being the largest. I estimated it at being about… twenty or so meters at the shoulder and just over twice that from snout to rear.

The other Nemeans were about half its size. Based on what I knew, each one could release a burst of heat and light from their mouths in a conical, radiating blast. I'd seen what that attack could do to living targets… the lucky ones died in the first second. They were immune to anything short of artillery fire, internal damage bypassing their skin, or elemental attacks.

With a buffer zone of at least two hundred yards between the walls and the tree line, that gave the men and women atop the three-meter-thick walls a killing field to fire into. But being made of wood, if a single Nemean fired at us… the town would burn.

To face this enemy, we had approximately twenty militiamen with various low quality rifles. Two Beacon seniors. Two of the four heavy weapons we had were installed with another pair ready to replace them or take a different position if the worst came to pass.

Lastly, and most importantly, we had eight fully qualified Huntsmen, not counting Qrow Branwen and myself.

And Project Recluse, the entire reason Vale had brought us in on this, to handle Grimm just like these.

Ignoring the fragility of the walls, our actual forces here weren't just capable of handling this, they were well-suited. But Project Recluse wasn't ready yet, it wouldn't be ready for nearly five minutes, and I knew better than anyone that five minutes might as well be never. Curse these backwater locals and their wooden palisade! Why couldn't they have made it out of stone or at least reinforced it somehow?

The Nemean King reared up on its hind legs, paws nearly twice as wide as a I was tall were planted atop trees that were over fifteen meters tall like it was nothing and it breathed in–!

With a sound like thunder, the damn thing roared, releasing a lance of blindingly hot light– at the Huntsman.

A small measure of relief went through me, the Huntsmen could move out of the way. The walls could not.

A cursory glance confirmed that they'd all survived and were breaking off into teams… Caldera's, Steel's, and Qrow's. Caldera's team was moving to intercept the Nemeans on the left, Qrow to intercept the Nemeans on the right, and Steel moving to take the King.

"All points!" I shouted as I turned to the militiamen at the walls around me, "Focus fire on the closest Nemean!"

My hand slid to the activation stud of DkNkm, I didn't want to use it this soon, but this many Nemeans… even assuming two Huntsmen could take one of the monstrous Grimm - which was a stretch - it'd take nearly an entire team to kill the King. We didn't have enough forces to stop them from hitting the walls. I didn't want to use DkNkm-0 this soon, my Teal Dust reserves were far too limited, but I needed to be ready…

Even if we took the Nemeans themselves down, if they destroyed the walls...

These Lions of Grimm could be the end of this town.

-o Andoriol the Alien o-

I'm going to be the end of these kittens.

"Risin up, back on the street, did my time, took my chances…" [1]

Eight of the little ones, one of the big guys. Problem was their plasma breath, it had some serious range and could really damage the walls. If I didn't have to worry about that, I could have taken them all easily. But I needed to restrict their attacks, I needed to draw their attention… but with the Hunters engaging them I was going to get everyone's attention.

"Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet just a man and his will to survive~"

Eleven people like Summer attacking me? No thanks, even if I didn't have to worry about Summer herself.

But if I wanted to save the town, I didn't have much of a choice, did I?

"So many times, it happens too fast–"

I nearly exploded out of the forest, the thick trees splintering in my passing as I brushed them aside, uncaring and barely feeling them buckle against my armored hide.

My body flipped through the air once before slamming into one of the smaller lions, talons first. My momentum slammed the similarly sized beast into the dirt, carving a deep furrow in the ground as I surfed the damn thing. Summer made a small sound at the sudden halt, but I couldn't stop to apologize.

Every other combatant on the field flinched at my sudden entrance, and even as my tail darted down, the golden point of my stinger slamming home into the eyesocket of the lion I stood upon, I roared [2] a challenge at the lions. You'll have to do better than this to hurt those I guarded!

There was the crack of shots fired from the walls of the town, the large gun emplacements making themselves known as they thundered, lighting up my senses as tracer rounds streaked out into the lions and peppered my armored hide like rain, the occasional round feeling more like a stinging slap against my armor.

A twitch in the corner of my vision– the 'feel' of air inside of enormous lungs– my left arm came up, wing flaring out to shield myself as hot plasma slammed into my wing, splashing against it uselessly, little streams of plasma ricocheting off into the dirt, scorching molten lines into the ground. Damn big monsters and their powers.

The plasma was suddenly cut off as the hunters joined the fray, chains and bullets and elemental attacks streaking out from them, one such chain snapping taut around the big lion's muzzle and clamping it shut. But the thundering of paws on the dirt drew my attention to three of the damn cats as they tried to rush past the hunters–

No.

I nearly exploded from the ground, a soft grunt coming from around my stomach as I sailed over the forms of the oversized lionesses, clearing the distance in a single bound. The sound made me cringe inside even as I slammed into the dirt in front of the damn cats, damnit, Summer couldn't take my full speed.

With a thunderous whip-crack, my tail lashed out even as I threw my arms out for balance, two cracking booms as I dug my golden stinger into the eye sockets of the two lead lions, the third was out of reach of my tail from this angle and damn it was breathing in, my arm was on the way up when the damn thing roared, the lance of hot plasma slamming into my chest like a blast of scalding water from a hose. Hot! Damn! I got my arm and attached wingin the way as quickly as I could, the little ones couldn't truly hurt me outside of a 'sunbur– Summer let out a pained gasp?!

What?!

My ab-legs couldn't protect her from the heat! Even if I could take it!

No!

The song stopped pouring from me with a roar as I lunged forward, the plasma stream trailing off before I grabbed the damn things head with both hands and twisted! There was a loud crack as I turned the damn cat's head upside down, it let out a gurgling sound as it collapsed, starting to evaporate like its two fellows.

No one was going to hurt Summer while I drew breath.

-o Steel of the Chain o-

No one is getting hurt by this thing on my watch while I drew breath!

Gritting my teeth, I pulled desperately at the chains I held even as the Nemean King thrashed about. I dug my heels into the dirt, chains from my armor lashed out and burying themselves into the ground, anchoring me down even as the Grimm did its level best to tug my arms out of their sockets-!

Hold it. That's all I had to do. Hold it.

My team could kill it. Caldera's team could kill it. Hell, Qrow's ad-hoc team could kill it! All I had to do was hold it in place and keep it from vaporizing them or the town.

There was a roar from the Aberrant behind me, but I ignored it, trusting my team to ensure that I didn't get stepped on.

Pain flared in my arm as the King moved one of its paws, straining my arms even as it swiped at Lavender, even as her Dust blade cracked like a lightning bolt, barely singing the King's skin, the displaced air of the swipe of its paw sending her tumbling away. Tracer rounds flew through the intervening space, barely visible at the speeds they flew at before slamming uselessly into the hide of the King, literally bouncing off of its tough hide.

The King growled, the sound transferring easily through the chains wrapped around its muzzle and into my arms, trying to shake them out of their sockets as it thrashed about, my muscles and Aura both straining–

"Steel! Incoming at your eight!"

A cold fear gripped my chest as my eyes flicked over, the almost solid black form of one of the Nemeans bounding towards me– If I moved the King would get free– team-? Team-?!

There was a roar as the Nemean leaped, but it wasn't the Nemean that had roared.

The Aberrant slammed into the lion mid-air, tackling it to the ground near the King, pinning it down with both of its claws before roaring once more as lightning began arc out from the Nemean-?! The hell?!

I could hardly do more than gape, since when could Grimm use lightning-?! And since when did Aberrants fight other Grimm-?! The Aberrant shifted its grip to the now dissolving Nemean's head and swung its fellow Grimm over its head to club the King over the head?!

The sudden jerk on my chains caught me off guard, making me skid along the ground for just an instant and giving the King enough slack to swipe at the Aberrant before I regained my grip and footing to lock it down. The Aberrant launched itself back before swinging its claws back up, bolts of lightning cracking between the claws for just an instant–

"Steel! Get down!" Huckleberry shouted and I immediately dropped to a knee, I didn't know what he saw but it didn't matter, I got the hell down, chains pulling me further down even as I tightened my grip on the ones that were wrapped around the King.

His cannon-shield slammed into the ground behind me, the familiar sound the only warning I had before brilliant orange light enveloped both of us, my dark skin nearly singed by the Nemean's laser as it was deflected around us. The King, of course, decided that then was the best time to tug on its chains! It was actually trying to drag me out of the small safe zone Huck's Orchid made!

The beam cut off and within seconds there was the booming sound of Orchid's cannon firing, quickly joined by the concentrated gunfire of the town and its emplacements. I glanced over my shoulder, finding my teammate firing rapidly into the face of the Nemean behind us, the firing options of the town limited as it was between us and it as it breathed infuck my eyes-!

Reflexively cringing, I had to blink the spots out of my eyes as the sound of the lightning bolt washed over me… and the Nemean dropped to the dirt, a charred stump where its head had been.

I looked back at the Aberrant, the heels of its claws pressed together, lightning still crackling between them. It'd… saved us?

The Nemean King made its displeasure known, heat pouring from its sealed muzzle as it thrashed about and… did I hear more of them? My eyes darted about and the pit of my stomach fell out at the sight of two of the Nemeans rushing straight towards us! Well… probably me.

Two of Caldera's team were still holding the one Nemean down as she blasted it, but the other team member chased after the one rushing towards us even as Qrow and his 'team' tried to stop the other! Damn unsuccessfully I might add! Sure, Qrow's kids had hobbled theirs by icing up one of its legs, but a cat the size of a train car was still fast as all hell!

Oh I fucking hated overpowered, intelligent, cheating Grimm!

The ground jerked and shook as two massive talons slammed into it, talons bigger than my legs slamming into the dirt on either side of us as the Aberrant literally took a stance above us. The fuck-?! What was it-? Defending us-?!

What kind of Grimm defended people-?! What was going on here?

-o Andoriol the Alien o-

I had to defend these two, particularly the chain user. If they lost him, the big cat would breathe onto the wooden walls of the town before I could stop it! The two artillery pieces firing were actually injuring the smaller lions, but it wasn't going to be enough at this rate…

The pair coming at us weren't slowed down enough as the bullets sailed over the heads of the people beneath me to rain down on the monsters and me. The closer of the two surged forward, the one not hobbled by ice pounced and my tail lashed out to intercept–

One of the artillery rounds slammed into the golden stinger, deflecting it slightly off course, not much, but enough that instead of burying itself into the monster's eye socket and skull, the stinger cut off whiskers and drew a thin line in the tough skin of its face. The booming thud of the impact was enough to make it stumble mid pounce, dropping back to all fours. But the unnaturally black, giant sabertoothed cat snarled and breathed in–

My right claw snapped out–

No.

My fist drove down its throat, interrupting its airflow and choking the damn thing's attack, a flex of my muscles sent bolts of bioelectricity arcing down the damn thing's body, making it convulse as I burnt it from the inside. But the focus nearly cost me as the other lion had actually breathed in, its chest compacting, the burning sound inside its lungs telling me that it'd charged its plasma breath.

Also no.

My left claw swung up in a blur, uppercutting the thing in the throat mid roar, turning its 'adams apple' into applesauce. Invincible skin was useless in protecting your squishy internals. And a throat of applesauce was kind of bad when you were venting a small star through it.

With a flash of light and a wet, thunderous boom that singed the knuckles of my left claw, the lion's head was blown off, its throat rupturing like a fruit with a firecracker stuffed inside.

"Andy-?!" Summer's voice was muffled, almost frantic as it came from the embrace of my thorax legs.

"All okay." I said over the boom of a monster the size of a train car dropping to the dirt, the impact sending a small tremor through the ground.

The lion's head reached the top of its arc, beginning its journey towards the earth, only to be snatched out of the air by my jaws with a snap even as I let the electrical nodes in my arm turn off as the other lion I had by the throat started to evaporate. Good.

The skull of the lion crunched in my jaws as I turned, eyes dancing about. The final one of the saber-toothed giant cat monsters was being attacked by three of the hunters even as the others came towards the Alpha and I, a scattering of warriors…

I would wonder how they intended to fight things nearly my size or bigger… but I'd done that, hadn't I? Back when I was only mildly superhuman… I'd fought the birds and the bears that could approach my current size, with claws bigger than I was tall… and I had won. Warriors, trained and with weapons I could barely understand, with literally magical abilities?

Yeah, I could see them doing something about these shits.

I ignored the stinging numbness of the bigger rounds slamming into the armored plates of my back, like a punch through padding or a training suit… it hurt, and if they hit me in an uncovered bit it could do some real damage… but I couldn't just stand aside and not do anything to help out. This was who I was. More than song, more than science, more than soul… I was compassion, I was protection, I was succor in the face of adversity.

In the face of tooth and claw and hatred, I was a shield.

My eyes met the hateful, solid red gaze of the biggest of the lions, the one that was easily twice my size, with skin tougher than my own armor and with claws that were probably able to actually pierce the same.

It was restrained by the chains from the hunter that I stood over protectively, but it was thrashing about as we stood here, near the edge of the forest… the hunter wouldn't be able to restrain it for much longer. This one was mine.

You.

Get in my belly.

And then there was the roar.

-o Molten Caldera o-

"Roar?"

I rode the geyser of water Chelsea created, laughing as Aster sent a boulder hurtling at me as I hovered in front of the face of the Nemean just as it breathed in.

With a ferocious grin, I slammed my palm into the rock, Aura dancing along my skin and through the Dust in my makeup, and I called out fire. Power poured forth as I struck the rock, reaching the point that it could take no more within half an instant until it glowed, deformed, and exploded forwards-!

An orange-white jet rocketed straight down the creature's open mouth and its throat-!

"More like a meow! Am I right?" I snapped, landing on the column of ice that had been a geyser just an instant ago. I slid down the pillar, flicking beads of molten glass off of my hand.

Aster though decided to take issue with my joke as her flail retracted back into its mace configuration, "Ha, I haven't heard a joke that bad since the last time you were stuffing your face with that dork from that garrison!"

"Did you just call me fat, Aster?!" I shouted over at my teammate with a grin, hitting the dirt at a full sprint, dancing across the cracked and hardened earth with practiced ease and leaving behind the Grimm as it fell to the dirt, smoke pouring from its mouth and eyes. Working with Aster meant getting used to running along rough terrain after all! "Come on! A girl's gotta enjoy good food and company every now and then!"

The thundering of the guns from the town petered out slightly before picking back up, tracers no longer whizzing over our heads as the villagers on the walls either reloaded or reoriented on another target.

Aster vaulted over the craggy stones she'd created even as Chelsea skated along on the road of ice to meet up with us as we moved to rejoin the fight. Damn Grimm were getting away from us and doing a fair job of it to boot! Though, hell, it practically wasn't a fight at this point, 'cause either Qrow or Steel had gotten a lot better or the brats with Qrow were crazy good 'cause weren't we short like, six Grimm–?

…the Aberrant was literally standing right over Steel and Huckle.

Fuck.

My eyes snapped about, the Huntsmen were gathered around the feet of the Aberrant, Steel was restraining the King… barely restraining the King still, tracer rounds visibly bouncing off of the Aberrants hide but the largest caliber guns simply couldn't fire on it with the Huntsmen so close. Kelly and Lavender were nearly at the Aberrant's feet as well, two corpses of Nemeans dissolving on either side of it… Qrow had entirely taken off ahead of the interns, moving at his top speed towards the engagement as the two students rushed after him–

And then there was a roar.

Not from the Aberrant, that was distinctive. Not from the Nemean King either.

From the forest.

Oh… oh shit.

It was the roar of an Ursa, accompanied by the howls of Beowulfs and the cries of Nevermores.

I skidded to a halt, Aster and Chelsea nearly bumping into my back as they followed my gaze, a cold dread gripping my chest. The forest, with trees nearly fifty feet high, that stretched out to the horizon and to the distant mountains… writhed with black and white and red as far as the eye could see.

"About face girls…" I almost whispered over the… sounds. The buzz of Beelzebubs, the flapping of Nevermore's wings, the howls of Fenrirs, the hiss of Taijitu, the chittering screams of Chupacabra's… and the skies… skies that had once been the shining blue of a new day… were now overcast with the shadow of a cloud of flying creatures of Grimm.

The fight must have unsettled the town enough… or maybe just the sheer noise of all of this had drawn them… I… I didn't know. But it looked like every creature of Grimm that the Aberrant had been gathering for the past months had decided it was time to attack… almost as if they were called.

Damn intelligent Grimm… fucking Aberrants… this… this is what it'd been building up to… a nearly literal tidal wave of hatred and malice. Qrow had been right… and just as we'd gotten ready to fight it, it'd struck… just before we were ready. It… it had pre-empted us, it'd ambushed the ambushers.

My teeth nearly ground together I let my Aura dance through the Dust I'd powdered and painted onto myself, feeling it heat up as the energy began to nearly tremble in eagerness at being used. An eagerness I, for once, didn't really feel.

"This is what we're here for," I muttered, backing towards the town. Team Collateral was great for just widespread destruction, for places where we didn't need to worry about what we broke… but this… We… We needed to set up a defensible position, to get behind the walls and just hole up! And… and pray for reinforcements.

There was a sudden peal of thunder, the rolling wave of lead and bullets and Dust hurtling out from the walls of the town, the massive guns Atlas had brought having a distinctively low boom as massive tracer rounds hurtled out indiscriminately into the tree line. They didn't even need to aim… just sweep the barrels back and forth and hold the trigger… You'd hit something no matter where you aimed...

I-... I hoped the Atlas guys had brought enough boom. Because I was all boom all the time, and I knew I hadn't...


[1] watch?v=FDDeCaP_HGI

[2] watch?v=v_LFKNghYi8