Chapter 23 (S875)
Despite the army storming into Beacon, the halls were disturbingly quiet except for the fires eating away at the carpet and the echoes of gunfire and combat. Celeste would've actually felt more comfortable if she could see the Grimm. Her heart pounded at every corner, expecting to encounter some sort of overwhelming ambush or worse-yet, the bodies of her comrades.
The monitoring pad in her left pocket could easily answer whether or not Rin and Azure were okay, but she dared not even look in its general direction.
Occasionally they'd run into a lone Beowolf or Ursa roaming the halls, but that did little to put her at ease. Where were the Deathstalkers, the Elementas, the stuff that could actually seriously hurt them?
They were clearly after something - Some rooms were untouched, others were ravaged beyond recognition. The stage they arrived at where Ozpin first introduced himself at was in pristine condition, minus the shattered windows in the foreground.
Picton was cautiously leading them forward, stopping several times a minute to pulse the area. As they reached the center, Picton suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, and turned a horrified look at the forking hallways before them. "Get ready for a fight. They're coming."
Celeste flipped La Massicot around and pointed the shotgun-end down one of the hallways. "From where?"
"Everywhere."
One at a time, the pitch-black halls began grumbling with the stampeding Grimm, and piercing red eyes advanced on them.
"Deathstalker, leftmost hall!" called Everest.
"C'mon, Celeste, what's the call?" nervously asked Picton. "There's another one coming down the middle…!"
Running sounded like a good idea, but then they'd have to take another detour to Azure and Rin. Four against two Deathstalkers and an indeterminate number of Grimm were bad odds, but they didn't have a choice - Her teammates were running out of time. "Hold position. Everest, Optima, you get one of them. Picton, cover me while I get the other."
"Acknowledged," replied Everest.
Picton took several steps back with his weapons drawn, clenching his teeth in anticipation. Brawling in this open room definitely wasn't going to be to his advantage, especially not against armored targets. "You sure about this?"
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before locking her gaze on the hissing scorpion charging before her. "Positive."
The Deathstalkers emerged into the stage almost simultaneously, and shrieked as the first few blows were exchanged. From behind them poured out dozens of smaller Grimm that fanned out across the room.
One of them immediately picked out Celeste, whereas the other chased after Everest.
Tail and eyes, recited Celeste to herself. Those were her targets. Several thundering blasts from her shotgun failed to connect to the eyes, only drawing one of the claws in front as a shield. It was closing fast, and its tail was too high up for her to swing at.
When it was a second away from ramming her, she jumped to the side, only to find herself in the unwelcoming claws of an Ursa. A couple swings raked her aura before she flung its arms across the floor and painted its bowels across its comrades.
Where was Picton? She knew he couldn't really help against the Deathstalker, but the least he could've done was cover her. But he was being surrounded by a horde of Beowolves and Ursi, completely unable to reach her.
This is bad…!
Without a chance to recover, Celeste suddenly felt something rushing in from her left. She instinctively swung in response, barely in time to catch the stinger homing in on her head. Knowing what was coming next, she took a step forward and angled her shotgun forward into the face of the Deathstalker, relentlessly hammering its eyes with dust.
It screeched in pain and backed up and began swinging its claws back and fourth. One swing hit her, and she tumbled across the floor, tripping an unexpecting Optima over.
"Watch it!" called Everest.
She was back on her feet in an instant, only in time to see the glow of another stinger bolting toward her face. The sound of something flying through the air suddenly sliced it off, and a hammer batted the dismembered stinger into the chest of an unsuspecting Ursa.
Before Everest could reclaim his glaives, a pair of Ursa Majors tackled him to the ground. They returned to him and lodged themselves in the backs of the bears, but they nevertheless continued clawing at him.
"Hang in there Everest!" cried Optima.
Celeste's gut dropped as the other Deathstalker she'd nearly forgotten about suddenly took a stab clear through Optima's arm, forcing her to helplessly drop her weapon. "Let her go!"
She couldn't even make it two steps before a Beowolf bit into her shoulder, but she kept going and slashed at it eyes, knocking out a row. The shotgun end flew into its eyes as it went around her back, and she spat fire into it exposed internals, finishing with a heavy vertical slash as it came back around.
More Beowolves piled onto her, and a second later the remaining stinger-less Deathstalker swatted her in her immobilized state, throwing her into a wall.
The monitor in her pocket fell out as she met the ground, and dread flooded her stomach as her gaze met it.
Azure's aura was close to 0%, Rin's at barely 15%, Picton's under 10%, and herself at under 20%.
Everest suddenly burst out from beneath the Ursa Majors, but was quickly caught in the iron grip of the Deathstalker. Nothing was working. There were too many of them!
Tears welled in her eyes as she staggered to her feet. They couldn't win. Everyone was going to die. All because she didn't want to detour.