Chapter 24 (Stan Crow)
A gut strike blasted the wind from Hope, throwing her back again. She'd seen films of Ursa Majors in Professor Porter's class and she'd even dealt with smaller ursas.
The reality before her was an unstoppable behemoth.
And it was headed directly at Patience who knelt, sobbing, apparently unaware of the threat.
She's dead if I can't stop it. Distraction doesn't work. I need to immobilize it.
Hope was up and running before the thought completed. Somehow she intercepted the creature, angling a blow at the soft side of its knee. Nash bit, but was bounced away by the monster's stride.
Strike the foot. The wrist. The face.
Nothing.
Rearing over Randolph and Patience, the demon roared at the slender girl in front of its master, whipping its claws toward her.
Distract it!
She flipped Nash around and leveled the shotgun end just behind Randolph, jerking the trigger three times fast. A few pellets harmlessly ricocheted off his aura; he didn't even seem to notice.
The Ursa's attack diverted mid-flight and made contact with Hope instead. She was ready for the swipe and tuck-rolled out of it easily.
"Come on!" she yelled at it, firing two more round past Randolph. Whatever Patience was doing to him must be good; no one ignores shotgun blasts spewing past their back if they're conscious.
The Ursa lunged, and Hope cartwheeled inside its reach, peppering it with shot. The thick flank absorbed the blasts harmlessly. Nash's blade blurred in behind the pellets, slicing into the tendon linking the bear's thigh to its hip.
That got a reaction.
A mule kick hurled Hope into the far wall of the alley, and she dropped into an ungracious heap on the pavement. Dizzy, she rolled without waiting, the incoming claws merely grazing her face instead of ripping it free.
Then something else hit. A vision of fire. Of death. Her friends, fellow students, and even faculty. Randolph, eyes glowing, laughed gleefully while Beacon burned.
A second vision followed. Randolph's eyes were dead, his head lying a yard from his body. Hope saw herself weeping next to him, blood smeared on Nash's blade.
In that moment, she knew there was only one solution to the problem: kill Randolph. She knew if she thought about it she'd never do it, so she scrambled to her feet and bolted for him.
Suddenly, her face met the ground hard. She knew she'd lost teeth. A monstrous shadow flashed over her, then the weight of a thousand suns crashed into her back and the ursa roared triumphantly.
Bones cracked. Breathing was impossible. The night dimmed to a blurry tunnel. Randolph was still ten feet away.
It may as well have been ten light years.
Without warning, the pressure eased. Hope emptied Nash clip as fast as she could. The recoil rammed the rifle butt into her armpit and propelled her to safety. Sprinting at Randolph, she was surprised to see him… openly making out with Patience?
What the…?
Patience opened her eyes as Hope readied Nash for a cleaving strike on Randolph's neck. Hope saw understanding in the other girl's gaze; Patience would duck.
Heaving with everything she had, Nash careened toward the soft flesh of the angry young man with enough force to sever flesh and aura.
Down!
A flash vision blinded her and she instantly dropped into a knee slide, centimeters before her axe found its target. Her attack went wide, but the Ursa's attack slid past her.
A second later, Randolph von Lang's body crumpled to the ground.
Before Hope had time to process anything bullets sparked around them, accompanied by the dulled "thwip" of a silenced rifle. Patience snatched Randolph's weapon from his lifeless hands but even as she switched it to carbine mode, the Ursa whirled.
Hope looked back in time to see it knock Sadiyya Triste clear out of the alley and toward the nearby woods with a single swing. Bellowing, it charged after her, shattering the curtain of feathers before doing the same to small trees.
"You just redefined the term 'power slide'," Patience said, appearing at Hope's side. "I didn't know you had it in you."
Hope was vaguely aware of a hand reaching for her. She ignored it. She had been ready to kill Randolph von Lang. One of her fellow students. She peeked at his corpse, and nearly threw up at the sight of the jagged tear above his collarbone. Burying her face in her chest, she didn't even try to hold back the torrent of tears.
"Come on," Patience said impatiently. "We're not done yet. We've still got a thousand Grimm to deal with. But I have a hunch that's going to be easier now. And Sadiyya should live. If she wakes up from that blow in time, that is."
Her hand gripped Hope's elbow and dragged her to her feet. Hope didn't resist. Instead, her tears continued unabated.
The pair stumbled awkwardly through the battle-scarred courtyard. Bodies were just things, now. Broken statue? So what? Charred pavement? You could fix that easy. Grimm beginning to retreat? Hooray? Maybe?
She had nearly killed someone just a minute ago. Why did of the rest of this matter? Who was she, Hope Harris, to think she had the right to end someone's life? Just because she'd seen a vision? How many times had she been wrong before? Even if she were right, she had no authority to murder him. She could have simply knocked him out and bound him. Surely that would have broken his control long enough to turn the tide on the attack.
At that point, she did vomit. Patience glared at her but stopped to let her recover.
The comm line crackled. "Miss Hope," Everest's voice said, "we're in the main assembly hall. Backup just arrived and we're pushing back. The Grimm are in retreat. Are you well?"
No, Hope thought. I am definitely not well. I'm not sure I'll ever be well again.