Chapter 25 (S875)

The air grew heavy the deeper into Beacon Azure drew. He'd managed to pick off a few stragglers poking through some of the rooms, but the Elementas and Deathstalkers were missing from the picture, with their enormous tracks trailing further inward.

Then the lights flickered out, and chill ran down his back.

No matter.

Running a weak stream of his aura through the Kusanagi, the blade lit up like a lantern, barely illuminating either side of the hallway.

Ah, here we go.

A barely scratched Deathstalker was stomping down the halls on its own. Its entourage seemed to have gone ahead, but judging by what he could hear they weren't far away. "Hey c'mon! I'm back here!"

It ignored him, and kept walking.

Really? Fine then.

Azure clenched the Kusanagi, and start picking up speed, coming up from behind it on its left. Instead of swinging at its lesser-armored rear, he wall-ran in front of it and jumped across to the other side, placing a deep cut in its armored tail.

"Don't. Ignore. Me!" cursed Azure as he bounced back and forth between the walls.

It shrieked and swung furiously as Azure captured its attention. In a few seconds, he was forced to the ground in front of him, where he defiantly stood before it.

Destroy the claws, and then go in for the coup de grace - That was all he needed to do. It'd be a lot easier of Rin were here, but a challenge was always welcome.

The scorpion made its move first, stabbing at him with its stinger. A good hit could remove it, but that wasn't something he could easily do without perfect timing.

Out of nowhere a pulse of fear locked him in place.

Rin…!

He had to get back to her as quickly as possible - Something happened to her. For a moment, both Azure and the Deathstalker had come to a standstill. Did something also happen to the Deathstalker?

Before he could review the possibilities, it bludgeoned forward at him with renewed rage, pushing him back.

Wrong way, wrong way!

Returning to Rin took priority over the Deathstalker, but he couldn't get around it. He wasn't about to detour through the school - There was no telling what else could be waiting for him. The only choice was to slip through, or win.

The claws bulldozed through the walls like plywood, spewing dust and splintered wood into the halls. This was a waste of time - He wasn't making progress. The resentment he held toward the Grimm boiled to his front, and he bared his teeth in anger.

"OUT OF MY WAY!"

Azure charged head on to the surprise of his opponent and disabled one of the claws, but as he tried to jump past, he felt his left arm get caught in the other claw. It twisted and shattered as it clamped down, sending an agonizing amount of pain screaming through his arm.

With his scrambled senses, he blindly swung at the remaining claw, luckily hitting his mark. It dropped him and retreated in its own pain, stabbing the ground in front of Azure to ward him.

He trembled in pain and anger as he climbed to his feet, clutching his mangled arm. His thoughts were a blur - Only his abstract hatred of Grimm and his desire to help Rin clouded his head. A hushed and barely-human growl made it through his teeth, and he brought the Kusanagi on guard once more. He needed to keep going.

A roar left his mouth and echoed through the halls as he charged. The glowing stinger zeroed in on him, but he made no attempt to dodge. It sank into his leg and stopped him in his tracks, catching the stinger. Another blinding wave of pain made its way through Azure, but he kept his focus, and dismembered the stinger.

The Deathstalker shrieked at its loss, turned and ran - It could no longer fight.

Victorious as he was, he was in horrible condition. Azure ripped the stinger out of his hip, but collapsed shortly after. Crippled as he was, he started dragging himself across the floor toward the staircase to the roof, trailing blood in his path.

Damn these Grimm. Always getting in his way, taking things from him. If they wanted him, fine! But they couldn't have Rin.

Kill… Kill all of you… I'll kill all of you!

Azure…

He'd reached his limit - Rin could feel it through the pain of the enormous feather through her leg nailing her to the ground. She couldn't block out the pain, couldn't aim like this, and couldn't muster the strength to fire back.

The Nevermores circling overhead took turns attacking, but she was just barely managing to keep the trajectories of their feathers from landing another direct hit.

Oh no…

She could feel the ghastly, enraged, inhuman aura she felt years ago suddenly replacing Azure's fading one. Was that happening again? No, she couldn't let that happen. With one of her arms, she started cutting away at the feather, trying to cut herself loose.

There wasn't much time - If she didn't reach Azure, that… Thing, was going to take him from her again.

Damn it!

It was taking too long for everyone to recover. Picton wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, Optima had just dealt with a hole in her arm and was still purging poison from herself, and other people were tending to the numerous lacerations and bites all over Everest. "I'm going after Rin and Azure - They're out of time."

"Just you be waiting, I only need two minutes," said Optima.

Celeste stood up and took La Massicot into her hands. "They don't have a couple more minutes."

There was a moment of shock as she looked at her monitor - Azure's aura percentage was going up. He was regenerating? That shouldn't be possible at this rate. How was he doing this? What did it mean?