A/N: A little later than usual, but I had to pick up mah gramma so... yeah. Hope you enjoy!
Beta: Prince of Austria
Mirisu barely looked like the girl that Jaune had been talking to a few hours ago. Caked in dust, bloody, and the tips of her claws reaching her knees, Jaune didn't need much to push the image of a harmless girl from his mind and replace it with the monster standing in front of him. Baleful eyes looked at the boy, teeth bared.
"I am at the end of my patience." She spit the words out, claws flexing. Jaune smiled, almost mirroring Mirisu's in viciousness.
"Good 'cause so am I." Jaune knelt down quickly, placing his hands onto the ground. Mirisu lashed out as well, attempting to kill Jaune before he could do anything else. The claws missed however, and the ground below Jaune exploded upwards, creating a platform that propelled Jaune. This allowed him to flip upwards and land on top of a nearby cage. Jaune clicked his tongue as he wagged his finger and shook his head. Mirisu bellowed in rage, lashing out sloppily again, widening her fingers so as to catch Jaune no matter how he tried to move.
Except of course for falling backwards, as Jaune dropped below and the claws aiming for him struck against the bars of the cage, causing the creature inhabiting it to howl furiously. Jaune nodded and placed his hands on the cage.
"Sorry about this." He murmured, before transmuting the cage doors, unlocking them and allowing for the thing to escape from its cage, howling.
Mirisu cursed and almost casually flicked a finger towards the approaching beast, cleanly beheading it without a thought. The distraction, brief as it was, allowed Jaune to slip away into the jungle of cages, fading away from Mirisu's sight.
"Hiding now?" Mirisu resorted to taunts, head whipping around to try and spot the alchemist. "I didn't realize Hunters cowered from monsters now."
"Yeah? Well, I'm certainly not a Hunter."
Mirisu flung her claws in the direction of the sound, before the claws sunk into a solid wall. Focusing, the purple-haired monster could see a hole shaped loosely like a speaker where the sound had come from. Pain erupted from the back of her head as Jaune struck her with his automail arm, causing her to stagger backwards a little, one of her claws still retracting.
Pressing his advantage, Jaune spun his sword, slicing a deep cut through her neck, then a larger cut from her shoulder blades to the opposite hip, before finally spinning and with both hands, cleanly slicing through one of her knees.
A pained wail echoed through the cavern as Mirisu fell. Jaune took a step forward to drive Crocea Mors into Mirisu before she turned and struck him with her clawed hand, lifting him off of the floor and flinging him into a cage.
Head swimming, Jaune slowly sat up, hand still firmly gripping his sword.
Mirisu heaved large breaths, closing her eyes and groaning, almost shouting as her wounds started to close, her knee cauterizing and a growth extending from the stump. Eyes flashing, Mirisu stood up on her lone leg and lashed out with her claws once more, attempting to impale Jaune.
Without much time to react, Jaune raised his automail arm to protect his vital parts, two claws piercing through the arm. Another two however, sliced cleanly into him, one close to his hip and another creating a shallow cut on his chest.
Mirisu withdrew her claws, her expression dark as she leapt forward, the arc high in the air, claws ready.
Jaune rolled to the side, quickly clapping his hands together and simply vibrating the floor, causing dust and debris to lift into the air, making something of a makeshift smokescreen.
Everything fell silent at that moment, Jaune even taking the time and effort to slow his breathing down and hope it was shallow enough not to be heard. His automail arm twitched sporadically, and on closer inspection, he could see that Mirisu had managed to cut some of the wires that allowed fine motor movement in his hands. Shaking his head, Jaune clapped once, placing it on the floor.
The moment he did so however, Mirisu appears, howling in rage, claws extended. With a bit of quick reflexes, and a whole lot of luck, Jaune rolled to the side, barely avoiding the points of the claws. That didn't help when the girl flung her arm to the side though, hitting Jaune and throwing him to the side again.
Jaune was getting tired of being literally thrown around. With shaky knees Jaune stood up once more, expression grim. It was going to take a lot for him to pull out of this one alive. Hopefully, the sooner Professor Goodwitch could finish her part of the plan, the sooner he could get the both of them out of here.
"Argh!" A feminine voice cried out in pain, and Jaune's heart sank, knowing that Mirisu's voice certainly didn't sound like that.
"Professor!" Jaune hurried toward the origin of the sound, eyes straining to see through the fading smoke. As the cloud disappeared, Jaune stopped, spotting Professor Goodwitch. Mirisu had forced her down onto her knees, a clawed hand wrapped around the witch's throat. The monster smirked at him tauntingly.
"How about you put down that sword sweetie? I wouldn't want to have to defend myself and have my hands… slip." With that word, the hand around the blonde woman tightened just enough for her to give a strangled choke of air, making Jaune's hand tighten.
"Alright! I'm putting it down." Jaune said, doing just that. The alchemist kept his eyes trained on Professor Goodwitch, trying to convey the question.
Is everything ready?
Professor Goodwitch twitched her head, almost imperceptible to Jaune. Unfortunately, with such a tight grip on her neck, Mirisu felt the small movement, frowning. Jaune, hoping that the professor had actually understood and answered his question correctly, placed his hands on the floor. Mirisu didn't hesitate, a claw flying out and cleanly slicing through his arm.
She took too long, as the area surrounding her started to glow.
"Let's see you try and dig your way out of this one." Jaune said, grinning as he pulled out a piece of chalk, quickly drawing a small circle. With the girl distracted, Professor Goodwitch focused and flicked her hands upwards, wrapping Mirisu with telekinetic energy and tossing her upwards into the air.
The homunculus screamed in rage, twisting in the air and trying to orient herself so that she could strike one of them again, but was interrupted when a rock fell from the ceiling and clipped her on the side. She was propelled downwards by the strike, body thudding onto the floor. Before she had any time to recover, another rock, this time the size of her upper torso fell onto her. More and more rocks continued to fall as Jaune's artificial cave in started to weaken the structure of the base of the house that they were on top of.
Finally finishing his circle with one hand, he called out to Professor Goodwitch, who quickly limped towards the boy. Touching the circle caused the ground to heave upwards around Jaune and the professor, effectively covering them. Jaune hoped he made the barrier thick enough to handle a house falling on top of them.
## #
Pyrrha was worried. That was a bit of an understatement.
There was a burning bit inside of her stomach, whatever liquid it contained boiling vigorously, her chest starting to hurt from the rapid beating that was happening. Ren and Nora followed close behind, not wanting to split up again and risk being isolated once more. They had all quickly made their way to Jaune's section, and not knowing where to find him, started barreling down houses one by one, sometimes literally as Nora had her way with some of the places.
Almost reaching to the end of the line of houses, Pyrrha felt vibrations shaking under her feet. She stopped her teammates, asking if they could feel that.
Before anyone could answer, a house to the far right sunk almost a feet downwards, parts of the walls falling apart, the windows shattering. Team NPR stared at the scene, before the house continued to fall in jerky motions, the ground swallowing it foot by foot. Halfway through, the building gave up resisting, and completely broke into pieces, sinking all the way into the ground with a thunderous roar.
There wasn't any more question of where Jaune was.
That was a Hunter's mess if they ever saw one.
They all rushed towards the site, stopping once they found the edge of it, having to jump a little backwards when the hole continued to widen, actually pulling in another half of a house before the sinkhole stopped expanding.
They peered into the pit, trying to look for any signs of life before Pyrrha resorted to her semblance, trying to find any signs of metal that would point to Jaune.
"Find anything?" Ren asked, waiting patiently, if not a little anxiously, to see what Pyrrha could dig up. The Amazon's brow furrowed in frustration, her head shaking.
"I—I can feel metal. But there's a lot of it." Another shake of the head. "They had to have been in some sort of room underneath there, because there's a lot of metal, and none of them—wait! I might have found something! There!" Pyrrha pointed at a spot of in the pit. Nora was quick to move, jumping down and digging the spot, trying to find what Pyrrha had found.
The next two or three minutes were filled with Pyrrha and Ren waiting nervously, afraid to see what Nora would dig up.
"I found it guys! I—" Nora stopped shouting, her face falling into an expression that wasn't seen very often with her. Sorrow.
"What? What is it? What is it?" Pyrrha said almost frantically. The usually collected girl started to stumble down into the pit, catching the stricken expression on Nora's face. It only sank further and further the closer Pyrrha got. Even Ren looked worried, eyes filled with emotion. Nora looked at Pyrrha, sniffing as her eyes filled with tears. Shaking her head slowly, Nora stood up, turning away to let Pyrrha see, the Amazon's eyes widening.
In the middle of the dig site, an automail arm, laying dead and unattached to its owner. A choked sob escaped her throat as she turned away from the limb, not wanting to look at it, instead focusing on Nora, who had wrapped her arms around Ren, burying her head into his neck. Ren's eyes were grim, a prominent frown on his face.
Letting out a shaky breath, Pyrrha tried to speak.
"I—um. We should probably… Dust, I don't…" Pyrrha couldn't say anything else, covering her face with one hand, body trembling. Ren nodded, patting Nora's back, mentally reassuring Pyrrha that she didn't need to do anything right now, to take her time and absorb what happened. So Pyrrha did, looking around the crater.
What she saw was almost enough to draw her out of her grief, and move her into a state of heightened fear.
"Ren…" The boy let go of Nora, turning to see what Pyrrha was seeing.
A cage, with a dark animal, looking like a big cat of some sort, lay there. It shouldn't have been something to frightening, but the eyes…
They were so startlingly human.
"What…" Pyrrha said in horror, taking a step back. Turning around, whipping her heard back and forth, she found several more cages like that, animals of some sorts with human-like eyes, deformed and hideous in some way. It sickened the girl to the core, which only made things worse when they all started to scream.
Help, they all screamed, every voice different, all of them sounding the same. Like a human's. If Pyrrha had screamed as well, it would've only mixed in with the others, drowned out in the suffering of the humans trapped inside the cages.
Pyrrha would've screamed, but she was too busy throwing up, hand on her chest as she lost it.
"This is sick." Ren said, his voice filled with anger and disgust. Nora didn't bother saying anything, closing her eyes to it all and simply keeping a firm grasp on Ren's hand.
Pyrrha wasn't sure of what to do, but she knew how to start. With a focused mind, she used her Semblance, wrenching the door of the big cat's cage open, letting it go free. One by one, she did the same thing to every single one of the cages, letting the beasts loose.
The cat, a jaguar, or a puma of some sorts, leapt out of the cage and to Pyrrha's feet, creeping forward before raising its—his head, their eyes meeting.
A sudden crack caused them to break eye contact, Pyrrha turning to find that one of the large rocks had broken open, slowly revealing a figure sitting there. Or rather, two figures.
"Jaune." Pyrrha whispered, voice filled with awe. "Professor Goodwitch!" The three of them ran to the two blondes, both of which were very out of it.
"Jaune! Are you alright?" Pyrrha frantically checked his body for injuries. Which there were a lot of. "Your arm! Oh, I found your arm!" With a flick of her wrist, she brought the automail limb towards them. Jaune gave a small grin.
"Thanks… I think I'll need a.. hand putting that back in."
Pyrrha gave a choked laugh, smiling as tears started to form. "You idiot," something she said very rarely, "I think you'll need a whole arm." Jaune actually gave a weak chuckle for that.
Ren and Nora gave the two partners some space, taking the time to talk to Professor Goodwitch, to try and make sure that she was alright as well.
"I have had… enough." A voice that slid like steel against steel said, causing all attention to turn towards the source. A battered, bloody body, with stumps for an arm and both legs, lay there, looking hatefully at the group.
"M-Mirisu?" Another twist that caught Pyrrha off guard. The purple-haired girl grinned a bloody grin, blood staining her teeth.
"I am… tired of getting slapped around. Kill them!"
Pyrrha didn't know who she was talking to for a moment, before realizing that she had just unleashed a horde of beasts that were under the control of Mirisu. The black cat turned his head towards the team, eyes staring quietly at them. Every other creature did the same, unmoving.
The big cat then turned his sight on Mirisu, jumping and landing beside the girl, teeth bared. The homunculus snarled.
"I knew it. What did I expect from someone who ran away from the White Fang? A traitor through and through."
The cat didn't answer though, instead opting to lunge at her throat, trying to tear it out. The girl laughed almost hysterically, her only arm thrust into the cat's chest.
"Not… today you beast."
Well, that may have stopped one, but at that moment all of the freed creatures, the deformed humans, leapt towards the prone Mirisu, ripping and tearing her apart.
"No! NO!" Her wails were ghastly, echoing through the pit and across the whole town, almost loud enough to drown the wet tearing and ripping of the animals chewing her apart.