"NO!" someone screamed. The deathstalker was suddenly blown away. A violent gust of wind followed the beasts departure. It tumbled several dozen meters before finally stopping as it slammed into a sturdy concrete carpark. Dust fell from the structure as it shook with the immense power of the blow. A few seconds later, a dangerous creaking noise came from the impact site and the building slumped over. Car alarms blared. Chunks of concrete rained down on the deathstalker. Each hit made the beast wail in pain and slump further and further into the ground.
Before the dust could clear, Ruby's shocked eyes were dragged away by her savior dropping to their knees beside her. Blue eyes filled with unshed tears met Ruby's gaze. It was Sapphire Barlow.
"Hey, Saph," Ruby mumbled. The words reluctantly crawled from her mouth, weighed down by weariness and pain. The red girl tried raising her arm to grasp Sapphire's hand, but all she could manage was a pathetic twitch. Ruby's eyes shifted to her arm which refused to move. She stared at it with a blank expression. "Good blow," she added, absentmindedly. Sapphire's semblance was an interesting one. She was capable of concentrating her aura into cylindrical projectiles and firing them from any part of her body at extreme speeds. By nature of being small and fast, they were capable of a great deal of destructive power.
"T-thanks," Sapphire replied meekly. Her hands awkwardly hovered over Ruby's numerous wounds, unsure as to what to do. Terror crept into her visage. Ruby's condition wasn't good. Slash wounds covered her body, and blood intermixed with the girl's combat uniform. Sapphire wasn't sure where the blood began and her wounds ended. "You!" Sapphire began angrily, but her anger was quickly replaced by worry. "Oh, Ruby..."
"It's okay, Saph. My aura can handle it," Ruby replied, tacking on a half-hearted grin at the end. Her subsequent cough belied her false bravado.
"I - " the sound of shifting rubble pierced the air, and both girl's eyes darted towards where the deathstalker lied. The dust had now settled, and the Grimm was struggling to stand under piles of concrete and rebar. In white armor covering one of the deathstalker's pinchers, a huge dent — courtesy of Sapphire's semblance — was present.
"Okay," Sapphire began, drawing Ruby's attention back to her. Steel filled her voice. "I'm going to heal you." Ruby's eyes widened.
"No!" Ruby immediately shouted, though the plea came out more a raspy whisper. "You can't!" Ruby was referring to the other component of Sapphire's semblance. By lowering the speed of her projectiles, Sapphire was able to transfer aura to other users. It could fill aura depleted hunters with a new wind, and temporarily boost the abilities of those with non-hunter level auras. It took directly from Sapphire's aura; however, and left the girl extremely weak.
"I have to," Sapphire replied. Her voice brooked no argument. The girl closed her eyes and steeled her expression. She rested her hands on Ruby's shoulders.
"Sapphire, you can't - " Ruby stopped as a jolt ran through her. A surge of aura rushed into her body and soul. Nerves were set ablaze, and Ruby cried out in pain at the sensation of a foreign aura intermingling with her own. Wounds knit closed and small amounts of blood receded back into Ruby's body with a sick squelching noise. Ruby violently shivered. The edges of her vision blackened. She began feeling herself fall into unconsciousness, but she let out another scream and forced her eyes open. She couldn't quit. Not yet.
Sapphire was panting as she kept up the transfer. Gradually, Ruby felt her pain recede as Sapphire's aura was assimilated by her own. Ruby's fingers twitched as bodily control returned. Her wounds were mostly healed now, but blood that wasn't reabsorbed still covered her. It was a lot. Sapphire collapsed atop Ruby without warning. Ruby let out an oomph as the girl's body pressed down on hers.
The deathstalker roared again, and the sound of rubble hitting ground sent panic running through Ruby. She glanced over at the Grimm while awkwardly surrounding Sapphire with a protective half-hug. Some concrete had rolled off the deathstalker's shell, but it was still pinned under debris. Ruby looked back to the girl slumped on her. All she could see of Sapphire was the long blonde hair on her head, splayed chaotically across her bloodied combat uniform. Some blood was now seeping into the girl's hair. Ruby sighed. "Saph…" she mumbled with annoyed fondness.
Ruby unsteadily stood up with her arms threaded under the taller girl's armpits. Crescent Rose clanged against her leg — fortunately not the sharp edge. It had been pulled up by its springy wrist strap. Ruby surveyed the area for an appropriate spot to place her friend. Her search was interrupted by another roar from the deathstalker, and the metallic clatter of rebar hitting the ground. Ruby looked around with renewed haste.
The street was a mess from her previous fight. The road's tarmac was cracked by the sheer weight of her opposition, at least twice as large as the deathstalker her sister faced during her initiation. If Yang's description was reliable, that was. Ruby's half-sister had a tendency to exaggerate. Stinger impact marks littered the road, sidewalk, and even one parked car. Across the street, right next to the totaled car, an awning cast the sidewalk under it in shadow. Behind the car and under the awning is where she'd place Sapphire, Ruby decided. The girl heaved Sapphire up higher and slowly walked towards her destination.
Down the street, the deathstalker was nearly free. The Grimm was slowly pushing the largest chunk of concrete off of its back with its recently freed tail. The closer the concrete slab got to the edge of the deathstalker's exoskeleton, the quicker Ruby tried to shuffle across the street. She cringed as Crescent Rose made a grinding noise as it was dragged behind her. Once the slab got near the edge of the beast's shell, Ruby used a burst of her semblance to cover the rest of the distance.
Ruby kneeled down. Gently, she placed Sapphire onto the sidewalk. The only Grimm nearby was the deathstalker. She'd be safe, Ruby reassured herself. Crescent Rose was picked up as Ruby rose from her crouch. The paint was badly scratched, and the blades slightly dented, but her sweetheart was still functional. No other weapon could have endured this much, Ruby thought proudly as she pecked the weapon's casing.
Glancing down at Sapphire one last time, Ruby took note of the rather peaceful expression on her face. She vowed to keep it that way. With a dramatic twirl, Ruby turned to face the deathstalker. She began considering her options as the concrete slab began falling off the Grimm's shell. Burn dust wasn't an option anymore. Ruby was completely out of it; however, she still had some ice, lightning, and wind dust left. A plan began forming in her mind. The concrete slab hit the road with a loud thud, and dust erupted around the Grimm as it charged forward.
Ruby activated Crescent Rose's polearm mode, the scythe blade bending back to lay parallel with the weapon's shaft. It clicked into place with a dangerous-sounding clunk. As the Grimm grew closer and closer, Ruby carefully adjusted her footing and aimed her weapon directly at the deepest point of the dent in the deathstalker's pincer. Thirty meters. Twenty-five meters. Twenty meters. Ruby exhaled, and disappeared in a flash of rose petals.
At her maximum unhindered speed Ruby Rose could travel 620 meters per second — nearly twice the speed of sound. She crossed the twenty meter distance between herself and the deathstalker in less than a tenth of a second. Crescent Rose piercing the deathstalker's damaged armor caused a shockwave of sound to erupt from the impact point. Nearby windows vibrated from the force, and it took all of Ruby's strength to hold onto her weapon.
The deathstalker was pushed back a dozen meters in almost an instant. Deep channels were dug in its wake as it desperately tried to stay put. Once the Grimm finally ground to a halt, Ruby used another burst of her semblance to pull her blade out of the deathstalker and dodge a deadly swipe from its uninjured pincher. Mid-air, Ruby triggered wind dust and sent a cyclone of air towards her opponent. The Grimm's pincers and stinger were pushed back by the force of the gale, and, exploiting the opening she had made, Ruby used another burst of her semblance to dash onto the deathstalker's back. She triggered Crescent Rose back to its scythe form, and desperately hoped this particular facet of Yang's initiation story was unembellished.
The deathstalker's pincher came streaking down in an attempt to knock Ruby from its back. Ruby met the downward force of the stinger with Crescent Rose. Immediately, she was pushed to her knees from the force of the blow. As the deadly instrument clashed with her own, it began pushing closer and closer to her face. Once the stinger was nearly connecting with her head, Ruby triggered ice dust and leapt back. She used her aura to delay the dust from activating. This allowed the Grimm to slam its own stinger into its back before being frozen in place. The beast let out a shrill cry of pain.
Ruby shouted a victory cry as the beast wailed, and resorted to trying to shake her off. The red adorned girl held her footing and began liberally applying more ice around the deathstalker's stinger. There was no way she was going to let it break free. Her victory was short-lived, however, and the Grimm ran headfirst into a nearby building. Ruby was thrown clear the deathstalker's back. Twirling around midair, she fired several bullets at the Grimm to propel herself backward and keep her distance. The rounds merely bounced off the ancient Grimm's armor, but they had served their purpose and propelled Ruby away; however, the huntress-in-training had miscalculated.
Ruby let out a scream as she was blown through a second story window. Glass shattered around Ruby's body. Glittering shards danced in front of the girl's vision as her aura flared and protected her from the sharp edges. An instant after she had broken the glass, Ruby slammed back-first into an interior wall. The weak plaster gave and she broke through it, hitting the hardier wooden framework of the house. Air burst from her lungs from the force of the blow. Crescent Rose clattered to the wooden floor as it was wrenched from her grip.
A few seconds of relative silence passed. Ruby let out a moan of pain. How could she have screwed up like that!? A moment of self-criticism followed before Ruby started surveying the room: a bedroom. The walls were painted dark blue with star patterns beautifully detailed atop the base color. Ruby abruptly felt a small measure of guilt for ruining such carefully crafted art.
More importantly, huddled on a bed in the corner was a terrified looking human family. There were two parents, one male and the other female, and one small girl hiding between them. She couldn't be older than four or five. Her eyes contained a dying innocence, stained with tears and horror. Ruby suddenly felt the urge to cry too.
Ruby was pushed out of her melancholy as the building shook. The deathstalker was now feverishly ramming into the building that contained the hated thing which had wounded it. Ruby grabbed Crescent Rose and used it as a crutch to stand. She nodded towards the family in an attempt to put up a strong face. She figured the blood, recently knitted wounds, and the fact that she just crashed into their house probably wouldn't help matters.
"S-stay here," Ruby blurted out. "There's not many Grimm left." That was a lie. There were probably plenty Grimm left, but they didn't need to know that. The family stared back with that same look of fear, and maybe a tinge of awe. It filled Ruby with determination. She walked back over to the window, knocking away the last shards of glass clinging to its frame with Crescent Rose's blade. "It'll all be over soon," she said. In one of two ways, she mentally added. Ruby leaned out the window and looked down. The Grimm was now pushing against the outer wall of the building, desperately trying to push it down. The walls were creaking dangerously from the pressure. Ruby put one boot on the window frame, and with a push leaped out.
As Ruby fell she fired several pinpoint accurate rounds into the connective tendons between the stinger and the deathstalker's tail. The Grimm's stationary position helped greatly with her aim. Moments later, Ruby landed on the deathstalker's back with a solid thump. Upon landing, Ruby used a bullet propelled swing to slice through the weakened tendons. Crescent Rose cut effortlessly through the Grimm's flesh. The Grimm's muscles, taut from trying to free the stinger, acted like a spring. The tail soared backward, whistling through the air as it went. It slammed into the ground with the force of a truck crash. Dust and stones scattered from the impact site. Ruby instinctively covered her eyes as dust and debris bounced off her body and clattered across the deathstalker's shell. One step left.
As the deathstalker slumped to the ground in pain, Ruby began pumping aura into her legs. She positioned Crescent Rose's barrel facing straight down. Yellow lightning dust began rising up the weapon's shaft. Ruby grinned, then she crouched. The girl jumped straight up with an aura powered leap, rose petals and bullets trailing behind her. She pirouetted midair, and as she started to descend triggered her dust. The superheated plasma raced down and impacted the deathstalker's stinger. Ice trapping the stinger spontaneously vaporized from the intense heat, and superheated steam surrounded Ruby causing her aura to flare.
Ruby began accelerating faster and faster towards the ground as gravity and her bullets assisted her fall. She angled the barrel slightly away from the ground, instead pointing the back edge of her scythe blade at her target. She impacted. A violent roar surrounded Ruby and shook her to her core as Crescent Rose collided with the stinger. The deathstalker's armor was torn asunder with a violent ripping sound, nearly overpowering the sound of metal and stinger colliding. In less than a second the stinger had pierced through the deathstalker's abdomen, leaving a gaping hole in its wake and crushing the tarmac beneath with another loud bang. By then, the shockwave had raced up Ruby's arms. Ruby let go of her sweetheart, unclipped its strap, and disappeared in a cloud of rose petals.
She appeared a meter above and to the right of the deathstalker. Her aura's special properties had cancelled her momentum. She landed without so much as a grunt, inwardly squealing at how cool she must have looked. Her momentary elation faded the moment the whole situation came rushing back. There was more fights than this to win. She turned back to the deathstalker. Her previously grand enemy was now disintegrating, like all Grimm did when they died. Black ash was slowly drifting up and away from the ancient deathstalker's corpse. The stinger had done it. Ruby let out a sigh of relief. She had done it. Ruby's body suddenly filled with adrenaline. Sapphire.
She rushed to where she had placed the girl, only to release another relief filled breath. Sapphire was exactly where and as she had left her: peaceful look and all. Ruby knelt down next to Sapphire, pushing a stray strand of hair out of her face. "Thanks, Saph," Ruby muttered. She almost certainly would have been dead if not for the girl's timely intervention. Locking her arms under Sapphire's, Ruby lifted her once again with a grunt. She felt heavier in Ruby's arms now. Battle fatigue had finally caught up to her. Ruby looked back up to the window she had leapt from. Curious eyes looked down from above. Had they seen everything?
"Can you stand back, please?" she asked. They disappeared from the window. Aura pooled in Ruby's legs, and she secured her grip on Sapphire. She finally let all that energy loose in an aura powered jump. Rose petals fluttered in behind Ruby as she flew into the upper story window and landed with knees slightly bent. As the huntress-in-training stood up, light pooled in from the shattered window behind her. The sunlight lit her from behind and made her visible red aura seem to glow with an inhuman power.
To the room's inhabitants, Ruby seemed some grand savior found only in fantastical stories.
Glass crunched under the girl's combat boots as she walked determinedly over to the bed in the corner. Sapphire's feet dragged behind her, disturbing the glass shards further and causing shafts of sunlight to dance across the room. Upon reaching the bed, Ruby gently brushed plaster dust off it — courtesy of her previous entrance — before laying Sapphire gently across the top covers. She dragged one of the softer looking pillows down, slowly lifted Sapphire's head, and placed the cushion beneath it.
Ruby continued looking at Sapphire's calm face for a moment. "Take care of her, will you?" she asked the family without turning away. "There aren't any more Grimm around here. You're safe." She's safe, she mentally added.
"Thank you," said a male voice from behind her. It was gravelly, toughened by age and fear. "We'll look after her, huntress." Ruby preened at the form of address. It may have been wrong, but it was nice none the less. Ruby reluctantly turned away from her friend and glanced at the man. She simply nodded. When he said nothing further, she turned back to Sapphire. A flash of red caught her eyes. A hint of fabric peeked out from under Sapphire's dark gray peacoat. Ruby reached down and gently tugged it from the coat's inner pocket. Her distinct red cloak gradually unfurled as she pulled. Ruby had forgotten amidst all the chaos that she had given her cloak to Sapphire.
Once the cloak was entirely pulled out, Ruby swung it around her shoulders and clasped it under the base of her neck. The cloak's familiar warmth enshrouded her as she pulled the hood over her head. Her combat uniform was in tatters and was probably barely keeping her decent. The cloak would cover that, she justified. And, she added, it might hide her wounds better. Ruby was distracted from her musings by the man's voice again.
"What's going on? Where are all the hunters?" Ruby turned around. Instead of facing the man, her eyes were captured by the little red-haired girl between them. She glanced up at Ruby with unadulterated awe and wonder. The girl no longer looked scared. Ruby couldn't...she couldn't shatter that illusion of safety the girl now had. She looked towards the husband and shook his head."The academy is cut off somehow," she said, and hesitantly sent a smile the little girl's way. She hoped the girl wouldn't understand her words. The man's eyes widened, and his wife choked back a sob. Ruby felt a pang in her chest as she finally realized where Yang was. Beacon. If she wasn't here..was she..No! She couldn't think like that. Ruby violently shook her head to escape the grim thoughts. "The breach has been sealed though," she added.
"There's a breach?" the woman gasped.
"Was a breach," Ruby corrected.
"What about the military?" the male asked. Desperation leaked into his voice. "The hunters in the city?"
"I don't know," Ruby replied. The lack of almost any other defenders baffled Ruby. An Atlesian flagship was hovering directly over the city. Surely it could provide support of some kind? And Ruby knew there was at least half a dozen fully fledged hunters in Vale proper at any given time, yet they had seemingly disappeared.
"There must be somebody else though? Anybody?" the woman asked, sounding every bit as worried as her husband.
"I - I," Ruby couldn't choke out a response. "Just stay here," she opted to not answer the question. Her silence would probably say more than any words could. "I'll deal with everything myself if I have too," she added. Ruby's false confidence didn't seem convincing even to her own ears. She turned away from the family, unwilling to see the expressions on their faces.
Ruby walked back to the window as the room's silence continued. Only the sound of crunching glass pervaded the air. Ruby stopped just short the window and leaned out. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on all the sounds: Grimm roars, screams, crashes, gunfire. Her eyes shot open as she heard a series of howls. A beowolf pack. She left the family with a cloud of rose petals in her wake and reappeared next to the rapidly decaying deathstalker corpse.
Crescent Rose lay beside the Grimm it had killed, slightly worse for wear. A huge dent was present in the black stabilizing fin on top the scythe. That is where her sweetheart had hit the stinger. Beyond that, Crescent Rose had a few more scratches but still appeared functional. Ruby plucked the weapon off the ground and reattached the strap to her wrist. A button press later and the weapon had folded back into its rifle form without complaint. Ruby fondly patted her sweetheart.
It was as durable as ever.
The weapon felt lighter in Ruby's hands, having emptied most of its dust reservoirs. Only yellow and green now glowed on the weapon. Her ice and burn stocks had been emptied by previous fights. With another burst of her semblance, Ruby was atop a grocery store roof. The beowolf pack she had heard still howled distantly.
Before Ruby could start sprinting towards the pack, the roar of plane engines pierced the sky. Hovering over Vale, the Atlas militaries flagship was finally joining the battle. Dozens of dark gray shuttles, loaded with Atlesian Knights, flew out the gargantuan ship. Ruby let out a cheer.
"About time you got - " a shuttle was enveloped by a fiery explosion. Nearby windows shook faintly from the distant blast. A slight breeze rustled Ruby's cloak around her feet. The shuttle started tumbling to the earth. Ruby flinched and took a step back. No, no, no. More shuttles followed in the first's wake, and explosions lit up the sky like miniature suns. Vale's aerial defense guns, designed to shoot down nevermore, were now turned inwards and firing their deadly explosive rounds at allies. The shuttles fruitlessly tried to avoid the accurate tracer fire, but the automated weapons, honed by years of killing flying Grimm, didn't miss their mark.
How was this possible? The guns were maintained by the Hunter's Association. Those planes should have been marked as friendlies! The flow of shuttles from the flagship ceased and reversed, but few returned to the safe hangars of the larger ship. Missiles erupted from beneath the Atlesian flagship. Larger explosions erupted in the sky as most were intercepted by the defense guns. If the explosions before were suns, these were supernovae.
The entire sky was wreathed in hues of orange and white. Black smoke drifted in the air, buffeted around by successive explosions. Vale's wall erupted in a sea of white and orange as two missiles found their mark. Shingles beneath Ruby shook, and the girl dropped her hand to the roof in an attempt to keep her footing. A moment later, the concussive shockwave reached her. Ruby's cloak was wrenched away from her body and wildly swung behind her back. Windows shattered, and shards of glass tumbled to the ground with an oddly musical lilt.
A second of deathly silence followed. No gunfire. No Grimm. No screams. Then all hell broke loose. Car alarms blared as every Grimm in the city wailed a victory cry. Their noises sounded oddly joyful. Ruby shivered and involuntarily wrapped her arms around herself. It was the most disturbing sound she had ever heard. Shortly after, the screams and gunfire returned in full force. More missiles were intercepted by Vale's weapons. None of the missiles met their mark this time. The subsequent shockwaves paled in comparison to the previous one.
Ruby tore her gaze from the veritable fireworks display in the sky and looked back towards her previous destination. It would take time for the ship to destroy Vale's defensive weapons. In the meantime, the beowolves still had to be dealt with.
[-O-O-O-]
Yang stumbled as the last Atlesian Paladin slammed into the ground and erupted in fire; a tower of flame reached into the sky and White Fang members screamed as they backpedaled away from the intense heat. Yang's momentary inattention prompted a White Fang thug to take a swing at her, but Yang ducked under the fist despite her awkward footing. The man's missed blow was met with a fist of Yang's own which sent the faunus flying back a few meters before tumbling to the ground in a cloud of dust and blood.
Yang dropped her guard. She had lost count of how many Fang members she had taken out. Around her, other students were finishing off the last of what must have been the entirety of White Fang's militant wing. She slumped to the ground the moment the last enemy fell to a staff wielding faunus via a jab to the solar plexus. None of the students cheered.
This wasn't a victory. The White Fang clearly intended to delay them, and they had succeeded. The questions of why and how echoed through the minds of every single faculty and student at Beacon.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad to see you're okay you big brute," A voice said. Yang looked up. Standing above her, white dress sparkling in the sunlight, was Weiss Schnee looking as collected as ever. Yang allowed herself a brief grin.
"Yeah," she replied, still panting heavily. Yang looked around. She was trying to locate Weiss's partner, and her teammate, Pyrrha Nikos. "Where's Pyrrha?" she asked.
"Helping that Arc oaf," Weiss replied with a haughty huff. Pyrrha was clearly smitten with the clueless boy. Everybody knew it, except for Jaune and her apparently. Yang looked away from Weiss to the smoking mess that was currently Vale. She forced herself up, ejecting spent shotgun rounds from her gauntlets.
"We need to get to Vale," surprise flashed across Weiss's face.
"I don't think - "
"You won't, Miss. Xiao-Long," an authoritarian voice interrupted. Glynda Goodwitch. "First and second-year students are staying here. Headmaster Ozpin - "
"Like hell I'm staying here!" Yang shouted. Nearby students turned towards them. Combat had not tempered their curiosity. Goodwitch blinked once and then her eyes narrowed.
"You don't have a choice in the matter."
"And who's going to stop me?" Yang replied challengingly. Her aura flared and flames enshrouded her body.
"Yang!" Weiss chastised.
"This isn't the time for childishness, Miss Xiao-Long!" Glynda replied. Her voice didn't raise a decibel, but ice filled her words and a dangerous expression fell on her face.
"Childishness!?" Yang's flames grew taller. Fire consuming the nearby Paladin seemed to pale in comparison. "My sister's down there!" Yang pointed at Vale. Flames danced off her fingertips and feebly reached for the city's distant image before fading. Weiss stepped back in surprise, criticism dying on her lips. Yang's sister was down there? Goodwitch's eyes softened a moment before hardening once again. A bout of silence passed which was rapidly filled by the soft murmurs of students.
"Be that as it may - "
"You need not worry about your sister, Miss Xiao-Long. I will be looking for her personally." Headmaster Ozpin, walking towards them cane in hand, interrupted. The murmur of students increased in volume. Why would Headmaster Ozpin be looking for this girl? Yang was at a loss as to what to say for a moment.
"I'm still going," she replied.
"I assure you I don't need an esc - "
"Alone if I have to." Only distant explosions interrupted the silence. Red eyes met brown. Yang held Ozpin's gaze without flinching. .
"Naturally," Ozpin walked forward a few paces and handed a scroll off to Goodwitch. He broke eye contact, and turned to the combat professor. "Those are the teams and their assigned quadrants. Get them ready immediately."
"Of course, Sir." Glynda turned around, leaving Yang with one last weary look. She headed into the crowd of students and started picking out individuals, directing them to get prepared.
Ozpin turned back to his fiery student. "Come along then."
Yang blinked. Red eyes reverted to purple, and the flames flickering around her person faded. Ozpin walked passed her, cane thumping into the ground with each step he took. "We don't have all day, Miss Xiao-Long." He called back to her as he make his way towards Vale. Yang began to follow but stopped as a hand caught her shoulder.
"I'm going too," a soft voice spoke.
[-O-O-O-]
A deer faunus screamed as a beowolf swiped at him. He threw his arms up in a desperate attempt to block the blow and closed his eyes. Instead of the sound of cutting flesh, the man heard a metallic clang. The faunus opened his eyes and tumbled to the ground in shock. Before him stood a red-cloaked girl. In both hands, she held a gigantic scythe. A second later the beowolf was bisected in a blur of motion. The beast hadn't even been able to let out a feeble screech before it started rapidly decaying in a cloud of a black ash. The man stared up at his savior in shock. She disappeared. A cloud of rose petals was all that was left behind.
Ruby Rose appeared in front of another person, this one a female human clutching her bleeding arm. Claws had ripped through the woman's unarmored flesh. A beowolf diving at the woman was met with a lateral swing from Crescent Rose. In mid-air, the beast was unable to dodge the swipe which tore a huge gash in its side. It was sent flying sideways. Tumbling a few dozen meters, it finally impacted the ground with a thud and stopped.. Ruby turned away from the Grimm, presuming it dead, and faced towards other adversaries.
The attention of the beowolf pack was now on her. Throughout the shopping plaza, red eyes turned from their human or faunus prey to Ruby. One beowolf, almost twice the size of the others and decorated in white plate armor, howled a challenging roar at Ruby. It must have been the Alpha. Like a starting gun, that roar triggered a tide of movement as all nearby beowolves rushed at Ruby simultaneously. Her weapon changed into its compact rifle mode.
She started with the beowolves closest to her. Three bullets arced out of Crescent Rose and impacted the maws of three separate beowolves. Their heads exploded in a gory show and spread mysterious innards into the air. The Grimm chunks disintegrated before they hit the ground. At the death of their comrades, the beowolves reared back. Their hesitance killed two. One round flew through the foreheads of two Grimm, conveniently lined up for death.
At that, the beowolves rushed forward again with renewed vigor. Ruby thumbed the transformation switch on Crescent Rose as they got closer and closer, almost in blade range. Another beowolf died a lead filled death, its corpse falling backward and colliding with another behind it. Ruby moved to flip the transition switch, but before she was able to a weight rammed into her from behind. Sharp claws dug into her back before being cut off by her aura.
Ruby let out an involuntary yell, swung around, and knocked her assailant aside with her boxy rifle. She hit the ground back first at the same time as her attacker. Ruby internally screamed at herself. That was the beowolf she thought she killed earlier! She neglected the number one rule when fighting Grimm; if they weren't decaying don't assume them dead.
Ruby rolled out the way of a beowolf paw crashing down on her head. The black foot was intimidatingly large when in front of her face. She could hear the screams of the people she had saved a short ways away. Ruby brought her rifle to bear and shot the Grimm which had tried to crush her. The bullet punched through the Grimm's shoulder, sending it reeling back but still alive. Another beowolf dove down and tried capturing her torso in its jaws. Ruby twisted Crescent Rose around and caught the Grimm's teeth on her handle. The beast rabidly tried to bite through the metal as its powerful hind legs pushed her further into the ground. Ruby fired another bullet from her weapon, piercing the legs of a beowolf coming at her sideways and wrenching Crescent Rose from the beowolves jaw. Ruby rolled back and kicked forward. Her legs, fueled with aura, sent the beowolf flying backward.
A moment later the Grimm collided with a distant building. Meanwhile, Ruby planted Crescent Rose's handle in the ground and used it to get to up. With one knee and a foot planted on the ground, Ruby brought Crescent Rose up and shot another beowolf charging at her from the front. An impact from the side brought her down again. She slid a few meters and brought around an aura powered fist to knock the beast off her. Using Crescent Rose as a counterweight, Ruby pushed herself up with one hand. A burst of her semblance hastened the process the moment she found solid footing. Another burst sent her flying up in the air to reevaluate the situation.
Five lesser beowolves and one alpha remained. Various civilians were still scattered throughout the plaza, either wounded or entranced by the fight. Ruby thumbed the switch which transitioned her weapon. With a metallic clang and a whirr of motors, Crescent Rose's blade revealed itself. Ruby use a burst of her semblance to appear in the center of the pack and, with a full-bodied swing, cut through three of the remaining six beowolves.
The remaining two tried to dive at her back once again, but she anticipated this and ducked. The beowolves overshot her, and with a twirl of the wrist Ruby turned Crescent Rose around and cut through the torsos of the Grimm directly above her. Fleshy chunks rained down with sickly squashing sounds, each impact leaving a bloody imprint on her uniform which quickly disappeared in a burst of black halves of the beowolves landed on either side of her with a solid thud.
All that was left was the alpha. Ruby looked around hurriedly, trying to locate the beast. Where was - a roar from above hinted at its location, and Ruby flipped out of the way as the heavily armored beowolf slammed into where she previously stood. Stones beneath it cracked, and rocky dust puffed from the impact site. The boom rustled Ruby's cloak.
Ruby took a moment to examine the Grimm further. It was definitely twice the size of a regular beowolf. In fact, it was slightly bigger than a regular Ursa Major. Thick slabs of white armor covered the beasts vital points. Under a stark white skull mask, red eyes glared with a hot intensity. They spoke of a hatred only Grimm could possess. Ruby flipped a switch on Crescent Rose's shaft, and the scythe blade folded back into its polearm form. She'd need the extra reach with this one.
The Grimm rushed her with a frenzied roar. Ruby ducked under the initial swipe and used a burst of her semblance to rush past the beasts guard and shove her blade through a gap in the alpha's armor. The blade only penetrated a few inches before she was forced to duck under another swipe and pull her blade out. Another burst of her semblance widened the distance between herself and her foe. Ruby's eyes widened as the alpha closed the modest gap she had made in a second, far quicker than any other beowolf was capable of. She blocked another sideswipe with a flick of Crescent Rose.
The Grimm dropped to a crouch and dove towards her torso, claws outstretched. Crescent Rose's shaft was roughly grabbed in its claws and pushed to the side, preventing Ruby from swinging. Ruby tried to escape with a burst of her semblance, but her weapon only slid in the Grimm's grip and she couldn't free it. A moment later the beowolf's claw connected with her shoulder.
Ruby cried out as the claws dug into her shoulder, long gashes opened up and she felt blood flow freely down her torso. Pain rushed down her arm and she lost her grip on Crescent Rose. Ruby let herself fall. This forced the beowolf down with her, since it committed the entirety of its body weight to the blow. Ruby then used a more forceful application of her semblance to get out of the way of the falling body, using the one hand she still had on Crescent Rose as leverage to swing the Grimm to the ground. It hit stone pavement with a solid thump. The beowolf finally let go of her weapon.
Ruby pushed everything she had into her semblance and dashed away from the incredibly dangerous beowolf. It was faster and more intelligent than any other Grimm Ruby had faced before. She had severely underestimated it. It was a mistake to try and take it on without any dust. Deciding to correct that particular mistake, Ruby activated her lightning dust. The yellow dust rapidly traveled up the tubing along Crescent Rose's shaft. Upon reaching the top, small sparks of electricity arced across her scythe blade.
Across the plaza, her foe had just risen to its feet. The beowolf alpha looked at Ruby with another hate-filled glare, and let out an ear-splitting howl which shook her down to her bones. Ruby shifted her grip on Crescent Rose nervously. She pointed it at the alpha and gave it a glare of her own. Between it and her was a fountain still filled with water. The beowolf charged.
The moment the alpha stepped into the fountain, Ruby guided an arc of lightning to the water surrounding the beowolf's feet. The alpha stumbled in the fountain and fell in as electricity arced across the water. The smell of burnt hair permeated the air, and the beowolf burst into flames. The beast fell in the water, rolling around in an attempt to put out the flames, but it was a catch-22. By putting out the fire it only exposed the beowolf to more electric current. It let out one last mournful wail before it stopped struggling. Ruby cut off the flow of electricity, and waited. Ten seconds passed. Why wasn't it dead yet? Ruby reactivated the flow of electricity, and started walking to the alpha spasming in the lake. When she got within fifteen meters the flow sputtered and died,. Her yellow dust supplies had quickly depleted by constant use.
A few moments passed. Nothing happened. Ruby raised Crescent Rose, intent on firing a few rounds to finish off the tenacious Grimm. Before she could do that, the beowolf leaped from the fountain. Its open jaws were aimed right for Ruby's neck. A trio of bullets erupted from Crescent Rose's barrel. The rounds shattered the weakened armor of the Grimm's faceplate, but didn't penetrate further.. A chaingun roared nearby, and the flying Grimm was blasted sideways by a hail of gunfire. The corpse hit the ground with a solid thud, tumbling a few meters as chunks of black charred flesh fell of its body.
In the air hovered a shuttle, fully loaded with Atlesian Knights. Its occupants began dropping into the square. Each new arrival landed with a metallic clang and immediately began scanning the area before moving to defend civilians from any wayward Grimm. Ruby suddenly realized there was a distinct lack of explosions. The Atlesian Flagship must have eliminated the last of Vale's defensive guns during her fight. Ruby breathed a sigh of relief. Help had finally arrived.
The weight of everything Ruby had seen pressed down on her eyelids. They shut. The moment they opened again, Ruby wished she had left them closed. Around the plaza were the civilians she had saved, and the ones she hadn't. Some died alone in dark corners, their eyes as open their chests. Others had fallen upon the people they tried to fruitlessly protect: chests skewered, legs ripped off, heads gone. The dead ones weren't the worst. It was the living ones. They clutched their mortal wounds surrounded by Atlesian Knights, calling for help that would arrive too late.
Some of the knights emitted slogans: "please remain calm" and "help is on the way." It was of little comfort to the man with his guts on the floor, or the woman in a pool of blood choking on what previously gave her life. Ruby dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her face. Crescent Rose clattered to the ground beside her. She pressed her hands to her face, choking back audible sobs. Metal footsteps clanged across the ground and stopped in front of Ruby. She didn't look up.
"Please remain calm."
Ruby's adrenaline suddenly ran out, and the weight of all her wounds and blood loss hit her at once. Her nerves felt like they were on fire. The pain of every cut, bruise, and burn flooded her with an incomprehensible mass of brain signals. She crumpled to the ground with a pained cry.
"Help is on the way."
The edges of her vision blackened.
"Please remain calm."
Ruby curled in a ball, fists clenched. The taste of copper filled her mouth, but she couldn't distinguish the pain of biting her tongue from anything else. Tears mixed with blood on the ground.
"Help is on the way."
Author's Note: As before, any sort of feedback is appreciated. Feel free to be as harsh as you'd like.