Chapter 15

The first Beowolf never saw Pyrrha coming. It had its scarlet eyes set on the officer and civilians hiding that were cornered behind the ruined three-wheeled cruiser, and had its back turned to her

Pyrrha jumped through the air with Miló and Akoúo̱ in hand, and hit the Grimm like a springboard. She thrust her spear forward into the base of its skull, and sprung forward as it went limp. The beasts body hit the ground with a meaty smack and immediately began to evaporate into a black mist. Pyrrha rolled forward as she hit the ground and quickly took stock of the situation.

Three Grimm remained near her, all Beowolves. Two were slowly prowling towards the stranded civilians, while the third had begun to turn around at the sound of its comrade hitting the floor. Years of training had given Pyrrha a whip-sharp mind, quickly able to analyze and deduce the best plan of attack she could take in battle. One look at the Grimm before her was enough time to establish a plan of attack.

Pyrrha charged, a blur across the ground while her spear collapsed into a shortsword. She spun once as she ran, sending Akoúo̱ spinning past the closest Beowolf. Its head whipped to the side to track the flying object as it spun by, and rose on its hind legs. Pyrrha slid under the gap it had created, lashing out with Miló across its right leg. As it fell, Pyrrha popped back to her feet, shifting Miló into spear form once more right as Akoúo̱ hit the next Grimm across the head, and ricocheted into its partner, stunning them both.

Legs like springs, Pyrrha flipped between them both, snatching Akoúo̱ from the air as she did. Once her feet hit the ground, Pyrrha whirled, decapitating the Grimm to her left, followed by a swift stab to the right through the Beowolf's chest. It tried slashing at Pyrrha with its claws, but she used Akoúo̱ to block the blow, then ripped Miló free. The Grimm fell on its back and started thrashing as it died.

Pyrrha looked past it at the Grimm she'd dismembered. It was still struggling to stand, despite the missing leg, and was crawling towards her. A flick of her wrist brought Miló to eye level, expanded into a spear once more, and she flung it through the air. The grimm shrieked and found itself impaled on the ground, where it began to evaporate a moment later.

She recalled the spear to her hand with a thought, and rushed to the ruined cruiser. The civilians were looking at her in awe, and the officer looked dumbfounded. "Everyone alright?" Pyrrha asked as she came to a stop and crouched in front of the officer.

The woman was middle aged, average shape, with dark brown hair and very scared eyes. Just an average person making their rounds through the day, until the Grimm had likely poured in and ruined it. It was a miracle she was in one piece, let alone coherent enough to respond to Pyrrha's question.

"W-we've got injured," the woman reported, "I don't t-think it's too bad, b-but we can't help them with these...these… h-how did you do that?"

Pyrrha looked past the officer at the civilians. There were four of them, two elderly and the others adults. One of them, an elderly gentleman with a thick white goatee, was laying against the wreck with his arm held close to his chest and his left leg twisted at an unnatural angle. The middle of his forearm was swollen to three times its original size. The others were less injured, but covered in cuts and bruises. Pyrrha was relieved that a broken arm was the worst of their injuries.

She turned to the officer and said, "No time to explain, just stay behind me, I'll protect you from-"

The ground began to tremble beneath their feet, and there was a sharp crack of stone. Pyrrha turned back to the street, right as it fractured in two. It bucked and twisted, slowly spreading farther and farther apart, until it was at least six feet across. Thick black bodies shot out from the newly formed ravine, their tops covered in bony white armor, and their oversized jaw eagerly snapping at the air.

There had to be a dozen creeps, and more were pulling themselves free of the new hole. Pyrrha cursed her luck, Creeps couldn't normally burrow through solid concrete like that, too solid, even for them. But if a Creep was large enough or there were enough numbers, nothing could slow them down.

Two dozen of the creatures had begun to surround them by that point, and Pyrrha made a show of spinning Miló in her hand until it had expanded back into a full spear. Twenty four Creeps against her was hardly a challenge, it was the Grimm behind the ravine that worried her. The Beowolves and Ursa's hung back, watching but making no move to attack. It was a disturbingly intelligent tactic, which meant there was an Alpha Grimm somewhere, keeping them organized.

That was a problem to deal with later, the immediate problem were the Creeps. Or rather, they would be, until a wall of jagged ice rolled across the monsters from right to left, freezing them in place. Only the last of the Creeps reacted to the sudden element, but even they were caught in the icy glacier, and became part of its edifice. The remaining Grimm howled in surprise, and the ground began to shake again.

Pyrrha lowered Miló in surprise, and turned to her right.

Harry and the others had finally caught up to her, the wizard leading the pack, while Murphy took up the rear, limping on her bad leg. The runes on Harry's staff were blazing green, and his every breath came out as an icy mist. He looked very, very angry with Pyrrha as he approached her.

"The Grimm weren't going to wait for us" Pyrrha said, right as he opened his mouth to chastise her. He paused and Pyrrha gestured behind her, "And there are injured civilians. One of them has a broken leg."

Harry closed his eyes and yelled, "Butters! We've got injured!"

"On it!" the short man, in his brown robe, scurried to the injured while carrying a large medical bag, and immediately got to work. Murphy and the Alphas took cover by the cruiser, which was when more strangeness occurred.

Georgia, William, and Andi stripped out of their clothes and fell to all fours. The moment their hands touched the ground though, they were no longer paws, but huge paws covered in fur. The three humans were replaced with gigantic wolves, each as large as a small horse. Their lips pulled back in a snarl at the ice wall, revealing shiny white fangs that gleamed under the pale sunlight.

Pyrrha blinked, "Um...what?"

"Werewolves," Murphy explained from her cover, shouldering a small boxy submachine gun, "The Alpha's are werewolves."

Pyrrha stared at the massive wolves, processing what Murphy said. "You… live in a very weird world, Harry."

The wizard didn't look from the wall of ice, "Stones and glass houses Pyrrha. What're we dealing with here?"

She looked away from the Alphas and back at the wall of ice. The cloud cover and cool weather kept it from melting, but she could see black shapes moving behind it. The Grimm were on the move again, and Pyrrha doubted another wall of ice would stop them.

"Big pack," she said aloud, "Odds are, there's an Alpha around here somewhere, the rest seem to be young, relatively speaking. If we find the Alpha and kill it though, they'll either retreat or become disorganized."

"They can think?" Murphy asked incredulously.

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at the wall, "The older ones, to a degree. Now get ready, here they come."

The first wave of Grimm came leaping over the wall a moment later, all of them Beowolves. Harry thrust his staff forward and snarled, 'Fozare!'

An invisible wall of force crashed into several of the Grimm, flattening them against the glacial wall before they landed. The few that hit the ground didn't get much farther.

Murphy fired off several short controlled bursts from her submachine gun, taking the first Grimm in the chest and skull. Bits of bone shattered from its face and it went down a moment later.

The Alphas surged forward the moment she let up on the trigger. The massive werewolves had more than enough muscle and strength to go toe to toe with these Beowolves. They split in three directions, cutting off two of the Grimm from the rest of the group. Will acted charged them both, while Georgia and Andi flanked left and right. When the Beowolves turned towards Will, the girls lunged forward, tearing at the exposed hindquarters. When the Grimm snarled and whirled to attack them, Will tackled one from behind and started tearing at its back with his fangs, while Andi and Georgia quickly overpowered the remaining one.

The remaining Grimm, another three, abandoned their comrades to their fate, and charged at the line Pyrrha and Harry had formed. They didn't last long.

Pyrrha was already moving when Harry had flung his spell, and met the first Grimm as its paws had touched down. She slid around its side, slashing Miló across its ribs, reversed her grip on the hilt, and thrust the blade into its spine. The Grimm fell, and she quickly lunged at the next one.

It had time to at least react, and raised its clawed hands to attack. Pyrrha dodged under the first swipe, deflected the second with her shield, and spun with the blow. Miló sprung into its spear form once more, and she swung it underhanded by the end of its haft. The Grimms head went soaring through the air.

Following her swing in an arc, Pyrrha spun and released the spear, letting it fly and impale itself on the final Grimm, knocking the beast to the ground. Miló flew back to her hand a moment later, and Pyrrha looked around the battlefield.

The Alphas had finished mauling the last of the Grimm, and the ones Harry had sent flying now lay on the ground as smoldering corpses. In the chaos, several Creeps had tried sneaking past them, but Murphy had taken them out with short controlled bursts. The civilians and Butters were unharmed. The little man was helping the injured as fast as he could and barely looked phased by the conflict going on around him.

"How many more?!" Murphy called from her spot.

The ground shuddered in response to her question, one long rolling movement that made everyone stop. Pyrrha whirled to the wall and felt her heart hammer in her chest. There was no way there were that many. If this were a full blown horde, they'd have been overrun already. Which meant that either the Ursa were all charging at once, or the Alpha Grimm had decided to reveal itself.

The wall of ice promptly exploded into a crystalline shrapnel. Pyrrha raised her shield instinctively, but did not hear the telltale rattle off its steel surface. She lowered it and saw that Harry had projected a blazing magical shield protecting them both, and extending to the cruiser to shield Murphy. Through the cloud of icy mist and raining ice, Pyrrha saw that she had been right, the Alpha had arrived.

It was huge, larger than any of its kind she had yet seen, a living, writhing freight train, covered in scales like platemail. Its oversized head was armored in bony plates and unblinking red eyes glared at her. The Grimm was limbless, a colossal snake that slowly raised its head from the floor, ten, fifteen, twenty feet into the air. A near identical, snow white head swung around on its right, the two serpents connected on one body. They bared their fangs and roared loud enough that any glass nearby promptly shattered.

"What the hell is that!?" Harry screamed, throwing up his shield again.

Pyrrha scowled at the beast, and could see that behind it, the remaining Grimm were prowling forward, Ursa, Beowolf, and Creep alike. She twirled Miló in her hand as it collapsed into a short sword once again, and said, "It's called the King Taijitu, and I'll handle it. Keep the civilians safe."

She took off before Harry could shoot that idea down, and charged the colossal serpent.

It hissed again and the black head struck at her. Pyrrha raised Akoúo̱ and slid across the ground. The serpent's scales scraped against the steel and it hit the ground, quickly twisting itself back around and snapping at her with its gigantic mouth. The other, white head, came hissing down at her. Pyrrha sprang into the air, and used the snake's head as a springboard. Her feet landed on its head, and it bucked up to knock her free, exactly as planned.

She went flying through the air, flipping forward and landing across the street in a controlled roll. When she was back on her feet, she turned back to the Grimm. The snake quickly turned itself around and raced between its lesser counterparts, despite its size. Gunshots and fire erupted behind it as the Grimm and Harry's friends came to blows once more.

The King Taijitu weaved across the ground with its black head taking the lead while the white was dragged behind it. That seemed to mean it was the dominant half of the two. Taking it out would obviously weaken the Grimm, and give Pyrrha another advantage.

When it drew near, it swung both heads around to face her again, and bared its fangs, each long as a broadsword. Pyrrha crouched behind her shield, and smiled to herself.

The black head struck first, as she expected. Pyrrha jumped to the side, dodging the strike by mere feet. It shattered concrete where it hit, and was buried up to the nose in the stuff. The white head did not wait for its dark twin to free itself, looping over it and trying to scoop Pyrrha into its mouth.

Pyrrha jumped over the gaping maw, only to be surprised when the blackhead came out of nowhere and hit her with the side of its skull. Her aura protected her from the physical damage, but did nothing to keep her from flipping end over end through the air until she hit something hard. One of the buildings on the campus, to be specific, which now had a neat Pyrrha shaped crater in its edifice.

A pebble bounced off her nose, and Pyrrha slowly opened her eyes. The shot open and she quickly pulled herself free. The King Taijitu missed her, burying its black head straight through the building, while Pyrrha held onto a window ledge next to it. Drywall and brick shattered and snapped under the weight, and despite missing her, it continued to slither into the building.

"Oh no," Pyrrha took off along the buildings edge, right as the snake broke through the wall again, sending debris spilling everywhere. It raced along behind her, both Huntress and Grimm speeding across the side of the building. Pyrrha readied her sword, and loosened her shields grip, the buildings edge was quickly approaching.

With a quick flick of her wrist, she sent the shield spinning through the air and grabbed it with her Semblance, flipping it to face her, six feet from the building edge. Pyrrha flipped off the building, and landed solidly on her shield, legs tensed. She looked back up at the rapidly approaching Grimm, which had opened its mouth in a vain attempt to swallow.

Pyrrha smirked, and launched off her shield with a soft explosion of air. She skimmed along the edge of the black heads scaly head, and quickly found her footing, sprinting along its oversized scales.

Miló in hand, Pyrrha began rapidly slashing across the snakes scaly hide as she ran, parting its scales with each slash. Her weapon expanded into a spear again and she dragged it along the edge of the snakes belly, trailing sparks behind her.

The whitehead reared up ahead of her, mouth wide. Pyrrha shot forward in a moment of Aura propelled speed, a blur of fiery red. Miló found its target in its oversized red eye, sinking to the shaft. Pyrrha swung up around onto its head, and ripped her spear free. It condensed to sword form once more, and she brought it overhead, before stabbing down with both hands as hard as she could.

Bone split, and both of the King Taijitu's heads screeched in shared agony, and began pitching wildly side to side in a desperate attempt to throw her free. Pyrrha tightened her grip on the handle, waiting for her moment. The Grimm swung left, it swung right, it swung its head down, and then up.

On the upward swing, Pyrrha wrenched Miló free and let herself soar into the air. With her Semblance, she called her shield back to her, and turned mid air to face the ground. She felt herself grow weightless as she reached the peak of her arc. The Grimm below slithered and writhed, watching her with eager anticipation in their eyes.

Miló once more transformed into a spear, and Pyrrha began to fall. The black head of the snake lashed towards her, clipping her left side. Akoúo̱ made a hollow gong, and Pyrrha spun from the impact, but she had been prepared for that, and began to reorient herself.

The white head hit her from behind with its snout. She had not been expecting that, and let out a surprised yell. The world spun before she hit the ground hard, leaving a small crater in the asphalt. She had tumbled before though, and managed to get her legs under her. Her sneakers dug into the asphalt, and she thought she heard them tear from the friction. No time to focus on that though, the Grimm was coming around for another pass at her.

'Infriga!' Harry's voice rang, and a column of ice grabbed the King Taijitu in the middle. The snake jerked to a halt and hissed in surprise.

Pyrrha was equally surprised, and looked behind her to see Harry leading a charge towards her. The rest of the Grimm were dead or dying, some of them sizzling. Besides Harry, ran Butters of all people, wielding a sword of brilliant white light. Pyrrha had never seen anything like it in her life. The light of his sword was not that of a hardlight structure, or a flaming blade. It was a soft, comforting light that filled Pyrrha with a sense of calm and serenity.

She realized, with a start, that she had underestimated Harry and his allies, that she hadn't had faith in their abilities. They could protect themselves, and she should've been helping them, not leaving them to fend for themselves. Pyrrha made a mental note to apologize for what she'd done later. For now…

Everyone charged, right as the King Taijitu broke its icy prison and hissed at them. Its two heads weaved around one another, as the final Grimm charged them. Pyrrha slid forward on one knee, shield raised to deflect the black head. The Alphas flowed around her and leaped onto it, digging their fangs into its scales.

Harry shouted and the other head was engulfed in fire. It shrieked and slammed against the ground in an attempt to put out the flames. Pyrrha never gave it the chance, sprinting forward and cutting the beast across the neck. It tried to crush her with its body, but Pyrrha rolled away from the blow. Its mass sent tremors through the earth, and the street began to give way.

Pyrrha spun Miló in one hand and buried it up to the hilt into the creature's neck. It thrashed and sent her flying again, but she caught herself and watched as Harry and Butters took up the slack. Harry threw up a geyser of ice that grabbed the King Taijitu by the neck, holding it in place, letting Butter close in for the kill.

The swords light was enough to send burns dancing across the Grimms scales. It desperately tried to free itself, but the other head was preoccupied with the Alphas, and now Murphy. The woman was keeping calm, firing off short controlled bursts while the Alphas tore at the Taijitu's scales.

When Butters finally managed to stab the King Taijitu though, the Grimm lost it. Both heads promptly broke free of their attackers. The Alphas went flying, and Butters almost went splat against the ground, had Pyrrha not intercepted his fall and caught him.

The little man blinked at her, "Huh, I guess your leg is doing fine."

She smiled and set him down, "Never better doctor. Now, where's your sword?"

Butters pointed past her and she looked.

The King Taijitu wrapped itself into a writhing ball of scales and fangs, hissing and roaring at them. Buried to the hilt in the white heads side, was Butters sword. The wound was beginning to fester and burn, but the snake was big as a subway, it could afford the injuries.

"So…" Harry walked up next to her, "How do we kill it?"

Pyrrha blinked when she realized the question was directed at her. She looked around and saw the Alphas and Murphy lineup next to her. The werewolves snarled at the snake, and Murphy calmly replaced the clip on her rifle.

A fierce smile spread across her lips, and Pyrrha asked, "Will Butters sword still work if I can grab it?"

Butters shrugged, "I dunno. You'd need to have a lot of Faith to keep it going. Literal Faith."

"In that case, Harry, can you use your ice to hold the Grimm in place?"

Mist flowed off the wizards staff, and he smirked, "Oh yeah, I can do ice."

Pyrrha nodded, "Murphy, stay back with Butters. If the sword won't work for me, then I'll have to throw it back to you. As for the Alphas…"

The werewolves looked at her. Despite their animalistic appearance, Pyrrha could see the human intelligence in their eyes. "Keep both heads distracted. I'll only need a minute. Everyone got it?"

It was a weird feeling, giving orders, and it was odd everyone had deferred to her over this. But, this was a problem she had been trained to deal with. No one else knew how to deal with the Grimm, which left her in charge. Everyone looked at her and nodded their confirmation. Pyrrha took a deep breath, and turned to face the King Taijitu, one more time.

"Then let's go!"

They broke, and took off in several directions. The Alphas split up, rapidly circling the Grimm. The giant snake whirled around, trying to keep up with them, hissing and snarling. Pyrrha waited for her moment, while Harry raised his staff and focused his will for a single moment. The runes on his staff began to glow with a fierce blue energy, mist streaming off his staff.

"Arctis!" he thrust his staff forward and released his will right as the black head of the King Taijitu struck at William. Ice jumped out to grab it and pin it in place.

"Go go go!" Harry yelled.

Pyrrha was off like a shot, sprinting up the pinned snake, slashing Miló as she ran. The remaining head was distracted by the Alphas and never noticed Pyrrha until she reached Butters sword. She used her Semblance to hold Miló to her shield, and reached for the hilt.

Something stopped her, an innate terror that grabbed at her heart. The sight of the fire, the flames that licked at the wound, sent a coursing terror through Pyrrha's being. A sea of memories crashed into her, threatening to drown her in a sea of images she saw and forgot in an instant. Pyrrha recoiled from the sword, and looked away from the brilliant fire. The memories receded.

Something about the sword, the fire or the light itself, stirred Pyrrha's memories, paralyzing her. She couldn't get near it without freezing up. Around her, the King Taijitu roared in defiance, and whipped about in an attempt to shake her free. Pyrrha steadied herself on its scaly side, and glanced at the sword.

Another flash of memories, and she winced. It would be easier to jump off and leave the sword. There were other ways to kill the Grimm after all, no need to force herself. Pyrrha looked around at the carnage around her. The ice pinning it was beginning to crack from its repeated efforts. The Alphas had been thrown aside from its thrashing, and Harry had raised a shield around himself, Murphy, and Butters in an attempt to protect them from its wrath.

There would be an easier way for sure.

But it wouldn't be the right way.

A fire ignited within her, and Pyrrha grabbed was a Huntress, and no matter the pain, no matter the fear or the adversary, she would never back down when lives were on the line. The power to slay Grimm was part of her very being, and she would not falter now!

The fire erupted into blazing light that seeped from every crevice in the Grimms body Pyrrha's smile returned, and she took off at a dead sprint. The King Taijitu let out an agonized howl. Its remaining head turned from Harry to her, and began to raise itself as high as it could, stretching its mouth unnaturally wide, fangs gleaming in the light.

Pyrrha bared her teeth, and ran faster, daring the Grimm to make a move. Behind her she left a streams of corrupted flesh, splitting the snake in two, lengthwise. Something broke in the Alpha Grimm, and its head snapped back, as if struck. Pyrrha, a blur of red and white light, split the Grimm in two, and went flying off its body.

She flipped through the air and and made a perfect three point landing. The swords light vanished the moment her feet touched the ground. Silence fell over the roundabout, interrupted only by the sound of the King Taijitu's body slowly falling to the ground.

Pyrrha stood and looked at the hilt in her hand. No smoke, no ashes, it was just a normal bamboo hilt. Only a piece of broken metal remained in the hilt, and it gleamed in the clouded sunlight. There were many questions to ask, and she knew the answers would be very confusing, but-

The Grimm's body collapsed against the street, sending a rolling tremor beneath her feet. The ground cracked as Pyrrha stumbled, and she looked down at her feet in horror. A spiderweb of cracks spread out from under her feet, and the street groaned ominously.

She looked up from where she stood, at Harry and her friends.

And then, the ground gave way, and she was gone.

A/n: I spent a lot of time going over this chapter, fixing details, trying to figure out how best to write it out. Several scenes were either cut, rewritten, or both. I am overall happy with how it came out, but I'll be running it by my editor when he gets back from vacation.

Next chapter'll be interesting, we've got some more plot stuff, Pyrrha gets dragged onto a shopping trip, and then things'll get real freudian. Not exactly in that order though.

As a quick aside, I'd figure I'd let you guys know that I'm working on a second story that I won't be posting until about the halfway point on Remnant. Its another RWBY story, but no Dresden Files this time. Instead, in a bit of an homage to Monty himself, its one of the franchises that put him on the path to creating RWBY in the first place.

Yep, keep an eye out, because Metroid: Remnant, is on its way.