As six Beowolves crept out of the open door, Blake tried to still her racing heart as terror surged through her. She knew she shouldn't be worried; either one of them could take six Beowolves in their sleep. Of course, that was with her aura. Without it, she was more vulnerable than she had been since she was a child. A single mistake on her part would lead to Beowolf claws or teeth ripping straight through her, and she didn't even have her semblance to help her dodge attacks. This fight was solely her training versus the speed and strength of the Grimm, and somewhere deep inside her was scared that her training would be found wanting.
Then Yang grabbed her hand, and she felt a wave of calm roll through her. She realized it wasn't her training against the Grimm; it was the years of skill, experience, and trust she built up with her partner against them. Six Beowolves didn't stand a chance against that power.
"Ready, Blake?" Yang asked from beside her. She gave assent, and Yang sprang forward. The strategy was the same they used earlier in the forest. Blake waited for the first Grimm to leave the ground before leaping forward and slashing up at its throat. It was supposed to cut through it and leave it a dissolving body in the ground; instead it hit the Beowolf and sent it flying into the wall. Blake saw a little flicker of light play across its dark skin as it moved past her.
Her instant of complete shock quickly turned into a disturbing revelation. These Grimm could manifest an aura. The very idea repulsed her. Even after hearing the video, she hadn't really believed it was possible. The first thing anyone learned about aura was that only people could manifest it. Whatever the woman said, a Grimm with an aura wasn't possible. Except, of course, that six of those impossibilities were currently trying to eat her.
Blake felt panic flutter inside her. She knew they could take six Beowolves, but could they take six Beowolves with aura? Especially without any protection of their own? Blake's sudden fear stopped her from reacting fast enough to stop the next Grimm from sailing past her unharmed, but she recovered enough to hit the rest of them. The first three took the same slash without taking any damage, but when she hit the last one her blade cut straight through its throat. It died instantly, and Blake breathed a sigh of relief that they at least took out one of them. She turned to face the recovering pack as Yang ran back to her side.
"This is bad, Yang." Blake said. She couldn't keep the strain and worry out of her voice, and from the look in her partner's eyes, Yang felt the same.
"Yes, it is. But I've got an idea." She grabbed one end of Gambol Shroud. "Spin me?" Blake nodded, and she started spinning Yang around with all her strength. As the Beowolves jumped forward, Yang gathered speed and momentum. They reached range by Yang's third rotation, and she fired shotgun blasts behind her to gain speed right before aiming for the closest Grimm. She smashed into it with a loud pop, and the force of her blow shattered its aura. She was going so fast she punched straight through it, and she still had enough force to smash through the second Grimm in line. Once she was past the rest, she let go of Gambol Shroud, rolled to her feet, and jumped straight into the backs of the charging Beowolves. Blake raced in to join her, and they both engaged the remaining Grimm.
Two shotgun blasts to the back turned one of the Beowolves around towards her partner, and Blake was left to deal with the front two. She swallowed her fear and leapt at the one on the right. A slash to its leg bounced off, and Blake rolled under its retaliatory swipe and stabbed the stomach of the other one. It also hit aura, and she was forced to somersault backwards out of the way of its bite.
They kept charging forward, and she waited until they were close enough to strike before jumping over them and unleashing a flurry of attacks on the back of the left one. She spun managed to get in three hits before it pivoted back, and she needed to retreat. She fired several shots into it as she moved backwards and was rewarded with a flickering of light after the first before the next ones sunk deep into its flesh. She aimed at its legs, and the hits slowed it enough that the other Beowolf flew ahead of it. Blake dodged past that one's swipe before reaching range of the one with the broken aura and cutting straight through it. She quickly turned around, and any fear disappeared at the sight of the final Beowolf. It roared in rage before charging straight at her.
That was its final mistake. As it focused all its attention forward, Yang sprinted behind it. Once she got close, she jumped onto its back and slammed Ember Celica into its head. The Beowolf was knocked to the floor, and she simply smashed her fists into it over and over until it stopped moving. As Yang got up, Blake took a second to take stock. Both her and Yang were breathing heavily, and her hands were still shaking a little from adrenaline after the fight. Fighting without aura was significantly more stressful.
"I guess we know how the Grimm feel about fighting us now." Yang joked. Blake couldn't stop herself from letting out a loud laugh. Yang's joke was as terrible as always, but she needed something to defuse the tension.
"Yeah. It's not fun. Let's not do it again, okay?"
"Not planning on it. Now let's get out of here." Yang got out her scroll as they started walking towards the door and dialed in Ruby's number.
"Did you guys find anything?" Ruby's voice rang out.
"Because we didn't find anything except dust." Weiss added.
"We found everything we need. We're in the basement, and we're on our way up. Let's meet outside, okay? I don't want to spend a second longer in" Yang was cut off when Blake pushed her to the ground, right before something flew by above their heads and smashed into the door. The door collapsed, and they were suddenly trapped inside the room. Blake looked up and felt her blood run cold. There was a massive hole on the ceiling that she was too busy to notice before and crawling out of it was the biggest Death Stalker she had ever seen.
As it got further out, she noticed it was wrong in several ways. There was way too much armor plating on it, the tail was twice as long as normal, and the whole thing was surrounded by a light red glow. Blake instantly recognized it as the glow of aura. A lot of aura. The Death Stalker dropped to the floor, and its weight made the entire ground shake.
"I don't know that we can kill this, Yang." Blake said.
"We don't have to kill it. Ruby and Weiss know where we are, and after that call cut off they know something is wrong. We hold out until they get here then run as fast as possible. Once we have an exit, it won't be able to catch us." It wasn't exactly the bravest thing to do, but Blake wasn't planning on complaining about it. Under the circumstances, getting to safety until their aura came back was the top priority.
"Okay. What's the play?" Blake asked. Before Yang could answer, the Death Stalker's claw blurred forward and slammed into Yang. She went flying into the back wall, hitting it with a loud smack and enough force to crack the stone around her. Blake didn't even have time to see if she was okay before she needed to leap backwards to avoid the other claw swinging towards her. She pulled out Gambol Shroud and started sprinting around the Grimm, firing at its exposed eyes and leaping over its claws. She got about halfway to Yang before it struck out with its tail, forcing her to roll backwards to avoid it.
As it moved forward towards her, Blake heard shotgun blasts sounding from behind its back, and her face lit up into a fierce smile. Her partner was still ready to fight. The Death Stalker quickly pivoted to deal with the attack at its back, but as soon as its attention was turned Blake rushed forward and attacked. She knew exactly what Yang would be doing; she would have faded backwards as soon as the Grimm turned, and she would currently be dodging it and letting her partner attack its undefended back.
It was the standard tactic against a large opponent. Circle around it, force it to need to focus on only one of them at a time, and slowly whittle down its defenses until it was eliminated. The problem was that everything Blake tried was absorbed by the Death Stalker's aura. She didn't have a clue how long it could withstand her attacks before it broke, and even after it did they would still be facing an undamaged Death Stalker. "Holding it off" would be much easier if they could at least slow the thing down a little.
The Death Stalker suddenly pivoted around, but by the time its claws could reach Blake she already disengaged and started dodging. Blake heard Yang shooting at its back as she rolled and leapt over its attacks. Blake had just finished spinning around one of its claws when the Death Stalker let out a loud screech. She figured one of Yang's hits must have finally gotten through because it ignored her to turn towards her partner. Blake charged forward again as it threw its claws out at Yang.
Its claws, but not its tail. That lashed down from the air, quicker than Blake could react, and slammed her into the ground. The force of the blow knocked the air out of her, and she felt a sharp shooting pain accompanied by a loud crack as something broke in her arm. She screamed in agony before the Death Stalker flicked her with its tail and rolled her across the floor. She heard Yang yell her name right before her head smashed into the stone wall, and suddenly everything went blurry. She tried to move, but the best she could do was lift her arms an inch before collapsing. The Death Stalker advanced on her, claws raised, and Blake knew she was helpless to stop it.
The open claw darted toward her, and all Blake could do was stare as her death rushed towards her. She heard a scream, saw Yang spring in front of her, and watched helplessly as the claws meant for her instead sunk deep into her partner's stomach. The Death Stalker lifted Yang up, violently shook her, and dropped her to the floor. Blake watched her partner hit the ground, her head twisted at an unnatural angle and her suddenly lifeless eyes staring straight at Blake.
Blake couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't cry. All she could do was wait to join her partner in death. The Grimm raised it claw again, but before it could move Blake saw a massive ghostly blue sword descend from the ceiling straight into the Death Stalker. Blake felt her consciousness slipping away, and the last image before she passed out was a blur of petals racing towards Yang's body.
