I gotta say, thank you for sticking with me. It's been amazing, how people actually take the time to read my stuff. Yeah, I don't get a lot of comments, but hey, I make good fiction, and to most of me, that is it's own reward.
Doesn't mean I won't make puppy dog eyes and wag my tail and hit you over the head with it until you review and tell me exactly what you think of it (And this is very important: Not what I "want to hear", but what is in your brains!), or that I won't smile hugely when I do receive a good review, but writing this and finding out just like you do what happens to Rose and her family is a major happy thing for me.
What I have here is absolutely amazing, and I gotta thank you for listening to my rambles.
There's no way we'd be able to get to the actual Grimm killing if we didn't. :}
Now, I have one final note. I did not actually check it over and proofread it, nor did I get a beta to do so. So, if you find a small screwup or mistake one way or the other, please let me know, and I'll fix it. :)
The 'Wolf leapt at the class and instinct kicked in. Rose leapt at the Beowolf, tackling it in mid-air and arresting its forward motion. They bounced apart when they hit the ground and Rose scrambled to her feet, bringing her near-forgotten blade to bear, ready to attack, falling into old patterns of merely human slowness attacking stronger and faster Grimm, where timing was everything, the difference between killing the Grimm in front of you and dieing on it's claws.
Unfortunately, she had mislabeled her opponent as a merely superior Beowolf and was still getting ready to attack. She did see it leap, however, so she moved her blade to defend (or attack, she wasn't sure which) and prepared to dodge. But she'd seriously underestimated just how old the creature was, and so only managed to move the blade enough to place the blade between them, just as the 'Wolf was about to chomp. Later retellings (when asked to) would go between truth and "I planned to do it, if differently", but she had no idea what she was doing right at that moment as the Beowolf reflexively chomped down on her blade rather than her. That turned the pounce from a deadly strike to a painful setup for another lethal strike.
Thankfully, it reared back to swipe at her, probably to swipe her head clean off, which allowed her to bring her legs up and kick it off. Then she leapt to her feet and charged it, swinging her sword right when it would be in range.
That was when she decided to re-evaluate her opponent yet again, as the sword tip; and body that was supposed to be slicing the beast's head off was currently missing from the now-obviously broken blade. The jagged edge never made it near the wolf, and as she over-balanced from the doomed strike, the 'Wolf gave her another swipe that knocked her across the room. Speed: Much higher than average. Strength: same. Durability: If jaw strength was any indication, high enough to make most high-quality weapons useless. Rather like last night's Ursa, in fact.
She leapt to her feet, looked at her blade, then at her now focused opponent, and dropped the blade without another moment's thought, standing at the ready for another attack.
She heard a deep and powerful set of clicks, like a high-caliber transforming rifle being set up and cocked, and she sighed without blinking or looking away. It was probably just a student, a child with no idea. "Save it. My blade was probably a much better quality a weapon than yours. Shooting'll only piss it off or hurt me instead." For a moment, she considered pulling her gun or her Dust knives. Then she smiled. "But don't worry, I'll kill it, same as I've done for years."
"And how's that?" A voice asked. Male. Teen, but, while scared, arrogant and self-important. Sarcastic too. That one's important.
She gave the Grimm a feral grin and settled into a familiar law stance she'd created by watching Ursas. "The Old-Fashioned Way, of course. By hand." And then, by some mutually unseen signal, both combatants struck.
She leapt in with a punch to the face, dodging down to a near prone position to avoid the uppercut response while pulling in her legs. Then she put her feet to the ground to perform a leaping body check into the Beowolf's abdomen, where its guard was nonexistent.
That's where it's best to attack one when sharp blades or overpowering force won't work. They barely use or protect anything below their hanging chests and overly long arms, and their backs are completely unprotected other than by a few spines. Well, the younger ones don't. The older they are though, the smarter they get.
She dodged back by jumping off its chest, wary of the possibility of it striking while she was falling back. It'd been used on her before and she'd used it herself once or twice, plenty of times against those evil squirrels!
She began to run at the Beowolf as it began to regain its bearings, but then her eyes widened as she slipped and yelped because of it. Not one of her prouder moments. Most likely? She stepped onto the intact blade tip. There was a rather solid yelp from the Grimm. Yep. Definitely the tip.
She knew that the next few moments would be an unofficial rest time, probably - if Grimm still played by the same rules that include their intimidation tactics, that is - and turned to the left and, surprisingly, saw every person in the class either dumbfounded and unsure or afraid and rooted to the spot. 'Come on people!' she thought to herself. 'When will you idiotic sheep get smart?! You're Hunters! Act like it!' She knew she looked ridiculous, left leg splayed to the front and all, but that was no reason to gawk!
"What the hell are you doing?" She yelled at the students. "Go get your weapons and combat armor! Let's go!" She turned back to the Grimm as it got back to it's feet, the only slightly piercing blade tip falling out of its shallow home before it hit the ground with a ting. Then it was the Grimm's turn to yelp and fall as it slipped on the errant blade tip as it tried to stalk forward. She gave a small yelp of her own as she saw the blade coming after her (which was likely what happened to put the blade in the Grimm in the first place), and then she gave a half turn to the side to avoid it before pushing herself to her feet, grabbing the bits of her sword from the ground in front of her, handle and bloody tip, to move them out of the way as she stood. She glanced around for any further obstructions (finding none, even Port's desk was gone) before falling back into the guarding version of her loose and ready Ursa Stance. No Obstructions, no traps, and no one else important. Good.
'Well,' She thought to herself as the Grimm stood a little unsteadily. 'Cinder's here, but she's not important enough to hide this from.' She finished her thoughts with a slight grin. "Well, it looks like it's just the two of us now." She told the Grimm in it's own language.
It shook it's head as it settled into a spring-tension ready stance. Then it growled out a response. "I understand, Human, but I say the same to you."
She smirked as she nodded in understanding of the unspoken words. Just you and me. I can go all out and I will destroy you. And you have been and will be an opponent I treasure. "Thanks for the compliment, but you already know how this will end." One of us dead, the other blazingly victorious. Me.
It gave a snarling growl as a question. "Yes. Why?"
Why am I doing this? Why am I protecting the Humans?
She opened her mouth to respond, but then she heard an oddly familiar voice resound through the building that she believed to have once been a castle.
"All students, may I have your attention?" It said before continuing with barely a pause. "There is a large number of Grimm approaching the academy. Classes are temporarily canceled until they are dealt with. Equip yourselves for a long and difficult battle." And the PA cut out.
She smiled at the Beowolf. "Well, there ya have it. More Grimm to kill. Besides," She said, feeling her face relax and soften into a more terrible grin, one promising enough spilt blood to turn the hallways into a gigantic swimming pool. "You attacked the kids under my protection. Can't let'cha go after that."
The Beowolf let off a howl, one that promised as much blood as her smile and that he'd a note of approval to her rather unique mind.
Time to let the monsters out to play.
They charged each other at the same time again. This time, she went for an uppercut with her left gauntleted hand, wincing as she heard the metal crunch. Yeah, most weapons here at Beacon would've done absolutely zilch against this one. If his face could start to crumple her very sturdy gauntlets which were made of better metal than most had for their weapons, then said weapons would break first chance they had. Well, third probably. They'd crack first.
In her moment of thought, the 'Wolf had recovered and slammed a clawed fist into her, sending her flying into a wall. Solid. What else could she expect?
The Beowolf lunged and so she did as well, not wanting to die mewling like a kitten.
That's when an explosion of fire went off, turning the Beowolf's leap into an uncontrolled flight lesson which was enough to propel him into her unexpectedly, and both of them straight through the thick and solid wall.
While she couldn't be completely certain, she was fairly sure Cinder exploded them. The little fire witch would hold a grudge, probably, and she obviouisly had plans for her stay here in Beacon, perhaps the same ones she'd had when assaulting Winter Rose's General Store several years ago.
Hunter and Grimm skidded on landing after going through the stone wall, her on bottom until they slammed into what felt like another Grimm and they separated, her going a lot further than the oversized Beowolf. When Rose stopped moving, a bear claw was coming down on her. She raised her arms and stopped it with little effort and no more than a slight grunt.
Then she dumped it to the side and grabbed the large black furry arm to climb it like a rope, breaking off a white spine along the way as it raised her up, then she looked the Ursa right in the eye before slamming the spine in to the feral red eyes. She didn't spare the now unmoving bloodless body another glance before returning her attention to her duelist, absently noting the raging battle around her. She locked her gaze onto the intelligent red ones as their owner swatted away a teen clad in armor swinging a mace.
She charged once more, killing the Grimm around her with absent-minded strikes to the brain with her gauntlets as she did. Then she reached the Beowolf she'd been fighting and swung down on the arms, the simple metal vambraces knocking the 'Wolf's guard clean open and allowing an uppercut with her right to solidly connect to it's jawline. With it dazed and confused on it's back, now was the time to strike. on a whim, after remembering how the blade's tip actually had nicked the beast, she pulled out the remnants of her blade and swung, unknowingly mimicking a criminal as she cut a train car's link to the engine and her links to her past and participation in a now-violent former protest group, while smiling regretfully at the fact that she had to finish the fight by no longer pretending to be merely skilled, showing her augmented strength on par with Dragon and a few of the Hunters she'd seen and heard of that had graduated from a Combat School like Beacon and Signal Academies.
The head went flying, the Spouting blood trailing along. Then the monster who still lived looked for her next opponent. Good question for later: why were there so many Grimm already inside? For now, Who Cares? MOREKILLSFASTER!
She pulled a Dust knife in her left hand and pulled out her 10 Special in her right after sheathing the remnants of the broken sword. This weapon, the 10 Special, is a 3-cylinder revolver with a 20 bullet back-up magazine clip in the grip, is one of Rose's own design, which uses homemade bullets, also of her own design, that don't really use Dust for propellant and are so good at piercing through Human/Faunus Auras and Grimm Hides - even the smallest calibers could go straight through, ignoring almost any such protective coverings - that she called them Grimm Killers. now armed with superior weaponry and a sense of purpose, she strode off into the melee, shooting though Grimm masks, slicing straight through arms and throats and masks for quick and easy kills, occasionally just bashing in Grimm heads with gauntleted hands for the check of it, and prioritizing her attacks to those about to strike down an unprepared or unknowing student or teacher. Even with experience, it's still all too easy to become blindsided, especially from behind in such a surrounding melee.
There's an old phrase that goes "Speak of the Devil and He shall appear." Rose didn't particularly believe in it, but she had to admit it sometimes had merit, such as how she was suddenly sent flying forward from a strike to her back, coincidentally knocking into a Boarbatusk that was trying to run down an unprepared Johnny-Boy lookalike. What was it that Ruby had called him as she'd taken off her eyepatch? Jaune? Like John with a French accent?
'No matter.' she thought, shaking her head to clear it and focus as she mechanically stabbed the boar's heart through the stomach with the Dust knife in her right hand, which slipped form her grip, covered in Grimm Blood and grabbed by Grimm FAT. She reached for another knife, a Red one, but paused to look at her hand and consider.
Blood on her hands. Not a new thing, exactly, but she'd found it rather lacking in the free-for-all. Just the Beowolf and this Boarbatusk so far, and they were both a bit more trouble than normal, though that was only noticed in the effort taken to slice through it's skin for the Boar.
In that moment she decided that, today, Grimm blood meant bad things for the 'average Hunter of today' and decided to explode it with a burst of her Aura by setting off the knife that had been in her hand, leaving her with a smile as she heard the squealing of pain from the supposedly dead Boarbatusk as the limbs twitched wildly while Dust-driven electricity sparked out and around, which told her the Knife she'd been using had been Yellow.
Now assured it was Dead, since the screams had died off before the sparks, she pulled out the Dust Knife she'd been going for, Red Flame, and spared a glance for the blond teen to her right (wearing old and slightly raggedy blue jeans and a black hoodie under a grey set of breastplate and shoulder armor) to ensure he'd live, and then dashed off to kill more Grimm. She fired at a few more, saving a man in green with spiky gray hair, then a woman with a riding crop and a black cape before slashing at a pint-sized Taijitu which was lunging at a somewhat in-shape man in purpled clothing wearing spectacles. He seemed like a sharp man, no use wasting his mind.
3 dead Grimm and a quick contemplation of a second buckling gauntlet later, Rose heard a crash from above and turned to it with an internal sigh. Flying Grimm would be such a pain, no matter the size.
Rose's fears turned out to be unfounded, however, as the figure flying in was rather obviously not Grimm, and the swords that came from her back even less so. Still took her a moment to get over the creep factor though, by which time the swords' puppeteer had killed numerous Grimm, resulting in a rather powerful lull in the fighting.
For a moment, she was so struck by the similarity, that she legitimately thought the puppeteer was an old friend, and called her as such.
"Pennalos?" Rose asked, happily shocked to see her.
The figure turned with an amazing fluidity, but there was a certain level of restriction to the motion which destroyed the illusion, and reminded her of the truth. Her old friend was dead. Long dead. The figure sighted her, and surprise registered on the figure's face right as Rose's mind caught up to reality. "Rose?" Penny asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I could say the same to you Penny." Rose remarked smoothly and affably as she tried to get her brain back in order and back in the moment. No use trying to resurrect friends by thinking the living are the dead. "not that I'm not glad to see you, but aren't you supposed to be getting ready for the Vytal Festival?"
The puppeteer nodded. "I convinced father to let me go to further explore the town. My time looking for a dress for the dance had been fun, so I'd wanted to see more. I bumped into Snow and the others while out and they bought me so many things!" She explained with a happy smile.
Rose nodded, a comprehending smile growing on her face. "Which is why it took them half a day to check up on me. Because you distracted them, and before that they probably thought I was asleep." She paused. "Where are they anyway?"
A roar cut through the near silence of the auditorium, interrupting Penny's response and causing Rose to look at it. Barreling straight towards her was an angry Ursa, occasionally knocking slower recovering students to the sides. Rose sighed and pulled out her broken blade , gun left on a torso loop as she waited for the creature to be in range, ready to slam her blade down the bear-thing's throat.
Even with her perfect timing, she wasn't , it was slowed down by one, then two, of Penny's swords stuck into it's side. Then a blazing figure dropped out of nowhere to slam a sword across it's neck , one wide enough to behead the beast with a single stabbing motion, letting the head roll to Rose's feet while the person continued to hold the blade, which ended up carving up the floor.
Rose smiled at the figure as she stood and withdrew her sword from the ground. Tall, butt-length golden hair, built like a tank and wearing a long tan overcoat worn open to show off rock-solid abs surrounded by her bust-covering shirt which Rose had made herself, a skirt-like tan leather wrap covering her ammo belts and a set of exercise shorts with steel-covered leather boots and iron-plated gloves for her other obvious weaponry. Not that she needed it, but the purple eyes and blinding smile confirmed it for her.
"Hey Dragon." Rose said with a smile before deciding to tease. "Can't resist the dramatics, can ya?"
"Nope." Was the blacksmith's simple response. However, when those purple eyes met silver, they began to harden, smiling exhilaration giving way to annoyance and anger.
"What's wrong?" Rose asked, genuinely puzzled.
You do know she's pissed at you for what you pulled this morning, right?" Dragon said flatly. "Yeah, that was kinda expected." Rose said slowly. "Doesn't explain why you're so angry right now." She pointed out.
The blonde pulled her large sword out of the ground where it had been resting tip-down and slung it across her back across her shoulder, handle in hand, as she stalked over angrily, knowing full well that it was completely useless to try and intimidate the red-frosted brunette, only dimly aware of the students in the way that hadn't moved yet. Dragon never could spare the dramatics. Rose decided to play along, affecting on an obviously fake look of fear as the blacksmith raised her broadsword to slam it into the ground as menacingly as possible with a very loud "Clang!" Glaring at her friend as deeply as possible, Dragon growled for a moment before asking somewhat pitifully "When were you going to tell us?" anger losing steam as desperation tried to replace it.
Rose struggled not to break the image by blinking in confusion. "Tell you what?"
Rose could see glimmers of water in Dragon's eyes, and she knew that the woman was close to tears. "That you are systematically replacing every thing that we'd lost before we woke up in Vale."
Now rose did blink. That sentence did not make sense wi- OH! "No leaving family out of the loop on important things!" Right.
She gave her "sister" a somewhat sheepish look as she remembered the rule and responded slightly nervously. She knew the ferocious blonde probably wouldn't kill her.
Eh, probably.
"Um, when I was mostly finished?" She stated/asked with an unsure smile.
Dragon grabbed her sand shook her violently as she roared "How could you do this?! How could you purposefully keep us out of the loop on something this important?!"
Rose grabbed the bigger blonde's arms to stop the shaking, or at least conceal it from the curious onlookers, thus allowing coherent thought. "Because I wanted you three to have a pleasant surprise for once!" She stated matter-of-factly. "I mean, yeah, there are a few I won't make because I've either been waiting for you guys to do them yourselves or because I'll need you guys to forge them with me, but I wanted to replace the physical things so that you could remember the good memories, and I didn't want you to hurt by doing it yourselves."
Confusion showed on Dragon's face as a few tears fell. "Why can't you make those yourself?"
"Because we made them together last time, so we'll make them together this time as well." Rose stated with resolve.
And back came the glare. At least the tears weren't going to come anytime soon. Dragon squeezed tightly before she let go. "I really, really hate you when you make too much sense. You know that right?"
Rose nodded, happiness coming back to face and voice as she returned the squeeze and relinquished command over Dragon's body. "So. Where're Snow and Blake?"
"They're coming, they're just helping out with the outside mop-up. Once they feel the students have the Grimm under control, they'll come in." Dragon explained. She took a step back and paused, a little shocked. "Wait, why do you have soot all over you?"
Rose looked down and had to admit she did look pretty dirty. "Someone exploded me." She said simply, trying to get out of explaining. At Dragon's astonished "What?!", she gave up and elaborated. "I was killing a Beowolf in a classroom shortly before the Blitz here when an explosion knocked it into me and us through the wall." She paused to put on a thinking face. "Not sure, but I think it was Cinder over there." She pointed at where the raven-haired girl's Aura was. "Since we were the only two there at the time." She put up two hands to calm the blacksmith, or at least keep her from going over there. "Don't worry about it. She's just scared." She paused, this time to put on a thoughtful look. "Well, I do owe her for last year at the shop, but I'll deal with that later." She tried to keep her tone neutral, but something must've given her away.
"Wait, what'd she do to the shop?" Dragon asked, mildly alarmed.
Rose stepped away to end the conversation as she said, "Never you mind, it doesn't matter." She looked for the teens who'd caught her interest among the piles of Grimm corpses. Wait, there were more than there should be. How many blooded Grimm were there today anyway?
"What did who do to the shop?" A voice asked calmly but dangerously.
Rose froze for a moment before continuing her search, deciding to ignore the comment before striding towards the object of her search. Snow didn't need to know.
As she calmly navigated a particularly congested area of Ursa and Beowolf limbs while considering just jumping over them before deciding the probable butt-first landing to be not worth it, Snow's voice rang out again, just as quickly ignored. "Wait, is that Cinder Fall?" Climb over an Ursa body, then, "Seriously Rose, what did this girl-child do? I had to pull you off to keep you from squishing the life outta her before the police saw and got the wrong idea."
Just keep ignoring them. "It's not your problem guys." Oh, nice job ignoring them!
"Hey!" Dragon's voice rang out, irate. "Didn't I just remind you that Family problems are to be shared?"
'Darn it. Me and my big mouth. May as well have posted a Dust-Neon sign.' "Well, it's not a Family problem, it's my problem, one I'll deal with in due course." She'd reached her destination, where Ruby had been leaning on Weiss, exhausted and taking advantage of the break in fighting to sit down. She extended a hand to each of the two. "Come on, let's find your family."
They took her hands gratefully, though Weiss tried to hide it as she said, "My family isn't here."
Once they were on their feet, Rose paused to stare at Weiss for a moment, just as pointedly as she was completely ignoring Snow's last attempt to grab her attention before the woman gave up, knowing that when Rose didn't want to talk about something, there was close to no chance of forcing the issue. "You call the man who doesn't care about you family, but not the teammates who would die for you?" She shook her head, not waiting for an answer as she moved off.
Food for thought from a monster to a princess. The people of her village were rolling in their graves right now.
"That's not what I meant."
Rose looked back at the girl, raising a slightly grumpy eyebrow on what she knew was a brooding face. The ivory heiress actually seemed to falter for a moment before gathering resolve and standing firm. "I meant that we left Yang with Blake when the tide of Grimm forced us apart, but I heard Gambol Shroud and Ember Celica going off outside."
Rose blinked, made an assumption (that that was not Weiss' original response, and that she had changed after what Rose had said), and nodded, then she made her way back to see if she could help the two walk out.
However, she was interrupted by a loud, rumbling, ear-splitting roar that did little to her directly other than make her sigh. She was definitely going to feel this in the morning. She turned around to see the biggest Grimm ever seen (inside Beacon, that is. Relatively speaking from experience, it was dang puny, though 20-30 feet tall was definitely nothing to sneeze at).
For a moment, it's structure reminded her of an obese giraffe from a book she'd seen once (before remembering the book had called it a Salamence). Then she saw the bone configuration.
None in its long neck, a few plates on the legs and back, but what really caught her eye was the way the skull plate was configured. It looked like a cow skull, but with sharper teeth, blunter lines, and an unforgettable ominence and feeling of awesome evil power. Like Skullgreymon.
"Hydra!" She shouted, turning to Penny, who was already in motion. "Don't-"
She cut herself off, knowing her pained expression wen with her sigh after she heard the sound of Penny's sword separating Grimm flesh before a heavy thud resounded through the air, the sounds of outside combat suddenly dwindling. "Cut off the head." She finished lamely. She sighed again as Penny turned to her, probably looking confused (though, that was a guess as Rose was looking plaintively at the floor). "Dragon?" She said, exasperated. She knew her family, and they knew what to do.
"Already on it."
"What's wrong?" Penny asked curiously. "Was it something I did?"
"Oh, you did nothing wrong, precisely." Rose replied as she heard fire over near the Hydra's body. "Just that we have a more efficient method that usually works. Usually, anyway." She hesitated. There was something wrong, something in the air, that told her it wasn't over yet. Not even nearly.
"No good!" Dragon yelled. "It won't light!"
Rose sighed. If the neck stump won't light, then it just got difficult. Had she mentioned that she was gonna be feelin' the pain in the morning? Cause she was most definitely going to feel it tomorrow. Suddenly, she perked up and spoke with much false cheer.
"Well, I had nothing planned for my day. What about you guys?" She asked of her team, facing them.
"Nada." Dragon said as she began lighting what Grimm corpses were left undissolved, clearing the field.
"Nothing pressing I can't put off." Blake said simply as she readied her blade.
"I was waiting on you." Was Snow's equally fake cheerful reply.
"It's set then!" She finished with a smile. Then she turned serious and faced Penny. "Penny, stat evacuating everyone from the area. They're too used to relying on Auras, so they'll all be badly damaged. Get out everyone you can, student and teacher, starting with the building's inside. I don't care if they struggle or protest, if they haven't fought a Hydra and won without Aura, then they're civilians who nee to stay out of it for their own safety. And yes, that does include you once the fighting starts." She finished, making it clear just how serious she considered this upcoming fight to be.
"What's going on?" Ruby asked.
She turned to the brunette. "You'll see in just a moment." She turned back to the redheaded android and pointed at Ruby and Weiss, who were still leaning against each other. "Get them out of here first, preferably to the rest of their team. They said the others are outside.
Penny nodded. "On it." Then she hopped over to Ruby and Weiss and hopped out the window she'd entered from, since the very large front doors were still closed, completely ignoring their token protests.
Rose glanced around, noticing that pretty much all the corpses were burn't down to cinders, if they hadn't just dissolved. Then she looked at her family, all of them with anticipatory grins and ready stances, swords in right hands and guns in left hands. She smiled and did the same, but with a Red Dust knife in her right and her 10 Special holstered near her belt buckle. They faced the now-twitching corpse, ready to fight as one unit. To slaughter with impunity just like in the good old days.
To show everyone who saw why and how they'd earned the name The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
"Seriously though, what in the Grimm Hells did she do to you?"
Rose's heart nearly stopped right then and there. "Ack! Snow!" She said, whipping her head to look at the offending concerned smirker. "I told you not to worry about it!" She turned back to the now standing, though still headless, Grimm and rushed it, trying to see if she could kill it by striking one of the heads while they were still pushing up out of the neck. Nothing but her and her knife, to see if this could be finished up quickly the old fashioned way.
The knife shattered in her hand, peppering the thicker-than-expected skin like wet sugar pebbles. In a panic, she exploded the pebbles, forgetting to get herself away in time and thus getting rocketed across the huge entry hall (but not big enough for any Hydra) and letting her Aura take the damage. She acknowledged in that moment before impact, that without Aura, not only would she not be in this predicament, but that she'd also be paste after this without it. Then she slide along the ground, ripping up tiles until she hit the wall next to the front door. She should be dead, but she wasn't.
She shook her head with a groan, trying to clear it enough to see. Not the best way to start the fight, but it 'll do as long as she can recover.
When she could see, she saw them surrounding it, confusing it, testing its reactions and its hide, Snow and Dragon using powerful sweeps when they could while Blake stabbed at the chinks in the whit armor on the legs, on its belly.
A thought tried to finish in Rose's head and came out muddled. She shook her head and tried again. Keep family safe. Check defenses.
Well, that's clear enough for her.
She stood, purpose in mind, and spoke. "How's the white?"
"Not good!" Snow said before she screamed with the effort of another slash before dodging the foreleg she'd struck. The Hydra screamed with the pain and the left head came down to land on the Snow Angel.
"Look out!" Rose screamed, not yet able to get her body to move right while straightening up. Way too stiff, like every muscle and bone was locked. An unfortunately familiar feeling. Snow dodged in time to let the head hit the floor, but Dragon was hit by the right foreleg unexpectedly.
Rose narrowed her eyes. This was familiar. No focus, the left head used to try and smash Snow on the right, slightly wobbly, using wrong leg to attack a pain source.
"Rose!" Snow yelled. "We could use the help here!"
"Rose's brows furrowed. Help? No, that's not he word for it. She looked down at her self and hopped a few times. Her body jangled, loosey goosey like she was supposed to be.
That wasn't the word either. What was it when -
Her vision went black but she knew she wasn't dead or unconscious because of the pain in her forehead. This was confirmed by the pain in the back of her head when-
She blinked and tried to snap her fingers. Didn't go well because of the body on top of her - breathing through the nose to prepare a shout, smell Blake's shampoo. -, but that's okay. "C'ncushun!" Okay, shouting into a mass of hair - not fun.
She curled her feet around her and hopped up, carrying Blake with her. She spit out the hair and shouted. "I got it!" She ignored Blake's noise complaint as she explained. "It's concussed! Confused! Hurt it more!"
She rushed it with the additional strength - not the superspeed. Big difference - and jumped to slash it in the neck. Right side of left head with a blue Dust knife in right hand. What was this one? Water, Ice or Wind. Not sure without pausing, but no time! She bounced off the thing's back and barely missed the tail, but realization mid-air distracted her from her landing, making her faceplant.
She stood up and turned around, studying the thing. It's back was soft (expected), it's bone plates where hard and sharp and many (expected), it's neck, now necks plural, were long and slightly limp where the boney plates gave wiggle room (expected), it had a tail (unexpected). The legs were tree-trunk size, and as tall as Snow or Blake or Dragon! (Also unexpected)
Her eyes shot wide as Snow shouted, "This isn't working!"
"It's growing! The Hydra's growing! We need to lead it outside! " She shouted as she ran for the beast, once again going for the throat but from behind. So, she jumped up, bounced off it's back, and made another slash, this time activating the Dust knife, sending a line of something along the same line she'd been slicing to do additional damage to its right neck while leaving the left neck to bleed.
Of course, she should've looked at the knife before the strike as she now had a miscalculation on her hands, if the sonic boom was anything to go by. The thud a few moments after the roaring of pain, which occurred as she landed and before they all collectively jumped through the newly broken window (Blake, Dragon, Snow, then her), only confirmed it. Wind, which had led to cutting off the right head when she'd only wanted it slightly more focused so that they could lead it out. She couldn't stop her sigh.
She heard the thundering footsteps before they landed. If this kept up, she'd be at least a mess of bruises by morning.
Right before she and Snow land, the wall behind them shattered rather explosively, landing pieces all over the place and slamming into the mid-air monster and her saint just before they touched ground. Well, at least it was a door, rather than a group of stone blocks. That was a blessing, however minor. They ended up sliding along the ground, pulling up cobblestones from the path rather painfully.
There was a roar, and Rose used her superspeed for the first time in the entire day (discounting, of course, the pre-midnight hours) in order to face her opponent.
3 near-identical heads glowered at her imperiously. She snarled, which was mostly directed at the central one for existing, it and its right brother being longer and more slender all throughout the now-massive length, bone plates further spaced in a permanent taunt of "cut me off, I dare you!" and the smugly implied "after that, I'll eat you up in one bite." , which was further established by the creature pulling back lips to reveal teeth in a sick parody of a smile.
Damn creature was beautiful, and, of course, someone had to give in to the taunt. This time, it was Penny, if the 3 green-trimmed swords through the soft necks were anything to go by. She sighed, snarl deepening as eh turned to Penny again, letting Dragon go about it without order. "Okay Penny, no more fun for you! Stay out of this and let the professionals deal with ti!" Penny started to protest, but Rose cut her off. "Look, I know and understand, but you're getting in the way! Every time you cut off a head, it only get stronger! Now it isn't even partly concussed! Now, if you get a clear shot, you can use the Arkos Kannon, but nothing else, got it?!"
Reluctantly, the android nodded.
"Good." She said with a nod of finality.
"No good!" Dragon yelled. Rose turned to see her battle-sister ablaze next to the corpse, which wasn't charring in the slightest. "It won't light!"
"Then we fight!" she roared as she pulled out her broken sword and readied herself.
The body stood once more, still growing, and 5 necks forced themselves out of the stumps in a very grotesque fashion, bulges exploding into menacing and horror-inducing images of rage. The following roar only reinforced the image.
She aimed her gun, unused in the battle before, and fired,k internally cursing her lack of attention as after only one shot, the three cylinders pooped out (2 on the left, one on the right) and the magazine dropped a little, signalling a complete lack of ammunition. Luckily, she hit the middle left head, but the Grimm-Slayer round only chipped the head plate. She readied her blade and threw it.
Her blade, a better quality metal than anything else here (other than her family's blades because she'd grabbed a crap one on purpose), shattered against the center of the middle head, the one that had come from the middle neck all by itself, and her eyes widened as she saw the black and reed X across the wide area on its larger head.
She swore the most powerful curse she had at the creature (no effect, of course. It was only words) as it began to charge them. "It's an EVO! We need to kill it - NOW!"
"No shit and Holy shit!" Blake screamed as they all dodged out of the way, leaping when individual heads came down to smash them. She knew that Blake would skip along the ground on all four like a cat, Snow would roll along, dirtying her cap, Dragon would probably try a flip off her hands and probably fail, and she just tumbled along until she could get back up. She'd actually gotten so good at that that she was in absolutely no danger at all.
And then the large head went straight for her. Sending cobblestones and her flying hard enough that she should've broken her back after she wrapped around the tree. It was thick and it cracked loudly under her force of motion. At this rate, she'd be lucking to be mobile tomorrow. She groaned as tried to land on her hands and knees after the short distance to the ground, but the forces and recent bodily stresses were a bit too much for her this time and she did a flat belly flop.
Superspeed to hands and knees, shake head (doin' that a lot today), Superspeed to standing, glance at now-dead tree, reload 10 Special by running it by the ammo on the belts on her front, snapped it down to push the cylinders back in and grabbed a new Dust knife (Yellow : electricity). She shot twice, the first hit the mid-left, breaking the plate completely where she'd chipped it earlier, and the second killed it off, destroying the brain and leaving it limp and in the way. One less weapon, one more hindrance. Good work, now get back in the fray.
A flaring red light slammed into the far right head right before a black blur appeared to swipe at the far left head and Rose's eyes widened as she also noticed a yellow mane of hair coming from the crowed. She'd forgotten the Beacon students!
She dashed in as she yelled, "Penny! Keep the students back!" a thought passed by. "Matter of fact, keep the teachers back too! They're all exhausted and none of the young have any Hydra experience ! Now is not the time to earn any with an Evolutionary Hydra!"
She jumped up to try and stop the black blur, which she noticed had a twitching black bow that was further back than wind alone would bake, especially with how Auras affect clothes and hair, but she was too late, having not factored in toe speed right at all, and decided to swipe at the center neck, which snapped at her as she passed. So she missed both opportunities.
Oh well, she made up for it by planting the knife in the neck hub mess, right in the center, and was rewarded by a powerful spray of blood. She heard a thud hit the ground and saw the brain-dead head on the ground as she turned around and around in the air.
Another screech of rage as more powerful red flares streaked towards it and she finally noticed all the pockmarks from the bullets Snow, Dragon, and Blake had undoubtedly been pouring out throughout the fight, too quietly for her to notice (as well as a few she'd fired off without thinking.). Then she hit the ground, feet first if you can believe it, and then barely dodged the thick stream of unruly flame heading her way from the Hydra's main head.
Then the Grim began appearing.
Beowolves, Ursa, Boarbatusks, even miniature Nevermores, Taijitu, and Deathstalkers. All walking out of the Hydra's furry skins as if they were leaving an Airbus.
And finally, for the first time in 10 long years, Red finally snapped.
No more nice games. No more childishness or holding back. Just pure, unadultered violence, killing, and bloodshed.
It's time to let the monster out once more and let it have Free Reign!
She stood. She activated the Dust knife in the Hydra with an outstretched arm and shouted, "No more games! WE KILL! Blake! Get the Faunus! Dragon! Get the girl! Snow! LIGHT IT UP!" By the time her Aura pulse hit the knife, she'd finished speaking and making preparations. See, while she'd been barking orders, she wasn't idle. She'd grabbed a small red bottle from her chest and sprinkled the Dust all over her hands - somewhat sparingly, she'd actually learned form the past - and pulled them back before lighting them up and pushing them forward with her hands, like making a large splash, and sent out a tsunami of fire at the now electrified Hydra. Then she let instinct take over and rushed the Hydra as fast as possible without setting herself aflame.
Time became a blur, a perfect clarity without reference. Time passed and attacks were made, seemingly independent of each other. She jumped higher than the gigantic Grimm body, which was now an even half as tall as the entrance hall of Beacon and about as wide, firing off bullets and slashing with every sharp thing nearby. Dimly, she heard massive gunshots and realized that Blake and Dragon had pulled out the bigger weapons and the kids and adults in the crowd were helping as they could, but it wasn't as if they needed it.
A Nevermore flew in her face. It was the size of a crow, so she grabbed it and bit its head off, literally. Tasty, but unfortunately only morsels can be taken at the moment. Too many Grimm to kill!
Hack, slash, chew, jump and slash, swallow, dodge, bounce bounce, grab, bite and crunch, observe (Snow, Blake, and Dragon. All of them have a light in their eyes that has been conspicuously absent of lat. Good to see it again, even if they're holding in the smiles. She didn't bother holding in the grin or the excited laughter and war whoops. It has simply been too damn long), jump, shoot shoot, crush, slam, toss. The battle went on and she loved every minute of it.
A tiny Deathstalker and a tiny Taijitu both jumped at her and she had to make a choice. Half second later, she chose a simple, if unexpected answer.
She grabbed the snake by the neck and gobbled the palm-sized scorpion whole. Well, she chewed on it first, killing it and enjoying the crunch, but she still it it more or less whole. Then, after killing a few more and shooting the Hydra some more, cylinders popping out again on empty, she swallowed and bit off the head of the still struggling double-headed snake. They were awesome! Could use smoking though, and maybe some sauce.
She continued in her dance of death, cooperating freely with her family as they'd done so often before, jumping all over the battlefield and trying to bleed the Hydra dry. She never stopped the war song when it came, grinning when her family joined in her wordless song of death.
Her song became less exuberant and more fatigued as she noticed that the Hydra's hide was becoming difficult to slice through, the plates not even becoming scratched when she attacks, and the large mass of heads and necks had become like a patch of weeds, seemingly innumerable. She hopped up as yet another head tried to dive down and eat her, climbing on the neck as it rose with an Ursa in its mouth. Then she hopped from neck to neck, easily avoiding being eaten, but not crushed. Finally, she made it to the other side and decided to try and finish this. "Penny! Charge it!" She commanded as she hopped far away and grabbed a small blue bottle of Dust as she used the last of the red bottle on a medium-sized Deathstalker, maybe the size of Beacon's Front Door. She dropped some ice-blue Dust on her right hand and faced the Hydra, noting her family still trying to hurt it and beginning to sweat. "Clear! Freezing!" She commanded, trusting them to hear the message and get out of the way.
They immediately disengaged as she had earlier and she windmilled her right hand, once slowly as a practice while they disengaged, and once quickly once clear, activating the Dust on the second turn and activating the Dust and casing a huge wave of Ice to appear, one big enough to temporarily freeze the titan of a Grimm before them. It raged in frustration as she yelled to Penny, "FIRE!"
A huge beam of green elemental power lanced out in to the multiheaded beast, causing a scream of pain and an explosion powerful enough to knock everyone on their butts.
For a moment, she thought it was finally over. Her family and her charges were safe.
She was wrong.
As she struggled to a sitting position, her wounds finally catching up to her as Snow and the others began to slowly walk over, 4 things happened in quick succession.
Two malevolently glowing red eyes shined out of the explosion's dust, causing her to freeze. Then a Hydra head snaked out insanely fast. 3 of them, in fact, one at a time.
One hit near Blake, sending the experienced Jaguar Faunus flying.
The second hit near Dragon immediately after, sending the brawling blacksmith flying.
Then the third one hit, but cruelly. There was just enough of a pause for Snow's eyes to widen in realization and lock gazes with Rose before she was sent flying as well, struck directly.
A sudden gust of wind blew away the smoke and dust, revealing a pristine condition Hydra staring her down, seeming to gloat smugly. It seemed to silently say, "I have destroyed your family, taken away what is most precious to you and survived all you have thrown at me. What can you do to me now? What do you have left to throw at me? When all is gone, what is left?"
After a moment of this gloat, she lost it completely. Rage overtook what was left of intelligent thought and she screamed in rage. Then things got blurred and the next thing she knew, there was an explosive boom of several Hydra head hitting the ground behind her unexpectedly and the ground beneath he feet was moving by, fast.
Her eyes widened as a rational realization occurred: They weren't stopping. What was most likely more than two or three tons of Grimm and herself were neither slowing down nor touching the ground. She could keep going.
The cliff! Push it off- Wait. A few hundred feet? What was to say that'd kill it? And what was to say it wouldn't hit Vale? Put their entire lives and her new home in danger?
Instinct told her. Up. Using Accel Rings, go UP.
And so she did. Letting instinct control her once more, she felt some part of her doing, something, and it was working. She and the Grimm were going faster and faster, the ground giving way. Need to pull up or be road pizza!
And then she started climbing in altitude. And climbing.
And CLIMBING!
So high, she left the clouds behind!
She looked to the side and saw the main head of the Hydra, as denoted by the X on its skull-plate, suddenly not so smug. Staring forlornly at the fast-receding ground. It looked at her, almost as if to ask why.
She blinked, a little rage receding, and (through instinct alone) sped up and went around it to stand on top. Then, once they'd lost all upward motion, she used instinct to keep them completely in place, other than its main head and her. She saw circles surround the beast in a ring, an she saw the beast still looking at her, resigned to its fate. Still asking that silent question.
So she answered.
"I am killing you because you tried to kill me. But more than that, and worse, you tried to kill those under my protection. You tried to kill what's left of MY FAMILY!" She screamed. "You tried to destroy me and so you shall pay the consequences. Besides, when you strip everything away, all that's left is me." She put her arms out straight, pointing at the two biggest circles holding the Grimm in place and let instinct take over once more as she, first twirled, causing the two circles to become a ring of circles, and then forced her arms down, creating a column of containing circles. Then she drew a circle in the air, making Accel Rings all the way to the ground and a black circle beneath her feet on top of the Grimm. She wanted to make sure it died! And that she didn't fall off in the process (thus the circle at her feet). And that no one else was hurt by this (thus, the column of solid containing circles).
Then she let go of the ones holding them up, hopped then superspeeded to place her hands on the very briefly weightless Hydra, feeling the gluing of the circle as she made contact, and pushed.
Down and down and down they went, going faster and faster and Faster! Black began encroach upon her vision, but she would not stop. Not until it was Dead! She heard it roar one final thing in common Grimm, but she didn't have time to comprehend it. The very next instant, she heard a crash on a level never before personally experienced and then she blacked out, satisfied that she'd killed it.
Maybe now she'd pay her final debts.
You have no idea how many typos I semi-purposefully made when writing up the first part of the battle scene on the computer. Man, it was like looking at a minefield!
And, I couldn't stop myself. If you have a Professor Peach here, then why not another fruit/color prof? And some of you will have no CLUE what the heck I'm talking about (I never did, but then again I was the youngest and I was up against my super-genius-seeming brother and he always knew who had what without cheating or relying solely on his yes/no card sheet), but I just had to put in both that pun and that character. Announced internet cookies to the first one to guess who I'm talking about here!
By the way, I was definitely influenced by the Starkiller Vs Shaak Ti fight on Felucia in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, back when Rose was among the many necks of the Hydra. Those who have played the game probably know what I'm talking about.
Sonic the Hedgehog games also influenced this work, at least in part.
Sorry about the double-chapter size, but it deserved it.