The head of the massive subterranean Grimm came crashing down on the roof where Jaune, Pyrrha, and Cinder had been standing moments earlier. Just under the creature's mass, Pyrrha landed on the ground. She swiveled and fired multiple rounds into its underbelly, punching a hole through the thick hide. Rearing back, it aimed for her and lunged. Spinning out of the way, she slashed the side of its head with the edge of her shield, splitting its skin again.

Jaune appeared from behind, launching himself through the beast's torso. Cinder leaped into the hole left by Jaune, situated in the Grimm's large worm-like body just below the head. She aimed upward and fired off three arrows simultaneously. The beast's head exploded into flames, and Cinder casually stepped out of the smoldering remains.

Tsuruya, helping Neptune drag Coco to the bullhead, spotted something black approaching from another direction. She patted Coco's shoulder, then dropped out from under her arm. "Neptune, get her the rest of the way. There's more Grimm coming."

Neptune called back. "Sure you can take them?"

Drawing her sword and grinning, the green-haired girl laughed. "They're small compared to that Hydra."

As Neptune kept going, Tsuruya positioned herself between her retreating teammates and the incoming Grimm. There was a good number, but they would all have to get past her, and they weren't all going to reach her at the same time. A pair of old concrete roadblocks served as a bottleneck for her, as well as some shielding. She was confident.

The frontrunners of the Grimm charge, a pair of Beowolves, leaped over the roadblocks on either side of her, aiming to slash her head off by catching her between two hefty swipes. One clawed hand on each side coming for her face, Tsuruya dodged left. She impaled the Beowolf that met her there, slicing the katana's blade through its body and up through its head. Now out of range for the other attack, she was able to lash out behind her and cut the second Beowolf's arm off at the shoulder.

Before she could finish it, the Grimm continued its charge after Coco and Neptune. Pyrrha appeared in front of it next, her weapon and shield stored on her back. She kneed it in the face, knocking it onto its back, then punched a hole in the ground through the Grimm's chest. Pulling her fist back up, she nodded to Tsuruya as Jaune and Cinder took up positions further alone the line.

"They can't get past all of us!"

On cue, a Boarbatusk rolled through the bottleneck. Tsuruya heard its approach, turning and stopping it in its tracks by spearing it through the head. She used its momentum to vault it over her head and send the dark corpse flying off to the side.

A small flock of Nevermores flew overhead, out of her reach. Several quickly exploded in succession, taken out by Pyrrha's marksmanship. She turned to keep going, combining her fire with Cinder's arrows to finish off the last few.

Tsuruya squinted into the distance, spotting quite a few scary new Grimm. Two large scorpions, probably Deathstalkers from the descriptions she'd been given, and several smaller creatures she guessed were Creeps. A number of more Beowolves, a dozen Ursa, and a few more Boarbatusks were at the head of the next wave. Still, behind everything else, she thought she could see something much smaller, walking upright. A person?

The Beowolf wave hit.

Leaning forward on one leg, she slashed upward and cut the head off one of the wolves, twisting and knocking its corpse aside in order to meet the next one and chop it clean in half. An orange glow began to wreath her blade, giving off the scent of oranges.

Bringing her sword around, she swiped up just short of the next Beowolf. A wave of orange energy came off the weapon, smashing through the Grimm and the three behind it. Stepping up onto a falling Grimm body, she launched herself into the air and slashed through the head of another Beowolf, landing amongst the pile of carnage she had created just as the Boarbatusks arrived.

Behind her, Pyrrha caught the five that had made it past Tsuruya. She had time to take down two with her rifle before being forced to switch back to her spear. She held it out, clutching it with both hands, barring the Beowolves from passing. When the first two reached her she slammed it up into their necks, knocking them back. To her surprise, the third leaped over them and her. It reached Jaune, and got bisected for its troubles.

Slamming the butt of her spear into the torso of the Beowolf on her left, sending it toppling back more, Pyrrha turned to focus on the other one. It growled at her, its momentum totally stopped, eyes darting around. She saw everywhere it looked, and when it charged ahead, she knew exactly where to send the head of her spear.

The one on the left was back, pushing to get past her. Sticking her leg out, she swept under the creature and sent it back to the ground. Ahead of her, she could see Tsuruya hacking and slashing at the rolling Boarbatusks. The pig-like Grimm had given up on their chase and were swarming around her, rolling back and forth in attempts to crush the girl. Four of them lay on the ground already, and five others had all taken damage.

The next wave arrived, led by an Ursa Major. The unusually huge Ursa roared and swiped its paw at Tsuruya. She managed to jump back, but dividing her attention gave the Boarbatusks an opening. Rolling past her, one after the other, the Grimm knocked her around. The Ursa Major struck again, batting Tsuruya away.

The girl hit the ground, rolling to a stop beside Pyrrha. She groaned. "That was too good to last, of course."

Pyrrha absently smashed the downed Beowolf's head into the ground, then stepped between Tsuruya and the charging Grimm. "Can you still go?"

Pushing herself up, Tsuruya nodded. "I think so. I'll just have to use my…" She turned to face the Grimm, gripping the handle of her katana in both hands. "MY FULL POWER!"

Pyrrha blinked. "What?"

Tsuruya sighed and shrugged. "It's an anime thing."

"Uhh… you're glowing."

Tsuruya looked down at herself, gasping in shock. Her entire body was glowing brightly, the orange aura surrounding her swirling around in the air. Tendrils of energy coiled around her arms, running off into the air and evaporating. The pavement beneath her feet began cracking and steaming. The blade in her hands was gleaming unnaturally, looking almost like something from that one sci-fi series…

"Fucking awesome…"

Ahead of them, the Grimm were approaching much more slowly. Warily, they stopped more then twenty meters away, creating a ring around the brightest aura they'd ever seen.

"What is it doing?"

"That's impossible. How can it be so powerful?"

"We should retreat. There's no way to win this fight."

Tsuruya looked around for the source of the voices. A quick glance told her that Pyrrha either hadn't heard them or didn't think anything of it. The Deathstalkers reached the back of the growing crowd of Grimm, snapping their claws anxiously.

"This can't be… but how?"

"If she has this much power… she could save us."

"Then we must tell everyone. Immedi-"

An Ursa at the front collapsed with half of its head blown away. Pyrrha pulled the trigger again, firing again and again into the crowd of Grimm. She kept firing, blasting the beasts to pieces like her life was on the line. Meanwhile, Tsuruya stood stunned. The light slowly faded from around her, seeping into the ground and air. The katana returned to its steely shade.

All Tsuruya could hear was screaming and shouting.

Ahead of her, behind the retreating Deathstalkers, the humanoid thing had stopped. It briefly held out its hand, reaching out to her.

"You can save us. We will meet again."

Reaching the bullhead, Neptune pushed Coco up into the transport. Carl helped her into a seat and fastened a harness around her. Velvet looked back at her teammate with concern, but was glad to see she was safe.

"You're in my care now, old friend."

Coco, still awake, heard this and offered a weak thumbs up. "I'm in good hands."

Carl hopped down into the ground beside Neptune. "Where are the others?"

Neptune readied his gun, aiming back the way he had come. "They're holding off the Grimm. They'll be along shortly."

Sure enough, Cinder and Jaune ran around the corner. They could hear Jaune's voice shouting over the sounds of a great many things chasing them. "Start taking off! Get moving! No time to wait!"

Carl nodded back to Velvet, then jumped up onto the side of the bullhead. "Get 'er ready!"

The engines had already started when the Grimm rounded the corner behind Jaune and Cinder. The two reached the bullhead just as it left the ground. Neptune ushered them in, and they took their seats.

Neptune turned back to the oncoming Grimm. "Where…" He glanced back to Jaune. "Where's Pyrrha and Tsuruya?"

Jaune leaned out a bit, then pointed upward. When Neptune looked, he saw the two girls running along the top of buildings, jumping from roof to roof, Beowolves chasing after them and snapping at their heels and Nevermores swooping down at them.

Neptune stepped up and grabbed a handle on the side of the bullhead. "Velvet, get up there! We need to be there when they get to the edge!"

Wasting no time at all, Velvet pulled her craft away from the ground and brought it up alongside the roof of the last building in the row. Neptune and Carl leaned away from the ship, reaching out to grab the girls and pull them aboard.

Tsuruya pulled ahead, sprinting the last rooftop and leaping onto the bullhead without assistance, rolling towards the other side. Jaune caught her and helped her up. Only a few seconds behind, Pyrrha felt the claws of a Beowolf brush her leg. Twisting around, she swatted the Grimm away with a backhand, sending it plummeting off the roof.

She had run out of room and, at the edge of the roof, Pyrrha fell. Neptune reached out further, catching and grabbing onto Pyrrha's outstretched arm. She swung under the bullhead for a moment before realizing she was not falling. Carl shouted at Velvet to move, head back to Beacon, and the bullhead began gaining altitude.

Launching itself off the rooftop after Pyrrha, a Creep managed to clamp its mouth down on her leg. Pyrrha cried out in pain, but didn't let that stop her. She made sure she had a tight grip on Neptune's arm with one hand, then reached over her shoulder with her other hand, retrieving her weapon. She aimed down and blasted a hole in the Creep's face. It hit the ground a moment later, already turning into wisps of black vapor.

Tossing her weapon up into the bullhead, Pyrrha began climbing Neptune's arm. At the soonest possible moment, she grabbed onto the side of the bullhead itself and started dragging herself in. Carl swung himself into the transport as well, kneeling down and helping her up.

Neptune looked down at the receding city below them as the gained more altitude. He pumped his fist out into the air. "That was great!"

Pyrrha chuckled. "Could have gone better, but we are all still here."

Velvet called back to them. "Nevermores incoming! I need defensive fire!"

Before they could figure anything out, a hail of large feathers flew past them. Four hit their marks, three of which pierced the top of the bullhead. Velvet cried out, and the aircraft started dropping. Coco started grabbing at her harness desperately. Tsuruya lay on the bottom of the craft, staring in shock at the tip of the feather that had buried itself in the seat beside Coco. The feather had gone right through the top and punched a big enough hole in the seat to kill anyone it might have hit. Thankfully, it hit no one.

Coco called to Velvet in the cockpit. "Are you alright? Are you hit?"

The bullhead straightened out, it's movement regaining direction, this time with an added sense of evasion. Velvet called back. "I'm fine! Just a scratch! I… I can't reach the landing gear or the breaks! We're heading back to Beacon! Is anyone back there hurt?"

Pyrrha watched, unable to respond to Velvet.

"Hello? Is everyone alright?"

Pyrrha gritted her teeth, feeling rage building inside her. Rage toward the Grimm. She watched as Neptune fell out of sight, into the broken buildings and burning ruins of Vale, with a Nevermore feather speared through his chest.