RWBY: Light Extinguished
Chapter 18
oxoxoxo
Team EMAD, Ben, Taipan, and the Axman exited the hardware store and watched, petrified, waves of cold fear running over them. The walking corpses lumbered out of the innumerable boxes in an orderly fashion, only to mass together in a giant conglomerate of rotting bodies. The horde sensed their presence, moving as one in on the group. "There's...there's so many." Maria stammered, staring out at the oncoming horde.
"Yeah," Thatch gulped, "you're damn right about that."
"Come now, camarades, surely we have come back from worse than this on our time here. This, this is only a bump on our path." Francois chimed.
Thatch gave the nobleman a flat look. "Noble Boy, this is a pitfall if I've ever seen one." He retorted.
(Author's Note: Music begins here. Song: Metal Machine by Sabaton)
"You guys can sit back all you want, complain, and wait to become their next meal," the Axman interjected, the group finding him ahead and revving the engine of a chainsaw, "As for me, I'm not going down without a fight!"
With that, the Axman charged headlong into the fray of Inferri. He swung the chainsaw in a semi-circular, horizontal fashion, slicing every undead being unfortunate enough to be in his path, cutting numerous Inferri in half along the way. Clearing his path along, the man was caked in gore, his manic smile never leaving his blood and viscera-drenched face. Now a good distance in, the axe man spun a full circle, parting every corpse walking on him in half across the chest, giving himself a good couple yards of breathing room. The man stood amidst the horde, his path he had opened now closed and his circle growing ever-smaller, his chainsaw engine running idly before him. His smile had only grown larger at the look of the situation, bobbing his head back as he said, "Groovy."
Team EMAD and Ben were struck dumb for a moment as Thatch voiced the question on all their minds: "Where and when did he get that thing?"
"I think we crashed into it." Ben supplied.
The first Inferri to reach him from the front took a wild swipe at his face, the Axman folding himself back and running his chainsaw, parting the Inferri directly behind him in two from head to crotch. The maniac flung himself forward and instantly split the ahead of the assaulting Inferri in two, a geyser of blood spewing up from between the halves of skull. Spinning in a circle once more, the Axman cut the skulls of easily a dozen or more undead in half from temple to temple, their corpse flopping and giving him a shin-high barrier of little use. Not satisfied, he charged at the first Inferri to meet his gaze and ran it through the stomach, lifting it into the air and letting the blades run as the ghoul convulsed and spouted buckets of crimson down onto him. Seeing his left flank was collapsing, axe man turned on his heel and flung the still-living body at the advancing monsters, a trio of bodies joining the sailing one on the ground after a bone-jarring thud. "Come on, let's keep the party going, fellas!"
'Good,' The voice in his head encouraged. 'Keep it up. Slaughter them! Let the streets run red!'
Axman, happily obliging, leapt forward, spinning and slicing through another Inferri, splitting it from shoulder to the opposite hip. Falling to a knee, he instinctively let his swing follow through, the chainsaw flying up behind him and lopping another corpse's head in half diagonally. He swung his meat-cutter back and across the knees of one in front of him, amputating its legs on the spot. The vigilante shot up to his feet and shot his leg forward and foot into its chest, sending the body flying back and taking out more of its undead comrades. He leaped an inhuman distance and crushed the heads of two pinned Inferri under his feet, bringing his chainsaw up high and delving it through nose and forehead of the middle one he had taken the legs of. He whipped his weapon back under his legs, slicing the corpse the whole way as it went under his crotch, and slung the weapon underneath his legs, doubled over as the running blade dug through the groin of one sneaking up behind him. The Axman laughed in delight, looking back under himself, nearly rolling into a ball, and shouting, "Now that's what I call a close shave!"
He freed his weapon, intestines instantly exiting the wound and tripping the Inferri up in its own guts as he swung it upwards before him, splitting the face and skull of another before him from jaw to the crown of its skull. Stepping back and crushing the downed Inferri's skull, the axe man slipped in the gore and flopped to his back, his chainsaw falling onto him and nearly mauling his face had his arms not regained their rigidity, stopping it mere centimeters from his face. Closer to being overwhelmed than ever, the Axman threw his chainsaw like a tomahawk, the weapon spiraling through the air and chopping through the forehead of the nearest ghoul before him, rearing back on his shoulders and kicking up to his feet before ripping his weapon free. Axman desperately began ripping on the cord, trying to start the weapon to life as he spun around, assessing his situation. His enthrallment with the fight had kept him blind to the rumbling of the ground, his attention no longer able to ignore it as Inferri began to fly through the air. He ceased trying to restart his most necessary of weapons at the time, letting it hang limp at his side as he watched the bodies fall like ragdolls from the air. Beyond the rows of bodies, he could make out a massive, dark shape barreling ahead, the herd finally thinning enough to wear he could make out the behemoth fully. "Oh, this is gonna hurt..."
The behemoth neared the Axman, the vigilante holding his meat-cutter horizontally before him as a shield as it brought back its massive paw and swung at him. The flat of the black knocked into his throat, making him cough and gasp for air, before the massive palm smacked his chest, nearly caving it in as he flew back like a bullet through the Inferri, his speed not even affected by plowing through dozens of rotting bodies. He sailed past the vanguard of the horde, tumbling to a stop before the feet of the group. "What happened to him?!" Ben inquired.
"Is he bitten?" Alison asked.
"We don't have time now. We have to push them back and give ourselves a little breathing room." Maria ordered, aiming her shield ahead with the barrels appearing behind the boss spinning rapidly.
Maria unleashed a slew of dust rounds, making mulch of the Inferri in its aim. The rest joined in too, Thatch doubling Maria's fire rate with his swords' hidden guns, Francois and Micca picking one at a time off with the precision of their rifles, Alison blasting many back at a time with alternating hits of the lighting of her jian and dust from her zhua, and Ben blowing them to bits with the expanding round of his light machine gun. The deafening cavalcade of gunfire was soon rivaled by the growing rattle of the ground itself, corpses sailing through the air as the behemoth once more made its presence known, all but a reloading Ben firing on it. The gunfire did little except to slow it down, char, and ignite it, the beast roaring in guttural fury. The beast's abdomen suddenly bulged to a grotesque circular shape, its skin slowly tearing before the beast upper half flopped back and lower remnants forward. The gunfire ceased instantly, all looking at the smoking gun Ben held in one outstretched arm, smirking as he uttered, "Play ball."
The barrel of Ben's gun lengthened and flattened, forming the blade of his massive sword as the tripods slid down and formed the large guards perpendicular to the handle. The blade gave off a white aura, the intense heat reaching even Micca on the other side of the group. He charged ahead of the group, raising his sword overhead in both hands in an inverted grip, lunging and somersaulting ahead at the downed but living behemoth. The soldier jammed the blade down through the bellowing beast's open mouth, the sound of sizzling flesh resonating from the now lifeless corpse, the sword going clean through the thick muscle condense around the back of the behemoth's head. Ben held himself perfectly straight up, completing his front flip and freeing his blade as the rest of the group charged ahead after him, a woozy axe man sitting up and wheezing for air.
Ben cleared a large path of destruction for his comrades, swooping his massive blade from left to right in the corresponding hand, slicing through flesh and bone as if they were butter. "I'll cut my way further into this mess and work my way out. You guys keep this side under control and we should be halfway done with this in no time!" Ben ordered.
The group slowed down and watched as Ben waded his way into the horde, cutting swaths through the ranks before the path to him slowly shut, Maria catching one last glance from him as he turned back with a reassuring smile and a wink. Nodding to herself and turning to the group, Maria had to shout to be heard over the sounds of moans all around them, "Alright, form up two lines, back-to-back! We'll push off in opposite directions, kill them by any means necessary, and stay safe!"
"You do not have to tell us twice, mademoiselle, we still have a festival to make a name for ourselves in!" Francois cheered.
"Oh, how I wish I could be that oblivious." Thatch murmured.
The group quickly followed the centurion's orders, Maria, Micca, and Francois forming one line while Alison and Thatch press up to their backs. "You people are insane, has anyone ever told you that? Or that this won't work?!" Micca complained.
"If you want to become lunch for a group of mangy corpses, be my guest. Otherwise, I suggest you fight with everything you've got." Maria rebutted.
"Touche."
The group waited, weapons at the ready, as the Inferri pushed down on them from both sides. Maria made the first move, unleashing a hail of bullets into the chest of the undead man in front of her, one stray bullet catching his forehead and sending him flopping back. The gap allowed her to thrust her short sword over her shield and into the gap between the eyes of the next Inferri, the centurion then bashing it off her blade. Micca, not wanting to be so close to her former enemies, brought her axe over her shoulder and wheeled the blade down on the head of a ghoul, dropping it to its knees as she used it as a vault to catapult herself further into ranks of the undead. "Sorry, I work best when I'm alone!"
Micca came crashing axe-first down on another Inferri, splitting it from head to chest in one swing. She pulled her axe straight back, freeing it with a sickening squelch and ramming the blunt tip of her shaft through the stomach of an Inferri closing in behind her. The Taipan freed her weapon once more with a jerk and aimed it over her shoulder, firing the hidden rifle and obliterating the top of an Inferri's skull. The blade kicked forward and dug a straight line through the face of a lumbering ghoul, dropping it prone in an instant. She trained her sights ahead before her axe and fired, the bullet coring through the heads of a straight line of a half dozen Inferri. One stumbled into her with a swipe, the snake folding herself backwards and letting off a backhanded swing as she did so, slamming her axe through the eyes and frontal lobes of a trio of Inferri behind her. She sprung back upright, choking up on the axe's shaft in an instant, and slammed the blade into the temple of the one who attempted to hit her.
Kicking the body free from her axe, Micca fired her axe parallel to the ground before her, taking out another line of Inferri beside her and letting the recoil swing her axe around and through the skulls of a line of Inferri surrounding her. The snake increased the momentum of her axe and dropped to her knees, letting the weapon spin like a propeller above her as she let her finger slam madly on the trigger, increasing its speed and randomly taking out nearby Inferri from time to time. The spinning axe attracted the Inferri to it like moths to a flame, paying no attention to the master beneath it. Unable to realize what they were doing, the Inferri were reduced to pulp as they neared, the axe spinning at a blinding pace in her fast-working hands. Arms were severed, chests were caved in, and heads were mulched as they carelessly stuck their bodies in, blanketing Taipan in their gory contents. "Ugh, this is so gross! I'll need to shower a week to get this off of me."
Her musings were cut short as a slimy, writhing object wrapped around her neck, tightening like a vise and leaving her unable to let a single breath escape her throat. Her hands left her axe, the weapon losing its momentum and crashing onto her stomach as she tried to get her hands between the tendril choking the life from her and her neck. Slowly, she was dragged backwards, falling and further adding tension on her already entangled neck. Tears streamed down her face as her pale face slowly turned purple, Inferri getting on their hands and knees, grimy fingers grasping her clothing and bare skin. This is it. Goodbye, little sister, she thought, a tear escaping her eye as she shut them, not wanting to see what happened to her.
Just as the assurance of death was certain, her ears were met with gunfire, followed by the dull thud of bullets ricocheting through skulls and brain matter and blood caking her. Her eyes flung open to see a none-too-pleased Maria standing over her, shield turret still spiraling and smoking as she slashed at the tentacle around her neck. Before the main body of the appendage could retract, Maria gripped it tightly in a quick whip of her hand, ripping the being forward responsible for nearly killing the snake. What flew through the air could best be described as pitifully horrific. A man, his flesh pitch black, in tattered cargo shorts and shirt, body covered in boils with a massive, bowling ball-sized growth on his throat, spikes radiating from his forearms, shoulders, down his spine, and knees. Most disgusting of all was the tendril was none other than his tongue, his jaw unhinging like as serpent to accommodate its exit. As it soared at Maria, she thrust her sword forward, blade digging through its mouth and out the back of its skull, the being falling to its knees and arching back, limp and lifeless. A horrified Micca uncurled and threw the flesh scarf aside, gasping for air as Maria stared down at her in pure anger. "Next time I tell you to do something, you do it. Got it?"
The snake feebly nodded, the original colour of her face slowly returning to her once more as glorious oxygen returned to her lungs. Maria extended her hand and pulled the snake to her feet. The centurion suddenly shoved Micca aside with a swipe of her shield, nearly knocking her down once more as she stabbed her sword up through the chin of a wide-eyed Inferri, the blade punching through the top of its skull. Separated and now finding themselves surrounded, Maria and Micca got back to back as the legions now encircled them. The back of the skull of one in front suddenly opened up, a hunk of bone flipping to the ground, dropping to reveal Francois looking down the barrel of his smoking carbine, smiling as he said, "Need a hand, mademoiselles?"
(New Music: Far Far Away by Battle Beast)
Francois charged ahead with a cry, rifling swinging before him before bringing it under his arm and ramming the bayonet through the back of the nearest ghoul's neck, blade poking out through its haggard throat and stifling its hissing. Francois put it out of its misery with a dust round through the back of its skull and out its eyes socket, popping the left eyeball free. The stock and barrel suddenly began to peel back from the bayonet, forming a guard and cup hilt with a long, needle-like blade radiating from it. Francois kicked the corpse free of his sword and advanced towards the nearest turning Inferri. Measuring his steps, the noble stepped in and delivered a side kick into the knee of the Inferri, forcing it down on a knee with a sickening crunch and snap. Francois stepped onto its knee like a stair, planting the point of his boot into its chin as he followed through the momentum with a backflip, rocketing the undead into the air. Once regaining his footing, Francois shot his foot up high to his side and thrust his sword in the opposite direction, impaling one Inferri through the empty space where its nose should be while another was caught in the side of the chin from his kick, forcing its head hard to the right with a harsh snap.
Francois regained his vertical basis and had to bend himself over to avoid the embrace of an Inferri, executing a somersault that caught the Inferri in the top of the skull with the heel of his boots. The Inferri was forced to the ground under the pressing of the noble, its head crushed under his feet like an eggshell. Frozen in place, Francois held his sword straight up before him, the airborne Inferri falling chin-first onto the point and shish kabobing its skull down to the hilt on the blade. With a flick of his wrist, Francois retracted his sword from the corpse and inverted his grip on it, swinging it back under his arm and up between the eyes of another ghoul closing in on him. Francois then got a glimpse of Maria being forced to a knee by the circle of the undead pressing down on her shield, Taipan barely keeping another at pay with the shaft of her axe, the ghoul snapping its jaws inches closer and closer to her face each time. Francois looked over his shoulder to Alison and Thatch, finding they had been holding their line spectacularly with blasts of lightning, elemental dust, and Thatch's bullets. "Thatch, Alison, we're a bit overwhelmed at the moment!" he shouted before charging headlong into the Inferri around his friends, running his blade through the skulls of three Inferri in one thrust.
Alison and Thatch turned to find their friends in dire straits. Looking at each other and nodding, sprinting to their comrades as Alison unleashed a thunderbolt that decimated a line of Inferri before Maria while Thatch blasted away at the ones assaulting Taipan. Alison sheathed her sword and extended her now-free hand to Thatch, the renegade taking it as Alison slammed the ball of her zhua into the ground, using it to vault into the air and hurled Thatch with all her might. Thatch turned himself upside down, head and arms pointing to the ground as he spiraled through the air, raining hellfire down on the Inferri below. Alison came down from her vault by cracking the clawed hand of Pianji over the crown of an undead skull, doubling it over and caving it in before swinging the ball end upwards, gouging a straight, semi-circular line through its face. The artist spun her weapon around in one full revolution beside her, dropping down into the splits and slamming the hand down simultaneously, a pulse of red energy radiating up from the ground throwing every inferri in the immediate area a few feet into the air, crashing helplessly and flailing to their backs. "Maria, now!" Alison shouted, louder than she ever had in her whole quiet life.
Sensing her plan, Maria fell to her knees and held her shield over her head, Alison springing to her feet and leaping onto the armor. Purple energy pulsed away from the point of contact as Alison hunkered down and sprung into the air, passing by Thatch as she flew ever higher. Her ascent slowed evermore, finally reaching its zenith before she began to plummet, tucking into a ball and front flipping through the air. As she neared the air, Alison extended her zhua out, a red glow overtaking the hand, and slammed it into the earth upon contact in a sit-out position, the same instant the Inferri landed as well. A massive blast of red overtook the area, basking all in the red hue but breaking the corpses, living and dead, to nothing while the remnants of those with what little aura they had held strong. Alison rose to her feet, holding her zhua over her shoulder, staring at the ground before her friends sheepishly while her comrades looked on her with awe, Thatch's shouting steadily growing louder until he slammed into the earth rump-first. He immediately threw himself to the ground, rubbing his seat and writhing in pain, moaning, "Oh, I think I broke my arse!"
"Get up, Thatch," Maria insisted sternly, looking around at the great amount space they had but soon watched it shrink under more advancing Inferri, "we're not done yet."
Ben charged further into the heart of the horde, slicing his way further and further, trying desperately to get some bearing of where he was. Finally, he reached a clearing amidst the forest of the undead, looking in all direction for any indication of where he was. A sudden rush of air beat down on him, the soldier stopping in his tracks to look up and find an airship hovering above, a large, metal crate dangling beneath it. The box creaked and moaned until it was cut free, plummeting to the ground and straight for Ben. The colossal soldier dove to safety, tucking and rolling to a knee, looking back to watch the crate crash and flatted numerous Inferri beneath it. Ben tentatively got to his feet, converting his sword to its gun form at taking aim at the box. The massive crate creaked open, the massive lid crashing to the ground to reveal a black void inside, save for numerous pairs of blood red eyes. One face poked through the darkness and into the light, revealing one with nothing but a jagged skull for a face, eyes a haunting crimson, erratic, spiked hair pointing back from the top of its skull. It stepped further into the light, as if confused, and revealed its dark being, snow-white talons on its fingers and toes, teeth numerous and needle-like. The beast's eyes dilated in the light, soon joined by the rest of its nine other comrades. "Oh, great," Ben thought aloud, "Lurkers. And they hate light."
Just as the words left his mouth, the front lurker leaned in and let out a ferocious roar, thick, viscous fluid flying out of its maw while the other had it running in streams from their jowls. The pack charged at Ben, the soldier once more regaining his zweihander and held it like a bat beside him. The first lurker lunged for Ben with outstretched claws, the soldier, ducking the blow and letting the Inferri sail over his head. Ben quickly sprung back upright, thrusting his sword up and through the chin and out the top of the next lurker's skull. Not relenting, he wheeled the limp corpse through the air with his superheated sword, bending himself over backwards as he rammed the tip through the top of the skull of the unsuccessful lurker behind him, the corpses stack head-to-head as the sword acted as a pole for him to hold himself up. Ben slid his sword free as he regained his balance, finding himself completely encircled by the remaining lurkers. "Awful smart for a bunch of rotting freaks." Ben muttered.
The beasts stormed on Ben, leaping onto him one at a time and digging their claws into his flesh, enraging the soldier as he extended his arms and roared, throwing the Inferri in every direction. Ben bounded over to the nearest prone lurker, driving his zweihander through its skull and into the ground. Feeling another presence, Ben flung himself forward, spiraling around the sword with his grip tight on the handle, perfectly straight with legs outstretched. He swung back around and planted both boots into the side of a lurker's head, nearly caving its skull in as it sailed into the crowd of encroaching Inferri. Ben freed his sword and turned on a dime, stabbing his sword down on a charging lurker. The beast juked back and narrowly avoided the blow as the sword imbedded itself in the ground, lunging in once more and digging its claws of one hand into Ben's stomach, doubling the soldier over. The Inferri retracted its hand as a pair dove at him, claws scraping through his coat and clawing his chest. Ben flew back with his assailants hooked into his flesh, crashing onto his back and rolling over, finding himself pinning his foes under his knees. His massive paws clamped down onto the sides of their heads, slamming them into another with such force their heads exploded like watermelons. Ben got to his feet to find another lurker bounding at him and striking, the soldier bringing his fist back and throwing it into the beast's face. The Inferri's body sailed out from under it, Ben's fist encompassing its whole face until he seized it in his massive palm and slammed it down into the ground, splintering its skull between his immense strength and the hard concrete. Ben released the corpse, barely catching his breath before looking up to find the remaining lurkers advancing in on him, hunched over and skipping at him like chimps. "Come on, you undead freaks, let's go!"
The lead lurker leapt into the air, spiraling around as it threw its claws down on Ben. The soldier jumped back out of harm's way, the blow ending with the beast's hand digging through the cement and lodging into the ground. The lurker tried madly to pry itself free, throwing itself back madly in order to free itself. Its hopes of freedom were extinguished with a diagonal swing of Ben's blade, the top half of its skull sliding down its and plopping to the ground on its flat side, body still trapped in a seated position. Ben found yet another one closing in, spinning at it and swing up at it, parting its face, frontal bone and lobe in one swing, taking it off its feet and letting it flop to its back, advancing on as the severed half landed perfectly back on where it once lie. Ben readied his sword and swung it as one more sprung at him, missing it by the narrowest of margins as it sailed on, claws digging through his abdomen. Ben would have been doubled over had he not been clawed over the shoulder blades and upper back by the other lurker, making him rear back and shout in pain and anger. The ghouls sprinted at Ben in tandem once more, striking with claws outstretched, the one passing behind him slicing through both his thighs. Enraged from the pain, Ben shot his knee up and caught the next Inferri beneath the chin, shooting it up into the air before him.
Ben brought his sword back and let his swing fly, parting the ghoul's skull in two at the jaw. Ben turned to find the last lurker coming for his throat, swinging at the lurker in the same instant. The two passed one another, Ben doubling over with four deep rakes in the side of his neck, the lurker rearing back as blood gushed from a deep slash across its chest. Sensing an opening, Ben used one last surge of adrenaline to charge at the Inferri, spinning and taking the Inferri off its feet with a heel kick. The lurker flipped through the air sideways, Ben reversing the direction of his spin with his sword outstretched. As the Inferri's head aimed towards the ground, the blade parted its head from its shoulders, its body cartwheeling on as Ben grabbed the head in his free hand, spiking it into the ground and shattering it like glass. He instantly succumbed to his wounds, falling to his knees and looking around through half-open eyes, teeth gnashing, to find the Inferri nearly on him. "Alright, who's next!?" Ben shouted, rearing back and shutting his eyes.
His question was met with a familiar rumbling pattern in the ground, a harsh smack echoing through his ears, looking to find the empty crate flying at him. Been used his sword as a crutch and mustered all his strength to push himself to his feet, hefting his sword before heaving it forward, parting the box in two spiraling halves that carried on and took a crowd of Inferri behind him. Ben looked on as a behemoth barreled ahead at him. "You can't make it too easy, can you?"
Ben brought his sword back once more, he and the behemoth swinging at each other as one. Ben was fortunate enough to be quicker and better armed, the burning blade cutting through the gap between the beast's thumb and forefinger and slicing clean through to the opposite end of its wrist. The behemoth's arm sailed on and wrapped around its chest and shoulder, sacrificing its ability to stand to strike him with an uppercut. The spikes on its knuckles dug him open in three deep gashes from stomach to chest, rocketing him into the air as he clung to consciousness, blood filling his mouth thanks to his busted chest cavity. The behemoth tumbled to its chest, bellowing in fury as it was unable to rise. With his last ounce of strength, Ben transformed his zweihander into a LMG one last time, looking down the sight and firing straight at the beast's head, and making its head explode outward on impact with the specialized round. Ben sailed back through the air, crashing onto his back and rolling over his shoulder, lying prone on his stomach and unable to rise. He could feel them moving in on him, blood pouring out from his smirking mouth as he whispered, "I hope you choke on me."
"Oh my, God, Ben!" a familiar feminine voice said.
"Maria? Never thought I'd be so glad to hear that voice again." he laughed.
Ben could hear a hail of gunfire as Team EMAD and their new allies stormed the hordes surrounding him, bullets and dust blasts flying all around him as the encroaching horde began to thin. The soldier was rolled over onto his back, shoulders and head resting on Maria's lap. He could see the fear in the faces of all his friends, and Micca, looking down on him. "What happened?!" The centurion demanded.
"Lurkers and a behemoth. If you don't know yet, I'll explain if we get out of this..."
"When we get out of this." Maria insisted
Ben only smiled in response, pointing to the sky and saying, "You might prove me wrong. Look. That's an Atlas aircraft."
The group turned their eyes to the sky, find a Bullhead aircraft with a large Atlas symbol showing on the side.
(New Music: Hey I Don't Know by Kongos)
The door to the aircraft flew open, four people standing straight in attention to a familiar woman in chainmail and a red cape, arms folded behind her back. "Alright, this is exactly what we've been training for. Granted, it was Grimm but this is still a good exercise for you to learn from." Julia declared.
A teen with black hair and blue eyes raised his white, garbed in an unzipped, gray jacket with a simple black t-shirt beneath and worn jeans beneath, his gauntlet shrouded hand raised high in the air. "Yes, Private Onyx?"
"What's the protocol for this? Are we breaking up a riot? Detaining as many as possible before the crowd dissipates? Incapacitating force?"
Julia let a smirk slip and a chuckle as well, replying, "Do you smell that in the air, privates? That is the smell of death and decay, which is exactly what those things are. They are every bit as big of a threat as Grimm. Now, does that answer your question?"
"Uh, yes, ma'am, lethal force." The young boy replied.
"Good. Now, until I can bring the legion to the field, would you care to open up the battlefield for us, Private Onyx?" The general remarked.
"With pleasure." he replied, turning and diving out of the open aircraft.
Onyx plummeted to the ground below, body held in a t-shape as his eyes were shut, wind whipping his hair about. Suddenly, Onyx whipped himself through a gainer, a white, metal gauntlet on his arm brought back with the revolver inside it rotating to a green crystal. Onyx slammed into the earth with his fist, the ground beneath him rippling out like waves in water and sending Inferri in all directions for several yards flying. Onyx slowly rose to his feet, observing the surrounding as the rest of his team landed beside him, a brown-skinned, purple-haired girl looking at Onyx with curious green eyes, saying, "Hope the fall didn't take too much out of you. Wouldn't want to take the high score from you again."
Onyx cracked a smile, rebutting, "Violet, if you take out more of these things than I do, I'll personally wash the bloodstains out of our clothes for however long it takes."
"I'll take that bet." the woman accepted with a smirk, a pair of lengthy weighted chains dropping from a pair of bracers on her wrists and hitting the ground with a metallic crunch.
The man clad in a golden suit beside the conspiring duo rolled, arms crossed and his eyes rolling as he muttered, "Of all the people to be stuck with in a situation like this..."
"Can it, Julius. They're just making the best of a bad situation." the towering man clad in red and black, his eyes and hair a crimson shade, said.
"Whatever you say, Alex. Now, if you don't mind, let's get this over with quickly. I don't want this suit to have a spot on it."
"As you wish, master. Don't be afraid to pull a little of your own weight this time."
"Yeah, yeah."
Violet's chains, once limp and lifeless, rose up like living, metal serpents beside her, one topped with a red, glowing light while the other was basked in blue, her arms still resting at her side. They lowered themselves to her waist-level. "Care to try to take an early lead?" she asked.
"I'd love to." Onyx replied, taking a chain in each hand.
The chains spun back around Violet abruptly, jerking Onyx from the ground and taking him for a ride. Coming towards the front of Violet, Onyx released his grip and catapulted towards the Inferri, his cocked, gauntleted arm basking in a red aura until her laid into the first Inferri with a right hook. An explosive blast left the unlucky ghoul a pile of pulp while the rest of the Inferri in the area were blown to smithereens. Onyx rose to his feet and quickly spun to a charging behemoth, the beast bellowing and charging ahead, crushing and throwing several Inferri around on its path of destruction. Onyx, his face calm and ready, waited as the revolving mechanism in his right gauntlet went to work, a green crystal being readied behind its barrel. Onyx dropped down and slammed his fist into the earth, a network of cracks running straight to the rampaging Inferri and, several feet before it, unleashed a cluster of long, cone-shaped spikes. The Inferri ran itself through the stone stakes, impaling itself through its stomach, chest, arms, both eyes, and the fatal one driving through its mouth and out the back of its massive, muscle-coated back engulfing the back of its head. Still knelt down and observing his surroundings, Onyx found his open space shrinking on all fronts. Remaining unfazed, the man placed both palms against the ground, giving off an intense, green glow from his gauntlets as he suddenly shot up into the air atop a column of stone. Rising higher than many buildings around him, looking down on the massive army of the undead beneath him. "Well," he blandly stated, "this is gonna take longer than I thought."
Watching from the ground, his teammates looked on with concern at the new structure erected in Vale. "That's not a good sign, is it?" Julius asked, twirling his cane rapidly in his fingers.
"It can't be, his semblance should help him no matter how many of those things are around him. Maybe there are just too many for him." Alex pondered, draping his arms over the red, metal staff over his shoulders.
"Well, let's give him a hand then, ladies." Violet suggested, sprinting ahead of the group with her chains following her like ribbons.
Violet battered her way into the horde, at first jabbing her chains ahead with precision. Blizzard impaled the undead through the pelvic region, instantly freezing them, the now unstable ghouls collapsing in on themselves like demolished buildings. Inferno went straight for the chest, hitting center mass and causing the Inferri's extremities to blow off in all directions. Wading further and further into the sea of death, Violet had to whip her arms and chains around in diagonal swoops to take out several Inferri at a time, bodies shattering into a pile of ice or exploding at each swinging interval.
Following the chain-bearer, Alex had a simpler goal, blasting the head off of every Inferri lucky enough to escape the clutches of the enchanted chains with his long, red pistols. His lack of attention to his surroundings, however, let the Inferri creep onto his sides and up to his back, only taking notice as he felt a tug on the bottom of his shirt. Alex turned on his heel, guns raised and ready to fire at the horde closing in on him. Knowing he could not shoot them all, Alex flipped the guns around, barrels facing towards him, and slammed them together. The metal pole in his hands extended a few more feet, forming a rather simple metal staff. However, he spent too much time focusing on his weapon when an Inferri stumbled in and swiped him across the face. Alex lurched to his side, twisting back to face the Inferri that had smacked him with three horizontal gashes in his cheek, his red eyes growing murky and overtaking the white of his sclera as the wounds slowly closed themselves under the red glow of his aura. Alex brought his fist back and hurled it into the Inferri's rotting head, his entire arm flying through the ghoul's skull and carving a perfect circle through it with his punch, its face a featureless void from eyebrows to its chin. Alex slung the corpse aside, no sooner letting it hit the ground than did he spin around and swing his staff simultaneously like a bat, taking the heads off of three Inferri in one swoop. "Let's go!"
Alex's cry was met with more Inferri lumbering at him, the angered soul dropping down to a side plank position, pivoting on his elbow and sweeping the Inferri off their feet with his own. Alex continued his spin until his feet were on the opposite side of the Inferri assaulting him, dropping back on to his shoulders and rearing back onto them before kicking up to his feet and flipping back onto them. His feet crushed the skulls of two Inferri before he rammed his staff into the ground, driving it through the mouth and out the back of the last one's neck. Alex sprung for the nearest Inferri before him, propping his Speech staff's end into the ground and vaulting over the ghoul. Alex twisted and somersaulted himself through the air, nailing the Inferri in the back of the head and rocketing it into the opposite end of the nearly non-existant circle he had stood in, taking a couple of Inferri down with it. As Alex descended to the ground, he raised Speech high overhead and slammed into down over the skull of an Inferri looking up at him, driving a dent deep into its cranium as he kicked his legs into opposite ends of a split, cracking the jaws and twisting the heads of a pair of Inferri on either side of him. He used the corpse his staff was lodged in to cartwheel over to his back on the ground, swinging his stuff straight up as he landed into the chin of an Inferri towering over him, sending its head straight up into the air.
Acting fast, Alex propped himself up to a bent-over-backwards position, flipping himself back and kicking an Inferri before him under the chin with such force its head flung up high, too. Once landing at a vertical basis, Alex spun around and slammed the staff into the temple of a ghoul sneaking up on him, taking its head clean off its shoulders. The head, still hissing and growling, rocketed straight into the still-connected head of another Inferri, the skulls exploding on impact. Alex turned his attention behind himself once more, brandishing his staff over his shoulder before swinging it at one of the descending heads. The skull rocketed straight into the face of another Inferri, crumpling its skull and face in from upper lip to where its eyebrows sat, skull-borne shrapnel flying off and digging through the heads of a duo of Inferri on either side of it. Alex once more turned where his attention was lacking behind him, swinging at the other skull and sending to a gory explosion with another Inferri. Alex reared back, his body trembling with his staff held tight in his fist at his side, shrieking from the top of his lungs as the Inferri drew ever closer, "Who else wants some!?"
Having been abandoned to do as he wished, Julius merely crossed his arms, shook his head, and sighed, "Well, glad we're so good at coordinating our attacks as a team, guys."
Julius looked up to find an Inferri nearing him, hands outstretched and ready to tear into him. "Oh, no, what ever will I do?" Julius asked, still twisting his cane in and out of his fingers.
With a flick of his thumb, he loosened the grip of the sheathe over the blade of his cane's hidden sword, another fast revolution of his cane rocketed the sheathe straight into the Inferri's head. The bottom of the sheathe had imbedded itself in between the eyes of the ghoul, the rotting body dropping to its knees as a yellow object blurred past it, its head rocking back as a metallic slice hit the air. Julius stood beyond the corpse, sheathe held like a knife in one hand and his sword in the other head of him, the severed head of an Inferri floating above him as the corpse collapsed. Julius had to quickly brace himself as an Inferri clubbed him, the blow not even putting a nick in his sheathe held diagonally before him. Before the Inferri knew what hit it, Julius had thrust his sword through its eye and retracted it with a flick of his wrist seeming to have dropped the ghoul in an instant. The next Inferri to approach him was met with an overhead chop of his weighted sheathe, dazing the ghoul before the sword gouged through the bridge of his nose and cheeks, bisecting half of its brain in the process. Julius slid the sword out of the wound and observed his surroundings before him and out of the corner of his eyes. The Inferri were convening on him, the luxurious man only smiling as the uncovered ground around him was suddenly covered in red, circular glyphs. "That's it, just a little closer, you freaks." he whispered through his grin, clicking on a vial containing a red crystal on his sword's pommel.
Just as dozens of Inferri crowded over the glyphs and onto Julius, the ground erupted in a series of great explosions, blowing several Inferri apart and shooting many more up into the air. Julius readied his sword before him, arm wrapped over his chest, as the blade now basked in the middle of a great red flame. The heir leapt into the air, slicing and dicing in all directions in the Inferri-infested skies. Having lost his battle with gravity, Julius dropped down to the pavement on one knee, holding still as the mince meat that was once a small horde of Inferri plopped to the earth like grotesque rain. Julius rose to his feet, a confident smile on his face as he brushed off his shoulders and checked himself over, finding not a speck of gore or dust on his suit. His attention to detail cost him dearly as he was knocked upside the back of his head, no harm befalling his head but his aura, already weakened thanks to his excessive use of glyphs, shattered. The luxurious man flopped to his face, turning to find a roaring lurker before him. "Please, God, not the suit!" Julius pleaded, holding his hands up for defense and closing his eyes tight.
His prayer was seemingly answered as the Inferri's head exploded in an instant, elecricity randomly jumping over the body and making it twitch before it collapsed, more random spasms of electricity overtaking the body. Julius tentatively opened his eyes, curiousity peaking over his facade as he sat up and looked at the sparking corpse, muttering, "Uh...thanks..."
(New Music: Twilight of the Thunder God by Amon Amarth)
A man, his hair deep blue at the crown and gradually becoming lighter as it radiated down to the tip, kept his aim trained down the sight of his black and blue sniper rifle, working the bolt back and forth to loose a spent shell. Surrounding him were a trio of unique characters all their own: a black-haired man with wolf ears atop his head and a large, double-bladed battle axe over his shoulder, and another one with short, black hair and heterochromatic eyes, one orange and the other silver, held a jet black bastard sword at his side and his free hand propped on the pommel of a sheathed short sword on his opposite hip. A sole female stood amongst the men, her hair reddish brown and clad in a gray t-shirt with a black skirt, her most peculiar accessory being a pair of gloves that were connected to a pair of bracers, which were coated in dust vials, by a series of siphons per individual vial. "Alright," the sniper spoke up, "you guys do what you do best. I'll pick 'em off from up here."
"As you wish, fearless leader." the sword-wielder scoffed.
"Oh, will you two get a room." the witch cracked, pushing her way past the men.
The woman stood atop the edge of the building, one of the siphons drawing out blue dust as she trained the corresponding hand ahead of her, a stream of ice jutting out from the building and descending to the ground at a 45 degree angle. The woman set one foot on the slide and looked back at her comrades, saying, "Well, what are you ladies waiting for? Highest kill count gets all the glory and gloating that comes with it."
With that, the witch pushed herself down the ice with her other foot, rocketing down at the Inferri crowded around the bottom of the ice slide. "The chick's nuts." the wolf muttered to himself.
"You're telling me." the destroyer whispered in response.
"Will you two quit talking about Diana for a bit," the sniper suggested, drawing off as he blew the head off of another Inferri, "and actually help her for a change?"
The two men grumbled as they both walked to the building's edge and slid down the ice on their rumps, flying down at speeds far faster than what Diana had gone through.
Diana slide to the solid street, sprinting ahead with the momentum behind her. Once she waded in a decent way into the Inferri before stopping dead in her tracks with a skid, fist brought up ready before her. As the ghouls closed in, the siphon on her right fist began to draw from a green crystal, leaping back and flipping over the crowd of Inferri that once surrounded her and threw a cupped palm in their direction. Suddenly, the ground beneath the crowd gave way, inhaling all in its giant maw before Diana closed her hand into a tight fist, the pits closing in on itself like a trap jaw and crushing all of the undead within it to nothingness. The witch landed on her feet, fists raised ready for any foe around her, before she heard the terrified screams of her comrades behind her, turning just as her large-framed companions bowled straight through the wall of Inferri behind her, shattering legs and sending the ghouls flying in all directions before sliding to her feet and bounding up to a vertical basis. Diana immediately slapped her hand to her face, massaging her closed eyes with her fingers as she inquired, "How did we even make it this far?"
"Because, Diana," the wolf spoke up, the click of a button on the handle of his axe preceding a chilled fog wafting out of the vents on his axe, "they always underestimate us. Just like you are now."
"Fair enough, Noctus. Now, show Obsidian and I how you get things done." she replied.
Without hesitation, the wolf brought his axe before his face, blades pointed at the ground, and rammed it into the asphalt, a gust of blue haze flying out from the epicenter of the impact. Once it cleared, numerous Inferri on all sides were encased in thick ice, an impenetrable forest to the rest of the Inferri piling behind them. "Obsidian, if you'd be so kind?" Noctus requested.
"With pleasure." the destroyed responded, unsheathing his orange-bladed short sword and pointing it ahead with his free hand.
The blade spewed an intense blaze ahead of it, spinning around and melting the ice statues all around them to nothing more than a puddle of water and decomposed mush. "Alright, guys, let's cut 'em apart!" Obsidian declared, sliding his blades against one another with a metallic 'shing' radiating out.
Atop the building, Indigo's concentration was broken as an immense gust of wind beat down on him, the sniper turning and shielding his eyes from the gale to see the cause as air craft, carrying the bloody symbol of the White Fang, hovering not far way. The helicopter dropped a large crate on the roof several yards from him, the wall facing Indigo flying off on impact to reveal dozens of red, haunting eyes glaring at him. "Hopefully, after as long as we've been fighting, they can handle themselves. Alright, who's first?" Indigo called out.
His answer was met as a lurker came at him in a full dead sprint like a dog on all fours. Bringing the rifle to his shoulder and training his sight on the Inferri's skull, Indigo made short work of the first lurker with a blast that took everything off its head from the bridge of its nose up, the body basting random jumps of electrical current. More of the lurkers streamed out, two dozen in all now charging straight for the sniper. Not losing a step, the cocked his gun and a large combat knife flew up from the sheathe on its stock, flying handle-first into the air before reaching the apex of its ascent and falling back down the same way it went up. In an instant, Indigo had flashed ahead and grabbed his knife, the blade coursing with an electrical current, and swung ahead at an Inferri springing at him, parting the crown of its skull from the rest of its head. The sniper turned and aimed his rifle with his free arm straight ahead of him at an Inferri flying at him with readied talons, blowing its head to bits as the recoil of the shot made him flip over another lurker attempting to tackle him. Indigo hurled over another lurker and, as he sailed over it, inverted the grip on his knife and rammed it through the ghoul's forehead, landing on his feet behind it and tearing his blade free.
Indigo brought his knife back over his shoulder and threw it straight into the forehead of an Inferri not far away, bringing his hand back and grasping the barrel of his sniper in an instant. The sniper swung the gun across his body and crashed the butt over the jaw of a charging lurker, sending it flopping to his back as the gun wrapped over his shoulders, draping his free arm over the butt and looping his finger over the trigger. Staring straight ahead with lurkers flying at him from his flanks and front, Indigo shot the one at his right over his shoulders, pulverizing its skull as the recoil sprung the sniper off his shoulders. The gun and his arm swung out wide to his side, firing it as it was level with the ground and tearing the head apart of the lurker before it at point-blank range. The gun kicked ahead of Indigo in a semi-circular swoop, the barrel clotheslining the lurker in its path before the stock landed in his free hand before him. The instant it rested in his hand, the gun kicked as another round was discharged and carved a large, perfectly circular hole through the face and head of another lurker that closed in on him, his head nor his eyes moving from their original straight-forward position.
Indigo charged ahead into the open space ahead of him, leaping over the corpse that held his knife and freeing his blade in-stride, turning back and firing with an outstretched arm at a pursuing lurker. The recoil sent him tumbling backward, the sniper correcting his mistake has he rolled over his shoulders and onto his knees, ramming the top of his fist into the eye of a lurker towering over him, the blade sinking through the thin portion of skull behind the organ. Not with much time to rest, Indigo leveled his sniper straight ahead of him, his wrist throbbing from the recoil resting solely on it this last few shots, and fired at the neck of another ghoul, its head rolling from its shoulders yet continuing to roar in fury. Unable to stave off his dire situation, Indigo freed his knife before jamming it into its sheathe and sprung to his feet, charging headlong into the middle of the collapsing pack around him, his sniper coursing with electricity. Tapping into his aura with a burst of indigo light, the sniper lept high into the air, his sniper now appearing to be one giant ray of lightning in his hands. Indigo aimed straight down at the condensed group of lurkers, unleashing a round that had a massive stream of lightning following it. The round drove straight into the ground and vaporized the Inferri to dust, the bullet not losing momentum as it dug through every level of the skyscraper before hitting the basement boiler. A massive explosion rocked the basement off its foundation and the rest of the building blew out from the sheer energy of the round, large, jagged hunks that formed floors and walls now free falling to the earth, Indigo diving down amongst them.
Down on the ground, the group had hacked and smashed its way through the Inferri that came at them, everyone freezing in-place as a massive blast nearly deafened them all. Their heads flung to the side and found the completely skyscraper completely shattered, Diana crying out upon seeing her comrade falling amongst the carnage, "Indigo!"
The two men locked eyes for a moment and nodded, Noctus dropping to a knee and cupping his hand together. Catching on, Diana put her foot in his hands and was immediately shot into the air straight for Indigo with the aid of Noctus' superhuman strength. The witch flew right for the sniper, extending her hand out for him. The two locked each other in their grasps, spiraling in the air before slowly coming to a stop as Diana's gloves glowed green. She slammed her fists together, a pair of boulder-sized pieces of debris flying under them and instantly halting their fall. The duo stood up, Indigo turning and giving her a smile, thumbs up, and a cheer of, "Thanks, Diana, I would have been a goner."
"Don't thank me yet. Your little blast gave me an idea to win this."
"And what would that be?"
"Sit back and watch." Diana stated, slicking a finger down and sending the Indigo's stand flying back to the ground.
As soon as Indigo had leapt from his falling rock and tumbled next to his teammates, Diana trained her hand on the men, a dome-shaped pack of thick ice forming over them. Diana's rock sped ahead and higher still, leaving her able to overlook the whole city as she now looked down at the most heavily populated part of the horde, edging her way towards the end of her piece of debris. "Well," she said, swinging a leg over the empty space at the end of her boulder, "here goes nothing."
Diana plummeted to the earth, hair flapping madly in the wind beating over her. She brought her fist back over her shoulder, the siphon drawing out of a red dust crystal. As she got closer and closer to the ground, a ball of crimson energy formed over her fist, random currents of electricity sparking over it. Just as she was about to slam into the ground at terminal velocity, Diana threw her fist into the ground. Instant, she and the nearby Inferri were engulfed in the red blast. Not long after, the blast grew into a large, crimson-shaded dome that eclipsed over half of the horde. Near its edge, Onyx looked in awe at the spectacle from atop his column, barely able to utter a whisper, "Whoa."
Just as abruptly as it appeared, the blast intense light began to fade to nothingness, revealing nothing but carnage. The asphalt in all directions was shattered like glass, not a single piece to be found bigger than one inch by one inch. The Inferri did not simply disappear. Instead, their skeletons were mummified by thick, black soot from the intense heat of the dust blast that had melted their flesh, frozen forever in whatever position they had died in. Diana remain propped on her fist and a knee, rising to her feet as her comrades came running for her, their ice shield melted by the great blast.
As one, the hunters began to come together, Teams VOAJ and INGO converging on EMAD and their allies. "What happened to him?" Violet asked, looking at the injured form of Ben.
"Lurkers and a behemoth." Thatch answered. "Having fought them, you can probably guess what those are."
"We need to get him out of here." Noctus said, using his superhuman strength to haul the colossal soldier over his shoulder. "We beat most of these things, but there are still more out there, and the horde is closing in, look."
The students followed the wolf's gaze, their eyes falling upon the remaining hordes of the undead as they shambled and shuffled their way forward, the sound and smell of the encroaching beasts washing over the collected hunters and filling them with dread.
Francois checked the ammo of his rifle and grit his teeth. "Is anyone else running short on ammunition?" The nobleman asked. Several nods from the group told him exactly what he feared.
Maria looked among her teammates and allies. Morale was dropping, ammo was running low and the ever. "Form up." She ordered. "We'll have to fight as one if we're going to live through this."
The hunters summoned up their remaining morale and readied their weapons. Thatch and Francois loaded the last of their ammunition and stood side by side. Alison stood behind Maria and readied her zhua. The Axman was twitching as he stood at the ready with his weapon, Taipan standing nervously beside him, taking a step back as she readied her own axe. Indigo stood back from the rest of the group, standing guard over Ben as he loaded his rifle. Noctus, having dropped Ben at the back of the group, hefted his axe, Obsidian sharpening his blades on one another as he giggled with excitement, Diana standing back and readying the remains of her dust. Onyx and Violet stood side by side, the chain mistress ready to hurl her teammate into the ranks of the enemy to wreak havoc. Alex and Julius stood with them, sword and staff at the ready, Alex just waiting for the right moment to activate his semblance and make what could be his last charge.
Maria looked over the assembled forces as she readied the gun in her shield. "If we don't make it out of this, it's been an honour knowing all of you. Even you Indigo."
"I'm touched." The sniper sarcastically responded. "Save it for when we're out of this."
Maria was about to respond, but her words were drowned out by the sound of massive engines overhead. The assembled hunters looked to the skies as a legion of Atlas dropships flew in, the hatch on the lead ship opening and a single figure dropping out, landing right in front of Maria. Her crimson cape and skirt billowed in the wind, revealing the chainmail and medals she wore, her matching scutum shield and pilum javelin marking her as a warrior. Julia turned to face the hunters, a wicked grin on her face. "Hello, little sister."
"Julia." Maria remarked. "I never thought I'd be happy to see you. I'll assume you brought your men with you."
(New Music: Thunderstruck by AC/DC)
"You assume correctly." The general responded. At her words, the ships opened their doors and flew low to the ground, the mechanical soldiers of Atlas leaping from within to join the battle. These were modified versions of the new Atlesian Knight models, each one carrying a massive scutum shield in its left hand while carrying an assault rifle in its right. "Legion!" Julia ordered "Formation One!" Upon landing, the machines began to arrange themselves into battle formations, forming units four men across and eight deep around the hunters as a phalanx of troops formed ahead of them with Julia at its center. The Atlesian general looked across the ranks of her men before turning back to the horde baring down on them, a massive behemoth banging its fists against the ground in a challenge as the ghouls worked themselves into a frenzy. "Ready arms!" She ordered. The metal men raised their rifles and shields as one, Julia reversing the grip on her pilum and holding it above her head as they did. "Fire!"
Before a single droid could pull it's trigger, Julia pulled the trigger on her javelin, the lengthy head of the pilum firing from its shaft with the aid of a rocket, the javelin head spearing through the behemoth's skull, a second later it detonated with the force of a grenade, launching the Inferri around it as the droids opened fire, slowly advancing as they did, the phalanx forming a wall between the Inferri and the remainder of her troops as they crept forward, gunning down any ghouls in their path.
"Hold position!" Julia ordered, several yards out from the horde. "Ready formation!" she commanded. The troops behind her began moving forward to join the phalanx, forming an arched front line. Julia dropped to a knee and rammed the bottom of her shield into the ground. The boss of the shield then opened, a large barrel extending out from it. Julia smirked as she fired the artillery battery, the massive shell landing in the middle of the horde, blowing ghouls in every direction. The general quickly ejected the spent shell before loading another, firing once again, sending corpses and limbs flying as it exploded.
The general rose to her feet to see that her forces had assembled themselves into a massive arched front. Turning back to the enemy, they had gotten dangerously close, the leading ghouls only a few yards out. "Form up and strike!" Julia roared.
The instant the general spoke, the droids began to rearrange themselves, the arched formation began to move forward, the arms beginning to close in on the horde, holding fire as the trap was set. The center of the formation, led by Julia, began to move back slightly, firing on the horde to keep them distracted as the outer arms continued to advance and encircle them.
Maria watched as her sister's forces fought, nearly instantly recognizing the formation she used. Right out of the military strategy books she and her sister had read as kids.
Julia allowed a smirk to grace her face as the ambush was formed. The outer arms of what was once her phalanx had wrapped themselves around the horde, using their shields to push the enemy back in on itslef. The double envelopment was completed as the last of her troops closed in behind the remains of the horde.
From within the horde, a behemoth rose and roared in rage, but a rocket javelin to the chest from Julia shut it up, the explosion causing even more chaos in the undead ranks. "The enemy is encircled!" Julia roared. "Open fire and let's finish them off!"
At her word, the machines collectively fired, the rapid fire from all directions quickly turning the ambush into a kill box. The undead could do little but bang on the shields of the Atlesian Legion before they fell to their gunfire. The box began to close as the droids advanced inward, Julia taking a step back from her troops as they finished off the ranks of the dead. She quickly stepped over to join her sister and her allies. "Good work." She remarked.
"Thanks." Maria replied, sheathing her blade. "You saved our lives."
"It's my job, sister." Julia said, holding her pilum over her shoulder. "Everyone alright?"
"No." The centurion responded. "One of my team needs medical attention, he was gravely wounded in the fight."
The general nodded grimly. "I'll radio for evac, have medical personnel on site to get him to safety."
"Good." Maria said with a nod. She turned on her heel and ran back to Ben. Taking a knee next to him, she placed his head in her lap once again. "How are you holding up?"
The soldier groaned in pain as he fought to keep his eyes open. It was taking every ounce of his strength to speak. "I think it's my turn to have a replacement." He muttered.
"Not funny, big man." Thatch said, kneeling next to the soldier. "You'd damn well better stay with us. I'm just starting to not completely hate you."
Ben allowed himself a light smirk in spite of his pain. "How very caring of you."
"What my camerade means is that you are a member of our team." Francois said. "And we don't let our teammates die this easily."
Ben looked up at the faces of his new team. Each one of them had every right to simply leave him to die after all he put them through in his brief time as their field commander, but now, all of them stood by him in his weakest moment. As the sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance, Ben smiled one more time before allowing the comforting embrace of unconsciousness to take him, the combined strain of exhaustion and his wounds weighing heavily on him. He was dimly aware of people yelling his name after him, but he could barely hear them as he allowed himself to rest.
As the majority of the hunters watched over Ben, the Axman stood apart from the group. His excitement and energy from before were beginning to fade. As the numbers of the enemy grew smaller, he began to realize more and more how tired he was. He was tempted to consult the new voice in his head on what was going on, but once the smell of gunpowder began to overpower that of decay, the voice grew silent. It was odd, the second he leapt into battle with that saw, it was like he was on auto pilot, the voice guiding every move he made, telling him just what to do and when to do it. To be honest, it scared him, the amount of violence he commited and the lack of restraint. He would never have even picked up that chainsaw in any other fight, knowing just how quickly the blade would have gone through aura, but in this one, it seemed not only logical to use it, but right. That voice could be very convincing.
"Never thought I'd be fighting on your side." Said a voice, pulling him out of his thoughts. The vigilante turned to see it was Taipan who had spoken.
"Desperate times, I guess." He said. "Since you're on my side this time, does this mean this is our third date?"
The snake punched him in the shoulder. "In your dreams. I'm sure we'll be back at each other's throats in no time."
"I don't know." The Axman replied. "I mean, where will you go now? The White Fang thinks you're dead, and they've been working with some pretty shady characters lately."
Taipan looked at the ground. "I don't know." She said sadly. "I want to go back, but after what we did on that island... I don't think I can. And even if I did, I know what some White Fang leaders do to those they think talked."
"You could always stick around in Vale." He suggested. "I could use some company in my late night activities... That sounded so much better in my head."
The snake giggled slightly, running a hand through her dirty blonde hair. "I might stay in Vale for a bit. I could use a place to think for a bit."
"The two of you might want to get back to Vale pretty soon anyway." Said a third voice. Taipan and the Axman turned to see it was Maria who had spoken, Ben having been loaded into a medical ship bound for the city. "Julia might have missed you right now, but when she brings the teams in for a debriefing, she won't take kindly to a vigilante and a former terrorist." The centurion gestured to the city behind her. "If you move quickly, you can be hidden before she notices, but you have to move now."
"I know a place we can hide out." The Axman said with a nod. He reached into his coat and pulled out a slip of paper. "If you want to meet me, head to this address and ask for the moonshine forge."
Maria accepted the slip with a nod of thanks and silently gestured to the city again. The Axman returned her nod, but before he could run, Taipan stepped forward. "You asked me my name on the ship." She said. "I think after saving me, you deserve to know it." She took a deep breath, steadying herself, knowing that with these words, she was severing her ties to the White Fang, possibly for good. "My name is Micca, Micca Sol."
Maria held out a hand which Micca gladly took. "Maria Gaia." She said, shaking the snake's hand. "Now go, before Atlas catches you."
With a nod, the Axman and Taipan both broke into a silent run for the city, Maria watching after them until they entered the streets. With a heavy sigh, the centurion turned to face her team. They were battered, bruised and beaten, but they were still alive and still a team after all they had been through. She watched as Thatch led Francois and Alison back to the wreck of the hardware shop and the Serenity in it. "What are you doing?" She asked, joining them.
"What do you think?" Thatch answered. "I'm salvaging my ship."
"You think you can repair that?" Maria asked. "We literally crushed a hardware store in that thing."
"And any other ship wouldn't have survived that." The renegade replied. "This thing is tough as nails, and I want to keep it."
"It would be handy to have airborne transport." Alison pointed out.
"That is, if he can even get this thing running again." Francois added.
Maria chuckled to herself before a realization hit her: Fantine was still out there. She and her team could celebrate all they wanted, but as they did, Fantine would still be trapped on the Abyss. How could she call this mission a success when the mission leader was left to die.
No. Fantine wasn't dead. That man was a tenacious fighter and strategist, and he was accompanied by a veteran of the Faunus War who served under her idol. If anyone could survive out there, it was them.
The ringing of her scroll brought Maria out of her thoughts and back to the real world. Pulling the communicator from her pocket, she saw she had one new message. Opening it, she found it to be just a single line of text.
We're alive. Tell Ironwood I was right. The enemy is in the Abyss.
Fantine
Maria let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Fantine was alive, and not only that, but she had a way of getting into contact with General Ironwood. After all, her beloved sister was his lieutenant general. Her resolve restored, Maria looked back up at her team. The engines of the ship powered up as Thatch roared in triumph from the inside. "It works! It bloody works! I told you so!" Maria could only smile. If a ship could crash through that much after being in a scrape with a Nevermore, Fantine could survive a few days there. He had to have reason to believe he would succeed.
Thatch strutted out of the ship and threw an arm around Alison. "What did I tell you two?" He gloated.
Alison just blushed, but Francois rolled his eyes. "Don't get too cocky, mon ami. Repairing this thing will take more than just confidence and a change of headlight fluid."
The renegade removed his arm from the artist and fixed the noble with a blank stare. "Did you just say headlight fluid?"
Maria watched as the boys squabbled, Alison standing back and occasionally laughing at them. "Alright, can it you two." She ordered. "I'll have someone come out here and retrieve the ship later, for now, we've got business to attend to."
Oxoxoxo
That took WAY longer than I thought it would, but, I hope it was worth the wait.
Special thanks to Undaed15, Madninja324 and ESPECIALLY DeadAliveManiac who composed this masterpiece of a battle. Seriously, if you haven't checked out some of this guy's work, what are you doing? Go read his Death Battle story, you won't regret it if you liked the action in this chapter.
And, if you liked the characters in this chapter and want to see more of them, I just told you who wrote their stories. If you want to see more of VOAJ and INGO, check out "Beacon's VOAJ" or "INdiGO Dreams" by Madninja324 (The latter of which was recently updated, so you should definitely check that out). And, if you liked Taipan and the Axman, go check out Undaed15's stories "Eight New Faces" or "RWBY: Light Dark and Shadow" the latter of which also stars Team EMAD. Lastly, if you liked Ben or Vlad, and want to see the Abyss in a more traditional horror story, then DeadAliveManiac's "RWBY: The Abyss" is the story for you.
Again, massive shoutout to DeadAliveManiac for writing the vast majority of the action scenes in this chapter, next chapter will end season 2, and with that ending comes a question I'd like you all to answer: should I include season 3 in this story, or should it be in a separate one? Leave a review telling me what you think as well as if you liked this chapter.
Thanks for reading, and have a Happy New Year.