Storm watched Taline and Wukong enter the arena, battle ready. Both seemed to take it much more seriously than their previous matches. While Wukong simply had a more serious air to him than before, Taline had visibly prepared for this by putting her long blue-green hair—which was usually about her shoulders and back—into a pony-tail. While trivial to some, Storm took it as a sign that she wasn't going to fool around. Storm shifted in his seat nervously.
This match was later than the ones before it, as it was about night. The construction workers had finished installing some of the cannons, but they'd also damaged the school generator. It had taken them hours to repair it, and even then they installed another generator, just in case. By the time they had power back in the sparring room, the sun had started to set.
The two of them took up fighting stances, and Storm's mother raised the force field. She'd felt better today than yesterday, so she resumed her duties. Storm was just glad not to have to do that anymore.
The match began with Taline throwing a few fireballs at Wukong, who blocked them while twirling his staff. Wukong then went up to her, splitting his staff into nunchuks, and started a full on assault. Every time Taline blocked with her forearm, she got hit anyway. Soon enough, Taline adapted her tactics, grabbing Wukong's left forearm mid-attack, and started summoning fire in her right hand. Wukong then tried to free himself with his right, but that only resulted in Taline repeating the tactic. Storm knew that Wukong would probably free himself, though he wondered how.
He got his answer as Wukong kicked Taline in the gut. It didn't seem to hurt her too much, but it did anger her. She threw Wukong against the force field so hard, sparks flew from it.
Taline then drew her sword, and Wukong readied his staff. His quick recovery was surprising—he was tougher than he looked. As Taline swung her sword, a low and steadily loudening siren sounded. The energy wave from her sword hit the force field, which seemed an intentional after the siren.
Suddenly the match stopped. No attacks, no banter, nothing. They just stared at the door to the sparring room.
It wasn't until now that Storm realized what the siren meant. He'd only heard it outside of movies once, and that was in Vale. A Grimm attack was here.
Crystal had gone out to meet the night ferry with Jasper and his team to meet Peri. She was coming back, which Crystal thought was awfully quick for going to Atlas, going through major surgery, recovering from that, and coming back. She must have known of someone Crystal didn't who was a prosthetic engineer. That's when Crystal heard the siren.
She looked out into the sea, and saw what the siren was indicating. She saw Duelists swimming along the surface, the head fins of Poseidons poking above the surface, and—using her True Sight—Karkinoi crawling along the sea floor. All of it was telling of a Grimm invasion by sea.
Crystal drew her blades, as did Jasper. Rowan was calling in his weapon when Crystal looked to Sakura. As far as she could tell, Sakura, while in her combat gear, didn't have a weapon on her. "Aren't you going to call yours in too?" she asked.
Sakura grinned and said, "I've already got it." She took a glove from her pocket, and put it on her right hand.
"Your weapon is a glove?" Crystal questioned.
Jasper laughed and said, "No. You'll see what it is."
As the Grimm drew closer, Crystal began to center herself. Fear made one a target and anger led to recklessness. In order to win this battle, she needed to empty herself of all emotion, leaving only a calm mind and a sound body. All thoughts of the past and future evaporated, leaving only the present. She was ready.
A ten foot tall, crablike Karkinos climbed onto the ferry dock. Crystal ran up to it, wielding her cutlasses with deadly precision. It became clear to her that cutlasses weren't working, so she shattered them and formed it into a spear. She thrust the spear through the Karkinos's armor, causing it to screech horribly. Jasper interjected, slicing through the armor with his glowing sword. They made short work of the thing, and moved on to the next one.
Crystal, with her True Sight, noticed how Sakura was doing. She moved out of the way of Karkinoi's attacks easily, and even managed to hit them back. She would take a small bomb—about the size of a large grape—out of her combat vest, rub her thumb and index finger on the fuse, lighting it, and toss it right where the Karkinos didn't want it. She seemed to be doing very well with not a single hit on her.
A locker landed, presumably Rowan's as he was the one who went for it. He took out a shield and a belt with Dust crystals on it. He put the belt around his waist and the shield around his right arm. He then took a red Dust crystal in his hand and crushed it. His aura lit on fire with the energy from the crystal, and he ran into battle.
The Karkinoi were no match for them for the most part. Their thick armor protected innards that did not take kindly to swords and spears. Rowan could hold his own and distract them, but there wasn't much he could do to kill them, which Sakura helped him with. Really Crystal was most impressed by the teamwork between Rowan and Sakura—he dove in to take a blow for her while she attacked. They'd be able to hold the docks until help arrived; Crystal had little doubt of that.
Teams arrived from the school to hold the docks. Team AWLH and SFRN were first, followed by Crystal's team—CCRE—and team SAFR. Storm was absent it seemed, so she would have to command both her and his teams.
She started giving them orders immediately. "Cirocco, go to the front. Ember, Rayne, Azura, take up support positions on the outside of the school. Faye, find the ferry and make sure it's safe."
Rusti spoke up as everyone set about their tasks. "What do I do?"
She smiled. "You've got a flamethrower; start throwing."
Rusti smiled back. "All you had to do was ask." He took his long handled hammer off his back, and shifted the handle ninety degrees into his flamethrower.
Suddenly, a huge Poseidon, looking like the sea serpents of legend, rose out of the water. It roared as two of its friends joined it. This is what the cannons were for.
Storm followed his mother to the top of the mountain Haven was built out of. There wasn't much there but rocks and dust. If he knew his mother, he knew what she'd do next.
Below, the huge cannons they'd installed fired on Poseidons, killing them instantly. There was one at least a hundred feet tall that the shells were only annoying. Its scales were too think for that, and as it tore a cannon from its place, Storm knew the target.
She took out her bow, and triggered its transformation. In lengthened, going from six feet to more like ten or twelve. More cord was unwound from the spools on the two ends. It wasn't a simple bow anymore; it was an anti-armor weapon!
She steadied it on the rock, and pulled two arrows from her quiver. They were bent in half on hinges until she straightened them out, locking them into place. A normal arrow would have been too small, and would not have been able to go the entire length of the bow, so she carried these foldout arrows in addition to normal ones.
She knocked one into place, putting the holding the other with the shaft of the bow, and turned to Storm. "Could you hold the cord, Sweetie?"
Storm obeyed, grabbing onto the cord with the arrow and pulled it out. He pulled it a few paces back and asked, "Is that good?"
"Walk a bit to the right." He did so. They were now aimed perfectly at the Poseidon. "Good, now let go."
Storm let go, and the arrowed went flying with a huge amount of force behind it. A huge sound followed it as it flew. It hit the Poseidon dead on, piercing its scales, and releasing acid that ate away at its armor. They immediately followed it up with the other arrow, and it exploded inside the serpent, taking a vital chunk out of it. The Poseidon went down, crashing upon the waves as its corpse disintegrated away to nothing.
"Now if only this wasn't our main way of bonding," he joked.
She shook her head. "I don't know where you got your sense of humor, Storm, but it wasn't from me."
Storm nodded regretfully. That wasn't a good joke apparently. "Let's just kill another one, okay?"
She nodded, thankfully, and took aim again. And the fight went on.