Issue #11

"That's a lot of Grimm." Noel whispered as she settled down next to Vermilion. They'd finally found the Jackyll horde around midday, the sun blazing through the canopy of the forest without a cloud in sight. Down below in the valley in the foothills of the mountains were the hundred strong Grimm, a mass of black and white with the sounds of growling and snuffling.

"What are they waiting for? I thought packs don't congregate like this." Vermilion questioned aloud. The two sat in a shrub on the edge of the ridge overlooking the valley. Silvia and Willa were nearby in their own camouflaged spot just a few dozen feet away, Jaune had his own spot to their right. Somehow they couldn't see him even though he was closer than Willa and Silvia. Maybe it was his brown duster letting him blend in.

"Jackyll Grimm aren't known for collecting in such numbers or staying in one place for so long. Nests usually last for about a month before they move on. The fact they're so close to the town but haven't thrown themselves at the defenses is a little worrying." Jaune added over their earpieces.

"Either way we have to destroy this nest." Willa said, "What's the plan?"

"Torch 'em?" Noel suggested.

"In a forest?!" Willa yelled, "Are you insane? No don't answer that, of course you are."

"Hold on." Jaune stopped her tirade, "Silvia, Willa how much rock dust do you have?"

"I have ten vials."

"I have fifteen."

"If we use all the rock dust we have then we should be able to create a perimeter around the Grimm and then we can set the interior ablaze." Jaune elaborated.

"That's! That's not actually a bad plan." Willa relented.

"It'll be safer than trying to go down there and kill them all by hand, that's for sure." Vermilion added.

"I guess that's the plan." Noel concluded before asking, "Anything you'd recommend Jaune?"

"Just be careful. We'll split the dust up amongst ourselves and cover different areas. Luckily there isn't any foliage on this side of the valley, it's too steep." Jaune cautioned.

Vermilion carried two vials on her own so when they divided the dust out each person carried five except for Silvia and Willa who each carried six. It was determined the two dust users would cover the two ends of the valley with Noel being towards Willa's position and Jaune's who was taking the center on the other side of the valley. Vermilion got the last position between Jaune and Silvia.

Her boots slid on the dirt as she slid down the steep slope a good distance away from the horde. They had decided to split into two groups and go down separate sides of the valley with Silvia a few feet away, her robes flapping in the wind. Eventually they hit the treeline at the bottom of the valley and the ground evened out. Silvia's Erwydd O'Morgen dug into the ground and the girl stopped short.

With a nod Vermilion caught her footing on the ground and broke out into a sprint as her own slide came to an end, leaving her partner in the trees as she approached her position. Luckily for them the horde seemed to be packing in tight on whatever was in the center, they couldn't see through the canopy what was there but it was probably the Alpha.

Not that it mattered, they'd all be purged by the fire.

Thanks to her training with Jaune over the last half a year she was no longer winded by the short spring to her position and by the time she reached hers, so had the others. Facing towards where the horde was she could make out in the far distance the writhing mass of black and white. They had to do this fast, before the Grimm noticed and broke through the perimeter.

Rosa Mors expanded into it's shield on her arm and she drew the blade out with a quiet ring. It was an expertly made blade, the steel whispering out with nary a sound. The vials situated in her shield were all switch to dust, some having already been loaded into the blade. The channel along the fuller was filled with a brown dust that looked almost like dirt. Rock dust wasn't flashy like fire or electric dust and thus was rarely used by students who didn't study in the use of dust as a mode of attack, like Willa and Silvia. Her father had made her sure to always be prepared so she carried a vial of every basic type chambered in Rosa Mors with a few extra in the dust pouches on her belt.

They'd all worked out the directions they be going until they met up with their respective partner. Noel would use her semblance, Duet, to go in both direction towards Willa and Jaune where Jaune would form his wall in Vermilions direction and Vermilion would move towards Silvia and Silvia towards her. The only direction not covered was the steep ridge they'd started on but hopefully none of the Grimm could climb that and if they did Willa could pick them off with her weapon.

So with blade in hand Vermilion cut a slash into the ground and stone sprang up like some sort of rapidly growing plant, shooting into the tips of the rock walls were thin but enough to block some fire and reached above the canopy and stretched about ten feet to either side. It looked like intent really did matter, like Silvia had advised. Dust was triggered by aura or physical stimulus. So using aura with Rosa Mors she could activate the dust and shape it to her will, within reason.

The dust in the blade was only half used up and she could fill it a few more times from the single vial, and she had five vials. If she didn't mess up she could make it to Silvia, no problem. Another slash and another section came into being, just a few inches taller than the last but a little misshapen.

A dozen sections later and she was down to her last vial, a trail of mismatched earthen walls leading her towards where she had com from. A few more sections and Rosa Mors clicked empty, her last vial used up. Still, she could not see Silvia, if all had gone well, should have been there.

"Rock wall!" She heard the cry and nearly leapt out of her skin as rocks came bursting forth from deeper in. The wall Silvia made was sturdier and better formed than hers, rising well above the canopy.

"Hey-ho~" Silvia waved as she called out to her partner, appearing from around the side of her wall, "Nice wall Mili."

Vermilion slapped her hand into the proffered high-five and gazed up at the wall the witchy girl had made, "Not as good as yours, though."

"Silvia Keppel, the Witch of Architecture!" The girl struck a cute pose with her tongue stuck out and chest puffed forward. Vermilion hand to slap her hand up to her mouth to stop herself from laughing and shot her partner a glare.

"Status?" Jaunes voice cut in over the comms.

"Northern end is complete." Noel sounded off.

"Just about to link up in the south." Vermilion answered.

"Hurry up." She winced at Jaune's impatient tone.

Silvia was looking at her strangely, "What is it?"

"Oh nothing just waiting for you to complete the wall." She answered.

"I'm out of dust." Vermilion showed the girl her empty vials and the green haired girl opened her robes and amongst all the vials in her coat, not a single one remained of rock dust. They both looked each other in the eyes and visibly paled, then turned to look at the gap that was left in the wall, a good hundred feet.

"Oh crap." Vermilion cursed. That was when they heard it. The howls from the Jackylls that showed their time was up. The mass in the distance exploded into action and was starting to get closer, "Double crap!"

"Did you complete the southern wall?" Jaune's voice cut through.

"Not yet! Ran out of dust!" Vermilion cried out while Silvia seemed to be reaching into her robes.

"We're on our way! Hold on!" Jaune shouted in the microphone.

"Conflagration!" Silvia shouted and flung both hands out in front of her. Vermilion caught a glimpse of bright red dust before the air ignited into flames. Massive swathes of heat and fire rolled into the trees in front of them. The entire gap was set ablaze with the fire being carried quite the distance towards the oncoming Grimm.

Out of the roaring flames came snarling Grimm bounding towards them. Rosa Mors lanced out and cut down the leading Jackyll mid air, the Grimm disappearing in a cloud. The second rammed head first into her shield, the click of a button switching the vials in the shield allowing her to fire a burst of electricity from the shield to finish the burning Grimm off.

"Ice Barrier!" Came the shout from behind her and torrent of blue flashed passed her head and struck the ground at the edge of the wall, creating a similar structure made of ice. A third Grimm sprinted around the ice and made a beeline for the pair. Using her shield as it pounced, Vermilion flipped it over her head and impaled it with a thrust of her blade.

"Ice Barrier!" Silvia yelled again, once more throwing out the ice dust and creating another section of wall. They just over halfway through the gap and some of the ice had encased a few Jackylls, freezing over the burning Grimm and causing them to dissipate into thin air, leaving holes in the wall, "Vermilion!" Her partner pointed at the openings and she knew what she had to do. Rotating the vials in her shield she charged her blade with ice dust and proceeded to block the two openings the Grimm had made as Silvia created another wall. This new section formed straight up, impaling a Grimm that was trying to get around the barrier.

Quickly, Vermilion ran over to the last section of the wall that needed to come up. Silvia pulled the stopper from her dust vial and shook loose the contents into her hand. "Ice Barrier!" Was shouted a final time as the ice formed quickly, closing up the gap between the ice and where her stone wall ended. As the wall formed another Jackyll leaped over it sailing straight for Silvia.

Time seemed to slow for Vermilion, her body feeling like it was suddenly full of electricity, the very air vibrating with energy. With the press of a button she activated the shield charge and then hurled the thing at the Grimm. She watched in slow motion as the spinning kite shield bisected the Grimm, electricity sparking from its surface. Everything snapped back to normal speed and her shield buried it's edge deep into the wood, still vibrating slightly from the impact.

She blinked a few times and then shook her head, running up to her friend, "Are you alright?!"

"Yeah I'm fine. Nice throw, Mili." Silvia took a deep breath.

Vermilion retrieved her shield, grunting as she pulled it free from the tree. She felt tired and her muscles were suddenly groaning.

"Woah, run out of rocks, guys?" Noel jogged up to them, Jaune covering the rear and Willa eyeing their impromptu wall made of ice.

"Something like that. I hope it lasts long enough." By then the fire was in full swing and spreading like the wildfire it was. Black smoke bellowed into the air, darkening it. The rush of the flames consuming the trees almost drowned out the howling of the Jackylls as they were burned enmass.

"Willa, use what ice you can to reinforce that section."Jaune pointed to their ice wall. Her weapon flashed out in glaive form a spinning set of glyphs appeared at the base of the ice wall and even more ice grew to reinforce it, "Are you two okay?"

"Yeah, it was just a few Grimm. They-" A fierce howl, different from the others, rent the air, interrupting Vermilion.

The thick black smoke rising into the air billowed out into seven large forms hurtling at them at incredible speed through the air. With heavy thuds the creatures landed among them as black blurs. Everyone was forced to dodge or be crushed and Vermilion brought her shield up just in time as a trunklike arm came sweeping out of the dust that had been thrown up by it's landing, impacting her shield and sending her flying back.

Something broke underneath her as her back impacted a nearby tree with her head snapping back to echo the first crack with another. Even with her aura, the blow was painful and had her seeing stars. Rapidly blinking them away she got her first good look at the Grimm that attacked her.

It stood hunched over at an easy eight feet tall, it's think forelimbs ending in wicked looking claws. Bat-like wings folded down and wrapped close to its body, it's face matching the bat theme with a scrunched snout and tall ears standing up straight, though the long fangs descending from it's mouth spoke of its intended purpose. Behind it six more of the monsters assaulted the rest of her team.

The beast charged at her and in a panic she ducked down, it's claws shredding into the tree, causing splinters to fly in every direction. Vermilion jumped back to get some room, raising her shield but that proved to be a mistake as the Grimm took both of it's arms and hammered down atop her, driving her knee painfully into the dirt. When the pressure relented she struck out with her blade, scoring a line across it's abdomen.

With a roar the beast retaliated be grabbing her shield in hand and hurling her bodily into a nearby tree. The only thing Vermilion could do was to curl into a ball and take the impact. She was beginning to hate trees. Rolling once she hit the ground she barely avoided the follow up attack from the beast.

"Tyrant Grimm! Very dangerous and very intelligent. DO NOT LET THEM BITE YOU!" Jaune roared and the comms echoed him leaving her ear ringing.

The Tyrant attacking her loomed before her, claws descending towards her with lightning speed. With a grunt she pulled her shield back and thrust the edge out, diverting the attack into the ground and following up with a thrust that cut deeply into the crook of the Tyrant's arm. The beast roared and pulled back but Vermilion leapt onto the hilt of Rosa Mors, with the combined weight of her leaning on the weapon and the beast thrashing about her weapon cut through its arm. With a squelch the blade came free and Vermilion fell to the ground, the severed limb impacting next to her and started dissolving immediately.

The remaining arm slammed down atop her and she brought her shield up in time to prevent the claws from cutting at her, though she could still feel her aura dip as she was pinned to the ground, the beast leaning over her with it's glowing red eyes. Slowly it's mouth opened and the fangs hung there on full display. The beast froze for a moment and she could feel the vibration of several thuds slam into the Tyrant. Looking down the black body she could see three protrusions from it's chest at a sharp angle. The objects were long and sharp, dyed crimson from the beasts insides but still clearly made of ice.

Heaving a sigh the beast collapsed over her and through great effort she tried to move the corpse aside as it started dissolving. On her third heave the body shifted off of her and in its place stood Silvia, a worried look on her face as she offered a hand to her.

"Thanks. That was close." Vermilion took the hand and was pulled up suddenly, "I thought you were outta ice, though?"

"We have to help the others." Silvia ignored the question entirely, "Draw them together!" She shouted at the group.

Now, without a Grimm trying to tear her head off, Vermilion could survey the scene. Willa was dueling of of the Tyrants herself, attempting to push it back towards Jaune and Noel. Noel was using Duet fully and teaming up with Jaune to take out the four Grimm working together though it seemed as if they were having a hard time of it. Jaune moved to block every time Noel would have taken a hit but he was suffering for it, taking hit after hit.

Willa noticed the situation and ducked under a quick swipe from her Tyrant and started running for the pack attacking Jaune and Noel, as did Vermilion and Silvia. The Schnee used her glaive to vault over the arm swinging for her as one of the other four noticed her. Landing in a roll she came up on the other side, with Jaune and Noel.

"Cover!" Silvia shouted, dipping her hands into her robes again, the girl had to be getting low on dust, what she came out with caused Vermilion's heart to skip a beat. Four vials of a bright yellow dust. Lightning dust, "Lightning Surge!" The girl cried out and not for nothing all the vials emptied into the air and the surrounding area exploded in a flash of light and charged ions.

The electricity surged forwards faster than the eye could see, overwhelming the Grimm. Once Vermilion uncovered her eyes she saw the tree of them mopping up the rest of the Grimm, their steaming corpses falling to the ground after being flash fried. The steam turned to black smoke as the Tyrants dissolved into the air. Behind them the fire roared in full force, black plumes growing ever larger as the fire spread.

It took hours for the fire to burn down enough for them to enter the enclosure. They had spent the entire time checking the perimeter to make sure that none of the embers had escaped over the walls and had luckily only needed to put out some small flames. Their aura protected them from the heat emanating from the charred and still burning trees. No Grimm were found, even when they hit the center and with the fire still raging toward the other end it was unlikely many Grimm had escaped if any. Silvia and Willa worked together to snuff out the rest of the flames, a whirlwind sucking the air out of the fire and leaving it smoldering at the edges of the walls. Almost nothing stood within the wall they had made, over a hundred Grimm reduced to ash and smoke.

"Well at least we know why that horde was there." Jaune said as he triggered the pickup beacon, "Tyrants are known for using minions and lesser Grimm to do their bidding."

"I've never heard of Tyrants. Are they rare?" Willa asked.

"Very. I've only ever encountered them once before, when... " Jaune shook his head, "They're really dangerous and shouldn't be engaged unless you can't help it."

It took a half hour before they could hear the droning in the distance, the sound of the aircraft's engines echoing off of the valley's walls. By that point most of the heat from the fire had dissipated and the smoke was down to a minimum.

"I need a shower." Noel complained, pulling the edge over her top out and waving it to dispel the sweat on her body. Vermilions body still ached from the earlier action but she felt satisfied. They'd passed the test the Headmistress had set out for them, she would be officially added into team BSK, which would be renamed BASK, and made Silvia's official partner. She couldn't help the smile that stole over her features and it seemed Noel didn't miss it either.

"Now you're officially one of us!" Noel crowed as she slung an arm around Vermilion's shoulders, "We're gonna be spending the next three and a half years together."

She felt the heat suffuse her cheeks and busied herself looking up at the bullhead as it came into view, growing bigger by the second. She couldn't help the way her stomach fluttered when thinking about spending time with everyone, especially Noel.

Vermilion watched the bullhead as something bright streaked out from the canopy, a plume left behind it in a curving trail as it impacted the fuselage of the aircraft. With a loud boom the entire thing was engulfed in flames, dropping like a stone from the sky until it slammed into the forest floor below. There was a brief silence before Jaune yelled.

"Ambush!"

A/N: Cliffhanger. You know I I kinda feel bad about this but you just can't put all of these together. The chapters would be way too long for me. But hey, if you thought the mission was going a little too easy then you were right! The Tyrant is something I've used before and it's a particularly nasty Grimm I made up. It was my version of the Apathy back in Lithium Rose. I love the design too much not to re-use it.

And now with everyone tired from the mission, even if it wasn't particularly hard, they gotta deal with some rather rude fellows.