Chapter 23: Painless, Pointless
"They've breached the main gate! Get in formation!" the squad commander said as they raced down the main hallway, a wide and spacious kind. There were fifteen of them, well-armed and armored. The men formed a line and pointed at the large, double door that led to the hall.
"On my mark! Mar-" He could not finish his sentence as a giant of a man blasted through the door, his body launched their way faster than any could react. On impact, his body hit them with such force that it knocked the men down like bowling pins, all of them either incapacitated or unconscious.
Hazel got up an instant later, unfazed by the temporary relocation.
It wasn't often that he had the chance to find someone he could almost respect. There was so much training that completely missed the eye of the uneducated beholder, so much mastery in hand to hand combat. Some said it was like a conversation, but Hazel disagreed. It was more closely related to an interrogation or espionage, they were trying to discover each other's flaws without revealing their own.
In that regard he could respect her, she was a difficult opponent to read with the prowess to back it, he could feel that she had devoted herself to the art of fighting just as much as he had, the kind of knowledge one could only have when facing some could feel the fire in her red eyes, behind the fists that guarded her face, head movement continuing even though he'd been launched across the room, and the quick footwork that would confuse lesser enemies.
Smart, in a fight protecting yourself at all times is always the top priority. He thought.
However, The Xiao Long was one of Ozpin's, and that was a shame.
Hazel advanced, quickly, a series of surges as he shifted between false attacks and weaving. When he got within reach of his opponent he struck air with his jab, the electricity of the Dust crackling in the air as it followed. Yang had slipped under his guard and flashed to his side, she delivered a low kick to his shin, then three lightning-fast hooks — two to the body and one to his chin.
Hazen spun with a haymaker that grazed Yang across the forehead. Though it was a glancing blow, the strike drew blood and the fire that followed and forced her to step away, to recover from the strike an instant later.
No matter, his intention had been done. She was fighting with no Aura shield and now the blood would blind her as it trickled to her eyes.
Hazel pressed, jabbing and he advanced. His jabs were too fast for the Dust to follow, but it was something of an advantage, as if they hit the delayed wave of electricity or fire would strike soon after, echoing his attack. One punch, two strikes
Was she trying to punch him out, or break his Aura shield with a cleverly-placed counter? The blood still flowed from her forehead, slowly. A timer Hazel could outlast for sure.
Their dynamic was the same, and in a sense it was as if Hazel was fighting himself. As even when one fist stuck out and found only the afterimages of the Xiao Long, the other kept the guard up, close to his face to block against the unseen attack.
Something had to give, and it did! Droplets of blood found her eyes, forced Yang to close them and block one of his jabs instead of avoiding it, a grievous mistake. An instant after his fist connected with her forearm the electric Dust followed, the damage irrelevant, as it was meant to shock and stun the target, like a high-voltage taser.
Her body tensed, and Hazel took it as his cue, aimed a wide hook at the woman's head she was blinded and stunned, done for!
And she flashed forward, slipping inside and delivering a hook to his body with such power that it forced him to lean forward through sheer force, followed by an uppercut directly underneath his chin — both strikes enhanced by firing the twin shotgun gauntlets.
It was a second later that Hazel fell, fully conscious of his mistake before his back hit the floor. Yang knew he meant to blind her with the blood, she hadn't been stunned by his Dust at all! A feint, delivered masterfully.
The protective field shimmered green and dissipated around his figure when his shield broke. Hazel sat up a moment later. His Semblance — the removal of sensation — was always active, and it blocked the pain entirely.
Yang took a step back, throwing out the spent ammo belts as she reloaded her weapon. Hazel jumped to his feet. When he was down, why didn't she take the chance to attack him? Had she stepped back merely to reload her weapon, or was it that blasted Huntress code of conduct that compelled her to give him a chance to surrender?
"Let me guess, you hate Ozpin too?" Yang asked, stalking around Hazel, stepping carefully. Hazel mirrored her.
"You don't?" Hazel answered. He stabbed both Dust crystals into his arms, each hand digging the propellant into the opposite biceps. A move he could only pull without a shield to protect his body.
Yang winced, but never broke her guard, "Doesn't that hurt?"
Hazel chuckled, she definitely couldn't know the intricacies of using the human body as a conduit. Sure, the pain would make a normal Huntsman go into shock… But that was no problem for him.
He stamped her way, they traded a flurry of blows that thundered like gunshots, dozens of strikes and not a speck of Dust spent by either side.
Both stepped out of reach at the same time, Hazel's ears ringing in his head, and Yang's no doubt the same. "Worry about yourself," he said. One deep breath and a controlled motion later, he struck the ground, flames and lighting erupting from the floor in a ridge — a rift in motion.
The sheer impact blew Yang to the side, the flames matching those produced by her hair in their intensity.
The control was key to using Dust that way. Sudden muscular spasms, quick motions and the firing of nerves, those acted much in the same way as a firearm's hammer, veins and skin could be used to channel the propellant in precise and powerful ways. It took control not to ignite them by accident, something he had in spades.
Yang put out a fire that had begun spreading over her shirt, still stalking around hazel, closer to the guest tables. The blood covered her face and streamed down her chin. Some of it got on her hair.
She wiped her chin with a shoulder, "That's nasty. That witch can't be worth all that pain."
Pain! Hazel would've burst into laughter then and there. What would this Huntress know?
Hazel charged at her. Yang kicked a table into the air, then at Hazel. No matter, he could simply go through it…
Hazel split the table apart in the air, yet at the other side, Yang was nowhere to be seen, he scanned the sides, his head connecting with a pair of quick hooks just as he turned to look.
You used the table to hide repositioning, to buy a single instant! Xiao Long, you do not disappoint!
Yang shuffled back, keeping her distance. That trick would not work twice…
Once again she spoke, "What is it Hazel? Does she have a hostage? A spouse, or a sibling?"
How naive! She thought he could be forced to do her bidding. Hazel took the chance to stomp down on a chair, breaking the furniture into pieces and setting the shattered remains ablaze. One after the other, he threw the flaming pieces at Yang, one hitting her shoulder, the other a thigh.
Hazel opened his arms, his chest out, taunting, "Are you not fighting me, Xiao Long? Look around us, look at our strength!" He gestured around. The hall was in shambles, tables turned aside, floor cracked where Hazel struck it, crystal and glass goblets shattered at the edges of the room, where the shockwaves of glancing attacks destroyed them. Wind roared inside, from the hole Yang created on her mere act of entering the place.
Hazel gazed into her eyes, out of reach as he was, "Do you think she can force my hand? It's Ozpin's head I want, nothing more."
Hazel surged attacking as he advanced, forcing Yang to step away from each attack,
"An eye for an eye, nothing more!" He barked, between advancing and attacking, "His incompetence took my sister's life! My little sister!"
He struck again, and though his blow found only air, the shockwave blew away both Yang and the broken pieces of furniture around them, leaving only a cone of destruction ahead of him.
Yang twisted in midair, landing on a handstand then flipping away and to her feet.
"And so," Yang said, "Here you are, fighting on the side of the Grimm… How many little sisters did they take huh?"
Hazel roared, surged forward again. He poured every ounce of Dust into a barrage, his arms erupting into flames and crackling with electricity. The skin at his knuckles charred black. Yang dodged, yet even the glancing blows drew blood, forcing her on the defensive.
Amid the attacks, Yang ducked under his arms and slipped around him, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning back, launching Hazel into a broken mess of tables and chairs.
"Was that a nerve?' Yang taunted.
Hazel emerged from the rubble, "Idiot! Look at yourself! How many did he lead to the slaughter? We are all done for either way!" he roared.
Hazel struck the ground again, a torrent of flames forming ahead of him. In part, he expected Yang to avoid the attack, and for a moment was taken by surprise when she lunged into them, emerging out in front of him.
"Are you out-"
Yang's blow knocked the words out of him, she jumped over him and away from his grasp as he attempted to bring her into a hold. Hazel staggered to his hands and knees. Behind him, Yang breathed heavily, but still kept her distance. She was approaching her limits, still moving just as quick, but the injuries had compounded, she was keeping her distance more often.
He had difficulty moving, even though he felt no pain. Hazel was aware of his weaknesses, That pain was a warning mechanism, and in a way he was making the best of being dealt a bad hand when it came to Semblances. He was approaching his limits too.
It only then came to Hazel, that despite his attempts to keep track of every injury in his body, he had no way to measure their intensity. Yang was strong, and both of them inflicted more damage on themselves than on the other. Had she been whittling him down without his noticing?
He stumbled to his feet, only then noticing as he looked to his arms, the Dust crystals, both gone! He turned around, his gaze snapped to Yang, and the woman tossed the pair of Dust crystals aside, each to a different corner of the room.
Then, she disengaged her weapon, letting the twin gauntlets collapse into bracelets.
Hazel forced himself forward, Yang charged his way. Both roared as they attacked.
Only Yang's blow connected.
Rattled, Hazel reeled back, almost collapsing, then fell to his knees. His arms didn't respond to his will, his vision went dark for a few seconds. It was over, and despite his predicament, the destruction of his body and consciousness, perhaps for the first time in years, he could see clearly.
I lost my edge. That witch whittled it down, sanded it off, little by little.
He'd blinded himself. Numbed, not just in body but mind, and look where it got him. Side-by-side with a witch that only asked for his obedience as a price for his revenge, and protecting a man that enslaved people, tortured them into amalgamations of monsters and machines for statistical improvements and control.
He could see in Yang a contender's will. A woman with a clear goal in mind, not indifferent to the horrors around them.
Yang was the one to break the silence.
"She's not going to give you revenge, or closure, Hazel."
Hazel chuckled. A few long moments later, he got to his feet. Yang immediately put her guard up again, unaware of the fact he could not move his arms yet. But he could still fight. Hazel had his legs, and Yang was just as injured as he was. His shadow loomed in front of him.
He admitted defeat instead, turning around and walking outside, into the raging snowstorm.
—❖—
The grandiose double doors of the Schnee manor banged open, a torrent of wind and snow following inside. A paladin landed inside and skid backwards, aiming its pair of arm-mounted guns at the fog. A pair of figures could be seen inside the whirlwind of snow, one red-robed, another framed by a circular glyph behind her — Weiss Schnee.
Before the Paladin could fire, Weiss darted forward, thrust her rapier forward. Through momentum and exorbitant use of fire dust, she pierced through the oversized mechanical automaton, leaving a flaming hole in the android, and a trail of fire where she passed. One of Yang's moves she shamelessly stole.
The Paladin's circuits shorted, and before it could reroute systems, Ruby shot it, a pair of explosive shots aimed at the shoulders, then three others at the body.
The paladin fell to the ground and detonated.
Ruby walked inside, stepping around the ruins of the android. They exchanged no words as both looked inside the extravagant house. The main hall was spacious, but the floor was filled with patches of fallen people, both Atlesian military and some of the SDC servants, most incapacitated, some dead. Among them, broken camera drones.
Weiss sheathed Myrtenaster and inspected the nearest one, a servant. He was long dead, unnaturally pale, had a tight metal collar around his neck, and from it his flesh was blackened. The veins that radiated from the disgusting shackle were blackened. Weiss scowled, Ruby gasped behind her.
Leaning face-down on the base of the stairs at the very center of the room, one person moved, one they recognized.
"Blake!" Weiss shouted, running across the hall. When she got to Blake turned her around, she could see a terrible cut, diagonal, from shoulder to abdomen. She was just barely holding on.
At the sudden movement, Blake hacked and coughed, "He's upstairs," she said, laboriously. Blake was tougher than she looked, Weiss had to admit it.
"And the people here…" Ruby said.
Blake breathed in with some effort, "I did my best, to keep them from killing each other. They were broadcasting it…"
Broadcasting the fighting and death, were they trying to cause a mass panic? Weiss had to seriously consider the thought…
"And Ironwood? Neo? Roman?" Weiss asked.
"We lost contact with Roman, the others went after Jacques."
Weiss eyed Ruby for a moment, "Can you take Blake back to the Mirage-One? It might screw up our whole plan."
Ruby thought for a moment, "I can do it, but I'll have to shoot blind."
Weiss nodded, "That's within what we predicted. We know how this will go, Jacques always has a backup plan, and he had five years to prepare. You need to circle around the-"
As she spoke, something crashed a distance away, some kind of fighting demanded her attention
"We'll speak through the earpieces," Ruby said.
Weiss helped Blake stand. Just as she finally managed it, Ruby spoke, "Oh, and Weiss?"
"Yes?" she asked, just a moment before Ruby planted a kiss on her lips. Weiss' eyes went wide.
"For good luck," Ruby said, "Now come on, move it Ice Queen!"
Weiss nodded, turning away and running up the stairs. She unsheathed Myrtenaster, and took one final look at Ruby as she left the Manor.
This could be the last time we see each other.