Big Issues
AN: Fair warning for you all, this is a long chapter. Not the longest but it comes close. Enjoy!
Fears
Perhaps it was good that the Grimm that came at the team were only Beowolves, the team had the most experience dealing with them as they are the most common Grimm on Remnant. The biggest problem was that they were only the first wave that Ruby, Jaune, and Pyrrha had to slice and dice.
Ren and Nora returned in time for the second wave: another pack of Beowolves and a couple Ursai. The larger and stronger Grimm were slower than their lupine counterparts and quickly fell to the weapons of the teens.
"Ruby, we need to get moving again. We can't keep fighting the Grimm, we're running low on ammunition." Pyrrha informs the team leader as everyone takes the break in action to check their supplies.
"Then we better get moving." A quick check of their surroundings showed no signs of more Grimm coming. "Okay, take us to Uncle Qrow and I'll help carry him as far as we can go."
"This way." Nora took the lead and escorted the team to a fairly intact building near the small stream that was rerouted into an ornate aqueduct that flowed through the town at one point. The destruction of the settlement had the consequences of some rubble forming a dam and the water was forced around the surrounding wall. Between the damages from Grimm, time, and the water erosion, there wasn't too much of that part of the wall still standing.
Qrow was hidden under the middle of a house, the architectural style of the town had the buildings often raised on stilts. It wasn't high but enough that they could crawl underneath, Ruby and Nora having the height advantage this time with their shorter statures.
"Wait!" Ren calls out as he closes his eyes and focuses on his senses. Rhythmic footsteps that he knew well began to echo through the town. "Quick! Put him back!"
"But we just got him out." Ruby whines, having just stood up, it isn't easy to carry someone on a stretcher while crawling.
The footsteps grew louder as what was making the noise walked closer, almost like there were two things moving together with very different builds.
But Nora recognized the sounds as well, a sound that haunted the nightmares of both her and Ren. "No! We need to hide him!" The plump hammer girl shouts and drags the stretcher back under the house.
"Wha-what's going on!?" Ruby looks to her friends to find them all readying their weapons and moving away from the building.
"It's here." Ren spoke quietly but could be heard in the quiet ruins between the footfalls.
Nora crawled out from under the house, grabbed Magnhild from where it lay next to hers and Ruby's packs, and joined the others just in time to see the Grimm walk around the corner.
A massive beast of pure nightmare fuel, the majority of it resembles a horse that stood twice as tall as Nora, and while the rear legs had the hooves expected, the front legs ended in two comparatively short digits with thick blunted claws on the tips. There was no hair for the mane or tail, just a skeletal looking extension out the back of its hindquarters. The head, especially with its white Grimm mask, made it look like flesh only covered part of the skull and the red eyes burned in the dark.
What really drew attention was the humanoid figure that looked to be fused to the horse's back at the waist. The gaunt body has extremely long arms, long enough that the two fingered hands scraped along the ground, each of them covered with thick bony plates on the knuckles and long claws at the tips. The head of the creature resembles a human wearing a fitting mask over its upper face and head, a mask that bore a pair of long horns that curled back. And its mouth appeared to be stitched shut and its lips stretched those connections as its jaw opened.
But both parts were far more disturbing than simply being conjoined. Neither appear to have any skin or hair, merely the black muscles and tendons that held the skeletons together, complete with ribs protruding from the flesh, a patchwork of white plates over their chests and shoulders, and exposed spines with long spikes. A dark mist blew from the horse's nostrils as it breathed.
Coming off the shock of the sight of such a creature, the team also noticed the dozen or so spears and arrows in the 'rider's' back. That was worrisome as this thing was proving that it had gone through battles and the sharp implements of war caused it no apparent discomfort.
"Wha-what is that thing?" Jaune raised his shield up a bit more to block off some of the gruesome image.
"That… is a Nuckelavee." Nora answers the knight.
"Oh."
-—-
The cooks for the bandit tribe were surprisingly good for those who had to make do with what could be found or hunted, though there was a fair amount that the Huntsman and Huntresses were fairly certain that was stolen. But even Talon approved of the stew filled with fresh boar meat, wild herbs and vegetables, with a few nuts.
It had been interesting to watch the reactions of the tribe when Yang was introduced as Raven's daughter. More than a few choked on their meals and drinks but there were also a few comments about her weight.
"If you got a problem with it, come on up and say it to my face! I'll kick all of your mangy asses!"
Needless to say, there were enough from the 'welcoming committee' sporting injuries that none rose to the challenge. It did earn her a few looks of respect and even a smile from Raven, the tribe respected strength over just about anything else after all.
Baths were a bit of a contrast, Talon and Anya were extremely quick to clean up; growing up in a desert left its habits well ingrained. Yang insisted that she needed time to talk alone with Weiss, letting Denko before them and promising that they'd have a long hot shower once they got to Mistral.
"You know, when Raven said there was a spring to bathe at, I didn't think she was referring to a hot spring." Weiss comments as she undresses.
"I didn't think so either." Yang shrugs off her coat and pulls off her shirt, dropping them next to her weapons and fresher clothes.
"This does feel great." Weiss slips into the steaming water, glad to feel the days of dirt buildup drifting away.
"Yeah, I'll just give you a minute to let your oil spill go." The blonde didn't go any further than her ankles as she saw how much dirt was on her friend.
"Really? I remember how dirty we were after Mountain Glenn."
"Same, but our mud went down the drains right away."
It took another minute for the worst to wash away and for Yang to sit in the spring water, feeling the warmth soothe her whole body.
But what got Weiss' eyes to bulge was seeing Yang's breasts floating up to the surface. The blonde had a larger chest than most other girls at Beacon and her mission outfit proved that she was proud of that… and made Weiss feel inadequate in that area. Even Ruby was bigger than her and even with all of the weight added to her frame, she only caught up to where Ruby had been before the Issue began.
"Yang?"
"Hmm? What is it?"
"Umm, sorry if it sounds rude but… your arm?"
Yang glanced at the metal that she has attached to her, the lack of Hiryu Shoten revealing the exact place of transition from flesh to prosthetic. "Yeah, it sucks sometimes. And it was… really bad at first for a long time actually."
"How bad was it?"
The arm detached and fell onto the shore with a thud. "One way to put it is this is the lightest I've been since Beacon."
"Huh? You mean your arm is that heavy?"
"Ha! No Weiss, I mean that I got huge." She turns and stands to reach for her clothes and retrieves her scroll, quickly bringing up her photo album. "This was my birthday."
Weiss' eyes bulged at how big the girl is in the picture, dwarfing Denko standing next to her with her girth alone, and her stomach partially on top of the table. Yang's right arm was completely lacking the prosthetic, simply having some white bandages wrapped around the stump. But she was happy in the picture and could see that Denko was giving her his full support.
"If that was from July, how did you lose so much weight so fast?"
"Weeks of the worst training program to ever grace the world Weiss. I was too tired to do much of anything but sleep if I wasn't training. But it worked, can't argue with that."
"Well… you don't look much bigger than you did at Beacon."
"Thanks, and same to you." Yang grins before dunking her head to get her hair wet. "But I think I'm good at where I'm at."
"What do you mean?" Weiss rubs a soapy cloth over her arms to find more dirt coming off.
The blonde starts to wash herself after reattaching her arm. "We kinda really like my weight where it's at."
"We?"
"Oh yeah, me and Denko are together together now."
"Congratulations on that!" The heiress chirps as she gives the other girl a quick hug. "I was wondering how long it would take you two, you've been as close as Ren and Nora since he showed up. How long have you been a couple?"
Yang blushed at the memories and glad that the hot water could be blamed for it. "Officially? Since my birthday when he made me my new weapons and I killed a Beringal that night."
The smile that Weiss had was replaced by a deadpan stare. "You got fatter, he gave you new weapons, and you got into a fight… that's how you hooked up?"
"I don't suppose you want to hear about the round two we had once we got to my bed with a cake." Yang teases, bouncing her eyebrows suggestively.
"I-I'll pass on that, thank you." Her face was burning red as her mind instantly came to the right conclusion.
"Okay." Yang laughs at her friend's embarrassment. "Still, it was funny what Dad said when we told him we're dating the next day."
"What was that?"
Yang coughs into her hand and pitches her voice to mimic her fathers. "Really? I thought you already were." That made the girls break out into giggles for a while. "So… enough about me, what were you up to?"
"Staying away from my father, training and going on missions with the Ace Ops, tracking down the source of the bounties on my sister and I."
Yang blinked in surprise, not really expecting all of that. "Okay, you're gonna have to tell me more."
"Fine, help me wash my hair."
"Quick question for ya, did your ass get bigger than I remember?" Yang pokes her finger into the soft twin masses that rose out of the water from where she sat. And it wasn't just the cheeks but the rest of her hips made for impressive teardrop shaped islands of pale flesh with her chubby torso in the middle.
—-
Nora shuffled closer to Ren, knowing that his fears were worse than her own invoking this creature. The fact that they were even in Kuroyuri at all was bad enough for them both.
The Nuckelavee seemed to be content to let the fear build in the teens, one was beginning to shake, one barely holding herself together, the other three in pure awe and rising doubts at the mere sight of it.
The Stallion huffed in impatience, desiring to trample the humans. The Imp on its back looked around with jerky motions that it knew the mortals found disturbing.
"We need to keep it away from Qrow." Jaune reminds the team as he and Pyrrha move in sync away from the shelter.
"How hard can it be to beat? We've beaten bigger Grimm before." Ruby tries to remain positive as she follows the armored warriors.
The Imp twisted its horned head at an odd angle to track the three as the Stallion kept the other pair in its sights, made easy by their near refusal to move. With the horse standing relatively still, the black mist it breathed out hung around the Grimm and began to obscure the massive beast aside from the red lines on their masks and the four eyes burning through the darkness.
Then the Imp let out an ear-splitting scream as if there were hundreds of people screaming in pain and anger all at once. Both the tones and volume forced RNNJR to finch and do their best to cover their ears in a vain attempt to stifle the noise.
As they recovered from the auditory assault, the Stallion burst from its mist cloud for Nora and Ren, the Imp readying its arms to hit them.
The pair dove to opposite sides of the street to avoid the hooves and we're lucky that the clawed hands swiping at them missed by a hair.
It didn't take long for the Nuckelavee to stop and turn around, the Imp carefully watching them, giving the team a very distinct impression that it was merely testing and studying them.
"Okay, let's hit it from a distance!" Jaune ordered and everyone complied, shifting their weapons to ranged modes and began firing.
Fire Dust rounds from Pyrrha singed the Imps chest but little else. Ren dashed to the left and his bullets barely did anything noticeable to the Stallion's flank. Ruby had better luck with her much higher caliber bullets, though they were largely stopped by the horse's tough 'skin'. Nora's grenade simply made the horse snort as its dark cloud was blown away by the blast and only a few bony plates were scorched.
"Ummm…. That's not good." The blonde commented as he watched as small trails of black smoke rose from the wounds.
The Stallion let out an odd cross of a whinny and a roar as it rears up onto its hind legs before dropping back to four and releasing a billowing cloud of darkness from its mouth.
"Ren!" Nora shouts as she loses track of the ninja and is forced to back away with the others so they wouldn't be engulfed.
"Ugh! That stinks." Pyrrha resisted the urge to cover her nose, the sulfuric smell was bad but opening her mouth made her taste it. "Ptui!"
From above, Ren jumps off a roof to regroup with the others. "It's hidden in the mist. I can't see anything in there."
"I could blow it away…" Nora suggests as she hefts the grenade launcher.
"No! Save your ammo!" Jaune yells, knowing that the girl's weapon had the most limited supply and if she needed to reload, she'd have to find her pack first.
Ruby peered through her scope in hopes of finding anything. It was worrying that such a large creature was suddenly so silent but they had no idea what else the thing could do.
The smoke billowed a bit, drawing her attention. But that tiny notice of the details was enough to somewhat prepare her for the massive hand that burst from the darkness and latched onto Crescent Rose. The others only had that second to see what happened before Ruby was pulled into the smoke and vanished.
"Ruby!" "No!" "Damn it!"
Ren was the only silent one, listening as he heard the scythe swinging several times, at least once connecting with the Grimm. The loud clops of the hooves and huffs from the horse gave him a general idea of where it was.
Then there was a gunshot and the top of the cloud swelled as a torrent of red petals rushed out and swerved around in the air briefly before hitting the ground and coalescing into Ruby, thin trails the black smoke rising from her as she stood up.
"I think I made it mad!" She shouts and runs from the cloud. The others followed her, the sounds of the Nuckelavee running at them being a very good motivator.
The beast burst from the dark cloud faster than any of them could run or make any significant distance from it, and within seconds it had bowled all but Ruby over as she used Petal Burst again to lead it further down the road and into the open square.
"Anyone get the plates off that truck?" Nora staggers to her feet.
"Nora, we didn't get the plates of the last truck to hit you." Ren was slightly disoriented, most likely due to the cloud having been dragged in the wake of the Nuckelavee.
"We need to catch up to Ruby!" Jaune breaks into a run with Pyrrha by his side.
With Ruby… she found that she was in a bit of trouble. She may have led the big Grimm to a space with more room so they weren't limited by the road's width but once she got there, she found that nearly road out had other Grimm waiting. "Uh-oh."
The Nuckelavee was clearly very old and experienced many battles in its time on Remnant. So much it had learned to strategize and plan ahead. It had no intention of leaving survivors or letting any escape this time.
Old Grimm aren't simply those who were lucky to not encounter a Huntsman, they were 'born' in a way that allowed them to have an edge over their brethren, whether that was because they were stronger, faster, smarter, or any combination of those traits or others that set them above the rest. The old Grimm seek out mortals to destroy just as their kin do, but they have learned to be more efficient in how they do so.
This was a very clear case of that, but the Beowolves and Ursai guarding the streets weren't there to swarm the humans, they were simply to keep them from fleeing.
The rest of the team found themselves in a similar position, though the Grimm chased them to the square. Some of them were killed during the journey as they tried to take any opportunity to kill the humans. A screech from the Nuckelavee stopped the Beowolves from pursuing any further than the street corner.
"Guys… this isn't looking good." Jaune's voice cracked a bit but his body remained ready to fight.
"Hmm…. Perhaps if we kill the Nuckelavee the others will scatter. They will be without coordination if they lose their leader." Pyrrha suggests as she reloads Milo.
"I don't think that will be so simple." Ren says as he spots a few Alphas lurking with their minions.
"Raraaarraaargh!" The Nuckelavee screams and the Stallion charges again, forcing the team to scatter.
Ruby, Ren, and Pyrrha were able to recover and opened fire into the beast's back but that did little more than annoy it.
Then the Nuckelavee did something unexpected, lifting one of its arms as if it would punch them, it threw the fist… and the arm stretched like rubber as the clawed hand opened to grab any of the humans in its path.
The move made four of five dives out of the way but Nora swung her hammer to smack the hand away. "Haha!"
"So that's how it grabbed me before." Ruby was torn between studying the Grimm and trying to kill it before it got her. Granted, studying Grimm was an excellent way to know how to kill one so as long as she could avoid dying in the process, the result was the same.
The arm retracted back to its normal length as the Stallion blew out another cloud at Nora, effectively blinding not just her but separating Ren and Pyrrha from Jaune and Ruby.
"Ugh! Guys? Where are you?!" Nora could be heard coughing from within the black cloud.
"Nora! I'm on your left!" Ren shouts from the expanding boundary of the mist.
"Is this left? I can't see a thing!" Her voice grew slightly fainter as if she were facing the wrong direction.
"Follow my voice!"
"Ren?"
"Nora! This way!"
Pyrrha would have helped her friends but she was occupied, the Imp was reaching behind itself to grasp one of the spears in its back and began pulling. The 'flesh' pulled and tore as the weapon was removed, a small cloud of black smoke rising from the wound for a few seconds.
"That's not good." The Spartan says to herself as the Grimm spins the spear in its own hand, as if testing it for balance and grip. Then the red eyes turned to her.
The Nuckelavee charged with the spear ready to skewer, and Ren had to abandon his calls for Nora to dive out of the way. The mist swirls in its wake, partly hiding the Grimm before it went after Pyrrha.
The spear came, aimed for her heart but she was able to raise Akouo to deflect the attack. It came back around faster than she expected but she succeeded in another deflection and struck back, her sword leaving a small wound in the Stallions right rear ankle.
The Stallion didn't take kindly to that as it huffed and turned, rearing up to stomp on her, only to be distracted by a hail of small bullets hitting it and the Imp from the side.
That distraction was more than enough time for Pyrrha to act fast and switch Milo from sword to spear and thrust up at the descending horse, lodging the blade into its chest before rolling backwards to dodge the clawed feet. At the same time, the spear proved to be longer than the legs, the end slamming into the stone pavers and jamming the spear in deeper.
The Stallion let out a scream of pain as it rose again and the Imp threw its own weapon at the girl. The old weapon shattered upon contact with the shield but still had enough force to push her back.
With its hands free, the Imp reaches around and rips the red and gold weapon free of the Stallion's chest, with more dark vapors spewing out from the wound.
"Hya!" Ren jumps at the Imp with Stormflower ready to cut into its neck, but the Grimm cocks its head to the side and blocks the blades with its pilfered weapon. As Ren's momentum came to a halt and gravity had yet to assert its dominance on him, the Imp straitened its head and screamed in his face with so much power that the ninja was thrown away and landed in a heap.
Nora had just managed to emerge from the cloud in time to see her closest friend blown away and the sight instantly drove her into a rage. "Stay away from him!" Without a second thought, the girl sprints and jumps to hit the Imp with Magnhild, only for the Stallion to turn and kick at her with hooves the size of the lunch trays at Beacon.
The two made contact at the same time, one hoof striking Nora in the gut while her hammer struck its hindquarters with a grenade fired on impact to increase the damage.
The results were not subtle, the Nuckelavee fell on its side as the Stallion screamed in pain and the legs flailed, some of the bony plates having been shattered or blown off from the girl's attack. Nora was hurled back into the cloud while barely holding onto her hammer.
On the other side of the cloud, Jaune and Ruby were beset by some of the Beowolves that were guarding the streets, keeping them from joining their friends. While the Grimm stood no chance against either of them, they occupied their time.
They could hear Nora and Ren shouting for each other but that was nearly drowned out by the growls and snarls and barking, not to mention their grunts and yells of exertion. What they did hear clearly were the screeches and screams from the Nuckelavee.
An Alpha Beowolf came wading into the fray, seeing that its pack couldn't do much. It gave a loud, long howl before charging at Jaune who had his back to it. It was moments from sinking its teeth into the knight when its face became covered in something pink and heavy moving at high speed.
Nora had crashed rump first into the Grimm and killed it from a combination of crushing its skull, breaking its neck, and snapping its spine, and shattering some ribs, though the girl herself was little more than dazed from her fight and her stomach hurt from what made her fly.
The fighting had paused because of the crash, the humans from the unexpected arrival of their friend and the Grimm from the sudden death of their leader.
"Nora?!"
"Ugh, for a ghost town, I sure feel like there's a lot of trucks aiming to hit me." She was briefly hidden by Blake smoke as the Alpha under her faded away, completing her descent to the ground as she held her stomach and could almost feel the bruising forming already.
She tried standing but stumbled, hitting a Grimm with her hammer in the process and dodging a tackle from another. But the shift was too much for her abused stomach and her cheeks bulged as she tried to hold down her lunch. The Grimm that missed stood and roared in her face and the smell of its breath was the last straw, resulting in her stomach emptying itself into the mouth of the Beowolf.
"Ewewewewew!" Ruby shouts at the sight before beheading three at once.
"Aim it at the enemy." Jaune actually laughs as he recalled her advice to him during the Vytal Tournament, almost casually blocking claws with his shield and cutting the arm attached to those claws off. "Glad that you did it instead of me. Effective advice though." He stabbed the Grimm in the chest and moved onto the next.
The Grimm Nora had just puked into… it wound up emptying its mouth onto the one she had just knocked to the ground earlier, making that one angrier. Angry enough that it attacked the other and they both forgot about the human they had been trying to kill, much to the girl's confused amusement.
Lucky for them all, the Grimm stopped coming after them so the final three Beowolves were finished off quickly… aside from the pair wrestling and rolling by.
"I'm not stopping them." Ruby says as she watches them go by their fellows blocking the streets.
"Not me!" Nora and Jaune call out together.
"A little help would be nice!" Pyrrha yells, making the trio turn to find the mist had faded enough to be seen through and they found the Spartan fighting the Nuckelavee with just her shield because the Grimm held her spear, using it to attack its owner as its other hand ripped an arrow from its back and threw it at Ren like a dart with the force of a bullet.
"On it!" Ruby replies and takes aim with Crescent Rose and shoots, hitting the Imps wrist and making it release Milo.
"Thank you!" Pyrrha draws her spear to her waiting hand with Polarity and Ren peppers the Grimm with bullets once again.
But given that the rounds from Stormflower did little to hurt the Nuckelavee, it ignored the ninja and whipped an arm at Ruby. The cloaked girl burst into rose petals again and rose high in the air where she reformed and fired three more times. In that time, the arm retracts and the other stretches for the rotund reaper and grabs her ankle. Before she knew what was happening, Ruby was pulled towards the Imp and slammed against the hard stones before she was released and rolled to a stop on the other side of the square.
"Ruby!" Jaune yells, fearing for his friend's safety.
Smack!
"Ren!" The ninja was wacked by the arm on its way back to its normal place.
"Jaune! Watch out!" Nora warns as she runs towards the Grimm.
The knight looks back at the Nuckelavee only to find the last few arrows the beast had flying at him, forcing him to take a knee and duck behind his shield, letting the arrows shatter against the white and gold surface.
Nora was forced to break off from her attack thanks to another spear ripped from its back, her jacket getting a new hole for her troubles. Pyrrha tried to attack but had to deal with the Stallion kicking at her and blowing out bursts of the black smoke that would blind her for a second.
While they were making little headway in terms of hurting the Grimm, besides the stab and grenade impact, the Imp was now down to its last spear and its whipping arms kept those staying at range moving. That didn't include the Stallion kicking and stomping at anyone who got close as it moved around the square.
"Guys! Keep it busy!" Jaune shouts as he sheaths Crocea Mors.
"What are you doing?" Ruby was still a bit sore from being tossed around, but her aura and natural padding helped to mitigate the damage and adrenaline was drowning out most of the pain.
She didn't receive a verbal answer, instead she watched as the knight gave the sheath a press to trigger a hidden button. The results surprised her as the first segments of the shield deployed and shifted down from the rest of the sheath a few inches. From there, the golden edges of those parts extended slightly from the rest. The transformation was completed as the hilt extended by half its original length.
Now Crocea Mors was a great sword with a blade large and heavy enough that it required both hands to use properly. If anyone was watching the reaction of the others, only Pyrrha wasn't surprised.
With the change of weapon done, Jaune closed in on the Stallion, circling in from behind. "Hiyah!" The heavy blade cut through the thick flesh of the hindquarters, the wound spurting black smoke. It was a shallow cut but deep enough that the left rear leg limped as the Grimm put some distance between them.
The wounds were beginning to add up but they were unsure of how long they would last, especially with the dozens of Beowolves watching and waiting.
Ruby and Pyrrha came in together to try adding more wounds to bring down the beast but their charge was stopped by the arm with the spear colliding with Pyrrha's shield. The spear shattered against the metal but the hand slammed on the shield, stopping her dead in her tracks and she slid backwards until the hand gripped the barrier and lifted her from the ground and slammed her back down.
Ruby jumped so she could put all of her three hundred pounds behind the large scythe blade she wielded, only to receive a punch to the guy that sent her tumbling back to where she had been thrown to not long ago.
Nora and Jaune ran at the Grimm while the other two occupied its arms, hoping to take out the Stallion. Jaune aimed for the other rear leg but the Grimm looked back in time to kick the knight. He was simply lucky that his armor took the brunt of the damage and held up as well as the smith claimed it would. With Nora, that kick made her swing miss the other leg. The Stallion pivoted and used the front legs to kick her away.
Ren watched as his friends were thrown to the stone pavers and they lay there groaning in pain and frustration. The scene was far too similar to that night he lost nearly everything. How his mother was killed when their home was brought down on them. His father dying doing his best to buy him time to escape. The sight of all of the bodies littering the streets of the townspeople he knew forever etched in his mind. The Grimm that led the attack was the same one they were fighting now and failing to truly hurt it in a meaningful way.
The memories that he tried his best to keep buried began to rise to the surface, with all of the anger, frustration, and need for revenge coming with them.
The Nuckelavee took its time to look over the humans, relishing in their defeat and willing to make their deaths slow. They had put up a better fight than most in its long life but like every other fight before, it would be victorious. It raised an arm and readied its claws to go after the soft one in black and pink when a spike of anger and hatred drew the attention of every Grimm in the square.
"Grrraaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" Ren screams as he sprints at the combined Grimm with Stormflower in his hands.
In return, the Nuckelavee turned its full attention to the ninja and threw its arms at him. Ren responded by sidestepping one clawed hand and spinning around the other, using the spin dodge to deliver shallow slashes to the arms and kept his charge. Ren leaps for the Imps face with his bladed SMGs pulled back and ready to stab but he never anticipated or was too clouded by anger to maintain situational awareness and was grabbed from behind by one of the retracting arms.
"Ren! What were you thinking?!" Jaune yells as he runs at the Grimm only to have to pull back as Ren was held as a shield in front of the knight.
Ren struggled in the tight grip on his waist, trying to pry the fingers open and failing. "Hyaaargh!" Twin green blades were stabbed into the upper finger and it wasn't until he twisted the blades that the hand released him… by throwing him into Pyrrha after being used as a club against Jaune.
"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asks as she untangles herself from Ren, it was unnerving to see the normally calm boy so angry. Unfortunately, he just stood up again and ran at the Grimm while it had started attacking Ruby and Nora who were trying to attack from the other side.
Nora dove to dodge an arm and rolled to her feet, barely slowing down as Ruby briefly used her semblance to let the claws pass through her and she reformed ready to slash down on the Grimm, only for the Stallion to see Ren and turn so the reapers attack missed and she was hit by the rear of the Grimm and nearly trampled if she didn't use her semblance again.
Nora hesitated at the last moment when she spotted Ren running towards what could be his death, the Grimm ready to grab him again, and his face twisted into a mask of fury. That hesitation cost her as the hand she had dodged came back to smack her, tumbling until she stopped near Pyrrha.
"Ren!" Nora only had one thing on her mind at this point and Pyrrha connected the dots in a flash.
But while they were doing that, the two fingered hand stretched forth faster than Ren could react in his angered state and caught him at the waist and kept stretching until he was slammed into a taller building, the claws digging into the stonework to keep him pinned. And the other hand flexed as it readied to finish the young man off, the wounds from earlier barely bothering the hand.
"Pomgrenade!" Jaune shouts just as the hand was launched at Ren.
—-
"Umm… Raven?"
"What is it, Vernal?"
"Is… is that fat girl really your daughter?"
Raven glanced at her protege as she packed up some of her belongings into a trunk. She was going to leave little for the tribe to pack up for her when they left tomorrow and she definitely didn't want them snooping around in her personal items or plans for the tribe. But Vernal was looking almost as unsure about things as when she first came to the Branwen tribe several years ago.
"Hmph, I almost expected you to say something more degrading." Raven tries to joke. "But yes, Yang is my daughter."
"But you are going with them just because of her?"
That accusation made the older woman look away and use her packing as an excuse to cover her flinch.
"You barely even told me that you even had family outside of the tribe besides your brother. But now you are just leaving?"
"Vernal… this is for the safety of the tribe. You and I are the only ones who would even stand a chance against them. Even Yang would likely take down everyone else by herself." She continues to occupy herself with packing.
"But you are still leaving us!"
"It's only temporary and I can come back to you anytime, you know that." It wasn't missed that she didn't say the tribe but for a single person.
"Maybe."
Raven closed the trunk and locked it, ensuring that most wouldn't gain access to the plans and other valuables inside., at least not easily. "I made a promise to Flora that I'd look out for you. Consider this a test for taking over the tribe when I'm no longer able to lead."
Given the nature and laws of the tribe, the former leader would normally be killed by the next or had been killed in some other fashion so the next strongest would take over after a series of battles that would test anyone seeking to be the leader with a grueling gauntlet. Few leaders of the Branwen tribe simply retired and passed on the torch to serve as an adviser to the new leader.
"You'll really just give me the tribe?"
That made Raven give the girl a full smirk that she could see. "This time. But next time you'll have to earn it. Think you can manage that?"
"I'll give it my best shot." Vernal declares proudly.
"Ha! Good, I'll expect nothing but your best when the time comes. For now, I'll have to deal with my blood daughter." Raven packs the final item in a trunk and locks it, leaving her tent rather empty compared to before dinner. Everything but the blanket and pillow on the bed were locked away in the trunks, or packed in a travel bag sitting next to the bed filled with her necessities and clothes. Her Nevermore helmet sat next to the bag as she planned to take that along with her.
"Good night then, Raven."
"Good night, Vernal."
With those parting words, Vernal left for her own tent nearby. Alone, Raven removed her armor pieces and sat them by her pack. Omen stood against her bed in its usual place and her boots were dropped next to the trunks as she lay down on the bed. The next day and the foreseeable future kept her worried late into the night as she wasn't sure what to do with Yang once they were truly alone together or with the rest of her team.
—-
Ren saw the claws coming right for him and his life flashed before his eyes.
A bright sunny day when he walked through the market with his mother as she shopped for fresh produce for dinner.
His attempts to buy a gift for his father coming home after a long hunting trip, one of which being sake.
Finding a trio of boys picking on a small girl in an alley and calling them out. Unfortunately for him, that yell simply made them turn their attention to him and all he could do was back away. They were about to chase him down now that the girl had run. His father made a timely arrival behind Lie and he scared the boys off with a mere look.
The talk his father gave him as they walked home about the need to back up his convictions. How recognizing that which is wrong does nothing if one does not even try to fix it.
The meal with his family and going to bed happy, though a bit worried about that girl.
Suddenly waking up to the smell of smoke and screams from everywhere around him. Roars of Grimm echoed through town as things were breaking. Sounds of combat outside let him know there was a resistance being put up. His mother running into his room just before a loud crash from the ceiling falling.
He had woken up in his father's arms as he ran down the street, but the first thing Lie noticed was the blood on Li's face and the slight limp.
"Father? Father, where's Mother?" The man refused to speak but the tears that ran down his face said what he couldn't.
"No! Mother!"
"Lie, you must listen to me." Li set his son on his feet and reached for his belt. "You must be strong. You must live!"
"But Father, I'm scared."
"We are all afraid of many things, my son. But what matters is being able to push through those fears to protect what matters most."
"But I don't know how."
Li hands his son a knife and watches as the young boy draws it from the sheath an inch to see the curved blade within. "You will find a way; I know you will. Let this help you on that path where I cannot."
"Father…"
"Now go! I'll do what I can!" Li Ren stood tall as he readied his bow and a large equine figure stalked through the smoke, red eyes glaring brightly.
Lie ran as fast as he could, hearing his father's bow launching arrows at the Grimm until he screamed and that cut off quickly. He found shelter in one of the deeper canals, making him glad that it was lower due to the lack of rain lately.
Yet while hiding under a bridge in a panic, something suddenly made him feel calm despite the threats around him. Mildly curious, he looked at his hands to find that the colors were muted.
Whimpers made him poke his head up to look around, still wrapped in his calming power. What he saw surprised him, it was the girl he had found before hiding under a building and she had nothing and no one to help her.
His father's last words came to mind and he gripped the knife tightly. A quick look around showed that there were no Grimm nearby so Lie climbed up and ran to the girl. She was so upset that she didn't notice him until he touched her shoulder, and he didn't realize that his power had stopped working.
A giant Nevermore landed on the house and the girl clung to him with surprising strength for someone so small and thin. As he wrapped his arms around her, the calming power came back and covered them both, somehow making them invisible to the Grimm as it looked under its perch right at them.
"I'm Lie Ren." He introduces himself in an attempt to help the girl, talking to her was helping him keep his mind off the attack around him.
"N-Nora."
"Don't worry, I'll help protect you." His grip on the knife remained tight and he thought that since his father gave him a weapon to protect him, he could do the same for Nora.
Lie scrambled out from their cover, much to her worry of being abandoned, and grabbed something off the street and darted back to Nora. "This will help protect you." He says handing her a wooden mallet.
There was a loud crunching of stones and Ren felt that it was odd that he didn't feel pain for the fatal strike. Opening his eyes, he found that the arm that was intended for him was far off course and above him. So, he tracked where the arm extended to and found an odd sight.
Nora was hanging by the handle of Magnhild just a few feet above him, the head of the weapon looked to be buried in the wall with the hand of the Imp. But it was thanks to his angle that he could look straight up her skirt and see the short shorts she wore underneath, her thick legs doing little to hide her backside.
Then she looked down to check on him and saw where his eyes were locked onto. "Stop looking!" She was only half embarrassed because she had been overjoyed to have saved him and she had gotten some satisfaction from seeing him show attraction to her.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the Nuckelavee took offense to the small point of happiness and for having its kill interrupted. And it expressed that by ripping its hand out of the wall, and by extension- Nora, and whipped the girl around to smack her into the stone walkways twice before throwing her away.
Nora rolled across the pavers a short distance where she struggled to get back to her feet as her pink aura flickered, barely being maintained, then collapsed.
"Nora!" Ren screams as he slashes into the hand holding him twice before stabbing both guns deep into the wrist and firing into the arm at point blank range. The magazines emptied and he used his leverage to push the hand out of the wall and he fell.
At the same time, the other arm backhanded Pyrrha as she moved in to attack and Ruby had to use her semblance to jump high in the air to avoid being caught. Though Jaune managed to get in and slash at the other rear leg of the Stallion before he was kicked away.
That didn't stop the hand that Ren had just escaped from grabbing his leg from behind as it retracted. Moments later, Ren was watching the world spin as he went from attacking the Grimm to being spun overhead and thrown to eventually land near Nora.
Ren rose to his knees as he fought through the pain, his own pink aura flashing from strain. His own weapons lay on the ground nearby but he couldn't reach them as he could barely move. And the Nuckelavee saw its chance to take out the ninja for good, its arm launching at him once more only to miss as Nora grabbed the young man and they rolled under a building.
"Are you trying to kill yourself?!" Nora asks as she pins Ren under her, her hands on his shoulders and she sits on his waist.
"Nora! That's the monster that killed my family!"
"It's trying to kill us now!" She shouts back. "Ren, your parents have been dead for years. Mine have been gone for longer than that… and we can't do anything to change that!"
"But I don't want to see you get hurt by that thing!"
"Tough luck! I'm already hurt but it's worse seeing you throwing yourself at it until it kills you! I can't take it!" SLAP
Ren could only stare wide-eyed at the girl on him as the tears ran down her face. A blink and he saw the tiny girl that he met that day. Another blink and he saw Nora as she is now, much larger but crying over his safety. Even his now reddening cheek was dulled by his shock. He let his head fall back to the stones under him.
"Ren?"
"Thank you, Nora." He says with a small smile and puts a hand on hers. "I really needed that."
"Are you okay now?"
"I'll be fine, as long as you help me."
Nora couldn't stop the blush from covering her face at those words but she did roll off of her best friend and start crawling out from under the house. She glanced back just in time to see Ren quickly look away since his eyes were following her. That simply reinvigorated her.
"You know I always have your back." Nora replies as she picks up Magnhild and watches Ren take Stormflower. Just as they were ready, Jaune slid to a stop at their feet, his armor scraping and screeching across the stone.
"Ugh… Please tell me you got your head on right now." The blonde says as he lays there to catch his breath.
"Don't worry, I put him back on track." Nora salutes happily, much to Ren's shame.
"Good because we need you two." Jaune says as he stands up shakily.
"Do you have a plan?" Ren steps up to steady his friend.
"Yeah. Nora, how many shots do you have left?"
"Um, three."
"We can work with that."
Back with Ruby and Pyrrha, the girls were doing their best to avoid being hit or grabbed. The Stallion may have stopped moving much thanks to the injuries to its legs but the black smoke it kept puffing out whenever either drew close to blind them. But both were nearing exhaustion from having to constantly move and their ammunition was running low.
But when the other three surrounded the Nuckelavee, it drew in its arms as it looked at them, inspecting them. Then like a puppet with its strings cut, the Imp collapsed across the back of the Stallion.
"Uhh… what just happened?" Ruby asks as they all stood in shock at the sight.
"Did… did we just win?" Jaune wasn't sure what happened.
Pyrrha looked around at the Beowolves still blocking the streets and they didn't seem to be eager to move from their posts. "I don't think so."
It was then that they heard a deep breath being taken, one that just kept going without exhaling. They saw the Imp sitting up and swelling like a balloon as more air was drawn into it for a few more seconds. It no longer was a skeletal form but full figured that drew its arms in as the Grimm tensed and began to growl.
"That can't be good." Ren notes as they watched the short spines on the Imps back suddenly lengthen to triple their original sizes, as did the claws on its hands. Then its head was thrown back as it began to scream until the 'threads' that kept its mouth closed snapped to allow its jaws to open unhindered and the screaming only seemed to grow in volume, forcing the humans to flinch from the auditory assault.
"Stick to the plan!" Jaune shouts as the Nuckelavee turns its attention back to killing them.
The team broke out into a run around the Grimm in different directions as they closed in on it, dodging and rolling away from the grasping and lashing hands. Ren jumped when both arms were occupied and was about to stab the Imp when it screamed and blew him away.
But that focus on Ren meant that it wasn't watching its hands as it dragged the pair with shields towards itself. If it did, it would have noticed Ruby dropping down with Crescent Rose having the blade at full extension to drive the blade through the arm with her full weight and digging the blade deep into the ground below. On the other side, Nora came around and jumped as Jaune tossed his sword out over his shield, and the hammer drove the 'nail' deep into the stones to pin the arm.
"Yes! We got it!" Pyrrha cheered as the Stallion tried to move but it could only go so far before the arms reached their apparent limits and it didn't seem too keen on losing its hands by ripping the arms free. As a result, the Stallion blew out more smoke as the Imp screamed in pain and frustration.
"Nora! Take out the horse!" Jaune orders the hammer girl.
"You got it! Fire in the hole!" Her final three grenades were launched into the black mists where they promptly blew the cloud away and the whinnies of pain from inside were promising for the Huntsmen and Huntresses.
When the smoke cleared, the Stallion was still standing, if barely, but that didn't stop it from continuing to struggle.
But it was the Imp that made everyone pause, even though Nora had shifted to hammer mode and was approaching her target. The Grimm was staring at a nearby street corner, prompting the humans to look as well.
"No." Ruby gasps as she sees Qrow being held by his cape in the claws of an Alpha Beowolf.
Movement from the Nuckelavee drew their attention back to it, where it seemed to be laughing silently. It had come to this town to kill them with a multilayered plan in place and despite the position it currently was in, it knew it held the advantage with the hostage.
"GRAAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!"
"Ugh, sorry Ruby." Qrow weakly apologizes from where he hung limply.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby shouts as she starts to run for her family only for the Alpha to lift its claws to the man's throat. "No." She stopped in her tracks at the threat and the Grimm lowered its claws slightly.
"GRAHAHA!" The Nuckelavee laughs at her obedience. "YEAAAARGH!" That scream brought the Grimm blocking their exits closer, including the Alpha holding Qrow.
"This doesn't look good." Nora comments. Beside her, Ruby reached back and drew a sword that the others didn't realize she had until now. The familiar green symbol on the guard brought back memories of better days back at school.
"Is that?" Pyrrha hesitated to ask but she still felt guilty.
"Yes." One of the blades from Floating Array once wielded by Penny Polendina now held by her best friend.
"So…ummm… should we stick to the original plan?" Jaune asks, only having a shield left since his sword was still pinning the biggest threat to the ground.
"We could try to improvise." Ren shrugs as he gives his weapons a quick check.
Nora spotted something that made her grin. "I can go for that."
"GRRAAAHH!"
With that order from the Nuckelavee, the Beowolves attacked in masse. They were countered by Jaune and Pyrrha ramming their shields into the wave and halting their charge so Ruby and Ren could slice through the Grimm and dart around to cleave limbs and deep slashes in the ranks.
Things for the Grimm only seemed to get worse as Nora slipped between the shields with her hammer like a battering ram to plow through to her goal. With her gone, the Spartan began to use her own sword on the Grimm as Jaune did his best to fight with just a shield, opting for defending Ruby and Ren from behind.
But what Nora was after is a small Beowolf, half the size of its normal kin, which was carrying her backpack for some unknown reason. But all of her spare ammunition was with that bag.
The Alpha holding Qrow stayed back out of the combat zone and was surrounded by dozens of its pack members. The human barely struggled and it followed its master's plan perfectly. But an odd sound made its ears perk up and swivel around for the source.
Gong!
The bell at the top of the watchtower rang as the structure shifted, the old supports finally giving away to time and old damages.
Gong!
The ringing made almost everything stop to watch as the tower tilted and swayed.
Gong! Gong!
And it leaned too far thanks to the swaying bell and it began to fall. At that moment, Qrow deployed Harbinger and cut off the hand holding him and rolled out of the way as the tower fell on the pack before most could get out of the way. The bell itself landed on the Alpha, ensuring that it was crushed to death.
"Ha! Not today." Qrow quipped before hacking up more blood from his lungs. He took a seat on a large beam to watch the rest of the fight.
The smoke that poured from the dozens of evaporating bodies was thick and rose high before it began to dissipate.
At the same time, Nora reached the stunned tiny Grimm and took her pack from it easily. Then a wicked idea came to her mind as she reloaded Magnhild with a foot on the Grimm's back.
The dozens of Beowolves that were still remaining pushed the team to their limits as they were nearing exhaustion from just the Nuckelavee. It seemed that for every one they killed; another would take its place.
TWACK
Something flew overhead towards a waiting pack of Grimm. To be specific, it was that small Beowolf that Nora had captured. And it held a familiar heart stamped canister in its mouth.
The Grimm landed and its body parts became part of the shrapnel that opened up a large hole in the ranks of Darkness. Two more grenades fell nearby and decimated the ranks even more as the stone pavers were shattered and the pieces lodged themselves into the Grimm bodies.
"Yeah baby!" Nora shouts as she jumps back into the fight swinging, sending Grimm flying left and right.
"Nora?!" Ren was surprised by her return with grenades, thinking they were lost given their situation.
"Ren! Let's do this thing! Let's show that bastard how bad it messed up that it didn't kill us that night!" Nora yells as she smashes her way through the Beowolves, some of which had the self-preservation instincts to get out of her way.
"And for all of the people it killed!" The ninja makes his way back towards the Nuckelavee as fast as he can.
Ruby and Jaune burst out of the back lines of the Grimm, attracting plenty of attention, and the knight ran to defend Qrow who was struggling just to sit up.
Bearing down on the pinned Grimm, Nora fires two more that explode at the Stallions feet and create massive wounds to its underside from the blasts.
"Ren! Go up!" Pyrrha shouts as he draws close and she holds Akouo over her head so he could jump from there while gutting another Beowolf.
Sailing high from his launch he spotted Nora with a big grin on her face as she used her own explosive legs to jump to match him, tossing a spare grenade to him as they flew.
"Your existence is no longer tolerated here!" Ren roars at the Imp that began sucking in air for another scream, throwing the grenade with all of his might.
"Now die!" Nora matched him as she brought her hammer down on the Stallion's head as it tried one last smokescreen. The equine skull was smashed into the stones with a satisfying crunch, though it was the ground that took the most damage.
The Imp however, suddenly found itself gagging from a cylindrical object lodging itself in its throat. It didn't help that the one who threw it now had a knife in hand that cut through its outstretched right arm.
Ren landed from his attack and jumped back to stand with Nora as the Grimm choked.
"Almost a fitting punishment for something that yells so much." Ren quips.
"Maybe but let's make sure it's gone." Nora agrees as she lifts her grenade launcher. "Together." That was all the invitation Ren needed to wrap his hand over hers at the trigger and they squeezed once Nora had it aimed properly.
The grenade that hit the Imp exploded and set off the one in its throat, resulting in a large blast that vaporized the Imp and split the Stallion in half.
"Heh, damn good job." Qrow comments as Jaune lays him down on the beam. Ruby continued to cut down the Beowolves that came near them but her stamina was fading fast.
The Grimm though, aside from those directly involved in combat, seemed to be lost. The Nuckelavee was now dead, all of the Alphas were gone, and without any form of leadership, the packs that had come together were now in disarray.
Pyrrha wasn't any better, as she was completely on the defensive after so much fighting for the day. She could only hope to last long enough to escape but her arms were heavy from exhaustion and her aura nearly spent.
RATATATAT!
The sounds of automatic gunfire from above drew the attention of the entire square where a pair of airships swept low over the town and shot at any Grimm they had a clear shot at. In seconds, the Beowolves were cut down to half their remaining numbers and the rest fled.
—-
"How did you find us?" Jaune asks one of the rescuers. He, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren were riding in one of the airships while Ruby and Qrow were in the other.
It was interesting how literal Mistral took the term airship; rather than using Bullheads like Vale and Vacuo, the crafts resemble their aquatic counterparts in nearly every way besides the flapping wings on the sides. Within the aesthetics, they boasted an impressive amount of technology to fly and scan their surroundings, even for aerial combat they were decent but there were dedicated air superiority ships for when needed.
"We saw the smoke and came to investigate. We patrol the area often and seeing the watchtower down made us curious why."
"I guess we got lucky that you were nearby." Pyrrha shrugs, sitting next to Jaune. The landscape was little more than a blur under them at the speeds they traveled but the brightening horizon was looking promising.
What was even more promising was seeing Nora and Ren by the door together. She saw Nora taking Ren's hand in hers, how the young man stiffened in shock at first before relaxing, having no problem with Nora leaning and resting her head on his shoulder.
In the other airship, Qrow was being treated as best the medic could with the basic supplies kept on board. It was better than the field kits that the team used but the Huntsman wasn't out of the woods yet.
"Hang on Uncle Qrow. We'll get you to the hospital soon." Ruby held his hand. At least he seemed to be breathing easier and more relaxed.
"Don't worry kid, we'll be landing in ten minutes!" The pilot calls out to his passengers and crew.
Ruby had to see for herself and from the window she could see the massive mountain that hosted the majority of the Kingdom of Mistral and the spread that went to the next mountains across the valley in between.
"We did it, Uncle Qrow. We finally made it to Mistral."
AN: Phew, that was a long one to write. Makes me glad that it's over and I hope that how I changed the fight from canon works for all of you. I wanted to make the fight and the Nuckelavee even more terrifying than original, none of the 'run in a circle' plan nonsense. What better way than to make it create its own smokescreen and command underlings with extensive planning to set traps and take hostages?
Still, RNNJR have finally made it to Mistral and they are about a month ahead of Weiss and Yang. Blake and Sun fall into that timeline too, if anyone is worried about that. The slight time differences will converge... soon... eventually. Got quite a few chapters planned that need to be written until that point.
As always, reviews are welcome!
