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Chapter 62

Grimm were not the most careful of creatures even when they'd been instructed to be. Their bulk and mass ensured they trampled many a bush, and that their pawprints sank into the mud. In places trees would be pushed aside, their bark scraped off or in some cases sets of low-hanging branches snapped as they pushed by. Finding the tracks wasn't hard but figuring out a direction was harder. Animals tended to be cautious, so you didn't have to worry about overlapping sets of tracks barring a predator. Here, there were so many tracks going in every direction that picking which to follow was the main problem.

In the end they chose the tracks leading away from the settlement. It was the obvious choice and the safe one, and it took them deeper through the forests and up a steep rise. Menagerie had a small amount of mountainous terrain, but Jaune doubted the Grimm were waiting up there. Too steep and much too exposed. One of the hunters was quick to suggest they head that way though, for a better view over the surrounding area. It was as good a plan as any. Grimm in sufficient numbers to overrun the settlement would stand out.

Free from the trees at last, they scaled up the rocky hills that made up the mountain's base. There, plant life had been reduced to shrubbery and hardy grass with a few low bushes of prickly thorns and poisonous berries. There were a few jagged outcrops of rock that had risen up vertically, or more likely their surroundings had been eroded away over hundreds or thousands of years. Pyrrha scaled one agilely, putting to practice her training to bound up it like a mountain goat.

"I could have done that," said Ruby, quietly. "It wouldn't have taken me much longer."

Jaune absently patted her head. Ruby huffed and crossed her arms. After a few moments of looking, Pyrrha came down just as quickly as she'd ascended, leaping the past ten or so feet to land in a crouch.

"I didn't see them," she said. It was an anticlimactic statement that had more than a few of the hunters groaning, and Jaune sighing internally. Pyrrha, however, continued to smile. "But I did see a valley of sorts that was just out of my view. The land around it rises up to obscure anything within, and if that's the only place on this side of the island that I couldn't see…"

"Then the Grimm must be there," said Ruby.

"Or on the other side of the island," said Jaune. Ruby shook her head.

"They can't be with all the tracks and evidence we've found on this side. Not unless they decided to waste their time going over the mountain. And there aren't any tracks here."

Tracks wouldn't show well on such rocky terrain, he wanted to say, but it was true that some might. Especially if the Grimm were moving in such numbers. Pyrrha's valley seemed the best bet, and the others were already convinced. Jaune waved a hand for her to lead on as the only person to know its location. Silently, the rest of them picked up their supplies once more and followed.

/-/

They saw the rise that Pyrrha had spoken of before they arrived there. The trees gave way once again, but this time the terrain was more grassland than rocky outcroppings. It rose gently but steadily, up like a hillock, and then presumably it went down just as much on the other side to form a valley. "I couldn't see the other side so it could be anything," said Pyrrha. "But I believe a river runs through this area?"

The question was aimed back at the hunters and one of them answered. "Aye. I've not followed it this way – too far from camp – but there's definitely one that snakes its way out the back of the forest. Quite a powerful one, too."

It was probably fed from the mountain, and then rains rushing down it as well. A strong river could have cut a path through the bottom of the valley. It would have been easier to follow that in all honesty, but they couldn't have predicted it. Instead, they trekked slowly up the gentle hills and out in the open, eyes warily scanning the sky for Nevermore.

Had Salem not told Nevermore to scout the skies and protect the horde? It seemed like such an oversight, and yet maybe there was no good answer for her. A swarm of aerial Grimm would as good as give away their presence, and Salem wasn't yet aware that they knew of the connection between her and the Grimm. There was no reason for her to think they were worried about anything more than another attack from the church.

She'll know after this, thought Jaune. It was a shame because her ignorance was their advantage, but if there was a time to cash that in then it was now. Menagerie might not survive a fully prepared assault.

"Maybe the hunters should stay here," said Coco. It was the first words out the woman's mouth. Her eyes didn't meet his, and she suggested it out into the air, as if for anyone to pick up. Even if she knew the truth, she didn't seem ready to address him. "We could be silhouetted as we crest the hill."

"All right." Jaune agreed. "Pyrrha, Coco, Ruby, Nora, and I." He rattled off their names and those picked stepped up. The hunters didn't look unhappy to be left behind. They set their supplies down, though they kept their bows at hand.

The five of them crept their way slowly up the last tracks of land, and then got down on their knees and bellies to crawl once they reached the top where the grass flattened out. Ahead, they could make out the lip where the ground went down again, and they flattened down to their bellies to worm their way to the very edge. As expected, the grassy terrain flooded back downward, but it did so much sharper than on their own side. The hill travelled down for many fifty feet and then took a nosedive. Not a cliff per se, but a grassy, mossed-over drop of about fifteen feet, down to a new plateau below and then down again into what looked to be a chasm of sorts.

The name exaggerated the scale of it, because it couldn't have been more than thirty feet deep, and there were even a few trees that rose up out of it. There was no other way he could describe it, however. Down there, a small forest had begun anew, sort of like its own ecosystem around the river that had, over centuries, carved that deep trench into the surroundings and nourished the soil with minerals brought down from the mountain, allowing the plant life to explode. The small cliff marked the edge of where the little woodland began and ended. And within it, mingled among the trees, were many black shapes.

"Found them," whispered Ruby. "There… aren't that many."

"This might not be the only such camp – if we can call it that," whispered Pyrrha. "But even if it's not, dealing with them would ease the strain on Menagerie. And if it is the only camp then we've solved the problem entirely."

Counting them was impossible because of the trees breaking up the shapes and obscuring more, but Jaune estimated it was between one hundred to one hundred and fifty. A shocking number from the perspective of most people, but far less than had been brought to the sacking of Mistral. Menagerie had several thousand faunus in it, enough to count it as a large town. This many would certainly be enough to destroy one of those back home, but Menagerie was aware and well prepared.

They had trenches, fortifications, and almost three quarters of the population was armed and ready to fight. Even children were being taught to use bows or carry arrows for the adults, because as harsh as it sounded to make them take part in the defence, they'd die if the Grimm won. The only ones not fighting were those too young or too old, and even then, they were being tasked with helping in other ways. Healing, making bandages, or just cooking food.

Jaune didn't think that a hundred and fifty Grimm would be enough to kill three thousand armed men and women, some with aura and some without, but all at least armed and dangerous – and with many spiked trenches to work their way through. He was sure they'd close to melee, and they'd certainly cause untold losses, but they wouldn't win. Not like this.

But they weren't yet attacking so maybe Salem knew that. They might be waiting for another hundred, or two, or for two or three more gatherings of a similar size to build up. Infestations. Then, once they reached critical mass, they could move out.

"We should destroy this group," said Jaune.

"Yes." Pyrrha nodded. "We can probably pull it off – or if nothing else we can cripple them so badly they can't chase after us."

"Us five and maybe twenty more against all this?" asked Nora. "You don't mean to say we should go down there."

"No. We can take advantage of the terrain and rain arrows down on them."

"Will arrows kill them? They look a bit too big for that."

Nora made a point. Traditionally, villages used spears and polearms to deal with Grimm. Well, traditionally people died, but the point was to use stabbing weapons that could stick in them and remain, and then the Grimm would tear bigger holes themselves as they moved about. Chosen, on the other hand, used specialised weapons to cut and kill, but the average villager couldn't pull that off, and neither could their hunters. Arrows would stick, and they could hit an eye, but for the most part they weren't going to have the force to penetrate the thick hide and muscle and reach vital organs. A Grimm's fur and coat was easily as protective as a leather surcoat over a padded cloth gambeson.

"I'm thinking fire personally," said Pyrrha. "They are in a woodland. An contained one, too."

"What about the river?" asked Ruby. "They could put themselves out."

"Grimm aren't smart enough for that, girl," said Coco, voice gruff. "They see us, they'll attack us. Or if they really are being told to avoid detection, they'll run away. Either way, they won't think to take to the water. Grimm don't work like that."

"It's as good a plan as any," said Jaune. "I can help with magic. Nora, can you go back and tell the hunters to come? Tell them it's safe as long as they stay low. I'll provide the fire for the arrows."

Nora nodded and crept away, slowly at first, and then rising into a jog once she crested the hill and was safe to move freely. It took maybe five minutes for the hunters to arrive, slinking and creeping through the low terrain with all the expertise of men and women used to hunting skittish animals in the wild. They were at home in the quiet, though he could see a little fear in them when they spotted the shapes among the trees down below.

"Pyrrha, Coco and I will draw their attention," said Jaune, voice a whisper. "All you need to do is rain arrows down on them. We want the forest to gup in flames and take them down with it. I'll give you a wall of fire to work with. Don't worry about aiming." They wouldn't be able to once he started. His own magic would be blinding. "Just keep firing into the area. If the Grimm get up here, retreat immediately and we'll hold them off."

They nodded. Afraid, but resolute. These faunus had known the Grimm were coming for them for weeks now, so as frightened as they may have been, they were prepared where it counted. They began emptying out arrows, stabbing them into the ground and tightening their bowstrings. Ruby slid over to him, eyes glinting. "I can help with magic. Why do I have to stay back?"

"I know. I only meant that Pyrrha, Coco and I would take the brunt of their attention. I'm counting on you to add a whole lot of fire, but you can do that from the back." He could tell she wasn't happy. "We need your magic here, Ruby. We need it a lot more than we need another person on the front lines."

"Hngh. I know what you're doing, Jaune."

He smiled. "But you also know I'm right."

"Guh. Yes." Ruby looked away angrily. "But I'm joining the fight if you three struggle."

"If we struggle then it'll be time for us to retreat. We don't have to stay until this fight is over." He made sure Pyrrha and Coco heard that. The two of them nodded to say they had. "This is about culling numbers. If we kill them all, great. If we kill half, great. Killing even one or two is fine if we all get out alive."

Though ideally, they'd all be dealt with. It would be a great message to bring back to Menagerie. The people would be thrilled. At least until the next attack from the church came, of course. The downside to all this was that it might speed up Salem's other plans. Better human enemies than Grimm, though. At least we can reason with them. Jaune crept ahead with Coco and Pyrrha. They each had bows, though he could tell they weren't their primary weapons.

"Can neither of you use magic?" he asked.

"It's not our specialty." Pyrrha answered for the both of them. "We're taught to pick one or the other and stick to it. There are relatively few people who can use both, and those that can tend to be of higher ranks. Huntress Superiors. The reason we were sent to Menagerie was because they felt using Chosen specialising in magic against the Dark Lord would be an exercise in futility."

It made sense. "Why didn't you ask me to teach you?"

Coco looked away. Pyrrha winced. "I'll admit I didn't think of it. But we're all busy anyway, aren't we? There's too much to do for us to sit down and learn."

He supposed there was. Pyrrha and Coco had been busy training new aura users, so it wasn't like they'd been sat on their laurels. "You're welcome to join Ren and Ruby's lessons if you ever want to. You as well, Coco. It doesn't have to mean interacting with me if you don't want to." Coco grimaced. He didn't know if it was the thought of working with him, or embarrassment at having her actions called out. He didn't push either way. "Are we ready?"

Pyrrha nodded. Coco nocked an arrow. "We're ready."

They were waiting for him to make the first move. Reasonable, really. His would be the most destructive and give them the ability to use more fire. He drew a deep breath and closed his eyes. Two spells. Two lines of aura. One, he drew behind him, dragging his aura in a thick line and connecting it to himself. The other, he formed ahead, in his outstretched hand. It wasn't easy splitting his attention both ways, but Ozma helped, gently taking the line behind him and maintaining it himself. "Thanks," Jaune thought to the man, before he let out his breath and ignited his aura.

A wall of fire burst up from the line behind him. It was eight feet tall, but thin. Unnaturally thin. More like a curtain than a wall. Or a sheet of flaming cloth. It would do to ignite arrows, he was sure. In his hand, a much hotter and less restrained ball of fire built. There was movement below. They had sensed him. Or something. The Grimm weren't so well-made as to be able to sense and react with perfect precision. Instead, heads came up and looked about in animalistic fashion, like deer that had caught scent of something they didn't recognise and were trying to locate it.

Jaune gave them a direction by hurling the ball of fire roughly toward the centre of the small woodland, just on the other side of the river. Normally, he would fire and forget, but this time he kept hold, maintaining a ball of aura inside the fireball as it landed. When it did, and as the flames ballooned outward, he pumped far too much aura into the ball. Enough that it overwhelmed its shape and caused it to burst. The result was that the fireball and the flames erupted out in every direction and splashed across trees and Grimm alike. They clung, burned, and burst into flames.

The monsters roared in pain and shock.

There was no shout. No command. Only the fwip of bowstrings and the whistling of arrows over their heads. The first volley came in one go, perfectly uniform, but only the first. The hunters fired as fast as they could after, raining arrows down into trees, among them, in Grimm, or just in the muddy ground. As he'd expected, they couldn't really aim when shooting through his wall of fire, but that was fine. The damage was being done. There was no calling it a forest fire yet, but some of the arrows that missed the trees found the must beneath, dying yellow leaves and crinkled dry dead plants. Those burned quickly, spreading the fire to trunks and roots. Slowly but surely, the flames were building.

But it was Ruby and Jaune who added the most. Their fire arched up and down, bursting and exploding among the trees and blasting Grimm from their feet. More than the fire, they added the chaos, keeping the monsters from building up and going for them. That didn't stop all of them. It was inevitable that some would locate their aggressors. The first to crest the cliff and drag itself up to them was a Beowolf. Coco threw down her bow and charged it with her long, two-handed sword, agilely dodged its swipe and brought the big weapon down to lop off its arm. She reversed it and stabbed the tip into its chest, then pushed forward and used it as a lever to push the Grimm back off the cliff and down below. It might have survived but, without an arm, it wasn't getting back up.

More came, but when Pyrrha tossed her bow down and joined the melee, it became obvious that the two Chosen – with the advantage of the terrain, and the fact the Grimm had to climb up to reach them – could hold the line. They engaged Grimm only halfway over the lip, their forearms hauling them up but their lower bodies hanging off. All they could do was snap their jaws, and the Chosen were too experienced to fall for that. They were sent howling back over the edge, landing on those below, trapped in the basin as the rest of them turned it into an inferno.

Eventually, the fires grew to such an intensity that they became a threat of their own to the Grimm, and then the melee became so much worse. The monsters hurled themselves at the cliff to escape as much as to reach them, and Jaune had to support Pyrrha and Coco directly with his magic, and leave Ruby to fan the flames. It was at the critical point anyway. The fires would no longer die down on their own, not unless there was a tropical storm of at least an hour or so. The sky was clear.

The hunters took their own bows lower too, firing directly into the Grimm. They did as little as Nora had feared, but they did distract. That was enough. Grimm shielded their faces with huge, meaty arms and that let Pyrrha and Coco dance among them without fear of attack.

The odd arrow would find something more critical and send a black shape over the edge and back into the fires. The hunters were laughing now, taking their own pleasure in the business. The terrain had given them an almost unassailable position, but then Salem had never expected they would come and attack the Grimm. Salem hadn't even suspected they knew about the Grimm. Oh, but she would now. There was no way this would go unnoticed. They'd have to be careful in future and scour the island more thoroughly. Map out every hiding spot and scout them regularly.

Fire licked at the cliff's edge at last and the Grimm howled. Trapped against the rock and with an inferno behind, they scrabbled and fought and died. Chaos took hold, and many killed each other, trying to climb the rockface and accidentally pulling others down off it. When the fires eventually reached the grassland itself and began scorching the edge, Pyrrha and Coco stepped back. There had not been a Grimm that tried to climb up for a good thirty seconds now. There were howls still, but they were agonised. The hunters stopped shooting. A quick look back as he dispelled the wall of fire showed that all were fine, but many were out of arrows. They stood and dusted themselves down, swinging their bows across their backs.

"Say something," whispered Ozma. "This is a victory. Congratulate them."

He was right, and yet Jaune didn't know what to say. Instead, with their eyes on him, he raised his fist in the air. Bizarrely, it was enough. The faunus echoed him, Nora too, slamming their clenched fists up and roaring their approval. Not one death, not one injury, and over a hundred Grimm dispatched. It was the kind of story that would go down in history – even if the reality of it had been a downright unfair ambush over a cliff that might as well have been a castle wall. Not every battle would be so stacked in their favour, but he couldn't complain. Menagerie had lost a lot of people in the naval battle. They needed a victory that didn't cost them everything.

"This might not be the only camp," shouted Pyrrha, for a moment dampening the cheer. "But even so, losing this many will delay their assault. We should search the island for more and clear them out as well."

"Not today," replied Nora. "We've got, maybe, fifty arrows left. Tops."

Pyrrha smiled. "Yes. And we're low on aura as well. I meant another day – and another party. Everyone here should rest. But we've proven this works. Even if the church is wrong and Salem is responsible for the Grimm, the methods we were taught to control their numbers still apply. We can and we will clear this island."

It was a better speech than his, and the faunus cheered it. Leaving the burning woodland behind them, and trusting the grassland to halt its spread, they marched their way back home to tell everyone the good news.

/-/

It was a loud and boisterous party that made its way back to the settlement. Gone was the tense silence and the wary eyes, and replacing it was bold boasts of their shots, and recollections of the fight. Jaune could tell they'd become more and more bold as the night went on, and soon enough the stories would have each of them wrestling with the Grimm in the fires and dodging among the trees, shooting from point-blank range with blood running down their bodies.

He'd let them have their fun, but Sienna and the other commanders would get as accurate a version as could be told. They needed to know exactly how many had been dealt with, and from where, so they could prepare another hunting party. It would be worth keeping an eye on the place they'd cleared too, though he kind of doubted Salem would send Grimm there again. In truth, he wasn't sure what she would plan now that she knew – definitively – that they were aware of her Grimm connection.

"Salem will fall back on what has worked in the past," said Ozma. "That means using the superior forces of the church. Ever has she won in pitched battle. The Grimm are a threat, it is true, but I've been dealing with them for tens of thousands of years. I ran a school dedicated to teaching children how to dispatch them. They are not my weakness."

The problem for Salem was that battle on the open water wasn't Menagerie's weakness either. It was probably their biggest strength. If Salem could land an army on the shore, then they'd be overrun in a single battle. Aura or not, the sheer discipline and supplies an army could bring, including cavalry and siege equipment, would reduce Menagerie to rubble. They knew that, though. Which was why they would never let it happen. The only way the church would land on the island was if every defender was dead, at which point it would all be over anyway.

What was she going to do about that? He supposed she could close them off, lock them away with a rotating fleet of her own and just let them have the island. That would be the logical approach. They could hold the strait forever, but the church could just as easily hold the other end. Menagerie would be independent but trapped inside its borders forever. It would be all counts be a stalemate – but it would let Salem remain in power on every other kingdom on Remnant.

"She will not accept that. Though most would see it as a victory, she has grown used to victory meaning my defeat – thousands and thousands of years have pushed her to this. To accept any other conclusion will feel to her like I have won. And she will dread what I could achieve on Menagerie given enough time. There will be no retreat."

Then the war would continue. Menagerie wasn't going to give up, either.

"I see smoke!" shouted a hunter. The laughter ended. A moment of silence, and then they were all running. Images of Menagerie in ruin flashed through their minds as they crested the hill.

The reality, thankfully, wasn't that.

But there had been an attack.

The trenches were torn up, the wall was breached in places, and smoke rose from a few building near the edges. They were actively being put out – and that was a sign that the danger had passed if nothing else. But there had been danger. There had been an attack from the other side.

Salem must have taken her chance when she knew he wasn't there. As soon as she knew he was at the other Grimm gathering, she must have launched her assault. Or perhaps she had panicked and realised it was now or never. His mouth felt dry.

"It could have been worse, Jaune. Had not you all cleared the other camp, they would have been pincered. Menagerie yet lives. There are more defending it than solely you."

He was right. Jaune swallowed his horror and pushed on. "It looks like they had their own share of the fun," he said, voice shaky but managing to reach everyone's ears all the same. "And just as we won, they pulled through as well." The cheers were there, but they were a little quieter. No one knew how many were dead, or if they hadn't lost loved ones. "Come on. I'll give the news to Sienna," he said. "The rest of you can go back to your families."

They split immediately, rushing home. Jaune jogged in as well, eyes raking over the damage. The wall had gone down in two places in total, which was better than it could have been. There were dead bodies. It was inevitable. He didn't recognise any of them, but he was sure many were people he'd trained and unlocked the auras of. It wasn't hard to fine Sienna. Naturally, she was at the breach, orchestrating relief efforts and builders to repair them. When she saw him, she scowled.

"We found another pack of Grimm," he said, and that wiped her frustration away. "A hundred and fifty at least – off by the eastern side. We cleared them out. Killed all of them."

"Then you saved us an attack in the rear," she remarked. "That's good. Ours came not an hour after you'd all departed. I'm going to take a guess that coincides with when you began your attack?" His nod confirmed it. "I thought so. Salem must have reacted and lashed out. Maybe she thought we'd sent a much larger force than we had. A good job we hadn't."

"How many were there?"

"About the same again. One, maybe two hundred. The trenches slowed them down and killed many, and we were able surprise more with a stake wall covered with leaves that was pulled up at the last second."

"And how many died?"

"As of right now, the number is at seventy-two. You?"

"None."

Sienna sighed. "That's some good news at least. It's less than it has any right to be in all honesty. Most towns don't survive Grimm attacks of this magnitude. To have less than a hundred dead for twice as many Grimm is almost unheard of. On the bright side, that has to be all the Grimm on the island. It wouldn't make sense for her to hold some back. I'll make sure everyone knows that. Ought to cheer them up a little."

"We've fended off both the church and the Grimm now," said Jaune. "Ozma thinks she'll keep trying. He says she won't accept a stalemate."

"Yeah? Then we'll keep fending her off," said Sienna. "We've shown we can. Both sides of her now. Menagerie isn't going to fall, and the more she tries, the more people back home will start questioning if this goddess of theirs is really so all-knowing and perfect as she makes herself out to be. No one likes losing loved ones. Not even if the Goddess demands it. There'll come a point sooner or later where it's too much." Sienna sighed. "We've just got to hand on until then."

Next Chapter: 21st May

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