There was nothing left to say. Nothing more for Yang to threaten, no more insults to be screamed as she fell through the air, her impressive mane of saffron hair whipping behind her in the wind as she fell. There was only the black and red target flittering about between illusory planes, downing them one by one, and the mission. Yang didn't care that Salem couldn't be killed by conventional means. She didn't care that she had no plan for landing when it was all over. One way or another, she would make Salem feel the same pain she was feeling.
Yang didn't care in the slightest if she died in the process.
Another shotgun blast from her artificial arm propelled Yang to the left in a sideways roll. Salem was suddenly in sight, a rainbow trail of raw, primal magic flying from her fingertips to obliterate another phantom plane. Yang narrowed her eyes and time seemed to slow as she aimed her fist forward. It was a nearly impossible shot at the speeds they were moving… and it would serve only to agitate the monster if it did hit.
That was what Yang wanted.
A plume of sputtering ash erupted from Salem's left shoulder, rocking her backwards as a hot metal slug pierced her flesh. Wordlessly, the witch looked up to where Yang was falling past her only to receive a second round of burning metal straight through the forehead. Salem's head whipped back as the killing blow sent her reeling and tumbling through the air. There were only a few seconds of Salem falling backward head over foot before an icy blue streak impacted her and began dragging her through the air horizontally. With a thunderous impact, the immortal queen slammed into the side of the rising Amity Coliseum with enough force to rock the entire structure. Sheets of ice began to manifest around Salem's lifeless body as Harriet held her to the side of the wall, channeling more and more primal magic against the concrete. When her work was done, the Winter Maiden kicked off the side of Amity and twisted into a spiraling dive.
It was only then that Yang realized the reality of her situation through all of the adrenaline, anger, and fear. She was falling fast with trailing lights, explosions, and airborne grimm all around her. The huntress clenched her teeth and fired off a few more rounds from her gauntlets into a nearby manticore, ripping through its wings and sending it chasing the ground. There were only a few more rounds left in her gauntlets, and not nearly enough to slow her all the way to the ground. Yang fully intended to make them all count.
The sudden feeling of arms around her waist was an unexpected one, as was the sudden rush of freezing cold and the immediate arresting of her momentum. Yang's body whipped dangerously as the statuesque grip held her in place, and upon looking behind herself, she found the reason she had stopped falling. An icy chill from Harriet's labored breathing crept up Yang's neck intermittently as the women looked at each other. The Ace Operative gave the young huntress a firm nod, which Yang returned in kind. Neither knew what to say. Neither had the time to say it as a brilliant, rippling explosion of fire emanated from the temporary prison fused to the side of Amity Coliseum. Shards of ice and bits of metal flew outward and around the area, sending a wave of intense heat Yang's way. Salem's wings beat as black ichor poured from her wounds and she began to rise against the burning backdrop. Yang was ready and waiting, the illusory planes and all of her allies save Harriet gone from the area.
With a quick double tap on Harriet's hands, Yang fired a quick round behind herself to propel toward Salem. Harriet was quick to let go and begin circling to the witch's right as another torrent of ethereal magic screamed through the air in flickering colors. Yang dodged the shot, returning fire in kind as Salem raised a hand to manifest a shimmering shield. The white-hot bullets were caught in the field and slowly disintegrated before Salem twisted her fingers and sent the multicolored disc hurtling in Yang's direction. With a sudden, desperate idea, Yang decided to take the hit head on as she sped through the air propelled by the blasts from her gauntlets.
Yang's aura rippled and flickered in protest as she flew through the blast, stretching to its absolute limit. She could see the white, spiderwebbed cracks in her vision as her source of power threatened to break while Salem readied another projectile. Yang wasn't about to let it connect as she felt her entire body wrapped in a sudden, intense warmth. Her skin and hair felt like they were aflame. Her eyes stung with both tears, the wind against them, and sheer power coursing through her as her Semblance fired up. Yang was teetering on the edge of obliteration and maximum output as she pulled back a fist mere feet from Salem. The witch's total lack of fear only served to anger her further and push her to a point she had never reached before.
The first punch sank into Salem's stomach, doubling her over in midair before the second slammed hard into the side of her neck, breaking it. Each blow and the ones that followed were punctuated by the full fury of Yang's Semblance, cracking bone and piercing skin. Chunks were torn out of Salem's body as Yang engaged the claw mechanisms within the tops of her knuckles, trading pummeling for slashing and piercing. Not even a yell of fury escaped Yang as she worked, ripping Salem apart with her continued midair assault. Yang grabbed around Salem's waist as the pair began to fall and readied another punch, retracting her claws as she locked eyes with the immortal queen. The blow slammed into the center of Salem's face as Yang fired off a shotgun round, blowing apart Salem's head in a shower of gore, bone, and black ooze as they tumbled through the sky together.
Quite suddenly, Salem's arm reached up and grabbed for Yang's throat with a vicelike grip. Yang scrambled to reach up her artificial arm only for Salem to grip the limb around the forearm as well. In a desperate bid for air, Yang reached her remaining, natural arm up to try to claw Salem off of her as they continued to descend through the air together. The grimm queen's skull was slowly re-forming in front of Yang, tendrils of black and bits of bone slowly shifting back into place from their splattered apart configuration as though nothing had happened to begin with. Salem's lips reappeared around her teeth in a sadistic smile as a burning sensation manifested on Yang's neck, finally shattering her aura as the flesh on her throat felt as though it was beginning to boil. Yang pulled harder at the witch's fingers to try to get some air, but to no avail. The witch's grip around the girl's artificial arm tightened, causing the metal to spark and crumple before the limb was ripped off its attachment point entirely. Just before Salem's eyes fully reformed, a sudden impact tore the two women apart and sent Yang tumbling away alone.
Harriet desperately tried to freeze over Salem's wounds as they continued to close, only for the ice to melt away against the superheated grimm flesh. Seeing no other option, Harriet began throwing lightning-infused punches to open new wounds faster than Salem could close them. Additional projectiles tore through Salem's sides, spraying grimm ooze throughout the sky as she and Harriet stabilized. Harriet spared a glance toward where Yang was falling, only to find that the bullets were coming from somewhere else.
The transports carrying their allies had never left for the border of Mantle at all.
One of the planes circled around from behind Amity Coliseum, its side hatch wide open as a monkey-tailed faunus kept one hand on the door as the other held a long, red firearm. Another shot screamed through the air and pierced Salem with a fiery burst as Sun let loose a dust-infused round. Harriet soon let go of Salem and dropped off to once again dive after Yang, giving Sun a better vantage point. Two golden doppelgangers appeared beside him in the transport area and began mirroring his shots, tripling the damage inflicted as Salem struggled to right herself in midair and regenerate. The witch's eyes fully formed just in time to see several red points of light trailing toward her, but not quickly enough to let her react as another, much larger projectile flew straight for her.
Corsac tore straight through Salem's torso with a spinning slash, his weapon tearing open the woman's stomach while he passed. Another line of lights directed him to the roof of a nearby hovering transport, and he zipped along the trail before Salem could retaliate. Another burst of exploding rounds slammed into Salem's midsection from Sun as his plane circled around once again. Salem's lower body barely clung to her upper half through all the damage until suddenly, her entire body began to fuse into a floating, featureless black vessel. The following bullets and strikes from Sun and Corsac all failed to penetrate the surface of the egg as the air around it became oddly distorted and hazy. Yang added to the cacophony of weapons fire as she rose, her remaining hand clasped tightly around Harriet's forearm. Harriet, too, added to the assault with a concentrated beam of icy magic from her unoccupied palm to no avail.
With an outward burst of searing black liquid, Salem emerged from her aerial cocoon fully formed and with an additional set of veinous wings sporting thicker membranes. She was breathing hard and the usual black grimm material snaking around her body was an angry red and thrumming violently. The very air all around her felt hotter than usual, and there was a murderous glint in her eyes as more multicolored magic began to manifest in her palms. She quickly looked between potential targets as there was a lull in gunfire and physical assaults, and Yang realized that whoever she went for was likely about to die. There was no way Yang was going to let it happen again. No way she was losing another friend. She knew she had to get Salem's attention, no matter the consequences. She would figure out the follow-up afterward.
With a deep breath, Yang aimed and fired one last time. The shot found purchase in Salem's side, and the witch's shift in attention was immediate. There were only seconds to spare before disaster as the fields of magic within Salem's hands intensified into a sort of ghostly flame. Yang was ready to drop from Harriet's grip in an instant to try to dodge, but the opportunity never came.
A loud screeching noise from above caught Salem's attention a split second before a large streak slammed into her body with enough speed and force to almost completely annihilate it. Yang, Harriet, Sun, and Corsac barely had time to register that what had hit Salem was a plane in the middle of a targeted dive as it continued its rapid descent toward at full speed.
Ilia narrowed her eyes as she looked through the cockpit window at the broken body of her enemy. Salem's upper body was a mess as it clung to the nosecone with its single remaining arm and wing, black blood streaming from where her lower body used to be. Salem tried desperately to inch up the outside of the cockpit, only for its window to open as Ilia continued to unstrap herself from the pilot's seat. The two women made eye contact for a moment, and no words were exchanged as the plane continued to dive. With a mocking salute, Ilia unclicked the final buckle and flew upward in a flash, a parachute erupting from her backpack as she was carried to safety. Salem and the plane continued speeding downward before they collided with the side of a building, bursting into flame and bringing down the majority of the structure while the faunus slowly descended into the burning city.
Author's Note:
No dialogue.
You know, like what Neo should have.
-RD