Author's note: And now, another attempt at adding more stakes to the story.
Ruby led a small group to Vale's industrial district, to reach and reclaim the dust processing plant. Bumblebee and Arkos flanked her, ready for action, while Cardin looked at the two fusions with very mixed feelings. Glynda and Qrow also got ready to fight, and after checking everyone's aura once again, Ruby drew her scythe.
"Alright everyone, let's do this," Ruby said. A handful of soldiers, who had unlocked their auras and semblances recently, were accompanying them, as were a couple bandits who had lived in the area and were more familiar with it than anyone else. Additionally, the industrial district was the bandits' territory, and The Count wanted to make sure that the huntsmen didn't take anything.
"You know, I'd like to fly on one of those," Cardin said, looking up at Weiss' Queen Lancers circling above. Weiss had stayed behind, close to some ice, to have a steady supply of aura and provide air support for the group.
"Good idea," Ruby said and waved one of them down. Cardin hesitated a bit, then climbed onto the summon, and it took off again. With the summons making sure the way ahead was relatively clear, the group got going and headed into the Grimm-infested area. The group came around a corner and saw a pack of Beowolves, as well as multiple Alpha Beowolves. Ruby immediately charged the Grimm, cutting them down with cold precision. She blocked a hit from an Alpha Beowolf and retreated, switching to ranged combat.
"Here you go," one of the soldiers said and used his semblance, coating everyone's weapons in a golden glow and making them deal more damage, and the soldiers opened fire, while the bandits fired lime green energy beams from their hands and the Queen Lancers rained down bone spikes. Arkos wanted to get involved as well, but Bumblebee held out her arm and stopped them. Before Arkos could ask why Bumblebee did that, the fight was over and the group continued.
~o~
Cardin sent an electric aura arc towards some Giant Nevermore, paralyzing it on impact, and allowing three Queen Lancers to hit it with their stingers and pull it apart. The other summons relied on bone spikes to distract the Grimm and create an opening, while the group on the ground had its own problems. A Big Ursa jumped off a roof and knocked Ruby down after she killed three Beowolves in one swing. Seeing that, Bumblebee pinned her ears to her head in anger.
"Ruby!" Bumblebee called out, extended the short blades from her gauntlets and charged towards the Grimm. It rose to its hind legs to grapple her, but Bumblebee hit it with an upward strike from both fists, digging her blades into its torso and lifting it up a bit. When Cardin turned to look what had happened, he saw the fusion slam into the Big Ursa at full speed, before pushing it backwards through the pack of Ursai without slowing down much.
"Get down," Arkos ordered and followed Bumblebee, while everyone else ducked behind the nearest thing. They stopped once they reached Ruby and activated their semblance, surrounding themself and Ruby with a transparent gray barrier. Bumblebee retracted her blades and grabbed the Big Ursa by the throat with her right hand, and clenched her left one into a fist. She punched the Grimm, shooting a stream of black flames into its torso. The flames lashed out in all directions, some bouncing off of Arkos' barrier, before bursting out of the Grimm's back, killing it.
"Unbelievable," Cardin said under his breath as he watched a pack of Grimm go up in flames. Suddenly, Bumblebee looked directly at him and held out her open hand. A black fireball manifested in her palm, and she shot it towards him. Before it hit him, it split into five smaller ones that flew around him and hit a Giant Nevermore trying to attack him. Bumblebee turned around and walked towards Ruby, and Arkos deactivated their barrier again.
"Are you alright?" Bumblebee asked and offered Ruby a hand to help her get back up.
"Yes, thanks," Ruby answered and accepted the hand, and Bumblebee pulled her back onto her feet. Ruby grabbed her weapon and the group got going again. As they wandered through the streets, they noticed silk strings spanning between buildings, with clumps of various small objects hanging from them.
"Looks pretty weird," Qrow said as the group walked through the street, "Be on the lookout for anything suspicious." Suddenly, Glynda yelped and looked at her left foot, where she found a small, worm-like Grimm with six legs, and without any bone armor. She stomped the Grimm, killing it.
"Wow, a literal ankle-biter," Bumblebee said, "Would probably be a good name for it, too." Ruby looked around once more, paying close attention to the items.
"Alright, if you insist," Glynda said, pulled out her scroll and made a quick sketch of the Grimm, noting its weak attack and defense, as well as writing down its name. Meanwhile, Ruby saw individual shoes, empty cans, and other trash, when suddenly, a single red eye peaked through a hole in a sock.
"Watch out!" Ruby called out and used a gravity Glyph to pull everyone back the way they had come, just before some old garbage fell onto the group, revealing more Ankle-biters hanging on the strings and filling the area with a horrid stench. Other Ankle-biters rubbed metal cans, nails, and other metallic objects on their bodies together, creating a deafening sound that forced everyone to cover their ears.
"This is unbearable!" Bumblebee called out, covering her cat ears. The summoned Queen Lancers fired bone spikes at the Grimm, but due to their small size, didn't hit many, and had to stop when Griffons showed up. One of the Ankle-biters used the mirror shards it had covered itself with to focus the sunlight, causing the shards to briefly become covered in red veins, and fired an energy blast at Glynda, knocking her down.
"Glynda!" Qrow shouted over the noise, and decided to do something. He focused as much as he could, poured some of his aura into his semblance, and caused the walls and balconies the Grimm had attached their webs to to break off. The sound ended as the Grimm tumbled to the ground, ending up entangled in their own webbing and buried under trash. One of the Queen Lancers shot a bone spike into a street corner, covered with green lightning, and three bats formed from the cobwebs in it. They flew out onto the street, screeching at the Ankle-biters and forcing them to discard their armors.
"Thanks, Qrow," Glynda said as Qrow helped her up, "It sure was lucky that the material had deteriorated over time." The Queen Lancers fired a barrage of bone spikes at the Grimm, and Weiss used the shards as focus to use Shock Crystal, augmented with ice-dust. Bit by bit, the Grimm were covered in ice, most of which immediately disappeared again to recharge everyone's aura. However, each hit also triggered Spectral Healing, further helping everyone. Seeing this, Bumblebee split up again.
"Hey Ruby, can I ask you something?" Yang asked and said, "I'd like to copy Garnet's semblance."
"Well, alright," Ruby answered, and fused with Sapphire's soul.
"Anyone else?" Garnet asked and showed off her semblance by manifesting a single hand large enough to almost grab her entire body. Some of the soldiers came forward, and Garnet imprinted her soul's blueprint on their souls, before she returned to being Ruby.
"Thanks," Yang said and went back to fuse with Blake again, but Blake moved away, much to Yang's surprise, and concern.
"Sorry, it's nothing personal," Blake said, looked past Yang and asked, "Ruby, can we fuse again, for a moment? I'd like to be able to use Ladybug's Shadowstep on my own."
"Sure," Ruby answered and fused with Blake, just long enough that Cardin could develop another set of very confusing feelings, while Ruby made Ladybug share her semblance with Blake. Then, the two split up again.
"In any case, I believe we could rest here for a moment," Glynda suggested, and everyone agreed. Ruby set up a Healing Circle and taught the soldiers how to enter their soul cores, allowing them to learn how to use Garnet's Aura Hands. Blake set up a Grassy Terrain, covering the area in ethereal grass and flowers, turned to Yang with an apologetic smile, and Yang returned the smile and rolled her eyes, then hugged Blake, and the two fused into Bumblebee again. Glynda moved some stones to create a seating area, and sat down to properly illustrate the Ankle-biters. The bandits went through the pile of junk the Ankle-biters had used as bodies, to see if any of it was of any use, and made two piles. After she was done, Ruby summoned a Seer and had it contact Weiss.
"Hello, Weiss," Ruby said and asked, "Can you make a Combat Drone here?"
"Hello Ruby," Weiss said and answered, "Of course. In fact, I've gotten so good with that semblance, thanks to Ilia, that I can now change their properties a bit. For example, if I remove the recharging ability, it also removes the limiter on how many I can create. And I can set routes for them to travel."
"That's pretty cool," Ruby said and asked, "Can you make one for every crossing we passed on the way here?"
"Yes, but it will take a while," Weiss answered, "I need to make each individually, after all, and I also need to wait for my aura to regenerate. But I can do it."
"Thanks," Ruby said, "But it's fine if you have to stick to the base semblance, without dust. Just something to keep the path open so we can get back."
"Got it," Weiss said, "I'll get started, then."
"Alright," Ruby said, "I'll support you from here for a bit, but we'll probably get going again in a few minutes. Also, tell Nora to hurry up. After all, this whole operation hinges on her."
"Thanks, will do," Weiss said, and Ruby made her Seer disappear again and started recharging Weiss' aura, allowing her to create Combat Drones more easily. Meanwhile, Arkos used their astral tracing ability to take a look at the Ankle-biters, and told Glynda what they looked like.
~o~
Weiss stood in her own Healing Circle and was surrounded by ice to recharge her aura, and made a Seer float over to where the others had crossed into the Grimm-infested parts of the industrial district. Using her aura tracing ability, and a bit of her magic, she primed her Combat Drones for her allies' auras. The first Drone floated along a road, and stopped at the first crossing it reached. When the second Drone approached it, the first moved along another road, and stopped at the first crossing it reached. Careful to not deplete her aura too much, Weiss continued like this, sending Combat Drones to follow her friends.
~o~
After a five minute break, just as the group was about to get going again, one of the soldiers used his Keen Edge semblance, coating everyone's weapons in a leafy green glow, instead of a golden one. Everyone looked at their weapons, and then to him, and the soldier blinked in confusion.
"Well, this is new," the man said.
"Let's see," Qrow said, shifted Harbinger into its ranged form and shot a nearby wall, creating a mass of chestnut shells on impact.
"Looks like your semblance is dust-compatible," Glynda said.
"I'm not quite sure how to feel about that, to be honest," the man said awkwardly.
"I'd feel pretty good about it," Bumblebee said, "It means you can help your allies even better, by using different types of dust depending on the situation."
"If you say so," the man said, "But anyway, my semblance has a very short time limit, so we should get going before the effect wears off."
"Alright," Glynda said, "Let's go." Gry also used his semblance, coating everyone in a leafy green energy, and the group got going.
"Anyway, Glynda," Qrow said, falling back to walk beside the new headmistress, "We didn't get lucky back there. Those things just got really unlucky, because of me. Sirena did something with my sword, so now my semblance is stronger, but can't hurt Ruby or her friends."
"Whether we're lucky or they're unlucky doesn't matter," Glynda said, "I just saw them lose, and us win. In the end, the outcome is the same."
"But we still weren't lucky," Qrow said, "We just weren't as unlucky as them."
"You know, I don't recall you being so open about your semblance," Glynda said and asked, "What happened?"
"Take a wild, red-hooded guess," Qrow said with a smile and looked forward, where Ruby was leading the group again. After the group walked some more, both boost semblances wore off. A few minutes later, a pack of assorted Grimm came out of a street, and combat ensued. Ruby rushed ahead, cutting down the Grimm with her scythe, and Arkos and Bumblebee followed suit with their spear and double blades respectively, while the soldiers and bandits focused on ranged combat. Qrow and Glynda stayed on the sidelines, to keep an eye out for any surprises.
"And that's that," Ruby said after killing the last Alpha Beowolf. She set up another Healing Circle, and the group took a short breather. The Queen Lancer carrying Cardin landed, and all the summons disappeared, only for their white fragments to amass into a Seer.
"Hey guys," Weiss said after her face appeared in the summon, "Sorry, but I'm pretty beat."
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked, and the group got a bit worried.
"Nothing serious," Weiss answered, "But it's getting late. I can make enough Combat Drones to reach you guys before sunset, but that's as far as I can go today."
"Got it, thanks," Ruby said, "I'll support you again from here."
"I think it's best if we stay here tonight," Glynda said, "That way, we can move out faster tomorrow, and make more progress."
"But what about food?" Cardin asked.
"Don't worry," one of the bandits answered, "We're experts at surviving without proper means to do so."
"Sounds like a plan," Qrow said.
"And I can help, too," Bumblebee said and split up again.
"I'll recharge Ruby's aura, and she'll help Weiss," Blake said, "If I'm in my Alpha State, aura won't be a problem." Everyone went to do their jobs, leaving the soldiers, Glynda and Cardin to just stand around and watch as the bandits, and Qrow, looked for food and shelter for the night. Cardin watched as Blake's aura manifested as claws and a tail, and both her and Ruby's hands started glowing white. After about an hour, a Combat Drone appeared behind a corner, and came floating towards the group, but stopped at the last crossing they had passed. The bandits eventually returned with canned food, and some foraged berries and roots, while Qrow showed them the way to a subway station they could use as shelter for the night. Blake set up a Combat Drone to guard one entrance, and the soldiers and bandits, along with the huntsmen, decided to stand guard, in case Grimm appeared through the other entrances.
~o~
Nora was in her wolf form and ran through Vale's industrial district, following the trail of Combat Drones that Weiss had created. She came past a pile of old stuff, most of which looked useful, and stopped a bit to sniff the area, wondering why they only left the good things, and what had happened in the first place. She then resumed running, eventually reached the end of the line, and transformed back.
"Now, where are they?" Nora asked herself and said "Oh, I know." She activated her aura-based electroreception and looked around, quickly finding her friends somewhere underground. After looking around some more, she found the entrance to the subway station, and was greeted by some of the soldiers.
"Hi there, good to see you," one of the soldiers said, "The others are already asleep, so you should get some rest, too."
"Thanks," Nora said, "But I'd like to help a bit, too." She walked over to another open entrance, and created a yellow Combat Drone near it. Then she headed over to where the others were sleeping, took one of the sleeping bags, and quickly fell asleep.
~o~
When Cardin woke up for his guard shift, alongside several bandits, he noticed Nora sleeping a little distance away from him, and thought back to that time during combat practice where she slammed a guy out of the classroom, through the closed door. That memory, and the fact that she was sleeping so peacefully, felt like they didn't want to get along in his head. Just as he wondered if he had been staring too long, he heard one of the Combat Drones fire at Grimm.
"Alright," Cardin said, drew his mace, and got ready for action. It was a simple pack of Beowolves, but he knew not to get cocky, so he still treated them as a proper threat and gave it his all. Between the bandits' energy beams, and occasional barriers, his mace, and the Drone's energy blasts, the Grimm had no chance.
"Good work," one of the bandits said, when suddenly, an Alpha Beowolf appeared in the dark. At the press of a button, the head of Cardin's mace folded to the side, and a spike protruded from the now-exposed bottom, while the handle extended, turning his mace into a proper war hammer.
"Get back," Cardin said and charged at the Grimm. He took a fairly clumsy swing at it, which the Grimm dodged by leaning back. The Grimm tried to hit him with both claws in a downward strike, but Cardin blocked the blow with his weapon's handle. As the Alpha Beowolf threatened to break through his defense, bearing on his weapon with all its weight, Cardin remembered one of the special features Ruby had suggested and triggered the small fire-dust crystal that was left in his weapon. The explosion flung the hammer around, thrusting the spike into his enemy's head and pulling the weapon from his left hand in what looked like an intentional powerful swing. The Alpha Beowolf's head was pierced and pinned to the concrete wall, and the Grimm died, making Cardin look a lot more competent than he actually was. While Cardin was still processing what he just did, he heard slow clapping behind him, pulled his weapon from the wall and turned around.
"Looks like I didn't need to hurry after all," Sirena said, "You'll make a fine huntsman one day." She tossed him another fire-dust crystal. He caught it, letting his weapon's head hit the ground, and inspected it, and noticed that it was lighter than the normal ones, and was almost completely white at the center.
"What's this?" Cardin asked, "And where did you come from?"
"You've hard of Light Ice, yes? There are other semblances like it, for different elements," Sirena answered, "And I came here on Ruby's request, and because there is nothing more I can do in Atlas. At least, for now. I will have to go back there from time to time, but that is of no concern to you. In any case, I'll keep you company, just in case you need it."
"Didn't you just say I'm a fine huntsman?" Cardin asked.
"I said you will be," Sirena answered, "You have taken the first step, one that was long overdue. But in any case, you are still in training, so it is fine for you to make mistakes."
"What kind of mistakes do you mean?" Cardin asked.
"Taking your eyes off the enemy, for one," Sirena answered and pointed behind him. Cardin whipped around in a panic, only to see nothing.
"Is that a trick?" Cardin asked and turned around.
"No, a lesson," Sirena answered, "Don't react so panicked when out in the field. If there really were Grimm, that fear could have cost lives. But also, trust your allies to cover your blind spots. If Grimm really snuck up on you, I would deal with them before they could harm you. I expect you to do the same, by the way."
"Sure, as if any Grimm could sneak up on the great and powerful Sirena Blue," Cardin said, "Not that I could fight anything that would threaten you, anyway." He pouted a bit, earning him a slight chuckle from Sirena, much to his surprise.
"I appreciate the trust you have in me," Sirena said, "But I would still very much prefer you to actually look out for your allies, even if they are stronger than you. Everyone has a bad day once in a while, and they can catch you at the worst times."
"I guess," Cardin said and asked, "So, what do we do now?"
"I figured you could go back to your duties," Sirena answered, "I, for one, will look for a place to sleep, and see you in the morning." She began to walk off, when Cardin had an idea. He hesitated a bit, unsure whether it was even an idea worth mentioning, but something told him he could trust Sirena to take him seriously. So, he went for it.
Author's note: Ankle-biters are based on the pokémon Burmy, with some attacks based on Wormadam's move set.
Also, Sirena is back, and she is much more friendly towards Cardin now.