I soaked up the experience for a precious handful of seconds. It was slightly difficult to breath up here, but the moment was quite literally breathtaking. Before long though, the cogs in my brain were turning.
'If I pissed this thing off like I imagine, why would it bring me up here?' I thought suspiciously, eyeing the Wyvern beneath my feet cautiously. 'It can't have been easy. The tops of storm clouds are-'
I flinched, paling at the train of thought.
"Tens of thousands of feet!" I cursed before turning and bolting along the beast. I ran to the sturdiest spine I could see and ripped my belts off as fast as possible. I paid no attention to them tearing through various belt loops as I did it.
'Gotta hurry!' The phrase repeated in my mind on loop. I tried my best to prevent my hands from fumbling over themselves as I fashioned the two belts together and wrapped them tightly around the thinner circumference of the bone spire, towards the bottom. A massive jolt rocked the creature I was standing on, and I was forced to thud a knee against the flesh to keep from falling. My head snapped around the Wyvern, looking for anything strange. It wasn't hard to spot the difference from before.
The great wings were retracted, now resting against the body.
Panic cut through the chilling bite of the wind. My breath caught in my throat and I focused on my preparations. I grabbed the long tail of leather left over from the tied belts and made a sturdy knot around my arm with sweaty hands. Once done I tugged and yanked at the belts with panicked might, and found there was no give. As sweat beaded on my forehead I coiled the leather around my palm, right as the rollercoaster-like feeling got too noticeable to ignore.
I looked forward just in time to see the bone skull of the Wyvern dip down gracefully, and the rest of the body followed the trajectory. Wind blasted against me as we gently dipped down into the inky clouds. The sound of flapping tore my eyes away from the head of the Grimm, and I could feel my blood drop. I could make it out just barely through the dark cover in the sky, the wings were fully extended.
They flapped once, and I lost my footing.
"YOU STUPID DRAGON!" My screams were full of expletives and nearly incoherent. "SLOW DOWN!"
We burst through the bottom of the black cover of clouds, and I was blown around by the speed. My feet were flying completely free behind me as the Wyvern divebombed, the leather belts and bone spine the only thing keeping me from being carried away. I was whipped back by the strap tied to my arm and left trailing in-line with the very tip of the spine I was tied to. Weightlessness grabbed at me, and the sharp point of the bone tapping against my pauldron did me no favors. The difference in light from above to below was never more apparent than now, with my eyes struggling to adjust to the sights. The landscape grew closer with every passing second, and the buildings of Vale seemed to grow up off the ground. My teeth were grit tight, with only one hand keeping me from flying away and the other keeping Crocea Mors safe.
I watched Vale become more detailed by the second with the wind keeping my eyes forced open. I was able to make out street blocks, then individual buildings, then sidewalks, then vehicles. My heart was pounding in my chest so hard I was worried it would spill out of my mouth. The rush of adrenaline was absolutely unreal.
Suddenly, everything hit a full stop.
Blindingly bright aura flared as the razor-sharp tip of the bone spire sliced upwards along my shoulder, tearing my pauldron away from me. My body impacted the rough flesh of the Grimm with all the force of a truck, and I felt every bit of it in spite of my aura flaring to take the punishment. I groaned loudly and scrambled to my feet, only for a shuddering wail of pain to nearly knock me back down from the vibrations alone. I glanced around to see the cause of the sudden stop and found it easily. The Wyvern had extended its wings out to catch the fall all at once, but it seemed to have consequences.
Sweat built up on my forehead as we sunk past the tip of a Valean skyscraper. The entire time, my gaze was locked on the slice I'd made through the wing earlier… the one that seemed to have been caught during the attempt to stop. Instead of a small slit, it was a gigantic hole of billowing skin that gashed through half the membrane of the wing.
"Not again…" I mumbled flatly, watching as the Wyvern flapped its wings with reckless abandon in an attempt to stop falling. A screech rocked me as I gripped the leather anchor, feeling resigned as the Grimm fluttered through the air and the buildings grew higher around us. I cursed when we bounced off the side of a building as I was sent spinning around the bone spine by my belts, skidding across the skin.
The fall was over quickly, and the ground met us harshly. The concrete and blacktop crunched under the impact of the Grimm, and when the massive bone head of the Wyvern smacked and bounced off the street all the glass in the area shattered at once. I dragged myself to my feet as pure white licks of aura receded from my body, and cut away the knots on my arm with Crocea Mors. Dashing along the length of its back, I hopped down the tail of the prone beast. My feet crunched against the broken glass that lined the street as the skies rumbled above. I managed to create a good distance between myself and the Wyvern, but as my eyes focused forward my feet felt to be glued to the blacktop.
"The Green Zone." My mouth was dry as I said it.
The gates were right in front of me, ironically the same ones Winter and I disembarked from days ago. I stood maybe a distance of a thousand feet from the placement of the wall. The ringing in my ears was back as a droning buzz, like the hum of tube lights. A series of stomps that shook the ground ripped my attention away from the Green Zone and I spun around, whipping Crocea Mors out to play.
The Wyvern pushed itself up from the ground with its massive clawed hands, and its tail whipped back and forth as it stood. Even from behind it I could see the massive white head angling around, observing its surroundings. It turned far too quickly for my liking, and as it u-turned in the street its tail crashed right through the face of a bank. I watched with detached dread as the building collapsed in on itself. The giant beast padded in place to face me, and simply tilted its head. Three red eyes bigger than my torso pierced into me from the room-sized skull of the Wyvern, and the leather grip on my sword squeaked as my hand tightened around it. It clacked its jaw once, something loud enough to sound like a gun shot, and shook like a wet dog. Debris from the crash fell from the bone plating that had dug trenches in the blacktop, and the spines on its back shook back and forth high above me.
It stomped forward a single step-
"SKRUUUUEEEEEKAAAAAAAH!"
- and screeched louder than it had yet. Skin and strands of corded muscle waved violently from the man-sized hole in its neck as it yelled, and the ruined wing flared out alongside its counterpart and began to dig into the walls of buildings lining the street. It lunged towards me, and I danced out of the way of the jaws that snapped. However, I wasn't watching for the winged arm that smacked me aside.
The palm impacted my side harshly and I was sent careening through a storefront with minimal resistance. With the glass already shattered, my body simply cracked through the wall-length frames where they once were. The metal conformed around my sides before shattering from the stress and I was through, then tumbling across the floor and leaving cracked tiles in my wake. With the force the Wyvern put into swatting me, I ended up going straight through the checkout counter. I probably plowed through a register also, as I briefly saw plastic cards of Lien go flying and the crunch of metal and plastic. I only came to a stop after the counter, when my back impacted an exceptionally solid wall. Even still, I felt the metal I'd landed on concave around me.
I lay motionless in my crater, simply watching as my aura receded with Crocea Mors gripped limply in my palm. It took a handful of seconds before the daze left me, and I was able to make out the tail-end of the Grimm's screech. The ringing in my ears had grown bolder, now a droning monotone that nearly drowned everything out. My breaths were strained, but despite all my problems my vision eventually cleared up.
It was obvious to me now that I was thrown through a toy store. There were playing cards, toy guns, plastic play pieces, and all other sorts of odds and ends scattered everywhere as though they'd been sprayed, most likely due to the path my body carved through all the display shelves. I was covered in foam weaponry from the cratered wall I rested in, swords and spears and a collection of large boxes displaying miniguns had fallen around me. A stomp that screamed 'Wyvern footstep' shook the room, and knocked more toys loose from the shelf behind me. I blearily looked down at what had fallen in my lap as more stomps followed the first.
My blood turned to ice in my veins. My eyes shot open, and I stared with complete fixation. The droning in my ears was all encompassing, now a high-pitched whining that overwrote every other sound except my pounding heart. I grabbed the item off my lap with my shield-baring arm and held it before me.
The plastic warped in my grip as I held it with a stone-steady hand. It was a black toy bow. Complete with a strip of foam-tipped, pitch-black arrows.
"Are you mocking me, Cinder?"
The words came from my mouth without my input, but I meant them down to my very soul. Shadows and colors bled away from the world, and were replaced with overwhelmingly pure brightness. The light washed even the darkest silhouettes away, and left nothing but a blinding canvas.
When I could next make things out beyond the light, the severed tail of the Wyvern lay on the pavement in front of me and Crocea Mors was extended tightly in my hand. The tail, which in some places was thicker than I was tall, was sliced into neat sections up to the base. I gazed between the sashimi'd tail and my ancestral blade with interest. At this moment, everything felt right. There was a peculiar glow that lit up the street even under the dark cover of the clouds, one that made me feel at ease.
"KREAAAA-YHA-YHA-YHA-YHA-YHUUUAA!"
The shuddering wail of the Wyvern forced my attention on to it. It thrashed around the street in pain, but was backing up from the gate to the Green Zone. I watched the scene calmly, even as it twirled around to face me. It growled viciously at me, but I didn't react much and simply stood among the smoking pieces of tail. The arm that carried the shredded wing raised before it was swung down, positioned to crush me to a fine pulp. My eyes locked onto the titanic clawed hand that sailed towards me from above, and the flapping bits of membrane that flailed behind it.
I stepped aside and brought up my shield. The torso-sized claws scraped across the face of my shield and were deflected just a few critical inches. The hand rocketed into the ground and shattered the pavement, with the force sending gravel-sized bits of blacktop through the air. My eyes were locked onto one of the six blood red eyes the entire time, even as shards of stone passed between us. I turned with a single step and lashed Crocea Mors towards the sky. The pure glow illuminated the Grimm flesh as it parted at the edge of my sword. Muscle strands snapped like rubber bands and the bone in the middle cut smoothly, going even further than my blade could reach.
The arm, cut just below the elbow, thudded loudly to the ground. The section of wing that extended behind it came with it, sliced in a neat line where the arm had been. Silence reigned, and the stiff eye contact between us was unbroken. Then, the Wyvern twitched.
"KREEEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHKC!"
The creature wailed in pain as smoke billowed out of the stump of its arm, but I wasted no time watching. As it thrashed I sprinted from my spot and curved around the Wyvern. A blind swing from its remaining wing trashed the buildings around us as the flesh carved through brick and wood. I dropped and slid beneath the wide arc of the attack, then jumped back to my feet. I skidded to a stop about 400 feet from the wall of the Green Zone, putting myself between it and the Grimm.
The black sky lit up with lightning, and booming thunder followed soon after. I glared at the Wyvern with a stone expression, and observed as it seemed to regain something that resembled clarity. It whipped around to face me in the street, carving through the shattered pavement like an animal with man-sized back talons. The second that its red eyes found me it let out a booming roar that shook the street beneath me. I widened my stance to compensate for the shaking of the ground, and gripped Crocea Mors tight. It reared up on wobbly hind legs and towered over some of the ruined buildings that surrounded us… but I felt no fear. In this moment I felt as if Pyrrha were here with me. The same sensation as when she unlocked my aura permeated my being. It was pure and unadulterated, but so intense it was completely in another category. It was like Pyrrha unlocked my aura one hundred times over.
The Wyvern steadied itself on its hind legs and looked down on me. The titanic bone head reared back and let loose a roar that could shake cities, but it was overshadowed entirely. The black sky disappeared for a second in contrast, as a massive pillar of lightning arced down from the clouds. The plasma danced all the way from the sky down to strike the tip of one of the bone spines on the back of the Wyvern. It lasted less than a second, but the effect was instant once the strike disappeared. Thunder roared and drowned out everything, even the screech of the Wyvern. All along its back the bone spines exploded, sending bone shards all across the street. A terribly small glint caught my eye in the shower of bone shards, and I watched my pauldron fall to the ground among the remains of the spines.
Eventually sound returned in the wake of the booming thunder. When it did, I spoke.
"Kneel."
The blade of Crocea Mors almost seemed to glow, matching the purity of the light that bounced off the reflective metal all along the street. I paid it no mind, and instead ripped it through the air in front of me. The legs of the Wyvern bowed, and the weight of the body flung the cleanly separated limbs out from underneath it. A massive arc of the same blinding golden white as my aura tore through them, meeting no resistance as it moved through.
The city shook as the Wyvern collapsed onto its stomach. The bone head of the Grimm slapped against the street and bounced with a horrible crack before resting. Its single arm clawed and scraped against the shattered wedges of blacktop and concrete as it whined. I gazed at the wounded beast, studying the shell that remained of the titan that was the Wyvern. My blood boiled as I looked at the massive bone head, and I reminded myself just who it answered to during the attack… just what it helped her do.
The dull glow that encompassed the street grew brighter, but not quite blinding like earlier. I felt my aura boiling inside me, rolling and pouring at the seams like an erupting geyser. The shield on my arm felt like a feather, and the sword in my hand felt like it belonged. The blade of Crocea Mors slowly lit up, growing brighter and purer golden white tones that washed away the darkness of the sky. My feet led me towards the prone beast at a sedate pace. I scowled and readied my family sword, then tore it across horizontally. An arc of aura that sucked away the darkness of the surrounding area came to life following the tip of my sword. In a flash it ate into the bone skull of the Grimm, then rocketed through in the blink of an eye.
The arc had sliced through the mouth, and the top of the head slipped off the neck of the Wyvern. It impacted the ground with a loud crack, leaving behind a raw neck and a bottom jaw that slumped to the ground and poured out smoke as it died.
I simply scooped up my charred pauldron from the street and walked towards the Green Zone.
"Go wait for your Master in Hell."
I ignored the glow that followed me through the street and the droplets that plinked on my armor from the sky, and eventually I passed the opened threshold of the Green Zone. The second I stepped through the oddly open gate a large spear head jabbed at me, only being stopped by the armor on my chest. I flicked my gaze from the tip of the spear to the wielder, and met eyes with the very same watchmen from the other day. His skin had a sickly pallor as though he'd been drained of blood and his teeth chattered. His eyes were wide and unmoving as he locked onto mine, and his spear shook in his hands.
"Wyvern's dead." I stated blandly, only to watch in morbid amusement as the mans eyes rolled back in his head and he feinted backwards. As his spear clattered to the ground I turned to the others gathered in a half-moon around the entrance to the gate. "Too much?"
Huntsmen, Huntresses and soldiers lined the inlet of the Green Zone as it graduated from a sprinkle to genuine rain. At the very head was the man in full-body riot gear, and flanking him were some of the people I'd seen meeting with Glynda, including the woman in ranger-esque gear. A laugh rippled from the man, bouncing the massive rocket launcher slung over his shoulder. The seasoned looking hunters among the crowd snickered at the poor watchmen, while militia members and soldiers seemed to look at me with gaping expressions.
Sparkling purple cut through the mutual humor as it bubbled into place around the crowds members and parted them. Clicking heels raced through the crowd to the front to rest by the impromptu leader of the mob. A disheveled Ms. Goodwitch huffed heavily and fought for air with heaving breaths as she rested her hands on her knees. The pieces of Pyrrha's armor and weapon that I collected in the tower floated behind her, held aloft by the same sparkling coating of aura that briefly covered the crowd.
"There you are!" She huffed to the man in riot gear, finally composing herself enough to speak. "We must prepare immediately for a Code Black! The Wyvern has awakened and left the tower, and taken-!"
"No need." The mans deep gritty voice cut her off before gesturing towards me with a chuckle. "The kid killed it."
The Professor took a single look in my direction and then ignored the man entirely. She stalked towards me with stomping steps, and the aura dropped around Pyrrha's stuff leaving it to clatter to the ground. When she was within range she finally reacted to my presence, as anger shot onto her face.
"YOU STUPID BOY! You could have been killed!" Her hand smacked my cheek and my head whipped to the side. I looked back at her oddly, silently resigned to getting chewed out. Instead, her hand patted against the cheek she'd hit gently as she looked up at me with a ghost of a smile. "I'm glad you survived."
"Thanks, Professor." I smiled in return. Glynda tilted over to gaze behind me, probably to see the mountain of smoking Grimm flesh and bone that I left in the street. She looked shell-shocked in all honesty, like she wasn't fully processing what was happening. Never the less, she composed herself and put on her confidence.
"With the Wyvern dead, we don't have to worry about it generating new Grimm around the tower. Vale, and now Beacon, are practically already ours." She said with pride tinting her voice. "I'd say everyone take a well-deserved rest. We've got a mission to prepare for, and you have a flight tomorrow."
I grunted and nodded. Even as scrolls flashed from the crowd, I couldn't wipe the small smile on my face. It made me happy, knowing that I'd almost completely undone that woman's work. The fact that it helped Vale was just icing on the cake.
[AN- Yo. Based this off the first tease of his semblance back in Forever Falls, before RT retconned it. Thanks for all the comments, favorites and follows, I love seeing them all. Almost breaking the 200 fav barrier! For those concerned, the M rating is pretty much for gratuitous violence & other things. Hope you enjoy this legend Jauney-boy makes, moral boost incoming.]