"This... is all horrible." Swallowing hard, Elise felt her eyes sting as she watched smoke rise from the city that was lit up by flames. "All of it."
"I know." Cheyenne slowly nodded. Placing her hands against an older barn, she exhaled as the wood began to repair itself. Once it looked brand new again, she pulled away with a small gasp. "Here..." She pushed the door open and gestured. "This should hold up better to the shockwaves that thing causes."
"It'll do." A man in scrubs with a bandage wrapped around his head nodded. He then led the way inside. Behind him, dozens of injured people helped those too injured to walk to enter. One of those who were helping to carry the injured was Eleanor.
"How is anyone even supposed to stop something like this...?" Elise let her shoulders fall as she watched the Grimm push down a skyscraper with its bare hand.
"Hey." Stepping over, Cheyenne placed a hand on her shoulder. "You can't lose hope. Okay?"
"But it's worse than when Beacon fell..." Tears began to visibly swell in her eyes. "It's so much worse. And so many more people are dying."
Gritting her teeth, the Faunus gripped her shoulder tighter. "I know. I know." She took a deep breath. "I know. But we need to focus on the positives."
"And what are they?!" She snapped. She then took a step away while swatting at her arm. "What are the positives?!"
"I..." Gulping, she lowered her head. She didn't have an answer.
"Come on everyone!" Kris waved her arm to continue moving down the road away from the city. "Keep moving towards the south and towards farms. It'll be safer there."
"Hey!"
Raising an eyebrow at the gruff voice that came from behind her, she turned around and cocked her head to the side. "Yes?" Seeing a group of men in uniform coming up, she smiled a bit. "Oh. Oh! Are you Vytal's military?"
"Defense force." One of the men clarified while holding a rifle close. "Vytal is an island of peace, not war."
"Right..." She nodded while staring dumbfounded at him. Shaking her head, she pointed towards the group of civilians. "We've been evacuating people from the main city and away from the buildings. That thing seems to-"
"Who put you in charge exactly?" Squaring his shoulders, he took a step towards her. "How old are you?" His eyes narrowed as he looked her up and down.
"Oh you're kidding me." Her shoulders fell.
"Sir." One of the men behind him moved over. "The airstrike is preparing now. They should make contact with the Leviathan within minutes." A few seconds after he finished speaking, a group of airships rose up and shot through the air.
"Wait! Wait!" Sprinting through the crowd of civilians, Kagami stumbled. Panting heavily, she skidded to a stop. "You... you have to call off that attack... now!" With wide eyes, she watched the moonlight flicker off the ships.
"What the hell is this?" The man in uniform shook his head while holding out his rifle. "Both of you need to get with the others and get inside. This isn't a place for children."
"Children?!" Anger flickered in Kris' eyes. She went to retaliate, only to be stopped by her leader's arm.
"Just listen for a moment. Please." The jadette took a deep breath. "That monster is... it's attracted towards light. Or shiny things. That's why it keeps attacking the tall buildings. Moonlight is bouncing off the windows. We should consider it a blessing that the power is out."
Staring blankly at her, he shook his head before gesturing with his rifle. "Come on. Let's get moving. Everyone inside."
Taking a deep breath, she lowered her head while closing her eyes.
Hearing shouting over his scroll, he took a step back while talking into it. Suddenly, the air became charged. Gritting his teeth, he looked up to see the squad of airships being obliterated by the Leviathan's breath.
Watching as the beam of energy faded, he turned back around to face the two girls. "Okay. I'm listening. What do we do?"
"Um," She pulled away slightly at that question.
"You don't have a plan do you?" Kris furrowed her brow.
"There's kind of a lot happening!" Kagami snapped back. "We're lucky I even noticed how it's attracted towards shiny things!"
"Okay, okay." The man waved his hands. "Arguing doesn't help a thing."
"What if we use the airships that we use for forest fires?" One of his men spoke up.
Smiling a little, the jadette perked her head up a bit. "But instead of water, you could use some sort of powder. Make everything matte with it. Dump it all across the city."
"We could." The man in charge nodded. He then gestured with his rifle. "You have twenty minutes. Get everyone three miles from the city or get them inside."
"And how are we going to do that? Three miles in twenty minutes? Normal people?" Kris made sure to exaggerate her words.
"Not you." Rolling his eyes, he turned around and pulled out his scroll. The men around him all hurried forward towards the group of civilians. "This is Commander Fleck speaking. I'm declaring Huntsman Order one-two-nine. I need several trucks at my location immediately."
"Huntsman Order one-two-nine?" Kagami furrowed her brow.
"Cease fire and evacuate and place civilians in protected areas." He clarified while taking a deep breath. Glancing over his shoulder, he pulled his rifle close. "You two are with me when the trucks get here. We have airships to prepare."
"Wait what?" Kris eyebrows rose. "Us?" She pointed between her and her leader.
"Well I'm not talking to the ground!" His voice rose as the rumble of trucks driving in the distance could be heard.
With the central part of Vytal in a sea of flames, Gurin brought the collar of her sister's hoodie over her nose. The smoke was beginning to aggravate her. Squinting her eyes, she looked around a little before taking a deep breath.
Closing her eyes, she teleported much farther. The air was at least cleaner. She quietly huffed before plopping down onto the ground. Bringing her knees up, she rested her arms across them.
"You might want to think about heading to safety, kid!" A voice called out before a jet stream of water shot through the air and towards the raging fires.
Leaning her head back, the small jadette glanced over her shoulder. "I'm fine...!" She softly snapped back.
With a small shrug, Aero spun her paintbrush around. The tip of it was colored with dark blue Dust. Drawn in mid air in front of her, there was a hose spewing water out. As the pressure began to fade from the water, she eyed her palette. "Damn." She mumbled. The dark blue paint on it was practically gone. Eyeing a lighter blue paint, she smiled. "Alright, tiny. I need your help."
"With what?" She quickly got up.
"Katana?" She held out her hand.
Blinking, Gurin reached back to pull out one of her mother's old weapons. She struggled at first but eventually got it out. "What are you doing?"
"Making a mini blizzard." She wink. Handing the girl her palette, she took the blade in her right hand. Swiping up a bit of the light blue Dust paint, she quickly went to paint snowflakes all across the shiny blade. Examining it, she then held it out. "Give me the other one and make slashes towards the fire with this one."
Doing so, the jadette gave her a very strange look. Gripping the handle tight with both hands, she turned to face the burning city. Taking a deep breath, she brought the katana back before twisting her whole body around in a large slash.
With the wind whistling against the blade, the snowflakes on the blade began to glow bright. The attack left a white slash in the air that shot towards the flames. As it flew through the air, it grew bigger in size and brighter, almost a blinding white. As it hit the building that was ablaze, it burst into a large pile of snow. It was very similar to a snowball being thrown and impacting a person.
"Oh." Blinking, Gurin took a step forward with another swing. Piles of snow soon littered the street. Half of it melted while the other half was in the process of melting.
Once no more streaks of white were being made, she took a few steps back and went to catch her breath. Though when she felt the ground rumble, she gulped and quickly looked up.
The Leviathan was twisting its body around, not to avoid anything, but to try and grab the multiple airships that flew around the city.
"What are they doing?" Aero watched cluelessly. "They don't look like they're attacking it." Her head tilted. Handing the small girl the now snowflake covered katana, she went to take the other only to stop. Seeing the airships begin to drop tons of a black powder along the city, her eyes widened. "Nope!" Helping Gurin sheath the blades, she quickly grabbed her shoulders. "Inside somewhere please!"
Before she even finished her sentence, the two of them were inside a building still in decent shape. Cautiously moving towards the window, the jadette peered out. "What are they doing?" Deeply confused, she watched as the buildings were covered in a matte coating. The city felt even darker now. The only light was from the flames and emergency lights. It was definitely scarier.
"I have absolutely no idea, kid." Aero watched closely too before the windows they were looking out suddenly became covered. Groaning, she struck it with her fist a few times to knock some of the powder off. Squinting, she could still barely see. "You know, I don't care." Bringing her fist back, she punched the window hard enough to shatter it.
Looking outside, she swallowed at the fake dark snow. Some of it was even helping with the fires. Just barely.
The large Grimm snarled a bit as it tried to keep track of the airships around it. As it breathed in, part of the powder flew up into its flaring nostrils. It began to huff a bit before it finally let out a sneeze. The large wind from it toppled almost half a dozen buildings in front of it.
Its entire body shook but that wasn't what Aero was looking at. The sneeze seemed to have awakened something else. Not another enormous Grimm, but something on the Leviathan. She could just barely see hundreds of something scurrying across the creatures back and down towards the ground.
"I'm going to sound crazy..." She crouched down. "But I need you to get us closer. Only for a second. Okay?"
"Um," Swallowing, the little girl hesitated for a moment before nodding. Grabbing her hand, the two of them suddenly appeared on the roof of a building half a mile from the Levithan.
Looking closer, the blue haired Huntress narrowed her eyes at its back. Blinking once, she then pulled away. "There's no way..."
"No way what?"
"There is Grimm living underneath its armor!" She pointed with wide eyes. "And not just any Grimm..." She trailed off. Looking down at the streets, she took several uneasy breaths. "They're from stories. Ancient myths. A Grimm lost to time. A Grimm that plagued both land and sea" She slowly exhaled while squaring her shoulders. "The Sobki."
The name sent chills down Gurin's spine as she got a better look at the creatures. They were short, but they had numbers. Their entire face was covered in armor and the claws of its webbed toes scratched at the concrete roads. The most concerning part though was their tails. They swayed back and forth with each step with such ferocity.
"What do we do about them? Most of the people around here have been evacuated but they're moving fast."
"I know." The Huntress nodded. Reaching out, she grabbed her hand. "We'll need some help setting up a perimeter. I'll talk to the local military and see what can be done. Let's go."
"Right." She nodded while grabbing her hand tight.