Nadir did enjoy making bombs. While he didn't quite get Dust mechanics as well as Reese, chemical compounds and engineered circuits were his specialty. Actually, that was incorrect. Chess history trivia and an oddly precise ability to recite the courting poems of Sir Abaad Hasam to Emanuel Jives from the 15th century were his specialties. Chemical compounds and engineered circuits were useful things he was good at.
What Jaune was doing was not making bombs. He was instead running his hand in a geometric circular pattern, hard etchings of glyphs carving themselves into the hard cob and stone wall. Nadir raised his eyebrow, not entirely sure as to whatever was happening. He didn't question it, instead he watched as Jaune went to work. It took probably about two minutes and thirty seconds of actual progress for the ranger to finish, but with the muttering and suspicious squinting, it was closer to four.
"Soo… mind explaining to me what you're doing?" Nadir managed to ask. Jaune turned to him, taken aback.
"I'm making bombs- wait. Right." he felt the urge to face palm. Of course he can't do that. God Jaune, what were you thinking? He rolled his head at himself. "I forgot. I am setting the concept of explosives contained within a sigil that, when broken, would bring the concept of that explosion into a version of reality with that concept as a key function." it was explained as though it was the easiest thing in the world. Nadir blinked at him, before looking down and typing something on his phone.
The rest of their work was spent in silence. Jaune would carve the sigil, and Nadir would observe. Occasionally the observer would make a note on his scroll, taking a picture of the sigil or something. Jaune enjoyed the silence as he worked. It was a different silence than in the dream. He did kind of wish that Nadir would say something, but they made it all the way to the last wall and back before a word was said between them.
"Will it work?" Nadir asked. Jaune shrugged.
"It ought to." Was his response. "At least I hope it will. It would be embarrassing if it didn't." Nadir only nodded. They made their way past several more walls before Jaune noticed that the town was significantly more active than it was when he left, and it was very active when he left.
"That's not good." Jaune muttered to himself, and escalated the rate of his climbing. His boot dug into the wall, biting deep into its earthen surface. Nadir hung his head and climbed around it. Jaune slowed as he approached the wooden walls. "What's going on?" he asked one of the busy townspeople. They were pulling on thick ropes, closing the doors to shut them off from the outside world. Perhaps for the last time/
"Your buds told us to start moving to safety. We're closing the gates now." The gruffer of the lot said as the large wooden doors closed behind them. Another group slotted a heavy looking wooden beam, bracing it shut. Jaune gave it one last look of affirmation before shooing the civilians off.
Nadir looked around nervously. "Where's Arslan?" Jaune just shrugged. He figured that either she and the rest of her team was going to get here eventually, or he and Nadir were going to look real stupid. He climbed up the scaffolding to look over the wall. He couldn't see the Grimm yet, which was probably a good thing.
I think the walls we put up are obscuring our view. B pointed out, looking at the domino line infront of them. That and our lines of fire.
Jaune clenched his jaw, taking a deep breath in and out. "Why do we only think of these things after we make the problems?" he asked the wind with a sigh, shaking his head. Welp, we're making do today.
There was a metallic clatter as Nadir tossed his rifle up onto the scaffold where his friend stood. He clambered up, pulling himself with his arms onto the platform. Jaune looked down at the man as he flopped forward.
Peak model of athleticism, he is. A giggled to himself. Jaune waived him off. "Are you ready, Nadir?"
Nadir shook his head. "No. I would have liked a better breakfast before this." He said. Jaune could tell that he was being serious and not trying to break any tension. It made him smile.
"Hey, Nadir."
"Yeah?" The pink haired man asked, checking the release port on his rifle. Jaune didn't know the technical term, but it was the hole were the bullet casings dropped out of. He would have to bother Nadir later about it's construction
"On the off chance we do die, i am glad I got to know you."
Nadir was soberingly quiet for a moment, probably grapping with his reality. "Do you think we're going to die?" he asked his stoic friend, the nerviousness creeping into his voice.
Jaune just shook his head. "No." it was a firm no, a statement of fact more than anything else. "Just covering my bases."
Nadir nodded, agreeing with the sentiment. "Well if that's the case, if I die, my next move would be D6."
Jaune's head tilted, trying to remember the position of their last game. "Queen or knight?"
"Queen."
"Shit." That was a tough position. He moved from pondering their most recent game to the present. His hand ran over his quiver, selecting the best feeling fletching from it. Nadir seemed equally meditative for a moment, before his scroll started ringing. The ranger watched as he fumbled with the device before managing to hold it up to his ear.
"Arslan." he greeted. There was a moment of muted chatter on the other end. "He is." Nadir looked up at Jaune, not moving the scroll away from his face. "Arslan says to turn your scroll on."
Jaune raised his eyebrow at him, but turned the device on all the same. There was some more muttering and Nadir turned off his scroll. "We're using the short form radio function for communication." He explained to the blonde man. Jaune nodded.
"Will they be joining us?"
Nadir shrugged. "Didn't ask." Was his answer. The ranger shook his head, pulling out his bow. What was a point of building fortifications if no one was going to be there to keep them? There was some radio static on his scroll as Dr. Cortez messaged in.
"Jaune, Nadir. I see you guys are at our pet engineering project." Their teacher said. Nadir looked around, trying to find the gunslinger. "I'm in the chapel's belltower, Nadir. Anyway, I will be providing tactical and overwatch for today. I've sent the rest of you lot over your way. You are to kill grimm and thin out the hoard until they reach your position. After that, run like hell over here. Understand?"
There was a series of affirmatives over the radio. "Good luck, and stay alive." Was Dr. Cortez's last message before the radio went silent. There were a couple moments where Jaune and Nadir just stood there for a moment, before a singular loud pop drew their attention.
"Oh, good, it does work." Jaune said, his gaze locked onto the line of walls. Nadir didn't say anything, instead opting to white knuckle his rifle. It was several more minutes when another pop happened.
"What was that?" A slightly winded looking Arslan asked.
"my scribbles exploding." was Jaune's reply. Reese's head tilted at that statement, as it was one of a deranged man. Jaune, on the other hand, was a little disappointed in that it was not this earth shattering, sky blackening blast of hellfire and brimstone. Not that it was supposed to be, he figured. It just would have been cool. He started mentally counting the spaces between blasts, trying to figure out how long it took for the grimm to crack the earthen seal. 134… 135…136…137…138…139…140..141- Another gunshot simile sounded, shattering the tense silence.
Nadir turned to Jaune. "You know, for something that felt like dry clay, I'm surprised they're holding up that long."
"It's only a scouting party." Bolin retorted, unimpressed. "It's got to be about three grimm, max. And weaker ones at that." He said it in his cold, logical, and surecock way he liked saying a lot of things. Arslan had equated the tone with a challenge to the universe to prove him wrong. And the Horadan know that the Universe is always up for a challenge. The lioness rolled her eyes.
Jaune just shrugged. "At least it works. I was giving it a less than ideal chance of being effective." His armor should have made at least some kind of clinking sound, but it didn't. Removed from the world as it was, there was no need for it to make a sound.
Reese raised and eyebrow. "Oh? Mind telling the team what changes you gave your scribbles?" She asked the ranger. He didn't turn to look at her, his eyes locked on the horizon.
"Zero, one hundred, or somewhere in the sixties to seventies range." His voice surrounded Reese, disconnected from where he should be. Reese was aware of the phenomena, as both Sun and Nadir had cited it several times on their Databoard, but she had never actually paid that much attention to it, citing it away as just auditory misinterpretation. She should have known Nadir better. The skaters head wobbled as she looked at Jaune, trying to figure out the conflict in senses. Nadir patted her on her shoulder, a vain attempt at recentering her.
"Separate what your eyes see and your ears hear. It helps if you can think of them like subtitles." He advised. Reese was unsure if that was more or less confusing.
The grimm broke through another wall, the blast signaling their advancement. It's like a doomsday clock. Sage thought. It wasn't an unshared sentiment in the group, and it was most certainly not a welcome one. It seemed only Jaune was unperturbed by what laid on the horizon. He could feel the power, the adrenaline, the itch sated by carnage start to grow in him.
"What are you smiling about?" Sun was leaning on his staff, casually filing his nails. It was a charade of calm, Jaune could tell by the restless tail. It would slide, though. No point in calling it out.
"It's just been a while since I've had a good excuse to kill things indiscriminately." he said, hands reaching into his cloak. Turning, he dropped down onto the ground. Another pop sounded. That was faster. He thought to himself as pulled out two small statues.
Nadir radio'd in with his teacher. Dr. Cortez adjusted his sights, trying to get a glimpse of the enemy. "Kzzrt-So, good news and bad news: because that is always the case. Good news: jaunes engineering project is working as a delaying action. Bad news: The rest of the hoard appears to be catching up. So, Reese, Jaune, I fully expect as many explosions as possible when you have a good shot."
"Got it." Reese said, checking her supplies of dust. She probably had a couple decent sized reactions on her, given her smattering of multi colored metal vials.
Jaune was hesitant for a moment as he held his finger on the talk button. "Were… were the walls a good idea?" He asked his teacher.
There was a moment of silence. "Yeah. They weren't a bad idea, if that's what you're looking for. If they redirected the grimm scouts entirely, it would have been a fantastic idea. But that's not the world we live in right now."
Well, that's a relief. A thought. You hear that B? We didn't fuck up!
B was unamused. Yay. Let's hope our luck stays.
Jaune gave B a look. Do you have to be so negative? You're really battering my self esteem here.
The withering look B delt would have made Grandma Goodwitch proud. At least, Jaune was assuming that Ms. Goodwitch grandmother was at least as crotchety as Ms. Goodwitch herself.
Bolin leaned over to Arslan. "He's making faces at himself again."
Arslan didn't even bother turning around to look at the armored blonde man. "We all know's he's insane, Bolin. Pointing it out to us isn't useful." She was using her scroll to try and zoom in, hoping to get a glimpse of the enemy. With a crackening pop, another wall was collapsed in a violent shattering.
"Those are getting more frequent." Sage pointed out.
"They are." jaune placed one of two stone statues on the ground, drawing a little arcane circle around it. The other was given a similar treatment. "I only expect the trend to continue, Mr. Ayana." He said before tossing some salt onto the statues. The rest was coated onto his hands with a brief muttering of what sounded like nonsense to Sun and Arslan. "You two ready?" He asked the statues. They did not respond. With a gentle push, the two statues started to sink into the ground like it was made of butter. Sun raised an eyebrow, elbowing his fellow faunus.
"Jaune's up to his weird shit again." Bolin beat Sun to it. Arslan rolled her eyes, but turned around anyway just in time to see the heads disappear into the earth. Jaune gripped the ground, dredging up a stone helm from where the statues disappeared. Attached to the helm was the rest of the statue, scaled up to an imposing six feet of grey rock. Satisfied with the end result, the ranger took a step back.
"Let's see if this worked." he said to the two, a firm clap of his hands sent a jolt through them. Their limbs loosened as they stood at attention. "A, B, can you hear me?"
The two nodded. "Good. Take these. You have your orders." Jaune handed them some weapons. One of them, A, got a pair of swords while the other, B, was given a shield and spear. They took them without a moment's hesitation. Marching, they stood by the gate, unmoving and as still as what they were. Jaune's face contorted, as though he was listening to shart radio static.
Scarlett looked down at the two statues. "What in the yorkshire fuck is this?" He said, his Argus seaport accent shining through. "Have we seen this before? He hasn't done this before, right?" he asked. While the question was mainly directed at Arslan, he would appreciate any answer.
Sun just gave him a large "I don't know" shrug. He made a lot of those, when it came to Jaune. Actually, he just made a lot of those period. Another wall collapsed, this time it's shattering was audible. Jaune climbed back up, picking up a bow from somewhere along the way. He stared at the walls, calculating how soon he could start killing. What do you think, B? Hundred yards? Half again that?
B didn't answer, and his mind was for once eerily silent. "Oh, right." Jaune muttered to himself. "He's in a statue." t was strange not having other voices in his head. There was a kind of radio static there, like a missing input plugged into a speaker. A squint was cast across the dead space and calculations were made. Jaune figured that the chances of him hitting were pretty good with a blind fire, so long as he could get the ranging right. He held his thumb up like a painter, giving a nod of approval before knocking an arrow. He tilted the bow upwards and let it loose. The slicing sound was either noticeably loud or not there at all, and the arrow flew. It arced gracefully through the air, disappearing over the cusp of the wall.
Another arrow followed, and another. It went on like this as the grimm battered down the walls, piece by piece breaking through the prepared defenses. The group watched with trepidation as the countdown got closer to zero.
"When they get through the wall" Arslan breathed out, gripping her rope tightly, "Don't panic, and shoot them with everything you have."
Two walls left. Jaune leveled his bow, whispering arcana onto the arrow. To his left and right, Neptune and Nadir shouldered their rifles, locking their gaze onto the walls in front of them. Jaune could have sworn he saw one of the grimm rear it's ugly head over the wall. He could hear them slamming and scratching against the last wall. A single hairline crack formed across the arcane seal, and the wall shattered with explosive force. That was all the trigger the huntsmen needed to unleash all the hell they could muster.
Jaune didn't even have a chance to see the grimm he was facing, and just let loose his arrow, seemingly insignificant compared to the cacophony of gunfire coming from his allies. The arcane inscription activated as it left the bowstring, copying itself over and over. One arrow became two, and two became six, and six became ten, and ten became a hundred. A flock of arrows became a squall, and a squall became a storm. The grimm saw a rain, greater than any hailstorm they had seen in their short lives. It fell upon them with the accompaniment of thunder. The first line of black blood spilled onto the earth. But more came. A mammoth centipede, covered in the white armor that was classic for the grimm, crawled forward, leading the charge for a multitude more of the monsters. They rushed forward, swarming over the ground. Many met their doom in their change, felled by a scattering of bullets or a well placed shaft of wood cutting into their flesh. Jaune did not stop firing, lacing each shot with deadly efficacy. Rheese leveled her skateboard. Opening the exhaust valve, a stream of dust burn off spewed like dragon fire, bathing them in chemical dust burns. Had they not been grimm, Jaune would have felt sorry for them. Painful deaths were never fun, and he was well aware the damage that things like fire and acid were capable of. His attention was torn when the wall shook with a terrible might. A beowulf had collided with the wall, and had started to climb up. Several members moved to shoot it down, but were stopped as a long staff smacked it in the head. Bolin gave the monster another smack, cracking the skull of the creature and scattering it's brains into the wall. Jaune gave him a nod of appreciation before returning to felling grimm. It was quickly becoming apparent that additional firepower would be necessary as more and more grimm started to make impact with the wooden palisade. They threw themselves into the wall, and those with the ability to do so climbed up it. The first time it happened, it was one of the centipede like creatures. It had gotten so far up that Arslan had to grab it by the mandibles, decapitating it on the spiked top of the wall.
A would have liked to see that. Jaune thought as he plucked a still green sprig from the palisade. He rolled it inbetween his fingers, forcing layers of energy into it before slapping it into the wall. It his strongest spell, as he often saw his interest drawn to more metaphysical aspects of magic and the more stealth related aspects of ranger magics. Biomancy was not his wheelhouse.
But it was still the shattering of conventional logic like this world had not seen since the birth of it's first age. The palisade itself came to life, sprouting great gouts of green leaves and thrashing thorned vines. It tangled itself in the climbing grimm's feet, the growth wrapping and digging into them. It ripped and tore and dragged them, pulling them to the ground and off the wall. The wood, revivified back to life, began to grow roots, biting deep into the earth.
Rheese saw a great opportunity to torch some grimm, and leveled her board at them, ready to bathe them in fire.
"Rheese!" Arslan called out, grabbing the board and pulling it up into the air. Rheese looked at her, confused. "Ice!"
The skater took a moment to process before nodding. "A moment!" She let her teammates know as she pulled out the current canister. Jaune nodded, filling his lungs with mana. He kept it in, pressurizing it, letting it grow stronger. With a howling whistle, it was unleashed upon the grimm. Blades of air ripped from his mouth. Lacerating through the air, they cut their way into the mass of grimm that was throwing themselves against the wall. One beowulf found itself cut in half down the middle, and that centipede like one that Jaune didn't know the name of was unfortunate enough to take one of the lashes into its middle. Others lost limbs and had great gouges scored into their hides. And yet more came. Jaune, catching his breath, saw beyond the wall what seemed to be miles of the black legion. The ranger welled more magic from the depths, heating it in his core. It was pooled and compressed, pulled and tightened as Jaune worked it up through his arm. As the mana pooled in his palm, reality started to shift to mirror it's form. Heat was sucked from the surrounding area and bled from his veins, the excess mana transpired into the rest of the requirement. A model star, a ball of burning fusion reactor rested just above his palm, the sheer energy it output forcing it to hover on his hand. It burned him, the radiation eating through his gauntlets and scorching his skin black. He looked down at the red golf ball sized orb, then looked out unto the horde he faced. He looked back down, deciding that it needed to be bigger. He forced it to expand, sucking up more latent energy.
It grew to the size of a tennis ball. With an open armed swing, the orb was flung into the depths of the army. It made contact with the skull plate of some unfortunate grimm, it's thin containment membrane of stable mana warping and breaking. That lets the pent up energy start to leak out. It quickly escalated from a leak to a torrent. At that point, the grimm at impact point had been cooked to death. The torrent moved on, not caring and expanded into a full fledged implosion rather rapidly. The grimm were dead by the initial heat flash, but were glassed by the actual detonation. They had burned in the first impact, but the actual collapse annihilated them. A surge of flame and light, a blast of heated air rushed forth, a forbering harbinger to the large circle of molten glass and glittering slag. The world went silent after a moment, all eyes turning to the newly formed crater. The grimm shuffled at it's edge, unwilling to enter the dent of obliteration. A kind of muttering spread through their ranks, soft grunting and chittering, with the stamping of hefted paws and hooves. Jaune took the moment to conjure a spear made out of frozen ice. It was chucked at the nearest grimm. It speared it through it's hind leg, the thing screeching a terrible agony. It was a sharp reminder of what everyone was supposed to be doing right now. Jaune shut it with another spike into it's throat. The grimm, sundered from their puttering, began their march once more. They crossed the scorched land, marching into live fire from the huntsmen. They fell, most before they could make it within a jumps distance to the wall of thorns and brambled ivy.
"There's more Ursas." Sun noted, flash lobotomizing one of the aforementioned bear grimm with his shotgun. "Those ones are getting closer to the wall."
Nadir nodded, popping one in the eye from 15 meters. "And the beowulves are getting bigger. That's not good."
"We're done with the small stuff." Rheese said, hopping up on the wall's edge. "Watchout, boys!" She yelled as a stream of pressurized frost dust spewed from her board. It created a wall of ice, with jagged peaks and juts. Jaune locked onto the various grimm that were trying to climb or trapped underneath. From high on, blocks of salt roughly the size of a office recycling bin descended. A line of these cylinders crashed like a bombing run into the wall of ice. It shattered, sending large shards everywhere. Those unfortunate to be trapped in any capacity were rendered into pieces, and those nearby were impaled or lacerated by those pieces.
More climbed over the wreckage. It was clear to even Jaune at this point that the composition of the grimm had changed. No longer were the majority of them grunts and other fodder, but now were comprised of larger and more dangerous grimm. Ursa and Deathstalker where now the bulk. That isn't what scared Jaune. No, what scared the ranger was the rather large elephant that was heading their way.
Neptune's eyes widened in a recognized terror. "Goliath!" He yelled, hopping off the wall. The rest of his team, seeing their friend bravely decide to live to fight another day, looked at eachother.
"Are we leaving or-" Scarlett started to ask, but was cut off by Sun.
"Shoot it! Shot the big fucker down!" He yelled, panicked. Turning to Jaune, he started to plead. "Come on, man, kill it! Shoot lightning at it or something!"
The ranger gave him an exasperated look. "I just summoned pillars of salt from the sky." He replied, shooting an arrow into the goliath. "You will give me two seconds."
Sun gave him a slightly shell shocked look before snapping back to reality. He was about to say something, but was cut off when a deathstalker rounded the wall's peak, snapping angrily at the two. It was met with buckshot from both barrels, and fell down to the ground level.
"Sun!" Arslan yelled in her native tongue. "Where in the Gods name is Neptune?" The wall shook as more grimm started to pile in, the enchanted roots bending and breaking from their earthen foundation.
The monkey faunus shrugged as he reloaded. Sage pushed him down as he stepped forward, a horizontal slice decapitating the ursa that had poked it's head over the wall. Sun cocked his gun, popping up to pump something with lead. "Well, find him!" Arslan responded, pulling her rope dart back to her. It pulled with it a rather small deathstalker, which had it's head promptly explode as a high caliber round blasted through it.
Sun nodded, splitting off a clone that quickly scampered away. He turned his attention to the Goliath. It looked like a pincushion from the porcupine like hide Jaune had given it. It was also partially on fire, but the monkey faunus didn't know if that was the rangers or the skaters doing. It was unfortunate that it had not yet fallen, as it was close. Very close. Arslan's eyes widened as it reared it's head.
"Abandon ship!" Sun yelled, jumping off. His team saw the sensibility in the order and followed him, scarlett leaving only a parting shot. Rheese threw her hand out, a lime green thread like beam shooting forward. Throwing her board on it, she grinded away on her light rail. Bolin followed her on foot. Nadir stayed for just a moment, ensuring that that particular ursa got the message to die before disembarking. Arslan just stared up at it. She had never seen anything so big in her entire life. It was massive, at least the size of most two story houses, like the ones you saw in those valean propaganda posters, romanticizing the valean life in the 50's. It made her feel very small, smaller than she had ever felt before. She knew she should move, that she would die if she stayed there.
But she felt so small. Would moving even save her?
She felt something wrap around her, like a wad of strings giving her a hug. Brought out of her stupor, she looked down. A harness of green string like bits of energy had managed to ensnare her. Then she was forcefully pulled, getting yoinked off the wall, snatched like hot donuts on a cops last shift. She flew backwards, only barely catching herself on her two feet. Tracks were marked on the ground, leading her gaze to where she stood. A perfect view of the Goliath slamming it's tusks down, shattering the defensive palisade that they had worked so hard to build. The grimm quickly started to crawl over the ruins and into the town. They had failed, everything they had tried so hard to stop had just-
"Lan" A voice called to her. "Arslan". Lioness shook her head. It was Rheese. Rheese was calling her name. That made her feel better than it ought to. "You good?"
Arslan nodded, grounding herself. "Yeah. Yeah, i'm good." Jaune was up ahead somewhere, battling the grimm. She needed to be there. It was as simple as taking a step forward. A step forward. In a motion that was more akin to falling forward than walking, but it was enough to get her moving. That was enough to start going through the preprogrammed motions, ingrained from hours and hours of practice. She knew her fist connected with one of the grimm's face, breaking it's skull patterning. She could feel it, if the notion of impact could be called feeling. Sage was somewhere behind her, swinging his big sword through the hordes. Arslan continued to duck and batter her way to her frontline, making it shoulder to shoulder with the blonde ranger. His hood had fallen off his head, but his mask remained.
"Ms. Altan." He greeted her. "Are you alright?" His blade, a rustic and robust looking scimitar, dove into an Ursa. The paired dagger finished it by stabbing it in the jugular. Arslan nodded in response, not having the freedom to answer. It was taken up by the sudden need to slap another grimm away. She grabbed the deathstalker by the mandible and threw it to the side. Nadir came up behind her, killing the scorpion war crime style. Several rounds of 30 mm to the face desecrated it. Another burst battered against the Goliath.
"So, what's the plan for big bad?" Rheese skated by. Arslan looked up at the massive Grimm.
"No idea. Wing it?" She suggested, dipping to the side. Reese raised an eyebrow.
"Really? Wing it? That's uncharacteristic of you." She smirked. A large heavy footfall behind the two startled them, forcing them to jump away as an Ursa lunged forward, snapping with it's powerful jaws at the space where they were previously. Her skateboard became pistols, pelting an ursa in the face. It shed away from getting shot in the face, staggering back. Pissed that it had been shot, it lunged with a roar. Rheese yelped and ducked, covering her head. A large metal round shield was slammed into the grimms face. Jaune gave the grimm a shove, staggering it again.
"Focus." He growled, pulling out his small hammer. It looked like an average household hand hammer, emblazoned with a simple single signet. Static charge filled the air as it became supercharged with lightning. With a heaving sidewind, it was slammed into the Grimms underside, lightning clapping with thunderous might. The impact burned the core of the grimm straight through, leaving a burning hole through it. It zapped the grim behind into charred corpses. He turned to look at the two huntresses, his mask covering any emotion.
Jaune felt a strong pull, like a string attached to the back of his soul was pulled tightly. Looking over at the lioness, he saw an Ursa approaching them. Arslan and Rheese were already moving, but Jaune couldn't help but smell blood in the air. He dashed foward, the scents namesake unfolding into it's ringed shield. It slammed into the Grimm, blocking it's raised paws from delivering a swipe at the two. It was disposed of with a flaunt of arcane power. Refocusing on the nearing slaughterable thing. Ignoring the bloodlust of the chisel at his side, he slapped another grimm, one of the scorpion ones, with his shield. One of the statues, the one with the spear and shield, charged forward to sandwich it. It was crushed as the ranger acted as an anvil, letting a 200 pound mobile block of rock crush it into paste. The hammer started to scream, vibrating with excitement as the battle grew and the blood was spilled. Jaune gave it a look, knowing what it wanted. It wanted to dance, it wanted to sing.
Taking out the matching chisel, he tossed it up into the air, and like a tennis serve, slammed it with the hammer into another Deathstalker. It shot forward like a seeking missile, drilling and burrowing into the nearest thing that needed killing. It made impact at the middle of the Deathstalker's bone faceplate, cracking it like it was cheap porcelain. The split was widened as a supernatural force pulled the chisel forward, pushing it to deeper depths of the standing corpse. There was a moment where the chisel disappeared into the Deathstalker. It exploded out the backend, the entire lower half of the grimm being turned into a black chunky smear. Unsatisfied with the gore, the chisel surged forward, bouncing off a wayward rock and sticking an Ursa in between its ribs. It fell over, bleeding in a horrific agony.
The ranger looked upwards, seeing the approaching Goliath. It was closer than Jaune would have given the massive thing credit for, stomping its way to the young huntsmen. "Time to move." Rheese said, hopping onto her board. Jaune stood his ground, preparing his arcane shield. He would let the grimm collide with his barrier, and cut its foot from underneath.
He never got the opportunity, as Sage surged forward to intervene. The roman numeral tattoos on his neck were glowing, a dim gold shining onto his collar. His massive blade swung up into the foot, shredding it as all the energy Sage had put into the blade throughout the entire fight was expended in a moment. It blasted the Goliaths leg away, sundering deep chunks out of it. The beast staggered, almost falling to it's side. Large divots, well, small ones comparative to it's size. Divots, roughly the size of a paper plate were bored from some unknown firearm in the wayward distance. Sun was already running to Sage, yelling something. "Take off plan!"
Did I just hear "Take off plan?" Jaune wondered to himself, watching Sage use his giant sword as a spatula, flinging the monkey faunus high into the sky. He twisted, wriggling to meet the Goliath face to face. Sun twirled his staff, unloading every round of buckshot he had into it's face. The elephant staggered away, leaning into and crushing a building. It's cob and stone walls crumbled like styrofoam under the Goliaths weight.
Jaune looked up at the flying monkey. "I am hoping you two have a landing strategy." He said to Sage, who just shook his head.
"We never got that far."
Jaune wasn't sure what he expected. He supposed he should have expected that answer. He sighed. "Do you have a landing strategy?"
The brawler shrugged. "I mean, kind of?" The oversized broadsword cut the jaw from an Ursa. "It normally involves turning whatever is below me to dust."
The grimm was retaliating with it's trunk, moving to swat Sun out of the sky.
The ranger nodded. "Excellent. Don't let the vertigo get you on the way up." He said as he started to weave his linking arcana. In his left hand, he tethered Sage's position to the arcane weave warp ether thing. In his right, he gathered up Sun in a similar manner. With a clap of his hands, the two tethered positions switched, and the universe altered itself to match what that subspace showed. Sage, in a pop, was suddenly replaced with a very confused monkey man. Sage was now several sets of feet in the air, flailing about. He regained his senses rather quickly, just in time to be grabbed by the Goliaths trunk.
"Ahhh!" He screamed, grabbing at the thick fur. In his spare hand, he tightened his grip on his sword. White knuckling the leather on his broadsword, it was whacked haphazardly into the trunk. The effort was insignificant, unable to find purchase on the thick hide. The Goliath was displeased that the tiny snack in his grasp was attacking him with a particularly large toothpick. Deciding that some tenderizing was necessary. It turned, using the full length of its trunk to slam into the nearest building. The apothecary Jaune had visited was deroofed, and an improved Sage shattered the terracotta and supporting cross beam. Stunned, Sage only barely managed to hold onto this blade. The Grimm lifted him up again, prepared to slam him another time. Jaune pulled the solar energy, a blazing gun firing six shots. Four of them disintegrated various chaft, ashes scattering into the wind. The last two bombarded the Goliath, slamming into the side of its face. The elephant's head snapped to the side, smoke coming off the dent burned there. It tilted to the side, swaying as it was clearly concussed. Sage reared his sword, cutting through the trunk. He was unceremoniously dropped with the tip of the appendage to the ground.
Sun ran over, blasting apart a deathstalker on his way. "You good man?" he asked, helping the big man up to his feet. Jaune surged forward, drawing Krabkracker in it's elongated form. H rammed it into the Goliath with a full bodied swing. It ripped into it's calf, chunking out a wedge of grimm flesh. Sage picked up on the idea, and started hacking at the other leg. The Grimm cried out, and tried to bat them away with it's blunted trunk. It fell to it's knees, falling to be at executing hight. The two broadsword users started attacking, hacking at it's neck. Each hack tore away more and more flesh, the black blood flowing like a fountain onto the ground. It stained them, dousing their lower halves in the ink like substance. The goliath stopped moving after Sage's blade cut into it's spine. It disintegrated when Krabkracker cut through it entirely. Scarlett and the other huntsmen were working on the hoard, which had only gotten thicker after the death of the Goliath. They were losing ground, backing up bit by bit.
"Why are there so many of them!?" Rheese growled, panting as she hopped off her board. She kicked it into her hands, grabbing one end and slamming it into a scorpion. Arslan finished it off.
"We need to consolidate to better positions!" She called, commanding the group. Her team nodded, clustering behind her. They broke away, dashing behind them as Rheese dropped a vial of active dust behind her. Team SSSN followed suit, leaving Jaune behind to cover their retreat. Jaune dropped the greatsword, pulling out Glassvain and unfurling Reed's once more. He couldn't see A or B anymore, but as they had not returned to inside his head he assumed that they were still intact. Glassvain cut the limb off some unfortunate bastard. The shield broke it's faceplate. Jaune forced fire through the shield, scorching the face into black ash. In his other hand, Glassvain became lightning. A wide swing of the whip sends wings of thunder, crackling out into the grimm in front of him. They were skewered, charred Lichtenburg patterns etched into their bone plates and thick skin as the bolts of lightning pierced them.
"Jaune!" Arslan called to the lone figure. He turned, a disk of blazing fire attached to his arm and crystalized lightning as his blade. His mask shone in the unnatural light, looking strange and ethereal. Wings fluttered behind him, whipping in the wind forced by the gluttonous hunger of the flame and storm. A spirit of wrath is what the gods had sent down to save- Wait, that's his cloak. Arslan realized. Right, she was talking. "Jaune, come on!" Seeing some kind of recognition in his eyes, he turned to face the grimm hoard.
He stretched out his hand towards one of the nearby buildings. A small house, one that held the home of a miner, felt an unusual stirring within it. Like a bundle of strings that was inside it had suddenly burst, drawing webs to everywhere outside it. Long, thin, spindly things that ran through the house. It could see things! It could see what was in these strings, what was at the end of them. Nasty things were in it's strings. Vile, dark things that it didn't like. The house had never not liked anything before. It hadn't ever had an opinion on anything before, actually. Because it was a house. Why would it? Houses don't have opinions. If you were to ask it about about the most recent candidate, it would simply stare at you silently with the doorway. Or if you were to offer it tea or coffee, it would simply be silent, with the exception of perhaps the kettle.
But now? Now it could see through the strings, it found that it had opinions on lots of things. Like the things in front of it. And it did not like these things here. It wanted them gone.
Gone. It was a house. That meant it was big. Sure, it wasn't the biggest house, but it was still larger than the nasty things in front of it. It figured if it could only start moving, it could remove these vile beasts in front of it. It strained forward, fighting against it's stubborn foundation. Finally, with one final push it broke through, leaping forward. It ground the grimm underneath it to dust.
Jaune used the opportunity to break away, turning to join the other huntsmen. There was then a sound that Jaune was becoming far, far too familiar with. The roar of an Ursa made him turn just in time to see the paw coming for his ass. It hit him square in the side, sending him flying backwards like a rag doll. The blow knocked all the wind out his lungs and splattered him on the ground. He could hear someone call his name, telling him to get up. Was that his mother? If so, he would take his chances with the Ursa.
"I'll get up when the world stops spinning." He grunted, trying to get himself to breathe once more. With a grunt he sat up, trying to figure out how the Ursa caught him. "I hit your ass with a house!" He gave the Ursa a rude gesture. Using his less offensive hand to prop himself up. The bear-like grimm advanced, gearing up to a full blown gallop towards him. The massive monster jumped, leaping into the air.
And fell like a rock as something forced it down. Half a statue had latched onto the Ursa's leg, pinning it down. It's arms gripped at his thick fur, trying to rip chunks out. It clambered up the side, beating at it with it's stone fists. The Ursa shook and thrashed, eventually managing to grip the fragment of Jaune's soul in it's jaw, shaking it like a chew toy. It was thrown into the ground, shattering into a scattering of pieces.
"Hey boss." A's tone came in.
You're back. The ranger noted. How was your time out of the brain? He asked, pulling out his maul.
A gave a nod. Enjoyable. Being a rock kind of sucked. I missed having limbs. The flat side of the maul smashed into the Ursa's jaw. The follow up was the butt of the hammer breaking into it's large throat muscles. You know where B is? The figment asked.
Jaune shook his head. I'm assuming that he'll rejoin us once his body starts failing. I can't imagine it will be too long. He rolled to the side, avoiding the grimm's swipe. The piked end gored it through the other end of its neck, ripping the life from its eyes. It slumped to the ground. The ranger was already refocused on willing fire into existence. His eye locked onto a space on the floor in front of him. A crack formed, a hand reaching down to the molten core of the planet. It plucked at it, pulling a small thread to the surface. It broke through, creating a line of arcane infused magma. It set it on fire, a wall of flame coming from the crevice. He turned tail and ran towards his fellow students, which had set up something of a firing line as they ducked into the church. He jumped over the gated fence, pushing the group inside the church.
Two strong workhands closed it behind them, pushing the barricading furniture back into place. Neptune looked at Sun, an adrenaline fueled smile on his face. He would have said something, but Dr. Cortez's bark stole whatever he was going to say.
"Nadir! Neptune! Up here, get shooting!" The blue haired man's face fell into a stern look as he scampered up the ladder. Jaune thought it to be a ladder anyway. Deep lines carefully carved into the stone led up to the belltower. He figured that it counted.
We're getting distracted now, are we? A smile. Jaune shook his head.
"Not on my life." He smiled, looking around at the group of civilians nervously shuffling around. Sun noticed their unease, and went to ease them.
"Don't worry, we are trained professionals. We deal with this all-" Jaune tuned him out, instead moving to start casting wards on the interior of the church. Lines of faint purple and blue spiraled out in geometric patterns, wrapping around the interior of the church. Eventually they faded as Jaune's chantings ended, almost invisible to the naked eye. There was a thump as a grimm splattered against the cheap stained glass. It held though, letting the dark goop run down like rain as it was slain upon the church. The common folk shuddered, mothers holding their children tight as concerned murmurs flooded the chapel. Neptune slid, well, more like fell. Neptune fell down the chute, landing roughly before scampering up with his empty rifle.
"I'm out." he said, shifting his rifle into melee mode. Sun gave him a scolding look, questioning how he ran out of ammo already. "There's a lot of grimm, ok? And I didn't bring a lot in the first place."
Arslan set out a sigh, masking it as best she could. "Jaune, are you done doing your… semblance set up?" She asked. He thought about it for a moment, before giving a side to side head bobble. To Arslan, that ment good enough.
"Get up there then. You'll be more useful thinning the hoard than setting up fortifications here." Jaune only gave her a nod, disappearing up the ladder with an unusual swiftness. Arslan watched him go, quietly chewing on her lip.
"How are things out there?" Reese asked over the gunfire. Neptune's lips pursed as he gave the quivering non huntsman a look. Not to say that he wasn't quivering himself. Huddling around, he gave them a report.
"It doesn't look good. There's a lot of grimm out there, more than we've ever seen in our life." He whispered. "It's not the second coming of mount glenn, but there is a lot of them. And there's a house flying around."
"A what?" Scarlett asked. Neptune nodded.
"There is a house, as in someone's home, running over grimm like it's a semi out there. I personally blame Juane."
Everyone shared a glance with each other, knowing, or at least thinking they knew what the other was thinking.
He's hiding something from us, that is unholy and unnatural. It is not something I can do, that's for sure
Once again, Jaune is proving to be immeasurably useful, assuming he is indeed responsible for the house and it wasn't just a big Geist. I really hope it's not a big Geist.
I don't think Dust is capable of animated houses like that.
I could really go for some chicken nuggets right now.
They were not thinking what the other was thinking.
"It doesn't matter. So long as it's not killing us, we can ignore it." Arslan cut in, bringing them back to reality. "Neptune, you are out of ammunition?"
He nodded. "I didn't bring enough. I was expecting a leisurely walk through the mountains, you know? Set up some trackers, place a sandbag or two-"
"Doesn't matter. I don't want to know why, just that you are. Did you ask Nadir for any spares?"
"Different caliber." Neptune's pursed lips told her all she needed to know. He was fresh out. She cursed under her breath.
"Dr. Cortez?" She offered. Neptune shook his head again.
"Again, different Calibers. This is what I get for not using industry standard." He gritted his teeth. Sure, he appreciated the additional rounds he got out of using a .3 rifle caliber, but that was technically a civilian use caliber. 0.4 and above were recommended for Huntman use, and most huntsmen used .5 and up. Dr. Cortez's lowest caliber was a .2, but that was for "Civil jobs." At the moment, Dr. Cortez revolver was the lowest caliber gun he had, and it was a .45. This means a couple of things: One, Dr. Cortez was clearly an enjoyer of a wide range of firearms and calibers, having specialized weapons for particular job types. Two: It meant that Neptune was shit out of luck.
Jaune, on the other hand, was having a field day. And by a field day he really meant some excellent target practice. Twunk! An arrow shot through some bug like grimm. Another just came up to replace it. While the three of them had a good throughput of death, Jaune really wished that he had Coco here with him. Her mini gun would have had excelled at dispatching the hoard. He drew his next arrow, lacing it with powerful frost magic. He practically dropped it over the side, letting it explode in a barrage of frost in front of the church. A more intellectual part of Jaune lamented the possibility damaging a church that was probably built 30 years before he was born, but it was a small lament and easily ignored. Nadir leaned over the side to shoot out the grimm not turned into ice sculptures. He changed out the magazine.
"Professor, I am running low on ammunition." He noted, letting the magazine fall onto the floor. Dr. Cortez nodded, pushing a pile of .45 to the man. A magazine was refilled with shaky hands. Jaune glared at a particularly large deathstalker, and one that had obstinately refused to die when jaune shot it with his bow. Well, time to bring out some of the bigger guns. He thought to himself, pulling out the Ballistazooka. With a heavy grunt, he loaded one of the large bolts into the wooden rectangle. Hoisted over his shoulder, he aimed to obliterate the grimm. He rocked backwards as the bolt was shot forward. The large shaft made contact with the Deathstalker, and instantly turned the contact zone into a pancake. A solid two or three foot diameter circle was desecrated, flattened into the ground. Nadir popped back up, reallotting his magazine.
Jaune reloaded the wooden box, setting his sights on the largest grimm he could find. The wooden crosshairs bobbed as they traced the monster's movement. The harsh sound of gears and winches turning as the snap of the cord sent the bolt into the air. It made the hair that had draped itself over Jaune's mask flutter as it shot straight into the flank of a grotesquely oversized millipede. He moved to load another one.
"How many of those do you have?" Nadir asked, the words placed in-between staccato bursts of .45 ammunition expenditures. Jaune only shrugged, not able to recall at the moment.
More than two. A said helpfully as Jaune loaded up his third. Sebastian reseated himself, apparently having shot a revolver worth of rounds over the wall. The ranger saw a line of boartusks approach like ancient Valean cavalry bearing down upon the lines of Zeoth. Nadir shot at them, but his bullets bounced off the hardened frontal plates like they were beans.
They're going to plow right through the church. Jaune worried, tossing the Balistazooka to the side. His gut started contracting, forcing an acidic heat up through the esophagus tube. A welling of burning molten liquid started to form, rising up and up and up through his body. He threw himself forward, bracing himself against the stonework of their sniper nest. He forced his jaw as wide as it could, the molten force starting to spill out of his mouth as he heaved. The initial dry heave gave way to a slow drop of black stone. It looked almost like a water balloon, magically filling to engorged proportions. With a final little rock forward, the balloon gave way to a waterfall of cherry red lava. It gushed out of him, the wet choking sound overpowered by the air burning as it fell. Cascading into a wall, cooling upon impact of solid ground, it stacked into a black obsidian fortification within moments. Jaune fell backwards, making a soured face.
"That was nasty." Jaune grumbled, but looked over the wall. He couldn't help but smile as the Boartusks rammed into the obsidian wall. Nadir joined him in his peering.
"Huh. I didn't know they were native."
"They're not." Dr. Cortez said, shooting something with his rifle. "Don't worry about it."
The grimm bounced off the obsidian wall, dazed and confused. Jaune waved a hand over them, like a critic dismissing a wine. Turning, he picked his bow back up and level. He whispered secrets of storms to the arrow, tales of the winds speaking and the sky's wrath falling. It listened, and it learned. It learned to be akin to lightning as it flew. At its pinnacle, it learned to be akin to rain. It split, replicating itself over and over again, letting the copies fall down with a crackling applause. The ricocheting sound of metal and wood bouncing of cobblestone and hardened drywall. The squelching sound came from them falling upon the grimm, cutting and denting their bone armor.
Huh, interesting that we can achieve the same outcomes using different thoughts about magic. A noted as the artificial rain fell. Jaune chewed on the inner of his lip as he thought about it. Part of him got it, that it made sense that it would be possible.
Maybe I should branch out a little bit. Jaune thought as he pooled his mana again. He thought about what made the spells what they were. He pondered about the solar knife. Normally, he took a rather realistic, physical approach to it. It was the cutting edge of atomic radiation, the full force of a star, sharpened into a precision tool.
But maybe, just maybe it could be something else. Maybe it was a filtered kind of rage. That heated anger, the kind that left your ears burning and your cheeks flushed. The kind you swallowed hotly and didn't respond with a clever answer. It was sharp, cutting at heartstrings and grinding teeth and making rash, pointed decisions. Pushed his hand out, and sharp blades flew from it. A stream of shards, like shattered knife bits, flew out. They imbedded into the cob and dirt below, shining like little rocks of quartz or a bright night sky. The bits that had gotten on the grimm began to glow brightly, burning a pockmarking of holes through their hardened hide. The glow only got stronger, rising and reaching a near blinding point before exploding. Jaune looked at the destruction, two and a half inch or so chunks blown out of the paster and dirt. The gravel was covered by black paws and white chitinous armor.
"They just don't stop coming, do they?" Nadir cursed. He aimed down sights before his eyes widened. He ducked down, taking cover behind the alcove. Jaune gave him a raised eyebrow before looking at what Nadir was hiding from.
Oh, hey, it's B. A thought cheerfully as the top half of a statue came flying through the air at them. Jaune hit the ground, letting the animated fragmentation of his mind crash through one of the supporting pillars holding up the bell tower's cap, and crumple limply into the one behind it. It raised a finger, the top bit of it chipped off, as though it were asking for help. Jaune grabbed the upper half of the statue and tossed it overboard into the grimm hoard. It landed on some unfortunate beast, battering its hands into it.
"Nadir, where did that come from!?" Jaune yelled over the growling and gunfire.
Nadir aimed down sights. "Berengal Dead ahead." Jaune quickly scanned over the battlefield, looking for the overgrown gorilla grimm. He spotted it in the back, tearing up chunks of the buildings around it. The Berengal lobbed it, sending it crudely arcing into the church wall. With a a terrible cruching sounds, it gored out a swath of the old stonework. Inside, a rippling effect washed over the walls as the arcane warding bulged, absorbing the extra strain of the blow. Arslan looked up at the dust that was shaken from the ceiling. She could tell that the warding would not hold out if whatever that was continued.
She shared a worried look to Reese, who just gave her a concerned look. "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit." She mouthed out to her leader.
So, this took a while. uhh... I'm not dead. Oops? But in all seriousness, the story is, at this point, best treated as dead and be pleasently surprised whenever I update. For everyone with a decade of time to wait, it will get done. Eventually. Emphasis on the eventually part. I just am having a hard time putting the words in my head onto the page. I know what is going to happen, and could act if out if you asked. But writing it down has been difficult.
But enough excuses. Thank you for making this far for a pile of warm ashes. I hope you can find warmth in what it was.
Best regards, and thank you