Here we go again! Not much to say other than to keep it going. Actually, this is the 70th chapter of BH! Just 12 more to go and it'll be my longest lasting story in terms of chapters. Let's get it.
Beta: CrowSkull
Cover Art: Nova
The Blind Huntsman
Chapter 70- Volume 2, Episode 11
Hearing the news from Ozpin himself left him shocked and speechless. So much so that he felt his hands fall from Orchids waste, his mouth fall open and his eyes widen so far across his face that it hurt. His senses couldn't even process information to him with how focused he was on Ozpin and his current location. He could vaguely feel something tugging on his sleeve as he continued facing the headmaster. Kai felt his heartbeat reach all the way up to his ears, and it took some time to realize that he wasn't breathing.
Once he took in that breath, that ignited all the rage and fury he didn't know he was holding in these past few weeks since the raid.
"I am sorry to impose this on you all so suddenly," Ozpin announced, his voice reaching loud enough levels to echo around the entire ballroom. Almost making it sound he was saying the same thing twice. "But Vale is in need of our help! Get your weapons and your armour if need be, but get down to Vale by any means necessary within reason!"
It was like a switch going off. Kai's senses came crashing back down to him as he felt the hundreds of students within the ballroom all drop what they were doing and sprint out of the room. Behind him, he could hear Orchid calling for Ruby and Blake, while he sensed Qrow go after Marron with Malienna being carried in his arms. Almost without thinking, he reached up and threw off the tuxedo coat that he was wearing that night to the floor, and then after quickly checking if he was flexible enough with the shirt, he tore that off as well. Leaving him in the simple black tank top that Vernal forced onto him before she left. His pants were flexible enough thankfully, so he didn't need to rip those off as well. But the shoes had to go. He kicked one-off with the help of his other shoe and then tore that one off as well.
"Kai!" Blake called out to him as she finally managed to break through the stampede that was the crowd.
"What is it?" He answered coldly, more coldly than he really intended.
Blake either paid it no mind or didn't care at the moment. "What do you need us to do?" She asked instead. Behind her, he could sense Ruby as well, who was staring at him with matched fury growing constantly inside her. Good, he was glad that he wasn't the only person who was pissed off here. Actually, when he pushed his senses out to the rest of his teammates, he could tell that they were all feeling the same way he was. Angered, hateful, eager to fight. That gave him the drive to not hold himself back this time. He didn't need to and clearly, they didn't need to be babied anymore.
"Use your scrolls and call your weapons," Kai said as he did the same with his own scroll. He could hear the locker rocket off into the sky with his enhanced hearing. The one time he left his sword in the locker was the one time he needed it the most. Typical. "Change if you have to but make it quick, I am going to the Bullhead immediately."
"We'll go with you," Ruby professed as she kicked off her heels. "I can fight in this dress, even if it is a little tight. What about you guys?"
Blake answered by ripping her skirt so that one of her legs could break free, then ripping off the rest of the skirt all around her legs so that the fabric couldn't get in the way. Once the cloth hit the floor he could hear Orchid do the same, if only a little less. She was a more relaxed person, so her dress wasn't that tight around her body. Even if it might have looked that way to others.
Kai took the non-verbal answer for what it was and double-checked himself for any tight spots around his body. His upper body was entirely free as expected of him wearing only a tank top and his lower body was good enough for him to not rip off his pants as well. The clothing was not meant for combat, especially to the degree of a huntsman's definition of combat, but it was the best he had and he wasn't going to waste time to go and put on something better.
He shared a nod with the rest of his team and joined the tail-end of the stampede. He didn't know where the rest of his friends were in Team RWBY and JNPR, but he could trust that they were going to be where they needed to be at the moment. Before he could get out of the ballroom however, he heard a voice call out to him. His mother's voice.
"Kai!" Marron screamed at him from her position on top of the indoor balcony. "Be careful, please!"
Kai stopped and turned around in her direction. He felt his heart drop for a moment but it picked back up immediately when he remembered that Qrow was going to take care of them and take them back to their room before going down to Vale himself. He couldn't find anything to say to his mother before he left, but he was proud of her. Years ago, she would have argued tooth and nail to keep him out of harm's way. She was always against fighting and despised the thought of her son being a part of that. Ever since Malikai told them about the silver-eyed warriors, however, she knew that there was no stopping him anymore. He had a natural responsibility, and she understood that. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, but he forced himself to nod instead and not waste his breath. He'd tell her that when he saved Vale from this surprise terrorist attack. He swore it within his mind.
"Team KRBR!" A familiar voice called out to them before they could get too far out of the building.
Kai stopped and realized it was Ozpin, he turned and snarled at him. Asking what he wanted with them now.
"Come with me," Ozpin said, flaring his aura and gripping his cane in a way none of the other members of KRBR ever noticed before. "I'll take you down there in my private Bullhead, we need warriors in Vale."
"We can use our powers?" Ruby asked, shocked and if being honest with herself, a little excited despite the situation.
"Yes," Ozpin answered immediately. "The time for subtlety is over, now come with me."
Kai wanted to ask about his own eyes and if he could still use them to kill Grimm, but he changed his mind quickly and changed his path. Up ahead, he could hear and sense a row of four lockers land in a line ahead of him and his team. He quickened his pace and slapped the code into his locker and when it opened he grabbed Silver Ebony and it's scabbard and tied it to his waist. Then he went ahead and put on both of his bracers as well for some extra protection. After sending a quick pulse to his other teammates he counted the seconds as they all prepared their own weapons. Ruby's Crescent Rose required some minor maintenance that could be done in just a few seconds, Blake had to load Gambol shroud with dust so she can use her semblance to its full power, and Orchid was just like him and ready immediately with her long greatsword being split apart into its two halves.
Ozpin waited for them to do whatever else they needed to do like grab more dust or double-check the straps and mechanisms on their weapons before beckoning them into his Bullhead. It was smaller than your typical Bullhead, requiring only a single pilot rather than two, and the passenger pit was lined with two rows of seats that were back to back to each other and only two in each row. It was almost small enough that Team KRBR couldn't stand up straight in it, but with Kai being the tallest, he still had a few inches above his head that served to give him the room that he needed. No one even questioned Ozpin for his choice of private Bullhead and strapped themselves into their seats as quickly as they could.
"Are you all strapped in?" Ozpin asked as he started up the Bullhead, no one was surprised that the headmaster knew how to fly one. He got his confirmation and he was not gentle in his flying. As soon as they hovered up into the air, he shot forward like a speeding bullet. The Bullhead was faster than any other Kai or the others has ever ridden on before, and they could feel themselves be pushed further into their seat by centripetal force. Kai grit his teeth and held on like he wasn't already strapped into a chair, blind to the outside world, he relied completely on Ozpin to get them from point A to point B.
Beacon wasn't as far from Vale as people might have thought. A normal Bullhead ride up to Beacon from Vale would only take about ten minutes or so. His jumping from Beacon down to Vale and using his semblance to propel himself took around that time with the help of gravity and a lot of luck. Ozpin's Bullhead got them into Vale airspace in less than half that.
When the Bullhead came to a slowing stop over Vale Kai and the rest of his team felt the force pushing them into their seats recede. "Get ready! I am opening the shuttle doors!" Ozpin shouted to them in a voice much louder than any of them have ever heard.
"What about you?" Ruby asked as she loosened the straps on her chest and stood up from her seat.
"I have other things to take care of," Ozpin announced to them. "This very well may be a distraction to keep us distracted while the true threat lies in wait. I will return to Beacon, but with any fortune, I shall return quickly. Stop staring at me!" He screamed suddenly after explaining. "There is no time to explain! Go! Jump out and protect Vale!"
Kai locked his blind eyes onto Ozpins and he felt the headmaster staring at him. Despite his suspicions toward the headmaster, his heart was in the right place. Kai nodded and was the first to jump out. Blake cursed and followed after her partner immediately, which then forced Ruby and Orchid to jump out after them in order for them to all stick together as a team.
Ozpin let out a frustrated sigh as he closed the shuttle doors again. He looked out the glass to his side and down to the district of Vale he was hovering over. He could see Ironwood's soldiers fighting off the Grimm, but they weren't going to be able to hold them off for long on their own. In another part of the city, he saw a desperate father with his aura unlocked due to stress holding back a Beowolf with a steel pipe. Most likely, he and his entire family will be killed. Grimm were in his kingdom, the creatures of darkness whose only goal for their existence being to slaughter human beings and only existed out because of pettiness.
He wanted to go down there and slay the Grimm himself, but he knew what the bigger picture was. Amber. Breaching Grimm into Vale was a distraction and nothing more. He needed to get back to Amber and make sure that she was safe in her tube. Then and only then could he be confident that he could leave her alone without fear of losing her to Cinder Fall.
A full-powered Maiden with a thirst for power was more dangerous than any army of Grimm. He made the tough decision and steered himself a course back to Beacon. He's already left Amber alone for too long while all of this was going on.
Vale was in chaos. By the time Kai landed in the streets of Vale, it was already being beseeched upon by Grimm. People were dead, dying, running for their lives or fighting. The city that he has called home for the past semester was undergoing an invasion. Kai snarled and drew Silver Ebony, the blade glowed a dark silver color and slashed the weapon through the air before him. Cutting down Grimm before they even realized that he was there behind them with a long, dark, silver arc of energy.
Blake landed beside him and noted the change in color of his sword energy attacks, but now was no time to bring it up the change from white to dark silver. At least it wasn't black and hurting people. She shared a nod with her partner and fought with him, using her ribbon and firearm to help her partner get into stronger positions and slaughtering Grimm together with improvised team attacks. Ruby and Orchid landed seconds later and joined them. Orchid was fast to change into her most aggressive personality and used her dual swords to carve a bloody black path through the Grimm alongside her own partner.
Ruby, however, was clearly the most efficient in her killing skills when compared to her partner. Her eyes were glowing, and it seemed much more pure compared to Kai's. It was more of a white shine rather than tendrils that sprouted from her face. Whereas Kai was wilder and less restrained, Ruby was more precise with her speed and focused attacks. Both of them were the best of their team against Grimm, that much was clear as Blake passed her partner up to the other silver-eyed warrior of their team and watched for a moment as they seemed to grow stronger fighting together. If she was so determined to take care of Grimm at the moment, she might have been a little jealous that someone else was fighting with her partner far better than she ever could, but she quickly doused down that thought as she used her semblance with flame dust to blow a crowd of Creeps apart from the explosion. Kai and Ruby have been fighting and training together for years, it was only natural that they would have the best synergy. And the fact that they both had silver eyes only enhanced that fact.
It was almost a spectacle to watch. Blake continued fighting alongside Orchid this time. The entire team seemingly agreeing silently to fight in pairs rather than as an entire unit. But they were both guilty of stealing stares and glances toward the direction of Kai and Ruby to see how they were doing in the battle against the Grimm.
They were like a cyclone of death and destruction in the name of humanity. From behind Kai's blindfold, his eyes were shining a dark silver. Not the complete black like it was back at that warehouse, which was a relief, but not the pure white that Blake witnessed in Mistral years ago against Cinder. Ruby's matched that memory perfectly. However, it was clear that there were a few key differences that made her stand out from her long time friend. She would draw those differences up later, right now she was too caught up in the blindingly fast movements her two other teammates were making in order to cut up the Grimm.
Kai was not holding back, he was using his semblance to its fullest with what was provided to him. With rock and concrete and other hard natural material being all over the place, he used that to his advantage and crushed and displaced Grimm wherever he sensed them, making the ground shift and envelope the Grimm, crushing them as if the ground grew giant jaws. While doing so, Ruby finished them off or took advantage of the monsters disadvantage against them and slashed at their throats and decapitated them whenever the opportunity was provided for her amazing speed semblance, she spun her scythe and around her even on her own neck making a deadly whirlwind at just the right height. Also, whenever there was fire from the apparent breach, Kai transmuted it and made it his own, adding it to his firepower and unleashing explosions of black flames that engulfed and burned the monsters to death with no restraint. It burned his entire right side of clothes, leaving his shirt hanging on by mere threads, but it wasn't like a simple article of clothing was going to be enough to protect his body anyway. It was a miracle that his pants were still in one piece already.
They landed away from where the main bulk of the counter offense force of Beacon landed, but that was probably intentional on the headmasters part. With Kai and Ruby fighting like this, even passing huntsman and Atlesian soldiers watched on in awe of their ruthless massacring of the Grimm. Even the alphas stood no chance against their combined might. It also rallied them up to follow their lead and fight harder. Which was great and all, but the further they fought and the closer they got to the breach itself, the denser the Grimm seemed in their number, and stronger as well. It was a good plan to send the silver-eyed warriors to one side so that they could force the Grimm back on another front, but they didn't have that much in terms of reinforcements. It was just one team of Beacon students, some professional huntsman that joined them as the fighting went on, and Atlesian soldiers that were saved from Kai and Ruby's onslaught.
Even Orchid started to get tired the more they fought, and this was just the beginning of the battle. There were just so many of them. The amount of Deathstalkers, King Taijitus, Beowolves, Ursa, Manticores, and Creeps was just insane. She quickly lost count of how many they have killed so far and just kept swinging her weapon, ribbon, and kept firing her gun and did her best to ignore the dead bodies of civilians and soldiers as she did so. Orchid did the same, though she fought much more aggressively than she did, her dual swords were like magenta streams of light with how fast she was swinging them and cleaving them in two with her raw power. Being in her berserker personality made it even more intense to watch for bystanders, but despite that, there were people that couldn't fight cheering them on to protect them and push back the murderous Grimm. They were who they were fighting for, the innocents and the ones who couldn't defend themselves.
The Grimm made a mistake attacking today when they were so happy and relaxed just less than an hour prior. Especially when it came to Kai. He was holding himself back from doing what his body told him to do, to fight, to destroy evil, and he allowed himself to rest and be nurtured. Blake was always able to notice these things, some times were more obvious than others, but there was always that feeling that he was only acting a certain way because he was expected to, or he was told to. Now there was no holding back. The aggression in his attacks, the constant growling, and snarling ignoring the hot black blood that landed on his body every time he killed a Grimm, and his overall body language told her that he was absolutely livid. And for once, Blake wasn't worried about it. She wanted him to be angry, and if it was safe to make assumptions, Orchid and Ruby were too.
The first time he took a break was almost a relief for the others to stand down and stay still for a few minutes. His breathing was deep and heavy, his chest expanding and contracting heavily with each inhale and exhale. The Grimm still came at them in force, but they slowed down suddenly, almost as if they were hesitating. Hesitating to keep attacking. At the sight of Blake, Orchid, or any of the other unnamed huntsman or Atlesian soldiers, they were eager to snarl at them or try and tear them apart, but when it came to Kai or Ruby, they almost looked docile. Like they could actually think for themselves for once.
"Heh… the stories were true." Orchid said out loud as she whipped her swords to the sides, smiling maniacally at the tide of hesitating Grimm before them. "The Grimm are afraid of silver-eyed warriors."
According to the legends, that was technically true. Though, Ruby thought it was just an exaggeration. Seeing it in person though… she couldn't help but laugh. Grimm, big scary monsters afraid of a fifteen-year-old teenage girl and a seventeen-year-old teenage boy was a hilarious thought.
"Then let's keep giving them something to be scared of," Kai growled loudly. Everyone else roared in their approval and prepared to charge at the hesitating Grimm.
"White Fang!" Yang cried out as she jumped in front of a pair of human men, crossing her arms together and wincing as her guard was pelted with bullets from the front. "They're on the roofs!" She screamed as she turned and dragged the two injured men away with her powerful strength.
"Of course they'd be to blame for this," Ren snarled as he kept his semblance active on a little boy in hopes of protecting him from Grimm long enough for one of the dozens of medics to come pick him up. "Pyrrha, you're the best against people out of all of us, get up there and take care of them. Don't bother holding back against them, they've asked for it."
"Will do," Pyrrha said as she looked over her shield and locked on to her targets. Lined across dozens of buildings there were squads of White Fang grunts shooting down at not Grimm, but people. They specifically targeted the Atlesian soldiers with no aura or took out civilians before they could escape the Grimm. It was a small mercy that they didn't seem to target faunus innocents, but at the same time that angered her further.
"Pyrrha, here!" Nora yelled to her and switched her grenade launcher into its hammer form.
Pyrrha got the hint and ran and jumped at her friend while placing her feet on top of her shield. Nora got under her and smashed her hammer against her shield and pulled the trigger to create an explosion that further propelled Pyrrha through the air. Pyrrha was launched so far up that she nearly overshot the building and only didn't when she grabbed on to the ledge on the other side and hoisted herself up. The terrorists that she landed behind panicked and tried to shoot at her, but they stood no chance. Pyrrha was more than good enough to pick them apart one by one and even went as far as to knock some of them off of the building.
"Alright, it looks like she has that handled," Jaune noted out loud. "I think Rick and Brick should fight together, they have the best synergy and have complimented semblances."
"Agreed," Ren nodded at him in agreement and then gestured to the chaos ahead of them. Rick and Brick were already fighting together, their electric semblances coinciding with one another to create the color of their last name. They had powerful semblances already, but working together, they had more than double the power. They didn't need to be told a second time to fight together either.
"We have to stick together," Jaune continued, unsurprised by Rick and Brick's quick teamwork. "Let's mesh our teams together, just like we trained. And we can follow Professor Goodwitch and the other huntsmen into the fight, but we should leave most of the fighting to them." Ren, Yang, Weiss, and Nora all nodded along with him as he made his suggestion. "Along with the ones with the really strong semblances, they should stay fighting the Grimm while people like me who don't have that flashy of a semblance should focus on saving people." He added after sparing another glance to his side, spotting a row of dead bodies that were courtesy of the Grimm's mindless rampage.
"I agree to that plan," Ren replied. "Yang, your semblance is powerful and should be used on the front lines. Weiss, your semblance is strong but you are more oriented around supporting others with your glyphs, use those however you can to save people."
"On it!" Yang exclaimed as she rushed to join the Violet twins, Professor Goodwitch, and the rest of the Vale Defense Force.
"I will," Weiss said as she stabbed Myrtenaster into the ground and concentrated on a glyph, it shifted into a variety of types, and she prepared herself to use them on herself or anyone around her in hopes of saving lives.
"What about me?" Nora asked, wondering why she hasn't been referred to just yet.
"Stay with me," Jaune told her if only a little disappointed in himself for it. "There might be some Grimm that I won't be able to handle by myself, I don't want to take a pointless risk right now."
"Got it!" Nora happily chirped, all for the idea. If it meant helping people she didn't care what she had to do.
"Let's go!" Ren exclaimed as he dashed forward in the direction of the chaos. His semblance was perfect for rendering a person and himself invisible to the Grimm. Masking emotions never seemed like such a blessing before. Jaune and Nora ran forward to the first group of distressed people being chased by Grimm and Ren rushed to the civilians and masked their negative feelings with his semblance. Giving Jaune and Nora the time they needed to challenge the Grimm and cut them down with practiced teamwork. Jaune slid under Ursa's swipe and Nora punished its overextension by smashing her hammer into its skull, killing it instantly. Jumping out of the way of the heavy body falling down while dissipating away into nothingness. Jaune used his own momentum to push himself back up to his feet and slashed his sword across his body in one powerful attack, cutting the head clean off of a Beowolf and kicking it away once it landed in front of him. He and Nora shared a nod and they glanced back to Ren, who was already using his semblance on the group of people to hide them from the Grimm. After telling them to keep going, Jaune and Nora left them behind for the other huntsmen and students to take care of the civilians before Ren could depart from them and catch up to them.
It was like an endless cycle. Jaune and Nora rushing from person to person, killing the Grimm that was attacking them each time they stopped with the support of Weiss and her glyphs, and then moved on to the next once Ren caught up and used his semblance to hide them. It felt like hours and it felt like they already helped a hundred people. But they couldn't stop there. There was always someone in trouble that needed saving. It was all over the place, and they couldn't save everyone no matter how hard they tried. It was traumatic watching someone get killed by the Grimm, even if they were able to kill the Grimm before it could mangle the body beyond recognition. It left a hole in his heart every time he and Nora failed to catch up to them in time to stop the death from happening in the first place.
Up ahead, Jaune wondered. How much further would they have to fight into the Grimm and witness all kinds of destruction that they made in their path? The breach couldn't be that far anymore, he could smell the dust in the air where the apparent explosion blew up from underground. It made the air so thick and humid that it made him want to throw up, but he held it back for everyone else's sake.
On the front lines, he hoped that the other students and the other half of their teams were doing okay while they were on search and rescue duty…
Yang smashed her fists together and reloaded Ember Celica and activated her semblance at the same time. Her hair burst aflame and her eyes shined red as she slid under one of the heads of a King Taijutsu and grappled the others jaws with her bare hands. She held it back for a few tense moments before forcing more strength into her muscles and tearing the head in two. The other snakehead screamed in pain before trying to swallow her whole in one attack. But a professional huntsman sliced it down before it could get anywhere near her. Thankfully, she shot the unfamiliar man a nod and he reciprocated with one of his own before he went off to join what seemed to be the rest of his squad. She would have been able to handle the giant Grimm on her own, but she didn't blame the man for helping her when he could, she would have done the same thing if she saw a teenage girl taking on a giant two-headed snake.
As she caught her breath, she went on to see how the twins were doing, just in case they needed up.
Rick and Brick used their lightning semblances in perfect tandem with one another. Making violet lightning strike down from their created storm and being careful not to hit any of their own. Alongside them, their aunt Glynda used her own semblance to keep Grimm away from them. Giving them the free reign to continue using their semblances at its full power without fear of being sneak attacked. Along with the countless other huntsmen and students from Beacon and all-around Remnant, they seemed like they were doing a pretty bang-up job. That's what happened when you pissed off teenagers with superpowers, they just got stronger and thirsty for revenge and no one was going to stop them from enacting it on mindless monsters.
They were fine, Yang quickly noted and took another moment to look over the tide of Grimm and huntsmen fighting them. She was looking for any sign of white light or a teenage girl wearing a bright red combat outfit. She never saw Ruby or her team actually land in Vale like the rest of them did, but she knew that there was absolutely no way that they were not in this fight. It was completely against their character. Kai was always down to kill Grimm and hated them just as much as any other and Ruby was the kind to want to save everyone she possibly could.
"C'mon Ruby… where are you?" She wondered out loud in a mil panic. Uncle Qrow wasn't there either, but a quick text from him as she was headed down into Vale told her that he was escorting Marron and Malienna back to their room just in case Cinder was going to make another attempt on their lives. However, she could still expect him to come down soon. He seemed to have a knack of getting to places pretty fast, especially when it came to bars.
While the thought was amusing, Yang couldn't think about it for very long. A passing huntsman yelled at her to keep fighting, and she cursed herself for spending the minute she spent standing around just wondering about how others were doing. Now wasn't the time for that, Ruby was strong and Kai was stronger than her. Qrow was even stronger than any of them and he was certainly going to be on his way by now. Smashing her fists against each other once more, she charged right back into the fight alongside the same huntsman that yelled at her just a second ago. She seemed to earn back his respect after she crushed a Beowolfs head in like a grape and stomped a Creep into the ground, killing it instantly.
Shutting down her semblance to save stamina and aura, Yang continued forward with the offensive Vanguard and went on to continue throwing her fists so often that her arms started to get tired and numb from the way her muscles were constantly tearing due to the intense exercise. She was going to need some time to recover after this was over. Ember Celica started to weigh heavily down on her arms and she started getting just a little slower, but she couldn't stop here. She was a huntress, and so she needed to protect people from monsters like these. With red eyes and saving her semblance for later, Yang kept pushing forward. Snarling and growling with each punch she threw and tanked whatever attacks came at her in return so that she could use the raw power her semblance provides her against whatever monstrously large Grimm needed to be taken down quickly.
Glynda eyed her down in the crowd of Grimm and kept a note in her head to make sure that she was okay later, as she did for a dozen other students and would likely do so for the rest of them as well. Her nephews were doing a fantastic job working together. She would once again suggest to Ozpin to make the two officially partners if only to make sure they can better utilize this teamwork-oriented semblance that required both of them working together in order to maximize it to its fullest potential.
Rick and Brick wasted no time in going all out, and their stamina together was unreal. Their violet lightning strikes and other named attacks instantly killed smaller Grimm, and usually blew apart limbs from large Grimm so that the other huntsmen and students could take them down the rest of the way. Though Glynda knew her sister's sons very well. They weren't going to be able to keep this up for much longer. They were already reaching their limits and it was only going to get harder for them the more they went past their limits. Semblance overuse was a very serious problem and it could be fatal depending on what semblance it was. For instance, Yang's semblance increases her power twofold from the amount of kinetic force absorbed into her body from enemy attack, and she unleashed the power usually in one combo attack or one very powerful unhinged attack. Which would then leave her body auraless, exhausted, and sometimes broken. Rick and Brick's semblances were slightly similar to a certain extent. Lightning control was dangerous for the heart, one wrong move, going a little too far past one's limits, and they could very well give themselves a cardiac arrest. It was why they never used their powers to its fullest potential without being around one another. Like any normal circuit, it needed two paths in which to travel. To and Fro. With just half a circuit, something was bound to go wrong. While both would be able to work together as long as too much power doesn't go through it at one time.
Rick and Brick have trained to overcome that limit, but sadly all they've done was just make their bodies a little tougher and more resistant. If they were anything less than prodigal, they would have accidentally killed themselves when they first unlocked their semblances. Glynda never saw the kids often, but she loved them as if they were her own. Which was why she swore not to let them down here and used her telekinetic semblance to force back any Grimm that dared to try and strike them down while they were concentrating. Their goal was to get her to the breach so that she could use her semblance to put all the pieces of rubble and debris back together so that she could plug the hole that created a path for Grimm from Mountain Glenn directly to Vale.
"Agh!" The professor felt her heart drop as she heard one of her students, the one she just tore her eyes away from, Yang, cry out in pain. Her green eyes scanned through the chaos to find her unmistakable golden mane of blond hair, and her heart dropped even further when she found Yang's aura flicker out as she pushed herself onto her hands and knees, a great massive arrangement of cracks in the brick building behind her that suggests she was smashed into it multiple times. A Beringel, larger than she's ever seen before, raised its fists up into the air and was about to smash her body into the pavement.
She rushed forward to use her semblance and try to save her. But it was too late.
Someone got there before she could.
Yang stared up in shock at the red and black portal that seemingly created itself out of nothing, and for the same woman she saw at Mistral for a few moments to dash out of it and cut off the arms that the Beringel was going to use to kill her. The Grimm was then cut to pieces in seconds, dying instantly. When the strangely familiar woman finally stopped and sheathed her sword, she turned to look at her. A Grimm mask hid her face from her, but she could see the red piercing eyes, similar to Uncle Qrow's, stare back at her.
"M-Mo-" Yang cut herself off. "R-Raven?" She called out, shocked to see the woman she spent so long searching for suddenly appear right before she was about to be killed. The woman who was her biological mother took off the mask and showed her face. It was like a carbon copy. If Yang had black hair and red eyes, she'd look exactly like Raven. Part of that made her feel a little weird, to see the mother that abandoned her at birth after so long only to see that she practically had the same face as she did.
"Stop being weak," Raven told her, dropping her mask and stepping to her and suddenly placing a hand atop her head. "I will not return to save your ass a second time, Yang."
Yang widened her eyes as she felt her aura suddenly return to her. Nowhere near full, but enough so that her wounds started to heal. Raven staggered momentarily as a result of giving her a cup of her own aura, but she recovered quickly and picked her mask back up again and put it on. Slashing a portal through the air and already trying to leave through it.
"W-wait!" Yang cried out before she could leave entirely. To her credit, Raven stopped and listened. "Help us!" Yang begged her. "You're strong, help us, help Kai if that makes you feel better. We need every strong person we can get, please."
Raven snorted and didn't even bother to look at her. Yang felt a frown stretching down on her face.
"I never said I wasn't going to be doing that, did I?" Raven didn't give her a second to reply and left through the portal, but the portal stayed open. Vernal came out a second later, eyes flaming blue and pure raw energy crackling on her fingertips with a vicious scowl on her face.
"I'm gone for less than a day, and look at what happened." Vernal spotted her and yanked her up to her feet. "Don't get yourself killed idiot, Raven wouldn't want that. I'm going to go tear shit up."
Yang used the brick wall to help herself stay on her feet, her mind now just as exhausted as her body after seeing her estranged mother and a girl with flaming eyes. One of the huntsman- no, a huntress, caught her before she could fall again. Yang stared up at her professor and wondered out loud. "What just happened?"
"We just got reinforcements," Glynda said with a conflicted expression on her face. "From an unlikely ally."
Up ahead, Vernal was walking at a fast pace toward the front lines. Her eyes flaming brighter and brighter with each step with ice and lightning crackling all around her as she did so. She walked through one of the Violet twins bolts of lightning, but it did next to nothing to her. People called her to retreat back with them, to fight with them and calling her an idiot for going in alone.
Vernal, the spring maiden, quickly proved them wrong.
"RAGH!" Vernal hovered into the air as hundreds and thousands of little ice spikes imbued with electric elements rained down on the Grimm. Killing dozens instantly. She went even further and blasted a ball of blue flame with the same side-elements toward a group, creating a great large ball of blue flame that exploded up into the sky, scattering limbs of the Grimm as a result. Vernal kept blasting her way through the Grimm like a one-woman army, laughing her ass off the entire time. Her power was so unbelievable and unheard of that even the huntsmen and Atlesian soldiers hesitated and stopped what they were doing for a moment.
Rick and Brick were jealous, their semblances were nowhere near as strong.
"So, uh," A bloodied up Sun said out loud. Though not blood of his own. "Should we help her?"
"Visually it does not appear that she requires assistance," Penny replied, her bow undone and ginger hair down. Her dress was ruined, which did not make her feel any positive feelings. "However, we shall make use of this opportunity to push back the Grimm on this front."
A White Fang terrorist fell off of a roof and landed next to her, thankfully, he had aura so he didn't die immediately, but there was bound to be a bone broken and he lost consciousness. Looking above high, Pyrrha was seen waving down at them before moving on to the next building. She was handling things well on that front at least.
They snapped out of their shock quickly after and continued charging forward, using Vernal as their motivation to keep attacking.
Kai kept charging forward in the general direction of the Grimm and toward the massive hole in the ground that was constantly shaking with Grimm as they kept making their way up to Vale. He could feel his eyes activating more and more as he kept going forward. Slaughtering Grimm with Silver Ebony and his semblance. He didn't stop even when it felt like his sword arm was going to fall off. Blood was slick on his arms and face, Grimm blood, and it evaporated away leaving a chilling sensation across his body.
In an arrangement of aggressive maneuvers and attacks, he slashed through a group of Creeps and then made his way to an Ursa Major. It stomped and roared as it challenged him, giving off constantly signals on where it was and what it was going to be doing. Kai slid under its paw and stabbed it in the hind leg. It fell to its knee and Kai reeled back and cut through it a second time, this time removing the limb entirely. As the monster roared in pain, Kai jumped onto it's back and stabbed it multiple times in its hide and twisting the blade, black blood spilling out and onto his body. He kept screaming and stabbing it with his sword until the beast fell down on its front, dead. He stabbed it in the back of the head for good measure, and then searched for his next target.
It came to him in the form of a Manticore, a larger one than the other ones he's cut down before. It must've been an alpha, it didn't matter to him. He sensed it prancing along the ground on all fours on its way to try and kill him. But Kai had none of it, he quickly estimated that it might have taken a few minutes and decided that there was no time to waste on it. So he pulled up his blindfold and focused that familiar warm feeling in his eyes.
Silver blasted out and the Grimm died instantly, it's body turning into weak stone and crumbling down into useless black dust. Kai felt the migraine hitting already, but he kept moving forward. He couldn't stop, not here. If he passed out now, that just meant that he didn't train hard enough. He had to keep fighting, he had to keep killing, he had to keep destroying his enemies and kill them all!
"Kai!" His head Orchid and Ruby scream out for him. "Slow down! You're going too far ahead!"
Kai ignored them, they were strong and could take care of themselves. Blake was still nearby and was able to keep up with him, ironic since she wasn't the one with the speed semblance. She supported him whenever she could, but if he could be brutally honest, she was just getting in the way. He had to break off his assault sometimes to go save her from a tight spot. The breach itself was just ahead, he was desperate to get to it. Just one more block and he'd be able to stop them all-
"Eugh," Kai staggered, his brain felt a spike of pain and he felt his face twitch in agony, he fell down to one knee and gasped. He couldn't move his limbs. He tried to move but he couldn't even feel his muscles. By the time he was able to move again and for the pain to fade away somewhat, he was already surrounded by Grimm while he was still recovering from his episode.
He needn't have worried about his own life. He felt a wave of heat wash over him and the Grimm around him roared in pain and turned to stone, cracking and breaking as they fell over on the pavement. A pair of small hands wrapped around him and he was yanked back in a blur of speed.
"You idiot!" Ruby smacked him on the head, her silver eyes were brimmed with tears. Not because she was being emotional, but because it was getting hard to keep her eyes open and active for so long. "What would have happened if I wasn't fast enough to save you!?"
"But you were," Kai replied. "Thank you for that, I'm sorry, I guess I got a little too far ahead of myself."
"You-, ugh, nevermind," Ruby growled and shook her head. "We'll talk about that later. Look, we're almost to the breach itself. Do you think you can close the hole with your semblance?"
"It depends on how big it is." Kai didn't realize how tired his body was until he stopped moving as he did just now. "I need to have enough material."
"I went up to one of the buildings earlier," Blake pointed out as she went down to one knee to rest for a moment. Due to their efforts, they managed to rally up a decently sized force of huntsmen and soldiers who could hold their own against the Grimm for now. "I saw professor Goodwitch and a lot more huntsmen and everyone from Beacon. They are getting close as well. Goodwitch can use her semblance to piece everything back together and you can use yours to make sure everything stays in place."
"That would work." Kai nodded his head in agreement.
"Don't get too far ahead again, please." Ruby grabbed his arm and pleaded with him. "Let me use my eyes to carve a path out for you. Save your energy and use it all to cover up the hole. Trust me."
Kai hesitated, then nodded his head. She was right and that was a good plan. The fate of Vale could very well be resting on the shoulders of this plan and he couldn't find any good reason to deny it. He felt the pain in his mind and brain subside as he drew his power back. Sighing heavily as he felt much more relaxed than before.
Ruby took that as her answer, and her silver eyes lit up brightly. The veins in her face popped out and she felt an ungodly headache form in the back of her skull. But she was able to use them, and just like they planned, she went ahead first. Kai, Orchid, and Blake all around her and showing their support by fighting with her. Kai kept to his side of the deal and didn't use his eyes and held back on his semblance, which was good. The path of destruction he left behind was actually a little hard to get through and it was going to probably be annoying for normal people to have to fix it once they plug up this breach.
The Grimm started fighting harder again once Kai stopped using his eyes, which was okay. She still had her eyes still, and now it was time to put all of her training to good use here. She felt like this was the time to really show off her power and see what it could do. So with constant flashes of white light, she roared in her determination and rejoined the fight like the red reaper that she was.
Ozpin landed his ship and rushed his way through the ghost building that was Beacon now that all of the students and staff were down in Vale defending people from the Grimm. It was a perfect distraction, he had to admit. All the powerful people were gone and the only ones that were left in Beacon were just patients in the infirmary that couldn't fight. It was completely defenseless, and by the blaring alarm on his scroll that he had to keep silent lest he lose his composure, the CCT was breached at the same time. By who, he does not know. But he would make a note to investigate it at a later date.
The old headmaster made his way back to the tower and didn't even bother to check his office. He didn't leave anything valuable up there anyway besides maybe a few lien. He pushed in a code in the buttons that only he and his inner circle knew save for Mister Matsuoka, and he felt the elevator dive down deep underground into the secret underground facility that housed an injured woman.
He was relieved to see her again, safe in her tube, though still in a coma. As soon as the elevator doors opened, he sprinted out and used his aura to enhance his speed so that he could quickly check Ambers status.
STABLE. The word brought immense relief to his soul, so much so that he nearly passed out. He kept himself stable and stepped in front of Amber's tube. The woman was still in a coma, as he expected. And he feared that she would never wake up to make use of her power to do good in the world. He was a fool to let her roam free by herself on the outskirts of Vale. He still remembered when Amber first became a maiden, she was scared, hopeless, and needed guidance. She'd only been the maiden for a few months before she was attacked, nowhere near long enough to become fully realized. So much potential wasted. He hated himself for it. Now she was just a vessel for a dangerous power that he would take back if he could.
After seeing a reflection in the tube's glass, he turned around with a resigned sigh. "Cinder," He greeted the monstrous woman with a dark tone. "I would say it is a pleasure to finally meet you, but I am afraid that would be a lie."
Cinder stepped out of the darkness, one visible eye flaming and Grimm arm tensing violently at the sight of him. Beside her were two other people, faunus. Sienna Khan and Adam Taurus. Ozpin flashed his aura and magic and prepared to fight.
"And the leaders of the White Fang, Sienna Khan, and Adam Taurus. Hm. Figures that terrorists would work with monsters in order to get what they desire."
Sienna and Adam snarled at him but didn't rise to the bait. Instead, they simply drew their weapons.
"If you came here just a minute too late, you would have been able to live. Ozpin." Cinder said as her hands flamed up with orange fire. "Or should I say, Ozma?"
"Either is fine," Ozpin said blankly. "I care little what you call me. Now, I shall give you one warning and one warning only. Miss Khan, Mister Taurus, leave us and I will not give pursuit."
"You won't give the same offer to me?" Cinder asked sarcastically.
"I will not. I know there is no redeeming you. I will kill you here and now." Ozpin's aura grew brighter, and his eye shined green. "After everything you've done, you don't deserve a second chance."
"Hmph," Cinder narrowed her eyes.
Ozpin flashed toward her and began their battle by smashing his cane into the side of her head.
And there we go, chapter 70. Whew, it's been a while since I wrote a chapter this long for BH. I think, anyways. This should make up for the longer than expected recovery arc. The next chapter is going to be even more action-packed than this, so stay tuned!
Please review and let me know what you think!
T w itter . com (slash) genatools
P a treon . com (slash) Genatools.