I've noticed that there is a server bug with this website at the current time that I am writing this note. I don't know how long it would take to get fixed, but I do know that the app still works when it comes to reading chapters for stories recently updated. We'll just have to see how it goes, if you're reading this and you're not on the app then that's a good thing because that means that the issue is fixed. In that case, all I gotta say is welcome to part 3 of the V3 finale!

Beta: CrowSkull

The Blind Huntsman

Chapter 94

Volume 3, Episode 13

Crashing and Burning

"Shit, shit, shit, come on!" Roman exclaimed as he worked the controls of Ironwood flagship as well as someone who has absolutely no experience working with such a thing. "Knowing how to do it and actually doing it were really different concepts apparently."

He glanced to his side to see Neo working just as hard as he was, which was certainly a sight to behold. Neo was never one to give in to panic, but she knew when a situation was dire, and when there was little that she could do about it. He figured that was one of the few things that could really get Neo nervous or afraid even. When she had no control or had no one to utterly beat down into submission, for example. Her eyes were widened and frantic, pupils shrank down as she focused. Was she sweating too or was that just his imagination? Roman chuckled as he wiped the back of his hand against his forehead. He couldn't blame her, he was sweating like a pig himself.

Roman's amused smirk washed away as he looked out the windshield of Ironwood's flagship. There, he saw them. It was too dark to get the exact number of them and the dark clouds getting lower in altitude just made it all the more difficult to see but he knew that they were there. Those damn dragon creatures, if it wasn't for the chaos ensuing on the ship and for how hard his heart was beating he was sure that he'd be able to hear the damn things flapping their wings. He could see their glowing red eyes, however. How many were there? Eight? More? Less?

He literally had to slap himself just to stop thinking about it. It didn't matter how many eyes they had, how big they were, or how loud their wings flapped, they were here and they were destroying Vale. Roman was willing to do a lot to survive, hell, that was the reason he let himself get shacked up with Cinder in the first place. Above all else, he valued his own life and Neo's over everything. He was willing to do anything to keep their heads where they were. Lying, cheating, stealing, and even breaking his own moral code of killing from time to time when the time called for it.

But this? This was too much, and Cinder likely knew that. It was why she never told him anything more about her new plan because she knew that he'd be entirely against it. Maybe if it was just Beacon, or anything less than a full-scale invasion of the entire fucking kingdom, then he would have been more willing to let Cinder do as she wished. This was crossing a line, hence him starting his little revolution plan.

"Ah-ha!" Roman grinned when a large pilot's wheel popped out of the floor in front of him, held up by a black machine of some kind. "Overrode the auto-pilot protocol and now I control the ship. Easy peasy,"

The ship dipped down and did half a barrel roll before Roman got the sense to actually grab said pilots wheel.

"Not easy, not easy!" He shouted as he reigned the thing back under control. Strangely enough, it was almost eerily similar to flying a Bullhead. Just this one was the size of a skyscraper and hovering over a city full of innocent people. "Fucking Gods, always taking the opportunity to make me eat my own words." He cursed said Gods as he sucked in a deep breath and corrected the ship. "Neo, you alright?"

Neo punched him in the shoulder as she picked herself off the floor and plopped back down in the seat. The bruise on her cheek told him that she had fallen off the chair when the ship rolled in the air. She likely hadn't expected it and didn't bring her aura up in time. Which made the indignant glare of her eyes make a hell of a lot more sense.

"Sorry about that, you know what they say," Roman said as he made the ship gain more altitude. "First time for everything."

"This is General Ironwood, who the hell is flying my ship!?"

"Oh, what's this?" Roman said as he looked at the intercom attached to his seat. "Is that the General coming to say hello for once?" After noticing the black button on the side of the chair, Roman gained a hunch and held it down. "Hello General, this is your new Captain speaking."

"Torchwick!?" Ironwood screamed. "What the hell are you doing to my ship!? How'd you get out of your cell!?"

"You really should have kept in mind that my best friend can turn invisible and teleport through walls. As long as she is around, there is no prison that can hold me." Roman explained cheerily. "As for what I'm doing with your ship, well, I regret to inform you that it is kinda being boarded and overwhelmed by Grimm at the moment. Not to mention the White Fang. So, as a good samaritan, I decided to take control of the situation and lock myself in the little control center cockpit thing you've got going on here."

"You bastard, what do you plan on doing? Haven't you done enough harm to this kingdom!?"

"On the contrary Jimmy," Roman leaned back in his seat and changed the ship's direction, pointing it toward one of the massive flying creatures. "I'm probably going to be the one thing that holds off this invasion for a bit. Honestly, you ought to be thanking me. It's not every day I get to do a good deed like this."

"Even if I believed you for a second - Nikos, get in position and help that huntress! - you're just one man, one criminal, you can't pilot my ship alone."

"If you really still think I'm some kind of idiot, then you haven't been paying attention," Roman said softly as he pushed an arrangement of buttons, mostly but only mostly out of pure guesses. Neo did the same on her end, mimicking his movements.

"TARGETING SYSTEM ACTIVATED. LOCKING ON TO -43,246 FLYING TARGETS-"

"Gonna have to cut this short now, Jimmy," Roman said as he flipped a switch and revealed a big red button that had the words 'Fire All Cannons' below it. "I have a giant ass cannon to shoot and Grimm to kill. I'd ask why you have a fire all button, but I'm afraid I don't really care right now."

"Torchwick-" Ironwood's voice cut out as Roman released the button and ended the call. After hearing what was happening on Ironwood's side, he figured that the man was dealing with problems of his own.

"And here… we… go…" Roman said slowly as he pushed the big red button.

He felt his entire body vibrate as every damn cannon on the ship fired at once. And then continued to fire. He could hear it even from in there, and he had to fight the urge to cover his ears. He only didn't because he needed to keep his hands on the wheel and keep the ship afloat. He tried to see outside the ship, but only saw a haze of black smoke. Most likely that was because of all the thousands of Grimm that had been killed in a single barrage, and the smokey residue of the cannons as they continued to fire.

Roman cracked one eye open and redirected the cannons toward the bigger targets. Killing all the small fry was fine, but they weren't going to be the main issue. Hell, there were more huntsmen and huntresses in Vale than there was going to be in a long time and every single one of them can take on an army of Grimm on their own for at least a little while. In teams, they would be even stronger. It would take time, but they would eventually push out the Grimm and free Vale from their occupation. If the big and ancient ones were still around though then that would be next to impossible.

After redirecting the cannons, he looked at their ammo gauges. Already, they were at the half. Most likely because they had no one to actually reload them once the automatic cartridges were depleted. Still, Roman had to think that it was enough to at least take one or two of them down. Nothing could survive what Roman had just unleashed, surely.

When the cannons finally ran out of ammo Roman's ears were ringing for the next few minutes. Even then, he opened his eyes and tried to see through the massive smokescreen that had exploded outward from the deaths of all the Grimm he had just killed with a push of a button. He put the ship back into autopilot so he could finally catch his breath and waited with halted breath as the smoke slowly but surely got blown away by the wind.

Roman's green eyes were filled with a desperate sorrow as he saw the dragon Grimm not only still alive, but making a beeline to his current location, which was the very large flagship that was still a very large and slow target. Easy to tear apart if the Grimm really wanted to.

"Shit…" Roman said slowly, realizing just how hopeless his situation was now. "Shit… shit… fuck… Neo," He turned to her and for probably the first time since they knew each other, Roman was actually shaken to his core. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this, I…"

He stopped when Neo reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly as she smiled at him. She tried to speak for the first time in a long time, and Roman struggled to listen, but what came out of her mouth was nothing more of choked gasps and strangled sounds. Despite no words ever being uttered, Roman somehow still understood what she was trying to say.

"I know…" Roman said, hanging his head and tilting his hat so that it covered his eyes. "I never could have predicted this… fuck, how did it come to this? We were having the time of our lives as the lord of the criminal underworld, and then she came. First Mistral, then the Breach, and now this. Goddamn, that woman." Roman laughed sadly. "To think that after everything I've been through, I'm going to literally get taken down in a massive ball of fire. Well, at least I'd be going out with a bang, eh?"

Neo blinked at him, confused. She gestured to him and then pointed to herself and slid a finger across her neck.

"No," Roman shook his head. "You're not dying with me, Neo. Without me slowing you down, you can get out of the ship fast enough to get out of the explosion in time."

Neo narrowed her eyes and slapped her hand against his chest, then she did it again and again until she hit his face. After that, Roman caught her wrist and stopped her from striking him again.

"No, don't argue with me, you're not going to die here." Roman continued. "You're going to get the hell out of here, find the kid, and help him. Cinder wanted me when she came to Vale. You just came as part of the package. Once I'm gone, she's not going to care about what happens to you. Let her think you're dead, and when she sees you and the kid making a triumphant return? Hah! I'd love to see the look on her face as she chokes on her own blood."

Neo still wanted nothing of it. Roman sighed and grabbed her other hand when she tried to slap him with it and pulled her close. It was a very rare moment where he accepted a hug from anyone, not even from Neo. But now, he felt just enough emotion to want one.

"The kid won't think of you as an enemy after this, he probably doesn't even know what you did in Amity before. If you help him out, he's just the type to let you stick around, just like I was." Roman laughed at the thought. "Find him and get out of the city. The last time I saw him, he was near the festival. But knowing his type, he's probably going to try and fight this all off himself. Understand?"

Neo slumped her head against his shoulder and sobbed. Roman sighed and stroked her hair as he felt her tears moisten his coat. He was never good when it came to crying women, which was why he always liked to keep things casual. He hated it when it was Neo though, because try as he might, he was never the supportive type. At least not good at it, anyway.

"That's right…" Roman said as he patted her shoulders, turning his gaze back toward the windows, he counted about a few minutes give or take until the dragons caught the ship. "You know what to do… you were always the smarter one between the two of us. I know you can pull it off."

When he pushed her away and out of his arms, he reached up and took off his hat, handing it to her. "I won't be needing this anymore," He said as he placed the bowler hat on her head. "Nor this," he added when he gave her Melodic Cudgel. "Not after what I'm about to do."

Neo looked up at him with the same sad puppy eyes she always gave him when he told her no to something she wanted. Only this time she was actually sad about it. He found it endearing, that at least one person on this shithole of a world actually cared for him, loved him.

"Love ya too, you piece of shit." He said after gently shoving her away. Neo staggered back but ultimately didn't rebel against his command. Roman leaned back in his seat and took one last deep breath and looked away from Neo. He was never one for tearful goodbyes, and it was already hard enough keeping the tears held back in his eyes. But when he saw the flash of white and the sound of glass breaking to his left, he knew that Neo was already on her way out.

"Well, well, well," Roman said as he took out the final cigar left in his pocket and lit it on a nearby flame. He took two deep puffs of it and exhaled a large bloom of smoke from his lungs. In the distance, he saw the primary target of his bombardment from before. The person sitting atop one of the dragon Grimm. In spite of everything, he felt a grin stretch across his lips as he puffed out another cloud of smoke. His fingers flicked the auto-pilot back off and he took control of the ship once more.

-ACTIVATING THRUSTERS AT MAXIMUM POWER- The machine whirled.

"The thought just makes me giddy, you're the Queen of the motherfucking Grimm, and yet here you are, about to be rammed by a giant ass Atlesian Battleship being piloted by a low-life maggot like me." Roman wore his trademark cocky smirk as he spat the cigar out of his mouth.

"Heh, life can be a bitch…"

He just about heard the dragons roar as the ship collided with it. Moments before the explosion, Roman was roaring right back just as fiercely.

The explosion knocked both Rick and Brick off their feet and they scrambled for cover when the burst of fire came roaring down the road. They hid behind a car and even as the metal burned to a crisp red-white color, they continued using it for cover until the worst of the blast was gone.

"Did that ship just fucking crash!?" Brick exclaimed as he peeked over the burning hot car.

"Looks like it," Rick swore. "And it took one of those Wyverns right with it. I don't know who the hell was piloting that thing, but they definitely managed to kill one of them."

"All those people… the soldiers," Brick muttered quietly.

"We can't worry about them right now," Rick said. "There's nothing we could have done about it. The fact that they accepted the idea of ramming the damn ship into one of those Wyverns said enough. You saw them just as well as I did, bro, they were being boarded by Grimm at the same time."

"It crashed in the city…" Brick pointed out. "And look, the Grimm," He gestured to nearby Grimm, who all just stopped out of seemingly no reason and all looked toward the location where the ship and the dragon crashed in part of the city.

"That's new," Some of the Grimm went as far as to run to the crash site as well. "But that just makes things easier for us. C'mon, I doubt fire of all things is what put Kai down. We have to find him while we still can, and we have to be close."

"I know we are, but what are we going to do once we find him?" Brick asked. "It's not like we can hitch a ride back to Beacon while this stuff is happening, even if we don't find him we're going to be stuck in Vale with nowhere else to go."

"We'll worry about that once we get to him," Rick said, standing up and flourishing his sword. Blue lightning crackled around his body, and he looked down at his brother with an expecting expression on his face. "C'mon, are you with me or not?"

"Tch, that's a stupid question," Brick said as he stood up alongside him. "As if I'm going to let you steal all the glory after what we're about to do here. Let's keep going. He can't be far, right?"

"Right." the twins nodded to each other and ran around the now burning car. They rushed forward and kept rushing forward, taking advantage of the Grimm's sudden change of goal. They were right, Kai wasn't that much farther than they were. In fact, he was in the same direction that the Grimm were charging in. From their perspective, it actually looked like a one-man army going against another full army. Thankfully, it didn't seem that the Grimm were paying too much attention to him, but the ones that did met a very swift end.

Wordlessly, the Violet twins ran closer to each other, their electrical semblances mixing together to form their violet lightning. Together as they raised their adjacent arms together, they thrust it forward and cried out its name.

"Violet Chain-Burst!" The purple lightning exploded outward as a bolt and struck the first Beowolf. It then chained to an Ursa, then another Beowolf, and so on. Killing about a dozen or so Grimm. All of which were near the one they were searching for all this time.

"Rick, Brick!?" Kai exclaimed once he realized who they were, taking the moment of solace to catch his breath for a moment. "What are you doing here!?"

"Looking for you, jackass!" Brick exclaimed as he slid to a halt in front of him. "Why didn't you come back to Beacon! We need someone like you over there, there's a fucking war going on in case you haven't noticed!"

"Tch, there's a reason for that," Kai said, quickly gripping Brick's hand in a brief greeting gesture as Silver Ebony came back out. "Thank you for coming to find me but this is as far as you two should come, if you follow me to where I'm going you're going to die. Only I can handle this."

"Oh yeah? Just like you were handling the Grimm coming at you just now? C'mon man, don't be an idiot." Rick said as he gripped his short sword with two hands, standing by his side. "Let us fight with you for once, you don't need to fight every battle on your own."

"Yeah, how can you expect us to leave you here to fight on your own? What if we listen to you, and then you went on and got yourself killed? What would I tell your teammates, huh? What would we tell your mom and sister? That we had the chance to fight with you and didn't because you asked us not to? Fuck off man,"

"We're helping you, and that's that," Rick said at last. "So we can stand here and argue within a horde of Grimm, or we can go kill whoever survived that fall."

Kai's blind eyes widened for an instant. "How do you-"

"What else are you doing going over there?" Brick cut him off. "Because even you're not foolish enough to think that you can fight all of the Grimm in Vale on your own."

"... You're right," Kai admitted. "There is someone there, probably at the epicenter of the crash. Someone that controls the Grimm," The shock within Rick and Brick was palpable, he could tell. "I know it's a shock for you to find out and I promise I'll explain everything to you, but we don't have time for that. The fact of the matter is, if she dies, then there's a real chance that Vale lives on. A small one, but still a chance."

"You're saying there's a damn Queen Bee of the Grimm!?" Rick asked frantically. "What the fuck have you been up to lately… shit…"

"Whatever," Brick was the first of the two to recover. "We'll be with you all the way. All three of us together, we have to be able to pull something off, right?"

"Maybe…" Kai said. "But three is a hell of a lot better than one right now… I have to warn you though, there aren't going to be any breaks from here on out and it's only going to get harder. We're going to fight and fight, probably throughout the whole night too. Are you ready for that?"

"Hey, you're not the only one who's gotten stronger in the last few years," Brick pointed out. "We'll keep up, maybe even beat you out here and there."

"Good," Kai nodded and gripped his sword with two hands, it glowed a dark silver color as he summoned his powers into it once more. "I don't expect anything less."

"There she is!" Weiss exclaimed as she pointed to the sister that she has always looked up to. The Specialist was commanding her troops when she noticed her. For an instant, Weiss saw the utter relief and joy in her eyes to see her little sister alive and well, but she couldn't celebrate just yet with what was happening at that moment. She quickly waved them over and Ruby took her and with her semblance shot them both over to the Specialist as red and white rose petals fluttered behind them in the wind.

"Winter!" Weiss staggered but regained her balance quickly.

"Weiss!" Winter exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around her sister's shoulders and pulled her in. "I am glad to see that you are okay," Just as quickly she let her go. "And you are?"

"I'm Ruby," Ruby introduced herself quickly. "I can help you beat back the Grimm. My eyes are ready."

"You-" Winter shook her head. "That's good. One of the Wyverns is attacking Beacon's tower directly. Before it destroys the CCT we have to bring it down. If we got you close enough, could you freeze it with your eyes?"

"I know I can," Ruby said confidently. "I don't know exactly what the range is with them but I know I can take it down."

"Good, because nothing else has worked," Winter explained as she guided the two girls as she continued to issue out orders to her men. "No small weapons fire, no heavy weapons fires, not even a combined effort can bring it down. We can injure it, perhaps, but not enough to force it to land. I assume you saw what happened with one of our ships?"

Ruby and Weiss shuddered at the terrible memory. Even from so far away up at Beacon they couldn't miss the light show of every cannon on the ship firing into the Grimm horde at once. They certainly couldn't miss on the ship went down as well, taking one of the Wyverns with it, but still going down and creating yet another massive explosion.

"Going by your expressions, I figured as much. That Wyvern hasn't gotten back up, and the other one that was with it is still wreaking havoc in Vale. However, right now the priority is preserving Beacon and using it as a fortress against the ensuing invasion. Which means that this Wyvern needs to be destroyed."

"What do you need me to do?" Ruby asked.

"Thanks to Weiss being here, she and I can use our semblances together to create a combination of glyphs powerful enough to slingshot you into the air. It's a crude method, but we have little else in the way of options." Winter explained. "Are you in agreement?"

"Yes," Ruby loaded a fresh clip inside of Crescent Rose just to be sure. She nodded her head confidently, already preparing another blast of her silver eyes. It would be difficult, she was sure. She had never tried to use her eyes on something so big before, but she knew that there was no other way. Her eyes had the power to destroy evil, and right now evil was too strong to be slain by any other conventional weapon.

"Good, Weiss," Winter gestured for her sister to stand beside her, which she did without question. "Just like we practiced, summon an anti-gravity glyph in front of us while simultaneously using a stabilization glyph to act as leverage for mine. Keep it like that and don't worry about what I am doing, just focus on those tasks."

"Yes Winter," Weiss said obediently as she summoned the first glyph. She has tried to summon multiple kinds of glyphs at the same time before with varying degrees of success. With certain combinations, it could either work or she could be only wasting aura. With two relatively intermediate level glyphs being summoned so close to each other, it wasn't that difficult to conjure. Just as her sister explained, the glyph in front of her feet turned black and turned counterclockwise. At the same time, Weiss lifted her other hand and created one large glyph and split that one into two halves. They rotated simply and she held it just like that.

"Cover us!" Winter shouted to nearby soldiers and Atlesian Knights. "Make sure nothing gets close!"

Ruby shifted Crescent Rose into its gun form and opened fire at the dark tides of Grimm surrounding them. There wasn't a direct front to defend from, as it was all relatively chaotic and difficult to make out, but to her eyes, it was rather simple. If it was big and full of black fur then it was a Grimm and needed to be killed. Her shoulders and entire body recoiled back each time she pulled the trigger. Her small body was trained to handle the blowback, however. It would only send her flying if she let it, which gave her the idea of applying that to her fighting style years ago when she was still training under her uncle Qrow.

She reloaded as soon as her gun let out that metallic clink to let her know that she was out and began firing again. She didn't miss a single time, her training to use firearms was extensive and she knew how to shoot a moving target from hundreds of meters out. In comparison to Grimm, they were large and easy targets to hit. The trick was hitting them in spots that would kill them instantly. Most of the time that was the head, but it wasn't the most reliable method. Some Grimm had bone armour around their heads that could deflect even the most powerful of dust bullets.

That leads to targeting different vital parts of their body, like the heart, lungs, or organs to at least slow them down. Failing that, then if she hit a certain joint then that limb would come flying off in a spray of blood. The anatomy of Grimm was something that could never get studied safely because of the nature of the creatures of darkness. They never ceased, never stopped, once they saw a human in front of them, they went for the kill and only someone trained to take them down could stop them for good.

She did her best to ignore the carnage of her side littering the ground. It was a tough pill to swallow, her school had become the main battlefield against the Grimm. But it was one that she would swallow nonetheless. Every time she cocked another bullet into the chamber she counted down. Usually, if she loaded her clips correctly, she had around twenty or so bullets that she could fire before having to reload. Right now, she was at six.

"Are you ready yet?" She asked Winter as she patted the small pack behind her back. She only had on full clip left while the others had been discarded on the floor. Usually, she'd be adamant to keep them on her, but they would only slow her down at a time like this.

"Soon!" Winter replied.

Ruby turned to see what was happening and felt her eyes widen. She didn't know how to describe what she saw, it was just… an array of glyphs all varying in sizes. What she could make out was what seemed like a white rope of some kind made out of white energy. The biggest glyph in the back was a deep red color and was spinning rapidly. Weiss was focused on keeping her own two glyphs together and whole, which was most likely the reason the entire creation wasn't completely falling apart.

When Winter looked at her dead in the eye and nodded her head, Ruby let the near-empty magazine from Crescent Rose fall to the ground and loaded her last clip. For good luck, she pecked a kiss on the side of the magazine. "What do I do?" She asked as she jogged up to the strange mechanism.

Winter replied by something a small staircase of glyphs that brought her to the top. Ruby followed her lead and peered into the strange array, not knowing exactly what she was meant to do up there.

"Jump in," Winter said. "The glyphs will catch you."

Ruby nodded. Trusting her, Ruby hopped off the final glyph and into the creation below her. She would have hit the ground but stopped and found herself hovering in the air. It was a strange sensation, she felt like she was falling, and her hair and clothes were reacting as she was, but she wasn't getting any closer to the ground. She had to close her eyes and look up once she felt the familiar sense of terminal velocity hook into her.

"You are technically still falling," Winter began to explain for her sake. "But with a combination of glyphs that I won't bother to try to make you understand, you are both falling and flying. Right now, we are building momentum. Once I direct your feet toward the Wyvern at the correct angle and at the right time, you will be shot into the sky like a cannon. From there, it is all up to you what happens next.

"Don't worry about us," Weiss said before Ruby could open her mouth, she knew exactly what she was going to say before she could even start. "You'll be in the air for almost a minute, which is more than enough time for you to do what you need to do. Can you do it?"

"Of course I can!" Ruby exclaimed as Winter began to move her as she still felt like she was falling and angled her toward the Wyvern in the air, just waiting for the perfect time to launch her.

"Get ready…" Winter said as she took aim, aiming far in front of the Wyvern. It moved fast, but it was also very big. Ruby was much smaller and would move much faster through the air with all of the combined momentum that was building up behind her. Winter took in a long deep breath and watched the Wyvern in the sky. It slowly turned and actually headed their way be it by intent or just out of chance. Winter jumped on the opportunity when it came to her, and she launched Ruby through the air.

It felt like every drop of momentum she has ever built up throughout her entire life came back all at once. Ruby quickly twisted through the air so that she was flying headfirst rather than feet first, and shifted Crescent Rose into its full form mid-flight. She had seconds to react, most likely a lot less. She used her semblance to help with her reaction timing and fired Crescent Rose to give her an even greater boost in speed. If the Wyvern noticed her, it was only at the last second as Ruby's scythe hooked around its neck like a fishing hook. Much like how she landed in the initiation, Ruby held a tight grip along the shaft of her weapon and let her weapon bleed off all of the momentum for her. It was clearly not very painful to the creature she landed on, but it definitely pissed it off.

Ruby held on for dear life on the back of the Grimm's neck as Crescent Rose just barely sliced into the first layer of skin underneath its snout. She had to fire off half of her clip to just do that, and even then it was hardly bleeding at all. Ruby widened both of her eyes and prepared to do what she planned to do while she was up there.

From the ground, Weiss looked at what almost appeared to be another sun casting white light in the sky. It was massive, but just as quickly as it came it faded away. The back of the creature's head was turned to stone, but it was still flapping its wings and very much alive. To Ruby's credit, she did manage to blind the thing as some of its eyes peeled away with the wind. But it was still kicking, and Weiss could see the strain on Rub's face as she prepared another blast.

One more, two more, three more, and only one of its wings finally turned to stone. It began to crash down, and Winter realized it before she did. It was crashing down directly to where they were standing.

"Everyone move!" Winter screamed to all those around her. She grabbed her sister by the arm and yanked her along with her. Weiss still kept an eye on the creature as they were running, wondering just how the hell it wasn't dead yet.

"C'mon, just die already!" Ruby screamed as she felt like her eyes were going to melt out of her skull. The fact that it wasn't dead yet told her just how powerful the thing was. Four blasts of her silver eyes and it still kept going.

Maybe that was it, an idea came to Ruby's eyes as she watched the world move in slow motion as they slowly crashed down toward the ground. Those simple blasts of her eyes just weren't enough, but maybe a continuous light of her silver eyes could. One last time, Ruby closed her eyes and concentrated, thinking about all the pain that was being caused to all those innocent people, about all of the pain that was going to be dealt with Remnant as a whole if they couldn't win today. Ruby's teeth grit tightly against each other and she felt the veins around her eyes bulge painfully. But when she opened her eyes, even she could see just how long the light lasted.

The Wyvern roared in pain beneath her, only this time it kept going. Ruby kept going despite how she felt like she was going to pass out. She kept going and going until she did, losing the grip on her weapon as she slipped off of the creature in the air.

A glyph caught her body before she could get too close to the ground, and several more glyphs formed an icy slide. Causing her to slide down to a harmless halt before several hands grabbed her and pulled her onto the shoulder of one of the Atlesian soldiers.

The petrified Wyvern followed her quickly. Crashing down into the ground and creating a massive shockwave that sent everyone - Grimm included - stumbling to the ground. The ensuing dust cloud was less disruptive than anticipated, and it gave Winter full view of the Wyvern as it laid there on the ground in front of her, seemingly dead.

"Wait!" She called out to one of the nearby students before they could get near the creature. "It's not evaporating, that means it may still be alive."

"That can't be," Weiss said. "It's not even moving, perhaps it's not evaporating because it has been turned to stone like this?"

"Perhaps…" Winter said, still feeling off as the people around them began to cheer. They believed that the creature was dead and done with, but that didn't stop them from taking on the Grimm that were still around, thankfully. Winter still didn't feel comfortable, however. Yes, Ruby managed to bring it down just as they hoped, but all Grimm evaporated when they died. That was a well-known fact for centuries upon centuries. So why was it still there?

Then, it happened. The seemingly dead Wyvern cracked open like an egg, it's stone pieces peeling apart and oozing out dark black-red slime onto the ground. The people nearest to it jumped away, not letting it potentially grab onto them.

Winter backed away as well, taking Weiss with her and gesturing for the soldier carrying Ruby to stay close. The ooze that came out of the dragon stopped after all of it came out, but the puddle it left behind was massive. Winter didn't know what it was, blood? Grimm bled, but not this much, and their blood always evaporated within seconds of leaving their body.

"Something isn't right," Winter said as she pulled at her sword. "On your guard!" She shouted to those around them.

Someone screamed when a clawed hand burst out of the puddle, and full-blown panic ensued when thousands of others all packed into that one spot clawed their way out as well. Even Winter felt fear when Grimm creatures of every known kind started pulling themselves out of the puddle of the Wyvern's blood. At that moment, Winter knew exactly what they were now dealing with, and honestly, the Wyvern staying alive would have been a better outcome from this.

There was now a Grimm spawning pool in the middle of Beacon Academy. And there was no known way of ever destroying it. Ruby may have been an option, but with her out cold and the only other known Silver Eyed warrior somewhere down in Vale...

"Retreat!" Winter ordered as she backed away from the growing horde. "Full-scale evacuation of Beacon! Now! We have no way of closing that spawning pool, Beacon is lost!"

Adam's red blade moved fast, faster than any of them could truly keep up with. Orchid, Blake, and Yang attacked Adam from every angle they could, and while they were not losing they definitely weren't winning either. Orchid's clones were mere constructs of her aura, and while they all possessed skills equal to or greater than the originals, that didn't help them much when their aura was divided amongst four different hosts. Orchid had seemingly given up on using that semblance once Adam easily destroyed two of them.

Yang was the one clashing with him the most. They seemed to be going back and forth the most out of any of them, and quickly it turned into a game of supporting Yang as she fought Adam. Blake knew Adam's fighting style the best, and whenever Adam put his sword back into his sheathe to perform a drawing strike, Blake was there to stop him. Even then, every time Blake clashed with the man she felt her arms shake and shoulders clench. But it was better her than either of her friends potentially getting hurt.

When Adam slammed his sword back into his sheathe as a black aura surrounded not only him but the area around them, Blake recognized it instantly as his semblance.

"Get down!" Blake screamed as she dove for cover. Hoping that her friends did the same.

With a mighty roar, Adam's semblance cut through the air where Yang was standing. She ducked underneath it just in time and jumped away from the crash from where his semblance struck the pillar, slicing through it clean and through. Yang scrambled back up to her feet, where Orchid took a position beside her.

"His semblance is like yours," Blake explained as she stood. "He can absorb physical attacks with his sword and let it all out in a single blast!"

"That's not all it does," Adam said as he sheathed his sword once again, the red glow from his clothes and hair receding for a moment as he spoke. "You should know that already, Blake. Though, I can't say I'm surprised that you haven't paid much mind to this part of my semblance."

Out from behind Adam, three shades came out of his body. Just as tall, and seemingly just as strong. The girls looked on in shock as one turned into four. "This should fix the numbers problem, yes?" It was as if he was taunting them, Blake wondered what he was doing. Why weren't they dead yet? He has had chances to kill them during their fight, and yet he never went for them. Yang's reckless charge at him could have led to her losing a limb, or perhaps even her head. No, Adam was planning something, and for some reason, he wanted them alive for it.

The three shades of Adam all rushed at Blake at the same time, catching her off guard as the real Adam charged at Orchid and Yang. Gambol Shroud flicked out and her own semblance came in to save her life several times as she dashed away from all of the attacks coming from Adam's shades. There was a pattern to them, Blake instantly noticed. Two didn't attack before one of them did, and they both made the same motion as the first. There was a predictability to them, but the main problem was still the first one acting as if it was Adam himself. One slash turned into three and blocking all three of them one after the other was enough to send her flying back until her back hit the wall.

"Agh!" Blake cried as she felt her aura crack and flicker.

"Blake!" Yang cried out, eyes turning red as she activated her own semblance.

The shades of Adam all merged back into their host before bursting out and in front of Yang. The first one cut down from over his head, which leads to three other attacks of similar strength crashing down one after the other in less than a second. Yang absorbed it all into her aura and smashed her fist into Adam's side. Adam coughed and for the first time, some actual damage was dealt to him. He rolled along the ground and stopped himself before he hit a wall. He had to hold his sword across his hands and over his head in order to stop Orchid's sword from cutting him in twang. He grits his teeth and easily overpowered the girl, causing her to flip through the air and land gracefully on one of the nearby tables.

"Rargh!" Yang screamed as she sprinted at him. Adam shot his gun at her but his bullets merely bounced off of her aura. To the blonde's surprise, he didn't even try to dodge out of the way as Yang jumped into the air and prepared a massive haymaker. Hell, he didn't even have his sword out, nor was his hand on it. Instead, he crossed his arms above his head and light flashed as red and yellow clashed with each other. Yang's full power attack knocked Adam back several feet, causing him to slide until he hit the wall. He didn't fall, however, not like Yang did when she was blown back by the force of their clash. She spun uncontrollably and would have landed painfully if Orchid didn't catch her.

Red energy crackled around Adam's body as his aura glowed a bright color. His hair grew so bright that it was more white than black in places, and the red was so much more profound. Blake watched with wide eyes as Adam stood, more power within his semblance than ever before.

"I used to need my sword to absorb power, but not anymore. I trained my body and aura to absorb the energy itself when struck rather than relying on Wilt," Adam said as he grabbed the hilt of Wilt. "Now, I only need a catalyst strong enough to handle the outburst of Moonslice."

Blake knew that stance, she knew that look. She knew what was going to happen as the color drained from the world around Adam, black and grey became the only thing that they could see, even from the flames around them. Rose petals rose up from the ground around him and from the red parts of his hair and clothing. When he let out his breath, it came out as a red mist.

Adam roared like a Grimm as he unleashed his semblance. Yang and Orchid looked on in horror as the massive wave of red, black, and white energy slashed toward them as a giant wave at the beach would. They had nowhere to go, nowhere to take cover, all they could do was hope that Yang's semblance was at least equal to Adam's when it came to absorbing power. To her credit, she gave it her best shot, crossing her arms in front of her body and moving Orchid behind her.

She didn't have to try and absorb the blast, it stopped and went right over them just as it was about to hit them.

Yang and Orchid looked up at the wave of power that would have surely killed them if it had hit. Their eyes, wide with shock and now fear, stared at Adam with a mixture of confusion and otherworldly emotions as they stood there, shellshocked after their near-death experience.

Adam sheathed his sword again slowly, looking at the three girls who had just lost their will to fight him, and sighed.

"I trust that you have realized exactly what you are up against now, correct?" Adam asked as he crossed his arms.

"W-what are you…" Blake said as she pushed herself up to her hands and knees. "Adam… why…?"

"You were there when Cinder recruited us," Adam snarled. "Do you really think that I am doing this because I want to? Or because I believe it is best for the faunus? Please, the White Fang no longer fights for the faunus, it fights for Salem."

"Salem?" Blake echoed. "What are you talking about?"

Adam hummed. "You'll figure it out soon, I presume."

"You can't think that this will change anything," Yang pointed out. "You're still going to be hunted for what you did, and nothing is going to change that."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Adam replied, almost bored with the prospect itself.

"You said it yourself, this isn't going to help the faunus at all." Blake continued. "All you are doing today is making the world hate us even more. Fear us, sure, but that will only lead to more war."

"I know that," Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out a scroll. "Sadly, it is much too late to do anything about that. However, out of respect for our past life, Blake, I'll do this much for you."

Blake watched as Adam dialed a number and called. She couldn't hear what the recipient of the call was saying, but what she heard Adam say had her heart skipping multiple beats.

"I am ordering a full-scale retreat from Vale and Beacon, our job is already done here. Everyone scatter and get into the outskirts, right now, they are the safest places to be. If Cinder has a problem with it, she can bitch about it to me herself. She already has what she wants."

He hung up the scroll and just like that, Blake didn't know what to say.

Adam looked at her through his mask and scoffed. He walked through the debris and bodies left in his wake and continued to move past Yang and Orchid. Cardin, who was still slumped by one of the walls, looked up at him with wide eyes as he moved past him and outside of the cafeteria.

Yang and Orchid turned to watch him leave, only to suddenly realize that the entire half of the building that Adam's semblance had struck destroyed it entirely. They looked up and in the sky.

If Adam wished it, he could have killed all three of them. But he was just letting them go, just like that. He hadn't even said anything as he walked off into the chaos on the other side.

"Fuck," Yang said what they were all thinking at that time. "That… just fuck!"

"Does that count as our win?" Orchid asked. "He just ordered the White Fang to retreat… But is that enough?"

"It won't be," Blake said as she limped toward them. "But it'll have to do for now."

"What do we do now?" Yang asked. "Help out Beacon?"

"No…" Blake glanced at Cardin to make sure he was okay, after seeing him past out and unconscious, she looked at where Adam was subtly gesturing too before. "Adam passed a message to me when he scoffed, something that he knew only I would understand. He wants us to go to Beacon's tower."

Yang was about to ask why, but she realized it herself as she remembered her recent discoveries. "Qrow told me that there was a basement there… similar to what Raven told me as well. Do you think…?"

"Ozpin might need all the help he could get," Orchid muttered. "Or at least help to get the hell out of there with his life."

"It's all that we have," Blake said.

"Can we trust him though?"

"If Adam wanted to kill us, we'd all be dead right now." Blake pointed out. "And despite everything… I trust that I know him enough to know that he wouldn't just lead us into a trap. However corrupted he'd become, he never stooped that low."

"Ah," Yang shuddered at the thought of him. "Just thinking about that guy right now is getting to my nerves… but fine, I trust you, so if you say we should go, let's go."

I know, I know, I left out the rematch between Amber and Cinder from this chapter. But don't worry, the next chapter is already completely planned out and in just a few days you guys will see what is happening there. As the Volume 3 finale of this story, that one is probably going to be the longest. Wish me luck for that one.