The buzzing drone of wings filled the air, one particularly powerful set sending waves of dirt and ash through the empty space around him and back out the hole Kad smashed through in the wall of Beacon's dining hall. The death clouds of Grimm smoke billowing in blinding both he and his enemies from each other's sights.
Already Kad was twisting, moving his broad chest out of the way of the red stinger aiming to split him in two. The giant spun and Ignis sang through the air again in a back handed cut. Cracking bones and burning through Grimm flesh in the shadows trying to hide from the early morning light. The crunch of breaking concrete and a hiss of frustration from the Lancer Queen told the giant where to move next.
His black boots hit the ground and Kad launched backwards, pressing against the taunt appendage. Using the Queen's own natural weapon to sling himself forward.
Ignis flashed gutting the monster bug flying above him its pained squeals deafeningly loud, racking his eardrums like knives on glass. Kad spun in midair. Too late to bring his great sword to back to bear his left hand curled into a fist and smashed through a Beringel's face and knocked its head from its shoulders as the Grimm charged to meet him.
Kad then looped that arm around the creature's slowly dissolving corpse by the broad shoulders, swinging it to block and trip the rush of other Daemons trying to exploit his blind spot as the death smoke cleared somewhat. From above little thunder beats rolled beneath the many wings of screeching juvenile Nevermore, cackling Griffons, and more slavering Lancers. All the while howls echoed from the burnt abandoned buildings outside. A tiny smirk of satisfaction crossed Kad's face having successfully captured the attention of every single creature on campus. Quickly he drew a red Dust crystal from inside his coat. Crushed it, pulsed his semblance and let loose a torrent of flames incinerating the rest of the dining hall along with every last flight capable Grimm on the campus before resuming his violent sprint through the grounds towards the Emerald Forest launch pads.
Counting at least four Goliath's from the sound of their roars and the ground shaking footfalls pursuing him Kad knew he would have to deal with those personally. While the hundreds of other Grimm of what kinds he could only imagine would require someone else's attention.
His boots hammered onto the cobblestone paths, punching deep ruts in the dew soaked grass both already torn to shreds by the Grimm horde infesting Beacon. They were only structures, he knew this. But seeing the school like this, nothing more than a Grimm's squatting grounds dug sorrow into his stomach. He remembered all the days spent here, every corner and turn through the buildings he knew by heart. He heard the whispered voices of absent and betrayed friends echoing from the shadows of his mind. Calling back to simpler days.
A feeling of nostalgia which quickly turned back to a burning need…
Most of the gathered Hunters, Atlesian Military officers, and just curious passersby had some thought to complain again about the meeting circle's singular choice of seating being seven different flavor of broken concrete, if only for a minute. It was another momentous day in their campaign against the Grimm under the greying skies. The Huntsman was about to reveal their next step.
"We are going to take back Beacon," Kad told them,
A simple statement, an easy idea to visualize. The body language of the gathered youths spoke their response. Nods, looks to their comrades, a few smiles. A few frowns.
"Alright," Raven began, standing amidst the front row of faces slightly to the giant's right "How?"
"Simply…"Kad answered with that single word,
After a moment of silence with her arms crossed Raven gave up, raised and then lowered her right hand up with fingers splayed.
"Simply what?" She asked,
"That's it. Beacon has a pest problem, so we are simply going to get rid of the Grimm."
"…That still doesn't explain anything," The dark Huntress bemoaned,
Kad gave a quick rumble of laughter, "Step one. I get up the cliffs to draw the Grimm out to the edge."
His left arm jutted out as an immovable iron bar, knocking four Beowolves head over heels as they first crashed into that slab of flesh and then each other.
The last traces of Humanity and Beacon before the launch pads had ended many steps ago. It was all torn shrubbery, snapped trees and gored ground now around Kad and his foes. The wolves behind him began to rise and untangle themselves from their comedy of flailing claws and upended feet.
Kad spun Ignis behind him up in a sweeping circle.
The Grimm caught fire.
Aura and Dust creating a spontaneous combustion with a piece of Kad's will and strength, the Grimm's greasy black fur burned quickly. Blinded by pain and no small amount of fear as they felt their very existence start to smolder the creatures ran headlong off the cliff. Soon dead long before they splattered on the ground.
The horde of minor Grimm still in hot pursuit scrambled to a halt just out of reach from the Ignis's edge. The Huntsman went into a ready crouch, looking across the rows of red eyes and white death masks flicking back and forth between their kindred kinds. Snarling and waiting for one of them to make the first move.
Or biding time until the four Goliath's Kad spied reached them.
Perfectly acceptable,
"Then we push them off the cliffs. Simple."
The looks spread across the groups told Kad they thought it was going to be anything but simple.
The Primarch continued, "There are seven commercial airliners still functioning in the port. Those things can take a beating. The Atlesians say we even have some weapons we could mount on the ramps. Machine guns, missile pods and Dust projectors."
He brought his hands up, the left with palm turned up where he placed his right hand vertically. Palm facing toward himself, which he then pushed forward off the tip of his left hand.
"Simple," Kad said again.
Jaune Arc sat at the front of the crowd of students, he and his team to the left of team RWBY and the Huntress Raven. Jaune was the first to spot an obvious hole in the giant's plan.
"Alright, how are you getting up the cliff? Airship?" Jaune asked,
"No," Kad answered, "I don't want them to hear us coming. I will climb."
Jaune blinked in surprise, "The whole cliff?"
"Yes," Kad reaffirmed with a nod of his head, "Should only take me,"
"Too long any way you slice it," Another raspy male voice interjected, "The Grimm could spot you and attack. Or you might just be tired enough once you ascend for the creatures to find an opening."
The Marshal Huntsman of Vale Szary Wilde, battered and beaten from having a building dropped on him not so recently, but very much alive was sat on a toppled column to the giant's left. The old bureaucrat's filthy red coat draped over his shoulders as he could not fit the sling his right arm was bound in through the sleeve. Sheathed longsword leaning on his left leg with its brass wrapped hilt. His other borrowed drab functional clothes a wrinkled and stained mess just like his unwashed grey hair.
A similar condition to the array of Hunters and Huntresses behind him, Professor Goodwitch among them sitting directly on the man's left. Proper graduated and certified Grimm slayers to the bone. A selection of old friends and acquaintances to varying degrees Szary had deemed the most experienced and venerable out all the Hunters who had come to aid the city acting as his eyes, ears and hands as the Marshal recovered.
Most of them had spent the battle fighting the Grimm out in the forests while the students and Atlesians defended the city. Yet a handful had passed through Beacon before it fell and made their way to the destroyed police station and got to work. Finally excavating the Marshal in the stormy hours of the morning,
Confirming the deaths of Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck as well.
Revealing themselves to the triumphant youths on the second day after Kad slew the dragon. Szary had spent the better part of the campaign to secure the city slipping in and out of consciousness. Taking in information in his brief moments of clarity, offering suggestions, and his own information such as supply caches, clearance codes to access weapons platforms and logistical strategies. Kad sat with him when he could, though those moments were sparse with his constant need to guide his fellows and the Marshal's poor health. Some modicum of respect had flourished between the two.
So Kad answered, "We will lose the element of surprise if we just fly up. I don't want another straight battle."
The Marshall nodded, "Yet I don't see how you are going to scale those rocks," he paused to draw breath, only to be wracked by a sudden fit of coughing. Short violent wet bursts of air forced from his mouth into a clenched fist.
After a moment's silence he found his voice, "Without being detected and attacked before you wish to be. Grimm have very keen senses. Especially around their nests."
Jaune found himself nodding in agreement, "He's got a point," The young swordsman said before standing up, "I guess if we want Beacon back,"
"Yes, yes," Kad said trying to wave down further disruptive discourse with a swift patting motion of both hands, "However if when choosing between two unsound options both prove to be equally unviable there is no need to settle between one or the other."
"What do you mean," Jaune asked,
"It's called plan C,"
"I haven't got all day," Kad taunted the beasts, "Come on,"
Speaking as well into the communication bead set within his right eardrum,
A new dull ringing rose to drown out the subtle one deep within Kad's ears. He knew that sound, and the shade of shadow from the portal growing to loom behind him. The giant let himself smile at the frustrated barks and snaps of teeth as he stepped backwards.
The world disappeared in a nauseating swirl of black and red streaks. It felt as if he were floating. Only for a moment before his boots struck the ground again. Grinding the loose rocks beneath his heels between the two cracked pillars that were once the archway marking the path to the Emerald forest from the grounds of Beacon.
Behind the horde of Grimm.
Behind the Goliaths.
Next to his team.
Team APRC,
Four strong once again.
Co'Balt walked out into the light from behind the stone pillar on Kad's left, spinning his shotgun ax in a lazy circle. Genuinely looking forward to the violence about to commence, savoring the moment of a trap successfully sprung.
Alicia quickly jumped to Kad's right, head down digging through the drawstring bag filled with Dust crystals draped over her own right shoulder. The familiar messenger bag of his draped loosely on her left. The dagger on her belt catching and reflecting an errant ray of rising sunlight.
Finally a lithe shadow passed over the three of them, landing in a crouch and cloud of flying dirt before her new teammates. Her spread of blades in black and green rising like a fan of razor edges and nearly invisible wire. The little girl from the North, Atlas' most ambitious project in history, Penny Poledina.
Plus one more.
The one in shadow who had brought the four Hunters to this place, Raven Branwen.
"You're crazy! Hell! No!"
"Co'Balt, we talked about this," Kad said looming over his Faunus teammate.
"And I still don't care," Co'Balt retorted, "I don't trust her,"
Raven did not rise to defend herself. Arms crossed and eyes rolling at Co'Balt's tirade. Still stood immobile with her left leg raised up on the green boards of a little park bench at the back of their abandoned fortress of the Vytal festival stadium. Next to which they had grounded all the massive civilian airships they had gotten working and armed to an extent, more than enough vessels to transport the young army to their goal.
Co'Balt continued pacing back and forth between the dark Huntress, and team RWBY towards the stadium. And his own team in addition to a few choice others towards the south.
"Besides," Co'Balt continued, "Why are you even considering this? Since when have you given a shit about what Ozpin lite says?"
"Since the Marshal had a point," Kad answered, "...One anyway. It will be fine,"
Co'Balt rounded on Raven stabbing a single accusing finger at her, "As long as you don't teleport him into the stratosphere…"
In reply Raven simply closed her eyes, shrugged and beckoned Co'Balt to form his own return with an upraised palm. A gesture that immediately set the blood of both Co'Balt Alicia boiling. Kad sensed the collective bristle from his teammates,
"It's alright guys," The giant said, raising his own left hand to halt any potential outburst, "The best way to earn trust, is to show trust."
With that Kad moved his left hand up to the hilt of Ignis sticking over the same shoulder and drew a blade. Not the massive Dust sword he had made many months ago, but a new blade. Or rather a reforged blade.
The long deep maroon single edged curving Odachi Kad had took from Raven,. Made whole once again by those same two hands that once snapped it clean in two. He took a long sweeping swing of the blade running a critical eye over the fused metal one last time.
Raven blinked in surprise, her iron mask softening for half a heartbeat before she grunted, "Hmmph, you work fast."
Indeed he had, having fixed the blade overnight during one of Raven's hour long power naps she took instead of having what most would call a normal sleep cycle. Kad flipped and caught the sword by the blade and offered the beaded hilt down. Raven took it in a palm of her fingerless gloves.
Refusing to thank him as she laid the sword back across her right shoulder.
Kad paid the choice no mind, turning to the others surrounding them,
"Everyone load up and wait for my signal," He told the Hunters,
Jaune raised a hand, "What kind of signal?"
"You know me. It'll be something… Firey."
An agreement now reached a line of nods proceeded the group's turn to the direction of their airfield and said ships waiting there. Moving as one as in all things now, their capabilities continuously tuned to a fine point of cooperation and almost preternatural reaction. Any doubts and questions to be assuredly overcome or moved aside behind their unity. But a handful stayed right where they were. Namely Alicia, Co'Balt and the two other girls Raven and Penny.
Co'Balt turned towards Penny, rubbing the brown tip of his left horn in that same hand warily. She gave him a beaming smile and a short salute of her right hand to her brow. Eager to please, eager to prove herself to her new teammates.
"I am combat ready partner!" She said with a smile.
The Faunus huffed, unamused, "Try to keep up."
The two of them moved to follow their other comrades. And Just as Kad took a single step forward Alicia reached up and tapped two fingers on the back of the giant's left hand.
"Can we talk for a second," Alicia asked,
Kad cast an eye at Raven. She turned around and started walking leaving the two partners be.
The Huntsman looked down, "What is it?"
"Let me come with you," Alicia said, before blinking and trying to correct her intent, "I mean, let us come with you. Me, Co'Balt, Penny."
"Absolutely not," Kad shot back immediately.
"Why?" She asked back, "Are you trying to prove something?"
"No, I'm trying to keep you all from being slaughtered in a straight slug fest."
"I know that, but why are you doing it?"
Kad's planned riposte caught in his throat, "…What do you mean?"
The girl sighed, "Your little noble stunt here. Charging into a nest of Grimm single handedly. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"No. I'm not trying to get myself killed," He replied in a near drone, feeding her words back.
Alicia didn't believe him, not for a second. "It's enough already Kad. Come on. We know you're sorry for what happened. What you did. But you don't have to prove anything else."
"Maybe not to you,"
For a moment, Alicia attempted to adopt a neutral expression, hearing something in Kad's words that stung at her heart and made her next breath come between trembling lips, "Well doesn't that matter?"
"…If it was just you and me," Kad softly replied, "But it's not."
"Then what else?" Alicia asked, her brief sense of relief washed behind more concerns, "Who do you need to prove yourself to? The council, they're all dead. Or there aren't any left who'd bat an eye about you now. Even the Marshal came around, sorta..."
Kad shook his head, "There's always tomorrow Alicia. And I don't know what it might bring, how many people will be angry still."
"Well… I just," Alicia let out a deep sigh, "I just want to know if you plan on being there to see this tomorrow?"
"As what? King Kad? Sounds ridiculous… Is that what you want?"
The slight built Huntress paused for a moment, "…I don't know. Just why don't you think things could be better? Are you going to talk to anyone about what you're going through?"
The giant chuckled slightly, ignoring her for a moment and trying to bury his real emotions, "Lord Amaranth, that's not bad."
"Kad…" Alicia growled,
The giant looked away, out over the darkened buildings to the cliffs and their prize sitting on top. Tauntingly looming over the city.
"I know Ali. It's just… I'm just dealing with a lot of things right now," Kad told her before asking, "We can always talk later, but for now. Leave me be…"
Defeat weighing on her shoulders Alicia gave her partner a slow nod, "Fine," She said, "Let's go then."
The Goliaths let out their deafening cries of confusion. Trampling the creatures at their feet trying to circle and face the little group of Hunters. Tusks cracking against one another in their haste.
Alicia produced four light blue crystals from one bag. Kad reached down for the other satchel.
It rose to meet his bandaged fingers.
So quickly he almost tore the bag in two Kad transferred his grip to the left and took the mystic crystal from the nest of shirts. Beams of light snaked between the wrapped digits of his right hand. He braced himself for the energy about to surge into him, ready to speak and give the word to start the plan to divert that catastrophic flood of power he was painfully all to familiar with. The rest of team APRC was already in motion.
Penny held her palms up, Alicia quickly tossed the four crystals into them. With her augmented strength the ginger girl threw the shards high into the air. Alicia drew her slender blade to focus her mind. Curling the index and middle fingers on her raised right hand up towards the sky.
Co'Balt aimed and fired four shotgun blasts in the time it took to blink. Bursting the ice Dust into a fine mist which laced the circling red glyph his teammate had conjured.
Finally Kad brought the crystal as high as he could and then smashed it down into his waiting left hand. Gently stepping in the edge of the abyss he knew was waiting feeling for the chords of control he sought. A blast of cold emanated from the giant Huntsman. Four shining meteors of elemental fury cascaded down from the glyphs and crash on the backs of the Goliath skulls.
No one could discern which ear splitting crunch was bone or exploding ice. The monstrously proportioned Grimm had a mere moment to make a quickly silenced noise of pain or surprise as their Neverborn souls fled from the dying vessels. Crushing down on even more of the hundreds of other forms behind them baying for blood as the growing could threatened to reach lethally low temperatures. Blocking the majority from reaching the small squad,
As one team APRC readied their blades to give the Grimm the proper welcome to Beacon that they had missed strolling up the unguarded path from Emerald Forest.
The snarls and howls of the cornered beasts turned from spurned frustration into an unbelieving silence. Seeing the trap they had so blindly charged into in their lust for blood and glory.
When the morning sun bathing their dark hides was swallowed by the shadows of five airships rising from below eye level above the edge of the cliffs. Their boarding doors opened with the Atlesian stationary weapons sticking out like cannons readying for a broadside, and the army of Hunters stood in ranks upon their backs aiming down into the horde.
Which proceeded to do the only logical thing.
Charge Team APRC in full force.
One ship raised its four wings safely up into the air in a vertical stand. Down it went like a rock, plowing through the Grimm like the world's biggest bulldozer. Those it crushed no more than a trail of black smoke rising from its wake. Saved from one form of death by another as many, many more creatures were pushed from their cliff to a certain doom that awaited them at the end of a short flight.
Another followed suit soon after its comrade was clear. Hundreds of bullets, a fusillade of Atlesian rockets and energy beams were shot into the surviving Grimm in the seconds when an airship wasn't in their line of fire.
Team APRC spent more time killing the out runners than their comrades took to commit wholesale slaughter on every last Grimm in in the school. Metal sang one last time as Penny's web of swords cut the final Ursa in half at the waist spinning left to right.
Then silence settled back over the day in the wake of the violence done.
But with his red sword raised Kad confirmed their triumph with a victory cry of,
"Beacon is ours!"
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A/N Well to avoid another year long hiatus... Yeet!
Chapter was going to be a lot longer and have a quote I'm sure a certain someone would appreciate. But well hear I am and off I go.
Share if you care, review as you do. Gonna get this next bit done and then do a chapter of 375-13. Did I say that already? Fuck it...