The Nevermore's scream heralded the squall of darkness descending from the treeline. Beowolves, Ursa, Creeps, the gleaming golden stingers of Deathstalkers hanging and bobbing over the masses. They marched on like an army of demons, with only four enemies in their sights. Maybe three. Caspian pulled Undertow from its sheath, and heard Lilly and Rowan preparing their weapons behind him. Noxis looked back to the three of them, and ahead again at the Grimm.
"I need to get my bat."
Another screech from above rattled Caspian's eardrums, and cut off any protest he could offer Noxis before he took off. Caspian watched the sharp lines of his jacket soften through the mist of Lilly's semblance, decided further debate was a lost cause, and analyzed the situation.
The Grimm had already reached the dust-infused gate, and the first line of cavalry began to fall. The charge gave out after them, and the next line clambered through black mist rising from the bodies of their fallen. The Nevermore dipped ten, twenty feet from its place above, but took off again on a beat of its wings. The calming haze enshrouding them probably discouraged it. He'd keep an eye on the winged giant, but the more pressing threat was the horde in its wake.
Steel twisted and clicked into place until Undertow's soft blue glow announced its readiness to fire. Rowan's bursts of wild crimson energy punctuated Caspian's bullets and beams, and pierced through flames born from Elysian Bloom. They thinned the Grimm's numbers by about half, at least of the first wave. Over their shoulders, the second stormed the gate.
A Beowolf at the vanguard leapt, and Undertow stretched into a cutlass.
Caspian tumbled aside from five-inch claws to let a spire of ice impale the beast. He sprung into another, taking one arm at the elbow with his blade and barely holding the other off with his armguard. He dug Undertow between bony ribs and kicked the beast away before jaws could snap shut on his head, and finished it with a pair of shots.
A Creep was next. He'd always hated Creeps. Grimm were never pleasant to look at, but Creeps looked like an unfinished samping of spare Grimm parts. Awkward to fight, too. Their chunks of armor seemed dispersed at random across their back, making a clean cut difficult. Their stomachs were unprotected, but low enough to the ground that if you could actually hit them, you ran the risk of being pinned to the concrete and torn apart by the jaws of an alligator. He was grateful when Lilly finished it off with a spike of ice from below. Running in circles and firing into its back wasn't making the progress he'd hoped.
A call rattled his wrist. Urgent. His eyes flashed around the scene to scan for immediate danger. In that second, at least, Lilly and Rowan had the Grimm distracted.
"Hello? Bad time!"
"Are you the leader of Team CRLN?"
Caspian put two holes through the head of an oncoming Ursa. It stumbled forward into a torrent of flame. "Yeah? Why?"
"We got a Nevermore at the docks! We're gonna need you guys!"
Rowan blocked an Ursa's swipe with the flat of his blade. He pushed out, using his momentum to become a whirlwind of crimson steel. When he stopped, an arm was on the ground and three parallel gashes in the beast's gut settled its fate. "It's just androids here, right?"
"We've got-" The Nevermore's scream interrupted, from a distance and over the line almost in synchrony. "We've got a crew of twelve docked from Vale, we need help!"
Caspian cursed under his breath, head swiveling between the ship that rocked beneath the Nevermore's talons as it passed by, the door Noxis just disappeared through, and the torrent of oncoming Grimm. "Got it. On the way." He closed the call, and looked up to Lilly and Rowan. "You two, head on over. I'll wait here for Noxis."
"You can't take them alone!" Lilly protested.
"I'm not letting him out of my sight," Caspian muttered, shoving a thumb toward the door. "Not any further, at least. He's probably trying to sneak off somewhere. And if he is telling the truth, he'll be out to help me soon."
The Nevermore's screech cut off Lilly's reply. She looked back at it, sighed, and folded her hands to drive Elysian Bloom's tip to the pavement. Cold wind tousled her feathered hair as all the air's moisture coalesced into a wall of jagged blocked the path between two stacks of shipping containers and rose almost to their height before the glow of her parasol's cover faded, and an empty dust cartridge clinked across the pavement.
"This should hold them off, at least for a bit. Please be safe. There's no shame in running."
Caspian nodded, with a noise somewhere near an affirmation. "Thanks. You two be safe too."
The cargo ship rocked as the Nevermore's six-foot talons shredded the steel of its deck.
Water spilled up and over the dock as the ship sunk low and bounced on all of its buoyancy. As it rocked back toward them the corner carved a gash in the ship's hull. The river flowed inside, subduing the errant motion but clutching it and pulling it beneath its inky surface.
The Nevermore circled around and perched on a stack of containers. It sunk its talons into the top of the stack and heaved itself up with a tenacious beating of its wings. Cords and clasps blew in each direction and the crate broke from the rest.
Lilly and Rowan watched from the cargo receiving zone in petrified awe as the Nevermore lifted it twenty, thirty feet from its perch. It screamed again, and as it heaved into the sky the crate hurtled into the bridge. The top-right corner buckled under the immense force, windows shattering to powder as the crate reduced the control room to rubble and tumbled down the opposite side. It crashed into the stern once more for good measure before landing in the river with a splash that washed over the deck.
"I sure hope no one was in there..." Rowan muttered.
Lilly grimaced, but an intent nod replaced the look. "I'm going to get it's attention on us."
"On us?" Rowan repeated, looking to the winged demon with horror in his eyes.
"It's us, or the twelve in the ship," Lilly asserted. "And we're the ones with weapons."
Rowan wrung his blade's haft, but committed to a nod. "Alright. Go ahead."
A haze rose over the river, first flowing on the breeze, then thickening, rising to circle the ship. The Nevermore lifted its assault, gliding over the river aimlessly. From a hundred feet up, four eyes the size of basketballs snapped to them.
Lilly watched its approach, golden sparks dancing around Elysian Bloom's open cover. The crimson around Rowan's weapon flickered and sparked, mounting in intensity before it gathered past the barrel and burst forth. The blast sunk where wing met body, in synchrony with a wild spark from Lilly that landed further toward the tip. The Nevermore faltered only slightly. It folded its wings, and descended like a falcon.
The two flung themselves to each side of the concrete splintering beneath giant talons. They curled with arms and weapons above their heads to shield against a rain of shrapnel. The ruptured ground and hurricane winds left the two at their mercy, rolling and slamming into jagged stone. The two were slow to their feet, and assessed their auras before looking back to the monstrosity.
"We won't beat it up close," Lilly recognized, brushing a stone fragment off her shoulder. Her eyes landed on the surface of the river, then flicked back to Rowan. "I have an idea. Let's get to the water!"
"Huh? Sure, yeah!"
The two stepped over the ripped, flattened chain link fence and onto the grass by the bank of the river. Lilly posted at the bottom of the slight decline, where grass turned to gravel shore. The Nevermore rounded the destroyed bridge. "Wait for it to get over the water. When it does, go all out on its wing. Whichever is closest!"
They didn't have to wait long. The winged demon sent them across the ground again, at first to evade, then tumbling on another rush of wind and debris. It lifted and banked right, turning again toward the ship.
"Now!" Lilly commanded. She whirled Elysian Bloom in front of herself as Rowan's weapon charged. A twisting jolt of concentrated lightning sprung from the parasol, coursing through a black wing and dropping the monster halfway to the water.
Rowan's beam was off the mark, far above and a little behind. "Damn it," he muttered, watching it fizzle out into the night past the recovering Nevermore.
"It's alright. Focus, and try again," Lilly assured. The flapping of the Nevermore's wings was uneasy and labored as it first gained some distance, then turned to face the two. "Go for the left wing. I think we're leaving a dent."
The shadow's beak opened wide as its wings, and it let out another ear-rattling cry on its descent. It was still about a hundred feet out, but near enough considering its wingspan was half that. Lilly and Rowan held steady, focusing their blasts on the same spot a quarter of the way across its left wing. This time, Rowan's met its mark. The two blasts combined in an explosion of energy that rippled the water's surface dozens of feet below. Great wings flapped desperately, but the beast fell into the water with a massive splash that again rocked the sinking container ship.
Lilly walked to the water's edge, sinking Elysian Bloom's tip below the surface and inundating the river with lightning dust until the Nevermore stopped thrashing. A sinister black fog rose from the water's surface.
"We did it!" Rowan cheered. "Dude, you were amazing!"
"Our quickest and most obvious escape route is cut off," was Lilly's reply. "If we don't figure something out soon, we're trapped here with Condor." She opened a screen from her Holoband. "I'm calling Mr. Verdi. We need to get out of here."
Snarls and shrieks of mounting frustration cried out from the black forms blurred by Lilly's wall of ice. Caspian's thumb left streaks of sweat back and forth across a groove in Undertow's handle as he waited to find out which would come first: Noxis, or the Grimm. The sound of something heavy striking the other side of the wall and a growing spiderweb fracture answered.
Another crash, and a Deathstalker's claw poked through the gap. It scraped the far side and flung chunks of ice from around the created hole, forging a path big enough for the van-sized scorpion to squeeze through. It scampered up to the frozen huntsman-in training with its piercing screech and flung a claw the size of its target's torso. He vaulted over it and was surprised to land on his feet, but had the brief moment of satisfaction shattered by a back-handed claw to his ribs.
He tumbled across damp ground at the Deathstalker's mercy, barely scrambling to his feet before it was upon him. He sidestepped a stinger that left a pit in the pavement, and slashed twice at the tail. His first strike cleaved halfway through, but his second bounced off a bony plate. He leapt back to gain a bit of distance from stinger and claws, just enough to assess the enemy and transform Undertow. He glanced at the Beowolves pouring in through the hole before aiming his gun and halting the Deathstalker's approach with a bullet through three of its eyes.
They were just a warning. A swarm began pouring in through the cracks that grew with each nightmarish form that snarled and clawed its way forward. Caspian looked to the horde, to the injured Deathstalker, to the King Taijitu slithering up and over the container to his right.
The grip on Undertow was getting loose with sweat, and his quivering fingers were having trouble grasping it.
He thought a cannon fired next to him. His head swiveled and ducked beneath his armguard as he looked past the barrel of his weapon. The source was Noxis, nearly blowing the door off its hinge on his way out. The faunus knocked Caspian to his back foot when he sprinted past, flattening the head of a Creep with Renegade and slinging the bat into the claw of the Deathstalker Caspian had fought. Bony fragments and a pair of shotgun blasts took out its remaining eyes, and its stinger wobbled aimlessly on a half-cut tail as it staggered around in pain. Renegade shifted back again as Noxis squared up to bash it off like an inverted tee ball, straight into the neck of an oncoming Ursa.
His wild eyes flashed over his shoulder, reflecting the bloody glow within a Beowolf's jaws. He stopped it with a hand encased in his semblance, and wrung the beast's neck.. A shotgun blast rang out, and its head was lost to a red mist.
A realization struck Caspian, that it was the first time he'd ever seen Noxis fight Grimm. At least more than a couple of Beowolves. In that moment, he couldn't decide which terrified him more.
Noxis dropped the remainder of the Beowolf's body to his side. "You gonna help, or stand there?" he snapped.
"R-Right!" Caspian confirmed with a sharp nod. He aimed his gun toward the crack in the ice, and fired at each beast that broke through. Fighting side by side with Noxis felt odd– what was perhaps even more odd was the fact he felt that way about a member of his team. But the two made a surprisingly good pair, between Caspian's paralyzing bullets, and Noxis's vicious hybrid between bat-wielder and beast. They thinned the horde in just a minute or two, allowing Caspian time to answer Mr. Verdi's third attempt at a call.
"Caspian. You alright?"
"So far."
"Lilly let me know what's up. I'm headed over," he said. "This isn't the mission we signed up for. We don't need any of you dying today, so if you encounter the Red Claw's Heads, do NOT engage them. I've already contacted the Headmaster. We've got androids and huntsmen on the way."
"Got it. We'll meet you by the HyperLine station," Caspian returned. He ended the call.
Noxis shook his head. "We're not going that way."
"Why not?" Caspian questioned. He didn't yet commit Undertow to its sheath.
"The first Grimm came from that direction, meaning Condor must've come in on the HyperLine. He probably dropped a payload off the back of it, that's what blew the track. We should stay as far away from that area as possible. Let's warn Pierce, and regroup with the other two."
"Kind of weird you want us to get away from the guy who can help us," Caspian jabbed. It was true Noxis just finished tearing apart the Creatures of Grimm his boss sprung on them. But it was a little too easy for him– easy enough it might have all been one big performance.
"You have to trust me on this," Noxis insisted. "I'm not trying to pull something on you, I'm trying to get us all out of here alive. If we run into Condor, you'll be flying back home in six pieces."
"You're afraid of him, aren't you?" Caspian sneered. "He shouldn't be an issue for someone as all-powerful as you!"
"Now is when you decide to start grandstanding? Are you serious?!" Noxis shouted back. "He's probably not the only one! Sable's probably here– Python, too. And even if he was alone, you haven't fought anyone like him. He could kill us both without breaking a sweat. We're not going that way."
"I told Pierce I'm meeting him there, so I'm going," Caspian decided. He waved away, in the direction Noxis had begun to split. "If you wanna go meet with your Red Claw buddies, by all means!"
"Gods, you're an idiot. If I live on knowing these are the last words you ever heard, it'll be fine with me. You're an idiot. Take that shit to the grave for all I care."
Noxis turned toward Lilly and Rowan, caving in a Beowolf's skull for good measure on the way out. Caspian walked opposite, into that strange darkness stirring in the air. The Sun had just set and the sky was still a work of art, broad strokes of reddish-orange washing over an indigo backdrop. But on the ground, it was night. He didn't know why. But his mind wouldn't let him forget it, and an itching, creeping paranoia gnawed at him.
He would have thought all he felt would draw the demons to him. Like Noxis said, his misery was like a beacon. But the horde of Beowolves passed him by. They tore through the shipyard, snarling and huffing like the hounds of a demonic hunter.
The two domed buildings were the last obstacle between himself and the HyperLine station. Each looked bigger on the ground than from the air– at least a hundred feet wide, and just as tall. They looked like the upper half of two gigantic eggs sticking out of the ground, protected by an exoskeleton of steel mesh. Webbed shadows cast around the area, born of the gentle glow from within.
Caspian rounded the corner to pass between them, but found someone in the space between. Not Mr. Verdi. Definitely not him, considering the hulk in his path had to be over a foot taller than their huntsman shadow. His muscle, built onto an already stocky figure, didn't look real– more like something out of a fitness magazine or a movie. It had to have been sculpted, professionally, for years. He had a black buzzcut, and narrow, beady eyes that flicked to him before he turned to reveal the Red Claw symbol on the chest of his open jacket.
"You here with Wolf?" the hulk grunted.
"Yeah…" Caspian answered, taking a slow, measured step back and renewing his clutch on Undertow. This didn't look like the average Red Claw member. Noxis had mentioned a 'Sable' earlier, and Caspian was willing to bet it was the man before him. "What are you doing here?"
"We just want to have a little chat with him," he claimed. "Maybe clear up a… misunderstanding."
Caspian whipped Undertow past his armguard, a display he wasn't even sure would be intimidating to himself. "You're gonna have to get through me first."
The hulk shook his head. "One chance to run. Not here for you."
Caspian swallowed a lump in his throat, and sprinted dead ahead. It reminded him of running toward the Bullfiend during the entrance ceremony. No plan, not caring whether he lived or died. Maybe he'd win again by some fluke. Or maybe he'd hold him off just long enough for Mr. Verdi, an actual huntsman, to arrive. He didn't necessarily want to die. But if it happened, it happened. Maybe he'd be remembered as a hero.
But if he lived, he didn't want to continue as himself. He wanted to start living as someone else. Someone new. Someone who wasn't afraid of honesty, or Grimm, or life itself. If he didn't die, maybe that new person would be born.
He slashed twice across the wall of rippling muscle protecting Sable's stomach. The Head stood still, watching and allowing the attacks to land. If his enemy couldn't be bothered to fight back, he'd just have to keep up his unassuming assault until he found a chance to take him by surprise, and–
The wrist of Caspian's attacking hand was stopped by the crushing grip of a hand twice the size of his own, encased in clawed gauntlets of black steel. He grimaced against the feeling of his wrist bones re-arranging, but the pain was forgotten when he took a steam-powered jab full of daggers to his gut. A plume of cobalt aura burst forth from the hit, a hint at how much he had lost in a split second of agony.
A drawn-out cry, somewhere half between a scream and a grunt, erupted from his mouth. He hunched over the hit, and a boot to his shoulder propelled him into the side of the dome. Glass shattered behind him, but he found Undertow still somehow in his grasp. He ducked under another swing that twisted and tore at the structure's steel frame with a horrific clamor, jabbing Undertow into Sable's gut and rolling away from a response.
He held his gun in both shaky hands, taking aim and firing. Of the three he got off, two hit, with only the slightest flinch to let him know his target felt it. Sable lowered his head and a shoulder, and shot toward Caspian faster than he thought a body that big would move. He yelped in surprise, raising his armguard to the bladed strike. It caught on his tiny shield, twisting and shredding the steel he knew could hold off an Ursa's claws. A blast of steam propelled the blades through in an explosion of force, throwing shards of his own armor into Caspian's face. He felt sharp, cold steel tear past his skin, and saw the last of his aura fizzle out from elbow to wrist.
Sable clutched the petrified huntsman's collar. He slammed him first to the ground. Twice. Then shattered the other dome with his back. Caspian forgot which was up and down, until the glass fragments scraping his spine reminded him. He heaved himself onto his side, and crawled feebly away from Sable on one elbow and a knee. Each of his wounds ached and burned, accompanying the oppressive throb of his head.
"You probably should have taken the chance I gave you, little hero," Sable taunted. He extended his gauntlets' claws and followed slowly, as if he reveled in Caspian's dread. He scoffed. "What are they even teaching you kids at Sentinel?"
He had engaged the Red Claw Head indifferent to whether he lived or died. But on the cement, crawling helplessly away from death, he realized. The pain of death far eclipsed all of life's passive suffering. The fear of it– of silence, becoming a waning memory and a handful of pictures, and finally nothing; he realized the presence of his fear meant a desire to continue. A desire to stop running, stop hiding, and face life in all of its joys and sorrows. Or at least try.
He only hoped it wasn't too late.
The wind beneath a Nevermore's wings tousled Noxis' hair as it tore past. The raven, twice the size of an eagle, glided around in a crescent motion until it mounted atop an abandoned forklift. It chattered and ruffled its feathers, beady crimson eyes flicking down to its winged falconer.
Noxis's eyes went wide and his body rigid, tail tucking next to his leg. He swallowed, and finally dared to look up to the black wings stretching before him.
"Hello, Wolf."