Chapter 82: Horsemanbowl

Who can win in a battle where no one's on the same side?

Cinder had devoted her entire life to becoming the strongest huntress in Mistral…nay, in the world. Every waking moment had been spent training, practicing, improving, perfecting her body, mind and semblance until they were both lethal weapons of the highest order. To this end, she'd hunted down and slaughtered every type of Grimm known to man, brought in criminals that had escaped warriors twice her age, and aced every mission she'd ever been assigned with flying colors, all before her very own graduation.

And now, her headmaster, a man she once trusted like the father she never had, second most valued mentor in her life only to Rhodes, had just revealed himself to have been working with the enemy all along. Spiders, Grimm – he'd sided with every type of monster that Cinder had been trained to stop. Every memory she had of devoting her time and energy to whatever task he offered her was now corrupted.

His death will be slow.

Before that, though, the first order of business was to rescue the two kids that were in trouble. She recognized one of them as young Ruby Rose, the fifteen-year-old prodigy who'd stood up to Cinder back in the tournament, only to be brutally maimed twice over in the same night. Cinder regretted her own involvement in the first incident involving Rose's legs, even if it had been purely unintentional. The other kid was some boy she didn't recognize, who somewhat reminded her of a well-built tree stump. It didn't matter who they were, though; it was clear that they were victims here.

And tonight, Cinder would get to be the hero.

With a raise of her hands, waves of indiscriminate fire lit various portions of the grand hall ablaze – wooden beams, floorboards, tapestries, even some of the human enemy's clothes. It would make things exponentially more dangerous for everyone, but Cinder was at home in the flames. She was outnumbered, so changing the terrain to her advantage was the only way that she could come out of this alive. It also placed a timer on the fight; if, for some unholy reason, Cinder failed, then the weakened structural integrity would bring down the entire roof and kill everyone, preventing Lionheart and his dark army from living to tell the tale.

Four arrows dispatched the four Spiders holding the bronze haired boy and Rose with finer precision than a trained sniper. Another killed Lil' Miss Malachite, piercing her corpulent throat just below the chin. It was the end of the most wanted woman in the city, but Cinder had no time to celebrate her accomplishment. Armed enemies tried to rush her by ascending the stairwell, so Cinder jumped onto the banister and slid down from the upper balcony down to the lower level, loosing arrows along the way.

When she arrived at the main hall's lowest recess, the bleeding-eyed King Taijitu tried to charge her, but she flipped forward and ran Midnight's blades along its back. They did not tear the Grimm apart as she'd expected. Every Taijitu she'd fought had been split open like a ration bar's wrapper when cut in that very same spot, and this was a relatively small one. It had to have been a juvenile, given its size, so plated armor that came with age was out of the question. However, what blocked the blade had looked more like…

Aura.

The boy from Vale, Jaune Arc, had mentioned a Grimm like this, giving a detailed description down to the fluid dribbling out of its eyes. Cinder found his story farfetched at the time, but she was more than convinced now.

When she landed, she saw that this Grimm's undefended rear appeared to have some sort of torn up flesh exposed, so she used her Dustwoven dress to superheat shattered chandelier glass on the floor and launch it at the open wound.

"SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

Cinder kept it up for as long as she could. The snake seemed to realize her semblance could inflict great damage at close range and slithered out of the way. Nocking an arrow, Cinder –

The only warning she had was the sound of a whinny to alert her of the stretchy hands snaking toward her back. Backflipping to avoid getting tangled up in the first, Cinder spun up a disk of fire and sent it forward as a shield against the second. The Grimm monstrosity behind the lengthy, drawn-out arms roared in pain. Evidently, this one didn't have aura, or perhaps it had been broken. Likely the latter; Rose was no pushover, having gone as far as nearly defeating Cinder herself once.

Cracking her bow at the center, she hurled both halves of Midnight towards the horse Grimm. The first sword removed the head of the human-like growth, and the second cleaved its upper torso and arms clean off. Both severed body parts fell apart into clouds of smoke, but the now-normal looking horse (as normal as a Grimm ever could) did not, instead stamping its feet down and emitting a haunting shriek.

A bolt of hard light struck her shoulder. Cinder turned with a growl to see Headmaster Lionheart trembling as he stepped backwards.

"Traitor!" she cursed, loud enough to make him flinch in fear.

She'd brought great honor to his school by excelling beyond all others, even winning this year's tournament is Haven's name, and this was how he repaid her? By shooting her in the back? And not only that – he dared to attack from behind, conducting himself like a craven first year. To do so was an insult of the highest order…

Before she could exact her revenge and tear him limb from limb, the snake advanced. Lionheart's attack had actually been the only reason she'd even seen it coming, as he back had been turned and her attention on the horse. The Taijitu was upon her once more, weaving from side to side and closing in on her faster than Cinder could react to form a counterattack. She managed to grab the upper and lower lips of its mouth before it swallowed her whole when it finally struck, but it was far too strong to push back. The abomination pushed her back as it slithered until she was caught between it and the white stone statue beneath the stairwell. Her hands heated up to temperatures that would make solid steel flimsy, but the damage was only done to unbroken aura.

"Cinder! Silver! Silver!"

It was little Rose that spoke. Cinder took half a second to decipher the message before remembering their battle in Vale. Shutting her eyes tightly, she braced herself.

The light was so bright that it nearly blinded her, even through her closed eyelids. When she opened them once more, the downed half of the horse Grimm's ride was lifeless stone, and the fragile shimmer of the King Taijitu's aura was fragmenting away.

Finally.

Pouring all of her strength into her fists, she forced open the snake's mouth and drove her heel through its tongue. Spreading out her three limes, she tore the monster's lower lip clean off. The back half of its jaw remained attached to its body, but its bottom fangs were gone. That should make it at least manageable.

BANG!

"Eek!"

Ciner's head turned for as long as it could afford to. Some lanky man with a poorly trimmed mustache had taken a shot as Ruby, both a great distance away from her.

"I'll handle the pest. Deal with your student."

Lionheart dumbly lingered for a second to watch the man take potshots, then realized the orders were directed at him. "O–"

Whatever her bastard of a headmaster was going to say was lost when Cinder's flames enveloped his body and threw him straight through the wooden doors to the courtyard. The walls caught on fire from the attack, and flames began to spread even faster.

At this point, we've probably only five to ten minutes before the ceiling collapses on us. I need to remember to evacuate the kids if it gets too close, or if a see any signs of accelerated loss of structural integrity.

"Urgh. You there – both of you Grimm. Handle this girl." The man fired again at Ruby, missing as she desperately rolled out of the way.

The horse from before opened its mouth, and a line of smoke poured out. Recognizing that it was an attack, Cinder dove to the left, and the statue where she'd been standing disappeared. It wasn't smashed apart or melted; it simply vanished when the smoke touched it.

Gotta watch out for that.

Two upper fangs crashed into Cinder's stomach, pinning her to the ground, and the snake coiled itself around her body.

"Good, good," said the mustached man, grinning darkly. "Don't let go, snake. Now, horse, kill them both."

"ddddddddestroy"

The horse breathed in, smoke gathering around its mouth. It didn't take a genius to tell what would happen when that stuff touched her body, given how it had utterly evaporated the statue just moments ago. Cinder ignited every ounce of Dust in her dress and wreathed both herself and the snake in fire, but it wouldn't budge. She jabbed her elbow into the snake's head, heating it up at the last moment to conserve aura. It penetrated the eyeball and tore straight into where the skull would've been on an animal, but the Grimm somehow survived the attack and squeezed her even harder.

"Let go of me, freak!"

"dddddddestroy"

The stream of smoke billowed towards her, and Cinder braced herself for the worst.

At the last moment, a blast of air blew it away. Cinder tracked her salvation to its point of origin and saw that the bronze boy feebly standing just before his aura broke, Midnight in his hand.

"Argh! And it just regenerated!" He threw Midnight at her as he collapsed to the floor.

The horse began inhaling again, but Cinder took advantage of the brief moment of refractory time to catch Midnight and wedge the blades between her and the snake on both sides. Pushing outwards, she slid out of its grasp and kicked herself away. The snake slithered away to join at the horse's side before Cinder could continue outwards and cleave it in three.

The horse was missing a leg and its entire disgusting upper body, but like the half-blind, half-mouthless snake, it showed no signs of falling yet. Whatever they were, these Grimm seemed to be built to fight on to the bitter end, powering through injuries with no regard to self-preservation. Beyond them, all of the Spiders had either died or retreated. Ruby was hiding behind a fallen timber as the mustached man shot at her with his pistols.

If the bronze boy's actions had proven anything, it was that she was far too outnumbered to discount any ally, however strong or weak. And so, Cinder dropped to the ground and switched Midnight into a bow. Holding her breath, she lined up a moving target at a long shot, the likes of which she'd practiced time and time again, pulling back as far as she could to ensure her aura had enough speed. The second she let go of the taught string, a spiraling fire arrow slid between the horse's legs and right over the snake's head. It struck true, piercing the gunman's hand and knocking his gun aside.

That should buy a little time for her and the boy to escape. Now all Cinder had to do was keep the Grimm occupied. Once they were out of the way, Cinder would be able to burn this entire building to ashes and take down the Grimm with it. If everything went well, the wooden beams wouldn't crush her, and she could sort out her enemies burned corpses from the rubble.

Retreating until her feet hit the stairwell she'd come from, she launched another arrow at the horse Grimm, but this one bounced harmlessly off it as white ripples coated its hide.

Its aura regenerated already? Shit!

Cinder was out of Dust entirely, having desperately used the lot of it up when she feared vaporization from the horse's demonic exhalant. She could make as many arrows as she needed, but only as long as her aura held. Her scroll said she was at 55%, but this Grimm was using its aura purely for defense, so it would last longer. And if the snake also got its aura back up, she'd be outnumbered two to one. At least the fires were now blazing out of control, which was definitely a plus.

A rapid-fire stream of ice shards hit her leg, though she pulled away as soon as the first one nicked her. Lionheart trudged into view, grabbing his sides in pain with one hand and holding out his wrist weapon, Stalwart, with the other.

Okay, so it was three to one. But she'd pulled through worse odds before…though she'd always had Emerald by her side. Her partner wasn't coming this time. All of the other students were in the dorms five buildings to the west, soundly sleeping. Cinder was only out and about because she'd stayed up late studying for her exams in the library. Maybe I should just cram in the future.

"You will pay for what you've done to me! Taniwha will feassssssst on your corpssssssssse!"

"Leave her alone!"

The Grimm turned around to see who'd cried out. Cinder didn't need to turn, recognizing the grating voice with annoyance.

Those idiots! Rose and her boytoy hadn't fled, they'd just grabbed their weapons instead! The boy had his revolver sword, and Rose had picked up a scimitar from a fallen Spider. The two had spread out to form a triangle around both of the Grimm, blocking them off from escape. Lionheart looked like he truly wanted to be elsewhere as he skirted around the battlefield, sticking to the walls.

"Run, you stupid kids!" Cinder screamed.

Rose ignored her entirely. "We won't let you hurt her!"

"It's three against three, and our aura are beginning to regenerate," pointed out the boy. His sword leveled out as he thrust it forward beckoningly. "You cannot win."

"We are powerful. We are horssssssemen."

"And Branwen is two maidens. Surrender and retreat."

Cinder had no idea why he was bringing up a kingdom renowned tribe of bandits' sexual histories or lack thereof, but if it somehow scared Lionheart as much as it so visibly had, she supposed she was all for it.

"We exisssssst to kill. There isssssss no retreat. You all will die tonight."

The horse huffed out a steamy breath of air and turned it sole remaining head towards it ally. "nnnnnnnno kkkkkkkkkill nnnnnnnneed gggggggggirl"

"But the Queen did not sssssssay anything about the otherssssss!"

The snake spun around and faced the armored boy. Cinder frantically loosed arrow after arrow, but they had next to no chances of piercing aura.

He had signed his own death warrant by spacing out. He and Rose likely thought they were going to corner the Grimm and slowly close in on them, but such a formation only worked when all three points of the triangle they'd formed were equally impassable. The boy was the weak link, and as the snake coiled up to dart his way, he blanched in fear of his ignominious death.

Before the King Taijitu could lung, a hooved foot smashed into the middle of its serpentine body, crunching its thin plating and its aura.

"What isssssss thissssss? Why –?"

Smoke gathered at the Grimm horse's mouth. It reared up on its hind legs and brought the single front hoof down with the force of a falling star, piercing through the middle-section of the snake. Cinder felt the entire room rumble at the force of the kick, and she had to bat away some falling chunks of burning ceiling that were dislodged by the shockwave.

At this betrayal, the Taijitu feebly attempted to pierce the other Grimm's limb with its teeth, but the barely scratched its aura. It thrashed about wildly, writhing so violently that it tore open its own side and did free itself, but the severe damage incurred prevented it from escaping what came next in time.

"nnnnnnnno kkkkkkkill ffffffffriend"

The built up cloud of noxious black breath exhaled straight into the snake's head.

The Beowolf shit of a Faunus that Cinder had once looked up to seemed like he was about to have a panic attack. His list of allies was dwindling, and fast. First, he'd held a distinct advantage, with an army of humans and two enhanced Grimm abnormalities to stand between him and his enemies.

Then it was tied, briefly, when Rose and the boy had pulled themselves up from their initial loss and risen up to stand against the two remaining Grimm. All parties had been exhausted, and Cinder was still sweating (from the exertion, not the heat).

Now, he was outnumbered, and the loyalty of his only remaining Grimm had been called into question. Frantically looking around the room for someone to help him, he spotted the mustache man from before.

"W-Watts!" he blubbered. "What do we do?"

Watts was still struggling to separate Cinder's arrow from his hand. "You're the huntsman! Be a real man for once and take care of this! Mrrraaah!"

"W-We're outnumbered without you!" Lionheart pleaded. "Come and help us!"

Blood dripped from his fingertips…ergo, he didn't have aura. That would certainly make things easier. Unarmed as he was, Cinder wondered if she would even truly consider him worth the arrow it would take to finish him off. She'd much rather lodge it into Lionheart's eyes and turn him into a pincushion, if fate smiled upon her.

"Half of the damned kids are blind! Just get off your lazy ass and kill them already! Finish what you st–"

A burst of green light ripped through Watt's chest, lasting less than a second in length. When it stopped, the flesh where it had passed through was simply gone. Blood seeped out of the open wound, and he fell over, arrow still in hand.

"No one will be killing my Friends."

Cinder recognized that voice…

Rose beat her to it. "P-Penny?"

"Polendina? What are you…?"

Cinder looked the girl over as she hovered in the doorway of the grand hall, floating a foot above the ground. Wasn't she the semifinalist from…she totally was! These people, they just kept crawling out of the woodworks and showing up! Was the entire Vytal Tournament roster going to show up tonight? Who was next, Nora Valkyrie?!

Had Cinder not recalled the fact that she was an android from her scouting of the opposing talent at the tournament, the fact that Penny was ascended and floating in the air would have reminded her instantly. So silent had been her entry that Cinder was not even aware of her presence before the laser blast. "Please lay down your arms."

"You hear that, Headmaster Loser-heart? You're done for," Ruby cheered, raising her stolen scimitar high in the air.

In spite of herself and her circumstances, Cinder let a smile wash over her face. Ruby was right. With this new arrival, the tide had been turned. The laser-shooting swords that had killed the man Watts now rotated in perfect synchronization around the robot.

"Please lay down your arms," Penny repeated.

Penny drew more swords and took aim. Cinder's smile faded.

"Friend Ruby. Friend Dove. Friend Cinder. I must insist. Please lay down your arms."

Cinder did not, in fact, lay down her arms. She instead gripped them even tighter as it became clear that the tide most certainly had turned, but not in their favor.

"Penny, what are you doing? We're your friends! It's me, Rhub– Ruby Ro – Ruby Bra– R-Ruby!"

"I recognize you, Friend Ruby," Penny confirmed with a solemn nod. "And I promise that no harm will come to you, and that I will eliminate all those who would wish harm upon you, as Doctor Watts professed just now. But Queen Salem has need of you and the relic."

Cinder's eyes followed Penny's as they darted to the lamp that hung from Ruby's belt. That's what this was all about? A battle to the death that brought down the front half of the school over some trinket?

"I must insist that you surrender, Friends. That would make this so much easier for all of us."

"And if we don't?" Cinder asked.

"Then I will apply the bare minimum amount of force required to detain you without causing any serious or lasting damage."

Cinder sighed, nocking another arrow. Looks like it would be three against three after all.

It wasn't actually three against three, but it may as well have been. The horse held back for the most part. It was crippled, and that wasn't going to change no matter how much aura it regenerated. Lionheart also hid from the fight, but that was likely out of general cowardice rather than strategy. It didn't matter, though. Penny was enough.

Cinder might've stood a chance against her, but the blind kids were holding her back. The boy was dead weight, and Cinder was expending more energy protecting him than she was actively damaging Penny. Ruby was at least doing something as she hurled an elemental hodgepodge and dodged the swirling mass of weapons. It was…weird, to witness the breadth of her methods. Cinder had seen her move at super speed, transform into a bird, flash light from her eyes, and now she controlled lighting…and ice…and wind…and Cinder's very own element of flame. Where were all these tricks up her sleeve coming from?

On top of it all, the fires Cinder had started were causing so much smoke that even she was having trouble seeing in front of her. Breathing through the thick air without inhaling a lung's worth of sickening fumes was also becoming a challenge. Fire itself would never dare to harm its mistress, but the sides effects of its burning fury knew no such respect. Penny was entirely unaffected, being a robot who had superhuman senses and didn't need to breathe with lungs. This battle was stilted in her favor, and how.

Penny's one weakness, if you could call it that (and Cinder would), was that she wasn't willing to seriously hurt her friends. Her attacks always held a little bit back, avoiding key strike points that could have been used to take down Cinder, Ruby, or the huntsman boy. Personally, Cinder would never make that mistake. If she had to bring down Emerald for whatever reason, she'd kick her lover's head into the curb then just apologize for it afterwards. Wounds healed over time, but the sting of defeat never would. Plus, Emerald would probably be into that sort of thing.

The relentless swords would swing in wide arcs, so many attacking at a time that the ones at the back looked more like afterimages. The blades themselves were flimsier than Midnight, though Penny's quantity was beating out Cinder's quality with ease. So far, there were seven destroyed swords, and…maybe twenty to go? Thirty? Forty? It was hard to count when they were moving so wildly. Their master had barely moved from her spot in the air, which was was probably a sound call. She could exhaust her ranged options with no risk before entering the melee and crushing her tired enemies.

Cinder wasn't going to win this.

Correction: Cinder wasn't going to win this head on.

A blade swept her feet out from under her, but she managed to catch herself in a handstand and twist her body around to land on her feet. Penny was revealing more about her fighting style with each successive attack. She preferred to overwhelm her enemies with multiple simultaneous attacks that each blocked an angle of escape until there was nowhere to go. Not once had she attacked at Cinder with just one single sword.

In time, Cinder would likely be able to use this information to formulate a counterstrategy and emerge victorious. Unfortunately, there was no time. Her two allies were tiring, and the tiny swishes of blades against their skin was keeping them from recovering their aura. She needed to end this quickly.

We don't need to defeat her to win. Maybe we can escape?

The doors to the terrace outside were wide open, but the horse and Lionheart were waiting on the outskirts of the fight. If she broke off from Penny, they might decide to get involved.

We can't go up. The roof must be 100 feet above us, and the air is Penny's domain. Can we somehow go down?

Cinder knew from her years living in Mistral that a network of tunnels was woven underneath the city. Unfortunately, a visible layer of concrete was present where the burned away floorboards were missing.

Damn it all! There was no way out other than fighting. Ruby seemed to have run out of steam and was moving a lot slower now. It was still fast, but no longer fast enough. She'd let go of her own blade and was solely focusing on dodging at this point. The blond boy was using his own sword to parry Penny's thrusts, but for every attack he deflected, three more fell upon him. At least they were keeping her distracted.

What is it all for? Cinder had to wonder. She could and had killed several enemies before – rogue huntsmen, Grimm worshippers, even the odd Branwen who strayed from the pack – but never had she fought against someone who had no desire to do her harm. It was a nerve-wracking experience, as the typical fear of death had kept Cinder sharp. Honestly, Cinder would have preferred the snake, at this point. Cinder could feel the leniency Penny was granting her with every missed attack to the throat, heart, and eyes, and she feared her subconscious would react accordingly. That typical hunger she felt, the desperate desire to cling tightly to life itself, came from her awareness that it could all be taken away at any moment. It wasn't present here, and with its departure came the worry that she would let herself slip knowing that the consequences would be…

Losing Rose's toy? Being taken before Salem, whoever that was? Cinder wasn't entirely sure what the stakes were. Penny and the horse had shown an inclination to capture without the use of lethal forces, but Lionheart, the snake, and the late Watts seemed less merciful in their tactics. It was almost as though they enemy itself didn't know what it wanted, and different factions were vying to claim their own desired outcome.

Come to think of it, why was Penny…why were Penny and Lionheart in league with the crimm and Grimminals? Lionheart had always seemed like a gentle, grandfatherly figure to Cinder, and Penny's devotion to Atlas had always seemed genuine. Losing one might be expected – nervous breakdowns did happen – but losing both the logical android and the steadfast headmaster in the same night? It all but seemed unfathomable.

It was in the midst of her exceedingly unprofessional musings on unrelated hypothetical questions that Cinder noticed something. A glint of light made her eyes linger on the sword she'd just evaded, and she finally caught on to the trick. All of the swords were not floating like she'd suspected, but were in fact connected to something. Small strings, so thin that they were all but invisible to the naked eye, led back to Penny. Cinder rolled out of the way of a laser blast and traced the twine to Penny's back. The swords were…coming out of her?

Of course they were! She was a robot, and the way they moved and spun through the air was far too complicated for regular weapons. Unlike their wielder, they had no visible means of propulsion. These swords weren't separate objects – they were literally a part of Penny. That mean that if she could sever their connections to her…

Cinder suddenly realized the path forward to victory.

Racing forward until she had a clear line of sight to the back of Penny's head, Cinder formed and nocked the hottest arrow that she could out of the dust around her, shaping its molten form with her mind's eye into a devastating weapon. It cost her heavy dregs of aura to keep the liquid from losing its shape, but she'd only get one shot at this.

Victory or defeat came out of this – Cinder smiled as the fear, the hunger, returned.

Lowering her bow by just a few degrees to get the perfect shot while Rose distracted Penny by allowing herself to be captured (actually, she wasn't allowing anything, but still), Cinder fired the glowing glass arrow. At the last moment, she concentrated on rapidly cooling and heating it, causing the arrow to explode into a hailstorm of tiny but razor-edged shards.

It landed a direct it onto the inside of Penny's back, and she jolted forward. Her head creaked back, but she frozen up before she could witness the triumphant look on Cinder's face.

The puppetmaster's strings had been cut.

Just like that, every single one of the swords went slack and clattered to the floor. Penny's body stiffened, and she too fell out of the air, twitching. The shock of losing all those remotely controlled parts of her must've been like having all her fingers cut off at once, Cinder imagined.

"nnnnnnnnno"

Shit, the horse was still alive. Lionheart, too, but he was hardly an afterthought. The Grimm was the last true challenge.

"What did you do to her?" asked Ruby, dragging herself out of the tangled clutches of the fallen robot's sword.

"Don't think about your friend. Focus on yourself, girl. We're not out of the woods yet."

The horse snorted and began to draw up death-dealing fumes in its mouth. It had only three legs, but its aura must've fully regenerated while Penny had been distracting them, and whatever power of destruction it had was back in full force. This wasn't going to be pretty.

"FOR MENAGERIE!"

What?

"FOR THE FAUNUS!"

"FOR TEAM RAINBOW!"

"RAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Cinder head snapped back to the still open doors to see a sudden deluge of Faunus poured into the grand hall.

She couldn't help but forlornly sighed. I guess the entire continent of Menagerie has arrived, because why wouldn't they. The doors are open, and this party is an open invite for anyone to crash.

A fusillade of Dust bullets fell upon the horse, shot from whatever weapons happened to be in the hands of…the White Fang? But there were also humans working with them! This day could not get more bizarre.

Four humans stood at the front and were leading the charge. One of them looked a lot like Ruby, and the others looked awfully familiar…

Wait, it that Jaune Arc?

"FOR MENAGERIE!" he cried and carved through the air a blast of Wind Dust from his cane. He stuck out in particular to her, as both the first man to ever come close to harming her in a training spar, and the first man whose lips she'd ever touched her to back at the Beacon ball.

Tearing her eyes away and refocusing on her own ongoing battle, Cinder noticed Lionheart trying to sneak away. Drawing her bow on instinct, she didn't hesitate to let the backstabber have it. Her arrow hit him dead on, exploding upon impact, which got the attention of Arc.

He saw Lionheart and tackled the older man to the ground, but the headmaster suddenly experienced a burst of courage (or self-preservation, more likely) and was driven to fight. Jaune smacked him with the butt of his cane, but Lionheart brought up his wrist blaster and launched Jaune off of him with a point blank fireball. Jaune's aura took the damage, but he was sent flying across the room, landing with a skid at Cinder's feet.

Cinder smiled her sultriest smirk and wiggled her fingers in a wave. "Hello, Jaune. Finally here to keep the promise you made me at the dance?"

"Cinder? Ruby? D-D-Dove?"

So that was the bronze boy's name. He seemed quite emotionally affected to see Jaune; Cinder had no clue why.

"Arc? You live?"

"Jauney!" Rose tried to grab Jaune in a bear hug, but she closed her arms too early in her blindness and ended up landing on top of him. Their conversation was interrupted by the angry shouts of the makeshift militia.

"It's Lionheart!"

"Get the blood traitor!"

"He sold out his own race to Salem!"

The Faunus forces swarmed the professor as he shot at them. Unfortunately for him, Stalwart was made for heavy attacks, not area of effect. The Faunus who got shot were instantly incinerated, but Lionheart could only hit them one at a time, and there had to be literally hundreds of men and women attacking him. Within seconds, they had him pinned down on the floor in a pile of bodies.

At the same time, the aura of the horse Grimm was finally broken by the sheer volume of the attack, and its body was shredded to ribbons before it even had a chance to counterattack. Cinder watched it disintegrate and didn't take her hands off of Midnight until the last speck of black was gone.

Penny was disabled. Lionheart was captured. The Spiders had fled. Watts was dead, as were both Grimm horrors.

All of the invaders to Cinder's beloved school were dealt with.

It was finally over.

Cinder slung her bow over the back of her head and grabbed hold of Penny. Perhaps one of the Faunus would have restraints that could hold her when she came to.

A brawny panther Faunus raised a fist in victory. "Brothers and Sisters, the battle is ours!"

Cheers erupted at his declaration, and Cinder rolled her eyes as some even clapped.

"Menagerie is victorious!" he cried.

And the roof exploded.

Cinder cursed herself for forgetting about the damage her flames had done to the walls of –

Except…it wasn't her flames. They had all died down by this point.

The entire upper half of the building was torn off as an ear-splitting roar sounded into the night. Two monstrous clawed feet perched themselves on the broken wall of the building. A massive Grimm dragon batted its wings and screeched so loud that the entire army of Menagerie had to bend over in pain and cover their ears. Cinder's instincts told her to get into a fighting stance, but her body couldn't react. There was no way she could fight something like this.

No! It wasn't fair! She was the best, and if she couldn't…humanity didn't stand a chance. Hope fled Cinder's body as the dawning realization that no hunter, no army of hunters, could ever bring down such a titan.

Its eyes, said some functioning part of her mind, as though it sought to drive away all remaining light from the world. Its eyes are dripping like the others. It's one of them. The aura-using Grimm…

The wyvern flapped its wings and kicked off of its perch on the Haven grand hall. A clawed foot descended through the building and reached toward her.

Cinder had enough wherewithal to propel herself away by pushing off of Penny. Both girls tumbled out of the claws grasp before the impending claws scooped up Ruby and the two boys.

"ROSE!" she screamed, terror for the safety of this defenseless damsel snapping her out of her stupor.

"CINDER!" Ruby screamed right back, lifting into the air. "HELP!"

She tried to grab the little girl's hand, but the dragon spread its wings and beat them until it lifted off the ground. Cinder had to brace herself by digging Midnight into the ground as the waves of air nearly blew her away. Once the dragon was high enough, it sailed forward through the air and began to glide down the side of the mountain upon which Mistral was built. Screams could be heard across the city as the monstrous Grimm flew overhead.

"Penny! We need to go after them!"

A white haired girl pushed past Cinder and grabbed hold of the robot, who was now standing shakily. She must have recovered while the dragon was taking flight.

"They're getting away! Don't lose them!"

"N-No," Cinder stuttered, still shocked. "She's a–"

Before Cinder could warn the girl of the robot's treachery, she was flying through the air after the dragon, carried by a wobbly Penny. Cinder could do nothing but watch as both parties faded away into the sunrise over the vast oceans.

End of Volume 4

Omake

Raven: Welp, that's the crack of dawn, and we only just made it. Fifty lien – pay up.

Ghira: *grumbling* Here you go…

Omake 2

Ruby: *sees Raven armed with Omen out of the corner of her eye* Now THAT'S a katana.

Next Chapter: Kuroyuri – In which a village burns to the ground, and the survivors must deal with the consequences.

Author's Notes

Despite it being the title, horsemanbowl didn't last all that long. But hey, at least they all died extremely violently and in excruciating agony, and that's what really matters.

I really don't want OCs to last, if you couldn't tell.

Since ya boi Nuck isn't technically an OC, the next chapter will be another mid-volume short about him, going into the background of the departed horse-horseman-man and just some of its daily life back when it had a life. Kind of a cooldown from all the crazy eventful plot that showed up out of nowhere before we get into Ruby, Jaune, and Dove being carried off to Salem by the final and most powerful horseman. Also, I guess this means he ain't a squid, so 0/10.

Sorry to disappoint all of the people hoping Ruby would get to meet her mom. It will happen, but it just wasn't in the cards for today.

Jeez, with K going to the dogs and TES reaching its climactic Haven battle, this has really been a rough week for Cinder. She's pulling double duty in both fics. At least Living The Dream Cinder gets a break before auraless Jaune viciously molests her.

To take stock of where everyone is, since it is a confusing time to be alive:

Ruby and the last remnants of Team Adventure are being carried by the Grimm wyvern, who is the last horseman, off to the Evernight Castle in the Grimm wastelands.

Weiss is being carried by a damaged Penny in hot pursuit.

Salem is just chilling at home, waiting for her Amazon express order (holy fuck that's going to be a real knee-slapper when we get to chapter ninety something).

Raven and Yang are in Haven with the Menagerians and White Fang, who have captured Leonardo DiCaprio.

Watts is burning in Hell.

Taniwha (snake) is burning in Hell.

Thrace (ya boi Nuck) is enjoying eternal bliss in Heaven. RIP.

Sun Wukong is burning in Hell (or is he?).

Neptune Vasilias is burning in the lowest ring of the darkest pit of Hell. He knows what he did.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!