Chapter 38: Fall of Beacon Part 1
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum, I only own my OCs.
Team RXDY
Hell. If there's one way to describe the scene at Beacon grounds, it'd be that.
Grimm have swarmed the school canvas and Vale City and there seems to be no end of them.
Yumi leads a group of citizens to the docks that'll serve as the evacuation point, intercepting whatever Grimm or White Fang that gets in her way. Suddenly two Beowolves appear in front of the group, saliva dripping from razor-sharp teeth. Yumi draws Hermes holding it across her chest with a determined look on her face. The first Beowolf howls before charging. Yumi deflects swipes from the beast's forepaw sparks fly with each contact of claw against metal. The wolf faunus jumps back to evade a downward swipe and stabs the appendage earning a howl of pain from the Beowolf, she quickly pulls her dagger out and drives it one of the enemy's eyes. While the Beowolf roars in agony, Yumi slits its throat causing the lycanthrope Grimm to gurgle on its own blood as it tumbles to the ground evaporating. Yumi doesn't have a moment to rest because the second Beowolf immediately pounces on her, she jumps backward to evade a downward slam of the beast's forepaw and parries a hard side swipe that launches Yumi across the street crashing into the wall of a building, bouncing off of it. The wolf faunus lays on the ground seemingly unconscious, the Beowolf growls lowly before walking over to her not realizing it's walking into a trap. Yumi's ear twitches as it picks the sound of the Grimm approaching and her eyes open. She activates her semblance, vanishing from sight. The second Beowolf doesn't even have time to react when a red line appears around its neck. Yumi makes a superhero landing, stopping in a reverse lunge position with the dominant leg placed forward while the off-leg is stretched behind her and Hermes held across her chest on the dominant side of her body.
The severed head of the Beowolf falls to the ground followed seconds later by the body. A scream alerts the wolf faunus, whipping around she sees a Lupine towering over the citizens, arm raised in position to strike. Time slows down for Yumi while she rushes over to save the citizens when out of the corner of her eye she sees a jaw full of serrated teeth rapidly closing in on the Lupine. The jaws clamp down on the Grimm's chest. The body of the head emerges from its ambush spot, revealing to be an Allosaurus Grimm. Lupine roars in pain but there's no escape. The Allosaurus Grimm next flings its pray into a wall. The Lycanthrope Grimm bounces off the wall and slumps to the ground while the dinosaur True Grimm advances toward it much to the confusion of the citizens. They next watch it begin devouring the Lupine.
One of them, "Why is that Grimm attacking that large Beowolf?"
Another stated, "It's...eating that Beowolf."
Yumi said, "That's Lupine, actually. It's larger and beefier than a Beowolf. Let's leave while we can."
The first citizen queried, "What about that dinosaur Grimm?"
Yumi said, "It doesn't have interest in eating us. We wouldn't be able to keep it full." The wolf faunus resumes leading the group down to the docks, mowing any Grimm that gets in their way. They see a group of White Fang soldiers pointing their rifles at them prompting Yumi to take a detour with the citizens just as the White Fang soldiers open fire. Running through a district close to the docks Yumi keeps an eye out for ambushes. Suddenly, a White Fang soldier springs out of nowhere tackling the wolf faunus to the ground and straddles her to choke her. Yumi reaches her dagger when she coughs. A brick collides with the White Fang soldier's face, stunning him long enough for Yumi to drive Hermes into his chest, repeatedly stabbing him until he's dead. Blood stains her face by the time Yumi stops her assault. A scream alerts the wolf faunus, turning around she witnesses the citizens being brutally ripped apart by a pack of Beowolves. The humans' cries of agony fill the air as they feel their flesh being torn off. Grunting, Yumi uses her semblance to quickly kill the Grimm. The pack vaporizes but the damage is done. What started as a group of 4 is now down to 2. The survivors grieve the deceased but know they can't stop moving. Leaving the mangled corpses, Yumi leads the remaining two toward the docks. As they get closer to the destination, they can hear the sounds of battle.
Draco blows a charging Beowolf's head off with Perses, spots another coming at him from his 11 o'clock left and meets it head-on, freeing one hand. Ducking to avoid a swipe, Draco counters with an uppercut slash across the Lycanthrope Grimm's throat followed by planting the weapon's barrel against the wounded beast's chest and pulls the trigger. The weapon blows a gaping hole in the chest and the dead Grimm falls backward while evaporating. He looks at the burning city of Vale.
The screams of panicked citizens, fires raging, smoke filling the night sky and mangled bodies he came across, all of it is bringing back memories of the night his Kingdom fell 15 years ago. He shakes his head, now isn't the time for a PTSD episode. He needs to protect the evacuation point with the others.
Xavier watches a Boarbatusk roll into a ball like Sonic the Hedgehog and roll towards him. He plants his feet on the ground and spreads his arms open waiting for the warthog Grimm to come closer. When the Boarbatusk is within striking distance, Xavier grabs hold of the tusks skidding back as he halts the Grimm's momentum. Tensing the muscles in his arms, Xavier lifts the Boarbatusk up then back down a few times before flipping it upside down, exposing its underbelly. Not wasting any time, he drives his fist into the exposed body part and rips the Grimm's guts ending the enemy's life. A Beringel charges at Xavier when a roar of rage grabs the gorilla Grimm's attention, looking to its right just before a massive shield connects with its skull. After dazing the Beringel, Brick grips the foe's skull and begins squeezing, hearing bones beginning to crack and squeezes harder until the skull cracks like a walnut.
Elsewhere in Vale City, a group of civilians are surrounded by Beowolves, the leading human in his mid 20s glares at the advancing Alpha Beowolf. Saliva drips from menacing fangs as it growls at its pray and is about to strike when a Raptor comes out of nowhere and pounces on the Alpha Beowolf, using its sickle-like toe to pin it to the ground and tear into the Alpha Beowolf's chest with the claws on its hands. The rest of the Alpha's pack look to avenge its leader when the Raptor's pack mates lunge at them, eviscerating them. The citizens stand there confused as to why these Grimm are attack members of its kind. Coming back to their senses, they resume heading for the evacuation point at the docks.
Rena runs around looking for stray civilians who may be lost among the chaos when she skids to a halt upon seeing a squadron of Atlesian-Knight 200s aiming their rifles, the central part of the visors a seething red, indicating they're infected by the virus Cinder planted into the CCT tower. Reacting quick, she draws her claymore and dashes forward, evading gunfire and with a single swing of her blade, Rena emerges behind the robots and sheaths Scarlet. An X shaped cut appears in the AK-200s squad's chests and slide off. Rena resumes her search senses on full alert in case of an ambush. The one-eyed faunus sees occasional dead bodies of humans or faunus enter her field of vision while treading the street. It's not long before she enters the district her adopted father lives and sees smoke filling the air, increasing her speed Rena heads toward her adopted father's home/workshop. Coming to a stop in front of the single-story building, Rena's eye widens in horror at the sight of it aflame. Whoever did this, must have done it out of sheer hatred for humans, possibly a member of the White Fang but who?
The one-eyed faunus sees a rectangular-shaped device close to the door and she recognizes it as her adopted father's scroll. The casing is a golden yellow and the screen is cracked and shattered in the bottom right corner along being partially bent. Countless scenarios of how it came to that condition run through Rena's mind. The most likely scenario is Smith must've dropped it while exiting the burning structure.
What if he...no, there's no way he would die that easily. She needs to find him and fast.
Placing the damaged scroll into her pocket, Rena continues to her search not only to search for survivors but find the perpetrator who set Smith's home on fire and make them regret doing it. Suddenly, the one-eyed faunus changes course and heads for Beacon Academy. She doesn't know what made her change her mind to do so.
Elsewhere in Vale City, Venus leads her troops into battle. She's in her dinosaur form as she looks up to spot a Nevermore closing in. The spikes on her back glow and she fires her aura breath, ripping a hole in the bird Grimm's left wing. The Nevermore begins losing altitude, as the avian Grimm comes closer Venus snarls and opens her massive jaws, grabs the Nevermore by the neck and slams it to the ground, using her powerful leg muscles to halt the enemy's momentum. She next clamps down harder and pulls, ripping the Nevermore's head off. The rest of the avian Grimm's body evaporates. She next feels Dust bullets hit her massive body. Looking where they came from, the Dinosaur Queen snorts at the sight of Atlas soldiers firing at her. Obviously, they've mistaken her for being part of the Grimm swarming Vale's streets.
'Pff, these humans really think those puny bullets can harm me. They should be more focused defending Beacon grounds from the Grimm.' She thought.
She roars at them, telling the Atlas soldiers to turn around and leave if they don't want to be crushed in her jaws. When that doesn't work, Venus performs a fake charge, displaying her dagger-like teeth. Two of the military humans turn around and run while the remaining two decide to be fools and keep firing at her. Their mistake is their undoing as Venus grabs the first human in her jaws and clamps them shut causing the body to pop like a balloon while crushing the other with her massive foot.
Somewhere outside of Beacon grounds, Tira gets flung back from a swing of the Minotaur's ax. Even though her semblance constant regenerates her aura, each hit felt like she's getting struck by a large tree trunk. Cassandra joins her location after the Minotaur backhands her away. The two have been fighting the Grimm for 10 minutes and none of their attacks faze it.
The fiery redhead gritted her teeth, "What is this guy? No matter what attacks we dish out, he just powers through them!" They both see the Minotaur snort through its nostrils in a fierce manner. Sheer rage and thirst for bloodshed radiate from its muscular body.
Cassandra said, "Listen, Tira. Go on and get out of here, I'll keep him busy."
Tira objected, "You're going to take him on all by yourself? Are you insane?"
Cassandra grinned, "This beast is a member of the species who turned me into what I am. Besides, Emmara would be crushed if you died."
Tira said, "And your death would be equally as crushing to her. Despite the crap you put my sister through, Emmy cares about you, Pretty Cassie."
A brief look of solemn crossed the scarred girl's face, "I'm not worthy of her pure heart nature. She didn't deserve any of those things I said to her or the rest of the team including you." She grew serious, "But enough about that. Get out of here and return to Emmara, Tira. She's more important."
Tira shook her head, "Not without you. I'm the leader of Team TEAL and it's my job to make sure my teammates are safe including you, Pretty Cassie, despite us butting heads."
Cassandra pointed her SMG at Tira, "Get going, now. Do it before I unload an entire magazine of bullets into you." Tira growls through her clenched teeth not wanting to leave her teammate but Emmara is still out there and she needs to find her sister.
Tira relented, "Don't you dare die. That's an order as your team leader." The fiery redhead turns to run.
A small smirk formed on Cassandra's scarred face, "Hm, I don't believe that'll be possible." The smirk turns into a glare when she locks eyes with the Minotaur, seeing it tightening the grip on the handle to its ax.
She loads an arrow to her bow, charging it with her semblance, pulling the cable back as the Minotaur charges.
Tira makes it past a city block when a loud explosion interrupts the chaotic battlefield, the fiery redhead stops running and turns around seeing a massive dome of fire Dust envelop the area Cassandra is at. Tira's instinct screams at her to head and check if her teammate's still alive but fights back knowing Emmara would be devastated if Tira died as well. So, she turns back around and resumes running.
Elsewhere, on the other side of the town, Rhia and Alena escort a group of panicked survivors to the docks where the airships are being loaded with passengers.
Up on the roofs, Cinder, Mercury and Emerald watch the chaos ensue with Mercury recording it as part of Cinder's plan to instill distrust between the Kingdoms. Emerald, on the other hand, looks at the civilians with pity.
She voiced it, "Look at them. They just look so scared. All of this bloodshed for what?" Cinder heads for Beacon Academy in her search for the current Fall Maiden.
Rena enters Beacon Academy grounds, reaching the cafeteria in time to see Yang's arm get cut off by someone. Ahead of the now-amputated blonde brawler is Blake, Alexia and Emmara, the first two are injured while Emmara gets kicked away by the assailant. Turning her head, Rena sees the person's identity. It's him. Adam Taurus.
He walked over to Blake, "Why must you hurt me, Blake?" Her silence enraged the bull faunus, "Ahhhhhhhh!" Before he can swing Wilt to slice Blake's head off, he gets hit by a condensed arc of fire wrapped in a blue electrical spiral, crashing into a lunch table.
Blake looks at the direction the attack came from and sees her big sister stepping foot inside the burning cafeteria. Rena kneels down seeing a stab wound near Blake's stomach, a deep cut on Alexia's leg, bruises on Emmara's face and Yang missing her dominant arm from the elbow down.
She ordered, "Blake, you and the others get out of here. Adam and I have unfinished business."
Emmara protested, "But what about you? I don't want to leave you here."
Rena said, "I'll be fine, Emmara. Now go, you'll just get in the way."
Emmara replied, "This can't be the only way, Rena. Let me talk to Adam, maybe I can persuade him to change his mind."
Rena retorted, "No, he can't be reasoned with. Now go before I make you, Emmara!" The girl was about to continue when Rena whipped around, "I SAID GO!" The raise of her voice scares Emmara and the girl leaves with the others.
Adam grinned, "So the traitor finally shows herself."
Rena glared at the bull faunus with burning anger, "I've been searching for you for a long time. I'm gonna do what I should've done back then." She enters her opening stance and Adam sheathes Wilt, entering his stance with the same grin on his face.
Adam mocked, "You really think the outcome will be different this time around?"
Rena's eye narrowed, "I haven't gotten soft since I left the White Fang. Recruiting you was the worst mistake the organization made. Your execution has been delayed long enough, Adam. It's time to answer for your crimes." The two stand there among the fire raging around them, neither daring to make a move.
The two charge each other at the same time, their blades clashing.
Over at Mountain Glenn, a faint rumbling can be heard. Cracks appear in the mountain and burst open as a massive Grimm dragon flies out of its resting place for Beacon Academy. Droplets of black liquid fall from its body, turning into spawning pools for Grimm upon touching the ground. Simultaneously, out in the ocean, a massive creature is nearing shore off the eastern part of Vale City, white maple leaf-shaped dorsal plates with red markings breach the water's surface.
A/N: Chapter 38 done.
The battle of Beacon Academy is underway.
Rena is about to have her rematch with Adam Taurus.
The rest of Team RXDY lead the evacuation of civilians at the docks.
Venus and the True Grimm are locked in battle with the so-called impostors.
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Stay tuned for chapter 39.
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