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(Blake PoV)
Adam came at Yang and I across the cat walk like he flew out of a canon. He slashed a wide swing which tore into the cables that held it up as well as the metal grating which made up the catwalk itself.
"You've come here to destroy me, haven't you, love?" He pressed.
I grit my teeth and met his slash with my weapons crossed. I held off the long katana which sent sparks up and harsh vibrations down my arm.
I flicked away into a clone up above him and Yang stepped into the space I formerly occupied with a haymaker. He blocked it but he had no room to step back given the damage Cloud had done to the platform behind him. I descended back down on him with a wild slash and landed behind him.
"You've got to be stopped Adam. You're way too dangerous. I have to stop you."
He blocked two slashes from me and then twisted around in time to deflect Yang's prosthesis to the side.
"I do remember you," he told Yang. "This time I will kill you."
Yang shot at him with her gauntlet and he leaned to the side but he still caught a handful of pellets that made his body twist to the left. He slashed at her, taking a long step forward to drive Yang back with his alarming strength.
Then he spun around and met one of my blades, then the other. With his back turned to her, Yang punched him hard in the back and he leaned against the rail of the catwalk like he might fall.
He snorted at us. He was penned in. He would need to make space if he wanted to beat us. He jumped off the catwalk and backflipped off the wall of the warehouse then came at me in a wide slash. I vanished in a shadow clone and left him cutting at air.
He cut through the grate of the catwalk more as he paced up on Yang with a sidestep. Yang warily stepped back and for a moment it looked like the two were dancing. Adam leveled his scabbard at Yang and fired a blast of pellets at Yang's head. Yang ducked and tried to step in with a punch but Adam used his range to block her to the side and followed it with a riposte that Yang deflected off her prosthesis, shielding her head with it.
"Can't you see I've done everything I did for you, Blake?" He grunted.
I descended back on him with three quick slashes. He deflected them, but he was shedding aura with the effort of keeping up with us. Then I drew back and fired at him twice with my gun. He grunted into the bullets, unable to truly block with Yang on top of him.
"I never wanted any of this. Be honest. You did it all for yourself. You wanted the throne of the White Fang," I fired back. I shot at him a couple times too from behind Yang. He sheathed his weapon and front-flipped at us. He drew it again in a dashing cut that was aimed at both of our heads. "And look where that got you. Sleeping alone in a warehouse at the edge of Mantle."
"This is the end of the line," Yang muttered in agreement. Her fist met his sword and they warred for a moment before he paced a half step back.
"I won't end today," he said gruffly. "Today will mark a new beginning for me after I've killed you and taken Blake back."
He cut twice horizontally with his long range and kept Yang at bay. She struggled to get in on him. Once she was in she could work him over but it was getting through the zone his sword provided that was the problem.
"You'll never have her back! Don't you get it?!" Yang shouted in his face.
Yang jumped back and I left a clone behind where she stood. It turned into fire and washed over Adam. He flinched back but he hardly had the room to escape the flames. He stuttered back in and rammed me with his shoulder, knocking me to the deck of the catwalk. He brought his blade down on me but I raised mine and covered myself from his swing downwards.
Yang stepped in over me and punched him in the jaw. He was sent reeling back into the little space he had reclaimed near the edge of the walkway. Yang chased him and hit him in the gut. Then she uppercutted him with her robotic hand. He sliced her back and she blocked by holding her arms upwards and bent at the elbow.
He then descended on her with some slashes and tried to open her up but she stood firm for the most part. It was hard for Yang to block without taking some hits on her aura but Adam would have to do more than chip away at her.
"We'll just see about that," Adam muttered.
I flipped back to my feet and stepped forward and unleashed a beam of purple light that rode down the catwalk and forced him to block.
"She's right. We're over, Adam. You're over."
"You can't win her back. You crossed the line," Yang growled.
"I will have her again," Adam disagreed. "My love, be mine!"
"Never again. I'm sorry I couldn't save you from yourself, Adam," I returned.
I twirled upon him and cut at him with both of my blades. He twisted Wilt around and held Blush over his face to block my attacks.
"Save me? I don't need saved. I have my duty to fulfill," he bit out.
There was a time when I had admired his strength. His dedication to keep going. I admired his passion for our cause and how unflinchingly he looked at the world. Now I wish that he would have flinched, for a sign that he was just a person doing what he thought was right rather than a monster. It was the sort of little sign that Ruby and Weiss got from Cloud when he stumbled. A sign that he was struggling and that he would hesitate.
Adam never gave me that. About anything. He just pressed on like he didn't do horrible things. He went forward like he hadn't killed people. Cloud at least seemed on edge from the destruction he caused. A point in his favor perhaps. A difference between him and Adam.
Then Adam said he did it all for me and I had to know that he was lying. Even to himself. I never wanted this for him. I never wanted this from him. I'd rather that he flinched.
He slashed Yang away and pressed his advantage on her now that she was opened up but I flicked to place beside her and cut at him. Then I shot him twice in the chest.
He let out a little roar at being interrupted and came at me. His blade singing through the air, he pinned me back against the rail of the catwalk and swung. I cried out as he bit deep into my aura. Purple flared from where he cut me in a field.
"You're becoming bothersome, love," he rumbled.
"I'll always be in your way, Adam," I said steadily.
He slashed at me twice more and brought his weapon to bear. He fired and the blast knocked me off my feet again. It slammed me into the rail and down to the metal grate. Yang roared and stepped over me into his space and he slashed at her too before he sent a shot whizzing into the aura around her head. She shook it off and came at him still. She swung with her right arm and Adam blocked it with a twist of his scabbard. Then she buried her fist in his gut with her left arm.
He grunted again. We were winning. We were chipping away at him.
I looked down through the grate and saw Ruby and Weiss fighting off two of Cloud's sisters. Ruby turned into petals and dodged around her target and Weiss had a black glyph spinning to life beside her. I couldn't be sure how they were doing. Hopefully they were matching our success and we'd walk away from all this the victor.
I remembered fighting Cloud's sister. She was good. And they worked well together as a team. It could be dangerous for them down there but I had to hope that they could maintain the pace and win.
I rebounded to my fight and shot at Adam while he tried to keep Yang off of him.
Adam ripped into Yang's aura, ignoring my shots that pounded into his own. He cut her twice across the stomach then once diagonally from shoulder to hip. Then he kicked her in the chest and pushed her back before he fired right into her stomach with his shotgun.
Yang failed for a moment on the rail before I tossed her my ribbon and pulled her back on. We charged him with my ribbon in hand and clotheslined him on the catwalk.
We tried to wrap him up in it but he put his hand on the ground and cartwheeled free, this time moving forward so that we were cornered against the destroyed part of the catwalk. He had the space he wanted now.
He sheathed his weapon and side-flipped. He jumped off the wall and back to the catwalk and came at us in an enormous slash that cut into both of our aura and knocked me back a step.
"You can't beat me, love," he whispered. Like a knife on the bones of my spine. "I'll kill her this time. No running away from me."
"We will beat you!" I shouted back right in his face. I put my weapon together in a fluid motion and brought it down on his body. He blocked with his scabbard and riposted with his katana and cut me across the stomach.
"Get off of her!" Yang slammed her shoulder into him and sent him sprawling across the catwalk. He just rolled away from us and back to his feet. We were pushing him close to a staircase upwards now.
He shuffled back and put one foot at the edge of the stairs. If we started to force him down them we would have the advantage and he'd be on the back foot. He would either fight us at an enormous loss or be forced to turn and run.
He snorted at the two of us. He knew it too. It wasn't in his nature to run if he could help it. I knew that about him.
He slashed forward at Yang and this time he bit deep into her prosthetic where she tried to block. She didn't cry out in pain, it wasn't attached to her body like that, but she did let out a little grunt at the loss.
Maybe Cloud should have been the one to engage Adam. Cloud's strength was terrible. It might be the only thing that could match him. Yang was now wounded and she was coming up short of taking him down. We both were. At this rate he'd be able to escape or kill her. Maybe both.
I hadn't realized Yang had gotten so low on aura. I wasn't doing well myself but I thought she had more in her tank. Aura was a finicky thing. You didn't have the same amount day to day. Besides Yang had been blocking most of his attacks on her aura. That was the nature of her style against a swordsman like Adam.
I'd need to make a play if we wanted Adam to die here and now and not live to fight another day.
Yang's prosthetic went limp by her side. Adam had struck a critical system in it. I flipped down the catwalk to where Cloud was mid-fight with this hovering specter and a girl inside of it. I lashed Gambol Shroud to the rafters and swung down and I clashed with her from behind and sent her tumbling into a shelf.
It raked at me to confess that I needed Cloud's help. It should have been me to take down Adam but I couldn't match him alone and with Yang hurt.
"Go help Yang," I told him. "Please trade with me. Stop Adam. You're the only one who can match him one on one."
Cloud hesitated. Then he nodded. "Beware her semblance. And… and don't kill her."
I nodded. He flew away up to the catwalk on a pocket of air. "Sit this one out, Yang. I'll cover for you," I heard him say.
His sister picked herself up out of the shelving I'd knocked her into from behind.
"That was family business," she snarled at me.
"Your family business involves everyone," I returned. "Literally everyone everywhere."
"You'll regret getting between us. I have no qualms about killing you," she added. I watched the specter around her fade with a closing wing around both her and it and I saw her wince. If it was anything like Cloud's power, her next use of it was a long ways away.
She flipped a dagger into her hands, rotating it so she held it reverse with a casual ease and she pointed her gun down at me. We started by shooting each other. Her with her pistol and me with mine.
Then we clashed with my scabbard against her knife. She pushed against me but I had a little range on her.
She did this three-sixty front-flip away from me and landed neatly like an acrobat. Then she rushed me and she did a sort of baseball slide with her leg extended to trip me up. I bounced off one of the shelves and came back down on her with my sword. Then I swept my scabbard into her gut.
She bent over from the force of it, a flare of red and blue aura spreading out from the attack. Then I shot her three times.
My gun clicked empty and I had to reload with a back-flip. She approached me with another somersaulting jump. And she swept the knife at me in a move that caught my aura at the stomach. She didn't hit nearly as hard as Adam did. At least not with her semblance inactive.
She shot at me once, then she did an arcing flip that carried her into the rafters with her shooting down on me in a bullet storm all the while. It caught me off balance and as she landed she swiped the knife at me and shoved me into one of the shelving units.
She jumped, lashing out with two kicks into my gut that sent me reeling. She was formidable. As you might expect from one of Cloud's sisters. But she wasn't unbelievably strong like he was. She didn't share the sort of raw power that let him one-shot my aura to near zero or fifty percent.
She dashed forward to follow up her assault with two more kicks but I blocked both on my shins and I engaged her with my sword and my scabbard. I forced her to block twice in rapid succession then I flowed my weapon together and brought it down on her body. It flung her back into a shelving unit.
I heard two shouts above us and saw Adam slam into one of the walls of the warehouse and slide down it until he crumpled in a heap. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. Cloud was winning if he hadn't won already.
Cloud landed and grabbed Adam by his shirt and picked him up. He slammed him into the wall hard enough to shake the whole building.
I turned back to my opponent and found her running away. She was making a break for the exit and covering her sisters with a storm of bullets as they did similarly. I could hardly respond. My aura was almost empty. I watched Weiss and Ruby try to get in their way but the sisters were nimble and they worked well together in concert all three of them.
They flipped over one another as they made their exit and all I could do was watch. The girl I'd been fighting flicked her knife from by her side and it slid deep into my aura and from there into my stomach. A crackling of purple wasn't enough to halt the weapon.
"Blake!" Weiss shouted. She moved to cover me. A glyph spiraling to life over my body while Ruby took potshots at the retreating girls. They slid out of the double doors of the warehouse and I heard engines start but my vision was getting hazy.
Yang came up to us. Her arm still dangling uselessly by her side. "Blake!" She hissed urgently. "Stay with us. Don't go to sleep."
Sleep sounded so good, though. I blinked my eyes wearily from where I lay on the ground.
"Did we get him? Did we get Adam?" I asked.
Cloud's voice came in, he said something I didn't make out followed by, "he's gone."
Then I sort of slipped under before I could ask anything else.
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-WG