Many words could be used to describe Cinder Fall, most were lecherous remarks on her carefully cultivated appearance. While others were about her meticulously crafted demeanor designed to lure, seduce, manipulate, and dominate. Still others would remark on her battle prowess, how she was skilled with a multitude of weapons, and the might of her Semblance. Interestingly the most eagle-eyed viewers of her fights would feel as though something was missing in her fighting style, how she seemed to have trained for a key element that she had yet to acquire… And there were precious few who would remark about her mind, her ability to plan and adjust those plans to achieve a distant and almost impossible goal.
But none would talk about her patience and it was for a good reason, she was rarely patient and she hated waiting. She hated it with a strange almost personal passion. However that did not mean that she couldn't wait, she could wait and she could do it for as long as reasonably necessary even if that meant that she'd be waiting for years. Sure, she would take every good opportunity to reduce that wait time but that is what everyone would do if they could… but few were willing to wait as long as she could if she had to.
Cinder hadn't taken a step from her hiding spot. She remained waiting and eager despite the noise outside as the attack of the century commenced. She was monitoring the situation with her scroll but it wasn't for curiosity's sake, she was trying to figure out just who would end up standing between her and the Fall Maiden and planning out how to beat them. She was a predator preparing to ambush unaware prey.
Right now she was monitoring all of the hallways leading to the elevator that led directly to Ozpin's office. Her research had allowed her to learn that the elevator could also be taken to a secret basement where she had every reason to believe the Fall Maiden was being kept alive somehow. It's just like Salem predicted, Cinder silently mused to herself. She told me that Oz would keep it all as close to himself as possible, why else would he put his office right inside the CCT and build that basement beneath it? I might even find the Relic down there, though I can't imagine that even Oz would be foolish enough to keep all three so close together.
Cinder then shifted her focus back to the present, on the screen of her scroll she could see that Gylnda and Ironwood were talking to Penny who was nodding in agreement with something. She didn't have any audio but she didn't need any to piece together what they had asked her to do especially since the three of them were now making their way over to the elevator.
Cinder frowned, she was hoping that Pyrrha would be the next maiden. She had nothing against the former champion, it was just business. The truth of the matter was that Pyrrha's Semblance was nearly useless against someone like Cinder who didn't rely on metal weapons to fight, it was just a strategically favorable matchup for Cinder and she'd be a fool not to want every advantage she could get.
But Penny was a different matter altogether, the robot had an enhanced body plus a powerful built-in weapon system and an array of sensors that made any attempt at an ambush difficult. Making matters worse was that Penny had yet to discover her Semblance which created a potentially dangerous unknowable variable… Cinder was sure that she could win but she'd need the Maiden Powers to guarantee it. And if the worst should come to pass and Penny became the Maiden, then Cinder would need all the help she could get.
"Then I just need to keep her from becoming the Maiden," Cinder said to herself as she stood up and began to make her move.
Her biggest obstacles right now were Penny's bodyguards, James Ironwood who was an exceptionally stubborn man of great physical prowess and literally unbreakable will. And Glynda Goodwitch who possessed powerful telekinesis that she had complete mastery over and a keen eye for weakness… Either one would be a hard fight but together it would be suicide, but I have to make my move before they get to the elevator. Once they get there then Qrow Branwen and Maria Calavera will be close enough to aid them… there's also the issue of Tock, I've lost track of her, and that Semblance of hers is just ridiculous.
Cinder walked out of her hiding spot while checking a map of Beacon on her scroll. For a moment she considered just heading to the basement right away and trying to take Maiden powers before they could arrive… however she did not know what security measures lay inside, she did not know what that old wizard had prepared to protect the Maiden.
It was annoying, but she needed them to open the way for her. She needed to let at least one of them accompany Penny down that elevator and into the basement and there was only one choice; She had to get rid of Glynda… But the question was how?
Cinder didn't have a lot of time to figure this problem out, it would take Glynda, Ironwood, and Penny only ten minutes to walk from where they were to the elevator. Granted ten minutes was the time it took when the campus wasn't under violent assault but that could only buy her so much extra time. And worse it meant that she had no way of knowing for sure what path they would take to arrive which meant that planning an ambush was, to put it lightly, difficult.
But it wasn't impossible. Quite the contrary, because no matter their path, they would inevitably end up at the same destination; The Elevator. All Cinder had to do was strike them as they were going in and they were certain to prioritize getting Penny to the Maiden over defeating her. One would stay behind to fight, and the other would take Penny and run, Cinder just needed to make sure that Glynda was the one who stayed behind.
And with that thought in mind, Cinder started to lay her trap.
The first thing she did was go up to a window and use her Semblance to melt through it, she then stepped outside, turned around so that she was facing the wall, and combined her Semblance with the magic that she had to cause a controlled explosion towards the wall… The result was now the path looked like it got hit by a cheap rocket that fortunately didn't cause any serious damage.
To most, it would seem that Cinder had wasted valuable time on something that didn't matter but that was wrong. Cinder had a trap that she wanted to lay but traps are only as effective as the means taken to hide them. Before she could set the trap she needed to prepare the camouflage, and now that she was done with that, she could begin the fun part.
"I know just how to handle her," Cinder chuckled to herself as she began creating shards of obsidian.
Tyrian leaned against a nearby tree for support and not too far away Adam did the same. Neither was hurt in a way that wouldn't quickly heal up thanks to Aura but neither was in the mood to get moving. The fight against Anne and Tock's mangy crew took far more effort than they had expected, and worse was that their foes had barely managed to escape and now some Atlas wannabe snipers were trying to take potshots at him and Adam.
"What do you think are the odds of us running into them again?" Adam suddenly asked as a bullet hit the tree next to him.
"Sadly, I doubt we will. Shame, they were fun."
"I'll admit that I didn't think that those pirate cosplayers would put up as much of a fight as they did, but it's also a stroke of fortune." The Dust woven into Adam's clothes briefly glowed to demonstrate what he meant.
"Oh! So you're all charged up then?" I wonder if I could take him at his best! Oh, it's going to be so much fun when these fellows outlive their usefulness! Or maybe that won't happen and we can just keep hanging out like this, that would be fun as well.
"That's right." A smirk formed on the terrorist's face, "Wanna see something cool?"
"Always."
Adam pushed himself off of the tree and looked around, they were on the border where the edge of the Emerald Forest ran into the sheer cliffside that separates it from Beacon Academy. On the top of that cliffside were an unknown number of Atlas Troops whose supporting fire was responsible for allowing Anne and the bounty hunters to escape… Those same troops were the same ones taking shots that Adam blocked with his sword. Furthermore, the trees between his position and the cliffside had been cut down by Anne thus robbing potential attackers of cover and forcing them to climb over the logs before they could even attempt to climb the cliffside.
Such a collection of obstacles would be enough to deter most ground attacks but Adam unlike most people did have a way to clear the path, his Semblance. He called it Moonslice in reference to the crescent-shaped Aura projectiles he could create with it but that was hardly the whole thing… but that was something that a scant few knew about and he preferred to keep it that way.
"What are you planning?" Tryian asked as he pushed himself off the tree to join Adam.
"Just watch," Adam answered before taking up a quickdraw stance and focusing his breathing, as he did the Dust woven into his clothes began to glow bright and the Aura moved from his body into his sheathed blade. And then he stepped out from the cover of the trees and drew his blade, and when he did, the space in front of him was dyed red with his Aura.
There was no sound as the energy shredded the logs, the stumps, the base of the cliffside, and even the ground. Visible within the red light were black silhouettes scattering away and then vanishing into the light… and then it was gone, almost as though it had never happened. But even though the light had vanished, the destruction it had wrought remained as proof that it did happen. What remained of the logs, stumps, a small portion of the cliffside, and even parts of the ground were withering away into rose petal-like fragments before falling apart.
"THAT WAS SO COOL!" Tyrian excitedly jumped around like a giddy child at the sight, By the Goddess is Adam an idiot! Imagine wasting that kind of firepower on fucking logs! He didn't even succeed in damaging the cliffside enough to cause it to collapse… but it was still pretty cool though.
"Yeah, it was pretty cool," Adam said in the most self-congratulatory way possible as he sheathed his sword. "But it wasn't just cool. Do you notice something?"
"What am I supposed to notice?"
"They've stopped shooting."
Adam and Tryian shared a smile before running towards the cliffside, without the proper tools climbing it would be a nigh impossible task for most people. But Huntsmen weren't most people, they had Aura and it did more than merely protect your body and make it stronger. The true power of Aura was that it allowed its users to train their bodies harder and push further than anyone would be able to otherwise. An elite Huntsman was superhuman even without the boost from Aura and with it, they could fell the mightiest of beasts and scale the highest peaks.
This cliffside was no match for Adam or Tyrian, it cost them a bit of valuable Aura but it was more than worth it as they were able to scale it before the Altas troops could reorganize themselves despite their best efforts… It wasn't their fault, those soldiers had done the best they could have reasonably done despite who their opponents were. It wasn't their fault that they were so outclassed, it wasn't their fault that the events of the night had left their troop so worn down and disorganized.
It wasn't their fault for being massacred by Adam and Tyrian.
"That was disappointingly easy," Adam said both to himself and to his companion as he used the uniform of a slain soldier to clean the blood off of his blade.
"They did their best, it just wasn't enough. But who cares about them, we here in Beacon! The main course is almost upon us and the time for separation has arrived?"
"Separation?"
"Oh Adam, you're a dear friend but healthy relationships require a little bit of healthy space. Right now you and I are about to embark on a great hunt and while teaming up with you is fun, let's be honest with ourselves."
Adam nodded, fully understanding what Tyrian was saying, "We wouldn't want to steal each other's prey."
"I knew you'd understand. Now we just have to decide where to go."
The pair briefly looked around, there was nothing here apart from the corpses and the equipment that they brought with them. Nothing but a splitting pathway leading into different parts of Beacon. And of those multitude of paths, there were only two that were of any interest to the two men. Adam looked towards the main auditorium of Beacon, that was where the final stand of the Academy was going to be made if it came down to it, that was where he could make his grand declaration of war by cutting down an entire generation of would-be huntsmen.
But Tyrian was different, he had no goal other than his own amusement and he had no need to choose which path to walk. Because what he wanted to find was running down the path towards him and now she was pointing a Gatling gun right at him and Adam.
Tock pulled the trigger without warning and bullets made of hardlight flew from the gun toward the two men who dodged in different directions. Tyrain as he dodged tried to close the distance while shouting something about calling dibs while Adam headed down the path for the auditorium.
Have fun!" Adam shouted as he started to vanish out of Tock's view.
"Whaur dae ye think ye'r gaun?!" Despite how Tyrian was trying to get in close, Tock decided correctly that stopping Adam from escaping was more important and tried to gun him down but that just gave Tyrian the opening that he needed.
"I'M SUCH A FAN OF YOURS!" Tyrian shouted as he got in close enough to strike with his claw-shaped wrist blades.
"Brothers Pumpin' Dammit," Tock said to herself in cold fury as she was forced to use the gun to block the hit, damaging it in the process. However, the weight of the gun also forced her assailant to take several steps back and allowed her to try and take account of the situation before her.
She didn't like what she saw, she was too late, everyone that she had come to help was already dead. She cursed herself for wasting so much time wandering around trying to find other members of the Lost Boys instead of going straight to someone in charge and asking where she was needed. If I had done that right from the start instead of wasting time finding and killing Peter when he was already a dead man…
Tock shook her head to bring herself back into the present, Adam was gone, her new gun was broken, and Tyrian was just standing there. So she dropped the gun and drew her blades before asking, "Whit's yer pumpin' problem 'n' whit's up wi' th' list? How come urr ye gaun efter young wummin?"
"Apologies ma'am," Tyrain said with a bow that quickly turned into a dodge as Tock took the opportunity to take a free swing at him. "I know that it is improper to court a married woman but the tales of your hunts-!"
Tock wasn't listening to his rambling but she was paying attention. She had noticed how he dodged her first swing, she noticed the way his knees bent, where his feet were planted, and how he had shifted his weight, and based on those observations she had predicted where he would go and placed her rapier there first and she had struck true. The tip of her rapier had touched the center of Tyrian's chest and silenced him for the moment but he was far from done.
The serial killer used his enormous scorpion tail to steady himself while rubbing the spot where Tock had stabbed him. Tyrian chuckled darkly to himself before switching his wrist blades to gun mode and opening fire on Tock while shouting, "MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE?"
His wrist-mounted guns were small caliber peashooters and dreadfully inaccurate but carried a surprising amount of ammo that it fired with rapid abandon. It was a trash gun, the kind designed to appeal to fools who thought that the rate of fire was the most important aspect of a gun. However, a bullet is a bullet regardless of how small it is, it was still capable of dealing some kind of damage which meant that it still needed to be taken seriously and the inaccuracy of the gun came with its own unspoken perks…
Tock winced in pain as she felt the sting of several bullets striking her skin. She was used to gunfire and had been trained to predict and see the path of the bullets, she could dodge and deflect them with minimal effort. But those wrist-mounted guns were unpredictable, the inaccuracy resulted in a spray that was terrible for hitting specific targets but excellent for hitting everything and nothing in an area.
"C'mon! Let's see that famed Semblance of yours! Let's see if your invincible shield can be pierced!"
"Whit urr ye havering aboot?!" She couldn't care less about what he was talking about, but maybe pretending to care might make her drop his guard.
Tyrian stopped firing, switched his weapon back to claw mode, and then held up his hand which was now glowing with his Aura. "My Semblance lets me ignore shields, both Hardlight and Aura are useless against me. But it doesn't break either, it simply bypasses it which means that any wound I deliver is rarely a killing blow but it often leads to one."
"Urr ye stupid? How come wid ye tell me this?" Her eyes glanced around looking for anything that she might use against this psycho. Can I take a rifle off of a corpse before the rigor mortis sets in? Or maybe I can grab a grenade off of a belt?
"Because my Goddess ordered me to enjoy myself and I am her most loyal of adherents!" he used his tail to vault himself at her and laughed like a maniac as the sparks of their clashing steel fell all around them.
"Sae ye juist wantae test yer Semblance against mines? That's sae stupid, 'n' whit aboot th' wummin? Whit dae thay hae tae dae wi' this?"
"Of course I want to test myself! Who wouldn't want to?"
"Whit aboot th' wummin?" I'm wasting my time with this psycho! But he's too fast to outrun and too dangerous to let escape, I'm just going to have to kill him.
"Why do you care about them?"
Tock lock blades with Tyrian before shoving him away and jumping back to create space. When she landed she kicked a rock toward him while answering, "How come dae a'm needin' a reason tae care?"
"Fair enough!" Tyrian spun around before crunching and getting low to the ground while maintaining the spin. He would occasionally whip his stinger to create a forward momentum that moved him towards Tock who cautiously and correctly took a step back and tried to decipher what she was looking at.
The result of his odd dance-like maneuver was that he became a whirlwind of deadly limbs, every rotation brought him closer to his target and thanks to that stinger he had no opening for her to take advantage of. Even worse was that he was clearly trained in how to avoid becoming dizzy or losing his target. By rotating his neck with the spin he could minimize the nausea while keeping a focus on her. And by switching his wrist blades to gun mode, he could deny her any advantage that distance could offer her.
Damage was unavoidable, that much was certain. So the question wasn't how to avoid it, but rather how to out-damage him. In that regard, Tock had a few ideas. If this bastard wants to go low then I'll go high.
She sent some Aura into her legs and leaped into the air, as she soared a few of Tyrian's bullets struck her but it did not slow her down and soon the bullets stopped coming… Tyrian could see what she was trying to do and while keeping up his momentum and spin, rose up to meet her as she descended.
His steel clashed with her's and the ground beneath his feet cracked from the force of the impact. He tried to push her back as she landed but was too slow and his claws while deadly lacked the reach that her swords had. But he didn't care, rather he was excited by it. He was excited that she was living up to his expectations but at the same time, there was something weirdly off, a trump card that she had yet to play despite basing her hyper-offensive fighting style around it.
At that moment he decided that he was going to solve that mystery and he knew how to accomplish it in only two steps. Step one, step in close and allow himself to be hit. Step two, as he was hit he would at the same time use up the bullets he had felt to get in a hit in return… and it worked. He only had about 11 shots left between both guns but all 11 shots hit Tock right in the Guts and they stung her.
Her Aura flickered but held as she swung in retaliation but he had already moved out of her range.
"Why aren't you using your Semblance?" Tyrian asked while taking a few more steps back just in case all of this was some kind of trick to make him lower his guard.
"Ah will tell ye whit, tell me aboot that list 'n' ah will tell ye how come. Deal?" There's a corpse behind him and a couple to my left. If I'm fast, I might be able to grab a sidearm or a grenade off of one of them.
"Geez, that's like the third time you've asked… though I suppose it can't hurt to come clean. I don't know anything about a list. But given how you specifically mentioned young women, I can guess what it's about; Do you know what a Maid-!"
"Juist git tae th' point!" She was edging towards the nearest corpse.
"Fine." Tyrian gave a little put before continuing, "All young women are candidates for a thing called Maidenhood and Oz wants to make sure that it goes to the best possible candidate. But we want to make sure that our preferred candidate wins." She's trying to get close to the corpses, what is she trying to do?
"Sae how come didnae ye juist git a guid candidate instead o' a loser wha wantit th' boost?"
"Pft-!" Tyrian put his hands over his mouth in a vain attempt to stop himself from laughing but soon all he could do was try and stifle the noise. And it wasn't too long before he couldn't handle that either… "WHAT!? Is that right? Maybe you're right? YOU'RE SO RIGHT! HAHAHAHAHA."
Meanwhile, Tock got close enough to the nearest corpse that she could look it over to see what she could grab. The first thing she spotted was a bandolier with a couple of grenades attached to it, a holster that she hoped still contained a sidearm of some sort and a walkie-talkie. A gun would be the best option but I wouldn't turn down a…-!
The sound of rapid footsteps heading right towards her tore her attention away from the corpse just in time to raise her blades to defend against Tyrian claws. Shit. I was hoping that he'd be distracted for just a few more seconds.
"Oh you clever girl, you're just as good as they said you were. It's no wonder why my Mistress was considering you for her council. But I asked you a question and I'd like an answer." Tyrain's voice was tainted with insanity, bloodlust, regular lust, and childish impatience.
Tock considered blowing him off, she really wanted to. But the smarter, more cautious side of her noted his madness and came to the conclusion that a bit of honesty was the best move here. "Fine then, mah Semblance requires a maist o' mah Aura tae activate. Sae ah kin ainlie tak' a few hits afore ah cannae activate it at a'."
A confused look came over Tyrian's face, "But what if you don't use it for the full minute?"
"Ah cannae juist caw it aff 'n' oan at wull. Tis either th' hail minute or hee haw."
That confused look morphed into what appeared to be disappointment, "Huh… I was sure that you of all people would have better control over your Semblance. Are you sure you can't or have you just never tried?"
"Na? How come urr ye even asking me this in th' foremaist steid? We wur fightin' tae th' death juist a few seconds ago." If only he wasn't looking right at me or was further off away, then I could grab something off of this corpse.
Tyrian didn't hear her, he was too busy muttering something to himself while getting ready to lunge at her. "Maybe she just needs that extra push…"
Tock raised her swords and braced herself for whatever this madman was going to do and she didn't have to wait long. Soon he was upon her, those steel claws and that stinger were coming at her at a speed that she could barely keep up with. It was a speed that put everything that Tyrian had done up till now to shame, a speed that required both him and her to burn their precious Aura to maintain and she didn't have much left.
"Your crew was here," Tyrain finally spoke up.
Tock didn't answer. She was putting all of her focus on this exchange and if he wanted to drop his concentration to have a conversation… well that was on him.
"Adam and I fought them back down in the forest. Would you like to guess how it went?"
She didn't have to guess. The fact that she was fighting Tyrian right now meant that her crew had lost. Turley, Mason, Cecco, she knew them for so long that she honestly had forgotten how they even met. Tyrian was trying to distract her, she knew this, and she knew that she shouldn't be allowing herself to be distracted, she knew that he was trying to rile her up so she'd make a mistake… and it was working.
"Ye'r a deid ma-!"
Tyrian saw an opening and landed a clean blow into her guts with his claw. But this one was different from the previous hits he had landed on her, this time he was using his Semblance and that meant that her Aura couldn't protect her. That meant that right now there was a hole in her guts and that her intestines were cut up, Aura could and would heal that but it would take time that she didn't have.
Tock fell to her knees and was using one sword to try and prop herself up whale pointing the other sword at Tyrian though it was more of a shallow show of defiance rather than a credible threat… and he knew it. He could see the blood sipping through her clothes and how the hit had knocked the air out of her despite her Aura mending the wound.
"I could kill you now."
"Juist huv a go it 'n' see whit happens." Her head was racing trying to find a way to pull a win out of this mess. It was running through her life seeking any lesson or word of advice that she could pull from and she did find something. She recalled a sparring match she had with Cecco not too long ago, she recalled a stupid maneuver that he had almost pulled off… Cecco failed because he didn't have a follow-up but, I do.
Tyrain walked towards her completely deterred by the blade pointed at him, "A fighter to the very end, if I let you go your Semblance will certainly evolve and I could get the fight I so desperately want… But my desire to please my Goddess is even greater. Stand Proud. You're strong."
Tock forced herself onto her feet, steadied her breath, mentally mapped out the area around, and then threw her swords at him just as he charged at her… Normally throwing your weapon is considered to be a stupid maneuver. It's predictable, without proper training it can be hard to hurt or even hit your target, and it leaves the thrower without a weapon. All of those points went double in the case of someone throwing a weapon without a means to retrieve them, like Tock.
But she knew what she was doing.
Tyrian didn't stop his charge as he swatted aside the first sword like she predicted that he would. But unbeknownst to him, the second sword was hidden right behind the first and thanks to his own charge, it was now too late to dodge or block that sword. The blade struck Tyrain right in his forehead and sent him stumbling to the ground with a yelp of shock, pain, and mild confusion.
As for Tock, she ran right to the nearest corpse of a soldier and used what Aura she had left to rip off their holster carrying their sidearm, then she yanked the pin off of a grenade without taking it off the bandolier, and then she picked up the corpse that still had a hot grenade attached to it and threw it right at Tyrian just as he was standing up.
"What the fuck!? I can appreciate fighting dirty but this i-!" The body collided with him and knocked him to the ground. "Desecrating the dead!? Even I wou-!"
*BOOM*
The grenade went off and engulfed the madman in an inferno as Tock watched with a pistol in hand ready just in case he was still alive, "Thare is na wey he cuid hae survived that."
Unfortunately for her, the universe was always listening and it was a bitch.
"You fucking bitch." Tyrain rose up like a demon emerging from the underworld, his voice was filled with malice and yet there was an odd misplaced sparkle of admiration in his eyes. The twisted snarling smile on his face seemed ignorant of the fire coating and burning away at his body now that it didn't have Aura to protect it… and yet he didn't seem to feel it.
"You fucking clever bitch," he took a step towards her and got down low so he could charge at her one last time.
*BANG*
Tock fired but he moved out of the way with the unnatural speed of a starving predator on the verge of a kill.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
The first shot hit nothing but air, the second shot was deflected by his claws, and the third shot hit him in the shoulder but did little to slow him down. His hunger grew as he rapidly closed the distance.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
The first shot hit him in the thigh causing him to fall but he was able to turn the moment into a roll that got him back on his feet. The second and third shots hit the ground and there was no time to make a fourth shot, she was already on her. His claws and stinger were ready to feast on their prey.
Tyrian's first slash knocked the pistol out of her hands, the follow-up cut was blocked by her fist intercepting the blade but it cost her valuable Aura to do so. A stab broke through her guard and shattered her Aura but she didn't falter, a second stab soon followed was knocked away by an elbow strike that turned into a punch into his jaw. A third stab grazed her side as she punched the bullet hole in his shoulder and he responded with a cut to her face…
The two continued their brawl in silence but there was a growl of frustration and excitement growing in Tyrian's throat. It was born from the knowledge that he should have had the advantage here, his wrist-mounted blades should have been a game changer in an exchange of fists… But he could feel himself being pushed back.
His claws were doing damage despite the explosion warping the metal, but it wasn't anything too serious. He just couldn't seem to land a killing blow that could put this wonderful predator down… Did I just think of her as the predator? Am I the one that's being hunted? AMAZING! SPECTACULAR! OH IF ONLY SHE HAD JOINED US! Though… I wonder how much further I can push her.
With that thought in mind, he went for another stab but she grabbed his wrist and refused to let go. He then leaned in close and whispered to her, "When I'm done with you. I'm going to cut off that pretty little head of yours. Then I'm going to find your hubby and show it off before doing the same to him and then I'm going after his family." Maybe that will push her over the edge.
He was right.
*CRUNCH*
Tock's hand that was holding onto Tyrian's wrist had shifted to his weapon and then closed around it. The sound they heard was the sound of her hand crushing his weapon. She did not just break his weapon, she ripped off one of the blades that helped form the shape of a claw and was now holding it like a knife. Her palm was being cut open by how hard she was gripping her new weapon but she was too pissed to care, she was too disgusted by Tyrian's bloodlust for the pain to matter to her. And she was too repulsed by his obsession with her to see him as anything more than a rabid beast that needed to be put down.
She then grabbed his other hand before using her new blade to stab through it, breaking his remaining weapon in the process all while ignoring his manic laughter as she did so.
But Tyrain wasn't done just yet. He yanked his hands free without any care for the damage he was doing to them and as he pulled away he used the momentum to slam his tail into her, fracturing several of her ribs on impact. All the while he never stopped laughing, he was having too much fun to care about anything else anymore. And the knowledge that he was doing this all for the sake of his Goddess just made the whole ordeal into pure ecstasy that was greater than sex or drugs. Right now the adrenaline pumping through his veins was giving him a greater high than even what the purest cut of cocaine could ever hope to accomplish.
As for Tock, she was running on pure instinct right now and that instinct was telling, no, it was screaming at her to finish him now and she agreed with it. There were no thoughts in her head as she ran towards him. There were no thoughts in her head when his stinger cut her shoulder. There were no thoughts in her head as a little bit of his venom entered her bloodstream and began doing whatever damage it could. There were no thoughts in her head when she reached him and began to violently stab into his back…
There were no thoughts in her head when she came in close and clamped her steel jaws around his neck. There were no thoughts in her head as her mouth filled with his blood. There were no thoughts in her head as she tore out his throat. And there were no thoughts in her head when his laughter finally stopped and the light of his wicked soul was finally snuffed out.
Tock fell to her knees utterly spent, her breathing was painful, her head was in a fog, her heart was beating out of her chest, and her body ached as though it was dying… but she would live. Her soul, her Aura would restore itself and as it did her body would recover, the healing process was going to suck but she would heal. All she had to do until then was rest and bask in the satisfaction known only to those who had pushed themselves to their limits and found something deeper within them to break past those limits. All she had to do was lie down and close her eyes for just a little bit, she earned it by killing one of Remnant's worst serial killers.
Instead, she forced herself onto her feet, found her swords, sheathed them, and then picked up a radio from a nearby dead soldier. "This is Tock. A'm reporting fae th' Emerald Forest."
She started shuffling back to Beacon as she awaited a reply. She didn't have to wait long.
"This is Lieutenant Sapphire, I already know who you are. The last thing we heard was that the troops stationed there were engaged with Adam Taurus and Tyrian Callows, what's the situation?"
"A'm sorry tae tell ye, bit they've bin wiped oot. Adam is alive 'n' heading tae th' auditorium. Bit Tyrian is deid."
"Fuck… But at least there's some good news. For now, you should get back inside and if you see anyone else out there, tell them to pull back and get inside as well."
Sapphire ended the conversation and Tock continued to walk determined to make a difference no matter how small it was.
She continued to walk and as she did… her soul underwent a metamorphosis.
Glynda Goodwitch, James Ironwood, and Penny Polendina moved cautiously through the hallways of Beacon. As they ran Glynda used her scroll to contact whoever she could either to ask for support or to get a status update. She even contacted people who weren't in Ozpin's inner circle, now wasn't the time to be picky. Besides, omitting certain pieces of information was easy.
Meanwhile, Ironwood had both of his revolvers drawn, he was the first to check every corner, every room they passed by, and every hallway they ran through. He was checking for enemies and the structural integrity of the path ahead, so far there had been no problems but that didn't make him feel better. Rather it did the opposite, things rarely worked out without a hitch and the lack of one made him fearful that they were going to get blindsided soon.
As for Penny, she quietly followed along and thought of her friends and how she'd be able to protect them once this was over… She avoided thinking about what might happen afterward.
"Clear!" Ironwood softly announced as they reached the final corridor. Just like he had said it was completely clear except for one spot that looked like it was hit by a rocket, and past that was the elevator that would take them to the basement and to the Fall Maiden. "Is everyone else in place?"
Glynda nodded, "Ozpin is already down there in the basement waiting for us. Meanwhile, Qrow and Maria are guarding the CCT, the White Fang seems to be aiming for it."
"That makes no sense," Penny remarked, speaking up for the first time since they began to head toward the basement. "They depend on the CCT just as much as everyone else. Why would they try to take down the whole system?"
Ironwood shook his head before stepping into the corridor and cautiously leading the procession to the elevator, "It doesn't make sense to me either. This isn't the sort of thing Sienna would order."
"Are you talking about the White Fang leader Sienna Khan?" Penny inquired.
"Yes. I don't know her personally but our forces have clashed plenty of times before and I've learned a lot about her from captured agents… She wouldn't do this, she wouldn't attack an Academy or punch a hole in the wall with a train… There's something going on within the White Fang. Something bad."
That answer made Penny worried, as the next Maiden she would certainly have to deal with the White Fang. She wasn't afraid to fight them but she was afraid that by fighting them she might make a bad situation worse.
Glynda noticed Penny's disposition and tried to distract her with some news, "By the way, your friends are also coming to help you."
"They are?"
"Yes. When I contacted Taiyang, he told me that they were all together and that all of them were worried about you and wanted to know how they could help. You're going to be alright, your friends have your back."
Penny smiled just a little, she was still understandably anxious about what was going on just outside and what would happen after all this was over and the end was drawing near. Right now they were walking past the scorch marks left behind by what they were assuming was a cheap rocket and after that was the elevator to the basement.
Suddenly Penny sensors went off, Warning: Intense Heat Spike detected! "Something's wrong!" The young girl suddenly said, trying to warn the others while also looking for the source of the heat.
"What is it?" Glynda and Ironwood asked at the same time.
"I don't know. But my Sensors suddenly detected a sharp increase in heat and I… think I found it." Her sensors had guided her eyes toward the scorch mark and now she was noticing that there were some glass-like objects embedded into the wall generating the heat. "What is th-!"
Suddenly there was a bright flash and a loud noise as though someone had tossed a flashbang right into her face. Gylnda shouted something to her and then Ironwood but she couldn't make it out. But she could feel herself being lifted off of the ground by some invisible force into a pair of waiting arms. One arm feels metallic and the other feels fleshy, it must be Ironwood so that probably means that Glynda lifted me with her Semblance.
As her vision and hearing slowly began to return she could see Glynda struggling against another woman as Ironwood pulled Penny into the Elevator leaving Glynda behind. And just before the doors closed, Penny noticed that the stranger was looking right at her.
The stranger's eyes were malicious and oh so very hungry. They were like that of a wolf finding a lamb trapped in some bushes, helpless and free for the taking… Those eyes scared Penny.
Author's Notes: Originally I had planned to have Rufio make an appearance in this chapter. The idea was that he would have his own section dedicated to him and that it would start with him killing a girl on the list and end with him attacking Jaune…But Tock and Tyrian are just so fun to write and their death battle was such a delight to imagine and put into words.
So then Rufio's section got merged with Adam's section with the idea being that the two run into each other while Adam is making his way to the auditorium… but that didn't happen either for the same reason why Rufio's solo section hit the cutting room floor. I also really wanted to bookend the chapter with Cinder's trap going off so in the end Rufio is just going to have to wait till the next chapter.
Speaking of the next chapter, I plan to open it by returning to the final section of this chapter but this time doing it from Cinder's POV.
P.S.
Before you ask… Yes. Tyrian does read JJK but he only does it because he likes the memes.