Chapter Twenty
When we got back to the glade, it was pandemonium. Ruby had stopped, staring at what she saw. The forest glade, maybe forty feet across, was now the center of a larger clearing, trees ripped up, cut down or blasted to pieces, in a two-hundred foot wide ring, creating a clear killing ground, if one littered with debris, slowing down the charging Grimm. In the center, the students desperately fought, gunfire ringing out, screams and yells of pain, anger, and fear carrying clearly.
Grimm surrounded them: Beowulfs, Creepers, Ursa, even one of the larger two headed snakes known as King Taijitu. However, as the enormous serpent pulled back, getting ready to lunge, an enormous, and familiar, stone spike shot forward, hitting it in the head, crushing it's skull, sending it backwards even as the head on its other end reared back in pain, only for a fireball to arc outward, hitting it right in it's opened, hissing maw, exploding that head as well. The creature thrashed, accidentally killing some of the smaller Grimm around it, even as I reached the others, Blake and Weiss hot on my heels.
The dark hordes were packed so tightly it was hard to see the ground, but we had our destination.
Some of the monsters were turning to us, pulled away from our classmates by closer prey. We didn't have time for a fancy plan, so we'd have to brute force it. "Weiss, can you make a ring of ice, pointed outwards, but the top open?" I demanded. The albino girl blinked, then nodded, expression firming. "Then do so."
A white glyph formed underneath our feet, the chamber on her revolver-rapier spinning to Ice Dust, and she slammed it down, the snap-crack of flash-formed ice sounding as she gave me the time I needed. "Nora, you know how you were disappointed there weren't any catapults?"
"We get to be the catapults!" she cheered, and I nodded.
"On my own, I'm not sure I could throw them, but together, we can. Yang," I directed, "You've got mid-air movement, so if we under-, or over-shoot, you can course correct." Squatting down, I pointed to Nora, then next to me, and she mirrored my position, facing me, already understanding what I needed, both of us lacing our fingers together in twin foot-holds.
"I guess I get ta ride you sooner than I thought," the blonde commented, nervous, flinching as the ice around us shook slightly, the Grimm slamming into it, but unable to break through. "Okay, let's do this."
She stepped up, and I called, "On three. One, two, three!" With a heave, both Nora and I stood, flinging the blonde up and in the direction of safety. Jumping up, manifesting my wings to get a better look, she almost made it, needing to fire her gauntlets to get the extra bit of distance, landing among her classmates, one of them catching her.
Looking down, I saw the Grimm were starting to gather around the flower of ice that protected my teammates, climbing over each other, as my people looked up at me, unaware. With a deep breath, I breathed out, twisting as I did so, expending my reserves as I rained down a circle of prismatic fire around us, melting some of the Grimm, and creating another layer of defense. I noticed that my fire didn't dissipate in the air like I'd worried, but dropped down, like napalm, onto my enemies.
Descending back down, pre-empting Pyrrha as I landed, I said, "We don't have much time. Blake, you're next. Nora, maybe ten percent stronger."
Both girls nodded, the Faunus quickly and delicately stepping up, before being hurled over the black lake of death. Jumping up, with a single flap, I saw she was on track to land, dropping and calling out, "Ren."
The boy hesitated, "I'll go las-"
"Did I stutter?" I cut him off. "Get on so we can go!"
He complied, and was hurled, Nora shooting me a thankful look, even as we dropped back into position. "Ruby."
"I," she started to object, likely with something about being a team leader, but, breath sparking I shot her a look, and she just said, "Okay."
She was sent flying, as I heard the ice starting to crack, and I commanded, "Weiss, reinforce the Ice. Pyrrha, you're next."
My partner nodded, quickly getting into position, and was launched right as our glyph-caster did her best, re-freezing the ice. She grimaced, stating, "It won't hold for much longer."
"Then get up so you can go," I told her, and, with a relieved smile, she stepped up, pausing as I counted and tried to admonish, "Don't look up my skiiiiiiiir-" as she was hurled.
There was an Ursine roar, and one of the spikes of ice was ripped away, revealing a pissed off Ursa, which I hosed down with my fire, even as Nora scrabbled for her weapon.
"Feet together," I commanded, voice a growl as I grabbed her tossing her up a little, and she complied, heels coming together with a click, as I moved to grab her soles of her shoes with one hand. "Ride your hammer the rest of the way," I directed before I, pushing as much Aura as I could into my draconic muscles, hurled the girl like a shotput, even as the ice cracked around me, and Grimm stormed in.
Breathing downwards with a roar as I leapt, wings flapping. A Beowulf lunged, jaws clamping down on my leg, even as the flames covering me melted it to nothingness. More lunged, even as the ones underneath them melted away, but I got out of range. A Nevermore the size of a horse swooped in for me, only for it to jerk backwards, head gone, Ruby covering me.
However, as I rose higher, all of the local airborne Grimm, seemed to twitch, focusing on me. I felt a shiver of fear, as the black crows of varying sizes, as well as two large griffon-looking Grim, all shrieked and turned about, starting to come for me. If I switched forms, I could handle them, but, if I did that, I might not survive what came next.
Turning and flapping as hard as I could, I arrowed towards safety, and, as if that was the signal, the Grimm took off as one, trying to catch me. There were only a couple between me and my team, and, with a breath, I took care of the first Nevermore. The second, a Griffon, reared up, talons out, in a move that would've been hard to dodge, had I been on the ground. Instead I dropped down, twisting to block its hind legs with my shield, the blow just pushing me further away from it, as I headed straight for Goodwitch, who was standing at the center of the camp, my teammates next to her.
Pyrrha's shot nearly parted my hair, and I heard the pained squawk of a Nevermore right behind me, my maneuver slowing me down enough for them to reach me. Trusting my teammates, I flapped just enough to set me on a ballistic course dismissed my wings, and dived. Goodwitch waved her crop, pieces of torn up lumber, each one looking sharp enough to impale me, rose into the air, and started to form a spinning cylinder, a purple, rotating circle of glyphs before her.
Pulling myself in tight, Ruby adding her fire to Pyrrha's, I was falling straight into the maw of the telekinetic woodchipper, having to trust Glynda, but it opened up, and I dropped straight through, even as it surged forward, the sound of impacts, shrieks, and tearing flesh coming from behind me as she decimated the airborne Grimm hot on my heels.
Coming out the other end, I tried to open my wings, to slow my fall, but my own breastplate seemed to press upwards, glowing blackly, doing most of the work, and letting me land lightly. Turning around I saw the remains of dozens of Grimm start to fall on the defenders, before being pushed back like an invisible explosion went off, showering the other attackers instead of our classmates with their corpses.
"So, teach," I smiled, relieved, and more than a little freaked out, not having really trusted her in the moment, but not having seen another option, "This normal?"
"No," the administrator replied stiffly, even as she turned away, sending a spear made of broken wood into the head of a Beowulf forty-five feet away as it tried to lunge at a student I didn't know, who was off-balance, their greatsword stuck into a Creep's head-armor. The student got it free in time to defend against another Creep, swinging low and taking it in the side, having learned their lesson. "It is not. However, it is by far not the worst I've seen. I will have to file a complaint, as the scouting team severely underestimated the severity of this infestation," she noted coldly. "You have arrived in the worst of it, but, Mr. Arc, once we dispatch of these, things should calm down. This is no Grimm Tide."
"Grimm Tide?" I repeated, not familiar with the term, never having heard it in the show.
With another wave of her crop, Cardin, who had over-extended himself, having slammed his mace down and created an explosion to blast back the Grimm, was pulled backwards as a Beowulf leapt forward, claws slashing through where his face would've been, giving his teammate, the one with the long sword, enough time to kill it and for Cardin to recover.
"Hmmm," Goodwitch hummed disapprovingly, "Note how the Grimm are attacking cautiously, instead of overwhelming us with their numbers?" Looking around I saw that, yes, they were doing exactly that. They'd gone straight for me, but for the other students, they were slower, going back and forth in a move-countermove fashion. Still dangerous, but, in this way, the others had a chance. "When they do not, they will have gathered enough to truly be a threat, but, unless something has truly gone amiss, there should not be enough Grimm in the area to do so. Nevertheless, I have called for an earlier retrieval, so we will only need to hold out for another forty minutes, instead of one hundred and ten."
"Forty!" I nearly shouted, motioning to the fighting, and at the handful of injured students nearby, bandaged but obviously having run out of Aura. "We need to leave now!"
Glynda shot me an annoyed glare, "Do not value me so lowly, Mr. Arc. Nor your fellow students. Cowardice has no place within a Huntsman, and you would do well to remember that. Now do make yourself useful, and allow me to keep your fellow students safe, if you feel things are that dire."
Turning her back on me fully, once again moving to save a student from a serious blow, I grit my teeth at the dismissal, and did the same, stalking over to my teammates. Yes, this might be enough for Huntsmen to handle, but we weren't Huntsmen yet. Hell, we hadn't even had two weeks of schooling under our belts. Letting out a long breath, I tried to set aside my anger, my rage at the complete dismissal, and focus on what was important.
Tried.
On an intellectual level I knew that this was, once again, her relying on her experience and dismissing me because she knew something and I didn't, but taking offense that I didn't implicitly trust her, and only gave me why she thought was confident, being that our combat capability, along with hers, was enough, after she got mad at me for not going along with what she said. On an emotional level, knowing why she was doing it didn't really help, as, once again, I was being blamed for violating an invisible, unexplained, and somewhat idiotic rule, and that rankled me more deeply than, honestly, it probably should.
Putting aside my anger, knowing it wasn't helpful, I took a centering breath, and figured out what to do if it all went wrong.
If worse came to worse, I could get me and mine to safety. It'd be revealing one of my trump cards, that being my pocket dimension, but it'd be better than letting them die. It'd open up questions I couldn't answer, and, in all honesty, would probably end with me having to escape Beacon before I was collared 'for my own good', or worse, 'for the good of all.'
I barely knew anything about Ozpin, other than he was powerful, old, was willing to manipulate people like Pyrrha to get an advantage, even if doing so mutilated her soul, and, most of all he hadn't won yet. That all added up to prime 'Some of you might die, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make' bullshit.
However that would be why it would be my last resort, and if some of the other students died before things got that bad, well, I was just 'trusting in my teacher', wasn't I? As long as they weren't my team, part of me didn't care, even if I knew that was wrong in a purely moral sense. But I hadn't taken responsibility for them, Glynda had, so that was her problem.
The only responsibility I had was to my own people, and even then, I still wasn't sure they wouldn't turn on me.
At least, not yet.
Biting out a dark laugh, I shook my head, even as Ruby, concerned, asked, "Jaune?"
Looking up, I saw the others staring at me, even if Weiss was pretending not to. "All right, team," I said focusing on what I could do, "GG says we all can handle this, ignoring the people who haven't, and, as you heard, evac's in forty. Anyone with experience with this sort of thing?" I asked, hoping to get some actionable advice other than 'go fight'.
However, all I got were head-shakes, Blake offering a, "Not this many against this many Grimm."
I'd been afraid of that. Ruby and Yang where from a small island, Pyrrha was a gladiatrix, apparently the White Fang didn't have to worry about Grimm that much, and Ren and Nora had been alone.
"Okay," I said, sighing, glancing around, only seeing one place where the defenders seemed spread thin. "Time to play Guardian Angel. Weiss, can you make and hold those floating glyphs?" She shook her head, and I revised the plan. "Okay, so, Weiss, go over there, and make a small ice platform for you and Ruby to stand on, no more than ten feet high, we don't want you to get mobbed by fliers," I glanced up at the mostly clear sky, "If more show up. You're both on ranged detail. Anyone's getting pressed too hard, thin their numbers, but, Weiss, pace yourself, and stop if you drop below thirty-percent Aura. Saving them isn't worth you running out, getting hurt, and needing to be saved yourself. More than that, you need a reserve if things get really bad."
The Schnee gave me a complex look, and Ruby grimaced, but nodded, taking her teammate's hand and running off to where I'd pointed. I turned to the next pair. "Blake, Yang, you work well as a team, and you're both high mobility. If anyone's in trouble, and especially if their aura breaks, I want you to swoop in and pull them out. Blake, your clones cost Aura, so same order I gave Weiss, but you can still fight without them. Yang, do not use your Semblance, you can't afford the cost when it ends. Go!" I ordered when the Faunus hesitated.
They backed up, looking around, Blake seeing someone and grabbing Yang's sleeve, tugging on it to get her attention, and both charged.
"Ren, Nora, you're used to working together, and are both high mobility too. You know more about this stuff than I do, so use your own discretion. Nora, remember you've only got so many grenades, and you can use that girl with the Static Semblance for a quick boost," I directed.
"Aye Aye, Mon Capitan!" Nora saluted. "Come on Renny, let's go whack some Grimm!"
"And us?" Pyrrha asked.
I nodded to the weak point. "We're going there. We've practiced fighting each other, think we could fight together?"
Pyrrha smiled broadly, despite the danger, "I do believe we can, Jaune."
DR
Swinging a flaming sword, I tore the Beowulf nearly in half, swinging my blade to the side to shove it into another even as I stepped to the side, twisting around as Pyrrha, right behind me, stepped forward to catch the next one in the throat with her spear, firing it to completely sever the creatures head, matching my own movement as I swirled back to catch an Ursa's claw on my shield that'd come in for her neck, her own shield bashing aside the Creeper that had jumped for me.
Stepping onto the front lines, things had gotten bad until I realized that the presence of my flame deterred the Grimm. Not giving us as much space as the others enjoyed, but it short circuited the kill instinct they seemed to have around me, something they hadn't had during my initiation exam. However, keeping the flame around was a danger to others, so, in a bit of inspiration, I'd coated my sword with it, keeping it stoked with my own reserves, and used it to fight.
It'd been nearly twenty minutes of constant combat, and, while I was still good to go, Pyrrha only slowing down a little beside me, my other classmates weren't so tough. Worse than that, the sounds of gunfire had increasingly tapered out, everyone running dry, even my partner on her last clip.
To our side, Lave, the bear Faunus, once again stepped forward, her spear splitting open into five parts, wires stretched between them. Once again, she flashed gold, her Semblance, which gave her a moment of invincibility, activating, and the Beowulf that lunged at her hit the razor-thin wires, weak normally, but unbreakable now, cutting itself to pieces. She stepped back, glow fading, breathing hard, as her partner, Quinn, stepped in to protect her from the next Beowulf, holding it off before she could step forward, spear catching it in the eye-socket, dropping two Grimm in quintuple the time it took us to do the same. My own sword cought a Creeper and tossed it into a Beowulf, fouling its swing, letting Pyrrha step in and dispatch it, my partner not breathing hard, but certainly stressed.
Weiss's support came sparingly now, likely whenever the girl's Aura recovered enough for her to manage a single icicle, and Ruby's bullets were even rarer, but, to my pleased surprise, she hadn't decided to starting mixing it up with the Grimm on her own.
I didn't know about the others, not having time to pull back, but I had to assume they were still okay, though I hadn't heard the sound of Yang's weapons for several minutes. From the side came a commotion, and I warned, "Back," Pyrrha twisting behind me as I breathed out a cone of flame in front of us, carefully trying to conserve it, but needing the time to see what was going on.
With the Grimm in front of us melted, and the others suddenly hesitant, I leapt upwards as hard as I could, manifesting wings to get a little more height to see what it was.
Something was tearing through the Grimm, trees breaking to reveal it to be an enormous hound made out of pure black wood, but before I could panic, I noted that, not only did it have no white armor, only a single white mound on its head, but its eye sockets were completely black. Furthermore, the twenty-five-foot-tall not-Grimm had an odd patch of several colors on its back.
As a Griffon descended at it, and a long, blood red tendril shot from the white shape, tearing a wing off, I realized it was Professor Peach. Glynda was already commanding, "Clear a path," as Ruby and Weiss started to fire rapidly, and others moved to help.
I wanted to go over and assist as well, but, looking down, half the defenders had already pulled back to do just that, leaving us exposed even as the Grimm, far less than when we'd started, but still several dozen, started to stalk forward, Pyrrha, as well as a couple others, already furiously fighting.
Dropping down, I yelled, "Defend!" landing on an Ursa, killing it, as some of those that'd pulled off quickly rejoined us, holding the monsters back. I had to breathe a few more times, dropping my reserves below a third of my max to hold them back, the flames, while strong deterrents, damped with every Grimm they burned, my initial burst almost already out.
The fighting hit a fever pitch, before the hound, now with only the Professor on it, started tearing through the ranks with abandon, crushing Beowulfs and Creeps under its thunderous paws, jaws, with teeth like wooden spikes, tearing into Ursa, as the other students returned to the fight, and, in just a few minutes, we were done, the space around us black with Grimm corpses several feet deep, dissolving in a thick haze of corruption.
The relief was almost palpable in the glade as I rejoined my teammates, taking out my Scroll to get hard numbers. I was down to fifty-two percent Aura, having taken a number of hits, especially in the beginning; Yang was in the fifties as well; Blake was in the mid-thirties, likely from using her Semblance; and Pyrrha was in the eighties, most of the damage having been covering for me before we'd started to sync up.
Glancing at Yang's wrists, the strings of shells that normally fit into her weapons were missing, and I had to assume Blake was in a similar position. Looking around, out of the original eighty students, one in three had been injured in some way, though thankful none of mine were.
"-telling you we need to leave," Peach said, good nature gone, her dog-wood-thing laying down by the side of the clearing, as she looked over the injured, pulling out small darts from her clip-board and pressing them into the injuries of some of the wounded. "There's more. Something's riled them up, and while I'd love to study whatever it is, not during an escort."
"We did fine here!" Cardin objected, shrinking back a little as Peach turned to glare at him, before looking back to Glynda.
"You mean a. . ." the Vice-Principal asked, getting a firm nod from the Professor. "Very well." Turning, she motioned with her crop, the area clearing even as bits of wood started to pile together, fusing, starting to form basic walls, while she slipped out a scroll from under her cape. "Students," she directed, "if you have any way to create fortifications, do so. How much time?"
"Three minutes?" Peach shrugged helplessly.
Glynda sighed, putting the scroll to her ear, "And Bullheads will take nine, from when I contact them." She paused, then dictated into the device, "This is Goodwitch, we have a code black situation, bring four bullheads, armed, to my location for a hostile evacuation. . . Now, Commander," she chided, hanging up, looking around at the rest of us, and asking, "Is there something you could be doing?"
Our classmates started to run around, trying to find something, even as my team formed up with me. "I could maybe freeze something?" Weiss suggested, looking to Ruby, both of them unsure.
"All of our Semblances are destructive," I said, "And your ice is only good in the moment, unless you can use Rock Dust?"
"I can, I just don't have as much practice," she argued, a little petulantly, but mostly just nervously.
I looked to Ruby, "Her Aura?"
Ignoring Weiss proclamation that she had 'enough', the team-lead checked her scroll, telling me, "About twelve percent."
"You said to wait until things got bad. I thought helping the others get to safety counted!" Weiss sniffed, folding her arms, but obviously knowing she'd messed up.
"We'll talk risk management later," I said, looking around. "Pyrrha's the only one who could help, but unless there's some nearby iron deposits, that's a no go. Everyone take a few to recover, and we'll see if we can hold. If we don't. . ." I hesitated. "I might have a plan, but I'd rather not."
"We can't leave the wounded!" Ruby gasped, misinterpreting my, admittedly vague, statement.
"Let's hope we don't need to, then," I replied, launching myself upwards to see what we were in for.
It wasn't good.
From the direction Peach had come, the entire forest seemed to be shaking, and I could see larger Grimm peaking up through the trees. The tails of several Deathstalkers were visible, as well as long, thin limbs that seemed like they should belong to enormous spiders, but, in the 'middle', was a forty-foot-tall humanoid Grimm, easily visible over the trees, with three shining eyes in the middle of its forehead, forming a glowing red triangle.
Dropping down, I told Glynda who just nodded. "Shelobs and a Triclops. Thank you," she said. "Is there anything else?"
I hesitated, asking, full of dread, "Should I try to buy you some time?"
She paused, turning to face me. For once, her tone wasn't harsh, or chiding, but soft, almost conciliatory. "Mr. Arc, if you try to fight a Tide on your own, you will die, large Aura reserves or no,"
Shaking my head, I insisted, "I know that, but, I should be able to hit them once, hard. I'll come back, but. . . I might not be in much shape to help with the defense. Should I do so?"
The teacher looked at me for a long moment, before she nodded. "Yes, Mr. Arc. As long as you can return. I have not lost a Freshman in all of my time assisting in these trips, and I do not wish to start now."
"I'll try to keep your record, Teach," I smiled, nervous, and turned to fly over to Weiss, even as Goodwitch went back to forming the walls. The albino looked up, even as I touched down, as I asked, "Do you have any Hard-Light Dust?"
She blinked, before shaking her head, "No, I don't use it," flinching when I swore.
Turning to the class I yelled, "Anyone have Hard-Light Dust?"
No one did, which made sense, as it was expensive, the few that did having run out of their stores during the fight.
"Okay, plan B," I said to myself, turning on Weiss, "Do you have any Fire Dust?"
"I do!" she quickly said, relieved, and oddly nervous, reaching behind herself to pull out a canister of it, handing it to me. "But, you barely know how to use Dust, Jaune, and, while it can be explosive, it's currently inert."
A grinned, "Let me worry about that. Be right back." And, with a flap of my wings, I was up and gone. Basic fortifications were being thrown up, Glynda and Peach constructing wooden walls as fast as they could, the first by pressing the material together hard enough it fused, the second by seemingly growing it, using her dog as a base for one side of the pentagon, but it was slow going. The other students, like Charlie, were doing their best to help too, stacking stones, but they were only half done, and the Grimm were only a minute or two away.
Flying, I dropped down through the trees ahead of the Tide, out of sight of the rest of my class. I hadn't tried this yet, but I'd need every ounce of power I could muster. Full Dragon would see me peek up out of the trees, just like the monsters, only moreso. However, my halfway form was only ten feet tall, the size of an Ursa, maybe more. That would fit very nicely, and it would keep me from breaching the cover of the branches.
Even now, in the distance, I could see the Grimm closing, the Beowulfs and Creepers a black, white, and red mass of malignance.
Flicking the mental switch, my form shifted and grew, my clothing disappearing while the vial of Fire Dust seemed to shrink in my hand. My inner reserves of fire seemed to grow exponentially, not just in size, but in depth, becoming more real in ways that were hard to describe.
My tail, long and sinuous, flicked behind me, and I closed my eyes, focusing, activating the Dust in my clawed fingers, the hardened glass shattering as I gripped it tight, painting my hand red, though it didn't pierce my scales. Flaring my wings, the tops of which brushed against the crimson leaves, the familiar feeling of Burn started to run through me, more, and more, and more, and more, and I wondered if I'd made a mistake.
A single grain, as a human, had burned hot and left my throat warm, unpleasant, but not that bad in the scheme of things.
I must be holding close to a hundred.
I'd assumed that, with the shifted form, I'd be able to handle it, but it was interacting with my enhanced flames in ways I didn't understand.
Too late now, I thought, as the condensed essence of BURN poured up through my long neck, and I fell to my hands and knees, claws digging in.
I opened my jaws, roaring as hell poured out.
Flames, red as blood and feeling as hot as the sun streaked out, meeting the leading edge of the Grimm Tide, the those elements disappearing completely as I let loose, turning my head back and forth, covering a large swath in front of me, obliterating everything, but the fire wouldn't stop.
I did my best to hold on, no longer in control, streaks of pain running through me, lips blistering, as I continued. I knew my own fire wouldn't hurt me, but, with the addition of Dust, this wasn't my fire anymore.
Finally, after almost a minute, the deluge of flames petered out, and I dropped to the ground, gasping for cool air, every breath dragging daggers down my throat. Following my instincts, I shifted to a smaller form, my injuries shrinking as I did so. I turned over as my body warped and twisted, my scroll shrilling its alarm as soon as it re-formed, warning me I was down below thirty percent Aura, and I blindly clicked it, trying not to black out.
Struggling to my feet, throat still feeling like it was burning, I staggered, looking at what I'd done. For close to half a mile, there was no more forest, the ground glowing molten yellow, slowly cooling to red. The trees that I'd missed, well, the closest once were just gone, but the others, a hundred or so feet back, were on fire.
On the other side, at the edge of the blast zone, was the Triclops, forearms burned as it lowered them from its face, but it was otherwise intact, staring balefully at me.
Arms shaking, I lifted a single fist, and flicked it off.
The Grimm waited, a single Beowulf trying its luck, only to fall in what I was fairly certain was fucking lava, screaming as it dropped into the ground by a several feet, struggling forward as it burned to death.
After it died, dropping below the surface, the Tide started to move, splitting into two groups, making their way around the edge. Small and large, Beowulfs, Creepers, Ursas, weird porcupine things, Deathstalkers, and twenty-foot tall spiders that must be the Shelobs, they all moved, almost as a singular entity, splitting up, likely so I couldn't pull this off again, not that I was in any state to.
However, the Triclops, staring, took a single step forward, sinking knee deep into the cooling lava, and didn't so much as flinch. The implied 'fuck you too' just made me laugh, a touch hysterically, which hurt, a lot. With nothing else I could do, I turned, wincing as I switched over to my winged form, and took flight.
I'd done what I could, now it was time to see if the others could pull it off. And if they couldn't, then I was going to have to take everyone Home, and deal with consequences later.