I felt someone tapping on my shoulder, so I stopped my aura circulating meditation and turned around, only to see Mary with concern on her face.

"What's wrong, Mary? Is Dalia being annoying again?".I was mostly joking, but Mary's concerned look didn't let up.

"I can hear a bunch of guards headed this way, a lot more than usual. I think that something bads gonna happen Osman." Her big green eyes were watery as she said this, so I strained my fox ears to listen for any approaching guards. I could hear about forty approaching our pen, which is…. shit, its bad. Very bad.

"Thanks for telling me, Mary. Don't look so down, it seems that we'll be breaking out soon", I said, with a shit eating grin. It was fake, but it seemed to reassure her, so it did the job. "Can you get the other kids and hide in the corner? I'll gather everyone else."

"Okay…. but be careful." She said it so earnestly that I had to listen. I only smiled in response, patted her on the head and looked to Malik and the other fighters. They only nodded at me with determination in their eyes, so it seemed that they already knew what was about to happen. I made my way to the corner with the other younger kids.

"I'm gonna fight, Osman. I don't care what you say", Bernard growled out. I saw a few of the other kids nodding their heads in agreement, so I could only sigh and shake my head ruefully.

"Alright, but there's no way you're jumping into the fray first. If you look in the corner, there's a bunch of daggers that Mr Mohican has gathered over the years. Only strike when you see an opportunity, alright?". I saw a few nods in my direction, including one from Dalia, who already had her hands on one. I turned to her and gave her a hug, which slightly surprised her. "Dalia, please be careful. And listen to whatever I tell you, okay? We're finally getting out of here." She struggled in my grip so I let her go, but she was smiling at the same time.

"Only if you're careful. And make sure to make them suffer!". I'd be taken aback, but I know that's she's developed a vindictive streak in her time here, for which I can't blame her. Who wouldn't? They gathered in the corner, with the strongest kids in front of the ones who needed help. I've trained Dalia yet I didn't fancy her chances here, so I was glad to see her in the back. I turned to the older fighters, who were already in position in front of the door. Most of the adults were at the sides of the entrance to the pen, with Mr Mohican and Malik directly in front of it. Mr Mohican had chains wrapped around his knuckles, while Malik had two daggers brandished at the entrance. The other adults also had one or two daggers pointed at the door, so I grabbed two of my own, leapt up to the ceiling and took out the lights. Humans can't compare to us in the dark, after all. I held onto the ceiling and waited.

"What the fuck dude, why are the lights in there out? Is the generator acting up?", I heard an approaching guard say. I recognised her voice as guard #203, who likes to rough up some of the females in the other pens. I heard her and the other guards fumble around for flashlights, but it sounded like only three of them had one. Good. We'd still have the opportunity.

"What are you so scared of? Its just a bunch of animals, who cares if they can see better in the dark. Theres forty of us, plus they're in restrictors", said what sounded like guard #156. He was always a haughty one, and his bravado bolstered the rest of the group.

"Yeah, but that fox freak is in pen #7. What if he bites my face or some savage shit?". This caused ripples of amusement to spread through the guards. "Plus, there's that elk. He's been here the longest."

"You're worried about nothing, Kelly. They don't have weapons or aura, so the most you'll have to worry about is a couple scratches. We even have some huntsmen with us. And besides, the big bosses want to see the little fox entertain. We can't put it off any longer, so we'll have to separate them."

I had to hold back a growl. I know human hearing isn't as good as ours, but I don't want to give away that we've caught on to them. Ilia figured this out as well, so she pretended to cry loudly in the corner.

"You hear that? You're worried about nothing, you idiot. How long has it been since you've had stress relief anyway? I hear that tiger in pen #9 has caught your fancy, you zoophile".The ripples of amusement turned into loud laughter, with guard #203's indignation clear to hear. I heard guard #156 move his hand to his key ring, which audibly jangled. I could sense everyone tense.

We either escaped now, or die trying.

"Oi, you animal fucks! Line up against the wall!". He inserted the key into the lock, and everyone in the pen held their breath. It took three agonising seconds for the key to be inserted properly, and another two seconds for him to turn it. He swung the door open, and stepped inside with a few others, who clearly couldn't see where we were positioned.

Before he could say anything, I dropped from the ceiling and slit his throat. While his body was still falling, blood gushing from his open neck, I leapt at the three others in the cell and did the same. Mr Mohican took this opportunity to barrel out of there and crack some skulls, while Malik preferred to target their eyes. It may have taken a few seconds for them to react, but eighteen of the guards were already dead. They did manage to quickly fall back and rally, which was followed by the rest of the fighters pouring out of the pen with a roar and savagely attacking. It was loud, but it seemed like no other guards were coming. Perhaps the VIPs were already here, which meant that the rest would be surrounding them near one of the arenas. Regardless, I'd kill them if I got the chance to.

I leapt from guard to guard, going primarily for throats but also stabbing any exposed parts, until I heard something whooshing towards my head. I quickly moved my head to the side, only to see a few of my hairs were singed. I leapt forwards at the same time I felt the heat blossom behind me, eyeing the line of guards. I saw what looked like huntsmen running along the flanks of the group towards Malik and Mr Mohican, but I didn't change my path. The two of them could keep the huntsmen busy for a short while, but the shooters with dust ammunition would make short work of the rest of the group, so I bolted towards them. Thankfully, all of them decided to target me instead, but my rapid approach led to loss of composure and all of their shots missed.

I noticed two of the huntsmen break away from fighting Mr Mohican and Malik to head towards me, yet they wouldn't arrive in time to save the lives of the shooters. I kept eye contact with the foremost guard, who I recognised to be #177, and I didn't break it, even when I plunged my knives into both of his. I took the sword from his belt and threw it towards the approaching huntsmen, buying me a couple more seconds to make short work of the shooters. And make short work of them I did, since they bled out in mere seconds. One thing I noticed about myself is that I always aimed to inflict the most blood loss possible, which is pretty weird, since it isn't a conscious thing. Not most of the time, at least.

I snatched some weapons off of the fallen guards and threw it at the nearby huntsmen, distracting them enough to allow me to pick up two of the rifles and fire them at once. I focused every bullet onto the huntsmen, trying to whittle down their aura so that the others could deal the final blow. They were almost finished with the rest of the guards after all, with there being only two casualties on our end so far, two of the adults who the huntsmen beheaded. I didn't bother reloading, so once I ran out of ammo, I threw the rifles at the huntsmen and picked up more to shoot with. Verde joined me in shooting them, so I made sure to keep out of their reach, at least until they were out of aura. The first huntsman, a short redheaded woman in her late twenties wearing light armour was the first to have her aura broken. The other huntsmen quickly tried to prevent what was about to happen, but there was no stopping the hail of fire dust bullets that cut through her body like a hot knife through butter.

The area fell silent for what seemed like forever, until the moment was disturbed by the sound of her body hitting the floor. The guards tried to take this moment to strike at my compatriots, but Bernard managed to dispatch any of them within striking distance. The huntsmen, however, all seemed to lose their cool and charged at us screaming, so we didn't let up on my hail of bullets. Thankfully they were moving to the sides of the crowd, so it was easy enough to avoid shooting at my fellow faunus. Mr Mohican took the opportunity to choke out the huntsman closest to him, a large east Mistrali man who wielded a humongous mace.

"Malik, trip up the other two! Osman, Verde, focus fire on me!", he bellowed at the top of his lungs. The huntsman in his grip widened his eyes and struggled, but nothing could stop us from drowning him in another storm of bullets, which I kept up until his aura started flickering. Mr Mohican did the rest by grabbing his head and twisting hard. A loud cracking sound echoed through the hall, which prompted the few remaining guards to start running for the exit. Wan and Rin, along with a couple of the adults and Bernard prevented their escape, rapidly cutting down the fleeing guards. I noticed that the two monkey faunus were certainly not enthusiastic about it, but Bernard was borderline excited.

I was out of any useable rifles at this point, so I pilfered a couple of short swords from the bodies of the fallen guards and joined Mr Mohican and Malik in pinning them in. Thanks to our efforts, their aura wasn't at one hundred percent either, so they were clearly nervous. Malik had a bloodthirsty grin while Mr Mohican seemed extremely calm. His antlers had blood on them from when he headbutted some guards and the sight of them was magnificent, in my personal opinion at least. I glanced at the door to our pen, where the weaker kids including Dalia were hiding. They hadn't come out yet, so it seemed the situation was manageable.

That was until one of the huntsmen, a tall bald man with a blue beard and a nasty scar on his jaw stated to glow, with each of his veins lighting up. His companion turned towards him in shock, and Mr Mohican braced himself along with Malik. I lowered myself to the ground in anticipation.

"Davis, what the fuck are you doing!? Do you want to blow us all up?Control your semblance, for fucks sake!", screamed the other huntsman, a skinny blonde man in glasses. The other huntsman only glowed brighter in response, before turning to his companion with a sincere smile.

Fuck you, Ian. Look around. We're clearly gonna die down here, so I may as well take you out along with the rest of these beasts."

"What the fuck!? Why!? What did I do to you!?"

"You left your scroll unlocked. I saw what you and Amy have been sending each other, so I've been planning some payback. This is the last chance I have of taking you out myself, so I'll gladly do it. I'm gonna die with no regrets, you stuck up cunt!"

The ridiculousness of what he said froze me for a split second, yet I was jolted into action by hearing the jingling of Maliks collar as he retreated.

The one called Davis smiled and grew brighter. All of us ran away as fast as we could, so fast that I'm pretty sure we must have broken some kind of record, but it didn't seem to be fast enough. I saw Dalia stick her head out of the pen and into the corridor in confusion and I dived toward her to shield her, pushing her and the other kids back into the room. I don't know where the other fighters were at that moment, but Mr Mohican dived in front of the door and barred it shut with his large frame.

The huntsman ignited into a dazzling flame, then with a final yell he exploded.

I saw the flames consume Mr Mohican but it didn't leave him fazed, even as his body burned. The kids screamed, but I shielded them in the corner with my back turned towards the entrance. I felt someone else join me in protecting them, their larger frame providing us with more protection. The entire world seemed to shake, and the flames were licking my own back, causing me to growl in pain. At that moment I heard an object flying in our direction, launched by the immense pressure of that bastard's goodbye, so I stretched out my arm to block it from reaching the kids huddled in the corner.

I succeeded by managing to divert the object. Unfortunately, it diverted my left arm from my body. Time seemed to slow down even further, and I could see that the object in question was one of the daggers that Mr Mohican had snuck into his cell. The kids cried out, with Dalia trying to move towards me. I couldn't have them wasting my effort however, so I pushed them back into the corner and embraced them tightly. The pressure seemed to keep on growing all the while, and I could feel my old wounds reopening, until something hit my head and I blacked out

"…Osman… help me…"

Even as I lay dying in the same room, I had to strain to hear Dalia's voice. I'm grateful for her cry for help because I feel a pulse from within my chest, with the blood pooled around me beginning to rise, my wounds healing in the meanwhile. I hear new guards streaming into the hall, but their cries of concern no longer bother me as I'm enveloped in red. I know deep down that this will all be over soon.

I emerge from the cocoon of blood and look around. With the exception of Mr Mohican, I can see that everyone else in the pen is alive, albeit injured. I have an instinctive understanding of my semblance, of how I can use it to heal and kill at the same time. My other power also comes springing out of my soul, a single glare at the new guards rendering them all unconscious. I reach out with thin tendrils of blood to each of the survivors in my pen, contentedly watching as their wounds rapidly healed. I saw a few of them stirring. It seems that fortune was on our side as only one us of died before I could heal them, an older snake faunus by the name of Edward Black, who also threw his body into the corner to protect the youngest of us.

I gazed at my left arm, noting the missing part of me, then looked to the corner where it lay. It was twitching unnaturally towards me like it was eager to rejoin the whole, so I obliged it. I walked over quickly, aware of the others in the pen gazing at me in bewilderment. I even saw Malik, who looked worse for wear, finally stumble into the pen while clutching his eye. Clearly, I had more healing to do, but my hand would come first. I picked it up and stuck it on, watching in fascination as my blood streamed around the cut and glowed faintly. The sensation was by far the strangest feeling I've ever experienced in any life. It was pleasurable and painful, the pain subsiding in exchange for the worst pins and needles I'd ever felt. I looked on as the feeling subsided and the stream of blood retuned to my body, leaving not even a scar.

"That's a fucking crazy semblance dude, mind helping me out with… this?". He pointed to his closed eye, so I reached out to him with a tendril of blood and worked my magic. A few seconds later, he opened his eye with a big grin on his face. "What else can you do with your blood by the way? Cus we need to escape right now, and you don't have long to figure it out. Can you get our restrictors off?" he queried while shaking his cuffed wrists at me.

I then looked over to Mr Mohicans corpse, a heavy feeling of guilt almost sending me reeling. Had he been somewhere else, had I awakened my semblance earlier, had I done even one thing differently, he'd still be here. I had just regained the memories of my first life, and I had rarely ever met individuals of his quality. I looked to the only things remaining of him that were whole, his chain and his horns, and I picked them up. I'm sure that the best way to honour him is to use his items like he intended, so I wrapped his chains around my knuckles and picked up his horns. They were heavier than I expected.

If I focused I could feel everyone around me, through both observation and the nifty little fact that no one could hide their blood. As the seconds ticked on, I could feel my understanding of my potential grow greater, so I started to experiment. With a gesture I felt the unconscious guards twitch, but the blood in their bodies didn't obey me. I tried again, concentrating on the sensation of their blood flowing around their bodies. I focused even further, directing the shape and current of the blood flow in their bodies until I could feel it about to burst out them.

The remainder of our group gasped, with some of them covering their eyes. I couldn't blame them. Seeing blood violently erupt from the bodies of the fallen must be harrowing, regardless of their feelings towards the dead. The blood streamed towards me in alluring ruby rivulets, coalescing into a river circling my waist. I could sense the possibilities within it, with the healing and defence aspect of my power coming to me instinctively. With a small flex of my will some of the blood left the stream and took the shape of a dagger with strange hexagonal imprints along the blade. I could sense its fluidity, yet running my finger along the blade revealed its sharpness. I flicked my finger and watched it rocket towards the wall, which it easily pierced. I reached out towards it and watched it flow back to me. It was noticeably diminished, yet I had the feeling that if it was my own blood I attacked with I wouldn't face this problem.

Malik was still looking towards me expectantly, so with a small grin I obliged his request. Everyone looked at the scene with wide eyes as the blood enveloped Maliks chains before shearing them off. Hearing the cuffs clatter on the floor broke everyone out of their stupor.

"ME NEXT!" Dalia cried as she rushed towards me, closely followed by the gaggle of the youngest that were hidden in the corner. They weren't the only ones however, as everyone present began to crowd me. It was hard to hear what everyone was saying individually, but I could guess.

They wanted freedom.

I helped out Dalia first, ensuring that I was careful since she's so young and has no aura. Once I got them off I made sure to heal the raw skin below the cuffs, so that she would have no physical reminder of her time here. Seeing her stare wide eyed at her unencumbered wrists for the first time she could remember made me feel… happy. The anger that simmered within me since my arrival here was slightly lessened. Our time here was about to be over.

Mary came next. She couldn't stop crying once they came off but I couldn't blame her. Watching her embrace Dalia and jump around in excitement was heartwarming beyond belief, and I couldn't keep the grin off my face when I helped out everyone else there. Bernard looked at his wrists in what almost seemed like confusion, while Wan and Rin were… roaring? Dylan was actually having an animated conversation with Ilia. His voice struck me as particularly soft and melodious, so I was glad to have heard him speak for the first time. Malik just stretched in place with contentment on his face, throwing in little exercises here and there while a golden aura surrounded him.

The remaining adults there thanked me as well, with all three of them offering to help me and Dalia out once we escaped. Of course, that was contingent on us breaking out of here, with the corpses of the guards around us reminding me we weren't quite home free. I turned to Malik with a question of my lips, but he seemed to have anticipated it.

"I can teleport to any location within one hundred miles, but I'll only be able to carry two at a time. If needed I can carry more or go further, but then I can't accurately determine where we'll end up.I'll need to make seven trips with a few minutes in between. If you give me a bit more time to find a suitably hidden location to teleport everyone to, it should take an hour to get us all out of there. Longer if you want everyone else in the other pens to escape as well." He tried to act nonchalant, but I could see that the gravity of the situation was getting to him.

Everyone present heard, but before they could begin clamouring for a spot one of the adults, an ibex faunus who went by Cyan managed to get everyone's attention with an ear piercing whistle. I'd have criticised him for making a loud noise but the guards were certainly already on their way, so I let him have it.

"I know everyone wants to be the first out of here, but we should let the youngest and weakest of us leave first. That way we all have the best chance, no?" Though he didn't speak with conviction or authority, his words struck a chord with everyone else. They looked at Mary and Dalia, who seemed nervous and indignant respectively.

"No, I'm not leaving until Osman leaves! He's my brother, plus he can protect me and everyone else!", she huffed with childish stubbornness. I'd ask her to leave first, but truthfully, I don't want her out of my sight for as long as possible. Perhaps it was selfish, but given the depths of the gift that creature has given me I feel far more comfortable with her by my side.

Malik turned towards me with a raised eyebrow.

"Just so you know, it'll take longer to recharge between teleports if someone is actively resisting them, even if they're the shortest one here. Maybe its best she goes along with you. I'm willing to bet you two will last the longest, especially if you can make the guards collapse again. Can you do that again? Cut the blood flow from their brain or whatever it was that you did?"

I wasn't going to explain haki to him since it wasn't an ability native to this world, so I simply nodded and flexed my aura. Its deep red colour bathed the room in a crimson light, but I didn't feel tired. It was like I sucked the energy from the blood I stole from the fallen.

"Dalia and I will go last. Mary, Dylan, you two go first. Bernard and Ilia will go after, followed by Wan and Rin. As for Lapis, Cyan and Verde, I'll let you decide among yourselves."

My statement was received with tentative nods, but no one verbally disagreed. Dalia was torn between throwing a childish insult at Malik for insulting her height or simply being satisfied that he agreed with her. I saw Verde, a reserved eagle faunus who everyone else called Hawkeye, walk over to the dead guards and rummage through their rifles and ammo before speaking up.

"I think its about time we broke everyone else out of their pens and arm them with whatever is available. We need strength in numbers, because if we fail here, we die." The apparent lack of concern with which she said that surprised me momentarily, but I quickly shook it off. She was right, plus leaving everyone else down here would leave a bad taste in my mouth. I shudder to think of the creative new punishments the bosses would come up with to vent their frustrations.

There was also the Grimm to consider but I doubt the guards would release them outside of the arenas as they have no method of controlling them. I also had to consider any breaches in the defence of the Tower of Sin that would be caused by our escape, as this place would surely have beefy defences due to being a hotspot of negativity. I glanced at Malik once again, who had his hands on Mary and Dylans heads. He'd be ready to leave soon.

"Regardless, we have to think the situation through. The guards mentioned that the bosses wanted to see little Dalia fight. That means that the VIP's are currently here, no?" muttered Lapis, a female cat faunus with blue hair. "If that's the case, I want access to the Tower's computer system. I'm sure there's some interesting info on there. I mean, don't you want to know who's funding this place? And who exactly sent us here?"

I considered it for a moment. "Will you be able to access it?"

Lapis smirked. "No system is able to keep me out for long. As long as you can get me there safely, I'll be able to get the information we need. Plus, I can fight any of the guards that you somehow miss, but given the shit you've just pulled off, that seems… unlikely". At this point she had a shit eating grin on her face, and looking into her eyes revealed what was on her mind. It was the same thing that was on everyone else's thoughts.

Revenge.

"Malik, will you be able to teleport to us as we move through the tower? I imagine you'd have some difficulty finding us as we go up through the floors."

"Nah, don't worry about that. Give me your hand and activate your aura at the same time."

I offered my hand towards him, slightly confused as to what he wanted to do. I saw him concentrate his aura into his palm until it became a golden ball of light, which then sunk into my own arm. I looked towards him with a question clear on my face.

"I'll be able to track you down now that you've willingly accepted my kinship. We are now bonded through aura freely given and received. My strength will be your strength and our resolve will be strengthened in turn."

This sounded like one of the things he spoke about in the pen, with the shamans in the jungle who could do the impossible with aura alone.

"And how is it that you can do this? I thought your semblance was teleportation?". Verde seemed like she had trouble processing what she saw. Its not everyday you saw someone do the impossible and it was unlikely she understood him when he explained the source of this knowledge, since we often spoke in the ancient Fedaykin tongue of the dunes. We even included Dalia in these conversations to improve her knowledge of her home.

Malik simply stuck his tongue out towards her then vanished in a flash along with Mary and Dylan. Verde shook her head in exasperation and went back to prepping her weapons. Dalia and Ilia chattered excitedly while everyone else broke out into murmurs. I lengthened and thinned my river of blood to surround the whole group and gestured in the direction of the other pens.

"We're going to break everyone out of this shithole. Then were going to kill everyone who sought to keep us here. We will gain our freedom today, or we will die trying". Those words were heavily seeped in my will, anger determination, and strangely, my excitement. Dalia was hopping around with barely controlled glee, while Bernard had a bloodthirsty grin on his face, which was shared by almost everyone else. Those who weren't vindictive steeled themselves anyway, their determination bolstering the rest of the group. I took Mr Mohicans horns and coated them with my hardened blood, thereby forming twin mockeries of blades. At that moment they seemed to be greater than any blade could be.

Alarms started blaring, and the wailing was accompanied by crimson emergency lights. We would have to act quickly if we wanted to carry out our justice.

And we would see it done.