RUBIes at DYWN
Chapter 5
Tyrannus
April 8th, Underground Cavern
As soon as the tyrannus finished its bellowing, it began a slow approach. Light from the glowing plants and Matchie's sparks illuminated and revealed to everyone exactly what was coming for them.
The tyrannus held the curved horns along the top of its snout low and forward. Younger creeps didn't have such large horns on top of their snouts, but this one had a pair that would make rhinoceroses jealous. Behind those, starting at its nape and jutting out of its spine the entire forty metres to the end of its tail, were two rows of jagged and deadly blades that flexed as it arced its back.
The bone plating covering its torso and limbs wasn't scattered over its hide in small pieces like its lesser kin. Instead, it formed a white layer of rough armour that covered everything except its belly and tail, decorated with vibrant red stripes that seemed to glow in the dim light. Its lower jaw was protected by that armour, too, and the underside was spiked like a meat tenderiser.
Its four eyes roamed over its first company in what must have been at least a century, and its unfettered hatred and bloodlust invaded Dusk's mind.
It wanted to kill them, and everyone knew it could do so. Easily.
Credit to Dusk's current company, no one failed to ready their weapons, but they needn't have bothered. The grimm stepped straight into the cloud of bravery sparks and reeled back with a roar to submerge its face in the algae-ridden cavern water to cool the burns.
Dusk knew it was wasting its time; Matchie's semblance wasn't fire and didn't need oxygen, so its effects couldn't be doused. He wasn't comforted by the thought that it was smart enough to understand burns could be treated with water, though.
The terror flooding from Russel exploded. "What do we do?!" he screamed.
"Don't start panicking now!" Weiss chided him from atop her glyph.
"You aren't looking so calm yourself!" Dove added.
No one was focused, so Dusk had to tune them out.
Everyone here should have undergone some level of conditioning to remain as level-headed as possible in a crisis, so the negativity emitted by the seven other huntsmen and huntresses in training should have been manageable. But faced with the elder class creep— a foe far beyond their current capabilities— a lot of that amounted to nothing. They were all thrown into a muddled panic, and Dusk was forced to endure it.
Dusk had endured a hysteric crowd before, and that hadn't been too much of a burden, so this much negativity shouldn't have been a problem. Yet it was layered on top of what remained of Dusk's own shock from meeting Weiss and the snowballing anxiety that had come in its wake. Dusk was finding it much more challenging to control his emotions.
Being underground stirred some bad memories, too. Dusk knew nothing else was in the cavern, yet he whipped his head around to check the ceiling and walls as though expecting something to drop out of the darkness and attack him. Between the bioluminescent vegetation and Matchie's sparks, the cave was lit enough that nothing could hide unless it was otherwise camouflaged.
Dusk's skin crawled anyway.
… It was incredibly likely Dusk would need to claim one of Matchie's sparks soon, even if he didn't want to.
"— Terrible idea! Freezing the water will only make it more difficult for us to avoid that thing!" Weiss said.
Dusk needed to direct the conversation to a more productive topic. "Did everyone forget already?" Dusk said.
"Forget what?!" Cardin yelled. Out of everyone else, his anxiety and terror were the most intense.
"What Matchie's semblance does," Dusk said, fighting through the pressure and pointing into the cavern. "Look."
They went silent, and their negativity dulled slightly as they all turned.
Matchie was still airborne, bobbing about the cavern on Bewitching Match and filling the space with her semblance. Dusk knew he could always count on her initiative— she had the tyrannus surrounded in a thick blockade of little lights.
The tyrannus finally pulled its head out of the water. Charred holes had formed in its hide and bony helmet, but it was otherwise unharmed. An ancient fury came from it, but it eyed the sparks surrounding it with an experienced wariness. It recognised that stepping into the cloud of lights would only harm it if it tried to pass through.
"Is it trapped?" Cardin asked.
"No," Dusk clarified. He was force-fed a wad of unease from everyone else, so he quickly added, "It doesn't know that yet, but I'd rather we put a plan together before it gets bold enough to brave the burns and reach us."
"How long can Matchie keep that up for?" Weiss asked.
"She'll run out of dust before she does aura, and depending on how much dust she's gone through already her supply will dwindle after about ten minutes. The sparks usually fade in fifteen, so we have time; let's use it. Anyone here feel like they can break through part of the wall I mentioned earlier?"
Everyone looked over to the far side of the cavern.
"H-How do we even start making it through that?" Russel asked.
"Perhaps these walls are vulnerable to explosives?" Weiss said. "Do we have anything like that?"
"I'm packing a ton of explosives!" Yang said, some enthusiasm in her tone as she showed off her ammunition. "Point to the weak spot and I can blast it to pieces!"
"I've got a spare fire crystal," Cardin said. "I could put some cracks in the rock with a few swings, too."
"I can support Yang and Cardin with my semblance, then," Weiss added, looking to Dusk. "Like with the king taijitu earlier."
Dusk recalled the dangerous result from earlier and turned to his fellow blonde to clarify. "Weiss can make your ammunition more potent, Yang."
"Sounds good to me! Let's break out of this dump!" Yang said, her feet sloshing through the water as she ran for the opposite wall.
Cardin and Weiss followed her, the latter leaping over the murky soup everyone else was ankle-deep in using her glyphs. Dusk couldn't blame her. He wasn't looking forward to washing the algae from his boots.
"So do we all just stand here and do nothing while we wait for them to make a hole in the wall?!" Russel said, frustration wafting off him.
"It's not like there's anything else we can do," Sky said. "I've got, like, fifteen percent aura left. What about your ankle, Dove?"
Dove, visibly favouring his right leg, put a little pressure on it and hummed. "I don't have much aura in the first place, so I don't think it will heal fast enough," he said. Despite his distress, he was much calmer than the others. "It's… not too bad, but I don't know how much use I'll be like this."
"I don't have a large aura pool, either, so I understand," Dusk said. "If it's not too bad, you could quite literally walk it off. You may need to do that while we deal with the—"
The water shook as the tyrannus roared again, abandoning its caution to break into a charge. Great thuds echoed through the cave as it stepped into Matchie's sparkfield again, and as the lights caught on its exterior, pieces of its bony plates and black hide began to darken and crumble like a lit newspaper.
That only pushed its fury to greater heights, and it roared once more, sending great swathes of water into the air with each violent stomp. Its attention was on Dusk. That didn't surprise him; his semblance constantly foisted as much negativity upon him as possible.
The others were about to move out of the way when a wave of panic from nearby slammed into him.
Dove had stumbled. His ankle wouldn't allow him to move.
Fear and shock pounded into Dusk's head from everyone else as he hastily seized Dove by the arm and slung him forcefully onto his back.
Phonetic Nib came out of its sheath. Its barrels were revealed with a few precise clicks, and its display shifted to "WIND". Dusk fired green beads into the water behind him, and not even a moment later, a burst of air pushed him and Dove out of the tyrannus' path as it tore past them.
The tyrannus tried to turn, but it lost its footing on a slippery patch of stone and began to teeter. It slipped onto its side, water surging in its wake, and skidded helplessly over the sand and gravel beneath the water until it was stopped by the wall.
Dusk landed some metres away, forced to drop a knee into the water before righting himself and helping Dove stand. A brief check revealed the presence of Russel and Sky.
They were a chaotic mess of negativity. Sky was hyperventilating, and Russel had been brought to tears, but whatever means they possessed to evade had worked, and they were otherwise fine.
"What do we do?!" Dove screamed.
Dusk did his best to ignore the terror. "Move closer to the centre! We need space!"
The sight of the tyrannus recovering from the collision with the wall was enough that no one needed convincing, and the four boys quickly began the long trudge through the murky water.
"Tch!" Dusk felt the grimm's rage spilling further into his psyche. There wasn't much he could do about it. The negativity his semblance fed weighed heavily on his mind, and the white pattern on his face was probably stretching over his chin.
Matchie flew by on Bewitching Match, and once she was between them and the tyrannus, she started putting together another sparkfield. The tyrannus would lose more of itself every time it passed through— and perhaps even develop a weak point once part of its bony helmet was burned away.
One of the sparks hovered temptingly nearby…
Dusk stared at it contemplatively.
Matchie's semblance was a one-hundred per cent effective antidote to Dusk's. He could purge himself of all the negativity he'd absorbed into his mind with a single spark. It would feel good, too. Really good.
He knew that rush. He could remember recalled the liberating warmth from the first time he'd been sparked—
Dusk quashed the idea before he turned to see if Yang, Cardin, and Weiss had made any progress.
Yang was firing rounds through one of Weiss' glyphs. The fiery blonde seemed determined to put as much punishment into the rock as possible. She stopped to reload, and Cardin swung his weapon into the wall and detonated his burn crystal.
I hope this works out.
"It's going to charge again!" Russel cried out.
True enough, the tyrannus disturbed even more clouds of silt into the water as it pawed its clawed feet along the bed of the grotty pool in a manner comparable to a bull's threat display.
Its wrath slammed into Dusk's mind as it roared. The anticipation from Russel and Sky trickled into his head. The concern, worry, and irritation from the three on the other side of the cavern struck him from behind as their attention was briefly pulled away from breaking through the wall.
Dusk swallowed. A physical action to reinforce the idea of forcing all of the negativity down— to consume the darkness before it consumed him. He couldn't let it overwhelm him right now.
Matchie's sparks beckoned him again and promised freedom from the bitter darkness gathering in his soul.
I don't need one yet. It's a last resort.
He was fine and would be fine.
The tyrannus didn't seem to care about Matchie's semblance as much as Dusk did. It disregarded the new sparkfield and ploughed through it with all the grace of a runaway train. More of its exterior plating burned away as it came closer, and everyone began to move out of the way.
Dusk felt Dove look his way and quickly met his eyes.
"Don't worry," Dusk said, already putting the other boy's arm over his shoulder. "I've got you."
Dove's negativity dropped drastically at the reassurance.
Dusk repeated his earlier manoeuvre as the tyrannus approached. More of Phonetic Nib's hard light beads landed in the water, and once the grimm was close enough, Dusk activated the elemental energy in them, using the resulting burst of wind to leap out of the—
Bloodlust.
Dusk felt it coming— the tyrannus brought its head low and to its side, and the point of its frontmost horn came towards him, carrying all of its deadly intent. The attack wasn't perfectly accurate, but Dusk was already airborne and unable to dodge it effectively. The best he could do was twist his body and sling Dove out of the way before the bony protrusion brushed past his body—
Dusk felt his aura buckle, and his ears rang.
The world blurred as he tumbled through the air—
— Fear. Hate. Terror. Confusion. Agony. Rage. Spite—
Dusk crashed into something, then landed in the water— the sudden wetness enough to break him out of the spiralling negativity. He was submerged. The people around him pulsing with panic and surprise.
Ah… fuck! Where am I?!
His free hand searched for something— anything— and he found the slimy bottom of the filthy water. He pushed himself up and quickly stood, bringing Phonetic Nib up before him, ready to defend himself should the tyrannus try anything more, and was greeted immediately by Weiss' frightened face and all the distress she was putting off.
"Dusk! Dusk, are you okay?!"
That was Matchie. Hovering above him on Bewitching Match.
Dusk spat out the water that had ended up in his nose and mouth before he pressed his palm into his temple. "I'll live. J-Just give me a moment," he said.
Dusk looked at Phonetic Nib's display. In addition to the word "WIND" and its battery charge, the weapon displayed his aura percentage… which read an uncomfortable nine per cent.
That was close. Too close. And that thing had only clipped him. A direct hit would have spelled certain death.
Dusk sighed before continuing. "I'm uninjured but my aura's barely holding tog—."
"What happened?!" Weiss' shrill voice cut through Dusk's words.
Dusk finally gathered his bearings.
He'd sailed so far through the air that he'd landed with the others at the wall.
Cardin and Yang were staring at him, and anxiety bubbled from them as they watched. He could imagine how much his countenance had changed. His eyes were, without a doubt, a sickening red, and his face would be completely white by now.
Weiss was drenched. Pale glowing algae covered her drooping skirt and dripping hair. Her horror and outrage spiked enough to make Dusk gag.
… Or maybe that was just the smell of the cave water getting to him. He was covered in the stuff as well.
"You came out of nowhere, collided with me, and I fell into this— this— this filth!" Weiss complained, wiping the gooey substance off of herself. "Eww…"
"… Oh no. How will you ever recover?" Matchie said flatly, still dry atop Bewitching Match.
"I don't see you treading this fetid ooze!" Weiss snapped back.
If it wasn't so apparent that the girl's main gripe was over her soiled clothes, then Dusk might have spoken up in her defence. Instead, he used his hand and Phonetic Nib to wipe and scrape the vivid algae off of himself.
"My shoes…" Weiss groaned as she poured disappointment over her boots. The once-white wedge heels were now saturated in dark water, threatening eternal stains.
Don't get distracted. Dusk shook his head. "Matchie, I'm too low on aura to confront the tyrannus again."
"Alright, I'll keep it busy!" Matchie said, twirling on Bewitching match and shooting off towards the other group without hesitation.
Dusk immediately looked to the wall Yang had been shooting and was soundly disappointed. "This… is a lot less than I was hoping for," he said.
"Yes, we're… having a bit of trouble with this," Yang admitted. Worry shrouded her.
Dusk also felt a lot of concern from Cardin; his mace was gripped tightly as he eyed the tyrannus. He was much calmer than before but looked no more confident than Dusk felt.
He turned his attention to Dove, who had broken away from the chaos to follow the cavern wall. His limp was evident as he waded through the knee-deep water. Shame ran through him as he glanced at Russel, Sky, and Matchie, and frustration fell onto his sprained ankle.
Russel was doing a good job avoiding the tyrannus' rampage. He was leaping left, right, upwards, and backward, using all the dust in his daggers to support his mobility.
Matchie bobbed above him, sparks spilling from Bewitching Match's jet flame to limit the tyrannus' mobility. The grimm had caught on to the threat of those little embers and was being forced to waste time by stepping awkwardly around them.
Sky wasn't too far away from the action, either. He had his weapon up and fired precise shots into the grimm's face. The thing flinched every time its eyes were forced shut by the impact, and it would occasionally turn its head and bump into a bunch of Matchie's sparks. It was covered in little depressions now, some of which still glowed as they burned.
It didn't take Dusk long to realise that he couldn't sense any negativity from the two boys.
"Russel and Sky are sparked," he said aloud. The others' attention fell onto him, so he explained. "They've touched Matchie's semblance, and now they feel no fear or doubt. All of it has been replaced with courage."
"So they've become fearless?" Weiss asked. "That's… concerning."
Dusk sighed and stared down into the water. "Bravery Sparks murders hesitation. It guts doubt and puts caution on the executioners block," was all he had to say.
Yang hummed as her attention went elsewhere. She was wary of the tyrannus, and much of her frustration was focused on the rocky wall she'd failed to break through, but her fear and anxiety were elsewhere. They went up towards the surface but were otherwise undirected and unfocused. Dusk didn't know what exactly she was so worried about, but it wasn't in the cavern with them.
Yang caught him watching her, and Dusk recognised her efforts to smother her embarrassment as she gestured to the barely damaged wall. "It look's like we've been… stonewalled!" she quipped.
Her negativity lessened considerably when Weiss and Cardin rolled their eyes and groaned in annoyance, and Dusk couldn't help but smirk at the wordplay.
Still, the impassable stone barrier between them and freedom remained unbroken. These walls were very different to the stone walls Dusk remembered from… when he was… in…
No. Don't think about it.
But there was too much negativity.
— so many of them— from his back— little songbird— face gouged with the— thousands of furious eyes—
"Dusk?" Weiss asked.
He quickly shook his head and said, "I'm fine."
He was lying, but he wasn't willing to bother Weiss with that. Especially not now. But the brief recollection had reminded him of something, and he contemplated if he would be okay broaching the topic before he spoke.
"Weiss."
His partner jerked at her name, antsy from watching him struggle. "Yes?"
"Is there anything that works in the SDC's dust mines that we could reproduce here?"
Weiss visibly stalled for a second before considering the rock face before her. "For obstacles such as this one… I think… maybe… perhaps…" Weiss muttered quietly.
"You drawing a blank?" Dusk asked.
Weiss' frustration grew before she sighed. "I've… never actually inquired about the methodologies required to deal with these sorts of problems."
There was a moment of silence before Yang's confusion swelled, and she asked, "Uh… not that it's any of my business, but wouldn't it be kind of important to understand what the people who work for you are trained to do?"
Weiss glared at her. "I might be the heiress to my father's company but it's not as though I'll be doing any of the mining myself. Rather, I will be managing the companies assets and relationships. Perhaps I'll be prospecting for additional excavation sites in the future, but the actual digging will be done by the company's employees and overseen by the people trained to do so."
"Okay, cool," Yang shrugged. "And as a mega-super-awesome prospector and all that, you should know, like, advanced geology and stuff, right?"
Weiss humphed and let off a touch of indignation. "Naturally."
"Right," Yang said. "So what kind of rock is hard enough to take the beating we've been giving this wall for the last couple of minutes?"
"Given our proximity to the mountain ranges it's likely an igneous batholith— a huge vein of volcanic rock. Basalt, based on the colour." Weiss gestured to the space around them. "The cavern is set inside it, so we're inside a giant box of stone of a type that has only ever been effectively mined with explosives."
Yang checked her ammo. Only three belts left, including the one currently loaded into Ember Celica. "We're a bit low on those, and I don't think mine pack the same punch as whatever miners would use."
They all caught the underlying meaning. Nothing they had could break through the wall, and it was doubtful that anyone outside the cavern knew they were there.
Dusk could tell by the way the dread slowly built up from everyone. Dusk felt it in himself, too.
The sparks floating around the cavern beckoned him again. Maybe he really did need one right now. It would help Dusk think clearer, at least, if his head was cleared of all its stifling negativity.
"Um… question."
Only a few moments away from leaving, Dusk turned back to Cardin.
"If this batholith thing is so hard to break," Cardin asked. "How did the cave get here?"
Yang perked up. "Hey, that's… a pretty good question," she said, giving Weiss an expectant look.
"Erosion," Weiss said solemnly. "The water and sediment in here is a dead giveaway. Rain drained into this space, most likely through the tunnel we slid down, and slowly wore through the softer rock over tens of thousands of years into the sand and gravel we're standing on."
"That makes sense… I guess. You're probably right," Cardin said. "I thought the grimm made the cave."
Confusion. "What makes you say that?" Weiss asked.
"Ah, well… hell if I know anything about geology, but the walls and ceiling are only as tall as the grimm is, and there are these long straight grooves in the wall and ceiling around the shape and size as its horns and claws. And, y'know, you said it was a creep." Cardin shrugged. "Creeps dig."
And it's still a creep, even if it's elder class.
As his earlier words echoed in his head, Dusk glanced at the wall beside them and the stone surrounding the rest of the cavern. He weighed that observation with the reminder that the tyrannus was, in fact, a creep, then said, "Well, now I just feel like an idiot."
"What?" Yang's eyes flew back and forth between Dusk and Weiss. "What is it?"
"This…" Weiss muttered. "It's not just a cave— it's a burrow. The water might have helped, or even came after, but this space was mostly carved out by the tyrannus. Cardin was right."
"Really?" Cardin muttered in confusion before straightening up and adding, "I mean— yeah, obviously."
"Alright. Makes sense. That thing built its own house," Yang nodded. "How does that help us?"
"It means the tyrannus is powerful enough to break through basalt," Dusk said, pointing at the stone barrier between them and the Emerald Gorge. "Like this, for example."
Yang looked from the tyrannus to the wall and back again, taking in what Dusk had said. "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"
"Depends." Dusk smirked. "Are you thinking we can bait the tyrannus into bashing its ugly face into the wall?"
A smile slowly worked its way over Yang's face.
"You're insane," Weiss said as her anxiety spiked. Then she saw Yang's grin and added, "You're both insane! Are we really doing this?!"
Dusk shrugged. "It can't hurt to try."
"It could absolutely hurt to try!" Weiss disagreed with a large burst of annoyance.
Yang leaned towards Weiss, still grinning ear to ear. "I'm not hearing a 'no'."
Fear and apprehension swirled around Weiss as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then all that was washed away disgust as her face screwed up and unwound as she gagged— this place really stank— before her frustration and anger exploded. "I didn't come to Beacon all the way from Atlas just to be trapped and killed in this rancid pit!" she howled. "If playing matador with a tyrannus is what it takes to escape from here, then so be it!"
"Well, I can play the part of cape if you don't mind being our maestro, Weiss," Dusk said. "I can get its attention easily, but I'll need you here to move me out of the way. I'm not very confident that I can evade it before it hits the wall."
Weiss nodded. "I can handle that."
Dusk turned and gave Yang and Cardin a look.
"Don't worry," Yang said, already wading away, "Me and Musclehead'll get out of the way and let the others know!"
Cardin let off some irritation and grumbled about the nickname under his breath before he followed her.
Dusk looked towards the tyrannus and focused.
Words came to him like they had in that clearing of flowers. Where he'd summoned grimm from the forest with naught but insults and met Weiss for the first time— he recalled that memory with great clarity. The echoes of those emotions still clung to him.
But there would be better times for verse and rhyme.
Other memories came back to him, and his negativity roiled within.
Yang had barely been able to contain herself as she hurried around the cavern to get everyone else in on Dusk's plan. She'd fired some of the ammo she'd had left into the tyrannus' eyes as she explained the new plan to Matchie, Russel, and Sky. The latter two had taken the news with laughs and grins, riding the same high that Yang's partner was.
Matchie herself had just rolled her eyes and said, "Dusk's idea, I'd bet!"
Cardin had gone to Dove over by the far side of the cavern, and they were both watching the fight with expressions that were just as intense as the other three.
Yang supposed everyone had found a little hope.
Even her.
Thinking they might have been trapped here forever had nearly broken her heart, so Yang latched onto the idea when Dusk suggested using the tyrannus as a big, angry battering ram. It sounded like it would work, and everyone else seemed confident they could pull it off.
So it had better work.
Yang was worried about Ruby and what might happen to her if everyone here didn't escape— if Yang didn't escape. That was basically the same as abandoning Ruby, and that was never gonna happen. Not as long as Yang breathed.
The unique sound of Dusk's weapon reached Yang's ears, and she watched bright red bullets streak through the air before they slammed into the tyrannus and burst into fire. The grimm turned as its pursuit of people around it was completely forgotten. The water shifted beneath it, and once it saw Dusk, it rose to full height and went still.
Wow, this thing is enormous…
The tyrannus might not have been paying her any attention, but being this close to an elder grimm wasn't something on Yang's bucket list for the year.
Over by the wall, Dusk stared the thing down. He seemed to lose his balance, and his right foot came forward to stop him from falling as his left hand caught his head. Those moving white patterns from his eyes were now all over his neck and going down his shirt, and his hair was losing its colour, too.
What is he doing…?
The tyrannus growled— a low vibrating noise that sent ripples through the rotten water and slowly grew into a malicious snarl. The massive teeth parted, revealing their sharp edges and a vivid red tongue as the grimm started to drag one of its feet in through the water in threat.
Yang felt a visceral tremble in her spine when Dusk opened his mouth and screamed at it.
The hell?!
The tyrannus roared back, meeting Dusk's shriek as if it were some kind of challenge. Yang supposed that was the point of Dusk's whole plan. He had its attention, all they needed was for it to charge.
Dusk screamed again— it sounded like the wails of someone dying— and then he suddenly stopped, holding his head in his hands again.
But it was enough. The tyrannus took off, water flying into the air as it stormed through the cavern. The water in the cavern shook, creating waves that came up high and splashed over some of the others.
Whatever Dusk had done must have taken a lot out of him because when the glyph appeared, Weiss needed to help him stand on it. As the grimm built speed, Yang worried that maybe Weiss wouldn't be able to move Dusk out of the way in time. And then, at the last moment— when the tyrannus lowered its head to gore them on its horns— the glyph shone, and Yang's future teammates were flung out of the way.
The tyrannus struck the wall. The sharp clap of its bony head on the stone had Yang wincing and holding her ringing ears. But she needed to see the result and forced herself to ignore the pain and keep her head up.
Fractures ran up and down the length of the wall from the point of impact. A chunk of stone fell from the wall and bounced off the side of the tyrannus' head, letting pale sunlight spill into the cavern water.
The tyrannus itself stepped back, dazed by the impact, and then lost its footing when one of its legs slipped backwards through the turbulent water. It slid onto its stomach with a loud splash. A few more pieces of stone crumbled free of the wall, and the faint sunlight that filtered through the new opening landed on the tyrannus' eyes, and it squinted at the sensation.
"Hahaha! That did it! We're outta here!" Russel cheered. He held his hand up for Sky, and the navy-haired boy gave him a high five.
"… Not yet," Weiss said. "That hole isn't even big enough for us to crawl through."
"We need the tyrannus to slam it again," Dusk said.
"Are… you feeling up to baiting it again?" Yang asked.
Dusk looked at her strangely. "I…"
Yang didn't know what the boy did to get the tyrannus to charge at him so ferociously, but it looked like it had a steep price. His breaths were quick and shallow, his katar rattled in his hand as he trembled, and he used his free hand to scratch his torso strangely. Nothing about it gave the illusion that he was okay.
Especially not the dramatic difference in his appearance.
Yang had been curious about the shifting white pattern around Dusk's eyes earlier. She still didn't know what was up with it, but now, everything above his collar was white. His skin, hair, and even the inside of his mouth were coloured like schoolroom chalk. He looked absolutely terrifying.
… He kinda looked like a grimm.
Dusk's eyes flicked around. "I could probably—"
"Absolutely not," Matchie said suddenly. "You need a spark."
Dusk swore under his breath and said, "No, I can handle—"
"If you don't go take one on your own right now I will force you to."
"I'll be sparked until at least tomorrow night with this much negativity!"
"Hey!" Weiss chimed in. "I don't know what this whole performance is, but we don't have time! The tyrannus is going to get up before we come up with a plan at this rate!"
As soon as she said it, the grimm started moving, sending ripples through the water.
"Ahaha!" Russel laughed. "You jinxed it!"
The tyrannus lifted itself from the water completely and slowly brought itself around to face the eight huntsmen and huntresses in training.
Everyone shuffled around as they prepared themselves and waited for the grimm to make its next move.
They waited.
… And waited.
Half a minute passed, and the tyrannus did nothing but track whoever made any signs of moving. It stood there, staring at them. The very picture of impossible calm.
Some small splashes of water to Yang's left pulled her attention away, and she saw Cardin and Dove approaching the rest of the group.
"Do you lot have any idea what it's doing?" Cardin asked as soon as he was in earshot.
"A whole lotta nothin'," Sky said. "Maybe its tired?"
Cardin scoffed. "Grimm don't get tired, dumbass."
"Dusk?" Matchie asked. "You watching its intent?"
"Shit— slipped my mind," Dusk muttered. "Thanks, Matchie."
Dusk stared at the tyrannus. He tilted his head as though he were analysing something, then turned around, frowning as he stared in the other direction.
Yang followed Dusk's line of sight to the big chunk of ice they'd used to plug the entrance tunnel. The beowolves and other assorted grimm were still trapped behind it, clawing at the frozen surface. She could've sworn she heard the ice groaning.
… They're digging through it?
"Oh, fuck…" Dusk said.
That was not what Yang wanted to hear right now. "What is it?" she asked.
"It's waiting. Waiting for the other grimm. For them to break through the ice," Dusk revealed.
"Okay!" Russel said, inappropriately cheery. "So we get out before they get in. Easy!"
"Well, that's the problem." Dusk added. "The tyrannus knows we want that wall gone, so it's guarding it so we don't escape before we're outnumbered."
Yang felt her blood go cold.
"That's— but— no! It's a grimm!" Cardin said. "It's not supposed to plan things!"
"Grimm get smarter when they're older," Dusk said.
"We aren't supposed to fighting grimm this old yet!" Weiss said. "Why would the faculty allow something like this to be here during initiation?!"
"They probably don't know it's here," Dove said.
"… Do they even know that we're here?" Cardin asked.
"We should tell them!" Yang said, pulling out her scroll. She hoped— pleaded— that there was at least a single bar of signal. But no matter how she pointed her scroll around, there was nothing. The dirt and rock above them were blocking any connection.
She looked around to the others. "Does anyone have scroll signal?" she asked.
Everyone else pulled out their devices, and Yang waited for one of them— for any of them— to say that they had it. That they could call for help. That they weren't alone.
There was a silent chorus of shaking heads.
This wasn't real. It couldn't be real.
Yang waited for someone to say something. To propose some kind of spontaneous yet genius plan to escape.
No one said a thing.
That was it, then— they were doomed.
The tyrannus was still standing by the damaged wall, blocking part of the already minuscule sunlight coming through. Yang didn't want to look at it, but taking her eyes away from a grimm that could reach her in seconds was a terrible idea. So she was stuck watching this centuries-old monster bask in her terror while it leered at her.
Yang felt so cold. Partially because she was drenched head to toe, but the adrenaline was giving her chills, and she couldn't stop shivering. She knew she was having a panic attack. She was trained to recognise these things, but it wasn't helping her any.
Yang didn't want to die here. The idea of her sister being told that terrified her. The thought of her father losing someone else was about to bring her to tears.
A hand landed gently on Yang's shoulder, and she spun to find Dusk looking at her.
"If you can't pull yourself together on your own, take one of Matchie's sparks," he said. "No shame, no judgement. We all need a little courage sometimes, even if it's fake."
Despite herself, Yang snorted. "You say that even though you don't want to take one yourself?"
"My semblance involves negativity, so it works a little differently for me. I'll be okay as long as I have time to work through it all," Dusk said. "Wanna hear a bad joke?"
Yang hummed and nodded.
Dusk smirked. "We are literally stuck between a rock and a hard place."
Yang felt the laugh being pulled out of her, and not a single part of her wanted to hold it back. So she laughed at the stupid joke.
Seriously, what had happened to her just now? Out of all the people here, why was she the one who needed a pep talk? Did she eat something weird this morning?
… Nah. Yang was just worried about Ruby.
She took a few deep breaths to steady herself— and gagged on the cave smell.
"Careful," Dusk laughed at her. "This water is as repugnant as the Vale City dump."
"Yeah, it's almost as awful as your joke," Yang said. "Thank you."
"Helping other people with their negativity helps me with mine," Dusk said. "It's a good way to lessen and redirect my negative energy at the same time."
"Yeah, I know a thing or two about redirecting… energy…"
Dusk looked at Yang strangely as she trailed off, but she was too busy staring at the tyrannus to hear his response.
The only thing strong enough to break through the wall was the tyrannus. No one could hit as hard as it could. That had been made clear by the attempt to blast through earlier.
If the grimm was as smart as it seemed, there was no way they could convince it to attack the wall again. So they needed to make it attack the wall indirectly. To take that attack and use it for themselves.
To redirect the energy.
It was a stupid idea— she might die.
But she'd die anyway if she didn't try, so Yang let the words tumble from her mouth.
"I can break the wall."
Seven people looked her way.
"You can?" Matchie asked.
"I can— I might be able to break the wall," Yang clarified. "With my semblance."
"You have a semblance you can use here?" Cardin asked.
"Maybe."
"Then why didn't you use it earlier?!" Weiss whined.
Yang frowned at the accusation.
"I'm guessing you need to meet some kind of condition for it, or something like that?" Dove asked.
"I need to, to— damn it!" Yang was shaking again. She came close to taking another deep breath but remembered the stink and opted to do some arm stretches instead. "I need the tyrannus to hit me," she said between motions.
There was a short silence during which everyone looked at one another, lasting only until Matchie said, "I don't like this idea."
"Yang, when that thing hit me earlier it was a glancing blow and it put me under ten percent all the way from the eighties." Dusk said. "Are you sure about this?"
"I absorb kinetic energy from hits, and then I can punch back twice as hard."
Dusk blinked at her a few times. "Do you mean twice as hard as normal, or twice as hard as you were hit?"
"The second one; I double whatever I was hit with," Yang said. "So if the tyrannus hits me, I could hit the wall twice as hard as the tyrannus can."
"Well, when you put it like that…" Dusk said.
"I know this is really, really stupid and I know I could die if I mess it up." Yang said. "My sister is probably waiting for me back at Beacon by now and I don't want someone to bring her bad news."
"All the more reason for you to not risk yourself like this!" Weiss said.
Yang gestured widely at everyone with her arms. "I'd be glad to shelve the idea if someone can think of something else!"
Again, everyone was silent.
Yang didn't like the quiet and needed to fill it with something. "Please say you can think of something else," she said.
Dusk shook his head. "I'm sorry, nothing comes to mind."
Yang laughed nervously. "It's okay."
"No, it's not okay. None of this is okay. We'll only do this if you want to try," Dusk said before looking back at the concerned group. "Right, guys?"
Matchie, still standing on her flying mace, came as close as she could and said, "We can keep thinking about this if you want!"
"For the record, I think this is a stupid, reckless, idiotic idea," Weiss said. "B-But I'll support you, whether you decide to go through with it or not."
"We can come up with something else if you don't think it'll work," Dove said. "Uh… somehow."
"I'm feeling like I could take on the whole world. If you aren't feeling up to it, I'll handle it!" Sky said.
Russel straightened his mohawk and gave her a thumbs up and a grin. "What that dumbass said!"
Cardin rolled his eyes at the rest of the group but gave Yang a reassuring nod.
Yang certainly wasn't having a panic attack anymore. Not after all of that. "Thanks, guys."
"I can tell you've made up your mind," Dusk said. "I've got some caveats for you."
Yang nodded. "Okay…?"
"It's probably going to lead with its horns. That's been its opening move every time. Do not get run through by them. It likes to bring its head down like a mallet, too. Do not let it crush you into the ground with its jaw. And if this is going to even be worth it in the end, do not get even a tiny bit less than what you need from that thing," he said, counting the demands with his fingers.
… Damn. This guy was intense enough with how his semblance changed his face, but now he was saying things like that?
"And I don't want Matchie to spend the next four years without her partner, so even if you mess up and your semblance can't help us, make absolutely fucking certain that you come back conscious and alive."
"Y-Yeah. Gotcha," Yang said. "No horn, no chin, don't let it haggle, and come home safe."
"Great," Dusk said. "Weiss, can you recover Yang with your glyphs after she gets what she needs?"
Weiss made a show of checking the dust in her rapier. "With ease," she said.
"Alright," Dusk looked at Yang again. "It's all you."
Yang nodded to him, then took a few quiet steps away from the group. The water at her knees sloshed gently as she inched forward, and once she was closer, she got a much better look at the towering monster in front of her.
The tyrannus was slightly different from the creeps Yang remembered from her signal textbooks— it was quite possible that no one had seen a creep this old in over a century, let alone drawn or taken a picture. The only things about it that Yang was certain were identical to its smaller brethren were its two taloned feet and the four eyes set deep into the sides of its armoured head.
She could make out all the little charred holes from where Matchie's semblance had burned through. None of them went deep enough to reveal what lay beneath the armour, but it looked like one of its eyes had been burned away.
The tyrannus looked back and forth between Yang and the others. It wasn't reacting any other way. Maybe it was surprised that one of the people in the cave had approached it so brazenly. It could be sizing her up— attempting to measure her confidence by sensing her negativity. It could be waiting for her to make the first move, too.
And, y'know what? Yang would be happy to.
Because the only thing standing between her and her sister was this fucking creep.
Yang pointed Ember Celica at it and fired a single shot at its nostril. The round detonated on its mark but didn't even leave behind a scorch mark. So much for nature's wrath.
It got Yang exactly what she wanted, though.
The first thing the tyrannus tried to do was pivot on its left leg and lower its head. Just as Dusk said it would, it was going to thrust its head forward to impale her with its horns.
Do not get run through by them.
The first of Dusk's warnings came back to her, and when the grimm followed through on its attack, Yang hurried to sidestep it. The ruddy water made it much more difficult for her to dodge, but she managed.
The grimm's head had come up high after its swing.
Yang figured the next thing it would do was bring it down. That looked like it would give her enough power for her to—
— Do not let it crush you into the ground with its jaw—
The bony head came down, and Yang sidestepped that, too. The impact held enough force for the grimm's jaw to recoil off the gravel beneath and force the water around it to rush out in all directions.
Yeah, that would have killed her instantly. Thanks, Dusk.
The grimm's head came at her side-on, slow enough for her to take a hit and survive—
— Do not get even a tiny bit less than what you need from that thing—
It didn't wind up the hit. This would push her over and hurt some, but there wasn't any strength in it. Not enough power. Not what Yang needed.
Yang rolled under the swing onto the still-exposed gravel and followed through to land back on her feet and face the tyrannus.
The tyrannus' one good eye on this side of its head locked onto her, and its throat rumbled a growl.
Yang could see how its legs tensed, its body went taut, and its talons dug into the loose ground to find a grip. It was like watching a boxer get ready to throw a haymaker.
At full strength, too.
She could see the satisfaction in the bloody little bead peering at her, declaring victory already.
Oh, fuck, was this it? Was this how she died?
Make absolutely fucking certain that you come back conscious and alive.
Yang grit her teeth and focused on maintaining her aura as she raised her arms in a simple guard. Her left arm was in front. There was no way she was getting out of this without a broken bone.
The tyrannus' body twisted, and Yang could do nothing as the side of its snout came at her like a demonic club.
Yang heard the snap before her ears decided to stop hearing things. She felt the impact on her left arm. It was definitely broken, just as she'd expected. It might even be shattered completely.
She wanted to scream, but some of her ribs might have broken, too, because it was suddenly difficult to breathe. Did her lungs rupture, or was she just winded? Could be either. She'd know after she landed.
But she was feeling. She was thinking. That meant she was still alive, right?
Awesome.
Her head was spinning. There was a blurry image of someone pale near her. Probably Weiss. The muffled noise meant that she was blathering on about something. Whatever it was, she was wasting her time.
Yang couldn't hear it over the impossible amount of energy coursing through her.
When Yang stood, she felt the heat bursting from her body, and she felt the energy demanding to explode, pounding in her head like a raging animal.
When Yang's vision cleared properly, she saw Weiss reeling back from her, favouring her right hand like it had been hurt by something. She could see the water around her rising into clouds of whirling steam, boiling in her presence. She could see the golden light of her hair as it shone like a sun, overpowering the grey-white glow of the plants and the orange flickering of her partner's sparks with bright yellow.
And when she could hear properly, she opened her mouth and heard herself speak.
"Make a path."
In the distance, she heard Dusk roar, "Open fire!"
Gunshots and bright flashes of light peppered the tyrannus. It held its ground and weathered the hail of dust and metal on its armour until it growled in pain and stepped away from the wall to disrupt the projectile onslaught.
Yang saw a trail of white circles appear over the water ahead of her, leading right to the weak point in the wall.
"Go!" Weiss said.
Yang took off in a sprint. The glyphs at her feet must have been doing something to speed her up because she felt the fetid cave air rush by faster and faster. The golden light trailed from her hair like the tail of a comet.
Yang was almost at the wall, so she seized all of that golden light and wound it all up tight. The trail of gold withdrew into her, dragging all the light in the cavern with it as it was channelled into her right fist.
Yang's hand lit up as she brought her fist back to strike, and when the wall came within striking distance, she let out a booming—
"YEEEAAA—!"
Yang's light flashed brightly on impact, flooding into the cracks and seams along the entire wall. The stone buckled and groaned under the sheer force before it exploded.
Hundreds of shards of basalt sailed into the Emerald Gorge. Yang could hear some of them slamming into the other side of the gorge. The thick fog shifted from the violent detonation, becoming thinner and thinner with every passing moment.
Yang breathed in the flow of fresh air from outside as she stood before the opening. The spring scent of the forest was present even at the bottom of the foggy canyon. It smelled really good.
Matchie was the first out out. She flew overhead on her mace and demonstrated her aerial ability as she spun around and came to a halt. She'd left a cloud of sparks behind her, probably to punish the tyrannus if it followed everyone out.
Weiss was next, skating out of the cave over her glyphs, escaping from the rotten water.
Russel and Sky ran out together, laughing the whole way, and Cardin carried Dove out not a second later.
Dusk caught Yang's attention as he passed. "Yang, move! The tyrannus let the other grimm into the cave!"
Even with that final warning, Yang felt unnaturally calm as she ran out of the cave with everyone. Even the pain in her left arm wasn't bothering her that much.
Everyone was free, and she would see her sister again.
A/N
This one is a bit longer than I'd like at eight and a half thousand words, but I'm glad I got it done in a form that I'm satisfied with.
I gave Dusk and Yang the spotlight this time. Part of cutting down the length of my chapters is to reduce the scenes I'm including. This chapter originally had a Blake segment and an Umber segment, so it breached 12000 words at one point. Both of those bits will make up most of chapter six, so you aren't missing out.
What do you all think of the tyrannus (or Tyrone, as I dubbed it last time)? We're not done with it just yet so I'd like some feedback on it.
No one has guessed the fairytale allusions of Dusk or Umber yet. Matchie and Ikorie were already outed as The Little Match Girl and The Red Shoes.
Until next time,
GEOD