Woah! Double chapter release! Lovely, I know!

However, as a quick note, this is around

the halfway point of the story. I had this planned to go to 16 chapters or so. Thanks for your continued reading!

Dale sent multiple messages requesting support, being told that "there will be a team sent out to assist"

He was using the time waiting to do extra defence checks when he heard it.

PTOOOOONG.

A high pitched noise came from above, like someone rang a bell from above the overcast sky. He assumed someone brought out a bell, perhaps to make sure everyone was present? He didn't know, so he paid it little heed.

The others were mostly meeting with their families, and he was done supervising the tripwires and sandbagging of the river used as a small support in their Grimm defences.

He spent an hour going through every possible check he could if equipment, defences, personnel roundups, civilian locations, everything.

Except returning to his home. He had already done enough damage today.

Something flickered in the sky, and he waited for thunder as he looked upwards.

He paused, as a second ripple went through the clouds.

…

"Is it sunset already?"

The clouds appeared to be slowly turning to a reddish hue, probably the reflection of sunlight off of the clouds.

Dale paused, watching the sky. It felt… wrong. Like the rising tension in a melody, or some herald of impending doom.

… He noticed other people's voices quieten. Others looked upwards at the sky.

Then he saw the light.

"Dear gods-"

"What…"

The sky rippled. A large light started to move across the clouds in a mottled pattern like a quivering lake with the sun shining through.

Dale, jumping to disastrous conclusions as he normally did, was trying to find out how to calm everyone when he realised…

"Why is no-one worried?"

Only those with awoken Aura, his team, mostly, were looking up, and he had started looking up from the feeling of wrongness.

This is an Aura user's creation.

… It's not going to stay unnoticed for long, then.

"EVERYONE. CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LOOK DO-"

The light burst from above in a vivid purple.

Mal.

Townspeople were struggling to stand, physically downed by the sensory overload. The garrison team seemed to have the worst of it. Dale himself was twitching from the moment it began, and as soon as it went off, he began to follow the path into town to his house in order to find his adopted child.

He opened the door, noting that he should definitely moderate his strength more often. Mal… wasn't home, as noted by the emptiness of the house, and the loss of his drinking flask.

… and the stove's fire dust? Why would…

Dale continued walking, but muttered the obvious reasons they'd take it.

"Who doesn't need an explosive stone now and again?"

… Dale opened his eyes wide with realization.

….

"Mal… did you just flashbang the entire town?"

…. "Yessssss?"

"Dale is going to kill me." Marigold whispered.

The two stared at the reddened sky, mottled with continuing bursts and flickering regions of flowing purple light. Mal was sitting down, and Marigold was occasionally looking towards a worrying line of green on the ground outside her building.

… Mal commented, and slowly stretched themselves back into a standing position.

"I need to find Dale now, tell them what I-"

"Hey, Kid."

THUDDDD.

"SHIPWRECKS!"

Mal was so surprised they tried to run away, forgetting they were on a roof.

"WHAT IN A HANDBASKET DALE?!" Mal shouted up from the road at the two standing the roof. "SPEAK OF THE DEVIL'S YOUR SCHTICK?

"No Grimm yet."

… Taking the brief Mal-less time he had, Dale deftly riposted Marigold's worry.

"I'm not going to kill you. Just make you work."

Marigold threw up her hands in an exasperated manner. Out of everything he could have said, this was the worst thing she could hear out of his mouth.

"Dale. Does it LOOK like I have a hunter's license?"

… He smirked at that. "Ye-"

"DALE. I have a surgical license. I have a veterinarian license. The only license for cutting flesh I do NOT possess is a hunter's license."

He smiled slightly. "That didn't stop you before."

"Dale. Shut up and help your son save the town. He just lost an arm two minutes ago. Did you know they can heal that? It's a nightmare to contemplate how badly they've damaged themselves without me knowing, honestly."

…

"You…"

"Surgical License." Marigold reminded while raising an eye. "I just advised where to cut."

She grasped the crook of his elbow, and they walked along the path.

…

Mal lied down on the ground, acting annoyed at them both. Dale leaned down to his child. "Mal, I have half a mind to ground you forever. Here's how to get out of it: What's your plan?"

Mal reached out an arm, and in a few seconds the three of them were piled together, looking out at the forest. Dale was quite impressed at how his Aura was holding up. Learning that vocal communication was possible with people while his semblance was activated would certainly allow some better efficiency for his team's communication.

"I'm making an unbelievably hard to miss signal right now to get reinforcements over here."

…

Ava approached as Dale arrived, noting the town's doctor with him caused some confusion, but she still asked her supervisor about a problem.

"Boss. Are you positive we're fine? Fighting with just the people we have, many not using Aura… it seems… "

Fernwise gave a suggestion. "Difficult?"

"Insane." -Enta called out, poking out from a box of assorted equipment.

"Dumb." Ava muttered.

The Greenpaths turned to watch the other garrison members.

Dale asked Mal, "Every step between that last step you gave and now?"

The others talked more to get his attention.

"Dale. What's the overall plan?"

"Boss. What kind of reinforcements did we call for?"

Dale looked up, and saw the people they had out tonight. He calmly walked so he was centralized to everyone, and began explained the battle plan, calling loudly to every person called out to help protect the town. It was a good 15-20 people in the group around him, bolstering the seven they started with.

"Hello, everyone. We're going to be having a Grimm attack soon. Here's the plan for everyone:"

"One: Everyone fights as safely as they can possibly manage. We have a support of armed reserve at the town's wall. The garrison team will be the front, and if you just want to help with gunfire and trapping, that's perfectly fine."

This was accompanied by Fernwise and Enta waving to the people Dale had noticed still up on the town's wall. A cheer came out from them at the sign. It was dampened by the sky flashing at the same time, but it wasn't too drastically reduced.

"Two: If you aren't a vanguard, we'll try to keep you unharmed as well as we can. If you have the chance to use ranged or traps, please take it, but be safe. Preferably take a second teammate with you."

"Third: Aura users, do NOT overwhelm yourself."

"We will fight until the event is over. This will be an overnight attack."

The group was silent, but there was an optimistic feeling in the air. It had more of an impression of a holiday event than a battle.

Dale gave clarification on another point. "I called for huntsmen. You may know them, may not, but the main point is that they're still hopefully coming soon." Approving nods went around the garrison

Fernwise gave a comment that was to be expected.

"Dale. How is your child meant to fight with no weapon and no left arm?"

Dale… wasn't exactly sure how Mal would try to fight. They were an adult member of the garrison, but he didn't actually know their personal methods of fighting-

Mal smiled.

"I'll just punch them to death, Fern."

….

"Also, my arm's up there," they said, pointing at the red clouds accented by unnatural purple.

….

"You're doing this freakish cloud thing?" Ava choked.

Mal leaned back and shouted out to the sky in a hoarse scream

"MEGAN! WE GOING TO WIN THIS? FLASH THREE TIMES FOR YES!"

….

Everyone quieted.

Tensions were high, but this… was a bit much. They all heard the shout, but couldn't entirely believe this weather wasn't some act-of-gods or an incredibly unlikely coincidence.

… The sky flashbanging them all was stretching it for most. If it was a sign that they's survive this, that was well and good, but-

-Dale Greenpath's heavily injured kid could just… do this? Casually call up to the sky and cause the weather to go insane?

….

….

The sky lit up three times in distinct purple flashes, blinding a few unlucky souls who hadn't fully heard the message, and others just stared in astonishment.

Everything was quiet.

Then the clicking of a pair of paws slowly sauntered in from the darkness of the forest.

Mal softly called out in a low voice.

"We are being hunted."

….

When Dale first heard there was a, according to Ava and Mal's prior statement, "hell breaking loose" amount of Grimm appearing tonight, he was feeling rather justified in being frightened.

This however, was… dull.

The only problematic part is just how many Grimm there are. With Mari assisting, they had enough numbers for the garrison to fight in pairs, which would easily deal with the prolonged morass of Beowolves that just kept coming. This wasn't even counting the support fire of the other townspeople calling out for stragglers that were emerging elsewhere.

Marigold just needed two seconds to surgically slaughter everything in a tap.

Fernwise and Ava used the traps they set up together to pummel Grimm one after another.

Enta was helping with further support of the defensive gunners, but Dale noted that they kept smirking whenever sharp cracking came from in the forest.

I really have to lock off our Dust stores better.

The combat was smooth, he had to admit. They had a day to prepare and came out with lasting well. He was proud of them.

…

Eventually, they had to face a boar.

Since everyone was probably getting used to the beowolves, Dale feared the worst from a change in tactics likely needed to kill a new Grimm.

He needn't have worried so much.

One of the tripwires they Ava had strung between a few poplars hindered it, leading to Fernwise charging forwards and walloping to the ground whenever it tried to get back up.

As it dissolved, Fern raised his weapon to the cheer of the town.

Dale noticed it with alarm. He was distracted looking for any larger Grimm and hadn't caught what Fernwise had been using to fight.

Dale called out to him as he walked back, "Fernwise. Please get an actual weapon for the rest of this. You need ranged capabilities in case you have to fall back.

Fern's weapon, specifically, was a frying pan Dale gave his mother four years back.

Fern smoothly locked eyes with his supervisor.

"Say that to your son."

Fernwise had often been an advocate against Malady's eclectic choices of weapons, often just coming in barehanded for fights. Dale had been trying to prevent this, and Fernwise did raise a good point in a lack of a stable weapon choice for his son.

However, Fernwise relented about his own unusual choice of weapon, and hollered up to the defensive line, consisting of Ava and Marigold.

"Rewire is safe now! Can someone lend me a firearm?"