Chaos was the only word that adequately described the situation unfolding inside the warehouse as the scared civilians made a blind rush to the door, ignorant of anyone unfortunate enough to stumble to the floor where they were crushed by a mass of bodies. Even Blake and Velvet had multiple times nearly found themselves knocked off their feet by the living tidal wave of people and as for poor Haley, sg did her best to help them but more often than not they had to save her from becoming another victim. Meanwhile, the White Fang members that were present did their best to try to restore some semblance of order but the ones on the upper floors were being ignored and the ones on the ground were quickly overwhelmed. The whole situation became even worse when the panicked wave reached the doors and found them locked, sparking an understandable outcry of fear and anger.

Someone in the crowd shouted, "What!? You can't keep us trapped here! Open this door!" and that one voice was joined by another demanding the same thing which was then joined by another voice and another one until it became a cacophony of angry shouts and cries as people pressed themselves against the doors in an attempt to break down the only barrier that was protecting them from what was outside.

"Please! Stop that! It's not safe, please remain calm!" A Member of the White Fang pleaded futilely with the crowd, "It's dangerous outside!"

"The only dangerous people here are you!" Someone shouted back catching the attention of others who turned their focus from the door to the White Fang members looking down at them from above. "I bet this was your plan! You threw the brick through the window!" More and more people joined in and before long there were three distinct groups of civilians, one was bashing against the door, another more concerning group was shouting at the White Fang and becoming more aggressive as time went on, and finally, there was the largest group and it was comprised of people stuck in the middle of the first two groups. These people were scared, confused, and in danger of getting caught in the crossfire when things inevitably took a turn for the worst.

It was in that third group where Blake, Velvet, and Haley were just trying to keep their bearings but it was hard to do so in the midst of jostling bodies. "I'm sorry! I- I- didn't mean t-t-to-," Haley tried to stammer out an apology to Blake and Velvet for bringing them here as though she somehow supposed to know what was going to happen. As if all of this was somehow her fault which was an absurd thing to think but right now she was too overwhelmed by the Havoc and feelings of immense powerlessness to think straight.

"It's alright, it's not your fault, none of this is your fault." Blake tried her best to comfort the woman but it was a difficult thing to do when there was so much violence around them.

"Blake! Over here!" Velvet shouted over the crowd while standing in one of the calmer, compared to everywhere else, spots in the warehouse.

"Blake? Why did Veronica call you Blake? I thought your name was Barbara?" Haley asked confused.

On one hand, Blake was rather impressed by the woman's attention to detail, most people would have never noticed something that small given everything else going on around them. But on the other hand, she just didn't have time for this and thus decided to end the charade and took off the mask, "My name is Blake and her name is actually Velvet."

"W-what?!"

"Listen to me, Velvet and I are students from Beacon. We're working with the police. Stick close to us and everything will be fine."

"I- I- don't understand," all of this was just too much for poor Haley.

Fortunately for Blake, Haley didn't resist when she grabbed the woman by the wrist and dragged her over to where Velvet was standing. Once there she let go of the woman and noticed that her upperclassman was looking at the second-story walkway, "Do you have a plan?"

"If I gave you a boost would you be able to make it to that window over there?" Velvet pointed to a broken window on the second floor, possibly the same window that was broken by the brick that started this whole mess.

"I think so."

"Alright then," Velvet turned to face Blake and then cupped her hands and bent her knees. "Once you're outside I want you to call for both of ou-!" Velvet was caught off by a loud noise that almost sounded like the roar of an animal but it had this unavoidable fake quality to it. Like it was a person trying their best to imitate the roar of an animal but it was too loud too… close to the real thing to have been possibly made by a person. Either way, that sound had an immediate impact on everyone inside as they all became more frantic, it was clear that the situation was going to reach a breaking point soon.

"We got to act now!" Velvet said before getting back into position.

Blake backed up as much as she could in order to get as much momentum on her side as possible but stopped when Haley suddenly grabbed her by the arm, "Please, don't leave me here!" Her voice was barely above a whisper and there were tears running down her face, it was clear that the roar had pushed the woman to the very edge of a complete nervous breakdown.

She gently pried her arm free from Haley's grip and reassured her, "I'm going to get help and you won't be alone, Velvet will be with you and she'll keep you safe. Okay?" Haley didn't answer back but she did nod her head and took a step towards Velvet which was good enough for Blake. Then without a word she ran forward planting her right foot firmly into Velvet's waiting hands and leaped, thanks to Aura both Blake and Velvet were able to excerpt far more strength power than what would have been normal, and thanks to their training she was able to land perfectly onto the walkway much the surprised of a White Fang grunt who had witnessed the whole thing.

"What?! Y- you're- no- well?" The masked man was too bewildered to finish a sentence but at the same time, he made no attempt to stop Blake as she ran over to the broken window. He was however able to pull his thoughts together just as she reached the window but all he did was call out to her once just before she climbed through, "Go get help!"

Once she was standing on solid ground Blake took out her scroll and then called for both her and Velvet's lockers, It's a good thing we exchanged call codes before coming here. Then she called Captain Dews while looking around to make sure that it was safe, it wasn't. There was a body not too far away from her and she could hear the sound of fighting close by but couldn't see where it was happening.

"Dews here, please tell me that you have good news!" the older woman's voice sounded tired and stressed,

"The White Fang is fighting someone, there is what looks like a dead body not too far away from me, the civilians are stuck inside the warehouse, they're scared and are on the verge of becoming a mob, and every now and then we hear something that sounds like a roar."

"SHIT!" Dews let out a string of expletives that Blake couldn't quite make out before speaking again, "Okay, first off I want you to stick by the warehouse and make sure that the fighting stays away from the civilians, I'm sending the rest of RWBY to help. Your mission right now is to protect the civilians, how you do this is up to you but the civilians take priority."

"Can't you send a few more people?"

"I'm sorry but we got our hands full here, a bunch of human supremacists showed up out of nowhere trying to crash the rally. I don't know how they did it but somehow they managed to sneak past the first and second perimeter, if it wasn't for Penny they might have gone all the way. Regardless it's taking all my men to stop them, listen… the White Fang isn't your priority right now. Protect the civilians and if you see anyone with a red jacket, assume that they are hostile."

"Red jackets are hostile, understood."

"Keep me updated."

The call ended and Blake's eyes drifted towards the body on the ground. Out of curiosity, she decided to take a closer look and quickly noticed three things about it. The first had to do with the red jacket on the body, specifically, she noticed that there was an emblem on the back of the jacket, it was a silver moon with an eye in the middle, and she recognized it. It belonged to a gang called the Nightwatch though it would be more accurate to describe them as a group of violent racist frat boys, she had dealt with them before back when she was in the White Fang, and most were all bark and no bite. These guys are nothing more than hateful punks, how did they get past the police? Oh well, at least I know for sure who threw that brick through the window but who killed them? Her first thought was that they had been killed by a White Fang Grunt but the only thing this punk had done was throw a brick, which was dangerous but hardly deserving of death, Adam would have killed them but he isn't here… could have been someone who joined after I left. The second thing that she noticed was that there was a pistol on the ground near the body as though they were the ones to drop it, which begged a few questions. Okay let's assume that it was a White Fang grunt that did it, they would have found the guy after the brick had been thrown, during the confrontation, the guy pulled a gun on the Fang but got shot first which would explain the gunshot we heard and the scream but not the roar. It also doesn't explain who the White Fang are fighting and why did they leave the body and the weapon in the open where civilians could find them.

Then there was the third and biggest thing that she noticed: The body was missing the head. And even worse was that the still bleeding neck stump was an utter mess of bone and tissue, too messy to have been done by a blade. The head hadn't been cut off, it had been ripped off. "Even Adam wouldn't do something like this… so what did?"

She then heard another roar and it all clicked together, it was Grimm. Blake called Dews a second time, "There is a Grimm on the loose and I don't know where it is or what it is but I got a body here whose head has been ripped clean off."

"Ripped clean off…," Dews whispered something under her breath. "Are civilians okay?"

"They're still in the warehouse with Velvet and some White Fangs who are trying to keep them under control."

Dews sighed out of relief, "Okay, I want you and Velvet to work with the White Fang to keep everyone safe, your team will assist. As for the Grimm, I'm going to send PRAN to deal with it."

Pyrrha gracefully spun through the air, landed on her tiptoe, and then used the momentum to deliver an Aura-shattering spin kick right into the jaw of a large man wearing a red jacket and who had been carrying a shotgun that was now clattering on the floor. It was funny to think that at the start of this encounter, the man and his friends had been arrogant, he boasted about how he at one point in his life was a student at a Huntsman Academy, a lesser one that Pyrrha had never heard of before, but had gotten kicked out for being an asshole. And then for some reason, those who were with him had acted as if that was something to be proud about. All together they leered at the undefeated champion and her Team while making plenty of unsavory comments about what they were going to do them both during and after the fight, and yet one single kick was enough to knock the big guy out cold.

The rest of the red jackets didn't fare much better, their opponents were after all actual huntsmen-in-training and soon enough there were several unconscious racists laying on the floor before they could carry out whatever act of violence they had been planning to commit. But the job wasn't done just yet, they needed to be restrained and the police had to be called to pick them up. So while Jaune called the police, Pyrrha reached out with her Semblance and collected bits and pieces of metal that she then bent into restraints that would hold the thugs until the police could arrive to collect them.

When Pyrrha was done she looked over her team and felt a swell of pride as she thought of the good they were doing and how far they had all come, "Great job everyone! Especially you Ren, the way you hear-!" Her scroll suddenly started ringing and it wasn't just her, every single member of her Team was getting called at the exact same time and when they checked the caller ID they found that it was by the same person; Captain Dews.

"Ma'am?" Said Pyrrha as she answered feeling a bit curious but mostly worried about what she was about to hear, She wouldn't have called all of us if it wasn't serious.

"We think that there is an unknown Grimm at the Rally," Pyrrha began running towards the warehouses as the rest of her team followed. "Your mission is to search and destroy."

"Search and Destroy," Pyrrha repeated for the sake of her team who were listening in. "Any clues on its abilities?"

"No, the only thing we know for sure is that it ripped off someone's head."

"Ripped off? As in they tore the head off with just brute force?"

"That's right, taking this thing down is your priority second only to the well-being of the civilians.

If it proves necessary, don't hesitate to cooperate with the White Fang."

"Are you serious!?" Pyrrha didn't mean to shout but she couldn't believe what she just heard coming out of Dews' mouth.

"I know it sounds crazy but they can't afford the bad publicity of civilians getting killed because of them at their event. If this isn't something that you're comfortable with then tell me now so I can reassign you."

"I don't have a problem Ma'am, I was just surprised."

"Alright, I'm going to request backup but it will be a while before they can get here. You'll be on your own for a bit so don't do anything too crazy," Dews then hung up.

Pyrrha put her scroll away, "What kind of Grimm rips heads off?"

Nora was the first to answer, "How about a Beringel like the one I fought in Port's class? It doesn't have claws but it's got strength in spades. It could rip a guy's head clean off his shoulders!"

Jaune disagreed, "But Beringels don't live in Vale and there is no way one could have wandered here from Mistral, it's got to be a River King. The tongue of an Alpha River King is strong enough to tear heads off."

Ren shook his head, "I don't think so, necks are too strong. A River King would just end up pulling the entire body along, now an Ursa could do it."

"Ursas have claws, they would have cut the head off," Jaune pointed out.

"Most times they do but they are also known to bear hug people and then bite down, all it would take after that is a pull and twist to remove the head." Everyone except Ren winced at the gory image that he put into their heads but they did stop talking and picked up the pace…

They arrived at the warehouses shortly afterward and made a beeline toward the building where the civilians were trapped. Grimm were drawn to negativity and a crowd of scared people on the verge of panic should be the biggest source of negativity by far, So why haven't the Grimm attacked them yet? Jaune asked himself, Maybe it's the fighting? Older Grimm do have a sense of self-preservation, maybe it decided to take care of people attacking it before trying to hit the warehouse? I'll just have to ask Blake and Velvet when we get there. He didn't have to wait long, it was easy finding the warehouse thanks to the two Beacon lockers standing out like sore thumbs, and standing next to those lockers was Blake.

"How are you holding up?" Pyrrha asked the moment she was close enough for Blake to hear her.

"I'm fine but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried."

"Well of course you'd be worried, it would be really weird if you weren't worried right now!" Nora interjected trying to bring some levity into the situation.

Blake shook her head and pointed to the warehouse behind her, everyone could hear the shouting of the civilians still inside and the pounding of fists against the door. "Velvet is doing her best but she's just one person, we need to get these people out of her but we can't just open the door and expect things to work out."

Jaune nodded along, "Can you tell us anything about the Grimm?

"No, I didn't actually see the Grimm but the body is over there if you want to see it." She pointed towards the further side of the warehouse. "Also… I don't know how helpful this will be but I'm pretty sure I heard the Grimm's roar."

"What did it sound like?" Ren asked.

"Like… I know that this is going to sound really strange but I swear that this is the truth. It sounded like a person imitating an animal but it was far too loud for that to be the case."

"Could it have been a Nemean?" asked Jaune. "It's a rare Grimm that can mimic human voices and it's native to Vale, one could have entered the city and the screams people are hearing are the Grimm mimicking the voices of past victims to draw more towards it."

For a brief moment, everyone went silent to consider what Jaune had said and there was much to consider. The Nemean was an ambush predator with a strong frontal defense in case the prey attempted to counterattack, on top of that, the location was not favorable to them. There were many places to hide and the Nemean had limited climbing ability which greatly broadened the scope of where it could be hiding. And finally, there was the issue of its famed ability of mimicry, the circumstances demanded that they investigate every single cry for help but they would have to do so with the possibility of a trap weighing in the back of their mind.

Pyrrha then broke the silence, "Wait a second, whatever is out there can't be a Nemean because Nemeans have claws! They would have disemboweled the victim rather than torn off his head."

"And now we're back to square one," Ren said remorsefully. "Even worse is how we are wasting time talking about this rather than actually hunting down the beast." There was a frustrated edge in his voice that seemed uncharacteristic of the normally cool-headed man but it wasn't inappropriate given the situation. "We should follow the sounds of fighting, that is where the Grimm will be. Once we find it, then we can form a strategy to fight it. If we need help then we can get the White Fang and maybe the red jackets to pause their own fight for the sake of mutual survival."

Pyrrha had been caught off guard by Ren's outburst but she admitted to herself that he was right, Why was I spending so much time talking? She shook her head to refocus, "Blake, will you be okay?"

"Yes, the rest of my team should be here soon so don't worry about me."

"Okay," Pyrrha then turned to face her team. "Let's head towards the noise for now and when we're closer we will use Aura to boost our senses. We can't afford to be caught flat-footed so we are going to do this carefully." She looked at Blake one more time, "Good luck."

"You too."

Team PRAN then walked away from their friend and began to make their way toward the ongoing battle. They walked in complete silence, any communication was done with the numerous hand signs and head tilts that made up a core component of proper Huntsmen training for reasons that were now made abundantly clear to any fool that might have doubted their value. A mere turn of the head was all that it took to communicate directions, tiny finger movements between the teammates allowed them to plan out entire formations and strategies in case of an encounter. And there would be encounters, the closer they got to the fighting the more likely it would be that they would find either the Grimm or someone who had tried fighting the Grimm and that happened they would need to make a choice and it would have to be decisive.

They found first their body between two warehouses just down the street from where Blake was, the corpse was wearing the mask of the White Fang and the presence of a dog tail confirmed that it wasn't some human who had disguised as one to try and sneak in. The man was laying face down on the ground with a growing pool of blood that seemed to be coming from his chest. They couldn't tell what killed him without moving the body but the bullet holes on the walls gave them a good idea. However what really caught their attention was the presence of bloody footprints walking away from the body, footsteps that might just belong to the killer.

"There are about three sets of footprints here," Nora said after examining the scene for a bit.

"Let's follow them, move forward with the assumption that they are close by and ready to engage," Pyrrha held her shield up and switched her weapon to its sword form to avoid hitting the walls when she swung. Likewise, Nora switched her hammer to its grenade launcher form and checked how many bean bags she had left. Jaune took the lead since he wore the most armor but he left his sword inside its sheath, instead, he held the same baton that he used back during the Raid. As for Ren, he stood in the middle and had his guns holstered since there was no way to use them against a person without causing life-threatening injuries.

Then they moved forward following the footprints while keeping fully alert to what was going on around them. Ren suddenly paused and they paused with him, "The fight is moving to the east, away from the marketplace."

"Is there something important in that direction?" asked Jaune.

"I don't think so," Ren replied. "Maybe that's why it's heading that direction? It would be in the White Fang's best interests to avoid damaging anything." Ren pointed to the footprints that were nearly faded, "Either way this is the direction they were headed and where we might find the Grimm."

"Do you think the White Fang might be trying to lead the Grimm away from the civilians?" Asked Jaune.

"I don't know, maybe," Ren replied. He and the others didn't linger on much longer, they had their job and it wasn't solving what happened here

Moving on they soon came across a second dead White Fang and a short distance away was a third body who was wearing a red jacket, "I wonder if they took each other out." Nora said to no one but herself as they continued following the rapidly fading bloody trail that now had dwindled from three sets of footprints to only two.

Shortly afterward they came to the end of the trail and discovered the site of a major altercation between the White Fang and the red jackets. It didn't take very long to figure out who had won the fight due to the considerably greater number of corpses wearing red jackets. "Well, at least we don't have to worry about these guys hurting the civilians," said Jaune trying to find anything positive about the death before them as he looked at the numerous bodies and quickly noted that they all seemed to have either gunshot or stab wounds or both, A Grimm couldn't inflict these wounds. Does that mean the Grimm didn't come by here or maybe it did but the fighting was already over when it arrived?

Ren walked up to one of the dead red jackets and examined the body without touching it, "These guys were part of the Nightwatch."

"Those assholes? Huh, I thought these jackets looked familiar, damn it. We should have realized it after that first group." Jaune angrily commented as he carefully kept watch for any stragglers.

"True but it's not like we could have predicted seeing them here in Vale." Replied Nora.

"You know these guys?" Pyrrha asked, feeling a bit confused and then feeling just a little awkward when she saw that her teammates were giving her a puzzled look.

"Oh yeah, you're from Mistral's upper levels." Nora suddenly said, "I sometimes forget because you act nothing like most people from there. Well to answer your question these guys are a gang from the lower levels."

"They're from Mistral?! But why are they in Vale?" Pyrrha asked, I know that the upper levels of Mistral like to act like they are separate from the lower levels but it feels like I know nothing of my own kingdom. In the back of her head, she could imagine her father saying, That's not true. You know exactly what you need to know, you don't need to know anything about those beneath you. Not too long ago she might have argued with that voice, she still did from time to time but now she knew better than to let herself get stuck in the past, there was work to be done.

So Pyrrha cleared the distractions from her head, closed her eyes, and used her Aura to push her hearing as far as she could. She was rewarded for her efforts with the dreadful sound of screaming, gunshots, a roar, clanging, and someone trying to shout orders she couldn't quite make out. Infuriatingly the sounds were coming from multiple directions and there was a little bit of an echo but it wasn't to the point where she couldn't focus on one of them. So she focused on the roar, It kinda sounds like its moving further away. Jaune suggested that the White Fang could be leading the Grimm away, maybe he was right?

"Pyrrha, is there something wrong?" asked Jaune.

She opened her eyes, "I'm fine. Could you and Nora take up defensive positions with me around Ren?" The two did as she asked without needing to ask why and she addressed Ren as they did so, "Your Aura manipulation is the best out of all of us, boost your hearing to the limit and try to pinpoint the roar."

Ren closed his eyes and listened, he heard everything the Pyrrha had heard but he was also having an easier time sorting it all out. It wasn't perfect but he could make out the direction where the roar was coming from, he could almost make out what the voices were shouting, and most importantly he could hear the footsteps of someone running towards them.

Ren opened his eyes, pulled out his pistols, pointed them towards the footsteps, and spoke two words in a hushed tone that only his teammates could hear, "8 o'clock."

The others automatically pointed their weapons in that direction and waited to see what would emerge, they didn't have to wait long. Soon a man in a red jacket and pistol came into view and when he spotted them he let out a joyful cry, "I surrender!" He then dropped his pistol and kicked it towards them before dropping to the ground with hands high into the air and then he repeated with a great big smile on his face, "I Surrender!"

They didn't do anything at first, they had no reason to think that this wasn't some kind of a trap but nothing happened. The guy just knelt there with his hands in the and a relieved look on his face that was slowly being replaced with a confused one, "Pyrrha Nikos!? What are you doing here? And who are they?"

"We're from Beacon academy," Pyrrha answered without lowering her guard.

The man's eyes widened, "Oh Thank the Brothers! Someone who can stop that Grimm!"

That caught their attention, "What can you tell us about it?" Jaune quickly asked.

"First tell me where the police are!"

"Why do you want to know?"

"So I can surrender myself obviously!" The man was becoming frustrated. "If that thing doesn't get me then those animals will or that crazy midget! Don't you get it! We were set up! We were led here to get slaughtered!" That was a lot to unpack and they weren't going to be able to do so while the man was in a state of near panic.

So Ren reached out with his Semblance and calmed the man down, "Tell us about the Grimm like where to find it and we'll point you in the direction of the police, you can surrender to them."

"But what if those animals find me?" the man lethargically asked.

"Then take off your jacket and keep your hands in the air. If you run into someone then surrender to them like you surrendered to us."

Pyrrha then used her semblance to lift up a thin piece of metal, "Or I can cuff your hands with this and leave you here until the police come, your choice."

"I'll walk, thank you very much."

"Then talk," Pyrrha stated while slowly spinning the piece of metal.

"Okay, I'm going to stand up and take a few steps. Please don't shoot me." He waited till they gave him a nod before slowly standing up. Once he was upright he began to walk, "I'm going to show you the way to where we found her."

"Her?" Jaune asked feeling pretty certain that he had just misheard the man.

"I know it sounds crazy but that thing looks like a woman."

"Could it be an Imp or an Apathy? They're human-shaped and I guess they kinda look like a woman in a certain light." Suggested Nora.

The man shook his head, "No, that thing didn't look like either of those. It looked like some kind of deer Faunus but, like one from a nightmare. Either way, it will be your problem soon."

Jaune decided to take the opportunity to ask a question that had been burning a hole in the back of his head, "Earlier you said that you had been set up, was that for real or were you just rambling?"

"I wasn't lying, I swear I wasn't lying! I overheard the boss talking to some of her lieutenants and I heard her say that they had been given a tip about what the Fang was doing around here. They told us where to look and even helped us get around the cops."

A chill went through the collective spines of Team PRAN along with a whole flurry of questions screaming for answers inside of their heads but, that would have to wait. This was not the place, it absolutely was not the time, and they were not the people to be interrogating him or anyone else. That being said, they could ask him at least a couple of questions, but where to start?

"Who's they?" Nora asked starting with the biggest and perhaps most important question.

The man just shrugged, "I dunno, the boss didn't say who it was."

"Okay then, what were you looking for?"

"You'll see it soon, I'm showing you the way."

"I thought you were taking us to where you found the Grimm."

"I am."

Nora gasped, Ren's eyes widened, Jaune's mouth was hanging, and Pyrrha had to convince herself that she hadn't misheard him, "But that would mean that the Grimm isn't something that found its way into Vale… it was already here… waiting for you." Earlier he said that his boss received a tip that the Rally would be held here and if what he is saying is true then that means that all of this was set up! But who could have done this and why? The only person who could have planted the Grimm here would be someone who knew about the Rally so is it one of the planners? But what do they get out of getting attacked? Pyrrha racked her brain trying to think about the situation from every possible angle and a quick glance at her team showed her that they were trying to do the same thing, Is it PR? Defending civilians from a human supremacist group would be a massive PR boost but where does the Grimm fit into all of this!?

She and every other member of her team drew a blank and it was frustrating. It was frustrating not because they felt too stupid to piece it together but rather because it felt like they were trying to solve an incomplete puzzle. It was frustrating because there were lives in danger now thanks to whatever the hell was going on behind the scenes and there would be more lives put in danger in the future and they had no idea where to even begin! They weren't even sure if they would be able to convince anyone of just suspicions borne from the ramblings of a less than trustworthy man…

"This is as far as I go."

"Huh?" Pyrrha came out of her thoughts and was bright back to the present. The man had led them away from the warehouses but they were still within walking distance, the sound of fighting was louder than before but at the same time, it wasn't as intense as though it was coming to a close. As for what she could see, there was a clear path to a large shed whose door had been ripped off, and all around it and leading towards the shed were blood, bone, and guts.

Jaune was no stranger to the sight of ruptured human organs, usually his own, but never on this scale and never this brutal. "Who could have done this?"

"The Grimm obviously." Said the man as he began walking away only pausing once to ask for directions, "I pointed you to the shed so can you point me to the police?"

Pyrrha used her scroll to quickly take a picture of the man's face.

"Why did you do that?" He asked.

"Just a precaution, I'm going to let the police know that you're coming and if you don't show up."

"Then they have my picture… damn you huntsmen can be scary but I suppose this works out for me. Good luck."

Jaune watched as the man left and as soon as he was sure that the guy wouldn't be able to hear him, he turned to face his team and addressed the elephant in the room, "It wasn't a Grimm that did this." He pointed at all the viscera of the ground, "There isn't a single complete body insight, whatever did this went above and beyond what was necessary to kill these people."

"You're right," Ren said while trying to make sense of the carnage, "These people would have been running or fighting for their lives, it wouldn't have the time to do… this unless it killed them and then kept ripping into them."

"Maybe it grabbed a guy and used him as a club?" Nora suggested trying her best not to appear unnerved.

"That's a possibility… alright, let's go." Pyrrha said while walking forward toward the shed, "We need to find out what we are dealing with and the best way to do that is to go in there and find out how they were keeping it under control." They didn't want to go in there, none of them wanted to walk through that mess and enter what felt like the home of a butcher. But they did it anyway because the consequences of not doing it were worse for them and more importantly, for everyone else. However, life is not always fair and courage isn't always rewarded.

It started with Ren realizing that he couldn't hear the sounds of fighting anymore, Did the police arrive and put an end to it? Or is it something else? The only answer he received came in the form of a scream, more importantly, it was the scream belonging to a voice that he and the others recognized. The man! He must have run into the Grimm but how? I was using my Semblance… wait a second. Was I using my Semblance this whole time? Ren pulled out his scroll and checked Aura gauge, I'm well in the green but how? I must have stopped using my Semblance at some point and not noticed but how doe- wait, it must have been when he explained how everything was set up, I stopped because of the shock and never noticed for the same reason.

Then the screaming stopped just as suddenly as it began and a new sound took its place, a sick crunching squishy sound, and then silence. But it wasn't a peaceful sort of silence, rather it was the silence of a predator moving in to attack.

"Formations, now," Pyrrha ordered and her team responded immediately by getting ready for combat.

"Switching to live ammunition," Nora said as she opened up her grenade launcher Manghild and began pulling the bean bags and replacing them with her trademark explosive rounds.

"Do you have any flare rounds?" Pyrrha asked as she looked around for any potential problems they might encounter during the fight.

"I got four, one emergency, and three illumination rounds each one good for five minutes. Which one do you want me to load?"

"Not yet, but keep those illumination rounds at the ready just in case that thing ends up knocking out the power," she said while warily gazing at a nearby power pole.

They could hear the footsteps of something slowly, cautiously moving towards them but making sure to stay out of sight. They could hear it trying to find an angle where it could catch them off guard but they weren't mere thugs, they weren't going to lose track of it. They could hear a frustrated growl and footsteps slowly backing away until they stopped.

"Is it gone?" asked a rather confused Nora.

"Can't be, it didn't go far enough away. That thing is still there, it's just standing in one spot but why?" Pyrrha answered.

"Maybe it's trying to make us come to it?" Jaune suggested as his eyes began to change color in response to the tension.

Then they heard something that almost sounded like a chuckle which was followed by the footsteps and the sound of tearing metal.

"Permission to use one of the illumination rounds," Nora asked as she reached for the round.

"Do it."

Nora opened up Manghild to make the switch when from out of the darkness something flew right towards her. Realizing that she wouldn't be able to dodge Nora flared her Aura in preparation to take the hit, but thankfully Jaune was able to step in between and use his shield to block the projectile but he groaned in pain as he did so. "Are you okay?" Nora asked as she finished loading the round.

"Just hurt my arm, nothing my regen can't handle!" Jaune answered as he took a quick glance to the floor to see what he had blocked, A pipe? That thing threw a pipe like it was a javelin?

The sound of heavy footsteps rapidly approaching caught Jaune's attention, My regen isn't done yet! He raised his shield to block and his sword to counter-attack but the truth was that he wasn't sure if he'd succeed in doing either, If only I could use Aura to defend like literally everyone else! Fortunately, the whole point of being on a team was so that the individual members could make up for each other weaknesses and in that regard, PRAN did exceptionally well. Rapid gunfire from Ren's Storm Flower pistols slowed the monster down while Pyrrha moved in to help Jaune block the attack which took the form of a second pipe but unlike the first one this pipe hadn't been thrown.

Flaming eyes looked down at them with disdain and the being flashed a wicked smile revealing gleaming bloodstained teeth that promised a brutal end should it defeat them here. Without warning the creature swung again and again and again and again in wild, untrained, unpredictable, and unrelenting arcs trying to hit them all at once. However Pyrrha thanks to her skill and Semblance was able to keep the monster's assault focused squarely on herself as Ren and Jauned struck the exposed sides of a Grimm that didn't seem all too bothered by their blades slicing into its flesh.

"What! Did it even feel it?" Jaune asked nobody in particular. The creature turned to look at him and for the first time, Jaune was able to get a good look at the Grimm's face except it wasn't a Grimm. Its face was an ashen brown with dark bulging veins, its eyes were more akin to orbs of flame, and its mouth was far too big with far too many teeth but, it was also undeniably the face of a woman who might even be called pretty in a twisted sense of the word.

Then she looked right at him and smiled, a cruel bloodthirsty smile that sent a shiver down his spine. She ignored the bullets sinking into her flesh and ignored Pyrrha's spear that had just pierced her side. The only thing that she seemed to care about right now was him and how she could best mangle his body, she opened her mouth so wide that she tore her own cheeks apart and lunged at his throat.

Jaune swung his sword into her shoulder with such force that it cut all the way to her chest but it didn't stop her. Ren kicked the back of her knees with enough ferocity that he dislocated the joints, but that didn't stop her. Pyrrha stepped in and twisted her spear, turning the woman's intestines into mulch, but that didn't stop her. Nora swung her hammer right into the woman's side with enough force that it broke half the bones in the monster's and sent her tumbling to the floor and into darkness.

Jaune breathed a sigh of relief while rubbing his throat, "Thanks for that, she went right for my neck."

"Anytime, sometimes you just need a buff gal to be strong and hit stuff!" Nora answered with pride.

"Nora, get us some light!" Ordered Pyrrha.

"Right away, fearless leader!" Nora fired one of her illumination rounds into the air, the entire area lit up allowing them to see that the Grimm was already standing.

"Impossible! Even an Elder Deathstalker would have been killed by that!" Ren exclaimed in disbelief. He was right, most Grimm would have been finished after taking those hits but this wasn't like most Grimm and in the light, they could really appreciate how special this one was.

For starters, she was tall, taller than what should be possible for most people and it was thanks to her uncanny elongated limbs and neck. Her hair was grey, long, wild, unkempt, and crowned by a set of large bone white antlers dyed red with blood and decorated with entrails. Her body was thin to an almost sickly degree with her skin stretched out so tightly that they could make out her bones underneath along with certain bumps that they couldn't identify. But the most jarring thing of all was the wounds that they had inflicted were closing up, regenerating in a manner that was practically identical to Jaune. And if they listened closely, they could hear the snapping cracking sound of her bones putting themselves back in place.

The monster looked at them and took visible joy in their shocked expressions. She made a noise that almost sounded like words followed by laughter. It took a few practice swings with the pipe that was still in its hands and then it attacked.

Author's Notes: There is a lot that I wanted to include in this chapter like an explanation of how the Nightwatch was able to sneak past the cops and Huntsmen, what Roman and Neo are doing, and the evacuation of the Civilians but I quickly ran out of space. Right now I hope to deal with the latter two in the oncoming chapters with the question about the Nightwatch to be addressed in the aftermath.