Ch. 96 At the gates of Vale
Moments after the Grimm liquid came under fire from the huntsmen assembled on the walls, another salvo fired from mounted turrets. While most were simply defense turrets meant to aid in the defense of the walls, there were quite a few that were distinctly different.
While Yang watched the young Grimm get pelted with bullets she saw several harpoons connect with the larger specimen, killing them with the sheer size of the projectiles. Then, down the chains connecting them to the winches mounted on the walls, came down huntsmen.
It didn't take long for Yang to join the fray, losing her worries in the heat of battle. Maybe other people could work through emotions by cooling down and thinking calmly, for Yang though it was then her Aura and emotions ran high that she could feel like herself.
If there was anyone around who'd indulge her in competing over counting kills she'd gladly tell them that she had already killed over three dozen since arriving at the walls. Qrow wasn't one to compete with her like that, though Yang silently admitted that maybe it was just to avoid the fallout from her being a sore loser.
It didn't take long for Yang to decide on her course of action. Pyrrha could follow her family here and if she won't, well it may take a while for Vale to be safe to be left alone anyway. An excuse that basically fell into her lap.
As the count of Grimm kills mounted though, Yang was beginning to get a little worried. At ten dozen she was forced to start trying, her semblance and Ruby's upgrades to Ember Celica no longer enough to just continue with brute force. As she pulled on her magic the feeling of the fire around her changed as it filled with magic. It still looked the same though her eyes were now alight with the power of the Fall maiden.
Qrow too was apprehensive of the amount of Grimm. The Grimm liquid may have stopped moving, but as they dispatched the incoming horde, more just kept emerging from the tar. The fight had gone on for long enough that Lucky Break's rings were all unlocked and spinning. Still, he felt it was a waste to use that energy up on the small fry.
As the Grimm tide finally started to thin out though, something happened. Qrow was the first one to notice something, though it was very different from the common observation the others made.
Qrow felt a jolt, a tiny pulse of something familiar from deep within the weapon Jaune reforged for him. Then, a mere moment after, the Grimm liquid convulsed again as it did back in the crater.
Roman reacted quickly enough, closing his eyes, his semblance once again encompassing the entire battle for Vale. Inconclusive, good and bad, a near perfect fifty-fifty, a genuine coinflip. He moved towards one of the winches, one which he knew Cardin and Neo used to go down into the fray, looking at the Grimm goop all the while.
Its grotesque organic movement was accompanied by something new. The black goop started moving again, slower than before, more intelligence and thought behind its movement. And just as that thought passed through Roman's mind a figure started to emerge from within it.
It was still far enough away for the automated turrets to ignore it for now. The huntsmen still on the wall though, didn't. As the first salvo passed through the still very fluid form, it became more recognisable.
"An… Imp?" Sky whispered, having just seen the bullet he'd shot from Feather's Edge go straight through without doing any damage.
"Doesn't look like it to me." replied Roman, whom Sky didn't even notice approaching. "I don't think Imps have antlers. Okay my turn."
As Sky looked over to Roman he saw him carefully aiming Melodic Cudgel into the air and sending a flare of unstable dust on its way towards the strange Grimm. Sky followed the parabola with his eyes until the bright red glow exploded upon contact with the Grimm's chest.
What followed was an unnerving high pitched screech. And as the dust settled Roman met eyes with the hateful expression of the thing.
Most huntsmen were now looking at the thing and its long strides towards the gate.
For a moment Roman swore his eyes were playing tricks on him as the thing seemed to be approaching way faster than it should have. Then it hit him, it wasn't just getting closer, it was getting bigger. At first it was just getting taller, but then the Grimm tar started lunging its sinewy form towards it and it started to gain bulk, starting to resemble an Ursa more so than an Imp. Soon it stood twice as tall as the biggest Ursa Major any huntsman present had ever seen, its head adorned with bone white antlers bigger than a grown man. The entire Urisine form was covered with thick bone plate armour. Though to many, those weren't the most striking features. That would be the single crescent, the cracked and in some places even broken crescent so reminiscent of the Arc emblem, featuring prominently on the Ursine beast's chest..
"Fuck, of course its somehow about him." Roman whispered under his breath as he hastily fished out his scroll from his coat pocket.
It took him longer than he'd like to find the contact info in Beacon's database, given how pressing the situation was quickly becoming.
Qrow meanwhile took command of the huntsmen below the walls. "Alright everybody, retreat! This is more than any of us can handle on their own, get back to your winches!" Even as he yelled though, he himself was moving away from the walls. For a moment he thought he may have to pull Yang away from the battle, though when he caught sight of her it became clear others beat him to it. Cardin Winchester was swearing up a storm, but he was successfully pulling the struggling Yang back towards the massive spear stuck in the ground behind them.
At that very moment Roman swore under his breath as neither of the two brats were in range as they were supposed to be. In a last ditch effort he pulled up Doré Arc's profile and initiated the call.
"Hello?"
"Finally! Arc! I can't reach your son. It's important!"
"We have our hands full here, Torchwick. It's like every damn Grimm in Vale decided to attack us."
"Fuck! You have no idea how right you may be." Roman swore as he turned the camera to the battle and sent several images through the call. "Look at this and tell me it doesn't have anything to do with Jaune bloody Arc."
"How…?" was the only thing Doré managed to say as he looked at the pictures of the Grimm shapeshifter.
"My semblance goes haywire when it comes to the kid and his wife, that's how." Roman answered, misconstruing the question to mean more than it did. "Now tell me, where in the nine circles of hell is he, Arc."
"Forever Fall, he's working on something at the Amity crash site. I was there recently and it should be visible from the air. I can't move from here, that'd be condemning my home and everyone here to death. If you want to reach him, you can fly out here and get him yourself."
"Are you heartless?" Roman asked, thinking of Vale as a whole and more importantly himself and Neo.
"He's my son, he can handle himself… and he's got Ruby with him." and just like that Doré ended the call.
As Roman swore up on the walls above, Qrow, running on the ground down below, hazarded one last look back at the huntsmen. Those closest to him already had the black liquid lapping at their feet as the powerful winches on the wall kicked into gear and pulled them back.
Then, with a sigh and a silent wish for his luck to hold, he pulled the trigger.
Click. The first wheel stopped,
Click.
Click. Click.
Click. Click. Click.
All seven rings stopped in place, aligning perfectly as the scythe unfurled into its full glory.
Qrow hesitated for just a moment. After all, there were so many eyes watching him.
For a brief moment his form changed into that of a bird speeding upwards before he took hold of Lucky Break with his own human hands again, the mechanism still spinning without so much as slowing down.
Up on the walls, Yang, having just been pulled up there, her boots still smoking with the disintegrating Grimm tar, looked over just in time to witness the moment of impact. A loud high pitched clang reverberated through the battlefield as the entire mechanism of Lucky Break halted at the exact same time, amplifying Qrow's strike with all the energy stored over the battle.
A loud roar followed the virtual silence as everyone watched with halted breath. The ursine bone mask of the bear form was now sliced in twain, exposing the Imp like grin beneath it. As its right set of antlers fell to the ground, so did several of the bone plates on its right arm, taking cleanly sliced chunks of flesh with them.
Qrow for his part was far too light to withstand the force while in mid air. He, along with his scythe, was launched high into the air. Though as he approached the apex of his flight he shifted Lucky Break into its sword form and his own form shifted into a bird once more. The small feathered missile aimed straight back at the creature, only shifting back into Qrow at the last second.
Alas, the creature was prepared this time, not only guarding against the attack, but swatting Qrow away like an insect. For a moment a black bird tumbled through the air before Qrow landed on top of the wall not too far from where Roman stood.
Qrow looked down at the four outer rings spinning around the mechanism of his weapon, before looking back at the Grimm. Injured, but recovering and again approaching the gate once again.
"What are you waiting for! Fire at will!" he finally roared out.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
Hey! First of all, if you're reading concurrently with the release schedule, I'd like to wish you all happy holidays! And if you don't celebrate then I wish you a good time nonetheless.
Now to a bit of housekeeping, this one ended up fairly short, but I felt this was better than splitting what's happening with Jaune and Ruby. Nontheless it is entirely what the title promised so I feel it's fair.
As for the new Grimm, I'm probably going to call it a Wendigo. It's a humanoid shapeshifter so I feel it's a fair name.
Thank you so much for reading and thank you for getting this far. If you want to support me you can do so on P a treon . com (slash) OlympianScribe
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 97 Silver and red