Chapter Ninety-Nine
Calliope Celadon had, over her decades of being a Huntress, seen death coming for her several times.
Grimm of surprising strength.
Locals who had gone Bandit before you arrived.
An unexpected Tide.
Several times, the Faunus woman had known that, unless she was both very good, and very lucky, she was about to die.
But it had never been like this.
As bad as those times had been, they had been short, even if the hours she had run through that frozen forest, cut off from the rest of her team, had felt like a lifetime, the woman hadn't had time to think beyond watching her surroundings and fighting off the Wargers that harried her, the half-frozen wolf-like Grimm covering themselves with frost to blend in to the winter landscape.
This… was not like that.
It had been days of slow loss, losing more and more of her people, until less than a quarter of them remained, unable to strike back, unable to even see their foe, as they were whittled down.
Now, able to see her foe, some part of her wished she hadn't, but she was a Huntress, and they dealt with things as they were, while civilians got to live in blissful ignorance.
And she knew that, had Peter and his kids not arrived, death would not have just come for her, but everyone in Gabbro, and there was no amount of skill, or luck, that would've carried the day.
She'd fought Alphas, with help, as only utter maniacs like Peter fought those monsters alone, and in her semi-retirement here had rebuffed a half dozen Grimm Tides, but those turned the weaker monsters into something akin to a bandit's gang, not, not like this.
Even the Great Tide, which had interrupted the Great War, wasn't supposed to be like this. That had been a Tide so massive it was supposed to have covered the land and blotted out the skies, which the defenders had only been able to turn aback because they were two armies trying to kill each other.
If they'd faced something like that… Calliope would've run. She would've tried to take as many people with her, but she would've run, but even that Tide was supposed to just be a Tide, and running would've been possible, but, but this?
This wasn't a Grimm Tide, this was a Grimm Invasion.
It wasn't the numbers, because those could maybe be managed. No, it was the fact that they were coordinated, with not just a few Alphas, but over a dozen of them, the top-level Grimm working more like military captains than the cunning, wild, and canny creatures she knew them to be…
Caliope didn't know how 'Behemoths' could be kept a secret if this is what they did.
Though the disappearances of some larger towns over the years suddenly made more sense.
Everyone thought they had been lazy, or cheap, or foolish, but if this is what they'd fought…
Suddenly, the failure of Mountain Glenn was much more plausible as well, though she was sure that corruption, the kind of corruption she'd moved to a smaller Valian town to avoid, had been part of it as well.
And Gabbro would have been one of those disappeared settlements, were it not for Peter, and the team he'd brought with them.
Peter alone… she had fought with him, remembered fighting beside the man, but while she had settled down, that man had only gotten stronger.
But Peter alone wouldn't've been enough.
Not with what they were facing.
But he hadn't been.
It shouldn't surprise her, she'd heard how Ozpin had played games, but putting The Invincible Girl, a White Fang Assassin, and, if she was right, The Juggernaut's daughter on the same team was as impossible sounding as it was effective.
The last two were tearing across Quadrant Four, leaving twin trails of destruction, the blonde arrowing in on larger targets, like Peter did, her hair seemingly on fire as she burned through ammo, using her last shot in every set to launch herself back to the wall, grabbing another pair of belts to reload, and sending herself back into the fray.
The daughter of the leaders of the White Fang, meanwhile, scythed through the masses of Grimm with ease, twirling her weapon in constant circles around her, occasionally disappearing in a burst of fire, or ice, to reappear somewhere else moments later, killing hundreds more in seconds, and how that group had managed to secure an entire island for themselves, if this was what their elites could do, was suddenly not so strange.
But they were amateurs compared to Nikos, in Quadrant Three.
Calliope had seen some of the girl's fights, Savanna, Duke, and Matthew having loved them, watching them in the break room, though they never would again, having died to the Tide that was now at her doorstep. The Mistralian had been a damn good duelist, but fighting Grimm wasn't a duel, and she'd wondered how the girl would do against the kinds of foes a Huntress would fight.
Apparently, she'd do even better.
The girl hadn't ever used her Semblance in those fights, Duke thinking she hadn't discovered hers, Matthew believing that it wasn't something that would work in a fight, while Savanna claimed the girl didn't use it because she didn't need it.
Turned out, Savanna was right.
Because if The Invincible Girl had come out with what she was using now, the fights wouldn't have been close. From what the elder Huntress could tell, Nikos had been holding back in those arena bouts, showing strength beyond what anything other than a Master of Aura could display, but barely using it, instead almost dancing through the battlefield, with a grace the other two girls didn't quite have, unhurriedly cutting down thousands of Grimm without ever breaking stride, taking down an Alpha King Taijitu without seeming concerned as she moved across the titanic constrictor's body, splitting it apart, like slicing open a sausage, and moving on to her next target with the kind of calmness that a girl her age should not have.
In comparison, Calliope's people in Quadrant Five were barely holding on, desperately holding the wall, and while the older Faunus wanted to go down and help, she knew she needed to stay up top, managing things, and, if Grimm broke through Gabbro's wall, she'd need to be there in seconds to hold the gap.
A wall that would've already broken if it wasn't for the last member of Peter's team.
Jaune Arc.
An, as far as she could tell, complete nobody.
Power like that, it made waves, and the fact that she'd never heard of him before was as odd as it was unnerving, though when Peter told her, in confidence, that the young man was Ozpin's apprentice.
It made a little more sense.
But not by much.
His Semblance wasn't surprising, a lot of Faunus' Semblances leaned into their animalistic expressions, though him being a 'horned lizard' was a bit odd, but that was downright normal compared to everything else.
No, it was the Strength of his Semblance that was the second most out of place thing about him. Anti-Grimm Fire was something she hadn't seen before, and the kind of thing that, on its own, could make a Huntsman into a Legend, but the amount of it he'd created had been mind-boggling, as was the fact it was stockpile-able.
But then there was the most out of place thing.
The ammo he'd made.
Protecting Gabbro for almost a decade, Calliope had learned a good bit about the mining industry, if only to know when the goings on would create ripples of discontent that would call down more Grimm, but more than anything else she'd learned about logistics.
And there was no way that Arc would have been able to carry that many munitions with him, enough to keep them all supplied, without turning Peter's entire ship into a compressed space cargo craft, let alone the glass cannonballs.
Glass which, from what a few of her friends in the mines said, looking at the shards he'd left behind, shouldn't exist.
It was too strong, yet somehow broke when you needed it too, and, looking at the intact spheres, they were created using some kind of primitive mold, yet there were no serious imperfections in their creation, and to create that kind of glass, according to the experts, required a kind of sand that wasn't available anywhere in Gabbro outside of a few specialty stores, none of which had sold any of their stocks, and, even if they had, it would only be enough for a few dozen 'Flame-shot', as the boy called them.
Not the hundreds he'd given them, taken from thin air, along with twenty-five barrel sized 'Flame-chests' that, merely standing next to them, didn't feel warm as much as they felt… clean.
And, when she'd brought it up to Peter, he'd just nodded, told her it was impossible, but that it was better to have them than for the 'Young man to conceal his abilities at the cost of this city'.
Which she couldn't really argue against.
And now he was out there, fighting like Ozpin's pet Demon, in a roaring shape of rainbow fire that was on par with the others, if not surpassing them, his warning of Basilisks making her swear as she checked the cameras, and, yes, causing her to start issuing orders to, yes, do what he said, civvies all too often thinking that Grimm were all like Beowulfs and Ursa, big and tough but not that bad, because the truth was far, far worse, and, historically, educating people on what, exactly, Grimm could do led to Tides.
Thankfully, their stares didn't work over video like they did through binoculars, and she swore again, seeing that one was an Alpha, only for Arc to throw up a shield to stop the people behind him from looking directly at it, which wouldn't last long.
And then she heard a noise, echoing over the battlefield, oddly rhythmic as it built, causing the Grimm in every quadrant to start charging Arc, even as streams of his Semblance created Flame streaked in towards him, even a few Flame-shot being yanked from people's hands on the battlement closest to him, hitting the ground and shattering, but not exploding, drawn in around the wall of ice he'd created, until-
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
The view from the camera darkened, the feed distorting, as a ribbon of radiance overtook everything, Calliope looking out the window of her command position, harsh white illumination casting the entire world in stark shadows, the ice wall Arc had constructed outlining the large winged figure of the boy's version of the technique that Ozpin's Demon used, turning Gabbro blue with its filtered light, making her wonder if the frozen barrier was meant to protect them from seeing the Basilisks, or this.
A beeping noise drew her attention, as she saw Arc's Aura plummet, his feed from his Scroll, which cut in and out, dropping from the mid-eighties to twenty-four the instant after the light cut out, and, looking at the cameras, she took in Quadrant Two.
Which had been clear-cut.
And, a moment later, the young man's voice, a little hoarse, but also unbelievably smug, stated, "Sector Two Clear. Where should I go next?"
It took her a moment to respond, "Back to the wall, Arc. Your Aura's too low."
"Not for me, it isn't, and I'll get it back quick enough," he disagreed. "Fight's still on, either tell me where to go, or I'll pick one."
And that was the other thing about Ozpin's Apprentice: the young man was incredibly arrogant. But, seeing his Aura tick up to twenty-five percent already, and, well, what was left of Quadrant Two, he could back it up.
"Quadrant Five. Go give my people a hand," she ordered, as, while the Grimm had momentarily ignored them, her Hunters and Huntresses were once more being pressed.
"Told you we could just do four quadrants," the man teased. "Have my Sector's people get two Flame-Chests ready, and have your people pull back to the wall."
Scowling, Calliope didn't like having her pride poked like that, but, but at this level, maybe the kid was right. "Will do."
Giving the order, moments later, she saw Arc soar up and out from behind the wall, flaming wings beating as he came up on the battlements and grabbed the barrels, flying over to Quadrant Five, before hurling them into the center of the battlefield, diving after them.
They hit with twin explosions of rainbow fire that warped as he dove into them, compressing, as the young man charged forward, glowing like a prismatic star, and laid waste to that section as well, Belladonna and Xiao-Long glancing over at him, before, over the comms, the blonde groaned, "Of course he finished first!" and redoubled her efforts.
The White Fang operative fighting by her side added, "It's what he did last time."
Last time? the older Huntress couldn't help but think, having so many more questions for Peter when this was all over.
And, watching, her old friend and his team were holding off the entire invasion. Her people were helping, the civilians on the wall assisting too, but the weapons they used to do so weren't theirs but Arc's.
And then the Grimm Army stopped.
But they didn't break.
No, they did something far more terrifying.
They left.
The front lines fought, and died, but the ranks of Grimm behind them, still emerging from the forest?
In perfect synchronization, they turned around, and they marched back into the treeline.
Peter's team still went after them, the groups they hit losing cohesion and acting more like a Tide was supposed to, but, in half an hour the Grimm were gone, the five on the field not following them into the woods, but returning back to the command center.
Arc's Scroll came back online, his Aura readout stuttering from twenty-five to forty-one, despite his constant fighting, but, at this point, Calliope had ceased to be surprised. Nikos' was at seventy-six, showing she had taken some hits, while the last two were in the low thirties, but they also both burned Aura to power their Semblances, and Peter's was in the fifties, but that was expected of him.
"-ow'd the Seraphim System work out?" Arc questioned, as he walked in, unconcerned.
Nikos smiled, "Oh, wonderfully. I do have some suggestions for when we get back to Beacon though."
Smiling, Xiao-Long bragged, "My little sis does good work! And, Jaune, the fuck was that?"
There's more of them? Calliope thought, chiming in, "I would like to know as well."
Glancing between the two of them, the horned young man stated, "Uh, which thing?"
"I believe she's referring to your using of Hard-Light Dust," Nikos answered.
"Oh, that. Yeah, probably needed to test it more beforehand, but it worked out," he shrugged. "Didn't know it'd suck up my Flames like that, but I handled it."
"Indeed you did!" chortled Peter, though Calliope could see through his bluster to see the man's uneasiness, as even he clearly hadn't expected… that. "Though one must ask, what we should do now. Normally, the ending of such a battle is quite final, as one stands atop a pile of one's dead enemies, as Grimm do not, as they say, quit the field. And certainly not in such a civilized manner!"
"Oh, that's simple," Arc stated, like he wasn't a Huntsman student. "We resupply the front lines, take a bit of a break, cycle through the defenders, and get ready for the next wave!"
"The, the next wave?" the elder Faunus questioned, as the others in the command center turned to look at the young man in horror.
"I mean, yeah? Kind of dumb of them not to press us, since all they have is numbers, if they want to take this position, but give me another hour and then, well, other than Sector Two, which one is your least favorite, as I think I can refine that technique a little bit more, though I'm gonna need to prep a few things…" he trailed off, before shaking his head. "But, either way, I've worked up a bit of an appetite, and I figure I'll make us some sandwiches. Any requests?"
"Tuna salad," the White Fang Assassin asked, without missing a beat, Nikos adding, "A reuben," and Xiao-Long requesting, "Bacon cheeseburger!"
"We'll have burgers as well," Peter smiled, glancing around the command center. "Actually, Calliope, why don't you call in your Huntsmen. Mr. Arc, if you don't mind making, say, five of each?"
The older Huntress expected the arrogant Young Man to argue, but he merely nodded, "Sure thing, be back in fifteen," and left, his team heading out with him.
Once they were gone, Gabbro's Huntress Commander turned to her old friend and quietly asked, "Peter, what the absolute fuck is going on?"
Instead of laughing, as he always did, the veteran Hunter just sighed. "I wish I could tell you, Caliope, but I'm just as in the dark as you are."
"Oh… fuck."
That got a chortle out of the deceptively muscular man.
"Indeed!"
DR
After a nice midnight snack and an invigorating smoothie, I was ready for round two, my Aura at full, along with those of my team, though the locals were looking a bit… harried. Once dawn broke, and the chance of a surprise Grimm attack fell with it, I was going to pop back Home to make some more Flame-shot, but the amount the defenders had been given had been redistributed out evenly, the active-duty personnel had been cycled, so that was pretty much everything we could do for now, which was always the problem with defense:
The attackers got to set the schedule.
Then again, the defenders got to bring all their shit to the fight, while the attackers had to shlep it themselves, so, as far as I could tell, it evened out somewhat.
Regardless, I was dozing, relaxed, on a couch I'd pulled from the break room and put at the back wall of the command center, Pyrrha sitting beside me and leaning into me, in a similar state of loose readiness, Blake reading a book as she sat in a chair nearby, while Yang was out of it in another, having fallen asleep after the adrenaline rush had faded, but she'd be up and ready in seconds if needed.
The local Huntsman were, well, tired and twitchy, though the food I'd made had helped, and likely the smoothies I'd shared with them at Pyrrha's suggestion, the ad-hoc Aura Regen potions kicking in and getting them ready too.
That said, while they were better than Cardin and company, that wasn't a particularly high bar, and really put into perspective the power of protagonist energy that team RWBY and JNPR, minus Jaune, had brought to the table originally, as, for the life of me, I couldn't remember ever getting any sort of display of how a normal Huntsman fought, only prodigies like the title characters, heavy hitters like Glynda, and evil heavy hitters like Neo, Adam, and Cinder.
Eh, someone had to man the walls, and the civvies had been looking kind of… skittish. I knew, both from Oobleck's lessons about the last king of Vale, and talking to the man himself, that the Army of Vale made heavy use of Aura'd combatants, and, while the Huntsman system certainly had its advantages, well, it seemed to take an Army to fight an Army.
Or a team of Army-killers.
The thought brought a smile to my covered face, some of the civies having given me horrified looks when I'd pulled down my mask to eat, which… well, to be honest, I forgot about the fact that I wore it most times, and the messhall back in Beacon had people who'd seen it often enough they didn't gape.
But fuck 'em.
They weren't Mine.
I mean, I'd still save them, rah rah Huntman-bah, after all, I just didn't much care what they thought, as long as they didn't get in my way.
And, with some notable exceptions at the lower level, Gabbro's people were actually pretty easy to work with. Not 'Might want to move here' good, it was far too small to serve as a proper Lair, and-
… Yeah, definitely needed to cool it with the Dragon-ing for a bit.
Regardless, it was nice, but small, and I wouldn't be sad to see it go, as long as I saw it go intact.
For professional pride, if nothing else.
"We've got movement!" one of the civies called out, and I perked up, Pyrrha doing the same as well, Blake not moving, though her eyes were off her book.
"What is it?" Ms. Celadon called out, stressed, even though she didn't really need to be.
Telling her we had it handled, hadn't helped, but the incredulous stare she'd given me, not knowing the full extent of what I could do, had at least got her mind off her worries a little.
"It's a… rocky newt?" the person said, frowning, bringing up the feed on the main display, showing a Grimm lizard covered with glowing blue crystals.
Port laughed, though it was a confused one. "Oh, a Scrollamander! And an Advanced one at that! I do believe that little devil is what has been disrupting our communications!"
"But what is it doing?" the grey-haired Huntress frowned staring at the display, as it calmly walked out of the woods of Sector Three, where Pyrrha had been station, ambling its way towards the wall. seemingly without a care in the word.
"Your guess is as good as mine!" our Mentor shrugged. "They're normally squirrely little rascals! I've never known one to walk in a straight line, not that I've seen more than a half dozen of them myself!"
"Maybe it's being controlled," Blake offered, ears stiffening as the others turned to look at her. "I mean, the other Grimm weren't acting like Grimm, and this one isn't either? It may be for the same reason."
Celadon nodded slowly, "But why bring it out like this? To lure us out?"
"It's well within range of Pyrrha or I," I countered. "Definitely within range of my demonstration from a few days ago."
Beside me, my lover slowly put forward, "I can only think of two reasons why it would give up such an advantage. To draw away our team, or to retreat."
I wasn't sure about the second, but Port nodded, "And by removing its ability to suppress Scroll networks, it could no longer be tracked by the holes in the CCT's coverage. Both are equally likely, and both are equally worrying, for much the same reason!"
The broom-riding local Huntress spoke up, "But Grimm aren't smart enough to do that!"
Lifting an eyebrow, I gestured out towards the dead army, while the Beacon Professor merely laughed. "Ah, Ms. Eleda, that would be where you are wrong. It is in the nature of many Grimm to use tactics such as this, though it is almost always a product of their nature, not any sort of intelligent decision." Turning to look at the display, he added, "Though this does not seem to be the case."
"Hold your fire," the Huntress in charge of the defenses commanded. "I want to see how close it will get."
The answer was within spitting distance of the wall, where an un-Aura'd civilian with a bow could probably take it out.
At which point it plopped down.
And sat.
Waiting.
"Well, that's fucking weird," Yang, who'd woken up while we'd watched, commented. "Should… Should someone go out an' punch it?"
Sighing, the grey-haired commander toggled the comms, ordering, "Gregory, take the shot."
"Aye," the rifle-wielding Huntsman, who was set up at the wall, replied, a moment later a Dust-bullet striking the Grimm, setting off a small explosion that shattered its crystal growths completely.
A cavalcade of 'message received' notifications went off, before, as one, every Huntsman's scroll blared with an alarm, Pyrrha and I checking ours instantly, to see-
"What's a Priority Zero Alert?" I questioned confused,
"Bad," Yang answered, paling. "Really bad."
Looking to Port, the man was completely serious. "It would be what we would have sent, facing the foes we did tonight, had we the ability. It appears that Gabbro was not the only city thus attacked, only the first." He glanced towards Ms. Celadon. "And perhaps not even then. Caliope, our foe may be wishing to pull us away by letting us know, or it might, as Ms. Nikos said, be quitting the field. One would put you all in great peril if we left, but it is a Priority Zero from Vale itself."
Ears flicking in frustration, the older woman grit her teeth for a moment, before pointing for the door. "Go. We'll keep the Flame-shot." She paused, and grimaced, looking to me, "That is, if we can."
"I insist," I told her. "Not sure how long they'll last, but I can always make more. I've got a few already loaded, and any more would become a liability."
"Then go. And Arc, Nikos, Belladonna, Xiao-Long, thank you for saving my city," she told us, with a serious nod I didn't expect, but still appreciated.
"And me?" Port questioned, teasingly, though an underlying tension practically sang in his tone.
The older Faunus just snorted. "Consider us even for Tongshan, Pete."
"Ha, not quite the same, but I accept!" the man laughed, turning and heading for the door. "Come now, children, it seems we're not yet done!"
We followed him out, the man striding confidently, but, as soon as he turned the corner, he broke out into a dead sprint that we were hard-pressed to keep up with without using our various weapons and abilities, making it to the 'Bustard' in a little over a minute, Port only sparing a glance for us as he jumped into the pilot's seat, slamming the door shut behind Blake and kicking the ship in gear in seconds, everyone having to hold on to something as the flying brick practically rocketed into the sky, as morning dawned, taking off towards Vale, passing by my Sector in the process.
Everyone was gathered at the front, looking at the devastation, Yang letting out a low, "Holy Shit, Light Knight. That was you?"
Ah, yes, that hill was leaning, as I appeared to have dug out a twenty-foot-high layer of the landscape feature.
But it wasn't the devastation that attracted my attention.
It was the part that wasn't.
Because while I'd left a cone of destruction, extending for several miles, two-thirds of the way through there was a smaller conical section that was completely intact.
"Is that…" Pyrrha questioned, spotting it as well.
"Yep," I nodded, frowning. "Something blocked my attack."
Yang scoffed, "Like, did you see what your boytoy did, P-Money? What could block that."
It was Port who answered.
"Perhaps, Ms. Xiao-Long, we shall discover the answer to your question at our destination, though I dearly hope we do not."
Music
death - The Witcher 2 Soundtrack - Through the Underworld
cavalcade – NGE OST – ANGEL ATTACK
AN: And thus the Gabbro Arc closes. Next up is gonna be a doozy.
