Hello everyone, moving sucks, finding a job through all the ghost posting sucks, depression sucks and more I won't be talking about here. Concepts and ideas for this fic always pop into my head even ones that won't be possible for me to do with this fic, I may make another one in the future. whatever the case may be I continue to work towards my future whatever it may be. Things may not turn out but that doesn't mean i'm down or out. Enjoy the chapter, i think my character writing is getting better.

bold for emphasis.

Onyx Burns Bright

Claws crushed ceiling tiles and scratched across concrete as they all headed for one place. Their hate ran so deep that it overwrote their desires of existence itself, throwing themselves into fire with the only thought being murder.

A sea of black dissolved into a wall of blue flame never to return. The older a Grimm gets, the smarter and more in control of itself it becomes. It suppresses its empty-headed hatred for humanity with cold calculated moves. As they live on for decades, centuries, millenniums.. they learn. Something inside them clicks, and they become self aware and thoughtful instead of mindless killing machines. Instead of realizing their war on humanity was nothing but unfounded jealousy, though, it only makes them worse.

They remained insidious creatures of darkness, soulless, but they grow older and evolve through experience. No one could doubt that they were in some sense 'Alive'.

Pale blue fires rose higher on the horizon, deep red eyes searching for humans to kill. Eventually, they were drawn to a large town hall, where the smell of fear and anguish billowed like a wild forest fire..

At this moment in time, a Huntsman was viewing something very alien, something that went against everything he had understood in the way of combating grimm. Be aware. Controlled. Have a flexible plan, or create one. Be prepared to fight outnumbered and run away when things get too hairy. Unnecessary risks should be left as a last resort, or perhaps something to take the grim by surprise. What he was seeing was spitting on that, a chaotic combination between a last stand and a slaughter.

Brutal momentum, crippling precision, and a ferocity that could match the Grimm. She reminded him of Yang, if she had more experience and developed her style to both be safer with crippling grimm and going for a killshot when necessary, if not killing the grimm outright. It was survival coming from aggressive and elusive style..

Alaine would cut through grim like butter in one moment, or simply crush a joint or slam them to the side to turn her focus to more grimm. Crush, slice, ravage her way through grimm. This almost felt like her natural state of being. Thrust, crush, cut, eviscerate.

It seemed like she was actually getting better at fighting the grim than when he first saw her, and that was insane to him knowing he thought she was good before. He watched Alaine hang low, pushing off forward to dive under swipes and have her oversized sawmace - or whatever it was - follow, completely bashing open a beowolf's skull like it was made of paper mache. She followed through and the sparks flew in an arc followed by the splatter of tar and the cracks of bone from more - she was a whirlwind of movement, flowing with momentum from one attack to the next target after target. No grimm was safe.

He knows he should be focusing on his own fight, but he couldn't help but steal glances and see her swift and precise attacks even with such a large weapon. The tide of grimm was getting thinner, but he knew that just meant that the opponents would be smarter, more conniving, and stronger.

A larger group was coming, and he shouldn't let her do it on her own. She should be getting tired, but from what he's seen, she only seemed to get more energy as she fought. It was almost as if somehow she was sustaining herself off the grimm.

She was creepy as hell to be completely honest.

The darkness of the night was in full swing, and her outfit went from out-of-place to looking like it came out of one of those old mistral witch hunters. Darkness clung to her like a cloak, her pale blue eyes coming out in the moonlit black. Wearing a big stovepipe top hat was the only thing that showed any personality.

Eventually, he too joined in the fight, shooting a stray lesser nevermore with his shotgun that fell beside Alaine. It didn't even make her flinch as her weapon came down and crushed the boarbatusk with an overhead slam. Its bone carapace shattered, and the grimm splattered onto the ground, soaking her weapon with its black and red insides before dissipating into smokey dust. She turned to see Qrow with his blade raised, and she didn't have time to dodge. She should have expected to be stabbed in the back once more.

His sword whizzed past her side and stabbed into the face of an ursa behind her. She grit her teeth and growled out a yell as she swung her weapon around and dug into its stomach. The serrations began tearing it apart viciously, slicing it apart sideways until Qrow had to pull his blade out and up, forcing their weapons to collide within the beast. Alaine turned and nodded in appreciation before her eyes narrowed and she turned around to see the other ursa charging her down. With the whirligigsaw behind her again she let the saw sit on the ground, digging instead into her coat to draw her pistol while turning to extend her gun arm. The pistol gleamed in the moonlight as the ursa charged with its claw brought low to cleave across her body.

A gunshot rang out, and Qrow was surprised to see a charging ursa of all things being stopped in its tracks. It fell to its knees where Alaine calmly put her gun back in her coat and took her weapon in both hands to return the favor that the ursa tried to give her, the serrations grinding against the stone before being brought up and cleaving across the ursa's chest, goring it deep and sending it on its back. The whirligig saw circled around in the air as Alaine used the momentum to spin her body and bring it down to execute her fallen enemy.

He'd have to ask what she used for ammunition. He leapt past her and charged a bunch of oncoming grimm, cutting the beowolf in half without slowing down. He shifted Harbinger into it's scythe form as he ran, bringing it down and to the side to hook under the plates of a boarbatusk and skewering it. It was tossed to the side to dissolve into ash, where a deathstalker burst through the store, demolishing it completely and causing Qrow to jump back.

He didn't have much time as it approached quickly, so he jumped off of the crushing pincer of the death stalker. The deathstalker angrily swiped its other pincer up at him, just to miss and have him land on top of its bony exterior. He wobbled side to side as the deathstalker jostled around and started running towards the nearest building. "Woah- oh fuck."

He ran to the back of the grimm and jumped while swinging his scythe horizontally to sever its tail. Instantly, the deathstalker screeched and rampaged through a bakery, sending rubble all sprawling out onto the street. It turned around, covered in bricks and debris and swinging wildly around towards Qrow, who nimbly avoided each swipe with a smile.

Alaine was busy with her own grimm now. That's okay. It's just a deathstalker. Qrow snuck between one of its claws and severed it from the joint with the sword form and stabbed into its defenseless side. He put both hands on the hilt and ripped it towards him, digging deeper and deeper and causing the grimm's smokey insides to briefly flow over his hands before dissipating into the air. He twisted the sword and ripped it out, leaving a massive twisted gash that made the grimm fall to the ground with a thud and a dying screech.

Qrow turned towards a run to help Alaine cut down more grimm. More kept coming and now he could hear gunshots from the townhall. Someone must be taking out strays. It meant they had to do more. He stepped forward and brought the sword down, cleaving through one beowolf before stabbing through another and cutting one more to the right of him in a final flourish.

More just kept coming. He just had to cut a path to help her. Things were getting hairy, and it would be a lot harder to live with himself if he didn't get these people out of here alive. The grimm situation suddenly got a lot worse. A cacophony of gunfire started ringing out as more and more came. He had to be faster.

Alaine was busy, very busy with rampaging grimm. Her saw screamed through the air, cutting down another beowolf only to narrowly dodge a swipe from an Ursa and then jump to the side of a boarbatusk as it tried to gore her onto its tusks. She got to her feet only to be met with more grimm. She smiled under her gaiter and thrust her weapon towards the boarbatusk, but it was too far. She adjusted her grip and swung it around, smashing against a beowulf as it lunged at her, sending it sprawling across the street with a crunch.

Qrow sprinted forth, cutting grim down and blasting the occasional beowolf in the chest as he closed the distance that the fighting had created over time. He got to see her occasionally while running and not having to focus on an approaching grimm.

-

She was having some trouble, and he was worried that without aura she'd die outright once she was overwhelmed.

Alaine was put into a tricky spot. So many damn Grimm… they should all DIE. Every damn one of them. Should DIE. It didn't matter what shape they came in, they should all be ground into dust. She was desperately lashing out at them, killing hungrily just to survive the coming onslaught. This was where the blunderbuss would have helped, but she left it back in the dream. Duck, strike, dash, strike, weave through them and strike them down, cleave, cripple, kill.

She gored another Ursa on her weapon and lunged forward with her weapon overhead to cleave across and crush more oncoming grimm. A boarbatusk and beowolf were sent flying back while a ursa and wandering creep were covered in smoking serrations. One more boarbatusk was crushed. Just as she was about to follow up on that strike…

Blood flew through the air and soaked the concrete below her. She let out a hiss of pain as she turned to see an Alpha beowulf swinging again, its claws cleaved deep, soaking its claws in her blood. Alaine flew back over the wounded grimm with a death grip on her weapon. The grimm pushed aside its wounded brethren and continued its dreaded assault.

The Alpha beowolfs claws raked the lock mechanism once Alaine was back on her feet. Its sharp claw scraped down the shaft of the wapon.The Hunter pulled back so she did not lose her fingers and its claws hit the concrete. Now on all fours it leaped forward and bit down on the lock mechanism.. Alaine's anger flared as she could feel it breaking teeth and ravaging her workshop's masterpiece. With one claw on the saw and the other on the concrete, it tried to rip away the weapon or tear her apart while holding it.

That anger swelled, and she gasped to find herself at near equal strength with the abomination. Her muscles screamed in protest as she forced them to move to her will, growling in pain and feeling her back and chest getting wet with her own blood.

"DIE, YOU WRETCHED THING!!!"

Red eyes met hers, and the grimm continued to try and trap her in its maw, snapping at her. She pushed the shaft of the whirligig saw further back in its mouth and wrenched it to the side, ripping teeth out of its mouth before Alaine brought her weapon back once more, jabbing it in the face with the pommel of the weapon and swinging the weapon around to slam the whirligig saw up and across its face.

She made a mistake.

When Alaine pulled the trigger, the lock mechanism malfunctioned. It was forced to push the mace head forward against wiring inside, but it did not recede because the metal wires that used the force behind the trigger mechanism to pull the mace head back had snapped.

The entire thing locked up, and the whirligig saw made sounds of gears grinding and wires snapping as it broke across the Alpha beowolf's mask. Sparks were sent forward, followed by the sickening burnt smell of torn metal. She raised one of her workshop's beloved weapons, and with burning hatred, bashed the opportunistic grimm's head open.

She turned to see that more grimm were approaching. "ALAINE!!" Just then the hunter heard another snarl behind her. Alaine swung her weapon back around, but it wasn't fast enough. The wounded Ursa stood in front of her with its arm brought low about to impale her on its claws like an effigy. She grit her teeth as she saw the moment of her death approaching as it had come any other time.

A curved blade stabbed through the ursa's chest and lifted it up only to have its torso bashed open and ripped off the scythe by her blow. Too much forceful movement. She faltered and leaned on her broken masterpiece with a groan. She reached into her pack and pulled a vial out. Not many left; just five. She stabbed into her artery and injected it before tossing it back into her pack. The hunter let out a sigh of relief, and then looked up to see Qrow looking forth with a different look on his face: resolution and focus.

He looked like a different person. Good. He really does just play the fool. She let go of the seized whirligig saw with a clamor, pulling the silver sword that was on her back while rising back to her full height. She pulled the flame sprayer from her coat and immediately whipped the blade down, scratching through the concrete cleanly and bisected the lunging beowolf with the strike. Its corpse flew by both of them as she looked forward and watched more grimm approach.

"How the hell? You shouldn't even be awake after those hits" Alaine ignored his inquiry and pressed her back against Qrow's, spreading her blood on his cloak as they looked around at the worsening situation. They needed to clear all these before they went after the townsfolk. She broke away from Qrow and they both went after more grimm.

They cleared the swarming grim, cutting through swathes of them with different styles of speed:Alaine with her lunging aggressiveness taking advantage of every opening that could be grasped, and Qrow slicing them apart as they came after him, killing one or even two at a time with his swift movements.

One final group had approached, and Alaine was no longer in a mood to oblige them in combat. She was quick to outstretch her left arm and let the flame flow from the sprayer, cascading over the grim and causing them to burn to ashes before they could lunge through them and reach her. She held that blaze for about five seconds before she took her fingers off the lever.

Her sharp eyes turned back towards Qrow and he looked back at her. A brief silence overtook them as Qrow stared at her, specifically at the bag at her hip. The man had seen her use the blood. How burdensome.

She knew that someone of authority like Ozpin would keep her close to observe her but she wasn't expecting him to be so sharp. Was she fooled by his jester-like personality? Or was he just that keen? Either way she slipped up and showed too much. His accusation rang in the air. "You aren't doing some kind of drug when you're bleeding out, are you?"

The Hunter was running through her options in her head. She couldn't kill him, couldn't bargain because of his loyalty, and the truth was out of the question. Should she tell his truth? Or should she give something close to the truth, but not the complete truth. She went with the last option. "It's healing blood. It's not an addiction, but because of it I'll be okay. It is a thing made specially for me, and isn't compatible with just anyone."

Qrow didn't seem surprised, but the way his eyes stared meant that there was more to be discussed. His next questions were tricky. "It was donated willingly, right? Where'd it come from?"

"Yes, no one was forced.. as for where it came from." The Hunter didn't technically lie through her teeth as she really didn't know for sure, but she'd be a fool to say all the blood was harvested harmlessly. She had to think about it for a second, and feigned frustration. "My home had it. My mentor told me of its uses.. and its unique use in my lack of aura. Apparently, I heal abnormally fast as well as being strong and durable."

Now she was twisting her words, lying as easily as she breathed. With a breath, she continued "Still.. I can't hold up against a grimm's claws, and you can't expect absolute perfection. You can't evade every blow. So I use these to patch myself back up" The Hunter hooked the flame sprayer onto a clip on her belt and reached into her bag to show an odd instrument: a needle that would make nearly anyone's skin crawl, full with a dark crimson liquid.

Qrow just stared before he reached for it. Alaine's arm pulled back as a subtle denial to the request, and put it back into the bag. "I only have five left. They're a precious and limited resource. You have your aura. You'll be just fine without it."

Qrow let his arm fall before he put it on the back of his head in an awkward gesture, and then he dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out his scroll. He opened a message sent by Ozpin, and saw a map with several red dots moving towards a small black dot nicknamed Onyx. "Help will be arriving soon. We just have to hold out a little longer"

The hunter nodded, unsure how he knew this but having no reason to doubt him either. Then again, she should be asking more questions. That is how she got into trouble in the first place. She didn't question her supposed allies and simply worked to their shared goal. "How do you know?"

Qrow just raised his arm and shook the scroll in his hand. It was the thing that that woman of Ozpin's had given her and told not to lose. Glynda was her name. Alaine left it in her room, thinking that it was unimportant. She would have to look at that when she got back. Her eyes were suddenly drawn to the mountains behind the smoke of the blaze she had created, Grimm were mindlessly running through the arcane flames that had spread far and wide. Her heart sank as she gazed at the destruction, reminding her of old Yharnam and of what she was taking from these people in her rather desperate attempt at trying to protect people.

It was then when she saw it. Red eyes staring through the blaze one much larger than the other. As they began to rise, the ground shook and her thoughts were banished to the back of her mind. A giant being rose up from the mountain, one inconceivable even to the residents of this world. Forgotten to time, a grimm the size of a cathedral rose out of the mountain itself. "Qrow.. we're not done. A monstrosity is here"

Thank you for reading. Honestly I have plans and just need time and motivation, I will be working towards this in the future while also brushing up on lore and stuff occasionally as well as new interpretations.

This might get me a little flak but I was thinking on character concepts and what makes them written in character like one with Yang, I thought it was a logical thought process but others thought I was just making Yang a hot head with no thoughts behind her actions. That is not what I want to present, if anything I wanted to present that Alaine looked suspicious and didn't have an explaination that made sense. While Weiss, Ruby, and Blake wouldn't attack because Alaine showed no hostility towards them I imagine Yang as a bit bolder than the rest and looking out for a potential victim. It's been on my mind and I will wonder if it was a mistake.

On another note I will make characters new and old, and try and make a interesting story for you too read. I love writing and i'm so happy that you peeps read this and enjoy it too. Until next time, no time promises but I will keep working until this is properly done or i'm dead.