Chapter 33

After a night's respite, as well as the two attempting to exchange olive branches, Cardin and Russel did their ready checks. Cardin was stable, his aura climbing and currently sitting at about eighty percent if he had to hazard a guess, though the pain of the wound was still flaring up, along with it leaving behind a nasty scar. His weapon platforms were all functioning still working, no chips, dents, or warped gears, and the dust crystal in his mace had been swapped back at Beacon, so he wasn't in any danger of running dry.

Russel on the other hand felt full on his aura, but his Shortwings were basically dry on dust. The handle on one of his was also starting to feel a bit loose, no doubt from all the fighting he'd been doing, but aside from cutting strips off his belt to keep it stable enough to be used, there wasn't much he could do.

"So, what's the plan?"

Cardin grunted as he tightened the last of the straps on his armor.

"Well, you said that the cliff outlet caved, so that's out. And you did some exploring on your own last night and said that there was a path that led to some door down here, but when you checked it, it was just a giant dark tunnel?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, that's out. If you found what I'm guessing you did, then even though there's gotta be less grimm than up on the streets, it'll lead to a dead end."

"Wait, how do-"

"When Oobleck took me aside yesterday, he told me a story about the fall of Mt. Glenn. Those tunnels gotta still have grimm in them if we go far enough, and we'll hit a dead end for sure. Which leaves…"

"The streets."

"The streets."

The two stood in silence as they psyched themself up for the hell that lay ahead.

"...Hey, Russel."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you remember where you left my scroll?"

"Yeah, why?"

"There's a chance that it's still there, and if it is, it should still have battery, so we could put out the emergency S.O.S. and more importantly, get in touch with Oobleck."

"You think he's still here?"

"...There's no way he would leave without confirming that we're either alive and we escaped, or that we're dead and he found the bodies. He's here."

Russel looked at his partner before nodding.

"Alright, if you're so sure. So, we just try and find Oobleck and then get out? That's all the plan we have?"

"More or less. Since the streets are swarmed, we're gonna need to get to high ground before long to catch our breath. If any grimm try to chase us up, they'll get funnelled by the stairwells…which really won't make a difference because you're out of dust, and both of us are primarily up close fighters, but it'll hopefully give us some time to breathe."

"And what about Dove and Sky?"

"We don't have to worry about them."

"What? Why not?"

"Just trust me."

Cardin went to the door but was stopped when Russel spoke.

"Cardin."

The larger teen turned around to see his partner standing there, as if he was waiting for something, his tone even.

"What?"

"...This is one of those things I meant while we were talking last time. I've never been in a situation like this. And fuck, you probably haven't either. Don't just tell me to trust you on something like this, I want to know how you got to that conclusion and why."

Cardin looked down at the gauntlet that contained his shield and nodded to himself. His partner was holding up his end of the deal they made last night during their talks by clearly telling him what he needed, so he could take the time to be a better leader.

"There's no reason for them to be hanging around anymore. Think about it, it's been three days since we saw them and there's a giant horde on the streets. Would they really risk staking out somewhere watching out for us so they could ambush us?"

"But why wouldn't they?"

"They already have that field marker, which from what they were saying, seems like they're gonna sell or give to someone. Look, let's say you and I didn't make it out of here, right? And we are fucking making it out of here. But, if we didn't and they went missing, and then suddenly popped up somewhere a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months from now, do you know how suspect that would look? They'd have warrants out for them with HUNTERS coming to make good on them. So, regardless of whether or not they made sure we were dead or not, they'd end up on some list, somewhere. They just decided to get a headstart on disappearing no doubt. Besides, if they stayed, they'd probably end up running into Oobleck, and then there's no way they'd escape."

"Have…Have you considered that maybe Oobleck is in on it with them?"

"Why would you even consider that?"

"Dude, just…doesn't the timing seem a bit strange? Oobleck takes us one by one, starting with them, aside and once he finishes questioning you, immediately bails and then they try to kill us? That isn't making any alarms go off for you? No red flags?"

Cardin opened his mouth to respond, but closed it a second later. He thought about it, and the more he did, the more the concerns Russel was bringing up became more valid, but the knightly teen had already made up his mind.

"Look. I…get it. And, I-I-I can't put it into words, but I need you to trust my gut on this. I'm sure that if we can make it somewhere we can get his attention, that he's still around looking for us, and that he'll get us back to Beacon."

"Or kill us. Because it isn't impossible that he's in on it and stayed behind to clean up the mess."

There was a moment of silence as Cardin couldn't come up with a retort before Russel sighed and got ready to get up the ladder.

"So, we have no clue if we're banking on the good doctor to either take us back to Beacon or take us out. And that's if we even make it that far with the streets as swarmed as they are. And we're just gonna go into this hoping your gut feeling is right?"

"...Russel, I know I'm asking a lot here but-"

"Save it Cardin. It's more of a plan than I had, so I'll follow your lead."

The ginger looked surprised but collected himself and nodded.

"Okay. Just gotta make it to the scroll."

They took a moment to procrastinate in the sewers, neither of them looking forward to the grueling fight that was head, but eventually found their moment and climbed up to the surface. They were in an alley, empty thankfully, and took a moment to orient themselves. Russel stalked over to the corner deathly quiet and peeked around, biting his lip as he saw the sheer number roaming the streets. He felt a couple of taps on the shoulder pointing behind him as he was pressed against the wall of the alley, and felt the tiniest bit more calm knowing Cardin had his back.

He looked around before seeing the large building in the distance he was looking for. He nodded his head in the direction of it before speaking.

"See the building at the end of the street? With the rusted roof?"

Cardin focused in and even had to focus some aura to his eyes before whispering back.

"Yeah…That's not close. You really carried me all the way from where we were, to there, to here?"

"Thank me later, we got trouble."

Sure enough, Cardin looked around and saw two small packs of grimm near enough to the alley that they'd been spotted peeking around the corner.

"Well, now or never."

"Do or die, more like!"

And with Russel's response, the two left the relative safety of their alley and shot off, one of them towards each minor pack of beowolves. Cardin managed to take out two of the beowolves just by swinging Executioner in its flail mode in a wide arc. The third of his pack had started rushing him and was already mid-jump while the business end of his weapon was still retracting, so he instead raised Jury and allowed his shield to expand from his gauntlet and check the beowolf, giving him time for his flail to retract fully back to its mace form, allowing him to club the grimm into the ground, caving in its skull and allowing the black ichor to flow freely.

Looking over to his partner, he saw that despite being out of dust, Russel was no less prepared to defend himself, as he'd already taken out his group and was keeping an eye out for which of the grimm would attack next, as they were now open targets with more and more of the grimm around becoming alerted to their presence.

Cardin saw that they would have to move through the streets soon but looked back at the carcasses of the beowolf he'd just killed and saw that it had already almost finished disintegrating and his eyes widened.

"Russel!"

The mohawked-teen nodded his head to acknowledge him without looking back or speaking, not doing anything that could set the grimm eyeing and padding towards him off.

"These grimm aren't that old,"

Cardin started as he walked to stand next to his partner, continuing once he was.

"They haven't started to think, so it's all animalistic instinct right now."

"I know. Gotta make sure we thank Professor Port when we make it back, huh?"

"Yeah. There's gotta be over a hundred of them ahead of us. Whether these things are dumb or not, two guys versus at least a hundred grimm is a tall order, but I think I have a plan."

"I'm all ears."

"These buildings are old, falling apart…and heavy. Not to mention, there's plenty of them."

Russel's eyes widened at the thought before he glanced to meet his partner's eyes.

"I go this way, you go that way?"

Cardin huffed out a smirk before the two shot to opposite sides of the street, causing the grimm ahead to funnel between the two buildings. As Cardin stood in the ruined elevator shaft, he fired off a couple of shots using Judge before leaping up to the next floor of the building he was in. Moments after he managed to get his back to the window, he had to turn and fire off a few more shots, repeating the process before diving out of the way as a beowolf went barreling past him and out what had at one point been a window, while he made his way up through the stairwell with a horde of grimm on his tail.

A few more floors later, and he was on the last level before the roof. Seeing the last flight of stairs blocked by rubble, Cardin turned to see the beowolf at the front of the pack closing in, and decided to improvise. He leapt from his position and drop kicked the grimm, knocking the rest in the domino-esque line off balance, before righting himself and grabbing the beowolf. Turning again, he grit his teeth and charged forth, using the grimm as a ram to open a path through the wall. He kept a grip on it and used it to smash through the wall facing the main road.

Thinking about his next move, he turned mid-air and used some aura to throw the grimm back in the building towards the others that were chasing him, knocking them off balance again. He grinned to himself before rearing back his arm, the Executioner now in its flail mode, before swinging his arm, making a trail through the walls of the top floor and causing the roof to fall down, crashing into the floor below and as hoped for, bringing down the building. He looked from the apex of his jump over to the other side to see Russel jumping out into the air as well.

"CARDIN!"

"ON IT!"

Cardin swung himself around before bringing down the Executioner on the lower building that his partner had jumped from. He used his aura to activate the dust crystal in the crown of his weapon, and set off an explosion that brought the building down aggressively, killing the grimm inside. The two landed on the street before sharing a nod and moving up the street, successfully repeating the process once more. But on the third attempt, as both ran to their respective sides of the street and waited for the grimm to chase after them, they found themselves waiting.

Seconds turned to a minute, and Cardin realized something was wrong. The grimm were watching him from the street and sidewalk, refusing to follow him inside, growling and tracking his every move with their eerie crimson eyes. He thought for a short moment, seeing that he had a reprieve, and quickly realized what was happening.

"They're learning…"

Cardin grit his teeth as he thought about what to do now. He needed to regroup in the street with Russel, and so with a pull he was aiming Judge at the crowd of grimm blocking the store and fired off a few shots, killing a couple and causing the others to back off. He exited back onto the street as Russel leapfrogged over a few grimm before spinning to stand next to his partner.

"You realized it, right?"

"Yeah. So much for abusing your idea."

"We cleared out a good few dozen at least, not you'd be able to tell."

"So, we doing this?"

"Yup. I'll take point, you flank and kill what you can in the chaos."

Cardin's response from his partner was a pair of taps on the shoulder before he expanded Jury and charged forth. The grimm responded in kind, swarming toward the ginger. Cardin reinforced himself with aura and pushed them back once they collided with his shield, not ceasing his charge. Russel wasted no time either, jumping into the fray with his Shortwings in reverse grips and his expression set. Using his semblance to get some more momentum, his weapons tore through the throats of a few beowolves before he jumped towards the buildings and used them to add new angles to his attack.

Seeing his partner's combat efficiency had skyrocketed, Cardin sacrificed some of his defense for offense. Instead of pushing against his shield with both hands, he started using Executioner in its flail form, swinging it low towards the horde ahead and then causing small, concussive explosions from the dust crystal and his aura, sending groups of beowolves up into the air where they were defenseless against Russel.

They continued this approach for a few city blocks with next to no reprieve, before they could clearly see the building they were looking for. It was only about three blocks away, but those few blocks were seeming further and further.

Cardin had forced himself to tank more than a few attacks that slipped past his guard, add to that reinforcing his body with aura, and the knightly teen was guessing he was around half his reserves. Russel was in a similar boat, but had yet to take any significant hits, but could see that it was starting to visibly wear on his partner. He needed to make a decision, and once he and Cardin met eyes, the larger teen nodded to him. Russel knew he understood, and after dispatching the last couple of grimm that had been knocked airborne, quickly broke off from Cardin, leaping from surface to surface in a mad dash for the building they'd been fighting towards.

Cardin completely gave up on defense and instead held Jury in one hand and Executioner in the other, swinging around his flail hybrid in wide circles around himself to dissuade any grimm from attacking him, and to kill off the ones he could with his shotgun.

Meanwhile, Russel was no slouch, reaching the building in moments before spinning in through a window to the bottom floor. He frantically looked around the room, desperately trying to find what he'd been searching for, but after a tense few of minutes, he was left wanting.

'It's not here…I know I tossed it in here, so someone had to have found it, but who? Cardin made a good point about why those bastards wouldn't have stuck around, so there's a decent chance it wasn't them. Could it have been Oobleck? But…if it was…why would he have taken it? Would that make him more likely to be on our side…or less?'

Russel growled and got to his feet, gathering some momentum before diving out of the building and back into the fray, rushing back to where he left his partner. The mohawked-teen's eyes widened because where he remembered his partner being, there was instead a few-meters high pile up of grimm. He prepared to dive in and start hacking away, but before he could, a wave of…something pulsed out, covering him in goosebumps.

Moments later, the pile was knocked away, and at the center…

"What the…"

It was Cardin, clearly. And in the brief few minutes that he'd left him alone, he'd had multiple parts of his armor ripped off of him and his clothes shredded in places. As Russel landed a few meters away from his partner, the hairs on his neck that were standing up refused to go back down as he continued eyeing the other teen.

Jury, the expanding shield-gauntlet, had a jagged scar running up the length, and the shield seemed to be dented with chunks strewn about. Looking at Judge, Russel grimaced when he saw the way the shotgun had been, from the looks of it, forced out the back of the neck from the mouth of one of the three alpha beowulf's near Cardin. In his other hand, he wasn't even holding the handle of Executioner. Instead, he was gripping the length of the flail which was wrapped around the broken neck of the second, slowly disintegrating alpha beowulf, with the crown of his weapon being below his boot, crushing down on the caved-in skull of the last dead alpha.

But when he finally managed to look away from the carnage his partner had caused, he saw the changes. The gauntlet and upper arm protection his partner wore were on the ground in pieces, yet there was scale-like, eerie black metal with wispy smoke covering his left arm from the fingertips to well past the shoulder. The compact chest plate nowhere to be seen, likely lost somewhere nearby, but the same scale-like, smoking metal covered his left pectoral and part of his stomach, roughly where his wound had been. But when his partner turned in his direction, he saw the final addition to whatever was happening to his partner. A mask of the same metal and smoke, covering from his nose down past his neck and connecting to the rest of this…unsettling armor.

Russel finally managed to tear his eyes away from his partner to the grimm, and saw something he'd never encountered before. The grimm that were ahead of them began backing away, their eyes trained solely on Cardin. The teen in question slowly looked away from his partner and took a step towards the horde, causing the grimm to retreat back further.

All the while, no one noticed a dapperly dressed gentleman standing at the top of a skyscraper nearby, watching it all as he continuously flipped the scroll Russel had been searching for in his hands.

"These kids just keep getting weirder and weirder."

From his perch, Roman Torchwick watched as the two teens had a staredown with the grimm, but he could also see how close the two were to his old team leader, who was currently facing off against a goliath on a street concealed by some buildings to their left.

'At this rate, they'll miss each other. Bookworm is using the goliath to clear out the grimm around him when it charges, and the kids are swarmed, so neither of them can hear the other fight…Barley, you owe me one.'

Roman reached into his coat and pulled out a decently sized combustion dust crystal and started flooding it with his aura. It started to glow, and as the first fissure appeared on its crystal's surface, he applied some aura to his arm before slinging the crystal at the between the buildings separating the two parties. Satisfied, he fixed his sleeve before slinking away to make himself scarce, removing the battery from the scroll and pocketing it as he did.

Moments later, as Cardin was preparing to advance on the grimm and the goliath prepared to make another charge at Oobleck, a large explosion went off, bringing down a section of connected buildings between the two parties, and drawing all attention in the same direction. As both parties looked in each other's direction, there was a shared moment of relief between Russel and Oobleck, the teen discarding the possibility of the man being an enemy when he saw the man's expression as he looked at them.

All was still as both parties still had danger close, but then something happened. The goliath had turned its head to look at the explosion, but since the moment its eyes caught sight of Cardin, it wouldn't look anywhere else, and more alarmingly, it turned its body in his direction too. The armored teen did something similar, ignoring the horde of beowolves around him entirely to focus on the larger threat. Bartholomew saw the goliath drag its large legs back, mirroring the intimidation tactic animals would do before a charge, and his eyes widened before quickly firing off a flurry of small fireballs in an attempt to take back the attention.

This only served to set it off, as it aimed its tusks before charging in the direction of its new focus. Cardin and Russel moved out of the way as the goliath charged past them and ended up slamming into a two-story building. Oobleck took a spot near the two teens and watched as the goliath pulled itself from the building and took a stance on the other side of them, pincering them between itself and the horde of beowolves.

The beowolves weren't unaware of the advantage they now possessed either, inching forwards and their growls getting louder.

"Well gentlemen, quite a fine mess we've found ourselves in. However, I am most glad you are both safe and sound. Now, I propose we make our way to the much emptier street I was engaged in combat with the goliath on. Some will follow behind us, funneling themselves into the line of fire, while others will travel around the long way. Though, I have no doubt the goliath will make another entry point to follow after us. We can then slowly maneuver ourselves to higher ground while we wait for our extraction bullhead."

Russel was onboard with the plan, but before he could voice that, his leader spoke for the first time since the strange armor had covered him.

"No. We'll kill them all."

Russel prepared to object, but a hand on his shoulder from Oobleck stopped him. The huntsman adjusted his glasses before responding.

"Then what is your plan? We've grimm behind us and ahead, we're outnumbered X to 1, and these grimm won't wait too much longer before going into a frenzied swarm."

There was a moment of silence as Cardin's eyes scanned the side of the street with the horde, before he glanced over his shoulder and got a rough guess of the goliath's size.

"This road isn't very wide, so we'll use the goliath to kill the horde. And then the three of us together will kill the goliath."

"A good plan of attack. But how will we kill all those grimm with the goliath before they start learning, and the tactic becomes progressively less effective, along with us expending energy and aura?"

"We're only doing it once. We're going to send the goliath from here to the end of the road."

Oobleck's eyes widened as he turned around briefly and looked before responding.

"Young man, that is roughly three blocks of city street that we'd need this beast to overshoot."

"All I need from you Professor, is to get it to fall forwards. Russel, can you make it spin."

Russel had a picture of what Cardin was planning now, as did Oobleck and he thought about it for a moment.

"I don't know, and it'll probably take a ton of aura, but…I'll give it a try if that's the play."

"Do it."

Russel nodded and stowed his Shortwings, before gathering his determination and his aura, waiting for his window. Oobleck gripped Antiquity's Roast and readied himself, watching as the goliath continued to ignore him as it eyed Cardin, whose eyes were pointed at the horde. There was a tense moment before the armored teen suddenly turned and slung his arm forth, sending the crown of his weapon shooting towards the goliath.

On impact, it caused shallow spider-web cracks to appear from the point of impact, and a hollow, angry roar to sound out across the abandoned city. Red eyes full of hate, the large monster began to charge at Cardin, just as he'd wanted. Ready for his part, Bartholomew took a batter's stance, aiming for the front leg on the left side while Cardin was aiming Judge at the leg on the front right. At the same time, Oobleck slammed his weapon into the leg of the grimm as Cardin shot into it.

The goliath let out a loud, hurt trumpet sound as it fell forwards, its body slowly becoming perpendicular with the ground, and at the same time, Russel was running forward, ready to make his leader's plan work. He managed to get both hands on the side of the grimm, focused on his semblance, and pushed. It seemed as if nothing was happening, but Oobleck watched in pure silence as the goliath began to spin, and after a few seconds, was released from Russel's semblance and spun down the street, flattening every grimm in its path.

Russel fell to a knee as just rotating the sheer weight of the goliath had drained his aura from being comfortably in the ninety-percent range, down into the forties. His chest heaved as he looked up and watched as the Goliath kept rolling until it crashed into the building at the end of the street, bringing it down on top of itself. The hunter and his students looked down the street, the horde from before a tenth, maybe even a hundredth of the previous size.

"This is our window! Let's get the hell out of here!"

Russel turned to run, but as he did, he saw the armor on Cardin dissipate into smoke, and fresh scars remained in place where the armor had been. Cardin staggered, and before he could hit the ground, Oobleck had gotten in front of the teen and scooped him up over his shoulder as he fell unconscious. The man gave a nod to Russel and led the retreat to a large building where a bullhead was seen hovering off the side. The sight that salvation was right there made the mohawked teen bite his lip as he began to push himself faster. A half-mile run followed by a final arduous climb up a skyscraper full of stairs, and…They'd made it.

Russel watched out the side of the bullhead as they rose, leaving Mt. Glenn in the distance. He felt a presence behind him, and glanced up to see the doctor, his glasses reflecting the light from the sun, hiding his eyes.

"Profe-Doc. There's something I need to tell you."

"I presume it has to do with Misters Lark and Bronzewing."

The teen's eyebrows shot up as he silently sent a question to his proctor.

"After I left you boys alone to go, and came back to a felled skyscraper, I feared the worst. But, I immediately used my scroll to see the last known positions of each of you. One scroll was showing it was destroyed while another sat in the same place for a short time, before getting picked up and going offline shortly thereafter; I suspect grimm. The other two however, turned off at the same moment, at the same place. I went to where the two scrolls were last active and after a short time, managed to retrieve two thoroughly and intentionally destroyed scrolls. I have a guess as to what happened, I just…seldom could believe it."

There was a silence that lasted a few minutes before the man sat down, watching over the unconscious form of his student, before sighing at the turn things had taken for Beacon, pulling out Antiquity's Roast in its thermos form and taking a slow, long sip.


(Meanwhile…)

As the sunset hung in the background, a well built man with blonde hair and a tan tended to his rose garden, standing to his full height before wiping his brow. Looking down at the corgi waiting by his leg with a cold damp towel, somehow neatly folded and on its head, he chuckled before accepting it.

"Thanks Zwei."

He brought the cloth to his face and had just begun wiping his face before he heard a sound that froze him to his core. A sound he hadn't heard in well over a decade. Turning around, he watched as a crimson portal appeared, and seconds later, the unmistakable form of his ex-wife stepped through, the portal shrinking out of existence behind her.

A silence followed, and with it, tension.

For a few moments, Taiyang didn't know what to say. What to feel. He resisted the urge to do something childish like pinching himself to see if she really was there.

He waited. For some jeer, a barb, or a taunt. But when Raven pulled off her mask, he knew something was wrong. Her face, still beautiful and angular, had tear stains. And her face was…devoid. Her eyes were dull, and she seemed in a daze. He didn't even realize that he'd crossed the yard to hold her, and as he was checking her over, his questions about what happened didn't even register to her.

She just kept looking up in the sky replaying the moment, until she finally spoke.

"They're all gone…My fighters. The Branwen clan is no more."


(A/N)

Next chapter, we're back to blondie and his friends for their midterm, which should only take three-ish chapters.

Then, The dance.

And then? The Vytal Festival.

B.J.H.