Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Gus Gungus]

Cinder's eye widened in absolute horror at the sight of that monstrosity, the fall maiden temporarily paralyzed by disbelief that something like that actually existed, as well as by uncertainty on how to deal with it. She was still a first year and she had never seen a guidebook on that creature! Vernal wasn't faring any better, in fact she might have been taking it worse, the grotesque inhumanity of it all had her mind flashing back to what Emerald had made her see.

"Ummm...plan, boss?" Cinder managed to squeak when she found her voice, looking over to Watts out of the corner of her eye.

"...The tracks are clear, right? Can't we just bail the hell out of here?" Emerald asked quietly, having appeared from honestly who knows where. Mercury was too focused on the thing to answer, his eyes narrowed and lips taut ever since it swallowed up that huge blaze he caused like it was popcorn during movie previews as he watched its movements carefully while Eve went to face off with it, sizing up reach, movement speed and a litany of other things in an attempt to observe drawbacks or weaknesses of any kind.

 

[Indolent]

In the wake of such fierce defenders, the hordes of Grimm were certainly dwindling. Many of the more mindless beasts were simply no match for this many warriors of such caliber, and plenty of those that were a better challenge for the fourteen fighters that stood in their way? Those too were slowly but surely getting overwhelmed. Another beringel hit the ground, hard. Its severed head was kicked like a soccer ball by Vernal, the improvised projectile moving with such great force that it pierced right through the torso of one unfortunate beowolf, another few just beyond getting barreled over by the shockwave of it passing by.

But this battle was far from over, with still more coming. Eve's recon was the right idea. Her approach went unnoticed by most of the grimm that swarmed through the woods. As the bull faunus stalked further into the forest, she spotted a glimpse of something much more massive than most of its kind making its way through the trees. Yet before she could do something about it, a chain of fireballs hit so suddenly and with such great force that not only was she unable to block any of them, the assault sent her flying out of the forest entirely, landing back in the thick of it with the rest.

There was no heavy stomping or thudding that heralded the arrival of this one, unlike so many of its brethren. It glided with an almost ghostly eerie silence as it neared the edge of the treeline. The thing was huge, it had to be pushing almost forty feet. 3 sets of wings decorated its back side, its lower half lacked anything that even remotely resembled limbs, instead a swirling mass of rock and heat rested there. And its unnaturally long arms ended with even more creepily elongated fingers that...weren't truly fingers at all. Each digit snaked out, culminating in the spiky head of a dragon. Every inch of it black and red and a bony white like every creature of grimm, but it was clear this abomination was no common grimm.

The wall of fire unexpectedly began to coalesce together all in one spot, the wall near instantaneously becoming less of a wall and more of a single large fire that hung in one spot. That too quickly vanished, every bit of it sucked into the creature's many mouths, spiky teeth illuminated by the burning orange until it was all gone. Darkness lit only by the light of the moon descended on the field once again.

The sight of it, framed in the darkness with mouths and intimidating eyes glowing so intensely...it was honestly a level of terrifying that more mundane grimm could never hope to reach. One that might have killed lesser men with fright alone.

And as Ruby sliced through another ursa, one of those nightmarish fingers wrapped around her leg, the beast throwing the silver eyed huntress at the train before she could react, the blow enough to knock her into unconsciousness.

"..." "..."

Cinder's eye widened in absolute horror at the sight of that monstrosity, the fall maiden temporarily paralyzed by disbelief that something like that actually existed, as well as by uncertainty on how to deal with it. She was still a first year and she had never seen a guidebook on that creature! Vernal wasn't faring any better, in fact she might have been taking it worse, the grotesque inhumanity of it all had her mind flashing back to what Emerald had made her see.

"Ummm...plan, boss?" Cinder managed to squeak when she found her voice, looking over to Watts out of the corner of her eye.

The mere sight that emerged before everyone was absolutely enough to freeze him, his rapid movements stalling to a complete halt. The sheer horrific appearance of the malevolent entity enraptured his gaze, the literal stuff of nightmares that every cell within his body unanimously agreed upon being. The phrasing was abused to the point of meaninglessness but with a single stroke this night, it was revitalized anew, it the picture you'd expect to find adjacent to the definition of terror. To say it was heart-stopping was injustice. The horde of Grimm Hazel had been charging seemed to disperse, as a flock of birds in flight, bidden by some force that he swiftly realized to be this horrible creature.

Every small dragon head focused on the largest of the prey before them, glowing orange swelling in each of their throats before they violently exploded out in a stream of burning heat, every one combining into a much bigger jet of flame, intent to burn the prey away until nothing was left.

He didn't even have time to scream, only react as both arms were brought to his front to shield him from the column of flames that engulfed him and the straggler Grimm in its path. The sensations that came were almost overwhelming. Where there was lack of pain, there was an abundance of incredible temperature, his body broiling alive under the weight of the flames and its luminosity was impossible to gauge with both its intensity and the sheen of his aura battered by it. A second inside and it was an impossibility to draw a breath, the heat insomuch penetrating deep so as to reach into his lungs and abscond with the air inside. A second more and it felt like the fluids of his body were on the cusp of boiling from the inside out. In an instant, he knew. Hazel knew well that he was going to die if he remained here any longer, the fear behind that very notion realizing something inside. The desire to live, the desire to fight on. He couldn't die here, it wasn't his time yet and he couldn't do that to the others, not with the fate of everyone, the world, hanging in the balance. It was instinct compounded with a resurgent will that urged him to throw himself from the flames, a fireball meager in size compared to the blast careening from it perpendicularly. It collided with a tree that exploded into fiery splinters, showering the heaving form of a bedraggled man in the dirt who grasped for purchase, a modicum of comfort, a reassurance he was free of the flames.

His eyes blinked relentlessly as he rolled himself onto his back with the cool, silvery moon greeting him. His attire was effectively ruined, frayed edges from his transformation burnt ends now with nary a spot left unscorched nor covered in soot. He hoisted arms overhead to inspect them, his eyes going still. Was he studying the extensive burns that healed under his recharging aura running along the length of both arms dorsally, from the shoulder down to the hands. Or was he mystified by the dust crystals ensconced in his biceps that seemed a more vibrant color, a volatile swirling within that shifted hues of red precariously quick. The ubiquitous shimmering inherent to all dust, visually and audibly, was replaced by a strange vibratory sound that made it so you knew something was inherently wrong just from hearing it.

Were they reaching... critical mass? He blinked again and shook his head. How would he know, he hadn't a single idea as to the intricacies of Dust never mind how it interacted with his body, his aura. Or what kind of interaction had transpired between them and the flames. He did know his instinct to be accurate though, the sensation derived from the dust in his body minutely different from all his other experiences. It was simply wrong and was bordering on dangerous, their volatility too indeterminable for him to get an accurate feel.

Hazel moved to remove the crystals from his arm, only for a shadow to step forward, blotting out the moonlight overhead with its canines bearing down. A gasp later, his left arm was wedged laterally across its maw, the Sabyr vigorously clamping down to bite through the arm for the face, only for it to receive a clangorous smash of its temple with his right. The blow flung the feline abomination away from Hazel, falling prone in a clearly disoriented state that gave Hazel just enough time to recover his marbles. In the next second, the Sabyr received a taste of its own medicine, Rainart kneeling over it with a double axe handle that split the skull plate that comprised its face. But it wasn't a killing blow, merely enough to render it inert for the time being. Supporting himself with a single arm as he slouched back to sitting, he cast an urgent eye to everything going on simultaneously and sighed as he looked back. "You're going to help me with this friend of yours." Both hands reached to gingerly extricate the luminescent crystals, his aura flaring as they were pulled from his flesh with the wounds knitting in mere seconds.

Whatever the latest in the long line of horrors was doing after it tried to flambe what it determined to be the largest threat, it suddenly had a Sabyr thrown into its side beneath one arm, the feat the result of a hectic spinning toss courtesy of Hazel. And the Sabyr violently exploded, a tremendous force thanks to the ruby red crystals forcibly embedded within its ribcage.

 

[MyrtenRose]

-but she didn't plan on sitting around long enough to become a target this time, and had no intention of letting that fire blast go unanswered. She gathered up as much air as her lungs could store, and released it in the same instant a zigzag dash carried her at breakneck pace towards the source of her fiery trauma, sticking on the fringes of darkness for as long as she could until she could spring for where the heads were conveniently grouped up and attempt to neatly sever all of them with a clean, red-imbued slice, pouring her entire focus into offence.

Its twisted fingers were too focused on Hazel as they breathed fire upon the large student to notice, but it was not so for the beast's main head. It jerked to the side in an utterly inhuman twitch, witnessing the other from earlier rushing for its position and doing her best to stick to the cover of shadows. Three sets of giant wings flapped and the beast lifted into the air with a sudden strong gale of tornado force winds buffeting everybody present, the severing slice avoided before it managed to strike at even a single one of those heads.​

Whatever the latest in the long line of horrors was doing after it tried to flambe what it determined to be the largest threat, it suddenly had a Sabyr thrown into its side beneath one arm, the feat the result of a hectic spinning toss courtesy of Hazel. And the Sabyr violently exploded, a tremendous force thanks to the ruby red crystals forcibly embedded within its ribcage.

Two of the dragon fingers caught the thrown sabyr in their mouths, one biting deep into the sabyr's throat and the other with one of its legs. Both pulled in opposite directions, ripping the smaller grimm completely asunder...noticing too late the dust jammed into the beast. The following explosion consumed the remains of the cat-esque grimm, the smoke and lingering flames from that blast obscuring the other grimm entirely. For a short while it was unclear how much that had affected the monstrosity...not until it burst from the smoke with a painfully loud, savage howl as it dived straight for Hazel.

The two fingers that had caught the sabyr, those heads were just gone. Nothing more than long stumps now writhing in pain. The others had clear signs of burn damage across their bony white scales, but they were still intact. And rageful. As the beast swooped down towards Rainart, the remaining fingers lashed out in a flurry of quick bites. Some aimed for the arms, others went for the legs, one even went for the shoulder...but any that managed to bite down successfully didn't hold it for long, relinquishing the grip of their teeth as the beast soared past Hazel in a hit and run assault. It went for the train next, balls of fire shooting down rapidly at those gathered atop the train before it passed by them as well, the beast flying into the distance before it began to turn and circle around for another attack.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

In the wake of such fierce defenders, the hordes of Grimm were certainly dwindling. Many of the more mindless beasts were simply no match for this many warriors of such caliber, and plenty of those that were a better challenge for the fourteen fighters that stood in their way? Those too were slowly but surely getting overwhelmed. Another beringel hit the ground, hard. Its severed head was kicked like a soccer ball by Vernal, the improvised projectile moving with such great force that it pierced right through the torso of one unfortunate beowolf, another few just beyond getting barreled over by the shockwave of it passing by.

But this battle was far from over, with still more coming. Eve's recon was the right idea. Her approach went unnoticed by most of the grimm that swarmed through the woods. As the bull faunus stalked further into the forest, she spotted a glimpse of something much more massive than most of its kind making its way through the trees. Yet before she could do something about it, a chain of fireballs hit so suddenly and with such great force that not only was she unable to block any of them, the assault sent her flying out of the forest entirely, landing back in the thick of it with the rest.

There was no heavy stomping or thudding that heralded the arrival of this one, unlike so many of its brethren. It glided with an almost ghostly eerie silence as it neared the edge of the treeline. The thing was huge, it had to be pushing almost forty feet. 3 sets of wings decorated its back side, its lower half lacked anything that even remotely resembled limbs, instead a swirling mass of rock and heat rested there. And its unnaturally long arms ended with even more creepily elongated fingers that...weren't truly fingers at all. Each digit snaked out, culminating in the spiky head of a dragon. Every inch of it black and red and a bony white like every creature of grimm, but it was clear this abomination was no common grimm.

The wall of fire unexpectedly began to coalesce together all in one spot, the wall near instantaneously becoming less of a wall and more of a single large fire that hung in one spot. That too quickly vanished, every bit of it sucked into the creature's many mouths, spiky teeth illuminated by the burning orange until it was all gone. Darkness lit only by the light of the moon descended on the field once again.

The sight of it, framed in the darkness with mouths and intimidating eyes glowing so intensely...it was honestly a level of terrifying that more mundane grimm could never hope to reach. One that might have killed lesser men with fright alone.

Yang had to dip under the flying Eve in the midst of her fight, an annoyed growl escaping her as she stepped forward in time with the motion nonetheless to continue her asssault.

"Would you stop getting in my-!"

Yang finished the follow through on the punch that sent the ursa minor careening into the air without even looking at it, a look of dumb surprise on her face as she took in.... that. Faced with what was an almost comically large grimm threat, she turned to the one person she knew was more equipped than anyone else here to bring it down "RUUUBY? THIS ONE'S Y-"

And as Ruby sliced through another ursa, one of those nightmarish fingers wrapped around her leg, the beast throwing the silver eyed huntress at the train before she could react, the blow enough to knock her into unconsciousness.

"RUBY!" Yang cried out in shock as her sister was decimated out of the blue. She took an involuntary step towards her even from this distance, her hand outstretched, only to get piledrived into the ground by the massive paw of the ursa major still standing. It roared and slammed its paws into the ground again, and again, and agai-

The ursa stumbled as one paw slammed down while the other got stuck halfway, and it tried to pull it back with a confused snarl. It didn't budge. It snarled and raised its other paw to slam down once more, but as the dust started to clear it was easier to see what stopped this one as Yang's prosthetic snatched onto it mid slam like it was a toddler's hand and not the massive limb of a grimm. The beast roared and tried to force Yang's arms down, to try and crush them, yet it found itself slowly being pushed the other way as Yang planted her feet underneath her and pushed herself up to her knees.

"Out..."

She reached her feet, and her dusty, slightly bruised face turned up towards the ursa with a murderous glare of pure red.

"...Of my..."

She shoved the beast ever so gently upward, and tapped into her semblance while it started to slam back downwards.

"WAY!"

She ducked lower than her already crouched stance with her fists balled close to her chest, slid forward, and rose with an uppercut straight into the beast's gut. Even with all its massive weight in muscle and bone it flew off, tumbling a good forty feet through the air even as it was already fading from the massive hole in its gut. Yang didn't pay it any mind as it flew off, already turning with a violent scowl that had more in common with a grimm than a human. She had more control over her anger these days. She didn't think her emotions were a weakness or anything, but giving into them too fully was what cost her her arm, what let Adam win, and in her darkest thoughts on that day, was what made Blake run away. She didn't think she could've beaten Adam the second time if she was still that way, and it had been a long, hard road of lessons to finally get to the point of control that she had now.

...But that was her sister.

This flying spaghetti monster looking bitch had just laid out her sister in a cheap shot that may have left her grievously wounded.

So she was gonna be controlled, yea. She was gonna take just the right approach here. But the end game of that approach would be that this thing would be a pile of grimm ash fading in the wind in the most violent way possible. Her foot pressed into the ground with the sound of cracking stone, and she blazed forth like a yellow comet for where the beast was one the move

The two fingers that had caught the sabyr, those heads were just gone. Nothing more than long stumps now writhing in pain. The others had clear signs of burn damage across their bony white scales, but they were still intact. And rageful. As the beast swooped down towards Rainart, the remaining fingers lashed out in a flurry of quick bites. Some aimed for the arms, others went for the legs, one even went for the shoulder...but any that managed to bite down successfully didn't hold it for long, relinquishing the grip of their teeth as the beast soared past Hazel in a hit and run assault. It went for the train next, balls of fire shooting down rapidly at those gathered atop the train before it passed by them as well, the beast flying into the distance before it began to turn and circle around for another attack.

The first and seconds heads lashed out before the comet landed, but the third found itself buried in the dirt by a downward punch that had all of Yang's strength and then some as slammed into the ground next to it. the third caught a backhanded fist to the side of the fingerface, and the fourth was snatched straight out of the air, Yang turning it to face her with a vicious grin as she squeezed with the sound of cracking bone.

"Got ya"

The beast's flight pulled her and her prey off into the night sky, the grimm's hand looking like it was wearing a glowing ring as it sped off into the distance.

Cinder's eye widened in absolute horror at the sight of that monstrosity, the fall maiden temporarily paralyzed by disbelief that something like that actually existed, as well as by uncertainty on how to deal with it. She was still a first year and she had never seen a guidebook on that creature! Vernal wasn't faring any better, in fact she might have been taking it worse, the grotesque inhumanity of it all had her mind flashing back to what Emerald had made her see.

"Ummm...plan, boss?" Cinder managed to squeak when she found her voice, looking over to Watts out of the corner of her eye.

"...kill it?"

Arthur wasn't ready for that. He knew of course that there were grimm species evolving and mutating all the time, but this... this was something he couldn't even begin to try and classify. He raised his pistol to fire a few haphazard shots as his brain tried to play catch up, but the first one he squeezed off was sent spiralling well off course by the sudden, massive gust of wind, and he grunted in surprise as he dropped to his knees and extended his shield over him in an attempt to angle the wind so it didn't blast him off the train. he kept low as the thing went coasting overhead, and only rose when he turned to see what sort of course it was going to be taking.

"...Its fast. if we want to land any shots on it, we'll have to either get in close or catch it by surprise."

and if they wanted to do that...

"We need to blind it, cut off as many of those eyes as we can. EVERYONE, WHEN IT COMES BACK AROUND, AIM FOR THE FINGER...THINGS!" he barked as he spun the dial on his weapon and lowered himself once again with a grim frown.

 

[MidwayLives]

"...Its fast. if we want to land any shots on it, we'll have to either get in close or catch it by surprise."

and if they wanted to do that...

"We need to blind it, cut off as many of those eyes as we can. EVERYONE, WHEN IT COMES BACK AROUND, AIM FOR THE FINGER...THINGS!" he barked as he spun the dial on his weapon and lowered himself once again with a grim frown.

Tyrian didn't often speak out against Watt's lead. He respected his team's leader even if Watts was from the most likeable person around. But as he stood on his feet, sweat running down his body, his tail unraveled and swinging from side to side, he listened quietly to Watt's plan.

...And growled in derision.

Blind it? Why?

It needed to be able to see it's opponent as it lost. Otherwise, what was the point? Tyrian wanted to crush it when it was at it's best. That moment had seemingly already come and gone with some of the creature being maimed. But whatever it's strength reserves may have been, he wanted nothing to do with this plan. It disgusted him.

Blinding it was a cheap tactic. A dirty one too that didn't sit well with him at all. Tyrian had seen enough of those to last him a lifetime.

Getting on all fours, he could feel his heart racing as he looked over the monolith of death that was coming on the rebound. It might not have mattered to the others through what means they used to take it down. But it did to him. He'd kill this thing but he'd make sure it could SEE him before it disappeared into smoke.

See who was it's better. Who had won this contest of strength.

"No!"

He leaped from the train and broke out into a full on sprint towards the direction of the creature. Wanting to continue the attack on it before it'd finish it's return. Rushing towards the beast, the wind running against him, Tyrian felt a rush of adrenaline like he'd never felt before.

He'd been beaten, humbled even, by Nora. She'd even stabbed him with his own tail. Something that the scar on his shoulder would never let him forget. But at least she'd beaten him fairly. The last human to do such a thing?

Tyrian's left eye twitched as he continued on his dogged pursuit towards the massive Grimm. Skidding to a stop once he'd gotten close enough, he raised his arms and fired upon it.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"We need to blind it, cut off as many of those eyes as we can. EVERYONE, WHEN IT COMES BACK AROUND, AIM FOR THE FINGER...THINGS!" he barked as he spun the dial on his weapon and lowered himself once again with a grim frown.

Cinder had hit the deck so fast she didn't have time to process that even the borderline unflappable Watts had been taken aback by the beast currently soaring over her head. The fireball attacks went wild, violently shaking the locomotive even more though none hit Cinder directly. Seeing how Hazel had taken its fire, she was really glad none of them had. As it flew beyond the train with Yang in tow, she lifted her head and nodded at Watts. "Gotcha, bossman!" Cinder pushed herself up, readying Midnight with a nocked arrow to--​

He leaped from the train and broke out into a full on sprint towards the direction of the creature. Wanting to continue the attack on it before it'd finish it's return. Rushing towards the beast, the wind running against him, Tyrian felt a rush of adrenaline like he'd never felt before. Tyrian's left eye twitched as he continued on his dogged pursuit towards the massive Grimm. Skidding to a stop once he'd gotten close enough, he raised his arms and fired upon it.

"TYRIAN!" She called out, one hand outstretching in obvious worry as the only faunus on their team so brazenly charged after the grimm. That wasn't the plan.

Said beast howled in pain from the crunch of bone as the fiery blonde clutched tightly onto one of its fingers and got dragged along for the flight. The pained howl gradually shifted into an angered roar. The grimm came to an abrupt stop in mid-air and pulled the finger the puny human was hanging off of in closer, the other heads moving to ominously stare down the pest. Burning orange crawled up all their throats as one, each releasing a concussive blast of fire for Yang intent on hammering the huntress off its appendage and to the ground below.

When it felt Tyrian's bullets ping off its scaly hide, the main head turned to address the threat. One of the grimm's large wings lashed out in an attempt to smack the scorpion aside in a backhanded manner.​

 

[MidwayLives]

When it felt Tyrian's bullets ping off its scaly hide, the main head turned to address the threat. One of the grimm's large wings lashed out in an attempt to smack the scorpion aside in a backhanded manner.

As he continued to fire, Tyrian couldn't help the well of feelings stirring up within him.

What was really driving him?

Was it the chance to finally stop holding back the urges within him that constantly hung over him like a shadow? Or was it the chance to prove himself against a challenging opponent? The Grimm were monsters, beasts who'd ravage entire towns, communities, etc. All without the slightest bit of thought or concern running through their heads. They were the perfect outlets for him. All they cared about was what was in their way and they'd attack until it was destroyed or dead.

'Kill, kill, kill!'

Only when presented an avenue to say such things did humanity let their darkest thoughts free. Grimm had no need for subtlety or masking what they wanted: Death. It hit closer than Tyrian would or could ever admit. Letting the blades on his gauntlets slip back together as the wing came in, he bared his teeth.

And screamed!

"AAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!!"

Swept off his feet by the wing, Tyrian crashed and rolled along the ground in a heap. But even as the tumbles and bumps lit up his aura, he couldn't think this was anything other than perfect. This creature's strength was immense, it felt as though he'd been swatted away by a boulder. He had to get up. To see more of it's strength! Picking himself up, Tyrian looked towards the Grimm and grinned. No matter what it did to him, until he drew his last breath, he wouldn't-he COULDN'T stay down! It'd be conceding defeat and Tyrian refused to give up. Breaking out into a sprint, he sought to lash out and try to dig a pair of his blades into one of the creature's wings. To it, Tyrian was nothing. Just something to be killed. But what he saw was completely different : an opportunity for a damn good fight.

"Come on....COME ON!!!"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

It jerked to the side in an utterly inhuman twitch, witnessing the other from earlier rushing for its position and doing her best to stick to the cover of shadows. Three sets of giant wings flapped and the beast lifted into the air with a sudden strong gale of tornado force winds buffeting everybody present, the severing slice avoided before it managed to strike at even a single one of those heads.

"...Rrgh..." Eve's eternal scowl curled deeper as the gusts generated by the flapping wings started to batter her, forcing her to abort her leap for its serpentine fingers. She dug in her feet as they screeched to a halt and opted for a reflexive change of tactics, one clean draw followed by her pitching Wilt for the atrocity with the skill of a pro javelin thrower. Its narrow anatomy cut a direct path through the swirling winds, and Eve angled the sheath's barrel behind her to catapult herself forward in its wake, snatching hold of the hilt barely an instant after the blade embedded itself somewhere in the grimm's abdomen. Her first instinct was to hold on and wait, but something told her to yank the blade free cleanly and be somewhere else by the time the creature ceased being distracted enough to investigate the literal thorn in its side. That was what she made to do, ending up situated somewhere near the grimm's armpit if her stealth training was worth anything.

"..."

She was faster than Blake. Stronger, more durable—Last she checked, anyway. That didn't mean she hadn't learned just as much from her old partner about stealth, maneuverability, and how to go about fighting an enemy that was superior to you as she'd been able to impart about swordplay in return, if not more. Her next move probably would've been to wait for an opening, not that Eve had much confidence in her ability to predict that girl's behavior anymore.

Said beast howled in pain from the crunch of bone as the fiery blonde clutched tightly onto one of its fingers and got dragged along for the flight. The pained howl gradually shifted into an angered roar. The grimm came to an abrupt stop in mid-air and pulled the finger the puny human was hanging off of in closer, the other heads moving to ominously stare down the pest. Burning orange crawled up all their throats as one, each releasing a concussive blast of fire for Yang intent on hammering the huntress off its appendage and to the ground below.

She guessed if there was one thing to be said for annoying blondes, it was this: they made for excellent grimm bait.

With the creature's focus split between Yang and Tyrian, the wrist supporting the writhing mass of tentacles staring down the former felt a sudden, searing pain as a blade endowed with volatile red energy plunged into its side, fired all the way across the span of the monster's body. Eve herself was in hot pursuit, an unfathomably quick dash ended early so she could take the last step or two in a contemptuously arrogant saunter, secure a double-handed grip on Wilt, and wrench the blade free, a wave of crimson exploding outward from the wound as she tried to sever the hand in its entirety.

If that meant Yang fell, well then she'd just have to find a way to live with that.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Its narrow anatomy cut a direct path through the swirling winds, and Eve angled the sheath's barrel behind her to catapult herself forward in its wake, snatching hold of the hilt barely an instant after the blade embedded itself somewhere in the grimm's abdomen. Her first instinct was to hold on and wait, but something told her to yank the blade free cleanly and be somewhere else by the time the creature ceased being distracted enough to investigate the literal thorn in its side. That was what she made to do, ending up situated somewhere near the grimm's armpit if her stealth training was worth anything.

The creature had missed the thrusting blade in the wake of the pain from the assault of Yang Xiao Long, it only distinguished the feeling when the blade pulled free from its side, its main head angling down to look. But its initial look spotted nobody that could have been responsible and it did not get a chance for a more thorough look.​

Swept off his feet by the wing, Tyrian crashed and rolled along the ground in a heap. But even as the tumbles and bumps lit up his aura, he couldn't think this was anything other than perfect. This creature's strength was immense, it felt as though he'd been swatted away by a boulder. He had to get up. To see more of it's strength! Picking himself up, Tyrian looked towards the Grimm and grinned. No matter what it did to him, until he drew his last breath, he wouldn't-he COULDN'T stay down! It'd be conceding defeat and Tyrian refused to give up. Breaking out into a sprint, he sought to lash out and try to dig a pair of his blades into one of the creature's wings. To it, Tyrian was nothing. Just something to be killed. But what he saw was completely different : an opportunity for a damn good fight.

"Come on....COME ON!!!"

It had turned away after swatting the faunus back, believing in some animalistic sense of arrogance that attack would have been enough for the diminutive huntsman in training. It was not. The blades bit deep into one of its wings, cutting through enough of it to leave that appendage inoperable and earning a shrill shriek of pain. The beast began to turn back--​

With the creature's focus split between Yang and Tyrian, the wrist supporting the writhing mass of tentacles staring down the former felt a sudden, searing pain as a blade endowed with volatile red energy plunged into its side, fired all the way across the span of the monster's body. Eve herself was in hot pursuit, an unfathomably quick dash ended early so she could take the last step or two in a contemptuously arrogant saunter, secure a double-handed grip on Wilt, and wrench the blade free, a wave of crimson exploding outward from the wound as she tried to sever the hand in its entirety.

It didn't complete that turn. The shriek of pain from Tyrian cutting into one of its wings had been absolutely shrill, a cry that could have been heard by the entire battlefield...but it was nothing in comparison to the more than deafening howl of pain that followed as one of its wrists was sliced straight through and the hand itself ripped away from its adjoining arm in a surge of red. The howl was more than enough to bring pain to every warrior on the field simply by hearing it, the now severed hand dropping uselessly to the ground below and Yang fell alongside it. The hints of burning orange in those smaller heads' throats slowly extinguished and no sooner than that glow was gone did the hand and all those fingers begin to hiss, dissolving away into nothing.

At this point the creature moved to put all three of its attackers into plain view, the four heads extending out of its single remaining hand glaring dangerously at each of them, with two focused on the one that had cut through its wrist. Blasts of orange began to crawl up their throats, intent to scorch them all into oblivion.

It didn't go as planned.

At the apex moment, just before those fire-breathing mini-monstrosities could unleash their flames...four arrows struck true simultaneously, burying themselves in those heads. Seconds later all four exploded in a burst of fiery dust. That, in combination with the flames that they themselves had ever so graciously gathered? The ensuing explosion was absolutely devastating. Four blasts that coalesced together into a blinding blazing flare.

Bright was not strong enough of a word to describe the sight.

The culprit became clear to the beast, as Cinder dashed up into sight to join the rest. She had agreed with Watts' plan, but after watching Tyrian being swept aside like that by one of its wings, she had refused to wait for the grimm to come to her.

Every single one of its dragon fingers were now gone, one hand completely severed off and the heads of the other utterly obliterated and leaving it with only elongated stumps. The beast let out a low growl as it glared at the four before it. Too many. There were too many running around to continue letting them come at it while its attention was focused on others. Its undamaged wings flapped and flapped, lifting the beast much higher into the air in an instant, enough so that their ranged projectiles could be easily knocked aside by its wings before they struck.

The monster's last remaining head, its main one, began to slowly glow in the same manner as the small ones had. But this came with differences...when that gaping maw opened? What came out were less streams of concentrated flame and more akin to fiery meteors. Dozens of blasts shot out, a volley intending to absolutely bury the entire battlefield and every single person scattered around it. And no matter how many rained down, the barrage showed no signs of slowing.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Said beast howled in pain from the crunch of bone as the fiery blonde clutched tightly onto one of its fingers and got dragged along for the flight. The pained howl gradually shifted into an angered roar. The grimm came to an abrupt stop in mid-air and pulled the finger the puny human was hanging off of in closer, the other heads moving to ominously stare down the pest. Burning orange crawled up all their throats as one, each releasing a concussive blast of fire for Yang intent on hammering the huntress off its appendage and to the ground below.

Yang held on as she was hoisted into the air with one hand, her foot resting against the head with a smirk that would've been casual if it wasn't showing much teeth and her eyes weren't still glowing a faint red. she didn't move immediately as the heads all turned towards her, outside of a two fingered salute against her head in greeting.

" 'Sup girls?"

With the creature's focus split between Yang and Tyrian, the wrist supporting the writhing mass of tentacles staring down the former felt a sudden, searing pain as a blade endowed with volatile red energy plunged into its side, fired all the way across the span of the monster's body. Eve herself was in hot pursuit, an unfathomably quick dash ended early so she could take the last step or two in a contemptuously arrogant saunter, secure a double-handed grip on Wilt, and wrench the blade free, a wave of crimson exploding outward from the wound as she tried to sever the hand in its entirety.

If that meant Yang fell, well then she'd just have to find a way to live with that.

The flicker of red in the corner of her eye told her what was coming, and whatever she muttered under her breath would make her almost glad when this was over that Ruby was unconscious as she suddenly flipped herself upwards on the wounded head just as the first blasts of flame shot out. A few strands of hair might've burned if it was anyone else, but Yang was otherwise none the worse for wear, and a gunshot sent her spinning out of the way of the next as her arm latched onto another neck that she swung off of like it was a jungle gym. Eve wasn't the only one who'd learned things from their mutual past partner, though stealth wasn't the lessons that Yang recieved; it was about as antithetical to her modus operandi as it could get. But when your partner's weapon of choice was the physics student's worst nightmare, and her favorite use of it was to turn you into a human wrecking ball, you got agile or you got put into the gym wall at terminal velocity during training.

Or, more accurately, you did a lot of the second on your path to the first =w=

the head that tried to follow her with a snapping bite wasn't even moving half as fast as Gambol shroud was normally whipped at her head, even if it was with good intentions, and Yang let out a quiet "alleyoop!" as she spun out of the way and grabbed its snout to catch a ride upwards as its momentum shot past her, and she heaved herself up with it as leverage just as it found its connection to its main body suddenly sliced off. Two more shots put her even more airborne, and she stuck her tongue out at Eve as she rocketed past her up higher on the beast. She reached the shoulder and with a mighty roar slammed her real fist into it with a claw-esque strike, intending on using her semblance to give her the strengh to gouge her hand in to hold on as it continued its flight towards the train.

The creature had missed the thrusting blade in the wake of the pain from the assault of Yang Xiao Long, it only distinguished the feeling when the blade pulled free from its side, its main head angling down to look. But its initial look spotted nobody that could have been responsible and it did not get a chance for a more thorough look.



It had turned away after swatting the faunus back, believing in some animalistic sense of arrogance that attack would have been enough for the diminutive huntsman in training. It was not. The blades bit deep into one of its wings, cutting through enough of it to leave that appendage inoperable and earning a shrill shriek of pain. The beast began to turn back--



It didn't complete that turn. The shriek of pain from Tyrian cutting into one of its wings had been absolutely shrill, a cry that could have been heard by the entire battlefield...but it was nothing in comparison to the more than deafening howl of pain that followed as one of its wrists was sliced straight through and the hand itself ripped away from its adjoining arm in a surge of red. The howl was more than enough to bring pain to every warrior on the field simply by hearing it, the now severed hand dropping uselessly to the ground below and Yang fell alongside it. The hints of burning orange in those smaller heads' throats slowly extinguished and no sooner than that glow was gone did the hand and all those fingers begin to hiss, dissolving away into nothing.

At this point the creature moved to put all three of its attackers into plain view, the four heads extending out of its single remaining hand glaring dangerously at each of them, with two focused on the one that had cut through its wrist. Blasts of orange began to crawl up their throats, intent to scorch them all into oblivion.

It didn't go as planned.

At the apex moment, just before those fire-breathing mini-monstrosities could unleash their flames...four arrows struck true simultaneously, burying themselves in those heads. Seconds later all four exploded in a burst of fiery dust. That, in combination with the flames that they themselves had ever so graciously gathered? The ensuing explosion was absolutely devastating. Four blasts that coalesced together into a blinding blazing flare.

Bright was not strong enough of a word to describe the sight.

The culprit became clear to the beast, as Cinder dashed up into sight to join the rest. She had agreed with Watts' plan, but after watching Tyrian being swept aside like that by one of its wings, she had refused to wait for the grimm to come to her.

Every single one of its dragon fingers were now gone, one hand completely severed off and the heads of the other utterly obliterated and leaving it with only elongated stumps. The beast let out a low growl as it glared at the four before it. Too many. There were too many running around to continue letting them come at it while its attention was focused on others. Its undamaged wings flapped and flapped, lifting the beast much higher into the air in an instant, enough so that their ranged projectiles could be easily knocked aside by its wings before they struck.

The monster's last remaining head, its main one, began to slowly glow in the same manner as the small ones had. But this came with differences...when that gaping maw opened? What came out were less streams of concentrated flame and more akin to fiery meteors. Dozens of blasts shot out, a volley intending to absolutely bury the entire battlefield and every single person scattered around it. And no matter how many rained down, the barrage showed no signs of slowing.​

Or that's what she thought its plan was, but life came at you fast and sometimes you had to adjust. She grit her teeth and squinted her eyes as the force of air blasting past them as they flew upwards threatened to knock her off, but she held on for dear life right up until the beast started to slow. She let go with another upwards heave, adding her own strength to their mutual upwards velocity so that she arced even higher than the grimm, a tiny, glowing yellow spark visible from far, far below over the monster's head like the world's most out of place halo. as Yang rotated through the air, she caught a view of the night sky from a height she wasn't sure she'd ever been to, even in an airship.

It was kinda, utterly gorgeous. Stuff like this? Killing something pure evil, and getting to see something like this as a little reward? Made being a huntress worth it. All of it. Even the other world BS.

When her almost lazy spin brought her facing back to earth, she was wearing a grin, and even though she was still burning with her semblance her eyes had returned back to normal as she lined herself up as the monster began its barrage, and she launched herself back downwards at speed with a pair of shots just as the blasts began to rain. She doubted even at the maximum amount of energy she could absorb she'd be strong enough to kill this thing in one punch, but she was packing heat, and she knew she wasn't working alone. Her grip snagged onto two massive handfuls of the grimm's ugly, hair esque tentacles, and she put every singly iota of strength she had stored up into twisting herself in the air and pulling downwards to force the massive bastard's head and neck to torque upwards, both to point its blasts into the air and to give those below an opening to go for the kill shot as she roared "RrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

 

[Indolent]

Two of the dragon fingers caught the thrown sabyr in their mouths, one biting deep into the sabyr's throat and the other with one of its legs. Both pulled in opposite directions, ripping the smaller grimm completely asunder...noticing too late the dust jammed into the beast. The following explosion consumed the remains of the cat-esque grimm, the smoke and lingering flames from that blast obscuring the other grimm entirely.

After all that had just happened, the Alpha Beowolf and his intentions for a personal mosh pit of Grimm with the sudden emergence of... whatever this thing was, whatever creative appellation the bigwigs presiding over the huntsmen would give it, Hazel was elated in a way. Gleeful, to say the least, his little gambit apparently having worked, a rising whoop resounding from the gargantuan student's lungs as the impromptu improvised explosive cat, well, exploded. A slice of retribution for the roasting earlier, he saw it--

The two fingers that had caught the sabyr, those heads were just gone. Nothing more than long stumps now writhing in pain. The others had clear signs of burn damage across their bony white scales, but they were still intact. And rageful. As the beast swooped down towards Rainart, the remaining fingers lashed out in a flurry of quick bites. Some aimed for the arms, others went for the legs, one even went for the shoulder...

Oh. It worked too well; if his plan was to engender its attention... he more than succeeded. It was with an expression that almost looked as if regret hung on his face as the monster loomed over and past with a vengeful bent for him now, the screaming dragons bearing down. He barely managed a defensive stance just in time as they came, their teeth-riddled maws clamping down on his left shoulder and bicep, his right thigh and knee, prompting a snarl as he felt the pressure behind their bites.

The first and seconds heads lashed out before the comet landed, but the third found itself buried in the dirt by a downward punch that had all of Yang's strength and then some as slammed into the ground next to it. the third caught a backhanded fist to the side of the fingerface, and the fourth was snatched straight out of the air, Yang turning it to face her with a vicious grin as she squeezed with the sound of cracking bone.

"Got ya"

The beast's flight pulled her and her prey off into the night sky, the grimm's hand looking like it was wearing a glowing ring as it sped off into the distance.

A streak of yellow in the guise of a dragon saved him from the strikes of the rest, allowing him an opening to reach with his right to wrest the offending dragon head on the shoulder free. Somewhere in the midst of the struggle, Hazel might have mumbled out a thanks but it was definitely lost in the chaos' din. When he felt the dragonfinger loosening its grip, the reason for it becoming clear as day-- night, whatever-- he took the chance to clamber onto its neck using his right for purchase, his intention to cleanly pop the head off in an improvised bear hug, an act that would have seen him taken along with Yang as the creature did its assailing passby.

Only he underestimated the extent of damage he received from those bites, flubbed the maneuver as he stumbled, and was flung off to the side whilst buffeted by the deep strokes of those wings. He careened parallel to the ground a fair distance of twenty feet, before contacting once and traversing another distance midair shorter than the last, contacting a few times with his aura flaring each time before he found himself rolling across terra firma. Hazel returned the night sky's second greeting with a dismissive grunt, took a breath, and kipped up. "Fight's not over yet, Rainart." He admonished himself as he swung around.

Tyrian didn't often speak out against Watt's lead. He respected his team's leader even if Watts was from the most likeable person around. But as he stood on his feet, sweat running down his body, his tail unraveled and swinging from side to side, he listened quietly to Watt's plan.

...And growled in derision.

Blind it? Why?

It needed to be able to see it's opponent as it lost. Otherwise, what was the point? Tyrian wanted to crush it when it was at it's best. That moment had seemingly already come and gone with some of the creature being maimed. But whatever it's strength reserves may have been, he wanted nothing to do with this plan. It disgusted him.

Blinding it was a cheap tactic. A dirty one too that didn't sit well with him at all. Tyrian had seen enough of those to last him a lifetime.

Getting on all fours, he could feel his heart racing as he looked over the monolith of death that was coming on the rebound. It might not have mattered to the others through what means they used to take it down. But it did to him. He'd kill this thing but he'd make sure it could SEE him before it disappeared into smoke.

See who was it's better. Who had won this contest of strength.

"No!"

He leaped from the train and broke out into a full on sprint towards the direction of the creature. Wanting to continue the attack on it before it'd finish it's return. Rushing towards the beast, the wind running against him, Tyrian felt a rush of adrenaline like he'd never felt before.

He'd been beaten, humbled even, by Nora. She'd even stabbed him with his own tail. Something that the scar on his shoulder would never let him forget. But at least she'd beaten him fairly. The last human to do such a thing?

Tyrian's left eye twitched as he continued on his dogged pursuit towards the massive Grimm. Skidding to a stop once he'd gotten close enough, he raised his arms and fired upon it.​

Rainart hadn't been oblivious to the chatter on comms, managing to have gotten the gist of it all, and his first instinct was to check on his partner. It hardly necessitated going into the details but the long and short of it was, he was somewhat familiar with the way the faunus operated and to say that he met expectations would have been a far cry from reality. Hazel would have called out to his partner as he bum-rushed his target, only to be repelled. Any other hunter would have been discouraged by the shortcomings of that tactic but not Tyrian and Hazel could only watch on as Tyrian effected the adage of getting back on the horse, proceeding to... successfully attack and maim its wing.

That surprisingly worked out. He was shook.

The shriek of pain from Tyrian cutting into one of its wings had been absolutely shrill, a cry that could have been heard by the entire battlefield...but it was nothing in comparison to the more than deafening howl of pain that followed as one of its wrists was sliced straight through and the hand itself ripped away from its adjoining arm in a surge of red. The howl was more than enough to bring pain to every warrior on the field simply by hearing it, the now severed hand dropping uselessly to the ground below and Yang fell alongside it.

Too bad, the encouragement he would've shouted to his partner was drowned out by the shrieking and a second attempt was nipped in the bud as his balance turned itself off. No pain but he knew what it was, his equilibrium momentarily affected by the following screech as he looked up and realized the why. Their ally and staunch faunus leader of the White Fang had managed to add to the growing list of injuries this thing was accumulating, severing a hand. He imagined it had to be painful, the white-hot flaring of the nerves suddenly cleft and exposed to the air with the bone no longer there to support its adjacent appendage. Never mind the flesh. But that was all he could do, imagine, and it was probably a hundred times worse than that. Not to say the least of possibly being wildly off the mark about Grimm physiology. Not that it was enough to elicit pity for the creature.

The monster's last remaining head, its main one, began to slowly glow in the same manner as the small ones had. But this came with differences...when that gaping maw opened? What came out were less streams of concentrated flame and more akin to fiery meteors. Dozens of blasts shot out, a volley intending to absolutely bury the entire battlefield and every single person scattered around it. And no matter how many rained down, the barrage showed no signs of slowing.

"You've got to be shitting me." Hazel deadpanned, uncaring that it was said over open comms. There wasn't time to deliberate a course of action across the board and Hazel knew he had to do something to at least defend himself from the assault. Just the thing came to mind, courtesy of the Schnee Dust Company, as cyan crystals were yoinked and jammed into into his biceps. The scars flared a neon blue with shimmering hexagons materializing over his forearms, interlocking edge to edge to formulate an ice blue honeycomb of sorts. All this transpired amid a sprint, Hazel bellowing over towards Tyrian to get behind him.

Just in time to block one of those mini-meteorites, as it exploded against a dust barrier that spanned wider and taller than the Mistralian that supported it with his arms. He probably could have withstood one or two of those with his aura but he didn't want to find out for himself, the explosion eliciting a sharp grunt. "You good?"

 

[Gus Gungus]

Most probably would've done as Yang did, taken at least the briefest moment necessary to cast their eyes downward and take a mental picture of the view. But for one of the impromptu flight's stowaways the thought never even crossed her mind, and from the moment she heard its piercing howl of pain her eyes never left the grimm's own. The shriek hurt, left a dull ache and echoing ring in ears that were more sensitive than most, but if anything that only intensified her focus, drowned out all else save for her and her victim.

No. Her prey.

The blonde didn't matter. The wind rushing past, stirring her hair into a frenzy, didn't matter. Every animal instinct she had had been screaming at her ever since she heard that howl, furious and pained, the one sound every predator's brain was hardwired to respond to. The sound something made when it bled.

Or as she liked to call it, fear.

It had some fight left, but she'd made it bleed. Made it scream.

Now it was just a matter of time. The faunus had seized the diversion caused by Cinder to melt away once more into the smoke of the explosions, finding some leverage further down to hold on and wait for her moment. Her eyes never moved, grip on her weapons never twitched, thinner air only serving to make her adrenaline pump harder as the fireballs started raining down past her. It couldn't rain hell forever. All she had to do was wait for an opening, close in on the bloodshed she so desperately wanted.

Her grip snagged onto two massive handfuls of the grimm's ugly, hair esque tentacles, and she put every singly iota of strength she had stored up into twisting herself in the air and pulling downwards to force the massive bastard's head and neck to torque upwards, both to point its blasts into the air and to give those below an opening to go for the kill shot as she roared "RrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Well. Hello, jugular.

If Yang's maneuver were indeed successful, Eve started scaling the creature's body with the deftness and stamina of a pro rock climber, forming handholds in the creature's flesh when there were no bony plates or protrusions to grab onto. Only when she'd reached the abomination's chest did she give a sharp heave and launch herself upward, a duo of gunshots from Blush behind her giving her the burst of velocity she needed to plant her feet against the creature in a gravity-defiant sprint towards its neck. Her footwork almost wobbled. It was almost a risk too far.

But she was just too goddamn good, and 'almost' wasn't in her vocabulary. There was nothing almost about how she poured every last piece of energy her semblance had accumulated into one slice, what was less a sword and more a beam of red light intent on painting an equally red line all the way through the monstrosity's neck and severing yet another appendage Yang was holding on to, the night sky briefly awash with crimson.

"GrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

She doubted even at the maximum amount of energy she could absorb she'd be strong enough to kill this thing in one punch, but she was packing heat, and she knew she wasn't working alone. Her grip snagged onto two massive handfuls of the grimm's ugly, hair esque tentacles, and she put every singly iota of strength she had stored up into twisting herself in the air and pulling downwards to force the massive bastard's head and neck to torque upwards, both to point its blasts into the air and to give those below an opening to go for the kill shot as she roared "RrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

It wasn't clear if the grimm had enough inside to properly express shock or surprise, to showcase the full weight of either feeling...but the beast came as close as any grimm could in that situation, its head wrenched back in that manner. The golden haired prey, her strength, her determination...both were incredible. Cinder couldn't help but watch from where she was huddling behind Hazel as well, single eye completely one fucking hundred percent awestruck at what she was witnessing...especially with what followed immediately after.​

But she was just too goddamn good, and 'almost' wasn't in her vocabulary. There was nothing almost about how she poured every last piece of energy her semblance had accumulated into one slice, what was less a sword and more a beam of red light intent on painting an equally red line all the way through the monstrosity's neck and severing yet another appendage Yang was holding on to, the night sky briefly awash with crimson.

"GrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"

The grimm didn't even have a chance to do more than howl, its blasts firing aimlessly up into the sky above. Whatever it thought to counter Yang with, whatever it planned to do to escape the hold and dispatch the other with, none of that came to pass. The fierce howl ended abruptly, the grimm's roar cut off before it could continue, as surely as its head fell away from the rest of its body. One more meteor launched into the air almost like a shooting star or a firework and then there were no more. With no sentience keeping the beast in the sky any longer, the grimm began to rapidly plummet and its two slayers fell alongside it.

The largest of that massive horde finally slain, the corpse hit the ground hard and created a large crater on impact, the thud echoing out loudly. Though not quite as loud and physically painful roars it had been unleashing shortly before. Yang and Eve followed shortly behind, however they went about with their landing strategy.

With all the beasts vanquished, the only ones left standing on that battlefield at the edges of the woods were the scattered roughly dozen warriors standing basked by the moonlight. Cinder quickly looked around, scanning the whole place...and then immediately jumped into the air in celebration, whooping with joy. “That was awesome! It was basically an extermination mission!! Our first as...a not actually official huntsmen team!!!” She grinned wider than most would have in the wake of such a fierce battle. Despite suffering injury, they had won!

They had beaten a crazy grimm nobody had probably ever seen before, and hordes of other ones too! “Hazel, the way you manhandled some of those grimm...and Tyrian you absolutely insane dude, going for that wing like...” She mimed it out as best she could. Complete with enthusiastic noises, the sort you would find in older kung-fu movies whenever somebody attacked. “Even you, Arthur! With the support! Don't even get me started on Yang and Eve, like holy shit!!! It was all like some of the stuff I used to watch on TV! When I had the chance to do so, anyway.”

Vernal wasn't quite as enthused as her fellow maiden, but even she had to admit...that had been impressive. Fear rooted her to the spot where she'd stood, at least until the damn thing started bombarding the place, but those two...they were either extremely brave or extremely nuts. It was one of the two.

And more than just those two were impressed. Raven strode up to the rest, Omen sliding neatly into its scabbard as the scattered bodies of nevermore began to evaporate behind her. She couldn't help herself from staring at Yang with an extremely proud smile. So what if this Yang wasn't technically her daughter? That sure wasn't going to stop her from being proud. One of the most experienced people on the field hadn't needed to do a single thing against what was by far the most fearsome grimm present. Taking care of that thing...it was one hell of an accomplishment.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Most probably would've done as Yang did, taken at least the briefest moment necessary to cast their eyes downward and take a mental picture of the view. But for one of the impromptu flight's stowaways the thought never even crossed her mind, and from the moment she heard its piercing howl of pain her eyes never left the grimm's own. The shriek hurt, left a dull ache and echoing ring in ears that were more sensitive than most, but if anything that only intensified her focus, drowned out all else save for her and her victim.

No. Her prey.

The blonde didn't matter. The wind rushing past, stirring her hair into a frenzy, didn't matter. Every animal instinct she had had been screaming at her ever since she heard that howl, furious and pained, the one sound every predator's brain was hardwired to respond to. The sound something made when it bled.

Or as she liked to call it, fear.

It had some fight left, but she'd made it bleed. Made it scream.

Now it was just a matter of time. The faunus had seized the diversion caused by Cinder to melt away once more into the smoke of the explosions, finding some leverage further down to hold on and wait for her moment. Her eyes never moved, grip on her weapons never twitched, thinner air only serving to make her adrenaline pump harder as the fireballs started raining down past her. It couldn't rain hell forever. All she had to do was wait for an opening, close in on the bloodshed she so desperately wanted.



Well. Hello, jugular.

If Yang's maneuver were indeed successful, Eve started scaling the creature's body with the deftness and stamina of a pro rock climber, forming handholds in the creature's flesh when there were no bony plates or protrusions to grab onto. Only when she'd reached the abomination's chest did she give a sharp heave and launch herself upward, a duo of gunshots from Blush behind her giving her the burst of velocity she needed to plant her feet against the creature in a gravity-defiant sprint towards its neck. Her footwork almost wobbled. It was almost a risk too far.

But she was just too goddamn good, and 'almost' wasn't in her vocabulary. There was nothing almost about how she poured every last piece of energy her semblance had accumulated into one slice, what was less a sword and more a beam of red light intent on painting an equally red line all the way through the monstrosity's neck and severing yet another appendage Yang was holding on to, the night sky briefly awash with crimson.

"GrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"​

That worked.

Her battlecry was cooler though.

The grimm didn't even have a chance to do more than howl, its blasts firing aimlessly up into the sky above. Whatever it thought to counter Yang with, whatever it planned to do to escape the hold and dispatch the other with, none of that came to pass. The fierce howl ended abruptly, the grimm's roar cut off before it could continue, as surely as its head fell away from the rest of its body. One more meteor launched into the air almost like a shooting star or a firework and then there were no more. With sentience keeping the beast in the sky any longer, the grimm began to rapidly plummet and its two slayers fell alongside it.

The largest of that massive horde finally slain, the corpse hit the ground hard and created a large crater on impact, the thud echoing out loudly. Though not quite as loud and physically painful roars it had been unleashing shortly before. Yang and Eve followed shortly behind, however they went about with their landing strategy.

"HAAHAA, YES!!!"

Yang let out a whoop of sheer, victorious joy as the head was suddenly way easier to pull, and she heaved it around and past her like a ball and chain to send it falling well away from the train. She leveled out with another cackle as she rode the high of a successful fight, and judged the distance she had to fall before starting to slow herself. Wow. They really were just, so high up here. She preemptively flicked her wrists to load the next rounds-

-a dozen clicks and pops came from both her arms as the empty shells ejected and scattered into the air around her, the wind tossing them into the breeze.

"Uh oh."

Did she really miscount??? She coulda swore she had a few shots left in either gauntlet! Her hands flew to the extra ammo at her side, but she didn't exactly load these things at terminal velocity very often, and by that she meant she'd never done that. Her usual quick loading methods all wouldn't work like this, and she had to try and slot the rounds in individually and oh man she wasn't gonna have enough time. This was fine. She'd taken way harder falls before! They jumped out of airships all the time at Beacon! It was how they did their class photo! Not from this height and after taking the beating she had but NAH THIS WAS FINE-

 

[Gus Gungus]

The grimm didn't even have a chance to do more than howl, its blasts firing aimlessly up into the sky above. Whatever it thought to counter Yang with, whatever it planned to do to escape the hold and dispatch the other with, none of that came to pass. The fierce howl ended abruptly, the grimm's roar cut off before it could continue, as surely as its head fell away from the rest of its body. One more meteor launched into the air almost like a shooting star or a firework and then there were no more. With no sentience keeping the beast in the sky any longer, the grimm began to rapidly plummet and its two slayers fell alongside it.

As the others looked on far below, Emerald leaned over to wryly nudge Mercury in the ribs, doing nothing to put a dent in her partner's expression of fascination and disbelief. "That chick is way too cool for you."

"HAAHAA, YES!!!"

Yang let out a whoop of sheer, victorious joy as the head was suddenly way easier to pull, and she heaved it around and past her like a ball and chain to send it falling well away from the train. She leveled with another cackle as she rode the high of a successful fight, and judged the distance she had to fall before starting to slow herself. Wow. They really were just, so high up here. She preemptively flicked her wrists to load the next rounds-

-a dozen clicks and pops came from both her arms as the empty shells ejected and scattered into the air around her, the wind tossing them into the breeze.

"Uh oh."

Did she really miscount??? She coulda swore she had a few shots left in either gauntlet! Her hands flew to the extra ammo at her side, but she didn't exactly load these things at terminal velocity very often, and by that she meant she'd never done that. Her usual quick loading methods all wouldn't work like this, and she had to try and slot the rounds in individually and oh man she wasn't gonna have enough time. This was fine. She'd taken way harder falls before! They jumped out of airships all the time at Beacon! It was how they did their class photo! Not from this height and after taking the beating she had but NAH THIS WAS FINE-

Eve was in the midst of her own quiet enjoyment of the victory they'd just claimed, much more subdued than the other in the form of a smirk that glowed with prideful gratification and dismissive "hmph". That grin, subtle as it was, turned dark as she watched the nature of Yang's movements change during their fall, growing minorly less assured. Her battle instincts were still blaring, and she couldn't help but see the opportunity in this as she tilted her descent and started picking up velocity towards the huntress. Oh, what a shame it would've been if the fall killed her after a battle like that.

Spoiler

How fortunate that one of them had plenty of practice with this sort of thing.

The largest of that massive horde finally slain, the corpse hit the ground hard and created a large crater on impact, the thud echoing out loudly. Though not quite as loud and physically painful roars it had been unleashing shortly before. Yang and Eve followed shortly behind, however they went about with their landing strategy.

With all the beasts vanquished, the only ones left standing on that battlefield at the edges of the woods were the scattered roughly dozen warriors standing basked by the moonlight. Cinder quickly looked around, scanning the whole place...and then immediately jumped into the air in celebration, whooping with joy. “That was awesome! It was basically an extermination mission!! Our first as...a not actually official huntsmen team!!!” She grinned wider than most would have in the wake of such a fierce battle. Despite suffering injury, they had won!

Eve's own landing came fast and hard in the wake of their slain foe's, boots impacting the dirt just beside the crater with enough impact to crack the earth and create one of their own, albeit much smaller. The shockwave dispersed the cloud of mist the monster was presumably dissolving into in a wave, a picture perfect superhero landing complete with rescued damsel in arm.

Or, well, the next best thing to one. She dropped Yang unceremoniously at her feet the moment they touched down and rolled out the joints in her wrist and neck; far be it from her to deny the huntress a landing in the dirt. One hand rested lightly on her sword's pommel, and she checked the nails on the other with an air of nonchalant smugness.

"Let's see... Counting the ape, that makes three times I saved your life during that fight. Looks like I'm way ahead."

She was already walking off for the train, no intention of giving the blonde any chance to respond.

They had beaten a crazy grimm nobody had probably ever seen before, and hordes of other ones too! “Hazel, the way you manhandled some of those grimm...and Tyrian you absolutely insane dude, going for that wing like...” She mimed it out as best she could. Complete with enthusiastic noises, the sort you would find in older kung-fu movies whenever somebody attacked. “Even you, Arthur! With the support! Don't even get me started on Yang and Eve, like holy shit!!! It was all like some of the stuff I used to watch on TV! When I had the chance to do so, anyway.”

Crossing her arms behind the fall maiden, Emerald rolled her eyes. "Of course you would skip over one of the coolest parts. YOURS!"

She promptly started freaking out and fangirling over proceedings in much the same way Cinder was, her contributions mostly limited to excited gasps and whooshes and other extremely enthusiastic vocalizations of agreement.

A short distance away, Mercury was all stoicism as he stared down at his open hand. "I..."

A few of the younger beasts died from the attempt, but most got through the wall with only relatively minor burns from the brief exposure.

The wall of fire unexpectedly began to coalesce together all in one spot, the wall near instantaneously becoming less of a wall and more of a single large fire that hung in one spot. That too quickly vanished, every bit of it sucked into the creature's many mouths, spiky teeth illuminated by the burning orange until it was all gone. Darkness lit only by the light of the moon descended on the field once again.

The hand curled into a fist. "...was completely useless..."

Man that was so awesome though. He turned away to hide the manly tears.

THOOM

A nevermore dug a ditch in the earth nearby with force, having landed from a considerably lesser but nevertheless impressive height in its own right. Qrow dug Harbinger free with a dexterous spin and hopped off its neck, the scythe collapsing back into its disengaged form as he slung it across his lower back. His approach was a casual one, hands in his pockets and features reserved as he glanced around at all the celebrations and gushing.

"Hey. Also did a cool thing. Nah, just kidding. Yang, that was incredible. We would've taken care of it though. But really, awesome job." Whatever, so maybe 'being upstaged by his nieces' was a look he was still getting used to. Speaking of which, his glancing grew more quizzical. "How come Ruby didn't-"

His eyes widened when they caught sight of her, presumably still a tiny red bundle of motionlessness wherever she'd crumpled. He gathered her up in his arms, helping her sit up. "RUBY! Snap out of it, are you alright?!"

Thank god she was still a snorer or he might've sounded far more worried as he shook her.​

 

[MidwayLives]

The culprit became clear to the beast, as Cinder dashed up into sight to join the rest. She had agreed with Watts' plan, but after watching Tyrian being swept aside like that by one of its wings, she had refused to wait for the grimm to come to her.

Every single one of its dragon fingers were now gone, one hand completely severed off and the heads of the other utterly obliterated and leaving it with only elongated stumps. The beast let out a low growl as it glared at the four before it. Too many. There were too many running around to continue letting them come at it while its attention was focused on others. Its undamaged wings flapped and flapped, lifting the beast much higher into the air in an instant, enough so that their ranged projectiles could be easily knocked aside by its wings before they struck.

The monster's last remaining head, its main one, began to slowly glow in the same manner as the small ones had. But this came with differences...when that gaping maw opened? What came out were less streams of concentrated flame and more akin to fiery meteors. Dozens of blasts shot out, a volley intending to absolutely bury the entire battlefield and every single person scattered around it. And no matter how many rained down, the barrage showed no signs of slowing.

A smile just as warm as his usual ones spread across his features. All while he continued to hang on for dear life as the creature started to try and take flight using it's remaining wing. If he fell off now, he risked really hurting himself.

In day to day life, he had to put up a front. The friendly wacky how to do friend. He was self aware enough to know it weirded some people out. He wasn't an idiot after all.

But in the heat of combat? It was the only place he truly felt he could be himself.

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAGHHHHHH!!!!"

If he died here, he'd be 100% fine with it. What a battle he'd been a part of.
​

"You've got to be shitting me." Hazel deadpanned, uncaring that it was said over open comms. There wasn't time to deliberate a course of action across the board and Hazel knew he had to do something to at least defend himself from the assault. Just the thing came to mind, courtesy of the Schnee Dust Company, as cyan crystals were yoinked and jammed into into his biceps. The scars flared a neon blue with shimmering hexagons materializing over his forearms, interlocking edge to edge to formulate an ice blue honeycomb of sorts. All this transpired amid a sprint, Hazel bellowing over towards Tyrian to get behind him.

Just in time to block one of those mini-meteorites, as it exploded against a dust barrier that spanned wider and taller than the Mistralian that supported it with his arms. He probably could have withstood one or two of those with his aura but he didn't want to find out for himself, the explosion eliciting a sharp grunt. "You good?"

As the creature got higher, Tyrian's blades started to become dislodged. His weapons simply lacked the firepower to propel him any meaningful distance upwards. If he fell, that'd be it for him. He'd have lost his chance to kill this creature and claim victory over it.

That...truly disappointed him.

"No...!" He grit his teeth and reared back his other arm to try and sink it in. It was too late and his gauntlet's blades freed themselves. As he fell back down to the ground below, various thoughts raced through his head as the smile faded from his face. For the briefest of moments, he hadn't been hiding behind a forced smile. He'd been thrilled, absolutely excited at the opportunity to fight such a powerful beast. The urges that normally bit at his ankles like a persistent stray finally had an avenue in which he didn't actually hurt anybody. And he'd blown it!

*CRASH*

He hit the ground, flat on his back, his aura shimmering and cracking around him. It'd hurt falling like that. Losing the chance to be the one to bring this beast down i nfront of his peers, his friends, and so on. As the fireballs began to cascade downwards, he paid it little mind-

*BOOM*

"Hello, my dearest friend. I'm...alright."

No need to address the disappointment. He loved Hazel as though he were a brother and yet Tyrian didn't feel he or the others would understand his reasons for feeling like he did. "Are you okay?"
​

The grimm didn't even have a chance to do more than howl, its blasts firing aimlessly up into the sky above. Whatever it thought to counter Yang with, whatever it planned to do to escape the hold and dispatch the other with, none of that came to pass. The fierce howl ended abruptly, the grimm's roar cut off before it could continue, as surely as its head fell away from the rest of its body. One more meteor launched into the air almost like a shooting star or a firework and then there were no more. With no sentience keeping the beast in the sky any longer, the grimm began to rapidly plummet and its two slayers fell alongside it.

The largest of that massive horde finally slain, the corpse hit the ground hard and created a large crater on impact, the thud echoing out loudly. Though not quite as loud and physically painful roars it had been unleashing shortly before. Yang and Eve followed shortly behind, however they went about with their landing strategy.

Well.

Much to his chagrin, he hadn't been the one to finish off the beast. As he saw it finally vanished. he supposed the blow had been lessened by the sheer grace with which the two warriors above claimed victory from the maw of this abomination. Tyrian had little interest for romance in the conventional sense. It was simply too 'boring' for him.

Yet the display between Eve and Yang lit a fire within him that almost tamed the nearly overwhelming sense of bitter defeat.

Almost.

"They...They did it!"
​

They had beaten a crazy grimm nobody had probably ever seen before, and hordes of other ones too! “Hazel, the way you manhandled some of those grimm...and Tyrian you absolutely insane dude, going for that wing like...”

Tyrian chuckled softly at his teammate's description of their actions. Yes, he supposed he HAD looked rather crazy running off like that didn't he?

'Oh Cinder, if only you knew...'

His entire body ached like hell and back. As he pushed himself up into a seated position, his tail slowly hid itself around his waist.

"It seems...at least for now...victory is soundly ours."

Turning away from the others, Tyrian started to walk off. While he was obviously relieved that they'd won, he couldn't help but kick himself over falling from the beast's wing. What if he could have done more? What if he had been the one to kill the creature? If only or maybe if he did something, anything, different.

​

 

[MidwayLives]

The hand curled into a fist. "...was completely useless..."

"Eh, you get used to it."

Roman patted his leader on the back and smiled before continuing to walk on.

The truth was the whole time he'd been scared shitless. So many Grimm brought up bad memories. Yet if he were to turn tail and hide, he swore he could never (kneel down) and look Neo in the eyes again. He did his part and that was good enough for him.

Besides, the pay off to seeing someone else kill that giant Grimm was absolutely WORTH IT!​

 

[MyrtenRose]

His eyes widened when they caught sight of her, presumably still a tiny red bundle of motionlessness wherever she'd crumpled. He gathered her up in his arms, helping her sit up. "RUBY! Snap out of it, are you alright?!"

Her head twitched in response to the shaking and general movement, gradually rousing back to consciousness. Her eyes blinked a few times before she properly took in the sight of Qrow. “...Uncle.” She murmured in soft relief with a faint smile. “I take it we won. Did you...kill that...whatever hit me? Or Raven?”​

 

[Indolent]

​

Yang held on as she was hoisted into the air with one hand, her foot resting against the head with a smirk that would've been casual if it wasn't showing much teeth and her eyes weren't still glowing a faint red. she didn't move immediately as the heads all turned towards her, outside of a two fingered salute against her head in greeting.

" 'Sup girls?"



The flicker of red in the corner of her eye told her what was coming, and whatever she muttered under her breath would make her almost glad when this was over that Ruby was unconscious as she suddenly flipped herself upwards on the wounded head just as the first blasts of flame shot out. A few strands of hair might've burned if it was anyone else, but Yang was otherwise none the worse for wear, and a gunshot sent her spinning out of the way of the next as her arm latched onto another neck that she swung off of like it was a jungle gym. Eve wasn't the only one who'd learned things from their mutual past partner, though stealth wasn't the lessons that Yang recieved; it was about as antithetical to her modus operandi as it could get. But when your partner's weapon of choice was the physics student's worst nightmare, and her favorite use of it was to turn you into a human wrecking ball, you got agile or you got put into the gym wall at terminal velocity during training.

Or, more accurately, you did a lot of the second on your path to the first =w=

the head that tried to follow her with a snapping bite wasn't even moving half as fast as Gambol shroud was normally whipped at her head, even if it was with good intentions, and Yang let out a quiet "alleyoop!" as she spun out of the way and grabbed its snout to catch a ride upwards as its momentum shot past her, and she heaved herself up with it as leverage just as it found its connection to its main body suddenly sliced off. Two more shots put her even more airborne, and she stuck her tongue out at Eve as she rocketed past her up higher on the beast. She reached the shoulder and with a mighty roar slammed her real fist into it with a claw-esque strike, intending on using her semblance to give her the strengh to gouge her hand in to hold on as it continued its flight towards the train.


Or that's what she thought its plan was, but life came at you fast and sometimes you had to adjust. She grit her teeth and squinted her eyes as the force of air blasting past them as they flew upwards threatened to knock her off, but she held on for dear life right up until the beast started to slow. She let go with another upwards heave, adding her own strength to their mutual upwards velocity so that she arced even higher than the grimm, a tiny, glowing yellow spark visible from far, far below over the monster's head like the world's most out of place halo. as Yang rotated through the air, she caught a view of the night sky from a height she wasn't sure she'd ever been to, even in an airship.

It was kinda, utterly gorgeous. Stuff like this? Killing something pure evil, and getting to see something like this as a little reward? Made being a huntress worth it. All of it. Even the other world BS.

When her almost lazy spin brought her facing back to earth, she was wearing a grin, and even though she was still burning with her semblance her eyes had returned back to normal as she lined herself up as the monster began its barrage, and she launched herself back downwards at speed with a pair of shots just as the blasts began to rain. She doubted even at the maximum amount of energy she could absorb she'd be strong enough to kill this thing in one punch, but she was packing heat, and she knew she wasn't working alone. Her grip snagged onto two massive handfuls of the grimm's ugly, hair esque tentacles, and she put every singly iota of strength she had stored up into twisting herself in the air and pulling downwards to force the massive bastard's head and neck to torque upwards, both to point its blasts into the air and to give those below an opening to go for the kill shot as she roared "RrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Most probably would've done as Yang did, taken at least the briefest moment necessary to cast their eyes downward and take a mental picture of the view. But for one of the impromptu flight's stowaways the thought never even crossed her mind, and from the moment she heard its piercing howl of pain her eyes never left the grimm's own. The shriek hurt, left a dull ache and echoing ring in ears that were more sensitive than most, but if anything that only intensified her focus, drowned out all else save for her and her victim.

No. Her prey.

The blonde didn't matter. The wind rushing past, stirring her hair into a frenzy, didn't matter. Every animal instinct she had had been screaming at her ever since she heard that howl, furious and pained, the one sound every predator's brain was hardwired to respond to. The sound something made when it bled.

Or as she liked to call it, fear.

It had some fight left, but she'd made it bleed. Made it scream.

Now it was just a matter of time. The faunus had seized the diversion caused by Cinder to melt away once more into the smoke of the explosions, finding some leverage further down to hold on and wait for her moment. Her eyes never moved, grip on her weapons never twitched, thinner air only serving to make her adrenaline pump harder as the fireballs started raining down past her. It couldn't rain hell forever. All she had to do was wait for an opening, close in on the bloodshed she so desperately wanted.



Well. Hello, jugular.

If Yang's maneuver were indeed successful, Eve started scaling the creature's body with the deftness and stamina of a pro rock climber, forming handholds in the creature's flesh when there were no bony plates or protrusions to grab onto. Only when she'd reached the abomination's chest did she give a sharp heave and launch herself upward, a duo of gunshots from Blush behind her giving her the burst of velocity she needed to plant her feet against the creature in a gravity-defiant sprint towards its neck. Her footwork almost wobbled. It was almost a risk too far.

But she was just too goddamn good, and 'almost' wasn't in her vocabulary. There was nothing almost about how she poured every last piece of energy her semblance had accumulated into one slice, what was less a sword and more a beam of red light intent on painting an equally red line all the way through the monstrosity's neck and severing yet another appendage Yang was holding on to, the night sky briefly awash with crimson.

"GrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"​

The grimm didn't even have a chance to do more than howl, its blasts firing aimlessly up into the sky above. Whatever it thought to counter Yang with, whatever it planned to do to escape the hold and dispatch the other with, none of that came to pass. The fierce howl ended abruptly, the grimm's roar cut off before it could continue, as surely as its head fell away from the rest of its body. One more meteor launched into the air almost like a shooting star or a firework and then there were no more. With no sentience keeping the beast in the sky any longer, the grimm began to rapidly plummet and its two slayers fell alongside it.

The largest of that massive horde finally slain, the corpse hit the ground hard and created a large crater on impact, the thud echoing out loudly. Though not quite as loud and physically painful roars it had been unleashing shortly before. Yang and Eve followed shortly behind, however they went about with their landing strategy.

The display that unfurled overhead in the sky was something he was not going to forget anytime soon, his eyes taking it all in gluttonously soon as he was afforded the chance after the bombardment ceased by their intervention. The abrupt realignment of the head that saw the cascade end, the swift slash of red set against black that quelled it... These two, Hazel knew, were innately and diametrically opposed yet they managed the Herculean feat of slaying this monstrosity. Opposites that met one another with the unfortunate creature caught between perishing, as if it were by the Fates hands and their scissor. It was their hands though.

It was a peripheral satisfaction that warmed his body when its carcass impacted the ground, slowly dissolving into the night alone with the rest of its brethren largely vanquished. A gentle smile lit up his tired face, the pale blue of the dust radiating from his arms illuminating his messy features. It was always a scare, fighting the Grimm, something he felt to be an ordeal for each and every huntsman to overcome. With time came the practice and ease of mitigating the impact it had on your psyche but it was always there. And the experience was unique each time, this by far the grandest one of them all. It was easy to say their training hadn't prepared them for dealing with a monster like that but Hazel would have softly disagreed. The training helped immensely and it was the people that were involved that made the difference. Their relationships, whether they were friendship or mere acquaintances, contributed to that. A solidarity of a sort in their hearts if not their minds. They were stronger for it at the end. Combined with big reasons like fighting for others, the weak, to save the world, so on and so forth, it all culminated in something that resembled a purpose. So he looked around and smiled. He knew he'd done his part, as the the others had, and that emboldened the satisfaction.

With all the beasts vanquished, the only ones left standing on that battlefield at the edges of the woods were the scattered roughly dozen warriors standing basked by the moonlight. Cinder quickly looked around, scanning the whole place...and then immediately jumped into the air in celebration, whooping with joy. “That was awesome! It was basically an extermination mission!! Our first as...a not actually official huntsmen team!!!” She grinned wider than most would have in the wake of such a fierce battle. Despite suffering injury, they had won!

They had beaten a crazy grimm nobody had probably ever seen before, and hordes of other ones too! “Hazel, the way you manhandled some of those grimm...and Tyrian you absolutely insane dude, going for that wing like...” She mimed it out as best she could. Complete with enthusiastic noises, the sort you would find in older kung-fu movies whenever somebody attacked. “Even you, Arthur! With the support! Don't even get me started on Yang and Eve, like holy shit!!! It was all like some of the stuff I used to watch on TV! When I had the chance to do so, anyway.”

It would have been so very easy to have become dour and glum after an encounter like that, a glimpse of what terrible forces Ozpin surely marshaled under his iron grip. The notion didn't dim, if it even struck, the exuberance that absolutely wafted off his teammate. Hazel couldn't help but laugh, placing an arm around in a hug that spoke to his appreciation before he stepped away towards Tyrian. A projected hand for the shoulder, a firm reminder his partner was there, before the faunus stepped away. Watts would have received a cursory nod of the head, forgoing words when a simple gesture sufficed. He slowly craned his focus to the night sky, taking stock of the intricate positioning of the stars, the constellations... the moon. It was difficult to appreciate them amid life or death. "That was something. I'm glad you're all okay. Everyone, really." Hazel uttered, pacing his words out in a way that very much clarified his status.

He was exhausted, and he was positive the others were too. A gaze around and down and across himself prompted a soured expression on the face. His clothes were basically gone and it was an embarrassment to linger in them any longer than he had a right to. So Hazel lumbered back inside and made a beeline for his luggage inside the team's shared cabin, automatically returning the clamors of conductors and passengers with deferent appreciation on the way. When he arrived, he set himself to his task swiftly.

The task of making himself comfy as heck after all of that.



After that, he'd join the others in section and be present for a debriefing or a party or really anything. Snoring in his seat.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Her head twitched in response to the shaking and general movement, gradually rousing back to consciousness. Her eyes blinked a few times before she properly took in the sight of Qrow. “...Uncle.” She murmured in soft relief with a faint smile. “I take it we won. Did you...kill that...whatever hit me? Or Raven?”

Qrow heaved a sigh of relief as Ruby stirred, shoulders releasing tension he didn't even know they had. He blinked at the question, and the edge of his mouth finally turned up in a smirk that betrayed the full extent of his pride, though no way in hell was he letting Yang see it. She was never gonna let them forget about this as it was. He shook his head.

"There was another huntress in the area." Was all he said, nodding over to where Yang had touched down. He dusted himself off, stood up, and took a patient step back from Ruby's most direct path to her sister, fully anticipating what probably happened next. One of those girls was definitely about to crash into the other at high speeds, and a skinny jerk like him was liable to get snapped in half if he didn't clear the line of fire.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Qrow heaved a sigh of relief as Ruby stirred, shoulders releasing tension he didn't even know they had. He blinked at the question, and the edge of his mouth finally turned up in a smirk that betrayed the full extent of his pride, though no way in hell was he letting Yang see it. She was never gonna let them forget about this as it was. He shook his head.

"There was another huntress in the area." Was all he said, nodding over to where Yang had touched down. He dusted himself off, stood up, and took a patient step back from Ruby's most direct path to her sister, fully anticipating what probably happened next. One of those girls was definitely about to crash into the other at high speeds, and a skinny jerk like him was liable to get snapped in half if he didn't clear the line of fire.​

Her uncle had good instincts in more than just grimm slaying. That was exactly what Ruby did, speeding off in the very next instant with an enthusiasm that easily rivaled Cinder and Emerald at the moment, if not outdoing the pair. Raven stepped up to take up the young huntress’s place, glancing towards Qrow. “They are...quite remarkable. Your world did better than ours on that front.” She said in passing before turning to address the rest that were still lingering around. “Okay, you lot. You can celebrate later. For now...” She jerked her head towards the train.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Eve's own landing came fast and hard in the wake of their slain foe's, boots impacting the dirt just beside the crater with enough impact to crack the earth and create one of their own, albeit much smaller. The shockwave dispersed the cloud of mist the monster was presumably dissolving into in a wave, a picture perfect superhero landing complete with rescued damsel in arm.

Or, well, the next best thing to one. She dropped Yang unceremoniously at her feet the moment they touched down and rolled out the joints in her wrist and neck; far be it from her to deny the huntress a landing in the dirt. One hand rested lightly on her sword's pommel, and she checked the nails on the other with an air of nonchalant smugness.

"Let's see... Counting the ape, that makes three times I saved your life during that fight. Looks like I'm way ahead."

She was already walking off for the train, no intention of giving the blonde any chance to respond.

Yang only managed a "HELLO???" of uncomfortable shock at the midair hug from the one second third fourth fifth okay more like seventh person in this world she least wanted an embrace from as she was snatched out of the air, and the only reason she didn't react at all was because half of her brain was screaming to suplex this lunatic underneath her to take the fall before she did the same to her and the other half just really didn't wanna die in such a stupid way. She blinked a few times in the midst of the smoke of their impact, and she gave an indignant squawk as she was suddenly dumped onto the ground.

She laid there with a look of dumb surprise a full three seconds after Eve threw down that gauntlet... before she absolutely lost it in a bout of laughter. At the sheer pettiness of the line, at herself for making such a stupid mistake, at the fact that the one person she liked the least on this train except Watts maybe was absolutely the reason she had such an easy time killing that ridiculous monstrosity, a thought she was way too confident in herself to not believe Eve mirrored.

"Pffft, HAAHAHAHA, hahaha, you are such a brat! " She managed past her giggles before she propped herself up on one elbow and cupped the other hand to call after Eve's withdrawal, because like hell was she gonna let 'walking speed' stop her from shooting back. "WHO OBVIOUSLY DOESN'T KNOW WHAT 'IVE GOT THIS' MEANS, OR HOW TO COUNT!" There wasn't any bite in it; She was far, far, far away from ever liking the cocky, sanctimonious, edgelord of a faunus, but...

She flopped back down onto the ground spread eagle, a few more giggles bubbling up as she wound down with a grin on her face that wanted to be annoyed but couldn't put the heart into it.

"We're even. At best."

She stared up at the sky for a bit as everyone else's cheers and congratulations washed over her, her breathing deep and slow as she felt the rush of the battle starting to exit from her system. She needed this. She didn't revel in violence or anything, she just liked the excitement of this life. It was the first real bout of adrenaline in this world that hadn't been in a disgustingly uncomfortable fight with some disquietingly familiar face. It was... centering. This world was all kinds of messed up, obviously. But there was good with the bad. She couldn't call that young Cinder giving Ruby a run for her money in the 'Remnant's Biggest Hunter Nerd' contest something that was worse than her world. It wasn't a bad place, just... not where she belonged, or the rest of her family. But they'd get back there. She grinned, her eyes set into a determined glare as she put her prosthetic up towards the stars. There wasn't anything her sister and her couldn't do. They'd get back home.

"Even if I gotta touch the sky to do it."

Speaking of her sister...

Her uncle had good instincts in more than just grimm slaying. That was exactly what Ruby did, speeding off in the very next instant with an enthusiasm that easily rivaled Cinder and Emerald at the moment, if not outdoing the pair.

One could be forgiven for thinking Yang was defenseless, completely unaware of the oncoming cloaked freight train of affection that was barreling down on he,r given how absurd the last minute of her life had been, but they would be dead wrong. Not when the reason Yang had been so furious in the first place had been what happened to her. She'd caught sight of Qrow checking on her sister in the midst of her (slightly) panicked fall, her eyes almost subconsciously ensuring that her sister was safe in what the dumbest parts of her brain thought might have been her final moments. When Ruby got juuust close enough in her charge, Yang suddenly sat up with a devious grin, and the younger Rose Xiao Long found her arms snatched and her momentum flipped around so that they both tumbled in the air for a moment, Yang absolutely abusing her far greater hand to hand experience to make sure that when they landed, Ruby's back was against her and she had her in her arms. Which was fine right up until the moment she bonked her head against the tree they slid into

"Ow. Hey sis! You... ok?" She asked, a bit of worry creeping into her tone as one hand got pressed against Ruby's forehead and run backwards in an effort to check for any serious bumps, paying absolutely zero regard to her sister's carefully crafted anime hair.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

A smile just as warm as his usual ones spread across his features. All while he continued to hang on for dear life as the creature started to try and take flight using it's remaining wing. If he fell off now, he risked really hurting himself.

In day to day life, he had to put up a front. The friendly wacky how to do friend. He was self aware enough to know it weirded some people out. He wasn't an idiot after all.

But in the heat of combat? It was the only place he truly felt he could be himself.

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAGHHHHHH!!!!"

If he died here, he'd be 100% fine with it. What a battle he'd been a part of.


As the creature got higher, Tyrian's blades started to become dislodged. His weapons simply lacked the firepower to propel him any meaningful distance upwards. If he fell, that'd be it for him. He'd have lost his chance to kill this creature and claim victory over it.

That...truly disappointed him.

"No...!" He grit his teeth and reared back his other arm to try and sink it in. It was too late and his gauntlet's blades freed themselves. As he fell back down to the ground below, various thoughts raced through his head as the smile faded from his face. For the briefest of moments, he hadn't been hiding behind a forced smile. He'd been thrilled, absolutely excited at the opportunity to fight such a powerful beast. The urges that normally bit at his ankles like a persistent stray finally had an avenue in which he didn't actually hurt anybody. And he'd blown it!

*CRASH*

He hit the ground, flat on his back, his aura shimmering and cracking around him. It'd hurt falling like that. Losing the chance to be the one to bring this beast down i nfront of his peers, his friends, and so on. As the fireballs began to cascade downwards, he paid it little mind-

*BOOM*

"Hello, my dearest friend. I'm...alright."

No need to address the disappointment. He loved Hazel as though he were a brother and yet Tyrian didn't feel he or the others would understand his reasons for feeling like he did. "Are you okay?"

Well.

Much to his chagrin, he hadn't been the one to finish off the beast. As he saw it finally vanished. he supposed the blow had been lessened by the sheer grace with which the two warriors above claimed victory from the maw of this abomination. Tyrian had little interest for romance in the conventional sense. It was simply too 'boring' for him.

Yet the display between Eve and Yang lit a fire within him that almost tamed the nearly overwhelming sense of bitter defeat.

Almost.

"They...They did it!"


Tyrian chuckled softly at his teammate's description of their actions. Yes, he supposed he HAD looked rather crazy running off like that didn't he?

'Oh Cinder, if only you knew...'

His entire body ached like hell and back. As he pushed himself up into a seated position, his tail slowly hid itself around his waist.

"It seems...at least for now...victory is soundly ours."

Turning away from the others, Tyrian started to walk off. While he was obviously relieved that they'd won, he couldn't help but kick himself over falling from the beast's wing. What if he could have done more? What if he had been the one to kill the creature? If only or maybe if he did something, anything, different.

​

"TYRIAN!"

Watts, like everyone else, was deeply relieved to see the creature fall, and even he would have to admit if pressed that he was impressed with how the Huntress proper and the White Fang general had taken that monstrosity down. But his excitement was marred by one important fact; that his lunatic of a teammate had completely ignored orders to go charging off in a one man suicide rush. He hopped off the top of the train and stalked after the faunus, a growl obvious on his face. "What, pray tell, the hell was that?!"



In the midst of all this, Neo had been occupied; it wasn't like all the other grimm had suddenly vanished after their impromptu leader showed up, and everyone else was understandably distracted by the absurd monster. Not that Neo didn't want a piece of the action against it, but someone had to clean up the remaining beowolves and ursa, and it only took one wind blast deflecting Eve's laser slice for her to understand that trying to use her new toy against such a grimm had way, way too high a chance of just sending that overpowered ordinance right back to sender, or worse, someone else on their side.

The last lingering beowolf was midway through a vicious claw swipe when the alpha grimm had begun its meteoric barrage, and Neo's eyes had widened in shock, hopped over the slash, skewered the beast in the shoulder, and guided it into a turn with her own momentum before she landed on the other side of it and opened her parasol, turning the grimm into an extra layer of shielding as the one blast that rained on her directly hit. She shook the grimm ash off as before she snapped the umbrella closed and looked up to see if she could help and ohp the answer was definitely no. Holy crap.

In whatever measure of time passed between that moment and the rest, Eve found her return walk interrupted by the sudden appearance of a Neo at her side, eyes closed in a cheerful grin as she held up a hand for a high five.

 

[MyrtenRose]

When Ruby got juuust close enough in her charge, Yang suddenly sat up with a devious grin, and the younger Rose Xiao Long found her arms snatched and her momentum flipped around so that they both tumbled in the air for a moment, Yang absolutely abusing her far greater hand to hand experience to make sure that when they landed, Ruby's back was against her and she had her in her arms. Which was fine right up until the moment she bonked her head against the tree they slid into

"Ow. Hey sis! You... ok?" She asked, a bit of worry creeping into her tone as one hand got pressed against Ruby's forehead and run backwards in an effort to check for any serious bumps, paying absolutely zero regard to her sister's carefully crafted anime hair.

"oh no." Ruby was too far into the run to disengage now, her momentum way too much for her to reverse on a dime. There was simply no avoiding the dreaded Yang trap that she triggered, the smaller Rose running headlong into those arms and spun through the air as Yang somehow ended up having the hug advantage...which was absolutely not supposed to be the case. She was supposed to have that advantage! Ruby warded off those checking hands by wildly waving her own, a bit frustrated that the hug attack had been so easily reversed. Plus she couldn't have her hair ruined after all the effort that went into it.

Still, she eased back and shrugged. "Well.....kinda got a headache, I'm really confused cause like, is that really Cinder over there doing...all that? Cinder??? Also worst of all, I apparently missed you killing the big bad grimm of the bunch?! That is beyond unfair." She shook her head in annoyance, looking off to the side. "Also I think your mom wants us to get on the train now. We probably should do that."​

 

[MidwayLives]

"TYRIAN!"

Watts, like everyone else, was deeply relieved to see the creature fall, and even he would have to admit if pressed that he was impressed with how the Huntress proper and the White Fang general had taken that monstrosity down. But his excitement was marred by one important fact; that his lunatic of a teammate had completely ignored orders to go charging off in a one man suicide rush. He hopped off the top of the train and stalked after the faunus, a growl obvious on his face. "What, pray tell, the hell was that?!"

Tyrian had expected this.

He saw Arthur as a friend and that wouldn't change. But out of all his teammates, the faunus doubted his relatively pampered team leader would understand his motives.

So, Tyrian didn't turn to face his leader, giving his back to Arthur.

"What?"

​