153

Chapter 153:

"Sheesh! These guys just won't stop coming?" complained Sun, unloading a shot from one of his guns into the chin of a charging Beowolf.

"That's what she said!" commented Neptune, firing his rifle from where he stood, next to his partner.

Despite the battle raging, Sun still somehow found the time to turn a deadpan look on his friend. "Dude...seriously...?"

Neptune didn't have the time to reply, as both he and Sun were forced to dodge aside as a Boarbatusk came barreling down the road at them, rolling its body up so that it spun like an enormous wheel, its armored shell deflecting any fire coming its way. By diving out of the way, one might have assumed that Sun and Neptune were going to allow that Grimm through the defensive line. However, that proved not to be the case, as Sage was immediately behind them, his massive sword raised and ready to strike.

Sweeping the sword down, and then back up, Sage wielded it like a golf-club, slamming it into the spinning body of the Boarbatusk, and launching it back away through the air. His counterattack also reversed the Grimm's spin, prompting its body to unroll as its legs flailed futilely in the air. Before it could finish rolling over another figure dove down from above, Scarlet slashing open the Grimm's vulnerable underbelly, dispatching it with a final blow.

Landing next to Sun, Scarlet took aim with his pistol, firing a series of shots that brought down still more of the charging Grimm.

"If they keep up this pressure, I'm not sure how much longer we can hold out," he commented.

"We'll just have to hold the line," said Sun, his expression determined. "I'm not letting a single Grimm past this point."

He knew that Blake was out there somewhere, hunting down the pools that were spawning all these Grimm, and destroying them. He had faith that she and her teammates could do it. For his part, he had to make sure that he and his team did their jobs to ensure that Blake and the others had somewhere to come back to, when they were finished.

Even over the sounds of battle, both near and far, the distinctive, authoritative click of Winter Schnee's heels was still audible. "You gentlemen seem to have things under control here," she commented, approaching them from behind. "A fresh team will be coming soon to relieve you. Try to hold on at least a little longer."

"We'll hold on as long as we need to," said Sun, turning to regard her, taking advantage of the brief lull that had fallen over this section of the battle.

"A fine attitude," said Winter firmly. "However, everyone has their limits, and it is important that you rest before you reach yours."

"All right," said Sun, a bit reluctantly.

"Um...If we're talking about limits..." said Neptune hesitantly, "...I think we're about to hit ours right now."

Winter and Sun turned their attention back down the street, their eyes widening at the sight of what almost seemed a malevolent, black tide bearing down on them. Grimm were charging headlong down the street, actually climbing over one another's forms, tripping, falling, and then being climbed over in turn, giving the horde a bizarre, almost fluid, quality, their individual forms blurring together, making it seem like they were about to be buried under an avalanche of black bodies, behind a rotating host of skull-like masks.

Winter's saber whispered free of its sheath, her main gauche jumping across to her left hand. Sun, Neptune, and Scarlet all opened fire with their guns, trying to take down as many Grimm as they could, before the rest closed into range.

A thunderous roar rang out, the terrifying utterance rattling nearby windows, even cracking some of them. However, more terrifying was the fact that the sound had come from behind the defenders. Had the perimeter been broken somewhere else, and were the Grimm now inside the safe zone? The thud of massive footsteps behind them seemed to confirm their most horrific fears.

However, an enormous mass instead flung itself over their heads...and directly into the oncoming mass of packed Grimm. A truly colossal Ursa Major, massive spines jutting from its back, lunged forward, easily taking out five separate Grimm with a single sweep of one of its massive paws. From there, it dove forward in a roll, curling in on itself and attacking more like a Boarbatusk than an Ursa, using the move, along with its bulk, to drive those spines into the oncoming Grimm and scattering them.

That seemed inconceivable in its own right. Grimm didn't fight other Grimm, especially when their favored targets were right in front of them. But...then again...Grimm weren't supposed to sport pristine, white fur; or shimmering, blue eyes.

"A Summon!" gasped Winter, her eyes widening, mainly because...she hadn't used a Summon.

Given the nature of this battle, as the frontline commander, Winter couldn't afford to spend her own Aura wastefully. So she needed to use her Summons sparingly, if at all. Besides, even if she had quite a few available to her, this particular Ursa Major was not one of them. She didn't remember dealing with any Ursas that looked this ferocious.

But Weiss is out with her team, thought Winter. But the only possibility is...

Even if Weiss had been right about the Schnee Semblance actually being a Manifestation, which could potentially be taught to anybody who had their Aura unlocked, no one in the Schnee Family had yet tried to teach that Manifestation to anyone outside the family. Weiss had expressed her intent to teach it to Ashley, but hadn't even started yet. That left only one possible answer...one that still seemed impossible to Winter.

"You seem to be having difficulties, Dear Sister."

Winter looked behind her to see none other than her youngest sibling, Whitley Schnee, standing there, a sly smirk on his face as he stood, arms folded behind his back, almost as though he were standing before the corporate Board of Directors, than in the path of an oncoming Grimm swarm.

"Whitley...you...?" Winter had no idea what to say.

"Eyes front, Winter," said Whitley. "After all, no matter what, you still have a job to do."

Reluctantly, Winter turned her eyes away from Whitley, returning her focus to the Grimm in front of her. As powerful as it had been, the Summoned Ursa had ultimately proved no match for the sheer press of numbers that the incoming Grimm had on their side, and was rather quickly overwhelmed. But not before breaking up the frontrunners enough that Team SSSN and Winter could handle them. Still, there was a virtual river of Grimm behind those frontrunners, so the original problem was still there, if held off for a little longer.

Whitley reached into his vest pocket, and pulled out a silver cigarette case. Opening it revealed, not tobacco products, but slender rods of compacted Dust. Whitley fished a red one out with his fingers. Putting it to his lips, he inhaled, the entire thing seeming to burn down with a single breath. A pair of sword-wheel Summoning Glyphs appeared, hovering in the air to either side of him. However, these had been turned a luminous red and orange. A second later, a hail of small Nevermore came flying out, their wings scattering sparks with every beat. The Summons cawed and shrieked as they flew past the defenders, and straight into the ranks of packed Grimm farther back, where they exploded like guided missiles, ripping massive holes in the packed mass.

Whitley continued to launch more Summoned Nevermores, until the Dust he'd inhaled was expended. By then, the number of incoming Grimm had been significantly reduced, to the point where SSSN and Winter could finish off the rest by themselves. Closing the cigarette case, Whitley slipped it back into his pocket, as Winter turned to regard him.

"I was not even aware that your Aura had been unlocked," she commented.

"Yes, well...you haven't been home in quite some time," Whitley pointed out.

"So I haven't," Winter admitted. "But still...to think you had such a talent for Summoning."

"I would not call it a talent, so much as resourcefulness," said Whitley. "It took a great deal of money to gather the Grimm that I would use for my Summons."

"I imagine it did," agreed Winter.

Whitley chuckled. "You remember, don't you...the nickname our grandfather had, thanks to this Semblance?"

Winter nodded.

In his day, Nicholas Schnee had been given the moniker of "One Man Army Schnee". After all, the Summoning aspect of his Semblance meant that he amassed more Summons with each foe he defeated. There were stories of him fighting entire battles on his own, his Summons bringing down his foes, only for said foes to appear in the ranks of his Summons soon afterwards. It was that power that steadily grew, the more he fought, that had led to people considering him to be nigh invincible...which made it all the more ironic that his downfall had instead come from health issues resulting from his work as a Dust miner.

"When you think about it, Summoning is the ideal ability for a coward like me," commented Whitley in a wry tone. "I can send wave after wave of pawns to overwhelm my foes without needing to raise a finger."

"I suppose that much is true," admitted Winter. "Though I would not consider you a coward."

"So kind of you to say, Dear Sister," said Whitley.

Winter sighed. "You must always make even the simplest conversations so complicated, Whitley. Just...whatever you do...be careful."

"Concern for my wellbeing...from you?" Whitley raised an eyebrow.

"Just because we have never gotten along is no reason for me to wish you harm," said Winter. "Besides, if anything happened to you, I couldn't stand to look Ms. Cerny in the eye."

"Well, I shall endeavor to make sure things are not awkward between you and your subordinates, Winter," said Whitley, chuckling softly.

"I need to move on," said Winter. "You may not have tactical training, but I imagine that you have learned enough to know when and how to put your Semblance to use."

"I should hope so," said Whitley.

Winter opened up her scroll to check reports coming in from other sections of the defensive perimeter. "I need to move on with the inspections. Could I ask you to shore things up with Team Indigo and Auburn? They are being pressed, two streets to the west of here."

"I'm on my way," said Whitley, walking in the direction Winter had indicated.

Winter nodded, then turned back to Team SSSN. "As I said, your relief will be here soon. Hold on for another fifteen minutes."

"You got it," said Sun, still stunned by the sight of what Whitley had done.

Morgan dropped through the air. Thrusting out to one side, she punched the tip of her broad rapier into the side of a building, engaging the rotational mechanism to spin the handle, allowing her to transition her momentum from vertical to something more horizontal. Her swing pried the tip of the blade free of the wall, and Morgan was now descending at a shallower angle, though her arc was steepening as well.

Still, it had been enough, and she landed, tucking her legs and going into a roll to eat up the remainder of her momentum. Coming back to her feet, she became aware of a threat descending from above, whipping her sword about to intercept the descending arc of Harbinger's blade, as Qrow brought the massive sword down in a powerful slash. Spinning the blade of her own weapon, Morgan combined the spin with the motion of the parry to deflect Qrow's slash to the side, before jumping away as the sword split the street beside where she'd been standing, sending debris flying in all directions.

Dancing back, Morgan caught a last fleeting glance of the shadow of her warship as its engines drove it on a path that would carry it past the walls, to land outside the city, ensuring that anymore destruction would be averted. Such a shame...

"How did you catch up to me so quickly?" wondered Morgan.

"Trade secret," replied Qrow, rising upright.

The pair clashed, their blades flashing through the air. Despite its incredible size, Qrow wielded his weapon with a speed and precision that allowed him to match the moves Morgan made with her lighter blade. For a moment, they simply danced about one another, their swords practically streaks of light between them, sparks flashing as steel and Aura connected, before they broke apart once more.

Dancing back, Qrow swung at Morgan from the side. Bringing her own weapon around, Morgan opened her trident-sword, trapping his blade between its tines. From there, Morgan triggered the rotational mechanism, which twisted the arc of Qrow's blade down. Rather than try and disengage, Qrow instead drove forward, leaning down in the process, sinking the tip of his weapon into the ground at Morgan's feet, using both its size and weight to anchor it into place. As powerful as it was, the mechanism in Morgan's rapier couldn't overcome something so heavy being so well-anchored, so it instead locked in place, the servos that drove it whirring frantically.

Before Morgan could change tactics, Qrow levered back the handle of his weapon, the gun-barrels flanking the base of the blade from either side flipping up, now leveled directly at Morgan's chest. Morgan leapt back as they fired, but still took most of the force of the shot as Dust-propelled pellets battered her torso. Following through, Qrow kicked off the ground, holding the handle of his sword and using it as a vault to bring one leg up to slam into her stomach, driving Morgan back even farther, while also blowing the breath from her lungs.

Gasping, Morgan saw Qrow pull his weapon free. Rather than charge forward, he instead triggered its transformation, the handle extending to form the shaft of his scythe, while the blade now curved, an edge extending along what had previously been the spine. The process extended the reach of his weapon, allowing him to attack without needing to close the distance himself, the sudden extension of his reach enabling his next blow to come faster than Morgan would have anticipated.

Still, Morgan jumped back, seeking more distance, while she also prepared the lightning-Dust that formed the jewel set into her eyepatch. However, while she was backpedaling, the heel of her foot caught on a protruding chunk of concrete, and Morgan toppled over backwards. The bolt of electricity she'd been about to fire was instead sent flying straight upwards, into the open sky. Fortunately, her fall still enabled her to escape the reach of Qrow's scythe.

Despite the unexpected occurrence, Morgan was able to respond fluidly, kicking off with her feet and shifting her weight, turning her fall into a backwards roll, allowing her to get back upright quickly. Qrow was already moving to pursue her, his weapon returning to its sword-mode. Rising back up, Morgan met that enormous blade with another parry from her own sword, spinning its blade to help deflect Harbinger's mass. At the same time, Morgan lashed out with her left hand in what looked like a punch. However, it would fall woefully short of reaching its target...or so it seemed.

The glove covering her left hand was shredded as it opened up, the fingers extending into the tails of a whip, barbs sprouting along their length. At the same time, the motor built into Morgan's arm set the whip to spinning, sending its tails fanning through the air as they lashed for Qrow's face.

To avoid the whip, Qrow actually allowed the weight of his own weapon to do the work for him, leaning in the direction of his deflected swing, while also pushing off, the combination enabling him to flip himself out of the path of Morgan's whip. Flipping his body over the handle of his planted sword, Qrow pulled it free as he came back down, before swinging it back at Morgan again, the counter coming with incredible speed. Still, Morgan deflected that slash with her sword. As she did, she utilized some of the fire-Dust hidden amongst the jewelry that decorated her body and impregnated in the fabric of her clothes to produce a whirlwind of flame that spread between her and Qrow. It wasn't much of a direct threat. But it did make a fabulous smokescreen.

Despite that Qrow apparently anticipated her followthrough, jumping back to avoid the tails of Morgan's whip as she lashed them through the curtain of flame she had created. Then it was Morgan's turn to dodge as Qrow simply flicked the blade of his sword down, bringing the shotgun barrels to bear once again, and opening fire. Unable to press the attack, Morgan flipped and dodged acrobatically to escape the pellets expelled by Qrow's weapon.

Landing after one such dodge, Morgan lurched as the street beneath her foot suddenly gave way, a weakened section collapsing into the sewer below. The hole was too small for her to fall all the way through. But, in some ways, that was even worse, as Morgan now found her leg trapped, and in danger of being injured if she shifted her weight the wrong way.

Not missing a beat, Qrow swung, transitioning his weapon into its scythe-mode to strike at her from out of the reach of both her sword and her whips. Sweeping her sword up, Morgan barely managed to deflect the line of Qrow's slash over her head. As it was, it managed to knock off her hat. Meanwhile, beneath the street, Morgan produced a spike of earth-Dust that extended down far enough to anchor itself into the floor of the sewer and work as a foothold, allowing her to push off and pull her leg free from the hole.

Qrow advanced, his scythe whirling and spinning, taking full advantage of his weapon's reach to attack from outside the range of Morgan's sword and whip. The gun-barrels had now rotated around so that they faced in the opposite direction of the blade, Qrow using the recoil of well-timed shots to accelerate its movement, making it all the more difficult to counter or avoid.

Morgan called upon all her skill and agility to keep from being hit. After deflecting another slash from the scythe, she pointed her sword at Qrow, opening its tines, while channeling fire down its length. This time, the attack manifested itself in the form of missiles of flame that spiraled around each other as they flew at Qrow, who deflected them off the rapidly-spinning shaft of his scythe.

At the same time, Morgan spun her whips, swinging them downwards so that the struck sparks off the ground by her feet. Those sparks were actually small pellets of concrete and asphalt dislodged by the whip's barbs. As they flew at Qrow, they suddenly enlarged, enhanced by earth-Dust, becoming bullet-sized, and accelerating at the same time. Just as Qrow thought he had successfully defended against Morgan's attack, he had begun to transfer into an attack of his own, only to be sent reeling by the barrage of rocks kicked up by Morgan's whip.

Still, Qrow simply launched himself back away, opening up the distance between them to ensure that Morgan wasn't able to capitalize on the hit she'd landed. Harbinger collapsed back down into its sword-form. Coming out of his spinning flip, Qrow slashed upwards, sending a crescent-shaped wave of Aura projecting out from the edge of his blade at Morgan, who caught it in the spinning tines of her sword, actually managing to twist it around her so that it went flying off to slash into the wall of the building behind her.

Qrow immediately charged forward, the handle of his weapon extending again. However, the blade's orientation didn't change, so he instead thrust it forward like a giant spear, rather than swinging it like a scythe. Grinning Morgan simply caught it in the tines of her sword. This time, Qrow was in no position to resist as her weapon's spinning motion wrenched the handle out of his grasp, throwing Harbinger up into the air.

Grinning triumphantly, Morgan stepped forward, already raising her left arm to lash out with her whip. A whirlwind formed underneath the heel of her leading foot as she pushed off, allowing her to step faster, aiming to close before Qrow could retreat out of her reach again. However, counter to her expectations, Qrow closed in as well, simply lashing out with his right fist in a powerful punch, which slammed into Morgan's jaw, the rings on his fingers serving to enhance the impact, sending her staggering back.

Still, Morgan wasn't someone to be overcome that easily. Even as she was knocked, reeling, by Qrow's punch, she still had the wherewithal to lash out with her left arm, the whips swinging for Qrow's face. Qrow pulled his right arm back and held it up to intercept the tails of her whip, which wrapped around the extremity. As the tails tightened, the barbs lining them punched through Qrow's Aura, and sank into the skin and muscle of his arm, making him growl, baring his teeth in pain.

Grinning ferociously, Morgan pulled, tightening her whip's hold on Qrow's arm and pulling the barbs in deeper, while also pulling him towards her, and into the reach of her sword. If Qrow resisted, the barbs would begin to tear through his flesh, shredding it. Either way it went, Qrow was in dire straits, with no hope of escape. Even if he chose to sacrifice his arm to pull free of her, Morgan figured that he would be easy pickings for her with his dominant hand out of commission.

Then Morgan froze, the sound of steel piercing flesh and punching through bone echoing through the street. Her sole visible eye was wide with disbelief. The pulling stopped, and her sword dropped from limp fingers, clattering down to the street. The reason was quite obvious to Qrow, seeing the blade of his weapon protruding from the top of her head, having sunk down through her neck into her torso, driven by its impressive weight.

The punch Qrow had landed had actually sent Morgan stumbling right back into the descending arc of Harbinger, after she had pulled it out of his hands and sent it tumbling through the air. The handle had collapsed back down, and the sword had fallen straight down to pierce through Morgan's head from above.

Now Morgan collapsed down to her knees, her body going completely still after that.

"Tough luck," said Qrow, before reaching and slowly unwrapping the tails of her whip from his right arm, grimacing and grunting as he pulled them slowly out of his arm. After a couple minutes of work, Qrow finally managed to pull them free.

He grimaced at the sight of the jagged punctures running up and down his forearm. His grip had no strength, and it hurt simply to move. Blood flowed freely, running down his fingers to drip off the tips.

Scowling at the thought of what he was about to do, Qrow reached his left hand down to pull out his flask. Bringing it up, he bit down on the lid, then turned the flask itself to unscrew it, before spitting the lid out. He took a deep swig of the contents, before taking the flask...and emptying its contents over his wounded arm. Qrow groaned in agony as the alcohol stung his wounds. He was fortunate his preference for liquor was something high-proof, as that made it a handy tool for times like this.

Tossing the flask aside, Qrow now reached into one of the pouches hidden beneath his shirt, pulling free a roll of bandages. Wrapping his arm wasn't an easy task, especially since he was working with his off-hand, having to hold the end of the bandage between his teeth while using his left hand to wrap it around his right arm. After a few moments, he was done, tearing the bandage and tucking the ends in so that they didn't dangle loose.

Putting the bandages away, Qrow finally reached out with his left hand and pulled his sword free of Morgan's corpse, which had obligingly remained upright, though it quickly toppled over after he pulled his sword out. Qrow stared down at the dead pirate for a moment, before sighing.

Turning to take in his surroundings, Qrow was able to easily pinpoint his location within Vale. The problem was that he was close to the perimeter, a good distance away from the safe zone. Still, getting over there would be my best bet, he thought. I sure could use some help from Ruby's sister about now.

Unfortunately, flying was out of the question. Debilitating injuries were carried over when he shifted from one form to another. If his arm was injured as a human, then his wing in crow-form would be injured as well, making flight impossible.

Guess I'll just have to hoof it, he thought, not liking the notion. Everything he had seen on the flight to Morgan's warship had indicated that there were a lot of Grimm between him and his destination, and he was down one arm. He could fight decently with his left hand. But his skill was more limited, and he couldn't use his weapon effectively in its scythe-mode with just one hand.

Still, it wasn't as though he was high on options. He would just have to move carefully. The Grimm would be converging on the safe zone for the most part, so he wasn't likely to encounter too many until he got past the points they were emerging from. If he was careful, he might be able to avoid contact with most of them until he was close enough to make it past the defensive perimeter.

A roaring shriek echoed through the air, the sound making chills run down Qrow's spine. Looking up, he saw the massive red and black shadow of the Wyvern sweeping overhead. As it did, he saw black droplets falling from its body. Several of those droplets fell onto the street both in front of and behind him. From those pools of liquid emerged fully-grown Grimm, Qrow's eyes narrowing in frustration as a Beowolf and and Ursa rose up in front of him, while two more Beowolves flanked him from behind.

"Just my luck," he grumbled, hefting his weapon in his left hand to rest its spine on his shoulder.

The campus of Beacon was relatively quiet, compared to the cacophony of catastrophe that was going on, back in Vale. Distant roars and explosions sounded from the city, the commotion over on that side managing to carry across the bay to reach the ears of those stationed at the Academy. There was a closer source of noise though, coming from the north. The students and staff who'd remained on Academy grounds had assembled there as the Grimm came charging through the threes of the Emerald Forest, rushing the cliffs, seeking to climb up and throw themselves upon the helpless, frightened civilians being sheltered within the school.

Fortunately, their numbers weren't overwhelming, yet. The negativity coming from the comparatively small number of civilians being sheltered on campus was nothing compared to the (ironically) beacon that was the center of Vale right now, countless people sheltering in a relatively small space, the claustrophobic quarters, along with the fact that the Grimm had arisen right in their midst, magnifying their fear several times over. Therefore, the Grimm rushing Beacon were a pittance, compared to the hoard making its way towards the walls of Vale.

However, it was enough that those who had been entrusted with the school's protection were unwilling to take chances, and had mustered all their strength to keep the Grimm from overrunning the school.

Which might well have been what their enemies had been counting on. Nobody really noticed as a trio of bullheads flew east out of Vale, quickly traversing across the bay. There was nobody to note the red symbols painted on their sides as the trio of airships swooped low over the Academy, aiming for the central courtyard, at the base of Beacon Tower. The three ships quickly swooped in for a landing, settling down before the entrance to the tower, their engines cycling down.

The passenger-bay doors opened up, and about twenty masked faunus emerged from the interiors. One of them, apparently the leader of the group, sporting a pair of bat-wings extending from his shoulders, turned and shouted to the others, even the bullheads' pilots disembarking to participate.

"Let's get in there and suppress all resistance," said Yuma, one of Adam's supporters, who'd secretly followed Sienna over from Menagerie. "We don't have many explosives left. Let's make 'em count."

"Sir!" shouted the other soldiers in unison, a group of them rushing for the open doors of the tower lobby.

The plan was simple, and easily executed, even with the relatively small number that they'd managed to scrape together for this mission. While the defenders of Beacon and Vale were occupied, the White Fang would steal in, and bring down Beacon Tower, taking the CCT along with it. The Kingdoms would be cut off from one another, plunged into silence, as even communicating with their own settlements would become a difficult task. Worse still, the transmission would be cut just as everyone watching saw Grimm in the process of overrunning Vale, leaving them to assume the worst, when the signal was lost.

Today was the day that the White Fang would strike back, not a single simple target, but at humanity as a whole. Today was the day to shake the Kingdoms down to their foundations and prove that the organization was no mere gaggle of malcontents, but a force capable of genuine change. The destruction of the CCT would, conceptually, erase a Kingdom from the map, and it was the White Fang who would strike that blow.

"What about High Leader Taurus," asked the gray-haired young woman who came to stand next to Yuma, her skin was lined by gray veins.

"He's stronger than we realize," declared Yuma confidently. "Even if he were to die, he'd want us to put the mission first, Trifa."

"Understood," said Trifa, brushing back hair hair, watching as the first soldiers made their way through the lobby doors.

They came flying back out almost instantly. A shrieking sound was followed by an explosion of orange and yellow flames, a trio of soldiers blasted back away. A fourth suddenly lurched, his body breaking into spasms as yellow bolts of electricity crawled over his skin, before he too was launched back. The fifth and final of the first group as knocked off his feet by a powerful kick to the chin from a heeled boot.

Three figures emerged from the lobby of Beacon Tower. At the front and center was none other than Roman Torchwick, grinning widely as he twirled Melodic Cudgel around the first two fingers of his right hand. "Well well well…Lookey here…Unwelcome visitors."

On either side of him stood Ilia and Neo. Ilia had switched back into her combat outfit, holding her weapon down by her side, a determined look on her face as she stared down at the remaining White Fang. Neo was unarmed, but that didn't stop her from giving the terrorists a cocky smirk, canting her head.

"Torchwick…still as much as a traitor as ever," growled Yuma. He hadn't been a part of the group that had been originally working with Roman, but had been privy to the details of their previous association, as well as Roman's well-deserved reputation.

Roman grinned viciously. "That's Professor Torchwick now," he replied with a cackle. "And I'm afraid that, now that I'm a part of the faculty here, I can't just allow a bunch of hooligans like you to go about wrecking school property."

"Do you think that the three of you can stop us?" asked Yuma with a growl, the rest of the White Fang troops arraying themselves behind him.

"I'd say so," said Roman, planting the tip of his cane against the floor, and resting his hands atop it. "Fortunately, I don't have to worry about that. You see, aside from the faculty, I've also invited a couple distinguished alums to join in on this little terrorist roundup."

"What?" growled Yuma, only to pause as he heard a low humming sound from behind them. Turning, he saw a pair of figures step around the empty bullheads.

Blaine Arc hefted Angau Glas, the broad, triangular blade, with its chevron-shaped guard, flickering into existence. Beside him, Yukimura calmly drew out what seemed like a baton from beneath his coat. Twirling it with his hand, he extended the weapon out to a full-length staff. The head of the staff detached, connected to the shaft by a chain, while spikes unfolded out from either side of it. More curved spikes emerged from along the length of the shaft, a short ways down from the head.

"I think that, between the five of us, we can corral a bunch of rowdy losers like you," teased Roman, hefting his own weapon once more.

The White Fang soldiers exchanged looks, before throwing themselves at the three people barring their path with enraged howls.

Hazel faced down the four members of Team RYNB. In each hand, he gripped a handful of Dust-crystals, a combination of red and yellow. They had clearly been shaped artificially, sharpened to needlelike points on one end. Then, with deliberate movements, he raised his right hand, and plunged those sharpened tips into the flesh of his left upper-arm, then repeated the same movement with his left hand and right upper-arm. With a pair of flashes, veins of red and yellow ran through his muscles, reaching all the way up his neck, to the base of his skull, and all the way down to his fists.

His hands now free, Hazel spread his arms, holding them down and out to his sides, ready to attack or defend as he saw fit.

Getting past him is going to be a hassle, thought Ren, taking in the situation. They had to take out the spawning pool. But that wasn't quite as simple as it seemed. Aside from the fact that they spawned Grimm, the pools' properties weren't understood all that well. This pool had been put high up in a skyscraper. A regular attack might well simply break the floor beneath the fluid, and send it pouring down to a lower level. Worse, simple force might potentially scatter that black liquid. It seemed that the smaller droplets that fell from newly-emerged Grimm simply evaporated, but if those droplets were big enough...did they run the risk of turning one spawning pool into a dozen or more?

Unfortunately, they couldn't exactly afford to experiment to find the answers to those questions. Their priority was to eliminate this pool and stop the Grimm reinforcements from appearing in the middle of the Kingdom, which would free up the militaries of Atlas and Vale to focus on preparing the Grimm that were closing in from outside the Kingdom, as well as the Wyvern that was now circling the skies.

To that end, with help from Winter and Ironwood, they had managed to rig up incendiary grenades that could be fired from Magnhild. The issue with that was that they had a limited supply of those grenades. If Hazel intercepted or blocked them, their options would be reduced.

However, they couldn't get too caught up in fighting Hazel either. Their objective was to destroy the spawning pool, first and foremost. Hazel was an afterthought to that. His objective was clearly to either stop them or stall for as long as he could. Therefore, as long as they managed to burn this pool in short order, they would win this fight.

Ren raised StormFlower, preparing to do his part to ensure that they could get past Hazel, but was stopped when Yang stepped in front of him slightly, raising her arm to hold him back.

"Yang...?"

Yang glanced back at him. "Leave this jerk to me," she said. "Just watch for your chance, then you and Nora can take out the pool."

"Don't you mean, leave it to us?" asked Blake, smiling wryly as she came up to stand next to Yang.

"Right," said Yang, grinning at her partner, before the two of them turned to face Hazel.

"Fools..." grumbled Hazel.

"The only fool I see is the one standing between us and what we need to do," retorted Yang, smacking her gauntlets together.

Then she charged. Hazel's eyes widened. It seemed as though Yang had crossed the space between them in a single step, already within striking distance. With a shout, she punched out with her right fist. Hazel brought his left forearm up to intercept the attack, the discharge of Ember Celica's shotguns exploding harmlessly against his hardened Aura. With a growl, Hazel forced back against the blow, knocking Yang's attacking arm out to the side, before he returned the favor, lashing out with a punch from his own right fist, which was sheathed in a combination of lightning and fire.

Between the Dust, Aura, and sheer muscle-power behind the blow, there was no way Yang could imitate Hazel's feat of blocking the attack head-on. Instead, she swung her left fist around in a sharp uppercut, punching Hazel's attacking arm from below, while she shifted aside from the attack, the fire and lightning wreathing his fist launching off in a bolt that flew between Ren and Nora, exploding against the back wall of the stairwell they'd emerged from.

This guy's hard! thought Yang, shocked. The blows she'd just exchanged with him had felt like she had been punching something stronger and harder than solid steel. There was only one thing she could think of to explain it. His Aura is Tempered.

However, that didn't quite do it justice. Hazel's Aura was Tempered beyond anything Yang had ever encountered. She'd clashed against Ruby, and even sparred with Kyo a couple of times. She'd also gotten a chance to see Setsuna and Natsuki in action up close. All of them had their Auras Tempered, granting them greater protection against attacks than Aura on its own. But Hazel's was Tempered on another level, solidified to the point where it was a better defense than the most advanced armor forged by human hands.

There was a flicker of black behind Hazel, then Blake appeared, whirling through the air. First, she slashed at the back of his neck with Gambol Shroud's cleaver-like sheath, before lashing out with her sickle on the end of its ribbon. Both attacks struck home, but seemed to simply glance off that hardened Aura. On top of that, Hazel was a good bit faster than his bulk suggested, turning in place, reaching out with his left hand to snag Blake's sickle as it whirled past on another swing. With a shout, he pulled, yanking Blake around with a surprised yelp, swinging her around and turning her body into an improvised flail, which he swung directly at Yang.

At the last second, Blake created a Shadow, which burst as it struck Yang, while its appearance bounced the arc of her flight up and over Yang's head. Still, Hazel wasn't quite finished yet. Crackling streamers of electricity raced down the ribbon, flowing into Blake's arm, making her cry out in pain.

Yang roared, surging straight ahead, stepping down hard enough to shatter the floor beneath her feet. She slammed both fists directly into Hazel's torso, only to feel the force of her powerful attack disappear as Hazel's own Aura flashed in a strobe of burnt-orange, dispersing the force of her attack.

That was Projection! she realized, having forgotten that it could be used defensively like that. She remembered Kyo doing something similar during one of his sparring matches against Ruby. But this appeared to be more limited, yet more refined, probably allowing Hazel to neutralize her attack with the minimum expenditure.

However, that was the least of her concerns. Hazel had released his hold on Blake's weapon, allowing her limp body to go flying way. Instead, he clasped both hands together over his head, bringing them swinging down in a hammer-blow.

Yang leapt aside, Hazel's attack throwing up a wave of lightning and fire from where it had landed, while she cartwheeled through the air to his right. Abruptly, Yang punched out with her right hand, triggering her gauntlet, using the recoil of the discharge to stop and reverse her momentum, turning her the other way. It also bounced her up so that she could bring her left hand around to slam her fist home, square on Hazel's jaw.

The man's head was snapped to the side, the force behind Yang's punch sending him staggering to his left. However, that was the extent of it, as he rallied almost immediately, lunging back at Yang, punching out with a roar. Yang barely had time for her feet to touch the ground, before she saw his massive fist swinging right for her face. She chose to meet him head-on, with a roar of her own. Their fists collided, the resulting shockwave cracking the floor beneath their feet, and also sending Ren and Nora staggering back.

While she had power, Yang was, ultimately, no match for the sheer weight behind Hazel's punch. She was sent skidding back from their colliding blows. She punched out with her other fist, launching a bolt from Ember Celica, using that to intercept the bolt of fire and lightning that Hazel had launched from his own fist in an almost perfect mirror of her attack.

From behind her, Yang heard the sound of running feet. Then Blake stepped on her shoulder, using Yang as a foothold to jump higher, her leap carrying her over the explosion created by the colliding attacks. Descending on the other side, Blake slashed down at Hazel with the black katana in her right hand. Hazel warded the blow with the hardened Aura around his forearm, before countering with a powerful upward punch with his opposite hand. His attack struck Blake full on in the stomach.

However, the impact was greeted by a flash from Blake, before her body exploded, the flames and shockwave sending Hazel stumbling backwards. Meanwhile, the real Blake touched down behind him, before kicking off the floor, going into a spin and whipping both her weapons around in a sequential attack that slashed at the Aura guarding Hazel's back several times, the force ultimately sending him stumbling back forwards, directly into a punch from Yang, which sank into his stomach.

This time, Hazel was sent sliding back, Blake's blades biting into his shoulders now. However, Hazel simply roared out, the veins running up and down his arms shining brighter, before he dropped to his knees, slamming his fists against the floor. The resulting shockwave blew Yang and Blake off their feet. However, it also had a secondary effect of shattering the floor, dropping the three of them down onto the level below.

"Nora! Now!" shouted Ren.

Fortunately, the hole Hazel had opened in the floor hadn't reached the spawning pool. However, it was a near thing, and the rest of the floor could break at any time, which would send the black liquid spilling down below, possibly onto Yang and Blake. None of them wanted to find out what that substance would do to human flesh. If it was anything like what had happened to Salem in the vision Jinn had showed them, Ren didn't want any part of it. After all, Salem had been transformed by the pool she'd thrown herself into in the land of darkness, but had only been able to emerge from it courtesy of the God of Light's curse of immortality, which would suggest that the consequences of such immersion on someone without any such curse would be substantially more lethal.

However, the important thing was that Hazel was now out of the way. With a grin, Nora aimed her grenade launcher, the shot emerging from her weapon in a streak of orange, striking the spawning pool, erupting into flames, which spread across the liquid as though it were oil. A high-pitched hissing noise filled the air as too-black smoke streamed up towards the ceiling. A Griffon that had been crawling forth from the pool fell down with a scream, the lower half of its body having burned away before it could finish emerging, with the rest of it soon dissolving as well.

Down below, Hazel was quick to realize what had happened, looking up with a shocked expression.

"Looks like you lost, buddy," said Yang, giving him a triumphant smirk.

Hazel focused his gaze on her, his eyes narrowing. His irises now shone with a combination of red and yellow. "It doesn't matter," he growled. "You've only prolonged the inevitable. Ozpin's downfall will come sooner or later."

"Whatever," said Yang. "Ozpin-this, Ozpin-that...you need to get a life."

Yang certainly hadn't been trying to placate Hazel, but she found herself shocked when the man thew his head back, unleashing a roar that shook the entire building around him. Then he charged right at her, swinging with a heavy punch that Yang barely managed to dodge with a yelp.

"OZPIN DESTROYED MY LIFE!" Hazel howled. "HE TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME IN HIS POINTLESS WAR! EVEN NOW, HE STANDS BACK AND WATCHES WHILE SENDING YOU CHILDREN TO FACE ME!"

"So what?" demanded Yang, barely managing to slip aside from his next punch, before lunging in to deliver a rapid series of jabs against Hazel's chest and stomach. Even those light jabs were capable of denting solid-steel plate, yet they did next to nothing against Hazel's Aura, which only seemed to get harder and stronger, the angrier he got.

Unfortunately, she was in a bad position, so Hazel's next punch caught her right in the stomach, driving the breath right from her lungs, as well as sending fire and lightning searing through her, burning at her Aura, making her scream.

"You know nothing!" snapped Hazel. "That damned Wizard took my sister from me!"

Yang landed hard, fighting through the pain to get back up. Her Semblance was charged up, but trying to use it right now wouldn't do her much good. She had to wait for the right moment.

Hazel began to charge after her, but was forced to stop when Blake's weapons slashed at his back. Turning around, he launched another bolt of energy from his fist, exploding against Blake's body, only for it to dissolve, revealing itself to be her Shadow.

Blake's Shadow had launched her up over Hazel's head, but he seemed to have anticipated that.

"She was like you!" he continued, reaching up to snag Blake's ankle.

There was a flash, and Hazel was now holding a frozen statue of Blake, his hand encased in the ice around her leg. Meanwhile, Blake was now on the floor, directly in front of him, launching herself forward, landing a cross-shaped slash against his chest a she shot past.

"She just wanted to help!" he roared, turning after Blake, and slamming the frozen doppelgänger down, almost shattering it against Blake's head. She managed to dodge back at the last moment, but yelped as her body was battered by the icy shrapnel her ice-Shadow had become.

"She wanted to be a hero!" Hazel continued to rant, bulling forward with another swing.

Blake gasped, dodging back, an earthen statue taking her place. However, Hazel's punch blasted through it with ease, battering Blake with the fragments of stone that were sent flying her way.

"She wanted to protect others!" Hazel pressed on, swinging again.

This time, his backhanded blow caught Blake in the side. It was just a regular Shadow this time, Blake trying to slip past him on the side again. However, Hazel had apparently anticipated the move, reversing and turning the opposite direction, so that his next back-fist caught Blake square in the side of her chest, fire and lightning exploding out on contact.

"Ozpin tempted her with lies and honeyed words!"

Blake was sent sprawling, her body spasming from the electricity racing through it. Hazel stomped towards her.

"He lied to her...then he sent her off to die, just like he sent you off to die," said Hazel. "In the end...your blood too...will be on his hands."

Blake could only look up as Hazel stood over her, raising a massive fist, fire and lightning condensing around it as he prepared to bring it down in what was unmistakably a finishing blow.

"So, that's it...?"

Yang's voice was soft, nearly a whisper, but that alone was enough to bring Hazel to a stop, fist still raised.

Yang's body was shining, particularly her hair, which was glowing a bright glow, her skin lighter and paler than normal. However, the greatest change lay in her eyes, which had changed to a familiar, vibrant crimson.

"That's your big reason...?" she snarled. "You lost someone you loved, so that gives you the right to do all this?!" She gestured out the windows, where Grimm still swooped and dove throughout the city, and the Wyvern circled a little ways away.

"I'm passing judgment," declared Hazel, turning to face Yang. "All of this is because of Ozpin! He threw my sister away in a war that he knew couldn't be won. He threw her life away for nothing!"

"Excuse me?" scoffed Yang. "Where does that excuse you to kill so many other people? How the hell do you get off being so righteous, you son of a bitch?"

"I had no wish for this," said Hazel. "If Ozpin-"

"Oh shut up about Ozpin!" snapped Yang, taking a step towards Hazel. All the while, the air around her growing warmer and warmer. "You're gonna set off all this destruction, then blame it on Ozpin.

"You say Ozpin sends people to die. You say that he throws lives away. Maybe he does. Darned if I know. But you know what...? Ozpin's not here. He's not the one planting Grimm spawning pools in the middle of a Kingdom. He's not the one fighting alongside psychotic bastards like Tyrian and Jester.

"I may not know Ozpin, but...I know one thing for sure. If your sister really is how you described her, I know that...if she could see what you're doing in her memory...she'd be disgusted with you."

Hazel's eyes glowed, the Dust-fueled light coming from them boosted by his Aura, which thrummed with his anger. Reaching into the pouches at his waist, Hazel pulled out more handfuls of sharpened Dust crystals: black gravity-Dust, green wind-Dust, and brown earth-Dust. He slammed each handful home, sticking them deep into his upper-arms, alongside the crystals he'd already jabbed into his flesh. With a roar, new veins of varying colors climbed up and down his arms. There was a hissing sound from his flesh, the raw energy surging through it being far more than it could bear.

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!" roared Hazel, charging towards her, his fists surging with chaotic maelstroms of elemental energy that surged ahead of him like meteors.

"I'M THE ONE WHO SHOULD SAY THAT!" Yang roared back, her Aura exploding out around her in a golden wave, particularly from her back, spreading behind her almost like a pair of wings. She shot forwards, the floor where she'd been standing shattered by the force of her step.

The two of them collided, their fists slamming repeatedly into one another. The orange and yellow flashes of Ember Celica's rounds were merged with the shining gold of Yang's Aura, bolstered by an intense red, the same color as her eyes. They met with a swirl of color and energy that covered Hazel's fists, their punches connecting between them, throwing out shockwaves infused with crackling electricity and flames, overlapping with black rings of gravitational energy and shards of stone. At this point, both fighters had completely abandoned anything resembling technique, strategy, or tactics. Instead, they slammed headlong into each other with every ounce of strength and rage they possessed.

"WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT, HUH?!" demanded Yang, pressing forward, putting more and more of her anger into each blow. "WHAT MAKES YOU SO SPECIAL, THAT YOUR PAIN IS SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVERYONE ELSE'S?! HOW DOES THAT MAKE IT OKAY FOR YOU TO KILL ALL THESE PEOPLE?!"

Hazel growled, finding the power of his own blows being forced back, while the power behind Yang's punches only seemed to increase with each exchange.

"You're not some righteous avenger!" Yang shouted, her next punch knocking Hazel's fist away. "You're just a great..." Her next punch slammed into Hazel's gut, making him gasp, his body folding forward. "...big..." Her next punch slammed into Hazel's shoulder, the flash of her Aura seeming to punch through it, as the impact aborted Hazel's attempt to swing that arm, while a sharp jolt of pain surged through him. "...BABY!..." Yang's next blow was an uppercut that slammed home into Hazel's chin, blasting him off his feet, blood flying from his mouth as he bit down on his tongue, agony racing through him. "...throwing a giant TEMPER TANTRUM!" Stepping into her next blow, Yang slammed her fist right into Hazel's chest, the gold light of her Aura seeming to punch straight through his body, even as the orange flash of her shotguns exploded against his ribs, sending him flying back past where Blake lay, slamming through several walls, and almost all the way out the other side of the building.

Hazel groaned, his limbs quivering, his mouth hanging open, eyes rolling. There was so much pain. However, even more shocking was the realization that he was feeling pain at all. Hazel's Semblance, Numbing Agent, completely nullified his sense of pain, which was what enabled him to handle injecting himself with so much Dust at once. No matter how powerful Yang's blows were, even if they broke bones or pulverized organs, they shouldn't have slowed him down. Yet, he felt the pain of each punch she had just landed, not just against his body, but his fists as well. It was as though she had been punching through his Semblance itself. Such an act should have been impossible, but the testimony of Hazel's own senses could not be ignored.

Worse still, Hazel could now feel the pain of the Dust he'd injected into his arms surging through them; his muscles tearing, tendons snapping, bones cracking; Yang's last hit seeming to break his Semblance completely. That intense pain was rushing through him, swamping him. Technically, Hazel could have reactivated his Semblance, and suppressed the pain once more. However, unfortunately for him, he was now reaping the consequences of relying upon it so heavily.

Learning to deal with pain was a critical part of any fighter's training. Even more important than dealing hits, one had to learn how to take hits as well. Skilled fighters spent years of their lives training to overcome their sense of pain; the best learning not to simply suppress it, but treat it as a source of critical information, telling them about the limits of their bodies; all without succumbing to it. However, Hazel's Semblance had enabled him to bypass that process. He had spent his entire life shutting out the pain of his exertions, just as he had tried to shut out the pain of his loss, by channeling it into anger instead.

In a sense, were one to put it into the terms of the Mibu, Hazel had created a Manifestation based upon his desire to hide from his pain. Rather than a raw Semblance, born from a person's innate tendencies, his was created, honed for a single, specific purpose.

But...if his ability was a Manifestation...then there was no denying that it was poorly-made.

Because Hazel's Semblance had been created specifically to stop his pain, he had never truly needed to learn how to deal with pain on his own. That lack of experience meant that the pain he was experiencing now was completely overwhelming him. It didn't help that, by using it to ignore the agony of injecting himself with so much Dust, Hazel had pushed his body beyond all rational limits, and now had to deal with the sensation of it being torn apart from within. He, who had never trained to deal with pain properly, was now awash in more pain than anyone could imagine...the worst combination imaginable.

And still, Hazel's limbs seemed to move on their own. If there was one thing that could be said to be to his credit, it was his determination and tenacity. Even as his mind was overwhelmed by the agony surging through him, his body was still automatically struggling to get back to its feet. Standing up, Hazel fixed his eyes on Yang, who was approaching at a walk, her Aura hanging behind her like a pair of wings, like those of a demon...or a dragon. Her hair danced, seeming like a golden construct of living flame. Her Crimson Eyes were shining brighter than ever. Even though she was walking, each step sent a spiderweb of cracks spreading through the floor around her. The air rippled with waves of heat, the entire space feeling like the interior of a giant oven.

Hazel roared, his voice like the bellow of some enormous beast, making the entire building vibrate around them.

Yang fixed him with a look of absolute rage. "Don't worry, you big baby," she said, her voice dangerously low. "You just leave it to Mama Yang. I'm about to give you the biggest...and last...spanking of your life."

Hazel lunged forward, his arms swinging wildly. There was no coordination to his movements. Everything was automatic and reflexive, his body having left his conscious control. However, unlike the honed movements of a master, polished until they were as ingrained as any instinct, this was just the wild flailing of one who had lost any semblance of self-control, and had surrendered to raw aggression.

There was no need for Yang to counter. The floor beneath her shattered again. She flashed across the space between them in the blink of an eye. Rather than punch, she jumped, clamping her hands on either side of Hazel's head, firing her gauntlets, using the recoil to help pull his face down so that she could slam her knee right into his nose. The angry crack of it breaking was like the sound of a gunshot. Hazel reeled backwards, Yang releasing his head. Even as he fell back, she continued to rise up above him, cocking her right fist back.

The light of her Aura flowed through her body, the wings behind her shrinking, the glow leaving her hair and skin behind. All of it flowed up and into her right fist, the golden gauntlet shining with blinding light. With a final roar of her own, Yang punched down, a column of golden flame slamming straight into Hazel's chest.

Through her fist, she felt his ribs give way, his Aura shattering beneath the onslaught. At the same time, the Aura that was holding Hazel's limbs together broke as well, and both his arms erupted in a conflagration of elemental energy, spikes of stone punching out through his skin, even as winds flayed flayed away strips of flesh, and the muscles beneath burned black, then dissolved into ash. Hazel was blown downwards, the force of Yang's finisher sending him slamming through floor after floor, all the way to ground-level, where he struck with enough force to rock the building all the way to its foundation. At that point, the Dust empowering him exploded, the resulting maelstrom completely obliterating his upper body.

However, Yang hadn't seen Hazel's end. In the wake of her final attack, her strength had all but left her. She would have followed Hazel through the hole he had left, but was stopped when Blake threw her sickle, wrapping it around Yang's waist and pulling her away from the hole. Yang landed in Blake's arms, limp.

"Hey, Blake..." said Yang, flashing her partner a woozy grin.

"You're always overdoing it," said Blake, giving Yang a tired smile.

Ren and Nora dropped down through the hole in the ceiling to stand by them. "Good work," said Ren.

"But I think it's time to split," added Nora.

Blake didn't need to ask why, the shudder that ran through the building being more than enough warning for her. Given the raw power of Yang and Hazel colliding, to say nothing of the spectacular ending to the fight, the entire building was now compromised. At best, they probably only had a few more seconds before it collapsed completely.

Throwing Yang over her shoulder, Blake charged the nearest window, Ren and Nora following her. Ren raised his guns, firing a burst that shattered the glass, opening up the way for them. Blake's Aura would have allowed her to plow through easily. But Yang was especially vulnerable in this state, so they would have to be careful with her.

Their leap sent them sailing out into the open air. Blake cocked back her right arm, throwing her sickle, using a shot from the pistol built into it to increase its speed, sending it flying through the air to sink into the side of the building across from them. Now Blake was swinging right for the window on the other side. Kicking out her feet, she slammed them into the window, breaking through and into the office space within. Rather than try to roll, she simply allowed herself to skid to a stop on her feet and back, shifting Yang's position in her arms as she did so, keeping her from harm.

Ren and Nora were a beat behind her, Nora pulling Ren along by one arm as she surfed atop the head of her hammer, using its explosive capabilities to propel her flight. She let go of Ren as they flew through the window Blake had already broken, both of them managing much more graceful landings. Behind them, the building that they had been fighting in began to fall, collapsing down on itself, sending up waves of dust and debris that spread along the streets in all directions.

Ren and Nora collapsed, falling to their knees, gasping for breath. Blake slumped as well, cradling an unconscious Yang in her arms. All of them felt completely spent, even Ren and Nora, who hadn't had to fight Hazel directly.

Blake gave them a wry smile. "Well...that was a thing.