[NotSurprised]

Hovering at the doorway to pause and listen to their questions, Eklipsei carefully thinks about his answers before replying to them. In an out of order way, Eklipsei replied to what is considered the most important question first with a lighthearted tone, "Price reward is enough Lien to cover average amount of dust purchases for the next month or two. Extra credit is for any class, however, it's not enough points to boost you up to the next grade unless you are borderline. Unfortunately, I couldn't negotiate more out of Beacon and  Vale's Council to compensate for your time. Sorry." Eklipsei decides to turn around back to the group to answer their second question, since it would be better to get it over with now instead of later, "As much as I like to continue looking into the White Fang, when you've done all you could to investigate with no leads and that there is currently a more relevant issue, well, a prestigious role like mine would be sent out." You can't tell from his expression, considering he's wearing an armor, but the displeasure in his voice can be clearly heard as it rings throughout the bullhead.

Turning back, Eklipsei taps the side of the doorway as if it was in an absentminded way as he walks in to inform the pilot that they will be taking off, before taking a seat as they pass the time as they reach their destination...


Some Time Later...

Eklipsei stands at the entrance of the bullhead, waiting to open it as the team gets ready to jump out onto the target landing zone, which happened to be a rooftop of a rather small building. As they prepare, Eklipsei takes the time to slightly brief them before they jumped off the bullhead and onto the landing zone. "We're going to land on this abandoned building, then jump off the rooftop onto the streets below. There, I'll give you the rest of your orders." It looked like Eklipsei was about to say more, but the bullhead's doorway opened before a word can be said. Instead of waiting around as they're about to miss their drop, Eklipsei instead charges out and jumps into the air. At an approximately safe height - for Eklipsei anyways, those students can easily land here - Eklipsei lands into a roll, skidding off the roof from his momentum. Eklipsei then properly lands on the street in front of the building.

(OOC: Post a reaction if you wish, but do separate them with a linebreak for the second part of the post. Also, if the Eklipsei's text color is hurting your eyes, let me know, I'll switch it out.)

[Timeworker]

Dorothy nodded at his explanation. If she was in his position she would be PISSED. Seriously if someone took her from one her treasure hunting mission to do something menial in comparison...let's just say there would be more bodies to loot. Looking at him with what was a ghost of a look of empathy on her face they took off.


As the Bullhead hovered over the roof tops Dorothy gazed over the rooftops. It was quite...a beautiful sight in Vale. Shaking herself from those thought she redirected herself to her landing pad. Backing up from the edge, to an unknown observer it would have looked as if she was scared. Then she took a running start and jumped.
"Last one down is Grimm chow!" she screamed as she fell.
Barley touching the roof she vaulted off of it onto the wall of an adjacent building and did a zigzag pattern down the two walls before landing right beside Eklipsei.
Dramatically bowing multiple times to an invisible crowd Dorothy celebrated,
"Raaa Raaa, And the crowd goes WILD!

[The Mythic Scribe]

Bianca listened intently at Eklipsei's answers, cheering about the money part. Extra cred wasn't too much... but any would be nice. The second part interested her far more though... Telling the head, the biggie himself, of the White Fang investigation team, to focus his efforts elsewhere? A little strange, when there were plenty of other huntsmen and huntresses in Vale as well. Unless this 'Lord of Nevermore' guy was important enough to warrant a higher-up like Eklipsei. But his importance and significance was apparently going to be kept vague for now, as their team leader decided to not answer that portion. Either way, it made very little sense. Whatever. She knew better than to wonder about things that were none of her business.


While the bullhead was flying low over the rooftops, Bianca took a place just beside the opening, half-listening to Eklipsei's orders, but mostly surveying the scene. God, she loved Vacuo, she did, but she would never get over how different Vale was. Not to say she didn't venture out of her home region, Mistral and Vale were occasional destinations, and she'd been staying in Vale for awhile now... But still...

Her little thought session was cut off as Eklipsei and Dorothy jumped off of the aircraft. Taking a few steps back to give her a little extra momentum, Bianca took a... quickly walking start? and followed the two off of the bullhead. She, though, did no fancy stuff, simply rolled as she landed on the roof, then made the jump down to the street, landing to Dorothy's right. Hearing her temporary teammate's self-announcing, Bianca couldn't help but crack a smile, applauding for her. Now this girl had a sense of humor, however peppy. Still better than her teammates. "Bravo indeed, Dorothy." After a quick check to make sure she had everything, Bianca took the time to re-do the bottom half of her braid, then turned slightly towards the team leader and awaiting the other two students, along with Eklipsei's further instructions.

[snaketicus]

Deleted

[NotSurprised]

(OOC: I'll be a little busy on Saturday, and it's way too late for me to post today. Expect a late post on Saturday, or an early one on Sunday. Sorry!

Edit: I'll edit this post later with an actual post, unless Kiith posts before I can.)

[Kiith]

Leaning forward a bit Xanh tried to get a better view outside the Bullhead from where she was standing. Being pretty far back inside the vehicle she was a little disappointed about how all the others would get their chance to hop out before her, but it probably was not the time and place to make a fuss about that now. So as the others made their way down the girl just quietly watched the space infront of her clear out until she was the last one left.

After walking up to the edge of the open cargo door Xanh shortly threw a glance downwards, mockingly yelling at the others down below: "Watch out you showoffs!" What followed was her forcefully pushing herself off the ramp at an angle, the slightly offset momentum causing her to do a few quick rolls as she pulled her legs towards her body. Only as she was about to come into contact with the rooftop Xanh straightened out a little so that it would be her feet hitting the ground - and not her forehead. Once more she utilised the momentum to do a roll, cushioning the impact a little, before she fully straightened, doing a little jump and, at last, came to stand upright next to her teammates. "Let's do this!", she once more exclaimed enthusiastically - even if they basically were already in the middle of 'doing it'.

[NotSurprised]

Eklipsei gave a quick glance backwards, doing a quick check to see if all members had made it out, then tilting his head upwards to catch the sight of the Bullhead leaving them. With a tired sigh, he looks back to his team members as he straightens up once again. "We're going to be walking in this direction," Eklipsei pauses as he points towards the direction the team were facing, "since information states that they'll be somewhere along this route around this time." Eklipsei unholsters "Dragon Fire" as he starts walking in the direction he had pointed out, as he glances around the area they are in. It's rather dirty, empty, and there were often patches of destruction that was incompletely fixed. It was as if the neighborhood was not managed because of outside influences, but there were areas that seemed like there were attempts to clean up the place.

Moving at a slow pace alongside the hunters so that they can hear what he has to say, "Keep an eye out for any suspicious behavior, or anything out of the place." Eklipsei turns off the safety on his gun with a clip loaded in, as a way to prepare for the unexpected. Eklipsei glances back before adding on a little tidbit, "Get your weapons ready, however I do recommend to not have it completely out in the open." Eklipsei then looks back to the direction he was walking in, picking up every single detail as he is walking.

[Timeworker]

Dorothy smiled at the orders that Eklipsei doled out with practised professionalism. She could tell this was not his first rodeo nor would it be his last. She admired his frame of attitude. It was toned by years of conflict and missions. She was confident that she could put her trust in him. However that trust came with a bad habit of Dorothy's, opening her huge mouth. Often she would spout utter nonsense to keep the mood light and casual while simultaneously gaining comradery. However sometimes, just sometimes she would let a phrase or two slip. For a moment one could hear the years of experience that had hardened the girl in the unforgiving wasteland. Sure she didn't have the academic experience of a fourth year, but as a famous hunter once said "Every day out there is worth a week in that place". She never found out who said it but she held the phrase as a mantra. This was one of those times where what she had to tell wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.

"Hey leader, I know you're the head honcho but if I could offer a suggestion. Perhaps it might be better if I trail behind for a bit. Stealth is my specialty and it might be useful to have an upperhand on the enemy if things go south. If he underestimates our numbers a flank could be a game changer." Dorothy whispered so only Eklipsei could hear her.
"Besides, my combat style is much more effective like this than it is in a straight up fight. That being said if you are deadset on having us stick together like this I won't object. You are the captain after all."
Dorothy made her comment straight and to the point getting rid of any cheeriness and sticking to a serious tone minus the pun. She didn't want to annoy the man with any ideas that could be easily dismissed after all. After she had finished she instantly went back to smiling. She couldn't help it, it was a beautiful day afterall.

Action Check: ShowHide

If Eklipsei does give her permission to "shadow" the group Dorothy will pretty much have disappeared to the rest of her group using her extensive training in stealth to erase her presence. The only one who will be able to know where she generally is, is Eklipsei. Before you bring up the point that there is a 4th year on the party who has an experience edge on her I would agree yes he does. However his training isn't in stealth nor stealth detection and I would not expect someone who doesn't train in that area to have an edge on someone who does regardless of age/rank. Much like how a 4th year engineer at a university wouldn't be as good as a 3rd year journalist at journalism.

If Eklipsei doesn't want her to disappear than she'll just sigh a bit and move next to Bianca keeping the smile still plastered on her face

[NotSurprised]

(OOC: I'm gonna give y'all till Tuesday to post, since I know people are busy.)

[The Mythic Scribe]

Bianca watched as the rest of the team members landed on the ground beside the ones that already had, the Finn character with a cigar of all things. When did he have time to light that? He landed with it and didn’t even have it in his hand in the bullhead, so he would have to take it out, and then light it after she jumped and before he did. Impressive. Bianca resisted the urge to ask him if he had another, as it probably wouldn’t be the best course of action. Not that they were the devil’s spawn as so many people thought, but they hadn’t done her any couple of years ago when she was first acquainted with them. Inconvenient as well. Plus, she was underage and even if it might’ve not been a problem back in Vacuo, this was Vale, and she didn’t think that it would fly with Eklipsei there. Even if he did allow it, which was highly unlikely, it wouldn’t do much in the ways of a good impression now would it? And she kind of wanted to impress them, as surprising as it was.

During the mission leader's instructions, Bianca looked down the road that he said they'd have to follow, finding that it was slightly familiar, the rundown-ness of it. . She'd taken her time to get acquainted with the main city of Vale of course, like any good criminal would do, former or not. In fact, that store over there, if she wasn't mistaken, the owner was a friend of a friend... Hmm, she'd make sure to steer clear for now, getting recognized wasn't the best idea right now. Hmph, just her luck. Oh, but the place next to that was a nice little diner that she would have to stop by sometime. Diamond-in-the-rough like. Despite its surroundings, wasn't bad. Noted. Absentmindedly, Bianca placed her right hand on her gun, making sure her cloak covered it for the moment. Though she was better with her tonfa, her gun would do better in a pinch, especially the threats didn't just bump into them, and were at a distance. Lucky she brought her cloak, it would come in handy. Though sadly she would probably have to be discarded somewhere for the moment when the real action started, to allow for more movement. And it was white too...

Thinking of a question, Bianca walked a little faster, as to catch up with Eklipsei, and Dorothy as well, who seemed to be telling him something that she couldn't quite catch. "Sorry to interrupt, but I have a question. What uh... What course of action do you want us to take if the 'Lord of Nevermore' appears, or other threats? Do we shoot? And do we shoot to kill? Or, assuming that they can use aura, if they are worn down, do we finish them off? So basically, what're we going to do with the baddie and how far?" Bianca's query, unlike Dorothy's, was spoken with no discreetness, actually a little louder so the rest could hear as well.

[Kiith]

'Keep an eye out for anything that seems out of place', Gray had said. She of course knew what the Huntsman intended to convey with this, and yet Xanh was not entirely sure what to look out for. In the end, everything here looked kind of 'out of place', with all those dirty, half abandoned looking buildings and the occasional dilapidated ruin inbetween to the sides of the scarcely populated street the group was walking down. Especially with all of this more or less still being inside Vale proper the whole area just screamed 'suspicious' and 'something's off'.
'Well, I Guess that's exactly the place to run into someone like that Nevermore guy', she thought, taking her eyes off a small gap between two buildings that led into a badly lit alleyway. Yep, places like these were where you always would find the bad guys doing their shady business - well, in the movies at least. Whether it would also prove to be the case here was yet to see. But the fact alone that someone decided it would be worth to spend the time and resources on sending someone down here indicated that the chances were pretty good.

"I mean, we're here to take that dude and his posse in, right?", Xanh interjected upon hearing Bianca looking for further details on how to deal with the opposition once they actually came across it, assuming the question was directed at everyone. She turned her head away from what seemed like a small, dirty pub - with a few people standing next to the entrance, already throwing one or two wary gazes her direction - to look back at the rest of the group, giving them a faint shrug. "Makes it sound pretty clear to me. Go in, knock 'em out and bring them back for...ugh...interrogation or...whatever the cops got planned. Preferably in one peace, I suppose".

[NotSurprised]

Eklipsei seems to have a pause in his movement for a moment, before continuing on forward. He had heard Dorothy’s input on team positioning, and he was currently mulling over whether or not that would be a good idea. Eklipsei COULD possibly lose Dorothy if she was to be found by their target, however he imagines that she theoretically could handle herself. Eklipsei would have to adjust for the what would essentially be the missing person, but he can probably handle that with the assistance of the students currently with him. Solidifying the evidence within his mind, he decides to voice his conclusion.

”That is a reasonable idea, we’ll speed up so that we’ll distance ourselves.” Eklipsei’s body moved in a way that suggested he was gonna say more, but suddenly the ground started to rumble beneath them. He quickly brought his gun up, quickly twisting and turning in all directions to see what might be causing it. It was a good idea, but unfortunately Eklipsei forgot the most relevant direction. The ground in front of them broke apart, as a Grimm that looks like a King Taijitu comes roaring out of the hole.

With a roar, the both heads of the Grimm rampaged around the area as it left the hole. Buildings fell as Eklipsei quickly fired upon the Grimm in reaction to its rampage. One head continued to rampage as if Eklipsei’s attacks did not affect it, further ruining the area around it. However, the other head quickly turned to Eklipsei and slammed into him. With his armor not built to take on Grimm, Eklipsei gets thrown into a building, destroying more of the area around them.

Eklipsei had been incapacitated, and is currently trying to recover their bearings and weaponry. With a blurry vision, Eklipsei starts trying to get up, only to fall back onto the ground in pain… After a few seconds, both heads of the King Taijitu turned to the group of students as their new targets. With a roar, the Grimm bares their fangs at the group as both heads start to slither around the area.


(OOC: I’m going to be extremely informal for combat in this thread, so you don’t actually have to do aura counts. However, I will call BS if need be, and politely ask that you edit it.)

[Timeworker]

Dorothy made a pumping motion with her fist. it felt good to have one of her ideas approved by a higher up. An emotion swelled within her...pride maybe? No matter, putting her plan in motion Dorothy moved to disappear into shadows, when she felt a faint tremble. A small quake in the surrounding area that anyone who was used to the city probably wouldn't have felt. It reminded her of the way the sands moved in the Vacuoian desert wastelands. It was a bit too familiar...pausing in her stride Dorothy glanced back at the group to see if they felt the same thing as her, only to pale as a King Taiju burst out of the ground.

Dorothy had her blade in her hands within seconds as the beast roared. Much to her expectation she saw Eklipsei engage the beast. Rushing in to follow up Dorothy stopped short as she saw Eklipsei get thrown into a nearby building. Reeling back in shock Dorothy changed her plan, collecting the injured Eklipsei, Dorothy ran him up to the roof of a building. Laying him down to rest with his injuries she briefly looked over him and made sure his aura wasn't broken.
"Rest up and get back in the fight when you can, me and the others will hold it off as long as possible. This is a pretty good vantage point for the gun of yours but it won't do much against the Grimm."
Giving him one last look of re-assurance accompanied by a smile Dorothy back flipped off the building into a nearby ally cloaked in shadow.
 The Grimm didn't know she was there so it would only be focused on the 3 other students in front of it. She would have to be careful to not be seen by the second head but if she was successful then she could get a clean blow in on it's eyes hopefully taking one head with her. Her cloak with the use of some dust changed color to a black and a mix of ice dust glamoured into the clothing made her heat signature hard to read against her black backdrop. She sat there and waited weapons drawn for the Grimm to let it's guard down.

[The Mythic Scribe]

Bianca nodded as she considered Xanh's words. Sounded reasonable enough. And the baddies probably had aura or something, right? Even if they didn't, a few bullets to the shoulder wouldn't do that much. This though, was not the right concern for the moment. As the ground rumbled, Bianca looked around to search for the source until it emerged out of a hole that it made. She certainly didn't remember it being there before, so that was a safe bet.

Her first instinct was to slip her gun out and take a few shots at the Grimm creature, aiming for its eyes. She wasn't really paying attention in Grimm studies, but as a general rule, eyes were usually the thing to aim for. Unless King Taijitus had some kind of clear eye protection thing. They didn't, right? Damn it, maybe Grimm studies was important after all. Either way, she still took shots at the creature when she had a clear shot, which really wasn't often, backing up as to not get too close to the Grimm or the destruction it was causing to the surrounding area. Sheesh, the place was bad enough already, and now it just had to send buildings down too. In the corner of her eye Bianca could see the few people already out on the streets running for cover and more emerging from a few of the buildings. Lucky the place wasn't too populated.

Oh but unluckily, their team leader was down for the count. Bianca watched in surprise as one of the heads slammed into Eklipsei, sending him into one of the still standing buildings. Not wasting a moment, Bianca took advantage of the Grimm's close proximity, loosing a few more bullets its way, again targeting its eyes. Unsurprisingly the King Taijitu looked unaffected by Eklipsei's shots, and he wasn't even shooting with a pistol. So it was safe to assume that her regular old gun, even if the bullets were infused with fire dust, wouldn't do much to it if she aimed anywhere else. Sometimes she regretted how little she took on Grimm during jobs. Experience might've come in handy, especially as the heads now had a new target in mind, which would be, oh yes, her team, which as a matter of fact, contained Bianca. Dorothy was nowhere to be found though, and looking back, neither was Eklipsei. Hopefully they were waiting it out. Or at least Dorothy, Eklipsei didn't look so great at the moment.

"You guys have any ideas?" Bianca asked as she replaced her pistol with her tonfas. Shooting at it now would probably only anger it further. "Because snakey doesn't look so happy and snakey is also drawing nearer by the second. At least one of you paid attention in Grimm studies, right? What's the deal on these?"

[Dr. Gustave]

The Grimm let out a deafening hissing noise as both of its head slammed through buildings to it's side. The many faunus in the area ran, screaming, from the beast that had been let into their homes. While the Taijitu's black head began to swing back and forth, sweeping the running civilians off of their feet and into walls, the white head locked eyes with the three young students in front of it.

Fionn: ShowHide

Fionn was the most experienced one left, what with the detective gone. He knew that. He also knew that a first year could take out a simple King Taijitu. He'd paid attention in Grimm Studies. He'd studied them out of the field. They were all the same, all of the ticking like a clock, and he was the watchmaker. With a sigh, he took one last drag on his cigarette,  filling his lungs with tobacco before spitting out the stick and stomping it out with his heel. He watched as the smoke exited his mouth and drifted away in the breeze, its shape constantly shifting and changing before finally disappointing into nothingness.


Fionn quickly glanced toward where the detective had been sent flying. The mouse girl had already left and gone.. somewhere. He couldn't see where. Maybe she had a semblance similar to his, maybe she ran. It didn't matter in the end.


"Alright." He said, eyeing the Grimm moving closer and closer, the sun shining off of it's reflective white scales. "I'm going to take out the black head. You two stay here and distract the white head, take it out if you can."


So Fionn wasn't a man of many words, it was effective enough, evidenced by the nods of agreement from the other two. He placed on hand on the handle of Jenny and the other on Roulette as he began to run around the Taijitu, the sounds of battle sounding in his ears behind him. He quickly approached the other half of the Grimm and leapt into the air directly behind it's neck, it's blind spot.


There was little grace in Fionn's strike. A quick pull from the strap holding the enormous blade and an even quicker stab into the back of the snake's neck.


The Taijitu screeched in pain as the blade shot through its body and vigorously swing its head around, trying to get whatever had pierced its scales off of its body. It wasn’t long before it felt the release of the blade leaving the body.


Fionn quickly hopped off of the Grimm, pulling Jenny out with him, and landed on the street next to it. In a swift motion, he pulled Roulette from its holster and fired three shots directly into the snake’s head. As it turned to charge him, he finally got a good look at the head. There were already signs of battle on it, a large gash down the side of its head and one blinded eye. This would be even easier than he thought.


As the Grimm’s head shot forward, he swung Jenny in a vertical arc down toward the ground just in front of him. Just as the head was about to fall under the sword, however, it shot to the side curving around, and caught Fionn in its mouth.


A moment of panic was all he was afforded before the Taijitu took the boy and slammed him head first into a building before tossing him aside.


Fionn fell limp on the pavement.

Xhan and Bianca: ShowHide

As Fionn ran around the white head of the King Taijitu, Bianca quickly studied the beast. ‘Keep it distracted, easy enough.’ She raised her tonfas and, with a smirk, glanced toward Xhan.  “Ever wanted to prove yourself better than a hunter?” And without waiting for a response, she charged in.


“Alright, just gotta be faster than a snake, that’s not.. Hard…” She muttered as she sprinted forward, narrowly dodging a strike from the snake and quickly responding by slicing her bladed tonfa through the scales, creating a large gash, before launching herself up and over the neck of the beast, swinging the tonfa across the back of its neck as she did so.


Xhan, meanwhile, took the moment while the Grimm was distracted to survey her surroundings. While it wasn’t perfect, the situation was certainly much better than it could have been. All around her, broken pipes littered the ground and walls. Water pipes. It would be… risky… but if she just stayed where she was, she could focus all of her aura on her semblance.


She closed her eyes and slowly took in a deep breath before exhaling and opening her eyes once more. The pipes rattled and shook, she could feel it, the water was coming to her. All at once, the water behind to flow from the pipes, the sewer, everywhere. With another deep breath, she refocused on the Grimm before her. Bianca had just sliced along its scales and had nearly made it to the center, but…


Bianca quickly looked back as she landed back onto the ground after hopping over the neck, releasing her tonfa from the scales as she did so.


It was a mistake to stop.


Above her, all she could see was the descending head of the King Taijitu coming down toward her and just as she was about to be eaten, a single large watery spike pierced through the back of the Grimm’s throat, its tip stopping just before Bianca’s face.


As the Grimm’s eyes rolled to the back of its head and was tossed aside by the water, Bianca had a clear view of Xhan, not having left her spot, with water flowing around her. A faint smile grew on Bianca’s face as she raised a hand to thank the girl. Just as she was doing so, she saw Xhan’s face grow worried as she sent another, smaller, spike of water directly to the side of Bianca.


Before she had any chance to react, Bianca felt something large and heavy slam into her back, sending her flying forward. “WHA-” was all she could get out before being knocked into the line of the water. The force of the hit, in addition to the water, seemed to have depleted her aura as the water pieced through her skin and shot through her vocal cords, ripping them as the water rushed around them.


The water quickly exited through the back of her neck as she continued to fly through the air, pain spreading to every inch of her body.


She slammed into the ground, making no attempt to fix her landing, and fell into a crumpled state. The last thing she was able to do before losing consciousness was quickly attempt to cover her throat with her hands to stop the bleeding.


Xhan stood, mortified, as she watched her classmate crumple to the ground. A quiet
“Oh no…” escaped her lips as she slowly turned her head back to the black head of the Grimm that had slammed into Bianca. This wasn’t right. Where was the other student, he…


Xhan caught a glimpse of Fionn’s limp body on the ground behind the Grimm.


Xhan quickly attempted to regain her composure. It was still only half of a Grimm, but… she had already used so much of her aura. She slowly grabbed her twin kama as the water around her fell to the ground, splashing across the pavement. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something terribly wrong.


The white head of the Grimm was… convulsing. Two large lumps began to work their way up through the neck of Taijitu before finally making it to the head.


The white head of the Grimm exploded, sending bits scales and fangs flying through the air and embedding into walls before evaporating. In the head’s place, two new white Taijitu heads swayed menacingly.


Having been distracted by the two new heads, Xhan hadn’t noticed the black head snaking to the side of her. With the force of a truck, the head slammed into her side, sending her flying toward the two new heads. One dipped down and rushed toward her from below sending her sailing into the air. As she reached the apex of her flight, she attempted to take the moment to resituate herself, only to find the other head of the Grimm had wrapped its neck around on of her legs.


With a disorienting quickness, the Taijitu slammed Xhan into the ground before lifting her up again. She could feel it, her leg was broken. In her haze she almost didn’t seem to care, as she hung over the mouth of the other white head. It would all be over in just a few moments.


Suddenly, below her, she saw the vague shape of someone grappling onto the head of the Grimm and slamming their fist into it, all just before Xhan slipped into unconsciousness.

Dorothy: ShowHide

All Dorothy could do was stare. It all happened so quickly, even without her semblance, it all happened so… quickly…


From where she had gone to wait for an opportunity to strike after checking on the detective, she could see it all. She watched as Fionn was knocked out, as Xhan speared the Taijitu, as Bianca was knocked into Xhans water, as Xhan was knocked between the heads like some twisted game of pinball.


She watched it all and there wasn’t a thing she could do. She was a scavenger, not a true huntress. She wasn’t specialized to fight Grimm. Her knives wouldn’t do anything to that… thing… She’d learned about it though. She could remember Grimm studies. A Grimm that, in every way, appears to be a King Taijitu until you kill one of the heads. And Emperor Taijitu.


But now, it didn’t matter if she could or couldn’t kill that thing. One of the students was about to be eaten. It didn’t matter if she’d have to immediately run away, she couldn’t let that happen!


The mouse faunus quickly shot out from her spot and launched herself into the air. She made sure Sunfire was powered by the fire Dust as she whipped out Desert Flower and dug it into the throat of white head before pulling back her first and slamming it into the lower jaw of the beast.


As the Grimm reeled back from hit, she jumped off and onto the other white head, securing her place by stabbing Desert Flower once more into the scales. Quickly, she grabbed a hold of one of Xhan’s arms before ripping Desert Flower along the Grimm, creating a gash.


In a moment of pain, the Grimm released Xhan and both her and Dorothy fell to the ground, bouncing slightly as they hit it.


Not wasting a moment of time, Dorothy activated the second level of her semblance, causing time around her to slow down to a crawl. After quickly catching her breath she began to hurriedly carry Xhan just before she heard something that caused her to freeze in her place.


“Shhh…” It was a voice. A woman’s voice. Calming and motherly. She sounded… almost worried for Dorothy. But that wasn’t right, no one else was around her, no one else should be able to talk right n…


Dorothy could see her, or at least just barely. She could see the vague shape of a woman in the distance. Each time Dorothy tried to focus on the woman, she disappeared, only to reappear just out of the corner of her eye.


“It’s okay… It will all be over soon… You can rest now, you can finally rest…” Dorothy felt… happy. No, no that wasn’t right! She should be running there was a-


As she looked to her side, she saw the black head of the Grimm mere feet from her face, staring at her. But… Dorothy didn’t feel scared. She didn’t feel worried, she didn’t feel excited, she didn’t feel anything as she fell to the floor, staring up at the, now cloudy, sky. From her position on the ground, she could see the woman walk to her and stop, standing just above her. She had long, flowing black hair and deep blue eyes that seemed to shine brightly against her tanned olive skin tone. She wore a dark midnight blue robe and a motherly expression.


She slowly bent down and brushed a stray hair from Dorothy’s face. “It’s okay, sweetie go to sleep.”


The woman vanished and time returned. The black head that had been staring at her slowly moved its head over to Dorothy’s face. The acidic saliva seemed to drip from its mouth down onto her body before it suddenly opened its mouth and shot a spray saliva directly into Dorothy’s eyes.


Her vision began to fade, not because of loss of consciousness, but because of the acid. The once clear shapes of the world began to shift and blur. All she could do now was hear.


And he heard the sound of an explosion.

Fleetwood was the first on the scene, Graviton trailing slightly behind her. Horror overtook her face as she looked down at the damage the Grimm had done.


Buildings had been caved in, the street was a mess with signs of a battle, bodies… too many bodies. All too familiar.


Graviton quickly caught up and passed her, turning back only to bark at her to “Get your ass into gear!”


“Its an Emperor, I’ll get the ones still alive out, you take care of the Grimm, got it?”


He was met with silence.


“I said, got it!?”


“I got it.”


As Graviton lifted his arms and lifted any of the bodies with life left in them up and out of the battlefield, Fleetwood leapt into action. She quickly drew her scimitar and pistol before firing off several rounds into the back of one of the heads. As soon as she had its attention, she shot forward and plunged her blade into its neck before using it as a foot hold and launched herself above it, quickly coming back down with a kick and sending the head crashing into one of the puddles of water. She watched as the water splashed up and covered the bottom of the neck.


As she landed next to it, she swiftly ripped the blade from its neck and placed her hand against the back of its head, sending electricity coursing through its body frying the head. Fleetwood glanced back and saw the other two heads writhing in pain. With a sneer, she pumped her semblance up to the next level, sending even more electricity through the Grimm.


After a few moments of convulsing, the two other heads fell to the ground and began to fade away. Looking around, she began to look for any survivors Graviton had missed. Above her, the sound of bullheads filled the air.