Ch 24: Fighting as a Team (1)

"Ha Ha Ha! I guess 'Mommy' wasn't too happy with how Ray treated her kid!" Yang laughed and joked as she raced through the forest with Ruby, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha. The reason they are rushing back to the cliff so fast is because of what they had just stumbled upon. The dissipating remains of the Death Stalker Ray had thrown and what Yang had decided was its 'mommy', a Death Stalker half again as big as the first, accompanying it in its final moments.

"Then why is it chasing us!" Jaune cried. He didn't find their situation as funny as Yang did.

"Yeah, Miss Death Stalker, please let us go. We aren't the ones who turned your 'son' into a pancake. Haha!" But Nora did.

"Between Ray and the eight of us, who would you rather fight?" Blake sarcastically asked.

"...fair point." Jaune admitted as they broke through the tree line and entered another set of ruins that looked like they may have once been a temple situated at the base of Beacon Cliff.

On their left and right were stone pavilions supported by weathered pillars that would take four grown men to wrap their arms around. The pavilions formed an avenue between them, leading to a circular altar positioned at the edge of a seemingly bottomless, foggy chasm that separated the ruins from Beacon Cliff. Luckily for them, extending from the altar was a stone bridge that led to one of a series of large watchtowers that supported a long system of aqueducts running along the middle of the chasm. Another bridge connected the tower to what may have once been the temple keep built into the face of Beacon Cliff. If they could cross those bridges and scale that cliff, they would be safely back on academy grounds and under the teachers' protection. A task that would have been a lot easier if that giant Nevermore hadn't followed them all the way there and an overgrown Death Stalker wasn't dogging their every step.

It looks like they would have to deal with at least the Nevermore if they wanted to escape. At least those bridges appeared to be too narrow to support the Death Stalker's girth.

Splitting up into two groups, the young Huntsmen and Huntresses took cover under the stone pavilions. Ruby, Yang, Ren, and Nora on the right and Pyrrha, Jaune, Blake, and Weiss on the left. As they took cover, the Nevermore perched on top of the watchtower, blocking their escape, and screeched at them, daring them to try. However, they didn't have long to think as the Death Stalker burst into the ruins behind them, uprooting trees as it left the forest.

"Oh, man, run!" Jaune shouted, breaking cover and leading the charge towards the only viable option, straight at the Nevermore. As the rest of the gang broke cover to follow, the Nevermore flapped its massive wings and began to hover over the bridge.

"Nora, distract it!" Ren yelled, as with a mighty flap, the Nevermore sent feathers raining down around them.

"Whaaha!" With a jump and a roll, Nora dodges the first wave of lethal feathers and fires several grenades at the hovering Nevermore that erupt in pink explosions around it. The explosions cause the Nevermore to fall back, opening the way for Ruby, Yang, Jaune, and Pyrrha to reach the altar.

As the Nevermore circles around, the Death Stalker has arrived behind an unsuspecting Nora. Just before it can strike, Blake and Ren dash in and unleash a cross-slash across its face, stunning it long enough for Weiss to land next to Nora, grab her, and use a force glyph to empower her leap and bring them both out of immediate danger.

With the Death Stalker right behind Blake and Ren, the four leading Huntsmen-in-training step onto the bridge.

"Go, go!" Pyrrha urges the others on as she takes up a firing position at the start of the bridge and fires off several rounds at the Death Stalker, trying to slow it down or at least hamper its attempts to strike her new friends. Ren arrives a few seconds ahead of Blake and turns to add his own rain of ammo to the mix, granting Blake just enough leeway to dive under a sweeping claw from the Death Stalker and land safely on the bridge. The Death Stalker is unable to follow. Its stance too wide to fit on the narrow bridge. That problem dealt with, Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha turn to chase after the others towards the watchtower.

But by this time, the Nevermore has circled back around. It dives down at the eight youths and rams itself into the bridge, destroying its center. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Nora, and Jaune were able to dive down the bridge to avoid the Nevermore's headbutt and land safely on the watchtower side. However, Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha were forced to dodge back up the bridge, and with the center destroyed, they no longer had enough room to retreat out of the scorpion Grimm's range and now stood just a short distance away from the Death Stalkers grasping claws.

First, Blake tried to hold back the Death Stalker with her agility while Ren and Pyrrha unloaded their guns on it, but she quickly took a hit and got knocked back, so Ren charged ahead to hold the line instead.

"Man, we gotta get over there! They need help!" Jaune stood at the edge of the break in the bridge, feeling helpless as he watched his friends fight.

"Let's do this!" Nora declared, running up next to him.

"Yeah, but, uh… I can't make that jump."

"Hehehe," giggling and smiling diabolically at Jaune's excuse, Nora slams her weapon into his chest, knocking him back and down. She then unfolds Maghild into its hammer form, raises it high above her head, and takes a running leap towards the bridge's broken end.

Realizing what she intends to do, Jaune cries out in alarm, "Oh, wait!". But it is too late. With a quick twist, Nora slams her hammer down onto the bridge launching Jaune up and over to the other side as he screams, "No, no, no, no!". Standing on the head of her hammer, Nora pulls the trigger and launches herself off the collapsing bridge.

Right over the retreating Ren, "Ah, smash!" and brings her hammer crashing down on the center of the Death Stalker's skull. The Death Stalker tries to sting her as she is still suspended in mid-air, supported only by her hammer on its face, but she sees it coming and fires off a grenade at point-blank range, launching herself back. She dodges the stinger as it pierces into the bridge but ends up accidentally knocking Blake off the end as she slides backward.

Falling, Blake throws her kusarigama-Gambol Shroud and pierces it into the side of an aqueduct. Using the ribbon, she swings herself up and under the aqueduct at the Nevermore as it passes. Using her Semblance to give one final push through the air, she lands on its head delivering several slashes to its face before running down its back delivering more hacks and slashes before jumping from it to the tower.

"It's tougher than it looks!" Blake informs Yang, Ruby, and Weiss as she lands.

"Then let's hit it with everything we got!" Yang declares, reloading Ember Celica.

Ruby, Blake, and Weiss also ready themselves for an all-out long-range attack.

Yang glanced at Ruby and saw her Aura flickering and fading around her ammo magazine. Ruby saw her older sister looking at her and shook her head. That forced Aura weaponization she had pulled off earlier with Weiss was still affecting her, and she still hadn't recovered enough to control her Aura well enough to enhance her shots. Yang frowned slightly before turning her attention back to the descending Grimm. She had been hoping Ruby's Aura powered sniper rounds would be able to penetrate the giant Nevermore's hide and do some serious damage to it, or at least hamper its movements, so that she could hit it with her Aura empowered shotgun shells. Without Ruby's support, her shotguns' low accuracy at this range made such an attempt not worth the Aura it would cost.

Shells from Yangs Ember Celica, icicles formed from Dust launched by Weiss's glyphs, sniper rounds from Ruby's Crescent Rose, and bullets from Blakes Gambol Shroud are unleashed in a fierce barrage at the approaching Nevermore. However, the Grimm is able to dodge or endure all of their shots until it finally slams into the watchtower, destroying its upper half where the girls are standing.

As the watchtower crumbles around them, the four girls run up the falling debris jumping from falling piece to crumbling piece as they raced against the pull of gravity to reach the still intact portions of the aqueduct higher up.

"None of this is working!" Weiss couldn't help but comment after they all safely reached the still-standing portions of the aqueduct. Ruby looked around fast trying to come up with another idea. At the same time, Yang distracted the Nevermore by continuing to unleash shell after shell at the flying Grimm from atop the tallest of the crumbling pillars around them.

"I have a plan! Cover me!" Ruby shouts at Weiss, who ready's her blade to head back into the fray as Ruby blasts off to set her plan in motion.