G.N. Chapter 48 (Patreon)

Chapter 48 Race to Rest.

It burned.

Not in the metaphoric way he had found himself to fall to when he lost control, nor in the manner or hurt that he could not aptly put into better words.

This was the heated wrath of his nerves alighting to the feel of something foreign and hazardous.

He slammed his back into the wall, throwing himself away from his foe.

Confusion ruled his mind for an instant, an eternity in combat, as he stared at his cowled foe.

His vision began to bleed black, and he tasted sick on his tongue.

The Beast howled and pursued him.

He desperately tried to evade its attack, sliding to his right and narrowly avoiding its lethal claws… but his body, weakened and trembling, betrayed him.

He collapsed, breaking a stack of vases beneath his ribs as he crashed onto the old stone floor, his world twisting as his balance became a thing of the past.

But his crumpled prone form revealed his forearm in all its glory.

This Beast had marred him; a simple claw mark dashed over the top of his wrist where it had managed to reach him before he had shoved it back with his blood-stained Saw Cleaver.

But even with his vision spoiled with tears and distortion, he could make out the sight of discoloured fluid bleeding out of the laceration with his blood.

The thing's claws were tainted.

A sudden weight collapsing on his back shoved the air from his lungs, and he found his weapon bashed from his weakened grip. Hot breath seared across his cheek as the rancid, noxious breath engulfed his face and forced the wetness in his eyes to spill down his cheeks.

The Hunter’s guts churned, the poison in his body compelling him to expel the contents of his stomach as it permeated his system, wreaking havoc on his insides.

The thing atop him swiped at his back. Only the instinctual urge to protect his head spared him, having his scalp ravaged.

Though he did lose his hat.

The Hunter squirmed, trying to work his body correctly, but the poison made his limbs struggle against his instructions, and the air he heaved in felt wrong as it slid down his throat.

But all his effort was not without merit as his hand enclosed around a cool, thin cylinder.

The familiar sting of the Blood Vial injecting into his leg was most welcome.

The sacred substance venerated by the Church rushed inside, and he could feel it physically encounter the path of destruction left by the taint of the Beast’s poison. Strength returned to his limbs, breath came to his lungs, and the discombobulation that grounded him abated.

His counterattack was merciless.

With an arm beneath his chest, he thrust back, driving his head into the snout of the wretched attacker, and was rewarded with the noise of cartilage yielding in return. Its hold, now broken, could not hope to hinder his assault, and the Hunter twisted, driving his elbow into its lengthy throat.

It gagged and was tossed aside by the force of his blow.

The Hunter did not relent.

He launched himself atop it, his hands wrapping about beneath its jaw and another finding purchase across the top of its skull, his thumb resting in its clenched eye socket.

Without hesitance, he introduced its head to the floor with tremendous velocity.

His breaths came out as growls and grunts of wrath as he drove its snapping skull into the cruel stone over and over. His knee drove down over its hip, seeking to damage organs unprotected by bones and secure his place atop it.

It tried to throw him, its claws clutching between the edges of aged stones as it threw its weight forward, attempting to hurl him over its head.

He locked his legs around its torso, jerking its neck down and forcing its jaw to grind into the stones as it attempted to dislodge him.

Its legs slid from beneath it, sending it flat to the stones.

The Hunter capitalised.

He shifted his body forward, his feet digging into the rabid thing's hips as his knees pinned its arms by grinding into the bone. His centre of mass came to rest over its chest, forcing it to remain low, and finally, he adjusted his grip on its head…

By driving his thumb into its eye…

It announced its agony loudly, but the noise he let out in return was nothing but primal ferocity as he bellowed and drove his fist down into the narrow of the Beasts maw.

Repeatedly.

Savagely, he bludgeoned its animalistic snout, crushing his fist into its vulnerable facial features like a man possessed as he endeavoured to merge its skull with the ground.

Then his fist missed.

The haze was lifted immediately, and his fury leashed momentarily as he felt it…

The burn of the poison.

The realisation came as he overbalanced and crashed to the floor adjacent to his would-be prey. His vision swam from the motion, and the nausea returned with a vengeance.

He was laid out, weak, dizzy, his mind utterly confused as he tried to piece together what had just happened. He had used a Blood Vial, felt the Old Blood surge through his system and in his veins, felt the poison wane, and the injuries healed.

‘Why is this different?’

He had been brought back from the brink numerous times, the very edge of death proving to be no obstacle.

Unfortunately, he was not able to piece together more with his addled mind as the visage of his brutality appeared hovering above his face.

The Beast he had been bludgeoning had risen, its mangled face, drooping and gory, swinging above him as it stared with eyes drowning in madness.

The Hunter snarled back, and his hand moved all the same despite the toxins eroding him from within.

It opened its mouth laboriously, the dropping snout hanging off the side of its mandible as the Beast’s maw gaped ominously.

The Hunter found no issues striking such a prominent target.

His hand shot out, and despite his accuracy suffering greatly, his strike found its mark piercing through the roof of the Beast’s mouth and into the cavity above. Blood spewed forth from its ravaged maw and flooded across the Hunter’s face, coating it in a thick layer of visceral red fluids.

The result was near instantaneous, the Beast’s weight dropping onto his hand so suddenly it took all he had to direct it to the side.

It fell with a thump, still and unmoving.

The Hunter tried to free his arm, but it was too late.

The poison, whatever it was, had ravaged his body beyond his ability to recover.

He coughed a splatter of red and another colour being flung from his mouth as his breathing became an effort he didn’t have the energy to produce.

His mind drew away from his body, the last lingering sensation being that of the burn emanating from the cut across the top of his wrist.

When he awoke from his most recent death, once more at the entrance to Old Yharnam, Jaune would think of his death and even let slip an earnest, broken chuckle.

Despite his way once more having been stalled by an obstacle, it was one that he somehow found amusing.

Was it that the Holy Blood failed? The so-called miracle tonic had caused Jaune so much stress as he worried ceaselessly about when he would start to succumb to the ‘Beastly Scourge’. It had not yet found an injury it could not restore to Jaune’s recollection, but the poison that coated the Beast’s claws seemed to overcome its power.

Perhaps it was that what had felled him for once had not been the savage and carnage-riddled evisceration of his anatomy. Truthfully, of the many deaths he had to endure, both sudden and prolonged… the Poison had not been nearly so painful compared to many of them.

Or maybe it was that this time, his death was not accompanied by a goading remark by the contemptuous bastard atop his gun platform. The first death had been an unwelcome surprise and lit a fire in Jaune that burned ravenously even now.

The preceding deaths to come from a hail of blazing quicksilver had only added fuel.

But whatever it was, Jaune found himself sitting beside the lantern, letting out a broken, stuttering chuckle as he rubbed his thumb across his wrist. The Messengers were silent as they watched him, only Anima letting out a croon at Jaune’s bout of humour.

Eventually, though, his laughter would stop, and he would venture forth again.

But the moment would stick with him.

Another lingering fear to hover amongst his thoughts...

A fretting mote to ponder…

‘Am I going mad?’

YVYVYVYVY

“… Ow,” Jaune spat, feeling the dirt and grit drag across his lips as his parched mouth expelled the filth stuck inside.

He pushed his frame off the asphalt, feeling a weight slide from his back to thud to the ground next to his hands. He reached for something to help him up, his hand finding its way atop something round.

A wheel.

He looked over, blinking, his vision blurred in one eye as he inspected what he was leaning on.

It was a car.

His memory kick-started, and he recalled that he had dove behind the vehicle when the burning building had collapsed. Further observation revealed that the car was half crushed beneath a massive slab of cement that had flattened the rear of the vehicle.

“Jaune!”

Jaune turned toward the shouting and saw his sisters being guided back towards a large red truck.

Neither seemed happy.

Jaune forced his legs to get underneath him, shakily letting them adjust to holding his weight before he actually tried to use them.

He spotted something on the ground while he steadied himself.

A gun. His gun, his Challenger, was still whole and safe, lying roughly where he had been following the collapse.

He quickly retrieved it, though he could have lived without his equilibrium nearly going to hell from the slight movement. He also could have done without the sudden addition of blood dotting the ground that dripped off the tip of his nose.

‘Head injury,’ Jaune thought painfully, pushing himself onto the car's hood. He took a moment to roll his head around, listening as his neck popped audibly. The pain didn’t recede in the wake of said action, but his vision cleared up somewhat.

With a groan, he stood on his own two feet, the back of his legs leaning on the car as he looked around and saw the devastation about. The burning rubble and what remained of the apartment were more than sufficient to allow him to see the carnage.

Rubble, both alight and not on fire, was strewn about the street like hail after a storm in various sizes and states. The Grimm he had been fighting before the sudden storm of crushing debris were all but gone; those few that remained for the moment were all terribly maimed or on the cusp of dying.

“There he is!” a deep voice hollered, drawing Jaune from his observations.

“Jaune! Over here! Hurry!”

“Jaune, quickly!”

Jaune looked back towards the red truck, a fire truck he now recalled, to see the people calling at him, his sisters both waving wildly while a very hairy man beckoned him to come.

Jaune raised an arm and went to say something, but whatever he was going to say was drowned out by a horrible cry that boomed down from above. Though diminished from the multistory blaze of before, the fires were enough to illuminate a brief glimpse of shadowy wings soaring above.

An Alpha Nevermore.

Like a strike of lightning, Jaune was once more reminded of the imminent danger his sisters were in and of the coming tide of Grimm that would increase their peril sevenfold.

“Oh, that better not be the same fucker!” Arrastra snapped, a look of malice overcoming her features as her weapon transformed in her grip to its crossbow form.

Jaune snorted, a clump of congealed blood shooting out of his nostril as he cleared his airway, the not-inconsiderate ache in his body forgotten.

He had a job to do.

He swiped an arm across his face, attempting to clear away whatever filth impeded his vision, but to little effect. Despite his limb coming back coated in a mixture of blood and dirt, the vision in his right eye still had a red tint to it and was more than a little distorted.

He did not like the images such vision brought back to his mind.

He made an effort to refocus, pulled one of the three remaining Combustion rounds free of his belt, and slotted it home inside his Challenger before looking around for his Machete. He found it mangled beneath the rubble, only sparing the weapon a frown before he began to make his way towards his sisters.

“Jaune!” Sky cried out, darting past Salmon to rush towards him. Her expression was one of pure relief.

But… Her expression changed as she got closer.

“J-Jaune…” Sky came to a faltering stop, her expression shifting to something that reached inside Jaune’s chest and ravaged it so furiously he felt his very soul bleed.

Sky looked afraid.

“Fuck! Jaune!”

Jaune didn’t have time to look at Jade before she was on him, literally.

His younger sister flung herself onto his chest with enough force that, in his state, he nearly fell backwards. She clambered up until she was at eye level with him, her face also fearful but far more panicked than Sky's.

“Are you okay? What the hell happened? Does it hurt, fuck dumb question, but Brothers, your eye is bleeding. What the fuck! Where else are you hurt? Answer me!” Jade rambled, doing her best to examine the entirety of Jaune's head, shaking him by his shoulders.

Jaune investigated his sister closely, and what he found made the hurt in his chest evaporate as he realised what he was seeing.

His gaze drifted then to Sky, who had approached more slowly to grab at his free hand, and Jaune saw on her the same thing he saw from Jade.

It wasn’t fear; it was concern.

“Can you still see alright?” Sky asked, looking up not in fear but in concern.

Jaune blinked and watched as both sisters cringed.

This clued him into the fact that he likely appeared far worse off than he estimated initially… or that his frame of reference was quite far removed from the norm.

“I am well, all things considered. How are you two?” Jaune asked, gently squeezing Sky’s hand in his grasp.

“I’m all right… my gun ran out of ammo, though, and I lost it when the building collapsed,” Sky announced, looking somewhat guilty.

“Mine’s out too, though I kept a hold of it… oh, and I’m not hurt,” Jade shrugged, hopping off Jaune’s tall frame before wiping her hands on his pants leg in a bid to remove his blood. “You on the other hand…”

“I have endured worse. I will see to myself when we are safe,” Jaune waved Jade’s worries off, quickly fixing his hair with a quick swipe. “They fixed the truck,” Jaune acknowledged as he approached the vehicle.

“Yeah… but people got hurt,” Sky informed her brother.

An outcry let Jaune know the scope of his sister’s information as Tara stumbled around from behind the truck and quickly lost the contents of her stomach. Ayame promptly ran to her mother’s side, the younger of the Faunus doing what she could to calm a now erratic Tara.

For her part, Arrastra just grimaced at the scene from her place in the truck cabin.

“Oh no,” Jade whispered.

Jaune picked up his pace, moving to Arrastra and ignoring everyone else. The comforting rumble of the truck’s engine was a welcome noise, but Arrastra’s look quickly spoiled it.

“Hey, you scared me there for a moment with the Griffon,” Arrastra said as a greeting.

“Thank you for your assistance,” Jaune acknowledged with a nod, his expression stony. “Why aren’t we moving?”

Arrastra didn’t answer with words, instead leaning to the side so Jaune could see past her to the female firefighter currently sobbing heavily while cradling a very broken arm. Though it was heavily wrapped in a bloodied jacket, Jaune was able to notice the odd lumpy nature and piece together that the bone had pierced through the skin.

She was in no state to drive.

Jaune turned back to Arrastra, “The other firefight-

“Dead. The roof collapsed on him when the big pigeon decided to say hello,” Arrastra explained, shaking her head. “That’s why that one out there is freaking out. He kind of… splashed on her.”

“Can you drive-“

“Not a rig like this, and everyone else I was with is dead or dying in the back seat,” Arrastra sighed, jutting her head toward the back of the cabin. Jaune didn’t glance back as the scent of blood and fear in the cabin was already so prolific that he did not need to.

It was this that let Jaune spot the smeared blood on her cheek.

It was a trail that led up into her hair.

“Your Aura broke…”

Arrastra blinked at Jaune before nodding, “Yeah… when the roof caved in, it was either take the hit or drop the truck on the mother.”

Jaune looked back at Tara and saw that despite her state, the woman was likely the least harmed in the group. Even her daughter was still sporting the claw marks from the Nevermore that had managed to nick her back at the hotel.

While thinking of the hotel and Tara, Jaune was reminded of what the women had told him when Jade had decided to bring them along.

“… They used to be in a caravan…”

Having heard what Jaune said, Arrastra uttered, confused, “Huh, who?”

“Them,” Jaune affirmed, stepping back from the truck and marching over to the two Faunus women.

Jade, who had moved to offer comfort, tried to get in his way, “Jaune, she needs a moment-“

“We don’t have one,” Jaune refused his sister but halted in his approach as he was already close enough to be heard. “Back at the hotel, you said you weren’t city folk, that you used to be part of a caravan?”

Tara looked up but said nothing, shaking in her daughter's grasp. Ayame did the same but was responsive enough to nod at Jaune’s question.

“For how long?” Jaune pressed.

“We got company!” A Salmon cried out, moving back towards the truck, his face pale.

Sky, who had been next to Jaune, responded by quickly moving behind Jaune, “Brother…”

Jaune moved Jade aside but kept her close to his side, using her shock at Salmon’s announcement to do so without eliciting a complaint.

“Answer the question,” Jaune threatened, his words coming out like razor blades.

Ayame flinched, “I-I don’t know, I was just a kid!”

Before Jaune could speak, another ear-pounding cry rang out from the air above, making the rest of the world seem quiet in comparison.

In that quiet, Jaune heard Tara speak.

“Seven years,” the woman breathed, still looking toward Jaune but not really at him.

Jaune nodded at this, relaxing his posture through sheer force of will, “Then you can drive a truck?”

Tara’s face scrunched up, “What?”

Jaune took a breath and tried not to listen to the noises of approaching monsters or the shakiness in Sky’s breath. “Can you drive a truck?”

Tara didn’t answer, just continued to stare. Jaune looked out into the street and spotted a Beowolf prowling closer, its snout inhaling the scents in the air voraciously. He looked back at Tara and saw that she was still staring blankly. Even her daughter was looking at her concerned.

SLAP

The noise might as well have been a gunshot, for how everyone looked over.

“Mum! What the fu-“

“Do you want to FUCKING DIE? Is that it?” Jade screamed, shutting Ayame up as she began to absolutely let loose on the two Faunus. “Why the fuck did I put my family’s lives at risk if you are just going to sit there and die!”

They didn’t respond, and Jade didn’t stop even as Arrastra lunged from the fire truck and ran out to the street.

“We could have probably been at an evacuation point by now if I had just kept my fucking mouth shut! My brother probably hates me, I’ve dragged my sister into a fucking meat grinder, I might never see my parents again, and instead of thanks, I get you sitting here like a useless piece of SHIT!” Jade screamed, her voice cracking towards the end as she gained volume.

“For the love of Kos, answer the fucking question and help us save your asses!”

Ayame and Tara were both stunned by Jade’s outburst. As she loomed over them, they looked at the girl as if she were a wild animal.

But Tara was actually looking at her, recognition clear in her eyes.

“I-I… c-can. I can drive a truck,” Tara stuttered, her hand rubbing her reddened cheek.

Jade looked back at Jaune, smiling, with tears in her eyes and a mixture of emotions ranging from guilt to satisfaction.

Jaune smiled at Jade before speaking, “Get to the truck, both of you.”

Both Arc girls nodded and hurried off to the section behind the cabin. Jade helped Sky begin to climb before doing so herself. Seeing them secure, Jaune bellowed, “Arrastra, she can drive!”

“Tell them to move it!” Arrastra shouted back as she sprinted back inside the store, firing a pistol behind her while another gun was tucked under her arm.

Jaune didn’t bother wasting the words.

In a single scoop, both of the Faunus women were in his arms as he reached the truck’s cabin in a swift few steps. Tara was practically lobbed into the driver's seat while he placed Ayame where his sisters had clambered up.

“Shouldn’t I get-“

“It’s either on top with me or in the cabin with the dead and the dying,” Jaune cut Ayame off.

Following Jade’s tirade, Tara had far more life in her, and her response was thusly the same as she quickly answered for her daughter, "She’s with you; keep her safe.”

Jaune said nothing, just directing Ayame to climb.

Inside the cabin, Jaune found the firefighter with the broken arm looking somewhat more put together. She looked at Jaune with a kind of grim determination. “I’ll help her with the truck and care for the injured,” she said, breathing through her teeth and shaking slightly.

“H-hey are the guys-“

Jaune ignored Egg, not letting him get his question out as he ran to Arrastra, seeing the Huntress firing out into the street like a woman possessed.

“You should be on that truck; you look half dead!” Arrastra shouted over her gunshots.

Jaune scoffed, “With a broken Aura, it’s a miracle you are still standing.”

Arrastra flicked out a spent magazine as she replied, “Yeah, not going to lie, I have no idea how I am holding on here, but if we don’t keep the way cleared for the truck to back out, then we’re all fucked.“

“What’s your recovery time?” Jaune asked, referring to the stretch of time needed before a Huntsman’s Aura began to recharge.

“Not fucking good,” Arrastra replied.

Jaune went to respond but paused to grab a piece of rubble and hurl it at a Nevermore that had slowed to try and fire its feathers. The bird Grimm took the blow bodily and plummeted out of the air, crashing onto the ground alive but unhappy. 

“If I just had some spare fucking Dust!” Arrastra complained.

“Dust? What kind?” Jaune asked.

“Fuck, shit!” Arrastra cursed, ducking back as a hail of feathers impaled the floor in front of her. She spared a glance over her shoulder as the fire truck began to let out the reverse alert. “Any kind, just enough, then I could get my Aura back!”

Jaune blinked, “How much?”

“If this is the part where you pull out a canister of powdered Dust, I will shoot you,” Arrastra warned.

“It's not a canister… but would a battery work?” Jaune asked, looking out into the street.

“A batter- How the fuck did I not think of that,” Arrastra groaned before firing two more rounds into the air.

Jaune glanced over his shoulder and saw Salmon hanging off the back of the truck, with a police officer shouting guidance out to Tara. Ayame was flat near the front of the truck, her head down. Teak was near Jade, his sister saying something to him while Sky helped pull the man into a notch between the ladder and the truck.

Soon, they would be on the open road, exposed to the second wave.

A Huntress with Aura is not something Jaune would do without.

“Get the truck moving!” Jaune bellowed as he rushed into the street, swerving under a launched feather almost immediately. He dashed to the most put-together car available.

Arrastra didn’t say anything in reply, but the sound of her firing into the Grimm was enough.

Jaune sprinted as hard as he could, clearing the street in a moment as he made for the only still halfway intact vehicle available for him to use. It was a police cruiser, and while the top of the car might have been crushed under falling debris, the front was still wholly intact.

Jaune sidestepped a Beowolf that decided to try its luck, hunching down as he dodged to pick up a piece of debris, which he promptly bashed over the wolf Grimm’s skull, stunning it.

Reaching the hood, Jaune wrenched it open so fiercely that his fingers warped the metal.

Jaune was not familiar with cars. Almost every vehicle he had ever ridden in made him deeply uncomfortable, and cars were the worst. This likely managed to stem his rather ravenous curiosity, but not to the point where he was utterly baffled by the machines.

He knew enough to know what the battery looked like.

It helped that they tended to be labelled with a warning for electrical hazards.

Jaune went to remove the battery but was forced to abandon his attempt when something bashed the car away and nearly took his arms with it. The car careened towards the remnants of the burning building, but Jaune didn’t see this. Instead, he watched as a broad-scaled body began to coil, large flat heads of alternating colour rising above him.

Together, the two serpentine maws opened wide, revealing prominent fangs. They let out a hiss like a geyser announcing itself for all to hear.

Arrastra was the one to call out, “King Taijitu!”

Jaune didn’t look away from the monster's dual gaze as he watched for its next strike, his mind rife with detestation at the mere presence of this monstrous serpent.

It did nothing to help that its twisted and fused shape brought back memories of the parasitic serpents that had infested the woods outside Yharnam.

A sudden hail of concentrated fire managed to distract the head as the bullets bit into its scales.

In a moment driven by instinct, Jaune threw himself to the side. His reward was the feel of the torn-up road pelting against his feet as the King Taijitu cratered where he had been standing.

He rolled over in time to watch as a blur of red crashed into the white head of the Taijitu, sending a wave of fire washing over it. The moment this happened, though, the other head abandoned Jaune and turned to focus on Arrastra, who was already loading another bolt while Salmon and the last officer fired at the massive Grimm.

The mere sight of the large Grimm focusing in the direction of his sisters was more than enough to get Jaune off the ground.

With his feet under him, Jaune wasted no time darting towards the police cruiser that the Taijitu had thrown toward the collapsed apartments. Jaune did not think of the growing number of Grimm or the close proximity of impaling plumage that came close enough to score a cut across his thigh.

The police cruiser was on its side, missing doors and leaning precariously against a wall from which Jaune could feel heat pooling. Reaching it, Jaune darted between the car and the wall, using it as a temporary cover. Shortly after, the sound of feathers impacted it.

Jaune would have worked from his cover to retrieve the battery safely…

But then he heard Sky scream.

Jaune peered around the car and saw Arrastra rolling to avoid the lunging fangs, the King Taijitu now blocking the truck from reversing further.

Caution forgone, Jaune howled as he plunged his hands between the metal and, with all the ferocity of a Visceral Strike, tore the battery free of the upturned vehicle, hopping back with his prize as a Creep wedged itself between the wall and the car chomping at his heels. Jaune rewarded it by kicking the police cruiser over, the mangled vehicle falling atop the creep, pinning it.

“Arrastra!” Jaune roared, his prize gripped in torn-up hands as he looked at the blue-haired Faunus.

Arrastra swung her weapon, catching the Taijitu on the snout of its black head, the serpent whipping back with a screech. The moment of freedom allowed her to make eye contact with Jaune as she bellowed across the street, “Throw it!”

Jaune did just that.

Twisting his whole torso, Jaune stepped into his throw, hurling the battery loaded with Lightning Dust across the street. It flew through the air, soaring straight towards Arrastra with accuracy honed both in Yharnam and in training with his parents.

It would have been a straight shot had it not bounced off the head of the King Taijitu.

But Arrastra wasn’t going to let that stop her. Her feline legs launched her into the air in a show of pure agility, twisting her hips as she did. Windlass was in her grip, and she swung the heavy pickaxe straight through the battery, smashing it to pieces and freeing the Dust inside.

At once, her Semblance activated, and the powdered Dust lit up in bright yellow hues as it began to flow into Arrastra's exposed skin. On closer inspection, Jaune realised it wasn’t the Dust but the energy contained within, as the Dust itself seemed to evaporate, not unlike Grimm do when they perish.

When the process was done, Arrastra landed crouched on an awning, her Aura live and flaring, and in her hands clutched what could only be considered a writhing bolt of lightning.

With a cry of exertion, Arrastra thrust her hand out, and Jaune watched as lightning arced outward from Arrastra’s hand, biting and lashing at the beast's thick scales and causing it to spasm and thrash. Smoke billowed out of its screeching mouths, and the humungous Grimm went so far as to crush several other Grimm in its flailing.

“We are leaving!” Arrastra screamed, the stream of lightning dying in her grasp as she jumped from the awning. Her Aura continued to flare as she moved past Salmon and the police officer to clutch the back of the fire truck. She began physically dragging the fire truck out of the store in a show of her enhanced strength, all caution forgotten as she whipped it past the still-stunned Taijitu.

Jaune couldn’t agree more with the sentiment.

The only issue was that he was on the opposite side of the street with a still spasming king Taijitu and a bevy of murderous Grimm blocking him.

Jaune went to pull his Challenger but remembered that he only had three shots left.

He shifted his stance, readying himself to try to dash past them all, when his foot slid against something beside the sidewalk's stone.

Looking down at what he felt, Jaune’s face became adorned with a smile bereft of kindness.

YVYVYVYVY

Sky Arc was terrified.

She hadn’t been not terrified since the studio, to be fair, but since then, she had come to learn that there were very different types of terrified.

Right now, the feeling she was experiencing was making her genuinely consider rolling off the truck and scampering back into the half-collapsed storefront, as at least there she didn’t have to see.

“Stay down, Sky!” Jade ordered from her position next to her. Sky’s sister was holding her hand tightly, the both of them half tucked beneath the ladder on the back of the fire truck along with the injured Teak and Ayame.

“Where’s Jaune?” Sky yelled back, her voice nearly lost in the raucous noises of multiple Grimm and the smattering of dying gunfire.

“He’s coming. He just needed to help the Huntress!” Jade comforted, but Sky didn’t miss how Jade was fiddling with her Hard-Light Blade, her hand halfway to drawing the hilt from its sheath.

Then, the Huntress arrived, her Aura still glowing as she parried a stray feather away. Her blue hair, having come free, was blowing wildly in the wind, and her face was covered in soot and Grimm blood. Her fur around her legs was raised, and the claws at the ends of her feet bit into the metal as she walked along the top of the truck.

She stomped twice before calling out toward the truck's cabin, “Get us moving!”

Sky panicked at this, “What about Jaune!”

The Huntress looked down at her; her face, though partially concealed by the filth that had come to adorn her flesh, couldn’t hide the half smirk she gave. “He’ll be here in a moment,” the blue-haired Huntress affirmed before turning back to look over the side of the truck.

Sky watched as she swung her weapon down and was rewarded with a spray of inky black splashing over the side of the truck. “You girls stay down now; I really don’t think your brother is the kind of guy I want upset with me.”

Sky knew that was an instruction she wouldn’t be following.

She quickly pried her hand free of Jade’s tight grip, snatching her limb away from her sister as she squirmed towards the edge to try and see Jaune.

“Sky, get back here!” Jade hissed, crawling after her, but her sister's words were lost as she laid eyes on her brother.

When he had come to them after the building had collapsed, Sky thought he was about to drop dead then and there. His usually bright blond hair was so filthy you couldn’t even tell its colour; a mixture of dust, blood, and Grimm essence had made it the colour of a rusty stain. His face was marred by a red streak that covered half of it, while the other side was obscured by soot and dust, leaving it a splotchy grey.

His shirt that had clung to his body was torn in several places, with a large wet spot across his belly, which she swore looked red when the fire caught it. His belt and chest holster, which had been filled when they left the Hospital, now seemed so sparse, with just his Challenger, a spare magazine and a few bullets to fill it.

But the worst thing had been his right eye.

Gone was the familial Blue he shared with all his siblings and their father, and in its place was a messy red and black orb that looked half swollen. It made him look alien in a way as the blue in his eye was lost to the blood filling it.

Only after Jaune had assured them he was alright and done his usual tic of slicking his hair back was Sky willing to relax.

Seeing him again brought it all back to the forefront of her mind.

But it also reminded her… of just how resilient her brother was.

Jaune was surrounded by two Beowolves and a Boarbatusk, who had cornered him between the blazing collapsed building and an overturned cop car.

But he was smiling.

When she was younger, Sky had thought Jaune had a rather nice smile and, truthfully, never had reason to think otherwise. She had heard from others that Jaune also had a rather creepy smile, with one of Jade’s friends saying Jaune even had what he called a ‘psycho smile.’

That said, the boy had then screamed when Jaune dropped into the room from the second floor and ended that conversation very swiftly.

But looking at her brother now… Sky began to feel she might understand where some of those people were coming from. His exposed arms seemed covered in writhing inky blackness as the fire caused his Slayer Marks to come alive in the flickering lights. His face appeared masked due to the filth, his pale skin hidden beneath blood and filth.

One eye was illuminated in their startling blue, the other a cloudy dark maroon.

But his smile… it was savage.

His teeth stood out. Their bright ivory, partially painted pink from the blood of his own body, was stark against the rest of his expression. The actual curve of his smile was sharp and carved on his face in a manner that screamed danger.

It wasn’t a smile.

It was a beast, barring its fangs.

Then Sky saw his hands and what he was clutching in them and found herself perturbed.

‘Why is he using that when he has a gun?’ Sky thought, watching Jaune slowly back up, his arms moving as his hands wrapped the object around his arm.

“Are you going to help him?” Jade shrieked at Arrastra, who had moved to the back of the truck and was stomping a Creep's head in, the bone-white mask shattering under her enhanced strength, the rest of its head being reduced to pulp.

“Not unless you feel like becoming fucking snake food!” Arrastra barked back as she dropped to a knee and aimed at the King Taijitu, who was no longer spasming.

Jade looked back to Jaune and saw only how much further away he was getting as the truck finally cleared the worst of the rubble.

Sky gasped as the Boarbatusk charged, and Jade cried out in panic at the sight of their cornered brothers' peril.

Then Jaune flew.

It was so fast that Sky didn’t realise what had happened until afterwards, but then she saw precisely why her brother had done what he had.

Why he had picked up that Fire Hose.

Jaune swung from a light post, and the three Grimm behind him savaged each other as they had yet to realise that Jaune had escaped. Jaune didn’t stop to watch, though. As his feet hit the street, a flick of an experienced hand freed the fire hose from around the light post.

Then Sky realised why the Huntress wasn’t worried.

Because Jaune was incredible.

The heavy head of the fire hose blurred around him at blistering speeds, Jaune flailing it around with devastating precision.

Sky watched, mouth agape, as her brother bludgeoned a Nevermore with the head of his new weapon, tearing one of its legs off and sending it plummeting into the ground.

All while not breaking a step.

He powered through the clumps of Grimm, the monsters trying to score swipes and bites on him, but Jaune was like mist. Every swipe was sidestepped, each pounce avoided, and the Nevermore above may as well have saved their feathers.

But Jaune…

Jaune left a trail of blood and broken limbs.

Jaune twirled better than any dance instructor Sky had ever seen, and she was reminded that Jaune had helped teach Saphron how to dance with Scarlett. His feet glided over the ground, and each step was used to build or preserve momentum as the hose and, more importantly, its heavy nozzle became lethal to anything in range.

Nevermore were ripped from the sky.

Beowolves were crippled or had their jaws splattered over the ground like chunky pudding.

The one Boarbatusk Jaune landed a blow on collapsed on its side with its gut rent open and its legs tangled up in its innards.

Finally, an Ursa blocked Jaune’s path.

Jaune didn’t even hesitate.

Drawing his Challenger, Jaune brought the hose down on Ursa’s head, the crack audible even from where Sky lay on the truck. The Ursa’s jaw hit the ground, and Jaune, in a feat of balance, used the bulkier Grimm as a ramp.

“Brace!” Arrastra screamed, tearing Sky’s attention away from her brother for only a moment.

Then, she was airborne.

She felt a shiver race through her limbs as gravity was removed, and she was left to the whims of momentum. Turning her head to the side, Sky saw why she had been flung from her position on the truck. The King Taijitu, its white head having crashed into the rear of the fire truck, the black head rearing away from Arrastra, who was using her claws to grip the roof.

Sky felt the moment she went upside down and blinked in horror at the look on Jade’s face as she scrambled to grab her. Her older sister was scrambling, Teak looking on aghast, his hands still clutching about the feather impaled through his shin.

Ayame, for her part, wasn’t watching. The Faunus scrambled towards the front of the truck with surprising ease and said something Sky couldn’t make out.

Then Sky saw the roof's edge, where the metal curved downward, and realised she was no longer above the truck. 

She was off the side.

She was falling.

She couldn’t scream; there was no air in her lungs.

She couldn’t catch herself; her fingernails scraped down the side uselessly.

Then she stared at the sky and the world above and watched Jade reach desperately down, trying and failing to grab her.

Sky watched the sky above her sister, the sight of the monsters, the Grimm, that flew above. Some followed the fire truck; others flew elsewhere. Their sizes differed, and Sky could have sworn she saw something colossal bank to the left as she plummeted.

She watched, flailing, dragging in a desperate, panicked breath as she plummeted those few feet towards the rushing road.

Kuthunk

The sound of metal rending apart drew her eye to the sight of something impaling the side of the truck just above her.

It was long and thin and-

Her back hit something, and Sky screamed, the world rushing back into focus as she listened to several other screams, including her own.

But there was no pain, and her landing had been soft.

Sky looked up from her back and saw blue.

Jaune had caught her.

Sky looked around, taking it all in, and saw that Jaune was being dragged behind the fire truck, his boots scrapping along the road as he clutched desperately to the hose that somehow tethered him to the vehicle.

She was pressed against his chest. His arm, which he held his challenger in, wrapped around her waist securely.

“Jaune,” Sky whispered in awe, her brother not even blinking as he skied behind the truck.

“Hold on tight; I need my arm back,” Jaune ordered.

Sky didn’t need to be told twice, rolling over and clutching his shoulders.

This did, however, have the unfortunate side effect of revealing what was behind them.

“Jaune!”

“I know.”

“Snake!”

“I know!”

“Getting closer!”

“I am aware, sister!”

The words were taken from her mouth as Jaune leapt off the road, his body, and therefore, by conjunction, her body spiralled perpendicular to the road until Jaune landed once more on the road, his boots scraping audibly as the asphalt tore at the soles.

Sky saw why, as they landed, the truck needed to swerve as cars and more Grimm became an issue, and Jaune was forced to make manoeuvres of his own.

Before Sky could ask Jaune to warn her, she felt them leap off the ground again. This time, though, she had time to scream.

The sound of something new grinding on the asphalt soon joined her scream.

Looking down, Sky saw a very unhappy-looking Boarbatusk, its side now pinned to the road by Jaune’s boots as he rode atop it.

Sky looked back up at her brother and could have sworn he looked almost satisfied, though his eyes were solely locked forward.

“How you doing back there!” Arrastra hollered from the back of the truck.

“We need up!” Jaune replied, having to leap from the pig Grimm as it was smashed into a curb, its body reduced to a clump of mangled Grimm flesh. Jaune, for his part, managed to land atop a car and bounce off its side before his boots once more had to suffer the road's wrath.

Arrastra glanced their way for a second only to grimace.

“I sort of have a snake issue to deal with!” Arrastra apologised as another bolt was flung from her weapon. The sound of rushing flames and heat brushing her cheek reminded Sky of the existence of the enormous serpent chasing them.

Jaune growled loud enough that Sky felt the noise as much as she heard it, causing her to give her brother a startled look.

“Hold on!” Jaune warned before he let the hose slip through his fingers.

Sky screamed.

“JAUNE!”

Jaune’s back was mere centimetres off the ground, and his head turned up as he looked at what was behind them. This also made Sky practically sit atop Jaune's chest and allowed her to see the full scope of their pursuers.

The Taijitu was only part of the issue.

Sky couldn’t say anything as she stared at the hoard of monsters on their heels. There were so many that it was like they consumed the street as they pursued. Towards the front were Beowolves and creeps in full sprint, tied neck and neck with the Taijitu leading the charge. Above them, a wave of black wings in the form of Nevermore and Griffon blanketed the world above.

Then Sky heard the sound of rock crunching and saw a Boarbatusk rolling to the front, its spinning form grinding towards them even faster than the Beowolves.

Jaune also saw this and responded swiftly.

The crack of his Challenger was followed swiftly by the round crashing against the Boarbatusk and the Grimm spiralling off to run over two Beowolves in a gory collision.

“Reload!” Jaune ordered, handing his sister his gun.

Sky took it without question, fear and adrenaline powering her through any inquisition as she twisted to pry one of his last two remaining bullets free of his belt.

It slipped from her fingers.

Sky screeched in a noise of primal fear as she managed to snag it just as quickly. Jaune looked at her with deep concern as she apologised with her eyes.

She made to pass him his loaded Challenger, but Jaune had other ideas.

“Hold!”

They were airborne again, and something cold was washing over them.

Jade looked back to see a blasting fire hydrant had been the source.

The erupting fire hydrant then transformed into a pillar of ice as Arrastra nailed it with yet another Bolt, which caused a chain reaction that caused a not insignificant number of Grimm to freeze or be buried in ice.

“Out of Ice! We need a plan!” Arrastra announced, looking down with worry.

Jaune only growled as he took his Challenger back from Sky, “This is the plan!”

“We need a better one then!”

“I’m out!” Salmon added, holding his shotgun uselessly.

Jaune heard this and responded quickly, “Get on the back of the truck!”

Salmon hesitated momentarily, but Jade was now next to him, “Sky! Jaune! Are you ok?”

“Stay down, kid!” Arrastra ordered over the rushing wind.

“Brace!”

This time, everyone but Arrastra dropped as the fire truck hit something.

Sky did, too, but burying her face in Jaune’s chest was a different comfort as Jaune twisted and pulled them both to the right of the truck.

“My boots can’t take much more of this!” Jaune proclaimed with urgency. Sky then looked at his feet and saw what Jaune meant as the road continued eating at his heavy-duty boots.

Never had she been so grateful that Jaune was forced to order the majority of his attire with their dad, and thus, a lot of it was Huntsman gear.

“You! Hairy! Make yourself useful and help them!” Arrastra barked at Salmon, the big man grimacing but moving to the truck's rear.

“Drop the fucking gun!” Arrastra shouted in exasperation.

Sky barely heard it as the man realised he was still holding the now useless shotgun. “Oh, right.” With both arms free, he began to climb down much swifter.

“Brace!”

Only to nearly go flying off as the King Taijitu managed to hit mere inches to the side of where he was. Jaune took the opportunity to fire up into the underjaw of the snake Grimm. The explosive round actually managed to pierce through enough to cause some damage, leading to Sky and Jaune both gaining a fresh Coat of Grimm ‘blood’ as it rained down on them.

The monstrous snake screeched and rolled, losing ground and letting them gain some much-needed breathing room.

“Now’s your chance!” Arrastra hollered, transforming her weapon and impaling it into the truck as she, too, jumped down onto the rear of the truck.

“Brace!”

“Oh for fucks sak-“

The whole fire truck went airborne, and Sky and Jaune were tossed into the air with abandon.

When the truck crashed into the ground, Jaune was unable to get his feet under him, and Jade listened to the sound of his pants leg being shorn off, with parts of his skin following soon after.

But her brother didn’t do more than wince, jerking his body up and getting his feet under him without a care for the blood now streaming over his right boot.

“Would you please fucking drive better!” Arrastra shouted around the side of the truck, the cat Faunus looking particularly stressed.

“Sky! Reload!” Jaune got out as he tried to keep them steady, but Sky realised very much why they were struggling with the driving.

More and more Grimm were appearing in front of them.

The Second Wave was nearing their evacuation points.

Jaune was forced to slide and swerve as Sky fumbled to load his gun with a final round; the movement was enough to make her stomach do backflips, but she had emptied her guts earlier and would not be doing a repeat performance.

Not on her brother, at least.

“Loaded!”

Jaune took his Challenger and immediately holstered it.

Then Sky felt her world shift as Jaune hauled himself upright in one smooth motion, his body leaving the ground as he vaulted a barricade. When they landed, he had an arm around her centre again, his body nearly completely upright with only a slight bend in his legs.

“Sky… I am going to throw you!” Jaune shouted.

Sky could only stare.

“Do not struggle!” Jaune warned.

Sky didn’t even get a chance to complain before she found herself in her brother’s outstretched arm.

If riding on his chest was terrifying, riding in one arm was something she could happily never do again as long as she lived.

“Jaune!” Sky cried out, terrified as her entire weight rested on her brother's outstretched limb.

“Trust me!” Jaune shouted back confidently. There was no reassuring smile, cocksure grin, or nod of affirmation. When she looked at her brother's bloody visage, she saw eyes unwavering from their target and a jaw set in a rigid position as he lined up his throw.

Jaune’s face was that of expertise, of determination, of focus.

Sky didn’t say anything.

She didn’t need to.

She trusted her brother.

But before Jaune could throw her to the waiting Arrastra, a massive black beast crashed atop the truck, causing several people to scream. Sky watched on in horror as the police officer was kicked, flailing off the side of the truck, his body crunching into the unforgiving road and skidding for meters before the Grimm descended on him.

She was blinded momentarily as Jaune yanked her back into his embrace, grunting as he struggled to keep his balance. His leg jerked to the side as their ride became even more uncomfortable, but they remained upright even if Sky didn’t know how.

But then Sky was screaming as the Griffon’s landing proved to be the last straw. The hose nozzle Jaune had managed to impale into the side of the truck finally bucked loose.

Only Arrastra’s leaping into action saved them. She practically squashed Salmon into the truck and lunged for the nozzle. Her Aura flared as she grabbed it, the head of the hose smacking into her hands as she grasped it.

“Fucking Griffon!” Arrastra screamed as she shoved the nozzle into Salmon’s grasp. “Hold this!” She ordered before she leapt up. Salmon was nearly jerked off the back of the truck, and only his having an arm securely wrapped around a handle on the back saved his life.

It didn't mean it didn’t hurt, as the hairy bear Faunus let out a deep curse as he was forced to use all his strength to hold firm.

For her part, Arrastra hadn’t just leapt onto the truck's roof; she had gone up and above the Griffon, which was currently doing its damndest to peck at a screaming Teak.

This was all the invitation she needed to land on its neck.

Immediately, it began to buck and flap, screeching wildly for all to hear as it tried to shake her loose. But she didn’t budge, once more taking advantage of her Faunus trait to stab her claws into its flanks as she rode atop its monstrous frame.

“I have had it up to here with this shit!” Arrastra raged over the Grimm’s resistance, drawing another bolt from her coat, the Dust colour unseen to Sky as she slammed it into the side of the Grimm’s mask with her hands.

Whatever Dust it was, the effect was immediate.

The Griffon's whole head exploded from within, a shower of black gore and rushing steam billowing out and blowing away as the fire truck continued to race. The monstrous thing listed to the side as it staggered about without a head. Arrastra wasn’t done yet, though. As she hopped off its back, she slammed her foot into its ribs on the way down.

Its enormous body was sent over the edge, and Sky could only watch as it caused yet another obstacle for the Grimm, buying them a few more precious seconds from the voracious hoard.

But there was no joy, no sense of victory in the wake of another slain monster.

They hadn’t cheated death.

They had delayed it.

“Arrastra!” Sky flinched at Jaune’s sudden roar, his tone one of panic.

Arrastra must have heard the same tone as she jerked around, ready to react.

“Look!”

Sky followed her brother’s instruction, the gesture of his head.

What she saw… it was like looking at a different world.

The evacuation point they had been racing for was gone, drowned beneath a flood of howling, writhing monsters that clawed and snapped as they tried to scale the inner district walls.

Sky saw Grimm of such size that other Grimm clambered on top of them in an attempt to get closer to their prey. One such Grimm appeared to look something like an elephant Sky had seen in picture books once, its tusks scraping into the thick wall as it pressed against the

She watched, terrified, as something like a spider began to scale the wall, its long legs scuttling up the side.

It didn’t get far before disappearing in a flash of blooming fire that consumed it entirely and cast it back to the ground below. Half a second later, the shockwave hit her, and she felt the tremble as the energy moved past her.

Sky turned to look at Jaune, his grim expression doing nothing to settle the growing anxiety in her chest. “Jaune… what do we do?”

He was stopped from answering when Arrastra reached down to grab the hose and jerked them both back atop the truck. Sky should have been terrified to be experiencing the sensation of being flung through the Sky but found her body feeling utterly drained.

Jaune placed Sky next to Jade, who swiftly pulled her younger sister into a firm embrace, one Sky returned with equal delight.

By the time they broke apart, Jaune had already marched to the front of the fire truck, the vehicle's movement not bothering him in the slightest. Arrastra was beside him, casting a worried glance behind them at the sizeable mass of Grimm still pursuing their escaped vehicle.

“Come on,” Sky whispered, tugging Jade along, wanting to stay close to Jaune.

Jade was stunned by this, “Eh! Was falling off once not enough for you?”

Sky ignored her crawling along the top, having to make many stops as the truck continued to drive at top speed.

Eventually, though, she got close enough to hear her brother, who had leapt onto the driver’s side of the cabin with zero hesitation.

“- the other alternative is we continue to drive around long enough for them to stem the Breach and begin reclamation procedure.”

Arrastra shook her head at this, the blue-haired Huntress sitting atop the cabin, her head looking around for danger. “No way in hell we can drive that long. Something will catch us… and I can't speak for the rest of you, but I am running on empty on damn near everything.”

Sky had to strain her ears to hear Tara, but luckily, the woman’s shouting was made all the louder by the heat in her words. “So alternatively, you want me to drive us towards death instead of waiting for it to find us!”

Jaune’s brow furrowed, and his lip twitched upwards. For a brief second, Sky wondered what her brother was thinking as he glared at the Faunus driving them.

“If we get through the Breach before the Grimm disperse, we can move out of the range of focus and our chances of survival increase dramatically,” Jaune argued.

“He’s right,” Arrastra added. “Right now, we are in a big bowl of negativity; Grimm are just going to keep coming until the wall manages to break the tide.”

Ayame spoke from her place, lying prone in front of both Jade and Sky.

“Why can’t we wait then?”

Jaune turned to her, and his eyes immediately darted to the two of them, his gaze seeming to soften before they returned to the younger Faunus. “To break the tide, they need to stop the wave's assault on the wall and then plug the Breach,” Jaune lectured before turning to look back towards the evacuation point they had been driving towards.

Sky glanced over and saw Jade cringe at the sight of Grimm being hammered by enough ordinance that entire blocks near the barrier would likely need to be rebuilt from the ground up… after they filled in the craters.

“… I would say we have some time before they accomplish the first part,” Arrastra commented.

“And until they do, more Grimm fill the space behind them… we are in that space,” Jaune pointed out.

The cabin was silent, Tara seeming to have nothing to say in response.

Arrastra, running low on patience, decided to continue, “There is another option.”

Tara was quick to reply, “Yes?”

“We split up,” Arrastra suggested in a clipped tone.

“What!”

That came for several people both inside the cabin and as far back as Teak.

“It would make us a far less appealing target,” Arrastra shrugged before smiling at Jaune. “The blond seems more than capable enough; I doubt he and his sisters would struggle to find a nice hideaway.”

“Already have several in mind,” Jaune nodded.

Sky didn’t doubt that for a second.

Arrastra continued, “The rest of you can have the fire truck. You can ride around as you please, waiting for something to catch you or until everyone in there with you dies of their injuries.”

The silence following her offer was heavy, and Sky wondered for a second what type of whispered discourse might be occurring inside the vehicle.

“Make your decision quickly, please; I want to get over the wall before my exhaustion begins to weigh on my Aura reserves,” Arrastra snapped, banging the haft of her weapon on the roof.

Sky saw that despite her tone, Arrastra was smirking at her brother, the two of them sharing a knowing look.

Arrastra’s impatience seemed the last straw as Tara’s voice rang out from inside the truck, “… Which way to the Breach?”

Jaune looked back at them, more specifically at her and smiled.

It was the smile Sky knew well.

The smile of her big brother.

The smile that promised everything would be ok.

And Sky trusted her brother.