บท 1895: 125
Chapter 125Notes:
Sorry did I say things were getting bad in a few chapters? I meant now.
Chapter Text
It had started so well.
An attack at dawn on the White Fang encampment beneath Mountain Glenn- they'd pulled off the initial infiltration without a hitch.
The guards in the area had been taken down stealthily along with the grimm guarding the main entrance into the subway- easily dispatched by long distance sniper shots from Ruby, who had taken to the air on the back of a Lancer construct and annihilated the grimm one by one so fast they couldn't make any noise. Once they'd snuck in, Ruby had put away Crescent Rose in favor of Augury- its shotgun performed better in enclosed spaces, and even when not extended to full length, the sharpened blade on the bottom section acted well enough as a short sword that Augury's inactive form was just as deadly as anything. She could have used any other weapon in her arsenal, but it just felt better to use her two main weapons and leave the rest for practice and sparring.
Professor Goodwitch and Qrow had hung back at first, then taken point once it became clear that the tunnels were full of a lot more problems than they had thought.
The main problem was that there was just an unholy amount of Dust everywhere and way too many people with guns standing about loading it onto what appeared to be the sole working train in the massive, cavernous train station that had once been the main selling point of Mountain Glenn- a train station built into an utterly massive cave beneath the mountain, lit up and gleaming as a sign of human progress.
Now it was just a bomb waiting to go off. Burn Dust, Wind Dust, Lightning Dust, Water Dust, Ice Dust- every possible kind, in every possible form, stacked up high in crates and carts, wheelbarrows and suitcases and boxes and shipping containers and train cars… most of it seemed to be headed for the train, loaded up and stacked in such a way that every single car would be absolutely filled with material- perfect for a bomb.
None of them wanted to know what it would do once it was ready to go- an impact with that much Dust could destroy an entire city if detonated on the surface, or blow a massive chunk out of one if it hit belowground.
The rest of the Dust was being used differently, for some reason, an excavation crew digging a massive pit and loading the Dust inside- one of many dotted around the area- in such a way that the resulting explosion would be directed upwards .
But why?
Ruby knew why.
There was a grimm presence in the mountain above Mountain Glenn. Something ancient and massive and so powerful that even she didn't know if she could fight it head on and win. Even with as much mass as she had, even with that much power… a grimm presence that strong while it was dormant was something that would send an immediate level twelve grimm alert, level thirteen by the time it landed in a city.
It wasn't like a Leviathan, which was a known quantity and could be handled easily. It wasn't like a Sea Feilong or a Megoliath or some of the mythical grimm creatures of centuries past… it was real and it was here and it was a threat so massive that it wasn't just a city killer, it was a Kingdom killer.
They'd all fought through the mass of White Fang troops- most of whom cut and ran the moment that Ruby shouted for their surrender and fired a few blanks from Augury's shotgun whilst extending it to full scythe form. The presence of Professor Goodwitch and Qrow had helped with that, and the rest of the team being there made almost all of the White Fang members choose life instead of fighting to the death.
The few die hard members that remained had tried to stop the deserters, but they'd been taken down easily as well, but their residual hate had also led to a bunch of grimm roaring out of the back cars of the train and attacking.
Ruby and Penny had dispatched them easily, with Ruby simply consuming most and Penny slicing the rest to ribbons.
It had almost gone to plan. Almost.
All of the White Fang members had been dispatched- either they ran out of the subway entrance and started driving out of the ruined city, or they had been knocked unconscious by the seven of them in some way or another. Weiss had almost gotten ambushed by a giant burly man with a chainsword, but she'd handled him with remarkable aplomb after extending Myrtenaster into its full lance mode.
Then four of the emotional signatures that Ruby had been tracking had suddenly flashed out of the shadows, having been covered by a strange grimm none of them had ever seen before- one that dissipated into smoke once the cover was broken. They hadn't even fought- the four figures simply ran into the train while radiating a thin haze of anger and annoyance.
Ruby had tried to give chase, but a vial of Earth Dust had exploded at her feet and sprouted a wall that blocked off the entire tunnel that the train had been halfway sticking out of- even going so far as shearing the entire train in half to the point that it was impossible to follow at all.
And then Ruby had felt one of the four signatures in the tunnel flash with wicked triumph before vanishing all at once.
And then something in each of the pits dug out of the portions of the station and walls had started beeping and Ruby barely had time to scream out, "TAKE COVER!" before everything went to hell.
Heat and light ripped through the area as tons and tons of highly volatile Dust exploded in a chain reaction that turned the entire subterranean cave into an utter hellscape of nothing but pain.
Ruby screamed, even as she tried to outpace the explosion itself- having flashed into rose petals as fast as she could and flung her petals at her Team while Professor Goodwitch raised a wall from the rubble and Uncle Qrow dived behind it. Even with the petals that had been incinerated as the blast wave hit, there was enough left that she pushed her mass into all of them and raised walls of the toughest, strongest, most durable bone armor she could. It was faster than she'd ever made constructs before, the desperation and fear in her soul powering the stuff of annihilation further even as she did her best to surround everyone in armored bubbles.
She didn't have time to protect herself, but she let herself get blown away by the eruption anyway- screaming in agony as her massless, cloudy form was thrown up and out and scattered into the hellish updraft and burst apart on the blast wave as the sheer force chewed through rock and the overwhelming, scorching heat turned everything else into molten lava.
Ruby slammed into something solid as she was thrown upwards, barely clinging to life as the burnt and wilted petals making up her body stuck into something so much bigger, so much stronger.
She could barely feel the signatures below, had felt all of the bodies she couldn't protect wink out one by one by one in a near instant as the explosion consumed them in the hottest, deadliest fire she'd ever experienced.
Down below, in the cavern of hell, Penny screamed as she pressed against the walls of the barrier she'd been surrounded by, feeling Ruby's Aura from afar as she desperately held out against the seemingly never ending explosion that rocked the entire mountain from below.
Was this how they died? Barely surviving an explosion large enough to collapse a mountain and then being buried under millions of tons of rubble and molten rock? Was this how it was all going to end?
Penny didn't want to die.
She didn't want this to be the end.
She didn't want it to be the end when she could feel her greatest love's Aura guttering out as she was flung about on waves of fire while she was held within a slowly crumbling wall of bone and grimm ooze. She could feel Ruby's soul in the construct, feel it fading slowly as Ruby started to fade…
She sniffled, bracing herself as the world around continued to roar so loud it was deafening, almost able to hear it even when she turned off her audio sensors. Penny whimpered quietly, losing strength in her limbs as the last of the blast started to die out and leave an eerie silence filled with the occasional sound of crumbling rock.
The ground stopped shaking for a moment, and Penny dared open her eyes in the darkness, peering through the holes now present in the bone and grimmstuff at the outside world.
She trembled again, swallowing thickly despite the lack of need- she couldn't help it, couldn't help the involuntary reactions she felt as she pushed out of the empty shell and registered how hellish the area had become.
"I-is… everyone okay?" she called out weakly, barely managing to handle the heat left over as it soaked into the rock- parts of what remained of the cave were glowing red hot, parts of it were molten , parts of it had been shattered beyond recognition, and what little evidence of human habitation had been there before was now blasted into so much ruined material- the train itself completely gone .
The sky above was the pale blue of morning and peered through the now gaping hole left in the cave ceiling, and Penny was suddenly aware that the entire attack had taken less than an hour from start to finish. Was suddenly aware that most of the explosion had gone upwards and blasted away a massive chunk of the cave away from the people inside. Was suddenly aware that there was a massive black mass shaped almost like an egg embedded in the half of the cave ceiling that still existed, having been buried in the back of the cave ceiling, further inwards toward the center of the mountain.
She trembled, looking upwards at the black mass as it started to register on her sensors.
It was a grimm.
Of course it was.
Penny sighed, pushing away all thoughts as she prepared for further combat, glaring as the black mass writhed to life.
Grimm Incursion Level 11 and rising. She couldn't let it anywhere near Vale.
Well. This was what she trained for. So she said the words even if she didn't believe them, every single one of Floating Array's swords coming to life as they began to orbit around her in deadly synchronicity.
"I am combat ready!"
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