Shin bashed in the head of a beowolf, before launching towards another and swiftly axe kicking it into the ground. Despite the effort of him, Brandford and the other guards, the Grimm were pushing past them and into the streets of the town. The humans meanwhile, were at their wits end attempting to fend off the horde to little avail.

“They just keep coming!” One of the soldiers shouted, stabbing her spear into the neck of a beowolf.

Shin whipped around in time to raise his arm and block a swipe from an ursa. Much like with the beringle before, the momentum of the hit was lost almost immediately. He then returned fire with a punch to the chest, followed by a spinning elbow to its snout.

As the ursa fell, Shin caught something out of the corner of his eye. Leaping over the broken wall was a beringle, bearing a strange green colour. With another bound, it leapt behind a house.

“What the hell…” Brandford muttered as he watched the mysterious Grimm leave the scene.

“It’s just like what Thalia described.” Shin said to himself. “A new challenge to be faced.”

With that, he bolted off towards the house. Brandford watched him leave, but said nothing, before refocusing on the Grimm invasion ahead.

*

“How many more do you think?” Ash asked, turning to Scarlett.

“Not too many… I think once this group is in we’ll be fine. We should still search for stragglers afterwards.” Scarlett replied, ushering a large group of civilians towards the doors of the town hall. “How do you think they’re doing at the wall?”

“Umm…” Ash peered down the long road ahead, shifting his gaze in the direction of the northern gate. He squinted, making out a few nevermores circling and swooping down, but nothing else. “No clue. They’re probably fine though.”

“Who am I kidding, they have Shin with them. I’m sure they’re doing alright.” Scarlett said with a slight hopeful grin.

“How are things coming along, students?”

The familiar voice of Ivory made itself heard, with the mayor stepping past the hustling citizens and taking a step down the short stone staircase leading to the town hall, towards the duo. She was flanked on either side by a pair of guards, one with blonde hair and the other a faunus with a bear tail.

“Pretty good. I think.” Ash replied casually. “Except for the tower.”

“It’s going well, Miss Ivory. We should have the majority of the town secured soon.” Scarlett replied with slightly more professionalism.

“Good. I’m already aware of the tower, but I believe that with our construction team we can get it working again by tomorrow. All that matters is protecting the town.” Ivory replied with a nod. “Speaking of, any word from those at the wall?”

“Nope.” Ash said.

“Nothing yet, I assume they’re holding out-”

Scarlett was interrupted by a loud howl, seemingly coming from one of the surrounding alleyways. Ash, Ivory and Scarlett all turned their attention to one of the houses at the far end of the road leading up to town hall. The citizens in the area began to murmur, some letting out scared shouts.

“Was that…?” Ivory asked hesitantly.

“Miss Ivory, please, get back inside. It’s not safe out here.” Scarlett said, drawing her daggers. “We need to get these citizens inside, now.”

Ash took a step forward down the street, moving a few feet away from the staircase and his allies. Ivory heeded Scarlett’s warning and moved to the entrance of the town hall, the two guards stepping in front of her.

“Come! Everybody move!” The mayor called to the remaining crowd.

“Ash. What are you doing?” Scarlett asked.

“If any Grimm come, I’m gonna kill them.” He replied simply.

On queue, a dark figure emerged from an alleyway on the far end of the street. A beowolf, its nose in the air. Its blood red eyes soon refocused themselves upon the town hall, or more specifically the humans dwelling outside and within. Letting out a howl, it was joined by several more, all emerging from the surrounding streets and alleyways. Without wasting another second, they bolted down the dirt road towards their target.

“How did they get past the wall?” Scarlett wondered, a hint of fear in her voice.

“No idea, but that doesn’t matter right now. Just stand back.” Ash said, reaching to his belt. From there he extracted what appeared to be a piece of metal… Until it unfolded into a pointed spear. The Grimm grew closer.

Scarlett gazed at her junior hesitantly, but complied with his wishes, focusing on the citizens and ensuring no Grimm attacked from nearby.

Ash turned his attention to his wrist, whereupon a silver bracelet resided. A holographic screen emerged from this bracelet, and Ash tapped it. Upon this activation, a set of armour began to form upon his body. Hard light shaping into the form of a chestplate, greaves and a helmet, all projected from small bracelets and bands located on various parts of his body. He tapped the screen once more, before taking up a fighting stance. The hard light armour shifted from its usual cyan colour to a deep purple.

As soon as the colour had shifted, Ash charged forth and met the Grimm head on. Upon entering within a ten meter radius of the nearest few Grimm, the creatures were instantly and forcibly drawn towards him. The beowolves attempted to resist, but nothing they did could break them out of the armour’s intense pull. Soon, the entire group had entered Ash’s radius and were thus forcibly pulled towards him. Most of the Grimm had now refocused their attention now, from the citizens ahead to Ash. Luckily for the Mistralian student, control over the gravitational pull of the area ensured none of the Grimm would end up coming too close for comfort.

Once the beowolves had been gathered in a radius around Ash, all struggling to break out of the pull, he switched gears. Tapping the screen again turned his purple armour a fiery red. The pull released the Grimm, but gave them a much bigger issue. All the Grimm around Ash began to combust into flames, lighting up the street with an orange glow. The ground beneath Ash’s feet grew black and singed as he moved, finally directly attacking the Grimm.

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His spear pierced through the head of a burning beowolf, while another pair succumbed to the flames. Two of the beasts broke away from Ash and resumed their sprint towards the citizens.

A few fearful shouts rang out as the sight of two burning Grimm charging down the street sent the townsfolk into a bit of a frenzy. Luckily, Scarlett stepped in. She brandished her chain, blades flying through the air and slicing up the Grimm. Their bodies fell to the ground, charred and singed.

"Come! Get inside!" Ivory ushered the townsfolk in, with only a small group remaining.

The citizens watched in awe as the final few Grimm collapsed, the air now filled with the smell of smoke and burning fur. Ash turned back towards the town hall, his armour extinguishing and deactivating itself. He gave Scarlett a thumbs up.

“Whoa… Ash… That’s Atlas tech, isn’t it?” Scarlett asked as he approached the staircase.

“Yeah, it’s kinda neat. I grew up on a farm, but my dad knew some big time Atlas guys. Since I didn’t have a semblance, he pulled some strings and got me this before I went off to Haven.” Ash explained. “Technically it’s a prototype version and they’re using me to demo it.”

“That’s… Actually kinda cool.” Scarlett admitted, before quickly pulling her head out of the clouds. “We need to be careful. There could be more around for all we know.”

“If there’s Grimm in the city, I guess that means the wall didn’t hold.” Ash said, brandishing his spear and slowly retreating back to the town hall.

“Oh gods. Just how many Grimm are there?” Scarlett said, a look of fear coming across her face.

“Thank you both.” Ivory said, emerging from the double doors of the town hall. “I managed to get the last of the citizens into the building. With Grimm in the town, I fear for the worst…”

“We’ll stay and defend the town hall.” Ash said. “I have enough dust on me to last a little while.”

“Right. I guess we fight for as long as we can.” Scarlett said, swallowing hard and attempting to calm herself.

“I wish all the best for you students. Thank you, again.” Ivory said, turning and reentering the building.

Scarlett nodded slowly, letting out a long breath.

“Aren’t you a second year? Why do you sound so nervous?” Ash asked directly, as he turned to face the street ahead once more.

“I’m fine.” She replied. “Just… Worried. I don’t know how many Grimm are out there or if we’ll even be able to defeat them…”

“Just stop worrying.” He replied simply. “Don’t think about it. Just worry about what we’re doing right now. One thing at a time. And right now, we both have all our aura, there’s no Grimm attacking us and we’re ready for a fight. I’d say things are going pretty well for us.”

“Well… I mean…” Scarlett mumbled. “I guess it’s good that you can think about it that way…”

*

Thalia did her best to dodge the beringle’s opening charge. The difficulty was less in the speed of the attack, and more so the space that the creature occupied. She was unsuccessful in her attempt, with the creature performing a hammer fist attack and slamming her into the ground. The ground cracked as she was pounded into the dirt of the street, barely able to even keep hold of her daggers. The creature let out an echoey roar, unlike anything the student had ever heard, as it continued to rain hammer fists down upon her.

Thalia realized she had to move, jumping back up to her feet and attempting to dodge the hailstorm of fists. The ground cracked and smashed around her as she weaved past the attacks, running away from the beringle with heavy breaths.

Sadly for Thalia, the repeated punches and destruction of the street had the side effect of also freeing the beowolf. It broke free from its icy prison and immediately began to charge down its prey with a snarl. Thalia knew there was no outrunning this foe. Whipping around, she fired an arrow at the creature. It homed in on the beowolf’s stomach, embedding itself within the beast’s flesh. A stream of ichor began to pour from the wound as it howled in pain.

Thalia’s victory was short earned however, as the beringle finally realized she hadn’t been reduced to a pulp via the hailstorm of fists. It turned to her new location, but approached attacking her from a different angle. Rather than run after her, the Grimm turned to one of the nearby houses. Its muscular hand easily tore a large piece of concrete from the side, before whipping it towards Thalia like a baseball.

The faunus let out a gasp as a table sized piece of concrete hit her squarely in the head, knocking her off her feet. Her aura flickered as she leapt back up, just in time for the beowolf to rush her. Once more, she drew another arrow but the beowolf was too fast. It swatted the arrow away just as soon as it was loaded, before bringing its other clawed paw down and slashing Thalia across the face.

With that attack, Thalia’s aura flickered once more, before outright breaking. She collapsed to the ground in fatigue, dazed and exhausted. Her mark faded from the beowolf as it towered over her, raising its sharp bony claw. Without hesitation it slashed across her stomach, leaving a deep gash that began to bleed furiously as the faunus let out a scream of pain.

*

Leon pursued Willow to the second floor of the transmission building. Unlike the first floor, this level had suffered more damage from the Nevermore’s assault. Chunks of the roof had been blown off, not to mention the section of the tower that had broken off had partially smashed through the right side of the room. This breakage had left a gaping hole in the side of the building, leading to outside. The nevermore was visible from this floor, perched upon the destroyed piece of tower.

Upon reaching Willow, Leon attacked once more. Willow met his blows with blocks using her bare arm, managing to keep up with his repeated attacks. She was swift and didn’t show any signs of injury despite the repeated attacks with a sharp blade to her bare flesh.

Merlot watched on from the staircase as the battle moved all throughout the room, moonlight spilling in from the hole created by the tower.

“No aura… How is she blocking his attacks with no aura?” Merlot wondered to herself, chakrams clutched in her shaking hands.

Leon let loose a sweeping naginata attack, which was in turn blocked by both of Willow’s forearms. Upon reaching this position, the huntsman briefly let go of his weapon and twisted his palm in mid air, aiming it at Willow.

The girl stared at him in confusion for a moment, only to suddenly be thrown off her feet by a pressurized blast of air, slamming into her stomach. Willow was sent to the ground with a short gasp, but quickly recovered in time to dodge a low sweep of the naginata. She returned to her feet, clutching her stomach.

“Judging by that reaction to getting hit by my semblance, you were telling the truth. You really don’t have an aura.” Leon said, slowly making his way towards Willow, weapon at the ready. “I really don’t know what to make of you, but I’m sure Professor Lionheart will.”

“That really hurt…!” Willow exclaimed, continuing to clutch at her stomach. “Don’t do that again!”

Leon didn’t say another word and simply pressed the attack. A stab was blocked by Willow’s palm, but the following air blast caused her to buckle over once more.

“STOP THAT!” Willow exclaimed, clutching at her chest.

“This is your last chance to come quietly. I’m placing you under arrest.” Leon announced, stepping forward and raising the palm of his hand up in front of Willow’s face.

“Did you really beat her…?” Merlot asked nervously, taking a step forward.

“Stay there! She could still be dangerous. We need to keep her somewhere secure so we can go back to helping with the battle. Questioning can come later. Our number one priority right now is still fighting back the-”

Leon stopped mid sentence, as Willow had suddenly bolted back up. He wasted no time in raising his palm, unleashing another blast and missing his opponent by an inch. Floorboards were ruptured as the air collided with the ground instead and Willow managed to put some distance between herself and Leon. The huntsman didn’t seem phased. He spun his weapon and prepared to continue the fight.

“That was your last chance. I can see I’ll have to take you by force.” He proclaimed.

“You’re a foolish huntsman.” Willow seethed. “Look at what you did! I thought I wouldn’t have to do this, but you’ve left me no choice…!”

Raising her hand, Willow made a fist. Leon prepared to charge… Until his ears were suddenly assailed by a sound, the sound of cracking and splitting. An awful noise that immediately drew his attention to the nevermore perched outside. The creature let out a screech of pain as it was seemingly dragged into the room by an invisible force. Along the way, its wings were forced together at odd angles and its legs were twisted, a snapping sound accompanying each unnatural movement.

Leon and Merlot watched in horror as the Grimm was essentially crumpled into a ball. It let out one final screech before its head was twisted at an unnatural angle. From there, its skin began to rupture. Rivers of thick black ichor emerged from beneath its feathers. The ichor made its way towards Willow, twisting through the air like a thick black rope and surrounding her.

“I’m going to kill you now, Huntsman. And I’m going to take Merlot with me, and then I’m going to finish burning this town to the ground.” Willow announced, taking a step forward.