A shout from across the room caught Ashe's attention. Skye was calling out for her to join the other group of students, and Ashe tried to make her way to join them while the two tentacles were still far enough away. She sprinted towards the other group, not noticing the creature staring at her and two others. The tentacles reached her first, as she was only halfway to her destination.

When the Dionaea resumed its assault on her, Ashe was prepared. Mostly. The beast didn't just use the two tentacle-like vines, though, but rather three. Gods damn it, it's like fighting a train wreck. I'm not built for this shit!, she thought. It was going poorly already, and it was only getting worse, even with the blow she'd taken to the head reminding her to pay attention to all of the tentacles. Dodging, weaving, ducking, vaulting over tentacles kept her from taking any more hard hits, but between the exertion and the splitting headache, she was slowing down.

Eventually one of the tentacles struck her in the back, throwing her off-balance and sending her scrambling across the ground and into the shallow waters until she could pull herself upright. The other students were having much less trouble with the damned thing - and had brought tools that were better built for killing large Grimm to boot. Shields, swords, ranged weapons, the works. And all I've got are these fucking gloves!

At least she was closer to Skye's group now, but the vines weren't letting up, and the damned screeching from the Grimm's smaller heads felt like it was coming from inside her already aching head. The vines swung again, and she hopped the first, ducked the second, and watched the third sail off in a totally different direction: towards a classmate. Good riddance, not my problem anymore... Its sudden departure gave her the chance to finally do something, and she hastily spun the dials on her gloves to their highest settings.

A tentacle returned once more only to be met with Ashe's fist. A flash of blazing white flame erupted from the gloved fist towards the tentacle's tip as though she had summoned forth Gungnir from Odin's very hand, burning clean through its hide with a loud crack as the red crystal upon her forefinger shifted to a lifeless shade of red-tinted grey. An eruption of foul, burnt smelling gas burst forth from the gaping hole, indicating some unknown degree of hopefully massive internal damage. Whether or not the remainder of the tentacle would still be usable remained to be seen, but the Grimm yanked the vine away from her immediately.

While the creature was recoiling from the strike, Ashe dashed the rest of the way to the middle of Skye's group formation. A burning sensation at the top of her right hand caught her attention - her Magician's Hand, in all its shoddily constructed glory, was on fire. Very on fire. And the synthetic fibers were melting onto her skin. When she dunked her flaming hand into the marsh waters, the burning itch didn't go away, so she channeled some of her remaining aura toward the burn site in a desperate bid to keep the pain from getting worse. Exhaustion was catching up to her as well, and her heart was pounding in a way it hadn't since the first gang brawl she'd been in. Deep breaths. Deeeeeeep breaths... In through the nose, out through the mouth...

"Sorry I'm late. Taking the rear," she called out to the group over the Dionaea's ceaseless screaming. She wasn't sure if she'd be much use to anyone while out of breath and nearly at the bottom of her aura reserves, but she at least still had one weapon, so she took up a position at the rear along with Skye. One more hit and she'd have to run for the classroom door if it didn't put her down.

As a precaution, she turned the dial on her remaining glove from 11 to 9: 1/4th the power, and not as likely to scorch her left hand.

@NarayanK@Krayzikk@FlitterFaux@Write

And so the battle began. The first thing Yue did was infused her blade with Ice Dust, then stabbed her blade into the ground to create a barrier around Sepia. The wall of ice was at least three feet thick, more than enough to withstand a few blows from this giant monster. But this was only a temporary shield to give the two girls some time to figure something out before the monster wises up or they attack. ”Find some cover and don’t stay still.” Yue told Sepia as she rushed to fight the Dioanae. Most of the other students had grouped up to fight the massive Grimm, causing it to split it's attention between two groups. Normally Yue would try to get the attention of the creature herself, however she wasn't going to squander this opportunity just to play the hero. While the beast was distracted Yue went all out.

Planting her feet on solid ground Yue concentrated her aura through her sword. With a well-practiced swing, Yue fired a beam of energy infused with dust. A blue blade of ice flew towards the Dioanae, cutting through the air and into the water. When the blade beams touched the water it froze them solid, creating a solid layer of ice for the others to stand on. Yue made sure to only target areas that didn't have any of the other students near them, less she accidentally freeze them to the spot. Yue continued to freeze patches of ice around the Dioanae so that it had no water to douse itself in, but when it started to attack some of Yue's friends, she turned her attention towards the smaller vines going towards Ashe and Bianca. Yue knew her sword didn't have much more energy left in it, but she used the rest of the dust infused into the blade to create one huge blade beam that would hit the vines near the base of the Dioanae. The ice ought to cause the vines to become brittle and collapse under their own weight.

Even as the others dealt with the vines their own way, Yue wanted to make sure that the monster didn't just renew it's attack. After depleting the dust in her sword, Yue noticed that Ashe was looking rather tired. Seeing that Yue herself hasn't sustained any injuries yet the maid went over to her new friend, joining her group. "Ashe!" Once Yue reached Ashe, she placed a hand on her shoulder and began to channel her semblance through her. Ashe's exhaustion and pain would vanish and her aura would increase. All the while Yue's aura was getting drained. A small price to pay to keep her allies up. After trading 20% of Yue's own aura, Ashe would recover 60% of her aura. "How are you feeling? Can you still fight?" Yue asked as she kept an eye on the Dioanae.

@NarayanK@Write@Azereiah@Krayzikk@FlitterFaux

---

Llyr had no choice but to wait for his Steel Cephalopod to cut through the thick roots. As another three roots struck out, he managed to sidestep one of them, and deflect another with his cane. The third one, however hit him cleanly in the stomach, sending him flying into one of the wooden posts that was scattered around the arena. He calmly got up from the rubble, dusting himself off. Normally he would've charged straight for the head, but it was requested that he help the others.. Not that he could really do that at the moment. Fortunately, the blades finally cut through the roots, dismembering them. Letting go of the now damaged roots, the Faunus' weapon latched onto the three roots that had come back to attack him once more.

Why didn't he just tie them together like shoe laces? Wouldn't that be amusing~

Taking the three roots, he slowly started weaving them together around one of the wooden pillars. His Steel Cephalopod creaked and shuddered as the roots struggled against his iron grip, but alas it's struggles seemed futile at best.

Jack weaving through the vines and tendrils, slashing them as he did, staying on the move while avoiding the focus locations seemed to be going fine for the time being, the pressure was off of some of the other students while he kept an eye out for it's movements, and soon as he set foot again on the ground a ways off from the main fray, he noticed it turned some of it's tentacles to Ashe and Bianca. With Ashe having taken care of her share, only Bianca was left to fend for herself. Jack immediately hurled a few of his lightning pins at the tentacles headed for Bianca, he wouldn't be able to get over there soon enough to prevent her from being attacked in general, but should they wrap and bind her if she failed to defend herself, he can still cut them apart with the help of his semblance.

On the other hand, he was more worried what a dragged out fight with this thing would mean. With so many tendrils, and it being a Grimm, it didn't exactly run out of stamina. Ashe's previous counter-attack just now seemed to look like it did some serious damage, but for now Jack was keeping an eye out.

---

After peppering the Dioanea with all 40 bullets he had loaded into his weapon, Robert began to reload his dual weapons, an action that looked far more fluid and easy in films. It was while he was fumbling to insert two new magazines into his bracers that he was able to hear Trad's call for help. "Yeah, of course buddy," the boy replied to his teammate as he heard the familiar click that came with a successful reload and pulled back the bolts on the two weapons.

As he ran to his friend's side, the redhaired student heard what sounded like a tree tumbling down a hill and taking out many of its brethren as it rolled down to the bottom. Looking back to see the source of the sound though, he realized that it was the Grimm who had caused the sound as its jaws closed shut where he had been standing just moments again. A single, disappointed sigh escaped his lips as he looked back toward the predator who had chosen him as prey. "Of course it was me," he said under his breath before sprinting away at speeds that would certainly impress the Beacon track team, if there was such a thing.

Running past Trad, Llyr, and Cian, he told the group, "Sorry, I can't help right now!" before jumping onto one of the translucent pads that covered the room. Like a trampoline, he was thrown into the air, just barely escaping the tentacles below him, the wood just barely grazing his foot. While it had definitely saved his life, making him capable of avoiding every one of the tentacle roots that had been crashing toward him, he wouldn't be thinking about that as he landed back on the ground with a sickening thud.

A couple moments of silence would from Robert would most likely worry those who had seen the ridiculous sight that had just happened during their fight with the Grimm. After what might have felt like an eternity to some, he raised his hand in a thumbs up and told his fellow classmates, "I'm alright." His voice would come out muffled though as he had yet to push himself up off the ground.

Annabelle tucked her scroll away as Emerald rejoined them on the ground. She laughed and gave Emerald a congratulatory pat on the behind while she seriously considered the catgirl's trip to the moon. If there is no flight ceiling and atmosphere is not necessary to fly, yes to getting into space. But she'd need a suit at minimum and an air supply that didn't rely on Dust at all. Then there's the fact that the moon is, what? Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away? Even if she brought a snack and enough air... impossible. So naturally Annabelle egged her on. "Sure, why not? Let's make it happen after classes today."

Compiling a list of parts for Oswald's new super hand cannon she didn't immediately notice another sudden shift in Emerald's mood. But the other girl clutching her arm tightly was a fair clue that all was not well. Following where Emerald's finger was pointing it took a moment to identify her sister, as she was expecting to see another feline faunus. The older girl did indeed look pretty disgruntled and Annabelle hoped it was just because her weapon was spilling all over the place. Then again the feathered faunus had likewise received the news that she had another half-sibling. Thinking of it like that she decided she would be royally pissed off if her own mother had been hiding something like that from her. But she would also very much want to meet any such sibling were they to exist so...

For a brief moment Annaelle's expression became distant and almost sad despite the smile she stubbornly held for Emerald's benefit. Yeah, there's nothing quite like a good brother or sister, Emmie. With an effort she pushed aside old memories and fixed her smile before turning to Emerald and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Come on. She might need more time, might be too grumpy right now, but I think it's worth a shot. I'll go with you. Or if you want I could even go over first, test the waters, see if it's a good time? What do you say, Emm?"

Amaranth Desire: Fury Road

Amy just sighed, pulling the rest of the chain from Lauren's Tonfa delineated half of the desk, then loosened and removed the spool in the right arm gauntlet. Thankfully, the one that had actually taken the wear and abundant tear was by far the less complicated arm of the two. All she likely had to do was replace the tensioners in the mechanism and the rest would take care of itself.

Thankfully, Grimm didn't exactly leave gore behind, so it didn't need to be cleaned that badly. She still had leftover pieces from the Fury's construction, so a few seconds of digging in her bag later and she'd located the replacements, pulling the chain the rest of the way out of the engine and sliding the parts in at their default state. A cursory check of the engine's functionality later and a tap on the reset in the palm and it wound the chain back up without too much trouble, though it definitely didn't need to go through anything similarly strenuous anytime soon.

Right, no more decapitating things.

She missed Lauren's sage advice to Luke, but somehow she felt like it would have taken a lot more brainpower to understand than the resources she currently had available.

She could start work on her new project now, she supposed. Amy took a deep breath before speaking, calling up the calm of listening to the whirr of the clockwork that wound up her weapon.

"Thanks again for the glasses, Lorena," she said quietly, looking over a sketch for the armor she was planning. "They've already come in handy."

So this was it, huh? Two weeks was all he got? Sapphire was leaving Beacon. Leaving them all. Leaving him. He didn't know why it felt this way. He realized that there had been something there, but he wasn't sure if it was reciprocated, if it was worth pursuing, or if it had just been an idle fancy.

He'd never know now, really, so what did it matter? And what she was saying to Gren? 'What kind of a huntress would I be if I couldn't look after those closest to me?' That almost physically hurt him. It was a question he'd asked himself more times than he could count. What kind of a leader, what kind of a FRIEND leaves his teammates to die while he drags a broken girl back to safety?

He steeled himself before his self-loathing could take over again. He'd done his best. It just hadn't been enough. That was the reason he was here. To be better.

And then Sapphire asked for a moment. As Gren left, Oswald turned to Sapphire with the most composed look he could give. Between his broken bones and the frustration he was feeling, it probably looked like shit, though.

Taking Sapphire's hand lightly, he gave her a polite shake as she finished what she had to say.

Demetra said he was lost, huh? That....wasn't the word he'd use to describe himself, but it wasn't horribly inaccurate or anything, either. He felt more overwhelmed than lost. He had a goal, he just...was too deep in the shit to reach it without help.

"For what it's worth....I should've kicked your ass that first day." A half-cocked smile and a joking boast was all he could offer. He felt too burned out to say anything of substance, but before he could let her leave, there was one thing he had to say. One thing she needed to here. "Make sure you cherish every fucking second you have with that girl, Sapphire. Because one day you might wake up, and she might be gone. Don't end up like me, wondering what else you could've done. Help her. Let her help herself. And just...just love her."

He had nothing else to say. He didn't need a response. This wasn't a conversation. "Goodbye. And thank you."

It was an ending.

---------------------Back in the classroom--------------------------

Oswald came back to the classroom glassy-eyed and looking even weaker than he'd left it. Inside, he wasn't sure what to feel. So he was just...empty.

Taking a seat, Oswald looked at what he and Gren had been doing before Sapphire showed up. Right. Blades.

He remembered saying something. He just wasn't sure what.

He couldn't bring himself to care much, actually. "So....what next?"

@Lucius Cypher @Prince of Seraphs

@FlitterFaux@Kaithas





Emerald let out a small gasp of surprise as Anna put a hand on her shoulder. She was so nervous it was making her jumpy. She glanced back towards Amy and then back to Anna. She bit her lip for a few minutes, debating whether she wanted to go through with it or not. After what seemed like an eternity she finally spoke up.

“Alright…if you come with me I think I can do it. Just…back me up with I start becoming incoherent or do something stupid…”

It really wasn’t like Emerald to act all shy and nervous, but this was different. She wanted to get to know her sister more than anything, but at the same time, she was terrified at the thought of being rejected.

Still, if she didn’t confront this now it would be eating at her all day. So, she gathered her courage and walked up to Amy’s desk.

“H-Hi.”



@NarayanK

Violet narrowed her eyes as she watched the Dionaea protect its head from her arrows. It was obviously a weak point, otherwise it wouldn’t have bothered to protect itself.

She didn’t have time to think up a new strategy as five roots came flying towards the archer. Violet quickly drew another fire arrow and launched it at one of the roots, but that still left four. Violet leaped away as the first root nearly collided into her, snapping her bow in two as she did, her bow becoming two scimitars. The bow string rolled up into one of the newly formed blades.

The roots didn’t relent however, and so Violet was forced to dodge and strike them with her blades whenever they got too close. She needed to get away from these roots somehow, she couldn’t use her bow with them around.

Skye put a hand on Ashe's shoulder and gave her a nod, as well as what she hoped was an encouraging smile. It had looked rough, almost like she wasn't going to make it to them, but in the end Ashe had managed to explode nearly half a tentacle. She looked like hell for it, though, one of her gloves partially melted into her hand and barely staying on her feet. Still, as bad as she looks now she should be better off with a whole team for support.

Skye watched warily as several of the roots ganging up on each student withdrew. It seemed a suspicious move when she expected the riesen to intensify its assault. She then watched helplessly as the massive Grimm went all out on one of the shooters from the fireteam; the redhead she had noticed earlier in class. Knowing there was nothing she could do without putting her group at risk she could only hope Professor Port would step in before things went too far.

Her eyes, which were constantly shifting across as much of the battlefield as possible, locked onto the brief flash of an orange glow. Her instincts told her that was what they wanted, that they should get at that and tear it apart as fast as possible. Well that is exactly what we're doing. And we're doing it the careful, coordinated way that kills the Grimm and gets everyone home in one piece. I don't need to suicide rush every weak point I see anymore...

"Got rough but holding for now." She answered Ben, knocking away a single tentacle that no longer even seemed fully focused on her. She could probably thank Yue for that since she did freeze a large number of the Dionaea's roots at the base. Jack and the wolf faunus with the explosive arrows were also causing a lot of interference, and Ben made an impressive push while the assault was at its worst. If it keeps going at this pace we might get through this soon. Gods I hope we do... Skye thanked Yue as she, too, joined their group and laid her hand on Ashe, somehow restoring her taxed stamina. I-incredible... "Make that two more with us. Six strong now, pressure's off our flank." After updating the three leaders of their group Skye searched for a target straying too close to the rear.

She didn't have to search at all it turned out, the Dionaea was using its smaller, faster vines now. But it was aiming for Ashe and Bianca as far as she could tell. Cursing inwardly Skye stepped forward and yanked Ashe out of the way when four of those tried to entangle her. Stepping right where Ashe had been a second before the tentacles instead started wrapping around Skye. "Help Bianca, I'm ok!" Or I will be as long as the big ones don't come back around while I'm dealing with this.

It didn't take long for the smaller vines to bind her torso and left side but she was quickly on the counterattack. At the highest speed she could manage Skye jabbed her right hand into the vine around her upper torso. The Riesen's flesh was tough but not as strong as the bigger ones and her hand went all the way through; not enough to sever it but causing enough damage for the thing to pull away.

Another let go of her middle to try and wrap around her right arm. Skye let it, digging her fingers into it to secure her own grip. She set her feet and twisting her body she pulled as hard as she could. She wasn't sure this would have worked normally but Yue had managed to ice some of these smaller ones as well, and the flesh was more brittle where it had been frozen. With a sharp cracking, tearing sound, the whole thing was torn off.

Unfortunately, when she did this something in her own shoulder tore very painfully. S-shit! I can't try that again... Two more. No good. She quickly tried to roll her injured shouder and gauge how bad it was. It moved, but pain shot down her whole arm. She knew she couldn't count on it now, and at this point she could use a little help.

"S-Sangue!"

The fast moving Huntress in training had been doing very well so far as Skye could tell. More importantly, she was close enough to strike the vine around Skye's left arm. She pulled back, forcing the vine taught and hopefully making it easier to cut.

I blinked as the Dionaea made eye contact with me. This was the closest I had come to a Grimm this size. I had barely fought any, let alone a giant such as this. Riesen class were horrifying to fight. Like fighting mythology itself in a way. It was a horrifying thought, this monster by itself if it had not been pruned could have potentially killed a class even bigger than this one. By itself.

”1-1, Nuit!” Ben called out snapping my attention to the vine that hit the ground with a thud before slowly disintegrating. Right. This was a Riesen-Class, sure. But it was also a chance for me to grow.

“Fine then.” I called out to the team leader as the Riesen continued to flick between myself and two other points of interest. “Let’s do this.” I said.

But the fates had another idea. The Dionaea’s head stopped on the third point. Not myself, but another boy in the room. It decided to truly go on the attack as vines began to slither towards Ashe and myself. I watched as a myriad of attacks from other students shot out over the battlefield but the first thing I noticed was the smaller, thinner roots on the ground dodged those preliminary attacks, continuing their advance towards Ashe and I.

Well fine then Dionaea I’ll use my advantages then.

“Ben, I’m going to fly up, you’ve got roots coming in from my side, hold position for a moment.” I said my wings bursting out to full length ready to take flight. “I'll scout ahead, get these roots off my back.” I motioned to the roots quickly approaching.

I rocketed skywards nearly fifteen feet before beginning to slow down so I could get a greater view of the area. I scanned for incoming roots and found a thicker root coming towards me. I immediately furled my wings around my body, feeling the warmth they provided as I began to drop, unfurling them once more with a mighty flap, I felt the massive wind follow the thick root that attempted to smack me out of the air. The thin roots were already approaching Ashe and it seemed Skye also had roots snake around her wrist. She called out to Sangue to tear the roots but I saw the issue immediately.

I lined up the shot and as she pulled back to make the root taught my spear found its mark and sliced clean through it. Bringing it back with my semblance I snagged it out of the air and nodded towards Skye’s position. I glanced towards the Dionaea and… Something caught my eye.

It glowed orange from the center of the Dionaea, much easier to see from the air. A weak point?

No. That doesn’t make sense. This isn’t a video game and Grimm unless armoured, do not have weak points. However, perhaps it was the main head. If we could destroy it then maybe, just maybe we could kill this thing. I allowed myself to plummet to the ground landing with a thud directly beside Ben.

“There’s an orange glow at the center of all the roots. We have two options, I could fly us up and drop you and I on the center, or we can try and wade our way there. What are your orders, Cap?”

I made sure to keep vigilant while speaking, keeping my spear at the ready.

"That's also 2-1"

@NarayanK @Write @FlitterFaux @Azereiah @Ryonara

Ben heard Bianca’s warning, but the Dionaea was quick this time. It adapted to Bianca’s departure in a flash, deciding instead to take a shot at the tip of the spear; Ben himself. The four smaller roots came shooting in from his left, just behind where his guard was focused. Not strong enough to cause harm, not really, but trap him up?

That they could do.

They wound through his defenses like snakes, wrapping tightly first around his arm, then his leg, and finally around his neck. Two made pulled as tightly as they could around his neck, rendering whatever he was about to say as a choked, strangled sound. The roots were pulled taut, restricting his movement on the left. It might not have been an issue, but the two larger limbs were still pressing the attack. With Joyous Guard tied up and his mobility limited, Caletfwlch was now his only defense.

He barely twisted aside from the first lashing root and parried the second, but he could hear the difficulties Skye was having behind him. With Bianca in the air and the others occupied, he wasn’t going to be getting much help. In a situation like this, the natural first instinct was to do anything to regain the ability to breathe. In the trained and untrained alike it was prone to inspire panic. Panic made you sloppy. As distressing as the lack of air was… A Grimm trying to break his neck wasn’t new. Lauren tried it already.

Hurt like hell, but he could ignore that for a second.

The problem was those goddamn vines. He stepped into the direction the vines pulled, just barely avoiding the vine that smashed into the ground to his right, but the Dionaea was catching on. And the vines doing their best to strangle him were starting to eat away at his Aura. Not to mention that his lungs were starting to burn.

He had to give the Grimm credit, though. Smashing both roots down from opposite angles? Clever. No way to evade. And if those hit they’d be scraping him up off of the floor. Deinamig activated hard, and the root around his arm strained to keep it from moving. It strained, and strained, and strained for the briefest of moments quaking with exertion until it snapped. Joyous Guard went up over Ben’s head, Caletfwlch sliding into its sheath behind it so he could brace the shield with both hands.

The roots hit upon its surface with a sound like thunder, forcing Ben down into a crouch and he still felt the floor crack beneath him. But his guard stood, lungs and muscles burning as his Aura gauge dropped like a stone.

Still he grinned.

He pressed two buttons at once, the first sending strength flooding back into his body as his Aura gauge refilled itself rapidly. He’d hoped to avoid using the batteries but he could spare one. He pushed back hard, shoving the roots away with his shield and freeing himself from their weight.

The second made Joyous Guard release its hold on his forearm and pivot, making itself parallel with his forearm before it split and extended, splitting lengthwise and unfolding to form a sharp point. Caletfwlch’s own edge extended to fill in the gap, providing the spine for the extended blade. And a blade it was; in seconds Joyous Guard had unfolded around it, forming an immense blade that Ben held loosely in his left hand. He held it as easily as a feather despite its mass, extending far in front of him and gleaming faintly pearlescent in the room’s light. It arched up and right, quick as lightning, to intercept the roots lashing out to strike again.

It met them almost contemptuously, cleaving through the thick limbs without reverence and continued down towards Ben’s right, continuing back towards the left to complete the circular motion. It reached so far ahead of him, point angled down, that the tip almost rested against the surface of the water. Bastille’s captain drew in a deep breath, the vines that had entrapped him sinking into the water as they dissolved.

”We’ll call that 2-5, Nuit. Those small ones are barely a half each.” The statement came out low and raspy, coming deep from his chest through his still burning throat. Ben switched Joyous Guard to his dominant hand, easily bringing it back up into a ready position. Blue eyes swept over the situation, using the lull in the assault to take in the details.

The Dionaea’s trunk was thick, but it still wasn’t as large as a Manticore. He wasn’t sure the point Bianca described was necessarily a weakness, but if they could get close enough… Hiis BaSteels told him his Aura was back into the green, even if Deinamig had eaten up most of the excess. But between his Semblance and Bianca’s....

”Yue, take point. Skye, take Bianca’s position on the left. Ashe is rear guard. Keep pushing forward. Bianca and I are going to need to fall back if this doesn’t work.” The bird girl caught his grin directly when he jerked his head towards the Dionaea’s root, the look more than a little feral. ”Bianca, we’re getting as close as we can. Hope you can fly well.”

The Grimm noticeably detested the ice that slowed its movements, or at least, most of it did. The small heads screeched rapidly as its movements initially dulled, and it lost a visible amount of roots.

The main head remained calm, however, its gaze locked onto Robert as it continued to move its tendrils. It seemed to be have noticed the way Robert dodged its attacks. It could not move well due to the Ice Dust Yue had used, though it seemed to be breaking out of its effects rather quickly compared to the average Grimm.

The Dust was effective. It’s just that the Grimm in particular seemed to shake off damage rather easily. Whereas most Grimm would take a moment to stop its attacks, the Dionaea’s key trait of endlessly bombarding its foes was made clear when- even with its brittle roots- continued to attack. That also meant that the battle was going to end pretty fast if either side began to curbstomp one another.

The roots that had missed Robert began to follow him again. Some of them were cut apart as they moved, though they were quickly replaced with more roots. There seemed to be less roots following Robert, though now there was one damaged root oddly raised, as if it was going to try flattening Robert like a hammer.

The root Violet shot burned and eventually fizzled into nonexistence, though it seemed unfazed by her fire arrow. Several roots vigorously followed Violet in an attempt to keep her occupied, and the root that had been holding Skye was ruthlessly shattered by Bianca. One of the small heads snapped its direction at her presence, as if it was going to keep her ability to reach great heights in mind. And as Llyr stopped several roots from being able to move at all, the Dionaea sent more roots at his direction, challenging quantity with quantity. It continued to attack the students nonstop, quickly making it a rather frustrating Grimm to fight against.

Noticing that Ben had cleaved much of its vines, the main head of the Dionaea turned to Ben.

He had brought down a good number of its roots. But he still seemed exasperated.

The Dionaea was naturally attracted to more vulnerable targets. That said, it didn’t target people who pretended to be weak or taunting it- it targeted those who were actually weakened. While it initially avoided attacking Ben due to it targeting everything but him, seeing how he seemed to be a major nuisance by cutting down its vines had rightfully earned its attention.

Without warning, it suddenly tossed almost all of the vines guarding the main stem at Ben’s direction- not only at Ben, but everyone at his direction. It threw its tendrils in a similar fashion it did at Robert, though this time, there were many more roots heading from above to prevent anyone from jumping over its attacks. It left little options for the students.

It was a chance- for either the students to capitalize on it and cut down most of its close defenses in an instant and finally get closer, or for the Dionaea to make the fight so much harder as the Ice Dust on it continued to wear out.

---

Sangue perked up and turned to Skye, though Bianca thankfully beat her to the punch by blowing apart the root that immobilized Skye. Slicing upwards, Sangue finally managed to cut one of the roots that had been persistently following her- the same one she had been leaving scratches on. As she analyzed the room, she noted that it seemed to be targeting those who moved quickly or dealt damage to its roots.

It was a Grimm that knew what to prioritize.

Her gaze sharpened when she saw a rather damaged root hovering over Robert. Clenching the fist of her prosthetic, she took a deep breath, calculating to see if she should use her claw or harpoon.

It seemed like it could fall off if enough strength was put against the root.

A clicking sound emitting from the prosthetic, Sangue fired a harpoon out of her prosthetic, aiming at the root floating over Robert. She initially missed and pulled back the harpoon before launching it again. At her second try, the blade sunk itself into the thick root.

Retracting the chains that connected themselves to the launched blade, she gave a harsh pull to her left, quickly dismembering the root. It fell next to Robert, falling on top of several roots that were heading to his direction.

As the chains of her prosthetic’s weapon pulled themselves into her arm, she noticed a swarm of vines that flew towards Ben’s direction.

Her included.

…

She wasn’t going to deny that she didn’t like the visual image of the vines flying towards her and Ben’s direction. That also meant simply looking at the vines wasn’t going to do anything.

The last of her chains sinking back into her prosthetic, she readied her blade and proceeded to slice two thin vines that flew towards Ashe’s direction. She then leapt and severed a root that was headed at Ben from above. Just as she was about to slice another root before she landed, however, she felt something very thick wrap itself around her waist and arms, halting her movements instantly.

It was an odd moment. Her eyes were wide, like a raccoon caught stealing food, and the bottom of her lip pushing itself upward as a look of confusion washed over her once serious expression. For a very split moment, the root that had been heading towards Bianca’s direction remained still after it fully got a grip on Sangue.

She liked being next to people. Unfortunately, sometimes, life didn’t want her to stick with her fellow students at all times. It sometimes did so with plant Grimms throwing vines everywhere.

Her sword still in her hand, she felt herself being lifted off the ground as the root quickly pulled her away from her group. Looking at the ground, and then at the Dionaea, the poison contained in her prosthetic’s shoulder pauldrons steadily began to coat the blades inside the arm.

“…Um…” She began, before realizing that she was now moving around the room wildly without her consent. She wasn't close to any walls to be slammed against, but it was still a dizzy experience.

She hoped falling wouldn’t hurt much, seeing how there didn’t seem to be anything for her blade to latch onto aside from the Grimm itself. Then again, the ground would probably feel better than one of the insides of the Dionaea’s many mouths.

@Ryonara@FlitterFaux@Write@Krayzikk@NarayanK

Yue reached out and touched Ashe's shoulder, and Ashe almost immediately felt a surge of strength flood her body. She almost felt like normal again, and the pain in her right hand had completely disappeared. The glove was still melted onto her hand, but the burns were gone - peeling it off wouldn't be too far off from pulling off a bandaid now.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine now. Thanks, Yue. That's a hell of a Semblance."

Further conversation was cut off. The room was briefly lit in orange as a flaming arrow arced overhead from the rear, embedding itself deeply in a root. The root burst into flame and crumbled into ash - obviously fire was the right option, and obviously Ashe had seriously overdone it. A quick glance at the root Ashe had melted showed that it was lying in the swampy pool deflated, smoking, half liquified, and charred almost all the way up to the stem. It wasn't nearly as durable as Ashe had expected: it was just really, really big. Quantity over quality seemed to be the Dionaea's theme, and she adjusted her remaining glove further down to an 8.

More tentacles flew towards her, and she was preparing another fistful of pain for it, when Skye suddenly yanked her out of harm's way. Ashe's eye twitched in annoyance, but there was no way she could've stopped all four of them at once with one shot, and some of the roots wrapped around her savior instead. Ashe was readying her fist again when Skye shattered one root and Bianca clove the other in twain, so Ashe shifted to searching for more targets.

"Already on it, boss. Orange glowy thing, huh? Guess that's how this damn thing sees us, too," she replied to Ben and Bianca respectively. "We could get out of the water and let loose with Lightning Dust..."

As she said it, she realized that with as much trouble as she'd had moving across the room with only three roots after her, the whole group wouldn't be able to go very far itself. But the idea itself was sound. A good shock to the main stem would seek out a ground and run through the Dionaea's entire body downwards, probably charring and vaporizing the flesh like a Vacuoan saguaro struck by lightning, and the orange glowing thing was in the middle of that path. The other, more realistic option would be to cleave as many roots as possible and rush it before it had time to recover. Port just had to bring in a creature that'd be easiest to kill solo, didn't he. Asshole.

Ashe found her target after a few more seconds: a swarm of roots was slinging itself straight at Ben. While she was sure he could handle it, she was getting awfully tired of dealing with this shit. With a twitch of her middle and ring fingers, she threw a palm thrust towards the roots around Ben and his shield. 50/50 White and Blue Dust would just throw a chunk of ice at the roots - not terribly useful. So Ashe made a wager on Dust usage - 70 White/30 Blue felt right. And it paid off - rather than throwing a block of ice at the roots, an intense, near-invisible spray of frigid air erupted from her left glove, leaving a sparkling shine on one side of the roots in front of the group. She had no idea if it would be effective, but it seemed to slow them down, and she could hear a distinct crunching sound as each root tried to twist and move towards the group further. The roots' hides sounded like they were cracking.

One of the smaller roots headed towards Skye also caught her attention. It was close -- very close. Her left hand was still hanging in the air in front of her, too far extended for a good strike, so she did what any good goat would do and lunged sideways at it. NOM.

It tasted like anger, regret, leaves, and ash. Almost like the time she bit into a cigar instead of a pirouette cookie. In other words, it tasted fine by her incredibly low standards, and she clamped her jaws shut with enough strength to rip apart a wooden farm fence.

Amaranth Desire: Hello, sister.

Now
there
was
this.

Amy's heartbeat had sped when she saw the two of them approaching, her Semblance ramping in lockstep to delay things, give her the chance to calm herself and come up with a response. Because of course Monday wouldn't stay in itself or let her process, it all had to come crashing forward into Tuesday.

Fact of the matter was, she knew who her father was now. If she'd been wanting to contact him instantly, she could have called him. She went to school with her half sister. There'd been ample opportunities this morning.

She shouldn't be unkind to her, the logical part of her brain was telling her. In all of this, Emerald was an innocent party. But her emotions weren’t having it. Petty jealousy was coming to the fore. She hadn’t had any semblance of a family after the age of 6, she’d bounced in and out of orphanages, she still bore the scars of thefts gone wrong, thefts she’d done to eat. Emerald had never really been broken growing up, she’d not been beaten or scathed. It wasn’t fair. They had the same father, they were both Faunus, why had Emerald been the lucky one?

She gritted her teeth slightly, but her blue eyes softened. Amy couldn't blame her half sister for exactly how terrible of a mother Wisteria Desree had been.

But she still couldn't deal with her right now, not in the middle of Armory.

“Hi, Em,” she said softly, looking away from what she'd been doing and up at her half sibling. “Can… you please give me some time to process?”

---

Still dizzy from falling flat onto his face, Robert had no idea the damaged root above him was about to squish him like a human-sized fly swatter. The only thing that finally caught his attention was seeing a metal arm flying over his head, the light from the ceiling fixtures reflecting off the prosthetic. Following the chains to their target, he finally noticed the shadow that loomed over his head and was quickly making its way towards him. There was no where to go. No direction for him to dodge. His only hope was that he could take the hit and get back up afterward.

When the impact of the root never came though, Robert looked up again to see the giant wooden limb had disappeared. Instead it now lay on the ground next to him, detached from the rest of the Dionaea's body. The bespectacled boy turned back to the other redhead of the class who had just saved his life, flashing her appreciative smile and a thankful thumbs up before he saw her return her focus to the Grimm's next attack.

And then his savior was unceremoniously grabbed.

"At least I'll get the chance to pay the favor back," he said to no one in particular as he returned to the three other students he had been fighting with. "Hey, taking down the Grimm is all well and good, but we should probably focus on keeping our classmates safe too. You guys think you can help me hack off that overgrown branch?" he asked Cian, Trad, and Llyr, hoping to help Sangue escape her predicament.

With a grunt in response Cian moved keeping her semblance up in case of any attacks as she moved toward Sangue. Robert was right though she need to hurry in order to make sure she was safe. With a second wind of sorts Cian moved forward her goal in mind as she pushed herself harder in order to make it. With that singular thought in mind she charged forward her goal in sight growing ever closer Cian started to ready her weapon and with a pull of the trigger start firing at the offending appendage of the grimm. It wasn't the best method but with how things was it was the best option she had at the moment. Without missing a beat she let loose a stream of fire dust bullets at the appendage letting loose a shot after shot in hopes of diverting attention away from Sangue.
@NarayanK

"Yeah, of course. I'll be right next to you the whole time." She flashed Emerald an encouraging smile and rubbed her back. She stayed in step with the jittery cat girl hoping her presence would be enough to help get the ball rolling. Honestly she could not imagine how a situation like this was supposed to go down. She could certainly imagine how she might do it were she in Emerald's shoes, but she was also certain that was probably not how it should be done.

Of course none of that even mattered as Emerald's half sister made it very clear right away that she was not ready for this yet. That and she felt class was not the place, as well; a good point Anna herself had wondered about briefly. Well crap. I guess that could have gone worse. Still, I would have thought she might be a little excited about having a half sister. She just looks really, really grumpy.

"Um, yeah that makes sense, right Emmie? I guess... what about later sometime after classes? We could all go out somewhere and... yeah." A few nice places she knew ran through her head, though most of those were on the other end of Vale. Though there was that one bar... Mmmaybe not the best choice today.

@FlitterFaux@Kaithas





Emerald almost didn't hear Amy's words, much less Anna's. Her heart was beating so fast she felt the force would knock her over. Thankfully Amy didn't snap at her like she'd feared, but it was obvious this had been the wrong time to approach Amy. She could see it in her eyes...

...and it probably didn't help that they were in the middle of class.

Emerald just nodded meekly in response to Amy, and Anna's suggestion as well. She'd agree to anything to get out of her current predicament. All she had to do now was run away and hide under a bed somewhere for a few hours...

"O-Ok..." Emerald suddenly had great empathy for people who were shy.



@NarayanK

This wasn't going the way she wanted.

This creature is proving to be far more troublesome than I thought...

Not that she expected it to be easy, but perhaps she had underestimated the overgrown plant.

There's too many, I'm doing all I can keep them off me...

She needed to change tactics, as she dodged and struck at the roots she came up with a plan. It was a crude one, but it was all she had. She reattached her two blades into one once more, holding her weapon in one hand as she leaped away from the roots, she quickly drew an arrow from her quiver, the arrowhead looked rather odd though, it wasn't pointy or sharp like normal. She quickly threw it towards the roots, it went past them and struck the ground. Immediately there was a hissing sound as smoke poured out of the arrow and began to fill that part of the room. Violet was unsure how the roots could 'see' her, but she was betting on the fact that the smoke would mask her location from the monster.

Thanks to her semblance, Violet could sense the exact location of any of her 'marked' targets, it didn't matter if she could physically see them or not. She quickly reattached the bowstring to her weapon and drew another special arrow. It looked a lot like one of her fire arrows, except the arrowhead looked a lot bulkier. She fired it without hesitation towards the biggest 'head' of the monster, hoping that this time it wouldn't see it coming. The moment that arrow struck something, there would be a fairly decent explosion.

“I hope you can hold on.”

I said with a smirk about as wide as the Dionaea itself. I allowed Ben to get a strong grip before looking out towards my foe. I knew what had to be done. As Ben managed to grab on to me and my wings unfurled, I noticed the recently cut vine began to thrash and the Dionaea’s gaze unnaturally quickly shifted in our direction. I felt an immediate pang of fear. But I was not about to let Ben or the team down.

But the young man was right. We didn’t know what this thing was nor did we know whether or not the so-called weak point was a trap. But it didn’t matter. Taking us in closer was the only way we’d be able to attempt to finish this thing. With that, I knew what I had to do.

With what felt like a full minute’s pause, we jumped into action. The vines immediately attacked Ben and in correlation myself, along with the group below us. I wrapped an arm around Ben so that he wouldn’t be jolted out of his grip and immediately took off, using my semblance to reach a speed that wouldn’t be possible with my normal acceleration. C’est la Vie at the ready just in case the vines came near us. I immediately took evasive actions, with one vine rapidly ascending in an attempt to smack me towards the ceiling, flatten me against my own speed.

But I twirled to my right and felt the wind catch my feathers as the vine passed us by. I curled them around Ben and me and for one single moment, there was silence as my wings enveloped us. “Don’t worry, I own the air.” I said reassuringly opening up my wings and spinning us around another vine. Since some of its attention was diverted on the others I did have the opportunity necessary to take the time to evade and plan my path towards the Dionaea. From here I could see just how thin we must’ve been spreading it. While it did have multiple heads, there was one that was central the beast’s physiology and that very same one was larger than the others.

This may’ve been my first Grimm Studies class, but I knew that meant one was more important than the others. So that was the plan. Take it out.

With Ben wrapped up in my arms I continued my advance, C’est la Vie at the ready.

I knew that I most likely couldn’t bring us in for a landing, but I could drop him at the base and continue to divert hopefully. If, not he’d have to divert attention for me. Either way worked for me.