Nor cursed as he ducked under a low branch, the snorts and whinny letting the Faunus know a single misstep could cost him his life. Hoping to put some distance between him and the beast, he brought the hilt of Jet Stream to bear ahead of him. As he fired the barbed point ahead, a scream of escaping pressure and rattling chain barely heard over the noise of the Grimm and the trees crashing in its wake, before he heard the comforting thud as it found purchase some hundred feet ahead, small motor in the machine revving to life as he felt himself lift of the ground, forest now speeding by.
As the four flee, separated from their allies, Lan looked back at the beast, trying to count the legs on the equine horror behind them. The crimson haired lemur watched as Nor attempted to grapple his way further ahead of the Nightmare. Ducking under an oncoming branch, she drew her weapon in preparation for the inevitable fight.
”Hey, I just remembered what that centipede thing was!” Lan shouted suddenly, ducking as Nor flew past her,
”I think it was an Inkume, like the thing that caused that explosion last year. she finished, vaulting over a large, squared rock.
Tsuki focused on the adrenaline pushing her forward. The beast behind her posed a significant threat if it caught up with her. The feline spotted her partner launching himself ahead of the game.
"Cheater," she mumbled to herself. However, the pale female did have to give him props for being creative.
"Now's not really the time for trivia games," Tsuki called out to her fellow initiate. The tigress ducked under a tree branch, nearly tripping from the sudden shift in balance.
Russ was too busy focusing on the environment around her to worry about how far they were from the Nightmare. Her eyes leapt to each and every obstacle that presented itself, and she conquered them one by one, be it by a quick vault, a long jump, or the sudden turn. What brought her back to the present was Jaws rocketing past like some kind of missile, whereupon she took into account the positions of her of her other, less airborne-inclined compatriots. She didn’t recognize the other faunus --there were getting to be quite a few, she thought-- but hey the more the merrier. Lan was the one to pipe up among them, and Russ got to thinking about their little scrap with the bug earlier.
”Maybe not!” she shouted to Tsuki and the others, casting a glance back to the horrific thing.
”More legs means more targets, it’s how we brought down the Inkume. If we have to face this thing, we should go for its limbs!”Nor laughed as he passed the tiger faunus, just barely hearing her deride his method of travel, unsure whether it was hysteria or adrenaline making the shark find humor in the moment.
"It's only cheating if you lose, otherwise they call it tactics," he said, a limb clipping him as it flew away from the Grimm, reminding him of the consequences of dropping his guard, and refocusing once more ahead.
The trees around them were beginning to thin, making the path ahead all the easier to navigate. Ahead he could see glimpses of what looked to be some sort of barracks, though it was hard to make out through the limbs. Behind him he could hear the sound of the Nightmare getting closer, realizing without the trees to block its path, the four of them had little chance of outrunning the multi legged beast. The Faunus angled sharply towards the buildings, mentioning to the others to point them out,
"We should he able to get some cov-," Nor's sentence cut short as the Grimm chasing then whinnied in what almost seemed excitement as it drew nearer to the fleeing quartet.
Lan locked her eyes onto a crumbling wall, scanning for a way into the seemingly ancient structure as the four veered ever closer, imagining the rancid breath of the nightmare at her heels as it cried out.
”Masky, Whiskers, Russ!” she shouted, pointing to a partially collapsed section of the wall some 100 feet ahead,
”If we get inside we should be able to find some cover.” the spade wielding girl finished, darting aside to make a break for cover.
Tsuki didn't need to look back to know that the equine creature was gaining on them. She could hear the rumbling rhythm that pounded the ground behind them get closer. Shark boy's laughing comment wasn't exactly true in her opinion, but she decided if things were gonna get ugly, she needed to save her breath. Speaking of breath, the Nightmare was sure making a lot of noise. Hopefully it wasn't calling others. The pale faunus had enough of multiple enemies.
Now that she thought about it, did Nightmares travel in groups? Hm, well given their similar appearance, the Grimm might be related to horses, which travel in herds. No, wait.
You're in the middle of a life or death situation, idiot! Now's not the time to be a nerd! The bipolar girl mentally scolded herself.
Then the red faunus girl spoke up. Whiskers? Tsuki didn't even have whiskers. Nonetheless, what mattered was the remains of whatever that building was. Time to get this party started.
Russ wasted no time in following Lan’s advice, the open air was tempting but really all it did was afford the damned thing more room to work with. Tight spaces, close quarters, that would be their ally against such a big beast, a place where they could strike and disappear or maneuver away before it could retaliate.
She altered her course, veering hard for the opening in the wall. As she leapt up onto the rubble she let her Semblance flicker on to store the momentum of the movement for later, before focusing back on the Grimm and the rest of those following. Were she of a less tightly-wound disposition, she might find this sort of thing fun like Jaws seemed to do. However for the time being all she could truly do well was start thinking ahead for their next step. Once this thing got inside would it start thrashing around at everything in sight? They might not even get a chance to whack at it if it never ceased to flail, but then, that could work to their advantage.
Looking up she wasn’t sure just how old or how structurally sound the building was, but she was willing to bet that if this thing made enough of a fuss inside it wouldn’t stand for too long.
”Hey, worst case scenario maybe we can get this thing to bring the place down on itself!” she called before waiting for their next move.
Nor nodded as they broke the cover of the forest, entering the outpost proper. After a quick observation of the surroundings he looked to the others, a calculating look on what could be seen of his face.
"For the moment we need to split up, any place we,can hole up in won't take long for it to get to. Tails here and me seem to be the best equipped for mobility," he said as he referenced her weapon,
"at least I hope you know how to use that thing to do more than stab things." He told them as he ran for the outpost, nearing quickly.
He turned to the tower firing off the barbed protrusion once more as it embedded near the top, looking back at the other two,
"Tsuki...." he paused, a blank look coming over his face,
"...and...human," cringing slightly as he finally gave up. He knew she'd told him her name yesterday, and he cursed himself for forgetting it, but now wasn't really the time,
"you two find somewhere defensible, and watch our backs, we're gonna try and at least get the damned thing to stop charging about. At least then we,can do something besides hiding and jumping," He told them, before the motor once more revved up, pulling him to the roof of the tower. Once there, he switched Jet Stream to its cannon form, scanning for the Grimm.
Lan followed immediately behind Nor, using Shu Dao to vault over the wall before rolling to her feet on the other side.
”Lan,” the lemur interjected cheerfully as the masked faunus informed them of his plan,
”One does not use a spade for stabby stabby fun times.” she corrected him, spinning the weapon in one hand and resting it over her shoulder,
”I, however, use mine for all sorts of things.” she said, turning to look up at a tall tree.
”I think I should be able to set up something to slow it down, if you can buy me a minute or so.” she added, dropping the pole into both hands and sliding the ends apart, drawing out wire just at neck level.
”So, tripline, anyone?” the red haired lemur grinned evilly as she asked, restoring her weapon to its normal state and hopping over the wall once more to deploy her trap.
Moments before the Nightmare breeched the ruins, the red haired faunus rapidly circled a pair of trees. After deploying several dozen feet of wire from within the shaft and pulling it tight about the trunks, she locked the weapon back together. With a quick spin of her spade, Lan cut the line, just as the beast arrived.
Defensible? ‘Watch our backs’? She wasn’t sure what sort of oomph this other girl --Tsuki, was it?-- was bringing to the show, but Russ didn’t have much in the way of cover-fire. Nevertheless, if Jaws and Lan got the Nightmare where they wanted it wouldn’t matter much anyway.
”Hey, Tsuki!” she called, making a mental note to think of some other nickname for the girl later on.
”If we have to draw its attention away, what’s your plan?”Russ quite frankly would be content to run in that scenario. The thing was big and fast but mobility might not have been its strongest trait. However running wasn’t exactly an option, not with the other two actually forming a way to kill the grimm. So instead she clambered up the shoddy remnants of the wall, a hand drifting to the Daughter’s handle before she pulled away. Swords wouldn’t do her much good, not yet anyway.
Tsuki rapidly approached the outpost. Nor took up the leadership position as he commanded two of the four to become a distraction.
"Sounds good to me," The feline responded to her partner. Her lungs were not happy with her, as the tigress leaped up and grabbed the edge of the outpost's wall. She pulled herself on top of the wall and faced the charging Nightmare. Then the human with no name asked what they should do.
Tsuki thought hard.
Now was the time for some analysis and planning. So, for maximum results, she thought out loud.
"We want to keep it's focus in one general area, and get it pissed off at us so that it doesn't notice the other two. Not necessarily a plan, but I don't know enough about a Nightmare's behavior to make a solid plan. I also don't know much about you, so it's best to stay as flexible as possible."The shorter female extended her weapon to its full length. Given the size and armor of the beast, blunt attacks wouldn't be very helpful in fulfilling their objective. So, Shuo was further transformed into it's spear form. Usually, the clever girl didn't stand out in the spotlight, but now she had to. Being a hunter required quite a bit of standing out, so she might as well get use to it.
As the quartet finished their hasty preparation, the nightmare burst onto the scene. It’s cloven feet allowed it to clamber over the broken and uneven ground much easier than a normal horse would have, the eight legs given it extra balance and support as well. It snorted in anger as its eyes latched onto the two applicants standing on top of a wall, and the monster charged forwards in rage.
Before it got too much closer to them, however, the tripline set up by Lan caught it around the ankles, and the creature’s forward momentum brought it crashing to the ground. It kicked out with a rear leg, cracking a nearby stone as it tossed its head up and rolled onto its knees in an ungainly manner. It took a few tries for it to fold its legs in the correct manner to stand again, It’s red eyes glared balefully at the two it could see, breathing heavily through its nose as it finally struggled back to its feet.
The monstrous horse took its next steps cautiously, keeping an eye out for anymore traps that may have been laid by the hunters. As it drew closer to the ruined building, it spun about quickly, directing a mule kick with its back four hooves at the wall the two immediately visible hunters were standing on. The wall shuddered, cracking terribly and weakening the already crumbling structure. With the way the stone shifted against each other, the wall was obviously extremely unstable now.
A yell escaped from the shark faunus as the wall started to shake.
"Of course we'd break the damn building," Nor cursed as he lept from the wall to the other side, hoping the barrier would fall towards the Grimm and not his way instead. Nor’s eyes lit up as the possibility gave him an idea, pointing the cannon at the newly unstable wall, lines of light along the weapon switching to a luminescent green as a wide funnel shape emerged from the barrel.
Thinking of the other two in the lower section,
" Get away from the walls," he managed to yell before a blast of air issued from the weapon, blasting him backwards as the large disaster force winds hit the wall.
Nor heard a snapping sound upon impact, a worried expression coming over his face as he did a quick check, finding all his limbs to be unbroken. Relief flooded Nor once he found the source of the snapping, finding himself surrounded by rotten crates that had been left in the courtyard. Mystery solved, he paid it little mind as he worked his way out of the debris, looking to see what his shot had wrought.
As the beast lost its footing on the hastily set line, Lan watched it tumble forward, stopping just short of the ancient barrier. Judging the distance to the Nightmare, Lan elected to skirt the outpost. Scanning the structures within she aimed the crescent blade on Shu Dao skyward, firing the crystal of pure force within to launch it to the tower ramparts where it wedged between ancient stones. With a quick tug to set the line, the red haired faunus triggered the spool, using the additional boost to guide her as she made her way to the top of the structure. Making a jump for the last few feet, she flew over the nearest parapet, landing atop and quickly finding stable footing. She watched from above as the beast reclaimed its footing, slowly rising back onto cloven hooves. It took a few steps before spinning about and delivering a powerful, four legged kick that compromised the already unsteady wall. Lan prepared to signal to the others just before Nor fired a gale force at the wall.
Russ dropped to a kneel when the thing slammed the wall with its massive hooves. She needed a good, stable stance or she’d be toppling off with the next strike. But hey, at least the Nightmare seemed thoroughly distracted, which meant that Jaws and Lan had time to do...actually, what
were they doing? Would it take much longer? Russ wasn’t sure the wall could sustain more punishment.
As she turned to call down to them though, her question was answered by perhaps the last thing she wanted to hear. Did that toothy motherfucker just tell them to get away from the--
”Holy shit! the very stone beneath her feet gave way to the massive force that struck it from behind. Her stable stance meant nothing with the lack of any footing and she tumbled like a ragdoll off of the crumbling wall, smacking and rolling off of the plummeting stones.
The monstrous collapse was deafening until she hit the ground, at which point the air left her lungs in one giant rush and all the sounds were replaced by a high-pitched ringing. For what felt like an eternity she just lay there, with neither the focus nor the will to move. Shit, everything hurt, but she knew most of the trauma was to her back, and the ringing from her head striking the dirt. The fucking swords in their sheath were the worst though, the leather doing little to soften harden steel cracking against her skin.
At last, after what had likely only been a few moments in proper reality, Russ rolled onto her stomach and coughed up a veritable storm of dust and dirt. A few clean breaths made it down into her lungs, enough for her to find the energy to get to her knees, and enough to realize that she was now in fact on equal ground with the beast.
Her hand fumbled around for the Daughter’s handle, a plan already forming in her head to jettison herself away and create some distance. Her fingers met air however, worse, they met torn leather further down. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed her fears, and she saw that neither blade was with her. She couldn’t find the Son in her panicked scan of the environment, and the Daughter’s steel glinted from amidst the rubble.. A pit formed in her stomach, and she prepared to fall back on plan B --well, more like plan C at that point-- and run.
Tsuki prepared herself as the Grimm stumbled over the wire. Her knees bent, and center dropped. When the blow to the wall beneath the feline hit, she was ready and stable. However, what wasn't expected was shark boys next attack. The warning that preceded the assault was too late for the two standing on the crumbling wall.
The carnivorous faunus let instinct take over as she pushed against the falling piece of rock she had previously been standing on. To lessen the blow of the ground she rolled. Unfortunately, because of the fact that the rock the pale female pushed off of was unstable, she landed on her shoulder wrong. Despite the sharp pain that engulfed her shoulder, Tsuki stood up quickly to survey her surroundings.
The acrobatic girl noticed her human comrade was defenseless, Shuo four feet away from her, and the rapidly advancing monster. Making the best of her situation, the bipolar female grabbed her polearm and ran up to the creature of Grimm's flank. Knowing how stupid her move would be, she leaped as high as she could before stabbing the equine creature and using her upper body strength to vault herself onto the back of her enemy.
The Nightmare whinnied unnaturally shrill as the Tiger Faunus’s polearm skittered on the thick plating on its flank before catching between two plates. She landed on the equine creatures back, resulting in a toss of the head as it tried to hit her with the long, sharp spikes interspersing its mane. It’s next move was to buck its four rear legs, sending the black and white girl flying forwards as the great beast heaved underneath her.
It was only by a hasty scrabbling that Tsukiko managed to slide over the shoulder of the beast instead of hitting the dangerous mane, landing at the cloven front hoof of the Nightmare. It looked down at her and huffed, wickedly sharp teeth ready to rend.
As the maw of the Nightmare descended upon Tsuki, a slight tremor could be felt in the ground beneath her feet, earth cracking as a roughly cylindrical pillar of earth bursts out near her like a shot, coming up at an angle to knock the toothy creature off course.
Tsuki's shoulder hurt like a bitch after all the strain she put on it just to get up the beast. Now, the even paler faunus was weaponless and facing impending doom. Shit, dying during initiation was not cool. However, there was nothing the tiger eared girl could do with the time she had left. Not even her semblance could help her.
Then a deep roar came from underneath the ground and the earth rose up from in front of her.
What the literal fuck? The shocked faunus stepped back from the physics defying movement. This had to be someone's semblance, right? But whose? Tsuki hated not knowing what was going on.
A loud laugh could be heard as someone grabbed the tiger faunus by the back of her shirt, pulling her out from under the pillar as the Grimm seemed to be recovering from the sudden strike. The newcomer pulled her along the ground for a moment before.lifting her up, dusting her off unceremoniously, a tanned figure now visible as their fidgety motions showed obvious excitement.
" Holy.crap, did you see the chompers on that thing? Swear there's gotta be more teeth on that thing than a bike gear," the interloper jumped back and forth from one foot to the other as the boxer watched the new Grimm with wide eyes before a moment of clarity seemed to come over their face and they turned back to Tsuki.
Hal began checking the faunus over quickly, hands looking for any kind of cuts or breaks and patting her down rather unabashedly, not paying much mind if this bothered the previously endangered girl.
"Did it kick you or anything? I bet that thing could leave a heck of a wicked scar," A strange smile came to the boxers face at the thought. A quick observation would show no apparent weapons visible.
Russ lowered her defenses as the other faunus dashed in, and the Nightmare quickly became preoccupied with her. Well, shit, alright, if the girl wanted to throw herself willy nilly at the monster than bravo, her sacrifice would not be in vain. She went immediately for the Daughter, dashing past the beast and its new preoccupation, and digging it out from beneath the rocks. The segments were dinged, and while the thing was still intact she’d hesitate before lashing it alongside a burst of wind dust.
Then another voice, a new one, one she didn’t recognized, caught her ears. She looked to the faunus girl where indeed an unfamiliar face stood. Human-looking, but then some faunus just had subtle features, and with the amount she’d encountered recently it wouldn’t come as a surprise if they were. Oh well, she wasn’t about to look a gift-horse in the mouth, if the dude was here to help then she’d let him.
They needed a new plan now though, clearly. The wall had collapsed and now a majority of them were outside, it looked like they were clashing heads with the beast one way or another.
”Ay, googly eyes later! she called up to the newcomer. She tried to see what weapon he wielded but could spot none, clearly though that hadn’t been a problem a few moments ago.
Her focus went to the legs again, the damned thing had too many and the more they could lop off the better. Not that she was about to charge in blindly, she’d seen how well that had worked for the tiger and Russ was in no mood to get stepped on or chomped at. Instead, she circled around, careful to avoid catching the Grimm’s ire with any sudden or drastic movements. She came to a stop diagonally behind it, so as to avoid being easily kicked from behind, and began her approach. She knew even if she succeeded in sneaking right up to it she wouldn’t be able to swing hard enough to do any real damage, so halfway to it she broke into a sprint, the Daughter’s secondary mode engaged. Russ brought the extended blade around in a reasonably powerful swing, not enough to do any terrible should it land, but she would rather cut the damn thing a hundred times safely than risk her neck in an all-or-nothing attack.
Lan watched as the newcomer emerged.
’Where the hell did he come from?’ she pondered for a moment, taking note of the current scene. Russ was retrieving her sword from rubble, Tsuki had just been saved by some sort of cosmic ass pull, and Nor was… Where WAS Nor? She wondered, before shrugging it off while she took a moment to remove her weapons blade from the gap between two stones. She cupped one hand around her mouth,
”YO! GUYS!” she shouted at the top of her lungs, circling the towers edge. She hopped between crenelations before jumping overboard on the side closest to the group, the spade end of her weapon drawing a thin line in the stone as she skimmed down the wall, making her way towards the large field in the middle of the outpost.
Tsuki stared at the larger mass of human in front of her. He had just plucked her from where she was standing, and was now inspecting her like an object. The stiffened girl couldn't find it in her to do anything.
What the actual fuck? Then he began to get a bit too into the endangered cats personal space. Uncomfortable, she began biting on her lip.
'What does one even say in a situation like this? I mean he did save my life.' However, the entire time mystery guy had been patting her down, he was basically talking to himself.
Then of course salt had to be added to the wound, the black haired chick who had previously been without a weapon called out to the two of them. That's when the pale girl turned red. It was distinct against her alabaster skin which made it more humiliating.
'I don't even know these people!' A part of her screeched.
Quickly, though, she pushed down her emotions and stepped away from the twitchy male to locate the equine monster. Now useless, Tsuki tried to find a way to retrieve her weapon. Shuo was still barely holding onto the creature, any movement would dislodge it. Once the female faunus caught her attention, she realized that they needed a new plan of action. Also where did sharkboy go? He's gonna get it later.
Nor gave a frustrated growl as he finally pulled himself free of the crates, glaring back at the demolished crates before looking back to where he had been unceremoniously blasted from. He could see the four of them, Lan was seeming to trapeze across the settlements, trying to get Tsuki, the girl, and....
'Who the hell is that' the pale faunus thought as he gave a perplexed look, the tan human seemingly having come from nowhere. Regardless, Nor pushed the question to the back of mind as he watched for the Grimm to reappear. It was pure coincidence that his gaze managed to avoid those who'd previously been positioned on the tower.
Hal laughed as the boxer heard the black haired girls comment, following behind the rest of the group as they made their way into the courtyard, giving 'googly eyes' an appraising stare.
"Not a problem,I'm a pinnacle of focus," the teen said absentmindedly , practically oozing with self assurance. The muscular Hunter-in-training made a note to try and learn her name later, the girl's obvious disdain for Hal's actions making her an even more amusing target.
The Nightmare shrieked in anger as it shook away the dust from the newcomers attack, reminding everyone that though they may have more numbers now, they still had to contend with the beast. The equine grimm galloped forward, following Tsukiko and Hal through the new gap in the wall, avoiding the rust-coloured girl’s attacks without even realising. It’s large, cloven feet allowed its to navigate the uneven terrain easily when paired with its eight legs, and the dust kicked up from the monster stepping over and through the rubble obscured everything below eight feet. The weapon lodged in its flank-plates fell free as it chased the pair, landing amongst the toppled stones and disappearing from immediate view as clouds of dust enveloped the staff.
As it drew nearer to the human and faunus duo, the Nightmare lashed out with its two frontmost legs. The sharp edges of the hooves came dangerously close to striking its target, and as it kicked at them again it adjusted its angle to strike the pair precisely.
Hal's mind went blank as the first strikes barely went wide, feeling the wind from the hooves as they passed past the boxer's head. As years of training took over, the teen's legs bent and took a practiced form, an apparent light footedness as the hooves came down. The traditional boxers stance was as easy to slip into as the clothes the latest addition to the battle wore now.
As.the Nightmares hooves came down once more, Hal brought both arms up to guard against the hooves, aura flaring to life as it was concentrated to hold off the strike. The boxer worried briefly about the faunus being attacked as well, but for the moment, the hoof bearing down on the blonde held a premium of the bruiser's attention.
Nor growled as the Nightmare closed in on the duo, none of his shots viable without friendly fire with the pair of them so close to the equine. Reverting Jetstream back into a mace, the shark rushed in to get into range of the creature. Though he'd rather the pair not be in that situation, at least the Grimm wasn't paying attention to the others now.
Well shit, at least Tsuki was doing her job of distracting. Her main goal at this point was to retrieve Shuo. Unfortunately, whatever plans the faunus could think up, the most secure one was the one she
didn't want to execute. When the Nightmare started attacking is when the Siberian tiger focused her semblance. To everyone else, she had disappeared, but she used this to her advantage. Sprinting, the invisible girl went through the monster's legs to reach the polearm.
Hal's eyes widened slightly as the tiger disappeared right before the boxer's eyes, chuckling slightly.
'Well that's useful, at least I don't have watch out for her now,' the boxer thought, knocking the hoof aside and focusing on the ground near the creature's legs. Aura gathered around Hal's arms as shards of rock began to rip through the bandages, using the earth dust to focus the teens semblance
The earth around the Grimm's left legs depressed into the ground, attempting to throw the creature off balance as the blonde rolled to the right of the creature. As more rock shards pushed their way through the bandages on Hal's arms fell away in tatters, the bruiser's arms and hands covered in a dark red shell of earth. Various wicked looking shards jutted out of the teens joints and muscular forearms.
The nightmare stumbled a little bit, but its multiple legs allowed the equine creature to quickly regain it’s footing. It abandoned its strikes on the pair as the creature shuffled sideways to the right, inadvertently stepping closer to the recent addition as it avoided the depressed earth.
Lan reacted quickly as the enemy adjusted its footing, Shu Dao’s bell like blade glowing with aura as she drove it into the stone wall directly behind her before splitting the tool at the middle. Darting past of the Nightmare, she quickly turned in a tight corner as she passed the front set of legs, beginning the first of several laps about the demons lower extremities.
”Stay clear, boys, gonna hogtie this beastie!”Russ wasn’t quite sure what to do. The tiger faunus had vanished, most likely for a stealthy attack, the newbie was doing some sort of tango with the ground, which seemed to be playing out fairly well in their favor. Lan, damn the girl’s ingenuity, was right about to tie the beast’s legs together. Even Jaws was getting back into the fray, though she wasn’t sure just how good of an idea it was to throw himself at the beast all gung-ho like that. But oh well, the guy had survived plenty so far, she figured it would take more than that to bring him down.
While everything drew to a point, Russ was tempted to find the Son. It was nowhere in the clearing, so it must have been in the rubble somewhere, which hit her fairly hard in the gut when she realized it. The Daughter had been near the top and wasn’t in the best shape, if the shorter sword had been buried she didn’t want to see what it looked like now.
So she waited, still gripping the dented longsword and watching the Grimm. If what looked to be a plan the others were acting out came through, the thing might be dead before she needed to risk her neck attacking it. Hey, any situation where she could avoid nearly getting trampled or skewered or chomped to death was good by her.
Tsuki quickly made her way over to Shuo. The polearm seemed to be in good shape, which was good because now comes the finale. Despite the advantage her semblance gave her, it was still a disadvantage to the rest of the group. Besides, the Nightmare could probably use its senses to detect the invisible girl. While what's-his-face and scarlet lemur worked on downing the equine bastard, there needed to be someone actually dealing damage to the beast. The pale female disengaged her semblance becoming visible to her peers. Once the Grimm fell, Tsuki planned on attacking from the rear to at least weaken it.
With quick footwork, the earthen clad boxer worked opposite of the tailed faunus, earth strengthening the lemur faunus's attempts to bind the creature. As the bandages on Hal's back shifted, the boxer tapped into the dust and the ground beneath the wirebound limbs climbed up the Grimm's legs. With the.creature now immobilized, Hal's hand slammed into earth; the ground seemed to grasp like liquid to the hand as the teen brought it back. A wicked looking spike covered the bruisers hand, and Hal ducked forwards, aiming a blow to the Nightmares neck.
Nor grinned as he saw the Grimm now apparently leg locked, raising the large mace over his head. With a burst of aura, the shark faunus's feet cracked the earth beneath him and he executed a widely telegraphed blow aimed for the creature's head. With Lan and the strange human holding the creature in place, Nor had few worries of Grimm dodging the blow.
A furious panic overtook the equine Grimm as it lost its ability to evade the blows, the wires straining and earth cracking as it fought against its bonds. Eyes flared as it saw the mace baring down on it, head turning aside to avoid the blow as it now suddenly turned to the attacking boxer. Hal's arm bound stalagmite pierced through the plating on the creature’s face, the lights in the Grimm's eyes dulling slightly as it stared at the hunter.
Those eyes quickly whipped away as the shark faunus completed his attack, head whipping down with a snapping sound, lights disappearing completely with this blow. As the creature began to dissipate, Nor paused for a moment, breathing heavily, before once more bringing the mace down. He continued in a single minded rage as he rained consecutive blows, a guttural growling emanating from his throat. The head of the creature was now unrecognizable as both his blows and its natural erosion took effect, and soon the.only signs of the creature's presence were a crater where it's head had fallen, hollow pillars of earth and Lan's wire now empty.
”Sweet.” Lan whistled, slowly retracting the now unimpeded wire back into Shu Dao, careful to pause and untie any knots as she watched the cloud of rancid smoke float off into the wind.
”So, back to the cliff?” she inquired while holstering her spade, the red haired faunus checking to ensure the estoc was still resting at her hip in the same move.
"Yea, back to the cliff," Tsuki sighed. In the end the tiger faunus couldn't help but feel absolutely useless in the battle. She was more of a hindrance than anything else. Shuo quickly and rather aggressively returned to its transportation form. Suddenly the subtle taste of blood tickled her tongue. Unconsciously, the white haired girl had been biting her lip.
After seeing that the red faunus was checking her relic, Tsuki remembered to check hers. Pain spread through the tigress's left shoulder as she touched the sheath. Oh yeah, there was that too.
Well, that handled that. Russ stood up from her stance away from the beast and let her tight grip on the blade go. Turns out the others had taken care of things just fine, which was no skin off her nose. Literally, which was a very good thing in her mind. She had a feeling not every fight would go this way, which was a tad unfortunate. Zero risk and modest reward was right up her alley. Besides, it wasn’t like she was gonna be taking down any Grimm with the piece of junk in her hand.
Sliding the Daughter back into the sheath was a feat all its own, the segments not wanting to straighten out made it fit awkwardly on her back, but she managed. On her way to the rubble, she cast an odd glance at Nor, who seemed to be in his own little world of anger.
”Damn, Jaws, thing’s dead. Ground didn’t do anythin’ to you,” she said, but whether or not he heard her, she didn’t know, nor did she stick around to find out.
Instead Russ clambered onto the pile of rocks left in the Nightmare’s attack, and began to lob them away one by one. The Son’s blade glinted in the little light that touched it, and with some effort she managed to drag it free. It was in worse condition than the Daughter, but hey, two shabby swords were better than no swords at all, and Russ wasn’t too fond on the idea of losing them on her first rodeo.
The others looked to be preparing to leave, so she joined them. It had been a long, eventful day, a bit of a break was certainly in order. The sooner they got back, the better.
Nor let out a haggard breath, arms going slack as the mace went through the last of the mist. A quiet nod was his only response to Russ's comment as he strapped Jetstream to his back now that the Grimm had dissipated. He jumped as he felt an arm wrap around his shoulder, the shards of earth making the perpetrator obvious, though it made the wide grinning face of Hal no less surprising; the boxer was uncomfortably close to the shark faunus's own.
"Gotta say, loving the enthusiasm. Plus the whole S&M vibe with the mask is great, buuuut," the boxer drew out the phrase, silence thick in the air for a moment, as what seemed to be a chorus of whinnies and hoof beats in the distance came from the forest.
Letting go of Nor and jogging backwards to the cliff, Hal gave a sarcastic salute to the others,
"I think we've worn our welcome out though, so see y'all at the cliff. First one there gets dibs," The teen sent a wink to the unnerved Nor,
"Rooting for ya, sour cream," before turning around and making a break for the cliffs. Nor followed slowly behind with a shudder.
”Leave the poor guy alone, Rocky.” Lan interjected, turning briefly towards the rumbling forest with a concerned look on her face.
"Um, we've got massive company. I think it's about time we hightail it outta here," Tsuki's ear twitched in the direction of the barrage of sounds reaching her ears.
Russ wasn’t sure what to think about the newcomer. He gave off vibes like she’d gotten from the Tiger faunus back on the airship, which was a definite negative. There wasn’t much time to think on it however, and she followed along with the others in their departure.
Just as the quintet turned to leave, Hal already having a brief head start moving away from the approaching mass of Grimm, a pair of adults burst through the treeline. The tall blonde glanced over the applicants as her partner rushed forward ahead of them to prepare for the oncoming herd.
“Get back to the cliff,” The taller of the duo ordered the kids, hefting her warhammer as she focused on where the thundering of hoof beats could be heard.
“Make it fast, kids.” a somewhat familiar effeminate voice added, unsheathing a pair of garden sheers from his belt as the wreath of vine on his right bicep began to creep downwards, sprouting several bright pink flowers
“We’ll take care of this.” She concluded. Her warhammer shifted forms, turning into a grenade launcher as she cocked her weapon, aiming over the treetops and firing. There was a scream of rage that echoed over the sound of the grenade detonating, and the woman grinned.
”We’re what you might call experts.” the shorter hunter added, splitting the shears as a pair of long, sickle blades unfurled.
