Things had been going pretty well for the RWBY hunter team since the beginning of the Festival until one moment. It was an opportunity for the four young girls to prove themselves and show what they were really capable of. And they showed it against the ABRN team, who they were able to defeat. Their friends from the JNPR team also did well against their opponents, which couldn't have been more satisfying.
The problems started in the first final match between Yang Shao Long, one of the RWBYs, and Mercury Black. She won, but in the end she thought he was attacking her from behind and broke his leg... but on the camera replay, it was perfectly visible that she attacked a guy just standing behind her who wasn't going to attack. The girl was immediately surrounded by Atlas military personnel to keep her from rampaging. The audience's negative reaction immediately attracted Grimm, but not yet enough. And then the moment when "Invincible Girl" Pyrrha Nikos literally dismembered her opponent with her manifestation, then the negative emotions from all over the stadium and the kingdom of Vale began to attract a huge number of Grimm.
***
«Pyrrha! It's about to break through! Pyrrha run! - Shouted a blond-haired guy from the stadium, looking at his friend standing motionless in the centre of the arena.
«The Grimm's shrill roar sounded, and in another collision of its huge paws with the energy shields, the latter failed and shut down, and the black creature burst inside and fell to the arena with a thud, throwing the red-haired girl away from it. At the moment when it was about to pounce on the girl, another girl fell from above and pierced Grimm's head with a large scythe...
***
«Not particularly strong. - Shinoa said in silence easily pulling the scythe out of Grimm's body that was starting to disintegrate.
«That was awesome! You're just like Ruby! - shouted another orange-haired girl.
«Nora, now's not the time. - said the black-haired guy next to her, and after he said that, small grey capsules that contained the hunters' weapons began to fall from the sky.
«Get your gear on, hurry up! - shouted the girl in the red outfit, who was also ready to jump on Nevermore to push her away from Pyrrha. - Braid... you have a braid too, that's really cool! - She said with stars in her eyes as she looked at the scythe in Shinoa's hands.
«It's good that you admit it. - Nodded her head as one petite girl stood in front of the other.
«K-h-ra-a! - There was another roar, and then again.
I landed next to Shinoa and now the red clothed girl gave me a glance of admiration, but she quickly pulled herself together as if remembering something. She dashed at breakneck speed to one of the fallen crates of weapons and came back with... a large scythe.
«There's a lot of them! - shouted the huntress with the big rabbit ears, pointing upwards.
«This is yours. Everyone will be needed here. - I walked over to the still lost red-haired girl and handed her the shield and spear that appeared to be hers, then cast a curious glance at the dismembered robot girl.
«Er, I... yeah, thanks. - She started to come to her senses and nodded to me with an appreciative expression.
«Administrator-kun, what are we going to do? - Shinoa asked me while looking at Ruby and her scythe with interest and doing the same.
«Destroy the Grimm, find all the bad guys and destroy them, and save as many people as possible. - I said, getting a picture through the holographic screen that appeared in front of my face, where Rias was already engaged in a fight with some Grimm... if you could call it a fight at all. She had no problem straightening them out.
«Sounds like a plan! - Shouted Nora, raising her huge hammer.
Walking over to the robot girl's body I had a plan in mind and a large seal erupted under her dismembered body, covering all of her body parts. It wasn't hard for me to figure out how it worked since I could already create a living body with alchemy. Her body parts glowed slightly and began to attach to the places they had been ripped out of and soon the newly "reassembled" robot girl was lying on the ground.
«Penny... - Pyrrha whispered quietly with shock looking at the android and then at me. But she was stopped from speaking by a piercing scream and one of the Nevermores began to dive down. I was able to get a full bird's eye view of what was happening, the drone had finally reached the right height. And the picture was, shall we say, not particularly rosy. There was a huge crowd of Grimm running towards the city, a huge number of Nevermores flying in the sky, and one of Atlas's "frigates" was turning towards the others, which reminded me of what could happen.
«There are people running down the corridor and they might need help. - I said, looking away from the screen, which some of the hunters were paying attention to with obvious interest. One of the Nevermores tried to swoop down on us, but the hunters were clearly ready for it... except that before they could do anything, an iron pin came flying out of the floor. And Grimm himself got on it before he could turn sideways.
«That's amazing..." said one of the hunters.
«Apprentices, I think you'd better get out of here. - said an older man, who seemed to be the teacher here. Next to him stood a green-haired tall man with a weapon in his hands, who was wary of me and the Grimm flying overhead.
«But Professor Port...
«Miss Rose, this day will clearly be recorded in the Remnant Chronicles and I wish you could tell me about it. - The green-haired man spoke up.
«Understood. - Ruby nodded, gripping her braid even tighter.
«Shinoa go with them, they'll be heading for the flying machines. - I told the girl with the scythe and flew up into the air, remembering to throw her a communicator. - I'll know where you are, but in the meantime I have other things to do. - I flew on towards the frigate that was almost there.
***
«Who is he? I've never seen him before. - said Coco Adele, a hunter with a suitcase in her hand... which becomes a minigun when needed. - You too, by the way. - she looked at Shinoa.
«I've never seen you before either. - The girl with the braid answered easily. - So, are you going to show me your skills? - she looked at Ruby.
«I... - it was obvious that she really wanted to. - We don't have time! Let's go! The town is under attack! - She shrieked and ran after the other hunters down the huge corridor. Pyrrha picked up Penny's body and ran with him.
They didn't meet any Grimm on the way, but as soon as they got to the landing pad they noticed that there was a large queue of panicked people waiting for a seat in the flying ship, Shinoa couldn't call it any other way. But then a few of them flew up from the other side of the landing strip and the Grimm jumped out of there.
«Why are these flying things carrying Grimm? - Shinoa couldn't help but ask.
«I don't know! - Ruby shouted, preparing to fight, but she didn't need to, as the Atlantean androids killed them, and some of them were killed by the General himself. - What's going on?
«Nothing good. The Grimms have spread throughout the city. The White Fang have invaded Beacon and some vagrants have commandeered one of my ships. Until we regain control, the sky is out of our hands.
***
One of the frigates had already managed to damage the other two and now they were going down.
«I can't remember all the details of what I saw. - I said with some regret, for I could have prevented it if I had. But this is no time for regrets. Rias is near Bikon and it's easy enough for her to deal with the Grimm, who, by the way, seem to be running towards her on purpose. Perhaps they sense her demon energy. Hermione and Nakiri are also there, both of them helping people... or rather Cortana controlling the suit. The girls were clearly shocked at first to encounter Grimm who were punching through walls with their paws. Shinoa was now flying down to the city with a group of hunters, where she would begin to help as well.
«Time to push on. - The two Atlas ships were huge enough to destroy several areas of the city when they hit, which I didn't want to happen. So with Cortana's help, I calculated the approximate location of the fall and flew straight there, where I began to use magic to its fullest, and I also used the seal to focus.
A hundred metre long seal appeared below me, from where stone pillars tens of metres thick began to shoot upwards. As they approached one of the ships, they stopped growing and instead began to shrink, so as not to pierce the ship through. The speed of their reduction was comparable to the speed of the ship's fall, so they began to gently pick up the ship without causing it huge damage. Having finished with one, I flew to the second and repeated the procedure, this time the ship stopped at a distance of tens of metres from the roofs of the buildings... but around the buildings themselves there were huge earth pillars that were surely visible from a great distance.
To say it was easy was a lie, but it also showed me the limits of my earth-related magical abilities. It still wasn't my limit, but close enough to it.
«Alright, let's fly to the traitor ship. - I said with a chuckle, trying to ignore the dead people who had died at the hands of the Grimm. With magic I was able to create a dome-shaped earth barrier that saved a couple of people, but already some were dead before I arrived.
«Administrator-kun, that concubine with the scythe jumped off the flying machine. - I heard Shinoa's voice.
«Concubine? - I asked again. - Geez, Shinoa, be serious. When you land, start mowing down the Grimm.
«Got it. - I heard a terse reply. Ruby jumped, which means she should be on the ship I'm heading for by now. Well, that's if I remember correctly. There was clearly panic in the city, and that attracted more Grimm.
As I flew up to the last surviving ship, I noticed Ruby fighting on its roof with a petite girl and an orange-haired guy in a hat. But Ruby was clearly losing, judging by the fact that she was the only one getting hit, even though she was trying to fight back. But another blow nearly knocked her off the roof of the ship, but she managed to jam the point of her scythe into the metal.
«...Like it or not, the people who hired me are going to change the world. Neither you nor I can stop them. And, as the saying goes, if you can't beat them... and who else are you? Neo? - that redhead noticed I was flying towards them.
«Apparently you're the one who took over the ship. - I ignored him and switched off the repulsors so I landed on the ship, making a small dent.
«Another hero. - He said dismissively, clearly relying on the display of his subordinate, or whatever she was. I knew roughly who I'd be facing, so I'd prepared myself for all eventualities. Her Manifestation can do illusions and... yeah, they work for me. I may have magical resistance, but such manifestations are clearly not one of them. Even so, I knew exactly where the Neo was, because Cortana had started sending out signals and scanning the space in front of me when I landed, so I knew that this Neo standing next to Ruby wasn't real. The real one was almost upon me. Ruby saw that there was no one in front of her and jumped on the ship and looked right at the miniature girl sneaking up on me, her eyes really working as I knew they would.
The only thing Roman, that's his name, didn't expect was my great speed and the fact that I would be next to Neo and grab her arm, and then with great force, throwing her over myself, and stamping her into the ship. So much so that her aura emptied and she blacked out.
«Neo! I didn't expect that. - He said, starting to get nervous, but then Ruby came at him from behind and gave him a good horizontal slash with her scythe, which threw the redhead sideways... into me. - Maybe pogo..." I forcibly silenced him by punching him in the face and with the first blow, I crushed his face into a bloody mess... overdoing it. Did he even have an aura? I'd forgotten about that...
«Thank you! - Ruby shouted, shielding herself from the wind, we were on the roof of a huge flying ship after all.
«Please take his sidekick and let's go inside. We need to regain control of the ship. - I said, raising my voice so she could hear me. The girl nodded and disappeared, leaving rose petals in her wake, then appeared next to the unconscious Neo, who she grabbed like a sack of potatoes. I picked up the redhead... of course I could throw them, but that way they'd probably get eaten by the Grimm.
***
The whole story is already available at:
patreon.com/posts/124888009