When we last left our heroes…..
BIrds were taking off into the skies in panic as trees could be seen rustling violently before falling over. It was a pretty good enough reason for the rest of the group to take up their stances again as they tensed nervously.
They could all sense something was coming.
Something huge…..
"Luke… what is that?!" Honey asked nervously as she gripped her weapons.
Luke kept his eyes focused. He could see a large silhouette fast approaching them.
"Lusy do your thing!"
Daedalus nodded as he pointed his sleeves to the ground as the curious black mass began to spill out of his clothes. As it did, some of the group noticed the clothes he wore under his jacket disappearing.
The black mass slipped itself under the groups' feet as they hopped in surprise until they were standing on a sort of platform of this shifting black mass.
At that moment there was a loud guttural hissing as a Gigantic black snake-like Grimm burst forth from the forest, lunging straight for them.
"LUSY TAKE US UP!" Luke ordered.
Everybody let out surprised cries as they found themselves suddenly flung high into the air, dodging the Grimm attack as it curled and hissed at them, spotting them in the air.
"What is that?! It doesn't look like any Taijitu I've seen before!" exclaimed Naranja as he flicked out his Hover Shield and grabbed Honey once more.
Luke had summoned a small Nevermore to capture himself and Taavi while Daedalus created a platform for himself and Tessa while Astrid flew around the group on her staff with Eric hanging on by one hand.
Eric smirked as he twirled Gentleman 's Rose with one hand, activating Rifle mode.
"I got this folks!" he exclaimed as he let himself drop.
"Eric!! Don't, you Dumkoff!!!" yelled Luke in frustration as Eric fired off a few shots at the snake making it angrily writhe around as it opened its mouth.
Everybody watched in horror as the snake stretched out and swallowed Eric whole.
"NO!" cried out Luke at the sight of his best friend's demise.
"ERIC!!!" Astrid shrieked, ready to dive after him when she felt Honey hold her shoulder.
Honey smiled reassuringly. "Just watch."
As everyone looked down they began to see petals emerging out of the snake's as it swirled around and began to gather behind its head as a scythe blade was seen being brandished.
In a sudden burst, the petals blew apart revealing Eric, weapon raised.
"TAKE THIS!!!!" he yelled as he swung his scythe with all his strength.
SCHIIIIINGCK!!!!!
The scythe sliced through the giant snake's head like a hot knife through butter as the head flew right off and bounced a bit with dull heavy thuds as the body itself writhed a bit more before falling.
"Ohmigods!!!" exclaimed Tessa and Astrid landing on the ground before tackling Eric in a big relieved hug.
"YOU IDIOT YOU HAD US SCARED THERE!!!" cried Tessa shaking Eric by the collar before Astrid took over.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US YOU ACTIVATED YOUR SEMBLANCE ALREADY?!" Astrid wailed, shaking him harder.
"You bastard! You had that ace up your sleeve the whole time?!" snarled Luke in a mix of frustration and relief, yanking Eric away.
Eric wobbled with swirly eyes as his brain could be felt jostling about like Jello.
"Ok, ok, break it up. Point is, he's fine," placated Honey, gently separating the two as she let her cousin lean on her.
"And YOU!" Luke growled pointing a finger at Honey. "You knew this whole time?!"
Honey shrugged. "He wanted to surprise you."
Eric gave a wrinkled smile. "Surprise…."
Meanwhile Naranja and Taavi looked to the Snake head which disintegrated as per usual but noticed something strange when the ash began swirling back to the body. The two looked at each other with concerned looks as they saw the ash swirl around the stump where Eric had sliced it.
"Uuuuhh….. Guys….?" Naranja called out, waving a hand to get their attention. "Something weird is going on…."
This got everyone to turn their heads as they watched in confusion. The ash of the Grimm had begun to swirl back to the body, gathering at the stump where it had been decapitated. The ash began to writhe and morph back into three elongated shapes before they solidified into three snake heads which swayed and hissed menacingly.
"Ooooooh SnnnnaAP!" Naranja blurted out as everyone stared dumbfounded. "That's not supposed to happen….right?"
The snake heads released deafening guttural hisses, making everyone flinch as they felt the impact of the cry on their faces.
"NOPE!" exclaimed Eric grabbing his Scythe as he deformed into a cluster of petals and reformed over the Grimm's heads and chopped them off with another easy swing.
Eric landed back down just seconds after the heads hit the ground. "You're welcome." Eric said smugly.
The group looked behind Eric with wide eyes as a shadow began to grow over them.
"What?" Eric said while turning around to see the snake had grown bigger but now with six heads. "OH YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!"
"Eric NO!" yelled Luke attempting to grab Eric, but it was futile as Eric had disintegrated into petals and rushed around the heads, slicing them off like a buzz saw.
The instant Eric reformed, he found himself wrapped in Honey's Honey Drops and yanked to the ground as Daedalus caught him in a full body bind with his...whatever it was.
"Hey what-?!"
"WOULD YOU QUIT IT WITH THE HEAD SLICING?!?!?!?!" roared Luke in frustration.
"YOU'RE MAKING THINGS WORSE!!!" Honey added just as frustrated pointing back at the Grimm in question as it reformed again, now even much bigger than before with twelve heads this time, roaring and hissing about wildly.
Everyone scowled heavily at Eric as he shrunk in place with a sheepish grin.
The scowling did not last long as the impending threat behind them quickly prompted everyone to turn their attention back to it as Eric was just dropped on the ground.
"We'll talk about this later! We got bigger problems!" Luke said brandishing Riptide in GuanDao mode.
The Snake Grimm hissed as its many heads lunged for the group.
"SPREAD OUT!" Luke commanded as everybody dodged out of the way. "LUSY DO THE THING!"
"You got it!" replied Daedalus as he manipulated his weapon to spear as many heads as he could.
SCHICK! SCHICK! SCHICK! SCHICK!
Daedalus managed to stab four of them in quick succession. Unfortunately that left him open for attack as two of the remaining heads lunged for him.
"HIIIYAH!!!!!" cried out Tessa as she hammer dropped one head while Naranja jumped in front of Daedalus, jamming his large shield into the open jaws of the second head.
Naranja slid back a bit as he pushed back as he craned his head over to Daedalus.
"Lusy, right? Do me a favor and twist that knob under my handle!"
Daedalus spotted what Naranja was indicating and nodded as he twisted.
FWOOSH!
The instant the knob was twisted, the fire and combustion dust in the front insignia of the shield was activated, sending a rush of flames into the Serpent's mouth.
The snake head immediately let go as it writhed in agony from the inferno swirling in its throat as it began to swell up.
"Heads up!" called out Naranja as Tessa and Daedalus ducked behind his shield with him.
BOOOOM!!!
The snake head exploded into a cloud of smoke and ash, the force strong enough to blow the entire serpent off balance as it fell over with a giant crash.
"Alright! That's six!!!" celebrated Tessa jumping out but Daedalus held up a hand.
"Hold that thought, it could still regenerate!"
"But we didn't slice the heads off so it should be fine right?" Naranja pointed out.
Meanwhile, the remaining six heads looked clearly displeased as the other team members were paddling it with all they got with their weapons.
The heads, seeing the demise of the others, immediately turned their attention away to their other heads.
With the exception of the head that Naranja had blown up, now nothing but a smoldering stump, five of the remaining Snake Heads opened their jaws and clamped down on the rest.
To the shock and horror of the teens, the snakes did not hesitate to rip off the downed heads, allowing them to disintegrate.
"Oh my gah…." a horrified Astrid gaped next to Taavi who looked equally as disturbed. "Did it just…"
"It did….."
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Eric was frantically shaking Luke. "Grimm don't do that right?! They're not supposed to do that right?!"
"Not the time for this! Now shut up And run!"
Everybody took the cue from Luke as they all booked it out of there while the serpent was still stalled growing back its heads.
"So what do we do? We can't slice it! And it apparently knows to rip its own heads off!" Astrid exclaims riding her staff next to them.
As the group ran, Honey happened to look over her shoulder. The serpent had reformed even more heads than before as expected but something was different.
Honey swung herself into a nearby tree as she climbed to the very top and pulled out a monocular from her pocket to observe the serpent.
There were way too many heads to count now, but Honey could still make out the smoke still bellowing from its body. Zooming a bit more, Honey followed the trail of smoke to the smouldering stump left behind from Naranja's last attack.
This discovery got Honey excited as she flung out her weapon and swung down to join the rest.
"GUYS! I found its weakness!" she exclaimed as she landed and continued to run.
"Well don't leave us hanging!" Naranja urged.
Honey, jerked a thumb back to the now revived multi headed serpent. "Well turns out, your attack actually did some permanent damage to it! Looks like it can't regenerate if you seal the stumps with fire!"
"Great work Honey! We can use this!" Luke complimented as a plan formulated in his head.
The light bulb moment came when he spotted a lake up ahead.
"I got it! I know how to beat it!" Luke announced. "Lusy! Eric! Taavi! You're with me, we're gonna distract it!"
"Right!"/ "Got it!"/ "Hnn!" Eric, Lusy and Taavi replied respectively.
"Astrid, Naranja, Honey! You guys got the fire power! Honey, take the lead with them!"
"You got it Luke!" the Faunus girl saluted.
"And me?" asked Tessa.
"Wait for my signal Tessa! Everybody Go!"
With an actual plan in place, everybody took their places as Luke's team about-faced to anticipate the Serpent.
Taavi whipped out more knives, holding them between his fingers as Eric spun Gentleman's Rose, reforming back to rifle mode as he loaded it with fire dust cartridges.Luke meanwhile drew a glyph in the air while Daedalus had his weapon formed into giant tentacles.
All at once, all four guys unleashed their attacks on the snake.
Taavi flung his knives which glowed with orange dust as they went off in small explosions while Eric let loose a barrage of bullets. Luke summoned a horde of Grimm bats, sending them flying at the Giant Grimm the same time as Daedalus who flicked out projectiles from his tentacles.
That definitely got the snake's attention as it began to charge directly at them.
"Alright! That got its attention! Let's move!!!" commanded Luke as the team dashed towards the direction of the lake.
As the boys were being chased by the Grimm behind them, Daedalus used his weapon to quickly throw them out of it's path while Eric continued to fire at it.
Luke, Taavi, and Daedalus made their way behind the Grimm as Luke waved his arms to signal to Honey.
Honey nodded as she turned to her team. "Alright folks! Smoke em' if you got'em!"
"Aye!" exclaimed Astrid and Naranja at the same time.
Astrid separated her staff, twirling the batons before flicking them into tonfa mode, clicking in new fire dust cartridges. Naranja twisted out the handle of his shield, activating a mechanism that caused his shield to fold in on itself and stretch out into a blade as the hand elongated.
The Fox Faunus spun his newly transformed broadsword as he brandished before him.
Honey grinned as she injected her Honey Drops with a red glowing vial, causing the balls to glow red.
"LET'S GO!"
Honey's team moved out as they charged at the serpent.
Eric activated his semblance as he disappeared into a rush of petals, weaving in and out of the multitude of serpents keeping the focus on some heads while Luke summoned a flock of Ravagers to distract the rest of the heads.
Taavi ran forward with a pair of extended daggers, dashing towards the tail and stabbing his blades into it to pin it down, causing the multi-headed snake to hiss in pain.
Honey's team took the opportunity to run up the length of the snake body with Naranja in the lead. Clicking a switch on the handle, the edges of the blade began to glow a bright red as the Fox Faunus jumped forward with a loud cry, slicing multiple in one powerful swing. The sliced off stumps remained glowing red from the heat of Naranja's sword as Astrid followed up, spewing fire from her tonfas to seal the stumps for extra measure.
As heads began to fall to the ground, Daedalus had been using his weapon to form a wedge under the serpent body, gradually increasing the incline as it forced the serpent to begin tipping into the lake . With one final push, the snake lost its balance as it toppled into the water.
"ABANDON GRIMM!" Astrid hollered, forming her flying staff to rocket to safety as Naranja and Honey joined hands, hopping onto the broadsword like a hoverboard as they shot out of there as well.
"TESSA!" Luke yelled while pointing at the Grimm in the lake.
"On It!" Tessa replied, running to the edge of the lake as electricity began to spark from her body into the balls of her melon hammers.
CLANG! CLANG! Tessa banged her hammers together, creating a web of electricity between them as she shoved them into the water; sending a surge of electricity which rippled visibly, making its way to the Grimm as it convulsed violently with the shocks.
"Time to finish this!" Honey exclaimed as Naranja nodded and directed the hover sword down to the Grimm that was writhing in agony.
Wrapping her tail around Naranja's waist to anchor herself, Honey gripped each of her glowing red Drops and crushed them in her hands.
Something could be heard cracking, as Honey shook them, causing them to glow orange as she flung each Drop into the open mouth of one of the snake heads.
Naranja quickly pulled up as the two made a big loop away from the Grimm towards the shore.
"Everybody take cover!" warned Honey, prompting Tessa to pull back from the edge and run back to the rest of the group as Daedalus quickly set up a protective wall for everyone to dive behind.
Naranja and Honey quickly dropped behind the wall while Honey looked excited." Let the fireworks begin in 3...2...1… NOW!"
Everybody instinctively flinched in anticipation…. Only for nothing to happen.
"Now!" Honey said again. Still nothing.
Everyone cautiously poked their heads out in curiosity.
"Now?" Honey asked nervously.
BOOOOM!!!
The Grimm's entire snake body expanded as it exploded, prompting startled cries as everyone ducked again behind the wall except for Honey.
Eric slowly opened his eyes as he poked his head up. "Is… is it finally dead?"
Everyone turned to look at Honey whose stunned face was charred with ash as her hair was blown back. The Faunus girl let out a large cough, expelling a cloud of smoke as she blinked a couple of times.
"Eeeyup…." she croaked before falling over backwards in faint.
Everyone looked to where the Snake Grimm was, only to see whatever was left of it finally completely disintegrating into the air.
Daedalus released a huge sigh of relief as he powered down while the rest of the teens who were still conscious cheered in celebration at their victory.
At that moment, the sound of jets could be heard roaring above them, prompting the group to look up to see an airship with Jaune, Oscar and Glynda looking down at them with relieved and proud looks.
The teens all looked incredibly relieved as they all sank to the ground, waving up at their guardians.
The fight was finally over.
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As the teens were loaded into the rescue airship, a cloaked figure sat in a tall tree, well hidden by the foliage but still giving the mysterious person a clear view.
"Impressive...they actually managed to defeat the Hydra…." the figure, revealed to a male, chuckled as a maniacal grin spread across his face. "But no worries...I have plenty more children for them to play with…"
With a final dark laugh, the figure jumped off the branch, disappearing into a swirl of ash, his laughter echoing away on the wind.