The time had come, Atlas had planted their ships down on the beaches, the decrepit, dead beaches.
This was as far as they could safely go. Grimm had started to circle above the island, above one point. A large crystalline castle, its red crystals gleaming from the beams of the sun that pierced the grey clouds hanging over the miserable land.
Here it was, the final battle had almost started.
The ships had landed on the beaches.
"Alright men! This is as close as we can get! There are many Nevermore above, we'll have the ships take them head-on! YOUR GOAL ARE THE GRIMM ON THE GROUND!" Ironwood's authoritative shout bolstered the spirits of his men, the leader of flesh and steel standing proud as he looked back at his friends.
"CHARGE!" In a surprise, the first person to lead the charge, was the general himself. Running onto the island, using his pistols to obliterate a single grimm with each shot, the kick of his smoking gun threw his arms back each time.
Yet shot by shot, the horde was being thinned.
And from the ships, charged a trio of beings on mass.
Human
Faunus
Robot
The combination of life-filled beings and cold steel rushed forth. Weapons in hand, they started their extermination.
Grimm were gunned down
Beheaded
Split in half
Crushed
Every which way they could die, they would at the hands of this army.
Every fighter that was part of this army, would put their all in it.
The students, soldiers and seniors fought here, many were victims of these foul beings. Their families taken, their lives ruined, their futures burnt away. All of it could be reclaimed today.
Ren and Nora stood back to back, a stupid grin on the girl's face as Ren smiled ever so calmly.
Ruby sliced through grimm after grimm, with all the grace of a dancer as she performed a pirouette, subtle uses of her semblance to speed up her arms allowed a graceful series of swings to carve through the grimm like butter.
Weiss calmly took out one after another, summoning numerous knights that dispersed each of the malice-seeking creatures. Not even lifting a finger.
Ozpin moved forward, masterfully destroying grimm, the long memory of this war was finally about to end, he could rest, as could this generation. All of it would be decided today.
Qrow, was sober for once, using his sword to carefully take out stray grimm that attempted any sort of flanking manoeuvres.
Gylnda carefully removed certain pieces of the ground ahead, creating a bottleneck to fight the grimm through and allowing their troops to safely eliminate the grimm at a distance while the front runners whittled them down.
All these amazing Huntsman, they all noticed a shadow cast down over them for but a brief moment.
"Seems he's getting to it." Weiss muttered with a smile.
"Good luck." The hungover girl couldn't help but say.
"I pray that he ends this quickly. I would rather not see another student die so young." The cane-wielding headmaster reminisced on all of his previous students.
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Standing high atop his Wyvern, the apostle looked down on the hordes, humanoids rose from his shadow, the hue of his skin paling considerably just at their presence.
'I've already briefed you, act accordingly.' At this, the legion, the twins, Kommandant and Monsoon nodded silently. The soldiers leapt from the wyverns' back onto the battlefield, one pink-haired girl in particular was filled with glee as she held the twins on her shoulders.
Screaming to the heavens, she ripped through hordes with all the frenzy and madness of a fanatic, having carelessly tossed her allies aside to do their owners' bidding.
Kommandant had landed, with his landing, a thirty-foot area was cleared around him. Holding his sword steady, lightning crackled, the beowulfs' and deathstalkers growling and hissing, yet the Knight stood gallant and Tranquil.
Similarly to the adorable psychopath, the black Knight carved his way through the horde, creating a parameter of clear ground.
In contrast to the two footholds created, Monsoon leapt from target to target, tearing them apart Smoothly like he was assassinating VIPs'. Easily, he kept on his toes and cleared the significant grimm like the beringels.
The legion along with the twins followed the lead of the pink-haired teen, creating the biggest empty space of them all.
Now atop the wyvern, stood a trio. A short woman, a tall man and a loving mother. Each flap of its wings shook the three of them, yet they didn't struggle to stay on, they stood unmoving.
'We'll all survive, I promise.' They thought in unison, calmly, and happily, the wyvern headed for the pools-
'Damn!' A beam tore through its left wing, much to Hans irritation, but Neo felt nothing but glee. Summer sighed, aware of her presence as a third wheel.
'I'm off Hans!' Glancing back at her...
'...be careful.' Neo grinned as she leapt from her lover's pet, heading straight for the roof of Evernight Castle.
The captain knew that it would be too taxing to regenerate the wyvern for the moment, so he pulled it all into his shadow and grabbed Summer.
He wasn't far. A bit of ice jumping would do it.
But first...
Aiming for the throne room...
"Wait wait wait!" Summer was launched towards Salems' throne room, steadily flying towards the grimm Queen.
'Here we go.' Forming a platform, Hans started to angle it to resemble a slide. 'The lack of friction is interesting.' The captain slid down the ice slide, speedily flying towards the grimm pools.
They were in sight.
Pools of black liquid, even just looking at them, they felt antithetical to the lush greenery of forests, antithetical to life itself. In a few moments, he would reach the ground near the pools. Yet he saw two people...
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Five minutes earlier
A careful strike cleaved another grimm. Ruby's red scythe gracefully moved in tandem with her own movements.
Moving with experience that spoke beyond her tender face.
"Fine movements, girl. You're quite skilled. I'm afraid I must eliminate you from this scenario." The young Rose froze at the familiar voice, a voice that she knew was somewhere else on this battlefield.
"What are you?" Turning to the Knight, she couldn't help but think he looked straight out of a fantasy novel.
Plain white skin, white hair, a noble look, black armour, chalk white robes underneath. In his right hand, a simple bone blade, the left, a bone sceptre with a gem that matched the castle's crystals.
Just seeing him, Ruby began to shake. Something in her feared him, her very being was on edge. Yet she held her scythe tight.
"I am merely a husband assisting his wife." That brought about many questions, but the little girl had no time to question them. She couldn't slip up for even a second.
Yet in not even a second, Ozma had closed the distance. And with a single swing of his blade...
"What? Hm, I had intended to split you in two with a single strike." Ruby was sweating, she barely survived that. There was too much margin for error in such a risky move.
A shot fired from Crescent Rose blasted the blade cleanly at the Knight.
A slight, elegant flick of the wrist, stopped the blade in its tracks. Ruby froze... he was a monster. An unrivalled monster, his strength was unreal, and yet the skill and technique of such a simple block was supreme.
She had no chance.
Ruby shifted her weapon in an attempt to catch him off guard, grabbing the compact sniper rifle before firing several high-calibre rounds. They sailed through the air, yet hyped up on adrenaline, she saw the bullets. And saw how easily Ozma tapped the bullets, knocking them aside.
This was something beyond her.
"Your Marksmanship is impressive, girl. I wonder, Salem told me to remove the pests..." While he was distracted, Ruby dashed at him. With the displays of physical ability he'd shown, running was not an option.
Once again, he struck.
And Ruby experienced another death.
Sweat poured from her forehead, why did she join in this battle? She wasn't a huntress anymore! She didn't want to die!
"I understand now. Truly impressive. For a singular instant, you transform yourself into petals, moving them ever so slightly to avoid my blade. But by no means is that easily replicable." And he was right, it was only possible because the sheer amount of adrenaline in her system had forced her senses to her limits.
And yet, she could sense the blade move through her.
It was terrifying, if she was even a millisecond, no, a nanosecond off, she would die.
Cleaved in two.
And yet, there was no escape, the only escape is victory.
Shifting back to the scythe, Ruby decided on a different approach. Nothing said there was a set amount of petals in each limb.
And so, slowly, her arm fluttered away, leaving an empty jacket sleeve. The petals began to circle them.
"Strange. You have potential, certainly. How about-" A lunge of her scythe surprised him, but just as his blade was about to stop the life-harvesting tool, it did the same trick.
His blade slipped through the gaps in the petals, and it was then he realised.
'She's surpassed my expectations.' A large thud rang out against the stone floor, crescent rose had slammed the old Knight into the ground, having barely nicked his neck.
Yet an ultraviolet light was formed at the point of impact, holding the blade in place.
Immediately, Ozma tried to grab her throat, yet she turned to petals, reforming from the swirling wall of petals around them.
Falling to one knee, she stared at Ozma as he slowly got up. The fatigue was coming, both mental and physical. Such extended use of a semblance, even in bursts, was incredibly taxing.
"I've decided." Slamming his staff into the ground, an iridescent barrier formed around them, just beyond the circling petals.
'What's he planning?' Ozma twisted the staff, the barrier shrinking to a mere fifteen feet. Ruby didn't have much of a chance at this distance, even if she managed to recover Crescent Rose, it was far too cramped to fight normally.
Not like that'd work.
At full speed, Ozma grabbed the young girl by the throat, the iridescent energy covering her entire body. The petal Wall returned to her left arm.
"Ho... how?" Ozma calmly smiled.
"Simple enough. I just used some magic to reattach your arm. Now I'm using my magic to keep you together.
Ruby flailed and struggled, yet could do nothing to escape his grip. Nor would the energy disappear. Her vision slowly started to fade, her breathing slowed, her heartbeat dropping rapidly.
'Is this... how I die? Here? Before I even... got to... tell...' everything was fading to black, the strength was leaving the young girl's body, her skin paling at the lack of oxygen.
The grimm around them dared not to make a move at their king, simply opening a path for him.
Slowly, carefully, Ozma walked along, her cold body in hand.
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Well, my lazy ass finally did this... gotta say, shit.
Sometimes I can write a shit ton, sometimes so little.
Just watching a shreebington video as I write. God I love the ai presidents.
Join the discord if you want.
Anyway, see ya.