Chương 76: Chapter 69: The Siege of Mistral

The heavy, reinforced doors of the Grand Hall had been completely obliterated. Through the massive, splintered archway, the nightmare poured in. A pack of frenzied Beowolves scrambled over the rubble, their red eyes glowing with feral hunger. Behind them, a towering Beringel smashed its massive fists into the floorboards, letting out a concussive roar that shook the remaining stained-glass windows.

"They just keep coming!" Emerald Sustrai yelled, her dual revolvers barking continuously as she backpedaled, cutting down a leaping Beowolf.

"Less complaining, more shooting!" Mercury Black snapped. He launched himself into the air, his metallic legs humming as he unleashed a rapid barrage of explosive wind-bullets, tearing through a cluster of smaller Grimm. Hazel Rainart stood in the center of the breach, his coat discarded and his arms glowing with volatile Lightning Dust. He didn't use a weapon. he simply caught a charging Ursa by its bone-plated skull and violently slammed it into the floor, crushing it instantly.

But even with his monstrous strength, the sheer volume of monsters flooding the academy was becoming overwhelming. Suddenly, a blinding pillar of green and orange fire erupted from the massive crater in the center of the hall. The temperature in the room skyrocketed. A localized, gale-force hurricane swept through the Grand Hall, lifting the invading Grimm entirely off their feet. Cinder Fall ascended from the darkness of the collapsed vault, hovering effortlessly in the air.

Her right eye burned with amber fire, while her left eye radiated a brilliant, vibrant emerald green. With a cruel, echoing laugh, she swept her arms outward. A devastating shockwave of superheated wind and molten fire washed over the room. The invading Grimm were instantly incinerated, their bodies turning to ash before they even hit the ground. In a matter of seconds, the Grand Hall was completely empty of monsters. Cinder floated down, her boots touching the scorched floorboards lightly.

The dual magical auras faded into her skin, leaving her looking utterly victorious.

"What is happening up here?" Cinder demanded, adjusting the pristine white glove on her right hand.

"We don't know," Emerald answered, her voice trembling slightly as she looked at Cinder's newfound power.

"Salem must have watched our battle," Hazel deduced, his gravelly voice tight with frustration. He stared at the ash drifting through the air.

"She saw that we were losing the perimeter. She got desperate and summoned the horde, creating the Battle of Beacon all over again." Cinder smirked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Losing? I don't feel like we were losing. I feel entirely revitalized. I have gained far more power than any of you could possibly comprehend."

"The vault," Hazel grunted, stepping toward her.

"What happened down there? Do you have the Relic?"

"The vault collapsed from the structural stress of this invasion," Cinder said, slightly disappointed.

"The situation has changed, Hazel. The Relic is buried under hundreds of tons of rock. We can grab it another time. I will tell you the details later."

"And what about him?" Mercury points to the second-floor balcony, where Leonardo Lionheart was clinging to the railing. His face pale with absolute terror as he stared down at the Fall Maiden.

"Please! Cinder!" Lionheart begged, his voice cracking hysterically.

"You have to take me with you! Salem promised me safety! I gave you everything!" Cinder slowly turned her head, her dual-colored eyes narrowing with supreme, icy contempt. She didn't raise a hand. She didn't even conjure a spark.

"Sorry, Leo. Your usefulness has ran out," Cinder stated coldly. She turned her back on him.

"Leave him to the monsters." Lionheart collapsed against the railing, sobbing uncontrollably into his hands.

"We should get out of here," Emerald urged, nervously glancing at the shattered entrance as the distant, horrifying screeches of the horde echoed from the courtyard.

"The academy is going to be overrun in minutes." Hazel planted his feet, his jaw tightening.

"I am not leaving. Ozpin is out there. I still have unfinished business with him."

"He can be found again, Hazel," Cinder assured him, her voice laced with authoritative finality.

"Now we know for certain that he has reincarnated within the farm boy. He cannot hide from us anymore. We have won enough for tonight. If we stay, we will be buried alive by Salem's pets." Hazel stared at the entrance, his fists trembling with unresolved hatred. Finally, he let out a heavy, defeated sigh.

"Fine." Without another word, the four villains turned and vanished into the shadows of the academy's rear corridors, fleeing Mistral and leaving the heroes to face the apocalypse alone.

Outside in the expansive courtyards of Haven, the apocalypse had well and truly arrived. The fractured moon was entirely obscured by a swirling vortex of Nevermores and Griffons. The flying Grimm rained down destruction, dropping Ursai and Beowolves directly behind the heroes' defensive lines. The ground itself betrayed them. Massive, armored Centinels burst through the pristine cobblestones, their segmented bodies thrashing wildly to destabilize the Huntsmen.

"Hold the line! Do not let them breach the lower terraces!" Qrow Branwen roared over the din of battle. He swung Harbinger in its massive scythe form, cleaving a leaping Griffon neatly in half.

"Get the civilians to the evacuation routes! We hold them here!" Ghira Belladonna commanded from the city streets just beyond the gates. The massive Chieftain slammed his fists into a Beringel, while Ilia Amitola darted between the creature's legs, using her Lightning Lash to whip it to the ground. Sun Wukong was a golden blur, his staff spinning like a helicopter rotor as he deflected a barrage of bone-spines fired by a pack of Creeps. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author.

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"Keep moving! Don't let them surround you!" Sun yelled to the Menagerie Faunus and the Mistral Police Forces, who were laying down heavy suppressive fire to cover the fleeing citizens. Closer to the academy steps, the remnants of Beacon's finest were fighting for their lives. Jaune Arc stood like an unbreakable fortress. A massive Ursa Major charged him, swinging a heavy, bone-plated paw. Jaune didn't dodge. He raised his shield, absorbing the tremendous blow with a bright flare of white Aura.

Using his enhanced, terrifying physical strength, Jaune pushed forward, bashing his shield directly into the beast's snout to stun it before driving Crocea Mors deep into its chest.

"On your left, Jaune!" Pyrrha Nikos called out. She hurled Miló in its javelin form, using her Polarity to guide the weapon through the air. The spear pierced the skulls of three approaching Beowolves in a single, curved trajectory before returning sharply to her hand. Nearby, Weiss Schnee danced across a sequence of glowing blue glyphs.

She parried a heavy strike from a Beringel with Myrtenaster, immediately countering with a brutal, unarmed palm-strike to the monster's knee, a move drilled into her by Yang, forcing that creature to buckle before she severed its head with a crescent of ice.

"They're digging underneath us!" Blake Belladonna warned, backflipping away as a massive Centinel erupted from the ground where she had just been standing. Ruby Rose was a whirlwind of red petals and steel.

"Don't let them split us up!" she ordered, firing a high-caliber round from Crescent Rose to propel herself over a lunging Beowolf, decapitating it on the way down. In the center of the formation, Ozpin was a blur of ancient, calculated motion. He deflected a Griffon's claws with The Long Memory, gracefully sidestepping a Centinel's pincers. But inside the mindscape, the host was rebelling.

"Let me fight," Oscar Pine pleaded, his voice echoing loudly in their shared consciousness.

"It is too dangerous, Oscar," Ozpin replied calmly, driving the brass tip of his cane into a Beowolf's throat." These are mindless beasts of destruction. One mistake will cost us our life."

"I can do this!" Oscar insisted, his mental voice fierce and unwavering." I didn't endure all that training in the safehouse just to sit in the passenger seat! I don't want my training to be wasted. I want to stand by my friends' side. I want to do the right thing!" Ozpin hesitated, dodging another brutal swipe.

"Trust me!" Oscar begged. Ozpin sighed softly in the confines of his mind, a rare, genuine smile crossing his ancient soul." Very well, Oscar. Show them what you have learned." The regal, ancient posture of the Headmaster suddenly vanished. Oscar blinked, his hazel eyes widening as the overwhelming sensory overload of the battlefield hit him. The smell of ash, the deafening roars, the heat of the flames. A Beowolf lunged directly at him, its jaws snapping open. Oscar didn't freeze.

His muscle memory, forged by grueling hours of combat drills, took over completely. He ducked underneath the monster's leaping arc, gripped The Long Memory with both hands, and swung it upward like a baseball bat, striking the Beowolf squarely in the jaw and sending it crashing backward into the rubble.

"Nice hit, Oscar!" Ruby cheered, landing beside him and blasting another Grimm away.

"Thanks!" Oscar yelled back, his heart pounding with adrenaline as he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the leader of Team RWBY.

But the victory was short-lived. The heroes regrouped in a tight circle right outside the academy doors, panting heavily, their bodies covered in sweat and soot. They looked up. The sky was entirely black. A fresh wave of Nevermores and Griffons crested the mountain peak, dropping an entirely new legion of land Grimm directly onto the courtyards.

"There's... there's too many of them," Ren gasped, leaning heavily on StormFlower.

"We stand our ground!" Qrow growled, raising his scythe. Just as the massive horde charged forward to overwhelm them, a blinding, high-pressure wave of water exploded from the western flank, crashing into the Grimm frontline like a tsunami. A split second later, a massive fireball slammed into the soaked monsters, creating a devastating steam explosion that completely obliterated the vanguard. The heroes shielded their eyes, looking toward the source of the blast.

Charging through the shattered gates of Haven Academy, weapons drawn and Auras flaring, was a massive legion of Huntsmen and Huntresses from across the Anima continent, including Mistral Below. Leading the charge was Neptune Vasilias, his Tri-Hard shifting from its trident form back into a rifle. Beside him stood the broad-shouldered Sage Ayana, swinging his massive broadsword, and Scarlet David, firing his flintlock pistol as he glided down from a ruined archway. Flanking them was Team ABRN.

Arslan Altan led the martial assault, her fists glowing with fiery Aura as she punched a Beowolf directly into a stone wall. Bolin Hori spun his staff to deflect incoming projectiles, while Reese Chloris rode her hoverboard along the academy walls, her dual pistols blazing. Nadir Shiko provided cover fire from the rear with his assault rifle.

"The cavalry is here!" Ruby yelled, her silver eyes lighting up with immense joy.

"Let's show them how we do things!"

"Neptune! Guys!" Sun cheered, laughing in pure relief as he vaulted over a shattered pillar to join his team.

"You really know how to leave a guy hanging, Sun!" Neptune complained playfully, blasting a Griffon out of the sky.

"Running off to Menagerie without a single word!"

"We've been worried sick about you, man," Sage added, bringing his giant sword down to crush a Centinel.

"And now we have to come all the way up here and clean up your mess in Mistral!" Scarlet huffed, slicing a Creep's throat with his cutlass.

"Less talking, more fighting, Sun!" Arslan shouted, delivering a spinning kick that sent a Beringel stumbling backward. She shot the monkey Faunus a fierce grin.

"But... it's good to see you're alive, idiot!"

"Watch out for the aerial ones!" Bolin warned, looking up at the circling Nevermores.

"Leave the Griffons to me!" Reese yelled, launching her hoverboard off a ramp of broken stone to strike a flying monster mid-air.

"I'll cover your blind spot!" Nadir shouted, laying down a spread of suppressing fire to keep the Beowolves at bay. With the combined, overwhelming force of Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Team SSSN, Team ABRN, and the veteran Huntsmen, the tide of the battle aggressively shifted. The courtyard became a spectacular display of high-level Huntsman combat.

Arslan punched her way through a pack of Grimm, only to pause in sheer disbelief as she watched Weiss Schnee gracefully dodge a Beringel's heavy strike, step inside its guard, and deliver a devastating, unarmed elbow strike to the beast's ribs that visibly shattered bone, before freezing it solid.

"Since when did the Schnee fight like a brawler?!" Arslan gasped, dodging a swipe. Neptune lowered his rifle, his jaw dropping behind his goggles as he watched Jaune Arc drop his sword, grab a leaping Ursa by its thick, armored arms, and violently suplex that creature directly into the cobblestones with earth-shattering force.

"Jaune just suplexed an Ursa!" Neptune yelled over the gunfire.

"What happened to him?!" Sun laughed loudly, spinning his staff to clear the space around him.

"Oh, you know! Just a special, super-secret combat class back at Beacon with Saitama!" A few yards away, Qrow Branwen sliced through a Nevermore's wing, landing lightly on his feet. He glanced over his shoulder, watching Oscar perfectly parry a Beowolf's claws before striking it down with a calculated thrust of the cane.

"Not bad, kid," Qrow grunted in genuine approval.

"Keep your guard up!"

"I'm trying!" Oscar yelled back, wiping sweat from his brow, a proud smile breaking across his face. The combined forces were pushing the horde back, clearing the courtyards and securing the perimeter. The victory seemed completely within their grasp. Then, the sky shrieked. It wasn't the screech of a Nevermore or the roar of a Griffon. It was a piercing, unnatural, horrifyingly human wail that echoed across the entire mountain, chilling the blood of every single Huntsman and Huntress in the courtyard.

A massive flock of Nevermores descended over the center of the academy grounds. From their massive talons, they dropped something heavy into the courtyard. The impact shook the earth. Dust and debris plumed into the air. As the dust slowly cleared, a towering, grotesque silhouette emerged. It possessed the massive, decayed body of a horrifying equine beast, its black flesh pulled tightly over exposed, jutting bones.

Fused to its back was a twitching, emaciated humanoid torso with impossibly long, elastic arms that dragged against the floorboards. That creature raised its humanoid head, its jaw unhinging as it let out another agonizing, ear-piercing scream. On the far side of the courtyard, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie froze completely. The color drained entirely from Ren's face.

His breathing hitched, his magenta eyes widening in sheer, paralyzing terror as the horrific memories of a burning village, screaming parents, and a shattered childhood flooded his mind. Beside him, Nora gripped the handle of Magnhild so tightly her hands shook, her teal eyes locked onto the nightmare that had destroyed their home.

"It's..." Nora whispered, her voice trembling with a mixture of absolute dread and decades of buried trauma. Ren is no different. He fixed his eyes to the creature, filled with anger.

"... the Nuckelavee."