Erupting into the sky, a blanket of black smeared itself over the night. With the observation tower at its center, a single pulse of energy spread over Vale. Soundlessly, it swallowed the clouds and cloaked the moon. The battlefield darkened as the moon’s white radiance was swept away.Street lights cut. Signals were lost.With the observation tower at the center, every electronic item within its radius was shut down. The only light permitted to the affected areas was the scarlet glares from Grimm.Shimmering, flickering, the darkness that clouded the sky began to shift. Spiraling and receding, the otherworldly black expanse formed a towering storm. The area just above Eirlys’ shoulders formed the eye of this storm.The silent outburst was met with a rousing roar at ground level.In the distance, a thin streak of violet soared into a towering mass of black. It was familiar enough, yet what her eyes saw, her brain could not decipher. Against the grim black backdrop, the arcing afterglow became the focus of her attention.The swarming mist by her shoulder tensed and compressed, undulating with her rapid heartbeat. Her eyes tracked the purple afterglow. It impacted and coiled around the black, writhing mass, but never seemed able to do more than distract its movements.Eirlys’ eyes focused as best they could onto the violet ray’s movement. As she did, the mist pouring out into the surrounding realigned and took shape. It was a large, black haze, in state of constant flux. Like a flame, it flickered and licked at the surroundings. Like electricity, it buzzed and kicked.A souring disgust tore at her heart. Though the words amounted to no more than idle conversation, now they only served as salt kicked into her pride’s wounds. The repulsion she felt was all too vivid.Those were the witch’s words, weren’t they? If that Valkyrie had heard…she too would agree.Or perhaps, in that exchange, she had already spoken.The rabble. A statistic, powerless to the truly strong.Kicked aside to take meaningless, ‘support’ roles.Should I be glad, then? Is this what it is? I should feel gratitude, to be graced by her shield?Compressing the otherworldly energy into a paper-thin surface, the shapeless pane began to take form. The black mist criss-crossed her body, her Aura’s lucid purple corrupted into a distinctive black, one which marked itself out from her semblance’s wild dance.Eirlys grit her teeth, clenched her fists and closed her eyes. Without Vale’s chaotic skyline in the background, she could truly pay attention to every detail of her outburst.The anger, the bitterness and the self pity.The outrage, the sour sadness and the self-doubt.From every corner of her mind, from every fibre of her body, she could only reject the Valkyrie’s conclusion.--The sky was smeared in black.Epli watched as light left Vale. From the industrial district, street by street, the battlefield was plunged into darkness. An eerie silence fell as stomping mechs ceased to move. Weapons dependant on electricity shut down. But it meant little compared to the chilling cold that ran down her spine.In the darkness, she felt the grimm’s strength grow. Their snarls echoed through the streets, the ground cracked to their rapid growth. The negative energy that they fed on had been smeared across the sky.The expanse of black began to swirl. From the gaps in its coverage, brief rays of moonlight lit up the darkened battlefield. The power she sensed was not driven by despair nor fear. It was a display of power without an audience, a brash and ill-timed burst of anger. It left her confounded. On this scale, it was too early for meaningful analysis.At this point, she wouldn’t know what she’d fear more.At this point, she couldn’t afford to fear. From all around her, smears of black began to form. In alleyways, on the crumbling roads, the same viscous substance that dripped from Hydra began to flood the streets. From her vantage point, she saw the reflective sheen encroach and corrode its way into the commercial district’s heart. The distinctive stingers from Deathstalkers rose from the ground.Epli paused as the futility of her actions dawned on her. It wouldn’t matter if she knew how many Deathstalkers were in the distance. Their spawning was as relentless as the huntsmen’s killing. Prior to this point, for each grimm they killed, two more would spawn. Now…those two Grimm would have spawned before the first had been killed. Out from the black mud, the harrowing orange glow lit up Vale from every observable corner.On the street below, the prowling packs of grimm began reacting to the sudden change in atmosphere. Flinching and growling, their bony spinal armor further developed. Within the space of several seconds, the ground trembled to the sound of the grimm’s rapid evolution. The black of fur was all but covered now by large, bony plates of armor. Freshly spawned Alpha Beowolves and Ursa Majors joined the march. Claw by claw, they hauled themselves out from the sludge.Epli squinted, focusing her attention on her student as she confronted the towering mass of black and white. The relentless assault on Hydra was all that kept it pinned down. With no concrete defense between the Grimm and Beacon, confronting the Umbral here and now would at least buy enough time for Beacon to increase its defenses.Though the situation had compounded itself and though Hydra continued to drip Grimm from its skin, the building ledge kept Puria at a safe height. The impromptu tactic here seemed simple enough. Puria defaulted to taking Hydra head-on, her stubborn bloodlust launching her into combat without any prior negotiation. All other huntsmen divided themselves between off lesser grimm and attacking from the Umbral’s blind spots.In her ear, she heard equally harrowing words ring out through the static.“The base had fallen, military support is now firmly focused on evacuation.”With that message in mind, she stood and re-evaluated the state of the battle. The street they stood on had become the midpoint between the black storm in the distance and the incoming waves of Grimm. As grimm approached her, they grew and matured. The more grimm approached, the more readily their large numbers adapted.Epli began to shape the metallic cube, but she knew she was merely going through the motions. No single huntsmen could hope to dent these numbers on their own. Her evaluation of the situation hardly mattered at this point. Vale’s fate, at this rate, was inevitable.From four stories high, the metallic cube shimmered. Epli had abandoned the idea of singular, elaborate attacks to mount offensives. The sound from launching such an attack would only alert the surrounding Grimm of the open space now available for them to rush into. Instead, she focused on re-establishing a line of defense. From the cube, bursts of grey shot out. Each shot found its target, though some failed to penetrate the Grimm’s unprotected fur.The wolfpack matured Grimm had wised to her attacks. Dancing between the main street and alleyways, dodging and diving behind buildings, they exploited the gap between the huntsmen’s strikes to push on. Sooner or later, the Grimm would find their way onto the rooftops.A harrowing roar boomed through the streets.At extremely close proximity, a burst of heat scorched through the chilling despair.Epli felt the shockwaves in her skin, the side of her body facing this eruption instantly warmed up. The blinding purple light tore into the landscape, its vicious flame only matched by the savage roar that followed. It inspired as much confidence within Epli as it did cause her to worry.---Puria’s crimson eyes glowed intensely.Her breathing sharpened with each breath. Masking the agony from the scalding heat with increasingly primal growls, she clenched her aching fists and backed off.Stood several stories above ground, she allowed herself to take stock of her situation for the first time since she launched into her assault. Epli was twenty or so meters away, and she was easily the next closest huntsmen to her.The grey asphalt was swamped in black, white and red. The combined firepower of the dozen huntsmen on the roof was barely enough to keep the Grimm down. She looked upon this sight and grit her teeth.Even in the brief glance she took, her instincts began mapping out a route for her. With a regretful grunt, Puria turned her gaze away from the horde. The sight alone had rekindled her bloodlust. She flexed her aching fists, vectoring the thrusters in her gauntlets as she did. The armor plating that protected her fingers were worn thin from the combat.“…But a task…is a task!”With a flex and a hop, Puria launched into the fray once more. Her gauntlets propelled her down into the sea of Grimm. Her streamlined form found traction as the sole of her shoes dug into the swarm. As efficiently as she could, she pointed herself towards her target. Sidewinder raised to the sky, she kicked off once more.The thrusters flared open. Vectoring the immense flame away from Puria, the fire caught on the dense black masses by her feet. One after another, the sea of black began to light up violet.“DIE, YOU OVERSIZED PIECE OF TRASH!!”Puria charged towards the Hydra’s towering neck. Her ascent was marked by the purple flame arcing into the sky. Against its exposed black scales, the purple blaze shimmered and warded off the giant Grimm. It reared its head, backing away from the heat.Reaching the peak of her climb, Sidewinder’s afterburners shut down. Puria arced her back, grit her teeth and let her body fall. At an altitude above Hydra’s head, she prepared to land her strike.The rising air beneath her wreaked of Dust, the surroundings were warm from the Dust’s combustion. Despite the strange sky, she focused her eyes on the Grimm before her. Tightening her fists, a dim whine pricked at her ears. Her aim was set, all that was needed was for the afterburners to deliver the blow.The moment that seemingly hung for eternity ended.The dim whine became a roar. From a distance so close she couldn’t hope to miss, the purple streak brought itself down on its target. Her gauntlets tore into the side of Hydra’s unarmored lower jaw, her speed carried her through the strike. A black haze burst out from the other side. Within the flurry of black and red, Sidewinder’s signature purple flame shone through.Crash landing onto a nearby rooftop, Puria found herself isolated within the debris. With scarlet eyes surrounding her, she grunted and hauled herself out. The pain of the impact was taken care of by her semblance, and physical damage was soaked up by her Aura.Bringing her eyes to bear on Hydra’s writhing body, she turned her gaze skywards. A vivid red glow leaked out from the gaping holes she had punched into its head. Its flat black scales regained its shimmer. As the liquid dripped off its body, the black teardrops began to take shape. Some grew claws, some formed tusks, others spread their wings and circled the sky. As each second passed, Hydra recovered its army.Puria stared in awe. In a span of several seconds, there efforts had been completely reset.Hydra was still wounded, but griffons now circled the height of its neck. The formation meant that Puria could no longer launch herself at Hydra’s head without interference.Stood facing the formation of grimm, she grit her teeth and stepped forward. Puria flexed her muscles and reloaded her gauntlets. The light clatter of the emptied canisters hitting the ground rang out across the roof.The thrusters powered up once more. Directing the flow toward the sky, the violet jets lit up rooftop as she advanced to the building’s ledge. Kicking off the ledge, she launched herself towards Hydra once again.As predicted, the flock of Griffons dived down onto her line of fire. The ensuing melee rapidly culled the grimm’s numbers. Puria’s shin armor blunted their beaks, her fists crushed their necks.Despite her strength and speed, the numbers refused to drop. The airborne grimms viciously protected its territory, her upward momentum was rapidly blocked by the rushing air of the swarming Griffons.Patch by patch, the swarm wrapped itself around the purple blaze from every angle. As they fell to the ground, the grimm increased their numbers, ferociously pinning Puria to the ground.From within the pile of grimm, a purple burst began to charge up. The blinding light cut its way through the swarm. What wasn’t blasted aside by the energy was set alight by the heat. The Griffons scattered. Feathers ablaze, their mad scramble to the sky lasted mere seconds before losing flight capabilities. One by one, they spiraled into the nearby buildings as the fire made short work of the grimm’s decaying body.Puria raised her body from the tarmac.Drip.Drip.With each step she took, her blood stained the surrounding road. The clawing and pecking had left her body in an extremely bad way, but without so much as flinching, she carried on. Hydra’s newly spawned defenses were quick to enter the fight. Its wounded jaw was now left hanging open and the slick black liquid had stopped forming on its scales.Its head reared back, Hydra swiped and bucked as it dodged the hail of incoming fire from all sides. Now unable to close its mouth, the huntsmen’s tactic shifted, revolving around focusing fire into that opening.Flipping and throwing herself up the rubble, Puria hauled herself back to higher ground. The streets had already begun filling up with grimm once more. Her bloodied fingers found traction on the debris, her legs kicked against the crumbling wall and launched her over the ledge. Her landing was unsteady. Though she didn’t feel pain, her movement was made awkward by the wounds.The rooftops ahead roughly formed a path back to Hydra. Though she was but some hundred meters away, the crowded battlefield of each rooftop complicated matters. With Hydra at the center of her vision, the surrounding firefight was but a blur to her.Her bloodied fingers slid into her inner jacket pocket. From it, she drew out a flat black cylinder with chalk white markings. Along its shaft, precisely milled holes ran down its length. The markings had long since become illegible, but she knew its strength well enough. Its appearance was a world apart from the Dust crystals she was used to. So to was its lethality.Gripping the device in her hand, she adjusted her position and aligned her gauntlets’ thrusters with her target. As she launched into a sprint, the surrounding grimm reacted. One after another, they broke free of their fights to strike at her. She vaulted over the first building, her charge propelled by her gauntlets’ jets.The beasts immediately leapt towards Puria.Vaulting and dodging the overwhelming number of Grimm, she fought to keep her speed up. The duration between her steps widened as each lunge took her further. She soon outran the grimm’s reaction times, leaving them no time to obstruct her charge.The opaque white of Hydra’s spinal armor filled her vision. In a single lunge, she made the seamless transition onto its back. She quickly regained her momentum, her feet quickly finding the traction to send her lunging forward. She followed the arc of Hydra’s back, the steep incline to the top of its head only took seconds for her to cover.The bony white horizon dipped away to reveal the night sky. Puria dug her feet into the armor, her hands armed the weapon and she readied herself. Slowing as best she can, what momentum that remained from her charge sent her over the edge, face to face with Hydra’s head.Her stop was brief. Puria kicked off Hydra’s hanging jaw as soon as she had released the weapon. The hiss of pressurized air being released filled her ears, an even more potent stench of Dust spread into the surroundings. This Dust was a fine, dulled black. Like confetti, the area around Hydra’s mouth sparkled.As she fell to the ground, the countdown ended.The sparkle disappeared.In its place, fire.Erupting from within, a concentrated wave of fire forced its way out from the Grimm. From her distance, she could see the fierce orange tinge eat its way through Hydra’s black scales. It ate its way out, thundering against its thick hide and armor plates. The intense pressure from the blast ripped through the armor like paper. Within the brief exchange, the towering black mass was reduced to shards and cinders.---From the receding, condensing black mist, a glowing pair of blue eyes lit up the darkness.With a heavy breath, Eirlys spread her wings open and scanned the sky.She could still taste the Valkyrie’s aura in her mouth. The more she spent time attempting to rationalise the hateful flavour, the more the black mist surrounding her began to take shape. From where her wings protruded from her top, the very same mist leaked out and mixed with its surrounding darkness. It bled out and gathered behind her, offset slightly to the left.The mist spiralled and shimmered. Its shape was simple. Modeled crudely after one of her wings, the trail of black positioned itself above her left shoulder. Though double the width, it retained otherwise similar dimensions to her wing.Like a spark, her emotions brought the wing into life.The moment it became opaque, it unleashed its attack.Some 5 kilometers away, Helen’s supersonic approach to Beacon was suddenly interrupted. The rooftops beneath her had become the target of something. Like a spotlight, the area caught within the light began to glow. Before she could adjust her course, the strike had landed.In a line stretching from 5 kilometers behind her to the mountain in the far distance, everything within the light had vanished. Without a sound, without debris, sections of the evacuated buildings simply ceased to exist.Whatever it was, it had missed.Or perhaps, it was a warning.The Aura in the vacant air beneath her spelled out the origins of this attack. Helen brought her advance to a halt, quickly allowing her eyes to analyse the trail of destruction. In the distance between herself and the observation tower, something had rushed after her.She was too exposed. The higher she flew, the more disadvantageous it would be for her. She could see the mist approach. It was a world away from her speeds, but to turn her back against this threat would be suicide. The raven wings folded back and Helen instantly dropped beneath the roofline of the street.Now hovering two stories above ground level, Helen prepared herself to take the charge head-on. The streamlined mist receded. A pair of light blue eyes fixed onto Helen’s position. The trailing mist twisted and took shape as a single claw. Its size alone was twice that of its owner, and fully formed seconds before impact.Helen’s instincts acted. She easily slipped past the hasty slash and found herself between the mist and her charging aggressor. She had one, rapidly closing opportunity. Clenching her fist, the Valkyrie instantly took aim and threw her punch. Even as her armored fist moved forward, she found herself second-guessing the strength she employed.A chilling crack rang out. The distinct sound of Aura dissipating accompanied the impact. The pair lost their balance in the collision, bringing the battle down to ground level. Eirlys stumbled as she attempted to regain her footing.Helen staggered back.Staring down at her arm, she slowly shifted her fingers and felt the air. A rare alert sounded in her helmet, one she hadn’t heard in far too long. Unfitting a time as it may be, it left her dumbfounded. However impossible it seemed, the reality had dawned on her.The cracks, the dissipating. They were from her fist.Both her Aura and her armor had been penetrated in that single instance.Helen collected herself as best she could and shifted her exposed hand behind her. Her eyes began searching the Faunus before her, quickly finding the answer she sought.The black mist had materialised before Eirlys’ chin. It was a broad patch, easily covering her jaw and neck. Helen’s armor had hit the mist and as with the buildings, simply disintegrated. As quickly as it appeared, its form was returned to the darkness.Before Helen could continue, the mist shimmered its lustrous black. At point blank range, the obsidian ray was unleashed.Helen dived for cover. She could barely raise her shield or spread her wings. The first flicker flashed out. The reflective surface of her shield dulled against the strange light. In the fraction of a second Helen used to move away, Eirlys’ attack took effect.Like sand in the winds, the shield crumbled.Her armor’s unrivaled integrity was gone.Helen gritted her teeth and shrugged off the loss.In that instance, she had sidestepped the attack. Once more, she was presented with a closing opportunity to strike. Sharply digging her feet into the tarmac, she tensed her legs and raised her weapon. Rapidly rotating her body, she pointed herself at the source of the attack. Her view was blocked by the black light, but it didn’t matter.Within the very same instance, Helen counterattacked.Though they stood a hundred meters apart, that distance meant little to Helen’s speed. At speeds that could pass for teleportation, she had positioned herself by Eirlys’ side. The tarmac cracked beneath her feet as she was violently brought to a stop. Spirastella drawn back, Helen’s amber eyes fixed themselves onto the student, aiming her strike squarely at her head. As the blow closed in, the very same black mist began to form around Helen’s target. It covered the entirity of the impact point.Helen violently aborted the attack, sharply veering away from the wisps of black. Spirastella’s ornate barrel tip grazed the mist, too close to avoid contact. Like the shield and armor, all that came into contact with it dissipated.The shockwave from Helen’s movement finally caught up with a sharp boom. Eirlys stumbled back against the force of the wind, her feeble phsyique unable to withstand the sudden gale. Between the two, a gap of several meters had opened up.Helen paused as she collected herself. The fight had lost its momentum and head on attacks were clearly not the way forward. She examined Eirlys’ glowing blue eyes, searching the girl for weaknesses, for any information at all. The longer she looked, the more outraged she became. The light blue eyes glaring back at her held no fear nor courage. It was an indecipherable combination of emotions she could only describe as rage. It sent chills down her spine.“You…! This negative energy!!? It’s coming from YOU?!”In response to Helen’s observations, the hazy mist atop Eirlys’ shoulder tensed.It took shape as a wing once more, spreading to their full width. The area around it began to shimmer, as it would with a heat haze. Helen’s words had only served to further increase the energy output. The mist encompassed her torso and masked her features in black.“You think you can just walk away from me?! YOU THINK I AM JUST GOING TO SIT HERE AND TAKE THAT?!”Though damaged, Spirastella was still more than capable of a devestating attack. But Helen had no time to prepare. The fight’s momentum picked up as quickly as it had slowed. The wing fired off its next attack.Helen was instantly put on the defensive. Standing directly in front, she had little to no chance of avoiding the almost instant energy burst. However, the brief exchange hadn’t been in vain.Helen dodged and weaved down the street, finding cover in the shape of alleyways and Grimm. The strength of the incoming fire was excessively aggressive. It cut through structures and caused needless collateral damage, all in the name of pinning her down. Seeking refuge in the sky was suicide, and the swarm of grimm and huntsmen did little to conceal her presence.As confused huntsmen flung themselves away from their fights, the street began to clear. Though Helen had opened the gap, she couldn’t break line of sight. Every inbound attack struck closer and closer to home. Though she understood what she had to do, the current environment gave her little room to execute the tactic.Spirastella still loaded, Helen fired a broad beam at Eirlys’ general direction. The orange ray of an incendiary crystal shot out into the nearest building. Starting at rooftop level, the beam cleaved downwards, drawing a diagonal line of fire on the city streets. In contrast to the clean cuts made by the wing’s energy, Helen’s wild attack set fires and rained debris onto the ground. The countless skirmishes taking place on buildings were all brought crashing down by the exchange.Eirlys’ view was now blinded by fire and debris. Patches of black not of her own began to form. More grimm were spawning. As she approached, the size and frequency of claws grew. The beowolves moved up to her side. As they did, their bodies rapidly matured.The grimm seemed weary of her presence, choosing to stalk her surroundings rather than engage in combat. The huntsmen knocked aside by Helen’s sweeping attack had quickly withdrawn into the shadows. Their presence could still be felt within the silence, their confusion at the turn of events was all too apparent. The slight sound of firearms being reloaded echoed through the alleyways. The hushed whispers of hasty regroupings encroached from all sides.Light faded from the scene. A muffled boom echoed down the street. The sound of glass shattering trailed closely behind it.The beowolves scattered.Before Eirlys could begin to react, she felt a sudden presence behind her.It appeared as quickly as it hit her. A blunt point impacted against the center of her back. It swept her off her feet, the force and location of the impact threatened to tear her in half. Eirlys’ back shimmered black, with what Aura she had left taking the brunt of the impact.Without showing any intent to stop, Helen crudely grabbed and gripped for Eirlys’ flailing limbs. The collision caused further damage to Helen’s armor, shattering the metal plates on her other fist. Still travelling at supersonic speeds, momentum carried the pair far into the distance.Eirlys’ vision returned. The immobilising pain prevented her from moving. It began in her back, and worked with the immense air resistence to paralyse her limbs. Her reactions couldn’t keep up. The black mist trailed behind her. It materialised as quickly as before, but she was simply traveling too quickly for her to maintain its position.The crushing strength placed on her shoulder pressed her into the winds and kept her from turning around. Against the strength of the oncoming winds, Eirlys’ wings acted like parachutes. She spread them to their full width, letting their immense drag pull her free from Helen’s iron grip.Spiralling out of the sky once again, Eirlys rapidly shed speed. Helen’s feathered wings spread as she repositioned herself for another attack. The Valkyrie arced up into the sky. Her slowing pace was a perfect chance to strike.Eirlys didn’t pass up on the opportunity.With pinpoint accuracy, a black ray cut across across the distance between the pair. Helen’s helmet crumbled, struck in the back by the attack as the Valkyrie stalled at the peak of her climb. It lasted for all of a second before the quick burst veered off target.Helen felt it once again. The sensation of her Aura being severed as her armor crumbled away, her movements freeing up as the weight of the plates were lost.Helen pulled herself away from the fight. Dodging and weaving between the incoming fire, her vision danced across the horizon as she tried to regain her bearings. In the distance, she found her target in the form of the CCTS. The hazy black figure beneath her was aligned perfectly with the tower.Troublesome, but not unmanageable.Helen glanced down at her weapon. She opened its breech without taking her eyes off the threat before her, reloading it as subtly as possible. In place of the glittering scarlet remains, Helen slid a translucent white crystal into Spirastella’s breech. Its uses thus far as a melee weapon has had little effect against Eirlys’ strange defenses. However, Spirastella’s true strength lay in its ranged capabilities. The several kilometers between herself and the CCTS could easily be laid waste to, given the correct ammunition.Dust in place, the sections of the weapon began rotating once more. A light neon blue ran throughout the engravings on the barrel. The neon blue soon engulfed Spirastella’s barrel, only broken up by the rapidly forming column of grey air. It swallowed up the weapon, tapering into a high pressure column, not too unlike a tornado.Helen pointed the charged weapon at its target, leveling herself with Eirlys and luring her in. Though her grip remained steady, Helen could already see the strength of the wind in her hand. Eirlys’ wings fluttered unnaturally against the gale, the howling winds making closing in further an impossibility.Seizing her chance, Helen pulled the trigger.The distance of a less than fifty meters between them was ripped wide open. Unleashing the full force of her attack, winds well in excess of 200mph struck Eirlys square from the front. The winds blew past her impenetrable defense, catching on her wings and thrusting her into the distance.Eirlys covered the several kilometers to Beacon within a matter of seconds, taking a battering every second of the way. She smashed through Beacon’s landing pad, the speed of her impact tore through everything that stood in her way. The Bullheads stationed there were no exception. Her Aura was almost completely expended, her torso and limbs sliced through the Bullheads’ wings.She shot out the other side, still travelling at high speed. Her crash had slowed her, but not enough. Her tumbling body was smashed into Beacon’s towering gates. A full meter above ground, she was firmly planted into the center of said gates, her body barely passing through the entirety of the stone structure. The stone surface crumbled under the impact.So too did her Aura.A distinctly crimson fluid seeped out into the stone. The entrance to Beacon Academy collapsed. Eirlys was pinned down beneath a thin layer of rubble, bloodied and immobile. A faint, electronic crackle was all that could be heard.Helen withdrew her weapon, exhaling as she did so.Her steady grip faltered as she evaluated the results. A distinct vulnerability haunted her every action. The means with which her own defenses were defeated confounded her. The unity of her Aura had been fractured in the affected areas. With her hair fluttering free and her armor compromised, even she felt her cool arrogance was mildly out of place.Finally, the penny dropped.She had been caught off guard and got swept away by the pace of the battle. She had let the fight get in the way of the objective.After all, she had saved her trump card for last.Beacon Academy.---4:01:323.4:00:---.A large, digital countdown popped up over Gelb’s Scroll. The interface was completely overlaid by this red display. Though the milliseconds were rendered unreadable by a sudden distortion, it hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things. The fact that a full minute had already passed-The multitude of issues occurring within the last minute alone spelled the situation out to Gelb. News of Vale’s military base being destroyed, distinct sonic booms ringing out in the skies, the brief communication outage, reports of a black storm allegedly tied to Hydra suddenly appearing, the concentrated spawning of Grimm between Hydra and said storm…the list went on. These were rare occurrences even in this situation.But among the many dead giveaways, one lay quite literally behind the countdown. The team’s otherwise healthy Aura bars had one exception. Eirlys had lost well over 30% of her own in a single instance, and losing a further 30% within the last minute. Cross-referencing the hitlog with the information feed only made him more confident of his assumptions.From the grounds just outside of Beacon, Gelb had withdrawn from the fighting in the courtyard. He positioned himself in the shadows of the academy. Beacon’s flat, open courtyard was hardly ideal as a return point, there was little to hide behind. It left him with little breathing space, but he’d have to make do. The increased spawning had yet to spread this far, and Beacon’s defense had reached a stalemate.15 seconds had passed.Just over 3 minutes remained.With a silent wisp, a discrete portal opened before him. Within this human-sized portal was the rooftop of the observation tower. Though it was more apt to say that what he saw was Vale’s skyline, with the tower’s rooftop littering its ledge as debris.Before continuing, he placed a finger over Beacon’s tiled ground. A faint yellow glow marked the cold surface. As Gelb stepped through, the mark on the floor faded away.The observation deck lay in ruins. Though his soft steps concealed him from any hypothetical enemies’ ears, the demolished structure left him standing in the open from all directions. Now, without moving so much as a step, he had a panoramic view of Vale in battle. Towering above all else was Hydra.Though its body still remained underground, the heads above ground now totalled 3. A distinctly decorated serpentine neck seemed to hold itself above its peers. White scales armored its length, with crimson markings crisscrossing each plate.Even from this distance, he could see trails of violet light clash against the Grimm’s armor.There was a distinctly disturbing sight. When viewed from the correct angle, an eerily straight line had been carved out, originating from the tower. Sections of housing and landscape had been erased. It was a scale beyond what Eden’s End was capable of. The damage done was also too clean to have been done by whoever destroyed the base. No fires and no noise. For so much damage to be done this quietly, he could only draw one conclusion.It didn’t make sense. For a girl who loved her rifle as she did, to attack without it shouldn’t be something that’d cross her mind normally. Given her Aura loss and all evidence on hand, the conclusion seemed pretty simple. A quick patrol of the deck’s perimeter would lead him to his answer.On the ground, far far below, a light blue length of metal lay abandoned.3 minutes remained.“Tsk.”Against Hydra, Eden’s End stood a chance of actually being able to damage it with minimal casualties. Retrieving it now would also give him greater flexibility at range. But to reach it quick enough would require him to start burning through his otherwise untouched Aura.“…Self preservation be damned, time is running out.”Gelb moved himself towards the ledge, aiming the tip of his spear down towards the rifle. A bright yellow burst fired from the edge, impacting against the flat side of the barrel. As quickly as the shot hit, the rifle dissipated.With his palm open, Eden’s End materialised. At the same time, the slight mark on the hand began to fade. The spear retracted into its most compact form before being placed into his pocket. As best he could, Gelb held the large rifle in both his hands.Despite its fall, the digital display was barely scratched. With the aid of its scope, he began scanning the landscape for any signs of large scale combat. From the commercial district, a blinding yellow light illuminated the dark skies.It was an unmentioned ability. Either that, or no Hydra had matured enough to have allowed this ability to be used. But he couldn’t deny it. From the mouth of the main head, the light welled up and charged itself, ready to fire its first shot within the next seconds.A sudden, blaring alarm sounded in his ears.Over Eirlys’ name, a simple [No Signal] began to flash.Last known location was…His mind began to race.The fact that this had led him on a wild goose chase didn’t bother him, neither did the fact that his every fears were being realised within minutes of this battle. The sudden arrival at beacon was beyond her body and her semblance’s abilities. The Aura readout equally served to remind him of how pressed for time he was.Bringing up a map on his Scroll, he expertly moved his fingers over the holographic screen, running through the search filters to find his teammates’ location. He then brought the immediate area around Beacon academy under scrutiny. His fingers danced across the virtual keypad as he relayed his instructions to Blaze and Levant.He had no time to spare. His Aura’s yellow glow surrounded him once more as he prepared to return to Beacon’s courtyard. As the portal opened, a chilling scarlet glow filled his vision.Whoever she was, she was ready to deal the final blow.