So here is the next installment of the story, fresh off of the presses of my mind and keyboard. Part of the reason this is out so quickly is partly to offset the nasty hiatus I put everyone through, and partly because with tomorrow being the release of Dark Souls 3...my evenings/time off will be a little unpredictable with the spare time I might be spending doing some co-op gameplay with a friend. Either way I still intend on doing better than that 2 month delay, so no worries there. Otherwise, godspeed to all, and et me know your thoughts in the reviews following the chapter.

Frost's arm shook as it remained partially lodged in the concrete of the stadium seats. The sharp cries of the colossal Nevermore atop the Coliseum's barrier were barely able to process in his ears due to the overworked state of his nerves. Despite the crowds of people running past him and Ruby, he could only stand there and allow his frustration to take its course as he often needed to when his emotions flared up. The flow of energy that had arisen in his body due to his adrenaline and Semblance working in tandem had to be bled off, or else directed explosively around him- which in this scenario would harm far too many innocent bystanders.

However, the sharp crash of a large Grimm breaking through a force field has a way of regaining one's focus in stressful situations. Frost shook his head slightly as he slowly removed his armored hand from the wall, just a gust of wind fired past his body as Ruby propelled herself forward just as the large bird leapt at Pyrrha. It was only moments before the creatures beak would have gained purchase on the gladiator that Ruby impaled the beast with one of Penny's blades that she had grabbed as she sped past. It was as Ruby stood her ground single-handedly as Pyrrha's protector that Frost noticed other students still present were pulling out their scrolls and keying in commands. It was with a start of realization that Frost whipped out his scroll, taking a moment to glance at the bracer on his left arm before disengaging the command and putting his scroll away. He had made it through many situations and fights without using a blade before and frankly, he preferred old beat-em up style combat to swordplay any day. Moments later, over a dozen pods from the school's armory impaled the Nevermore's body as they crashed into its flying body, effectively stunning it due to the sheer force of all of the lockers hitting it. Frost took the time to leap down alongside all of the others as they retrieved their weapons from the lockers atop the Grimm's body.

Despite the triumphant poses they all took while Ruby and Pyrrha looked on in surprise, everyone had to adjust themselves suddenly as the Nevermore got over the shock of the numerous impacts and began to pull itself upright. He leapt back along with a few others as Ren, Nora, Sage, Yatsuhashi, and Arslan all used a series of blows to decapitate the Nevermore in a single strike. As Ruby, Pyrrha, and Jaune all conversed for a few moments, Frost took that time to try and get his thoughts and emotions back under control. The release of energy into a section of the stands, while excessive, had managed to greatly reduce his worked up mental state. However, there was still a few nagging strands of anger and hate boiling in the back of his mind as he thought back to Cinder's speech over the intercom. This had been her intention all along, to use the overworked emotions and turmoil from planned sabotage's in the tournament to draw an even larger mass of Grimm to the city than when Torchwick had used the tunnels beneath Mountain Glenn. Now with the city in a state of panic, the White Fang wasn't likely far behind if they weren't already here.

His thoughts and speculations were brought to a rapid halt however, as the sound of a large pack of Griffon's came from above as they landed on the open ring on the top of the arena. He grinned somewhat sadistically as one of the beasts howled from atop the stadium. "Perfect," Frost said with a slight tilt to his voice as he glared at the beasts, "I could use some target practice right now."

One of the beasts landed atop the locker that Ruby called in a moment later, only to be blown aside by a sudden blast from Professor Port's blunderbuss. A few students were about to protest his request for everyone to leave just as Oobleck interrupted Ruby- being the first to actually start protesting the order. Frost sagged his shoulders slightly as he joined up with the rest of the students in rapidly leaving the spacious area, taking a moment to lag behind the group and watch for a few seconds as Port and Oobleck began to take on the pack of Grimm with a practiced precision.

"Holy shit that was badass." Frost managed to utter with wide eyes as they bared witness to Ironwood's single-handed defeat of an Alpha Beowolf without even breaking a sweat as they made their way outside to the helipads around the stadium. Ruby was the first to speak as they reached the Atlesian General in a hurry.

"What's going on?!"

"Grimm are crawling all over the city. The White Fang has invaded Beacon, and to make matters worse some…" Ironwood paused for a moment as he looked amongst the crowd, his eyes stopping on Frost for the longest compared to anyone else. "…vagabond has seized one of my ships. Until we regain command the skies are out of our control. So I'm-" He interrupted himself as he levelled his pistol and shot a Grimm that was just about to leap amidst the group of unaware students. "-going to take it back."

Jaune spoke up as Ironwood began to scale the ramp into his ship. "What should we do?"

"You have two choices: Defend your kingdom and your school…or save yourselves." The next words he spoke with a much gentler tone than many had heard from the General before. "No one will fault you if you leave. Let's move out!" With that he turned and finished making his way onto the ship as it began to warm up for its departure. Ruby and Frost both stayed a few moments longer than the rest as the other students went off to commandeer an carrier for themselves, both of them watching as Ironwood's ship shrank in the distance.

"I know who he was taking about." Frost stated simply without turning to face Ruby. "And I have a hunch you do too, Ruby."

"Yeah."

Frost clenched his unarmed fist tight as he looked down at it for a moment. "A part of me wanted to board that ship as it left…but I know that right now, I'll likely do something I'll regret if I end up facing him tonight. To be honest, all I really care about is finding Neo and getting her away from all of this, regardless of how much under-" He had to stop himself a moment before accidentally blurting out Cinder's name, "-their control she might be. She might even be on that airship, I don't know. The only thing I can hope for is that Ironwood recognizes her from the descriptions they salvaged from the book and incapacitate her instead of kill her like they probably will with Torchwick." Ruby and Frost turned to face each other with a nod as they went to catch up with the other students.

"Besides, there are hundreds if not thousands of people down there that are frightened, hurt, or worse. And they need our help a lot more than Ironwood does."

A little while later, everyone was either seated or standing inside the ship as it continued its journey to the courtyard of Beacon Academy. However, everyone's attention with jarringly changed as they were made witness to a sudden explosion from the rear of Ironwood's own ship, the smoking chasses rapidly falling towards the ground as everyone looked on in shock. Ruby was the first to react as she turned and made a run for the back of the ship as she opened the rear door momentarily to leap back towards the arena with a burst of her Semblance. Frost groaned as he got up and started sprinting towards the door a moment later, his legs rapidly glowing brighter as he reached the console for the door.

"Dude, not you too! What the hell are you thinking?!" Sun shouted with exasperation as Frost flashed a look back towards the other briefly.

"…Making sure Ruby doesn't go in alone. Plus I've always wanted to try skydiving when I was younger. No time like the present I guess!" And with that, he took a brief second to ready his stance, then leapt out of the cockpit in a couple of strides, planting both feet for a second as he rocketed off the back of the ship with the added kinetic force he had rapidly built up via his Semblance.

For a few moments, Frost's propulsion had the desired effect of giving him an extra lift for better angling on the descent portion of the trip. As he reached the apex of his leap, he spread his arms and legs wide as he angled himself on a sharp course for one of the unoccupied helipads atop the floating stadium. Moments later, he landed with a solid impact as he tucked into a roll at the last moment, managing to minimize a portion of the landing via quick thinking and spur of the moment adjustments midair.

As he got to his feet and dusted himself off, he looked up slightly and noticed as one of the lockers that had been in the arena flying through the sky towards the lone airship in the distance, Ruby's black and red color scheme barely noticeable in the dark sky. His shoulders slumped as he realized he was now stranded atop the stadium without planning ahead as to how he would get down. There was no way he could manage to ride on of the lockers the same way Ruby did, and so he began to look around frantically in an effort to find another solution to his new problem. His answer was given moments later as another carrier suddenly swung around from another end of the stadium, the back door quickly opening as Professor Port stood at the end of the walkway onto it as it landed nearby.

"God heavens, lad. We told you and the rest of the students to leave not that long ago!" The portly man stated with a small tinge of annoyance present in his voice. "I realize that saying the same thing to Miss Rose would be irrelevant as she has already found a new method of transport off of this flying battlefield, but how exactly did you intend on leaving when you followed after her off of the ship you both foolishly leapt from?"

"Ironwood's ship got ruined from the inside somehow!" Frost shouted back over the whirring of the ships engines. "Ruby left moments later to go up there I guess and deal with whoever took it over! I leapt after her in the hopes I'd make it to her in time and at the very least help her so she's not takin them on alone!"

"She went up to that giant airship to take it on single-handedly?!" Port's eyebrows rose in shock for a brief moment before lowering in sudden thought. "Hmm, then if you intend on helping her, we must get you over there- posthaste!" And as suddenly as he had stated it, he put one arm around Frost's shoulders and ushered him inside the ship as he spoke to Oobleck.

"Marty! Slight change of plans before we return to the school grounds!" He clapped one hand loudly against Frost's shoulder to direct Oobleck's attention towards the boy as he continued. "This young man needs a drop-off over on that large airship in the distance to assist Miss Rose in her efforts to regain control. I believe that her chances will improve immensely if we can arrive with haste, so I believe that it is our best course of action!"

Oobleck looked the two of them over for a moment before turning back to the controls of the ship and turning them in the direction of the large ship in the distance. "For the record, Peter, this plan has many issues with it! Namely the fact that we will be sitting ducks for whoever happens to be controlling that airship!"

"You worry too much, my friend!" Port stated with a hearty chuckle. "This is par for the course for us, and we might as well help the boy do what he feels is right. Isn't that what Huntsmen and Huntresses do after all?"

"While you may be right," Oobleck stated as they continued their approach, dodging Griffons as they got closer to avoid any incident that could result in a fiery crash below, "I will hold back on an 'I told you so' until something does go wrong."

"Fair enough!"

With that discussion out of the way, the three watched in silence as they neared the ship. They all looked on in shock moments later however, as the mountain itself broke apart at its peak as a colossal Grimm Dragon arose from the rubble and began to approach Beacon. Port turned to give Oobleck the stink eye as they eyed each other for a few moments.

"I believe now is an excellent time for that 'I told you so'!" Oobleck stated without blinking as he looked at Port.

"Oh shush, Marty!" Port declared with a huff as they reached the final approach for the airship.

"Less talking, more helping Ruby!" Frost yelled from the back of the cockpit as he stood ready to depart from the ship at a moment's notice.

"I hope you're prepared for a hot landing!" Oobleck stated from the pilot's seat as they began to hover nearby the larger ship. "It appears Miss Rose is currently outnumbered and outmatched…and she might not be in a position to even be helped much longer!"

"Just let me know when the ship is turned and in position and I'll take it from there. The two of you can head back to Beacon like you planned once I'm gone; I've got it from here!" Frost yelled over the rushing wind as he opened the hangar door in preparation.

"We should be in position, right about…" Oobleck paused as he maneuvered the ship so that Frost could see what was currently going on atop the airship before jumping onto it. What he saw moments before Oobleck gave the order nearly made his heart stop. Neo was currently standing above Ruby as she hung from the side of the airship, her blade extended from the tip of the umbrella as she looked on while Torchwick seemed to be in the middle of a monologue as per usual.

A moment later, everything happened at once. Oobleck yelled out the order to jump just as Ruby reached upwards and engaged the umbrella on Neo's weapon, forcefully pulling her off the ship due to the sudden imbalance from the rushing wind that rapidly pushed upon it. Frost yelled her name briefly as he leapt from the ship keeping his limbs as close to his body as he rocketed down towards her, unaware of anything else due to the sudden tunnel vision as he fell after her into the Griffon-infested skies.

Frost prepared himself for an interesting confrontation as he slowly began to catch up with Neo despite the fact that she was less falling and more being pulled along by the wind. What caught his attention out of the corner of his eye however was a single Griffon that had broken off from the pack and was rapidly approaching Neo from off to the side, it's talons and beak extended as it sought new prey. His left arm began to glow as he slowly pulled it back in preparation...

Neo, on the other hand, was also currently in a panic. Her mind was telling her to deal with the umbrella and teleport up to Torchwick and finish the job while a smaller portion of her mind continued to fight the effects of the drug now quite lodged in her system. She didn't want to fight Ruby, let alone kill her like Torchwick would want her to do, yet the drug was too far into her system as it fed orders and commands to her brain that she could only futilely plead against while her body acted without her control. From the corner of her eye she suddenly noticed the Griffon that was nearly upon her. She then closed her eyes as she waited for the inevitable.

Moments later however, it did not come in the cold embrace of death itself, but a strong arm suddenly wrapped around her waist and her umbrella suddenly much less obtrusive to her descent and no Grimm claws or beaks upon her. She chanced her eyes open in case this was some sort of sadistic trick, only for them to snap open in shock as she noticed who it was that had their arm around her. It was Frost, and had it not been for the fact that he had a glowing armored fist still implanted into the side of a Griffon's head as it dissolved, she would have thought she was dreaming. Frost turned to her a moment later with a serious expression as they continued to fall to the city miles below them.

"Once we're safe on the ground for even a moment, we're having a solid talk about what's been going on lately, and then we're going to help take back this god forsaken city."

Neo could only nod in shock as a lone tear fell from one eye without Frost noticing as she silently wept tears of joy inside her own mind.