Arc Royale [Ch. 25]

"He's alone." Ashari said. He scanned the nearby buildings, all abandoned, and frowned. "It'll be hard for Atlas to move Bullheads with all these cranes around. If bringing support to ambush is their plan, they couldn't have picked a worse location."

"Is he that confident?" Cinder wondered out loud. "If so, we shouldn't discount it. Adam?"

The masked man, whose snarl could be seen under his mask, nodded once and waved his hand, signalling to the White Fang to approach the lone person. He was a dark spot in the gloom of the construction yard, though the oddity was both the name above his head and the fact his eyes were glowing pale blue, like tiny fires set in his face. Maiden fire? No, that wasn't possible. It was more likely some quirk or aspect of his world.

Faunus spread out and approached slowly, fanning out in that way people that didn't really want to be the first into combat did, trying to take as much time as they could in the hopes the other party would give up or run, or that one of their own would attack first and take the brunt of the assault. Eventually, one did. A large man charged forward with a chainsaw revving, howled like a wolf and brought it down atop Knight's head.

Knight was fast.

Deadly fast.

His hand came up, fingers catching either side of whirling teeth. He twisted, little more than a flick of his right ninety-degrees to the side, and the chainsaw blade snapped like dry wood. In the same motion, he swept the small piece of it held down and across. The faunus' head rolled off his shoulders, his body toppling to the side. It was so sudden that the chainsaw was still buzzing and rumbling away. Chainsaw teeth were not razor sharp, or even all that sharp at all, so the strength necessary to decapitate a man must have been incredible. Mercury summed it up in one word.

"Shit-"

Gravel and concrete shot out behind Knight as if fired from a cannon. He darted forward, slammed a foot down and then blurred left faster than Ashari could track. Six White Fang were bisected, cut in half across their stomachs or chests by a single swing. Their bodies had not hit the floor before Knight was in motion again, ducking under a clumsy swing and grabbing the faunus' outstretched arm with one hand. He twisted, spinning a small pirouette before throwing the faunus away.

Ashari had thrown people before. They tended to go down if you threw them down, but otherwise travel a short arc – a foot and a half, maybe more if they were light or you really put your back into it. They'd roll with the impact, the whole idea being more to put your enemy in a bad position than to actually remove them from the fight.

The faunus was removed from the fight.

Fuck, he was removed from the city, shooting off at a forty-five degree angle like a bullet straight out of Crescent Rose. He went right up and over the walls, screaming until his voice was too distant to be heard. There was little chance he'd survive the landing.

"He isn't bait!" Mercury shouted. "He's the trap!"

Knight looked to them.

Ashari cursed. "SCATTER!"

It wasn't a moment too soon. There was only a brief moment between Knight's eyes narrowing and him appearing in the midst of where they'd been, his jacket flapping behind him. His sword caught Adam's, and instead of a ring of steel on steel there was one not unlike metal on glass, as Adam's crimson blade exploded into little pieces. That would have been his skull if he hadn't already been diving away.

Landing in a roll, Ashari's first thought was for Emerald. He saw her trying to regroup with Cinder – a bad idea – and chased after her. His instincts screamed at him as he did and never one to ignore them Ashari threw himself away, preventing the loss of his head by mere fractions of a second.

He was in motion as well however, loosing two flash bangs from his coat. It had worked before, blinding Knight and removing him from the fight, but even he knew it was hopeful at best to expect a foe to fall for the same trick twice. The second Knight saw them, he closed his eyes and even shielded them with one arm, kicking back and clearing a crazy distance before the canisters exploded in white light with a loud blast. Ashari hit down, eyes clenched shut, ears focused. Over the screams and shouted orders from the White Fang trying to rally, he picked up Cinder shouting for Grimm to fill the area with his namesake. Not a bad plan, though if she expected them to beat Knight, she probably had another thing coming. At best they would buy them a few seconds.

I'd take that right about now.

"Ashari, blind him!" Cinder ordered, summoning a wave of fire that Knight slammed through without a hint of damage. "Null, now!"

Ashari felt the uncomfortable dip that was his aura vanishing out from under him, then heard the shots. Two gunshots, two impacts landing directly on Knight's chest. They pierced through his clothing with ease, and even slammed into his body. Blood splattered out of him. A tiny, tiny amount of blood. Nine millimetre rounds fired at such close range should have gone deeper. These looked like they'd done superficial damage at best, as if Knight's skin itself was so thick it took most of the momentum.

For all he knew, it had. This was a guy who according to Headmaster ran off RPG logic – and where was that knowledgeable fuck when they needed him? Headmaster batted a Beowolf aside, caught an Ursa by its snout and lifted the whole thing up over his head in one hand. He aimed, grunted and hurled the thing like a speeding bullet at Null, who only had time to let his Semblance go and return aura to everyone before he was swept off his feet by the now-airborne Grimm.

RPG meant, what, health points? Constitution? Ashari opened fire from a distance and watched the bullets plink away at Knight. He didn't seem to have aura, or it wasn't the same, but his endurance was flat-out miles above theirs.

It made sense. Given how fast the man moved and struck, and assuming others in his world were the same, a punch could have the velocity as a cannonball. He didn't much fancy the chances his aura would do a thing if that version of Crocea Mors hit him. Some hits were so powerful they tore right through aura. Knight's were so powerful that his missed swings carved up concrete.

Cinder had chosen to fall back on fire. Lots of it. The flames engulfed Knight and two White Fang grunts at the same time, the latter screaming fitfully while Knight bounded out of it and toward her swinging his sword.

For a moment, Ashari dared to hope she'd be killed.

"No!" Emerald wailed and ran in.

"No!" Ashari echoed, sprinting after her. "Emerald, no! Fuck!"

Panic gave him speed, allowing him to shoulder Emerald out the way just as Knight turned to face the new threat. His daughter hit the gravel with a gasp, and Ashari got Crocea Mors up before him with a gasp of his own. Time enough to catch Knight's blade as it swung diagonally upward.

Shards of metal flew slowly before Ashari's eyes. That, along with blood and his right arm, spiralling over and over as Knight's sword continued upward without the slightest loss in momentum.

Oh, Ashari thought dully, that's not good.

Gritting his teeth, Ashari dumped a full bandolier of grenades at Knight's feet, stooped to grab Emerald with one arm and haul her over his shoulder, then kicked back. Knight, like the last time, fled from his grenades before they could have any effect. Fortunate since he hadn't primed or pulled the pin from any of them. Bleeding terribly, Ashari pushed aura to his arm, as amused as he was terrified about the fact he still had aura left. The attack had been so swift and so powerful it hadn't even drained his aura. It had just bypassed it.

Knight was swarmed immediately with Grimm – Beowolves, Ursa and Nevermore piling onto him like angry bees trying to ball their queen to death. Teeth and claws ripped and rent, but it was Knight's bare hands that proved victorious. He tore heads off the Grimm, battered the rest aside with their own allies and even kicked one so hard it smashed through a nearby building, shattering brickwork like plaster.

"Mercury is dead!" Cinder rasped.

"What? When!?"

Cinder shook her head angrily. It must have been too quick for them to track, and likely as one-sided as Ashari imagined. "Retreat," she snapped. "We underestimated him. He's slaughtering us."

"There's no beating that." Ashari hissed. "He's not human."

"He'll be removed." Cinder said. "He has to be or we're all of us dead. His anchor, or we can draw him out – something." Cinder looked to his arm, and Ashari wondered if she would take the chance to try and kill him. He couldn't do much with Emerald over his shoulder. Of course, that would leave her one Jaune down against this monster. Cinder made the right choice. "Grimm! Keep him busy – we're leaving. Now!"

"Where's Headmaster?" Grimm asked.

"What does it matter? He'd be no more use here than we are."

Cinder rushed over to an unconscious Null, still beneath an Ursa and bleeding from his lips. She touched his neck, gasped in relief and hauled him out. Behind, Knight was wading toward them, each step taken through bodies of Grimm that continued to try and drag him down. His eyes remained locked on them, glowing blue in the night. Ashari cast down his last canisters – smoke grenades. Thick, pungent smoke began to belch out as the metal cylinder span like a toy on the ground.

—Arc Royale [Ch. 25]