Carmine got back up. She prodded the left side of her face gingerly.

“I thought you were supposed to be some kind of hotshot students, but none of you can take me down.”

Coco swung her bag around in a circle.

“None of us is right,” Coco said. “But together …”

On her left, Yatsuhashi slashed the wall of glass that Bertilak’s heat had created while Velvet launched herself at it, sending it toppling over onto Carmine. She looked up and screamed as it fell on her. Sand flowed around her and upward, but the fountain of sand couldn’t support the heavy glass.

“See? Glynda could have lifted that,” Yatsuhashi said.

Coco stepped gingerly on the slab and looked down, expecting to see a flattened Huntress through the murky glass. Instead, she saw a hole in the ground, which was quickly filling with sand.

“Uh-oh,” Coco said.

“Huh,” Bertilak said. “I didn’t know she could do that.”

She scanned the terrain around them. Then she realized what Carmine’s move was. “Gus!” Coco said.

They turned as one toward the boy. He stared at them in alarm for a moment, then a hand reached from the ground and grabbed his ankle. He screamed.

Velvet was closest. She raced toward him as he began sinking into the sand. She reached him and grabbed his hands when he was waist deep.

“I’ve got him!” Velvet said, straining to keep his head aboveground. But Carmine had her, too. Velvet began slipping into the sand, while Gus held on to her desperately.

Coco was out of bullets, but she had another idea. “Yatsuhashi!” she shouted as she ran toward Edward.

She need not have bothered. He was already on his way to help Velvet. He drew his sword and plunged it into the ground at Carmine’s position.

Coco heard a muffled shriek. Carmine let go of Gus.

“She’s on the move!” Fox sent.

Yatsuhashi studied the area around him and brought his blade down, sending a geyser of sand up. He picked up the blade and brought it down again a few feet to the right. He spun around and struck again. It reminded him of a game of Whack-a-Grimm at the Vytal Festival fairgrounds.

Suddenly a Ravager dove at him, raking his back with its claws. Yatsuhashi spun his blade around and sliced it in half. A second Grimm swooped down and pecked at the sand. The spot swelled, knocking the black bird back.

Bertilak was fighting a third Ravager, backing away and firing bullets from his broken weapon as it advanced on him.

Sinkholes began forming around the desert. Yatsuhashi got to his feet and pulled Gus and Velvet out of the sandpit. He lifted Gus to his shoulders.

Coco leaped over a hole as it appeared in front of her, eyes on Edward.

The old man was lying in the sand, disoriented. He mumbled incoherently.

“Edward,” Coco said. “We can’t do this without you. You have to concentrate, block Carmine’s Semblance. Block everyone’s, whatever. Just do it now.”

“I … can’t …” Edward closed his eyes and his hands trembled.

The sand opened up beneath them, and they began slipping beneath the desert.

Coco squeezed his hands reassuringly. “You have to,” she said. “Be that legendary Huntsman one more time. For your grandson.”

Edward’s breathing calmed. His forehead crinkled in concentration. And then he smiled.

They stopped sinking.

The holes around the desert filled in, and the sand stilled. The dead Ravager near Bertilak smoked and faded away like the other defeated Grimm. Everyone looked at one another, wondering, was it really over?

Bertilak scrambled over to a mound of sand and started digging. Yatsuhashi spotted the hand sticking out of it and joined him. They worked quickly, but the sand fell back into the hole as soon as they could scoop it away.

“We’re losing her,” Yatsuhashi said.

“Keep digging!” Bertilak grunted.

- RWBY: After the Fall, Chapter 18