Through Ruin With Silent Tread (CLOSED 3/3)

[Rosalba-Gwendol Blanche]

This abandoned district of Mountain Glenn was identical to the empty blocks that cradle it, only devoid of the warmth that Vale was otherwise known for. It was a collection of buildings earthward-pressed under their own weight, splintered asphalt roads, and bramble crawling over crushed arcades. Banners hang with faded slogans to be read only by the dust-laden wind.

Though there was nothing left to protect of Mountain Glenn, their job was still an important one. Should the Grimm's numbers be allowed to flourish here, they will pose a threat elsewhere. Such is the way of things, and such is the necessity of this provisional team of hunters-in-training (more than one, but fewer than five for sure) raised to cull the darkness in this place. Even now, Mountain Glenn is still a hotbed for Grimm, as if they mean to feed on the grief of ghosts.

Theirs were the only heartbeats in this place.

"Isn't it interesting?" Someone's voice rose above the quiet, low and easy. The voice was Rosalba-Gwendol's: she carried a rifle balanced across her shoulders with one hand as if it were weightless, and the wind caught her brown hair in a gentle breeze. She gestured with her free hand at the scenery, mid-day light cascading on colorless concrete. "That the evening, fair as ever, still shines on ruin, rock, and wreck."

Many a year is in its grave since this place fell, but it was still within my lifetime, she thought, and she wondered. How hopeful it all sounded, back then, to her child's ears. How different the story seemed before she knew its abrupt ending. When you look at Mountain Glenn, what are you supposed to see? The nothingness of our pride? A testament to our resilience? Or just a mass-grave? No matter how much she wracked her mind against the question, she failed to find an adequate answer of her own. She kicked at a stray pebble, sent it scattering across the broken street where it disappeared into a pothole.

So she turned to her nearest peer, fuzzy in her mind's eye for now, and tilted her head quizzically to one side. A wiser head, or at least a second opinion, may steer her right. Her hat threatened to fall off of her head, but she caught it with an open palm and set it straight. "What do you see," Rosalba asked, "when you look at Mountain Glenn?"

It was an open question for anyone to answer, if they'd like.

[Lin Motley]

Lin, floated a few good feet above the entire scene, mainly for the purpose of keeping an eye out above her companions for any Grimm that may come their way, but also because it was simply her preferred method of travel, after all, why would she walk like a normal person when she could fly?
Though, when Argi, as Lin had now taken to calling her current company since typing out her full name every time was just a bit painful...she really had to work on a clipboard function for her TTS device, which she still kept separate from her scroll since messing with that things programming could easily be detrimental and the already built in TTS for the scroll was god awful, the only female voice would have her sounding like a 40-year-old atlesian woman, so separate device it still was.

Lin lowered her hover, floating about 10 feet away from Argibee floating on her back as she typed away to answer her somewhat convoluted questions.
"A monument, to people still readily willing to risk it and stick it to the man, or Grimm, just because we have Vale, Atlas and the like, we should never stop pushing back against these monsters, but it's also a monument to idiocy, it was a great idea, just in a bad place, a mountain is a horrible place to defend against Grimm, especially a city like this which size is just hard to overlook in its entirety, it's enough for one Beowulf to slip through, kill a single person and the grief of that one incident causes the whole place to come crashing down, also railway tunnels what were the idiots thinking?! Grimm can burrow, this just limits the angle at which you can defend yourself and increases the angles from which they can attack unseen and also makes sending reinforcements a nightmare, sure other methods of travel are also suboptimal, but maybe they should not have built this place in a mountain to begin with?"
Lin concluded her rant with a sigh and very hasty closing of her TTS device, simply replying in sign instead.
"Sorry, got carried away."
She had no idea if Argi understood sign, but this was a first test of that.
Afterward, Lin floated ahead again, Mountain Glenn and other failed settlement expansions were something of a passion of hers, she didn't dislike Vale, but spending her first few years of life on the road made her wish she could just go somewhere a little different, see different people, but also keep it familiar, but with the state Remnant was in, that just did not work, she really hoped another major settlement could be established in her lifetime, maybe she could establish one herself?
Nah, she was only good at making guns.
Speaking of, to distract herself, Lin took out Switch, her newest weapon from her back, having the weapon float in front of her, as she idly cleaned it.

[Grayson Albus Luminum]

Grayson stood confidently next to Rosalba, his bridge coat billowing in the wind as he listened to Lin's TTS rant. He had to admit, Lin did bring up several good points. The burrowing Grimm and the underground tunnels definitely didn't mix well. Also, he agreed with the sentiment that Mountain Glenn was a good idea, albeit poorly executed. However, Grayson disagreed with one point in particular: a mountain settlement is more easily defended than one on flat ground. Advantageous terrain, the high ground, and a home field advantage would all be positives to account for. Although they didn't possess the same amount of advantages as the city of Vale, it should've been enough. Ultimately, fate would have Mountain Glenn become a desolate ruin, a reminder that we are fallible.

"A necropolis, but also a reminder of our fallibility and mortality. They've mismanaged themselves, becoming a prime example of the darkest possible outcome for humanity." Grayson replied, GoldEye Mark 7 in hand which rested at his side. Raising his pistol, Grayson ejected the magazine in order to inspect the bullets.

Should be plenty... he mused, reinserting the magazine and racking the slide back. Even if he managed to go through this entire magazine, Grayson obviously came prepared with more ammo. There was no such thing as being too prepared, at least in his mind.

[Rosalba-Gwendol Blanche]

Argibee rubbed at her eyes with the back of her sleeve. Her companions came into focus, despite the efforts of the western Sun shining down on her glass-colored eyes, doll-like in their dullness. To one side was of course Lin, high and far, and Argibee was almost unsure how a girl so small could seem all the smaller from further away. To her other side, a flash of turquoise she knew to be Grayson. She'd never met him in person until this mission, but she knew his name: Luminum was the name of a Dust company which might have provided the stuff to her own family's weapon manufacturing business.

(Small world.)

And although Rosalba-Gwendol Blanche was not fluent in sign language, she knew a few essentials, same as with a few other languages. Things such as polite greetings, answers to simple questions, and basic directions. One of those things she knew for sure was the sign for an apology. For Sorry. Her heart twinged a touch at that, a little apologetic herself, now. "Oh, don't be sorry! A blue-bird should drop frozen dead without ever having felt sorry."

Against the wall of the old courthouse was a bicycle, the chain dangling on the sidewalk. Ahead was a clock tower, forever stuck at half past noon. She stopped here and listened, and if Argibee stood still enough perhaps time was indeed frozen, perhaps it was just her bones that didn't realize it.

Argibee sighed, lets the weight of Ipomoeia Alba over her shoulders lean her forward a bit as she picked her pace back up. Lin was right. Mountains defended one from invasion, not from darkness.

How hopeful it had all sounded so long ago. All that optimism, the reports of progress, from spear tip and arrowhead to smart bomb, hieroglyphs to CD Rom - from Mountain Glenn to ruin. A necropsy of a necropolis, history like one-way glass. Only looking back could any lesson be learned from this place. The grief of this place is so large and so massive and the chasm of it is too deep for one person alone to process.

Is it easier to blame the ghosts? She thought.

"I see," Argibee said, and turned her white-flecked eyes skyward. She hummed. "Had we been the ones to draw Mountain Glenn, could we have done better? Color the skies blue, draw the circle around on our first try. Not a single bristle of ruin. If only the architects of this place had we four as consultants." And she laughed at that thought, in the form of an understated exhale of air through the nose and little else besides.

[Nanna]

For neither the first nor final time, Nanna wondered if even the mere memory of great sorrow could feed the Grimm.

That was about all she could conclude, really, given the permanently overrun state of Mountain Glenn. For where elsewhere they appeared as swiftly as they vanished in pursuit of all manner of negative emotions, these Grimm that had dashed Vale’s hope of growth now seemed to just… Linger, like carrion birds circling a kill that never rotted.

That thought made them a touch antsy, and they traced a finger along the flat of Lodestar’s folded blade. It served just as much as reassurance as it did a reminder of exactly why they were there. After all, they’d need only spend so long picking around emptied buildings and ruined lives ere the Grimm caught wind of them—as was the intention.

Glancing back up from a blown-open and curiously deep manhole, Nanna hastened to catch back up with the rest of the (provisional) team, and to catch back up with the conversation as well… Or at least get the gist of it from the latter bits.

“…I don’t think so,” they admitted, replying to Argibee’s latest question. “Not that it couldn’t have worked out, though—otherwise, Vale wouldn’t have even tried. And I think they had good ideas, too! They tried to keep using natural defenses like they had back home, for one, and an underground railway is still sure as hell safer than an aboveground one.”

A pause, and then a weary breath, for there was a but that ought to follow that.

“…But I don’t think it was bad planning that took out Mountain Glenn. The Grimm did that just fine on their own, and they wouldn’t have been here because it wasn’t being built or managed right.”

Behind her back, a hand was now firmly gripped on Lodestar’s hilt, and there was a certain hardness in their eyes.

“All they would’ve responded to is how its people were feeling, and then all they would’ve cared about was killing them for it.”

[Lin Motley]

Lin supposed the others had a point.
She shot Argi a small smirk, yet did little less than that, as she was more busy to listen to Nanna, they made a few good points buuut the part of the train did not sit right with Lin, sure, an underground train could not be attacked by flying Grimm, but cave ins caused by burrowing Grimm seemed like so much more of a death trap than a Manticore that could be shot down by a train mounted turret, she was however not going to try and correct Nanna right now, she had to focus on keeping an eye out for her team, so Lin flew back up, overlooking the ruined buildings, soon she paused as she spotted a nice little resting spot Lin sat on a balcony, the potted plants long having wilted, Lin blew away some of the old dry leafs with a flick of her wrist.

Though she had spotted a few Grimm in the distance, most of them had not noticed the group yet.
Maybe she should steer up some trouble?
There was a Nevermore, resting on a building a few blocks away, a well placed shot from either Brisk or Switch should do it...

[Grayson Albus Luminum]

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. The Blanche family was a familiar, recurring name in the halls of his own home. Luminum Dust Industries, or LDI for short, dealt with many organizations, but few were informally close like the Blanche family.

A small world, indeed... Grayson mused, smirking at Argi's joke.

His attention turned towards Nanna as they caught up to the team, speaking their piece on the fall of Mountain Glenn. Their ideas were mostly sound, save for the bit about the underground railway. He knew there were Grimm that burrowed underground, so that seemed like a massive oversight to the residents of Mountain Glenn. However, something he hadn't considered before was the emotions of the residents.

"Underground railways would be safe, but Grimm that burrow underground can still be a threat to it. But I suppose you're right about the emotions of the residents. Perhaps it can be easy for some of us to forget how Grimm are attracted to negative emotions and Aura." Grayson replied to Nanna.

Were it not for the midday sun, Grayson would have volunteered to do some scouting with his Semblance. Invisibility would normally be a great boon, but without anything to mitigate the amount of light that entered his eyes, it would have felt like staring into the sun no matter where he looked. He valued his retinas enough to let Lin take an overwatch position on a nearby balcony. Considering he lacked the capabilities for long-range shooting, perhaps Grayson would be best suited to watching Lin's back as she sniped Grimm from afar.

"I'll be protecting Lin while she's sniping, unless I'd be better off elsewhere." Grayson spoke to the other two, ready to make his way towards the abandoned building Lin was on.

[Rosalba-Gwendol Blanche]

Argibee smiled at Nanna's words. There was an empathy for the people who had lived here once that she could understand and appreciate. "Mhm, mhm. Mountain Glenn is perhaps no-one's fault except that of the rotten world we live in... This is the secret of despair, I think: there was maybe nothing anyone could have done to prevent it."

Words unspoken: and maybe no one will be able to stop the same fate from befalling Vale, Atlas, and the rest. Maybe Mountain Glenn was the beginning of the end. Pessimism drew Grimm, and Argibee knew better than to give voice to black-heart thoughts.

Just as soon as Lin descended to join them, she flew back off. The brief company was nice, but Argibee understood the necessity of her role and couldn't fault her for returning to the sky. After all, a bird's-eye view of the scene was important, especially in this intermission between bouts of fighting.

She turned and nodded to Grayson. "Wherever you find you're at your best is where you ought to be, I say. Either way, there's no use palely loitering. The sedge has withered and no birds sing in this place... I'll draw them within range of our weapons."

Argibee rolled her shoulder, swinging her rifle down from where it rest across her back and into her arms. Lowering the muzzle to the ground, she pulled the bolt back and out of the way, opening up the chamber. From her belt she procured a bullet the length of her index finger, thumbed it into the open chamber, then cycled the assembly shut.

Safety off.

She lifted Ipomoea Alba at an angle, aimed it in the direction opposite where Lin and everyone else was for safety's sake, and compressed the trigger.

The report of the gunshot cracked like thunder and echoed through the shattered city. The sound was deafening, and in the silence which swept after it like an ocean wave came the roar of the creatures Grimm from all sides. Though the midday sun still shined brightly, darkness closed in upon the four of them as if the broken moon were rising hours too early. Bone-pale masks and armor plates shuffled between formless black shapes, their starved lips in the gloom gaped horried wide.

From their number a single body stepped forth first, gloom clinging to its fur; Beowolf-type. It opened its mouth as if to howl only for its bone-plate mask to shatter inwards with great force, and the resulting fireball burned its rot-through fur to ash before its body could even begin to dissolve.

Ipomoea Alba's muzzle exhaled black smoke. Argibee ripped back on the bolt, ejecting a second spent casing, and her offhand flicked over her belt, where a fire-Dust bullet had once been. "We're being graded on their number slain, so hold fast, and drive this evil back."

[Nanna]

“But kinds that burrow are a lot less prevalent than those that fly, or even just run fast,” mused Nanna with a tiny shrug. “Or at least that was probably the idea, I’ll bet... The underground was still the last thing that fell, right? But, it didn’t stop the Grimm in the end—not when they were well-fed on rage and despair and more besides, no doubt.”

Their attention was promptly pulled elsewhere, however, as Lin floated off and Grayson moved to follow. A quick, easy smile and a nod were Argibee’s reward for the support, but then she let the matter slide—it was time to get the job done.

“Sounds good to me,” they noted, drawing and prepping a combined Lodestar (and courtesy of force of habit, giving its load an extremely redundant check). “No sense in anyone going alone when we’ve got a full team here… Which is why I’ll stick down here, too. Should be a pretty good setup all around, I think.”

That was entirely going on what Nanna knew about her new comrades secondhand, of course. Still, that was more reliable than it might sound—at least in their experience, when Hunters and Hunter hopefuls alike get to talking about one another, they tend not to mince words. Reasonable, given that a wrong impression of someone could get you killed if ever you worked together.

A curious (and maybe just a touch distracted) glance was spared for Ipomoea Alba as its owner let off a shot like a race was starting, but then they jerked their attention back once more.

Breathe in… Out. Focus.


They drew alongside Argibee when the second shot was fired, this time with a more solid target. No doubt that would shortly be followed by more from the team’s resident sniper, simultaneously thinning the herd before it reached them even as they made the street a shooting gallery... And any foes which flew, or could otherwise reach her, would have Grayson to contend with. A good plan.

“That,” Nanna started, eyes glinting, Aura beginning to flare up like growing flames, “can be arranged.”

In the near distance, another Beowulf, its silhouette darkened despite the daylight. And then another… And another, ad nauseum, for always they came in hordes. Lodestar split into either hand—in one a pistol, in the other a now-formed blade of Hardlight Dust—and bullets began to fly, finding their marks one after another ere they closed into melee… Though that would no doubt soon be inevitable. They unleashed not a single Dust bullet, at least not yet—too valuable, best saved for moments of need.

“We’ll probably be surrounded soon,” she noted, tone somewhere between commenting on the weather and admitting something mildly unfortunate. “When that happens, let’s watch each other’s backs, yeah?”

[Lin Motley]

With an explosive or more so fiery start, the fight began as Lin watched from on high as Alba disintegrated a Beowulf, Lin herself finally did decide on her own course of action as she let Switch reattach itself to her back, the magnetic sheathe she had for all her weapons made the action fluent and easy, as instead Brisk found its way to her hands, the tripod quickly finding its hold in the soil of a dusty flower put, crushing the roses that had long wilted, as Lin let it float there for just a second, she quickly grabbed a few things from her backpack as a bundle of cans was pulled out, cans that clattered with the noise of a few dozen nails bunched up inside and the aggressive hissing of agitated combustion dust, a recipe courtesy of Professor Copperfield, yet the ropes binding the three cans together were her own idea, imbuing the bundles with her own semblance made the crinkly little cans so very attractive to Grimm, as Lin tossed them to a few select spots, the roof over her head, the room next to her and one floating a few feet of the balcony as with another quick flick she put pulled out two magnetic proximity mines she made herself, both quickly finding their place attached to the rain gutter below her, all these little surprises should keep any Grimm from getting any ideas about approaching her.

Now, for the show to begin, Lin quickly took Brisk back into her hands as she took aim at the approaching Grimm, she could hear leathery wings on the wind as a pair of Nevermore took flight to swoop down on her team´, yet two well-placed shots piercing the heads of the giant birds made them clash into each other instead as their disintegrating corpses crashed into the building behind her team, then falling down onto an unfortunate Ursa that was crushed beneath.
The magazine spun, and then two new bullets were quickly placed into it, these times combustion dust, just in case anything bigger and nastier showed up, for now she'd keep with the armor piercing and let her team deal with the hordes of smaller Grimm.

[Grayson Albus Luminum]

Graded on the number slain? That promotes competition over teamwork! Grayson thought, bewildered at the questionable decision to grade on sheer numbers alone. However, he didn't have time to argue that decision as he ran towards the abandoned building Lin had been sniping Grimm from.

Just then, Grayson noticed a Beowulf between him and the building, charging right at him. Grayson unholstered GoldEye Mark 7, taking careful aim towards the creature of darkness. Analyzing its running pattern as he continued aiming, Grayson placed several shots with surgical precision at its front elbow joints, causing the Beowulf to stumble and fall face first onto the ground, sliding toward him. As the Grimm slid within melee range of Grayson, he raised his foot back to kick its head, the foot becoming surrounded in the metal armor of Bioforge. Grayson's foot hit home, making contact with the head of the Beowulf with a loud clang. The kick detached the head from its body, sending the Beowulf's head several impressive meters into the air. Needless to say, that Beowulf had breathed its last. Noting the horde of Grimm approaching, Grayson reached the abandoned building, closing and barring the door with a nearby plank. Grayson also wedged a small ice Dust crystal inside the door jamb for good measure.

That should hold them for a while... Grayson mused, moving quickly towards the staircase to get to the roof.

[Rosalba-Gwendol Blanche]

Argibee watched Lin leave without so much as a word (which she should have expected), and Grayson soon after. From her vantage point on the ground, she couldn't quite see what Lin was up to, but she was certainly enthusiastic about it. She had already taken down two Nevermore-types, which would no doubt contribute nicely to their grade, and Grayson was already rising to meet her. "Ten thousand times we've done our best. All's to do again."

Argibee turned to one side and brought Ipomoea Alba underarm, calling out to Nanna a little ways away. "Mm, I'll be with you shortly, Nanna. Looks like we'll be in each others' care." But then the ground rumbled underfoot, a steady thump-thump-thump, and Argibee turned from Nanna to find an Ursa Minor making a mad dash for her from the foremost point of the horde. It seems it had been attracted by the sound of Ipomoea Alba firing.

In combat, there were nine kinds of ground: each called for a different maneuver. Ground on which we can only be saved from destruction by fighting without delay is referred to as desperate ground.

On desperate ground: fight.

The Ursa Minor fell upon her and Argibee rose to meet it with a running start. Its jaws snapped shut upon the space she had occupied a mere second prior but she leapt and swung Ipomoea Alba downwards, planting the muzzle onto the base of its neck and she flipped upwards like the flex of a pole vaulter. With one hand on the bolt she swung her body up and over the rear of the weapon, cycling the action with the momentum of her body and she fired; piercing from the back of the Grimm's spine and out through the front of its throat. The recoil of the shot sent her the rest of the way over the Grimm's body to land cleanly on the other side of Nanna's back as the monster's body was reduced to soot-black ash.

Rising to her full height and roughly even with Nanna's, Argibee offered her a quaint "Hello, there!" and ripped back on the charging handle. The spent casing ejected skywards, only to thump against the brim of her hat as it promptly came back down to earth. A little annoyed, she thumbed another bullet into the smoking chamber.

"Faring well? Is there joy in your time with Team... ah, LNGR? Hrm, wait, well. Longer falls greatly short. It's not even a color. The essence of a name holds weight—" Seemingly undistracted even while chatting, a wild spin of Ipomoea Alba's rifle form brought the butt of the thing crashing up through the underside of a Creep-type's jaw, the force of the impact piercing its skull with its own bottom teeth: killing it. She picked up where she left off. "—and we are still a Team, provisional or no. May I try again?"

The ground trembled again, this time more persistent; it was not the steady footfall of an Ursa, but the warning of a massive, scaled head emerging from a fissure, its eyes glowing with crimson-fire. Its fangs glisten like ivory and its forked tongue flicks out as if savoring the taste of the residual catastrophe that only the Grimm can feed on. As the King Taijitu pushes further out, the enormous body follows, writhing and coiling with a grace that belies its size.

Argibee hummed where she stood in its shadow, and thumped Ipomoea Alba's stock against the asphalt. The weapon shifted into its buster-sword configuration and hard-light Dust flared from its emitters and formed a sky-blue blade of energy. "A new question: strike at its head, and you will be attacked by its tail; strike at its tail, and you will be attacked by its head. Strike at its middle, and you will be attacked by head and tail both. In that case, what do you do?"

[Nanna]

Whatever immediate plans Nanna might’ve had fell by the wayside in the wake of these newest foes, greater by far than a Beowulf in scale and threat alike.

And yet on the one side, an Ursa either unfortunate or witless vanished beneath twin falling Nevermores; on the other, another fell to Argibee’s counterattack, swift enough that Nanna doubted it had known what was happening. Suddenly left with naught but the remaining oncoming Beowulf-types to deal with, they shifted Lodestar into twin blades, breathed in deep and infused each with Aura, and pounced.

With vanishing speed, one blade found a leg of each Grimm, toppling them over ere the other found a throat. There was naught but (lowercase) dust in moments, leaving the minor threat as quelled as the major… At least for the time being, for long enough to bounce back into position and exchange a few words.

“Definitely not that one,” Nanna cut to the chase and swiftly confirmed, figuring it best to have seen nothing where that bouncing shell was concerned. She’d done it herself before plenty anyways, so they were filled with sympathy more than mirth…

Up popped a Creep—and then it was made nothing. Nanna listened back in, and then seemed to acquiesce about something. Glancing back over their shoulder, they made it clear.

“…No lie, I’ve been thinking about it a bit. How’s NRGL? That’s Nergal, mind. I guess that doesn’t fit Beacon’s color format, but it works pretty well for the one back home—well, my home, anyways.”

Another interruption then—and one critical in nature. A self-styled serpent of the depths, it seemed… Unless Mountain Glenn’s underground was its hide?

Nanna’s eyes flicked towards Argibee for but a moment as she pondered that question, for the answer could full well be their strategy. Then the moment passed:

“Simple. When I strike at the head, and around comes the tail, then a second Hunter intercepts and hits that instead—the actual point of the move, naturally.”

Lodestar took on its combined rifle form in the one hand, and the other reached out towards Argibee, palm spread as they used their Semblance, as they gave her a bit of their Aura.

“How’s that sound?” They said, and in the same moment charged.

They darted left and right, aiming to conceal their intent for just long enough to approach without incident, and then dove aside completely as the great snake at last struck—and missed by mere feet. Springing off a hand, they plugged a few last regular shots into its side to keep its attention… And when again its red eyes met their own, she leapt, kicking off an adjacent wall and towards the head blade-first.

Out of the corner of their eyes, she spotted the tail stirring to swipe them out of the air—something you could really only take one of. It was all down to trust now… But in Nanna’s eyes, anyone unworthy of that trust wouldn’t have made it into Beacon.

No matter. The King’s focus, now concrete, was thoroughly misguided.

[Lin Motley]

Lin saw the King Taijitsu emerged from the ground, she also did see that Nana and Argi seemed to be handling the oversized reptile as they were attacking both the head and tail, which was a sure fire way to take down their scaley adversary, what Lin focused on was the Grimm emboldened by her teammates focus being on the biggest threat on the field and trying to get in a few cheap shots on them, not on Lin's watch.

A few Centinel's emerged from the ground, their long winding bodies emerging from the ground, they reared back with a screech as they wanted to spray acid on Argi, impeding her progress badly, but, the whip crack sound of Brisk echoed through the air, followed by the shattering of concrete as the Centinels were blown to bits by a combustion dust round.
A few more shots followed, decimating a few Beowulf that emerged from an alley threatening to cut of Argibe's path, but their heads were quickly hollowed out.

Her gaze then shifted as Nana was approachd by a Griffon, the many talons ready to tackle away the Lion from the giant snakes face, before it could crash into them the last combustion dust round hit their flank, making them tumble to the floor with ruined wings and their legs all but broken.

Lin, took a deep breath as she finally unscoped, quickly reloading Brisk as she did a quick check of her own surroundings, just as she did, one of her proximity charges went off shaking the building she was in, yeah, it was about time the Grimm noticed her and were now drawing closer to her location, one must at least have slipped past Grayson, Lin was not feeling all that safe anymore.
She shouldered Brisk, as she instead drew Brawn, the two shotguns at the ready.

As the building then began to shake, something was coming up fast from below!
Lin gulped as she quickly ran out of the room, backflipping of the balcony just in time for a giant Centitaur to reveal itself, the smaller Centinel's may have been scouts, the centipede monstrosity bit where Lin stood a second ago, the monster screamed as it followed Lin outside, going after her FAST, but Lin was ready, Brawn was trained on the other proximity charges she had planted, with a loud BOOM they went off in the monsters face, making it flinch backward, as Lin yet was now falling down onto the floor at breakneck speed, her wind was not strong enough to stop herself any longer, but, turning mid air she aimed Brawn at the ground, firing all 4 barrels to stop her descent, while also shredding the unfortunate Ursa that stood on its hind legs to try and reach her.

Lin quickly took to the sky, being safe for now, as she turned around to look for Grayson.

[Grayson Albus Luminum]

With the rumbling of the building, the roars of Grimm, and Huntsmen gunfire going on, Grayson felt as though he were in a warzone. It didn't take long for that ice Dust crystal to break under the pressure of many Grimm trying to force their way in, freezing both them and the entryway solid. Even while ascending the staircase, Grayson detected a sudden drop in the air temperature as the ice Dust crystal exploded, a testament to the potency of that particular crystal. Just then, the building rattled especially harshly alongside the sound of an explosion.

DAMN! Grayson rebuked as he nearly lost his footing as he ascended the stairs. From behind, the tail of a massive Death Stalker had shattered the wall, its stinger poised to impale Grayson. Moving over towards the wall of the staircase, Grayson dodged the initial strike which had basically removed half of a section of the staircase. Grabbing hold of GoldEye Mark 7, Grayson fired several shots at its exoskeleton, all of which pinged off as though it were armor. Another stab at Grayson, another jump up the stairs to dodge, and the other half of said section now destroyed. Grayson moved with great speed as he ducked underneath another stab, reloading his weapon with Combustion Dust rounds. Lumbering into the building like a bulldozer, the Death Stalker eyed Grayson with a murderous intensity. Firing a few Combustion Dust rounds, Grayson managed to destroy its tail and pincers, sending splinters of wood everywhere. Call him crazy for it, but it seemed those were the only rounds that could pack enough punch to fell the Grimm, much to the dismay of the bottom of the staircase. Just then, another rumble occurred. A deep, subterranean rumble...

"SHIT!" Grayson exclaimed as a gargantuan Cenitaur emerged from underneath the building. Grayson stumbled backwards and fell, the Cenitaur scuttling around Grayson and out onto the balcony where Lin was. Standing back up, Grayson followed the foul Grimm as it tried to attack her, only to be met with an explosion to the face. Sensing an opportunity now that the Grimm was stunned, Grayson ran towards the beast, transforming his weapon into its knife form. Swinging it at the side of the Cenitaur, the blade embedded itself several inches into the skin of the beast. As the metallic essence of Bioforge enveloped his arms and upper body, Grayson slid the knife through its back with a grunt of effort. Grayson carved a massive gash in its back. Doing so, Grayson severed its spinal cord and exposed its acidic stomach which began to eat away at the newly limp body.

[Rosalba-Gwendol Blanche]

Argibee laughs, low and easy. Nanna had a good head on their shoulders. Her aura, pink and red like a summer flower, passed from the space between her palm and Argibee's chest and settled over her soul something like a shawl. Before she could so much as thank her, Nanna was gone, already in motion, a blur of bullet and blade.

Not one to be left far behind, Argibee called upon her Semblance and it swallowed her in its fire a moment later, unsettling dust and stones from at her feet in the flare of Aura that surrounded her. That much was expected, only, oddly, she felt no strain - the Aura which her Semblance burned as fuel wasn't hers. The fire of her Aura, usually so white as snow, burned crimson like the flash of Nanna's bright hair. Oh, interesting, Argibee thinks, leaping into the air, her gift bought me just a little extra time.

Skillful hunters make proper use of their Teams by possessing more than one body; they will come to each other's assistance just as the left hand helps the right. In that way, her and Nanna made a King Taijitu between the two of them, as well.

And those who were called skillful hunters knew how to drive a wedge between the enemy's front and rear; to prevent co-operation between large and small groups of Grimm; to hinder the strong from interfering with the culling of the weak. Argibee did not have to so much as turn over one shoulder to see the Grimm dying at her back; she trusted Lin enough to know that no bullet nor ricochet could harm her.

With a cry of effort, Argibee leapt into the air just as the King Taijitu's white-headed tail reared back to respond to Nanna's attack on the head, and her weapon's hard-light blade slipped through the creature's tough-scaled flesh with a horizontal twirl that had Ipomoeia Alba spinning like the disc of a whirling top. At the moment of impact, the crimson red of Argibee's fire, Nanna's bestowed Aura, pealed off of her like fire extinguished, and all that remained was a familiar stark white flare.

She had angered the beast, divided its attention, and she was leading it like a shrike to Nanna's sharp and glorious thorn.

Argibee went soaring through the air in an arc, her Aura burning white like the trail of a comet where she fell. She flipped through the air to land on her hands and feet just under Nanna. She raised her voice, called up to her partner. "My Semblance grants me precious little time, I'll only be able to give you a few more seconds! Does this suit you?"

She exhaled, blowing her bangs out of her face, and as Argibee stood at her full height, Ipomoeia Alba shifted to its rifle configuration where she held it in one hand. She ran her other hand through her hair to smooth out her ruffled hair, but as Argibee's hand found the top of her scalp she winced as if she had been suddenly struck. "Oh, darn... I dropped my hat."

[Nanna]

All went according to plan—or, at least it did once a surprise or two was dealt with.

Nanna’s attention remained on Argibee, watching as she moved to intercept the tail ere it could defend its twin, when a Griffon tried its hand at an ambush… And was just as soon on the receiving end of a different one, courtesy of a distant, well-placed shot from Lin grounding it. The tail ended up fairing similarly, its distraction letting a bolstered Argibee sneak a show-stopping hit in… And display a quite nifty Semblance at the same time, for that matter.

As Nanna broke off the feint, rolling aside to land on their feet next to Argibee, it was with more than a little grim satisfaction. Though they were all as of yet unfamiliar, this little provisional team seemed to have all the training and nerves they’d need for top marks today…

Then, a new surprise: the sound of more Combustion rounds (common for very sensible reasons), and another deep, rolling rumble. The kind that rose right through one’s feet, that made one’s very bones vibrate… And a tumult within the building that Lin remained atop of. Somewhere within, it certainly sounded Grayson was doing his job... And then right on cue, Huntsman and prey (a very determined Cenitaur type, it turned out) alike emerged—and then Nanna had to leave them to it, their focus snapping back to the foe before them.

The King Taijitu’s head was still recoiling in sympathetic pain, and the tail was faring worse, but no doubt that would last for either. That would just have to do.

“That’s plenty,” was their more confident reply… And then with eyes drawn upwards and a small, half-sheepish smile, “It’s around here somewhere. I’ll keep an eye out!”

There were two follow-ups to be made: firstly, a coup de gras for the downed Griffon, taking the form of a single timely Air round shot towards the head. Right before impact, the Air Dust within the bullet activated, expanded, pressurized—and tore its housing into a rain of high-speed shrapnel. More than enough to finish the job.

Second, then, was blade work. “Let’s take opposite sides again. The head and tail don’t seem to coordinate well when they can’t both attack one target—and if it combined hasn’t learned, that’s a weakness worth exploiting.”

Then she leapt, shooting off like another bullet, keeping so low as to have their feet just off the ground. Aura surged around them, then their weapon, then even just a touch beyond… The second aspect of their own semblance, that which could let them cut through even the heaviest armor of the Aura-lacking Grimm. A leap carried them towards the “neck” of the head—

—Until it sent a hasty strike their way, leaving fang and sword to collide. The beast roared its fury, wasted venom flying in the wake of a tooth chipped horribly, but Nanna nonetheless was sent careening off, all but impacting on the ground near where they’d started.

She snapped to her feet via kip-up, grimacing through the lingering shock of the blow. The one thing Aura couldn’t dissipate, that…

This thing learns quickly, was all she could conclude.