It is said that when it rains, it truly pours.
It was a phrase that had existed for a long time. Yet as Yang steadied herself beside Raven atop the fractured lunar surface, blood dripping from the cuts left by Cinder's earlier attacks and the air still trembling from the aftermath of their confrontation, she couldn't think of a more fitting phrase.
Because the battlefield had somehow become even worse. A roar unlike anything she had heard before erupted across the moon.
It wasn't merely loud, but possessed a strange depth that reverberated through the crimson-white stone beneath their feet and echoed through the floating fragments suspended around the gigantic wound leading toward the moon's core.
All four Rank 2 combatant halted instinctively, their attention pulled toward the distant horizon where enormous chunks of moon rock drifted like shattered continents held together by crimson runic currents.
Something was coming.
Fast.
The ground shook rhythmically.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Each impact arrived closer than the last until a shape burst over a broken ridge, charging across the lunar landscape on all fours with frightening speed.
Yang's stomach dropped.
She had fought countless Grimm. Creatures whose names had become synonymous with death.
This...
This was something else.
Its overall silhouette resembled the ancient folklore depiction of a wendigo twisted into the grotesque aesthetic of Grimm. It possessed an unnaturally emaciated body covered not in flesh but overlapping plates of smooth ivory bone broken apart by rivers of black hide beneath them. Every rib protruded sharply through its sides, giving the impression of a creature perpetually starving despite the monstrous musculature hidden beneath its skeletal frame.
Long forelimbs ended in hands far too human in proportion, each tipped with sickle-like claws capable of carving through stone, while its hind legs were built more like those of an enormous predator, compressing and releasing with explosive strength every time it bounded forward.
Its neck stretched unnaturally long, supporting a skull that resembled an elongated stag stripped completely of flesh. Gleaming white antlers branched backward from the skull like the dead remains of an ancient forest, each tine etched with crimson veins of runic light pulsing beneath the surface.
The empty eye sockets burned with twin scarlet flames, and when its jaw opened, rows of needle-like black teeth revealed themselves behind a second inner maw that clicked hungrily with every stride.
Unlike many powerful Grimm that grew into towering giants as they advanced through the ranks, this creature remained comparatively compact.
Only the size of a freight truck. Yet somehow that made it more terrifying. Everything about it spoke of condensed lethality rather than overwhelming size.
Yang immediately recognized it's physical might from how fast it was moving.
"Peak Rank Two..." she muttered.
Or very close to it.
The creature had clearly been drawn by the chaos.
For nearly ten minutes the battlefield had echoed with explosions, collapsing lunar rock and enough Runic energy to illuminate entire sections of the broken moon. Any predator of sufficient strength would inevitably investigate.
Beside her Raven's expression hardened. Yang already knew what the older woman was thinking. If one Rank Two Grimm had arrived...
Others would follow.
Neither of them had time to dwell upon the implication. The instant the creature entered striking distance, crimson Runic energy exploded around its body.
Its speed doubled, then seemingly doubled again. One moment it had been charging, and the next it became a blur.
Its antlers flared with crimson light as the creature lowered its head and launched directly toward Yang and Raven like a living siege weapon.
Yang barely registered movement.
Instinct acted long before conscious thought.
Multiply.
Her Kinetic Rune immediately shifted from amplification into absorption, multiplying her capacity threefold as she planted herself against the charging Grimm before her.
Then came the impact.
The world disappeared. It felt less like being struck by a living creature and more like standing in front of an express train travelling at impossible speed.
The Wendigo Grimm smashed into her with enough force to drag her bodily across the moon.
Crimson stone erupted beneath her boots as they carved trenches hundreds of meters long through the lunar surface. Floating debris shattered from the pressure wave while fractures raced outward beneath them.
Yang tasted blood.
A thick glob splattered across one of the Grimm's gleaming antlers. Even after absorbing over ninety percent of the incoming kinetic force, enough residual impact remained to rupture blood vessels throughout her chest.
Her eyes widened.
This thing...
It was unbelievably powerful. Fortunately, Kinetic never stopped working. The longer the Grimm continued pushing, the more of its momentum flowed into her Rune.
She felt the charging force diminish. Its terrifying speed began slowing as impossible amounts of kinetic energy disappeared into her rune.
Now.
Yang dug both feet into the shattered moon. Inferno ignited and multiply remained active. Everything she'd absorbed condensed into one fist.
Then she punched.
The impact resembled the detonation of a battlefield-scale explosive.
Inferno and multiplied kinetic force erupted simultaneously, creating a pillar of fire and compressed air that expanded outward like the birth of a miniature sun. Crimson moonstone simply ceased existing beneath the collision as a gigantic crater hundreds of meters across exploded into existence.
The Wendigo seemingly vanished beneath the blast.
One enormous white antler snapped completely free from its skull and spiraled away into the distance before embedding itself into a floating moon fragment.
Yang wasn't finished.
The shockwave itself became fuel.
Her Rune immediately drank back the excess momentum exploding around her before she launched herself downward toward the buried Grimm.
One more punch.
That was all she needed.
Except another fist arrived first.
Hazel.
He appeared beside the crater so quickly that Yang never saw him move. His transformed crimson-white body blurred forward and his hand thrust toward her in the shape of a knife.
Yang abandoned offense instantly, crossing both forearms before her body.
The collision exploded.
Pain unlike anything she'd experienced since becoming Rank Two shot through both arms. Her Kinetic Rune absorbed most of the force but not all.
Whatever properties the moon rock had granted Hazel... they were able to bypass her usual protection.
His hand punched almost entirely through her guard.
Not completely, but enough. His fingers buried themselves into the flesh of both forearms and her blood sprayed across the crimson stone.
Yang hissed through clenched teeth.
Hazel didn't withdraw.
Instead...
He reached deeper, fingers hooking around the inside of the wounds themselves. Agony exploded through Yang's nervous system.
She screamed.
Hazel used the grip exactly as intended. One effortless motion lifted Yang completely overhead before he drove her body straight back into the lunar surface.
The moon cracked.
Another enormous crater blossomed outward as Yang's back struck first. Something ruptured inside her chest and she coughed violently.
Blood spilled from between her lips.
Hazel raised his hand again but he never got the chance.
Raven arrived.
The Sword of Ending descended toward Hazel's neck with flawless precision.
However, this time...
Hazel didn't phase.
Yang noticed it immediately despite the haze of pain clouding her thoughts. Instead he ripped his hand free from Yang's ruined forearms and met Raven's blade directly.
His bare hand caught the flat of the weapon in a burst of speed. The collision rang across the battlefield.
He immediately counterpunched. The attack travelled so quickly Yang almost missed it entirely.
Raven however, had already anticipated it.
Before Hazel's fist completed the parry, Raven's body had already dissolved into her small shadow raven form, slipping beneath the strike by transforming rather than dodging.
Hazel's fist continued onward. The compressed air alone erupted into a massive pillar stretching a kilometer into the distance.
Meanwhile the tiny shadow raven expanded instantly and darkness exploded outward. A skyscraper-sized raven appeared and shadow folded around Yang, Hazel and even the recovering Wendigo Grimm before collapsing inward.. Yang barely had time to process what she'd witnessed before darkness swallowed her.
However, this time, she didn't resist.
A heartbeat later...
Yang stood somewhere else entirely. They emerged from the shadow cast by a struggling Rank One awakened desperately fighting a Beowolf amidst the larger battle raging below.
The man looked exhausted. Before the Grimm could finish him, black spikes erupted from nearby shadows.
One pierced straight through the Beowolf's skull and others followed. Every nearby low-ranking Grimm died almost simultaneously as Raven silently executed them from beneath their own shadows.
The Rank One stared.
His eyes widened when he saw Yang's arms. Blood poured continuously from Hazel's wounds.
"...Thank you!"
He didn't hesitate further. Using the opening Raven had created, the awakened sprinted away toward the retreating defensive line.
Yang watched him disappear then looked back. The gigantic shadow raven she'd left behind exploded outward.
Hazel emerged calmly from the collapsing construct.
Beside him...
The Wendigo climbed from Yang's crater. Its missing antler remained gone but otherwise... it appeared remarkably recovered.
More disturbing still, it ignored Hazel completely.
No hostility or instinctive aggression.
Nothing.
Yang frowned.
Why?
Why weren't the Grimm attacking Sleepless? Surely there had to be some explanation. She simply didn't know it.
Shadows gathered again around Raven Yang immediately recognized the technique. It was another teleport but this time she was trying to leave.
Yang's Will surged and she rejected the incoming shadow. Raven's Rune simply... failed to take hold.
Yang looked directly at her.
"No."
Raven's expression darkened.
"Don't."
Yang already knew. Raven intended to drag her away whether she wanted it or not. But if they left... everyone here died.
She couldn't accept that.
Not again.
Helplessness clawed through her chest.
She hadn't been strong enough once. but now she was Rank Two, if she abandoned these people now...
What had any of it been for?
Raven reached toward her again. Yang rejected the shadows a second time. Then she spoke.
"Switch."
Raven froze and frustration twisted across her features, but Hazel had already started charging. There was no more time.
Raven's body transformed.
Not into the familiar gigantic raven but into something stranger.
A monstrous looking hybrid grounded raven burst into existence, possessing four powerful legs, elongated wings and a serpentine neck lined with obsidian feathers. It intercepted Hazel head-on with a deafening sonic boom.
Hazel punched and half of the creature vanished instantly. The attack vaporized enormous portions of the construct.
But that had never been Raven's objective.
By increasing the creature's surface area so dramatically, Hazel couldn't know where Raven's true body actually resided.
The surviving half of the monstrous raven rippled and Raven herself emerged from the remaining darkness. The Sword of Ending descended toward Hazel's neck once again.
Hazel moved to dodge.
Raven had already catalogued that information. If Hazel still chose to evade rather than become intangible...
Then Raven's suspicion had been correct. Ending could bypass whatever phasing property protected him.
They only needed...
One hit.
Just one.
However, the problem was painfully obvious. Hazel fought like a monster born solely for battle. His speed had risen beyond anything a normal Peak Rank Two should possess.
His strength bordered on absurd and every movement wasted nothing. Every dodge occurred with microscopic precision.
Meanwhile...
If he landed even one clean strike...
Raven would likely be out of commission.
The instant Raven's attention became fully occupied by Hazel, Cinder moved.
She had remained hovering above the battlefield until now, watching the exchange with unnerving patience, studying every movement, hesitation and injury.
While Hazel had become the hammer, Cinder had willingly accepted the role of the knife. She had no intention of wasting herself in reckless exchanges with Yang while Hazel occupied Raven. Instead, she simply waited for exhaustion and circumstance to carve openings that brute strength never could.
Now she had found one.
A cruel sneer slowly spread across her lips as molten glass gathered around her fingers before flowing outward into another elegant bow, its limbs glowing with veins of liquid fire that pulsed like living arteries. The weapon almost seemed beautiful beneath the fractured crimson sky of the Dream Realm's moon.
Then the string was drawn and heat distorted the air around it. Yang saw dozens of arrows materialize simultaneously.
Unlike before, these weren't merely molten glass wrapped in flames.
The arrows themselves seemed woven from concentrated heat, their glass cores glowing almost white while streams of fire spiraled behind them like miniature comets.
They came all at once and to Yang, it seemed as if the only lights illuminating the world were the rain of arrows.
Yang didn't even consider trying to block.
Not anymore.
Her injuries made that impossible.
Hazel's earlier attack had left both forearms torn open where his hand had pierced through her guard, blood still running steadily down her wrists despite her Rank 2 physique desperately attempting to slow the bleeding.
Every movement sent sharp pain racing through her shoulders and chest. The impact from the Wendigo's charge earlier had also left several ribs aching every time she inhaled.
Standing still meant dying. Instead she did something entirely different. Rather than receiving the arrows...
She skimmed them.
Her Kinetic Rune reached outward, brushing against the momentum carried by the incoming projectiles without fully absorbing them. Tiny portions of their kinetic force were stolen as each arrow flashed past her body, and every stolen fragment became another burst of acceleration.
She blurred sideways.
An arrow narrowly missed her shoulder and she stole its momentum. Her body exploded upward. Another projectile screamed beneath her boots.
She borrowed that force as well.
The battlefield became a blur of impossible movement as Yang zigzagged through the storm, never remaining in one place longer than a fraction of a second. Instead of resisting Cinder's assault she flowed around it, allowing every missed arrow to become another source of movement.
Each dodge happened in violent bursts.
Her body resembled a ricocheting shell bouncing between invisible surfaces as kinetic energy continually propelled her away from certain death.
Even then...
Several arrows still grazed her. One carved a shallow furrow along her thigh and another sliced across her shoulder. A third clipped her cheek, drawing a thin line of blood across her face before embedding itself somewhere behind her with an explosion of molten glass.
She couldn't avoid everything and Cinder noticed. The woman's smile widened ever so slightly. She understood that Yang wasn't fighting anymore.
She was simply attempting to survive and buy time for the lower ranks to escape.
But every second spent dodging was another second Hazel could pressure Raven alone and every ounce of Aura Yang spent escaping was Aura she wouldn't possess later.
Cinder had understood Yang frighteningly well after only a handful of exchanges. She had already identified the fundamental difference between Yang and Raven.
Raven evaluated victories and Yang evaluated lives. The first volley she'd fired earlier at the fleeing lower-ranked awakened hadn't truly been intended to kill them.
It had been a question to see if they had cared enough to willingly take damage to protect them. Now she possessed the answer.
Yang would always choose to protect someone else before herself.
Always.
It wasn't simply compassion but conviction.
And conviction... could be weaponized.
Yang knew it too.
As another arrow narrowly missed her neck she caught Cinder watching her, almost amused, and immediately understood what the woman would probably start doing soon.
If she attacked the Rank 0's and 1's, Yang would have to tank the arrows with her flesh. And in turn get even more damaged.
Amidst the attacks, Cinder had apparently decided it was fine to chat.
"You're that guy's daughter aren't you? What was his name? Taiyang? His Dragon rune was quite strong."
Yang deflected an arrow that she couldn't dodge and wondered what Cinder was trying to say.
"I created this penetrative meta rune just to counter his flesh. I couldn't hurt him previously, you see. You share a similar rune to him as well."
Yang didn't say anything. But she inwardly grimaced. She remembered the Vytal tournament fight.
Cinder grinned coldly.
"Since I can't find him here and now, I'll use this opportunity to use it against you. Ah... but if you dodge too much, I might go after those weaklings." Cinder shifted her head against the Rank 1's and 0's in the distance.
She was manipulating her—turning kindness into predictability and morality into chains. Yang clenched her teeth so hard they hurt.
She hated that it worked.
Because Cinder wasn't wrong. She couldn't watch people die.
Not again.
Then everything changed again. Out beyond the immediate battlefield the Wendigo abruptly stopped pursuing Raven.
Its skull lifted and its remaining antler rotated slowly toward another sound.
Toward movement and life.
Tens of Rank Ones and Rank Zeros were still retreating across the shattered crimson landscape while desperately fending off pursuing Grimm. The Wendigo decided to ignore the Rank Two battle entirely.
Instead...
It chose easier prey.
Yang's stomach dropped.
"No..."
The creature lowered itself. Muscles compressed beneath white bone armor and runic energy ignited around its remaining antler.
Even more disturbing...
A second horn began growing.
Not flesh or bone but made from pure condensed runic energy. Crimson light extended from the shattered stump until another antler completely formed, glowing brighter than the original ever had.
Then, the Wendigo vanished. Its acceleration rivaled Hazel's.
Yang abandoned Cinder without hesitation, ignoring the rain of arrows still descending toward her, she launched herself directly across the battlefield.
She kicked off empty air by detonating stolen kinetic force beneath her feet, rocketing directly into the monster's path before it could reach the fleeing awakened.
The collision arrived a heartbeat later.
It once again felt like being struck by an express train.
The freshly condensed runic antler smashed directly into her splayed out arms, driving her backward across the moon's surface. Crimson dust turned molten and erupted beneath her boots as deep trenches carved themselves across the broken landscape.
Yang immediately multiplied her absorption again, desperately drinking in the impossible momentum.
The Wendigo kept pushing, every meter carried them closer and closer.
However, Yang had diverted it's charge, toward Raven and Hazel's battle. Yang gritted her teeth and pushed back with everything she possessed.
The monster snarled inches from her face and its broken breath smelled like cold blood and dust. Around them shockwaves tore apart floating moon fragments.
Not far away...
Hazel had watched the collision approach without changing expression. Then, he did something unexpected. The blood-colored moonstone coating his left arm suddenly began separating from his body. Crimson mineral peeled away from flesh before flowing outward like liquid.
Rather than reabsorbing more moonstone, Hazel reached toward Raven's gigantic shadow construct that was occupying him. His palm touched nothing more than darkness but the shadow disappeared into him.
Only a fragment and a small portion of Raven's enormous construct but Yang saw it vanish into Hazel's arm.
Hazel's fist clenched and shadow erupted outwards. Dark tendrils branched outward from his hand, expanding across the surface of Raven's gigantic construct before wrapping around it like countless chains.
The bindings lasted only a heartbeat but that heartbeat proved sufficient.
Hazel twisted.
Instead of attacking, he simply swung it with incredible force.
The enormous shadow construct lurched violently before being hurled across the battlefield like a toy, its skyscraper-sized body tumbling through floating moon fragments before crashing into distant crimson rock with enough force to shatter entire sections of lunar terrain.
Hazel's gaze shifted toward Yang and towards the Wendigo still driving her backward. He slowly raised his free hand.
Far above...
Cinder smiled and another construct formed.
A spear.
Black glass condensed from molten rivers before solidifying into an impossibly smooth weapon. Without hesitation she released it and the spear descended.
Hazel vanished and the sonic boom arrived after he had already disappeared.
Yang's eyes widened. She barely registered movement before he reappeared directly behind her. The black glass spear landed neatly within his waiting grasp.
Then, the crimson moonstone covering his body flowed, abandoning his torso, his shoulders and his arms.
Every fragment gathered around the spear itself. Layer upon layer, until black glass disappeared beneath blood-red crystal. The weapon radiated something that made Yang's instincts freeze.
It wasn't merely powerful, but unstoppable. Not only did it have the property of penetration that Cinder had, but it also was stacked on my the strength of the moonstone. The same moonstone enhancement that could almost fully bypass Yang's kinetic rune.
Hazel thrust the spear towards Yang's heart.
Yang couldn't move. She couldn't dodge, block or even turn. The Wendigo still crushed against her from the front.
For the first time since awakening, this was perhaps the first time that Yang understood with perfect clarity.
'I'm going to die.'
Time slowed and she saw every tiny detail. Dust drifting across crimson air. Blood floating from her own wounds.
Fragments of shattered moonstone suspended around them.
Her life flashed before her eyes. She thought of Ruby. She thought of her father, Taiyang. She thought of Pyrrha, Ren, Nora. She thought of Blake and Weiss, Oscar and Mocha.
Of all her friends and acquaintances in Beacon and LUCID. Of all the people she hadn't managed to save.
And finally, she thought of a certain blue eyed, blond haired teenager. She thought of her conversations with him and his disappearance.
Jaune.
She regretted that she didn't have another chance to see him.
As she was thinking about all of this, a shadow shield appeared instantly before her.
Raven.
Darkness condensed between Yang and the spear, layer after layer of impossibly dense shadow compressed together into a barrier capable of stopping artillery.
But Hazel's spear ignored it. The blood-red weapon phased through the shadow as though it had never existed.
Then, Raven herself appeared, directly between the spear and its target. All six arms moved together.
Her two real hands and her four Asura limbs. Every one of them reached for the spear simultaneously.
Shadow reinforced flesh and runic energy erupted. For the briefest instant, the spear slowed.
Only for the briefest instant.
Hazel's strength was monstrous. The blood moon's crimson power surged through the weapon. One by one Raven's shadow arms shattered apart into drifting darkness, and then, the remaining hands failed.
The spear continued forward.
Yang watched helplessly, but Raven didn't.
She never stepped aside.
Instead...
She appeared to lean further into the attack. The blood-red spear punched through Raven's chest.
The sound was wet and quiet.
Far quieter than Yang expected.
Hot blood exploded outward and scarlet crimson droplets splashed across Yang's face. Across her lips, her eyes and her mouth.
The spear stopped.
Not because Hazel lacked strength, but because Raven's body had become the final shield. She had used her very flesh to stop the strike that would have pierced Yang's heart.
For a heartbeat the battlefield became silent inside Yang's mind.
She stared at Raven's back.
At the crimson spear protruding through her chest, at the blood slowly running down the weapon. Her biological mother had stepped in front of death itself.
And taken it instead.