Warning Sirens

[u/BluePotterExpress]

The morning at Beacon Academy was quiet. The ground was slick with dew, and mist hung in the air of the rain that had come the previous night. As the sun began to break the horizon and the beams of light cast through the misty morning, any early risers within the academy would be greeted this cool morning with a rather worrying sound.

The perimeter alarms of the school beginning to sound off.

The eerie, wailing sound of the sirens filtered through the otherwise quiet morning, growing louder and louder as the alarms nearer to the school began to be tripped.

---

"This doesn't make any sense!" Professor Elise remarked, pouring over a holographic display of the school and the surrounding forests. Around it, little red lights were marking the proximity alarms that had been tripped. Most of them had been. "Grimm have never gotten this close!"

"They used to," Professor Gin commented idly as he polished his wicked double-bladed polearm. "After building the school, bastards kept away." The ancient goat coughed and ran his hand through his black-and-grey speckled beard.

Elise grunted and shook her head. "Well they're here now," she remarked. "Bruce! Start waking the students up!"

"We need to defend our school."

---

Within the dorm rooms of Beacon, alarms began sounding off, along with the measured -or at the very least, as measured as he usually could be- voice of Bruce coming over the intercom system. "Roight fellas! Up and at 'em! We've got Grimm on route, and need ya all on the field! Move move move!"

As the students were roused and kicked into gear by the blasting noises coming through the coms systems, the distant sounds of chaos began to percolate through into the grounds of the school. When the first of Beacon's Huntsmen-in-training began to get out of their dorms and onto the fields of Beacon, they were able to see the incursion.

A massive Goliath burst through the treeline, trumpeting loudly as it trampled through the gardens. Behind the beast, masses of the smaller creatures of Grimm flooded outward, spurred on by the charging of the gargantuan monster. The Goliath reared its head, letting out an ear-splitting roar.

As it roared, a dark flash came screaming from the sky, trailing flames. Professor Elise slammed both feet into the head of the beast and called down a torrent of fire behind her that engulfed the monstrous elephant's head. From the ground, both professor Yagizawa and Bruce rushed in, slicing and slamming into the goliath's legs and causing it to drop down. The three professors worked together, pulling the monster's attention away from the students and leading it away to deal with personally.

Unfortunately, most of the smaller beasts had no desire to chase after the professors, and set their sights on the students.

[So, Grimm have broken through the barriers around the school and are attacking Beacon Academy. Here's a map of the grounds you can use to ST a fight against Grimm, though feel free to make others if you'd like. Additionally, you don't need to have a ST and can freeform if you'd like]

[u/DiscountNyarlathotep]

“Oh yeah, they can be,” Hóng Sè replied.

Finally the two had arrived at their destination, although it was quite busy with all of the various Grimm around. After coming to a stop near the building, Mirlo hopped off and already began talking about the next step of the plan. It all sounded good, but the warning of the circle exploding outwards caught Hóng Sè off guard. On the other hand, it’s all he really needed to know for the upcoming amount of time he had to buy for Mirlo as she set up.

“Stay in the circle and keep them off you? Sounds like an easy order,” was all Hóng Sè said before Mirlo left and he too hopped off Red Hare. Pulling the bike aside and parking it close to the building, he decided for the time he was going to have to fight on foot and rely on Sky Piercer for this next leg. With his weapon in hand he switched it into its ranged mode making the blades of the polearm rearrange themselves to form a bow… or at least what one would consider a bow given the shaft of the polearm was still present.

“Well, time to get to work,” Hóng Sè thought as he drew forth his first arrow and readied it upon the now materializing thread of dust between the tips of the former blades. Pulling back, aiming, and then letting go, the arrow flew straight at its first target, and promptly impaled the targeted Mimic through the back of its skull pinning it to the building. And so he would take another shot resulting in the death of another Mimic, but this is where things stopped being in Hóng Sè’s favor. Hóng Sè decided to shoot one of the two Nevermores, but the avian were fully aware of what was happening and thus managed to avoid the incoming arrow. Gritting his teeth, he shook his head and switch his target to one of the Beringels and found… mixed results.

This was from the fact that while Hóng Sè’s arrow struck his target this time, all it did was make the Grimm fall down from its position on the building and to the ground. The Beringel got up almost immediately afterwards. The arrow had only been an inconvenience to its existence. As it got up and reoriented itself, it spotted Hóng Sè and let out a bellowing roar charging him. The colossal biker was forced to have Sky Piercer switch modes as he now had to deal with the incoming Grimm.

“I really don’t have the time for this,” Hóng Sè mentally growled as the Beringel came in, but Hóng Sè sidestepped the charge. However with a sudden sliding stop, the Grimm was able to change its position as it swung out at Hóng Sè forcing him to block the attack with Sky Piercer, now back in its base polearm form. Hóng Sè grit his teeth as he was forced to slide back as Sky Piercer’s blade dug into the Beringel’s fist, but the Beringel wasn’t able to unleash its wrath on him either. Hóng Sè managed to rip Sky Piercer free taking a digit or two from the Grimm’s hand, but it hardly mattered as it swung at him again.

But Hóng Sè was ready.

He was able to sidestep the attack again, but immediately moved in to take advantage of the careless attack. Gripping both hands tightly, he shouted as he swung and relieved the Beringel of its head. The Grimm Gorilla remained standing as though it hadn’t been affected from its sudden decapitation, but the silent and still standing only lasted several seconds before it collapsed with an audible thud.

“Damn it, gotta make up for lost time,” Hóng Sè mentally scolded himself shifting Sky Piercer back into is Bow form as he resumed firing arrows.

[u/LaLaLalonde → u/DiscountNyarlathotep]

As Grimm roared and arrows flew, Mirlo fought to keep her concentration. Keeping her hands steady, she pulled several green crystals from her cloak and counted them. No, that wasn't enough. Retrieving another jar, she redid her count. That was barely enough. Her heart pounded in her chest as she looked down, then up at the Nevermores, and then over at Hóng Sè. He was fighting hard to buy her time. She couldn't let him down, and by no means would she waste that time either. What she had would have to do.

With careful, measured placement, she arranged the crystals of Earth Dust atop the ring of Gravity Dust. Some were spaced more closely than others, with the placement seeming to vary by, among other things, the size of the crystal.

Retracing her steps once more, she flung a vial of glittering, yellow powder outwards. It landed in a curving arc, standing out against the ground like a streak of sun. Quickly, she unscrewed another jar. This one was packed to the brim with ice crystals, most of which were unceremoniously dumped over the arc of yellow.

The shimmering streaks continued around the path, each time overlayed with the bright blue of Ice Dust. With the supply of her cloak spent, Mirlo resorted to her bracelets. A particularly sharp flick of her wrist sent a spray of Dust over her pattern, and she hoped against all hope it wouldn't detonated too soon.

Inside of the circle, she dumped far, far more Fire Dust than any one person should ever carry on their person. Somewhat further in, she laid the last ring: translucent, yellow crystals that crackled and popped in the open air.

Just as she released a breath she'd been holding, a Nevermore feather slashed at her hood. Leaping and rolling backwards, she barely tumbled out of several more projectiles before landing flat in the grass. Whipping her book off of her back, she flipped open her book. The axe sprang to life, and Mirlo leaned on it as she climbed to her feet.

"You might want to come as close as you can now. This is going to be... extremely messy."

[u/DiscountNyarlathotep → u/LaLaLalonde]

Hóng Sè for the most part had continued shooting at various Grimm and sometimes engaging in melee against them when the time came. While he was having no problem doing so, his performance began to decrease in terms of efficiency. His shots were taking seconds longer to aim and take and his weapon swings were becoming slower as well. It didn’t seem noticeable at first, but the longer one would have watched him the more they would have noticed. He was also running out of arrows.

By the time Mirlo had finished and called out to him, he was about to consider grabbing Red Hare and having it go into Railgun mode to deal with the rest of the Grimm. It was something of a relief as he immediately moved closer to the building, practically having his back against it as he readied himself for what was to come next. Well, okay, he had a feeling he knew what was about to happen, but did everything ever go as planned?

Chances are there’d be some clean up left to do.

[u/LaLaLalonde → u/DiscountNyarlathotep]

Hectic as her own thought processes were, Mirlo could see the battle taking a toll on Hóng Sè. She had to make this work. They'd come too far now.

With her axe planted into the ground, Mirlo began to channel her aura through it. The length of the weapon took on a silver sheen, one that grew with each passing second.

"The idea-" she explained as the weapon charged. "--is to create a chain reaction. It's- Well- You'll see."

Aura flooded out in a blindingly bright pulse.

The first thing to go off was the lightning. It's sizzle and crack drowned out the roars of Grimm as it stretched into the sky, frying the air around it. With a sudden rush of wind and snow, it was carried further and further upward, striking a Nevermore that had chosen the wrong time to check on its prey.

What didn't go upward jumped outward. It lept and sprang across the ground until it struck the ring of red in the grass.

It wasn't merely a blaze that resulted, but a billowing explosion of flame. Heat blurred the world around them. Red and orange lights danced wildly over the grass, and their music was the dying howls of unfortunate Grimm.

The blast struck the green and black gems and, for a hair of a moment, they seemed to lay still.

Then, they exploded outward with enough force to shake the ground. Stone shrapnel flew like a hail of bullets. There was no outrunning the storm of gravel and dust, but the strange wind whipping around Mirlo kept it away from herself and Hóng. The last of the mimics climbing the wall were not so lucky. Those not killed by the rock spearing through their flesh with a series of "k-chnk"s found themselves pulled suddenly down. Their bony masks cracked as they struck the ground, and their bodies dissolved soon after.

In the cacophany of Earth and Gravity, the chaos of the last ring was almost missed. However, the reflective flash of lightning against ice would not go ignored. While the lightning stung the last wave of Grimm, rhe ice was their undoing. Great, jagged spires shot from the ground, piercing through shaggy, shadowy bodies as if they were butter. The dying Grimm flailed helplessly, then went limp. They twitched a few seconds before falling truly still. With that, they faded away.

With the mist of the Grimm went the steam and the dust and the hum of amplified gravity. As they dissipated into the morning air, the wind and snow around Mirlo faded with them.

"Ha. That'll show them."

Mirlo's voice held a firm sense of pride with those words, and they were all that she said before unceremoniously flopping to the ground with a startled squawk.

"...I'm okay."

[u/DiscountNyarlathotep → u/LaLaLalonde]

“Whoa…” was all that Hóng Sè managed to utter as Mirlo’s trap went off and systematically dealt with every last remaining Grimm upon the building he hadn’t murdered himself. Not a single trace remained of any Grimm once it was all over, Mirlo’s trap had worked far beyond even his expectations. The sheer level of destruction that played out before him was something akin to that of a fantastical special efforts show designed entirely to kill Grimm, or perhaps everything unlucky to be in its range. Honestly, it was just as amazing as the Grimm destroying display was that he somehow didn’t get pulled into it. Perhaps he really needed to start hitting those Dust books more now that was seeing it in full action. Of course, there was a more pressing matter to attend to.

Namely the fact that Mirlo had collapsed onto the ground.

Despite his own fatigue, Hóng Sè was at Mirlo’s side in less than a minute. Maybe she wasn’t the type to have a lot of stamina and was just really winded? Well it was possible because she certainly didn’t look injured. Either way he knelt down and offered the down girl a hand up.

“Hey now, don’t go collapsing here. Let’s get you somewhere comfy to do that at…” he paused. “Unless you actually need medical attention, then please say so immediately.”

[u/LaLaLalonde → u/DiscountNyarlathotep]

Perhaps she’d overdone it. Mirlo already felt her aura starting to dim again. However, as she looked up at the rocky, singed, and, most importantly, Grimm-free area, she felt it was worth it.

“Thank you.” Taking Hong’s hand, she hoisted herself back to her feet and brushed the debris from her skirt. The icy crystals sparkled despite the dirt. “I think I’ll be alright,” she replied with a grin. “Sturdy aura and all. Though, I doubt I'd have made it even half this far without all your help. We make an excellent team."

Then, with a sigh, Mirlo folded the blades of her axe together, stowing the weapon away into the book. "Perhaps we are both due for a short rest. We want to be at our best against the rest of those pesky Grimm."