SAPR

by Scipio Smith

Apex (New)

Apex

Team TTSS — and Maud and Rarity — heard the soldiers of the Third Battalion before they saw them. Despite the sounds of the battle raging in front of them, despite the howling of the grimm, despite the roaring of the shells and the missiles as they passed overhead, despite the snapping of the rifles and the barking of the machine guns, despite all of that, it was still possible to hear the feet of a battalion of infantry hammering the ground, hear the clanking of their Knights as the androids tried to keep pace with the men, hear the thumping tread of the Paladins and the spider droids, hear all the panoply of an Atlesian unit — a strong unit; this wasn’t a mere squad or even a company — coming their way.

And, having heard them, Starlight only need to turn her head to see them, the soldiers of the Third Battalion streaming down the light-strewn pathway from the landing zone; they must have only just disembarked from their Skyrays, had the Knights and the Paladins dropped from Skygraspers, but they were going to get no respite like the huntsmen and huntress students had enjoyed before the grimm attacked. No, these soldiers were about to be thrown right into the battle.

Because the grimm had noticed that the Atlesian flank was in the air, and they were done letting that stand unmolested.

That was why Starlight didn’t have to look very far to see the Third coming: Team TTSS, along with a few other teams, had been redeployed by Colonel Harper to cover the flank, to hold it, and to support the Third Battalion once they arrived.

And not a moment too soon, because a wave of grimm was heading their way, and for a second there, it had looked like the fairgrounds all over again.

The grimm were running towards an open door, hoping to pour through it; the Third Battalion was running to slam the door before the grimm could get through. It would all depend on who moved fastest.

Starlight sprayed fire with Equaliser, hardly bothering to aim at all, just firing shot after shot after shot in the direction of the dark mass that devoured the ground as they charged. With the grimm so numerous and so tightly pressed together, she could hardly miss, and the more that she could drop, the fewer there would be to reach the line.

Missiles flew, meteors through the darkness to hit the ground in fiery explosions, missiles coming from the Third’s cruisers as they glided in overhead, their stopping points above marking the points below where the infantry would make their stand. Flying grimm soared towards them, evading — or trying to evade — the Atlesian airships that sought to bar their way, but for now, the cruisers almost ignored them. Sure, their point defence systems blazed away at any nevermore or griffon that got too close, but their missiles and their lasers were reserved for the grimm down below, searing them and incinerating them as they charged.

Starlight kept on firing; she couldn’t make out how many grimm she was killing, but she was sure that she must be getting some of them.

Rarity conjured up a line of barriers, blue diamonds lined up in front of them to delay the grimm.

“I can’t cover the whole battlefield in these, darlings,” she said.

“Trixie doesn’t suppose that you can make a rampart here, huh, Maud?” Trixie asked.

“This is dirt,” Maud said softly. “Not rock.”

“Aren’t they the same thing?” asked Trixie.

Maud gave her a Look.

“Right, right, not the same,” Trixie said. “Nothing at all alike. Understood.”

Maud had an ethereal-looking rocket launcher resting on her shoulder, conjured by Sunburst’s semblance, firing grey and gold rockets towards the grimm, exploding amongst them in motes of sparkling light.

And the Fourth Battalion’s Military Huntsman company was also letting the grimm have it, finally seeing some action after Colonel Harper had deployed them here against just this eventuality. The grimm weren’t coming right at them — more like, they were trying to slip around them — but that just put the Military Huntsmen in prime position to enfilade the grimm as they attacked. Some of the Military Huntsmen used standard rifles, light machine guns, light support weapons, rocket launchers; others used the weapons that had carried them through Combat School and that they would have hoped to use as Specialists. Special rounds, blasts of dust, customised grenades, even some arrows and quarrels, they all flew from the flank of the Fourth Battalion to wear away at the grimm like sandpaper smoothing down a piece of wood.

The grimm kept on coming, roaring and snarling, enduring the fire from above — it was only the cruisers firing right now; the spider droids and the mortars must be taking longer to set up — and the fire from the Atlesians already here. They kept on coming, racing towards the open space in the little time they had left before it ceased to be open.

Starlight felt something, a disturbance, an alert from her aura; she moved her foot just as a creep burst through the ground and tried to wrap its bony jaws around her foot. She slammed her foot down into its face instead, hard enough to kill it, but more creeps were popping out of the ground, beneath and behind Team TTSS and the other students and the Military Huntsmen.

Creeps weren’t dangerous as a rule: they were small and weak compared to other grimm — even their alphas were kind of rubbish by comparison — their only real strength was in their numbers; a big enough group could overwhelm careless soldiers. Even with surprise on their side, there was little chance of them doing that here; the Atlesians were too numerous and, quite frankly, too good. No sooner had creeps started coming out of the ground than Maud had started pounding on them like this was all some big game of whack-a-mole back at the fairgrounds.

“You focus on the others,” Maud said, in her usual voice that seemed devoid of emotions unless you knew her very well. “I’ve got this.”

And she did. Earth might not have been rock, and she might not have been able to manipulate it with her semblance, but that didn’t mean that Maud couldn’t move like lightning and hit like a truck; scarcely had a single creep raised its head above ground than Maud was on them like a fox on a rabbit brave enough to stick its head out of the burrow — and these creeps weren’t as fast or as smart as rabbits.

With her on it, Trixie and Starlight had nothing to worry about; they could focus on the grimm.

But not every team had a Maud, and Starlight was willing to bet the Military Huntsmen didn’t; she didn’t think they were in danger from the creeps, but their defending themselves meant that their fire on the grimm attacking in front slackened off.

Which was no doubt exactly what the grimm had planned.

The grimm kept coming, bounding over the grass, roaring as they ran, but they were answered by the roar of fire from the soldiers of the Third, the rifles opening up even before the troops had gotten into position, the lead elements — the Light Company, with the distinctive yellow stripes on their armour — blazing away as they stormed down the approach, filling the air with their tracer rounds. They were firing from the hip, some of them, and even those who fired from the shoulder were doing so at a run, fingers on the triggers as they sprinted forwards, and so the firing was wild and inaccurate, but the grimm were so many that unless the bullets went clean over their heads — which happened, in some cases, admittedly — they were bound to hit something.

The grimm attack faltered for a moment, the lessening of the fire on their flank compensated for by the fire now coming in from their front. They stopped, the lead grimm falling like leaves from the autumn trees, unable to move forward into the fire from the front.

The Third’s Skyrays flew overhead, missiles erupted from out of the bulbous noses of the airships to burst amongst the grimm, explosions rippling out like firecrackers to tear the grimm apart. That wasn’t a move they could pull very often, but they’d probably timed it about right.

The grimm faltered, and the soldiers of the Third took advantage of their momentary loss of nerve, the troops starting to reach their positions and fall in.

“Come on now!” barked a sergeant with a sash and sword, a sword which they planted in the ground as a marker for the flank of their squad. “Into line, two ranks, move!”

The soldiers moved and formed two ranks: the first rank knelt; the second rank stood and took aim over their heads. Feet kicked up dust as they shuffled into position. Rifles settled into shoulders. The ranks were not shoulder to shoulder, but it was a tight grouping, less than a foot between each soldier in the rank in most cases. The Paladins stomping forwards began to move into the gaps between the squads and platoons, towering over the humans and faunus around them.

As each unit and each mech moved into position, they opened fire, spreading rightwards down the line as the battalion formed on the flank of the Fourth’s Military Huntsman. The Third didn’t have a rampart to stand behind, and if the grimm reached the line, then it would be a bloody business, but if they could just keep the fire up, if they put out sufficient firepower to keep the grimm at bay, they would not only hold their own line but also secure the flank of the Fourth also. That was why, as the soldiers with rifles and light support weapons fired, the troops scrambled to set up their light machine guns and rocket launchers, adding their firepower to the storm while behind them the mortar crews began to set up too.

The grimm endured the fire, standing still, soaking up the bullets with their black mass, before the roar of a large alpha beowolf rallied them and they once again charged forwards, hoping to close the distance remaining between them and the Atlesians.

The soldiers fired, the Paladins fired — and loosed the missiles from their shoulder launchers too — the cruisers fired down from above, the mortars fired overhead, every weapon that could be brought to bear was fired into the attacking grimm.

Starlight fired too, holding down the trigger of Equaliser, bolt after blue bolt leaping from her rifle until it was out of power.

Starlight reached into one of the pouches at her belt for a new power pack. The big alpha, the one that had rallied the grimm, leapt out of the mass, bullets glancing off its armour as it bounded towards her.

Starlight shifted Equaliser into polearm mode. Trixie took a step forward, wand pointing towards the grimm.

There was a bang from behind the beowolf, a blast that made the grimm stagger. There was a second blast, and a third, and a fourth, and the alpha beowolf pitched forwards, collapsing on the ground.

And behind it stood—

Rarity gasped. “Sun?”

“Hey!” Sun said, waving one hand. He laughed nervously. “You guys sure do like your missiles and stuff, don’t you? I swear, I thought you were gonna blow me up a couple of times getting over here.”

“Sun?” Starlight cried.

“Who’s this?” asked Sunburst.

“This is Blake’s boyfriend,” Rarity answered. “But what are you doing here, darling?”

“Come on, Rarity,” Trixie said, stepping around Sun as he approached them to casually unleash a torrent of flame in the direction of the grimm. “You know exactly why he’s here.”

“I was with the Mistralians when I found out that the commander was planning to ambush the grimm but at the same time leave you guys hanging, without trying to, you know, form a line with you or whatever,” Sun said. “And while I guess it made sense why she wanted to do it, just leaving you all — leaving Blake — with a chance the grimm might get around behind you didn’t sit right with me, so I came to find you.”

“So you … fought your way here through the grimm?” Sunburst exclaimed.

“Well, they weren’t always coming this way,” said Sun. “But if I’d gone the long way around, it would have taken too long.”

Starlight fought the urge to roll her eyes. It was kind of … no, actually, there was no ‘kind of’ about it; it was very dumb. Sun was as dumb as a bag of hammers. Dumb … but at the same time, pretty sweet too.

And very brave, too.

Maybe you could do a little better, Blake, but you could sure do a whole lot worse.

But Trixie was right; it had been exactly what she thought.

“So,” Sun went on, “is Blake around here?”

“Sorry, you just missed her,” Starlight said. “She took off, literally, with Dash and Ciel on … well, I don’t know, but it must be a special mission for the General.”

“Oh,” Sun said, looking a little deflated. Even his tail drooped down to the ground.

“Now, you could try and fight your way through the grimm again to try and catch up with their airship,” Starlight said, switching Equaliser back into rifle mode and slapping in a fresh power pack. “But that might be a little too much even for you, and in the meantime, we could use your help right here if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Well, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do,” Sun admitted, fitting his staff back together and twirling it in one hand. “What’s up? We just trying to kill all the monsters?”

Starlight started firing again. “That’s about the size of it, yeah.”

“Cool,” Sun replied. “Yeah, I think I can help with that.”

---

In front of Pyrrha stood a large fragment of wreckage, a slice of metal that had once formed part of the Dingyuan. Similar fragments of metal lay all around her, a few of them still smouldering but most of the fires having long since gone out. They formed a maze spreading across the battlefield, a labyrinth of twists and turns, where the debris and the armour plates and the occasional nigh-intact compartment formed the walls, and the space between the corridors. It was chaotic, and the opportunities to squeeze between the shards of debris could be far-between upon occasion, but while that meant it was easy to get separated — or to remain separated, should one wish to — that same tangled confusion, the same confinement, the same twists and turns meant that the grimm could not hurl themselves upon the huntsmen in a great horde as they had done, and with the huntsmen so much fewer in number than the grimm — and so superior in valour and in the quality of their weapons — it had seemed to Violet Valeria and Coco Adel alike that they had less to fear from plunging into the cauldron than from letting the grimm emerge from it and reorganise themselves.

And so Pyrrha stood, alone, her teammates having left her behind — the fact that they had done so for quite sensible reasons did not lessen her regret at the fact, nor erase her fear for them; she wished that Yang had never remembered the risk that the four then-team leaders had run at the beginning of the year — facing a large, squarish fragment of metal behind which, she was certain, lurked at least one grimm.

She could hear them snuffling, snarling, growling on the other side, out of sight but not out of hearing.

Pyrrha tightened her grip on Miló in sword form.

She let out a wordless shout of anger as she kicked the metal fragment hard enough to knock it down, causing at least one grimm to yelp with pain, possibly even fatally, as Pyrrha charged, her boots clattering on the metal, to engage the beowolves behind.

Her sash flew around her as Pyrrha spun, twirling on her toes, whirling around to slash in wide arcs, cutting through many grimm at once as they pressed close in the confined space. She slashed this way, reversed her blade and cut the other; she threw Akoúo̱ and sent a beowolf flying backwards; she switched Miló into spear mode and drove it through a grimm’s mouth and out of its neck; she summoned her shield back onto her arm through a grimm that barred her way; she switched Miló into rifle mode and dispatched a creep with a single shot as it emerged from underneath the ground, then switched to sword again to deal three rapid blows to the chest of a beowolf trying to come up behind her. Red flowed behind and all around her as she danced amongst the grimm, too swift for them even with her movements somewhat confined, striking here and there and dealing death to them one after another.

There was only one left — an ursa, not a beowolf — but as Pyrrha lunged for it, Miló drawn back, the grimm stopped, twitching, jerking, yelping a little in alarm before being hauled backwards onto its back, paws and legs waving in the air.

Arslan leapt on it, one hand holding the rope of Nemean Claw, the other hand drawn back.

A single punch was all it took to shatter the ursa’s skull and start its transformation into ashes.

Arslan looked up. “Impressive work.”

“Thank you,” Pyrrha murmured.

Arslan retrieved Nemean Claw, twirling it around one finger. “Of course, I can’t help but notice that you’re all alone—”

“I could say the same,” Pyrrha pointed out.

Arslan smirked out of one corner of her mouth. “I suppose you could. I sent Bolin back to the camp to guard Reese and the other wounded. If we all die—”

“We aren’t going to die.”

“Then he’ll die last, and doing something notable, and notably noble,” Arslan went on, as though Pyrrha hadn’t said anything. “They’ll remember him, how he stood in defence of the wounded to the end. He’ll like that.”

“We’re not all going to die,” Pyrrha repeated.

“Well, I certainly hope not,” Arslan agreed. “But fate may have other plans for us.” She paused. “But anyway, I’m not alone anymore because I’ve found you.”

Pyrrha smiled slightly. “Which surely means that I, too, am no longer alone.”

“No, and a good thing too,” Arslan replied. “Even the mightiest warrior can be brought down, by a single beowolf maybe, if she gets careless.” Again, she paused. “But I’ve told you why I am — why I was — temporarily solitary, so how about you? How come I saw Jaune and Penny running off—”

“Jaune has not run away,” Pyrrha said sharply. “None of them have. They … they’ve gone to try and find and kill the Apex Alpha who leads this horde.”

Arslan’s eyebrows rose. “They … right. I see.”

“Do you?” Pyrrha asked. “Do you really?”

“Really?” Arslan repeated. “No, not really. Do they even know where to look?”

“Somewhere to the rear.”

“A horde this big will have a big rear,” Arslan pointed out.

“They thought, Yang thought and made the case persuasively,” Pyrrha said, “that something needed to be done, or we should eventually succumb to the numbers of the grimm.”

Arslan gave a slight nod of her head, so slight that Pyrrha wasn’t sure whether she actually understood or not. “So,” she said, “why didn’t you go with them?”

Pyrrha fought the urge to pout. “Ruby thought that if I was seen leaving with them, you’d think that I was running away.”

“Ruby said that? Ruby said that you had to stay behind while she dragged Jaune and Penny off on a do or die reenactment of the Red Lion’s glory? Ruby needs to…” Arslan muttered. “Forget it. I mean, she’s probably right, but even so … never mind; let’s not get into that.” She shook her head. “So how are you handling it?”

“I…” Pyrrha hesitated. “My heart is so full of fear that I am ashamed,” she confessed. “I should have more confidence in them. In Jaune, in Penny, in Ruby and Yang, in all of them. I should have faith that they can do this without my help, and yet … I am full of fear.”

“Don’t beat yourself up for that; it’s not like they’re just going to … do some routine mission, of which I can’t give an example because I haven’t looked, but you know what I mean. What they’re doing…” Arslan trailed off. “Sorry, I shouldn’t add to your forebodings.”

“No, indeed, I would rather you didn’t,” Pyrrha murmured. “I would rather you leave me to … distract myself.”

“Leave you?” Arslan asked. “No, I won’t leave you. But I might let you distract yourself at my side, seeing as how we are both not otherwise overburdened with companions right now.”

“Very well,” Pyrrha said at once. “Under different circumstances, I would like that. Under the present circumstances, I have no objection.”

“Excellent,” Arslan said, tossing Nemean Claw up into the air and catching it without even looking. “Then let us go and see what distraction we may find, 'til these new lions shall return.”

---

The airship was dark. Rainbow didn’t have any of the lights on inside the Skyray, she was using her goggles to see by, with a little help from Blake’s nightvision as she stood in the cockpit with her, hand resting on the back of Rainbow’s chair as they both looked out at the grimm below.

So many of them.

It was a little inconvenient for Ciel, but first of all, she didn’t need to see very much right now; second of all, she really wasn’t the type to complain; and third of all, being eaten by a giant nevermore would be a lot more inconvenient for Ciel and everyone else than not being able to see inside the airship for a little bit, so … yeah, Ciel would just have to deal with it.

It was the grimm that had caused Rainbow to turn off all the lights and were prompting her to make as little noise as possible — the airship was practically silent, only the occasional rustle of a chair moving, the gentle scraping of the stick as Rainbow tugged it to this side or that; nobody was speaking, not even Midnight. It was all quiet and all dark. They were past the Atlesian front line, way past wherever the Mistralian front line was now, and if they got into trouble, then they couldn’t count on hard-pressed Atlesian air support being available to them. Best, then, not to draw the attention of any grimm flying by, and while they might find a grimm drawn to them by their emotions alone — Rainbow was trying her best, as she was sure the other two were as well, but she couldn’t stop a little flutter in her heart, considering everything — they were twice as likely to draw one lit up like the Longest Night decorations. Running dark might not keep them safe, but it would reduce their risks, if only a little.

So, lights off, nobody making a sound they could avoid — Ciel was particularly good at that; you’d never know she was there at all, sat somewhere in the back — they soared over the grimm horde as it advanced.

So many of them.

In the air, it was even clearer than it had been on the ground just how numerous the grimm were. Yes, Rainbow had known that it was a horde, but there were degrees of horde; the horde whose Apex Alpha Blake had helped to defeat with Sunset, Weiss, and Yang had been a very low level one, an agglomeration of packs and dens, but a very manageable force, one that the Valish Defence Force could have fended off if they had to — well, they’d thought that they could have; on the evidence of their actual performance, that might have been very optimistic of them. But this … this was something else altogether, something much, much bigger and much worse. If you had taken hordes like the one that Blake had encountered before, multiplied them, and joined all those hordes together, if you had added in a couple of groups of grimm the size of the one that had pursued them down the tunnel and tried to breach Vale from underground, then … you might still not have as many grimm as were bearing down on Vale right now. There were just so many.

Looking out of the cockpit window, looking down at the grimm … that was the point; she was looking down at the grimm not just because she was looking for her target but because grimm were all that she could see down there, covering the landscape as they moved forwards.

The standard method of operation for a horde was quite straightforward: they would send the small, weak grimm in first, to test the defences and the strength of the opposition, then the older, larger, wilier, and better protected grimm would go in afterwards and take advantage of any weaknesses or simply batter their way through any defence that was weak enough. This horde, these hordes plural — plural — were kind of following that same playbook, but as Rainbow flew overhead and looked down at the grimm underneath, it looked like they were running a variation on it in which waves of the smallest, youngest weakest grimm gave way to their more experienced cousins, but then once they were all dead, there would be another wave of the small and weak ones, then some more experienced ones again. It was like they were deployed to continuously probe at the defences, then launch a full assault; then, if that assault failed, there would be more probing, then another attack; waves of probe and attack, probe and attack.

Pretty smart really, and like the waves that ebbed and flowed, there was a chance that they would wear down the opposition through sheer erosion.

That was what the General was afraid would happen; that was why he’d sent them out here, on this mission to find the Apex Alpha commanding the horde, in the hope that if they could kill it, then some of the guiding intelligence behind this assault would vanish with its body.

They hadn’t found it yet, but Rainbow hadn’t given up. She had an idea, a rough idea anyway, of where to look.

The Apex Alpha was the commanding grimm, right? Which meant that they were, if not the grimm general — at least not in a situation where there were multiple hordes in play; Rainbow wondered how they were coordinating their attack, if they were coordinating; was there an apex amongst apexes? That was a worrying thought — then at least the grimm equivalent to Colonel Harper. So, with that in mind, where would a grimm who was commanding the assault be? Not on the front lines, that might get them killed, and the grimm didn’t need a colonel like Colonel Harper to walk the line inspiring her soldiers with her courage under attack.

Not a frontline commander. A strategist then, and where would a strategist, someone looking at the big picture, someone deciding how to roll their attack forward, where would they place themselves?

At the rear, yes, where you could always find the boss of the horde, but more than that, somewhere they could see the battle unfolding and make their decisions, decide when to commit reserves and which reserves and … communicate that forward somehow; Rainbow wasn’t quite sure how they did that. As far as she was aware, nobody was aware of how they did that. Perhaps Professor Port knew and you couldn’t just tell amongst all the irrelevant stuff that he said in class.

Anyway, yes, not just at the rear, but somewhere from which they could see the battle — assuming they had sharp enough eyes. From the air, it would be trivial, and it might be that the Apex Alpha was a flier, but Rainbow was inclined to doubt that. Not to say it couldn’t happen or never happened, but considering the way the flying grimm had been used so far … Rainbow could be wrong about this, but her gut told her that if a nevermore or a griffon or a teryx had been leading this attack, then the honour of the decisive blow would have gone to the airborne element. As it was, the fliers seemed to be there to tie up or try to take out the Atlesian air support, leaving a free hand for the ground element to do its thing. That was even the case on this side of the battlefield, where the fliers had a freer hand but weren’t using it much.

So, her assumptions were that this was a grimm on the ground, but that it would be somewhere it could get a good view of the fighting across the battlefield. Since so much of this part of Vale was flat land, cultivated farm and pastureland stretching out from the city, that didn’t leave very many options, but a few miles out from the city there was a hill, one that had gotten cut off from a longer spur of hills and valleys to the southeast of Vale that formed a kind of boundary to anyone coming up from that direction — like the mountains that marked the eastern frontier of the kingdom, only a lot smaller. This particular hill was called the Wreconsetun, and there was a CCT relay on it.

A relay that had gone dark and was refusing all of Rainbow’s attempts to ping it.

Now, that might not mean anything, or it might mean nothing more than that the grimm had moved over the hill and torn the relay down, or it might mean that this thirteen-hundred-foot-high hill was a good vantage point to observe an attack rolling out across otherwise pretty flat land towards Vale.

So Rainbow was heading in that direction to check it out.

The interior of the Skyray remained quiet as Rainbow guided the airship in that direction. The only real light was the faint lavender light from the faceplate of the Knight autopilot, where Midnight was currently ensconced, waiting to take over the controls.

Rainbow was glad that she was restraining her eagerness.

As the airship flew towards the hill, Rainbow wondered what kind of grimm they might find when they got there. Probably a beowolf. A big beowolf but still … a beowolf. You didn't hear of many ursai leading hordes, for whatever reason. Perhaps for the same reason they didn't form big gangs. It could be something else, a rat king maybe — they were supposed to be quite smart — but at the same time, that might be good because they were also not that hard to kill; you just to had to sever the connection between all the stormvermin. They might even be able to do that with missiles from the air.

It would not be a creep, Rainbow was sure of that; the idea was almost too ridiculous to contemplate.

A goliath? Maybe, but Rainbow hoped not. The idea wasn't implausible — they often lived for a long time, they didn't pick fights they didn't think they could win, they were thought to be pretty smart even by grimm standards — but she hoped that it wasn't the case because an Apex goliath would be really, really hard to kill.

Although if we're talking about four-legged creatures giving orders…

The thought of some grimm alicorn, some monstrous Princess Celestia with bone plates and a bone crown issuing the orders, flitted across Rainbow's mind.

Nah, probably not.

It would be, she was mostly certain, a grimm that they had seen before. Unique grimm didn't tend to rise to leadership, as a rule, maybe because everyone thought they were a bit too weird. Or maybe because, being unique, they were inclined to be loners. Anyway, Vice Principal Luna had been wont to say that a horde would be led by one of the same kind of grimm that made up the horde, and that made sense as a general rule.

She'd also said that it wouldn't necessarily be one of the most common kinds of grimm in the horde, though, so not necessarily a beowolf.

If she was right in her instincts about where the Apex Alpha was, then they'd see what it was soon enough.

They were approaching the hill now, the hill with the name that Rainbow didn't really want to think about how it was pronounced. It wasn't big, not really, but it seemed big in comparison to all the flat land around it. It was also thickly forested, not so densely that nothing could move around there — although Rainbow had doubts that a goliath could find it comfortable without knocking over a lot of trees — but thickly enough that it was hard to see anything through the trees from the air.

They flew over what looked like the remains of a ditch, like the ones that the Atlesians had dug in front of their position; there wasn't a lot left, just occasional declines in the ground that didn't exactly seem natural, enough to make Rainbow wonder if this place had been fortified once upon a time. Must have been a long time ago, considering how overgrown it had gotten now.

There was no light from the CCT relay, which according to the map was an unmanned relay station, just a little tower that picked up signals from the main tower at Beacon and bounced them on across Vale to the south and east. Although it didn't bounce them so far that they could reach Mountain Glenn easily.

Hopefully, it wasn't a necessary relay, considering it wasn't broadcasting. There ought to have been physical light, which doubled duty as a warning to airships not to crash into the hill, as well as a ping to guidance systems. Neither was happening now, but with the help of her goggles and with Blake looking over her shoulder, Rainbow was fairly confident that she wasn't about to slam into the hillside as she flew over the forested hill.

She glanced around for any sign of nevermores or griffons. There was one, a nevermore that had just taken off from the top of the hill — now why would it want to do that? — but it was flying in the opposite direction to Rainbow's Skyray, turning in a wide arc across the sky before heading towards Vale and the battle raging in front of it. It didn't seem to see or notice them. Maybe it would have sensed their emotions, but one good thing about a battle going on was that the emotions of the battle itself must be overwhelming for the grimm, intoxicating for them, so much more potent than the feelings of three people in one airship, even if they were a little nervous.

The hill was roughly oval-shaped, except with rough edges that were kind of ragged, albeit covered up by the trees down at the bottom. But at the top of the hill, where it was crowned, the trees stopped, probably cut back the way that they'd been cut back along and couple of trails leading up to the top; the clearance was much more pronounced on one side, where the hill steeply fell away and you could stand and look out towards Vale itself, which was probably the point. The open space at the crown of the hill made it a lot easier to see what was there: the relay tower, damaged by the look of it but not completely destroyed; some old stone ruins, bits of wall and such; a small building, half-wrecked but modern-looking that Rainbow couldn't identify; and a lot of grimm gathered around the largest beringel that she'd seen.

This was the Apex Alpha; Rainbow would stake her life on it. It had the size for it, being at least twenty-five feet tall, even down on its knuckles, and while that wasn't much compared to a goliath, that was plenty for a lot of other grimm. On top of which, its arms were larger than most of the trees on this hill, and its chest looked as broad or broader than the Skyray which carried them. The beringel was nearly all white, so covered in armour plates that there was barely any black visible underneath, and in fact, it was covered with plate that its armour had started to grow spikes: spikes on the shoulders, and on top of the beringel's head, there was what looked like a bone helmet with four horns emerging out of it, two curling up and around like a bull's horns, the others sticking out on either side, almost more like stag's antlers. As it raised one hand to gesture outwards, Rainbow could see — or thought that she could see; it was a little hard to tell in the dark, even with her goggles on — that it had spikes on its knuckles too, like a knuckleduster.

An enormous axe sat beside the beringel, buried in the ground by the blade. It looked, as far as Rainbow could make out from up here, like a jagged piece of metal from an airship or something strapped to a really big piece of wood. Even if the grimm had had to scavenge for metal, it was impressive that they'd been able to make the weapon at all; most grimm didn't bother.

But then, this beringel wasn't the only one that was armed. It was attended by a dozen beringels, smaller and less well-armoured, but at least half of them had some kind of stick or spear in their hands. A few large beowolves, who might have been alphas of their own packs, prowled around; they weren't armed, and sometimes, they dropped to all fours instead of standing upright.

A group of grimm stood in front of the big beringel: a griffon, two beowolves, an ursa, and a cyclops. They weren't exactly kneeling, but they were all acting submissive towards it, heads bowed, backs bent, not looking at the big guy, that kind of thing. There was no doubt who was in charge.

There was … there was the remains of something in the beringel's mouth; something hanging out of it. Rainbow found herself glad that she couldn't really make out what it was.

She wished she couldn't imagine what it was either.

The beringel was addressing the grimm gathered around it, gesturing with one hand, mouth moving as it pointed towards Vale. Rainbow had no idea what it was telling them, except that it had to be the next phase of the attack plan.

Hopefully, that plan would fall to pieces once they killed this thing.

And then Penny and the others would have an easier time of it.

Because if they failed…

Can't think about that right now. I need to stay focussed.

Rainbow turned the airship away momentarily, so that they didn't come so close that they could be spotted by the grimm on the ground, and as she turned, she glanced over her shoulder and hissed, "Ciel! Ciel, come here."

Ciel's feet shuffled a little as she approached. Blake stepped fully into the cockpit, standing between Rainbow and Midnight's temporary body, so that Ciel could stand where Blake had just been standing, over Rainbow's shoulder.

Rainbow kept her voice low as she turned the Skyray around, bringing it full circle so that Ciel could see the beringel the way that Blake and Rainbow had already seen it. Ciel already had her visor on — it was glowing blue in the dark cockpit — so she'd be able to see what was on top of the hill as well, at least out of one eye.

"Lady have mercy on a poor soul," Ciel murmured, telling Rainbow what she thought about the object coming out of the beringel's mouth.

"Does anyone disagree that that is our mission objective?" Rainbow asked, keeping her voice soft.

Nobody replied, which Rainbow took for agreement.

"Okay," Rainbow went on. "Here is the plan: Ciel, you'll stay in the Skyray and provide fire support. I want you to focus on the bodyguards, clear a path for us and make sure that we don't get too many grimm in our way."

"Understood," Ciel said.

"Midnight, you'll be flying the airship. Keep her steady for Ciel, unless you get directly attacked, in which case, take evasive action. You can also support with the Skyray's missiles, but watch for friendly fire."

"You can count on me, Rainbow Dash," Midnight said, sounding a little more serious than usual.

Rainbow breathed in and out. "Which means, Blake, you and I are going down there to deal with the Apex Alpha itself. While Ciel watches our backs, we'll take out the big guy. It won't be easy, but if you can keep it distracted, then if I put enough aura into it, I should be able to break its skull. It looks too strong to restrain with ice, so focus on using fire clones to do damage if you can. How are you fixed for dust?"

"I haven't used much of it so far," Blake said. "So I'm good."

"Excellent," Rainbow replied. "There are some grenades in the back if you want them; I'll be taking some myself." She paused for a half a second as she started to unbuckle herself from her seat. "Is everyone ready?"

Before anyone could answer, Rainbow caught sight of something coming towards them out of the corner of her eye: a tree, spinning in the air as it was hurled straight at the cockpit.

"Hold on!" Rainbow shouted, yanking the control stick hard to the right and down, sending the Skyray into a steep, sharp dive that knocked Ciel into her and sent Blake scrabbling to hold onto something.

The tree flew over the Skyray, missing them.

The beringel, the big beringel, the Apex Alpha, opened its mouth and beat its armoured chest; Rainbow couldn't hear it, but she imagined that it was roaring at them. All the other grimm on the hilltop were turned towards them — the bodyguards and the officers, for want of a better term — all looking upwards at the Skyray, which, dark or not, was now revealed to them.

"Okay, this is it!" Rainbow yelled. "Midnight, you've got the controls."

"Affirmative," Midnight said, her voice still serious and earnest, lacking the snide or playful inflections that Rainbow had come to expect. The Skyray levelled off, and tracer rounds began to leap from the rotary cannons — not a Tempest cannon, unfortunately; this wasn't the Bus; just a pair of twin-linked triple-barrelled Hailstorms — down onto the bald hilltop.

Ciel was the first one out of the cockpit, Distant Thunder beginning to unfold in her hands even as the side door slid open. Rainbow and Blake followed her.

The door on the side of the Skyray opened, and the three huntresses stood there, looking down on the hilltop, the wind whipping around them, carrying the cries and roars of the grimm up towards them.

The griffon took off, spreading its black wings out on either side, white beak open, white claws outstretched.

Ciel's right foot shuffled backwards, her body turning as she raised Distant Thunder to her shoulder. She fired, the rifle booming. The griffon rolled aside, screeching.

Ciel worked the bolt. The spent cartridge hit the floor with a thud, then bounced away out the open side of the Skyray, falling down into the darkness.

Her eyes began to glow a brighter blue before she fired again, Distant Thunder roaring. This time, she did not miss.

The screech of the griffon was abruptly cut off as half its head disappeared in a shower of white bone; the black body began bulging out from the side as though an explosion had gone off within it, and the lifeless remains fell smoking down towards the ground.

Ciel worked the bolt, ejected the cartridge — this one rolled inwards inside the Skyray — and chambered a new round. She fired a third shot, and the Apex Alpha shuddered a little, one shoulder shaking, but it didn't otherwise look harmed.

"Unfortunate," Ciel murmured. "But worth a try, was it not?"

"Sure, that would have been really convenient," Rainbow said. "But remember—"

"From now on, my trigger will pull only for the bodyguards," Ciel said. "I understand. Lady go with you."

"Blake?"

"Ready," Blake said.

"Then let's go," Rainbow said, as the two of them leapt from the Skyray, leaving Ciel alone with only Midnight at the controls for company.

Rainbow caught Blake by the waist as she fell — she was sure her landing strategy was fine for this, but she wanted to bring them in a little closer — as the Wings of Harmony unfurled, clanking and clicking as the two huntresses descended until, fully unfurled on either side of her, they caught the air currents, and the engine flared to push them closer to the top of the hill and their waiting target.

The Apex Alpha grabbed another tree from the far side of the hill, where they had been allowed to encroach closer to the top, and threw it at Rainbow and Blake. Rainbow rolled away, spinning in the air, Blake's long hair getting in her face a little bit until she righted the two of them, the tree having missed.

One of the bodyguard beringels stepped forward, up on its hind legs, spear drawn back—

There was a boom from Distant Thunder, and a hole appeared in the beringel's chest. It fell backwards, spear dropping from between its lifeless fingers.

Rainbow dropped Blake, judging the two of them were close enough now, and folded up the Wings of Harmony on her back before she, too, fell straight downwards, feet first.

She had set them down on the edge of the trees, just before they opened up to the crown of the hill, just beyond where all the grimm were gathered; the hill sloped downwards and away behind her, rolling down towards the flat ground that lay between here and Vale; a dirt trail ran down, snaking between the trees slightly, hard to spot at times because of the way that weeds and plants were reclaiming it for themselves.

And just ahead of them lay the hilltop and the grimm.

Rainbow couldn't quite see the Apex Alpha from where she was now, but she could hear it bellowing, and from below, down at the bottom or the slopes of the hill, she could hear answering roars from grimm … units, if you wanted to call them that, concealed or in reserve or whatever, ready to defend their leader.

They would need to wrap this up quick and get out of here.

Rainbow started up the hill, her trainers kicking dirt and loose twigs back down behind her.

A beringel — not their target, one of its bodyguards — smashed a slender tree aside as it leapt at her, bellowing in fury. It drew back one enormous fist as it flew through the air.

Rainbow let it come, standing her ground; then, as the beringel closed in, about to land, throwing its first towards her face to send her flying down the hill, Rainbow twisted, turning in place on her toes and reaching out — her hands and arms shimmered with a little rainbow light — to grab the beringel's wrist as its hand flew past her face.

Rainbow grunted, gritting her teeth, muscles bulging on her arms as she completed the turn, facing down the hill, and with a heave and a great effort and a touch more aura to her arms, she threw the still-shouting beringel over her shoulder and down the slope.

Several unfortunate trees were shattered to splinters as the beringel crashed through them, rolling along the ground, crushing plants and fallen logs beneath it before the grimm managed to bring itself to a stop. It scrambled up onto all fours, growling, eyes blazing like charging lasers.

Blake fired, Gambol Shroud snapping repeatedly as she shot the beringel — with fire dust rounds. The night was lit up as the grimm's side and back and left arm caught fire. The beringel hooted, waving its arm, shaking, beating at its own shoulder with its other hand.

Rainbow closed in, a rainbow trailing behind her as she descended the hill, pulled Undying Loyalty over her shoulder, and shoved it into the beringel's open mouth.

She fired. The beringel shuddered but didn't die. Rainbow pumped the shotgun and fired again before the grimm could respond, and this second shot did the trick: there was a little explosion of black grimm essence out the back of its head before the grimm toppled backwards.

Rainbow turned once more to see two big beowolves start to lope into the trees. Distance muted the sound of Distant Thunder, but it didn't stop one beowolf's head exploding even as the other ran towards Blake.

Blake stood still. The beowolf swiped at her with one long set of claws, only for Blake's clone to dissolve into shadow, revealing the real Blake behind the grimm, slinging her hook into its shoulder.

Blake hauled back on the black ribbon, but the beowolf responded by pitching itself forwards, bending over double, hunching its shoulders, lowering its centre of mass so that Blake couldn't so easily pull it off balance and backwards.

Blake hauled, but the beowolf dug its claws into the earth and didn't budge.

Then it lunged forwards, bounding on all fours down the hill, dragging Blake off balance and onto her face as she was pulled by her own ribbon down the slope.

The beowolf turned, rising onto its hind legs. Rainbow intercepted it, leaping up into the air as she closed the distance to whack the beowolf across the face with the butt of Undying Loyalty. She landed on the ground and hit the beowolf again, this time in the chest about as high as she could reach, making it stagger backwards.

She reversed her shotgun and shot it in the foot, where there wasn't much armour. The beowolf growled as it dropped to one knee, letting Rainbow quickly reach out and pull Blake's black hook free before she made to hit the grimm again in the face with her shotgun.

The beowolf caught the blow with one paw, its forearm quivering, but Rainbow's blow stopped in its tracks. Long claws like swords closed around the shotgun barrel.

The beowolf bared its teeth at her, but Rainbow threw her head forwards and headbutted the grimm before it could plant its teeth around her face. With her free hand, she drew Plain Awesome and fired upwards into the beowolf's throat and lower jaw, even as she headbutted the grimm for a second time.

The beowolf's grip around Undying Loyalty loosed, and Rainbow kicked the beowolf backwards, off the ground, sending it flying down the hill, all four legs flailing.

Blake appeared behind the grimm, Gambol Shroud in sword mode, striking from behind with blade and cleaver in perfect unison to cut the beowolf cleanly in half.

Distant Thunder fired again, though Rainbow didn't see the results.

She ran up the hill, trusting Blake to follow her, and she emerged onto the top of the hill just in time for another beringel to throw a spear at her. Rainbow dodged it, swaying out of the way to let the spear fly past her even as the beringel who had thrown the spear charged, beating its fists against its chest.

The beringel was pulled up short as a flurry of blades on wires buried themselves in its back.

The wires yanked the grimm backwards, across the hilltop towards … Penny?

---

The armoured car's headlights were on, lighting up a little bit of the ground — not road, just grass — in front of them; it would have lit up any grimm who were in front of them too, but they'd been lucky that way so far, not having run into any. That was probably at least a little because of the way that they'd been careful to keep out of the way, going quite wide away from where all the grimm seemed to be being pulled towards the fighting with the Beacon and Haven students, but also it probably had at least something to do with Ren.

At least, Jaune assumed that Ren was doing something, using his semblance; Yang had asked him to, when a nevermore had flown overhead a little too close for comfort, and Ren had closed his eyes like he was meditating or falling asleep, and then … well, and then, Jaune wasn't quite sure what was happening. He thought that Ren must be using his semblance, but he had no idea how to tell if he was or not. Or if it was only possible to tell.

"You know," he said, "I thought that this might feel … different."

Ren opened his eyes. "My semblance masks emotions; it doesn't change them. Your feelings are your own; I only hide from the grimm." He paused. "Think of it like tofu in sauce. The tofu will still have a tofu taste no matter how much katsu sauce you slather over it; the only difference is what the eater tastes, not the internal properties of the tofu itself."

"Tofu, blegh," Nora said. "Give me some chicken any day."

Ren glanced at her. One corner of his mouth twitched up.

Nora smiled. "How's your aura holding up?"

"I'm fine," Ren told her. "This car isn't so large, and its passengers aren't so numerous."

"Are you sure you don't want a boost?" Jaune said, holding up one hand.

Ren shook his head. "You should save your strength. There may be others who need it more than I do before our task is complete."

Jaune nodded. Ren knew his own aura levels best, he was sure.

A momentary silence fell in the armoured car, disturbed only by the rumbling of the vehicle itself as it devoured the ground beneath it, heading … well, that was the thing, wasn't it? They weren't exactly sure where they were heading — where they ought to be going.

They were heading around the grimm horde, hoping to come up behind it, and then … then they also hoped to figure it out from there.

Jaune glanced around the car. Penny and Yang were up front, their backs to him, Yang's long yellow hair spilling out on either side of her, Penny's shorter copper hair mostly hidden by the seat rest. Ruby, Ren, and Nora were in the back with him. Ruby was looking down at Crescent Rose, and with one hand, she lightly stroked the silver rose that she wore at her belt.

Without looking directly at Ren, Nora reached out gingerly for his hand.

Ren shifted his hand slightly, so that Nora's fingertips brushed against his knee.

Nora's face fell.

Jaune frowned. He understood that it wasn't the best time right now, but at some point, Ren would either have to give Nora something or tell her straight up that there was nothing to give; things couldn't go on like this forever without someone getting hurt.

He also couldn't understand why Ren would want to let things go on like this. He almost certainly had his reasons — Jaune certainly hoped that he did — but Jaune couldn't work out what they were.

However, as much as clearing the air between the two of them might help in the long run, Ren was right that now wasn't the time. And so, Jaune changed the subject, or went back to the old subject after a break. "So, when you mask all our emotions, from the grimm … can you feel what we're feeling when you do it?"

Ren hesitated for a moment. "To an extent," he admitted. "It's not clear, I can't feel every emotion that everyone in this car is experiencing, but I can get some broad strokes." He paused. "To tell you the truth, I'm somewhat in awe of you."

Jaune blinked. "You … you are? You're in awe?" Nobody had … well, Dove had come close, but that was entirely because of his relationship with Pyrrha; nobody had ever said that they were in awe of him for him before. He couldn't think why.

"You're not in the least afraid," Ren said. "You don't feel any fear at all."

Jaune's eyes narrowed. "I think your semblance might be acting up a little … and you're messing with me, aren't you?"

Ren continued to stare at him, his expression the very definition of 'deadpan.'

Nora reached up and pinched his face. "I've told you before, Ren, you need to give a bit of a clue when you're having fun with someone. Just smile a little or something."

Ren pulled his face away. "Yes," he admitted. "Yes, you have. I'm sorry to disappoint you, Jaune, but you're as nervous as anyone here, although understandably so, in the circumstances." He glanced at Ruby. "Ruby, on the other hand."

Ruby looked up from Crescent Rose, although she didn't stop stroking the rose on her belt. "What do we have to be afraid of?" she asked softly.

Nora's eyebrows rose. Jaune's felt the urge to do the same, but they were too weighed down by his embarrassment. He could feel his cheeks beginning to turn pink.

"I think that was a little mean," Penny said.

"It was all in good fun!" Nora declared. "Jaune knows Ren didn't mean anything by it, right, Jaune?"

"I … yeah," Jaune said quietly. "Yeah, of course I know that." He could still feel his cheeks burning nonetheless. "I … I'm just gonna take a look…" He trailed off as he stood up, sticking his head up out of the hole in the armoured car roof.

The machine gun sat in front of him, although Jaune didn't pay it much attention; there wasn't a lot of need for it, and if there was a need for it, then he would probably sit down again and let someone more qualified handle the shooting. Like Nora — she seemed to know her way around guns — or Ruby, whose aim wouldn't be thrown off by fear.

He wasn't jealous. That wasn't what this was about; he wasn't surprised to be told that he was afraid — he knew that he was nervous; he could feel it himself – he wasn't envious of Ruby's fearlessness — good on her, but Jaune wasn't ashamed of the way he felt. He wasn't even … okay, he was a little annoyed to have his chain yanked by Ren that way, but what really bothered him, the thing that was making his face flush, the reason he was sticking his head out of this hatch so that nobody else could see it was the fact that, after a year here, he was still getting treated like the butt of the joke.

Albeit by teams other than his own. The fact that Penny had stood up for him was nice of her, and he thought that Pyrrha would have done the same if she were here. She would have stood up for him and tried to find something to say to make him feel better; it might not have worked, but she would have tried, if she'd been here.

But she wasn't here. He'd left her behind.

The night air was cool on Jaune's face. He glanced in front of them, to where the ground was illuminated by the headlights; there wasn't much in front of them; it looked like farmland: harvested farmland, with no crops, just plough marks in the soil where the earth had been tilled. They must have begun planting again after the harvest. He tried to consider what they might be growing, but his thoughts were too heavy to admit distractions like that, and Jaune found his eyes turned northwards, to where some traces of the fire from the wreck of the Dingyuan still burned.

To where Pyrrha was, fighting, alone.

Alone with a whole bunch of Haven and Beacon students, alone with Arslan Altan, alone with the Mistralian forces providing covering fire, but still, in spite of all of that and all of them, alone.

Without him, without Penny, without Sunset. Alone.

"See anything?"

Jaune looked down. Nora was clinging to the outside of the car, arms resting on the roof, hands gripped around a couple of metal brackets directly above the doors. It looked a little uncomfortable, but despite that, Nora didn't seem uncomfortable, somehow.

"Uh, no," Jaune admitted. "No, I can't say that I have."

"Makes sense," Nora said as she pulled herself up onto the roof. Her legs kicked up and down at the air as she scrambled up, until finally, she was sitting on the roof, next to Jaune, her back turned to the front of the armoured car and the ground they drove over.

With one hand, she reached out and ran her fingers through Jaune's long blond hair.

Jaune recoiled, as much as the small hatch allowed. "Hey!"

"Sorry," Nora said. "I just … sorry." She paused for a moment. "I'm sorry about … I guess Ren can be a little mean."

"It's fine," Jaune said quickly.

"It can't be that fine, or you wouldn't be out here," Nora pointed out. "Ren didn't mean to … be mean. He didn't mean to make you feel bad; he just … Ren doesn't really get people, you know. How we feel, why we feel. Ren is … complicated that way. It's nothing personal."

"Right," Jaune murmured, not entirely convinced. Would Ren have really done that to anyone else?

Nora shrugged, as if, having said her piece, Jaune could take it or leave it. "So is it her or you?"

"Huh?"

"Who are you nervous about?" Nora asked. "Pyrrha, or you?"

Jaune hesitated for a moment, looking away from Nora again, towards where the fires still burned, to where the battle must have started again. "Pyrrha," he admitted. "I know that must sound really stupid, but—"

"No," Nora said. "No, it doesn't sound stupid at all. Because you've got Penny here, and all of us, and Pyrrha's got … who?"

Jaune closed his eyes for a moment. "Right," he said. "If anything … I'd rather die out here than come back and find that she wasn't there, because…"

Nora nodded. "If it helps," she said, "Pyrrha probably feels the same way about you."

Jaune looked at her. "How is that supposed to help?"

Nora hesitated for a second. "Well," she said, "because—"

"What was that?" Jaune said, pointing out to the north-west of them.

Nora twisted around. "What was what?"

"That, there!" Jaune cried, pointing even more insistently, jabbing his finger. It was hard to make out, but it looked like it was a nevermore with something … it was so hard to make out in the dark; he'd already lost sight of— "There!" Jaune yelled as it passed in front of the moon, the grimm silhouetted. Silhouetted, too, the object writhing and wriggling in its talons like a worm.

But it wasn't a worm; it was a person.

"I see it too," Nora said. "It's got somebody!"

"Yeah," Jaune murmured. "Yeah, it has."

He ducked down inside the armoured car, kneeling down in between the two front seats, his hands resting on them. "Did you guys see that?"

"See what?" asked Yang.

"The nevermore, up there," Jaune said, pointing out the windscreen and upwards.

"I—" Yang began, before the nevermore flitted away, out of the light of the moon. "It's gone."

"I can still see it," Penny said. "It looks as if it's got somebody, although I can't tell who."

"That's what I thought as well," Jaune said.

Yang glanced at him. "So what, you want to try and rescue them?"

"No," Jaune said. "Well, yeah, that would be great, but I thought, where is that nevermore taking them, whoever they are? And why?"

"I'm guessing you've got an answer," Yang said.

"Where do birds bring worms and stuff?" asked Jaune.

"To their nests," answered Yang.

"Exactly," said Jaune. "To feed others."

There was a moment of quiet in the rumbling armoured car.

"You think that the nevermore is bringing someone to the Apex Alpha … to feed them?" asked Ren.

"It makes sense, doesn't it?" Jaune asked, looking at Ren over his shoulder. "I mean they aren't just carrying a person around in their claws for the fun of it, and if they wanted to eat them, they could have done it already."

"Yeah, it makes sense," Yang said. She tapped her hands on the steering wheel. "It does make sense. It makes a nasty kind of sense, but it makes sense. Penny, can you still see that nevermore?"

"Yes," Penny said. "Although it's going down now."

"'Down'?" Yang asked. "Where?"

"That hill," Penny said, pointing to a barely visible looming shape in the darkness, a shadow that was almost impossible to make out except for the way that the sky seemed to abruptly stop, blocked out by it. "I don't know what it's called."

"If it's the one I think it is," Ruby said, getting up and moving forward; Jaune got out of her way so that she could take his place, standing between the two front seats. "Yes, that's Wreconsetun. There used to be a fortress there, built by King Tristan during Percy's War."

"A fort, huh?" Nora said, using the top hatch to scramble back inside the car from the rooftop. She fell through it, landing in the middle of the vehicle with a soft thump. She looked up. "Sounds like it could have done with one of those up there still."

Ruby shook her head. "We're talking about the really old days here, before Vale, or at least before a Vale that controlled everything that we now call Vale. The fort was built to defend the city against attack from other kingdoms, not from grimm, just like the old forts on the hills to the southeast of here. The obstacle to the grimm were — are — the hills themselves."

"They didn't work this time," Nora pointed out.

No, but I guess Salem isn't really that concerned most of the time, Jaune thought. She just really wants this attack to happen.

"A hill," Yang murmured. "With an old fort on it, so … it's high, right? We're not just talking about some bump in the landscape. Yeah, I can see that."

"You think that's where we'll find the Apex Alpha?" asked Penny.

"I think it makes as much sense as anywhere else we could look, and at least it gives us a direction to go in," Yang said. "Okay, let's check it out."

She twisted the steering wheel, turning the armoured car in the direction of the looming dark hill that lay ahead of them. It was still hard to make out, but as Yang accelerated their vehicle — making it rattle and rumble as it rushed across the tilled earth, disturbing the careful plough lines down the fields — the dark shape of their destination grew larger and larger in the windscreen.

Yang drove through a fence and into a field which turned out to be full of cows which mooed as they got of out of the way; she crashed through the fence on the other side too and drove through a hedge for good measure, sticks and leaves and brambles piling up on top of the bonnet before Yang got the armoured car onto a road leading — according a sign — up to the Wreconsetun.

There was no sign of any grimm; Ren's semblance, it seemed, was continuing to keep them at bay. Jaune didn't think they'd be so lucky as to find that the Apex Alpha had sent them all off to fight, leaving itself undefended.

Yeah, there's no way we'd be that lucky.

The road wound upwards, curving a bit, until it came to a stop at what seemed to be more or less the foot of the hill — maybe a little higher than that, but not much — at a car park outside what looked to be, or looked as though it had been, a visitor centre.

Had been before the grimm had come through here. The welcome sign had been chewed through, and only the letters 'WEL' and then 'WREO' on the line below told Jaune that it had been a welcome sign. The wood cabin, that put Jaune in mind of Benni Havens', had been torn down, with only the front wall really left standing. The machine to pay for the car park had been devoured, although they'd left a green plastic collection box alone, just like they'd left the toilets.

"Does anyone want to go quickly?" asked Yang as she got out of the armoured car.

Everyone looked at her.

Yang shut the door. "I was just trying to lighten the mood a little, come on!" She shook her head. "Anyway," she went on, looking up the hill. The road had stopped here, and the hill looked heavily wooded; there was a path setting off into the woods and up the hill, but it was a narrow path, too narrow for the car for sure. "Looks like we're walking from here."

Everyone got out their weapons. Ruby kept Crescent Rose in carbine mode, rather than unfurling her scythe, probably because it looked a little tight between those trees. Nora, on the other hand, unfolded her hammer and rested it on her shoulder. Ren's Stormflowers dropped out of his sleeves. Penny's swords floated around her. Jaune drew his sword and unfolded his shield.

Yang pumped her arms, causing her Ember Celica to expand up her forearms, ready to fire.

"Okay," she said. "I'll lead, then Ren and Nora, Ruby in the middle, Jaune and Penny bringing up the rear. Let's keep it tight and keep it quiet, okay? There's probably some grimm around here that we can't see. Ren, how's your aura?"

"I'm fine," Ren said, but he sounded a little bit tired while he said it.

"Jaune," Yang said. "Can you give him a little bit of a touch?"

"Sure," Jaune murmured. Ren didn't protest as Jaune put his hand on the other boy's shoulder, a faint golden light shimmering around Jaune's hand, gradually spreading out across Ren's shoulder, across his face and eventually over his entire body.

The shimmering light didn't engulf him very long; just a touch, Yang had said, and so Jaune only held onto Ren for a second, just boosting his aura back up a little bit, before he took his hand away, the golden light of his semblance fading from both of them.

But Ren straightened his back, and sounded a little fresher as he murmured. "Thank you."

"Let's move," Yang said; she turned away, her white skirt bouncing a little bit as she led them up the dirt trail that climbed the hill.

It wasn't always easy going; Jaune found that his trainers sometimes slipped on the dirt, struggling to find a purchase on the soft, uneven surface where things would roll or shift under his feet, not to mention the stones that actually got into his shoes and constantly reminded him that they were there and that there was nothing — short of stopping and taking his trainers off, which he couldn't really do — he could do about them. He was glad that it was only Penny behind him to see him sometimes struggling, although he was sure the others must have heard him sometimes. But they didn't say anything, just like Penny didn't say anything even when she had to give him a helping hand. She smiled, as though he was happy to help him, happy to stop him from slipping down the path, happy to help him up. Maybe she was; she didn't seem like the kind to pretend.

With Penny's help, and with a lot of determination, Jaune made sure that, although he might fall a little behind sometimes, he never lost sight of the others up ahead. He always kept Ruby's red cloak, that swayed a little from side to side, in his view; despite the darkness, he was sure to stick close enough, or to get back close enough, that he could see it in front of him.

It really was dark here; it wasn't as though there were any lights in this forest on this hill, and the trees were good at blocking out the moonlight. There were times when Jaune was as much fumbling his way as seeing it, straying off the path to grab hold of trees, hauling himself from tree to tree up the hillside, using the roots as steps from which his feet wouldn't slip. What he could see in the moonlight was mostly trees, trees that seemed to get closer around them, assuming strange shapes like they'd become grimm themselves, reaching out towards them with crooked arms and outstretched fingers.

They weren't silent, there was too much scuffling and shuffling and muttering — Jaune wasn't the only one who couldn't always keep his footing; he thought that Nora was having some trouble as well sometimes — not to mention a little bit of thumping and bumping too for that, but they were pretty quiet. They didn't talk; instead, they listened for the sound of grimm nearby. They didn't hear them; instead, they heard owls screeching in the trees and quiet creatures scratching and scrambling somewhere off in the darkness. A nightingale sang, somewhere in the trees, and turned Jaune's thoughts once more towards Pyrrha, fighting alone somewhere far away from him.

Take care of yourself, Pyrrha.

To distract himself from his concern, Jaune tried to imagine what this place might look like in the daylight. Not too bad, he was sure, or else … well, if nobody came up here, then what would be the point of a visitor centre? Perhaps he and Pyrrha could come back here together, one day, when all this was over. It would still be as much of a hike in daylight, but if he could see where he was going, then it wouldn't be so bad, and Pyrrha would devour the climb, he was sure. They could pack a lunch and have a picnic on top of the hill, with a lovely view of Vale spread out beneath them.

That sounded quite nice, didn't it?

A grimm bellowed ahead of them, shattering the quiet of the night, silencing owls and nightingales and everything else. It was a loud roar, so loud that Jaune thought that it must have come from a pretty big grimm to make a noise like that.

Like the grimm they'd come here to kill. But what had gotten it so agitated all of a sudden?

The question was answered by a gunshot, a familiar sounding … Jaune was sure that he'd heard that before, but—

"That's Distant Thunder," Ruby said. "That's Ciel's rifle."

"Ciel?" Penny asked.

The same gun fired again, joined by another gun, firing rapidly, that didn't stir a memory in Jaune's ears.

"You're right, it is Distant Thunder," Penny said. "But why? Is Ciel the one who—?"

Grimm started roaring on all sides, roaring from down the hill, howling from out of the trees, and amongst the howling, there was more shooting; the grimm made it hard to make out the gunshots exactly, but Jaune could certainly hear some shooting, even if he couldn't tell who or what.

"Whoever it is, sounds like they've started the party without us," Yang said. "Ren, stop masking us and conserve your aura, because we're about to make ourselves known in a big way. Now let's move!"

They started to run, scrambling up the hill; Jaune dug his sword into the earth to support himself as he ran up the slope, dodging between the trees, trying to keep up with the others. Ruby took the lead, although she seemed to be only mildly using her semblance — Jaune hardly saw any rose petals at all; she must not have wanted to get too far ahead and find herself all alone. Yang was next, although she had to get on all fours sometimes and scramble up on her hands and knees, then Ren, while Nora fell a little bit behind, closer to Jaune. Penny still brought up the rear; though she seemed to be trying to outpace Jaune, the length of her legs was making it hard for her.

Regardless, though some of them found it harder to make the final run than others, they did all make it, pounding up the path, footsteps hammering dirt and stones and twigs underfoot until they emerged from the trees into a clearing that marked the top of the hill, where a steep cliff fell away down one side, and old ruins sat alongside new buildings — another toilet, by the looks of it, as well as a dark CCT relay tower — under the moonlight. The path broadened out and got easier, and now, on the last stretch of the sprint up, Penny did overtake Jaune as they ran to the top of the hill to find a huge beringel, its whole body covered with armour, an axe buried in the ground — an axe? An axe? Where did it get an axe from? — behind it, directing the fight against … Rainbow Dash?

---

Penny was here.

Penny was here?

Penny was — you know what, fine, Penny was here; the more the merrier.

And to think we came here to save you.

Penny was hit by an ursa, hurled by the Apex Alpha beringel. She was borne backwards, pinned beneath the massive weight of the grimm which roared as it started to pick itself up.

Maybe I still can save you.

Rainbow ran towards her, a rainbow trailing out behind her. A beringel got in her way, the same beringel that Penny had impaled with her swords but which seemed now to be both free of the swords and not yet dead. Rainbow jumped, kicking off the ground, firing Undying Loyalty as she did so. It didn't kill the beringel, but it did bother it at least, and while it was recoiling from the shot, Rainbow's jump had carried her over the grimm's head and behind it. She charged for the ursa.

Ruby — okay, Ruby was here too — had gotten there before her, unfurling her scythe and stabbing it down into the ursa's back between two of its large bone spurs. Ruby pulled, either trying to cut the grimm or pull it off Penny, but not quite managing either one, though she hauled at it with all that she had, her arms straining.

Yang threw herself at the ursa as well, punching it in the face repeatedly, shots firing from her gauntlets as she pounded the ursa with uppercut after uppercut, trying not just to kill the ursa but in the meantime to make sure that it was never in a position to bite down on Penny.

Rainbow closed the distance, shoved Undying Loyalty into the ursa's backside, and pulled the trigger.

The ursa's wincing yelp of pain was louder than the roar of Yang's gauntlets as it stumbled forwards, pushing Yang backwards with sheer force even if it did get off of Penny a little.

Ruby extracted her scythe from out of the black flesh, spinning, reversing the blade before, as the ursa tried to rise onto its hind legs, cutting up to slice the edge into its neck.

Ruby pulled, and this time, the scythe blade went cleanly through the ursa's neck and cut off its head.

The headless ursa fell, still partly on top of Penny.

Ruby and Yang set to digging her out, but Rainbow had other problems, like the beringel, still alive, that nearly managed to grab her from behind. Rainbow slipped out of its fumbling grasp, turning to face it once again.

The beringel assumed a boxing stance, hands up, fists clenched, protecting its face from attack. It was such a surprising sight that the beringel almost got Rainbow with the first punch, she barely dodged it. She was better prepared for the second, and the third, giving up ground, swaying at the hips to let the punches fly past her. On the other blow, letting Undying Loyalty fall to the ground, Rainbow stepped forward, inside the beringel's guard, her own fists clenching as she hit it square in the face once, twice, three times, four times, no way this grimm could take much more—

The beringel bent over, wrapping its arms around Rainbow as it got her in a clinch. Rainbow's aura flared as the beringel squeezed her.

It wasn't as tight as the goliath's trunk. but it was still going to wear away at her aura if it kept up, and it had just made itself harder to hit.

Harder, but not impossible.

Rainbow clasped her hands together and brought them down in an axe blow onto the small of the beringel's back; she didn't make much of an aura boom, more of an aura suppressed gunshot, only using about five percent of her aura, if that, but it was enough to make the beringel go limp, its back arching, its arms falling away from Rainbow's waist. Rainbow pushed it off, then hit it one last time for good measure, a final blow that shattered the beringel's mask and started the grimm's disintegration.

Nora ran past Rainbow Dash, hammer drawn back as she charged straight towards the Apex Alpha, unmistakable for its size, its armour plating, the helmet-like growth on its head. She rushed towards it, no bodyguard getting in her way — Distant Thunder roared as Ciel dropped another beringel — as she closed the distance.

The Apex Alpha turned its head towards her.

Nora bellowed wordlessly as she swung her hammer.

The Apex Alpha caught the hammer in one hand, stopping its momentum at once. The enormous beringel grunted as it tossed the hammer aside and Nora with it, sending her flying into a tree at the back of the hill. She hit the ground, back and body bending in a way that would have been terrifying if she'd had no aura left, before she flopped down onto the ground.

"Nora!" Ren yelled, firing both his machine pistols. Green bullets bounced and skittered off the huge beringel's armour plate, but it ignored Ren and his fire as it picked up its big axe, lifting it out of the ground — yeah, it was a piece of airship metal, like off a skyliner, all jagged and crinkled edges — and stomping over to where Nora lay.

It held the axe in one hand but didn't use it; instead, it raised its other fist, with the knuckleduster spikes growing out them, and punched down towards her.

Jaune threw himself between Nora and the Apex Alpha, his shield glowing with shimmering white-gold light as he tried to use his semblance to bolster himself against the attack.

That was probably the only reason he wasn't driven into the ground. Instead, when the blow landed, Jaune's legs were driven apart, one foot scraping backwards, the other dropping, both knees trembling, but for a moment, it looked like he was going to hold firm even against the huge strength of the grimm.

The Apex Alpha raised its fist and hit him again. This second blow drove Jaune to his knees, blade driven into the ground for some support. Jaune kept his shield up, but the third blow dropped him completely.

Penny was up on her feet, firing all her lasers, green bolts lancing across the hilltop to hit the Apex Alpha from behind, but the grimm ignored it the same way that it was ignoring Ren's bullets.

It raised its axe in both hands overhead.

Ruby streaked across the beringel’s path, trailing rose petals after her, cape flying as she swung her scythe at the grimm’s ankles. The blade skittered off the Apex Alpha’s armour, doing no harm, but she got the grimm’s attention nonetheless.

Ruby came to halt, Crescent Rose drawn back behind her, a smirk on her pale face.

The giant beringel turned its attention towards her, bringing its axe down on the ground where Ruby had stood before she darted away, leaving only rosepetals in her wake.

The grimm raised its axe and brought it down, driving the shard of metal into the ground over and over again, never able to hit Ruby as she darted left and right, always keeping herself more or less in front of him, using her semblance to avoid the blows, lashing out with her scythe to glance off the armour that covered the beringel from head to toe.

And while she kept the Apex Alpha distracted, constantly avoiding any blow that it sought to hit her with, Ren rushed to Nora’s side and helped her away. Yang did the same with Jaune.

Rainbow watched Ruby danced in front of the beringel, wondering how long she could keep it up; she wasn’t worried that the grimm would hit Ruby — she was consistently too fast for it; the only thing she had to worry about was burning her aura up through use of her semblance — but rather that the grimm would eventually get bored with this little game of whack-a-Ruby that it was impossible to win, but also impossible to lose. Sure, Ruby could not get hit thanks to her semblance, but not a single hit she was landing on the Apex Alpha was doing anything to it; she might as well have been spitting at it. There was nothing to stop the beringel ignoring Ruby the way that it had ignored Ren or Penny, except a degree of irritation. Once it got bored with this, then…

Rainbow had hoped that a sufficiently powerful hit would break through the Apex Alpha’s armour; she was no longer so sure about that.

She forced her mind to work faster than her semblance; the Apex Alpha’s guards were mostly taken care of by now, but the howling and the roaring of all the other grimm coming to their leader’s aid was only getting louder and louder.

Rainbow’s eyes darted around. They needed to wrap this up, but how? This Apex Alpha was so…

The first of the reinforcing grimm started to bound through the trees up from the back of the hill, but it was going to be okay because Rainbow had the plan.

“Penny!” she shouted. Rainbow pointed towards the grimm charging out of the trees. “Take care of those grimm, don’t let them get close; Ciel will back you up.”

Ciel didn’t have any orders to that effect, but Rainbow trusted Ciel’s judgement on what to do once the bodyguards had been dealt with.

Distant Thunder roared, and the alpha beowolf of one of the reinforcing packs had their torso blown apart, vindicating Rainbow’s judgement.

“You’ve got it,” Penny said.

Rainbow nodded. “Yang, Ren, you too, we need to hold them off for just a little while, buy some time.”

“Right,” Yang said before she started to scream wordlessly and charged into grimm, her gauntlets blazing.

Ren followed her a little more cautiously, firing with both his machine pistols.

Rainbow sped across the field to Blake, who had just finished despatching the last beringel bodyguard. “Blake,” Rainbow said. “I need you to help Ruby; together, you need to lead it towards the edge of that cliff, or at least facing the cliff. Hopefully, Ruby will get that once you start to do it.”

“I … think I get it,” Blake said.

“Good for you,” Rainbow said, and trusted her to get on with it as she raced back towards Jaune and Nora. “Okay, Nora, I need you to shock yourself somehow; try that damaged relay tower. That’s how your semblance works, right?”

“Uh huh,” Nora said.

“Great,” Rainbow said. “And Jaune, once Blake and Ruby have led the grimm away toward that edge, we’re going to get behind it, and I need you to be ready to give me a boost.”

“Are we going to do a cannonball to push it over the edge?” Jaune asked.

“Pretty much, yeah,” Rainbow agreed. “I’m going to knock it over the edge and down the cliff — the impact ought to crack its armour — and then Nora is going to finish it off.”

Blake got to work hurling herself on the flank of the giant beringel; her whole body whirled, her black ribbon spun around her as though she was a Mistralian dancer, and she struck with blade and cleaver, both blades scraping off the grimm's armour in a shower of sparks.

The Apex Alpha grunted as it glared at her.

Blake landed on the ground, barely resting for a moment before she threw herself at the giant beringel again.

The grimm swiped at her with a contemptuous paw.

Blake disappeared, leaving behind a fire clone that exploded in a burst of flame that wrapped around the Apex Alpha's paw even as the real Blake dropped on the grimm from above, landing on one of its spiky shoulders. The grimm shook and reached for its own shoulder to grab or pull her off. Blake leapt before she could be caught, doing a backflip in mid-air to land facing the grimm.

As the Apex Alpha turned towards her, Blake gave a little gesture towards Ruby, motioning for her to join Blake.

Ruby darted between the Apex Alpha's legs, Crescent Rose scraping against the grimm's armoured ankle as she went.

She came to a stop alongside Blake, raising Crescent Rose to snap off a shot that ricocheted off the beringel's armour.

Blake switched Gambol Shroud from sword to pistol mode, firing some more fire dust rounds that started a fire on the beringel's upper arm. It didn't seem to hurt the big grimm, exactly, but it did annoy it enough that it went for Blake, its big axe swinging.

Blake and Ruby retreated before it, using their semblances to stay out of trouble, speeding away or using a clone to take their place so that no blow — no chop of the axe, no swipe of a paw, no spiked-knuckle punch — could land on them. The Apex Alpha pursued them, pushing them back to the edge of the sharp drop down the hillside.

The armoured beringel, commander of the horde, faced the two of them with the sharp drop behind.

It must have been so confident in its ability to withstand any attack — with good reason, admittedly — to just ignore the others, as if it could deal with them whenever it wished, after it had dealt with Blake and Ruby.

More fool it, because while it had been chasing them to the edge of the drop-off, Rainbow, Jaune, and Nora had gotten behind it.

Nora stood at the CCT Relay tower. It was broken, leaning to one side, the control panels smashed, wires hanging out — but those wires were still sparking.

Nora jammed her hand into the broken control box, her whole body shaking and contorting as the electricity travelled up and down her body.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash stood on Jaune's shield, half-angled towards the Apex Alpha, the golden light of Jaune's semblance travelling from her feet up to surround her.

Rainbow had never felt Jaune's semblance like this before. He'd given her a top-up to her aura before, but this was something else; this … this felt so comforting, and so powerful too. She felt at the same time as though there was nothing to worry about and as though she could run all the way to Atlas, right over the water.

She felt as though she could do anything.

She certainly felt as though she could knock this beringel on its back.

The Apex Alpha, driven by some instinct, turned to look at her.

Rainbow launched herself off Jaune's shield with a kick more powerful than the thrust of Wings of Harmony, tracing a brilliant rainbow through the darkness as she shot like a bullet towards the grimm.

The beringel had no time to move; Rainbow was much too fast, and to her eyes, the grimm was moving oh-so-slow.

She drew back her fist, and as she slammed into the beringel at high speed, she hit it with an aura boom, burning the enhanced aura that Jaune had boosted while at the same time feeling like she hadn't used my aura at all. There was a bang louder than the report of Distant Thunder; the beringel let out an astonished hoot as it was picked up off the ground and thrown, over the heads of Ruby and Blake, off the edge of the drop.

The grimm's enormous arms flailed as it hit the ground and started to bounce and roll down the hill. The bone spikes on its shoulders snapped off, and plates began to crack under the impact.

Rainbow unfurled the Wings of Harmony, the jetpack firing to lift her up, off and away from the beringel as it fell.

The grimm stopped, digging one massive hand into the earth to stop its descent, holding on as it lay on its front, looking upwards.

The armour plates on its back were cracked and chipped.

Nora cackled loudly as leapt off the cliff, hammer raised over her head, her back bent backwards.

She was still cackling as she dropped like a rock onto the grimm, bringing her hammer straight down onto the broken armour of the beringel's back.

The armour of the grimm shattered, the hammer punching down into the grimm's black flesh. The Apex Alpha roared in pain, its back arching.

Nora yelled triumphantly as she rushed up the broken armour plates up onto the grimm's shoulders and brought her hammer down again onto the Apex Alpha's head.

Bone horns and helmet shattered into splinters, and Nora's hammer crushed the head beneath.

The remains of the head lolled to one side, and the beringel's grip on the ground loosened.

Rainbow swooped downwards, grabbing Nora bridal style and carrying her upwards before the grimm dissolved and she fell down the hill herself.

"You guys have a plan to get out of here?" Rainbow asked as the grimm howled in fury at the death of their leader. With the Apex Alpha dead, the horde might lose its coordination overall, but in the short term, they were on a hill with a lot of angry grimm headed their way.

"We've got a car waiting down the hill," Nora said.

"Down the hill?" Rainbow repeated as she set Nora down on the hilltop. "Never mind that; you can fly out with us."

As if on cue, their Skyray swooped down out of the night to hover, side door open, just beyond the drop.

"Everybody get aboard!" Rainbow shouted. "Move!"

Rainbow drew her machine pistols, stepping forward to open fire on the grimm as the others piled aboard the airship, feet hammering upon the metal as they leapt inside. First Nora, then Ruby and Blake, then Jaune, then Yang and Ren, Rainbow herself the last aboard, still firing with Brutal Honesty and Plain Awesome as the furious grimm rushed towards them.

The Skyray pulled away as soon as she was aboard; a beowolf tried to leap for them but missed; as the Skyray rose into the air, the beowolf plunged down the steep drop where the Apex Alpha was beginning to decompose.

The door to the airship slid shut.

“Congratulations, everybody,” Rainbow declared. “We just cut the head off a snake!”

Comments

[Mastermind4892]

Outstanding work, everyone!

[Kiue Jin]

A major win! But how long will it last?

[AngelicTitan]

She drew back her fist, and as she slammed into the beringel at high speed, she hit it with an aura boom, burning the enhanced aura that Jaune had boosted while at the same time feeling like she hadn't used my aura at all.

There’s a typo, it should be “any aura at all”.

Nora cackled loudly as leapt off the cliff, hammer raised over her head, her back bent backwards.

Another typo, it should be “as she leapt off”.

Regardless of typos, this chapter was a grandiose show of strength, strategy and courage as we have a full-on assault against a terrifying enemy that ended up with a resolute victory because of team-work and a master strategy from Rainbow.
I’m also a little curious to know what our dear Sunset is doing throughout the Horde Invasion, and what is keeping her away. I have a feeling that Sunset is facing off against another enemy and that’s why she isn’t on the Lines. Anyway, I’m excited to see what we will have in store from here on out!