A Murder of Nevermores

The gunshots sounded dim to Ciel's ears, and far off.

Farther off than was truly the case, she knew; as she, Penny, Pyrrha, and Jaune moved up the path, getting closer and closer towards Beacon itself, it was not so very far away that Rainbow Dash, Blake, and Sun were fighting off the grimm who sought to swarm up the road in their wake.

It was not so far away at all; the grimm were still proverbially breathing down the necks of those who had not been left behind, who had continued onwards towards the school and the confrontation that waited for them there.

And yet, they sounded far off; it all sounded far off, the gunshots and the answering howls and roars that rose from the throats of the grimm as they sought to pass the Atlesians — and Sun Wukong.

And given his plans, even the itinerant Mister Wukong might deserve to be called something of an Atlesian, at some point.

If he survived this night.

If any of them survived this night.

Ciel wondered that the gunfire should sound so quiet to her, that Undying Loyalty should not boom louder, that the snapping noises of Gambol Shroud should barely reach her ears, that the grimm seemed to roar as softly as a sucking dove, like one who whispers in the nursery door for fear of waking the baby who sleeps within.

She understood that there were sometimes freak weather conditions, cones of air of an unusual pressure, that deadened the sounds beyond said cone so that what happened within could not be heard; during the Great War, generals on both sides had been caught out by such air cones: at the battle of Seven Oaks, the Valish king had not realised that his counterattack had begun on the left flank because he could not hear the guns of General Colton's infantry as they stormed forwards. Perhaps something similar had happened now, a cone of low pressure falling upon Rainbow, Blake, and Sun and all the grimm who sought to overrun them.

Or perhaps the problem was with Ciel's own ears; perhaps they had been deadened by this night of constant fighting, missiles, shells, the cries of hordes of grimm and titanic grimm; perhaps she had been rendered deaf for a time.

Or perhaps only her mind had been rendered deaf, and the gunfire sounded quiet to her not because it was, but because … Ciel could not say precisely why her mind might have chosen to behave so, but she did not discount the possibility.

Because she was … troubled, she would concede to herself, as she made her way up the path with the other three — with the four that remained of the party of seven that had set off.

With the other three behind, facing the grimm who swarmed up the path with teeth and claws.

Ciel kept her inner turmoil off her face — so she hoped, at least, and so she believed also — but it weighed upon her nonetheless. It weighed upon her just as Distant Thunder weighed in her hands.

It troubled her in part because there were only four of them left now, against someone, while they might not have seemed a very ferocious opponent, had at the same time not seemed at all like a traitor and an enemy either. It could well be that Amber's appearance of harmlessness was as false as her appearance of benevolence. She was, after all, the Fall Maiden, possessed of magic which it had been of great importance to keep out of the hands of Cinder and Salem's servants — partly for the access the powers provided to the Relic, true, but also for the powers themselves, was it not? The fact that Amber had shown no sign of great danger or great power meant nothing, considering that she had shown no sign of treachery either.

And there were only four of them, where there had been seven. Four of them, and shorn of two of the best fighters amongst them. Ciel thought that Jaune would not take it as an insult, and thought that Penny would not either, to say that she would rather than Blake and Rainbow Dash here with them instead.

They might rather wish either Blake or Rainbow with them than to have Ciel, and Ciel would not be affronted if they did; she knew her uses and her limitations.

Perhaps she ought to have remained behind instead, but Rainbow had given the order — it was reckoned an admirable trait in a leader to never ask anything of one's subordinates that one was not willing to give of oneself, but Ciel thought they might be seeing the limits of how admirable it truly was — and orders were to be obeyed, especially in circumstances where there was little time to discuss the matter.

Rainbow had given the order, and Blake … Blake Belladonna had a great deal of heart; she did not appear to be led about by the heart as Sun was, but in her own way, she was every bit as susceptible to it. Her great heart could not suffer to leave Rainbow Dash behind to face the claws alone.

It left the rest of them at a disadvantage, and yet, Ciel could not judge her for it; to leave a comrade to her death was not the Atlesian way, to save the life of a citizen was one of the few acceptable reasons to break ranks, and sacrificial rearguard actions were simply bad tactics, wasteful and likely to be ineffective.

It was more than just fear for the two of them — and Sun — that troubled Ciel, it was the thought that the wrong choice had been made.

Had they needed to remain behind?

Alternatively, could they have proceeded with the grimm pursuing them, snapping at their heels?

Had there been an alternative to Rainbow's decision, one that Ciel should have seen quickly, even if Rainbow had not?

It was not the Atlesian way; their lives were too precious to be spent to purchase mere seconds, or even minutes.

But they were a long way from Atlas.

And Atlas is far, and honour's a word.

The Atlesian way would have been to use the skies to stay ahead of the grimm, but they were in this position because that strategy had failed them.

Could they have stayed ahead of the grimm, or reached the Vault, with so many grimm in hot pursuit? That was the only question that mattered.

And the answer was that, although perhaps they could have, it would not have been the optimal manner in which to confront Amber, caught between the pack ice of the Fall Maiden and the freezing waters of the grimm behind.

In which case, as much as Ciel might not like it, perhaps Rainbow Dash had made the right decision.

As much as Ciel might not like it, the only thing she could do now was pray for them.

And wonder why the sounds of their battle sounded so far off, so much farther off than was the case, as the four of them that remained continued up the path towards the school.

Lady of the North, stand with Rainbow Dash and Blake Belladonna this night, who are champions of thy land though they know thee not.

They had almost reached Beacon now, getting closer and closer to the school and all the problems that the school presented — not least amongst which was the dragon, that great grimm which had preceded them to Beacon and which now circled around the Emerald Tower.

Until it unleashed its breath, that killing breath that had torn the defences of Atlas, that had so badly wounded Neon, that yellow beam lanced out of the dragon's mouth and struck the tower.

The green lights that burned in the darkness were extinguished immediately. The tower itself disappeared where it was struck in an almighty explosion, stone and metal debris tossed in all directions, while the tower above the blast began to crumble as it fell, what had been a sturdy pillar crumbling in seconds as it crashed down to the ground below.

They were fortunate that no debris was flung so far as to trouble the four of them. That appeared to be the full extent of their good fortune.

Pyrrha gasped. Ciel could understand her shock — at least in part. With the tower down — not down, destroyed; to say it was merely down made it sound like a maintenance glitch — then the entire CCT network would be offline. Communications within Atlas, Mistral, even Vacuo might be restored, but communications within Vale would not, and between kingdoms? Would they ever be able to speak from Atlas to the outside world again, without the use of messengers toiling laboriously through the skies?

And while Ciel had no doubt that communications within Atlas would be swiftly restored, at this moment, it would be impossible even for Atlas to speak to Mantle, never mind to Mistral or to them here.

The world had not gone dark, but it had been silenced.

Ciel did not know to what extent Pyrrha had grasped these facts, but she thought that even without such calculations, it must be more difficult for a Beacon student: to see your own tower, of your own school, laid waste like this.

To see a grimm squatting on the ruined stump as though it meant to make its nest there, as the dragon was doing at that very moment.

"If…" Jaune murmured. "If the tower's down, then—"

"Then the network's down," Penny said. "We can't reach … anyone."

"No," Pyrrha said softly. "But I fear that is tomorrow's problem. Tonight's problem is—"

"The huge grimm sitting on top of the tower?" Jaune guessed.

Pyrrha bowed her head a little. "Precisely. How are we to reach the Vault without attracting its notice? Even if we had time to fight it, which we don't, we have no way of … of knowing how to fight it. Even if we could be sure of killing it swiftly, it might not be swift enough for our errand, and we cannot be so sure of killing it swiftly. We must put our hope in stealth, and yet…"

She trailed off, and hardly needed to say that they were not a stealthy group, none of them trained in such, none of them dressed for such, and who knew how vigilant the dragon's eyes might be, how keen its senses, how anxiously it would scan the ground beneath it?

Had it been sent by Salem to keep watch over Beacon, and prevent any intruders interfering with Amber's mission, or had it been drawn here by the dark impulses of its kind?

Had it, perhaps, been drawn here by the Amity Colosseum that still hung in the sky above Beacon, above skies that had been rendered safe until not long ago? As Ciel looked up and watched as the damaged Resolution began to manoeuvre, not to engage the dragon as Ciel first thought, but to try and shunt the Amity Arena away from Beacon; she felt very glad that none of her family had travelled to Vale for the tournament.

But Twilight was up there still, and the rest of Rainbow's friends, and many others besides; if the dragon were to turn its attention on the Colosseum, then the carnage would be terrible indeed.

Lady prevent it.

The dragon roared. It raised its head up to the broken moon and roared so loudly that it must have carried all across the kingdom; in towns and cities to the north and south, they must have heard the raw and known, even without the CCT, even if all the news of this night so far had passed them by, that something was terribly amiss in Vale.

The dragon roared, and at first, Ciel thought that it was merely crowing in triumph, celebrating its own deed in the destruction of the tower, but then, the grimm began to rise out of the Emerald Forest and fly towards Beacon, coming over the cliffs and into the skies over the school, and Ciel realised that it had not been celebrating but summoning, summoning more grimm to join it.

The number of grimm that answered the call were not so many, nothing compared to the numbers that had flocked around Amity during the beginning of the battle or had engaged in battle with the Atlesian airships over the Green Line. There were perhaps a score, perhaps a little more than that — the darkness made it difficult to get an accurate count — mostly nevermores, with a small number of griffons and a single teryx, but that was enough, when combined with the dragon itself and the fact that, as Pyrrha had pointed out, they were in need of haste.

And neither haste nor surprise seemed conducive with fighting their way through so many grimm, even if one removed the grimm they could not even be sure of slaying.

God and the Lady chose that particular moment to smile upon Ciel, for as she thought that there was a gleam of light, faint like a distant star in the night sky, which nevertheless drew Ciel's eyes and attention towards it.

The dragon must have noticed it also, for as that light whipped across the night sky, out of Ciel's sight, the dragon followed, beating its enormous wings as it took off, leaving Beacon and the Amity Colosseum behind as it flew over Vale.

That was one difficulty solved, although Ciel wished that whatever had drawn it away had done so sooner, because though the dragon was gone, it had left the other grimm, the fliers it had called out of the Emerald Forest, behind, like a garrison left to hold the ground while the main force continued to advance.

Holding the ground indeed, because the flying grimm dropped out of the sky to land on the school grounds. That could make them easier to evade, or it could make it harder to avoid them, depending on whereabouts they landed.

Once again, they were confronted with the prospect of trying to sneak their way past their adversaries. And yet, they pressed on regardless. What could they do in the circumstances but press on, and hope that the same good fortune which had rid them of the dragon might come to their aid a second time?

There was no sign of them being so blessed as they drew closer and closer and inexorably closer to the grounds of Beacon. The nevermores showed no sign of being drawn off by any power or ally. As the four of them drew near, crouching down and hoping to blend into the shadows as though Pyrrha's gilded greaves and cuisses, the circlet on her brow would not stand out to a grimm's night vision, they continued to stalk about the grounds — and the ground. Only a few were visible from where they were, but there were more; they had seen them dropping out of the sky. They were out there somewhere, waiting.

Fight or skulk, those were their choices: fight their way through the grimm, or else try to avoid them.

Neither was a particularly appetising choice: skulking or sneaking offered a somewhat unlikely chance of success, while fighting would impose delays that they could not afford, not to mention the risk of death or injury before a battle on which much would hang in the balance.

There was a third option, the option already taken by Rainbow Dash and Blake, of someone leaving the group to draw off the grimm and clear the way for others, but that had the same problem of fighting in that it would leave the rest of the group denuded once again, weakened in numbers and in capability, before the great confrontation on which so much hung. Could they afford it?

Faced with the other unappealing choices in front of them, could they afford not to?

Ciel felt as though she had sat down to dine only to open up the menu and find that the choices were a soup to which she was allergic, a fish she did not like, and a supposed meat that was all fat and no real substance to it at all.

And she could not get up from the table, however unlikely that was in the context of a real restaurant.

She had to order. They had to order, unless one of the others had seen a better way forward that Ciel had not yet seen.

If they had, they were presently keeping it to themselves, although somewhat understandably so, for the presence of the grimm dissuaded talking. Beacon was ahead, and even closer was the restaurant just beyond the grounds called Benni Havens'. Ciel had never been there herself — the menu had never seemed to her taste, and the allure of a stuffed beowolf had been lost on her — but she was familiar enough with the concept of the place; she had seen it.

There was no sign of ruin about it; no grimm had broken through the ceiling or smashed through the walls; having survived the initial battle of Beacon, when the grimm had concentrated their efforts to the north of here, now it similarly found itself just out of the way of their smaller-scale efforts. If any grimm had come down here, then it would have made a decent vantage point to watch for anyone heading up the road towards the school, as they were doing. But it seemed the grimm felt they could accomplish as much by occupying the grounds and watching the point at which the road entered Beacon proper.

Perhaps it would have been different had the restaurant been occupied, but it did not appear to be so, though Ciel knew that it had been at an earlier point during the battle, that the owner had seen Amber fleeing the grounds with her cohort. Now, however, the place was dark, lights off, no sound, no signs of life.

No sign of life or death, only of abandonment.

Nevertheless, or perhaps because of it, Pyrrha led them in that direction without a word, her ponytail flying out behind her as she ran across the road and up the path towards the diner, trusting the others to follow. Perhaps she feared to speak into the night with the grimm close by, even in hushed whispers. The others followed in spite of her silence, first Jaune, then Penny, and finally Ciel herself bringing up the rear; they all dashed as swiftly as they could — Ciel's skirt bounced and flapped around her knees — across the road and up the gravel path towards the silent, unlit restaurant.

The door was unlocked; or perhaps Pyrrha was able to open it with her semblance, Ciel was not close enough to say for sure, but she could say that Pyrrha opened the door swiftly and stepped through; Ciel could hear the sound of a bell ringing as the door opened, but none of the grimm seemed to hear it, or to pay it any mind if they heard.

Ciel had to fold up Distant Thunder to get inside; it was too big to fit easily through the door, and Ciel did not want to risk awkwardly manoeuvring it in ahead of herself. Instead, she slung it across her back before she stepped through the door and closed it softly behind her.

There were only windows on one side of the establishment, that being the same side on which the door stood; a little moonlight came in that way, but the solid wall on the other side of the restaurant offered no view of Beacon or the grimm who had returned to it.

The lights were off, and the moonlight gave a little light, but not too much; Ciel had her visor on over one eye, which enabled her to see, albeit at the cost of having to close her other eye as though she had gotten something in it.

Still, she could see, albeit in faded, washed out colours; could Pyrrha and Jaune see as well? Penny's eyes gleamed with a bright green glow that was almost eerie as a side effect of her own nightvision.

Ciel sidestepped around the stuffed fake beowolf guarding the door and glanced briefly at the wall that was presently obstructing their view of the school. The wall was covered in photographs, she saw, pictures of teams of huntsmen and huntresses.

She could not help but wonder how many of them were still alive, even amongst the most recent photographs.

Pyrrha turned to face the others. "I thought that we could speak in here a little more easily," she said, though she kept her voice quiet nonetheless. "Without so much risk of being overhead. We need to decide on our next step, how we are going to … what we are going to do about those grimm that remain on the grounds."

"Considering what we know," Jaune said, in a voice as quiet as Pyrrha's, or perhaps even softer, "I think we've got to assume that there will be other grimm out there than just nevermores and the other fliers. The dragon will have … dripped, leaked, whatever, it will have left some of them on the ground, beowolves or boarbatusks or whatever."

"Young," Ciel murmured. "Unarmoured, inexperienced."

"They can still get in our way," Jaune pointed out.

"True, but if they were all we had to fear, I should not fear them," Ciel replied. "Save for the delay that they might cause us."

"We cannot afford to be delayed," Pyrrha whispered.

Are we not delaying now? Ciel thought, but it was an uncharitable thought, and in any case, a rather unsound one. A little time to consider and prepare might, strictly, be a delay to their forward progress, but it would pay dividends compared to what might result from rash, thoughtless action.

"If Amber and her allies have reached the Vault and taken the Relic away, then we are already too late," Ciel said. "But if not, if they have not yet done so, then does it matter if we are so delayed that we cannot prevent them? So long as we are in a position to intercept them leaving the Vault, with the Relic, before they can deliver it to Salem, then we may call our mission complete."

"You may be right," Pyrrha conceded. "But if we wait until the Relic is removed from the Vault, without the Fall Maiden, I fear it could not be put back in the Vault again."

"Perhaps not, but there are other places it could be secured," Ciel pointed out. "If it cannot be returned to its original resting place, that is hardly the end of the world." She winced. "Forgive me; that was a poor choice of words."

"It's fine," Pyrrha said. "So what do you suggest? Fight our way through the grimm? I fear that if we did so, we might not be in a position to intercept Amber when she emerged from the Vault."

"That's probably why they're here," Jaune muttered. "Why the dragon was here too, before … what do you think drew it away?"

"Something we do not have time to speculate on," said Ciel.

"Right," Jaune accepted. "Right, sorry."

"We can't kill all of the grimm quickly enough, can we?" Penny asked.

There was a moment of silence in the dark restaurant as they stood there amidst the empty chairs and empty tables.

"We fear not, Penny; that is the root of it," Ciel admitted.

Penny nodded. "Then we'll do what we did before, to get to the tower and Professor Ozpin: I'll draw the grimm away, towards the cliffs, and then the rest of you—"

"No," Ciel said.

Penny looked at her, eyes bright in the darkness. "What?"

"I said no, you will not," Ciel declared. "I will. I will engage the grimm and draw their attention onto myself, so that the three of you can move onwards towards the Vault undetected."

"Ciel," Penny murmured. "No, I can—"

"In the first place, Penny, Distant Thunder is a little unsuited to the tight quarters that you may — will — encounter down in the Vault of the Fall Maiden; I will be better employed above ground where I can endeavour to put distance between myself and my targets," Ciel told her. "In the second place, your power may — probably even will — be needed down in the Vault. In the third place, I daresay the three of you will make a better team than I with these two. And in the fourth place…" In the fourth place, I would take your place in this danger, out of affection for you but also … but also because Neon did the same for me, and as strange, absurd, nonsensical as it may seem, it feels as though by throwing my own body into the breach, I can … atone? Repay? Prove myself her equal in courage?

Blake so loves Rainbow Dash that she stood beside her in the face of fearful odds, unasked, though all else suffered for it. My own dear friend so loved me that she sacrificed her body for my sake and fights for her life aboard the medical frigate.

I will be ashamed before them all if I prove less than they.

"In the fourth place, I must do this," Ciel said. "I will brook no despite."

"There must be another way," said Penny, whose idea it had been in the first place. "I meant for me to do this."

Ciel smiled slightly. "A leader who asks nothing that she is not willing to give or do is a fine, admirable thing," she said. "But a leader who does and gives all things and makes all efforts is a poor leader. Pyrrha and Jaune will have more need of you."

She glanced at them, to see if either of them would have any objections to make. She was not anticipating any, from either of them; they would know that there was no alternative simply by the fact that they had failed to come up with any alternative.

Pyrrha's eyes were not so bright as Penny's, but nevertheless, she locked eyes with Ciel. "You are very brave," she said quietly. "Good fortune accompany you."

"Keep fortune for yourself," Ciel advised her. "If the Lady is with me, I will have no need of it."

She turned away, or began to turn away, only to be halted by a hand upon her wrist. Penny's hand.

"Be careful," Penny urged, leaning forwards, her face very close. "If you're not there when Neon wakes up … I'm sure she'll be very sad. And your brothers too; you've got all them to think about. Don't … be careful, for all their sakes."

Ciel was silent a moment. Does she think that I go forth to throw my life away?

Not a wholly unreasonable assumption, in the circumstances.

"I … will do my best, if the Lady will have it so," Ciel replied, speaking softly for more reasons than merely the grimm outside. "If not…" If not, then I trust they will know that I died in the service of Atlas, and that will have to stand as my epitaph. No time for last words, after all, even if there was someone here I could trust to carry them. "Goodbye, Penny; I may see you later."

Penny let go of Ciel's hand and clasped her hands together, over her chest — or over her heart.

She said nothing else, and nor did Ciel. Even had there been anything else to say, there would have been no time to say it in. Instead, Ciel looked once more to Pyrrha. "Wait a brief while after you hear the shooting begin, to give me time to lead the grimm away; I will try and draw them towards the far cliffs, facing the Emerald Forest."

Pyrrha nodded.

Ciel turned her back on all the rest of them and opened the door to the diner — the bell tinkled once again to announce her exit; she could only hope that the grimm would pay as little attention to it as they had the last time — and stepped out into the night once more.

Blessed be the Lady, who watches over me always.

Ciel unslung Distant Thunder from across her back, the long rifle unfolding in her hands.

Revered be the Lady, whose rod and staff shall comfort me.

Ciel began to stalk forwards, towards Beacon and the waiting grimm who stalked the school.

Beloved be the Lady, whose mantle shall shelter me all my days.

For God shall not know me save through the Lady, shall not note me save by the Lady’s intercession, and shall never aid me but by the Lady’s intercessions.

Ciel looked down at the rifle in her hands. An excellent weapon for ranged combat, but perhaps a little less so — as she had said to Penny — for close quarters work. She had no desire to replace Distant Thunder — it had done nothing to deserve it — but perhaps she ought to consider a secondary, support weapon for when the range closed. Not a pea shooter like Rainbow Dash or Blake carried, or even like her own pistol; something with real stopping power.

A submachine gun that fired .577 rounds, perhaps. She would speak to Twilight about it tomorrow — if she could.

Ciel stood now upon the very threshold of Beacon Academy. One more step would bring her into the school. The grimm were waiting there, having taken by stealth that which they had already failed to take by battle.

Lady of the North, watch over all your children far from home.

Ciel took a step forward, and as she stepped forward, she brought Distant Thunder up to her shoulder, aiming at the nearest nevermore that walked in its ungainly fashion across the grounds.

It was not one of the largest specimens of their kind, not a giant, but by no means small either. It was taller than Ciel was, and even with the wings excluded, it was wider than she was in the shoulders too, but it did not look big enough to swallow her whole in a single mouthful like some nevermores.

That would not be the case for every grimm here, but Ciel was not averse to starting small, as it were.

The nevermore had had its head down, like a bird in truth looking for worms amongst the grass. It looked up at her, clacking its bone beak.

BANG!

Distant Thunder roared, there was a bright flash from the muzzle, and the nevermore's head vanished, leaving only a smoking black trunk with a red neck.

Even as the body toppled to the ground, Ciel could hear the other nevermores — and griffons, and the teryx — crying out in … in confusion? In alarm? Or in eagerness at prey having wandered into her embrace? In all those things? They were crying out, no matter the exact mood in which they cried, they were filling the night air with their caws and squawks and with the growls and howls of beowolves, just as Jaune had predicted.

Ciel began to move; not too quickly, not yet — the grimm would be heading towards the sound of the gunshot, and she did not want them to miss her and stumble upon Penny and the others — but moving nonetheless, away from the path into school and towards the cliffs that overlooked the Emerald Forest. She worked the bolt of her rifle, discharging the spent cartridge and chambering another.

Another nevermore, larger than the first, lumbered out of the darkness, not taking to wing but walking on its hind claws and on the little foreclaws that came out of its wings. It saw her, and shrieked as it headed in her direction.

Ciel raised the rifle to her shoulder, put her eye to the sights, and fired.

BANG!

Distant Thunder spoke once more, the shot striking the nevermore on one side of the head, just as Ciel had intended that it should; the nevermore's skull cracked, fault lines rippling down towards the beak and disrupting the red patterns on the white bone; the grimm's eye disappeared and left a shallow socket behind.

For a moment, Ciel thought that she had not killed the nevermore, that she had wounded it, blinded it in one eye, but had not killed it. The nevermore cried out, spreading its wings on either side as it lunged towards her — only to topple face forwards onto the ground, dead, its body gently smoking.

But the air was filled with the shrieking of more nevermores, the cries of other grimm, and looking up, Ciel could see that some of them had taken to wing, blotting out the stars as they circled above.

Ciel ejected the spent cartridge, chambering another round as she kept moving, moving away from the restaurant, away from Penny, Pyrrha, and Jaune, away from the three who remained.

There had been seven; now, there were but three.

But three who would have an uninterrupted passage to the Vault if Ciel played her part.

She quickened her step, not quite to a run but getting there, moving at a slightly more than gentle jog, and as she moved, she activated her semblance.

Precognition On!

Her Future Echo would burn through her aura from this point, but she did not intend to get into close combat with the grimm if she could possibly avoid it.

And her semblance would help with that, as when it gave her warning of the griffon that bounded out of the darkness towards her, mouth open and claws outstretched. Distant Thunder spoke once more so loudly as Ciel shot it in the chest and threw herself out of the griffon's path as, its momentum unhalted, it would have bodily slammed into her otherwise.

Ciel rolled onto her knees, turning to face the griffon as it landed and turned to face her.

The griffon, this grimm did look large enough to swallow her whole if it could get close enough, howled at her.

Ciel was up and on her feet, walking briskly backwards as she ejected the spent cartridge and fired again, hitting the griffon square on the chest a second time and bringing the creature down.

She looked up and saw the future echo of a giant nevermore swooping down upon her from the skies. Ciel raised Distant Thunder and fired the last round in her magazine, but though that made the grimm break off its attack, it did not kill it.

Now, Ciel ran, trusting that there were sufficient grimm up in the sky who could see her that they would direct the rest of the pack in her direction. She ran, and as she ran, she ejected the spent mag and pulled another one — this was her second to last one — into place, working the bolt with one hand to chamber another round.

She ran towards the cliffs, hearing the shrieking and the crying of the grimm behind her. She looked left and right, searching for threats that might emerge out of the night in either direction, seeing none. She looked forwards once again and saw before it happened the nevermore cutting her off.

It was running, wings tucked into its sides, head down compared to the rest of its body; the red pattern on its skull made it seem almost as though it had three eyes instead of two.

Ciel shot it at the run, because if she did not keep moving, then it defeated the entire object of this, and because she feared that if she did not run, then the grimm would descend on her from on high, and she did not want to be caught stationary in the midst of a murder of nevermores like a white hart caught by the hounds.

So Ciel fired, hitting the nevermore on its flank; the grimm shuddered but did not fall — it did not even falter — it turned its bone beak her way and lunged for her. Ciel saw the lunge coming, knew where the beak would snap shut, and so she rolled beneath the giant nevermore's bite and passed underneath its black feathers and out the other side.

The nevermore screeched in annoyance, opening its wings for a moment, unleashing a storm of black feathers in her direction. Ciel saw those coming too, enough to dodge some, to retreat out of the way of others, but there were so many feathers, and for all the predictive powers of her semblance, it could not make her as agile as Pyrrha, as swift as Ruby. Ciel was struck by a pair of feathers and knocked backwards, her aura flaring with pain.

The nevermore crowed triumphant as it closed its wings.

Ciel raised Distant Thunder and shot it a second time, the round leaving cracks upon the nevermore's skull as it ricocheted off the bone. The grimm took a step back but did not fall. It did not even lose an eye.

Ciel scrambled to her feet and ran backwards, praying that she did not fall as she worked the bolt, ejected the spent cartridge, took aim over the nevermore's head.

The grimm took flight, spreading its wings out on either side as it rose into the air.

BANG!

Distant Thunder bellowed to the heavens, Ciel's shot catching the nevermore in its throat, just behind the beak, behind the protection of the bone, passing upwards and tearing through the back of the nevermore's skull.

Three shots. Three shots to kill it.

We could not have fought them; it would have taken too long.

Taken too long and been too hazardous.

Ciel ran, ran from Benni Havens', ran towards the cliffs.

Ciel ran, and the grimm followed.

Author's Note

Even if you haven't read the original, this chapter probably gives you some idea of where this is going in terms of structure for.

This... with the removal of her Mountain Glenn battle with Emerald this might be Ciel's first entire chapter to herself, with her as the focus. I think it is, actually. Or... no, I think she was the POV for a couple of Mantle chapters, wasn't she? Either way, Ciel focused chapters are few and far between, so it was appropriate that she would get one last one here as a phase of the story draws to a close.