{Protection}

My decision to drink with my cousin the night before a school day was a bad idea…

For someone that gave a fuck.

Lylac could talk for hours on end, switch topics on the fly like a music player on shuffle.

Alcohol facilitated this spontaneous behaviour tenfold.

In the end, it only took four hours for her to talk herself into exhaustion and eventually passing out on the mahogany table, mouth ajar and drooling onto its hardwood surface.

Not exactly graceful, but Ly was no aristocrat.

That pretty face of hers was her only asset, and to avoid her messing it up in her sleep, I tried to relieve her of her clothing and carried her to her room.

The black silken sheets shimmered under the moonlight filtering through her matching curtains that lightly billowed in the breeze.

I carefully laid her down, the girl only in her underwear and white t-shirt, then tugged her quilt out from her resting form and tucking her in.

After struggling to put her to bed, given my own intoxication, I decided that 11pm was a good time to leave.

And with my sense of balance all but destroyed, it was a miracle I even managed to make it out of her bedroom.

So, after locking up her apartment, sweeping the entire complex for bugs in the process, I, in my infinite wisdom, walked to the balcony and took the express elevator down.

The crates of fruit were never explained in the end.

After hitting the ground at terminal velocity, rupturing the pavement beneath my feet, I picked myself up and slowly made my way down the high street.

The night was still young, after all, and I had some things I needed to do while I was in Vale.

Thankfully, no one would recognise me.

It'd been a while since we were on the news, we were both high-profile missing persons for a while after we ran away.

This was made obvious by the media requesting help from the public with posters and messages in broadcasts.

We were practically the victims of a witch hunt for the reward that was offered.

Fancy that, huh? 250,000 lien for the safe capture of two children.

However, time turned out to be our ally, gradually allowing us both to disappear into obscurity.

From the public, that was.

The Information Networks?

They never forget…

A real pain in the ass silencing their spies and hooded associates.

If any of them were to catch you, you were done for.

Your identity, intentions, and anything else you wished to remain secret would practically be public knowledge.

Which is why any that encountered myself or my cousin often mysteriously suffered a happy little accident.

It wasn't too far outside the realm of possibilities for one spy to disappear for months on end.

But when several in the same location go without warning or clear explanation, it tends to really rile up the hornet's nest.

That can get annoying when you have things to do…

"Hey! Stop!"

A female voice pleaded to my left. Filling up my auditory senses from the darkened alley on my flank.

Even garnered the slightest of twitches from beneath my beanie…

"It's okay baby, we're not gonna hurt ya," a second, deeper voice resonated out into the high street, "we just wanna have some fun, that's all."

The latter half of his statement was followed by a nefarious low chuckle and in that moment, I knew something bad was stirring.

I stopped walking, straining my hearing and switching my focus to the alley.

My eyes peered down the pitch-black opening, but no one was there.

They must've been deeper.

My mind was in a disorganised state, with alcohol being the culprit.

Given my… nature… the controlled substance only affected one half of my mind.

The biological side taking it in and having itself a whale of a time in its complete and total disarray.

I was fucked up, there was no doubt about that.

If there was a girl in trouble, who's to say she'd be any safer in my care?

Then again…

There was always the machine too.

It's unique operating procedures allowed me to drink like a fish and keep going.

Acting as if nothing was wrong whatsoever.

In fact, that was the only part of my brain that honestly benefitted from drinking.

One little modification of mine allowing it to burn the alcohol in my bloodstream and use it like a fuel.

Actively generating electrical energy like a mini bioreactor.

It was also very hostile…

Particularly in fights.

Fights I intend to win, anyway.

I never felt the need to be merciful, nor compassionate toward anyone that stands against me.

They chose to piss me off, so the consequences were on their head, not mine.

I'm just doing my job.

Which left me standing in the middle of a near-barren street in Vale, vacantly staring down an alley, wondering whether I should intervene with the crime about to be committed.

I was at a metaphorical T-junction, split between two potential actions.

All because I wasn't sure if I could help her and myself at the same time…

"Please! Someone he-" the girl cried out once more, a caution flashing across my enhanced vision.

And yet, I still stood there, idling…

Her plea was muffled at the end, silenced by something covering her mouth. It was the perpetrators' method of keeping their deeds hidden.

Idiots… if she lives, she'll never forget this.

Which meant that to truly keep hidden, they'd have to take her life too. Let alone her dignity and self-worth. All to prevent her from testifying against them in a court of law.

That made me angry.

Rape was an unforgivable crime.

And after it nearly happened to Ly…

What I did to those men back then was nothing short of a mercy compared to what I should've done.

Death is an escape, not a punishment.

I would know, I've very nearly crossed that line before.

I took very slow steps toward the alley, acquiring a metal pipe leaning against the nondescript brick wall to my right.

My eyes dead focused on the path in front of me.

I wasn't going to kill these men, not if I could help it at least, but I was going to make sure that this behaviour is not tolerated in this town.

I've always hated bullies.

Scarlet sighed for the 26th time in the past thirty minutes.

She was laying on her bed, staring at the ceiling, throwing a 14mm shell from Crimson Brigade into the air and catching it as she impatiently awaited Ray's return.

Once again, she tossed her head to the side to read the time on her alarm clock.

11:49pm.

He should've been back by now…

Frowning, she turned her gaze to the ceiling and continued playing catch.

"Y'know, you keep that up and you're gonna end up dropping that shell on your nose."

RGDS' leader sighed again.

"Ray said he'd be back later!" the girl bemoaned, "Now is later!"

Gabriel chuckled, "True, but later is a very vague answer."

Scarlet caught her highly explosive round in her hand as she turned to face him with a deadpan glare.

"You think?"

The gambler met her disapproving glance with a cheeky grin.

"In Ray's defence, he practically gave us all the answers to our homework, including yours," Kyzal illegibly interjected from the bathroom as he brushed his teeth, "and your homework was leader-orientated, so I think we can cut him some slack."

Scarlet sighed again.

This one was noticeably more agitated than the others.

"I just don't understand why he's been gone for so long, what could he be doing that demands his attention that bad?!"

"Seeing his cousin, maybe?" Gabriel replied, shrugging one shoulder, "They seem pretty close from the things he's told me. Limited as they may be…"

"Honestly?" Kyzal supplied as he entered the main dorm area, "I'm just glad I didn't have to put that much effort into the homework, so if Ray has no trouble giving us the answers, he can stay out for as long as he wants."

"Ditto."

"Ugh," Scarlet groaned as she grabbed her pillow and buried her face in it, "he better be back before midnight, we have classes tomorrow."

Gabriel hung his tan cowboy hat on the bedpost by his headboard as he humbly chuckled to himself, "And I'm sure he will be, we should get some sleep though, you're right about those classes."

Scarlet frowned even with her face buried, but reluctantly agreed with her teammate, getting up and heading toward the light switch.

With a sigh, she turned the light off, "Night, guys."

"Night."

I'm not a hero. That's a job for someone else.

I'm a weapon without a target.

An army without a nation.

And a thorn in the side of anyone harbouring power.

I could've left that girl to suffer, carried on with my life knowing in full that I could've saved her, but never did.

That's not something that I wanted on my conscious though.

I already had enough on my plate.

Those men, back in that alley, they were easy prey. Break a few fingers, dislocate a shoulder, and they were running as fast as they could before they even had the chance to process their injuries.

I walked out of that alley with a terrified young woman, bloodstained hands, and an unwieldly desire for more acolyte.

She wanted to thank me, even in her state of shock.

I was only doing my job.

I'm not a hero, I'm a bully.

Except my victims also happened to be the exact same thing.

I refused to get rewarded by her and her mother who had come running to find her.

Don't give me more credit than I deserve.

It wasn't long before I parted ways with them, never to see them again.

Three men tried to assault that girl, only two successfully escaped.

The bludgeoned corpse of the third was starting to decompose in the dumpster behind a bakery.

Marigold, I think it was called.

The name seemed vaguely familiar.

For the record, I didn't mean to kill that man, but his head got in the way of my pipe. Hardly my fault.

I was aiming for his chest.

Idiot shouldn't have ducked.

I'll probably clean it up later, didn't have anything better to do anyway.

Not like anyone would miss him either.

Just another night in this piece of shit kingdom.

So, I just kept walking back to Beacon.

Transport ran to and from the academy all hours of the day, save the weekends, so I wasn't worried about finding my way back.

I just had to wait for my flight.

When I checked my scroll, I had 32 unread messages and 14 missed calls, all from Scarlet. She was a big girl, she didn't need me there all the time.

I'd probably get a mouthful when I got back, but I didn't care.

Fuck that place.

I was actually jealous of the idiot lying dead in the dumpster, his position was a preferable alternative to being named a Beacon Student.

That title was an insult. No comprehensible words could describe my undeniable hatred of Huntsmen.

Only incoherent primal grunts.

Which was exactly the sound I made when the pilot dropped me off at Beacon's entrance.

Dick.

Telling me to take it easy, like he had any fucking clue.

He sits in the same seat all day ferrying idiots to and from the same goddamn destination, what the hell does he know about taking things easy?

He was also a student too, taking this part-time job as part of his mandatory 3rd-year pilot training.

Fortunately, I wasn't worried about his ordeals.

I had my own problems to worry about.

Like going the fuck to sleep.

Making my way to the dorms was as easy as following the arrow on my HUD, made much easier due to being able to see in the dark hallways leading to my room.

When I entered the door though, it seems my already fleeting sense of balance malfunctioned, forcing my dumb ass to stumble once the door was unlocked.

Was I really leaning into it that much?

The room was silent and pitch black when I entered, save the dim lights on the three charging scrolls located on the tables beside the peacefully sleeping forms of Scarlet, Gabriel, and Kyzal.

I kicked my shoes off and left them by the foot of my bed as I haphazardly shouldered my jacket and messenger bag off.

Then gracefully throwing myself onto my bed as my arms embraced the soft pillow I buried my head into, closing my tired eyes and taking a sigh of relief.

Tomorrow was an easy day, just the same crap we did today but with slight variation.

What could possibly go wrong?

Blaring, blood-boiling alarms and the sounds of agitated screaming and shouting brought me out of my comatose state.

Wonderful, seems my team is awake.

"Ray! Where have you been?!"

That was Scarlet playing the distressed mother figure again. Big surprise.

"We couldn't get a hold of you all night!"

I stayed silent, trying to bury my head into my pillow even further to drown her out.

"Ray! Get up! We have classes in half an hour!" I felt the girl shake me by the shoulders as she berated me.

Don't you have anything better to do?

The hangover was stronger than I thought it would be. I had hoped that beating those assholes with a metal pole would burn off the alcohol in my system, but apparently, I didn't put enough effort in.

Slowly – painfully - I pushed myself into an upright position, sitting on my bed as I tried to wipe the sleep from my eyes.

A small, amused chuckle emanated from the other side of the room, gradually growing into a laugh as I finally blinked my eyes open.

"Looks like someone had a rough night," Gabriel stated with a stupid grin on his face.

Scarlet was storming left and right in the dorm room with her arms crossed as she gave me an expectant glower through the corner of her crimson eyes.

Stop trying to be intimidating. It's not a look that suits you.

I pushed my legs down the side of my bed and yawned, running a hand down my face for a moment before struggling to my feet.

"Rise and shine, got a fresh day ahead of us," the gambler said, flashing a coy smile as he straightened his uniform tie.

"Fantastic." I adjusted the beanie on my head before silently walking to the bathroom.

Interacting with them in this condition would piss me off. The thought of making eye contact pissed me off, let alone striking conversation.

When I pushed my way inside the bathroom, I locked the door behind me, immediately making my way to the sink and turning the faucets on.

I let the sink fill to the brim before cupping my hands together and splashing my face with the warm water before rubbing my face and flicking my hands back down toward the sink as I grabbed a towel.

I quickly dabbed and wiped my face dry before hanging it back on the rack.

"I'm not cut out for this shit…" I muttered under my breath as I pushed myself away from the sink. Tucking my dishevelled hair back inside my beanie before sauntering back into the main room.

"Ray! You need to get ready, your uniform is on your bed!" Scarlet was determined to make the obvious just that little bit clearer to me.

I have eyes, you red dwarf.

I can see that.

Lunch.

After the first couple lessons, this brief period of downtime was the perfect excuse to drowsily eat and gaze into my scroll like it was made of gold.

For the record, I did modify it to use gold-plated connections to improve conductivity, but only because I could afford it.

It helped having a master thief as a guardian sometimes.

Hell… if it wasn't for Lylac's kleptomania, I'd still be in an abandoned building tinkering with broken, semi-functional scrap parts.

I owe a lot to that girl.

My thumb flicked across my scroll's screen as I idly sipped a fruit smoothie through a bendy straw, partially hunched over the benches in the cafeteria like a golem.

Scarlet was sat next to me, amazingly mustering up the courage to speak to a stranger.

Ruby, I think her name was.

They were discussing weapons or something, the red girl- Sorry, the hooded red girl gushing incredulously over the pointy, glorified, weaponised pitchfork my partner used.

Not like I was much better though… I just used projectors and a rare, unstable energy.

For now, at least.

I have bigger toys at home.

It wasn't long before Ruby left us to our own devices, awkwardly saying goodbye to Scarlet, before apprehensively waving me off.

I ignored her. The news article on my scroll was far more interesting.

Scarlet huffed out a tightly held breath as she turned back to her plate of fries. Daintily plucking one out from the pile on her plate and dipping it into ketchup before nibbling the end.

She suddenly froze in her place for a moment before quickly snapping her gaze up toward the large glass window in front of us.

"Hey Ray?" the girl hesitantly murmured to me as she stared concernedly at my face. I could see in my peripherals that the expression she donned was somewhat… disconcerting.

I hummed in response as I kept my eyes on my scroll, casually reading through the news as the girl nudged my shoulder.

"Do you ever… get the feeling that…" she paused for a moment as I momentarily turned to meet her uncertain gaze. "Something bad is about to happen…?"

Did I feel that?

All the time.

The encroaching threat of an overwhelming, menacing force slowly clawing at the defensive barriers of our civilisation. Killing off any brave soul that swore an oath to drive it back.

Yeah, I felt it.

I'd felt it ever since I was eleven.

I gave the girl a nod as I returned to face my scroll again, intent on reading the rest of the text displayed.

"It wouldn't make sense if I didn't. Auras do it to protect us."

The girl quietly bit her bottom lip as she turned back to her plate of fries. Her appetite clearly not as strong as it was when she ordered them.

"I… know that but… do you ever, like…" She paused again, letting her crimson eyes dart to the window before turning their gaze to me. "Feel a really strong sense of danger right before it's about to happen? Even if you're in a place where you know nothing can hurt you…?"

Her words piqued my curiosity, the infectious worrying state they brought me forcing me to tear my gaze away from my handheld device again.

"Not that I can think of…"

I stared at her for a long, tense moment before she tore her gaze away from mine and back to the window.

I quirked an eyebrow at her, curious to what reason she had to ask this question.

"Scarlet. Do you feel this sensation now?"

Her expression answered my question immediately.

She kept her eyes averted from mine, but I could sense the faintest hint of fear exuding from her skin as she bit her lip anxiously.

I could practically taste it from where I sat…

"Are you sure you're not imagining things?" I asked slowly, peering at her grave countenance as her gaze wavered between her plate of fries and the delicate hands grasping at the edge of the bench.

Her position stayed the same until she silently nodded to my question.

The sigh leaving my slightly parted lips was laced with a flicker of hesitation as I watched the girl stare at her food with a pensive gaze.

She muttered something under her breath that I didn't catch, and a few extra moments passed before she flinched, her hand snapping to her forehead, massaging it like she was working a headache away.

"Scarlet…?" I asked slowly, a frown forming on my face as she clenched her eyes.

"S-Something's wrong…" she stuttered more forcefully, pushing herself away from the table and standing.

Her crimson eyes remained closed as her breathing started to deepen. The girl's lungs inhaling before releasing a heavy, ragged breath.

My first instinct was to try to get her to snap out of it, but out of curiosity I waited.

Waited to see where this went.

Even if my foresight was telling me that I was about to be dragged into something I wasn't going to like.

Before I had any time to react, I felt her grasp the collar of my jacket aggressively.

Angry red eyes clashing with my own as my partner and leader bore into what felt like my very soul…

I'd seen those eyes before… especially the barely noticeable glow deep within their crimson glare.

"Something's wrong. We need to go."

In my stupor, I didn't have a response on hand. Not that Scarlet would give me the chance to formulate one as she effortlessly tore me out of my seat, giving me a whopping split second to grab my messenger bag before she hauled my ass down the nearly empty cafeteria.

Oh wonderful, and it would seem Niro Ezdeil felt like regarding us as the soles of my canvas shoes screeched along the polished floor and down the hall.

In my limited experience, I'd gathered that Scarlet was only assertive in times of particular need.

And if this was the case, she was almost definitely dragging me toward something bad…

"Do you think we should do something?"

That question was about as stupid as stupid can get.

But given what we were faced with, alongside a large body of other students, it was a fair one.

This nightmare was huge, taller than an office building.

And was smacking students around like little ants congregating at its feet, biting at its ankles like

the pests they were.

They had no hope… not a snowball's chance in hell… of penetrating that thing's scales.

I build weapons that fired supersonic rounds, great big artillery cannons that ripped through airships like they were made of paper and even they would have difficulty piercing that hide.

Scarlet, as to be expected, had jumped off the cliff without a moment of hesitation, the very thing she struggled to do yesterday during Caza's class.

And it wasn't long before Kyzal had joined her in this crusade. Making a discrete, split-second use of his glossy black wings to glide down safely.

Me and Gabriel stood on the cliff, where it was safe.

"Ray…? You still with me?"

I heard his words, I even processed them.

But I had no response.

Nothing in my mind that could even be considered a definitive answer for him, or anyone else.

This beast, a Dremoha-class grimm… it had something about it that very much unsettled me.

And no, it wasn't the fact that it possessed three heads each acting independently from one another as it tried to crush, maul, splatter and decimate the army of students on the ground beneath the cliff.

It wasn't even the fact that those were all that remained of 9 total heads either, the other 7 being seared off by something hot and sharp.

But…

Muffled screaming… Warnings blotting out my fading vision…

It… I-It was…

Sweat accumulated on my forehead as I failed to tear my eyes from the titan before me.

My breath was caught in my throat.

[Oxygen Deprivation Imminent!]

N-No way… Not a chance in f-fucking hell…

The blonde limp in my arms, her heartrate slowing to a crawl…

Streams of scorching hot water came in torrents as the Hydra blasted the students, burning them, causing immense pain for the bastard to fuel its bloodlust.

Not like this…

I couldn't move… my body was frozen stiff in my spot on the cliffside. I didn't even notice Gabriel leaping down to assist.

My eyes were wide and centred on the jets this creature fired out of its three heads.

I'm pretty sure someone was calling my name but all sounds dulled to a silenced hum. All of my attention solely focused on the Hydra.

Literally any other element and this would be completely fine.

It had to be water…

Why is it always fucking water…?

I couldn't fight it…

Yes, you can.

I couldn't help them…

They need you, Ray.

Nothing I was capable of was anywhere near damaging enough to actually yield results…

Jaune Arc flying past my head was more than enough proof of that…

None of them can fight like you can.

My hands were shaking as my team beckoned to me, desperately trying to wake me from this living nightmare…

I was useless to them in this situation… What good could possibly come from me taking this thing on?

A distraction? It would crush me like an insect…

I wasn't even going to attempt to cause damage to it. Not while trying to restrain my unstable energy at the same time.

Any damage I did to the Hydra would mean death for the other students.

I-It'd be more beneficial for everyone involved if I were to just turn around and wal-

An agonized scream caught my attention, piercing through my jumbled thoughts and forcing my attention to a girl on the ground.

Her ankle was twisted, possibly even broken. And what made her position so much worse was that the same scream that drew my attention caused one of the Hydra's heads to face her too…

Steam billowed out of its nostrils as a menacing cerulean light made its way out of the open maw of the singular head.

She's going to die.

I know that…

You need to help her.

You have to do something.

Shut up!

I couldn't stand the sight of the looming giant above her, about ready to finish the poor thing off as tears began welling in her eyes.

She couldn't die like this…

She had so much to live for…

And despite all that, all I did was stand here, trembling in my frozen state of complete and total fear of water.

Why did it have to be water?

The Hydra exhaled another jet of steam out of its nose again before its ugly head reared back, the glow in its throat brightening exponentially before a torrent of blistering water shot toward the girl on the ground.

My body moved before my mind even processed it.

I crashed into the ground before the girl and faced the rushing stream directly.

"Get your head down."

Hardlight accumulated in my right leg as I raised it, shimmering over my thigh and flowing downward toward my foot, building up to a devastating counterattack as the sole of my canvas shoe slammed into the dirt.

Vibrant, purple light erupted from my foot, crashing and shooting out toward the stream in jagged, irregularly sharpened shards to meet it halfway and cut right through the attack.

Its power and velocity far exceeded what anyone could have possibly expected from me as I poured more into it. Driving back the Hydra's attack and slamming into the creature's gut so hard, it shoved the thing back a few metres.

I didn't do any damage to it, it was only to distract the thing long enough to pick the girl up and relocate her somewhere safe.

A pillar of hardlight launched us toward the cliffside, somewhere for me to fortify as I set the girl down and turned around.

It was far too late for me to make a retreat, so I had to make do with what I was given.

A flat, empty plateau with absolutely little to no cover, assaulted by a monster of untold strength and size.

And its only aggressors were students of an academy designed to train warriors. Hardly experienced in taking down grimm a hundred times smaller than this one. We, as a collective group, were fighting an uphill battle.

There needed to be a way to turn the tide of this battle into our favour, and the only way I could think of doing that is through support.

The best offence was more often than not, a good defence.

And fortunately for everyone involved, defence is what I excelled at.

When you're the only child of one of the world's most stubborn men, it makes sense for you to be just as persistent.

"W-What are you going to do?"

The timid voice of the girl I saved broke through my concentration as I looked at her over my shoulder.

She was sat upright, clutching at her ankle as her ashen tresses swayed in the light breeze, brushing softly against the decorated steel spaulders sewn expertly to her battlescarred leather armour.

She raised a good question, one I had yet to figure out the answer to.

But if there was any hope to defeat this thing and let everyone go home in one piece, I needed to find a solution.

"Everyone's trying so hard to attack that they're completely forgetting defence," I replied harshly. "It would seem that it's my job to compensate for that. If nothing else, at least."

She nodded, even if she had a slight frown on her face.

"There's no cover here… the only way for anyone to avoid damage is to dodge," she commented, her tawny golden eyes gazing up at me. "If you can create cover for everyone, it'd make life a lot easier to drive this thing back."

She had a point, but driving it away would make it someone else's nightmare to deal with.

We had to kill this thing, it was the only way to relieve the world of its destructive wake.

"Y-You can create cover, right?"

It would exhaust my aura supply and suck me of all my energy, but yeah, I could create cover. But my hardlight can only be sustained while I'm in physical contact with it.

I'd have to keep moving to defend everyone from the blasts of water and the brute force of all three of its heads.

Three of them, one of me.

I could keep up with it, but that would leave this girl and others like her at the mercy of death while I'm protecting someone else.

Death takes no prisoners.

Only trophies.

But… if I cover the ground in a thin sheen of hardlight, I wouldn't have to move at all…

I could stay here, protect this girl, and give the injured somewhere safe to retreat to while bringing up momentary shield walls for people to hide behind.

But my aura would suffer heavily for it… I only have a finite amount.

I could only bring these shields up for maybe a couple of seconds at a time if I had any chance to retain some of it.

And with this hangover, those couple of seconds might only be one before these idiots had to get out of the fucking way.

This was going to suck.

And given how students were falling like dominoes left and right, it already sucked.

There was no room for error here, if I was going to do this, I had to do it now.

"Brace yourself," I muttered to the girl behind me, crouching low to the ground and planting my fingers in the soil.

A curved wall of light slowly manifested in front of us, facing the Hydra, and in a bright violet flash, a sheet of hardlight spread out to cover the entire floor of the clearing beneath the cliff.

There was no way that asshole Ozpin wasn't watching, but I only had one question for him.

If you didn't recognise me before, do you remember me now?

My gaze fell on the girl behind me as she shuffled closer to where I was crouched.

"I'll call out people that need protecting, you just bring up shields," she said determinedly.

I nodded as I faced the battlefield again. My own face contorting into an adamant expression.

People seemed to take heed of the purple light illuminating the grass beneath their feet, some even acknowledging the one behind it as I had a few glances come my way.

That's right you morons, I'm protecting you now. So, do your damn jobs and kill this thing so we can all go back inside.

"There! On the left!"

My eyes fell to the team of four boys trying to hack at the Hydra's legs as its body reared up to crush them, and the instant its clawed foot came down, it was met with a wall of hardlight, stopping it in its path.

And to add insult to injury, claws of my own jutted out of the shield and lodged themselves into the beast's ankle, keeping its foot in place long enough for the students to move before the shield faltered and shattered under the weight of the Dremoha.

There were a few students actually capable of doing damage to this thing.

My partner being one of them.

She was collaborating with DICL and a few others I wasn't paying attention to.

Good on her for actually making conversation, even if it was only when she couldn't afford to be shy.

I tried to spare quick observations of her as the girl beside me called out more shield placements, covering the groups fleeing after they realised that they were next to useless against this thing.

Most of which were congregating to me, taking cover behind the shield wall that I had to widen in order to cover them all.

I needed to keep it open to allow others inside.

Else they were as good as dead, but the more people that sat behind me and took a breather, the higher the chance of the Hydra targeting us was.

I took counter measures against this, reinforcing the shield with struts that stabbed into the ground and rooted themselves firmly.

Nothing was getting past this wall.

"Hey man… thanks," one of the male students behind me breathed out as he caught his breath.

I nodded to him, before quickly turning my gaze to Scarlet as her bardiche went straight through one of the Hydra's necks, followed up by a blast of white, scorching flames from that fucking kitsune bitch in DICL to cauterize the wound and prevent the Hydra from regenerating.

Good job, kid.

Scarlet was directed toward me by Dante and quickly ran over toward me, a slight look of satisfaction on her face as she sprinted over and slid behind my shield.

"Ray! You're here!" she beamed.

Don't look so surprised, you were all dead without someone to protect your sorry asses.

I hummed in affirmation as the girl next to me called out more students.

"Couldn't let you hog all the fun, could I?" I muttered sarcastically in reply as I tried to focus, my eyes darting to the shields popping up to block and deflect the Hydra's waterjets from sniping them as they ran toward the cliff face.

"I sincerely hope one of you has a goddamn plan, because this isn't going to last, Scarlet."

The girl crouch walked to my left-hand side and rested her hand on my shoulder to support herself there.

"Dante says he has a plan, and I'm not sure how capable he is of pulling it off. He's good, but I don't know him that well to make an accurate assumption of his abilities just yet," she replied informatively, keeping her eyes on the Hydra, analysing its movements.

"Forget that, we need to do something to get the injured out of here," A blue-haired girl called out from behind us, forcing my gaze to lock with hers for a moment before turning back.

"Really now? And how do you suppose we do that when there's no entrance to the school from down here?" I asked in return, albeit a little snarky. "I'm not building a set of fucking stairs for you all to saunter up there, not while trying to protect you at the same time. There's 9 of you here now, figure something out."

My response shut her up and silenced any murmuring for a few seconds before the girl I personally saved piped up. "What if we just played the waiting game? Hole up here until someone kills it?"

"And wait for the Hydra to target this area and kill us in one blast?" I countered, sparing a moment to glance at her.

She shook her head before pointing toward the Hydra. "There's still a dozen students taking it on and they seem to be doing well. If we actually distract it long enough for them to finish it off, there's a chance we'll help them in the process."

I turned away from her, glaring at the behemoth as that red-hooded girl sprinted close enough to it to nearly get herself crushed as she fired shot after shot from her massive sniper-scythe.

"And how do you propose our distraction?" I asked after a few seconds of observing Ruby's weapon warping in her hands.

The girl next to me faltered in her response, shrinking slightly before taking a breath.

"We can't," Scarlet cut her off as she turned to me. I could feel her weight leaning into me a little more as she flashed an uncharacteristic smirk, "but you can."

Oh no…

You are not putting me up to this, you sadistic little-

A/N: I'm a lazy ass writer finally finishing off a mostly done chapter and actually getting to uploading it. Feels like a year since I last updated this story, but here we are.

There aren't many things I feel I should address, but I've been working hard with Xera and Andy on Rogue Huntsman as well as providing support for Timeless Awakening so at least I haven't stopped writing, just been too focused on those two stories.

Let's not forget to mention co-writing A Feather Stolen, too.

Either way, I'm going to making more of a conscious effort to get Lost in Binary chapters out because I've been severely falling behind on that.

Have a good one!

-Hydra