Yang and Weiss were glad to be in the caves, away from the frigid air.

"Still think the dress was a good idea?" Yang playfully jabbed the ex-heiress, who rolled her eyes with a smirk.

"The weather in Atlas is actually much worse." She chuckled back. "Still though, a jacket certainly wouldn't do any harm."

Yang began to give her coat to the pale girl, but Weiss stopped her. "Yang, I'll be fine." A moment of silence followed as they walked. "Thanks though."

The two shared a smile before exiting to the icy air once more to an open, snow-covered field with buildings long since destroyed.

"Tal said we'd find an execution, right?" Yang inquired.

"Yeah, but all I see is a bunch of ruins. I say we keep our voices down and get a vantage point."

Yang nodded as Weiss made steps up to a hill with her glyphs. As they crouched, Yang suddenly seized her teammate's arm and pointed to where a battle-scarred olog was chained to the floor of a ruin, hands bound together as another uruk surrounded by his own soldiers equipped with a darkened sword riding a caragor stared him down.

"So, Az-Rans. Not so tough now that your boss is gone huh?"

The olog grinned sadistically. "Unchain me and we'll see whose head adorns the fortress walls, Hosgrish."

The other uruk dismounted and went face to face with the large orc. "You and I both know that you'll rip me apart if I give you the chance. Which is why, after I'm done with your pathetic crew, this blade will find your heart!" with that, he slammed his fist into the olog's skull, triggering maniac laughter from the olog.

"Pain is my domain, fool!" Hosgrish shrugged off the comment as he drew his blade and stabbed the first of The Dragon's forces.

"That looks like the guy Tal described to us." Yang declared as Weiss agreed with a nod.

"And judging by how much he's agitating his executioner, we don't have much time."

A silent exchange took place as Yang leapt to the ground and Weiss headed up to eliminate any uruks up in the towers.

Hosgrish's gaze turned to the young woman calmly striding towards him. What started as a chuckle turned in breathless laughter. "You really think you're going to do anything?!"

Yang said nothing, merely watched as four shields closed ranks around him and Weiss silently killed archer after archer, giving the blonde her cue to deal with the remaining grunts. With a shot from Ember Celica, she lit one of the shields aflame, sending its bearer into a panic as he stumbled into the others, diminishing their protection.

Annoyed, Hosgrish shoved past his soldiers as his caragor leapt at Yang. She braced for the impact of the beast, only to find that Weiss had summoned a beowolf to duel the caragor in a frenzy of gnashing teeth and razor claws. The rider slashed horizontally and Yang jumped back. She retaliated with a strong left hook that was subsequently countered by a dodge and a slash to the limb. When steel met steel, Hosgrish was stunned as Yang's cybernetic arm struck him in the chest sending him backward.

"Dumb pinkskin. Metallic arms don't have the same flexibility as your own."

"You'd be surprised." She retaliated as the two fought back and forth.

Once Weiss was satisfied Yang could hold her own against the executioner, she took the opportunity and killed the bodyguards with a series of lightning slashes. She then moved to the trapped olog who struggled against the chains. She made eye contact as he grinned like a psychopath at her. "The Bright Lord is gone, only those he slew remain." She said quickly.

The smile disappeared from The Dragon's face as Weiss froze his binds. With a mighty jolt, the metal shattered from his wrists as he sprinted towards Hosgrish with a terrifying war cry and tackled him to the ground, the black sword being sent flying into the snow.

Az-Rans beat his captor relentlessly with his fists until he failed to stand. The olog retrieved the sword that was promised to kill him and he snapped it in half before retrieving his own weapon and beating his captor's skull until there was nothing but black paste embedded in the snow. He turned towards his rescuers and spoke. "So he sent you to retrieve me? Very well. I will gather my soldiers." With that, he took off back into the caves.

"So…I guess that was a successful mission?" Weiss inquired.

Yang shrugged back. "Who knows? We did everything Tal told us to do. Now I guess we just find a secluded spot and wait for Tal to come get us." Weiss nodded back and the two ascended the cliffs to a spot untouched by any form of life and sheltered from the cold winds by the mountainside.

"I wonder how Ruby and Blake are making out." Weiss wondered aloud.

Ruby silently followed her teammate's lead as the two snuck around an uruk patrol and continued their uphill trek until the two huntresses came to a flat area with a tower adorning a blue flame at the top along with several ruined stone walls scattered around.

"This is the place, right?" Blake asked her leader.

Ruby could only shrug back. "Beats me. Tal said to look for that tower and his guy would be nearby trying to break…"

"Caragors." Blake interrupted, pointing to a group of the beasts idly hunting for food, one of them adorning an entirely white coat.

As the two observed, all six beasts' heads snapped up as a horrifying roar emanated from behind a ruined wall. Ruby began to sprint to the corner of the cover as Blake followed closely. Both peered around to see an uruk clad in a chestplate, bracers, shoulder plates and a mask, all of which appeared to be made of bone as he carried a sheathed sword at his waist.

The faunus and reaper looked at each other. "That him?" Blake whispered.

"Your guess is probably better than mine." Ruby replied with a sigh. "But he does fit the description Tal gave us so…"

She was interrupted once again by a vicious voice. "Death Bone! My spies tell me you're still loyal to your master, but tell me; where was he when we strangled your brother and fed him to our caragors?" The antagonizing voice came from an gap in the mountain where an uruk who looked exactly like The Pretender carrying the same weapons emerged with a squad of his own soldiers in tow.

Ruby and Blake exchanged concerned looks as the two captains clashed and the same thought crossed their minds.

"Isn't that one of Tal's guys?!" Blake whispered concernedly.

The younger one bit her lip as she thought before shaking her head a moment later. "No. Tal's guy is miles away from here. There's no way he could get here on foot in that amount of time with all this terrain in his way. That must be his doppelganger."

Blake thought for a moment before rationalization descended. They couldn't hesitate much longer as it appeared that Death Bone's forces were fighting a losing skirmish. The Faunus nodded back and they rushed in where Death Bone had been knocked down by a shield-bash from his ambusher and a sword was descending on his skull from one of his followers.

A shadowed figure entered his vision as Blake cut the attacker in half with Gambol Shroud before unsheathing the dual swords as Ruby helped Death Bone to his feet before deploying Crescent Rose.

The Pretender look-alike laughed menacingly as his remaining followers flocked to his side. "Mankind will bow before the dark lord's will. It is my duty as The Tower to carry out his sentence." He then raised his pike and the remaining half-dozen soldiers rushed to the girls as Death Bone strode toward his nemesis.

Blake waited until two blades were close to her before activating her semblance and augmented with ice dust, froze their blades solid. She then dealt with the last one with a slash to the arm with the smaller blade and a deeper cut to the neck with the larger sword.

Ruby made her form lower and fired, using the momentum from the shot to knock all her enemies on their backs with the blunt end of her weapon and preformed a downward strike with the scythe on an uruk's heart, killing him instantly.

Blake's remaining opponents were dealt with easily, one intent on retrieving his sword until Gambol Shroud found his heart while the other resorted to fists, which ended in a severed arm and a bullet in the skull.

Her team leader dealt with the last two easily, flying into the air with her semblance, firing a shot through one's shoulder, heart and leg while cleanly bifurcating the other using her razor scythe. They turned their attention to Death Bone, who was roaring violently at the top of his lungs as with both hands, he gripped his sword and relentlessly assaulted The Tower's shield, forcing him to the ground ever so slowly until the metallic safeguard could take no more and shattered. The Tower defiantly swung his pike at his assailant but was stopped. The long reach of the weapon meant it was useless at close range without a barrier and Death Bone stomped on The Tower's arm before dropping his sword and slashing at his face with his signature Feral tribe gauntlets ceaselessly until the life left his body.

Breathing heavily, the masked uruk stood, grabbed his blade, raised it and Ruby went into panic mode. "The Bright Lord is gone, only those he slew remain!" She shouted quickly.

He seemed to relax, returning to a neutral stance and lowering his blood-soaked sword.

He then approached the nearby caragor pack, mounted one and rode off where Ruby and Blake came from.

"So… mission accomplished?" Blake more asked rather than stated.

Ruby could only shrug in reply. "I guess so? I mean… he's not dead. We should probably get somewhere safe. How about the top of that ruin? We won't be covered from the wind, but they won't be able to see us." Blake followed her leader and the two waited for their friend to retrieve them.

Ruby then hugged her knees to her chest as a grimace skimmed her face, an expression that didn't go unnoticed by her teammate.

"Hey, everything okay?"

The little reaper sighed. "It's just... I'm not using to killing something so..."

"Human?" Ruby nodded back as Blake sat next to her leader. "It's starting to hit me too. At least the Grimm look and act like soulless animals. But these things have personalities, voices, and emotions. I don't know how to feel about this."

"I guess we just have to trust Tal about what he says about these things and how they want to see humanity wiped out."

Blake opened her mouth to agree but the sounds of combat reached her ears. Shouting, steel on steel, and the terrified calls of help from the uruks. The two girls watched as Talion, in his darkened armor and black cloak scaled a tower a mile into the sky within seconds before teleporting to the top of the ruin next to them.

"Thank you for saving my captain. Are you both prepared for the siege?"

"Where are Yang and Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"Safe. Awaiting my and your arrival with my army at the fortress gates."

The two exchanged determined looks as Ruby spoke again. "Let's take that fort back."