Never Change

Chapter 33

Blake looked to her right, seeing Sun. The monkey faunus was primed to fight, his staff already out.

To her left, was Adam. Adam Taurus, who had attacked Beacon, let Grimm into the school, and hurt her friends. And yet, here she was, working with him.

"The enemy of your enemy is your friend," Percy had once told her. And it definitely rang true here. As much as she didn't want to be caught dead near Adam Taurus, she had to work with him to take down Hazel Rainart.

Which was why Adam's sword was glowing bloodred with untapped power. They'd abused his semblance, sending bullets and punches and just attacking the katana in general. The kinetic energy that they had stored in it was saved, but there was a time limit to how long Adam could actually hold that energy.

Further to the left were Sienna Khan, Ilia, and the Fennec Brothers, who all had their weapons out. Khan looked resolute, her jaw set in a straight line. She turned her head, meeting Blake's amber eyes, as they both gave each other a nod.

At least they understood each other. Hazel Rainart needed to be taken down.

They had set the ambush on the path to the White Fang's headquarters, which weren't in the heart of Kuo Kuana, but actually off to the side of Kuo Kuana. To get there, one had to traverse a small path through some forest, which was where they had set up. Khan had ensured that the White Fang wouldn't get in the way of their fight.

"He's heading this way," Blake heard a White Fang scout's voice through the channel on the transceiver, "ETA: approximately two minutes."

"Well, I guess this is it," Sun commented rather uselessly.

"Thank you for your commentary, Sun," Blake deadpanned. Internally, she was grateful for it, though. Sometimes his dumb comments helped take her mind off things.

It let her know that Sun was just as nervous and anxious as she was, despite not having been a member of the White Fang before. Everyone got nerves before a battle, and Sun was a welcome reminder of her own fallibility.

They waited another minute, before they finally heard signs of the man approaching. His walk was heavy, as his boots crunched on the little leaves and twigs along the stone pathway.

Hazel Rainart.

True to his description, he was a giant of a man, standing at around eight feet, if Blake had to guess. He gave off an imposing aura, even from this far away.

He wore a long, brown and green cloak and had no visible weapons on him. Blake could see the bulge of dust crystals in his back pocket, though. His only weapons were his fists, it seemed like. They just had to take him out before he could use the dust crystals, right? He might have been a massive guy, but they could take him down.

The giant's back stiffened, seemingly alert, despite none of them having made any motions.

Before any of them gave the signal, Adam slashed downwards.

A red arc of power exploded outwards towards the giant, bloodred ash following as the ground shook. The explosion kicked up dust from the ground,

They all came out from the tree trunks they were hiding behind and tried to look for any sign of the giant. There was nothing there.

He couldn't have survived that attack, right? Maybe his corpse was ripped into pieces from the pure strength of the attack.

But part of Blake felt like something was terribly, terribly off. It was unsettling, not seeing the any sign of the giant.

She couldn't have been more right.