Violent winds whipped across Winter's face as she stared down from a bullhead quickly rising up from the landing platform where Grimm besieged the docking building at all sides.
Taking aim with a rifle, she conjured a glyph to steady her hands due to wounds all over her body, before firing and sniping down Nevermores that were flocking nearby.
Steel-like feathers fell from dissipating black bodies, but Winter paid them no mind even as those very same feathers mottled the ground with holes.
The acrid scent of burning asphalt and charred rubber wafted up high into the air, as Winter stared at a city in ruins. Signs and banners that were marked for celebration and happiness were torn to pieces. The banners that hailed the start of the present year's Vytal festival would ultimately become the benchmark in history where an entire kingdom fell in less than a single day.
Winter's eyes hardened as she watched a Grimm in the form of a black shadow swallowing everything in its wake. T-That damn thing.
Jaw clenching, Winter recalled the moment the floating Vytal Festival arena exploded. She'd been launched far from the group of academy students and was instead closer to civilians. Out on patrol during the finals, she and her group had spread out to provide security, but that did little good when the entire venue exploded into pieces.
As Winter had plummeted from the sky and Grimm utterly flocked into Vale, she witnessed first-hand how that single Grimm shadow swallowed civilian after civilian.
It was maddening.
She'd tried to intervene and fire at it, but as if fighting an actual shadow, it seemed to dematerialize and allow her attacks to just phase through.
Of the people of Vale that managed to escape on emergency bullheads, it accounted for only ten percent of Vale's population.
The death toll was staggering.
If not for the sudden arrival of the Huntsman of Red, and whatever magic he pulled to isolate the Grimm, no one would have been able to escape.
Winter was fortunate in the regard that she was left outside the boundary of the magic the Huntsman of Red had utilized. While the Huntsman of Red and the others engaged Salem and her forces within a world of blades, Winter had remained in Vale.
She'd been helping evacuate civilians ever since.
The last of the remaining civilians had departed, and her duty as a Huntress was fulfilled, but that didn't stop the overwhelming feeling of loss and panic welling up from within her.
Winter could not find Weiss or any of the other Beacon Academy Students. It was likely that they too were caught up in the shadow war and trapped in battle against Salem.
A brief window of relief had appeared when civilians started escaping back into Vale through what appeared to be cracks in the air, but it was short lived.
None of the people Winter wished to see had yet to return safely.
Puring her lips, Winter remained stubborn while standing at the side of an open bullhead.
"Stop looking, and close the hatch."
A pilot's voice echoed from an intercom at the bullhead loading bay.
"..." Winter knit her brows, still staring down as Vale was overrun by Grimm.
"We need to pressurize the cabin. There are civilians captain," the pilot said.
"...Just a bit longer."
"Captain."
"..."
"We'll raise altitude in another minute. There's no more time for delays. Look to the horizon."
YOU ARE READING
The Huntsman of Red V2
AdventureGuardian, Protector, Hero, and perhaps something more, that was what he had always meant to her, but to others he was simply known as the Huntsman of Red, Remnant's final hope. This story is not mine, it belongs to Parcasious
