CBLT: Huntsmen in Training

Chapter 4: Protection - Priority One

"Fight grimm, same as everyone else." Cobalt answers.

"Yes, but why fight the grimm, I already told you I want to become a huntress for status, and you called me shallow." Bianca criticizes.

"People, a lot of people get hurt," Cobalt pauses "and they never deserve it."

"No, but you can't save everyone, there's hardly any hope to become that strong." Bianca responds.

"Hope." Cobalt says.

Bianca stares at him confused. "what?"

"People need more hope." Cobalt tells her, the conversation dropping from then on. The two students enter a large cavern chamber. Mine tracks, several mine carts, and a large decayed drill lay scattered throughout the area. While several metal humanoids decorate the room, AK-130's (Atlesian Knight Model 130). Deactivated and waiting for them.

"We got here faster than I expected." Bianca walks over to the nearest robot.

"Wait!" Cobalt interrupts, "listen."

The two of them stop and listen closely to the eerie silence around them, a sudden rumble echoes from above, silence, rumble, silence. The rumble in the stone above picks up pace and grows louder. The two draw their weapons and aim to the ceiling in anticipation. Abruptly something crashes through, the rock knocked away revealing a tunnel in the ceiling. Dust thrown into the air. A shadowed figure lurks in the cloud. Bianca activates her sniper; the hum of electricity emanates from it. Cobalt's eyes invert in color, a deep blue iris turning into a dull orange. He relaxes lowering his pistols.

"We're okay." he calls out.

Coughing can be heard from the dust cloud. Settling down it reveals two people lying on the ground in a disheveled state. Tanaka with metal plating, lights, and hard-light dust decorating his body. He looks similar to the atlesian knight in design. And Lapis being shielded from the fall by Tanaka's embrace. Bianca sheaths her weapon. Cobalt helps them to their feet and Tanaka deactivates his armor and riot shield as they shrink in size.

"What happened to you two?" Bianca asks them.

"Manticore broke the floor from under us" Tanaka replies.

"Why is a manticore grimm in the mountain? They usually stay outside to fly around, is it trapped in here?" Bianca questions.

"I don't know, but it looked old. Plenty of plating and it's bite really hurt" Tanaka examines the scratches on the metal plating around his arm. Lapis waves her hand in the air rapidly, then forms wings with her hands and quickly clenches her fists harshly. 

"The wings... are damaged?" Cobalt asks her, she nods at him.

"That's odd right?" Tanaka asks. 

Bianca ponders "Not entirely, just means the last huntsmen who fought it couldn't finish the job."

The room around them suddenly shakes. Pieces of rock and ice fall from the ceiling. A drumming of beats and taps can be heard in the walls around them. 

"Time to leave" Cobalt announces.

Bianca echoes. "agreed, our mission is to escort the knight to safety, no sense in staying in this death trap of a mountain." The rest of the group nods in agreement. Two of the atlesian knights hum to life with neon blue illuminating, ready to follow them.

The cavern wall rumbles violently. The nearby wall explodes outwards as a black swarm of centinel grimm pour into the room. The first few burst into black ash as Cobalt fires rapidly into them. The group takes off running with the knight droids centered between them. Cobalt loads another clip into his pistols before unloading the dust shells into the chasing monsters.

"Anyone know the way out?!" Tanaka exclaimed.

"This entire mountain is a maze of tunnels, there's no telling which one will lead us out of here." Bianca replied.

A centinel bursts out from the nearby wall and lunges onto one of the robots only for Tanaka to snatch the monster and tear it in two. The grimm's body disintegrating into black ash behind them. The group taking a turn down a new tunnel that winds and twists upward. A violent roar reverberates up the tunnel followed by the sound of collapsing walls and heavy thumps. Sunlight pours around the tunnel's bend.

"An exit!" Bianca yells out, relief washing over her.

As the group turns the bend, they come to face a small stretch of a tunnel with a dead end. Sprinting up to the wall, they turn back firing into the encroaching swarm. Cobalt glances upward finding an exit above frozen over by a thick sheet of transparent ice. 

"The ice above, Tanaka?" Cobalt says.

"It's too thick, I need time to break that." Tanaka tells him.

Lapis steps past them, twisting around her wide bracelets. Dust vials spin around her wrists before locking onto fire dust. Red energy flows along her gloves like molten iron into grooves to shape it. Her gloves become infused with fire dust. She claps her hands together and pulls them apart slowly. A ball of burning flame grows between her palms as she pulls her hands apart. She claps her hands together again and throws them into the sky. A steady jet steam of fire expels from her hands to the ice above, beginning to melt it.

Dozens of centinels scurry down towards them with violent haste. The onslaught held back by shot after coming from Cobalt's pistols and Bianca's rifle. Each shot from Bianca's rifle leaving a dissipating blue streak in its path.

A centinel leaps from the crowd towards them. Its lengthy form snatched from the air by Tanaka as he slams it into the wall and disintegrates. Cobalt ejects the clips from his pistols reloading. Abruptly the tension and focus breaks with a thundering roar shakes the surrounding walls. A tremendous white bone plated claw clutches the wall at the tunnels bend. A second whips around and slams into the swarm of black gnawing maws. The manticore pulls itself forward with fierce hatred towards them. It's body barely fitting. Its body grinding away at the tunnel walls shredding away the stone. Searing flames ignite on the edge of its jaw.

"Tanaka!" Cobalt calls out.

Springing forward Tanaka plants his feet. The metal plate along his arm rapidly expands and stretches creating a barrier of hard-light energy in front of him. The flames burst from monsters' mouth. A ball of fire streaks down the tunnel blasting away the pieces of the swarm. It collides against the towering shield head on. The blast curls around surface with fire barely trailing past its edges. The manticore howls with rage at its failed attack. Slamming its claws forward and pulls closer enraged while unleashing a series of weaker shots at Tanaka.

Cobalt whips his head back towards Lapis as the last inch of the ice melts away.

"Bianca, androids, now!" Cobalt commands.

Glowing lines appear along the walls edge. Bianca speeds along them up the vertical surface and out of the tunnel. Turning back, she grasps the first androids reaching hand and pulls them out. Lapis twists her bracelets around before they lock onto a blue dust vial and frost covers her fingertips. She jumps ahead of Cobalt and Tanaka as the manticore and centinels near. She claps her hands together and yanks them apart in a flash outward infront of her. A spray of ice springs from her hands latching onto the walls. Asheet of ice spawning between the group and threats. The manticore's claw crashes through part of the sheet instantly. Bianca pulls the second android out of the tunnel. Bianca grabs Lapis and pulls her out, Cobalt hastily bounces from wall to wall to the top, and Tanaka leaps skyward grabbing onto the edge and hauls himself out. The group break into a spring away from the exit. A thundering roar bellows with a series of slams, cracks, and shakes in quickening succession. The ground sunders and the elder grimm bursts from the ground in a frenzy. It shakes away the debris and pursues them.