Chương 102: Chapter 95: The Falling Defense

The chaotic, thundering clash of metal against metal echoed across the freezing coastline of Argus, entirely drowning out the rhythmic crashing of the icy waves. Inside the heavily fortified command center of the Atlesian Military Base, the mood was tense but fiercely supportive. Rows of uniformed guards and technicians stood clustered around the primary surveillance monitors, watching the live feed of Special Operative Caroline Cordovin piloting her colossal mech.

They watched with bated breath as the massive, towering machine swiped its gigantic, articulated arm through the air, narrowly missing the stolen Manta airship currently being piloted by Maria Calavera and Oscar Pine." You just couldn't keep this rivalry between us, could you, Calavera?!" Cordovin's voice roared through the external acoustic projectors of the Colossus, her tone dripping with decades of festering, bitter animosity." You had to rope in children to fail with you!"

The command center erupted into cheers as Cordovin leveled the massive arm cannon and fired a devastating electrical blast. Unbeknownst to the celebrating soldiers, distracted entirely by their commander's personal vendetta, a single, massive red dot quietly flickered onto the extreme edge of the primary deep-water radar screen. It was moving slowly, but with terrifying, deliberate purpose, directly toward the city of Argus.

Out on the jagged, icy cliffside, the situation was desperate. Ruby Rose dangled precariously over the freezing, churning ocean below. Her knuckles were white as she clung for dear life to the shaft of Crescent Rose, the heavy scythe blade embedded deeply into the sheer, frosted rock face. The biting wind whipped her red cloak violently around her, threatening to tear her off the cliff with every gust. Through the viewport of the hovering Manta airship, Oscar spotted the young leader hanging over the abyss.

"Ruby!" Oscar yelled, pressing his hands against the cold glass in panic. Gritting her teeth against the freezing cold and her depleted Aura, Ruby dug the toes of her combat boots into the slick stone. With a sharp, agonizing heave of her shoulder muscles, she used the embedded scythe as a lever, violently pulling herself up and vaulting over the edge. She hit the snowy precipice with a heavy thud, scrambling backward until she bumped directly into her waiting team.

Weiss Schnee immediately dropped to her knees beside her, grabbing Ruby's shoulders with pale, trembling hands.

"Ruby! Are you alright?!" Weiss asked frantically, her icy composure completely melted by the near-death experience.

"I'm okay, Weiss," Ruby panted, offering a breathless, reassuring smile.

"You scared us half to death, sis!" Yang Xiao Long exclaimed, dropping down beside them. Her violet eyes were wide with a mixture of relief and lingering terror, her golden hair practically sparking with adrenaline.

"Don't ever pull a stunt like that again without a harness!"

"It was Cordovin!" Blake Belladonna hissed, her amber eyes narrowing into dangerous slits as she glared out at the towering Colossus wading through the bay. She kept Gambol Shroud drawn, her feline ears pinned flat against her skull.

"She isn't trying to capture us anymore. She is actively trying to kill us." Lie Ren stepped up, his expression grim but focused, while Qrow Branwen stood near the edge of the cliff, his grip on Harbinger tight enough to bend the metal. The earpiece in Ruby's ear crackled to life through the heavy static.

"Ruby, can you hear me? Are you guys okay?!" Oscar's frantic voice cut through the wind.

"Are we okay?!" Ruby yelled back, pulling herself to her feet with Weiss and Yang's help.

"That crazy old lady just tried to blast me into the ocean!"

"I know, I know, we were supposed to lay low," Oscar apologized rapidly.

"But listen! I was watching from the airship, and I think I finally found a weakness!"

"Well, we're all ears," Nora Valkyrie called out loudly as she trudged through the deep snow. Ruby, Yang, and Blake turned their heads to see Nora supporting a heavily bruised, exhausted Jaune Arc. The blonde knight was leaning heavily on the bomber-jacket-wearing girl, his armor scorched and smoking from the mech's brutal physical assault earlier. Pyrrha Nikos walked closely on his other side, her hands hovering protectively near his back, her green eyes filled with deep, unwavering concern.

"Jaune!" Ren breathed a heavy sigh of profound relief, immediately rushing over to help Nora support their battered leader.

"You're still standing."

"Takes a lot more than a giant robot to keep me down," Jaune grunted, forcing a brave, lopsided grin, though he winced as he shifted his weight. Pyrrha offered a soft, proud smile, gently adjusting the straps of his chestplate.

"His physical density absorbed the worst of the impact. He's bruised, but his core is completely sound."

"Guys, listen to me," Oscar's voice brought their focus back to the earpiece.

"The cylinder on Cordo's cannon rotates and locks in a giant Dust cartridge every time she changes attack styles."

"We noticed," Weiss replied dryly, crossing her arms.

"She's been cycling through Ice, Lightning, and Earth Dust like a madwoman."

"Right, but her missile launcher doesn't lock in, it pops out!" Oscar explained eagerly, his tactical mind racing.

"Without her hard-light shields, one well-placed shot could detonate the missiles while they're still inside the launcher!" Jaune's blue eyes widened as the strategic implication hit him.

"If the missiles detonate inside the housing... we could destroy the entire cannon from the inside out." He looked up, grinning despite his pain.

"Oscar, that's brilliant!" Nora stopped grinning, looking down at the massive, terrifying weapon mounted on the Colossus.

"Can you... make that kind of shot?"

"It's an incredibly narrow window," Blake analyzed, calculating the distance and wind resistance.

"The launcher is only exposed for a fraction of a second before it fires."

"I can do it," Ruby declared, stepping to the front of the group and spinning Crescent Rose into a ready position. Her silver eyes burned with absolute, unyielding determination.

"But we'll only get one chance before she catches on. I'd have to be practically staring down the barrel of her cannon to guarantee the hit."

"Well, I've got a way to guarantee exactly that," Maria Calavera's raspy, confident voice echoed over the radio. The Manta airship banked sharply, flying back over the churning bay toward Ruby's group on the cliff. Maria brought the heavy vessel to a hovering halt just a few yards from the edge, the side hatch doors sliding completely open. Ruby didn't hesitate. She broke into a dead sprint toward the hovering ship.

"Ruby, what are you doing?!" Qrow yelled, taking a panicked step forward.

"Trust me, Uncle Qrow!" Ruby called back, leaping over the gap and landing smoothly inside the open cabin of the airship. She gave a firm, confident nod to Maria and Oscar. The rest of the vanguard watched from the snowy cliffside, their hearts hammering in their chests as the Manta peeled away, flying on a direct, suicidal collision course straight toward the Colossus.

"This is completely insane," Yang muttered, her fists clenching tight enough to creak the metal of Ember Celica.

"If Cordovin fires early..."

"She won't," Pyrrha stated firmly, raising her shield.

"Ruby knows what she's doing." Inside the cockpit of the mech, Cordovin narrowed her eyes. One of the secondary monitors flashed rapidly, displaying a bright red popup message: ARGUS BASE INCOMING CALL. Cordovin scoffed, reaching over to dismiss the notification, her attention drawn entirely back to the incoming airship." Hey, Cordo!" Maria's voice blasted through the mech's external receivers, dripping with arrogant, theatrical mockery." I've got one missile left, and I know exactly where I'm gonna stick it!"

Cordovin let out a dark, cruel chuckle, her hands gripping the control yokes tightly.

"One missile, you say?" Cordovin sneered.

"That's a shame, Maria. Because I have plenty!" Cordovin slammed a heavy button on her console. The massive rotary cannon on the Colossus's right arm clicked. The heavy steel plating slid back, and the specialized, multi-chambered missile launcher popped out into the freezing air. Inside the airship, Oscar's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated panic as Maria pushed the thrusters to maximum, flying directly into the crosshairs of the weapon.

"ARE YOU TWO CRAZY?!!" Oscar shrieked, gripping his seat harness for dear life.

"Sometimes the best approach is simply the most direct!" Maria laughed, her cybernetic goggles whirring as she held the ship steady. As the airship closed the final, terrifying distance, Ruby stepped out onto the edge of the open hatch door. The freezing wind whipped her hair as she dropped to one knee, bracing the heavy barrel of Crescent Rose against her shoulder. She peered through the sniper scope, exhaling slowly, waiting for the perfect alignment.

Inside the mech, Cordovin pulled up her magnified tactical screen. She gasped, her eyes widening as the camera zoomed in on the open hatch. She saw the glint of the sniper scope. She saw the girl in the red hood aiming directly at the exposed missile payload.

"You!" Cordovin gasped, instantly realizing the trap. Ruby pulled the trigger. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. BANG! The high-caliber sniper round tore across the short distance with flawless, deadly precision. But Cordovin's reflexes, honed by decades of military service, were faster. With a panicked, violent jerk of the control lever, the missile launcher rapidly retracted back into the heavy steel housing of the arm cannon.

The sniper round struck the thick, impenetrable armor plating covering the housing, sparking harmlessly and deflecting away into the ocean. A collective, horrified gasp echoed from the cliffside.

"She missed!" Weiss cried out, her hands flying to her mouth in sheer terror.

"You thought you could fool me?!" Cordovin roared, her voice echoing with triumphant, manic fury over the bay. She violently wrenched the control yoke, locking the arm cannon directly onto the hovering airship. The cylinder rotated rapidly, locking a massive, volatile Lightning Dust cartridge into the firing chamber. Blinding, blue electrical energy began to crackle and gather at the muzzle, illuminating the darkening sky.

"Pull up!!" Oscar screamed, his voice cracking with absolute terror. Maria yanked the flight yoke backward with all her might. The Manta airship pitched violently upward, its thrusters screaming in protest as it desperately tried to gain altitude. But it wasn't fast enough. KRA-KOOM! Cordovin fired. A massive, devastating blast of concentrated Lightning Dust erupted from the cannon. The sheer breadth of the electrical storm clipped the underbelly of the fleeing airship.

The Manta shuddered violently as millions of volts of electricity surged through the hull. The control panels exploded in showers of sparks, and the cabin lights shattered. But the worst damage was taken by the pilot.

"Aaaagh!" Maria screamed in agonizing pain. The massive electrical surge traveled straight through the specialized data cable plugged directly into her cybernetic goggles. The brass lenses sparked and violently short-circuited, the intense feedback burning her optic nerves.

"I can't see!" Maria yelled, tearing the cable free and clutching her useless, smoking goggles.

"My eyes!"

"No, no, no!!" Oscar panicked, unbuckling his harness and scrambling toward the co-pilot seat.

"Take control!!" Maria ordered blindly. Oscar grabbed the heavy flight joystick with both hands, using every ounce of his remaining Aura to wrestle the massive, dead weight of the plummeting airship.

"We're gonna crash! We're gonna CRASH!!" Oscar screamed. Down on the cliffside, the rest of the group emerged from the snow, coughing as the residual static charge from the blast washed over them.

"Look!" Jaune yelled, pointing his sword at the sky in pure horror. Weiss gasped, her hands flying to her face. Yang and Blake stood paralyzed, their eyes wide with dread as they watched the smoking, crippled airship spiral wildly out of control. With a sickening, metallic screech of tearing hull plating and breaking timber, the Manta crashed heavily into the dense pine forest just beyond the cliff edge. A massive plume of snow and black smoke erupted into the air.

"Ruby!" Qrow roared, his voice cracking with absolute, raw panic. Without a second of hesitation, he transformed into his avian form, a black crow shooting across the sky, diving desperately toward the crash site. Deep within the shattered pine trees, the twisted, smoking wreckage of the Manta airship lay half-buried in the snow. The groaning, dying sound of the port engines shutting down was the only noise breaking the silence.

Inside the dark, freezing cabin, Oscar coughed violently, waving away the thick black smoke.

"We're... we're still in one piece!" Oscar breathed, a massive wave of relief washing over him as he checked himself for broken bones. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. The ground beneath the wreckage began to tremble violently. Oscar looked out the shattered windshield. Approaching the treeline, wading through the shallow coastal waters, was the towering, terrifying form of Cordovin's mech. The side hatch of the airship groaned open. Ruby stumbled out into the freezing snow, coughing heavily.

Her Aura was entirely depleted from the impact. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed heavily onto the snowy ground, dragging Crescent Rose behind her.

"Very clever," Cordovin laughed, her voice booming from the mech's speakers, dripping with absolute, condescending arrogance.

"But even the smartest apes can't compete with the intellect of man." Ruby gritted her teeth. She planted the blade of Crescent Rose into the snow, using the heavy weapon as a crutch to force herself back up to her feet. She looked back over her shoulder. Inside the ruined cockpit, Maria was frantically working on her smoking goggles with a small screwdriver, while Oscar watched her with deep, frantic concern.

"Come on, come on!" Maria muttered, desperately trying to reconnect the fried optical circuits. Ruby turned her gaze back toward the towering Colossus. Her silver eyes hardened into a mask of pure, unyielding defiance. She let go of her scythe and began to walk slowly forward, stepping out into the open clearing to stand directly between her friends and the giant machine. A sudden flurry of black feathers materialized beside her.

Qrow shifted back into his human form, immediately reaching out to grab his niece's hand.

"Ruby, stop!" Qrow demanded, his crimson eyes filled with desperate, protective fear. Ruby looked back at her uncle. The pure, determined fire in her eyes didn't waver. Qrow gasped softly, struck by the absolute, mature certainty radiating from the young girl.

"I need you to trust me," Ruby said softly. Qrow stared at her for a long, agonizing second. He closed his eyes, the heavy burden of his protective instincts warring with the reality of her growth. Ultimately, he relented, slowly opening his hand and letting her pull away. Ruby walked to the very edge of the snowy cliff. She stood entirely alone, a tiny, red-hooded figure facing down a hundred-foot-tall mechanical titan.

"Surrender for your crimes, and accept your punishment," Cordovin commanded, leveling the massive arm cannon directly at her.

"No!" Ruby shouted back, her voice echoing clearly over the wind, ringing with absolute, fierce defiance. Cordovin gasped in sheer shock at the audacity. Behind Ruby, bursting from the treeline, Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora ran into the clearing. They skidded to a halt, their weapons raised, but their eyes were locked entirely on their leader.

"We're going to Atlas!" Ruby declared, her voice carrying the absolute weight of their collective journey.

"Bigger people than you have tried to stop us and failed! But we're supposed to be on the same side! We're supposed to use our power to protect people! But you just use yours to look down on everyone!" Cordovin fell silent inside her cockpit. For a fleeting, microscopic second, the sheer, undeniable truth of the young girl's words seemed to pierce through the Special Operative's thick armor of Atlesian pride. She pondered the accusation, staring down at the tiny Huntress.

"We didn't want to steal from you," Ruby pleaded, offering one final, desperate peace offering.

"We did it because you gave us no other choice! Now I'm giving you one last chance to stand down and hear us out." Silence hung heavily over the snowy cliffside. The wind howled through the pine trees.

"I've heard enough..." Cordovin muttered darkly. The brief moment of reflection vanished entirely, swallowed by a lifetime of stubborn, uncompromising military ego. Cordovin aggressively pulled the control yoke. The colossal mech whirred, aiming the massive, multi-barreled arm cannon directly at Ruby. The group panicked.

"Ruby!!" Oscar screamed, reaching his hand out frantically from the ruined airship.

"Ruby, get back!" Yang roared, her violet eyes widening in sheer terror as she sprinted forward. Qrow gained a look of absolute horror on his face as the arm cannon began to hum with volatile, deadly energy. Ruby didn't run. She didn't raise a weapon. She triggered her Semblance. With a blinding burst of speed, Ruby dissolved into a swirling vortex of red rose petals. She didn't fly backward. She flew directly forward, launching herself straight down the massive, cavernous barrel of the arm cannon.

"WHAT?!!" Cordovin shrieked, recoiling in her pilot seat in utter bewilderment.

"She's NUTS!!" Nora screamed, her hands flying to her head as she watched her friend fly directly into the mouth of the weapon. Ruby continued flying deeper into the dark, metallic tunnel of the arm cannon.

"Wait," Jaune gasped, his tactical mind catching up to her insane maneuver.

"The missile launcher springs out... but the raw dust gets locked in!" Inside the dark, humming belly of the arm cannon, Ruby reformed from her petals. She planted her boots firmly against the steel plating. She quickly unfolded Crescent Rose, planting the sharp tip of the blade into the ground to anchor herself. She stared down the long, metallic corridor. At the very end of the chamber, a massive, unshielded cartridge of raw, highly volatile Dust was locking into place.

Ruby took a deep breath, aligning the sniper scope perfectly. She pulled the trigger. BANG! The high-caliber round struck the exposed Dust cartridge dead center. The moment the bullet left the barrel, Ruby triggered her Semblance again, bursting into petals and flying desperately backward, scrambling to get out of the cannon before the chain reaction caught her. The arm cannon violently exploded. It wasn't a standard blast.

The massive buildup of conflicting elemental Dust triggered a catastrophic, localized detonation within the confined steel chamber. The entire right arm of the Colossus blew outward in a blinding flash of fire, ice, and stone. The heavy steel plating shredded like paper, completely encasing the ruined limb in a massive, jagged block of frozen rock and ice.

"What?! No! NO!!" Cordovin shrieked in absolute despair as alarms blared and red error screens filled her cockpit. As the explosion rocked the mech, the concussive shockwave caught Ruby just as she cleared the barrel. Her Aura completely shattered under the force of the blast. She was thrown violently backward through the freezing air, her body completely limp, falling unconscious toward the snowy ground. Weiss reacted instantly.

She summoned a series of black, cushioning Gravity Glyphs in the air, creating a soft, bouncy pathway that gracefully slowed Ruby's dangerous descent. Qrow dashed forward, catching his unconscious niece safely in his arms before she could hit the ground.

"RUBY!" Qrow yelled, his voice thick with panic. Weiss, completely exhausted from the rapid, high-level summoning, collapsed to her knees in the snow. Jaune, Ren, and Nora immediately ran over to her, forming a protective circle around the heiress. Ruby groaned softly, her eyelids fluttering open. She looked up at her uncle's terrified face, and a weak, victorious smile touched her lips.

"Told ya," Ruby whispered, before letting her head fall back against his arm. From the treeline, a beautiful, mechanical hum filled the air. The engines of the crashed Atlesian airship roared back to life. The Manta slowly rose from the snow, hovering lightly above the ground. Inside the cockpit, Maria Calavera lowered her newly repaired, fully functional cybernetic goggles over her eyes, a massive, satisfied grin on her face.

"Oh, don't tell me I missed it!" Maria laughed, surveying the crippled Colossus through the viewport. Out in the bay, Cordovin was desperately yanking on the control levers, trying in vain to lift the destroyed, ice-encased arm cannon. The massive weight of the ruined limb pulled the entire mech dangerously off balance, groaning under the strain.

"No! No, no, no, NO!!!" Cordovin screamed, her voice cracking with pure, unadulterated madness. She glared out the cracked windshield at the teenagers on the cliffside.

"You! You're never getting to Atlas! Do you hear me?! NEVER!!!" Cordovin slammed her fist onto the central command console, pressing the glowing red emergency override button.

"All forces converge on my position and eliminate these pests at once!"

"Crap!" Oscar yelled from the airship, hearing the broadcasted order.

"Everyone on board!" Maria ordered, spinning the ship around to face the cliff.

"We're making a run for it!" The Huntsmen and Huntresses scrambled to their feet, rushing toward the hovering vessel.

"Wait!" Jaune suddenly shouted, stopping dead in his tracks and looking back toward the city skyline.

"We need to pick Saitama and Neo up!"

A loud, panicked transmission burst through the speakers of the Colossus, echoing across the bay. One of the screens inside Cordovin's cockpit flashed violently, reading: ARGUS BASE CHANNEL OPEN.

"Ma'am, we've been trying to reach you!" a terrified Atlas Soldier screamed over the radio.

"Argus is in danger!" Cordovin's furious expression vanished entirely, replaced by a sudden, chilling horror.

"What?" At the Argus base, the pristine, orderly command center had descended into absolute, screaming chaos. Various Atlas personnel rushed frantically to their battle stations, alarms blaring endlessly. A pair of guards stood frozen on the outer wall, looking out at the freezing ocean. The water in the deep bay was violently churning, displacing millions of gallons of seawater. Slowly rising from the dark depths, dwarfing even the towering cliffs of Argus, was a nightmare of unimaginable proportions.

It was a Leviathan. A colossal, ancient aquatic Grimm that looked like a terrifying amalgamation of a deep-sea predator and a mythical titan. Its massive, bone-plated jaws unhinged, and it let out a terrifying, earth-shattering roar that physically shook the foundations of the entire city. The Atlas guards stumbled backward in terror, turning around to sound the alarm. But as they turned, they looked up at the sky over the city of Argus.

The dark, bruised clouds were completely filled with a massive, endless legion of winged Manticores and Alpha Sphinxes, circling the city like vultures waiting for a carcass.

"It's a Leviathan!" the Atlas Soldier screamed over the radio to Cordovin.

"It began its approach during your battle! We need you!" Down on the cliffside, the group froze. Ruby, leaning heavily against Qrow, looked back toward the ocean. Her silver eyes widened in absolute, paralyzing horror. Weiss, Yang, Blake, and Team JNPR, all turned to look at the towering monster rising from the sea, their faces draining of all color. They shared equally concerned, terrified expressions.

They slowly turned their gazes back to Cordovin's crippled mech, which was still desperately, hopelessly struggling to lift its massive, destroyed arm cannon from the ice.

"Oh, no..." A heavy, suffocating realization crashed down upon the young Huntsmen and Huntresses. In their desperate bid to escape to Atlas... they had just completely destroyed the only weapon in Argus capable of fighting the giant Grimm.