RWBY: Tiger King and Dragon Queen

We do not own RWBY or any other copyright content. All rights to it go to Monty Oum, VIZ Media, and their original owners. All OCs are owned by us.

Writing credits go to Uzumaki Ricky, Monsterhuntergod, Sharad the hedgehog, and Traines, as well as Kima Whitehawk Jordan on Facebook. And a very special shoutout and thank you to 501awezome and Mega Ghost on Fanfiction.Net for all your support.

Tiger King and Dragon Queen

Volume 1 Chapter 23: Culling of Titans Part 3

The seconds hung like moments as the wind finally began to clear the hellish cloud. Shining through the lessening haze was an intense infernal glow before being contrasted by obsidian black hide, cracked with veins of lava. The creature's body was thick and barrel shaped, while taking after a titanic lizard. If said lizard was a demon and smoked a few prehistoric creatures. Thick, squat legs with five wickedly clawed toes on its forelimbs, and three massive toes on the back limbs, held this great creature aloft, like great blackened boles of burnt trees. To balance this great beast was a telephone pole sized tail, coated in spike black armor and ending in a rocky mace-like tail.

Its shoulders were ringed in black craggy spikes like a volcanic caldera long since active. Its arms, side and body were alight with volcanic rippling energy, with finer scales as if a fish was made of fiery stone, emblazoned with vibrant and terrible life. Where its heart, if such a horrid creature could have a heart, was a pulsing ball of energy burning like a hateful forge covered in thick, volcanic armor. Behind its thick armored chest and under its back was a far more muted volcanic gray ash color, near hidden by the monster mass of fire and stone.

Yet its head was most terrible of all. Like a thunder lizard of old, it was held aloft by a thick and powerful neck, black as the evilest night, with only glowing volcanic orange orbs to be called eyes. Two great horns curved back from its stony head, ablaze with fierce fiery energy, as if two great flags of heraldry displayed with demonic pride. As it opened its volcanic maw, sliding from under its lips came ivory teeth, curved and wicked like swords. Unfurling from its mouth like a fire hose came a long, glowing orange tongue like a snake, its head following where it flicked it.

"Nobody. Move. A muscle…" Zhan ordered, standing still.

"It's a dinosaur. Its vision is based on movement…" Jaune said quietly.

"It's not a dinosaur, you dolt! That's an Efreet…!" Weiss whispered harshly.

"Whatever you do, don't scream…" Azura ordered as well.

The Grimm snorted, as if insulted by these assertions of its capabilities, and leaning back on its powerful tail. Standing on its hind legs, it easily rose several stories into the air. Everyone held their breath as it let out a roar that hit them like a thunderclap. This caused many of the Huntsmen hopefuls to scream, break, and run, causing the few remaining standing against it to sigh. Azura most of all.

"Great, we made it angry…" Azura muttered.

The insides of the creature's gaping maw glowed like a sun before it let loose a great, explosive torrent of flames. The tree line our heroes were running towards was lit ablaze in a concussive blast of hellfire, cutting off their escape. Turning back in fear, the fleeing fighters saw the creature give a vicious, reptilian semblance of a smirk as it growled in what could only be almost described as a predatory purr.

"We have to warn people!" Torrent yelled.

"We could use the help, why warn people away?" Rena asked incredulously.

"Some of us probably have Semblances that wouldn't work on this thing! Besides, someone has to get the weaker fighters away!" Azura shouted out, unleashing a slash of water Dust that cleared out some of the flames in an eruption of steam.

"Those who can't fight, run back into the forest and warn people! Go in pairs to be safe if you can!" Ruby yelled out, looking at the group. "Torrent, you're in charge of this team!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Torrent said with a salute. "Who's with me?"

"I am! Let's get this shit done!" Shouted Wysteria, looking around the group awkwardly with her arm up.

Everyone looked at the normally timid girl in shock at that as she blushed. "Sorry…" She said, getting ready to move.

"We'll take the south and west ends of the forest! You with me, Emi?" Honey asked.

Emi nodded. "You got it, Sticky Buns!" She replied as the two girls headed south.

"Everyone else: Form up on me, the twins, Ruby, and Jaune! We're taking this thing down!" Azura called out, drawing his katana and wakizashi.

"See, that's the kind of thing you call leadership. Or brainwashing. Take your pick really." Zhan said to some of the others.

"Now is really not the time." Blake answered sternly.

"Hey, wanted to say that before I might die." Zhan said with a shrug.

Yang covered her mouth, stifling a pig squeal laugh as she then held her stomach while then putting a horse stance. She then moved her arms, shifting her gauntlets to have them loaded and ready while laughing maniacally as her eyes glowed a blazing red like fire.

"I'm 'a ready to send a Grimm back down to the Underworld and make it eat its own dick!" Yang called out in a loud battle cry. 

Azura smiled at Yang's enthusiasm. "That… is so damn hot…!" Azura whispered.

Yang turned to him, blushing, but she quickly shook it off and gave him a murderous look.

"Right… not the time. Sorry." Azura replied sheepishly before refocusing on the Efreet as a sapphire blue, lightning-like aura surrounded his body, his eyes glowing the same color.

"We can worry about you two flirting later! We're going to die, so let's focus please! Yang, get ready to throw me!" Ruby yelled, sounding annoyed with her sister and her new boy toy.

"I guess fifteen is as good a time as any to become a legend." Sylver proclaimed as he took out his large claymore, letting the blade slam into the dirt as a silver flame-like aura surrounded him.

"Now's not the time for cockiness, idiot." Sapphire admonished her twin while getting into a fighting stance as her hands began to glow.

The Efreet let out a reptilian battle howl as our heroes unleashed a barrage of ranged Dust attacks on it. The elemental and explosive barrage pelted its hide but did little damage as it raised a clawed front paw in a makeshift fist to punch the tiny morsels before it. Seeing this, Jaune thought quickly and looked at the others.

"Scatter! Draw its attention in multiple different directions!" The blonde knight called out as the flaming fist came down towards them like a meteor.

Jumping aside, our heroes bore witness to the blazing fist crashing down where they once were in a fiery explosion that scorched the stone ground they had stood on. Refocusing, Nora began firing grenades into its torso as Ember backed her up with shots from her weapon's bazooka form. The shots exploded on impact but did very little damage. That is, until two shots simultaneously hit it directly on the glowing, heavily armored spot where its heart would be.

Roaring in seeming pain, the beast snarled at the two short stacks before coating a fist in flames and going to punch them. Acting on pure instinct, Nora kicked Ember aside to knock her out of the way as the flaming fist barreled into her. This resulted in her barely having time to bring the handle of her hammer up as the massive blazing claw collided into her chest, scorching her through her Aura from the heat as she was sent flying into the tree line and through several trees before she finally came crashing to a stop as Ren looked in his childhood friend's direction in horror.

"NORA!" Ren called out, rushing to check on her while firing at the Efreet as he retreated.

"Whatever you do, don't get hit! This thing hits like a freight train!" Azura barked, unleashing slash wave after slash wave of electricity at the beast to provide cover.

"I got an idea!" Hunter yelled, grabbing his weapon as he began scaling some of the ruins.

"Whatever it is, I'm open to ideas!" Ruby called out as she fired sniper shot after sniper shot, trying to hit it in the eyes.

"I can try to blind it with a couple Dust bolts!" Hunter yelled back, scaling up to the top of a ruined pillar and getting himself in position.

"Are you sure you can make that shot!?" Sapphire called out.

"I ain't called Hunter for no reason!!" Hunter shot back at her and kneeled down as he got ready to aim.

"Everyone, cover Hunter! If we can blind one of its eyes, we can give ourselves a better chance!" Sylver called out, his blade at the ready.

Yang moved her arm in motion for Ruby to come towards her. Ruby nodded and ran towards her sister, jumped, did a twirl, and then landed on her hand. She then felt her body shoot out towards the fiery beast, swinging her scythe and hitting it in the eye as she battle-cried. She then did a back flip backwards, landing back on her feet and making a dust cloud.

The Efreet roared in pain as its eye was damaged, glaring at the sisters with its remaining good eye. Lighting its mace-like tail ablaze, the demonic beast swung it like a flail at the red reaper. Launching herself at her little sister with Ember Celica, Yang tried to grab Ruby as the medieval appendage swung at them with the force of a hurricane. Before they could get hit, Azura pushed them out of the way and tensed his muscles to use Iron Body as he took the flaming hit head on, the sound of bones cracking being heard. Coughing up blood for a moment, the azure prince was sent flying into the tree line and through trees like a horizontal comet as the two sisters looked on in horror at their friend sacrificing himself to protect them.

Yang screamed, beyond pissed as her eyes turned red, her hair glowed like golden fire, and she yelled, "Hunter! Sapphire, you two cover me!" She then ran sprinting up a tree, zigzagging as fast as she could up on the tallest branches.

The blonde fighter then grabbed the biggest branch, ripped it off, and set it on fire before pulling it back. With a great heave, Yang threw it at the creature straight into its head, causing it to roar in pain. Right on cue, Ruby used her Semblance to go above the head of the beast and moved so fast she caused the burning tree branch to break into fiery bits, landing in the creature's mouth. Then the beast shook its head in pain moving its open paws scratching its own throat. 

"Lock on. Lights out, Thunder Oaf." Hunter muttered; his shot finally lined up as he activated his Semblance.

Hunter's eyes glowed yellow as his sight turned telescopic, like a scope. Taking aim, he let loose a pair of Electricity Dust bolts from his dual crossbows. Hunter smirked as the two rounds soared right at its remaining good eye, cutting through the wind like two small, bolt-shaped blades. In what could only be described as a miracle shot for anyone else, the bolts hit the beast in its one good eye before exploding on contact in a blast of yellow lightning. Roaring in pain, the Efreet rubbed at its damaged eye, now completely blinded.

"Are we all sure blinding it was a good idea?" Rena asked, looking around at the rest of her allies.

"Too late to go back now!" Zhan called out as the Efreet began glowing white hot.

"What's it doing…!?" Ember called out in concern.

"Oh no…" Weiss whispered in fear, having read about this ability of an Efreet.

"'Oh no?' You say, 'oh no'!? What'd you mean, 'oh no'!?" Jaune yelled at her.

"I've read about this power! It's going to unleash a thermal pulse attack!" Weiss called out in fear.

"That sounds like whenever my old man eats chili." Sylver mutters, before getting a smack on the back of his head from his sister.

"It's going to go thermonuclear and light this place up like a holiday tree, you buffoon!" Weiss shouted.

"Excuse me, but I am not a baboon. I am a wolf." Sylver told her in a confused tone:

"I said 'buffoon', you dolt! Buffoon!" Weiss impatiently called out.

"LANCE! ABSORB DUST!" Fuchsia shouted at her partner in urgency as she ripped a chunk of rock out of the ground with her whips and threw it at it.

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU THAT I CAN'T ABSORB POWDER! IT'S TOO SMALL FOR ME TO FOCUS ON!" Lance yelled back.

"Damn it, you giant pervert! What are you good for!?" Fuchsia shot back as she flung another chunk of rock at the demon.

"SIR RYOKUGYŪ, HEADS UP!" A familiar voice called out as two Ice Dust arrows were shot from the tree line.

Catching the arrows on pure instinct, Lance turned to look at the source as everyone else looked back. To their surprise, they saw Azura standing in the tree line, panting heavily with his bow drawn and his other hand back from having fired the two arrows. His lightning-like aura had changed from sapphire to violet in color as he panted, grabbing his chest in pain.

Ruby looked in awe, seeing how her friend's aura changed. She then ran up to the Efreet, took her scythe, and slashed her weapon at its ankle. Her Semblance allowed her to pass it as it tried taking its claws towards her, just causing it to hurt itself.

Yang glared at the giant fire demon; her eyes red with rage as her hair glowed like golden flames. "You're gonna pay for Azura, you overgrown, flaming gecko!" She roared out, firing Dust rounds at its face.

However, it simply continued building up heat as Lance quickly began absorbing the arrowheads from Azura's Dust arrows. This allowed him to turn his hands into crystalized Ice Dust. Punching the ground, he formed shell-like ice barriers around everyone as the Efreet continued building up heat while Yang stopped firing. Acting quickly, knowing that Lance's barriers wouldn't be enough, Mido acted.

Digging his heels into the silt forest soil, he sped forward with an inhumanly fast bound. With each stride he got faster and faster, with each pace he turned more into a blur. Once beside the hulking titan, he turned on his heels and began to run in a wide circle around it. At first, the beast was confused. Despite losing its sight, it had from its reptilian heritage's far more esoteric forms of sensing these pitiful creatures. Soon, however, things began to change.

The beast heaved when it tried to breathe in, its normally overwhelming glow flickered for a moment. Faster and faster Mido ran until he reached his top speed, a speed so great that all except Ruby couldn't keep track of him. A column of swirling air was forming, creating a vacuum that began to hamper the beast's fires. However, despite his best attempts, Mido couldn't run fast enough to snuff out the fires.

"If anyone has Wind Dust or wind-related anything, now would be the time! I can't hold it back for long!" Mido called out.

"I got this!" Jaune yelled, rushing forward into position.

"Jaune, wait!" Pyrrha yelled, rushing after him.

"I can do this, Pyrrha! Trust me!" Jaune called out, looking back at his partner.

Thinking for a moment, Pyrrha nodded. "I know you can, Jaune! But I want to see if I can help!" She told him as she went with her partner to back him up.

Planting his feet firmly, Jaune closed his eyes as he put both of his hands out. He dug deep for something, anything that could get him that power he felt earlier. However, he just wasn't finding it.

"Come on, Semblance! Work!" Jaune groaned through gritted teeth.

Thinking fast, Pyrrha smacked Jaune in the back of his head. Before he could even exclaim in pain, it happened. He felt that power from before and mentally grabbed hold of it. From his outstretched hands came blasts of powerful wind. The wind then was collected by the swirling mass Mido created, adding to its power. The Efreet roared and gasped as smoke came from its veins and pores, the fires slowly weakening.

"Well done, pretty boy!!" Mido called out to Jaune, even giving him a thumbs up as he ran. Though Jaune couldn't see the gesture, he smiled with a hint of pride.

Roaring, the Efreet released its thermal pulse. However, because of the power of the tornado from the two young men, its power was reduced. All the blast could do was dispel the tornado and knock Mido and Jaune back as the heat coming off it was blocked by the now slowly melting ice barriers conjured up by the young bull knight. As the pulse died down, our heroes looked up to see something shocking. The demon's lava veins cooled down and slowly hardened, the heat coming off its body dying down as the energy it spent from the blast seemed to leave it for the moment.

"It's… vulnerable…! Hit it… now…!" Azura panted out, rushing in at high speed as he wiped a bit of blood leaking from his mouth.

"You heard the man! Charge!!" Rena roared out, backing up the wounded samurai.

"Follow Azura!" Ruby roared, rushing in with her Semblance.

"Attack!" Sapphire yelled, creating a halberd made of Aura from her Semblance.

Everyone rushed in at the weakened beast, clambering to attack it. Slashing, firing, and smashing at its armored hide, they tried to do any damage they could. However, it seemed the demon's cooling body had hardened its armor. The more it cooled, the harder it became to do any damage.

Before any of them could begin to despair, a flying hammer with a long haft, coated in pink electricity, came flying in from the tree line and smashed hard into the Efreet's chest. The beast roared as the blow staggered it for a moment, forcing it to take a step back. Everyone looked back at the source as the hammer's haft glowed purple as it turned and went flying back in the direction it came, Nora catching it as she panted and wiped a bit of blood from her mouth.

"You… see… that…? I… Can… Take… Anything… You… Can… Dish… Out…!" She panted out, trying to catch her breath from the massive hit she had taken earlier and the effort of throwing her hammer as Ren came out of the tree line after her.

"Nora! Please don't push yourself too hard!" The green-clad boy worriedly told his partner.

"I'm… fine… Ren…! Anybody… have… any… Elec… tricity… Dust…?" She panted out, trying to recover some more strength for another hit.

"Everyone while I de-ice my hands, give me as much Electricity Dust as you can! I need to do a full body version of my Semblance for this!" Lance calls out.

"Right! Blake, do you have any… wait, where's Blake!?" Yang called out, having just noticed her partner wasn't there.

"Your little princess ran off about five minutes ago!" Sylver yelled, chucking rocks as well.

"Blake, you bitch!" Yang called out in frustration.

"Relax, Yang! She probably went with the others to warn people about the lava iguana!" Ruby called out, trying to calm her sister down as Sylver had a look of doubt.

"We could've really used her help right now!" Weiss called out, firing blasts of Ice and Electricity Dust at the demon with her Glyphs.

"What did I just say!? I need Electricity Dust!" Lance yelled in frustration.

"Fine!" Weiss called back before taking Electricity Dust rounds from her weapon and throwing them to Lance.

"Thank you! Speedsters, collect the Dust" Lance called out as he caught the Dust rounds from the Schnee heiress.

Weiss, Ruby, Azura, and Mido all nodded before getting ready. Weiss used a Time Dilation Glyph to speed herself up while Azura, Ruby, and Mido used their Semblances. The four began zipping around the battlefield, collecting Electricity Dust from their allies and passing it off to Lance. Soon, the bull knight had so much Electricity Dust in hand that he could barely hold all of it. Thinking he had enough, he began to concentrate so he could start absorbing.

A loud, guttural, booming sound - something akin to a ship horn - blared, causing some of the heroes to cover their ears. The Efreet let out an annoyed growl as it faced where the sound was coming from. 

"That's right, you big bastard! Come and get me!" Oren cried as the ship horn started up again.

"How are you making that noise!?" Sylver called out in annoyance, covering his ears in pain as his eyes twitched, his irises glowing golden for a moment.

"It's my Semblance!" He cried out before making the sound again as the behemoth made its way towards him.

While the giant fire lizard was distracted, Lance got to work. He had never absorbed Dust up to this day, so it was a whole new experience for him. A whole new painful experience compared to just doing it for his hands. Gripping the crystals, he felt their power run through him. His veins turned to fire, his every breath labored, the entire world was replaced by pain. He howled in agony as more and more of it went in. Soon, arcs of electricity could be found shooting off him and practically lit him up like a lightbulb as his body turned to yellow crystal.

"If we are gonna do this, then do it now! I can't keep it in for much longer!!!!" Lance roared in utter agony, reverbing now that he was made of electrified crystal.

"Light me up, big guy!" Nora called out, preparing herself.

Putting both of his hands on Nora's shoulders, Lance finally began to feel relief as Nora began to take it. From Nora's perspective, the pain of her injuries melted away. If anything, she felt good. Better than good. However, Ren noticed something was off. Lance took a while to transfer it.

"Lance, hurry up, will you!?" Ren yelled at him.

"I'm trying! I've never done this before!" The bull knight called out, trying to hurry.

"I've seen scroll chargers move faster than you! If you don't hurry up, you're going to hurt Nora!" Ren snapped at him, shocking the others at the stoic warrior losing his cool like that.

"AAAAAAAAHHH!! That's enough, Lance!!!" Nora yelled in pain.

"I… I can't! I can't stop it!" Lance yelled in panic.

"No choice, then!" Nora yelled as she began forcing the energy into her hammer.

"Nora, it's too dangerous!" Ren yelled, concern practically soaking his words.

"We can't beat this thing without taking risks, Ren! Now it's hammerin' time!" Nora called out as Lance let go of her, beginning to spin before throwing Magnhild with all her might at the Efreet's chest.

Like a great electrified comet streaking across the sky, Magnhild rocketed towards the Grimm at a speed that impressed even the Zodiacs. The Efreet turned around from Oren just long enough to see the spinning circuit of doom slam towards its chest. Moving to intercept, the Efreet howled in agony as it looked down. To its shock, Azura had rushed and leapt at its hand, slicing off a finger just as the hammer impacted its chest. Roaring in unholy pain, the blow forced it to stagger back as a massive explosion happened around its chest. Nora's hammer fell to the ground, as when the dust settled, a massive crack had formed in the chest armor of the beast as its fire began heating back up.

"All that for a crack and a finger?" Zhan asked, looking at Azura as Ren caught a barely standing Nora.

Panting, Azura smirked. "It's enough! We can attack its core now!" He told his partner.

"You already have a plan, don't you?" Zhan sighed.

"Yes, I do! Sapphire, Sylver! We need a Slingshot Special!" He told the twins.

"Got it! Ready, sis!?" Sylver called back with a smirk.

"Let's do it, bro!" Sapphire replied with a wolfish grin of her own as the two prepared themselves.

"Lance, fire electricity at it for cover fire!" Ruby called out towards the crystalized bull knight.

Nodding, Lance fought through the pain as he charged up the electricity and began firing a massive, constant bolt of lightning into the Efreet. As he did, it fired a concussive fire blast to counter as the two plasma attacks collided in midair. The two blasts pushed back and forth against each other, trying to overpower the opposing attack before them.

"Azura, Ruby, Weiss, Hunter! Huddle up! I have a plan!" Jaune called out, having finally gotten his bearings enough to get back up.

"Make it quick, Jaune. We're running out of options and people!" Ruby said sternly.

"Yeah, and I don't think Lance can keep this up for much longer!" Fuchsia called out in concern for her partner.

"If Sir Jaune's thinking what I'm thinking, Lance won't have to!" Azura called out, rushing with Ruby, Hunter, and Weiss to huddle up with Jaune.

"I'm in tremendous pain!!!" Lance howled across the battlefield.

"Okay, Sapphire! Make us a massive slingshot! Sylver you help out! We are putting this thing down with two blows!" Ruby yelled out.

"I'm starting to remember why I dated her…" Sylver muttered.

"Can you focus?" Sapphire growled, causing him to shape up.

"And what are we firing?" Weiss asked.

"Sylver, you up for something very dangerous?" Ruby asked.

Sylver, instead of words, gave a big toothy grin. As if, somehow, he already knew what the plan was and he loved it.

"Mr. Hunter, can you make a shot into its mouth?" Azura asked with a smirk of his own.

"I'm insulted at you thinking I can't! I shot one of its eyes out!" Hunter called back incredulously.

"Wait… where is this going!?" Weiss asked, immediately concerned.

"The Slingshot Special!" Sylver called out.

"Weiss, we are going to need you to use one of those speed glyphs of yours to make Sylver go really fast." Ruby explained.

"Okay, but how is that going to put this thing down?" Weiss asked.

"All a part of the plan! After Sylver and Sapphire do their part, once Hunter fires, we need you to use those same Glyphs on an Ice Dust bolt he'll be firing!" Jaune told her.

"Just do it, you spoiled Princess!" Sylver yelled.

"I am an heiress, you furry neanderthal!" Weiss shot back.

"Love you too!" Sylver answered with a smirk.

"CAN YOU ALL HURRY!? THIS IS UNIMAGINABLY PAINFUL!" Lance yelled in agony as he began losing ground to the Efreet.

With that, Sapphire got to work with her Semblance creating the large slingshot. Weiss sighed and steadied herself, reading the two Glyphs she would need. Once the basket of the slingshot was created, Sylver leapt into it, and soon was surrounded by the first speed glyph. Hunter readied for the signal, as Ruby raised her hand. Then, when she lowered it, Sapphire fired.

"Yippee kay yay, mother…!" Sylver said, before being cut off by the sheer force of the shot.

As the shot launched him at the Efreet, aimed right at its chest, he put his sword in front of him as he was made into a giant, makeshift arrow. At the speed he was going at, he cut clean through the Efreet's fire blast at high speed without feeling much pain. This was soon followed by his blade piercing deep into the Efreet's armored chest, stabbing into its core. The Efreet roared in pain as the blade stabbed deep into its core, shaking as Sylver and his half-melted blade were launched off into the distance while the lightning blast plowed into it.

"Sylver!" Azura called out in concern.

"Azura, focus!" Rena called out.

"What is it doing now!?" Ember called out as well, pointing at the Efreet.

Slowly the heat could visibly be seen to rise, beginning to cause nearby stone to melt and plant life to combust. The crack slowly grew on its own, as the beast howled in the kind of pain few could fathom. Its veins pulsed and fluctuated, its energy for all to see going haywire.

"It's dying because its core was damaged! It's gonna blow!" Sapphire called out.

"That doesn't sound very good…" Ren muttered nervously.

"We need to act quickly! MR. HUNTER, LADY SCHNEE! NOW!" Azura called out.

"On it!" The two yelled in unison.

Hunter let loose the bolt as Weiss made a speed Glyph in front of its path. Soon the bolt passed through the glyph, granting it a massive boost in speed. With a near incalculable velocity, it rocketed straight into the Efreet's mouth. The explosion in such a sensitive area rocked the creature as it roared in pain. Then everything happened all at once.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Azura, Ruby, and Jaune yelled out as it happened.

The sudden reaction of heat and cold caused the head, neck, and chest of the creature to collapse in on themselves. In the blink of an eye and a sickening crunch, the rock-like frame of the creature's upper half looked like nothing more than a mass of rock and smoke. After the suddenness of it was over, all that could be heard was the hulking carcass falling to the ground and turning to smoke before their eyes as everyone looked on in shock except for Ruby, Azura, and Jaune.

"How the hell did we do that?" Rena asked in shock.

"Sometimes things just work." Ember answered with a shrug.

"Yes, it worked! Up top!" Jaune called out as Ruby and Azura gave him high fives.

"How did that…?" Zhan asked in disbelief only to be cut off by Nora.

"How did that happen!?" Nora excitedly, but tiredly and painfully asked.

"Simple, Miss Nora! Science! See, the easiest way to slay the Efreet would be to damage its core, but that would also cause it to explode!" Azura excitedly explained before clutching his chest in pain, "Agh…! Ribs…! But then we realized: What happens when extreme heat instantaneously meets extreme cold?"

"An implosion! So, we just needed to force the Efreet to open wide after its core was pierced so we could rapidly introduce Ice Dust into its thousand degree hot insides!" Ruby continued with equal excitement.

"Which that attack to its core allowed with Hunter making the shot into its mouth while you sped up both shots, Weiss!" Jaune finished, verbally patting himself and the other two on the back.

The leaders looked around at the exhausted, bedraggled members of the crew that accomplished the impossible. Through the exhaustion, sweat and deep heaving pants was a faint look of shock that the group came up with such a plan. However, the leaders of this motley crew then realized a noticeable absence. 

"Wait… where's Sylver?" Sapphire asked, looking around for her brother.

"He was… oh come on…" Azura groaned as he deactivated his Semblance, causing him to collapse and leaving him panting heavily as Yang caught him, helping him stay standing.

"What?" Yang asked.

Azura, a bit weakly, pointed off in the direction of the forest. Soon, everyone got what he meant. The force of what happened sent him flying backwards. If they were going to finally be done, they had to collect everyone else and then leave. With a sigh, they all collected themselves, and headed back into the forest to collect their comrades. The full taste of victory would have to wait for now.

To Be Continued…