Rune synchronicity.
A powerful ability that could be accomplished when runes aligned their conceptual runic powers together. Rune synchronicity could manifest in many different ways.
Oscar himself had accomplished it with his own runes many times. Many awakened tended to condense their runes based on that concept.
Grimm were capable of it as well, but not to the extent that awakened were able to accomplish. This was because grimm usually relied on their instincts to fight rather than their intelligence. In addition to that, their bodies were generally stronger than awakened at the same Rank.
Why would they need to learn rune synchronicity?
No.
There was no need.
Yet now... Oscar was witnessing a sight beyond the norm. A human was performing rune synchronicity with a Grimm. The merging of flesh and blood, becoming one entity.
The Carnis Grimm hybrid surged forward with terrifying acceleration, turning its colossal worm-shaped form into a spear of predatory hunger through the black sky. Its body twisted through the air with impossible fluidity despite its sheer size, immense jaws opening wide enough to swallow buildings as layer upon layer of sharpened, runic translucent fangs layered and unfolded within its maw.
The pressure alone was enough to distort the atmosphere around it, leaving turbulent ripples through the blood-red light emanating from the crimson surroundings.
Oscar's instincts reacted before conscious thought could even begin to process the movement.
Blink wrapped around every awakened clustered near him. The runic light strained unnaturally as it attempted to encompass so many living souls simultaneously, trembling violently as if the technique itself protested what it was being forced to accomplish.
Yet, reality still folded and the entire group vanished.
An instant later, they reappeared another kilometer away, with the violent displacement cracking the earth beneath their feet as dozens of bodies stumbled from the abrupt relocation. Oscar grimaced in tiredness, the moment they arrived.
His vision darkened slightly around the edges while his lungs burned as though he had inhaled molten iron. The sensation of his Aura reservoir dropping was truly tangible now, like watching the water inside a glass disappear while knowing there was no way to refill it before thirst claimed you. Fifteen percent remained.
Blink had never been designed for this.
The rune excelled at moving its own wielder through space. After reaching comprehension, another individual could be brought along and Oscar had pushed that limit before.
Two people. Three if he accepted enormous inefficiencies. But over a dozen awakened? Several Rank Ones, all transported together? Every forced group teleport devoured exponentially more Aura than the previous one, as though space itself demanded greater payment for violating its rules.
Each activation was ripping huge portions from his dwindling reserves.
He knew exactly how catastrophic the cost had become and Mocha saw it too.
She looked at him with widening eyes, her own breathing uneven as small tears clung to her lashes from everything that had already happened. Even without a specialized perception runes she could feel how thin Oscar's Aura had become.
"Oscar... you... your Aura. Isn't it going to..."
He turned toward her.
Despite the exhaustion visible across every feature, despite the sweat running freely down his face, despite the faint tiredness beginning to spread through his arms, he smiled.
"It's alright, Mocha. Everything is going to be alright."
Before anyone could answer, the sky ruptured.
The gigantic worm-shaped projection burst through the distance they had just escaped, its immense jaws arriving exactly where Oscar's group had stood less than a heartbeat earlier. The Carnis Grimm's bite erased an enormous section of the landscape in a deafening explosion of pulverized stone, crimson energy shredding the earth into a storm of debris. Had they remained even a fraction longer, every single one of them would have ceased to exist.
Oscar didn't wait for the next attack. Blink activated again and reality folded once more. Another stretch of distance vanished beneath them.
His Aura crashed lower, but the Carnis Grimm did not slow.
Like a predator chasing prey that had already accepted death, it simply adjusted its trajectory and its gigantic body bent through the sky before accelerating even harder.
Again.
Oscar teleported them.
Again.
Another kilometer.
Again.
Another impossible expenditure of Aura.
The world blurred into a nightmare cycle of desperate escapes, each one buying mere seconds before the monstrous Rank Two reached them once more. Every Blink became slower to activate as Oscar fought against the crushing weight of Aura depletion, every teleport leaving him standing just a little less steadily than before.
His face had become frighteningly pale, beads of sweat dripping continuously from his chin while his heartbeat thundered painfully against his ribs. By the fourth forced teleport his breathing had become dragged.
When the energy faded for the final time, Oscar's face turned into a shade of grim acceptance.
One percent, maybe less. He could barely feel his Aura anymore. The reservoir inside him had become an empty well with only damp stones remaining. There would not be another Blink. At least, not one capable of saving everyone.
The Carnis Grimm would catch them now.
Its massive body was already emerging over the distant horizon once again, accelerating faster through the air than before, seemingly enraged that prey continued slipping from its grasp. Every passing second closed the distance further.
Oscar quietly accepted the truth.
This was the end.
Then...
Something brushed against the edge of his perception. His head turned almost instinctively. Far away, beyond the crimson haze stretching endlessly beneath the fractured moon, movement appeared.
Not Grimm, but people. His exhausted eyes narrowed. At first they appeared only as distant silhouettes racing across the wasteland but then details slowly resolved.
There weren't merely a handful, but an entire group. Oscar's pulse skipped and his perception sharpened.
Several Rank Twos led them.
No...
It wasn't just any random Rank 2. A shock of bright blond hair and beside it, black. Messy and familiar.
For just an instant, hope crashed into him with almost physical force.
Taiyang and Qrow!
Even separated by enormous distances, Oscar recognized them immediately. The same happened in reverse.
Across the battlefield, both veterans looked towards him and the group behind him. Their expressions changed instantly.
Relief flashed first, then they saw what was behind him, charging like an unstoppable train. The Carnis Grimm worm.
Every trace of relief vanished from their faces, replaced by absolute horror. They exploded forward and became a little more than blurs of motion.
The ground shattered beneath every step.
Taiyang's body was already beginning to transform even as he sprinted, golden runic energy erupting around him in violent torrents. Massive scales spread across his flesh while his silhouette expanded rapidly, the immense shape of the Eastern Dragon beginning to emerge around him, every stride covering impossible distances.
Beside him, black feathers erupted across Qrow's back as enormous crow wings tore outward, his runic energy reinforcing every beat until he was practically flying just above the ground, accelerating with frightening speed.
Behind them, every Rank Two understood exactly what was unfolding. Each immediately committed everything toward reaching Oscar.
But they were too far away.
Carnis saw them too. The merged creature seemed to tilt its head ever so slightly, as if it was calculating.
Oscar had delayed long enough and now, reinforcements were arriving. The simple bite attacks were no longer optimal.
The gigantic jaws closed and the projection changed.
Instead of lunging again, the enormous worm split apart near its mouth, countless narrow tendrils erupting outward. Each was barely thicker than a human hand, yet every one ended in an impossibly sharp point formed entirely from condensed flesh-like runic energy. Their reduced size made them infinitely faster than the giant jaws.
There weren't one or two but dozens. Each aligned perfectly toward a different Rank One, not Oscar.
Everyone behind him.
The realization struck instantly.
It was going to slaughter them all simultaneously.
Even if the Rank Twos arrived a fraction of a second later, it would already be over.
Time slowed down in Oscar's mind. Or perhaps Oscar's mind simply accelerated beyond its normal limits.
Everything became impossibly clear. The drifting motes of crimson dust floating lazily through the air, tiny fragments of broken stone suspended in perfect stillness. Every individual tendril carving silent paths across the battlefield.
He could see Mocha, frozen, eyes widened in shock. He could see see every Rank Two racing toward them with everything they possessed.
They were all moving and trying but none of them would make it. Oscar understood. His body still possessed enough strength to dodge.
If he abandoned everyone else, he could grab two people, maybe three if he pushed himself.
Without thinking, Oscar's eyes found Mocha.
He wanted to.
God...
He wanted to just take her hand and escape.
Live.
He could almost feel what her fingers would be like in his own. For one impossibly selfish heartbeat, every instinct screamed at him to survive.
Take Mocha and run!
Leave the rest.
But then...
Faces.
Every awakened behind him. People who had trusted him. People who believed he would protect them. People who had followed him without hesitation because they believed he, as a Rank 2, would always find a way.
How could he condemn them?
How could he decide which lives deserved saving?
How could he ever ask Mocha to live with that?
No.
That wasn't who he was. His thoughts drifted back only minutes earlier. Mocha's embarrassed voice.
Dating for marriage. The memory almost made him smile.
'I'm sorry, Mocha.'
The words never left his lips, for there simply wasn't enough time. Oscar inhaled once, then stepped forward.
Every remaining fragment of Aura inside his body ignited and was channeled. The empty well was scraped clean until not a single ember remained.
Force. The rune he had condensed to turn into a Rank 1. However, this time, the rune was not used for graceful movement or an amplification attack.
Instead, it was utilized for absolute resistance.
His Aura exploded around him with desperate brilliance, invisible pressure anchoring itself into the earth beneath his feet. The ground fractured instantly beneath the overwhelming load as his entire body became an immovable barrier, every muscle locking into place against impossible force. It was the complete opposite of everything his combat style represented.
Oscar fought through speed, precision and movement. Never through standing still.
Yet now...
He became a shield, anchoring himself into the ground like a fortress in the form of a human.
The tendrils arrived and the first pierced completely through his shoulder. The second drove through his abdomen and the third went through his heart before exiting his back.
Then came another, and another and another.
Each impact sent violent tremors through his body while fountains of crimson erupted into the air. Bones splintered. Organs ruptured. Flesh tore apart beneath the relentless barrage. The Force rune screamed beneath the overwhelming pressure, every remaining trace of Aura pouring into keeping his body rooted exactly where it stood.
The tendrils tried to continue through him, but they couldn't.
Oscar would not move and the power of Force held.
Every piercing strike that should have continued into the terrified Rank Ones behind him stopped inside Oscar instead, his body becoming the final wall between Carnis and everyone else.
By the time the barrage ended, he remained standing only because the Force rune still refused to release its impossible anchor.
Blood dripped steadily from every wound.
His Aura was gone.
And Oscar Pine, riddled through by dozens of crimson tendrils, had traded every remaining heartbeat he possessed so that everyone standing behind him could keep theirs.
.
.
A sharp ringing exploded through Mocha's ears and everything else vanished beneath it. She watched, unable to breathe, as the crimson tendrils pierced through Oscar's body one after another.
Then...
They stopped.
The flesh-like runic tendrils strained against him, yet none of them advanced another inch. It was as though his body had become an unbreakable shield, refusing to allow even a single strike to pass beyond him.
It happened too quickly.
Rank Twos existed in a different world from Rank Ones. Their movements blurred beyond ordinary perception, reducing life-and-death exchanges into flashes too fast for her eyes to properly follow. She could barely even understand everything that was unfolding around her.
A deafening boom shook the battlefield. Something black streaked overhead, trailing countless feathers as it carved through the remaining tendrils in an instant.
Another explosion followed as a pillar of golden fire, so concentrated it resembled a laser beam, erupted across the battlefield before crashing directly into the floating Carnis Grimm, engulfing its monstrous body.
The earth trembled.
Somewhere beyond her narrowing vision, an enormous Eastern Dragon collided bodily with the hybrid monstrosity, the impact producing a shockwave that flattened the crimson landscape for hundreds of meters.
Yet Mocha had noticed none of it. The world had narrowed to one person. Her trembling legs carried her forward without conscious thought.
Oscar swayed and the invisible strength anchoring him upright finally gave way, and as his body began to fall, Mocha caught him before he could hit the ground.
He felt...
Light.
Far lighter than he should have. Warm blood immediately soaked through her sleeves as she cradled him against herself.
Oscar slowly looked up at her. His eyes had already become glassy but somehow, he still smiled. The same gentle and reassuring smile that had told her everything was going to be alright.
It remained on his face and it never changed. The ringing in her ears grew louder, drowning the entire battlefield beneath an endless, suffocating hum.
Voices erupted around her and footsteps.
Shouts.
Someone knelt beside them. A blur of black hair and feathers.
"...Stay with..."
She didn't hear the rest.
The black-feathered figure disappeared almost immediately, launching away again toward the battle still raging nearby.
Mocha never looked up.
She simply stared into Oscar's unmoving, glass-like eyes, unable to tear her gaze away from the smile that had frozen forever upon his face.