Cross Conviction

"Gustavo? Max? What the hell is going on here?"

Max looked around Grizzler's massive body to see Sturm, rough and bruised, standing in the open front entrance next to a panting and blood-drenched Whirlwind. Equal parts stunned at the state of his fellow candidates as he was relieved at their return, the boy's eyes widened greatly.

"Sturm!" he cried, "You guys look terrible... What happened?"

Still standing guard over Magnolia, Gustavo shouted, "Focus, Max! Don't let your guard down!"

The armored giant was well aware of Max's speed after their previous clash. As such, he turned his thick neck only just enough to catch the slightest glimpse of the newly arrived parties from the corner of his eye.

"What's this?" growled Grizzler, "The little hurricane finally decided to blow in?"

"Metzeld!" exclaimed Emmy from the side garden.

Sturm looked over to see the girl propping Eduard, clothes cached with soil, against her shoulder. Emmy slowly eased her comrade down against the flowerbed's concrete embankment before breaking into a run toward Whirlwind.

Shocked by her recklessness, Max held his arm to the side and extended his blade an extra half meter, blocking her path.

"Max!" she frantically protested, "Stop it, Metzeld is hurt! I need to help him!"

The defiant boy slowly shook his head. Though he held no high opinion of Whirlwind, seeing the turmoil in the girl's eyes affected him deeply.

"I'm sorry Emmy, Gustavo is right..." Max explained solemnly. "If you try to run by that guy, you're gonna get crushed."

Hearing this, Grizzler began to chuckle ominously. "You're all getting crushed eventually, so there's no point delaying the inevitable."

Sturm's brow furrowed with aggressive intent. He wasn't certain of what had transpired until this point, or why a famed Iron Knight stood between his team and their objective, but the scene before him was context enough. With Magnolia and Eduard down, it was clear that Grizzler was his enemy. Sturm drew the blackened metal scimitar from his belt and readied it toward the sergeant's back.

Suddenly, Whirlwind vaulted into the air, propelled by a cushion of air generated as his remaining propeller suddenly exploded to life. Despite his injuries, this assistance allowed the white-haired candidate to bound over Grizzler with ease. The landing, however, would be a different story. Heavily weakened by his injuries, Whirlwind crashed to the ground next to his teammates, severely damaging his only functional gauntlet. Mortified as the damaged contraption began to spark and grind loudly, Emmy quickly hurried to his side to render aid. Thinking quickly, the girl removed as much heat energy as she could from the broken gauntlet before her hands began to burn.

It was only now that Emmy was able to make out the full extent of Whirlwind's injuries. "Oh my goodness..." she choked as her eyes became wet, "You're full of holes... W-what happened to you?"

Angrily, Whirlwind gripped Emmy's lapel and pulled her off to the side, freeing him to rise back to one knee. "Get off of me, you damned idiot," he groaned through huffed breath, "And pull yourself together..."

Being tossed aside so callously had caused Emmy's raw palms to contact the rough, dirty masonry below as she caught herself. Remaining on her hands and knees, the girl cringed in pain. 

"Hey!" cried Max, his neck quickly snapping in the red-eyed boy's direction, "What the fuck is wrong with you?! Keep your hands off her!"

Heaving as he contested with the substantial blood loss, Whirlwind shakily hoisted himself to his feet. His stained and matted bangs fell over his crimson glare, obscuring the extent of his rage at Max's interjection. 

"What, ya got something to say now?" Max ranted on, turning to face the object of his ire completely "Yeah, go ahead man, shoot your mouth off. I don't think ya have enough holes in ya, yet!

As soon as Max's mouth closed, Grizzler launched himself at the boy quicker than anyone could react. One moment Max had been sizing up his fellow candidate. The next, a crushing pain overwhelmed his back as the six-hundred-kilogram titan of a sergeant impacted it with his elbow at well over sixty kilometers per hour. The devastating collision would have been enough to launch Max a great distance, had Grizzler not utilized his immense speed to immediately snatch him from the air and drive him downward through the brick path, cratering the ground in the process.

"You just got through telling your stupid friend to be careful..." Grizzler's voice rumbled as he crushed the stunned and blurry-eyed Max deeper into the earth under his weight, "Then you turn your back on me?"

Max choked on a thick ball of blood while the jagged stones dug into the side of his face. He gripped the broken terrain, straining in agony as he made a doomed attempt to match the giant's incredible strength. Feeling the harrowing sensation of his ribs warping beneath such force, Max let out a hellish roar before finally expelling the blood from his mouth in a violent coughing fit.

Witnessing the events with a look of complete horror, Emmy clutched her mouth with stinging palms. "No!" gasped.

"Disrespecting me will be your last mistake..." Grizzler continued.

Alerted by the whizzing drone of a fast-approaching object, the sergeant threw up his wrist, just in time to deflect Sturm's airborne blade. Following up the makeshift projectile, Sturm ran up Grizzler's back, leaped upward from the giant's scapula, and grabbed the scimitar as it flipped through the air, before summarily ramming it down through the enemy's shoulder. Howling in pain, Grizzler stumbled back away from Max and attempted to seize his attacker. Sturm, however, was quick to react. The swordsman easily avoided both of the sergeant's massive hands, dragging the scimitar down through Grizzler's back as he descended to the ground. Then, as soon as his boots clicked against masonry, Sturm lunged away from his opponent, handily dodging a brutal stomp.

Enraged by the vicious surprise assault, Grizzler did a swift about-face and flung himself after Sturm, who managed to land a slash across the titan's chest before being batted into one of the great columns bordering the academy's entrance. The energy exerted by Sturm's body impacting the towering stone support was great enough to shatter several nearby second and third-story windows, raining glass on the candidates below. Though a satisfied smirk initially dominated Grizzler's square jaw, it quickly subsided as sharp pain spread across his pectoral muscles- Sturm's traded blow had been dire. 

Clutching his chest, Grizzler stepped back and began to pant heavily. Dark blood soon leached into the wool of the uniform's breast area, ultimately dripping down the metal reinforcing sections of his torso armor. Miraculously, even under the pressure of inevitable impending injury, Sturm had managed to run his blade between the giant's armor plates, gravely wounding him.

Spurred by a predatory urge, Whirlwind's pupils dilated in response to the unexpected exsanguination. 

He's weakening... the white-haired boy examined internally, I have to take him down... I will be the one who claims the victory.

Feeling a sudden pressure on his ankle, Gustavo looked down to see Magnolia digging her fingers into his leather boot.

Clutching her head, Magnolia murmured groggily, "How...? How am I alive...?"

Glancing between the girl and their severely damaged enemy, Gustavo remained on guard as he explained their unlikely survival. "Max showed up and saved us at the last second with some sort of shield."

With her vision partially obstructed by messy blonde hair, Magnolia observed her many fallen and disabled allies strewn about.

"Max?" she groaned, brushing her tousled bangs from her eyes to properly survey the battlefield, "I don't see him..."

Gustavo inhaled deeply before pointing to the crater of rubble farther down the main path. "He's... in there."

Eyes filling with concern, Magnolia found herself abruptly jerked back to lucidity by the weight of their current situation. "Where is Sturm?"

After some hesitation, Gustavo's finger panned through the air, finally coming to a stop over Sturm's unmoving body lying at the foot of the tall stone column.

"W-what?" Magnolia stuttered, unable to come to terms with the sight.

A haggard war cry suddenly filled the air, alerting Gustavo, Magnolia, and Emmy all at once. Confused, Grizzler turned to see Whirlwind charging toward him, despite the candidate's grim state.

"God damned moron..." the sergeant growled through clenched teeth, "You've got one foot in hell already!"

Refusing to relent, Whirlwind burst into a full-on sprint, irritating his own wounds to the point of leaving a trail of blood behind him as he recklessly rushed forth. Blinded by predatory ambition, the boy prepared to use his defunct gauntlets as blunt weapons. However, just as Whirlwind swung his right forearm at Grizzler's hip, the giant's hand quickly repositioned and closed around the majority of the knight candidate's offending limb. Leaving no chance for resistance, the sergeant then lifted Whirlwind by his arm, clasped his opposite shoulder, and wrenched his own wrist backward. With the sickening crack of bone and cartilage, Whirlwind's arm was effortlessly shattered. 

The young candidate began to roar in pain, but his screams were quickly muffled by the grip of Grizzler's opposite hand wrapping around his neck and head. Shrieking in terror, Emmy watched helplessly as her teammate was swiftly thrown from the area, far over the bushes that bordered each side of the main path.

"Anyone else feels like killing themselves today?!" Grizzler exclaimed before turning his burning glare toward Emmy, still on her knees.

Magnolia swallowed nervously, attempting to gain control of her rapidly increasing heartbeat. "I-is that it? Did we lose?"

A bead of sweat ran from Gustavo’s brow, down his nose, before finally dripping onto his overcoat. “No...” he said under his breath, “Not yet...”