Me and a friend read over my introduction chapters recently and realised that they could use some work, nothing too serious but work nonetheless. I've made edits he's told me about, spelling mistakes and the like, and I've also made a few small edits to things I wasn't really satisfied with, nothing big however so if you've read through these already there isn't any need to read through them again. This will be happening over the coming weeks for the rest of volume one.
The Demon
"Wh- what do you want?!" The grounded man yells, holding his bleeding leg in fear.
"This isn't about me, really." The boy replies, bloodied knife in hand. "You refused our offer one too many times I would guess." The boy wore all black with his hood almost covering his face.
"You... you can't do this." The man replies, dejectedly. "We can talk about-"
"It's pretty obvious what you're doing." The boy replies, putting his knife in its holster. "You're stalling for time."
"How do you-?"
"Well, you made it pretty clear. Could you tell them to hurry? I'm getting bored." As he says this a gunshot is heard a few meters away and a bullet hits the ground at his feet: a warning shot. The boy turns and sees a dozen armed men with clothes similar to the man on the ground.
"Put your hands in the air!" One man yells. He has a bayonet tipped sniper rifle and is clearly the one who shot.
"Well, looks like you got me." The boy says, taking off his hood to reveal his face. He has black hair, despite looking fairly young, with a green stripe running down the left side, matching his piercing green eyes. "I was hoping you would come. I heard they call you Bell, is this correct?"
"That is me." The man says. "Do you have business with me? You could have just asked for me."
"Well, that wouldn't really get the message across, would it?" The boy says. Looking over the man, he's well built, tall and muscular, holding the sniper rifle in one hand. "I guess I should introduce myself, they call me Damien." He continues. "My boss has made a few offers in the past to merge our groups, yours being the biggest and ours being the most resourceful, we could take the city for ourselves if we wanted to. You have turned down our previous offers and I'm here to ask again."
"Did the warning shot not indicate that I'm not playing games, kid?" Bell responds. "I knew who you were. Go back and tell your boss-"
"Now, that would be fine. However..." Damien begins before pulling out his knife. "I was hoping for this. I heard you were strong, any chance we could fight for this?"
Bell looked at his men and sighs. "Open fire." Before the three men armed with guns begin shooting. Damien is surrounded by a cloud of smoke and the men stop. "Let's go, we still have work to do tonight." Suddenly, one of the men begins to fire at the ground in front of him, clouding the area around them. "What are you-!"
"Help!" Says one of the gunners before he is cut off and replaced by a gurgling noise. The smoke clears and the three gunners and lying on the ground in a puddle of blood with Damien standing over them, knife in hand. The floor is torn apart by bullets but Damien has no marks on him.
"What the hell is going on?!" Bell yells. Damien ignores him, as do Bell's men, who charge at Damien in a rage. The first man that gets to him swings his axe but Damien dodges it and it is planted into the concrete floor. He walks on towards the charging crowd as Bell takes aim. Two more men charge at him and swing together, one aiming for his legs and one for his head. He quickly charges the man aiming for his head and slips behind him, kicking him forward into the other man's weapon, breaking his leg and causing him to collapse onto the other swinger. Another shot is fired. As soon as he hears it, Damien dodges to the left, barging into another fighter and flipping over him, stabbing him in the arm. The bullet flies past and hits the man still trying to get his axe from the ground in the leg. Damien walks on towards Bell with a smile on his face. "What are you?!" Bell yells, rapidly pulling the trigger. Three bullets fly out before it clicks a few more times with no result. One bullet goes into the back of the man in front of him, causing him to fall into the man in front of him. Damien stands before them and holds out his knife for the man to fall on. A man to the left of him charges, swinging his sword down on him.
Damien raises his left arm over his head, blocking the sword. The sword cuts part way into his arm before sliding towards his hand, like it was going down a ramp, and ripping off Damien's lower arm, which flops to the ground, revealing a spike attached half way up his lower arm. The man's sword continues, chopping into the falling man while Damien stabs the man to his left with his spick-arm. The three men collapse, leaving only Bell.
"Was this the best you have?" Damien asks, still walking. "I hope you can put up a fight at least." Bell pulls out another weapon from his belt, a shotgun, and begins firing both guns rapidly towards Damien, who dodges them effortlessly. "You seem to know a bit about me, but I wonder." He continues, knowing Bell can't hear him. "Do you know what my semblance is?" Bell continues firing until he hears a few more rapid clicks and reaches for his ammo belt. Damien reaches him and places his face inches from Bell's. "I call it, The Demon's Influence."
Bell pauses for a second before swinging his rifle at Damien, hitting him in the face with the butt. His bayonet suddenly folds out, cutting Damien's cheek. Bell swings again, revealing that his rifle could fold out into a great-sword.
"Nice!" Damien exclaims. "Now I can take this seriously. An ex-hunter I'm guessing?"
"Stop talking!" Bell yells, swinging with two great swords now, as his shotgun transforms too. Damien suddenly disappears from his sight, ducking under his legs and slicing at them with his knife, before jumping on his back, stabbing at him multiple times. Both realize that their auras had depleted completely throughout the fight and Damien jumps back from him. Bell instantly grabs his ammo and starts to reload but Damien raises his left arm and aims the spike towards him, grabbing a section of it with his right. Bell suddenly hears a noise like metal on metal and looks up to see the spike flying towards him. Due to its size and speed, it is easy to block, however he does not see the knife coming from behind it, which stabs him in the head after he knocks the spike away. Bell collapses to the ground, dead.
Damien walks slowly towards Bell to retrieve his knife, kicking him over onto his back and ripping it out. He pulls out his walkie-talkie. "I'm done here, where to next?" He says. "What do you mean? I'm pretty sure they're all dead." He replies before hearing a cough from the man he had left with a wounded leg. "I'll get back to you." He puts away the communicator and walks back to the man. "Take me to the rest of your crew." He continues with a smile. "You work for Torchwick now."
The Warrior
A young man walks into the empty room, the room his family had been trying to find for decades. He was not surprised that the legends would be true, after all, he had seen many strange things in his search, and this was just a room.
"I knew you would come." Came a voice from the walls.
"Then why didn't you stop me?" He replies. "You know what I'm here for, right? I would expect you to."
"Yes, I do, but I am not willing to give it over."
"Then how about we fight for it." He says, getting into a fighting stance.
"You are fast to resort to drastic measures."
"You should have known that too."
The voice sighs. "I cannot fight you, I am merely a thought, but I can issue a challenge if you so wish."
"Then do it."
"Alright then, but don't blame me when you fail." Once the voice finishes, the room shifts and changes, slowly becoming a different place entirely.
"Vak!" Yelled his brother, running towards him with something in his hands. "Look what I made!" He held his hands up to reveal a tiny wooden dog statue.
"That's great and all but-" Vak says.
"Ville, what have I told you." Vak's older brother says, ruffling Ville's hair. "Don't use your semblance unless you need to."
"Ve! You ruined it!" Ville says, turning away.
"Look, just-" Vak begins.
"Okay, fine." Ve says, taking Ville's creation in his hands. He squeezes it tight before releasing it slowly to reveal the wooden dog moving and running around in his hands.
"Hey, that's unfair!" Ville says, even more annoyed than before. Ve is dumbfounded by this and moves on.
"Speaking of, it's good to see you. Have you discovered your semblance yet?" Ve asks.
"That's enough." Vak says. "I'm not an idiot. Did you really think I would fall for such a simple trick?"
"No, of course not." The voice confirms. "But that wasn't the point." His brothers both turn to him, standing in a fighting stance like his. "What will you do now?"
"Fight, of course."
"It takes nothing to say, but what will you do?" Suddenly everything felt a lot more real. The two figures in front of him felt like physical beings and not simple illusions. Ville jumps back away from him and brings his hand to the wall, ripping off a part of it to create a weapon. Ve stands still, waiting for Vak to make the first attack. Vak quickly rushed Ve, waiting for him to make his move before dodging past him and running for Ville instead. Ve throws his hands to the floor, setting it in motion towards him. Vak runs as fast as he can but he's still slowly moving back towards Ve, just like the last time they fought. Vak changes course, spinning around and running with the floor and gain speed before jumping at Ve. He knees Ve in the nose, causing it to bleed. "You understand that did almost nothing, yes?"
"Yes, I know. I was testing if they had an aura."
"Clever, but that still counts as a missed strike." The voice mocks. Vak pulls out his spear, readying it for close combat by holding the point closer to him. Ve also readies his spear but for distance, at the same time making the floor move again to gain distance from Vak, who ignores it and rushes him before he gets a chance to change it again. Vak tries to get in a quick hit but Ve blocks it with his spear. Vak ignores this and pushes until the spear is cut in half. Vak remembers that Ve had a snake head on the other end of his spear and quickly jumps back to avoid it as it snaps at him after being brought to life. Ve now held the top half of a snake in one hand and half a spear in the other. Vak assumes this is time for distance but is quickly put off that when he is hit in the arm by a sword wielded by his younger brother. Vak knows he is inexperienced in reality but doesn't know how he is in this illusion. Both brothers rush at him and he jumps up, planting his spear in the ceiling. The brothers jump up after him but falls into his trap. The bottom of his spear opens up and begins to fire, shooting rapidly in a circle, hitting both of the illusions. They are torn apart, revealing circuitry and dust. They both fall to the ground but are clearly still moving.
"What is this?" Vak says, still hanging from the ceiling. "These two were much easier to beat than my brothers.
"Well of course, I could not replicate them perfectly."
"Do I win then?"
"Not yet, functional."
"Alright then." He says, walking over to the copy of Ville. "I'll be home soon, brother." He finishes before stomping on the robot's head and moving on to Ve. "I'm sorry, you will have to wait a while longer to see Ville again." He says, slamming a foot down on his head. "So, where is my reward?"
"They aren't all defeated yet."
"What do you-" He begins before being cut off by his own scream as the snake bites into his eye. He grabs the snake, crushing it with his hand. He feels something rushing into his eye.
"What will you do now?" Says the voice, mockingly.
"I will fight." He says, holding his spear close to the spike and thrusting it behind his eye to cut it out.
The Hunter
A young girl runs through the forest, charging towards a scream for help. As soon as she arrives at the clearing that they named home, she discovers a creature resembling an ursa attacking her brother.
"Apollo!" She yells out to him, pulling out her bow in preparation. She aims for the ursa's leg and fires, merely getting its attention. The ursa turns to her, ready to pounce, and Apollo quickly climbs up a tree behind him, readying his bow as well. The ursa swings its claws at the girl, digging up a large area of the floor as she dodges out of the way while swinging her bow to hit its head. An arrow hits it in the back and it turns to see Apollo with his sights trained on it. He fires again but the ursa puts up its claws in defense, blocking the arrow.
"We need to get its guard down!" Apollo yells.
"I noticed!" The girl replies. "Give me a second!" She yells before untying one end of her bowstring, holding the bow at that end, creating a whip. She swings the bow at the ursa's arm, whipping it half off, before doing it again, this time wrapping the string around its arm and pulling as hard as she could, ripping it off. Apollo takes the shot and hits it square in the eye. The ursa is tougher than most and falls back, roaring. Suddenly, two smaller ursa leap out of the forest, swiping at the girl and catching her by surprise. She gets sent flying back into a tree across the clearing.
"Artemis!" Apollo yells, grabbing two arrows from his quiver and pulling the string back. He fires at both ursa but the shots don't connect. He quickly analyses the situation, trying to find the injured ursa before it can get away. He hears a sound behind him and jumps down from the tree just in time to dodge the ursa's claws. He runs over to Artemis, who just finished getting up again. "How is your aura?" He asks.
"Pretty bad." She replies. "But I should be fine."
"Okay then. Put your earplugs in." He says, pulling out his harp. Artemis quickly puts in her earplugs before the song starts. The dust in the harp reacts and the soundwave is visible. The beasts begin to slow down until they stop. Apollo nods to Artemis and she prepares two arrows, aiming them for the two uninjured ursa. Both shots hit their targets and the music stops. Apollo raises an arrow to the sun, reflecting the light off it onto the arrows now buried in the ursa. He grabs a dust gem of fire and fire runs down the beams of light, setting the grim on fire from the inside. They burn quickly and soon the clearing is empty.
"What were you thinking!" Artemis shouts. "You would have died if I wasn't here!"
"That's why you were here." Apollo says. "You came to save me, like I knew you would."
"Did you know it had backup?"
"Of course not, if I did then I would have planned it differently."
"What was your plan?! Bring it here and wait for me to save you?!"
"Pretty much. You are better than me at this type of thing anyway." He says, looking up to the sun. "This was easy for one of father's tests though."
"Maybe we've just gotten better." Artemis says. "We need to get home before it gets dark, it's a full moon tonight." She finishes, walking towards their cottage in the woods while looking down at her right leg that was injured in the fight but refusing to let the pain show.
The Investment
"Hey! Gills!" A boy yells. The girl he is referring to turns to him.
"If you call me that again, I'm going to hit you." She replies calmly. "What, you want a rematch... Luci, was it?"
"I told you not to call me that." Luci says.
"What do you want?" She says more firmly.
"I want a rematch." He replies. "You're leaving this year and I haven't had a chance to fight against you on fair grounds."
"You're saying I cheated?"
"Yes, and I respect that, so I'm going to take this seriously." He says, drawing his knife.
"Look, this is a big day for me. If you want to fight me then come to Becon next year and-"
"I'm not waiting that long. You beat me at the start of the year so I need to prove to myself that I can do this." He replies, determination in his eyes. She sees this and sighs with frustration.
"Fine, but this one has to be official. Give me a-"
"No need." Luci interrupts, pointing to one of the teachers in the crowd, who waves him off.
"Alright kids, calm down." He says.
"Mister Qrow! What are you doing?"
"Look, I'm all for a fight but Luci said that you would want a moderator, or something like that, and I owe him a few favors." Qrow says, taking out a whistle Luci had 'borrowed' from one of the other teachers.
The girl sighs, taking out her custom revolvers. "So, what rules are we using?"
"Rules? No, I'm just here to make it official, you do whatever you want."
The girl sighs again. "This was supposed to be a normal graduation, you know?"
"Whatever. Okay, let's get this started." Qrow announces. "Luci Glas verses... I'm sorry, what's your name?"
"I've been in your class for two years." The girl replies before shaking it off. "Judy Apelsin."
"Okay, go then, I have stuff to do." Qrow finishes unceremoniously with a drink.
"Are you even-" Judy begins before being cut off by a knife hitting her in the arm. Luci rushes forward, stabbing seemingly wildly, although he has a calm expression on his face. Judy jumps away, aiming both pistols at him and firing. One jams but she was expecting that as it happened the last time they fought and nearly cost her the fight. It's only then that Luci notices that her guns aren't aimed at the same place but her right gun at his leg and the left at his knife, making it hard for him to guess her next move. The right gun jams and Judy fires at his knife. The knife spins a few times in the air but Luci catches it anyway, catching it by the blade while aiming the gun in it's handle at Judy, who opens up the shield on her guns to block the bullets. She finds it surprising how predictably he is being, if she remembered right then this is almost exactly how their first fight went. The sound of his footsteps is drowned out by his shouting.
"Come on! I wanted you to go all out from the start! You can't surprise me with your tricks this time!" He says, clearly as a distraction. Suddenly, Judy hears a loud sound of metal scraping against metal and sees the pointed end of the knife poking between her shields with no-one holding it. She looks around quickly but doesn't see him.
"Damnit." She whispers. "Look around but don't draw attention to yourself." Her backpack opens slightly to reveal a 360 degrees camera.
"Behind you!" Yells a voice from the backpack. Judy turns to see Luci jumping down from a tree, aiming his feet towards her head. She raises her guns to him but he just lands on the shields and jumps off before she has a chance to fire, landing behind her and swinging his knife for a final strike. Again, a sound of metal on metal rings out. The crowd they had drawn in looks on in surprise as two mechanical tendrils extruding from Judy's bag block Luci's knife.
"Finally taking this seriously." Luci smiles. "Now I can as well." As soon as he says this, Judy can feel his aura increase in strength, forcing her to realize that he didn't actually have it up before, and his face turned into a terrifying grin. He rushes forward, swinging wildly all the way. Judy pulls up her guns ready to aim and begins walking forward.
"What are you doing?" Comes the voice from her backpack. "Keep your distance, we have the advantage." Judy stopped walking and Luci stopped dead in his tracks.
"You can resist The Demon's Influence? Strange." Luci ponders, keeping the grin on his face. He shrugs it off and begins rushing forward again. Judy starts to question why she walked forward. She already knew Luci had some type of luck-based semblance but it didn't seem like that was part of it, did he have two somehow? Suddenly, a knife is in her face but two metal arms block it, one of them breaking in the process.
"Thanks, N9, I got distracted." Judy says.
"I knew you were cheating, this is two on one." Luci says, bringing his face closer to the flying sparks. "But it doesn't matter, because I'm gunna win." Judy raises her working pistol to his face and pulls the trigger, not realizing that this would break the other arm blocking his attack and his knife goes through and deals the final blow to her aura. They both stand there in silence, Luci with his aura still almost completely intact. "I guess it does work on you after all, but how did you break it before?" Usually the match would end here but Judy raises her guns again, forcing the match to continue. "Wow, that's brave of you." Luci says, dodging a hail of bullets.
"Stop talking!" Judy yells. Only now realizing that both her guns are firing now but not having time to be distracted. One of the bullets hits Luci in the arm but only hits his aura, meaning he could run without concern until he noticed that his aura was also done. Both metal arms go back into the backpack and Judy puts away her guns. "There, this is a tie." Judy says, beginning to walk away. Luci appears behind her almost instantly, ready to attack. Luci hears a sound from her backpack and, assuming the worst, aims his left hand at a nearby wall and presses a button, launching a metal spike through his fake hand, tearing it apart, and stabbing into the wall, pulling him towards it and out of the way before a spinning saw blade shoots out of Judy's backpack.
"You could have killed me!" Luci yells.
"You attacked me first, idiot!" Judy yells back, pulling out her weapons again, backing away from him. A loud bang happens suddenly behind her and when she turns to see what it is, it appears to be the spike he had launched at the wall. Getting a better look at it, it seemed to have four blades in a circle that all came together in the middle as a point, presumably so that he could slice with it as well as stabbing. Too slowly she realizes that there is a chain attached to it as well, probably leading back to Luci, who runs around her, using the chain to trip her before jumping at her and striking down with her knife. She swings her gun up and uses it to smack the knife out of his hand, aiming the gun at his leg and pulling the trigger. He dodges out of the way before preparing his own attack, aiming the stump of his left arm at her left leg, pressing another button on it, firing a shotgun blast out of a hole in the flat, metallic stump, tearing her leg apart.
Judy screams in pain as Qrow rushes over and grabs Luci as he prepares another strike. "What are you doing?" Qrow says. "The fight's over." As he says this, the smile leaves Luci's face and becomes a look of worry.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Luci begins, realizing that her leg was only just hanging on. The crowd looks at him in shock before a few rush over and grab him with Qrow, holding him back, although Qrow is doing it for a different reason.
"Just calm down, kid. Everything will be alright." He says, taking out his scroll and calling for transport. "Her gills are part of her faunus abilities but another is the ability to regenerate lost limbs, being an axolotl." Qrow says, taking another swig of his drink.
Judy seems to have fallen asleep as they lift her up and take her away.