A reflection in a pond was all it took for Ruby Rose to run off. The flash of a red cape and scattered rose petals announced her departure.
"Ruby!" a voice called after her. Ruby was oblivious. Her attention was fully entranced by a storefront. Filled with weapon parts, of course. She squealed at the newest model of linear motors, and all the upgrades that came along with them. She could increase Crescent Rose's transformation speed even more now!
Ruby's signature weapon (her sweetheart) looked different from how it was when she first entered her third year at Signal Academy. The weapon possessed a much more ominous air about it. That was a hard thing to accomplish considering the weapon was a scythe, the tool of choice for death itself.
And now it was capable of bringing more death than even the Grim Reaper's infamous scythe. It's blade was imbued with dust, making it tougher, sharper, and capable of channeling the volatile substance it was now made of. To facilitate this, tubes wrapped around the shaft of the scythe which were connected to reservoirs of dust in the base of the hilt. Crescent Rose's magazine had greater capacity as well. Its rounds now accelerated by magnetized rails, rather than dust charges.
Plenty of people had called her focus on upgrading Crescent Rose an unhealthy, and ludicrously expensive, obsession. The reason for this obsession stared at Ruby from the window. Her reflection. A nasty burn marred her shoulder, given to her by an unknown red dressed woman associated with Roman Torchwick. She sighed as her mind flashed back to that night.
"End of the line, Red!" Torchwick yelled as he tossed a burn crystal at her feet. Ruby glanced at the crystal for a few moments, wondering what he could possibly do with an unactivated dust crystal. Her answer arrived when another projectile burst from Torchwick's cane. Ruby's eyes widened, and she quickly activated her semblance to dash out of the way; however, she underestimated the size of the explosion and was sent flying into an air conditioning unit by the blast. She had never been good with dust.
She groaned as her aura flared around her. Weakened by the blast, it protected her but was now almost completely depleted. Ruby glared as Torchwick's bullhead began to depart. Using what little remained of her aura Ruby activated her semblance once again, and bolted to the edge of the roof. She started peppering the Bullhead with rounds from her sniper scythe. She knew at the time it was a mistake to keep on fighting with her Aura like it was, but her arrogance and naivety prevented her from stopping.
Torchwick ducked back inside the bullhead as her rounds started hitting inside the plane. She must have hit something important since the Bullhead started emitting warning alarms. Ruby started to shift her aim to the engines when another figure emerged. She was clearly a woman, for she was adorned in a brilliant red dress. Ruby started firing shots at the new person, but each one was deflected by the woman's palms. Ruby's eyes widened. How was she blocking 50 caliber sniper rounds?
Suddenly the woman's arms flared with an ethereal flame, and a fiery beam was shot at Ruby. It moved too fast for Ruby to react. It impacted her shoulder, sent her flying back, and ripped Crescent Rose from her grip. The weapon clattered against the ground, useless. It's blade had been warped by the attack. Ruby's arm slacked and she almost blacked out from the pain. It had torn through what little auric barriers she had left.
"Ruby!" Ruby was startled from her memories from by another shout, and she glanced at the person now shaking her shoulder. Sapphire Barlow.
"Sorry, Saph," Ruby replied with an apologetic grin. Sapphire was an old friend, and a broadsword wielder, from Patch. She was in Ruby's year at Signal. Her eyes, the same color as her name, bore into Ruby's with unmasked concern.
"Are you okay?" she asked. Ruby unconsciously fiddled with her cloak to cover up her shoulder.
"I'm great!" Ruby replied. The false pep was unconvincing even to Ruby's ears. Fortunately, Sapphire didn't push the issue.
"C'mon Ruby. You're always so focused on your weapon. Let's go do something else." She then dragged Ruby, who cast one last forlorn look at the weapon's display, away from the storefront.
The pair walked down the crowded streets of Vale exchanging few words. Ruby, Sapphire had realized, was quieter as of late. Sure she still had her distinctly ruby-esque outbursts, but they weren't as frequent before. Sapphire only had a vague idea of what changed her friend. Her wound was too obvious to hide after all, but she never heard the full story. All she knew was Ruby got in a fight and had lost. Badly.
After leaving the hospital, Ruby got withdrawn. She was constantly training, studying, sparring, or working on her weapon. Her work had netted dividends too. Sapphire was convinced Ruby was the best student at Signal. Nobody at the school, be it in a group or team, could best her. She had heard whispers of teachers calling her a prodigy, and even rumors of Ruby crushing a visiting team from Beacon. Nobody beat Beacon students, but if anyone could it would be Professor Qrow's prodige.
It worried Sapphire immensely, so, in an attempt to get through to her friend, Sapphire dragged Ruby onto a boat destined for Vale. "You might even run into your sister!" she said. They hadn't so far, and Ruby's lackluster reaction made her wonder if she even wanted to see Yang. A resounding boom echoed throughout the street, stopping Ruby and Sapphire in their tracks. Off in the distance, Beacon was emitting a terrifying amount of smoke.
Another, much closer, explosion wracked the street. This one was accompanied by screams and Grimm roars. Ruby looked at Sapphire, specifically her empty back. She hadn't brought her sword. It wasn't unusual. Most huntresses in training didn't carry around their weapons in protected cities like Ruby.
"Stay here," Ruby said calmly.
"What?" Sapphire replied. "What are you going to-"
"You don't have a weapon. " Ruby explained, and suddenly was gone in a flash of rose petals.
"Wait!" Sapphire called out, but her friend was gone. All that was left was Ruby's red cloak and scattered rose petals.
[There's a day when all courage collapses, and our friends turn and leave us behind]
Ruby reappeared on a rooftop with a pang in her chest. She didn't like leaving Sapphire like that, but it was for her own good. She surveyed the square below her. An old train had punched up from the earth, and pouring out of the hole it created was Grimm: Beowolves, Creeps, Ursa, Borabatusks, and even a King Taijitu. Terrified civilians were scattered throughout the square.
Ruby's fist curled with anger. This must have been a deliberate attack, and there was no guarantee help was coming from Beacon. Not when an explosion had just occurred there. Ruby was possibly on her own until the military arrived.
Priority one: Save the civilians.
Priority two: Seal the breach.
Priority three: Eliminate any remaining grimm.
Ruby unclipped crescent rose from her back and unfolded the weapon in its full glory. Its blade glistened in the sunlight, and it began to glow a myriad of colors as the basic dust types began to rise up the handle. Ruby clicked the safety off and leaped down to the streets below.
A resounding thud echoed throughout the plaza as six beowolf torsos hit the ground. Then two. Then five. Then three. A deadly tornado of black and red was passing through the plaza and catching any wayward grim in its path. Suddenly, the attention of the Grimm had shifted from defenseless civilians to the new and deadlier arrival.
Ruby stopped in the center of the plaza, panting. The overuse of her semblance had tired her out, but it was necessary. There were too many endangered people and she had too little time to save them. An eerie silence pervaded the plaza.
"A huntress!" someone whispered, breaking the silence. As if hearing a starting gun the King Taijitu lunged at Ruby. She jumped over the snakes head and used the opening to jam her scythe into one of the black head's eyes. The snake-like grimm let out a strangled cry and the white half thrust towards Ruby, mouth open.
Ruby deflected the attack with the blunt edge of her scythe, twirled it around, and brought the blade up into the soft upper roof of the King Taijitu's mouth. Ruby then fired a bullet down the snake's gullet and used the momentum to fly backward, ripping out several of the Grimm's fangs in the process.
An Ursa rushed at Ruby as the King Taijitu reared back. Ruby ducked under the beast's initial swipe and cut deep into one of its arms. The Ursa roared and tried to take a bite out of the huntress, but Ruby activated her burn dust and set the beast alight sending it tumbling back. When it started disintegrating Ruby knew it was dead.
The black half of the King Taijitu, enraged at the loss of its eye, lunged at Ruby again. She sidestepped the attack and the snake collided with a storefront behind her. With its body exposed, Ruby slid Crescent Rose between the gaps in the King Taijitu's scales injecting it with fire as she had with the Ursa.
In the back of her mind Ruby realized she wasn't dealing with as many lesser Grimm as had been in the plaza. The grimm weren't all focusing on her like they were supposed to. More human screams brought this to the forefront of her mind. A body tumbled through the air. Blood flowed like in a fountain, spiraling around the corpse as if it were part of some sick dance. With uncharacteristic rage, Ruby dashed towards an Ursa covered in blood. Its head hit the ground shortly after its body.
Another scream caught her attention, and she used her semblance to cut through a Beowolf diving at another person. More roars came out of the tunnel as the King Taijitu continued to sputter its death throes. Ruby needed to seal the tunnel. There was already too many grimm for her to handle, and more would be a disaster. Three more beowolves fell to Ruby's blade as she ran towards the opening. Civilians were still screaming throughout the city, and Ruby's eyes clouded with tears as it finally hit her all at once. The image of a body flying through the air pierced through her thoughts. She couldn't save them all. She had to seal the tunnel or more would die.
Feeling the bodies drop as the seconds ticked by, Ruby desperately looked around for some way to seal the tunnel. She sidestepped another Beowolf lunging at her and split it in half at the torso. Her eyes traced the outline of the building above the breach. It was a typical residential building, and it was teetering dangerously forward. If she could bring that building down…
[There's a place where we'll stand outnumbered, where the wolves and the soulless will rise]
"All of our Bullheads have been destroyed, Sir," the security officer reported to Ozpin. He clutched his cane more tightly.
"Can any of them be repaired?" Glynda asked.
"Not without a lot of time and spare parts, Ma'am." Ozpin pushed his glasses up his face as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He turned to Glynda.
"Get some of our upper years prepared. We're going to take the boats," Ozpin told her.
"The boats have been sunk, sir." Ozpin's fist slammed into a nearby wall. Both Glynda and the officer jumped at the display from the usually calm figure.
"We'll have to go by foot then." Suddenly another armored man rushed into the hallway, "Beacon Security" was emblazoned across his chest.
"We've got contacts swarming the forest! They're White Fang, and they have Atlassian Paladins!" he cried out. Ozpin leaned against the wall he had just punched.
"They're cutting us off completely from Vale," Ozpin said with a dangerous undertone to his voice. He turned back to Glynda.
"Get everyone ready to defend the academy, and have the guards withdraw. They don't have the weapons to deal with that sort of armor." Glynda nodded solemnly at him and started running down the hallway towards the auditorium. The officer went along with her.
Ozpin gestured for the guard who brought him the message to follow him, and he made his way to his office. Ozpin passed by many worried looking students who were heading towards the auditorium as ordered. He gave them all reassuring smiles despite the dread weighing down his heart.
After finally reaching his office Ozpin turned on his console and turned his attention to the guard that accompanied him. He touched a few keys and another keyboard and the virtual display appeared on his desk. With a flick of his wrist, he sent it in the guards direction.
"Get in touch with General Ironwood. I'm going to try and tap into security feeds in Vale." A few minutes later and he was tied into the feeds. He flipped through several cameras before he finally found one in the plaza.
"Oh…" he said. His surprise was interrupted by the guard.
"General Ironwood is on the line, Sir." He sent the screen back at Ozpin, which had a camera feed featuring Ironwood.
"What the hell is happening down there, Ozpin?" he immediately asked.
"The academy has been completely cut off with explosives, and a White Fang presence is on the ground."
"You're a school full of hunters! They shouldn't be a prob-"
"They have your Atlassian Paladins," Ozpin replied dangerously. Ironwood's eyes widened.
"I see...You have no way of getting to Vale, then?" Ironwood asked. He turned away from the camera and starting talking to a soldier off screen as Ozpin formulated a response.
"No," Ozpin replied. "But they're not entirely helpless down there. They have a huntress...of sorts, on the ground." Ironwood turned back to the camera.
"One of your students?" Ironwood asked, eyes narrowing.
"One of Signal's." He replied.
"How can you expect a Signal student to deal with a breach of this severity?!" Ozpin simply sent Ironwood a connection to the camera feed he was watching. A few moments passed as the pair watched the feed.
"That's Ruby Rose," Ironwood said.
"You know of her?" Ozpin asked.
"I knew her mother," he said simply. "And I heard about her taking out one of your first-year teams. Is she our only asset on the ground?
"I believe so," Ozpin replied.
"There is no way she can take on this entire horde herself," Ironwood replied cynically as he watched Ruby dispatch a King Taijitu. "Even a prodigy like her."
"I know. Is there any way you can provide military support?" Ozpin asked.
Ironwoods eyes narrowed. "No. This attack caught us at a bad time. We're updating our drone's software to fix a critical IFF issue. They won't be ready for another ten minutes, and that's assuming we can get them deployed the moment they're done updating." Ozpin looked back at the feed and sighed. His fists curled tightly at his sides.
"We don't have ten minutes."
[There's a moment that changes a life when we do something that no one else can]
Ruby was frantically dashing through a building and slicing through its supports. Crescent Rose's blade was superheated by her burn dust, now almost entirely depleted, in order to cut through the metal. The building let out a groan as Ruby cut down another support and it started falling. Ruby yelped, and used a burst of her semblance to escape the falling building.
The shockwave of the building collapsing sent her flying forward, and she bounced off the ground like a pebble over water. She let out a groan as her scroll chimed, indicating her Aura was half depleted. Ruby silently thanked the training she had done to increase her Aura's capacity. Even if it was obsessive, it had saved her life. She unsteadily got to her feet.
A swipe from an Ursa sent her tumbling down again, and Crescent Rose slipped her grip. She had learned from last time, however, and the weapon didn't go far having been attached by a lanyard to her wrist. She quickly got back up to her feet with a burst from her semblance and stabbed through the Ursa. It hadn't hit the ground before Ruby was assailed by a pack of beowolves. Blood coated their fangs. She held her ground and let the beowolves come to her. Two of them dived at her and she cut them down, panting all the while. Her blade met a bit more resistance than before. These beowolves were the older, more heavily armored ones. All the younger ones must have made it through the breach first.
The remaining few she blew away with fifty caliber rounds. She stumbled slightly and felt vomit come up her throat, but she forced it back down. The bloody fangs were superimposed on her mind, and since the only animals Grimm attacked were humans there was only one potential source of that blood.
She pushed the gruesome thoughts back down. She had to focus. The plaza was now empty of Grimm, the rest must have gone after easier prey. The King Taijitu's corpse was decaying rapidly on the ground. Ruby finally turned back towards the breach, and almost shouted in joy. The building was completely covering the hole. Nothing was going to get through it for now. Ruby allowed herself a quick fist pump, before she disappeared in a swirl of rose petals. She was gone before she noticed her scroll, on the ground, beeping continuously. Ruby's aura was in the red.
Ruby appeared on another roof overlooking Vale. She stumbled, and fell to a knee panting. There wasn't enough aura left to heal her wounds. She felt the various cuts and bruises from the falling building, and the deep gash from the Ursa's swipe. Rips could be seen in her corset, and the blood seeping out of her wounds intermingled with the red highlights of her combat uniform.
Ruby unsteadily got to her feet, and took a white dust crystal out from a hidden compartment in Crescent Rose. She siphoned it's stored auric energy into herself; however, she didn't let her aura heal her wounds. It had to be channeled it into her semblance. There wasn't enough time for anything else. Ruby flipped a switch on her Scythe and her blade started glowing yellow. Lightning. She turned Crescent Rose around and fired off a bullet, using its momentum to send her flying to a group of Ursa chasing down faunus. She landed in front of Ursa and used her Aura to send bolts of lightning towards the Grimm. The sudden boom and crackling startled the beasts, but they were fried before they could evade. One particularly resilient Ursa lunged at Ruby, but she ducked under the attack and jabbed her blade up into the Ursa's head through its already cooked flesh. She rolled under its legs as it fell forward.
She sent a glance back towards the faunus to make sure they were okay. They stared back at her in shock. Ruby nodded at them and used her scythe to propel herself back onto the rooftops. Once the faunus were out of her sight she stumbled and collapsed onto the roof. Ruby cried out in pain. She put a hand to her chest and pulled it back. It was coated in blood. Her eyes began to blur, and she started to fall. With a burst from her aura, she started healing her wounds slightly. She couldn't go down. Not yet.
With a herculean effort she stumbled back to her feet, and limped over to the edge of the roof. She counted eight more packs of Grimm within her range. With a thud the magazine in her sniper cluttered to the ground, and she replaced it with another. Four arrows were painted on it. She was going to need the extra speed.
[I may fall. Not this place….not today...]
Cheering echoed throughout the halls of Beacon Academy as another Paladin went down, cut down by crossfire at Beacon's entrance. Yang Xiao Long ducked back down as White Fang fire peppered her window. The White Fang had established a no man's land at Beacon's main entrance. Their sheer volume of fire was enough to take down any Aura user save a fast one. Like her sister. Yang felt a pang in her chest. She knew she was in Vale today. Ozpin had told her she was fighting down there. "I felt like you needed to know," he had said.
Yang was angry. The longer the White Fang held them up, the longer it would take to get to Ruby. Her body literally blazed. It was getting harder to hold back her rage. She was stuck in some window with a rifle of all things. She wasn't a ranged fighter. She was useless like this, but it was impossible for her to get close.
What was their aim? What could the White Fang possibly get from this? There were many faunus in Vale, just like there were humans. What could they gain from its destruction? Her thoughts unknowingly mirrored Ozpin's, who was sitting in his office monitoring several feeds.
"If I can figure out their goal..." he muttered. His eyes wandered to the plaza's feed. Ruby's impromptu blockage was still holding up. He was shocked when he first realized what she was doing, and how she was doing it. Superheating a blade to cut through metal? It certainly was a novel idea, and an effective one. Ruby had made this situation much less dire than it was before, and he wordlessly thanked her for it. Though he no longer had a camera feed on the brilliant young girl, Ozpin was confident she was handling herself.
[I May Fall]
Ruby's breath escaped her lungs as she was slammed into the side of a building. Her vision was tinged red, and the pain of her wounds was almost unbearable. She tried to stand but collapsed. A golden pincer shot over her head and slammed into the building behind her. Ruby cried out and tried channeling even more of her Aura into healing herself.
It was like trying to pick up sand. Her aura just slipped passed her fingers. There was too little left to do anything with. The Deathstalker ripped its pincher from the wall and rubble rained down on Ruby. It raised its pincer up, preparing to strike. Ruby desperately tried to call upon her semblance as her thoughts ran wild. It wasn't supposed to be this way! She couldn't die now...not now….not now.
The sound of automated anti-air guns echoed in the distance as Nevermores, attracted to the stench of fear surrounding Vale, tried to break through the cities air defenses. One more scream ended in a choked noise. More packs of bewolves howled. A golden pincher started heading towards another soon to be casualty. Ruby Rose closed her eyes.
Author's Notes: Don't expect a large story. At most this will be a two to three parter. This was my first attempt at writing a prolonged action scene. The entire point of this short story is to improve my ability to write fighting scenes; therefore, any sort of feedback is appreciated. For those a fan of Decidedly Curious, let me reassure you it is still being worked on. In fact, this projected is intended to be practice for that particular fanfiction.