Heeeello everyone! Not much to say except check out my other stories, and enjoy this brand new one! Also has multi-crossover elements, so ye. Enjoy!
The World's Strongest
Chapter 0
The end of the beginning...
Ruby Rose
My name is Ruby Rose. I'm a Huntress, someone meant to fight off the Grimm and uphold humanity, and one of the last Silver-eyed Warriors, my eyes the literal bane of darkness. Despite all of this, I was losing. Blood streamed from the cut on my forehead, forcing me to blink and back up, staying defensive with Crescent Rose while also trying to regain all the stamina that I lost. "What's wrong? All that talk, and now you can't fight back!" Salem jeered, slashing with her giant pitch-black Greatsword, chopping into my ribs and nearly tearing through my aura, sending me crashing into a giant dust-shard. I spat blood right into her face as she charged at me and causing her to flinch. I screamed as soon as I saw the opening, swinging Crescent Rose with everything I had. All she did was dodge, almost bored, and I was only able to scrape her armor at best. "Far too weak!" Her hand curled as black flame coalesced into it, and on instinct I summoned the power of my eyes to try and counter it. The next thing I knew was the flat of her giant blade cracking onto my temple, my vision flashing white as I numbly felt my body tumble across the ground. 'Sh-she used it as a feint and only made me waste more energy!' I realized as soon as I was lucid. I tried to get up, but pain raced throughout my entire body.
"Daughter of Summer..." she sighed as she casually walked towards me, her armored boots stomping with a menacing *CLANK* sound, "You disappoint me. Though you have better control of the Silver Eyes than most, you are still no match for me." I growled and tried to get up before her foot slammed into my chin, my ears ringing as I fell to the floor on my back limply. Her heel slowly dug into my chest, the metal boot crushing the air from my lungs, ribs creaking and straining as I started to suffocate. "You will die as you have lived: unable to stop me. I will have the powers to rival even the strongest in all the cosmos..." she leaned down, smiling lightly at me as I tried to pull her foot off of me. "And I thank you for that." She brought her heel up and stomped back down faster than I could blink, a sharp *CRACK* echoing through the wasteland. I screamed, the sensation of hot lava curling around my chest. It's kind of funny actually, the pain woke me the hell up and gave me a second wind. My eyes burned as silver aura exploded from them, Salem caught right in the middle of it as she tried to shield herself with her sword.
She went flying back, crashing into a stone hill before she freed herself, parts of her skin burnt and steaming. 'Don't know how long this is gonna last, so I'll give this everything I have!' I wrapped my Scythe in Silver aura, the entire weapon shining like a star as I blasted right at Salem. "I won't lose!" I roared, my entire body moving on its own as I spun Crescent Rose faster than I could have ever thought before, rose petals dancing through the air as I finally slashed at her chest, the metal of her black armor screeching and tearing as soon as the silver aura touched it. "I can't! Because of you, we lost too many of those close to us. Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, my mom... I'm betting my life on everything here and now, for the sacrifices that they made!" Her arms worked furiously, the greatsword screaming through the air almost faster than I could keep up and even getting some clean slashes on me. "Make all the speeches you want Rose, you're still helpless before me." She replied with a smirk, ducking under one of my wild swings and launching her fist right into my ribs. The searing pain made me even madder but drained even more energy from me, my body hunching over.
She raised her blade to cleave me in half, and when I tried to dodge, my body locked up in pain. 'No, not like this! Move, dammit!' I screamed to myself as it descended. "You will not arrive at the reality that will occur!" A familiar voice echoed, and all of a sudden I found myself a distance away from Salem, my ribs almost magically back in place. I was still dead tired, but not to the point where I was going to pass out. Which meant... "Oscar!" He landed right next to me, green aura warping and shifting as he looked at me with that same boyish smile. "Hey Ruby, sorry I'm late to the party." I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him and kissing him. He held me back tightly, and I didn't want to let go. "Ozpin." Salem snarled, black aura roiling around her in response to her rage. "No. I'm not Ozpin, or Ozma, or anyone else." His hand around my waist glowed with his emerald aura, my wounds and fatigue disappearing by the second.
"I'm my own person, Oscar Pine. All I thought I ever wanted was a normal life... but if it weren't for this fate, I would have never met a whole new family. If it weren't for this..." He looked at me with a bright smile that made me blush and giggle a bit. "I would have never met this amazing girl." His gazed hardened as he stared at Salem, the witch actually flinching. "I won't let you take that away from me!"
"You say that it's fate for us to lose. We'll show you what it means to break past fate!" I roared, the Silver-Eye power exploding around me while Oscar's own aura seemed to warp and tear the air itself. Salem had regained her posture as her own body exploded with the full power of all four maidens, the once colorful energy marked with black. "I'll put you to rest, for good this time!"
(Que music: Dragon Ball Super OST, The power to Resist)
We immediately shot right at each other, weapons raised and voices roaring as we clashed, Oscar's cane and my Scythe against Salem's blade with a deafening *BOOM*, the ground shattering beneath us. He spun rapidly and fired his weapon right into Salem's face, the witch barely able to dodge as it scraped past her cheek. I quickly shifted my Scythe into it's dormant form and unleashed a semblance-fueled barrage of punches that caught her cleanly across the face. She flew back, slashing with her Greatsword and forcing Oscar to block while I vaulted over with a quick kick off the air. I tried to hit her again with a rush of stomps but she was quick to use a wall of nearly impenetrable ice that appeared out of thin air. Instinct screamed in me, and I leaped away as her blade cleaved right up through the ice. Oscar shot in and let his semblance burst, her actions rewinding to the point where her hand was up, primed to conjure the ice-wall. His aura-wreathed cane whacked her across the face hard, surprise and pain on her face before she blasted him back with gale-force winds, slamming him into the ground with enough force to make a crater.
I whipped Crescent Rose around to deflect a slash aimed at Oscar's head, following up with another array of slashes and spins to keep her off of him. She still managed to close the distance as soon as I was open and lashed out with a flaming gauntlet to the face. I felt my cheekbone crack, but I grit my teeth and shot my foot into her face with the full force of my semblance, her head snapping back in a burst of rose-petals. Massive tendrils of tree-roots exploded from the ground and nearly wrapped around me had it not been for the quick swings of my Scythe. Oscar stepped in as I freed myself, aura spiraling around his cane as he thrust it forward with all his might. With that pitch-black armor on, her strength, speed and reaction-time were insane: she caught the cane with her bare hand, the end of it going straight through her palm in a burst of black blood, but it never hit any vital part of her. Her fist closed around it and she forcibly twisted it out of the way, ramming her fist wreathed in pitch-black aura into his chest. He vomited blood and bile but stood his ground, stomping on her foot in an attempt to trap her. "That's the best idea you ha-!?"
Blasting forward, I pulled the trigger and shot her point blank in the chest, the armor groaning as the silver-clad bullet went through far enough to touch her. She winced in surprice and I unleashed everything I had into one downward strike. There was a deafening shriek as Crescent Rose ripped through the plating on her shoulder, biting into flesh and bone with a sickening *SQUELCH* that spewed blood. It never went deeper than her collarbone, and she only grinned savagely before the air around us exploded with flame. I felt my skin sear, even with my aura, but most importantly we couldn't breathe. 'She burned the damn oxygen!' I thought, nearly panicking again. "Return to zero!" Oscar shouted hoarsely, and everything seemed to rewind again, right back to the point where my scythe was about to bury itself into her shoulder and air magically back in my lungs. Quickly twisting, the edge instead sliced clean through her left arm. She looked at it in shock, and the moment cost her as Oscar rained down blow after blow with speed nearly equal to my own, the armor caving in forcibly enough to break bones and pierce skin.
The giant sword in her hand suddenly turned pitch-black, morphing into a wicked curved blade that aimed right for my neck. Oscar's cane seemed to move on its own, perfectly blocking it and leaving her open again as his foot whipped into her side. He suddenly roared in pain as her sword phased through his cane and sliced into his chest, flinging him him backwards. Again I felt something snap in me as I saw his blood fly into the air, and I screamed as Silver aura exploded from my body. Finally, the armor she wore gave way and tore apart, the magic properties of it leaking away. Raw pain seemed to course through her and she fell to a knee, blood streaming from her mouth. "I will not fall to you!" She shouted, her wounds closing in the blink of an eye, faster than I could attack her. 'Dammit, all the damage undone!' I thought, before I remembered something, pressing my assault even harder, every swing and slash powered by my semblance, my weapon a whirling ring of light. '...She's immortal, and can't be killed. But she feels pain, and can grow tired.' I was proven right: the armor she was wearing didn't necessarily make her stronger, it just allowed her to fight without feeling any physical ailment like fatigue, pain, and maybe even sickness. But without it, she was feeling every torn muscle, every wasted bit of energy, all the overuse of magic on her body.
The threw her arm forward, black lightning shooting out of her hand and racing for my face. 'Fast, but predictable.' She was laboring for breath, her movements sloppy and wilder. Still didn't change the fact that she was the most dangerous being in the entire planet. The ground beside me burst with a column of burning stone and my hands moved on their own, slicing and breaking through them as fast as I could. It was only after a moment I realized what she did: I was surrounded by the floating debris, all of them suddenly shooting right at me. I panicked and let my aura flare, pushing a few of the lighter ones away but still being struck by the majority. My cheek throbbed in pain as one burst on my face, vision going white for a moment before I felt a cold hand wrap around my throat, picking me up effortlessly and slamming me into the ground headfirst. I tried to right back but my head swam, and I couldn't control my limbs. 'Great, I have a concussion,' I thought giddily. Oscar was struggling to stand up, coughing blood as the cut across his chest turned black, dark tendrils pinning him. He stretched out his hand and tried to use his semblance to return our actions to zero, but the wound she inflicted on him prevented it.
'Oh, so we might actually die here. Damn.' I thought with a small sigh as she wordlessly conjured a blade made from black ice, pointing it right at my chest. As she stabbed down, a pitch-black glyph stopped it an inch away from my chest, both of our eyebrows raising. "Get the hell off of my sister!" A voice roared, the area bathed in a harsh golden light before a fist suddenly slammed into her face in an explosion of yellow fire. She was flung back like a rag-doll before countless Summoning Glyphs surrounded her, firing massive blades right into her at a rapid pace. I strand of golden hair tickled my nose and I arched my head back, looking at Yang's tired grin. She had a few bruises and her lip was busted, but honestly not too bad. "Hey sis, lookin a bit grounded there. Need a hand?" She asked cheekily, taking off her prosthetic and literally holding it out for me. "Yang, I swear to God that when this is done, I'm going to club you over the head with your own arm." She laughed and hauled me up before I felt warmth seep into my body, the wounds and fatigue rapidly disappearing as my aura suddenly seemed to swell.
"Thank you Jaune," I said with a relieved smile, the other blonde returning it tiredly. "Already healed Oscar up as well. Blake and Weiss are up there buying us some time to come up with a plan." Looking up quickly, I saw that Weiss herself was now dashing in between her glyphs, coated in the armor of her Summon while Blake seemed to suddenly pop up from the smallest shadows on Salem's body, biting into her skin at unexpected angles with Adam Taurus' old blade. Salem was already drawing on her magic to help her recover even while she was being torn apart by the nonstop assault. Soon, she'd be recovering faster than they could damage her, then defending faster, and then countering faster. "I honestly think that we should just throw everything at her," I thought after a moment. "We'll wear her down to the point where she's too exhausted to use magic. Whenever we see an opening, we hit her and hit her hard, we can't give her even a moment to recover." I turned to Oscar and Jaune, "But the best shot we have at destroying her is with you guys. Jaune still has more than enough aura, so I'm gonna need you to do something crazy with Oscar." Both of them looked ready to leap into action, admittedly making me grin a bit. "As soon as we have her locked down, I need you to pump your semblance into Oscar as hard as you can."
Everyone looked at me with a raised eyebrow, Oscar turning red and Jaune coughing into his hand. It took me a moment to realize what I said before I stuttered, "N-no, that's not what I-! Ugh, you guys are filthy!" I sighed, getting a few chuckles from everyone. "Anyway, you know what I'm getting at right?" Everyone turned serious and nodded, weapons ready. "Alright then, let's go!" Yang vaulted into the air and launched off of Jaune's shield, fist cocked back as her prosthetic glowed brightly and her aura around her formed into the shape of a dragon, fangs bared and roaring. Weiss leaped back to give her an opening while Blake stopped her from countering, her fist exploding into her stomach. Salem stood her ground despite the fact that Yang's fist went straight through her body and out of her spine like wet paper, grabbing Yang by the face and slamming her into the floor, freezing her in place. Blake never missed a beat, leaping out of her shadow and rapidly slashing for her neck. Salem blocked it with more ice, but it left her open as Weiss dashed in from the side skewering her through the lungs. She choked for a moment and they went right back to work, raining attack after attack on her. I saw the pitch-black flame that was beginning to form in her hand and immediately flared my Silver Eyes, her body locking up again as veins burst across her neck and forehead.
"DAMN YOU BRATS!" She bellowed, forcing her body to move. Her hands quickly shot up as Weiss and Blake attacked, their blades going right through her palms before stopping dead in their tracks. She clenched her fists and yanked them right into each other, Weiss' armor clanging loudly on Blake's forehead. Her blade ripped through the air towards Blake's neck, but Yang and Jaune were already there, his shield flaring brightly and Yang launching her boot into her shoulder. Jaune slashed with all his might while Weiss struck with her Summoned Greatsword, an explosion of aura blasting her backwards. Blake had already dived into her shadow, suddenly leaping out and stabbing Wilt right through her stomach, stopping her dead. "Ruby-!" She tried to call, but ended up with a backfist to the mouth for that, bypassing her aura and splitting her lip in a small spray of blood. "Blake!" Yang screamed, her aura violently burning around her as it formed the shape of a dragon once more. She shot forward, the stone under her feet shattering as she raced through the air right at her. Salem blasted Blake away in a gout of flame but Oscar had already maneuvered around to her blind spot, launching her airborne, helpless as Yang reached her.
"Dragonfist: EXPLOSION!" She roared, the aura-dragon growing twice its size as it ripped into Salem, the force of the blow literally tearing her in half. Still she didn't give up, screaming wildly as a dome of raw power surrounded her, random bolts of fire, ice, wind, stone and even raw magic shooting wildly through the air. Jaune and Weiss teamed up, forming a massive black glyph on top of Jaune's Auric Shield that protected almost everyone from the assault, Yang still suspended in the air but just managing to deflect most of them with a rush of punches. "I can't hold this much longer, and Salem's already regenerating!" Weiss cried out, straining as her Glyph began to crack. "Then don't!" Oscar shouted, crouching and pouring aura into his legs. "Launch me and Ruby up! Jaune, let your shield down as soon as I tell you!"
He nodded, but as soon as Weiss let go of her glyph, Jaune's body strained as he fought against the onslaught, his own shield beginning to dent. "NOW!" Oscar yelled, both of us shooting straight up with help from my semblance. We were still hit by a couple of projectiles, one of them scraping my forehead and nearly blinding me, but we barreled right through and shattered her protective dome. She had already been fully healed, and was waiting for us: she clenched her fist and punched Crescent Rose's blade away as I swung for her neck, kicking Oscar's cane out of the way. Black tendrils of dark magic grabbed Oscar, Yang as I and began to squeeze tightly. Oscar's ribs gave way quickly, another loud *POP* as it snapped. 'What is it with this woman and breaking ribs!?' Yang punched straight down with her free arm, obliterating her tendril and firing a blast of aura at Oscar's, letting him fall right into Blake's arms.
"No matter," She snarled, whipping around to me and slamming a rock-encased fist into my jaw. My body locked up and went limp, even as I screamed at myself to move. The stone turned into that same pitch-black magic, forming into a blade that ran up Salem's arm before she pointed it at me. "Excalibur!" I heard Jaune roar behind me, a massive wave of light descending on us and crashing into her head while leaving me untouched. She screamed in pain as the wave continued to push her down all the way down into the ground with a burst of destruction. "JAUNE, OSCAR, DO IT NOW!" I shouted as I kicked off the air and rocketed right down at Salem. The moment she tried to move, I poured everything I had into my Silver Eyes, blasting her with as much power as I could no matter how much it hurt. Salem tried to force herself up, but Blake was already in her shadow, trapping her to the floor before hundreds of black spikes erupted from with her body with a cry of "Blighted Nightshade!". Still she struggled despite the agony she was in, nearly making it to her feet. "Gate of Babylon!" Weiss shouted, hundreds of summoning Glyphs opening around Salem before firing countless swords and weapons, every single one of them piercing her without touching me or Blake. "Sunlight Spirit-Bomb!" Yang roared, a ball of condensed aura the size of a bus thrown right on top of Salem's head with a deafening explosion. Jaune had finally touched down next to Oscar, placing his hand on his back before his body glowed pale white.
Oscar's aura seemed to quadruple and size, cracking the floor beneath him and tearing the air apart as he lifted an open palm right at her. "The power of the maidens within you: return to zero!" His aura surrounded her and she gasped as four orbs of red, yellow, blue and green light popped out of her chest, all of them shooting right into him. He gasped for a moment as his power nearly exploded, Jaune barely managing to keep his focus. "The curse of immortality: RETURN TO ZERO!" Her pale skin suddenly turned to a normal shade of tan, her power suddenly vanishing and she finally collapsed onto her back, the soft thud seeming to echo throughout the land.
(Music End)
'We won.'
Everyone besides Oscar fell to their knees, gasping for air as our exhaustion finally caught up to us, Blake barely managing to scramble away. Oscar, brimming with untold, unmatched power, calmly walked towards the fallen body of the now human Salem, the final dregs of her magic just barely healing her most fatal wounds... or at least some of them. "D... damn it all..." She said, weeping and frustrated before he coughed up a good chunk of blood. Oscar knelt in front of her, a genuine look of pity on his face. "...I'm really sorry that it had to end this way." She ground her bloody teeth for a moment before she relaxed, too weak to put up any form of resistance. She smiled after a moment, a gentle hand on his face. "You sly dog, Ozma," She chuckled, "Taking away my pain so I pass away peacefully? Even if you're a completely different person, you never really change... thank you." He started to suddenly cry, tears falling free to his surprise. "See?" She chuckled, playfully pinching his nose. Her eyes suddenly went wide and she roughly grabbed his collar, shocking us with the genuine fear on her face. "Ozma. Whatever you do, avoid all contact with the gods. Do not do anything to attract them, or you will bring horrors unlike anything I or even the Brothers could have ever been! There's a reason why I kept the ones with silver eyes to such a small amount, and it-!" She coughed again, more blood flowing from her wounds. "It isn't just because of the maiden's weakness to it!" She looked wildly to me, stretching out a hand, and faster than I could react, a small black bolt of lightning hit me head on. "RUBY!" Everyone shouted as I landed hard on my back, confused. 'It... didn't hurt?' Oscar was already beside me, frantically checking me before I waved him off "I'm fine, I'm fine! It didn't hurt..." Everyone turned to Salem, confused as the light started to fade from her eyes. "That... is the last of my... power. Your next of... kin... will need it."
She looked to the sky, relaxing once more. "Now... I can finally die... Protect this world... and beware..." She looked like she was about to say something else, but after one final breath, her heart stopped. Salem was dead... Three years. We've been fighting this war for three years, and now it's over. I didn't care about her vague warning, nobody did. We only felt complete relief.
"...so you guys wanna get some shawarma?" Yang asked after a moment. I promptly picked up the nearest chunk of stone and beaned Yang in the boob with it. "OW! What the hell Ruby!?" She shrieked with laughter, clutching her chest. We all burst into nearly hysterical laughter, Jaune and I actually crying a bit. "Seriously, I think that we could all use a hot meal right now," Oscar sighed, his stomach growling. I embraced him and pressed head into his chest, muttering "I actually agree with that." I could feel his smile as he lightly pecked me on my head. "Let's go home everyone!" As we all walked away, happy beyond belief, it's only now that I realize something.
We should have listened.
A.N: Aaaand that's a wrap! Hope you guys enjoyed the pilot chapter, please let me know if you like what you see, and peace out everyone!
