RWBY 2
Well, as you might have guessed, this chapter has the first floor boss fight! I changed the ending to be a bit of a mix between the anime and SAO Progressive, and obviously the RWBY characters make their debut. Read on, and let see what you guys think.
Disclaimer: I don't own SAO or RWBY. I just need something to do to pass my abundance of free time.
"Let's settle in, everyone!" The leader of the boss conference called out after the players stopped filling in, "Thank you all for coming. My name is Diavel, and the job I rolled is Knight!"
"Dude, you realize there's no jobs in SAO, right?" One of the guys next to him asked with a slight grin.
"So what?" He countered, "I'm a knight, and that's that."
Several of the players around them started to laugh along with him, though neither Kirito nor Leafa were among them.
Diavel suddenly became serious and said, "Earlier, my party and I found the boss's lair on the highest floor of the labyrinth." Everyone collectively drew a breath, and he continued, "Now, obviously, we can't beat the boss on our own, and all of you guys are the best players we have. We have to clear this floor! Not only to clear the game, but to show everyone hiding in the town of beginnings that we CAN clear this game!"
The raid group cheered excitedly in response, and it took several minutes for Diavel to regain control.
"So, I want each of you to group up into parties of six." he continued, and the other plays quickly started breaking off into small groups with their friends, "We'll distribute the col equally amongst everyone, the party that gets the kill gets the exp, and anyone who gets an item gets to keep it. Are there any questions?"
"So, we're together, I assume?" Kirito asked Leafa as the others voiced their affirmative.
"Of course." she replied.
"And it wouldn't do me any good to-" Kirito started before Leafa's hand drifted menacingly to the hilt of her sword. "Right." he finished, "So, who else is available?"
"Almost no one because of that stupid suggestion." Leafa responded, "Just them."
Kirito followed her line of sight to a group of three girls, one black hair, one blond, and a younger girl with a red hood pulled up. A blond haired boy dressed in mostly starter equipment and a girl with long red hair pulled back into a ponytail formed another team. The last figure was sitting far in the back, her face hidden behind a hood. The pair seemingly joined up with the trio, which left only the lone person at the top of the stands.
"Them?" Kirito asked, pointing towards them, "Or did you want to sp-" The hand again drifted menacingly to her sword as she stood up and approached the other. "That answers that..." he sighed, following a step behind her, "When did SHE become the older one?"
"I've always been older." she replied, before smiling at the still seated figure, "Hi."
The figure hardly acknowledged her, aside from a small nod. After a second, Leafa continued, "Want to team with us?"
"I wouldn't want to intrude." they replied softly, "Don't mind me."
"It's no intrusion." Leafa replied, elbowing him in the ribs and whispering, "Send the request, Kirito."
"Yeah, I'm doing it." he muttered, opening the menu and navigating until he sent them a party invitation.
"Why would you want to team up with me?" they asked, neither accepting nor refusing the request.
"Because I'd be somewhat bothered if you died because you didn't have some help." Kirito answered, "And besides, you wouldn't be able to participate unless you joined a party, right?"
Nodding slightly, she accepted the request. Just beneath Leafa's name, the name 'Asuna' appeared in the corner of Kirito's screen.
"Well, we'd better listen to whatever he's got to say." Leafa said, sitting beside Asuna and Kirito sat at her other side.
"So, we'll meet at the city gates tomorrow at-" Diavel started before being rudely interrupted.
"Hold on a sec." A loud and obnoxious voice said from the opposite side of the stands. Standing on the upper edge was a man with spiky brown hair and a sword strapped to his back. Looking around at all of them, he runs down the stands until he's standing beside Diavel, than turns back to them and shouted, "The name's Kibaou! And before we continue, there's something I need to get off my chest! Everyone knows about the two thousand people who died, and some of you need to apologize to them right now!"
Kirito stiffened, already knowing exactly what he was about to say.
"Kibaou." Diavel said, "I know who you mean. I'm sure you're talking about the Beta Testers, right?"
"Of course I mean them!" He shouted, "The first day, those beta's just left all us beginners behind! They stole the best hunting spots, the easy quests, and left us to fend on our own! They need to get down here and beg for forgiveness! Than they should give up their money and equipment, and see how they like being the weak ones! Why in the hell should we trust them when they won't trust us!?"
Kirito was shaking slightly as Kibaou listed off things that he'd done just to make sure that he and Sugu could survive. Before he could determine whether, he should speak up, however, someone else did for him.
"You a beta tester?" Kibaou growled.
"No, I'm not." A familiar voice answered him, "I'm a beginner just like you. The difference is that I'm not stupid enough to try and place the blame on someone else."
'Sugu...' Kirito realized as his little sister stormed down and confronted the beta hater.
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Kibaou roared, "It's their fault that all those people died! How many do you think could've been saved if the beta's had tried to help, huh?!"
"Maybe you're right." She admitted, "But do you really think that every single person that died was a beginner? More than that, I didn't see you out there helping the beginners either. Clearly if you got this far and so many other beginners got this far, the beta didn't steal everything, did they?"
The rest of the groups starting muttering in response between them, and the raid group seemed to be watching the exchange with interest.
"What does that have to do with anything!?" Kibaou shouted back, "None of that changes the fact that the betas up and ditched us!"
"So, you helped every single person in the starting city?" Leafa asked with a mocking voice, "Because I don't think you can speak for every single one of the eight thousand surviving players, can you? Maybe the beta's did help the beginners. Don't go spouting nonsense because no one wanted to help an immature brat like you."
The group broke out laughing at Leafa's response, and Kibaou's face flushed.
"Y-You!" He growled, opening a menu for a second before a window appeared in front of her. A duel challenge.
"Hold on." Diavel said, stepping between them in a failed attempt to make peace.
"No need." She replied, setting the duel to first strike and accepting, "This won't take long."
The duel countdown appeared above them, and Kibaou drew his sword with ease. Leafa likewise had her sword pointed towards him.
"So much for keeping it peaceful..." Diavel sighed, stepping back and out of the line of fire.
"Leafa!" Kirito said, running down to stand next to her.
"Don't worry." she smirked, "This won't take long."
The instant that the countdown hit zero, Kibaou shot forward, his sword covered in a yellow light that Leafa recognized as 'Slant'. Stepping backwards, she dodged the attack and stepped past him, slashing at point blank range. The duel ended with her victory.
"And just think." she said as Kibaou fumed, "I didn't even see the need to use a sword skill. Thanks though. I'm sure some other player benefited from a beta's knowledge more than you ever could."
"Now hold on." Another voice interrupted as Kibaou opened his menu again. Leafa look to the side to see a large bald man with a two-handed axe on his back, "The name's Agil, nice to meet you. Before you make a fool yourself again, maybe you should take a look at this."
He removed leather bound book from the pouch on his hip, "recognize it?" he asked Kibaou, "It's the guide book. They were giving them away at all the item shops."
"'course I know it." Kibaou muttered, his face red from embarrassment, "What's your point?"
"My point is who do you think wrote it?" Agil asked, "And who do you think keeps it up to date? Who do you think has the knowledge to write it? And rather than charging for it, they distribute it to the NPCs so everyone can have access to it. And every single person had equal access to this information, isn't that right? But despite that, people still died, and like the little lady said-" he inclined his head slightly to Leafa, "I seriously doubt that every one of them was a beginner. More than a few beta testers are probably crossed off the Memorial stone right now. Now, I'm not about to start pointing fingers here. They're all dead, but we're not. I'm planning to live through this game by learning from their deaths, and to make sure that we can all make it through this boss fight, got it?"
Kibaou glared angrily at Leafa, but stormed off to sit on the first row of the stands. Agil looked over to Leafa, "And you?"
"I made my point." she replied, walking back over to Kirito, "How'd I do?"
"You kicked ass." He smiled, "Not bad for your first duel."
"Better than yours." She grinned playfully.
"Lies." Kirito protested.
"Keep telling yourself that." she chuckled as they returned to their seats.
"Good fight..." Asuna said softly after everything quieted down.
"Thanks." Leafa smiled at her.
"Now that that's out of the way, let's get back on track." Diavel cleared his throat, "Now then, I'd like for all of you to review the latest issue of the guidebook that Agil just mentioned, as it contains all the relevant information about the boss. We're meeting tomorrow morning by the east gate. Everyone, make sure that you're stocked up on potions, and that your gears ready. See you guys in the morning."
With that, the raid party slowly broke up into individual parties for the night.
As they gathered around the fountain in town square, Kirito turned to their new teammate and gave a small smile, "So, are you hungry?"
"I'm fine." She answered stiffly.
"Well, you can't fight without eating something." Leafa protested, "Kirito, I'm going to get some food. Any special requests?"
"Something sweet." He replied eagerly, and she ran off towards the center of town.
Kirito and Asuna sat silently by the fountain while the others around them chatted happily about the upcoming boss raid.
"So..." Kirito said, breaking the tension, "Why are you solo?"
"What do you mean?" She asked him after a moment.
"Well, I guess I was wondering why you play solo. It's much safer to join a party." Kirito asked, scratching the back of his head nervously.
"Maybe..." Asuna muttered, "But I'm fine on my own. That way, I don't have to worry about dragging everyone around me down. All I want is to move forward. Even if I end up getting killed along the way. I'd rather fight to the end."
Kirito couldn't help but think that if he didn't have Sugu with him, he'd probably do something similar.
"Sorry for the wait." Leafa said while Kirito was trying to decide what to say. Manipulating the menu, she brought out a couple of leather bags. "The shopkeeper had a special, so I bought a few."
"Well, what are they?" Kirito asked, opening one of the bags. Inside were a dozen sugar cookies.
"Cookies." She answered, handing one of the bags to Asuna, "Here's yours."
"...Thanks." Asuna said, taking the bag.
"Asuna, if we're going to be in a party, we'll need to know each other's skills." Leafa asked, and Asuna looked up.
"I guess, but how'd you know my name?" She asked, snacking on one of the cookies.
"Look up in the left hand corner of your display." Leafa said, "See the HP gauges? Right next to them are two names, right?"
"Leafa?" Asuna read, then turned to him, "And Kirito?"
"That's us." Kirito shrugged.
"Be sure to keep an eye on the gauges so that you know when to switch." Leafa added, "Anyway, I'm Leafa. My weapon's a curved sword."
"Mine's a plain old sword." Kirito said, pointing to the sword strapped to his back.
"I use a rapier." Asuna said simply.
"Okay..." Leafa shrugged when it was clear that Asuna wasn't about to open up any more than that. Turning back to Kirito, she saw that there was a black haired girl with red highlights standing just behind him, looking longingly down at the bag of cookies on his lap. Leafa recognized her as one of the people from the boss raid conference.
"Can we help you?" Leafa asked, and the girl jumped in surprise.
"Um... Hi." She said nervously, "So, you're going to be in the boss raid tomorrow?"
"Yeah, we are." Kirito answered after recovering from the shock of her seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
"Really? Us too." She said eagerly, "So what do you think the boss is going to be like?"
"Some kind of ogre..." Kirito yawned, and Leafa elbowed him in the ribs.
"Or at least that's what we heard." She said quickly, but it didn't help.
The girl's eyes widened, and she whispered, "Are you one of the beta testers?"
"Yeah..." Kirito winced at his mistake, "Though I'd appreciate it if you'd keep that a secret, okay?"
"Sure!" She nodded, "But there's a price!"
"How much do you want?" Leafa sighed. Thankfully, she and Kirito had more than enough col to buy her silence, however much she wanted.
"those!" She answered eagerly, pointing at the bag of cookies in her hand, "I want some of those!"
"That's it?" Leafa asked dumbly before shaking her head and handing her two bags, "Is that enough?"
"Sure!" She said, opening one of the bags and cramming half a dozen into her mouth. After eating a second mouthful, she taped the other bag and placed it into her storage, "I'm Ruby, by the way."
"Leafa." she introduced herself, "And he's my brother, Kirito."
"Really!?" Ruby said happily, "My sister's here too." Turning around, she called out, "Yang, come here!"
The blonde from earlier looked up, said a few words to her three teammates and walked over to them.
"What's up?" She asked, looking around.
"These guys gave me cookies!" Ruby said, holding the open bag towards her, "Here, you can have some!"
Yang looked at her and sighed, "I'm sorry that she's so rude. How much col was it?"
"Don't worry about it." Leafa chuckled, waving her off, "I was just telling her about how I'm here with my brother, and she mentioned that she had a sister."
"Is he your brother?" Yang asked, looking at Kirito who was leaning backwards and looking up at the sky.
"Yeah." Leafa sighed, "I promise he's more capable than he looks."
"Her too." Yang said, jerking her finger at Ruby, "Why is it that little siblings are so troublesome?"
"Good question." Kirito said without looking up, and jumped back to avoid Leafa's retaliation.
"So you guys are fighting tomorrow?" Leafa asked Yang.
"Sure are." She nodded, "Actually, we were about to head back to the inn when Ruby started stalking your cookies."
"Yeah, we were getting ready to head back too." Leafa answered her, holding Kirito by the collar, "See you tomorrow?"
"Sure thing." Yang said, dragging Ruby away, "Don't get killed tomorrow."
"You too." Leafa waved her off before taking Asuna and Kirito back to the farmhouse where they'd rented a room.
The next morning, Kirito lead the party back to the east gate, where a large group of players gathered for what would be the first of many boss raids. Diavel looked over and waved to them as soon as they arrived, though Kibaou who was next to him glared at Leafa. Leafa just smiled and waved back at them, which only served to anger the small club wielder.
Ruby's team had already arrived as well, and Yang raised her small dagger in greeting to them while she discussed strategy with the other four.
"Will a dagger like that really be enough for a boss?" Leafa asked Kirito after they'd taken a seat along the city wall.
"During the beta, there were a few dagger users on the upper floors." Kirito replied, "The range might not be very effective, but it's probably the best weapon for pinpoint attacks on the enemy weak points."
"Still, that seems awfully dangerous..." Leafa said worriedly, "At that range, there won't be enough time for her to switch out before she's attacked."
"Yeah, I know." Kirito nodded. What he didn't tell her was that more often than not, the dagger users in boss raids didn't make it to the end. They were able to deal lots of damage, but because of their reliance on speed, a single attack would reduce their HP to zero. It was the attack style favored by the ones seeking a high-risk-high-reward playing style. And it was probably the last thing he expected to see in a death game.
"Alright, everyone!" Diavel called out once the last of the groups had finished preparing, "Now, we're going to have to pass through the dungeon to reach the boss, but with this many people, there shouldn't be any problems. Everyone have enough healing potions?" With a murmur of agreement from the group, Diavel lead them into the dungeon.
The first few floors of the dungeon were nearly effortless. With nearly fifty people, the monsters dissolved into polygons before Kirito could even get within attacking range. It wasn't until they reached the middle point that they encountered any problems. The torches that lit the floor were extinguished, leaving the area crawling with monsters concealed by the pitch darkness.
"What the hell is going on?!" One of Diavel's party members shouted after the third sneak attack left one party having to heal, "The torches were lit yesterday!"
"maybe it's a trap?" Another called out, and the raid group was on the verge of collapse.
"Everyone, shut up!" A new voice shouted loudly, drawing all of their attention, "Look, I got a night vision skill from a quest! I can lead us from here on!"
"What quest!?" Several players roared at her.
"All you need to know is that I can get us through here!" She called back, "Just go straight ahead! The path is about a hundred feet ahead!"
While the group protested, Diavel quieted the argument. "Let's go!"
With Diavel leading the way, they followed her directions up the stair case and back to the torchlight.
"Awesome." Diavel praised, turning back to face the rest of the group, "Who had the night vision?"
No one spoke up, and everyone looked around to try and find the person who might have saved the expedition. Several minutes passed without anyone fessing up, so Diavel cleared his throat, "Well, wohever it was, thank you from the bottom of my heart. The boss is on the next floor up, so we're almost there!"
Spurred on by his optimism, the raid group stormed the final level like a tempest, ripping through the mobs that stood between them and the boss room. Ten minutes later, they climbed the final stairway and sat to rest outside the boss room.
"Good work so far." Diavel said once they were ready to leave, "Now, let's go win this thing!"
"YEAH!" The group roared along with him, and charged the room.
The boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, jumped from his throne and let out a roar, causing the Ruin Kobold Sententials to spawn around them. Kirito and Leafa, as the smallest group, broke away from the rest to stop them from attacking the rest of the raid.
"Kirito, Switch!" Leafa called out, deflecting the sword and jumping backwards. Her brother dashed past her and split the sentential in two. With a quick breather between the battles, they both looked around. The other group of sententials were fighting with Yang and Ruby's team. Yang's dagger was causing devastating damage with every strike, but as he predicted, she was forced to switch out and heal after each hit to avoid her HP entering the critical stages. Ruby's weapon of choice was a curved short sword which she wielded with almost as skilled as Leafa herself.
Their other companions were dealing with the other sententials with just as much ease. The woman with the ponytail was fast and strong enough that she was able to take on two of the sententials at the same time without any backup. Her sword skills were so precise that Leafa had no doubt whatsoever that she was an ex-beta tester. The other pair wasn't quite as effective. The blonde boy's wooden shield splintered every time he tried to block the sentential's attack, but thankfully the girl with the black bow took advantage and struck every time there was an opening.
"Kirito, switch!" Leafa called out, snapping him back to the enemies in front of him. Asuna had dealt a few quick rapier thrusts before leaping out of the way of the sentential's counterattack. Kirito rushed in and dealt the final blow, defeating the last of the obstacles to the boss.
The boss battle as well had progressed to the final stage. The attacks from the others had worn down its health, causing it to toss aside its axe and buckler in favor of the talwar on its back.
"Everyone, fall back!" Diavel shouted, charging forward with a sword skill activated.
The boss drew its sword in answer to his challenge, but to Kirito's horror, it wasn't a talwar like was predicted in the guide book. It was a nodachi. Its skill set would be completely different from what they were expecting.
"Diavel!" He shouted, charging forward, "Get back!"
Diavel either didn't hear him or ignored him, and continued charging at Illfang. The boss jumped out of the way, dodging the skill that would have reduced its HP to zero and inflict a devastating slash down Diavel's back. Before any of them could react, a follow-up strike sent him flying across the room.
"Diavel!" Kirito shouted, running over and pulling a health potion out of his bag, "What were you thinking? Here, drink thi-"
Diavel stopped him and shook his head, "You were a beta tester too, weren't you?"
"So you were going for the last attack bonus?" Kirito asked him, "The guaranteed rare item drop?"
He nodded, "Listen to me... It's up to you now... bridge the gap between the beta testers and the other players... and beat that boss so that the others can still have hope." With those last words, the leader of the assault shattered into polygons like everything else that was destroyed in this world.
"No way..." Leafa said weakly from behind him, and he couldn't blame her. She wasn't in the beta test, so she'd never seen another player die. And knowing that he wasn't coming back must make it unbearable for her.
The other players were falling apart. Diavel's death had demoralized them, and if that didn't change, it would be a wholesale slaughter. Gripping his sword tightly, he stood up and turned back to the boss. With Leafa out of action after watching Diavel die, he was on his own-
"I'll go too." Asuna said, standing beside him and surprising him. Smiling slightly, he remembered that he had two team mates, not just one.
"Alright. Same as the minion. Deflect and attack." He said, and they started running past the other parties that were panicking. The boss's nodachi glowed yellow and Kirito recognized the stance. Katana sword skill Tsujikaze. A long range single hit. Quickly, he started his own skill, Rage Spike. The two skills clashed, and both weapons were knocked away from the impact.
"Switch!" He shouted, and Asuna swept past him. Her rapier hit the open boss multiple times with Linear. Switching out again, Kirito blocked the next strike, giving Asuna a chance to strike. They repeated this several times, each time whittling away at the boss's health. After just a few more times, however, the boss's AI changed its attack pattern.
Kirito moved to block another Tsujikaze when the movement changed completely. It curved out of the way of Kirito's sword, making him miss. A sword skill called Gengetsu. With his body still out of his control from the sword skill, he couldn't possibly dodge the attack, and he was sent flying backwards into Asuna.
"Kirito!" Leafa shouted, breaking out of her shock and running towards him and Asuna and removing one of her healing potions. When she started to administer it, the boss's sword swung down.
"Not a chance!" A new voice roared, and the sword was blocked by a massive ax. Agil stood between the three of them with his ax held with both hands, "You guys heal up. We'll keep it occupied. What kind of tanks would we be if the damage dealers are taking all the hits?" Group B, which was composed of players with increased defenses ran forward to help him.
"Thanks." Kirito said gratefully, taking Leafa's potion and watching his HP go up slowly. While he waited, he thought back to every piece of information he had about katana skills from the beta period. "Listen!" he called out, "Don't try and surround it! It has a multi directional attack that'll stun everyone around it! Keep its attention in one area so that it won't use it!"
"Got it!" Agil called back, and the others replied in kind.
'The problem was that single player attacks won't have any meaningful effect on the boss's HP, and they wouldn't last long enough without the rest of the fighters. The whole group was undecided about whether they should retreat or fight, and Kibaou was urging them all to run.
"Why is this happening?" Leafa asked, "They were so united a minute ago."
"The only reason they were united was Diavel." Kirito answered, getting back up since his HP was restored, "Now, the closest thing they have to a leader is Kibaou..."
"That idiot." Leafa growled, walking back to the others and shouting, "Shut up!" With everyone (Even the boss, strangely enough) staring at her silently, she continued, "All of you need to know Diavel's final orders! His order was to defeat the boss and give everyone in this game they hope to clear it once and for all!" Glaring straight at Kibaou, she added, "And he told us who he'd chosen as his replacement!" To everyone's surprise, including his own, she pointed straight at Kirito, "The next leader is him, because he's the only chance we have!"
"She's right!" Agil shouted despite having no possible way of hearing Diavel's last words, "If you still believe in Diavel, than let's obey his orders and win this thing!"
The raid team finally managed to snap out of the shock of Diavel's death, and charged the boss en masse. Leading the charge was Yang's team.
"Thanks, Leafa." Kirito smiled, "Let's get in on this too."
"Right." Leafa nodded, and they joined the battle.
With the raid back on track, the Boss's HP started dropping by a more reasonable amount. Unfortunately, the number of players attacking it meant that in order for them to attack as a group, they had to surround it.
With barely a sliver of health left, Illfang let out a roar and jumped into the air.
"Everyone, back!" Kirito shouted, "It's Tsumujiguruma! That'll hit everyone around it!"
Everyone started to retreat, but not fast enough. The charge time for the skill was already complete, and they were too close to the impact zone.
Quickly, Kirito shot up with Sonic leap, and interrupted the skill. Finally, he started his most powerful skill, two-hit sword skill, Vertical Arc and dealt the final blow. The boss let out a final roar as it broke into polygons like Diavel had just a few short minutes ago.
Predictably, the system message announcing that he'd gotten the last attack bonus appeared in front of him. This time, it was the coat of midnight.
"We did it!" Everyone cheered happily, and more than a few of them came over and clapped him on the back in congratulations.
"Why are you all laughing!?" Kibaou shouted angrily, glaring back at Kirito, "And why'd you let Diavel die?"
"Let him die?" A couple of people murmured, looking over at the Kibaou then back to Kirito.
"You wanted that last attack so badly?" Kibaou asked him, "The last attack bonus item was so important that you let Diavel die, you beta testing bastard!?"
The rest of them started talking amongst themselves, and Leafa started trying to talk to them and explain. 'Sorry Leafa.' He thought to himself, 'Even after you did so much to bring them back together, I ended up screwing it up anyway. Still, I've got to do what Diavel asked me to do too.'
"Ha..." Kirito started laughing in response to the accusation. "A beta tester? That's just an empty title. Did you know that most of the beta testers were completely clueless. They couldn't even level up without a tutorial! Hell, I'd say every person in this room is better than they ever were. But I'm different. I knew about the boss alright. Because during the beta period, I fought stronger monsters on higher floors, ones with more sword skills and smarter AIs. Monsters that the rest of the beta testers thought were unbeatable were child's play for me. So don't insult me by calling me a beta tester. They were trash compared to me."
"What the hell..?" Kibaou shouted, "That makes you worse than a beta tester! You're a damned cheater."
"A beta tester and a cheater. You're a beater!" Another player shouted, and the cry was taken up by the other players as well.
"Beater..." Kirito smiled evilly, opening his menu and equipping his new item, "Sounds nice. Way better than 'beta tester'. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to activate the second floor warp gate. Don't try and follow me. I lost count of how many noobs got themselves killed against nameless mobs after a boss fight."
"Damn you. Apologize to him!" Kibaou called out after him, "Apologize to Diavel!"
Kirito didn't acknowledge him and just kept walking through the boss door towards the next floor.
"What about you?" Kibaou asked Leafa after her brother left, "You two have been awfully close this whole time. I bet she's one of them!"
"You think I'm a beater?" Leafa asked him coldly, "I guess I am. Is that a problem?"
"Damn beaters, you guys killed Diavel!" One of the players from Diavel team roared, rushing for her. Casually, she sidestepped him and followed after her brother without a word.
Well, that's chapter 2. Future chapters will feature the RWBY characters much more frequently, including some chapters entirely in RWBY point of view.
To address one review, yes, RWBY weapons will be featured, but not until much later in the story. At the start, they won't even be using their usual weapons (for the most part) until they've gotten a relevant skill. I'm planning to get that out of the way fairly early on, but that is why Ruby is using a sword and Yang is using a dagger in this chapter. Because the Martial Arts skill won't be obtainable until floor two, and there's no reason to believe that a Scythe skill would be available so early. Again, a few chapters in, that'll change, but until then...
So, yeah. Same deal as always. You review, I respond, I write, you review again, etc. If you've got any ideas, I'm happy to hear them out (And I know that my beta stalks the review pages too).
