More people were into a CRDL fic, I'm happy supply something new. Let's begin.
"What the hell was that all about?" Cardin finally asked the knight after they were all several blocks away. The knight didn't respond and instead just stared at the teen who soon let out an exasperated sigh before running his hands through his hair. "Whatever, it doesn't really matter. So what are you doing here?" Cardin asked him, he didn't know why he asked as he knew he wouldn't receive an answer from the almost perpetually silent warrior.
"I doesn't really matter, he can come with us to get my weapon, let's go." Dove interrupted before he continued walking.
Cardin looked to Knight who surprisingly nodded towards the boy walking ahead and began following. Together the group walked for another ten minutes before they arrived at a large store with a sign in the shape of a gun and sword crossed. Knight looked up at it for a few seconds before following the four boys inside, the walls were covered in hundreds of weapons, many of which the undead could even begin to identify. The boys all walked to the counter and began speaking with the clerk, the knight however moved over towards one of the walls that held dozens of blades of every shape and size, grabbing the first that caught his attention he lifted it up and inspected it.
A frown grew on his face as he looked it over, it was a standard short sword with some strange contraption attached to it's guard. He grabbed the top of the blade with his hand while his other hand held the swords handle, slowly he began to apply pressure, within a few seconds the swords blade snapped in half with a loud crack. "Trash." He muttered to himself as he look over the now broken weapon. Grabbing the next one, a claymore he repeated the process and once again the metal broke easily under his strength. He continued this with half a dozen more blades, the broken weapons laid at his feet.
"What the hell are you doing?!" He heard a man shout from behind him, turning he saw the clerk standing looking furious with the four boy standing behind him looking completely speechless.
Raising the current weapon his his hands, a mace, and quickly bent the shaft of the weapon without any visible effort. "Weak." He said before dropping the now ruined weapon.
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SHOP ALL OF YOU!" He shouted.
"But what about my weapon?" Dove asked being the first to snap out of the daze.
"NOW!" He shouted again before he began pushing them all out the door and slamming it behind him.
The group stood silently for several seconds before Dove turned on the knight. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" He demanded taking a step towards Knight only for Cardin to step in between them, not really to keep Dove from hurting the knight but in fact the other way around, all Xiao Long had done was grab him and he nearly flattened her skull.
"Woah, let's calm down here." The young leader told his teammate.
"Weak metal." The four heard the undead speak.
"What are you talking about, they were standard steel and titanium alloys, most weapons are made of them." Russel threw in. Out of the four boy he considered himself the biggest weapons geek, he wasn't on Rose's level but he knew more that the average person. So when the knight reached into the strange box and pulled out a fist sized rock his eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he knew exactly what it was. "Holy shit!" He quickly took the chunk of black stone and began looking it over.
"What's that?" Sky asked, by this point Cardin had managed to some what calm Dove and the pair were looking at the rock.
"This is titanite!" He said looking over the rock more closely.
"The fuck is titanite?" Dove asked still sounding irritated.
"It's a ridiculously rare and strong metal used for reinforcing and enhancing weapons and armor. It's suppose to be so strong that a blade made with enough of it would never need to be sharpened again." He explained to the four before handing it back to the knight.
"Why isn't it used more widely then?" Cardin asked curiously.
"Well aside from the fact that there are less than a handful of smiths on Remnant that still know how to properly use it, it's pretty much a lost art at this point, but as I said, it's super rare and expensive. A chunk that size could easily go for nearly a million lien on the black market. It's rarer than diamonds." Hearing this caused all the three others to whip around and look at the stone in the knights hand.
"Okay so he's got a super expensive chunk of rock, I still don't have a weapon!" Dove growled with crossed arms. The knight just stared at the angry teen then he looked to the chunk of titanite, he stepped forward until he was about a foot away from the boy, he easily towered over him. Dove lost some color from his face as the same knight he and his team had watched tear apart a horde of grimm with his bear hands loomed over him. Then he held the chunk of rock out to the teen confusing him. "What? Are you... giving that to me?" He asked, his face shifting to a look of surprise.
The knight gave a nod. "Dude, if you get a weapon made with that it'll be better than anything else at Beacon!" Russel said excitedly.
"Didn't you say it was hard to find people who could still work with the stuff?" Cardin asked.
"Well this is one of the four largest cities on the planet, let's see if there are any smiths that use it in Vale." Sky spoke up with his scroll already out and searching, within a minute he had something. "Wow, you weren't kidding about the whole lost art thing. It says here there are only six master smiths on Remnant that are recognized as qualified to work with titanite. Terry Obsidian, a private contractor for the Vacuo military. Canary Goldmane, a retired weapons designer in Atlas. A pair of brothers in Mistral. Ah! Here we go, there are two in Vale, one is Serana Sanguine who owns 'Best Defense Arms'."
"I know that place, there on the other side of town. I heard you gotta order weapons from there months in advance." Cardin shook his head. "What about the last one, you said there were six right?"
"Yeah, Andre former owner of Andre's Astorian Arts. He retired over twenty years ago and teaches part time at Signal Academy on Patch Island." Sky read, none of the boy noticed the knights head snap to attention at the mention of the name.
"Andre?" His voice sounded surprised as the four looked to him.
"You know him?" Cardin asked. Knight nodded before gesturing to his shield an armor. "He made your gear?" He gave a nod once again in response. "You think he'd come out of retire to make Dove a new weapon?" The knight gave one last nod. "Well then I guess we're headed to Patch guys."
Hours Later
It was nearly dark by the time the four teens and the knight actually made it to Patch, it had been difficult to get Knight on board the fairy from the mainland to the island without any form of identification, not to mention is refusal to say more than a single word every other blue moon. They'd had to explain that he was an active huntsmen who just returned from beyond the wall where he'd lost his bag containing his scroll, ID, money and pretty much everything else. They also said he was mute do to a neck injury.
The security didn't really believe them until the had demanded they see proof the he was in fact a huntsmen before they let him on board with a weapon, apparently the knight lifted his helm from his head and revealed his face to the guard while everyone else were distracted with another guard. Shortly after the guard who'd lost every bit of color from his face allowed them aboard without any further delay. When they'd asked him about it he'd only shrug in response.
"I'm starting to think we should've waited till tomorrow to do this." Sky said looking up at the setting sun.
"The boats run all night, worst case scenario we get back super late." Cardin responded waving him off. "Now where does this guy live?" He asked looking to the knight. The only response he got was another shrug. "I thought you knew this guy." He said raising an eyebrow.
The knight pointed to the sun and then across the sky. "So you knew him a long time ago?" Russel asked trying to decipher the gesture, the knight nodded. "Well then I guess we gotta ask around then." The mohawked boy said before walking over to the ticket stall for the boat, within a few more minutes he returned. "Well that was easy, he lives on the other side of the island near a cove. About an hour walk."
"An hour walk means a half hour jog, lets get moving." Cardin told the three other boys and the knight before he took off, the others closely behind him.
The run took roughly forty minutes before they reached the cove they were told about, on the other side of said cove they could see smoke raising into the sky. Slowing to a much more relaxed pace the group approached the small home with a smoking chimney, a short distance behind the house was a larger wooden building of some kind. To the side of the house was another small wooden building with a fence around it and an area about the size of a basketball court, within the small building they could see the rear end of what looked like a horse standing inside. "Guys, I think we should come back tomorrow. It's a little late for this isn't it?" Dove asked as the knight ignored him and walked up to the door giving it several hard bangs with his fist. Dove sighed. "Or not."
They heard a bang followed by several loud curses. "Son of a mother whore. Who the hell is it?" A familiar voice shouted from the other side of the door as the sound of locks being undone could be heard. "Ruby Rose if that's you with a barely chipped blade again I'm gonna roast your family dog with a side of-" The door swung open and the giant mans eyes went wide as he saw the knight. "Gwyn's balls." He whispered in shock. The pair simply stood staring at one another for what felt like hours. "Lad, is that really you?" He finally asked.
Reaching down he grabbed the sheath of his blade and pulled it from his waist showing to the old smith. "It's me." The knight said simply.
Andre grew a smile and began laughing loudly. "Well singed my beard and call me hollow, the Chosen Undead, killer of gods is back!" He shouted loudly before slapping the knights shoulder hard enough to make him stumble, not an easy thing to do. Looking past the knight at the four boys he raised an eyebrow. "And ye brought a posse, well no sense standing out here. Come on in, I was just about to crack open a fresh cask."
The five followed smith into his home where he walked over to a cask against the wall and began prying it open. Stepping back Russel grabbed Cardin and whispered to him. "Did he just call that knight dude an undead god killer?" He asked with an incredulous look on his face.
Cardin frowned as he thought back to how he originally found the knight, alone in an ancient tunnel looking like he had moved in centuries. Cardin then shook his head, jumping to crazy conclusions would only cause trouble. He'd find out for sure before he started freaking out. "Probably just a nickname, maybe he killed some super crazy grimm and his pal call him a god killer." Russel just shrugged before looking back to the smith set out several mugs filled with some kind of alcohol base off the smell.
"So let me guess, you've probably been sleeping in some cave in the arse end of nowhere all this time haven't ye?" Andre asked sitting down and taking a large swig from his tankard. "Why chose now to come back if I might ask, sure there are a fair share of problems, and you've certainly missed quite a bit, but nothing worse then previous cycles." The knight gestured towards Cardin before grabbing a mug and raising it to the face of his helm and simply inhaling its aroma. Andre then looked to the largest of the teens. "I see, so he woke you up. What's yer name boy?" Andre asked.
"Uh, Cardin Winchester sir." Cardin answered.
"Don't sir me boy, I'm just an old blacksmith not some stiff general. So why did ya wake our friend here?" He asked the orange haired teen.
"I just fell into a tunnel and found himself sitting against a wall, what do you mean woke him up?" He asked as the blacksmith began laughing loudly once again.
"So ya found him on accident did ye, boy ya got no idea what ya stumbled upon do ya?" Andre looked back to the knight. "You haven't told them have ya?" The knight shook his head before gesturing to the blacksmith to go on not really seeing any point in keeping secrets. "Boy, you fell into the resting place of one of the greatest heros in the history of this world." A snort could be heard from the knight who shook his head. "Ye might not thinks so lad, but what you did set forth the motions that have shaped the path this world is on. Ya weren't the only one, there've been a few since yer day that have done similar, but ya were the first."
"I'm sorry, but what exactly are you talking about? I've never heard of this guy and you're talking as if he's some kind to legendary folk hero, who exactly is he?" Sky finally asked what the four teens had been thinking.
"Of course ya haven't heard a him, history forgot em before the moon even broke." He laughed. "He and I are older than dust itself son, much older, such is the fate of an undead."
The room was quiet for nearly a minute after that before Dove stood. "Welp, that's where I draw the line on crazy." He said starting to move towards the door.
Andre shook his head. "I don't know whether to smile or sneer at the disbelief. The undead curse has been all but non-existent since long before those brother gods showed up." Andre looked to Knight. "I doubt you've got much humanity left, show em yur face lad." The knight hesitate for a few moments, even Dove had stopped at the chance to see the knights face.
Standing the knight grabbed the sides of his helm and slowly lifted it, the teens eyes widened and horror grew on their faces. Holding the metal helm down by his side he looked over all the inhabitants of the room. His skin was beyond pale, his face sunken in, he look like a corpse in armor. "Okay, so he's fuck ugly, that doesn't mean he's some kind of zombie." Dove sounded extremely nervous as he stared at the knight just as the rest of his teammates did.
"Watch yer mouth boy, he may not care but ye won't disrespect him in my home." Andre growled before grabbing a nearby knife. "I'm no different myself though I don't look it, watch this." He took the knife as brought it across his chest opening a very large gash, the knight reached down into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a glowing yellow and orange flask of some kind and handed it to the smith who nodded and took a sip. In a flash of golden light the wound all but disappeared. "Only an undead can use an estus flask, we're a sturdier bunch than most normal humans."
The four boys stood in awe, after several seconds there was a loud bang as Dove collapsed unconscious. "For fear of more of that, let me explain a bit further." The smith said before continuing.
The Next Morning
Dove yawned as he picked himself off the old musty smelling couch, he paused for a second as he looked around and tried to remember where he was. A few moments later the memories of the previous night came crashing back and he jumped from the couch and ran to the front door. As he barged through it and outside he was met with the morning sun, nearby he heard the familiar shouting of his team. Down on the sandy shore of the cove he saw the three running laps along the edge of the water like they did in the Beacon gym every morning.
Looking around he didn't see either the knight or the blacksmith anywhere nearby so he ran down to the shore where his friends were exercising. "Hey, look who finally woke up!" Cardin shouted as he slowed down while running up to the teen.
"What the fuck are we doing here still, we just found out that these guys are fucking ZOMBIES!" Dove shouted looking panicked. "Their probably gonna try and eat our guts and shit!"
"Dude dude chill." Russel placed his hand on the teens shoulder. "After you fainted." Dove then Sky cough and call him a pussy earning a laugh from Cardin and a glare from the boy in question. "After that they, well Andre, explained everything. And yeah their basically immortal zombies, but not like the movies, it's not contagious and they don't eat people."
"How are you all you fuckin calm about this, you just said the words 'immortal zombies' with a straight face!" Dove shouted.
"Oh we all already kinda had our own group freak out session, but after spending most of the night talking it over we kinda came to terms with it. Also we figured this would kinda be a fuckin sweet team secret, like how JNPR have a leader who snuck into Beacon and whatever RWBY have, cuz they totally have something." Cardin explained to the nearly frantic boy.
Dove closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. "Okay, so you three are saying to just let this go. We've got a zombie knight walking around, and you guys are cool with that?" He spoke with his eyes still closed.
"Well while you were out they kinda explained a lot more, and I'll admit we still don't believe even close to half of it. But yeah, we're pretty cool with it." Sky nodded.
"Besides, Knight saved my life and fought our side against those grimm. I don't know about you guys, but for Winchester's when fight side by side with someone they become brothers in arms. I trust him enough to give him the benefit of the doubt." Cardin said crossing his arms.
"Look at it this way, these 'zombies' have apparently been around for a REALLY long time and have caused anyone any problems, plus according to Andre there less than a handful still on Remnant including him and Knight. So it's not like we're looking at an invasion." Russel added.
Dove took a few more deep breaths. "Okay, I'm still freaking the fuck out right now, but I'm trying. Where exactly are they right now anyway?"
Cardin pointed to the smoke rising from behind the house. "The old mans forge, after explaining everything we told him why we originally came by and he agreed to make your weapon." Cardin explained. "Well actually he didn't agree at first but after handing over that titanite and some kind of ember the old man got all excited and took Knight to help him. That was a little after midnight and they've been in there ever since."
"He even took our weapons to, he said he was gonna reinforce them." Russel said with an excited grin. "I did some more research and this Andre dude is the real fuckin deal. Before he retired people would pay boat loads for his work, some of the most famous huntsmen in history got their gear from him. Qrow Death Scythe, Scarlet Two Barrels, Dante The Dust Storm, Maria The Grimm Reaper, he made all their weapons. And he's doing it free of charge."
Dove's eyebrow raised in surprise. "Seriously?" He asked incredulously.
"Yeah, apparently being an immortal 'zombie' gives a guy plenty of time to get good at what you do." Cardin laughed.
Dove nodded his head looking to have calmed down quite a bit. "Okay, maybe I was being a little unreasonable." He said earning a round of laughs from the other teens.
"Wow, you freak out until you find out you're getting a legend grade weapon made with ridiculously rare and expensive materials for free and then you're cool with it. Boys help me throw this shallow idiot into the shallow waters." Cardin laughed grabbing his teammate by the shoulder. Before Dove could try to fight back the other two members of his team grabbed him and hefted him up before taking him to the edge of the water and tossing him into the chilly morning water, the group never stopped laughing the entire time.
Several Hours Later
Team CRDL walked down the path towards the old mans place once again, it was just a little past noon and they'd decided to head into town for some lunch. It wasn't until they were in sight of the house once again that they noticed the knight standing on the shore of the cove, in his hand was a long sword. At his hip his actual long sword still sat in it's sheath, the one in his hand looked far more new and polished. He simply continued to swing the blade over and over in the same fashion.
"Hey Knight!" Cardin shouted getting the armored mans attention. "How are those weapons coming along?" He asked, in response the knight just gesture towards the house before going back to whatever he was doing.
Looking to his team Cardin shrugged and walked to the house before giving a quick knock. "Come on in." Andre could be heard from inside. Pushing open the door the four all filed in, Andre sat leaning back in a large and old looking reclining chair, a small and just as old looking radio sat on a table nearby playing music. He point to the wall next to the fire place. "Yer weapons are all finished, had the existing three done in two hours. Building the new took a bit longer than that. Luck for you I'm the fastest damn smith you'll ever meet." He chuckled.
The four all walked over and grabbed their weapons, Cardin, Russel and Sky all inspected the weapons with clear interest. Each was noticeably heavier and the colors were a shade darker, but it was clear that just by looking at them that they were much higher quality. Dove on the other hand was in complete awe of the weapon he held in his hands. It was a lever action rifle with an extendable barrel and a multi caliber chamber which would allow him to switch between standard rifle rounds for mid to long range, and high caliber round for long to extreme range combat. Flipping a switch caused the rifle to fold in on itself and take the for of a large one handed war axe. Engraved into the side of the axe head was a very same image of a hawk that was on the ring around his finger. In fact each of the teams weapons now sported a matching engraving to the rings in their possessions.
"Now ye lads need to remember, a weapon is only as good as the hands holdin it. Those might be top quality but that's meaningless if you don't use it right." Andre explained leaning back further. "Also, the Chosen lad outside is gonna be stayin here for a while until I can get him up to speed on how things work on Remnant nowadays. Now get out, I didn't sleep last night and I'm exhausted." With that he shewed the four boy from his home.
Elsewhere
"I spy with my little eye, somethiiiiiiiing red." A young sounding woman said as she rolled under an attack from a giant grimm snake as it lunged towards her.
"The grimm's eyes?" A voice spoke within her head.
"No." She replied as she unsheathed the blade of one of the long katana's strapped to her hip. Her face was hidden behind a silver mask and a tricorn hat, peaking out the back of the hat was a long crimson red pony tail. She wore a very old looking gold embroidered trench coat with equally old looking silver gauntlets. Tanned leather boots and trousers.
In a blur she cut the giant snake in two without any visible effort, the blade of the weapon bore uncanny streaks along the it's length. "The leaves and grass?" The voice spoke again referring to the surrounding Foreverfall Forest. Before she could reply however four more of the giant snake grimm burst from the ground below her.
"That counts as two guess's, and no." She said shaking her head. Reaching into her coat she quickly pulled out a talisman that appeared to be made of cloth and began whispering as she ran the cloth along the length of her blade, as she did this golden sparks of lightening began leaping across the blade in all directions. One of the beasts dived towards her with its mouth wide open in an attempt to swallow her, side stepping she thrust the blade directly into the eye of the monster as it passed her by, with the blade stuck in the beast she was forced to slide along the ground with it. Twisting the blade she then forced the blade downward nearly bisecting the snake.
"Your hair?" The voice asked.
"You know I can't see my hair in this mask." She laughed as two of the remaining snake attacked. Jumping up into a tree she continued to laugh as the monsters followed her, what the monsters never noticed however was the fact that their bodies were slowly being tied together in a knot. Within a minute the woman stood on the tangled mass of the snakes. "I can't believe the always fall for this, how many times have we pulled this off?" She asked looking down at the snakes.
"Thirty one times, if you count those two times you did it by accident. Also, their blood?" The voice replied.
Raising the talisman once again whispering something under her breath she quickly brought down a giant stake of lightning onto the tangled snake easily blowing a hole through them and into the ground below, the remains quickly fading. "I told those were on purpose, and no." She flicked her blade clean and slowly began sheathing it as the final snake approached from behind.
"I give up."
The snake attacked only for a blur to drop down from above it and cleanly remove it's head before it could reach her. "It was Qrow's cape, HEY QROW!" She shouted while waving the the huntsmen that was walking over to her.
"Ashe." He nodded before pulling a flask for his shirt. "What are you doing all the way out here? I thought you were over in Vacuo hunting that giant sand sifter." He asked taking a swig.
"We were but it turns out that the 'Giant' part was exaggerated, it was only a couple feet longer than normal. So me and Midir decided to try our luck in finding the Amarok that's been rumored to have taken over this stretch of the Foreverfall as it's territory." She answered patting the frayed looking blade at her hip, the blade itself was hidden inside of the newer looking black wooden sheath. "What about you, weren't you looking for the one who attacked one of Ozma's girls?" She asked removing her mask and putting it into her coat revealing a young and beautiful face. Her skin was pale and her eyes were a nearly glowing pink, still the huntsmen could see a darkness behind those eyes. He knew far to well that her appearance reflected nothing about her, she was old, very old and very strong.
Qrow sighed stowing his flask back into his coat. "Yeah but he asked me to check something out for him, one of his students went missing around here a while back." He explained.
"Well their probably dead then, this place has been crawling with high level grimm, even before I showed up." She responded getting a shake of the head in response.
"Nah they found the kid the next day but according to him he fell into an undocumented ruin and saw something interesting. What it was need don't know, so he wants me to check it out." Qrow corrected her before he continued walking.
"Want me to tag along, sounds like a good time?" She asked walking behind the older looking man.
"What about the Amarok?" She heard in her mind.
"Oh it's not going anywhere, this'll only take a little while. Besides, Amarok only come out at night so it'll help kill some time." She told the sword at her hip.
Qrow didn't bother replying know she'd follow him regardless, also he'd long since grown use to the way she'd talk to her sword. He'd first met her while he was still attending Beacon, Ozpin had gotten her to take his team out on their first mission. They'd ended up taking on stumbling upon an entire nest of giant spider grimm, she took out the queen and over three quarters of the monsters while his team fought the rest. It wasn't until several decades later that he'd learned the truth about her from Ozpin, you know you're weird when being an immortal undead isn't the weirdest thing about you.
"The kid opened up a fissure in the ground about three clicks from here, try and keep up." Qrow told her before jumping into the air and shifting into bird form and taking off. Ashe followed below him on foot, still she didn't have any trouble keeping pace. She wasn't quite as fast as Ruby while using her semblance but she was still leagues above what most huntsmen were capable of.
Within minutes they arrived in a clearing that looked like it had been the site of a fight, a large fissure was opened up off to one side. Walking over to it Ashe looked down before turning to Qrow who had now shifted back. "It looks like it filled itself in." She told him as he looked down into it as well. Reaching into her coat she withdrew a grenade, Ashe didn't use many modern day weapons but she loved her some explosives. "Wanna blow a hole?"
Qrow shrugged. "Bombs away." He replied earning a wide smile from the redhead.
Pulling the pin she tossed it in and the pair stepped back, seconds later a large amounts of dirt and rock exploded out of the fissure. This time when the looked down there was a large hole that lead down into pitch blackness. "Let's go." She elbowed his shoulder before jumping soon followed by the huntsmen. Once they were in Ashe pulled a torch from her trust bottomless box and lit it up illuminating what they could now see was a tunnel.
"According to the kid this tunnel goes on for a really long time, how long will that torch last?" He asked.
Ashe thought for a few seconds before shrugging. "Not sure, I've had it for a long time and it hasn't burned out so, long enough I guess."
Qrow sighed again. "Let's get walking then."
Patch
Knight stood at the shore near Andre's home, in his hand he held a short sword. Littering the sand around him were more swords, each discarded after several swings, none felt quite right. Luckily Andre had a surplus of spare weapons he'd made in his spare time, each was a masterpiece worthy of the finest warrior but none fit him. "Lad, try this one." Andre called from a fold out chair nearby, next to him was a cooler with several bottles of an alcohol he called beer sitting on top. He tossed the knight a mace, it was covered in engravings, it's handle was wrapped in extremely high quality leather.
Catching the weapon the knight dropped the sword in his other hand, turning to the water once more he swung the weapon nearly a dozen times. Looking the mace over once more, shaking his head he dropped it. Andre laughed from his chair nearby before downing the remaining half of the bottle in his hand. "You always were a picky bastard when it came to your arms."
Shrugging, Knight leaned down and began gathering the many weapons the laid about. Andre stood once he got them all and lead him back to his workshop behind his home. He gestured towards a half empty barrel and the knight dumped all the weapons into it. "Honestly I still don't understand why you won't just use the sword at yur hip. You used it for years, even killed Gwyn with it." Andre spoke looking to the knight who only shook his head. "It wouldn't have anythin to do with what you and that fellow with the large hat did to it, would it?" Knight made no response.
Knight turned to exit the workshop but paused when noticed something in the corner, walking over he reached down and grabbed an old and worn looking blade. Nic's, chips and scratches littered the length of the dust cover weapon, several spots of rust could also be seen on it. The grey leather grip was frayed and appeared to have been chewed on by something, likely a rat or mouse. Tightening his grip on the sorry excuse for a blade he stepped right outside the workshop and raised the blade, without any warning he broke into a flurry of slashes and thrusts. He parried imaginary enemies and cut them down with ruthless precision that could only come from a veteran warrior.
He did this nearly fifteen minutes before stopping and looking over the weapon once more and turning back to the workshop where Andre stood leaning against the door. Holding out the weapon the knight nodded. "Very well, I'll reinforce it. Oddly fitting that you'd chose a thrown away piece of scrap metal I made while piss drunk and blindfolded." The old smith took the weapon and returned to the workshop.
With Qrow
Qrow frowned as he walked down the longest hallway he'd ever seen, Ashe walked just ahead of him holding the torch. They'd been walking for nearly an hour and the woman had been either chatting with her sword the entire way or humming to herself. Honestly it actually reminded him a bit of Ruby, he'd caught her talking to her scythe any number of times, she treated it like it was her child. Tai had mentioned he'd had to take it out of her arms while she slept several times. It never ceased to amaze him how chipper the woman always was.
Most people he met just got angrier and more pessimistic as they got older, but if Ozpin was telling the truth this woman was even older than he was. How she maintained such a sunny attitude all the time was a mystery to him. Maybe it was because she'd already seen everything the world throw at her and knew it couldn't surprise or break her, maybe it was simply because she'd lost her mind. He highly doubted he'd ever really find out. "I think we're here." Ashe chirped getting his attention.
Looking up Qrow saw the open wooden doors, they were thick and heavy looking. The scuffs on the floor looked fresh as well showing that it had recently been opened. "What's inside?" Qrow asked as he walked through along side the woman.
Stepping into the small bare room on the other side of the doors Qrow looked around before sighing to himself. "I guess the kid was telling Oz the truth after all, waste of time." He grumbled reaching for his flask.
"No." Ashe spoke, her voice slightly deeper than normal as she looked around the empty room. Taking in several deep breaths she frown deeply. "This room reeks of stale magical energy, ridiculously old yet potent." She said focusing on one of the corners in the room where a root stuck out of a wall and a noticeable impression could be seen in the floor. Leaning down she placed her hand on the impression and took another deep breath of the air around it. "What do you think Mid, three, four cycles?" She asked her sword as Qrow watched her. "You can't be serious?" Without warning Ashe stood and walked to the door. "Qrow come out here." She told him.
Qrow did as she said and she pulled the doors closed, etched into the front of the door were a script he'd never seen before. "What language is that?" He asked the woman as she traced the markings with her fingers.
"Lordranian, very very old Lordranian. The type used during the time of the gods." She explained causing Qrow's eyes to widen a bit.
"You think the brother gods left something here?" Qrow asked getting a snort in response.
"The gods before those gods." She told him as she stood back up. "It's a warning to stay out and leave the former inhabitant of this room in peace, though I highly doubt that Beacon student was able to read it."
"Does it say what was in there?" Qrow asked though he could probably guess the answer.
"No, just that they wanted to be left alone." Ashe answered before turning to face Qrow. "Ozpin needs to know about this."
That surprised Qrow to hear, he had already planned on letting Ozpin know everything but to hear it from her. Ashe had done a very good job at remaining a neutral party in the war, more than happy to just travel Remnant killing grimm and hunting down anything she consider a part of the 'darkness', how Salem didn't qualify he didn't know. So for her to suggest going to Ozpin for anything, it could only mean she wasn't confident in her chances of defeating it on her own.
"Turn into a bird." She told him regaining his attention.
"Huh, why?" His eyebrow raised once again.
"Just do it." She said impatiently. With another sigh Qrow shifted into his bird form, before he could react she grabbed him and shoved him in her coat. "You're to slow, so stay in there." She told him before taking off in a full sprint down the nearly pitch black hallway, Qrow squawked and struggled the entire way. At her top speed they made it back to the large hole they entered through in just under ten minutes. Jumping up and off the walls several times until they were back up on the surface. Pulling Qrow out of her coat she laughed as he shifted back to human looking disheveled and livid. "See, that wasn't so bad."
The drunken huntsmen growled. "Never do that again." Venom dripped from his words though Ashe didn't seem to care.
"Hurry up and call Ozpin, we're gonna need a ride back to Beacon for this, and I want to have a word with this student." She said waving him off.
Beacon
"I just can't get over how fuckin awesome this is." Dove said gushing over the new weapon in his hands just as he had ever since getting it the day before.
"I know, we all know, you haven't shut up about it all day." Russel responded as he read through a textbook. Everyone assumed that the four boys were just a bunch of meat heads, and while to a point that was true, you didn't make it into beacon without knowing your shit. Sure they dumped a lot of their work on Arc when he was the teams lackey but that was out of laziness, not because they couldn't do it themselves. "We've got Goodwitch next right?" He asked without looking up from his book.
"Yeah, we're gonna be doing team building shit today." Cardin responded reading through his own textbook, he'd have preferred to be looking over the book Knight gave him but he hadn't had a chance to get it back from Port yet. He was still pissed at the green haired teacher for making him wait instead of just giving it to him
"Mr. Winchester!" Speak of the devil and he shall appeared. Looking up the four boys looked up to see Oobleck speeding towards them, the familiar book in his hands. "I've been looking for you young man, I was hoping to ask you about this book here. After seeing how upset you got over it I became curious, to be honest I was expecting some kind of magazine to be hidden inside it. Imagine my surprise when I found such an old book written in a language I couldn't recognize, being fluent in twelve languages and familiar with many more that is very interesting. I would've guessed it was some sort of gibberish or some made up language, but with the age of the book and complexity of both the characters and sentence structure I dismissed that theory. I must know young man, where did you come across a book such as this?" The historian said all this in a single breath and fast enough that the four boys took a moment to process.
"An immortal Zombie knight that can shoot fire from his hands gave it to him." Dove answered in a deadpan voice as he continued to inspect his weapon. Everyone else just stared at him, the other three boys looking wide eyed.
Cardin was the first to recover. "It's a family heirloom, I found it in my families library." He told the green haired man.
"Ah I see, well if you ever desire some assistance in deciphering it feel free to drop by my office. Also I was instructed to send you and your team to the headmasters office when I next saw you. Good day boys." Then in a blur the man was headed away from them.
"Alright, who fucked up?" Cardin asked the other three boys who all shrugged. "Whatever, let's go get this over with."
Together the four began walking towards the tower that over looked the campus, as they walked Cardin began flipping through the page of the book he finally got back. Oobleck was a hard ass of a teacher, not quite as bad as Goodwitch but still harsh, even still He knew the man was incredibly intelligent. So to hear that he wasn't even able to identify the script the book was written in let alone translate, it didn't exactly boost his confidence in being able to do it himself. By the time he looked up he found that they were already in the elevator on their way up.
"Okay, so whatever one of you did just apologize and let them know it won't happen again. I'll throw in that I'll be keeping an eye on you blah blah blah. If we're lucky we'll get out of this with detention." Cardin said closing the book and getting nods from the other three boys. Once the reached the top and the doors opened they found not only Ozpin but Goodwitch and two other adults waiting on them, hunters if their weapons were anything to go by. "Okay, this may end worse than detention." He whispered back to the three others over his shoulder.
Stepping into the large office the four boys lined up before the headmasters desk. "Mr. Winchester, allow me to introduce you to Qrow Branwen." He gestured to the other man in the room.
"Dude, that's the death scythe." Russel whispered slightly to loudly the Sky who placed his face in his hand and shook his head.
"I see you've heard of him." Ozpin nodded while Qrow snorted with a grin on his face. "And next to him is Ashe Midir, another veteran huntress." He gestured to the woman who giggled before swatting at one of the blades at her hip. "After your disappearance recently I decided to ask Qrow here to look into the tunnel you claimed to have fallen into. And don't worry, they found it." Cardin's heart sank at hearing that, did they know about Knight? "They entered and followed the tunnel to it's end where they found the room you mentioned, and indeed it was empty." He explained, Cardin calmed down a bit at hearing that.
"But I don't think it was empty when you found it." The huntress next to Qrow stepped up to the largest of the four boy. Looking him up and down her eyes locked onto his hand, or more specifically the book in it. Before he could react she grabbed it and stepped away.
"Hey! Give that back you crazy bi-" He was cut off by the sound of Goodwitch's crop slapping Ozpin's desk.
"The Four Knights of Gwyn." She read aloud, once again his blood ran cold. "Written in old Lordranian no less, just like the message on the door. I highly doubt you simply stumbled on a book that is older that the discovery of dust itself. So boy, where'd you get this?" She asked the now sweating teen. "What was on the other side of the door kid?" She asked staring the boy in the eyes.
Cardin stood silently for nearly a minute. "What does it matter, it has nothing to do with this school or anyone in it." He spoke as he did his best to maintain the look of confidence he was currently wearing.
"Mr. Winchester, we have reason to believe that whatever was on the other side of that door is extremely dangerous." Ozpin explained to the teen. "It is our duty as hunters and as teachers to look into anything that could prove to be a threat to our students of the people of Vale."
Cardin clenched his fists for a moment before letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "I found a guy."
"A guy?" Qrow asked.
"Yeah, I thought he was a corpse at first. He'd clearly been in that room for a long time, a root had grown around him and everything." He explained before looking to his team who only shrugged. "When he moved I may have fainted, next thing I know he's carrying me over his shoulder to the entrance. He could've done any number of things to me while I was asleep, but instead he helped me. I went back on Friday to thank him, while I was talking to him we were attacked by grimm. I watched him kill an Amarok by himself with his bare hands." He explained, Ashe cursed under breath before swatting the blade at her hip again. Qrow whistled at the feat. "After that my team showed up and we fought with him against horde of grimm. When we finally killed the last of the grimm, he gave us some rings and that book."
"He gave you rings?" Ozpin asked getting a nod from the four.
Cardin pulled off his glove to reveal the ring on his finger, Ashe's eyes widen at the sight of the ring. "Impossible." She said walking over a grabbing his hand and looking more closely at the ring. "The ring of the wolf, worn by Artorias the Abyss Walker. The only one could have had this was the one who slew him." She then looked to the other three teens. "He said rings, plural." At that they each revealed their own rings each causing her eyes to widen even further, one of the swords at her hip began giving off an almost unnoticeable stream of black smoke. "But he kindled the flame! He would have been destroyed by the fire along with all of his possessions!" She shouted at the sword on her hip.
"Ashe, do you know who they met?" Qrow asked placing a hand on her shoulder only to pull back after feeling the heat her body was giving off.
"It could only be one person, the Chosen Undead who killed Gwyn the Lord of Cinder." The three other adults in the office stared at the woman with surprise, none of them had ever seen her act in such a way.
"Ashe, who exactly is this person?" Qrow asked trying to calm the woman.
"THE Chosen Undead, the one who is responsible for slaying the four original gods. Nito the first of the dead, the Witch of Izalith and her daughters of chaos, Gwyn the Lord of Sunlight and even Manus the Father of the Abyss! The original human and progenitor of darkness!" She said all this with near hysterics in her voice. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath, after several seconds she released it and turned to the four boys. "Where is he?" She demanded.
"We don't kno-" Cardin felt something slam into his stomach sending him flying back into one of the elevator doors. Before he could even try to react a blade pierced the metal next to his head, the woman held the blade she'd been talking to near his throat.
"ASHE!" Ozpin shouted in a rare moment of anger. "You will NOT threaten one of my students lives to get information, especially not while you are a guest on my schools ground!" He said standing to his feet with cane in hand, Glynda already hand her crop pointed at the woman ready to fling her across the room if needed.
"Where. Is. He." She growled once more seemingly ignoring the veteran huntsmen with their weapons raised at her.
"Andre's." Qrow spoke up getting her attention. Looking over to the drunken huntsmen who was now standing next to one of the terrified looking teens. He was looking over a weapon on the boys back. "This is definitely Andre's work and is freshly smithed, I'd be willing to bet he's there." Qrow explained.
Before anyone else could react the woman removed her blade from the door and had already stepped into an undamaged one leaving a clearly shaken Cardin laying with his back still against the stabbed elevator door. Before the others could ask what he was doing he pulled out his scroll and dialed a number. "Mr. Winchester, who are you calling? Ozpin asked narrowing his eyes.
"Andre, someones coming for Knight, warn him!" He shouted just before his scroll flew out of his hand and to Goodwitch who promptly ended the call.
Ozpin let out an exhausted sounding sigh. "Dear gods, the collateral." He said massaging his temples. "Qrow." He looked to the man who nodded.
"Got it." He said moving towards another elevator.
"Wait, we're going to!" Cardin shouted now regaining his composure.
Patch
Knight stood unmoving at the center of the small clearing in the forest near Andre's house. It had been an hour and a half since the old smith had let him know that someone was on their way to confront him. Whether they were planning on attacking him or simply speaking with him he didn't know but decided to move to a more remote area and wait.
His new sword was slung on his back along side his shield while his original sword remained at his hip, his armor and shield had gotten a long over due cleaning and touch up from Andre. Nothing more than replacing some rotted leather and cloth, the metal was so reinforced that it was still in great condition. Regardless the gear felt much better now and he was confident he could move more freely after the repairs.
He heard a familiar roaring overhead as one of the metal crafts that flew above the city he'd visited soared over him towards Andre's home, that was probably the one coming for him.
He remained motionless for another fifteen minutes until he heard footsteps, the unmistakable stench of ash reached his nostrils. Turning to face this newcomer he noted it was definitely a woman based off her build, he could also tell without the slightest doubt in his mind that she was undead. The pair stared at one another for nearly a minute. "The chosen undead, said to have traveled on the wings of a great bird from the undead asylum to Anor Londo where you slew Gwyn." She said placing her hand on the hilt of one of her blade. "Somehow I expected someone taller."
Knight almost laughed at hearing this, he supposed it was to be expected though. All stories are warped by time, he didn't ride on any great bird, he was grabbed and taken against his will. Then of course was how she left out everything he went through to actually get to Anor Londo let alone make it through that damned city. Reaching up he placed his hand on the handle of his sword while also allowing a spark to form in his palm. He could tell whoever this woman was she would be no push over.
Drawing his blade he watched as she did the same with her black and frayed looking blade.
Unknown Location
Sitting alone on a great stone throne surrounded by pitch darkness was a young looking man. He didn't appear to be any older than fifteen, chin length blue hair hung down in front of his face. His body was covered by a set of black robes with silver trimmings that covered his arms and shoulders. His eyes were hidden behind a black blind fold that also had silver trimmings. Leaning against the throne was a silver staff with a lightly glowing crystal embedded at the top.
The thing that stood out the most about him however was the crown atop his head over the hood that covered his hair, it almost visibly radiated power. It looked to be made of a combination of old iron, ivory and what could be mistaken as coral.
His head hung limply to the side as though he were sleeping, his face completely blank of any expression. Then for the first time in countless centuries he was disturbed, a small amount of dust fell from the ceiling of the ancient stone chamber, then several seconds later more fell. His head moved less than an inch, barely a twitch as the sound of metal striking stone could be heard.
Then after millennia of nothing but cold and peaceful darkness, a tiny beam of light entered into his throne room.
"Incredible!" A voice shouted as a hole was made in the ceiling, every few seconds it grew larger and larger as someone chipped away at the stone. Within minutes the hole was large enough for someone to enter through. "Such primitive architecture yet it was so resistant to not only the elements and natural erosion, but also modern mining equipment." The same voice spoke again as they lowered themselves down into the dark room.
"Be careful down there sir, there could be grimm." Another voice called before they to jumped through the hole though they decided to forgo the ropes.
"By the gods." The first man, an older man wearing a long coat and thick glasses. He ran over to the boy on the throne. "Impossible, this chamber has been closed for centuries at least and yet he's perfectly preserved, as if he died yesterday!" The man exclaimed excitedly as he looked over the crown wearing person. "Stephens come look at this, his clothes and that crown. I think we've stumbled upon far more than a simple tomb my boy, this is clearly the crypt of someone of great importance, maybe a king of some kind."
The second man hummed to himself in response before looking to the staff leaning against the throne or more specifically the crystal at the top. He wore leather armor along his arms and legs and had a long two handed sword slung across his back. "Is that dust?" He asked stepping over to the staff. He reached out for it.
"Enough." A light whispered caused the pair to freeze in place. "You've entered the kings chambers without permission." The boy spoke turning to face the pair, the older of the two fell on his rear and crawled backwards while the other man drew his sword. "And now you've drawn a weapon, the punishment for such disrespect." He spoke softly as he slowly stood from his throne and grabbed the staff. "Can only be death." As he said this he brought the staff up and then back down on the stone ground quickly creating a dark fog that filled the area.
The older of the two began screaming as the fog burned away his skin with dark magic, the second man however looked to be much more resistant. He lunged at the younger looking of the two with sword raised and quickly brought it down. Raising his staff to guard he covered it with dark energy just as the blade made contact, the blade could be heard cracking upon the impact. Raising his free hand the boy touched the mans chest instantly feeling an energy attempting to repel him. Pushing the man with the sword backwards he looked over his hand with his still covered eyes. "How interesting, so the soul has changed." He muttered to himself. "Show me more."
So I was trying to figure out who could be a good villain for a Dark Souls protagonist, then it hit me like a Millwood great arrow, another Drak Souls Protagonist! Ashe will likely be a more neutral party but I still haven't decided. Leave me a review and let me know what you all think. Until next time.