Chapter 4
Initiation Tournament part two
Tai Lee:
What is it now. I thought, walking through the dim cave. I had been recently been called in to receive a mission. In the distance I saw a metal caged door. Standing outside was two dark figures in hoods. Assault rifles were slung around their neck.
The guard on the left opened the door revealing a dim metal interior. At the far end of the room was a single desk filled with cluttered paper and maps.
"Tai why are you here, I didn't call for you." Cinder said annoyed with my presence. "I was told her majesty had a personal assignment for me." I said lowering my head.
"Oh, the little girl assassin that went rouge. Salem really did screw up training the brat." Lifting my head up Cinder was over top of me with her hand extended handing me a file with Silver Rose written on it.
"There is a tournament going on for the Beacon initiates. You could easily kill her in it by "accident" if you are luck in drawing her number. The other choice would be to sneak into her dorm and kill her. But of course, if you do that you are more likely to be caught." Looking at the papers the girl's semblance was listed as unknown and her aura was labelled as unnatural.
"What do you mean her semblance is unknown. Didn't Salem personally help train this girl." I said continuing to flip through the papers.
"I was also wondering about that, but it seems Salem is keen on keeping it a secret." Cinder said annoyed once again. "Well do we know anything about her "unnatural" aura." I asked hoping to get any information on my target.
"Yes, it seems her aura gives her unnatural healing powers. The down side to this ability is that she is far less durable than most hunters." Cinder said pacing back and forth. When she stopped speaking she went back to her seat rapping her fingers on the desk.
"What about the...payment." I asked curiously looking up at her. "Yes of course, Salem was a little more generous this time. The usual medicine to keep the poison from spreading to your heart and 50= thousand lien."
'Yes, keeping me alive with medicine after poisoning me is so generous.' I thought, accepting the deal before getting up and leaving. 'I guess I have some work to do.' I thought, taking my last pill.
Silver:
Only 32 people now remained. Getting up from my seat I walked down to the arena. I would be the first match today. Not knowing who my opponent was I walked down to the arena. The whole arena would be used for the fight now that the number of contestants had been decreased.
On the opposite side I saw my opponent was already waiting for me to arrive. She had a cocky, no, confident air around her. For good reason to. Her aura was large and experienced like she had been in more than a few fights.
She has wavy locks on one side of her face, dyed with a gradient that starts in dark brown and transitions to caramel.
Her clothes consist of a long, cocoa-colored shirt with a dark brown waist cincher. She had on long, dark brown trousers with ribbons on the left side and a brown belt with bullets.
Above it, she wore another cocoa-colored belt of bullets with a gold crosshairs buckle. She wears a pair of dark brown, high-heeled leather boots. In her left hand was an oversized hand bag.
"Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the thirty first Beacon Academy initiation tournament. Today the real battle begin we look forward to the upcoming fights." The arena roared in excitement to the sound of the announcer.
My opponent's aura was larger than the average person in the tournament but mine was still better.
"To the left of me is Coco Adel. She is famous around here for being able to kill multiple nevermores and deathstalkers all by herself at the age of seventeen." Coco's eyes gleamed with pride at the announcer's praise. The audience roared in excitement. "And to the right of me is Silver Rose. This girl is an unknown mystery. Records say she died in a train crash years ago, but here she is alive and well."
'I guessed it would be made public sooner or later. I just didn't expect it to be so soon.' I thought, unsheathing my dagger. "3, 2, 1 begin."
Coco's eyes lost all previous arrogance and instead was filled with pure determination. She caught me off guard suddenly turning the hand bag into a large multi-barreled machine gun. A hail storm of bullets came flying my way.
I pressed the button on my sheath planning to dish back some fire. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. Damn hit already. I thought, putting quite a bit of aura in my legs to increase my speed. Dogging the bullets from then on was easy with my increased speed.
My sheath sent the signal that Corruption was ready to go. I threw a knife at Coco hopping to distract her. Averting her attention to the knife flying at her she stopped firing. I pulled Corruption out of the newly formed holster. Jumping into the air I pulled back the massive pistols slide. Landing behind her I let out two shots of the 13mm pistol.
Coco noticed what I was doing before I had even fired and was already turned around. She hit the first bullet with a wave of her own bullets, but she wasn't as lucky with the second. It hit her aura made barrier with explosive force sending her sliding back five feet.
I used the moment of her recovery to attack sending two more shots straight at her. I put Corruption back into its holster pressing the button to revert it back into a dagger. She blocked both bullets with her barrier giving me the chance to get behind her. I put my aura into a well-placed kick hitting her lower back.
She stumbled forward but didn't fall. I was already on her once again throwing an elbow towards her lower back. She quickly turned around using her hand bag to shield my attack. My elbow hit her rock-hard bag creating a small shockwave from the force.
The bones in my elbow were shattered from the hand bag. Coco noticed the damage her bag did to my elbow giving her the initiative to begin attacking. She flung the bag at me missing every time. Every second that passed she got slower and easier to dodge.
Unsheathing my dagger, I sent it flying forward towards her stomach. Unable to dodge she raise her barrier to block the attack. The dagger sunk two inches into the barrier piercing it. A look of surprise flash across her face noticing I was using my once shattered elbow.
Using my aura to increase my strength I pushed harder with my dagger. The barrier began to crack in response. Coco's eyes were now full of fear of what might happened if the dagger got through her barrier. Pushing a little harder the barrier completely shattered leaving Coco defenseless. Raising my knee up and extending my leg I hit Coco in the head with a roundhouse.
Coco hit the floor with a thud with no aura to help her guard the kick. The whole arena gasped in surprise at the results. "Ladies and gentlemen please give a round of applause for Miss Rose who unexpectedly won against Coco Adel." The arena filled with joy of the battle they witnessed.
Paramedics rushed to Coco picking her up off the floor. She was now awake using the shoulders of the paramedics to help her walk.
"Not bad for a half pint." She said limping off the arena. I only gave her a short glance before turning and going back to my seat.
"Nice job. The hunter who trained you was really good." Ruby said jumping up and down being her usual self. "Yeah" I responded back to her quietly ashamed she unknowingly brought up my lie.
Yang was with a couple of her friends from signal who came to watch her match. She had been drawn to go third. Ruby had been drawn to go ninth and would have to wait a while.
The second round ended quickly with someone surrendering to the black-haired girl with a bow on top of her head now identified as Blake Belladonna. Yang was now on the arena floor waiting for opponent to reach the arena floor.
"Due to injury in the previous match Mr. Arc will be unable to fight making Miss Long the winner by default." Yang looked disappointed at the announcement but there was nothing she could do about.
Up next was Pyrrah vs the white-haired girl who wielded a rapier. "Ah it's Weiss." Ruby said with animosity in here voice. "Have you meet her?" I asked curious about what type of person she was. "Unfortunately, she acted like I was nothing but a pleab." Ruby replied biting her words.
Judging by aura alone Pyrrah was lengths ahead of Weiss. "Ladies and Gentlemen this should be a great match between two famous young ladies. To my left is Pyrrah Nekros the invincible girl. To my right is the heir to the Shnee dust company Weiss Shnee." The audience roared in excitement hoping for an eventful fight.
"Good luck" Pyrrah said awkwardly to Weiss. "Ah...you too." Weiss said back not expecting the hospitality of her opponent. "3, 2, 1 begin." Pryhha who was wielding a shield and javelin in her hand now crouched into a combat stance. Both were walking a circle waiting for the other to make the first move.
Weiss was inpatient and attacked first. Using a glyph created right behind her she propelled herself forward at high speed. Using her rapier Weiss tried to aim for Pyrrha's unprotected legs that her shield couldn't cover. The rapier made contact with the legs but only made the noise of medal hitting medal.
Pyrrha used her shield to bash Weiss who was preoccupied with her attack. But Weiss was light and fast dodging the shield she jumped back to gain some distance.
Pyrrha changed her stance from a defense position to a more aggressive offensive position. Usually it would be suicide for a spear user to go on an close range offensive attacker. But Pyrrha had already tested her opponent's strength in the few blows they traded.
Seeing the change in stances Weiss charged towards Pyrrha taking the opportunity given to her. The second before Weiss meet Pyrrha her weapon changed into a sword. Weiss continued with her assault letting out a barrage of quick well-placed attacks. Weiss was fast but Pyrrha seemed even faster parring every attack easy without even using her shield.
Weiss sent a jab towards Pyrrha's chest but Pyrrha parried it knocking her off balance. Pyrrha sent Weiss a heavy downward slash. At the last second Weiss used a glyph to block the attack making her to fall on one knee.
Weiss plunged her rapier into the stone tile floor of the arena. A large glyph formed at the end of the rapier. Right before the glyph could fully form Pyrrha transformed her sword in a gun rapidly shooting at Weiss. Weiss's barrier couldn't take more than a few shots. Breaking her barrier Pyrrha transformed her weapon back into a javelin. She took the blunt end and hit Weiss right in her dimple knocking her out.
The whole audience stood up chanting Pyrrah's name along with invincible girl. Pyrrah stood by Weiss's unconscious body until the paramedics arrived. "What a great fight these two fighters gave us. Can we her a round of applause once again for these two contestants." The audience roared louder this time chanting Pyrrah's and Weiss's name together.
A few hours passed since the third round and it was now Ruby's turn to take the arena floor. "Do you know who your fighting." I asked Ruby curious. "No clue, but I'm going win no matter who it is." Ruby said with determination in her eyes. "I'm sure you will, just stay safe."
I watched Ruby walking down the stairs to the arena floor. The air brought a cold and uneasy feeling making me feel like I should say something more to her, but I couldn't find the right words to say as she left.
My eyes dilated seeing her opponent making his way down to the arena floor. He was the creepy look man who gave me an uneasy feeling. His aura almost made me feel sick.
His aura far out matched Ruby's making her almost seem insignificant. Ruby was going to be hurt in this fight, and there was nothing I could do. I hated it but there was nothing I could do but hope for the best.
Ruby:
Looking behind me, I saw Silver in the audience with a grim look on her face. She was yelling something, but the excited audience made it impossible to hear. Turing my focus back to the arena a creepy looking man was on the opposite side. His amber eyes pierced my body leaving my paralyzed for a brief moment.
The man wore a mask over his face. He wore a large blower hair making his hair invisible to the outside world. On his hip was a massive pistol much like Silvers but a little smaller. The scariest thing was the massive kukri strapped onto his back.
"Ladies and gentlemen the eighth round ended with a tie from two opponents knocking each other. Hopefully we have something just as exciting for this round." The announcer's voice brought me back to reality. I narrowed my eyes to get a better look at him. "To my left is Ruby Rose she is only 15 years old and the twin sister of Silver Rose. Will she be able to take home a win or will the man to our left Tai Lee, be the victor."
"Good luck little lady... you'll need it." I only activated my weapon in response unfolding it into full length. "3, 2, 1 begin." The massive kukri that was on his back was now out raised in the air in a combat stance.
Testing the waters, I turned Crescent Rose up pointing the barrel of the sniper at my opponent taking a shot. The man just stood there keeping his amber eyes locked onto mine.
Is he taunting me. I thought, taking out the clip of regular 50 caliber bullets and replacing them with armor piercing high explosive dust rounds. Taking aim once again I shot two bullets straight at his stomach area. The explosions created a small fireball engulfing his whole body.
The next thing I saw was a large blade flying at my head. Using the handle of Crescent Rose, I barely managed to block the blade. The force of the blow sent me flying. I lost my balance at some point, tumbling and rolling I plunged Crescent Rose into the ground stabilizing myself. Looking up, the man was nowhere to be seen.
Hearing a sharp whistling noise, I looked up at the sky to find its source. The man was flying at a downward spiral, his weapon raised over his head and a smile on his face.
Quickly changing the explosive dust rounds to gravity rounds I shot a round hoping to propel myself out of range of his attack. Thanks to my semblance I had barely made it. The force of his attack left a massive whole in the arena floor. Dust and debree were tossed up into the air making it hard to see.
How do I fight an opponent if nothing harms him? If only my aura was stronger. A bullet came flying out of the dust brushing past my left ear.
Shaking the buzz of the bullet off I switched Crescent Rose into a rifle and started to send a hail of bullets while moving hoping to keep the enemy from homing in on my position.
I could see the muzzle flare of his barrel now as the dust got lighter. Lifting Crescent Rose, I noticed my hands were stained red. With my hand I followed the trail of blood to my shoulder. A large hole was gouged into my skin. I felt nothing only the rapid beating of my heart.
My body started to shake felling the full effect of my aura depleting. Just push forward it is only temporary. Ignoring my body's deteriorating energy, I raised my weapon once again, firing until the clip was empty. I need to change my strategy, I need to put all my power into one attack. This move would be risky because if I missed or fail I will lose.
Loading the last clip of gravity dust rounds I sprinted towards the strange man. He shot round after round only stopping a quick second to reload. I was upon him in no time, he now had his massive kukri out waiting for me to get in striking range. He swung his blade at tremendous speed in a horizontal strike. Perfect, I thought, jumping and landing on his blade.
Using Crescent Rose, I shot round after round into the ground gaining height with each blast Propelling me high into the air.
Clank
Misfire I was out of bullets. Now is my chance. I thought activating my semblance aiming at the tiny dot below. Using all my reaming energy I sent my scythe flying downward in a horizontal spin.
Silver:
So far Ruby was holding her own against the now identified Tai Lee, but she was the weaker opponent anyone could see that. If she manages to land her next attack though she might be able to do some damage to him.
Ruby rocketed downward from the sky almost to fast for the untrained eye to catch. Tai Lee was ready, his kukri was raised in anticipation. When Ruby hit her target dust and debree flew into the air. Nothing was visible, and the dust was not clearing any time soon, so I sent out my aura to see if Ruby's attack worked.
My heart skipped a beat at what I felt. Ruby's aura was fading at an alarming rate. If she didn't get medical attention soon she would likely die. 'Rules be damned Ruby's life is in danger.' I thought as I started sprinting towards the arena.
The silhouette of Tai Lee became clearer as I pressed forward. Tai Lee was standing over Ruby his kukri pointed at her throat. Ruby had an alarming amount of blood underneath her from a large gash in her stomach.
"Stop you can't kill her, it's against the rules!" I desperately yelled out to Tai Lee.
A big smirk graced his face "Kill her? What are you talking about it was an accident." He said bringing his kukri down. I reached for my pistol to try and stop him, but I knew I wouldn't bee able to save her in time. 'Would I really lose my new sister so early?' I thought as I closed my eyes not wanting to see what was going to come next.
When I opened my eyes again everything was dark. I was in some kind of void it felt like there was zero gravity, floating endlessly through the chasm. 'Have I finally lost it?' I thought looking around for well, anything. Hours passed with nothing, but the thoughts of my dead sister left me numb to block out the agonizing pain.
Suddenly, a deep purple silhouette of a man appeared in front of me. He was slim with curved goat like horns sprouting from the top of his head. It seemed strange because other than his horns he was devoid of any feature that could identify him.
"Hello mortal I am the God of Darkness. I am the partial creator of this world and the creator of destruction. Why have you summoned me?" The proclaimed God of Darkness said sternly.
"What do you mean I summoned you. Where am I, how did I get here? I need to get back, my sister Ruby is going to die."
"I'm afraid you are too late mortal the soul of Ruby Rose has already passed on to the other side. Now as to how you got here is quite simple. When a mortal calls out in pain and hatred as hard as you have the God of Destruction can not sit idly by."
As soon as the dark man said that Ruby was dead, I was no longer listening my heart was completely shattered. The only thing that had keep me leaving was now gone.
The God noticed I was no longer paying attention, so he said something that instilled hope into my heart once again. "I can bring Ruby Rose back to life." He spoke
The works were clear but laced with malice, but I didn't even notice because of my pure joy of those words. "Can you really bring her back?" I asked desperately
"Of course I can, I helped create life itself after all but…"
"But what, I will do anything just please bring her back."
"So be it I shall bring her back, but it will cost you." The God of Destruction suddenly appeared in front of me and grabbed my arm. I tried to pull away, but his grip was unmovable. In his other hand an ancient looking ceremonial knife materialized out of nothing.
"Hey what are you doing." I called out to the dark silhouette. He brought the blade to my skin and started to cut into me. I tried to pull away, but he never budged even in the slightest. I screamed out in pain as he stared to engrave a what looked like a strange symbol in my arm. I started to thrash about in one last attempt to free myself.
Feeling his grip loosen I pulled away and stubbled backward falling flat on my ass. I looked down at my to see a pentagram had been carved into my arm and in between each part of the star was a strange symbol that I didn't recognize. The strange part though was that the cuts were not healing.
"What have you done why isn't my arm healing?"
"Oh, you mean your aura, you see this is a very special knife I created myself to cancel out any magic or aura, but that's not important. What's Important is that symbol I have given you will help guide you down your path as my champion."
"Your champion? What the hell are you talking about, I don't understand."
"You will understand in time young one but first you should focus on why you came her in the first place. I have given you the power to fix your problem now the rest is up to you." With that said the God of Destruction disappeared from the void. In a flash the void suddenly vanished. I was seated in the area like nothing ever happened.
"What's wrong Silver why are you so spaced out?" Yang said looking at me with concern.
"Where is Ruby?" I asked Yang seriously
"What do you mean she's still fighting that creepy Tai Lee guy. Hey what the hell are you doing Silver!" Yang called out to me, but I had no time to answer. I looked down at my arm to see the same strange pentagram symbol, but the wound had scared over. 'So, it was all real, I have to save Ruby before this monster kills her. Ruby is already propelling herself into the air I won't have enough time to save her.'
"Use my power I have given you my champion. You can feel it inside of you, can't you? It's the power of magic." I had no time to question who was speaking to me, so I did as he said and began to search my aura reserves for something new. I felt it instantly it was overwhelming in power far greater than anything I felt before.
'I have no idea how to use this new power but there is no time I have to do something.' When I reached the arena, Ruby had already made her movie and was once again lying on the ground in a pool of blood.
"Stop!" I yelled out to Tai Lee and pulled on my inner new power and forced it onto him. Right before his kukri came down on Ruby, he froze like some invisible force was stopping him. "What the hell have you done to me?" he asked
Slowly Tai Lee's kukri was getting closer and closer to hitting Ruby. 'It's not enough I need to put more power into it.' With all the power I could pull out I forced it onto him. "I won't let you hurt her!" I yelled pushing the power within me outward.
Blisters started to form on Tai Lee's body with every passing second the blisters grew bigger until they all rapidly started to pop. "What the fuck is happening!" Tai Lee screamed out in pain. Not only did blisters start to form but his whole body started to swell like a balloon. First his eyes popped soon after his arms burst and then his legs. What remained of his body looked like a bloated potato. With one last scream he exploded sending bits and pieces of his body in every direction. Blood rained from the sky drenching me and Ruby from head to toe.
The dust and debree had cleared long before I had killed Tai Lee. Everything was silent only the noise of airships in the distance could be heard. I fell on my knees finding it hard to breath. After taking a second to catch my breath I sent out my aura to check on Ruby. Just like before her aura was faint but she was still alive.
"We need paramedics out here fast!" I yelled out running to Ruby. The slash on her stomach was deep and wouldn't stop without medical attention. I quickly took out a bullet and with my dagger I popped off the head off the bullet. I poured the gunpowder that was contained within the bullet into Ruby's wound. Activating the flame infused dust on my dagger and lit the gunpowder. The stench of charred flesh and burnt gunpowder entered my noise.
It seemed to work as the wound had been cartelized by the intense heat of the gunpowder. Ruby's body suddenly jolted. The pain of my stunt seemed to wake her up. She let out a few haggard coughs before opening her eyes.
"Silver what happened I thought I was fighting Tai Lee." Ruby said softly looking at me confused.
"You were but he was going to kill you, so I had to intervene. I'm sorry I couldn't stop him in time from hurting you." I said ashamed I was unable to keep my sister safe.
"Silver why am I covered in blood." Ruby said whipping her face.
"I'm sorry Ruby I had to kill Tai Lee in order to save you."
Ruby's eyes turned wide in shock when she saw what was left of Tai Lee. He was nothing more than a pile of flesh and sinew. "You did this?" Ruby asked startled at the sight of the corps.
"Yes, I had too…" I tried to explain but Ruby cut me off
"Monster" I had been called that word many times before but never did I think that Ruby would call me that. I thought family was supposed to love each other no matter what. 'She called you monster just like all the rest. She is no different from the others, she has forsaken you.'
"Ladies and gentlemen, it seems we have an unexpected event happen. Um hold on a second… If everyone could please exit the arena, we shall reschedule the other battle for a later date. Please check you scrolls regularly for important updates"
Shortly after the announcement was made everyone began to leave the arena and the medics showed up to start to treat Ruby's wounds. I never even noticed when I was placed into the anti-aura handcuffs. I was too focused on trying to keep the voices out of my head. I tried telling myself that it wasn't real, but I couldn't hold on any longer.