Chapter Seven - Wrath of the Past
"Wait a minute, explain that again, but from the beginning." Ruby said, confused.
"And dumb it down... a lot..." Yang said.
"Okay! Long story short, I fell from the sky and landed in a village somewhere to the west I think. Anyways some older guy with this huge like clockwork scythe thing came after me and kept yelling at me to stop but really you don't swipe a scythe at someone you just wanna talk to so I gave him the slip and I've made it to this city just on gut instinct. Something just told you would be around here." Esmerelda said, curiously poking the food in front of her.
"So you ran into my uncle? Nobody else I know uses a scythe." Ruby asked, unsure of what to think.
Ruby wasn't getting an answer though, as Esmerelda had just started in on the food as if it were a blessing to her.
"Uh. Esmerelda? You don't have to eat like that... we have forks..." Weiss said, sighing as the girl tore viciously into the chunk of meat on her plate.
"Mmmph. Haven't... eaten in... almost a week... mmm..." Esmerelda said, in between bites, relief across her face as she filled the void in her stomach.
"What!? How are you still alive?" Weiss asked incredulously.
Regalia tapped Weiss on the shoulder, getting her attention, and holding up a small notepad with words scrawled across the page.
We don't require as much as normal people do, but eating helps us stay strong too.
"Oh. Of course. Makes sense... I guess." Weiss said, giving Ruby an unsure glance, receiving a half-hearted shrug in response.
"That was soooo good! I've never eaten that before. Last world we were in only had mythical foods. Chimera was an interesting thing to eat. Oh, I forgot to mention some-" Esmerelda was cut off as a table came crashing through the group, slamming into her and sending her sprawling across the room.
A terrifying roar came from the front of the restaurant, and a giant standing at nearly ten feet tall and built purely of muscle came stooping into the room that the girls were sitting in.
A loud crash sounded behind them as Esmerelda came up out of the wreckage of tables and chairs that had been crushed on impact.
"Yea, some of the stuff we've come in contact usually gets dragged into the next world with us. Monsters, people, items... that." She said, pointing towards the giant.
"That explains the little boy from before... I think..." Ruby muttered to herself.
"Uh... so do we kill it or -" Yang was interrupted as a fist slammed against her from the side and sent her flying into the wall, spluttering curses and engaging her Ember Celica.
"Yup, I'm killing it!" She yelled.
Team RWBY and the Obsidi sisters sprung into action, attacking from all sides against the giant who had to fight back hunched over since the ceiling wasn't taller than he was.
"It's weakness is its legs, if it can't move its powerless, we won't get anywhere hitting anything else! Once we down it I can send it back to a world where it can exist properly!" Esmerelda yelled over the fighting.
The giant continued stumbling around the room, scattering tables and chairs everywhere. Customers were running in all directions and the girls were trying to keep them out of harm's way.
"Why is it HERE though?" Weiss yelled to Esmerelda.
"I was trying to kill it when we got sent to this world, it must have grabbed me and I didn't realize it! Once a giant knows your scent its hard to get rid of it, they are very single minded!" Esmerelda answered, stabbing both of her daggers into the back on the giant's left leg, efficiently crippling it.
Augoldra Obsidi had been taking swipes at the giant's hands to keep it occupied, but from the looks of it she was beginning to grow tired, and as she went to stab into his hand again, she missed. The giant hit her full force in the face, slamming her hard, head first into the ground. A look of complete shock stuck to her face, Augoldra rolled several feet before hitting the wall and falling hard to the floor, where she lay, not moving.
Regalia ran to the unconscious girl, checking her over. The room, though, seemed to darken. Esmerelda had watched her little sister get thrown by the giant, and she seemed to have a horrible black aura surrounding her. She tilted her head as if curious as she looked up at the giant, gripping both daggers very loosely as if she were about to drop them. The giant didn't seem phased by her actions, and instead formed a large fist with both hands and brought it down on top of Esmerelda, crushing her from everyone's view. Team RWBY stared at where she had been, shocked, until they realized she wasn't there anymore. Esmerelda hung above the giant, twisting her body into a downeard spiral with both daggers angled down to a point and looked as though she had turned herself into a human drill. The giant took notice to her and looked up, unsure what she was doing as she spun slowly in the air, snd before anyone could react, she bolted straight down cutting directly through the middle of the giant and landing underneath him, her aura fading as she lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground. The giant's body shuddered and fell to the side, dead.
Sighing, Yang ran over to Esmerelda and lifted her bridal style, walking back to the group carefully. Regalia held Augoldra in her arms, sitting on the ground, tears streaking down her face. Weiss kneeled beside them, and looked up at the group, a look of sadness etched onto her face.
"Its bad. Really bad. We need to get them both to hospital and quickly." Weiss said, pulling out her scroll and dialing a number for medical help.
After team RWBY and Regalia got the other two sisters into the hospital, Regalia wrote a note for team RWBY so they would know that she needed to leave for a while to do something. Ruby Rose, however, read the note and decided Regalia shouldn't go alone. Leaving Blake in charge since she seemed to be the most level-headed at the moment, Ruby raced out of the hospital and down the road, catching up to the clinking purple warrior. Regalia eyed her, and decided it wouldn't be worth the time if she argued. Instead she allowed Ruby to join her, only after writing on a note what she faced.
If you follow me, you could die. I'm looking for something extremely dangerous.
Ruby read the note, and nodded, motioning for Regalia to follow her.
"As huntresses-in-training, we do get a few privileges. I'll send Professor Ozpin a message saying we'll be using an airship. I don't think he'll mind." Ruby said, motioning towards a nearby pair of floating ships.
"Just tell the pilot where you need to go, but don't think this means I'm not going." Ruby said, walking up a ramp to sit in the ship.
Stepping off the ramp, Ruby and Regalia made for the forest of Forever Fall. The red trees around them shook with the wind and the eerie silence that lay around them made Ruby feel slightly nervous, but seeing that Regalia had no problems with any of it meant she couldn't have a problem either.
'What kind of leader would I be if I chickened out?' Ruby thought, scanning their surroundings as they walked.
Regalia motioned for Ruby to slow down and keep behind her, and they edged out of from the tree line into a large circular clearing. Ruby didn't understand what she was seeing. A large black tear in the air floated in the center of the clearing, and around it lay sleeping Grimm, ancient monsters that hadn't been fought by humans in countless years. Deathstalkers and Beowolves. Ursi. Two large Nevermore curled up in the back just barely in Ruby's sight. Regalia's weapons clicked off her back and into her hands, and Ruby thought for a second she was going to dive right into the huge amount of Grimm.
Regalia set her lance on the ground and quickly wrote on a notepad, handing it to Ruby and darting off along the tree line before Ruby could object. Looking down at the note, Ruby understood what they needed to do.
We're clearing out the Grimm. Old and slow, but be careful. I'll close portal. Good luck.
Ruby made a mental note to ask Regalia what this was all about, and drew Crescent Rose, rushing out into the clearing to cut down the first pack of Beowolves asleep in front of her. As Ruby spun and cut down the last Beowolf in the pack, a Deathstalker skittered up to her at lightning speed and made a jab at her chest to impale her. The stinger was intercepted by Regalia's shield and Ruby took that advantage, leaping up and slicing the tail straight down the middle, before twisting around and burying her scythe blade into its head. The Deathstalker may have been fast but years of sleeping and no recent combat left its outer shell weaker than normal, having had no reason to remain hardened, it had slowly adapted to its current environment and without meaning to, sealed its own death. Ruby continued to cut down the Grimm in her path, passing by the purple warrior every once in a while to see that she was having no trouble clearing Grimm herself. Regalia had first ran straight for the Nevermore asleep in the back, and killed both of the old monsters quickly. After that it was jabbing and smashing lesser Grimm until she and Ruby had the clearing mostly empty.
Regalia walked up to the black portal, weapon at the ready, and drove her lance straight into the center of it. An earsplitting scream washed over the forest, and Ruby fell to her knees with her hands covering her ears. Regalia was thrown backwards and landed beside Ruby just a giant wave of purple and black fire shot from the portal in all directions. Ruby could feel the insane heat rushing towards her, but was too shocked to do anything. Closing her eyes, she waited for the pain and death to hit her.
But it never came.
Ruby felt a cool breeze wash over her, and opening her eyes she found that her and Regalia were encased in a bubble of wind swirling around them. A man in a hooded red and black jacket and black pants was kneeling in front of both of them. His right arm was encased from the tips of his fingers to his shoulder in a huge metal gauntlet that had expanding sides to form a rectangular shield, and his left hand was covered in a white metal gauntlet with a long red claw protruding from each finger. He stood, reaching forward into the wall of wind and pushing out, the barrier forcing the purple flames back, until he gave a hard shove and the wind wall expanded rapidly, snuffing out the flames around the clearing that was now completely scorched. The portal was gone.
Ruby felt tugging on her sleeve, and looking down saw Regalia laying beside her, hand clutching a note to her chest, terror visible on her face. Slipping the note from her fingers, Ruby read the note and stiffened as she felt the man's presence behind her.
Its Wrath. Run and don't look back. Please.
A/N
The next chapter will be a bigger one than normal, other than that if you have any questions feel free to ask and I welcome any criticism! Can't write better if people don't say anything. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. See ya next chapter!