Chapter 8


I touched the crown on my head. Something I will have to get used to for now. Thinking back to the old man's words, I imagined the portal that led us out. Something that would bring me back to Vytal. I could just walk towards the area again, but I needed this practice.

With a small flash, a ring of black and white appeared in front of me and spread, opening a portal back to alley in Vytal. Something was off.

I could smell it in the air. Not smell, I had no real sense of smell or taste anymore. The number of souls had increased. not just the weak ones from the normal people, there were more strong souls too. More like hunters.

Hoping that I hadn't wasted too much time here, I stepped through, and was greeted by the sound of screams.

I saw one of the hunters from before. A blond man, lying on the ground, holding two swords in front of him like a scissor, locked into a battle of strength with a masked man. A mask that I had been very familiar with by now.

The White Fang.

The gloves that clashed with the swords kept releasing steam every time they inched towards the hunter's throat.

I had to act. Grabbing my sword, I rushed forward, my knee smashing into the man's face. He rolled away, his aura flashing.

"Ms. Nikos," the blonde hunter said, standing up. "Thank you."

I couldn't have been gone for longer than half an hour.

"What happened?" I asked, holding my weapon in front of me.

He shook his head. "Since that attack two weeks ago," he said. I swallowed, it really hadn't been that much time. "The White Fang has grown cocky, but to attack Vytal of all places…"

The bulky member of said group didn't seem inclined to let us continue our conversation and roared, swinging his fist as he moved towards us.

"I can take him," the hunter said as he stepped in front of me, blocking the attack. "Please, take care of the others, we need to evacuate the civilians, the Grimm will use this to their advantage."

I nodded, turning around to run towards the screaming. Civilians left and right were running out of their homes as smoke bombs smashed through windows, Faunus terrorists cheering as they rounded them up.

"Hey!" I shouted. They turned towards me. "Pick a fight with someone who can take it!"

One of them stepped forward, spreading his arms as if inviting me to challenge him.

"Come on, kid, I can take you on my own," he said.

Maybe he didn't know who I was, or maybe he knew and didn't care.

My grip around my weapon clenched. I wish I had my shield, but the broken pieces of scrap metal couldn't just be repaired without the money or material I didn't have. As he came closer, I could feel the pull of souls. His was weak.

I spun on my left heel as he swung his fist towards my head, dodging the attack. It missed my face by a hair's width. Smashing my elbow into his gut made him keel over. The next hit came from the hilt of my sword, right at the back of his head. Aura spluttered and he fell unconscious.

"Weak," I said, glaring at the men and women in front of me. They stepped forward together this time, all five of them. Using my head, I tried to point the civilians away from the fighting. Luckily, they didn't need me to tell them twice and sneaked away as the White Fang was busy with me.

I don't think I could take them all at once where I was right now, but I had one advantage, something they didn't have.

When two of them stepped forward, using knives, I didn't dodge. Instead, I let them stab me. When they did, grinning, laughing as their success, I dropped my sword and grabbed their heads, smashing them together. They fell over, letting go of their knives.

I pulled them out of my chest, embers dripping from the wounds as they healed.

The two men scrambled away in fear, and I could see the others were unnerved by the display as well. Taking advantage of the situation, I reached out to my sword with my Semblance, sending it towards one of them, aiming for the leg. It didn't penetrate through his shield, but succeeded in knocking him down. The two scrambling men fled.

Two down, three to go.

"Cowards!" one of the women shouted. She pulled out a gun, aiming it at me. I nudged her aim away from me, towards the other woman who was attempting to attack from the flank. When she fired, the other woman dodged, out of balance but unhurt.

I rolled forward before she could recover, slamming the knives into the dropped man's clothes to pin him down before picking up my sword. The woman corrected her aim this time, and I lifted my weapon to block the bullet.

Not fast enough. The bullet tore through my shoulder, skin and sinew coming together almost as quickly as they came apart. I could feel my strength seeping out of my muscles, but I had a while before I reached the threshold of falling apart. The second woman, the one that the gunner had shot at, grabbed me.

The pinned man freed himself with sheer strength, and slammed his fist into my stomach. No aura, no shield, just pain. A small blessing that his fists did nothing to increase the feeling of weakness though.

"Hold her down," the gun-woman ordered. The other two obeyed, and she aimed her pistol right between my eyes. I was vaguely aware that it wouldn't have hurt me anyway, but I the idea of allowing her to keep shooting at me to figure out my new threshold did not appeal.

Instead, I used my Semblance, throwing off her aim fast enough that the bullet pierced the man's shoulder in my place. He screamed, his grip slackening and I freed my wrist, twisting his arm and throwing him at the gunner.

Dodging a swipe by the other woman's hand, I used my leg to sweep her legs out from under her and followed up with a sharp kick to her head. She looked out of it, but not quite unconscious. The man was lying on the woman, keeping them both down as he struggled to regain his bearing.

I attacked before she could muster the strength to push him away, knocking the man out before pushing my blade against her neck.

She squeaked, letting go of the gun.

It wasn't blood that I heard rushing in my ears. This one, compared to the others, was stronger. Not quite on the level of the hunters that had arrested Roman, but still strong.

And I could feel it. The pull on her souls. Her aura. I could feel my hands trying to tap into her power, trying to make me stronger. I let them.

"Don't hurt me!" she shouted.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I said, my hand gripping her forehead. "I'm just going to make sure you'll never hurt anyone again."

I pulled. The woman screamed, her mask clattering to the ground as my grip loosened it and I could see the fear in her eyes. I felt… whole. Sated. The pull stopped and the woman was whimpering on the ground. I could no longer feel any aura from her.

I… had I just done that? I could feel the power growing inside me, the souls I had taken from her, the power of that aura. It reminded me of Amber and how she lost half her powers to Cinder.

I felt sick. The woman was sobbing, and I didn't want to feel guilty about removing a dangerous person's ability to hurt others.

No, it didn't matter. I had to continue, and the urge to pull out the power from the other two was not there, their souls too weak. When I moved forward, towards the hunter's base of operations, near the wall, I found Ametrine and the green haired man finishing up a bunch of enemies.

And behind them, through the blown open gates, were the Grimm.

They didn't even look at me as they rushed out, about to fight them off. And I didn't call out to them. There must be other civilians around, those White Fang members couldn't have been the last of them.

"Well," I heard someone speak. Turning around, I found the two members that had ran away with a lean man, his hands on a large sword about his size. "I expected more from someone who took down my boys."

The man was dressed slightly differently, and his mask had a more elaborate design. His black hair was done in a ponytail, flowing down his back.

"I expected more from people who demand equality," I said. "Were the hundreds of people you took in Vale not enough already?"

He grinned, his teeth visibly shining. "Scram."

The two men that led him here ran away again, and he held his sword in two hands.

"Come."

I couldn't reach out to the sword with my aura, so my Semblance would be useless here. Something about him was different, I could feel nothing about him, not unlike a Grimm. When he slowly moved forward, step after step, I grew worried.

A sword like this without the strength of an aura? Impossible. He was dangerous.

I kept my sword up, not moving from the spot. When he was three meters away at most, I jumped backwards. An electric feeling ran up my spine as he came closer. His aura was massive, maybe as strong as the experienced hunters fighting the Grimm off behind me.

"So you can feel it," he said, his grin still splitting his face. "My territory. You can't sneak up on me, and you can't feel me outside of it."

"You're quite open about your power," I said, narrowing my eyes.

"Of course," he said. "I'm quite proud of it. The absolute field cannot be beaten."

"So you say," I said. When he came closer again, I ran towards a building, jumping towards it and using it to jump behind him. When I came close, about to attack, his sword was already there to meet me.

He was quick, but he couldn't stop attacks from two directions. I dropped my sword, crouching low and letting his swing go over my head. My fist smashed into his chest, a futile attempt. It wasn't to actually hurt him though.

The sword I had dropped cut into his leg. I didn't expect to actually draw blood, nor did he expect to be hurt. When he flinched, I moved away. He had no shield.

That must be the tradeoff for that 'absolute' field of his. He couldn't react to two attacks, and my element of surprise was gone now. Instead of waiting for me to make a move, he attacked, the sword slamming into mine.

My arms stung, shaking as the force of the blow forced me to take several steps back.

"Cavalry's here," I heard someone behind me say. The White Fang leader's sword swung to block a bullet, giving me enough time to recover from the force of the blow. The blonde haired hunter from before was there, holding the gun of the defeated White Fang woman.

"Thanks," I said. He aimed again, firing multiple times. Forcing the White Fang leader to block each attempt and giving me some breathing room.

"Don't worry about it, let's take this guy down, the town's been evacuated."

I nodded.

The man wasn't grinning anymore.

"What's your name?" I asked the blonde man.

"Giallo," he said. He dropped the gun, pulling out his two swords from before.

"Pyrrha."

The White Fang leader all but roared, his leg still bleeding. He swung his sword at my neck, and then quickly used the momentum to spin like a wheel, lowering his swing as I ducked and slammed into my sword once more. Giallo attacked from above, kicking the man out of his spin before smashing his twin swords against the next swing.

Picking up the gun, I aimed at the man's legs again, not inclined to aim at a more lethal spot and fired. It hit, wounding him. Instead of flinching, he just pressed forward much stronger, knocking Giallo away and stabbing forward. Giallo groaned in pain, his aura protecting him from the lethal attack.

Not letting up, he stabbed again, and I fired the gun once more. The bullet was cut in half as the stab turned into a swing into my direction.

My grip on the gun tightened, and I stepped forward, blocking his swing with my sword and smashing the gun at his head. It bled, and it must have hurt, but the man was relentless, repeating his spin from before to knock me away and prevent Giallo from sneaking up behind him.

I kicked his wound when his spin stopped, his leg collapsing from under him. On his knees, I could attack his head easier this time, smashing my sword's hilt into his forehead. This time, he looked out of it, and Giallo stabbed him through the shoulders, knocking him over.

I felt weak, my arms hurt, my chest was burning. When my hand grabbed the White Fang leader's head, I couldn't stop myself.

I felt disgusted. I felt eager.

"Whew." Giallo sighed. "This guy was way more annoying than the other one, what are you doing?"

I was already done, the man on the ground could make no sound as his face was pressed into the ground.

"Just… just making sure he won't wake up for now," I said. Giallo nodded, apparently not noticing what had happened even as the strange field around us vanished. He couldn't see the souls.

I sighed. I would need to visit the old man in a while more. The green haired hunter and Ametrine finished the Grimm outside.

I sat down, holding my chest as the burning feeling subsided. What exactly had I become? And why was it so hard for me to feel bothered by it?