Broken Branches
Previously in Broken Branches: With Armis returning to Beacon after the encounter with the White Fang, things have returned to normal. Relitively speaking. Practice continues ever onwards and the Vytal Festival approaches.
Nox Eterna: It was not the inherent kinetic energy or force that broke Seraphim's arm. In fact it was her own Aura that broke her arm. From watching RWBY episodes, my (completely debatable) view on Aura is that it can carry momentum. So if you're punched, you may not take physical damage but you will recoil. What I tried to portray Armis doing is using the momentum generated by punching the joint in her arm with six fists and pulling in the opposite direction with his other hands, to force her aura, not to break, but to move, so that it forces her arm into a position where, essentially, her aura breaks her own arm. On the other point on temperature, this could also be true, and its a matter of opinion but again, going off the world of RWBY, Aura seems to protect the user against fire based attacks, such as when Ruby falls into a larva jet. Her aura is depleted, but she is unharmed. Otherwise everyone would use fire dust weapons because they would circumvent Aura. Thanks a lot for the review, it really got me thinking. Try not to judge me too harshly. It's Warhammer 40k and RWBY. Physics kind of goes out the window at this point.
Nemris: Thanks for the advice. The building was completely on fire at that point, so no one entered the building and saw the bodies. But even if say Ozpin found out about Metzger's exploits, (And he probably does) what should he do? If he expelled Armis or tried to capture him and he escapes, what sort of damage could he cause, especially if someone such as Cinder hires him again. Imagine Sangur in the same position. I know he has Nox looking after him, but imagine what would happen if he was unleashed on Vale. Thats my thinking behind Ozpin keeping Armis in Beacon.
'Thoughts'
"Speech"
I do not own either RWBY or Warhammer 40,000. They are each owned by their respective companies. This story is for fun only, no copyright infringements intended.
Days turned to weeks, and the Vytal Festival loomed ever closer. Teams RWBY and JNPR spent most of their days practicing together for the tournament and the rest of the time recovering from trying to beat the reigning champion of the arena. Armis himself. The cloaked man took part in matches from time to time and won every match he fought, despite having no Aura. He seemed to know exactly what his opponent was capable of and no longer made any mistakes, like in previous battles, or underestimate any of the students. He seemed to make each fight appear an equal match, and then win out of nowhere. Like he was testing the students, but couldn't bring himself to look too bad. Ruby's previous fight had been by far the closest the teams had seen to Armis losing, but a few others had come close. Pyrrha was next, followed closely by Yang, Nora and Ren.
Nora had really upped her game recently. After the debacle with Armis' weapons cache, Nora, while sometimes still as childish as always, when it came to something important, in this case the Vytal festival training sessions, she became almost professional. Being the first to lessons, answering questions from teachers, fighting seriously. Although that may seem trivial, it was a humongous change for Nora. And Ren for that matter.
However there were times when Armis didn't show up for the daily arena matches. When he didn't show, it seemed like he had disappeared from the face of the planet. Although most of the students didn't seem to mind, every time Armis didn't attend the training lesson, Ruby and Glynda exchanged knowing glances. He was somewhere in Vale taking the fight to the White Fang. Rumour of the Metzger killer's exploits spread like wildfire and crime had reached an all time low. Very few people now complained about the vigilante supposedly at large, whether this was out of fear or belief in his cause, nobody could tell. Once, Ruby had caught Armis returning to Beacon and tried to interrogate him. That had gone about as well as she could have hoped.
"I was in Vale, Ozpin's orders." Was all he had to say for himself, before taking the elevator alone to Ozpin's office.
To the others, Armis had become a figure of mystery and awe. And of competition. There was a betting pool that had started to see who could beat Armis first. To start with, it had just been a friendly bet. For bragging rights, nothing more. But now it had become something else. Surprisingly, it was Ren who bet Nora a stack of pancakes that she couldn't beat Armis by the time the Vytal festival came around. Nora had taken up this challenge with relish, even more so than normal. Then more bets were flung around the room, when Armis wasn't present of course. Everything from homework assignments and chores to massages and other such favours. Betting with money was frowned upon, but the two wealthiest of the group, Weiss and Pyrrha had wagered a substantial sum against one another.
And so it began. Until everyone had put something into the pool, everyone had something at stake. And so as Armis walked into the arena once more, the room went quiet. He paused as he reached the steps, curious to why everyone was staring at him. Armis was of course, still in his cloak, although he had been wearing his hood down more often recently.
"Is something wrong?" He asked up to the students on the podium.
Everyone looked at one another and whispers ensued between the teams, to Armis' bewilderment. A minute passed and Ruby looked like she was about to speak. But Nora shouted out, beating her to the punch.
"We want to have a marathon fighting session. Battle Royale. With you." She grinned slamming her fists together.
Armis looked at her, cocking his head, and then to Ruby and the rest of the teams. "I am unfamiliar with the term Battle Royale. I assume someone wants to spar with me."
Nora's smile grew larger. "Yeah, someone definitely wants to spar with ya!"
She laid out the rules to Armis, with some help from her teammates when she didn't make much sense. There is only so much sense that can be made from the phrase; "And then when the next person is smashed, I jump in." Essentially, Armis would have to fight each of the students from Team JNPR and RWBY one at a time. If someone was defeated, then another person would enter the arena and fight with Armis. And the process was repeated, until all the students had been beaten, or Armis had been defeated.
Armis nodded his head in understanding and looked around the room, starting to make his way to the centre of the arena.
"So who's first?" He called.
There was a small pause as once again, the teams devolved into a whisper battle. Jaune was the first to step up, or technically speaking, step down into the arena. A round of cheers echoed through the room, which Jaune waved his hands at dismissively.
"Yeah yeah, you all know why I'm first, let's get this over with." He sighed.
Armis smiled at his first victim- *cough cough* opponent. The starting bell rung and the match begun.
"My apologies." Armis spoke as Jaune readied himself, shield in front and sword raised.
"For wha-" Jaune started before Armis jumped forwards and grabbed his shield with two hands and wrenched it out of his grip. "Oh. That's why…"
Armis swung the shield outwards and the flat side of the metal connected full force with Jaune. The blonde haired boy was sent flying out of the arena and into the stands. All of the students scattered, except for Pyrrha, who heroically caught Jaune in her arms, holding him in a bridal position.
"Ow…" Jaune horsely whispered, with half a concussion.
Pyrrha looked down at Jaune and then blushed madly as Yang let out a catcall. She quickly set him against the stairs, her face turning serious. Ren noticed and shook his head.
"Not again." He moaned.
"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked. "May I borrow your shield?"
"What?" Jaune mumbled before shaking his head around and understanding. "Yeah sure."
Armis threw the shield, like a frisbee, straight at Pyrrha, who caught it, drawing her short sword as well. She jumped into the arena and took up a battle stance similar to Jaune's.
The bell rang again, and Pyrrha instantly dropped to one knee, changing her sword into a rifle and holding Jaune's shield up, so to rest her gun on top of it. Armis was in motion the moment she opened fire. Bullets bounced and ricocheted around him, but nothing seemed to pierce that flowing cloak. Armis himself opened fire from within the darkness that surrounded him, multiple flashes and explosions lighting up the arena. Bullets slammed into the shield one after the other and Pyrrha dug her heels in, forced back an inch by the sheer weight of incoming projectiles. As the barrage ended, Pyrrha switched her rifle back into a sword and charged. Armis stopped moving and dug out another pistol. Pyrrha mistook it for a piece of his usual weaponry and acted accordingly holding her shield high.
The pistol was larger than his usual bolt pistols and was similar in design to the plasma gun. A large radiator-like block ran along the top of the gun. Except instead of being integrated into the main weapon, this one seemed to be bolted to the top of the pistol. A thick wire sprouted from the back and coiled downwards, linking to the weapons trigger mechanism. A revolving cylinder hung beneath the gun, similar to that of a revolver.
Armis pulled the trigger, sending the cylinder spinning, and a huge bolt of blue lightning shooting out from the barrel. The lightning bolt instantly crossed the distance between the two combatants and struck the shield. Arcs of electricity flowed through the metal conductor and electrified Pyrrha, who let out a high-pitched wail, her body spasming and twitching. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell backwards, unconscious.
Mouths open wide, the crowd were once again stunned. This wasn't like previous fights, Armis wasn't messing around. The Aura board read only a slight dip into the orange for Pyrrha. She had been knocked unconscious without her aura breaking.
"What the hell is that?" Ruby shouted, half in concern for Pyrrha, half in awe of this new technology Armis wielded.
Armis turned the gun on its side, displaying it to the crowd.
"Arc pistol." He simply said, before stowing it away again. "Who's next?"
One after another students were knocked out of the fight. Usually Armis won from arena knock-outs. Such was the fate of Yang, Ren and Weiss. All three made use of fast charging attacks and Armis simply lead them around, made them over extend and then knocked them out of the ring. Ruby perhaps lasted a small bit longer, but the result was the same. To Armis' disappointment, her killing intent wasn't there anymore. She was nervous and second guessing herself after seeing her companions so easily defeated. He simply caught her scythe mid-swing and picked her up. Multiple arms immobilising her arms and legs, stopping her from escaping, he threw her out of the arena.
Nora and Blake were bested by Aura depletion. Nora lasted a few minutes, but didn't land a single hit with Magnhild. Her grenade launcher knocked her opponent around a bit, but it was purely concussive, no shrapnel. The match was decided when Armis took out the arc pistol again and Nora, grinning from ear to ear, opened her arms wide and stuck her chest out. Her semblance was to absorb electrical attacks and hit back all the harder for it. However instead, Armis refrained from pulling the trigger and unleashed a shotgun blast that was concealed within the folds of his cloak. The huge shell exited the gun barrel and exploded mid air, sending thousands of tiny micro darts out into the air in a wide spread pattern. The moment one of the darts struck Nora, the remaining darts all changed direction and homed in on the ginger haired girl, carpet bombing her aura with uncountable, high velocity micro darts. Nora was forced backwards, but remained standing. Her aura however, had hovered slightly into the red and signaled her loss.
As Nora reluctantly returned to the arena stands, Armis pulled out the offending shotgun and exposed the expended barrel. A single large, empty shell casing shot out and clattered to the floor. He looked up at Ruby and preemptively answered the obvious question.
"Flechette shotgun." He said, inserting a fresh shell into the gun and cocking it back into place. "Next."
Blake was his final opponent. The entire audience was focused on the fight. This was the last chance for them to see Armis defeated and they were confident in their friend. Blake however, was as nervous as Ruby had been and for good reason. Armis had dealt with each and every one of them without breaking a sweat, predicting their moves and instantly moving to counter them. He waited now in the centre of the arena, waiting.
"I don't have much of a chance here do I?" Blake spoke up, hearing Armis chuckle in response.
"How about you find out?"
Blake ran forward and slashed at Armis with the Gambol Shroud. Armis ducked and fell back to the edge of the arena. Blake realized that this was the same tactic he had used on Yang. He would wait for her to lunge and then push her out of the ring. So Blake did just that. She jumped at him swinging her black cleaver as she went. Just as before, he ducked underneath her attack, but moved forward, underneath Blake and punching upwards with four fists, sent her out of the arena. But as Blake fell, she whipped the Gambol Shroud back into the arena. The blade split and the pistol bayonet, with a long attached ribbon uncoiling around Blake's wrist, dug into the far side of the arena and wedged itself there. But Armis had again predicted this and as the black length of ribbon snapped taut, bringing her back into the arena, Armis reached out and grabbed the ribbon. Instead of cutting the ribbon however and securing an easy knock out, he pulled hard; sending Blake careening out of control and straight into Armis' outstretched arm, close lining her. She collapsed to the floor, but before she could recover, she felt a hard boot crush down against the aura protecting her face. Armis slammed his foot down, quite brutally, again and again down onto Blake's head. Blake panicked as she heard the bell toll, telling her that her aura had gone into the red, yet Armis' boot continued to descend. She shut her eyes and a split second later, heard a crunching noise. She reopened her eyes, she saw a boot dangerously close to her face and several small cracks along the concrete.
"Awwwww come on!" Nora roared in anguish. "That's no fair!"
"Calm down Nora, he won the fights fair and square." Ren chastised.
"But still! All of us?" Nora pouted.
"Don't be so disappointed in yourselves. You all are accomplished warriors. I simply have more experience than you." Armis chimed in, reaching out with one hand to pull Blake up, which she gratefully accepted. "I doubt all of you combined could beat me in a fight."
A few indignant looks went across the room and one indignant snort, courtesy of Weiss. Blake looked a little incensed as she got up from the floor and unconsciously her eyes became vertical slits for a fraction of a second. Enough time for Armis to notice. His eyes widened and he let go of Blake's hand, almost causing her to fall to the floor again. He wiped his hand on his cloak in disgust.
"Abhuman..." He whispered, but not low enough for Blake to miss.
She stood to her full height and crossed her arms, she was about to retort, but shouts from the crowd interrupted her.
"What do you mean all of us couldn't beat you?" Pyrrha argued. "You're beginning to sound like Cardin. A pompous ass."
Armis raised his eyebrows at that. "I am merely stating fact. I may sometimes underestimate my opponents, but I've seen all of you in combat and I never overestimate myself."
"How about you prove it?" Jaune spoke up, gaining confidence as his friends all nodded.
The cloak surrounding Armis moved and shifted. The teams had seen Armis enough that they knew he was crossing his arms. A pair of them at least. Maybe more.
"I have nothing to gain from such a fight. And neither do you. I apologise if I have offended you."
Yang smirked and smashed Ember Celica together. "How about we have a little bet then."
Knowing smiles spread across the students.
"A wager?" Armis asked. "Very well. I'm listening."
"If we can either knock you out of the ring, knock you unconscious or get you to surrender…"
Armis snorted at the word, 'surrender.'
"You have to give us your cloak."
Armis turned to who had said that. Ruby apparently. She had her arms crossed as well. The red caped girl blurred up to her sister and held out her hand.
"For all of the festival." She finished, with Yang slapping her hand.
Armis was actually quite horrified. He loved his cloak. And Ruby knew that, yet still asked for it. How very, very cruel.
'How very, very familiar.' Armis thought. "And what do I get if I win?" He countered.
Ruby frowned. "Errrrrr…."
"What do you want?" Weiss asked, helping her team leader.
Armis contemplated that question. There was nothing he really needed or wanted at the moment.
'Perhaps a favor? To be redeemed in the unforeseeable future? Two teams of hunters in his debt was certainly appealing.' Armis thought. 'No. Definitely not. I am not the Inquisitor.'
A dozen seconds went by of silent debate in Armis' head. And then it struck him.
"What is a date?"
The question came out of nowhere and surprised the assembled teams.
"What? As in the day?" Blake asked, confused.
"No. I've heard the word being used out of context constantly in the academy and in Vale. It has begun to annoy me, not knowing what it is." He pointed at Jaune. "You used it in the same way." Armis then pointed at Weiss. "To her."
A collective 'ooooh' echoed around the room, as everyone realized what Armis was talking about. Jaune quickly spoke up. This, apparently, was his field of expertise.
"A date is where you ask a girl to meet you at a location and then you spend time together doing something you both like. If you both enjoyed the date then you would go on another one, another time."
Ren sighed and shook his head. "A bit too quick on the draw there, Jaune."
Wiess slapped him across the back of the head. "That's so sad. And your so stupid!"
"Ow! What?"
"You just gave him information we could have used against him! For free!" Weiss scolded.
Armis chuckled again. 'Again! Damn, what was wrong with him?'
"In that case…" Armis started. "If I am able to beat all of you. Again…"
"Get to the point!" Nora shouted. "I want to smash you!"
"I get everything in the betting pool."
Everyone froze. Yang and Ruby's mouths opened and closed like a fish. Jaune and Pyrrha coughed in surprise. Ren and Nora stuttered trying to come up with an excuse. Blake simply sighed.
"How did you-" Weiss started, but stopped as she looked at Armis' raised brow and knowing look. "Right. Your you. Nevermind."
"And I get to take one of you on a 'date.'" Armis added.
"WHAT!?" Shouted all but one of the girls.
"Wait a second…" Stuttered Jaune and Ren.
Ruby didn't say anything, but after looking around at her teammates, she let out an unconvincing; "Whaaaaa?"
"Do we have a deal?" Armis pushed.
More indignant looks, harsh words and a not-so-quiet two minute long whisper fight later…
Yang approached Armis.
"You give us your cloak for the entire Vytal festival, you do all of our cleaning for the same amount of time and!" Yang raised her hand into the air and then posed, pointing her finger at Armis' face. "You tell us exactly what you have been doing on your little trips to Vale and Ozpin's office."
"Deal."
Ozpin and Glynda were up in the clock tower watching the training session from the beginning. They were very much impressed with Armis' display of fighting prowess. But now they were more interested in what Armis was doing surrounded by both of the teams. They had been discussing something and then Armis had left. Ozpin and Glynda couldn't make out what exactly had been said, but now they had some idea of what was going on. Armis had done something to anger all of the students and now that he had returned, they were surrounding him in the middle of the arena weapons drawn. Armis was revealing each and every one of his arms, with some form of gun or sharp object held in each hand, like some kind of twelve-limbed spider. Glynda reached to draw her whip and begun to leave.
"I'll go down there to break it up." She said.
"No wait." Ozpin replied, stopping her. "Let's see how this plays out."
There was a tense silence in the arena classroom as the room's occupants waited for the starting bell.
"Fair warning." Armis said. "I really like this cloak. I am going to be fighting seriously from here on out."
"You weren't before?" Jaune asked.
"No. Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
"Yes." Came a short answer from Nora.
"Alright then. But let it be known. I gave you all a way out of this."
The various hunters in training shifted their footing and relaxed and gripped their weapons constantly. Armis' weapons each moved in accordance to his opponents positions.
The bell rung and Nora and Yang charged at Armis. Followed by Weiss and Jaune. Armis dodged Yang's punch and jumped, flipping over and landing a flying overhead kick to the top of Yang's head. Yang fell flat to the floor and Armis balanced upon her head with one foot. He jumped again over Nora's hammer that was streaking down towards him and kicked the back of the hammer, causing it to crash down on Yang's back. With a suitable vantage point atop a tower built from Yang's body and Nora's hammer, Armis opened fire upon Weiss. With little to no protection other than Aura, the ice queen took a bolt round to the forehead, that detonated and sent her flipping back. Jaune approached from behind Nora, as the girl in question babbled her apologises to a moaning Yang. The cloaked man leapt down from the hammer and kicked Nora in the face as he went. Jaune held his shield high to protect himself and Armis landed atop of it, forcing the boy down, until he was almost kneeling. Armis saw Ruby blurring forwards to help her friend, and opened fire with a pair of stub carbines. Several pinged uselessly off Ruby's aura, as she swung the Cresent Rose horizontally, so not to hit Jaune. The red scythe cut the air, but Armis launched himself backwards, using Jaune's shield as a springboard.
Pyrrha extended her sword to its full length and duelled with Armis, who had pulled out combat knives. Behind him, Ren shot dozens of rounds at him with his pair of sub machine guns. Armis didn't move and the bullets impacted into his back, but they only bounced off in small flashes of light.
"He's got that light shield!" Ren warned his teammates. "Only use light attacks."
Ren and Blake struck against Armis' back, with bladed SMG and black cleaver, but Armis turned to the side, two more knives moving to intercept and counter. Ruby and Jaune picked up Weiss and they too joined the combat adding their attacks to the team's efforts to hit Armis. The cloaked man was now surrounded, his body twisting and head darting from side to side, arms whirling around to block, parry and deflect all threats. Armis was smiling manically. Here was another challenge. Him vs everyone else. Him against the sea of enemies.
Jaune drew first blood, a stabbing thrust against one of his arms. Armis compensated by punching Jaune back, right in the face, knocking him out of the circle.
Jaune skidded on his back but was able to call out; "His shields not on! Nora! Bring the hammer down."
Yang picked up Nora and threw her into the air above the combat.
"Yes sir!" She shouted, saluting, before she came crashing down towards Armis, hammer raised.
Armis, of course, heard this exchange and saw her coming. But surrounded by the other students, he had very few options. Armis' timed each of his blades and pushed back against his foe's strikes, causing each to recoil, giving him a precious second to act. He dropped four of his weapons and pulled out Honesty, Humility, Disappointment and Death, his four bolt pistols and span around placing a bolt into Blake, Weiss, Pyrrha and Ren. He put two into Ruby, just to be sure. The students surrounding Armis were all knocked away from him, but there was too little time to dodge the incoming Nora. Armis dropped all of his weapons, sending them clattering to the floor in a circle around him and raising all twelve hands in an attempt to stop Nora's hammer. Magnhild impacted against the overlapping hands and Armis let out a roar of pain as he felt three of his arm bones break and several of his fingers snap. His metal talons had taken the brunt of the force, and even they were now bent out of shape. But he had successfully halted the impact and survived. Armis however, didn't expect Nora to land back on the floor and swing at him again from the side, smashing him away and to the edge of the arena.
Armis stood up, but was instantly confronted by Ruby, who sprinted at him, aiming to knock him out of the arena. Armis reached out and grabbed hold of the scythe she held and they became locked in a struggle to push the other back. Armis had no weapons, he was tired, several of his bones were broken and it galled him, but he was losing this struggle. Inch by inch he felt himself skidding further and further back.
"Which girl were you going to ask on a date?"
The whisper shocked Armos and he blinked several times before realising that he was no longer being being forced back. Ruby and him were still pushing against each other, and the teams were cheering her on, but he remained in the same position. He looked into Ruby's eyes. They were dead serious.
"Ruby Rose." He replied in an uncertain whisper.
The girl blushed and loosened her grip on her weapon.
"Throw me over you."
"Wha-"
"Throw me over you dammit!" She whisper shouted.
Armis did as he was told and he felt Ruby purposefully jump with him, sending her out of the arena.
"Awwwww!" Ruby faked, rather convincingly actually.
Armis turned to look at her and gave her a whispered piece of advice.
"Cover your ears."
He turned to the disappointed, but nevertheless advancing students.
"Last chance. Surrendering now will save you a great deal of pain in the near future." Armis warned once again, arms broken and bleeding, weaponless and seemingly defeated.
Nora laughed. "Oh no! Your not getting out of this. Your bluffing."
Yang, still slightly groggy from the impact of Nora's hammer, smirked as well. "It's payback time."
The group seemed to agree. This was it. All thoughts of individual gain had been cast aside. This was the moment that the two teams heroically came together to beat a greater evil. They charged forwards as one, ready to force Armis out of the arena with their own bodies of need be.
Armis had nowhere to go. He was trapped at the edge of the arena. He braced himself, putting two hands over his head and shutting his eyes closed. Ruby noticed that, once again, Armis seemed to have a plan. His hands were covering his ears, and his eyes were screwed shut, not in defeat, but in preparation for something.
"I never bluff." Armis said, pulling out a spherical object from his cloak and held it to his chest, hands clasping over the smooth red metal surface.
The red object was actually the domed headpiece of some kind of robot. Several blue lenses of various sizes dotted the supposed front of the device. Pipes and wires uncountable linked and weaved under the half circle of a head. A large silver antenna pole was attached to the side, horizontally and Armis flipped it vertical and pulled out a detonator from the mess of wires. Ruby instantly followed Armis' advice and slapped her hands over her ears so fast that a line of rose petals materialised around her.
"And no one gets to take my cloak." Armis finished, flipping open the detonator catch and thumbing the red button underneath.
A millisecond went by with nothing happening. The students grew ever closer to Armis and then an unbearably high pitched screech cut through the air. And all the biological sensory systems in Yang, Ren, Nora, Jaune, Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha's bodies suddenly shut down. Every sense they had burned, every nerve was touched and overloaded by the disruptive wavelengths Armis' device produced. They were robbed of their sight, eyes becoming red and bloodshot, tears pouring down their faces. Their ears rang and screamed, the pain spreading into a mind-numbing clawing at their brain. Their mouths burnt as though they were filled with hot coals, just as their throats were set afire and oxygen seemed to only stoke those flames.
A howling feedback of static filled Ozpin's office in the clock tower.
"What is going on?" She tried to shout over the noise, covering her ears.
Ozpin didn't answer and was trying to fix the screen that had once been viewing the arena classroom. It showed only a craze of fizzing black and white.
"What the hell is going on!?" Ozpin unknowingly repeated.
Ruby, being forewarned and further away was affected to a much lesser degree. Her eyes still teared up and her ears still rang, but she could see well enough to witness what Armis did next. He gently placed the device down, completely unaffected by the barrage of white noise the thing produced. The students before him were all being brought to their knees, wiping their eyes, clawing at their ears or clutching their throats.
Armis clicked all of his fingers at the same time and focused them all on his chest. His fingers curled into claws and he seemed to be holding an invisible ball that was constantly fighting against him. Ruby felt a scratching in her head, a gnawing at her mind and she had the gut feeling that something just wasn't right. Ruby blinked. And the moment her eyes opened, she could suddenly see a strange aura surrounding Armis. It flowed off him like a wave. A Red, Green, Pink and Blue wave of flowing, fluctuating energy. It gathered in a swirling vortex of distorted reality in Armis' many hands. A huge burst of energy flew forwards as Armis shouted in effort and threw his arms out towards the struggling huntsmen and women-in-training. A four coloured wave pushed towards like a tidal wave, picking up those in front of him and sending them spiralling through the air and out of the arena.
There were pained gasps and moans from the other side of the room as all the students, bar Ruby, recovered. Armis was breathing heavily and all his arms hung at his sides loosely.
"What happened?" Blake coughed.
"It feels like there's a drill in both of my ears." Jaune moaned, clutching his head.
"And their meeting in the middle." Ren agreed, through gritted teeth.
Armis reached down and picked up the deactivated red helmet and returned it to its place within his cloak.
"I won." He said.
Yang got up and almost looked like she would jump back in the arena and strangle Armis.
"That was so cheating!" She shouted at him.
"How so? I was unaware of any weapon restrictions."
"Because... Because..." Yang tried.
"I have bested all of you and therefore fulfilled the deal. In all honesty, I don't very much care for the items within your small betting pool." Armis paused and then looked at Ren. "Although I wouldn't mind finding out what pancakes are."
"You don't know what pancakes are!?" Ruby and Nora screamed and then regretted it when all their ears screamed in protest, along with everyone else in the room except Armis.
"How were you not effected by... Whatever it was?" Weiss asked.
Armis pointed to a spot just above his ear.
"I have a machine in my head that nullifies the sound of the neurostatic bombardment this thing produces."
"So who's the lucky girl?" Ruby asked, twiddling her thumbs.
"Or unlucky girl..." Weiss mumbled under her breath.
Armis raised an eyebrow to that, but ignored it.
"You, Ruby." He answered the now blushing girl.
"No." Yang instantly said.
"Are you going back on our deal?" Armis said coldly, turning to Yang.
"No... But... I mean yes. I mean..." Yang stuttered, steam seemed to be coming from her head. "Dammit..." She finished meekly.
Armis turned back to Ruby.
"Although this was part of the deal, I cannot force it upon you. You may refuse if you wish." Armis said to Ruby, bowing his head slightly.
All heads turned to the nervous girl in red. She was smiling from ear to ear. But she quickly blushed even more, at the attention she was getting. and began circling her index fingers again.
"No, it's ok. I'll go on a date with you."
"Wonderful." Weiss pouted sarcastically.
"This can't be happening!" Yang groaned, rocking her head back and forth. "This isn't happening!"
Ren and Jaune gave each other a look and shrugged their shoulders.
'Crisis averted.' They both thought.
"Good luck Ruby!" Nora cheered.
"I will require some time to recover from these wounds," Armis spoke. "Shall meet you outside your dorm room tomorrow?"
"That would be good." Ruby nodded.
Armis chuckled as he remembered something. "Banzai?"
Ruby laughed back and raised her fist in the air.
"Banzai!"
Yang promptly fainted.
Armis has won the bet, and now gets to claim, to some, the greatist prize of all! Pancakes. Oh and a date with Ruby. Now all he has to do is pick a location. But are we sure he fully understands the exact significance a first date has with a girl? And what has he been doing under 'Ozpin's orders?'
I hope this fight scene didn't seem to drag on for too long. I was planning on having Armis end the fight immediately by dropping the neurostatic bombardment immediately, but it just developed into a longer and longer fight scene. Opinions?
Edit: Thanks so much to Nemris for drawing up Armis Zwolf in such a short amount of time. The picture is now the cover image of this story and is also on his deviant art page. I seriously recommend checking his artworl out as well as reading his Warhammer 40k x RWBY crossover: Chaos is the Prize.
Reviews and criticism is welcome.
Signed by Imperial Decree
BluePanedGasMask
