Mistakes

Chapter 9: Enter the Dragon

R&D Branch Building, White Fang HQ, Vale

Bubbles floated from the re-breather mask that funneled oxygen into his lungs. His eyes were closed as he was suspended in the tank of bactam, but the calm and sleeping visage of the komodo dragon Faunus suddenly began to twitch.

The moon hung high in the air as the clouds wafted lazily through the starry sky. It was a beautiful sight for any that gazed upon it.

"GRAH!"

The bestial roar of the reptilian Faunus cut through the air and the gurgling scream of the human hunter that dared to stand in his path was like music to ears as he watched the young woman clutch at her throat, blood flowing from the large gash in her throat. Said blood also dripped onto the dark blades of grass beneath his feet, staining the earth crimson.

His vertical pupils lengthened and dilated slightly, his toothy grin threatening to split his face as he watched the life leave the huntress's eyes. While the denizens of the world who lived within the walls of the four kingdoms slept in the safety of their beds, they were all practically unaware of the war that waged within the darkest corners of the continents.

Ever since Adam had taken a more forceful stand against the scourge of humanity, the war had escalated in its intensity. His work for the White Fang had not gone unnoticed and so, for his passion and loyalty to the cause...he had earned the rank of General. Trained in the art of war, the komodo dragon Faunus was now a capable strategist and so he was allowed to lead his own squadron across the grassy plains outside of the Emerald Forest. However, to preserve the pseudo-peace that existed, those very same humans that he sought to kill had done their very best to keep these sorts of battles in the dark. The Creatures of Grimm thrived across the remnants of negative emotion that wafted through the atmosphere after their battles, and this one would be no different.

The recovering warrior's eyes clenched tightly as the memory continued to plague his mind, more bubbles spewing from his face mask.

The sounds of combat echoed across the battleground as his brethren fought for the supremacy they so desperately wished to portray. His golden eyes glowed with lust for both battle and blood as many a human tried to best him.

Fingers twitched.

Hardened steel created sparks as they bounced off of his scale covered arms.

Hands clenched into tight fists.

The garbled screams that came with their throats being crushed beneath his heel filled his soul with joy. The snap of the neck currently held in his grasp brought forth a grin that threatens to split his face his half. He tossed the corpse through the air like a rag doll with her limbs flailing, and the sickening sound of her skull breaking from the impact with the nearby tree followed soon after.

Hiwever, his violence induced ecstasy was replaced with a feeling of rage as he heard the cries of his own brethren meeting his ears. The sound of steel against bone, blade slicing through flesh and the final gasps that escaped their throats before death claimed them had the Komodo dragon Faunus snarling.

His golden eyes glowed and he held his claws at the ready as the two humans emerged from the darkness. Gold and silver auras flared around the two boys and while he was inclined to make a snarky comment regarding their ages, the two teenagers before him were obviously not any ordinary humans.

Blood dripped onto the grass from the twin blades held in the younger boy's hands while the crimson life liquid caked the knuckles of the older hunter's ebony gauntlets. It was not just their weapons, but a vast majority of their body surface area was covered in blood and it only enhanced the intimidating images the two brothers possessed.

"How dare you kill my brethren!"

The boys were silent, staring unblinkingly at the General. The General took their silence as a show of fear, chuckling darkly as he revealed his own blood-stained weapons. His claws glinted in the moonlight as he dropped down onto all-fours and bared his sharp teeth.

"Any last words, humans?"

The two brown skinned huntsmen didn't seem to register the Faunus General's words. The crackle of static met his ears and the Komodo dragon Faunus tilted his head in confusion as the boys just nodded, a slight shift of their eyes t their ears showing they had been spoken to through the communicators in their ears. They bent their knees and raised their weapons as they assumed battle positions.

"Understood, General Ironwood." The glasses-wearer of the duo stated. "Target: General Mushu of the White Fang. Danger assessment at S-Class. Orders are move to kill."

"Kill me?!" Mushu laughed loudly, his laughter only increasing as the teenage huntsmen blurred forward as streaks of gold and silver. They circled around him and dug their heels into the dirt, carving arc shaped trenches from the friction. A sword cloaked in silver aura and a gauntlet covered fist that burned with golden aura both lashed out to deliver fatal strikes to the reptilian Faunus's body.

Mushu's golden eyes was capable of keeping up with the two young hunters, thus he reacted, turning his body and crossing his arms so that his left palm blocked Byron's punch while his right claws created a series of sparks as they collided with Kiran's sword. The force of the collisions was astounding as the shockwave generated by the impacts was enough to cause the thick oak trees to creak as they bent and lances of gold and silver light tore the earth asunder as the concentrated bursts of aura from the students of Ozpin were repelled.

"Hmmm." The komodo dragon Faunus licked his lips in anticipation as he surveyed the destruction surrounding the three of them. "You might actually be entertaining."

"You won't be so entertained when you're dead." Byron stated.

Mushu's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "You think your measly weapons can penetrate my scales and counter my claws?!"

"We don't think so, General Mushu." The curly haired teen replied as his golden aura sprung to life with an even greater intensity, the avatar of the Regulus lion roaring behind him.

"We know so." The younger Gopaul brother's silver aura mimicked its golden counterpart as the demonic Ashura avatar revealed its three faces.

The two brothers immediately pushed forth with even greater force and Mushu's eyes widened as he was sent skidding backwards, tearing a trench in the battleground. Gold and silver streaks tore scars in the earth as the two brothers didn't give their opponent any quarter, striking with devastating blows against the White Fang general. The sounds of combat echoed through the air as the Faunus general moved just as quickly and countered with just as much power. The elder combatant had to give the boys credit for their prowess however, as with each pair of strikes, they sent him careening across the war zone.

"Alright, you've had your fun." Mushu stamped his feet into the ground and regained his stability just as Byron flew in with a straight kick which he ducked under. Byron stamped his armoured boots into the ground, digging in to pivot and lash out with a punch to the face. Mushu raised his arm and batted the blow aside before raising his leg and blocking Kiran's kick from the left. He then aimed dual swipes with his claws, the weapons of ebony keratin easily being ducked under by the hunter pair.

Kiran then raised his sword arm and blade met claws in another shower of sparks before Kiran utilized the momentum behind the block to spin around and hop into the air. A powerful spin kick crashed against Mushu's torso and the komodo dragon general's body was sent tumbling through the air. With a growl, Mushu managed to right himself and slammed down on the ground, his heavy weight form cracking the earth beneath his feet.

He shifted into a more stable fighting stance and snarled, his eyes glowing in the dark. "COME!"

The students of Ozpin were more than happy to oblige as they leaped into the air and descended at an angle, gold and silver trailing behind them to make them seem as if they were falling stars. Byron's armoured boot met Mushu's scaled arms first, but he was easily shifted aside as his momentum carried him forwards and forced him to dig a small trench in the ground. Kiran had struck not a second too late after his brother and Mushu was then forced to divert his attention to the bespectacled hunter, blocking his kick and pushing him back slightly.

The golden eyed Faunus glanced back and blocked a bicycle kick aimed for his jaw from Byron. Byron pushed off of the reptilian Faunus's palm before the elder combatant could form any sort of grip on his foot, his brown eyes narrowing as said Faunus went into a spinning back kick to try and take his brother's head off. Luckily, Kiran had already been mid-sprint and dropped to his knees, skidding underneath the strike in a flash of silver just as his brother had landed on the ground.

A burst of gold aura marked Byron's next attempt at a golden gauntlet aimed for the face, but Mushu side-stepped the strike as Byron rushed past him. The Faunus's enhanced senses then alerted him to the follow-up slash aimed at his legs from Kiran's sword. The flash of silver made an arc, leaving behind a trail that was akin to a crescent moon as Mushu hopped over the strike and crashed his foot into Byron's chest plate.

The elder Gopaul brother fell to the ground and Kiran was quick on the uptake to deliver a flurry of slashes with his twin blades. Sparks and flame-like remnants of silvery aura showered the earth as Mushu blocked each and every strike from the skilled weapons specialist. A downward vertical slash was followed by a quick rotation on the heel to deliver a spin attack that would have dug into his opponent's torso had the attack not been diverted with a well-placed kick. Mushu roared as he let loose a powerful slash that Kiran skillfully leaped over, the ground where he once stood now becoming a small crater from the force.

"WIDE OPEN!" Brown eyes widened as Mushu turned on the dime and put a great deal of force behind his left jab. "HRAH!"

The bespectacled huntsman grunted as the shockwave produced by the blow felt as if it flowed through his body, rattling his bones and jostling his organs to the point that he coughed up a bit of blood. The force then registered with Kiran flew through the air, but he would not let simply being knocked airborne deter him from completing the mission to kill the komodo dragon of the White Fang. Silver aura flared and two of the aura arms that made his Semblance emerged, grabbing onto both of his short swords as they were spinning through the air. With a mental command, the arms hurled the blades back towards Mushu at terrifying speeds, visible streams of air resistance trailing behind them.

An amused smirk adorned Mushu's face as he batted the blades aside. Golden eyes shifted as a flash of golden aura appeared in his peripheries, said flash solidifying to reveal the image of Byron. Gauntlet covered fists were clenched tightly in preparation for a ferocious uppercut that would have ruptured his kidneys had he not spun around in time, countering the fist with his own as a reddish-orange flare enveloped his own body.

A powerful shockwave raced out from the point of collision and the ground shuddered before caving in on itself beneath their feet. The two limbs shook briefly as they tried to overpower one another, their respective avatars of a dragon and a lion snarling at one another.

The two drew back their fists, but Byron was the faster of the two as a left hook was directed to the Faunus's face. Mushu's scales shifted from black to reddish-orange as his aura now enveloped his entire body and a resounding clang echoed across the battlefield as the komodo dragon general was sent skidding to the side from the force, but was relatively unharmed.

Mushu chuckled. "You're strong brat, I'll give you that."

"Your Semblance." Byron nodded in recognition to the reddish-orange scales that now cloaked the general's body. "Dragon Scale."

"So you've heard of it?" Mushu smirked with a raised eyebrow. "Then you know that you can't hurt me no matter what you do."

"Your scales, like your Aura, have a limit." The close combat specialist narrowed his eyes. "And we'll show you that limit."

"You'll be dead before you achieve that."

"Is that a challenge, gecko?"

The komodo dragon Faunus's eyebrow twitched, his reddish-orange scales seeming to glow in response to his flare of anger. "Oh fuckin' hell, it's on now!"

Mushu roared as he and Byron exchanged a flurry of blows, their arms practically blurs of gold and reddish-orange to any outside party. The winds whipped wildly around them as the pace of their exchange increased. Golden eyes appeared to glow in their sockets and Mushu saw what he assumed to be an opening, and went in for a wide slash that was aimed to remove the younger fighter's head from his shoulders.

"Too slow." The elder Gopaul brother taunted as he raised his arm and blocked the blow before delivering a straight jab to the chest which Mushu's Dragon Scale Semblance allowed him to handle easily.

Leg muscles tensed and Mushu surged forwards with a storm of jabs and knife-hand strikes that would have overwhelmed a lesser man. The legacy of Ozpin used every ounce of training regarding his speed and reflexes to counter the onslaught. He blocked, dodged and parried every single attack that came his way, something which annoyed the Faunus general to no end.

Seeing that his arms weren't doing the job, he shifted to his legs and assumed a change of pace would distract the boy. A powerful kick aimed to put Byron off-balance, possibly even break his ankle if his armoured boots didn't handle the forceful blow very well. Unfortunately for Mushu, Byron had predicted the blow after having seen his opponent's eyes flicker to his leg and so he relished in the surprise from the scaled man as he lashed out with a kick to the ankle of his, both countering and deflecting Mushu's kick to leave the man entirely wide open as Byron quickly raised his leg up and delivered a powerful upward kick. The toe of his armoured boot dug into the mentum of Mushu's lower jaw, the bone creaking and a bit of blood escaping through his lips as he ended up biting his tongue when the two jaws met with a resounding CLACK.

Mushu growled as he stumbled back a bit from the strike. His body rocked from the right hook aimed for his now weakened jaw, and the left hook that followed immediately after had the world spinning for the Faunus as the aura encased gauntlet dug into his temple. His protective aura flickered for a brief moment, showing just how much damage was behind the blows.

"YOU SON OF A-!"

His exclamation came to an abrupt halt as Byron's final blow in the three-hit combo crashed into his chest in tandem with the resounding BANG of Kiran's weapon as it had been shifted into its long ranged double-barreled M16 shotgun form. A powerful shockwave of fire and aura cracked the earth and the Faunus general was sent careening through the air, bouncing across the battlefield and leaving small craters in his wake with each time he slammed into the ground. He finally regained his bearings after slamming into a tree and his momentum began to slow down. He rolled across the battleground and his claws shone in the moonlight as he dug them into the dirt, tearing small trenches as he skidded to a halt and climbed back to his feet.

The avatar of a dragon roared in personification of his rage as the two brothers rushed towards him, trails of gold and silver aura trailing behind them like the tails of comets. As they were running, Kiran had raised his shotgun and fired a series of Fire Dust rounds, but the komodo dragon Faunus was prepared this time as he raised his hands and blocked them. A fiery shockwave occurred with each round fired, but after the fourth round, Kiran immediately converted his weapon to its original twin swords. Silver aura shone around the blades at the same time golden aura enshrouded his brother's gauntlets as the brothers delivered a simultaneous attack of sword slash and right jab.

Mushu's enhanced vision allowed him to catch their silhouettes through the smoke clouds Kiran had formed, and so he crossed his arms in front of his chest. A powerful shockwave occurred at the point of impact and the ground cratered beneath their feet. Mushu pushed the two back, sending them stumbling off-balance for a moment. With a growl, Mushu struck with a ferocious right hook aimed for the younger student of Ozpin, but a burst of silver aura heralded the appearance of his Semblance. The hand of solidified aura caught the oncoming fist, but the force was still enough to have Kiran's feet sink into the small crater that now formed beneath them. A second aura hand then emerged from Kiran's aura shroud and landed a swift blow to the abdomen that had Mushu skidding back.

Byron took the opportunity to rush his opponent and hopped into the air, clasping his hands above his head before swinging them down in the form of a devastating hammer strike. Mushu crossed his arms over his own head, blocking the powerful attack as a shockwave occurred at the point of collision. Byron gritted his teeth as he tried to push through his opponent's defenses, but to no avail as Mushu's overwhelming might was showcased by him uncrossing his arms and lifting Byron into the air.

"Got you, human!" Mushu's hand lashed out as quickly as a viper, and his grip as tight as any serpent's as he latched onto Byron's ankle. The elder Gopaul brother found the world around him becoming a blur of dark colours as he was swung down into the ground with enough force to crack it. Mushu raised the smaller fighter up into the air and crashed him into the ground again and Byron's aura flickered for a moment as it fought to defend its user. A toothy grin spread across Mushu's face and he swung the boy with crater-creating force thrice more before tossing him slightly into the air.

Mushu delivered a strong two-punch combo to the chest before spinning on his heel and driving a powerful spin kick that had Byron crashing into a nearby boulder, shattering the hard stone as if it were made of glass. The Dragon Scale Semblance user then charged across the battlefield towards his dizzied opponent, the ground cracking and rumbling with each of his heavy footfalls.

Brown eyes widened and the golden aura user was forced to assume the position his opponent had adopted not too long ago. Crossing his arms overhead, the goliath of a Faunus delivered a downward punch. Byron gritted his teeth as the force rippled through his body and cratered the ground beneath his feet. The ground rumbled slightly and Mushu smirked as he thought he was getting some decent capability to break through the elder Gopaul brother's guard. However, the komodo dragon Faunus proved to be quite wrong as the ground beneath Byron's feet burst apart to reveal a pair of silver aura hands emerging from the earth's bowels and latching onto Byron.

Byron was pulled out of harm's way and the moment he was, a second pair of aura arms struck forth from the underground at an angle, the fists of soul energy digging into Mushu's stomach and sending him smashing through a series of rotten trees and other pieces of foliage. The arms of silver followed after him at a rapid pace and one shifted into an upward arc to strike his back. The Faunus general's body curved at an a painful angle around the knuckles of the energy fist before a second aura fist lashed out and crashed into his airborne form's chest to send him rocketing into the surface of a rocky hill. The tip of the hill shattered from the impact and a deep trench was now carved into the rocky elevation's surface as his momentum kept him going.

Mushu utilized said momentum and rolled back to his feet in time to see the younger Gopaul brother continuing his onslaught of aura fists, but the komodo dragon Faunus adopted a horse stance as the four hands all spiraled towards him like a drill with the intent of piercing through his chest. Mushu waited as the arms drew closer and closer until he saw his chance.

'Now!' He ducked and weaved beneath the arms of aura and his own aura covered hands lashed out, wrapping themselves securely around the four weapons. His grip tightened and with a roar, he pulled.

From ground zero, Kiran's eyes widened as he was suddenly yanked through the air. The arc of his flight sent him crashing through numerous pieces of foliage and stone before his horizontal motion took a sharp turn into the vertical plane. From his vantage point, he saw the reason for his sudden position. His eyes widened even further than before as Mushu smirked, the Faunus general's muscles tensing visibly beneath his reddish-orange scales, and Kiran was swung back down into the top of the rocky hill that his opponent was standing upon. The ground shuddered from the impact and Kiran now lay in his own personal crater, but the brown skinned huntsman was quickly pulled out of the crater as Mushu drew him back in.

His airborne form was stopped as Mushu let go of the arms of Kiran's aura constructs and shifted his feet so they were shoulder width apart. Once Kiran was close enough, Mushu shifted his body at his waist and in a blur of motion, the general of the White Fang delivered three powerful strikes. One powerful right fist caught Kiran in the stomach and Kiran felt the need to vomit. The second, a left fist this time, made his ribs rattle in his chest and the final one silenced whatever scream he would have made upon making contact with his throat.

"Not done yet, boy." Mushu chuckled as his airborne victim was tapped on the sternum by the tips of reddish-orange aura coated claws. The strike was lined up and the Faunus was relentless as his fingers curled in to create a tight fist. The one-inch punch created a powerful shockwave as the force rippled through Kiran's body.

The young huntsman was not given any chance to recover as he flew back several feet only for Mushu to traverse those several feet in a split second. Kiran then found his skull trapped in Mushu's tight grip. A great deal of pressure was exerted and Kiran grunted as he fought back, stabbing his swords into the offending limb, but the aura coated scales resisted each and every slash before the boy was forced to halt in his attempts at freedom as felt as if his skull was about to implode the more and more Mushu squeezed.

"KIRI!" Byron's cry of alarm reached Mushu's ears as the elder brother seemed to hover in the air as he flashed into existence with the intent to crash a devastating axe kick atop the Faunus's skull. Mushu smirked, his eyes glowing in the light of the moon as he spun around and delivered a spinning backfist with his free hand to throw off the axe kick and send Byron into a spin. The moment Byron's head was perpendicular with the ground, Mushu's claws wrapped themselves around the Hyperspeed Combat user's skull in a manner not unlike his brother's.

"Let's go for a ride." Mushu leaped high into the air and fell back to earth. The brothers released cries of pain, their aura cloaks flickering heavily as they fought to resist the abuse of the crater generating strike. However, the White Fang soldier's legs tensed as he then pushed off, dragging the two teens through the rocky hill and down the slope.

A pair of trenches marked their path as Mushu relentlessly carried them across the battleground. To their credit, the boys still fought to escape the grips of their skulls; Byron lashing out with a barrage of punches and kicks and Kiran with a onslaught of stabs and slashes. The Dragon Scale Semblance resisted them, but the battle was dragging on and Mushu could feel his aura draining the more he held his Semblance active.

"You want to be free? Fine!" The Faunus then dug his heels into the dirt as he reached the base of the hill and spun his victims around before releasing them. Kiran and Byron rocketed through the air before coming to a painful and abrupt halt as they crashed into a boulder and oak tree respectively with enough force to leave imprints in the stone and wood.

The two boys groaned and Mushu laughed as he saw their bodies twitch.

"I will admit, I never expected the humans of this world to send children to the warfront, let alone Ozpin's little brats."

"How do you know?"

"Adam told us."

"Us?"

"To be fair, only the high-ranking officials know of your existence. Which would be myself and Adam's own protege's who helped you two with that little mission the four of you took part in. You are kept in quite high regard by Adam because of that, but don't worry. Your teacher's secret about having students is still very much a secret because of Adam's generosity." Mushu replied in a nonchalant tone. "Even so, I never expected you to have such a high level of combat prowess and so I will yield my respect to you." The golden eyed Faunus nodded in acknowledgement to the young huntsmen as they slowly climbed back to their feet. "You are both no doubt talented huntsmen, your skills being something that can come only once in a generation."

"Your compliments will mean nothing when you die." Kiran was monotonous, but the anger in his brown eyes was paramount.

"Why are you even here, boy?" The Faunus asked. "Why are you fighting against us? Adam told us about what you two did, how you helped put the White Fang where it is today. You helped us reach this stage of progress and yet now...you fight against the very thing you helped to create."

"Our Master...The General...Both of us..." Byron's eyes narrowed. "Adam tricked us. Betrayed us. He used us all to further his own gains, and we thought we were fighting for the equality of the Faunus. We thought the same as he did, we thought the Faunus needed a more forceful approach to reach the goal they wanted. However...if we knew that it would have reached this point, to the point that a war would take place..."

"Well clearly things didn't change that much." Mushu replied. "You fight for a just cause, but there are sacrifices to make. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and your Master foolishly believed that it would succeed. Now he passes that foolishness onto his students as all three of you think that just the two of you are enough to handle me and try and stop this war. I don't believe the man heralded as a god of the battlefield would ever send his beloved students into this hell. Even if he is a warrior of such combat prowess that he is seen as above human, that would not translate over to you two. So...I ask again..."

Mushu's eyes narrowed. "Why are you here?"

"We are here...because we are ordered to." Byron replied.

"The mission given by General Ironwood is to kill General Fa Mushu of the White Fang. The secondary order given by our Master is to return alive." Kiran raised his pair of swords, the light of the moon shining off the blades. "We will obey and we will succeed."

"I have seen many of your kind. Soldiers who are like puppets." Mushu shook his head. "Your kind take such strong stances against us, calling the Faunus monsters. Yet, you don't see the monsters you two have become."

"If being monsters gives us the ability to carry out the task...then so be it." Kiran stated.

Mushu's golden eyes bore a light of pity, but the komodo dragon Faunus closed his eyes and sighed as he forced the feeling down. His eyes then snapped back open and the avatar of the red-orange scared dragon roared to life around its master as said master flared his aura and killing intent. However, the golden lion of Regulus and the silver demon Ashura appeared behind Byron and Kiran as they now stood firmly on their feet once more.

"WELL THEN HUMAN PUPPETS! LET'S SEE HOW MONSTROUS YOU REALLY ARE IN YOUR FINAL MOMENTS!"

"RON! METEOR DROP!"

The curly haired boy nodded as he stepped back and got into position, watching his brother take the initiative of delivering the first strike.

The bespectacled huntsman's silver aura flared as he surged forward, blades gripping tightly in his hands. Mushu side-stepped the downward vertical slash and countered with a jab which Kiran twisted to avoid. He spun on the tip of his toes and aimed for a dual slash to Mushus' exposed rib area which was blocked as the komodo dragon general raised his leg. Sparks decorated the air from the collision and Mushu raised an arm up to slam a powerful fist upon his younger opponent's head. The weapons specialist leaped and went into a backhand spring to gain some distance between himself and the larger man. As he completed the acrobatic move, he hurled his twin swords through the air as if they were shuriken, their shining forms appearing as if they were circles of pure moonlight as they rocketed towards Mushu.

Mushu ducked and weaved under the oncoming attack, but his eyes widened as he was forced to cross his arms in front of his chest to block the dual punches from the aura fists Kiran created. A powerful shockwave had the Faunus's arms shaking slightly as they absorbed most of the impact, but his golden eyes then caught wind of the sounds of the swords flying back through the air as they were thrown back towards him by the second pair of aura arms that emerged from the flame-like shroud that encompassed their user.

He channeled his aura into his back and at the risk of his shirt being torn, the blades bounced off of his scales and were sent tumbling off in different directions. The moment they did though, Mushu had to duck under the oncoming aura fist and raised an arm to block the second strike. The force of the punch made him spin, but he dug his heels into the dirt to stop his movements.

"What are you doing?!" Mushu roared. His aura scales shone as he was then hit in the neck and chest area by the swords as they were once again thrown his way. He reached to take the swords out of the air, but the aura arms came after him once more and so he watched as the other pair of aura arms snatched the weapons out of the air to be used as throwing weapons once more. "What kind of games are you playing boy?!"

Kiran remained silent and continued sending his commands to his constructs. Caught in a one-man pincer strike from both the punching arms and the thrown swords, the airspace around Mushu was decorated in streams of silvery-white light in a manner that made it seem as if the komodo dragon Faunus was caught in a web of silver. In no time at all, Mushu found himself on the defensive as he was forced to dodge the blades headed his way by the throwing arms before having to divert his attention to the aura fists that would follow soon after.

"That's enough!" Mush roared and slammed his arms down on the ground, unleashing a shockwave of fiery aura that tore the ground asunder. The blades tumbled once more through the air, and Mushu raised his arms as he caught the aura fists sent his way. He then turned his head to look slightly over his right shoulder, his peripheries catching sight of the free pair of aura hands grasping onto the blades and attaching them to each other at the hilt to form the twin-headed spear where Byron had now leaped into the air to grasp.

Muscles tensed as the curly-haired hunstman reared his arm back.

"HRAH!" The elder Gopaul brother hurled the spear towards the Faunus at a speed comparable to a ballistic missile, visible streams of air resistance trailing behind it. The spear was easily avoided as he quickly tilted his body to the aside, the spear now stabbing into the ground in front of him.

Mushu's eyes then widened as he saw his chance. He tightened grip on the aura arms he had been currently holding at bay, kicked the spear so the head that wasn't impaling the earth pointed in the directed of Kiran, and pulled. A toothy grin spreading across his face as Kiran was jerkily flew through the air towards the head of his own spear.

'Their auras are weak from continuous battle. I can see it, this will kill the glasses brat and ending his brother will be just as easy since my Dragon Scale will give me the upper hand in close combat.' Mushu chuckled. "It's..."

"It's over." Kiran's declaration acted in tandem with a flare of silver aura. Mushu's eyes widened as the ground rumbled and another pair of aura hands burst forth to wrench the spear out of the ground.

Golden eyes glanced to the arms in his hands and then behind him to see the ones still airborne.

Kiran dug his heels into the ground, his armoured boots carving small trenches before he rolled forwards and caught his weapon as the third pair of aura arms converted the spear into the shotgun form. The double-barreled weapon was immediately cocked and pointed at its target as Kiran knelt before the general.

"I thought...I thought you could only make four."

"You were wrong." Kiran fired and the Fire Dust rounds generated an explosive impact as they collided with the Faunus's chest. The Dragon Scale Semblance vanished and thus the general was as helpless as a kite in a hurricane. A fiery shockwave enveloped his body and cloaked it in a crimson conflagration as he was sent skyward. He felt his body becoming lighter, though he chalked it up to the pain, it was actually due to the fact that his entire lower half and his limbs had been blasted apart, free from the physical confines of bones, ligaments and muscles which held them in place.

Kiran's silver aura arms hurled Byron like a golden bullet, the avatar of Regulus roaring to life as he clenched his right fist and golden aura flared around his body.

"DORYAAAA!" The final blow was struck as the Meteor Drop tactic came into fruition. The golden fist collided with his body.

Then all went black.

Golden eyes snapped open as consciousness was finally restored to him. His muffled screams echoed throughout the fluid, bubbles obscuring his vision. His body flailed about and the impacts of his limbs against a solid surface quickly yielded the sound of glass shattering. He fell from his suspended state onto the ground and panted.

His blurred field of vision began to clear as he looked down at the tiled floor before glancing to either side of him, taking note of the ivory armoured, metallic hands. The hands responded to the command to raise up and turn around.

'These hands...' His eyes widened in shock, flexing the finger joints and listening to the whirring of the mechanics beneath the white armour plating. "These are...mine?"

His hands then leaped to his throat as the voice was a mixture of what he remembered his own voice to be, melded in with an almost robotic tone.

"Indeed, General." The voice of his leader met his ears and Mushu's head snapped in the direction of the red haired Faunus.

"Adam?!" Mushu stepped towards his leader, his towering 7 foot frame looking down upon the bull Faunus as if he were a child. "What happened to me?! Where am I?!"

"Calm down, Mushu." Adam raised his hands in a placating manner before patting the mechanised Faunus on the shoulder. "What do you remember?"

"I...I remembered those bits and pieces of the last battle in the campaign. We were establishing the foundations to make our base outside of Vale's borders as we pushed into Atlas, but then...there were humans. A strike team assembled to stop us. A small skirmish ensued and we were winning, but then...those brats! Ozpin's brats! We fought and then...and then..."

"Mushu, it's unfortunate to say that our attempt to form that outside base resulted in failure and you fell in battle."

"Fell?"

"You were practically dead by the time we found your corpse, but the good doctor here..." Adam gestured to Wily who gave a friendly wave and a nod. "...we harvested what little organs you had that were intact which were limited to your lungs, heart and brain. Using the bactam solution, we were able to store them and revitalize those same organs before transferring them into a new body for you to use in the hopes that you would awaken."

"I was dead then." Mushu's words were more of a statement than a question and he fell silent as he processed the information. Golden eyes closed as he took a deep breath, feeling the ventilated air that flowed through artificial respiratory tracts and into his biological lungs. He felt the beating of his heart as electrical surges from the built-in pacemaker kept it going. His brain ran a mile a minute as synapses fired at rates he could practically feel. He then looked deeper, beyond the scope of the physical aspects of his body. His scorched eyelids shifted beneath the skull-shaped face plating, the muscles tensing every now and then as he continued searching for that little something within his soul.

All he was met with was an empty void.

He opened his eyes and looked to Wily. "It's gone."

Wily raised his hands and made a few motions in sign language. 'What do you mean?'

"My Aura. My Semblance." Mushu's yellow eyes seemed to shine within their sockets as his rage spiked and he stamped towards the coyote Faunus. "MY SOUL, WILY! MY SOUL IS GONE!"

'It was...It was a possibility that we hoped would not occur.' Wily signed back with a sigh, his ears flattening against his head like a depressed puppy's. 'Bringing someone back from the dead was bound to be met with some side effects, and I did hypothesize on whether or not you would actually reclaim the essence of your soul should you have returned. Unfortunately, you did not. You retain the neuropsychological parts of you; your sense of self and your ego that you develop as a child to forge who you are as a person. But the mystical and sense of inner self are now lost to you entirely, and I do not think there is a way to reclaim these sorts of things. Bringing you back alone was a task, but to bring back the soul...well, that's a realm that science has not walked upon yet.'

Mushu felt the urge to scream. And scream he did. He trampled across the laboratory, knocking over many pieces of expensive looking equipment, destroying entire metal desks with a single swing of his bio-mechatronic fists and stamping his newly forged talons so harshly into the floor that he left deep imprints behind.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Mushu fell to his knees with one final slam of his fists into the ground, forming small indentations in the steel. He panted heavily, looking down at the shards of glass and bright green liquid he had stained the floor with from a chemical set he had broken. His golden eyes stared for an almost infinite amount of time into the glass as it reflected his new face. He raised a hand slowly and traced the edge of his face plate with his ebony claws.

"My scales were my pride. The komodo dragons wore scales capable of withstanding even the greatest of blows and we were a species of Faunus said to have stemmed from the legendary dragons themselves." Mushu muttered. "I earned the Semblance of Dragon Scale and the avatar of a dragon. My fellow komodos saw me as an unbreakable, unyielding force of strength and defense and I accepted that burden to be their pillar. Yet...I fell...to a pair of humans!"

"Your anger at yourself in misplaced, Mushu." Adam replied. "Byron and Kiran Gopaul are no doubt some of the strongest huntsmen of their generation to walk the planet. Their being trained by the huntsman who was a god of the battlefield only served to draw out that potential, and they have no doubt grown that much stronger over the past few years."

"Years?" Mushu's head snapped up, his eyes staring through the holes in Adam's mask. "How...How long has it been since I've died?"

'Three years.' Was the simple reply Wily made in sign language. 'It takes quite a long time to design, create, run trials and make a complete and working form of the body you now possess. You were very injured.'

"Injured is quite an understatement." Mushu scoffed at the mute coyote Faunus's words as he climbed back to his feet. "I apologize for my destructive outburst, Wily...Adam."

"Equipment is expensive, but it can be replaced." The bull Faunus replied. "You, Mushu, are an asset the White Fang could never hope to replace. Your new body is a testament to how much time and effort the White Fang put into your resurrection, my friend."

"Your words are sweet, Adam, but I've known you long enough." The mechanized komodo dragon straightened his body, his claws and talons shifting with each turrn of the rotors. "What is your plan?"

"Perceptive." The red-haired man nodded with a smirk. "You are to be the White Fang's general once more, but before we send you out for actual field missions, we require you to perform a test run of your new body in combat."

"Anything to bring me closer to being able to kill Ozpin's brats."

"Then you will need these." Adam snapped his fingers and Wily moved forward with a small case in hand. A placement of his thumb on the case's fingerprint scanner allowed the case to open with a snap and a hiss. Mushu's eyes narrowed as he looked at the four metal rods that lay snugly in the red cushioning before reaching to pick one of them up.

"Adapted from Asimov's own technology." Adam stated.

"Asimov?" Mushu asked with a tilt of his head as he continued to investigate the rod, his yellow eyes zeroing in on the small button. "You mean that genius pup you all tried to have join us from a few years back?"

Wily narrowed his eyes before answering. 'Yes, but my tech is just as good.'

"Just as? Not better?" The cyborg Faunus teased.

'The pup is brighter than many in the scientific circle. There is no disputing his genius.' The coyote replied.

"Fair enough." The cyborg then pressed the button and his eyes widened as the hilt adjusted to his grip and a lengthy blade extended and began to hum. He swung the blade at the desk and his eyes widened as he split the remnants of a destroyed metal desk in two with barely any effort. He chuckled darkly as he imagined the things he could do with his weapons. "I've never been much of a sword user, but I assume this was designed to work with my new body?"

'Exactly.' Wily hand-signed as a toothy grin spread across his face.

"And you will be quite pleased to know you will have quite the opportunity to test those out when you go on your test run."

Mushu chuckled. "What's the mission, boss?"


Vale Institute of Technology, Vale

Arthur glanced down at his own plate which was mostly a sizable mound of bacon, scallop potatoes, steak, lobster and a few assorted vegetables. To the ordinary person, that was more than an average amount of food for a single person, but the wolf Faunus's molehill paled in comparison to the mountains that lay on the plates of his adopted daughter and his date.

So high were the food mountains that they actually gained a bit of stares from some of the tables surrounding their own. There was some solace to be taken by the fact that since they had gotten a balcony table with a view, there was less of a crowd to stare at them, but Arthur still found the stares embarrassing as he sweatdropped at Yang and Vivi.

"I am so happy that this food is free." He muttered as he munched on a few more strips of bacon with a potato.

"So am I!" Yang exclaimed.

"I!" Vivi mimicked Yang as the two girls stuffed mouthful after mouthful. The rate at which they swallowed was inhuman and Arthur sighed as he looked at Vivi's joyous face.

"You're lucky I like seeing your happy face, Vivi." The wolf said as he patted the girl on the head. The obsidian eyed girl turned to the son of the Mother Country and smiled brightly. The white haired wolf rolled his eyes as he caught sight of the crumbs and grease that glistened against her dark skin before picking up a napkin. "Keep your face clean, Vivi. And chew your food. I don't want you choking. Remember what happened last time when I bought you that twenty piece chicken nugget meal at VFC?"

"Choking bad."

"Exactly. Now...well actually in this case, don't be like Yang and be more civilized." He then gestured to Yang as she was still scarfing down her meal at an inhuman pace. The blonde paused as she swallowed her latest mouthful of food.

"I would be ticked off a bit at being labelled as uncivilized, but in this case..." She wiped her mouth with a napkin before stabbing her fork back into the mountain of deliciousness that lay atop her plate. "...I'll allow it."

"Allow it!" Vivi copied her newfound role model and returned to messily eating her dinner as well.

The genius Faunus sighed, shaking his head in exasperation. "I swear, I have so many questions about how you are the way you are, Yang."

"Well..." Yang paused to swallow her current set of food. "Ask away. I'll answer any question you want."

Arthur raised a white eyebrow. "Really? Anything?"

"You told me about your life back in the Mother Country, why you moved to Vale and I technically am one of the only people in the student body of Beacon to know about Vivi." The blonde huntress-to-be replied with a shrug. "There's limits to what I will answer of course, but yeah. Fire away, wolfy."

"Oh. Ok then. Ummm..." Blue eyes blinked owlishly as he was still not used to the girl's blunt disposition. "Let's start simple then. Give me a normal social media-type profile and we can go from there."

"You just want me to add you as a friend on ScrollBook?"

"Please don't. I despise social media platforms. It sucks you in and reduces you to a person who thinks they need it to get through day to day life." He gestured to the table behind them where a group of girls were taking pictures of their food and critiquing each other's pictures before moving to take another picture. "Five Lien says their food will be cold before they even get their so-called perfect picture."

"Not taking the bet." Yang laughed as she swallowed her latest bite of food. "Well, if you want the basics then I'm Yang Xiao Long. Relationship status is Single until you make your move, wolfy."

Arthur's eye twitched as he laughed nervously.

"Lived on the island of Patch with my dad and Ruby for about as long as I can remember."

'Single parent household.' His facial muscles twitched as he held back the frown he would have made upon making the connection.

"I like my family, my friends, fighting, training, punching jerks in the face, my family, and keeping my hair nice. I dislike assholes, people who have wrecked my motocycle and people who have either dissed or damaged my hair."

Arthur gulped as Yang's eyes flickered blood red for a split second.

'Note to self. Avoid touching Yang's hair in any capacity.'

"My hobbies are maintenance on Ember Celica and my motorcycle, Bumblebee. That's me in a nutshell. Now what else you got?"

"Alright well..." The wolf Faunus's ears flapped as he hummed in thought before glancing at his date's bare wrists. "What made you think up Ember Celica? As far as close combat weapons go, bullet-firing gauntlets are pretty unique."

"I'm not very dexterous." She picked up the knife that came with her cutlery and spun it around her fingers for a few seconds before losing control. The kitchen utensil tumbled through the air before falling and stabbing itself into the middle of their table. The silver plated utensil hummed for a moment and Arthur sweatdropped as he saw how deeply the blade was embedded into the tablecloth covered wood.

"See?" The blonde teen wrenched the knife of the table and set beside her plate as she went in for another bite of her food. "Ruby's the one with the good hand-eye coordination, so I decided to go a bit more simple. I can punch pretty damn hard and I thought, if I punch something, what if I shot a bullet at the same time?"

"Simplicity is often a good characteristic to have, but if you ever want an upgrade in the future..." Arthur tapped his chest with a wink. "I actually have quite a number of ideas on what I do to improve the durability, firing rate and power output."

"I love it when you talk nerdy to me." She laughed as Arthur immediately turned red in embarrassment. "You are too easy to tease, wolfy."

"Shut up." He forced down the blush as he took a swig of water. "Next question. Where'd you go to school before Beacon?"

"Signal Academy."

"That's a really good school. One of the best middle schools in Vale and ranked 5th in the kingdom." Arthur nodded in approval.

"Not all of us are geniuses." Yang replied. "I'm not as smart as you, wolfy, but I'm sure as hell not dumb."

"Never thought you were." He laughed as Yang reached over the table to lightly punch him on the shoulder.

"And you'd better keep thinkin' that or else my interest in you will drop."

"And I certainly don't want that."

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated, wolfy."

"Duly noted." Arthur then leaned forwards, sporting a look of genuine curiosity which had the Beacon student tilting her head in confusion. "This is actually one of the questions that I think is important to me concerning you, and that question is...Why are you so blunt?"

"I see no sense in hiding what I really think or feel." Was the prompt reply. "The world is so damn politically correct and thin skinned that everybody gets so up in arms the moment you say even one thing that they believe is out of line, but I honestly don't care. If the truth is what you need to hear for you to be convinced that something you think or say is complete and utter bullshit, then I will tell you that straight to your face. Take this whole date for example."

"Hmm?" His wolf ears flapped as he tilted his head in confusion.

"I thought you were cute. Downright handsome even. I told you as such and as a result, I asked you out." She shrugged. "Simple math."

"You feel very strongly about this."

"Because I've been stuck trying to get Ruby to understand that."

"Hmmm." Arthur pursed his lips as a pregnant pause fell over the table.

Lavender eyes narrowed upon taking notice of that. "Got somethin' to say, Arthur?"

The white haired Faunus glanced to the side where he noticed Vivi was just sitting idly by and playing with the bones that remained from her dinner. With a nod of satisfaction to his adopted daughter, he wiped her hands and mouth free of the grease and sauce before getting out of his chair. He looked to Yang and made a head motion for her to follow him.

Yang's eyes narrowed even further, but she complied as she scarfed down the remainder of her bacon and wiped her mouth and hands clean. She followed Arthur and Vivi down the stairs and back out into the open hallways of the university, offering a small smile to Vivi as the dark skinned girl grabbed onto her hand.

The trio found themselves walking through the university's open house, but the tense air between Yang and Arthur still hung around them. Fortunately, Vivi was too distracted by the inventions of the university students around them to care about it.

"So...what's wrong with me wanting to get Ruby to understand about the world?"

"...You've told her what you think about her lack of understanding, I assume." The wielder of Ember Celica nodded. "Your sister, from what little I know of her from our class together, she's just as blunt as you. Her innocence..." He glanced down at Vivi and gave a small smile. "...you can see it in those silver eyes of hers."

"And I want to protect that!" The lavender eyed girl exclaimed before groaning in exasperation. "But she's so optimistic. I love her so much and I will do anything for her, but by the gods Arthur, I want her to be aware of the world..."

"But you want Ruby to remain Ruby in spite of her knowing." Sapphire met amethyst as the Faunus stared directly into the younger girl's eyes, taking note of the determined expression that adorned her face as she nodded stiffly. "That's an impossibility."

"You don't know her like I do." Yang snarled. "You can't make that call."

"Neither can you."

Lavender eyes widened, recoiling as if she had been slapped. "Wha-What do you mean by that? You think I can't decide what's right for my own sister?"

"You're free to believe that you can continue to protect her, but her world views will change the more she knows. For example, a child knows not the concept of racism. They don't see someone for their skin colour or their species, they just see a person and if that person is nice or mean. If they are nice, they make friends with each other. However, as they grow up, they become more aware of the environment around them. They see the shadows that had been hiding in their previously bright world and they develop their own thoughts and opinions on the matters, and Ruby will experience the same sort of change in her own philosophies."

"But...But she's Ruby!"

"Then trust her to remain as such. She's going to be a great huntress."

"I know that!"

"You can't protect her forever."

"I know that too!"

"Then you realize your desire is a paradoxical one." The white haired Faunus gave a gentle smile to Yang. "You wear your heart on your sleeve and your love for your sister is admirable, but you can't have your cake and eat it too."

"Cake?" Vivi's obsidian orbs widened as she looked around for the dessert her caretaker spoke of, but Arthur shook his head and ruffled her hair.

"No Vivi." He chuckled. "No cake."

"No cake." Vivi tilted her head skyward and released a sigh and pouted in disappointment to the heavens above.

Arthur felt his heart strings pull a bit as he felt the incredible urge to hug his young charge, she was just so adorable. He saw a look of confusion suddenly cross the black haired girl's face as she pulled at the hem of his sleeve and blue eyes shifted heavenward.

"What are you looking at, Vivi?" The wolf Faunus then fell silent as he caught sight of what his adopted daughter was looking at. Hovering in the sky above VIT was a small Bullhead, its white and steel grey appearance shining in the glow of the afternoon sun as the roar of its turbines caught the attention of the rest of the crowd. Most of them turned back to the open house event, but Arthur and a few of the other Faunus members of the crowd took note of the sound of static as the security guards watching from the sidelines and those that were mingling within the crowd itself all spoke into their comm-links.

"Something's not right." Yang and Vivi both looked at the lab coat wearing Faunus, but he paid them no need as he continued staring at the Bullhead. The aerial vehicle suddenly shifted slightly as its ramp opened up.

A news camera crew that had been covering VIT's open house event shifted its camera focus away from an invention they had been discussing with its inventor as the reporter was shouting for her cameraman to get a good angle before going off into her reporter spiel to inform any member of the holo-vision viewing public of the sudden;y change in the atmosphere of the event.

All eyes focused on the still open ramp as something suddenly fell from the airship's interior. The object drew closer and closer with each passing second, becoming clearer as it descended at rapid pace. The crowd immediately dispersed, and it was a good thing they did as the unidentified object crashed down onto the ground with destructive force. Everything in a five foot radius tremble from the object's crater forming impact, a small dust cloud immediately beginning to disperse as a result of the accompanying shockwave.

All eyes widened in fear as they stared at the mechanical monstrosity before them as its golden eyes shone with a lust for battle and death. White armour and black-grey steel shone in the sun as it rose from its crouched position, its seven foot frame casting a large shadow over the crowd members that were nearby. The whirring of its parts echoed throughout the silent university campus along with the clang of its talons against the broken stone of the crater before it climbed out. The white mantle that was strapped to its shoulders billowed in the wind and gave all the on-lookers an eyeful of its cybernetic body. It was then that they saw the symbol emblazoned on the armoured plate that made up the creature's right pectoral.

The image of a wolf-like creature superimposed over three jagged slash marks, all painted in blood red.

"White Fang."

"What?!" Yang exclaimed as she turned away from her date and looked back up at the Bullhead. Lavender eyes widened as she too managed to catch a glimpse of the White Fang's symbol emblazoned on the airship. "What are they doing here?! Why are they here?!"

Her question went unanswered as the police force and a small band of AK-130s pushed themselves to the forefront.

"EVERYONE GET BACK!" One of the officers ordered. The crowd members obliged, but there were a few of those who were simply too dumb or caught up in the moment as they whipped out their Scrolls and began to record the situation. Even as they were forcibly pulled back by law enforcement or their friends, they continued to record.

"Listen up buddy, you're breakin' a lot of laws just by coming here, but you just gave us a lot more reason to simply kill you now that we know you're a member of the White Fang!" All guns were cocked and ready to fire at the invader who merely began to chuckle.

"You vile, wretched humans." The deep, almost artificial-sounding voice echoed across the campus and sent a shiver down everybody's spines. "Let me inform of you of something. I look out across this crowd and see what looks to be the ideal representation of what the White Fang originally wanted. Humanity and Faunus living in a single space in cooperation and harmony. This is all a lie!" Yellow eyes narrowed at the androids and the humans before him. "You hide beneath the illusion of equality, but I know about the societies of the four kingdoms well enough to know that there are a majority of you Faunus who are being discriminated against. Whether it be by classmates or by teachers, whether it be within the walls of this university or beyond them, the racism will never end and it will never stop until the Faunus take a forceful stand against the tyranny of humanity!"

"So what's your plan?!" A rabbit Faunus student yelled out. "You just gonna kill us if we don't agree with your own ideology?!"

"Yes." The simple and blunt reply was enough to make a majority of the crowd stumble back in fear. "This could either be a site of a revolution...or a burial ground. You people who live in the light of day, you do not know the struggles and tribulations us members of the White Fang have undergone to try and force the movements of change that all Faunus want. There were some humans who believed that taking a forceful attempt when our attempts at peaceful protest failed, was the right way to go. It worked! You fools don't know that this feeling of fear towards the White Fang is what is aiding in driving forward the change that all of you are experiencing! If you join the White Fang, you can help bring it all to an end where the Faunus can be great again!"

"That's idiotic! and extremist!" A dog Faunus bared his fangs in a growl. "People like you are why Faunus like me are being prejudiced! You guys in the White Fang are giving the rest of us who are just trying to make a living, a bad name!"

"Yeah!"

"So get lost!"

The sounds of a verbal resistance began to undergo a rapid crescendo, some even went so far as to hurl objects at the transformed general.

Mushu rolled his eyes and the sounds of his internal mechanics whirred to life as he shifted. The general reached to waist where two cylindrical objects were now held tightly in his grasp. With a press of the buttons of their hilts, the cylinders extended and became hilts as the collapsible sword blades sprung to life.

"Target is weaponized! Hostility imminent! Fire!"

The Faunus general raised his swords and pressed the button on the hilts a second time. Arthur's ears twitched as he had managed to catch wind of the sound the blades had released after Mushu had pressed the button. He knew that sound. The humming that was produced when a high intensity electrical current flowed through a weapon was something he would know about in great detail.

"No." Blue eyes widened in shock, but a fire of anger roared within his soul. "That's...That's my tech!"

"Arthur what are you-" Yang's words were cut off the moment the AK-130s and the VPD officers pulled the triggers on their guns.

A hail of bullets rocketed towards the mechanized general. Moving faster than sound, a bullet's ability to travel approximately 300 metres per second required the reflexes on par with that of a seasoned huntsman in order to be able to even dodge it, but having been on the battlefield against such foes, Mushu was more than capable of doing so. With his mechanical body though, he was now fit to block them. With the HF-blades now...

Pieces of lead were scattered every which way and the officers' eyes all widened as they saw their bullets literally being torn to shreds.

"No way." The officers gasped.

He had the ability to cut them straight out of the air.

"GAH!"

"MY LEG!"

Unfortunately, some of the bullets kept their momentum despite being carved apart and began to embed themselves not just into the walls, support columns and the technology that the university's students had invented, but were now embedding themselves into the students themselves.

"Get down!" Arthur quickly grabbed Yang and Vivi before ducking behind a support column. He placed against the column itself and wrapped the blonde in a tight embrace as said blonde hugged Vivi tightly against her chest. The sounds of gunfire were murder on his Faunus hearing, but he gritted his teeth as he forced himself to endure it.

"Arthur, what the hell is going on?!" Yang exclaimed. "What do you mean that's your tech?! Are you with the White Fang?!"

"What the hell, Yang?!" The wolf Faunus snarled. "Like hell I'm with those damned extremists!"

Before the wolf Faunus could explain himself further, the head officer's command to stop firing echoed across the campus.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!"

The guns stopped firing and Mushu eyes gained a sadistic shine as he watched the fear that spread across the populace.

"You are clearly outmatched, but know that I, General Mushu of the White Fang, am not without mercy. Surrender yourselves to the White Fang." Mushu's chuckled darkly before gesturing to the wounded. "Of course, you're welcome to try again with your guns and your bullets. I'm sure there are more people you would like inadvertently hurt in the process of trying to take me down."

"You bastard!" An officer holstered his gun before drawing out an extendable baton. With the flick of a switch, the baton shone with blue light as a powerful electrical current from the Lightning Dust power cores flowed through the weapon. "All units, switch to stun batons! Keep collateral damage and friendly fire to a minimum!"

"No!" Arthur's eyes widened as he and Yang looked out from behind their protective column. "Don't go into close combat! You'll die!"

His words fell on deaf ears as the battle cries from the officers and the whirring of the AK-130s mechanized limbs permeated the air. The head officer who had led charge was the first to reach Mushu, but as he took a wild swing with his electrically charged baton, Mushu leaped high over his head.

Brown eyes widened as Mushu's shadow encompassed the police officer, his last sight being the black talons of the cyborg general.

Mushu's frame was light yet durable, and as such, was capable of dishing out great deals of force as evidenced by his initial landing when he cratered the earth. The ground bore another crater as he bore his entire body weight down on the chief officer's head. His talons dug through skin, bone and brain tissue before the pressure reduced it to a blood stain on the ground.

"You'll pay for that!" Another officer cried out. Her voice was immediately silenced as Mushu turned to her and his leg lashed out like a cobra, his talons acting like fangs as they stabbed themselves into her skull in the same manner they had done to her now deceased superior. With barely any effort, the young woman was raised up into the air before being brought down into the ground headfirst with enough force to break her head into pieces and bury what remained of her neck stump deep beneath the earth like a headless ostrich.

The AK-130s charged in with their own stun batons, and the small squad of five automatons utilized their swift acting AIs to fight the robotic general. Their batons swung in a myriad of styles reflecting the programming which held onto the numerous styles of armed combat that had been downloaded into them. Mushu swung his high frequency sword to slice through the first baton, but his eyes widened when he saw the electrically charged weapon actually block his own. The hum of the HF weapon sung in tandem with the buzzing of the stun baton.

"Analysis confirmed. Target's weapons are emitting high frequency vibrations." One of the AK-130s stated. "Close in on target."

The other AK-130s and the police officers took the information in stride as they rushed in to the attack. Two AK-130s moved for an assault from the front, attacking one after the other, but Mushu raised his blades and batted aside both batons before spinning around and parrying the strikes from the two police officer's. The VPD members were sent skidding backwards from the force of the counter, but they dug their heels in and continued their attacks.

Mushu's lack of skill with the blade showed from how wide his swings were and his footwork was sloppy. Unfortunately for the droids, the general more than made up for it with pure physical might as he was capable of reacting fast enough to block and counter.

"Enough." Mushu's mechanics suddenly whirred to life and to shock of the humans that were watching the battle, the general's torso suddenly began to rotate as if it were a buzzsaw. A ring of silver encircled his body as his rotating torso held off the swings of the stun batons with ease. Sparks of electricity decorated the atmosphere with each deflection, but the continuous attempts to kill him began to take their toll on the human element of the strike team.

Mushu smirked beneath his armoured mask and began to move towards a pair of Vale Police Department's finest. They utilized every single aspect of their combat training as they held back the pair of HF swords, but it was all for naught as the towering komodo dragon Faunus stopped spinning his torso and crashed his blades down upon the pair. The officers gritted their teeth as they were brought to their knees. The sounds of their tibias and fibulas breaking from the impacts were like fire running up their legs, but they weren't able to feel that burning sensation for much longer as Mushu immediately followed up with a horizontal slash that removed the officers' forearms in a shower of blood that stained his armour before he thrust his swords through their chests.

He then twisted the blades in his now deceased victims' chest so that they were horizontal before spinning his torso. He bisected the two humans in the process of turning to block the batons from three AK-130s. The three pushed forward with as much force as they could must, but it was like watching a puppy trying to pick a fight with a Beowolf.

There was no contest.

Mushu released a laugh of legitimate glee as he hopped into the air as he saw how the three robots were lined up in a nice little row for him. With an immense level of flexibility, the komodo dragon Faunus went into a front flip to slam his talons down upon the bodies of two AK-130s and crushed them into scrap metal. Going with the momentum of his fall, Mushu then swung his married blades down upon the third, removing its arms from its torso before hurling his blades in opposite directions and impaling the two remaining AK-130s that attempted to rush him. His swords tore through their armour plated chest cavities like a hot knife through butter before he lashed out with his sharp claws and gripped the last AK-130 by its neck and ankles. With a roar, Mushu slammed the AK-130s back down as he brought his knee up, snapping the robot in half as if it were a twig.

"And then..." He tilted his head slightly and took a brief sniff, satisfaction filling his heart as he caught the whiff of urine. His head snapped in the direction of the cowering VPD officer as she clutched her stun baton like a lifeline, not even aware of the small puddle of yellow that seeped through her pants. "There was one."

He retrieved his swords from the chests of the fallen AK-130s before making his way towards the young woman.

"Such a shame it is when killing a member of law enforcement. You are all so shiny and full of hope that you can change things..." His yellow eyes narrowed as the officer's shaking legs were no longer capable of supporting her weight. "But then you become aware of the fact that even the people that are sworn to protect and serve are just as corrupt and wicked as the Faunus of the White Fang that you all despise so much. It doesn't even matter if they are fellow humans or not, once they are not the pure skin colour of white, you aim your bullets at them. Maybe it's time you join those despicable people you call your comrades in arms."

Mushu raised his arms to deliver the killing blow, but his sixth sense for danger suddenly kicked in as a surge of killing intent was directed at him.

"NOOOO!" Yang punched the air and a blast of red hot Fire Dust rocketed through the air towards the Faunus general. Mushu quickly jumped into the air, avoiding the projectile as it exploded against the ground where he had been standing. The shockwave sent the VPD officer flying back into a support column, but while it had hurt, Yang knew that she was now out of harm's way.

With a blink, lavender orbs became a burning crimson as she glared at Mushu. The komodo dragon Faunus had stabbed his talons into the support column he had leaped towards when avoiding Yang's attack before bending his legs. Unlocking the grasping mechanism of his talons, Mushu pushed off and rocketed towards his blonde target, the HF-blades whining like the turbines of the Bullhead he had been transported in.

Yang cocked Ember Celica before delivering a quick one-two against the air, two rounds of Fire Dust aimed at the oncoming cyborg. Her eyes narrowed and her teeth gritted in annoyance as the Faunus sliced her bullets apart. Fiery explosions occurred directly behind the descending cyborg and the resulting shockwaves acted as an added method of propulsion as he swung his arms back in preparation to strike.

"Bring it!" Yang brought back her own fists in order to counter, but her eyes widened when a firm hand grabbed onto her shoulder and pulled her back. The Y of RWBY stumbled back beside Vivi who remained hidden behind the support column, but her gaze was fixated on Arthur as he reached for the swords. He unsheathed them in an X-shaped manner and the whine of the High Frequency model weapons permeated the air as the two swords of the wolf Faunus met those of the komodo dragon's.

Arthur gritted his teeth as he bent his knees to help disperse the force, but the impact still traversed through his body and the ground beneath his feet cratered as a result. The Beacon graduate snarled, his pupils becoming vertical slits as a more bestial part of him surfaced, and with a howl not unlike the animal portion of his DNA, he pushed Mushu back.

The yellow eyed cyborg's arms were sent skyward before Arthur spun on his heels and lashed out with a strong kick to Mushu's abdomen. A loud CLANG echoed across the campus, but steel grey Aura acted as an augmentation to the young huntsman's below average strength. The cyborg was sent skidding backwards, but his talons dug into the ground, carving small trenches as friction brought him to a halt a few feet away.

"Oh." Mushu's eyes glanced between his own weapons and Arthur's. "Wily wasn't joking when he said that his designs were on par with yours."

"That damned coyote wouldn't know a resistor from a capacitor." Arthur's words came off of his tongue as if they were coated in venom

Mushu laughed as he spun his wrists in a full 360 degree range of motion, his swords singing as they sliced through the air. "My My little pup, how you've grown in the past few years."

"Shut up!" The wolf Faunus snapped. "I have and never will be involved with the White Fang! I worked hard to earn my place among the humans! I put my blood, sweat and tears to be a beacon in the scientific community to help in bringing peace, justice and security to the four kingdoms!"

"Tell that to the Gari tribe."

The genius engineer growled at Mushu, his fangs bared and his knuckles clenching so hard around the hilts of his swords that they were turning almost as white as his hair. Blue eyes then shifted as a pair of boots planted themselves firmly beside him.

"Yang..." Arthur glanced at the Y of RWBY and made a gesture with his head to the support column behind them. "Take Vivi and run."

"No." She cocked Ember Celica once more. "I'm not letting you take on this bastard all on your own."

"You're strong, Yang, but you can't handle this guy. Not with the weapons he has." Arthur raised his own swords as he shifted into a more stable combat stance. "The swords utilizing the principle of oscillation, running a high level of electrical charge through the blades in order to vibrate the molecules and allow them to basically cut through anything they come into contact with. The only counter against those types of weapons are other High Frequency model weapons or if an electrical current runs through your weapon in the same manner as the stun batons the VPD was currently using."

"How do you..."

"Because I invented the HF model weapons." Was the answer to the incomplete question. Yang's eyes widened. "I don't know how and I don't know when, but somehow...some way...the White Fang reverse engineered my tech and trust me Yang, if you join in this fight, at the very least...you're going to get that arm of yours sliced apart like it wasn't even there."

"But Arthur you..."

"I SAID TAKE VIVI AND RUN!" Yang backpedaled as the wolf Faunus's blue eyes burned with a rage that was not meant for her. "I WILL NOT HAVE SOMETHING OF OWN CREATION TAKE AWAY MORE INNOCENT LIVES! NOT YOURS AND ESPECIALLY NOT VIVI'S! NOT WHILE I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT!"

"...Ok." Yang nodded as she retreated and picked up Vivi. "But you come back to me. Alive. You hear me wolfy. You come back to me."

The son of the Mother Country nodded stiffly, his tears twitching as he heard the rapid footfalls of the member of Team RWBY running off to safety. As the sounds of them running away became more distant, Arthur exhaled the breath he didn't even realize he had been holding.

"That's speech was adorable, pup."

"And you're going to be dead, you overgrown garden snake."

"Oooo." Mushu laughed in genuine amusement. "The little nerd's got some fight in him."

"I'm not a graduate of the most prestigious hunter academy in the kingdom for nothing, you monster." The married blades that made up X-Caliburn sang their song once more as their wielder pointed the tips of their blades at Mushu. "This is a place of learning and innovation, and you desecrated it with the blood of innocent humans. You injured your fellow Faunus in the process as well. I'll make you regret ever using my own weapons against these innocent people. They didn't deserve to get hurt or die. Especially not by the likes of you."

"Pretty words, but what's a little pup like you going to do against me?" The komodo dragon Faunus chuckled as he straightened his back, showcasing his intimidating seven foot frame once more. "I am a powerful weapon of the White Fang outfitted with the greatest in bio-engineering technology that the four kingdoms will ever see. You are merely flesh and blood. Weak, even by the standards of the Faunus. How do you think you'll be able to stand against me, boy?"

Arthur was quiet as he reached a hand into one of the inner pockets of his lab coat, disguising the motion by dramatically making it seem as if he were shedding the white cloth.

"Standing up against stronger opponents as weak as I am...that's no good, general. I knew that I was never much of a fighter, even by Faunus standards. I am an academic to my very core, but I wanted to be a huntsman more than anything. I knew...that if I didn't get stronger then I wouldn't be able to help the people that I swore to protect the moment I received my graduation diploma from Beacon."

The images of Ozpin, Glynda, Team BLMK, Vivi and now Yang Xiao Long appeared in his mind's eye.

"I have people that I want to protect within these walls, not just from the Creatures of Grimm, but from people like you who are a threat to their safety."

"Then what do you plan to do?"

"Like I said before, I'm weak. There are people who are more monster than man, whose strength and skill I can never hope to match." The images of Byron and Kiran came to the forefront of his mind. "Even though they are so much better than me, I want to fight alongside them as best as I can. So I used science to help me with that."

Mushu watched the wolf Faunus's coat fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, but then his sensory inputs picked up on the sound of Arthur grunting. A syringe filled with what looked like a violet coloured liquid was injected into the brachial vein and the blue eyed huntsman tossed the syringe aside, panting heavily as the effects of the strange drug began to take effect.

'What the hell?!' Mushu's eyes widened as the normally pale skin of the Mother Country native suddenly began to take on a reddish hue, steam rising from his pores as the air around him rippled from the heat his body was releasing. 'What is happening to his body?'

"You wanna fight, general." Arthur growled as he gripped his swords tightly as a guttural growl built up within his throat. "LET'S GO!"


(A/N: And that's it for this chapter. Personally I was gonna include the fight with Arthur and Mushu in this same chapter, but it was really beginning to feel as if it was dragging out so I decided to call it quits at this point. However, next chapter is gonna be just as action packed as Arthur takes on the bionic menace that is Mushu. Also, for those of you curious as to what Mushu's new body looks like, just look at General Grievous from Star Wars and that is the exact idea I had concerning Mushu.

The beginnings of this entire story arc are also a bit of character building for Arthur. Since he's an OC that will eventually get put on the back burner for a decent percentage of the story's later arcs, I planned to flesh him out as much as I could with this arc so that he will gain some semblance of being an important character to the overall story as well as give some likability to his character.

Anyway, I have chapter 10 already in the beginning stages and since it will be jumping almost immediately into the action sequences, I can say for sure that if I weren't also working on my other stories that this chapter 10 would also have been completed by tomorrow at the earliest. Obviously, that's not going to be case since this is my least popular story and Dragonslayer and Millennium Wars are going to be experiencing action based chapters as well.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, remember to leave a review and tell me what you think!)