Chapter 10
Home Alone Part Two
I was currently sitting in the expansive garden of the Schnee Mansion. I had tasked Weiss with finding me inside of the labyrinth of a garden. It was big, even by my standards. The task was to search the garden and locate me. The only twist was the fact that I was sat right behind where she started. The point was to test her patience. I had taken the time to think about the past day.
When I revealed my identity to Weiss' father yesterday, he had taken it with a grain of salt, demanding for his daughter to get medical attention. When doctors saw her arm, they had taken it as another disease and tried to treat it. But when they conducted a blood test, they saw that there were tiny nanobots in her blood, proving my point. I then started to explain it in further detail, taking the entire evening. By the morning, I had gotten news that Weiss' grandfather would be returning shortly. I had tasked Weiss with this, hoping that her patience would hold up until I could eliminate him. Apparently, 'shortly' had entirely different meaning in the Schnee family.
It had been several hours since I had sat down, and I was becoming impatient. Not with waiting, but with my target's extreme delay. That was until Weiss walked out of the maze, frustrated.
"What the hell! I spent a whole four hours in there, and you were right here?!" Weiss shouted angrily. My impatience subsided and I returned to normal.
"This was a patience test. I gave you an objective that didn't exist so you would search until you gave up" I partially lied. It was just a window to eliminate her grandfather before he could breed more violence and problems.
"Alright, so let's move onto something more practical" Weiss offered, making me slightly displeased with her lack of care for patience.
"That seems fair, do you wish to continue the exercise from yesterday?" I asked, producing the blindfolds.
"Where are the sticks?" She asked. I unsheathed my greatsword.
"How am I supposed to block a greatsword with Myrtenaster?"
"That is what we are about to learn" I answered. I put on my own blindfold and continued the routine, starting with slow, easy strikes and slowly speeding up. Due to the lack of protection gear, I had to be especially careful not to hit her with missed strikes. I had pulled over one of the servants to act as a judge and to be sure that no one misconceived the match as a real fight.
Somewhere in the middle of the fight, Weiss started countering me. This surprised me, but I liked it. It was one thing to defend blind, but to fight blind is considerably harder. Of course, this didn't mean I wouldn't counter her. Eventually, it transformed into a full on battle. If it weren't for the audience, it could easily be seen as a fight between masters.
Eventually, the sound of distant shouting interrupted our battle. It quickly ceased and we lifted our blindfolds as the crowd parted. There was a short old man that resembled the man from the paintings around the mansion. He wore a white business suit and was surrounded by humanoid combat droids. Next to him was a teenage boy in a black suit with black hair and green eyes. His face just dripped with arrogance.
"What's this all about? Weiss, I told you to prepare for the guests! Not brawl with some delinquent!" The old man in the center shouted. I found anger bubbling up, but I suppressed it.
"Well grandpa, Master Frost thought it would be more beneficial for me if I were to-"
"I don't care what some other idiot says, you do what I say, understood?" The man shouted.
"No, I don't understand. Why would I listen to a pompous old man who only cares about his company, and not a highly trained warrior that tries to improve my life and attitude? Please do explain" Weiss retorted calmly and mockingly.
"I like her" The boy next to the old man grinned.
"Good, because you're going to be marrying her, whether she likes it or not!"
"And you! Who do you think you are, telling my granddaughter what to do! You should feel ashamed of yourself!"
"You have no control over your children, and much less your grandchildren. You cannot force them to say, think or feel the way you want them to. I cannot either. But I do give suggestions. And as her mentor, she trusts me and listens to them. It doesn't matter what you think of me, because I know that she sees me as not only her mentor, but her friend. If you wish to change her view of me, then all it will ever be, is a wish" I responded calmly, shutting everyone up. Even the boisterous old man was silenced by my words.
"Dust, I'm hot" Weiss removed the jacket and threw it to the floor, moving close to me to cool down.
"You bet you are" The boy said, grinning cheekily.
"Go to hell!" Weiss shouted at the boy, but he unfortunately kept his shit-eating grin.
"Weiss, you are coming with me" He demanded, having the droids approach her and pull her away. I lifted my fist into the air and smashed it into the ground, causing a wave of razor sharp icy spikes to erupt from the ground in a straight line, impaling the robots and easily disabling them.
"I believe that we should return to that exercise, Weiss" I said, ignoring the angry old man. She nodded and we continued with our previous momentum. Almost immediately, I detected a fist coming from my right. I ducked under it and swept their leg out, knocking the assailant to the floor and narrowly dodging a sword strike and continuing the fight. I heard another "What is going on here!" and ignored it, keeping my flow.
Another fist came from my side. I rolled to the side and kicked at the location of their knee, knocking the attacker to the floor and kicking them in the head, easily knocking them out. It seemed Weiss realized what was happening, because her attacks ceased. I quickly transitioned from a fight with Weiss to a fight with my unidentified attackers. My targets seemed to be mechanical, because when I hit them, my fist met hard metal.
Soon, screams echoed throughout the garden. I lifted the blindfold and observed my surroundings. The robots I was fighting were not Schnee, but instead had the White Fang insignia on them. They were all disabled, but Weiss seemed to be fighting some of her own, with the blindfold off.
"Weiss! Clear the garden of these robots! I will clear the front!" I shouted to her.
"What about inside!" She responded, stabbing a robot in the face.
"Your security will have to be enough!" I shouted back. I ran out to the front and saw a battlefield. White Fang troops and robots were attacking the security staff, and the staff was losing. I activated my helmet and leapt into battle, chopping an enemy's sword in half and kicking him in the head. Realizing the new threat, a group of four charged me. I created a wall of ice in front of me and smashed it, sending icy shards flying at the group and impaling them all over. The remaining security staff had hunkered down in a large gazebo and their cover was waning.
I pulled out my Penta and started firing grenades into the attacking forces. I exploded all five at once, utterly destroying the attacking force. I rushed to aid the confused staff.
"Are there any casualties?" I asked rushing to the aid of the troops.
"No, but who are you?" The one who appeared to be the captain asked.
"I'm Weiss' personal tutor. I just arrived, so you may not know me" I partially lied.
"You should all fall back to the mansion. There are reinforcements arriving soon, I can handle them. You need to do your job here" I suggested. The captain nodded and collected his troops. I saw several holes in the walls and launched a grenade in each. I fired my last at the front gate.
A minute later, five Bullheads landed outside of the walls, but one was a cargo ship. A few seconds later, men rushed through the holes in the walls. I detonated the explosives and deployed a large snow globe for protection. As they entered, they were massively slowed, giving me the upper hand. A few realized this and started firing at the globe, only for their shots to bounce off. One man tried firing in the globe, but the bullet didn't have enough velocity and it just fell to the floor.
I hacked away at the men entering the globe until none remained. A loud thud sounded behind me and I whipped around to see a massive metal monster. It was bigger than Vey Hek's Frame. Two massive cannons were aimed at me. Two shots of Dust shattered the globe, sending the blizzard outside and filling the air with a thick mist. In order to locate the mech's weaknesses, I created several ice sculptures of myself around the courtyard.
I lured it out into the middle so I could get a look at the back. As it blasted away at the fakes, I noticed a panel on the back. It had much more armor than the rest of the mech and was slightly smaller. That must be where the engine is.
I tried sneaking up and slicing right through it, but my sword bounced off. It whipped around and smacked me away, sending me flying at a wall. I was able to recover midair and flip away from several explosive shells. I sprinted around trying to lose it, but it kept its sights on me. Red laser guidance systems were trained on me. Heavy machine gun fire struck right behind me, forcing me to run faster. Missile pods opened up and fired homing rockets. I created a wall of ice, causing it to shatter into sharp shards that I threw back at the robot, disabling the turrets. Then I realized something.
"The superheated plasma from my Detron should melt the armor and let me in" I thought. I quickly changed course to run directly at the robot. I got hit once, but my shields took the full hit, instantly dissipating them. I pulled out my Detron and started firing when I was in range. Like I thought, the plasma melted through part of the metal, but it was very thick. In a short run, I was able to disable the reloading system on the left arm, but it was switched for a fist. I rolled out of the way of a downward smash.
I leapt up onto the mech's head, stabbing Galatine into the top. I was rewarded with a wall of sparks and electricity. The robot jumped high into the air, flinging me off and attempted to shoot me out of the air. Instead, it hit a large snowball that exploded and fell into the hole in the top. The water caused the robot to temporarily shut down, giving me my chance. I latched onto the back and fired Detron into the armor plate. It melted through, revealing the Dust engine. I then took Galatine and thrust it into the hole, causing Dust to spill out into the machine. I shot a grenade inside and flipped off the back, just as it came online. I detonated the grenade and I was granted a fireworks display of multicolored explosions. I ran back behind the mansion and saw Weiss decapitate her last combat droid.
"Is the area clear?" I asked Weiss. She nodded.
"What was that explosion?" She asked, sheathing her rapier.
"The White Fang had a large robot"
"You mean a Paladin Mech?" She asked, surprised "How did they get one of those?"
"Well, they no longer have it"
"You took it out on your own?" Weiss asked.
"I did"
"No wonder they all think of you as a master"
"It honestly wasn't immensely difficult. If it had shielding I would need reinforcements" I replied.
"Well, I'm exhausted. Perhaps we should eat some lunch" Weiss said. I nodded, walking inside and going to the location of the dining room. There was nothing in the room, so I went into the kitchen and found some food already prepared. I piled up a large plate and reentered the dining room and taking a seat. Weiss sat down next to me and we devoured our food. I was really hot and sweaty, so I completely froze my chair.
"Weiss, now is not the time to eat! Get in here until the White Fang are gone!" Weiss' father peeked in from a nearby door.
"Oh, them? They're gone" Weiss said through a mouthful of food.
"What?"
"All White Fang confirmed dead or unconscious" I reported. Michael retreated into the room and said something to the people inside. Then the door opened, revealing Weiss' father and grandfather, the idiot from earlier and a fair number of servants.
"I knew the security staff could be trusted" The old man said. Then the captain from the courtyard showed up.
"I'm sure you made sure those faunas scum were dealt with" The business owner said to the captain.
"Actually sir, this man here assisted us when we were pinned down. He suggested for us to retreat and I'm glad we did. A Paladin Mech showed up, and if we hadn't fallen back, we would be dead. I owe my life to him" The soldier gestured to me.
"You owe me nothing. It is not the purpose of a Grandmaster to collect debts. My rank of Grandmaster was not achieved because I can punch and kick. I could teach a monkey to punch and kick. But you cannot simply teach kindness and respect. The inability to show these traits creates hate, hate creates sorrow, sorrow creates emptiness, emptiness creates darkness, and darkness creates destruction. The prevention of this destruction is the purpose of a Grandmaster" I said. I then turned to Weiss' grandfather.
"And you are the primary manifestation of this ignorance I try to get rid of. Your lands are the breeding grounds of these things just because you can't merely wrap your simple mind around the concept of the faunas as people. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is entitled to all sentient beings. You have taken that right from them, but at what cost? Think about this, your ignorance towards the faunas was the turning point that started the war. How many humans died in that war? Hundreds? Thousands?" I continued. The old man's smug face changed at the thought.
"How do you feel? Knowing just how much death you've caused in your kind, just because you want to keep up a petty illusion of power and control? So the next time you look at your company policies, think about how many are dead because you don't cherish the little life there is on this tiny rock in space" I spat and stood up, everyone looking at me in awe. I walked away, everyone's gaze following me.
"There are billions of stars in this galaxy. Millions have planets. Thousands have terrestrial planets. Mere tens, have life. Think about that"
DAMN! Frost laid it out! So, ten chapters! Woo! In case anyone was wondering about the increased frequency of chapters lately, it's because I found a technique that helps me get ideas quicker and write chapters really fast. I listen to The Clubbing of Isaac, hit the keys, and bang! Chapter! Because of this, I will be posting more frequently. Keep your eyes open, there will be a lot more where this came from. Thanks for reading, follow and favorite if you would like to see more. Necrorizah, out.