RWBY Destiny 11
"Go for the eye!" Pyrrha cried out to Jaune, whose shield was wedged in between the massive jaws of the Ursula. It was the only thing keeping the beast from devouring him in one bite.
"I would," he grunted out. "But I'm kind of stuck like this." Right now he was the only thing standing between Ren and the monster. The Asian boy had been felled by one massive swoop of the beast's paw as he had tried to shove Nora out of the way. Nora was cradling the boy's head right now, trying to gently move the boy's body to a safer part of the camp. Ever since the monsters had appeared they had trashed the camp, ripping the tent apart, putting out the fire, throwing the space into darkness. Only the monster's red eyes gave away where they were otherwise the team was fighting blind.
The monster Jaune was holding back shook it's head, trying to wretch Jaune off of his feet. It almost worked but the boy stuck his sword into the ground to hold him steady. He wished he could shove it inside the monster's eye instead but it was too out of the reach of his blade. Shit, he cursed under his breath as he felt his shield arm almost pulled out of the socket by the monster's violent head thrashing. "Nora, is Ren out of the way?" he called over his shoulder.
"He's fine," was her response. "But he's bleeding heavily and we need to get his wounds wrapped up soon." Her voice was heavy with concern and anger at the Grimm. "You can let the beast go, Jaune. I'll teach him a lesson for messing with us!" Jaune knew that Nora had Maghilgard in her hands. She was about to do some heavy damage with it.
"I wish I could but, the shield is kind of...stuck there pretty good," he admitted with a wince at his inability to even maneuver his blade usefully.
"Then keep him steady and I'll set you free," Nora changed plans and Jaune wished he could only keep the beast still. But that wasn't up to him. "I don't want you getting hurt in the way," Nora added and at moment the monster whipped up it's head, growling furiously, lifting up the blonde haired boy from the ground by a couple of inches, only his sword stopping him from going up any higher. Now both Jaune's shield and sword hand felt like they were going to pulled out of their sockets. His grip was slipping due to the pain, it felt like he was going to be torn in half and he didn't want that.
"Just do it!" Jaune called out, feel the sweat pouring down his back.
In the meantime, Yang and Pyrrha were taking on the second Grimm. The red haired girl wondered how the camp had so quickly become ruined, how Ren had gotten hurt so quickly. They had only been fighting for five minutes and already they were struggling. These Grimm were strong, bigger than Ursula were usually. It lifted a hand up at her and she lifted her shield, hoping she had guess right at where it would strike her. The dark in the Never After was like thick ink. They were all fighting blindly which was never a good thing to be doing in the Never After.
The monster's massive paw hit her in the shield mostly. She had miscalculated by a couple of inches and the beasts claws caught the edge of her shield in a wide sweeping arc and she was dragged off her feet with the momentum of it, stumbling onto her ankle wrongly and going down with a small grunt.
"Pyrrha, are you okay?" Yang asked in concern, her voice coming somewhere from the other side of the Grimm.
"I'm fine, just keep attacking it," Pyrrha rose to her feet, feeling the whoosh of another claw aimed at her missing her by an inch or two.
"That's what I'm doing," Yang grunted out. It was so dark. She was afraid to shoot off her gauntlets in case she hit someone from the team and not the beast. She could punch it, but she needed to be closer to it and she couldn't risk doing that unless she could see better. She could attack it with her semblance, then it would give everyone enough light to see by and give her enough strength to total the Grimm. But the only way her semblance could ever be activate was if she was angry enough, which she rarely ever got unless it concerned her hair, or if she took a lot of damage from an opponent. But she and the team didn't have enough time to wait for her to fill up damage. They needed her semblance now.
So she grabbed a fistful of her hair and tugged hard. Hard enough to bring tears to her eyes and to pull out a strand or too. Her semblance flared to life around her, drawing the attention of everyone present. The whole area lit up and the team had to blink their eyes several times in order to adjust their eyes to the blind light.
"You Grimm have pissed me off. You made me rip out my own hair. Do you see this?" Yang angrily demonstrated the two long blonde strands wrapped around her fingers. The Grimm she had been fighting turned it's massive head to look at her. It was clearly attracted to her bright lights. "I'm going to make you pay for this," Yang cocked back her hand with the hair on it and then punched the monster. It's white mask cracked and sank in on itself from the impact. Yang felt power coursing through her veins. She knew she hadn't killed the thing, not yet, given it's pain filled cry. But now that she had powered up she knew this one and the one behind her would be no match.
The Grimm that had been focused on Jaune and Nora turned to Yang, intrigued on this bright spectacle. "Noraaaaa!" Jaune cried out as his grip on his sword dropped away and he was left being tugged along with the Grimm whose mouth was still stuck on his shield.
"I'm coming!" the orange haired girl ran after him, hefting her weapon up in her hands.
Ruby had tracked down the last two Grimm who had escaped her. Their scent lead them very deep into the woods, away from Ruby's home. But she wasn't worried about the long trek getting back. Her semblance would help her get there in no time. She was more worried about the Grimm escaping her.
Their acidic scent soon was infused with other scents. Scents that Ruby did not recognize, save for the coppery scent of blood and fire. Someone was injured but who? Who could it be? There were four, no five, distinct scents wafting up to her nose on the gentle breeze. One was gentle, like flowers but permeated with blood. Another charged with ozone, lighting before a thunder storm. The third was softy and buttery, almost like cookies, the fourth a scent that reminded her of autumn. It was a spiced scent and heavy. The last scent...the last scent was hard to place. Whoever was making it seemed to have come from various places, picking up and absorbing the many scents of the places she had visited. It was like opening up a picture books, like going on the adventures herself, Ruby thought as she inhaled the scents. They were weak but gradually getting stronger. She let her eyes shut briefly as she swerved through the dark, nimbly avoiding trees and other objects. She could practically paint a scene with that person's scent. Hints of something salty and sandy, of something soft and warm to eat, of something sweet but tangy. It all mixed and matched. Ruby had been so wrapped up in drinking in the scents and picturing the places such scents came from, that she almost didn't realize she had drawn near to the place. Cautiously, for an orange glow from coming from the area, she slowed down. She could hear Grimm roars and over them, the sound of voices. Human voices. She clambered onto a branch silently and watched from above the scene below. Her heart leapt into her throat as she spotted four humans surrounded by two Ursula, and one of those humans was on fire. What were humans doing here? Was Ruby not the last huntress after all? They were carrying weapons with them, and using them to fight back. She was excited. Finally, she wouldn't be alone!
She needed to help them. She didn't want them to get hurt. The girl who was on fire was casting enough light for Ruby to note a fifth member, slumped against the tree and holding his side. He was the one who was hurt. She unfolded Crescent Rose from it's place by her hip and jumped down. She'd use her semblance to speed things up. She really wanted to talk to them, and given the injured boy, she had to get him some help. She leapt into the fray below her, angling her blade just right. Within moments she had slain the two beasts.
When the humans realized that the two monsters they had been trying to kill were suddenly dead, they all turned to one another with confused and wary faces. "What just happened?" Nora asked, as she caught Jaune in her arms from where he had finally managed to pull free from the monster before it hit the floor with a heavy thud. Jaune let the girl drop him, before he walked over to where his sword was still lodged into the ground.
"Uh, maybe we killed them?" he asked hopefully as he pulled out his sword-or at least tried to. It was stuck and he placed both hands on the handle to pull, his neck tendons sticking out as he threw his head back to give him more leverage.
"I don't think we did," Pyrrha said slowly, her eyes roaming over the wide expanse of the area they were in. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary-right there! She noticed a flicker of movement in the bushes. Was it another Grimm? One that had killed their Grimm? But Grimm didn't attack each other and they most certainly didn't do It so stealthily. She raised her javelin, hand tight on it.
"Yang, keep your semblance going," the red head instructed as she slowly walked over to where she had seen the bushes move. Jaune was still busy trying to pull his sword out, this time both his feet were on the hilt, helping him to pull it out, not that it was moving any.
"Don't worry, I'm not stopping it." Yang was still pissed off that she hadn't gotten a chance to kill the Grimm herself.
"What's going on?" Nora asked. "What are we hunting down now?"
"I don't know," Pyrrha admitted. "But don't let your guard down. Whatever it was was strong enough to kill the Grimm without us noticing it."
"That sounds scary," Nora voiced. "We have to get out of here and go back to the wall. We need to get Ren help too." She moved over to the boy but Pyrrha held up a hand to stop her. "Don't stray far from the camp. We could get attacked."
"But Ren is all the way over by that tree. What if he gets hurt?" Nora fretted, not feeling at all okay in leaving her best friend to get hurt.
"He'll be fine. He won't be seen as a threat by whatever it is that is hunting us, because he's injured," Pyrrha eyed the bushes but nothing was there. And she could see nothing in the branches either. Had the thing moved to another area around the camp? She twirled around on her heel, her sudden movement startling Yang and Nora both who were standing behind her. "What, did you see something?" Yang asked, eyeing Jaune who was next to her and still struggling with the sword. She pulled him off of it by the back of his hoodie and dropped him to the ground roughly on his butt.
"Hey!" he cried out indignantly but was later appeased and said a hasty thanks when Yang pulled free the sword he had been struggling with, with one sharp tug of her hand. "Keep this handy, something's out there," she said, still waiting on Pyrrha's answer to her previous question. The red haired girls eyes were trained on the woods around them, ears pricked. Her eyes were glazed over as if she was in her own inner world. No doubt she was intently focusing on the sounds and sights around them, and not on conversation. Whatever it was that had slaughtered the Grimm was strong. And fast.
And still here.
Ruby was watching the group of people. She was sitting perched on a dead body of one of the Grimm she had slain, the one that the group of people were facing with their backs. She had wanted to introduce herself to them, but they looked to be thinking of her as a threat. She pouted and propped her head up on her arms, her weapon sticking hilt up from where she had stuck it into the Grimm. She had slain the both of them and then retreated into the woods to gauge the reaction of the people to her monster killing abilities. Instead of being happy they had gotten suspicious of her. Now how was she going to introduce herself to them? She let out a sigh and looked up into the sky. The stars were barely visible. The blonde haired woman's fire was too bright, it was blocking out the stars. How was she even able to do that? Did she have a semblance like Ruby did?
Oooooooooo, Ruby really wanted to meet them. She was practically squirming with excitement. She hadn't spoken to anyone in years except for her weapon. "I'll always value your company," she softly told him. "But I really want to talk to them. I need to know if they are huntsmen like me! This could change everything. I won't have to be alone anymore. I could have friends!" Ruby's excited whisper rose and she pulled her blade free, keeping it handy in case the others wanted to be violent and then slid off the dead Grimm, deciding she could wait no more in speaking to them.
"Uh, hello?" She waved her hand, fixing her face with the best smile she could. Instantly all the team turned on their heel to look at her, weapons rising.
"Who are?" the red head asked, her voice harsh. The sight before them had caught everyone off guard. Instead of a monster there was a young girl in front of them, wearing a red blood stained cloak and carrying a massive scythe. Who was she? Her face looked innocent but her weapon told otherwise.
"I'm Ruby Rose! I thought I was the only one, but I'm glad I'm not," she said cheerily. They had to be hunters. Even the posture their bodies were held in told of the conflicts and battles they had been.
"The only one?" the orange haired girl asked.
"Yes. The last huntress," Ruby said simply, her words causing some sort of chain reaction on the group's face.
"Oh," the red haired girl made a funny shape with her mouth. "Jaune, this is, is this what we've been looking for?" she turned to the blonde haired boy in the group who must have been Jaune.
"I...I believe so," he stuttered out at last, disbelief on his face.
Ruby frowned. They didn't want to attack her it seemed, as they collectively put down their weapons. But they had been looking for her? Why? Had their village also been destroyed and they had been sent to find her so that they could kill the Grimm together?
The red haired girl nodded her head at Jaune's words. "Ruby Rose," she said in a stately manner, rolling her shoulders back. "My name is Pyrrha Nikos, this here is Jaune Arc, that is Nora Valkeryine, our friend Ren Lie is over there, and this is Yang." Pyrrha pointed at the respective people in kind. So Ren is the injured one. Should probably get that fixed.
"Yang Xiao Long," Yang supplied when the blonde realized that she had never imparted her last name to them.
"Oh, nice to meet you all!" Ruby smiled as they introduced themselves. "I must say I'm so happy to meet you all! It's been ages since I last saw anyone. What are you guys doing here? You must be far from your village." Her words were sort of running one into the other from how quickly she was talking.
"Ruby, we came to ask for your help," Jaune started, figuring it was just best to go with it. He still couldn't believe it. They had found one. An actual huntress. Or at least what looked like to be a real one. They would have to question her about it. They had only thought those were tales. Now came the hard part-getting her to come with them to hunt down Winter.
"You didn't need help with slaying the Grimm?" Ruby tipped her head to her side, confused. They had looked to be in trouble. Maybe they were upset she had slaughtered their prey. But she had wanted badly to talk to them.
"No, uh, thanks for that," Jaune seemed a bit caught off guard by her statement.
"How did you do it? How did you kill the Grimm without showing up?" Pyrrha asked, genuinely interested.
"We can ask that later, Pyrrha," Jaune said.
"Oh, it's no biggie. I have a semblance. It makes me super fast." To demonstrate, Ruby activated it and did a quick lap around the camp before ending up behind them. This left the guests scratching their heads.
"Where did she-?" Jaune asked and Pyrrha turned around and jumped when she saw Ruby was behind them. "That's fast," she commented and Ruby smiled.
"Wow, her powers are so cool," Nora gushed.
"Thanks. I trained really hard."
"Ruby-" but a loud groan from Ren stopped Jaune.
"Oh no, Ren!" Nora fretted and rushed over to him. "We need to go back to the wall and get help."
"The wall?" Ruby echoed. "What's that?" Were they talking about The Wall? She had heard of it, but never been to see it.
"It's this giant wall that's bordering the Never After. Have you never seen it?" Pyrrha asked. Ruby shook her head no. "I don't really have time to go exploring. But from the scent of it," Ruby inhaled deeply, turning her attentions to a more prevalent issue. Ren had bleed out a lot, the coppery tang of it overpowering his flowery scent. "Ren isn't going to make it to the wall. He needs help now." Her happy demeanor was lost, giving way to a more serious one. Someone was hurt. She couldn't let them down!
"Can you take him to the wall for us? You're fast enough," Nora asked, eyes pleading.
Ruby shook her head no. "He'll be fine. I'll patch him up. All he needs is a good night's rest and his aura will do the rest for him." She approached Ren and knelt down by him, lifting up his blood stained shirt and examining his wound. "It's not deep, so that's good, but it's not closing and the aura needs some help with that before it can do the rest of the work. Do you have some needles and antiseptics?" Ruby turned to Nora who nodded her head and rushed over to the remains of the ruined camp and their supplies.
"I'll help!" Pyrrha offered.
"Me too," Jaune joined in the rapid search.
"And I'll just stand here and light everything up, cause if I touch anything I'll light it up in the bad way," Yang said and took up an advantageous position in the middle of the camp so that she could spread the glow of her semblance evenly.
"Got it!" Pyrrha called out, popping up, a med kit in her hands. She rushed over to Ruby who took it gratefully and expertly opened it up and got to work on fixing up Ren's wounds. She had had to fix her own wounds too many times to count, stitches littering her battle worn body. So to do it to someone else was easy. Within minutes she had his wound shut up and cleansed. Her actions garnered her a mini audience not that she minded. Never before had someone watched her at work. It was nice to hear their praise and thanks.
"Thank you so much Ruby!" Nora pulled Ruby into a bone crushing hug. Yup, definitely a huntress, Ruby concluded as her airways were cut off minutely. Nora then set the shorter girl back down to her feet and went to go sit by Ren who had stayed quiet through out the pain of the stitching. Nora offered him some water and pain pills.
"He'll be as good as new in the morning. I'm afraid your camp won't be," Ruby gave a sad look at the state of it. Then a smile graced her lips. "But no issue. You guys can come stay at mine for the night."
"And where is it?" Jaune asked, grateful that they would have shelter.
"Oh, about 50 meters that way," Ruby wrinkled up her nose thoughtfully.
"That far!" Jaune squeaked out. "We'll never make it that far out!"
It's far? Ruby mussed to herself. Maybe to her it wasn't but to these travelers...there was no telling how far they had come from. Maybe they were tired. And here Ruby was faced with a dilemma. She wanted to help them, she really did, but she had to get to bed. If she wasn't well rested tomorrow, then she wouldn't be able to fight off the daily horde of Grimm. Of course, she also couldn't just leave them here. They could get eaten alive, or lost. While they were hunters they didn't seem to have the familiarity she had.
"Alright, hop aboard the Ruby express," Ruby jerked a thumb to herself. "I'll bring you guys over to my camp." She would have to run them back and forth in order to get them to the safety of her camp.
The team gave her an odd look. "You're not seriously going to carry all of us, are you?" Yang pointed in disbelief at the small girl.
"Not at the same time, no. But I think I can manage two at a time." Ruby was confident in her strength. She might have been uncertain before, but living in the woods and facing beasts made of nightmares and having survived all that, made her sure of her powers and the limits of them.
Yang did not share a similar sentiment. "You look kinda small there, kiddo." The bright embers of her semblance was dying down, leaving the group on the dark once more.
"Not to worry. I may be small but I am strong," Ruby said, taking no offense from this tall blonde woman. And to prove her point she zoomed over to her and picked her up with one arm and threw her over her slender shoulder. "Whose next?" Ruby asked, while Yang blinked slowly, only now registering what had happened.
"Hey! You can put me down!" She flailed her legs frantically, careful not to hit Ruby but the brunette didn't even really mind this. She turned an expectant smile over to the rest of the team who exchanged glances with one another.
"Jaune...?" Pyrrha asked, wordlessly conveying her uncertainty to him. It was his call to make. They had found a huntress and she was offering shelter to them. What did they do? His first bet was that he wanted to leave the woods with her. But he couldn't just dump his problem on her. What if she didn't want to leave the woods? What if she didn't want to help them? Then what?
All he knew was that he wanted his team rested and safe and he knew that Ruby could be trusted. She was small, and friendly looking, her face innocent and big silver eyes wide and hopeful. Open, and trustworthy.
Silver eyes, huh? That was an odd color. Something about it tickled his brain. A tale about silver eyed hunters and how unique they were. But he couldn't remember the rest so he gave up on it.
"We'll take your offer, Ruby. Thank you."
"No problem," Ruby smiled. Yang was now pushing on Ruby's shoulder to get the girl to let go but the brunette wouldn't budge. It was almost disheartening to the adventurer. She was used to always being, if not the strongest, then close to being stronger than anyone else. And here she was pretty much unable to free herself from the clutches of a young girl. How old even was she? Where was her mother?
Yang gave a resigned sigh when she saw she wasn't going anywhere and crossed her arms, cheeks flushed red in embarrassment over her failure to go anywhere.
"But whose going to go next?" Pyrrha asked, trusting Jaune's choice. "We have an odd number. Someone will get left behind and in these woods, it won't be safe."
"I can't leave Ren behind. I'm going with him," Nora insisted, protectively hugging him closer. His unconscious head lolled against her chest.
"I'll stay behind," Jaune voiced out, gulping deeply. He was the weakest out of all of them but he didn't want their skills and talent go to waste. If anyone had to be struck down he'd rather it be him. It wasn't like he contributed anything good to the team anyways.
"No." Pyrrha leveled him with a hard gaze. "If anyone it should be me. I have more experience in battle. I'll be able to hold my own against the Grimm."
Ruby was confused by what the team was talking about. "Uh, you do realize there are no Grimm around here."
Now it was their turn to be confused.
"What do you mean? We just got attacked by two Grimm," Yang said over Ruby's shoulder.
"Yea, but that was only because I missed the two of them. I got a bit sloppy today. Otherwise there are no other Grimm around."
"What?" Nora tipped her head. "But these woods are rumored to be crawling with monsters."
Ruby shook her head. "Nope. The Grimm only show up in the mornings. And then I have to kill them all. By the time sunset arrives they stop coming out. And then it starts all over again. So there are no Grimm at night." Could they not smell the fresh quality of the air? It meant no Grimm were around to stink it up.
"Excuse me...but we have no clue what you mean," Pyrrha said, half apologetically.
"Do you not know about the cycle? But I thought you were fellow huntsmen. You aren't from here?"
"No. We come from behind the wall," Jaune explained.
"Oh." Ruby's mouth made a funny shape. "So you don't come from another part of the Never After?"
"No," Jaune shook his head. "We come from a city called Vale. We go to a school there."
Ruby gave an excited squeak and bounced up and down, shaking Yang with her and making the blonde's eyes swirl around. "Ohmygosh! You're from outside the wall! I've been dying to meet people from the outside world! You'll have to tell me everything about it!" She let out another excited squeal before she calmed down suddenly. "But not today. I have to get you guys back to the camp. And then I need to sleep so I can do my job."
Had this girl never been outside the wall? Jaune was curious but he decided questions could wait.
"Alright, Jaune, I'll be taking you along with me. Then I'll come back for the rest of you." With that Ruby hauled Jaune over her other shoulder without giving the blonde a second to consider it and then they were off.
Wind whizzed past Jaune's face at astounding speeds, whipping his hair back and forth. He would have been amazed if he wasn't so worried that they would run into a tree and end up splattered. He could barely make out his surroundings and he closed his eyes as a bout of nauseousness hit him. On the other end Yang was whooping loudly.
"This shit is fun!" along with "Go faster!"
In what was only minutes they managed to make it to a giant Sycamore tree. Ruby came to such an abrupt stop that Jaune's stomach slammed its way up his throat before it shot back down, leaving him groaning and a bit green.
Ruby set the two of them down, Jaune standing on shaking feet and holding his stomach. Yang looked refreshed. "Holy smokes! That was one crazy ride." Her earlier upset had been forgotten.
"Glad to be of service," Ruby smiled. After being alone for so long hearing others having fun with her was bolstering. It made the strain from running so fast with other passengers feel lesser. Ruby was a bit tired as she had never had to run carrying others and she was worried she'd overexert herself. But she still had to do two more runs and she knew she had to keep her strength up.
"Where's the camp?" Jaune asked once he had recovered a bit and the earth stopped spinning.
"Up there," Ruby pointed somewhere to the tops of the trees. "It's safer to sleep among the branches."
"What?!" Jaune's face paled as he looked up, unable to see the top of the tree. "You want us to climb up there?" His voice was small. He had never climbed a tree before, much less slept in one. "Ruby?" But when he looked down, she was gone, only a handful of petals left on the grass to mark that she was ever here.
Yang caught his uneasy eye. "Where's your sense of adventure, Jaune? How hard can it be?" She cracked her knuckles and jumped up to grab onto one of the branches, a pleased grin on her face.
Jaune sighed and followed suit.
It turned out climbing trees was very, very, hard.
And painful.
He nearly poked his eye out on one of the branches. And he was going to have bruises tomorrow to show how many times he fell.
A/N: So they finally found Ruby. Only a matter of time before they cross paths with Winter and Blake.