Chapter 10

Raine delivered a kick to Ruby's side as Weiss advanced toward him, propelled by one of her glyphs. The masked swordsman was rewarded by a pained wince from the small scythe wielder as she bounced off the alley wall. He stepped to the side, using his weapon to protect himself from Weiss' rapier. The heiress met another glyph behind him and he blocked as she passed again. Several more white glyphs appeared around him as he prepared himself for what he could only assume would be a swift assault. Instead of standing in the arena of glyphs Raine tried to jump back, only to find his feet firmly planted by a black glyph similar to those around him. His strategy had to adjust. He lifted his right sword behind him to protect himself, leading the blade away. That's when he noticed that Joey was standing and holding a shotgun sword, with the blade fully extended. "Come on then," he sighed, he needed a chance to counter attack the heiress if he wanted out of this position. Weiss came by for another pass and Raine struck her with a punch, using the handle of his weapon to load his fist with more weight as it made contact with the heiress. The glyphs broke and he turned to face the wolf faunus. A quick block defended him from a downward slash as he realized Ruby was back in the fight. He brought the handles of his blades together at the ends and they locked into place, forming a long double bladed sword. Ruby attempted to cleave him in half and he jumped up and over the weapon, blocking another slash from Joey as he flew. "I figured you were all better than this," Raine taunted them, "but what could I expect?" He was now using the double bladed sword to swipe back and forth, blocking attacks on both sides from Weiss and Joey.

Ruby lined up a shot on the masked swordsman. She pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet flew toward him, he struck the projectile away and it found a different mark as Joey was sent to the ground again. This time he was clutching his shoulder in pain. Although his aura had protected him Ruby could see the pain in his face. "Joey!" She called out as she saw that her partner was now fighting the swordsman alone.

"Ruby focus!" Weiss shouted. The white haired heiress was right. Joey would be fine. Joey staggered to his feet, still obviously affected by the poison from the deathstalker girl. The small huntress fired Crescent Rose backwards in order to close the distance between her and the swordsman. She flourished her scythe before bringing it down vertically on him. He blocked it and slid his weapon along it so that Ruby's weapon was lead into the ground, frustrating the huntress. Weiss was also clearly flustered as her glyphs and sword strikes were proving ineffective against the swordsman.

"Who is this guy?" Joey muttered in pain as his vision slowly returned to normal. The poison still burned through his body, his nerves singing in hot agony with every movement. He braced himself with Forget-Me-Not as he stood. He aimed the weapon at the swordsman's mask but did not want to risk a deflection hitting one of the girls. He staggered forward and was met with more pain sizzling through his chest and legs. Even with the poison wearing off breathing was still incredibly painful. He brought his weapon back for a powerful slash as the man parried Ruby away and used a kick to dispatch Weiss. Joey watched helplessly as his sword was also blocked, the masked man kept his sword in contact with Forget-Me-Not as he went under the blades. He was on Joey's side in a blink and as he stood upright again Joey felt a different kind of pain. This was a heavy pressure in his abdomen that was different from the poison. That's when he heard Ruby scream again. His vision blurred as he realized that his aura had been broken. The pain was unbearable at this point as his eyes darkened. He looked down and saw that the bottom sword had torn into his stomach and before he could react it was ripped out of his side, blood spraying along the alley as he staggered back and slumped against the wall at the man's feet. Ruby had rushed forward in anger as Joey's eyes drifted upward, noticing a figure on the rooftop in front of him.

"I'm going to kill him," Ruby thought. It was a surprise to herself that she would even think that way but she'd just seen him cut her friend nearly in half, someone who had maybe even saved her life the other night. The trauma hadn't set in yet and her charge was fueled by a mix of anger and adrenaline. Ruby had not taken two steps with her new plan before being blinded by a powerful light. Once her eyes had adjusted she could hear the clanking sound of steel striking against steel in rapid succession. She could see Elodie, daggers in hand, attacking the swordsman with blinding speed. Elodie stole a glance back at Ruby.

"Help him!" Elodie cried, her eyes were a powerful red color as she continued her assault. The Beowulf barely had time to react to each strike as he broke his weapon back into two parts, each hand meeting repeatedly in high and low strikes.

"Joey are you alright?" Ruby rushed over to Joey who was still slumped over. She dropped to her knees next to him. She was answered by a weak cough of blood from the wolf, only worsening her fears about his condition. The wound was slowly closing but not nearly as fast as his wounds had in the past.

"He needs food!" Weiss was at her side now as well, "His semblance is powered by his metabolism remember?" Ruby's tunnel vision on his wounds was near deafening as she felt a sharp pain on the back of her head. She looked back at her partner.

"What was that for?" Ruby exclaimed as she noticed Weiss' hand in the air from having slapped her.

"Pay attention you dolt!" Weiss shouted, "Does he have any food on him?" Ruby began patting his pockets, searching for one of the energy bars he usually kept with him.

"Oh look," The swordsman continued to block Elodie's attacks. She was trying her hardest to keep calm and focused but the seething anger that radiated from her was making that hard. "An actual challenge, and from a faunus no less." The swordsman's voice didn't help as she found it annoying and narcissistic.

"You'll pay for this," Elodie didn't have time for clever banter with this monster. Her teammate was bleeding profusely with those other two huntresses. A teammate, a man she loved dearly. Her daggers connected into a bow and she put distance between herself and the Beowulf, firing an arrow at him. It was cut in half but she had charged it with fire dust. There was a bright orange and red explosion behind the swordsman that almost took him off balance. She notched another explosive arrow as the Beowulf rolled to the side in a dodge to avoid the explosion. She had touched him at one point and his emotions were beginning to flood toward her. No fear, no anger, just contempt. He was starting to hate her and she was looking for a reason why. Her calmness began to take over as she saw something she might be able to exploit. If she could turn that hate into anger she figured she could take the swordsman out of his element. "I sense hate in you. Hate for me, why?" Her tone was matter-of-fact, not wanting to give him the impression that she was intimidated.

"You're a faunus," he was circling her as she prepared another arrow, hesitant to fire as he continued talking. "An incredible creature! Elegant and powerful, we shouldn't serve humans!"

"Why not?" Elodie asked, trying to get her opponent to become angry at her stance on the subject.

"I guess I can't expect someone like you to understand, Elodie," the rabbit was thrown off by his use of her name. She let the arrow fly but he swatted it away, spinning in for a low strike. "How does he know my name?" Elodie stopped the strike and brought her bow up to block a midsection slash as well. He feigned an attack from above but quickly dropped, sweeping her legs out from under her and kicking her into a wall. The rabbit's bow clattered to the ground as she reached out for it. He put one foot on it and placed a blade to her eye. "What a waste." His tone was matter of fact as he brought the blade back to plunge it at her.

Before he could finish her he heard the sound of boots followed by the sight of two girls charging him. Weiss' glyphs powering her forward first as she struck out at him. With relative ease he struck the heiress away and then slashed across her back, hard enough that her aura faltered and a small cut appeared in the back of her coat, bisecting her family's emblem. Ruby was next, her scythe being knocked up into the air as he spun with a powerful roundhouse across her cheek. Her head bounced off of the alley wall as the swordsman stood triumphant over the huntresses. Elodie watched in horror as the monster walked back toward her, her bow still out of reach. Her plan was to reach for the bow quickly, roll away from him and put an arrow between his shoulder and arm to stop his attacks. She never got the chance as the sound of a motorcycle pulling into the alley stopped her.

"Hey!" Ron dismounted the bike with his rifle already trained on the beowulf's mask, "step away from my partner!" He began firing at the swordsman who blocked as he approached Ron and Yang. The Beowulf prepared to strike out at Ron but was met with an explosion at his feet from a blast of Yang's gauntlets. Yang's eyes were still their regular lilac color but she was obviously angry at the sight of her sister and Weiss being hurt. The swordsman seemed distracted by the explosion because he hadn't seen Ron become airborne. Ron's boots extended out through the dissipating smoke in a powerful dropkick. Both boots connected with the mask, sending the swordsman flying onto his back for the first time in the fight. He recovered quickly as Ron landed, drawing Grimm Reminder from its place on his back. Elodie's leader held the blade in a ready position as the swordsman stood, regarding him with a stance of his own. He adjusted his Beowulf mask to make sure it was still properly fixed as he dashed forward, his blades meeting Ron's larger sword with a deafening clang. The blades grinded against each other as Ron began to feed his aura into Grimm Reminder. Elodie reached out now that her bow was free, deftly maneuvering up and behind her target. She brought an arrow back and let it fly. The projectile was swatted away by a sword swipe, the masked man barely regarding Elodie as he continued to lock blades with her leader. She drew back two arrows on her bow this time, charging them with fire dust.
"Ron incoming!" She shouted at her partner. She let loose and the man ducked under the arrows, sending them directly at Ron. Elodie's partner had read the scenario the same as she had, creating a barrier with his semblance in a cone facing the beowulf. The cone caught both arrows and the resulting explosion was funneled in his direction. He blocked the explosion by placing his swords in an X formation but it did not stop him from flying backwards where Elodie had been waiting. She struck out with her blades against his aura, scoring the first hit on his back and following it up with slash across his chest as she spun around the airborne swordsman. He landed with a skid on his feet and dropped to one knee. He began to stand as he noticed that Joey had braced himself against the wall, his shotgun clumsily aimed at the beowulf's mask.

Chris blocked another strike from the deathstalker at the wrist. Krystal grunted angrily as she tried to plant one of her blades into him. He had been keeping her daggers at bay while also using himself to keep her separated from the other hunters fighting Raine. Between strikes she had noticed that the gunslinger she had poisoned was beginning to recover, a sight she wasn't used to seeing. She'd lost focus on the fight and received the full force of her opponents gloved fist to her mask. Even through her aura and mask she could feel the heavy impact of his large fist. Something had changed in her opponent since the beginning of the fight. His blows were coming harder and faster than the attempted strikes he had made when he first began blocking. At first he was slow, striking out in intervals after blocking several of her attacks. Now he was pushing her back, using his aura to glance stabs off of himself while forcing her to block or dodge. Krystal recovered from the punch and ducked under a second. She lashed out at his abdomen but he dashed backwards, a fireball appearing between them that forced Krystal to roll away. Now Chris was coming back toward her as she spun with an attempt to stab his exposed side. The large man struck her forearm with his which she acknowledged with a wince underneath her mask. Aura or not there was an impact between their bones and she felt it. She looked into his eyes as she rebounded off of him. There was another change now, a look in his eyes that she recognized. At that moment Krystal knew that he'd kill her if she gave him the chance.

Raine's frustration mounted as he realized there was no real way he could defeat all of them on his own. "Krystal I can't believe I let you talk me into this," he cursed his partner who had yet to kill or even harm the largest member of Joey's team. "Adam just wanted us to spy on Blake's new team for him." His thoughts weren't going to reach her but at least it wasn't entirely his fault that their cover was blown. He stole a glance at his partner and noticed that Chris had finally gone on the offensive, using a powerful knee to lift the small girl off of the ground. Chris did not get to finish his attack before the blonde from Blake's team had gotten inbetween them. The fiery fighter delivered a single haymaker to his partner as the deathstalker girl was sent flying toward him. Her body slammed into his with a painful thud. The both of them bounced off of the alley wall and Raine stood up quickly as the others closed in on him.

"Just put down your weapons," Ron commanded with his assault rifle trained on the beowulf's head. Yang had stepped up next to him, one of her gauntlets prepared to deliver another explosive shot to the two assassins. Elodie had joined them and Joey had limped over, holding his side with his shotgun in his free hand. Blood was seeping through his hands and Ron knew they needed to end this as fast as possible if Joey was going to heal up properly. Chris' eyes had taken on a look that Ron had rarely seen in the big guy. His eyes had narrowed in on the two attackers and he removed his red gloves, revealing that his knuckles had been wrapped in fighter's tape. The tape had begun to glow with a bluish-purple shine as he charged the dust within them. Ron could see it in Chris' eyes, he intended to end these two. Had Elodie not been standing right next to him Ron may have let him but he knew his partner. The whole team knew Elodie wouldn't stand to see them execute these people, regardless of who they were.

"Chris," Elodie reached out to him as the tape became brighter. "Do we really need to..." That's when the beowulf moved, Ron tried to pull the trigger but the swordsman was fast. His gun was aimed at a pipe above Ron's head which exploded when three bullets from the swordsman's weapons struck it. Water spewed all over the alley, washing away some of the blood as it landed. The leader of FWCS was confused as he attempted to pull the trigger. Before the weapon went off something heavy struck him from behind. He hit the floor and looked over to see that the rest of his team had a similar thing happen to them except Chris. The large fighter had turned to meet the new attacker but all Ron could see was a large cloud of mist around his teammate. Ron checked behind him and found a large tentacle of water swaying back and forth. He tried to jump up but the tentacle whipped forward, knocking him up and against the wall. He looked to the two attackers and noticed that Chris had moved out of the mist and toward them. Striking out with his glowing fists Chris was fighting both of them at once.

"Krystal," The beowulf called to his partner in a low voice, Ron felt a little shaky from the hit he had taken but he thought he heard a shaking in the swordsman's voice. "We need to leave." He dismissed it as he tried standing up, only to be choked by one of the water tentacles and lifted. The swordsman placed a sword to Ron's stomach as he struggled and grasped at his throat. Chris had backed the deathstalker against the wall, putting more holes into the walls behind her as she barely dodged his strikes. He wrapped a hand around her neck, lifting her against the wall. She lashed out with her daggers only to have them swatted away with his free hand, after blocking the strikes he delivered subsequent blows to her inner arms that caused them to drop the blades. The chains swung back and forth as he brought his fist back and looked over to Ron.

"Let her go," the beowulf threatened Chris by moving his sword closer to Ron's stomach. Unknown to the swordsman Ron had begun hardening his aura near the tip of the blade. He could see in Chris' eyes that he was ready to kill the deathstalker if the assassins didn't back down. Before Chris could make another move there was an explosion from behind Ron that caused the watery appendage around his throat to sizzle and steam. It had lost its grip and Ron dropped, the blade closing in on him as he fell. His hardened aura blocked it and he spun as a yellow flash blew past him.

Yang's aura was on fire and Ron stumbled back by the force she created from going forward. Raine blocked only to have one of his weapons knocked to the floor. The onslaught from the water had activated her semblance and she was pursuing the beowulf with a vengeance. With only one weapon now he ducked and weaved in order to get back to his other sword. Ron kicked it away and met his single sword with the barrel of his assault rifle. Ron led Raine's sword down and brought the stock of his rifle up to strike him. The water had begun to lose form as it stopped striking the other students. Raine spun and Yang's fist met him with a powerful, angry strike that sent him flying into the wall of the alley. His body screamed in pain now as the bricks in the wall were damaged by the impact of him bouncing off. He struggled to his feet, looking toward Chris who had lost his grip on the deathstalker.

Chris tried to grab at the deathstalker as she broke free of his grip. He'd given serious thought to killing her in order to keep the others safe but the way she struggled told him she was on the retreat. She flipped away from the large fighter, her feet catching his face as she flew. He quickly recovered but not before she was at her partner's side. The two fist fighters were both prepared to launch another attack when a wall of water shot up to defend them. Chris and Yang still fired, Chris's projectile was a purple ball of plasma while Yang's was another one of her gauntlet's fireballs. The impact of the flaming projectiles created one final plume of steam that enveloped the alley. Chris searched for any movement in the cloud with another plasma ball ready to fly from his dust wrapped hands. He heard Krystal and Raine collect themselves and the sound of boots running followed. The echoes died as they moved away from him and Yang. Chris was about to give chase when his thoughts returned to him. He quickly deactivated the dust in his bandages, revealing that parts of the bandages had burned up during their use. His red gloves were easily slipped back on and he used the infused wind dust to clear away the already disappearing steam. Joey stumbled over to the girl but Yang beat him to her. Ruby was shaken up as she braced herself on the wall.

Chris noticed that Weiss' back had been injured. He quickly approached the girl whose white jacket had been partially stained with blood from the small cut she sustained across her back. The heiress soon stood, unaware of the cut as she seethed with anger at her attackers. "Weiss you're bleeding?" Chris told her bluntly, looking at her back and double checking that the wound was only a minor scratch.

"What where?" She said as she realized her aura wasn't activating to heal her.

"We should get you checked out," He told her as he inspected it. It was mostly superficial but if her aura wasn't healing it she should probably seek some kind of medical attention. Almost as if in agreement with him Chris heard his partner exclaim something but he was even more worried hearing it now than he had been at the sight of Weiss' back.

Joey had finally gotten one of the energy bars out of his pocket. The wrapper had fresh blood on it that caused his hands to slip a bit as he tore it open. He shoved the nutritional square in his mouth, chewing through the dirt like taste he'd grown accustomed too. He had finally convinced Chris to add a bit of cocoa t the mix to offset the dirt flavor but it hadn't done much to truly mask it. His stumble toward Ruby became steadier with his strength returning when he noticed Ruby slowly pacing toward him.

"Hey sis," Yang told her, looking her little sister over for any serious wounds, "take it slow."

"Joey he nearly ripped you in half," Joey was flattered by the girl's concern for anybody but herself but that feeling was instantly killed by a combination of events. He'd seen Ruby trip, falling toward him as he caught her. The next thing he noticed was an iron smell mixed in with the strawberry scent that usually accompanied the small huntress. The side of her head that had been facing the wall turned towards him as he dropped with her to stop her from hitting the ground. That same side of her head had a small amount of blood coming down from it, matting the black and red hair that was there and travelling down her cheek.

"We need to get her back to Beacon now," Joey told them all, her sister's face expressed the same horrified feeling in his gut but he knew better. He kept as calm as he could despite the overwhelming anger he felt toward the assassins. "Scroll!" He pointed toward his scroll that was still on the alley floor but Ron was already doing what he had thought. Ron's scroll was already against his ear as he shouted directions at a local driver Joey kept near the main city of Vale and Elodie was calling ahead for an emergency bullhead to transport the teams up the cliff side that led back to the school.

Ron had become used to seeing people wounded, mostly from seeing Joey cut, stabbed or bitten by Grimm but he had also become used to Joey healing. Ruby couldn't just heal and the stress of it was bearing down on Yang horribly. The blonde was pacing back and forth in front of him. Were it not for his concern over her younger sister he'd have been able to appreciate how beautiful she was, worried, angry or laughing. Ron couldn't hold onto the thought as he looked over to his teammates. Elodie and Chris were off to the side of the room. The rabbit was worried about Chris' approach during the fight. Weiss and Blake were there as well along with another faunus who Ron hadn't met yet. A blonde monkey who Blake had called Sun. Ron snapped back up to Yang as he swallowed, finding the courage to speak. "Yang," the blonde turned to him, her face a confusing mix of anger and worry still. "Your sister is going to be ok, she's not in surgery or the ICU." His inner leader was overpowering his caring friend voice but it was having some effect on her.

"You're right," Yang almost smiled but was obviously unable to shake her feelings of worry. "But I should have been there! I'm her big sister. I'm supposed to protect her." Ron gestured to the seat she had been sitting in before she began pacing.

"Please try to calm down," his tone finally finding a comfortable level to soothe her, "the doctors are looking at her now and she's still breathing so her aura is going to kick in soon." Yang hadn't stopped her pacing and Ron was beginning to worry for her nearly as much as she worried for Ruby. That's when he saw Joey behind her, motioning his eyes upward toward the blonde in an obvious manner. Ron sighed, knowing what the wolf was telling him, he stood and the blonde looked at him. They were roughly the same height and when she was fully facing him he pulled her into a hug "she'll be ok." He told her as she began to breathe, "we raced there as quickly as we could and you probably saved her life as well as everyone else's with your driving."

"And you managed not to fall off," Yang let out a light chuckle as she backed out of the hug looking at him. His choice to compliment her on her erratic driving of all things had worked out for him.

"I had a good reason to hang on," he took his hands off of her slowly, partially regretting that he had to let go. "So does Ruby."

"You two need a room?" Joey joked at his teammate. Ron scowled down at the wolf faunus. He'd told Joey about his attraction to Yang and was slightly regretting it.

"Not like I have a forest to go walking in," Ron shot back with a condescending tone accompanied by a smirk. Yang looked irritated at his joke about Ruby's last trip with Joey as she turned to the wolf.

"That reminds me," She picked Joey up by the collar so that he was standing now.

"Woah!" Ron exclaimed.

"Hey now blondie it was a joke," Joey said defensively as Yang's next move took him off guard. She wrapped her arms around the gunslinger in a powerful bear hug, some of his bones had even popped as she begun squeezing harder.

"Weiss told me how you didn't stay down even with the poison in your system," Yang almost let him go and then squeezed him harder than before, "thanks."

"Not a problem," Joey squeaked as she finally let him go. He looked over her shoulder and saw one of the nurses stepping out of the hallway were Ruby's room was. "Blondie behind you." Joey stepped away from her as her arms moved away from him. Yang rushed toward the nurse, a graying elderly woman whose walk was slow.

"How is she?" Yang asked, she'd looked ready to just stampede over the old woman and rush straight into the room. "Can I see her?"

"Ms. Rose is going to make a full recovery," the nurse's tone was slow and deliberate, "but she's resting right now. After the doctor found no signs of concussion he had her put on bed rest so we can monitor her over night to ensure her aura comes back to speed along the recovery."

"So I can see her?" Yang smiled as she began to walk past the nurse who promptly grabbed the blonde's wrist.

"No," the nurse's tone was flat, "she's on bed rest! She needs to sleep for now. Once she wakes up we'll be sure to notify you." Yang looked back at her angrily.

"I'm her sister," Yang stated, "I am going to be there when she wakes up."

"Uh huh," the nurse walked past her, "room's off limits while Ms. Rose rests, those are the doctor's orders and they're final." Yang let out a sound of dismay as she turned and stormed out of the infirmary. Ron looked at her and back to Joey.

"If those eyes move one more time you better hope they can regenerate," Ron snapped at his teammate who laughed at him.

"Alright alright," Joey backed down, "but you are going after her right?"

"Well yea," Ron told him, "of course I'm gonna go after her." It was silent as Joey took his seat looking up at his leader who was just standing there looking down at him. Joey pulled out his scroll, looking at the screen for a moment before his gaze returned to Ron.

"I hadn't planned on having my eyes torn out today but, uhh," Joey spoke up after a few more moments as his eyes motioned toward Yang to let Ron know that he should be going.

"Right," Ron turned to follow Yang out of the infirmary and down the hall, "I'll see you later."

"Good luck boss," Joey offered his support as his eyes fell back on his scroll.