RWBY 11
This is the last chapter I have beta'd, though I've got another one waiting, so it hopefully won't be long before I upload it In the meantime, enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or SAO. I am just a fan.
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this!" Weiss shouted at Ruby behind her, but it was hard to hear her over the wind.
"It's a lot quicker than wandering through the dungeon!" Ruby replied loudly, gripping the feathers of the giant bird they were riding, "After all, the only tree big enough for this thing to nest is the big one, so we just have to wait for it to go back!"
"And then it can eat us!" Weiss roared, "Or feed us to its babies!"
"Well then why don't we just jump!?" Ruby replied, and Weiss shook her head in amazement.
"Are you insane?!" She asked, but didn't get a response. After she turned her head, she saw Ruby was gone, "Are you kidding me!?"
As soon as she left the boss room, Yang scanned the skies. it took her a few minutes to spot the red cloaked girl hanging from one of the branches, struggling to free herself.
"Ruby!" Yang shouted, and Ruby looked at her.
"Yang!" She shouted back, renewing her efforts to free herself.
"Stay still!" Blake yelled after spotting her, "We'll come get you!"
"Okay!" Ruby answered, but all the struggling finally paid off and the branch broke. Ruby let out a scream as she freefell from a hundred feet up Yang and Blake both ran to try and break her fall, but to no avail. Just when she's about to hit the ground, there was another, louder scream as a familiar blond boy crashed into Ruby and sent them both crashing into a nearby tree.
"Ruby!" Yang screeched, running over to inspect the crash site. Both Ruby and Jaune were stunned from the impact, and their HP wasn't much more than a sliver, but they were alive. Yang ripped a healing crystal from her bag and it shattered, restoring Ruby's HP at the same time as Ren restored Jaune's.
"Ow…" Ruby groaned, rubbing the back of her head and staggering to her feet, "What happened...?" As soon as she saw Yang, the memory came flooding back, "Yang!"
"Ruby!" Yang said, holding her arms wide to embrace her sister.
"NORA!'" Nora shouted, standing between them.
"Where's Weiss?" Yang sighed after the tender moment with her sister was ruined.
"Up there?" Ruby said questioningly while she glanced up at the sky. Yang and the others looked up as well, but it took them a few moments to catch sight of the white clad figure clinging desperately to the back of a massive raven with a white skull mask.
"Wait, you were riding that thing?" Blake asked her incredulously.
Ruby just shrugged, "Seemed like a good idea at the time."
"She's going to fall." Yang said simply.
"Oh, she'll be fine." Ruby replied.
"She's falling." Ren said, and Ruby's eyes snapped back to the giant bird, and the figure falling towards them. Before they could react, Jaune was climbing up the tree and jumped to catch her.
"Just dropping in?" He said with a grin while Weiss just rolled her eyes as they fell. Jaune landed first, sustaining much more damage than Weiss, despite the considerably shorter fall when compared to Weiss.
"My hero." Weiss said blandly, climbing off of him and chugging a health potion, before turning angrily to Ruby, "And you! What is wrong with you?"
"I got us here, didn't I?" Ruby replied, and the bird above them let out a loud screech.
"Yes, and now it wants to eat us!" Weiss responded.
"That's not all we've got to worry about." Ren said, pointing into the forest where an armored red haired woman was deftly dodging the stinger and claws of a large scorpion.
"Didn't we already kill one of those?" Nora said, drawing her hammer again, "So boring."
"Let's go help her-" Yang started to say, but Pyrrha ran out of the forest while the scorpion was caught behind the trees.
"Hello again." She said without even breathing hard, "I didn't think that we'd all meet up here."
"Yeah, great." Yang said sarcastically, "Now we can die together."
"No we won't." Ruby said, running into the boss room and snatching the knight piece, "We don't have to fight them. All we have to do is get back to the entrance and we pass."
"Run and live?" Jaune asked, "I can live with that. Just let me grab a relic."
Grabbing the white rook, they eight ran back into the dungeon, with the scorpion and raven on their tail. The mazelike twists and turns of the forest that had been only a minor nuisance prior to them acquiring the relics suddenly became deadly as they were forced to dodge attacks from the two creatures. Before they were even halfway to the entrance, the entire party was out of healing crystals.
"Split up!" Pyrrha shouted, after they dodged another volley of feathers shot at them from above by 'The Nevermore', "We can't escape if we have to fight against both of them!"
"And what if they both try and follow one group!?" Yang said back, countering a sting from 'The Death Stalker'
"Easy." Ruby replied, jumping back and racking her scythe across The Death Stalker's face. At the same time, Pyrrha tossed a javelin high in the air and hitting The Nevermore's foot.
"See you back at the entrance!" Jaune whimpered as he led Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren down a side path, trailed close behind by The Nevermore.
"Finally!" Yang sighed, 'Now that we don't have anything to worry about from above, let's take it out."
"Are you insane?!" Weiss asked, but instead of an answer, Yang turned around and smashed The Death Stalker's pincher with a roundhouse. The pincher was blasted away and the monster let out a screech as its HP decreased slightly.
"Let's go, Weiss!" Ruby said, eagerly running towards the boss while spinning her scythe. Blake likewise had her katana ready and followed just behind her.
"You're all mad." Weiss said, shaking her head and running away from the crazy fight.
The others hadn't even noticed she was gone as they deftly avoided the random strikes from the Deathstalker.
"Yang, above!" Ruby shouted, slowly chipping away at the Death Stalker's armor when it was poised to strike at Yang, who was gleefully pummeling it's face with her gauntlets.
"Got it." She called back without looking away, deftly sidestepping the stinger at the last possible second. In that instant, Blake swooped in and delivered a flurry of eight consecutive slashes at the base of its stinger, where the armor was weakest. For the first time in the battle, the death stalker's hp dropped noticeable, and it let out a shrill screech that made the hairs on the back of Ruby's head stand on end. Too late, she realized that while it was screeching, it was still moving.
One of the pincers came up faster than she could react, and she was sent flying backwards, the paralysis icon visible by her HP gauge. Across from her, the second pincer knocked Blake into the forest. Ignoring Blake, who was now outside it's field of vision, the Death Stalker turned instead to the down Ruby, who still hadn't recovered enough to move. Yang desperately hammer away at its legs, trying to slow it down. But her attacks weren't effective enough.
With its stinger poised to strike the immobilized Ruby, she tried to pulled herself out of the way, but she didn't have the strength.
Just when she was about to give up, there was a flash of light and seven slashes of silver filled her vision.
"You see; this is why I said it was a bad idea." Weiss sighed from in front of ruby, her seven slashes dropping the Death Stalker's HP just a bit. "You do realize that without me you'd be dead right now, don't you?"
"Yeah…" Ruby said dejectedly, standing up quickly once the paralysis wore off and jump away from the stunned death stalker.
"You were still here?" Yang asked, regrouping with Ruby and Weiss while Blake hurried towards them.
"Of course I was!" She huffed, "I couldn't very well leave everything to this little kid, now could I?"
"Ozpin forced you to come back, didn't he? Blake asked, but aside from a sideways glare, Weiss didn't respond.
"It's down to its last HP bar, so let's finish it off." Yang said once the scorpion broke free of the stun.
"That's my line." Weiss muttered, but her sword glowed silver immediately.
"Yang, you and Blake draw its attention." Ruby shouted to her sister who'd already taken off to stop it in its tracks, "Weiss and I will take it down."
Yang didn't acknowledge Ruby's request, but she and Blake kept it busy regardless. The combination of Yang's power blows and Blake's swift combinations left it no time to worry about Weiss and Ruby creeping over to the side.
"So, do you have a plan this time?" Weiss asked her critically, her rapier held calmly in front of her.
"...Maybe?" Ruby shrugged, and Weiss just sighed.
"Well, let me know when you find out." Weiss said, dashing forward and hitting the Death Stalker with quadruple Pain. The four blows immobilized the boss for just a second, which ruby took advantage of. With her newest skill, 'Slayer', Ruby dashed forward and hacked off the tip of its stinger. The stinger fell away and shattered its armor.
"Now!" Yang shouted, her gauntlets glowing gold, "Hit it with everything you've got!"
All four of them used their strongest skills in quick succession. First Blake landed her three hit 'Ukifune' skill, then Yang delivered a soul crushing 'Meteor Break', followed immediately by Weiss' six hit combo 'Crucifixion'. Ruby's skill was last since she had the most recent skill delay, but she put everything into her attack, 'Demise'. A simple spinning slash that cut the Death Stalker down the center, shattering it into polygons.
"Alright, now what?!" Jaune shouted as he and his group led the Nevermore away from Ruby's group.
"Keep running!" Pyrrha replied unhelpfully, "We can't effectively attack from here!"
"There's a path up the cliff ahead." Ren suggested, panting from exhaustion, "If we can slow it down a bit, then maybe we'll be able to make it there."
"On it!" Nora said happily, holding her massive hammer in one hand and grabbing hold of a nearby tree branch. Pulling herself up into the tree, she swung the hammer up with a streak of orange. Her skill knocked the nevermore back slightly, but its hp didn't decrease by much. It did, however, inflict the delay debuff.
With the boss' movement slowed, the four of them ran up the path to the top of the cliff. They made it to the top just as the Nevermore reached the base of the cliff and started to ascend, gaining speed with each passing second.
"Now what?" Pyrrha asked Ren, who shook his head.
"I hadn't thought that far ahead." Ren answered, "But we can't attack a flying opponent unless we have the high ground."
"There's only one thing we can do…" Jaune sighed, taking a few steps back and then barreling forward at full speed.
"Jaune, no!" Pyrrha shouted when he threw himself off the cliff, but when she looked down she saw that he'd grabbed hold of the Nevermore's feathers and was clinging onto them for dear life.
"Yeah!" Nora laughed, following suit and delivering a brutal swing that caused its hp to plummet.
Ren just sighed and jumped as well, slicing into it numerous times before it managed to peck him, knocking him away.
After seeing her three teammates risk their lives to try and defeat the boss, Pyrrha threw away her hesitation and jumped after them. the Nevermore tried to peck at her on the way, but she blocked with her shield and stabbed it in the eye with her sword. It let out a shrill shriek and batted her away with its wings, but Jaune grabbed hold of her sword and kept it buried into the beast's head. Its hp fell with every passing second, and its movement grew more and more erratic.
Finally, just as Jaune couldn't hold it anymore, Nora knocked him off the bird's back and slammed her hammer into the hilt of Pyrrha's sword. The sword shattered almost immediately, but the boss shattered as well from the combined force of the two attacks.
At the base of the cliff, all four of their hp gauges were in the red, either from the straight fall like Jaune and Nora, or the additional damage from being pecked on the way down. All of them had also been stunned by the fall, putting them in a dangerous situation. Thankfully, the location was away from most major monster spawn points, so the chance of being attacked while they were recovering was-
A loud growl echoed off the cliff and a wolf like creature charged out of the forest. Inches from Jaune, however, it's cut in half by a red scythe.
"Everyone okay?" Ruby asked, her party running right behind her.
"yeah, thanks to you…" Jaune gulped after finally being freed from the stun. Rubbing his neck, he shuddered, "A few more seconds and I'd be dead."
"Come on, gang." Yang grinned once everyone had taken a health potion, "Let's finish this damn test."
With the eight of them moving together, the path to the dungeon's entrance wasn't even a challenge. As he'd said, Ozpin and Glynda were waiting patiently for them.
"Good afternoon." He smiled at them after they were safely out of the combat zone, "I trust you all accomplished your mission?"
One by one, the pairs showed him their chess pieces, and he nodded his head to each of them.
"Excellent work." he said, "Made even more impressive by the fact that both of your parties were able to defeat a boss monster on your own. even if it's on a lower floor, that is no small feat."
"Meh, no big deal." Yang shrugged.
"We couldn't have done it without Weiss." Ruby added, "Thank you for sending her back to help, Master Ozpin."
"...Really?" He said with a raised eyebrow to Weiss, "I do not recall sending any message ordering her to assist you."
"But, Weiss said-" Ruby started, but Weiss cut her off.
"No I didn't. You said it, I just didn't correct you." She huffed, "Can we just drop it? Honestly, if I ever have to party with you again, it'll be too soon…"
Ozpin chuckled slightly, "Actually…"
"Wait, what?" Kirito and Leafa asked at the same time, staring at a fuming Weiss in the corner of their dining room.
"Yeah, apparently Ozpin's making us an official team." Ruby chuckled.
"And as if that wasn't bad enough, of all the people, why-" Weiss shouted, glaring daggers at Ruby, "did he name YOU team leader?"
"You're being too hard on her." Leafa smiled encouragingly at Ruby, "I'm sure Ozpin has his reason, so give it a try at least."
"Yeah." Yang nodded, "After all, she did pretty good earlier, didn't she? We'd have been dead without her plan."
"Her 'plan' as you call it was to attack it and hope it died!" Weiss shouted, "That might have worked today, but what about when we get back to the front lines? That kind of 'plan' would be suicide against bosses on the higher floors. We barely made it out with our lives this time."
"Then why not try helping her instead of complaining?" Kirito asked when Leafa opened her mouth to reply.
"What's the use in teaching a child?" Weiss huffed, turning to walk to the door.
"...Thinks she's right about everything, expects to get everything she wants, and throws a fit when she doesn't get it." Blake said, drawing everyone's attention to her for the first time since they arrived, "Maybe Ruby's not the child here."
Weiss opened her mouth to complain, but before she could, Sachi reentered the room carrying several trays of food.
"Dinner's ready, everyone." She smiled, placing the food down in front of them, "Please, help yourself."
"Thanks, Sachi." Kirito said, happy for any excuse to finally end the conversation, "So, did Ozpin mention anything about the coming boss battle?"
"Yeah, he apparently wants us to take part." Ruby nodded, wasting no time in digging into the food in front of her, "He also wanted you both to know that you're welcome to take part in the battle, regardless of what the others say."
"Tell him we appreciate it." Leafa said, taking her own plate while everyone else started eating, "Just think, once we finish it, we'll have reached the halfway point."
"Hard to believe, isn't it?" Yang sighed, looking up at the ceiling, "We've been in this game for over a year already. And the way things are going, we won't back it back for another year at least. That is…" Yang didn't finish the thought, but no one in the room needed her to.
The first half might be over soon, but there's no telling if any of them would live to see the end of the game.
After a grueling battle, the boss of floor forty-nine was defeated. Thanks to the leadership of Ozpin and Heathcliff, there weren't any casualties, and it was the work of Heathcliff who finally brought its HP to zero. The group let out a cry of victory as they each received their loot, and once their health was restored, the raid group climbed the staircase to floor fifty.
"I thought we were done for a few times." Leafa sighed while they walked, "Thanks, Ruby. You saved me back there."
"No problem, I'm happy to help." The girl in the red hood smiled at her, stowing her scythe when they passed into the safety of the first city of floor fifty.
"We've gotta train harder." Kirito said softly, so only his sister could hear him, but she just nodded her head.
In the center courtyard of Algade, Heathcliff strode forward and tapped the teleport gate. The moment the familiar blue light burst into existence, the entire group cheered. Within seconds, dozens of players teleported in from the other floors, many of them players who had never left the Town of Beginnings, and the clearer guilds split up to start the celebratory party.
The party didn't last long though. twenty minutes in, just as Kirito was started to drift off to sleep in his own little corner of the courtyard, the entire area was filled with the sounds of bells.
Everyone froze, and Kirito sat up quickly. This was the second time they'd heard this sound. The first time was…
Just like back on floor one, hundreds, maybe even thousands of players teleported in against their will.
"Not again." Someone cried out, and everyone started talking until the red system message started flashing in the sky.
"Everyone, calm down!" Heathcliff shouted over the noise, and slowly they all complied.
Like the first day, a bloodlike substance started to drip from cracks in the sky. Every eye in the game watched as the substance formed the faceless hooded game master.
"Greetings, Players." Kayaba said in a booming voice, "Let me start by saying congratulations. Though it's taken you eighteen months, you have officially reached the halfway point of Sword Art Online."
"Why's he here?" Kirito asked himself, "He can't just be here to congratulate us, can he?"
"I doubt it, but we'll find out." Leafa said, pointing back to Kayaba in the sky.
"Up until now, the system has been registering every action you've taken throughout the first half of Aincrad." Kayaba declared, "Every quest you've undertaken and every item you've sold. Your fighting patterns and your sleeping patterns. The monsters you've killed and the players you've traded with. Even the most mundane piece of data has been registered and examined to determine exactly what kind of player you are. As of now, each of you have been assigned a unique skill correspondent to your own choices and abilities. Whether you already have your skill or it needs to be unlocked varies from player to player, but the skills will surely be of considerable aid as you work to clear the second half of the game."
The entire plaza was almost completely silent as each player checked their skill list. Kirito and Leafa included.
"Nothing." Leafa responded, closing her menu.
"Dual Blades...?" Kirito read from the bottom of his skills list.
"As in dual wielding?" Leafa asked, peeking over his shoulder. Sure enough, at the bottom of his skill list was the Dual Blades skill.
"I hope you all continue to enjoy yourselves as you struggle through the second half of Sword Art Online." Kayaba said as his avatar dissolved once again.
So, there you have it. I decided to give everyone a unique skill, in place of the the RWBY character's semblances. Obviously, they'll have skill variants of their semblances, but who knows about Sachi, Leafa, and the other SAO characters? Besides me, obviously, but I'm not telling. Feel free to leave any guesses in reviews, though don't expect me to confirm or deny any such suspicions.