AN:

Who else was pissed off by the cliffhanger in the previous chapter? Who else wants me to stop with the cliffhangers?

Too bad. I'm having so much fun from you making you guys wait but I did release this chapter early to make it up to you guys.

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Chapter 11

The world seemed to have slowed down to a crawl for Ruby Rose as she pushed her semblance into overdrive. Feeling as if she was wading through waist-deep mud, she spun herself out of the sidearm's path and swung Crescent Rose at the man who tried to hold her at gunpoint with a squeeze of the trigger to augment her strike.

The retort of her sniper/scythe hybrid rang out in the clearing, startling nearby birds from their perch while the rest of Team RWBY were in the midst of turning to face the man.

Ruby hoped to take the man off guard with her counterattack but it appeared that he still saw it coming since he was able to duck under the swipe, dodging the curved blade by a hairsbreadth. Before she could pull her weapon back for another attack, the man swept her legs out from under with a sweeping kick. Twisting back into standing position, he smashed the muzzle of his sidearm into the airborne Ruby's midsection, sending the young leader crashing into her partner Weiss Schnee. The Schnee heiress was knocked off her feet by the red hooded girl's impromptu flight and they fell to the ground, tumbling over each other in a tangled heap of limbs.

Yang Xiao Long was the first to reach the man who she then assaulted with a fierce barrage of punches and kicks. But they were to no effect as he skillfully evaded or redirected the blows. He twisted past a right hook and curled his arm around the extended limb, effectively trapping it in an arm lock as he twirled his handgun around so now he was holding it by the barrel. Before the blonde brawler could attempt to pull her restrained arm free, the man brought the gun down and cracked the butt of the grip against her collarbone, shoulder and cheekbone, dazing her momentarily.

Team RWBY sure did pick a bad time to not wear the armor that Summer Rose gave to them, which Yang would be totally regretting to do right about now if her head wasn't busy spinning.

Sweeping her legs out with a leg swipe, the man whirled her around and slammed her into the ground, creating a crater underneath his feet. He straightened himself up and gave a light kick to launch the brawler out of the crater while inadvertently hitting her breasts. The intense pain to her boobs snapped Yang out of her haze and her hair erupted into flames with a vengeance as she righted herself in midair.

Blake Belladonna leapt over the brawler's midair form and threw her Gambol Shroud in its chain scythe form at her partner, who caught it with no problem. The 'chain' stretched a far amount before it went taut, halting Yang's flight. The elasticity of the 'chain' reaching its limit, the blonde girl was launched back at the man with explosive force and speed.

Unperturbed, the man tossed a round and flat device at the space between him and the human missile that was Yang Xiao Long. As the blonde girl neared the trip-mine grenade and set it off, he flipped the sidearm so now he would be holding it by the grip again. The ensuing explosion wasn't enough to cancel out her forward momentum completely but she still flew uncontrollably in an upward arc over the man where she then crashed into a couple of trees, getting tangled in their branches.

He pulled the slide of the gun back to cock it, an act that he had yet to do since this one-sided battle started, and fired a three shot burst at the cat faunus dashing towards him. Blake swung Gambol Shroud to deflect the projectiles and almost lost her grip on her weapon from surprise that the bullets were of unexpectedly higher caliber than a gun that size should fire.

Gritting her teeth, Blake used the application of her semblance to evade the barrage, her shadow clones taking the shots in her stead. Eventually, the man's gun clicked empty and the former White Fang member took advantage of that opportunity to swing Gambol Shroud in an upward slash, which the man quickly stepped back to avoid. She then chased after him with a series of slashes, which he either weaved around or used his gun to parry the attacks. Blake crossed her blades to shield herself from the forward kick that he delivered in retaliation. In spite of successfully blocking the kick, she was still pushed back a couple of feet as her heels dug into the earth to halt herself.

In an act that took her completely by surprise, their assailant hurled the depleted gun at Blake and it bashed against her forehead, making her see stars and stopping her assault. The firearm bounced off of the stunned girl's skull and landed back into the man's hand. The empty magazine slid out of the sidearm and he slammed in a fresh one. Before she could recover, he then proceeded to fire his gun at her thighs, chest and shoulders.

Blake's body shook with each shot that hit her as her Aura flared to protect her from harm. Her Aura may be preventing her from receiving any major injuries but she was still sent reeling from the rounds impacting on her form. The shot that sent her sprawling was the high caliber round that slammed into her forehead as her back crashed hard into the dirt.

The battle cries of Ruby and Weiss alerted the man as he turned to see them sprinting towards him at high speeds. The red reaper assailed him from the side with wide sweeping strikes from her oversized scythe as the white fencer moved in to dispatch rapid fire thrusts and slices to cover for the openings that the younger girl left in her guard, leaving very little chances for the man to exploit them.

It spoke of great familiarity with one another that their fighting styles blended so well together to cover each other's individual weakness. Their exemplary teamwork was also able to push the man back and they were even scoring some blows. Even though they were just glancing blows at best, it was a small victory on their part since they had yet to even land a single blow on him until now.

But it still wasn't enough.

The man bended his torso to the side so Myrtenaster would stab the air over his shoulder instead of the shoulder itself. He gripped the Schnee heiress' wrist with his free hand before she could pull her weapon back and twisted himself and her in such a way that it was her blade that parried Crescent Rose. He slammed the muzzle of his sidearm into Weiss' temple and drove a knee into her solar plexus to prevent her from struggling as his other hand maneuvered her arm to block and slice at the younger girl.

Ruby was forced to pulled her swings lest she would hurt her partner by accident while trying to get to the man so her overall combat ability dwindled. Their assailant took full advantage of this as he punctuated each thrust of Myrtenaster with a shot from his sidearm, depleting her Aura with a combination of melee and gunfire. The red reaper was quickly losing ground as she desperately defended herself from the man's onslaught.

Seeing her partner in danger, Weiss regained enough of her senses to materialize a glyph underneath her and the man's feet. The both of them were thrown a dozen feet into the air as the man was about to deliver the coup de grace on the young leader of Team RWBY. As they were airborne, the Schnee heiress summoned another glyph between her and the man, which forcefully propelled him away from her.

Weiss called out a glyph to serve as a springboard as she kicked off of it and leapt towards their foe. The man righted himself and to her immense shock, stopped his flight by somehow standing on the air itself as if there was an invisible platform for him to stand on. He raised his sidearm and started firing at the heiress, forcing her to disengage her attack lest she be perforated by bullets.

Still standing in the air, the man simply watched her drop back to the ground where she was joined by the rest of her teammates who were only beginning to recuperate. The girls were panting heavily and it took all that they had to lift their weapons and remain standing. Team RWBY was at their last legs and they knew it was hopeless to win through a battle of attrition in their current conditions.

While the man didn't appear to be the least bit winded or concerned that his enemies were taking a moment to catch their breaths.

"Who are you!?" Ruby yelled at the man after recovering a bit while he reloaded his gun, "Why are you attacking us!?"

"Attacking you?" the man echoed in mocked confusion as he looked down on them from where he was perched in the air, "I seem to recall that you were the one who attacked me first."

"Bullshit!" Yang angrily replied as she pointed an accusing finger at him, "You pointed a gun at my sister's head!"

"Do not play the victim here," Weiss added as she leveled a stern glare at him, "You know what you did. There is no use in pretending otherwise."

"I know I pointed a gun that wasn't cocked at red hood's head," he retorted, shaking said gun for emphasis, "A gun's not that much use if you don't cock it first. It would have done as much damage as hair lice if I pulled the trigger that time."

"He's right," Blake said in realization, amber eyes widening, "He didn't cock the gun until we attacked him."

There were several things that one must know when using a firearm. The first was to always keep the safety on when the gun wasn't in use. The second was to keep it pointed away from your body when said safety was off. The third was to cock the gun before firing otherwise nothing would happen.

The cat faunus knew that the man didn't cock the gun before revealing himself. Even though she didn't hear him approach them, she was certain that she would have at least hear the distinct sound of a semi-automatic pistol being cocked. There was no way he could have masked it, not when he was standing close enough for her cat ears to pick it up.

And if he had cocked the gun beforehand, he wouldn't have needed to do so again when Blake charged at him earlier.

"See, she gets it," the man gestured to the black haired member of Team RWBY, "Good to know that someone could notice that important detail."

"But that still doesn't excuse everything else you have done here," the Ice Queen responded in a frigid tone to match her appointed title, "Maybe if you have not fought as hard earlier, your claims for self-defense would bear more weight."

"You didn't exactly pull your punches when you did cock your gun there," the former White Fang member backed up the Schnee heiress before biting back a wince. His bullets weren't really strong enough to pierce her Aura but she was definitely going to bruise from all of those gunshots hitting her.

It may have been said already but Team RWBY really picked an inopportune time to forgo their Guardian-made armor. They wouldn't have taken this much damage if they were wearing those specially made apparel instead of their usual clothes. A fact that they were really going to regret if they survived this ordeal.

"Missy, I haven't even begun to fight hard," the man chuckled, sending an ominous feeling to wash over most of the members of Team RWBY. If earlier was his way of going easy on them, they didn't want to find out what he was like fighting seriously. Another reason to not rush head long at an opponent like this.

Team RWBY was by no means bragging when they said that they were one of the best teams in their year, possibly even in the entire school but they were severely outmatched by this lone fighter dressed in Hunter gear. He had singlehandedly taken apart what made them strong and toyed around with them like a cat playing around with its prey (a comparison that Blake would have taken offense from if not for the given situation).

This man was just so far above them that the most likely reason this farce of a battle lasted this long was because he saw no reason to end it by now. That made their predicament even more hopeless than before.

It was too bad that one of them didn't share the same sentiments.

"I don't give a damn about your excuses. You threatened my sister!" Yang growled before she threw her arms back, Ember Celica discharging two rounds to launched herself higher, "You're dead meat!"

"Yang, wait!" Ruby called out to her sister in desperation but it was already in vain for the little yellow dragon was already halfway from reaching the man in the air with her fist reared back.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to answer your other question," he called out as he holstered his sidearm, uncaring of the fiery Huntress in training heading towards him.

He leaned forward and began falling to the earth as Yang approached him. Using whatever technique that allowed him to stand on the air itself, he kicked off and flung himself to meet the yellow haired girl of Team RWBY. Right as they were about to collide with each other, the man swiveled his body at the last second, causing Yang's punch to sail past him completely.

Before the blonde brawler could redirect herself to attack again, the man snatched her by the back of her jacket. Pulling her closer to him, he wrapped one arm around her neck and began to squeeze.

"Yang!" Ruby cried out in alarm as she watched in horror of her older sister being choked. She raised Crescent Rose and looked through the scope to snipe the man but he had angled himself so that Yang was between him and her scope. She couldn't take the shot in fear of hitting her sister instead.

The blonde brawler desperately clawed at the offending limb blocking her airway but the man's hold remained solid. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she gave one last ineffectual gasp before she fell limp, her flames finally snuffed out.

Thankfully, the man chose to release the chokehold so Yang was only rendered unconscious instead of being asphyxiated to death. But to the Huntresses in training back on the ground, it looked as if the man had just murdered their teammate and friend.

The man adjusted the catatonic girl in his arms so he held her in a bridal carry. He carefully laid her down on the ground and stepped away from her body to face the remaining members of Team RWBY, who seething in rage at what he did to their teammate. Once he was far enough from the unconscious girl, the three girls each unleashed a barrage at him.

Weiss launched a flurry of energy bolts through a combination of her glyphs and Dust. Blake swung her blades multiple times, unleashing sonic wave after sonic wave in quick succession. Ruby fired a salvo of high caliber bullets from her sniper rifle.

The man took their onslaught in stride as he stomped his boot twice on the ground. A wall of flames burst free from the earth in front of him, shielding him from their attacks and obscuring his form from their sight. Four loud bangs resounded in the clearing.

"Ah!" Ruby cried out in astonishment and slight pain as Crescent Rose was abruptly knocked out of her hand. Two similar cries from Weiss and Blake informed the young leader that they too suffered the same fate as they found their hands to be bereft of a weapon. From far away, the tips of their weapons sunk into the earth, their handles pointing at their direction as if to entice the Huntresses in training to pick them up once more.

It was unfortunate that they wouldn't reach their weapon in time if they did decide to make a run for them. As had been shown already, their assailant would either quickly catch up to them or shoot them down from afar.

The wall of flames dispersed to reveal the man aiming a black and bronze gun by his hip that was much bigger than the first one he used. It was the second gun in his gun holster, the one that could be classified as a hand cannon. Judging from his position, he had shot all of their weapon out of their hands from firing his gun from the hip, which shouldn't have been possibly since firing from hip was too impractical and only worked in movies.

Apparently, no one bothered to tell this man that fact due to him having done so with great efficiency.

"Shin Malphur," the man introduced himself as he spun his signature weapon, the Last Word and holstered it, "Pleased to beat you."

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AN:

Before you go on about Air-walking not being possible, Hunters used their Light to create a temporary platform for them to jump off of, which is why they can double or triple jump. The act of Air-walking seemed like the natural progression of double to triple jump for a Hunter with too much time on their hands.

Also, I can't take credit for coming up with this technique since fellow fanfic author, metaldragon868 thought of it first in his story, Vanguard (which I highly recommend by the way). I just asked permission if I can use it in my story as well and he said yes.