Sorry for the extreme delay in this chapter people but this chapter took a lot longer to write up because the battle between Nora and Haschel was rather hard to write and I didn't want to f**k up like I ended up doing with the Virage battle Last chapter (Which is currently updated from its original version so check it out if you haven't read chapter 13 v2 yet).
Anyway after the Battle between Lightning Dragoons there was Cinder's hunt for the Dragon Buster across Neet and Kadessa, and finally the last scene that took much less time to write.
Anyway I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
*Chapter 14*
*Ruby's P.O.V.*
I was woken up, along with the rest of my team, by the sound of someone hammering on the door.
"Wake up people, I don't want you miss my amazing fight with Haschel!" Nora shouted still pounding on the door.
"NORA!" I heard Ren shout.
"Ugh how does Ren put up with that girl." Weiss groaned getting up.
Yang walked up to the door and wung it open, Nora just kept her fist in motion as if she was still knocking, "Nora, can the fight wait until after breakfast?" Yang asked.
"Ohh… Sure." Nora said as the rest of her team stumbled out of their room, Nora immediately dragged Ren away to the cafeteria.
"I'm worried Nora's taken on more than she can handle." Jaune said, "I mean, Haschel is more than a electricity user, he's a martial arts master."
"Oh right, I need to ask him if I can receive some martial arts training from him after his match with Nora." Yang said.
[]
After showering, getting dressed and eating breakfast we began making our way to the training room.
"What's got Nora so excited?" A woman said from behind us, it was Coco Adel and her team.
"You know how pretty much all of Vale knows we're the new era of Dragoon right?" I asked, Coco, Velvet, Fox and Yatsuhashi all nodded, "Well Nora think she is ready to take on the previous master of the Lightning Dragoon Spirit in order to help find the location of the only weapon that is dangerous to us Dragoons." I finished.
"What do you think her chances are?" Velvet asked.
"Pretty slim, she's going up against a martial arts master." Yang said.
"This I have to see." Coco said as her team began following us as well.
When we reached the entrance to the training room we bumped into Cinder and her team as the tree of them were passing by.
"Jeez, it's the weekend and after a day like yesterday you're still training, don't you all ever rest?" Mercury asked.
"I'll rest once I've proven my superiority against the previous Dragoon of Lightning! Charge!" Nora declared grabbing Ren and barreling into the training room.
"Uhhh, what?" Emerald asked clearly confused.
"She's going to challenge the spirit of the last Dragoon that shared her Dragoon Spirit and attempt to defeat him so we can get one step closer to passing a test set by the last Dragoons to learn the location of an ancient weapon." Weiss said.
"Mind if we watch?" Cinder asked, I'm really worried about what this girl's planning.
"Sure, just… keep your head low." I said playing the oblivious girl again.
[]
Goodwitch seemed to be waiting for us at the arena and was probably be planning to play referee for the fight that was about to take place.
Nora stood in the middle of the arena and took a deep breath before putting her hand on her Dragoon Spirit, a purple glow appeared from the spirit before moving away from her, toward the other side of arena before bursting open.
When the flash faded there was a mustached old man wearing a purple gi and a red headband standing opposite of her with his arms behind his back.
"Nora Valkyrie correct, I believe this is the first time we have met, my name is Haschel." Haschel said.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Master Haschel." Nora said in a shocking display of respect and self control, she even bowed to Haschel.
"Has she ever done that before?" I asked Ren, who was just as shocked, if not more, than I was.
"No, never." Ren said.
"Mister Haschel, if I may, most people today have an Aura, and if you don't mind, I would wish for Nora to be limited by tournament rules, meaning if her Aura reaches fifteen percent or lower she is declared the loser." Glynda said.
"That is acceptable, the day has just started and I wouldn't want Nora to be completely exhausted already." Haschel said with a surprising amount of reason in his voice.
"Alright then, I trust you will tell Nora when you've admitted defeat." Glynda said.
Nora and Haschel made one last respective bow before taking their individual stances against each other, Nora raising her hammer while Haschel took an open bodied stance, before Glynda declared the match to begin.
*Legend of Dragoon, Boss 2*
Nora kicked things off by running straight up to Haschel and swung her hammer at him, with her finger at the trigger.
But faster than anyone would expect from a man his age, and lacking an Aura no less, Haschel lifted his leg over his head and kicked Nora hammer aside and punched her in the chest with enough force to make her stumble back a fair distance.
"Whoa." I heard Mercury say.
Nora switched Magnhild into grenade launcher form and fired three time before running in again, Haschel backflipped away from two of them and sidestepped the third, but was caught off guard by Nora running out of the smoke caused by her grenade and slammed him to the side with an explosive hit from her hammer.
Haschel recovered midair from the swing landed on his feet staring Nora down, then he ran forward at a remarkable pace for a man his age and punched Nora in the gut left fist, followed by a punch that came from the right that struck past Nora, then strung in another punch with his left fist, then kick with enough force to get him airborne, then slammed his heel back down on Nora's head, knocking her face-first onto the ground. "Five Ring Shattering." Haschel declared.
"That had to hurt." Pyrrha said worried for Nora as she fired her hammer to fling herself back up and knock Haschel down as well.
Haschel flipped back up before punching Nora twice in the stomach, stunning her as he built up energy into his fist's holding them to the side then slamming the hands into Nora, "Flurry of Styx!" Haschel declared.
"Now I really want to get some training from this guy." Yang said as Nora flew back a few feet.
Nora landed on the head of her hammer and fired it, launching herself straight at Haschel, and when she got close swung her hammer at him.
Haschel raised up both his arms and somewhat blocked Nora's strike, but you could still see it had an effect on him.
Haschel took Nora's small recovery time as an opening and punched her in the gut again, then backflipped, kicking her with both feet, then as he came down slammed both his fist's into her head, then kicked off her chest knocking her down, "Summon Four Gods." Haschel declared.
"Does he have to shout the names of his attacks after he performs them?" Weiss asked.
"Better than shouting them before he begins the attack." Coco said as Nora got back up.
"I'm not giving up yet!" Nora shouted as she summoned up her Dragoon armor.
"Did that hammer just get bigger?" Mercury asked.
In an identical glow of light Haschel was the clad in the same type of armor.
"This just got a bit more interesting." Cinder said.
Nora flew toward Haschel and swung her hammer, however Haschel had far more experience with the Dragoon armor and easily flew behind Nora and punched her straight to the ground.
Nora bounced right back off the ground and struck Haschel back a few feet before he recovered and landed on the ground.
Nora landed on the ground and ran toward Haschel with her hammer high and yelling at the top of her lungs, Haschel stood his ground and within a split second of Nora getting close Haschel punched her in the chest with enough force to not only send her flying out of the ring, but also through the invisible barrier to protect spectators, over our heads and buried her halfway into the wall.
*Music end*
Nora peeled herself out of the wall as her armor faded away and stumbled toward her Haschel, Yang and I went over to her to help carry her back to the martial arts master.
"Are you alright Nora?" Haschel asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, ouchie." Nora said holding her chest.
"Jeez, how strong are you?" I asked, "Actually, I don't want to know." I corrected.
"Excuse me, Haschel, but can I request something from you?" Yang asked.
"And what might you want Yang?" Haschel asked.
"Can you… please train me?" Yang asked.
Haschel examined Yang for a while, "You seem to prefer hand to hand combat, but why is it that you, a person who has built themselves up for a more berserker type fighting style, want to learn from me?" Haschel asked.
"I… Yesterday I got into a battle with a person and the only reason I won that fight was with the added strength of the Dragoon Armor, I got too riled up and my attacks were far too readable by her, if it weren't for the Dragoon Armor and another figure coming in to help me I may have died that day. I don't want to risk fighting her without the Dragoon Spirit and I worry that may happen sooner or later, and I don't want to rely solely on the power of the Dragoon Spirit." Yang said.
Haschel was silent for a moment before he began to chuckle, "Very well, I will begin training you every night in your dreams, where we can practice uninterrupted until morning, and do not worry, you will feel well rested after each session." Haschel said as he looked at Nora.
"Nora, your attacks were wild, but effective, train harder and you may just have a chance at defeating me someday soon." Haschel said before he vanished in a purple light.
[]
*Cinder's P.O.V.*
After Nora was embedded into the wall Mercury, Emerald and I left.
"That Haschel guy was strong wasn't he." Mercury said.
"We should be glad a man like that is dead, imagine the power he would wield if he had an Aura." Emerald said with a shudder, even I would have to admit I wouldn't want to face a man like that.
"Enough talking about Haschel, remember the plan, we're searching Neet and Seles separately, then meeting up to search Kadessa." I said as we boarded an airship to Vale.
[]
After getting off the airship we went over to a pair of Bullheads with Neo waiting by them, "Neo, you're taking these two to Seles, and nobody kill anyone there, we don't want to attract any attention." I demanded as I boarded a second Bullhead.
[]
*Music, Legend of Dragoon: Village of Tragedy*
I stepped out of the Bullhead after landing it and stepped into the village ruins of Neet.
I could already feel the sorrow that still lingers in these ruins.
As I stepped through the snow a flock of crows, not Nevermores, flew off at the sound of my footsteps crunching through the snow.
After a few minutes of searching through the ruined buildings for a trapdoor or hidden room I came across nothing, this village and any secrets it may have had died with the fires that destroyed this town.
I continued to search the town until I came across a single large monument, in an attempt to see if this monument held any clues I noticed this stone had the names of everyone who perished in the destruction of this town, yet all the names had been carved in at the same time roughly.
This was just a monument.
"Yes children, the ruin of Neet are a depressing thing to see." I heard a male voice say.
I turned around to see an academy teacher, not one from the major academy, just a standard combat academy, leading a group of students through the village ruins.
"Um… Professor Fletcher? What exactly happened to this town?" A young girl said.
"A good question Miss Belle, you see Neet was one of the towns that was attacked by an ancient creature known only as The Black Monster, and it is still known as that to this day." The teacher, Fletcher, said.
"What was The Black Monster sir?" A young boy said.
"That is a difficult question Mister Samson, you see many scholars debate to this day what The Black Monster really was, some people say it was the first Grimm to exist, others say it was a ghost, some people even speculate it was a demon. One thing about The Black Monster was that it only appeared once every thousand years, seeking out a holy child known as the Moon Child, and then kill the child before vanishing once again. Neet was the last town attacked by The Black Monster, and was the only town that was unable to recover from the damage." Fletcher said.
After the school group left I made my way back to the Bullhead and headed toward Kadessa, during that time Mercury called me on my Scroll.
"How did Seles turn out?" I asked.
"Dead end, we searched Dart's house, which is remarkably well preserved, and didn't find any hidden compartments. We checked the tombs and found out Dart and his wife weren't even buried here. Seles was a bust." Mercury said
"Neet was nothing more than ancient ruins, we're moving on to Kadessa." I said as I flew off into the sunset
*Music end*
[]
*Weiss P.O.V.*
After my team had fallen asleep I decided to sneak out and go and pay a visit to the slumbering Virage in the abandon Schnee mines.
"Weiss?" Ruby said groggily.
Well there goes that plan, "Ruby." I whispered back.
"What are you doing up?" Ruby asked.
'I may as well tell somebody, plus I'm going to need back up if this Virage does go mad' I thought.
"Get dressed for battle and meet me on the rooftops." I said.
[]
After a few minutes Ruby walked up to me on the rooftops of the school, my wings exposed.
"Weiss, what's this about?" Ruby asked, I pulled out my scroll and pulled up the picture of the Virage from the mines.
"Ruby, take a look at this." I said handing the scroll to her, causing her to gasp and the fact another Virage was unearthed.
"Weiss were you planning on taking this thing on without me, or any of our teammates?" Ruby demanded.
"Not quite." I said walking up beside her and taking my scroll from her but still keeping it in her line of sight, "Take this picture, zoom in on that mark just above the eye, then clean up that picture and tell me what you see."
Ruby looked closely at the picture, "That's the Schnee Emblem." Ruby said in realization.
"This Virage owes its loyalty to the Schnee family, our crest has never changed in all the years we've existed. Ruby, I planned on going to these mines to reawaken this Virage and have it use that loyalty to the Schnee's to protect Remnant and have it clear away Grimm" I said.
"So… we're flying there?" Ruby asked.
"What makes you think you're coming on this excursion?" I demanded, 'Please have a good reason.' I thought pleadingly.
"You shouldn't be alone in case the Virage goes berserk." Ruby said as her Dragoon armor appeared.
"Good enough a reason I suppose." I said as I took to the air with my Wingly wings.
"You're not gonna transform?" Ruby asked joining me in the air.
"Ruby, I need to stretch my actual wings sometimes you know." I said flying off fast, but not fast enough to lose Ruby.
[]
After about twenty minutes of flying we landed at the entrance of the abandon Schnee mines.
"Ruby, take off your armor, it might cause the Virage to become violent." I said, keeping my wings out.
"What about your wings Weiss?" Ruby asked reverting.
"The surveillance system's shutdown due to lack of upkeep, plus dad had the worker pull the plug on anything electronic before they left." I said stepping into the abandoned surveillance building.
"What are you looking for?" Ruby asked following me.
"Dad asked for the surveillance crew to keep a hard copy of a map to the mines in case the electronic system crash for one reason or another, can you help me find it?" I asked searching through the drawers.
"Found it!" Ruby called holing up a map, she set it down on a table and illuminated it with her scroll.
"Thanks Ruby." I said looking at the map, the taking a picture of it on my scroll. I put my finger on the point of the map furthest along, "There, that's where the Virage is sleeping, every miner as soon as they heard a 'monster' was sleeping here refused to continue digging, even the people not actively part of the mining agreed with them."
"Let's go." Ruby chirped.
[]
The mines were eerily silent and empty as we continued along, I looked over at Ruby and noticed just how warm she was compared to the rest of the mines, Ruby must have noticed me shiver a little from the eerie atmosphere and must have thought I was cold as she wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer to share her body heat with me.
I really hope she didn't see my blush.
[]
*Music, Legend of Dragoon: Virage Embryo*
We finally reached the deepest part of the mines and saw the slumbering Virage buried partially in the wall.
"Ruby, step back please." I said sternly, Ruby cooperated.
I walked right in front of the Virage and stared it down, "Virage! I am Weiss Schnee, descendant of the Noble Wingly name of Schnee! I command you to awaken and uphold your loyalty to the Schnee name!" I demanded.
There was a prolonged moment of silence before the Virage came to life and broke free of its partial imprisonment, the Virage then look down at me for a moment before kneeling.
'It actually work' I thought, "Loyal Virage, I ask that you listen to what I have to say!" I call out.
The Virage nods.
"Millennia ago Humans used to be the enemies of Winglies, along with the Dragoons, but those times are over, Winglies are nearly extinct due to a new menace to Humans, Winglies, and the Faunus, that Menace is known as the Creatures of Grimm, unnatural, soulless creature! I demand that you harm no Human, Dragoon, or Faunus without direct orders from me, am I clear!?" I call out.
The Virage tilts its head (body?) before nodding.
"Furthermore, unless I give you specific instructions, you are not to take orders from any other Schnee, you are not to take orders from my Father, you are not to take orders from my sister, you are not to take orders from my mother, you are not to take orders from my brother, you are to only take orders from me unless I give you clear direction to take order from someone else, do you understand!?" I called.
The Virage nodded.
"Good, now can you please escort me and my companion outside these mines, you'll receive further orders afterwards." I said.
The Virage reached down and gently scooped me and Ruby up and put us on its head as it began walking out of the mines.
"That was awesome Weiss." Ruby said hugging me.
"I-it was nothing, it just felt like it was the thing to say." I said blushing, no doubt Ruby noticed this time.
[]
After the Virage exited the mines with us in tow it let us down off its head.
"Thank you Virage, now until I give a prolonged whistle to call you, you are to patrol the area around the nearby city of Vale and eliminate any moderately large Grimm you encounter. Should you see a large group of Grimm you are to cease hunting down large Grimm and intercept the Grimm horde heading to Vale understood?" I called.
The Virage nodded.
"Good, now go, and stay out of the sight of humans and Faunus!" I called.
The Virage stood up and marched off.
"You sure it was a good idea to let that thing go off like that?" Ruby asked.
"Of course, A Virage is so loyal it makes a well trained dog look about as loyal as a just adopted puppy." I said.
"Alright then, well we better get back to Beacon." Ruby said summoning her armor.
Right that's the end of that chapter.
First thing you may have noticed was Haschel was performing the Additions used in Legend of Dragoon, I added it because it was one of the two things that I loved about the battle system that set it apart from other JRPG's, the other was the that the 'Defend' command healed a portion of your HP, which I loved, I used the Defend command in Legend of Dragoon than any other turned based RPG combined just because of that extra effect.
Second, after spending day's trying to write up a good searching scene for Kadessa I couldn't make a good one because I honestly couldn't remember the layout of Kadessa, but to make it simple for you all, No Cinder did NOT find Dragon Buster there.
[Edit] After the end of Volume 3 I honestly have a hard time seeing any other pairing other than Bumblebee and Whiterose so this chapter got altered to fit those new pairings for this story.
Finally we have seen Weiss take the loyalty of a Virage, this guy isn't going to play as big a role as other characters, in fact he'll mainly be there as Grimm killing insurance.
Lloyd: Now if you'll excuse us, we have to get back to finding a substitute Earth Dragoon in case Pyrrha get offed or goes comatose, seeing as our initial substitute, Penny, kinda… well you know.
[Edit] Alright everyone, this is all the Chapters cleaned up now, I hope to see you all soon as I will soon start attempting to write Vol 3... though that may still take a while as I have yet to grow a pair and re-watch Vol 3