Welcome to Phase 29 of Still Alive!
I think my Internet hates me...
As always, thank you for the continued support! And moki-san, I'm really sorry for not mentioning you. What I meant in the last Phase was that we needed more writers. It's no fun when it's just the two of us. But anyway, good luck with your story. And always remember to keep yourself motivated!
Also, I can't say I'm satisfied with this Phase. So it might not be at the best of qualities...or whatever they call it. That's all I have to say for now.
I do not own RWBY nor BlazBlue.
-IIXII-
The battle was intense. To say that Glynda and the other students were surprised was an understatement.
The match had been going on for a while now, and the two fighters somehow still managed to avoid themselves from receiving hits from one another.
Thanks to the intense battle displayed before them, some of the students, and even Glynda herself, began to wonder how things would turn out if Jin Kisaragi were to battle against Pyrrha Nikos in a sparring match. But that was a story for another time.
"Hishōgeki!" Forming an ice blade in thin air, Jin brought his hand forward and sent it flying towards his opponent.
Mercury evaded the ice blade and wasted no time in lunging himself forward, before sending a barrage of kicks at Jin with his right leg.
"Sekkajin!" Quickly unsheathing his blade, Jin countered all of Mercury's kicks with a flurry of slashes, but held back so that he wouldn't injure his opponent's leg by accident.
Ending his attack, the silver-haired assassin jumped to the side just in time to avoid an incoming slash from Jin. Forming an idea, he then attempted to kick Jin at his side, this time with his left leg. However, his opponent managed to block the attack with Yukianesa's sheath, much to his surprise. "Not bad," Mercury commented. He pulled his leg back, and immediately twirled around in an attempt to swipe Jin off his feet.
Seeing this, Jin reacted quickly by jumping into the air. He sent multiple ice blades down on his silver-haired opponent.
Before any of the projectiles could reach him in time, however, Mercury quickly rolled away to safety, thus leaving the spot where he once stood to be attacked mercilessly by countless of Jin's ice blades. Now in his new spot, Mercury went up to his feet with a cocky grin. He ran a hand through his silver hair, and found himself asking, "How did I do?" But the scowl on his opponent's face was not what he'd expected to see. "What?"
"I thought I told you to go all-out." Jin kept his trusted blade away and folded his arms, eyeing a surprised Mercury with his cold orbs. "Tch. How disappointing."
"But...what?" was all Mercury could say, bewildered. "That wasn't enough for you?"
"Would you believe me if I say I could've taken you out twice during our match?" Jin coldly said. "Honestly, you left too many openings that would've gotten you killed in a real battle. I even had to hold myself back from taking you out with one hit just so I could get this crap done and over with." He fixed his gaze on the spectators, noting their shocked expressions. "The large scorpion I fought in the forest was a lot more challenging than you," Jin added, adding more shock to the students.
"I...you...what?" Mercury stared at Jin with his mouth hung open, unable to believe his words. Before he could say anything else regarding their fight, Jin turned and left. "H-Hey! Wait a minute!" he called out.
"Weak imbecile..." Jin walked over to Professor Goodwitch, scowling. "Can I get out of here now?"
Glynda blinked once, then nodded. "Yes, you may."
"Hmp. At last." And with that, Jin made his way to the door and walked out without saying another word.
Mercury stared at the door where Jin had left just mere moments ago, before moving his gaze over to his partner who was among the spectators. The thief returned the stare, then shrugged.
"Just who the hell was that guy?"
-IIXII-
"Are you sure you're feeling better?"
"I...guess?" Kval scratched his cheek as his eyes looked to anywhere but Hazama, smiling sheepishly. "I mean, I'm not in pain so..."
Hazama squinted his eyes at Kval, not quite believing him, before doing the same to Team RWBY. Things stayed that way, but after a short while of uncomfortable silence, he let out a tired sigh.
Well, the decision was his anyway.
"Alright, you can go."
"Yay!" Ruby cheered with a bright smile, earning a laugh from her big sister.
"Glad that's over. I can't wait to get back to our room. And sleep. Yeah, that sounds nice," Yang decided.
"I can't wait to finish my book," Blake said. After all the terrible things she went through, along with the others, all Blake wanted to do now was to finish her book in peace. And maybe lend a few of her new ones to Kval since he just got out of the infirmary today.
"Thank you, Hazama," Kval said in a grateful manner, which earned him a sharp glare from Hazama, much to his confusion. And before he could ask what was wrong, Hazama took a step forward and smacked him upside the head. "Ow!"
"It's Professor Hazama, you little brat. Get it right," Hazama growled.
"My apologies..." Kval grumbled.
"That wasn't necessary." Weiss sent the older vessel an icy glare, only to find herself recoiling when Hazama decided to give her a glare of his own.
"Is that so?" Hazama narrowed his eyes, which prompted the heiress to look away in slight fear. "What are you going to do about it then?"
"N-Nevermind..." Weiss stuttered.
Hazama smirked. "That's a good girl."
Blake went to Weiss' side and crossed her arms, glaring at Hazama. "You mess with her again. I dare you," she warned.
"Oh yeah? Just what makes you think that I'm afraid of you?" Hazama, now smirking wider than before, challenged.
"I'm a cat faunus, remember?" Blake reminded, before a cruel grin crept across her face.
The smirk on Hazama's face fell in an instant.
"Shit."
-IIXII-
"Took you guys long enough," Kagura said, only to grunt in pain when a punch was thrown at his gut. "Gah! Dammit!" He held his gut with tears in his eyes, and later sent the squirrel beastkin responsible a hard glare.
"Climbing up here was hard..." Noel complained with an adorable pout.
"Not our fault. And not to mention that Professor Kokonoe was pushing my buttons..." Makoto crossed her arms with her bushy tail swaying from side to side, making Noel blush at how cute it looked. "No, you can't touch my tail."
Noel flinched, and had no other choice but to pull her hand back to her side, pouting all the while.
"Well, at least we're together." Tsubaki gave Noel a soft pat on the shoulder, earning a smile from the smaller girl. "To be honest, I was actually starting to miss you girls before you came here."
Smiling warmly, Noel pulled her friend in a tight hug, giggling when Makoto decided to join in. "We missed you too, Tsubaki," said Noel.
Makoto nodded. "Yup! I was worried myself back in the lab. Although, I couldn't care less about that guy over there."
"Hey! I can hear you!"
Pulling herself away from the group hug, Makoto turned to Kagura and gave his arm a playful punch. She offered him a grin, and said, "Come on Kagura, you know I was just messing around with you. And besides, how am I supposed to thank you if you're acting like a baby?"
"You wanna thank me?" Kagura looked over at Makoto, seemingly puzzled. "For what?"
"For looking after Tsubaki, silly," Noel explained with a bright smile.
"Oh dear." Tsubaki couldn't help but giggle at how red Kagura's face became.
The Black Knight scratched his cheek due to embarrassment, his eyes wandering elsewhere. "I-It's no problem. Right now, it's my job to keep you girls safe anyway," he mumbled.
"Hahaha! Noel look! Look at how red his face is!" Makoto teased, which prompted Tsubaki and Noel to giggle at the sight. "Haha! He looks so adorable like this!"
"That's what you get for teasing me earlier," said Tsubaki, grinning cheekily at that.
"P-Please don't remind me..." Kagura grumbled.
Once she was done giggling, Noel turned to Tsubaki and asked, "So, where should we go now?"
"I don't really know, to be honest. I've been following him around ever since the two of us got here," Tsubaki answered with a small shrug, before turning to Kagura. "So, what's the plan?"
"The plan? Well, it's pretty simple really." Kagura drew his zweihander as a confident grin started to form onto his face, despite being embarrassed just mere moments ago. "We keep moving forward."
-IIXII-
"Hehe! Is this all you can manage?"
"Shut up!"
Terumi grinned widely. He threw some of his knives at Winter, who reacted quickly by deflecting said knives with just a swing of her weapon. Pulling out a pair of extra knives, Terumi brought them up and motioned for his opponent to come get him, his grin widening ever so slightly.
Summoning a glyph, Winter launched herself forward and attempted to slice the psycho's head in half.
"Too slow!" Terumi commented. He blocked the saber with his knives, much to Winter's surprise. She hadn't really expected him to move so quickly, and because of that simple mistake, a price had to be paid. Taking the chance, Terumi moved forward and kneed Winter in the gut so hard that she ended up flying.
"Tch!" Quickly regaining her bearings while in midair, Winter wasted no time in summoning a glyph behind her. She locked her eyes onto her target, and immediately launched herself down.
Terumi, wide-eyed, quickly rolled to the side, managing to avoid himself from getting pierced through the torso. In return, he threw more of his knives at Winter. But as expected, she deflected them with her saber, much to his annoyance.
Winter narrowed her eyes. She prepared her saber, entered a stance, and zoomed forward.
"Oh, just wanna say that...despite your appearance, you're one hotheaded woman," Terumi commented, pushing her buttons. He leaned to the side just as Winter came in with her attack, barely losing an arm in the process. "And slow."
"I said shut up!" In rage, Winter swung her saber at the bastard's legs. Terumi predicted this, however. He jumped in the air and slammed his foot against the side of her head, sending her crashing into a nearby street lamp. Winter quickly clutched at her pained head with one hand, wincing every now and again. "This...maniac..." she hissed.
"What's wrong? Am I too much for you to handle? Well? Am I?" Terumi brought his head back and laughed. Not trying to brag or anything, but he could easily wipe the floor with her in an instant if he wanted to, but decided against it.
It would be a real shame to end things so soon.
Though if he were honest, the guy with the mask was much more challenging.
"And at first I thought you had a chance too! Hahaha! What a shame!" Terumi laughed.
"Keep laughing," Winter muttered.
"Eh?" Puzzled by her words, Terumi stared at Winter, taking note of her looking down at his feet with a satisfied smirk on her face. Narrowing his eyes, he decided to look down at his feet to see what was up, just in time to see a large glyph appearing underneath him.
His eyes widened.
And the next thing he knew, he was launched into the air, as many more glyphs started appearing all around him.
Smirking, Winter summoned a glyph underneath her feet, launched herself into the air, and later positioned herself on one of the glyphs surrounding Terumi.
"This'll hurt."
When those words left her lips, Winter wasted no time in bombarding Terumi with endless attacks from all directions with the help of her glyphs. She literally had no intention of giving him time to prepare himself, from the looks of things.
"Who's laughing now?"
"Dammit! Gah!" Terumi attempted to block one of Winter's attacks, and actually succeeded. However, the knife in his hand flew out of his grasp, surprising him. "Huh!?" It seemed that the amount of force behind every single attack she performed was beyond his expectations, so he was slightly screwed to say the least. Looking up, Terumi took note of another glyph above him, only for Winter to take her spot on said glyph later on. He was confused at first, but it only took him a second to realise what she was planning. "You little-"
And with that, the two fighters were sent crashing down in the middle of the street, creating a large-sized crater in the process. The people who were in the area had no other choice but to run away in complete panic, not wanting to involve themselves in the fight that was currently going on.
The three androids present aimed their weapons at the spot where the two had crashed, waiting for the smoke to clear out. Once the smoke was finally cleared, it revealed that Terumi had been able to block the final blow with the knife in his other hand, with Winter's saber digging the ground just beside his head. The knife in Terumi's hand was broken beyond repair from the force of the blow, which now left him utterly defenseless.
If not for his quick reflexes, Terumi could've suffered a major head injury, so he was quite thankful for that.
He would've pulled out another knife from his pocket, but the look Winter gave him somehow made him think otherwise. Fully knowing that both of them were in a tight situation, the two fighters decided to wait and see who would make the first move.
Winter sent Terumi a sharp glare, and he returned it with his own.
The two of them stayed that way for what felt like ages, only for Winter to pull out her second weapon from her saber with the intention of stabbing Terumi in the face. In response to her actions, Terumi brought up a hand and grabbed Winter's wrist, barely in time to keep the sword from stabbing his eye.
Gritting her teeth, Winter growled, "Tell me. Who's laughing now?"
"Fuck off," Terumi replied, struggling to keep the sword away from his face. Just then, something clicked in his mind, and he soon gave Winter a cruel grin. "Ouroboros!" he called out. A small black portal appeared beside Winter, and out came Ouroboros, knocking her off of him. "Hahaha! I guess I'm the one who's laughing now!"
Winter coughed. "Ugh...damn it..."
Terumi went up to his feet, dusted off his clothes, and then later proceeded to pull Ouroboros back into its portal. "Phew! You really had me there! Gotta give you some credit!" He pulled out a pair of knives with a cocky grin, and slowly made his way over to Winter. "You're something else, I'll tell you that. Hehehe!"
Once she was finally up on her feet, Winter raised her sword up high and yelled, "Fire!"
"Huh?" Terumi whirled himself around and, to his surprise, the androids stationed in the distance started firing their weapons at him. "Shit!" He attempted to move away, but one of the androids managed to get a clear shot on his shoulder, which prevented him from escaping. "Gah!"
It stung like hell, but even then it was nothing compared to Noel's Bolverk.
The androids kept firing at him nonstop, as they moved in closer.
Figuring that he had no other options, Terumi clenched his teeth and started taking a few steps back, shielding his face with his arms.
Upon noticing this, one of the androids stopped moving, took aim, and shot him in the knee.
"Ow! Dammit!"
Winter gazed at Terumi with a satisfied smirk. "What's the matter? Are these things too much for you to handle?" she taunted, and took great pleasure in watching the angered look on Terumi's face. After taking back her saber from the spot where they'd crashed moments ago, Winter turned to Terumi and made her way towards him. "I think it's time for me to end this."
"I...think...not...you bitch!" Terumi snarled, much to Winter's confusion. In rage, Terumi wrapped his entire body in dark green energy, which resembled a large serpent, and surged forward with murderous intent. "Messenga!" And just like that, he rushed through the androids and tore each of them to pieces.
Winter gasped, no doubt shocked. "What!? B-But how!?"
Terumi, with his back turned to her, moved his head in order to get a good look at Winter, revealing his pissed off expression. His eyes then wandered down to the destroyed androids near his feet, and he later found himself growling. He quickly moved his gaze over to Winter, and could easily tell that she was experiencing chills running down her spine.
He was done playing around.
"...I'm going to kill you."
Upon hearing those words, Winter, without a doubt, finally felt fear. Her legs started to tremble as the terrible feeling began to spread throughout her body.
"H-Haven't you had enough!?" She prepared herself, ignoring the fact that her hands were badly shaking. Winter created a large glyph behind her and, after bringing her saber down onto the ground, summoned two Beowolves. "Take him down!" she ordered.
Terumi observed the white creatures with mild interest, and later kept his knives away upon figuring that they weren't much of a threat. The two Beowolves snarled, and soon charged right at him with reckless abandon. "Enough is enough!" He simply killed the creatures by ripping apart their heads with Ouroboros, then glared darkly at Winter. "I'm sick and tired of this shit."
Winter was beyond shocked at this point. He literally tore the Beowolves apart in less than a minute, and no one had ever done such a thing before. Other than Qrow, that is. She frantically looked around in order to find help. But to her horror, not a single soul could be found. She could see a few people through the windows on some of the buildings, and judging by the looks on their faces, it seemed that they were too scared to help, or even call for help.
Panicking, Winter turned and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She needed to-
Without warning, Winter felt something biting into her left leg and held her in place, which ended up with her falling down onto the hard ground with her weapons flying out of her grasp. "What!?" She looked to her leg, and her eyes soon widened in horror.
The very thing that kept her in place was none other than Ouroboros. Its chain led to a small portal beside Terumi, who appeared to be looking at her with the most terrifying grin she'd seen all her life.
"Not so tough now are you?" Terumi sneered, which was then followed by a crazed laugh.
"L-Let me go! Release me this instant!" Winter demanded, but was horrified when Ouroboros started to pull her towards her tormentor. "N-No! I said let me go!" Upon noticing how far her weapons were, Winter turned to Ouroboros and attempted to pry its jaws open with her hands, only to fail miserably in the end. "Dust dammit!"
"No one is gonna save you now! Hyahaha!" Terumi played around with a butterfly knife, just before deciding to throw said knife at the woman's hand, nailing it on the ground. A loud painful scream filled his ears, but he didn't care. He was too busy laughing his ass off. "Hahaha! Look at that! It's red! For a second there I thought they were gonna be white in color, but who cares!?"
"Ugh..." Winter clenched her teeth as she tried to pull the knife out with her free hand, only to scream in complete pain when Terumi stomped on it, grinning cruelly as he did. "Y-You fool! Stop it!"
Terumi's cruel grin grew even wider. He started putting pressure into her hand with his foot, earning another painful scream from the young woman. "I love that noise! Music to my ears!" Terumi held his stomach and laughed at Winter's current state. "Don't stop now! I wanna hear more! Hyahaha!"
"Y-You...sick freak!" Winter growled.
Terumi faced down and met her eyes with a crazed grin, tilting his head soon after. "Hehe! That's what they-"
"Now!"
"Huh?" In confusion, Terumi turned his head around, and was immediately met with a fist to the face. "Gah! What the-" He was then interrupted when a leg slammed into his gut, which ended up with him skidding across the ground.
Winter gasped. After quickly recovering from her shock of witnessing what had just transpired, she wasted no time in freeing herself by pulling the knife out of her hand. "Dammit!" Winter hissed loudly and dropped the knife, before focusing her eyes onto her savior.
Adam towered over her with his hand over his mask, with Neo standing right beside him. Speaking of Neo, who was currently facing Terumi, she grinned a wide grin and slowly pulled the shaft of her umbrella, revealing a long blade. Adam did the same with his own weapon, but instead of focusing his attention on Terumi, he pointed the tip of his red blade at Winter's throat.
"Begone, Schnee," Adam said in a cold voice. "I would kill you right now, but unfortunately..." He allowed his eyes to wander over to Terumi. "...my friend and I have a score to settle with that man over there." Adam brought his blade down onto the green chain which held Winter in place, destroying it.
Neo tightened her grip around her weapon when Terumi started moving back up. She punched Adam's arm to get his attention, not wanting to move her eyes away from the psycho who had nailed her on a wall.
"Hmp. Are you scared?" Adam questioned.
Neo quickly shook her head in response.
Adam stared at his current partner, and later kept his weapon away, his eyes locked onto Terumi. "Good."
"Hehe...I never thought I'd see you two again," Terumi said as Ouroboros spiraled around him in midair. He set his hands inside his pockets, and proceeded to give the two a shit-eating grin. "Know what? Fine. I'll take you both on. Just don't start crying when I start beating you two to the ground, or I'll get really disappointed."
"We were planning to anyway," Adam replied, just moments before he lunged himself forward, along with Neo.
-IIXII-
Well...that was a bit unexpected. To all those Winter fans out there...um...I apologise for Terumi hurting your waifu!
So, will Adam and Neo be enough to stop Terumi? What will happen to Winter? And why the hell aren't those people helping them out!?
Stay tuned to find out more in the next Phase!
Anyway, like I said earlier, I didn't really like this Phase that much. But I hope you guys enjoyed it. Maybe Winter was a bit too hard for me to write...or maybe I'm just rusting as always. Also, I almost killed Winter. Is that a sign for something bad in the future? I think not!
Who knows?
Well, that is all from me today. See you next time!
Until then, stay cool!
