Chapter 35: Ronin and the Corruptor

Victor woke up and stretched as he yawned. He scratched the back of his head and looked down at Blake, who was sleeping soundly with her head resting on his chest. He smiled and gently ran his fingers through her hair and watched her sleep with a smile on his face. He had finally given into her advances and the two became lovers. She started to stir and lazily looked up at him with a smile.

"Good morning Victor." She replied as she yawned. She slid herself on top of him and kissed him. "Good morning Blake." He responded as she rested her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him. She looked at him with a smile and exclaimed "I love you Victor."

Victor smiled and replied "I love you too Blake." He shifted so he was sitting up and Blake sat up with him with her head still resting on his shoulder. He held her close until someone started banging on their door. Kaylee shouted "Get dress you two! We are getting breakfast and heading out!" Victor laughed "Alright Kay! We'll be ready in a minute!"

Victor kissed Blake's forehead and sighed "Looks like we have to get ready." Blake sighed "Yeah, I just wanted to cuddle a little bit more."

"So do I, but we have a mission to do. Plus, we now have to deal with everyone making comments about last night."

Blake sighed again and got out of bed to search for her clothes. Victor sat and watched her grab her clothing, just admiring his lover. "Are you going to get dressed? Or are you just going to stare at me?" Blake questioned as she put her underwear. "Is sitting and staring really an option?" Victor questioned. She smirked and threw his boxers at him.

"I guess it isn't an option." Victor laughed as he put his boxers on. He put the rest of his clothes on and saw that Blake was picking her bag up. Victor grabbed his bag and mask and walked out with Blake. They exited the inn to see a bunch of tired and agitated faces. "Morning everyone!" Victor greeted, trying to suppress his laughter.

Grey was the only to reply "Good morning. It sounded like you two were having fun last night." Victor laughed and put his arm around Blake. "I'm actually a little jealous." Yang admitted. "It sounded like you two were enjoying yourselves." Victor felt his face turn a little red as he replied "I know I was, and I'm pretty sure that Blake was enjoying herself."

"We know… we heard."

Yang put her hands behind her head and moaned "Yes! Oh yes Victor! Yes!" A red faced Ruby shoved Yang as she laughed hysterically. Victor rolled his eyes and was about to say something when a loud roar cut him off. He recognized the roar as a Dark Rex. Everyone else heard it and had their weapons drawn.

It was followed by the familiar screeching of the Corrupted and they sounded like they were getting closer. "Trevor, Ruby, get to the rooftop and provide sniper fire. Pyrrha and Jaune, take the front gate and make a wall." Victor ordered. "Everyone else, take up defensive positions around Jaune and Pyrrha and get ready for a hell of a fight." Everyone followed the order and ran towards the front gate where they assumed the attack was coming from.

Victor drew his LMG and was prepared to join everyone in the defense when he heard the old man from yesterday proclaim "Your efforts are not necessary." Victor turned to see the old man making his way over to Victor. "Ronin will protect us, like he always has." Victor replied "Sir, with all due respect a statue is not going to protect this town from a Dark Rex and the Corrupted. You should get inside."

"I don't recall ever calling Ronin a statue."

Victor heard a loud grinding sound, like metal against stone, and turned towards Ronin. The statue was moving, pulling the sword out of the ground. Once the blade was free, Ronin placed it on his back and stepped off of his stone slab. Ronin started making his way towards the front gate as Victor questioned "What exactly is Ronin?" The old man replied "He is a remnant of man's ingenuity of the past. Forged from a nearly unbreakable metal and give life by a rare Dust crystal. My ancestors made him to protect the town, but he is so much more. He's aware."

Ronin stopped at the front gate and shouted "Reveal yourself creature of darkness!" The Dark Rex nearly exploded out of the trees and charged Ronin with a deafening roar. Ronin charged to meet the beast and collided with its head. Victor would have loved to watch Ronin fight off the Rex, but about forty Corrupted shot out of the bushes and charged the town. "Weapons free!" Victor shouted as he ran towards the group.

Trevor and Ruby shot a few down before they reached the group and the fight began. Three tried to slam into Jaune and Pyrrha, but their wall was strong and the three fell to the ground. Pyrrha stabbed one with Milo and Jaune slashed the other two with his sword. Blake rushed the creatures with Gambol Shroud and started slicing the Corrupted at their stomachs. Weiss shot forward with Myrtenaster and impaled two Corrupted.

Yang swung her Ember Celica at the Corrupted and nearly knocked their heads off their shoulders. Four fell to her deadly punches. Nora went hammer crazy wielding Magnhild in its hammer form and sending Corrupted flying through the air. "That girl is going to kill someone someday." Victor thought as he switched his weapon into axe form and swung it, slicing two Corrupted in half. Ren was firing his bladed pistols, StormFlower, and putting holes into the Corrupted.

Victor couldn't see Rexian, but he did hear the iconic thumping of his automatic shotgun. Then he heard Rexian's iconic boasting "Yeah! What? You want some too mutha fucka?! Well come get some!" Victor redirected his attention to Kaylee, wielding her katanas Steel and Fury, who was slicing the Corrupted to Ribbons. Sun jumped into view wielding his staff, Gunchaku, and bashed the Corrupted in the head. He would break the staff and use the pistols to shoot any Corrupted that survived the initial bashing.

Grey was her usual skillful self and barely required a weapon. She would catch a Corrupted's swing and snap their arm, then snapping their neck. Victor believed that the fight was going well, the group were handling the Corrupted with ease and Ronin was keeping the Dark Rex at bay. There were only 10 Corrupted remaining when they heard a howl, similar to a Beowolf's but not as prominent. A creature shot out of the trees with lightning speed and slammed into Kaylee, sending her to the ground.

It looked similar to a wolf, but was jet black like a Grimm. Its head had a skull on it with red markings and small bone spikes coming out of its back. What made the creature so unusual were the two appendages coming out of the beast's side. They extended about four feet from the side and were white like the bone. They bent at the center like an arm would and the tip was black like it was dipped in something.

The beast pinned Kaylee to the ground and howled over its prey. Trevor was the first to attack the wolf with his sniper rifle switched into its mace form. He was about to strike it, but one of the Corrupted caught the swing. Victor was the next to try, but two Corrupted tackled him and threw him to the ground. Victor threw them off in time to see one of the spikes stab into Kaylee-Ann's chest.

"Noooo!" Victor bellowed as Kay screamed in pain. He threw his axe at the wolf, but a Corrupted jumped in the way and took the blow. It crashed into the wolf and threw it off of Kaylee. He ran over to her, completely ignoring the battle and knelt by her side. "Oh god, Kaylee. Please say something!" Victor cried as he tried to figure out what to do. "Teddy Bear." Kaylee groaned. "I feel weird."

Victor looked at her wound to see that it wasn't bleeding, but a black liquid started to cover her chest. Victor tried to apply pressure to the wound, but when he touched the liquid it stung his hands horribly. It reached her arms and started to cover them like it did her body. "Just stay with me Kay!" Victor proclaimed as he picked her head up. "Just stay with me!" The liquid covered her head and stopped at her hair line, leaving her white hair laying against the ground.

Victor also noticed that it stopped at her waist. She brought her hand up and through him away from her. Victor rolled and got up to see Kaylee standing up. She reached up and it looked like she started to pull the black off of her face to reveal the skull of a Corrupted. She bent forwards and the two back spikes broke through the black with a horrifying screech.

She threw her hands to the side and bone claws broke through the black. Kaylee looked into the sky and uttered a horrifying screech that was a combination of the Corrupted screech and Kaylee's scream. Corrupted Kaylee turned towards Victor and charged him. "Kaylee!" Victor shouted as she charged him. "It's me! Teddy Bear!" She was onto of Victor and swung her claws, throwing him to the side.

He rolled and stood up to see Corrupted Kaylee charging him again. "Kaylee! Just listen to me!" Victor shouted as she was about to hit him again. Victor waited for the blow, but heard a loud clang. He opened his eyes to see Ruby holding off Corrupted Kaylee's claws back with her scythe, Crescent Rose. "She's gone Victor!" Ruby shouted as she threw Corrupted Kaylee back. "She's a corrupted now!"

Corrupted Kaylee screeched again and charged Ruby, who charged with her scythe ready. The two clashed claws and blades with serious speed. Corrupted Kaylee was keeping pace with Ruby's strikes as they swung at each other. Ruby swung at Corrupted Kaylee, but she ducked under the swing and tried to slice Ruby. She jumped back and charged again.

Victor sat and watched as his corrupted sister fought one of his friends to the death. He was stunned that he had lost one of his closest friends. "You knew you would lose people." Victor thought as he stood up. "The best thing you can do now is to end Kay's suffering." Victor ran over to his axe and grabbed it. He turned to see Corrupted Kaylee catch Ruby's scythe and rip it from her hands.

She immediately flipped the scythe around, grabbing the handle and swung the scythe at Ruby. All Victor saw was blood flying from Ruby and her screams that filled the air. She dropped to the ground as blood flowed from her face and Corrupted Kaylee raised the scythe to finish the job. Victor thought quickly and threw his axe at her, hoping that it would kill her and not make her suffer. The axe was just about to hit her when she turned and blocked the swing with the scythe.

The scythe was knocked from her hands and Victor took his opening, tackling Corrupted Kaylee to the ground. He pinned her arms to the ground and shouted "I know you're in there Kaylee! You have to fight this!" She snapped at him and screeched, completely ignorant of Victor's cries. "Please Kaylee." Victor cried as he felt tears form in his eyes. "I don't want to lose you." She didn't seem like she heard him at all and continued to snap at him.

"I'm sorry." Victor cried as he reared his head back. He threw his head forward with all his might and slammed his forehead into Corrupted Kaylee's. She immediately became quiet and Victor assumed she was knocked out cold. He stood up and looked around to see that the fighting had stopped. The Dark Rex's body laid outside of the town with a sword plunged into its skull and all of the Corrupted had been taken care of, except for Corrupted Kaylee.

He picked up his axe and walked over to Corrupted Kaylee's unconscious body. "I'm sorry Kay." Victor muttered as he raised his axe. He was about to bring the axe down when he noticed the black on her body start to recede to her chest. All of the bone crumbled into dust and the black vanished, leaving only an unconscious Kay. Victor dropped his axe and fell to his knees and cried "I didn't mean to hit her that hard. I just wanted her to stop."

He felt a hand on his shoulder and wrapped his arms around the person that tried to comfort him. "I'm sorry about Kaylee." Blake apologized as she put her arms around him. "Ruby has been taken to the town hospital." Victor held onto Blake and continued to cry until he heard Ren proclaim "She's breathing." He turned towards Ren, who was checking Kaylee's pulse and he proclaimed "She's still alive." Victor immediately picked Kaylee up and proclaimed "Where is the hospital?!"

"This way."

Ren took Victor to the hospital, Victor thinking the whole way "Please let her be okay. Please be okay."