It's here! It's finally here! We have reached the end of Volume 5. Will I continue the story or will I wait until Volume 6 you can find out at the bottom. And I just want to take the time and look at some of the stats for the story up to this point…
Favorites: 60
Followers: 75
Review/Comments/Questions: 35
I'm surprised that I have made it this far with one story alone! You guys are all freaking Awesome. I see every one of those favorites, followers and reviews as people who I may have made their day a little better. And without further adieu I'll let you read what you want to read and not my ramblings. OwO have fun~
Chapter 32: Clashing Fists
Qrow and Oscar were walking ahead of everyone else as they were making their way to the building of where the Headmaster of Haven Academy was going to meet them. Ruby and Weiss were talking to each other and getting caught up from their time apart. Ren, Nora and Jaune talked about the headmaster's sudden change of heart. Strom and Yang were walking with each other at the back of the group, occasionally taking glances at each other and blushing. Strom had both of his weapons on him because he feared about an incoming fight.
"Look alive kiddos, we're here." Qrow said and opened the doors to the building and stepped inside. "Leo, last time we talked you didn't want anything to do with this… Why the sudden change of heart?"
"Qrow… I wasn't expecting to see more of you here." Leo said in fear looking at the group. "And there are more of you this time."
"Yeah, well… things happened." Qrow said as Strom and Yang looked around the building. "The more the merrier."
"Mom?!" Yang shouted at the raven that was perched on the banister before moving away to get avoid getting shot at by Qrow. Raven landed behind Leonardo and shifted into her human form.
"Well that wasn't very nice." Raven said and walked down the stairs.
"What are you doing here?" Qrow said with his weapon drawn and ready to fight. "I know you have the Spring Maiden."
"You're right that I do." Raven said as she reached to the bottom of the stairs. "I can't believe that you would come and try to attack me Qrow. Thankfully Leo here let me get a heads up of what was to come."
"Leo…" Qrow said and sheathed his weapon before turning back to face his sister. "We can beat Salem. We can work together."
"After all of these years you sent gathering information for Ozpin you still don't know what you are going up against." Raven said with a scowl. "There is no beating her."
Strom shook his head a little and was noticed by Raven. Ruby stepped up to talk before Raven. "Yes we can. We have done things that many people who call impossible to do because we didn't do them alone, but rather together. So please… we can work together to beat Salem."
"You sound just like your mother." Raven said before opening a portal. Every sense that Strom had was screaming danger and reacted as a fireball came out of the portal. He threw a fireball of his own to collide and blow up the other one.
"Awww, how disappointing," Cinder said as she walked out of the portal. Emerald, Mercury, and Vernal accompanied Cinder through the portal. "Hello again, it's been too long."
"Cinder," Ruby said with some slight venom in her voice.
"Awww, come on guys." Mercury said as if he was still acting as a friend. "I thought you would be happy to see us again."
"Everyone just stay calm." Qrow said as everyone was getting ready to pull out their weapons.
Hazel opened up the doors and entered and closed them before walking inside the building. "The White Fang are planting bombs all around the school, No one is getting in… and no one is leaving."
"Oh no…" Oscar said and knew that trouble was coming.
"Raven…" Qrow said with venom dripping from every syllable of her name. "How long have you been working with them?"
"Don't be so upset little bird." Cinder said with a smug smile. "Raven is the newest member and very recently too. As for Leo… he has been with us for a very long time now. Having the Vytal festival entry was a treat, but he's been sending information to Salem all that time. Aren't I right professor?"
"Stop it…" Leo said in shame and hung his head.
"It was you… You sit at the Mistral Council and have information to every Huntsman and Huntress in the kingdom." Qrow said glaring at the headmaster. "I couldn't find any of them. You let Salem kill them…"
"I'm certain that Hazel and Tyrian would have found them eventually." Cinder said in a false comforting tone. "Don't be so hard on yourself."
"What is wrong with you?!" Jaune began to ask as his emotions took over him. "How are you so broken inside? You kill all of those people and then come back to rub it in our faces like it an accomplishment to be proud of!"
"Jaune…" Nora said worried about her leader.
"Jaune, please…" Strom said knowing that Jaune has a huge grudge against Cinder.
"All with that damn smile on your face!" Jaune cried out as tears fell. Weapons began to be drawn by everyone.
"Stay calm everyone!" Qrow tried to command but failed since more weapons were drawn out.
"I'm going to make you pay for what you did!" Jaune shouted and wanted to hear something from the criminal. "Do you hear me?! Say something!"
"Who are you again?" Cinder asked and knew that it would be the beginning of the fight as Jaune charged in with Crocea Mors and struck Cinder's blade.
"Jaune!" Ruby shouted and tried to jump into the fight and strike at Cinder from above but was caught by Emerald's weapon.
"You aren't getting close to her." Emerald said as Yang tried to help Jaune but Mercury jumped into her immediate path.
"Hey there Blondie." Mercury said with a whistle. "I think that you should apologize for our fight being interrupted."
"Sorry but your dead associate put up a better fight than you ever could." Yang quipped back before launching herself at Mercury.
"Vernal, take care of the heiress." Raven commanded. "She's not worth for you to use your power on."
Qrow rushed in at struck at Raven with the intention to kill. Raven was swift enough to bring up her weapon to block it. Strom threw a ball of flames at her and she kicked back Qrow and dodged the attack.
"Running away was one thing but this crosses the line!" Qrow shouted as Strom ran up and began to attack.
"Hmm, you made a good move to attack me while I was distracted… but there is another friend for you to play with boy." Raven said and opened up a portal and Typhon leapt out and slammed Strom with a right hand, sending him back to the wall. "So… where were we brother? Oh I remember, I was disappointing you with my choices just like family."
"What the hell is that?" Qrow asked as Raven began to fight back.
"Don't worry about it…" Raven said and began to put Qrow on the defense. "It's the boy's death coming soon."
Oscar began to sneak up the stairs to confront with the headmaster as Hazel closed in on Ren and Nora. Leo watched the fighting and turned to face the young man.
"I don't know who you are, but for your sake you should leave now." The faunus headmaster said and prepped his weapon. "I'm warning you!"
Oscar continued to walk forward and drew Ozpin's cane. The Headmaster of Haven looked at it and recognized who it belonged to.
"Ozpin?" Leo questioned as Oscar got ready to fight.
"Not quite," Oscar said before attacking the headmaster.
Strom bounced off the wall and got up with a groan to get a long look at what had hit him as Weiss and Vernal fought with each other. He took one look to find a black void walking towards him and as he focused more onto what it is his fears became true. He was fighting Grimm, but one that he couldn't recognize and yet gave him a sense of familiarity.
"I don't know what you are… but you are not going to stay around for much longer." Strom said as Typhon charged at him. Strom let out a stream of flames to kill the Grimm, but it wasn't working. The beast was continuing its charge and treated the flames like it was nothing. "Okay… that's a little new to me."
He dodged a punch from the beast and swung a kick which should have crushed the arm of the beast, but all it did was made a huge boom from the force he put into it. He retreated a little before trying to punch the head of the Grimm in order to snap its spine and yet every effort he tried to use to kill the Grimm quickly was not working. Strom was not quick enough and received another strong punch into his gut and sent him back into the wall and left a large dent. He was having a hard time breathing since the air was literally forced out of him and he heard the beast grunt repeatedly as if it laughing at him.
"Alright… nothing I did is working..." Strom said trying to catch his breath. He looked at the weapons that he brought and drew out the greatsword. "I really hope that you can help me out here Aquilo. This thing is not going down easily. And my semblance isn't going to help if there are bombs everywhere…"
Typhon leapt at Strom and was met with a big sword stopping its left hand from grabbing him. The sword's bladed edge slowly pierced the skin and traveled down to bone and the Grimm retreated.
"Thanks buddy." Strom said pleased that something worked. "Maybe I will use this after all."
Typhon roared loudly and watched its left hand heal up quickly to Strom's surprise. The Grimm beast leapt at Strom as Jaune and Cinder charged at each other. Ruby activated her silver eyed power and made Cinder and Typhon drop down in pain before Emerald knocked her out. Typhon immediately turned towards the fallen red reaper and charged to eliminate the source of the pain.
"Ruby!" Yang cried out and rushed to punch the Grimm that was about to attack her sister but didn't see that Mercury followed pursuit and was about to axe kick to the back of her head.
"No…" Strom growled angrily as adrenaline pumped so much into him as he launched himself at the small group and kicked Mercury's side and sent him into Emerald as Yang sent the Grimm into the wall. Weiss cried out in pain as her aura ran out from Vernal's weapons. Typhon quickly recovered and focused on Strom again before charging back into the fight. Strom made sure to be the first to meet the beast with the greatsword but he made a mistake. He misjudged the length of the blade and swung it down too early. Typhon seized the opportunity and broke the blade with a powerful punch and then kicked Strom at the temple of his skull and sent him back into the wall.
Strom got up and watched his aura fade out and wasn't going to be able to protect him from another major blow. He got distracted as he saw Cinder's spear sail through the air and impaled Weiss to notice that the broken blade was flying at him. The blade pierced him through his right side. He quickly took out the blade and pressed his clothes into the wound.
'Strom… need a hand?' White and Black asked the bleeding huntsman in training.
"Yeah… think that I could heal this wound?" Strom asked quietly as the Grimm came in for the kill. It shot out its left hand to crush the skull, but Strom slapped the hand aside with his own left arm, now shining with a white and black band circling around his forearms and wrists. The Grimm grabbed the blade again with the right and tried to stab Strom in the forehead, but Strom dodged it at the last possible moment. The broken blade only made a single cut the band covering Strom's eyes, revealing two red eyes focused on the target in front of him.
'Technically it's not healing, but it is slowing down the bleeding. However you should end this fight quickly. You have about twenty to thirty minutes in this state with you injury.' White warned Strom.
"All the time in the world." Strom whispered as Raven, Cinder and Vernal went down to the Spring Maiden's Vault. He kicked Typhon into Hazel, who learned that Ozpin has been reincarnated into Oscar.
"Get off of me you dumb creature!" Hazel roared and shoved off the Grimm and stabbed his arms with raw thunder dust. "Ozpin!"
Strom didn't have a chance to help out the young teen fight off Hazel since the Grimm was charging right at him yet again. Ruby, Jaune and Nora were over by Weiss to get an update of the heiress's condition. Yang was busy fighting Emerald and Mercury and kept her from chasing after her mother. Ruby joined up with her sister to help take on the duo while Strom was busy keeping the monstrous Grimm at bay. He could sense something going on outside but was too focused on what was in front of him.
"Adam" Blake shouted as police light singled out White Fang members. "It's over! Give up now and surrender!"
"You're too late Blake! Haven falls now!" Adam shouted as he took out the bomb trigger and pressed the button but nothing happened. Many if not all of the White Fang members were frightened that they were going to be blown up.
"You planned to kill us all?!" One of the members asked as Adam grew more frustrated.
"Why didn't it work?!" His frustration grew as Blake and Sun began to close in on Adam.
"We already disarmed the bombs Adam, it's over." Blake said as Ilia came out from the dark.
"You are still scarred of me Blake I can see it." Adam hissed as he drew out his weapons and attacked Blake who blocked it. Sun came in and attacked with his staff as Adam used the sheath to block that attack. Hazel was thrown out of the building thanks to Nora being powered up from the thunder dust crystals. "And now I have more powerful friends than you could ever imagine!"
"Don't try to drag me into this now." Hazel said and stood up. "This is your business after all."
Adam looked at the man with rage seeing that he was not going to receive any assistance. He pushed off Blake and Sun before running into the woods. Sun wanted to chase after Adam, but Blake stopped him from doing so. Hazel was about to turn around and enter the building but was impaled by the stinger of what would appear to be Grimm, but it had a blue aura around it. Weiss was recovered and summoned a White Queen Lancer that fired the stinger into Hazel. He removed the stinger from him and began to slowly heal, his semblance helping out with the pain. He injected raw fire dust crystals into his arms and threw a mighty fireball at the summoned beast and ended its short summoned lifespan.
Strom's breathing was beginning to get a little heavier as the fight went on. Neither he nor the Grimm Typhon were making any progress over the other. Whatever Strom hit the Grimm with would just push the monster a little. Strom was able to dodge most of the Grimm's attacks made and those that did hit him just did nothing thanks to the power of the gem. However in a game of who would fall first, Strom would win that before the Grimm would. He needed to change something about this situation and fast.
He planned on a change of strategy and was about to use his semblance at a higher degree, but Typhon managed to hit him in the side where the wound was. Strom stumbled to the ground and tried to recover quickly, but yet again the Grimm was ready for him and grabbed him by the head and slammed it into the ground and dragged him all the way to the wall. Strom's head was beginning to bleed from some of the cuts and scrapes that he just received.
"Update please?" Strom asked the duo in his mind.
'Well aside from that the beast is currently beating you up like no tomorrow,' Black said as Strom scowled a little. 'Alright, I get it. This beast has basically cut down the time to at most five minutes, and given your injuries should indicate that you need to end this now. As in… five minutes ago now.'
"I figured…" Strom said as he saw the Grimm run off for something. He saw that Blake was with Weiss and fending off enemies from getting to the vault entrance and Yang was running towards the entrance as well as the Grimm. "This ends now."
Strom leapt forward, trying his hardest to get to the entrance before the hulking Grimm could. Yang just got away from Mercury by letting her right arm fire off like a rocket. She turned to see the hulking beast reaching for her right but a flash of white light appeared in front of the Grimm. Strom appeared from that light and with all of the bands glowing brightly and launched a punch with intense ferocity into the chest of Typhon. The punch connected and launched the beast straight through the roof and out of the city of Haven leaving nothing but a huge boom for everyone to hear. Everyone saw the feat of power and just stopped doing everything.
"Don't just stand there Yang, go now!" Strom shouted and she came to her senses. He saw Leo leave in fear after watching that Grimm fly. "Huh, out of my sight range. Well good thing that Haven is not too big of a city."
"It looks like that you are the biggest fish to fry here." Hazel said as he walked closer to Strom.
"I'll try to think of that as a compliment and not a race thing." Strom responded walked closer to him knowing that he was at a slight disadvantage before being stopped by Oscar.
"Strom, Yang may require your assistance. And I shouldn't keep you from her now should I?" Ozpin said with a slight tone of Oscar's mixed in with it and followed with a small smile. "Go… We'll take care of the rest."
"Alright," Strom said with a smile and went after Yang down the entrance to the vault. Which was then frozen shut by Weiss.
"So, this has been an eventful day hasn't it?" Strom asked while making a small smile. "Get shot, find your mother, travel across who knows how much land in a single moment, get betrayed by the headmaster of Haven and fight a human-like Grimm that I feel like I have fought before. And now we hurled ourselves down an elevator that has already gone down."
"Very true, but we can't stop now Strom." Yang said as the bottom was coming up. "Grab on."
As instructed Strom wrapped himself around Yang's back as she used Ember Celica to bring them both to a slower fall and not crush their bones. They stood up to find Raven standing up, Vernal dead on the floor, and Cinder nowhere to be found. Yang walked on to confront her mother while Strom looked around for Cinder.
"I suppose that I must congratulate you both for making it here." Raven said and looked at the Vault of the Spring Maiden that she opened. "I suppose that you're both going to try and stop me from taking this."
"What happened here? Where is Cinder?" Strom asked as he continued to search the room.
"You can stop looking… she's no longer here." Raven said coldly. "She more than likely has shattered into many pieces from being frozen and hitting a rock or something."
"Alright…" Strom said looking slightly sad down into the hole. The bands of light on his arms fading out and he collapsed on the ground holding onto his wound.
"Strom, are you okay?" Yang asked in concern and knelt by him.
"I'll be fine Yang, just make sure that you get the Relic and no one else." Strom said and focused on breathing and staying calm. He saw the worried look on her face and in her eyes. He sent Yang a big smile. "You got this Yang. Sorry I can't go on further."
"It's fine, just don't die on me. I may kick your butt if you do." Yang said and stood up before turning to face her mother. She took a deep breath of air before walking towards her mother on her own.
'Are you going to be alright Strom?' White asked out of concern.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Definitely was unprepared for whatever that thing was."
'True, but on the bright side you did send him very far away.' Black said remembering the scene. 'You're starting to get better with your powers.'
"Yeah, but I still have a long ways to go." Strom said and looked towards Yang to see how she was handling her mother. "Talking is good. No fighting at least."
He focused on staying awake and making sure that he kept up the pressure on his wound. He couldn't afford to pass out from bleeding out, and he certainly couldn't let Yang fight her mother if things turned out that way even if he was in no better shape to fight. He listened to them talk and shout at each other for a little bit. He could hear a certain tone in Raven's voice as she cried. He took the tone as sounding remorseful before the pain of the wound started to flare a little. He heard a tear drop and some footsteps coming his way. He saw Raven looking at him sadly and with her weapon drawn out.
"Look I don't want to fight-" Strom began to speak before Raven held her hand out as to offer him up.
"I'm not here to fight, I'm not strong enough." She said and looked to her right to look at Yang again. "Please… Strom… don't let anything happen to her. Keep her safe from Salem. Should it ever come to a point that you all have to face Salem… please do me this favor and do whatever you can to get her away from Salem."
"I promise that I'll see that she stays safe. I can't promise to make her run away from Salem. She is free to choose her fights, but I will do my best to keep her safe." Strom promised and closed his eyes and took Raven's hand and she lifted him up. "I'm sorry that's all I can promise."
"I guess that will have to be good enough for me." Raven said and let him free after he was on his feet. She walked towards the elevator and opened up a portal. "You know, I think that you should play the violin again. Hopefully next time you won't get interrupted."
"Huh, wait." Strom said and turned around as Raven walked through her portal and left. He sighed a little and turned back to face Yang who was walking into the vault. He began to walk towards the vault at a slow pace. He watched her pick up the Relic and held onto it before falling onto her knees and began to cry. Strom quickly rushed over to her and hugged her from behind silently. They stayed together that way for a while before standing up and they walked together, Yang holding the Relic with her only available arm, and Strom holding onto the Relic with his right while his left held pressure on his right side.
"I hope everyone is still okay." Yang said as the elevator began to rise up.
"I am certain that they are kicking butt up there. We do have the numbers advantage after all." Strom replied with a smile.
"Thank you Strom." Yang said and looked at him with a warm smile. "Thank you for everything. I probably would have cried for a lot longer if you weren't there for me."
"Yang… you aren't alone. You have all of us: Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Qrow, and even Oscar and Ozpin are here, even if we aren't within close proximity of each other." Strom said and Yang smirked. "What? Oh right Taiyang and Zwei, I'm sorry."
"You forgot about yourself sweetie- silly!" Yang said getting a little nervous and flustered as Strom met her eyes with his own.
"Yang, would you like to be in a relationship with me again?" Strom asked with a warm smile. "I was hoping that I could ask before all of this, or at least a better time. Sometimes one has to take the best opportunity in a moment's notice. So, I'll ask you again Yang, would you like to be in a relationship with me again?"
"Strom, I would not like to be in a relationship with you. I would love to be in a relationship with you." Yang said and pressed her lips against his to his surprise. She broke off the kiss and smiled. "And that was for earlier today, as well as proof."
"Well, I guess that it's official again." Strom said happy as can be and noticed that they were getting to the top. "We're almost at the top, ready to get back into the brawl since the enemy is still here?"
"I guess, hopefully they are close to defeat if they are still around." Yang said as she came to see Hazel, Mercury and Emerald breathing heavily but still standing. Yang raised up the Relic with Strom and Emerald fell onto her knees realizing that Cinder did not return and began to cry.
"Emerald, we need to leave now." Mercury said trying to get Emerald moving. "Emerald!"
"No…" Emerald quivered and looked around in fear. She cried out loudly and snapped. "NOO!"
Everyone except for Strom and Emerald's two male members began to see a lot of black mist swarm up in a single spot and Salem stood and grew large and became more gruesome. With a monstrous howl that everyone heard while Hazel carried Emerald and ran away with Mercury into the forest. Strom heard the horrible scream and tensed up greatly ready to fight something that he couldn't see. Within a few moments the illusion went away and everyone began to relax a little.
"What was that?" Blake asked frightened about what she just saw.
"An illusion, albeit accurate" Ozpin said and walked a little closer to the group. "That… was Salem."
Blake sighed before looking over to her right to find her father, mother, and Sun rushing up to her and was brought in a hug. Yang and Strom walked together down the stairs and handed the Relic to Qrow. Yang stayed to talk to her Uncle while Strom walked over to Weiss and Ruby who fell down. Strom joined Ruby by lying down on his back next to her and pressed on his wound again.
"Are you two alright?" Strom asked and smiled at the two as Ruby called Jaune over. Jaune placed his hands over Strom and tried to focus on sending some of his aura over to the bleeding teen and watched as the bleeding came to a stop and the wound closed up. "Oh that feels a lot better. I always dislike running out of active aura. Thank you Jaune."
"It's no problem Strom." Jaune said and then stepped away to rejoin his team as Blake joined team RWBY again.
"Hello Blake. It feels like yesterday that I was talking to you." Strom said knowing what was going to come to him.
"That's because it was yesterday!" Blake shouted and laughed lightly as Yang joined with them. "So, aside from Strom… what brings you all here?"
"Well… that's a long story." Ruby said and smiled at Blake.
"Well… I'm not leaving." Blake responded with a small smile.
"And that's all that matters." Ruby said and looked around her team before looking at Yang. "Right?"
Yang looked at Blake with an indifferent expression before softening it. "Yeah"
Blake knelt down and joined a hug with the rest of the girls of the team. Strom closed his eyes and smiled at the four. Sun came up to the five with a small box in his hand.
"Hey Strom, so I know who that you told me to not touch this box, but the house caught on fire after you left and I figured that you can't be too mad if I saved it." Sun said with a smirk and handed him the box before realizing that Yang was right there too. "Oh, I should have done that later."
"Well, I would say that it's alright of a time. I would have liked to wait a little later, but I guess now is fine." Strom said and smiled at Yang before presenting the box to her and Qrow drew out his sword. "Oh relax Qrow, it's a gift for Yang and I have been beating myself up about it."
"What is this Strom?" Yang asked curious to what was inside the box.
"It was a gift that I wanted to give to you before or after the Vytal Festival." Strom said and opened the box revealing a gold ring with an amethyst jewel as the featured stone. "Granted it's not real, so you won't have to worry about losing it too much."
"Of course I will worry about it, you got it for me. That's all I could ever ask for." Yang said looking at the ring and smiled brightly. "So should I put it on my left or right?"
"I can put it on your right hand if you would like as soon as we find it." Strom said as Yang looked over to where she shot her right arm off. "Hey there it is!"
"Could someone be so kind to bring it to me?" Strom asked as he rested while Sun ran to get the arm in question and brought it back. "Thanks Sun, so which finger Yang?"
"The ring finger please." Yang responded as Strom used his semblance to gently weld the ring to Yang's prosthetic hand and made it look as natural as possible. Strom handed back her arm and she placed her arm back onto herself. She looked at the work done to him and felt very happy. "Thank you Strom. So, who wants to share stories while I kick Sun and Blake's butt for letting Strom go out alone."
"I think that I want to hear her story first actually." Weiss said as everyone got a little comfortable. "So, Blake… what's your story?"
The forests were quiet and as peaceful as Grimm infested forests could be. Beowolves were walking in a pack towards some wild deer when a black mass crashed into a tree nearby and made it crack and split from the force. The deer ran away from the surprising noise and the pack of Grimm turned their attention to the fallen object. They could sense a human soul from the breathing beast, but they saw Grimm features on the creature of question. Many of the younger Grimm growled and one leapt to attack the creature with the human soul, but was then grabbed at the torso and crushed by Typhon. The black mist that came from the decaying Grimm was absorbed into the hulking beast.
The other younger Beowolves leapt on to try to take down the attacking Grimm while the older and wiser Beowolves crept away to hopefully get away from this monstrosity. All that could be heard is the crunching sounds of bones being broken. Typhon seemed to grow more powerful as more and more mist it absorbed. When all of the young Beowolves were killed and the mist was absorbed Typhon rushed away deeper into the forest to find more power. It only had one primary objective now.
'Gather as much power as possible and chase after the one with the Gem.' Salem's voice echoed in its mind. 'If you don't beat him next time gather all the power you can before coming back to me.'
YAY! Volume 5 comes to a close, and I made my decision to continue the story for multitude of reasons. Mainly, I just want to continue writing and this is my favorite story to work on. Secondly, I'm a little tired of waiting for the next Volume to come out, and last time I tried to put this story on Hiatus… well you all should know about the two other stories that I made that I haven't updated in a long time Ahehehehe…. ^_^;
Anyways I hope you all have come to enjoy this series and I will see you all next time. This is SirArondight riding off.