School is starting up, so we'll be switching to bi-weekly updates.
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You see some skinny girl like this you have to beware their true strength. A hidden knife or their semblance or something else to even the odds. Or maybe, much like Ruby, a combination of semblance and skill that just left her good. You know? Some people were just good.
Her guns, so far, were plenty for the purpose of keeping me at bay. Further, whenever I would try and close the gap, she would switch styles and jab at me with the sharpest edges of her blades.
She twisted in mid air, coming down on me with a flip and I bashed her into the ground. People kept trying that. It kept not working.
"Got som'more in you." She rose to her feet before I could stop her. I wanted to chase her down and bash her before she could get up but...
"Do it again." I whispered in the burning candlelight. "Let's find out."
I was bluffing. I was at my limit but my semblance was seriously a long way away from being charged. I could feel it like water filling a bottle or a well. It was close to empty and I was already exhausted.
I blocked high and she just stabbed me in the chest with the other blade. I winced, my wounds aggravated. It made me choke on my own spit. I whipped my sword at her head and she ducked under it. Asd she did she delivered a sort of body hook with her weapon to my side. I shoved the sword into her face to drive her back. No contact, but I got some space.
It was enough space to quickly swap my weapon's form. The shield was what I felt I really needed. My long arms and the four foot sword would provide enough reach. Space meant she could shoot me too, though, and she did several times but it was small arms fire that I shrugged off.
That was another perk of being a huntsman. Or at least a huntsman with my factors, I was largely immune to small arms. Her guns? Yes, sure. Crescent Rose? Absolutely not.
She cartwheeled back into my range before I could finish maneuvering the shield between us, I wanted to block both this and her upcoming fire, however, she kicked me in the stomach with both feet and I felt a stitch tear for real. I gasped and my hand dropped to where I assumed blood began to pour.
"I had no idea you were a fucking cripple already."
She loved to talk too, the bitch.
She jumped at me, scissoring her blades at my neck, I rolled back. I grunted from the effort of landing and rising again before in a single fluid motion she adjusted and she just kicked me in the stomach and red covered the front of my shirt.
"Are you like, a step from death. I don't know if I can feel good about killing you, you know?" She giggled. "Like do I feel proud or just like accepting that I won."
A call sounded out, an artificial bird call, and her head turned in the direction the sound came from, a curl to her lips as she backed up.
"What does that mean?"
She was smirking. "None of your business is here." I was fairly certain it wasn't good. That was the first rule of warfare, don't give your enemies gifts.
"What?"
"Go ahead, save the village."
Screams reverberated as the forge, what was left of it, was crushed when a massive shadow walked through it. Grimm were filtering through the village, snatching up children and adults with the same ease. The bandits had softened us up just right.
Fact one was, when she took off running, I pretty much knew what had walked into the village. Or at least I had a good idea. Second fact is, I was in no shape to do pretty much anything to the Nuckelavee. I was actually nearly passing out again.
"Jaune how are we doing?"
"Maybe a two, probably a one." I said honestly. Ruby was back beside me.
"What's it out of?"
"Ten. Maybe a twenty."
She looked around and whined. "What do I do?"
The Nuckelavee was like something I'd seen in a dream I tried to forget. It reached out and ripped a civilian in half and suddenly the range Crocea Mors provided me made me feel inadequate. It's arms covered half a courtyard and several buildings in the process of snatching one of the grooms. Red covered the tye dyed shirt as he fell in two pieces.
It had dozens of Spears and arrows pouring from it's back and they ruffled in a wave like a cat bristling as it moved. Suddenly the floor of it's den made sense. The swords which littered it's floor like so many stepping stones represented but a fraction of the times it had been wounded and had killed.
The monster walked through the forge like it wasn't even there. The horse it road in on was equally nightmarish. It seemed to hold the same intelligence as it's rider. I wasn't sure how far that went but I knew it was smarter than it had any right to be after just one look.
It had a certain awareness to it as it dodged projectiles for it's rider and crushed people.
Someone should have killed it decades, if not centuries ago.
If Ruby was waiting for me to provide a magic bullet she would be waiting a long time. "How are you two doing?" It was Nora running up on us with Ren. She gasped and reached for Ren's hand. "It's here."
I was hurt. As in I was seriously hurt. I was going to be no good in a fight against this thing except as a strategist. But the way my vision kept fading meant even the odds of that was low.
Ruby stepped forward as though to fight and Ren grabbed her shoulder. "If we fight now, Jaune will die."
"What am I supposed to do then." Some venom in her voice.
"Wait. Wait for the proper opportunity and fight it then. We can track it from here. GaiLong is gone, Ruby. It'll never recover. But you can get these people to Higanbana."
"Ren…" Nora whispered.
"Jaune what do you think."
I was dabbing my shirt at where my guts were falling out. "Wha-"
"Never mind. You're right, Ren. Everyone, follow us! I'm going to distract it." Ruby said the last part to us. She burst into petals and charged it. Meanwhile, Ren grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder with a grunt from both of us.
Nora called out. "To me! To me!" She fired grenades into a crowd of Grimm. And began to carve a path out of the village into the woods. "Into the woods! Come on!" She plucked a child into her arms and fought through an old looking Beowulf. Spinning her hammer with one hand, she crushed its ribs then its skull.
Ruby was all over the big threat. She appeared behind the Nuckelavee and shot it in the back three times. It whipped around and gave this howl that shook the foundations of those buildings that still stood. I wanted to block my ears but my arms drooped helplessly.
I watched Ruby slice into its leg then vanish into petals when it swung at her with its long arms. I lost sight of her, however, because when Ren began to jog my vision began to tunnel. I passed in and out of consciousness with the rhythm of his movement. His shoulder was digging right into my chest and stomach from the fireman's carry he was performing.
When I came to, I was in a stretcher with hardwood walls around me. I sighed. It was the hostel in Higanbana, I was familiar with the color of the lights and wood. The shape of the windows, in small rectangles, clued me in, too.
Ruby was on a chair in the corner, in the fetal position. She looked like I felt with tears streaking through the dust on her face.
"Ruby…"
"You're awake, thank gods." She stretched out of where she was curled up and walked over to me. She ran her hands through my hair, I wasn't sure who that brought more comfort to but I leaned into the gesture as always. "I was so worried."
"Ruby..."
"When that girl attacked you... I didn't know you were so badly hurt or I wouldn't have left you."
"Rubes…"
"Higanbana is safe or as safe as safe gets around here, we got some of the civilians out and to here. Had to escort them. It took a few extra days but Higanbana was willing to take the refugees, so long as they don't stay and move on to Mistral."
"It wasn't your fault."
Her hands froze in my hair.
"I'm tired of everyone telling me that." She eventually muscled the words out. "Ren and Nora and now you keep telling me that. It's the first thing you say to me."
"You don't sound like you believe it."
"My mother believed in saving everyone."
"You couldn't have saved everyone; I...I lead us right into an ambush."
"So it's your fault."
"A little. But mostly it's Vernal's fault. She's destroying villages for fun. People are like cattle to her and hunting them for sport. It's her favorite."
"You know that?"
"She has no motivation to destroy so many villages so quickly otherwise, she likes it."
"My mother would have saved everyone." she whipped her eyes. "She was like that. Me, I hardly saved anyone."
"You saved my life again. I know it isn't much, really." She wanted to hit me, instead she rubbed my stomach and I groaned. "It's not. One day you'll see that I'm not one tenth as special as any member of team RWBY." I sat up, slowly. "Come here." I beckoned.
She did, pressing her head against my collar where I held her close and she shook as she sobbed. "It was like Beacon all over again. Time and time again I was too slow. Is my semblance only good for running away? Am I?"
I suppress a laugh. "Your semblance is not for running away I can promise you that. Ruby your semblance makes you nearly invincible. That's who you are."
"Pyrrha-"
"But nothing about Pyrrha. She had her strengths but she can't burst apart and dodge any attack. You can. That's who you are. Look at how you suffer for people you've never met."
"People I've never met. I chose you. I had to make a choice, you or everyone else in GaiLong, was that selfish of me?"
"You couldn't have saved the people of GaiLong except on a slim chance. So maybe, but you'll have to make it again. Just like I'll have to kill again."
"That doesn't make me feel better," she sobbed.
"Well being a murderer doesn't make me feel good, but I'll have to do it again, and again and again. When you make your decisions I can't question them and I'll be right beside you all the while."
"You're really bad at this." She hiccuped but she laughed a little too. "You're supposed to comfort a crying girl."
"Yeah, well, I'm not supposed to lie to you either. We can do this together."
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-WG