A bloodcurdling screech echoed through Kuroyuri as the Nuckelavee stood before the now gathered team RNJR.
Ruby brought out Crescent Rose and immediately opened fire on the creature, only to end up having to dodge an arm that shot out in her direction.
"What is that thing?!" Jaune asked as he unsheathed his sword, transforming his shield, glancing over at Qrow whom was still coughing and wheezing.
"I think I've read about these, or Professor Port talked about it in class." Ruby stated as she dashed around an arm that shot out while Nora then fired on it, the explosion from Magnhild's grenade launcher, shaking the beast, forcing it to switch to moving it's horse half. "This is a Grimm fusion, it can only move one half at a time!" she explained as she unloaded more shots onto it.
It turned it's attention to Qrow and started to ready a charge.
Jaune stood in front of Qrow now with his shield raised before suddenly he went gray as Ren was now kneeling down and activated his semblance to mask their emotions. "Get him to safety!" Ren instructed as Jaune would do so before he finally stood himself up and removed his Stormflower guns from their holsters, glaring forward at the monster of his past.
He charged forward and fired off shots at it, that did little more than tickle it as it stopped moving and switched to it's imp half and lashed it's arm out in Ren's direction. Ren merely raised up his guns to block it, the blade cutting along it's arm as he now neared it, only for it's arm to pull back and hit him, launching him away and into a tree that he caught himself on.
Jaune finally ran out again, this time glaring at it as he attempted to cut at it from behind, but his sword didn't even scratch it's armor as it was starting to turn it's attention towards him.
"I guess I gotta use this now then." he sheathed Crocea Mors and the sheath instead of transforming into a shield became a larger, greatsword that he now used to slash at the Nuckelavee's hind let again, this time cutting clean through and making it scream out in pain as it switched to moving it's horse half around and attempted to trample Jaune, who rolled out of the way.
Ruby, charged forward with Crescent Rose and hooked it around the Nuckelavee's leg, firing a shot off, but it wouldn't budge as it then raised the leg up and kicked Ruby in the face, launching her into a wall that shattered.
Nora ran forward with her hammer and attempted to hit it directly with an upward swing, but it took a step back and as she missed it kicked forward, knocking her back.
"We need a plan!" Jaune insisted. "If it can only move half it's body at a time then..." before he could finish his thought, Ren leaped out of the tree and made an angry dash for the Nuckelavee, firing Stormflower on it in a blind rage.
"YOU WONT TAKE ANOTHER FAMILY FROM ME!" he yelled as he avoided more attacks from it's arms, now landing on one as he attempted to slice at it's head before it's upper half went limp and it bucked itself upwards, knocking Ren into the air before it switched back to it's Imp half and grabbed at Ren with one of it's arms, now slamming him into a wall.
"Ren!" Jaune called out as Nora then looked over towards Ruby who was dusting herself off.
"Ruby, I need sugar rush swirls now!" she insisted as Ruby nodded with a smile when Nora hopped onto Crescent Rose. Ruby spun around with her semblance and fired a shot off that flung Nora in Ren's direction as the Nuckelavee's other appendage almost reached him, but would instead collide with Nora.
Ren looked up in shock as the beast had Nora's hammer pinned that she was holding onto for dear life now.
Nora tried to jerk her hammer free but couldn't as Ren then started stabbing at the arm that had him pinned, forcing it to let him go as Nora was then flung around before getting slammed to the ground harshly, shattering her Aura.
"NORA!" Ren yelled before angrily turning his attention towards the Nuckelavee and opening fire onto it again as it punched him, sending him flying back, but he pulled himself back up.
"Ruby, I have a plan, but Ren won't listen!" Jaune stated as he held his sword forward and Ruby tried to divert it's attention, but it remained focused on Ren.
It grabbed Ren's arms now and flung him across the town, shattering his aura as he landed right next to Nora.
Ren grit his teeth and readied himself to charge at it again as Nora then saw this and tackled him, pulling him down to a crawl space under a house as a tendril missed them.
"Nora, we have to go, it will kill them!" Ren insisted before Nora slapped him across the face and he went silent.
"No... I won't let you kill yourself for this, Ren." she insisted as for a brief moment, Ren saw that scared girl in her eyes again.
Ren then took the dagger his father had given him out of his bag and gripped it tightly. Nora put her hand over his and smiled to him. "We'll do this together."
The pair stepped out now as Ruby kept dodging attacks from it's arms and Jaune could only keep blocking.
"Nora, Ren are you two okay?" Ruby asked as she spun her scythe around and slashed through the Nuckelavee's arm.
"We're fine now." Nora assured with a smile as she took aim with her grenade launcher at an arm that shot itself out towards Ruby, repelling it with a grenade.
"We're ready to take orders, Jaune." Ren insisted, holding his father's dagger in one hand and one of his Stormflower guns in the other.
"Good, we need to immobilize it." Jaune stated. "It can only move one half of it's body at a time."
Ruby dashed to the side to avoid it as it ran for her.
"One slam from my hammer should take out the horse." Nora assured.
"Ruby and I can deal with it's arms." Jaune stated.
"And I'll finish it." Ren agreed as Ruby then rushed over to Nora.
"C'mon!" Ruby then leaped up with Nora, using Crescent Rose to boost them both into the air as they landed on a tower as Ruby then nodded to Nora and jumped off of the roof, firing a shot off that hit the Nuckelavee's shoulder, diverting it's attention from Jaune and Ren onto.
The Nuckelavee threw an arm out towards Ruby as she then split herself into three red blurs before reassembling behind the arm and firing a shot off that boosted her right at it as she then stabbed into it's arm, pinning it down.
It then attempted to throw it's other arm at Ruby, but would miss as Ren boosted Jaune into the air and Jaune, now standing on his shield landed right onto the other arm, quickly motioning to stab it with his sword and now pinning that arm as it yelled out in more pain and switched to using the horse half of it's body.
As it started to move itself back, it would stop as Ren threw his father's dagger at it, causing it to stagger back into place. Nora took a deep breath and let herself drop with a smirk on her face as she then let gravity do most of the work as she slammed her hammer down into the Nuckelavee's horse head, completely immobilizing it now.
Ren stepped forward, removing the dagger from it's horse half and glaring straight at it as it let out a scream right in his face that he didn't falter from.
"For my family." Ren glared as he cut off it's first arm.
"For all the lives you destroyed." he cut off it's second arm.
He then grabbed it's horn and pull it's head closer to him. "For myself." he said aloud as he severed it's head and dropped it to the ground as it slowly dissipated into a massive cloud of black vapor.
The dark cloud that once shrouded Kuroyuri finally seemed to vanish as a beam of sunlight shone through the clouds as the Nuckelavee dissolved into nothing.
"We did it!" Nora cheered happily as Jaune walked over to Ren, putting a hand on his shoulder. Ruby just smiled before she then remembered.
"Uncle Qrow!" she shouted out as she ran to where Jaune had put him. "Are you okay?!" she asked as he was leaned against a building.
"Good... Good Job kiddo." he smiled up to her before the sounds of several engines neared the town as Ruby looked up and saw 3 Mistral Airships flying over them.
"We got help Uncle Qrow." Ruby smiled "You're gonna be alright."
"T-Thanks... Kiddo." he leaned back and passed out as the Mistral police rappelled down ropes from their ships and ran into the town to help the team out.
"We saw the smoke and went to investigate." one of the police officers explained from behind their gas mask. "Didn't think it'd be a bunch of kids defeating a Grimm that's long terrorized this area."
Ruby was following Qrow as he was taken out on a Stretcher while everyone else boarded airships that flew towards Mistral.
Ren and Nora sat in the airship, letting their legs dangle out as it flew them to Mistral. Nora let out an exhausted sigh as her hand held onto the ship before suddenly another hand was holding onto hers. Her eyes went wide as she glanced over and saw that it was Ren.
Nora just smiled and leaned on Ren's shoulder with Ren leaning back on her.
"Whoa..." Ruby looked on in awe at Mistral as they neared it. "I've never seen it in person..."
"Heh, I've seen it plenty of times." Jaune chuckled. "But this view is something I could never be tired of."
Several beowolves leaped at Cinder that she then swatted away with a single wave of her hand, creating a wave of fire that incinerated them all before she then created a sword of fire in her hand and slashed through another's head. She suddenly turned around and was surprised to see Ruby.
"C-Cinder... Why?" she asked, looking rather sad as Cinder smiled while walking over to her with her sword in hand, now the glass around it breaking as it was on fire.
"You made me look weak." she stated, her voice restored now. She then sliced through the girl as Emerald dropped the illusion and the beowolf that Cinder just cut through dissolved into nothing.
Salem leaned on a wall and smiled. "That Emerald girl may prove more useful than I thought." she started to walk out of the room. "Now that she's recovered, I suppose I should see what Watts and Hazel are up to." she turned towards the Jellyfish-like Grimm that was floating alongside her. "Somewhere..." the sounds of Cinder incinerating more Grimm was heard. "Quieter."
Ruby tiredly stumbled into Qrow's hospital room, noticing that he was sitting up in bed already, looking exhausted and disheveled.
i don't know, where we should go,
Feeling farther from our goals,
i don't know what path we will be shown,
But I know that when I'm with you I'm at home.
She sat at a desk by the end of the room and grabbed a pen before looking down at the blank sheet of paper she laid out for herself and took a deep breath. "I owe this to them..." she muttered under her breath before she smiled while writing.
"Dear, Dad
I'm sorry I left without as much as a goodbye, I've been well if that's what you were wondering. My friends have made sure I'm alright and I've done the same for them as well..."
Jaune Nora and Ren all sat in the waiting area of the hospital exhausted. Ren put a hand on Jaune's shoulder and Nora leaned on him tiredly, snoring loudly. The two boys just chuckled a little at this before Jaune took his scroll out.
"You know, on this whole trip I've come to realize that what happened at Beacon wasn't an isolated incident and the world itself isn't as peaceful as we once thought it was. People are hurting everywhere and there are others that want nothing more than to hurt other people."
Adam was sharpening Wilt with a Whetstone and touching the tip of it to ensure it was just sharp enough while Hazel watched him with suspicion from the corner of the room.
"But even with people like that out there, I still have faith that the good people in this world, like you... Like Yang, people that can make all the difference just by getting out there and doing something about all the bad."
Yang had finally stepped off the boat with Bumblebee. She waved off the ship's crew as she then sped off into on Bumblebee, her goals clearly set as she looked to a shaded square on her scroll's map that her father did leave a note about bandit activity in that area.
"And even if we're apart, it doesn't mean we just have to sit by and let it all happen."
Weiss glanced out the window of the cargo ship she was sitting in and looked out at the endless sky and sea that was before her before leaning back and letting herself drift off again.
"It's when we take a stand, it's when we decide to not let what knocked us down, keep us down that we make a difference. It's when we decide to just live. Not let our own self doubt or sorrow keep us down."
Blake was reading up a draft of her recruitment form and nodding and handing it over to Sun who was starting to read it over as well. They both smiled to each other, knowing very well that this was the draft as she then went to approach her father who was slumped over at his desk and looking tired before handing him their draft as he smiled and started to read it.
"That's when we make a real difference. I promise to you, when I find the answers I'm looking for and I've helped plenty of people, I'll return home to you, Yang... Oh and Zwei too! Give him a tummy rub for me and I'll tell you I'm sorry properly in person.
- Love, Ruby."
she finished signing the letter and folded it up into an envelope as Qrow was up and about. "C'mon kid, you won't want to miss what we're about to see." he stated as she put the finished letter away.
Team RNJR soon followed as Qrow lead them down a long tunnel. "So this is a shortcut?" Nora asked.
"Yep, this shortcut will take us to Haven a lot quicker." Qrow assured.
In the office of Headmaster Lionheart at Haven, a tea set was set up at the table and a hand reached out to take the tea.
"How very humble of you Professor." Watts leaned back on his seat and took a sip of his tea. "Quite lovely tea, wouldn't you agree?"
Later that night Qrow sat inside of a bar, looking at his scroll in disappointment before he heard the sound of footsteps stopping behind him.
He turned around and saw a boy, standing before him, he looked to be your average farm hand at that. "Okay, okay." the boy seemed annoyed and was arguing with seemingly no one.
"Um... Excuse me." the boy spoke up now. "I believe I'm supposed to ask you... For my cane back?" he seemed uncertain about it.
Qrow just nodded before standing up in front of him and grabbing Ozpin's cane from where he's had it all this time. He threw it at the boy, who caught it and transformed it out of it's compact form. "Good to see you again, Oz."
Commentary: With this chapter, Volume 4 is concluded. This was honestly one of my favorite volumes to write out. The four alternating storylines were a fun format to work with and I was able to do so much more than in the original, especially for Weiss and Yang's very short ended storylines. Oscar's first appearance was also pushed out to this finale because it would have been much to insert him into the volume. We will get a dedicated chapter to his story next volume, so worry not. Which Next Volume did give a few interesting challenges to me that I'll elaborate on when we get there. For now, I hope you all enjoyed this.