RWBY: Revenant
By Endbeats
Chapter 29: Before – Orphiucha
Liu and the three others waited, as they had done these past few days, in the clearing for Kang to wake up. Cam and Sagino were standing around as well, making their usual bets on when Kang would wake up.
"Your dad really likes to sleep in, doesn't he?" Ursus said.
"It's new to me, too," Liu replied.
As the agenda said, they started their mornings with exercises. Rigorous exercises. As in, exercises that dwarfed anything Sagitari could craft. Liu was worried these kind of exercises would give her ideas when they got back. Thankfully, his body was already tempered well enough so that he could move during both his training sessions with Cam and their team assignment. It just hurt a lot.
With a rustle, Kang jumped out of his tent and ran out to meet them. "Wow, sorry guys! I did it again!"
The four listened attentively, not trying to say anything against his way of leading the group. Behind Kang, a disgruntled Cam was passing money over to Sagino.
Not stopping, Kang continued. "Well thankfully we have a few hours before we need to head to our assigned location, so let's split into our pairs and train. Sagitari with me, Ursus with Sagino, and Orphiucha and Liu with Cam. Team dismissed."
With that, Liu walked up to Cam, followed by Orphiucha.
"Oh," Cam said, "Liu, good timing. You wouldn't happen to have a few Lien on you, would you?"
Liu shook his head. "Uncle Cam, you and Sagino are still betting?"
Cam grunted. "Sagino has been having a winning streak as of late. I've been running out of cash on hand, and we don't have a bank nearby, so I can't get any more."
Liu quickly changed the subject. "Anyways, uncle, what are we doing today?"
These past few days of training weren't a waste, to be fair. The majority of it consisted of Liu figuring out the secrets of his semblance. So far, Cam figured out that his semblance gave him the ability to utilize and amplify his own bio-electromagnetic field. That explained why Liu fainted the instant he used it in a gun during the practice sparring at school. Cam explained that it was dangerous to put his semblance inside of anything that would leave his touch at a fast speed, but his scarf was a great conductor. There were so many other things Cam explained his semblance could do, which he had only slightly touched before, but since the start Cam just wanted him to work on his scarf.
Cam replied, "Let me see how your scarf usage is coming along."
Liu nodded and took the scarf off his neck. Holding one end, he then moved the semblance into his scarf, careful not to let the electricity move on its own. When both parts touched, however, he completely stopped any sort of electrical movement inside of the scarf, making it remain limp even though it was charged.
"Good," Cam continued, "You've completely mastered stopping its movement. Now can you make it move slowly?"
Liu tried to move the electricity, but the instant he did that, the scarf tried to start flapping again. Luckily, Cam and Orphiucha could dodge it before he absorbed back the electricity. "Sorry, I still can't make it move."
Cam rubbed his chin. "I think your issue is that you think it works like it would an arm. But the only way you can move it is by moving your semblance, which doesn't function at all like a limb. Didn't you say your muscles do the same when you put your semblance into it?"
"Yeah, my muscles just involuntarily flex or move around."
"Then my hypothesis is correct. You shouldn't imagine it like you can control it directly. You semblance can only be controlled the way you control a semblance, not an arm."
Liu tilted his head. He still didn't quite understand. However, Cam didn't have time to help him more. He turned over to Orphiucha. "Are you ready to spar, Orphiucha?"
Orphiucha confirmed, "Yes, sir."
Since the night she and Liu talked, Orphiucha still would not use her semblance. There were moments, after talking with Cam, where she would try, but suddenly, she would put her hand down and get back to fighting with her batons. So instead she and Cam determined that it would be better to spar and build on her strengths.
Since then, as well, Liu had grown extraordinarily curious of her, and worried for her. The girl lost her sarcastic edge, but it felt wrong, like she was forcing herself to do it. She rarely talked, even to Sagitari, and she ate little. All she did was follow what she was told to do by Cam and Kang. He hoped that their talk that night didn't trigger any of this to occur.
"Alright," Cam continued, "Liu, you work with your semblance while I first spar with Orphiucha. Once we finish, then you can join in and spar with me."
Cam put a can on top of a portable crate. "Work on both grabbing this with your scarf, as well as injecting your muscles with your bio-electricity for today. Remember, your semblance isn't another appendage. Understand?"
"Yes, sir," Liu nodded.
"Good." Satisfied, Cam walked with Orphiucha about fifteen feet over to prepare for their spar, leaving Liu to focus on his goal. Again, he put his semblance into his scarf. He tried to move it, and like before, the thing flapped like crazy. This always seemed to occur. What was he doing wrong?
Liu thought back to the fight in the warehouse. Indeed, he did manage to make the mech move, but there were only a few joints and metal parts he had to move. The scarf had hundreds of those in miniature form. But, did he move the mech like it was another part of his body? Soul remembered when he first made it move on accident. He pulled on his semblance and the thing walked. He pushed and it moved its hands. It wasn't at all like how he'd move his body. Instead, it was all the movement of the semblance.
Liu closed his eyes and pictured the electricity inside of the scarf. It was all frozen, waiting for orders from Liu. The instant he tried to move it like an arm, however, it shook itself around. Instead, he kept his focus on the electricity inside. He pushed a little bit on the semblance, expanding it inside of the scarf.
Liu opened his eyes to find the scarf strangely widened. He was onto something.
Liu pulled and tightened the semblance inside of the scarf. The scarf became thinner.
"Just maybe…" Liu turned towards the can on the crate. With the semblance in his scarf still, he tried something new. This time, alongside a thrust of his arm, he summoned the electricity inside the scarf to both tighten and push forward towards the other end of the scarf. The scarf followed through, expanding at a blindingly fast rate forward, as well as narrowing itself. The scarf just missed the can, though, and the distance from Liu seemed to shock the electricity to return back to his body. Just as the scarf went limp, Liu shivered when a large chunk of his semblance entered back into his body.
This time, though, Liu wanted to try the same thing with his muscles. In all the times past, Liu's body wouldn't listen to him when the bio-electricity absorbed itself into his muscles. He would end up freezing in place, shaking violently, or involuntarily striking things. But with this new process…
Liu absorbed some of the semblance into his left arm, which made it start flexing. However, he quickly did the same thing like the scarf and froze the semblance. Upon that action, his arm quit flexing and hung down, waiting for acting. He then pulled his semblance, and his arm shot up with impressive strength that he lacked before. He pushed, and the arm shot down. It was so strange controlling his body in a different way, but it seemed to give him much stronger power in this form. Liu tested a bit by grabbing a rock on the ground, then constricting the semblance in his bicep and tendons. His body followed suit, and his hand suddenly crushed the rock like it was clay.
Liu grinned. "I learned it, finally!"
He then released the semblance out of his muscle, which came with an unprecedented and dull pain in his bicep.
"It's probably best not to use that all the time," he groaned as he rubbed his arm.
With training ended (following an embarrassing spar on Liu's part), the seven were now on their way to their team assignment. The mission was described as simple grimm hunting, but from Liu's understanding it was far more complex than that.
Liu observed as his father crouched down near a tree. All of the trees in the area suffered the same sort of claw marks, so he took the chance to closely observe it.
"We're looking for a pack of grimm," Kang stated, "Beowolves by the like of it."
Sagitari raised her hand. "Sir, what's a beowolf?"
Liu's father chuckled as he stood up. "You've been in the academy for a while and you still don't know the type names of grimm?"
"Book-smarts aren't my strength," she said with a clueless smile.
"Beowolves are the wolf-looking faunus. They travel in groups and they're common to this area. The only other option could be Ursa's, but those grimm commonly travel alone or in pairs."
"Ursa?"
"Bear grimm," Ursus interrupted. "That was a common nickname for me back in my old school."
"Sorry," Liu muttered. He often forgot that Ursus was isolated for so long.
Kang followed some tracks in the ground. "They frequent this area. Some of these tracks, despite being the same, are old, while others are new. I count maybe… fifteen beowolves."
He finally pointed towards a cliff in the distance. "I predict their nest is over there. All of you, get ready. I know we've been training all of you to work on your weaknesses, but only fight as comfortably as you can. If you aren't confident in a new technique you've learned, don't use it."
Liu wrapped his scarf around his arm and filled it with his semblance. This was the most of his semblance he could be confident in. The three others were getting ready as well, with Sagitari taking out her brass knuckles, Ursus taking his spear off his back, and Orphiucha taking her batons out.
"When I count down from three, we run forward silently. I know this may seem dangerous, but we need the element of surprise against their numbers. Besides, I think I can trust you all to handle some weak grimm."
After he took his claymore off his back, Kang signaled with his hands. "Three… two… one…"
And like that, the seven dashed through the woods, towards a tall spire aiming to the sky. No one yelled a battle cry, nor did anyone even step on a branch. They ran as quietly as possible, until the woods broke into a tiny clearing surrounding the cave. Once through, Liu and the others saw the grimm they were tasked to fight: a large family of beowolves, just like Kang said. Upon sight of the hunters, the grimm's faces, if you could call it that, showed surprise and had no time to get up before the team reached their den.
The first two kills were from, of course, Kang, who jumped in the air and slashed at a duo of grimm from above. They disintegrated, which signaled for the rest of the grimm to mobilize against their attackers.
Liu pulled the end of his scarf into his palm, still constricting it around his forearm. If blocking something reflected it back, what about punching with it? Just as the seven clashed with the grimm family, Liu and one single beowolf caught one another's attention. Liu, acting like his left arm was a shield, held it up and circled the grimm, who did the same. Both kept eye contact, but neither tried to come forward. In Liu's mind, for this to work he had to let the grimm come to him. So, he came up with a plan. For two seconds, Liu ran forward towards his grimm opponent. Seeing this, the beowolf snarled and pounced at Liu, closing the distance with one long jump.
This was what Liu wanted, though. He stopped dead in his tracks and brought his left arm backwards. Then, as the grimm started to come over him, he threw his fist forward, striking the grimm directly in the jaw. And, as predicted, Liu arm bounced back slightly while the grimm went flying, crashing its body into the side of their spire. There were no pins-and-needles feelings in his arm, as the punch was enough force for his semblance to leave the scarf and shoot back into his body. Liu himself shivered at the feeling, and his scarf let go of his forearm.
Liu looked around at the group. Ursus still seemed to relying on his chain, but he did well against the grimm, killing three in one swipe. Sagitari was cutting out the usage of her semblance entirely, and there didn't seem to be a difference from how she usually fought. Orphiucha fought as she normally did, using fast gymnastics alongside quick strikes from her batons. Liu smiled at his group's progress.
That was until the grimm he punched came onto Orphiucha, slamming her into a tree.
"Orph!" Liu yelled as he ran in between her and the grimm. The faunus girl was not unconscious, but the pain debilitated her and she was stuck on one knee. Sagitari and Ursus saw the action, but were held back a large influx of beowolves; thus, Liu was the only one able to defend Orphiucha. Liu held his sword out against the two grimm who were slowly advancing towards them. Quickly, he wrapped his scarf around his arm and pushed his semblance inside of it, though strangely, it moved slower than before. Perhaps it was bad for him to use it too much, which made him lose confidence in this battle.
"Uh, Orph? Can you move?"
Orphiucha muttered, "Give me a second."
The grimm would not wait, though. After looking at one another, the beowolf pair bolted at Liu, who tried his best to hold his ground. The one that managed to make it first pounced and swung its claws. Liu held his arm out in response, and the paw got deflected back and forced the beowolf to fall past them, but the strength of the hit sent the bio-electricity back into Liu.
"What? That wasn't nearly as strong as the punch from before!" Liu said.
The second grimm came far too early for him to recharge his scarf. Liu instead dodged its lunge, then came around with his sword and stabbed in the beowolf's back. Not one to remain in close quarters, Liu pulled his sword out and jumped back, closer towards Orphiucha who was recovering.
"I got a problem," she said from behind his back.
"What is it?"
Just as she answered, Liu saw two batons laying on the ground, several feet away. "I lost my weapons."
"What?!" The grimm took advantage of the distraction and leapt towards the two. Liu had no time to dodge or block, and was successfully tackled by the grimm onto the ground. The force sucked the air out of him, and Liu struggled to get another breath.
Especially due to the fact that the grimm now stood directly on top of him.
It took pleasure in seeing Liu's panicked eyes. Its drool caked itself on Liu's clothes, but he couldn't move still: both his arms were held down by the grimm.
"Hey!" Orphiucha yelled as she jumped on top of the grimm and started punching. But no weapon? She lacked the raw physical strength that Sagitari and Ursus had, so the beowolf simply ignored her assault. It wanted to focus on Liu. It wanted the one that punched it into the side of their den.
Besides, the other grimm recovered from its tough landing and wanted Orphiucha to itself. It pulled the girl off of its partner's back. Orphiucha tried to parkour off of the beowolf's hand, but its grip was too strong. Even her punches felt like nothing to it. Liu tried to fight back as well, but grimm had the strength of several men. How could he manage to break free?
Finally, the grimm had had enough. It opened its jaw and slowly brought its head down on Liu. It wanted to feel as much fear from Liu as it could, and doing the deed at a snail's pace would do the trick. Liu did indeed feel fear, but he didn't want to act like how he used to. If he was going to die, then he was going to face it head on. He kept his eyes open, looking deep into the red of the grimm's eyes. He wouldn't miss a single second.
That was, until a red, hot energy wave created a giant hole through the beowolf. Suddenly, the grip loosened and the grimm fell over to the right before disintegrating, allowing Liu to lean up and see Sagitari wielding Orphiucha's baton. She hit the baton with her brass knuckle and changed it to ice, then shot another wave at the grimm holding onto Orphiucha. The wave struck its arm and froze it, giving the faunus girl a chance to bring her leg up and slam her heel into the frozen arm, shattering it into a million pieces.
The grimm bellowed in pain and stepped backwards, not realizing that Kang had showed up behind him. The general stabbed his claymore into the beast's chest then pulled upwards through its head, disintegrating it in place.
"Liu!" Kang yelled. He leapt towards his son in a mere second and embraced him in a bear hug.
"Are you okay? Let me see your arm."
"I-I'm fine, Dad. You guys helped us, so we're fine."
Kang looked around at Liu to make sure he was fine, then sighed in relief. "Just imagine what your mother would say if she found out our son died on my watch."
"I think that'd be the least of your worries."
Liu's father smirked and rubbed his son's head. "Well, you and Orphiucha are safe, and that's all that matters."
"Orph!" Sagitari yelled as she ran up with her friend's batons. She had a concerned, yet angry look on her face.
"Don't sorry, Tari. I'm fi-"
Sagitari punched Orphiucha square on the face, making her fall down. "You… idiot!"
"Hey, calm down, Sagitari," Ursus tried to calm the situation. He tried to hold Sagitari back, but the girl shoved his hand off and grabbed Orphiucha by her shirt.
"Why, Orph?! Why didn't you use your semblance?"
"Hey," Liu stated calmly, "It's fine. We're alive, Sagitari."
Sagitari looked at Liu with anger. "Don't try to stop me. I'm the only one who knows her semblance, and it sure as hell would have protected you and her."
She turned back to Orphiucha. "Do you remember our promise, or should I say it out loud for them all to hear?"
Orphiucha remained silent. She had no way to defend herself. Liu did feel a little resentful for her not using her semblance, but she had reason, considering the semblance was her father's.
"Fine. We promised that-"
Before she could continue, Kang came from behind and grabbed her shoulder. "That's enough, Sagitari. You're the team leader, and you should act like such."
The guidance from an adult changed Sagitari's facial expression from rage to realization. She took a deep breath, then let go of Orphiucha's shirt. "Sorry," she muttered as she walked away. However, the damage had been done. Orphiucha's face remained pained as she clinched her fists. She was in the most confused state she had ever been.
Kang came up and put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry what she said. I know… Hell, I... don't know what to say," he said. Kang was perhaps feeling the same thing as Sagitari. Worse, considering his son's life was in danger. He simply patted her shoulders and walked forward.
"Let's go back to camp."
(Author's Note: Hello! Thanks very much for taking the time to read RWBY: Revenant! If you like it, give it a follow, favorite, or review! Also, if you don't usually read the after chapters, why don't you give them a good read. The next chapter in that story line is going to be crazy! So, thanks again for reading, and God bless!)
