Just gonna roll right into it, I don't have much to say


Chapter 36

Completion

Ruby watched on in horror as the titanic Grimm circled Beacon Tower from her perch on the airship, snapping herself out of it upon hearing the caws of the approaching Griffons and taking a step back, winding up as one swooped down to attack her before rending it in half in one fell swoop, each half fading away behind her. She turned around when she heard what sounded like a camera snap, seeing Neo standing there and changing back into her own clothing using her Semblance. Winking, she took a picture of Ruby once more, sending the message over to Roman with the text 'Guess Who?'

"Oh, you can not be serious!" he groaned, grabbing his cane and walking out of the ship towards the deck. "At least that green kid isn't with her this time..."

OOO

Regretting that she'd spoken and drawn his attention, Blake backed away from the window, staring in horror at Adam before her.

"Running away again?" Adam asked sarcastically. "Is that what you've become, my love? A coward?"

"Why are you doing this?" Blake shot back.

"You and I were going to change the world, remember? We were destined to light the fires of revolution!" he yelled adamantly, stomping on some poor Atlesian student's chest. "Consider this... the spark," he finished, drawing his sword and holding it point down over the horrified student, Blake realizing he was aiming to stab them.

She wasn't going to let him do that though, instead opting to charge forward with her weapons drawn. Swinging at Adam, she pushed him away from the student, giving them a moment to flee while standing there with her blades locked with his.

"I'm... not... running," she said, looking him in the eyes under his mask.

"You... will," he replied, kicking her and knocking her away into the floor. One Grimm nearby, a Creep, saw fit to charge Blake in her momentary lapse of readiness, only to be shot dead by Adam. "But not before you suffer for your betrayal, my love."

Smiling, he continued his approach, sword held at the ready.

OOO

Despite Link's assistance earlier, Team CFVY ended up being no better off than before, instead being caught in a fight with a few Paladins alongside some other students in the area. Velvet was the most recent to be attack by them, being knocked back by a blow from one of the massive mechs. Coco was knocked back as well, bumping into Velvet and hitting her back to the ground once more. Plenty more students tried in vain to fight their way through the multitude of corrupted machines, among them Sun and Neptune as they held off another Paladin.

Weiss chose this moment to arrive on scene, charging one of the Paladins, only to get knocked away immediately.

"Weiss!" Neptune shouted, reaching out in vain in order to catch the Schnee heiress.

Nearby, Yatsuhashi tried to hold off a Paladin's massive arm with his blade, but was eventually overpowered and thrown away, the Paladin then turning and approaching Ren whilst he was distracted.

"Look out!" Nora shouted, shoving Ren out of the way to take the incoming hit for him.

"Nora! No!" he shouted, trying to run towards her before being knocked away himself. Trying to buy their friends some time, Coco and Neptune started unloading everything they had into the Paladins, but their armor plating proved too much for their rounds.

"Uh, this is bad," Neptune said, pointing out the obvious.

"Well, I guess now's a better time than any," Coco said, sighing. "Velvet!"

"Really?" Velvet asked, visibly excited.

"Just make them count," Coco commanded, Velvet nodding and making her way towards the Paladins in challenge.

"What are you doing?!" Weiss shouted, looking at the reckless choices they were making. "She's going to get hurt!"

"Just watch," Coco replied, having complete faith in her teammate.

Holding her hand out, the box that held her camera opened up, projecting a hard-light construct of Ruby's scythe, Crescent Rose, right into her hands, taking hold of it and leaping into the air, dodging a few shots from their on board cannons before doing a perfect recreation of Ruby's forward spin, slashing at the Paladin on her way down. Looking up, the weapon in her hands changed to Myrtenaster, raising the blade and deflecting the blow from the Paladin before zipping around and landing a few blows like Weiss did before sliding to the ground in front of the Paladin. Switching to Ember Celica, she fire at the Paladin a few times before ducking and swapping the weapon to a copy of Gambol Shroud. With that done she chucked it by the ribbon around its legs and tying them together, tripping it. Looking to the second Paladin, she darted forward and cleaved upwards, taking its hand with her before chucking the scabbard at its 'face', lodging it in place. Before it was able to react, she began peppering it in the face with her own version of Coco's weapon, Gianduja, stepping forward as she fired before switching to Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang to counter another attack, using the staff to propel herself upward before bringing Magnhild, Nora's hammer, down I=ont its arm and smashing it off. The first Paladin, still on the ground, was finally managing to right itself, but she used her copy of Floating Array, the late Penny's weapon, to slash apart its legs and firing at it the same way Penny would. Despite this, the Paladin she'd take an arm off of managed to punch her in the back, knocking her away with a painful yelp.

"Velvet!" Coco shouted, laying down as much cover fire as she could, but once again it did nothing to slow its lumbering approach. Many more students did the same, but to no avail.

Tired of sitting back and watching her friends get hurt, Weiss sprinted forward using several of her glyphs, a very particular one appearing beside her, much to her surprise. Getting between the Paladin and Velvet, she raised her sword to try and defend, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth. Hearing a nearly deafening clang, she opened her eye and looked up to see she had inadvertently summoned a large spectral knight's arm, complete with a similarly imposing great sword. The arm then pushed the Paladin back before rearing back and swinging down, rending the entire machine in two. With danger averted for the moment, she released a pent of breath, seeing a bright flash and turning to see Velvet smiling while holding her camera, the girl having taken a picture of the massive construct.

Sadly, that was as much of a breath as they could get, as another, even more advanced Paladin came sprinting in, sliding to a standstill down the way and seemingly glaring at them from its more heavily armored chassis.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Sun shouted, the others bracing themselves as the machine charged them. Before any of them could react, however, the machine was ensnared by a tree sprouting beneath it before a massive circular blade flew by, burning white hot that cut the entire machine in two, each half falling loudly yet otherwise harmlessly to the ground. The present students turned and saw the other members or Team VDMR, Sebastian holding his hand forward and recalling his weapon before sheathing it.

"Sebastian!" Weiss said, running towards him. "Thank goodness you're all okay!"

"Don't worry about us," Sebastian replied grimly, "just worry about keeping yourselves safe. We've all... we've all suffered losses on this day. We need to do our best to make sure we suffer no more."

"Penny..." Weiss whispered, remembering that the teen had feelings for the mechanical girl. "Sebastian, I'm so sorry."

"It wasn't your fault, Schnee-san," he said, releasing a pent up breath and allowing his shoulders to slump forward, opening his eyes and allowing her to see the tired bags under them. "We couldn't have done anything about this."

"Truth be told, I don't even know who to blame anymore," Coco said, scanning the area for any more hostiles. "I hate to admit it, but Link may not be to blame here. He saved my team and took off to go help others."

"His initial relationship with that man may be by blood, but that is it," Sebastian said, nodding. "I have no doubt that everything he does from this point on will be to rectify his past mistakes."

"Green'll fix what he can, but we gotta fix what we can!" Volga shouted, smashing his spear into the ground.

"Dumbo here is right, we need to do everything we can to help people get out of here safely, there are still civilians and unarmed students here," Lana said, making complete sense for once.

"I hope you and Coco are right, Sebastian," Weiss said, thinking to what they were saying about Link. "It'd at least be useful knowing we have one less problem to deal with."

"Maybe he can take out that Strife guy?" Sun pondered, Weiss shrugging.

"Who knows? All we can do is help however we can and hope for the best."

OOO

Back at the airship, Ruby was trying her best to do something about Neo, but Neo proved to be far more nimble than Ruby could deal with, taking swing after swing at the shorter girl before deciding even her fast paced swings were too slow. Instead, she opted to burry the blade of her scythe into one of the metal panels underfoot in order to fire at her, but though the bullet made contact, her target shattered into tons of tiny pieces. Behind the illusion that Neo had placed was Roman himself, the crime lord smirking and taking a shot at Ruby and knocking her back, though she was able to use Crescent Rose to stop herself, looking up as Roman approached her.

"Little Red, little Red, you are just determined to be the hero of Vale, aren'tcha?" he asked sarcastically, twirling his cane the whole time.

"What are you doing?!" she shouted back, glaring at him. "Without these ships, the Grimm will destroy everything!"

"That's the plan!" said matter-of-factly before pointing his cane at her to shot it her again. Ruby slapped it off to the size to avoid being shot though, knocking him off balance enough for her to try to hit him, though Neo stepped in in time in order to kick Ruby away, flipping her over herself to throw her towards the edge of the airship. Closing in on her, she kicked her a few more times, hitting her closer and closer to the side of the airship.

"But why?!" Ruby shouted, forcing herself to a stop before falling off. "What do you get out of it?!"

"You're asking the wrong questions, Red! It's not what I have to gain, it's that I can't afford to lose!" he shouted back, watching as Ruby charged him. Neo vaulted over him and tried to kick Ruby once more, doing just that before flipping over her and hooking her umbrella onto Ruby's scythe. Lifting her up, she drove a foot into her stomach and knocking her into Roman. Roman used this chance and fired his cane into the ground, using the recoil to launch it into Ruby and catching it before firing it over his shoulder, knocking her off the ship. Had she not managed to bury her scythe into the side to stop herself, she would have fallen.

"I may be a gambling man, but even I know that there are some bets you just don't take," Roman said, looking at Ruby from his position of superiority. "For one, coming up here without that boyfriend of yours? That's just a bad call."

Ruby glared at him as Neo pointed her umbrella at her, a sword blade popping out to make sure she wouldn't move.

"Like it or not, the people that hired me are going to change the world! You can't stop 'em, I can't stop 'em!" Roman declared, taking a step back so he could monologue in peace. Ruby was forced to kick away a small Nevermore that started trying to peck at her feet, then looked back up and saw the button on Neo's umbrella.

"You know the old saying, 'If you can't beat 'em-'" he said, only to stop when he saw Ruby quickly reach up and pressing the button, the umbrella opening up. Due to the high winds of the high altitude, it easily caught her umbrella and took her with it, a quick startled *gasp* being the first thing Ruby had ever heard come from the tiny fighter as she was carried away from both she and Roman.

"NEO!" Roman shouted, holding out a hand in a fruitless attempt to bring her back.

"I don't care what you say!" Ruby shouted, getting back onto the ship with and reclaiming her footing. "We will stop them and I will stop you! BET ON THAT!"

Quickly charging forward, she was knocked back when Roman fired at her, then used the crook of the cane to catch and spread the explosive shot, meaning Ruby was unable to properly block it. He pressed on, however, and smashed his cane into her head and pointing the end into her stomach and firing again, sending her skidding back.

"You got spirit, Red," taking a few steps forward. "But this is the real world!"

Approaching Ruby, he basically golf swung his cane at her and knocked her further back, as he was really getting tired of dealing with this kid.

"The real world is cold!" he said, bashing her over her legs. "The real world doesn't care about spirit!" he said, winding up to hit her again, only to be hit in the knee and stagger backward. "You wanna be a hero?! Then play the part and die like every other Huntsman in history!" he shouted, hitting her again with the butt of his cane. :As for me, I'll do what I do best: lie, steal, cheat, and SURVIVE!"

As he spoke, he reared back for a heavy, overhand swing, but was stopped for good when a massive Griffen swooped down and swallowed him whole, roaring at Ruby once it had gotten the crime lord down. Ruby, at least thankful she wasn't being hit with a cane anymore, grabbed her scythe and prepared herself, charging forward as the Griffon charged her, only for Ruby to quickly jump up and kick it into the ship, completely diverting all of its momentum into the hull where it smashed through and did the ship in. Realizing the ship was going down, she ran off the side and used the recoil from a few shots from Crescent Rose to slow her descent to Vale below, looking around for what she had to do next.

OOO

Qrow and Glynda were doing their best to keep the multitude of Grimm approaching at bay, and even received a little help from Cardin as the bully smashed away an Ursa with a smile on his face. Unfortunately, behind the Ursa were a few corrupted Knights, Cardin backing up in surprise before the heads of all of them were shot off. Turning towards the source of the gunfire, he saw General Ironwood, the stubborn general having survived the crash with not to much as a scratch. His clothing, however, was torn to shreds, revealing that nearly the entirety of the right side of his body had been replaced with cybernetics, likely being the source of his incredible strength. More Knights moved in to take him down, though he blew all of their heads off with no hesitation, pistol whipping the one that decided to lunge at him.

"This area's secure!" Ironwood said, ignoring Cardin and speaking directly to Qrow and Glynda. "We need to-"

Before he could finished, Qrow looked to him and widened his eyes in surprise, finally transforming Harbinger to its full scythe mode, the handle extending outward and the rear edge of the blade allowing several red blades to protrude forth, immediately charging towards Ironwood.

"Qrow! This isn't my doing!" Ironwood shouted, though Qrow kept charging. Flipping his gun around into a better defensive grip, he prepared for the worst, only to be surprised when Qrow instead leapt past him. Only then did Ironwood notice the large Griffon that was lunging at him, Qrow having seen it and deciding to take it out as quickly as possible. He did just that, too, cutting the beast clean in half so fast that neither Ironwood nor Glynda could actually see it. Landing back on the ground, Qrow stood up straight and turned to Ironwood, seemingly a bit annoyed.

"You idiot. I know you didn't do this," he said, scoffing.

Relieved he didn't have to fight Qrow, he sighed, putting his head into his free hand, Glynda stepping forward and placing a hand on his shoulder to further calm him.

"So what now, General?" Qrow asked, looking to Ironwood.

"Someone's done the impossible and gained control of my machines. And that enormous Grimm seems to be fixated on the school. Glynda, form up the local Huntsmen and establish a safe zone here in Vale. We need to evacuate Beacon. Qrow, I'm leaving that to you and my men. But be wary, Fenrir is there and fighting with Strife. I still need to get to my ship," Ironwood said, turning around to hear a massive explosion as his ship crashed into the ground, Ruby having done quite the number on it.

"Well, it won't be much of a walk," Qrow said, doing his best not to chuckle. Nice one, Qrow thought to himself. Jokes aside though, he really needed to get moving, as even more of those Knights had started to swarm them. However, with their command ship gone, they shuddered and collapsed, rendering them as a threat no longer.

OOO

Back in the Beacon courtyard, the students stood at the ready to deal with more Knights charging in, only for them to simply collapse, the destruction of the command ship seemingly disabling all of them.

"Hm. That went better than expected," Sun said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Weiss, having forced herself to remain standing to deal with the incoming threat, finally gave herself a moment to take a breath, falling forward and using her sword to keep herself propped up. Yang, having finally gotten out of the dorms, saw one of her teammates nearly fall, and as such quickly ran towards her to check up on her.

"Weiss!" she shouted sash approached, skidding to a stop next to her. "You're okay! Have you heard from Ruby?"

When Weiss shook her head, she still had another teammate to inquire about. "What about Blake?"

"She went after an Alpha..." she said, pointing in the direction she had run off, "and some members of the White Fang. But be careful, Coco said those two Huntsmen were fighting somewhere over there, and they apparently won't think twice about killing us."

"You look for Ruby. I'll meet up with Blake," Yang said as she turned to leave, though Weiss held up her finger to stop her.

"One more thing; you don't have to forgive him for anything he's done, but Link..." Weiss said, taking a quick breath. Really, she was exhausted. "He's trying to help. Don't engage him."

"Right," Yang said, not really wanting to heed it. But if Weiss said he could be... well not trusted, but left to his own devices for now, then she figured she could let him.

Sprinting off to where Weiss pointed in the first place, she hoped that she was right; both about Link, and about Blake. She needed to make sure her entire team was safe, no matter what.

OOO

Having loaded into the elevator, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ozpin finally reached the vault, the three sprinting out the moment the doors opened in the hopes of reaching the other end before... anyone else did.

"What is this place?" Jaune asked, looking around in awe.

"It's..." Pyrrha said, thinking for a moment, "a type of vault."

"You've... been here before?" Jaune asked, Pyrrha looking away from him. "What would this school need to... hide?"

His question was answered upon seeing the pods in the back containing Amber, gazing at the massive machine in shock.

"What? Who?" he asked incredulously, not understanding anything that was going on.

"Jaune..." she said, preparing to give an explanation, but Ozpin ended that real quick.

"Pyrrha! Get to the pods!" he commanded, Pyrrha looking to Jaune for a moment before making her way to the second pod. "Mister Arc, if you'd like to help, you can stand guard here."

With nothing else to do, Jaune nodded, but he was still unsure of the whole situation. Turning towards the entrance, he assumed a defensive position, bracing himself for whatever may come.

"What do we do now?" Pyrrha asked, looking at Ozpin as he typed away on one of the terminals.

"We, do nothing," he said, the pod opening as he turned to Pyrrha. "You, Miss Nikos... have a choice to make."

Pyrrha looked at it for a moment before looking at Jaune, blinking in sorrow as she wiped a single tear from her eye before stepping into the pod, the door closing behind her.

She had chosen.

OOO

"This could've been our day!" Adam shouted, slashing at Blake once again. "Can't you see that?!"

"I never wanted this!" Blake shouted back. "I wanted equality! I wanted peace!"

Rasing Gambol Shroud, she fired at Adam a few times, though he blacked each shot with his sword, glaring at her as he sheathed it.

"What you want is impossible!" he said, releasing the handle and slapping her in the face, knocking her to the ground. "But I understand because all I want is you, Blake."

She tried to shoot at him again, though he knocked the weapon from her hands, pushing her back down.

"And as I set out upon this world and deliver the justice mankind so greatly deserves, I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love," he said, turning to the side as he heard someone approaching.

"Blake!" Yang shouted, still searching for her partner, rounding the corner and shooting a White Fang soldier that got too close before going back to her search. "Blake! Where are you?!"

Adam looked back down to see Blake looking at her in horror, and realizing that she cared for her, turned back to Yang.

"Starting with her," he said, glaring at the blonde.

OOO

"Are you ready?" Ozpin said, turning towards the pod that contained Pyrrha, only to see her nod from within. "I... I need to hear you say it."

"Yes," she said, looking forward and laying back.

"Thank you, Miss Nikos," Ozpin said, pressing a few more keys before the pod containing Amber rose up, glowing orange moments later and the girl's eyelids fluttering. Shortly after it started glowing, the glow traveled along the tubes and pipes connecting the pods before flowing into Pyrrha's, bathing her in the same glow and causing her to scream in pain.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted, not expecting for Pyrrha to scream in pain like that. Looking at the pods, he ran over to Pyrrha's and looked inside to try and figure out what was going on.

"I'm..." Ozpin said, turning away from the pod, "so sorry."

Despite all of their efforts, a lone arrow pierced the pod containing Amber, going through her chest as well. She jerked forward for a moment, eyes open wide before exhaling one last time, leaning back as the pods alarm began blaring. Ozpin and Jaune then turned to see Cinder standing down the corridor, her bow in hand. Lowering it, she smirked at the two of them , as she knew she was about to get what she'd been waiting so long for. She could almost taste it.

Suddenly, all of the lights that kept the hall lit went out, snuffed by some unseen force. Pyrrha, try as she might to force the pod open, was unable to do so as the glow rescinded from her and returned to AMber's corpse before bursting out of her and smashing the glass out of its way before flowing into Cinder. Glowing, finally having received the full power she was after, she began floating, her eyes themselves wreathed in flames as she looked at those in the room with her, Pyrrha still beating against the glass in vain. Jaune took a step forward in challenge, though Ozpin tried to stop him.

"Stay back!" he shouted, though he was too late, as Cinder hurled a massive fireball at him that he barely managed to block, throwing him back and hitting a pillar. Sliding down, he ended up on his back, nearly unconscious from that one attack alone.

"JAUNE!" Pyrrha shouted, finally using her Semblance to burst out of the pod, throwing it at Cinder who cast it to the side as though it were nothing. Slowly descending, she watched as Pyrrha called her weapons to her, but instead saw Ozpin hold his hand out to stop her.

"Take Jaune and get out of here!" he commanded, looking to the girl behind him. "Find Glynda! Ironwood! Qrow! Bring them here right away! The tower cannot fall!"

"But I can help," Pyrrha said, only for Ozpin to shake his head at her, looking at her with those same serious eyes he looked at her with when he told her of the truths of this world.

"You'll only get in the way," he said, Pyrrha hesitating but grabbing Jaune and carrying him out regardless. Cinder, finally having what she wanted, figured she could ignore them now. Why, she had finally become the complete Fall Maiden! Who could possibly stop her now?

Lowering herself to the ground, the flaming glow around her subsided, though her eyes still glowed faintly as she smiled at Ozpin.

This game was over.

OOO

Drawing his sword, Adam quickly stabbed it into Blake's torso before she could react, causing her to shriek in pain, finally drawing Yang's attention.

"Huh?" she said, turning to watch Adam stand up straight and rip his sword out of Blake as he turned to her, a sadistic smile on his face. "Get away from her!"

"No... please..." Blake whispered, holding a hand up to try in vain to stop her.

Adam sheathed his sword and continued to smile at Yang as she activated her Semblance, charging at Adam with her eyes turning red and screaming at the top of her lungs. But Adam was expecting this, and thus activated his own Semblance, the world around them draining of color as he shot forward, drew his blade, and swung upward all in one smooth motion. This swing did as he wanted, and took Yang's right arm from her body, the severed limb falling to the ground beside her as she went unconscious from the shock of both the overwhelming pain and the complete dissolution of her aura. Color returning, she fell to the ground, bleeding and unmoving.

Taking a step towards Yang's unmoving form, he swung his blade to the side to get her blood off it, though Blake threw herself between the two of them before he could finish Yang off.

"Why must you hurt me, Blake?" he asked with a frown before decapitating her. Luckily, she had replaced herself with a clone and tried to flee, but the wound in her side proved too much at the moment and she fell, dropping Yang. "And now, you can't even run! How far you've fallen."

It turns out, the sound Link heard had actually been Blake's cry of pain, showing up just in time, sliding in between them with Farore at the ready, a single Gold Shot aimed at Adam's heart.

"Get away from them," he said, Blake looking up at him in surprise.

"And what if I don't?" Adam asked, grabbing the handle of his sword and preparing to slash Link.

"If you take another step closer, I'll paint the wall with your insides," he said, finger on the trigger. "I don't care how much aura you have, it'll be the last mistake you ever make."

Adam seemed to take the hint and backed away, remembering that this was Oni's nephew, seemingly recalling something important about him. Using his chance, Link immediately used his Semblance and took Yang and Blake away, leaving Adam alone with a Creep that he killed without even turning to it.

"I thought you..." Blake mumbled, Link nodding as he continued to run with the injured girls in his arms.

"Yeah, I was working for him," he said, continuing to sprint. "But he lied to me. I wasn't going to keep fighting for someone who betrayed me like that. I have a feeling that you understand that..."

"...I do," Blake admitted, looking down and clutching her wound in pain. "Thank you..."

"Don't thank me," Link said, "I still have a lot to do before I'm worthy of any forgiveness."

OOO

"This whole time... right beneath our feet," Cinder said, smirking at the Headmaster before her. "She was right about you."

When Ozpin did nothing more than grip his cane, glaring at her, she shook her head in disapproval.

Ozpin turns his cane in his grip, staring hard at Cinder.

"Such arrogance," she said, still smirking at him. By this point, she'd already basically won; she could afford to be cocky.

OOO

"Come now, Fenrir, you're starting to slow down!"

This entire time, throughout the entirety of the destruction being caused around them, Fenrir was fighting with Oni. And though he'd never admit it, Oni was really starting to wear him down. He was used to fighting for this long, sure, but he wasn't used to fighting with someone on par with him for almost a full day.

"Pick up the pace!" Oni shouted, pushing Fenrir back once more. "Make this fun for the both of us!"

"Shut it, Strife," Fenrir shot back. "If unload now, I won't have anything for the long run."

"Biding time?" Oni said, glaring at Fenrir. "You have a chance to face the strongest Huntsman alive, and you're hoping to stall? No no, that won't do."

Drawing his second blade, the green one, he stepped towards Fenrir, hitting him hard with both at once and knocking him back. Eyes wide, he understood what he was trying to do; he was going to make sure he had to fight at his best in order to avoid dying. Sighing, he knew what he had to do, reaching forward and undoing the lock on his sword, Oni smiling.

"Yes, that's what I've been waiting for!" he shouted, beckoning him with one of his sword. "Throw everything you have at me! Today is my day, I want to have fun!"

"Your day? You're right, it is your day," he said, grabbing the blade with both hands and separating it down the center, the rings completing themselves on either side, as well as the handles and purple overlays. This was the second form of his sword, Twin Midnight. "Your day of dying."

"Bold words, Fenrir," Oni said, holding up his own two swords. "I've heard that far too often. They're always wrong."

"Prove it," Fenrir said, the symbol for Reaver filling both rings and his aura presenting itself, a potent violet. Leaving forward, he slashed with both blades at once, Oni still only using one blade to defend. However, he actually grunted holding Fenrir back, the two blades at once hitting harder than the one. Shifting into Striker, he finally managed to plow through Oni's defense, hitting him square in the chest. That being said, it still didn't amount to much, Oni barely taking a step back.

"If I were a lesser man, that would have killed me!" Oni shouted, rearing back with one of his blades and swinging at Fenrir, though with the added use of Rush he was able to duck it and hit Oni a few more times, though he still payed no mind to it. Smiling, Oni kicked Fenrir away, though he quickly stopped himself with Soar before charging back, using Sentinel mid-swing to remain in place when Oni swung at him, his blades being locked with one of Oni's. "That's it, now we're talking!"

Bashing Fenrir in the chest with the pommel of one of his swords, he took a swing with both at once, pushing him back long enough for him to line the blades of his swords up, connecting them and turning them into a massive, helix-edged sword of green and blue. Swinging it downward, he looked at Fenrir and smirked, as he knew that the assassin was having a hard enough time defending with the smaller swords, and here he was with an even bigger one.

Shaking his head, Fenrir, slid one of his feet on the ground, the area between he and Oni being covered in a thin sheet of ice, nearly causing Oni to slip, especially since he wasn't wearing shoes. He held his ground however, even when Fenrir slid in and tried to slash at his thighs, swinging that colossal sword of his once and blowing him away. Exerting his aura for a moment, he also melted the ice, gripping his sword with both hands. Swinging downward, he launched an aura arc at Fenrir, the assassin defending yet being noticeably hurt by the force. That hit way harder than most people could, even when you take into account that this guy is Oni Strife of all people...

Torn from his thoughts, he saw Oni defend against a golden rifle round, turning to see Link standing there with his gun raised.

"Get away from this school, Uncle," he commanded, though Oni turned to him and sneered.

"What changed you, boy?" he asked, taking a step forward towards him and ignoring Fenrir. He was lucky too, as this gave him a moment to catch his breath, which Oni didn't let him do at all. "Why are you trying to aide this school? This Kingdom? They aren't your blood. I am all you have left, especially after that stunt you pulled in Amity."

"You're no family of mine," Link spat, putting away his rifle and drawing his sword and shield. If Gold Shot wouldn't touch him when he was focussed somewhere else, he doubted he could do it point blank and get away with it. "Family doesn't betray each other like this. As far as I'm concerned, my family all died in that Grimm attack years ago."

"Those you fight for are doomed to die here anyway," Oni said, stepping closer and closer to Link. "You're better off abandoning them and moving forward."

"I'll save them and move forward with them!" Link shouted, raising his shield as Oni swung, smashing it out of his hand. Link knew all too well how strong his uncle was, and only kept his shield there to avoid dying on contact, as he was sure Oni could if he wanted to.

"Then you will die too!" Oni shouted, stepping after Link, only to get hit in the back by an aura arc from Fenrir. Turning back to him, he sneered, figuring that he wouldn't leave him to his business at this point. "Fine, I'll deal with your insubordination later, boy, for now I have work to do."

Looking down, Fenrir saw a message on his scroll from none other than Cinder, and it was only 2 words.

We won.

"It's a shame, my job here is done," Fenrir said, putting his scroll away. "You're too late, Strife. We got it first."

"You-" Oni said, realizing what Fenrir meant. "Of course you tried to drag this out, you were biding time for your chosen host."

"So run along big guy, there's nothing left for you here," Fenrir said, putting one of his swords over his shoulder.

"You mean to tell me you thought I've been on a time limit?" Oni asked, laughing loudly. "Oh, how quaint! Oh, I can assure you that I still have plenty of time to get what I want. All you've done is waste my time. But now that I know I'm looking for someone else, I don't have to waste my time with you anymore."

Fenrir, realising that Oni may not be kidding, rose his swords to try and block the jump attack that came from Oni, though his guard was easily broken and he was smashed into the ground. Link got up and ran to his aide, as though they may be enemies, he knew Oni was by far the greater threat.

"Back off, kid," he grunted, rising from the ground as Link tried to defend him. "You've got no idea who you're helping."

"Yeah, you're Fenrir, assassin for hire and probably working with the people who hurt my friends," Link said, facing his uncle as he approached. "But I also know that the man you're fighting will hurt way more people if he gets what he wants."

"Fair enough, I guess," Fenrir said, rising to his feet. "Just don't get in my way."

"Same goes for you," Link said, looking at Fenrir beside him.

"Don't get cocky kid," Fenrir said, shaking his head as Oni approached them, frowning at the two of them.

"Your mistake will cost you your life, boy," he said looking at the two of them. "At least you will die together."


Oh boy, lots of fights, lots of bs going on too. Oh well, I'm just the writer, don't ask me. And I know they're boring author's notes, but meh, deal with it, these are just here to occupy space at the top and bottom.

OniHelix out!