Petal Dance
"Okay..." Ruby took a deep breath and peeked out from behind the pillar before wincing and scrambling behind it again. "We might be in a bit of trouble."
Weiss shrieked and waved her rapier around. "A bit of trouble? Ruby, this mission was supposed to involve a hydra." She chanced a quick glance around her own pillar and then screamed as it began to melt. As quickly as she could, she rushed over to another pillar. "Does that look like a hydra to you?"
Ruby shrugged. The nine-headed monstrosity that was currently standing between them and the entrance to the ruined dwarf city was more than two hundred feet tall. Its footsteps shook the hall, and the sibilant hissing of its nine heads sent a chill down her spine. "Technically, Weiss, an ancient hydra is still a hydra."
"Yes," Weiss growled. "In the same way that a kraken is technically an octopus."
"On the upside," Ruby replied. "I do have a plan."
"Does this plan involve praying really hard and hoping your god will smite the ancient hydra?"
Ruby winced. "You know, it kind of does." She paused. "But when you're a cleric who worships Death, that's actually a legitimate strategy."
"Ruby..." Weiss took a deep breath. "Come up with another plan." She tightened her hold on her rapier. "And quickly. I'm not sure how much longer Blake will be able to keep that monster distracted."
X X X
Blake had already died two hundred and twenty-seven times.
Well, sort of.
As a rogue, Blake had access to a bevy of skills related to sneaking, snooping, and just generally messing with people. What made her an excellent rogue, however, was her single-minded devotion to a skill most of her fellows ignored.
[Shadow Copy]
At a basic level, [Shadow Copy] allowed its user to create a shadowy copy of themselves to serve as a distraction. The copy would be fragile, short-lived, and not particularly intelligent.
But Blake had been nothing if not determined.
Mission after mission.
Year after year.
Hardship after hardship.
Blake had devoted herself to mastering [Shadow Copy] to a level no one else had ever reached. Her copies were essentially indistinguishable from her. They were intelligent. They were durable. They had all the equipment and abilities she had.
They were awesome.
And two hundred and twenty-seven of them had already died against the ancient hydra without leaving so much as a scratch on it.
"Some people just win the power lottery," Blake grumbled. "Who decided it would be fair to give the same creature ultra-high-speed regeneration and supremely durable armour at the same time? Even if we could damage it, it would heal in a heartbeat." She shook her head. "Oh, and let's not forget the corrosive, toxic blood, and the fact that it can spew acid from all nine of its heads that's capable of melting rock."
"Hey," Yang said, patting her on the shoulder. "At least it's only your shadow copies out there and not you."
Blake shuddered. "I guess... but you do realise I now know what it's like to be killed in more than fifty different ways by an ancient hydra."
"Ouch." Yang chuckled. "Well, I'm sure Ruby's coming up with a plan to get us out of here." She cracked her knuckles. "I'm going to go out there and buy us some more time."
X X X
Yang loved and the sun... and the sun loved her.
And the sun was mighty.
Like... way mighty.
The sun did not ask for permission to shine. It did not beg and plead to cast its light upon Creation.
The sun shone, and everyone else just had to deal with it.
Yang was favoured by the sun. Its fire and light protected her. And the rest of the world just had to deal with it.
X X X
Weiss stared as Yang ran through a stream of acid, her whole body wreathed in white flame, and then punched one of the hydra's heads clean off. The beast roared, and Yang promptly punched another one of its heads off before the hydra used another head to smash her into the ground. The two destroyed heads regrew within moments, but Yang wasn't done yet.
Instead, the blonde raised her voice and struck a pose.
After all, the sun did not care what anyone else thought.
Posing in battle was ridiculous, right? Wrong. Posing in battle let everyone know how awesome she was, and by extension, how awesome the sun was.
"Hear me, vile reptile! You face a daughter of the sun! Fire and light are my weapons, and it is my great honour to proclaim the majesty of the sun with every blow so that all in Creation might know that there is nowhere the sun's light does not reach that there is nowhere the sun's radiance does not rule. Behold, fool, the glory of the sun!"
After such an impressive speech, Weiss was hoping Yang would do something other than punch the ancient hydra super hard.
She was partially correct.
Yang punched the ancient hydra super, duper, mega hard.
The blow was like watching the dawn break over the horizon, and it instantly shattered every single one of the ancient hydra's scales and pulped its flesh and bones.
Yang sagged, exhausted from the effort, the twilight of the ruined dwarf hall was temporarily cast back by a light as blinding as a second sun.
And then the ancient hydra got up because ancient hydra were bastards like that and were basically impossible to kill.
Weiss sighed and looked heavenward. Ruby was still praying to Death, so it was up to her to buy a little more time. A quick glance at Blake had the rogue moving to grab Yang and get them both somewhere safe so Weiss could cut loose.
X X X
Glyphs were the language of the gods. In the long ago days of the Beginning, the gods had used glyphs to write the story of Creation, weaving the tales of the earth, sky, and sea into something solid and tangible.
Countless people had tried to learn them over the years, and they had died, their minds burnt out, their souls extinguished, unworthy of so much as glimpsing the divine script that had forged Creation.
Weiss was not one of them.
She was amongst the Chosen, blessed by the gods themselves with the ability to wield Glyphs.
Calamity had forced her to flee her kingdom.
Bad luck had forced her to become an adventurer to make ends meet.
Fortune had allowed her to meet Ruby and the others.
And she was damned if she was going to let some overgrown lizard with acid reflux be the end of her.
X X X
[Burn]. Weiss's rapier traced the Glyph in the air.
The ancient hydra burned.
[Break]. Weiss gestured again.
The ancient hydra broke.
[Shatter]. Weiss drew another Glyph, and the world hastened to obey.
The ancient hydra shattered.
And Weiss sagged.
Glyphs, for all their ridiculous power, were incredibly draining to use, and there was a small problem with using them on something like an ancient hydra. Ancient hydras were themselves primordial beings of a sort, their ascension from mere hydra-hood granting them qualities that could be described as semi-divine.
[Heal]. [Regenerate]. These glyphs were carved into the very soul of an ancient hydra. And in a contest between two sets of Glyphs, it came down to raw power. Weiss had hoped the ancient hydra had already expended too much from surviving Yang's onslaught, but she'd been wrong.
The ancient hydra got back up, flesh mending, eyes gleaming, teeth gnashing.
And that was when Ruby stopped praying because she was about to do what any self-respecting High Cleric of Death would do in their situation.
She was going to make a sacrifice to her god, and the ancient hydra was just perfect.
X X X
A scythe blacker than the dead of night appeared in Ruby's hands, and she felt her magic burn like fire in her veins. The powers of a Death cleric were stupidly powerful, but they came with a price. Prayer was required. A sacrifice was necessary. And time... time was in short supply.
Slowly, she raised her scythe and pointed it at the ancient hydra.
[Winter Step: Midnight Petal Dance].
A single black rose petal appeared in the air above Ruby's head, and she vanished in a blur of movement.
BOOM.
Her first strike carved a massive gash in the ancient hydra's body, and she twisted away from its counter attack, pushing off the ceiling and striking again.
A second rose petal appeared in the air above her head.
Her second strike severed four of the ancient hydras head's and blew out a section of the wall.
A third rose petal appeared above her head.
Ruby's jaw clenched. Three petals and this thing was still standing? Well, she'd just have to hit it with more.
Four petals... a fourth strike. The whole hall shook.
Five petals... a fifth strike. Cracks spread across the walls and ceiling.
On and on until...
A sixteenth rose petal... a sixteenth strike. It was a miracle the hall hadn't collapsed.
Ruby staggered to a stop and glared. Sixteen strikes, and the damn hydra was still standing there. Oh, it hadn't managed to hit her, but it knew it would win if it could just outlast her. And it just might.
One of the reasons she had led with this technique was because of how it scaled. Each strike's power was magnified by the number of petals. That last strike had been sixteen times as powerful as the first, and still it hadn't been enough.
"Are you done?" Weiss asked dryly. "Because it's still standing."
Ruby huffed. "I'm just getting started. Everyone knows a rose doesn't bloom just once." She swallowed thickly and raised her scythe again. If single powerful blows weren't enough, she'd just have to hit the ancient hydra all over, right? Maybe that would overwhelm its regeneration.
[Spring Step: Crimson Petal Dance].
Crimson rose petals drifted through the air, and the hydra scowled as the petals swirled around it. Ruby took another deep breath. This was going to hurt. There were exactly four hundred and eighty-two rose petals in the air around the ancient hydra.
One moment there was only one Ruby.
The next, there were four hundred and eighty-two Rubys, each of them holding their own scythe, and each of them hanging in the air beside one of the rose petals.
They struck as one, and the ancient hydra practically exploded beneath the force of the attack.
The rose petals drifted idly on a breeze only Ruby could feel, and she wheezed.
"That was enough, right?" In her head, the voice of her god, of Death, was filled with amusement.
Not even close.
And to her disbelief, the ancient hydra's mangled body began to regenerate.
"Are you kidding?" Ruby wailed. "Seriously? What do I... fine." She pointed at Weiss. "Weiss, you're going to have to carry me out of here after this technique... either that or it won't work, and we're all dead."
"Wait, what?" Weiss asked. "Shouldn't Yang or Blake carry you? They're stronger than I am."
"No, I want you to carry me." Ruby nodded sagely. "I've never been princess carried by a princess before."
"..." Weiss looked heavenward. It was said that all of the great rulers of her kingdom had gone through great tribulations before taking the throne. This must be hers. "Fine, but only if you actually kill it."
"Well, yeah. If I don't, we're all dead." Ruby reached deep into herself and unlocked the well of power she almost never dared to reach for. Immediately, her silver eyes began to bleed argent light. "It's been a while since I had to bust this out."
Ruby raised her scythe for what would hopefully be the last time.
[Summer Step: Argent Petal Dance].
The rose petals above her head and those still in the air turned silver, and where there was once only one Ruby there were once again four hundred and eighty-two Rubys. But there was more because the Summer Step combined the powers of the Winter Step and Spring Step. Four hundred and eighty-two Rubys struck simultaneously... each with four hundred and eighty-two times their usual power.
The ancient hydra didn't explode so much as it painted the walls, floor, and ceiling. By some miracle, the sheer force of the attack instantly vaporised its blood, preventing Ruby from meeting a very grisly end indeed. As the attack ended, the silver light from Ruby's eyes guttered and went out, and she was very pleased when Weiss caught her and held her in a princess carry.
"Is it dead?" Ruby murmured.
Weiss eyed the... gory decorations and nodded. "Not even twitching." She paused. "Although... that does leave us with a problem."
"What?"
"How are we going to prove we killed it? It's standard practice to bring at least one of the severed heads back, and you turned it into, well, paint."
"Damn it."
X X X
Author's Notes
As always, I do not own RWBY. I'm not making any money off of this either.
Haha! You thought you could go a whole month without me showing up with an update? Surprise! Basically, I thought it would be fun to write another fantasy RWBY AU snippet. Nothing like sword, sorcery, and Team RWBY. Also, if you've enjoyed my fan fiction, you should check out my original fiction. You can find me on Amazon and Audible as L. G. Estrella.
As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.