Jewelry is endless

by Devashish Karatolios

Talion resisted the rings until sauron’s destruction, and made his decision to keep the rings to prevent their use. Many millenia later, hes here to keep a certain silver eyed warrior on track to survival, despite Ozpin’s objections. Only posted cuz i lack inspiration so i may never update it.

Talion was at the end of his rope, he felt. It had been nearly 5 and a half decades since he put on the ring, and it hasn't come off once. Now, one more day seemed impossible, and his walls nearly came down. This was not new. He gathered his strength of will, and pushed the influence of the ring's shadow out of him, then continued to hold the walls. His Orcish allies had almost all perished, and his domain of influence had nearly collapsed. Sauron has retaken Sergost, Nurnen, Gorgoroth, and Cirith Ungol. Now, Minas Morgul was all that stood in his path to victory. This could not happen, and so, ever weakening, Talion stood watch and guard over the city. When a captain, war chief, or overlord died, he would quickly go out and claim their soul, and bring them back to here to aid him in his vigil, capturing and taming drakes to move them around as needed. And so, Minas Morgul held back the darkness while yet shrouded in it, covered both on every side and above.

Talion thought again that perhaps he should forge a new ring. One designed to give him all the power he required without the shadow of evil upon it. He could do it, easily even, he had all the ring making knowledge of Celebrimbor and Sauron, as well as the thousands of years of experience that came with being soul bound to the wraith. The ring he made could be even stronger than that of Sauron, allowing him to fight and even win against the Maia. But it would be for naught. The moment the One ring is found is the moment Talion will obey Sauron, and though this is unlikely to happen, he must not give it a chance at all. The ringwraiths must be destroyed, he decided. Take the fight to them. "Khamul first. He is the most powerful after the witch king himself, and the moment I lose myself in battle has not come yet; it shall come before I have won. It will be up to my Army to protect Middle Earth before the Nazgûl have been vanquished." And so he set off, assigning warchiefs and bodyguards and an overlord to protect the city.

The first battle took place in the camps near Gorgoroth's fort, and it was far too easy to force him to run as he did. Talion gave chase, and freed the man, allowing him to finally rest. Talion smiles grimly. "One down, seven to go. Should I destroy his ring, or use it?" He wondered.

Slipping the ring onto his second finger, he realized that the influence of the rings multiply with each other. One ring's influence added and multiplied to the influence of the second. A boulder added to the weight of the world, Talion Ignored it, noticing the same effect from the well of power. "I will take Hammerhand next, beasts are useful, and I will need to work from strongest to weakest. Especially now that I know what is happening. And even with three or four rings, the witch king is untimately beyond me. He must be last."

And so Talion began the hunt for Helm Hammerhand.

A month later, at the mountains of their first meeting, Talion fought against and beat Helm in combat and freed his soul, taking to ring the help him. Again the weight of Sauron's influence tripled and slammed into him once more. He must not falter, he thought, and with a hurling of willpower, the strength of Sauron was dominated once more. Once more, he must be contained, and Talion's will was not lost yet.

Again, he hunted, this time the man named Suladan, who's ring was a well of Kinesis. Khamul's ring allowed Talion to sense such attacks and easily dodge them, making the fight easier, which is good because any more difficult fights would surely force him to succumb to the power of the ring.

Talion knew his time was soon to be gone. "Should I continue down this path, I may end the other Nazgûl in their entirety, but I would become an unstoppable force directed only by the Maia I fight. To Minas Morgul, and a meditation chamber. I've cut his Nazgûl Down to 5, counting the rogue duo, that will be the best I can do." He noted, and made his way back to Minas Morgul, proceeding to place himself in a room separated from the rest of the city, and he meditated. For the next decade he could do nothing else but hold Sauron at bay, expending the will he had to push Sauron out of the Rings entirely to permit himself a reprieve from this fight.

Ten years later, he felt the weakness in Sauron and finally pushed himself free of the rings' corruption entirely. Then he felt Sauron attempt to reenter the rings but die as he closed in. Talion sighed in relief. "Sauron has finally fallen, but how?" Talion pondered, then pulled himself forward and staggered to the edge of Minas Morgul, where he noticed an army of men. He continued down to greet them, wondering why exactly they were there. Once down, he found Baranor and Idril, the walking corpses that they were after 60 years. "Good to see you Talion! You haven't aged a day! Hahaha" Baranor exclaimed. He hasn't changed at all, but Minas Tirith has been good for him. Idril seems to walk with her head higher than when she was here too, despite that they were both frail and old now. Talion nodded. "I'd say likewise, but I definitely see a few wrinkles in your faces now. I am glad I have been freed, but what is the army of Gondor doing here?" A new voice stepped forward, saying, "I believe I should answer that. I am general of the ground forces at Minas Tirith, the next city which would fall had Sauron launched a full scale attack from Minas Ithil. We decided that it would be best to capture the city from him instead, and I gathered and moved the regiment to the outside of the fortress. Is that a satisfactory answer?" Talion nodded, "that explains why you would be here. Did Baranor and Idril not tell you that Sauron did not hold the fortress? I know that they were aware." The Regiment leader nodded, suddenly nervous. "Yes, they told me. I did not trust that you did not serve Sauron, so we came to the city anyway. I apologize for the insult!" He said, starting to almost cower, an impressive feat as he still stood tall in front of the men he assembled. Talion bowed. "Then the city is yours. I felt Sauron as he was defeated once and for all, but had he even a minute longer of life, I would no longer serve to fight him, and would have fallen and been destroyed with him."

Talion reflected on his word choice back then. It had seemed so frivolous; uncaring. He cared a lot about what had happened back then, but he did not care enough to ensure that no one could reach the rings ever again. He could have jumped into lava and took them off while he did. It would have destroyed everything. But he didn't. Now he had to live on through the rings, and hold them with him forever, else someone seek to restart Sauron's plot of dominion. And it has been a long time. Talion barely remembered his time before the rings now, a thousand years past. Now, he just wants to sleep. So a spell. "I simply put myself to sleep, stashed inside of a crypt with no exit, and I can sleep until the rings again are needed. Or until someone tries to steal them again. Whichever comes first."

With Team RWBY and Oz, millions of years later

Team RWBY stood in front of Professor Ozpin Zoroaster(1), waiting for their mission details. "Team RWBY. You've come far since you got here, half a year ago. This isn't advertised openly, but throughout the first semester, we keep an eye on our students, and what they've been doing, how strong they are, how skilled they are, how cunning they are. And when the end of the semester comes, we pick out the teams who show exceptional skill, strength, and growth, and we assign them missions of their own in order to help them along. You four, among others, have been marked as one of those teams. As first years, however, you will have a secondary team helping you for this first mission. That team is CFVY, lead by Coco Adele. Now, there have been reports of an estimated 2-4 dozen mid-level Grimm, Ursai and older Beowolves primarily, that have been amassing near the border towns of Vale. I am sending you four to clear them out. You will be given a radio connected to the network of these groups, and Coco will be guiding you through this radio during your mission. The other teams have their own missions, but in the case of backup calls, we will have only one ongoing at a time. Be at the docks at 6PM for your transport to take you to HQ. Memorize the layout and location, I will only send you a transport one time. Dismissed."

Chapter 1

Ruby never thought of herself as a very religious person. She never had reason to; she had a nice family, a nice life, and was well on her way to becoming a huntsman, a hero, her lifelong dream. Now though, she was praying to every god she could think of, hoping to survive this encounter. Her teammates, Yang, Weiss and Blake, were all down for the count, and it was only due to her speed that the four of them still lived. Now Ruby was running circles around them, cutting through anything that came too close. Damnit, this was supposed to be a minor area clearing mission, a few dozen, maybe a hundred or so, not this army that surrounded them for as far as she could see. Every direction she could run meant fighting through hundreds, if not thousands of them, and all seemed to be the level of huntsmen themselves. Elder Grimm that took an entire team of fully trained huntsmen to take out. Ruby shuddered, then abruptly turned and slapped another feather away from her team, swinging her scythe to cleave through the leg of a griffin that got too close. Suddenly, she realized that there were no burrowing type Grimm. The Taijitu, Creeps, Apathy, and other ground dwelling Grimm had not made even the slightest appearance in the fight, which means they weren't there. All she had to do was dig. Easy when she had what could be considered an oversized farming tool, which could be used to dig, and she had super speed. She got her team on her shoulders with little difficulty(aura had advantages), and started slinging her blade in every direction as fast as she could(which was very). It took little time for the ground to begin to crater from the number of slashes running through, and when it was suitably deeply carved, roughly four feet deep, she spun with her semblance, causing a tornado that pulled the dirt back over them, spinning her scythe like crazy in a dome around them, resulting in a sort of dome of earth surrounding them. Ruby smiled for a second, then starting digging again. Weiss groaned, finally waking up. "I can't see. Why can't I see?" Ruby smiled, hidden in the darkness caused by her tactic. "Cuz we're underground, and we need to get further before they break through the top, Yang and Blake are still out, but we can't exactly change that." Ruby said, shrugging Weiss off of her and going back to cutting through the ground. Weiss nodded, and with a wave of her hand, a blue crystal appeared and lit up, allowing them to get through the ground faster as weiss added some gravity glyphs to push the dirt to the ceiling they had made and enhance its strength. Yang was next to stir, pulling out her radio and calling for help at Ruby's behest. "Beacon do you read?" She said. "Loud and clear. Whatcha need Yang?" Came the voice of Beacon's most powerful fashionista, Coco Adele. "Hey Coco. The Grimm up there were more than a bit underestimated. There's at least a thousand of them, and all the ones we fought were the type of Grimm that it takes a team of huntsmen to take out. Ruby dug us underground to escape. Could you send a group of Huntsmen to help? Preferably a more experienced team and some Professionals. We'll need the help." Coco snorted, "a thousand? That seems unrealistic with how close to the city you are." Yang nodded, though she wouldn't be seen with the radio. "Yup. I could barely see the mountains before I got knocked out." "OK then," Coco said through the radio, probably nodding, "I can send JNPR, and CRDL, and two solo hunters, Qrow and Winter. if they aren't enough, I'll also prep my team to join you, but it'll be a bit longer. They've been sent your scroll coordinates and are on their way. Stay alive, will you?" Yang smiled, grim as it was. "Sure thing, brownie." Ruby and Weiss stopped digging, focusing on reinforcing the roof they'd made, now almost a dozen feet upwards of them. It should be thick enough to slow them down, but it won't stop them. It was at this point that Blake awoke, suddenly alert and holding her katana, the cleaver lost when she lost consciousness earlier. "What happened, Yang?" She whispered, not aware that they were already discovered. Yang shrugged. "When you went down, I tried to get to you and extended myself too far and I ended up going down with you. Ruby would know the most, she's the savior right now." Blake nodded, "Ruby?"

Ruby answered the prompt, "Sorry I didn't manage to save Gambol too. When you and Yang went down, Weiss and I slowly made our way to you, and Weiss infused some of her aura into you to stop the bleeding from the injuries you got, but she didn't have enough to keep herself conscious too, and she went down. When that happened, I put you all on my shoulders and used crescent rose and my semblance to dig us in, and Weiss joined me when she woke up. When Yang woke up, she sent for backup, we've got JNPR, CRDL, CFVY, Uncle Qrow, and Winter Schnee coming to help us, but the Grimm still know we're here and they're trying to get in right now. We've just gotta hold out until they get here now." And as though Fate was waiting for those words, a claw struck through the packed dirt defense, quickly being lopped off by the scythe as ruby returned her attention to being a spinning wheel of death.

Chapter 2

They couldn't make it. That much was obvious. RWBY would have to hold out for at least a day and a half for them to cut a swath through the sea of inky black that was the Grimm. CRDL, JNPR, and Qrow all looked horrified by the thought that this many Grimm could stay hidden so close to the city. Winter looked cold, though if you knew her like Qrow did, you'd see the worry in her eyes. The ten of them slipped down into the mess, beginning their slicing and dicing of Grimm, faster than it probably would have been if they weren't working one Grimm at a time, ten versus one. When CFVY joined them, half a day later with supplies, they managed to drop the estimate to 3/4 of a day, but that still left far too much time for RWBY to feasibly hold out.

Ruby woke up to Yang's shaking. "Ruby, you need to wake up, you dig fastest, and we need to get deeper, the roof's getting close to collapsing again." Ruby nodded. She had decided to have one person sleep at a time 2 hours each. This way they get a chance to avoid exhaustion. Ruby was last, and based on the scroll time, she got 1 hour, but it'll have to be enough. She got up, opening her scythe, and the others crouched down beside her legs. An instant later, a dome of red blurs appeared, a gravity glyph following to remove the dirt. "How deep are we by now? A dozen feet? A hundred? Will they even be able to find us?" Dammit Yang, this is not the time to freak out. Ruby gritted her teeth. "Yang, they're still attacking us. That means that however deep we are, it's still visible from above ground. We just have to stay alive for another 8 hours. If it makes that much difference right now, send an ETA request." Yang nodded, pulling out the radio and repeating the request to them. A moment later they got a return, "We can see the hole you've been digging. We'll be there soon, less than ten minutes." Came the voice of Jaune, strategy extraordinaire. Yang sighed in relief, but it was overshadowed by Ruby's gasp of surprise. "Guys, the floor's giving out!"

Which prompted Blake to say "it's gotta be better than up." Ruby nodded. "Yang switch the radio." She said, following up with "Coco, there's a cavern under us!Hope to see you soon!" spoken towards the crackling radio, and the ground fell out from beneath them, leading to a hall, roughly 20 feet tall, and much larger and wider than that, with grandiose designs all over the walls, prominently featuring a tree with a flowing script that none of them recognized. Shortly after they fell, a cracking sound was heard, and they realized that the Grimm were on their way. After what felt like ages, the Grimm burst down, falling rather ungracefully to the ground before standing up and charging the four. Ruby reset her stance, followed by the other four, and they prepared to greet the army of Grimm that was amassing through the hole above them. Shortly after starting fighting, Ruby heard the telltale sound of rapid gunfire. the Cavalry had arrived, confirmed a few minutes later when a group of 14 huntsmen dropped in. Coco, Velvet, Yatsuhashi, Fox, Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Cardin, Dove, Sky, Russel, Qrow, and Winter hit the ground lightly, wasting no time to lock into place, creating what could be considered a nearly unbreakable wall of weapons and skill. The Grimm wave broke upon it, and their advance was stalled. Unfortunately, it was not stopped, and ever so slowly, the group of 18 were pushed up against the walls, though with the glyphs of the two Schnee women here, they were slowly shifting the odds in their favor.

An Ancient Beowulf circled around Ruby, swinging at her unprotected back only to be foiled by a hammer to the face courtesy of Nora.

Two Ursa Majors tried to tag team Cardin, who smashed the ground with his mace, throwing them both off balance with the explosion that followed, clearing the defenses that allowed Yang to blast off one of their skulls, paired with Winter's secondary blade lodging itself in the other's heart.

A nevermore the size of a bullhead shot downwards towards the group, foiled by a giant suit of snow white armor jumping at it with sword in motion, forcing it to abort

Ren and Qrow easily tagteamed a creep 20 feet tall, cutting out its legs with scythe and dagger, then pushing it back to pin an enormous deathstalker that appeared at some point recently, giving Jaune a chance to test his newfound strength a try by shoving his heirloom blade through the carapace and ending its life.

Russel, Sky, and Dove surrounded a Boarbatusk, slamming it with halberd whenever it moved and herding it away from the others with the sword and daggers.

Weiss and Blake countered a Beringel's swat with a combined block, gravity glyph, and projection slowing it down, Myrtenaster lodging in the ape's neck, trapping it for a cross swing with Gambol Shroud to decapitate it.

Pyrrha one-v-oned a large Beowulf minor, catching a claw on Akuo and shunting it to the side, a click sending Pyrrha off to the side as a spray of bullets from Coco split the thing in half.

Velvet stood on Yatsuhashi's shoulders, spraying thousands of 50-cal bullets through the air with a hard-light amalgamation of Ruby and Coco's weapons, shredding dozens of the enemy Grimm while Yatsuhashi swung his giant blade, cleaving through anything that thought to get close.

Fox threw another Ursa into the crowd, slowing the Grimm with another explosion of spiked chitin.

No good thing will last when the Grimm are involved, however. A piece of a Nevermore that hadn't fully collapsed caught Fox by surprise, finishing off his aura, and giving a Beowulf the chance to slash him across the chest, and he barely got behind Ruby before it killed him, and Jaune jump started his aura, barely keeping him conscious, though in extreme pain. And once one fell, the domino affect came into play.

Fox went down, and without the reduced advance he caused, Weiss soon succumbed to exhaustion, running out of aura, and her constructs fell apart.

The now overwhelming force caught Winter's summons off guard, forcing them out of the fight with crippling blows.

Ruby was only barely saved from a complete dismembering by the newly freed Grimm by her uncle, lopping off limbs whenever one got too close to either of them.

Ren took a hit to the gut without Ruby's crowd control, throwing him into a wall and knocking him out, though his aura wasn't broken.

Ren's knockout drove Nora Vengeful, and she was KO'd shortly afterwards, only living by Pyrrha's pulling on her by her hammer.

Cardin fell to a large Boarbatusk, demoralizing the rest of team CRDL, was causing them to make mistakes and fall one by one to the Grimm they fought, breaking Russel's halberd, throwing him into a pillar and cracking his skull open.

Winter and Qrow teamed up, herding the remaining people back to the wall's edge, and having Pyrrha pull those still living to safety by their armor or weapons.

The wall they found was covered entirely with what appeared to be a great white tree, contained within an archway. Winter stabbed her rapier into it, using her own and Weiss' fire and ice Dust to cool and heat the rock until it was softened and easily cut, then backed out to defend the fallen ones as Ruby and Qrow with their giant tools cut through the wall, giving them a small area that the Grimm couldn't get through in large amounts.

Of course, Qrow's bad luck(which seems to have permeated team RWBY by now) struck again, and the entire wall collapsed, opening up to what looked like a burial chamber, complete with stone slab to rest a person on. Only, there was no one on it. Instead, there was a person sitting cross legged in front of it, clad in a full set of armor. When the wall broke down, time seemed to have frozen as this wraith, demon, whatever it was, stood up, and drew a simple long sword from their back. Then, before anyone could blink, a burst of green light illuminated the area, and the humanoid was in front of them, cleaving through a Grimm with a heavy two-handed strike.

Less than a second later, a spectral copy seemed to cleave another. And another. And another. In total, 5 beasts fell immediately to the pale green glowing man in less than a second. A moment more, and the man stepped forward into the mass of darkness, and caught a claw with the sword, slinging it in a circle, and a spectral glaive flowed through the Grimm's head at the same time. He turned, and slashed across another grimm's cheat, disemboweling it, then pirouetting and removing the limbs from the Grimm that broke Russel, leaving it to bleed and dissipate on the ground. It was a glorious dance of death, every step the man took, every turn and twist he made, even every breath he took, seemed to result in the death of one or more of the perpetual sea of enemies set before him as ghostly apparitions of him aided him whenever he needed help.

It only took until the second set of wraiths attacking the Grimm for Yang to get out her scroll and begin recording it as the being cut through hundreds of powerful Grimm in seconds.

As though more and more of him appeared, ghostly figures aided him in this mess, though they seemed little more than distractions for the Grimm as he vanished at one point only to appear on top of a Deathstalker's back, tearing his arm as though to throw something, and lo and behold, a hammer appeared as he swung, crushing the beast's back and killing it. In mere minutes, the man(they think) had utterly emptied the tomb he seemed to have lived in of the dark masked beings. Afterwards, he wiped his sword off on a cloth he pulled from his armor, and sheathed it, then, turning to the 17 still living people(though 7 of them were unconscious), and said something. "Nalkriuk ayh lat, agh nalkroro ayh lat katu?"

Of course none of them understood, which he seemed to understand. "Talion." He said, pointing to himself, then gestured to the wide area of the tomb, pointed to the hole, and shrugged. Only Nora could guess what he was asking. "Ok, so-like-these-guys-had-a-mission-to-kill-those-Grimm-but-there-were-more-of-then-and-they-were-stronger-than-we-thought-,so-we-all-came-to-help-them-,and-they-tried-to-go-underground-to-protect-themselves,-but-the-grimm-kept-following-them-and-they-fell-through-the-hole-and-found-your-home?-Anyways-they-fell-through-the-hole-and-the-Grimm-followed-them-and-we-followed-the-Grimm. Kapish?" She said, pulling team RWBY to the front of the group. The man blinked, asking, "Doeuk evaum ni ukpeak uko quickpak shal katu? jiak didn'av julderukavand ij ukingle ukound."

Which prompted everyone to blink. Perhaps he doesn't understand the language, which doesn't make sense since there's only one universally spoken language to understand, and despite having people from every continent, none of them recognized the language he spoke. Ruby nodded to herself. "Talion?" She said, pointing at him. He nodded. Ruby pointed to herself. "Ruby." He nodded, repeating, "Rue-bee. Ij pleaukure avo meeav lat." she smiled. "Nice ta meetcha." He nodded, seeming oddly relieved.

Ruby looked up at the hole, wondering how she would be getting up there. "Hey, the hole is like 20 feet up. How're we going to get up there?" She said, looking at Qrow(BestUncleEver should always be given Command in a situation. He BUE!). Qrow sighed. "Don't know yet kiddo. But that isn't as important as checking on our friends. Remember, team CRDL, Ren, Nora, and Weiss got some bad stuff." They made their way around, designating people to carry the unconscious and nearly dead. Jaune spent more aura to boost the strength of Russel, hoping that maybe there would be a chance for him to survive, which seemed like it might work when his head stopped bleeding.

"OK," Qrow said, hefting Cardin over his shoulder, "Pyrrha, you can lift Talion up first, he obviously is better at this than we are, as much as I hate to admit it. But we need to take everyone to the city ASAP, and he's our best chance at getting out alive. Ruby, try to tell him not to panic." Ruby nodded, giving the man a game of charades with high stakes, before he suddenly crouched and just jumped, going almost all the way up the the top of the hole and stabbing a sword into the ceiling, and crawling the rest of the way. Ruby and Qrow shrugged.

"Works for me. Now we've got to get everyone else out. Everyone here can hold two people with one arm right? Then Pyrrha can lift our weapons and we can hold ourselves and an ally who's hurt with us." Cardin conveniently woke up around now, and immediately turned to the commander, who was obviously Qrow, asking, "Is Russel Ok?" Qrow shrugged. "We dunno yet, kid. Jaune reinforced his aura, so if he wasn't dead before Jaune got to him, he should at least survive, though we won't know the possible damage until he wakes up. We're working on getting out of this hole with our other 6 med evac patients. Someone saved us, and they're clearing the Grimm above as we speak."

As suddenly as the guy first appeared, he stepped out of the burial chamber and leaped into the hole again, going back to taking out more Grimm. "Well apparently he is now. I don't know." Qrow corrected, as Pyrrha started to lift RWBY and JNPR up to the hole, where Ruby's scythe acted as a step to get the rest of the way out of the hole. Soon enough, Pyrrha was the only one left, and lifted herself up, followed shortly by the man, Talion, yet again.

Yang looked shocked, having been recording the entire time, as he dove out of the hole, catching a rogue claw just before Ruby blocked it with her newly reclaimed scythe, and countered swiftly, his sword nearly reaching Ruby as he spun on his heel, slicing the thing from armpit to opposite shoulder. Soon enough, the huntsmen got over their shock and joined in, with Ruby and Qrow standing guard over the fallen and chopping limbs whenever the Grimm got too close. Soon enough, the area was completely clear of Grimm, and the only evidence of their ever existing the video on Yang's scroll and the black dust covering the field.

As the man slowed down, the rest of the group caught up, and lead the way back to the city, and their headquarters. When they got back, they found Ozpin, apparently not expecting them back so soon and in the middle of pulling out his hair. Ozpin glanced over to them, dialing the on hold ambulance to truck the 6 wounded and 1 very wounded to the nearest hospital, which is to say Beacon. Soon, Ruby, Qrow, Winter, Cardin, Jaune, Coco, and Talion(though they didn't know that yet) stood before him, to report and explain. Ozpin cleared his throat and began.

"Why is it always your team? What was the problem?" Ruby chuckled. "I don't know why it's always my team, but the problem was that there were a lot more Grimm than reported, and they were all more powerful than reported." Qrow interrupted ruby here, "She's serious. Every one of those Grimm would have been a real risk if it were just me or winter or even both of us together. I didn't even have a chance to use my flask!" For once, Ozpin and Winter both ignored the comment about drinking, knowing the why already. "That's not good. Full afteraction report." Qrow nodded.

"It was a routine mission until the call I guess. Team RWBY was handling things as well as expected, then Coco got a distress call that said they'd dug underground to evade the Grimm, and that the Grimm that were there were way too powerful. She had her team gear up and gather supplies, and sent the other two student teams, as well as myself and Ice Queen. We got out there and yeah it was shitty. So we hunkered down and started cutting our way through the Grimm towards their radio location, which was inactive. About 12 hours later, Team CFVY showed up with ammo and aura stimulants, and we got to them about 8 hours later, when we dropped into the hole they had dug. The Grimm were still trying to follow them, so it was easy enough to find, but it was almost 200 feet from the ground level to the floor there. That's important I think. Well we jumped in and lined up with the others and joined the fight. I would guess that it was about 7 or 8 minutes in that a rogue attack got through Fox's defense, and when he got KO'ed, it was like dominoes until we got to the wall. I think that Pyrrha is the only reason that Weiss Schnee, team CRDL, and the Kuroyuri pair got out of that situation alive. Well, one of two. The other reason is standing right over there, but he doesnt speak any language that the ten of us could understand, given the other 8 were otherwise disposed at the time."

Qrow said, gesturing to Talion at the end, which prompted Ozpin to look at the old man, who seemed familiar. "Talion, you say?" Qrow blinked. "No, I didn't say. How-" "Shush. Not you Qrow." Talion turned, then lifted his eyes, suddenly noting the lack of color in his hair, and the age in his eyes. Talion immediately knew where this man came from, despite the obvious physical and mental changes. "Talion, cin ceri- hi whui?" Talion smiled at the question, "Greeavinguk, kuu buesnauk. Jiak kij doaumn whaav jiak kij alwayuk doaumn." Which prompted a similar smile from Ozpin. "You have much to learn about the world, much has changed." Talion nodded. "I gather from sudden language." And this prompted outraged cries from the five huntsmen there who thought he didn't understand. Ozpin sighed tiredly.

'You've never been nearly as secretive as me, so I suppose they'll learn this eventually, Talion.' "I am much older than many of you would think. You three teams are going to be the youngest people to join this group of mine. So Cardin, Winter, Ruby, and Jaune, tell me, what's your favorite fairy tale?"

"So you're telling me that you've been around since before the moon shattered. Along with this woman who loved you but now hates you and everyone?" Ozpin nodded. "And this man, who didn't speak out language two hours ago, is older than you." Ozpin nodded again, "I cannot begin to gauge his age, he has looked exactly like he looks right now, since the first time I met him, when I first turned 15."

Talion smiled now, "Is this still a 365 day year?" Everyone nodded. "So we first met about. . . Sixty thousand years ago? Maybe a couple hundred more. Regardless, that's roughly one hundredth of my life. I'm very very old, and I am an average man, mostly. If I take off these four rings I have under this gauntlet, I will age and die like the rest of you. The only extraordinary thing about me is my willpower.

Everything else comes from the rings I wear and the million years I spent swinging my sword and dagger at nothing or everything. Regardless, the first time I appeared in the world you know as remnant, which is an apt name for a world that has died at least five times over, I helped Ozpin capture an item known as a relic from Salem, who wanted to bring the four of them together in order to force the Gods to come back to Remnant and kill everyone. She doesn't like humanity.

When that happened, I ended up dying, but as I've said, the rings are extremely helpful. Ozpin unlocked my aura, and it bound itself to the rings. Later, I unlocked my semblance, which was the ability to gain and give knowledge by using eye contact. That's how I learned the language so quickly, I just borrowed an understanding from Ozpin. But ignore that, as it will appear that I have multiple semblances in anything other than a 1500 to 1 fight against beasts.

At any rate, Grimm are pulled to aura, especially strong auras, which is why they attack humans and Faunus, and my rings connect to my aura, so the well of power they provide is measured into my aura when something tries to measure it. Would you like to see my abilities? Other than sword fighting I mean." Everyone nodded eagerly, even Ozpin, and they all made their way to a giant clearing in the emerald forest. "I can of course, move extremely fast, in short bursts."

He said, using a spectral dash to suddenly appear in front of Qrow, who jumped back in surprise. He then turned and flicked his wrist, sending a glowing green dagger into the tree, then drawing his hand back and throwing a hammer at the tree, which he knocked to the side and pinned to the tree before it made contact with 2 spectral arrows. Ruby, of course, freaked out. "YOU CAN SUMMON YOUR OWN WEAPONS THATS SO COOL YOU CAN NEVER BE DISARMED AND-"

Ozpin cut her off with "He is his own weapon, Ms. Rose. Your sister is the same way. Don't act so shocked that she's not the only person who's always armed." Talion laughed at her enthusiasm and posed, summoning a glaive and cutting the tree down. "That's all of the weapons I can summon. Warhammers, bow and arrows, daggers, glaive. I can't summon copies of my sword, but that doesn't mean it isn't always mine." He said, drawing his sword and throwing it point first into another tree, then lifting his hand towards it, after which it faded from existence and reappeared in his hand.

"Of course, this is a large variety of weapons, so I should theoretically be able to summon just about any weapon I wanted, but I haven't managed to do that yet. I need to be very familiar with the shape and qualities of weapons to summon them. Aside from that, I can jump almost twenty feet into the air, as you've seen, run faster than anyone without a speed quirk, ignoring the dash I demonstrated, turn invisible when I'm inside anything that can completely hide me from casual observation, and I'm extremely good at sneaking up on things that walk on two legs.

The four rings I have each have their own unique abilities as well as all of this. The first one, to be honest, is the worst for a good person. It allows me to subjugate the dead and force them to fight for me. There are things that willingly come, but most of the time, the dead want to stay dead, and They can't use aura after they die. The other three are more kind." Talion said, gesturing towards the tree that he cut down, and sending it flying off into the distance.

Another gesture had a nest of ghouls form out of greenery, as well as a pair of Caragors, a pack of Wargs, a graug, and a drake, the same way Carnán had done, which she taught to him. "These are the beasts of Mordor, which is the place I lived for most of my life before the rings. I had attacked a nobleman for hitting on my wife, and he had us send to the black gate for treason.

Ghouls, flesh eating moles essentially. The Caragors, they're kind of like giant armored cats? They climb really well for something without thumbs. Wargs, the slightly bigger ones, are the dogs to the Caragors' cat. Can't climb nearly as well, but they're great at pack fighting. Graug. The big thing there. It's essentially a very large and armored, yet very stupid man. They can and will eat anything and everything. Finally, the Drakes. There are only two types of drake as I am aware. This one, which can breathe poison, and the normal ones, which breathe fire. I've met two other beings that can summon beasts like this. The first was a man named Helm Hammerhand.

He was the first person to use the ring that does that. The other was a forest spirit named Carnán, and she taught me to summon these nature based copies of the beasts. The last ring can't really be shown, it provides a sixth sense that tells me exactly where and when an attack is coming, and sometimes can tell me how to dodge it. It activates only when I'm not already prepared for the attack, so I don't know as much about it as the other ones that I can activate at will. These rings are called rings of power, and I am the only conscious thing that knows how to make them. Carnán knows how they are made, but she hasn't left her forest, which is on what is now the dragon continent, in millennia.

In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if Carnán started helping Salem. She never liked any race of sentient beings that cut down trees. There's two things left that I can do. One is come back to life, and I'll reappear in the cave you found me in. The other, is use this." He said, pulling out a metal half glove thing that had a golden gem which looks like it would be on his palm, and he placed it there after removing the gauntlet that doesn't have the rings. "This Rune was made by an elf named Galadriel. It grants several abilities, all relating to the use of light in combat. I can blind enemies with it, or burn them with concentrated blasts of light. It also allows me to burn corruption out of people who chose to let the darkness in if their own free will.

It is magical in nature, and was so before i held it, so when I come back to life, it would not be fixed if broken during the fight, and it was a gift from a very good friend before their death, which is why I don't use it." He said, slipping it back off of his hand and into a pocket. "I have a lot of things like that, which comes with being immortal. Anyways, I have names for all of my weapons as well, if you'd like to hear them."

Everyone except Ruby sighed, knowing what Ruby was going to say.

"YESSSSSSS!"

Talion clapped his hands "finally someone who appreciates names. You know Oz still hasn't names his cane even though he's been using it for millennia? Whatever. Culturally, we used old elvish to name our weapons. This," he said drawing the sword, "is Urfael, which means fiery gleaming brilliance."

He sheathed his sword, and pulled out the dagger. "This dagger used to be a long sword, and belonged to my son, Dirhael, who was killed in an attack on our home. I took the broken blade and named it Acharn as a promise to him, which means vengeance. I definitely got it and then some." Everyone seemed to suddenly be morose. Talion sheathed his dagger and smiled. "I came to terms before Oz was an idea, don't be that way." He then summoned his glaive. "This is Aeglos, and isn't technically mine. I never practiced to learn how to use a pole arm. I said Dirhael was killed in an attack. It's more accurate to call it the attack, since the orcs did take over the gate. Me, my wife, and Dirhael were used as sacrifices for Sauron to summon Celebrimbor, who made these rings I wear, and bind them together. Celebrimbor chose to bind to me instead, and that was the first time I died. Aeglos is his, and it means snow point.

His soul was bound to mine, and I learned all that he knew because of it. That also includes Azkar, the bow, which means to victory. The hammer also isn't mine, I got it from Hammerhand when I took his ring, and named it Helm is honor of him. I didn't name the throwing daggers or the arrows, so no luck. The Rune that I showed you is named Eltariel in honor of its user as well. I believe a total of 21 rings were made. The Nine rings I speak about are the important ones. I have 4 of them. One ring had the power to control people who wore a ring of power. The nine rings were linked to it, and when it was destroyed, so were the other 5 of them. Later, another ring with the power to dominate minds was also destroyed. So as far as I know, there are still 14 rings left, and 10 are in unknown areas.

Perhaps the elves still have theirs. The rings all grant immunity to death. The dwarves rings were lost, so that's 7 rings to find. I don't want someone with natural immortality to have a ring that brings them back to life if they manage to die." Talion nodded, though the other didn't know why. 'I will have to forge another ring. I will make one to permit the use of any power I have experienced, which will allow me to destroy the rings as I find them, and it will bind me to the world whether I have it or not.' "Ozpin, where is your forge? I must forge 2 rings." Ozpin blinked, slightly shocked, and gave him directions.

A month later, Talion emerged from the forge, apparently having not slept or ate since he entered, wearing two rings and no others. "The ability to remember other rings as I do;this ring is giving me all the abilities of the four rings, which I have now destroyed, as well as allowing me to destroy rings as I learn how to use them. I've been corrupted by the power of rings made by others, so I will make sure that I know what they do. I remember what the other five had the ability to do. The rogue twins could teleport far faster, and could use weapons without holding them.

It would have been nice to learn to use their weapons through the rings, they were a bitch to fight. The other 3 rings had fairly useless unique abilities. The ability to track the one ring, the ability to see through thin walls, and an awareness of the number of rings nearby. All designed and perfected to hunt down the one ring if it was lost. I don't know what the dwarven rings can do, and the elven rings have nothing more than a well of energy to improve casting of spells. That should mean that I can improve this ring by taking the power and just transferring it over to my ring. The other ring has the ability to point me in the direction of the closest ring of power that isn't being worn by me. So it's time to get moving. The first ring to get is always going to be the closest one.