AN
Here it is… the last installation of Act 4.
Without further adieu… let the final chapter of this arc commence.
(Well, actually there is something you can do to delay your reading of this chapter….
Please follow, favorite, and review! I… I'm not even going to try and be subtle about it. Click that follow button… and…
Ugh I can't act so shamelessly.
Anyways… Discord: discord . gg / 9t9MK3jHmV)
Enjoy!
Chasing Light A4 C8
…From their eyes #3: The Average Civilian…
This Vytal Festival was getting extremely strange.
Contrary to the peace and prosperity that this event normally symbolized the violence and accidents within the final rounds of the tournament.
The media, being the article-hungry deadline-abiding fools they were, activated all of their camera drones to catch the next potential scandal to report, broadcast around Remnant, and then talk about it endlessly in the radio.
It was this endless cycle of media attention and the post match violence continuing that bought the world's negativity to a tipping point.
Why, one would ask?
Even if only the most idealistic fools wanted to be huntsman (I mean, nowadays, with atlas mass producing robotic armies, why would you need humans to fight grimm?), they were still undeniably a symbol of stability and safety.
And when the future of the symbols of stability and safety began stabbing, shooting, and snapping finger bones when they clearly weren't supposed to, this really made everybody very concerned. Not just for the huntsman in training, but for themselves. What would the future bring now? Violence from their peacekeepers or incompetence.
The world held its breath as this match was announced.
Pyrrha Nikos. Three time champion of the Mistral Regionals, and easily one of the most recognizable huntresses in training. Penny Polendina. A girl with a technologically advanced weapon that defeated the person who bested Pyrrha Nikos two years ago.
(If these two didn't live up to their expectations, then maybe the next generation really was doomed to live in strife caused by the grimm or excessive violence.)
Little did they know, this attention on the event and the focused broadcasting would cause something much worse than just incompetent huntsmen.
…
…
Most of everybody was leaning forwards in their seats, me included.
The bags of chips were forgotten, as I took out my scroll and used its zoom function to see better. The redheads (Did Penny count as a redhead?) squared up with each other, weapons at the ready. Penny got her swords reattached to her backpack, and got in a mobile stance.
The two then ran at each other, and the weapons began flying in a blur that I could barely see from this distance.
What must be thunderous clangs as gladius met swords, as shield deflected burning hot lazers. It spoke volumes of the quality of Pyrrha's equipment as her shield didn't so much as turn red because of the intense heat beamed on it.
Still, I could see that Pyrrha was slowly getting beaten back. Even if it wasn't obvious, I could catch her increasingly defensive positioning and footwork, how she reverted to her spear form to block the swords more efficiently, and how Penny seemed to notice it as well, her swords whirring with greater fervor.
This tyrade of attack and defence continued, with Penny exhibiting even greater skill by deflecting bullets while keeping up the offensive.
How did I beat Pyrrha again? Oh, right. Martial tricks and getting in close so her gun couldn't be trained on me.
The battle continued until an epic contest of strength lead to Pyrrha getting pushed to the edges of the arena, her weapons batted to the side. Penny was only barely moved, though.
And then, everything went wrong. Penny sent her swords forward presumably to push Pyrrha out of bounds, and then, suddenly, they began veering off course. The blades collided with each other as Penny stumbled, eyes still looking forward as she tettered to the front. The wires that connected her blades to her backpack began coiling around her, and with a sickening groan…
She split into pieces.
...
Cinder grinned from a location near Beacon tower
The Fall began today.
She pressed a button, and began speaking.
…
"This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident."
The colloseum erupted into whispers, everybody nervously shifting in their seats. I was nervous too, reaching for my sword that wasn't even there. What was happening?
"This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children… To men who claim to be our guardians that are, in reality, nothing more than men."
The hubbub of the arena grew out of control, the noises surging up.
"Our academies' headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both. They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil."
The image on the great screen zoomed in on Penny's disemboweled… corpse?
Wires jutted out of the great tears and cuts on her body. Sparks flew and her green eyes zoomed in and out of focus feebly, revealing them to be cameras.
Penny was a robot.
"What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference."
The crowd shook at these graphic descriptions, rage and confusion and discontent visible on my fellow festival goer's faces. I turned to look at Jaune, whose expression was frozen in shock, not believing that his partner would do anything like this.
"And what does Ozpin teach the students here in Beacon academy anyways? First dismemberment, and now this? Huntsman and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither. Perhaps Ozpin thought that defeating Atlas in the tournament would distract everybody from his failures of protecting Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets."
"And amid this tyrannical system of a general who grip the military with iron claws, a headmaster that teaches his students dishonorable tactics to win fights… in this coming storm… who can you really trust?"
The broadcast shut off with a deafening click.
And then, chaos rained on Remnant.
…
Across Remnant, negativity spiked. Many in front of their televisions rubbed their eyes, not believing the tragic sight in front of them. The Grimm, already mobilized because of the negativity caused by the various scandals because of the after match injuries, caught the scent of a vulnerable civilization and struck.
In Vacuo, the sands were alive with beasts that dwelled under the ground, tunneling in under defenses and rampaging across the cities. In Atlas, Mantle was devastated by the herd of Goliaths smashing into the already shoddy walls as Centinels emerged from the mines and began skittering to the densely populated areas. In Mistral, troops of Beringels crashed into market squares, smashing stalls and tearing the limbs of civilians with a bloodlust that could only be explained by a supernatural desire for carnage.
But in Vale, things were worse. Nevermore, Ursai, and Beowulves slowly thundered towards the city. Demonic snakes and scorpions skittered and slithered towards buffets of negativity.
And within an old mountain, a baleful red eye slowly opened, awakened by the desires of its brethren and the beacon of hate, anger, and confusion that was Vale.
...
The sirens began sounding.
"Grimm attack! Threat level, Nine! Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly fashion."
The crowd began running, screaming in panic. Me and the other huntsmen hopefuls looked up, seeing that a gigantic nevermore was circling the stadium.
"How did a Nevermore get past the kingdom's defenses?"said a girl in a fancy brown coat and beret.
"It probably wasn't alone." Ren said, expression calm but body language wary and tense. "The negativity that this broadcast must have caused would attract Grimm from all of Vale's surroundings. We're going to get besieged in here."
The nevermore prepared itself for a dive at Pyrrha, who was still standing at the center of the arena.
Jaune muttered for a bit, then looked at me. I gave him a confused nod. If he had a plan to get out of here, then he should very well put it into action.
Instead of running away, he jumped down into the arena, hand outstretched to Pyrrha, shouting "Snap out of it!"
The Nevermore dived, breaking the fragile barrier atop the stadium. It impacted where Penny's fragments lay, and scattered the pieces to who knows where. Pyrrha was blown back by the shockwave like a leaf.
I stood, paralyzed, looking at the beast that threatened us all.
Most civilians had already rushed to get out of the stadium, boarding the small bullheads that ferried the audience to and from the surface.
Only the huntsman trainees from the academies remained now. The Nevermore, meanwhile, flapped its wings once more to strike-
And then a red blur intercepted its middle, hitting the Nevermore head on and halting its advance.
Ruby Rose, in the frilly skirt that was her combat attire, stood before Pyrrha like a hero.
(A hero that was very dead if she tried to take on the behemoth that was a Nevermore.)
Everybody began rushing for the center of the stadium, taking out scrolls and dialing a number. I just followed the flow, thinking that if we didn't deal with the monster now, we would all be dead.
The bird shook its head, narrowed its eyes, and then once again swooped down at Ruby and Pyrrha.
This time, it wasn't Ruby that stopped the bird. It was the hail of metal from above. Was it the…. Combat lockers that I never used?
Turns out, it was. All of us students clambered onto the bird, found their own lockers, and in a dramatic manner, donned their armor and weapons shoddily. They nodded to each other, as if prepared to fight.
Except for me, of course. All of my equipment was back in the dorms.
The Nevermore then buckled again, making everybody on the beast shudder.
I looked at Ren and Jaune.
"Y'all got this?" Ren nodded, while Jaune just did nothing, still slightly dazed.
"I have to go get my own gear back at the dorms."
"What, you didn't put it in your locker?" Sun (the guy from the crime scene at the docks) asked me, raising an eyebrow.
"I didn't know that storing your stuff in a rocket locker was a thing." I said, already running towards the exit. "I'll catch y'all later!"
To be totally truthful, I was just trying to run for my life. What could I do to a thing of that size? Probably nothing.
I ran out of the stadium, only to emerge to the sight of grimm advancing on the civilians on the platform. From out of airships.
What maniacs would do this?
One particular Ursa broke through the protective line of the Atlesian robots firing at the other grimm that were released from the airships, and was running towards the panicked civilians.
For a moment, I just stood there, looking at their expressions and hesitating to act. They were absolutely terrified, but one boy was already calm. A silent tear trickled down his cheek, and he closed his eyes.
Was this what I was like when I was drowning in the river as I got pushed off the bridge?
Despite all of my instincts and my rationality shouting at me to not run towards the two hundred pound murder beast, I did it anyways. Using a large amount of Chi and infusing it into my legs, I leapt into the air, did a flip, and then landed on the bear's shoulders, before channeling said power into my fists and punching the back of the neck of the Ursa.
The bear roared and swatted at me with a claw, but I was already sliding off of its back. I then slid to the bear's front as it was still combing its back for the annoyance that I was, and when the bear finally noticed me, I once again put a palm strike right into its sternum. The bear roared in pain, stumbled back, and then dissolved into black dust.
I stood, panting, heart racing, and sweat slowly tricking down my back. Now, I was totally unarmed, with nothing but an aura I couldn't use to its full extent and my Chi. The only way I was going to finish these grimm off without my sword or armor was through these Chi-intensive palm strikes. I took a deep breath to supplement my Chi again, slowed my breathing, and looked back to see the expression of relieved citizens.
Oh, right. I was a huntsman student.
"Everybody, get onto the ships posthaste. Other Grimm are coming, and we can't hold for long."
There was general consent and even some cheering mixed in with the cringing of fear and distrust that came because of the presumably hacked PA message.
I felt horrible.
I was just a coward running from the bigger fight in the stadium, and just because I stepped in to stop one Grimm, I was suddenly the "hero"?
As the robots kept firing, most of the civilians were already in the airships. I stood guard, ineffective at killing Grimm as I was. Maybe I could take out one or two, but without my weapons, I really was helpless.
"Come with us, huntsman!" somebody in an airship that was almost full said. "There's nobody left!"
Almost every civilian was on a ship, and the ones who weren't were about to board.
I ran onto the extremely cramped ship, grabbed a railing, and then stood tight as the ship swerved to avoiding the battling grimm and airships. Everybody gasped and whimpered as, outside of the windows, battleships were torn to shreds by the grimm brutally, their boosters and engines torn off as they and their drivers were sent spiraling to their doom.
And if we got nervous, we were sure to be attacked.
"Stay calm everybody." I said, trying to make my shaky voice not seem like I was just as scared as the rest of them.
"If we're calm, the Grimm can't find us."
"He's the huntsman, right? He can keep us safe." Somebody whispered.
I couldn't do anything. I was on the same boat as these people. Without any ranged options at hand, any attack against the ship would land.
"Yeah! Did you see how easily he took down that Ursa with his bare hands?"
"We'll be safe!"
An atmosphere of delusional hope began spreading, and I walked to the front of the ship. People squeezed together to give me some room to pass, and I stepped into the cockpit as the Pilot wearing an Atlas Military helmet had to swerve to dodge another passing nevermore.
"You're the huntsman?" the pilot asked gruffly, jerking the controls up again.
"Huntsman in training. First year." I said, slightly nervously. "I calmed them down, but I can't stay and watch over them. I need my weapons to actually kill these things, and they're all back in the dorms."
"Your point?" the pilot said, slightly annoyed.
"Can you fly them near a bunker or some sort of safe area? I've got to get back to Beacon."
"Isn't it obvious that's what I'm doing?" The pilot said. "You're just a student. You obviously can't handle a horde. There's an area that Atlas has set apart for their airship maintenance. I'll fly them there."
"Okay, I just wanted to make sure." I said, meekly.
In a softer tone, the pilot spoke again.
"Good work out there, kid. Without you calming them down, we would all be grimm food."
Beside us, another passenger cart got its wing slashed off by a particularly large Nevermore. I watched in horror as the ship stalled and began falling into the cityscape.
"Close the windows!" I hissed, pointing to the scene. "If the civilians see that, we're all toast!"
He pressed a button, and then metal shutters clanged shut. Thankfully, nobody noticed the other ship going down, and in a silent but tense ten minutes, we finally arrived at the military base.
A side door opened, and the ramp clanged down on the top of a building.
"Kid, if you're going to Beacon, you better do so now. Once we go into the base, nobody's allowed out."
I nodded, before jumping out.
"Good luck out there!" The civilians shouted naively, before the door clicked shut and the ship flew away into the distance.
Seeing Beacon's tower in the distance, I began running, jumping across rooftops.
Still, almost immediately, I saw civilians screaming inside a glass-windowed café, shouting as the grimm pounded against the reinforced glass.
After another moment of hesitation, I still jumped down and took care of the grimm, before yelling at the owner of the store to stay in a cellar if they had one and to not panic. They nodded frantically and bolted for some space below the floor they were on. Now, off the roofs, I still continued to run.
The only problem was, Beacon was several days on foot away. How was I going to get there?
I saw an abandoned passenger bullhead near a grimm-infested station. Nobody was even trying to approach it and evacuate out of the city because of the danger that it posed.
For a moment, I just thought about taking cover in a building. Why wouldn't I? None of this mattered to me, and they wouldn't need another huntsman student without their weapons, right?
Then, the earth shook, and a literal dragon flew out from the cityscape and towards Beacon tower. Imagining the very real possibility that team RWBY and team JNPR might be there, and that they might have died…
Somehow, I had put them as things I absolutely could not lose in my mind. Something akin to… friends? Through struggling through what was the hardest school in Vale together, we had unintentionally formed bonds of familiarity, I guess.
I steeled myself, grabbed a pipe, and then ran to the station with all the farce confidence I could gather.
The grimm, upon spotting me approaching them, immediately began to run at me. I ran towards them as well, but after seeing the amount that were approaching, I gave up on fighting them. I dropped the pipe and prepared to keep running.
I met the horde, and a Beowulf tried to take a bite at me, only for me to duck under it, and then slide under the wolf completely. I juked a bulky Ursa and then dodged the swipe of a claw of another Beowulf by ducking, and then slowly but surely, ran through the disorganized grimm group until I arrived at the bullhead. It was empty, and the glass was scratched, but the keys were still in the slot. I ran in, pressed the button that the pilot had pressed back in the passenger bullhead, and then sat down on the pilot's seat and puzzled at the mess of buttons.
The shutters closed shortly after, and I could hear the claws of Grimm raking at the side. One Beowulf spotted me through the cockpit glass of the airship, and immediately began to slowly scrabble up the side of the bulky vehicle.
I turned the keys and grabbed the steering wheel, unsure of what to do.
The Beowulf was already at the windshield, and then with one swipe, sent spider-web like cracking across the glass.
I had to figure something out, and fast. I stepped on one of the pedals, and winced as the bullhead backed into a wall and dented one of its fin rudders. I then stepped on the other pedal, because if this pedal was the reverse pedal, then the other one surely was the gas pedal.
It was, and even if I ran into a pillar on my way off the bullhead ramp, I still made it out.
The bad part was that I was still using wheels to move when I drove off the high ramp.
"No no no no no !" I screamed, looking at the approaching ground. I quickly scanned the array of buttons, and then in a fit of fright, sent an arm sweeping across the array and pressed them all.
The bullhead immediately began beeping. A siren sounded as well, and all the variants of lights at the front of the bullhead turned on. The radio was activated, and then various distress signals began playing. A parachute also ejected, billowing out and beginning to slow my fall. Still, one of the buttons that I pressed was the correct one, and I could hear the parachute getting shredded by the plane engines that came out of one of the bays and settled attached to the wings.
I was flying an airship, somehow.
Still, the airship was approaching the ground without me speeding the engines up, and so I reached forward with my left foot and pressed the pedal that made things go forward.
I began rising in the air and rapidly accelerating. I wasn't facing the correct direction, so I very carefully began turning the steering module until I faced beacon academy. I then held the module firm and then continued holding down the gas pedal.
Warnings were flashing across the screen that was projected in the HUDs, saying that I was going at a dangerous velocity, but I didn't read what they were saying and then just kept flying forward, with Beacon academy as my destination.
Through carrying virtually no weight and with me continuously pressing the gas pedal, the bullhead quickly approached Beacon academy, zooming over parts of the Emerald forest and Forever fall.
I was almost there in five mintes. Five head pounding minutes, with the loud sounds of the sirens and warnings beeping in my ears.
As soon as the airship landing dock was in sight, I was met with another problem.
How the hell did I get out? I was speeding towards it and flying too high to land on the platform. The path in front of Beacon wasn't safe to land on either, with the colorful outfit of huntsman students dotting the white walkway.
My only choice was to crash the plane into the wall, and then jump out just before impact. I used a burst of Chi to pull the steering module out of the dashboard so that the airship wouldn't change directions. I then opened the metal shutters again and broke one of the windows.
I looked at the approaching wall Beacon academy, and then the open window.
I took a deep breath, and then jumped out. I used a Chi burst midair and did several kicks to try and regulate my momentum as the speeding aircraft behind me flew into the walls of Beacon academy and exploded, sending metal shards flying everywhere. Several clipped my robes and one left a big gash on my back, but my aura flared and took care of it.
Still, the pain distracted me from my landing, and I unceremoniously fell into the courtyard that was right next to the library. I fell onto my arm, and I heard a sickening snap. The rough end to my twirl in the air finally made my scroll fall out of my pocket, and its screen cracked on the hard ground.
I screamed, the sensation of aura seeping in and reconnecting my bones along with the sensation of a burning pain in my upper left arm setting my nerves on fire. After a bit, the wound was healed, and I spent half a minute lying on the grass, gathering up Chi from my mid-air Chi burst and trying to clear my head of the pain.
Then, I got up, grabbed my cracked scroll, and then began running for my dorms. Along the way, I had to spin kick some rogue beowulves that had snuck in, but otherwise, the school was still free of Grimm.
And then, the Grimm dragon roared. It was almost at the tower.
I rectified my claims about the school being grimm free.
Soon, there would be no school.
I used my cracked scroll to open the janitor's closet that was my room, went in, and then immediately locked the door behind me.
I sighed and leaned against my mattress to think about the situation.
"This was totally insane. So there was a group of people that wanted to destroy the whole world out there? Why would they do that? Don't they know that they, too, live in the world?"
There was no making sense of this, and so I grabbed Icebreaker and put on the arm armor, before retrieving my sword and tying its sheath to my belt.
Then, my scroll began ringing. I pressed the button and its garbled speakers blared out Jaune's voice.
"Yun …. Bzzzzt….. Pyrrha….. Tower…."
And then, there was a crunching sound at the other end of the line, before the call ended.
I ran out of my dorm and looked up at the tower. The Dragon was circling it, and occasionally, there would be a red glare on it.
Maybe Pyrrha was trying to ward the dragon away? I probably should go help her.
I began running towards the central tower, and when I realized that the elevator was completely gone, I slowly began climbing up the elevator shaft, the metal frames that made up the supports of the elevator being my handholds.
…
"Do you… believe in destiny?" Pyrrha wheezed, an arrow in her ankle. Despite her best efforts to defeat this mysterious red-robed woman, it wasn't enough.
"Yes, I-"
The clang of metal on metal interrupted the woman's sentence, and she turned to fire her arrow at a metal hand that was currently grasping the ledge that led to the elevator shaft.
The hand, being metal, wasn't effected.
…
I hopped out of the elevator shaft, only to see an injured Pyrrha with an arrow in her ankle and somebody holding a bow and arrow.
"Uhh, what's going on?" I said, putting my metal arm in front of me.
"Yun!" Pyrrha shouted. "Get out of here! This woman has the Maiden's power, and she controls the dragon! You're no match for her, and-!"
"And who decided that?" I said, rushing forward with a burst of Chi, my arm still in front of me.
The woman in red clearly didn't expect me to interrupt Pyrrha's dialogue, and her eyes widened in surprise as I came and punched her with Icebreaker.
She dodged the hit, and then sent a wave of flames at me. I created ice on Icebreaker by channeling my Chi through it and used the element to block the other.
"You have no idea what's happening, do you?" the woman said, dramatically. She floated into the air, a fire propelling her up. "So many forces are at play here, so many that you don't even know exist."
"I don't know what you're talking about, but let me just ask you a question."
"What?" the woman said.
"Why are you trying to destroy the world?" I said, glaring at her. "Don't you, as a human being, also live in the world?"
"Didn't you hear my speech back in the colosseum?" she said, smirking.
"That was you?" I said, angrily. "Well, I don't care what you're trying to do or who you are, but if you're literally trying to take down a whole arena full of people, then you probably have to stop…. Whatever it is you're doing."
"So, another challenger? Ah, I recognize you now. Yun Wu. The piece that messed up my first plans with the festival."
"I did what?" I asked again.
"And you don't even know your own significance or what you did!" she said, eyes now alight with flame. "Oh, how pathetic. I will show you the might of the one thing that nobody else in Remnant has: Magic."
"What are you, a toddler?" I said, acting way more confident that I actually was. "Magic isn't real."
"And that is the difference between you and I." she said, grinning. "You can take your ignorance… to the grave."
Then, another wave of fire came. This time, much more intense. Pyrrha was still gravely injured, and I could see her out of the corner of my eye, struggling to move.
But fire was still fire, and it was just a wave of heat. Unlike the beam of a laser, it could be blown away.
And so, I unleashed a Chi burst. The winds produced by Chi blew the flames off course as I stepped towards her.
"How annoying, but I guess even a pest may have a trick or two to bypass my magic." She said, hands raised again, but this time, both wind and fire swirled in her palms, forming a tornado. "But that was but a mere taste of what I could do."
The wind and fire combination came at me, the fires propelled by the winds as a fiery tidal wave of death.
The gust was already so strong that I could barely advance. I had to use another Chi burst, sending out a gust of my own and advancing a couple of steps, before punching the ground and creating a handhold with Icebreaker to not get blown back and off the tower. Pyrrha was still struggling to get up, but she was growing increasingly still and despondent, an odd glaze across her eyes.
There was that expression again. The acceptance of death. The feeling of hopelessness.
Why must it be everywhere that I look?
The thought of what might have been the look on my face as I died somehow pushed me to stand up after that tidal wave of an attack.
"Still, you resist?" she growled, irritated this time. "Well, be incinerated!"
She yelled as she sent a torrent of fire at me. Glass shards materialized out of nowhere and then pelted themselves at me. I held up Icebreaker to shield myself, but the flames were just too hot. I had to use another Chi burst.
My blood vessels had been torn and then healed a total of four times during this fight. They were feeling the strain, and my aura already felt weak, the warmth coming slower and slower every time I pushed my chi to reinforce my legs and take a step towards my foe.
Stumbling forward and sending out a last, weak Chi burst, I collapsed in front of the floating figure, the unarmored side of the robe being reduced to mere scraps of cloth. I could feel ashes settle in my hair, but still, I staggered to my feet.
"You're still alive?" she said, totally furious now. "How did you survive those attacks?"
I was too busy catching my breath and replenishing my Chi to reply.
"Well, whatever you're doing, you can't keep it up for long."
She smiled, and I immediately staggered to stand in front of Pyrrha, arm in front of me.
A hellstorm of fire descended. I took a deep breath in the face of this oppressive heat and tried for an extended Chi burst.
It was the worst experience of my life. Imagine feeling like your blood vessels were constantly being constructed and deconstructed. I constantly had to breathe in the superheated air, convert it to Chi, and then send it forward.
Thankfully, the fire was only coming from one direction.
Soon, I couldn't even think. Suffocation was imminent, and my robes became soaked with sweat. I felt like I was overheating, and sluggishly, I channeled some Chi into Icebreaker to create some ice.
It melted almost immediately, but it did take some pressure off of the oppressive heat that the storm was creating.
Pyrrha just looked at me in shock. She tried to stand, but the arrow in her ankle was debilitating. It looked like it might have severed a major tendon.
My aura shattered, and the second wave kicked in as my semblance indicated. But it was a good indication that I only had thirty percent aura. My Internal organs were also taking a beating, and even if my aura didn't register it as an injury…
Well, the injuries would soon cannibalize my spleen, my liver, my right lungs, my kidneys, and then my left lung. In that order. I didn't' really need my spleen, but not having a liver might be a slight problem.
But there was a limit that Chi bursting had, and that was the pain. Cannibalizing an organ took a lot of fortitude that I didn't have, and the suffocation was already taking a toll on me.
The firestorm finally stopped, revealing the woman that was the source of that barrage to be panting in exhaustion. The lights on her eyes had gone out, but still, a fire lingered above her palm.
"How… are you still…. Alive?"
The internal balance of Chi was too great, and I coughed, before spitting out a good half a cup of blood and collapsing.
My veins were in agony, and with the last vestiges of aura that I had, the internal wounds slowly stitched themselves together. But to my horror, the veins were healed together in a wrong configuration. Part of the pulmonary veins connected to the main deoxygenated vein, and the two types of oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood mixed together.
This was usually the recipe for a stroke (or, as the diary put it, sudden death). Immediately feeling faint, I struggled to breathe and hacked out more blood.
The last thing I remembered before fainting was a silver light filling the platform I was on, the red blotches of blood right in front of my eyes, and then… darkness.
…
The want for a future
Overwritten by the act
Of staying to fight
…
Future uncertain
Unseen wounds score deep
Yet somehow… the burden hath lightened.
…
AN
And here tolls the end of an era.
Behold my failures of a haiku!
You were expecting for Yun to defeat Cinder… but no!
(That was another storyboard route that I decided to abolish because of the sheer overdone-ness of it. Thanks to the peeps on the discord server for talking me into rewriting 2000 words into 1000 words.)
Anyways, thanks for reading! The fall is over, and the next time we meet may be soon or in June, but we will most definitely be going into Act 5 of this sorry excuse of a story.
Thanks for sticking around, and leave a comment! It really makes my day!
-SpiritOfErebus