Wow, seems like there's continually little for me to really talk about, as far as events in my life go. I'll simply take that as a good thing for now though.
Now onto the story: from here on out, things will begin to really pick up the pace as I start to get the action really rolling. Same for the story as well of course. And on that note, you can start expecting some bombshells to be dropped along the way too, of which I have quite a few…
On a bit of a random note though: recently I've been kind of getting back into comics. Not necessarily reading them (waaaayyy too many to do so), but at least trying to remain aware of certain events for certain characters. And on that, I have this to say: just how would you all feel if – after this fic is finished – I do a HOTD or Naruto fic that includes the Power Cosmic, like what the Silver Surfer has going on? It's just an idea that was bouncing around in my head (along with several others as usual), but still… I think it's a little something that could turn out good. Just let me know what you think, people, either via review or even a PM.
Now onto the chapter.
Chapter 16
Yuko watched on, feeling a tad bit impressed as Roman went on to skillfully dodge her blades. As all four of her blades flew at him, the man had ducked under the first one, before using Melodic Cudgel to deflect the second and third before having leapt over the final one.
The impressed feeling only lasted for a split second though, before Yuko silently commanded the blades to turn around and aim for Roman again.
"Tch…" The criminal tried to make a run for it, intending on getting as far away from Yuko and her – in his humble opinion – weird weapons as quickly as possible. But his route was suddenly cut off when two of the blades fired beams of magical energy in the direction he had been about to head in, forcing him to skid to a stop just as he had even started to run. "Whoa, what the hell?!"
He hardly had time to properly react in his shocked state as Yuko took that opportunity to rush forward, slamming an elbow into Roman's back as hard as she could. Grunting in pain and stumbling forward, Roman was far from being defeated though and as he swung his cane behind his back while lowering his head to narrowly dodge one of the blades flitting about. Yuko managed to block the cane with her forearms, though not entirely without consequence; being physically weak compared to the other ancient magi, Roman's enhanced body allowed him to put a great deal of power into the hit and it resulted in sending Yuko skidding back a number of meters while also rendering her forearms nearly numb.
Suppressing a hiss of pain, Yuko reached out with her arms and called forth two of her blades while the other two proceeded to fire upon Roman. As Roman was then forced to practically dance around the area in order to avoid the sudden barrage of magical beams from the two blades, Yuko's other two blades flew to her and placed themselves firmly in her hands.
With two parts of her magical weapon now in her hands, Yuko felt something akin to a surge of confidence fill her as she then used Enhalt to immediately make another run around Roman, kicking up sand into the air just like she did earlier.
"Ugh, getting real tired of you!" Roman yelled as he fired a beam of magical energy at one of the blades that had been firing upon him. He had to make an honest effort to hold back a growl as he saw the blade, albeit minutely, dodge his attack. "Damn it! This little sandstorm she just caused is making it hard for me to even see those damned blades!" he thought, immediately realizing his precise predicament.
As if to further beat this fact unto him, the two blades opened fire from outside the continuing sandstorm, their beams piercing through the sand clouds with even greater speed than a moment ago. Closing his eyes and mouth to keep the sand out, Roman ran out of the way of one beam and then jumped as fast and as far as he could to not only avoid the second one, but to also escape all of the sand that had been kicked up.
Unfortunately for him, this may have proven to be a bad more; the instant he felt himself exit the sand storm and opened his eyes, he was greeted firstly with the sight of Yuko leaping right at him with both blades in her hands raised. It took all he had to bring Melodic Cudgel up and in between him and Yuko, but he managed to succeed, with his trusty weapon blocking Yuko's two handheld blades.
The force of the blow though nearly made his arms buckle as he had been unprepared for the attack still and also brought the two of them back to the ground. Landing, Roman found himself in more of a favorable position now as his greater height meant that the shorter Yuko couldn't bear down on him anymore, although the blades had come very close from stabbing him in the chest.
"You're… surprisingly tough…." Yuko muttered as she tried to overpower Roman, but to no avail. Her blades remained blocked stubbornly by Roman's own strength and cane.
"Heh… takes more than just wits to make it in the criminal business, you know?" Roman remarked, trying to maintain a confident attitude now. Given that Yuko's facial expression seemed almost amused now, he could tell his efforts were wasted.
"Wits and strength, huh? How about pain threshold?" Yuko shot back.
"Wha-?" Roman was cut off as Yuko brought her right foot up into his crotch, his cut-off sentence transforming into a scream of pain. So painful was the hit that he ended up hunching over, lowering Melodic Cudgel in the process. It was only because Yuko had to back off slightly to kick him in the family jewels that she didn't immediately stab him with her blades.
Which was a 'mistake' she immediately sought to correct. Rushing forward with a bit of a spin to build up momentum for her attack, Yuko swung both blades at Roman's side. However, through sheer grit, the criminal was able to bring himself to temporarily ignore the pain long enough block the attack with his cane before twirling it and giving a good whack to Yuko in the side of her face, hitting her just hard enough to make her flail back awkwardly.
"You… bitch…!" Roman wheezed out as he watched her stumble. He took the brief reprieve to truly recover from the painful hit. However, in not pressing the attack or moving at all, his reprieve turned out to be a false one; he may have been able to fend off Yuko's direct attack, but he had in turn completely forgot about her other two airborne blades. Said blades made their presence known once more by rushing him from behind. They came at him with such speed, he could literally hear them slice through the air, generating a great deal of sound in the process.
Unfortunately, while the sound did serve as warning to him, he was already too late in moving out of the way. Although he managed to sidestep one blade, the other blade had curved its own flightpath slightly, allowing the very tip of it to graze Roman's left arm.
"Ah!" Roman couldn't help but cry out at the light wound, immediately holding his right hand to it. The blade had cut through his coat and shirt easily enough, just barely cutting his skin… so he was quickly feeling baffled at how such a meager wound could hurt so much. "Why is this stinging so damn…?" He then hissed as something seemingly impossible happened: the wound began to hurt even more.
"Heh…" Roman snapped his head from his wound to Yuko, who had recovered from the hit she just took and was now calmly walking towards Roman. Her stance had relaxed considerably, her hands only lightly clenching her other two blades now, her shoulders remaining tensionless and her facial expression now being one of part triumph and part amusement. "You were a pretty spry one, I'll give you that much. But it's over now," she said confidently, silently commanding her other two blades to return to her.
"What do you mean it's over?" Roman growled out, not out of frustration, but out of pain. He pressed his right hand against his light wound with even more force than before. "God damn it, just why is this hurting so much?!" he roared as the pain of the light wound quickly grew and seemed to spread all throughout his left arm, to the point that just moving his fingers were causing him pain now too.
Yuko slowly held up one of her blades. "Each of my blades can overload one of your senses once you're struck. In this case, the wound I inflicted is slowly increasing your sense of pain. Give it another minute and I'm sure you'll be experiencing pain equivalent to having molten lead coursing through your veins." She then narrowed her eyes. "I can cancel the effect. I am its wielder after all. But in exchange, you'll have to answer a few questions of mine."
"Fuck… off…" Roman said through gritted teeth as he felt the pain now rapidly spread throughout the rest of his body. His breath became ragged and sweat slowly began to find its way onto his face. Just breathing hurt him all over now as his very skin seemed to be inflamed by how his own clothes pressed up against him.
The ancient magus sighed as she watched Roman crumble to the ground now, the man still clinging stubbornly to consciousness. "If you're not going to cooperate… then fine, I guess I'll just have to take you in…"
Dismissing her blades, Yuko slowly began to walk up to the criminal, intent on dragging him with her to see the other ancient magi. She was certain that the man would become much more cooperative once he personally meets the rest of her friends…
Elsewhere, the captain of the Holy Knights remained deep in thought in his seat. His conversation with his longtime comrade having ended some time ago, he had remained at his desk, still thinking over what his friend had recommended.
That is to say, just which of the ancient magi to go after first. As it now stood, he could understand easily enough why he was recommended to send someone to deal with Katsu; the ancient magus, while powerful and skilled, was limited strictly to close combat given the exact nature and specifics of his magical weapon. This meant it could be easily countered with long range combat.
However, it was just who to go after next that the captain was stuck thinking on. As it stood, the rest of the ancient magi all had equally dangerous abilities, said abilities coming in a variety of ways. With this in mind, to think of one in particular to go after was a hard decision to make, especially since their magical weapons were considerably more versatile than Katsu's.
Furthermore, if or when Katsu is slain, the rest of the ancient magi will no doubt group together in order to retaliate relentlessly should another one of them be targeted. That'd make the ambition of killing them that much harder if they were to fight in pairs or as a whole group.
"Decisions, decisions…" the captain said to no one in particular, rubbing his chin. He then silently looked to his mask, which still lied upon his desk. As he did so, he could only drift off into his own memories, thinking of times that have long since passed. He recalled how he had been back then, how much hope and even eagerness he had had for his 'dream' of a world where magi could finally come out into the open and operate like normal among everyone else… but alas, that was a dream that had been crushed not too long after he had come up with it.
But that wasn't to say such a dream still didn't live on in him somehow. No, he still had a similar goal even now; that is, to finally have magi be out in the open for all the world to see. Only this time around, it wouldn't be to peacefully coexist with others, but rather to showcase their godlike might and use their power to help the rest of the world's population evolve to try and catch up. That is what his goal now was, what the goal of the Holy Knights was.
But of course, he had no real faith in humanity and Faunuskind. He knew well enough that the public appearance of magi would be met with all sorts of opposition, be it fear or hatred or jealously. No, if he were to be successful, then peaceful means were out of the question entirely. Far more… violent ones would be required, methods that he knew many people, the ancient magi included, would be horrified by.
And that is why getting rid of them was so essential to him. Their power exceeded his own and to go against them would only end in his defeat, hence why he had spent so much time on building up his 'Holy Knights,' who'd help progress the entire world into the future, one where everyone will have 'evolved,' willingly… or otherwise.
The captain was roused from his thoughts when he felt a sudden pulse overcome him, more specifically his right eye. Said pulse was such that his own eyes nearly widened in surprise.
He had a very easy time keeping track of his Holy Knights and of others, such as the ancient magi albeit to a lesser extent, thanks to his magical weapon. And unbeknownst to one Roman Torchwick, he had used his magical weapon on him to ensure he'd be aware of whatever sort of danger the man ended up in.
However.
He had set it up so that he wouldn't be psychically 'notified' as to Roman's currently location unless the man was on the verge of either unconsciousness or death. And such a 'warning beacon' wouldn't be set off unless the one who triggered it also possessed some deal of mana.
Which could only mean…
"Damn it all!" the captain growled as he quickly put on his mask.
It was high time he stepped in, it'd seem.
Back with Yuko and Roman, Yuko had managed to gather up some rope from one of the nearby buildings and tied Roman up with it as tightly as she could manage. Aside from the fact that the tightness of the rope was causing him more pain than before, Yuko knew it wasn't actually going to kill him; she had made sure to 'adjust' her magical weapon so that it would only stun him, for lack of a better way to put it.
Taking a few steps back to marvel her handiwork, Yuko nodded her head in approval as she could tell that even a trained shinobi from the old days would have a hard time slipping out of the binding. Looks like those shinobi lessons she had gotten from Katsu a few decades ago were finally paying off.
"Alright then," she said. "Ready to head home with me?" she joked as she approached Roman.
Roman could only weakly glare at her. But then his eyes suddenly went wide and his lips curled up into a small yet vicious grin.
Yuko didn't even bother to question why he did so; she was too taken aback by the sudden presence she felt right behind her to ask him what he was grinning at.
"Enhalt!" Using her original technique, she moved several yards to her left and did so in just the nick of time as a strange and almost futuristic looking blade sliced through the spot she had just been standing in. Summoning forth her magical weapon, she looked on in wide eyes at the new and very much sudden arrival.
There, now occupying the spot she had been in, was none other than the captain of the Holy Knights, not that she knew this.
Eyeing him warily, Yuko immediately took note that he didn't just have one blade, but two. The blades themselves were just a bit long, longer than some katanas she recalled seeing long ago. Meanwhile, the hilts of the blades seemed to be surrounded by some large semioval thing that separates the hilt from the blade. And on these semioval shaped hilt-guards were three jewel-like things that Yuko couldn't quite make out.
But she knew one thing from looking at these blades: they were dangerous.
As for the man himself, she knew not what to make of him, what with his face being concealed by a mask. However, his uniform seemed very much like that of the two Holy Knights she and the other magi had been informed of, following Daisuke's skirmish with Indra and Ryuichi's brief conflict with Heracles.
"Just how did a Holy Knight…?!" Yuko thought in worry.
But she needn't have bothered, for the captain seemed to ignore her for a brief second to look at Roman.
"…Looks like I made it in the nick of time. Roman, are you alright?" the man asked almost calmly. Though he sounded calm, he held both of his blades tightly, with one raised defensively at Yuko.
"Does… it… look… like… I'm… alright?!" Roman all but wheezed out, writhing about in spite of the ropes.
"Of course, my apologies," the captain said with little emotion, making it hard for Roman or Yuko to tell whether or not he meant it. "Let's be on our way then… it'd seem it was wrong to send you to take care of this…"
Yuko watched in surprise as one of the man's blades disappeared. Said person now using his free arm to grab hold of Roman and hoist him over his shoulder.
"Oh no you don't-!" Yuko immediately commanded all of her blades to shoot forth at the captain as fast she could will them to.
But it wasn't fast enough.
"Transfer," spoke the captain and instantly and without any sort of warning, he and Roman disappeared, Yuko's blades missing the captain's chest by mere inches.
"Damn it!" Yuko actually yelled out as her blades flew harmlessly forward before curving back around to return to her. Grabbing hold of them, she dismissed her magical weapon and she slowly walked forward to where the man had been at, eyeing the spot as if her glare would somehow make the two escapees return.
When nothing naturally happened, Yuko blew a loose strand of her pale hair out of her face, which sported a massive grimace.
"This… isn't good at all," she finally said, summing up virtually all of her thoughts on the situation.
She had made the mistake of taking too long to try and walk off with Roman for questioning. Now she could only hope that this mistake wouldn't come back to bite her or anyone else in the ass.
Meanwhile, at Beacon Academy, team RWBY was being paid a surprise visit by two people they hadn't quite been expecting at all.
"Mr. Sumeragi?" Blake began, putting down the book she had been reading as the magi couple entered their dorm. After Ruby had answered it when they had knocked, of course.
"Hey there…" Ryuichi smiled a little, nodding towards to Blake and then waving to the other two members of team RWBY, his wife doing likewise.
"Why the sudden visit? Did something happen?" Yang asked as she now sat up on her bed.
"Nope, not at all," Mari spoke up in place of Ryuichi. She had a bit of a grin on her face. "Instead, we came here to ask you four something…"
"Really?" Ruby perked up immediately at that. She started to think on what the two could possibly want to ask them.
"Well," Ryuichi said a little sheepishly. "I'm sure you all know Naruto's started training team JNPR, right?" When the four girls nodded, he continued. "Mari and I figured that they can't be the only ones to be trained. So we were wondering these past few days if maybe you four would like us to train you."
All of team RWBY stared at the two ancient magi, having not expected to hear that, let alone so suddenly at that too. Indeed, they were stunned into a sort of silence that only lasted for all of a few seconds before Ruby spoke.
Or rather, squealed. "T-That'd be great!" she said, nearly biting her own tongue in the process from the speed she tried to speak at. "Right, guys?" She turned around to face her friends with an eager and almost pleading expression. She had actually been silently thinking over how she and her team could really contribute to this Holy Knights situation considering the sort of power gap between them and the ancient magi. She had been thinking on this ever since seeing Miki in action back at the village and thus far she had come up with nothing. But now, here were Mr. and Mrs. Sumeragi offering to train them! Sure, the young girl was smart enough to know that the training probably wouldn't make them strong enough to fight the Holy Knights directly, but it could still make them strong enough to at least do more than just deal with any Grimm that could get in the way.
"That's…" Weiss' usual demeanor actually dropped in lieu of a rather child-like smile. "That would be great," she said, trying to rein in the joy. Much like her team leader, she too had pondered how best to help out, Miki's performance at the village having left her feeling, well, thoroughly outclassed. Weak, even. And it was a feeling she was by no means used to. So this opportunity to improve herself was a most welcome one.
And while she mulled over that, the blond brawler of team RWBY took that moment to make her own opinion known as well. "Hell yeah, I'd love this training!" Yang all but leapt off of her bed and pounded her fists together, displaying her eagerness already in addition to a massive grin on her face. "Can't have team JNPR hog all the glory in the future, right?"
However, as for Blake, it seemed she was the one exception to her teammates' current mood. Instead of being 'happily shocked,' she simply remained seated, her eyes looking to the ground though it was obvious her mind was too occupied with something else.
"Blake?" Mari spoke up. "How about you?" The bow-using magus gently smiled at Blake, trying to break the Faunus out of her deepening thoughts.
"I… I'm not quite sure about this," Blake finally admitted, which drew much shock from her teammates. Noticing this, she quickly spoke again and hastily too. "I mean, it's great that you're offering us this. But having actually seen how strong that Holy Knight was against you, Mr. Sumeragi… well, if the other Holy Knights are anything even remotely like him, then just how much good will we be, even with your training?" Unlike her friends, who were motivated to grow stronger by the power gap between them and the ancient magi and Holy Knights, Blake knew that there is only so much they could do, only so much stronger they could become before hitting a wall. Realistically speaking, the ancient magi and Holy Knights will remain leagues more powerful than them in virtually every respect and it's quite clear that the Holy Knights would have no problem doing whatever they can to remove anyone or anything in their way, given the sheer level of collateral damage that was caused between Heracles and Ryuichi. And that was in spite of the fact Heracles had only really thrown one punch before the fight had been moved out towards the ocean! Blake would honestly consider it a complete miracle if she and the rest of team RWBY and team JNPR would ever be able to even slow down a single Holy Knight, much less do them any real harm.
Blake looked to her teammates, watching their expressions change as they digested her words. She was forced to pay attention to Ryuichi though when the man proceeded to speak. "I won't lie to you four: you probably have a point, Blake," he said. "Yeah, that guy was very tough indeed. It felt as if my attacks weren't doing too much damage to him at all actually."
"I think that goes for my arrow as well," Mari chipped in, grimacing. "From what I was able to see before he was too far away for even me to accurately view him, it looked as if my attack didn't even pierce his skin. So he may very well be a tough foe even for us. And there's just no telling what sort of other abilities he has at his disposal."
At his wife's words, Ryuichi nodded. "The Holy Knights will definitely be tough foes if they have just as troublesome abilities. Maybe it'd even be safe to say that only magi would be capable of fighting them depending on said abilities they have…" He paused to look over team RWBY. He saw as their expressions took on a more solemn quality. His words so far were doing little to motivate them now. But he wasn't done just yet. "But even then… should you really let the difference in power and skill stop you four?" He smiled a little.
"What do you mean?" Blake asked.
"Just because they're powerful doesn't mean they're unbeatable. Just because they may have all sorts of different abilities doesn't mean they can't be overcome in one some form or another," Ryuichi continued. "And that applies to us magi as well. We're powerful, sure, but we're not invincible and it took us years of training to attain the level of power we now have. And I'm sure that's probably true for the Holy Knights too; after all, it takes some serious skill to back up their power."
"That's right… if anything, this is probably a good thing." Mari ran a hand through her hair, thinking a bit. "By training, you'll of course become stronger and while you may not reach the level of magi, you'll still probably be some of the greatest huntresses around. And if the Holy Knights decide to overlook you four and team JNPR in favor of us magi, then all the better; that just means you'll have a chance to ambush them."
"So cheer up, Blake." Ryuichi smiled. "There's always hope."
His and Mari's words did much in the ways of reinvigorating Ruby's, Weiss', and Yang's spirits, the three of them regaining their smiles. Then just like that, all of them focused on Blake, awaiting her reaction.
Blake first slowly looked from Ryuichi and Mari to her teammates, and then back to the magi couple. Staring at the two of them, she closed her eyes in resignation yet a smirk began to creep its way onto her face.
"Alright then…" the cat Faunus began. "When do we start?"
The smiles her partner and team leader now sported could've been visible from space.
Back with the captain of the Holy Knights, he was currently sporting a frown underneath his mask as he finally decided to put Roman to sleep for now, having hit the criminal with a well placed chop to the back of the neck.
With said criminal currently resting in the same room he had been in earlier following the operation, the captain found himself sitting in the nearest, feeling a strong urge to massage his temples.
"So it didn't quite go as planned, it'd seem," Cinder commented. She had definitely noticed her master's rather unhappy mood the instant she saw him all but rushing through the base to get here. Of course, having seen him carry a clearly suffering Roman had only been another indicator. From there, it hadn't taken much to figure out what had happened. Still, she felt the need to ask. "Just what happened to him?"
"He had the very bad luck of running into one of the ancient magi… Valkyrie, to be more precise," the captain muttered. He motioned to the unconscious man with his right hand. "He was struck by one of her blades and is now paying the price for it."
Cinder could only wince. Her master had long since informed her of the sort of abilities the ancient magi had and could tell that Roman's sense of pain had been overloaded. "I can see that," she remarked a little dryly. "So just what now?"
The captain sighed. "I think we may not have the time to go after them one at a time. We'll have to speed things up a little. And also bring in more people."
At that, Cinder's slender eyebrows rose in surprise. "You mean…?" she began.
Her master nodded. "Yes. I'll have to find more people to enhance, just as I did Roman. Just in case, at any rate… I'll entrust you with the duty of gathering such people, Cinder."
"Very well, then," Cinder replied, albeit a little slowly. "Then what about the magi? Do you still plan to go after Tyr?"
"Yes," spoke her master. "But not just him anymore. We'll have to try and reduce their numbers by at least one more at roughly the same time." The captain paused, contemplating things. He had not enhanced Roman enough to be on par with an ancient magus, but by no means should the criminal have been so thoroughly outclassed. It would seem that since the ancient magi are finally grasping just how serious this is, they too have begun to truly get serious. Looks like he had somewhat underestimated their power after all. With that in mind, he stood up abruptly and turned to his apprentice. "Round up Lugh and Apophis. Tell them they will be the ones to take out Tyr."
"Alright… and what about the other magus you want to go after?" Cinder asked.
"Call in Kalma," the captain began. "I think it's time for her and Surma to truly show their worth by taking out the wife of the Thor…"
Cinder's eyes widened. "You mean Sif? But she's at-."
"Beacon Academy. Yes, I'm well aware of that. But Sif is their long range specialist. Taking her out would certainly be a boon as long as we can properly use our own advantages…" The captain then paused, looking down to the floor for a minute before finally looking back up at Cinder. Although his mask hid from her view his face, the woman couldn't help but feel a shiver run up her spine, feeling his eyes pierce right through her.
"Just go and inform them, Cinder. Inform them… that it's finally time to hunt."
Look out people. More fighting will be ensuing soon enough.
For now though, I have 2 more exams to deal with and an outline to do for a presentation. So as always, I can't exactly gauge just when I'll be able to get the next chapter out. Hopefully by the middle of March, give or take a few days.
Until next time, everyone. Take care.