I have to say that volume 3 of RWBY is off to a good start so far. The action seems a little slower in movement, but the animation is still just as solid as before and Rooster Teeth seems to be pretty creative in how the characters use their abilities. I tip my hat off to them! If only Monty was around to still see it… may he be resting in peace.
Well, as usual, started working on this chapter the day after the previous one was posted. Had been working on it after work every other day too. Hope that the quality still continues to hold up to you guys.
And as always, thank you so very much for the favs and follows!
Chapter 40
Back in the real world, Jaune wasn't having such a good time. For although his Armor of Fafnir rendered him as close to invincible as one could get, the petite young woman that he and Yang were fighting seemed to have little trouble smacking them both all over the place. Especially since her semblance, whatever it was exactly, appeared to allow her to create very small spaces for her to use at will.
"Ha!" Yang yelled as she threw a powerful blast of both mana and shotgun rounds at yet the other new complication that had just arisen.
Mercury dodged the attack with little visible effort and performed a roundhouse kick that launched bullets of his own at the blonde brawler, who had to duck to avoid the concentrated spread.
As of just a minute or so ago, the young man who'd raided the news station – Mercury, not that Jaune nor Yang knew his name – had popped up to aid the short yet powerful Neo in the fight against the two blonds.
And so far, it was proving to be an aggravating thing to deal with.
Jaune attempted to overpower Mercury, closing the distance and swinging Balmung wildly at him, his very swings making the ground rumble. But Mercury parried each blow deftly, dancing and using his grieve like weapons to even deflect Balmung.
The sight of this happening was enough to nearly make Jaune pull his hair out. While he was much stronger physically than the man before him and had grown in leaps and bounds in regards to actual combat skill, Mercury was still his superior in that regard and it showed through in his movements as he maneuvered away from Jaune whilst simultaneously avoiding a punch from Yang.
Only for Yang to get knocked down from behind by Neo, who'd chosen that instant to appear and kick her hard in the lower back, before pivoting around to get in front of Yang and whack her several times with her closed umbrella.
Jaune, being too close to risk swinging Balmung, opted to try punching Neo, but the pseudo magus tilted to the side to avoid it before thwacking Jaune in the chin with the handle of her umbrella before flipping it over and opening fire through the pointed tip.
That was when Mercury followed up, running forward at the now staggering Jaune and dropkicking him with full force in the chest, a hail of bullets being unleashed upon contact.
Jaune went flying back, skidding across the ground so fast that the concrete actually broke up with his fall.
And as he went skidding back, screams erupted from all around him, reminding of the final complication that had just recently been added.
Not too long after he and Yang had been knocked down to street level by Neo, the woman in question had used her semblance to aid her in forcing them well down the street until they'd started reaching the populated areas.
Up above, helicopters made their presence known with the 'whip whip' sounds of their blades, someone shouting something on the megaphone, but to no avail since Jaune hardly had the time to listen thanks to Mercury now closing the distance between them.
Jaune barely had the time to block Mercury's attempted stomp with the flat side of Balmung before forcing him back enough to allow himself time to stand.
"Everyone, get back! It isn't safe!" Jaune yelled without looking to see if anyone obeyed him. All he knew was that people were all around him and that the longer the fighting continued, the more danger they'd be in. It was only as he fully stood that he noticed people running well away from him and Mercury. Looks like they did listen, a fact that made him happy.
Still, it wasn't happening fast enough. For when Mercury landed a devastating blow to the side of his neck, Jaune ended up nearly crashing into a small group of running people as he was knocked through the wall of a store.
But Mercury wasn't done just yet and opened fire on the sides of the store's front until the damage proved to be too much for the roof to continue holding up and the grey haired man watched as the roof gave way and fell on top of Jaune.
"That should hold him for just a minute or so…" Mercury thought with a small grin. He'd been worried Jaune would be more trouble, but with the people still running around, the blond couldn't risk using his magical abilities, which helped Mercury out immensely in combating him.
So far things were going well.
And things only got better when Neo and Yang then showed up, with the former blowing back the latter with a quick attack to the abdomen, said attack packing enough of a wallop to send Yang careening almost right past Mercury. Mercury decided in an instant to not let the opportunity pass by and so just as Yang was almost about to blow right past him, he took a half step before delivering an extremely fierce straight kick into her side, knocking her into the same store Jaune had been knocked into.
And as Yang smashed through the rubble and proceeded to lie still for a few seconds, Mercury smirked in a growing sense of triumph.
And as Neo silently took up space next to the young man, the worried woman finally allowed herself to start feeling better.
As a smile slowly appeared on her face, she couldn't help but think that maybe things were going to go better than she'd thought.
The thought was ruined, however, when both Jaune and Yang burst forth from the rubble, the former glowing as sky blue mana burst forth form him while the latter burned with fiery energy, her semblance now in full effect.
And as the two blonds took the two criminals completely off guard, they could only feel satisfaction as the duo's smiles gave way to pure, unadulterated shock.
The battle was only just getting started.
Meanwhile not too far away from this battle, the fight that both Pyrrha and Blake were having against Adam waged on fiercely.
Much like with Mercury appearing to aid Neo, someone else had come to help fight against them.
"I'll enjoy skinning you alive, traitor!" the Faunus simply known as the lieutenant roared at Blake as he swiped at her with his chainsaw, showcasing a deceptive level of speed.
Blake managed to leap right over the sideways swipe and kicked him upside the back of his head before using the heavy sheath of Gambol Shroud to slice him across his back. Only for her to be attacked by Adam, who'd just forced his way past Pyrrha to unleash a brief torrent of carefully aimed slashes to her arms.
Blake cried out in both surprise and pain as the blows landed only for the lieutenant to recover from her own blows and spin around, hitting her hard with a vicious backhand.
As the cat Faunus of team RWBY flew back, Pyrrha leapt up in time to catch her before using Milo to block a kick from Adam and then using her semblance to control Akouo and attempt to counter. However, Adam saw the weapon coming and knocked it aside with great force, almost enough for it to overpower Pyrrha's mental control over the weapon.
Leaping back with Blake now having recovered, the two young women switched their weapons to their gun forms and started shooting at the two men. Adam held his ground, using his sword to deflect the bullets while the lieutenant was forced to take cover to avoid taking too much damage. He may be pretty fast with his chainsaw, but trying to protect himself from that many bullets was simply impossible.
"Bitch!" the vicious lieutenant called out in anger, mainly directed at his own inability to do something about the bullets rather than Blake, despite his insult.
Adam attempted to move forward in silence, but was forced to retreat when Pyrrha used her semblance to levitate a nearby truck and threw it at him. And after what had happened earlier with cars, Adam had no intention of going through the same thing with a truck.
This gave Pyrrha and Blake a moment's reprieve to talk. "That new guy seems like a… charming fellow," the redhead remarked surprisingly sarcastically. She turned to look at Blake. "What should we do?"
"He's not a pseudo-magus like us," Blake remarked, having managed to sense that much during her brief clash with him. "So he still uses aura. In spite of his abnormal strength and endurance being enough to fight us, he'll go down for good if we can just bring his aura levels down enough."
At that particular thought, Blake couldn't help but smile a bit. The lieutenant had always been an abnormally strong individual, his strength and endurance being enough to even eventually wear down the most experienced and powerful of hunters and huntresses. But she and Pyrrha still held a speed advantage, not to mention his own weapon weighed him down considerably. So if they could just isolate him from Adam, they'll be able to take him down hopefully quickly enough to focus back entirely on her former friend.
Unfortunately for them, Adam had other plans.
Rather than slice right through the now motionless truck to get to them, he silently circled around it, blindsiding the two thanks to the proper usage of periphery vision and the environment via its dark colors during the night. Even Blake, with her night vision as a Faunus, had been unable to notice him until it was almost too late.
She raised both of her blades, still in their gun forms, just in time to block Adam's sword swing, but then he opened fire with the gun-sheath, forcing Pyrrha to have to block them for Blake…
…Which in turn left her open to a surprise attack from the lieutenant, who'd circled around from the other side and rammed her right in the back.
But Pyrrha was quick on her feet, literally and figuratively, and so even as she went sailing away, she managed to shift her center of gravity in midflight and managed to land on her feet.
As for Blake, the B of team RWBY tried to leg sweep Adam, but to no avail, the man backing off enough to avoid it before shooting yet again. Blake then activated her semblance, creating exactly two clones. One clone took the hit for her while the other rushed at Adam, trying to slice his neck open with a sudden swing of Gambol Shroud in their blade forms.
The real Blake leapt back, right at the lieutenant and moved past him just as he was about to impale her on his chainsaw. Making another clone, the real Blake sliced at the back of the lieutenant's knees while the clone leapt and kneed him hard in the back of his neck.
Normally not particularly known for sheer brute strength, being a pseudo-magus granted Blake much greater strength than her figure would suggest and so it was with great surprise on the lieutenant's part as he went staggering more than a little bit forward, only still on his feet thanks to him always planting his feet firmly into the ground whenever he attacked. But still, he nearly did fall over thanks to the damage done to his knees, but he managed to stay up.
Until Blake opened fire on both him and Adam, shooting past the lieutenant in order to keep Adam at bay long enough for Pyrrha to now close the distance and attack the bull type Faunus from behind. It was only thanks to years of experience that Adam was able to sense and block the attack in time, but this in turn prevented him from aiding his comrade as Blake delivered a precise kick to the throat of the lieutenant before slicing away at him with Gambol Shroud.
It had the desired effect as the lieutenant went down. But Blake knew from personal experience that this was only temporary; she'd seen him withstand even greater injuries without passing out.
So if she and Pyrrha were to really win this, they'd have to now focus on their primary target: Adam himself.
And so it was with perfect synchronization that the two huntresses-in-training went after Adam, aiming to end this battle here and now.
While this went down, in the streets below, Roman was putting up a very good fight against the remaining four members of teams RWBY and JNPR.
"We need to get him away from the people!" Ruby exclaimed as she tried to pursue her target, who was darting through the crowds.
Having moved a considerable distance away from the initial battle site and towards the news station, Roman had led Ruby, Weiss, Nora, and Ren on a wild goose chase through crowds of people, both civilians and police, as they neared the news station little by little.
All around them, the people panicked and the police officers on the scene could only do the same as they tried to figure out what to do. But alas, what was there that could be done? The people in question just seemed to be moving too fast for them to even notice immediately, let alone be stopped.
"Keep up, red!" Roman taunted as he roughly shoved aside an older looking man, nearly knocking him into Ruby, who was currently the closest of the four to him, with Ren and Weiss trailing just right behind her.
People cried out in confusion and fear as they spotted Roman, who slowed down just enough for himself to be seen, drawing all eyes to him.
The criminal in question didn't dare leap out of the crowd, knowing that doing so would cost him his current advantage. As long as he stayed here among the people, then there was no way any of the teens chasing him could attack or use their semblances in any real way, not without hurting and potentially even killing anyone.
It was also a good thing for Roman that he didn't have that particular problem.
Sliding past an unassuming police officer, Roman suddenly turned and fired a magical blast at Ruby with Melodic Cudgel. While it ended up missing, it forced Ruby to slow down and move a few people out of the way to avoid being grazed by it as well.
Not wasting the opportunity, the criminal followed up the attack with several more, aiming now for his other pursuers. Ren and Weiss managed to dodge the blasts coming their way without too much difficulty, but Nora wasn't so lucky, having had to momentarily slow down to avoid trampling a child that had wandered outside to see what was going on.
"Nora!" Ren cried out in worry as he peripherally saw his longtime friend get hit in the center of her chest by Roman's magical blast.
Worry then turned to anger, anger aimed at Roman and so Ren decided to go on the offensive. But first things first, he was going to have to do something to avoid hitting the people.
So he decided to jump towards the side, landing on the side of a building and proceeded to start running across it. This proved to be an excellent move on his part, for he was now able to speed past everyone else without having to worry about hitting anyone.
"Weiss, speed him up!" Ruby called out as she began to quickly catch up, mirroring Ren's move by leaping onto and running across the building on the opposite side of the street.
"I know, I know!" Weiss said indignantly as she complied, creating a light blue glyph just in the spot in front of Ren.
As soon as Ren passed over it, he shot forth across the building's side at a little more than twice his top speed, overcoming Roman's current speed like it was nothing. Ren then jumped from the building wall to the street where there was a noticeable gap in the crowd, leaving Roman much more exposed.
"Everyone, back!" Ren actually exclaimed just as Weiss proceeded to create four new glyphs, all of them being acceleration ones.
The very instant the crowd near Roman thinned in response to the command, Ren charged forward as fast as he could, passing over the four glyphs and being sped up beyond what he'd ever be able to achieve.
"Shi-!" Roman began to cry out and tried to move out of the way or at least launch an attack at Ren, but Weiss once again thought a step ahead and created an acceleration glyph just under Roman. This had the effect of turning him into a humanoid projectile that went flying towards Ren.
Unprepared for this at all, Roman could only yell out in pain as Ren smashed right into him, shoulder first before uppercutting Roman with the blade of his gun, which left a good sized gash on his chest and part of his lower jaw.
That was when Ruby caught up and activated her semblance, causing her to speed up greatly whilst slowing down Roman just as Ren's blow knocked him into the range of her semblance. With Crescent Rose in its gun form, Ruby proceeded to whack Roman as hard as she could with the now blunt weapon, hoping to knock him well away from the people.
In this, she succeeded, though not quite as she'd intended.
Thanks to the five of them being pseudo-magi, whose abilities transcended normal people's, they'd covered a lot more ground than they'd anticipated and as a result, they were now much closer to the news station than they'd previously thought thanks to having focused entirely on Roman.
And now thanks to Ruby, Roman went sailing through the air directly towards said building, smashing into the wall near its main entrance with a considerable deal of force.
This naturally got the attention of the police forces surrounding the building. "S-Sir, that's Torchwick!" one officer exclaimed upon seeing the man. "What should we do?!"
That was at roughly the same time that Ruby, Weiss, Ren, and a recovered Nora made their appearance, rushing straight past the officer and his commander at a pace just slow enough for them to be visible to their eyes.
"StudentsfromBeacon,we'lltakecareofhimthankyouuuu!" Ruby explained in an extremely rush voice towards the commanding officer.
"Cleareveryoneout,please!" Weiss said in just as fast a voice.
"We'llbreakhislegsforyouuuu!" Nora chipped in just as quickly as she rushed past.
Ren just sighed and shot the officers an apologetic look as he trailed in last.
Both officers could only stare as the students rushed towards Roman. Again, the officer from before spoke, uncertainty clearly present in his voice. "…Sir?" he asked of the commanding officer.
Said commander simply stared blankly as the four teens immediately started attacking Roman, who'd gotten up just in time to start fighting back, the five people's movements becoming so fast that they could barely be seen as blurs anymore.
"You know what? Let them handle that punk," the CO then declared in a flat voice. He wasn't paid anywhere near enough to deal with whatever was going on. "Just have everyone pull back as far as they can, but still keep the perimeter up. And for God's sake, get all civilians as far back as you can!"
Overhearing this, the four teens felt relieved, knowing now that they shouldn't have to worry about people getting hurt anymore.
But this didn't make dealing with Roman any easier. The man had quickly grown wise of their tricks and was now responding accordingly.
Just as Ruby tried to get close with her semblance active, Roman moved well away from her and the wall to avoid being trapped and grabbed hold of an attacking Nora to throw at the young leader. As a result, Nora ended up getting affected by Ruby's semblance instead, the auburn haired girl slowing down in speed even though she was in midair. Ruby had to twist to avoid her, but was forced back herself by two magical blasts from Roman, which she thankfully managed to block.
Then when a black glyph appeared under Roman, he immediately moved back before it could take effect and rushed around it, fighting against its gravitational pull with admirable ease as he moved towards the heiress. Said heiress switched the Dust cartridge in Myrnaster so that it was now a fire type and she wasted no time in stabbing the ground between her and the criminal, causing it to practically erupt.
But Roman, thanks to being a thief who specialized in stealing, was more than familiar with the effects of Dust and even when it was empowered by Weiss' mana, he was able to easily deduce how high the flames would go and responded accordingly, leaping right over them in time to deal a blow to Weiss' face in the form of kick. Then he proceeded to drive Melodic Cudgel into the disoriented heiress' stomach before punching her away.
Ren tried to make his move now, opening fire from a distance with Stormflower, but Roman evaded the shots before returning fire. Ren had to slide to avoid them and kept on shooting. But then Roman began to quickly advance to where Ren's slide would end and kept on shooting as well while avoiding Ren's mana enhanced bullets.
He met Ren just as the young man came to a stop, kicking him hard before he could fully raise his arms to guard and then shooting a magical blast almost as big as himself at the teen as he went skidding back. It was only thanks to some very quick reflexes that the R of team JNPR was able to recover from the kick and flip back to avoid the blast.
By now, both Nora and Ruby were back and with a vengeance, the two ready to tag team Roman. Keeping a safe distance, Ruby started shooting at Roman with her high powered sniper rounds, further enhanced by mana to boost their speed and piercing capabilities. This ended up being cover fire for Nora, who ran forward with Magnhild in hammer form, the teen eager to strike.
Roman couldn't move around much, Ruby's speed being greater than him and therefore was able to aim at the spots he was thinking of running to faster than he could actually turn. He was effectively pinned down in the one spot, unwilling to risk Ruby's high powered rounds hitting him. This in turn left him a sitting duck for Nora, who leapt towards him and swung Magnhild. He did try to blast her back with a magical blast, but by then Magnhild had been swung and it caused his own attack to dissipate almost instantly.
It was a testament to his own toughness and to Nora's strength that Roman proved capable of withstanding the resulting blow, which buried him deep in the ground while Nora's blow shattered the cement for many meters.
All but planted face first into the ground, Roman gripped his weapon tightly and reluctantly fired into the ground, freeing himself instantly while hurting himself in the process. But to him it was worth the risk since Ruby and Ren and Nora had begun to rush him just now. And as he moved away, Roman thought himself safe for just the briefest of moments…
…Only for him to be wrong.
Weiss, having recovered from kick and cane hits, was back and was itching for some payback. Which she took in the form of using her Haste glyph to drastically speed herself up. Roman hardly knew what hit him as Weiss then went on a furious and unrelenting attack, channeling sheer explosive Dust through her weapon as she moved in and began hitting the criminal many times over.
At several times lightning speed, Weiss flitted about gracefully, piercing Roman over and over again with her Dust of choice causing her strikes to explode upon contact, damaging him further before her Haste glyph wore off, at which point she used her black glyph to hold Roman in place just long enough for her friends to have their turn.
All three of them leapt at Roman and unleashed a perfectly executed kick, their three kicks striking Roman right in his back so hard that he went flying at Mach speed through the air and coincidentally through the closed doors of the news station.
Roman hit the floor of the hallway and wasted zero time in muttering expletives. He really was beginning to hate those kids. Not to mention he was getting pretty tired of getting hit right in his back, healing factor notwithstanding.
But just as he began to stand, he couldn't help but smile a bit. Here he was now, within the very same building that those White Fang goons had been tasked with taking over.
"Maybe taking a hostage or two out into the open will even the odds a bit…" he muttered as he began to see the four slowly make their way towards him, evidently cautious on how to proceed given what they were about to walk into.
Turning around and racing down the hallway, Roman could hear the four now immediately start running after him, which only caused his smile to grow.
Maybe now will finally be the time to turn things around.
Meanwhile, within Indra's Robotics Space, the high speed battle between the two of them had been cranked up to eleven.
While Indra having a Turbulence mode of his own had definitely taken Ryuichi by surprise, the ancient magus had long since recovered from the shock and was going on the offensive with everything he had. Indra in turn did the same, his Turbulence mode giving him a noticeable confidence boost as his moves became increasingly steady and more precise.
The entire cave was filled to nearly the breaking point with blinding light, the result of the two combatants moving around everywhere at such high speeds that their crackling auras were leaving behind trails.
Blow after blow after blow was launched against one another, resulting in a never-ending stream of clashes that produced a veritable thunderstorm due to the sheer power both possessed as well as the nature of their magical abilities.
Racing alongside the ceilings of the tunnels, the two fighters traded blows whilst blocking and dodging all incoming attacks, with neither side gaining an advantage over the other. The tunnels filled with lightning that was when absorbed by the crystals all around them and was sent elsewhere. This led to the two having to dodge what amounted to stray lightning bolts whilst fighting, the number of which kept increasing with every clash during the battle.
Moving back towards the ground, Indra unleashed a whirlwind of attacks, Vajra being spun and sliced and jabbed forward at an attempt to wound Ryuichi. Ryuichi in turn parried each blow and threw a barrage of his own, composed of jabs and haymakers and straights and kicks and grapple attempts that were all thwarted by Indra's own parries, the seventh seat using the handles of his sais to smack aside Ryuichi's fists.
Then without any warning, Indra backed away, rushing down through a tunnel that connected to several others. Upon doing so, the seventh seat sped back and forth between them all, firing lightning bolt after lightning bolt through the openings.
At several times the speed of light, Ryuichi dodged them all whilst absorbing several that were spawned from nearby crystals. Only after this happened did the ancient magus make his next move. "Left, left, left, right, right, left, right, left, left…" Ryuichi thought, noting Indra's movements within the tunnels.
Predicting where Indra would next be at, Ryuichi shot forth at top speed, just as Indra himself appeared within the tunnel entrance that the magus predicted he'd be at. Indra's eyes widened for the briefest of instances, just before Ryuichi lashed out with a hailstorm of punches at it. Some of the punches actually connected, grazing the Holy Knight slightly before he managed to put his guard up and go on the move again.
But Ryuichi gave chase immediately, following the young man through the tunnels as he tried to put some distance between them. All the while, the many lightning bolts fired earlier would reappear thanks to the properties of the crystals, keeping the two combatants on their toes by forcing them to constantly dodge even as they moved.
Ryuichi's mind worked just as fast as he could physically move in his current state, assessing the situation. Indra's own Turbulence mode may make him just as fast as he himself currently is and it seems to have significantly increased all of his other abilities as well…
…but Indra himself still was a newbie in the end, his combat experience lacking in comparison to Ryuichi himself. It was this 'weakness' that had allowed Ryuichi just now to land a few blows on him. A much more experienced fighter wouldn't have allowed that.
So it was time to exploit this yet again.
Cutting off his pursuit, Ryuichi changed direction in midair, going through a tunnel that looped around to where he'd predicted Indra would be.
And he turned out to be right.
He damn well crashed into Indra just as the seventh seat reached the end of his tunnel, his knee smashing right into the side of Indra's face, knocking him back considerably, smashing through a crystal in the process.
But Indra's greatly enhanced reflexes kicked in and he recovered in an instant and proceeded to up the stakes yet again. He knew that even with his speed now rivalling Thor's, he was still at something of a disadvantage. So he'd decided to rectify that.
"Eye of the Storm!" he cried out and in response, the very same thick fog from before appeared, rendering one another almost completely invisible to the other.
Ryuichi grimaced. "Not this again," he thought in dissatisfaction. But then he saw a brief flash of light coming at him, which he assumed to be Indra. Only it wasn't – it was a bolt of lightning spawned by a crystal. He managed to shift his about-to-occur-counter to an outright block, Mjolnir absorbing the magical lightning bolt upon being struck by it.
Ryuichi wasted no time going back on the move again, realizing what Indra's intent was. By bringing back that same fog from before, it would become much harder to distinguish him from approaching lightning bolts. The only way to truly tell them apart would be through sound, but given Indra's speed, that wasn't a luxury he could afford to count on. He'd have to react to each incoming thing at the last possible second.
Which Indra decided to demonstrate.
Without a battle cry or any kind, the young man had circled around Ryuichi and now came at him from behind, firing lightning bolt after lightning bolt at his foe while charging right at him. It was only thanks to the sounds of the attacks that Ryuichi was able to dodge both ranged strikes before turning around slightly to parry Indra's elbow attack, to which he responded with a chop that would've broken Indra's joint. But Indra intentionally tumbled forward and spun as well, deflecting the chop with his knee before firing another bolt at point blank range.
To his frustration, Ryuichi dodged with little effort, having only to tilt his head slightly back for it to miss its mark entirely. The magus then kicked Indra away hard, hard enough for himself to be forced back as well and just in the nick of time as bolts of lightning came hurtling towards their location from all the place.
Both of them sped off through the fog, clashing multiple times over, their senses being strained so much in order to keep track of one another that it bordered on self-harm. Ryuichi tried to stick as close as possible now to Indra, knowing that letting the Holy Knight back away would only result in having to hunt through the fog to find him, a dangerous thing what with all the projectiles still being launched everywhere. Indra tried to back away in order to bring about this very thing, but Ryuichi was intentionally forcing him into spots where his many lightning bolts were being shot at, forcing the Holy Knight to have to stick close to his foe out of necessity.
Once again being forced to trade blows with Ryuichi like this, Indra had to devote much of his energies to close combat again, twirling his sais to block and parry Ryuichi's beyond-lightspeed strikes. Ryuichi in turn made it a point to keep his ears sharp for the almost silent swishes of Indra's sais in order to be able to avoid them. He didn't dare try to actually catch Indra's Vajra with his bare hands, lest he somehow get Mjolnir damaged, which is something that he couldn't afford at all.
So they clashed again and again, moving all throughout the tunnels at such angles and speed that it would've boggled the minds of anyone else if anyone had been around to see this fight run its course. Intentionally, Ryuichi upped his mana output, forcing the lightning aura around him to grow in size and intensity, enough to almost force Indra back a little before said seventh seat did the same just as he saw Ryuichi begin to advance upon him.
Little did Indra know, Ryuichi had wanted him to respond this way. Ryuichi still wasn't sure of the exact mechanics behind what Indra did to become this powerful, but one thing he was most certain of is that it would only last as long as he had mana to use. If he burned through all of his mana, then his Turbulence mode would come to an abrupt end. And by going through the motions of enhancing his lightning aura, Indra would succeed only in burning through mana even faster. And unlike Ryuichi, he had no means of absorbing and replenishing his mana capacity.
And as an extra side benefit, their much more intense auras clashed together as well, blowing away the fog little by little whenever they trades blows yet again.
Ryuichi almost smiled as he ducked under a kick from Indra before countering with a flip kick that forced Indra to parry with the sai in his right arm, forcing himself to the side to avoid having his head knocked off.
"What's going on?" Indra thought, his confidence from before now waning as he could feel his mana dropping to a significantly lower level than before. "I know I should still have enough mana to hold my Turbulence mode for at least another ten or fifteen minutes, so how comes it feels like it might give out in half that time?"
Alas, the young man was oblivious to what Ryuichi had made him do. He'd unconsciously channeled more mana into his aura to keep on par with Ryuichi's, and since it was something done more by sheer instinct rather than actual choice, Indra hadn't noticed the automatic action in the heat of battle.
Seeing that his fog was slowly clearing up, panic found its way marginally into his mind, realizing that in another few seconds Eye of the Storm would cease working and would therefore expose him fully again to Ryuichi. Said panic forced him to now jump back, running out of the tunnel they'd just been passing through in order to get back to the main 'hub' area of Robotics Space.
This proved to be a bad move on his part, for in his current state of mind, Indra had almost forgotten about the many lightning bolts still being shot all around his Robotics Space courtesy of his many stray bolts being channeled through crystals that they'd struck. As a result, he was grazed by three of his own attacks while a fourth actually hit him just in between the ribs, making him cry out in pain.
He lost his balance and went skidding across the ground and only came to a halt when he hit the wall, cracking it upon impact.
To Indra's credit, he immediately tried to get back up, but was stopped when a foot came smashing down onto his sternum. He gasped, the breath knocked completely out of him. He could even feel the sternum actually crack and even break under the force. Looking up weakly, he saw Ryuichi standing over him, Mjolnir raised.
Unmindful of the lightning bolts still being shot all around, Ryuichi simply moved Mjolnir within the path of a few passing by and absorbed them, using the lightning bolts to replenish his mana. Although he had a noticeably greater mana capacity than Indra did and had already reduced the amount of mana he was using to keep his Turbulence mode's aura up, Ryuichi liked to keep his mana reserves as full as he could manage, especially since it was now time to finally deliver the final blow and escape this space.
Normally, incapacitating or outright killing the one who'd called forth a space like this would be enough to make it deactivate and return him to the real world, but it's become more than clear that the Holy Knights had abilities and resources at their disposal that functioned differently than what was the norm.
But even then… was killing the young man before him really the only way? This was something that raced through Ryuichi's mind in an instant. In spite of all the battles he's taken part in over the centuries, there was still a part of him that always remained hesitant to deliver the deathblow to an enemy, at least the ones that seemed to have a respectable goal, methods aside.
"Is there no changing your mind?" Ryuichi asked Indra, noticing that the seventh seat's Turbulence mode was beginning to fizzle out, the aura around the young man waning by the second. "No chance of considering simply surrendering?"
"…No," Indra said after a few seconds. In those few seconds, various images had filled his mind. Images of Kalma, who he sees a younger sister, who was in desperate need of someone to look after her. Images of his life, shitty and lonely, prior to becoming a Holy Knight. Images of Vidar, who had given him an actual purpose to live for. Even though the methods to obtaining a better world were admittedly ones that would never really be well liked, at least they – the Holy Knights – actually tried to do something about it. That was something that, despite all of his worries and fears, Indra would never really regret.
And Ryuichi looked into his eyes and saw this. "I see," he said simply. "Then I guess it's come to an end, this little battle of ours."
Rearing his right arm back as if ready to launch a spear, Ryuichi began to channel a great deal of mana through Mjolnir, forming within ten seconds an impossibly radiant lightning spear, one so powerful that some of the lightning bolts still traveling throughout Robotics Space dissipated just by being near it.
Indra's jaw tightened upon the sight just above him, immediately recognizing what this attack was after all of the information that had been provided to him and his comrades by Vidar. But nonetheless, the young man closed his eyes, coming to terms quickly enough with what was about to come.
Ryuichi saw this and felt a slight pang in his heart over what he was about to do.
But even then, he didn't hesitate a second longer. "Thor's Hammer!" he called out as he thrust his fist downwards, launching the lightning spear at point blank range.
And as he did so, a great light filled the entirety of Robotics Space. It heaved greatly for a whole minute before it finally began to break apart under the literally planet busting force of Thor's Hammer.
And so the short lived battle between Indra and the one codenamed Thor came to an end as Robotics Space finally broke apart.
As this occurred, within the Robotics Space of Kalma, the battle had taken a substantial turn.
Like a ping pong ball, Yuko was practically bouncing across the ground with a great deal of force, cratering it every time she struck earth. Her clothes damaged more than before and sporting a number of wounds ranging from very mild to even severe, Yuko was far from okay physically.
Yet even then, the red eyed woman demonstrated a remarkable level of willpower by never crying out in pain. Instead, just as it appeared she was about to bounce just one more time, she flipped around in midair and landed on her feet in a cat-like manner.
Her magical weapon was nowhere to be seen around her, the ancient magus in question having silently commanded her four blades to spread out earlier and attack Surma, an action that she was beginning to regret a little since it was now clear that her magical blasts were no longer having any effect upon the beast.
Said beast made its appearance now, dragging Hanako with it. Smashing Hanako's head into the ground, the sentient Relic ran, dragging Hanako's head through the earth for at least a dozen meters before throwing her right at Yuko.
Silently, Yuko used Enhalt to rush forward and grab Hanako in midflight before using it again to dodge the sudden swipe Surma took at the two of them.
"You alright?" Yuko asked Hanako as she proceeded to put some distance between themselves and Surma.
"I've seen better days…" Hanako muttered. Thanks to being the magical weapon of Naruto, his godlike quantity and quality of mana had greatly enhanced her physical abilities over the centuries passively. While she was still more of a ranged combatant than a physical one like Ryuichi or Miki, the humanoid magical weapon still boasted an incredible level of toughness, Surma's attacks thus far only resulting in minor bruises and scratches upon her clothes and body.
Surma lunged after the two, boldly coming at them from directly in front of them instead of trying to circle around them like it did before. All Dead and Kalma's overbooster increasing its physical abilities drastically, it no longer seemed to see much of a need for guerilla tactics.
A sudden and extremely powerful magical blast from Hanako seemed to make it reconsider such a move momentarily though, Hanako's attack wounding it quite a bit and even stopping its charge outright. A second blast actually did knock Surma back, but it managed to remain standing.
That was when Yuko's blades finally caught back up with the three of them and tried to cut into the wounded area. But Surma's speed was simply too great for the blades to match and it managed to pull a slight retreat that rendered it safe.
Grimacing, both Yuko and Hanako watched as Surma's wound immediately healed whilst several of the trees around it died and crumbled to dust. Thanks to their many centuries of experience and Hanako's Mimisbrunner, it hadn't taken very long for the two women to deduce the cause behind the Relic's sudden power up.
It drained the life out of the environment, including the esoteric wildlife, to substantially boost all of its abilities – strength, speed, agility, endurance, and regeneration. That is what this thing's seemingly one and only magical ability was.
And it was enough to honestly frighten the magus and magical weapon duo. The ability was so simple yet it was so far without peer. The beast had already been a highly physical threat, but now with its power even greater than before, wounding it enough to genuinely weaken it was going to be even more of a chore to accomplish.
"We're going to need to change things up a bit, assuming you don't want to use Laevateinn," Yuko said to Hanako.
Hanako didn't wish to use her trump card, wanting to save it for if or when she could return to her master's side. But the magical weapon was beginning to consider Yuko's words seriously, realizing that this creature wasn't going to be easy to deal with at all if she was going to be so conservative of her mana and abilities.
"We'll see about that, Yuko-chan. For now, let's try and test its enhanced capabilities a bit more," Hanako responded, tensing up as Surma prepared its next attack. "The more we know about its new limits, the better for us."
Yuko nodded in agreement, albeit reluctantly. While it certainly would be nice to know if this thing's life draining ability had a limit, she wasn't too sure about how much more they can take in the process of finding out. Her regenerative ability as a magus was kicking in kind of slowly now, a result of having been thrashed around so hard so quickly by Surma thus far.
Nevertheless, simply doing things so cautiously will never get them anywhere if they're not willing to take some risks along the way.
So as Surma charged at the duo yet again, both women went on the offensive at the same time.
Yuko took two of her blades into her hands while ordering the others to standby. Rushing forward to meet Surma halfway, she ducked under a massive forearm and sliced it across the side of its torso as hard as she could. This had about as much success as a kid hoping to hurt a Nevermore, with Surma remaining completely unharmed.
Surma's snake tail, which had remained surprisingly docile until now, now sprung to life, twisting and lashing out at Yuko just as she attempted to move past Surma completely. But just like with Surma's forearm just now, the red eyed magus was quick on her feet and managed to avoid having her face bitten right off by way of pivoting around the snake head whilst simultaneously slicing it too.
To her slight astonishment, the snake head remained visible unharmed, its scales proving too tough for her to pierce through.
Surma stopped running forward and opted to focus entirely on Yuko, sensing her about to circle around it. It turned to match Yuko's speed and leaned forward suddenly with its mouth open wide, intent on devouring her. But to its surprise, Yuko jammed one of her blades into its mouth, keeping it open thanks to the surprising durability of the blade.
Yuko opened fire with said blade, magical blasts being relentlessly shot into Surma's mouth. Now this actually had some result; Surma whined, both from shock and genuine pain and the beast pulled back a bit, spitting out Yuko's blade in the process.
As it moved back a bit, so did Yuko. She did so in order to avoid being caught in the blast radius of Hanako's attack, which then hit Surma right in the back with so much power packed into it that the following explosion would've leveled an entire city. It was only thanks to a hasty use of Enhalt that Yuko was able to clear out of the area before she could be enveloped within the explosion as well.
But Hanako wasn't done just yet. She'd prepared several other magical blasts of even greater power and shot all of them at Surma within the smoke, watching with keen assessing eyes as the blasts hit their mark, the first one having knocked the sentient Relic off balance enough for it to be incapable of dodging the following ones.
Surma howled now in indignation, the blasts having hurt it actually. Thanks to the blast radius of each attack, many trees and animals had been taken down in the process and therefore deprived Surma of things to draw power from, at least within its immediate vicinity.
Knowing that this wouldn't do, Surma lunged out of the smoke and towards its right, heading closer to forest area and as it did so, the trees died as the energy was drained from them all and drawn into Surma.
Sensing this as well as seeing it, both Yuko and Hanako now found themselves having a slightly better understanding of its ability. Combined with the little team JNPR had been able to describe of this beast from when they fought it in Burgundy, the two wasted little time in starting to make more connections here to how it operated.
And this deduction took place for both women in just a fraction of a femtosecond.
So it was with renewed vigor that both of them went on the offensive yet again.
From afar, Kalma watched the battle continue to play out, the young Faunus almost mesmerized by what was unfolding. Though both women seemed to be having a hard time so far with Surma, they were fairing far better than team JNPR did, which was especially notable in that her overbooster was further increasing her Relic's power output. Furthermore, the sheer level of teamwork being demonstrated was almost breathtaking, the two attacking in perfect sync without so much as a simple glance shared between them.
"But will it actually be enough for them?" Kalma thought, almost hesitantly so. The longer this went on, the less of a chance she and Surma might have against them. For once her overbooster ran its course and used up all of her mana, Surma would lose a good deal of power and she herself would be rendered too tired to do anything at all should she even be discovered.
Not only that, but having been informed of the power Hanako possessed by Vidar, Kalma couldn't help but worry about what could happen if the humanoid magical weapon truly got serious and unleashed enough power to destroy Robotics Space. For if that happened…
"…We'll end up back in the real world… where Jaune and everyone else is at…" Kalma thought anxiously. If that really did happen, then there was no telling what would happen if Surma were to fight amongst a city full of people. Even with her giving him orders, the Relic was still liable to make its own decisions, for better or for worse. But more than that… just what would she ever do if Jaune saw her?
Pulling down on the hem of her dress tightly, Kalma tried to shake these very thoughts right out of her head. And prayed that her Relic would end this battle before things get out of control.
While I was hesitant to end the battle between Ryuichi and Indra already, realistically it was bound to happen so I let it run its course as I wrote it. Because while Indra had the speed, he didn't have enough mana to outlast Ryuichi nor much else to really chance things. Ryuichi, on the other hand, had Mjolnir which lets him absorb magical attacks to restore his own mana and the benefits of centuries of training and actual battle, so his experience gave him a big edge.
Hope that none of you were particularly disappointed by that.
Also, you can expect to see more of teams RWBY and JNPR in action as well. I've been saving up quite a few more surprises for everyone, so as always please look forward to that.
Until next time, everyone. Take care!