Chapter 10: They're pretty tough, should we be careful? Pt. 2
The scene starts with the cliffside where our Beacon Headmaster and the future teachers were at. But some of them were missing. With only King Bob-omb staying with the headmaster.
Not to mention, Ozpin was not looking pleased, he was furrowing his brows.
The reason?
The Grimms are ganging on his students in a strategic manner, or, were placed in a strategic manner. Whichever isn't important, it's the fact someone is directing them that's the problem.
Someone had been dumping Grimm on his students, and he still can't find the culprit.
Was this Salem's move? No, it doesn't feel like her style. She would rather send an elder Grimm to butcher his students and then wreak havoc in the city, causing as much fear and panic as possible. This feels like the person was treating it as a game.
Whoever was messing with them is certainly a cruel mind, Ozpin can't openly ask for the other staff to come and assist or rescue the student, not only will that raise the question and confusion to the senior students which will no doubt lead to a future question from the general public, but will also leave the school open and vulnerable for attacks, especially the vault, Ozpin doesn't doubt the capability of his students, but leaving the vault unguard is the last thing on his mind.
Not to mention, if news of this incident spread out, while he doesn't care about reputation or whatsoever, the stubborn mind council was all about holding the image of their powerful warrior academy and kingdom defensive capability, and he really doesn't want to face any of them any time sooner, not when the knowledge of another world exists is being involved.
With no better choice, Ozpin had to resort to asking the henchmen to protect the student, taking a big risk, and hope that they'll be able to overcome this crisis.
Another move made by someone, and for the first time since this temporary peace he created as the King of Vale, the chosen soul, Ozma, is forced to play a defensive move in order to protect this balance. It certainly looked like he's out of place and time to keep dodging the issue.
First, the Winter Maiden grew old and had her time near and near, and they have yet to decide who her successor would be.
Second, the Spring Maiden went missing, and no one knows her whereabouts or fate.
Third, Salem had figured out how to steal the Maiden's power, and the Fall Maiden became the first victim.
And then here he is, with the risk and danger someone will attempt to attack the school and maybe try to open the vault and hunt down the Relic of Choice.
For the first time since incarnate as Ozpin, he felt pressured and stressed. Were these recent unusual events a sign from some higher force or authority that he really shouldn't play ignorance and pretend the problem isn't there? Damn it, why can't things be simple.
Were those recruiting dreams with those voices actually a warning sign?
Steering his head clear, Ozpin draws a deep breath to calm his nerves down. 'I don't know what game you're attempting, but knowing this… a cornered beast will still fight, and they're the most dangerous kind one should never toy with.'
Focuses back on monitoring the camera feed, looking out for students that are shown to be struggling by the overwhelming number of Grimm. Thankfully for him, so far, only a small number of pairs actually need their help, but for how long before disaster or tragedy struck, and Ozpin was determined to prevent that from happening.
This leads to the henchmen, as they've spread out to dealing with the popping up Grimms, their capability was put on a trial.
- With Goomboss.
"Rrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaa!" Yelled the ever angry grumpy Goomba monarch, as he sent a group of Beowolfs into oblivion by slamming his Oni club on them, sending them flying like a homerun baseball shot.
One Alpha Belwolf pounces on him from behind, bringing its giant claw down on Goomboss' shoulder, gripping its prey tightly, and moving its maw down on the man's head, intended to separate the head from the shoulder. Least, that's how the simple mind of this slightly older Grimm thought.
What it got, however, was a cracking sound and a maw of broken teeth, and pain… lots and lots of pain.
Holding its mouth in hellish pain, the Grimm whined, if its biological structure could allow it to tear, the creature believed right now would be the best moment to do so. But sadly for it, it was created to just be a tool meant for an end, not a creature to express emotion.
Scratching the area that got bitten, Goomboss turned around and faced the bipedal wolf, a look of bored stare at the soulless beast. "Amature, this, is how you strike someone's head. Observe."
In the next instant, the Alpha Beowolf's head separated from the neck, ending the immense pain it's in, by the mighty swing of Goomboss' club.
Turning around, Goomboss yelled at the top of his lungs, his bushy eyebrows, mustaches, as well as hairs floating waverly like a burning flame. "Alright! You bunch of spineless pansies! Which one of you is the next?" Much to his craving anger's disappointment, all the Grimms that were harassing the exam students were cleared out, or running away with their tails between their legs.
Ticking his tongue in annoyance, the Goomba king said nothing as he lowered his weapon, and took out his scroll from his pocket. "Area cleared, where's the next target?"
[Heading toward your south, a group of… Ursa, I believe that's the name for the bear-like Grimm, had popped there, blocking the path for the students to return to the cliff.] From the scroll comes the bomb king's voice.
"Bear-like? And south you said? Got it, anything else?"
[Nothing that requires your concern at the moment, smash those bears, we can't have them ambush the students.]
"Alright, contact me if there's an emergency."
[Will do, stay safe.]
"Heh, you know the word safe really doesn't fit us to begin with."
- With Big Bully
The giant bull knight had his head impaled into the cliff, seemingly looking like a bull that couldn't stop its movement in time before impact. Results in the impact point have the cliff cracking like a spider web.
But in truth, between his head and the dirt, sandwiched a group of Beowolf an Alpha Beowolf in between, the pressure destroyed their inner parts, killing them instantly.
What makes this accomplishment stand out is the fact Big Bully hasn't even started using his fist yet. All he ever did was charge like a mad bull, using his shoulder bash to send the Grimm flying like a bullet, and skewering them left right with his horns, before sending them to Underwhere by crashing into any available walls he could find.
From the look of any other, what he just did could be viewed as downright badass and awestruck.
And once he starts using hands, it becomes even more terrifying, just casually gripping an Alpha Beowolf by the leg, and smashing it left and right like a ragdoll, before tossing them away like a broken doll they become as he's done with them.
Needless to say, 4 boys with outfits that looked like medieval fashion were terrified by the sight of his strength.
Untrapping himself from the rocks, Bully turns and faces the boys. "Were you harmed?"
"Uhh, no, sir." One guy with burnt-orange hair answered, his usual cockiness attitude dropped as his face a little blue.
"Then it's most fortunate. If you have obtained your goal, resume your exam." The Bull knight leaves them no chance to reply, as he immediately storms off toward the next area.
The group of 4 looked at each other, unsure what to make of their earlier experience. But getting back to the launching cliff? That's an idea they ALL agree to get behind.
- With King Boo
Instead of rescuing, the Ghost King was instructed with a different object, to find out who was sabotaging the exam so boldly, given that his invisibility is very useful for sneaking up on people and tailing them without being spotted. It was only a rational choice.
And here he is, floating in the sky, with his umbrella still folding open to block the sunlight.
But… he was having much more difficult than one would anticipate, the good visuals provided by the good weather and the bright sunlight did not help him, if anything, the good day proved to be a nuisance for the Ghost King, being a ghost, a Boo especially, sunlight is the bane of their existence, if they were exposed to strong light, they could end up dying. While lights can't kill King Boo as he's way stronger than normal Boos, it still weakens him to some degree, hence that he looked ill earlier today, the sunlight making him dizzy like he's having a Heatstroke.
That being said, this condition turns out to be the reason that he missed a small dot of purple yellow among the vast sea of greenish forest.
- And now with Petey Pir…
Oh? What was that? oh, I'm side-tracking? Excuse me, there are too many things that I need to pay attention to and keep track of for this story.
Ahem, ok, let's focus back on the Koopalings and Prince Junior, we can look back to Petey's encounter later.
Play music: Castle Boss - New Super Mario Bros. Wii
- With Glynda Goodwitch.
Glynda cartwheeled and backflipped away gracefully as she dodges another Power Shot shoot from the side by Larry, as soon as her heel meets the ground, she points her riding crop on the ground and summons a rune circle, simply lifting the tip up, she unleashing ice spike pillars to surround her for protection, before whipping her crop and sending her shield flying apart in a blasting manner as an offensive, fend off her assaulter and creating a much-needed space for her next attack.
Moving her arm in a circle, Glynda points her riding crop on Ludwig before swinging, sending a barrage of violet arrows homing toward the brain of the team.
Having learned just enough knowledge of his opponent, Ludwig retracts into his shell and spins madly like a tornado, effectively deflecting the arrows away with his Koopa shell. Before coming out again and pointing his rapier at the purple witch, shooting a blue lighting strike.
Reacting instantly, Glynda lifts the ground in front of her to block the strike, before she has to move again to dodge the assault from Wendy and Roy.
"Hey-YA!" "Rrrrraaaaa!" The dynamic duo tries to X-cross her as they spinning attack the witch in purple with their shell.
Ludwig, meanwhile, adjusts his stance and takes out his trusty wand, muttering something under his breath.
Just as Glynda dodge the brother sister's attack, Larry took the chance and initiated his newly created special move from behind, chewing wind and fire Dust crystal in his mouth, and finally, mimicking the movement Bowser used whenever he uses his special shot during the tennis game, Larry breathed his element fire down on his racket, with a mighty war cry, channeling power into his arms, Larry jumped and smashed a drop shot at Goodwitch. "Eat this!"
The shot flew toward Glynda like a homing meteor, who was sharp enough to notice the incoming attack, pointing her crop down below, Glynda levitating the ground below her like a surfboard, just in time to evade the attack.
Seeing their enemy take flight, Roy takes out his bazooka and takes aim, firing a barrage of Bullet Bill at her. "Where are Ya running!"
Looking back at the coming projectile, Glynda points her crop back, sending a wave of violet arrows, and takes out the chasing bullet.
With her chaser dealt with, Glynda wasn't out of the woods yet, as her blocker showed up at the front.
Floating in the air, Ludwig holds his rapier and wand in his hands, with a wave of arms, he shoots out a storm of blue magic flames that locked onto Glynda, and fires another thunder strike with his rapier.
Reacting quickly, Glynda sends out another wave of violet arrows and summons a runic barrier to counter the flames thunder. Jumping off her ground surfboard, Glynda sends it straight toward Ludwig on a collision course, who narrowly dodges it in time by floating to the side.
Despite not making much progress on damage, this situation, however, was still in Ludwig's calculation control. "Roy!" He yelled.
"You got it!" Spreading his legs wide, Roy takes the stance of a Sumo-Bro, spread his leg open and squatting, he lifts one leg high up, and then slammed it down on the ground, just as Goodwitch land on the ground.
Expecting a shockwave to show up, she was about to time her jump to dodge, when a sense of paralysis hit her from toes to head, stopping all her movement and action.
Seeing that this is her chance, Wendy shoots out a set of Golden Rings, with the motion of her finger, she moves them to bind Goodwitch's arms and legs, earning a shocked and terrified look from said huntress.
Their target bound in place, the Koopaling siblings rushed toward Goodwitch, prepared to beat her down and get the exam done with.
...
Their goal was once again, denied, however.
Cause Glynda manages to channel her telekinesis onto the binding ring, and successfully tore it off, before combusting a storm of fire Dust around her to fend off her enemy.
"Oh come on! We had you there!" Wendy can't be helped but complained about the situation, they totally had her pin down, and then she breaks out like cheating.
Adjusting her glasses, Glynda calmly replies as she gave her usual stern glare. "I'm afraid that just as my colleague had mentioned earlier, we never intended to make things easy for you. Especially after you lot decided to use your magic on us." Behind her stoic face, Glynda was taking a deep breath to calm down, that was a very close call, to stop her motion just like that, what a unique and terrifying power, their abilities certainly were worthy of the praise, she can't afford to let them stun her again.
The ability to retract into their shell like a turtle, and the ability to spinning in place without any sort of movement. She never meets any turtle-based Faunus, but from the information she learned from books, to twirling yourself in place is to make your back muscle inside the shell move with enough control and force on your muscle. That feat alone would take an insane amount of practice and experience.
Glynda narrowing her eyes. They're on a different level compared to most Huntsman-in-training this age, maybe on equal with year 4 students. Another rare praise coming from her.
I should just be glad they're on our side, I certainly wouldn't want to be antagonistic with any of them.
Making up her mind, Glynda swiped her crop, a look of determined present on her face. Point her corp toward the sky, she conjured a cloud of dark storms, causing the wind to act up. It's time to put up a real battle for these teenagers.
Opposite of her, the Koopalings look at the storm that was the work of Goodwitch with the same thought.
Uh-oh.
- Earlier on the other side of the battlefield, with Bowser Jr. and Co
play music: Big Bang! - Mario Luigi: Paper Jam Music
"Rrrraaaaa!" With his usual loud roar, Morton clashed his hammer against Port's Axe Blunderbuss, the two locked in a battle of strength struggle.
"Ho-ho! A bold approach, I like it! But I'm certain you have more kicks in your strength! Eh?" The portly man taunted, his experience telling him that his opponent is stronger than they've let on.
"MORTON POWERFUL! MORTON SHOW YOU MORE POWER!" And with that, Morton adds more power into his push, slowly pushing Port back. This, however, was in Port's small plan all alone.
Quickly stepping aside, with the sudden loss of opposite force, Morton tripped and pummeled into the ground along with his hammer, thus giving Port an opening to attack him.
Said man shot him with a round of ice Dust right on the back, trapped Morton on the ground.
"Hoo hoo, allow me, an old pro to give you a piece of advice! Brutal force won't be the answer to everything, you have to use it smartly." Port smirked as he twirled the end of his mustaches.
Unfortunately for the talkative man, his lecture is cut off short as the ice that sealing Morton starts cracking.
"Urrrg! Hmmmmmm!" Morton can be seen with his face furrows, a vine pop up on his forehead. "RAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" And with a show of brutal strength, Morton breaks free from his ice prison.
"POWER IS ALL MORTON NEEDED!" He yelled as he struck his hammer on the floor. "MORTON SMASH!" Causing a massive rupture on the ground, forcing Port to back off from the impact zone.
"MUSTACHE MAN MAY BE COOLHEAD! BUT MORTON IS HOTHEAD!" Holding his Hammer up, magic energy started gathering on his weapon, and the metal head of the hammer burst into fire. "MORE FIRE!" Intense heat emits from Morton's weapon, causing Port to gulp nervously yet smirk around the tip of his lip. Looks like this will be a hard fight he could enjoy.
Meanwhile, not far away from the two, Lemmy clones with Junior were furiously fighting the green blur doctor, who manages to keep up with all the assaults from all sides. And the paint King Boo Iggy occasionally drop by to throw a few magic flame missiles to interference.
"Hey-Ya!" Lemmy 1 tries to strike Oobleck with his baton swing, who easily parried the swing away; following Lemmy 1's combo, Lemmy 2 tries to dropkick from behind, Oobleck gracefully steps to the side to dodge, followed with a kick to the back to send Lemmy 2 crash into Lemmy 1; Then, spinning at him with high speed from the side, Junior in his shell form tries to run into Oobleck, who easily catching up and dancing around with the Koopa Prince, before using wind dust to knock Junior away.
After the Koopa prince is blown to the side, Lemmy 3 and Lemmy 4 quickly filled the gap by trying to double team Oobleck with fire performance, their fire is the fireballs spitting out from their mouth, and they even lit up their twirling baton with fire, making it a staff of flame, the two clone using whatever existing tricks the OG Lemmy could perform or known, try to get close to Oobleck and keep him occupied.
Sadly for them, Oobleck is just too fast for them to land a proper hit, smoothly dodge the coming attack, one little perk of being fast over the years of experience, Oobleck's whole body, sense, and reaction time had been trained to a level of superhuman. To move fast, one must have the same reflection to counter balance it. And thankfully for him, he had trained himself to be fast for the most part of his life. But of course, just because he has the upper hand over the battle doesn't mean he should let his guard down, one slip-up and it could be over for him.
Unfortunately for him, it would seem that that slip-up is slowly drawing near, in a way our archaeologist doctor cannot foresee.
"Grrrrrrrr! What's with this dude! Why can't he stay in place for like 5 seconds!" A snappy Junior grumbles as he is close to pulling his own hair in frustration. This isn't going anywhere, they gotta do something, be it playing dirty or downright cheating. (as long as nobody finds out.)
As if his prayers had been answered, a shadow cast upon him, getting his attention.
Above in the air, from the sideline, Inside the mouth of the paint King Boo, Iggy has been watching Oobleck's movement from this advantageous position as the battle goes. "Weehee, this guy certainly looked troublesome, if only we can slow him down a bit." Quickly scanning around, there's not much environment object they could use to their advantage, aside from the goops Lord Junior just made. And unlike Kamek, who can easily alter the battle arena to their home advantage field, they don't have enough magic power and mastery to do that, and even when they do, it would require all seven of them together to do so. So no quicksand or lava pool, well, there's gotta be something he can mess with...
"Iggy!"
Looking down at his mini-boss, the unorthodox Koopaling decides to engage in conversation out of humor. "Yes? Mini-Boss?"
"You've been doing the battle in the air, have you spotted anything unusual about that greenie guy?"
"Anything unusual?"
"Yeah, like any sort of habit or pattern, that guy must have some weakness we could use."
Hearing the question, Iggy stroked his chin. Then a lightbulb lit up above his head. There is indeed one weird behavior!
Oobleck can maneuver around their attack when they ganged on him, but whenever he goes on the offensive, he'll be moving around all over the place in order to make them lose track of him. Not to mention, whenever he goes on the offensive, he would take a quick gulp from that weird thermos of his. Could it be the source of his super-speed?
"I see… that does explain the thing... Bahaha!"
"Explain what? Just give it straight already!" Junior stomped the ground as he threw his arms around.
Telling the painted ghost to lower him to the ground, Iggy whispers to Junior's ear, whose eyes lit up in realization, followed by an evil grin that reeks of trouble and mayhem. He then whispered something to Iggy, who cackled delightfully in return.
Immediately, Junior sprint off, start running around and leaving trails of eco-unfriendly black goops behind his path, circling around the battlefield they're on.
Snapping his own finger, Iggy teleports to Lemmy 1's side, taking the jester Koopaling by surprise.
"Gah! Iggy, what's the big idea?!"
"Baahaahaa! You could say it's a big idea!" He then gets close to Lemmy's to whisper something, while pointing his finger at Oobleck's hand, and then point at Port who was engaging with Morton in an intense element fight between water and fire.
Understanding what Iggy and Master Junior's plan is, Lemmy recomposed himself, it's time for a big final!
Without order or another word, Lemmy made another two clones, making the total number of Lemmy into 6, the clones sprint off with smoke bombs in their hands, as they once again surround Oobleck from all sides, throwing the bomb to cover the speedster's vision.
it was annoying that this speedy guy manages to keep up with them on their attacks, but that's about it as they'll be putting an end to this humiliation. Because Iggy had sort of figured out his secret behind his speed. If his theory is corrected, whatever thing he drank must boost his sense and perceptions into supersensory, so it obviously must be some power boost that increases his speed.
So the answer to their counterattack is very simple, they must cut off greenie's hold to his supplement, and limit the area he can move around, and as a safety measure to top it all, Iggy had his ace up in the sleeve just as Ludwig planned from the beginning.
All that matters is if Lemmy can get a clear view and open on Oobleck's weapon.
- With Morton and Port.
"RRRRAAAAAGGG!" With a mighty swing, Morton continuously crushed the ground Port was standing at, going with the same pattern of jumping smash again and again. Said man seems to find the rhythm of Morton's attack as he jumps around as if he's dancing, and he had been slowly analyzing his opponent as the battle goes on.
For the most obvious, Morton hits super hard, judging by the crushing visual of every attack he causes, but he also moves slowly. But, he seems to have difficulty jumping high, as Port only sees him hopping mostly during the battle. And he doesn't seem to use any other strategy other than smashing. Uh-uh, what a critical mistake for a youngster.
And third, a few times when his dust round struck Morton, he sometimes was almost knocked off-balanced, and he would react hastily trying to re-balance himself. Could it be...
Load up his trusty weapon with both wind gravity Dust, wielding it in an axe hold, the blade glowing a mixture between green gray. "Have a load of... THIS!" With a manly war cry as he definitely would put it, Port swang the empty air in front of him. Create a powerful gust that sends Morton on his back.
"URG! NO! MORTON FALLING! MORTON CAN'T GET UP!" Falling on his back, Morton immediately went into panic, as he still had difficulty getting up whenever he fell onto his koopa shell.
But his little pea size brain failed to take into account that his body proportion had transferred to a human proportion, and his limbs are longer than they used to be, so here we have an overgrown sized teenager swinging his arms legs as he's panicking on his back, when in reality his could use his limbs to push himself up.
Watching the scene with a sweat drop, Port quickly focuses back on the battle, as he loads up earth gravity Dust this time, he take aim above Morton, creates a boulder right on top of him.
Said Koopaling widens his eyes as he watches the giant rock crash down on him. "WHAAAAAAA!-" *Bam* And his crying was muffed as the boulder nailed him into the ground.
Or so Port thought...
Because soon after that, the boulder was lifted up, a teeth-clenching Morton emerged from the ground and hurled the boulder back to its owner.
"What the-!" Narrowly ducking out of the way in the last second, Port quickly got back on his feet. But Morton was gone when he looked at where he's last seen.
"MORTON BOMB!" Port's question was answered when Morton ground-pound on top of him. Impale the man into the ground, as well as nearly make him empty his breakfast. "Urg-huuuu!"
"MORTON HAD MUSTACHE MAN PINNED! NOW MORTON WILL SMASH!" With a poof in his hand, Morton's hammer returned to his hands, and he raised it all the way above his head.
Face blue from the sheer terror with the imminent pain, Port resort to his last sleeve trick, as he opened his usual squint eyes. Soon as he did so, Morton's motion stopped, his giant black mallet just an inch away from Port's face.
With a silent heave-ho, Port tossed Morton off him, and went for his weapon, resuming the round two of the battle.
- Switch back to Oobleck the Koopalings and Bowser Jr.
Back to the action with Iggy, blowing a whistle, the ever-cackling Koopaling called the paint King Boo to his side, as he whispered an order to the boss minion, the ghost saluted as it understood the mission given to it.
He then takes out a gold box and tosses it on the ground, with a spell of his wand, it unfolds into a golden chariot he built just very recently. (Named: Iggynition)
With a press of a button, two engines appear at the side of the chariot, with the wheel of the chariot folding into anti-gravity wheels, neon-blue lights glowing over the now airborne chariots. Iggy had built this chariot with the function of a go-kart in mind, the anti-gravity is basically the icing on the cake addition because Remnant have things like gravity Dust, which make the process of building this beauty much easier, consider how limited the Mushroom World resource they had to being with, of course, with the downside being that this car becomes useless if they ever do the Rainbow Road track on Remnant, as Dust loses its power once leaving the atmosphere. Note to self, upgrade this car once they reunited with the kingdom. Space Anti-Gravity cars are gonna sell in this world.
Stepping on the accelerator, the chariot blasts off into the smoke zone, with Iggy's cackling lingering in the air.
Looking at the painted King Boo, Lemmy gulped nervously, the success or failure depends on his next performance. This next trick must not fail.
- Oobleck's pov
Seeing his challengers cloaking his vision, Oobleck did the only rational action he should take, using wind Dust to blow the smoke away.
Of course, he anticipated that they might try something when he couldn't see them, but never would he imagine one of the challengers running into him on a horseless chariot of all things.
"Baahaahaa! This is like battle mode all over again, except the time limit and balloons!" He heard the guy speaking between his cackling. He does not know what this battle mode he speaks of, but if he had to make a guess, it must be some type of competition of sort.
What kind of culture do they have anyway?
Jumping out of the course of the chariot, Oobleck was about to make a chase after Iggy, only to see Iggy's chariot start drifting, a trail of neon-light taking a smooth C-turn, before the vehicle speeding toward his way again.
Knowing he wasn't going to shake off his chaser that easily, Oobleck decided to take direct engagement, better be safe than sorry, as he's about to put his thermos to his lips again.
Only to have his thermos disappear from his hand in a "poof" of smoke.
"!" His eyes widened, Oobleck's body quickly kicked into action, overcoming the surprise with professionalism, he narrowly dodged the chariot again.
Getting on his feet, Oobleck took on a fighting stance, his mind trying to make sense of the situation that just transpired.
Unbeknownst to him, if he could see invisible objects, he would see Lemmy pointing his wand at him and muttering a spell just before Iggy ran into him.
As Iggy tries to ram into Oobleck again, the doctor stealthily takes out a flare gun from his pocket and fires it at Iggy, the speedster wasn't fast enough to dodge the flaring spark, as it lands on him and sets him on fire.
"AhhhhHaha! Hot! Hot! Wait! This isn't funny! BahaaAhhhhh!" Shocked and distracted by the fire, Iggy alone with his chariot quickly steer to who knows where. "Water! Water!"
Seeing his opponent was driven off by the flare, Oobleck was glad he came prepared for the exam, that flare was supposed to be used if they ran into Grimm horde and needed immediate evacuation. At least he still has another 2 shots for the real emergency.
'Not good, I suppose it's time to bail.' He thought grimly in his head, while they're supposed to be both the test and the examiner to them, there weren't rules that say they can't run away so they won't be able to get the relic. But he can't just leave Peter alone to face these 4, not to mention one can duplicate himself, and one can create creatures they have never seen before right on spot. Even if Peter has fought captured countless Grimm before, this is still too much for a capable man like him.
"Peter! We had to-" He was rudely cut off as a fire blast nearly struck him.
"Now now, the Final Performance of the show is about to begin, why don't you stick around just a bit longer?" Lammy appeared not far across him, the painted King Boo removed its hand off the jester's shoulder and floated beside him. "Anyway, how do you like my little illusion trick?" He smugly asked.
Adjusting his glasses, Oobleck humbly replied. "I supposed my weapon's disappearance is your doing?"
Bowing his head, Lemmy gives a sincere smile. "Of course, after all, I, Lemmy, am the greatest and most humble illusionist in all the world. My performance is shocking for the eyes. Astound for the awe. And definitely impresses the mind."
Lemmy then slowly lifts his head up. "It's nothing personal-"
Lemmy 2 shows up beside the real deal. "-but our Prince has demanded that you guys will be defeated-"
Lemmy 3 shows up behind Oobleck. "-as such-"
Lemmy 4 shows up beside Lemmy 3. "-it's in our obligation that we must fulfill the task we've been given."
Lemmy 5 6 appeared behind Lemmy 1 2. "So you might as well give up now, at least we'll make it quick and painless."
"Nothing personal, it's just jobs." Every Lemmy speaks in unison, a shadow covers their eyes, following with a sinister wide V-shape smile that doesn't suit his innocent face.
Hesitantly eyeing around, Oobleck slowly moves his body, his nerve on high tension, ready to use every bit of his Aura to retreat for the moment if needed.
That's when he noticed that Lemmy clones with the ghost monster aren't moving, each holding a confused expression on their face. "Wah? Hey! Why can't I move? This isn't on the schedule!"
"Barty! I got them, quick! Move!" Turning his head toward the source, Oobleck saw Port looking in his direction, the man's dark-brown orbs locked onto the Koopaling jester. Not far away from him, a wet and knocked down Morton was sleeping soundly on the ground with his whole body looking slightly scorched.
Not wasting the chance, Oobleck quickly rushed to Port's side, soon as he escaped, Port fired a round of ice Dust to imprison Lemmies paint King Boo inside an iceberg.
"Phew, that was quite close eh?" The portly man wipes the sweat off his forehead and then massages his eyes, it has been a while he's in a situation where he would require to use his semblance, not to mention multiple targets at the same time.
"Quite, unfortunately, it would seem that they have successfully disarmed me with their clever scheme." The doctor crossed his arms, his weapon now gone to where only the Koopas would know.
"Okay, it would seem that we still have two enemies that are still standing." Port then looked at Morton. "It took my whole thunder Dust ammo to take him down, gotta say, for such a young lad, he had some impressive durability for stamina. I was lucky that he seems to rather tanking through attacks than dodging them, if not for that fact, I don't think I could keep up with his mighty strength." Recalling the battle that just transpired early, Morton's primary tactic is charging straightly only; it gave Port the perfect opportunity to optimize his Dust ammo for an element combo.
Reloading his weapon, the old hunter recomposed himself. "Alright, time to finish the bat-"
"Heeeeeeeellooooooooooo! Did you miss me!" Port was then rudely interrupted. By a golden chariot that shows up from nowhere, piloted by none other than Iggy himself, who was no longer on fire, but looked slightly burnt.
Soon as the two huntsmans dodge and the oncoming vehicle drives past them, Iggy starts to perform a drift as blue sparks can be seen glowing on the rear wheels.
As Port was about to aim his blunderbuss at the crazy driver, a white tentacle sneaked up behind him and grappled his waist.
"!" Unable to even utter a yelp, Port was immediately dragged into the black goop pile that Junior just created.
"Peter!" Oobleck yelled in concern, as his attention was shifted. It was not a smart move on his part.
"Eyes on the road! Haahaa!" Slamming right into his back. Iggy's chariot performed a mini-turbo after charging enough energy spark with the drifting. "Time for payback! Bahaha!"
Soon as Oobleck has been hitting into the air, Lemmy suddenly teleports into the air with the painted ghost lifting him on its head. "Ice cage escape performance? I see you two have a good taste for good magic tricks. Allow me to return the favor!"
"Ladies Gentleman, I present you, Lemmy's Great Shift!" Helpless, Oobleck watched as Lemmy twirling his wand before pointing it at him. And then, poof.
Oobleck finds himself trapped inside the iceberg that Port created to trap Lemmy. And oh boy, cold, lots and lots of cold.
One huntsman, down.
Descending to the ground, Lemmy took a bow as his performance was over. While there's no audience here, he still feels accomplished. A job well done.
"Baahaahaa! Bet he didn't expect that to happen, cause I certainly don't." Stopping his chariot, Iggy parked beside Lemmy as he inspected the human that is now trapped inside the iceberg. "Since when did you learn escape performance?"
Lemmy only gives him a playful tongue and a victory gesture. "Trade secrets."
Seeing he isn't going to get an answer, Iggy shrugs it off. "Anyway, I didn't even need to swap their strength status to throw them off."
Summoning a bouncing ball, Lemmy goes back on his idle balancing. "Well, that probably would be overkilling if you do that."
As if on timing, the paint King Boo dissolves into a pile of orange goop.
Turning their focus on the black goop, the Koopaling sibling watched the ripple that occurred inside the goop pile.
"Say, that's a Blooper summon goop right? How long do you think that humans are going to last?" Iggy asked.
Putting his finger on the chin, Lemmy hummed. "Hmmm… maybe around thirty seconds?"
As if their bet was heard, bubbles start boiling on the goop's surface.
The two of them automatically take a few steps back for safety.
Splash* Throwing out of the inky goop was a weaponless Port, who was covered in black ink, of course.
"Oomph!" Crush landing on the ground, the old man coughed as he was gasping for air like an out-of-water fish.
As he tries to get back on his feet, four more tentacles grab onto his limbs and pin him down once more, then, emerges from the black goop, was a giant white squid that have blue dots over its head, a long, thin black marking resembling a mask around its black beady eyes, and a cylindrical mouth.
The huntsman tries to break free from the grip, but the strength of this predator just proved to be much stronger than him.
Slipping his eyes open, Port saw that Oobleck is trapped inside the iceberg he made, seeing that his partner is out cold, literally, the old man snorted in amusement. "Ah-ha! What a fight. Not only have you fought hard, but you even managed to go beyond expectation, well done! You certainlyyyyyyyyy-" He was interrupted rudely again when the giant squid lifted him up and started slamming him on the floor like a rag doll.
The Koopalings cringed as they watched the man being beaten quite brutally.
Seeing the prey was out of cold, the monster stopped its assault, dropping its beaten prey.
…
...
"Weeellllp, that take cares of it, sort of, I guess." After an awkward silence, Iggy speaks, unconcerned for their elder.
"Now what?" Lemmy follows.
"Awwwww come ON! The battle is over already? Then what was all the running I did for!" Cries Bowser Junior, who just finished looping around the battlefield with his goop circle.
- Back with another group.
playing music: Tough Guy Alert! (Mashup) [Mario Luigi: B.I.S. Mario Luigi: B.I.S. Bowser Jr.'s Journey]
The group had entered an intense match of an aerial battle, sort of.
Ludwig had to take it upon himself to engage Goodwitch, who was riding on another surfboard made of the ground as she tried to seize air supremacy over the battle. The two had been trading blows between lighting strikes for a while, Goodwitch's ability to direct her attack with precise sharp turns had been the major difficulty of the battle. Thanks to his own mastery over cloning floating, Ludwig was able to keep up with the random pattern of attack, but even then his FP is slowly draining as the battle had been taking a while.
'If I had to make a quick guess, my FP may only last for another 3-4 minutes, assuming I don't attack, that's it.' Calculating in his mind, Ludwig tsk under his breath. Out of time and option, he had to do something, now!
Cast a quick glance at his siblings, they each had spouted some mark of burn or scratch, Larry looked exhausted, but otherwise, they're still fine.
For how long? Ludwig don't know.
His thought line was unfortunately interrupted as a fireball moved past his clones, and hit him directly. "Ghaa!"
Knocked down to the ground, Ludwig's crushing altering his siblings, Roy was quick to fill in the gap by trying to shoot down Goodwitch with his blaster, with no available. "Damn it, stop flying around like a damn bug!"
"Boss!/Ludwig!" Coming to Ludwig's side, Larry Wendy help lift their brother up, when Ludwig suddenly whispers near their ear.
"You two, I have figured out a plan." Hearing his calm attitude, the two younger siblings listen to what he has to say. "With our current equipment, landing a major damage is unlikely, so, in order to bring her down, we have to take a gamble, and I just had the right wager." The two siblings looked at each other, then shifted back to their older sibling. "What do you need us to do?"
Back with Roy, his patient was running thin as shooting missiles is clearly not working, knowing he had to buy his siblings sometime, Roy decided to go all out. Bah! Screw it, raw power is all I had, if it means fighting in the sky then so be it!
Bending his leg, Roy drew a deep breath, before launching himself like a missile toward Goodwitch, leaping all the way up to the sky.
His jumping strength clearly wasn't what Goodwitch was expecting, as she quickly tries to back away from the incoming projectile.
Quickly registering the danger Roy may possess, Glynda goes on the offensive, conjuring 2 spears of ice Dust, she directs it toward Roy.
Hopping like a bunny, Roy keeps on pressuring Glynda, despite his knees starting to feel the intense fatigue building up. Just a little more, Ludwig definitely could come up with something, that nerd just needs some time. And buying that time he will!
Took out his morningstar, Roy trying his best to mimic the motion he remembered from a certain Belmont in the Smash Tournament, whipping his deadly chain spikeball to destroy the incoming ice spear, the motion is still sloppy at best, but at least the force was enough to break the ice.
Unfortunately for him, not every enemy you faced would always be straightforward, because his attention was all on the incoming ice spear, he failed to notice Goodwitch conjure another dozen of violet arrows to strike him from the side. The arrows land on their target, earning a grunt from Roy, but he persists through the pain, this isn't the first time he ever pushes himself this far, the pain these arrow's give is nothing compare to that one time where he fought through a path back to the castle with his during the Blorb incident. All those brainwashed minions, wave after another wave, no time to take a break, nothing but his sheer own determination. A single few arrows is not going to stop him here!
"Geeeerrrrr!" Quickly drawing a long breath, Roy spat fireballs continuously at Goodwitch. "Take this!" Of course, his fire was quickly rendered useless as Goodwitch put up a runic shield.
Angered that all his known tricks had been countered, Roy resorted to his last trick, one that he didn't really want to use again after all the years.
And so he stretched his arm forward, forward, and forward, the length of his limb keep extending as his mind command his body to do so, it feels super uncomfortable to have your very bone and muscle stretched long and thin, but this is the only trick he had left with, one that might just be enough to turn the tide of the battle.
Definitely not expecting this to happen, Goodwitch tried to swat away Roy's extending arm with fire Dust, but Roy was determined to get the job done as he endured the scorching hot pain.
His effort was rewarded when his hand finally grasped Goodwitch by the arm, and pulling her toward him, soon as the witch came near, using another hand, Roy gripped Goodwitch by the hand that was holding the riding crop, and using his arms to hold her tightly, not leaving any space for budge. Glynda tries to break free, but the strength behind Roy's arm is firm as his unwavering resolve.
Glynda's telenkinsis is no doubt a powerful Semblance that might be on top among the vast variety ranges of Semblance, but it just had one critical weakness, the telekinesis can not be used on breathing object, be it Man, Faunus, animals or even Grimm, as long as the being can be considered alive, her semblance would not work.
When the Koopaling brought the floating witch down to the ground, Roy yelled at the top of his lungs. "Ludwig! I had her catched! Now throw your strongest attack!" He offered a perfect chance for Ludwig to finish the battle.
But there's just one problem with his offer.
Attacking Goodwitch now would be attacking Roy too, and with Ludwig's trump card, the MAX-Power Ludwig Magic Blast, that would mean catching Roy in the crossfire, under normal circumstances, Ludwig would be okay to attack even his siblings if it means they could get the job done. But here? In a world that isn't Mushroom World? A world where they're not even sure if the power of 1up Mushroom would work normally as it should. Where they're not sure if they can abuse the extra life like the pisky Mario? A plan like this would almost be suicidal!
'Think! Ludwig! Think! There's got to be a way! What Roy did was already similar to what you plan to do with clones, so there's gotta be a way to salvage this situation! All we had to do is snatch Roy from my attack before it landed!' In a very rare moment of vulnerability, Ludwig dug his finger into his hair as he panicked while mind racing. He and Roy may not be the most conflict-free when it comes to terms, but even he wouldn't just openly discard his siblings' safety like this. Roy's stubbornness pride as a soldier had once again got the best of his own judgment, throwing his well-being for others, just so he could ensure victory for them.
"We only need to get Roy out from your attack, is that correct? Boss?" Larry suddenly spoke, calmness in his voice. Turning his eyes to his brother, Larry spoke again, a firming bravery and confidence in his voice. "Leave that to me! Ludwig, I can do that! This is our chance!"
The word from the young brother was enough to finally bring the old brother out of his panic, as he slowly turned his head to the young sibling.
The eyes of Ludwig were no longer panicking, instead, it was filled with grave seriousness. "Are you certain of that? Larry? Are you absolutely certain you can do that? Are you aware of the consequences should you fail?" In another rare moment between their usual interaction, Ludwig never raises his voice on them unless the situation really is really severe.
His eyeballs never move away once, Larry answered back with an imperturbable reply. "Believe me!"
Closing his eyes as he takes a breath, Ludwig slightly loosens his tense shoulder. "Alright, here's what we'll do, let's go with our early plan! Wendy!"
"On it!" The girl Koopaling sprints toward the brawner and the captured witch. Wendy clones herself into 6, and then shoots out as many golden rings as she could manage, binding the brawner and the witch tightly in place.
Hearing what Roy said, and seeing what they're trying to do, Glynda showed a very rare expression of fear. "What? Are you crazy? He's your family! Are you actually willing to go with this?!"
Hearing her desperate cry, the Koopalings laughed, earning a confused look from the witch. "Well, that's your problem, cause you obviously don't know us." Roy taunted.
"We're wicked!" Wendy speaks.
"We're ruthless!" Roy followed.
"We're crazy!" Larry followed.
"And most important of all, we just love being mean and evil!"
"Nothing personal, but our prince had demanded your defeat! And we'll do anything to see it happen." Ludwig added.
Holding his magic wand in hand, Ludwig struck a pose. "Alright, fair madam, time to face the music, and my piano is all tuned up." Point his wand skyward, Ludwig start concentrating, pouring all his remaining FP into this final attack.
"Here we go! Full Power! MAX-Power Ludwig Magic Blast!" Above him, a giant blue magic sphere came into existence, thrice the size of Ludwig, pulsing with rainbow-like color, as bits of runic-like symbols of circle, triangle, and square surrounding the surface of the sphere.
"Alright, Roy, hon, today's weather report, be ready with a shiny coin shower! It gonna be raining!" Focus back on Goodwitch, Wendy summons her wand.
"Awe man, you seriously going to use that attack?" Hearing what's about to come, Roy braces himself, oh dear, he did kinda just sign up this one upon himself.
"Wha? Coin shower?" It was then Glynda remembered what kind of coin they're referring to.
Not even able to utter a cry, the brawner the witch were showered with a rain of golden coins.
Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing* BING INTENSIFY
Once the golden shower stopped, an almost unconscious dizzy Goodwitch and a still standing Roy who was finally able to catch a breath.
"Owww- Owww- Owww! Sis, how many coins did you just drop?!"
"Welllllllll… around 100 coins?"
"Sheesh, that's overkill even by me."
With a snap of her finger, Wendy let go of Roy Goodwitch from her binding ring. "Come on, everybody loves payday~ Gotta love those Bing Bing Wahoo?"
"Not when they're handled in a murderous manner..."
"Well... fair point."
"Also, you should start running, Ludwig is about to fire his dang thing."
"Fairpointthanksgottarunbye!" And with that Wendy start running for her life.
"Take…. THIS!" With a swing of his wand, the blue sphere flew toward the destiny target, unlike the times with his battle against Mario Bros, where the sphere moving slowly in a parabola path, that time he needs to attack the plumber brothers while maintaining the sphere, but this time he just needs to fire the shot because his target had been rendered immobile.
As soon as the shot was fired, Ludwig Larry started making a run for it.
"Alright! Larry! Do your thing!"
"On it!"
Making a sharp quick turning, Larry focused his eyes on Roy, as the world around him stopped, closing his eyes, Larry concentrated his mind, and a giant hand was summoned.
"Psychic Save!" He yelled, as the hand quickly bolted to Roy's side and swept him away. In a blink of an eye to the others, Roy was snatched to his side. Soon after that, the blue sphere collides with Goodwitch, and causes a big explosion that sends the Koopalings flying.
…
One Huntress, down.
...
As the noise and dust dies down, one person grunt in discomfort. "Ugggg- Owwww!" A moment ago Roy was holding Goodwitch, a moment later he teleported to Larry's side in a yanked manner. "Ugg, now I kinda understand what the tennis ball feels like when we're hitting catching 'em."
Getting off the floor, Ludwig dusting himself. "Just be glad we're able to use a Tennis Move on an actual person, and great thinking by the way, Larry."
Said Koopaling had his hand behind his neck in a slight bashful. "Awww shucks. To be honest, this is the first time I ever try to use a save move on a person, so I don't know if it'll actually work or not."
...
And all three of them stop whatever they're doing and stare at Larry.
"Please tell me you're messing with me." Roy finally found his voice and questioned. "Please tell me this is another one of your cruel jokes."
"Aeh… heh?" Was all Larry could voice as he avoided eye contact.
Smacking her forehead, Wendy tiredly mutters. "Another dang patchwork plan, that's it, I'm asking Bowser for another insurance bill. I'm surrounded by life hazards"
"Ludwig?" Roy called.
"Yes?"
"Can I punch Larry?"
"Don't, we still need to get the dang relic thing and go back to the school ground together."
"Just a family-friendly-rating-caring tab?"
"No. Least wait after the whole exam is over."
"Alright, alright! You're the boss. I'm too tired to even argue with ya."
"Seriously Larry, what the heck?" Wendy asked.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I thought we all agree on operate as a collective trust!"
"No, if anything, we're more of a republic… ughhh... you know what? Forget it! I'm just as tired and exhausted!" Ludwig tried to answer, but gave up as this isn't the time to argue.
To be
Continued…
A/N TIME!
Alright, another chapter done, I've tried my best to get this part pushed out as quickly as possible, hit a few write blocks as I try to figure the scene.
Let's clear out some things first as I have no doubt you must be confused when reading some parts of this chapter.
First thing first, I know, I know, and I'm sorry for those Dimentio fans, you thought he's going to be in this chapter? Sadly that's a big no, for all that is worth, he's not the main antagonist of the V1 Arc, but he'll be playing a very special role for the whole story.
For the next chapter tho, I'll be sliding another interlude to the in-betweens, and that's where you'll be seeing Dimentio in his full villainous glory.
Port's semblance: [Petrified Gaze] [Aura color: Gray] His semblance allows him to immobilize opponents he sets his eyes on, (Kinda like the type of Semblance like Emerald's Hallucinations), but the effects wear off as soon as the visual contact is broken or he blinks his eyes. (Given how he was able to capture Grimms in cages, and his eyes are always closed.) Another drawback is that it gives him dry eye the longer he uses it.
The idea was coming from his name and origin meaning, "Peter" is derived from the Greek word "Πέτρος" (Petros), meaning "stone". (And funny enough, the famous legendary monster Medusa is also originated from Greek mythology, and the later mythology written that they can turn whoever meets eyes with her into stone.)
And also, ever wondering how exactly did Port capturing those Grimms in cages for his class? I know beat up a Grimm is simple task, but I think there must be an much more efficient way to get the job done, and bam, my brain automatically get the two linked, and here we are with a Semblance perfectly logical for Port.
Oobleck's semblance: [Overclock] [Aura Color: Green] His semblance allowed his whole body to perform daily affairs or intense training in a hyperactive energetic state, thus making him the super-fast individual we see today. This power, however, wasn't without its downside shortcoming, like many self-boosting-kind Semblance, in order to get into this speedy state, he would need to burn through his own Aura to do so, making his Aura constantly in a state of depletion whenever he activates his Semblance. This means the longer he activates his semblance, the easier closer he'll accidentally deplete his Aura, making him a Fragile Battery Speedster, powerful, but cannot tolerate a mistake in the moment of combat.
Another downside about his semblance is the drawback it had on his Aura, since it's a massive boost to his own sense and state, his Aura goes basically overworked whenever he activates his semblance, and with such intense stress in a short time, his Aura would go frail in the term of coming to defense due to the fatigue. When he was attacked, rather than an Aura force field blocking like most in a flash-like manner, his Aura will only react in a way of solidified-like slime-goop to absorb block the impact, and then it'll separate away from the main Aura pool instead of going back to the body, making him lose more Aura compared to other people when getting hit. The more powerful hit he takes, the more his Aura will depletion to counteract. (The idea was coming from his name, Oobleck, apparently, is also a non-Newtonian fluid named Oobleck (I'm not making this up), when applied with force, the liquid will react and turn solid to some degree for a moment, then revert back to liquid afterward.)
Also, over the years and self-reflecting analysis, Oobleck found that consuming energy drinks such as Coffee is the best way to replenish Aura lingering his Semblance activation time during a day. Of course, if needed, he would add some thunder dust in his drink to give another boost to the invigorating. But he still would get super tired afterward due to it only act as doping and cannot make the fatigue gone.
And remember, both Port and Oobleck never once used their semblance on any Volume or Chibi episode, and when they were attacked, they only blocked with their weapons, and were never shown their aura reacting to damages, so their aura color was never known.
Glynda's semblance allowed her to have full control of any object, but the power does not work when the creatures are still living and breathing, including Grimms.
I've rewatched most of her screen time and her Semblance in action, never once did she use it to hold people or living creatures in place, so I guess it must not work on creatures with Aura and Soul. But not even Grimm? I guess I have to make some logical changes that could make sense here and in my own head. So creatures that are breathing? I guess? ? ?
Anyway, now move on to the Koopalings and Jr, as you've read, their existing moves all originate from their featuring debut of their existing Mario Titles. Even includes obscure one such as Hotel Mario. (That's why Roy can extend his arms, because that's what he does in that game, and yes, Hotel Mario is still by definition, technically a licensed Mario Game, and the property of Nintendo, and as such can be considered as Canon.)
Anyway, Ludwig is your brains and the schemer, most magic skill potential of the 7 Koopaling.
Lemmy is the jester, or great magician, whichever you prefer, he's move-set would be having IRL existing circus performance assimilate into it.
Roy is the brawner, not much to say.
Iggy is representing the craziness of Mario Kart into his fighting style, the chariot fight in Color Splash made me made up my mind.
Wendy… there'll be the time where her true ability shines in the future chapter.
Morton is Morton 'nuff said, wdy expect?
Larry representing the Mario Tennis m'Kay? It still baffles me that he isn't in any tennis title. Come on! Nintendo, put our tennis boi to his home field.
And yes, I'm aware I kinda robbed Jr. of his fight in this chapter, but that's because I had planned for his move-set and character grow. You'll just have to wait and see.
Personal rambling:
Oh boy, I gotta be honest here, group battle is hard to write, not because of all the action, but to make sure every character stays true to their original counterpart while applying my own version of tweaks. Had to make sure everyone get screen time and make use of their already in-game arsenal of skills in the existing source material, this is the hardest part for Koopalings and Junior, since they don't fight quick or flashy like RWBY characters, this is the major reason why I make every Mario Character in the story gijinka, so I can have easier time expand Boss-kind character's skill set and adjust their movement into more RWBY like, plus, using this as a major boost to bring their combat level to even. (Cause let's be honest, one world is full of the concept of coming back to life after death, and one world is full of the concept of killing or dealing leather blows. I HAVE to mesh the two together, or we'll have a very badly written story.)
Anyway, originally I planned to make chapter 9 signifying the end of the initiation exam, but I want to make good use of the existing Mario elements, and make some distinct groundwork of each Koopalings' fight style highlight their special traits.
And to also make good use of Glynda, Port Oobleck, those three are clearly waste potential for support character in my opinion throughout V1-3, Glynda certainly deserves more connection to the main plot of RWBY, but she was just… used to laying the first impression of RWBY in ep 1, and then being there to be a member of Ozpin's guardian circle; Port was used to help develop Weiss' character grow, and that's about it, poor guy doesn't get any more use than laying out trivial info of other char in V3 Oobleck was probably the only supporter that gets the most use for the development for the main cast, but that was only in Volume 2, and beyond that, it feels like RT around the time hold back at his fighting performance in the Mountain Gleen arc, he was established as a fully capable Huntsman, but they never let him show that aspect, you know… fight better, smarter, being better than Team RWBY as they're only just Huntsman-in-training, to highlight the point that Team RWBY still have a long way to go as being a Huntsman.
Anyway, as the way this chapter's fight ends, I'll give it 8 out of 10 if I had to score it myself, cause usually it would take me like 3 or 4 weeks or longer like a month to slowly write out the chapter for my own likeness and standard. Plus I believe I can do it better somehow? But perhaps not at the moment, maybe in the future when I have more experience and better writing skills. But in general, I think I've handled the comical and drama aspect of both Mario RWBY very well for most of the part till this point. I want to use Mario's fantasy, happiness, and wackiness element to balance out RWBY's glooming and ever-depressing. Considering the general sane opinion I've seen, all mostly agree on the fact RWBY has become a dumpster fire and is nothing but its former shell with each Volume coming out. (oh boy, I certainly was not looking forward to V9, and please DO NOT start any disagreement war in the comment section. This is a basic standard etiquette where we'll agree to disagree and be civil.)
And last, the story plot advance from now on will be pushed very slowly, as Volume 1 kinda only focuses on RWBY JNPR's academy life, not much will be going on until Volume 2 is reached, well… for the RWBY main Plot that is. Cause I have my original plot I want to write for this story, making it more AU-ish than your usual crossover where you just throw other franchise's characters into the plot for the kick.