Hello, everyone. WaterDragonMaverick here with the newest chapter of my RWBY Original Character fic, "Sideline: Another Story". In the previous chapter, Fragment Hunter was enjoying the Snow Spirit Festival with Pierre, but things took a turn for the worse when Mihai Fandango and his cult went on the attack. To make things worse for our heroes, Creatures of Grimm are also attacking the village of Notremodo. Now with several enemies to deal with, Fragment Hunter and their allies have their work cut out for them. Let's see how they can handle themselves against these tough foes in "Living On A Prayer".
We're halfway there!
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum (R.I.P)
The only things I own in this story are my assortment of Original Characters
Ivy Dahlia Holstein and Bianca Coloratura escorted the villagers toward the church for shelter against the Grimm. "Dante, defend," Ivy called out to the large dog and instructed him to use his Semblance to create barriers when Grimm got too close to everyone. As the dog blocked attacks, Smoke Shadow and Veronica Moonstone dealt with the monsters with their weapons.
Shooting a hole in an Ursa's head with his Phantom Magnum, Smoke Shadow twirled the gun around before helping a girl that tripped. "Come on, Miss. You'll be safe if you follow us," he said in a collected manner. The girl was wary about going along with the Raccoon Faunus, but listened to him.
When the group made their way to the church, Lucifer Fujita saw everyone approaching. "What's going on," he asked before Bianca explained everything.
"Some hooded weirdos are attacking the festival. The others are dealing with them, but Grimm are showing up too," the Dove Faunus said as she helped a trio of children inside the church.
Looking at everyone entering the church and seeing the other members of the clergy helping, Lucifer turned his attention toward the direction of the gunfire sounds he heard. "I'm going to help. Whatever happens, make sure everyone is safely inside," Lucifer said before seeing Diana holding something in her mouth. The collie brought a crying baby into the church and quickly found the infant's mother. As Lucifer watched the parent reunite with their child, he remembered about Cereza and Pierre. "I can't lose either of them," he said to himself before putting on his mask and running out of the church doors.
"Everyone, lock the doors," Ivy instructed as Lucifer was out of sight.
As the Grimm and cultists continued attacking, the members of Fragment Hunter were fending them off. Rebecca expertly threw shuriken at Nevermores and Beowolves to easily kill them, Silver used his chainsaw to easily smack some cultists around, Celadon used her spear with expert skill, and Layla used her Semblance to psychically throw several of the cultist weapons into the torso of an Ursa and used her own weapons to finish it off. "Just why are these guys attacking today," Layla asked as she slashed away at another pair of cultists.
"It doesn't matter. Just do your job and stop them," Ventus Gaia said as he kicked at a trio of cultists and fired several bullets from his greaves, Icarus. The shots nailed their targets before he pulled out his knife, Altair, and cut down some Grimm that got too close to him.
As the battle was going on, Pinot deVoix clashed swords with Gin and Vinyl Aurum. Because his own blade was invisible, the siblings had trouble seeing where it was and had to avoid all of the mime's attacks while he could block their own. After pushing them back, deVoix stopped using swordplay motions and acted like he was drawing a pistol. Cocking the invisible weapon, he aimed at Vinyl and Gin. Seeing what he was doing, Gin used his Semblance to grab a shield and got in front of Vinyl to protect them both from the unseen projectiles. "This is going to be a tough fight," Gin said to his little sister.
Vinyl only watched as deVoix stopped shooting at them and acted like he was opening a case. The mime soon then hoisted something onto his shoulder and pretended to adjust something on the object. Realizing what it was, Vinyl fired an energy blast just as deVoix fired his weapon. Halfway toward each other, an explosion occurred when Vinyl's blast struck an invisible rocket and pushed the fighters back while destroying a couple of Grimm that got too close to them. Pinot deVoix glared at Vinyl when she was able to tell where his projectile was and used his Semblance to form an invisible polearm in his hands. Not sure what the weapon was exactly, Vinyl prepared her hard-light claws from Rhythm Scratch while Gin switched his shield for a pair of kunai embedded with Fire Dust.
The siblings ran toward deVoix and Vinyl went for a slash with her clawed gauntlets. Twirling his current weapon around, deVoix deflected the attack and pushed Vinyl away. Recovering midair, Vinyl fired an energy blast with her Semblance while Gin threw his kunai at the mime. Putting up an invisible wall, deVoix blocked the attacks as Vinyl's shot impacted against the barrier and Gin's knives stuck into the wall. While deVoix smirked at his defenses, he soon noticed the Dust in the knives acting up and exploded in his face. Being pushed back by the blast, he scowled as he recovered and dusted off his clothes before pantomiming a large axe.
With the invisible weapon's blade scraping against the ground, Vinyl watched as snow from the others fighting blew their way and landed on the weapon. "Gin. I have an idea," Vinyl said to her brother as she watched the snow-covered weapon. Whispering her plan to Gin, he nodded before using his Connection Semblance to grab a pair of wooden shields. With the new weapons ready, Vinyl ran just as deVoix swung his weapon. Blocking the first attack, Gin pushed the invisible axe away before bashing deVoix with his second shield. Pushing the mime back, Gin prepared to defend himself as deVoix swung his axe once more. Blocking the blade with one of his shields, splinters of wood flew off as the axe got stuck in the shield. Realizing this, deVoix's eyes widened in shock before Gin disarmed him and managed to find the handle of the invisible weapon. Throwing it toward deVoix, the mime quickly put up a wall to defend himself, making the shield fall down before he started to pantomime a chainsaw. With the sound of an engine revving, deVoix held his next weapon and was ready to attack before hearing one of Vinyl's energy blasts. Blocking the shot with his weapon, the tool was knocked out of his hands and he drew an invisible sword once again. "You could use a little color," Vinyl shouted before throwing something from a basket she carried at deVoix. Slashing at the object with his sword, the mime smugly smiled before he prepared his weapon again. Before he did, he gasped as he saw his blade was now coated in blue paint from a balloon that Vinyl threw at him.
"Nice work, Vi. You always were one for seeing the small stuff," Gin said as he replaced his shields with his preferred swords and formed them into their naginata combination. "Now with his weapons visible when we need them to be, he can't catch us off guard." Running toward the mime, Gin began to slash at deVoix with his weapon's longer reach and was able to deliver a clean hit. Getting mad, deVoix tried to attack Gin, but the samurai was able to use his Semblance to redirect the mime's blade to hurt him instead. As he recoiled from the pain, deVoix's blade vanished and the paint from it dripped down onto the snow. "You've been using your Semblance too much," Gin stated as he watched deVoix try to stand back up. "You're too dependent on it in a fight, no matter how useful it is. Some of my sister's friends may use their powers constantly, but they've worked on how they can use their abilities so often. But you constantly make weapons with your own power, so that drains you too much." Acting like he was cocking a gun, deVoix was about to shoot Gin before Vinyl threw another paint balloon into the mime's face. Spitting out the paint, the mime was left helpless as Gin separated his naginata into twin blades again and slashed at him.
After being attacked, deVoix went on the defensive and created another barrier for himself. However, Vinyl threw more paint and it coated the wall he made. With paint obscuring his vision and showing just where the barrier ended, deVoix heard Vinyl's Semblance go off before he was soon slashed in the back with her hard-light katana coming from her leg-mounted pieces of Rhythm Scratch. As she unleashed a flurry of kicks against the mime, Vinyl ended up breaking deVoix's wine bottle and the alcohol spilled onto the snow. Seeing his drink ruined, deVoix glared in anger and acted like he was carrying a giant sword. Dodging it and approaching her basket of balloons, Vinyl threw one more at the mime and used her Semblance to blast the balloon and send the paint everywhere. With the sword revealed, Vinyl and Gin saw it was larger than deVoix himself. As the mime went in for an attack, Vinyl prepared her hard-light claws and changed the color from blue to gold. Countering the heavy slash with her claws, Vinyl cut down the sword like a hot knife through butter. Seeing his sword get destroyed, deVoix was left open to Gin using his Semblance to pass through a pair of portal glyphs multiple times with a flying side kick and build up speed. When he got fast enough, he dismissed the portals and flew toward deVoix to kick him in the chest and break his Aura on impact. Sent flying by the kick, deVoix crashed into a stall and was knocked unconscious before Gin and Vinyl went off to deal with the rest of the cultists and Grimm.
In another section of the village, Azalea and Rua watched as Terracotta glared at Dracule. Immediately, the cultist rushed at Terracotta and tried to stab him with his daggers. The Bull Faunus was quick to deflect the attack with his claymore and counter with a strong punch. While he pushed Dracule away, Rua cried out in pain. "Dad! He's using a Semblance to make Rua feel his pain," Azalea shouted as Terracotta stared down the man.
Hearing this, Terracotta put away his sword and prepared to focus on defense. Getting up, Dracule gave an evil grin before recklessly rushing toward Terracotta once again. Dodging the attacks, Terracotta watched the cultist's sloppy motions and easily avoided each slash. "You're sloppy and reckless," Terracotta said as he jumped back.
"It doesn't matter if I can hurt somebody when I take a hit," Dracule replied. "The pain they take will break them and their Aura."
Hearing what he said, Azalea checked Rua's Scroll and saw her Aura was lowered after all the damage she took from Dracule. "Their Auras are connected," Azalea realized. "But there has to be a limit." Just as she said that, Dracule's body shimmered briefly with a crimson-colored Aura. "Dad! Did you see that?!"
"Yeah. He must have a time limit. One way to find out," Terracotta answered as he drew his sword once again and got ready to fight. Speeding toward Dracule, he watched as the man dodged his attacks instead of taking them head-on. "So, your Semblance can only work for a minute at a time," Terracotta rhetorically asked before swinging Sarangay hard enough to create a blade of air when Dracule jumped backward to dodge the weapon. With the air blade hitting him directly, Dracule grunted in pain before skidding across the ground. "It's like this one story I heard about the Grimm Reaper. A mercenary that could make herself invulnerable for a full 60 seconds went after them, but still lost and died to the legendary Huntress. Now that I know how long your Semblance works for, I can stall you if you try the same trick."
"Then how about a new one," Dracule retorted as he threw one of his daggers with the handle coming apart and turning the weapon into a rope dart with a huge blade. Grabbing at the cable, Dracule maneuvered the blade to cut at Terracotta's bare chest and drew blood for a brief second before his Aura healed the damage. Licking at the blood on the dagger, Dracule smiled viciously as he looked at the Bull Faunus. "Now you'll be in pain no matter what," the man said with an evil chuckle before swinging his blades around once more. Dodging or deflecting the weapons, Terracotta kept his eye on how Dracule moved before the latter held his daggers normally and began to speed around Terracotta while slashing at his back and sides. "How does it feel? Does it hurt," Dracule asked with a laugh. "Life is just full of all kinds of pain and suffering. There's plenty more where that came fr-"
Before Dracule could even finish his sentence, Terracotta slugged the man in the face hard enough to send him flying. Crashing into a snowbank, Dracule was confused as to why his newest victim wasn't writhing in pain like Rua was earlier. "Is that all you've got," Terracotta asked in a bored tone.
"What!? You should be screaming in pain," Dracule shouted as he got out of the snow.
"What makes you think I would," Terracotta rhetorically asked before rushing toward Dracule again. As Dracule dodged the attack, he watched the Bull Faunus smash his fist into the snow-covered ground and threw the loose powdered snow into the air. With his vision obscured by it, Dracule was left open to a slash from Terracotta's claymore, Sarangay.
While his Aura defended him, Dracule tried to see if his Semblance did any sort of damage to Terracotta. "How are you doing this?! What kind of pain have you been through in life," Dracule questioned as he glared at the Huntsman.
Terracotta simply looked back at his daughter for a second before turning back to face Dracule. "That's a story for another time. For now, you're going down," he said before stabbing his claymore into the ground and sending a spire of rock into the cultist using the Earth Dust in the sword. Dodging the attack by jumping onto the stone, Dracule threw his daggers toward Terracotta and changed them into their rope dart form. With the weapon hitting Terracotta in shoulders, Dracule pulled himself forward to try kicking at Terracotta, only for the Huntsman to use a headbutt to block the attack and counter with a rising slash of his sword.
Dracule couldn't dodge the attack and before the blade made contact with him, his Aura shimmered for a brief second to show his Semblance's effect ended. Getting hit with the blade, Dracule cried out in pain before Terracotta grabbed him by the leg and slammed him against the ground a few times. When he bounced off the ground, Terracotta grabbed the man by his head and dragged it through the stone spire that was created earlier. After taking the damage from Terracotta's onslaught of attacks, Dracule spat out the dirt and rocks from his mouth before seeing Terracotta slowly approaching him. "This guy's a monster," Dracule thought to himself. "He's just like that Carnage guy I encountered before."
Seeing his blood-coated daggers next to him, Dracule was about to use his Semblance again before the weapons suddenly froze over. Shocked by what happened, he looked to see Azalea holding her Gladion baton and saw her hand glowing a light blue from using Ice Dust and her Semblance. Before he could do anything, Rua kicked the man in his face while using her Semblance to teleport around him and essentially juggle him into the air. "Take this, edgelord," Rua shouted before smashing him down to the ground with her fists. With that final attack, Dracule's Aura broke and left him vulnerable while Rua used the last bit of her own Aura to get safely to the ground.
As he began to fall, Terracotta lifted his sword and activated his own Semblance to make Dracule heavier. As the man fell back to the ground, he was impaled by Sarangay and Terracotta swiftly cut down Dracule with one swing of his weapon. "Men like him will find no mercy in Hell," Terracotta said as he checked on Azalea and Rua. "Are you two alright?"
"We're fine, but we literally just saw you kill a guy," Rua remarked as she caught her breath from her attack against Dracule.
"Not the first person I've had to kill defending others," Terracotta admitted. "Come on. We have work to do," he said as the girls stood up and prepared to keep fighting.
Pierre was shocked at everything that was happening. He originally wanted to spend the Snow Spirit Festival with the people that just befriended him, but never expected a cult and Grimm to attack. As he hid from the fighting in an abandoned booth, he soon saw Cereza fending off several cultists and using her Time Mirage Semblance to pummel them down before they could even land a successful hit on her. After sending the final enemy flying, she saw Pierre and approached him. "I'm sure none of us expected this," Cereza said.
"Why did this happen," Pierre asked as he hid his face. "Everything was going to well today."
"I don't know why these fanatical cultists are attacking everyone, but with them and Grimm attacking, my friends and I have a job to do. We're protecting the village," Cereza told the Bat Faunus. "It's our home. You should help, too."
Pierre was hesitant to do anything and just activated his Semblance. "Everyone saw me as a monster, though," Pierre lamented as Smoke Shadow came into view and used his cane to tie up a trio of cultists and zap them. "Do you really think that everyone would just forget that?"
Hearing what Pierre said, Smoke spoke to the hunchback. "Listen, Pierre. Your actions are what show your true character, not your looks," the Raccoon Faunus stated. "I might be a thief, but I have standards. Nobody gets hurt when things go well for me and my team. If anybody does get caught up in the crossfire, we make sure they're alright. Azalea can tell you about that herself."
"It's true," Cereza said. "It's a long story, but it's how we ended up first meeting Smoke."
"My point is that if you prove that you're a hero and not a monster, they'll start treating you better," Smoke told Pierre.
The hunchback Bat Faunus listened to Smoke's advice and thought it over. The more he went over it, the more it made sense to him. "You were right about me going to the festival before and you're right now," Pierre told Smoke. "I just need to get something from my room in the church," he said before rushing to the cathedral.
"While he does that, we need to keep fighting," Cereza said as she opened fire and a few small Nevermore that flew too close. "I'm going to find Celadon and have her help me," she told the Raccoon Faunus. Smoke only nodded before the two ran off to deal with more of the battle.
Sunset and Fandango stared each other down before the former made the first move. Switching her weapon to its sniper rifle mode, she shot at the cult leader and watched him deflect her bullets with a twirl of his scythe. Fandango ran toward Sunset and swung his scythe at her, but she ducked under it and went for a sweep with her sword. Seeing the move coming, Fandango jumped over the blade and swung his scythe once again, but Sunset easily dodged it. "This guy's not as skilled as Ruby. He must use his Semblance to confuse enemies for easy kills to compensate," Sunset thought to herself before sending a fireball at the cult leader from the Dust in her jacket. Fandango jumped away from the flames and landed on the counter of a nearby booth. "With my Semblance countering his own, I could take this guy easily," Sunset thought. But before she could make her next move, she heard a Grimm and turned to see a Beringel jumping toward her. "Whoa!"
Jumping away from the Grimm, Sunset watched the Grimm smash at the ice and snow where she originally was. But because of Fandango's Semblance affecting her senses, she ended up bumping into a wall and falling as she avoided the Grimm. The gorilla-like Grimm heard her grunting after hitting the wall, then grabbed a nearby wheelbarrow to throw at her. Rolling away from her current position on the ground, Sunset tried to slash at the Grimm to defend herself. Unfortunately for her, the Grimm had tough skin and was only annoyed by Sunset's attack. Before she could try using her Fire Dust on it, she heard Fandango running toward her and had to dodge. "You can't escape me that easily," Fandango said before chasing after Sunset with the Beringel following after.
Sunset would have normally dealt with the Beringel first, but Fandango attacks her with his scythe and Semblance was making this more challenging for her. "Ah, Grimm paste! How am I supposed to deal with these guys! With that Beringel attacking, I can't focus on Fandango. And with Fandango's Semblance, I can't focus on the Grimm," Sunset thought to herself. "I need backup, but the others are too busy. This is just as bad as some of the things at Beacon! Wait a second..." When Sunset remembered Beacon, she thought back to two of her tougher battles against Grimm, the Pendra and Scykiri. Then, she remembered the time she read Weiss Schnee's mind and watched her sister teach her about summoning defeated Grimm to aid her in battle. "I need to buy some time," she said to herself before using Vixen's Semblance to create an illusionary swarm of herself to keep herself hidden while distracting her enemies. "Let's see if I can get this right," Sunset said as she used her Semblance to use Weiss' Glyphs for herself as she remembered the memories she saw before. As she did, a glyph with skull and centipede details formed in her palm before it began to spin around.
Fandango slashed at the fake Sunset clones with his scythe and was getting annoyed by all of them. "I have to hand it to that girl. She's as tricky as I am," Fandango said while seeing the Beringel cry out while punching at several illusions. As the ape Grimm got angrier, Fandango prepared to defend himself against it before he heard a hissing sound coming toward the two. "What is that," Fandango asked before turning around and his eyes widened in shock at the sight. Crawling toward him was a Pendra, but it was white and blue like the snow and ice around the village. Avoiding the strange Grimm, Fandango watched as it coiled around the Beringel to keep it from moving. "Well, this is unexpected," Fandango commented as he watched the gorilla-like beast try to break loose.
"You'd be amazed what people are capable of with the help of others," Sunset stated as she stood in view and created another glyph. Unlike the previous one, the image of this glyph had details that were more similar to scythe blades with mantis heads between the blades. As the glyph rotated quickly, Fandango watched in confusion and awe as a Scykiri manifested from the glyph and hissed as it began to move. Seeing the constricted Beringel, the newly summoned Scykiri jumped toward the Grimm and slashed at it with its scythe-like arms. As it did, the Pendra crawled away in order to avoid becoming hurt itself. Soon, the gorilla-like Grimm was slashed into pieces by the Scykiri summon and began to evaporate, leaving Fandango surprised while Sunset panted from the second summon. "Let's try this again," Sunset said to herself as she began to create a third glyph. The newest glyph that Sunset formed had a design of gorilla heads and hands, which began to create a sparkling white and blue Beringel that beat its chest before it attacked Fandango. As the newly summoned Grimm jumped at Fandango, he avoided the ape while jumping onto the Night Crawler's back to avoid the two of them. Seeing the Scykiri ready an attack, Fandango used his Semblance to affect the three summons before cutting them all down with his scythe. When the snow-colored Grimm vanished, Sunset prepared to summon another one before she felt lightheaded. "I think I used that too much," she said to herself.
Fandango chuckled as he twirled his scythe and walked toward Sunset. "Those tricks you had were pretty good. However, it seems like the party's over for you," Fandango told her. Sunset tried to run for safety, but collapsed when the cult leader activated his Semblance and she fell from her sense of balance becoming inverted. With her Aura too overtaxed from the summons she made, Sunset only glared at Fandango defiantly as he raised his scythe. "It was fun while it lasted," Fandango said as he prepared to swing his weapon.
Just as Sunset was about to be hit with the blade, a blur appeared in front of her and she vanished from Fandango's sight. As he questioned what happened, he was struck with a barrage of gemstones that shattered on impact with him. "I think it's time you took a breather, Sunset. Let us handle this," Celadon said as she and Cereza appeared in front of Fandango. "I need to make up for what I did because of him," she said to herself as she glared at the jester-like cult leader.
"He attacked my hometown. It's my turn to fight him," Cereza said as she held out her tonfa. Sunset nodded and ran off to regenerate her Aura safely while her friends fought against Fandango. No words were needed to tell them that he was a dangerous foe, so Cereza and Celadon eyed the man carefully before they made their move. Shooting at the man with her weapon's guns, Cereza circled around him in order to find a weakness in his defenses. Fandango made sure to defend himself by twirling the blade, but his weapon was caught by the whip form of Celadon's spear. As he tried to pull his weapon free, Cereza ran in to punch at the cult leader and got a few hits in before Celadon return her weapon to its spear form and hit Fandango with it.
Recovering from the attack and seeing the girls rush toward him, Fandango only smirked as he activated his Semblance. With Cereza and Celadon being affected by their vision, movements, and balance becoming inverted, Fandango countered by slashing at the duo with his scythe. Both girls with able to defend themselves, but they were knocked back by Fandango and watched as he ran toward them with a sinister smirk on his face. As he swung his scythe, Cereza and Celadon could only block the attacks coming toward them because they couldn't move the way they wanted to. "You girls aren't putting up that much of a fight compared to the other one. She was at least able to withstand my Semblance," Fandango remarked.
"Which you seem to use too much because you aren't that skilled with a scythe," Celadon retorted. "Your moves are sloppy."
"We know a girl about half your age and twice as skilled," Cereza added. "She would be able to easily handle you."
Fandango had an unamused look on his face before he continued his attack on the girls. As he charged at them and swung his scythe, Cereza and Celadon continued to block his strikes. As he continued using his Semblance, Celadon soon lost her hold on her spear and she was disarmed. Thinking she was defenseless, Fandango because to focus his attacks on Celadon while Cereza was still trying to get used to her distorted senses. Using her Semblance, Celadon was able to cover her arms in a jewel-like armor and began to defend herself against the blade of Fandango's scythe. Seeing his attacks failing, the cult leader waited for Celadon to block one of his swings, then kicked her in the stomach to knock her away. When Celadon fell to the ground, Fandango was ready to strike when he heard a gunshot coming from behind him and a bullet hit his weapon's blade. "So, you can actually move around more now," the man questioned as he turned to see Cereza looking at him.
"Enough to know where to aim," Cereza replied as she fired more shots at the cultist. Fandango deflected the shots that came at him and soon went on the counterattack by swinging his blade at Cereza. Ducking under the blade, the leader of Team FCSA managed to avoid the attack and activated her Time Mirage Semblance. With time slowed down for her, Cereza was able to safely get in close and attack the cultist with a flurry of punches and kicks. After delivering a powerful final punch, Cereza sent Fandango flying toward a wall. The cult leader threw his scythe into the wall blade first and grabbed at the weapon's shaft in order to spin around and get back into the fight.
Launching himself toward the girls, Fandango positioned himself to unleash a powerful series of acrobatic kicks and sent them crashing to the ground. "Well, you managed to show off a few tricks of your own, but you still lost," Fandango said as he dragged his scythe across the snow and approached the girls. "But don't fear death, girls. It's all just a part of life itself. Your journey just came to its early end," he stated as he raised his blade and prepared to bring it down on them. But before he could, a knife flew through the air and stabbed him in the face, causing his cheek to bleed. "Ah! What the..."
Cereza looked at the knife that impaled Fandango's cheek and immediately recognized the feather-like design of it. With several feathers appearing out of nowhere, Lucifer Fujita arrived with them and glared at the cult leader. "These girls will continue on their path," he said as he watched Fandango pull the knife out of his cheek. "I will make sure that you or your followers don't harm anybody else."
"You don't seem to understand," Fandango told Lucifer. "In the face of adversity and strife, the strong will become stronger as they survive. While many have lost their lives in the Fall of Beacon, the rest will become stronger from it. I saw that and my followers agree," Fandango stated. "I will make sure to spread my message through Notremodo and other villages so that Remnant will become stronger again!"
The girls and Lucifer looked at the cultist in silence until Cereza spoke up. "Have you been snorting Dust?! What kind of reasoning is that? You're hurting innocent villagers that wanted to honor those that lost their lives from the Fall."
"It doesn't matter to you as you'll be out of my hair in a moment," Fandango told Cereza. But before he could make his next move, several more throwing knives came at him and he had to block them with his scythe. "Where did those come from," Fandango questioned before he soon blocked an attack from Lucifer's glaive.
"You're a threat to this town and everyone in it," Lucifer said as he pushed his weapon against Fandango's scythe. "I will be the one to stop you." Fandango only looked the warrior priest in the eye before his Semblance activated and inverted Lucifer's senses. With the town appearing upside-down to him, Lucifer observed his surroundings to understand what he was facing just as Fandango went in for a swing of his scythe. Activating his Time Mirage Semblance, Lucifer froze time around himself so that he could make sense of everything. Stepping away from Mihai Fandango, the priest took note of how he was moving. "I see. That's how it works," he said to himself. While he was still moving around with time frozen, Lucifer took out a few of his throwing knife bookmarks from his bible and aimed them at Fandango's exposed body. "I can only move around this way for so long before my Aura is used up," Lucifer remarked as he put away his book and backed away from Fandango as if he wasn't even affected by the cultist's Semblance. "At least, I was able to piece together my movements this way. I'm sure that if Cereza becomes stronger, she can reach the same abilities I can," he said to himself before deactivating his Semblance and let time flow normally again.
As Fandango swung his scythe at nothing, he was confused at what happened before the feather-like knives hit him and entered his body like a pincushion. "Argh! What just happened," Fandango exclaimed as he saw all the knives in his arms and torso. Before he could try pulling any of them out and let his Aura heal the damage, Lucifer rushed toward him with his glaive to slash at the cultist. Avoiding the blade, Fandango tried to counter with a slash of his weapon and attempted to cut the weapon in half. Unfortunately for him, Lucifer immediately separated the weapon into twin blades and cut the scythe into pieces. "No! Grrr... Take this," Fandango shouted as he unleashed the full power of his Semblance and made everyone in the area suffer from the inversions he created.
Cereza and Celadon could barely stand as they watched their surroundings twist and contort like they had vertigo. As buildings began to deform and the sky changed colors, Celadon felt like she was going to be sick. Cereza soon fell to the ground and her glasses fell off her face, causing her vision to blur more. As Fandango laughed madly at how the girls were being affected, he soon turned his attention to Lucifer and saw that he wasn't there. In the confusion, Fandango soon felt a blade much larger than the previous knives pierce into this body and quickly remove itself. As he fell to the ground, the town returned to normal for the girls. "Your tricks won't work on me," Lucifer said as he held onto his glaive and several throwing knives. "I've seen through them thanks to my Semblance giving me a chance to compose myself."
Seeing Lucifer easily handle him, Fandango glared in anger at the priest. Letting his Aura heal himself after pulling out all of the knives in his arms and chest, he growling in annoyed anger and prepared to use the blades against the holy man. As his Aura restored his wounds, it ended up flickering when the deed was done and signaled his Aura ran out. "I'm not finished just yet," Fandango exclaimed. "I will spread my message and Remnant will become stronger!"
"It will, but not from men like you," Lucifer stated as he calmly placed his mask back on. Enraged by how Lucifer was easily countering everything he threw at him, Fandango threw a pair of knives and screamed. The Huntsman easily countered the attack by throwing his own knives with expert aim and ran toward the cultist with his glaive in hand. As the thrown blades spun in the air, Lucifer began to smack Fandango around like a sandbag before knocking him aside. After doing that, Lucifer threw his glaive at Fandango before activating his Semblance to stop time around himself. Using his weapon as a stepping stone, he jumped off of it and delivered a flying kick to Fandango's chest. As soon as he made contact, time began to flow again and Fandango cried out in pain as he fell to the ground with the Huntsman standing on top of him. Without even looking behind himself, Lucifer easily caught his glaive and soon pointed it at Fandango's neck. "Surrender. It's over now," the priest said as Celadon and Cereza managed to recover from everything Fandango did to them and aimed their own weapons at the cultist.
Fandango growled in anger as Lucifer kept him from moving and his men were being defeated. "It won't be over until my message is spread across Remnant," he exclaimed.
"Like a disease. But we stopped it before it could cause any real damage," Cereza remarked as she made sure her glasses were back on properly. As Fandango seethed in anger, a loud screeching noise echoed through the surrounding area. "What is that!? It sounded like a bat."
"No. It's much worse," Lucifer told his daughter as he looked out toward the mountain nearby.
Erupting from the mountain rubble it was slumbering beneath, a giant bat-like Grimm screeched before it began flying toward Notremodo. The monster looked very much like a vampire bat, but large red horns replaced where the normal eyes would be while a single burning red eye was located in the center of its forehead. The markings on the beast's face consisted of streaks under the horns that resembled bloody tears, a red crescent underneath the single eye it had, and a cross-like marking on the top of its head. The Grimm had red leathery wings with fingers and claws that looked like it could grasp like normal hands, a whip-like tail that ended with a pendulum-like blade, and sharp teeth that looked like they could easily break stone. The rest of the creature's body was black and was covered in bony plates for armor. As it screeched, the inside of its mouth glowed an eerie and burning red like its eye. Flapping its wings, it began to make its way toward the village.
"What is that thing," Celadon asked as her eyes widened with fear.
"That, my child, is a Gargoyle," Lucifer said as he removed his mask to show a serious expression on his face before turning his attention to the church where the villagers were hiding for safety. "We have to stop that Grimm before the church is destroyed."
And with that, the chapter has come to an end with several battles done. This chapter took me a while because of life, but I'm happy to keep up my progress because we're getting close to the end of the Notremodo arc. With the cult being defeated and the final Grimm enemy of the chapter arriving, we'll be getting to see what I've been planning for Pierre.
For the individual fights, I wanted to have Vinyl and Gin go against deVoix because of how different the siblings are from the mime. Gin can grab a variety of weapons from his pocket dimension, but deVoix can create anything he wants as long as he can act it out with his Semblance. I wanted to use a Pantomime Semblance for him because it would be extremely dangerous as it was shown. While the weapons were invisible, they were still solid. That's why I decided to have Vinyl use paint to expose the barriers and weaponry. As for the finishing attack, I already stated that I based Gin off of Kamen Rider Gaim, so why not use his inspiration and Semblance for a powerful kick of his own. I thought it was pretty good to use it like that.
Terracotta VS Dracule had some badassery from the former by powering through another Semblance I wanted to use. Think of it similar to Hidan from Naruto Shippuden with how he needed the blood to connect with the target's Aura and turn into a living voodoo doll. It's better than Hidan's ability with how he can still move around the area, but Dracule still has limits with his Aura reserves and time limit. And Terracotta has shown some very high pain tolerance by being able to withstand his own attacks through Dracule's Semblance. The person that Dracule mentioned before his death will be important later on and has already been shown if you remember the end of a certain chapter. And we also learn that Terracotta has had to kill people in self-defense before, so that will be something to explore later.
Now the battle against Fandango was easily the toughest thanks to his Semblance, but Sunset was able to handle herself for a while and even use another trick. Because of how Weiss' summons are very useful, I thought that Sunset needed to get some of her own after reading Weiss' memories about her training. The summons take a lot out of her at the moment, but will be great for tougher battles. Plus, it helps me show off more of my Original Grimm ideas like the Scykiri and Pendras. But Fandango was still the toughest of the cult as it took four people to defeat him in comparison to the others. But it shows how powerful and skilled Lucifer is even with his Semblance taking a lot out of him as well.
Now with the Gargoyle Grimm arriving, our heroes are going to need to think of a plan to defeat that giant monster for themselves. Can they stop it before anybody else gets hurt? Will Pierre give them the help they need? How will the Snow Spirit Festival end after this attack? Find out in the next chapter of "Sideline: Another Story".
Until next time, WaterDragonMaverick signing out. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, readers! Enjoy your time with family and friends!