Here we are at Chapter 97. First of all, for those that are questioning the end of the last chapter, it is NOT Eleanor. If you haven't figured it out and want to know who it is, go back to chapter 54 in the story; there's your answer. This person will only be here temporarily though. Anyway, let's see how the gang handle's Cordovin's giant robot. I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 96. Enjoy.
Chapter 97: The Lady in the Metal Shoe
"Are you serious? You actually want to fight this thing?" Weiss questions Ruby as Cordovin's mech follows their airship.
"We've fought giant monsters before and won. This is just a tiny old lady... with a really big robot," Ruby says.
"I would call you a little crazy for thinking of something like that... but honestly, I'm not all that surprised," Velvet notes.
"You little inferior insects thought you could pull one over on me and sneak your way into Atlas? Well, don't think for a second that you can defeat the might of the Atlesian military and just do as you please. I will have none of that!" Cordovin yells, aiming her cannon at the airship.
A compartment pops out of the cannon arm and fires off a missile at the airship. However, before it can connect, Ruby shoots it down with a well-placed shot of her sniper-scythe. Cordovin growls and aims her cannon at the group. Velvet thinks fast and activates her demon claw, using her semblance to create a large claw shield just as Cordovin fires. Luckily, her shield blocks the attack. This gives Maria a chance to land the airship behind them and Weiss jumps out, using her Dust to create an extra barrier made of rock and ice to further protect them while they come up with a plan.
"That won't hold for long," Weiss notes.
"Listen up, we need to figure out how to stop Cordovin and her robot, and protect the airship until we do," Ruby says.
"Then let's give her more targets to focus on," Jaune says.
"Another 'brilliant' plan, genius? I'm guessing it involves us being the targets, huh," Velvet says.
"Look at the size of that thing. It's not designed for going against small targets. It was probably made to deal with large Grimm that come in from deep waters," Jaune explains as he glances around the barrier to see the robot walking towards them. "We can turn our size into an advantage. We just have to be smart and be careful," Jaune says.
Ruby nods to him and contacts Maria, "Maria, can you keep the airship out of harm's way while we deal with Cordovin?" she asks.
"They can take my driver's license, but I won't let them take this ship," Maria replies.
"Does she even have a license?" Velvet deadpans.
"I'll probably be more useful if I can go with her. From up high, I can try and spot a weakness," Oscar offers.
Qrow crosses his arms, "She's not the only one that can get a bird's eye view," he notes.
"If I can get close to it, I might be able to do some damage with my powers. I have to warn you, I still haven't mastered the Maiden's power yet," Velvet adds.
"The rest of us here will attack from the cliffs and keep her eyes moving from one target to the next," Jaune says, gesturing to him and his team.
Weiss turns to Ruby," You said you needed me on the ground?" she asks.
"Well... not exactly," Ruby replies.
Cordovin waits for them to make a move. She doesn't wait long when she sees the airship fly in one direction, Team JNR running in the opposite direction on the cliffs, and Ruby along with Qrow in his bird form, flying straight up so she can fire her sniper-scythe at her. Cordovin gets spooked for a second when the round hits the glass of her cockpit, cracking it a bit. Cordovin screams and fires a swarm of missile aimed at Ruby. Ruby uses her semblance to fly around each missile, bouncing off a few others before falling towards the water. However, Weiss uses her ice Dist to create a frozen ramp on the water, giving Ruby and her a chance to slide across it and onto some ice pads towards Cordovin's robot. Cordovin turns to them, only to receive a blast of fire to the side. She looks over to see Velvet on the cliffs, her demon claw activated and then she absorbs a wind Dust crystal to propel herself towards Cordovin from another angle. Cordovin aims her cannon at Velvet, charging up and firing some rock shots at her, but Velvet evades each attack as she gets closer. Cordovin gets ready to grab her with her machine's left hand, only for some grenade shots to hit her side, taking her attention away from them and towards Team JNR on the cliffs. They take some cover behind some rocks, and Nora fires off a few more grenades. However, Cordovin raises her left hand and activates a hard-light shield to block the shots.
"Hahaha, did you forget that Atlas is the kingdom that created and mastered hard-light Dust? Or do the insects of lesser kingdoms simply lack proper education?' Cordovin taunts them.
Cordovin aims her cannon and charges up before firing off some earth shots at Team JNR, causing stone spikes to explode out when they connect. Team JNR retreat to evade the shots, barely.
"She just activated her shields!" Jaune calls out over the comms.
"Yeah, we noticed," Velvet notes, landing on an ice pad and firing off a fire arte at the mech's side, only for the shield to block it as well. "So, it won't work from this angle either," she mutters.
"Listen, there has to be something powering her shields. If we can find it and take it out, it should knock out the shields," Oscar says.
"You know, in video games, the weak spot's usually on the back of the giant boss," Ruby notes.
"Ruby, now is hardly the time to be talking about video games!" Weiss yells.
"I'm just trying to-look out!" Ruby says before the trio have to jump when Cordovin tries to smash them under her giant metal foot.
Velvet uses her wind Dust to fly her around the legs until she manages to get behind the giant robot. She then propels her forth and slams her demon claw into its upper back, shaking the machine a bit.
"Those little insects!" Cordovin curses.
"If ranged attacks won't work, then we'll just have to beat the crap out of it close up," Velvet says and uses her claw to rip open a hole in the outer armor and then fires her gauntlet gun inside the hole.
However, she then notices the robot's left hand reaching around for her and has to jump off, using her wind Dust again to fly her safely back to Weiss and Ruby.
"Yeah, that's kind of hard to do from here!" Ren yells.
Oscar watches from the airship, taking notice of how parts of the cannon arm go inward when it wants to fire a Dust blast, or outward to fire its missiles.
"Wait... could that be..." Oscar mutters.
"Listen guys, don't worry, wait for your moment and then give her all you got!" Ruby says, and then turns to Weiss. "Weiss, do it!" she yells.
"On it," Weiss replies and stabs her rapier into the water, sending out a surge of ice spikes that collide with the robot's right leg.
The machine staggers a bit, but Velvet uses this chance to fire off the rest of her wind Dust in a big torrent at the machine, hitting it with enough force to cause it to fall against the cliffs.
"Guys, now!' Velvet yells.
"Now's our chance. Go!" Jaune says before he and his team race to attack the mech while it's down.
Ren runs up along the left arm, stabbing his pistols' blades into its armor to keep himself from falling off. Meanwhile, Jaune swings his sword in its two-hander form at the leg joints while Nora smashes the right arm with her hammer. Velvet activates her Maiden powers and focuses on the robot's legs. She manages to blast a ray of ice at the machine, freezing parts of the legs to the cliffs to help keep it in place
"Arrgh, why you little-," Cordovin curses as she tries to break free.
She moves the left arm around to break and rip off the ice, allowing her machine to stand up again and get off of the cliffs. Velvet creates a ball of fire in her demon claw and uses it to propel her towards the machine. Cordovin aims her cannon at her, charging up and firing an electricity blast at her. Velvet narrowly avoids it and gets close enough to stab her claws into the machine's armor, right in front of the cockpit.
"What?!" Cordovin yells, but then Velvet smirks and gives her a vulgar gesture. "Why, you annoying little pest. Get off of me!" she yells.
Velvet notices the left hand coming to grab her and jumps off before it can. She falls towards the water, only to be caught by Ruby and Weiss who are flying in on Weiss' Queen Lancer summon.
"Nice timing," Velvet notes.
"What if we hadn't caught you?!" Weiss yells.
"I'm sure you would've. And even if you didn't, I would've improvised quickly enough. Drop me off on the ground. I got an idea," Velvet says.
They fly around and Velvet jumps off when they reach the cliffs. Meanwhile, Ren uses his blades to keep him on the robot as he climbs down the machine's back. He finds one part of the back with a large black panel, and hears some mechanical sounds from within. He stabs his blade into it and begins to pull it open, only for the robot to shake and send him flying of. Luckily, Qrow arrives and manages to catch him in time.
"I gotcha. What did ya find?" Qrow asks as he pulls Ren back up. They look inside to see a mechanism with the words "shield generator" plastered over it. "Well, looks like Ruby's time on video games pays off after all," he jokes before both he and Ren fire away on the shield generator, destroying it.
The explosion rocks the mech, and Cordovin notices one of her monitors showing that the shields are losing power until they run out completely.
"No, no, no!" Cordovin yells, pounding her fist on the controls in rage.
"Well, that's more like it," Velvet notes, and focuses her power again. Using her demon claw to aim it, she fires off a series of large fire blasts at the mech, dealing damage across its body. The armor holds up for the most part, but the robot has to use its left arm as a shield since its actual shield is gone now. "Even without shields, that things got some tough armor on it," Velvet notes.
Nora joins in with her and aims her grenade launcher, "Nice idea. Now then... give me back MY MAN!" Nora yells as she fires grenades at Cordovin's robot.
The concentrated attacks begin to take its toll on the robot's body. Seeing that things are heating up, Weiss and Ruby fly around to the rear where Qrow and Ren are.
"Hop on, now!" Weiss calls out.
The two jump on and Weiss flies them away to safety while Velvet and Nora continue their attack. At this point, Cordovin has had enough of their attacks.
"I've had enough of you ingrates!' she says and swing her machine's left hand around at them.
Jaune sees this and manages to get to Nora to shield her with his aura while Velvet uses her power to jump over the arm swing, though Jaune and Nora still get nailed and take heavy damage to their aura. Cordovin then aims her cannon at Weiss' summon with their attention is on their friends and fires, taking out the summon and sending the group falling to the cliffs. Ruby misses the cliffs, but Velvet uses her power to create a platform of ice for her to land on alongside the cliffs. She then uses her sniper scythe along with her semblance to fly up back onto the cliffs with her friends.
"Are you okay?" Velvet asks her as she holds her girlfriend.
"I'm-," before Ruby can say, Cordovin aims her cannon at them.
"Oh, no you're not," Velvet mutters and uses her power to fire off a wave of ice across the mech's right arm, pushing it back and then freezing the joints a bit. "Let's see you break out of that," Velvet taunts her.
"Haha, you have some interesting tricks there, girl. But, they pale in comparison next to the glory of Atlesian technology," Cordovin taunts back.
The mech slowly begins to break free of the ice, shattering it and regaining its normal range of motion.
"Oh crap," Velvet mutters.
Oscar sees this and runs to Maria, "We've got to help them somehow," he says.
Maria hums and then flicks a few switches, "You might want to buckle yourself in," she says, and he does, before she flies the airship towards the mech.
She flies behind it and turns back to it and then fires off a missile at the machine. However, Cordovin miraculously catches the missile with her robot's left hand.
"What?" Maria gasps.
"Calavera," Cordovin growls as she focuses back on the airship, and then throws the caught missile at them.
The missile explodes right in front of the airship, causing it to lose control.
…
Meanwhile, somewhere in the forest, Blake continues her duel with Adam Taurus. Blake parries three strike before backflipping away when Adam make a wide swing of his sword. He gets right back on her for another swing, but she uses her semblance to move away, constantly trying to put some distance between her and him. She jumps into the air, just barely blocking another strike from Adam that knocks her to the ground. Landing on her feet, she rolls to the side when he tries to slam his sword down on her, but then fires off a shot from her sheathe gun which she blocks. Adam makes two more strike, which Blake deflects. Blake then uses her semblance again to move to the side of a tree and then pushes off of it to attack with both of her blades. Adam meets the charge and their blades clash. Hearing distant explosions, Blake's focus comes off of Adam only for a second, but that's all he needs to force Blake back and then twirl in the air while swinging his blade around. She evades with her semblance, and counters with a strike to his side which he deflects. He makes another swing, but she jumps away and retreats through the trees. She bounces from tree to tree, using her chain-scythe to pull her further away.
"You're not getting away this time, Blake!' Adam yells.
Blake throws her chain-scythe again, but Adam fires off his sword from his sheathe, shooting it to collide with her weapon and throw it off. Blake manages to grab a tree branch and swings around to throw a kick at him, while he catches his blade and jumps at her. He swings his blade at her, but it only succeeds in slicing her jacket off while she kicks him to the ground. Landing on the ground and catching her chain-scythe, she fires several shots at him. A few hit, but he manages to block the rest with his sword.
"You won't beat me that easily, Blake," Adam seethes.
Blake jumps away and Adam follows, finding her waiting for him on a large rocky pathway set in front of a pair of waterfalls nearby. Blake readies her blades, and Adam charges at her. He makes a few swings, which she blocks, and then uses her semblance to dodge a close-up shot from his sheathe gun. He looks back as she jumps at him again. He thrusts his sword at her, but she catches it in her sheathe blade, and then kicks him in the side to push him away. Adam growls as he fires his sheathe gun at her, but she blocks the shots with her blades, getting in close to swing her swords which he dodges or blocks with his sheathe. She manages to get one hit in on his ribs before kicking away off his arm. However, he rushes her and grabs her left arm while blocking the blade in her right with his sheathe gun.
"None of this would've happened if you had just stayed by my side and did as you were told!" Adam yells. He then grabs his sword and pulls wide, getting it back while making Blake lose her sheathe sword. He then makes a strike with the pommel of his sword on the side of her face, knocking her to the ground. "But you're selfish!" he yells and attacks again. She dodges the first strike, but he swings around to hit her and take her to the ground again. "You're a coward!" he yells again and swings his sword, which she blocks but rolls across the ground again.
"You're a psychotic maniac," Blake retorts, glaring at him.
He walks up to her and swings his sword again. She blocks, but her blade gets destroyed, split in two. Now with her defenseless, Adam stands before her and takes off the black wrap tried over his eyes, giving Blake the chance to see the brand mark over his left eye.
"People hurt me long before we met. All sorts of people in all sorts of ways. I was trying to make them pay for that. To do what was right for the Faunus," Adam says.
"No, not was right for the Faunus. You were doing what you thought was right for you. And now, you're all alone," Blake retorts.
"I wasn't alone... until you left me, Blake. That hurt more than anything else I've been through. So tell me Blake, how does it feel to be alone?" Adam taunts her as he raises his blade.
Blake hears some noise in the distance, but then Adam swings his sword down on her. However, the attack suddenly gets blocked by... strips of blue paper? The paper strips float between him and Blake, forming a shield with energy flowing around them, blocking him from Blake. Blake uses this chance to use her semblance and get away, picking up her sheathe blade. Meanwhile, the cards dissipate into nothing.
"There's one thing Adam... I'm not alone," Blake says.
Just then, Yang appears and pushes her bike forth in mid-air, causing it to slam into Adam before falling into the river, while Yang lands next to Blake. Adam looks up just in time to block a shot from Yang's left gauntlet while she readies her right gun.
"Yang..." Blake mutters with relief before falling onto one knee.
"It's okay, Blake, catch your breath. I can hold him off," Yang says.
"She's right Blake. It's okay. I promised you that I'd destroy everything you love, and that I'd start with her. Now I can finish what I started," Adam says as he readies his blade. "I don't know how you did that card barrier from before, but it won't help you here," he says.
Yang raises an eyebrow in confusion and glances at Blake, "I don't know. Something happened during our fight that helped me out. We'll talk about it later," Blake says.
Yang nods and focuses back on the fight. Adam makes the first move, charging at Yang and drawing his sword for a quick strike. Yang ducks under it and then blocks a few more strikes with her weapons. She gets pushed back, but remains standing as Adam throws his sword at her. Yang knocks it away, but he catches it in mid-air and swings it at her. She backflips away, and then he makes a few sheathe swings at her, which she blocks again. Yang goes on the offensive and runs at him. He makes two swings at her, but she weaves through them and then throws a fist at his ribs, then follows it up with a backhand strike and then an uppercut to his jaw that knocks him into the air. She jumps up and hits him to the ground with a roundhouse kick. He comes at her, but she stops his next attack with her right arm, getting another backhand strike to his chest before doing a knee strike to his chest and then a left cross to his face. She goes for a flurry of punches, but he blocks them with his sword. She uses her weapons to propel herself forth for a roundhouse kick to his face, knocking him back, and then fires several shots that he blocks with his blade. Using the energy he stored up, Adam runs fast around Yang, almost like he has clones of his own, but then Yang notices him swing his sword down on the ground from the side, sending ou a blast of red energy at her. She blocks the strike, but gets pushed back.
"His semblance is like yours. She absorbs energy through his sword, stores it up, and then sends it back when he's ready!" Blake calls out.
"He gets to dish out damage without having to feel it? That's just cheap," Yang notes.
Yang charges at him, and he readies his sword. However, when she gets close and he swings his sword at her, she fires her weapons at the sides, propelling her around his attack. He keeps attacking, and each time, she uses her weapons to evade him before getting a punch in, followed by a kick to the chest. She follows it up with an uppercut to the chest and then a double kick to his stomach. She goes for a punch, but he blocks with his sword and pushes her back, causing her to land next to Blake. The girls look between them, which Adam notices and growls as he readies his semblance.
"YANG!" Blake screams.
Adam yells as he swings his sword down, sending out all the energy he stored up at Yang. However, the attack fails to connect when a large wall of blue paper cards appear again, blocking the attack and protecting Yang. This shocks Adam, but confuses Yang and Blake.
"So that's what you guys meant. Blake, are you doing this?" Yang asks.
"No, it's not me. I thought maybe you did it," Blake says.
"Don't look at me," Yang replies before looking back at Adam as the cards disappear again. Yang focuses back on the fight. "Leave. Us. Alone. This is your last chance to walk away," Yang warns him.
Adam growls, but then chuckles when he notices Yang's left hand shaking, "Do you really believe that? Or are you just trying to scare me away so you two won't have to die together?" he taunts her.
However, Blake walks over and takes Yang's hand in hers, "We're not going to die here, Adam. Because we're friends; we're family. And family looks out for each other. You never understood that. You're all alone, but we have each other, and we'll protect each other to the bitter end," Blake says, standing with Yang as they stare defiantly at Adam.
All the while, none of them notice the woman in the red dress watching them from the shadows of the forest.
And that's the chapter. Cordovin makes things quite difficult for Velvet and the gang. Meanwhile, Yang and Blake prepare to finish things with Adam once and for all. How will things go for our heroes on both sides? Until then, please Read and Review.
P.S. I plan on having Velvet get a new outfit for volume 7 like her team, so give me some ideas if you have any and I'll see what I can make of them.