Bloodborne Twin Chapter 9

Ella had wandered for quite a while, her senses fully alert and on the lookout for anything that was off, but all she heard were the rustling of tree leaves, the chirping of birds, and the occasional snapping of twigs under her heeled boots. She had come to realize just how thick this forest was as she headed north, or at least she hoped it was north. She came upon a clearing, then noticed the scorch marks and realized in annoyance she had just fought the beowolves there. She was walking in circles.

She let out an angry sigh, then looked back at the forest. She was a crafty fighter and could navigate any urban landscape as if she belonged there, because that was where she belonged, not in seemingly virgin woods. One similar place she had been to was the Forbidden Forest, but it had trails and landmarks and other features she could use for reference. This place had none, and lacking a compass just made things worse.

If this was the kind of test that all future staff had to go through, she would consider them lucky they knew better than her, and it frustrated her more.

She shoved her hands into her coat pockets, only for her gloved left hand to feel something round in said pocket, and this struck her as odd. A good hunter was always mindful of her gear, and she could not recall having left anything there. She grasped the object and pulled it out to see what it was, only for her eyebrows to rise up in surprise. A compass? It was decidedly not hers, she had never had one…

'Maybe Eileen snuck it in my pocket while I wasn't looking,' She thought, 'I guess she knew I would get lost here.' Throughout her long night of the hunt, she had simply explored through the nooks and crannies of Yharnam and the woods beyond it. There was no such thing as a signpost anywhere, and the only way she got around was by remembering the landmarks. She was grateful for the surprise, for she needed it this time.

As she looked down at the compass, she unconsciously adjusted the direction as if she had done this before. That somewhat surprised her, she seemed to have remembered everything there was to know in using a compass, but she could not remember whoever taught her. It was rather weird, but for now, she had a temple to find. She turned around until the arrow pointed towards true north. Smirking, she left the small clearing and walked back into the forest, knowing full well she would not be lost this time.

-Back at Beacon cliff-

The three professors saw what they would guess was a compass in her hand as they watched her walk back, in the correct direction, into the forest from their monitors. For the two professors, Ozpin and Eileen, showed no concern with her using a compass, simply knowing the obvious, and seeing she knew how to use one.

Glynda, however, felt a little puzzled seeing this. Every veteran Huntsman and Huntsman-in-training knew how to get from one place to another without getting lost or using a compass. They had learned to either look to the circumference of the sun, or look at the moss growing on the northern side of a tree and so on. A compass was useful, but without understanding the difference between true north and magnetic north, one could still get lost. Now she was truly heading north, but why had she walked in circles before? Either she had forgotten she had a compass, which was quite unlikely, or someone had slipped her one without her being aware of it.

And only a very few people could slip something into a Hunter's pocket in this fashion. She glared at Eileen, and thought there was the slightest hint of a smirk on her lips. Glynda narrowed her eyes with a frown.

"You gave it to her, didn't you?" She asked somewhat accusingly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she answered in feigned ignorance of the deed. Glynda stared at her for a bit, but simply sighed through her nose and looked back down at her Scroll in resignation.

-Emerald Forest: 10 minutes later-

She had travelled up through the woods with her compass in hand, now more confident that she was heading north. She looked down at her compass from time to time, making sure she did not end up going the wrong way, making slight adjustments to her heading when necessary. She had only run into a couple packs of Grimm so far, only to wipe them out with her Blade of Mercy, and during those short battles she did not use her Semblance. It was not because she wanted to challenge herself, but it was because she did not wish to accidentally burn down the forest, and that would have made her future resume look bad.

She kept walking on until she finally saw a clearing up ahead. After walking a little faster, and making a silent prayer hoping she did not go around in a circle this time, she came onto the clearing. The open, grassy area was much larger than the clearing she once landed in. On the other side it only had one hill leading to the woods, and standing at the top and in front of the forest edge was an old stone structure with ruined pillar arches that almost went in a circle. This had to be the one place she had been looking for.

The ruined temple.

'Finally!' She thought as she smiled, relieved that her knowledge in navigation had come in handy as she walked on towards the temple. While she had traveled through the woods and towards the temple, she had never paid much thought to what the relic would be. She just didn't care, all she had to do was grab the relic and head back to Beacon. The only problem was how, but all she would do was take one step at a time.

She had made it at the bottom of a rather short hill when she halted, the feeling of being hunted began to creep in. She unconsciously brought her guard up, hands near her Blade of Mercy and Winter Hawk as the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She focused on listening, and kept her eyes open for the predator hiding behind the scene, never forgetting that no matter how many beasts she had slain, or how powerful she thought she was, when a hunter hunts a predator, it always goes both ways.

Then she heard it. It sounded strange, like a hiss, coming from… behind the temple?

As if fate decided to answer her question, the head and body of a giant, black snake slithered around from behind the ruined temple. She started backing up as the black snake went slithering closer toward its prey. It then turned around halfway on itself before lifting its head and body up, easily towering over the Hunter.

She had a good look at the large, black serpent before her. It had red eyes, and its scales were pitch black like the others, but the only difference was the bone plates… or lack thereof. The only bone plates it had were on its head, but it looked more like an ornamentation than armor. It had a circle shaped bone plate in the center of its head with red markings naturally drawn on it, and the two curving bone plates with red markings surrounded the centerpiece.

Right after it towered over her, it coiled back and lunged for her, jaws wide open revealing two large fangs along with many more behind them. She dodged to the left, and where she once stood the dirt and grass was kicked up by the overly large serpent as it slithered around and lunged for her again. She had no choice but to keep moving as she jumped out of the way. It kept slithering on the move, ready to lunge for her when it had the chance while the Hunter pulled out her Winter Hawk and fired three rounds at its scaly hide. To her bitter satisfaction, the bullets went through, but did not give the effect that she had hoped. Perhaps its body was tougher than she realized.

The monster let out a hiss of both pain and irritation as it again lunged at her. She jumped to the side at the last second, making sure to get its attack to simply miss, but she ended up being in the snake's circle as if it planned to trap her all along. Its circle began to shrink in, the black snake clearly intending to constrict her to death. A normal human would have been lost, but a Hunter could escape that deathtrap with an Aura-boosted jump. The snake bared its teeth and pounced after her a third time, only for Ella to twist in midair and fire two more rounds at it. One through its underside and the other though it's left eye and along the rest of its cheek, making the monster blind on one side. She tried forming more when the slide slid back, and the two clicks from her trigger indicated the clip was spent.

The beast screamed and shook its head in agony, and turned around to glare at the Hunter with its remaining eye. Again it coiled, again it hissed, and again it lunged after Ella, rage blinding it to the growing clumsiness and predictability of its attacks. She dodged it, reloading her gun as she did, still moving, still twisting about, aware that a mistake would mean she would be impaled in its jaws.

As she kept her eyes on the black snake, she sensed and heard something coming straight for her, and on instinct she narrowly rolled out of the way as a white blur lunged right past her. She looked up from her crouched position to see another giant snake, this time being white with the bone plated symbol on its head being a deep gray color. She clenched her teeth and growled to herself. Dealing with one these reptiles was hard enough, now she had two to contend with.

One at a time they lunged for her, leaving her no choice but to be on the defensive. She kept dashing left and right, taking a shot or diving for a cut or a stab whenever she had the chance, something easier said than done when all the while they tried to strike her down more fiercely. This was getting her nowhere fast, and she couldn't afford to waste any ammo.

She barely had a sliver of an instant to be surprised upon noticing that they were connected to one body, hence the checkered pattern in the middle of the body. Just like the snakes in the Forbidden Forest, she thought, the only difference being that the monsters she faced in those woods were an amalgamation of many snakes literally big and small, and they all were either tangled together or attached to some core she would not know. These snakes on the other hand were visibly attached from one end to the other, and were pretty much capable of working together more suitably than the ones she fought before. At least these ones were incapable of spitting poisonous acid as far as she knew.

Then disaster struck as she kept her eyes on the white snake an instant too long. The black one seized on her distraction, lunging at her for the kill, and out of an unconscious reflex she dropped her dual blades to the ground and tried to hold back the black reptile by the fangs. The force of the monster's attack pushed her back a ways with it as her boots dug into the dirt, and she held back the fangs with nearly all her strength. She was pinned, but not unprepared, as at least she made the smart choice of holstering her pistol when she first decided to save her ammo.

In a split-second her mind came up with a gambit to kill the snake: going in its mouth and shooting it from underneath its skull, but before she could act on it the monster's black forked tongue shot out and wrapped around her waist, catching her off guard to then drag her inside its mouth and swallow her whole. It lifted its head in triumph, but felt a double jolt of pain as two knives stuck out from either side within its body. The next thing it knew it started feeling its body heat rising fast until the King Taijitu's body exploded in flames. Both snakes screeched in agony as they were engulfed in fire from being both attached to one another, and moments later they fell into their death throes before collapsing into a heap, burning and dissolving away into the air.

From within the dissolving corpse, the Hunter broke out, unharmed and gasping for air, although all she breathed in was smoke which made her cough up a storm. It did not take much effort to climb out of the corpse, all covered in a slime which also started disappearing. Her entire body and attire were fine thanks to her Aura, but being in there had burnt half her Aura. She will admit it just this once, and let it never be said that this was her first time being swallowed by a beast, a snake for that matter, and simply burned her way out. She would also admit that it was rather traumatizing to be swallowed whole.

She turned around and extended her bare hand, sucking in all the fire and heat she needed to replenish her Aura. Now fully restored, she retrieved her blades, and once that was done she went in the direction of the temple.

Over a minute and a half later she was at the center of the temple, looking at the half circling row of pedestals that stood before her until her eyes laid on one pedestal in particular. There was a stone lying on top of it, and curiously she walked up to it to realize it was holding something down. She lifted the stone to reveal an ace of spades, a poker card. She lifted the card up with three fingers and inspected it. It seemed rather different than the others, its surface looked more laminated.

—-Back at Beacon cliff—-

"A poker card, really? Not some piece resembling the Hunters," asked Eileen.

"Yes, but this is not just any poker card," answered Ozpin.

"Really?" asked Glynda, now being a little more curious. "What's so special about this one besides the choice in card?"

"To be specific, I had that one made to be fireproof just for this occasion." That explanation made both staff members raise an eyebrow.

"How so? We weren't exactly expecting her to return home," asked Glynda. Of course, after working with him for a long time, she would know the obvious answer to that question, and the Headmaster often had himself to be quite the enigma.

"Well, it always pays to be prepared," he answered. Ozpin kept looking down at his Scroll, and as he was about to take a sip of his coffee, his eyes widened a bit at what was happening near the temple. "Oh my."

They were seeing this too with similar expressions on their faces.

—Back at the Temple—

"Relic, huh," she asked herself in amusement as she smirked at her little discovery. Her first objective achieved, she slid the card inside her coat pocket. "Well, time to head back."

She turned towards the forest, only to be halted in her tracks as her eyes widened a bit by the sight of a large, combined herd of Grimm coming out of said woods. There were beowolves, ursai, and also another kind of Grimm she hadn't encountered yet. It looked like a black demon hog with tusks, fangs and many plates of various size all over its body. These had to be the boarbatusks Quinn told her about, and if memory still served her, their strength lied in their armor and their ability to turn into a rolling ball of death, but their very weakness lied on their unarmored bellies. She would have to be careful when dealing with them.

More of the soulless monsters seemed to keep coming, and she also saw about four beowolf pack leaders as well as a couple Ursa Majors in their midst. This was not going to be any easy fight, and this also made her feel uncertain for once. Run away and try to outsmart them or simply stay and fight, those were the options running through her head at the moment. She ran the odds in her head: the first one was simply going to be nigh impossible, the second insanely hard. So, with renewed determination she went with the latter as she pulled out a steel arrow and transformed Simon's Bowblade. After all, she could get through this, right?

She aimed with her bowstring pulled far back and unleashed the steel arrow into the large crowd of Grimm, but it was not the crowd she was aiming for. She was aiming for targets that were more of a threat to her survival than these small fry, like the ursai and beowolf alphas. She knew the boarbatusks were also a threat, but they were shorter than the beowolves and could be hidden amongst the herd. She would simply have to kill them with her pistol up close or in full view.

The arrow went straight through an ursa's eye socket and through its brain. She released another steel arrow and took down another ursa, and as the whole herd went charging in loosely, she released one more steel arrow into a charging ursa before folding her bowblade back into sword form and onto her back, pulling out her Blade of Mercy and pistol and went into a combat stance, ready to take on the encroaching herd as they closed in.

She figured this battle would soon become jam packed with little to no room for maneuvering. A cold voice in her head warned harshly that she was not allowed any mistakes this time: any screw-up meant she would be gone for good. At least for now they were charging at her in the usual loose formation.

She expertly cut down the first beowolf that ran up to her by cutting its head clean off, and in fluid motion she stabbed the next beowolf in the heart and spun to cut the head off another.

She saw her first boarbatusk charging in to ram her where she stood while she had cut down two more beowolves. She quickly lined up the shot in a QuickDraw as the armored black boar closed the distance and put her .45 bullet right through its bone plated skull, destroying bone and splattering brain fluid as the beast skidded to a halt.

With the first one down, she went back to focusing on cutting down the wolves coming to tear her apart until another threat would decide to show up. She fought them off individually as she dodged and weaved through their attacks, cutting off their limbs and heads and stabbing them on the heart as she kept moving about, almost like a dancer on the battlefield. Before long she started using her Quickening ability to dash about on the hill she defended, the space between beasts beginning to slowly close in. After cutting down about thirteen or more of them she was greeted to the sight of another boarbatusk charging at her which she quickly put down in one shot with her Winter Hawk, same way she did with the first.

It didn't take long after slicing the heads off two more beowolves when she had put away her pistol and went for dual wielding mid fight was she finally surrounded on all sides by the black wolves. Instead of charging in all at once to overwhelm her, they all tried to tire her out by attacking her one at a time. She stood her ground as she sliced and diced each beowolf that came at her.

She did not break a sweat thanks to her aura, even after taking down ten more before a boarbatusk decided to turn into a rolling ball of death to try and knock her out. She saw this happening, and instead of shooting it she used the black boar's ability against it as she jumped over the speeding ball. The black boar kept on rolling as it barreled through the unfortunate beowolves, knocking them out of the way or outright killing them.

As she went back to killing more Grimm she thought to herself if she was even thinning the herd. It started to seem like they were endless, but that thought had to be put aside as two ursa majors appeared to decide to join in and end this fight. The beowolves surrounding her backed up to give the majors more room to fight, and Ella didn't have the mind to take her time with these brutes so she superheated her blades and held nothing back against them.

The first one on the left swung its large claws at her, but she slid underneath and had her blade cut through its left leg like a hot knife through butter, just nearly taking the whole limb off by its skin but enough to cripple it. The giant bear roared in pain, but Ella didn't stop there as she climbed up on its back. It turned in an attempt to shake the human off, but it fell to its paws when the nearly severed limb dangled and didn't land in the correct position. It nearly threw Ella off but she held firm, and when its partner attempted to bat her away she threw her weapon gripped hand up at the bear. A wrist sized fireball shot out of her hand, the disagreeable weakness she felt on her bowels warning her that she could not abuse the trick, and the spreading impact engulfed the monster in flames. The black and bone spiked monster flailed about in pain, trying to stop the flames to no avail due to its fur, and it was the distraction she needed to end the struggling bear beneath her by jamming both of her blades through its skull.

She turned her focus on the burning bear, a little surprised that it stopped flailing about and focused its fury on trying to kill her before it died. She moved out of the way of its lunge as the monster's claws slammed into the earth. She quickly folded her heated blades back together and pulled out her Winter Hawk.

The Ursa Major charged at her, striking and clawing with furious abandon, and to make her situation even more difficult, one of the alphas howled for the lesser ones to gang up on her. She activated her Quickening to move around more easily, cutting, burning, and while dodging the bear's fury. Luckily for her, the monster was too enraged to care about the rising casualties it caused around it as it tried to strike her down, making her job a little more easy. The burning monster soon showed obvious signs of weakness, it's attacks becoming more slow, sloppy and uncoordinated. She took an opportunity with a crazy idea as she jumped over a passing claw and onto its head. From there she used the head as a springboard to get onto its unburned spikes. The ursa tried to shake her off, but it was becoming too weak to successfully do so.

They did not seem high enough as her Aura kept slowly being eaten away by the licking flames, but it was close enough for her to use this burning beast as temporary fuel.

Holding her breath from the smoke and closing her eyes, she absorbed the heat of the blades back into her Aura and sheathed them away. Now, with a free hand, she pointed her bare hand at the Grimm and unleashed a fireball into the surrounding crowd. It took them all by surprise as she did this again and again, firing in random directions at the crowd, using the burning bear to refill her Aura and re-strengthen her Semblance. They were hesitant to reach her because of the flames of both the ursa major and her fire, and started backing away from their burning comrades as the impacts of the fireballs had spread through more than one Grimm, but those stupid and brave enough to try and reach her were met with being burned alive or with a bullet put through their skulls.

It was at this point the Grimm had begun to retreat and spread out even as their alphas commanded them to do so. They were still being assaulted by the fireballs she threw at them, taking down a few more. At the same time, however, the Ursa Major had finally ceased after succumbing to the fire which completely engulfed it.

She jumped off the disappearing beast, smirking at the sight of the retreating Grimm. She felt a bit proud of her handywork and rate of survival thus far, and now she had more room to fight on even terms. That thoughtful moment of triumph became broken, however, as she heard a booming flap from behind her. She turned to the direction of the noise, but she realized it was coming from above because with another booming flap, the smoke was pushed away by a downward gust of wind to reveal the biggest raven she had ever seen. It could far easily tower over her by thirteen feet, and its wingspan was incredibly wide. It had four glowing red eyes, two on each side of its head, and a crested white, bonelike head piece, designating it as a Grimm if the pitch black feathers weren't an obvious indicator.

She was told about these giant bird Grimm… and also remembered their ability with their feathers as the nevermore flapped its wings harder, this time unleashing a volley of razor sharp feather spears down at her, much to her widening eyes in surprise. She activated her quickening and dashed away from the feathers as fast as she could. She narrowly avoided almost all of them, except for one that nicked her in the shoulder as she passed by. Her Aura healed the cut on her shoulder, but the well she was tapping was almost running dangerously low, and she now had to remain wary of them.

Meanwhile one of the alphas looked up at the newcomer and, unfortunately for the Hunter, came up with an idea to put her down. It howled at all the remaining Grimm to attack her at once, and soon they all joined back in melee.

Ella saw this happening and at once she pulled out her blade and made ready as they came in. The closest were the Grimm coming in from the ruined temple as most of them were being cut down by the Hunter's blade and determination to survive, and also made sure to put down the two boarbatusks with her pistol. She figured this was turning out to be a trap, and when she glanced up at the large nevermore circling back around she knew what was bound to happen once it came back. She looked to the forest behind the temple, if she could reach the forest then the nevermore would not be able to get a bead on her. Luckily there was less resistance leading past the temple, so she made a dash for it, cutting down the few Grimm that got in her way.

She ran past the temple while the remaining Grimm were chasing after her. She was getting close, and when she turned her head for just a split second she saw the nevermore was flying after her, too. She even saw the alphas coming after her as well, but something was off. There were three of them this time, not four. Where did the other one go, she wondered with a sliver of fear. She turned back to the forest closing in, and just as she reached the edge at that very moment, a bulk sprang up from behind the bushes and swung its claw at her. She was caught completely off guard that she did not have enough time to react as she was smacked into the air, back in the direction of the chasing Grimm.

The impact was hard enough that it took almost half of her Aura. She looked at the fast approaching Grimm and she knew she would not last long against a pack so clustered together. So she threw away her blade and summoned a giant fireball, a desperate last-ditch effort that costed her almost all of her remaining Aura, grimly accepting that either she lived through this battle or she would die a quick, bloody death. She threw it at the Grimm almost point blank and the spread from the impact turned five of them, including an ursa, into screaming bonfires. The rest of the Grimm at once pulled away from their burning brethren, and Ella seized the initiative again, diving headlong into the pyre where the creatures flailed about in agony, to feed on the fire and so replenish her strength.

She drank thirstily from the fire as if she had been starved for water, her mind filled with the glow of triumph, basking in the glorious feeling of being still alive after freely going out to meet death and surviving the experience unscathed. She allowed herself one long second of bliss, then again noted the dangers around her, seeing how the beowolves prowled around the quickly dying flames, waiting for a chance—

But then, her concentration came to a sudden halt as a flashback and a jolt of pain made itself known. She saw an image of fire all over the place, being inside a building, and the screaming of a little girl brought a serious chill down her spine. That scream sounded like her for some reason.

What that did, however, was make her stop regenerating her Aura once she shook out of her stupor, and that three things happened.

1: the five burning Grimm were now dead and dissolving.

2: the Grimm surrounding her that were not burned alive all charged in to kill her.

3: she saw the nevermore in the sky, ready to fire another volley, even if it meant killing its own kin in the process.

She looked towards the oncoming Grimm and made a run for them, though she did not have to run far. She planned to use them simply as meat shields as the feather spears came down. Time seemed to slow down as the feathers pierced through flesh and bone, Grimm dying left and right all around her. Nearly none of the beowolves and ursa, not even the last boarbatusk, with its bone plates all over its body, were spared from the deadly sharpness of the feathers.

She narrowly dodged a couple of them, one even whizzed over her head, though a couple others managed to nick the sword on her back and her shoulder. Sadly her luck ran out, as a feather pierced through her left leg making her scream in pain and fell down on the ground.

Once the volley was done, she fought through the pain with gritted teeth and rolled over onto her back to assess the damage. She was not shocked to see that her Aura did not protect her from such a projectile, and she remembered experiencing her Aura being pierced through by makeshift harpoons made by those fish men. She had learned that night the hard way that Aura could not protect her from everything. With a firm grip with one hand she pulled the feather spear out of her leg with effort and pain, and her Aura halted the bleeding and started healing right away, but sadly at a slower pace due to the damage so she had to endure having a limp leg.

She saw that all around her, many of the Grimm were dead save for only very few survivors that were now coming after her just right after she pulled out the feather. A beowolf charged on all fours and Ella pulled out her pistol and shot it between the eyes. Her pistol's slider slid back, indicating the clip was empty. She ejected the empty clip and quickly slid back in another one as another beowolf came at her. She got up as the slider slid into place and she fired at the demon wolf, putting it down along with its brother. She saw an ursa coming toward her… well more like limping towards her as it's back and limbs were seriously pierced beep in black feathers. So she simply ended its suffering by putting it down with one bullet.

She looked around more to see that the alphas were the only ones left, and they definitely know she had been weakened. She did not have her Blade of Mercy with with her, having thrown out of her hands to summon her fireball, so she took the Bowblade off her back and made ready for another battle as she tried not to apply any pressure to her injured leg.

There was just one question nagging in the back of her mind. Between having to keep her injured leg from getting any worse, facing four alphas and a nevermore still flying overhead, how was she going to pull this off?

–––––––––––––––Back at Beacon cliff—-

The professors were grimly impressed with her display of handling herself well against a mob of Grimm, and believed that she would survive this initiation, moreso Eileen than the others, but once the nevermore came flying above the battlefield, things went from smooth to complicated from then on. They watched her fight her way towards the woods behind the temple, commending the beneficial idea of hiding under the canopy from the nevermore, but they knew it was bound to fail in a surprise ambush when they saw one of the beowolf alphas sneaking around the battlefield and into the woods while the Hunter was distracted. The Hunter never knew what was happening until it was too late.

The professors were then uncertain of her survival, especially since her Aura had gone almost dangerously low, but she made an effort to throw a fireball at the remaining mob and kneel amongst the burning Grimm to replenish her Aura. The professors felt like the odds had started turning against her.

Out of the three professors that were watching this dreadful development happen right before their eyes, Eileen was the one who was slowly getting worried. She knew to trust in her ability to handle herself as a Hunter, and she had proven that she could be resourceful and tactful against a mob of that size, but Ella had never faced monsters who took advantage of the air such as the nevermore. Which was why she wanted to make sure the Hunter stayed safe since she had no experience with flying creatures, but the rules stated no professor must ever interfere in the initiation. Plus she felt it would be unfair to Ella's pride in her profession.

Her regards to the rules changed as she paled seeing the nevermore unleash a volley of feather spears into the remaining mob with Ella in the thick of it. They were all shocked to see a Grimm sacrifice its own kin to try and kill just one Hunter as it almost succeeded in doing so. Now Ella's Aura had gone down to being dangerously low again, and with an injured leg her ability to fight had been hampered.

Ozpin looked to see Eileen's face become a mix of frustration and worry. He could see her fingers adding pressure to her Scroll and trembling, becoming evident that she would want to be down there to save her old friend and future pupil, but could not move an inch towards the edge knowing the rules. Eileen had told him Ella had a twin sister she had been hoping to see again one day, but seeing this new development made him believe that her wish may not come true at this rate after so long, and he would be damned if he were to let this happen.

So once again… he broke the rule.

"Eileen," said Ozpin as he had her attention, "go now and help her."

She silently yet urgently nodded, and as Ella began her struggle against the three alphas, she turned into a shadow crow and flew as fast as she could in the direction of the temple. The three professors could only pray that Ella could hold on long enough for help to arrive.

And that is it for chapter nine folks, I really hope I entertained you with this after making you guys wait, but I also do hoper I haven't thrown you all off with what I've written here. This took me quite a while to write this, and writer's block has been a thorn in my mind. Plus my first negative review didn't help much but make me doubt about my story. Thankfully, a friend of mine at work told me to just ignore that and keep going since the review I had wasn't constructive, so that made me ease my mind a bit. Also I was helping out CruxMDQ with his story, so that took a bit longer.

Now you all have read a glimpse of a flashback, a memory of fire and pain. That was just half of a piece to the puzzle as to how her Semblance came to be, but for now you all will have to wait for the next chapter to reveal it all.

I would like to give a shoutout to CruxMDQ for his amazing proofreading, suggestions and editing, but I would also like to give a shoutout to all of you readers out there for viewing, following and favoriting my story, leaving a review of what you think, as well as following and favoriting me of course. Over 17k views, that's something I never thought I'd see, and it's because of that I'll keep continuing my story until it's done.

Sincerely, thank you.

This is kyro2009, signing off.