Chapter 1: The Party Crasher

White Castle Hall, Atlas Academy

After Weiss' performance, a student representative of Atlas Academy took to the stage and walked up to the podium.

"Everyone give it up for Weiss Schnee!" he cheered, followed by the applause of the crowd in front of the stage. The skylight then began to close by a glass dome.

"Alright, thank you all so much for coming here tonight! Now before we proceed, I would like to announce that tonight's ceremony is made possible thanks to the Schnee Dust Co. for sponsoring tonight's event. And to show our gratitude, some of our more 'talented' students went ahead and created… THIS!"

Pointing behind him, a trap door opened on the floor as a 10-meter-tall marble statue of Jacques Schnee, CEO of the Schnee Dust Company, emerged from the opening. The statue stood tall and proud, with both its arms resting atop a cane. "This is for you, Mister Schnee!! Hope you love it!"

As the crowd cheered, Nero can be seen sitting amongst the crowd with his leg hooked over his knee and his left arm resting atop the backrest, listening to the music blaring from his headphones and not having the slightest bit of interest in the statue's unveiling.

Winter stood at the ready in front of the stage, along with her fellow squad of Atlesian soldiers beside her. The elder Schnee didn't like how Nero was behaving, so she sent an icy glare, one usually reserved for subordinates that screw up royally, his way.

But instead of falling under her gaze, Nero merely switched legs before returning the glare to his superior. She held the stare for a moment, but Winter was the first to break eye contact and turned her attention back to the stage, letting out an irritated sigh through her nose as she did so.

Moments after, Weiss came walking towards the male teen and was about to greet him, but he was quick to turn away from her and went out of his way to hold headphone cup up to his ear, seemingly in an effort to ignore her presence. Annoyed by Nero's behavior, the heiress was about to scold him, but held her tongue when her eyes fell upon a small box on the seat next to him.

The box was blue in color, tied with a white ribbon and had a small note that read 'CONGRATS~!!' attached to it. Picking it up, Weiss looked to Nero who still avoided her gaze, but held a smirk upon his lips. This drew a warm smile on the heiress' own before sitting right beside him, setting aside her briefcase near her feet.

Back on stage, the student representative was nearing the end of his speech, the only thing required of him now being to provide an introduction. "And now, a couple of words from General James Ironwood." He finished, gesturing toward the side of the stage.

A moment later, a man wearing a white military uniform began walking towards the podium with a stern look. His skin was pale, he had blue eyes and had a bit of grey in his black hair. Once he reached said podium, "Thank you, Mister Makai for that introduction. And once again, thank you all for coming to tonight's ceremony. Now like the years before—"

As General Ironwood droned on for a whole minute, Nero let out a sigh before rising from his seat, getting Weiss' attention.

"Nero, what's wrong…?" The heiress asked her longtime companion, a slightly confused tone in her voice.

"I'm out of here."

"But the general's not finished yet…!" Weiss pointed out, raising her voice as much as she could without rising above whispering.

"Exactly my point…" Nero replied casually and began to walk away. Worried that leaving prematurely might get him in trouble, Weiss made to stand and go after him. However, before the young man could take another step, his right arm illuminated with a faint blue glow, a peculiar sensation he'd never felt before resonating through it.

Feeling something amiss, his attention quickly snapped towards the general on stage, with Weiss' following soon after.

*CRASH*

Not a moment after they did this, a figure crashed through the dome skylight and landed right on top of the podium, catching the general by surprise. It was a man dressed in a red trench coat, red pants complemented by black, crotchless chaps, along with a black undervest and loafer shoes. Strapped to his back was a large claymore sword with a horned human skull decorating the sword guard.

A Grimm mask hid the anonymous individual's entire face, and the only visible trait that could be seen was his white hair. General Ironwood's eyes widened at the sudden turn of events, until he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. "Dan—"

*BANG*

Time seemed to have slowed down as General Ironwood's figure fell back and onto the cold stage floor. Both Weiss and Winter's expressions fell to that of shock, while a scowl formed on Nero's.

With one job done, the masked man stood tall upon the podium before turning to face the audience, eyes scanning his surroundings. An ear-piercing shriek awoke everyone from their stunned state, which in turn caused them to panic and rush towards the exit.

"GENERAL IRONWOOD!" Winter called out, immediately unsheathing her sabre, an action that was soon followed by the Atlesian soldiers. Protocol dictates that soldiers must use only their standard swords when facing an enemy with civilians still within range of battle.

Seeing the events unfold, Nero's instinct immediately kicked in and he began to lead Weiss out of the building.

Using her Semblance, Winter conjured a white Glyph underneath her and launched herself at the assassin with reckless abandon. Without even facing her, the general's assailant merely flipped over the human projectile and touched down on the stage.

Winter conjures several more glyphs as to disperse her momentum and manages to land at the general's side. "No…!"

"Put your hands up, now!" One of the soldiers said as they surrounded their enemy, their blades all trained on him, but unfortunately for them, the assassin wasn't having it.

Unsheathing his blade, the man in red gestured for them to come at him all at once. Ignoring his challenge, only one of the soldiers charges forth, but their swing was easily parried by the man and was quickly followed up by him slamming his foot into his back with a roundhouse kick. The force behind the blow was enough to send the hapless soldier rocketing towards the ring of men that surrounded him, sending them tumbling like a bunch of stooges.

The assassin made one thing clear with this nonchalant action; if they were to get in his way, he wasn't going to pull his punches.

"You bastard!" Incensed by this, the rest of the soldiers now opted to charge him all at once, their blades ready. However, their increase in numbers didn't help them in the slightest, for the assassin merely avoided the first slash that came his way with a perfectly timed sidestep, with the rest of the incoming attacks either being dodged or parried with his claymore, all with a casual air and demeanor about him as he did so.

One by one, their numbers dwindled as the assassin easily wiped the floor with Atlas' foot soldier, most of which lay dead on the floor. Now that they were fewer in numbers, our enigmatic swordsman opted to finish things off with a dash of flare and style that was second nature to him.

Grabbing one of his opponents, he drove his sword through their chest without mercy before effortlessly lifting both the sword and the soldier off the ground. Now wielding the weapon like a club, the assassin did a quick 360º degree spin and batted away the remaining soldiers, sending them flying and crashing into the walls of the amphitheater very, very hard.

The impaled soldier soon slipped off from the blade and crashed into the ceiling. At the end of this cycle, the assassin whipped out a sawn off shotgun shotgun and shot Winter's back. The Specialist let out a cry of pain before getting shot again as the assassin approached the two military figures, reloading the scattergun with a simple flick of his wrist. Hearing her sister's distress, Weiss turned to see the state Winter was in.

"Winter!" she called out, leaving Nero's grasp not hesitating to come to her sister's aid. Opening the briefcase as she surged forth, Weiss brandished her custom rapier Myrtenaster before ditching the case entirely. She didn't bother loading the weapon with Dust, not when her sister was in danger.

As a desperate attempt, the elder Schnee sibling put up a glyph to shield herself and the general. The glyph was successful initially as each blast of buckshot failed to penetrate it, however, as he continued to approach, dark red energy began to gather into the assassin's forearm, soon surrounding his shotgun as well. Pulling the trigger, the shotgun blast increases in power as cracks began to form on the glyph each time the firearm thundered.

"You stay away from her!" Weiss roared in outrage, thrusting Myrtenaster forward. Without even looking, the masked assassin raised his other arm and opened his hand...

*SCHLICK*

An instant after hearing the sickening sound of squelching flesh, Weiss found herself unable to move Myrtenaster any further. With her adrenaline beginning to die down slightly, the heiress now had a better look at what stopped her blade, and her pale blue eyes widened at the sight of the man's impaled hand.

Her shock soon turned into an unpleasant weight of fear and dread that settled into her gut when she also noticed the blood that now stained her rapier and began to drip down to the floor. Gripping onto the guard of Myrtenaster and snapping his wrist back to force it out of her grip, the red-clad man turned towards her, not showing any indication of being in pain as he holstered his shotgun with an effortless twirl. Disarmed and faced with such an inhuman foe, Weiss could only take a slow step back. 'H-He… W-Why doesn't he—'

Her train of thought was interrupted when the assassin backhanded her across the face, knocking her down and onto the cold stage floor.

Opting to switch targets, the red-clad man strode towards and stood before the ponytailed girl that lay on the ground. After recovering from the dull pain and disorientation she felt, Weiss looked up to find the assassin towering above her, which filled her with a sense of dread and helplessness.

*BANG*

The sound caused the heiress to flinch back in fear, eyes tightly shut and her mouth drawing heavy breaths. She genuinely thought the worst had happened to her, but that wasn't the case...

With his feet suddenly feeling cold out of nowhere after that gunshot, the assassin cast his gaze down to his legs, only to now notice that both of them were encased in thick sheets of ice. Not a moment too soon, the sounds of heavy boots and a shout that promised murder caught both their attention.

With a mighty leap, the soles of Nero's boots immediately slammed into the assassin's face in a brutal dropkick, the force of the blow shattering the ice and sending the offender careening up and over Winter. Landing in a crouch, Nero quickly takes aim with Blue Rose and fired two bullets at the fleeting figure. To avoid this, the man expertly maneuvered himself and bats away the bullets using his sword.

He lands atop the marble statue, stabbing his blade into the head as to anchor himself onto it. Nero was persistent however, boldly launching himself at the assassin once more and kicking the sword deeper into the head before he could even try to remove it.

Both landed on top of the monument's arms and took aim with their respective firearms; Nero with his double-barreled revolver and the assassin with two semi-auto pistols colored white and black.

"Nero—!" "Stay back, Weiss!" the boy cuts her off, as Winter went and stood in front to defend Weiss. "Go with your sister and get the general outta here!"

With a nod of confirmation, the elder Schnee twirled her sabre once before stabbing the ground. A glyph formed before the two siblings and within moments, a white Beringel Grimm emerged from it. The entity resembled a gorilla of muscular stature, most of its body covered in bone armor as well as its face.

The Specialist pointed it to the general and the summoned Grimm was quick to comply with her request. Approaching Ironwood's unconscious body, the summon carried the general under its arm before leaping back to its Master.

"I will return with reinforcements. Keep him occupied in the meantime!" she ordered before grabbing Weiss and began leading them out. Before the ensuing battle began, a confident smirk graced the teenager's lips. "I won't hold my breath, Ice Queen…" he muttered, shrugging off his still-playing headphones.

With nothing loose and restrictive to hamper his movement, the action soon escalated. Firing another shot at his head, the assassin easily ducked under the bullets. Following this up with another shot aimed at his feet, he leapt up from his position and high into the air towards him, both his arms spread out in a pose that faintly reminded Nero of something he'd see out of an old kung-fu flick.

"EYAAAAH!!!" Regardless, Nero was quick to jump up after the assassin, maneuvering himself with both his legs spread so that when he slammed into his opponent, he could wrap his legs around his waist to balance himself.

With the both of them at arm's length, the two white-haired individuals quickly began to trade shots at close quarters, with Nero dodging the shots that came his way and even biting onto the slide of one of his pistols to redirect another shot. Realizing just how dicey this position was, the Atlesian specialist maneuvered his legs and wrapped them around his opponent's in an attempt to place him in a submission hold in mid-air. Unfortunately, the man in red was easily able to get him off with a blast to his chest with his shotgun.

"AH!" The blast sent Nero crashing and tumbling to the ground, but he was able to stumble back to his feet with his revolver pointed towards the ceiling. Seeing that the assassin had landed on the head of the statue and was trying to pull his claymore out from the head, Nero was quick to react. Leaping back up into the air and towards the assassin, the hot-headed young man sent a powerful kick into the sword before the assassin could dislodge it from the statue, consequently sending it twirling up into the air with the assassin leaping upwards beforehand to avoid being flayed with his own weapon… as well as utterly decimating the stone Jacques' face into an unrecognizable stony mess.

Frankly, Nero thought that last part was an improvement on the original design.

Regardless, Nero didn't have the time currently to properly appreciate his handiwork as he landed between the statue's cane and chest, jamming his foot outward to keep himself from tumbling down to the bottom. Unfortunately for him, however, after easily grabbing onto his errant sword at the peak of his jump, the masked assassin slammed himself down towards Nero, his sword poised to cleave him in two.

Reacting quickly, Nero blocked using Blue Rose's barrel, but the sheer force behind the blow still sent him tumbling down between the statue's cane and main body. Quickly jamming his foot out to the cane to stop himself from falling further, Nero looked upwards to see the smug bastard standing at the top of the statue's hands with his arms crossed and his sword sheathed.

"rrrrRRAGGGGH!!!" *Cruuugh…!* Not needing to see his face to know there was a smug smile behind that mask, Nero decided to wipe that expression off by slamming his other foot into the cane and pushing outward with all his strength. The strength behind Nero's push was more than enough to separate the cane from the statue and send it steadily falling down to the ground.

Before it could even crash into the ground, however, Nero didn't hesitate to sprint up the falling statue piece and towards his target, and the moment he got within arm's length, he fired another shot at his head, only for him to effortlessly dodge it and pull out his own pistols once more.

Leaping back just before the stone cane his the ground, the two of them launched themselves backwards and away from one another after two of their bullets collided with one another.

Landing on his feet, Nero kept his revolver trained on the man in red, who merely stood a good distance away and looked at him, silently appraising him.

From there, in a moment of stark contrast to the bombastic and extravagant action that took place, a moment of tense silence overtook the stage. Nero saw the way his opponent's hands hovered over his pistol's holsters and knew that he was waiting for him to make the first move, just as he was for him. Growing irritated with how this bastard was matching him blow-for-blow, the hot-headed youth only had this to say. "You got a jacked up notion of fair play, pal… and it's beginning to piss me off."

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"DRAW!" Nero exclaimed after a tense moment of silence that would make most gunslingers in an old western flick proud, pulling the trigger just as the red-clad assassin whipped out his pistols and fired both of them. Once again, in a moment of incredulous happenstance, the four bullets collided into one another and cancelled each other out perfectly.

With neither party being surprised by this, they began to unload on one another as they slowly circled each other, both Blue Rose and the man's pistols firing at an inhuman firing rate, even for someone augmented by aura. Just like the first shot, every bullet they fired collided into each other without fail, creating a scenario where the first person to falter in their firing rate would be the loser and consequently get filled with white-hot lead.

As he fired, Nero was able to keep up with the man's machine-gun like pace in which he fired, despite merely having a revolver, by using his recently acquired… abilities to channel power into his shots that negated the need to reload.

This stalemate continued for another moment, with Nero oblivious to the smirk that was growing under the assassin's mask. Suddenly, things came to a halt when the man leapt up into the air once more with that dark-red energy once again crackling around his arms. Firing another stream of shots mid-air that Nero returned fire on, he was in for a sore surprise when the empowered bullets from the man's pistols tore through his own bullets at a rate he couldn't keep up with.

Letting out a yelp of pain, Nero was sent reeling back as the bullets tore into him. As he recovered from the attack, the assassin took this opportunity to leap onto one of the corpses he made before their fight began. The youth was left confused by what he was doing, but didn't have any time to question it before pushed one of his feet forward on the ground like he was standing on a skateboard rather than a dead body.

"WHOO-HOO-HOO-HOO~!" The end result of this action was the assassin careening towards Nero while riding on a corpse that was sliding across the floor like it was painstakingly waxed. To further complicate matters, the man pulled out his dual pistols and began to unload their bullets as he flew, letting out gleeful whoops and cheers as he did so.

Letting out a groan of annoyance at this, Nero was quick to dodge any incoming bullets before leaping over the careening assassin just as he and his makeshift skateboard flew towards him. What he didn't count on, however, was the assassin leaping off the corpse just as Nero reached the peak of his jump and blasting him point-blank with his shotgun.

"Rrrgh! Eat THIS!" At the peak of his frustration with this infuriating man, Nero decided to pay him back with interest for that attack as he rolled into a crouching position. Before the assassin could think to react, he was blasted in the waist by a shot from Blue Rose that Nero somehow managed to empower in a manner similar to his own charged blasts, proof of this being the case being the vivid blue energy that overtook his right arm and revolver.

Unlike the man in red's empowered shots, which just seemed to be regular bullets but with a little… 'something' added to them to give them a bit more punch, Nero's powered-up magnum rounds set themselves apart due to the fact that the moment they connected with him, a fiery blue explosion enveloped the man, sending him flying back several feet before he slid into a standing position. Drawing both his pistols and aiming them sideways, he was about to return fire but was left puzzled when he noticed Nero had his right hand raised, closing his fingers individually like he was counting down to something.

'...Three, two, one,' Nero counted down in his head, and the moment he lowered that final finger and clenched his hand into a fist, another explosion ripped through the assassin, sending him flying up into the air. Not one to squander his opportunities, Nero was quick to unload more regular rounds from Blue Rose into him, taking bitter satisfaction as the bullets tore into him and kept him juggled in the air.

'Think I need a bit more bang for my buck!' Firing one last shot, Nero whipped open Blue Rose's chamber and empties out it's bullet casings. Throwing his specially made color up rounds into the air, he twirled once and timed it so that all the bullets fell perfectly into the chamber.

Finishing the rotation, the chamber snapped back in as Nero takes his aim, only to find his opponent out of sight.

The building was quiet for a moment, only for it to be shattered by the sound of footsteps from behind him. The assassin came into view and had his blade resting on his shoulder, admiring the destruction they both caused and seemingly unphased by the hits he landed on him.

With a sigh, Nero lowered his gun. "I guess this doesn't quite cut it." He muttered before kicking Weiss' case to the assassin. As soon as the luggage was within range, he took aim with Blue Rose once more and shot it.

Since the case still had vials of Dust in them, they reacted to the bullets' impact and exploded in the assassin's face, shooting fire, lightning and other Dust types in all directions, creating a smokescreen.

Seeing his chance, Nero kicked up two standard Atlesian swords into the air, one higher up than the other. As the first lands into his hand, the teen swiped his scroll over the scanner, which caused the blue lights to turn red.

The second sword fell on the first's backside moments and seemed to lock in place, the light on the blade turning red as well. With the two now fused, he threw them high in the air once again.

He then kicked up another sword that was impaled on the floor behind him and swiped another just beside him. Spinning once, Nero slammed the fourth sword onto the third's back, which caused the handles combine as the blades locked in place as well.

The first of the fused swords fell behind him seconds later and with a twirl of his hand, slams the second of the swords into the first, transforming the blades into a claymore.

As the smoke cleared, the assassin finally saw the new sword his opponent wielded. Red energy crackled across the blade as Nero scowled at the assassin.

"What's the point of packin' a sword like that if you aren't even gonna use it?!" he challenged, realizing the masked man wasn't taking him seriously. 'A lot lighter than Red Queen… but it'll do for now.'

The man took a moment to look at his sword for a moment. Seconds later, places the sword tip on the floor and mimicked Nero's pose, taunting him.

Incensed by his taunts, Nero charged forth with his new blade in hand. From there, the action soon shifted from extravagant gunplay to a storm of swords between the two white-haired warriors.

It was during this flurry of blades that an outside observer would be given a front-row seat to the two's swordplay styles and just how they differed despite several of their techniques being quite similar in function. Nero's fighting style consisted of a series of one-handed, vicious swings with his left hand. That last part was actually a recent development that only occurred during the same time the young man got his right arm bandaged up. Fortunately, being ambidextrous made this a nonissue that only took a bit of time to get used to. These swings and the various techniques that came with them showcased both a staggering amount of power and the fact that Nero clearly threw his weight and anger around while fighting.

The assassin's swordplay, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. While Nero's swordplay was easily leagues above most swordsmen on Remnant, it looked outright sloppy compared to the assassin's, who fought with a series of two and one-handed swings and strikes that radiated a combination of power, speed, and brutal grace.

With this in mind, it was to be expected that while they started off clashing swords blow-for-blow and evenly matched, that the assassin steadily began to gain more and more ground on Nero. The young man was strong, but his opponent was as well, if not even stronger, and had a far more poised fighting style compared to his. Soon enough, Nero found himself sloppily and desperately blocking blow after blow from the man's claymore as he got pushed back step after step.

*TING!*

It soon reached the point that a hasty, misplaced swing on Nero's part was all it took for the assassin to parry the blade out of the youth's hands, sending him stumbling back and open for a riposte. Speeding towards him with that claymore poised to impale him, Nero reacted instinctively and brought up his bandaged right arm to prevent the sword from piercing his chest.

*FWOOM!*

However, rather than separating Nero's forearm from the rest of his body, the block instead stopped the blade and it's wielder dead in his tracks, the force of the blow creating a powerful shockwave that sent the tossed over chairs and debris around them, flying everywhere.

"Hmm, looks like you got a trick up your sleeve..." The red clad assassin finally spoke, his tone conveying a strange mixture of knowing and curiosity as he took in Nero's right arm, which lost the bandaging that concealed it's appearance in the ensuing shockwave.

The only word to properly describe Nero's right arm was demonic. Red scales covered the entirety of the exposed appendage, while the palm and the star-like crack on the backhand glowed neon blue. This was all topped off by pointed, neon blue fingers that slightly evoked claws.

"I thought the cat had your tongue…" Nero growled, peering over his arm to send a murderous glare his opponent's way. "but if it's a trick you're looking for…" Without warning, a ghostly arm, resembling a spectral version of Nero's right arm, materialized out of thin air and grabbed the assassin by the arm.

"THEN TRY THIS!" With a firm shove, the man in red was sent careening towards the now damaged statue of Weiss' father, but still managed to land on his feet a grunt.

"Looks like you too are a..." he began, only to be cut short when Nero suddenly let out a roar and used the ghostly version of his arm to hurl statue Jacque's cane at him. Seeing this, the man in red merely leaned back a bit as the object passed by him and subsequently destroyed a large portion of the statue's left leg.

He looked to the monument and was impressed by the sheer power the teenager possessed, turning back to see his opponent land in front of the stage, his demonic arm now on full display. "Hate to interrupt, but I wanna wrap this shitshow up before the cavalry arrives!" Nero stated as he dusted off his hand and rolled his right shoulder. And with that said, the hot-headed youth didn't hesitate to charge the assassin and back into the fray.

Since he was only fighting with his bare hands, you'd think that the assassin's previous advantage over the teen would persist, but that wasn't the case. In fact, Nero was able to hold his own quite well now that his right arm was revealed, blocking and even outright parrying the man in red's sword swings with his demonic arm with ease before delivering punches that hit like a truck. 'Guess Ironwood's training actually paid off…'

In another exchange of blows, Nero parried the assassin's swing, which gave him the opportunity to perform a move he called Buster. As he swung his demonic arm up in an uppercut motion, the spectral arm from before materialized once again and grabbed the assassin by the throat, to which Nero proceeded to mercilessly slam him to the ground.

The sheer force behind the action left cracks on the floor where the assassin impacted, but he wasn't done yet. Releasing his hold, Nero backed up a bit before delivering a brutal and powerful kick that sent the man careening off the stage, resembling a soccer player performing a penalty kick.

The man lost his grip on his claymore and was sent crashing into a cluster of folded chairs. But as he continued to tumble about, by some miracle, the chairs stood up right and were lined perfectly as the man in red laid on top on his side, posing like a model for a pin-up magazine.

Upon seeing this, the teen's scowl only deepened at this man's antics. Once again, Nero didn't need to see his face to know the assassin must've had some infuriatingly coy or playful grin on his face. 'Smug son of a bitch… He's enjoying this!'

As he lazed back on the chairs, the man in red saw his sword falling towards him and didn't hesitate to hold up his arm towards it, grabbing it by the handle effortlessly. "So you're lookin' to play, huh?" he asked, sitting up as he gazed upon his claymore, seemingly appraising how he looked with the mask in the sword's reflection. "Alright, I guess I got some time to kill…"

After taking a moment to process the assassin's words, Nero saw his temporary sword impaled on the stage floor to his left. Approaching the blade, he pulled it out of the ground. "Tough guy, huh? Well…"

Putting strength into his leg, Nero kicked a sizeable chunk of statue Jacque at the man in red, prompting him to jump in order to avoid the projectile. But as he did so, Nero was already up in the air with his blade drawn.

Their swords clashed twice as they passed one another, and as the assassin touched down on the floor, he couldn't stop the look of amusement from creeping onto his face as he saw just what became of his opponent.

While you could certainly say a great many negative things about an impulsive, hot-headed, and quick to anger youth such as Nero, you certainly couldn't say he was lacking in a sense of style. As it turned out, the impact caused by the statue chunk crashing into the cluster of chairs somehow created a colossal mountain of the steel chairs that was half-way up towards the ceiling that looked about as stable as a jenga tower, with Nero sitting at the very top of these chairs with an undeniably proud and pleased smile on his face. In his left hand, resting on his shoulder was his sword.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to take you down a couple notches." The youth boasted, his expression and tone making it clear he felt he successfully one-upped his fellow white-head in terms of style just now.

"Heh. Whatever you say, kid~." The man chuckled, his tone making it clear he'd been having a lot of fun and merriment fighting against Nero. Letting out a few muted chuckles himself, the young man instinctively wiped his nose with his forearm before leaping off from his haphazard throne and in the direction of the assassin.

The man in red kicked a chair at him, but the act did not deter Nero in the slightest. In retaliation, the teen easily swiped the chair in midair with his right hand and threw it back.

The assassin jumped back to avoid the furniture as it bounced off the floor, to which Nero grinned at. As soon as he lands, the teen parried a sword strike from the man in red. With a spin, Nero grabs hold of the still airborne chair and smacked the assassin across the face with it.

This genuinely took the assassin by surprise. Who in their right mind would fight someone using a chair? This kid, apparently. Capitalizing on this, Nero rushed the man with a series of quick and brutal blows from Red Queen. The man was able to deftly parry every blow that came his way with his claymore, but he was nevertheless forced onto the defensive as every swing he blocked forced him to take a step back. He was then sent several feet back when Nero opted to shake things up a bit by tossing the chair up between them and using that brief instant where his right hand was free to deliver another brutal punch with his demonic limb.

The man was able to block the spectral punch from slamming into him with the flat end of his claymore, but once again, the force behind that limb's power was so great that it nevertheless sent him sliding back several feet.

"Sheesh, you're a pushy one, arentcha?" The assassin asked rhetorically, a coy tone in his voice as he slid back. His response to this taunt came in the form of that folding chair slamming into his face with what felt like the force of a motorcycle.

As the unexpected hit sent the assassin stumbling back, both reality and physics once again went out of the way to accommodate these stylish combatants when the chair hit the floor completely unfolded and on it's feet, facing Nero. Without skipping a beat, Nero followed this up by sprinting up to and leaping off the back of the chair, shifting into the motions required for another dropkick just as the assassin recovered and looked up… only to be greeted with a pair of boots he'd become very well-acquainted with today once again slamming into his face.

Just like before, the force of Nero's dropkick sent the assassin flying and crashing into what was left of the statue of Jacques, his claymore spinning to the ground just beside the youth with it's tip embedded in the ground. Wasting no time, Nero grabbed the handle of the sword with his right arm and threw it like a spear at the assassin before he could even start descending towards the ground.

*SPLICH!* "Hrk-! Ahh..."

And like that, the entire amphitheater went eerily quiet as the assassin went limp, his claymore having run through his chest and embedded itself in the demolished statue. The only sounds that pervaded and broke the quiet were the periodic drops of blood that fell from the claymore and onto the marble floor, and Nero's labored breathing as he tried to recompose himself after such an intense battle.

However, with the adrenaline rush beginning to wear down, another look at the assassin's corpse caused what Nero just did to really sink in for him. Wincing at the visceral sight he created, all the youth could think to do now that the deed was done was drop his sword and bring his left hand up to his forehead.

"...Shit. I overdid it again…" He groaned, turning away from the body and towards the amphitheater's exit. He could only mentally prepped himself for whatever furious lecture Winter had in mind for him after going overboard in combat again.

"Getting better..." a familiar voice echoed as it stood up, surprising Nero as he looked back.

"In fact… I would even go as far as to say that I underestimated your…" the assassin stops himself for a moment as he begins pushing himself off the statue, visibly feeling the pain as he and the sword moved forward.

"...abilities." He finished, dropping to the floor just as Nero pulled out Blue Rose, the sword still embedded the assassin's chest. "What the hell are you?" the youth demanded, revolver still drawn.

The assassin looked to his chest and let out a frustrated sigh, muttering something along the lines of 'Every goddamn time…' before palming both sides of the blade and beginning to pull it out. Despite the copious sprays of blood that flew out with every tug, the grunts he made as he did so only indicat mild annoyance at most.

"We're the same. Both you, and… *TING* I." he replied as he pulled out the blade and settled the tip on the floor. His words confused Nero, but he didn't allow that to distract him.

"Can't say the same about these guys though… they're a whole 'nother breed entirely." He added and gestured to the bodies of dead soldiers all around them. The young man turned to where the assassin pointed, and were shocked at what he saw. He was pointing towards a soldier that had his helmet destroyed during the struggle, but everything about his face was wrong and unnatural.

The soldier's face was pale, so much so that he resembled a day old corpse, and had eyes that gave out an unnatural red glow as well as black veins running down the sides of his face. "What the hell…?"

"You're lucky those three from earlier weren't like them. These guys are hard to find these days..." The assassin pointed out before jumping up and landing onto the ledge of the shattered skylight. "What are you talking about?" he demanded answers, but the assassin ignored him.

"You'll come to learn the meaning in time… But for now, business beckons." The assassin finished and turns to leave.

"HEY!" Nero yelled, taking another shot at him. For a moment the assassin was nowhere to be seen, but then his head popped up from the edge of the skylight. "Adios, kid~!" he bid farewell and took his leave. Nero wanted to give chase, but then heard footsteps coming from the entrance.

He turned and aimed Blue Rose when the door slammed open, only to lower it after realizing it was his superior, Winter Schnee. She arrived at his side quickly but cautiously, her saber drawn at a moments notice. "Where is he?" she asked her subordinate.

"You just missed him, up and left through the roof..." he replied and gestured toward the skylight. With that said, Winter pulled out her scroll and contacted headquarters.

"Command, this is Specialist Winter Schnee. The assassin has escaped. I need all air and ground units mobilized to perform a search of the entire city." The Specialist requested and received approval not long after. Pocketing her scroll, Winter resheathes her saber and turned towards the younger silver hair. "He couldn't have gotten far."

"Not unless he reaches the city limit and decides to jump…" he answered, voice dripping with sarcasm. With a fancy twirl, the teen returned Blue Rose to its holster, letting out a sigh of relief. 'Then again… if he can shrug off a sword to the chest like it's nothing, who's to say a several thousand feet drop would phase him?'

"Were you injured…?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle. Though…" Nero trailed off as he looked down to his ruined attire, his right coat sleeve torn and riddled with bullet holes, and that's not even touching upon how his formerly pristine white coat, which was synonymous with the Atlesian military, was stained with both his blood, the assassin's, and various bullet holes. Miraculously, the only piece of clothing that managed to survive his fight was his red scarf.

"Looks like I'll be paying the tailor a visit tomorrow." Nero thought aloud before he noticed Winter's gaze on his right arm. Under normal circumstances, seeing someone aware of his unnatural appendage would be cause for the youth to try and hide it from their gaze, along with a defensive, quick to anger attitude showing, but… Winter was an exception to this. She was both aware of this change in his arm from the beginning and someone that, for all the annoyances and bullshit she sent his way, he deeply trusted.

"Reinforcements will be arriving not much longer, so…" The specialist began, the way her eyes fell upon his scarf before drifting back to his arm being all the indication he needed.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Nero replied before unravelling the red scarf around his neck. Once he did, Nero took one end of the scarf in his right hand and began to wrap the cloth around his demonic arm. However, after he finishes, the scarf unraveled itself and revealed his arm once more.

"Ugh, stupid… Come on…" Nero muttered under his breath as he tried to rewrap his arm, but failed once again. "Dammit!"

Seeing him struggle with such an easy task, Winter lets out a soft sigh and approaches the young man. "Here, let me do it…" She offered to help. Nero wanted to decline, but Winter took the scarf in hand before he could even respond and started to wrap his arm in it. Naturally, the boy felt uncomfortable and scanned the area to see if anyone was looking.

"I'm not a kid, you know…" Nero grumbled, his tone and the way his cheeks lit up ever so slightly making his embarrassment and discomfort clear. "Yet you can't properly wrap your arm with your own scarf." She retorted, and as much as he loathed to admit it, Nero couldn't think of a proper retort.

Once Winter was done, the teenager's scarf was neatly wrapped around his hand and forearm, completely hiding the red-scaled appendage. "Thanks... I guess…" Was all Nero could manage to say once the deed was done, looking anywhere but at Winter.

"You're welcome. Come, the others will expect us to wait at the entrance…" Winter informed him and began walking towards the exit. Nero inspects his concealed arm for a moment before letting the said appendage fall to his side and following his superior.

To be continued...

XxXxX

AN: Well, this is it for now. Sorry it took so long to update, I needed the assistance of my beta-reader in order to make this chapter give a good impression on the site.

Major thanks and credit to my beta-reader lolrus555 for proofreading and coming up with most of the fight scenes for this chapter, you guys should check him out!