Last chapter name: A mission from Ghost of Tsushima
Alright, I would consider this the Volume 2 portion of RWBY… but what I've done in Volume 1 of this story already, I think stuff is about to go down a lot sooner. Recently watched Marvel's "What If?" so that reminded me how much even one little thing can completely alter timelines.
Anyways let's get to it!
Chapter 11 - Two Faced
It was well into lunch time as the Fox Den was met with the usual busy lunch service. On the floor was none other than the owner, Ava. A door opened and the little bell signaled the entry of a new customer. She set the receipt of a party that just left down next to the cash register to tend to the new customer.
"Hello! Welcome to the Fox Den!—"
Ava, for a split second, was speechless with who she saw. It was a purple-eyed tall man with a well built physique, long and light grey blue hair a bit wild like a horse's that ended in a ponytail. The anchor beard did wonders to display the charming man-look. He wore a light sky blue suit with a purple tie to complement his frame, all to top it off with a unicorn insignia pinned onto his lapel.
"A table of one, preferably more secluded with room for two." The man said with a small smile.
The girl looked at him for another second before nodding, "Sure! Follow me." Ava soon led the man to the upstairs portion of the restaurant where there were less people. There is a table that was more in the corner which was kind of blending into the foliage they grew on the building to give the building a more natural look. Ava rarely used this table for regular guests.
Admittedly, her main reason for having this table was for special guests like this man.
The man took a seat at the table as Ava set a menu down in front of him. "I will be with you shortly, just going to tell my other waiters to cover for my other tables." She then walked back downstairs. The man looked at the menu with a bemused expression.
"Can't believe she fell through with the restaurant business. That's Ava for you." His eyes soon wandered around the various fauna around him until he noticed certain yellow ones on the ground.
"Dandelions… hmm." Footsteps were heard as he perked up to see who was coming in. Surely enough, it was Ava and she was already carrying in what seemed to be a tea set.
Without asking what he wanted, Ava already began pouring tea. "Chamomile tea with some honey! Just as you always like it… Ira."
Ira was handed the tea as he blew lightly before taking a sip. The refreshing beverage was one that always helped him keep a leveled head. He was glad at least one person knew exactly how he liked his tea.
"It's been a while, Ava. It seems you've arrived in this destination a few years before us. You really were serious about this whole restaurant thing."
"Haha, I think if I opened a restaurant like this back home then the Keyblade wielders would lose the motivation to gather Lux." The two shared a chuckle as Ava sipped her own tea. "Besides as Foretellers, we had enough on our plate."
The two fell into silence, memories of their time in Daybreak Town flooding their minds. It was nostalgic looking back at times that felt much simpler. Raising their Unions to fight against the darkness was a duty they upheld with the utmost regard.
Imagine being told that was just a farce compared to an even bigger plan it has derived from.
"You feel it in you, Ava? Once we've been told the true purpose of our roles, it makes more sense even though we weren't told absolutely everything. The Master isn't revealing the whole picture… but when has he?"
Ava put a hand to her heart, "I didn't need to be told anything to have an idea of what was happening. The notion of a traitor was all that was needed to brew conflict. Tension and strife equals darkness."
And that sentiment continued to fester as the seeds to the Keyblade War developed. Keyblade wielders fell as their lights were snuffed out. Naturally, the diminishing light only brought out more darkness. The race began thinning out as only the diminutive numbers remained. Only the strongest of wielders would have withstood the tribulations of the war. Strong people with strong hearts… something darkness is greatly attracted to. The darkness needed to latch on to hosts.
It didn't take much thought to identify the people who survived from their original era. Ava and Ira were on the same wavelength when it came to processing this.
"Indeed you didn't need to be told. Always the perceptive one you are. My question for you though is… in what way do you plan on following your own agenda instead of ours? You enabled the continuation of Keyblade wielders after the War, that was your role but not the entirety of our purpose as the Foretellers."
"Be honest with me, Ira. Don't you at the very least feel a small ounce of doubt and suspicion? The Master of Masters, Luxu, they are both very much hiding something major." There was a brief silence after Ava said that. Silence was all Ava needed to know that Ira might've had this on his mind before.
The silence reigned for a few more seconds before Ira responded, finishing his cup of tea, "enough to start trusting a boy like Sora over the Master's plan?"
"The Master has led us on a path we didn't even know existed. Only Luxu has more insight on what all of this truly leads to. Ira… I cannot keep trusting the Master and Luxu, especially Luxu."
Ira looked down at his cup of tea that he just refilled. There were many times as one of the Foretellers when he really wondered what was the end goal of all of this. Cryptic statements from the Master most certainly did not help. But no matter what, the Master's crazy insight and wisdom delivered; he did have clairvoyance after all. So really all he could trust right now is that the Master's plan will follow through as expected, and this was shared amongst everyone but Ava.
"So you are willing to deviate away from our destined course? Knowing what we all have in our hearts, we have a role to play in the balance."
Ava responded in kind, "I'm sorry, Ira… and to the others. This isn't the first time I've had to enable some sort of deviation. This time, I will do what I want to do on my own terms."
The man could only smile as he took one last sip of his tea. He stood up and buttoned up his suit.
"Once the creator of the Dandelions will now carry their will herself, will to defy preordained fate. Try as you will, but remember your original purpose."
With that final statement, Ira quickly flickered out of view. The owner of the restaurant stared at the empty spot for a few seconds before her eyes wandered to Ira's seat. She collected the Lien on the seat and pocketed it.
"Always the devoted one, that Ira…", Ava went to collect the tea set when she noticed the tea pot was missing, "… and he took the tea. Great, we need a new pot." The tea was on the house, so the Lien was self explanatory.
Ira was always the most mindful out of them all. He really was the easiest to talk to. With that said, Ava wondered what the others thought of her…
Today's Combat Class was a rather exciting day. Each Friday was a full period of team matches scheduled in advance. Many of the match ups were pretty average with some interesting ones. Three of the teams were depressingly ahead of the whole class by an absurd margain, so their fights were always interesting. So what made this day highly anticipated?
The main title card fight: Team King vs Team RWBY.
The Beacon staff learned from how students outside this specific Combat class period were willing to ditch class to watch exciting match ups thanks to Charlemagne vs Team CRDL. They enforced a stricter attendance policy on such days, but that didn't stop the students inside the Combat Class to film and record said matches.
Recently, Team RWBY and JNPR were matched up against one another and that fight went down to the wire. In a stunning fashion, Pyrrha managed to ring-out both Ruby and Blake to lead JNPR to a close victory when everyone else was out of commission. The Invincible Girl maintains her title.
Now we have the matchup between the elite duo Team King vs a Team RWBY with a chip on their shoulders.
Yang cracked her knuckles and slammed both her fists together as she expressed her excitement. "Oh this is gonna be wild!"
"I've been waiting for this day for so long!" Ruby flourished her baby, eyes on the two boys across the arena from them. "They might be good, but so are we and we have double of them!"
"If you just jinxed us, then by Dear Oum I'll make sure you won't have cookies for a week."
"Weiss! How dare you make such a threat to me! I'm only trying to motivate ourselves as the leader!"
"I appreciate it," Blake joined the dialogue, "but I'm sure you're aware that they are each around Pyrrha's level… and you know what happened." She also didn't want to remind herself of how Sora absolutely demolished her when they fought.
"Cmon, lighten up! We ain't gonna win without a positive attitude. Let's show 'em who are the top dogs in this class!" Yang backed up her sister's optimism.
Across the arena, Sora and Charlemagne were looking at their competition.
"Alright! This atmosphere makes me pumped!" Taking in the vibrance of the class' mood gave extra adrenaline to Charlemagne. "No disputes to settle, just a good ol' spar!"
"Hey, Charlie," Sora got his partner's attention, "the person with the most Aura by the end of this match gets the last sea salt ice cream in the fridge! Whaddya say?"
It happened very naturally, but Sora would be competitive with Charlemagne at times. Perhaps this was his way of projecting his brother in all but blood onto Charlemagne. He was glad that someone was able to fill a Riku-shaped hole during his life on Remnant. Fortunately for Sora, Charlemagne liked to reciprocate the competitiveness.
A competitive fire lit in Charlemagne's eyes, "Oh now I'm a little motivated." Sora was glad Charlemagne grew to like sea salt ice cream because now the prince would request boxes of sea salt ice cream straight from Atlas every now and then whenever the fridge ran out of them. They had another competition to see who could get the first "Winner" stick. The winner gets to keep the remainder of the current supply but so far none of them have succeeded.
"Then it's a deal!" Sora and Charlemagne gave each other an arm bump.
"Yoo hoo?!" They turned their attention to Team RWBY, noticing the young leader trying to call them out. "Are you boys ready for your first losses? Don't think we'll make it easy for you!" With that made known to everyone in the crowd, Team RWBY drew their weapons.
"I wouldn't bet against it!" Sora responded with a smirk. "You know what? I know what to do to make this match a lil' more dynamic!" He reached into his pockets to bring out a Keychain, one that seemed to be a little green alien. Looking at his partner, they both nodded and smiled brightly at each other before taking their stances. Sora summoned a new Keyblade, where the guard looked like a blue/white spaceship but the blade was a cactus with a sheriff's badge as the tooth. To everyone in the room, it just looked like a silly toy.
Weiss expressed it verbally, "So do you intend on fighting with a Fisher-Price toy?"
Sora shook his head, "You should already know how strong my Keyblade is." This next line got Charlemagne and Yang to chuckle given the timing. "And don't judge something by its looks, it's my Favorite Deputy!"
"I-I-I-um…" it was clearly a jab at what Weiss was actively trying to improve. Didn't help that Yang was trying hard to contain her laughter with a blank stare from Blake.
"More forms? I can't wait to see what this Keyblade has in store!" Ruby was always excited to see Sora pull out a new Keyblade as each transformation looked super cool. Sora's proficiency with the weapon forms were also a spectacle to see.
From the side, Glynda finally stepped up to the podium. "Combatants! Remember the rules of sparring. If your aura reaches a low red or you are ringed out, that means you are automatically out of commission for the rest of the match. The team with the last member standing or highest percentage of Aura by the end of the time limit wins. Now Team RWBY and Team King, are you ready?"
All members readied themselves. On the stands, Team JNPR watched as their sibling teams squared off. It didn't matter to them who won as they were all close friends, but that didn't mean they had speculations on which team would win.
"Team RWBY is always gonna bring mayhem, would Team King be able to deal with that?" Nora wondered out loud.
"However it is," Ren responded to Nora, "I'd believe the battle won't be easy at all with the number disparity. But in terms of individual combat level… I think that's the real discussion."
"We've seen what Charlie did to CRDL, and how Sora helped me awaken my Semblance…"
Ren could only nod to what Jaune said. Although this was the beginning of the year, Charlemagne fodderized a first-year four-man team with heavy restrictions. Sora gave Jaune a hellish spar just to force his Semblance out… and the scary part was that Jaune felt Sora wasn't fully exerting himself. Even Pyrrha, who is closest in comparison to Sora and Charlemagne, would show at least very slight fatigue if she were to do exactly what they did in those instances.
The girl had thoughts of her own, "While it's easy to assume Team RWBY's number advantage would be a huge boon, that does not immediately make them favorites. I see a bright potential in them all even with their current combat prowess." This was when her eyes narrowed, and it wasn't at Team RWBY, "But…"
Her eyes fell upon their opponents. The two boys had their attention on Team RWBY, anticipating the start of the match. "There is much more than what Ren has stated. From all the tournaments that I have been through, I know you can look into the eyes of the competitors and their body language to see who had that killer mentality; the mentality to win it all. Every time I look at those two…"
She could see the excitement in their eyes, the thrill of a good fight but at the same time the laser-focused gaze of those who have experienced combat for years. Their body language and form were perfectly relaxed with no tension. They were ready to deal a great world of pain, but at the same time she saw something else.
"They have the intention of holding back. Just like me, they have never had to go close to all-out this year. How would it feel… to fight you guys? If I go all-out, will both of you do the same?"
Pyrrha couldn't help but smile a little. "Finally… worthy opponents." This did not go unheard of by Jaune, who stared at his partner for a bit before smiling. As dense as he may be with some social cues, he was aware of this plight of hers.
On the big screen, the bars of the combatants filled to green as the simultaneous ding sounds signaled fresh Auras. Glynda held up her riding crop as the audience waited with bated breath. The silence was deafening, clearly becoming unbearable for some as it felt like an eternity when it was really just for a couple of seconds.
"Begin!"
"Controlled Fire!" The squeaky voice of Ruby capped off the start of the match.
Immediately, Ruby and Yang sped towards Team King with the intent of trying to blitz them the moment the match started. The boys readied themselves for a clash when they saw the sisters suddenly halted their momentums and began running to their sides, noticing that they were both holding on to the end of a black ribbon with the center held in place by a glyph. As soon as they reached the extent of the ribbon's length, they began to make a loop around the boys and the ribbon closed in very fast onto the center. Both boys were forced to jump which quickly led into the other part of this trap.
Gravity glyphs closed them into a sphere in mid air. The girls positioned themselves to be at each side and readied their ranged projectiles.
"We're like fish in a barrel!" Sora noticed each girl loaded up different Dust types.
"They're intending on shooting this trap with varied Dust types to cause a reaction!" Surely with the damage they could suffer, it would give RWBY a good early lead.
Sora felt a sudden familiarity with the predicament they were in. Around him, bullets were gonna be fired at him and another. It was some deja vu being felt.
"Got no choice but to face em' head on! Hope I can count on your defense, Charlie!"
"Fire!" At Ruby's command, they all fired at the trap they've concocted.
As the projectiles neared, the boys readied their defense. Charlemagne decided to give them a compliment, "A commendable strategy! But…don't think we'll just let you have it easy!"
What ensued surprised everyone in the room, even Glynda. With nothing but pure agility and coordination, Sora and Charlemagne deflected the incoming storm of Dust rounds. They were like an omni-directional bullet-proof wall that warded off everything. To Sora, this wasn't his first time in a situation like this and to his luck the current situation was a lot more manageable.
The plan was clearly not working so Ruby decided it was time to end this preemptive strike to not waste too much Dust. "Overload!"
Ruby and Yang switched to their explosive rounds while Weiss and Blake switched to Lightning rounds. They aimed at the ground near the foot of Team King and fired. The mix of these rounds caused a reaction that made the explosion of the explosive rounds more potent. Team King was quickly enveloped by the smoke.
"Did that at least put a dent in their Auras?" Yang wanted that attack to have at least done that. Blake looked at the big screen only to frown.
"That only shaved off 5% of their Auras…"
"What!!"
"Don't fret! Prepare for anything they do—!"
Weiss did not get to finish as she had to narrowly avoid one of Charlemagne's winged spears flying straight at her from the cloud of smoke. From the brief moment of seeing her other teammates they had to do the same with three other spears. The spear headed towards her embedded itself on the arena wall before disappearing quickly. Her brief distraction proved to be a fatal flaw as her instincts screamed to defend. She pivoted to the right and raised Myrtenaster in a hurried fashion in an attempt to block Sora's broad swing. His attack proved to be powerful enough to send Weiss into the cloud of smoke.
"Damn!" Weiss slid to a stop. With footsteps fastly approaching her, she remembered there was another opponent to fight. She attempted a thrust at Charlemagne's face only for him to move his head to the side and deliver an elbow strike to her sternum. Absorbing the hit as best as she could, she flipped back and summoned a line of glyphs to curve around Charlemagne. She launched at Charlemagne's exposed side but once again she failed to land a hit as Charlemagne went to block it.
This brought a smile to the boy's face, "Don't think you catch me off guard." He negated her attack and went into an exchange of steel with her. Back with the others, Ruby knew that Weiss by herself wasn't going to last too long with Charlemagne. She saw her partner's Aura bar progressively dipping so she had to think of something quick.
"Blake! You go help Weiss! Yang and I will take Sora!"
With her Faunus friend entering the smoke to aid Weiss, Ruby located the spiky haired teen who swerved around Yang's shots. Sora got within blade's length of Yang and began his assault. In a flurry of Keyblade and fists, Yang found it hard to keep up with Sora's erratic style. Thinking she found a hole in his guard, she made an attempt to land an uppercut on his chin. Sora's sheer reaction time allowed him to jump up and meet the fist with a downward swing.
He used the momentum of the upward moving fist to spring himself upwards before falling back down to his opponent whilst performing a series of vertical spinning attacks. Yang had no choice but to cross her arms and bring her guard up as she had to bear the attacks. Sora noticed that she was distracted by his constant pressure so he abruptly stopped spinning and did an upwards swing to break her guard. With arms completely helplessly flung back, Yang could only see the world of hurt she would be in when Sora lands a downwards aerial finisher.
A sniper round was shot and Ruby flew towards Sora with the intention of stopping Sora in midair. Almost at her target, Ruby held the scythe back to wind up her swing. Sora's instinct proved useful again as he changed his attack into a horizontal sweep with a little bit of heat.
"Hm!" Sora casted Fire around him in a circle to ward off Ruby and chip in some damage on Yang. It was not remotely any sort of strong magic but it did enough to stop Ruby's blindside charge as the girl redirected herself to land next to her sister.
"Yang, are you ok?" Ruby went to briefly look over her sister to see she was mainly alright.
"I'm fine Rubes. This dude is crazy fast and packs too much power. He's performing all these impossible moves without breaking a sweat!"
"Then we will just have to try harder with those things ourselves. Sora is someone who approaches combat like us, while Weiss and Blake might stand a better chance with Charlie." Ruby thought about the matchups when preparing for the match. With Sora, his raw speed and tenacity were something that Ruby and Yang were more equipped to handle. Weiss and Blake could fare better with a more traditional sword-user like Charlemagne as well as having more counters against his weapon-summoning Semblance. These weren't guaranteed winning matchups due to the boys' unreal talents, but for Ruby it increased their chances of success.
Feeling like they needed more motivation to beat him, Sora channeled a bit of Riku, "Don't give up now, I thought you all were stronger than this!" Angry veins popped from Yang's forehead and the blond looked forward to wiping Sora's smug grin from his face.
"I wouldn't get too comfortable, Porcupine Head!"
"Yang, calm down! Let's stick to the plan! Ember Storm!" Yang pumped her fists and loaded her gauntlets before unleashing a barrage of ground pounds that erupted debris around them.
Cutting to the other combatants, Weiss tried hard to take advantage of any sort of openings but to no avail. In terms of pure swordplay, Charlemagne had her beat and it wasn't funny. Weiss thought she had received very good training prior to her enrollment into this Academy. Her training might've been very good, but that didn't necessarily mean her training was the best that Atlas had to offer.
From what she's heard Charlemagne mention a few times, his teacher was none other than his old man. Weiss has not ever seen the Magnus head in combat but from the rumors and hearsay she has heard in Atlas, his prowess was said to make General Ironwood look like an "average first-year Atlas student" in comparison. With each sword exchange and little shots that Charlemagne managed to score on Weiss, she felt the disparity of skill between them.
She felt relief when Charlemagne was forced to roll to the side to avoid a sickle to the face. Blake yanked the ribbon to the direction Charlemagne was heading and the sickle began a diagonal path towards him. The sickle harmlessly bounced off of Joyeuse and Blake retracted her weapon back quickly so Charlemagne couldn't do anything about it. Channeling Aura, Blake let out some projectile slashes at Charlemagne to force him on the defensive. Stray Aura slashes parted the dust and smoke so the crowd could finally see their fight a lot better. With Blake now present, Weiss felt less pressure on her shoulders as there was another person she could combat Charlemagne with.
"How are we looking, Weiss?" Blake said.
"Reminded of the different training he and I have gone through. His father's one monster if Charlemagne learned from him." A nod from Blake was the response given. In some cases, Faunus that are well-trained with Aura develop a sort of sense that lets them somewhat feel out the amount of power people give off. It especially applies with combat when that's usually when Aura fluctuates and is affected a lot more.
Whether it's either Sora or Charlemagne, their power gives off an almost tangible feel, like Blake could feel the pressure. However… the power both boys gave off were so unique that she sometimes wondered if they had something more than Aura.
It sounds ridiculous, but she'd occasionally think those boys had energy deviating from Aura. Aura is always active to give people an extra layer of protection. Taking solid hits and attacks would usually make the Aura shield flicker. That being said, she has never seen that case with either Sora or Charlemagne. Sure she could feel flare ups in Aura whenever they used their Semblances, but it felt like both boys were not using Aura actively to shield themselves. It felt like a stretch saying they were both that confident (or cocky) in their natural endurance.
"We strike him from multiple angles, though that may be harder than said with his weapon summons. He could operate at any range."
Blake thought up something in her head, "Checkmate, then?"
With nothing but a nod for confirmation, Weiss and Blake rushed towards their opponent before assaulting him with a storm of stabs and slashes meant to overwhelm him. Despite the number advantage, Charlemagne still kept up with both girls with just his sword. Even with a team attack meant to constantly pressure the opponent and force an opening, the girls could not land a single solid strike. They soon resorted to using hit and run tactics in order to attack him from multiple angles and he managed to deal with them again. In one instance, Weiss and Blake dashed towards Charlemagne from opposite sides which he predicted perfectly. Charlemagne planted his sword on the ground and vaulted into the air just in time to avoid Weiss and Blake. Their blades got locked onto his blade and the girls were briefly surprised. That brief second was enough time for Charlemagne to deliver a split kick to Weiss and Blake's faces and grab his sword to deliver a circular attack, driving them back. It was then when Charlemagne noticed the cloud of smoke developing where Sora was.
Back to Sora's fight, he watched as Yang built up an area of debris and smoke not unlike earlier. Sora stood in anticipation to see what was in store for him. No doubt in his mind that the words he said earlier had some effect on Yang. He began detecting a bit of movement within the smoke, then the smoke began shifting somewhat before a blur abruptly zipped past him which he identified as Ruby. He didn't get to wonder why Ruby avoided him when he felt a tailwind, which caused the cloud of smoke to travel towards him.
The tailwind also brought up debris that flew at Sora albeit they didn't really do any sort of meaningful damage to him. From within the smoke, a bright spot emerged as it grew in brightness. A couple of shotgun rounds flew towards Sora as he deflected both of them before the smoke parted in front of him, revealing a bright yellow flame with red eyes. Behind him, Ruby emerged from the smoke with scythe winded back to blindside him.
Sora figured out their game plan, "Oh! Yang not only made it hard to see, but she also used the energy of the explosions to power her Semblance. This also distracted me from Ruby who crept up behind me. A good tactic…"
But Sora wasn't completely helpless.
"Here we go!" Sora held out Favorite Deputy and flared out a burst of Flowmotion just for the appearance as his clothes transitioned into a more red theme. The structure of the Keyblade began to animate and Sora began a circular rotation of the weapon. Suddenly, a rocket popped out and orbited Sora. The rocket did a good job of intercepting both Ruby and Yang's attacks which left them rather shocked. After a couple more cycles, the smoke dissipated by the rocket as everyone saw Sora's weapon transform into a large space-themed hammer.
"No. Freakin'. WAY!!!" A certain hammer wielding orange-head was ecstatic.
"What the hell! You got a hammer now?!" Yang was floored as Sora brandished Hyper Hammer. Varying degrees of shock and surprise were shared in the room with Sora unfolding a brand new transformation. A whistle of admiration was what Charlemagne followed up with.
"You didn't tell me you had a hammer either!" Ruby was conflicted between excitement and fear since she was sparring with him.
Sora could only grin at the girl, "Then let me tell ya all about it!" He leapt at Ruby and with a front flip, he heaved the hammer down.
"W-W-WOAH!" Ruby had to back off lest she ends up being completely one-shot by the downward swing. Hyper Hammer's impact created a moderately sizable web of cracks as the room shook a bit. Yang took this opportunity to rush at Sora and the boy responded in kind. He wildly swung at Yang, who did not expect him to wind up that quickly. Ruby zipped in front to get a swipe at his face and he spun with the hammer, scoring hits on both girls. With a growl, Yang launched herself at Sora as the boy shifted his posture to swing the hammer back at Yang.
Blake took this as an opportunity to start shooting at Sora to at least get some shots in. Charlemagne went to intercept but was prevented by a hail of ice courtesy of Weiss. With all the stored energy from her Semblance, Yang threw a fierce haymaker to meet Sora's hammer. Gambol Shroud began emptying its clip to give Yang an advantage.
Fist met hammer and the power that was produced by the collision blew away the bullets soaring towards Sora. And all Yang felt was the immense pressure that was going against her fist. She even began to shoot rounds from her other gauntlet behind her to give extra power from the recoil.
"Cold Feet!" Ruby abruptly shouted that seemingly got Blake and Yang's attention. Sora saw Blake from the corner of his eyes run at him. He had thoughts of disengaging until Blake flickered not directly at him, but slid beneath him and grabbed his feet. Not a second later, Blake created an ice clone which effectively ensnared his feet. Ruby zipped past Sora, but not before giving a kick to the back of Sora's knees.
Momentarily losing his ability to stand upright, Sora couldn't help it and felt Yang's fist begin to slide past the hammer. In the first time since this fight, somebody was able to score a true blow to either Sora or Charlemagne. Ember Celica managed to imprint itself onto Sora's cheek as he was sent flying back.
"Right on!" Yang was actually shocked she managed to score such a hit on him. It was truly a miracle that Ruby was able to identify the combination attack needed for this sort of situation.
Sora tumbled more before stopping near the edge of the ring. Sora massaged his cheek in order to check if it didn't get blown off, which garnered a "tsk" from Yang. "You pack quite a punch! That took 20% of my Aura off!" Could Sora have avoided that? Yes, but he wasn't necessarily trying either. He has taken many hits at least that hard.
Being bounced back by a repulsion Glyph, Charlemagne was sent flying next to Sora and landed on his two feet.
"How many more awesome transformations are you holding from us?", was the first thing Charlemagne asked Sora.
"I play my cards close, hehe. I do have an idea though." While the boys were conversating, Team RWBY gathered back together.
Yang was particularly annoyed, "That punch should've knocked anyone out, but it only took off 20% of his Aura?"
"Maybe his Semblance enhances the Aura durability?"
"I'm not sure that's the case", Ruby responded to Weiss, "his Semblance seems a lot more on the offensive side of things."
"Then his Aura reserves are just big?" The girls were uncertain if they were even able to strip off enough of their Aura so that the average of their Auras was more than the average of Team King's if they expired the match time. All of the girls either had 50% of their Aura left or less while Charlemagne's was 85% and Sora was around 75%. Blake decided not to share her thoughts on Sora and Charlemagne's Aura to avoid sounding like she's lost a bit of her mind. She could only frown as she thought about it. It didn't mean she found the matter non-relevant though.
"Alright! Let's go!" Sora made it known they were ready for their attack, sharing a devilishly amused face with Charlemagne. He began running towards Team RWBY before halfway between he leapt up and slammed the hammer down, causing debris and rocks to protrude and fly up.
This caused Glynda to shake her head, "How many more times do they need to completely pulverize this arena," she said to herself.
On cue, Charlemagne brandished a mace summoned from his Semblance and it began imbuing itself in fire. With a leap of his own, he struck the destroyed area with the mace with great force. Man-sized flaming rocks flew straight at Team RWBY and that forced Weiss to summon a Glyph to shield the team.
"These teams, I swear to Oum, have a tendency for excessive damage…"
Weiss was panting, feeling all the fatigue from fighting Charlemagne and constantly using her Glyphs. So after dismissing her Glyph, she felt her sword become heavier in her hand. She saw Charlemagne begin running towards them, "Prepare yourselves!"
Wait, where was Sora?
The other girls caught on and looked around and even up in the air to see if he had the idea to slam down that blasted hammer again but to no avail.
"I don't see Sora anywhere! Not in the air nor behind us!" Ruby shouted as they began shooting Charlemagne in their efforts to slow down whatever plan they had in store. Even with a stocky mace, Charlemagne was able to avoid and deflect almost all Dust Rounds; an insignificant few landed.
"All standing at one spot, just as planned!" Charlemagne smiled while getting ready to prep his mace for an attack.
With her enhanced hearing thanks to her cat ears, Blake picked up faint sounds around her. It came from… underneath. It sounded almost like… she widened her eyes as she figured what might've been underneath, but had no time to alert the team as it way too quickly approached.
"Get awa—!" The ground beneath Team RWBY cracked as very brief vibrations occurred before the very ground split open for Sora to emerge with an enhanced upper thrust attack with what seemed to be a metal drill with thrusters attached to his hand. Nothing could've prevented the girls from being launched into the air. Charlemagne followed it up by leaping into the air and accumulated wind in the mace before releasing a torrent of wind that forced Team RWBY back onto the ground. Before any of them had a chance to recover, Sora delivered a decisive drill slam to knock them all back.
Loud buzzes went off to signal that Auras reached red. Sora pulled the drill from the ground and transformed it back to the Keyblade form before dismissing it. As he pocketed the Keychain, he and Charlemagne looked at the big screen alongside a shocked crowd.
Low red Aura bars across the board for Team RWBY and green bars for Team King.
"All members of Team RWBY are out for the count from their Auras reaching red. Your winners are Team King!" That snapped the crowd out of their stupor, roaring in applause from the explosive match that transpired.
"Yeah!" Both members of Team King high-fived one another. From the stands, Team JNPR stood up and clapped for their friends.
"The two of them fighting together is scary." Jaune couldn't help but shiver at the prospect of their team having to face off against Team King.
"NEXT COMBAT CLASS WE ARE SPARRING SORA AND YOU ARE GONNA USE THAT HAMMER, YOU HEAR ME!?" Nora screamed with a fire in her eyes. Sora heard that from the arena floor and gave a sheepish smile.
Ruby and Weiss sat up, feeling the pain of Team King's final combination attack. They looked up and noticed Sora walking up to them as he squatted to their level and held both of his hands out.
"That was a fun match!"
Both girls took his hands as he helped them up on their feet.
"No matter what sort of attacks we threw at you two, you both seemed to get out of everything easily…" Ruby dejectedly said.
"Hey! Don't fret, I definitely had trouble when I began trying to work in a team back on the islands. It's just growing pains to improve coordination and synergy."
Ruby pouted and looked sideways, something that Weiss decided to pinch her ear for.
"Hey Ruby, take Sora's advice to heart! He and Charlie might've outclassed us now but there's still time for us to grow. They just have more experience than us, that's all."
"Ow! Ow! I am! It's just thought those combos were so cool in my head and I thought they were fool proof!"
Watching their chatter from a bit away, Charlemagne stood by Yang and Blake. Yang managed to get up albeit a bit shaken up. It wasn't as fortunate with Blake as she almost fell. Thankfully, Charlemagne and Yang were quick enough to steady her.
"Are you sure you can walk?" Yang asked Blake in a worried tone.
"Might've bumped my head on that fall a bit, but probably will be fine in a few minutes." It gave the other two reassured smiles as Charlemagne allowed Yang to give Blake shoulder support.
"Damn. I'm sure we gave it our all and you guys still beat us despite our greater numbers."
Charlemagne took a second to think over the match, "I think despite the loss, you all did awesome! Put us in a pinch a few times and you even scored a hit on Sora! Take this loss as a brick to build up your foundation as an aspiring successful Huntress."
"Heh, wish I've had that sort of thing taught to me earlier in my life. Sometimes I think there's more to you and Sora than you two are letting on," Blake responded to Charlemagne.
The boy couldn't help but scratch his head, "Couldn't have been here without my pops! He taught me everything after all."
"Ahem!" All attention went back to Glynda as she prepared to give both the teams feedback.
"Team King, you have displayed the abilities and adaptability of your elite duo status. I am pleased to see how each of you are individually able to handle multiple capable combatants at once and mostly devise countermeasures when the odds seem stacked against you two. It's rare to see teams of four with the level of synergy and battle chemistry you two have, even less when it comes to other two partner pairs. I look forward to when your team is able to take on missions either alone or with another team." Sora rubbed his nose with a cheeky smile while Charlemagne gave a cheerful nod.
"As for Team RWBY", Glynda faced the other team, "there will be times you will be facing powerful individuals capable of fending off against all of you at once. The team combinations you have concocted shows promise about your team's synergy but there are still kinks to be polish. If the enemy counters a strategy, come up with contingency plans. Always think ahead." The various nods from Team RWBY was all she needed to know her message got across.
"With the conclusion of this match, it seems we have less than a minute of this class left. You are all dismissed. And before I forget, learn from this match class; this was an exemplary example of combat including a four-person team and pairs." As the class began filing out, Glynda only watched as Team RWBY and Team King left the class. When she thought about it, those were six VERY promising prospects and no doubt they all had the potential to each be stellar Huntsman and Huntresses.
The daughter of Summer Rose who has not only inherited her talent but the Silver-Eyes that have yet to show their true powers. Half sister of Ruby who is a child of the fierce Raven Branwen and a skilled fighter in Taiyang Xiao Long. An ex-White Fang member with the skills closer to the higher ranks who recently embraced her Faunus heritage. Last but not least, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company who no doubt takes a lot from her sister while has the drive to reform the company.
They were special indeed, but once her attention focused on Team King she remembered what Ozpin said during the Initiation.
'The potency of magic cannot be underestimated, even when they are holding back. With just two of them on a team of their own, they can still be one of the best teams, if not the best, in Beacon history.'
That was high praise coming from the old man himself. Team STRQ was possibly the best she could think of, with the "weakest" link being Taiyang. For Ozpin to make such a claim about a young two-man duo…
She couldn't fathom how much they could do when not holding back.
Jesus that was one writer's block I had. Other personal things also came up so I'm sorry if you guys thought I stopped writing the story haha. Ideally this is when I want to really start ramping up the story. I'm a bit amazed I've been committed enough to get to this point as someone who doesn't put this story as one of their priorities usually above most other things I do.
Also I really appreciate the 200 favorites for this story. Shows there are people who really enjoy my writing so that gives me some joy that at least my writing is appealing to a couple hundred people or more.
Anyways see ya in the next one!
REternal
