It's been a while huh ?
Well here's a chapter for everyone who, like me, doesn't have First to watch volume 8 early, along with one good news and one bad news.
The bad news is : This story will go on a hiatus for the duration of volume 8. I need to check if I want to follow how the show will behave.
The good news is : Once volume 8 is over, this story will be updated weekly (while keeping the chapters as long as they currently are of course).
Now back to the story, please enjoy.
" Wasps ! Are you sure this is the right place ? It stinks ! " complained the raven haired girl.
" My name is Watts. You've spent too much time at the castle. This is the lower district, of course it won't smell good." answered the scientist, " And before you ask, this is the best I could find. Everywhere else smells worse."
The duo unlocked the door of the little appartement they would be staying in for the forseeable future and moved inside. The girl's frown deepened as she saw the furniture.
" Witts ! Where are the beds ? " she asked.
" There are none. It's just not in Mistral's culture to have beds, most sleep on a small flat matress that's put on the ground, like here." answered Watts, pointing to where they would be sleeping, " And it's Watts."
The girl groaned.
" I'm starting to regret taking this mission." she grumbled.
" And I'm starting to regret you taking this mission too." noted Watts.
The girl threw her bags on the ground and took out a black wooden stick, which she separated in three to assemble a bow.
" At least I'll still be able to train." she said, " I don't know what I would do if I couldn't use Kaman while we are here."
" Be careful not to lose your arrows." said Watts, " I won't make you any new ones."
" Sure Wonts." she said, rolling her eyes, " I'll take good care of them."
" It's Watts ! " shouted the Doctor as the girl walked out.
She turned around and stuck her tongue out.
" Whatever Volts, see you later." she said as she smashed the door behind her.
" Kids these days... " complained Watts to himself, " No respect for their elders."
Neo really enjoyed her time with the twins.
Not the time she spent tutoring them, although seeing their achievements, as little as they were, gave her a nice feeling of pride.
No, what she enjoyed most was the time the three of them spent roaming the streets and pulling all sorts of pranks on random passerbies.
Whether if it was something as petty as leaving a wealthy looking wallet at the end of a fishing string, or as simple as scaring old ladies with a shout.
It was fun, even when the twins had scolded her when she had took one prank a tad too far and seriously hurt several people.
Neo didn't really understand why the twins were so adverse to hurting people physically. Their pranks carried plenty of risk themselves, like giving an old lady an heart attack or drive one of the many dirt poor inhabitants of the lower district to suicide by giving them a small piece of hope before crushing it mercilessly.
And that was without considering the uncountable amount of traps the twins had layed throughout the lower districts. People could easily hurt themselves severely by falling into a pit-trap or getting smacked by a swinging log.
Neo shrugged. Maybe it was like how people were happy when criminals were killed but revolted when an innocent was ?
Neo doubted it. What the twins took issue with was the method. Not the victim.
So was it a question of causing direct harm instead of indirect harm ? That was puzzling to Neo. After all, what the twins had taught her was the joy of seeing the look on people's face when they were pranked.
That look could range from slight annoyance to boiling rage, including surprise, fear and despair.
The last two were Neo's favorites by far, and boiling rage was what she thought would be most useful to have her opponent in during a fight.
The twins seemed to appreciate it more when their victims were either annoyed or raging, although they didn't appreciate being thrown stuff at.
They wouldn't appreciate being chased down, at least when the chase ended, but nobody had the guts to try and risk provoking their mother.
Because Lil' Miss Malachite was feared in the lower districts. At least enough for nobody to dare call her Mrs despite her being the mother of twins.
Anyway. Neo wasn't really interested in making the twins disgusted with her, even if she didn't understand why what she was doing was disturbing in the first place. As a result, she opted to take a more passive approach and act only when Miltia and Melanie asked her to.
Today's pranking session led them to one particular young girl. She was walking in the middle of the streets, scrunching her nose as she tried to stay as far away from people as she could.
The twins had decided to drench the unsuspecting victim with a cold bucket of water in the middle of Snoweese.
A death sentence for any child or elderly who didn't have access to a way to quickly warm up, which in the lower districts, most hadn't.
Neo wasn't interested in warning the twins though. She knew they wouldn't care, although she was starting to suspect that it was only because they didn't believe her when she explained the risks.
So Neo waited in the shadows while Melanie distracted the girl and Miltia snuck behind the unsuspecting victim with a bucket full of cold water.
When she was suddenly accosted by Melanie, said young girl was surprised.
Right there, in front of her, was a child that didn't smell awfully bad. She didn't smell good either, they were still in the lower districts after all, but at the very least she seemed to be someone that showered regularly.
The sheer hapiness of finally finding someone decent she could talk with made her completely ignore what she should have noticed thanks to her finely toned senses from years of training.
Notably, Miltiades sneaking up behind her.
And when she had a bucket full of water dropped on her, the girl's expression went from absolutly delighted to completely livid, all while producing an ear-shattering screech.
This was sweet music to the prankster's ears, who quickly ran away while laughing at the young girl's plight.
Which was in no way appreciated by the drenched girl, who fumed and angrily pulled out a stick that she separated and rebuilt into a bow.
She took aim at Melanie, a murderous shine in her eye, and shot her arrow.
Neo chose that moment to intervene. She couldn't really let any of the twins meet an untimely demise if she wanted to keep her current living conditions.
The arrow ricocheted on her weapon, and Neo slowly turned around to face the would be killer, a smirk on her face as Hush softly rested on her shoulder.
Neo's opponent's eyes flashed in recognition. She might have only heard a short description of the girl she was here to recruit, but there was no doubt in her mind about Neo's identity.
Still, she had her own honor to uphold, and if the ice-cream girl was going to stop her from killing the two girls that humiliated her, then she was going to fight her too.
Which didn't mean she shouldn't try to avoid the fight if she could.
"Hello, I'm Ember." said the young girl, " Can you please let me teach those twins a lesson ?"
She had heard people could get what they wanted simply by asking nicely, so Ember thought she might as well try.
Neo cupped her chin, acting as if she was concidering letting Ember skewer the twins. In reality, she was taking that time to observe her adversary and her weapon.
Name : Ember
Age : 14
Level : 10 (100%)
Class : Archer [You can use bows as both a ranged and melee weapon]
Path : None
Title : Black Pawn
HP : 10/10
AP : 57/57
STR : 11
CON : 10
DEX : 20
INT : 12
WIS : 15
CHA : 14
Semblance : True aim[Your ranged attacks ignore any malus from cover]
Status effects :
Child of Remnant [You are from Remnant and follow different rules than other worlds. Your HP is always equal to your constitution and any bonuses that would normally improve it are transfered to your aura]
Grimm presence [???]
Drenched [This person is soaking wet and her body conducts electricity more easily. Takes 1d6 bonus damage when hit with an electricity based attack
Defenses :
AC : 20
For : 17
Ref : 22
Will : 18
(--)
Kaman : A grimm bow. I know, it doesn't look like it.
Proficiency bonus : 3
Enhancement : 2 to attacks and damage
Melee damage : 1d6
Range damage : 1d8
Skills :
Grimm wood [Do Grimm trees exists ? apparently yes otherwise this bow couldn't have been made. Melee attacks deals 1d10 bonus dmg to Aura]
Neo was surprised. She hadn't expected anyone around her age to be anywhere close to her own level. She was glad she had taken the time to observe Ember rather than to rush head on into danger.
Ember's semblance was annoying, so Neo gestured the twins to stay in the same spot behind her. She didn't want to risk Ember getting bored with her and deciding she was better off shooting the twins from behind a wall.
There, she could make sure not to stray so far that she wouldn't be able to react to Ember's shots on the twins.
"So ?" asked Ember, " Will you let me ?"
Neo shook her head with a grin. She had a feeling this girl would be pissed off more being denied upfront that if she stalled her.
Ember seethed. She wasn't used to not getting what she wanted. And she had even asked nicely.
Ember took out two arrows from her sleeves and shot. The first went straight towards Neo who blocked it effortlessly, while the second curved around the ice-cream girl and onto the twins.
Neo's weapon shifted and it's canopy changed. Instead of pink with white inscriptions, this one was white with dark orange inscription.
It was earth Dust weaved into it, and Neo used it to create a wall that would block Ember's shot. The arrow still tried to curve again to avoid the new obstacle, but it was already too late and it hit the dirt wall.
Ember was surprised. She had not seen any indication of Dust usage. The usual glow was missing. But at the same time, there was no glowing eyes either, which would have told her that Neo was a maiden.
Then she remembered Neo's semblance. The ability of illusion that Lionheart had warned them about. Surely that would allow Neo to hide her shining maiden eyes.
Everything made sense to Ember. It explained why Ozpin was so keen on capturing Neo. He didn't want to risk an actual maiden going to Salem's side.
Ember rejoiced. She was already imagining Salem's Glee when she would come back with a real maiden. She was so lost in her excitement that she didn't realize that Neo's "semblance" could also be used to hide the glow of Dust.
Just after making the dirt wall that had protected the twins, Neo switched her canopy back to her illusion Dust and activated it.
She didn't want to dodge Ember's arrows, as that would mean the twins would be hit instead, but she wanted to hide her actions from Ember and surprise her when she'll reappear.
And reappear she did, right next to an unsuspecting Ember lost in her delusions. Neo switched her canopy again, and hit Ember with all her strength while the lightning Dust electrocuted the girl.
- 24 AP
This shocked Ember back to reality, and she quickly jumped away to create as much distance as possible between her and Neo.
Ember shot out another few arrows. Neo blocked the one heading straight for her, jumped over the one curving from the right and ducked under the one coming from the left.
Ember wasn't done though. Her style might be to overwhelm her opponent through countless arrows, but that didn't mean she didn't have a few tricks up her sleeves.
Ember activated the Dust within her arrows, creating two explosions. One over and one under Neo. The ice-cream girl quickly switched her canopy as soon as she noticed the familiar glow of fire Dust within the arrows.
The one she had blocked was now too far away to be a threat, but the two she had dodged remained, and so she encased herself in ice to be protected from harm.
[Ice cocoon : You envelop yourself in a cocoon made of ice. You are unable to take any action, but the cocoon will block 3d8 plus Intelligence damage before shattering]
6 damage blocked
3 damage blocked
[You remove the cocoon]
The ice around Neo broke apart as soon as the explosions ended, and Neo stabbed Hush into the ground as she landed.
Ice spikes sprouted out of the earth towards Ember, who did a cartwheel to get away while firing even more arrows towards Neo.
Her bolts all hit their marks, and the Neo in front of her shattered while the real one reappeared next to her. Neo took half a second to make sure the arrows weren't going anywhere near the twins before striking Ember, giving the older girl the time to block her with her bow.
Ember smirked as the grimm within her bow ate away at Neo's aura through her weapon, or so she thought that was what the grimm was devouring.
Neo, on the other hand, was surprised. She had thought that Ember's bow's ability was useless against her, but here her current canopy had suddenly lost 10 points of her adored illusion Dust.
She quickly pulled away. Illusion Dust was extremely time consuming and expensive to make, and while she could ensure success through her Gamer ability, she still didn't like wasting any of it.
Ember took out a couple new arrows, and Neo was seriously starting to wonder where they were coming from. She slapped away the first and opened Hush behind her to block the second.
Then, she saw Ember running around shooting arrow after arrow, taking her ammunitions from both her sleeves and the streets they had turned into a battlefield.
Had she been capable of talking, Neo would've been rendered speechless. She noticed, when Ember took out an arrow stuck in the ground, that it was surprisingly flexible. And yet, when fired, they were capable of travelling very quickly and deal important damage.
This not only meant that the technology behind the arrows was impressive, but also that firing them required an extraordinarly large amount of skill, even with Ember's semblance.
The flexibility made the arrows much more impacted by the wind and any rotation Ember put into them, which was most likely meant to both emphasize her semblance and reduce Ember's reliance on it.
This gave Neo an idea. She wanted to see just how good Ember actually was. What was the abilities of a single Black Pawn compared to Ozpin's chess set.
Neo was curious. She had met quite a few white chess pieces over the years she spent at Beacon. Notably was the White Bishop that occasionally came through Ozpin's balcony, and the White Knight that often called from Atlas.
However, she had never met a White Pawn. There was quite a few pieces being groomed, but no pawns. So now that she finally found one, even if they were from the opposing color, she wanted to see what they could do.
Neo switched her canopy to wind and activated her Dust. A small tornado started raging around her, blowing Ember's arrows away. Neo wouldn't be able to keep it up for long, but she didn't expect Ember to patiently wait.
And wait she didn't. With each new shot, Ember's arrows grew closer to hitting Neo through her windy armor. Ember was learning through the trajectories of her arrows how to navigate through the storm.
Neo smirked. Seeing Ember's prowess was fascinating, but she wanted to see just how far she could go.
So Neo tapped into her wind Dust and changed how the winds behaved. Now whenever Ember got a bit too close, Neo would shift the winds again.
Instead of getting frustrated with the situation, Ember grew excited. She was now more than ever certain that Neo was a maiden, and was relishing in the challenge that was defeating her. She had already completely forgot about the twins who were speechlessly watching the entire battle unfold.
Ember was taken off guard when Neo changed the winds for the first time, but she kept firing her arrows. Everytime Neo changed her winds, Ember took less shots to figure out a way through. Soon, Ember told herself, she would be able to break through before Neo had the time to change her winds' behaviour.
At least so was the plan, until they were rudely interrupted by the untimely arrival of a team of students from Haven.
Neo didn't bother fighting them. She had learned from Beacon that dealing with students would only bring the teachers against her. It was best to leave without a fuss.
As such, she redirected her winds against the would be Huntsmen, creating a Dust cloud in their direction. By the time the students managed to dispel it, which was admitedly quite short, Neo, Ember and the twins were already gone.
Neo only let the twins down once they were back to their mother's inn. As soon as she had set them down, Neo slumped on a chair and took back her breath.
"That was" started Melanie.
"Awesome !" finished Miltia.
The two girls quickly surrounded Neo with requests to teach them how she did all the magic out there, for that what it was for the two young girls that had never seen anyone use Dust before.
"What have you three little devils been up to ?" asked Lil' Miss Malachite.
The twins froze, thinking their mother would disapprouve of them learning how to fight. Miss Malachite, however, was very aware of what Neo taught the twins, and didn't mind.
She had simply refused when they had brought up learning from one of her goons before. She didn't want her girls to learn how to fight like a mindless brute and she couldn't dispatch her more qualified personnel to take care of them.
Now that Neo was here to teach them though, she almost approuved.
"Does it have anything to do with your new friend over there ? " asked Malachite.
At those words, Neo and the twins turned towards the door to see Ember, equally out of breath, who had followed them all the way home.
"She's the kid that attacked us !" exclaimed Miltia, forgetting why she had attacked them in the first place.
That caused the goons in the room to glare menacingly at the young girl.
"Hello." meekily said Ember.
"Now now." said Lil' Miss Malachite, " Don't scare her. You should know the twins by now. I'm sure they're exagerating."
"We're not !" countered Melanie, " She tried to shoot us with her bow !"
"Yeah !" added Miltia, " Neo even had to save us and then she went swich and waaa and fought her !"
Ember tried to subtly hide her bow. Much too late.
"Is that true Neo ?" asked Malachite.
Neo grinned, mimed a bucket being poured on the young girl, then nodded. Miss Malachite stared at Ember.
"I understand that you didn't appreciate being poured water on you, but murder seems a bit exagerated don't you think ?" she said to the young girl.
Ember nodded quickly. She had long forgotten her anger against the twins and didn't want to upset the adults in the room. That or Malachite's ability was allowing her to easily suggest the child.
Neo shuddered. She vowed to never let herself get caught like that by Malachite's ability, although she suspected she had already been caught by it when she had accepted to tutor the twins.
"Now, I believe you four should make up and be friends." said Miss Malachite, " Don't you all agree ?"
The three other girls nodded while Neo shrugged. She honestly didn't mind, although she had made sure to defend herself from Malachite's ability. Neo didn't appreciate being manipulated.
Neo was definitly impressed by how well Lil' Miss Malachite's ability worked. After she had told them to, Ember and the twins would reluctantly spend time and play together, acting like friends even though they didn't like each other.
Neo was glad she had dodged it. She was honestly terrified by how normal it felt to the three kids to hang out together despite not wanting to.
Over the weeks though, they learned to appreciate each other, and found common grounds on what they wanted to do when together.
Ember despised harmful pranks, so the twins had quickly pushed her out of their prank sessions. However, Ember loved training. Most of the time, while the twins practiced what Neo had taught them, Ember and Neo would spar.
Neo was a lot more reserved when using her Dust now. Once she had seen the price she had to pay to refill all the Dust she had spent when first fighting Ember, she balked. Neo decided to only use Dust when absolutly necessary, otherwise she would miss some in a crucial moment.
Except for illusion Dust. She loved using it far too much to simply remove it of her everyday arsenal.
So Neo didn't use anything but illusion Dust during her spars with Ember, focusing on improving her close combat and other physical skills. And that wouldn't change no matter how much Ember begged her to use her "magical powers".
Neo was glad she had finally found someone she could spar with. It might not be as worthwhile than when she fought the teachers at Beacon, but Ember was sufficiently skilled to push her to her limits when she wasn't using Dust.
However, she was starting to wonder if Ember actually believed her when she had told her she couldn't use Aura.
Her answer came when Neo finally tripped and had to protect her face with her arm, taking Ember's arrow in it.
Neo screamed and felt tears fill up her eyes from the pain. And Ember looked absolutly confused as to why Neo's Aura didn't block it.
That is, until she realized that Neo was indeed telling the truth when she had told her she couldn't use Aura, and she paled.
"Neo ! I'm so sorry ! Let me help !" shouted Ember as she reached to remove the arrow.
Neo slapped Ember away and glared. She had learn quite a lot of first aid while at Beacon, at Glynda's insistance, and she didn't want to lose her few remaining HP by removing the arrow right now.
So Neo ripped a piece of her shirt and tied it around her arm, just above the arrow, before looking for a stick or something similar she could use to hold the tourniquet.
The twins, meanwhile, had ran to their mother for help.
Once Neo had found something appropriatly shaped and resistant, she used it to secure her tourniquet before finally removing her arrow.
Now, all she had to do was rest for about an hour to let her HP bar refill and her wound close.
And nobody would disturb her. Not even a worried Miss Malachite that wanted her to go to one of the quack doctors that took care of criminals without any paperwork.
Those were the worst.
Neo skipped as she went into the largest building in the lower district. This was the only CCT relay in the slums, and Lil' Miss Malachite had told her there was a call for her.
Neo sat down in front of the screen, and the employee, which was also one of Malachite's goons, patched her through.
On the opposite side of the screen was Roman, a grin on his face.
"Hey ! Neo ! How are you doing ?" he asked.
Neo jumped in her seat from sheer hapiness.
"I'm happy to see you too." said Roman, " I'm sorry I couldn't call earlier, I had a hard time finding a secure CCT transmitter for runaway criminals after Junior helped me get out."
Neo smiled and gave Roman an OK sign.
"I will have to lay low for a while. I think Goodwitch trying to get me so I can't show even the tip of my nose outside if I don't want to be blown to pieces." he added.
Neo chuckled. So it meant Glynda was doing well too.
"Sorry I missed your last birthday by the way. I do have a little something to make up for it." said Roman with a grin.
A ticket was printed out next to her, and Neo gave Roman a confused look.
"It's a ticket to see the Mistral Regional Tournament that's happening this Germinal." explained Roman, " I thought you might like to watch people fighting each other, and last year's champion was apparently a 13 years old girl who blew away the competition."
Neo smiled and blew Roman a kiss.
"Glad you like it, don't forget to disguise yourself before getting in." he said, " I got to go. I'll try to keep in touch. Bye."
Neo waved as the screen shut down. Then took the ticket and skipped away.
A tournament did sound fun.
The biggest difference between level 11 and level 10 is damage. In fact, a level 11 deals around twice as much damage than a level 10.
Also, Pyrrha won her first Mistral Regional Tournament when she was 13, so she's 14 now.
Name : Neo Politan
Age : 13
Level : 11 (68%)
Class : Illusionist [You add both your Intelligence and Dexterity modifiers to your AC and to Dexterity or Intelligence based attacks as long as you can still cast illusions]
Path : Me, myself and I [You live for yourself first and foremost, no matter what pain you might cause others]
Title : The Gamer
HP : 10/10
AP : UNUSABLE
STR : 11
CON : 10
DEX : 17
INT : 20
WIS : 12
CHA : 16
Semblance : The Gamer
Status effects :
Gamer's body [Your body follows game-like mechanics. You can restore 1/4th of your total HP (rounded down) by resting 15 minutes. You can only die if your HP reach 0 and you fail your last breath]
Child of Remnant [You are from Remnant and follow different rules than other worlds. Your HP is always equal to your constitution and any bonuses that would normally improve it are transfered to your aura]
Fighting for your life [Your aura behaved in the only way that would let you survive, and will continue to do so until you overcome your trauma. You cannot use aura, but you can will any item you wield for it to reflect 100% of any attack that hits it]
Words that shouldn't be said [Your last words almost caused you to lose your life. You cannot talk until you overcome your trauma]
Defenses :
AC : 22(26)
For : 17
Ref : 22
Will : 20