merendinoemiliano : Glad you like it, I'm pretty proud of it and got scared for a moment because I almost wasn't able to put it in XD.
Doot Doot : I'm not sure this one today really counts as a fight, and next arc is going to be pretty… emotional, but then we're going to be in full original content after today so the fights will be far more detailed x).
Neo was a fair bit away from the huge whale grimm when it suddenly exploded.
The bright light, the loud blast, even the shockwave went through her, over her, while dealing very little damage to her aura. It seemed like a lot of powerful effects for pretty much no result.
At least, that was where humans were concerned. The grimm, however, were all torn apart by the explosion, making the entire battleground she had been wary of going through a perfectly safe spot, especially when the dust, thrown in the air by the explosion's shockwave, had made a thick cloud that would hide her from Atlas' remaining military.
She had seen a bit of Salem's fight against Oscar and his friends when she had passed through the main entrance, and she noticed that Salem's infinite amount of HP didn't seem to stop her from being reduced to goo when hit. Given this, she had a small idea of what the woman's current state should be.
With a grin, Neo sent Cinder a text and started skipping her way towards the city.
This all will be over soon.
Ruby was distraught.
The grimm attacking Atlas had been wiped out by the explosion, probably taking down Salem with it, but they knew she couldn't be killed. They could finally rest, without the grimm breathing down their necks, but that was only temporary. As soon as Salem would be back she was going to be able to call all the grimm to her aid, it was only a matter of time before Atlas fell.
What's more, the explosion wasn't even their doing. They had achieved nothing, only managing to send their message out to the world, and not even all of it. Was Ironwood right? Was their only option for Atlas to abandon Mantle and run away?
She refused to believe it. She refused to leave so many people to die, but she couldn't find any other way. There must be one, there had to be, but she couldn't see it.
Salem was on Atlas, and would act as a beacon to the grimm just like the Wyvern was doing at Beacon, if not worse. Watts had blocked all power in Mantle, and the city was already reliant on Atlas for food. It couldn't survive on its own.
If only Ironwood helped them, they could bring everyone up on Atlas, then maybe have the Relic bring them away to Vacuo, allowing them to regroup with the rest of humanity, but Ironwood was doing his own thing, he wasn't going to help them, far from it.
She had gotten some hope when Whitley had used the SDC's airships to evacuate the refugees, but that had soon disappeared when Ironwood shot them all down.
He… was ready to destroy his own people to get what he wanted, ready to bomb Mantle if they didn't bring him Penny to take the Relic.
But they couldn't do that. Using the Relic to lift Atlas far into the atmosphere would result in Mantle's destruction all the same, only this time by the grimm and famine instead of an explosion. And now, she also knew that, if she failed, then she would be forced by Salem to hurt the very people she was trying to protect.
There was nothing they could do. Staying meant death, running was impossible without using the Relic to move Atlas around, and if they did that Ironwood would force them to go up…
Wait… Did they really need to bring Atlas along with them?
Could they, just maybe, save everyone with the Relic alone?
Neo grinned as she looked at her scroll. There was two messages on it.
The first, from Ruby, told her they were going to use portals to bring everyone out to safety, and asked her to come with them as soon as she could.
The second, from Cinder, told her where to meet so they could plan their attack on Ruby and her friends.
This was all going perfectly. Ruby hadn't detailed her plan much, but she had explained that the portals would lead to a safe place before sending everyone to Vacuo. She wondered why they weren't making the portals so they would send people directly to Vacuo, but didn't bother telling Ruby about it. That safe place that could only be accessed by the portals was the perfect spot to ensure Cinder wouldn't be able to run away.
As she met with Cinder, she gave her the Relic and the password, allowing her to ask the final question. As she expected, Cinder asked for Ruby's plan. She knew Cinder wouldn't pass the chance to ensure her victory.
Cinder's own plan was extremely simple. Let Watts mess with their communications to reduce the amount of people she'd have to worry about, use Neo to make sure Ruby wasn't going to use her silver eyes to send her into oblivion, and brute-force her way to the Winter maiden and the Relic of Creation.
It was still a fairly good plan, Cinder had the power to break through the two teams of barely Huntsmen, and they would be the only ones inside with the Winter maiden. There was just one problem with it that Neo could note.
Cinder had assumed she would be on her side.
Ruby's plan was going better than she expected.
Well, not really, everything was going according to plan, except that one part where communications had cut off, but that's exactly what was so unexpected in the first place. It was almost going to well.
No, she shouldn't think so pessimistically. Her plan was working, and they were almost at the portal towards Vacuo. Nothing would go wrong.
Suddenly, they heard an explosion higher up their contraption, and as they turned around they saw several people fall down into the abyss… and Cinder rise up above the crowd.
Ruby and her team rushed to meet her. She didn't know how Cinder had managed to follow them here so soon, but now they needed to push her back, or she would cause the death of many others.
They started fighting, and Cinder taunted them by saying that she had learned of their plan through the Relic of Knowledge. Ruby wouldn't have believed her if she hadn't said Jinn's name.
Then she understood. Oscar had told them that someone had taken the Relic away from Salem, but they didn't know who. Ruby did, but she couldn't tell them why without revealing that she knew Neo and Cinder had been there long before they attacked, and they couldn't afford to argue right now. She'd tell them once they were all in Vacuo.
Ruby took a deep breath in. She had long given up on the idea of taking down Cinder, protecting everyone was more important, but Neo hadn't. She had followed them, but had also brought Cinder along for a trap.
Ruby felt awful. She should have known that Neo hadn't given up the idea of killing Cinder. It was her fault Cinder was here, she's the one that warned Neo of their plans.
But it was too late now. Cinder was here, and they needed to stop her, so Ruby steeled herself, and stared down Cinder's arrogant smirk. If Cinder was here, then so would Neo.
"Sometimes, if you want to win," said Cinder as she towered over them, "You simply can't do it alone."
Out of a corner of her eye, Ruby noticed Neo remove her disguise and her parasol change its canopy to become blue.
"That's just it Cinder," replied Ruby, "You ARE alone."
With a flick of her wrist, Neo sent a sharp ice spear right towards Cinder's face, who had not been on guard at all from an attack coming from her.
- 17 AP
Her move surprised all of Ruby's friends, but none was more shocked than Cinder herself.
"Get Cinder!" shouted Ruby to her team.
That pulled Cinder out of her daze. Things had changed, she wasn't in a strong position now, she needed to leave.
Cinder made a beeline for the nearest portal, and that was just what Neo expected. She changed her canopy and pointed at the ground. Nothing happened quite yet, but as soon as Cinder approached a portal, it was sealed off by an earth wall. She aimed for another one and it was sealed off again.
"Stop Neo!" shouted Ruby as she grabbed her wrist, "We need the portals to save everyone!"
Neo glared at Ruby, sealing a third portal off before angrily pointing at her eyes. All Ruby had to do was use her silver eyes and this would be over.
In the meantime, Cinder had temporarily given up on the idea of running away, at least for as long as Neo would be able to seal the portals she wanted to go through. She knew that she could ruin Ruby's plan if she forced Neo to seal every single portal off, but that would trap her inside as well, and she wasn't planning on killing herself for this.
Instead, she found that Penny still hadn't walked through the portal, and decided to try her luck at grabbing the Relic of Creation – and possibly even the Winter maiden powers – before Ruby felt like using her silver eyes on her.
The group saw Cinder fly straight towards the exit portal, and were worried for a moment that Neo would seal their way out as well before they noticed Penny as well.
"Penny!" shouted Weiss, "What are you doing! Leave!"
Ignoring her friends' pleas, Penny rose up to Cinder's challenge, her eyes burning a bright green.
"Why'd you have to come back?" she asked, her hands glowing green as well, "Why didn't you just learn your lesson?"
The Winter maiden fired a bright green laser which Cinder took straight in the abdomen, making her stumble through the air.
- 32 AP
Yet, through her taking the hit, Cinder had launched her grimm arm towards Penny. It was scarily fast, but Penny still managed to avoid it.
"Oh Penny…" started Cinder.
The arm didn't even bother trying to chase Penny's chest through her evasion. Instead, it grabbed the thing that had just gotten into its reach, the Relic of Creation.
"…I did," finished Cinder as her arm retracted.
"NO!" shouted team RWBY.
Time froze instantly. All around her, Cinder could see people trying to attack her. Penny was recreating her blades with her maiden power in a swinging motion, Yang and Blake were throwing each other in her direction, Weiss had summoned a queen lancer, its stinger already shot and aiming at her, Neo was creating a myriad of ice spears, and Ruby had already shot her sniper, her bullet just a breath away from Cinder's face.
Yet now, she was the only one that could move, or rather talk as her body wasn't quite responding. In front of her, appearing out of the spear that was the Relic of Creation, was a blue tall man, Ambrosius.
"What can I create for you?" he asked.
Cinder looked back at everyone that was trying to kill her, at all the people running still running across the platforms, at Ruby she wanted dead, at Neo that betrayed her… at Penny and her powers she wanted for herself.
"I want you to make a portal towards Atlas, just for me," she answered, giving up on this fight.
"A bit boring, but okay," said Ambrosius.
A portal, identical to the others within this fake world, appeared next to Cinder and the world started moving again. Cinder used all her strength to push herself through the portal, avoiding everything that was aimed at her, while the portal and platform complex below her was starting to disintegrate.
Neo screamed in rage, changing her canopy to a dull white and light green mix while everyone started running towards the exit. They were all too far from the portal though, only Penny, Jaune and Nora might have a chance to get out in time.
"Get Penny out!" shouted Jaune to Nora, who was next to him near the exit.
"But…" started Nora.
"Do it!" shouted Jaune
Nora reluctantly obeyed, grabbing Penny who didn't want to leave her friends and using her hammer to shoot themselves out.
Neo used every single bit of wind Dust inside her canopy to grab Ruby, her friends and herself and sent the five of them flying towards the portal Cinder had used to get out, but they all smashed into it instead of going through.
They could see the other side, where Winter was looking in fear at Cinder while Ironwood laid on the ground. Cinder herself didn't care a single bit about them, and instead aimed her arm at the Relic of Knowledge resting at Neo's hip.
The arm bumped into a wall just like they had all did, and Cinder scowled, giving Winter the time to run away. Then they fell down.
There was nothing left of the complex Ambrosius had once created now, and they all fell into the void.
Little poll to ask if you'd all rather have Jaune manage to get through the portal to Vacuo, or fall down with everyone x)
Also, Cinder got a little character growth behind the scenes that will be shown in her destiny later on (dammit Watts). I was initially planning to have her level 21 here, but I didn't find a good spot to have Neo observe her without breaking the pace, so just know that she'll be level 21 next time we see her, and that her destiny is curtesy of Watts' damn speech XD (it should be pretty obvious when you read it though, so you don't have to remember).
To be continued on November 13th
Name : Neo Politan
Age : 18
Level : 19 (05%)
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 : 95/95
STR : 11
CON : 10
DEX : 19
INT : 22
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 transferred to your aura]
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 : 27(31)
For : 20
Ref : 26
Will : 24