Harshdeeps138 & Misaka Phenex : I love that ship as well, but I'll stick to giving it material rather than going all out with it XD

SunlitOverdrive : I write aura's defensive capabilities as something passive, meaning that had Neo tried to stab Cinder in her sleep it would've dealt some damage but still allowed her to wake up and run. Neo and Cinder are pretty much evenly matched, although Cinder has a slight advantage. The whole point is that Neo realizes that, while she can technically beat her and kill her, that is only if Cinder stays fighting until the end, which she know she would never do. That's why Cinder was so efficient at running away in the latest chapters.

Ruby ate the dirt once again.

Her training with Neo was hellish, to say the least. She had the feeling that Neo was taking advantage of it to vent her anger and beat her up, but at the same time she had never improved as much as now. Maybe it was because of the threat she felt whenever Neo attacked her, or maybe it was because she didn't want to keep getting beaten up because Neo was mad at her for a decision she didn't want to reverse, but she was going above and beyond to not remain her punching bag.

That being said, she was still far from being able to stop Neo's attacks in any fashion. The best she could do right now was soften the blow.

Neo smirked as Ruby stood up once again. No matter how many times she put her down she kept getting up. Even when she was a kid and could see her own efforts slowly increase her stats, experience and skill proficiency, she wasn't that obstinate.

Ruby was improving quickly. She had only been level 13 when they started, but after about a couple months she was already level 16. This pace was far faster than anything Neo was used to, but she had an idea as to why.

As it turned out, Ruby really knew how to swing her scythe and use her semblance, but as far as combat mobility and hand to hand was concerned, she was barely better than a complete amateur. To put it in levels, it meant that Ruby was already near level 20 as far as her best abilities were concerned, but barely above level 3 with the others. Because it was so low, she could improve far faster, and it showed.

Name : Ruby Rose

Age : 17

Level : 16 (02%)

Class : Reaper [You use the deadliest weapon on Remnant, a scythe, to tear apart the grimm]

Path : Protector [You aim to protect as many people as you can. You might not be able to save everyone, but you can at least save the lives in front of you]

Title : Piece or player? [Help Salem destroy the world, or help Ozma destroy Salem, those are the two choices. Or are they?]

HP : 11/11

AP : 42/72

STR : 9

CON : 11

DEX : 24

INT : 13

WIS : 16

CHA : 12

Semblance : Petal Burst [You can turn into petals, giving you extra speed as well as allowing you to weave through the air]

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 transferred to your aura]

Silver-eyed Warrior [You have silver eyes, which holds the power of the God of Light. It can be used to harm every single one of the God of Darkness' creations]

Defenses :

AC : 25

For : 19

Ref : 28

Will : 22

As soon as she stood up, Ruby ran at Neo, swinging her scythe to stop her from moving into her guard. It was a bit too short though, so Neo only had to slightly move her head back to avoid it. Using the time Ruby needed to move her scythe around, Neo immediately lunged in, about to stab her, when Ruby stepped back and made a backflip, allowing her to bring her scythe back quicker as she slashed upwards.

Neo grinned and continued her strike, letting herself take Ruby's hit, but stabbing her at the same time.

- 24 AP

Neo : 56/100 AP

- 22 AP

Ruby : 20/72 AP

Ruby didn't expect Neo to go through with it, and the surprise made her stagger slightly, enough for Neo to follow up with a somersault that landed a kick on Ruby's head.

- 11 AP

Ruby : 9/72 AP

Neo kept up her assault with a round kick that Ruby blocked with the shaft of her scythe before swinging back again. The swing was from an awkward angle though because of that, so Neo had no trouble jumping back to avoid it. Had Ruby tried to stun her with a kick first she might have been able to land it.

Ruby wasn't going to stop there, and she brought her scythe around while pushing forward, bringing it behind Neo and hitting her with it.

- 28 AP

Neo : 28/100 AP

However, hitting Neo from the back like this meant Ruby was now wide open, and Neo used that to her advantage by punching her straight in the jaw, phalanxes first.

- 9 AP

That was barely enough to break Ruby's aura, and Neo called the fight off. Well, Neo would have called it off regardless of whether Ruby's aura was broken or not, but she'll act as though everything had went according to her plan.

She let Ruby rest while she prepared their next meal. Ruby was already at the point where she could fight head to head with her, with her lower aura being compensated by the fact that her scythe did about twice as much damage as Hush did.

It was only when she wasn't using Dust though, which included her illusions, so in reality Neo was still quite far ahead of Ruby for now. She didn't want to waste what little Dust she still had, as their fight with Cinder had exhausted most of her supplies. She had a full canopy of fire and electricity left, only half of ice and a quarter of earth though. Her wind canopy was exhausted though, and she only had enough illusion Dust left to cast it two or three times in battle.

That was the most annoying part for her. She relied heavily on illusion Dust to fight, her whole class being crafted around it, but she had fought for almost three entire days without ever resupplying, so now she was almost out. She really needed to learn to fight without it. Ideally she would have wanted to go back to training her other uses of Dust, but the problem of low supply still remained.

She'd have to ponder that for later. Right now, her flaws were compensated by Ruby's damage output. That was why she had stayed near her and decided to train her in the first place.

"Neo, I think we should try to find a way out of here," said Ruby as she sat down for lunch.

Neo lifted an eyebrow. What was she planning to do? They didn't have any idea of where they were.

"We should go towards that great tree," explained Ruby, "It's so big, we should be able to see where we are if we climb all the way to the top. Even if we can't, there are many unexplored places on Remnant. Maybe if we map what we see we could recognize which part of the world we're in."

Did she seriously think they were still on Remnant? There had been no trace of a single grimm in all the time they spent here. Neo seriously doubted there was a single place on Remnant that was devoid of grimm and not populated by humans, that was just impossible.

"Will you help me?" asked Ruby.

Neo jerked her head towards the camp Ruby's friends made, as if asking What about them?

"They didn't show any sign of moving, I don't think they've even done anything but hunt for food for as long as we have been here," explained Ruby, "Besides, even if I offered… I don't know if they'd accept to help me."

Neo nodded. That was a fair point, Yang seemed quite mad that Ruby had withheld information from her, maybe even more than about Ruby not killing Cinder. Her two other teammates weren't doing much better.

"So, will you help me?" asked Ruby again.

Neo sighed, then nodded. She'd rather find a way out of this wilderness. She was more of a city girl.

Ruby and Neo trekked all the way to the gigantic tree they could see in the distance. They had never gone that far before. While it seemed not too far from where they had made camp, in reality it took them several days to get to they arrived, they met with an incredible and dangerous surprise.

There was grimm here all right, dozens, if not hundreds of monstrous grimm that were so big they probably had been living for centuries. All of them were massed around the tree, their attention completely focused on it.

They were silent and immobile, and seemed like they didn't care at all about either Ruby or Neo, or maybe they didn't notice them? Although that was unlikely.

It's not like there was only elder grimm around, but they were far more numerous than the others. The few small grimms they saw were just as captivated by the tree, but made rounds around it, as if looking for something, or an opportunity.

Suddenly, one of the small beowolves dashed between two elder grimm towards the tree, and finally one of them moved. With a single insanely quick strike of their claw, one of the two elder grimms decapitated the beowolf that was trying to run into their circle, killing it in an instant.

The other small grimm around stepped back, seemingly scared by that display of strength.

"We should go back," whispered Ruby.

Neo agreed.

This wasn't a fight they could even hope to win.

Yang was standing guard, looking in the direction where a small campfire would usually be lit. She guessed that it was Ruby's and Neo's, and the few refugees that had been directed their way by them had confirmed that, but now that part of the forest had stayed dark for several days.

"Are you worried about Ruby?" asked Blake.

Yang practically jumped in surprise. Blake really was incredible at moving unnoticed.

"I'm still mad at her," she countered after a small pause.

"You can be mad and worried," pointed out Blake.

Yang sat down and Blake did the same next to her, placing her hand above Yang's.

"I just don't get it…" said Yang, "Why would she lie to us? Why didn't she trust us?"

"I don't know," answered Blake, "I thought I understood her, people, myself… but everything recently just makes me question if I even know anything."

Yang and Blake stayed there in silence, leaning on each other as they pondered the answers to their questions.

"You don't seem all that mad that Ruby let Cinder live," finally said Blake after a while.

"I don't agree with it, and I find it stupid," answered Yang, "But… it doesn't surprise me that much. I've always known that Ruby was an idealist, that she wanted to be like the heroes in the books that saved everyone… I just didn't think it'd go that far."

"I… understand her, a bit…" said Blake, "Adam was awful, he was just as much of a monster as everyone wants faunus to be, but even then… I can't help but hope it could have ended differently."

"You did the right thing Blake," said Yang, "He gave us no choice, don't let anyone make you think otherwise."

To be continued on November 27th

Name : Neo Politan

Age : 18

Level : 19 (63%)

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 : 100/100

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