Your Midnight Scribe : Well, the thing is that Ruby just tried to stop Neo from burning down an entire tribe's camp, which would have killed several innocents, women and children included. Neo knew ahead of time that no one in RWBY would approve of her plan which is why she stayed vague about it in the first place, then was extra sneaky about it, and it's also why she's not particularly annoyed at Ruby for trying to stop her. She knew she put herself as their enemy by going ahead with that plan.
Doot Doot : Neo doesn't really care about revenge anymore, she failed, moved on, and started her new life in Vacuo. That doesn't mean she forgot, but Cinder just isn't anywhere near a priority anymore for her, or for anyone.
Vinicius Henrique and Doot Doot : Uhm… about Cinder… Well you'll see next week.
I've found out that, due to there having a whole lot of character (even without counting the OCs), and me not writing down all the info for everyone, making a char sheet interlude was a lot more work than expected. It's still coming, but not for a few more chapters (and will probably come as a double upload)
Hidden behind her disguise, Neo observed the woman she was escorting and supposed to kill just after.
Name : Nimbus Violette
Age : 23
Level : 0 (-%)
Class : None
Path : None
Destiny : None
Title : Summer Maiden
HP : 20/20
AP : 10/10
STR : 21
CON : 20
DEX : 23
INT : 24
WIS : 22
CHA : 28
Semblance : None
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]
Defenses:
AC : 17
For : 16
Ref : 18
Will : 19
For once, Neo was feeling a sour taste in her mouth at the idea of killing someone. It would be the first time that she would murder someone that hadn't harmed her in any way, someone completely innocent.
Yet, she understood that this was the most logical course of action. If they lost here, they needed to delay Salem for as long as possible hoping that someone, somewhere, would be able to stop her. Now that she was thinking about it, fighting Salem had always been delaying the inevitable, but it was worth fighting because there was no recovery possible after the ending she was aiming at.
Neo stood behind Nimbus as she opened the Vault, then went in to switch the two Relics before getting out, letting the maiden close the Vault for what they hoped was once and for all. For her disguise, Neo had picked someone she had seen die while in Atlas, knowing that this way would reduce the chance for the power to be sent to someone currently near Vacuo.
"Thank you for protecting me," said Nimbus as she closed the door, "I hope this will be enough for you to protect us all."
As she turned around, she noticed that her escort was strangely close to her, gripping tightly her parasol while looking down somberly. Then, out of nowhere, a blade poked out of the parasol's tip and stabbed her.
- 10 AP
- 18 HP
Nimbus coughed blood as the blade went straight through her aura and punctured her lung. She looked with disbelief at her escort for a moment, before she started to understand what was going on.
"Miss Rumpole asked for this, didn't she?" she said.
Neo looked down, refusing to look the dying woman in the eyes as she hesitantly twisted her blade to take out her last remaining HP. In only a moment, it dropped to zero, and Nimbus finally passed away.
"Maybe I should have trained to become a Huntress too," she muttered in her last breath.
The power left her body and flew outside of the Vault, leaving Neo along with the corpse of the once Summer maiden. Taking her blade out, she slowly walked outside, the sword of the Relic of Destruction in hand.
She really wished to never do this again.
RWBY were not expecting Salem, all of people, to be at the forefront of this assault. Yang had already seen her in person, but for Ruby, Weiss and Blake this was very different from the vision Emerald had summoned of her in Haven or the summoned cloud they had spoken with in Atlas.
The way she slid over the ground, her pale face and black clothes that seemed like it was actually part of her body, how she was walking and clearly living, but didn't show any sign of breathing. It was all very disturbing.
Ruby, most of all, felt sick and her eyes immediately started to glow without even needing to do anything, as if her body was having some innate reaction against Salem's very presence.
Her powers weren't able to fully activate however, as Tyrian jumped out of nowhere and kicked her down, breaking down the reaction. Weiss and Blake, the two closest to Ruby, tried to intervene, but with a flick of her wrist Salem summoned a wall of flames between Ruby and Tyrian and the rest of them.
"Let them play," she said, "I think you'll find that I'll require all of your attention."
Theodore closed in the distance as she spoke and punched, his fist going through her flesh like she was made of viscous slime. Salem hardly cared, as she didn't even try to avoid the hit, instead lifted her hand up and blasting a powerful beam of magic at Theodore's face.
Theodore ducked to avoid the shot and used fire Dust to make an explosion around his hand still inside Salem's body, blowing her up and sending her head flying along with her arms, leaving only her lower body still standing. For a moment, they thought Theodore had managed to disable Salem for a long period of time, just like that, but two blasts of magic were thrown out from Salem's severed arms, blowing Theodore away.
Their eyes followed Theodore flight into the nearby wall, and by the time they turned back towards Salem they found that she had already regenerated back into one piece.
"You annoy me," she said coldly, sending a shiver down WBY's spine.
Weiss, Blake and Yang quickly separated while shooting at Salem, who looked unfazed by the holes poking into her chest and instead sent out a wave of magic that blew them all back, along with the barricade and several of the civilian defenders.
The three young Huntress looked at each other while Salem stepped closer to them. How were they going to fight?
Theodore stood back up and rushed at Salem, taking another blast of magic that blew apart his aura before he his head against a wall and started bleeding, although that didn't stop him from standing back up.
"Persistent," she seethed, "Aren't you too old for this?"
"Are you kidding?" shot back Theodore as he spat a mouthful of blood, "This is the youngest I've ever felt."
Within the wall of flames, just after she was knocked down by Tyrian, Ruby had used her semblance to get back behind him and knock him away with the back of her scythe.
"Hello again," said Tyrian with a chuckle.
"Why are you doing this?" asked Ruby, "What do you get if we all die?"
"Don't you see?" asked back Tyrian, "The pain, the terror on people's face, it's so beautiful, so fun!"
"You're not human!" shouted Ruby as she readied her scythe, "You're just as much of a monster as she is."
"Oh, but that's what's so fun about this," chuckled Tyrian as he readied himself for their fight as well, "We're both simply humans."
He lunged forward and swiped at Ruby's eye level, who bent down to let the strike miss above her before swinging her scythe around. Tyrian jumped over it without any issue but was kicked by Ruby and forced back.
Her scythe came back down, slashing Tyrian through his shoulder. The scorpion faunus tried to stab Ruby with his tail as he was hit, but she used her semblance and got out of the way, swinging again and hitting him in the chest, sending him flying through the fire.
That left Ruby alone within a circle of fire, not quite sure how she was going to get out of this as she couldn't get through with her semblance since petals were highly flammable. Thinking about it for a moment, she point her sniper-scythe down and shot to launch herself as high in the air as she could, before using her semblance to land safely outside of the flames.
There, she found her team, beaten and bruised but still alive, slowly getting up. She then turned around until she found Salem, and gasped. She was holding Theodore by the head, her nails biting into his skin as she snarled at him.
"You were far more annoying than expected, I'll grant you that," she said.
"Rumpole always said I had a gift at driving her crazy," shot back the bloodied headmaster.
"Don't worry," said Salem, "I'm sure she'll join you soon enough.
With a squeeze and blast of magic, Salem blew Theodore's head off, and the rest of his body, now not held up by anything, slumped down.
"NOOOOO!" shouted Ruby, her eyes flaring up.
"Tyrian, what are you doing?" asked Salem as she made a wall of dirt rise up in front of Ruby, blocking the silver eye blast from reaching her, "I thought you were taking care of her."
"I'm sorry my queen," said Tyrian as he walked back into view, visibly beaten up as his aura flickered away, "I'm afraid I'm not quite up to the task, please forgive me for my incompetence."
"Uh, fine, just hit her whenever she tries to use her eyes," said Salem, "I'll deal with the rest."
"Yes, I will not disappoint!" said Tyrian.
Ruby readied her scythe along with her team as the wall of dirt that blocked her eyes fell down and both Salem and Tyrian were back in their field of vision.
"Weiss, use your summons to distract her," said Ruby, "Blake, Yang, cover me from a distance!"
"Wait, you're not thinking of…" started Yang.
"It's the only way," interrupted Ruby, "You'll be dead if you take anymore of her attacks."
"Fine, I trust you," agreed Weiss as she summoned her queen lancer.
"Really," sighed Salem, watching the four girls get ready to fight with Ruby at the center, glaring at her, "The daughter is going to be just as annoying as the mother, isn't she?"
Ruby bit her lip and dashed in, while Salem prepared a beam of magic to shoot her down. As she fired, Ruby used her semblance to step aside and it flew off, destroying a nearby building while Ruby closed in and swung her scythe.
This time, contrary to the earlier fight, Salem slid away and dodged, and as Ruby's eyes lit up once again Tyrian jumped it and kicked to protect his goddess.
Ruby grind her teeth and dashed away, her concentration failing and her eyes ceasing to glow. She took a step and tried dashing in again, but this time Salem was already about to release her magic and she couldn't dodge.
Then, suddenly, a blast of green magic blew Salem away, making her magic blast fly off in the distance. Moments later, Penny landed in front of Ruby, and the rest of their friends ran in.
"We're here, friend Ruby!" cheered Penny.
"I'm glad to see you," said Ruby.
"So am I," said Salem as she stood back up and healed, "It'll save me the trouble of searching for you."
Penny hands and eyes started glowing as she was ready to fight, while Ruby readied her scythe as well.
Salem was about to start fighting again, when they heard a loud wail in the distance.
"What was that?" asked Emerald.
"That," said Salem as she smiled, "Is the sign one of you made a grave mistake."
I have to admit that I am no longer capable of updating this on Saturdays since I don't have as much time to write during the week, so I'm permanently moving my updates to Sundays.
To be continued on March 27th
Name : Neo Politan
Age : 18
Level : 21 (44%)
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]
Destiny : All for one [Everyone can die, if it means you get to survive]
Title : The Gamer
HP : 11/11
AP : 110/110
STR : 12
CON : 11
DEX : 20
INT : 23
WIS : 13
CHA : 17
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 : 29(34)
For : 22
Ref : 28
Will : 25