Vinicius Henrique : yup, after all Nimbus wasn't a fighter, she was level 0. Not much experience to get there, even if she is a maiden.
Nebula was confused. One moment she was getting used to her new powers after Salem left the dragon-grimm-thing they were on, and the next she felt like she was in an empty space, alone.
"Sister," she heard behind her.
No, not quite alone.
"Nimbus, why are you here? Where are we?" asked Nebula.
"We're in you mind little sis," answered Nimbus, "And, well, if I'm here, it's because I'm dead."
"What are you on about?" asked back Nebula.
"I… it's complicated, and I don't know if you'll believe me, but long story short I'm secretly what's called a 'maiden' and that means I have super powers or something," explained Nimbus, "You know I never was the fighting type, so I didn't really use them."
"I believe you, I just became one myself, it's quite fun," said Nebula, "I've never felt more powerful in my entire life, it's like I can do just about anything."
"You did?" asked Nimbus, "Well, never mind, it seems you'll have two maiden powers now then."
"What do you mean? And why did you say you were dead?" asked Nebula.
"When a maiden dies, she gives her powers to the last person she thinks of," explained Nimbus, "When Rumpole killed me – no, had me killed, but there's not much of a difference – I made sure to think of you so you could be safe."
"She what?" shrieked Nebula, "Is that true?"
"I guess it's a bit hard to believe while I'm here talking with you," said Nimbus, walking closer to her.
"It is," admitted Nebula as her sister took her head between her hands, softly placing her forehead on hers.
"I love you little sister," said Nimbus, "Stay safe."
The moment after, Nebula was back in the room Salem had left her in, staring blindly into the distance. Then, she felt another power fully merge with her, but unlike the harsh feeling she had gotten when she had ripped away the maiden powers from Cinder, this one felt warm, soothing.
Only at that moment did it truly hit her that her sister died. Nebula fell to her knees and cried, she cried every ounce of pain she felt in that moment, and her new powers made her cry resonate far and wide.
After just a moment, tears still trailing down her cheeks, Nebula stood up. This was Rumpole's fault, she's the one that killed her sister, she was going to pay.
"RUMPOLE!" she shouted as she flew out of the window – why did a dragon even have windows in the first place?
She instinctively used her powers, fueled by rage, and flew straight towards Shade.
Ruby saw a trail of fire fly up in the sky before making a beeline for Shade Academy, and immediately recognized it as what trail Cinder would make when she used her maiden powers. Penny also did the same, but hers were green instead of red.
"The Relic!" she immediately thought. It was brazen to attack like that, but it still meant they had to prevent it.
"Tch," Salem clicked her tongue and turned around. She snapped her fingers and a large dragon grimm flew up towards them.
"It will seem we'll have to finish this later," she said, "I can't let that fool die on her first day, especially when she's already doing better than Cinder ever could."
"Hey! We're not going to let you leave!" shouted Penny.
"Correction," amended Salem, "You're not letting me do anything. I am sparing your lives, for now."
Penny didn't agree and shot a beam of her magic at Salem, who grabbed and absorbed it before turning back towards them with a scowl.
"Behave," she ordered.
Salem swept her hand to the side and released a wave of magic that tore the ground apart in front of her, forcing everyone to jump or fly away and giving time for Salem to walk back on the dragon, which flew directly towards Shade. Even Ruby, who had tried activating her silver eyes again when she saw the dragon, had to break concentration once again and wasn't able to do anything to stop her.
"We have to get back to Shade!" shouted Ruby.
"Wait!" called Weiss, "There are still plenty of grimm here, we can't leave this place unmanned!"
"What do you…" started Ruby, before noticing around her what exactly Salem's surge of magic had caused. All the people there, except for her and her friends, were dead. The violent destruction had tore apart the people as well, dismembering those that couldn't dodge the initial blast and crushing those that could under the rubble that followed.
Then, she noticed that, outside of her team, the only people here were Penny and Emerald, and she was worried for a moment that the others were dead as well.
"Where is everyone?" she asked.
"Jaune, Ren and Nora are helping Winter defend another chokepoint," answered Emerald, calming down Ruby's fears, "Oscar and Glynda went for Shade Academy already, it's only Penny that was very worried and went flying looking for you, and I kind of tagged along."
"I'm surprised you could, friend Emerald," said Penny.
"I… am never doing that again," admitted Emerald as she sat down to breath.
"What are we going to do?" asked Blake, "We can't let Salem get the Relic, but we can't leave this place undefended either."
"I'll go defend the Relic with Penny and Emerald," decided Ruby after thinking for a moment, "You guys stay her to stop the grimm."
"Wait no!" objected Yang, "We're not leaving to face Salem alone!"
Ruby bit her lip, unsure of how to tell her reasoning to Yang, when Weiss spoke up.
"We won't be able to help," she said.
"What do you mean?" asked Yang.
"Face it, Yang," said Weiss, "We hardly trained back when we were taking care of the refugees. Ruby has become far more skilled than any of us. Out of everyone here, she has to let either Penny or us stay behind to protect this chokepoint, and Penny will be far more useful against Salem than we ever could."
"I'm sorry Yang," said Ruby, "I have to go, bye!"
Ruby dashed away before Yang could say anything, not wanting to face her sister given the circumstances.
"Not running again," moaned Emerald as she nonetheless followed her.
"Wait, I get Penny, but why Emerald?" asked Blake.
"Do you think Emerald's semblance could do anything against grimm?" asked back Weiss.
"Fair point."
Rumpole was busy managing the unending stream of refugees and groaned when she saw Oscar and Glynda walk in.
"Sorry," she quickly apologized, "I'm just not looking forward to getting swarmed by more work now that I'm guessing the Atlesian refugees have arrived."
"I don't think any of us have anything they currently look forward to," said Oscar.
"Yes. Would you two please help me?" she asked, "I have enough on my plate managing both the people entering Shade and the situation at the frontline, so if you could take either off my hands that'd be great."
"I'll help with the refugees," said Glynda, "I'm used to the paperwork by now."
"It's true you've already had experience with it," absentmindedly noted Rumpole before realizing what she had done, "Sorry that was untactful."
"Quite," said Glynda.
The two women awkwardly got back to work while Oscar rubbed the back of his head.
"About the Relic…" he started.
He was interrupted by the window crashing down as someone burst into the room, a raging tornado of flames and ice tearing apart whatever stood nearby.
"RUMPOLE!" they heard the one making that tornado shout.
"Nebula…" recognized Rumpole, "I… didn't expect your sister to give you what she found to be a burden."
"You killed her!" shouted Nebula as the tornado calmed down ever so slightly, enough for them to clearly see the crying teenager within it, "You'll pay!"
"This feels like a déjà-vu," noted Oscar.
In a scream of rage, Nebula sent out a wave of wind and fire that cut through the personnel that hadn't managed to flee the moment she burst in. It was meant to cut Rumpole, but the attack was still indiscriminate and both the two teachers and Oscar were able to avoid it, although Oscar used a green magic bubble to do so.
Rumpole closed in on Nebula in a flash and attacked, her spiked chakram tearing through Nebula's aura without piercing it.
"I won't say I'm sorry, but if you want revenge at least do it when the world isn't on the verge of destruction," she said.
"No, I won't wait" shot back Nebula, "Because I'm the one that will bring that destruction."
"Well said, child," said a soothing voice coming from the broken window.
While they were distracted, a dragon-like grimm landed in front of the office and they saw Salem walking down from its open maw.
"So, Ozma," said Salem with a smirk, "How do you like my new maiden?"
Mercury cautiously left the room he had locked himself in to think. He had heard screams earlier, and those didn't bode well, but now that things had calmed down and Salem seemed to have left, he wanted to see what this was all about.
He walked through the corridor and quickly arrived near the room Salem had been into earlier. There, next to the entrance, he saw Cinder crumpled down, unmoving.
"What the…" he said.
Mercury hesitated for a moment. Cinder was annoying, and bossy, and an overall maniac, but after working with Tyrian for several months he was thinking she might have been the better element there. She might not reward a job well done, but at least she wasn't cackling madly above your shoulder while you did it.
He slowly walked up to Cinder and kneeled next to her. On closer inspection, she was still alive, but seemed to have lost the grimm half of her body on top of her eye. What happened to her.
Mercury grabbed Cinder by the shoulders and tried pulling her up to his level. He expected Cinder to disgustingly tell him not to touch her, but there was no reaction.
"Oy, you're there?" he asked.
No answer, so he decided after a shrug to slap her to try and wake her up from whatever daze she had fell into.
One slap, nothing. Two, nada. Three, rien. Well, he was starting to actually feel bad about it, so he gave her a fourth to make sure he wouldn't.
Then, the dragon-thing he was in started to rumble, as if it was taking off. Whatever that meant, and whyever Cinder had ended in such a state, one thing Mercury knew for sure is that it was because of Salem, so he figured it was best not to be seen with her.
Picking her up and putting her above his shoulder like a potato sack, Mercury cursed as he went back to the room he had picked for himself earlier.
Protecting this prick… what was wrong with him?
I'm sorry, but a powerless broken Cinder is way too good of a character to let her die quite yet. I'm not even sure if I'll be able to make her fit within the story, but I just couldn't kill her now that she finally became interesting.
To be continued on April 3rd
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