Rebellion the Fourth: A First Threat

"Why does it always have to be me?" a familiar maid groaned to herself aloud as she headed down the hallways of the temple. While it was true that she'd been somewhat deflated when she'd attended to the more... embarrassing duties of caring for the unconscious forms of the heroes, dealing with them after they had awoken was downright terrifying. She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to keep her voice for much longer if she kept having to see the four.

"Okay, that's not entirely true; three of them seem fine, but that first guy..." She sighed as she thought back to the first one that had woken up, how he had blasted that thick door from its hinges and those violent eyes looking at her. A run in with anyone of that type would be too much, even if she was the princess's most trusted maid. "I hope he's not too grumpy when he gets up in the morning," she begged aloud as she entered the final hallway. "If I scream again-"

"If you do, I'm going to get annoyed," a gruff and familiar voice said to her. The maid's hands quickly shot to her mouth as she realized who it was that had spoken. Ragna was leaning against the wall besides the doors opening, his arms crossed and he waited moodily. Struggling to look at the red coated man in the eye, the maid saw those same intimidating red and green eyes. "Do you always scream when you see me?"

"I... I apologize," she said to him, a slight blush on her face as she was unable to keep eye contact. "I just wanted to let you and the others know that the princess will be leaving soon and she hoped to see you before she left."

"Me in particular, or our whole group?" he asked nonchalantly.

"I-If the others have recovered from the ritual, then all of you," the maid told him, pushing away a strand of blond hair that had escaped from her bun. "Have they already awoken?"

"From the ritual yeah, but we sort of had a late night," Ragna told her as he gestured inside to where the three were sleeping in their beds.

"Oh... A-And you're not with them?" the maid asked, shivering with fright on the inside at the mere action of Ragna raising an eyebrow at the question. "I-I mean-!"

"...You don't have to always be so terrified of me," Ragna told her with a groan. "This is far from my scariest side." 'Dammit Ragna, was that supposed to be reassuring?' "When's Marie leaving?"

"I-In an hour or so; we've prepared a small breakfast feast if you'd like to join us now."

"...Guess we can't pass up free food," Ragna sighed as he made his way into the bedrooms. "Oi! Up and at 'em!" The maid then peered inside and a saw all three of them groggily stirring from their rooms with a groan. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Just get up and we can get a meal before we need to head out."

Soon enough the maid was guiding the four of them, the younger three having had time to change out of the night clothes they'd been given and back into their regular clothing. While Ragna remained largely passive having been up for some time, Yu was fighting to stifle a yawn, Ruby was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and Hyde was trying to make his bed styled hair look normal... well like it normally did at least. Soon enough they'd been guided into a hall which housed a long table. The princess was sitting at the head of the table awaiting the four while her captain of the guard, Lady Lavell, stood guard behind her. The maid then bowed as she approached before heading over to the other wall and joining a group of four other maids.

"Thank you for joining me so early in the morning, I'm glad that we could all dine together at least once," she greeted trying to smile pleasantly at the four of them.

"Thank you for having us," Yu said, trying to put a kind smile on his face (and give his Sex Appeal skill a second try). This time he noticed that the slightest of pinks began to slowly light the princess's cheeks... he took that as a success. The four then took their seats at the table with Ragna and Yu sitting across from each other closest to the princess's place at the head of the long table. Ruby sat besides Ragna and Hyde beside Yu.

"I hope that the four of you are... adjusting to this new realm easily enough. I can understand if any of you are feeling overwhelmed," she told the four, sounding genuinely concerned.

"It... might have been a little hard at first, but I mean it wasn't all bad," Ruby tried to assure the princess. "I mean... Ragna had already been here for a bit before we were, so at least we have a little understanding from him."

"Doesn't change the fact that the only places we've seen are the inside of this temple," Ragna decided to comment. "I need to know anything we'd need to in order to make it out there; all of this secrecy isn't going to matter for jack if we die this early on."

"You sell yourself short," Lavell said to the Reaper who only raised an eye brow. "Any man who's shown the combat ability that you have is more than a match than anything you'll find in this region. This is actually the most peaceful region in the entire kingdom, as such I think it would be the perfect place for the four of you to begin your journey and learn the many inner workings of our world."

"We already did a bit of 'exploring' last night," Hyde decided to inform as he showed his information screen something that left both Lavell and Marie visibly shocked. "Yeah, we were surprised when we first saw them ourselves, but a little work with 'em and we managed to figure out the basics."

"Th-that's incredible, just what I should have expected from the heroes of prophecy," the princess said, with nothing but pleasant surprise in her voice. "Did you manage to find the skill system? Did you apply any of the starting points What type of skills interest you?"

"Err... We um..." Hyde began nervously, sweat slowly starting to drop down his face as he realized the skill he'd invested his point into. Glancing at Yu, it was odd to the blonde that the fellow High School student seemed as calmed and composed as ever.

"Yeah, why don't you tell us what skill you both decided to put all five points into," a rather annoyed Ruby said as she glared at both boys. Neither of them said a thing in response, which would have left the room in silence if it hadn't been for Ragna's chuckling. "Eh?"

"Jeeze, you three..." Ragna muttered as he continued to chuckle a their antics before noticing that Hyde and Ruby were staring at him in confusion. "What's with you two?"

"You... you can laugh?" Hyde asked himself more than anyone else. Ragna rolled his eyes at the obnoxious question. "I'm serious here! With your dark and brooding complexion, I was starting to get worried."

"I think you might be focusing on that side of him a bit much," a sweat-dropping Yu said, already having seen a bit of Ragna's more humorous side earlier.

"Back to the topic of skills, I was wondering about something," Ragna requested and the princess nodded. "So long story short, I managed to max out and put ten points into my cooking skill last night. The food I made was... alright, but is that really the best the skill can be?"

"Eh? But your stew was really really good!" Ruby tried to tell him. "Shouldn't it be at its best if you put all of the skill points you could into your cooking skill?"

"Princess, if I may?" Lavell asked, before being given permission to speak by her charge. The princess nodded, though Lavell most often had such privilege with her and the knight only seemed to do this as a formality. "While the maximum number of points that you are allowed to put into your skill is still ten, it takes more to maximize a skill than just that. While it's true that putting points into the skill itself will grant you select bonuses while using the skill, it won't boost you skill to anywhere near its full potential."

"...That right?" Ragna questioned before letting out a sigh of relief. "Guess that means I'm not stuck making food at this level."

"Good news for us too; if the skill's to get that much better then the meals Ragna makes as a result will get better as well," Yu thought aloud, and Ragna started to feel an odd sense of pride at the words. "So how are you supposed to increase it beyond levels requirements? Is there a special process to do so?"

"Not a special one no, but one that will take a considerable amount of time," the knight told them. "The only way to properly increase the skill is to use it constantly and gain experience whenever you use it. It's a long process, considering that you'll have to acquire 90 levels this way."

"N-Ninety!?" Hyde exclaimed at the sheer volume of levels that maximizing a skill would require. "Then... then that means-!?"

"Then that means that the grub I helped make last night is only a tenth of what I can really do," Ragna said cockily, a harsh wolf smile forming on his face.

"Only a tenth..." Ruby began as she thought over it, her mouth slowly starting to salivate. "What would food that good even taste like? And the cookies you could make..."

"We likely won't find out for some time since it's going to take so long to raise the skill," Yu reminded her. "He didn't even gain a single rank last night

"Meh, cooking's one of my favorite things to do so I don't mind," Ragna told him before considering the skill that certain members had chosen. "The two of you though..." Yu and Hyde then turned to Ruby, leaving the Reaper to sigh. "I'm against this on several levels."

"Absolutely not," the only female member of the four said as she crossed her arms. "Build that skill with someone else."

"B-But Ruby-" Hyde tried to to protest.

"FIND SOMEONE ELSE!" Ruby angrily declared once more, leading both High School boys to look at each other guiltily.

"I... I believe there's something that I'm missing here," Marie asked nervously as Lavell only looked to be confused by the entire spectacle. "Is everything okay?"

Hyde was about to answer (and desperately find some way to retain his innocence), but that was when the doors into the dining hall burst open. One of the armored knights then immediately rushed over to the table, only to be intercepted by Lavell.

"Report," Lavell demanded with a scowl at the soldier's breech of protocol.

"My lady, the five knights that we've sent out to patrol the roads have returned, but they were followed by a complete swarm of spiders! There over thirty Mountain Spiders and fifteen Dire Spiders! They're coming straight along the east path and will arrive here shortly!"

"Th-That many?" Lavell demanded from the man. "Are you certain?"

"Y-yes ma'am, they appeared to have arrived from the east woods, but we have no way of knowing for sure."

"A Spider group that large heading our way and in broad daylight..." Lavell began before shaking her head. "Rally the troops and align them over the temple walls and by the windows; we'll make our defensive stand there."

"Yes ma'am!" the soldier said as he hurried off with his orders.

"Are these Spiders really that dangerous?" Hyde asked with slight worry for the knights.

"Not normally in broad daylight; these things are nocturnal hunters, but with their superior numbers and deadly poisons they can be a threat to even more experienced warriors... But what on earth could have brought them here?"

"Ragna's abysmal luck maybe?" Ruby suggested, leading the Grim Reaper to glare at her. "What? It's possible isn't it?"

"Tch, pin this on me why don't you?" Ragna muttered as he rose and started heading to where the door where the soldier had left out of. "You guys want to go and play defensive go ahead; I'll beat those things before they even make it to the temple's walls."

"You can't be serious," Lavell groaned. "Did you not hear how many Spiders were out there? You'll be heavily out numbered!"

"Like I was a few days ago?" Ragna retorted, referring to his encounter with the knights. Lavell realized he had a point and conceded, though she didn't appreciate him bringing up her loss again. "Besides, I'll need the practice if I ever want to be as good as I used to be. Throw me a bone here."

"I-If you insist," Marie said. "Just please... be careful."

"He'll be fine," Yu said as the young man also rose to his feet, a steady hand on his katana's handle. "He's not going to be heading out alone."

"You're coming with me?" the Reaper asked with a scowl before he actually smirked. "Well if you're going to be fighting with me from here on out, we better start off somewhere."

"I'm all set too," Ruby said as she took a hold of Crescent Rose in the weapon's combat form. "Just give me a shot at them and I'll blow 'em away!"

"I'd hoped to get breakfast before fighting, but I guess I'll have to grin and bear it," Hyde said as he rose to he feet. Leaving his left palm open, he reached his right hand and almost looked like he was pulling a long red katana out of it. "This is my sword; the Insulator. It can cut through almost any defense given enough strikes and lets me pull off some pretty devastating attacks."

"And now the secret's out," Ragna muttered as he started heading off.

"Hold a moment," Lavell asked him right before she unsheathed her longsword at her side and offered it to Ragna. "Take my sword with you; my instincts tell me that you could put it to good use and you'll need a weapon while you travel."

"Tch, I think that weapon's better suited for you than it is to me," Ragna said as he cracked his knuckles. "'Sides, you've already go a princess to guard, don't you?"

"Even still, I insist that you take my blade with you; it shall serve you well in your journeys to come. In my house, this is one of our sacred treasures; it's outside has never dulled nor ever been scratched in combat. We call this sword Grey Slayer as it was the very blade that my family of warriors used to defeat the bandit king Perilous the Grey."

"...Have it your way then," Ragna grumbled as he took the sword in his left hand and kept it at his side. "Are you sure that it's okay for me to take this, it sounds like it means a lot to your family."

"Please, it's just an heirloom that's been used for ceremony to lesser branches of my house like my own family. Most of the family treats it nothing more than a weapon with a little history behind it..." Lavell then bowed her head and Ragna could see the faintest hint of embarrassment in her checks. "In fact, you're actually doing me a favor by wielding it; you'd give my blade a hero's acclaim... which would be passed onto me..."

"Fine, I guess?" he agreed with uncertainty.

"How is that we put the points into the skill, and he still gets to use Sex Appeal?" Hyde whispered to Yu.

"Maybe his luck isn't as bad as we thought," Yu thought aloud, whispering back.

"Grr..." Yu and Hyde didn't realize it, but even if Ragna had lost most of his skills, strength, and techniques, his level of perception was still far beyond that of a normal human and he could hear the lot of them as clear as day. "...Let's go." Ragna then took the back handed sword which then attached to his weapon's belt. Of course...

"Wait, your belt can do that? Awesome!" Ruby said as she tried to get a look at how the sword was attaching itself. "Can it do that with all weapons!? What's the heaviest thing it's carried!? Does it work on all weapons or just swords!? What did you use before!?"

"Oi, oi, oi, calm down will ya?" Ragna said with a sigh as he headed out the doorway. "Let's get in position while we still have time. You can look at my belt all you want to later."

"Right!" Ruby said as the three then followed shortly behind. "I'm holding you to that!"

"Yare yare..."

"Now that I think about it Yu, you carry your katana with one hand, but you don't attach a sheath to your belt or anything. What do you do with it when you're fighting?" Hyde questioned.

"Most of the time I sort of throw it off to the side until I'm done fighting," Yu told him honestly before realizing what he was getting at. "Maybe you and Ragna have a point to all of your belts after all..."

As the four made their way to the combat area with a mild does of before battle banter, the princess then turned to her closest guard.

"Lavell, I need you to stand at the ready to assist them should they need it," the princess ordered.

"But Highness, your safety if my utmost priority," the knight told her in return. "There is no place for me but at your side with blade and shield ready. You and I both remember the oath my family has made and I made in turn."

"Of course I remember... I just know that as of now my role in the kingdom's future is negligible at best." Lavell was aghast at her leader's words. "My older siblings and their bickering for the throne takes the main attention of the royal house, yet my younger relative are trying to be morphed into diplomats and military leaders. I am neither of these, most likely destined to be married off by my father whenever he's in need of a wedding arrangement to secure his power and claim to the throne... my life is of little consequence compared to theirs."

"...Then I shall stand guard at the top of the wall at her highness's request," the blue haired knight said as she knelt before her ruler. "... And I will defend both the princess and her champion's with my own life 'till the day I am no more."

"..Thank you," the princess said, bowing her head at her longtime friend.

Outside the Temple Walls

"Looks like they're almost here," Hyde said as he looked over the horizon and saw the large groups of spider that was swarming towards the temple. "Everyone ready for a fight?"

"Just about," Ragna said as he glanced at Yu and nodded. The teen gave a nod in response before calling a blue card to his hand and crushing it, bringing out his Persona; Izanagi. Yu gave a small smirk as the other two looked over his otherworldly power and-

"Looks like one of those summons that Weiss was starting to do," Ruby said as she looked over the creature. "Nice weapon though."

"I knew a girl back home called Orie that could do something like this," Hyde also noted. "The overall design is different, but the similarity is there."

'...No one's impressed by my powers,' Yu thought glumly to himself, having hoped to cause a bit of a start when he revealed it. Looking on, he saw the six feet long Dire Spiders as well as the only slightly smaller four feet long Mountain Spiders. All of which were what you'd expect from a giant spider; long hairy legs, eight dark and daunting eyes, and rather dangerous chelicerae dripping with poison. "That a lot of them... So what's our plan of attack?"

"Can't say I'm the type to overthink these things," Ragna told them as he glanced to the sword in his hand before the top of the wall where Lavell was watching his group. Scoffing, he looked back to the approaching spider threat and rested his newly acquired blade on his shoulder. "Just stay close to me and put down as many of those freaks as you can. We'll figure it out as we go."

"Works for me," Ruby said as she turned her weapon into a sniper form. "Want me to see if I can take out one of two of them before they get to us?"

"If you get the shot go ahead and take it. Like I said, the big is stay close," Ragna warned once more.

"Looks like the big guy's got the whole 'leader' job," Hyde observed with a bit of whimsy as Ragna glared at him. "Eh? Not like I wanted it anyways."

'I guess if he's the oldest and strongest of us, it does make sense,' Yu thought to himself. "Everyone ready?"

"You damned well better be; they're right on top of us," Ragna told them as he sprinted forward leaving the other three to follow closely behind. Reeling back, the Reaper effortlessly wielded the longsword with a single hand and swung the blade at the closest Dire Spider as it tried to reel up and lunge down upon the him. Ragna prepared himself for a gory display once the blade would cut through the spider... only the sword to shatter to pieces right in Ragna's hands. "Eh?"

"D-Did he just-!?" Lavell shouted as she stared at the Reaper who was just as surprised as he looked at the broken sword in his hands. "Th...THAT IDIOT!"

"Commander?" one of the worried soldiers asked as they saw Lavell's rage.

Down below, Ragna's spider was about to attack the Reaper while his attention was apparently focused on his ruined sword, but that was before the monster was blasted by a jolt of lightning, heavily damaged by a mass of swirling red energy, before being promptly shot in the head by Ruby's sniper before it fell to the floor. Ragna gave a short chuckle right as a Mountain Spider leaped at him from afar, but he simply slammed his fist into it and sent the monster flying over the horizon. With the apparent threat right in front of them, the collection of spiders decided to surround the four instead of continuing onward towards the temple.

(Cue BlazBlue Chronophantasma Blue Sanction)

"Glad you've got us now?" Ruby asked Ragna as she stood back to back with him.

"I can think of a full dozen worse people to have here off the top of my head," Ragna told her as he kept his fists ready, at peace with the fact that they'd be his weapon from now on.

"Either you're happy to be with us or you've got to have lead one of the worst lives I've ever heard of," Hyde noted from Ragna's right at he kept his katana ready.

"My money's on the later at the moment," Yu decided as Izanagi floated above him and waited to strike on Ragna's left side.

"Heh... safe bet," Ragna grinned right before the spiders swarmed them and the four returned the charge.

Being the strongest physically and overall, Ragna took a straight forward approach to beating these things; punching their light out until none of them were left moving. Uppercutting one of the creatures, Ragna sent it into the air right before spinning into a powerful kick and sending the creature flying through the air. Thrusting his leg downwards, Ragna managed to catch another of the creatures heads and crushed it into the floor. He rushed forward with a Hell's Fang and managed to catch another monster with his attack, then trying to follow up with a burst of darkness from the ground, but that never arrived. Scowling, he simply drop kicked the creature and sent another one flying.

Using his Persona as his main method of attack, Yu instead waited for a spider to lunge at him before declaring for Izanagi to make an attack. The spectral power then cleaved through one of the spiders and the two halves parted uselessly around the user. One of the smaller ones then tired to dash beneath the spirit to bite Yu, but he was prepared. Slashing his katana upwards, he managed to cut the spider across the face before stabbing his weapon into the opening.

Swinging the Insulator with great force, Hyde managed to the cleave the front two of the spider's legs off. The creature gave a scream as it reeled back, but Hyde gave no quarter as he swung his blade upward through the monster's face. Due to the nature of his sword, the entire beast was cut in two with that single strike, though Hyde didn't stop to reveal in his work and instead stabbed his sword behind him and managed to catch another spider. This one, however, lived and tried to claw at the blond with its long legs. Hyde immediately retracted his blade and followed up with a Black Orbiter to the creature's face.

Having more options for a ranged attacks, Ruby fired off a few shots with her Crescent Rose most of them hitting the spider's side or catching one or two of their legs at best. One did manage to catch one of the creature's right in the face caused the monster's body to go still. When the monster's finally did reach her, Ruby tried to use her gun to give her some distance... but hadn't accounted that she hadn't started with a full salvo of bullets. Uselessly clicking her weapon a few times, one of the spiders rammed into her and caused her to lose her grip on her weapon.

"WHOA!" she screamed as she fell to the group, her weapon landing just a short ways away. One of the spiders came up and tried to bite her and Ruby struggled in her push to keep the thing from poisoning her. "Erk! Keep away!"

"HISSSSSAAAA!" the creature screamed as it got close on one of its bites.

"STOP IT!" Ruby shouted at the monster. That was when she was hit with a feeling that she'd only felt twice before. She felt a strong pulse of power hit her eyes and a bright flash followed shortly afterwards. When the light faded the monster in front of her was reeling in pain. "Was that-?"

"Keep your guard up damn it!" Ragna shouted as he rushed forward, blasting away three spiders with his fists. "Get your weapon and get back into it!"

"R-Right!" Ruby shouted as she used her Speed Semblance, rushing over and between the monsters until she grabbed her weapon. Transforming it into it's scythe form, she then swiped the sickle and carved one of the creature's heads off. Flipping it forward, she then managed to pierce another spider and tear it apart. Pulling back the weapon out and flipping away, she almost flinched in reflex as a bullet somehow formed into her weapon's firing chamber. Firing another shot, she managed to catch another spider in the face and fell it instantly.

"Vacant Shift!" Hyde shouted as the leaped up into the air with a powerful slash that cleaved a target in half. He was still in the air when two other spider's leaped into the air. But, two additional slashes from his crimson sword dispatched them easily enough. Landing atop yet another spider, Hyde roughly stabbed the new target through the back of the head.

Yu himself was having a small amount of trouble dealing with his force of the spiders. Stabbing his katana through one of them, the monster didn't die and instead tried to rush forward and send him off of his feet. Yu grit his teeth and tried to keep the monster back before calling Izanagi and having his Persona run the creature through. Cleaving away another spider, he then noticed a group of them rushing forward.

"Zio!" he called with vigor. A bolt of lightning then descended from the heavens and struck the group of spiders, causing them to go still.

'Heh, these kids ain't half bad,' Ragna thought to himself with a nasty smirk as he managed to catch a spider and rip it in half with nothing but his bare hands. 'Looks I won't have to babysit them nearly as much as I thought.' Ragna then swung his leg high above and caught another leaping spider. Swinging the creature around on his foot, he brought to the floor and gruesomely crushed it. Only a few remained.

"DEAD SPIKE!" Ragna shouted, letting loose a terrible Black Beast head from the ground. The mass of energy impacted the arachnids, blowing each of the creatures apart. Aside from the stunned gazes from the other three, Ragna was rather pleased with himself.

(End Theme)

"That's the last of these things," the Reaper said as he allowed himself to relax. He was about to go into his status screen and check to see if he'd improved at all, but he saw something out of the corner of his eye that gave him pause; the hilt of the sword he'd broken. "...Lavell's not going to like this," he muttered as he headed over and picked the piece up.

"That weapon probably meant a lot to her," Yu admitted as he opened his own results screen. "Must have something to do with your abysmal luck stat."

"Great, 'cause of that thing now it ain't safe for me to use weapons," Ragna muttered as he opened up his screen. "...Well whatever I guess. How's everyone's level looking?"

"Just hit level three," Hyde decided to inform as he rested the Insulator on his shoulder. "And like I thought, I got twelve more stat points to assign."

"Same with me," Ruby told everyone. "I don't see any new abilities though... how do you suppose we're supposed to get them?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Yu said as he delved into his skill list. "Looks like I earned another skill point..." It was then the silver haired noticed Ruby's intense glare at him. "...I'll put it in another skill, okay?"

"You better," Ruby told him with a scowl before turning to Hyde. "The same goes for you!"

"Right, right," Hyde sighed as Ragna only rolled his eyes at the display. As the blond looked over the options to invest his skill point into, he noticed that the gates had opened and that a squad of knight's lead by Lavell was approaching the group. "...She doesn't look happy."

"Big shocker," Ragna said as he Lavell approached, glaring intensely at the Reaper. "...Saved you the hilt."

"This makes the second sword of mine that you've broken; both of which belonged to my family and both of which I cared for," the commander told him as she forcefully took the hilt from Ragna's grasp. "This might have been an heirloom, but having it broken will not reflect well upon me with my family... I'm starting to think I can't trust you around my weapons."

"If it keeps you from pointing 'em at me, I'm for it," Ragna said, trying to make light of the situation. The glare Lavell was sending his way made it clear that he wasn't succeeding.

"If that's second sword then what was the first one?" Ruby asked.

"...Her greatsword, but to my defense I was trying to break that one at the time," Ragna explained to her. The was when he noticed Ruby was holding her favorite scythe a good bit away from him. "I'm not going to destroy your weapon."

"I'm being safe," Ruby asserted. Ragna couldn't exactly find it in himself to blame her. "So um... what do we do with the spider bodies?"

"Presently it seems like the only thing that we can do is leave them for something else from the wild-lands to eat them," Lavell informed before sighing. "Sadly no one in my unit has the Wilderness Survival skill; if you had that you could disassemble the creatures and sell the parts for a hefty profit."

"Wilderness Survival skill?" Ruby asked meekly, then noticing that Hyde and Yu seemed to be looking at her with interest. "Eep!"

"She did say something about not wasting our points, didn't she?" Yu asked the blonde.

"If we're remembering right, and I'm pretty sure we are," Hyde said in response with a teasing smile.

"Oi, oi, you don't have to torture it out of her," Ragna muttered darkly, only then noticing that Ruby was looking his way with pleading eyes. "...No." Her eyes got much bigger. "I said no." Crocodile tears started to form in her eyes. "Ruby..."

That was when a screen appeared before Ruby reading 'Gained One Rank in Bluff skill.' The young huntress immediately froze at the taller man as he shook his head in disappointment. One of the knights then offered Ruby a small knife in order to carve the creatures... and the process began.

Later -Temple Gates-

"It looks like this will be the last we'll see of each other, at least for a short while," Princess Marie told the four out-worlders as they stood in front of the royal carriage that had been prepared to take her back to the capital. "Sadly there is very little that I can do for you four from here."

"Eh, not too big of a deal," Ruby said with a smile, despite being soaking wet. "You helped us get ready at least."

"Why is she so damp?" Hyde whispered to Yu.

"After she managed to take those creatures apart, she never left the bath until now," Yu whispered back. "Speaking of which, what happened to the parts that you were able to get from them?"

"They're inside this," came Lavell's voice as she made her way into the courtyard with a leather backpack close to the size that Yu and Hyde had used back in middle school.

"I thought you'd have been able to get more than that at least," Hyde said as he remembered the size of the creatures they'd been facing.

"There's a magical augmentation on the bag," the knight informed them. "It will allow you to store over a dozen times what could normally fit inside this back and its weight won't grow in the slightest. I've also stored a few thing that I hope you'll find useful when you're out on the road."

"Nifty," Ruby said with a smile as she took the backpack and put her arms through it. "Nice and light... so where are we headed from here?"

"I am headed for the castle town, but I wouldn't recommend following me just yet," Marie told the four. "My father's been against the idea of the summoning, and if you appeared in the capital along with me it wouldn't bode well... I'd suggest instead of heading north-east, you only head east towards the city of Heavencliff."

"Heavencliff... So what can we expect to find there?" Ragna questioned.

"Unlike much of the kingdom, Heavencliff was in proper condition last I had heard," Lavell informed. "In fact, the Governor there is an old teacher of mine from my days in the Academy, he'll have been sure to keep the town is good condition."

"I should have asked this earlier, but are you certain that it's best if we head there?" Yu questioned. "I don't mean any disrespect, but you did summon the four of us in order to fix this kingdom. With the state that this town is likely in, I feel that we're needed elsewhere."

"That is true..." the princess admitted with something of a sad look in her eyes. "But, the threat will spread to that area eventually. I want you four to keep that from happening."

"I get it; we fix that problem early before the area's in trouble and we manage to get stronger along the way," Ragna noted before the princess nodded to him. "If things are as bad as you say that they are, we're going to need any levels we grab along the road."

"Speaking of levels, that does bring me to an important point," Lavell began. "You'll need to keep your status menu's closed while you journey though the kingdom. This is part of the heroes power and while you're here to fix our kingdom, we'd prefer it if you didn't announce your presence too early."

"Makes sense, and it's an easy fix," Hyde said with a shrug as his menu appeared in front of him before disappearing. "Now I'm the only guy that can see my screen."

"Excellent, with the four of you our kingdom may recover from this blight after all," Marie told them before bowing to the four of them. "I'll await news of your exploits to reach me in the capital and hopefully change what I can of my father's direction of thinking."

As the four watched the princess's carriage depart into the horizon, Hyde and Yu gave each other confident smiles, ready for the new adventure before them. Ruby as gave a smile to Ragna, but the older fighter merely rolled his eyes and started walking forward.

"Let's go," he ordered.

"Hey! It's an important moment! It's where we're starting our journey!" Ruby yelled at him as she followed closely behind. "Shouldn't you say something encouraging?"

"How about don't die?" Ragna suggested, not breaking his stride.

"That's just morbid!"

"It's as encouraging as I can get," the Reaper told her off.

"Jeeze..." Hyde said with a sigh. "Those two..."

"They'll make things interesting at least," Yu had to agree.

Author's Notes

I had this chapter almost done when I posted 'A Reaper's Game' so I sort of pushed myself to get it out... I'm going to need to come up with something quick if I still want a usual Friday update out. Anyways, I've got the review responses here so thanks for writing in. Omake will be presented afterwards.

EpicLinkSam: The Switch too? Jeeze 3/3 is a busy day.

Mugen7: I did end up trading Ragna's stats around a little to make a bit more sense.

BlackSavior: I had to push myself to do it.

The Unplanner: Good question, but it seems like there might be a chance to see just how far a fully evolved skill could go.

Mystech Master: I've got the backstory card up my sleeve as we speak, I'm just deciding when the most effective time to play it will be.

Guest (1): It wouldn't be Ragna otherwise I'm afraid.

A Special Kind of Stupid: ...It's an idea.

Guest (2): Perhaps I'll address that point in more detail down the line.

Ptl: Yu's only got Izanagi thusfar.

ARSLOTHES: Here's the next chapter.

Guest (3): Yare yare daze... It isn't that finely connected to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

Here's your Omake!

Covering Weakness

"WAAAAAHHHHAAAA!" Ruby screamed as she sailed through the air. Landing on the grassy ground with a small and muffled crash, she grimaced as she laid their in minor pain. "Owwwwwwwww..."

"Oh c'mon, I didn't even hit you that hard," Ragna muttered to himself as he crossed his arms. "I know you said that your unarmed combat needed work, but this is just plain ridiculous."

"I was working on it before I left," Ruby told him as she slowly managed to rise to her feet. "I never said that I was very good at it..."

"Tch, either way it still needs work. Again," Ragna demanded with a scowl. Ruby was still recovering from his last attack, but her 'teacher' wasn't in much of a mood for waiting. Rushing forward, Ragna's fist nearly made contact with the young huntress in training before she used her speed semblance to barely avoid the attack. "Least you can dodge."

"Ohhh! Now you're asking for it!" Ruby declared as she rushed forward right at the Reaper. Ragna once more punched forward, but Ruby dodged to the side to get around him. Positioned behind him, Ruby was about to try and attack his blind spot, but Ragna then turned into a powerful backhand. "Eeep!" Ruby yelped as she managed to duck the attack. With Ragna positioned right over her, Ruby thrust her head upwards in one of her only unarmed maneuvers. In theory it was the right approach; in practice... "OW!" Not so much.

"...Okay then," Ragna said as he stared down at the huntress in training who was only rubbing the soar spot on her head after she'd tried to ram it into her opponent.

"How tough are you!?" she shouted at the Reaper.

"Damned if I know for real, but I can at least tell that you need work," Ragna told her as he crossed his arms. "You came to me for this Ruby, so I don't want to hear any complaints from you."

"Okay, okay, I got it..." Ruby groaned as she slowly got to her feet, dusting of her black corset and white sleeves as she did so.

"I'm serious here," Ragna told her with a scowl so intense, Ruby nearly flinched at it. "Without that little toy of yours, all you can do is use your semblance to run. And if your semblance ever shuts down or you can't get away, what then?"

"Then I count on you and the others," Ruby tried to tell him, only for Ragna's scowl to grow all the more fiercer. "I'm not kidding around Ragna!"

"And I am?" the Reaper rhetorically questioned the younger girl as he gripped the bridge of his nose and groaned. "You've only got one chance Ruby, and losing your weapon ain't putting any odds in your favor. We can't completely cover for you."

"Just the same way I can't completely cover for you," Ruby tried to tell him. Ragna wasn't angry, but he did raising an eyebrow at Ruby's accusation. "You can't attack at a range at all, can you? Even that Dead Spike of yours barely covers any ground and it'd be useless against a flying opponent. That's what the rest of us have to cover for, getting any monsters that you can't catch with your fists."

"...You have a point, at least for now," Ragna told her with a sigh. "And it's not like Yu and Hyde are that much better without powers or a weapon..."

"Great, so we'll reconvene with both of them tomorrow," Ruby told him with a smile as she started to make her way to the others.

"When did I say we were done here?" her current instructor asked, leaving her to freeze in place. "Even if I agree that we need to get Yu and Hyde on the same page, that doesn't mean you're getting off today scot-free. Break's over, kid."

"Aww..." Ruby groaned as she saw Ragna had already gone into a battle stance. "I'm starting to think that you just don't care if I wake up tomorrow with bruises."

'That's what she thinks,' Ragna internally told himself as he guarded against Ruby's Speed Semblance rush. 'Truth is... Can't remember the last time I actually cared about something like this...' He then countered with a series of punches, light enough that Ruby could guard against but hard enough to pressure her. 'Maybe that's why I feel like I gotta go hard on her.'

'Till Next Time Folks!

Ciao!