Hello everyone! I...have actually nothing more to say, than thanks a lot again for keeping up with my story so far! I hope you like today's chapter!
The Grimm attacked with such a surprising speed that Yang got forced to jump backwards as Mr. Pale took refuge at the base of a tree behind her.
It stretched its clawed arm towards her, but the blonde ducked underneath the bony appendage and sent a couple powerful punches to its gut, using Celica to add to their force. The force of the impact was so powerful that it threw her enemy away, rolling on the ground.
At the corner of her eye, Blake blinked around her enemy, using Nightfall to send a series of quick slashes as the creature only went after the faunus' clones, failing to even mount a proper defense.
Yang started to move- a sound of movement made her turn back as the creature, visibly unharmed, rose from the snow, gnarling at her. What the heck in going on? That attack now could demolish an Ursa Major!
She saw that Blake's sword had also inflicted zero damage to the other one, as the quick and seemingly deadly cuts were instantly getting closed. How sturdy are these things?
Blake, on her side, was equally troubled. For starters, the Grimm had a very decent speed and reaction time, forcing her to be constantly on the move and using her semblance more than she felt happy with.
In addition, that dark mist healed every wound Nightfall inflicted on it. As it ran towards her, she spun on her left leg, kicking the thing's legs in order to jump away.
The creature, to her horror, charged not at her but at her landing spot. For a split second, the image of a tall, blonde faunus pouncing on her helpless body flashed through her eyes, disturbing her footwork.
"Sun- AGH!" The clawed arm sliced at her belly, rattling her aura before the girl cleared her mind and managed to blink away again, holding her stomach in pain.
Yang watched her partner getting hit, clenching her teeth in anger. Her own enemy ran towards her in a rather simplistic way, making the blonde ready her fist to break its- "YANG! ABOVE YOU!"
She realized her mistake a little late, her lilac eyes seeing the Grimm stopping away from her reach, one heartbeat before thin mist fell on her back from the trees above.
To Blake's horrified eyes, the mist transformed into a third creature that sliced at the brawler's back, taking away a large chunk of her aura and eliciting a pained scream from her.
The pain coursed through her body, as the first one tried to attack her, sharp teeth wide open to tear at her throat, while the other aimed for her flank, letting her only a moment to defend. She needed no more.
Without turning around, she hit the creature from behind her with her metal elbow, then lowered her entire body and spun around to swipe its torso away.
As the first attacker fell upon her, she hastily jumped on her feet to change her body direction and sent a powerful artillery shot on its creepy face.
Not even bothering to hold back, she somersaulted backwards, unleashing three more artillery shots at the things, filling the outing with the smell of gunpowder and smoke.
Meanwhile, the third one jumped at Blake, trying to once more take advantage of the ground the faunus was giving away. It didn't notice the woman drawing her semi-automatic handgun, however.
Yellow eyes narrowed, as the cat girl teleported away on her target's back and emptied Envelop on it, totally shattering its head.
"Wow" Yang exhaled "that was truly something. I haven't fought Grimm that cunning since that Ancient Nevermore on top of Salem's tower." "It was truly tough. Mr. Pale" she turned to the man "are you ok?" "I-I… yes?"
She moved to him, but her instincts suddenly screamed at her. Blake, reflexively, turned her sword around and blocked the attack from the enemy who not only had gotten up without its head, but was slowly reforming it as it pushed her blade with its claws.
Yang bit a curse back- Weiss had told her she swore too much- as she saw the annihilated corpses of her own two opponents, unlike any normal Grimm, slowly reforming, growling at the huntress. She blasted them again.
"All right; these officially replaced Neo as the most annoying enemy ever" she announced, as she rocket-propelled herself away from the other two, slamming Blake's enemy on the torso.
The Grimm lost its balance, allowing the cat faunus to slice off its feet and cut a huge wound on its body. "Thanks for that" she huffed, as her partner punched the reforming corpse away.
"You are running low on aura." "That hit from before took a lot more than expected and I have been overusing my semblance, too. Those things" she pointed at the still regenerating enemies "are a serious threat." Yang nodded "Let's go then. Can you run?" Blake nodded again.
Before the three things behind them got up and started slowly moving, the two huntresses had already grabbed the Councilor and made a run for the central meeting point. "Sorry for the rough handling" Yang shouted to the man who was literally tossed over her shoulder "but you would slow us down." "Ah-aaa"
"I think the shock was kinda too much for him" she groaned. In front of her, Blake took the flare gun out of the bag, checking it had three colors of dust flares in. "What color is emergency retreat, Yang?" The blonde narrowed her eyes for a second "Ahm, blue, I think."
Without breaking their pace, Blake shot the blue flare upwards, hoping that everyone inside the forest would be able to see it, despite the thick canopy. Not that they could do anything else, anyway.
Stopping here and allowing these three- if these were the only ones- to engage them again, was out of the question, especially with a civilian among them.
They managed to get to the outing, seeing a few figures moving out towards them- fortunately they were villagers, holding their lamps. "What happened? Are you ok? Is Mr. Pale-"
"Is everyone here?" Blake asked between her panting. "Besides those who were already sent home, yes! What happened?" one of the men shouted at her.
"Grimm ambush. The sheriff and the others have been dead for a while. We have to go before they return. We can't protect all of you in such a vulnerable position!"
It might have been their scared expression, the state of the Vale Councilman or the urgency on the faunus voice; regardless what, no man objected and almost immediately everyone started running towards the village, Blake and Yang standing rear guard.
For such an eventful night, they all managed to reach Yugure with no additional problems. Many women and children were standing there, probably woken up by the sounds of combat or the flare, confusion and worry on their faces. All of them wore the same religious pendant; Yang found the spectacle a little creepy.
Among the bombarding of questions, the tears of happiness for the ones who returned and the cries of sorrow for the fate of the three lost men, both huntresses managed to slip by the crowd, just before they spotted their teammates.
They were sitting on a bench, next to the Mayor's office. Both girls looked like they had been in battle, with Weiss seemingly disoriented. In front of them was standing that ass of a Mayor, who signed to the bumblebee pair to move towards them.
Both girls ran at their friends, Yang completely ignoring the man as she knelt in front of them, ruffling Ruby's hair. "Are you ok, Rubes?" The girl replied with as much cheerfulness as she could muster right now.
"Thanks to Weiss, yes." Yang smiled at Weiss, who returned the expression, opening her beautiful blue orbs in an alluring- you know what; screw it.
She pecked her girlfriend's pink lips and then wrapped her in a warm hug, allowing the visibly tired woman to nuzzle on her nape. "What happened to you two, Ruby?" Blake asked. "This is exactly what I would like to hear, as well as what occurred inside the woods, ladies" Abbey added.
After some time, both parties had finished explaining to the Mayor and to each other their respective experience. Ruby, on her part, omitted her own involvement in Weiss' injuries, blaming everything in the shadow. From both her sister's and Blake's expressions, she knew they didn't believe her. She could only hope the Mayor wasn't as sharp.
"In other words, while your friends tried to actively help us and nearly sacrificed themselves for the sake of my people, you two were busy snooping around our Holy Place. I am so disappointed in you" the short man said.
"Hey, cut her some slack. She found a hidden tunnel under that Holy Place of yours; something you failed to find" Yang leveled her gaze on him. "No, Yang. He is right" Ruby got up and gently bowed in front of him, earning a raised eyebrow
"I am deeply sorry about that incident, Sir. As the leader of team RWBY, I will take full responsibility about it. So, please, if you could limit the penalty only to me, I would be very grateful."
Yang and Blake tried to protest, but their leader silenced them with a glare- something Ruby had picked during her one year leading expeditions in Vacuo.
Joseph Abbey slumped his shoulders and scratched his chin "normally, after something that severe, I would send you away without a second thought and file a complaint towards your Unit. But, you did discover something down there, and your teammates saved lots of my people tonight. I guess I can make do with just a simple penalty."
"I will take it too" Weiss' low-key voice was heard as she rose form Yang's side. "Weiss, I said I will take responsibility for coming up with this."
The girl huffed in annoyance "then I will take responsibility for not stopping you when I should." Then Blake added "and I, for not telling you it was a bad idea." Yang looked around, before exclaiming "me too, for not, ehm, being there."
Ruby opened her mouth and tried to complain, before the Mayor cut her off. "This gets us nowhere. Fine" he said "if you are so willing to share the punishment, that's what we will do."
He turned to Ruby "you will be helping with patrolling the village as long as you will be staying here. What do you think?" Yang jumped up, much to Weiss' frustration "Hey, that's practically-"
"It is fine, Sir. Thank you very much for your understanding." The little reaper interjected. "Great" he smirked "take tonight to rest, you will begin tomorrow. And don't pull anything like this again, Ms. Rose. I will not be so kind next time."
Yang restrained herself from commenting on the man's kindness as he slowly walked away. As soon as he was outside of hearing range, the pair turned to the crimson girl, who was looking at them sheepishly; she knew what was coming.
"I will not say anything about wanting to take all the blame yourself, Ruby. But I want to hear what truly happened; for you to outright lie to a man's face, it must have been really important." Blake deadpanned.
Instead of Ruby, Weiss replied "I told her to; he wouldn't believe us and there is no reason to stir them before we can establish a logical explanation." Yang titled her head "ehm, what?"
"I will tell you everything, but not out here. Let's go to the inn and get some rest." "About that; Ms. Pale offered to let us stay with them, as a thanks for saving her husband" the faunus added.
"Even better" Ruby smiled "Weiss had been complaining about needing a hot bath and a good meal for some time before you came." A pair of blue eyes narrowed "It's not my fault trail rations taste atrocious" the ex-heiress groaned as they all started walking towards their clients' mansion.
Ruby let a satisfied sigh as her body soaked into the warm bath. She allowed the warmth to spread through her skin, enjoying the feeling before starting to scrub the dirt off her.
Their hosts had been more than hospitable so far; Ms. Pale had excused herself quite soon as she wanted to stand by her currently resting husband and her two boys she had pried away from Yang's bear hugs, with no small effort mind you.
However, she had provided them with a couple guest rooms and two servants at their disposal in case team RWBY required anything during the rest of the night, including a meal waiting for them downstairs when they were ready to eat.
Ruby took some shampoo and started rubbing her hair, carefully enough not to damage the strands. She smiled a little; she had never been one to take care of such things before. She thought them as being too girly and to an extent still did.
It only took Jaune to tell her how much he loved caressing her hair for 19-year-old and smitten back then Ruby to start getting concerned about something more than just being awesome.
She lowered her head. Jaune… no matter how much she wanted to hide it, his current condition weighted heavily in her heart. Heavily enough for something to take advantage of that and nearly make her shoot Weiss's head off! The very thought made her shiver.
She started rubbing off her arms and torso, avoiding putting so much pressure on her belly, where a wide circular stab wound from a very sharp parasol resided- it didn't hurt her a lot, but she still had a few reservations about messing with it.
She then rubbed her fist; it was covered in semi-frozen, caked blood. Not yours, she reminded herself. It's Weiss'. You know, your best friend? The one who supposedly consider your second sister? The one you nearly killed today?
"DAMN!" Ruby screamed splashing her fist into the water. "Ruby?" Weiss called from outside the bathroom "are you all right?" No, I am not "Yes, I will be out in a minute!"
She finished washing away the soap and stepped out of the bath, wrapping her body in a towel, when the door slammed open, revealing a very angry Weiss.
"Hey, Weiss! What-" the woman moved inside and grabbed Ruby from her towel's hem "if you ever lie to me again for such a thing, I will slap you!" Ruby's eyes opened wide "Wha-"
Weiss glared at her; even now, standing considerably shorter than the brunette, she could be pretty intimidating. "You. Suck at lying. Especially when talking to me. Am I understood?" Ruby lowered her head, trembling "I am sorry…I am so sorry…"
"Ruby…" Weiss' anger instantly dissipated, the pale girl letting go of the towel and hugging her partner instead. "Why are you tormenting yourself like this? I told you I don't blame you for being taken over back there."
She sniffed, her wet hair sending hot droplets to her partner's neck "I did…say such terrible things to you…" Weiss closed her eyes and patted her back "you didn't mean them." She hugged her tighter "but I still said them, Weiss. You don't understand."
She bit her lips "I felt it. At that point, I could feel it, Weiss! I was so angry, so angry at you. At Yang, at Blake. I was angry at you, being happy! I wanted to hurt you, do you understand? I wasn't in control, but whoever did this, made me want to hurt you!"
The pale girl didn't reply; instead, she rubbed Ruby's soft hair. "When I snapped out of it, when I realized I was going to shoot you, I…I have never felt so pathetic in my life!"
"Ruby…" Weiss whispered. "And even worse, you didn't accuse me of this! You just dismissed it, as if it was nothing bad! As if I am allowed to feel this way!" the dam broke and Ruby started crying in the ex-heiress' hug.
"I love you… all…so much!" Weiss squeezed Ruby back "We love you too, out dolt of a leader" she said. "That is true, even when you are acting stupid, like now" a serious, yet warm voice was heard from behind them, as Blake and Yang stepped inside, standing on the bathroom's door.
The blonde looked at them and immediately grinned; flashing her pure white teeth in a teasing manner "I expect there is a very good reason for my girlfriend hugging my totally naked sister in the bathroom, right?"