A/N
Hello everyone, I hope the new year is treating you well so far. I've been writing my hardest to bring you guys the quality chapters you deserve. This will be the final arc of Grimm Eclipse, then there will be a .5 chapter, then we're going into volume 3. Some things might stay the same, some might change. In any case, I hope to bring as many smiles as I can. Without further ado, Enjoy!
{Jusitin/Achilles' perspective}
Well we made it. Manufacturing wing, after a lot of hacking and slashing through enemies.
There's a lot of power nodes and it would be a shame if something happened to them.
Oz then told us to break them.
With Ruby yelling "DESTROY EVERYTHING!"
I chuckled "I completely agree Ruby! Time for destruction!" I then shot a vat a dozen times while holding my pistols in the executioner style.
Aaron with his S&W 500's also shot up one of the vats, but not in the same way. He kept telling me the way I was firing was 'inaccurately' and stuff but this is anime, anything cool ignores the laws of physics.
Anyway Merlot is pissed and we went down an elevator. It was a short ride and once we got down there were spike traps. Great, my favorite thing in a video game…
My team looked at me for guidance which took me a second to process "Oh me? Right there seems to be a vent on the other side, we'll need to keep moving."
"Or…" Aaron started "I could teleport us all to the otherside with the help of Jaune."
I nodded "I'm surprised you didn't use that against that one muderbot."
"It's almost like someone completely forgot my semblance when they were writing that fight." He retorted.
I looked at him in confusion. "What?"
He then met my eyes "What?"
"Did you just break the fourth wall?" I asked.
"No." He replied adding confusion towards everyone.
Ruby then cleared her throat "I can also use my semblance to put less strain on Moon."
I looked at Aaron, he seemed to agree with that. "Alright, JNPR, Keoth, and Neo will go with Moon where I go with you four."
Ruby looked over at Aaron for one moment before turning back to us "Alright let's do this."
All of us held onto Ruby. JNPR, Keoth and Neo held onto Aaron.
With Neo being a little under the belt so-to-speak. I hope she doesn't plan anything, Neo has been acting unusually.
I wonder if I can use her semblance for the fall of Beacon.
Anyway, we then each managed to make it to the other side of the spike room to the air vent.
Anyway we broke through the vent and charged into a room as Oz said "According to this map this room has more processing equipment for his serum. You need to take out all of it!"
Ruby looked at me with a smile.
I nodded at her "Alright let's break more of these things!" I then said.
And so we did with a wave of mutated grimm defending it so some of the group had to defend while the rest went on to do more property damage.
When that was done we moved on.
"My serum! …Thankfully I've already synthesized the perfect combination. It's still in the test phase, but so far the data is looking very impressive." Merlot said over the screens.
Oz then chimed in "Fantastic work everyone, I must admit you handled this well. The team back at Beacon is cheering for you."
I couldn't help but chuckle. "Aww, thanks Oz. Tell them we said the same." I said as I sheathed my sword and then we walked down a corridor… to the boss room! "Company halt!" I yelled to which everyone stopped dead in their tracks.
Nora ran into Ren but I think that was on purpose.
Yang looked at me with concern "Is everything alright?"
With all eyes on me, I took a deep breath and held my head. "I sense something. The creature from my nightmares… It's here." I said trying my best to channel my inner V.
team RWBY looked at me with wide eyes.
Jaune backed up nervously to which Pyrrha comforted him.
Nora looked interested along with Ren.
Keoth looked unphased, if anything his face was saying 'why are you like this.'
Aaron and Neo had their arms crossed in a fashion that mimicked one another. They really are cute when one isn't actively plotting my murder for misleading her on her boyfriend's interests.
I nodded to everyone. "We need a strategy before we go into that room." I then pulled my dagger out and drew a square on it. "Alright this is the boss room."
"No!" Nora said.
"It gets worse." I replied.
"Dear gods!" She said with her mouth covered.
I stabbed in places where I remember there were spike traps. "These are spike traps, they won't activate at first, but after a short while they will. There will be hordes of grimm too." I said as I then drew Os to represent grimm "And the mutated grimm" I continued as I stabbed some of the Os in the center to represent the mutated grimm. "There will also be his bots, and finally the boss will appear in this corner." I explained as I drew a big X. "So when that boss comes we need our heaviest hitters to focus on that."
I then turned back to the group "So that means Yang, Nora, Keoth, Moon, and Pyrrha will need to focus on it when the time comes. While the rest of us focus on keeping the adds at bay. Including the robots that will come as well. Any questions, comments, or concerns?"
Weiss then held up her hand "What's an 'add'?" She asked
Should have known Weiss wouldn't know. "And 'add' Weiss is an enemy, or enemies, that spawn alongside a boss in a video game." I explained to her. "Anyone else?"
with no other questions I turned to Ren and asked "Hey can you crunch some numbers for us?"
Ren gave me a nod and estimated "I estimate that this will have a 32.33, repeating of course, percent chance of survival."
I shrugged "Well that's better than we normally do."
I then heard the sound of Judas Priest's blades unfolding. "Alright chumps let's do this, LEEEERRROOOOYYYY JEEEENNNNKIIINNS!" Aaron shouted as he ran into the boss room.
After a moment of stunned silence Yang said, "Oh my gods he just ran in…"
I stifled my laughter as I told them "Go help him." As I gestured to the boss room.
Before I joined them I mumbled "This must be what it's like to play with me."
We jumped from the platform as Merlot popped up on screen. "Welcome to the testing room students. Why don't you go ahead and get acquainted with my test subjects. They could use the exercise…" He said trying to be all ominous.
But I know what he has in store. "Alright gang, get ready!" I yelled.
The first wave started off with two white robots and a boatload of the kamikaze grimm. I slashed one of the bots in half as the rest of my team fired at the grimm making sure to keep their distance.
In the end we won that wave.
"Well... that didn't go according to plan. Let's kick it up a notch." Merlot said as more grimm and robots spawned just as I predicted.
Beowolfs, which given the fact that I managed to slice one in half just a few days ago I felt like this was no problem. Though the increasing numbers did make me a little more cautious to attacks from the back.
After what I assume was hours of hacking and slashing. Merlot popped up on the screen once more "No! So it has come to this…"
And there it is, a mutated deathstalker appeared as well as the adds. "Moon! Can I see your speaker?" I yelled.
He shrugged and tossed it to me while it was transforming.
I caught it and then proceeded to pull my scroll out and with a few taps of my scroll I found the song I wanted.
I'll admit, this song was meant for an original character of mine, but since I'm in RWBY I might as well use it.
It was then Aaron shouted "Don't do it Paul, you're gonna get yerself killed!" in an overtly southern accent.
I mumbled under my breath "God damnit."
"Don't do it Paul, badass montages will get ya killed!" He said once more.
I then fired a warning shot at him.
Which made him go back to his normal voice. "Ok ok, go do your thing."
{Shepherd of Fire- Avenged Sevenfold}
I spun my gun and placed it back in it's holster in a fluid motion. "... Anyway as I was about to do…" I said as I placed the speaker out of the way so that it wouldn't get destroyed in combat.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I took my glasses off so that I wouldn't fear losing them.
I then slowly opened them once more and looked around.
Enemy numbers were steadily increasing, and so I struck my blade against my gauntlet igniting the blade.
I was getting surrounded by both red and white bots. I waited until one of them attacked.
And I guess some divine being heard my thoughts, a red robot charged at me, so I slashed forward at it. I then jumped from that falling enemy to my next target slashing each one in half.
I then jumped clear over a white one and performed a bullet storm over a beowolf.
I holstered my guns and pulled my sword out of its sheathe as I came back down, imbedding my blade in a white robot which managed to ignite my blade again.
More grimm charged at me, so I slashed through the heavy metal with a wall of flames flying at the grimm.
Another red bot came charging in and tried to slash at me.
I dodged the attack and sliced its leg off, causing it to kneel.
I sliced it's head off and kicked it to the floor.
I then heard Weiss yell at me as she put a time dilation glyph on me.
The next things that happened were blurs, all I can remember for sure was that I was a whirlwind slashing enemy after enemy away.
I think I did a stinger followed by a million stab attack? I can't quite remember.
But anyway, after the numbers died down the spikes started to pop out of the ground as Mellot popped on screen.
"Why aren't any of you dead yet?!" He pleaded.
I smirked at him. "Because numbers don't mean dick when they're the same enemies we've been dealing with for years to come. Plus we have at least 12 people, your numbers will just get squashed." I said as I used the flame dust in my jacket to set a nearby Grimm ablaze.
"Hmph, we'll see about that!" He yelled as more of his robots appeared, including another Protection Bot. Lovely, just what I wanted to deal with.
It fired at me, and I managed to deflect the bullets as I rushed it.
Though before I could close the distance Weiss joined my side. "Wanna do that move we've been practicing?" She asked
"You sure you wanna try the Frostburn combo now?" I asked back.
She nodded and I shrugged "Alright, Frostburn it is then.
Weiss readied her ice dust as I ignited my sword.
She put a glyph in front of me.
I slashed through it, turning the flame from orange to blue as it surrounded the bot, causing it to spark.
Weiss and I then charged at the bot and managed to permanently disable it by dealing enough damage to it.
Weiss with her stabbing attacks and me slashing through its metal limbs.
A robot tried to blindside me.
I heard it's metalic footsteps and sidestepped it's overhead attack.
I countered its attack and ripped the robot's arm off and tried to pick it up but it seemed to be too heavy, so I did the next best thing, use it's own weapon against it.
The red robot tried to stab me, but I grabbed the handle and yanked it out of its hand.
I then sheathed Porfyros in favor of having two hands to grip this weapon on.
I then slashed its head off and then stabbed it, making it fall to the ground. I then unsheathed my weapon and looked at the boss once more.
It looked like they were making little progress. I then yelled to Nora "Hammer and nail!" I then tossed my sword cleaving the stinger off as Nora used Pyrrah's shield as a launch point. She went high up into the air and then came crashing down. Digging the stinger into the head of the boss.
And after that, it started to turn to dust with Merlot screaming in frustration "NO MY LUSUS NATURAE! MY ONE OF A KIND SPECIMEN! How could you defeat such a work of art?!"
Oz then came on the screen on the opposite side as the robots seemed to just flop on their faces. Apparently the robots are attached to that mutated grimm. Good.
Anyway Oz said "It's over Merlot, you've got nothing left."
"There is something I can do!" He said angrily. Suddenly I felt rumbles.
Now living in California I know what earthquakes feel like, hell my parents lived near the San Andreas fault line, so I felt every little movement the Faultline makes. It did make for some restless nights.
But these felt more like explosions, and as if I'm in a comedy, a fireball appeared on the opposite side of the room.
"OKAY WE NEED TO GO. LIKE NOW!" I yelled reflexively.
All of us ran for the exit. I managed to pick my blade back up before the structure behind us fell.
The Bullhead came in and flew beside us. JNPR first got on, followed by Keoth, Aaron, Neo, RWBY, then I was last, unfortunately the ground was giving way.
So I thought quickly and used a prototype I was working on. I had it hidden in my gauntlet for an occasion to test it, I guess now is as good a time as any.
I aimed my gauntlet at a handle as a small grapple hook rose from the back end.
I fired it and it wrapped around it just in time as the platform under me failed.
The bullhead then flew out of the facility as the sunlight hit my eyes again.
God this pain, like I just gamed all night and suddenly realized I pulled an all nighter.
I started climbing up to the bullhead, and before I got in I turned around one last time to see fire bursting out of where we came from.
After that, I climbed onto the ship with the help of Weiss and Yang. And the door was closed when I made it inside.
Weiss crossed her arms at me "That was reckless."
I looked around to see that a good number of them seemed to have the same sentiment.
I chuckled as I stood up "Well, it was either test my grapple hook then or fall to my death. And I don't feel like dying." Again… But I didn't tell them that.
I then put my glasses back on.
Weiss rolled her eyes. "Still, something could have hit you and knocked you out."
I rubbed her head "Thanks for being concerned, but I'm fine. Now let's head for home." I said with a smile. "I could kill for a burger and fries right now."
I then looked at Rose who also had her arms crossed, I guess she's still concerned for me even after all of that. Good to know.
[Hours of flight later]
Well we made it back to Beacon. And once we landed and the door opened, there to greet us was Ozpin, Port, and Oobleck.
And once we got off the airship Ozpin was the first to speak "Students, what you did was well above the call of duty. I wanted to come out here to thank you personally."
I glanced around the group with a small smile across my lips.
"However," He continued "I believe this matter should be kept quiet, we wouldn't want the public to know what happened here today."
"I would have to agree, Oz," I said to everyone's surprise. "We wouldn't want someone to know the grimm could be controlled. We'd end up having to deal with another one like Merlot. Besides we destroyed all of that serum, we really don't want to deal with it again."
Ozpin nodded "At least you know the reason." He took a sip of his coffee "Although, with that said, go relax. It's not every day you stop a mad scientist hell bent on using grimm to further his own ends."
I looked to my team and nodded "Well, we can go and get breakfast, I haven't had a proper meal in a while."
They nodded in agreement as we walked to another platform. JNPR went their way, Keoth said he had to report to Ironwood, and Aaron tried to get back to his team, but Oz stopped him "Except you, I have some questions for you." He said with his cane on Aaron's chest. Aaron looked at me with a silent plea 'Please help me!'
I rolled my eyes "Oz, I made a mistake. Neo wasn't there. I guess I have an… overactive imagination."
Ozpin looked at me suspiciously but then shrugged "I see, carry on then Mr Shadow." Aaron sighed annoyed but nodded at me.
Neo jumped off somewhere in Vale so as to not cause any problems for Aaron, of course she used her semblance and that threw me for a loop for a moment.
But that was in the past. I'm hungry.
[Restaurant in Vale]
We found a random restaurant which gave huntsmen a discount. Wish I had found this much earlier but oh well.
Anyway we ordered our meals and began some small talk.
Yang talked about her walloping the beast we dealt with.
Blake quietly respects Yang's abilities.
Weiss complained about how we might not get any extra credit.
And Ruby is just being adorable.
I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.
Yang noticed pretty much immediately. "Something funny Achilles?" She asked.
I shook my head "No, just enjoying how much we've grown as a team. With how much we had to deal with so far, who knows what the future will have in store." I replied with a shrug.
I know what the future is, but I don't wanna tell them that.
I know that eventually my lies will unravel, so I need to find a point to tell them the truth before things turn out for the worst.
Blake then asked "I'm sorry to stray off topic, but have you unlocked your semblance?"
I shook my head "No, I don't feel like I have."
"I think it may unlock some time soon." Weiss said to which I turned to her confused.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
She twirled the ice in her drink as she explained "Every encounter with the grimm we encountered your eyes would turn red, almost like Yang's."
Impressive, she can get a good sense of her team even while in combat.
Good to know. "Interesting, I don't really notice myself." I mused.
"Well it's not like we could bring mirrors." Ruby added with a shrug.
I laughed at that comment. "Good one Rubes."
Our meals soon arrived, I got myself a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, and fries as a side.
Luckily there was already ketchup at our table so I didn't need to ask for that.
Ruby got a grilled cheese and fries.
Blake got fish n' chips.
Weiss got a steak and Yang got the same thing I did but with pickles and onions.
…You learn something new every day apparently.
And so we sat in silence as we ate. Probably because compared to the rations we had to eat during that whole sha-bang.
After all, in my family, if there's no-one is talking, it is a good meal.
Once I was done with my burger I then turned to my team and asked "Is the meal really that good?"
Yang shrugged, her mouth was still full so she didn't bother speaking.
Weiss however said "Well, compared to what we ate during our mission, this is a godsend."
I nodded in agreement "Right." I then looked out the window towards the sky.
I do wonder if Merlot is actually dealt with.
[Meanwhile in Melot's lab]
Merlot was frantically gathering his notes. Since team RWBY, JNPR, AMRK, and Neo's "visit" he was in a worse state of mind.
He thought out loud. "Gah, all of my research is still here. Good, maybe I'll start anew in a new place. Perhaps I can go to Saunas. Mistral's government won't try to find me."
He then heard a noise behind him. He turned quickly to meet where he heard the noise
"Who's there?" He demanded.
At first there was nothing.
But then he saw an amber pair of eyes.
They then spoke "My mistress sends her regards." before being impaled by a scorpion's tail.
[Restaurant in Vale]
{Justin/Achilles' perspective}
Meh not my problem right now.
Should he try again, we'll be ready.
In the meantime, we're just gonna relax. "Hey Ruby, you and I should go get our weapons repaired tomorrow. You said that Crescent Rose's blade is getting dull?"
She nodded "From all of those robots we had to deal with."
"Yeah he had way too many of those. Like he already had an army, why try to control grimm?" I noted.
Blake then added "Maybe to deal with the huntsmen?"
I shrugged as I had finished off my fries. "Who knows. The man himself surely won't talk."
I mean, his song told his plans but that's another thing I won't discuss.
Oh it seems as though everyone finished. And the waitress has arrived with our bill.
Weiss was about to pull out her wallet but I stopped her "Allow me, Can't have you pay for everything. Besides, my treat." I then pulled out the Lien needed and set it on top of the checkbook.
We then left for Beacon. With all of that now out of the way, the VYTAL festival is around the corner. And I can't wait to fight stronger opponents.
Maybe I'll even finally unlock my semblance. Or even try to fix mine and Joce's relationship. Well that's been one of my goals so far. Regardless, I'm looking forward to being back in my bed. Sure I can sleep on a cold hard ground, but nothing beats a nice warm bed.
