Ch. 4
Fire, that's all there was, fire. The entire village was bathed in red flames. People ran about, screaming in terror, chased by creatures in black with red hungry eyes. Deformed monsters that attacked any living thing in sight. The people of the village tried to escape, but a few were unlucky. And amidst all that chaos was a little 10 year old girl with magenta hair. She was sitting on the ground, crying with her hands covering her face.
"Emma! Emma, we have to go," said a familiar voice.
Emma looked up and saw a black haired boy with red eyes looking down at her. "I'll get you out of here, just take my hand. We'll go together." Abaddon held out his open hand towards her.
Emma reached out to grab her friend's hand, but this relief was short-lived. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and when she opened them, Abaddon still stood there, but with bleeding gashes all over his body. His eyes were glazed over and blood dribbled from his nose and mouth. Then, his body jolted when a long crimson red blade stabbed through his heart.
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Emma woke with a start. She almost screamed and managed to stifle it when she came to, but that didn't stop the heavy amount of sweat that covered her face, neck, and chest. Emma was sleeping on Abaddon like she usually did and saw that she had completely drenched his black night shirt. She reached towards the small desk under the window and turned on a small lamp, then she got up and was about to change when she heard his voice.
"Another nightmare?"
Emma looked up to see Abaddon wide awake. "Yeah. How long have you been awake?" she asked.
"Since you started sweating rivers on my chest," he chuckled. He pulled his shirt off and threw it on the floor. The many scars on his arms and chest were visible for Emma to see. Seeing them reminded her of bad times in the past, something she didn't like to think about.
"Oh." Emma blushed while looking down. "Well, uhm, I'm gonna take this thing off. It's really uncomfortable when it's wet," she said. Emma took off her green knee length blouse and was wearing a violet colored bra with small black shorts. She used her blouse as a towel to wipe off the rest of her sweat, and then threw the blouse on her bed.
As Abaddon gazed at Emma, he couldn't help but slightly blush. Even though she kind of acted like a child at times, he didn't forget that she was still 17 and had a nice figure.
Emma then went back to using Abaddon as her pillow. "You don't mind this do you?" she asked him. This wasn't the first time she had slept on him like this. She was practically half naked, plus she didn't want him to feel uncomfortable or for things to get weird between them. He was the one she trusted the most. They were like brother and sister, yet he almost always let her do what she wanted.
"No, I don't mind. You think I'd feel weird about this? It's not the first time you know," Abaddon told her. "My priority right now is to make sure you get some sleep."
"Sorry for waking you up at, like, 4 in the morning," Emma apologized.
"It's alright, plus it is Friday. But I need you to go to sleep, and don't worry about your nightmares. You can tell me about them later. Now goodnight kitten. Love you." After saying that, Abaddon gave her quick kiss on the head and went back to sleep.
Emma meowed in response and nuzzled her head against Abaddon's chin. She closed her eyes and this time descended into a sweet, blissful dream.
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"Damn, that hammer packs a punch," said Cardin Winchester as he limped from the stage in defeat. He had just gone up against Nora Valkyrie. Nora basically wailed on him with her hammer, Magnhild, during the entirety of the match and Cardin was unable to keep up as he was pounded into the floor.
They were in the afternoon combat class in the amphitheater, which was taught by Glenda Goodwitch, Ozpin's assistant. Abaddon loved this class since not only would he get to test his might against other students but also because he didn't have to wear that damn school uniform. Just about everyone was dressed in their usual combat gear.
He wore a black V-neck hoodie that had dark red and white lining on the v, along the sleeves, and on the hood with black fingerless gloves covering the wraps on his arms, a red and white undershirt, ash black cargo pants, and red, black, and white shoes that covered the wraps on his feet.
Kathleen wore a sleeveless black body suit under a purple short sleeved one piece jacket with grey line patterns, black and grey fingerless gloves, light grey arm vambraces, two black belts crisscrossing over her waist, a necklace with a yellow star pendant, and dark grey heeled combat boots.
Jurano had on a short sleeve dark green and brown shirt, red and greyish brown cargo shorts, brown shoes, brown armbands, and a detached red hood with white designs.
Emma had on a sleeveless long cream jacket with brown straps instead of a zipper with the portion above the breasts cut off. It was parted at the bottom to show off a bit of her midriff. Under this was a blue green collared top that covered the missing upper portion of her jacket. She also wore dark brown fingerless gloves with black extensions that reached up her arms, black shorts with a brown belt, and dark brown shin high combat boots.
During the matches in combat class, Glynda would decide a student's grade by how skillfully, quickly, and efficiently they could take out their opponent. "Thank you Ms. Valkyrie, but I would suggest you come up with a more viable strategy than just simply smashing your enemy repeatedly."
"Will do," Nora said as she exited the stage, collapsing Magnhild into its grenade launcher form. She walked over to where teams KAJE, RWBY, and the rest of team JNPR stood. Nora gave everyone a wide smile as she stood with her friends.
"That was great Nora, you almost killed him," Jurano joked with a thumbs up.
"Why did you stand over him with that pose?" Weiss asked. She thought that Nora using Cardin as a monument was a bit unnecessary.
"Because she's the queen of the fucking castle. Don't you know that Weiss?" Abaddon said, earning a few laughs from the group.
Weiss huffed while Nora gave him an evil smirk. "You better believe it big boy," she said.
Abaddon and his friends had just met Nora's team, JNPR, two days ago during lunch. Her team members were Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, and their leader, Jaune Arc.
"Alright students, this will be the last match for today." Glynda began pressing on her handheld touchpad to randomly select two students.
Jaune had his fingers crossed. "I hope it's not me today," he said.
On the screens above the stage, two images popped up along with a long green bar that indicated the student's aura level.
"Blake Belladonna…and Abaddon Rizer."
Abaddon gazed at Blake. "Ready to put on a show?" he asked as he bowed for her to go first.
Blake smiled at the gesture as she walked up to the stage first with Abaddon coming up behind her. They each stood on opposite sides of the arena then turned to face each other and unsheathed their weapons.
Blake held her Gambol Shroud, a black katana with a gun built into the hilt and a cleaver like sheathe that could be used in a dual wield fashion. Abaddon carried his Obsidian Fangs, which were dark red gauntlets that each held two black short swords. Although, he reached with his right hand to his left gauntlet and pulled out only one sword. The lights around the room dimmed until only the stage was lit, allowing the two students to focus on each other.
"Begin!"
Blake made the first move as she charged at and slashed horizontally with her katana. Abaddon blocked this with his sword, and pushed her back. Blake charged again, but this time when she struck Abaddon swung his sword. Blake used her semblance to create a shadow clone as she jumped into the air and threw her sword, which was in its sickle form, at him to wrap around his arm. Abaddon saw this coming and grabbed hold of the ribbon the sickle was attached to. He pulled Blake out of the air towards him. Blake was prepared to kick him, but Abaddon sidestepped to the left and hit her with a palm strike to the stomach. Blake went flying a bit through the air, almost hitting the stage wall.
Blake quickly landed on her feet and took her battle stance. Abaddon charged towards Blake with his sword held back for a quick jab when out the corner of his eye he caught sight of something, something he thought he left behind a long time ago. Blake noticed that he was distracted and took this chance to get a few hits in. When he was close, she slashed at his aura a couple of times before sending him back a few feet with a backflip kick to his chin. Abaddon slowly pulled his head back down, and when he did Blake saw something that scared her a bit.
The sclera of Abaddon's left eye was partially black. It looked like a creeping darkness that was threatening to consume his sight. Although, she had no time to ponder this as Abaddon dashed towards her with tremendous speed. He was so fast that Blake barely managed to avoid his sword. She jumped back to gain distance, only for him to appear to her right and hit her with another palm strike. This sent her flying into the wall with a loud thump. Blake fell to the floor. She tried to get up, but saw that Abaddon was standing over her with his sword pointed towards her neck.
"That'll be enough. Abaddon Rizer is the victor," said Glynda. The lights of the amphitheater returned to their former state.
When Abaddon's eye returned to normal, he shook his head and looked Blake in the eyes. All he saw was concern, with a small tinge of fear. He felt bad for using that much strength on Blake, especially since it was only a class match up and not an actual fight.
He helped Blake up to her feet. "Sorry about that. I just got a little carried away."
"It's alright, but you seemed distracted for a bit," Blake said. She thought whatever he saw must've triggered something in his head.
Glynda walked up to the pair to tell them her assessment of their battle. "Ms. Belladonna, you're quick on your feet, but it seems your strategy is based on the attack with evasive maneuvers. That gives you opponent several openings to execute what could be a decisive strike. Although, you do show adept use with your semblance. As for you Mr. Rizer, you have a remarkable amount of speed and strength, especially during that last part of the match. Even so, you failed to take things seriously and was distracted enough to allow your opponent to land a few strikes. I suggest you to actually 'try' next time."
Both of the faunus nodded.
Glynda then turned to the other students in the room. "Alright class, that'll be all for today. Let the battles you've seen here be a reminder to train you skills often. You're dismissed."
As all the other students started to leave, Blake and Abaddon joined their friends.
"You were great Blake. Way to go!" Ruby chimed in excitement.
"Abby still won though," Emma added, sticking her tongue out at Ruby, who did the same thing.
"Awww puppy, did the kitty push your buttons?" Yang teased, poking Abaddon's nose.
"Yeah, you looked kinda….pissed," Jaune added.
"No, just got carried away is all." Although, Abaddon's mind was troubled by what he saw: glowing amber eyes. He recognized those eyes, and he had hoped he wouldn't see them again.
As they all walked out of the auditorium down the hall, Abaddon noticed Blake was hanging back. He slowed down until he was right beside her.
"Abaddon, what was with your eye? And what did you see in the crowd that distracted you?" She stayed back so she could ask him that herself without the others chiming in, especially Yang. The darkness that she had seen crawling over his left eye seemed really unusual. Abaddon wasn't surprised that she noticed, in the short time their teams had been friends he knew she could see details that others would normally miss.
"It's just part of my semblance is all," he lied. "Nothing to worry about. And as for what I saw, it was just, uhhh, an old friend in the crowd. I failed to notice her until then so it kinda caught me by surprise." He scratched his head and slightly chuckled.
Blake could see through his lie, but decided not to push it. He might be waiting for the right time to say something. She just hoped that whatever it was happened to be good news instead of bad.
"Well our friends are probably wondering why we stayed behind, so let's pick up the pace shall we," Abaddon said smiling.
Blake smiled back. "Sure," she said as they both began to catch up with their friends.
