Ch. 23
"Holy crap!" Sun yelled as he dodged another shadow ball from one of the Ghouls. He and Blake decided to take on the ram horned one while Kathleen fought its brother.
"Sun, we have to hit it with its own smoke balls. Its weak to its own attacks, especially on the inside," Blake told him, remembering what happened last time at Mt. Glenn.
"Alright." Sun ran towards the Grimm, dodge rolling under a claw swipe and slid to its underbelly. There, he started pelting it with gunfire to get its attention.
The Ghoul roared and looked down at Sun. The monkey faunus smiled back at it and jumped back just in time to avoid a ground pound from one of the Ghoul's clawed hands. Blake chose this time to jump in its face and use Gambol Shroud in its sickle form to slash it multiple times, then stab her katana into its lower jaw to shoot at close range. She then jumped back and flipped until she was beside Sun. Their plan worked as the aggroed Grimm began to gather the fumes in its mouth into a large shadow ball and blasted it towards them.
"Sun!" Blake yelled.
"Here we go!" Sun made his weapons go back into staff form and held it like a baseball bat. "Batter up!"
Sun hit the shadow ball with all his strength, sending it back towards the Grimm and into its gaping mouth. And like its predecessor, the creature convulsed until its body fell to pieces. With that Ghoul dead, the duo turned their attention to Kathleen. Kathleen wasn't in much trouble, she dodge the attacks of the Ghoul with minimal effort all the while slashing its hide and punching holes in its body with her semblance. The Grimm did one last swipe, which Kathleen back flipped from, before it kneeled to the ground in pain.
"Wow, she's got it down all by herself," Sun said in astonishment.
"I'll finish this in one last blow." Kathleen combined her Mortuus Concordiae into nodachi form and held it in its sheathe. Focusing on one point, Kathleen quickly and accurately dashed forward with a fast slashing technique. A moment later, the Ghoul's body was cut cleanly in half. She changed her nodachi back into dual form as Sun and Blake joined her.
"Nice!" Sun said.
"Thanks, but it's not over yet." Kathleen gazed over to Abaddon's battle.
Bantus and Abaddon fought in a flurry of punches, kicks, and blades. They had been fighting nonstop at a rapid pace, one never out pacing the other.
"Why don't you use that flashy power of yours wolfy? You could beat me easily with that," Bantus mused.
"Hehe, I could, but I had forgotten how much fun I always had when fighting you," said Abaddon.
Bantus slashed at Abaddon with his sword whip. Abaddon caught the blade in his hand and jerked it towards himself. Bantus was thrown forward towards Abaddon and used the momentum to aim a kick at the boy's head. Abaddon spun, the kick only grazing him, and slammed his right hand shield gauntlet into Bantus' chest. The lizard faunus went flying towards one of the shipment cranes. He lightly grabbed one of the support poles and spun around it, coming full circle until he came flying back at Abaddon with another kick. This time Bantus used both feet. Abaddon managed to block the blow, but it was powerful enough to push him back a few feet. Bantus flipped in the air before landing on his feet once more.
"Look at us. Evenly matched as usual," Bantus said.
"I'm not surprised," Abaddon replied.
As they were about to continue their battle, Kathleen, Blake, and Sun jumped in next to Abaddon with their weapons ready.
"Give it up Bantus, you're outnumbered," Blake said.
"I may be outnumbered, but not outclassed. Tell me, have any of you fought an Alpha Grimm before?" Bantus asked.
Blake noticed that he wasn't looking at them, but past them. She turned around only to see something she would've thought impossible to happen.
Blake tightened her grip on Gambol Shroud. "Guys, behind us!"
Everyone looked back to see the Ghoul that Kathleen defeated eating its own kin. It had managed to survive Kathleen's attack and crawled over to the other Ghoul, leaving a trail of what looked like black blood behind it.
"Since when do Grimm eat each other?!" Sun screamed.
Once the bisected Ghoul had finished devouring the other Grimm's remains, its body began to tremble. It began to grow in size until it was 2 times as big as before and regenerated its lower half. It grew two extra arms, had six red eyes, longer teeth and claws, and a tail. White spikes and armor grew along its back, knees, elbows, and tail. It also had 8 red slits going down its chest.
"Damn, I was hoping not to see another one of these again," Abaddon thought.
The transformed Ghoul roared at them, ready to pounce until the sound of a gunshot rang in the air and a sniper round hit the Ghoul's head. The round had no visible effect except moving the Grimm's head a little.
"Hey!" Everyone looked up to see Ruby standing on top of a nearby building wielding her Crescent Rose.
Bantus smiled at the new challenger. "Isn't past your bed time kid?"
"Ruby, are these people your friends?" Penny asked from behind Ruby.
"Penny get back," Ruby told her.
Unbeknownst to Ruby, the Ghoul had spit a shadow ball at her. She looked back in time to block it with her scythe, but the ball exploded, sending her flying to the ground. Seeing Ruby get hurt angered Penny and she stomped towards the edge of the roof.
"Penny wait! Stop!" Ruby yelled.
"Don't worry Ruby, I'm combat ready!" At her command, a pack on Penny's back opened up and a single sword flew out. It unfolded itself and multiplied into ten swords. She then jumped off the roof and onto the ground. More White Fang soldiers entered the area, only to be quickly felled by Penny. Everyone else watched the little girl's performance, surprised that she even had such fighting capabilities as her blades beat the soldiers down like they were nothing.
"Whoa!" Sun said.
"Lookout!" Abaddon pushed Sun out of the way as a shadow ball came careening towards them. Abaddon stopped it with his bare left hand and when it exploded the harmful fumes within expanded then shrunk until they were absorbed into Abaddon's hand.
"This Grimm is stronger than you think. Don't let your guard down." Abaddon's blades began to glow with light as he ran towards the Ghoul. Kathleen joined him, wanting to help in any way she can.
Meanwhile, three bullheads flew over and strafed the area with gunfire. Abaddon deployed his mega shield to cover him and Kathleen, Sun and Blake hid behind some crates, and Penny blocked some of the gunfire with her blades. She then deployed two more, which shot out of her backpack and embedded themselves into the building behind her. Using strings connected to the blades, Penny rocketed back to the wall then held her hands out in front of her as her blades spun in a circular tunnel formation. Green energy began to gather in that formation as Penny focused her aura into one point. Once done, she pumped her fists forward and released several beams of energy. Two of the bullheads were cut in half by the beams and fell into the water. Ruby gazed at what Penny had done in pure wonder.
The third bullhead tried to escape with a crate of dust, but Penny had embedded six of her blades into its body. As she stepped back, the ship began lurch down.
"Whooaa, how is she doing that?" Ruby asked herself.
With one hard pull, Penny made the bullhead crash into a stack of crates and explode.
"This doesn't look good for me. There's too many huntsman, and with both Abaddon and that girl present I won't stand a chance in a full on fight, even with my Ghoul by my side. I'll have to retreat for now," Bantus thought.
He turned to the Ghoul and yelled, "Smokescreen!"
At Bantus' command, the Ghoul opened its mouth wide and began spitting a huge gust of dark mist. The mist spread fast, covering the entirety of the docks and obscuring everyone's vision.
"Oh man," Sun coughed.
"He's trying to get away. We have to get out of this," Blake said.
Suddenly, the mist began to move. It was surging and swirling into one point until all of it disappeared into Abaddon's left hand.
Sun had to blink to make sure he was seeing things right. "Whoa, that was-."
"Wait, where's Bantus?" Blake interrupted.
Everyone looked up at the sound of two bullheads flying off, the Ghoul sitting on top of one of them. They could do nothing as it was already out of their reach.
XXXXXXX
The sound of radio chatter could be heard as the local police closed off the docks for their investigation of the crime scene. The huntsmen in training were all questioned on the situation, but chose beforehand not to say anything about Bantus or the Ghoul. Afterwards, they sat down together on some crates whilst waiting for the rest of their friends.
Soon enough, Yang, Weiss, Emma, and Jurano walked onto the scene.
"Hey Abby," Emma jumped onto Abaddon's back like she usually did. "What happened here? Did you and Kat get into a fight without us?"
"Come on you two, you can't get all the action. First in the Emerald Forest, and now here?" Jurano whined.
"Whatever," Abaddon simply said.
As Weiss and Yang walked up to their teammates, Ruby stood up to confront Weiss. "Look Weiss, it's not what you think. She explained the whole thing. You see she doesn't actually have a bow. She has kitty ears and their actually kinda cute."
Weiss ignored Ruby and went up to Blake instead.
"Weiss. I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with-."
"Stop," Weiss said, interrupting Blake. "Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you?"
Blake didn't answer.
"Twelve hours," Weiss continued. "That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided-."
Everyone else continued to stay silent, waiting for Weiss' decision.
"-I don't care."
"You don't care?" Blake asked.
"You said you're not one of them anymore right?" Weiss asked.
"No, I haven't been since I was younger-."
"Up, bup, bup, bup." Weiss interrupted Blake again. "I don't wanna hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up, you come to your teammates, and not someā¦someone else."
Blake wiped a tear away from her face. "Of course."
"Yeah, team RWBY is back together!" Ruby cheered.
"Thank goodness," Jurano said. "I thought Weiss was going to screw everything up."
"Hey!" Weiss whined.
"Just voicing my opinion ice queen," Jurano said with a bow.
"You know, I'm actually kinda proud of you Weiss," Abaddon said, earning a small smile from the ice queen.
"Hey Abaddon, how do you know Bantus Sanguin?" Blake asked.
"Who?" Emma asked.
"Bantus is the lizard faunus that we fought at the docks before you guys got here," Kathleen said.
"He's not just a lizard faunus, he's a komodo dragon faunus," Blake told them.
Everyone's eyes opened wide in disbelief.
"Wait, wait, wait, the komodo dragons were a faunus clan that was exterminated years ago due to their extremely violent and predatory behavior," Sun chimed in. "How can he be one?"
"Because Bantus' parents sacrificed themselves for him to live, but their deaths along with the others mentally scarred him," Abaddon explained. "Afterwards, he joined the White Fang under Adam's jurisdiction and became their best torturer. Bantus himself told me that during our third fight several years ago."
"Torturer?" Yang asked. "That's a bit much."
"I know. And he's a great fighter to boot. I'm surprised Blake and Sun were able to hold out like they did. It looks like he didn't even use his semblance on you," said Abaddon.
"Hey, I didn't use my semblance either," Sun added to boost his confidence.
"I had forgotten what his semblance was," Blake frowned.
"It's called intangibility," Abaddon explained. "It allows him to become temporarily intangible so he can pass through physical objects and attacks. Although, he can still be hit by dust and energy attacks."
"And what about that Grimm that was with him? You said it was a Ghoul," Kathleen said.
"There was a Grimm here?!" Emma screamed.
"No way," Yang said.
"Shut up Emma. We can't let the authorities know or else there'll be a panic," Abaddon said, covering the girl's mouth. "Yes, those Grimm are called Ghouls. It was the same kind that injured Ruby on your mission. The larger version that we saw tonight was a Mega Ghoul. They're like Alpha Beowulves and Ursa Majors, but more dangerous thanks to the stronger shadow fumes that come out of their bodies and the fact that they can regenerate their limbs."
"Grimm that can regenerate! That's impossible," Weiss huffed.
"No, it is very possible. The first Mega Ghoul that I fought regenerated its arms after Cinder had cut them off," he continued. "Their heads don't regenerate though, so that's an upside. Although, I don't know how Bantus was able to summon them with his screeching. They're Grimm, they can't be controlled."
Ruby put a hand on Abaddon's shoulder. "Maybe we should keep our eyes open from now on. Whatever clues we find will help us get to the bottom of this in the future."
