Crimson XIV: Night Hunt

Somewhere in the outlands, night has long since set over the thick forests and draped the land in darkness. There was a strong wind blowing through the air, pushing the thick clouds overhead and bending the creaking tree branches. Such a condition would be enough to keep most creatures in their boroughs for the night… which was to say nothing of the true predators of the forest.

Wicked snapping was heard throughout the undergrowth, followed by heavy bestial breathing as a large bipedal monster surged forward, tree branches bending from just the sheer force of its run. This creature was a Beowolf, a large bestial Grimm that was known for viciously tearing its victims apart with its claws and fangs. Depending on how powerful the creature had become, they could grow as big as twelve feet tall like this creature. These were considered Alpha class which was something of a misnomer as they didn't always travels in packs… this one was seen as a lone wolf.

As it tore through the woods, it felt its target up ahead giving off a nearly unprecedented level of negativity. Leaping into the air as it emerged from the undergrowth to a large clear its thick black fur and its deathly white mask reflected the moonlight. It spotted its target with its eyes, roaring as it lunged down with its maw ready to tears into its victim's flesh. It couldn't even touch said target as a blade screamed clean through air, carving the creature in half and forcing it to return to darkness.

"Here we go."

Around the clearing, several similar monsters burst from the bushes or leapt from atop the trees landing in large circle around the individual. Not all of these were Beowolfs; there were more than a few large and spiny Ursa type Grimm, a even a few of the rolling Boarbatusks. With these creatures of the night of hunched over and snarling viciously it was like a scene out of a nightmare… but if anything they seemed to be minding their distance from the man in the center.

Losing what little patience he had left, the man at the center decided he wouldn't give them the choice. Closing both of his mismatched eyes, he let his mind drift back that day; that dark and horrid day where he'd lost everything.

'Come on kid! Quit your crying and put on a brave face for us! Say something brave now why don't you!? SEE HOW FAR IT GETS YA! EHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!'

A dark aura fell over the man, covering his red coat in darkness. Now the Grimm had no choice; just being close to this level of negativity was a buffet for them. Hollow screams and vicious roars were heard around the clearing as the creatures barrelled forward towards the man. One of the Boarbatusks made it to him first, coming dangerously close to crushing him beneath its rolling bulk. A single sword swing stopped that effort as the creature was vertically cleaved in half. As the monster dissolved into darkness, the young warrior spun in a deadly arc with his sword, cleaving through several monsters and returning them to darkness.

From a distance, a mighty Ursa drove its sharp claws into the ground before throwing large chunks of earth at the target in an attempt to bury him alive. This proved to be in vain as the young man leaped into the air, his shadow outlined in the light of the broken moon. Raising his sword high above his head, its handle extended and its blade twisted around to form a deadly sickle. As it did so, a menacing blade of dark energy extended from the other side, effectively forming a dual ended scythe. Roaring, he swung the blade down with deadly malice and eliminated an entire section of the Grimm. Swinging the Reaper's weapon behind him, he fired off a wave of the strange dark energy that viciously tore through every Grimm it came into contact with. Slashing his weapon in front of him, he tore through seven of the dark beasts in an instant.

While keeping a solid hold on his scythe with his right hand, he used his left hand to take out a longsword. Snapping the trigger into its correct place and caused it to reveal its gun function. Pulling the trigger, he made a single powerful shot at another rolling Boarbatusk. The excessive shot was more than enough to tear through the Grimm's armor and peice its body through, returning the beast to the shadows. The warrior fired off another three shots, the Grimm falling to the floor like his used bullet cartridges. Swinging the weapon to its longsword base, he gave a hefty slash upward and toar through a Beowolf. Rather heavy blow and having so much power with a lighter weapon than he was used to nearly sent him off balance. Gritting his teeth, he sheathed his sword as the remaining Grimm charged forward. Placing both of his hands on his scythe, he roared as he rushed forward giving a series of erratic swings as he continued to cleave through the darkness until he alone stood.

Ragna said nothing as he glanced around the clearing, waiting for the possibility of another wave Grimm to charge in from the undergrowth. A few minutes passed with no sign of the creatures, in fact the peaceful sounds of forest creatures returned all but confirming their absence. Sighing, he let his energy fade from the scythe and let it quickly shift back into its base sword form. Placing the weapon on his belt, he prepared himself to move on.

A short shrill ring broke through the tranquil sounds of the woods. Knowing full well it was coming from his scroll, Ragna reached inside his pocket and put the device up to his ear as you would a common cell phone.

"Yeah?" he said bluntly to whoever was on the other end.

"Burning the midnight oil are we?" came the voice on the other end followed by a jolly laugh. "I know that feeling all to well, back in my days as an outstanding Huntsman I would often go fighting Grimm long into the night. A trying battle to be certain, but I persevered."

"Well, if you didn't I don't think I'd be talking with you now professor," Ragna said, trying to keep his tone neutral as he rolled his eyes at Port's claim. "Funny, normally Goodwitch or Ozpin are my contacts for this sort of thing. How did you get stuck with this?"

"I… wouldn't call myself stuck with this, but I'm afraid we do have a bit of a situation," Port told him. "Judging by where your scroll signal is being sent from, I'd have to say that your unusually far from the wall."

"I sort of have to be; I can't have a huge swarm of Grimm getting so close to the wall or we'd be just asking for trouble," the Reaper reminded as he started walking off. "Not only that, but it's a lot harder than it usually is to find a group of Grimm tonight. The group I just encountered was my first one of the night and I've been searching for hours." His eyes narrowed. "Something's up, isn't it?"

"I'm afraid it is," the instructor told him. "A short while ago, we lost contact with one of our Huntsmen in the field. He was close to where you are now. Can you see a set of ruins of in the distance?"

"Yeah, I'm maybe a mile or two away at the most," Ragna said as he stared off into the distance.

"Then that would explain why you were able to encounter this particular group of Grimm," Port told him. "Back before we lost contact with the Huntsman, he reported that a small group of Grimm he'd trailed were heading into the temple. As I've taught you in my class, normally it wouldn't be so odd for a Grimm to take shelter in a cave-like environment, but this was different… Here the Grimm were moving into the ruins slowly from differing sides, not making any roars or other declaration of claiming territory…"

"...Something's guiding them into there then," Ragna observed bluntly. "...You know that if this is a warming to keep me away, it's failing pretty spectacularly."

"Far from it I'm afraid," Port explained to him. "We have another Huntsman/Huntress team en route to ruins, but you're far closer than they are and time is of the essence. We need you to head into the ruined temple and either extract the target… or figure out what happened to them. It's a difficult job, but I have full faith that you'll emerge victorious."

"Great…" Ragna muttered as he started to hurry in his pace. "You know, this sounds a lot like normal Huntsman work."

"And is that a problem, Grim Reaper of the Wastelands?" Port asked, causing Ragna to pause in his movement.

"...Not many people know that name… and even fewer believe that it could possibly be me," he told Port,

"Well your description does match the rumors," Port informed him. "No secret is too secluded for my keen eye after all."

"I'll keep that in mind," Ragna told his instructor with a sigh. "I'll message you once I get that Huntsman out." 'Whatever's left of them at this point…'

Meanwhile -Beacon Academy: Student Corridors-

"Ugh… too many cookies before bed…" Ruby groaned as she gripped her gut, heading out of the bathroom with the mother of all stomach aches. For dessert at the academy, they'd been offering a special batch of cookies handcrafted from Atlus itself. Aside of course from what she could remember of her mother's cookies, these were probably the best ones she'd ever had up to this point. As such she'd… indulged herself a little, more so than usual anyways.

"Classes tomorrow are going to stink…" she sighed to herself under her breath. This was probably true, the mix between probably having carrying a leftover sensation of the stomach ache accompanied with a lack of sleep from awakening at this late hour was likely going to make the next morning hell for the young huntress-in-training.

'At least I've got Grimm Studies with Professor Port first thing in the morning,' she thought to herself. 'It'd probably be a pain to have him cover for me, but maybe if I can get Ragna to share his notes with me afterwards…'

Speaking of Ragna, she was passing by his small single room just as she was thinking it. Giving it a passing glance, there shouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary… only to discover that he'd left his door slightly ajar. Normally this wouldn't be too big of deal, but with Ragna on his own and quite a few students bearing a harsh grudge against him it might've been better to make sure her best friend was secure for the night. As she went to close the door though, a curious idea hit her mind… one which she was angry for thinking of, but unable to get out of her head now that it was there.

'What DOES he look like when he's asleep?' she thought. Back during their first day of classes and the first all nighter the two had pulled they'd had fallen asleep near each other in the break room, but not only had Ragna passed out long after her he'd also awoken himself before hand giving her little idea of his sleeping habits. Did he snore loudly? Did he have to curl up into a ball under the covers? Would he be oddly peaceful once as he got some actual rest? The more Ruby thought about it, the more she realized that she was thinking about it.

'I'm just peeking in on him to make sure he's okay and no one broke into his room,' she tried to assure herself. 'I'm doing this because I'm his friend, not some creepy stalker…' Cracking the door open, her eye scanned the dark bedroom in (reluctant) hopes of getting a sight of the Reaper in his natural habitat… only to instead find an empty bed. "Huh?"

This should have technically been breaking and entering, but fully opening the door to Ragna's room she entered. Ruby switched the lights on, checking around the bedroom nervously. Not only was Ragna not here, but both Aramasa and Clarent were gone as well. His favored red coat was also absent as well and after what she'd pulled a few days ago, Ruby was pretty sure Ragna would be hesitant to leave that thing out of sight for even a moment.

"Weird…" Ruby muttered to herself, switching the lights off and closing the door behind her. The feeling of a stomach ache and need to get enough rest were quickly thrown out the window as she searched over the academy looking for Ragna. She checked the places he'd described as his normal sleeping spots (though there was really no reason to bother now that he had a room to himself), the training center (though getting in trouble with Goodwitch last time would've caused him to avoid breaking into that place again), and the library (even though they'd already seen each other there when they'd worked on their assignments together). There was no sign of Ragna or anyone else there.

"This… is getting concerning," she thought aloud as she crossed her arms, heading back through the hallways. "Maybe he's taking a midnight shower or something? But then… why the heck would he do that?"

"Huh, and here I thought I'd be the only one out tonight."

Ruby had to keep herself from screaming as a voice informed her that she wasn't the only one in the hallway. Quickly turning her head at the source, she saw Kagura who clearly looked like he'd been out clubbing all night. Much of his normally neat clothing was left a little ragged, he had a faint smell of alcohol on him, and Ruby was pretty sure those dark spots under his collar weren't welts.

"So then, what's keeping you out of bed?" Kagura asked casually, making some small talk with another girl before the night was over. "In fact with all of those cookies you were eating after dinner, I'm surprised you're not still trapped in the bathroom."

"Urk… don't remind me…" the younger student told him, her stomach now starting to gurgle since it was remind of the pain it had been in. "I was actually looking for Ragna, I passed by his room and… his door was left open…"

"So you broke in and he wasn't there," Kagura summarized, earning a scowl from Ruby. "Hey, I didn't mean it like that… okay maybe I did, but still."

"I was worried about him!" Ruby hissed, trying to keep her voice down so that she wouldn't wake anyone else. "You know that a lot of people still have it out for him! Sure Jin's been calmer lately, but Tsubaki's been disturbingly quiet and Cardin's team still hates his guts!"

"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to remind me about them," Kagura muttered. 'Jin's gone quiet though… wonder what happened there.' "Anyways I don't know what to tell you either, he wasn't out clubbing at Junior's I can say that much."

"Junior's?" Ruby repeated as she tried to think back. 'Didn't Yang get into a fight there or something? I dunno, she just tells me not to go there.' "So… where is he then?"

"Tch, maybe he…" Kagura started to say as he thought back. "...Nah."

"Nah? What do you mean nah?" Ruby demanded, pestering Kagura for answers.

"Well I mean… he could be out with another girl," Kagura muttered, scratching under his nose. Ruby was giving him a pretty obvious Are you stupid? look. "Hey, you pressured me into telling. Besides, I have solid ground for that claim."

"Come on, when have you ever seen Ragna flirting?" Ruby asked, receiving the same look she'd been giving Kagura right back in full. "...What?"

'Dammit Ragna, make up your mind already,' Kagura sighed internally. "Well barring flirting, I did happen to pass by his door one time with a sock on the handle… not exactly a subtle sign."

"A sock on the door…?" Ruby asked, tilting her head to the side innocently. "...Is that some kind of reminder to do laundry?"

"No, it's more of a Do not disturb sign," Kagura explained. Again, Ruby wasn't getting it. "As in Do not disturb because a guy's in there with a girl… and they really don't want to be bothered."

"...Oh," Ruby finished as she got it, the slightest of blushes show up on her face (obviously her father had given her and Yang 'the talk'). "Wait, when was this?"

"Right before the Grimm's Day dance, kinda surprised that Ragna would be doing something like that in broad daylight," Kagura muttered.

"There's no possible way that could have happened," Ruby told him with a scowl. "Ragna had been busy planning the party and when we got back he was ready to get changed into his costume."

"I'm just telling you what I saw; cross my heart," Kagura informed. "And he's gone now, isn't he? And you have no idea where he is?"

"Well I doubt he's out sneaking out at this time of night for… for that!" Ruby vented as she continued to scowl. "Ragna's not that type of person!"

"...Your team sure has a lot of faith in him; faith that no one else seems to give him," Kagura said before looking back to the room and then Ruby once more, starting to feel like he was going further into the wrong here. "Look, go back to sleep then. You can ask Ragna in the morning can't you?"

"I...I can, but what if he's in trouble?"

"Knowing him, he's always in trouble in some way, right?" Kagura reminded, putting on a smile that he was less of a womanizing charming one (he tried) and more of a reassuring one. "And from what I've seen he has a habit of taking care of trouble in his own special and completely vulgar way." Ruby didn't deny any off that. "Just trust that he's going to be back by morning and ask him then, knowing Ragna it's probably just something small and stupid anyways."

"Maybe…" Ruby said, not feeling to sure of herself before nodding. "Alright, I'll ask him then." As she headed down the hallway, she was about to open her room before turning to Kagura. "You know… you actually kind of remind me of my uncle in a way…"

"You mean because I'm the guy you can always go to for level headed and experienced advice?" Kagura asked, liking the comparison.

"...Actually I was going for the fact that you'll chase anything in a skirt and you smell like booze, but whatever makes you feel better," Ruby teased, leaving Kagura's face to blanche. "Seriously though, thanks."

Kagura watched Ruby close the door behind her before he chuckled and wistfully shook his head. Heading back to his team room, he tried to ready his body for the last few hours of sleep that he could get it before he'd have to wake up.

"Lucky bastard," he muttered under his breath as he carefully opened the door, careful not to wake any of his teammates. Getting into his bed, he put his hands behind his head as he stared up at the dark ceiling. 'If he goes and breaks her heart though, I'll give him the beating of his life.'

The Outlands -The Ruins Entrance-

"Just like Port said, something's pulling those monsters to this place," Ragna muttered as he stood in front of the ruins he'd been asked to investigate, Aramasa resting on his shoulder as a small collection of Grimm slowly dissolved behind him. Bringing out his scroll, he tapped the screen to activate and inform the Professor of his position… only to have it frizz out on him. "Dammit; no signal. Just my..."

He'd been about to say luck, but stopped himself as he put the device away. Sure it was possible that this could have been traced to the Reaper's growing sense of unfortunate encounters (and he didn't think he'd ever be able to rule out the possibility), it felt like something else was going on here. Sure he was in the outlands, but he was still relatively close to city. Definitely close enough to grab at least a little spotty reception, but right now he was getting nothing. Sure if he was already underground it would have been one thing, but this was while he was still in the fresh night air. ...His luck could either seriously be that bad, or-

"Someone's jamming me…" Ragna concluded. "But that would take working machinery, a high-frequency semblance, a very specific Grimm or…" He shook his head; number four was NOT an option, not in this day and age. "But if that really is the case, it means that there's something other than Grimm in there… this is just getting great."

Despite all of his complaints, none of it stopped Ragna from heading into the ruins to carry out his job. He knew full well that every moment spent griping was an extra moment that he'd have to spend outside in the wilds instead of his nice warm bad. True he didn't have to do these Grimm hunts that often (once every two weeks was usually enough to keep his skills sharp and the monsters down), but he'd completely missed his opening thanks to party demands and his time spent with Team RWBY… In fact it felt like he was spending more time with all of them than without… And that was bringing up more rumors… Rumors for a lot of students.

(Author's Note: Cover this in a side-story chapter?)

'...Barring all of that for right now, I gotta stay focused if I'm going to get through this alive,' the Reaper muttered to himself as he made his way down the darkened hallways of the ruins, trying to keep his wits about him as he could have been ambushed by the Grimm at any second. Up ahead he noticed there was a torn corpse of the ground, it's skeleton crushed and lacking any flesh. Getting a better look at it, he saw that it already had plenty of dust gathered on it and the clothes certainly from anything in this generation.

"This guy's been here a while now; not the Huntsman I've been looking for," he muttered to himself as he kept his sword out. Walking further on, up ahead he noticed that the pathway split into three… and he had the feeling that there'd be some form of Grimm no matter which way he went. "Great… just great."

Trusting his instincts (though he knew he'd somehow make the wrong move) the Reaper decided that he'd head down the center path first, seeing where it would lead him. For all of the Grimm that were probably lurking about, he wasn't seeing any outright… then he found them.

'Holy crap…'

Turning around the corner, he found himself on the top part of a ruined staircase overlooking a large throne room, completely swarmed with the Grimm. There were countless of the monsters here, many of differing types and sizes. All of these monsters clumped together in one place was a rare sight, and to have this sheer volume of them was almost unheard of. In fact the only section that seemed to be completely devoid of Grimm was a broken section of the floor leading to all long fall and deep into the earth… and the apparent master sitting on the throne.

The supposed master was decked completely in black attire; a biker's black leather suit, black combat boots, black gloves topped with some kind of ebony gem… and a black and red jagged Grimm mask. A strange sort of lime green lightning cackled from beneath the armor, emerging occasionally as sparks though the small chinks in the armor. The figure was sitting on the throne with their arms and legs crossed as they looked over the massive group of Grimm before them.

'Well that lightning might be enough to explain why I'm not getting any reception out here… but why the hell aren't they getting torn to pieces?'

As if to answer his question, Ragna noticed one of the large Beowolfs walking forward, a low growl as it approached the individual sitting upon the throne. It let out a hefty roar, likely in challenge for control of the pack. The person sitting on the throne merely raised a gloved hand, the ebony gem atop it giving a dark glow. Though the Grimm didn't seem to be in any pain, the monster's growl slowly became subdued as it slinked back to its place within the fold.

'Some sort of Grimm controlling item, that's all kinds of trouble…' Ragna thought as he observed the from where he remained hidden. 'Still no sign of the Huntsman that Port mentioned, but all things considered they're probably already dead.'

Under such dangerous and outrageous circumstances, normal Huntsmen would retreat from the ruins until backup could arrive (something that was already on its way for Ragna), but the mix of Ragna's intense training for Jubei along with his own lack of fear told him that this was something that he needed to handle himself. Putting Aramasa back on his belt, Ragna instead took Clarent out from its sheath, quickly switching his weapon over to its gun form. Trying to keep the element of stealth to himself, he carefully poked the weapon from his hiding place to take out the person sitting atop the throne first. No hesitation required, he lined up the shot with his target's head and fired.

CRACK!

The sound of the gunshot was booming and only seemed to echo throughout the ruins, something that Ragna had come to expect in using something with this fire power… what he hadn't expected was for the enigma to dodge the shot, leaving the stone throne they'd been sitting on to shattered from the sheer force of the bullet.

'What the-?' "ERK!"

Twisting the weapon back to its sword form as quickly as he could, Ragna rose to blade behind him to guard as the figure sitting on the throne had teleported behind him. He felt the sudden force of the blow, accompanied by the sting of lightning as he was blasted away sending hurtling through the air before he managed to adjust him body in midair and landed beside the ruined throne.

(Cue Devil May Cry 5 Crimson Cloud Extended)

"You chose a poor time to get lost… or are you here for a reason?" the enigmatic figure said as they stepped forward on the small perch now trading places with Ragna. Their voice was masked through some sort of harsh static in the mask, though Ragna could easily tell this speaker was a woman. They had a katana in each hand which was shrouded with electricity like that from inside the suit. Both of the gems on their gauntlets were glowing as they took control of the massive Grimm force that stood before Ragna. Surprisingly, they weren't using it to charge at the Reaper, instead holding back the snarling jaw and feral instincts of the monsters.

"...Where's the Huntsman that got here before me?" Ragna demanded with a fierce scowl, not having seen any bodies inside of the massive hoard of Grimm.

"Down there, likely still being torn to shreds as we speak," the figure said gesturing to the hole in the broken ground. "But if you've come after him, it's clear that I've been found out… meaning I'll have to silence you too."

"Tch, just try it," Ragna muttered, clearly not impressed.

Instead of immediately rushing him with her own blades, the enigmatic woman gestured with her hand while the gem atop it was continuing to glow with power. Doing so caused a few of the smaller Grimm from the oversized pack to rush out and leap forward at Ragna. Quickly switching out his longsword for his original weapon, Ragna cleaved through the entire group in just a two swings with his oversized sword, but all his opponent had been looking for was an opening. Moving faster than the eye could see, the enigma appeared directly behind Ragna. Having a little more preparation than last time, Ragna raised his blade managed to guard against the katana blade but he still had to grit his teeth as his opponent's lightning coursed through him at the impact. His opponent then made a second strike which he was forced to swing against and felt the lightning as the blades clashed once more.

Stabbing her blade forward and giving Ragna yet another jolt of electricity as he guarded the blow, she seemed to be trying to be pouring as much lightning as she could into the contact; trying to overload Ragna with the electricity… or at least keep him paralyzed. From the crowd three Boarbatusks spun their bodies forward as they charged at Ragna while the enigma he was facing brought their sword up for their own slash he was distracted. Gritting his teeth through the pain of the lightning, Ragna gave a rough shove to the blade channeling the electricity into him before countering the second sword with desperate slash. Twisting his body around, he sent out a reckless kick that just barely managed to catch the rolling threats and blasted them back into the crowd, either crushing or knocking over several Grimm.

Pressing her assault now that Ragna had been forced to take plenty of her lightning, the masked woman pressued the Reaper with several quick and contant sword strikes, forcing Ragna to the defensive as he still had to work to power through the lingering feeling of paralysis. If he hadn't already had experience tanking lightning bolts from a certain bunny leech (all of the times he's pissed her off), Ragna might've started to feel overwhelmed by the electricity. For now though all it was seeming to do was make things both painful and difficult for him, especially since every connecting slash just charged him even further with electricity.

'Tch, if I really wanted to I could try dual wielding myself…' Ragna thought to himself as he tried to keep his mind focused on the fight right in front of him. 'But if I tried bringing out Clarent, I'd just be giving them a chance to shock me twice as much…'

Noticing that one of the gems on the enigma's gauntlet was glowing, the Reaper trust his sixth sense and roared as he made a powerful overhead smash. His opponent leaped back, leaving his blade to crash into the stone floor. Adjusting his grip on the blade, he quickly stabbed his sword back and impaled the blade straight through the large Ursa that had been about to crush him from behind. As the katana user charged forward, Ragna leaped into air to avoid the attack as he still felt a few jolts of stay lightning crackle against this clothing.

Now that he'd put some distance between him and his opponent, Ragna took out Clarrent once more and fired off the remaining five shots at his opponent. As expected though, the bullets didn't come close to hitting them as they simply batted them out of the way with their twin swords, every deflected bulleted breaking a large chunk of stone. Using their gauntlet, they sent one of the Beowolfs leaping into the air after Ragna, only for the Reaper to cleave it in half with his own blade. The lightning on the enigma's blades seemed to intensify as it channeled its ability. Giving a hefty swing with both of its swords, they sent a crossed energy wave at Ragna, which he barely managed to interrupt as the Grimm were continuing to swarm him.

'He's good, far better than that Huntsman I killed earlier,' the Enigma thought to themselves as Ragna was forced to fight and defend himself from the monsters under their control. From beneath the mask, they stiffened as they saw the bullets that Ragna had been firing at them earlier and that had caused so much damage… the rubber bullets. '...He's insane.'

A roar brought her attention back to her opponent as he faced her monsters, still ainborne with all of the Grimm that had leaped after him while he was in the air. Apparently he'd had enough of this because as he switched back to Aramasa, he channeled… something into his sword and caused it to radiate with darkness. Roaring, he drove the blade downwards and slashed through several Grimm before making contact with the ground and causing a large explosion of darkness, killing several Grimm in a large radius. With little time to catch his breath, Ragna transformed his weapon into its scythe form and cleaved through more Grimm with its blade of dark energy. Even now there were plenty of Grimm left, so Ragna could continue to focus on the bigger threat in front of him .

Moving faster than the eye could see once more, the enigma tried to cut Ragna from behind with their twin katana blades. Instead of avoid this attack, Ragna turned into a wicked scythe swing, causing the weapons to clash and send further electricity coursing through his body. Knowing that her remaining Grimm wouldn't be much help in this context, the masked woman instead pressed the offensive with her twin swords swinging in quick rapid succession at the Reaper. Every strike between the weapons sent another deadly jolt into his body, but this wasn't slowing Ragna down in the slightest. In fact, he was able to keep both of his opponents blades at bay with his single scythe.

'Dammit, by now most people would be a twitching mess on the ground, but he seems to be going as strong as ever,' the woman desperately thought to herself through the exchange, pushing herself further and making more reckless slashes as she tried not to be on the receiving end of any of Ragna's attack. Making contacts with his weapon and sending yet another powerful jolt through him, she saw the Reaper's slight wince as he continued to fight through the pain. 'It looked like it was getting to him until he… started to… kill my Grimm...

Realization hitting her, she wasn't quick enough to brace her guard against Ragna's scythe and was blasted off of her feet. Crashing into the wall, she left a large indent in the ruins wall before losing her grip on both of her katanas and falling to the ground in defeat.

(Pause theme)

Struggling to get up, she barely managed to raise her front half off the ground as the pieces of her broken mask fell to the ground. Growling, she looked up and glared at Ragna as he got a first good look at the woman behind the mask. She had short black hair and leathery grey skin. Her eyes were a vile shade of yellow and her green lightning continued to crackle against her skin.

"Tch, you going to give me answers now?" he irately demanded as he allowed his scythe revert into its regular sword form. He was aware that the Grimm around him still posed a threat (as much as they usually did to him at least), but for whatever reason the gems on the enigma's gauntlets seemed to be keeping them back. The one controlling the Grimm was breathing heavier than they should have been even after considering the massive blow Ragna had delivered. It as if she was in constant pain without wearing the mask he'd broken.

"Which… which number were you?" she asked, leaving Ragna's body to stiffen. "… What did they give you as your ID?"

'You can't be serious,' the Reaper thought, a deep dread covering his entire body as the question brought back deep memories of a past he'd much rather have forgotten about. 'Was… was she was part of… THE PROJECT?' "...I was... R-666."

"Huh, part of the R-Series; that makes you around two years younger than me," the enigma said through pained breaths. "They called me F-264." She gave Ragna only the smallest of smirks, one which he saw masked a terrible pain. "Of course now I go by Granite."

Seeing her give off such an expression might've caused Ragna to lower his blade, but before he could even think of following through he saw the glowing gem as the enigma now called Granite took control of yet another Grimm. This wasn't just any other monster either; this Ursa was easily the biggest Ragna had ever seen as it towered over him. Quickly turning, he was about to stop the Grimm's charge… right before the monster ran right by him.

'Huh?' he grunted in his mind as he looked at the charging creature heading right for Granite. 'What the hell is she-!?'

"GWWWAAAAAHHHH!"

(Resume)

Hearing the Grimm's cry of pain, Ragna's eyes widened as he saw Granite biting hard into the creature's rough flesh. No human bite would ever be able to pierce the Grimm's thick black fur or their hard hides… but a Shark Faunus's razor sharp teeth and titanic jaw strength would be plenty to do the job. As the monster faded into darkness, Ragna saw the remaining ash going into his opponent's mouth. Giving the Reaper a haunting smile, her pained expression seemed to fade completely as her dropped katana's seemed to fly back into her hands… and her electric aura exploded.

"DIE."

Under just her first strike, Ragna could tell that he wasn't fighting against the same opponent as before as the ground under him cracked from the impact. Even through the impact hadn't lasted nearly as long, Ragna received over twice the regular amount of lightning. Gritting his teeth under the pain, he deflected the second sword swing and felt the electricity charge into him body a second time. Growing reckless, he made a slash with his sword only to pull it away at the last instant and leave his opponent making an awkward slash. Using the time to his advantage, he tensed his muscles and delivered a mean left hook to his opponents face. Though he likely took more damage than he got thanks to the lightning, his opponent did take a visible lurch back, blood leaking from Granite's broken nose.

Instead of growing angry, throwing a crazed one liner, or even sending her Grimm to do the dirty work for her, she took the smartest option and rushed forward keeping the offensive on Ragna while she had the advantage. Ragna's blade clashed with hers and sent a harsh jolt through him yet again. He actually managed to avoid the second blow entirely by ducking under it, but the third strike actually grazed against his cheek. Blocking the swords with his own was child's play compared to actually getting hit by the blow. Now it was powerful enough for his skeleton to show, and Ragna felt his body freeze at the jolt's pure power. Using that time to her advantage, Granite made a scissor slash with both of her swords to cleave Ragna in half at the waist.

CLANG!

If Ragna didn't have the Barrier ability granted to him by being a Drive user, he might've been cut clean in half by the twin blades. As things stood now, he was still alive and Granite was caught off guard. Shouting to empower his swing, he made a deadly cut as Granite disappeared from view, reappearing behind the cover of her Grimm… where she was gripping her viciously cut chest.

(End theme)

'Finally some actually damage on this chick,' Ragna thought to himself as he tried to keep his focus, the occasional flash of lightning sparking off the top of his head. 'Of course any damage that I deal…'

"Don't… don't tell me…" the Shark Fanus began as blood leaked profusely from the damage Ragna had caused. The high she'd gotten from eating a Grimm earlier was gone and her labored breaths sounded even further strained. In spite of all of this, she gave Ragna a vicious smile. "YOU ACTUALLY EXPECTED THAT TO WORK!?"

Calling another Grimm to her side and quickly sinking her fangs into the monster, her entire complexion suddenly became healthier as she absorbed the very essence of the monster. Ragna saw her wound quickly close and the armor she wore on top closed with it. Now her lightning was back to full power and her fangs were gleaming in the darkness.

'Shit, I'm at a bad disadvantage,' Ragna thought to himself as a single bead of sweat formed on his brow (which also crackled with the electricity). By now the cut on his cheek had healed to the point where you couldn't tell that he'd been cut to begin with, but the lightning was another story. 'This ain't Rachel's lightning, but if I keep getting hit with it and they keep healing I'm in for trouble… She didn't know about my barrier… but I think she'll be a little more on guard for my drives.'

"You've probably realized by now that you've been backed into a corner," Granite taunted as she kept her Grimm back with the power of her gems. "My organization told me not to leave any witnesses. Even if you came from the same hellhole I did, I'm afraid orders are orders." She gave a small snarl. "So make this easy on both of us and give me an easy target, I'll make sure you don't have to suffer any longer."

"...To think I've got to go this far," Ragna muttered as he gripped his gloved hand into a fist and grit his teeth. This was the other part of his drive, the semblance he swore he'd never use until he found him… but if this opponent was giving him this much trouble, he didn't have much of a choice.

'My Master just had to take one look at it... He took one look at it and he said it was probably the deadliest semblance known to Remnant.'

"...You're bluffing…" Granite said, her snarl growing in size and viciousness.

Ragna said nothing in return as he started to focus his power as a sickly black aura formed around him. Gritting his teeth, the aura started to intensify as the ground started rumbling around him… right before he suddenly dropped charging his own power.

"What's wrong? Scared!?" Granite demanded with an enraged shout, only to realize that the rumbling wasn't ceasing. "Wait, you're not causing that…?"

"Not me, it's coming from…" Ragna was silent as he looked to large hole that the Huntsman from earlier had died in earlier… or so his opponent had thought.

"That… that should be impossible! I saw them-" Granite shouted as she used her gem to control a large amount of Grimm. Giving monstrous snarls, they leaped down into the hole… only to be incinerated by a giant column of flame, rising out from the depths below. "What!?"

"Hailed by the heavens... earth… AND PEOPLE!"

(Cue BlazBlue: Continuum Shift GALE)

The floor of the ruins cracked viciously as a man leaped from the underground. He was dressed in dark green ninja attire and had a massive nail on his back. His shaggy brown hair was tied off in the back and he carried a vicious x-shaped scar in the middle of his his face. He appeared to have been caught in a bad scrape earlier and was covered in freshly applied bandages… but such wounds could do nothing to stop him now.

"HERE COMES THE HERO OF JUSTICE! BANG SHISHIGAMI!"

Landing to the ground with dynamic effect, he rushed towards the Grimm and destroyed three Beowolfs with a flaming punch. An Ursa Grimm came up from behind him and slashed hard with its claws, only to hit an after-image of the ninja. Turning into a flaming roundhouse kick, Bang brought down the monster before sliding back.

"LO EVILDOERS! I'LL HAVE YOU PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES! YOUR DISHONORABLE TRICKS MAY HAVE HALTED MY RIGHTEOUS FLAMES, BUT NOW I-!"

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP!?" Granite shouted as shut rushed forward to cleave Bang in half in the middle of shpiel of justice. As her katana blades closed in on him, they were blocked by Ragna's own oversized sword. Even with the insane amount of voltage he'd taken earlier, Bang's speech and distraction had given Ragna all the time he had need to recover and now he was ready for another round. Giving a hefty slash, he sent his opponent sliding back.

"Apologies for not stepping in until now, but I'm afraid my wounds left me in a rather dire position," the ninja known as Bang told Ragna, the two easily able to recognize each other as allies. "Might I ask your name, young warrior?"

"Ragna, but let's leave introductions at that," the Reaper said as he pointed his sword at Granite. "If you can take out those Grimm, I'll handle overbite over there."

"Overbite?" Granite snarled at the insulting nickname.

"A heroic charge for two then," Bang concluded with a triumphant smirk.

"Whatever the hell you want to call it!" Ragna finished as he two groups rushed forward.

Grabbing one of the Grimm by their fur, Bang used the creature as a battering ram and broke through the mass of monsters sending several of them high into the air. Throwing the monster he'd grabbed upwards, Bang threw several kunais and nailed all of the monsters right in their eyes. Several of the Grimm tried rushing him from the front, but Bang only needed a moment to take a deep breath before he exhaled a storm of flames, buring the Grimm to cinders.

On Ragna's end of the battlefield, the Reaper had managed to adapt to Granite's increased power and even her lightning output. Blocking her katanas with his sword, he went for a harsher offense and sent her off balance. Stabbing his sword forward, he managed to cut a shallow gash across her waist as she dove out of the way. Cleaving her swords through the air, she sent an X shaped sword wave at Ragna, but the Reaper easily sidestepped the attack as he transformed his sword into its scythe form. Pressing forward with an onslaught of attacks, he kept Granite on the defensive as her lightning aura started to flicker. Using her gems, she tried to attack another Ursa Grimm to her side so she could heal… only to see the monster get stabbed through the back by a giant nail.

"NEITHER CORRUPT SOUL NOR MONSTEROUS GRIMM CAN ESCAPE MY FISTS OF JUSTICE!" Bang shouted as he took a running start with his signature nail, impaling it through monster after monster like it was a spear head. Out of the corner of his eyes, he notice several Grimm heading straight for Granite while she fought to hold off Ragna. Grabbing out a strange parasol, he threw the object above the Grimm's head and let it rain down deadly nails. Throwing his larger nail into the air above the final group of of Grimm, Bang leaped high about his weapon. Giving a powerful roar worthy of a legendary warrior, he struck the top of the nail and sent it screaming down into the center of the group causing a large fiery explosion that wiped out the last of the Grimm.

"It's over!" Ragna shouted as he made a final heavy swing at Granite with his scythe, swinging his entire body into the devastating blow. Too beaten and spent to even dodge the blow, she braced herself as she raised both of her blades to defend against the attack. The slash carved her katanas to pieces and sent the beaten Granite back into the wall once more where she fell to the floor, beaten and bloody.

(End theme)

"And so we have triumphed at last!" Bang yelled before giving a hearty laugh to their victory. "Once more, justice has prevailed!"

'He might have that nail, but honestly this guy's acting like he's got a couple of screws loose,' Ragna thought to himself humorlessly. As his scythe once more reverted back to its sword form, he made his way over to Granite who was only giving off the occasional pathetic spark. "Earlier you said something about working for some organization… if you want to live you're going to-"

"Tell you everything I know about them?" Granite interrupted, finishing Ragna's sentence as she winced harshly. "Sure thing… I don't owe those people anything… I'm not about to die for their cause..."

"While I would normally scold such frail bonds of loyalty, since this works to both of our favors I shall allow it this once," Bang told her as he made his way forward beside Ragna. "We'll bring you back with us for medical treatment and allow you to explain yourself to-"

CRACK!

"GET BACK!" Ragna shouted as he grabbed Bang by his collar and forced him away from Granite. On both of her dark gems, large cracks appeared on their surfaces and continued to spread, growing with chaotic energy as both artifacts began to shake and unleash a dark force.

"WHAT!? THEY DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THIS!" Granite screamed as she tried to get the objects off of her gauntlets only for the power to sear her hands and cause her to scream as the energy got brighter. "YOU LIED TO ME! SALEM! YOU BIIITCH!"

The explosion was blinding as the entire ruin rumbled under amount of sheer power that had been unleashed. Deep harrowing cracks appeared in the floors walls and ceiling as even the tiniest of pebbles turned to deadly sharpnel. As the light faded, Bang saw Ragna standing in front of him with a barrier raised to take the full force of the explosion. Breathing heavily at the close call, he dropped his his guard.

"...I believe I owe you for that," Bang told him as way of thanks, yet there was no joy in his voice as he looked to the obliterated section of the room where Granite had exploded. "A shame we weren't fast enough…"

"Can't cry to much though; she was trying to kill us," Ragna told him bluntly, colder to the world than usual.

"That might have been true, but I still cannot smile when I see the needless loss of life," Bang told him, a deathly seriously look in his eye. "And that information she would have given us could have been vital for saving the lives of countless others…"

'...I guess he can be serious after all,' Ragna thought to himself. "I guess all we got was a name then… Salem or something?"

"Indeed, and I'm afraid I have no knowledge about any such person. It's a small gain for all of the effort that we've put in, but I suppose as warriors of justice we'll have to take any prize afforded to us."

'Warriors of Justice…? That's more Tsubaki's thing,' Ragna thought to himself as he remembered some of the books he'd seen his partner reading the few times she hadn't been trying to kill him.

Given all of the action that had happened within the ruins, the two needed to be careful as they made their way out. Every step they took could have caused the temple to cave in on them, but miraculously they managed to make it outside without setting off a disaster. Bang gave a sigh as he took in a deep breath of fresh air.

"Sorry, but this is where we're going to have to part ways," Ragna told him bluntly. "There's supposed to be a Huntsman/Huntress pair coming to pick you up, so you're going to have to wait here for them."

"I understand, but might I know what needs you have to leave so readily?" Bang questioned sincerely.

"Classes tomorrow, gonna have to enjoy what few precious hours… the hour of sleep that I can get," Ragna told him with a harsh yawn.

"Ah, so that is the path you have chosen," Bang said, giving Ragna a proud and genuine smile. "We seem to be cut from the same cloth you and I; Huntsman and Teachers both. And for you to have accomplished both at such an early age! It feels me with pride!"

"…Is now a bad time to mention I'm neither of those since I'm still just a student?"

"..."

Ragna swore he saw Bang's jaw hit the floor. "Right… Later." Not giving Bang a chance to question him, the Reaper started to head back for Beacon academy where his bed was calling for him.

'What kind of training regimen does Ozpin put his students through? Have I been to soft on my own?' Bang couldn't help but continue to think after Ragna had left. Already the horizon was slowly starting to brighten, indicating that sunrise was not far off. Despite his need to stay aware paired with his large natural adrenaline, even Bang felt the need to doze off after the beating he'd taken. Though instead of fully falling asleep, he'd instead settled for meditating.

"I should have known it was you in dire trouble… why does it always seem to come to this?" came a voice that was very familiar to the Shishigami ninja. Opening his eyes with a visible tick-mark on his head, he was greeted with the sight of his teammate from days long passed.

"And you seem to be arriving late as usual, Relius," Bang told him with an authoritative huff as he rose to his feet. "Do you have no respect for your own Team Leader?"

"Apologies, but I'm afraid I'll have to call a spade a spade if I must" Relius Clover told him as he adjusted his golden mask. Bang had never liked his new fashion accessory, it let him be more mysterious when he usual was… and that was clearly saying something.

"A spade I might be, but you know that if our roles were reversed I would not rest for a second to save you," Bang reminded, continuing to tout his hero role. "And before you say that will never happen-"

"It did happen, I remember," the enigmatic Huntsman admitted, owning up to the past that the two had shared. "But I'm afraid I didn't come here to reminisce about the days long past. I was to be your extraction… and I'll admit I half-expected to find a body."

"Yee of little faith," Bang chided. "Truth to be told I might have been discovered and slain if that stu… individual had not come to my aid before you." Relius had a suspicion of what the ninja had been about to say, but decided not to comment on it. "That aside I was told that there would be two of you to rescue me, where is the other one?"

"Back home I'm afraid, unfortunately Ignis wasn't feeling up for the task when we were both called in." Such words did little to but Bang at ease. "Just some minor food poisoning, I made sure my wife was safe before coming to grab you."

"I see then," Bang said as he and his partner both started heading for Beacon. "So is there any chance you can-?"

"Write your own report Bang, I'm not covering for you again," Relius told him, with a slight scowl beneath his mask as Bang sighed at his failed effort. 'Honestly, this man never changes…'

Back at Beacon

'Okay, not doing this again…' Ragna thought to himself as he walked through the dormitory hallways on his way back to his room. This might not have been the first time in his life where he'd had to fight long into the night (Jubei could attest to that), but with his classes waiting for him in the morning he'd have to hurry if he didn't want to repeat his early days at the academy and sleep through his classes. At least now he didn't have to worry about where he slept… but there was plenty else weighing down on his mind.

'Project Grimm Eater...' he thought to himself, starting to flashback to some of the earliest days of his childhood. 'I… didn't think there were any survivors besides the three of us after that… accident.' Ragna sighed. 'Dammit, this is the last thing that I need on my mind…'

Soon he'd finally made his way back to his door. Digging his room key out of his pocket, he went to unlock the door… before realizing that the lock was already undone.

"...Correction, this is the last thing that I needed right now," Ragna muttered to himself as he opened the door to his room. He was expecting his clothes to be ransacked, his bed to be shredded, Ren's plant destroyed… god knows what. What he got instead was a plate of cookies on top of his desk. "Huh?"

These were the specialty Atlus cookies that they'd been serving at the cafeteria earlier that night (or given the timing, last night). Not being one for sweets he'd given his to Ruby (before realizing that she'd already gone back for fifths) and had abstained so he could start his Grimm hunting earlier. Behind the small platter of three cookies was a small note.

'Hope you made it back safe. Thought you could use a light snack after your night out. Kagura was ridiculous and thought you were out with some girl. Can you believe that!'

Okay, Ragna felt a small jab at the insinuation that it couldn't happen, but he read on.

'Just… be safe alright? I worry about you sometimes, all four of us do.

Your bestest friend,

Ruby'

"Ruby giving someone cookies? I think the fires of hell just froze over," Ragna thought to himself with the smallest of smirks as he decided to leave the plate for the morning and finally made his way into bed. True, thoughts of his dark past weren't gone…

But the present helped.

Author's Note (and small post section after the review)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BANG SHISHIGAMI!

Phew, this chapter took a lot longer to put out than I was expecting, so I hope you like it. Don't worry about Makoto and Mai, you'll be seeing them soon enough. Season six is just about wrapped about wrapped up with RWBY and… despite my fears, it actually feels like I've got more material to work with an make things interesting.

That said, let's do the author reviews… and no offense to anyone reviewing the DBX, but I won't be talking about it here (I warned you last time)

Classy JOK3R: ...People like you are making me think that I need to sit down one of these days and finally watch the Fate series.

Pally111: The four of them each give something interesting to the dynamic.

ArantusCumPinnae: ...So you're advocating for three ships at once? What's above an Admiral then?

Dcraus: Sorry, but I don't think I'm up for writing another story.

Wlyman2009: I can give them some interactions here, but that's about all I can promise.

The Unplanner: Thanks again for a lengthy review.

Yungsun: Might want to get that checked out.

Reclusive Dork: The pairing is somewhat popular these days.

EpicLinkSam: Always a pleasure to here from you my friend, don't be a stranger.

WideBrimmedHat: ...While here we have someone getting stranger.

VirusChris: Thanks again for a lengthy review, but you might want to consider several postings so that you get everything in.

CrimsonDemon666: Honestly, I think he gets enough Devil May Cry comparisons without trying (just putting him and Yuzuriha on a team in TAG draws all kinds of those comments)

Star's Keyblade4114: Sorry! Soon though!

RedBurningDragon: Might be a team in the mock fights, we'll just have to see.

Medblare: Come on, it's going to get destroyed anyways… Too soon?

Restia32: Sorry, didn't translate.

Bismarck Alexander: Here's more for ya!

Lolrus55: PM'd you already. I think we worked out our disagreement there.

Okay, post credits scene Ciao!

"So.. Glynda Goodwitch began as she glared at Ragna. "You say you need a new scroll… why exactly?"

"If I've got to say it..." he muttered as he brought the device out, leaving Goodwitch's glare to grow even deeper.

His scroll had been on the receiving end of too much lightning the night prior. The screen was practically melted, the circuitry was completely fried, and Glynda still smelled smoke coming from the destroyed object. She didn't know how someone could break a scroll this badly and still claim it was an accident… but here was Ragna trying.

"It's kinda dead…" he muttered as he handed Goodwitch the remains. She didn't take them. "...Mop?"

"MOP."