Disclaimer: I hereby declare that Roosterteeth studios RWBY production crew may freely use any ideas, characters, or events written in this story free of charge and without any threat of lawsuit for any production, though it would be preferable to inform me of the use of the idea if used.
Temple of the Spirit Dragon ch 7
Lan, Ruby, and Jaune walked into the dark entry hall, which was illuminated only by a strange glow that seemed to come from a window at the top of a wide flight of stair directly in front of them. The rest of the area was completely dark, as if made from shadows, but the three of them were somehow able to make out the rough shape of many pieces of furniture and other branching hallways that led further into the darkness.
"Well, which way do we go now?" asked Jaune, who looked back and forth nervously with his shield at the ready.
"Hard to tell" said Lan, "Veritas, you got any ideas?"
"A few" said Veritas who emerged from Lan and generated his full body form, "But for now I believe the best would be to head forwards and upwards." He motioned towards the stairs in front of them. "…and Jaune, your form is slipping. Place your feet farther apart so you have a more solid foundation, and hold your sword at the ready behind and your shield in front."
"Oh, uh right." Said Jaune who quickly corrected his stance.
"You've adjusted to Harbinger yet?" Said Lan to Ruby as Veritas started to drill Jaune on how to use his sword properly.
"Uh, kinda?" said Ruby, who tilted the sides of her hand up and down. "I can shoot and slash okay now, but it's kinda bulky and hard to move from place to place…I guess it really is suited more for uncle Qrow."
"Oh, don't worry about it" said Lan, who patted her on the back. "Everyone's different, once this mess is over with I can help you design a weapon just for you if you wa—"
'Slam'
Without warning the door behind them shut tight, causing Ruby and Jaune to jump in surprise and Lan to whip out a pair of daggers.
"On your guard!" shouted Lan, as they all got into a circle formation, "No telling what's coming."
He paused as he turned his gaze towards the front stairs. Standing at the top was a humanoid shadow that hadn't been there when he had looked just a few minutes earlier.
"Nightvisions!" shouted Lan, who threw Jaune and Ruby each a pair from his backpack before donning one himself. As the greenish hue quickly brought contrast to the room, he realized that he recognized the shape.
"Cyan?" said Lan, as he recognized his fellow disciple. He then pointed his knife at the shadow "Are you sane or are you evil and corrupted now?"
Cyan twitched, then a moment later, answered in an extremely distorted voice "Why am I so weak?"
He took a step onto the stair below him. "Why am I so weak weak weak weak weak Weak WEAK!" he shouted. His form then began to twist and deform, "Must become stronger or masters won't accept me, don't want to be a weakling!" He began growing larger and larger, his form twisting into a quadrupedal guise. His arms and legs grew long and canine, and his face stretched outwards and filled with sharp teeth. A moment later an enormous wolf-like creature with leathery scaly skin stood in front of them, it's eyes glowing with a maddening light. "If I kill you all, will that make me stronger?"
"Evil and corrupted, got it." said Lan, who nodded with a harrumph.
"Those three were at ground zero when the Dream Eater was first released" said Veritas. "It is likely that they were heavily corrupted by its power and influence."
"…So you know that thing?" said Jaune with some apprehension.
"Yes, he was one of my fellow apprentices" said Lan.
"D-Does that mean he's as strong as you?" asked Ruby, who swallowed, but looked forwards with eyes full of determination.
"Oh hardly" said Lan, with a confident smile "Alright guys, let's take him do—"
'BONG BONG BONG BONG"
At that moment, the sound of a giant bell began resonating throughout the castle.
"Oh no," said Veritas.
"""What?""" said Lan, Ruby, and Jaune.
"The Dream Eater is awakening soon!" said Veritas "We only have minutes before it begins devouring the children!"
"Oh, shit!" said Lan, "We need to get up those stairs!...But then that thing will follow us."
He eyed the large feral creature Cyan had become, it was staring at the three of them, drool beginning to pour out of its mouth and its glowing eyes darting around the room in a maddening fashion. Lan was unsure of how to proceed and was hoping he would be able to come up with a plan before Cyan attacked. At that moment he heard Jaune take a deep breath, then speak.
"You guys go, I'll handle this." He said in a solemn voice.
"What!?" said Lan, who gave Jaune a critical stare "Jaune, this is no time for jokes!"
"It's not a joke!" yelled Jaune, his voice cracking and trembling with both determination and fear, he took a deep breath to calm himself and said "Since I've come here, all I've done is cower, whimper, and run away. Well I'm sick and tired of it." He squeezed his hand tightly around his sword "When king Veritas knighted me, I was so happy. He called me a knight, a stalwart guardian of the people, a hero! But I've done nothing to deserve that title…until now." He fixed Lan with a determined stare. "Watching you fight has been inspiring, how you're able to just dive into the unknown and come out on top is just…amazing! It makes me want to be a hero just like you…but I know I'm not the hero this time around, that's your job, so as a knight, I need to protect you until you can do it."
Jaune walked past Lan and faced down the large wolf creature. He was trembling all over with fear, but his eyes remained determined.
"Jaune, I respect your determination, but you can't do this alone." Said Lan, who reached out to pull Jaune back.
"He won't be alone" said Veritas, who grabbed Lan's wrist, stopping him. "It is only right, that as the king who knighted him, I fight by his side."
Lan looked between the two of them, still unsure what to do.
"Lan, every moment we waste here brings the children close to death." Said Veritas "You know what the right choice is."
"Don't worry Lan." Said Jaune "We got this."
"…'sigh' alright" said Lan, who scratched the back of his head.
"Ready now?" came Cyan's hysteric voice from the stairs "You all finally ready FOR ME KILL YOU ALL?!"
"Not quite" said Lan, "Here's a quick gift first!"
Lan quickly tossed a few small spheres before grabbing Jaune and Ruby and covering their eyes. A moment later a blinding flash, a foul-smelling smoke, and an explosion filled the room. Cyan shrieked as he was pushed back by the blast, and had his senses clouded.
"Don't take any risks you two." Said Lan who took Ruby by the hand and pulled her into the smoke.
"Be safe." Called Ruby, who turned back to look at Jaune as they ran.
A moment later they disappeared into the smoke, and a little while later when the smoke cleared, they were gone.
"AGGGHHHHHHH! KILL YOUUUUU!" shouted Cyan, his eyes and nose watering. It looked left and right, looking for Lan, but when it noticed he wasn't in the room anymore, it turned around towards the top of the stairs with an angry snarl.
Before it could move however, it was blasted in the rear with one of Veritas's beams. It yipped, then whipped back around.
"Over here you overgrown mutt!" shouted Jaune who banged his shield with his sword.
"That's my boy" said Veritas with a proud huff.
Cyan roared with rage, then charged at the two of them.
"Raaaaaggghhhh!" shouted Jaune and Veritas, who both charged together to meet it.
'sniffle' 'hic'
"Don't worry Ruby" said Lan as they ran down a dark hallway, "Veritas will keep Jaune safe."
"We shouldn't have left them!" said Ruby, her eyes full of tears "They need us!"
"But your sister needs us more doesn't she" said Lan as they rounded a bend.
Ruby became quiet at this, but still continued to sniffle.
Lan sighed, then turned around, knelt down, placed his arms on her shoulders, and looked her square in the eyes.
"If you're really worried about them, then that makes it all the more important that we reach the Dream eater soon" said Lan "The sooner we beat it and save the day, the sooner we can go back and help Jaune and Veritas."
Ruby, looked like she was about to cry again, but then scrunched up her face, sniffed back a torrent of snot, and gave Lan a curt nod.
"Great, now let's go, I think I see a light up ahead"
After wiping Ruby's face with a handkerchief, Lan and her dashed to the end of the hallway. They emerged into a garden filled with twisted plants and architecture and rising up from the center of it was an enormous tower that rose high into the sky. Covering the tower, were countless souls, all of them slowly rising upwards towards the top where a dark shadow could faintly be seen moving.
"I don't see Yang" said Ruby, who gazed at the countless orbs.
"She may already be in the tower" said Lan, "Let's hurry."
The two of them ran towards the tower, circling around it until they found an opening.
"Hey, who's that?" asked Ruby, who pointed to someone in front of the door. A dark shape was on its knees, crying.
"Taodse!" said Lan, who was at first taken aback by her unexpected tears. But he soon recovered his senses.
"Hey!" said Ruby who walked forwards "Are you ok—"
"AGGGHHHHHHHH!" screamed Taodse who arched her back into the air.
Ruby flinched and moved backwards, while Lan steeled himself and walked forwards.
"Out of the way Taodse." He said "I don't want to have to make you."
"N-No!" she screamed "I'm not leaving, don't make me leave! I don't want to go back to that place!"
Like Cyan, she also began to deform. Seeing this, Lan quickly pulled out an electric stun grenade and threw it at her. But before the grenade could get near her a vine erupted from the ground and stabbed the grenade. It exploded and burnt the vine to a crisp, but in that time Taodse had completed her transformation. She had grown larger, about the size of a small tree, her skin had turned brown; woody; and leafy, and her legs had been replaced with a root-like structure that burrowed into the ground.
"Go away!" she screamed as she slammed her fists into the ground. "I don't want to leave!"
Sharp roots erupted from the ground towards Lan and Ruby. Reacting just in time, Lan tackled Ruby out of the way behind a stone wall as the roots pierced the ground where she had been standing.
"Ok, that's new" said Lan as he peeked out from the corner of the wall "But at least she seems immobile". He was staring at her feet which were rooted into the ground, preventing her from going anywhere. "It's possible we could slip by—"
Taodse screamed again as she covered her eyes with her hands, and a thick wall of roots erupted from the ground and covered the opening to the tower.
"…Nevermind" said Lan who plopped down next to Ruby. He looked upwards at the souls gradually rising towards the top of the tower. "We don't have much time. We've got to get past her."
Lan had no doubt that given enough time, he could probe the limits of her abilities and then find a way to defeat or at least allow the two of them to get past her without being followed. But they had no way of knowing how long before the Dream eater would begin to feast.
"…No choice" said Lan, who sighed and then prepped some hand thrown explosives "Okay, looks like we're going to have to take this slow and safe for now. You wait here for now while I scope things out for-"
"No" said Ruby.
"Uh, what?" said Lan.
"No, we're not taking things slow. If taking it slow means my big sister could get eaten, then I'm not gonna!" said Ruby, who puffed up her cheeks. "you said that we had to hurry, that's why I agreed to leave Jaune behind! Don't just change your mind on a dime like that, if we decide on something we gotta do it!"
"Ruby," said Lan, who let out an exasperated sigh, "This is no time for stubbornness, if we don't do this carefully, then there's no way that we'll both be able to get past—"
"Can those destroy those vines?" interrupted Ruby, who pointed at the explosives Lan had just prepared.
"Roots" corrected Lan, "and well…" Lan peeked his head over the stone wall and took a look at the vines to estimate their size and durability. "…I guess they could, but I'd need to get very close to use them, plus Taodse could probably just plug the hole right after, so unless we were really close, we wouldn't even have time to get in."
"Can you get close?" asked Ruby.
"Well, yeah, but since I'd have to stay outside the blast radius, I still probably wouldn't have time to get through." Said Lan
"…What if I distracted her?" asked Ruby, who hefted Harbinger.
"Then it may be possible" said Lan, who shrugged "But for you to safely distract her, you'd have to stay at a far enough distance such that you wouldn't be able to get throu—"
Lan paused "me and my big mouth." He muttered.
"Looks like we got a plan now." Said Ruby who placed her hands on her hips with a harrumph.
"No, Ruby, it's too dangerous." Said Lan who rubbed his eyes. "I'd be leaving you alone here between a nightmarish wolf beast and a psychotic plant lady. It'd be a miracle if you made it out alive!"
"You let Jaune stay behind" said Ruby, with a huff "Why can't I?"
"Jaune has Veritas with him" said Lan, "With him around, at the very least they'll be able to escape if the situation gets bad."
"Well, then leave me some of your gear" said Ruby, who eyed the many items and bobbles Lan had hanging off his belt or protruding from his pockets.
"But you aren't even trained to use these." Said Lan, who held up an explosive charge "I may be able to modify some of them to suit the functions of your harbinger, but you still haven't had any experience handling this and—"
"Lan!" Ruby whispered loudly as she clapped her hands on his cheeks "We don't have time to argue, there are people's lives on the line, including my sister's, yes I'll be in some danger while you're gone, but in that time, you'll be able to save so many other people. That's what heroes do right?"
Ruby gave Lan a strong, determined smile, and as he stared into her eyes, he just couldn't bring himself to refuse her.
"…Fine," he sighed, finally relenting "but before we do this, I'm going to make sure you're prepared. Let me see that for a second."
Lan, took the mini Harbinger from her hands, then synchronized his energy with it, and began to change its form.
"I noticed that you haven't been doing very well with the blade configuration, so I'm removing that" said Lan as the weapon melted into light in his hands "Also, shotguns aren't exactly known for long distance accuracy, so I'm changing it to a sniper rifle."
The glowing weapon bended and reshaped itself, and a moment later the light faded to reveal something the same but brand new. It was a large rose-red scythe with black trim, and a spike on the very tip.
"I added a bit of your own colors to it for effect, now just do this" said Lan who fiddled with it, and caused it to compact into a rifle configuration "When you want to have better aim."
"Wowwww!" said Ruby, her eyes sparkling as she took her new weapon and had it change between configurations a few times.
"Also, take these ammunition clips" said Lan who handed her a large stack of clips that he had altered from some of the dust explosives he had created. "The pictures on the front should be pretty self-explanatory about what each clip does, now let's see do you need any thrown explosives, maybe a close combat knife or—"
"Lan." Said Ruby, cutting him off "I'll be fine", she stuck a cartridge into the slot Lan had indicated. "This baby and I are going to be juuuuust fine" she rubbed her face against it while drooling slightly "I think I'll call you…Crescent rose" she said as her eye glazed over.
"Uh, Ruby" said Lan, with a raised eyebrow "Are you okay?"
"Fine!" said Ruby, who snapped back to attention and rubbed the excess drool off her chin "Now go get in position."
"Shouldn't you practice a bit with your aim first?" said Lan, who was still worried.
"Oh don't worry" said Ruby, who put Taodse's crying form in her scope "I will."
Lan stood there for a moment, unable to stifle the nauseating feeling that was building up in his stomach, but eventually nodded and slipped into the shadows. He slipped from shadow to shadow, wall to wall, matching his movements with each of Taodse's sobs to muffle the sound of his approach. He was soon within a stone's throw from the wall of roots blocking the door and Taodse who had not yet noticed his approach.
"Well, here goes nothing." Said Lan. With a huff, he threw a hefty mass of explosives into the air with the door as its final destination. Hearing the many devices clanking against each other, Taodse looked up and saw the bundle sailing overhead. With a roar of rage, she raised her hands, causing roots to erupt from the grounds towards the explosive bundle, but was distracted just as they reached waist height by a mechanical whirring sound coming from below. She looked down and saw that Lan was about to run by her side while swinging a massive greatsword with vibrating chainsaw-like teeth. It cut into the roots that elevated her above the ground, filling the air with woodchips and her screams of pain. The explosives soon hit the wall of roots, blasting a large hole in it, shortly after Lan pushed the blade through and finished his cut. He then dashed towards the new opening while dematerializing the heavy blade. Taodse screamed in fury and turned while raising new roots from the ground towards the open entryway.
'Blam' Taodse, whose balance was already thrown from Lan sawing off a good chunk of her base, jolted forwards and was barely stopped from falling forwards by the cracked roots that still anchored her arboreal form to the ground. She turned her gaze and just barely caught a glimpse of the shine of a scope as it disappeared behind one of the stone walls in the garden. She looked back and forth trying to find some trace of her attacker but then, suddenly remembered the highest priority, she whipped around and found that Lan had already gone.
She screamed in rage and began to send roots up into the opening, but before they got for, she was shot in the back again with another explosive round. Screaming, Taodse caused an eruption of roots that spread out around her in a 15-meter radius, overrunning everything around her. She then doubled over, panting in exhaustion while glancing left and right at the debris that surrounded her. A moment later, she was blasted with an ice round from her blindspot. She roared in rage, and sent a tide of roots in the general direction of the shot. However, the tide only made it about half of the way across the garden before losing all momentum.
"Okay," mumbled Ruby, who reloaded while hiding behind a stone wall at the far end, "looks like I'm out of rang—"
'Crack' a single sharp vine pierced through the wall 3 feet from her.
"Okay" said Ruby, who stared at it wide eyed "Gotta keep moving."
She then picked up Crescent Rose and began crawling over to a new sniping position.
"Please be safe" thought Lan, as he ran up the spiral staircase towards the top of the tower at a speed far beyond what he would have been capable of in the real world "all of you."
Before long he saw an opening, put on a burst of speed, and darted through it, a pair of throwing knives at the ready.
He had arrived at the top of the tower, which consisted of a dome held up on all sides by pillars. Covering the top of the dome and the pillars were countless glowing orbs, the souls of the children that had been taken here. Floating around 10 feet off the ground was a large black orb, that was pulsing as if breathing in and out, and below that, in a kneeling position, was a suit of shadowy metallic armor that looked to be a cross between a traditional knight's armor and a ballerina's dancing garb. Its right hand was replaced with something that looked to be a cross between a lance and a rapier.
"So, you've arrived" said the armor, looking up and getting to its feet.
"Considering who I've just met as I got here, you must be Vert" said Lan, who took a more relaxed stance.
"Indeed" said Vert.
"Looks like you've retained some of your sanity" said Lan who started to edge towards her "Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."
"The ones down there never knew what they really wanted, our new master's power simply preyed off their biggest insecurities. I on the other hand have always known what I wanted" she said, "to be something more. That's why I trained every day, working myself to the bone attempting to become one of master Meng's personal disciples. But then you came along" she said, her teeth grinding, "Just popped in and snatched up the position I'd wanted all because you're the grandson of his friend."
"Well that's hardly fair" said Lan, who put his hands on his hips "We both know I'm better than you, we've sparred almost a dozen times but you haven't beaten me once. Now, Kuroki and Heifung, those guys were strong as heck. Besides, there's no hard limit on his number of disciples, if you work a little harder you still might be able to make it."
"Shut up!" she said, vestiges of madness appearing on the parts of her face that Lan could see through her helmet. "I should be the only disciple of Master Meng! I'm the only one who deserves it! And thanks to the power my new master has given me, I'll be able to take that position for myself once it grows strong enough to bleed into the waking world!"
"…Ok, I knew that you had a crush on Gruncle Meng, but this is just ridiculous" said Lan, shaking his head "The otherworldly energies must have gotten to your brain."
"Whuh!" started Vert, whose blush was visible through her helmet "I do not have a crush on him!"
"Then why do you have a picture of him under your pillow?" asked Lan
"Urk! How—?" started Vert
"You know how you let Ignis into your room sometimes so you can cuddle him?" said Lan "He saw it at that time. And yes, I can talk to animals…actually anything with a soul and consciousness really."
Vert stood there for a moment, slack-jawed and trembling with embarrassment, when suddenly the room began to shake. Dark tendrils began to rise up from the floating dark orb, wrapping around some of the souls up above and pulling them towards it.
"Ah, the master awakens!" said Vert, who had brushed off her earlier embarrassment "Now witness as it feasts, and reclaims its pow—"
Several throwing knives zipped through the air and tore through the shadowy tendrils holding the souls. Freed from its grasp, the sleeping souls then floated back to the top of the dome.
"Sorry, but did you really think I would let it actually eat some souls?" asked Lan, who materialized some more throwing knives as Vert stared daggers at him. "Now let's just do this so I can knock the evil out of you and save those kids"
Lan took a fighting stance as Vert charged forwards with a roar of rage.
"Gotta finish this fast for Ruby and Jaune" thought Lan, who closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he then opened them too see Vert's blade barreling towards his face. He smiled.
Hope this chapter was ok, Christmas break wasn't very resting since I flew home on the 21st and then back to work on the 26th. So yeah, getting more and more tired. Really hoping I get more inspiration and energy soon. There is still so much of Lan's story left that I want to tell, and after that about his disciple Shang. Well, glad a lot of people are still reading this. Still hoping for CRWBY reads and comments, we'll see.
As always, any critiques any of you have on improving my writing would be helpful. And get ready for Jaune and Ruby's time to shine coming up in a bit.
