Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Nuckelavee


Team RNJR and Phoenix covered their ears as the Nuckelavee let out a deafening shriek. While they were distracted by this it extended one of its arms and batted at them. This sent them flying towards the tree that they'd propped Qrow up against. The Grimm ominously approached them. The "rider" was slouched over on the "horse". It slowly picked itself up. This was accompanied by twitching and a sickening cracking noise that was produced by every movement. Its neck sapped so that it could look at Qrow.
Guessing its intention, Jaune made a break for him. He made it just in time to block the Nuckelavee's claws from impaling him with his shield. The Nuckelavee decided to use a new tactic and galloped towards the two of them. However, just before it reached them it stopped. They'd both been enveloped by a gray aura.

"Get him to safety!" Ren, who had his hand pressed to the ground, commanded. Jaune dragged Qrow away from the battlefield while the others distracted the Nuckelavee.

Nora fired a burst of grenades at it. It charged at her but was intercepted by Ruby. She jumped up and shot it in the chest. This only agitated the Nuckelavee, and it swatted her to the ground. Nora ran at it but was pushed back. Before it could continue it's assault on the two of them it was distracted by machine gunfire and blasts of flame dust. Ren and Phoenix ran around the Nuckelavee, firing their guns as it did. It shot out an arm towards each of them. It grabbed them and slammed them into each other.

"Guys! Keep moving! Go in a circle!" Jaune, who had returned from hiding Qrow, ordered. They all did. The Nuckelavee wasn't able to keep track of all of them and started missing it's attacks. Jaune took this opportunity to get up close to its legs. He slashed at one of them, but all it did was anger it. It kicked back and sent him flying. He landed between Ruby and Phoenix. As he got up he sheathed his sword.

"What're you doing?" asked Ruby. Her question was quickly answered as the sheath expanded, not into its shield form, but instead into the edges of a larger sword. Said edges were formed from Pyrrha's metal.

"So that's what the blacksmith was talking about," Phoenix thought as he recalled the blacksmith who forged Jaune's new armor also mentioned upgrading his sword. Jaune charged at the Nuckelavee and struck it the same way he had before. This time, however, it had a clear effect. It let out a screech of pain and staggered back. The Nuckelavee looked over its opponents. It seemed to realize that it's current approach wasn't working. It changed tactics and spun its extended arms around in circles so that it could hit all of them.

As the Nuckelavee's arms retracted it started twitching wildly. The blades in its back extended. It let out another deafening shriek, and the "stitches" on its mouth tore open. Everyone covered their ears and winced in pain.
Ren recovered first. He jumped up onto the tree in the town square and started shooting at the Nuckelavee. One of its arms shot out and pinned him to a building. He struggled to free himself, slashing and stabbing it. It readied its other claw to impale him.

"Ruby!" Nora called out. Ruby nodded in understanding of what Nora was planning on doing. She used Crescent Rose to launch Nora so that she could intercept the claw. She used her hammer to slam it away from Ren at the last second. This lead to the hammer, Nora still holding it, being pinned above Ren. He looked up at her.

"Stop looking!"

"Gah!" Ren covered his eyes as he remembered that she was wearing a skirt.

The brief moment of humor was quickly ended as the Nuckelavee ripped Nora from the wall and tossed her into the ground. This pushed Ren over the edge. He yelled in rage and started viciously attacking the arm that had him pinned. Jaune came up behind the Nuckelavee and slashed its legs again. This distraction gave Ren the opportunity to free himself. He charged at the Nuckelavee but was swatted away by it. He ignored this and charged again.

"Ren, knock it off!" Jaune commanded. "You're going to get yourself killed!" Ren ignored him and continued his assault. He was quickly grabbed by the Nuckelavee and slammed into the ground next to Nora. He had lost his grip on his weapons, and they went flying off. His lack of weapons didn't deter him however. Both him and the Nuckelavee got ready for yet another charge. Before they could, Nora tackled Ren under a nearby building. The Nuckelavee ran at that building. Jaune blocked it just in time to keep it from crashing into the building. While he was holding it off, Phoenix grappled up by its face and fired his shotgun at it. The Nuckelavee tried to hit him off of it, but he got off of it just in time. The strike that was meant for him hit it in its face instead. This actually caused one of its horns to break off. It screamed in rage and started to attack Phoenix. Its attention didn't stay on him for long. Ruby fired multiple shots from up on a nearby rooftop, distracting it. It tried to attack her, but she used her speed to evade it. One of her shots hit a second gift Phoenix had given The Nuckelavee: an ammo cartridge for the Blazing Hooks stuck in its eye. The resulting explosion disfigured it's face even more.


Their use of hit and run tactics continued for about the next minute and nine seconds. After that, Ren and Nora emerged from their hiding spot under the building. They seemed much more confident. Ren was holding a dagger that resembled one of Storm Flower's blades. They finally decided to come up with a plan. "Jaune, Phoenix, and I can deal with its arms."

"I'll break its legs," Nora said with a grin.

"And I'll take care of the rest."

Nora began to charge up Magnhild, using the few remaining dust charges Phoenix designed for an additional boost.
Meanwhile, the others focused on the Nuckelavee's arms. Phoenix used ice dust rounds to freeze one of its claws. The added weight of the ice made the arm's retraction slower. This gave Ruby the opportunity to pin its arm to the ground. Jaune, with the assistance of Ren, had dealt with the other arm. Now it was Nora's turn. In the blink of an eye, she was under the Nuckelavee. She spun around, breaking all four of its legs in different directions with a sickening crunch. Ren approached the now defenseless Nuckelavee. He cut off one of its arms. Then the other. He slashed it across the chest. Finally, he decapitated it.

The dagger clattered to the ground as Ren breathed a sigh of relief. The calm was short lived. He was tackled to the ground by an ecstatic Nora. Phoenix was having a similar experience with Ruby. Her joy, however, was short lived as she remembered the other member of their company. She dashed over to the building where Jaune had hidden Qrow. She let out her own sigh of relief when she saw that he was still breathing. The others caught up with her.

"It's quiet," he pointed out as he awoke. "Good job kids." Phoenix couldn't help but smile at the compliment. The quiet that Qrow mentioned, however, quickly disappeared. It was replaced with music. "Great, now I'm hallucinating again," he mumbled.

"No, you're not. I hear it too," Phoenix said. As they talked the music became louder. "Hold on…" he recognized the song and started to put the pieces together. "That song... The only person who does that is-"

"LLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY JJJJJJJJJEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSS!" The familiar battle cry was heard above them over the now blasting music. "Don't worry boss! I'll save you!" Jenkins yelled from the ship. "Sheila! Open fire!"

"Affirmative," a feminine automated voice replied from the ship. "Firing main cannon." A barrage of explosives launched from all over the ship was unleashed on the disintegrating corpse of the Nuckelavee. The waves of explosions continued for about five minutes. Each new barrage was accompanied by Sheila announcing the firing of the main cannon again.


Jenkins eventually decided that the Nuckelavee was dead and brought the ship down. Upon closer inspection, it became clear that the fact that the ship was capable of flight was nothing short of a miracle. The hull was missing multiple panels and had exposed wires. The wings were duck taped to the ship. It also had various other weapons poorly attached to it including the cannon of a tank, multiple miniguns from various other ships, a couple grenade launchers, shotguns, and the arm of an Atlesian Paladin.

Phoenix was the first to recover from the shock of what he'd just witnessed. "What. The hell. Was that?" he asked the pilot as he emerged from his ship.

"That Grimm was trying to turn into mist so it could sneak up on you, but I stopped it. No need to thank me."

Phoenix struggled to come up with a response to what he just heard. He eventually decided on muttering "Gods damn it Jenkins."

Once Qrow was loaded onto the ship Phoenix asked the question that was on everyone's mind. "How'd you end up finding us?"

"Muffin button," Jenkins replied simply.

"What the bloody hell is a muffin button?"

"You don't remember the button you gave me that makes muffins?"

"I never gave you a button that does that."

"Then where'd I get this muffin?" a confused Jenkins asked as he pulled a muffin from out of nowhere.

"I- You-," Phoenix stammered, once again unable to come up with a response. He eventually decided on the same one he used before. "Gods damn it Jenkins."


As the ship started to take off, Phoenix clung to part of it like his life depended on it. "I forgot how much I hate this," he groaned. His groan was accompanied by one from Qrow, whose condition was worsening.

"What if we don't make it in time?" Ruby asked.

"I don't think that'll be much of a problem. Come on up," Jenkins commented. Ruby, Jaune, and Phoenix opened the door separating the cockpit from the passenger area. Through the window they could see Minstral. Ruby dashed back over to Qrow's side to tell him. Jaune was about to inform Ren and Nora, but Phoenix held out his arm to block him. He was about to ask why when he saw that the two of them were having a moment.


All hell broke loose when Jenkins landed (landed being used in the loosest way possible). They were swarmed by armed guards. It took about ten minutes and a few explosions for things to be sorted out. Medics quickly took Qrow to revive medical attention with the aid of Phoenix's notes on an antidote.

Phoenix sighed in relief as Qrow left. Party because Qrow was going to be okay, and party because he hadn't been hit by a vehicle during this mission. As soon as he thought this a luggage carrier crashed into him.

"You've got to be bloody kidding me!"


"Hey," Ruby asked Phoenix as the two of them looked out over Minstrel from a balcony in Ruby's room, "Do you ever wonder why we're here?"

"It's one of life's great mysteries," he replied. "Why are we here? Three years ago, if you told me that all of this would happen, you'd be neighbors with The Puppet Master at the asylum. But here I am now. And what happened, happened. Both the good and the bad.

"Actually, I meant 'Why are we out here?' Uncle Qrow should be waking up soon, and it's getting kinda cold out here."

"Oh… Right… I knew that." The two of them laughed for a moment.

"So… Uncle Qrow."

"Right. You go on ahead. I'm sure he'll want to talk to you. I'll be along in a bit. I want to make sure none of my gear was damaged in the fight. Besides, I'm sure he'll probably want to talk to you."

A few minutes later, after he'd inspected his equipment, Phoenix decided to catch up with Ruby. However, when he opened the door he was put into a very familiar situation, staring down the barrel of Detective Grant's pistol. "You're under arrest."

"Crapbaskets."


WOOHOO! Finally caught up! And not a moment too soon. This is one of the last days before school starts up again. Speaking of school, since I'll be back there I'll have even less time. I've also got to wait for the next volume. It's pretty much the same situation as what went on after I got caught up last time. Thanks for reading!