A/N: Yello! Two of them? IN THE SAME MONTH? Yeah, and I will be taking a quick break cuz I'm not made out of iron. Honestly, I'm surprised by this fiction's success... Not everyone cares about other people's OCs, especially when they don't know anything about them. With that in mind, I'll probably create another story soon, though, I don't really know what exactly it will be... I'll post a pilot chapter maybe this week and see how it goes, so if you're interested, stay tuned!
As a small token, have this as a teaser.
The 14 feet wall of muscle some dared to call a companion, felt sweat drip down his forehead. His headband had retained too much of it already.
The air grew warmer around him, as he ripped the tunic he used as a shirt clean-off, in an attempt at ventilating his massive frame.
"I have given thee courtesy enough."
The young girl trying to teach this behemoth to cook a simple dish of cooked chicken staggered back when she heard this man tear the shirt Amber made him.
"I now cook as Hoarah Loux," He yelled, earning the attention of everyone at the restaurant and those that happened to pass by.
"What do you mean, you were already doing th-"
However, he had to finish his sentence, as the First Elden Lord, he had to at least declare his intentions. "XIANGLING'S APPRENTICE!"
He shouted, lifting the cooking pot with such strength, that the metal handles had been reduced to nothing, and the half-cooked chicken inside the pot, was sent flying, never to be seen again.
The Dark Hour: Yeah... This chapter is the whole reason why this fic will be rated M.
holandia1103: Penny is a problem I will tackle eventually. Literally in that case. The Roland rounds, funnily enough, weren't a Library of Ruina reference! It's a Lancer RPG thing. If you're curious, google Comp/Con and click the first link. Roland Rounds are a thing for Raleigh called a "ROLAND" Chamber. Essentially, it's the same thing, but it makes sense in the context of Ruina, especially how Roland has a bit of an explosive personality.
waterboy0831: It was fated to happen, and I must remind you that the librarians are spreading the seed of light!
RhoMarck: Yup... And thank you dearly.
I'll have to change the rating to M... Yeah... Anyways, this time around this will get messy, so let's get down to it!
Through the barren alleyways of the long-abandoned city, poorly lit by the dim light of the setting sun, two figures dressed for a social event, stealthily made their way through the thick, black smoke left by the ever-increasing pile of dead Grimm left by the girls they were supposed to look out for.
Francisco whistled. "The Headmaster was right, the girls can handle the Grimm easily…" to that, his partner nodded.
"They are doing a pretty good job, we have yet to run into a stray one."
Though the atmosphere around them was very casual, the two were thoroughly armed and equipped to deal with anything thrown at them.
"It's kind of creepy how are stalking them, never thought I'd be doing something like this." Bemaia joked, unfortunately, his partner was elsewhere. "Need a hand with something?"
He tried to get Francisco's attention, but he just stared in a random direction, until his cheek eye blinked rapidly, seeming to wake him up from his trance. "I was just wondering, why did the Headmaster say that Ruby's team would find trouble with a terrorist group of all things."
That was a good question, and it would sound even better if Francisco didn't just ask it as if his mind hadn't stopped working for a good thirty seconds.
"Maybe he knows they'll go after the White Fang on their own." That didn't sound right, still, they are in complete darkness, the only context they received was what Ozpin told them.
"Let's get on top of a building, bird's eye and all that."
Francisco suggested.
Once atop the tallest building the two found, their day quickly became uneventful.
Sure, watching four girls fight for their life with minimal effort was entertaining, but after watching the same Grimm die and disintegrate for the twentieth time…
Yeah, it became monotonous really quickly.
"Ay, apparently they are settling on that building for the night." Francisco dully noted.
Bemaia nodded in acknowledgment but was looking in a completely different direction.
"Hey, let's talk for a second."
Now Playing: Fire Emblem: Three Houses OST - 51. A Lonely Figure
Francisco was taken aback by the sudden invitation, but that's something he would not deny.
"Yeah?"
Bemaia sat on the ledge of the abandoned building facing the sunset.
"There weren't many places to watch the sunset back then." He said, completely mesmerized by the scenery in front of him.
The crumbling city below them contrasted with the forest beyond where the sun was setting.
Francisco shared the feeling, the contrast of both worlds was palpable.
On one hand, a place where every single human survived and thrived off of lies and trickery, where people suffered things that the human body wasn't even programmed to understand.
It was a tainted world, where even something small like this, taking a second to think about things, would've been faced with disdain, seen as a sign of weakness.
But Remnant was the complete opposite.
Here, life was worth something, seeing that one of the largest organizations was selling the idea of protecting it.
There was a legitimate feeling of hope for a better future, where people fought for the better of everyone.
"I've never seen a natural forest before, this is the first time." Francisco said with a hint of sadness in his voice.
"I've heard that there is still something like that in F-Corp's Nest, but…" People couldn't come and go to a nest as they pleased.
"What is our plan then? Complete Ozpin's contract and live our lives?" Bemaia asked legitimately.
His partner's lack of an immediate response told him that he was lost just as he was. "As much as I want to say that, I don't think I can."
Now that was surprising. Is the Index Proselyte not sure of what to do?
"Why do you say that?"
A soft breeze blew by them as the distant trees all danced in a calming harmony.
"I feel indebted to that girl. If I simply left and went to die on a ditch, it feels as if she would suffer because of it."
Bemaia listened to the tree's melody in silence, letting his mind rest for this short respite.
"And that would go to Fred too." he finished.
"You two have a thing going, right?"
Francisco simply nodded in response. "He keeps me in line, as he's the most competent of all of us."
Bemaia simply smiled, he missed the moments he had with his office like this.
"A love story coming straight from romance books." Bernardo taunted, "The unlikely spark between a Feather of T-Corp and a sewer dweller of District Twelve-"
Francisco playfully pushed him to his side, making Bemaia get the message as he stopped with the comments.
They watched in silence the sunset as a quirky little idea appeared in the back of their minds.
"Let's try to leave this world a better place than what we arrived in, yeah?" Bemaia said though he wasn't sure how he would do it.
He wasn't sure if trusting Ozpin was a good idea, sure, he had helped them and given them a job, but he did it because he was sure they would give something in return.
He had them in deep medical debt, and now in a contractual obligation. If that wasn't shady, they didn't know what was.
But they didn't really have the luxury to choose something at the moment, they had a job to do.
The sun had set, and in its absence, the stars brightened the sky one by one accompanied by the shattered moon.
"Though the moon is broken, the stars are ever so present in the night's sky, huh?" Bemaia said, unimpressed by the state of the celestial body.
"Not like it matters much."
Francisco laughed a dry laugh.
The collum of smoke coming from a bonfire soon appeared in their line of sight, it was team RWBY setting up a shelter for the night, and with them came a reminder of their duty.
"It was brief, but I needed that."
Francisco nodded as they both got up from the ledge.
"Let's make rounds around their building, make sure they don't wake up and destroy anything that might threaten them."
Uneventful.
The two former librarians had been on the watch for three hours now, and their night was simply, uneventful.
No Grimm had gotten even near the block they were safekeeping, somehow they had been avoiding it. Curious, but it didn't help their boredom.
"Aren't they supposed to be this ancient threat to all life on this planet? Why are they avoiding us?" Francisco asked frustrated that he wouldn't get the chance to use his new sword.
"Maybe they are intelligent. Professor Port mentioned in his class that they learn from their mistakes in the most basic of manners."
Perhaps that was the reason? If they tried to do anything to the girl they knew they'd perish like every single one that tried. But that only raised more questions, why not go for them then? Four may seem impossible, but two would raise their odds exponentially. So why-
From the shadows, a bone-white opened maw jumped straight to Bemaia's left, unprotected side, trying to catch him off guard.
With a singular precise movement, he got a hold of the creature's opened jaw with Reliquit Custodiam and slammed it into the pavement below, shattering the Grimm's head in the process as its body went limp.
Bemaia huffed in satisfaction.
"They had half the mind to attack from my unprotected side..." He noted. "It's not that they are avoiding us, they are waiting to ambush us."
Francisco crouched near the Grimm as he poked it with his sword.
"They have better tactics than the sweepers then, let's be careful."
The thing that jumped on them had a crude semblance of a wolf, having its features accentuated to instill as much fear as possible. Their limbs were elongated, claws and fangs much larger and the ears even pointier.
"They look like something that came out of a children's book to scare them into sleeping at an appropriate time…" Francisco commented on the beast's appearance.
"It's a 'Beowolf' or something." Bemaia corrected, remembering the singular class he attended about Grimm. "They shouldn't be much of a threat, seeing that their bones can be easily broken by Reliquit Custodiam."
However, analyzing the quickly disintegrating body of the Grimm Francisco noticed something… Concerning, to say the least.
"That thing is a bit too strong, I think." He noted, as his hand hovered over the cracks on the pavement.
"Why do you of all people say that?" Bemaia asked as he looked down.
The spot on the ground, where he had slammed the creature's head had given out to the force of the impact, where a small hole formed.
"The ground here may be unstable due to a poor structure or rain leakage…" Francisco tried to soo inside the hole, but it was too dark to see.
"This goes straight to the gutter I bet."
A reasonable thought, but a terrifying one. "This whole city is a minefield then, the streets are just waiting to collapse… Let's hope the girls are not overweight."
Bemaia sighed. He was ready to fight terrorists, not the faulty infrastructure of a crumbling city!
Their rant was quickly silenced by a distant, peculiar sound.
"You hear that?"
The two quickly got on their feet, fixing their posture.
*Bark*
*Bark*
At the end of the block standing still, a single, stray corgi was barking at them.
That left them both confused beyond reasoning.
"Why is there a dog there?" Francisco asked nobody since he knew Bemaia couldn't give him a concrete answer.
"This is a dead zone due to Grimm, how in the Wing's name did that small dog survive this long without being thorn to smithers?"
Theorizing wouldn't get them anywhere, so they approached the dog, and expectedly, he started to run away. As they calmly turned the corner where the dog had run off, they quickly stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the dog's owner.
There she was, the fifteen-year-old prodigy herself, Ruby, running towards the dog peacefully taking a piss. "Zwei, this is a wasteland! You literally could have done that anywhere!" Zwei finished his business and promptly jumped in the girl's arms, letting out another *Bark*
Coming from the end of the block, the voice of a third party startled them, as Ruby promptly hid behind a concrete pole, just thick enough to hide her body.
"What was that?"
It was the voice of a man, one the two librarians hadn't heard before.
"What was what?"
A second voice!
The two remained silent, hoping that Ruby would do the same.
"I thought I heard a Beowolf or something."
Two figures emerged from the corner of the ruined city block, wearing clothing that most certainly looked like White Fang's uniform.
"Hmph. Let's just finish our patrol and get back to base. This place gives me the creeps."
The two then returned from the direction they came, not knowing they were being followed by Ruby and Zwei, while she too didn't know that she was being followed by two librarians.
The two members of the White Fang entered a building that seemed to be abandoned just like all the others, as Ruby struggled to use her scroll to try and call her team.
When that failed due to the poor signal, she took off running back to her camp.
In her very first step, she immediately fell flat on her face, accidentally letting Zwei and her weapon off her hands.
Just as she attempted to get up, the ground beneath her rumbled as Bemaia let out a tired sigh.
Not a second after, the road beneath Ruby opened and swallowed her whole, leaving the still barking dog and her scythe behind.
Francisco and Bemaia looked at the hole, then nodded to each other.
"Let's go get her back."
When they approached the hole, Zwei took off running as fast as he could, leaving their vision in mere seconds.
"The dog's life isn't on the contract, if he gets mauled, it's their own fault." Bemaia stated as they crouched near the eight feet wide hole on the ground.
"Yup." Francisco agreed as he unsheathed Downpour.
"I can't see shit from up here." He added, gulping loudly.
"I can't hear water, so down there ain't no sewer."
That… did not make much sense.
"A natural cave system? That can't be it, no one would build right above something that volatile." Bemaia said as the wind blew past them.
"Let's just jump, Aura should be able to break the fall."
They steeled their resolve and jumped into the unknown depths below.
Now Playing: Megaman X8 OST: Sneaking - Pitch Black (Dark Mantis)
The two fell on a flat surface, concrete they figured.
Taking their scrolls and turning on the lanterns they could barely see their immediate vicinity as their eye grew accustomed to the complete darkness that surrounded them.
Then, they noticed something, they were on top of a building somehow.
There were streets below them, yet a cavernous ceiling encompassed the subterranean city.
The streets had electricity, seeing that the streetlights were still working and brightening the many White Fang members carrying cargo and strange metal contraptions.
Wait, White Fang?
The two quickly made their way down the building and into the streets where they hid in between the ruined buildings.
Soon, they found something that would change how their night would go.
Two guards, carrying the unconscious body of young Ruby, and upon closer inspection from a hidden, more advanced position, the two noticed that they had tied the girl up as chatter was overheard.
"The boss will want to see this one."
The guards announced to everyone near them as shouting started to form amongst the ranks of the operation.
"What's a human doing here!"
"Is our operation compromised?"
"Take her to the Lieutenant!"
And then, a singular comment that went ignored by the White Fang, would dictate how this rescue operation would be carried out.
"Get me a piece of that girl!"
The two immediately assumed the worst.
"No one here is innocent." Francisco quietly said to his partner. "No one here cares if Ruby is in good shape."
Bemaia agreed as he readied his power arm.
Neither of them was an expert in stealthy operations, but both knew that going in loud was the worst possible option they had, so they had to make do.
The commotion caused by them finding Ruby may take their attention for a few minutes, they had that time frame to act.
Light in their feet and quick on their step, the two followed the guards that captured their V.I.P away from anyone's line of sight, listening to the mixed crowd of angry and prideful Faunus.
"Who does this kid think she is?!"
"Cut her throat already!"
"They are sending children to stop us."
The two did not let any comment get to them. "Taking their remarks to heart will not benefit us in any way, just ignore it." Bemaia reassured Francisco who held Downpour firmly in his hand.
They followed the guards until they reached a train station of sorts, by then, the crowd had already dispersed.
Observing their surroundings and the amount of White Fang members on the station, they quickly deduced that both of them didn't have the skills necessary to sneak their way in.
Lest they cull the herd.
Francisco noticed a singular guard, walking to what seemed to be an abandoned bathroom, it was way too close to the station, but just far enough that he could bet no one would bat an eye.
He nodded to Bemaia as they went their separate ways.
The lone guard entered the bathroom, leaving the door behind him slightly open, as Francisco quickly followed him inside.
"A little girl? Really." The Faunus spoke in a low tone, as he unbuckled his belt. "I hope she ends up fi-"
Francisco did not let him finish his sentence, piercing his sword through the back of the guard's head while kicking the door to close it.
The body fell limp on the ground as he pulled the sword out of its head.
"They have no Aura…" Francisco noted to himself.
Things will get messy.
Before leaving the stall, an overwhelming sense of dread washed over him, a feeling that he'd done something that could not be reverted.
His cheek eyes opened wide, he could see clearly through them as if they were his own.
He then heard a voice, was it someone approaching the bathroom?
He turned to the door and held it shut.
Silence.
Then, a voice from beyond the door.
"Mon… ster."
He raised his eyebrows, not understanding why would someone just say that randomly. It seemed to be more than one voice.
"That… mons… ter…"
Were the voices speaking in synchrony…?
"That monster… why is it here…"
He tensed.
He remembered very vividly whose voice that was.
"Damm monster, can't let me catch a break!" He yelled as fear was instilled in his voice.
"Is anyone… nyone… there?! ANYONE THERE!" The many voices cried out as he felt someone banging on the door.
Francisco did what he thought was best, and kicked the door open.
What he saw shook him to his very core.
A creature he wanted to forget with his every bit of strength. Tall, bipedal, made from flesh and bone with a mismatched head bearing only a sliver of resemblance to a human.
Calm!
Francisco promptly attempted to slice the thing in half, expecting the blow to stop at its sturdy carapace.
But his sword cut cleanly through, as the thing's many mouths began speaking.
"Do… n't wan… D… don't wanna… I don't wanna die…"
The god-forsaken creature's forms began to shift.
White robes replaced the red viscera, skin replaced the mismatched bones and from the clean-cut, blood and guts powered out.
"What…" Francisco was speechless.
His mind had just played the world's biggest prank on him.
Screams hang out from the station as some of the members of the Fang noticed the body of one of their own cut in half on the ground. That made him quickly calm down and let a sigh of relief. "I'll worry about my mental health later, for now…"
He quickly spotted Bemaia stealthily break the neck of a member that had seen them.
Milliseconds later, a loud siren cried from inside the station as a loud voice, coming from a speaker, commanded, "We got two, disgusting humans near the old bathroom stalls, go and deal with them if you're in the vicinity, if not you can get back to loading the train. We need this dammed thing ready until 8 pm!"
Whoever was speaking, sounded amused and tired, yet somehow had a tone of mockery behind it.
"We're doing it loud then." Bemaia yelled to his partner.
"Give'em hell!"
Now Playing: Ultrakill Act II / IMPERFECT HATRED OST: Deep Blue (Combat)
Bemaia knew that at first, they would try threatening him. He would take advantage of that, leave them no quarter.
He started to make his way towards the station's entrance where they brought Ruby, as three Fang members cut his advance, all pointing their guns at him.
One of them shouted "Raise your hands, or I will sho-" Just as he thought.
With a practiced movement of his hands, he quickly drew Honestus Finis shot three times, the interval between each shot was close to nonexistent.
The first shot connected with the Faunus on the left, hitting them right in their belly, the second shot hit the chest of the one in the middle, and the last hit the exact center of the Fang member's white mask.
Then, all three bullets exploded, tearing the bodies of the poor souls apart, bathing Bemaia in blood and viscera.
"It's going to be a pain to clean this suit later…"
He lamented and sprinted towards the entrance as Francisco, who was in a similar condition, followed close.
Footsteps were heard coming from behind them. Francisco quickly ducked as Bemaia raised Honestus Finis and shot twice at the two guards that just turned the corner. Bemaia opened the cylinder of his hand cannon in order to reload as Francisco quickly caught up and ran in front of him.
Shots started ranging from all around them, such were the drawbacks of running in through the front gates. Using Downpour Francisco defected whatever shots he could as he dashed towards the nearest guard.
Activating the hard-light Dust in his sword's magazine, a bright blue light encased the blade, and with a single thrust, the light shot from the hilt in a line of solid light and punctured through the chest of the nearest guard, effectively giving the sword more range. He simply smirked and sliced his now elongated blade horizontally as he realized something rather interesting about Hard-Light Dust.
Nothing is sharper than light itself.
And with a single motion cut four other guards that stood near the first one in half before the Hard-Light stopped at one of them blocking it with a spear.
Bemaia finished loading, and in the blink of an eye shot another five times while sprinting towards the Faunus using the melee weapon. Half a second later, five of the terrorists shooting them from the buildings had been reduced to a fine red mist.
Bemaia and the spear-wielding Faunus soon clashed as the former fixer took hold of the Fang member's spear, quickly took it from him using Reliquit Custodiam, and masterfully pierced the Faunus' neck with it, as the empty bullet shells fell from Honestus Finis' cylinder.
Soon, three other fang members appeared to stop their onslaught, all bearing melee weapons.
Francisco was first to act and mercilessly cut the throat of one of them, and quickly dashed past the other two, who Bemaia had plans for.
Effortlessly parrying the overhead swing of the more bold Faunus with a back-handed slap, he smacked his face with the back of his Hand Canon as his forward momentum made him keep going and face the second and slower Faunus. Bemaia planted his left foot on the ground, stopping his movement, and activated the Dust inside his power arm as it started to glow from the heat it generated.
The fang member was taken aback by the sudden activation of Bemaia's armored arm, but it did not stop him from punching a hole through the poor man's torso, instantly leaving the hole charred.
Turning to the Faunus he had parried, he pulled his arm from the now deceased terrorist and declared. "Drop your weapon and run." The Faunus considered his options and took a look around him. The choice was a quick one, and within a second he had already thrown his axe to the side and began to flee.
Bemaia lazily reloaded his revolver and after a satisfying click from the gun's metalwork, he shot the fleeing man in the back of the head, exploding it in the process, and promptly loaded back the shot he had just fired.
The sound of gunfire stopped, as the attention of most of the white fang turned to Francisco, who Bemaia could only guess was having the time of his life.
Taking a step to start running again, another member of the White Fang appeared behind him.
This one... He was different, much bigger than the other White Fang grunts, his uniform held more details, and on his hand rested a rather intimidating chainsaw. "Brother! Why attack your kin?!" The White Fang commander shouted, confusion Bemaia beyond words.
Brother?
My Kin?
Did he mistake me for a Faunus?
"I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I ain't no Faunus man." Bemaia aimed Honestus Finis at him as the Faunus revved up his chainsaw.
"How delusional can you be, Brother! Your wing is clear proof!"
Bemaia has had it with this conversation and pulled the trigger. And was instantly surprised to see that the man had deflected the shot with his chainsaw, granted the bullet promptly exploded on the man's side as his Aura promptly flared up and protected him.
'He has Aura… That means he's not fodder.' Bemaia reassured himself, as he adopted a more serious stance.
They both jumped at each other.
The commander did an overhead swing with his chainsaw, that Bemaia promptly dodged by backstepping. The chainsaw, still stuck to the ground, roared to life and propelled itself, along with the Faunus forward, as he quickly pulled on Bemaia's bloodied tie and landed a clean headbutt on the fixer, that activated his aura and made him stumble back a few steps.
"You're good…" Bemaia grunted as he aimed his hand canon once again. "Too good to be with these scum!" The fixer quickly shifted the aim of his revolver and shot at the ground next to him, exploding it and forcing the Faunus to block the debris as his still burning hot gauntlet traveled towards the Faunus' face.
Impact.
Though there was no searing like Bemaia expected, the man was sent rolling backward, completely cold out. Reloading his revolver and holstering it, Bemaia walked towards the unconscious man and lifted him up, holding his face.
He then heard four pairs of steps approaching him, but he didn't really care. "Chances are, those are more canon fodder, you reckon that if I kill you just as they turn the corner, they will get the message and leave?" Bemaia asked the unconscious body, as the searing hot Reliquit Custodiam burned the mask of the commander.
As preparation for the flashy presentation, Bemaia held him by the shoulder with his left hand, and just as the presumed fang members turned the corner-
"Hey! It's Bemaia!"
The voice of who he assumed to be Yang hung out.
'Oh, it's them.' He thought surprised.
'No need for brutalization then.' he shrugged, still, he did not face them, Bemaia simply punched the commander through the head, destroying his mask instantly and the sound of bone being crushed hung through the cities alleyways, expelling an empty dust magazine from the side of Reliquit Custodiam, a bloody taint was left on his fist.
The three students plus the professor all stopped dead in their tracks.
"WOAH THERE!" Yang shouted in complete shock while Weiss began to scream due to the corpses around him.
Blake remained silent and simply watched as Bemaia then took his hand cannon and shot the Faunus twice in the chest, immediately exploding his chest cavity and making sure he was dead.
Casually he turned to the girls, expelling the empty cartridges from the cylinder, "Hey hey, people."
Doctor Oobleck's eyes fell to the ground and took off his hat as a sign of respect for the many that were killed. Blake's hands trembled as she took hold gambol shroud. "Why would you-"
Bemaia did not care for what Blake had to say, or how Yang and Weiss reacted. "Save it for later. Francisco went ahead to try and save Ruby." He declared as he loaded his weapon once more with a satisfying metallic *Click*. "You four go help him and I'll try to extract as much information from these terrorists as I can." Bemaia, using his wing as a convenient propeller, jumped into one of the train wagons the White Fang was loading.
Yang was left speechless as Bemaia quickly vanished without giving them a proper explanation.
"What was that!" She yelled.
Blake, still holding on to her weapon, slowly made her way toward the body of the person her friend had just killed.
"They didn't deserve this…" Her grip tightened as a feeling of guilt washed over her.
The world seemed to stop around her.
"This is…" Her eyes traveled through the crimson street.
Body after body of her brethren more mangled than the last. "He didn't have to…" Anger rose from her core. "He could have simply knocked them out, this was not necessary!" She yelled. She fell to her knees as she finally recognized the body in front of her, it was that lieutenant that followed Adam everywhere he went.
Then, she recognized another one, a young deer Faunus girl, she swore she had seen her while infiltrating one of the White Fang's meetings… Now the girl had her guts spilled on through the asphalt.
In total, there were twenty-two bodies of Fang members on this singular street, all of them were left in pieces, heaving their gore mercilessly spread through the crumbling walls of the underground city of Mountain Glenn. These were the bodies of people fighting for what they thought was right, not a single one deserved this…
Yang put her hand on Blake's shoulder, pulling the cat girl out of her trance.
"We…" The smell of the gore hit her straight on, as she held back not to vomit.
"Urk…" The fact that their partner had just thrown up right behind them did not help, especially when droplets hit Yang's leg. "Let's focus on getting Ruby…" Blake nodded, as she cleaned the tears from her eyes.
"I am sorry that you had to see this scenery, and I am most sorry since the one who caused this was one of our own…" Oobleck helped the heiress regain her senses.
"But find solace in knowing that they are in a better place now." He swallowed as he heard the sounds of explosions, and then the pained yell consisting of many distorted voices.
That sent a chill down his spine, something not even the most terrifying of Grimm could not accomplish.
They had to act and act fast. "We must ensure young Ruby's safety. Let's go!"
The teenagers all struggled to pass by the corpses without stepping on a stray gory part by accident.
Now Playing: Ready to die, by Andrew WK
Francisco made a B-line towards the two guards that held Ruby in place, deflecting and dodging every bullet shot at him.
He quickly realized that most of them had never fired a gun in their entire life. "I must take out the ones that have experience, most of them aren't getting close to hitting their mark. What a waste of money." He uttered under his breath.
However, he knew he couldn't keep going like this, he would eventually fail if he kept ignoring the Fang members far away. Sheathing his sword and reloading Dust into it, he masterfully rolled behind a metal create for some cover.
He had to think very carefully about his next movements. He steadied his breath. 'They will keep their distance, they have no reason to charge me, I have to find something to help me take one of them…'
His line of thought was interrupted instantly when he saw two Faunus running towards his position. "It's a shame you will die inexperienced at the expense of your superiors."
The two were holding ranged weapons.
The poor fools.
The moment the two stood in the line of fire of their companions, Francisco suddenly jumped over the create drawing his sword crackling with electricity. They quickly raised their weapons in surprise, but it was too late. The former Proselyte cut both arms of the one on the left with a single slice and immediately kicked the gun out of the hands of the second one.
"Hold your fire, you'll shoot one of our own!" One of them yelled prompting Francisco to smile.
He quickly stabbed the Faunus in the shoulder, paralyzing the man due to the electric current from the dust-infused blade, and quickly cut their neck. Turning to the other he had left armless, he took advantage of their distressed form and pierced the sword through the man's skull.
Unbeknownst to Francisco, his left cheek had grown a small mouth below the eyes.
From it, a small tongue quickly cleaned his face from any blood, increasing in size alongside the mouth for each drop of gore it managed to consume.
The former librarian did not care, and with the man's body, still stuck to his sword, he ran towards the main group of Faunus using the deceased body as a shield as the Faunus all started to shoot at him. With each step, Francisco took toward them, their courage faded bit by bit. Their strength in numbers didn't seem to matter as much anymore.
Francisco's Aura flared as some shots pierced his makeshift shield, so he decided to abandon it. Mustering all the strength he had, he threw the shield at the group, quickly dispersing their attention as some even dropped their weapons and started to run.
Those that stood their ground were dealt with lukewarm, bloodied metal.
One after the other, the former librarian danced through their ranks with relative ease, tanking all the shots he didn't bother to dodge. The First had his forehead separated from their lower jaw diagonally, the second had his heart pieced by a practiced stab, the next was swiftly decapitated, and another had both his legs separated and fainted from the pain of having both femurs sliced clean off.
Bloody tendrils escaped the small stub that was Francisco's left arm and gave chase to the few that opted to run. He didn't notice this and continued his charge.
Two fang members, both using spears charged both at once at him.
The fools.
Sidestepping their synchronized thrusts, Francisco quickly sliced the eyes of the guard to his right as the other landed a clean stab on his side. Fortunately for him, his Aura took the blow as he retaliated by horizontally cutting the now blind Faunus in half. The two bathed in the spraying gore, as the small tongue, slowly scraped the blood off of the Faunus' mask.
"You M-Moster!" He yelled and tried to swat the 'thing' off of his mask.
Franciso took advantage of the distraction and slice the Faunus vertically, resulting in his intestines spilling out and his ribcage cut clean open.
The tongue feasted in Francisco's face as he simply let out a tired sigh.
"Monster, you say…" The tendrils soon returned, frightening the former librarian when he realized that they brought with them just the skin of some poor Faunus's left arm.
"You're goddamn right..." This legitimately scared him, his voice didn't sound like his own anymore, yet, he couldn't bring himself to cut the dammed things off. The tendrils retracted back to his arm, bringing with it the skin.
Francisco felt his strength fail him, his legs trembled. He let his body collapse against a bloodied pillar, as the details slowly retracted. Mustering all strength left in his body, he pierced the floppy skin with his sword.
"S…ell… Need… Shell…" Many voices spoke at once, all of them came from the mouth on his neck. "No, We won't be having that shell business today."
The voices continued, however. "No shell? ..ed Shell… Need…"
Francisco sighed. "How did this even come to happen?" He felt his Aura break, as countless particles of red dissipated from his body. "Good, now I am the one in need of help."
The tendrils went limp.
Francisco counted them, five in total, he didn't seem to have control over them. "..e Cream… Ice…" Great! Now it started to speak gibberish.
Francisco got up and carefully navigated the gore-painted path towards the train. If he was lucky, the White Fang had escaped due to their morale being shattered, if not, Ruby could still be in trouble.
"Ice Cream… Straw… Berry… Vani… lla…" Francisco sighed. "If you're going to keep speaking, at least say something use-"
His heart skipped a beat, as the tendrils all came to like at once, shooting towards the train wagon and pulling his body towards it. Then he felt his right shoulder being pierced by something. Francisco let out a pained howl with the many voices.
Quickly standing on his feet, he searched his surroundings and found nothing that could justify the hole on his shoulder. The tendrils pulled him in another direction once again, this time, he could see what they were making him dodge, and that's when it clicked.
"Chocolate… He-o…"
A surprisingly small girl, somehow smaller than Ruby, wearing white brown, and pink, matching her hair color, and using an umbrella with its very tip covered in blood, just charged at him again. "Hello… ello…" Francisco stumbled to his feet, as the bloody tentacles shot toward the girl, who effortlessly bounced back and forth through the pillars, avoiding them with a smug smile on her face.
"You're no White Fang…" Francisco muttered, opening the door to the train wagon, while the tendrils kept the girl at bay.
His eye widened as he let his body fall backward, trying to dodge the sharpened end of the umbrella coming from the inside of the wagon he had just opened.
"What!?" The tendrils finally hit their mark, as the girl it chase simply shattered like glass, while that very same girl just barely managed to cut Francisco's cheek, opening it just enough that she could see his teeth from the outside as blood began to pour out of the wound.
The former librarian fell on his back, accidentally covering himself in blood, trying to evade the girl's attack.
"HELLO." The many voices yelled at once, as a concentrated spray of blood was ejected from Francisco's left stub, piercing the girl straight through the head, as she shattered like broken glass once again.
Francisco stumbled to his feet once again. "What the hell…" he muttered, surprised at both his stubby left arm and the girl using something he had never seen before.
Just as he boarded the train, he heard footsteps coming from the other side of the train.
"Hey, Baldy, is that you?!"
It was Ruby! And she was trying to get on top of the train, from the sound of it.
He swallowed.
This girl was fifteen years old, she probably had never seen a sight like the one he just helped create and if she got on top of the train, she would most likely be left traumatized.
"Yeah, let me open the door for you!" He thanked the engineers for designing the train's wagons in a way that you couldn't see what was on the other side, even in between the wagons.
Francisco quickly closed the door behind him and opened the door on Ruby's side.
"Hey! Why did you come here…" Her thoughts wandered off when she saw the extra appendages on his body.
"ello... Hello…"
Ruby eye's turned to stars when she heard the new mouth speak.
"That… Is…" She used her semblance to get right on top of the tendrils, "SO COOL!" She yelled in excitement, as she carefully analyzed the fleshy tentacles, grabbing them, stretching them. "You think that each of them can use a gun?!"
"What?" He said in clear confusion.
"Wh.. at…" The many voices asked in clear confusion.
Before he could even process what the girl was doing to the thing's appendages, she yelled in surprise once more. "Holy Oum! You're hurt!" She backed off, staring at the gaping hole in his cheek and shoulder.
Surprisingly, the blood that covered him now remained only as stains on the cloth, since his new tongue cleaned him up.
"Yeah, I'm fine… Let's just get you back to your team."
Before she could protest, the wagon began to rumble as that voice that announced their arrival, spoke through the speaker system once again.
"Get to your places, we are leaving now!"