Here we go!
Reviews:
Derwydd y Blaidd - I wouldn't consider my fic to be underrated to be honest with it being my first ever story and the beginning of it not being very good but thanks for the kind words. As for the weapon, I will look into it (both the khakkhara and Tokyo Raven) but Jaune will still be using his walking stick for a few more chapters.
Loveless - I have already plans for Ozpin's involvement in the story so don't worry about that. When it comes to the spirit of rain then I guess i could make him bond with Jaune when and if he becomes the elemental warrior later down the line.
Kolomte'49 - Well it makes the most sense with how the Over Soul are depicted in the manga since in the SK Red Crimson when HoroHoro blocked a physical bullet with his ice the fact that his foe was able to see the ice was the info that told him that the person was shaman (there are more examples but that one was the first one to come to my mind) so I just assume that is how it look like to normal people when they fly in the Over Souled plane.
The Black Wolf of the Arks - Thanks and I guess I might think about it but I kinda have trouble with fitting such character into the story and thinking about the relation the wolf would have with the other characters aside from Summer treating the Wolf like a another Zwei and cuddling with him.
X3runner - Ehh, the RWBY girls basically hid in the storage.
adislt - I plan to keep it like that until the next bigger arc and it might be a little spoiler for me to say that but don't worry it won't be the next round of the tournament yet.
Reader, Guest, NinjaFang1331, Gamelover41592 - Thank you. :D
They'd been walking in the same direction for days, weeks even. Their surroundings started to blend together and the road on which they were traveling seemed to be never ending. It's been so long that the sights of Vale became only a distant memory.
Food provisions they took with them already ran out and the bravest of them even tried eating wild berries to survive. The future never looked so bleak for them and the idea that this journey might be their end entered their minds a long time ago.
"Stop exaggerating, Ruby. It's been barely four hours since we landed on the ground." Weiss said with a roll of her eyes to diffuse the despair their entire team was feeling at the moment.
"Nobody's feeling any despair and we didn't even bring any food provisions so they didn't run out." Weiss said again.
Was she saying all of it out loud?
"You've been quietly mumbling to yourself for the last hour or so." Her partner answered.
"It's not my fault! It's just so boring! Every hour of this walk feels like days, Weiss!" She complained. "How is it possible that sneaking out of school can feel more dull than being present in lessons?"
"It's because we are only walking straight at the moment, Rubes. If there were at least some grimm for us to fight then the time would pass faster but all of them are being taken care of by our guide before we can see them." Yang said with a small laugh while pointing at the person with whom they were traveling.
A few steps before them Lyserg hummed quietly in acknowledgement in response to her sister.
They sure were lucky to be dropped right next to him after the invisible bullhead dispersed from under their feet. Obviously, they would have been able to survive in the middle grimm infested forest, the huntress training wasn't only for show after all, but if they didn't find the dowser boy so quickly then at this point they most likely would have been lost somewhere in Mistral with no clue where to go.
Now, instead of that, they were walking in the direction the boy's pendulum was pointing to. Dowsing was such a useful ability to have that it made her wonder why the dowsers weren't more widely known.
Such help wasn't for free of course but after some convincing and pointing out that it not only didn't cost Lyserg anything but it could also help him with finding the Tribes Village they managed to get their guide that would help them reach her mother and Weiss's brother.
Sadly, her first plan of pretending to be shamans to blend in and find their next objective on their own was proven to be non effective the moment she tried to enact it. Apparently it's hard to pretend you were able to see spirits while completely ignoring a little fairy making funny faces right before your eyes.
Who knew?
"How is it possible that after walking towards them for the last four hours without any brakes, we still didn't see them even once? Are they running away from us or something?" Yang asked while grumbling.
Good to know she wasn't the only one who was tired from the constant walk they were putting themselves through.
There was a point to her sister's complaints though as they couldn't have fallen too far away from Jaune and the rest since they were in the same bullhead yet no matter how long they walked the pendulum was always pointing in the same direction.
If she didn't know any better then she would have suspected that the dowser's abilities were a scam, like Weiss did the first time they met Lyserg, but it couldn't be the case because it already worked for them once before. Although, it could still mean that Lyserg was lying to them about where the pendulum was currently pointing to.
"Are you sure that the pendulum is correctly calibrated to point towards Jaune and Summer?" She voiced her concerns.
"Yes, Ruby. I'm sure." Lyserg sighed. "Dowsing works by finding life or spiritual energy of someone and using the pendulum as a compass that points towards the source of it."
"Then how come we aren't getting closer? Are they going away from us? Why would they do that?" Yang asked.
The young dowser only shrugged in response. The boy probably had as much idea why the shaman trio they were following was moving away from them as they had.
At least they didn't have to turn every few steps to keep the track. Though it would make the way a little less monotonous than it was right now so it might not have been such a good thing in the long run.
A loud sigh escaped her as she thought about the fact that they weren't getting any closer to her mother. She finally found some lead on what was going on with her but the moment she tried to do something with it everything seemed to be trying to stop her.
How much she wished that there were some mindless grimm to fight right now. It would have kept her mind occupied with something for a few seconds or minutes and it certainly would have been better than nothing.
...
About an hour later...
...
They were finally out of the forest. Lyserg couldn't say if their speed was impressive or not but based on the fact that his new traveling companions were complaining about how boring the way was, he assumed that it must have felt slow.
He didn't really mind it though. It was better to walk slowly while checking the pendulum the entire time than to rush in the wrong direction and then need to trace back your steps to get back on path later.
It wasn't like he was in a hurry anyway. On the contrary actually, in the situation he found himself in it was way better to walk through the forest, every shaman from Vale supposedly dropped, rather slowly.
The chance that someone would want to attack them while using the trees as a cover was quite high and he certainly wouldn't want to fight against anyone that wasn't a complete weakling under the circumstances he was in. Fighting against some foes in the middle of terrain that obstructed his vision wasn't too bad on its own but when he had to take care of four people who couldn't even see what they were fighting, it became a difficult issue to solve.
Luckily, they wouldn't have to deal with one of the issues anymore.
The sight that entered his eyes after they left the forest wasn't appealing in any way but it still was better than the countless hiding spots among the trees he was able to see in the forest. When he first saw that, he let out a breath of relief at the fact that there was one less thing he had to worry about.
There wasn't any road or path before them as they hadn't left the forest through a path in the first place. Instead of that, before them they could see a large field of grass with only a few occasional trees every hundred steps or so and if one were to look carefully to the side they would have even been able to notice some old unused road in the distance.
He still was tense however. Just because there weren't any places for an ambush near them didn't mean that somebody couldn't be waiting for them or any other shaman to eliminate them out of the tournament once and for all. It would ultimately give them an edge in the later rounds if they managed to eliminate some of the stronger opponents early.
"A change of scenery! Finally!" A sigh escaped him as the youngest of his companions that was still older than him ran out of the woods with a jump and a loud shout, giving away their position to any possible foes.
"Don't shout Ruby! You are annoying our guide!" The white colored huntress in training scolded.
The two other members of the team that tagged along to his journey to win the second round of the tournament merely giggled from behind him. Why was he helping them find Jaune again?
No, he couldn't think like that. He shook his head. The blond shaman was decently strong, if he remembered their fight correctly, and he needed allies for the tournament, especially if he wanted to have any chance at accomplishing his own goal.
Hao. That name alone was enough for him to tighten his fists in anger. The man wasn't among the people he saw before entering the Bullhead so most likely he didn't have the first round of the tournament in the same city as that monster.
He didn't know if it was lucky or not.
Morphine, his guardian spirit, noticed that he was thinking about that moment of his life so she immediately left his pendulum to try and cheer him up. she flew up right before his face and touched his cheek with a clear concern on her face.
Great, now she was pitying him again.
He raised his hand to lightly push her out of the way, there was some resistance in her as she genuinely wanted to help him but he tried to ignore it. He had only three months to get to the Tribes Village, he didn't have time for pity.
"There's no time for that, let's go." He said sternly to Morphine before reforming his Over Soul.
"Huh? Did you say something?" Blake, one of his companions, asked after overhearing what he said.
Right, he almost forgot that they weren't able to see spirits. How were they able to enter the Over Soul of a bullhead that they weren't able to see was still beyond him.
"Nothing important." He said with a hollow smile. "Come on, you all want to reach Jaune and the rest as soon as possible, right? We won't be getting any closer by staying in place."
He could only hope that they wouldn't be too noisy about his past with something else on their minds.
"You certainly are right about that my young friend." A loud female voice echoed behind them. "Though, I'm sure you wouldn't mind staying here for a little bit longer for a short talk with us, would you? That tracking skill of yours looks useful."
The moment he heard that, he jumped away from the forest. Someone was following them or maybe saw them at the edge of the forest and decided to use this occasion to eliminate one of the combatants, it didn't matter in the end.
He gritted his teeth as the wire from his pendulum quickly formed a provisional barrier to put something between him and the trees. It was better to have something to slow down a possible opponent.
With a corner of his eye he noticed that team RWBY had their weapons drawn as well. They might not have been shamans so their ability to fight against the people that found them was questionable at best but they still were huntresses in training with good instincts and reflexes.
They probably knew more about fighting than him to be honest. The problem wasn't the skill though, it was the fire power and senses. What could all the skill of theirs do against an opponent who could destroy a building in seconds with an attack that they couldn't even see?
He shook his head, there was no point in wondering how team RWBY would fare in a fight when there was a chance that there wouldn't be any fight at all.
After a few tense seconds of silence during which he was prepared to defend the entire time, a long haired blond woman slowly walked out of the forest before them. She looked elegant and confident but didn't feel strong. There seemed to be some sort of arrogance in her eyes as if she thought she was capable of defeating them without any issues.
"If you are really in a hurry then you could just show me in which direction the Tribes Village is. I don't have a need for you if I already know where to go, do I?" The woman said with a calm smirk.
His eyes narrowed as he tried to find out from where the woman before him got all of that confidence. If she wanted to have a fight with him then he was pretty sure he should be able to rather easily win that.
The fight was almost a certainty at this point since he very much doubted that she would just let them go if he declined telling her a way to the Village. It wasn't like he was capable of doing so either, when he tried to use his dowsing abilities to locate one of the judges in hopes of finding the Village earlier it didn't work for some reason.
It wasn't too strange though as the tribes responsible for organizing the Shaman King Tournament were few hundreds if not thousands years old. Of course they knew some ways to hide from dowsers if they didn't then the tournament would have been straight up unfair.
"Tell me, why should I give you directions?" He said after a few seconds of thinking while subtly checking the forest with his sight to find any traps or allies of the person before him. "Because of the very nature of the tournament, we are opponents. While it might not cost me anything to give you some information right now it would mean that I would have one more opponent to fight later."
He decided to not reveal too much information about him. The less others knew about the limits of his abilities the better.
"I really wished you didn't say that, you know?" The woman giggled. "Come out, girls! We have an enemy to convince!"
The moment she shouted that, four other girls appeared near her. They all arrived from behind some trees and bushes they most likely had been hiding at and looked visibly tired and annoyed because of something.
"Did we really have to hide ourselves like that, boss? Now my entire back hurts from lying down under some bushes because you wanted us to have a 'memorable introduction' as you called it." The youngest looking one of them complained while stretching her body.
"You weren't supposed to say that Millie! The main reason for that entrance was intimidation. If you haven't ruined it just now we would already have a lead on where we are supposed to go." The blond woman who was apparently their boss complained back starting a small fight in the opposing team.
Somehow despite there being five of the opponents before them now it didn't feel almost half as intimidating as it felt when the blond woman was standing alone before them. From the corner of his eye he noticed that even team RWBY relaxed a little after seeing the show that the group of shamans before them was putting on.
It just was that hard to take the people before them seriously while watching how the assumed boss was having a fight against a member of her team that somehow looked even younger than him and Ruby.
"Umm." Ruby started awkwardly to get attention. "I know I technically shouldn't be asking that in the middle of a fight you guys are having right now but who are you five?"
The young team leader's words stopped the fight the girls before them were having and also caused her to yelp a little after every single one of their apparent enemies looked at her the moment she said that.
After a moment of looking at Ruby a loud giggle escaped the leader of the opposing group as she signaled with her arm for her team to position themselves in an orderly fashion to her left.
"I guess it's the time for our introductions then." The woman said boisterously. "Tell them your names girls from left to right!"
"Ellie!" A light brown haired girl said with a confident grin.
"Lilly." A black haired girl with glasses said calmly.
"Millie!" The youngest one of them said cheerfully. It was the one who fought with their team leader earlier.
"Sally." A red haired woman said with a bored expression on her face.
"Sharona." Finally, the leader introduced herself with a posh attitude.
Right after introducing themselves, all of them quickly formed their Over Soul making him tense as it meant that a fight was about to start. Regardless of the fact that he didn't feel threatened by them, he still prepared for a tough fight. With team RWBY not being able to see the Over Souls or spirits at all it was practically a one versus five fight for him and he didn't like those odds.
He took a quick glance at his traveling companions to see how they were taking the fight that was about to happen but the moment he saw what they were doing he balked from the bewilderment he felt.
Almost the entirety of team RWBY was hunched down in a circle whispering something among themselves thinking that they weren't being heard by anyone.
"Hey. Why doesn't their leader's name end with a 'ly'?" Ruby asked innocently to her teammates.
"I don't know. Why don't you just ask her?" Yang answered.
"Don't do that, you dunce. It would be rude. What if she's self-conscious about it." Weiss argued with a stern expression.
It took at least a second for him to decide whether they were serious or not and if he were to be honest, he didn't like the answer he came up with. Why couldn't he have dropped right next to some other shamans instead of this team of tagalongs.
"Are you three serious?" Blake, the only one who was sane beside him at the moment, asked in exasperation while looking back at her teammates. He was pleased to know that he wasn't the only one flabbergasted at those three.
Thankfully for them, they had the decency to look bashful at the way they were acting because if they hadn't then he would very seriously consider the thought of either leaving them here after the fight's over.
"I told you, you should have changed your name to fit the theme!" One of the younger members of the opposing team said loudly.
"It's not my fault! That's the name I was given at birth, if anything it should be you all who need to change their names to end with 'rona'!" Their leader countered with an irritated shout.
And now their opponents were playing along to the team RWBY's idiocy. He was starting to regret taking them along now more than ever before. Maybe if he ignored them back then right after the drop then he wouldn't be in such a silly situation right now.
A tired sigh escaped him as he moved his hand to command Morphine.
The wire that less than a second ago was forming the barrier that was separating them from their opponents abruptly shifted as the pendulum at its end soared directly towards the face of Sharona.
"Ahh!" The blond woman screamed in shock as she barely rolled out of the pendulum's way.
"What was that for?!" The rest of the team next to the forest shouted right after their leader started getting up from the ground.
"You were the ones who formed their Over Soul first and in a fight that's basically five against one from my perspective I have to make use of every advantage I can get." He answered with a roll of his eyes.
They were already shamans competing in the same tournament and aiming for the same prize. Was it really that strange that he would attack them when he was given a chance?
Besides, it's not like they would have been able to end their encounter peacefully when he wasn't able to give them what they wanted even if he for some reason wanted to. They would probably assume that he was simply hiding information from them in that case.
He didn't give them too much time to react as it could lead to them spreading out and that was practically a death sentence for him in a fight like this.
The pendulum flew between the trees behind their opponents and less than a second later it came back by piercing through one of the trees right next to the red haired woman who he was fighting. If he remembered correctly then her name was Sally but he didn't really care.
Sally barely blocked it with her Over Soul that was a giant wooden hammer she held with both of her hands.
He scowled a little when he saw that she was able to react as it meant that the surprise from his sudden attack earlier had already worn out and that it was about to become a real fight. It could end really badly for him.
Just as he suspected not too long after his attack was blocked, the rest of the shamans he was fighting spread out and tried to surround him. He couldn't do much about it as his pendulum was way too far away from them to stop them in time.
"That was rude!" The youngest of the shamans shouted before pointing at the team RWBY next to him with her Over Soul.
"Wha-""Dodge! Now!" He was about to warn team RWBY about the danger but Weiss, of all people, beat him to it.
The moment they heard their teammate shout, team RWBY jumped away, barely dodging the projectile fired from the crossbow that was Millie's Over Soul by doing so. The explosion that was the result of the attack still scraped them a little though but it wasn't anything serious.
Was Weiss able to see the Over Souls?
No, it couldn't be the case she wasn't able to see Morphine or any of the other ghosts so seeing an Over Soul should be just as impossible for her. It could have been a reaction to noticing something that could be a danger though but he didn't have a clue as to why her reaction was so drastic.
He frowned a little before focusing back on his opponents, it didn't matter at the moment anyway. The fight was still going to be tough and just because team RWBY could look after themselves didn't make it that much easier.
They still would be out of commission if they were to take a single stronger hit from any of the Over Souls in the fight. Aura, despite being an incredibly useful tool against the Grimm or other ordinary foes, didn't really help when the weakest of Over Souls were capable of breaking through it in less than a few hits.
Since there was no point in saying anything, he gritted his teeth and dashed forward at the leader of their opponents. Normally, he wouldn't try to fight against anyone up close as his fighting style was focused on keeping his distance and letting Morphine pick apart his foes with his Over Soul but in the situation he was right now staying in place would only lead to loss.
His action surprised Sharona a little as she instinctively dodged back to not be hit directly by him.
He frowned a little as he stopped in the place Sharona stood at not a second ago before thrusting his arm forward and firing his pendulum. It didn't matter if she tried to keep her distance when his wire was still capable of reaching her. As long as he was closer to her than to any of the other foes, he should be fine. They didn't seem strong on their own.
That was what he thought but the moment his pendulum was about to hit Sharona a thick spiritual smoke suddenly appeared all around him obstructing his vision. He also didn't feel his Over Soul collide with anything so his attack was likely dodged.
The smoke dispersed soon after to reveal that two out of the five foes he was fighting were already right next to him with their weapons raised and the rest of them was keeping their distance while aiming their Over Souls directly at him. Of course, the ones who were near him were those who seemed to be using melee type Over Souls.
How did they manage to get to him so quickly? He was pretty sure that it should have taken them much longer to cross the distance that was between them.
With there being no time to ponder on it, he quickly commanded Morphine to come back to him and target the two enemies close to him. To make sure that he wouldn't be dead by the time his guardian spirit managed to protect him, he also dashed forward to dodge the two first attacks that would be delivered by his foes.
A whooshing sound was made behind him as he barely dodged being sliced apart by spiritual claws and crushed by a spiritual hammer. Another sound of a flying object came right after as his pendulum soared directly at the two foes that almost got him and barely hit them.
The moment he got a decent footing, he quickly turned around to see his opponents.
All of the girls from the opposing shaman team were now facing him from the same side so the advantage they got from surrounding him was gone. He could see some of them scowling because of that.
The only ones whose reaction confused him a little bit were his companions who were looking at him in confusion. He knew that they weren't able to see Over Souls but they should still be able to see what was going on based on their bodies alone.
"They are once again charging at him! Why isn't he reacting?!" Ruby shouted to her teammates in concern for her new friend.
"He doesn't act like someone who is not used to fighting." Blake murmured with a frown while carefully observing the fight before suddenly coming to realization when their guide once again barely protected himself from another one of the attacks sent at him.
"He doesn't see what they are doing."
Blake's statement was met with a bunch of raised eyebrows from her teammates who looked at her as if she was confused about something.
"I think you got it the other way around, Blake." Yang said. "We are the ones who aren't able to fully see what is going on. You know, just like it was back when we watched the fight between Jaune and Weiss's little brother."
"No, not like that." Blake shook her head. "We aren't able to see everything he can but what if he sees things that hide things that are truly happening right now."
"Do you mean that they are using illusions?" Weiss asked for confirmation only to receive a simple nod from Blake in response.
"We have to help him!" Ruby shouted. "We can't just stay back and watch as he is being beaten!"
Ruby's declaration was met with concerned frowns from both Weiss and Blake who weren't so sure if they should intervene with the fight that was happening. They knew that they were strong but it wasn't something they have trained for.
"Guys?" Ruby asked after seeing the wavering resolve of her teammates.
"Come on team! We can take them, it will be just like combat lessons with Goodwitch, maybe even easier." Yang said with a confident grin to help her sister convince the rest of the team.
"Yeah but our opponents likely won't care if we die this time." Blake said.
"Umm..." Ruby whimpered a little while biting her bottom lip in thought.
"And they will be using invisible weapons that are capable of breaking out Aura with a hit or two." Weiss added.
"Well." Yang laughed uncomfortably a little while looking away from Weiss and Blake.
"Not to mention that one of them has already managed to block an attack that we know is capable of piercing through multiple bullheads as easily as if they are made out of paper." Blake added again.
A silence arose among team RWBY as the leader of the team was lost in thought after hearing the arguments of her friends. She knew that what Weiss and Blake said was correct but not doing anything felt especially bad for her since she always was taught that the role of a huntress was to help others.
Ruby then looked to the fight that was happening near them to see Lyserg barely surviving while dodging or blocking attacks that from her perspective looked like basic swipes with an open hand or crude strikes with a wooden hammer but what in reality probably were threatening attacks that could destroy boulders or cut through metal.
"We are helping him." Ruby said in a commanding tone.
"What?" The rest of her team asked in surprise.
"All my life since my mom left for a mission from which she didn't return I thought that there would be no way for me to meet her again or even know what happened to her so when I learned that such a possibility might exist I decided to give my everything to successfully use it." Ruby answered with a frown.
Her speech made the rest of team RWBY shift a little in place as they knew how important Summer was to Ruby. She didn't try to appeal to the feeling of duty every huntress should have because it wasn't why she wanted to help in this situation either. The only reason she wanted to help in this fight was personal and she didn't try to pretend it wasn't.
"Now our best bet on getting the answers is in a situation where it can be gone in any second so I will do everything I can to make sure that I won't lose this chance and whether or not you help me with it I will go there and take part in this fight." The young huntress in training added before charging towards the battle.
With her semblance it didn't take a single second to arrive at the fight. She attacked the black haired girl that was the farthest away from Lyserg as the girl seemed to be the most far away from the rest of her teammates.
"Ahh!" The girl with the glasses cried as she dodged out of her strike.
"They are attacking from behind!" The light haired girl, Ellie if she was right, shouted after hearing her teammate being attacked.
Right after that warning her team, Ellie together with Lilly turned around to face her in a fight. Now Lyserg only needed to deal with three enemies. It was almost perfect if not for the fact that she was now about to fight two people while being unable to see their weapons.
Yeah, she didn't really think this through.
The brown haired girl charged at her with her hand position as if she was holding sharp claws in it and was ready to cut her in half with them. To be fair, there probably were some incredibly sharp claws in her hand but she wasn't able to see them.
She moved back slightly and raised her scythe to try to protect herself from the attack. Normally she would have never done this as it would not only be risky against opponents she didn't know the strength of but it would also put her baby at risk but trying to dodge attacks like these was probably a worse idea since she couldn't reliably judge the range of her foe.
The supposed slash from her opponent didn't stop and she instinctively closed her eyes just as her weapon was about to meet with the invisible claws she assumed the brown haired girl was using.
One second passed, then two, and three yet she didn't feel any hit. Her scythe, the Crescent Rose, was still in one piece and she didn't feel any damage on her Aura. Was that attack a feint?
She opened one of her eyes to see what was going on and right before her she saw Yang holding the arm of the shaman who tried to hurt her by an arm to prevent the slash from being finished.
"Yang?" Ruby asked with happiness.
"You could have waited for the rest of us, Rubes." Yang answered with a wink. "Not everyone can travel as fast as you can."
Her team came with her!
The black haired girl with the glasses was about to attack them in some way based on how she was holding her glasses with a frown on her face but just before she could attack them a bunch of multicolored glyphs appeared around her and Weiss dashed at her with a thrust of her rapier.
Blake also came to help, although she focused more on distracting Sharona who seemed to be giving Lyserg the most trouble.
"You didn't think that we wouldn't have helped you, did you?" Weiss grunted as she rolled to the side when her opponent did something that could have been either correcting her glasses or an attack. They could never know when they couldn't see what they were really fighting against.
"So what's the plan, sis?" Yang asked her as she pushed the brown haired girl back.
"Get the attention of as many enemies as possible." After a few seconds of being dumbfounded Ruby finally told them her plan. "Stick close to each other and if any one of us seems in trouble or is hurt in any way the one who's closest to them helps them. We are treating every opponent as if they could kill us with a single hit and avoid being surrounded."
Ruby's plan was met with quick nods from her teammates as they already began harassing some of their enemies with safe attacks. Without another thought she dashed forward as well to get back into the fight.
The assistance from team RWBY helped Lyserg greatly but possibly not in a way they thought it would. The biggest difference it made for him was making the spiritual smoke that was putting him under illusions disperse a lot more often.
Now he was able to see where his enemies were almost all the time and in the situations he couldn't he only needed to worry about at most two hidden enemies because the rest of them would be busy with his companions.
He smiled a little as he saw that the fight was becoming more manageable than it was before. If their enemies wouldn't drastically change their strategy then he could already see a way to end this fight.
"Ruby!" He shouted. "Bring them close to each other and give me a signal when you do so then I will finish them off!"
Shouting your strategy in the middle of a fight was probably a terrible thing to do, especially if it could be heard by the opposition but it didn't really matter that much when there was hardly anything they could do to stop them.
"Got it!" A loud voice responded from somewhere. He couldn't quite tell from where because the smoke was obstructing his view but he knew it was from somewhere near him.
A hum escaped him as he dodged a spiritual hammer that was swung at him from the side and jumped away from the combat for a second. If Ruby was about to give him a signal then he should also be ready to actually finish their foes off as he said earlier.
The attacks on him abruptly stopped as moved further away, making him smile as it meant that team RWBY was doing a good job at keeping their enemies in place. He knew that the signal was about to be given.
A bunch of loud shots echoed from his left as he saw dust bullets flying into the sky through the smoke.
It looked like it was the signal.
A satisfied smirk was present on his face as he turned towards the direction the bullets flew from and extended his arm upwards to prepare his finishing technique. He didn't know if Sharona's team had any hidden aces in their sleeves but he knew that attack should be enough for him to win.
The pendulum quickly flew high into the air. It then began to coil and curl around itself slowly forming a skeleton of something out of it's wire. That process continued for a few more seconds until it finally ended after creating a building sized replica of the famous floating city of Atlas.
It was a technique he already knew how to use back when the first round of the Shaman Fight started but there was never a good occasion to use it because his opponents in the first round were either too weak to waste this attack on them or had abilities that could allow them to easily dodge out of it's range.
With a flick of his hand, the replica turned upside down with the tops of all the buildings pointing at the enemy team of shamans.
Crushing someone under a giant construct made out of his wire might not have been the most imaginative usage of his Over Soul but the strength of it couldn't be questioned.
"Atlas Wire Frame!" He shouted as he lifted himself into the air with the wire and pushed the wire copy of the floating city crashing into his enemies.
"Yet another worthless shamans try to block the path of our Iron Maiden." An annoyed voice of an adult man said with a tired sigh just as his wire construct began to fall to the ground.
In the very next moment a loud blast from a gun could be heard as a blinding light came from the forest they left some time ago. It wasn't a normal Dust bullet, it was the activation of an Over Soul.
"W-What!?" he asked out of surprise while looking in the direction from where the light came.
A giant white metallic figure that looked almost holy was flying at him with a long straight sword in one hand and a small shield in another. The power of that figure could be felt by any shaman in the vicinity.
It was one of the strongest spirits he has ever witnessed and it didn't surprise him at all when the metallic figure destroyed his strongest attack with one simple slash as it arrived before him.
It surprised him even less when the spirit was capable of defeating the entire team he was fighting with the same type of attack as well.
"Ugh." He grunted as he fell to the ground without any preparation for landing because of being lost in his amazement.
The spiritual smoke around the battlefield dispersed as the Over Souls of the Sharona's team were all broken. His Over Soul broke the moment his finishing technique was destroyed too so he didn't expect the weaker shamans he was fighting to keep theirs.
With the smoke gone for good he was finally able to clearly see what was going on around him. In front of him the entire team he was fighting was laying on the ground while barely holding onto their consciousness. Luckily, team RWBY was far enough from the attack to come out of the intervention from the unexpected guests, mostly unharmed.
Remembering that someone incredibly powerful was right next to him, he looked to the side with a grunt while slowly standing up from the ground. There, right at the edge of the forest a team of seven clad in white people was slowly walking out of it.
One of them was carefully pushing an ancient torture device made out of pure steel. The man looked like the leader of the group and while he couldn't exactly gauge this guy's strength by simply looking at them, every other member of the white clothed team looked to be following him.
What's the deal with the torture tool? Is it the medium for his Over Soul? He thought to himself when the strong group walked past him.
"Move out of the way." The leader of the group commanded while stopping before team RWBY. "You are standing in the way of our leader and if it were up to me then I would have already dealt with you."
So the man pushing the torture device wasn't the leader. It made him more confused than it helped with figuring out what was the deal with the white clothed group of shamans.
Was the leader perhaps the person inside the torture device?
The threat seemed to be enough for his traveling companions to move away in shock. They weren't shamans so they weren't able to see the huge and powerful spirit floating behind the man but they still could tell that he was strong based on the ease with which he ended their relatively small fight in comparison to the power of that group.
Nobody dared to break the silence that was present before the white clothed shamans left.
"Who were these people?" Yang asked nervously with a loud gulp only to receive no answer from any of them.
He had no idea who they were but he knew one thing, they were strong. Stronger than any opponent he had to face up until this point and possibly strong enough to be considered a threat against Hao.
Though he didn't dare to think of them as that equal to that monster. Nobody was as terrifying as that person.
"Damn, those guys sure are tough." Another voice came out of the forest and everyone of them looked towards it to see a black skinned boy slowly walking out of the woods with his hand in the pockets. "You might even say that they are tough enough to bring an entire city down! Eh!?"
The screams of glee made by the newly arrived boy and Yang were loud enough that the only thing that could be heard aside from them were groans of terror made by everyone else who heard that terrible joke.
The chapter's finished and I'm not sure if I like how it turned out.
I rewrote some of the parts at least three times before I deemed them acceptable and I still think they aren't that good. The short speech from Ruby that i did in the middle took me at least four tries. Maybe it was because I couldn't quite decide on the correct tone on this chapter.
On one hand I wanted to make it somewhat lighthearted because is the beginning of the second arc on the other hand there were some things that I wanted to be more serious with the team RWBY being the focus right after the revelations they had a couple of chapters ago, and all.
I hope that at least it was an enjoyable read for what it was.
Yes, I know that Lily five are anime original characters but in my opinion they are one of the best recurring comedic villains there are. (The only ones I would consider to be straight up better would be the Schrodinger family from Wild Arms 3)
Also if you are wondering, Nora simply pointed in the wrong direction the last chapter.
There will be a small break because of the obvious reasons(Christmas, new yea and stuff) so this will be the last chapter in this year. I will try to update as soon as possible after the holidays but don't expect anything earlier than January 6th.
See ya later, but for now;
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!