Back again it seems, and on a scheduled time. Hope you enjoy. Leave a review or PM if you have anything to say about or for the story. I am always looking for interesting powers Darren can use.
"It's just not working for me Darren." Weiss said frustrated as white sparks flew formlessly from her palm. It had been a few days since the dance, and that was the night Weiss had requested me to teach her in runes.
The little stunt Ruby had pulled when she went after Cinder had blown over after questioning from both Ironwood and Ozpin. She told us what she could, and that they eventually believed her, though apprehensively. The footage in the room 'mysteriously, was corrupted beyond recognition.
Just a few hours after the following morning Cinder messaged my scroll with the intricate parts of her plan to destroy Beacon, who was in on it. When I asked who was overseeing her operations here, she assured me that I would never meet them, and it was best to leave well enough alone. I let the question drop, knowing full well I could torture the information out of her at my leisure.
"That's because you are trying to make them, Weiss." I told her. "Glyphs are different from Runes in the fact that you fuel, influence, and create them. In rune-work, the shapes are already set, and the force already around you. You can only be a conduit in this, and allow the natural flow of things to benefit you." I explained. A purple rune with a sparking body refined itself in my palm, it was force.
I aimed the rune towards Weiss and she held her hands up as she was pushed back a few inches before I dissipated it. "I did not create the rune, nor did I supply any aura to it. I called to it, and made myself a focus for force to act upon." I finished. She sighed. Of course it was hard for her. The entire understanding in her mind and body contradicted what I was telling her to do.
She had understood the basics of rune-work quite quickly. Weiss pulled in the information that there were four elements and three forces that were combined to create the first of the rudimentary runes. We would get to the other two elements and forces, as well as the dozens upon dozens of actions that she must learn to do.
Her memory helped her well because in order to create a rune, you had to have the image of what you wanted cemented in her mind. She could understand the thinking, but the doing was tough.
"Try again." I said to her. She closed her eyes once again and focused. "Do not reach to your aura. Reach around you. Understand force in its entirety. It is not a command or created aspect, but a constant. It will happen with or without you." I said, guiding her mind.
Weiss exhaled deeply as her body relaxed. When focusing I could see her aura dimming as it was no longer being used. Further it cooled until it hardened in the shape of her body just underneath the skin. A few white sparks flew from her palm as the heiress forced her mind to accept the different direction.
"Do not force it. Call for it. Ask force to work with you. Guide it as if it is a river forming a canyon, and you simply want to turn the direction." I kept up my guidance. Her fingers twitched as a brief outline of a circle flashed with a short shower in her outstretched hand.
Weiss' eyes scrunched as her mind fixated upon creating the rune. She was overcoming her habits fast for a beginner. The sparks flying from her hand got dimmer and more constant as the seconds ticked by. Finally, after a few minutes of intense concentration, the symbol of force solidified on her palm and the circle around it began to spin.
"More. Focus on me." I said. She opened her eyes and stared at me like a target as she ever-so-slowly moved her arm towards me. I felt a pressure on my chest that grew as the circle in her palm sped up in rotations, throwing sparks to the edges.
From two tangent points of the circle formed beams of light that reached back onto her wrist and formed another circle. She had accidentally create a runic reinforcement, something that strengthens the output of the rune so that the power moving through it will not shatter the symbol.
The inexperienced heiress pushed her arm further and unconsciously moved her hand in turn with the rune's rotation. The force moving towards me increased dramatically and I dug the front of my feet in to keep balance.
"That's perfect. Now dissipate it." I ordered her. She narrowed her eyes in concentration as the sparks around her hand flickered red a few times. "Hold on, I want to try something." She said.
I crossed my arms and watched. The runic reinforcement gained another level that formed a slate. I had taught her that when a reinforcement turned into a slate, it allowed for the proper additional runes to be added that could create combinations. The slates carved swirling fire runes and the entirety of her construct burned red.
She very nearly screamed when a huge plume of red fire exited the rune in a violent rush, creating a heat storm coming towards me. I was only a twenty feet away.
I had not expected her to even be able to create something that complicated on her first successful rune summon. Despite that I quickly summoned my own runes, combining force into push and burst, adding in the element of ice. A deep purple and blue construct formed around my hand.
A blue streak of energy impacted through the very fast firestorm and pushed towards her palm. I crushed the rune and activated the by-product. Just before the fire reached me the flames were pushed outwards and extinguished in every direction. Weiss grunted and held her hand which almost definitely had frostbite. Shards of floating ice were flittering around the room.
"Ow…" She simply said, trying to rub heat back into her palm. Her aura was slow to respond again to heal the frozen flesh after being pushed down so much. I walked over calmly.
"Now that was just stupid. You need to think about what your runes will do before you use them. If it wasn't me there you could have seriously hurt someone." I told her. Not that I would mind.
"I know! I… I'm sorry." She said. I was surprised. It seemed embarrassing herself quelled the normally feisty and prickly personality she had.
"Don't be sorry. Be better." I told her. She nodded and sighed, giving her hand one final squeeze.
"I think that's enough for today. It's mission assignment day, so Ruby probably wants to talk to us all about it. We should go." She said. I shrugged and walked to the door, her close behind. It was an almost silent walk down the hall until Weiss broke it.
"Are there any runes for healing?" She asked.
"Advanced energy and aura manipulation. Dangerous but plausible. You basically force someone's aura to work harder than it should, but you run the risk of obliterating or over-taxing their aura. I wouldn't try it." I told her.
"Oh. What about time dilation?" Weiss said.
"Of all the elements and powers that runes can focus, time is not one of them. " I explained.
"Summoning?"
I sighed and stopped. "Since when did you ask as many questions as Ruby?" I inquired.
"Since I didn't know anything about this." She answered, her hands on her hips. I sighed and continued walking.
"Animated constructs are too complicated for you right now. If you want to summon, I would work on using your glyphs to do it." I answered her again. She didn't get a chance to ask any more as we arrived at the door and walked in.
At the same time we ran into Yang you was carrying a container normally used to send scrolls (the old kind) or important documents. She waved to us and Weiss asked what she was carrying.
"It's a package from home. Ruby's been needing a cheer up after her meeting with Ironwood and Ozpin. Our dad messaged me about this not long ago so I went to pick it up. I don't know what it is yet." She explained, slipping a key into the lock and opening up. Ruby was sitting at the desk with a disassembled Crescent Rose so she could sharpen the blade. Blake was reading.
"Hey sis, look what III gooot." Yang said in a sing-song voice. I sat down onto the bed and started to review once again over Cinder's notes. Ruby freaked out for a bit over a package from home until I heard an odd thunk and saw a black roll fall to the floor out of the corner of my eye.
Normally this would not get my attention, but the roll of material jumped with a noise and I put my scroll down. Everyone else leaned over the roll as it popped open and a dog appeared on its feet. Blake jumped away and onto the bed while Ruby cheered.
"Zwie!" She yelled, likely the dog's name.
"Peculiar." I said in partial shock.
"Your father sent a dog!" Blake yelled.
"In the mail?!" Weiss questioned. Yang and Ruby simply acted as if this was a common occurrence and read a note. It said that the father of the two had to take care of the animal for a while as he was busy on a mission.
Weiss tried to act defiant and hate the dog, but she broke within seconds and fawned over it just like the two sisters. "Inside is all the food you should need." Yang read, and shook the can. About 50 cans fell out onto the floor.
"Oh now they're just fucking with me." I decided, and went back to reading my scroll. I heard a clunk and a can opener fell out, but I ignored it in favor of the announcement voice.
"Would all students please report to the amphitheater." It called out in Glynda's voice. I closed my messages and left the room to go see what all the noise was about. Yang, Weiss, and Blake followed me while Ruby grabbed a few last things.
When we got to the announcement room Glynda was standing above students from all four schools and waiting for the last of the people to trickle in. Ruby arrived behind us and placed a back-pack in the furniture area and we stood at attention.
"Before we begin, our Headmaster Ozpin has a few words to say." Glynda announced. She walked off and the old man took the microphone.
"Today we stand together, united. Mistral, Atlas, Vacuo, Vale. The four kingdoms of Remnant. On this day, nearly eighty years ago, the largest war in recorded history came to an end." He started, and that's where I stopped.
The old man was creating a dramatic and melancholic atmosphere by explaining how the Great War changed customs and tradition. Then he inspired us by explaining that it was up to huntresses and huntsman to keep these safe, while everyone else celebrated peace.
Everyone clapped and dispersed once he finished, and we decided to undertake a Search and Destroy mission in the South-East. This way we could get experience during the day and do our own investigating at night.
We very quickly ran into a problem when Ruby entered the team name into the keypad and we got beeped at, telling us that the mission was unavailable for first years. "Any other ideas?" Weiss asked.
Ruby went to speak but I beat her to it. "How about we, and follow me on this, go there anyway." I suggested.
"Well that's hardly amenable." Ozpin's voice said from behind me. I held my subtle surprise that he had sneaked up on us, even with all the noise of other teams.
"Unfortunately we determined the density of Grimm in the area to be too dangerous for first year students. It seems that particular region is very popular with the Grimm." He said. Ruby looked downcast as he continued.
"Now, it's certainly obvious that you will manage to make your way there anyways. I'm interested to see how you really managed to learn about a hideout in the South-East, and I'm even more curious as to why witnesses placed giant robots and explosions near a dance club not so long ago." Ozpin said with a very knowing voice. Yang slightly winced at the memory. Even now she had to be careful with her training to re-open the wound. She had almost been living off over-the-counter pain meds.
"I doubt I'll ever get the answers I'm looking for, so how about this. Instead of waiting for you all to break the rules, why don't we just bend them? A first year team with an extra member should more than match up to second year." Ozpin said, and clicked a few buttons on his scroll. A loud beeping filled the screen in front of us before his obvious override let us have the mission.
"Thank you professor, we won't let you down." Ruby said.
"Do not thank me for this. Simply prepare yourself for the dangers that come outside of the protection of the kingdoms. Stay close to your huntsman at all times. He can and will send you back if he finds your abilities lacking." The headmaster finished advising and left us.
"This is great. We can finally get deep into the field to investigate." Ruby cheered.
"Yeah! And we get to fight some Grimm along the way." Yang added.
"Alright, let's get to our bullhead before the old man changes his mind." I told them. Weiss looked taken back by my comment.
"Old man!?" Weiss said while giving me a wide-eyed and judging look. I simply smiled as we left the building and went to the herd of Bullheads waiting.