Chapter-19
Ruby
"Aw…" Ruby whined as she saw the mission her team had been assigned. "I thought we were going to be assigned somewhere close to the city!"
"Well, I kind of agree with Ruby." Blake spoke. "It would have been more beneficial if we had been assigned somewhere in Vale."
"But there's nothing to be done." Weiss spoke. "We can't get our mission changed considering how stubborn the headmaster can be."
Yang raised an eyebrow. "Ice queen actually called a teacher a name? Has our training session done something to you, Weiss cream?"
Weiss glared. "Shut it, Xiao-Long. But still, I don't know where this 'Cysgod village' is?"
"Oh, it's on the cliffs on Vale's northern shores. Pretty quiet village but due to its proximity to a dust mine, it's actually a very important factor in Vale's indigenous dust supply." Blake replied. "And our assigned huntsmen is…Professor Port?"
Yang cringed as Ruby patted her sister's shoulder in pity, most likely Yang was remembering the time she accidentally saw Professor Port naked. Ruby had never seen her sister so shaken after that little incident.
"But despite his…terrible teaching, maybe Professor Port is a great huntsman?" Ruby asked hopefully.
"That I certainly am!" A loud boisterous voice proclaimed, scaring the four girls as they noticed Professor Port behind them.
"Professor Port!" Ruby exclaimed before realizing he might have heard her comment. "Uh…"
"No matter how much I love teaching the youngsters, I'll always feel right at home hunting grimm."
"Good morning, Team RWBY." A much calmer voice spoke as the girls noticed Ruler walk up beside Port. "Ozpin wants me to accompany you all as well."
Ruby brightened. "Really? Why?" She asked. Ruler was a pretty cool person, especially with those ninja blades he threw.
"Well, Headmaster Ozpin thinks that Port might not be enough to keep you girls in line, henceforth I will also be joining." He spoke as Port frowned at him.
"Yes!" Ruby spoke pumping her fist. At least she was going to be fighting with her second favorite teacher after Professor Saber.
"Well, Ms. Rose, speaking of your behavior, I believe having two chaperones does speak something." Professor Port spoke as the four girl started looking at their shoes.
"But nevermind, I've spent enough time with a reckless man to be used to this." Port spoke.
"Now," Port spoke as the group sat in their bullhead. "I trust you have seen where we are headed?"
"Yep!" Ruby replied. "We're going to Cysgod village on the northern coast of Vale."
"Excellent, I have been there many times, so don't worry about issues of unfamiliarity."
"Really? I don't think you've told us about it, teach." Yang spoke up as Port chuckled. "Yes, I haven't. Well, my teacher used to take me and his other students there to hunt special types of grimm called Shadows when I was young and inexperienced."
"Oh, I know of them. They were said to be capable of moving through shadows and could pop up anywhere when it was nighttime. They said to have gone extinct years ago."
"I know. My mentor was the one who hunted them down to extinction. I personally watched him kill the last Shadow." Port spoke as the four girls' eyes widened. "Your mentor must have been crazy skilled if he could bring an entire species of grimm to extinction." Weiss commented impressed.
Port laughed. "He was the best of his time. Why, the headmaster gave a speech on him at the welcoming ceremony."
"…Wait, Thane the Hunter was your mentor?!" Weiss and Blake shrieked as Ruler looked at Port with a curious expression. Ruby and Yang shared a soft smile, unsurprised by that piece of information.
"He was. But enough of that, I will tell about my time as Thane's student later on. We're getting distracted. Now, Cysgod village is one of those many villages that have been plagued by humanoids that heavily resemble the shadows. Some even started believing that Thane hadn't killed all shadows and some of the surviving ones evolved into a more humanoid shape. Personally, I believe that is not true. From what I observed from the reports, these humanoids are too intelligent to be mutated Shadows."
"Ah, they actually are shadows. Just not Shadow grimm." Ruler spoke up as Port turned to him. "You are…aware of what they are?"
"Yes, they are called shadow servants. Their intelligence is most likely because they are actually humans."
Ruby's eyes widened. "They're…human?"
"Not anymore. Now they are more akin to spirits. So don't be worried about staining your conscience."
"Interesting." Port noted. "Then, these 'shadow servants' have been harassing many of the villages that are near Vale's dust mines. They are stealing dust just like the White Fang was."
Team RWBY exchanged glances, reaching a common conclusion in their heads.
Are these shadow servants working with the white fang?
For Ruby, it kind of made sense. After they were kicked out of Vale by Headmaster Ozpin and Vale's huntsmen, their target would be Vale's dust mines that are at a distance from the city.
"Our mission objective is simple. Find out the intention of these shadow servants and if possible, even route them from the village. They aren't that strong. Even you can defeat them. Any questions?"
"Are only the shadow servants attacking?" Blake asked.
"Actually, while the main force are the shadow servants, there are odd monsters who are helping the shadow servants, acting as assistants and scouts. There are even rumors that grimm are helping these shadow servants who might be being led by a human."
"A human?" Weiss asked. "But how is that possible? Wouldn't the grimm be hostile to them?"
"I do not know, Ms. Schnee, but these are currently rumors. We'll have to see if they are true."
"And if they are?"
Port's face was grave. "Then this mission will be more dangerous than we think."
Cysgod village hadn't changed over the years. There were short and thick stone walls inspired from the old forts of south anima while the inside was a typical town of Vale with its small, spaceous houses. The people still looked easy-going, which would never cease to be impressive considering how much the village has been attacked by grimm.
"It looks…simple." Weiss noted.
"That is Cysgod's charm." Port spoke in a quiet voice, sighing wistfully as he looked at Team RWBY walking in front of him. Walking with them as his students brought back the memory of his own first visit to Cysgod.
Port and Maria Calavera walked behind Thane as they could see the walls of Cysgod village.
"So, why are we here, teach? Cysgod doesn't look anything special." Maria grumbled as Thane grinned looking at them. "Yeah, it doesn't look like that. And that's the catch. In the war times, I was actually sent here to ambush a Mantleian convoy that was supposed to bring supplies to the Vytal front. I also thought this village was pretty simple until the convoy got ambushed by something else."
"Grimm?" Port asked.
"Not just any grimm. Shadows. Sneaky little bastards that can pop out of any dark area and rip your throat out if you're not careful. I got stuck for an entire night in the forest with these guys jumping out of random spots to chomp on my face during my stay in Cysgod. Not a fun experience." Thane spoke cheerfully as Port and Maria shivered.
"Damn it, teach, does anything ever scare you?" Maria asked her teacher in panic, receiving one of his insufferable grins in return.
"Puh-lease, you kids have it easy with the grimm. I've killed nastier stuff than shadows when I was a little kid using only a rusted dagger."
Port looked at Thane as if he was crazy. "You…did what?"
Thane shrugged. "Such was life with my tribe in the coldest corner of Solitas. But anyways, it's pretty obvious that I'm going to show you both how to deal with grimm that don't blow their cover straight away. I've got way too much experience with these things, and I want you two to start learning."
Thane turned away, not noticing Port and Maria collectively gulp behind him as he walked towards the village gates.
At least Team RWBY was less nervous about it compared to him and Maria. But that was because these shadow servants hit head on like the grimm, from what he could make out. They wouldn't sneak up on them like the shadows did.
Port still curses Thane for not just leaving him and Maria to fend off the Shadows but also taking a video of their screaming for blackmailing the both of them. As good of a teacher he was, Thane never resisted performing childish antics on him and Maria.
"So, where are we….?" Ruby asked as Port pointed to a house towering over others in the village. "The headman's house. His name is Onyx Belladonna."
"Uh, Belladonna?" Ruby asked Blake.
"He must have been a staunch supporter of my father's white fang. Many faunuses have changed their family names to Belladonna. It was the reason why I chose to keep Belladonna."
"Onyx was a young headman when I visited Cysgod with Thane.
"Mr. Port?" A voice spoke as the group noticed a 12-year-old girl wearing a maroon dress walk up to them. Port's eyes twinkled as he recognized the little girl from his last visit.
"Hello, Orchid. You've become quite the young girl." Port spoke in a warm voice as he embraced her. "How is your mother?"
"She's fine, Mr. Port!" Orchid spoke excitedly. "Are you here to deal with the grimm?"
"Why yes, Orchid." Port spoke ruffling her hair before turning to the students. "This is Orchid. Her grandfather used to be the owner of the inn Thane frequented in his visits to Cysgod and since then, I have a close friendship with Orchid's family. Orchid, these are my students and a colleague."
Team RWBY gave their introductions as Orchid smiled brightly. "Wow, you're so lucky to be Mr. Port's students! He's such an amazing huntsman."
Ruby laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, he is." She spoke with a hint of nervousness before noticing Orchid staring at her emblem.
"It's the same as his…" She muttered.
Port laughed as he patted Orchid's back. "You also could be my student in a few more years. Have you given thought to joining Pharos?"
Orchid nodded. "Mother is going to take me there for my admissions."
"Excellent! I'll be looking forward to seeing you in Beacon academy in 5 years!" Port spoke. "I'll talk to you later. I must go visit Onyx."
"Oh of course! I won't keep you waiting!" Orchid spoke before waving goodbye and walking off.
"She was a nice girl!" Port heard Ruby tell her team.
"She was staring at your emblem, Ruby." Weiss pointed out.
"Well, she has a good reason for that." Ruby spoke, refusing to elaborate further.
Ruler came up beside Port. "I suppose she idolizes you?"
"She does, but not as much as she does my teacher Thane." Port replied. "After all, Thane had generously donated her grandfather a sum of money to take care of her family's troubles for a few generations. Despite his rather uneasy reputation, Thane had a heart of gold as a person."
The group soon reached Onyx's house. Port rung the bell as a ram faunus with two horns sticking out and a long grey beard running down from his chin came out.
"Peter." Onyx spoke warmly as he and Port embraced each other. "It's been 2 years since we last met. I am honestly disappointed that you didn't respond to my invitations."
Port smiled sheepishly. "Well, my friend, I'm no longer the free-spirited huntsman I used to be. I'm constantly bogged down by work as a teacher. This is the first time we meet and even then it's because of my job."
Onyx shook his head smiling. "Yes…come in." He spoke ushering them in.
"Woah…this is actually pretty neat." Yang spoke looking at the wooden walls that had black banners on them. A stair case lead to the upper floors with two couches in the middle of the room.
Team RWBY sat on one couch while Port, Ruler and Onyx sat on the other couch.
"So, about those grimm…"
"They are not grimm." Ruler spoke up. "They are what you call shadow servants. Intelligent humanoid spirits."
Onyx's jaw clenched. "Ah, I see. I guess I never really asked Tristan what they were alongside those 'knockers' as he termed them…"
"Tristan?" Ruler spoke perking up. "As in, red hair, wearing armor and wields a bow?"
Onyx nodded. "Yes, that is how he looks like. Do you know him?"
"Not know him personally, but I do know of his name." Ruler spoke. "Is he here?"
"Hm, no. Tristan's actually not present in the village right now. He's gone with some of the retired huntsmen to deal with some agitations to the west of the village. He should be back in some time."
"I see."
"Have they done anything bad?" Ruby asked as Onyx shook his head. "No…they have attacked the village. But the shadow servants are not that big of a threat so their numbers are usually not enough to overcome our defenses."
"And how much dust have they stolen?"
"They actually haven't for some days." Onyx spoke. "Initially, they had snuck in and raided our warehouse, stealing lots of dust. But after three raids, they'd completely stopped. That was when the full-scale attacks on the village began."
"So their goal must have changed." Port spoke. "What time do they attack?"
"Random. They can attack in the afternoon, at midnight, or even now." Onyx spoke before the group heard faint sounds of yelling. "And that indicates they have decided to attack in the latter time."
"Wait, the shadow servants are attacking already?!" Ruby exclaimed as Onyx nodded. "My guards are all retired huntsmen so don't worry about me. Go and help fend off the attack."
"Got it!" Ruby spoke as Port loaded Blowhard. "Alright, Team RWBY! This is the first fight of your assignment. I will be grading you even while you're fighting."
Yang slumped. "Even in a field trip…"
"Not the time to sulk, young lady! Get moving!" Port spoke as the group went out of Onyx's house.
"The attack's coming from two fronts. The eastern wall and the front gates. The eastern one seems to be meant for diverting our forces so Ruler, go there and help the defenders. Team RWBY, you all and I will go to the front gates!" Port ordered as Ruler unsheathed his Katana and ran off.
Ruby felt pumped with nervous excitement. Not an hour after they landed at Cysgod and they were already fighting bad guys!
They ran towards the gates, where several of Cysgod's militia engaged the shadow, who were covered in black smoke that hid their features.
"Reinforcements are here!" Professor Port bellowed as he dashed towards a bunch of shadow servants before bringing down his axe on the ground, creating a massive shockwave that sent shadow servants flying back.
Ruby and the others stared at their professor in shock.
"Ok…Professor Port is a lot faster than he looks." Yang commented before the girls noticed two shadow servants come up, one wielding a spear and the other a sword.
"Alright! Whiterose gets the spear and Bumblebee gets the sword!" Ruby yelled as the girls split into two pairs to engage the servants. The shadow servant charged at them with their spear.
Weiss swung Myrtenaster to create a path of ice, freezing the servant's legs. Ruby skated on the ice before firing Crescent Rose to propel herself towards the servant. A moment of hesitation passed through her before she shook it off.
They're not human…Ruby thought as crescent rose cut through the servant, the spirit dissolving as their body fell in two halves. Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby noticed the other servant stab their sword at blake, only for blake to activate her semblance and create an ice clone, trapping the servant to get hit with a punch from Yang that sent them tumbling before dissolving.
"Ruby! Duck!" She heard Weiss yell as she ducked under an arrow whizzing over her head, looking up to see another shadow servant with a bow. The servant fired off more arrows, which Ruby dodged by dashing in a zigzag motion before swinging Crescent Rose at the servant. The servant blocked the strike with their bow and twisted it, trying to kick Ruby away. Ruby jumped up, flying over the servant before firing crescent rose to yank it out of the archer's grip and cut their head off.
Ruby landed before noticing another servant in a cloak with a dagger raise their dagger to stab her before a loud sound of a projectile sounded as the servant's head exploded.
"Be careful, Ms. Rose!" Ruby heard Professor Port exclaim as he blocked the swing of a sword-wielding servant before smashing his head against theirs, the sheer force of Professor Port's headbutt blowing the servant's head off.
Then, seven dagger-wielding servants lunged at him.
"PROFESSOR PORT!" Team RWBY screamed.
"HAHA!" Port laughed before swinging Blowhard in a wide arc, cutting the seven servants in half with one swing.
"Take that, you knockoff shadows!" He exclaimed, not noticing the shocked expressions of Team RWBY as he continued to tear through the shadow servants.
"Get him!" The shadow servants exclaimed as they started focusing on Port, but the old huntsman did not seem to care and continued cutting down any servants that came close to him.
"Help Professor Port!" Ruby yelled at the others as they joined the fray. It felt like hours as Ruby swung Crescent Rose in wide arcs to cut down the servants, Weiss froze them, Blake shot and trapped them with her clones while Yang smashed them into smithereens.
Ruby was breathing heavily as the horde of shadow servants were now thinned to a few, a thin layer of sweat on her forehead. But she still had energy to fight.
"There's a few more…" Ruby spoke as Professor Port raised Blowhard to fire, before the servants collapse, something hitting them in the heads as their corpses dissolved.
Team RWBY and Port looked to the right to noticed a man with white armor with a white cape wielding a spike bow with multiple bowstrings. His long hair was dyed red and his eyes were closed in a serene expression.
"It seems I was a little late." The man spoke. "Greetings huntsmen, I am Tristan, protector of Cysgod."
A/N: And so begins the Cysgod arc. Considering I actually made the Wendigo arc only about Sigurd going and killing the Wendigo, I have plans for making this arc a little bit longer. And yep, Port is Thane's student. I want to give Thane some impact in the story and not just be a filler for the events in the great war. I'll be slowly adding more and more information about Thane's life as the story progresses. At the end of Volume-3, there's going to be a big reveal about Thane.
Also, I think now my story has a scroll bar, yay!
Hope you guys enjoyed and constructive criticism is appreciated!
Response to Reviews:
Maglad: Long time no see, buddy. Yes, this chapter was meh, I was expecting nothing less. As for me being a gynophobe, there being no female servants on the side of the heroes is a coincidence. I frankly don't pay attention to the gender of the servants I put in and if my servant happens to be female, then I'll write their interactions accordingly. I'll again state this in different words - This is my story, and I have my reasons for why I put in the servants. Gender variety is not one of them, and I do not care if things like this happen. If you think I'm a gynophobe, go ahead. Your opinions don't affect me and my life in the slightest. I don't want to be rude to a reviewer, so I'll ignore this little incident. I'm just hoping we can move past this and continue this nice interaction like we always have.
As for everything happening at Cysgod, I did say in the chapter it's not the only village being harassed. It's special for other reasons since I want every arc to have some relevance to the plot and not happen for no reason.
Just a little warning, another female antagonist's coming up. I'll stick to my reasoning for introducing servants, but if you really want it, I promise the next servant on the hero's side is going to be female. There, are you satisfied?