Blake was trudging along the hallway she escaped down, taking a laboring breath every few steps while doing so. She was trying to take things easy, while also being in a hurry. Now that she wasn't being binded and tortured, she could focus on replenishing her Aura.
She was still worried about that girl from before. She went through the hassle of setting her free, then told her to run away so she could face Melanthia alone.
Blake clenched her fist. That left a seriously bitter taste in her mouth, but she had no choice. She was useless in a fight as she was now, until she properly recovered.
Ringing began assaulting her ears as she clutched her head. "Nngh..."
'You've done well. Truly, you have. We appreciate all you've done. But alas, we regret to inform you that we've reached the ideal stage. The Belladonna's are no longer necessary.'
Blake gritted her teeth as she forced herself to keep walking, despite the fact that the room before her felt like it was spinning all over.
'Really, did you seriously think this would end any other way? That's quite naïve of you. Unfortunate for you to be so gullible. What you want, is unfortunately not within our desires. Your desires are not important, and never were.'
She grunted as she staggered along, trying to ignore the voices, and the ringing in her ears. But both were ruthlessly persistent in pestering her, and interfering with her ability to focus.
'A naïve, pampered girl like yourself would have never lasted long, so there's no need to blame yourself. You're just another piece to be thrown aside when done with. It's a natural process, nothing to be emotional over.'
She nearly stumbled over several times, as she took a brief right turn, making her way down the pathway. There was something she needed to retrieve, and she'd be able to make best use of it once she took an adequate enough breather to be in fighting condition. Enough to make a difference.
'Your father got the idea of his White Fang from the whispers of the REAL one. We considered his a cute pet project, but now it's time for it to end, to make way for the one that truly matters. We DID find some good recruits from the trial, though. Adam Taurus has been one of the most promising additions we've had in years. We appreciate you nurturing him for us.'
"Damn it..." Blake hissed as the room began spinning faster, and the room began to dim, until she loses her balance and began her fall into the floor.
She ended up being caught before that could happen, before she felt her arm being slung around a shoulder.
"Blake Belladonna."
The cat Faunus slowly lifted her head to meet the owner of the voice. The first thing she managed to catch was the young woman's brown eyes, then the pair of rabbit ears atop her head. These two things were more than enough to give her an idea as to who she was currently dealing with.
This must be that 'Velvet' Ruby was talking about.
"You know my name."
"There aren't many Faunus who don't know your family name." Velvet began carrying her along, making their way down the hallway ahead of them. "I didn't think you of all people would be here. Suffering alongside ever other Faunus here. That's definitely not something I expected, even with everything I learned before I actually saw you." Velvet muttered, as she caught up to the group of Faunus that she was helping to escape. Once they all caught wind of her, Velvet was surprised by the reactions.
"Miss Belladonna!"
"Blake!"
"Thank goodness you're alright!"
Blake was briefly surprised to see them as well, though she managed a small nod of relief, glad that they seemed to be on their way to escaping. She assumed that Velvet had something to do with this. She winced as Velvet gently helped her sit down, with their fellow Faunus on lookout to make sure that no one was following or listening in on them. If so, they were to tell Velvet immediately.
"Alright, we're taking a breather to let everyone rest. I've been busy helping free most of the Faunus here." Velvet explained as her ear twitched, alos listening out for any approaching signs of trouble. In the meantime, she sits herself in front of Blake. "What happened to you, Blake?"
Blake's ears flickered slightly, before she raised her head to look at Velvet. "You'll have to be more specific. Plenty of things happened to me."
Velvet scratched her cheek a bit, before shaking her head. "What I mean is, what's the series of events that led you all the way here?"
Blake hesitantly looked away from Velvet, her ears folding back slightly. "I... don't think I can tell you everything."
Velvet sighed, lightly scratching the back of her head. Fair enough, she thought. Fellow Faunus or not, she couldn't expect her to just be freely open about her experiences. Especially given what she's been witnessing here.
"At most, I can tell you this. I've only been in this town for several weeks. Four at the most." Blake admitted, and several other Faunus nodded and murmured in confirmation.
"Several weeks? Where have you been beforehand?"
Blake lowered her head. "Let's just say...I've been in these kinds of situations before. In these kinds of places, being forced to fight for my life. With collars like that around my throat and limbs, being paraded around like some kind of domesticated animal..." Blake closed her head. "I've had to endure this for five years."
Five years?! It was inane how Blake has seemingly endured conditions similar to this one for five years. But if it's true that this wasn't the first place she's been to, then she's been experiencing this as she's been passed around from place to place, being subjected to much of the same thing.
Velvet recalled something else. Five years.
That's about the amount of time when the White Fang turned for the sinister, and Menagerie was no more. But she didn't believe Blake was going to indulge in those two aspects right here and now, so she didn't ask, pocketing those questions for later. What she learned currently was more than enough, she wanted to avoid pressing her too much.
"But I will say this: This is the first time I've been in a situation where someone was putting Faunus through all of this. Mutilating Faunus and feeding them to Grimm..." Blake's ears frizzled in feral anger. "None of the places I've been to were kind, but this is a new level of despicable. Melanthia must be stopped." Blake shook her head. "Ruby helped me escape her clutches, and is currently holding her off, just for me to get away."
Velvet nearly had a double-take. "Wait, Ruby's fighting Melanthia?! Alone?!"
Blake had a feeling Velvet would react like that. She didn't exactly feel great about it either. "She was buying time for me to escape. We have to keep going and free all of the other Faunus." Blake stood up and made her way towards a nearby closet within the room, with her back to everyone. "I'll need a change of clothes, first. I can't fight in these tattered rags."
"Hold on, you're being a bit hasty! Slow down a b-"
Velvet turned towards her, them sputtered as Blake casually removes and then tosses aside the tattered clothes that barely covered her as is, and she felt as if steam blew out of her ears once she realized Blake wasn't clothed underneath them. She yelped as she turned around while covering her eyes, face completely red. Most of the other quickly Faunus did the same, even though a select few young males were reluctant to look away.
Never mind the implication that these people never bothered to grace Blake with proper clothes, didn't surprise her too much due to most of the other imprisoned Faunus being in similar states, but she had nothing underneath? And yet she didn't even flinch at tossing aside what little she had. Not a second thought to be had. She wondered if Blake's experiences had something to do with it.
"There has to be something in here that'll fit me well enough." She overheard Blake mutter as she was rummaging through several things, with her ears folded downwards.
"A-Are you done?" Velvet asked awkwardly, keeping to facing the opposite direction. Blake's ears soon flicked back up.
"Ah, this looks like a decent enough fit." Velvet then heard a bit more rustling, the sound of Blake slipping her arms and legs into something, and the sound of a zipper being pulled upwards. "Okay, I think this will do for now."
Velvet uncovered her eyes as she turned around to see if was finished.
Blake took the time to look herself over. She seemed to wear a white v-neck, zip up crop shirt, and black pants with vertical grey stripe on the outer side of each leg, and was held up by a black belt. She nodded quietly. "Nn. This will do."
Velvet smiled awkwardly. It wasn't too bad, but her shirt wasn't able to fully zip, leaving a bit of her generous cleavage exposed, and short enough to bare her midriff. And her pants were rather figure hugging, especially around her rear. She didn't seem to mind, though, given how content she looked even with her aloof expression.
"Right, I think I've managed to recover enough to stand on my own." Blake stood up a bit, her feline ears flicking into attention. Velvet again noticed the damaged one on her right. It seems she could still hear fine with it, but seeing at how mangled it looked gave Velvet more than a bit of distress.
"Alright, if that will be all, we have to get back to Ruby straight away!"
"Wait. These Faunus still need to escape to above ground." Blake reminded herself and Velvet as they turned towards their fellow Faunus, seeing how confused and concerned they were about the situation. "They shouldn't remain here any longer. They've endured enough torment in this horrid place under Melanthia's hands."
Velvet agreed. Goodness did she agree, especially after getting a look at everything for herself. But leaving Ruby alone with someone as dangerous as Melanthia doesn't suit well with her. On the other hand, leaving these Faunus alone while there were still enemies about was not a wise idea. It was regrettable and would leave her quite worried, but they had to come first. Not to mention, she still has to worry about Yang and Weiss holding off the Grimm outside.
Things have gone crazy in such a short amount of time, but sitting around pondering will only waste it. She needed to decide on her course of action, quickly.
"Alright. First we'll get all of these people out of here." Velvet reluctantly decided. "If you're serious about it, are you willing to help me with that?"
"Of course. The sooner we do, the sooner we can go back to help Ruby." Blake agreed as both of them tended to the Faunus group.
Both the Faunus girl's ears flicked as they heard something.
"Stay here. I think more are coming." Velvet shushed everyone, before she and Blake stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind them. It was then that they looked towards their opposition.
"Blake?! You escaped?!" One of them gasped in complete and utter surprise, eyes widened. "How the hell did you escape?!"
"Probably because you all aren't that vigilant." Blake deadpanned, her aloofness not caring a smidge. Velvet couldn't help but snicker, just a little bit.
They shook off their shock, before readying their weapons. "Doesn't matter! You and all the other Faunus are going back in your cages!"
"Unlikely. But please, do try your best. You'll get a passing grade for effort. Failing grade for, well, pretty much everything else."
Their annoyance grew. So she believed that she can sass them this much just because she somehow managed to get free? That wasn't going to fly with them.
"I'll deal with her." The crowd dispersed, and someone stepped forward, one of the women that carried an aura more imposing than all the others. "Cats are always being disobedient, acting like they're the owners of whatever house they occupy."
"I would have loved to leave this horrid place, and preferably take all of the Faunus with me, but you refused to let me leave." Blake deadpans.
The woman scoffed before she takes something out of her pocket, and lightly held it up in front of her.
A black bow.
"Before we do this, at least place this in your head. You'd look a lot cuter that way in it while you're being beaten black and blue." She lightly tilted her head. "We'll make it more agonizing, this time. You'll learn to be a good little kitty and not claw at your owners."
Blake narrowed her eyes, her catlike pupils focusing. "Nobody owns me. No one."
The woman sighed. "If that's how you prefer this."
With this, the crowd charged forth with their weapons drawn. "Velvet. Let me handle this." Blake requested quietly. Velvet narrowed her eyes, but didn't ague as she stood close to the door where the recently freed Faunus were.
Meanwhile, Blake stepped forward. Velvet's eyes widened in surprise as Blake walked and simply allowed the first person in front of her to land a critical blow.
Or would have, if they didn't just hit an afterimage.
Their eyes widened in shock as they hit nothing, while Blake appeared behind them and kicked them upside the head, nothing them into the ground. She pushed forward and knees another one in the gut, flipping over them and kicking another in the face, sending them flying into their accomplices.
One of them tried to swing their weapon down on her, and she again vanished in a blur left behind, and felt their face smashed into the ground from the force of her hand. Most of the others were surprised by how sudden it was. She slowly lifted her head towards the others, lightly pushing her hair away from her face, which still had a calmly aloof expression across it.
She seemed bored.
"You're not taking us seriously, are you?! You think you're all that just because you're free now!?"
"You've the audacity to beat and bloody me, including the other Faunus, when we were in no position to retaliate." Blake slowly stands up and scoffs. "Sorry if I don't find that intimidating in the slightest. You can hurt someone when they're restrained, but complain once they can fight back. That doesn't sound pathetic to you?"
The response to her question was met with weapons angrily being fired at her. She sighed as she dashed forth, briefly vanishing in a blur. They were confused by her sudden disappearance, before she reappeared over their heads, smashing her knee into one of their faces. They quickly attempted to quickly pile upon her, though she again vanished in a blur and was pushed forward, kicking two across the face, stepping on the shoulder of another and kicking the one directly behind them.
She landed on her feet as a good chunk of them went down. She raised her head toward the leader, who chuckled as there was still quite a bit more behind her. She didn't seem all that worried, but still, neither did Blake.
"You seem to be carrying yourself quite confidently, despite your ability basically amounting to dodging danger while a clone takes the hit." She grinned with a laugh. "If that's the best you can do then we don't have much to worry about in the long run!"
Blake's hair briefly hid her eyes for a moment, before she stands up fully. "It's true. My Semblance, 'Shadow', allowed me to leave a copy of myself to take hits while I run away." Blake began walking forward. "But here's the thing. For five years, I've been forced to fight for my life. On a majority of those occasions, I was left with nowhere to run. In order to stay alive against the increasing danger against me, I had to think outside the box."
"Huh?"
"When a cornered animal has nowhere else to run, what do you think it will do? It will fight." Blake muttered as she stalked forward. The shadows seemed to be moving towards her, and towards her hand. "I've had five years to fight for my life. That means five years to think of the best ways to survive against the odds. And once I turned to my Semblance, I remembered something incredible, yet simple. Words. They can give you strength."
"What are you talking about?"
"There's a reason why your boss kept me so close and so weak. It's so I wouldn't be able to use my creativity, which my soul will turn into power. With that in mind, let me ask you all something: How much do you think one can draw out of the word 'Shadow'?"
Blake's hand slowly raised to the side, and everyone, including Velvet, as the shadows gathered around Blake's hand, until they darkened, and extended.
It was a claw made entirely of shadows. Blake raised her head, her amber catlike eyes glowing slightly, focused on her current prey.
"Shadow 'Clone' is just how I started out. Shall I show you some more?"
They were surprised by the claw, which Blake took advantage of. She slashed the claw downwards and watched as it rends the hallway in front of her, scattering her enemies in their frantic attempts to avoid the attack. She took advantage of their brief disarray via dashing right towards them and slashing some of them with the shadowy claw, sending them hurtling into the ground.
One of them tried to swing their weapon towards her, only to be astonished as she vanished in a blur again, leaving a clone behind; they were met with a swift kick to the back of the head, which was also infused with a shadowy aura. She heard several shots go off, with an after image left in her wake as she closed the distance between them and again shadows surrounded her hand, slashing the reformed claw horizontally as the attack send them all hurtling down the hallway, incapacitated in a matter of moments.
Blake took a breath, turning towards the leader, who was baffled at the entire display. She gasped as she took something out from behind her and held the weapon towards her.
"S-Stay back, you beast!"
Blake sighed, shaking her head as she walked towards her. "I do believe that's mine. Gambol Shroud. Please return it."
"Not a c-" She was immediately cut off by a darkened punch to the face, making her drop the weapon as she slammed into the wall. Blake caught the weapon in question and hummed with a nod. She soon dashed to the woman and held the blade across her neck, stunning her scared. "Eep!"
"Do you see now? The only reason you all were able to push me around was because your boss was smart enough to keep me restrained. To keep me weak so I couldn't escape on my own." Blake lowered her eyes halfway, tilting her head her eyes glowing in the dark. "Now that I'm no longer either of those things, are you really surprised by how this turned out?"
"W-Wait! Please don't kill me!"
Blake narrowed her eyes. "I wonder how many Faunus said those exact words, which you and your posse laughed off. Quite frankly, I have no reason to treat you any better." Blake sighed as she removed the blade from her neck. "Except for the fact that I'd rather not waste the energy."
The woman sighed with relief. "S-So you're letting me g-"
Blake kicked her in the face again, this time denting the wall behind her. She walked away as the woman fell to the ground face first, and very much knocked out.
Velvet blinked in surprise at the whole ordeal as her fellow Faunus walked up to her. Shaking her head, she regained focus. "Alright then, a path ahead has been cleared. Let's get all of these Faunus out of here, then we're coming back for Ruby."
"Nh." Blake nodded in agreement, as they both hurriedly proceeded with their operation. Though before she left, she grabbed the bow that the female had taunted her with. Tilting her head, she let it drop, before slicing it to pieces. She turned and kept walking away, sheathing her blade.
She always hated that bow.
Ruby narrowed her eyes towards her enemy, her cheek wound briefly ignored as her Aura tended to it. Red and Black rose petals filled the whole room as she glared heatedly at Melanthia, who gazed back with a small smile, hear spear made of those same black petals.
"You're picking a losing battle to fight, girl. You know how this is going to end, surely." Melanthia smirked with her head tilted. "Why even bother trying?"
"You know exactly why." Ruby retorted bluntly, eyes remaining sharply focused on her.
"Well then, if that's really how it's going to be, then bring it. Let's see how far your current decision takes you."
Ruby took her up on that. She dashed towards Melanthia in a stream of rose petals and punched straight at her head. She raised her spear and blocked the punch, the impact causing a crater to surge around them, concrete particles shooting upwards around them.
Likely knowing what came next, Ruby backed off with a jump, multiple black petal spikes shooting up from the ground again. Jumping around to avoid several of them seeking to strike her, she briefly managed to dash around a particularly large one right in front of her, dodging and sliding her feet across the ground with a start. Taking a breath, she took off with a start.
Melanthia smirked as the black petal spear in her hand levitated a bit, before multiple ones manifested around it, and shot towards the oncoming stream of red roses.
Ruby's eyes stayed focused towards Melanthia as she dodges one spear after another, briefly bobbing and weaving, even sliding right under a dozen of them that goes over her head. By the time she was upright again, she had closed the distance between them. Melanthia's eyes widened as Ruby clenched her fist tightly, and it rockets upwards with a vicious uppercut to her jaw.
Ruby was soon barely able to dodge past the surprise spike that nearly shot through her side, watching it pierce into the ceiling as she skidded back again. Melanthia stepped back slightly as she rubbed her jaw.
The black petals surrounded she'd briefly, before swirling around her hand and forming another shape. Ruby's eyes narrowed as they eventually finished, with Melanthia grabbing into it. It appeared to be a sword. Swirling around it, hundreds upon thousands of black petals swarmed around her in a sinister manner, seemingly moving at her command.
She swung her sword downwards as the black petals rained down upon Ruby. She quickly dashes out of the way, multiple black petals projected her away in an attempt to attack her. Though several of them, to many of them, homed in on her as she tried to dash away.
Ruby was surprised by this, with a wall of black petals shot upwards right in front of her. She was forced to stop and jump upwards as the shadows black rose petals shot into the wall. Though from behind, a pillar of those same petals shot out and slammed into Ruby's back before she had a chance to avoid it.
With a pained cry, Ruby was knocked down and across the ground, skidding to a stop, facedown. Melanthia laughed at her as she shrugged with her sword in her hand.
"Do take your time, I'll be right here when you actually start trying."
Ruby grit her teeth as she raised her head, pushing herself off the ground with several breaths to catch.
"I don't understand." Ruby got back on her feet while shaking her head. "Why are you doing this? All of this?!" Ruby spread her arm towards the wall where the collection of Faunus parts were, several still having dried blood on them.
"Quite honestly, my dear. I myself don't understand what the big deal is." Melanthia smirked as she swung the black petal blade, forcing Ruby to move again as another swarm of petals began to follow her.
Several streams of it shot out and attempted to slam atop her, piercing into the ground whenever she made a swift movement to dodge, debris being kicked up from the impacts.
"You want to know one of the most fulfilling aspects of being a Huntress? You're the one who gets to pick and choose who and what your prey is." Melanthia smiled as several spikes spreads out, and several of them attempted to skewer Ruby as she dashed out of the way of them. "With the power that Huntsmen have under their possession, there wasn't much that people could do from stopping them from doing what they desired. For a time, once they were officiated, they could hunt whatever they please for whatever cause. Be it money, glory, whatever suits their fancy. Essentially, their loyalty is mostly towards what holds their interest more."
Ruby grit her teeth as more black petal spikes rained down from above, and she stopped in place for a moment as several pierced the ground in front of her. "So you picked Faunus to hunt and kill?! Why?!"
"Faunus are simply beasts who think they're people. If anything, that's somewhat fine by me. It means they're much more driven to survive, more motivation to try and escape death when it claws at them." Melanthia slashed the sword, a wave of black petals soaring towards Ruby, which she jumped over to dodge. "Normal animals and Grimm simply don't have that same kind of satisfaction when such drive is snuffed out. Aside from older Grimm, they'll come after you no matter what. And animals rarely care about our presence. Which leaves the Faunus, the most challenging, and most fulfilling prey. Not only do they try their hardest to cling to life, but they actually leave a more tangible prize behind."
Ruby narrowed her eyes as she leaps upwards, another wave of black petals smashing into the spot she was last standing. "You also make them fight each other, and take the Faunus parts of the defeated?!"
"Their Faunus parts make quite beautiful trophies, don't you think?" Melanthia smiled as she pulled back her sword and thrusts forth, sending a wave of black petals towards Ruby. She takes as she dashed out of the way again. "I was going to let Velvet tire herself out fighting the Grimm so I could arrange to take hers as well, but, well, circumstances happened, and now I have to deal with you, and catch Blake. I have a busy day ahead of me."
"You're saying all of this as if it's a casual activity! You're mutilating, torturing and killing Faunus!" Ruby shouted as she rolled out of the way of another wave crashing wher she previously stood. "Don't you care at all?!"
"Anyone who goes on any hunt will rarely care about the feelings of their target. You don't care about the feelings of a Grimm when you slay it, nor the feelings of an animal when you're hunting it for food or decoration or glory. This is hardly any different."
Ruby glared as she dashes out of the way of another wave crashing on her, before heading towards Melanthia in a blur. The older woman smiled as a wall of black petals formed in-between them. Multiple tendrils of black petals shot out towards her in the instance. She managed to dodge out of the way of two of them, before several more knocked her off balance, then crashed into her all at once, them slamming her hard into the ground, cratering it greatly.
The black petals retreated back to Melanthia's side, and she laughed as Ruby's crumpled form was soon revealed within the smoke, with her face down on the ground. Melanthia rubbed her chin with a sigh. "Honestly. How did you think this was going to go?" Melanthia rolled her eyes. "If you're quite done, I still have business to take care of."
Ruby stayed down for several moments, with her hair messy and slightly bloodied from the relentless assault. Though as she was lying down, her fingers twitched. "...Oh...okay...I think I get it now..."
"What's this? You're finally starting to see reason?"
Ruby picked herself up, stumbled back a bit, before placing her hands on her knees while taking a breath. "I honestly didn't think that I would have this experience so soon, not on my very first mission..."
"Oh dear, she's so beaten up she's gotten delirious." Melanthia sighed as black petals swarmed around her again. "I'd best just kill you and clear those maddening thoughts of yours." Multiple tendrils shot towards her, intending to run her through.
They were sliced apart in a matter of moments, black rose petals being sliced apart by red ones, both swirling all over the room. Melanthia blinked in disbelief in how suddenly it happened. Out of the cloud of petals, she was able to see Ruby again, holding what appeared to be a giant scythe behind her back. Never mind the fact that she was slightly surprised that she held it up with one hand, but that she swung it quickly enough to slash apart her black petals. Quickly recovering from her surprise, Melanthia scoffed at the girl again.
"You're using your weapon. How much is that going to change, really?"
Ruby didn't respond right away, instead leaning forward and then making a beeline for Melanthia. The woman clicked her tongue as she pointed towards Ruby, several waves of black petals being sent her way. Ruby's eyes narrowed and focused as she slashed through the first wave of petals, slicing them apart and cutting a path through the waves. Melanthia's eyes widened in surprise, before she persistently sent another wave towards her, before stabbing into the ground to also have several pillars of sharped black petals to shoot up from the ground and attempt to impale the girl charging towards her. She also had several sharped spears of black petals manifest around her, and launched them towards her as well.
Ruby gripped tightly onto Crescent Rose, pulled back, and fired a shot that propelled her forward via recoil. She then began to spin rapidly, accompanied by a whirlwind of rose petals. Melanthia could see that they were sharpened, as they began slicing through her own sharpened black petals as if they were paper cut by scissors. Her eyes quickly widened in panic as Ruby closed the distance between them and slashed through all of her petals in a matter of moments.
"What?! How are you even-?!"
She was cut off when another one of Ruby's rifle shots launched her forward, using the starting momentum to add to her oncoming dash and smashing her knee into Melanthia's face, sending her across the room and causing her makeshift sword to fall out of her hands and dissipate.
"Judging by what just happened, a lot." Ruby tilted her head. "You and your crew seem a lot better at picking on people who can't really fight back, aren't you? Or you weaken them to the point where they can't. That seems to be another purpose of setting them in death matches against each other, isn't it?"
"Quiet, girl!" Melanthia launched another wave of black petals towards her, only for Ruby to slice through the wave with Crescent Rose, her own petals also cutting through them.
"There's nothing these people could have done that made them deserving of what you're doing to them!" Ruby shouted, only to jump back as a massive spike of black petals pierced the ground in-between them. Melanthia stood back up with a scoff.
"Nothing they could have done? Really? They are born beasts. Beasts are meant to be hunted and killed. Huntsmen hunt and kill beasts for a living, simultaneously being their duty. There isn't much difference between Grimm and Faunus as beasts, aside from the fact that the latter looks more like us, and they make more rewarding game than Grimm. More to the point, if they aren't routinely culled, they get dangerous ideas. The existence White Fang, in which the cat that you allowed to escape was a member of, is a perfect example of why beasts such as Faunus can never be trusted." Melanthia raised her hand as more black petals swirled above her. "I'll say it once more. Hunting game. That is the closest they'll ever get to having anything relating to a meaningful purpose to their otherwise worthless and unneeded lives."
Ruby's eyes sharpened with every word that came out of the woman's mouth. And as she prepared her next attack, she recalled something. She briefly pondered on it as she gripped Crescent Rose tightly with both hands. Channeling Aura through her weapon, in which it glowed brightly around her blade.
Melanthia pushed her hand outwards as the spiral of black became separated into several different waves and shot towards Ruby, who lifted her head and dashed towards Melanthia once more, jumping over the black petals from one wall to the other. She launched herself towards Melanthia, swirling around one of the black petal ways in a blur of red petals herself, before she eventually appeared just several feet in front of the woman herself.
Ruby slashed diagonally, and a red, sharp wave of Aura soared towards Melanthia. She attempted to defend against it with a hardened wall of black petals, but it was rendered moot: The crimson slash cut right through the black petals, and slashed across the woman's chest. She gasped as blood sprang fourth from the sudden wound, before she fell on her back, clutching it in pain.
The black petals around them soon fell apart and disappeared, highlighting her loss of control over them. Ruby slowly moved towards the older woman, who glared at her while hissing in pain.
"You're a lot less used to taking hits than I am, aren't you? Have my sister and Dad to thank for that." Ruby huffed. "I guess that's what happens when all you do is watch fights and don't do any of it yourself, huh?'
"Damn brat...how could you possibly be this capable...?"
"I get it, now. This is the first time I think I've experienced something like this. I didn't think I would this soon." Ruby somewhat ignored her condescending question, further irritating the woman but leaving her curious.
"Whatever, eugh, do you mean...?"
"My uncle warned me that there are all sorts of people in the world, particularly those that aren't very nice. There are some who are just petty jerks that annoy people. Some like to hurt people for fun. And there are others who lash out because something tragic happened to them. People of all sorts who cause harm to others for one reason or another."
"What are you getting at?!"
"And now, I think I've run into one of the worst, after hearing what you've had to say, and what I've seen. He said that they're the ones who mess the world up more than all the others, they play a major part as to why many decent people suffer. Now I see what he was warning me about."
Ruby's Crescent Rose shifted into war scythe mode, and she eased the blade over Melanthia's chest, her eyes narrowed.
"He was warning me about people like you."
The older woman grunted in pain, then slowly smiled. "Heh. You won't do such a thing. You can glare at me all you want. It's not going to change the fact that you're one of those wide eyed brats who are all bark and no bi-"
Ruby silently sliced upwards, just barely next to the woman's head. Melanthia felt some of her hair falling to the ground. The wall next to her also had a large vertical gash in it as well. She immediately silenced herself in stunned shock.
"I'd rather you not talk anymore." Ruby quietly, sincerely warned as she recalled those horrifying images in the videos, the cells of mutilated despairing Faunus, and the Faunus girl who had been tormented into genuinely believing that she deserved losing her arm. And every single recollection just made her even madder.
And not too soon after that, she felt a heavy rumbling from above. She briefly broke eye contact to look up. "What's going on up there?!" Her eyes widened. "I'm sensing a lot of Auras panicking...something's wrong!"
"Hehehe. Looks like your friends are in trouble." Melanthia chuckled. Despite her painful wound, she was immensely relieved that the girl's attention has suddenly diverted elsewhere. Although she was unfortunately unaware that Ruby shot her a dark look. "You might want to hurry up and get to them. Who knows what will ha-"
The last thing she saw was Ruby's blurry boot swiftly kicking her across the face, and she lost consciousness for the time being. Ruby quickly looked around the room, and saw one of the restraining devices used against many of the Faunus captured. Not having much time to ponder, Ruby grabbed them and clicked them onto the woman's wrists and ankles, pinning them together and restraining her just on case.
"That should hold for a while. I'd better get to the others, quick." Ruby muttered seriously, turning around and making her way down the path from where she came.
(Several minutes earlier...)
Yang and Weiss stood ready as the Alpha Beowolf across from them was eying them with a clear intent of bloodshed. Though it also understood that approaching the two dangerous women recklessly was going to get it killed, so it stayed it's distance. Unwilling to give up yet unwilling to make the fists move.
Yang would honestly prefer if it tried charging them. At least she'd know what to expect. But the fact that the Grimm wasn't immediately attacking them meant that it was taking its time to figure the obstacle that was them out. To strategize.
The only thing worse than a powerful Grimm was a smart Grimm, even if only by a bit. Smarter Grimm will figure out more ways to use their destructive nature to their advantage.
Yang would rather not give it time to think.
"Alright then, if you're just gonna sit there, I'll try this." Yang fired a shot from Ember Celica while making this declaration. The Aloha snarled as it for on all fours and quickly dodged out of the way of the blast, leaving several flaming spots behind. As she did so, she heard a obnoxiously loud cawing, and turned her head to see a black bird wearing a white mask with glowing red eyes as it soared forth to attack her.
A Nevermore. A small one that was around the size of a normal bird.
Yang quickly shot a firey bullet towards the black bird, incinerating it on the spot as it crashed past her in a small ball of fire. She blinked as she swerved around, heading the sounds of more small Nevermore' aloud to the point of echoes. Yang narrowed her eyes as she shot more rounds towards the murder of Nevermore.
Something wasn't right, she felt it in her gut. Those Nevermore were giving her a bad feeling that she couldn't properly place. But she can't focus on it right now since they still had towers to defend.
Meanwhile Weiss was attempting to stop the Aloha in it's tracks with her numerous Glyphs, growling in frustration as it seemed to dodge nearly every single one right as it's about to propel it in the direction she was far faster and more clever than she gave it credit for. It must have been watching their rights from before and was being more observant of their abilities.
The Alpha howled as it suddenly slashed it's claws upwards. The ground between then was suddenly torn apart from the sheer force, and Weiss found herself being thrown back, landing a few feet away after losing her balance.
"Argh, accursed-" Weiss's eyes widened as the Alpha soon lunges towards her amidst the confusion it caused for her, and shot it's clawed paw towards her face in a stabbing motion.
It stopped dead, mere inches before reaching her.
Weiss's eyes shifted as she could see the hand that stopped the clawed paw. Yang grabbed the creature by the wrist. And despite being bigger than her, it was irritated to find itself unable to break free from her grip. It locked eyes with her, which were also glowing crimson and glaring right back at it.
Weiss seized her opportunity.
Ice Dust cooled over Myrtenaster, and she slashed upwards. The Alpha bowled as an absolutely painful coldness struck it's body, only to see that ice was jutting out of the area where it was slashed.
She didn't stop there, as she thrusts forward and pierced the creature in the center of it's chest. A prominent spike of ice shot right through its back at the moment of impact. She heard it struggle briefly, before falling limp. She sighed as the ice, as well as the Alpha, crumbled to pieces, with the latter vanishing into black smoke.
Weiss rose with a breath, standing tall with a rather triumphant look on her face. Yang didn't share the sentiment too much, turning to her and lightly holding her by the shoulder.
"Hey, you alright?"
"Hm? I'm fine." Weiss scoffed. "I'd never let it keep the advantage on me. However, your assistance was appreciated, I suppose. It gave me an opening, thus I took it."
"Okay, I'm just checking." Yang sighed with relief, keeping vigilant for any more potential enemies. She turned towards the murder of small Nevermore that were cawing up a storm. Annoyed, she prepared to blast them all.
Only for something to blast them in her stead, with several piercing bullets of Fire Dust. Blinking, she turned towards the towers, and could see that the defenses were functioning again, the turrets firing away at the pesky Nevermore.
"About time!" Yang grinned, while Weiss scoffed and sheathed Myrtenaster.
"That took a bit more effort, but it would seem our objective is complete." Weiss nodded. "It doesn't seem like we'll be needed in this spot any further. We should regroup with Ruby and Velvet so we can review everything and double check together."
"Right, good idea." Yang smiled as she and Weiss began making their way back towards the village.
They were stopped, as a loud, echoing, demonic screech sounded out through the skies. Shocked out of their minds, the duo turned towards the sound to see what was the origin. Yang took one good look at it, before her eyes hung halfway and her arms drooped.
"Ah. That's what those smaller Nevermore were cawing for."
Up in the skies, a massive mass of darkness and shadow graced their presence, with it's massive wings flapping, enough to cause their own brief breezes. They saw the demonic red glow of it's eyes behind it's mask, and it let out yet another horrifying caw. Yang grit her teeth as she could hear the townsfolk inside beginning to panic.
"It's a Giant Nevermore?!" Weiss sputtered in shock. Yang shockingly shook her head.
"Sorry, not a giant."
"Are your eyes working, Xiao Long?! Look at the size of that creature!"
"That's the normal size for Nevermore." Yang reiterated, not taking her eyes off of the approaching avian beast. "That murder of small Nevermore are more common to see, but that big bird right up there? That's the normal size for them. Trust me, there's a small yet significant difference between 'big' and giant."
Weiss didn't sense a hint of jest in Yang's voice, she was dead serious about this. Which left Weiss wondering something rather problematic. If this was considered the 'normal' size for Nevermore, then what would standing before an actual Giant one feel like? There was no time to wonder about that, though.
"Possible rank?" Weiss tensed as she felt it beginning to take a nosedive towards them. It was coming for Aurora.
"Well considering it's got a lot more power to destroy a town than an Alpha Beowolf, I'd say Demon. Were it a bit bigger and meaner, we'd have a real Giant Nevermore, which is Chaos level, then we'd really be in trouble."
"That's...problematic."
"Tell me about it." Yang muttered as her own eyes slowly widened, before they lowered again in resigned, irritated acceptance when she saw that the bird was about to flap it's wings much more forcefully. She heard about this from Uncle Qrow, she knew exactly what was about to happen. And thus, she'd say exactly what he would say when faced with such oncoming pain. "Aw, hell."
The monstrous demonic bird screeched once more.
Then it flapped.
The ensuing gale crashed right onto the duo, in which they tried to stay in place but we're ultimately thrown back from the powerful gust created from the flapping.
The towers were still holding strong due to the shielding also being operational again.
The rest of the entrance, however, was completely and utterly gone. Blasted away by the gale and sent flying into pieces all across town, which quickly got as the debris destroyed several houses and buildings. The wind blew by with immense power, to the point where even trees were uprooted and sent flying into other things, with some crashing right into the ground.
With one flap, the entrance to Aurora aside from the towers themselves, as well as a chunk of the front of the village, has been obliterated.
Yang coughed, shaking her head and picking herself back up as she tried to help Weiss up as well. She seemed a bit more shocked than she was, looking idly towards the ground. Yang gently slapped her cheek. "Weiss! Yo Weiss, Remnant to Weiss!"
Weiss blinked and snapped to attention, turning towards the screeching Nevermore, then down to survey the damage it did with barely contained terror. And guilt, as people were trying to pull the injured out of the way, others trying to help them run, and a few others too shell shocked to move.
Others to would never move again.
"A single wing flap did this..."
"We gotta take it down quickly!" Yang pressed urgently, attempting to fire blast shells towards the Nevermore above, only for them to have little effect on the large flying creature. She turned around to see that Weiss still hasn't moved. "Weiss! Get it together, girl!"
"We were supposed to have prevented this...we were supposed to keep them safe..."
"WEISS!" The girl was stunned again as Yang shouted at her, pulling her to the side as a piece of wreckage nearly crashed into her, leaving a crater. Weiss was still stunned as she was pulled behind a wall.
"W...We failed them...they depended on us for their safety and we f-"
"Weiss, look at me." Yang cut her off, briefly leaving her silent. But she didn't respond to the request, promoting Yang to roughly turn her around, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Look at me, Schnee!"
"I-I'm looking!"
Yang calmed down a bit with a breath, toning down her voice but still remaining firm as she looked Weiss in the eye. She was cutting this down before it festered at a really bad time.
"Listen. This is not the time for that bullshit. It's a distraction that's gonna make that jerk stronger. Put it away. Don't overthink it, don't hesitate. We need to act, or it's gonna do even worse. The only way we'll fail for sure is if we give up." Yang lightly shifted her hands from Weiss's shoulders to the sides of her head, making sure she didn't look away from her crimson eyes. "You're a Schnee, aren't ya? You seemed proud of what nobility and strength that name carries. You've voiced your desire to surpass your Grandpops, a legend, in the Huntsmen side of things. You praised me and Ruby for having such strong ambitions. Are you telling me that your words regarding your own were hot air?"
Weiss blinked. "No. No, of course not."
"Prove it then. People like you aren't satisfied with empty boasts, especially when they're your own. Don't whimper and wither before your first true challenge as a Huntress. Stand strong, and lemme help ya turn that oversized bird into the first chapter of your rise of becoming a Huntress legend greater than Grandad."
Weiss blinked slowly as Yang released her and stepped back a bit to give her space. Processing all of this, Weiss took a deep breath with closed eyes, slapped her cheeks twice, shaking her head and reopening her eyes with much sharper focus.
"I lost my composure for a moment. My apologies." Weiss wielded Myrtenaster in her hand, pointing upwards. "Let's slay this beast post-haste, before it hurts any more people."
"Atta girl." Yang clapped her back twice with a smirk, as they both glared at the Nevermore.
It cawed menacingly, before it flapped it's wings. This time. to their surprise, it's huge feathers were being launched towards them along with anyone nearby still trying to get away. Weiss was quick to place a Glyph over them that pushed them forward quickly to avoid the onslaught of feathers. Yang grunted as she managed to avoid most of them for the most part via dodging with well timed blasts of her gauntlets, while Weiss kept herself out of harms way with her Glyphs motioning her in different directions. Though it wasn't enough, for they still had people to worry about.
Meanwhile, Yang shot several blasts towards the demonic bird in the sky, who was so far either casually avoiding the blasts or unaffected when they did hit. She wasn't going to get much leeway this rate, she needed more power behind these shells or she was going to be stuck.
The Nevermore flapped it's wings again, as it shot more of it's feathers down upon the town below, before it began diving towards Yang.
Weiss breathed a bit in exhaustion as she could see the next rain of feathers about to crash towards her, as she quickly tried to get herself back in a position to defend against them, all while protecting the bystanders behind her. She could do this, she wasn't going to back down from this. This was nothi-
Most of the feathers were parried and sliced away from her, form what she could see was a quick series of purple glowing slashes. She blinked in surprise as someone landed in front of her, with their weapon in both hands. She could see they they were a dual-wielder of sorts. She rose up on he feet and turned towards Weiss curiously, her head tilted to the side, catlike pupils gazing curiously towards her, and black feline ears twitching slightly.
Weiss knew exactly who she was, however.
"Blake Belladonna?!"
"Weiss Schnee."
Both of them stared idly at each other, before they were drawn to a red stream of roses shooting out from where the latter came. It launched forth towards the Nevermore that nearly tackled Yang, and something was seen kicking it to the side before it could reach her. It crashed into the ground, haphazardly trying to upright itself from the sudden, swift blow to it's head. The attacker landed on her feet and looked around.
"What the heck happened out here?!" Ruby exclaimed while seeing the destruction around her. "I wasn't even gone that long!"
"Things were goin' good, then a Nevermore came in and started wrecking shit, Rubes!" Yang summarized super quickly as she and her sister regrouped with one another. They descended from their perch to land next to Weiss, where Yang spotted the black eared Faunus. "Uh, who's she?"
"My name is Blake Belladonna." Blake admitted calmly, which had Weiss sputtering and pointing at her.
"What is a Belladonna doing out here?!"
"I could ask the same for a Schnee." There was no malice in Blake's voice, not even hidden malice. She was just genuinely curious.
"There's no time for this!" Velvet called to them as the Nevermore eventually righted itself, and took flight with another demonic screech. "We can fill each other in later, but there's too much going on right now!" Velvet was going to make another decision she'd rather not make. But Grimm were beginning to get brave and make their way through the destroyed entrance. She'd have to deal with that. "Ruby! I'm leaving the Nevermore to you four! I'll keep any other Grimm from coming into the entrance!"
"Velvet! Are you sure?!" Ruby called back worriedly.
"Call it 'tagging in' with Weiss and Yang switching out! I can handle them by myself!" Velvet reassured, before narrowing her eyes towards the oncoming horde.
She stomped the ground once, kicking up some earth and kicking that towards the oncoming horde of Grimm. A Alpha, for instance, slashed the earth chunk away without much effort and continued it's charge towards her.
An oncoming vertical slash cut the beast in half.
Velvet had her arm raised, with what appeared to be a blade attached to her wrist made of Hard-Light Dust. She lowered it slightly as she gazed at the Alpha she severed in two, as well as the slight crevasse she made from the slash. She jumped in front of said crevasse and held her arm out, the weapon created from Anesidora coming into full form.
"Fox. I'll be borrowing your strength for a bit." Velvet murmured with steel in her voice as she faced the oncoming horde.
As with the Nevermore, the four young women assigned with defeating it all stood side by side, eyes narrowed towards it. Yang took the time to quickly tie up her hair with her bandanna, not wanting it to get in her way.
"So, I take it you're got quite a story to tell, since you came out with my sister and all. Hopefully nothin' scandalous. It can wait though, we have more important business and all." Yang chuckled as she finished thing up her hair into a more manageable ponytail, and cracked her knuckles. "Alright, let's kick that bird's ass!"
"Nh." Blake nodded silently as she wielded Gambol Shroud, surveying the destruction around her and wanting to put a stop to it. Still, she's come across quite an eccentric group it seems. What would a Schnee be doing with these two? And Ruby. She was roughed up a bit, but she defeated Melanthia? Perhaps she underestimated her quite a bit. "All we have to do is kill it, and Aurora's suffering will end. Right?"
"It is as Yang said before. The sooner we slay this beast the better." Weiss urged as Myrtenaster graced her. She still had a lot of swirling questions regarding the presence of Blake Belladonna, but she can't worry about that right now. This mission was so close to an admirable success, but this Nevermore ruined that, and now people were hurt, and some have died. There would be no mercy in the slightest.
Finally Ruby, who held Crescent Rose across her shoulders, let out a sigh as the Nevermore soared above them. It was taunting them, seemingly aware of the fact that fighting and killing it would be difficult so long as it was airborne. Despite that, they would find a way to defeat it. Ruby was counting on it, and resolved to turn it into reality.
It doesn't matter how scary or hopeless or nightmarish things get. If there's even the smallest chance to turn things around, we have to grasp it.
An image of white rose petals passed by in her mind.
Ruby opened her eyes, strengthened her resolve, and held out her scythe as she kept her flare on the Nevermore.
"Aurora will live to see another dawn. Right here and now, our first true hunt begins!"
Don't you just hate it when your mission is pretty much complete, then a Nevermore comes in and ruins your day?
Yeah, that's kind of what happened here. And now we know why it's important to kill smaller Nevermore quickly, especially when they're a lot of them.
Nevermind the threat of them swarming people, their big boss might be lurking around, waiting to be called.
Oh, and Ruby's just a bit more assertive than usual. Just a tiny bit.
What can I say, she doesn't really have a high tolerance for people hurting people for no good reason. And Melanthia's definitely wasn't all too good.
Anyhow, next time's a Nevermore boss fight!
I wonder if I lived up to the promise of these specific battles being a touch more destructive...guess we'll see once the actual fight begins next time.