DISCLAIMER - I do not own RWBY
Raziel decided that he should never have joined this raid.
It had begun with the tavern keeper asking if he was up for a job. Raziel, ever the opportunistic demon, had further inquired as to what the tavern keeper was offering. It had seemed rather standard: go into the old temple of the ice god Thrallum, and clear it of monsters. The pay was good, and his party seemed experienced.
Of course, that changed when they ran into said monsters. It was just his luck that the monsters they were tasked with eliminating weren't simple goblins and kobalds, but ice elementals.
Ice.
Elementals.
Born of clashing, residual elemental energies from the Planes of Air and Water; ice elementals were craggy, glacial spires given life. With a body composed of segmented plates of sharpened ice that fold and shift over themselves, it was certainly more threatening than a goblin, and as Raziel knew, far more deadly.
Readying his crossbow, Raziel licked his lips and spoke.
"Stop."
His raiding party halted and turned to look at him, confused as to why the demon was holding them back.
"What is it?" said the paladin of their party, resting his hand on his longsword. "Too scared to fight somethin' that ain't a rat?"
"Those are ice elementals, decidedly more dangerous than anything we should be facing for this pay," Raziel responded coolly. "It would be better if we simply scoped out the area and made a plan, rather than charge in blindly"
"There's only a few of them, I'm sure we can take them" pointed out the half-angel healer, shuffling nervously. "Although, a plan wouldn't be-"
"That's the spirit!" guffawed the paladin as he clapped the healer on the back, and charged into battle, the rest of the fighters following.
Raziel gritted his teeth,
"Imbeciles..." he muttered, and swiftly took aim.
Releasing a breath, he pulled his crossbow's trigger, and send a bolt flying into what he assumed were the creatures eye sockets.
"ARRAAGH" it roared, thrashing around wildly.
Reloading another bolt, he slid behind a rock as a barrage of ice shards erupted from the Elemental and struck his previous position.
Pulling out his magic dagger, Büyücü-Katil, Raziel vaulted over his cover and stabbed the Elemental in the knee, and rolled underneath its legs.
As the creature was distracted by the blade in its leg, Raziel held out his free hand and concentrated until an undulating disc of fire shot from the palm of his hand and shattered the Elemental's head.
Huffing, Raziel bent to retrieve his dagger, when he heard the roar of one of its kinsmen suddenly getting closer.
Spinning wildly, Raziel had just enough time to see the Elemental slam into him and send him flying. Crashing against the cavern wall, he slumped down as white flashed through his vision. Moving his head weakly, he saw the icy fist bare down upon him, and suddenly, saw no more.
Raziel groaned and tried to sit up, his eyes refusing to open.
A force appeared on his body, and pushed him back down,
"Rest now," said a feminine voice, the angel he presumed, "Rest and recover"
He felt hands trail over his skin, leaving a magical residue that eased the pain in his body.
Flittering in and out of consciousness, Raziel heard voices speak as if he were dreaming.
"Is he going to be alright?" someone said, a gruff tone resonating through his head,
"He needs to rest, he took two direct hits from those things, not to mention impact with the wall." responded the angel,
"We'll be camping out here for about half a day, make sure he's ready to move after that"
Raziel stilled and fell back to sleep.
"Oh, come on!" Ruby groaned, setting down her controller.
"Hey, don't worry about it Rubes, eighth time's the charm!" Yang smirked, as her character performed a victory dance on screen.
Ruby glared at her sister. "All you do is spam the same attacks, it's not even hard!"
"And yet you're not doing it"
"Well, I'm trying to use all the combos and stuff, ya know? Like, actual skill?" replied Ruby indignantly.
"You seem to be losing pretty skillfully." Yang teased
Blake observed the two sisters arguing and sighed.
The weekend had come to Beacon, and Blake was passing the time reading books, while the siblings were playing video games. Weiss was, well, not doing much of anything. For Blake, this was a perfectly fine way to pass the time.
Ruby had other ideas.
"Come on guys, let's do something instead of lounging around all day," she said, turning to the rest of her team. "Hey, you know what? We should go down and do something in Vale. Oh! I know! What if we went to see a movie?"
Weiss looked up from her scroll.
"Perhaps. I am bored as well," she said, rolling her neck.
"It's settled then! Meet me at the airfield at 4." Ruby said. "I'm gonna go work on Cresent Rose. Bye!"
Ruby disappeared in a trail of petals as she rushed out of the dorm.
Blake sighed again.
Raziel's eyes shot open, and he rolled over to grab his crossbow.
Getting up, Raziel observed his surroundings.
The tents of his party members were still up, but he saw no one.
"Hello?" he called, his voice echoing around the icy caverns.
"No response..." he thought to himself.
"Interesting." he mumbled.
Checking his bedroll, he found his pack and hauled it onto him, and checked for his dagger.
Finding everything in place, Raziel made his way through the camp. A cursory examination revealed that his entire party was gone.
"Strange. Where could they have gone?"
As if responding to his thoughts, he felt a glow behind him.
Raziel turned and saw a small glass neckless, shining on the cavern floor.
Crystals crunching underfoot, he walked forward and picked up the neckless.
Intricate golden bands ran through the small glass globe located in the center of the neckless, with a shimmery silver chain holding it together.
Turning it in his hands, his fingers came upon a small indentation in the ball. Frowning lightly, he pressed his finger into the indentation
The ball flared with white light and grew unbearably hot.
"Wha-?"
Feeling a pull in his guts, he found himself spasming in pain, his body burning in the radiant energy that surrounded him.
Raziel screamed and dropped to his knees.
Then, as suddenly as the pain had come, it stopped, and he found himself free falling in a pale, blue sky.
"I HATE MAGIC" he screeched as he flailed uselessly, desperately trying to halt his descent.
As he fell, he forced himself to calm down and assumed an arched position to control his movement. Taking in surroundings, he spotted what seemed to be a castle underneath him.
Shooting a rope dart from one of his hand-mounted crossbows, he went limp as the dart wrapped around the topmost tower of the castle and swung inwards.
Now heading steadily towards the castle, he shifted his body and crashed through a window.
Tucking his legs in as he came in, he rolled and came up with the other hand crossbow in his right hand, and wielding Büyücü-Katil in his other hand.
Snarling, he prepared to cut down any vicious enemies who came to him. Demonic fire erupted from his eyes, and his horns glowed with a dark sheen, as he stood, ready for battle, fit for legends.
Three teenage girls stared at him.
He blinked.
The first girl on his immediate right was a busty blond, with an exposed midriff, and long flowing hair.
The one on his left had locks of pure white, and a regal expression, high cheekbones, and eyes of ice.
The last girl, directly in front of him was a black-haired beauty, with eyes of amber, and a black and white vest.
The blond reacted first. "Hey there, big boy," she said, smirking as he shifted uneasily, his eyes darting between the three girls. "Care to tell us why you just crashed through our window?"
"..." Raziel responded smartly.
The dormitory door clicked and swung open as a red-caped, young girl stepped in.
"Hey, I left my scroll here, do you know where... it is..."
The words trailed off as she stared at the foreign man who had come out of nowhere in the span of a minute.
"Um, why are your eyes on fire?"
Raziel stiffened and forced his body forward as he dematerialized into a flash of dark flames.
Flowing past the first three girls, he rematerialized into his physical form, and grabbed the caped girl from behind, locking her arms with his hand, and holding his dagger to her throat.
"Hey!" she cried indignantly. "Lemme go!"
"Quiet." Raziel responded, turning his eyes to the other girls. "You move, she dies."
Raziel, of course, had no intention of killing the girl, but he couldn't afford being asked questions. He needed to find out where he was, and keep moving.
Suddenly, the girl in his grasp turned and seemingly disappeared into...
"Into a trail of rose petals?"
The child appeared with the other three girls, and without his leverage, the blond teen, promptly shot forward at him, eyes blood red, as her hair glowed like a flame.
Lunging to the side, Raziel narrowly dodged a punch that had annihilated the god's dammed wall.
"H-Holy Hell, what are they feeding these children?"
The blond girl pulled her hand from the wall and glared at him with murderous intent.
"You don't get to mess with my sister. Fuck with the bull, and you get the horns!"
Darting forward, the girl slammed her hands together as they clicked, and she pointed at him.
The impact from the projectiles she had sent towards him had him flying through the open door and landing on the hallway floor.
Clutching his stomach, Raziel found several small holes where the projectile had pierced past his skin and armor.
The blond girl wasn't finished, it seemed, as she erupted from the doorway and leveled both her fists in a downward spiral.
Towards him.
"YANG! NO!" a voice shouted, sounding panicked
"Oh gods, this is going to hurt."
The fists slammed into his already wounded stomach as blood flew everywhere.
Slumping back down as the life drained out of him, Raziel's last image was the sight of the blond fighter's horror filled eyes as she realized what she just did.
Oh, God.
Oh God, Oh God, Oh God.
She had just killed a man.
Yang Xiao-Long had just killed a man.
Sure, that man was probably evil, seeing as he held her sister at knifepoint. But she assumed that the man had Aura, since he seemed to have a fire-based semblance.
Blood was everywhere, soaked into the walls, the floor, her own hands.
She turned shakily and saw Ruby and the rest of her team surveying the carnage, shock and horror in their eyes.
"S-Someone has to g-get Ms. Goodwitch." she said, tears beginning to glisten her face.
Approximately a minute later, Ms. Goodwitch arrived, and upon seeing Yang and the intruder's body, her eyes widened.
"Ms. Long! What happened here?"
Yang took a shaky breath.
"H-He came flying through the window, and he held Ruby at knifepoint. I... I got angry, and... I t-though he had Arua, I didn't know professor, I swear I didn't know! He used some kind of fire power, I thought it was his semblance, I didn't know, I swear!" she said hysterically.
"Ms. Long, calm yourself. I believe you, but we need to deposit the body first, then contact Headmaster Ozpin"
Turning to the body, she pointed her riding crop at it, and it began to float into the air.
Goodwitch turned and caught the eyes of the other girls.
"You may come along, as well, if you'd please. Your testimony may be needed."
With that morbid statement, Ms. Goodwitch turned, and walked down the hallway, the body following eerily behind her.
Raziel gasped as he shot upwards.
Steadying his breathing, he moved his head to observe around him. He seemed to be on some sort of examiner's table, probably because they thought him to be dead.
Being a Tiefling meant he couldn't truly die by most conventional means, so instead, he temporarily shut down as his wounds healed themselves. They didn't heal much, only enough so they were not immediately life threating. Of course, they would be if he didn't stop infection from setting in, and he didn't particularly enjoy dying.
So, his motivations assured, Raziel got off the table and stumbled towards the door, and yanked it open.
He found himself inside what looked to be a healing ward, like back home at the human churches he often stole from. In front of him were a group of people, talking in hushed tones, and with an air of extremity.
Raziel raised a fist to his mouth and cleared his throat.
Six figures turned to greet him, and he recognized four of them.
The four girls, blond, red, black, and white, he knew. The other two, however, he could not place.
One was obviously the healer, judging by her attire and demeanor.
The other must have been some sort of commander, or an authority figure. A matron, perhaps.
"Selamlar, ladies. I apologize for my inconvenience, but I do appear to be bleeding from my everywhere."
The girls and other two women started him in shock for a second, before they all broke into shouting and moved towards him.
Raziel winced as his eardrums pounded against his skull.
"How are you alive!? I checked your pulse, you were dead!"
"Yes, I tend to do that" Raziel muttered. "We can exchange explanations later, but I'd quite rather some medical attention at the moment."
The healer glared at him, and pushed him into a bed by the windows, and drew a kit from the nightstand next to him.
"I'm going to have to anesthetize you, cleaning the wounds is going to be extremely painful, as well as pulling out the bullets."
"Anesthetize?" he said cautiously, his hand twitching for his dagger.
"I'm going to put you to sleep so you won't feel the cleanup surgery, you'll be perfectly fine, I assure you."
Raziel nodded. "I see. You may continue."
The nurse pulled away an produced a needle, which she injected into the veins on his arm.
"It'll take a minute or two to take effect. Ms. Goodwitch, I'm going to have to ask you to leave to allow our patient to recover. You four as well." she said, motioning to the four girls.
She nodded.
"Come along children, we must speak to the Headmaster." the assumed Ms. Goodwitch said.
"Is he going to be ok?" the blond girl asked, looking over him, her eyes full of guilt and worry.
"I will survive. Probably" Raziel responded dryly. "What is your name, küçük ejderha?"
She shifted on her foot, clearly not expecting any sort of talk from him.
"Yang Xiao-Long." she said, not meeting his eyes.
"Mm. Strange name for a strange girl." he said, moving his hand out in a handshake. "Raziel Marsalis. Pleased to make your acquaintance."
She took it hesitantly and shook.
"Probably expected me to try and stab her." he thought.
"Ms. Long, the patient needs to prep for surgery, you can talk more tomorrow." said the healer, her words becoming slurred as his eyelids drooped, the anesthesia coming into effect
"Goodnight, Yang Xiao-Long." Raziel said before he closed his eyes, and darkness began to creep at his vision.
"Goodnight, Raziel." Yang said softly, as he was claimed by the empty void once more.
AN: My first writing project in a while. Review, please.
Büyücü-Katil - Mage-killer
Selamlar - Salutations
küçük ejderha – Little Dragon
Tiefling - Fire Demon, from the ninth ring of Hell.
Excepted Update Date: Next Week.