Chapter 7: A clash of beast and Grimm
I don't own L5R or Rwby: they go to their rightful owners
As morning finally arrived Azura dragged his half asleep, half pissed off ass into his families estate. Surprisingly dealing with Cao was the best thing that happened to him all night. The other guard was transferred to look for smugglers, people attempting to flee the city, and street fights near the gate made him busy for a full 12 hours. He dragged his feet till he finally reaches his room and fell onto his mattress, face hitting the pillow. However, another form that shared the mattress moved towards him, and hugged him.
"Not now Yang. I haven't slept in 12 hours." Azura groaned in frustration as the blonde snuggled up against him
"You've never complained before. What's got all you so grump?" Yang said in a teasing way
"I haven't gotten any sleep and so much shit happened last night. Please let me sleep." Azura said in desperation and with sheer exhaustion
"Okay honey. I'll let you sleep. Sleep well." Yang would say, kiss his head, then leave
Yang slowly closed the door behind her as her boyfriend snuggled in to get some rest. As soon as she turned around Zwei bounced his happy furry butt up to her. She picked him up and pets him as she walks away. The sun was shining, birds singing, and a cool gentle breeze flowing through the city. Despite Azura being tired and needing sleep, to her it was a great day. Little did she know was that this would be the best point of the day for not just her, but all of beacon.
Meanwhile at Cao's warehouse
What Cao initially thought would be a wild goose chase was rapidly going into an organized crackdown. Soon informants and members of the Scales of the carp were getting put in jail. Goods of both legal and illegal origin were being confiscated from warehouses and secret stores on mass. The floodgates were opened and all without the two that started it knowing.
That morning two peasant deputies were snooping around the main warehouse. The large cavernous building hosted ample space for many goods of all sizes and shapes. They noticed a large entrance to an underground tunnel in the warehouse through a crack in the door. Lights from torches roared as a team of 8 large draft horses pulled with all their might a large tied down reptile. Its body proportions where like theropod dinosaurs, large head, small arms, long legs and a very long heavy tail. Everything else however was off about it.
Easily 70-80 feet long, it's extremely long and heavy tail looked like a massive bluish one-sided buster sword. This scales covered its body in a dark red color, and two sets of large blue bony plates ran down it body starting with two bullhorns on its head. The head itself was short and squat, but thick and had two sharp plates down the side of its mouth. Its underside however was covered in thinner scales and were cream in color. Its large body was held down by thick bars of samurai grade steel and its mouth muzzled in similar material. The surprising part was the beast was fast asleep.
"How many hunters died going after this thing?" One of the ronin asked one of the people bringing the beast in
"A full dozen. I hope this fetches a good price, either alive or dead." The hunter replied
"Don't worry, we will make sure it will. Your men will not have died for nothing. Hell, you boys will be able to retire with the money you'll get paid out with." The lead ronin replied with a nod
"It better. We can't take hunts like this. Those grimm control jobs you've sent us on were bad enough. This thing is dangerous as hell. I've never seen a grimm that can light its tail on fire and smash you with it." The hunter said getting off the reins
"Light its tail on fire?" One of the deputies mutter under his breath
"We have to bust this. If that thing got out in the middle of the city, the damage would be severe." The other said, and the two ready their weapons
"Alright everyone freeze!" the first deputy said as they jumped out, weapons readied
"Shit it's the law!" The leader said as it startled the group
The other ronin turned to face them, drawing their weapons. What no one realized was that the beast began to stir. A large grapefruit sized eye opened, its large pupil adjusting to the light and focusing. What was before it confused it, and the noises startled it in its addled state. It began thrashing its massive body about, bending and even snapping its restraints in quick order. Very quickly it was able to remove its restraints, including its muzzle, and let out a thunderous roar that rattle the warehouse to its foundation.
"Everyman for himself!" One ronin yelled as master less samurai bolted from the towering behemoth
The large theropod monster swiped its massive swordlike tail, turning the men before him to mush with its sheer weight alone. It then surged, hip checking the wall and crushing it to splinters. As the wall fell around it, the monster roared and began to attack anything near it. Biting, stomping and swiping at crowds of people and any buildings in its path, destroying everything in its path. However as soon as samurai moved in to resist the beast, a loud roar from the nearby forest is heard.
"What was that?" one of the Sotora's asked
"That roar… oh no…" another said with a hint of fear
"What? What is it?" the first Sotora asked
"It's a grimm! Get people out of here!" The second said as he tried to get people to move away
Like clockwork out of the trees jumped a massive Beringel, about 25 feet tall and truly massive for his type. He landed on the gatehouse with a massive thump, timbers and stone cracking and creaking under the sudden force and weight. It surveyed the chaos and carnage, looking for its source. Soon its glowing red eye found the mighty theropod monster and then jumped down onto the street in front of it.
"Everyone get out now! They're going to fight!" a samurai yelled as Azolum rushed onto the scene
"What's going on?" Azolum asked
"A Beringel and Glavenus have entered the city are and facing off." The samurai replied
"Oh, dear gods…" Azolum said and paled as he looked at the two titans
The Glavenus scraped its massive bladed tail along the ground, and its throat ran hot with heat. It was sending a message about its main weapons, and that it could use them to harm the grimm. However, the unnatural gorilla paid no attention to the intimidation displays and used it to full boar charge the monster. The resulting collision knocked the theropod monster off its feet and crashing through a wall. The Beringel then beat its chest and roared as it turned its attention to samurai trying to engage it with bows.
"Stop that! Its too powerful! Help evacuate everyone!" Azolum ordered as the gorilla grimm charged
Its thunderous charge was checked and halted by a powerful fiery explosion hitting it square in the side. The Glavenus was not done yet and let out a loud bellicose roar. The gorilla grimm got up and roared back as the two collided. While the reptile tried to bite the grimm, the primate grabbed its jaws and pulled. Slowly, despite the awesome power of the Glavenus's jaw strength, it's jaws were slowly pulled apart. However, the grimm in its haste forgot about the previous hit and as soon as its jaws were opened a blast of explosive black material hit the grimms face, forcing it off the monster.
"I can't believe I'm rooting for a Glavenus." A samurai said
"Pray it's a graceful winner and not eat us!" Another samurai as they moved people away
As the two titans brawled, Yang and Azura made their way to the front. Despite his exhaustion, his duty and honor came first. If people were to die on his watch, then he would put himself in the way before they could. They rushed to Azolum, avoiding both a stray explosive blast and a large rock being hurled between the combatants.
"What the hell is going on and why is there a monkey and a dinosaur beating the shit out of each other on main street?!" Azura yelled over the deafening cacophony of carnage
"I don't know the details! We need to get people out of the potential fight radius and hope that Glavenus wins!" Azolum answered
Said Glavenus swung its bladed tail down hard at the grimms head. Despite its best effort, the grimm caught the bladed tail between its hands. This not only shocked the samurai keeping an eye on the fight, but the monster as well. The grimm then used its grip on its tail, and with all its might, swung the Glavenus off its feet and around its hip. Then with one final heave it threw the brutal theropod through an entire block of buildings. The grimm surveyed the carnage, and the unmoving rubble signaled its victory.
"All forces move to engage!" Azolum ordered as he and Azura drew their swords at the grimm
"What do you think your going to do against that thing!?" Yang yelled
"Hold it back so the population of beacon can get out!" Azolum says
Just as the grimm turned to face them, the sound of moving rubble stopped its assault. The Glavenus rose from the rubble, its shell like hide cracked and broken in places. It let out a roar, one of rage and pure anger. The grimm started the fight, but the Glavenus would finish it. It bit down on the blade of his tail near his hip and then ran its mouth plates along it. As it did this, the blade became heated like it had entered a blacksmiths furnace. Immense heat warped the air around the massive blade as the Glavenus surged forward.
"Yang return home!" Azura yelled
"Why I can help!?" Yang yelled back
"Its not safe! Go!" Azura yelled with a hint of frustration
"I'm not going to leave you!" Yang replied in desperation
"If anything happened to you then I would never live with myself! GO!" Azura ordered with all his might, and painfully Yang ran back to the Sotora estate
The timing of her departure could not be more perfect. The grimm, in a rare moment of ingenuity, grabbed a large pole and swung it like a baseball bat at the Glavenus's head, causing it to burst into splinters on impact. Despite its thick and well protected skull, its charge was checked and halted. The monster shook itself and then engaged with mouth, flame and tail. Though its bites didn't do much, its fire blasts and heated tail tipped the fight in its favor.
The Glavenus performed an overhead slash like it did before, and the grimm went to catch the blade. This time due to the head he slices through the grimms hands like butter and slashed all the way across its body. Its bone protrusions displaying the large heated slash clearly. This caused the grimm to stagger back, before getting smashed by a horizontal slash by the massive heated tail. The blow sent it through another building. However, before the grimm could fully recover, the monster used its powerful legs to jump on top of the Grimm and bite hard on its throat. Using this grip, it then proceeded to smash the unnatural gorillas head into the stone foundations of the building over and over.
Like its mortal opponent before it, the Beringel was not done. It used its hands to grip the horns of the monster and pry it off its throat. This only made the monster respond by firing a blast of fire point blank into the grimm face, forcing it back down. With one final mighty effort, the wounded monster heaved its massive tail high and down on the neck of the grimm. The force, heat, and sharpness of the blade sliced through its unnatural neck and the forces protecting it, cutting the head off cleanly. At that the grimm dissipated into a black mist and disappeared into the wind.
There was no roar of victory, no triumph to be had for anyone remaining. The Glavenus panted, battered and bloodied by the fight and nothing to gain from it. It turned its head to the samurai that gathered before it, spears and swords readied. At this the theropod limbed out of the damaged gate into the woods, its tail cooling into a rusted form of itself as it walked. The samurai didn't feel much better. Dozens were killed or injured, much of the heart of beacon was destroyed or damaged, and in the chaos the Scales of the Carp ronin escaped.
"This is a complete disaster. The Daymio is not going to be happy when he returns…" Azolum said with a sigh
"It will take months, even years to repair all this." Azura muttered
"Azura, Azolum!" Yang yelled as she ran back as fast as her legs could carry her
"Yang its still dangerous here!" Azura yelled at his girlfriend as she rushed up
"Its important! I found this in Ruby's room!" Yang yelled between pants and handed Azura a note
Azura gently took it and read it carefully. At the end his face paled and became concerned as he let the note drop. Everything from last night was flooding into him as he put the pieces together. Very quickly he came to a very frightening conclusion. Ruby was out in the wider world alone with a ronin, and he had fault in why that happened. Just when he thought his day was bad enough, it just did.
This one was a bit different than previous chapters, but I like the variety, and I had the idea of a big monster and grimm fight for a while. Either way, next chapter will begin a long journey for our heroine and her reluctant guide in, "To persuade a Ronin."