Author's note: There was a little error in the last chapter. It's fixed now.
Chapter X
Emerald ran through the abandoned Warehouse District. Her heartbeat was thundering in her head and her breaths were strained from her continuous sprint. All the while exerting her semblance in an attempt to lose her pursuer. Using her semblance on a moving target while moving herself was hard. Emerald projected the illusion of herself running down the street while she herself veered into the darkness of a nearby alleyway. She concentrated on her illusionary self until the muffled footsteps of her pursuer above were heard no more, hoping that her attacker had run on ahead.
Keeping silent, Emerald sheathed her kamas and fumbled for her scroll. She needed to contact Cinder for backup.
'This isn't good,' she muttered in her head.
Taking on her assailant was the last thing Emerald wanted to do, what with his tenacity and speed. Emerald knew very well when someone outclassed her out skillset. But if pressed, she would fight. Until then, the best course of action she could do right now was to escape and regroup with Cinder. They needed to know they had a new foe on their trail. A dangerous foe.
Emerald took out her scroll and began to unlock the device, but a glimmer of white movement across its screen caught her attention.
She immediately lurched to the side, avoiding the massive blade and cyber-knight that shattered her hiding spot. The landing force slammed into Emerald's body and tossed her further down the alleyway. Instinctively, she tumbled and rolled on the pavement, throwing in a somersault to straighten herself out.
The ache in her right hand and the electronic shards she spotted beneath the cyber knight alerted the thief of what just happened.
"Damn it," Emerald cursed and drew her kamas.
Arc pulled his sword out of the cratered pavement, the blade loudly scraping against the stone ground. His sight briefly glanced over what was left of the shattered scroll to confirm its destruction. His blade would have sunken through Emerald's heart had she not dodged in time, except impaling her wasn't Arc's primary objective for his attack; her means of communication was.
With that finally eliminated, Arc squared himself up against Emerald Sustrai, whom was already backing away. His mind was already formulating the best course of action.
She was cornered in the alleyway. If he lunged, she would more than likely slip past him and continue running, ensuring another pursuit. Even if he predicted which pathway she would choose, there was too much a percentage of her getting past him. That left only one choice of action: ranged attacks.
Arc raised his sword and swiped forward. The sheer strength and speed behind the motion pressurized the air and launched a visible cleave of wind rocketing down the alleyway. The broad slash of air sliced over Emerald's ducking frame and continued onward until it carved into the rear concrete wall. Arc swiped again and fired off another razor-wind cleave. The wind cut through the air, but still missed and struck the back wall.
Emerald, having dodged the second airstrike, raised her kamas and began firing. Gunshots echoed in the empty district as dust rounds pelted against Arc's raised shield. The cyber-knight thrusted his blade past his defense and unleashed an onslaught of air slashes.
A torrent of deadly razor-winds and dust rounds filled the alleyway. Arc stood his ground behind his shield and launched consecutive razor-winds while Emerald continued to fire back and barely avoid the cutting air strikes.
Each missed razor-wind slashed into the back wall of the alley until it could no longer withstand. The concrete wall crumbled with a loud crash, creating a makeshift opening into an abandon warehouse. Emerald immediately noticed and fell back through the access-way.
Rushing forward, Arc launched himself through the opening in time to see Emerald's body vanish.
The cyber-knight blinked, only to find himself suddenly corralled by Emeralds.
From the catwalks above to standing on the cargo crates to nearby covering positions, the Emeralds were all throughout the warehouse. Dozens and dozens of dark-red irises bore down upon him. Many of them aimed their kama revolvers at Arc while some approached with their blades swinging.
"Why are you trying to kill me?!" one of the Emeralds on his right spat.
Arc craned his head to regard the speaker.
"What did I ever do to you?!" another Emerald on his opposite flank demanded.
The many other Emeralds began demanding answers and asking questions, their voices in a distorted overwhelming unity. Shouts and whispers reverberated everywhere.
The situation brought up memories and files of combat data from another time.
Arc remained unmoved. With a push of his mind, activated his optical sensors and filters. His eyepiece and fractured mask glowed bright cerulean. Arc's vision was bathed in shades of blue, highlighting every piece of debris and object scattered about the warehouse. Through the sight of optical sensors and scans, the dozens and dozens of speaking Emeralds disappeared.
Nothing but empty space and silence remained, except for the one contact on catwalk above.
Arc craned his neck around to gain a better view of the situation, feigning to observe the Emerald illusions around him and passing his gaze over the highlighted contact above.
Arc withdrew a yellow Dust crystal from his armor's compartments and slammed it into his sword's guard slot.
The massive blade of Graucus Aegis ignited yellow.
"Your semblance fails you, Sustrai," Arc growled.
Seeing her attacker's sword cackle with electricity and hearing his words made Emerald flinch, but not enough to drop the barrage of illusions her semblance conjured. But when the cyber-knight suddenly rocketed to the catwalk directly at her, her concentration broke.
The catwalk violently buckled and creaked with every movement. Electrifying slashes singed the empty space she previously was with every dodge and evade. Emerald instinctively parried a swipe with her kama, but the brief contact of her blade against his sent a blistering jolt through her arm, nearly numbing her arm and dropping her weapon. She only managed a curse before throwing herself back as far as she could to disengage.
Emerald landed on the other end of the catwalk. Contracting her arm to shake off the electrocution, she glared into the glowing cerulean lights of her attacker's face. If she wasn't aware of how outclassed her skills were, she was now.
She needed to escape. She needed to-
The cyber-knight unleashed a razor-wind, the electricity from his blade channeling into the attack. Emerald ducked beneath the sizzling air cleave, retaining her focus and open firing. Limited by the narrow catwalk, the cyber knight raised his shield to block her shots. Bullets pinged off the piece of metal as the cyber-knight charged at her. The catwalk shook with every step.
Now!
Emerald swiped the catwalk beneath her and dashed forward. Sustaining her fire, she ran up the descending catwalk towards the cyber-knight. Only when she flung and hooked one of her kamas into the ceiling did the rain of bullets slow. The cyber-knight adjusted his footing on the falling catwalk and lunged forward.
One good tug on her weapon's chain was all it took send Emerald up and over her attacker, whose own lunge now carried him down the catwalk and further away from her. The momentum dislodged her kama from the ceiling and sent Emerald careening across the warehouse. Her trajectory put her landing path right on the other still intact end of the catwalk, but a familiar sizzling from behind caught her attention.
Emerald managed to angle herself around in time to see the electrified razor-wind cut into her.
Emerald cried out in pain as the air convulsing with electricity cut straight into her. Though her aura absorbed most of the attack and the devastating cut of air, the electricity still spasmed all over and touched her, sending jolts throughout her entire body. Completely numb from electrocution, Emerald barely felt her body slam against the end of the catwalk and fall off. She managed to open her eyes in time to see a pile of crates before crashing through them and hitting the hard floor.
The groaning and snap of metal caught her attention and Emerald glanced up in time to see the other end of the catwalk above her fall.
Dust and debris flew everywhere when the rest of the catwalk came crashing down, shrouding everything in the warehouse with a thick cloud of dust. The crash echoed throughout the warehouse until it died away, replacing only with the late reaction of debris crumbling.
A hoarse cough followed the shifting of a rubble pile.
Somehow, Emerald managed to drag herself out of the debris, pushing herself to her feet and reorienting to the surroundings. Feeling slowly trickled back to her senses, but she knew she had to be on high alert.
When the dust cloud began to subside she saw the outline of the armored being a few meters away. But once her mind distinguished his silhouette, the nerve-piercing glow of her pursuer's cerulean mask and eyepiece lit up in the darken haze and bore straight at her.
Utter fear seized Emerald on spot. Her eyes widened and her kamas trembled in her hands. Unconsciously taking a step back, she momentarily flinched when a door handle pressed itself into her back. She opened the door behind her and ran. The door fortunately was an exit that led straight outside into the night.
Though the jolts from the electricity had died out enough for her to regain control of her body, her muscles were utterly in searing pain. Her lungs burned, her eardrums rang and the sharp impact from razor wind still hurt across her torso.
Despite it all, Emerald's frayed and panicked mind reminded her that she wasn't out of danger just yet. Emerald mentally berated herself for panicking so badly.
But her panic instantly transformed to anger and determination. Running was no longer an option. If her attacker wanted to kill her, Emerald saw it fair to want to kill her attacker in return. Emerald muttered a curse and quickly assessed her surroundings.
The warehouse wall exploded.
Arc landed on the crushed brick rubble, facial wear still glowing a haunting cerulean. He peered through the dust with his enhanced vision to assess his surroundings. Though slightly distorted by the dispelling dust, Arc could make out enough outlines to know they were back outside in the moonlit alleyways. It was a highly unfavorable situation, seeing that Emerald now had the opportunity to evade even further, but his sensors picking up a very nearby contact subdued his concern.
Crushing the debris beneath his boots with every step, Arc moved out of the lingering dust cloud with Graucus Aegis gripped by his sides, its blade now faintly glowing yellow with waning electricity.
His organic mind suddenly became slammed with horrid imageries and details. The edges of his vision danced with unfathomable delusions and fragmented his vision with hallucinations.
His system filters could only dispel so much at once. The unhinged onslaught of Emerald's semblance was enough to make Arc stagger for a moment.
A moment in which Emerald, screaming a curdling battle cry, lunged at him with kamas descending at his head.
Instantly, Arc shut out his hallucinating brain and focused through his body's sensors. Through the sensors of his cybernetic body, he could see everything in correlated detail. Every outline and facet of reality became known to him. He could even see Emerald's blades closing in on his head.
Arc's body reacted with unseen speed and raised his shield, its edge catching the curves of his attacker's kamas. The counter-forcing shove that followed through would have thrown Emerald back, but the girl was already prepared and fighting for her life.
The exchange of blows intensified with every movement and counter. Electrical jolts continuously flashed off Arc's blade with every attack of his parried. Sparks flared off his shield with every block from the flurry of kama strikes and assault of dust rounds.
Emerald was utilizing her surroundings to gain maneuverability and attack from all angles. All the while, her semblance was being flung at full force, constantly bombarding her foe with torrents of illusions. Tears streamed from her dark-red, shrunken irises eyes and flickered off her face with every movement. Her voice had long gone hoarse from all her rageful cries. Her already-low aura flared around her with every minor electrical discharge or slash. But with burning instincts to live flowing through her and her fatigue being replaced with sheer will, Emerald fought on.
Arc matched every blow and dust round with Graecus Aegis. Through the eyes of his mechanical sensors, the cybernetic knight shifted to counter every direction Emerald attacked from and launch his own attack. His incapacitated organic senses only gave way to thickening headache that did nothing to affect his cybernetics and combat system.
The very same combat system that detected a pattern of Emerald's movements and a predicted interception point amidst the chaotic apexes of the fight.
There only had to be an opening.
Arc performed one last counter before he drew his blade and speared it forward, the hilt leaving his metallic grasp.
The dimly sparking sword flew straight to impale Emerald.
The thief launched herself at Arc, dodging the blade with a swipe to knock it off course.
Arc raised his shield over himself and blocked Emerald's high attack. But before Emerald could ride out her upward momentum over, Arc's now-free hand shot out from underneath his shield and metallic claws seized the thief's ankle.
Snatching her out of the air, Arc immediately yanked Emerald downward and slammed her into the ground, shattering the pavement from the impact and knocking the kamas out of her hand. Ignoring the shrieking cries of agony, Arc twisted his wrist and lashed out at the wall, the limp body in his grasp smashing through the solid surface.
Emerald's aura flickered and died.
A swift turn of his body and another swipe sent the thief's body careening through the paralleling alley wall with an audible crunch of bone. Another swing into a nearby dumpster came with another snapping noise. Arc finally let go of Emerald's ankle after he slammed her into the ground again and cast her away.
The bloody ragdoll form of Emerald landed in a heap down the alleyway.
A thrashing pain in her head kept Emerald from the dark emptiness. The red-hot pain pulsating throughout her body nearly made her faint. She could feel her blood dripping from the many gashes and cuts all over her body and puddling beneath her. Vaguely, she felt her tears cascading down her cheeks. And for the briefest of moments, Emerald fought to recall how she ended up in this situation.
Then it all came back to her: her attacker, the chase through the abandoned warehouse district all accumulating to her desperate attack of retaliation.
All emotions and thoughts swelling inside her were blocked out by the sheer pain of her injuries. Yet throughout all the agonizing haze, Emerald could formulate one coherent thought: she had to escape.
Numbingly, she willed her shaking hands to crawl forward. Her torso began to move, but a lingering pain forced a cry when she tried to move her legs.
She didn't even have to look to figure her legs had been broken.
Everything felt drained. Her aura was gone and she couldn't concentrate enough to use her semblance, not that it worked on her attacker anyways.
The scraping noise of a sword being drawn from stone brought back Emerald's attention to the situation at hand: her attacker was still here.
Desperately, Emerald tried to crawl away, her own frantic thoughts driving her forward inch by inch across the dusty pavement.
She wanted to see Cinder again. The only woman that ever cared for her.
She wanted to see another day on Remnant.
She wanted to live.
She wanted a lot of things in that moment. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw two massive, white armored boots step around her. A hollow sob choked her.
The two white armored boots came to a stop in front of her, blocking whatever false chances of escape she had. Emerald gritted her teeth from the pain that shot through her when she craned her head up. Before her stood the cybernetic knight wielding his massive shield and sword and bearing down on her with a haunting cerulean glow.
No words were exchanged; no taunts, no proclamations or demands.
A final spark convulsed on the tip of the blade; the very blade looming mere inches away from her face.
She didn't want to die.
Arc drove his blade through.
MEANWHILE AT BEACON...
Weiss impatiently tapped her pen against her temple. Her eyes were no longer reading the textbook beneath her, but rather they blankly stared at the letters in attempt to comprehend their contents. And for the umptieth time, she felt her eyelids begin to close and sweet bliss of slumber start to seduce her.
The Schnee heiress vigorously shook her head, staving off her drowsiness, and pinched the ridge of her nose with a sigh.
Perhaps she needed another break.
Weiss closed the textbook and reached for her nearby mug. Its contents had grown cold hours ago, but it still held its very needed caffeine. Drawing the edge of the mug away from her lips, Weiss set her mug aside and returned her attention to her textbook and its troublesome topic: Advanced Dust Applications.
Weiss audibly sighed. She didn't have to be up this late meretriciously finishing homework and studying; all classes started tomorrow. But being her refine and responsible self, she couldn't help but get started when she idly came across her classes' syllabuses online, which been posted two weeks ago. To which they all should take more seriously. Classwork that stretched over the timespan of months had been condensed down to mere weeks to make time for the Vytal Festival and its Tournament.
If anything, her partner/team leader should've had them spent the two weeks prior working on meeting the posted due dates. It would have certainly saved them from the foreseeable coursework burnout.
She could already imagine the study sessions: Yang would be strung out in her seat, Blake would be scouring through textbooks to absorb all the information and Ruby would have collapsed on the table.
'I should probably start ordering boxes of cookies now then,' Weiss figured.
Reluctantly, she reopened her textbook and tried to concentrate on where she left off. Everything had almost made sense until she stumbled upon a rather peculiar set of formulas and questions. Formulas and questions that seemingly contradicted everything she just read. Yet for all the frustration festering in her head, Weiss wasn't too unaware to not notice a figure approach from the corner of her eye.
She was too busy to be bothered right now. Hopefully whomever this person was would pick up on her silent treatment and leave.
"U-uh, e-excuse me…miss?" the person stammered.
"I'm busy," Weiss snapped tersely, not even looking up from her textbook.
"I…can see that," the person continued, "but I was wondering if we could maybe exchange study notes?"
For the first time, Weiss pried her eyes away from the textbook and actually looked at her speaker. She took in the image of a male teenager dressed in accents of red, white and black holding a copy of the same textbook as hers, except for all the loose notes stuffed and jutting out of the textbook's pages. It was easy to figure that he enrolled in Advanced Dust Applications, but something peculiar about the guy threw her off.
"You're…a first-year?" Weiss questioned.
"Yeah," the teenager admitted bashfully, "The naïve look on my face give it away?"
Weiss ignored the commentary, "Why are you enrolled in Advanced Dust Applications?"
"Oh, because I somehow passed the placement exams," the teenager admitted and held up his textbook, "anyways, would you happen to understand what chapter six is talking about?"
Weiss blinked. Chapter six? Did they have the same book? She was barely comprehending chapter three! The heiress was tempted to decline the offer out of indignity and pride, but Weiss knew how to spot an opportunity when it presented itself. The seemingly intelligent first-year before her asking for help was certainly an opportunity. It also helped that he wasn't schmoozing or fanboying over the fact that she was a Schnee.
"I suppose," Weiss replied aridly and gestured to the seat across from her, "but in order for us to be on the same page, you need to tell me what you learned so far."
"Of course," the guy replied cheerily and took his seat, "thank you."
Weiss nodded in approval. It was pleasant to know that she wasn't the only student in Beacon trying to avoid the upcoming burnout in the semester. With this young man's intellect and comprehension on one of the hardest subjects for her, what with how he easily began breaking down and reiterating the information in a way she could understand, she foresaw a mutually beneficial study partnership.
That being the underlining notion, Weiss realized her cold and analytical behavior made her forget her manners.
"I'm sorry, what was your name again?"
The young male paused his words.
"Crimson," he said, "Crimson Vexillum."
Author's note: Well this certainly turned dark...and foreboding. "Sci-Fi/Tragedy" genre indeed.
A rather drastic initiative on Arc's behalf; but personally, I like this chapter because it advances the plot. This is the part where the story begins to shift gears and build momentum.
Criticisms, reviews, literary discussions and scorching hot hatred flames are, as always, welcomed and encouraged. Thanks for stopping by to read.
And now back to awaiting for RWBY Volume 6.
(Volume 6 HYPE!)