Today was the day. The day where Lingqi would show these professors and the Headmaster that her father was the only one in this world stronger than her. Today was the day she would establish her dominance in this school.
She jumped in the shower and was in there less than three minutes before strapping on her armor, arming herself with Soaring Wings and adorning her silver tiara.
She then made her way to the cafeteria, taking notice of the rising sun that meant her father's trial had already begun along the way to her destination where she ate a quick breakfast before an announcement from Ms. Goodwitch directing her to the cliff, giving her the signal to get ready.
As she walked towards the edge of the school, Professor Ozpin intercepted her with a smile. "Ms. Lingqi. Ready for today's trial?"
She nodded back. "Of course. I wouldn't be who I am if I wasn't always ready to fight."
He nodded back. "Still though, I'm sure you must be worried about your father." He said, placing a hand on her shoulder, silently unlocking her aura as he did so. "He'll be fine."
She scoffed back. "The Demon of the Battlefield will never fall." Lingqi replied as she brushed past him, feeling a strange sensation surround her entire body. She quickly glanced at her hand and thought she saw it glowing a charcoal black, but shook her head. Focus. Focus on the enemies in front of you and nothing else.
Since she was first to the cliff aside from Goodwitch, the blonde professor told Lingqi she needed to wait and disregard what she was about to say to the others about teammates.
Lingqi nodded back, sat on the grass and meditated silently as the other students arrived. She stood and made her way to the piece of concrete next to Ruby.
"Morning Lingqi!" The red-caped girl said cheerfully.
"Hello Ruby." She returned.
"Is that your weapon?" Ruby inquired, gesturing to the quad-bladed weapon she carried. "That looks so cool!"
Lingqi let out a small chuckle at her enthusiasm and demonstrated the blade's ability to separate, offering more agility.
They spoke for a while and Lingqi was introduced to Yang, Ruby's older sister, making conversation until the others came. Once they were all there and took their places on the Beacon Academy pads, the professor explained to everyone about finding teammates and saying that if anyone made eye contact with Lingqi, they would have to find someone else and the daughter of Lu Bu would simply need to arrive at the center of the temple and return without a relic. The statement caused others to raise an eyebrow but they paid no attention as they also needed to focus on their own mission.
As the first student was fired into the sky, Lingqi quickly formulated a plan to land without dying. Eventually coming to a solution, she nodded to Ruby as her new ally was launched and Lingqi followed quickly behind.
She flew through the air holding her weapon in front, feeling nothing but excitement as the test began. As Lingqi neared the ground, she tilted Soaring Wings at a downward angle and spun the weapon, waiting for one of the blades to catch onto a tree. Once it did, she rotated around it several times before landing safely.
That was when it happened. The moment when Lingqi let go of all her other worries and focused solely on her objective as she had done several times before. She strode to the north where the temple was, keeping an ear out for the enemy.
She heard some bushes rustle to her right and Lingqi immediately took on a fighting stance. A beast resembling a bear then lumbered out from the underbrush and upon seeing Lingqi, let out a roar. It charged and she dodged left, slashing along the creature's front leg as she moved. To her surprise, the blow did nothing to discourage it so put a blade in either hand and stormed forth, one strike aiming for the throat and the other for its underbelly. The monster moved its head just in time but the other strike connected and unfortunately, the blade was lodged so deep Lingqi was unable to remove it.
The beast swung a large paw in fury so she rolled backward and with her other blade, leapt into the air and delved it into the bear's skull, causing immediate death as it fell forward. Once she had wrestled her other blade free from the corpse, Lingqi reassembled her weapon and continued on.
It wasn't long before she heard more underbrush being disturbed. She made ready to throw her weapon but rather than a beast, a large brown haired boy carrying a mace adorned in heavy armor stepped out of the forest with a smirk on his face.
"What's up baby?" He inquired.
Immediately, Lingqi hated him. His very posture conveyed the feeling that she was beneath him.
"I would request that you not call me that ever again." She declared, moving on.
"Aw, come on, hot stuff. I know you're not allowed a partner, but how's about you and me get to know each other a little better after this in my dorm?"
Lingqi stopped in her tracks, closed her eyes and let out a deep breath before re-opening her eyes and turning to the apparent admirer.
"I will do no such thing. Do you really think you can win me over with such remarks?"
His expression grew angry and he marched towards Lingqi, right in her face. Despite being at least a foot and a half taller than her, Lingqi didn't waver for a second.
"Leave. Before you get injured." She advised, staring him dead in the eyes.
He scoffed back. "Think you're tough, do you?"
Lingqi smirked at him, dropped her weapon and she was a blur.
Along with training with her weapon alongside her father, she was extremely well versed in hand-to-hand combat as well.
Her fist flew to his throat and the blow connected, causing him to lean over in a coughing fit. She then seized his arm holding the mace, stretched it outwards and forced his elbow onto her knee, disarming him.
When he had recovered from the first strike, the boy threw a clumsy left hook towards her, which she easily countered by ducking and delivering a devastating uppercut to the jaw with her left fist. He stumbled backwards and she took the opportunity to strike him six times in the chest with her fists before finishing him with a hard kick to the stomach, sending him to the ground.
"Hmph." Lingqi grunted out, retrieving her blade. "I suggest you rise before the beasts come to finish you off." With that, she left him on the ground, getting up slowly.
She arrived at the temple with minimal contact and intact despite being struck by one of the monsters that got lucky. It was odd though, she thought for sure she'd be much more injured but Lingqi felt as nimble and strong as ever.
Perhaps all the conditioning training with father has been paying off. She thought, moving to the center of the temple.
As soon as she got there, two figures emerged from the forest and strode towards her. Lingqi immediately recognized them as Ruby's sister Yang and the black-clad girl whose name was still unknown.
The blonde girl smiled and waved as they approached. "Hey Lingqi. How's it going?"
The Daughter of the Demon let out a grunt. "About as well as one could expect from fighting the monsters. Didn't think I'd have to deal with our fellow students as well though."
Yang and her partner exchanged confused looks before looking back at Lingqi. "We don't have to fight each other. What happened?"
"Nothing of importance. A brown-haired, heavily armored boy attempted to win my heart with his lead tongue. I knocked him down and moved on." Lingqi declared non-chalantly. She then looked to the dark-themed girl and asked for her name.
"Blake." She announced politely as Yang grabbed a chess piece. "There's also something that's been on my mind. You said yesterday that your father owns an army. What does that mean exactly?"
Lingqi opened her mouth to announce her father's legendary title but a loud screech interrupted her. Three sets of eyes turned to the sky where Ruby was rapidly falling and collided mid-air with a blond head of hair attached to a boy named Jaune.
"Yang…did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake inquired.
Interrupted by yet another loud noise, the girls turned their gazes forward where a giant bear walked out with a pink-clad girl on its back. An explosion detonated and the creature fell forward.
"Did that girl just ride in on an ursa?"
Lingqi nodded approvingly as her new friend jumped down from the tree she'd landed in. "Impressive, I must say."
"Ruby?"
"Yang!"
The two made to embrace each other when the bear-rider jumped between the sisters. "Nora!" She introduced herself.
Another ear-piercing screech echoed across the air as a large scorpion chased a girl in red before it knocked her towards the three girls.
"Did she just run all this way with a Deathstalker on her tail?"
Yang then exploded into flames and shouted at everyone to calm down. Unsure of what to do, Lingqi remained silent until the blonde had recovered.
Ruby then pointed towards the sky where Lingqi barely made out the heiress holding onto a giant bird.
"She's gonna fall." Blake declared.
"Painful landing as well. Especially from that height." Lingqi added.
"She'll be fine." Said Ruby.
"She's falling." The boy Lingqi had overheard named Ren announced.
Then, in a truly foolish manner, Jaune leapt from the tree where he crashed, arms out to grab Weiss but ended up taking the brunt of the fall.
Lingqi was too busy shaking her head at the display to notice that Ruby had taken off in an attempt to slay the massive scorpion on her own. She then rushed forth in an attempt to help her but a volley of black razor-feathers descended and pinned Ruby's cape to the ground.
"Help her!" She shouted at Yang before leaping into the air to strike the monster. Unfortunately, it saw the blow coming and as its stinger was poised to attack Ruby, grabbed Lingqi with a pincer.
When she opened her eyes, Lingqi couldn't believe what was happening. The beast was trying to crush her but appeared to be having extreme difficulty as a very obvious dark light cloaked her body. She could feel her strength waning ever so slowly as it tried to crush her.
Ozpin gazed at Lingqi's aura level as the Deathstalker seized her in its pincer, going from eighty down to twenty in less than two seconds while it took a full three seconds to descend a single percentage point.
"Hmm. It seems as though she can strengthen her resolve in dire situations." Goodwitch chimed in.
"Indeed. It would seem that like her father, she truly has a warrior's spirit." Ozpin agreed.
She then bifurcated Soaring wings and stuck each blade through the claw and pushed herself out of its grasp when a white blur entered the fray and literally froze the scorpion's stinger mere inches away from Ruby.
"Heiress." Lingqi addressed the white-clad girl.
She proceeded to ignore Lingqi and speak with Ruby, the two of them reaching a mutual agreement to work together.
I suppose any ally of Ruby's is mine as well. She thought as the nine of them fell back towards the cliffs.
As they advanced towards the rock face, the giant bird had beaten them there and was preparing to attack as they all took cover.
"Can't you kill it from range?!" Lingqi shouted.
The scarlet-haired girl shook her head. "Not from this distance!"
The forest behind them came crashing down as the scorpion raged forth. "Run!" Jaune shouted.
They began dodging left and right, Lingqi, Jaune and his partner along with Nora and Ren battling the ground-based creature while the others fought against the airborne combatant.
With Lingqi, Ren and the girl named Pyrrha delivering hit and run strikes, they had eventually weakened it so much that the stinger was dangling loosely from its tail.
Jaune looked to Lingqi and pointed to it. She immediately knew what he wanted done and threw her crossed pike, the sharpened blades effortlessly cutting through the bone and flesh as it descended on the rest of the body. Pyrrha then launched Nora into the air and the girl nailed the spike into the rest of the body, immediately killing it.
The five of them then watched in awe as Ruby was slung towards a pinned bird and ran up the cliff with its neck caught in her scythe.
"Incredible." Lingqi admitted.
The teams were being assigned with Lingqi standing atop the amphitheatre as groups of four were designated a leader. The leader of Cardinal gave Lingqi a nervous look before returning his gaze to Ozpin and as he walked away, she could see him sweating.
Team Juniper was then formed and Lingqi was wondering why she was still on the stage until Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang ascended.
Even the normally stoic daughter of the Demon gave a round of applause for the girl's courage and prowess in battle.
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forth, you shall work together as team RWBY led by… Ruby Rose." Ozpin announced with a smile.
Lingqi gave a small smirk and applauded once more before the Headmaster turned to her and gestured for Lingqi to stand next to Yang. "Also, as we have an unusual situation and Ms. Lingqi has no other colleagues, she will join your team as an honorary fifth member."
The other students applauded, with Ruby smiling widely, Blake giving a few quiet claps and Yang offering a hug but Weiss remained scowling. Lingqi hugged Yang back and was about to smile when a thought crawled its way into her mind.
She waited until the rest of the students had dispersed before seizing Ozpin by the arm. "Where is my father?" She demanded threateningly.
"Don't worry, he is still undergoing his trial. The sun has yet to set and we are observing his progress." He announced almost dismissively.
"Then let me see." Lingqi declared.
Ozpin thought against it for a minute, but resigned as he could practically feel her determination. He then led her to a room in the school where they were observing Lu Bu with cameras placed in several trees.
He had been dropped into the Emerald Forest far away from the students at around five-thirty in the morning and since then, had not stopped fighting for a minute and Lingqi could quite clearly see the toll time had taken on her father. He could his laboured breaths; see the mass amount of sweat beading down his face with his spear blade completely painted with the black blood of his foes.
The current time was four-fifteen that meant he still had about three hours left before they would go and retrieve him. Lingqi sat in one of the chairs and let out a few nervous breaths at his condition.
"He has killed a grand total of two hundred and thirty-two creatures of grimm so far." Ozpin announced, pointing to a counter that was placed above one of the large monitors. "But he still has a way to go yet. Are you sure you wish to stay here, Ms. Lingqi?"
"Yes." Came her immediate reply as another wave of wolf-creatures closed in on her father.
He took a deep breath, readied his blade and waited for them to come to him. The first of five charged, meeting a swift death as Lu Bu dodged left and halved the beast with a single slash. The remaining four proceeded slowly and he cut through them with a whirlwind of slashes.
Ozpin had to give the so-called Demon of the Battlefield credit; he was a survivor for sure and would not give in easily. But he also had no doubt that exhaustion would take its toll on him, weaken his reflexes and he would eventually meet his demise at either the claws or fangs of a beowolf or ursa.
It hurt. Everything hurt. Swinging his spear, turning his head, even breathing. Lu Bu's throat was bone-dry, every one of his muscles ached and screamed for him to give up and his armor felt like a ton of bricks on his shoulders. But he wouldn't give in so easily. If someone wanted to kill him, they would have to make sure both his body and mind shut down completely for if he even had a single sliver of determination left, he would keep attacking.
He then shook his head as more monsters emerged from the trees. Wanting to conserve energy, he kept waiting for them to advance and decided only to attack when the throat or skull was vulnerable. One wolf rose on its hind legs but in the blink of an eye, Lu Bu's halberd stuck in the neck before he removed it and beheaded the creature, never using his left hand to grasp his spear.
Lingqi continued to sit in the chair as Ozpin left with a sigh and the other Professors came in offering dinner and blankets. She indulged in both but never left the room as her father kept fighting and growing weaker by the minute as the beasts simply kept on coming.
To all the school staff's surprise, an hour before sundown, Lu Bu was still alive, but the Demon himself was also showing signs of giving up. His eyelids could be seen drooping as his mind demanded sleep in order to recover.
But he wouldn't do it. Even if after every slash he struggled to lift his spear, he had to keep going.
But just half an hour before his extraction, the event Ozpin had been waiting for looked to be arriving.
Lu Bu had encountered two ursai majors, one in front of him and the other behind him. Unable to keep his blade off the ground, the Demon's halberd sunk into the ground behind him and he swung it at one of the bear-grimm's paws. The blade cut through the flesh effectively but also drove its comrade into a frenzy as it moved quickly and clubbed the legendary General, sending him and his blade skidding towards a tree.
"NO!" Lingqi screamed at the top of her lungs as she shoved the chair away. She then felt tears well up but blinked them away. "Father, please get up!" She demanded, her voice becoming shaky.
Meanwhile, Ozpin watched the footage from his own scroll on the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest with a shake of his head. It would be a brutal death for his daughter to watch.
His back cracked against the bark of the old oak and he made to push himself up from the prone position, but his arms refused to comply.
No. This can't be happening. Lu Bu thought. He looked up to see his weapon within arm's reach and seized the spear. If he was going to die, he was going to do it with a blade in his hand.
The uninjured ursa then closed in on him and made to bite his head but Lu Bu instinctively rolled over and shoved the shaft of his spear into the mouth of the beast, keeping its maw away from his head.
Then, as the beast kept snapping at Lu Bu's skull, his legs reacted on their own and shoved the beast off him. Even the Demon himself was astonished, not knowing he had the strength left for such a feat.
All of a sudden, he felt a surge of energy as he thought of his daughter. If he died, Lingqi would be without family in a world she knew nothing about. Then these monsters that killed him would devour her!
But there was no way he was going to let that happen. The energy continued to course through his veins and began relieving the stress on his body from his skull down. He could feel the sharpness returning to his vision, his armor lighten off his back, and muscles regain their unparalleled might.
He stood and sent a look of pure rage at the beast that came so close to killing him and without thinking, twirled his halberd like a baton around his body before grasping it with both hands above his head.
That was when Ozpin heard two sounds. First, he heard what he thought was thunder and looked up to see a dark cloud gathering directly above where Lu Bu fought. Then, a strike of lightning struck the Demon's spear directly and didn't appear to harm him but this was strike was pure crimson in colour rather than white.
The second sound was something that caused him to question everything he knew about what was real and what wasn't.
It was Lu Bu's voice. He had yelled at the top of his lungs the phrase; "COME, VERMIN, SHOW ME WHAT YOU'VE GOT!" And the beast across from Lu Bu, as well as the ones he could see approaching in the cameras actually displayed fear. Beowolves tails began to tuck between their legs and all the rest could be seen quaking in horror.
Ozpin then looked back at Lu Bu and he looked to be there, moving faster than he'd ever seen anyone move before, even with the aid of a semblance. The General then halved the major with a single effortless slash and left the small clearing seeking out more opponents, every one of which was met with death the second they saw Lu Bu.
To say the Demon's strength was colossal right now would be the largest understatement of Ozpin's many, many years of life on Remnant. Lu Bu was able to grab a beowolf by the skull and throw the beast through several trees, punch with his free fist through an ursa major's armor plated stomach and back and when he threw his spear, it impaled countless enemies, the tip looking like it was ready to burst into flames.
Even when the creatures of grimm recovered from their enemy's terrifying battlecry, they stood no chance as Lu Bu cut through them when he swung his halberd above his head, body after body piling up.
The massacre continued like that for the remaining half hour and Ozpin had no choice but honor his word and send an airship for him. Once onboard, Lu Bu immediately passed out and Lingqi stayed by his side for the remainder of the night.
Ozpin could only think a single sentence as the Demon and his daughter entered the infirmary.
A perfect Blood Storm.