A/N: So, remember how I said I didn't want to make a chapter as long as the first one? Might have done it here.
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Fourteen Months ago.
Richter sat at the southwestern round table in the Signal Cafeteria that had become the de facto hangout spot for him and his friends. Ruby sat across from him while Pearce and Trista sat on his left and his right respectively. Everyone was in a good mood as the last of their classes for the school year were finally finished. They now had two months to do whatever they wanted.
Ruby raised her arms, stretching them as far as she could. "I can't believe our first year at Signal is already finished! Just three more years until I can apply to Beacon!"
Trista raised an eyebrow at the red-cloaked girl, "You want to go to Beacon?"
"Of course." Ruby answered, "I had family that went to Beacon."
"Team STRQ was also from Beacon." Richter added.
Pearce finished eating his morsel of food before poking his fork in Ruby's direction. "Yeah wasn't your uncle part of Team STRQ? The same uncle that teaches here who's drunk all the time?"
Ruby rubbed the back of her head shyly, "Yeah…that's my uncle…my parents were part of Team STRQ too."
Both of Trista's eyebrows raised this time, "Even your parents?" She whistled, "No wonder you're so good with that scythe."
Pearce was beaming, "Man, that is crazy, I had no idea you came from a family of badasses! Why didn't you tell us this sooner?"
"I don't want anyone to think I'm special or anything." Ruby quickly replied, "I'm just a normal girl trying to become a huntress like everyone else."
Seeing that Ruby was becoming uncomfortable with the attention, Richter interjected himself into the conversation. "Anyways, what academy are you planning to apply to after Signal, Pearce?" He asked, changing the subject, Ruby shot him a grateful look and he winked in response.
Pearce's eyebrows furrowed as he gave the question some thought, "I'm thinking Shade, so I don't have to dress in these stuffy clothes all the time." He answered.
"Yeah the dress code is pretty relaxed there." Richter agreed.
Trista frowned at her faunus friend, "But your taste in clothes out of your uniform leaves much to be desired." She pointed out, "Why do you dress like that anyway?"
Pearce responded with a shrug, "The loose clothing gives me more freedom of movement." He held out his arms in a "T." position, looking at his uniform in dismay. "I feel restricted in this stuff, it's like someone tied my left arm and right leg together and I'm trying to fight baddies like that."
Trista nodded, "That makes sense."
Richter turned to the ponytail-wearing huntress, "How about you Trista?"
She turned to Richter and grinned, "I'm thinking Haven, I've heard good things about them. I mean Pyrrha Nikos won the Mistral Regional Tournament for the third time this year!" She gushed, "She'll make history if she does it again next year. I definitely want to see what kind of huntsman they have in Mistral."
"What about you Richter?" Pearce questioned, all eyes turned to him. Richter knew what academy he wanted to apply to, the one his dad would never stop talking about.
"Beacon." He said without hesitation.
Trista looked at him like he grew two heads, "Why Beacon?"
Pearce grinned, leaning back in his chair and resting the back of his head on his hands. "You just want to go to the same academy Ruby is going to. You guys are joined at the hip."
Richter shook his head. "That's not the main reason I want to go there. I mean don't get me wrong, Ruby being there as well is a bonus." He began playing with his food, "But Beacon was the academy my father failed to get into."
The entire table instantly went silent and Richter couldn't blame them. He had been a complete wreck after his father's death three months ago. Becoming withdrawn and barely sleeping and eating. It took a lot of coaxing to get him out of his shell and have him back to his normal self. They didn't want him to relapse.
"I'm sorry." Pearce said sincerely, "I didn't mean to bring up memories of your old man."
"I know." Richter replied, "It's fine Pearce, really." He reassured his friend and the rest relaxed, "I wanted to get into Beacon to prove to my old man that he wasn't a failure at raising a good son. I was going to be a kickass huntsman, one he would be proud of." He continued playing with his food, in truth he wasn't sure he could pull it off. A huntsman was the elite of the elite and he wasn't part of any prestigious family or trained by anyone remarkable. He was just, well him.
Trista smirked, "You'll be more than kickass Richter."
Richter looked at her in mild surprise, "You think so?"
"I know so." She confirmed, he had to admit, her faith made him feel better.
Pearce raised his glass of soda, "Hey hey hey, here's to graduating Signal and getting into our respective huntsman academies!"
Everyone voiced their assent and knocked their glasses together in the center of the table. As Richter was bringing his glass to his lips, he spotted Ruby across the table looking at him intently and he paused for a moment. She was the only one who knew his other reason for wanting to become a huntsman. His father had many regrets, but the biggest one was that he was unable to become a full-fledged huntsman. Robert Bremen felt that if he had, he might've been able to protect the people he loved. Richter wanted to know if he became the best of the best, would he be able to protect the ones he cared about?
Ruby gave him a small smile as she brought her cups to her lips. He smiled back as he drank from his own cup, he really hoped he would.
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Present day.
Ruby struggled to keep her footing as the corridor she was in with Yang began to shake violently. After a handful of seconds, it stopped.
"What was that!?" She exclaimed, did someone set a bomb off or something?
"It's nothing good. Whatever it is." Yang said, uncharacteristically solemn.
"Weiss must be in trouble." Ruby theorized, "We'd better hurry."
The sisters began to pick up their pace, sacrificing stealth for speed as their sense of urgency increased. Doors began to appear on the sides of the corridor and they checked each one, kicking them open and doing a quick scan for their ivory-haired comrade. Ruby and Yang found nothing for a dozen or so doors, the rooms were either completely empty or they had sparse boxes stashed in the corners, nothing that indicated their friend was held prisoner there.
Finally, after several minutes of searching, Ruby heard her sister call her over to a door that was different than the rest. For one, it was a sliding door, more advanced than the previous ones they had seen and another, the door had a big hole through it.
"I think we found where they kept Weiss." Yang said grimly. Ruby stepped through the hole in the door to see a rather high-tech chair with restraints. A horizontal metal bar sat where the headrest would be and several wires were attached to it. The wires led to a fat cylinder-shaped device with a console on top of it. The most alarming thing though was the blood splatter on part of the chair and on the floor, plus the hole in the wall to her right that was roughly the same size as the one on the door.
"Oh no, Weiss…." Ruby whispered, she really hoped her partner was okay. The signs did not look good however. Did Richter do this? Had he really fallen this far? One thing was for sure, she needed to see him again. Whether it was to beat some sense into him or to end his misguided actions for good, she wasn't sure yet.
Yang pointed further down the concrete corridor. "Look at that, the ceiling caved in, but it looks like someone tunneled their way through the rubble."
"Or some THING." Ruby added. "We'd better hurry, Weiss must be in danger."
Abandoning stealth, the two sisters sprinted down the corridor, hoping that their white-clad teammate was still breathing.
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Blake clenched her teeth in frustration as she continued to try and get through Gena Celvic's defenses. So far, her opponent had managed to block everything she had thrown at her and to make matters worse, she was actually forcing her on the defensive. There was always a chakram in Gena's hands to block her shots or Gambol Shroud's sickle, and the other chakram always seemed to be in her face, constantly testing her defenses. Gena would swap which chakram was in flight and which was in her hand constantly and Blake was hard-pressed to keep up. How did a scientist get so skilled anyway?
Shifting Gambol Shroud to sickle-form, the faunus huntress tossed the bladed weapon at Gena's face. Like a dozen times before, the skilled scientist reached up and blocked it with one of her chakrams, this time the one held in her right hand. Blake quickly noticed that her opponent's left hand was empty, she spotted the other chakram a few meters to her right just in time. Tightening her grip with the sheathe in her left hand, the faunus huntress quickly positioned her left hand so that the wrist was centimeters above her right shoulder. She then angled the sheathe towards the ground, effectively covering her right flank, a moment later, bullets from the floating chakram bounced off the sheathe.
Concentrating, Blake created a shadow clone at her current position, back flipping away from it. As soon as her boots hit the ground she leapt for the floating chakram, Gambal Shroud in sword-form with the blade raised high. Before she could bring the blade down however, the chakram shot her in the gut. Blake's aura shielded her, but the impact knocked her away from the circular weapon. She executed a quick backflip to slow her backwards momentum, landing on her feet once more. Across the room, she saw the unmanned chakram use the recoil of a shot to land back in Gena's free hand. A smirk playing on her lips. Blake had to fight the urge to growl in frustration.
Suddenly the ground began shaking and the faunus huntress had to struggle to keep standing. At first, she thought it was something that her opponent had done, but looking across the room, she saw that Gena was struggling just as much as she was.
The skilled scientist glanced behind her, "Geez! What the hell is going on back there?" She gave a slight shrug. "Oh well, whatever it is, your friends are probably going to be killed by it."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Blake replied evenly.
Gena smirked, "Faith in your friends huh? That's admirable." This time she flung both chakrams simultaneously at the faunus huntress. "And very stupid."
Blake leapt over the two chakrams and began to perform a front flip, by the time she had completed it, the chakrams had bounced off the wall behind her and returned to position themselves just outside of melee range on her flanks. Switching Gambol Shroud to pistol-form, she blasted the chakram on her left out of the air and dashed towards her opponent, trailing bullets from the second chakram in her wake.
Gena extended her left hand and Blake heard the chakram stop firing. The disguised faunus knew that the chakram was right behind her and she picked up speed. When she was half a meter from the skilled scientist's left hand she leapt over her, hoping the chakram trailing her would run into it's owner.
"Pathetic." She heard Gena say, seeing through her plan, with impressive reflexes, she grabbed the chakram, just centimeters away from her throat, with her right hand. No doubt she was about to make another snide remark.
But then she saw Blake's second plan.
Trailing behind the faunus huntress was the sickle-form of Gambol Shroud, the dangerous end a mere quarter of a meter from Gena's eyes. She heard the scientist inhale sharply, and then pulled the sickle back towards her. Blake saw something fly off Gena's face and her opponent collapsed onto her back and lay still. The faunus huntress landed smoothly on her feet, turning to face the downed scientist and letting out a sigh of relief.
She had won.
Which was why she was so surprised when she suddenly found herself flying backwards as one of the chakrams shot her. Blake's aura absorbed most of the impact, but the chakram kept firing, pinning her against the wall with a barrage of bullets. Thankfully, her aura shield protected her from the most of it, but it still hurt and it drained the shield considerably. Finally, the chakram stopped and Blake collapsed from the wall onto her knees, breathing heavily.
The faunus huntress was confused. Gena was down, how in the heck were her weapons still working? She got her answer as the scientist suddenly rose up from her supine position, turning to face her. That was when Blake realized the goggles were no longer on Gena's face.
"Close one." The skilled scientist admitted. "But just a second too slow. That right there was your best chance to get me and what you just experienced from my weapons is only the beginning." Blake glared silently at her opponent who grinned, "Ready to become my guinea pig yet?"
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Weiss could only watch as Richter Bremen continued his desperate battle with Darion Shiver the monster. The heiress' aura was rapidly helping her recover from her recent torture, but she needed more time if she was going to be of any use. Time it seemed, was not on their side.
She watched as Richter attempted to keep his distance from Darion's winged form, either dashing in for a quick slash with his sword or hanging back and circling the transformed terrorist leader with his pistol. None of Richter's shots seemed to be breaking through Darion's tainted aura, in fact it only seemed to make the psychopath even angrier. Darion's attacks were leaving their mark all over the room and Weiss was beginning to doubt the structural integrity of it.
The sound of Richter's boots hitting the ground drew Weiss' attention as he landed a decent distance in front of her and slightly to her left. He took aim with his pistol and fired multiple times at Darion, who blocked the small arms fire with his left wing. The psychopath then flapped the wing, creating a powerful wave of air that sent Richter spine-first into the wall to the left of her like a lightning bolt. As he began to slide down he was pinned to the wall again by Darion's scaly left hand wrapped around his neck.
"I should have broke you in half when I had the chance!" Darion roared in his distorted voice. "You're a soft pile of shit who can't handle the tough stuff!"
Richter was trying to loosen the psychopath's grip on his throat with his left hand and failing miserably. "Torturing people doesn't make you tough." The short swordsman replied. With the swiftness of a viper, Richter pulled up his gun in his right hand and fired a beachball-sized blast point-blank into Darion's face.
It was the first time Weiss had seen the psycho flinch. Darion grunted pain from the shot, but quickly recovered, sending Richter through the wall with a punch to his chest. He turned towards Weiss then, eyes full of hate, she gripped Myrtenaster a little tighter in her hands.
A scream full of anger sounded from the hole Richter had just made, causing Darion to pause and look back in that direction. The psychopath raised his sword horizontally and a fraction of a second later Ruby's friend crashed into it with his own sword like a meteor. The shockwave from the impact of the two swords sent the smaller debris around the room flying and Weiss was forced to use her arms to protect her face from it. When the shockwave expired, she was astonished to see that Richter had not budged Darion an inch, the psychopath had taken the hit like it was nothing. It did not bode well for them.
Richter vaulted over Darion, who took a swing at Ruby's friend while he was above him. The giant blade missing Richter by inches. The short swordsman landed, bent his knees and charged right back into the fray, assaulting the transformed psychopath with a rapid combination of vertical, diagonal and horizontal slashes. Darion blocked them all and delivered a vicious upwards diagonal swing that cut Richter across his chest form right hip to left collarbone, or it would have if not for the saving grace of his aura. The short swordsman flew backwards, bouncing off the ground once before landing on his stomach. He lay there, not moving.
"You're right, torturing people doesn't make you tough." Darion said, continuing their previous conversation. "Power does."
Weiss was starting to get some strength back into her legs. She just needed Richter to last a little longer and she could join the battle. But the short swordsman was completely still, that last hit he took was a major one, it might have taken him out.
Not wasting any time, Darion crouched and with a flap of his bat-like wings, flew up to the room's ceiling where he repositioned himself to land there on his feet. Now upside-down, the psychopath springboarded from the ceiling, his giant sword pointed right at Richter's back as he descended rapidly. Weiss winced as she watched, this was not going to be pretty….
Suddenly, Richter pushed off from the ground, throwing himself into the air and narrowly avoided being impaled by Darion's sword as cracks spidered across the ground where he impacted. A surprised Weiss watched as Richter shifted his sword into a pistol and generated a ball of black-white aura as large as his small frame was, then fired it at Darion's head. The aura ball smashed into the left side of the psychopath's head and actually staggered him backwards, his right hand lost it's grip on his sword's handle, leaving him unarmed.
Richter fired his pistol behind him, using the recoil to dive downwards and nail Darion with a kick to his sternum. The transformed psychopath was knocked back another step and Richter shifted his pistol back to a sword. The short swordsman hit the transformed psychopath with a trio of slashes across his chest before bringing his blade up in an upward swing, intending to cut Darion in half.
Except Darion took a step back and caught Richter's blade with his left hand.
The short swordsman tried to free his blade, but Darion kept it firmly in his grasp. Weiss winced as she saw the transformed psychopath slam his right fist into the left side of Richter's head in a fierce overhand swing, flooring him instantly. Still, to Weiss' amazement, Richter was struggling to his feet, but he was having more trouble now, only able to make it to his hands and knees.
"You can't win this Richter." Darion told his opponent. "Do you know why? Because I have more power than you!" And with that, the transformed psychopath dropkicked Ruby's friend on the left side of his ribcage. Richter flew backwards, crashing into the wall behind him with his spine. He fell back to the ground on his right side, groaning in pain. Darion advanced towards him, retrieving his sword in the process, the promise of murder was in the psychopath's eyes.
Weiss took in the situation, her aura had finally restored her mobility. Darion was determined to see Richter dead it looked like, which meant that if she was fast enough, she could run by the psychopath to the room's exit straight across from her. However, if she did that, she would be leaving Richter at Darion's mercy. Conflict arose in the heiress as she tried to decide what to do. Darion would have killed her if not for Richter, but at the same time, Richter was the one who had captured her to be tortured in the first place.
Her mind made up, Weiss dashed forward, straight towards her goal.
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Richter tried to get back to his feet, but his chest was on fire. The only reason his ribs probably weren't shattered was his aura shield, which was all, but gone now. If Darion continued his assault it wasn't going to be pretty.
He could only watch as the bastard stalked towards him, his giant butcher's knife of a sword gripped tightly in his right hand, ready to end his life. Richter did his best to compartmentalize all the pain he was in, but he wouldn't be able to recover in time. He took some solace in the fact that he at least went down fighting.
The sound of ice forming suddenly filled the short ex-huntsman's ears as Darion's right leg suddenly became encased in a jagged piece of ice. Both Richter and Darion were in complete shock as they looked towards the culprit.
Weiss Schnee was in a crouched position, her rapier was in her left hand in a reverse grip, the tip of the blade stapped into the top of Darion's right foot. She was breathing heavily, no doubt still not one hundred percent, but it was enough for her to have bailed Richter out of his current predicament.
Darion glared at her, eyes blazing, "You little bitch!" He pointed the tip of his sword at Weiss' face and her eyes widened as she spotted the gun barrel there. Richter realized with great alarm that she wasn't going to be able to dodge the shot.
Adrenaline surging through his veins, Richter lunged forward as hard as he could, grabbing Weiss Schnee around the waist with his right hand and pulling her away from Darion a split-second before he emptied a bullet into her right eye. He landed in a crouching position on the wall across from his last position, gathered his aura, and leapt towards the exit to the large room they were in. Dyrnwyn gripped in his left hand, he shifted the weapon to pistol form and fired behind him, using the recoil to boost his speed. They landed right in front of the exit and he released Weiss Schnee from his grip. He didn't need to tell her to run as they both took off down the exit corridor.
"Thanks." He said to her.
"Don't thank me yet, we just need each other to escape from tall, dark and scary back there." Came her reply.
"I'll take it." He responded. The duo could hear the angry shouts of Darion behind them, spurring them to move faster. Richter pulled out his scroll, hastily bringing up the map of the sewers. If they kept going on their current course, kept taking the tunnels that led up, then they would eventually end up at a secret exit outside of Vale's eastern wall. From there, they might have a shot of losing Darion in the forest, but it was a long shot, still better than nothing though.
"Do you have any idea where you're going?" Weiss Schnee asked him.
"If we keep going up there's a secret exit just outside of Vale's walls." He informed her.
"How far?" She asked.
"About a kilometer." Richter answered.
The corridor suddenly shook and several small pieces of debris fell from it's ceiling. Richter had to sidestep several chunks of concrete the size of his fist as they continued running.
"Damn, this place is starting to come down I think." Richter said.
"And whose fault is that Mr. I'm-going-to-blow-holes-in-the-ceiling?" Weiss Schnee harshly inquired.
"I was trying to deter pursuit." He defended.
"You slit a maniacal monster's throat, pretty sure deterring pursuit is fruitless at that point."
Richter shrugged, "It was worth a try at least."
They continued in silence, whenever the corridor forked, they would take the passage that led higher. At some point Richter and Weiss noticed that they couldn't hear Darion's angry screams anymore. Richter highly doubted the maniac had given up, he must have something up his sleeve.
Finally, The short ex-huntsman spotted the welcome sight of metal rungs in the side of the corridor they were currently in. "This is the exit." He told the Schnee as he began climbing up the metal rungs. Opening the manhole cover, Richter stepped out of the hole and breathed in the fresh air, the large looming sight of Vale's eastern wall at his back. The shattered moon was out in full force, casting it's silver light across the forest that stood before him. Richter was joined by Weiss shortly after and the two found a nearby tree. Richter immediately walked over and leaned his back on it. The heiress took a sitting position next to him, hugging her knees. It was a much-needed breather for them.
"Ruby and the others are probably coming to get me." Weiss spoke after a full minute of silence.
"They're back the way we came, kind of difficult to circle back now." He informed her.
A frown crossed the heiress' lips, "So we're on our own…."
"Yup." He confirmed. "But at least right now we got a few minutes to rest." He paused for a moment before looking at her. "Don't suppose you'd still want to give me the Sirensong's password?"
"Not unless you're ready to give me your hideout's location." She responded evenly.
"Touche'"
"So how does a friend of Ruby's end up with a psychotic former terrorist leader?" Weiss Schnee suddenly asked.
Richter sighed, "It was an alliance born of necessity."
"What did you need Darion for?"
"He knew how to get the Sirensong, we both needed it, but for different reasons."
Weiss Schnee eyed him suspiciously, "What do you need the Sirensong for?"
"To end the hunger." He answered, closing his eyes.
"The hunger?"
"Both Darion and I were experimented on. The result was the forms you have seen us use, our altered forms. However, the power comes at a price and that price is the hunger for grimm, we have to eat them to keep functioning."
The heiress looked like she was going to throw up. "So you have to eat grimm to survive?"
He nodded, reopening his eyes. "If we don't, the pain from the hunger is beyond excruciating, it's a terrible experience, one that I want to be rid of."
"But how will eating a horde of grimm help you? Wouldn't you get full?"
Richter shook his head, "No, it would make us more powerful, with that many grimm, we would transform into a stronger being. A being strong enough to overcome the hunger."
"At what price though?" Weiss demanded. "Grimm weren't meant to be eaten. If you consumed that many of them, what would really happen to you?"
He looked away from her, "I don't know. But if I don't have to deal with this damned hunger anymore I'm willing to risk it."
"At the cost of innocent lives?" She asked pointedly.
"I'm not a huntsman anymore." Richter stated with some venom, "Besides there is no village near our hideout, no innocent people are in danger."
"For now." Weiss said, "But do you honestly think someone like Darion Shiver is going to stop with just one use of the Sirensong? If he gets all that power, who do you think will be the first to feel his wrath? Can you really turn a blind eye to that?"
Richter didn't have an answer for the heiress. He knew the thing he wanted most right now was to end the hunger once and for all. However, the closer he got to his goal the more reluctant he felt to complete it. He was torn between two worlds and he wasn't sure which one he belonged to anymore. Before he could reply, something erupted from the ground in the distance.
Something big.
"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME!" Darion bellowed in his distorted voice. Flying high, about one hundred meters from their position was the transformed psychopath.
Richter felt his heart sink, "I thought we would have more time…." He had wanted to rest up then hide in the forest, but he had miscalculated.
Weiss Schnee sighed as stood to her feet, dusting herself off as best as she could. "Well, that's just been my luck today. At least this way I can die fighting."
He stood at her left side, focusing on Darion. "For the record, I have to say fighting alongside you isn't such a bad way to go out."
She gave him a cocky smirk, "Of course not, I'm a Schnee."
There was no more time to talk as Darion stretched his wings and flew towards them at breakneck speed. Richter reacted quickly, grabbing Weiss' left bicep and leaping to his left out of harm's way. He looked behind him to see Darion streak by, several trees falling over in his wake as he landed. Weiss extended her right hand, firing off several missile-like blasts of aura that all converged on their enemy's back. They heard Darion grunt in pain as their feet touched solid ground again.
The altered psychopath took off towards them again, this time he was hovering slightly above the ground. Richter raced forward to meet him, Dyrnwyn in sword-form. The short ex-huntsman racked his mind for strategies to use, everything he did before did not work against Darion. He did have better control over his semblance though, maybe he could try something new. It couldn't hurt at this point.
As the two combatants neared each other, Richter suddenly slashed into the ground with his sword instead of Darion. The psychopath quickly tried to capitalize, attempting to bury his right fist into the top of Richter's skull. The short ex-huntsman leapt to his right at the last second however, leaving behind his present.
Darion's last attack had put him right under the slash Richter had made. The psychopath's jade-green eyes suddenly widened as he caught sight of the slashed ground starting to glow. He was then knocked upwards by an explosive blast. Richter smirked at the sight, so he could make impromptu land mines. That was good to know.
The short ex-huntsman used his aura to boost his jump, positioning himself right above Darion in mid-air. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Weiss readying her weapon. They were working together without even talking, he hadn't had this kind of teamwork since Ruby.
Executing a powerful diagonal slash, Richter cut across the length of Darion's spine. Although the psychopath's aura absorbed the hit, the force of the blow sent him rocketing back to the dirt face-first, where he bounced off the ground. While still in mid-air from the bounce, Weiss charged in with her rapier, stabbing him right between the eyes. The attack sent him flying backwards, where he bounced off the ground twice before managing to get his legs underneath him. Still, his momentum continued to carry him backwards as he slid across the grass and dirt.
Sensing they were actually at an advantage, Richter and Weiss dashed towards the reeling Darion. If they could continue to keep him off-balance they might have a chance. Their opponent growled at them and stabbed his sword into the ground, quickly killing all his momentum. He then brought the blade back up and faced it's tip towards them. The blade began glowing green and Richter narrowed his eyes, that didn't look good.
Darion fired his blade and a thick cone of jade-green aura blasted from the barrel, uprooting large chunks of the ground before him. Richter could do little but hold his blade in front of him as a makeshift shield and hope his aura soaked most of the blast. The short ex-huntsman's vision was filled with green as the blast washed over him.
It felt like he had just got punched by a hundred Atlesian Paladins simultaneously. As the green faded out of his vision, Richter was dimly aware that he was floating in mid-air now. He spotted Weiss out of the corner of his eye to his left in a similar position, her eyes shut tight and her teeth clenched in pain. Movement in the air caught the short ex-huntsman's attention and he dully looked back forward to see Darion right in front of him, the psychopath's left leg reared back.
The kick landed on Richter's right arm and it knocked him right into Weiss. They collided hard in mid-air and Richter felt both the left side of his skull and his left hip flare up in pain. He tumbled end over end, no longer sure where he was in the air exactly. Once again, Darion appeared before him, this time the psychopath's right arm was reared back, he brought it forward in a powerful punch that connected solidly with Richter's face, right under his left eye. The short ex-huntsman found himself falling once more, he then felt his back connect with the ground, pain shooting through his entire body, even to his extremities.
Then everything went black.
When he came back to, Richter found himself lying in a crater. The sounds of battle still filled his ears and he looked to his left to see Weiss desperately trying to hold Darion at bay with aura blasts from her glyphs. He must not have been out for very long.
Richter went to stand up and was immediately met with a wave of pain, it hurt to move anything, even a finger. He could only lie there and watch helplessly as Weiss tried to conjure another glyph only for Darion to swoop down on his wings and ram his shoulder into her chest. The impact sent the heiress through a tree and she bounced a few times on the ground before rolling to a stop, unmoving. Darion took to the skies again, positioning himself above Weiss' downed form and aiming the gun barrel of his sword at her.
Richter cursed and tried to rise again, but it was no use, his body didn't want to respond. He was powerless to intervene.
And then a shot rang out, a very familiar report of a sniper rifle. Darion jerked awkwardly in the air, as if hit in the head by something. Richter heard several more reports from the rifle and the transformed psychopath was knocked away from his position right above Weiss, though he still kept himself in the air.
That only lasted for a second though as the familiar blonde hair of Yang Xiao Long streaked across the sky, making a beeline right for Darion. She planted her right fist into the gut of the psychopath and fired point-blank. Darion rocketed towards the ground, crashing hard and shooting up all sorts of debris in the air.
Richter weakly looked in front of him to see a red cloak drop in and coalesce into the familiar form of Ruby Rose. She looked at him stoically with her silver eyes, Crescent Rose embedded into the ground and gripped firmly in her right hand. Her red cloak billowed in the wind and in the light of the shattered moon, she looked less like a petite girl and more like the grim reaper clad in scarlet.
"You're in bad shape Richter." She said to him.
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Next Chapter: The conclusion for Blake vs. Gena, also the rest of Team RWBY vs. Darion Shiver
A/N: The conclusion to the story is on the horizon, probably a few more chapters. I hope it's been an enjoyable read for you all.
