Yang weaved around the razor edge, driving one fist into her opponents armpit, before swinging round to deliver a blow to his head. He almost fell, but instead pivoted on the handle of his axe as its heavy blade sunk into the floor
One.
Gripping it in two hands, he sprung forward with a savage slash, yang caught the blade on ember Cecilia, and with a flick of her wrist sent the axe flying from his hands.
Two.
He didn't miss a beat, flying up with an aura boosted she felt his bare sole on the back of her head. He kicked off, blasting her across the ring.
Three.
Yang staggered up. He was rushing across the ring, steel glinting in blue eyes. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and twisted. Her right arm snapped out, her knuckles met his jaw and his legs were knocked from beneath him. He landed with a heavy thud and did not rise. GUNS: 1, AXE:0
Yang was drenched in sweat, and stank worse than an Ursa. The shower was a relief for her nose, but it did little to ease her aching muscles. A small price to pay for strength, and she needed to be stronger. As she dried her hair, her thoughts drifted back to the library, the shadowy creature standing among the ashes, untouchable.
If not for the huntress' gift they all would have died. She had watched the Shadow as she watched any opponent, trying to gauge its strength, its fighting style, trying to understand it, trying to find its weakness. She'd only understood one thing. Having felt the power behind its attacks, aura or no, a single hit would have cut her in two. She couldn't let that happen, she needed to be there for ruby, for Blake, hell, even for Weiss. RWBY needed her. She couldn't keep taking risks and expect to get out alive, because one day lady luck would turn her back.
They were sat in the reception, Blake and clement on a leather sofa, and ruby on a plastic chair beside them. Blake was on her scroll, ruby was looking bored, and clement appeared to be unconscious, yang noticed he was covered in an assortment of plasters decorated with Cartoonish flowers and ducks, she would have laughed at how ridiculous he looked, had he not appeared half dead as well.
"Whats up with chuckles?"
Putting away her scroll, Blake sighed, giving ruby a reproachful glare. "SOMEONE thought knocking was overrated, and decided throwing poor clement through the window was a better way of getting my attention."
"Im not poor, i got like 5 lien, thats five more than poor" clement's eyes where half open, he still lay slumped against the sofa, after staring at her for an uncomfortably long moment he began a staring match with his hand.
"Is he alright?"
"Turns out painkillers don't go well with alcohol"
"You gave him alcohol?"
"He was already drunk when he was used as ammunition. According to ruby he's been going from bar to bar ever since he got his pay, which is apparently Beacons attempt at reparations for being teamed with terrorists. unfortunately she told me this after i gave him the painkillers"
Ruby was giving her best "im sorry" face, but Blake ignored her.
"So what do we do with him?"
"Take him with us, if we leave him he'll end up at the bar again."
"Home?"
"Beacon"
"Has Ozpin got new orders for this mission that's we're apparently still on?"
"No, but we need to see him. We just had a very interesting meeting"
The cafe was unusually quiet, situated in the fashion districts main street, it should have been packed. But only one chair was occupied, at the entrance of the cafe. The man flashed them a welcoming smile. He had brilliant blue eyes, unsettlingly blue, and shoulder length sandy blonde hair. Just as Blake opened her mouth to plead with ruby to behave herself as he could be an excellent source of information on their mission, Blake had guessed that was what this was about anyway, ruby vanished in a cloud of rose petals.
He still smiled, unsettlingly calm for a man with a scythe at his neck. It didn't seem like a bluff either, his aura showed no sign of fear, only a sharp spike of amusement. He cocked his head back to address the scowling huntress. "OR we could talk this out"
Ruby's only reply was to press the blade harder against his throat. Someone had set an alarm for this meeting on Ruby's scroll. Ruby hadn't liked that one bit, especially as her phone never left the top pocket of her jacket, making it, according to her logic, impossible to steal and set alarms on. The spike of amusement died down and the mans aura went grey. Then he was standing, holding out a compacted crescent rose to its bewildered owner, who took the weapon in numb fingers before slumping into an empty chair, shellshocked. The man turned, but looked right past her at clement, who had sluggishly stumbled on after them, refusing any help. "Would you like a drink?"
Clement nodded feebly, painstakingly lowering himself into a chair. Though he caught the bottle deftly as it flew towards him, knocking off the cap with the back of his hand, the practiced manner of a heavy drinker. Flopping back into the chair, he knocked back the bottle.
Then he turned to her, twin gemstones boring into her soul. "Now miss belladonna, let's have a chat"
"What did he say?"
"Im just getting to that"
"Just remember who you're dealing with"
Blake, of course, knew how short her partners attention span was, and with a sigh, she admitted defeat. "The abridged version then".
" Basically he agreed with Clement. we have to go north, and we have to do it alone."
"So the usual shit"
"Essentially"
Yang was excited, their first mission in forever! , she was planning what to pack when her mind flittered to her bike, fresh from the workshop, waiting outside for her, one ride couldn't hurt. She turned to her sister, smirking. "Race you to the station." Then ruby was gone, dragging clement behind her. And yang was not far behind, rushing out the door with Blake slung over one shoulder.
"I feel like i should be surprised."
Ozpins eyes were locked on the map before him, and his steaming mug had paused halfway up. He was looking better since last time they had seen him, the frailness had left him, and his trademark smile had returned, the soft smirk adding to the shroud of mystery he loved to cloak himself in. His aura had also regained its vigour, last time he had felt almost dead, a bitter husk, but now his aura glowed with a flurry of emotion. His decline and recovery had been unnaturally fast. Blake doubted stress had really been the cause, but it was better not to ask. If Ozpin had wanted them to know he would have told them.
"Ever since you walked through those gates, five long years ago, i would be hard pressed to find any major event that you where not involved in, but i do not believe that to be a bad thing.
You came here, to quote myself, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And you have done far more than that. You weathered four years of madness and mayhem. Frankly, To say i am proud of you would be a vast understatement. In my opinion, sending you with any kind of backup would be an insult to your skill, and furthermore if this man is who i think he is, it would be wise to heed his advice."
"You know him?" The possibilities were endless, a hunter? A general like ironwood? simply an old friend?
"Not as such, but for as long as i remember the wanderer with eerily blue eyes has preceded almost every significant event in mankind's history ", Ozpin smiled knowingly.
"So you lay your trust in a total strangers judgement because of a myth?"
"It's called faith, Ms. Rose. And in times like this, it helps to have it.
"But what if he was wrong, or if this wasn't the same guy?"
"Then my faith will be in you, to succeed regardless of the odds. Find out why white fang took the Sword, and how Team LARK is twisted up in all of this."
Their leader stared into the middle distance for a moment, lost in thought, before she grinned at Ozpin. Giving him a sloppy salute. "We won't let you down sir!"
Ozpin returned her smile, his aura shone with pride. "I'm sure the four of you will make short work of them."
"Four?" They said in unison, did he mean to send clement with them? He was a third year, hospitalised with severe alcohol poisoning, he would be more of a hinderance than..."
"my my, was all that Maths tutoring really for nothing?."
Blake's head whipped to her right, where the empty seat had now been filled by a young woman in a pure white suit, blue eyes shining as she chuckled at her attempt at a joke. In a whoosh of rose petals she was knocked out of her seat. Ruby pulled her into a crushing hug while rattling off questions at a hundred miles an hour. Then her eyes widened and she inhaled sharply, as if remembering something important, and she vanished with Weiss in tow.
"Make sure to inform your leader that the airship to four trees military base leaves at dawn, she will have more than enough time to interrogate Ms. Schnee while trekking through the northern forests." He took a sip of coffee to hide his own smile, waving his cane in dismissal.
Question after question rushed by, she didn't even pause for an answer, or breathe. Weiss had almost forgotten how energetic the younger girl was, but after four hours of questions with no end in sight had been more than enough to remind her.
Desperate to evade the redhead's interrogation, she turned to the fifth and final passenger of the airship. Who had stood beside the bench gazing out of the Airships window.
"Im sorry if we're disturbing you sir"
The soldier studied her for a second, before leaning forward to look past her at Ruby. "Oh, no. I'm fine. I just find it a bit rude" before Weiss could reply with a solemn apology he continued.
"A bit rude that my bestest friend ruby rose tried to have all the fun without me" a smug grin split his face as the other girls groaned.
"You can't be serious"
"How are you even standing?"
"Yay, clement!"