Chapter XV
Alma Xin….Simon heard that name before…..and he realised that his team was in front of one of the worst criminals Vytal had ever known.
Alma, which is mostly known by her nickname, the Shadow Witch, was once a little girl that was living in Vale. When she was still living there, she realised that she was born with magical powers after strangling a mouse by her own hand. Problem is that the magic she was using was Dark Dust Magic, that didn't have to require Dust to use, but is slowly turning those who uses these into malevolent beings. After killing one of her schoolmates in Signal by literally pulverising him, she was imprisoned in the public jail. But, one day, she escaped in the Emerald Forest and never returned. The Police and the warriors of Signal had kept a strong defense in the city for many years, thinking she would came back. But, since last year, the defenses of the city were lowered because the case of Alma was closed….until the attacks on the road were manifested. The victims that were attacked were reduced to bones, eaten alive. She was not only a witch, she was also a cannibal.
And it looks like she found some followers too.
-DIE! , said Alma, casting a spell that created a black spear in the air and throwing it to Tyler.
-Look out! , shouted Simon.
Simon casted a Dust shield spell to protect Tyler, but the spear was still rushing into the shield, forcing the shield to crack. When the shield broke, he and Tyler jumped back and the spear planted itself into the ground.
-You asked for it! , said Simon.
After saying this, electricity burst into Simon's hand. He jumped, teleported himself in front of Alma and did an uppercut to her, blasting her with electricity into the air. However, she did not appeared to have any damage to her. She took her sickles, morphed them into a shotgun and shot a bullet in direction of Simon in a blasting sound. Anna reacted to it, took her sniper in hand and shot the bullet with extreme precision, blasting the bullet in the wall.
-What? , said Alma.
-Anna? , said Simon, astonished by her shot.
The two other witches, then, jumped toward the others, weapons in hand.
-FOOLS! YOU WISH TO DEFY US, THEN SO BE IT! , shouted Alma, on the brink of madness.
A black circle suddenly was traced around Simon. When he tried to move away from it, he couldn't move.
-You….coward. ''laugh'' You call yourself….a witch….but you don't even have the courage to duel me. , said Simon, confronting Alma.
-''crazy maniac-like laugh'' I only did this to watch your pitiful weak friends of yours die in front of your eyes, you miserable ANT! , laughed Alma.
Simon didn't realised that the two other witches were gone fighting his teammates. He started a spell incantation that is supposed to wipe out any sign of dark magic on sight. The problem is that the incantation is long and he has to concentrate himself the most he can to do this.
-Damnit! I hope the others will be fine without me. , said Simon in his head.
The battle between his teammates and the witches had begun. Emma took her swords in hand and rushed to the flail-wielding witch. While she was rushing, the witch was shooting her with her musket with poor precision, missing all of her shots. However, when Emma was close to her, she took her flail and tried to hit Emma, but she was too fast and one of Emma's swords had gone through her belly.
-Take this! , said Emma.
But, when the witch fell on the ground and disappeared, she shortly reappeared kicked her in the face, launching Emma back from the witch.
-What? How could this be possible? I saw you dead! , said Emma.
Suddenly, a Nevermore was flying just before her. She jumped in the air and tried to hit the beast, but the bird disappeared, reappeared in her back and shouted with an ear shattering sound.
-Aaaaah! Make it stop, make it stop! , shouted Emma, covering her ears with her hands.
But, on Simon's part, there was nothing around her. The witch that she was fighting, though, was far from her and appeared to use some sort of incantation
-Emma! She…..uses illusion spells! What you see….are hallucinations! , warned Simon.
-What? , said Emma.
When Emma heard Simon, the bird was not there anymore, leaving only the witch with her. She then realised that the witch was using hallucinations to trick her.
-Trying to mess with my mind, you jerk?! , shouted Emma.
When the witch suddenly realised the incantation was broken because of Emma's realisation, it was too late. One of Emma's arrow hit her in the head and she fell on the ground, immediately dead.
-Thanks! , shouted Simon.
-Hey, we need a little help here! , said Tyler.
The other witch had gone invisible and she was trying to hit Anna and Tyler. Anna suddenly realised that, when she was walking, footsteps were seen on the ground because there was some sand on the ground because of the many deformations to the cave maid by the many spells the witches used.
- La fin est proche pour toi….et tu ne seras bientôt plus de ce monde! , whispered the invisible witch in an unknown language.
-You should check your ground before talking! , shouted Anna.
-Let's go! , said Tyler.
Tyler, then, punched the witch by referring to her footsteps, making her stop her invisibility. When she bounced off the wall, Anna shot a bullet in her right shoulder, waited for Tyler to make her jump with his sword and planted her staff in her stomach, which also rushed her on the ground with the strength of her strike.
-''cough'' Je viens vers toi, père… , said the witch in her final words while putting her hand in the air trying to reach something before finally dying.
-NOOO! , shouted Alma, affected by her followers' deaths.
Simon, then, finished is incantation, transformed his scimitar into his pistols and started to rain bullets into her. But, suddenly, a black lightning bolt hit Simon and made him launch himself into one of the walls. Just before he hit the wall, he quickly teleported himself in front of Alma and a sudden clash between her and Simon began, his scimitar hitting each time her sickles with perfect precision. The fight was fast, with each second the sound of their blades followed.
The rest of the team began to follow shortly after, trying to hit Alma with their weapons. She began to feel the exhaustion of her evades, but her madness wasn't ending at all, with each hit fueling it.
-ENOUGH! , shouted Alma before casting a Push spell, pushing back team SEAT.
-Shadow Witch Alma Xin, abandon your attacks or we will be forced to kill you for the safety of Vytal! , shouted Simon, shortly after regaining back his balance after her spell.
-I WILL NEVER SURRENDER! , shouted Alma, who was obviously now completely mad by Simon's team's advantage in this battle.
-Then so be it. , said Simon, calmly.
Simon then teleported himself in front of her, planted his scimitar into her stomach, got back by shooting with the gun barrels that were placed on the scimitar and casted a fireball that he hit her with all the Dust he had left. The fireball pushed her on the ground, and engulfed her in flames, making her cry in pain as the flames were killing her slowly.
After ten minutes, the flames stopped and showed her body. She was unrecognisable: she was disfigured and almost all of her skin was burned to ashes.
-Even if she was a criminal, I don't think someone should die like this. , said Tyler. It was pretty awful to see.
-I know. But it was unfortunately the best thing to do, or else she would have done the same thing than before. , admitted Simon, looking disappointed by his decision.
-Still, I regret killing human beings, it makes us more like murderers than heroes. , said Anna.
-Anna. You should not worry about them. They were more murderers than us and they were also cannibals; they deserved to die as soon as possible or they would have done worse. , said Emma, trying to convince Anna.
-She's right, don't let yourselves down just for that, sis. , said Tyler.
-Let's get of here. I'll start to write the report of the operation as soon as my foot will be out of that wretched place. , said Simon, opening his gauntlet's screen and starting to write on it.
When they got back to Beacon, it was already nighttime and the students were already sleeping. The team got back to their chambers and fell asleep has well. Before going to sleep, Simon had finished the report he was writing on his gauntlet's screen he will give to Ozpin tomorrow morning, but he suddenly realised he did a mistake: he didn't verified the state of Alma to verify if she was still alive.
-Bah, no matter, I am sure she couldn't had survive what I've done to her. ''sigh'' , said Simon, almost whispering to not wake up his teammates.
Meanwhile, Shinigami hideout:
Alma was lying on the ground, on the brink of death. She was surprised that was still alive, but she would have wished she would have died because of the incredible pain she was suffering.
Suddenly, a silhouette covered by the darkness of the room was seen.
-Do you want to regain your ancient mastery, conscience and power? , said the silhouette.
-Y….yes…..please….. , said Alma, faintly.
-Then give me your hand. , said the silhouette, laying his hand to her.
Alma put her hand in the silhouette and they teleported away.