Chapter 35 – Esdeath

About a mile away, Esdeath looks down from her griffin at the Grimm fleeing the area. She looks over to the tower to see the dark clouds. The sadistic descends on her beast to land on the edge of an abandoned building's rooftop.

"Looks like I missed out on something big at the tower. I wonder if that is from Cinder, or the person that killed her." Esdeath thinks to herself as she smiles, "I should go back. These Grimm are boring me anyway."

As she is about to command her beast to fly, a ball of fire hits the griffin the head. The beast falls over dead as Esdeath jumps of it to land on the street. She looks over to where the attack had come from to see a woman with long blond hair and yellow metal gauntlets. She then gives girl a smile at her foe's boldness.

"Just when I thought I was get bored of the creatures of this world. I find an interesting opponent?" The sadistic general says to the blond woman, "What is your name?"

"Yang." The blond woman replies is an angry tone. "Do you know of a girl named Weiss Schnee?" Esdeath think for a minute but does not remember anyone by that name. She shakes her head. The blonde woman's eyes turn red as she asks her next question.

"Because that is her weapon on your back. Why do you have it?" Yang says as she points to Myrtenaster. Esdeath then realizes who it is that she means.

"You mean that girl, she went looking for trouble and found me. She tried to kill me, but was too weak. I did think she had an interesting weapon, so I took it for myself. Who was she to you?" the sadistic general says as Yang charges at her with her fist raised. Esdeath blocks the blond woman's punch by summoning a pillar of ice between them. The ice pillar breaks on contact with the attacks as Esdeath jumps back. Yang looks back at Esdeath, angrier than before, with her hair glowing brighter.

"She was my friend, AND YOU KILLED HER!" Yang shout as she hits her first against each other. Esdeath smiles back in interested in the woman's ability.

"Well then, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Esdeath. Do you have the strength to avenge her?" Esdeath says as she draws her long rapier and points it at Yang. The sadistic general then rushes Yang to stab her in the heart. The blond woman dodges at the last second and tries to throws a jab at Esdeath. She dodges the punch and attempt to slash Yang again.

The two exchange a volley of attack that the other dodges. This continues until Yang grabs the blade of Esdeath's weapon. Blood runs down the blond woman's hand as she clenches her other fist. She then punches Esdeath in the stomach. The ice general is sent flying back, she skids against the street as she tries to stop herself. When she does, she looks back to realize that Yang still had her rapier. Yang shots the weapon at the handle, destroying it and throwing it rest away. Esdeath gives a smile as she gets back on her feet.

"Smart, destroying my weapon so I cannot use." Esdeath says before she pulls out Weiss' weapon and points it at Yang, "However, I do have a spare." Yang's furiously charges at Esdeath. The sadistic general stabs the ground with Myrtenaster to create an ice floor. The blond woman slips on the ice and slides, uncontrollable towards her enemy. Esdeath skies on the ice towards Yang, the tip of the rapier is grinding against the ice. As the blade approaches Yang's neck, she intercepts the weapon by blocking it with her gauntlets.

Esdeath lifts up her weapon and aims for Yang's head. The blond woman then aims her Ember Celica at the ice and shots. A cloud of white smoke forms as Esdeath backs up. The sadistic general looks in the smoke to see Yang getting up. Esdeath creates multiple ice spikes and sends them into the white cloud. As they go through the smoke, most embed in the wall of a building across her. A few spike imbeds in Yang; one in her right shoulder, one in her left abdomen, and one in her left thigh. Her blood mixes with the ice as she looks back at Esdeath.

"So your aura's already gone. You must have used it in another fight. Was it with one of my subordinates?" Esdeath says as she smiles again.

"SHUT UP!" Yang shouts as she pulls out the ice spike in her shoulder and shoots again. Esdeath runs to evade the attacks as she circles the blond woman. Yang continues firing out of both until she hears an empty click. Esdeath rushes, knowing her foe is out of ammo, and tries to stab Yang. The blond woman dodges the attacks as best she can. Esdeath aims for Yang's face but misses and cuts the blond woman's hair.

Yang sees the strands of her hair fall and screams in front of Esdeath. She punches the sadistic general's weapon out of her hand. Esdeath's eyes widen in surprise over her foe's change in fighting stamina. She attempts to bock the barrage of punches for the blond woman but could not intercept all attacks. Yang the punches Esdeath in the right forearm with the force of the impact breaking the bone of the sadistic general.

Esdeath lowers her guard in pain. Yang then grabs Esdeath's left arm and then punches her foe in the face. Esdeath falls back with Yang still holding onto the left arm. The blond woman then throws Esdeath against the ground at her feet. Yang the kicks the sadistic general into the middle of the street a few feet away.

Esdeath picks herself up and looks at Yang. "Impressive, I guess you have forced my hand." The sadistic general says as she closes her eyes and puts her hands together. Her right arm trembling a bit form the pain, but the Esdeath still smiles. Yang charges at Esdeath, who begins to chant.

"Mahapadma." The sadistic general says, causing time stops around her. She opens her eyes to see Yang stops in the middle of her punch in front of her.

"This is my trump card, the ability to freeze time." Esdeath says to Yang before walking over to pick Myrtenaster. "However, I can only use it once a day, but this is the first time I have used it in real combat." She then walks over to Yang and points the rapier against at her abdomen. "You may have been the strongest enemy I have fought since getting here, but it just was not good enough." Esdeath then stabs Yang as time resumes. Her blade runs deep into Yang's body, further than the ice spike did. It exits out the back of the blond woman as she feel the pain come to her in an instant.

As Esdeath removes the blade, Yang she falls on the ground. She coughs up blood as she tries to stand up, holding the fresh wound. Esdeath puts her hand over Yang's face. Ice forms around the blond woman's body, fully incasing her in a few seconds. Esdeath removes her hand and begins to walk towards the tower with a slight smile.

"I wonder if there are others in this world that strong." Esdeath thinks when suddenly, she hears a crackling sound behind her. The ice general looks back in denial at the encased woman break out of the ice. As Yang stands up, her body is engulfed in fire. Her hands become those of a beast, covered in yellow furor and a black nails. She grows a long yellow tail and cat ears. Her wound over her body quickly begin to heal.

"We are not finished yet!" Yang says as she starts walking towards Esdeath.

"How!? You should be dead!" Esdeath says as she tries to hold up her weapon. She then notices the belt the blond woman is wearing. She remembers the design from the book of imperial arms. "Where did you find an imperial arm in this world!?"

"I did not find it, I inherited it form a dying friend. It not only gives me extra strength, but also gives me the ability to regenerate after any damage." Yang says as she hits her beast fists against each other. "I knew the moment I put it on, I could find the person that kill my teammate. All I have to do was follow where my gut said the most dangerous person was." The blond woman says before she rushes at the sadistic general.

Esdeath takes a defensive stance as Yang's fist collides with the hilt of Myrtenaster. She almost loses her grip on the weapon, not expecting that such an increase in power. Yang punches Esdeath in the stomach, pushing the sadistic general back a couple of feet. She coughs up blood as she realizes her now broken ribs had pierced her internal organs, but she still smiles when she looks back at Yang.

"Now this is invigorating! I have never been this close to death! Esdeath says in an ecstatic tone as she summons a gigantic ball of ice over her head, equaling in size some of the nearby stores. She sends the monolithic ice ball towards the blond woman. Yang stands her ground as the ice ball gets close, then uppercuts it into the sky. It cracks and breaks apart the high it goes. Esdeath raises her had to the ice chunks in the air. The break apart into sharp ice spikes that fall towards Yang. The blond woman ignores them as she focuses on Esdeath. She dashes towards the sadistic general, avoiding the ice spikes overhead.

Esdeath blocks Yang's punches as she see an opening. She kicks Yang in her side with her right leg. The blond woman feels the tip of the boot dig into her flesh and closes her eyes in pain. Esdeath smiles as she lowers her leg and tries to kick Yang's other side with her left leg. Her smile fades as Yang opens her angry red eyes and catches Esdeath's left leg. Yang punches the ice general in the shine, breaking the bones and shattering the joints.

Esdeath screams out in agony as she tries to stab Yang with Myrtenaster. The sadistic general aims up and pierces the center of the blond woman's right palm. Yang grits her teeth as she lets go of the sadistic general's broken left leg and grabs Esdeath's hand holding the rapier. She forces the weapon out of the ice general's hand and pulls the blade out of her own. The blond woman slices across Esdeath's chest. As the blood pour out the sadistic general, she notices Yang clenches her right fist. Esdeath tries to block but could not react quick enough.

The beast hand of Yang collides with Esdeath's face. The sadistic general flys back ten feet from the blond woman. She lands on her back and closes her eyes as in pain. Yang breaths out an exhausted sighs as she walks over to Esdeath. She stands over the sadistic general, tightening her grip on her deceased teammate's weapon.

Esdeath opens her eyes to looks up look up to see the blonde woman with holding the rapier over her head. She smiles again as she looks into the angry red eyes of Yang. "The strong survive while the weak die. What are you, Yang?" Esdeath says as she she's the blond woman lift up Myrtenaster.

"I am what Weiss and Leone were, someone who fights to kill the evil in this world and protect people from the likes of you!" Yang says in an unflinching tone at Esdeath as she runs the rapier through the skull of the sadistic general. She see the blood splatter from the impact, pouring around her foes light blue hair.

Yang pulls out the weapon and transforms out of her beast form. Her hair slowly dims in colors. She stares at the dead body of Esdeath as her eye change from red to lilac. Yang begins walking towards the tower at Beacon preparing herself to tell the people from another world what had happened.

Upon that thought, Yang looks in the sky at the clouds to remember the two friends she had just lost. Even she did not know both for that long, she remembers all the good things they did for her. She realizes that is the way she wants to remember her teammate and her friend from another world.