This isn't a fight. It's a slaughter.
That was the though going through Blake's head as she once again threw her Gambol Shroud at Rogue, who was currently engaged in combat against Pyrrha and Ren.
Noticing the movement, Rogue swung Nora's Magnhild at Pyrrha. Unable to dodge in time, Pyrrha raised her shield to block the blow, but the sheer force behind the strike seemed to transfer through her shield and she found herself on her knees. Ren, thinking he had the advantage while Rogue was turned, attempted to strike him at the neck with StormFlower's blade.
Unfortunately for Ren, Rogue anticipated this action and he quickly turned and grabbed the teen by his arm, and using the momentum he gained he threw Ren at Blake while spinning Magnhild and knocking Pyrrha to the side, causing her to fly through the air and land next to Weiss.
Blake managed to catch Ren, who gave her a grateful look as she helped him stand back up and glared at Rogue. Blake looked at Ren. He was breathing heavily and had a large amount of bruises across his body. Though everyone else wasn't in much better condition, Ren had taken the worst of it.
His usual calm and collected demeanour was broken once he saw Nora hit that column, and in a blind fit of rage he had charged towards Rogue with StormFlower blazing.
He failed to notice that the bullets were passing through his target, like a mirage, and was struck by Magnhild from beneath as Rogues illusion dispersed and he reappeared. Being flung into the air, Ren was helpless as Rogue did a serious of quick blows before finishing his attack with a single, mighty swing, that sent Ren flying towards another column.
Thankfully, Ren was saved by Professor GoodWitch, who managed to redirect and slow him through wind manipulation and bring him gently to the ground.
After Ren's attack, everybody started to make their move.
Yang and Ruby charged at Rogue simultaneously.
Utilising her Ember Celica, Yang aimed it behind her and shot it, sending her flying towards Rogue. While in mid air, she began to fire shots at Rogue while Ruby closed the distance between them.
Rogue remained still as he deflected Yang's shots and raised Magnhild to meet Crescent Rose as the scythe dropped down. Rogue raised a brow, clearly impressed by the strength he could feel from the blow of the girl. Ruby began her assault, buying time for Yang who had yet to land.
Timing her shots, she began a series of quick blows to keep him occupied as Yang landed behind him. Yang shared a knowing look with Ruby, and Ruby quickly ended her assault and jumped back to create some distance.
However, Rogue picked up on what they were attempting to do. As Ruby jumped back, Rogue used the spiked back of Magnhild and wrapped it around the blade of Crescent Rose, trapping it. He then swung the war hammer over his head, carrying Ruby with it, and slammed it into the ground behind him, where Yang was standing.
Yang had seen the wide movement and jumped back in time to avoid being squashed by Magnhild, but was hit by a recognisable sheet of flying red. Yang and Ruby tumbled and turned and rolled along the ground creating distance between them and Rogue.
Weiss attempted to take advantage of Rogue's seemingly defensive position and attacked, thrusting Myrtenaster at his exposed back, quickly closing the distance between them. When the tip of her blade was within an inch of his back Rogue spun on his heel, turning to face Weiss while simultaneously dodging her strike.
Using Weiss's momentum against her, Rogue tripped her, and as she was suspended in mid air he swung Magnhild. Weiss managed to create a protective glyph just in time to stop Magnhild from hitting her, but the wide-arched blow had a large amount of force behind it, and she found herself flung in the direction of Professor GoodWitch.
GoodWitch, once again, managed to slow her students fall which provided enough time for Weiss to form a glyph to land on.
However, as her feet touched the ground it seemed that she was having trouble standing up. Blake noticed it wasn't just her either; Ren, Yang, and Ruby were in a similar condition, each struggling to stand.
With this in mind, Blake carefully began her assault.
Rather than getting within striking range of Magnhild, she threw Gambol Shroud and attacked from a distance, circling Rogue as to attack him from every angle. She wasn't the only one, Pyyrha had noticed her friends conditions and had resorted to using Milo in its rifle form to attack, firing bullets at whatever possible openings provided by Blake's attacks.
Rogue understood what the two girls were trying to do and responded accordingly. Rather than allow Blake to control the flow of battle, he would purposely bait her with openings, and would evade or block accordingly. As he did this, it decided how he would respond to Pyyrha's attacks. If he chose to block an attack by Blake he would evade Pyyrha's shots, and if he evaded Blake's strikes he would deflected Pyyrha's bullets with Magnhild.
As Gambol Shroud came down for another strike, Rogue grabbed the ribbon holding the bladed edge and with a great amount of force he tugged it, bringing Blake closer to him. Though Blake wasn't expecting the movement, she managed to compose herself long enough to create a clone to take the blow of Magnhild and quickly jumped back. Using the recoil of Gambol Shroud she was able to successfully get it out of Rogues hand.
However as her feet touched the ground she found it hard to stand, and she realised that whatever strange method Rogue was using to sap the others of their strength wasn't limited to Magnhild. She took a quick look at Gambol Shroud, it was only for an instant before it vanished, but Blake swore she saw her trusted weapon flash and cackle with a dark glow. And she could only watch as Pyyrha moved in to attack.
Pyyrha realised that if she just kept shooting bullets at Rogue he would simply deflected or block them, so she transformed Milo into its sword form and went within striking distance. Rogue smirked at her and adopted a battle ready stance, and that was when Ren showed up. He had recovered from his original blows and joined Pyyrha in her attack.
And this was all within three minutes of the fight.
'He's playing with us.' Ren said and Blake found herself nodding in agreement. Despite their numbers they hadn't managed to actually land a hit on Rogue, who was now engaged in battle against Ruby, Yang and Weiss who had managed to recover some of their strength.
Though battle isn't exactly how Blake would describe it.
It was more that the girls were fighting while he was dancing. Every movement of his falling in line with theirs creating an odd display of grace and elegance, before the dance was abruptly ended by a large swing that sent all of them flying off in different directions.
Yang was flying towards Blake, and Blake managed to catch her with some assistance from Ren. Yang gave the two a grateful look and a sheepish grin. Blake could see that Yang was quite tired, a far cry from her usual energetic self, and realised that an extended battle would only do more harm than good for all of them.
'How did you beat this guy before?' She asked Yang as she and Ren helped her up.
Yang adopted a thoughtful look. Wondering exactly how she did it, when she recalled the events of that night. 'That amulet was around his neck and when it cracked he lost focus and dropped his guard.' Yang scowled at the thought of the amulet and cursed her stupidity, if she hadn't taken it with her then they wouldn't be in this situation right now. 'You think we can use it against him?' She asked.
'I don't think so.' Said Ren. 'I don't think a guy like that will make the same mistake twice.'
Blake nodded grimly and Yang found herself in agreement. Blake looked at Rogue who was looking rather bored with the whole affair. Blake wondered what to do next, when Ruby popped out of nowhere.
'Guy's.' She said. 'I have a plan.'
Blake, Yang, and Ren all raised a brow in Ruby's direction but all had that same knowing smile on their faces. Though things looked grim, Ruby tended to shine during such moments.
'Ok, little sis.' Yang said as she pounded her fists together with a confident grin. 'What's the plan?' Ren and lake simply nodded and awaited their orders.
Ruby smiled. 'Right. I've already told Weiss and Pyyrha what they have to do so our job is going to be buying Professor GoodWitch the time she needs.'
'Time for what?' Ren asked, confused by the cryptic nature of the explanation.
Ruby grinned. 'You'll see. Remember, we don't have to beat him, just keep him occupied, and when I give the signal we all retreat from our positions, okay?'
The three nodded and Ruby smiled. Everyone prepared their weapons and faced Rogue, who had been eyeing their action curiously but otherwise remained where he stood.
'Let's hit him with everything we've got!' Ruby shouted as they began their attack.
Rogue had found himself impressed on more than one occasion with the girl in the red hood.
The first was with her unique weapon. He meant it when he told her it was a masterpiece, as he had never seen anything like it before.
The second time was when he saw her wield it. It was like a complete extension of herself, effortlessly pulling of attack with the weapon at high speeds, understanding it in a way that only intense training and time could've provided.
The third was how strong her blows were. Despite her small size and stature, she had a surprisingly large amount of strength.
The fourth was her speed. Almost to fast for the eye to catch, he had actually resorted to having to read her mind ahead of time to get a feeling of where she would attack next. No small feat.
And the most recent occasion was with her intelligence and leadership abilities.
After Rogue had flung her, Yang, and that white haired girl (he thinks he heard Ruby call her Weiss) from his position, he watched with growing interest as Ruby, who landed next to Professor GoodWitch and that girl with the sword and shield, whispered something to them.
He was out of range, so he couldn't hear a word of what they were discussing, but he was ninety-seven percent certain that Ruby had come up with some sort of strategy against him, which soon turned to a hundred percent as GoodWitch and sword and shield girl nodded. Sword and shield girl ran over to Weiss and told her something while Ruby ran over to where Yang and some other students were standing.
The students seemed to gain a hopeful glimmer in their eyes as they listened to what she said, and all of them readied themselves and charged at him with Ruby at the centre. Rogue was indeed impressed.
However, now wasn't the time to admire her. Rogue had learn't that regardless of how strong a single person was, when people began to work as a cohesive unit under an intelligent mind then even the weakest creatures could pose a threat.
He readied his weapon and met their charge.
Crescent Rose met Magnhild once more as Ruby reached Rogue. Utilising her semblance, she attacked him from every angle and direction she could, but was becoming irritated as Rogue blocked and evaded her strikes.
She had noticed it before, that Rogue seemed to always know what she was going to do next, and though she didn't know how he did it, she did know that it was incredibly annoying. After a few more strikes she quickly jumped to the side, allowing Yang to take over.
Yang was pissed. Rogue had put a gun to her sisters head and hurt her friends. Her eyes were burning a brighter shade of red than they ever had before and her every strike at Rogue emitted huge bursts of flame.
Yang knew that she was just supposed to distract Rogue, but she would be a lot happier if she got to hit the bastard at least once. Unfortunately, in her rage her movements had become more predictable and Rogue easily avoided them and swung Magnhild at her, forcing her to dodge and drop back with Ren to take her place.
Ren realised that blindly rushing at Rogue was dangerous and had returned to his calmer self. Utilising his aura, Ren performed hit and run tactics. Closing within striking distance, he would attack with StormFlower and create a barrier to defend from Magnhilds strikes, before jumping back and firing bullets at Rogue.
Blake worked in unison with this.
Each time Ren would jump back she would take his place. Creating several clones she would fill in and attack Rogue. Rogue dodged most of her strikes and actually utilised the clones to his advantage, he would grab one and use it as a shield to protect him from Ren's shower of bullets or throw them at Blake, forcing her to drop back.
The students from Beacon alternated their strikes and attacks, working like clockwork to buy time for Ruby's plan. Rogue spent most of the time dodging or evading all their blows, only blocking and counter-attacking when necessary.
He honestly had no desire to cause deadly injury to them, which was why he had purposely decided to enrage them. When people are angry or frightened they don't think straight, they make mistakes, and Rogue could exploit those mistakes to their fullest.
Rogue blocked yet another strike from Ruby and pushed her away, into Yang. Yang caught her sister and was about to make a move when Ruby smiled and yelled.
'NOW!'
All the students jumped back and Rogue raised a brow. He quickly looked in the direction Ruby had been looking and realised that he had made a mistake.
He had forgotten about GoodWitch.
Weiss smirked. She had to admit, Ruby had really outdone herself with this plan.
While Ruby and her group kept Rogue distracted. Weiss and Pyyrha were tasked with gathering materials. Weiss's job was to create as much ice as possible, and Pyyrha's was to destroy the columns surrounding the courtyard. When they had finished it was Glynda's turn.
Utilising her Dust manipulation techniques, Glynda gathered all the materials to form a giant sphere of earth and ice into the air. The sphere then splintered into hundreds of pieces and Glynda used those pieces to form hundreds of giant spears of earth and ice. Glynda positioned them so that they would be right above Rogue, meaning as little damage would be done to her students and to the academy's grounds as possible.
Glynda waited patiently for Ruby's signal. She had to admit, Ozpin may hay been right in allowing her into Beacon.
'NOW!'
When Ruby said that, Glynda released her storm of spears with pinpoint accuracy at Rogue.
Time seemed to slow down as Rogue considered his options.
There was no way he would be able to dodge all of those, and even if he managed to that would put him at a disadvantage. He wouldn't be able to block them or deflect them either, they were to heavy for that. That left only one option.
He had to destroy them.
He had preserved most of his mana, only using it sparingly to siphon of a bit of energy here and there from the Beacon students, and had refrained from using most of his skills, as they wasted a lot of his energy at times. But right now was an emergency.
He raised Magnhild towards the sky, and in a gentle voice he whispered:
'Songbird.'
What the students at Beacon witnessed was nothing short of amazing.
As Rogue raised Magnhild towards the sky it began to shine with a bright golden glow. They could only look on in wonder and awe as Magnhild began to float from Rogue's hand and in shock as it transformed into a stunning bird of light.
The bird opened its beak and from its mouth came a beam of light. The beam struck the spears of earth and ice, destroying them, but that was not what had Ruby's attention. It wasn't the beauty or fearful power of the attack.
It was the sound.
As the beam left the birds mouth, it was as if it was singing. Singing a gentle melody that brought a sense of peace to those that heard it.
Ruby found herself enjoying the melody despite herself, and believed she wasn't alone. Yang was awestruck, Blake's usual composure was broken into a state of surprise, even Weiss couldn't hide her shock at what just occurred.
And as the Songbird finished its song and returned to the form of Magnhild, all that remained of the spears were little flakes of dust that were carried away by the wind.
As Rogue caught Magnhild and placed it at his side he turned to face his opponents.
He had learnt by now that Magic wasn't a commonly accepted truth of this world, despite the fact they had achieved so much with much stranger tools. He looked at their awestruck expressions.
'So.' He said, making them snap out of their trance and returning to their guarded expressions. 'I'll just be-'
An explosion from the rooftop of Beacon interrupted him, and immediately everyone's attention was turned towards the rising smoke and debris. The smoke was thick and Rogue was to far away to make out anything specific, but he didn't need to as a figure with a tail flew out of the smoke and towards his direction.
As the figure neared Rogue, he could tell that they were unconscious, and he quickly jumped up and caught them, dropping Magnhild in the process. Rogue was pushed back by the speed the they were going at but managed to slow himself and the figure. He then looked at the figure. It was a man, a Faunus, with tan skin, blonde hair, and a monkey tail.
Rogue could see that the monkey-boy was badly injured and had slash wound all across his body. He quickly looked around. The girl in black, one of Ruby's friends, seemed to recognise monkey-boy and Rogue quickly made his way over to her.
Her and her friends thought it was a hostile gesture of attack as he approached, but were surprised as Rogue handed him over.
'He needs medical attention.' He said, gaining odd looks from all present. 'Now.' He said firmly causing Blake to snap out of her trance and she quickly set about getting him to the infirmary. As soon as she entered the building, Rogue looked up at the smoke.
Another figure was emerging, a male, probably the one that injured monkey-boy, and if monkey-boys wounds were any indication, he wasn't friendly.
Rogue looked over his shoulder. Others were looking at the smoke, but none of them were in much of a state to fight and if he really was as blood-thirsty as Rogue thought then the students at Beacon would be in trouble.
Sighing, Rogue made his way back over to the dropped Magnhild and picked it up. He then stared at the male figure in the smoke as they jumped off the roof of Beacon and landed in front of him.
He was quite tall. He had brown hair dyed with red streaks that spiked backwards. He wore a mask that obscured his eyes and upper face, and a long sleeved black trench coat accompanied by long black pants, shoes and gloves.
Rogue immediately noticed that something was very wrong with this man. In his hand he held a red katana that seemed to be emitting dark energy, and his mouth was trembling, foaming like some uncontrollable beast. Rogue could see that the man's beastly state made him incredibly dangerous.
Knowing the he couldn't leave or the Beacon Students could get killed, he prepared Magnhild.
This is going to be tough...