A storm had rolled in over the skies of Atlas. Lightning lit up the sky with each natural flash. Under these kinds of circumstances, no one would be crazy enough to fly in that kind of weather. No one human anyway. But the pilots of the one shuttle that was entering Atlesian airspace were anything but human. One of the pilots pressed a red button on the control panel before him, activating the intercom.
"My lord, we've entered Atlas," the pilot stated.
"Excellent," came the voice of the most important passenger aboard the ship, "Now, locate the nearest outpost."
"Yes my lord. Beginning geo-scan."
In the back of the ship, Belail noded and closed his eyes as he awaits for his ship to arrive and drop him off. By no means was the demon lord preparing to sleep before he arrived at his destination, he was merely preparing himself for the first bloodbath he would actively partake in ever since he arrived on Remnant(the single or double homicides he conducted to sate his bloodlust didn't count). And that was 60 years ago; 20 years late of the Great War. The fact that he had missed a major war was actually quite the disappointment to the warlord but it didn't had a simple solution. If he couldn't manipulate an ongoing war, he'd just start a new one. So far, everything had gone according to plan, well, almost everything.
He remembered that day vividly. It had been only been about a month and a half since Beacon had fallen to the Grimm and the Kingdoms' trust in each other had been shattered. Under normal circumstances, he'd have been immensely pleased but to him...the mission seemed to be a failure. It all started during the singles round of the Vytal Festival. The demon lord had watched happily as he saw all the events his protege, Cinder Fall, had informed him of. First he saw the fall of the blonde brawler named Yang Xiao Long. He was informed that Emerald was to cause her to see Mercury attacking her, seemingly unprovoked. In reality, Mercury would be calmly walking up to her to congratulate her on her win. What a fool that girl was. The next event he found most entertaining due to the simple fact that it was a dismemberment. It was the four-time champion of the Mistral Regional Combat tournament, Pyrrha Nikos, against an Atlesian specialist, Penny Polendina. Cinder had told him to wait for a special surprise during this match and the Fall Maiden had delivered. The reveal of Polendina's true origins as a machine, the attack on Beacon with the White Fang and the Grimm, and even hacking the Atlesian mechanical soldiers. Belail had thought that a stroke of genius. However his amusement turned to concern when the the Dragon burst from Mountain Glenn. How had he missed it? How had he missed it when it was right under his nose? He found the other three locations but never the fourth and somehow, Cinder managed to accomplish what he had not. He wasn't sure how to feel about that at first, pride and disappointment mixing in his mind but he had more immediate concerns. Concerns, that would come to life.
But Belail's little flashback was interrupted when the pilot spoke over the intercom again.
"My lord, we've completed the geo-scan. There's a forward operations/medical base 40 miles to the west. We've reconfigured our flight path which will bring us right to their front door."
"Perfect," the demon lord responded as he rose from his seat. He walked over to supply rack opposite of him and grabbed a black hooded cloak that he placed over his armor (A/N: Imagine him wearing a technologically advanced version of Skyrim's Daedric Armor).
At least two hours pass and Belail's ship is silently hovering just outside the perimeter of the base.
"How many?" the demon lord said, standing before the landing ramp of the shuttle.
"200 staff in total my lord. 119 military personnel and 81 medical," the pilot responded.
"Only 200? Not even a proper massacre. Considering I need to leave one person alive to tell the tale when the Huntsmen get here, that's only 199 lives. It'll do for now I suppose. Besides...it'll only serve as a warm-up for the true challenge."
"Very well my lord. Opening landing ramp now."
The hydraulics hissed as the ramp opened up, allowing the torrent of rain-water to enter the ship. Belail pulled the hood of the cloak over his helmet and then jumped. He landed with a thud but due to the timing, the sound was covered with a boom of thunder. The demon looked up at the base and smiled under his helmet.
"This will be...entertaining...to say the least," the demon lord chuckled to himself as he approached the facility. If it weren't for the thunderous booms and the torrents of rain drowning them out, that night would've been filled with screams of terror and fruitless, echoing gunshots.
The next day, in Atlas' capital city, two members of team FNKI were walking to General Ironwood's office. Well, one of them was walking while the other was skating.
"So what do you think it is, Flynt? Super secret spy mission to bust some White Fang goons? Grimm attack in a village where we have to go save the day? Raid one of the WF's safehouses?" Neon Katt spoke on in a tone so joyful only Nora's could probably match it.
"It could just be a supply run, Neon," the Faunus' more level-headed partner, Flynt responded.
"Awwww but that would be soooooo BOOOOOOORING!"
"You really need to remember it's not ALWAYS about killing monsters, Neon."
"I know but it's more fun when you do!"
Flynt just smiled. "Can't argue with that I suppose."
Soon, both of them arrived at the automatic door of Ironwood's office. It slid open to a desk filled with papers and Winter Schnee, rubbing her temples behind them.
"I don't...know...how he puts up with this...madness…," the older Schnee sister sighs.
"Specialist Schnee? What are you doing here?" Flynt asked, adjusting his hat.
"Oh...Flynt and Neon...sorry. I didn't hear you come in."
"That bad of a night?" Neon asked, tilting her head and taking note of how disheveled Winter looked.
"Try nights. I've taken the General's place until he returns from his away mission. I took this post five days ago and I haven't gotten a single minute's respite from all the political anarchy. I don't know how he can take this and I'm worried Weiss will break with how much WORSE it is in the company. But...enough about that...your mission."
Once that was mentioned, both members of team FNKI stood at attention and saluted Winter as she prepared to give the briefing.
"Last night, one of our field medical bases went dark. I had considered the fact it was a simple communication blackout due to the storm, however when I tried to contact them earlier today...no one answered."
"Possible White Fang attack?" Flynt asked his superior.
"The Fang does have the manpower and resources to take it but they haven't made a blip on our radar since Vale. I'm not sure if that's changing today or something else is going on."
"Grimm then?"
"I haven't ruled that possibility out but the Grimm activity in that region has been low. Only sparse packs of Beowolves and a flock of Griffons. Our soldiers would've been able to deal with them. So, in order to figure out what happened to the medical base...I'm sending you two and a full squad of men to investigate. If it's a Grimm attack or a White Fang raid, find any survivors and eliminate any threats. Understood?"
"Yes sir!" the two specialists said in unison.
"You two will be leaving within the hour. Dismissed."
With that, the two Specialists left the office and Winter continued to work on all of the papers.
"Well it's no big raid, but I still bet it's going to fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!" Neon exclaimed as they left the office.
"Heh. Come on, let's get ready."
Only thirty minutes passed since their briefing and already, Neon and Flynt were ready to go. Neon had her nunchucks attached to her belt with a hip.
"Hmmmmm...I'm...gonna go ahead and sayyyyyyyyy...Ursa. Ursas? Ursai? Whatever," Neo continued her current conversation with Flynt about what Grimm they'd face out there and how to deal with them in the flashiest way possible. Each of the two took turns naming a Grimm and then making a small plan to deal with them.
"It's Ursai," Flynt added in.
"Right. Ursai. So...I'm thinking you hit em with your soundwaves. Make 'em deaf for a while so they can't hear us and then I come in and use my ice Dust to freeze over their eyes and watch the hilarity ensue! Also if we run into a pack of three, I make no promises about making a 'Three Blind Ursai' joke."
Flynt chuckled a bit. Neon may not make the best jokes sometimes but she does have her moments.
"Your turn Flynt."
"Griffons. I'll knock 'em outta the sky with my trumpet, you freeze their wings and feet so they can't move, then we mix one of my soundwaves with your fire Dust and they'll be fried."
"Oooh nice! Ok let me think here…"
"You'll need to tell me later. We're here. Gunships 237 and 238. Accompanied by a full squad of 20."
"We splittin' up for the ride over?"
"Sadly yes. But if ya wanna talk we can always use the private local channels on our Scrolls."
"Then expect a call from me on the way over there. This trip is like...what? At least 200 miles south? And that's gonna take us like five hours so I am going to be BORED on that long of a trip."
"I'd be surprised if you didn't get bored."
"I know right?! It'd be like I was sick or something!"
"Except after the last time you got sick, the rest of us needed to make precautions in case you even got a FEVER."
"Hey! We agreed to never bring that up again!"
Flynt simply chuckled as he tipped his hat to the cat Faunus and walked toward the first Bullhead. Neon simply pouted for a moment before skating over to the second. Filing into the gunships were ten soldiers each, the majority baring the standard blue coloration while there was at least one red-colored officer among each group. Each one had more than enough room for the 11 passengers it needed to carry. The two pairs of green-clad pilots did a diagnostics check before radioing the tower.
"Tower, this is Gunship 237, requesting permission to launch," the first pilot of Neon's ship reported.
"Tower, this is Gunship 238, requesting permission to launch," the pilot in charge of Flynt's ship radioed in.
"Gunships 237 and 238," the flight officer radioed back, "this is Tower. You are clear for launch. I repeat, you are clear for launch."
"Roger that, Tower. Beginning launch," Neon's pilot said as he flipped the switch to start their engines and the main pilot of Flynt's ship did the same. The engines roared to life as the gunships began to lift themselves off the ground. The hangar doors slowly slid open and as soon the two massive metal doors were spread apart widely enough, the two dropships zoomed off to the field medical base.
The pilots had turned on the intercom early on the in flight that the trip would at least be five hours, possibly six if the weather decided to drastically took the time to practice his non-combative trumpet skills. It was definitely a morale booster for the men on board. After all, they basically had a private jazz concert in the ship until they arrived. As for Neon...well, she tried a number of different things to keep herself occupied. She tried to take a cat nap but a bit of turbulence interrupted that; she thought of striking up a conversation with one of the soldiers but decided against it due to the fact that she normally worked with a different squad; at one point she just tried waiting for it to end. Her cheek rested in her palm and her pink tail swayed as she let out a bored sigh. She finally decided she had enough of the boring and uneventful ride and decided to call Flynt. Unfortunately for Neon, she had forgotten to charge her Scroll the night before.
Oh for the LOVE of DUST!, the cat Faunus mentally screamed as she face palmed at her own forgetfulness. Oooooooooooooooooooooof COURSE I'd forget to charge my Scroll when I need it! Does the universe WANT me to suffer the never-ending TORMENT of BOREDOM?! Does it?! The cat Faunus merely let out an exasperated sigh and her tail stopped swaying.
"This is going to be...a long...ride…," the Atlas Specialist said, defeated by her worst enemy: boredom.
Once the five hours had passed, the two gunships had reached the the outpost. Smoke rose from the metal structure.
That's not a good sign, Flynt mentally said, stating the obvious.
"Specialist Flynt, should I attempt to contact them?" the pilot spoke over the intercom.
"Yeah, you can try! Don't think you'll get an answer though!"
"This is Gunship 238 to Medical Base Sigma. Come in, Sigma," the co-pilot spoke into his radio only to receive static.
"I say again, this is Gunship 238 to Medical Base Sigma. Do you read me, Sigma?"
Again, the only answer was deafening static.
"Nothing sir. Comms must be more broken than we thought."
"All right...set us down in the clearing around the . Once we're in, you two keep a stable hover around the base. We might need a quick exit!"
"Understood sir. Beginning descent."
Shortly after the announcement was made, the ship recoiled from landing. The quick hiss of the hydraulics signaled the opening of the landing ramp. All the soldiers grabbed their gear which consisted of the standard Atlesian army kit:an Emas Arms or EA-90 assault rifle, a Goldarm-45 semi-auto pistol and a standard issue Atlesian CQC Collapsible Sword. Flynt followed the soldiers out and was soon met by the characteristic rainbow trail of Neon zooming right at him.
"OhmygodyouhavenoideahowBOREDIwasoverthere!" Neon shouted in a single breath.
"Then why didn't you call? Oh...wait...you forgot to charge your Scroll last night didn't you?" Flynt
"Yeah…"
"See, this is what happens when you're so invested in Remnant: The Game."
"It's a good game! I know you enjoyed it! Especially that one time where you were Vale and you DEMANDED me-as Atlas- to regulate the power of the SDC which would let you put your father back in business!"
"Yeah...hehe," Flynt rubbed the back of his neck, "I kinda...let the power go to my head."
"Don't worry. Remember after the doubles round, how I said I had something to do?"
"Yeah?"
"Well that was me apologizing to Yang and she said it was fine BUT she also challenged me to a game of Remnant. So I was Vacuo, Yang's little sister Ruby-who is just SO ADORABLE- was Atlas, Yang was Vale, and then we managed to rope in a fourth player."
"Lemme guess, Schnee?"
"Hehe, yeah. She was Mistral though."
"You'll have to tell me as we go. Come on." The Specialist tipped his hat and started walking after the soldiers and Neon skated next to him, continuing her story. Her story was one of riveting battles between the androids of Atlas, the guerilla Faunus soldiers of Vacuo, the marksmen of Mistral, and the militia-men of Vale. Yang had somehow managed to beat Weiss' snipers by activating a trap that destroyed their crow's nests. Neon's forces were able to completely destroy the forces of Atls by hacking into them, disabling the androids, and quickly defeated the normal soldiers using guerilla warfare. Ruby had said she didn't like this game of emotions they play when Weiss hugged her for support and told the crimson-cloaked girl to be strong. Neon then giggled a bit and was told by Yang that it was a total reversal of what happened last time. Now it was just Yang and Neon.
"Sorry Neon," Flynt said as they reached the medical complex, "gonna have to finish the story another time. We're here."
"Awwwww but I was getting to the good...part…," Neon trailed off when she saw the state of the facility. "Woah…"
The facility looks as though a war had been fought at it. Smoke rose into the sky from various fires. The large metal doors that served as the entrance were ripped off their hydraulic tracks with immense force. The soldiers turned on the tactical lights on their rifles and filed into the facility. The entire building was dark except for a few sparks from electrical wires and the dim glows of small fires spread throughout the facility. A pungent odor filled the noses of everyone present, a smell that was all too familiar to the soldiers present. The smell of death.
"Looks like a war in here," one the soldiers commented.
"Jeez...you think there's anyone still here?" Neon turned to her partner as the two walked into the ruined base.
"Dunno...we'll have to keep looking."
As Neon slowly skated deeper into the base, she felt some form of liquid drip on her head from above. She looked up for a moment and felt another drop fall on her cheek. She tried wiping it off and found her hand stained crimson. Her eyes widened for a moment as she reached her weapons. Neon always liked the idea of having her weapon being a powerful and quick one that was also a light source. She cracked her glowstick-nunchucks to produce a bright cyan light that shone above. What she saw stunned her. She wanted to scream but steeled herself as best she could.
"F-f-f-flynt?"
"Neon? You ok? You look like you've you seen a- OH WHAT THE HELL?!"
As Flynt followed Neon's gaze, the two huntsmen saw the corpse of an Atlesian soldier stuck to the ceiling due to four massive black daggers stabbed into his body. Two had impaled his legs, one had gone through his palm and the other went through his other hand and into his head. The soldier's mouth hang agape and blood slowly dripped out.
"This….this isn't White Fang. I mean...I KNOW they're brutal but they don't do THIS! And Grimm certainly don't use knives. C-captain!" Flynt called out.
"Yes, Specialist Flynt?" the red-clad officer called back.
"Have...have there been any reports of rogue huntsmen that use black daggers?"
The soldier brought up a database of all known rogue huntsmen and sifted through their weapons. There were glaives, arm-blades, and even a shield that transformed into a buzz-saw but no black daggers.
"No sir, nothing."
Flynt cursed under his breath and turned on his own flashlight. He shined the light next to the unfortunate soldier and found another body, this time pinned by a dagger through the mouth.
"Soldier, turn your lights up!"
The officer nodded and shone his light up as well. He found five more bodies pinned to the ceiling in a similar fashion.
"We need to keep moving," Flynt said sadly, "We're not leaving them here...but we can't get them down now. We need to keep going. Neon, you're with me. We'll take the west wing. You two," he pointed to the red clad officers who salute, "take the east wing."
"Yes sir!" the officers shouted as they took their half of the men to the east wing.
"Flynt...I think saying 'I have a bad feeling about this' is an understatement, yeah?" Neon said softly.
"Yeah...understatement of the century I think."
With that out of the way, Neon, Flynt, and their own men walked further into the dark base. Unbeknownst to them, the security cameras still worked and they were watching them split up. In the blood soaked security office, the Lord of Lies smirked as he pulled the hood of his cloak over his horned helmet and headed to the east wing.
The search had gone on for thirty minutes and Flynt and Neon's half of the team had reached the main medical bay.
"Alright. Fan out. See if anyone's here," Flynt called out to his men. The soldiers nodded and began to search the med-bay. Neon, understandably, wasn't her usual cheery self in this instance. She had seen soldiers killed by the White Fang and the Grimm but this...well the best words she could think of to describe it were "nightmare fuel". It wasn't just because of the five bodies in the main entrance either. On the way to the medical bay, they had found dozens of more bodies. Soldiers and doctors were slaughtered mercilessly in varied but equally ways. There was a female doctor who had her head removed in a single yet jagged motion (at least that's what their expert on the matter said), a male soldier that had his throat slit by three different weapons, given the wounds,they appeared to be claws, and a male doctor that had been ripped in two, among several others. Neon had seen Grimm attacks in her line of work. They attacked humanity because they saw them as a food source and they chose to attack and the White Fang had no reason to be here. There was no major strategic gain to be had. Sure, taking out a medical facility would be a huge blow if Atlas didn't have as many as they did. Whoever or whatever did this...no, she didn't want to think about that.
"Sirs! We found someone!" shouted a soldier which instantly made Neon a little happier. Someone had survived this massacre.
"Where are they?" the cat Faunus said as she skated over to the soldiers.
"In...here," the soldier motioned to a medical cryo-pod.
"Wait...they...FROZE themselves? That's a new one…"
"Well what are you waiting for soldier? Thaw them out!" Flynt added.
"Yes sir!" The soldier began to activate the thawing process on the pod. The layer of frost covering the glass soon faded and revealed the form within. It was a young woman with silver hair, fair skin, and clad in a normal doctor's coat. Her purple eyes fluttered open and they were filled with panic before she realized who was waking her up. The pod hissed as it opened, letting out two jets of steam. The woman stumbled out but she was caught by one of the soldiers.
"Easy ma'am. Easy," the soldier said as he supported her. That was when Neon took notice of a grey tail swaying behind the woman. She was a Faunus. Wolf by the looks of the tail.
"Ma'am? Ma'am, you're safe now. What's your name?" Neon asked softly.
"G-grey. Doctor Allison Grey," the woman responded.
"I'm Neon and the one in the hat over there is my partner Flynt. We're gonna get you out of here but we need to know...what happened here?"
"HE happened. Or...at least I THINK it's a he. More inclined to use 'it' here because...well...you've seen the carnage wrought in its wake…"
"Wait...what? One guy? ONE guy did all THIS?!" Flynt pointed to the carnage in the halls.
"I would hardly call him a 'guy'. If I hadn't heard it speak while in the cryopod...heard it revel in the bloodshed...I would've said it was a possession-type Grimm."
"I know...that you might want to forget what happened...but we need you to tell us everything from the night before," Neon politely asked.
Allison let out a sigh and nodded. "That...that powerful storm had been raging for hours. Everything seemed normal that night. I was in here, checking up on the functionality of the cryo-pods. In case there was ever a field casualty that we couldn't treat here and had to move to the hospitals in the main city."
*Last Night*
Allison was making sure that the cryo-pods didn't have any form of rupture in the pipes or cracks in the glass.
At the front entrance, two of the eight guards were standing by and talking amongst themselves.
"So you heard that RvB is getting a movie?" one of the yellow-armored soldiers asked his friend as he put his rifle on to one of the weapon racks.
"Really? They starting with the Blood Gulch stuff or skip right into the Freelancer Saga?"
"The movie's gonna cover the whole thing of Project Freelancer. You know with the Insurrection."
"Oh yeah! That'll be fun to see."
Before the conversation could continue, the metal doors were suddenly thrown off their hydraulic tracks, grabbing the attention of the five guards on duty at the entrance. Each of them quickly reached for their weapons and aimed at whatever was about to come through that door. A cloaked figure slowly walked through the entrance and paused once he was in the crosshairs of all five of them. If it wasn't for the hood and helmet underneath, a grin would be seen spreading across his face.
"Are you just going to stand there all night," the figure began in an unnaturally deep voice, "or are you going to shoot me?"
The soldiers didn't even hesitate before opening fire. The cloaked figure jerked with every bullet that hit his body and soon he fell back, seemingly dead. Two of the soldiers moved forward to confirm the kill. One of them poked at the figure with his rifle and for a moment let out a sigh of relief when the figure didn't immediately respond.
"It's ok guys! He's de-" the soldier was cut off as he figure jolted up and threw four black daggers to the nearest soldier. He fruitlessly tried to block one of the daggers hitting his face by bringing his hand up but the dagger simply went through his hand. The figure then made an upwards motion with his hand and the soldier's corpse flew upward and stuck to the ceiling.
"Oh crap," one of the soldier's began as he saw the second soldier impaled and thrust upward to the ceiling, "SEMBLANCE!"
"Semblance?" the figure chuckled, "Oh you people are so narrow-minded. It's...actually somewhat...amusing." The figure spread his arms to his sides as black and red runes appeared with a black dagger emerging from them. The attacker merely pointed forward and then upward. The daggers launched themselves at the men and cut right through the armor and then they zoomed upwards, joining the other two bodies.
From there, it was a bloodbath. The attacker systematically attacked and destroyed all threats to him even though the men might as well have been firing paintballs at this thing. The first thing to fall was the communications. He had commandeered a rifle of one of the fallen soldiers and gunned down everyone in there. The consoles were then shot up as well to prevent any sort of call to get out to Atlas command. Even with the CCT network down, local communication was still up. Next to fall was the east wing armory. The soldiers guarding it were quickly slaughtered by their attacker. He grabbed one of the grenades off one of the soldier's belts, primed it, and then threw it into the armory and walked away. A massive wall of flame erupted from the armory door as the assailant walked off.
Once both of the main targets were down, the attacker slaughtered everyone. Doctors and soldiers alike. Allison had heard him coming and panicked. She needed somewhere to hide from this madman. She turned to look at the cryopod, jumped in, and quickly activated it. It was only by a miracle that this killer had passed her by. She was still semi-conscious due to the freezing process only being active for a few minutes as she heard the figure speak.
"Ah...it feels GOOD to take lives on a massive scale once more but…," the figure was cut off as the cold-induced sleep took hold of the Faunus doctor.
Neon was shocked once Allison had finished her story.
"And...there's one other thing…," Allison began, "I don't think it left."
Flynt's eyes widened as he brought up his Scroll to contact the men in the east wing.
"Captain, this Specialist Flynt do you read me?"
No one answered.
"Captain, come in!"
"I'm sorry...Specialist Flynt," an unfamiliar voice answered, "but the Captain and his men are...unavailable. Oh...hold on a moment…"
A soldier's screaming could be heard on the other end. Pleas of mercy going unanswered as a loud blood splat could be heard replacing those last words.
"I thought I had dealt with the last of them. Well...now I have," the attacker said.
"Who...are...you?" Flynt demanded.
"Tell me...Specialist Flynt...how much do you care...for your partner, Miss Neon Katt? Because I can tell you...if you love her...you will surrender now. If you do...I will not kill her. If you refuse this offer...know that I will make your lives...living hells. I will slaughter your men as mercilessly as you slaughter the Grimm. I will BREAK Miss Katt personally and I will rip away EVERYTHING you hold dear on this mortal plane. Do we understand each-,"
Flynt hung up on this madman and turned to the soldier supporting Doctor Grey.
"Take her back to the ship. Get her OUT of here!"
The soldier nodded and walked off with Doctor Grey, making their ways back to the gunships.
"The rest of us...we're finding this guy...this...madman...and we're taking HIM down."
"Sir, yes sir!"
Neon nodded as well. "Lead the way Flynt."
Flynt drew his weapon and led his men to the east wing of the facility.
Meanwhile, in the east wing, Belail crushes the communicator with his hand and sighs. "Well...that was rude," the Lord of Lies muttered to himself.
Eventually, the group arrived at the east wing and quickly found the soldiers that went ahead of them. Or what was left of them. The person who contacted them was nowhere in sight.
"Dust...damn it," Flynt muttered, "he's going to pay for this."
"Oh will I?" came the eerie voice of the murderer. The figure walked out of the shadows, his cloak still concealing his true appearance from them.
"Yeah! We're taking you down you psycho!" Neon shouted.
"Ah...as energetic as ever Miss Katt. I must admit...I am intrigued by your styles of combat. I was actually somewhat HOPING they'd send you two."
"How do you…"
"I watched your bout against the heiress and the brawler."
"You...you saw the Vytal Festival?"
"Oh yes. I didn't watch every fight mind you but I did watch the important ones. Among them...was yours against team RWBY. Been awhile since I've had to fight sonic weaponry so this should be fairly interesting."
The soldiers all aim their rifles at the figure as he raises his hood, revealing his horned helmet (A/n: *Cues Kylo Ren theme*). He then snaps his fingers and the cloak completely vanishes, showing them all the armored suit he wears.
"You should feel honored...you will be the first huntsmen to face Belail, the Lord of Lies," the demon lord stated proudly as he drew a massive obsidian-black double-edged sword and a dagger. This dagger was different from the ones he used before because it was red-bladed kris.
"Open fire!" one of the soldiers shouts. The others blast him but just like before the demon is unphased.
"My turn," the demon rushes the soldiers and begins to slice them apart. Many of them draw their own blades but their weapons are sliced apart easily. One of the soldiers tries to stab him in the heart but the Lord of Lies breaks slices through his arm with his sword and then stab him in the head with his kris. Two of the soldiers try to attack him at once but Belail blocks both attacks. He then spins the blades and slashes both of their throats. Belail then stabs another soldier through the chest with his sword and cuts him in a half from there. The demon lord continues to cut through each of the soldiers until there are only two people left. Neon and Flynt.
"Now then...with the warm-up out of the way…," Belail holds out his sword while positioning the hand holding the kris just above it (A/N: Think of the Legion Etiquette gesture from Dark Souls 3).
Flynt suddenly brings out his trumpet and blows into it, unleashing one his sonic attacks, sending the demon flying back while Neon rode the soundwave for momentum. She cracked her nunchucks, turning their lights from cyan-blue to light-red. She then unleashed a flurry of blows on the demon lord. Each hit she landed was followed by a miniature explosion due to the Dust. The demon soon recovered and grabbed Neon by the wrist. He then threw her into the wall and managed to regain his footing while the soundwave still raged. A rune appeared around the Lord of Lies' wrist. The rune glowed as an orb of red energy form in his hand and he fired the orb from his hand. Flynt had to stop his soundwave to dodge the attack as it exploded where he once stood. Several more bolts flew from the demon's hand and caused several more explosions. Each one missed its target fortunately. Neon got back on her feet and jumped Belail, wrapping her nunchucks around his neck. The demon lord easily threw her off of him and Flynt just as easily caught her.
"Ok...let's try something different…" Flynt said as he reached into his pocket and withdrew a wind Dust canister. He then quickly inserted it into his trumpet and turned to Neon.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" the musician Huntsmen asked his partner.
"Yup!" Neon beamed as she cracked her nunchucks several times to return them to their cyan-glow.
The demon lord tilted his head a bit in confusion and then realized it. Before he could do anything though, Flynt let loose another sonic blast and Neon twirled her nunchucks in unison. The blast itself soon formed a whirlwind and the ice Dust infused it with dozens of icy projectiles. Belail blocked against the onslaught of shards and he managed to move his kris into a slot on the pommel of his sword. A shaft extended out of the pommel with the kris still attached and two curved blades emerged from the sides of the polearm. Belail then thrust his newly transformed trident into ground as another rune appeared underneath it. The blades seemed to sink into the sea of shadow that was in the center of the rune. Two similar runes appear beneath Neon and Flynt, both of them taking notice and breaking off their attack. If they had waited a moment longer, two energy-copies of the demonic trident would've impaled them.
"Damn this guy's good," Flynt muttered as he adjusted his hat.
"Um...think we should go with plan R?"
"Plan...R?" Belail parroted, "I didn't realize you had such limited options."
Flynt nodded to the cat Faunus who shouted, "RUN!" Flynt and neon made a mad dash for the exit. Belail merely rolled his eyes and ran after them, muttering under his breath, "Why do they always run?"
The two Huntsmen managed to make it and they seemed to have lost Belail. Flynt got his scroll out and shouted into it.
"Pilot! Get over here! Remember that quick exit I said we might need?! Well we need it and we need it NOW!"
Before Flynt could get a response he suddenly heard a scream of shock come from Neon. He quickly turned around and saw Neon being held over both of Belail's shoulders.
"How did you…"
"Catch up? Simply put...I made a short-range teleport. Beginner's level spell in fact. But even the basics can have their uses."
"Spell?!"
"What? You believed magic to be nothing more than a force in tales of fantasy? Oh no...magic is real Specialist Flynt. Ask General Ironwood. Ask him about the Story of the Seasons. See what the Headmaster of your prestigious academy has to say. Shame I won't be there to see it...when you learn the truth," the Lord of Lies let out a chuckle, "I find it so AMUSING how similar your leaders are to me."
"They're nothing like you! Now let her go!"
"See...that's where you're wrong. Myself...and the headmasters of Beacon, Haven, Shade, and even ATLAS have at least...two things in common. The first; we can keep up lies for YEARS and then have the smallest slip-up bring it all down. The second...we're both responsible...for ruining a young girl's LIFE!" Belail roared as he brought Neon down over his knee with a loud organic crunch. The cat Faunus could only gasp in pain as her spine was broken by the power of the demon lord and the strength of his armor. She couldn't even stay conscious from the shock and her eyes closed.
"NEON!" Flynt shouted as he saw Belail toss Neon's unconscious body towards him like a ragdoll. Flynt looked down at his partner and then up at Belail. "You...BASTARD!" The huntsmen didn't even reach for his trumpet and he just rushed the Lord of Lies to throw a punch. Belail smirked under his helmet as he saw something so utterly familiar to him. The blinding fury and anger that comes with seeing someone hurt. So many people had gone through that because of him.
Flynt tried to throw a right hook at Belail but the demon merely side-stepped, grabbed Flynt's arm, and broke it. Flynt screamed in pain as the bones snapped.
"Consider yourself lucky...if I had planned for you to die...I wouldn't stop with a broken arm. The message is ready. Now...all I need is for your pilots...to deliver it," Belail said in a near whisper.
"W-what...what message?"
"That no matter who's sent- be it the protectors of the innocent or a more simple soul- they will NOT succeed. They...will...fail. But unlike you...they won't survive." Belail looked up and he saw the gunships come into view. He let go of Flynt's arm and began to walk into the forest behind the facility. The gunships landed and their landing ramps opened. A soldier and Doctor Grey rushed out to bring them back on board. Doctor Grey had to carefully move Neon and Flynt managed to get on on his own.
"Neon…," Flynt said softly as he sat next to Neon who was currently laid out on the seats next to him.
With both the huntsmen back on board, the gunships zoomed back to the capital...with Belail's message in their holds.
(A/N: And thus. Belail's combat debut leaves Flynt with a broken arm and Neon with a broken spine. Don't worry, she's still alive but there's no way she'll be skating again any time soon. Next chapter we get team RNJR on the open ocean, fighting the aquatic Grimm and then next week we get their arrival in Mistral, mixed with Yang and Blake's journey to find them. Also side note, plus the Author's Note here, this is my largest chapter yet. As always, read, review and enjoy.)