Hello everyone and welcome back to HellFall!
Stuff went down last week, and stuff's going down this week too. So let's not waste time, eh?
Despite wanting to catch up on sleep before the big raid, my team and I needed to finish the Hunter's Tournament. We were on the last round, which was unique in that there were three teams instead of two, all fighting at the same time.
The obnoxiously loud announcer began to introduce each of us as we entered the arena.
"FIRST UP, WE HAVE TEAM VAIN. THEY'VE SWEPT VICTORY AFTER VICTORY, NEVER CEASING TO AMAZE. IS THIS THE END OF THE LINE? OR A NEW BEGINNING?
"EASILY WINNING HERSELF A SPOT IN THE FINAL ROUND IS GUENIANNE RADIANCE, THE WINNER OF THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS, I'VE LOST COUNT NOW! WILL THIS BE ANOTHER VICTORY, OR WILL SHE HAVE TO STEP ASIDE FOR A NEW CHAMPION?
"AND OUR NEXT FINALIST YEAM, SNAGGING A SPOT JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME, IS TEAM HERT (heart)! IF YOU REMEMBER, THEY BARELY SQUEAKED BY THE LAST ROUND. WILL THEY MAKE IT, OR…"
The announcer trailed off as everyone's eyes fell on the approaching team. It was hardly a team, but more a duo. And that duo was unrecognizable.
One was a tall man in a grey jacket and skinny jeans. His hair was cut down to a buzz cut, and his face was long and pale. He held a long, oddly shaped gun in one of his gloved hands.
The other was a small woman. She wore leather armor over her entire body, and a brown scarf wrapped around her neck. Her hair was short, about shoulder length, and blonde. As far as I could tell she held no weapons.
"UM," the announcer stammered, "TEAM HERT?"
"Team HERT is dead!" The tall man yelled back, "They weren't anything to worry about. We're here now to take that crown!" He snickered and glanced at the short woman beside him.
No words were spoken by the announcer, or by anyone else. Not a single person had the slightest clue what to do.
The doors snapped open, revealing a group of armored security guards. Clearly, these two people weren't supposed to be here.
The man turned to the guards, while the young woman started forward.
Without much difficulty the guards were reduced to lifeless bodies by the weapon of the man. How he did it, I wasn't entirely sure. I barely saw what happened.
The young woman approached Guenianne. When I saw the champion's face I knew that she recognized her.
"What should we do?" I asked my team, finally coming to my senses.
"I don't know." Veil replied, "I've never had this happen, if you can believe it" She was clearly being sarcastic, but no one laughed.
"I say we beat up the guy." Barnabas suggested, "I mean, he did kill all those guards"
But when we looked over he was gone.
"Shoot" Barnabas said.
By now the arena and its guests had begun to panic, and most were leaving.
"Should we go?" I asked, looking around anxiously.
"ATTENTION!" Someone's voice came over the announcer's microphone. "WE ARE LOCKING DOWN THE PREMISES, STAY WHERE YOU ARE!"
"That's him." Barnabas said, "I'm going up"
"Anchor, go with him" Veil said, deciding not to oppose his plan.
Anchor nodded and followed after his tanned teammate.
"Honestly, I have no idea what to do" Veil said. Her voice was starting to shake. I knew she was starting to panic.
"Keep your head on your shoulders," I said, "don't panic. Not too much anyway" I hoped by bringing some humor to the situation she would calm down. It didn't seem to help.
In fact, as I said that things got a lot worse.
Guenianne and the short woman began to circle each other. Both of Guenianne's swords were out, and the woman had taken a stance. I saw something glint in her hands, but what it was I couldn't tell.
At the same time I could hear fighting over the microphone. Shifting gears of weapons, bullets flying, punches, groans: all the signs of a battle.
"Should we head up there?" Veil asked, turning to me. Now I knew she was panicking.
"Not yet," I said, "I'll call Gazini. Maybe he can help"
I pulled out my scroll and contacted him.
"Hello?" He asked, panting.
"Gazini, its Nicole!"
"I know!"
"We got some guys attacking the arena!"
"I'm a little busy!" He replied.
"Why, what's happening?"
After a brief pause he replied, "Shit's going down!"
"What does that mean?!" I asked.
Suddenly there was a crunching sound coming from my scroll, followed quickly by steel clashing against steel. And then an explosion, as if it couldn't get worse.
"Well?" Veil asked.
"We're on our own" I said.
"So, what do we do?"
I clipped my suitcases together by their sides and unlocked each of them, pulling out my lance and extending it. The heavy blade was attached firmly to the other end. I quickly loaded both of them with magazines, "We're going to help out our team" I replied.
As quickly as we could, we made our way to the announcement room. We found who I assumed was the announcer dead on the stairs. Veil squeaked a scream, but caught herself.
At the top of the staircase we saw the tall man fighting off both Barnabas and Anchor at the same time.
As soon as he saw us he panicked, and fell to the ground, bloodied and panting.
"So what's the plan?" Barnabas demanded, shotgun barrel aimed at his forehead.
He smiled, "HellFall" He said simply.
Each one of us froze in place.
"What does that mean?" Barnabas demanded.
"It means that Hell shall descend upon our remains" He replied.
None of us knew what to make of this new development. HellFall, or Plan H as we had learned, was happening right now apparently.
"We're not ready" Veil whispered.
"We know" The man said.
Barnabas kicked him in the chin. "Shut your damn mouth and tell us what's going on"
"Just look outside" He replied.
We turned our heads to look out the announcer's window. The sky had darkened, and literal balls of fire rained down from the sky. How, I hadn't the slightest idea.
"Ho-ly" Was all Barnabas said.
My scroll rang. I pulled it out, not once looking away from the sky.
"Nicole?" It was Gazini.
"It's raining fire. Literally!" I said.
"I noticed." He said, "It's happening. Get your team together, meet at the base. Now"
"On it." I said, hanging up. "We need to head to the base right now"
"How?" Barnabas asked, "The doors are all locked, aren't they?"
"Ever heard of jumping?" I asked.
Everyone stared at me for a long second, then looked to the window again.
"Stay here" Barnabas commanded the tall man.
"As if" He replied.
"I will kill you" Barnabas threatened.
"I'm so scared" He replied sarcastically.
Barnabas put a bullet in his knee and he screamed in pain. "You should be"
So there you have it. A little sudden, I know, but it's just like real life, right? Stuff happens, whether your ready or not.
I don't know how many of you saw it, but Rooster Teeth just farted out a short film advertising RWBY Volume 4, and I'm kind of hesitant about it. Most of you probably lost your poop over it but I'm not so sure. The animation style has clearly changed, and it looks much more 2-dimensional now. I'm starting to wonder if Kerry and everyone else is trying to slowly turn RWBY into a regular 2D anime or something. If they're doing that then I'm not a fan. The quality of the show will drop pretty significantly, with the fights being not nearly as awesome as they were in the first two volumes, and now the lack of unique 3D art. Yes, it's still 3D, but it's less so now than before. Also, the character's new costumes. Blatant rip-offs of fan art. I was in the RWBY fandom until about a year ago when I realized how freaking messed up and weird it is and I saw fan art of the characters in the costumes they wear in the new short. A+ for creativity there Rooster Teeth. Too distracted with appealing to the fandom than making a legitimately good show. To be fair the costumes are pretty cool, but they are also something we've seen thanks to the fan art, and it just makes Rooster Teeth look lazy as hell. Plus, they're pretty over-the-top looking costumes, definitely not regular attire for a Sunday morning stroll, so they really don't fit the story that much either. I mean, what's even the point of changing their clothes now anyway? I wasn't bored of the original clothes, I doubt anyone's really grown out of them in the one or two years since. Regardless, the fight was cool and the short as a whole was better than all of volume 3, which isn't saying much anyway (I'm full of hate, deal with it).
Anyways, as most of you have figured it out, the climax has started. So get hyped and all that crap. I'll try to keep these intros and outros brief so as not to break the momentum of the story, but I just won't have anything to say really anyway. Although I guess the momentum is broken with the one week intervals. Unless your binge-reading, of course.
And as usual, favorite, follow, review, tell your friends, tell your enemies, or don't if you don't want to, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!