Here we are at Chapter 98. The battle continues for our heroes against Cordovin and her machine, while Blake and Yang face off against Adam I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 98. Enjoy.
Chapter 98: Seeing Red
Maria and Oscar's airship continues to fly through the air, trying to keep Cordovin's attention on them while also trying to make sure they don't get shot down and crash and burn. Meanwhile, the others watch from the cliffs.
"You just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you Calavera? You had to go and rope children in with you. Well tell me, how is that working out for you? Did you really think you could outsmart me, outsmart ATLAS!" Cordovin yells.
"This old bitch is really starting to tick me off," Velvet notes.
Ruby calls Oscar and Maria, "You were supposed to keep the airship away. If it gets shot down, you'll both get hurt, and then we won't be able to get to Atlas," Ruby says.
"We were just trying to help. You can chew me out later. Now listen, I think I found out what this mech's weakness is," Oscar says.
"Okay, what do you got?" Ruby asks.
"You guys alright?" Velvet asks when Jaune and Nora approach them, with Nora carrying Jaune a bit as he leans on her.
"Guys!" Ren yells and runs to them.
"Okay, listen, the cylinder on Cordovin's cannon rotates and locks in a giant Dust cartridge every time she wants to change her attack methods," Oscar begins.
"Yeah, we noticed. What's your point?" Velvet asks, impatient.
"My point is that it works differently for her missiles. When she wants to fire her missiles, she pulls the missile launcher out, not in. Now that we've taken out her shields, long range attacks will have a greater effect on her robot, which means that if we can get a well-timed shot on the missiles before they pop back in, it'll make one missile explode. That'll cause the rest to explode and cause a chain reaction over the whole cannon arm," Oscar explains.
"If we can do that, then we'll cripple the whole thing. Oscar, that's brilliant... Why didn't I think of that," Jaune mutters.
The group all then look to Ruby, since she is their resident sniper.
"Ruby, can you make a shot like that?" Jaune asks.
"I... I don't know. I'd practically have to be staring right down the barrel of her cannon," Ruby says.
Velvet holds her hand, "I know you can do it. We'll get you in close and give you the opening. The rest, we'll leave to you," she says.
"I think I can help with that," Maria says as she flies in and hovers near them. Ruby hops inside the airship, while Velvet jumps on top of it, stabbing her arm blade into the hull to keep her from falling off as Maria pilots the airship towards Cordovin's mech. "Hang on, I got an idea... Hey Cordo, I've got one missile left, and I know precisely where I'm going to stick it," Maria taunts her, using Cordovin's personal grudge against her as a weapon.
Cordovin laughs at the challenge, "Hahaha, just one Calavera? Well, that's a shame because I've got plenty of missiles that will blow you to the ends of Remnant," Cordovin says as she aims her missile launcher at them.
"ARE YOU GUYS CRAZY!" Oscar shouts.
"Sometimes the best approach is the most direct!" Maria replies.
Velvet activates her Maiden powers, sending out a quick blast of ice through her demon claw to freeze the joints of the cannon arm, keeping it in place. Meanwhile, Ruby kneels down and takes aim at the exposed missiles with her sniper-scythe.
"Oh, I've just about enough of... what?!" Cordovin yells when she sees Ruby and realizes what they're planning on doing. "Oh, no you don't," she mutters.
Ruby fires her shot, but unfortunately, Cordovin pulls her missile launcher back in just a second too fast and the shot misses its mark.
"Oh crap," Velvet mutters while the others gasp.
"You... You little ingrates thought you could make a fool out of me?! YOU?!" Cordovin yells as her mech breaks free from the ice and aims its cannon at them.
"Pull up! Pull up!" Oscar yells, and Maria yanks back hard on the stick.
Cordovin fires and the shot isn't a direct hit, but the outer edge of the blast scrapes the airship, which is just enough to short-out its systems, including Maria's eyes since they're connected to those systems. The blast hits the cliffs, just barely missing the rest of the group.
"Aw! My eyes! I can't see!" Maria yells as she holds her eyes, temporarily blinded.
"We're gonna crash! We're gonna crash!" Oscar panics.
"Oscar, grab the stick. I can't see anything right now to fly it!" Maria yells.
Oscar regains enough of himself to take the stick in the co-pilot seat, trying to control the airship even if he has to make a controlled crash landing.
The airship flies out of control as it falls towards the cliffs. The turbulence, coupled with the effects of the electrical blast, causes Velvet to fall off, which Ruby notices.
"Velvet!" Ruby yells and manages to jump out of the airship, using her semblance to zoom through the air and catch Velvet in mid-air, the pair falling to the cliffs and landing hard in the snow.
"Ruby! Velvet!" Weiss yells.
The airship crashes into the trees behind the cliffs. The others watch in shock and horror, while Qrow thinks fast and jumps off the cliff to turn into a crow and fly towards where his niece and her girlfriend crashed into the snow. Velvet groans as she slowly wakes up, holding her head, but then regains her eyes.
"Ruby!" Velvet yells as she sits up, finding Ruby lying underneath her. "Ruby, are you alright?! Ruby!" Velvet frantically exclaims as she checks her girlfriend's condition. Luckily, Ruby's aura protected her, so she doesn't have any injuries, and she's breathing, but she appears to be unconscious. "She's still alive," Velvet mutters in slight relief.
Qrow gets close and shapeshifts behind a tree and then lands next to them, "Ruby, is she-," he begins.
"She's alright. She's just unconscious. However..." Velvet says as she looks at the downed airship, finding Oscar and Maria walking out of it. "Good, they're okay too... but that airship isn't flying anywhere right now. Also..." Velvet says as she looks back to see Cordovin's mech slowly walking towards them. "That crazy old hag is coming... I won't let her hurt Ruby."
"What are we gonna do?" Qrow asks.
"You keep Ruby safe... I'll deal with this," Velvet says as she stands up and starts walking towards Cordovin's mech.
"Velvet, don't be crazy! You can't fight her on your own!" Qrow yells.
"I need you to trust me Qrow. We have to get to Atlas. If I have to slap that giant machine around to do it, then so be it," Velvet says and reaches the cliffs as does Cordovin's mech.
"This little game of ours has been fun while it lasted, but the time for games has long since pasted now. I suggest you surrender for your crimes and accept your punishment. I told you that you didn't stand a chance against the might of the Atlas military. No one can defeat us," Cordovin taunts her.
"Oh, shut up!" Velvet yells, stunning her. "We're going to Atlas. People more powerful and more dangerous than you have tried to stop us in the past, and they failed. They tried to kill us at the Fall of Beacon and failed. They tried to kill us at Haven, and failed. If they couldn't stop us, then there's no way you can. What makes you think you're so special anyway? You talk about your power and your technology. That power is supposed to be used to protect people. The people you swore an oath to protect. But instead of helping people, you just look down on them, seeing them as lower than you, as insects. Those aren't the actions of soldiers protecting people, they're the actions of tyrants who think they know what is best for everyone else, whether they like it or not... I've known a man who was like that. He thought he knew what was best for everyone, and he tried to play god to do it. He was stronger than you, and still, he failed to stop me from doing the right thing. We're supposed to be fighting together, not against one another. We didn't want to steal from you, but we had to because you gave us no other choice. Now I'm giving you a choice: stop fighting and listen to us so we can go to Atlas, or I'll be forced to move you out of the way myself," Velvet says.
Everyone watches from the sidelines as Velvet has her stare down with the giant robot. At this point, Ruby begins to wake up.
"Ugh, Velvet," Ruby mutters as she groans and opens her eyes.
Cordovin narrows her eyes, "I think I'll choose the death penalty as your punishment. To be carried out immediately," she says and aims her cannon at Velvet as it charges up.
"Velvet!" Ruby yells.
However, Velvet just activates her power and her demon claw again and jumps right into the arm cannon.
"She's nuts!" Nora yells.
"No, wait, Jaune didn't Oscar say-," Ren begins.
"The pod for the missiles springs out of the cannon, but the pods for the Dust cartridges go inside..." Jaune finishes.
Velvet finds herself inside the cannon, seeing the energy building up within. She focuses her power around her demon claw, currents of fire and ice swirling around it. When the moment is right, Velvet fires off a powerful ball of fire and ice at the core of the cannon, causing a massive explosion that blows her out of the cannon, while different forms of Dust explode throughout the cannon arm. Earth and ice Dust spring out around the arm, causing the mech to kneel onto its right side as the cannon falls to the ground, now too heavy to wield.
"No! No, no, no, no, no!" Cordovin screams.
As Velvet falls through the air, Weiss uses her black glyphs to slow her descent. Ruby jumps up and uses her semblance to catch Velvet before she hits the ground, the both of them sliding safely across the snow. Weiss falls onto her knees while Team JNR watch on in shock at the spectacle.
"Velvet, Velvet! Are you okay?" Ruby gasps as she checks on her girlfriend.
Velvet groans, but manages to open her eyes, "Ruby, are you okay?" she asks.
"I'm fine, but that was crazy. What were you thinking?!" Ruby yells.
"You would've done the same thing, am I right?" Velvet replies.
"Well... okay, yeah you have a point there," Ruby says.
Ruby helps Velvet sit up and they have a quick kiss before the rest of the group join them. Meanwhile, Oscar helps Maria out of the damaged airship as she's trying to fix her eyes.
"Ah, don't tell me I missed it? What happened? What did I miss?" Maria complains.
Oscar looks at the damaged mech, "I think... we missed a few things. But, at least we're still alive," Oscar says.
"That's a matter of opinion," Maria retorts.
"No, this is impossible!" Cordovin screams as she tries to break free.
"Man, she never shuts up," Velvet notes.
…
Meanwhile, Blake and Yang confront Adam Taurus together.
"You knew you couldn't defeat me two-on-one at Beacon. What makes you so sure you can win this time?" Adam taunts them.
"I don't have a choice. I have people who ACTUALLY care about me. And I promised them that I'd never leave them again. So I'm not dying now. In the past, I always ran from my problems, from my past and my fears, and it's taken me so long to realize that that was all a mistake. A mistake that I won't make again," Blake defiantly retorts, holding Yang's hand a little tighter.
Adam looks to Yang, "You know, she made a promise to me once... that she'd always be by my side... and look how well she's kept that promise. You sure she won't break her promise to you?" he asks.
"Did she make that promise to you... or to the person you were pretending to be? The only person you really care about is yourself. You never cared about Blake, you only wanted to possess her. She's not some object. To me, she's my best friend, she's family to me. And if you want to get to her, then you'll have to go through me," Yang says.
"And if you want Yang, then you'll have to fight me first," Blake adds.
"So, is that it? I just wasn't good enough for you?" Adam asks Blake.
"You know it is so much more than that," Blake argues.
"I know you've made your choice, and I've made mine," Adam says as he holds his sword handle.
Yang and Blake ready their weapons and a moment later, the pair charge at Adam together. When they get close, Adam takes a swing of his blade, but the girls jump around his attack and go right back at him, with Yang going low and Blake going high. Blake and Adam block each other's strikes while Yang slides under Adam's arms. Blake uses her semblance to jump over Adam while Yang blocks a strike from his sword, following it up with a backhand to his face. Yang backflips over him, landing and firing her gauntlets to propel her away while Blake makes two swings with her sheathe blade before using her semblance to jump away from a counter attack from Adam. His blade hits the ground and Blake runs along it and jumps over Adam to get behind him for a back kick that propels him towards Yang, who fires her gauntlets to push herself right at him for another punch to his chest. Adam lands on his feet and parries a strike from Blake, but as she jumps away, Yang gets another punch to his face, followed by a side kick to his ribs. She twirls in the air for another kick, which he ducks under, but he can't avoid another kick from Blake that knocks him back. Blake sheathes her blade and backflips a few times to grab her broken katana, changing it into her chain-scythe form. She throws it at Adam, but he knocks it right back at her with his blade. Yang sees this and jumps up to catch it in mid-air. Yang pulls hard on the ribbon, pulling Blake around for their combo move and swinging her at Adam. Blake tries to strike him down with her sheathe blade, but he blocks with his sword. This creates a shockwave that blasts Blake to the rocky side of the waterfall, hanging off the edge with her aura heavily damaged while Adam lands on his feet.
"Blake!" Yang yells for her friend.
"Moment of truth, Yang," Adam begins, gaining her attention. "You think you're faster now than you were at Beacon?" he taunts her. This makes Yang gasp at the memory, causing her fists to shake from her PTSD, which Adam notices and smirks. "Heh, me neither," he says.
Adam charges at her while unsheathing his sword, making a few swings that Yang rolls away from, before knocking her back with two well-placed roundhouse kicks. He makes three more swings with his sword, but Yang spins around each one, and then elbows her back. Yang takes a few breaths, starting to get tired
"Your aura's bound to be running low," Adam says.
Meanwhile, Blake tries to pull herself up, but loses her grip. However, before she falls to her doom, a hand reaches out and grabs her, pulling her up over the edge. Blake looks to her savior, finding it to be a young woman with long white hair, wearing a red and white dress.
"Don't give up now. Your friend needs you," the woman says.
"Who... who are you?" Blake asks.
"...A friend. Now go and help Yang," the woman replies.
Not having the time to debate it, Blake nods and begins climbing the wall
Adam slowly walks towards Yang, "Hit me already!" he yells before making another swing at her, which she sidesteps and then backflips over another. "What does she even SEE IN YOU!" Adam shouts.
Adam jumps in the air, throwing his blade as it spins against Yang when she blocks the attack. Adam catches his blade and swings it down on Yang, knocking her to the ground.
"You're just a coward like her!" Adam yells and swings his blade downward, releasing a massive wave of red energy at Yang, who's eyes suddenly turn red before the blast connects. Adam runs and jumps forth, swinging his sword down on her. However, when the dust settles, he gains a look of shock when he sees that Yang activated her semblance and caught his sword in her right hand.
"Gotcha," Yang mutters and pulls Adam in for a hard left punch to his chest, sending him crashing into the ground as his aura becomes depleted. Adam gets up and sees Yang still holding his sword, as her aura becomes depleted as well. "I may not be faster... but I'm smarter," Yang says and then throws his sword over the edge.
"No!" Adam yells and tries to grab it, only for Blake to punch him in the face, knocking him back.
Adam stumbles back, tripping over Blake's broken katana. They all see it and race to make a grab for the broken blade. Blake grabs one piece while Yang manages to grab the second and they both stab their blade pieces through Adam's chest from the front and behind. Adam gasps for air from the wounds before they pull the blades out and step back.
"No... it can't... end like... this," Adam gasps as blood leaks from his wounds.
However, a wall of flames blocks him from reaching the girls and they look to the side to see the woman with the long white hair standing nearby.
"It's over, Adam Taurus... It's over," the woman says.
"...Oh..." Adam says as he stumbles back, takes his last breath... and falls off the edge to the river below and to his death.
With Adam dead and gone, the flames die down. Blake begins to shake as she drops her blade and falls onto her knees, tears flowing from her eyes. Yang rushes to her side and embraces her, which she returns.
"I... I'm not gonna break my promise. I swear!" Blake tearfully declares.
Yang pushes her back just a bit to rest her forehead against Blake's, "I know you won't," she says, and allows Blake to cry, to let her emotions out now that Adam is finally out of their lives.
"I'm sorry..." they hear and look to the woman with the white hair. "I know you've been through much, but you must hurry... Your friends need your help," she says.
…
Back with the others, they watch as Cordovin struggles to free her machine, to no avail.
"You will never make it to Atlas alive, do you hear me?! NEVER! All units, converge on my position and eliminate these pests at once!" Cordovin commands over the radio.
We need to move. We need to get Yang and Blake and get out of here," Velvet says as Ruby helps her up.
"...Mam, we've been trying to reach you! Argus is in danger. There's a Leviathan class Grimm drawing closer to the city!" a soldier replies over the comms.
"...What?" Cordovin gasps.
The group look out to the coast, seeing the giant Grimm roaring and walking towards the city. On the other side, they notice a swarm of flying Manticores and Sphinx Grimm flying over Argus. They all look worried when they turn to the mech, realizing that they just took out the best weapon against the Leviathan.
"Oh, sometimes fate is a pain in the ass," Velvet groans.
And that's the chapter. Velvet and the gang take down Cordovin's mech, while Blake and Yang defeat Adam Taurus once and for all, but now an even bigger threat emerges. The next chapter will be the volume 6 finale for this story. Again, give me more ideas for Velvet's volume 7 outfit, I really want to see what you guys have in mind. Will the gang be able to make it to Atlas? Will they stop the Grimm from destroying Argus? Until then, please Read and Review.
