Blake Belladonna had been looking at her reflection in a large dark mirror, scrutinizing her complexion, her fair skin had definitely gotten significantly more sun kissed as of late.
What was the name of the servant responsible for making sure this didn't happen? I'll have to see them and their family demoted down a caste rank or two as punishment.
As she began trying to recall the name, or even the face, of one out of the hundreds of servants that served her around the clock, her sun kissed hand grabbed the rubber handle on a silver bell with an intricate vine pattern engraved over its surface. Two soft chimes echoed through her room as she lightly rang it.
Immediately, before the echo even had a chance to fade, a man dressed in a stark white hooded robe entered the room. "Your Highness." He greeted her with a bow as he crossed his arms. "What do you require from this one?"
As he finished asking, he looked up which revealed his Amphibian Faunus Factor, and Blake recognized his bulging eyes and large mouth "…Frauk, correct?"
"I am humbled by your generosity, Your Highness." Once more the man, who accepted the name Frauk, bowed.
"It's nothing, your hideously repulsive face just stuck out from the utterly plain appearance of everyone else." She said with a smile. "Putting aside that matter, as one could obviously see, my skin has tanned slightly so I need to alter the outfits I had planned to wear this week. Find my tailor and designer, I will need…" Blake stopped talking as she noticed that she was suddenly alone in her dressing room.
As her echoing words faded away, she noticed the absolute silence that had taken the place of every sound that the people of Occup produced. The lights in her room flickered, but that was impossible; this room had no light source except for the open skylight.
What's happening? Where did that servant go? Why is everything silent? Who obscured my skylight? When did I get here?
Blake wandered over to the window that overlooked the kingdom she would someday rule. The lush flora that flourished through the streets and roofs had withered away, and the buildings, regardless of stone or steel, had crumbled down on themselves. The peasants that flooded the kingdom were gone, and she could barely make out skeletons covered in rags littering the streets.
What? This… is impossible. My kingdom can't fall, that's absurd.
Nothing flowed through her kingdom, a visible and tangible nothingness began swallowing up the ruins of her birthright. She hastily backed away from the windows, and when she spun around she noticed that in the place of her servant was a white pile of rags. The robe he had been wearing was resting over an oddly shaped clump. The fabric began to slowly stretch upwards.
"W-what?" She voiced her confusion, and as she felt a rush of fear spike up she witnessed the thing within the robe lunch forward and swell up. When the figure stood roughly at her own height it lifted its hooded head up and revealed its face, or rather its lack of one, an amorphous mass of shadows stared at Blake.
The thing started to move forward, it didn't walk or slide no, it fell forward and extended off the ground. She didn't move, she couldn't, her body refused to listen to herself, and she didn't even react as the figure reached out a sleeve of the white robe it was inhabiting and dark nebulous tendrils shot out from it and engulfed her face.
Blake stumbled backwards as the white robe fell to the ground lifelessly, her back collided with her window sill before she came to a stop. The lights in the room flickered again, the sunlight flickered again, and when she craned her head up and stared at the sun, she saw a ring of burning darkness that pierced the sky.
She stumbled forward, back to the large dark mirror, she looked at the reflection of Blake Belladonna surroundings by dead spiders and screaming in terror as tears streamed down her face, and she noticed that her fair skin had definitely gotten significantly more sun kissed as of late.
A hand reached out for a silver bell and two soft chimes echoed.
"Ahhhh-huuuwhaa." A rather unladylike yawn escaped from Blake Belladonna's mouth and she slowly rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she woke up.
What time is it? Hmm, I feel good. I wonder what kind of pleasant dream I was having, it's a shame I can't recall it.
And then she blinked, and blinked some more, and she continued to do so until the reality that she had woken up in a dark forest forced itself into her world. She gasped. "How dare they!? To place royalty such as myself on bare forest ground, who did they think they are? I'm going to have words when I…" She trailed off when she realized her situation was a bit bigger than where she had been resting.
The damp ground and the chill of the night air had both been unpleasant, but the tall trees that surrounded her and covered her with long and suffocating shadows were like claws tearing at her mind. The darkness was thick and heavy, and it seemed to press in on her from all sides, trying to trap her in its embrace.
The slow but powerful night wind shook the trees, and the branches reaching for her body trembled and appeared to stretch closer and closer to her.
Like a newborn kitten, her limbs quivered as she tried to escape, and as she looked down at her hands on the dark ground, she could only make out her wrists. Her hands had been swallowed by the dark already. Her heart pounded with fear like a drum, and the pain in her lungs made her body curl in on itself. She couldn't breathe or scream and ice cold tears dripped from her bright amber eyes.
The lights flickered around her, the rays of moonlight around her flickered, as something crawled through her veins. And Blake blinked, within the span of a second her eyelids went down and obstructed her sight and then went back up and her sight returned.
She stood up on steady feet and stretched her arms over her head with a smile. "Hmm, I feel good, I wonder what kind of pleasant dream I was having this time, it's a shame I can't ever recall them. What am I doing in a forest?"
Let's see, I had just gone to sleep in Bastion's, rather unimpressive, ballroom, and then I woke up here. What a rude thing to do, I should have some words with the staff when I find my way out.
As her dark amber eyes looked around at her surroundings, she didn't spot anything that could give her a hint as to her current circumstance.
She glanced down at her outfit, she was still dressed in the soft and fluffy black robe Blake had worn as sleepwear, a ripple traveled down her clothes. Her robe morphed into a silky dress, leathery opera gloves and glossy high heels. "That's better." After she finished changing, she noticed a loud sniffing coming from behind her so she twisted her head and spotted a rather large Ursa.
The Grimm was a few feet from her and was currently aimlessly wandering.
"It's pretty rude to sneak up on a lady." She scoffed at the beast.
Immediately the creature swung its head and pounced towards her, but then, from beneath her feet, her shadow shot up as a wave and engulfed the monster entirely before it shrunk down back to her body. "Ohh, tasty." She whispered as the Grimm was consumed within her Soul.
"Hello? Hello? I hope everyone can hear me." Glynda Goodwitch's cheery voice echoed through the forest. "Congratulations everyone! From the six hundred and forty students who went to sleep, you lot of one hundred and sixty are all that remain! Unfortunately only sixteen of you will pass this next test, so listen up because I'll only explain the rules once."
"Well well well, what's this? Sorting out the unworthy now, are we?" She chuckled with a dark glint in her eyes and a smirk crossed her lips.
Yang Branwen swung her sword with all the conviction she could muster, and even though a mountain of screaming burning corpses surrounded her she didn't waver.
She swung her sword and ignored the faint voice of Summer Rose telling her to hide.
She swung her sword and ignored the screams that echoed from everywhere.
She swung her sword and ignored the shouts from Taiyang Xiao Long.
She swung her sword and ignored the cries from Ruby Rose.
She swung her sword and ignored the flames burning away her tears.
She swung her sword and ignored the flames burning away at her flesh.
She swung her sword and ignored the flames burning away at her emotions.
She swung her sword and ignored the flames burning away at her memories.
She paused briefly as the desire to save Ruby surfaced, but then she swung her sword harder than before.
She swung her sword and ignored the recurring dream.
She swung her swor- the blade was caught mid-swing by someone.
Yang blinked as she saw herself holding her blade, having stopped her swing.
"It's because you're so weak that-" The Yang that caught her blade started to speak but then flames engulfed her body, silencing her. She released the blade and began frantically flailing about in pain and fear.
Yang swung her sword up, and as she took a step forward her sword swallowed up every flame and scream within her nightmare, and then she swung her burning sword down. A blinding slash sliced through the dream Yang and then through the nightmare in its entirety. "Shut up." She coldly hissed at the burning corpse of her own body.
She swung her sword and ignored the burning pink webs that couldn't survive the dream she had every night.
Yang Branwen opened her eyes as she woke up, tonight's dream had been oddly different but not enough for her to worry. "Hmm?" She wasn't in a ballroom anymore, and since she didn't recognize the forest she was in she looked up at the night sky.
Let's see… Paradise, Corvus and Devil's Crux, yeah we're basically still at Bastion.
The constellations hadn't moved tracks so to speak, so she could tell she was still in the same general area that she had gone to sleep at.
Ruby? Where's Ruby?
As she remembered the moment before she fell asleep, she recalled that her sister had been by her side and now she was gone.
Not again, not again, not again. We can't lose her again!
As she began to panic and frantically look around uselessly trying to find her sister, she noticed that the odachi she had earned from her mother was in her grip and then she calmed down as her fear melted away.
It wouldn't be like last time, Ruby could protect herself now. She doesn't need you anymore.
Yang pushed herself off the ground, and tried to understand what was happening to her, she doubted that she had been kidnapped.
Mom said she wouldn't interfere, so she wouldn't have Ripped us back, unless… Raven was lying to us again.
Her shoulder slumped at the thought, but then she remembered she was still near Bastion.
Trust her, Mom knows what's best for us, remember we're just a broken doll.
Yang shook her head, she didn't want to remember back before she met Raven, before she regained the ability to think and feel again thanks to her mother. She had to focus on the present, she could thank her mother later, but right now she needed to get out of this forest.
"Hello? Hello? I hope everyone can hear me." Glynda Goodwitch's cheery voice echoed through the forest. "Congratulations everyone! From the six hundred and forty students who went to sleep, you lot of one hundred and sixty are all that remain! Unfortunately only sixteen of you will pass this next test, so listen up because I'll only explain the rules once."
The blonde swordswoman, who didn't have a special outfit to sleep in, clipped her sheath along her right waist holster and listened intently to the acting Headmistress.
"Ahem! You all should have a blank signaculum tied around your necks, and in order to qualify as a student at Bastion you'll need to destroy at least ten of those from your fellow academy prospects and protect your own until only sixteen people remain."
Yang reached for her neck and found a thin metallic plate attached to a chain around her neck, the plate was about half the size of her palm, so, while sure it was small she should have noticed it sooner regardless.
"Lethal force will not result in expulsion, prison time or an execution, so please have fun to your heart's content everyone!" Glynda's advice ended and a sharp whine echoed afterward.
This… seems easy enough, at least it lacks any of Mom's unique charm that she sprinkles over everything.
However, Yang had experienced enough surprises in the real world that her mom didn't plan, so she knew that everything could still go wrong fairly easily.
"Hands up, girl." A shrill and nastily voice demanded from behind her.
Yang tilted her head and gazed at the person who had somehow snuck up on her, it was a scraggy boy with milk white skin and dark green wavy hair. He had his arm raised high and was holding the handle of a long dark whip in his hand. And then she noticed his feet, he was barefoot and the skin and muscles of his feet were deforming around sticks and rocks.
He is about 10 feet away from me, his whip appears to be approximately 15 feet long, his handle doesn't appear to have a mechanism to change its length, and we're surrounded by trees. My blade is 4 feet long, I'll need to close the distance and attack before he could swing.
Even if her opponent seemed weak, it wasn't wise to underestimate your opponents, another lesson Raven carved into her flesh and bones.
Nori Kombu had just woken up crying and begging for his life in a forest but he couldn't remember why he was doing so, his embarrassed indignation that he had done so at all burned at his very being and he wanted to release his pent up stress.
When he was a young lad he had discovered that every male in their recorded family had been a Hunter, but they all died fairly young and his father had lost his hand and so gave up on that life before his death. Nori hadn't cared, he wanted to be like his family because he admired Hunters more than anyone else he knew, but his father told him to give up on his impossible dream.
And perhaps it was his fault, a small part of him was convinced, it might've been because he hadn't shut up about his dream without acknowledging how sacred his father was of death for himself and his only son, so he couldn't find it in himself to blame his drunken father for beating him night after night while shouting at him to give up his dream.
Eventually his father sobered up, but the rift had already formed between them. And all the beatings had accomplished was solidifying his dream, however it also twisted his personality, his father was the only example of an adult in his life. So when other kids denied his dream he would beat on them until they took back their words.
Additionally, regardless of how cowardly his father had seemed he had still inherited the legacy and fortune that came with the Kombu Name before he officially retired.
So young Nori had status and wealth and there hadn't been anything he wanted, nothing except for his dream of becoming a Hunter. He paid tons of private tutors to teach him, and he bribed his teachers for better grades when he failed their, in his opinion stupid, tests. He was skilled enough at fighting, and he had a handy Semblance that almost made his body soft enough to absorb most impacts and gave him extra resistance to blades, and when it was combined with his Aura he almost couldn't be harmed.
Now he was at Bastion and he was a single step away from becoming a Hunter, the first thing he needed to do was eliminate ten other people, and just his luck that he found a poor girl dressed in shabby clothes and carrying an old looking sheath. His first thought was about how it was unlikely she could afford an education like his own, and when she turned to face him, he begrudgingly admitted that she was beautiful even though her face was lacking any make up.
And then her figure danced in the moonlight, her left leg slid forth as her left arm reached for the hilt of her sword, her right arm gasped and pulled back her sheath and her right knee almost reached the ground as she crouched low. For a brief second she held that stance and took a deep hissing breath in, that had likely been his only window to attack, but he couldn't react in time as golden flames exploded from her feet and erased the night for a moment.
A girl burning gold shot across the ground and appeared before his eyes standing tall, her left arm stretched towards the sky and she exhaled lightly.
Nori's brain needed a second to process what happened, the girl moved closer to him and swung upwards leaving a golden trail of flames behind her sword before she stopped.
He heard a thud to his right.
Where her sword had slashed.
With absent eyes he turned to his right, and he didn't see anything. He didn't see anything past his shoulder, he didn't see his right arm.
Pain exploded through his body and he toppled over then he began screaming as he rolled round wildly.
Something pressed down hard in his chest, pinning him down, through tear filled eyes he saw a boot stepping on him.
And then his cries went silent as a blade kissed his neck, it drew blood because he wasn't in the right state of mind to use his Aura.
"Your signaculum or your life?" The girl asked with a steel laced voice, her eyes had changed from a striking violet to a burning gold.
With shaking hands he extracted a small piece of metal he had tucked away into his pocket as soon as the announcement had ended.
Golden flames flashed before his eyes, slicing the metal he was holding without harming his flesh.
"Thank you." Her voice had become soft, and then she sheathed her sword and scratched at the back of her head. "And, uh, well, sorry about the arm." A tinge of red filled her cheeks. "I did cauterize the wound with my slice so I doubt you'll bleed out, but, uh, I guess good luck next year or something." She bashfully said. "Well-bye-now!" And then she fled away.
Nori almost passed out from the pain and fear, but he knew he was still in a forest outside the kingdom borders so it was definitely infested with Grimm. He had lost his right arm, the arm he used to wield his whip that he could defend himself with. His dream was over, he knew that, just like his father, he was of the cowardly sort who couldn't go on while missing a limb.
But he still needed to survive, so just for today he'll push down his fear and fight until he found a safe area where he could give up and rest. With difficulty he managed to stand and then he gagged as he removed his whip from his hand, if he was an optimist he might've taken it with him with hope it might be reattached, but he held no such delusions.
He stumbled around, going in the opposite direction of the girl who disarmed him, and then he noticed the moonlight around him flickering.
"Oh my? What's this now?" A silky voice slithered up his ears and sent chills down his spine. "Does a human need some aid? It's fortunate that I'm so generous."
With shaky eyes he looked up a large slope and towards the source of the voice, then he witnessed that from shadows she descended towards him before everything went dark.
Thanks for reading! I'm always open to feedback so please leave a review, or reply in my forum, about what you liked or hated about this chapter or the whole story. If anyone wants to be a Beta Reader then PM me and we'll talk details.
So the Nightmare Arc is officially over, and we're on to the Elimination Arc.
Blake's segment actually played out in two entirely different ways and I wrote both of them before deciding to go with this one. I hope it y'all enjoyed it. Yang's segment actually took a long time to write, not the dream but her waking up, it got to the point where I had erased her perspective of the fight and instead created an OC to wrap up her scene.
Nori's segment also gave me an excuse to show off the world outside of the main character's life and demonstrate that this world isn't as kind as canon. Essentially this is what would happen to canon Jaune here. And we could see what the two main characters appeared like to the rest of the world with no insight and none prior context. Nori and Kombu are both a dark green seaweed, and uh, zero points for guessing the inspiration for his character.