Third POV
"I'll save you…so you save me. I don't wanna die either."
"I remember, Juno."
Juno was lost in thought, after sitting around for so long he faintly remembered fragments of his past memories. He ate a few snacks he bought earlier, he munched on some pastries as he sat down. Juno is seen at the highest point of Signal Academy. A modest rooftop on the third floor of the dormitory section.
"The promise we kept and the power we shared." Juno muttered under his breath, it was something like an unfinished quote. "That wasn't quite right, maybe if I had something as reference it would be much easier to remember."
Death wasn't a simple process, nor was it an easy one. Side effects like memory loss, weakened skills and body and removing one's emotions were all somewhat prevalent for Juno.
Juno looked at the system UI as he waited for Adam to arrive at Signal. "It's been about thirty minutes already. Everyone is fast asleep without a doubt at this hour by now." Juno burrowed his face on his knees, he seemed to be at his limit and was almost falling dead asleep.
Ding
[Adam Taurus will arrive in: 30m, 0s]
"What a bad day to have eyes." Juno said, laying his head down at the bright roof and using his hands as cushions. Juno sighed as he looked at the broken moon.
…
The night felt bright and full, the rays of the moonlight illuminated everything. Signal Academy's park in the afternoon and early night was beautiful on its own. But the silence and peace complimented by the tall view…
"Breathtaking, isn't it?"
Ding
[+1][White fang member's left: 1/60]
'Way to ruin the moment system.' Juno thought to himself as he opened the system interface.
/
[Shop] [Information]
[Inventory] [Summon]
[Synthesis]
/
"That's new. I wonder what it is all of a sudden? Only one way to find out."
/
[Synthesis]
[Weapon] + [Material] = []
[Armour] + [Material] = []
/
Since the system has yet to show a description of what the synthesis section is. Juno assumed that it was for refining and upgrading equipment, it's either that or a repairing type section. Juno shrugged the thought off, it wasn't as probable because of what the word synthesis really meant.
Juno leisurely scrolled through his inventory, trying to find something to test the new feature on. After Juno went through his MISC items, he stared at his Claymore, second guessing if he should do it. "Should I test it out now? I'm not trying to find out if synthesis has a chance to fail… ever then, what type of dust do I use?"
After some back and forth, Juno thought to settle on just one powerful dust type instead of a few, like Myrtenaster(Weiss' weapon). For now, since his options are quite limited, it wasn't as hard to choose one. Juno's claymore is by no means complex like the others, it does have the upside of lowering the stakes at hand.
"Alright, I've decided! Screw everything and let me try this synthesis out." Juno said as he took out his claymore. "Let's see if I can fight fire with fire. Adam might as just give a thumbs up if I did. So I guess Red dust would be quite fitting, wouldn't it?"
Red/Fire dust has decent destructive power and is usable in almost every situation. Beside Black/Gravity dust, Red dust is by far the most powerful and adaptive. "What should I name this guy? The only good fire sword I know is called Junkyard dog. Excalibur would actually be fitting, but considering that it's already overused… sigh…"
Ding
[Adam Taurus will arrive in: 25m, 0s]
"That'll be annoying if that happens every five minutes, till Adam gets here, keep your bells shut." Juno mumbled as he stood up and stretched his shoulders. "All right, I'll go run around a few laps. Maybe I'll get as some gains while I'm-"
Through the moonlit field of grass an arrow flew straight into Juno's forehead. The arrow left an orange trail of dust, behind it was a flame, combusting the orange dust.
"Oh, fuck."
The arrow exploded right inside Juno's skull, leaving behind a bright purple flame. The blast was remarkably silent and small, leaving no marks on the jagged brick rooftop besides Juno's spilled blood that turned to blinding flames itself. Streams of blood and smoke fell as Juno himself slipped down from the rooftop. A small thud was heard after that, following an unintelligible groan with cursing.
As loud as the fall was, no student was awoken by the decently loud thud of Juno's body hitting the ground.
…
"Bullseye."
In the shadow filled corners of the distant trees of Signal, a woman dressed in black with a white fang mask walked out of hiding. Streaks of her silver hair shone in moonlight before her figure began to become invisible. Transforming her body to a transparent silhouette of her previous appearance.
She ran from the park's outskirts to just a yard away from Juno. Her mask emanated a faint red and orange glow as she eyed the bushes on where he fell. "Target is yet to be confirmed lifeless, I'm going in to confirm. Postpone the bomb." She said, throwing behind her bow and quiver.
She pulled out a katana from her side and cut through the air as an aura slash flew to the general direction of Juno. The stone wall of the building was sliced cleanly.
At first glance nothing happened, and it was clear as day that the young man passed on already. As the woman tried to leave, she noticed a few specks of blood splattered onto the walls. She thought nothing of it at first, a trick of the shadows, the mistake of the eyes, an optical illusion some might say.
But she couldn't help but feel something off about it. Something similar to a dark energy that would've made anyone lose their sanity for the Grimm to feast upon.
But she didn't look away just because of some energy. What made her keep looking was the blood itself, the crimson hypnotic blood. Crimson blood spread through the stone walls, creating and morphing itself into a sun-like pattern.
"A relative to the dark one? No… that woman is on our side." She said as she hovered her index finger at her ear. "Request for immediate backup, let only the elites be dispatched. Let the rookies remain on standby. I'll see what I can do in the meantime,"
…
"...hello?"
The signal was cut off, even her scroll wasn't able to send a message. "Impressive, an emp out of nowhere. Aren't you a clever guy?"
…
Apart from the night breeze, no sound nor movement was made.
She walked towards the blood infested wall, unsheathing her katana as she glared at what looked like eyes engraved in the blood. She let out a scoff before inspecting the wall with her aura.
[Activating Wrath]
A crowd of palm shaped blood took shape and strangled the woman as she was hauled up inches above the ground.
"Why am I so unlucky today? Aren't you extra's supposed to be weak?" The blood on the wall grew a couple sets of teeth and gave her a wide smile.
Pure blood from the ground and wall enveloped and became a figure of a tall young man. As the entity fully developed, a Nevermore mask appeared on its face.
The woman glared at the entity as she gripped her weapon harder. "Disgusting." She snickered, it seemed as if the woman wasn't intimidated at all. This made the entity's excitement rise as it pointed its index finger at the woman.
"Heaven or Hell." The entity blurted out.
The woman bursts out aura all over her body as the hands that strangled her withered away. She unsheathed her katana before her bow and quiver appeared out of nowhere behind her.
"Let's Rock!"
The entity rushed in front of her and landed several punches with a slash from a claymore. The woman disappeared in thin air before she reappeared in the entity's neck and slashing off.
The entity simply kicked her off while its head fell. The woman stumbled backwards as she saw the entity picking up its head and placing it back on. A few seconds of silence was met before she shot a few arrows at the entity. The entity dodged most except a single one to its left leg.
The entity's leg exploded, it fell to its knees as it shrieked in pain. Causing a small shockwave to rupture the ground below it.
. . .
Both the entity and the woman paused for a few seconds and looked towards the windows of Signal's dormitory.
"Safe… phew."
. . .
The entity duplicated into a few dozen smaller versions of itself. Then it transformed into sharp objects as it launched itself to the woman. She dodged every single one before detecting where the true entity is at.
She slashed at a single knife from her left, causing the blood knives to reshape back into a human-like form. "Impressive… it is unfortunate that you betrayed us, General Manticore."
The woman took form and re-wielded her katana as she started to disappear. "Receive retribution, for my fallen comrades and soldiers."
She gathered Aura to the tip of her blade, glaring at the entity for the last time before she was sucker punched. The punch had some mana imbued to it, launching her a couple more meters across the grass.
"I can't believe you were weakened to the point of almost getting defeated, Natas of Wrath. Getting too comfortable back on Earth aren't you?" Juno snicked.
"Screw you. The contract shouldn't have been valid after death. Yet here you are, lazing around when I fought that soldier." The entity flipped off Juno as it slowly recovered its torso.
"Right, right. Although, aren't you forgetting something, Natas? The battle is far from over."
"What is that supposed to mean-" Natas remarked as it barely dodged an aura slash coming its way. "Right…"
Juno and Natas charged at the woman. Fighting in complete sync as Natas copied Juno's form and weapon. The woman struggled to block each of their attacks, but ultimately none of their attacks were effective.
After a series of clashes with Juno's claymore and the woman's katana. She took a few steps backwards and used her semblance. Creating multiple clones of herself, as well as making each one of them hard to see.
"Lotus…" The woman said, as she pointed her's and each one of her clone's swords. "I'm Lotus, White fang's number five. If you still have a fragment of your memory. I have been ordered to spare you."
Natas Scoffed, clenching its fists and screamed at Lotus. "A bluff?! What stagnant sonofabitch would ever-"
Juno raised his arm, shutting up Natas. "Hey, Lotus, I didn't come here because I wanted to oppose the fang."
"Explain yourself, Manticore."
"I simply came here to kill." I said, grinning ear to ear. "Don't worry though, I haven't killed anyone yet. I'm only planning to kill powerful ones. Like you, for instance."
A vein popped on Lotus' forehead, her temper and patience was on thin ice. "Elaborate further, I can still forgive you if you haven't touched the rookies." She said, her aura uncontrollably leaking out.
"Oh? You really fell for my joke? I've already killed a couple of them. Where do you think I got this mask from?" I said.
"You bastard."
As those words left her mouth, Juno saw the broken moon upside down. His head fell down from his neck. Streaks of purple flames engulfed his body as a final bright red light left Juno.
…
[Insight Complete]
"Absolute sword slash." Juno muttered, before every single one of the woman's clones' heads flew off. "I always wanted to do this pose after a good fight."
"H-how?!" The woman said before her own head got cut off as well.
"You completely fell for the taunt, human." Natas said before he disappeared. "I will take my leave now."
"Adam actually sent one of his elites to fight me. Tch, that chick was pretty strong, I'll give em that. That should've at least given me a lot more mana, right...? She was decently strong." Juno absorbed Lotus' corpse as he whistled at the system. "The thirty minutes are up already?"
Ding
[Adam Taurus has arrived]
Ding
[First Blood]
[Elite Kill]
50 Achievement Points
"Adam Taurus of Menagerie." I mumbled "Let's dance."