Wow guys… I am speechless. I made a tiebreaker to break up the tie between Ruby and Yang last chapter, and put up the Poll for just 24hrs, and for those of you who don't know yet. Once again, that Poll was TIED. How did you guys do that? You guys tied the tiebreaker.
I suspect fuckery. -CrowSkull.
Ruby Rose- 15
Yang Xiao Long- 15
So, in order to break this chain of events before it can get too out of hand, I am going to allow my Beta to set sail one ship, and sink another. That way you guys won't hate me for doing it myself. Don't tell him I said that though.78
So, CrowSkull, which ship are you boarding?
*Drum Roll*
*Sigh* Okay let's see the contenders we have, Red Reaper in one corner, Blonde Brawler in the opposite corner, all tied up until now… and things seemed to have gotten out of hand, that's why I am here, and it falls to me... I know, it's a disgrace really but… we ran into a corner and hereby I declare the winner of this long fight… the Red Reaper, gotta give it to her and her voters, they managed to reach this far from the beginning. Inb4 hate mail. -CrowSkull
Ruby Rose- 15(+1) WINRAR
BAM! There, double tiebreaker has been broken.
I know, I know, a LOT of you guys wanted Yang to win, trust me, I know. I saw the reviews, even though I specifically stated and underlined that I won't be accepting votes in reviews for the last Poll. If it is any consolation. If I did accept votes from reviews, then Yang would have definitely won. So we can put it like this for now.
Yang won in popular votes.
Ruby won in official votes.
If that makes sense. This is a democracy after all. And no, this is not going to be a harem story. I don't write that kind of romance. Just in case you guys didn't know this before, the Poll did NOT decide the pairing, just saying that one last time.
Emphasis on that. -CrowSkull.
Just because Ruby won, does not mean she is going to be the pairing, everyone has an equal chance right now. It's all up to me however. So don't unfollow yet!
Inb4 reviews about deceiving poll and misleading information… even though it has been previously been stated. -CrowSkull.
I won't be responding to reviews in this one, because the AN is getting to long, but thank you all who reviewed! I read them all so don't worry.
Beta: CrowSkull
Now let's get on with the story!
The Blind Huntsman
Chapter 29- Volume 0, Episode 27
Chaos
Pyrrha fell down to one knee, the smoke entering her lungs almost suffocating her as soon as Kai and her ran out into the competitors section of the arena. It was almost all empty, she could see the bodies of other huntsman in training and White Fang alike. Most of them charred and not in one piece. They must have been all fighting at the time of one of the explosions, catching them all in the blast.
Kai pretended that he didn't know what exactly he was stepping over, for once he wished that he couldn't use seismic sense because of the pure chaos he feels going on all around him. He coughed up some smoke and helped Pyrrha back up. He didn't know he actually injured her during their fight, he had his fair share of bruises and sore muscles, but after that last attack he dished out against her she must have landed too hard on her feet. Which was why she fell over and struggled to get back into a standing position.
To make things worse, their auras were low. Everything on the other side of that metal gate was bravado and bluffs. All he could hope for now was that Team CFVY were holding their own against those two men. They were first years right now, but Kai remembers that they are one of the best teams in their year. He has faith in them, he had too.
He let Pyrrha use his shoulder as support, and he used his semblance to clear away the smoke that they were breathing in. Blasting air across the hallways in front of him and giving them a clear opening for at least a couple of seconds.
"We need to find a group, help others if we could." Pyrrha suggested as they ran through the halls. Pyrrha doing her best with only one healthy foot.
"I have a friend nearby, she's really powerful, if we get to her she would protect us." Kai said as he thought of Vernal, one of the four seasonal maidens. He had first hand experience on how strong they were, and he had a feeling that there is a lot more where that came from.
"Where is she?" Pyrrha had to ask.
"I… I…" Kai struggled to answer, searching out with his seismic sensing to try and get a feel for where she is held up. But there was just so much chaos, he could barely pinpoint what is around him and much less could he sense where Vernal was. Everything was vibrating in some way, from the crackling of the fire, to people fighting above them, to the other explosions going of only on a much smaller scale, it must be dust weapons of some sort.
"I can't tell." He had to admit, he was truly blind in this situation.
He felt like a child again, unable to tell what was around him and bumping into things every once in a while. Pyrrha could see that he was struggling, and realized what must have been going on. For she started to use her own working eyes and scanned their immediate surroundings for anything that could lead to other people.
"Here, I'll lead you." Pyrrha said as she gripped his shoulder hard as to keep her own balance and to lead her new ally.
They walked like that for about a hundred feet, and still there was an abundance of smoke and chaos all around them. Just a few minutes ago, they were fighting each other with everything they had, enjoying the cheering from the crowds, having fun.
Now they were struggling to even find someone. Someone alive at least.
"Rick! Rick where are you!?" A familiar voice reached Kai's ears, and he perked up as he focused more on his hearing. He could hear his friend, one of the Violet twins, running down the hall toward them shouting his brothers name. They must have gotten separated once the blasts started.
"Brick!" Kai screamed off the top of his lungs, waving his hand wildy in the air above him as to get his attention.
"Over here!" Pyrrha added, waving her own hand in the air as soon as she realized that the person coming up was a friend of her ally.
"Kai?" Brick called out to them as he broke through the last layer of smoke. "Oh, thank every God there is that you're okay." The Violet twin said as he patted Kai's shoulder.
"Trust me, the feeling is mutual." Kai said as he nodded in his direction. "How did you get here? Where are the others?"
"The others are on the other side of the stadium," Brick reported. "Once I realized that Cyan and my brother weren't with us, I broke off from the group to try and find them. I feel like I ran around this whole ring seven times, and nothing."
"We'll find them." Pyrrha said with a determined voice, standing on her own two feet without Kai's support, directing every bit of aura she could spare down to her injured ankle. "We need to stick together however, we are in the middle of a terrorist attack, and both Kai and I are still injured from out earlier match."
Brick looked like he wanted to argue, but once he saw the bruises on their bodies and just how tired they still were, he shook his head and muttered something in agreement.
"Fine, here, I'll help you walk." In any other case, Brick might have been excited to finally meet Pyrrha Nikos, but now was not a time for such actions. Instead, he walked up to Pyrrha's side and let her wrap her arm around his shoulders, giving him a thank you as she let him support her weight and took pressure off of her injured foot.
"Brick, my mom, the others, are they okay!?" Kai asked frantically as soon as he thought about the other again.
"They're okay," Brick affirmed. "Your mom, Qrow, that Tai guy, and Orchid's mom are with them all. When I was last with them I saw Orchid, Yang, Ruby and Two with them. The only ones who are missing are Shae, Rick and Cyan."
Kai nodded his head, but still grit his teeth. Three people were still missing, they must have not been in one group at the time of the attack. Of course they had to all be in separate spots at the time of the attack. Things would have been too easy if it were any other way. Not to mention that Vernal and Raven were still nowhere to be seen, and neither was his father. But he knows that his father will be more than able to protect himself, as would Vernal and Raven.
Just as he thought of Raven, he could hear that unmistakable sound of her portal ripping into the air close behind him. All three of them turned around to see Raven without her mask on step through, her red eyes locking straight onto Kai and for a very subtle sign of relief to appear through her eyes as they softened just a tiny bit before hardening once more.
"Who the hell are you?" Brick asked as he unsheathed his sword, stepping forward as the most healthy warrior at the moment, his red lightning crackling as he challenge the woman in red.
"Friend or foe?" Pyrrha followed up as she held her sword with both hands, her shield still being lost somewhere on the arena stage itself. Even while injured, if she had to fight she would, and this woman looked very dangerous.
She sheathed her own sword in response after flicking the blood off of it, and completely ignored Brick as she only spared him an amused glance.
"She's my friend, don't worry." Kai said as he placed a hand on his friends shoulder, calming him down upon contact being made.
"Trainor as well." Raven said as she stepped closer to the trio, looking them all up and down. "Are you all well?"
"I'm fine more or less, still recovering aura but I haven't had a chance to recover and significant amount." Kai said as he rolled his shoulders, wincing when one of them clickled uncomfortably.
Pyrrha didn't know it was her turn to speak next, but when Raven's red eyes bore into her emerald green she realized it was time to talk. "I-I'm okay, I just have an injured ankle is all. I'm in the same situation Kai is in."
"And I'm fine, pretty much at full strength." Brick said as he relaxed his stance and semblance. Their red eyes met for a moment, but Raven turned away to look back to Kai.
"Stick with me, all of you, and I'll get you back to your friends." Raven demanded as she placed a hand on the hilt of her sword, and pushed by them, expecting them all to follow her.
"Why not make a portal to the others?" Kai asked, using his knowledge of her semblance to his advantage and could honestly care less if the others heard him.
"You should know that I don't like to be questioned on my motives Little Kai." Raven hissed, leaving no room for further questioning as she kept her back turned toward them.
Kai knew that there was some reason for her not being willing to make a portal to Qrow, Yang or Taiyang. He knew that she could do it easily, one slash with her sword and she could just send them to the group.
Unless… Raven actually couldn't make another portal, and used the last of her strength to make one to him. She was still in fighting shape, but there is such a thing as semblance exhaustion. He remembers her telling him about her semblance and what it did when she was still known as Falcon. It has unlimited distance, but she has to have a bond to the person she is creating a portal to for it to work properly. She did say that there was a limit to how many portals she can make in a short period of time, but she never stated how many.
Which means… that Raven just didn't want to admit that she couldn't do it, she was just too prideful for that. It made sense in a way, if a little childish in another. Her coming to him was good and bad. Good because she is on par in skill with his father, and could protect them easily, and bad because she is no doubt tired at the moment. She must have been in a fight earlier, and was forced to use it as a means of mobility.
Kai figured out the reasons, but he wouldn't put it out into the open, it would only make Brick and Pyrrha more negative about their situation. He could already sense their hearts beating hard in their chests when he brushed up against them on accident. He could feel his own up in his ears. It was terrifying really, just how helpless he felt at the moment.
It only made things worse when they started to get shot at, and Pyrrha tackled him to the ground to save him from a barrage of bullets as Brick charged at their attacks in one direction while Raven dealt with the ones in front of them.
Raven cut through them easily, uncaring for their lives as her blade cut through their necks and stabbed into their chests. Brick was having a harder time on his side, and as much as Pyrrha and Kai wished that they could help they were just too tired.
Brick didn't even call out his lightning attacks like he would when he was in his usual mood, it was like he was an entirely different person as he fought through the White Fang with his powers. He didn't hold back, he couldn't afford too. He didn't kill any of them, but his red electric semblance still crackled in the enemies that he defeated as he went from person to person, swinging his sword with less skill and more with ferocity as he slashed his sword at his enemies.
By the time he made his way back to Kai and Pyrrha, they were already back on their feet and running. Pyrrha did her best to ignore the pain in her foot as she kept going forward, limping slightly every time she landed that leg on the ground. Kai was holding on to Bricks shoulder as he lead the two of them. Raven dealt with the other attackers, and quickly caught up to them, taking the lead again as she shoved them into one of the training rooms and slammed the door shut behind them.
"We have to hold up in here for now." Raven said as she flicked her sword to the side twice, ridding it of the blood that was dripping off of it. "Listen to me, all of you." She demanded as she looked over her shoulder toward Kai, Pyrrha, and Brick.
"I am not in the best shape, I can hold them off on my own for a while, but in order for all of us to escape, we all need to fight, and hold nothing back. Don't be afraid to go for their vitals."
"You're telling us to kill them!?" Pyrrha asked as she realized what they were all being asked.
"I'll fight my hardest… but kill? I don't know if I can do something like that." Brick muttered.
"Then you will die, there is no other alternative." Raven spat, making Pyrrha and Brick with the harsh truth.
Kai thought long and hard about it, and hefted Silver Ebony from his side and held it with both hands. He gripped it with one hand and walked up beside Raven once he sensed where she was standing, letting his actions speak for him.
Pyrrha and Brick widened their eyes at Kai, who just agreed to doing the unthinkable.
"I have my friends out there, my family. I can't just not fight with everything I have when their lives are possibly on the line." Kai said as his left arm bursted up into black flames, letting it crawl up his arm to his shoulder and then to his back. A few seconds later it covered almost his entire left side, leaving his right side to use any other elements.
"I'll do what it takes."
Raven smirked as she got into a stance, ready to spring off the back of her foot as soon as the door was going to be blasted open. She felt an odd sense of proudness pool up from within, and for once she let herself feel proud for someone else, something she hasn't done in years.
Pyrrha and Brick had to make a decision, and they showed it by stepping up with Kai and Raven. Their own weapons at the ready as they prepare themselves for battle. No words needed to be spoken, none needed to be. Once they thought of their own friends, their own family. They would do anything to keep them alive.
Pyrrha had her mother and father still somewhere in the stadium, they were both huntsman, but they were still human. She needed to find them.
Brick had his brother Rick, and his brother unrelated by blood, Cyan to find. Not to mention the rest of his friends, and his crush Ruby. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath, letting his red lightning crackle over his body and around his sword as he readied himself for combat.
From the other side of the door, the sound of something like a lightning bolt sounded off not too far away. There was shouting and arguing on the other side as something fell over, presumably one of the supports keeping the stadium up. Then there were gunshots, and Kai almost ran forward and would have bursted through the door if it weren't for Raven stopping him.
Soon after, the shouting stopped, and what was left was just an eerie silence that was quickly followed up by footsteps stopping at the edge of the door. Everyone readied themselves for whatever that was on the other side.
When the door opened gently, and a young man with gray hair along with a girl with minty green hair walked in. Brick's eyes lit up as he recognized them, while Raven's narrowed and Pyrrha was simply confused. Kai didn't know what was happening until Brick shouted.
"Emerald! Mercury! Boy, am I glad to see you two."
Cinder flew back into the wall as a bolt of lightning hit her body, her amber colored aura flaring as it protected her body. She summoned a wall of fire to negate another fireball from coming into contact with her body. She flipped away and summoned up a glass bow, and shot three explosive arrows at once toward Vernal. Whom unlike the previous Fall Maiden, was able to defend against it by smothering the explosions with her ice powers. Freezing the arrows before they could explode in the first place.
Vernal cocked her weapons as she grinned and shot herself like a missile towards her masked attacker. Cinder scowled and summoned up her dual swords in response, blocking Vernals first attack that quickly led into a bout of speed she was hardly prepared for.
The Spring Maiden roared as she infused her weapons with lightning, and pinned Cinders swords together with both of her blades. She smirked into her face as she pressed down on a trigger within her wrist blades, firing a now blue laser in Cinders chest and blowing her away.
Cinder recovered quickly, flipping through the air and landing on her heels as she threw a counter attack in the form of a fireball toward Vernal, who was forced to block with her aura in response.
Using the smoke as cover, Cinder summoned up another glass bow and shot three more explosive arrows, trying to get a massive detonation off that would blow the other maiden off of her feet. Two of them were frozen in mid air, but the last one landed in between Vernals feet.
She cursed to herself mentally as she hastily strengthened her aura while simultaneously using her magic to create a small wall of ice to soften the blast. It worked slightly and she was blasted back after the blast, skidding across the ground and through a wall that led into one of the vacant training rooms.
Through the dust cloud Vernal saw a single eye flame coming toward her, and dashed out of the way of a fist imbued with aura and fire. Vernal countered with a grunt as she kicked her attacked in the side, launching her through one of the other walls.
Vernal chased after her, using blue lightning to propel herself after the discount Fall Maiden. When she bursted through the cloud, Cinder was already charging right at her. Both widened their eyes as they clashed their blades together, neither expecting the other to do what they did at that moment.
Their clash created a beautiful clash of bright purple when dark orange fire met light blue lightning. However, Vernal was the stronger one of the two, her being a full maiden and Cinder simply being half of one, more or less.
The masked attacker cried out as she was slammed against the back wall, not going through it like the one before but denting and cracking the bricks significantly. She looked up through her torn mask and locked eyes with the Spring Maiden, a little dazed after the clash, but still standing and prepared to kill her at any moment.
She knew she wasn't going to win, but her pride make her have to at least try. Unlike Amber, Vernal trained with her powers, continued to grow stronger. Unlike Amber she had a teacher, a man with silver eyes that was more powerful than a maiden already. As impossible as that sounded. Cinder actually counted herself lucky that she didn't go after Malikai instead of Vernal like it was suggested early on in the plans, because if she did. She had a feeling she would have lost much faster.
Cinder let out a sigh mixed with annoyance and relief when a multicolored girl appeared out of thin air between her and Vernal. The Spring Maiden spat to the side and prepared to fight the newcomer with the mismatched eyes, letting her own blue eyes flame up in the process.
"A little girl? If you think I am going to hold back just because of this little bitch you have another thing coming!" Vernal screamed, levitating into the air as she let more of her power come forth.
Neo pouted at her and wagged her finger no, not wanting any part of that. Instead of fighting like Vernal expected her to she backed up slowly and grabbed onto Cinder's shoulder, teleporting away right as a bolt of lightning was about to hit them. They shattered into a thousand pieces of glass, and much to the frustration of Vernal, didn't die.
"Damn it!" Vernal shouted, then touched back down on the ground with a dull thud. She winced as she felt her sore muscles. Even though her attacker was just half of a maiden, she was hard to put down. She never even saw her face either, and just as she was about to that ice cream girl came out of nowhere.
"Damn you…" She seethed, her eyes still flaming. "I'll kill you for what you did to Amber… and I'll feel damn good while doing it."
"Emerald! Mercury! Boy, am I glad to see you two." Brick cheered as a wide smile drew upon his face as he spotted his old friends.
Mercury was about to speak up, but once his eyes landed on the very angry looking woman standing next to Kai, he chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. Before their plan even started, it already failed.
Luckily, Emerald was quicker to recover. "Are you guys okay!?" She asked, faking her concern as she ran up to all four of them.
Kai smiled and waved off her concern. "Yeah, we're fine more or less. I didn't think I was going to meet with you guys so soon."
"Yeah, well, we were going to leave the stadium after your match." Emerald said with a strained smile.
"I convinced her to stay until we saw what the matchup was, I just couldn't miss out on you two fighting." Mercury gestured to Kai and Pyrrha, putting on one of his signature smirks and earning a nod from each of them as a response.
"Well, it's good and bad that you stayed." Brick said. "Good because you just saved our asses, and bad because now you're stuck here with us in this whole mess."
"It's a good thing we came along when we did then, there was a whole lot of White Fang out there. Luckily some explosion scared most of them off, and Em and I were able to handle the rest." Mercury said as he pointed one of his thumbs toward the door they just came through.
"Do you know the way out?" Raven asked, not making it subtle that she is still battle ready and isn't about to let her guard down at all.
"Y-yeah, we can lead you out to the floor above this one. That was where I saw another group of people go." Mercury answered, gulping nervously as Raven narrowed her eyes at him.
"A group? Did you see a woman with brown hair and a monkey tail? Or your old partners? Friends?" Kai asked, stepping up with a frantic yet determined look on his face.
"I didn't really get a good look, we just kept going to see if we could find anyone else." Kai sensed that Mercury was telling the truth, he had the good sense to start sensing for them once he regained his cool. The last time he was with these two he didn't know if he was going to get out without a fight.
Mercury and Emerald knew that, and they glanced to each other with a knowing look.
"Did you see my brother!?" Brick asked, much more frantic then Kai, his red eyes staring into Emeralds as he stepped forward. His lightning was still crackling uncontrollably as he got more emotionally unhinged.
Mercury and Emerald both froze on the spot, they were about to walk out so they could lead them to somewhere safe. But the question caught them off guard, and it wasn't because they didn't know the answer to that inquiry.
"I…" Mercury hesitated, choosing his words carefully. "Yeah… we ran into him."
The look of relief almost made the two of them feel bad for him, almost.
"Where is he?" Brick asked, the crackling of his red lightning coming to a stop as he regained more control over himself.
Emerald and Mercury's silence was telling, and slowly, the smile on Bricks face fell into a deep frown as tears start to accumulate at the corners of his eyes.
Raven was the first to realize what that silence ment, and her hand tightened around the hilt of her sword just a little bit harder. Kai was the next, a choked gasp escaping from his mouth as he almost fell over from the grief. Pyrrha hung her head in silent respect for the second Violet twin that she never met.
"W-w-where is he?" Brick asked, tears already falling from his eyes as his semblance started to act up again. "W-what happened?"
Mercury and Emerald both turned at the same time, their faces set with small frowns as they looked toward the red Violet twin. They just shook their heads in response, unable to actually say it.
"What happened!?" Brick shouted, his voice cracking as he gripped his sword even harder, his lightning crackling around as he gets more and more emotional.
"He… didn't make it." Emerald gently revealed.
Kai sensed for any lie he could, anything he could use to call her out on a lie. But he couldn't, she believed it to be the truth, and there was nothing he could sense that could say otherwise.
He rubbed a hand down his face and remembered all the good times he had with Rick, and Brick alike. Wherever Brick was, so was Rick, and vise versa. They were inseparable. They were brothers, both prodigies in their own right to get into Signal a year earlier. They had the best teamwork, and cooperation. And just like that, all of it was cut in half.
Brick broke down, falling to his knees and punching the ground as hard as he could. The stone cracking underneath his fist as he let his anger and grief take hold. Pyrrha tried to comfort him, but the only thing she could do was rub his back in a comforting manner, it did little to help.
Kai kneeled down next to Brick, and offered his own condolences, before hefting the younger boy up to his feet and placing his sword back in Brick's hand. The one that the Violet dropped as he fell to his knees.
He had tears stinging his eyes, but they didn't get much further then that, he wouldn't let them. Instead, he held them down and did his best to make it look like he was staring into Bricks eyes.
"Rick would want you to keep going Brick, he loved you like that, just like you loved him. Get out of this place and keep moving forward. I feel like I knew him enough to know that is what he would have wanted from you." Kai said as he gave Brick a quick hug.
Brick broke away and wiped at his eyes, nodding at Kai with red eyes before shaking his head and sucking in a deep breath. He steeled himself, and nodded toward Pyrrha and Raven, letting them know that he can keep going despite the devastating news.
"Take us to the upper levels." Raven demanded, speaking up for only the second time since the Emerald and Mercury found them. During all of this, she felt her aura regenerate a good amount. She still had some time to wait for her portals to come back into use, but she was able to fight as she would if she were just warmed up.
"Yeah, just follow us." Mercury said with a nod as he let Emerald leave the room first. The others nodded to him and he went through next.
As soon as he left the room, he felt something sharp push into his back. When he turned around to see what it was, it was Raven, pointing her sword at them.
"What are you-"
"Keep walking, and stay in front of me." She demanded and took a step forward, forcing Mercury to take a step back and raise his hands in surrender. "I don't trust you, and I am not taking any chances, stay in front of me, and everything will be fine."
Mercury, and Emerald tried to find some reason to tell her that they were trustworthy, but with the glares that they got from Brick and Pyrrha, and the nicest one of the group they knew being Kai wasn't even speaking up in their defence. Seeing no other option, they nodded their heads submissively, and lead the way, just as they said they would.
It didn't take long for them to get to where most of them wanted to go, as soon as Marron's brown eyes found Kai she broke off from Qrow and engulfed her son in the most tender hug she has ever given. Though, even through his own happiness, Kai couldn't help but notice that the group Brick mentioned that would be here was more than cut in half. He could only sense one other person in this room on that level. That person was Qrow. Who was currently giving Raven the smuggest grin he has ever given his sister.
"Where are the others?" Kai asked as he broke away gently from his mother.
"Tai, and your partner's mom took them and got them out of the stadium. I don't know how popular you are kid, but they damn near started to fight with all three of us when we said that they needed to leave, and the situation was getting too dangerous for them to stay." Qrow explained as he scratched himself behind the ear. "Marron was the only one I let come back with me after Tai and that other woman pushed them back. So if I don't get you out of here, I am going to have more than two angry nieces to deal with."
"I also couldn't help but notice that my sister here decided that she could start liking people again, who knew." Qrow added, smirking when Raven glared at him. She didn't give him the satisfaction of a response, all that would have done was give him more ammo to shoot her way anyway.
"Who're the strays?" He asked next, referring to the still nervous Emerald and Mercury.
"They're friends from Signal, they were the ones that lead us hear." Kai answered honestly, speaking up for them unlike he did before.
Emerald nodded her head in confirmation, focusing her semblance on Qrow to give him the illusion that herself and Mercury don't look like they really do. She did it the second they walked into the room, just in case he recognized them from the time they helped Cinder do to the previous Fall Maiden. They wouldn't take any more chances.
"Alright, hope you kids know how to fight. What about that other chick? The one with the tattoo." He asked Raven, since she would be the one who would best know how to answer that question.
Before she could answer however, they all heard an earth shattering scream and yet another tremor throughout the entire stadium. It sounded like she was still fighting something at the moment, or most likely someone.
"She is handling things on her end." Raven said with her own smug grin as Qrow rolled his eyes at her.
"In any case, the way Marron and I came through is now blocked off, we have to find another way out." Qrow said as he nudged the faunus woman. "Enough about that though, how are you kids doing?"
"We're fine." Pyrrha answered for them, then noticed Bricks downcast expression. "Mostly… but we are able to fight if the situation called for it."
"Good, because I have a feeling we are going to need to if we're going to get out of here." Qrow held up his scroll. "I got in touch with Albedo earlier, he found Malikai and the two of them are fighting their way into the stadium."
Marron and Kai sighed in relief, they knew Malikai could handle himself. But they were still worried for him nonetheless. But the very next second, Kai remembered the team that saved them were most definitely still in the arena somewhere. How Team CFVY was doing however, was still unknown to him, and did not make him feel comfortable with himself at all.
"There was a team from Beacon that jumped into the arena to save Pyrrha and I, we have to go back for them!" Kai exclaimed, getting Pyrrha's support right away with him. Brick showed his as well, standing with them.
Raven rolled her eyes at the display of comradery, it was so overrated to her these days. If they weren't strong enough to survive on their own, then they weren't fit for this world. Not that she would say that out loud, it wasn't worth hearing the complaints from the children, and her brother.
"Thought you'd say something like that kid." Qrow said with a sigh.
"Listen Kai, we have to prioritize getting out of here with our lives." Marron said it so Qrow didn't have to. Feeling as if it were her duty as a mother to break the news to her son. "We know a way out, after taking a few moments rest, we can all escape together. Then Qrow, Raven and even that Vernal woman could go bring that team back, okay?"
"Mom, I can't just leave them here." Kai rebelled. "They risked their lives to save me, someone they only knew for a few weeks, if I went and got out of there while they are potentially still risking their lives in a battle at the moment. A battle they are taking part in because we fell right into their trap."
"Damnit Kai, stop trying to be a damn hero!" Marron shouted, surprising herself with her own harshness.
She thought it would hurt Kai, but instead his facial expression hardened even further. Showing his defiance by staring back at her with his blind eyes through his black blindfold.
"I'm a huntsman now." Kai stated.
"In training." Marron countered.
"Still a huntsman, just like Pyrrha Nikos is a huntress, and Brick is also a huntsman. With Qrow and Raven with us, we can go back and save those who were lost. I still have two other friends missing and a whole team to back up, I am not leaving here without them."
"You don't have to worry about me, if anything you should worry about yourself. I'm going to go back for my friends, and you can't stop me. It's not like you can force me to listen to you anyway." Kai finished, ending his rant triumphantly. His stunned mother looked at him with a flabbergasted look on her face. Never before did Kai ever talk back to her like that before, at least never with that amount of intensity.
The others in the room with them all looked awkward as well, like they didn't know what to say. Even Raven showed a reaction in the form of an eyebrow raising and a snort, in a weird way, she was proud of Kai being so aggressive suddenly, it was about time that he stop being the goody two shoes he was known for.
"Fine, fine." Marron said as she stood up, wrapping her tail around her waist and going over to one of the broken walls where some pipes were sticking out of. She gripped one of the pipes and started pulling, the screeching sound of the metal bending and steam blowing out of the pipes as Marron pulled on it made Kai's ears rings.
"What are you doing?" Kai asked as he covered both of his ears so that his already sensitive hearing wouldn't be damaged any further.
"I… am… going… to… help you!" Marron said as she heaved a long pipe about the length of a short sword out of the wall, waving a hand to use the air part of her semblance to push away the steam that was blowing into her face.
Kai was equally surprised as he was suddenly worried. His mother isn't a fighter, she never was. She is not built for it, and for many years of his early life she was against the idea of him pursuing the career as a huntsman. The only thing she has going for herself was that she was a faunus, she had her aura unlocked, and she had her semblance. Which made up about half of his own semblance. While that already put her up as stronger than about eighty percent of the world's population, she still hardly knew how to use her power.
"Mom… I don't think that's a good idea." Kai said, worried. "You're pregnant, and you don't know how to fight and-"
"Kai, you really think I never got any training?" Marron asked with a chuckle, swinging her pipe weapon over her shoulder and pretended that she wasn't already tired. "I am married to your father after all, and I happened to be friends with this woman at the time." She added as she looked toward Raven, who looked back at her through the corner of her eye.
A few years before Kai was born, a few weeks after they married. Malikai insisted that she at least knew how to defend herself. He offered to train her himself, but after the wedding they were tight on money, so he had to go on many missions. She didn't know the reason until now, since Malikai has silver eyes and this whole secret organization hunting them down into extinction going on. But when he was busy, Team STRQ wasn't. She was close with Summer before she disappeared, and she will never forget her demanding that Raven be the one to train her.
The two women weren't exactly friends, but they didn't hate each other at the time. Raven trained her (reluctantly), every day for two hours. The training ate her civilian body alive, but she learned how to defend herself. They only stopped when Marron got pregnant, she just couldn't keep up after that and only then was Raven allowed to stop training her.
The bad thing about that was that the last time she fought anyone was almost two decades ago, and she was in her mid forties at the moment. Not that she was about to tell Kai that.
"I can attest to that." Raven confirmed with a nod, curling her knuckles as she remembered beating Marron time and time again.
"So yeah, I am coming with you." Marron leaned down to her sons face. "And there isn't anything you can do to stop me."
"Oh my." Pyrrha stifled her giggles with her hand, there was still a light in the midst of this survival situation.
An explosion rocked the room that they were in, Emerald struggled to keep her focus on Qrow, but she managed it. The explosion reminded them most of them just what was going on at the moment.
Suddenly, the ceiling began to cave in on them. Pyrrha and Brick were already out of the room right as it started caving in, Raven quickly followed suit after grabbing Mercury and Emerald and throwing them through the door. Qrow was next after that, but before he slid out of the room he stuck his sword in the ground to keep the door from closing down all the way.
Marron and Kai were still in the room, being the farthest away and Kai being too blind to see what was going on. It was only thanks to the quick thinking and the use of the stone manipulation part of Marron's semblance that it didn't crash down on them all the way. She wouldn't last long however, the weight behind it was massive and Marron was already struggling.
Luckily, Kai managed to catch on to what was happening, and with a grunt he raised several more pillars out of the ground to support his mother and the weight. He was able to summon up much more than she ever could, and while that was happening Marron broke into a sprint, picked up her son over her shoulder, and jumped through the door. The pillars still held strong, but she couldn't take the chance of them not being able to hold.
She put down Kai right away to make sure he was okay, and of course he was. Everyone else was too, though she couldn't help but notice that their were two people missing. The ones with the gray and green hair respectively.
"Is everyone okay?" Qrow asked as he ripped his sword out of the ground and allowed the door to slide closed. He looked around to see Brick and Pyrrha both getting up after a tumble, and his sister already looking around for another exit. Marron and Kai were okay, but he too noticed that two were missing. "Where are the other two?"
"I pulled them out, but they must have gotten separated from us when this side of the hallway also caved in." Raven explained as she gestured to the left side of the tunnel, referring to the rubble blocking that entire direction.
"Damn it." Qrow cursed under his breath, wishing the two other students luck. "Well, you got your wish Kai, the only other way out of here is through the main entrance. I already checked before you found us and I couldn't see any other way out."
"Then we can cut through the arena to get there, I still left my bracer on the ground in there, and Pyrrha lost one of her weapons too right?"
"Yes, my shield is still in the arena." Pyrrha confirmed.
"Fine, we'll go through the arena." Qrow surrendered easily because honestly, that was the quickest way that they could get out of there. "Raven, are you able to make another portal yet?"
"Just one, but I doubt you would all take it." She replied, and she would be right to assume that. The only safe portal she could make is to Tai, and when looking toward everyone else, they didn't have the look of someone who wanted to escape.
"Save it for emergencies then." Qrow said as they all started moving, trying to find one of the other waiting rooms that lead directly into the arena.
"You don't need to tell me that." Raven said with a hint of irritation as she brought up the back of the group, completing the sandwich with the bread being the two Branwen twins.
"I know, I just wanted to say it anyway."
"You little-"
"Could we not? Please?" Marron asked, stopping the two siblings from getting into yet another argument.
Team CFVY were losing against Tyrian and Hazel. They started off the fight very strong, even winning the first couple of exchanges. Yatsuhashi and Velvet were fighting the scorpion faunus, leaving Coco and Fox to deal with Hazel. Coco's minigun was what mainly drove Hazel back and gave Fox the openings he needed to deal some close range damage. Since there was literally no cover in this entire arena, Hazel was forced to brave the non stop barrage of bullets while also having to deal with the unorthodox fighting style of Fox.
Yatsuhashi was the front line against Tryian, with Velvet using her weapon to copy Fox's weapons and mimicking his way of fighting perfectly. Yatsuhashi was slower, so he swung his blade just as Velvet was clashing her blue holographic weapons against Tyrian's wrist blades. But the crazed faunus was just so strong, and fast. He had a seemingly endless supply of stamina as well, making it even harder for the two of them to keep up with him. They didn't even land a single solid hit on him yet, grazes and small blows yes, but when it came to lasting and inhibiting damaged, they did none.
Hazel stabbed himself with his dust crystals sometime during the fight, catching Coco and Fox off guard as his strength multiplied and his durability increased even further. Coco's minigun might as well have been shooting spitballs with how much stronger he got. Fox got grabbed by Hazel and was used as a human shield as he charged at Coco. She couldn't bring herself to shoot her own teammate, she she shifted her weapon back into it's handbag form and resorted to using that as her main weapon. It was made out of metal after all.
She might as well have been slapping a brick wall with how he took her hit like it was nothing, and Hazel charged both her and Fox off of the arena. Watching as they both fell into the water below.
"Fox! Coco!" Velvet shouted, concerned for her teammates even as she struggled to hold off Tyrian for Yatsuhashi.
"They will be fine partner, focus on the task at hand!" Yatsuhashi yelled as he tackled into Tryian as he was staring crazily into Velvets brown eyes. His grin widened even further as he reversed Yatsuhashi momentum and ended up with him on top. His wrist blades clashed with his bronze sword, and they pushed against each other with everything they had. But Tryian was slowly gaining on him, and his muscles were straining and weakening as Tryian inched his own blade ever closer to his throat.
"I'm coming!" Velvet yelled as she took a different weapon out of her camera, this one being Kai's Silver Ebony sword. She mimicked her friends fighting style just as she did with Fox's, and forced Tyrian off after slashing at his side. Landing the first big hit of what she hoped to be many.
She wasn't able to go after the other faunus while he was stunned, for Hazel shoulder charged her and launched her to the other side of the arena, shattering the rest of her aura in the process.
Yatsuhashi shouted out her name as she struggled to push herself back up, her holographic weapons scattered all over the ground, shattering away into little pieces when she ran out of aura.
"Surrender. Now." Hazel demanded, placing his foot on Yatsuhashi chest and pinning him down on the ground. "Your team is down, and you will all die if you keep fighting."
"Surrender would be shameful, but not nearly as much as your tainted soul must feel." He spat back, pushing back despite the air being driven out of his lungs.
Hazel sighed and shook his head, disappointed. "You Huntsman and your heroics, all it does in the end is get you killed."
"Ooo~ are you going to kill him? Can I watch? Oho I can't wait to see which ends his organs splurt out from." Tryian cackled, and clapped his hands like a child who just got a treat.
Hazel didn't respond to him, and simply pushed down on the defeated huntsman in training's chest. Making it harder and harder for him to breathe as his aura flares to prevent Hazel from getting to his actual body.
The end of a cane struck Hazel in the eye, stunning him. Followed up by dozens of stabs that hit nearly all of his pressure points. Before finally, a blast of green blows him even further back.
Headmaster Ozpin stood before him when he opened his other eye, his white hair blowing in the wind. An angry expression on his face. It was enough to make Hazel almost lose it on the spot.
"OZZZZPINNN!" Hazel screamed as he got even stronger with his anger.
"Headmaster." Yatsuhashi choked out, propping himself on one elbow as he stared into the back of his headmaster in almost disbelief. He counted nearly a hundred stab attacks with his cane in the span of about two seconds. It was incredible, he could never hope to be that fast and powerful.
"Gather the rest of your team, and escape." Ozpin demanded as he flourished his cane, not even looking at Tyrian who just tried to ambush him and countered his attack perfectly. Parrying his blades and spin kicking him hard and launched him back toward Hazel, who grunted as he slammed into his large chest.
"I'll deal with this fools, this is a personal matter." Ozpin added as he held his cane out before him like a sword, and slowly started moving toward Tyrian and Hazel.
[Important A/N below]
Fuck this was a long chapter, I meant to finish this yesterday, but I may have played Resident Evil 2 during my break, and ended up completing an entire Claire run in 4 and a half hours. After that I went back to writing, and stopped at 6k last night before playing Apex Legends for another few hours, and then when I woke up earlier today, I wrote another 3k words today and here we are, another chapter of The Blind Huntsman!
Poor Rick, he is MIA at the moment, and Emerald and Mercury's plan has changed immensely. Cinder tried to fight Vernal, tried. Luckily for her Neo saved her, I bet you guys thought that the other chapter was just a little cameo for you guys. Did I get ya? I wish that they didn't waste Vernal's character so badly, she had a lot of potential and they killed her off without even a fight. I mean, what happened to aura being passive and always up?
What happened was that it never had any definite rules to begin with, pretty much most body soul shields like things in fiction have some weird rules, not many or none at all… It's weird and it can always change to work with the plot. -CrowSkull.
There is still a lot for me to get through next chapter, I got to write Weiss and her family again. We got Albedo and Malikai fighting their way back into the stadium, and we got Adam and Blake lurking in the background. The Lieutenant with the chainsaw is injured so he's out of the fight for now. Not to mention Shae, The Violet Twins, Cyan, Two, Yang, Ruby, etc. So many people man… I made so many characters for this story and I don't regret a single one of them.
Yeah, I have a lot to get through.
Soon, I am going to be starting to work full time at my job. It is literally going to cut my writing time in half and I won't be able to write nearly as much as I am able too now. So chapters with 6-7k words each is going to become the norm pretty soon. I am not going to stop writing, of course I am going to keep going. But four chapters a week, one for each story, is not going to be possible anymore pretty soon, I don't know exactly when this is going to happen, but I know it is going to happen soon. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up.
When Summer comes around, I should be able to write a lot again, maybe get back to my fast af pace of four chapters a week like I've been doing the past few weeks. I just need the money right now, and I know it sucks but money is important right now, especially since I am paying for my own tuition and books for college.
Please review and let me know what you think! If you want to follow the progress of all of my stories, you can keep up with me on my twitter account that I made just for you guys! My username is Genatools, and on there I also post drawings of the characters from my stories, so if you're interested to see what almost all of my OC's look like, go take a look there.
T witter . com (slash) Genatools
But keep in mind that I was never really an artist, so don't expect God tier drawings.
If you wish to support me in a more direct way. I have also made a P atreon account, anything you could give would be very helpful for me.
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