I have returned! Yup, I am finally back, feeling better about everything and am able to write again. It was thanks to the twitter poll that I started back on this story, and I actually had to read through the last chapter to refresh my memory on everything that happened. As you might have guessed, this is going to be another mostly action chapter. I'll try to limit it and make it more fast paced so we can get through this arc, but for now. Just bear with me everyone!
Thank you all who showed their support for what happened to my sister, I really appreciate it, and I am eternally grateful for every single one of you beautiful people.
A lot of you have been asking- nay, DEMANDING, that Orchid the Flamingo Goddess makes a return. Just reminding you all that she was taken out of the fight in the beginning of this chaos by her mother, and Taiyang. As is Ruby, Yang, and Two. Of course she is going to come back, she might even be more popular than Kai himself in this story. Probably is.
A concern I saw that one of you had was that Kai was able to see when he used his silver eyes. So right now, I am going to confirm that Kai will only be able to see when he uses his eye powers, and ONLY when he uses them, and only in those white flashes of moments. He is going to be blind, and stay blind for the entirety of this story.
Beta: Crowskull
And now, I make my return to writing with this chapter! I hope you enjoy!
The Blind Huntsman
Chapter 32- Volume 0, Episode 30
Close Calls
Qrow winced as his burned shoulder stung when he swung his sword with his off-hand. The brown haired faunus girl ducked under it, and tried to drive her whip rapier into his stomach. He used his agility to swerve around the blade, and then elbowed the girl in the back of the head. He might not be able to do as much damage with his body than his sword, but his physical attacks still did wonders to the skulls of these two girls.
Even while injured, he was still a good league and a half above these two girls. Which made Qrow wonder. He isn't a not well known Huntsman, his name is known mostly throughout the world through Vale and Salem's forces. He was also a Branwen. Which should mean that by extension, the White Fang should have known how good he was, how hard he would fight, and if these two girls would have been able to take him on.
Which meant… they aren't supposed to beat him per say, but to distract them.
They were doing a pretty damn good job at that.
Everytime he tried to break off to go help in the fight against that multicolored girl, the two of them would use their semblances to corner him and block off his escape routes. The cat girl would use her damned clones combined with a shit ton of dust to either blow up, or straight up block the direction his sword was cutting through, and cause even more damage - albeit minimal - to his body. So for now, he would have to get through these two.
Literally the only problem with that was that the two girls didn't seem to care for their lower auras, and he didn't want to accidentally kill them. Qrow has killed plenty of Grimm, some people, some regrettably, some not. But there was a long thick line when it comes to children. That was one of the things Qrow swore to never stoop down too.
Interrupting his thoughts, Ilia shouted as she used her whip to snap at him. The yellow lightning crackling around the metal thrusting sword. Swinging and snapping it with more ferosity than skill. To her credit, it was almost working. Blake attacked in the open intervals in which Ilia needed to reel back her whip sword. The two kept working together wonderfully like that, and so well that it almost impressed Qrow.
He caught the wrists of Blake as she swung Gambol Shroud at him, and spun her around so that her back was to his chest. Effectively holding her hostage now.
"Blake!" Ilia cried out, growling ferally at the old Hunter.
"Y'know… you two would make good Huntresses." Qrow piped up with a cocky grin as he slowly choked the consciousness out of the cat faunus. He felt the girl in his arms shift a little as he said that, and almost relaxed for a split second before going back to thrashing about. Trying, and failing to free herself from his grip.
"Let her go human!" The other faunus screamed at him, aiming her sword at him.
"Yeah, not gonna-" Qrow tightened his grip when Blake nearly broke free. "Not gonna happen. But what will happen, is you two running away from here before my sister cuts down your boss."
"If our supreme leader falls, we will be trusted with seeing the rest of this through." Blake choked out her defiance.
"Yeah? That's what I'm afraid of." Qrow said with an easy shrug.
Ilia snickered triumphantly at him. "You should be afraid human. Soon, the faunus will be the ones reigning supreme over the world!"
"No, no, no." Qrow waved his injured hand side to side to emphasize the word no. "That's not what I meant, I mean that if my sister wins ANYTIME SOON!"
"Screw you Qrow!" Raven shouted at him from down the hall and around the corner.
"Then you two are probably fucked." He finished with a cocky smirk, secretly enjoying the mildly shocked look on the chameleon faunus' face. "Oh yeah, she'll kill you two, and sleep like a baby at the end of the day. When it comes down to it, she can be a special kind of bitch."
"Sienna won't lose." Blake spluttered, and while Ilia couldn't tell. Qrow had the experience to see that even she wasn't truly believing in her own words a hundred percent.
"You really believe that?" While his name was well known, his sisters was just as known or perhaps even more so because of her leading the tribe. She was also known for being unmerciful, unforgiving, and incredibly dangerous. In terms of character, Sienna was a near perfect match, but in skill? It was arguable, but Qrow believed that his sister has the edge over the supreme leader.
No answer this time. Ilia simply narrowed her eyes at him, then looked to the floor and lowered her weapon just a few inches. Qrow thought that he actually might have been able to get to her, and relaxed his grip around the cat faunus for just a second. That proved to be a mistake.
"Agh!" Qrow reeled back, holding his hand which now has two holes in the webbing between his thumb and palm. Blake jumped away from just as he made to grab her again, leaving an unpowered clone in her wake which fooled Qrow into going after. "You little shit." He said as he shook his hand to help rid it of the pain and the blood that leaked out.
Blake wiped her mouth of the blood, one good thing about being a cat faunus is that she had sharp, and pointy incisors. Teeth she used to bite into Qrow's hand and draw blood. First blood on their part, they were already bleeding from minor wounds, but it was finally some progress.
"Ilia, I think we should retreat." Blake suggested, taking another step back from Qrow.
"What!? Blake, we can't just fall back. You know what we have to do here. This is for the betterment of faunus worldwide!" Ilia proclaimed, holding a hand over her heart and staring at her partner through her mask.
"How is this helping the faunus?" Blake challenged, standing up to her.
Ilia widened her eyes underneath her mask, shocked to hear that from the once dedicated most dedicated person she knew. "You can't be serious, we've talked this over a thousand times. You knew what we were going to be doing here for months!"
"Months ago we were not violent! Ever since Sienna took over, the reputation of the White Fang has been increasingly getting tarnished!" Blake yelled back, making Ilia take a step back to recollect herself.
"You- no... in private we will talk about this later." Ilia relented, shaking her head and looking down and back toward Qrow, who has been happily leaning against the wall the entire argument so far.
"Oh no, keep it going." Qrow said, even having the gall to yawn as he leaned up against the wall. Sipping away at the flash of alcohol he took out of his shirt pocket as the girls were arguing. "I have all day, I'll gladly watch you two bicker the whole-"
Qrow cut himself off, and dove to the left. Barely getting low enough to the ground to be able to dodge the incoming slice of red and black that nearly cut him in too. It was out of pure instinct that he was able to get out of the way in time. He pushed himself back onto his feet and forced his injured right arm to grab his sword and bring it up to block a thunderous blow from a blood red katana. Qrow's red eyes narrowed as he stared into the single blue eye of Adam Taurus. The same bull faunus he watched kill another Huntsman while he was off guard.
With a grunt and a wince, he pushed the terrorist back. Ignoring the shot of stinging pain that just ran up his tricep and into his shoulder. He was no medical expert, but he was pretty sure that his pale skin should not be scuffed with black and brown all over the exposed parts of his arm.
Adam stopped his assault for a moment, and stared at Blake through her mask. She was shocked to see him without one on himself, but with the bruises and marks on his face and body. She could tell that he did not take it off voluntarily. It was either destroyed or forcibly ripped off his face. What scared her more was that he didn't seem to care having his scar completely on display. Usually he always had something around his eyes so that it could block that part of his face, a mask, blindfold, anything really. She has known him long enough to know that he is insecure when it came to that specific part of his face. The fact that he wasn't even attempting to hide it at all, and that he looked angrier than he has ever been. Did not spell anything good for anyone around him.
"Leave. Now." He ordered, his teeth nearly grit against each other as he spoke. Blake could see his hand clenching around the hilt of his sword even tighter as he said that.
"B-but that's going against the plan… I-I..." Ilia stammered, trying and failing to speak past her own layer of shock after seeing her long time friends face for the first time.
"I can handle him. Go help Sienna." Adam didn't look to her as he said this, instead keeping his gaze locked upon Qrow's form. Already giving Qrow a show of having much more experience in combat than the other two members of the White Fang.
When Qrow would have usually made a quip of some sort, or try to distract his opponent, he strengthened his stance and took this new opponent serious. Despite Adam's young appearance, he could still very much land a killing blow if he wasn't more than careful with him. Whatever happened to Adam when he was younger turned him into the monster that he was now. A Hunter killer. People like him were more dangerous than the Grimm at times.
"Listen to the bull girls." Qrow said with a faked smirk. "Don't want my sister killing your supreme leader am I right?"
They wished that he would have worded it differently, but he was right. Sienna was having trouble further down the hallway. Apparently, Raven is much more of a threat than what they originally thought.
Reluctantly, both Blake and Ilia heeded Adams orders which nearly sounded more like threats. And turned heel away from Qrow. The clicks of their heeled boots echoed throughout the hallway as they made their way to support the leader of the White Fang.
Now alone, Qrow and Adam began to circle each other. Keeping their blades pointed at their enemy and watching for even the slightest of movements. They stayed like that for about a minute, but it felt like an eternity to them. Qrow was injured, but so was Adam. It was obvious just by looking at him, even with the burned up eye. His mask was shattered, his clothes were a bit tattered, and he was bleeding a small amount from some parts of his body. Qrow wasn't that much better, his right shoulder and arm were burned all the way halfway down to the elbow. Hurting that arm to the point where it hurt to move in any way, even more so with the heavy weight of his mecha shiftable sword he had as a weapon. He would love to use it's scythe form, but in this tight corridor it would be harder to use it, giving Adam an edge he did not feel willing to give.
Finally, when a drop of sweat fell from their faces at the same time. Adam lunged to attack. He didn't have enough aura or power to use his semblance again for another strong attack. But he still had his immense strength and speed.
His red blade clashed with thick silver in a heavy loud parry. He jumped back from the counter and moved back in while Qrow was reeling back his sword, and than ducked under the dull side of the blade to get into Qrow's guard.
He still had to cover his face with his forearm to block the ringed aura enhanced fist however. The force of the punch made him skid back several feet and left him with a throbbing left forearm. Qrow smirked and made to attack before Adam could full recover, jumping up into the air with his sword over his head, intending to bring it crashing down onto Adam's body and cut him in half.
Adam was nearly up against the wall, so dodging backward wouldn't help. He couldn't go sideways either, since there was fire that way, and the other side only led to the already guarded side of his enemy. With a grunt, he hefted both arms in the air, crouched down, and blocked the strong attack with the flat side of his katana.
The force of the attack was so strong that it blew away some of the flames for a couple of seconds, before the burning heat returned and lit the surrounding area on fire again. Adam grit his teeth and pushed up against the slightly stronger man while his katana glowed as it absorbed the kinetic force of the attack. At end of the day, it wasn't strength that ruled supreme, but technique. In his low stance, Adam was able to push the blade back up over his head, and jump up into a head butt which stunned both himself, and Qrow.
They both shook their heads of the stars and dark spots in their vision, and took a stance against each other again. They were both tired already, their previous battles took a lot out of both of them. Nonetheless, Adam whipped his sword to his right as if he was flicking away the blood, intent on keeping this fight going.
Qrow simply held his sword out in front of him with both hands in his usual and favorite combat stance. He was taking slow deep breaths as well, while Adam Taurus was taking quick raspy ones. Not making the air he inhaled efficient enough to last the rest of the fight. That was one advantage he had over the younger man.
No more words were shared between the two, only the feeling of adrenaline running through their bodies as they clashed swords against each other once again.
Cyan made a mistake.
He originally thought that he might have been able to hold this ice cream girl off for a decent amount of time so that he could let the champion girl recover. But he found himself discovering more and more of his durability with every hit he landed on himself when Neo dodged and redirected his attacks expertly.
He owes his own survival to Showstopper, his semblance. The ability to nullify any kind of attack at the moment of impact every two to three seconds after training with it was more than worth having. The frustration showed on the pale girls face as her sword once again suddenly stopped, and did no damage when striking him directly in the neck once again. She tried pushing it deeper to bypass Cyan's aura, but he was able to smack away her thin blade with the staff of his halberd before she could kill him.
"Can you give me like, a second to breathe?" Cyan asked as he held his halberd horizontally across his body in a defensive posture.
Neo simply glared at him, but had the decency to at least show that she was considering it for a couple of seconds. Giving Cyan enough false hope to let her body shatter away into glass and for her blade to once again bounce off the part of his chest where the heart was located. This time however, she pulled back before her blade could get grabbed by Cyan's bare hand.
"I'm guessing that's a no than?" Cyan asked uselessly as he rubbed the weird feeling he had over his thunderously beating heart. "Taking your silence as a yes…"
Neo gave him a thumbs up in response. She was admittedly having a fun time nearly killing this blue haired boy over, and over. Even if she was never able to get to the real climax of watching his dark red blood pool around her thin silvery blade, watch it as it dripped down the edge of her sword when she took it out. Her favorite part about killing a person was watching as the light drained away from their eyes, and she longed to see that light drain away from this annoying boys cyan colored eyes.
By the look of Neo's flushed face as she thought about whatever she was thinking about did not bring Cyan and joy or hope. He was getting destroyed. He had a long weapon with a lot of reach in a corridor where he couldn't use the full potential of that reach. It might as well be a staff weapon with the amount of times he has used the shaft to defend and attempt to attack with.
"Damn it, where's Kai when you need him? Guy could probably take you on-"
A bright white flash nearly blinded him, even though he had his back turned to the source of the flash. Cyan stumbled about and swung his halberd wildly. Calming down only when the voice of Pyrrha called out to him and he felt a pair of hands settle on his shoulders. He managed to crack his eyes open just enough so that he could see the multicolored girl he was holding off struggling to see as well. Neo was clawing away at her eyelids and kept blinking wildly. Se lost control of her semblance momentarily and she broke away into glass only to reappear just a few feet away. It went on like this for a couple of seconds before the white light and the screaming suddenly went out.
/-/
As Ozpin held back Tyrian's scorpion tail with his cane, and Hazel's fist with his other hand. He also noticed a surprisingly bright white light so bright that it was like staring into the sun. It went away just as fast, and the headmaster was filled with more than enough confidence.
He jumped, and twisted in the air, forcing Tyrian into Hazel, and letting the larger mans elbow slam into the faunus' side. The only sacrifice being that Tyrian's stinger managed to graze his body. It was nothing to be worrisome about however, with just a minimal amount of magic. Ozpin could cure any sort of venom or poison in his body.
"Seems like Malikai made it." Ozpin said with a sly smirk as he stood sideways to the two other men, who both looked worriedly at the spot where the white light came from. "It is either that or little Kai did the unthinkable…" His head tilted to the side so that he could look at Hazel and Tyrian. "Whatever your plan was, it has failed."
Tyrian and Hazel didn't respond, but they didn't show any signs of being worried any more than Ozpin was for either of the Matsuoka's. If there was an enemy here strong enough to force them to use their eyes, even with no Grimm currently present - at least not close enough to them - then that was a cause for concern. He would love to get there and help himself, but these two just would not stay down.
At this point, Ozpin was more worried that this was all part of their plan.
Keep the Headmaster of Beacon distracted.
/-/
Neo hit hard when she recovered, all that elegance and agility turned into ruthless attempts on both Cyan, and Pyrrha's lives. The latter of whom was still recovering from her last fight with this monstrous girl, and the fight beforehand with Kai Matsuoka himself. She was given all but a few minutes of rest before she was forced to go help her new cyanette ally before he finally messed up and earned a knife in the heart for his mistake.
With the two of them working together, they were able to push Neo back finally. Pyrrha taking the front line, and backing off when Cyan was ready to strike with his long weapon in a thrusting motion. It kept on like that until Neo was hit for what felt like the first time this whole encounter. It wasn't hard to believe that it might have actually been the first time when both Cyan and Pyrrha landed simultaneous attacks to the midsection and shoulder of Neo, as she thrusted her sword forward at the same time.
Pink aura flared as Neo was sent back stumbling on her heels as she skid back from the force of the duo attack. Tripping over herself and falling on her butt with a very quiet gasping sound. Cyan was slow to respond, but Pyrrha quickly lunged forward and aimed her sword directly into the girls stomach.
It went in much too easily, and the fact that Neo still had a smirk on her face and a thin blade covered with blood did not bring her any amount of comfort. Neo disappeared into shards of glass, and there was a thumping sound behind Pyrrha.
She looked back in horror at the sight of Cyan clutching his bleeding stomach, the red blood vibrant over his white dress shirt. He tried to speak, but instead blood came out, and he fell forward. Pyrrha quickly dashed over to him and caught him before he could hit the ground.
"No, no, no… How did this happen?!" Pyrrha exclaimed as she put as much pressure as she could on the wound.
When Cyan thrusted forward with his halberd, he positioned his body in a way that he was closer to the blade of the weapon so that he could put more force behind his strike, along with making it easier for him fight in such close quarters. But Neo noticed that weakness, he was extremely open to counters as he threw every attack. She let herself be hit so she could stab the boy in the stomach so deep that it almost came out the other side. Then when she flew back, she did even more damage on the pull out. His aura was so weak because of the amount of times he had to use his semblance. So much so that his aura of defence may as well be a piece of paper.
Cyan coughed and hacked, holding on to his wound with bloody hands, and what little remained of his aura scampered to try and heal his near fatal wound.
Pyrrha assessed her choices, she could use the rest of her aura to break herself out of the wall and into the outside, saving herself and her dying ally. Or she could attempt to help her other allies in their fights, and hope that Cyan was still clinging onto life when they were all finished.
"Save… them." Cyan gasped out. His choice on the matter was obvious.
"Shh… don't speak, you need all your breath." Pyrrha said in a soothing tone as she lifted him up with her arms. "I am going to get you out of here." She made her own choice as well, as much as she would love to help the others, Brick had help by the sound of things, Kai had a powerful semblance and was practically surrounded by fire, and they had two other Hunters with them. She was nearly out of aura, and exhausted. If anything, she would have just held them back. It took all of her willpower to make such a decision, but saving the life that basically saved hers was worth it in her eyes.
With a raspy sigh, Cyan lost consciousness, and Pyrrha focused hard on the metal inside of the walls leading to the outside.
Raven pushed Sienna Khan back against the wall. The impact was so intense that it cracked all around the point of impact as the White Fang supreme leader's back bounced off of it. Her aura held strong however, and she was able to dodge Ravens blade straight after with her catlike agility.
As she slid away from Ravens follow up attack, Sienna wrapped the chain of her weapon around the Branwens heel. Before she could turn into a bird, she yanked on it with all of her strength, making Raven fall onto her back. Sienna pounced like a tiger straight after, but was met only with nothing but the floor when Raven rolled to the side and let her sharp claws scrape into the concrete floor where she once lied.
She rolled to the side one more time, and then used her explosive strength to push herself back on her feet with her arms. Sienna was just as fast however, and Raven had to switch to a different dust type for her sword in order to accomodate an even faster paced fight style like Siennas at the moment. Her sword went into its sheath red, and came out yellow and crackling with lightning. Making the blade lighter, and easily making it quicker to draw.
Coincidentally, Sienna also had lightning dust in her weapon as she went to stab Raven through the chest. The shorter tougher blade met the sword, and what lightning that would have electrocuted her was cancelled out by the electrical charge already in the weapon. Raven made a frustrated grunting sound as she used her superior strength to push Sienna back. The White Fang leader flipped through the air once before landing on her feet gently as a cat would. Another benefit of being a faunus of feline nature.
Raven didn't let up, switching to an orange dust crystal making her blade orange. Flames flew out of the once red blade. This time however, Sienna wisely got out of the way in time and didn't try to clash with her again. It was inefficient to keep trading with one such as Raven Branwen. Her aura reserves were out of this world. To be fair hers was too, but not as much as the Branwen woman apparently.
"Running away now?" Raven taunted as she chased after the tiger faunus, getting a hairs length close to decapitating the other woman only once. "Admit it, you don't have the strength to defeat me."
Sienna only responded with a 'Tch' sound, and continued to avoid clashing weapons with her as she looks for any opening she could use to end the fight quickly before she could use her semblance again. All she needs is a second, but that works both ways. She has to make sure to keep herself closed off as well, because if she gave an opening to the Branwen instead, it would mean the end of her life.
Sienna thought she had an opening when Raven's eyes widened slightly and her attack slowed down just a fraction slower. But right when she thought of attacking her, Raven backed off and dodged the point of a lightning bladed whip which stabbed into the ground where she once stood. Sienna growled lightly as she turned to regard Blake Belladonna and Ilia Amitola. Who both looked like they've seen better days as it is.
"I know you did not defeat that man, why are you here?" Sienna asked with another growl as she regarded her two underlings.
"A-Adam came." Ilia said, nervously gulping immediately afterwards.
"What!? That wasn't part of the plan!" Sienna hissed. "He was supposed to kill the Schnee's, and then escape to help lead the others out of the stadium. That was part of the deal I made with that woman."
"I don't know if he managed to kill the Schnees, but even if he did. He is still going back on the plans. That man we were fighting is injured, but so is Adam, and I don't know if he could beat that man even if they were both at full strength." Blake explained quickly, obviously uncomfortable with speaking in the presence of the other remaining Branwen, who was looking at them with more curiosity than anger.
"My brother took mercy on you, but I doubt he would do the same for you friend." Raven said. No, stated. It struck a blow to Blake's heart to hear that, she already had a lot on her head at the moment after getting an idea stuck in her head when Qrow took her hostage.
"On that, I agree wholeheartedly." Sienna agreed, striking shock into both of her underlings who looked to her with suppressed anger for her lack of faith in their close friend. "Adam may not be able to defeat Qrow Branwen…" Sienna continued as she got into a lower combat stance, prompting Raven to grip the hilt of her sword again. "So we must end this fight quickly, and assist him."
Blake and Ilia glanced to each other, sharing a silent message. Then nodded back to Sienna in agreement. Though she was not even looking at them, she seemed to have sensed their agreement with her.
"You might have been able to beat me if we continued, but how will you fare in a three on one?" Sienna taunted as she waited for Raven to make a move, as did Blake and Ilia.
Raven simply sighed, and got into a subtle combat stance herself. "All you have done is bring children into a battle that will lead to their death."
Sienna narrowed her eyes at her. "We will see." She knew that Blake and Ilia would fight with her, win or lose. But right now, she was going to take the risk and call out Raven for bluffing. Hopefully, it would work out in the end. If Ilia died, it would be sad but it wouldn't be catastrophic. The White Fang lost some their people every day, she couldn't be allowed to feel sorrow for all of them. If Blake died however… she would have to face the wrath of Ghira, and Kali for the loss of their daughter. That was something she would rather not have to go through.
"That won't be necessary." A new voice spoke up, deep and masculine. Sienna stopped as soon as she took a single step, and Raven now actually had a worried look on her face.
Adam Taurus was there with them, already. A hand on Blakes shoulder, and another on the hilt of his sword.
"You're here… what of the other Branwen?" Sienna asked with a suspicious look on her face. She would berate him for going against orders later, now was not the time.
"I nearly killed him, but he got away." Adam said with barely suppressed anger as a glow of bright red flew across his features. Sienna immediately noticed that he didn't have his mask on at this time, but wasn't going to comment on it. She already knew what he looked like under the mask. "He transformed into some kind of bird right as I was about to land a killing blow with my semblance. I was only able to remove a section of one of his fingers before he escaped."
"Hmph, well at least you can make things easier for me sometimes." Sienna said with a smirk as she looked back to Raven. Who was now a few more paces back then she was before.
It didn't need to be said, one on one. Raven would have won. Three on one, Raven might have been able to still win if she killed the girls first. Four on one however… with Adam Taurus on their side? Raven didn't like those odds whatsoever.
Before she could make any plans on what she was going to do, a bright white flash lit up from behind her, nearly blinding those in front of her. Since her back was turned to the source of the light, Raven was not nearly as affected as the other four in front of her. It took a few seconds for the light to go out finally, but the opening that was created was all that she needed.
While the four of them were still trying to collect themselves and regain their vision, Raven created a portal for which she could escape through. There was only one safe portal to make however… Yang, and Tai.
Brick and Rick Violet working together to fight against Emerald and Mercury was more than successful in theory. But in reality, both were tired, exhausted, and bleeding. As was Emerald and Mercury. Their lightning semblances were able to merge together with their brotherly bond, but it added little power and simply made it look prettier as the colors merged together to create a light purple color, but it was simply that. Appearances.
In terms of raw strength, Mercury was already stronger than the both of them. He was also trained to kill for many years before hand, so much so that he was able to kill the man who trained him in the first place. Emerald was trained by Cinder herself to fight, so she could also hold herself quite well, if just a bit weaker than Mercury.
The Violet twins were still young, and while they had a lot of training under their belts, and a strong semblance which could be merged with their genetic, and emotional bond to make it even stronger. What they lacked massively in was experience in combat against human opponents. They trained every once in a while in combat class, but other than that. They mainly focused on surpassing each other instead of fighting against other fighting styles. That proved to be their mistake.
Mercury and Emerald saw that, and split them up as soon as they can. With Brick still tired, Emerald pushed him back into a different section of the room they were all in. Rick was less tired, but he had one of his eyes forced shut by a constant flow of blood, and he already lost to Mercury once. It was safe to assume that Rick didn't suddenly get good enough to beat him over the course of barely over an hour.
Brick had his second wind, but he was quickly feeling himself getting tired again. During his solo overclock phase, he was able to hold off both of them at the same time. The only thing keeping him in the fight right now is him constantly going after Emerald in close range engagements. For some reason, he had a feeling that if he kept this up, she wouldn't be able to use her semblance, and for now. It was working. She wasn't able to get even a seconds time to concentrate on using her illusions to fool either himself or his brother.
Emerald showed her frustration with a snarl as she kneed him in the stomach. Brick tanked it with a cough, and wrapped his arms around her leg. Emerald cried out as she was lifted off the ground and spun in a circle several times. Brick could have let go and thrown her at any time, but with every revolution that seemed to become less, and less likely.
She started to feel nauseous, and actually hoped that Brick would just throw her already. Emerald nearly threw up by the time Brick finally through her against the wall, and was so dizzy that she accidentally dodged bricks follow up attack with his sword. Causing him in his tiredness to stumble into her and knock them both down to the ground.
While that was happening, Rick and Mercury were having a battle of their own. Only this one was clear on who had the advantage over the other. Rick was doing his best, and to his credit he was able to get a few good hits in. But Mercury was landing much more, injuring him even more with every strike he landed on him with his legs. He was injured and tired as well, but he'd be damned by Salem herself before he allow himself to be beaten by Rick Violet of all people, someone who he thought he had already killed an hour prior.
Things were going slowly however, much too slowly. He knew that he wasn't going to be able to end this fight quickly. They were supposed to beat and kill the Violet twins, and then find Kai. That plan already failed completely. The new one was to still kill the Violets, and after that come help Cinder with the Kai kid, and by the sounds of things and that bright flash of white. Things were still not going to plan.
Mercury blocked another lighting infused strike with his metal shin, and kicked him way. He made his way back to Emerald and kicked Brick off of her, who was still seeing stars after being thrown into the wall as hard as she did. He might have teased her for that another time, but at this moment they needed to get results. Cinder was already not going to be happy with them for failing once, she will not take kindly to a second failure.
"Emerald, we need to finish this." Mercury said in the most serious tone Emerald has ever heard from him. She locked onto his light grey eyes and nodded, with the opening he made for him. She focused her semblance on both Rick and Brick. It gave her a massive migraine to do two people at once, but right now they needed to take the high risk high reward route. They were already on it anyway.
Brick and Rick stood by each other and saw dozens of Mercury's, they stood back to back to each other and let their lightning merge together again into a violet color.
"Overclock?" Rick suggested to his brother.
"Can't… I already used it to stand up against the two of them." Brick admitted, ashamed.
"Damn… well, you know that this means." Rick smirked to himself, as did Brick as they thought the same thing.
The entered a back to back stance, mirroring each other perfectly and aiming their swords all every single Mercury that they saw. Their lightning crackled a little louder, and then exploded.
"Violet Crash!" The brothers shouted at the same time as they set off a series of electrical explosions with every single ounce of aura they had left.
Cinder screamed in pain as her back hit the wall. She was so close to killing the boy, but her body wasn't listening to her orders as her very blood worked against her. Malikai was manipulating the blood in her veins and body. The human body was made up of sixty percent water after all, and she was a very light woman at under one hundred and twenty pounds.
Malikai grunted as he slammed her against the wall again, and then threw her across the room and caused a ton of rubble to fall onto her from the ceiling. With her out of the fight temporarily, he was now able to show the weakness he was feeling. He had to cut through dozens of White Fang to get here, he used his flame, and water powers more than he has ever done in the past few years, even more so when he fought against Hazel and Tyrian by himself. The only reason he was able to find his son and wife in the first place was because of the bright white light that shone throughout almost the entire stadium itself. He was tired, and had less aura than what he was comfortable with, and he still had to fight a Maiden and keep that fear she felt instilled with her.
Marron ran up to Kai and held him as he cried and clawed at his face. The white glowing tears still fell from his blind eyes as they constantly flickered with a white light. Giving him brief moments of sight that lasted only milliseconds each time to glowed. Confusing him immensely. Going from completely blind to being able to see clearly was too big a leap to take, and it was taking its toll on his body.
"What is happening to him Malikai!?" Marron asked as she held her son. "Why is this happening to our son!?"
"Kai used the power of the silver eyes for the first time in his life. The first time is always excruciating." Malikai explained as he kneeled down on one knee beside his son. He glanced toward the dead faunus girl slumped against the wall, and gave her a soft sigh of respect before turning back to his son. "It must be even worse because he's blind."
"Why didn't you warn him in the message you sent him!?" Marron screamed at him furiously. "Why didn't-"
"Marron I can't tell you everything!" Malikai screamed back for the first time in their marriage, shocking Marron into silence. He was going to let her vent her frustrations, but the fact that the rocks covering the maiden was now steaming and melting away didn't bode anything good for him. "Take Kai, and get somewhere safe. I'll deal with this." He ordered next, clutching his silver sword in his left hand and standing defensively in front of his family, his dark green cloak flapped with the wind as he challenged the Fall Maiden.
"W-what? Malikai, you're bleeding! Let's all get out together!" Marron cried, pulling at his cloak as she helped her son stand up on his own two feet.
Malikai didn't answer her yet, he was bleeding yes. He bleeds all the time, it was nothing. He could just force the blood back into his body by using his semblance, one of the things he wished he could have teached to his son how to do.
"I can't… not now." Malikai said with a sigh. "I've run away from these people my whole life, and it worked for nearly fifteen years after I cut ties with Ozpin. I can't run anymore. I am the only man besides Ozpin that has the power to defeat a Maiden." He looked back and down to his wife, who now had tears running down her face as she thought the worst was about to happen.
"I love you Marron, take care of our son… and our future daughter."
Marron didn't get a chance to respond to him, for an explosion where Cinder was covered with rocks occured. Making Malikai completely serious once more as he charged right into the dust cloud. Sounds of metal hitting against metal rang throughout the room at impossible speeds as Marron struggled to keep up with the extremely fast paced fight.
She thought that Kai fighting that woman was insane with how fast and strong their clashes were. But Malikai and that woman were fighting with even more ferocity and without holding back. True to her suspicions, Malikai wasn't able to manipulate her blood anymore. It took too much out of him. But he was still able to match the firepower of her flames with his own.
Flashes of white and orange appeared on her face as she struggled to keep up with it, and in the meanwhile slowly. Kai was able to regain control over his eyes and body. He stopped crying, and almost fell asleep if it wasn't for the sounds of fighting keeping him conscious out of instinct.
"Wha?" He sputtered as his blind eyes looked around the room seeing nothing but darkness. His pupils were a cloudy white again, just as usual, and the flashing in his eyes finally stopped. Meaning that he no longer had very brief periods of vision.
"I'm here Kai." Marron said, letting him lean against the wall with her hands on her face, looking him directly in the eyes. His blindfold was now hanging loosely around his neck, somehow not burned away after the use of his eyes. "I'm here."
"I… was able to see… I think." Kai said lethargically as he touched the soft skin underneath his eye. Marron would have replied even in her shocked state of mind if it weren't for the loud explosion close behind her.
Malikai and Cinder met in the middle one more time with a thunderous clash. While Malikai was able to overpower Cinder in most of their engagements, this time it was an even trade. Malikai was blow back into a wall, same as Cinder. Who once again slammed into the other side of the room, cracking the wall even further than what it was already. It was a miracle that it was still holding up as much as it was already.
What scared Marron was that Malikai was limping when he stood back upon his feet, bleeding even more than he was before. He had a noticeable cut across his shoulder that cut straight through his Etricium armour, and it almost looked like it was gushing blood. Kai snapped back into reality at that moment and gripped Silver Ebony tighter, trying to stand with his father but ultimately struggling to just stand on his two feet.
The woman who attacked them now had her face revealed. Her tied up hair was now falling all over her face, but her bright orange eyes were still clear as day. As well as the flame coming out of one of her eyes. She was bleeding from the corner of her life, but sadly, she was not as bad as Malikai was at the moment. That wound he suffered earlier from Adam Taurus was coming back with a vengeance, and he couldn't help but sense people just outside of the room they were in getting ready to break in. As he is now, fighting even more White Fang would not be a preferable thing for him to do.
"Dad… let me fight with you." Kai said between pants, but he wasn't even strong enough to push past his mother holding him back.
"Stay right there!" Malikai demanded with a harsh tone, silencing his son instantly.
Cinder chuckled, earning his attention back. He held his sword toward her and got ready to lunge at her again, but she just continued to laugh at him.
"To think that I was actually afraid of you!" Cinder exclaimed with maniacal cheer. "If you were at full strength, you would have been able to kill me, but right now?" She chuckled darkly and narrowed her eyes at him. "You're just as vulnerable as the average man… imagine her happiness at hearing the news of your death."
Malikai didn't reply, at least not right away. Instead, he closed his eyes and smirked. Ignoring the cries of both his son and wife telling him to get away from her and come with them. Cinder raised an eyebrow at him, he could tell even with his eyes closed.
What she seemed to have forgotten was that he had silver eyes too, and if blind little Kai was able to use them…
Malikai yelled as he opened his eyes and revealed a bright white light, even brighter than his son's before him. Cinder cried out in pain as she felt her left hand start to burn away, along with part of her face. She would be killed in seconds if she didn't stop him, and her blood already felt like it was boiling. But she couldn't draw any of her power out.
There was a reason the Silver eyed warriors were nearly wiped out by Salem, and Cinder was finding that out in the most excruciating way possible.
The White light stopped suddenly, and she was able to keep most of her hand and face before it could be burned away. Though it would leave a nasty scar, it would at least mean that she was still alive.
Cinder cracked one eye open to see Malikai, this time bleeding across his side and apparently launched in the direction of his family.
Adam Taurus fell to his knees a second later, his aura breaking after that last strike and nearly lost consciousness. Sienna jumped in a second later, as did Ilia and Blake. The latter two were sent to help Cinder up to her feet, and while she would have burned them at the stake for daring to touch her with their animal hands, this time she admittedly needed the help.
"Seeing you in such a sorry state makes me sick." Sienna hissed at Cinder. "I should kill you where you stand for dragging the White Fang into this."
"Do that, and your entire race will be exterminated." Cinder threatened, silencing the supreme leader right away.
Malikai coughed up blood, but stood up on his own anyway. Much to the dismay of his wife and son who tried to pull him back. He was knocked to the side, and got the wind knocked out of him. But his armour held up strong against the attack. The cut in his side was shallow, and bled only a small amount as he stood up against them all.
Adam Taurus, Sienna Khan, the Fall Maiden, and two other unknown White Fang members he does not know stood against him. The former two were low on aura, they had to have been. Malikai noticed them fighting in their own battles before hand. He could kill them both even as he was now, but there was still the matter of the Fall Maiden and the two other girls who still had aura left.
He couldn't manipulate all of their blood at the same time, that would immediately lead to his heart stopping from over exertion. He still has plenty of flames, but the maiden would be able to match the power of his white flames. Kai was back up, but his aura may as well be broken, and while his black flames would be helpful, he was too tired to fight in close quarters combat. He couldn't let him fight.
If only he didn't use up so much stamina getting passed those White Fang members… he might have actually been able to defeat them if he was at full strength. But even then, he still had his family to worry about. They would go after them as soon as he left their side, and with Kai as he was now, and Marron almost being useless in a fight. He couldn't afford to leave them alone.
In the worst time possible… Malikai didn't know what to do… every option was bad, and lead to failure.
"Surrender Malikai." Cinder demanded, holding her left arm as she stepped up in front of the other four. "You will have only this chance to surrender, and I might consider making your death painless."
"I want to be the one to kill him." Sienna seethed. "He must have killed so many faunus to get here, I need to avenge them all."
It wasn't like Cinder could stop her even if she wanted too, so she had no choice but to let her have this moment. "Very well… the blind boy is mine however."
Blake perked up as she saw the familiar boy she saw at that one protest rally, the one who challenged the idea of racism and told them all that he was a hybrid of both human and faunus. She didn't like the idea of him being killed one bit, not at all.
"What you do to the half breed doesn't matter to me." Sienna said, not noticing Blakes horror at the casual disregard for the hybrids life.
"Stay away from them!" Malikai shouted, pushing Kai and Marron further behind him protectively.
"You know I cannot do that Malikai." Cinder said in a dark, and amused voice. "But I suppose I can make you a deal…"
Malikai desperately wanted to say no, but that would probably lead to him being attacked. He could hold off several of them at the same time, but not all of them. One of them would slip through and get to his family, and he did not want that in the slightest.
Heavily reluctantly, he nodded his head toward Cinder.
"I'll let the boy and the woman get out of this alive… on one condition." She said with a discomforting smirk.
"What is it?" Malikai wished he hadn't asked.
Cinder's smile widened, and she licked her lips before she spoke words Malikai wished he never would have had to listen too.
"Cut out your son's eyes."
Well shit, another cliffhanger. Even after a week long break I am able to write a good cliffhanger. As you can see I have been heavily simplifying the fights, if I wrote them out all in its entirety, this chapter would be like 15k words, and as much as I think you all would love that. I do have a mind that gets tired. So for right now, enjoy what I have for you all.
Next chapter will hopefully be the last of this entire prologue arc… jesus guys, this has to be the LONGEST prologue ever written. This might as well be its own story at this point, not that I am actually going to do that. I'd like to see this story get to like a 100+ chapters by the time I even get to volume 4 or 5.
This is definitely going to be my longest story ever.
Please review and let me know what you think of the story! If you would like to get notified of my progress with each chapter I write with every story, give me a follow on twitter! My twitter username is the same as my profile name here, you'll know when you find me ;).
I am also going to draw Kai soon, so you can keep in touch with that as well.
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