Hello everyone, so, I've been really sick lately. Which is fun, of course. But that has not stopped me from continuing to write this story. Though I am surprised that the last chapter received zero reviews, considering what happened. I guess I sorta expected some reactions there, and I was going to use those reactions to gauge what I should do for Kai's forced activation of his eyes. Of course, I have no right to ask you to spend some of your time reviewing, and I am not...
Sigh… and now it's awkward.
Well, for those who are not First Members and don't know what happened, I will be revealing Tyrian's semblance here in this chapter. Coincidentally enough, his semblance ties in exactly with what I had planned. So if you don't care for what might as well be considered a minor spoiler, continue on. If not, well, see you next week?
Beta: CrowSkull
Cover art- Nova
The Blind Huntsman
Chapter 64- Volume 2, Episode 7
Embracing Who You Are
Tyrian giggled and clapped like someone who wasn't a grown male adult as he watched his target become more and more enraged with each passing second. He had no idea that this was what his Queen had in mind when she sent him out to fight him. Confusingly enough, she said nothing on what he should really do with the blind boy once he found him, but perhaps that meant that she expected him to already know what to do by the time his path finally crossed with that as the blind Matsuoka child.
And he was certainly surprised. Genuinely surprised. Not many people interested him nowadays, they were so boring in the way that they would either swear to defeat him or chase after him in some vain attempt to arrest him. Most of them were dead or would never fight again now… but the pure black light coming out of that boy's eyes, and the enraged screaming, the way his silver-black sword shimmered with forbidden power. It was enough to have Tyrian frothing at the mouth in excitement.
"Uh oh," Tyrian feigned concern as he felt the heat wash over his body. "Did I make you angry?"
"More than that," The boy's words were dripping with rage. He looked like he was going to say more, but he clicked his mouth shut and just began to walk toward him. Each step he took cracked the concrete ground, not because of his weight but for the lack of control of his semblance. Tyrian felt a combination of cold heat and burning cold on his aura as the boy started to make his way toward him. The pain excited him, never before would he have thought that there would be a person who would be able to make him feel pain just by being around them.
"Yah!"
Tyrian dodged to the side and jabbed his tail into the little red one's stomach as she tried to sneak attack him from behind. "Ah, ah, ah!" He tsked. "No more of that I'm afraid, I'll play with you another time, and by then…" He giggled. "I'll see to those beautiful silver eyes of yours, hehe…"
Neo flickered to life before him, she wagged her finger side to side and glared at him.
"Oh?" Tyrian hummed. "You want a go at him?" He asked with a confused tilt of his head, his scorpion tail waving from side to side with eagerness that he had to settle down himself.
Neo shrugged her shoulders and nodded, drawing her blade and looking toward Kai with an evil glint to her eyes. Tyrian saw that and shrugged his shoulders. If she wanted to get herself killed, he wasn't going to try and stop her. In fact, it would be quite exciting watching the boy make his first kill.
"Very well," Tyrian said as he leaned back and sat on a dead body. "Go on then, I'll play the role of watcher for now."
Ruby recovered from his earlier attack and aimed Crescent Rose at him, the barrel was already steaming.
"Or I can play around with you for a few more minutes…"
"Get out of my way," Kai said through gritted teeth as he kept moving forward. His target wasn't Neo, it was the man fighting Ruby right now. She wouldn't be able to hold him back for long, and he was playing with her now as it is. He needed to get to them and kill him. He needed to prove a point, to Cinder, Salem, even Ozpin and Qrow. He wouldn't be controlled and manipulated anymore. His life was his to live, and no one's toy. As a matter of fact, anyone who got in the way of that was his enemy. "Or I'll kill you," he added as Silver Ebony scratched against the ground underneath, cutting through the concrete floor like it was made of foam.
He still couldn't see, his vision was even darker than before. A black so deep he never would have known it existed. From the outside, Neo watched as the black light flowed out of his eyes and around his body like tendrils. It looked like they would lash out and attack, but as one got close she kicked at it experimentally. Her foot went straight through the darkness and came out unscathed, but she felt an uncomfortable coldness that sent shivers up and down her spine. Well, at least it wouldn't kill her instantly. To her knowledge, all of this was purely visuals anyhow. Sure, he looked intimidating and dangerous, she'd be the first to admit that. But there was no Grimm around for him to really draw power from. Either way, Neo now knew why this blind boy was such a high priority target. Those eyes could kill.
She smirked and started pacing from side to side, it was strange. Plan B was supposed to try and send Kai a message here and also help a little bit in his escape. But it seemed that it was going to be very difficult to communicate with him while he was blind, and she was mute. Roman and she came up with something of a contingency for that, but the thought amused her nonetheless. Kai was too angry to even try and communicate with her, and she was mute and couldn't even speak in sign language to try and communicate with him.
A stiff breeze was a term much too weak to describe the blast of wind that nearly picked her up off her feet and sent her up to the ceiling. Neo widened her eyes and at the last moment, opened her umbrella in her off-hand and managed to maneuver herself out of the way of the wind so that she'd be able to land off to the side. The moment her foot touched the ground, Kai spun her way and let out a curse. Swinging his hand across his body and sending another blast of air her way.
Dodging attacks was one thing, dodging something you couldn't even see was another. But she knew that wind was going to blast her away if she didn't do something, so she dove behind the nearest cover and listened to how dozens of White Fang members were tossed about and thrown all over the place. Kai Matsuoka was not holding back anything, and the only reason the White Fang guys weren't dead was because he was hardly controlling his power properly.
She had no more time to think as her cover was lifted off the ground by an invisible force, and her eyes reflected off the sight of a torrent of black flames that started heading her way. Using her semblance, she entered her pocket dimension and transported herself to the other side of the Warehouse. If she hadn't done that, she might have just gotten burned alive right there.
This was a fight she didn't know if she could win. Actually, she knew she probably wouldn't be able to even get close unless he let her. His semblance was just way too powerful, being able to control wind, manipulate the ground around him, and absorbing and sending out fire were abilities that would control an entire battlefield. Not to mention the water abilities that she knew he had, he wasn't even going all out in finding a way to use that ability of his as well.
Scowling, she jumped from girder to girder from up in the ceiling. Using her semblance to get up close would be a risky maneuver, and since she wasn't fortunate enough to be born a faunus she could hardly see in the dark as it is. She had one shot, she knew that this wouldn't work more than once, but she had to get in close at least one time in order to consider Plan B even a partial success.
Roman was really going to owe her for this…
Blake felt her heartbeat all the way up in her ears as she flipped around the battlefield using her semblance to block counter-attacks that would have hurt if they landed. The man before her, Hazel Reinhart, was way too strong for her to take on by herself, and with Roman Torchwick helping him, there was no way she would be able to win this fight by fighting the way they were and brawling. Not only was her body not built for that, but she was far too weak to even be comparable to Hazel's strength.
She remembered him all too well, back from when she was still working with the White Fang. She and Adam had to answer to him directly at times, and even Sienna was careful around the man. Despite his size and intimidating build, he was surprisingly gentle and fair to them. But if someone went out of line or tried to challenge his authority, then he would punish them harshly. If she had to compare him with Adam, she felt that not even Adam would be able to pierce his impossible durable aura with Moonslice. Which meant that she had no hope of fighting him unless she used dirty tricks.
Which she did, growing up in a world where faunus were hated all over the place, she had to learn how to fight just as dirty as they did just in case things went wrong. Which was why every time Hazel got close, she used her semblance to escape his long reach, leaving behind an elemental clone each time she did so. Once it was a stone clone, which was completely shattered by his punch without him even flinching, next was an ice cone, which trapped his hand for a moment, but once he gathered his strength he was easily able to tear it out. The only other dust that she had on hand was fire, and the explosions that it left behind did some damage, but not nearly enough. Thunder dust was out of the question, considering that Hazel currently had thunder dust crystals injected straight into his arms and the knowledge that his semblance nullified all feelings of pain would have made that particular type of dust useless. Gravity dust didn't work with her semblance, and unfortunately, she was running out of the dust that she could use to help out her situation.
"C'mon Kitty Cat!" Roman called out as he fired explosive flare after explosive flare in attempts to try and catch her just once. "You can't keep dodging around forever! Just let Hazel catch you. I promise that he'll be gentle!"
Blake bit back at response and just kept doing what she's been doing ever since Tyrian ambushed her and Kai. Help was on the way, she knew it. The others wouldn't just leave her and Kai behind, and so she had to keep up faith in them to come and help get them out of this dire situation. She had to keep fighting and running, just as she has been for most of her life.
Many minutes passed, or it may have just been one minute. Blake was exhausted and could barely move at the same speed anymore. Hazel curiously stopped going after her, despite being practically at full stamina and endurance levels. He didn't attack her when she was most vulnerable, and even allowed her a few moments to catch her breath.
"You've lost," He stated the obvious. Roman tried aiming at her with his cane, but Hazel stopped him, gently nudging it downward toward the floor where it would be harmless to everyone else. "Surrender now and stay out of our way. We are not here for you."
"You certainly had a way of showing me that…" Blake sniped as she held Gambol shroud in a reverse grip, ready to defend herself at a moment's notice.
"You didn't waste time to try and talk." Hazel pointed out. "Really, you should know me better than most. Was I ever cruel to those who didn't deserve it?"
Blake scowled at him. Of course, he wasn't, if he was then she wouldn't have bothered to try and stop fighting and stall for time. "You still had a hand in the murder of thousands of innocent people." She said. "If you think I am going to let my guard down around you for more than a second, then you are the one who hasn't been paying much attention."
"You know why I'm here," Hazel said, completely ignoring everything Blake had just told him. "If I wanted to kill you, I would have done so by now."
"You're here for him," Blake said with angry narrowed eyes. She chanced a glance to see how Kai was doing, and while what she saw was surprising, it looked like he was handling himself just well enough against the White Fang and Neo while Ruby was holding back Tyrian. "Why?" She asked after taking a step back.
"Nothing for you to be concerned about, deserter." Hazel calmly replied.
"He's my partner!" Blake exclaimed. "My friend! I have more right than you to know what Cinder is planning to do with him, and I am willing to bet it is not to form a peace treaty." She broke her weapon into two halves, cleaver in one hand, and gun-blade in the other. Already prepared to continue the fight. "You may be gentle, but that doesn't mean that you are a good person, Hazel. You're evil, and I will have a hand in making sure that whatever your plans are, fail."
Hazel glared at her as he widened his stance, his arms crackled with orange lightning, and his large arms flexed as he felt an uncharacteristic anger grow from inside him. After a few deep breaths, he calmed himself and shook his head.
"See what I mean?" Roman quipped at the absolute worse time. "Kids these days never want to give up on anything. Not even when defeat up and smacked them across the face. Literally in some cases."
"Silence," Hazel demanded, and like that, Roman shut his mouth. "If you will not surrender and accept my mercy, then it will be lost to you. Don't curse me for not giving you a chance."
"No," Blake smirked at him. "Instead, I'll curse you for being so easily distracted…"
Before Hazel could open his mouth to respond, a bright pink hammer smashed into the back of his head. He fell forward and onto his hands and knees and right into the edge of a sword that slashed him across the cheek. Roman cursed and went to attack Jaune, but Nora pulled the trigger on her hammer and blasted Hazel's face further into the ground, and used the momentum from the blast to swing her hammer into his guard. Roman jumped and let the strike blast him across the room and into the decommissioned paladin.
Hazel ripped his face out of the ground and swatted Jaune away at his shield, Nora caught him before he could fall off the stage and pulled him away from the much larger man. Blake stood up and at the ready, feeling a second wind coming along to restore her stamina and strength as Nora and Jaune stood beside her, Nora on her left and Jaune on her right. Smirking still, she nodded to each of them and then glared at Hazel.
"Take that you big bully lug!" Nora exclaimed as she pointed at him accusingly.
"Yeah!" Jaune agreed. "That's what you get for messing with our friends!"
"Ugh," Hazel groaned as he cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. "Sienna and her officers should have held you two back along with the others. Oh well," He cracked his knuckles. "I will be more than enough to handle you three on my own."
"We'll see about that," Blake said, and as a singular unit, she charged on screaming in adrenaline-induced battle-lust.
Qrow went down to one knee as he blocked Adam's powerful overhead strike that was amplified even further by his semblance. He gritted his teeth and stared into the little slits on Adam's mask, just barely seeing the bright blue of his eye on the right before a torrent of red and blue lightning crackled on behind him. Adam cried out as his aura deflected the bolt of lightning, and in that opening, Qrow kicked out and overpowered the younger man quickly. Adam was stunned but was quick to recover. Parrying and deflecting the next two strikes before backing away swiftly. Steam still coming off of his back as he glared down at the two Violet twins.
Rick and Brick proved to be useful against Adam at range but was not very good at fighting him up close and personal like Qrow based his entire style around. Their swords were simply too short and Adam had far more reach than either of them. At first, their Violet combo attacks did numbers on Adam, but the bull faunus had far more experience, skill, and stamina than either of them. To Qrow's guilt, he wasn't able to stop the man from stunning him and making a break toward the two boys. All it took was a few seconds and a slice of Adam's semblance, and Rick was slashed across his chest and bleeding while Brick got caught on the side. They were both able to still fight and move erratically, but in short bursts and required Qrow's help whenever Adam did get too close to them.
To their credit, however, they were able to hurt Adam in return. One of his sleeves were completely burned away by one of their attacks and some of their electricity got through to his muscles and skin, burning the cells away in places and making an electric pattern of scars that ran all the way up and down that arm. Despite that, Qrow would admit that he was impressed at the fact that Adam was still fighting him and was still able to keep up with him despite having to be in so much pain. In another life where Adam wasn't a terrorist, they may have even been friends.
Taking the attention back on to himself, Qrow lunged forward in a twisting motion and smashed his sword in the ground where Adam used to be. Then bent the sword using the many mechanical devices within the weapon to shift it into its scythe form and twirled it, disorienting and catching Adam's blade in the curve of the weapon. Qrow then smirked as he shifted the weapon back into its sword form and watched as Adam clumsily blocked the strike. Skidding back on his heels as the force was distributed throughout his entire body.
"Done yet?" Qrow asked as he lifted the blade up onto his shoulder and let out a deep breath. "You look like you are."
"I'm sorry to disappoint, but no," Adam said as he stood up just as easily, and returned his blade to its sheath as he prepared to continue. "It seems we are just as equal as the last time we fought. Qrow."
"And this time you're getting your ass kicked." Qrow spat to the side as he got into a stance himself. "What's the point of this anyway? You know you're going to lose a lot of men for this."
"I have more than enough."
"Wow, what 'supreme leader' you are." Qrow sighed and rolled his eyes.
"My men and women know what they signed up for since the very beginning." Adam began. "We are all in this together, and if some were to fall, we will honor and remember them. I will not explain myself to you, old man. The next generation is going to take over, and I will make sure that the goals of the White Fang are known to the whole world."
"If your goal is to make yourselves worse than the Grimm, then great fucking job," Qrow hissed. "You've achieved that goal. The whole world thinks faunus are terrorist freaks."
For once, he saw some pain in Adam's face. Obviously, that wasn't the intention of the White Fang, and at this point after already fighting Adam once and hearing countless stories about him, despite his messed up and misguided way of leading the White Fang, he knew that he was forced to because of Cinder and Salem. If it weren't for them, he felt that the White Fang wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is now. Idealistic thinking was Ruby's shtick, however, and right now Adam Taurus and Sienna Khan were his enemies, and like so many others, he would treat them as such.
In the corner of his eye, he finally saw as Rick, the more injured out of the two twins, finally gave out and fell over. Brick ran over and helped him up, blood running down one side of his face as he gave Qrow an apologetic look. After a nod, Qrow gave them permission to retreat from that battlefield and get somewhere safe.
In the other corner of his eye, he saw Pyrrha Nikos the champion fighting in the distance. Being separated from the rest of her team who were currently fighting Sienna and that chameleon girl he remembered from three years ago, she was up against an opponent that Qrow couldn't make out from so far away. But it looked like her hands were full as well. Being a champion though, she had the advantage in fighting human opponents, be it inside or outside a tournament ring, after what happened in Mistral she trained to learn how to fight the way real huntsman do. Making her all the more dangerous of an opponent.
She'd be fine, Qrow decided as he and Adam circled each other. They've been fighting for less than twenty minutes and of course, it felt like hours. Adam was right about one thing, Qrow has never fought someone so equal to him besides his sister Raven. This was a fight that would end the moment one of them ran out of stamina, and him being older, it was going to be him if he didn't end the fight soon.
"It's not too late, you know," Qrow said, taking a page out of Ruby's book and deciding that he might as well try the whole talking thing. "I know Cinder has been controlling the White Fang, if you help us take her down for good, then we can talk about some kind of alliance."
"Even if I were to accept that offer," Adam started immediately. "We both know it would not be that simple. There is someone above Cinder, someone much more terrifying." Qrow narrowed his eyes, this might as well confirm it, Adam and most likely the other leaders of the White Fang knew of the existence of Salem and her power. "I do appreciate you making the effort, but for now, we shall remain enemies. For now…"
"For now…" Qrow echoed.
For now…
Qrow widened his eyes with a realization and smirked. Adam got the message and dashed forward to attack him. Qrow retaliated as expected, and both had the intent to end this entire battle soon.
Pyrrha was angry.
Not at anyone besides herself, and she was disappointed on top of that. So early on in the battle, she was picked off and pulled away from the rest of her friends. Forcing them to go on and fight without her. The champion and the 'invincible girl' as the public has become so keen on calling her these past few years. After what happened at Mistral, she swore to herself that she would learn how to fight outside of a tournament ring, and she did. She actively sought out fully trained huntsman and huntresses, those who did not care for her fame and requested that they help train her. She had to pay them of course, but at least this time around she knew that they were only doing it for the money, and was even okay with it. She was soundly defeated by that girl who nearly killed Cyan who came in to help her when she was down. Never again, she promised. She wouldn't get another killed because of her weakness.
The two attacking her were Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai, she remembered their names after the attack in Mistral, her home kingdom. Fighting them made her even more disappointed, just the silver-haired boy was incredibly good at close quarters combat, he could have been a rival, and the green-haired girl with the illusionary semblance was great at working with him. They made a great pair of teammates, it was just a shame that they were fighting for the side of evil.
"I think I made her angry," Mercury smirked as he flipped back and away from the tip of her spear. "Was it because I was the one who threw her off a roof?"
"That may be part of it," Emerald quipped as she dashed back and unloaded her guns into Pyrrha's shield.
"Among many other reasons," Pyrrha said with a scowl. They weren't fighting to kill but to distract, she knew that. And they were doing a very good job at it. The taunting and the constant dodging and little quips here and there. They were trying to get her to lose her composure, and once she let her guard down for even a second in favor of the anger she is feeling, she would be lost to their will. It was enough to force herself to never look into Emerald's red eyes as she fought Mercury to a standstill at each exchange, but in the back of her mind, one slip up meant that she would be forced to see a hallucination that would feel much too real.
Both sides agreed silently to halt on the speaking in favor of continuing the battle. Pyrrha was confident that if this was a one on one for either of them, then she would win. But the two of them working together proved to be very obnoxious. Thankfully, she had a trump card up her sleeve that she has been learning to improve over time's past.
Mercury's boot heel smashed against her shield, and she looked down as she twisted her body and threw her semblance into her hand. Like a top, Mercury twisted out of balance and fell. Then while he was down, she sprinted toward Emerald with hateful intent. Emerald tried to catch her eyesight so she could use her semblance, but Pyrrha charged at her with shut eyes. Not being nearly as good at fighting blind as Kai was, she opened them at the last second to see Emerald's surprised expression and attacked her. First from the ground up, creating sparks against the other girls bladed guns as sharp metal ground against sharp metal. Her strength was clearly superior to Emeralds as her weapons were nearly knocked right out of her hands. Behind her, she could hear Mercury recover from his fall and twisting around, she used her semblance once more and caught the young man in mid-air as he tried to kick her.
She didn't know what it was, but there was something in both of the boy's legs that enabled her to throw off his kick oriented attacks. Mercury struggled to try and free himself from the grasp of her semblance but to no avail. Pyrrha then smashed him once into the ground, watching as he curled up into the tightest ball he could in a desperate attempt to limit the damage, and then threw him into one of the nearby cars. Flipping the entire vehicle onto its side as Mercury tumbled over the other side.
With him having to be stunned for a good amount of time, she returned her attention to Emerald. Looking at her chest rather than anywhere near her face, she felt multiple bullets pelt against her aura as she was just a little too slow to raise her shield once again. Pushing through the pain, she assumed a charging phalanx stance and rushed the other girl. Emerald cursed and jumped onto her shield and behind Pyrrha, but she expected this and twisted around must quicker than Emerald expected. She was only just barely able to mitigate the damage of Pyrrha's shifted sword by rolling her body with the force of Pyrrha's attack. She felt a searing pain in her side but her aura rushed to nullify it.
Her eyes widened as Pyrrha waved her hand and both of her weapons were yanked out of her grasp and thrown behind her shoulder about twenty meters away. Emerald, now disarmed, let out a defeated sigh and stood back up to take an unarmed fighting stance. She was nowhere near as good at it as Mercury was, but it was the only option she had when Pyrrha absolutely refused to look into her eyes as they fought.
Emerald was at her complete mercy while Mercury was stunned, in a matter of seconds, Pyrrha thought on her options. Emerald was a criminal who was wanted all over the world for what she helped cause in Mistral three years ago, and Mercury was too. No one would blame her for seeking vengeance on her fellow citizens back in her home kingdom. No one would judge her for killing two terrible monsters who caused the deaths of so many. And she wanted to kill them, she really did.
But then she thought of her teammates and friends, Nora, Jaune, and Rick. What would they think of her decision to take their lives? Nothing pleasant, she was sure.
She raised her spear over her shoulder and looked toward Emerald, she must be low on aura by now. Perhaps she can be brought in. Whatever punishments they would face as criminals would surely be worth holding herself back.
Pyrrha was just about to throw her spear into Emerald's leg, but after blinking once, her natural instincts stopped her. It wasn't Emerald in that position anymore, but Rick. Looking at her with pained eyes as he held his bleeding side. She knew it was an illusion, she knew it wasn't real, but that second of shock that froze her body was enough for Mercury to smash the heel of his foot into the side of her face.
Pyrrha flew to the side and landed at an awkward angle on her shoulder. She cried out in pain as her tiara was also thrown off from the force. She shook her head and felt a piercing headache form from within her skull. As she looked back at Emerald and Mercury, her partner faded away and was flickered away and formed Mercury, and then many different Mercury's surrounded her. All of them cracking their knuckles and smirking cockily at her.
She's been caught in Emerald's semblance, Pyrrha immediately realized it. But she didn't know how to get out of it. Looking around, there was no angle where a Mercury wasn't standing. Huffing to herself, she pushed herself back up to her feet and dropped her shield. She didn't know who would be the real Mercury, and so her shield was only going to slow her down.
"Let's see how long the champion can keep up against this," All the Mercury's said at once.
"Yes," Pyrrha agreed as she entered a purely offensive stance with her sword in her right hand. "Lets."
Yang cracked her knuckles against each other as she activated her semblance out of pure frustration. These two faunus brothers proved to be much more annoying than she thought they were going to be. Without her semblance, her strength was matched by the two brothers, and they were annoying her by just hitting her enough to hurt her but not enough to fuel her semblance, so she was forced to activate it and fuel it with her aura as a last resort so that she could get to the inside of the warehouse faster to help her sister and friends.
And even with her semblance, the Albain brothers refused to let her by without a fight. They just started fighting even harder and as her frustration grew it began to show in her fighting style. Wider and more sloppy punches, erratic movements, and other mistakes that her father would scold her for making. But she couldn't help it, she was being patient enough with these two, and they were starting to get on her nerves even more than before. It was almost like their semblance was purely just to dodge and piss her off specifically.
"Stay still so I can punch you!" Yang screamed.
"I'm afraid we will have to pass on that," The two faunus said at the same time just as creepily as Yang felt they were going to get, if not more. The way that they finished each other's sentences was really unsettling.
"We have a job to do, and you're it." And there it was.
Yang groaned in her frustration and went after the one with the jagged horns. He was the weaker one from what she has managed to figure out so far throughout the battle, so he was going to be the first one out. However, it seemed that the other brother knew of his sibling's weakness and strived to defend him whenever he could, and with expert teamwork, they were able to push back Yang at every turn. The way they fought was unorthodox and had to be a style of fighting they created themselves, while that was impressive in itself it was also very annoying for Yang. Though, that was probably the point as these two constantly matched her blow for blow.
Once, she was able to knock them both down at the same time, but as she made to get into the warehouse they both pounced on her like hungry dogs. Dragging her down with her and pulling her away from the makeshift entrance that she knew Kai made with an explosion of his black flames. That was why she was so desperate to get in there if Kai was forced to use that much power then he was in a serious situation and needed help, and by extension, Ruby did too.
"Get off me!" She shouted as she pulled one of the faunus over her shoulder and slammed him into the ground, while the other one managed to avoid getting grabbed while at the same time trying to stab her in the side with one of his small triple pointed sai's. He flipped away once Yang snarled like a Grimm and tried to punish him for it, and then growled again when she realized that the two brothers were back up on their feet and assumed a mirrored stance to each other.
Yang responded by charging at them, but not after realizing one major error.
As she charged at them, she saw a strand of yellow hair fall to the ground slowly.
She saw red.
"That's it, killing ya both!" She screamed as she unleashed the full strength of her semblance.
Ilia stepped back as the wild girl before her swung her dual swords around much faster than she ever thought she was capable of. Orchid kept pushing her back and for the entire time they fought, she was always the aggressor. With Ilia's whip-rapier type weapon, it was difficult keeping up with the wild and untamed fighting style her enemy displayed. She was told that this one was someone that she'd be able to take on and distract for a long enough time, but whoever got the information that this girl was simply just mentally unstable needed to get shot in the gut.
"What's wrong!?" The supposedly unstable Orchid asked her with a wild look to her face as she forced her down to one knee. A very unfair contest of strength being put forth between the two as Ilia barely held back the two swords from cutting into her aura. "I thought you were going to kill me! At this rate, you are the one who's going to be put in the ground first!" Orchid shouted out as she let Ilia deflect her force, but then immediately kicked the faunus directly in the chest.
Ilia cried out as she rolled over herself four times before she was able to land back on her feet. Unfortunately for Orchid, she just put her at whipping distance. At range, Ilia had the advantage with her electric whip-like weapon. Without even putting a second thought into her next decision, Ilia whipped her weapon forward, aiming to pierce Orchid's aura and hopefully stab her in the chest and electrocute her.
Orchid clearly had other plans and caught the blade with her hand, and even wrapped the connected metal links around her forearm. After recovering from her brief state of shock, Ilia pushed down on the trigger beside her thumb and sent currents of yellow crackling electricity down her sword. Conducting it directly into Orchid's arm as she held it in her hand.
"Fuck!" Orchid cursed as she started to get electrocuted. "That hurts so good!"
"W-what?" Ilia babbled.
Orchid smirked in her pain and yanked the faunus toward her by the sword wrapped around her arm. Ilia foolishly held onto the hilt of her weapon as if her life depended on it, and paid dearly for it as Orchid pulled her into a vicious clothesline that had her flipping over herself twice before landing flat on her face. The whip form of her weapon shifted back into its pointy rapier from and retracted back into the hilt. The chameleon faunus saw stars as she stood back up with shaky legs.
Orchid smirked at her with a cocky expression as she held her broken custom White Fang mask in her left hand. Ilia hissed and drew her weapon once more, uncaring for the fact that her face had just been revealed.
"Heh, Looks like you couldn't handle me after all," Orchid told her as she dropped the mask on the hard concrete ground, not even wincing when the ceramic mask broke apart on impact and shattered all over the place. "A shame, how wrong of me to assume that you'd be able to prove me wrong. I guess that is the ultimate fate characters that lie below the rank of 'side'."
"What kind of insult is that supposed to be?" Ilia hissed.
"The kind that you probably wouldn't understand, terrorist," Orchid said in a much darker tone. "You were at Mistral when the tragedy happened, right?" Ilia grit her teeth and didn't answer. "Thought so… that makes this so much easier."
Orchid stabbed her weapon in the ground and activated her semblance. Three clones of herself formed made out of her aura. One red, one blue, and the last green, and each with a different fighting stance. Ilia stared on with hopeless abandon as she learned that she was not going to stand a chance against this girl after all.
"Time to let out the dogs, as they say!" Orchid cheered in a much chirpier tone as the three clones of herself were sent forward.
Not even a minute later, Ilia's unconscious body smashed against the side of the building. Landing face down with her weapon lying broken beside her, her aura flickered and went out, and after trying to stay awake for just a few moments longer, she slumped down on the ground. Completely defeated. Orchid walked out and kicked her on the head for good measure, after making sure that Ilia was in fact defeated, she moved on and started making her way toward Ren and Weiss, who were currently locked in a vicious last stand against Sienna Khan, the supreme leader of the White Fang.
"Gotta go help them…" She muttered to herself as she sprinted by. Ilia was able to draw her far away from any of her friends, though she was nowhere good enough to distract her for long. Being the best friend of Kai Matsuoka did that to you, she knew how to fight and she knew how to fight dirty. Clearly, that chameleon girl was really not ready for that. Her semblance caught her majorly off guard as well, meaning that she didn't even know what it was in the first place. It was almost like they wanted her to lose against Orchid if they didn't even bother to tell her what her semblance was and what the weaknesses of it were.
Anyway, she couldn't focus too much on that little hole in whatever their plans were. Ren and Weiss wouldn't last much longer against the monster that is Sienna Khan, and they needed her help. Hopefully, she'd be able to get back at Adam for nearly killing her by doing the same thing she did to Ilia to her.
Kai, to a very high degree, was pissed off. And he was embracing it.
He didn't realize he had this much pent up anger inside of him, and it felt like it was going to keep flowing from him indefinitely. His eyes felt a certain coldness to them, and unlike when he tried to use them against the Grimm, they didn't cause him any pain in using them. It was so easy, his semblance was powerful, he felt strong. Strong enough to take on anyone! And yet he still needed more, he couldn't stop here. Not and let the gap be closed once again.
He lost Neo in the chaos that he's caused, and not being able to get a brief glimpse of eyesight through this form of silver eye usage, he wasn't able to spot her either. No matter, as he was now, Neo wouldn't be able to do anything to him anyway. Not her, Tyrian, Hazel, anyone. Not like this.
He sensed Jaune and Nora run into the warehouse, and from the outside, he could sense many other different battles going on at the same time. They planned for this, obviously. It was all way too convenient for it not to be a plan. The first and main reason why he thought they planned this was to capture him, but if that was really what Cinder wanted, why didn't she show up here and deal with him herself? Even now, he didn't know if he could beat the fall maiden in a fair fight, not that there would be anything fair about it when it involved the two of them and all of their hatred toward each other being tossed into one nice and big empty warehouse. Blake and the other two were keeping Hazel distracted, and Ruby was doing her best against Tyrian. So that left him with… everyone else, really.
The White Fang grunts really didn't stand any hope of defeating him, especially not when he was amping his overall abilities with his eyes. But they tried anyway. Despite him very much wanting to kill every single one of them, he still had a promise to keep. So he used only his wind to knock them around and incapacitate them at each and every turn. Some of them may be knocked out and others may receive brain damage but as long as they didn't die, he wouldn't care.
Someone called his name from somewhere, but he didn't care to listen to it at the moment. He had a job to do, and the entire point of this raid was to attack the White Fang and retrieve the Paladin, but since the paladin was actually a decommissioned one, technically that aborted that objective of the entire mission. So that only left one thing, deal with the hundreds of White Fang members, and potentially root out and capture Adam Taurus and Sienna Khan.
Neo was doing a good job of evading him as he kept on making sure none of the members of the White Fang would be getting up soon after being knocked down and around by his wind. Though he could hardly praise her for it since he was blind. But he knew that she would be somewhere in the ceiling since that was the one spot where he couldn't really sense around while all this chaos was ensuing. It was annoying, but his guard would stay up the entire time. Neo was still around and he knew that she wanted to do something to him. He didn't know what, but he couldn't become complacent in the middle of a battlefield.
With another wave of his hand, another half dozen White Fang recruits were sent flying to the other side of the warehouse, their bones breaking upon landing and rendering them useless. One got a little too close and he blew them back before he could get anywhere within ten feet of him. The debris from the explosion that he'd created earlier offered some cover for the White Fang, but he used that to his own advantage and threw them around whenever the White Fang got a little too comfortable behind that cover.
Useless. Weak. Pathetic. Every single one of them.
It made him sick how easy it was to dispatch these fools when they were somehow able to cause so much death at Mistral. How could any of these idiots even aim their weapon properly? He was just one kid, and here he was tossing them around without an issue. It made him want to do things he didn't know if he was capable of. Make them pay for every sin they have committed over the years and make sure no faunus ever thought it would be a good idea to pick up a weapon and use it against an innocent again.
Then after that, Salem and Ozpin would learn that his life was his to live and he would no longer play into their hands. He wasn't a puppet that could be manipulated, he wasn't like his father or like his treacherous ancestors who had a hand in bringing down the race of the silver-eyed warriors. His life was affected enough by their war, and if they thought that they could use him to end it for either side, then they had another thing coming. He'd destroy them both, he'd find a way to kill them both and make sure they never return. And he'd use this new power of his to do just that!
"Tyrian!" His voice boomed throughout the entire warehouse. "It starts with you!" He declared as he sent seismic pulses throughout the entire surrounding area in a desperate attempt to find the scorpion faunus and Ruby. His neck snapped to the side instantly as he heard the sound of Crescent Rose firing, and with loud intimidating footsteps surrounded by black light, he started making his way to them. All the White Fang that got in his way were firmly taken out of his way with his semblance. He felt his veins bulging from his muscles as they pumped blood furiously throughout his entire body. He even had to wipe away saliva from his mouth as it leaked out. It had a frothy feel to it, but nothing for him to be concerned about. He was pissed off, symptoms like that should be expected.
"Over here!" The scorpion's voice called back to him with a cackle.
Kai reeled on the man instantly and was about to send a tornado of flames his way, but his instincts stopped him. Tyrian was holding something in his arms
"K-Kai," Ruby coughed as Tyrian held her by the throat with his tail, dangling by her feet she desperately called for him. The spit frothing at her mouth as air was denied access into her lungs. Crescent Rose was below her and out of reach. Kai froze.
"Well, well, well, it seems like that girl couldn't handle you after all," Tyrian went on as if he wasn't choking the life out of Ruby. "Disappointing, I held her in such high regard despite only meeting her yesterday!"
"Let. Her. Go." Kai demanded as black flames burned all around his arms.
"Nope," Tyrian mocked. "Can't do that I'm afraid. As happy as I am to dive into those flames of yours, I happen to not be very willing to at the moment. You seem angry."
Kai snarled at him.
"Woah there!" Tyrian put one of his blades up to Ruby's eyes. "You don't want her to become as blind as you are, do you?"
Kai stopped, his anger was boiling and it made him even angrier that he couldn't even do anything about it.
"Good boy," Tyrian said once he backed off. "Believe me, she will be losing something tonight either way, but it all depends on what you say that lets me know what she will be losing. Got that? Great. Now, I am here to deliver a message to you, something that I seemed to have forgotten earlier due to my excitement."
Kai refrained from burning him to death out of pure concern for Ruby. He was afraid that if he let Tyrian bait him into speaking, he might have just killed them both and regretted it dearly after the fact.
"What was it again…? Oh, right. My Queen would like to parlay with you. Failing to do so will lead to something very bad happening. Very bad indeed."
"And what would that be?" Kai growled. He committed every world Tyrian said here to memory, so he could use that anger at a later date in order to fuel his rage enough for him to cut him down.
"I don't know!" Tyrian giggled. "That's the best thing about it, it's a surprise!"
"I don't believe you."
"Great! You don't need to." Tyrian's blade reached up to Ruby's neck. "Now, for the second part… I decided what part this lovely little girl is going to lose. I can't take out the eyes, unfortunately. My Queen wants her alive too for some reason. So how about… an arm!"
Ruby cried out as Tyrian slashes one of his wrist blades against her arm. Her aura flared a bright red and Tyrian's hand bounced back. Wincing, he held the girl in front of him as Kai was just about to lash out with his semblance, stopping and diverting his power at the last second as to not kill Ruby by accident.
"Darn, forgot about the whole aura thing," Tyrian said as he shook his hand of the sizzling pain. "Oh well, luckily for me I have something that can fix that…"
"Don't you dare!" Kai screamed out. "Do anything to her and I'll make sure you die a death more painful than you could ever imagine!"
"Oh? Don't threaten me with a good time!" Tyrian cackled as his eyes shined a neon purple. "Let's see… maybe an arm is too much."
"Stop!" Kai shouted.
"A hand? No… too unoriginal. She'd just get a bionic one to replace it."
Kai held one hand out to fire a blast of flame toward the faunus, but his hand shook, he couldn't hurt Ruby. He didn't do all of that he did just to kill his own friends and loved ones. He wasn't fast enough to close the distance and save Ruby himself either, Tyrian would kill her by the time he even got close.
"Ah, I got it!" Tyrian grabbed one of Ruby's hand and squeezed a certain part of her wrist that forced her to open her hand. He even lowered her so that her feet touched the ground, enabling her to suck in a deep breath. Tyrian's hand glowed purple along with his aura, and like a fast-acting poison, Ruby's aura split apart like a gate. Kai shouted out a warning one last time, but it was too late. "Like your uncle, I'll remove two fingers from your right hand!"
"No!"
Ruby let out a heartbreaking screeching sound as her right pinky and ring finger were slashed off from the first knuckle up. The fingers that were once attached to her hand fell to the ground and twitched disturbingly there. Tyrian laughed and dropped the screaming girl and watched as she writhed and held her hand in intense pain. Ruby shut her tearing eyes and squeezed on the stumps where two of her fingers used to be to stem the blood loss.
Kai let out a blood-curdling scream as he was about to unleash the full power of his flames, but right as he was about to, something landed on his shoulders. Neo, he immediately recognized as she wrapped her legs around his neck. She stuck something in his shoulder and he screamed out in rage. His shoulders caught aflame and forced Neo off of him as she let out a silent hiss. But not before punching him in the side. Kai blasted her away with a blast of fire, dealing significant damage to her aura. She recovered from her stumble and dove behind cover, but luckily for her Kai didn't care about her at the moment. He turned back around and aimed his hand at where Tyrian used to be. But it was too late, Tyrian was already gone.
"No…" Not again, he couldn't have failed again. "No… No… No…" He felt angry tears leak out of the corners of his eyes. They were dark and black, the same as the intensifying light coming from his eyes.
His head was pounding. Pounding worse than it ever has before. His eyes hurt, his brain hurt, and his muscles hurt. But it didn't hurt enough. He still couldn't see but he knew that his eyes were working right now. In his pain, someone stupidly decided to try and attack him from behind.
A stone spear came out of the ground and impaled them through the chest, killing him quickly as his body was lifted off of the ground and dangled in the air.
Not enough. They needed to pay. All of them needed to die.
Kai screamed as he threw his head back with bubbling rage. The black light coming from his eyes engulfed his entire form and created a protective barrier around Ruby. The black light grew further and further as if it was an exploding bomb. From across the warehouse, Jaune, Nora, Blake and the two men they were fighting noticed the anomaly, and all jumped for cover. Just escaping death in time as all those who failed to not get engulfed by the blackness found themselves petrified. Turned to stone. It was a slow and painful process. Their skin began to harden and aura wasn't able to save them, and once their skin hardened, their muscles and bones came straight after. Eventually, hundreds of members of the White Fang and recruits were all partially or fully turned to stone statues. A terrifying fate, considering that most of them were still alive even as a stone statue. Those that did would slowly die from suffocation, and if not that, a slow death from starvation if they weren't cured from petrification. Kai willed the blackness not to leave the warehouse to protect the rest of his friends, and through the burning cold pain he felt throughout his body, he laughed.
Ruby looked up at him as the black light continued to escape from his eyes. The pain in her hand was immense, but she was more concerned with her friend. Kai was in so much pain, she could tell that it wasn't him, and she tried not to think about the people he was killing right now over the anger of failing to protect her. Willing her own eyes to work, and to her surprise, they did, her white light shined from her eyes as she pushed herself up to her knees.
"Kai!" She shouted as she continued to hold her hand to stop the bleeding. "Stop! You're going too far!" If her words had any effect, it didn't show. The black light refused to stop, and neither did Kai. Letting out a rare curse, she let her eyes shine white even further, feeling the will to protect those she loves from themselves. The white light burned away the black like it was its natural enemy, and thanks to being caught off guard it worked. Kai stayed standing for several moments, the black light fading away from all around him while she stared up at him with a piercing headache that threatened to knock her out.
Kai fell forward and Ruby hardly caught him in time before he struck the ground. He was in bad shape, and at the same time, she was too. He was hardly breathing and his heartbeat was weak and there was this strange black goo seeping out through the corners of his eyes.
But he was alive, albeit barely. Ruby looked out over his shoulder and to the rest of the inside of the building. There were hundreds of statues that weren't there before, people screaming in pain as they held shattered limbs and desperately tried to put themselves together. She watched as Neo, just as shocked as she was, came out from behind the cover of one of the fallen pieces of debris, holding one sleeve that had turned to stone because of the blacklight but still mostly in good shape. She looked to Ruby, and she looked back, and then proceeded to run off to where she saw Roman fighting the others earlier. Not even sparing a second glance back at them.
Ruby felt herself gasp as she looked at all the destruction her friend has caused. This was why Ozpin wanted him so badly, why everyone has been so desperate to try and capture him. They wanted to use him as a weapon…
She's never seen him do that before, light that came from silver eyes were always white, and yet Kai's was black just now and she couldn't deny the murderous intent that she was able to sense within her friends. If that power was set onto a village… the catastrophic damage would make the wrong kind of history.
Desperately, and feeling defeat despite the sight of victory. Ruby picked Kai up and hefted him onto her shoulders, and then picked up and shifted Crescent Rose to its neutral form to holster it on her back.
"We need to leave…" She whispered to herself as her shaking legs took her and Kai toward Blake, Jaune, and Nora, who were already running across the warehouse to come get them. Each with an equally as terrified expression on their faces.
She did her best to ignore the hundreds of people screaming in pain.
Huh, an interesting end to the chapter, but this little arc isn't over just yet. There's going to be one more chapter of this, and we'll see where we go from there. I may need some time to plan the next chapter and the rest of Volume 2, but I am a fast planner. So there's definitely going to still be a chapter for next week and maybe the week after as well. Can't just end this chapter after that, and there's a lot of fights all going on at the same time. The punishment of making so many OC's for this story… sigh…
Please review and let me know what you think!
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