First chapter of the new year! And it's quite a decent one. Decent enough that my beta gave me the go ahead first try! I haven't managed that since the Blake chapter! Am I getting better? Is this a stroke of new years luck? Am I finally getting the hang of this to some degree?

Well, who knows, really. I'm just here because we have a new arrival.

Let's give them a warm welcome!

"Do you think it could make for a decent upgrade?"

"With the proper elements, sure!"

"Absolutely!"

Oscar, Ruby, and Penny were gathered in the workshop section of the Red Riding Hall and were currently at work honing their weapons. Ruby in particular had quite an array of blueprints laid out, looking them over as her wolf tail wagged behind her eagerly. Penny was also nearby, with her tools on standby and prepared to act within a moment's notice. And Oscar was looking at the Long Memory, his cane passed down to him by Ozpin, with potential modifications being made to it by the two. They had a much better grasp for this sort of thing than he did, but he was still sure to provide his own inputs due to the artifact being his to wield.

"I think we can improve it a bit more to the point where you're able to bring out more of your power through it." Ruby rubbed her chin as she leaned with a hum.

"In a safe manner of course. This kind of magic is dangerous and takes a lot out of you without proper control. You mainly want to increase your utilization of it while decreasing the downsides as efficiently as you can." Penny lightly placed a finger on her chin, the hair on her head clicking. "When Mr. Oz was wielding the Long Memory before you, it was capable of storing, releasing, and utilizing built up kinetic energy. Do you think you could manage the same, but with chronokinetic energy instead?"

Oscar rubbed his chin in slight thought. "That could work a bit better than trying to stack the magic on top of one another like I try to do. I can just store temporal magic into the Long Memory for later use and more expansions. It'll definitely be a good way to ease off the stamina factor, at least."

"Seems like it's worth a try. We'll have to start things off carefully." Ruby nodded to Penny as she had already sketched out the proper functions of the upgrade, including how much energy it could handle and how it can properly be channeled through in order to provide for more utilization of power. "Alright, Penny. Just like I sketched here. Let's do it."

"Kay-Kay!"

Oscar stood back and let the two of them go to work. Penny's eyes glowed a bright green as she held her hands before the Long Memory, and it was levitated via a circular green bubble of technomagical energy. Ruby soon gathered her tools and moved forth with Penny's assistance. The flowing around the cane expanded as it was briefly taken apart for the moment. Ruby took brief looks at it and briefly mumbled something to Penny about the gears. Penny nodded along as the gear parts of the cane briefly glowed as they were set back in place. Both of their eyes were focused on their task, taking reference of the prints Ruby laid out for them, as their crafting refinements of the Long Memory soon reached its completion. The parts nearly clicked back together as the unique energy around it soon disappeared, before it found itself slowly floating back into Oscar's hands.

It did feel a bit different now, if only subtly. It felt lighter in his hands, and the power he briefly channeled through it seemed to be a bit more stable as well. To a degree, some of said energy managed to stabilize itself and be stored within the cane for future use, including a bit of his own powers. Briefly giving things a go, he made an attempt to use the temporal magic stored within the cane, and found himself impressed that it indeed managed to use some of it to a degree when he fired a bolt towards one of the targets, and they briefly slowed down for several seconds before returning to normal speeds. Little of his own reserves were needed to do so once some of it was stored within the cane.

"Hey, it works!" Oscar exclaimed while turning towards them, holding the Long Memory in his hands.

"You could say that it's more than a cane and walking stick now, it's like a technomagical scepter. Pretty cool, huh?" Ruby beamed while pushing some of her hair from her face, swiping her cheek a bit. "This should definitely help you channel your power a bit better and to expand upon them. Not only that, it's a lot tougher and stronger than it looks!"

"This should serve you especially well during preparation periods, so that you'll have quite a bit of energy stored up and prepared for use, rather than having to burn through your own stamina in the moment." Penny pointed out. "However, you ought to be super careful with it as well. You'll likely end up fatigued by quite a huge margin if you try storing too much at once. We recommend storing power in small bits where they gradually build up altogether."

"So, I'll have to mind my storing of energy or I'll risk exhaust myself right on the spot?" Oscar sighed as his eyes briefly cluttered, the room appearing to slow down a bit in blur motion. "Ugh...yeah, I'm feeling what you mean right now...bit too much energy used for a small...test..."

"Oh, he's goin' down!" Ruby briefly exclaimed, which got Penny's attention quickly enough for her to reach out and keep Oscar from falling flat on his face. Relief fell upon them both when she managed to catch him in her arms.

"Are you alright, Oscar?" Penny asked worriedly. Oscar was overall fine, aside from the fact that she caught him closely enough where her chest briefly cushioned his cheek. She was unaware of the redness of them while she briefly caressed his head. "You're not feeling unwell, are you? Do you need rest?"

"N-No, no, I'm fine. I just, uh, need a moment to catch my breath." Oscar eventually pulled away had his hands on his knees, taking a few steady breaths. "So, yeah. I think I can adjust to using it. In a basic sense I shouldn't overdo it."

"As we thought, storing the energy might be taxing if done too much in a singular time. The consumption rate is high for now, but you should be able to adjust better to it in time." Penny smiles while patting his shoulder. "I'm sure you'll be further experienced with it soon enough, Oscar."

"I sure hope so. Wouldn't want to trouble or worry about you if I couldn't even use a pretty neat scepter properly. And I especially would not like to waste your time or efforts." Oscar smiled at them both whilst collapsing his staff and hitching it away. "I'm sure I'll eventually be able to put it to the best use possible. Thanks."

Penny and Ruby both smiled at this, both of them clasping their hands and nodding. Penny's eyes soon flashed a few times, and she immediately turned towards the entrance of the guild hall. "It would s-"

She didn't have time to finish, for someone already zipped right inside. Everyone was immediately alerted to the presence as they immediately made themselves known.

"HEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE'S NORA!"

Jaune and Pyrrha seemed to be the most prepared for the loud noise, looking towards the newest arrival with ever bright smiles as they took a break from preparing snacks. Pyrrha seemed especially glad that Nora arrived, given how the two young women were looking brightly to one another. "Nora, you've arrived at last!"

"Yep! Sure have!"

Cinder blinked. What's a Nora, and why do I suddenly feel a great apprehension from it?

"WOO BOY! The base looks fantastic up close and personal! Nice! Super nice! It looks all cool and awesome! And a LOT bigger than it does on the outside! That's crazy! Is there a kitchen!? WOW! It's huge! And there's a pool, too?! And a training room?! Oh my gosh this place has EVERYTHING! Hey Pyrrha, Yang! Let's have a good spar in the training room right now! I bet I can beat ya both in no time flat!"

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING? Cinder balked as Nora just began speaking nearly nonstop. She was almost like Penny, except someone cranked the energy knob up to eleven, broke the knob, and now it's just increasing infinitely. She blinked owlishly as a bolt of living pink lightning zipped all about and greeted each and every one of her friends that were coming to see her. She couldn't keep her eyes on her arm all, and she certainly couldn't keep up with everything she had to say. If she did she'd have to categorize it into nonsense.

Cinder nearly jumped out of her skin once Nora zipped right in front of her in a flash of pink lightning. "Hiya!"

"W-Wha?!"

Getting an up close look at the woman, she was exuding immense power of her own. The very first thing she noticed were here wide and open jade colored eyes, gazing right at her. Her skin was nice and fair, and long orange hair extended down slightly past her shoulders. Wearing a short sleeved blue bomber jacket that left open strong and muscular arms, a shocking pink sleeveless shirt underneath said shirt with a heart shaped cutout above her cleavage, hinting at how she was busty as well as brawny for her surprisingly short height. Wearing also a bright pink frilly combat skirt with a buckle, knee high soft pink socks-in which one would see how healthy her thighs were, and hot pink boots with magenta soles, laces, and toes. Steel pink gloves adorned her hands, and on her back was some sort of emblem, most likely hers, which was colored deep pink.

Never before has Cinder seen so much pink on one person before. And never before has she met a woman who was exhibiting, from where she was standing, such immense power and yet dressed so, so, girly. Is this what is meant by the phrase 'Pink is Power'? She was around as muscular as Yang and Pyrrha. The next thing she needs is to see this woman in action before she can be fully convinced that the phrase has some truth to it. She's almost there as it is.

Also Cinder was beginning to notice that nearly every woman in the Guild so far had some noticeable muscle to them. Even Weiss had a plenty athletic figure of her own, especially around her legs, despite being the most petite looking of the bunch. And Penny, even with her focus around magical machinery and technology than physical ability, had a bit of musculature of her own. Throughout this realization, Cinder sees how most of them are motivated by a desire of self-betterment and achievement. All of them are voluptuous, passionate, and strong-hearted as much as they are powerful. And she was among them, slowly managing a bit of her own musculature, especially when she began eating more.

Maybe Salem really was onto something, regarding eating well and plentiful in order to stay strong and spirited. She herself was a statuesque and shapely beauty on top of being muscular and powerful, so she clearly lived up to and followed her own advice, making sure her female family members followed the same practice.

"Are you our newest member? The fiery dragon lady?"

Cinder was snapped out of her deep thoughts-she nearly fell into a never ending spiral-and realized that Nora was speaking to her. "Yes, that would be me."

"Cool! You're pretty!" Nora smiled, greatly catching Cinder unawares with her compliment. She briefly twitched as Nora zipped all about her and explored her appearance. "So so pretty! And warm, too! You've got such a muscular back! And also muscular abs! Not to mention these tones powerful legs! You're a gal that knows her way around a fight, dontcha?" Nora zipped back up and beamed with a thumb to her own bosomy chest. "Well so do I! And then some! The names Nora Valkyrie, and I have returned to make friends and smash enemies!" She immediately grasped Cinder's hands as her eyes sparkled. "Oh, are we friends now? Are we super friends?!"

What was this creature, this 'Nora Valkyrie', and how did everybody else manage to keep up with it? Cinder's eye twitched slightly.

"Hey hey, Nora. You barely got to say hi to the rest of us." Ruby eventually zipped on by and lightly held Nora by the shoulder. And it was then and there that Cinder looked at the two of them with a truly startled face. With the amount of boisterous energy Nora was given off, she seemed to exude a larger than life presence.

But she's shorter than Ruby. Despite being older.

HOW?

The atmosphere she's giving off makes her seem so much bigger...

"Uh...how tall are you?" Cinder suddenly asked. She couldn't help it. Something about this just didn't add up. Nora and Ruby both looked at her and realized she was speaking to the both of them.

"I'm five feet and an inch." Nora raised her hand.

"And I'm five feet and four inches." Ruby also raised her hand.

"Would you believe that Ruby was only a single inch taller than Nora when they first met?" Pyrrha noted with an amused smile at Cinder's utterly confused reaction.

"Trust me, when we actually compared the two and finally noticed it, we were about as surprised as you were." Jaune recalled the day when they actually compared each other's heights, and actually paying attention to the results. It was quite something.

'EHHHHH?! SERIOUSLY?! NOOOO WAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!'

'...Ah well, what can ya do!'

She was shocked, then casually got over it. Both reactions equally short-lived.

"Yeah, I'm firmly one of the shorter shorties in the gang. Go figure." Nora shrugged. "Anyway, it's great to see you all again! It's been a while! And you've been calling up an assemble this soon?!"

"No, it's just about that time." Ruby ensured while they lightly clasped hands. "You didn't come here with Ren?"

"Oh, we almost did. But something held up Renny on our way here. He told me to go on ahead and that he would catch up with me." Nora lightly stretched her arms. "It was pretty rough, getting here. But we managed it! Well, I managed it on my own, for now. But Renny will be with us before ya know it!"

"...You traveled together, he told you to go on without him, and you left him?" Cinder uttered, which caused Nora to turn towards her curiously. "Are...are you really okay with that? You didn't hesitate? You're not worried at all?"

"Pfft! Course I'm worried!" Nora admitted rather easily, so easily that it nearly sent Cinder for a loop. Cinder stretched her arms again, and then her legs with a huff. "It's only natural for me to be worried. But it'll be okay. Renny will come through and catch up with us safely. He'll be with us, and then the group will be all complete! Plus Cinder!" Nora soon stood up straight while rolling her arms with a smile. "I'm gonna trust Renny. He'll be fine."

"You truly have that much faith in him, despite your concern?"

Ruby lightly passed her by. "It's important for friends to trust each other and to rely on each other when we need to. But if we don't ever call upon our own strengths and skills, then it'll end pretty badly for both sides." She turned on a dime and smiled. "Ren trusted Nora to make it here on her own. And Nora trusts that Ren will be fine on his own. They both have faith in each other's strengths and have faith in their own, and both will give them the motivation to do what they gotta do."

"So even though they worry about each other, their trust in another will inspire within then the strength to overcome whatever might keep them apart for long." Pyrrha hums while briefly fixing her xiphos. "Trust is a very important thing to have when you're cooperating with someone, especially if it's for a long time."

"But still. You're really not worried?" Cinder still gazed at Nora. "What if-"

"Blah blah blah!" Nora hushed while pulling her head back with her hands on her hips. "Nah, none of that 'what if' stuff, alright? I can't waste time worried about what ifs! I'm too busy with what's right in front of me, ya know! And right now what's in front of me are all of my friends! I'm gonna catch up and have some fun with everyone!"

"I don't follow."

Nora briefly turned on a dime and tilted her head. "Silly Cindy! If we keep letting ourselves get tilted and worried over what ifs and what could have beens, then we won't have any time to just sir back and enjoy the scenery! I'm obviously worried about Renny, but I can't let that stop me or hold me back. I have faith that he'll make it here, so I get to focus on what's in front of me." Nora smiled. "And it's because Renny himself has faith in his own abilities like I do, that means I can focus on being with and helping the friends I have in front of me, right now."

"I agree with Nora." Penny raised her hand. "Miss Cinder, it's always important to keep the past and future in mind. But if you obsess over the both of them too much, you'll lose control over the life you're currently living in the present. It creates a rather exhausting mindset that will cripple your ability to operate at your best."

"There will be plenty of time to ponder one or the other, or both." Pyrrha noted. "But it shouldn't take up all of your focus. There are times when the best way to acknowledge a problem is to take a step back for a while and lessen the stress it has on you."

Ruby likely skipped ahead, the heels on her boots clicking. "If you spend too much time focusing on what might happen or what already happened, you'll never find yourself able to do anything right now. Whatever happened before happened, and whatever might happen in the future could happen. But we can't control those things. We can control what we do in the here and now, though."

Cinder tilted her head. "Is that why you're always acting so simply?"

"There are some things that are just outta our control. We could spend time agonizing over all that stuff, but then we'd never get anything done!" Ruby twirled briefly with a surprisingly beaming smile. "I can't really let myself be held back by that. We can look back on what's already happen and think about what might happen, without letting it overwhelm us. Being present and bettering our ability to be mindful helps us stay healthy and happy, connected with ourselves and everything around us." Her eyes lowered knowingly. "On top of that, it improves our ability to cope with negative emotions, like fear and anger. That connection with yourself will help you better control how those emotions manifest and where they're channeled."

Cinder blinked as she recalled Ruby speaking about the importance of negative emotions when they visited her grandmother. Despite how laid back the young woman was, she seemed to really take her philosophy to heart.

"It really ain't that big a deal, Cindy!" Nora cheerily slapped her back, startling her out of her thoughts. "I have faith in Ren, so I'm not gonna worry about him more than I have to. I'll just do what I do, and do what I can, right here and now. And what I wanna do...is spend some time with our new buddy!" Nora clapped with a lightning surged smile. "Let's go fight something!"

That's her idea of spending time with new friends?

This might very well be an every day experience with her, given how comfortable and knowing the others appeared to be with her antics. Which was another unfortunate sign that a part of them has just generally accepted that madness was going to be a regular part of their lives. And she wondered when exactly she adopted this mindset as well. She doesn't know for sure, but what she was certainly sure of, is that she's adjusting far too quickly to all of this eccentricity. More, expecting of it, to a degree.

Such a damn pain...

Mauvelous Town wasn't exactly named such for nothing. The settlement was filled with various shapes and sizes of pink trees, reaching high into the sky. The flowers surrounding them also somewhat mimicked their color, with their bright pink shade. They've been growing healthy enough under the sun, not being too robbed of it by their much bigger acquaintances they're surrounded by. In fact to a degree, plenty of flowers growing on the pink trees were colored in a similar manner as well, through around it's sizable trunk to along it's many branches. It was a sight to see them all growing so healthy and so strong and majestic.

Nora could honestly look at them all day if she wanted to, but there was a job to do. She couldn't allow herself to get sidetracked and lose focus...again.

"Alright, what are we up against?" Yang rolled her arm with a yawn, whilst Blake and Weiss walked on either side of her. The former was reading one of her books whilst walking, while the other was making sure Myrtenaster was loaded in case they needed to jump into battle immediately.

"There have been incidents of the citizens mysteriously turning against their friends and neighbors, to the point of attacking and even killing them." Penny hummed as she placed a curious finger on her chin. "It does seem to be a similar nature as the ghoul case, but some core differences could be found within these incidents. I'll need some help investigating further in order to discover the true cause."

"Is there something else we should know about? What is it with these kinds of attacks all of a sudden?" Weiss folded her arms as the wind billowed through her hair. "If this becomes a pattern, it'll do us well to break it as soon as possible."

Jaune rubbed his chin while surveying the town at hand. "I think we ought to split up for a bit. Preferably in different groups."

"Ah geez, we gotta split up again?" Yang yawned while clasping her hands behind her neck. "Well, I guess that's one way to draw out the culprit's attention. Divide ourselves up and make ourselves more inviting to a sort of ambush."

Cinder turned towards Ruby due to their antics, and she shrugged. "We've been through these kinds of adventures enough times to know that nothing ever goes completely according to plan. There's always going to be a bit of an unknown, unexpected part of the entire thing that we can't really prepare for. Which means, we know that we'll be surprised by something, but we won't know what the surprise is. That kinda makes it all easier to deal with."

"I still wonder when exactly it was that such a practice became one of our defaults. I'd rather know what's ahead than expecting to be surprised. It leads to an improvement on preparations and the like." Weiss sighed while massaging the bridge of her nose. "But of course, our rather upstanding leader is a walking magnet for the unexpected, no matter how well we prepare. That includes her second in command who doesn't even try to bring trouble his way."

"I mean, you probably could have made that point without firing shots at me..." Jaune mumbled while shaking his head. "Anyway, so long as our groups stick together and don't wander off too far, it shouldn't be too much of an issue. That means no running off at random. Understand? Ruby and Yang?"

"Oh yee of little faith, fellow blonde." Yang sighed while placing a hand over her chest. "No need to worry about me, I'll stick with my group. We've got a job to do, and we'll get it done."

"I think we'll go this way." Blake stoically pointed in one direction, her tail swaying with anticipation. "It will do us well to begin reconnaissance, so that we can get a proper perspective."

"You can take the lead there, Blake. We'll stay close." Weiss assured, before she turned her head and pointed to Ruby. "Don't do anything unreasonably rash. Don't. Don't."

"Weiss, you act like I've always been rash!"

"That's because you are. I've known you for years now, Ruby. Don't start with me." Weiss turned towards Jaune and Oscar. "Watch her. And her." Weiss also pointed to Cinder, who scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Don't scoff at me! You haven't even been within our ranks for that long and yet you've already proven yourself to be one of the more impulsive members!"

"We have the likes of Yang and Nora with us alongside Ruby herself. Believe me, that's not an easy thing to accomplish." Oscar smiled awkwardly.

"Aw come on, Weiss. Don't we all have our impulsive moments from time to time?" Yang slung an arm around the woman's shoulder and poked her cheek.

"I'm not denying that. But you, Penny, Nora, Ruby, and now Cinder, are easily among the worst at impulse control. And stop poking my cheek!" Weiss grumbles while slapping away her hand, to Yang's laughter. Weiss shook her head and looked back towards Cinder. "I mean it, you scaled heathen. Don't do anything that'll make this all harder on ourselves. You've yet to fully earn my patience."

Cinder raised an eyebrow. "How kind of you, but I don't remember asking for your patience. And I definitely don't remember caring about it."

Weiss took a deep breath, sighed irritably, before turning to Blake. "Lead the way Blake. Do be quick about it, too. I don't know how long I can maintain my composure before I start yelling, and I'd rather not hurt my throat over something like this. Everyone, once again, stay together and don't get separated. We have to get to the bottom of this post haste, in order to ensure total completion of our assignment." She turned again. "Once more, keep an eye in each other. Nobody do anything unreasonable."

"Sounds fair enough."

"Enough of all that! We've got an objective! And I refuse all objections to completing it!" Ruby pointed onwards. "Forward march!"

"March!" Penny and Nora both exclaimed as they followed Ruby down the designated path for them. Jaune and Oscar sighed, while Pyrrha lightly patted both of their shoulders. Cinder pinched the bridge of her nose with an aggravated groan, as they followed the more energetic members of their gathering.

Ruby was taking point for a moment, sniffing the air with a wolfish snout forming. She briefly looked towards a rooftop that looked like it clicked just slightly. She curiously hummed, ears quizzically twitching, before she returned to leading her pack to their mission objective.

"Soooooo, what's being a dragon like?" Nora bounced around Cinder while having her hands clasped behind her back. "You've got the fire magic going from ya. You can blast it from your hands. You can breathe it, too, right? And what about flapping wings of fire? Flaming eye beams? Or even fire tooting! Do you have flaming toots, too?!"

"What kind of ridiculous question is that?"

"The kind that we're curious for an answer?" Penny also adds in, with an unsure raised hand. Cinder was unfortunately at the whims of Nora and Penny's combined hyperactive, curiosity driven assault.

Several minutes after they began moving again, several heads slowly popped out from the darkness, eying the wandering travelers with glowing eyes...

"I wonder what happened?" Yang wondered while clasping her hands behind her head, following Weiss and Blake as they were making their way through one part of Redwood. Blake was leading the way, using her sense of smell to guide their way.

"Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't pleasant." Weiss uttered while taking a look at the surrounding buildings, seeing that several of them have been wrecked in certain places. "Did the citizens really start attacking and killing each other like in the reports and Penny's analysis? Whatever for? What could or would cause such a thing to happen amongst these people?"

"Beats me. I do know that's an underhanded way to off somebody. Turnin' your loved owns against you. That seriously sucks as a scenario." Yang shook her head while looking amongst some of the rubble. "Still, wonder what exactly happened? A suggestion? Hypnosis? Memory altering? Knowing the cause is pretty important to piecing together how it happened, and probably what it takes to couture or undo it."

Blake gradually came to a stop, which immediately prompted Yang and Weiss to do the same. She held out her hand as her ears twitched attentively. "Somebody's watching us." With that immediately grabbing their attention, Blake turned and slashed in the direction of another shattered roof top, and something managed to jump over the soaring slash. The wave sliced off a piece of the roof as it fell to the ground. "Nn. Thought so."

Something landed a bit close to them, letting out a gasp of surprise. "Heh! You've got pretty sharp senses for a kitty, don't you?"

"You're terrible at following people without being detected. Or perhaps you wanted to be found by us." Blake stoically declared while holding Gambol Shroud in front of her. "Believing that you can sneak up on me without my notice. That's very presumptive of you."

"Hey! Who are ya?!" Yang smacked her fists together while her eyes blazed a fiery red.

"Are you amongst the ones responsible for Mauvelous Town's predicament?" Weiss declared as a coating of ice formed over Myrtenaster, and she points it towards the new arrival. "You have much to answer for if that is the truth. What are you up to?"

"Just a little recruiting!"

Yang and Weiss both dodged to the side as a pinkish blast of light exploded where they were standing moments ago, while Blake had a shadow of hers push her out of the way and accelerate her dashing. She landed on a other one of the roof tops and turned towards the attempted assailant, her eyes sharpening and focusing on them. Noticing and sensing the demonic Aura surging around the being, she could immediately that they were dealing with a demon of sorts. And not just the one, given that she sensed the numbers around them gradually beginning to increase, and soon they were surrounded by numerous figures gazing at them from the shadows. Given how they were slowly crawling out of the woodwork and honing in on them, it was clear to them that they've been lying in wait for them to split off from the group.

Of course they were.

"I recognize the scent of this type of demonic monster." Blake held up Gambol Shroud closer to her. "These are Incubi."

"For real? A bunch of Incubus got us surrounded?"

"Oh, that's just fantastic."

The creatures certainly had them surrounded, with their wings flapping and their tails swiping about. Weiss in particular was highly unamused with how they were all gazing at them. Yang simply crackled her knuckles in preparation, whilst keeping vigilant of sudden movements.

"All three of you look rather splendid." One of them at the very front, said rather knowingly. The attention from all of them was less than pleasant, with the extended lingering on Yang's generously ample bust, Weiss's long luscious legs, and Blake's wide yet shapely hips. It didn't take much to realize one particular reason why they were cornered off like this. "Not only that, you seem plenty powerful. Wouldn't you mind joining our ranks? We could rather use you."

"Oh? Is that right?" Yang cooed while folding her arms under her bust, pushing them up slightly. There was also a bit of impressed looks going to the bulk of her biceps. "Are you being serious right now? Gosh, how generous! Sounds like such a job offer might come with some perks and benefits! I just wanna know something. Teeny tiny detail that I'm dyin' to know about." She tilted her head with an alluring flutter in her eyes. "Where does my baby sister factor into this?"

Weiss and Blake were already prepared. Two glowing glyphs formed under their feet, as the one Yang asked the question to rather casually smiled. "Well, there have been several orders to see that sister of tours dead and gone. Not even a trace of her should be left behind. So, I guess that's good news for you, you get to be an only child!" He shrugged. "Of course, that would probably be easy to claim, wouldn't it? After all, half-siblings aren't fully related, so they're only worth about half as mu-"

Weiss often wondered when and where the creature would realize that it presses several of Yang's buttons in rapid succession, and it appears that no, he was too foolish to realize several things. Yang's eyes began glowing red when she immediately concluded their lethal intentions towards her sister, her hair ignited when they suggested that her becoming an only child would be a good thing for her, and to top it all off was the insinuation that being half siblings wasn't worth anything because it was only half and not full-blooded.

So it came to no surprise to either Weiss or Blake when Yang's crossed the distance in between herself and the foolish Incubus, and he found a fiery fist buried into his gut, quicker than he could reasonably counter. For she moved quickly enough that she left a blazing trail from where she began to where she currently was.

"Yeah, I thought so." Yang's muttered with her eyes blazing red. "You can take your offer, take your buddies, and all of you can piss off." The blow sent him flying in a blazing spiral, which soon ignited into an explosion once he crashed against a nearby tree.

"Uncouth as usual." Weiss rolled her eyes as the tips of her fingers touched Myrtenaster, sliding across the blade as a coating of glowing ice covered it. "Then again, if anyone was speaking of my siblings in such a manner, I'm not sure if I would be able to hold my tongue, either."

"You all should have really done your research on the kind of people you're trying to recruit." Blake clinically declared, the flow behind her eyes intensifying. "You're about to attack from the shadows, aren't you? Too bad the shadows like me better than they tolerate you."

On cue, most of the Incubus scattered all about as dozens of shadowy Blakes shot out from the darkness they hid in and began attacking them, cutting at them with their own shadowy blades and claws. Following up, Weiss and Blake were launched by the Glyphs the former services down, sending then rocketing in different directions. Weiss pierced through the crowd with a stab, and several Incubus ended up freezing and trapped in solid ice.

Yang's cracked her neck and rolled her arm, before she backhanded an approaching Incubus with her fist, sending him crashing into the ground while barely looking at him. Their head leader of this particular grouping seemed to get back up from her punch, holding his scalding middle. Good for him, he could take a hit. And Yang's wasn't quite done hitting him, so him going unconscious so soon would have been a disappointment.

"You...are making a big mistake."

"Pretty sure I'm not, but you're welcome to try and enlighten me." Yang rebuffed as she tied up her hair. Her focus was increasing by the moment.

"There's so much you could do with your strength! It's wasted on sticking to your sister!"

"So far you're getting an F- in convincing me that I'm making a mistake. And wouldn't ya know it, F is for 'fuck off'." Yang cracked her neck slightly while her flames softly hummed around her. "But I'm sure you're gonna keep trying anyway, so don't try and stop on my account. Not that I'll give a damn, but I feel sporting today."

Yang grinned as she jumped upwards, a pronged spear smashing into the ground where she was just standing. Her enemy growled as he pulled it out and pursued her.

"Haven't you ever considered the prospective of living without any kind or burdens, including your sister and friends?! Always having to worry about what the right thing to do is and what's wrong? Why even worry any of these things?"

"My guy, you need to get to the point about what you're tryin' to sell to me, cause so far I ain't interested in buyin'."

"Wouldn't you want to live without any inhibition? Seek out your own pleasures without judgement? That's what parts of the people of this town did, once we released them of their inhibitions." He grinned as he pulled his arm back as it surged with dark power. Yang grunted and immediately crossed her arms, with the blow impacting her and sending her across several buildings. And while she recovered, she could see the images following her mind.

The townsfolk had been swarmed by the Incubus, once they were swarming from a sudden bloody portal. They didn't immediately attack; they instead sent a wave of miasma about them, and they felt 'something' weigh off of them. Before long, they had turned on each other in a mad bid to indulge in their darkest impulses.

The impulses that were forced upon them, with their minds and souls being torn apart and put back together in order to completely rewrite their personalities to suit the Incubus' needs.

Their desires having been amplified to mind and emotional warping levels, where people were no longer themselves. And in order for satisfy these desires no matter the cost, they would even violently kill those they considered friends or family.

Yang grimaced as she jumped away from another blast that obliterated her spot. "Ladies, didja see what I just saw?"

"I can see it indeed." Weiss narrowed her eyes as she sliced Myrtenaster to the side, shards of ice piercing several incubi coming her way. She stabbed the blade into the ground as multiple Glyphs formed around her feet as well as around the space she stood in, and she pushed her hand forward. "These fiends have been doing exactly as we feared. Inducing these amplifies desires within these people, and further empower themselves when they commit the sins that would lead to trying to fulfill them."

"It's very familiar to that previous case." Blake hummed as she slashed downwards across one of the much large Incubi, jumping up and slashing her claws downwards through its chest. Her other enlarged shadowy hand slammed down on top of him as a large feline paw, her eyes slightly glinting through the shadows. "A slightly different source of power perhaps, but all the same."

Hopefully we don't go three for three. But knowing our luck... Yang grunted as she blew some hair away from her face as she extended her hand, blocking the oncoming shockwave of malevolent darkness crashing down on her and attempting to drown her.

"Wouldn't you want to achieve instant gratification without rhyme or worry? That can be done! We can help you with that! Infinite indulgence at no expense to yourself!" Yang could hear the creature still trying to reach out to her, malevolently glowering at her. "Your strength isn't going to be wasted. We'll see you to our ways whether you agree to it or not. "

"Instant gratification? So you just wanna get what you want without havin' to work for it and without suffering the consequences? What are ya, a bunch of bums?" Yang gruffly rebuked with a grin. "You wanna know what gives me gratification? Ya wanna know what makes me happy?"

"Why of course! See? We're reaching a compromise alr-"

The darkness around Yang burned away with a blazing burst of flames. Her hair ignored further into a fiery mane, and her eyes glowed brightly.

"Bein' there for my sis makes me happy. Helping my friends makes me happy." Yang burns brightly as she held out her fist. "What you're suggestin' is for me to throw all that away so that I can only focus on myself, on top of it being at the expense of decent folk. Sorry, but I'm not down for working with anyone who doesn't consider anyone else's happiness, or even their own happiness in the long term."

The Incubus group leader snarled as he conjures another wave of darkness, this time shaping it into several sharpened cubes. "We gave you a chance! You blonde bim-!"

Yang appeared above him in a fiery blur, eyes blazing red, a fist coated in bright golden flames.

"You build instant satisfaction on the backs of decent folk, you get what's coming to ya!"

She slammed her fist downwards into his back, dispersing all of the leftover darkness and exploding the area around them in an upwards spiralling pillar or bright and heated flames. Blake and Weiss briefly looked towards the flames while dealing with the last of the incubi.

"It looks like Yang's done over there." Blake bummed while sheathing Gambol Shroud.

"Good grief. She always has to be so explosive..." Weiss groaned into her palms.

Yang's eyes slowly turned back to lavender as she eyed her downed target, the incubus laid flat on the ground with a burning fist imprint in his back. The blood pooling around his mouth as well as the whited out eyes let Hang know that he wouldn't be getting up again.

"So here's my final answer." Yang's spits at the ground, pushing some of her golden hair away from her face as the last of the embers faded away. "No thanks, dumbass."

Oscar was as cautious as he could be, trying to keep his bearings about him. Surrounding him a bit, we're Ruby, June, Cinder, Pyrrha, Nora, and Penny. Penny was the closest to him at the moment, and was just as vigilant as he was. Vigilant and affectionate. Vigilant because he could see that her eyes were scanning the area for any potential enemies that night try to get the jump on them, assisted by Ruby and Cinder's senses of smell.

And affectionate, because she was walking behind him with her hands on his shoulders and slightly pulled closer to her. The closeness caught him off guard, but he didn't let it disrupt his focus too much. It did, however, cause him to blush brightly at how she didn't seem to mind said closeness at all. IT wasn't anything new with her, for she was one of the cuddles amongst the group. She must have sensed how tense he felt and sought to rectify it the best way she could at the moment, without taking her mind off the mission.

"Are you well, Oscar?" Penny checked just in case, turning her head to briefly meet his eyes, tilting it slightly. Green eyes met green eyes, and he turned away with a brighter blush at how close she was. "I wanted to ease your nerves with a hug. It won't do to go into a possible battle while you're stressed. It'll interfere with your decision making, and that will prove problematic Inna crucial situation."

"I-I'm fine, Penny. Really."

"You sure, Oscar? Don't strain yourself." Ruby gently nodded to him, and he appreciatively nodded back.

Then a wild Nora appeared in front of him, much to his surprise.

"Cute boy Oscar needs hugs? I can help!"

Nora had pulled poor Oscar into a tight hug of her own, and had her breasts gently cushioning his face while doing so. The entire ordeal was going to make him pass out in a moment, given how red his cheeks were as he shook his head in slight protest. "C-Come on, already! I'm fine! There's no need for this!"

"Yeah probably, but I wanted an excuse to hug you!" Nora beamed at him, and he couldn't help but sigh and give into her whims for the moment. Fair enough to her, she relaxed her hold after the initial tight embrace. "I missed you all lots and lots, so I wanna catch up on lost time by fighting alongside you, and giving super tight hugs!"

"Please, not too tight. I don't exactly have the most durable spine."

Pyrrha and Jaune lightly chuckled at their antics, while Cinder could only roll her eyes. "I really don't know how you're able to stand her. The day isn't even over yet and I already feel like tearing off my own ears. It'd be less painful than this."

"I don't think it's that bad, Cinder." Jaune shrugged while slightly rubbing the back of his neck.

"I do agree. Nora just has her own way of doing things." Pyrrha smiles softly, pushing some hair away from her face.

"That's easy for you two to say. Both of you have taken the time to get used to her antics. I have not." Cinder flicked her tail to the ground while folding her arms and looking to the side. "You've already built up some sort of resistance to her, so you can focus on the important things she has to say."

"Come on, Cindy, don't be like that!" Nora turned on a hop and a skip, clasping her hands as brief boots of lightning sparked off of her. "We all got a bit of a huggy side to us, deep down! I had to catch up on all the hugs I didn't get to give while I was away!"

Cinder huffed, looking away for a bit. "...Do you truly have such unwavering faith in your friend's abilities that he'll make it to the Guild on his own?"

"Absolutely!" Didn't hesitate in the slightest, Nora answers with a chirp. "Gotta have faith in Renny, like I have faith in everybody else. That's the kinda belief that builds string trust between everyone in the guild." Nora brightly turned to her. "Like I said before, I can't go wondering over every wee little thing that's out of my control. I gotta focus on everything I can deal with in front of me, first. Or else I'll eventually get crushed from all sides! And that's no good!"

"There's nothing to be gained to agonize too long over the choices we've already made that have already passed. It is not very productive." Penny hummed while clasping her hands in front of her. "It's important to always be somewhat self aware of what's currently going on in front of us, or else we risk missing something vital.

As Jaune listened to them converse for a bit, he heard the sound of something giggling and laughing. He turned his head slightly, and found several women looking towards him. He briefly wondered what was going on, though he did wave back as he headed over to them. "Are you all alright? We're here because there have been some violent incidents happening in this town. Do you think you can give me some details on what happened?"

"Why of course! Why wouldn't we assist someone trying their best to help out?" Several of them snickered, while Jaune tilted his head slightly, before he blinked slowly as he felt unbalanced all of a sudden. A strange scent was enveloping him, and he was slowly finding it more and more difficult to stay awake.

The scent reached Ruby and Cinder respectively, and they snapped towards Jaune's direction quickly. "Jaune, GET BACK!"

Jaune felt the world behind to spin, loosing balance and all feeling in his body as he slowly began to collapse, with the tearful regretful eyes of the children, and the sinister glint in the eyes of the women being the last things he saw.

Ruby sold across the spot where Jaune had just disappeared into darkness, and her eyes narrowed dangerously. She quickly turned towards Oscar. "This isn't over. I have their scent, they should still be somewhere within the town. We need to be quick before they really do drag him off elsewhere!"

"Indeed." A pulsating wave of what surrounded Cinder as she stared a blazing hole right at the spot where Jaune disappeared into. Meanwhile, Ruby wasn't wasting anytime making way to track down the scents both Jaune and the Succubi left behind. She wouldn't give them the possibility or opportunity to move him somewhere they couldn't immediately get to.

She refused to allow it.

Jaune didn't know how long he was out. But what he was sure of, was that he was currently chained up and currently incapable of moving. He shook slightly, the shackles on him glowing and tightening in response to said struggles, causing him to grunt and nearly collapse on the spot. He groaned as he tried to right himself on his knees, taking a look at his surroundings as he came to terms with what just happened to him.

He was captured.

And not only was he captured, it happened via trusting the innocent looking women who gradually put him to sleep without his notice. He was lured away from the group for several seconds due to wanting to find some possible townsfolk who could provide him information, and that left him vulnerable long enough to even further separate him from his friends.

In other words...

"I screwed up. This ain't good. Oh man, Ruby's gonna give me an earful for falling for something like that..."

"Ah, you're awake. At last."

Jaune lifted his head slightly, seeing several women slowly pooling into the room. The ones he saw before, now they looked drastically different. They each appeared with bat-like wings on their backs, having fiendish looking tails, and a more sinister Aura surrounding each of them.

Succubus. No wonder he couldn't tell what was up at a glance. Though Ruby and Cinder probably smelled what was up the second they realized something was wrong.

They briefly parted, as someone else made way towards him, smiling pleasantly. Though as he sensed she was the most sinister of all, her smile brought him no comfort.

High heels clicked against the ground. She wore a dark pink dress with a slightly brighter pink cut out. She was wearing a very, very low pink dress, leaving very little to the imagination and hugging her curves quite snugly. She lightly flicked her eyes towards him with a glint, and his shackles glowed and levitated him in to the air. Jaune looked back at her nonchalantly.

"Ya know, usually it's the princess who gets kidnapped. The knight getting kidnapped? That's pretty uncommon in fairy tales, ain't it?"

"Cute, you can tell a joke in this situation." She smirked while playfully sending him swinging about with a bump of her butt, making him roll his eyes. "No need to stress. You're a guest. We always treat our guests kindly."

"Yeah, that's why you've got me in shackles. You've truly provided some rather warm hospitality." Jaune deadpanned. "Five stars."

She ended up chuckling again. "You've got quite a few liners stored up, don't you?"

"Look, we both know that I'm not here simply because you wanted to get to know me better. What do you really want with me?" Jaune grunted while irritably trying to kick at the other women attempting to touch him.

"Straight to business, then." She smiled while clapping her hands, placing a hand atop her bosomy chest. "Amanda Lilin. You have quite a surplus of life force swirling about within you."

"I do kinda have the most immense Aura in my group..." Jaune sighed. "Though Ruby's kinda got me beat in magic reserves by a landslide."

"So humble. But no need to worry. She won't be wasting such a resources anymore. You're in good hands."

"I kinda doubt that, since you intend on draining me of it yourselves, right?" Jaune grunted as he struggled in his shackles, only to hiss as the resistance only increased their restraint over him, interrupting the flow of his Aura and his magic. "I'd...ngh...rather keep all that, thanks!"

"Dear knight, you're thinking about this all wrong! Your life force will be used to a purposeful end!" Amanda cooed while cupping his chin, which he flinched from. "You'll be much more suitable for such purposes than all of the others."

Jaune flinched as the lights flickered to life around him, and his eyes gradually took in the sight around him once he realized where he truly was. There were emancipated, utterly drained bodies of men all about in chains, bordering on the hundreds. He couldn't sense much life in any of them, if there was any left at all.

"As you can see, not many of the ones we've gathered over the years would last long enough to be worth much." Amanda hummed as she stepped around and touched the head of a young boy. He cried and crumpled at the touch as his vitality was drained from his body, and soon fell to the ground, still. Jaune eyes widened are the sight and he tried struggling further against the restraints despite the increasing pain they were causing him. "But with such a vast wellspring of life force from someone like yourself, you might be the biggest contribution yet!" She shrugged as she strolled back over to him. "So, um, bit of an awkward thing to say now, but I hope you don't mind losing several decades of your lifespan. Or possibly all of it."

"I mind a lot, actually!"

"Wonderful! Let's-"

A crack of thunder.

It took several seconds to realize what that meant and further realization of what it sounding so close by meant, until the doors behind her were blasted open in a wave of pink lightning and speaks. Amanda skidded across the floor with a startled cough while overseeing the destructive arrival.

"Found 'em!'" Nora declared with finality, lightning surging around her body as she glared straight ahead towards the enemies she's soon to smash. Ruby was the first to immediately dash past her a few feet before stopping, her canine snout vanishing once she confirmed her location. Soon enough Penny and Pyrrha managed to jump right next to both sides of Nora, while the last person to descend upon the scene would be Cinder herself.

She was glared heated daggers towards all enemies she smelled in the area, plumes of smoke leaving her nostrils and mouth despite having yet to fully morph. Her tail slammed into the ground hard enough to crack it, snarling her sharpened and bared fangs. The flames around her dangerously heated up the longer she glared, a stomp cracking the ground around her.

"Tracked you down." Ruby uttered while swiping her nose slightly.

Amanda looked surprised. "You managed to find your way here rather quickly."

"The briefest moment I was able to pick up on your scent was enough for me to chase you down no matter where you went. And on the chances of that failing, Oscar and Penny would already be able to track your exact locations. " Ruby narrowed her eyes while clenching her fists. "Now, if the next thing you say or do doesn't involve letting Jaune go, I'm gonna have to take all for you out."

Amanda hummed slightly, folding her arms. Suitably, she didn't say or do anything right then and there. It was simply that once they've thrown down the gauntlet, something came smashing in between them and ruptured the ground around them for several moments. Everyone skidded back from the sudden crash, sensing something amidst the debris and smoke that had suddenly placed themselves in their way. Several figures seemed to be standing in their way, and dozens of succubi happen upon them in their bid to attack them.

"This got out of hand so quickly!" Oscar shouted as he was attempting to block with the Long Memory, his back slamming into a wall.

Amanda jumped as her wings fluttered like black glowing feathers. She soon conjured a glowing dark pink bow, with several dozen arrows pulled back. She fired, and the rain if arrows came down, causing several destructive dark pink explosions that managed to disorient some of the gang and send them flying in different directions, all while still being struck by the succubi surrounding them. Cinder in particular growled as she regained her bearings, flapping her draconic wings.

"Ah yes, Cinder Fall." Amanda hummed while tilting her head. "We were told that we had to capture you alive. But if course, you're not willing to submit to that quietly. So I suppose you'll have to be taken in mostly dead."

Somebody else? Cinder wasn't particularly surprised that someone was after her, but she couldn't exactly ignore the fact that she sensed a pattern forming.

"Ruby, however?" She turned towards the woman who had sliced all the arrows that headed her way, without budging any further than she already has. "She'll have to be put down like the dog she is. Those requests were very clear and insistent that you've got to die, and I do intend on delivering."

"Geez, what the heck did I do?" Ruby grumbled as she strode towards the woman, only for Nora Roberts extend her hand across her.

"Lemme take this one, Ruby." Nora requested of her. Ruby blinked slightly at this, though also quietly nodded as she turned and drew her attention elsewhere, like freezing Jaune amidst all of the confusion.

Huffing, Nora turned towards Amanda while pink lightning surged around her. The woman looked nonplussed by this, instead taking further into the air and focusing more precision into her arrows. With a grunt, Nora managed to bat most of the arrows away with several quicker swings of Magnhild, before turning about and blasting a bolt of lightning in her direction. A floating dark pink heart manifested in front of Amanda and absorbed the lightning, causing it to surge slightly.

"When a strong enough desire manifests within you, it can have a very powerful effect on how you choose to act." Amanda shoots another arrows as Nora dodges to the side, briefly being grazed by the speeding projectile. "Push that desire to truly passionate levels, and you'll likely pursue it at all costs. It matters not what your past is or what your future would be, nor the consequences that may come from either direction; all that matters is that you have a passionate desire for something right here and now, and you'll do anything to get it. You'll do whatever it takes to fulfill that desire. There's nothing you won't do, nothing you won't say...nobody you won't kill."

Nora zipped around several dark pink explosions caused by the arrows, with some of the explosions briefly managing to send her tumbling across the ground off balanced. Though she quickly regained herself after getting to her feet and launching herself towards Amanda, slamming Magnhild into her. The force field she managed to throw around her at the last moment cracked heavily from the blow, but it otherwise held strong.

"Of all the creatures of this world and universe that tend to be slaves to their own desires, humans might it have it the worst." Amanda smiles as a blast of pink energy sends Nora away. "It matters not if it's a desire for something sexual, or for power. Honor, conquest, respect, knowledge, violence, even war. Of all species, humans are champions at destroying themselves in order to pursue their desires regardless of the consequences. It actually impresses me how amazingly they can ruin themselves and everyone around them in the long term, just for a moment of comfort and satisfaction."

"Is that what you did to these people?!" Nora exclaimed as she slammed her hammer down, sending out several bolts of pink lightning that shot out towards the succubus taunting her, as she nimbly dodges some of them with a knowing smirk. "Placing desires in them that weren't there before?!"

"It's not like it was very hard. Be it company, love, food...everyone wants something, no matter how grand or small it is. For instance..." Amanda smiled as dozens of the captives she had were suddenly awoken, and imbued with power. "These people now 'desire' to kill you for my sake."

"What?!" Nora blinked as she was now being swarmed by both the rejuvenated captives now being manipulated into attacking her, and the other succubus who were attacking her already anyway. As she clenched her hangs around her hammer and smashed away a succubus that tried to jump at her, she could only growl in frustration. "You've gotta be kidding me. That's a pretty scummy thing to do!" She shouted at her, blocking against a flurry of clawed strikes from the succubi in front of her that send her skidding back, until she forcibly crashed into the wall.

"Perhaps it is. But from what I'm seeing, it seems to be working splendidly."

Ruby in the meantime, jumped back as several waves of glowing, spiraling waves of energy attempting to slam her I to the ground. She skids back and narrowed her eyes as the succubus were closing in. Several of them seemed more troublesome than the others, which she entrusted to Pyrrha and Penny to watch her back. She jumped over another wave as she launched a slash of sharpened red roses to knock them into the ground. She set her sights on the ones above her, and kicked upwards, slamming them through the ceiling. One of them attempted to slash her in the back with her claws.

Cinder smashed into them with a fiery, enlarged draconic fist, her eyes still blazing. She smashed one of them j to the ground with her flawed hands, then flapped her sprouted wings as waves of flames burned at those attempting to jump at her from behind. She turned around and punched another into the wall, setting it ablaze with her intense firepower. Cinder could see more of them coming about from all sides. She moved to counter crush them, only for Pyrrha to toss her shield towards them, directing them in a way that it smacked all of them across their heads and sent them spiraling and crashing into the ground along with their allies.

Ruby moved forth as a a blast of pink nearly shot itself towards her, but Pyrrha's shield immediately deflected it away from the both of them without her having to turn around. Several shadow we glowing claws shot out of the ground and attempted to slash at them. Ruby managed to dash around and weave around several of them, before she grilled Crescent Rose and smashed diagonally, crushing a path between her and the enemy.

"I'm not letting you all have your way." Ruby narrowed her eyes as she punched another succubus across the room, spamming them into several of their comrades.

"You say that like you can stop us, pup!" One of them gleamed while attempting to smash an entire chunk of concrete on top of Ruby through sheer strength. "What does it matter to you?"

"You've been messing with and stealing from the lives of other people for a while, and now you think you can take someone who means a lot to me just because you can?" Ruby growled as she bulked slightly into her werewolf form, running on all fours and effortlessly knocking away many of the succubus that tried to get in her way. She turned on her heel and swung Crescent Rose with enough force to cleave through their projectiles and leave dozens of sharp gashes across their bodies. "You don't get to just do whatever you want and expect no one to want you to pay for it!"

"And why would we worry or care about something like that?" Oscar could hear them chatter, and he immediately turned around and blocked with the Long Memory, several succubus slamming into him and breaking his balance and focus. He fell to the ground. He gasped as he felt several of them holding down his arms and legs, while another hand their hands around his throat, and he nearly blacked out when they began absorbing his life force together. "If a succubus sees something that they believe with please them, then they take it. It's theirs because they can take it. Be it treasures, possessions, powers, lives. Nothing matters more than living in the moment! Nobody can experience this like a Succubus can, and that's what makes them one of the superior monsters and demons in the world!"

Many of the succubus pinning Oscar down were suddenly knocked aside in one swift moment and flash of green energy. Oscar gasped slightly, trying to regain his hearings. He looked to see Penny, who was gently helping him stand back up on his two feet. Though it would be slightly difficult, given that several succubus had tried to drain him simultaneously and this he barely had the focus to move properly at the moment. Fortunately, he as allowed to lay back against a wall as Jaune was by his side, placing a hand on his shoulder as he began healing him. Penny turned towards the succubus in front of her, her eyes glowing green.

"You will trample upon people's pasts and obstruct their futures, in order to indulge your desires in the present. Maybe it is be out of hatred and envy, mocking the gift of life that others have?" Penny uttered as she gripped one of the floating swords around her. "I suppose it does not matter. I just know that I cannot let you obstruct people's futures or ruin their pasts with no regard to the suffering you cause for those in the present."

She raised her sword, a glowing green aura of technological energy surrounding it, and swung it downwards. The wave spread widely in front of her and engulfed the many succubus that were in front of her st the time. Surges of green energy spilled outwards and crashed into other succubus that had the sheer misfortune of being in the way of her blast, immediately suffering immense about of pain from the energy slamming down onto them. The energy and the sword both dissipated as they all fell onto the ground brutalized.

Oscar slowly turned around, where Nora was slowly getting to her feet, hands on her knees and taking several breaths, spitting blood at the ground and wiping her mouth. He subtly placed a green clock glyph under her feet, and replenished her energy by four seconds.

It proved itself to be enough for her. The lightning around her slowly began turning from a normal pink to pink-white, and surged around her with enough power for the bolts to crackle against the ground. Amanda blinked as the bolts of lightning blasted through the debris that nearly fell on Nora, as she lifted her head to glare directly at the leading succubus ahead of her. Shaking her head if hesitation, Amanda pulled and fired a storm of arrows towards the woman bathed in electricity.

She blinked, and suddenly Nora was in front of her, Magnhild pulled back, sparks of lightning trailing from the young woman's intense eyes. She barely had time to attempt to defend before Nora slammed the hammer into her. And she was forced to deal with not only the sheer strength behind the blow, but the explosion of lightning that also went off the second the attack made contact. The blast of lightning sent her crashing along the ground scorched and covered in lightning, coughing from the smoke emitting off her body. She gasped as she tried to regain her bearings, as she looked towards Nora glaring resolutely at her. It was like she attached a shock bomb to her hammer and it detonates at her leisure whenever she hits a target. Amanda coughed as she stumbled to stand.

Several succubi attempted to place themselves in Nora's way as they hindered her oath towards their coven leader, but they were soon knocked aside from well timed strikes from Pyrrha and Jaune joining the fray. With the latter slashing Croce's Mors horizontally to cut down any that tried to attack him again, and the former kicking her shield with enough grace that it ricochets, hitting each of them across their heads and sending them flying in different directions. Covering for their friend, Pyrrha and Jaune cleared the way for Nora to continue her assault.

"Ya know, I'm all for living in the present. I'm not the kind of girl who constantly worries about what happened in the last or what might happen in the future. I gotta work hard today in order to prepare for tomorrow, and I always like to build upon the awesome things I did yesterday."

Nora pulled back her hammer as more bright pink-white lightning surged around her. "But am I really all for trampling over other decent people's lives to uphold that? Not likely." She zapped forward and slammed Magnhild in a downwards motion, forcing Amanda to dodge via flapping her wings. She flew by and attempted to slice at her neck, with Nora ducking backwards. Another blast of lightning surged from her hammer as she swung downwards, with Amanda getting caught up in it and being launched across the room, reorienting herself with a flap of her wings. Looking around in disbelief as more of her succubus were being downed by Pyrrha and Jaune so they wouldn't get in Nora's way, she was weighing her options to try and take back the advantage.

"Trying to think ahead? You've got too many problems right here and now."

Amanda's eyes widened at the voice, as she turned around to see Nora glaring at her, appearing from a flash of pink lightning. She slammed Magnhild downwards, with Amanda attempting to block the blow rather than dodge it; the swings were getting faster, and she was too close for her to avoid safely. The blow, along with the explosion of pink lightning accompanying it, sent the leading succubus down into the ground, crashing. She gasped as she attempted to regain her bearings, her hair quickly becoming undone and disheveled.

Ruby suddenly appeared next to Nora, with Amanda looking at them both anxiously. "Sugar Rush?"

"Yeah."

Soon enough, both of them vanished in a gust of rose petals and a flash of lightning.

Amanda didn't have much time for look panicked at this, for she was already sent skidding across the floor from Ruby swiftly appearing before her and kicking her across the face. Not too long afterward, Nora appeared behind her and slammed Magnhild into her back, launching her upwards with a pink explosion of lightning. Up in the air, Ruby appears again and slams her to the side with an enlarged wolf paw. Nora does the same as well and swings her warhammer downwards onto Amanda's middle, sending her careening into the ground. Both Ruby and Nora then came down, swirling around each other in a mix of wind and lightning, slamming right onto the succubus in a blast of both elements, which devastated quite a bit of the room around them.

The gusts of wind and spiraling of rose petals soon dies down, alongside the sparks of lightning. Ruby and Nora stood alongside each other, with the former hanging her warhammer across her shoulders. Amanda gasped as she tried to pick herself up, but she could hardly bring herself to move due to the combined onslaught.

"There's quite a lot of good that can be done with living in the now. Life becomes a lot more enjoyable when you're not constantly worrying about what's already happened or what might happen." Nora lightly clicked her ton, several speaks emitting around her. "Then again, I'm not a fan of just sitting in one place all the time. I have no desire to stick to the present forever. If I don't build upon the past or prepare from the future at all, that's the same as never going anywhere. You're not progressing forwards or even backwards. You're just stuck in one place."

"In other words, you become stagnant. With nothing to build from or build towards, our lives in the now slowly become completely empty. And there's definitely no supporting ruining and taking from other people's lives in order to fill that emptiness." Ruby knelt next to Amanda with a sharp glint in her otherwise calm eyes. "Sorry, but as I said before, I'm not going to let you all have your way."

Amanda grunted as she glared at Nora and Ruby before her, shaking her head. "You're pretty full of yourself. What are you going to do now?"

Amanda blinked as she heard and saw the stomp of a dragon paw landing next to Ruby and Nora, and the now draconic Cinder was standing over them all. She glared heatedly at the defeated succubus, who was still looking on in shock at the dragoness glaring upon her. Nora and Ruby made space as they moved out of her way, with Cinder stomping forth and breathing a plume of smoke from her maw.

"...You know, throughout this encounter, I've thought about eating you. I do like indulging in my taste for powerful monsters and foes, and you've got a decent amount of power to you and your subordinates as well." Cinder narrowed her eyes. "However, after listening to these two, I must say that they have a point. You're acquiring power so that you can enjoy yourselves as much as you like at everyone's expense but yours, without caring about the past or the future."

"H-Huh...?"

"You're not actually working towards anything, nor are you building from something that came before, yet you believe you're entitled to gain more strength and power to maintain that absolute nothingness? I find this rather unappetizing and infuriating. You're trash, and I don't eat trash. But I do enjoy burning it." Cinder opened her draconic maw as a fiery glow began emitting from within it. And before Amanda could even get another word out, she was ignited with a powerful torrent of flames.

The woman shrieked as she began running around the room for several minutes, as the others were busy doing what they could to free the remaining living captives. Ruby and Nora watched in while taking a bit of a breather, particularly when the woman briefly ran right into the wall and crumpled to the ground, rolling around trying to out the fire out.

"You think maybe she could have seen this coming?" Nora casually asked.

"Nope." Ruby shrugged.

"She kinda smells like burning oil." Oscar scratched the back of his head.

"I do not think scented candles will be able to help with that." Penny wondered while tilting her head.

Cinder chuckled at the woman's misery, and her inability to put herself out. Though once she's had her fun, she casually swiped her tail and smacked the ignited succubus right through the wall, sending her soaring through the air. The flames intensified even further by then, and she didn't gain much more distance until she was a pile of ashes scattering in the winds. Jaune blinked at this particular part, and turned towards Cinder with folded arms.

"I think the fire would have done the trick on its own. Wasn't that a little bit spiteful?"

"She thought she could challenge us with the power she has, when she's only interested in satisfying her desire for simple amusement and personal gain. No ambition or perspective beyond these things. She did not deserve to die with dignity, nor being eaten by me. So yes, I feel like I reserve the right to be spiteful because of her wasting my time."

And attempting to steal you away. I won't let such insulting audacity go unpunished. She thought quietly.

Jaune looked at her for a moment, before he shrugged.

The dragoness lightly leaned closer to him whilst he was thinking, and she sniffed over him several times. "She didn't do anything to you, did she? You're not harmed too much, are you? She whisked you away so quickly that we couldn't properly intercept her. We followed her here as quickly as we could."

"Well, other than freaking me out a bit and taunting me, she didn't do too much physical harm to me. I'm fine." Jaune sighed as he brushed off his shoulder a bit. Then he turned around and placed a hand on her snout, lightly patting it. "You're looking after me pretty fiercely. I appreciate that a lot, Cinder."

"You'd better appreciate it. You allowed yourself to be kidnapped so easily. You've put me through a lot of irritation and unnecessary stress because you couldn't see through an illusion on your own. I know from firsthand experience that you're better than that." Cinder narrowed her eyes as Jaune lightly shrunk under her gaze, before she relented and shook her head. "No matter. I suppose I can't completely place faults upon your shoulders. Succubus can be rather devious with their trickery, so I will retract being completely annoyed towards you for falling for their deceit. And yet still, for putting me through undue complications, you owe me a favor." She could see him beginning to ask what it was, and she put a stop to it with a raised paw. "It's upon my discretion to decide what it is and when to call it in. You're not allowed to refuse."

"Demanding, aren't we?" Jaune shook his head while shrugging. "Well, I don't mind doing something for you if you ask for it. So long as it's within reason."

"I won't ask anything unreasonable of you. Just be prepared for when I summon you for the favor. Don't expect me to forget, either. I will seek you out regarding the matter."

"Yeah, I got it." Jaune chuckled, running a hand through his hair. "Still, I have to thank you all for getting me out of that jam as quickly as possible. Don't know what would have happened to me if you didn't have my back." He smiles up to her while sheathing Crocea Mors. "You really are incredibly reliable, Cinder. It's pretty obvious and easy to do, but still. I'm pretty happy to be reminded that you have my back. I'm glad you were here for me today."

"...Tch." Cinder huffed and turned away, doing her very best to try and will the growing redness off of her cheeks. "You've increasingly spoken fondly of me during my increased time among you all. It's like the two of us constantly clashing seems like a distant memory."

"Probably. But that time you spent butting heads means you got to know each other long before any of us did! That set the baseline for your future bonding from there!" Nora turned towards the duo with a wide smile. "That's the cool thing about living in the now, living in the present. The past is a present you've already opened, and the future is a present that's waiting to be opened. So it's okay to take the middle road of not going too fast or too slow, because there's always going to be an opportunity for us to live in the moment." She tilted her head. "That way, we can always keep ourselves moving without worry or hurry."

"Which will help us avoid getting stagnant." Ruby chirped while kicking her feet back and forth.

"...I never would have taken her to be an insightful one." Cinder muttered while still gazing a bit at Nora, who smiled back at her in response.

Though as she thought about it a bit further, she found herself wondering and thinking back. She's had to take care of herself and only herself for a long while. She rarely had to think about others' needs because she was far too occupied with fulfilling her own. Life wasn't all that great for her so she couldn't always find it within herself to be happy about it. It was always simply trying to get to the next day alive without actually considering the future itself, while constantly worrying that there's something from the past just waiting to haunt her. The constant worrying about an uncertain future and possible ghosts of the past left her unable to really appreciate things when it came down to it.

Though now that this current life was providing her with all sorts of luxuries and comforts she could indulge herself in, she found life to be a bit more bearable than it's ever been before. It was such a completely different experience, that she didn't know how much it could actually last. Well, she didn't really want to worry about that all that much anymore. It's been such a rough time for her, and now she has the space and opportunity to indulge in her wants at her own leisure. Though she's never pursued these luxuries at other people's expense, for she mostly wanted to be left alone during those times. Now that she can pursue these luxuries more openly, she's felt herself gains the desire for more of them. She wanted more. More food, more luxuries, greater strength, she wanted so much more of all of these things now that she had a taste beyond the bare minimum that would keep her alive.

But just as much, after realizing that she has others' needs and desires that need to be accounted for beyond her own, she found herself being fine with that as well. She's gained an opportunity for more luxuries than she's ever had in the past, and there would always be even further opportunities to gain even more luxuries. But for now, at these moments, she could settle for and appreciate what she currently had. The greater sense of responsibility she felt for the others made it feel all the more earned when she indulged herself, for she put in the work to earn those indulgences and appreciate them. Thinking it over further, that's probably why she felt so frustrated by the succubi that tried to get in her way and attempted to take something away from her in order to fulfill something so meager. They had the gall, the nerve, the audacity to try and whisk someone she respected away from her in order to fulfill their own baseless desires. She's built up such a strong foundation of mutual respect with Jaune, and it gave her a warm sense of fulfillment.

The thought of someone or something trying to rob her of that...

She was getting angry again. She needed something calming. It probably prompted her next action, which was driven more by an emotional desire rather than a rational thought. She only knew that she needed something to ease the angry flames in her heart before she ruined the currently calm moment with it.

And thus, with one spontaneous sequence, she plucked Jaune off of the ground with both of her paws, and pulled him closer to her in an unexpected hug. Not the usual hug since she was still in dragon form, but a rather swift swiping up and a hug to her rotund belly in her current state. Jaune blinked as he was initially unsure of what had just happened due to how fast it happened. And Ruby saw the scene as well with a rather wide eyed look from how unexpected it was. Though it seemed that the only one who hadn't fully caught up with what transpired was Cinder herself, who began with a scoff.

"There isn't much to think about in that regard, is there? Living in the moment. I suppose there is some sort of beneficial aspect to that, so long as it's in moderation." Cinder huffed. "It's to my surprise that I actually find my current life quite fulfilling. As a superior creature, I'll do whatever I must to protect...this...life of...huh?"

Ruby could practically see the moment of realization play out in Cinder's slowly widening eyes, as she realized in her rather arrogant spouting that she had spontaneously pulled Jaune in for a hug to her belly. She blinked several times, as if trying to process how and when that happened and how she didn't realize she did it. But now that she could actually see it in present time with better awareness, she felt her jaw slowly drop open, and the bright pinkness beginning to envelop her entire face as she fully realized exactly what she was doing right now.

"H-Huh?! Abuh?! Wuuuuuuuh?! W-Wait! When did I-?! WHY did I-?! HOW did I not realize that I-?!"

All she wanted to do was calm herself down! Why did she think hugging Jaune would do-

...Oh.

I planned this poorly.

"I can see that you're coming back to us." Jaune noticed that she was regaining her awareness and had sort of frozen up from the embarrassment of not realizing that she had just pulled him in for a dragon-sized hug. "Any particular reason why you just decided to up and hug me out of nowhere?"

Cinder had once again been reduced to a sputtering and blushing mess, this time due to impulse taking over and allowing this to happen. Of course, in true Cinder fashion, she doubled down rather than admit to much of her fault, snorting.

"W-Well, m-maybe I just felt like it! Ever think of that, oh mighty Knight? I'm a superior creature, I don't need some sort of premeditated reason to hug you, nor should I! Maybe I f-felt like hugging you because that's what I felt like d-doing! Nothing more, nothing less!" She harrumphed with her head held high, mostly to hide away her brightly burning face from him, in a desperate attempt to imprint some sort of control over this. Anything in order to burn away the immense amount of embarrassment she felt for indulging in an impulse she was barely aware of.

Fortunately for her, Jaune shrugged most of it off. "I guess that's fair. Knowing how you usually are, I just didn't expect you to be a person to give hugs more than receive them. You can handle receiving hugs well enough, but you're usually too reserved to give them. It just kinda surprised me, that's all."

"W-Well...that was me from yesterday. Today, r-right this moment, I feel like hugging you. Is that an problem?"

"No. Not in the slightest." Jaune shook his head whilst returning the hug as best he could. It did look silly from an outside perspective. He was a knight being hugged to a rather large and round, squishy belly of a chubby bellied dragon. This was the kind of image that wouldn't be believed at all unless they could see it with their own eyes. And even then, there's quite a chance they still wouldn't believe it, it was such a bizarre thing to see. But as it was, Jaune didn't really mind it himself. He and his friends have been in many bizarre experiences, have been through quite a bizarre experience today, and there would be even more later. This would only be one more. Right now, this rather bizarre experience was a very pleasant one as well.

And he was fine with that.

Through this, Ruby and Oscar were sitting on the edge of the building that they've ultimately broken through. She lightly pushed some hair away from her face, while Oscar was looking through his book. Penny and Nora joined them soon after, sitting on either side of them.

"Captives are safe, they'll be picked up soon enough for medical attention, and an opportunity to get their lives back together." Penny hummed while going over the details.

"That's good to hear." Ruby nodded while still looking outwards to the town."So, what do you think?"

"Someone is definitely out to get you and Cinder." Oscar deduced while thinking back to how the ghouls had set out to kill Ruby and capture Cinder back in Lightwind. And now there was this. "That's twice that someone was coming after you, and under orders it seemed. It could be a coincidence. But under the possible idea that it isn't, it definitely seems like someone is after the two of you specifically. Not only that, they've tried twice to pull you onto their turf so they would have the home advantage. From this, we have to consider that someone else is going to try and do something similar."

"Sounds like you guys were going through it while some of us were away." Nora hummed while kicking her feet about."

"Yup. But I'm not gonna wait for a second strike to confirm all this stuff. It's getting more serious with each attack." Ruby narrowed her eyes as she fixed up her cape a bit, which rustled in the wind. "One way or another, we're gonna get to the bottom of this, before it gets any worse."

Far off from town, someone was muttering in frustration at the realization that most of the succubus have been utterly defeated. Sure, it was just one succubus coven out of many, and from this part onward they would catch wind and become supernaturally addicted to Jaune's life force, thus leading to future attacks. In the name of putting this irritating group through hardship, he counted this as some sort of palatable, long term victory.

But that long term victory wouldn't help him in the immediate short term, hence his panic once a certain call came up.

"The mutt is still alive and the dragon still isn't captured, Yao." The person on the Scroll call calmly uttered to him, which had him visibly flinching.

"Look! I can't take those insane kids in a straight fight, and trying to get others to take them down for me isn't working either! I'm trying to think of som-UCK!"

He gasped as a blood chain appeared around his neck and tightened it to the point where it nearly snapped his head off. He gagged and coughed, falling to the ground on his knees. The tightening was so sudden that he was having a hard time speaking due to it. The woman on the call shook her head while glaring at him from where she was. He felt paralyzed by her gaze, refusing to speak unless he was given express permission to do so.

"Your role is not to think. You've lost your right to thinking for yourself. Now your role is to fall in line and do what you're told." The voice seeped into his head, and he felt his legs shaking and eyes quivering, resistance slowly leaving his body as he desperately kept quiet, at the risk of angering the woman further. "We've received the blood energy from that town, and that is the only reason you're being allowed to try once more to maintain your favor. If you do not live up to your promises, you'll find that your worth will be defined by how much you can feed my daughters rather than how much you can work."

"You've become more of a cowardly bitch than your own son! Is that really all you're worth?! HAH!"

"You may think that there's no sense in risking your life fighting an enemy you've already lost to. But it makes even less sense that you believe you can keep your life without working to hold onto it."

"In summary: You have one more chance to complete your tasks in full, or you'll have proven more worthy of being bled dry rather than being an asset."

With that, the Scroll call ended, and Yao collapsed to his knees, before he shook his head and tried to regain his breath. He growled as he slammed his pawed bear fist into the ground, before he lifted himself upwards and glared at the town, where the source of his headaches currently were.

Alright, enough of this subtle crap. If I'm gonna handle this, I gotta do it head on, and crush them with everything I have left.

It was time to call in a few long-awaited favors...

Hey look, we made it! First chapter of the year! Can I get the next one out faster?

Probably not, I've got things to do and stuff.

But I'll surely try. Because we only one one party member left in the initial lineup. The time is coming, and soon...I dunno what's coming soon, except Mr. Demon Bear over there is gonna try and cause trouble one more time. He already struck out twice, he's gonna do whatever it takes to avoid the third. It's not going to be pretty for him otherwise.

Also Cinder has been converted into a hugger.

Nora is very contagious with hugs.

Soon we'll see where the next chapter leads us, for the final member of the startup lineup!

Until then!