Hunters of Fate Chapter 1. Mission of Heroes Part 3.
0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0
Some legends are told some time to dust or to gold, but you will remember me, you will remember me for centuries.
This chapter took a lot longer for me to around to and finish writing than it should have.
I have been talking with another author and friend and he agreed with me that I should change the name of the story from Warriors of Remnant to: Hunters of Fate, to emphasize the crossover, as well that it has a better ring to it.
It is important to know, that Salem does not have/never had aura, but she has magic as well as some corrupted power from grimm.
RWBY is owned by roosterteeth and the Fate series is owned by Kinoko Nasu, Aniplex, UFOTABLE, and Type Moon. I think I named them all. copy paste
0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0
"Up there!" Jasmine point above them,
The voice had come from a woman floating in the air, green glyphs glowing at her hands floating in the air was a woman. A pale skinned platinum blonde woman wearing a white flowing dress. She gracefully floated back down to the ground. Now that they she was closer, the huntsmen could see better now. This was Salem having an actual human form, the grimm being burnt off the body… except for her eyes. They were still the blood red eyes of grimm with black sclera. "Oh Shit. She not a grimm." It now made a bit more sense, she didn't have aura not because of her Grimm nature, but because she had actual Magic. Ozpin had informed them that even though the four gods had taken away magic from the world right before they had wiped humanity from the world, however magic it could not be completely erased. Aura, he believed, was a shadow of magic which was engraved into souls of people that could not have been taken away without ripping apart the soul of the people.
But it seemed that they had not saw fit to take away her magic, or did
Medusa and Laeticia share a look, Ozpin and Shiro forget to tell them, the three of them (soon to be six when they told Siegfreid, Tai, and Qrow) were going to have harsh words with them later.
Summer suddenly felt a lot more vulnerable, her silver eyes were the most powerful weapon against the monsters of darkness, she had once petrified a Beowulf Monarch that was estimated to have lived for over two centuries Grimm were ageless, yet even the oldest Grimm could still be stopped, none were safe from the power of the Silver eyes. But all her eyes did against Salem was, mostly, strip her of her Grimm nature. This was going to force her to use her magic to the fullest extent.
Shiro swore as he realized what had happened, some of his screwed up and missing memories starting to resurface, the failure of breaking their curses and corrupting them.
"Fucking damn it! My memories are all screwed up. Ozpin and Solomon were just going through the motions so they assumed that I briefed you all. I will do it later. Point you need to know, she was human and immortal, but her is very different than ours, so don't trade killing blows with her."
0—0—0—0
They prepared themselves as she floated down to them, she seemed to get more unstable as she came closer.
Just when they thought they couldn't be surprised anymore; as soon as Salem landed, even though it was a gentle touchdown she stumbled forwards and vomited, red and black liquids, that mixed like oil in water.
Salem looked at Shiro, "Huang? Shi-Huang, is that you, I…"
The blood drained from Shiro's face. "You can't know that name!"
The veins in Salem's face bulged for a moment and her face contorted in pain, before going back to a sense of normal.
"Huang... where are we? Last time we talked you were in my laboratory and you were warning me against going to the grimm pits without one of you."
Huang/Shiro, had to think about that... Last time he had met Salem and not this humanoid grimm was back before 'The Betrayal'. Even the tone of her voice changed, he really didn't know what to say, was this the power of the Silver eyes? Had a direct and full blast of Silver Eyes cured her? He ignored the look of confusion his team and looked closely at the woman in front of him.
The black and red had drained from Salem's eyes into a beautiful turquoise eyes that he hadn't seen for thousand of years. She looked completely human again.
He was at a loss for words, so the only thing he could respond was, "How?"
She smiled warmly, "Time may affect each of us differently, but we can see each other's souls. It is impossible to forget each other. I am glad to see that you brought your friends, but where are we?-"
She started to look around at the baren wasteland that they were in.
The others looked to him for confirmation, "She's right and alright, stand down everyone, right now, she is not our enemy, but we need to figure this out while we can."
He dropped from his battle-ready stance and placed Ragnell onto his back scabbard. His mind warned of this being a trap, but his instincts told him that he could, for now, trust the woman standing before him. She was a still dangerous, that much hadn't changed. But with Salem of sound mind, he had to focus for a moment, but he could see her soul, which was untainted by the grimm miasma.
"Listen to her, but isn't she supposed to be evil?" Jasmine softly spoke from behind the them.
several heads turned her way, in the revelation of what was happening, they had forgotten about her.
"Evil? No I..." Salem seemed to go into a trance started pondering for a few before looking to the one person she recognized, she reached out for him, cautiously he took her hand "Shi, what happened since the last time we saw each other? Please."
Medusa interjected, "From what I can guess, at least a few thousand years have passed since you two had a civil conversation. You have been infected with grimm and it has been controlling you. We have not cured you, it is still in your system." She held up the hand of the blonde witch to show that the fingernails were black.
"No! I... That can't... I can't." she started to shake, and the others could see the her eyes start to change shades of color.
Shirou grabbed her shoulders and looked her right in the eyes. "You need to tell me what the last thing you can remember doing right now so we can try to help you. Were you trying to end the immortality?"
Salem looked scared and confused, "No. We said we would try together later. I was trying to understand the grimm, if they are created by this world or if they are put here by the gods. I needed the essence of grimm so I went to the pools... I made it there but I..."
She started convulsing again, grabbing her head. her nails digging in so hard blood started to run down her fingers. Red blood, human blood, staining her blonde hair, before black ichor started to bleed into it.
Everyone else jumped back; all except for Summer, who stepped forward, ignoring the shouts of her friends to run away. She put a hand on distressed blonde's shoulder and head. "Salem, what is happening?!" The former witch's blue eyes where twitching wildly, and she started to heave again. Summer felt the skull of the immortal woman move.
Salem wouldn't respond; just repeating the same phrase over and over. "Something's there, it's in my head, it's in my head, it's in my head..." before she snapped back to focus, looking the silver eyed warrior with an intense glare.
"Run."
Was the only warning she gave before her hands lashed out grabbing hold of Summer's throat. Summer dematerialized, turning into white petals and rapidly floated back and materializing next to her team.
Salem continued to spasm as she stood, black magical lightning sparked off her body.
"What the hell was that Summer?!" Medusa demanded, "Salem could very well have killed you!"
"She is still going to try regardless! Something is wrong with Salem." Summer countered, "I think that is the first time she has been herself since she became part grimm,"
They looked to man they knew as Shirou, but formally Shi-Huang, not sure what to call him.
"I am Shirou, the Shi-Huang part of me is complicated. This is the first time that I heard about what happened to Salem and I guarantee the others don't know. The only thing we know of before she turned genocidal was that she was experimenting with grimm, as a hobby to see if something with no malicious intent could ever come from the grimm pools, she never succeeded and ALWAYS destroyed what she found because of the evil it harbored. Then one day she just called us to meet together, but she was already like that. She attacked us with Ea, Destruction, to try to erase us from existence, it failed, but it did damage us in an unexpected way."
"You never checked up on her or how far she was going to go?!" Summer exclaimed,
"Of course we did! She was one of us!" Shirou shot back, "But we couldn't spend all of our time with her, we had other duties as well!"
Summer still thought that it was unbelievable that the ones closest to her wouldn't have an idea on what she was working on.
0—0—0—0
The sound of cracking emanated from Salem's body as limbs briefly bend in an inhuman manner before resetting.
She pointed at Shiro, her voice changing to the more sinister tone as it was before. The pigment of her skin started to fade away reverting back to the sickly white, and black veins began to visibly grow from her eye sockets. The grimm was bleeding back into her body.
She pointed at Shiro, her voice changing to a more sinister tone, "Now I see the truth behind this, TEAM, of yours. You hid your eyes from the world to hide them from me. And you added her to your team to protect her. STRQ's the best fighter fooled my subordinates into believing that the Silver Eyes had been eliminated, but kept herself as a target. And with the ability to portal away, she could be the bait for me to send my assassins and subordinates after. Then she could send the Silver Eyes to another team that was an unknown to protect her."
The hunters all looked at each other. The situation at hand technically hadn't changed, but they now had more information about what had been happening to them behind the scenes. had become more clear.
Medusa lazily took a few steps forward, "Everyone knew about team STRQ because of how they dominated int the Vytal Festival, but we were the team that forfeited in the final rounds of the Vytal festival so no one remembered us. Vale was already going to win and we really didn't want to fight STRQ. Your information is lacking quite badly or you were completely obsessed with something else since you are this wrong."
Salem growled, "That is going to be something I will amend once I have you all begging at my feet with your gouged out!"
"That is a hard pass bitch," Summer spouted back. "I very much like my eyes and unlike you, I can't regrow them if they are pulled out."
Salem was getting angrier as the conversation dragged on, "You and your pathetic team! So skilled yet so narrow minded that once you were no longer had orders to follow, you abandoned each other. The male Branwen foolishly drew closer to Ozma, but his sister was the wise one who knowing to flee she had lost everything she cared about except her life because she had earned my wrath."
"You're wrong! She—" She started to shout wasn't allowed to finish,
"But you accursed Silver eyes, you will die excruciatingly for your attempt to take from me what is mine."
The phrasing was odd.. but before they had a chance to ponder the meaning of that, the witch sent a powerful air gust at them, the gust was powerful, tearing up the ground, creating shrapnel at the hunters. Shiro put up a projection of a green shield which absorbed the blast before allowing it to dissipate.
Her hands started glowing different colors from the magic of multiple spells.
Being in a grimm form, she favored using the powers of the grimm rather than her magic, but now in her human form, all she had was Magic.
However, they could tell that this change was not permanent as black veins started to creep out across her face from her eyes. It would only be a matter of time before the rest of her body was bled back into its grimm form and they would be back to square one, except much worse off. So that what it felt like to be on the losing end of a battle of attrition
0—0—0—0
Shirou puts Ragnell in his back. He draws Byakuya in his right hand and in a multitude of green electricity, creates an identical Dao sword, a mirror image except in an opposite color scheme. It is in fact form of Konsho, the twin sister sword; the original he had lent out to young Mistralian vixen redhaired girl who had shown great promise in combat despite her young age. If she presented that blade to Chiron, she would have a future.
He dashed forwards with borrowed speed, he slashed at vital muscle groups, nerve and tendons areas, and spots of great sensitivity on the body. As he slashed and dodged, she began the conversation with him again, even though her face was constantly contorted in pain.
"Your struggle against the inevitable is vain. Quite brave, but vain. already know that I am immortal right, unkillable as the curse of the gods puts my body back together as if the wounds never happened. My grimm state is actually my second gift of immortality a gift from bathing in the pool of darkness."
Shirou grinned back at her, slicing her hands off that regrew rapidly.
"Gotta admit, it has been fun, pushing you with your immortality to the limit." Shirou fires back as he slashes her, "You would be pretty disappointing for the incarnation of Destruction otherwise." It was a total bluff. Without the ability to leave, he and the others were worried about their chances to survive. He was also horrified about what Salem had claimed, bathing in the grimm pools would likely destroy a person's mental state and many times their physical being as well. That was something that she knew and had seen... So why in the seven hells was she claiming that she had bathed in it?
But for now he kept the mask on with jokes and mockery. Rex knows this, he is also started to dread that what she has said was true, but he has to put on a front for his team or they will falter and then they are doomed.
But something that he did notice was that without the Grimm in her, her reactions were vastly slower. Which meant that once they got in close, they could use their speed and reflexes to avoid her magic, so long as she didn't make an explosion with her at the epicenter.
Shirou hated having to fight her now. Now that he was looking for it, he could see that her soul was suppressed, there were very few grimm that could it actively affect aura and he dreaded how anyone of them got ahold of Salem. She didn't have aura, which was probably what +made it worse. But there was one thing he was glad for, their friend was there, now they just needed to figure out how to help her without killing themselves hundreds of times.
Ozpin did mention that you had magic that surpassed Ozma's and your immortality is
"We were told about Your magic and immortality but I the finer points on the details were skipped." Shirou had never been an enthusiast about using magic since the broken reincarnation cycles began. Reason being that he had pushed his magical abilities to the limit in an attempt to break the immortality bestowed upon them. The result had been a fracture of memories in his mind as well as permanently weakening his magical prowess.
Salem started her monologue, again, "Now that you know the truth will you continue to pointlessly struggle against me..."
Laeticia links them together again and they start trying to communication a plan.
"Shiro, Ozpin wasn't making it a challenge when he said we can't beat her, we need a different plan."
'I vote on putting our efforts on trying to leave rather than waiting for her to give up after we kill her 100 more times.' Summer said, adding her thoughts to the connection, her semblance flashed white as she dodged ball that exploded into a murky green fire.
'Then we just need to break her focus. And I think the best way to break that focus is through Pain Compliance.'
'That won't work. She is Immortal!' Medusa growled,
Shiro disagreed. 'It will, think about it. She has no protection unless she casts it which takes her focus away from casting it at us. Normal hunters are trained to go for killing blows, especially when we are backed into a corner. But you saw how much she screamed when Summer ripped her chest open? She doesn't have a pain tolerance which is something we can exploit. So until we get a confirmation otherwise, make sure each hit is the most painful areas of the body, that may be our best bet to break her concentration on the spell blocking us from leaving.'
'We can adapt on the fly, for now let's see how much pain she can actually take since she doesn't have aura to protect her." Laeticia adding her opinion, she then added out loud,
"Blunt force works well for this," and with a smile, she twists the haft. The axe blades retract and form into a spearhead mounted on a morning star. It was an old design, a flagpole-mace-spear.
Laeticia Arc had tried to incorporate the design of her ancestor's flagpole, Lumoniste Eternelle with her weapon to honor her family name. She would have modified the original but unfortunately, it had been lost in the Great War. So she had constructed a weapon similar to it, but with her own flare to it. A Fangtian which she did named after the ancestral weapon. It had one more shift form, a BR55 Battle Rifle for ranged combat.
"That means I can only use fire and lighting," Jasmine stated, she was mostly just referring to the elements in which she was the most familiar with.
"Don't limit the use of your magic powers to just those two." Medusa warns. "We need the full spectrum of what you can use if we are to survive."
Shirou pulls Ragnell off his back presses a button on the lower center of his cross guard, the edges of the blade shifts slightly. He runs two fingers over the edge of Ragnell, a satisfied smile grows on his face now that the blade is now blunted. He basically had a club at this point, which meant he didn't need to do anything fancy, while not getting hit. "Out with the finesse, and welcome back brutality."
Laeticia got a gleam in her eye and a wicked smile. "Oh good; now we are getting to what I really have fun with."
0—0—0
The platinum blonde woman with grimm eyes stares back at them, "Plan all you like! Nothing you will do will change the outcome!" A dark purple substance streams from her hands like water.
Not wanting to test what it is, the Hunters easily doges the jets stream of… acidic liquid, it burned the ground, until she raises her hands for the darkened sky and sprays it into the air and the sludge starts to fall all around them like large raindrops. Salem hisses in pain as acid drops land on her as well.
As Salem is standing there, magic acid spraying from her hands, she is suddenly cut in half by a fire fiery blue disk. Laeticia looks back to see Jasmine, who was breathing rather heavily, whether from exertion or panic, the Arc didn't know.
She nodded to the young girl, but pointed to the grimm.
Jasmine nodded back, the message was clear.
'You got lucky. We can handle Salem. Keep the grimm out of our way.'
Jasmine took a breath, and seeing fire form around her fingers, launched it at the charging grimm.
0—0—0
The white-haired swordsman's hand glowed blue as he prepares to block the attack, however he stops when the Summer Maiden calls out to him, "Don't try and block it!"
Realizing that she is more sensitive to magic right now, decides to change tactics. He twists the handle of his sword, the blade is covered by flames from microholes releasing the fire dust stored inside the blade, he cranks it more and a mixture of air dust is added, causing the flames to get so hot that they turn blue. Shiro slashed his sword, sending an arc of blue flame fire at the sludge. If it was sludge that made the grimm, the fire would simply burn through it.
However, when it makes contact with the sludge, it exploded in a brownish smoke.
Through their mental connection and out loud, he shouts, "ACID! DON'T LET IT TOUCH YOU!"
Upon hearing that, Laeticia grabs and pulls the exhausted Summer and Jasmine with her as she flies out of the range of the sludge and the smoke.
The clumps hit the ground and dissolve it, creating small craters all over the battlefield. Fortunately, the snake faunus is agile enough to avoid the spray of deadly liquid.
As a last ditch effort to get Salem to stop using acid magic, Shirou ignites his blade and hurls it at the grimmified woman. The throw is true and the blade punches into the chest of Salem, with the cross-guard stopping the blade from cutting all the way through.
He then tries to create another portal, but it dissipates as soon as he slashes the line for it. There is only one probable conclusion he can come to. It is not her that is maintaining the spell, it is likely that the spell is on the land itself.
His mind raced as he watched Salem being burned alive, coming to a solemn conclusion. Being burned alive was one of the most painful ways to die, especially if the person's body could regenerate as it was burnt. This meant that it wasn't Salem that was holding the spell that was keeping them from leaving, it was something that was cast into the land. even with but the fact that the sword is ON FIRE and as she is being put back together is.
Unfortunately, Salem rips the sword out of her chest and charges him, she swings the blade with both hands, seeking to cut him in half.
He hastily creates a magenta flower shield in front of him to block it. It is a clumsy swing the shape of a flower, however she still swings with such force that it does leave a large crack in the shield. The pigment in her skin is almost all gone at this point, which means that the grimm has bled back into her entire system.
He shoots her in the knee and successfully blows the leg off before grabbing his sword and using his bladed pistol to slice her arms off, reclaiming his sword.
He jumped far back as she let look a wail, and the shockwaves cracking the ground all around her.
The ground started to rumble, and everyone begins to struggle to keep balance.
0—0—0—0
Unfortunately there is something that they all forgot, a Wyrm grimm can travel underground and a highly intelligent one will react to threats it can see.
The Wyrm resurfaces once more, only this time, it is much closer, and as it roars, it begins to shed miasma from its body, which after impacting the ground, begins to form grimm.
0—0—0—0
As the Arc and the Rose land together a bit of a distance from the fight, Laeticia pulls out a syringe and hands it to her partner, "You're going to need this more than I."
Summer tried to argue, "But I haven't even used my own yet..."
Laeticia shows the former leader of team STRQ her scroll which was mounted to the inner arm of her gauntlet, which was currently viewing her aura levels, which were still in the green despite the constant use of her own semblance.
"Large aura reserves, it runs in the family. Mine is at LEAST twice yours." And with that she transforms Lumosity Eternell into its rifle mode, a modified model of a BR55 Heavy Barrel Battle Rifle.
Summer injects herself with the aura booster, breathing a sigh of relief as her aura Laeticia looks back to Jasmine, "Jasmine, I need you to provide cover for me." She starts to take aim down the scope of her rifle and takes aim at the colossus grimm. However, before she could take the shot, Jasmine interrupts her.
"What do you want me to do? I can't fight, I don't know what I am doing with magic."
Laeticia thought about how to respond to that; the girl had been casting magic left and right out of sheer panic, but the last thing she did had to have thought behind it, or at least something instinctual...
"You made the Destructo Disk right? A condensed fire disk frisbee held in a specific shape... that takes more concentration that panic fire streams you have been spouting this entire time. How did you do that?"
"I used to play frisbee with Raja, I just needed something to throw to be able to help and that image came to mind."
"No time for a better lesson in magic like the present, keep thinking that... Imagine things that you need and why you need them. Hopefully the magic will respond to your desire and then use that to defend the both of us while I call in support."
The Summer Maiden thought about that. When she had made the fire disk, it was a feeling more than anything else, she needed something that she could throw in order to help the Huntsmen. The first thing that had come to mind was the large discus frisbee that she used to play fetch with Raja, her tiger.
But what if that meant she just had to really want something? Maybe she could bring something familiar...
Jasmine got down on her knees and folds her hands together in a prayer. She stayed like that for a few moments, meditating before fire dances at the corners of her eyes and then her whole body. The fire
fire peels off of her and starts to take form right next to her.
Then She stands up from her prayer. She pulls her arm back to throw more fire. Instead, the fire next to her leaps transforms into a large four-legged beast made of fire. A moment later, the form starts to take more detail, to the point where one might guess that it was a tiger.
The tiger raced forwards and pounced upon a grimm with an actual roar, tearing into it and consuming it in fire.
As soon as the grimm had been turned to ash, the flame tiger pounced on another grimm.
The grimm were confused and enraged by this threat, it something with no life energy, and when they attacked it, it burned through them.
0—0
"That a girl!" Leticia encouraged before loading a magazine holding five specialized rounds in her rifle, known as Darpa tracking rounds.
A depleted uranium jacket casing protecting a microchip gps tracker, typically used by huntsmen who go after more evasive type of grimm. The signal could be programed to constant or timed depending on the how long the hunt was predicted to last. Laeticia had all of hers set to constant.
She was able to land shots high in the neck of the Wyrm, above the leaking misama. She checked the signals on her scroll, all 5 blinked in the same area, which meant that the tracer had dug in deep.
With that done, she dials the newest contact that was added for this mission, it is connects to right away, and she starts reciting the information,
"Floating Hotel, this Angel of strike team Emotional-EMSL, requesting heavy fire support for Class 9 encounter on the Grimmlands. Danger Close, I say again, Danger Close. Confirmation clearance code *14_5_22_5_18*. Target is a Wyrm, Jormoundor Level. Target is marked by DARPA tracer. How copy?"
Fortunately the operator on the other end responded immediately. "Copy Angel. Floating Hotel Acknowledges Request; Danger Close fire support on Class 9 Grimm, Jormoundor Level Wyrm. Receiving DARPA tracking data now. Standby for confirmation."
The response wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear, but she knew that a radio operator could not execute such an order on their own. She waited for about a minute, opening fire on the newly spawning Grimm. After a minute the voice in her earpiece spoke up again with exactly what she needed to hear. She mentally reconnected with her team again.
"We have fire support inbound."
0—0—0—0
Roughly two mile off the cost of the dark continent, Aihara Yoshikazu of the Vacuoan navy was sulking into his coffee. His skin held a slight tan to it from living in Vacuo most of his life, with his light brown hair kept short because of his time in the military and his dark brown eyes blended into his the reflection in his drink. As Chief Communication Officer, his uniform was entirely yellow with the exceptions of three black stripes on the shoulders, a black anchor on his chest, and the bottoms of his pants being brown to match his boots.
His current station was on the bridge of the battleship Yamato, which was the capital ship in Vacuo's only naval fleet. Some would say a waste of money for a desert kingdom, but Vacuo had coastal cities that received trade from around the world.
He looked up to stare blankly at the screen in front of him, his mind reminiscing on the loss of his battleship's strike in their war exercise with the Atleasan navy. The Vacuoan battleship strike group, LUXURY, under the command of Admiral Juzo Okita, was comprised of four destroyers, one heavy cruiser, and the super battleship Yamato. Their counterparts Strike Group #5 or Greyhounds, of the Atleasan navy. The Greyhounds were the Atleasan quick response fleet, that constantly traveled across the world, it was comprised of six destroyers and two heavy cruisers, one of which served as the capital ship under the command of Cmdr. Ernest Evans.
The Yamato gave the recently constructed Vacuoan navy the advantage, the longest range radar system of any navy and longest range guns, they were able to see the Greyhounds approaching from250 nautical miles away. It was fact that with their technological superiority, the Atleasan had the more sophisticated system, but their range being just shy at 200 nautical miles. However, once they had gotten within 75 nautical miles the Atleasans activated their cloaking or radar jamming, and had vanished from the Yamato's radar despite all attempts to locate them.
They had several aquatic grimm encounters, but the hedgehog mine system made quick work of them.
The strange thing about the exercise was that Admiral Okita seemed almost passive in conducting the exercise, which was highly unusual for a man of his dare-to-do attitude. He had ordered the destroyers and cruiser to be mobilized in search pattern a few miles away while the Yamato had practically circled its position. To add to the disappointing performance, the Atleasans had reappeared within visual range, on the horizon which was less than 10 nautical away.
0—0—0—0
The moment the Greyhounds were in within visual sight, the radars in every ship of the LUXURY strike group blared in alarm, as each ship detected over dozen lock on signatures from Atleasan targeting systems.
This was classified as a total loss for the Vacuoan navy.
Aihara almost spilled his coffee when his headset blared from an emergency channel. An encryption code appeared on his screen, *7_15_14_14_1, notifying him of its classified nature. He picked up the line right away, simultaneously alerting his captain, who immediately rushed out form his quarters connected to the bridge.
Captain Juuzo Okita was a well-built man in his late 50's with a full white beard, he wore a long black officers uniform coat, starch white pants and polished brown leather boots.
"Floating Hotel, this Angel of strike team Emotional (EMSL), requesting heavy fire support for Class 9 encounter on the Grimmlands. Danger Close, I say again, I say again, Danger Close. Confirmation code *7_9_22_5. Target is a Wyrm; Jormoundor Level. Marked for by targeting by Darpa tracer. Copy?" The female voice on the end of the transmission stated.
Aihara responded immediately. "Copy Angel. Floating Hotel Acknowledges; Danger Close fire support on Class 9 Grimm, Jormoundor Level Wyrm. Standby for confirmation."
He turned to glance at his commanding officer, "Captain, message from an S class Huntsman team; callsign EMSL-Emotional, requesting fire—"
"Request for Heavy Fire support is granted" Captain Okita's gruff voice declared, he didn't even wait for the communications officer to finish speaking. "Weapons Officer Nanbu, we will be firing main canons on the source provided, prep firing solution. They want Danger Close, we'll give it to them."
"Yes Sir!"
'So this is the reason that Luxury was forced to lose the exercise.' Aihara thought glumly. A classified mission into the grimmlands? That was destined to end horribly, but he followed through with his orders and sent an emergency broadcast to the Atleasan capital ship, the heavy cruiser, Johnson.
0—0—0—0
'EMSL, what in the hell have you gotten yourselves into?' Admiral Okita pondered grimly.
The huntsman team were calling for support after all. The Admiral remembered the call he had received several hours prior to the war games. It was a briefing by the Headmasters of both Shade and Beacon about his ability to provide fire support the S class hunter's mission in the grimmlands from the sea. He was told that it was a hostage rescue, but it didn't make a lick of sense on why the kidnappers would take their hostage to the grimmlands of all places. There was plenty of deserted areas infested with grimm that slavers could go without having to cross an ocean, twice.
He had no objections to providing fire support for a suicidal huntsman team, so long as he did not have to deploy any forces onto that accursed continent. That was something he had made explicitly clear in the briefing. He called out to another officer on the bridge, one with a white uniform with the accents in red.
"Weapons Officer Nanbu, Rotate and adjust main batteries for long range artillery strike, Full Broadside. Arm Main Battery #1 with AP and all other Batteries with HE Shells and Cluster Munitions. Officer Aihara contact Atlesean destroyers Fox and Hound and request missile strike on exact coordinates. The Yamato's guns can reach that far, but their missile targeting systems are leagues above ours, for now. I will contact the Atleasan Commander to clear permission."
"Yes Sir!" His orders were carried out without question.
The Chief Communication Officer opened the line to the Huntsman who contacted them, "Copy Angel, Floating Hotel confirming coordinates, *25_15_21_21_16. Heavy Fire Support Inbound; T minus 2 mikes. Danger Close. Recommend you take shelter, and enjoy the fireworks." He couldn't help but add.
He received no response, so he switched over to open lines of the Atleasan missile destroyers, Fox and Hound.
"Yamato is lending heavy fire support for S class huntsman mission. Target is a Level 9 grimm marked by Darpa Tracker, operation is Danger Close. Request assistance."
After a moment he received a ping from both ships requesting coordinates for fire support. It was very much an Atleasan thing to not be shown up. Which worked for him. "Firepower Wins," after all.
"Sending targeting data." He stated,
"Targeting data received." and "Locking onto Target." The two operators of the Atleasan destroyers confirmed.
Sirens had already begun wailing throughout the ships and sailors rushed to clear the deck as the main turret batteries stated to rotate and missile silos began to open.
As the Yamato's turrets finished rotated, a dozen Eagle 5 missiles launch from two Atleasan destroyers and arced towards the grimmland, racing to be the first to hit the target. Eagle 5 missiles were medium range, heavy ordinance surface to surface missiles.
A few moments later, the 9, massive 18-inch guns of the Yamato roared in response.
0—0—0—0—0
Jasmine cries in pain as her right leg was splashed by the black sludge, the acid burning her leg.
Fortunately for her, her cry alerts Laeticia who swoops down and grabs the girl. She pulls her up into the air with her. "I got you, hang on."
The flying Huntress took them away from the battlefield, and set down on solid ground where the huntress began pulling out a medical bag from her trauma kit and started pouring a white powder on the burns.
"We'll get it properly treated when we get home," she promised, in spite of the pain, Jasmine was transfixed by the battle taking place in front of her.
The Hunters were fast, the Hunters were fast, brutal, and efficient. They would rush in on a seemingly impossible opening, viciously attack and then back off when the attention was turned towards them. It was an effective strategy, but it wouldn't last if the grimm, which were closing in on them got involved.
The grimm were closing in on them, they were a distraction. Jasmine knew that she couldn't fight Salem. She was just too powerful, but these beast of darkness, the Summer Maiden knew she did have the power to kill them.
She raised her hands, and with a cry, fire burst forth, incinerating a large swath of grimm.
0—0—0—0
Summer dashed forward, but due to the random spray of the acid, she had to avoid large puddles of acid and craters, which killed her ability to utilize her speed to the fullest extent in the hit and run tactics. She dodged several ball of green balls before dashing as a streak right behind Salem, whose dress had now faded back in to black.
As Summer stabs with both her weapons, spines shot out from the blackness of the dress in an instant.
That was not something that the Silver eyed warrior saw coming.
One of the spines impales Summer in the chest, just below her breasts. Summer looked at it in shock, it had pierced through the defense of her aura without shattering it. The bone seemed to crackled from the magical energy imbued in it, the bone broke off and the Silver Eyed Warrior falls to her knees gripping it.
Shirou blitzes forwards using Salem's fascination with Summer as a distraction. He hacks at the witch's body, breaking bones, rupturing organs, and rips through the body through shear force alone with his blunted weapon. Salem's attention is brought back to him, and she laughs.
Cracks begin to form all over the silver eyed warrior's body, and moments later, she disintegrates into Silver Rose petals.
Salem's laugh becomes distorted as her jaw was shattered; she stops him from further slashing her again by grabbing both his arms, her voice slurring, "One more silver eyed warrior extinguished. And you are next."
The rage in the swordsman's changes to a nasty smile, "Not on your immortal life."
A purple blur shot in between them and Salem's arms were severed. Medusa landed to the side of them in a crouched position, sliding backwards from her momentum.
The swordsman struck the witch again, then leaped back.
However, the white rose petals don't scattered to the wind, they stay together in a cloud and gather together next to Medusa, and then there is a flash.
The form of Summer Rose Falls to her knees right next to her teammate. She is fine except for the hole in her corset from the spike, showing her creamy white skin.
"That shouldn't be possible…?" Salem growled, unhappy at the unexpected survival of the hated lineage. Her head is suddenly removed from her shoulders by a star mace head, her body spasms for a moment before falling over.
0—0—0—0
Laeticia had been surprised for a moment by how intense the heat was, but as soon as she was done applying the burn cream to Jasmine's leg, she kissed the girl on the head, whispering that she is proud of how brave she is being before taking off back into the sky.
She is horrified when spines shoot out of Salem's body and stab Summer in the chest.
She finds her opening and swoops down and smashed Salem's head off with one swipe of her flagpole mace, before flying away and circling the battlefield.
0—0—0—0
Summer Rose was barely conscious at this point, using all of her aura to cheat death. Medusa pulls out Summer's own syringe and jabs it into the shoulder of the Silvered eyed warrior, her aura flares as the booster starts to rejuvenate her aura. She signals for a relink and Laeticia hits them again with more aura darts, relinking them.
"We can't keep up this fight for much longer." Summer states as soon as they are all connected.
Shirou was quick to respond. "I am working on the portal out of here. If we can't break her focus with this next attack, then, I will rip open a portal by force, but you know how dangerous that is, Medusa you will have to cover us."
"Understood love, when I say so, pull back." Medusa responded.
"Even though you are an extraordinarily fighter, you can't taker her one alone!" Lae shouted
"I have to, or the rest of you will be hit by crossfire." M
"She is not trying to fight, more like stall... but we won't have a choice. We need to leave." Shiro said, agreeing with his girlfriend.
Summer's mental voice sounded exhausted, "We need to go, she's wearing us out better than we can hurt her and we still have a Grimm Wyrm to deal with."
They could practically feel the smirk from Laeticia as she said, 'Not for long.'
And then they heard the whistling.
0—0—0—0
The Wyrm growled expectantly as it continued to shed black miasma from its body. As the miasma hit the ground and it reformed itself, creating new Grimm, replacing the swarm that had been wiped out by a literal blink of a silver eye.
There was a loud whistling sound that filled the air. Both grimm and humanoid grimm looked around trying to identify the sound until before it was in searing pain as a giant projectile ripped through it. Explosions thundered all around it decimating the newly formed horde as well as tearing through its body
The Huntsmen could see a dozen missiles follow in its wakes.
0—0—0—0
As the Wyrm fell, its head flew through the air, no longer attached to its body. It no longer felt the pain form its body, in fact, as the head fell to the ground, it saw its own body, blown into large black chunks and disintegrating into ash. It was old enough to have sapient thoughts, and its last thoughts before turning to ash were, "Why did I explode?"
The grimm that had been spawned were eviscerated as missiles rained down on them.
These were heavy ordinance surface to surface missiles and the combined explosions sent a shockwave out.
0—0—0—0
A giant sword landed in front of the team, shielding them from the worst of the shockwave. While the witch was sent flying form the shockwave.
They heard the splashing sound of liquids hitting a wall and then the giant sword started melting in front of them.
The hunter heard Salem voice through the smoke. "I know that it will be rich, coming from me but... YOUR POWERS ARE BULLSHIT!"
'Semblance more Bullshit/OP than magic?' All four huntsmen thought, all at the same time.
"Lang—", Summer was cut off by Laeticia.
"Time, place and person Sum-Sum. None fit the bill here."
As the smoke cleared, they could see Salem, brushing off the dirt from her black dress, which now that they thought about it, was probably made of grimm.
She looked up at them, "I apologize for the profanity, I am usually far more composed than this. But right now, I'm just—ABSOLUTELY LIVID!"
Medusa decided that she wanted to poke the proverbial Ursa, "Oh poor baby. Quit being a whiny cunt, we were supposed to PROTECT and she died. You don't see us cursing your name, without alcohol."
Salem pondered that for a moment before responding, "A fair point, BUT you see the difference between us," Her hands started sparking with magic, "Is that I'll live to regret today."
And with that, black and blue lightning shot out towards the Huntsmen.
0—0—0—0
"We need to go, she's wearing us out better than we can hurt her." Laeticia states as she lands next to the Summer Maiden, who was now covered in blue flames.
Her eyes were ablaze as were her arms, she was crying, not knowing what was happening to her.
Without fear, she walks up to the young girl who is now scared of her own power. She grabs her arms to hold her, disregarding the heat and leans in and starts whispering words of comfort and advice. Before she hears:
"LAE!"
Reacting to the warning instantly, she spins around, Luminosity Eternel transforming into its polearm phase just in time. The mace head shattered the first obsidian spear, but she didn't see the second or third.
The second spear pierced through her chest. Her damaged armor did not held against the enchanted spear and it punctures through her remaining protective aura as if it wasn't there.
She chokes and throws up a large amount of blood, staggers and leans on her weapon to keep her standing. She could feel it in her chest, 'Coughing up blood, definitely hit a lung... but at least it didn't go through my heart,' she thinks grimly to herself. 'Missed it by a few inches.' Laeticia hears wet coughing from behind her. Her eyes widen in realization. She coats her hand in aura, and snaps the shaft of the obsidian spear and turns around. She leaves the rest of the spear in, as it would only open the wound and quicken her death. It was excruciating, but she ignored it, no longer caring about herself.
She turns around and sees Jasmine with the spear punctured directly in the in the center of her chest.
The young maiden has a look of shock on her face.
"No…"
The two stared at each other for a moment, and then Jasmine swayed and fell.
The Laeticia stepped forwards to catch her, despite her own injury, and then dropped to her knees as well.
"No, no n—hrrrgh." She covers her mouth as she coughs up more blood. She looks down at the girl to see chocolate eyes staring at her with concern. 'No, we failed!' Laeticia thought mentally before coughing up more blood. Her breath coming out as wheezing, the spear probably punctured a lung.
"Youuu're huuurt." The princess slurs.
"It's—it's not that b-bad. B-but you'll be al-alright." The Arc lies, trying to smile and comfort her despite the seriousness of their injuries.
The maiden looked up into her lilac eyes.
"Mrs. Arc, I, I'm scared." The girl whispered.
Laeticia gently brushes Jasmine's hair out of her face and rest her forehead on the princess's, giving a physical link, 'Let me tell you a little secret Jasmine. It's OK to be scared. I am terrified right now, but what matters is what we do when we are scared. I won't… run away without my team or you.'
Those words seemed to resonate with Jasmine who put a hand on the huntress's cheek, "I have something I want to give."
"You can, give it t-to me l-later, y-you're going to live."
"I know. That I'm dying. I can't feel anything except that it is so cold." Jasmine said, she was strangely at peace,
She placed a hand on the Arc's cheek, Laeticia held her hand. She could feel it vibrate slightly with magic.
"I'm, I'm not young. You, won't be able to give it to me." Leticia said, realizing what was happening.
Jasmine smiled, even though she was dying, she was strangely calm and clear. "Both I and the Maiden Powers choose you. You are a Maiden, heart and soul, you are pure. It is *cough, cough. It will be yours."
As the girl finished speaking, Laeticia can feel something wash over her, and then wrap itself around her like a warm blanket. This shouldn't be possible. I, I'm not… Thoughts that weren't her own jumble inside her head, she struggled to get above the memories, thinking of her family; her children and husband, they were hers and she would hold onto what was hers. The foreign memories did quiet down, and everything became clear.
The girl hand gone limp in her arms, he closed the girl's eyes and kissed her on the forehead before gently setting her down.
"I'm sorry I failed you Jasmine, but thank you for this." She bent down and picked up her weapon.
The magic coursing through her whole body, it rejuvenates her aura like a source of pure energy. As she stood, she put a hand to where her armor had been punctured and felt the skin underneath. The sudden surge of transferring power had boosted her aura and completely healed the wound in her chest in the time that it had taken her to clear her head. The new Summer Maiden had a new feeling, fear, one that said to run as far and fast as she could, but she knew that it wasn't her fear, so she wouldn't, not without her team.
She looked back to the lifeless body of the young girl, and said in Ancient Valerian, "Puissiez-vous reposer en paix dans la prochaine vie, jeune bijou." She took the headpiece with the Saphire in it and held her hands over body, her eyes began to burn with a golden fire, a sign that the Maiden power was responding to her will and engulfed the body, completely incinerating it.
She stood, her teammates were still fighting. She took a deep breath and shouted, "HIBERNO VENIT!"
voiced boomed out across the wasteland, and then her aura wings sprouted and she flew back into the phrase she had shouted out was in Latin since it was a dead language. The only people who knew about it were historians and archeologists who studied history. But even a dead language had it's uses, especially when storming the stronghold of an underworld crime syndicate or fighting rogue huntsmen.
This particular phrase was agreed upon during this mission for worst case scenario, if the Summer were dead.
0—0—0—0
Shiro grit his teeth. They had failed. The two remaining hunters still fighting jumped back. Medusa threw a large earth dust crystal they had taken from Hazel at the witch. He shot the crystal right before it impacted Salem causing an explosion of stone and earth.
"That will buy us a minute at best." She said as she took a breath to calm herself. "Fucking immortality bullshit. If we had the full team STQR and Sigfried with us and were anywhere else. We could have locked her in an effective stalemate and gotten away by now."
Shiro did agree with both statements. If they had the full teams of both RSRL and STRQ, they probably could fight her into a stalemate, with Raven… it was pointless to think about theoretical combat tactics.
And Immortality Was Bullshit.
In fact, immortality was the reason that the world was so screwed up… but dwelling on the world's past that was for another time.
0—0—0
Shirou tested to again to see if he could make a portal, and once again it faded just as fast as he created it.
"I can't portal us out. The magic is ingrained in the land itself. I'm going to have to tear a portal open."
His partner cursed, "Damn it. Then its time. I'll buy you the time you need."
Medusa slides her fingers through the back of her hair and releases the latch on her heavy shaded visor to reveal magenta eyes with sharp slitted pupils. She puts the visor in a case on her belt.
0—0—0
Medusa's semblance was a very useful one as well as extraordinarily dangerous. She had named the Gorgon Stare in reference to the ancient mythologies records that had survived.
It was a passive one, which meant that it was always active. The effects, when not used in the bedroom, were terrifying; when someone looked into her eyes, they were they were frozen in place. However, when she turned it up to her stage two, the affected persons would be temporarily petrified, as in actually encased in stone until the affects would wear off. This was why she always wore heavily tinted visors or glasses, to prevent her teammates from getting caught in the crossfire.
Shirou looked at her without meeting her eyes, "Serrina, the Gorgon Stare may not work on her. It works on people not Grimm, and there is grimm infesting her."
"Shit. Then I think that I need to push it to level 2 if we are to have a chance. Don't forget, she is still human. But I will probably have to hit her multiple times to keep the effect up." Medusa concluded "You all need to get back and stay out of the cross-fire."
He nodded, but before he could retreat, there was an explosion of rock and dirt in front of them. They shielded themselves and closed their eyes, from the dust but none of the debris hit them as they were enveloped by two wings golden wings them. The wings sparked with energy, with fire infused into one and electricity in the other on. They could feel two gauntleted hands on their shoulders. when they opened their eyes to look at her they were stunned to see golden flames around the eyes of Laeticia.
As Leticia released them, the elemental energy dissipated and they heard her mental voice. Jasmine's dead and she gave me the power of the Summer Maiden. It's confusing and the best I can do with it now is reinforce my aura.
Her wings lifted, but they remained arched, ready to take flight in an instant.
Fuck. Was all Shiro replied.
They heard Medusa's mental voice. "Now it is really time to go. Let me deal with Salem. I just need to buy you a couple minutes to get the portal open, then I'll race through it. What's the worse that could happen, she kills me?
Shirou winced at that, his imagination was broad, but he chose not to go down that rabbit hole. "Fine, but be careful, if you make even a slight mistake, she will kill you."
Medusa started stretching, and Laeticia unfurled her wings, "
Fine, Laeticia, you can help if you want. But stay in the air so you don't get in my crossfire and try not to use your maiden powers if you can, or she will target you.
The two of them would only be able to buy them a few seconds a couple minutes at most, but it would be enough.
As the dust from the explosion was starting to clear, they hear a voice, "Latin? It has been a long time since I have heard of anyone using that dialect. Hmm, if I remember the translation correctly, you said... 'Winter has come,' that is a quaint little phrase…" she looked around, and after not seeing Jasmine, "With Winter coming, that means that Summer has ended, assuming that you were referring to the Seasons of the Maidens. That means the girl is dead and all endeavors are now pointless. That is quite a shame, after all the resources I wasted to have her brought to me alive."
The Huntsmen grit their teeth at the casual dismissal at life. She knew Latin. Of course she did, if she was literally immortal, she had all the time in the world to learn every language as they were made and forgotten. She really liked to monologue. Which was annoying, but very helpful in their situation, since it gave them time to plan.
Salem seemed to take their silence as a que to continue talking. "Do you believe help is coming? I doubt that Ozma would allow a Maiden to travel to my domain to help but if you-"
She was interrupted as the purple haired woman raced towards her, while the blonde haired one took to the sky on a projection of wings. Something was peculiar about the blonde woman, Salem could have sworn she killed her, however, she wasn't able to witness it since she was exploded at the same moment.
Salem saw the flash from the purple woman's eyes, it felt like a scream tore through her. A semblance. A powerful one at that.
She could feel it in her immortal body, the sluggishness becoming very evident. She could feel her body start to shrug it off, it was just something that took time to deal with.
"No matter what you do, you will not stop me for long." Salem said as she black fire erupted from her hands.
"I don't need to hold you forever, that's impossible, I just need to win in this game of death tag."
Salem sneered as she unleashed several bolts of magic at the fast huntress. Who effortlessly twisted out of the way of the magic. Medusa retaliated by throwing her chain dagger, coated in a red, at the witch. It hit the witch in the thigh and exploded, ripping off the limb in a shower of black blood.
0—0—0—0
"She's out of aura" Leticia stated as she pulled Summer to her feet.
"We can't win… We need to go." Summer panted as she leaned heavily on Laeticia.
"I know." The swordsman completely agreed with her, but the only way they could leave at this point was if he played his last trump-card. It wasn't a guarantee to work, one of the risks of forcing temporal distortion semblances or magics was that a person could end up out of their plane of existence, but most who tried didn't have magic to reinforce it. "Summer, I am about to play my last card to try and get us out of here. If it doesn't work, we are dead."
"I hate it when you, make it sound like we are, desperate." As Summer retorted with a tired sarcasm, she stood up on shaky legs, Lost Vayne was shifted into its gun form. Do it, I got your back."
She looked at the heavy pistol in her hand chambered in 500 magnum. This is going to hurt without aura, but she would have to manage.
Leticia nodded and mentally reconnected them, before taking to the sky.
She had the ability to run interference as well, because she could stay in the air and to avoid Medusa's crossfire.
Shirou sheathed Ragnell on his back, he focuses all his aura into his hands, they glow the green turquoise. He raises one hand high, then he makes a chop down in the air, it creates a line existing in the air the same color of his aura. It sparks with far more power as he starts to trickle in magic to it.
"Will you be able-?"
He immediately grabs the line with both of his hands before it can dissipate. His hands glow with aura, protecting him from the volatility of the magic, and starts to pull it apart.
As he pulls, the line stretches and it gives way to take form. He pulls until a portal matching his aura is big enough for a person to step through.
"Portal. Stable. Flare Now." Was all he managed, he was putting everything into his concentration on to keep the portal open against the counter magic that had been entrenched into the land.
Medusa's Gorgon Stare would also nullify semblances if a person was under its effects for long enough. It wasn't strong enough to nullify magic, but it seemed to have a repressing effect, but it was the grimm that was keeping it from truly working.
0—0—0—0
Summer pulled out a flare gun and fired a green flare. However, she didn't fire it into the air, she decided to shoot the grimmified guardian with it. Salems body was tough enough so that the flare didn't punch straight through her, but imbedded itself in her chest. The witch screams as the phosphorous and dust mixer continued cooked her insides as the curse of immortality healed her as she burned.
At seeing the flare Laeticia retreated from the fight and lands next to Shirou, who was holding the portal open.
She could see that he was struggling and with how his aura was flaring around his hands, he didn't have much longer to hold it open.
0—0
Shirou new that his aura was dropping fast, it was not in the red yet, but of his aura, the struggled to keep his focus on the portal.
Medusa ran faster as the wind. Dashing in and out as she struck Salem again and again, flaring her semblance every time Salem looked at her.
Unfortunately it wasn't enough, the stone would start to form and after a few seconds, it would crumple away.
0—0—0—0
When Medusa saw Salem get hit by the flare, she smirked before turning to look for the portal. She ran straight for it, looking down so as to not hit Shirou with her semblance accidentally.
However, Salem wasn't one to be stopped by something as simple as a flare. She waved an arm and a multitude of streaks of lightning shot out.
Medusa was hit by one of several bolts of lightning. She cries out as she tumbles across the plain. She winced as she came to a stop, in her heightened state of acceleration, most of her aura was forced into her legs, which mean she had very little protection for the rest of her body.
She heard a laugh and looked up, Salem stood right in front of her with an arrogant smile and reaching for her.
Without hesitation, Medusa released a pulse of the Stage 2 Gorgon Stare. Once the pulse hit her, the image it dissipated, revealing that it was an illusion. Instead of the queen of the grimm, it was the rest of her team at the portal, which meant she was tricked and they just got caught in her crossfire. She could already the stone starting to encase them quickly.
0—0—0—0
Shirou steps through the portal, he turns shifting his hands along the border so he can turn around while keeping it as wide open as possible. He ends up looking directly at his girlfriend has he sees a flash of pink come out of her eyes.
Laeticia turns back to the portal she looks up she sees a pink flash coming from her teammate, Medusa.
They can all feel the pulse course through them, and they each knew that they had been hit by Medusa's infamous Gorgon Stare.
0—0—0—0
The shock and hesitation costs Medusa as Salem suddenly appears behind her, grabs her hair and yanks her head back, smearing black tar over the purple haired woman's eyes, blinding her.
Medusa growls, throwing an aura infused elbow into the Grimm witch's face, caving it in before twisting and driving her hand coated in her aura into Salem's chest. Her hand her plunges straight through and out the back of her body. The bloody tar instantly seals around her arm, not letting her escape. When she is finally able to pull one of her arms out, she a meaty hand grabbed her arm and a claw like one grabbed her by the throat and started to lift her off the ground, choking her.
It had to be Salem's arms, but the stronger one was definitely more bulky, like a Berinnger's. It had to be the Grimm enhancement abilities she had shown off at the beginning of the fight. Suddenly, tentacles latched onto her, binding her and holding her off the ground. She then pulls the grabs the tracker's hand out of her chest and bind it with the other one with a black chain that she conjures out of black magic.
"With how powerful your semblance is, I know it takes time for the effects to reverse after you release it—"
"Just kill me and get it over with." She growled, hating that the last thing she would hear would be the obnoxious witch's voice. "It won't matter, you won't find them in time."
Salem looks to Medusa with a malicious smirk. "Unfortunately, you cannot be afforded the luxury of death because I need you alive to keep them petrified until my grimm DO find and destroy them."
"I won't... You can't make me." Medusa replies struggling as she tries to release her semblance, instead she feels the presence of something latched onto her back and a very painful pulse coarse through her body. It almost felt like her semblance was being hijacked and was being activated against her will.
"Oh, but I can."
The realization dawns on the Tracker, "SHIROU. CLOSE IT-!" She shouts before the Grimm Witch grip tightens around her throat, silencing her.
0—0—0—0
Laeticia was the first one to be completely petrified. As the stone creeps up her chest, her life flashed before her eyes, memories of spending time with her husband and partner, on missions and at home watching over their many children. A tear rolls down her cheeks as she remembered her only son's last words to her. "Don't be gone too long mom, dad won't let me start training until you get back. Kick bad guy butts quickly so I can start training so I can be just like you!"
"I'm sorry Jaune. I'm sorry Siege, take care of our babies." She whispered as she closed her eyes and the stone covered her face.
0—0—0—0
It hurt. As the petrification semblance creeped across her body, if felt as those her skin was being transmuted into stone rather than being encased by it. Summer looked at her hand, which was fully 'encased,' she couldn't feel or move any of the fingers, when she realized she couldn't move her legs she knew they were out of time. She took a breath, and shouted for the one person she believed could save them. "RAVEN!"
But she couldn't help the smile to the fact that Raven had protected them, in her own way.
0—0—0—0
The shock and hesitation costs Medusa as Salem suddenly appears behind her, grabbing her hair and yanking her head back, smearing black tar over the purple haired woman's eyes, blinding her.
Medusa growls, throwing an aura infused elbow into the Grimm witch's face, caving part of it in slightly before twisting and driving her hand coated in her aura into Salem's chest. Unfortunately, her hand drives straight through and out the back of Salem's body. The grimm tar instantly seals around her arm, not letting her escape.
She choked as a meaty hand grabbed her by the throat and starts to lift her off the ground, while a claw like one grabbed her arms.
The meaty hand definitely felt similar to a Berinnger's, while the other had more similarities to a taloned foot of a griffon. Salem was using her Grimm enhancement abilities again which gave her strength well beyond any human's.
More tentacles lack onto her, binding her, holding her off the ground. She then pulls the grabs the tracker's hand out of her chest and bind it with the other one with a black chain that she conjures out of thin air.
"I know it takes time for your semblance to reverse its effects after you release those affected by it—"
"Just kill me and get it over with." She growled, hating that the last thing she would hear would be the obnoxious witch's voice. "It won't matter, you won't find them in time."
Salem looks to Medusa with a malicious smirk. "Unfortunately, you cannot be afforded the luxury of death because I need you alive to keep them petrified until my grimm DO find and destroy them."
"I won't... You can't make me." Medusa replies struggling as she tries to release her semblance, instead she feels the presence of something latched onto her back and a very painful pulse coarse through her body. It almost felt like her semblance was being hijacked and was being kept activated against her will. Fear bloomed in her mind at the realization of what The Witc- what Salem had meant.
0—0—0—0
The stone was up to Shiro's neck and still crawling higher. The last thing he heard was Summer voice calling out "RAVEN!" before the stone covered his face.
With the portal in front of them closes, leaving Medusa in the Dark Continent.
0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0
Author's note:
I am taking the history of the story away from the brother gods since this is a crossover, which means that Salem and Ozma's backstory will be different, with other characters being involved as well. Salem's curse of immortality is different than Ozma's where she never truly dies; meaning she is not reborn into another body/person like Ozma, so she doesn't get the use of aura and magic like Ozpin, but the corruption of the grimm does effect her magic.
Unlike in canon Volume 7 and 8 where Salem just stood there and taking killing blows until there was an opening, here she can actually feel pain and such a strategy would not work against such extraordinary warriors who have fought together for many years. And by no accounts has Salem ever been portrayed as a warrior.
In this fight very powerful huntsmen fought an unkillable opponent; so this was as close to a stalemate as they could get, but if you think about it, the huntsmen escaping would be a win.
I also believe that the existence of Aura is a remnant of magic in the people from the post moon shattering, which is going to have a greater effect on the world.
Also there will be more than the four kingdoms in this universe's Remnant, humans are still horrendously outnumbered by the grimm, but they are still able to expand because of high class level huntsmen and huntresses who are heroic spirits from the Fate series.
The structure of the kingdoms of Remnant remind me of the City-States of ancient Greece like Athen, Sparta and Corinth. Where their "Soldiers" are sent and trained at the capital and are dispersed to where they are needed, only with a lot more open territory.
With such big territories, most of the settlements away from the capital would be independent because they have to be. This would change the relationship of what would be considered important import and export products, which can include huntsmen and huntsmen candidates.
There are going to be a lot of characters from the fate series in my story. When they start showing up, you can use the: Fate Grand Order Servant List to see pictures of them as I will be trying to keep most of the outfits seen there, the same, the same, unless in the rare moment where I have motivation to make changes.
Ancient Valerian is really just French if anyone was curious what Leticia's last words to Jasmine were.
I tend to use a lot of references and easter eggs, so if you think something is one, it probably is. A free easter egg is the name of Summer's weapon. Also, if anyone is interested in doing a little extra work for an easter egg... Convert all the *code confirmation* numbers to letters.
Canon main characters of RWBY (RWBY, JNPR, etc.) are scheduled to make appearances in a few chapters from now in the story. But these first chapters of this story are needed to set the tone of this world.
Wow this was long, but there was a lot that needed to be said.