So I've just finished and handed in my dissertation. That's about a decade of my lifeforce drained, yet somehow I'm alive XD. That being said, so sorry for the delay and lack of communication on my end, but here's the next chapter! Worry not, for the next chapter (the Vol 2 finale) has already been completed and will come out a few days after this one. Look forward to it and let's hop back in!
Fighting Rose
Chapter 27
Dance with death!
The Fang-members who were on the train were desperate, almost rabid in their assault on the boarding members of RWBY. Blake, having initially wanting to calm them down and let them know that everything was alright was immediately beset by one trying to gouge her eyes out, forcing her to use her Semblance as an escape before knocking him out.
"KILL THEM!" One of them shrieked as she picked up her rifle, others following suit right along with her, "KILL THEM BEFORE HE TURNS US INTO DEMONS OR THE ONE BELOW BUTCHERS US!"
"Please, we can help you-!" Weiss started before round upon round of gunfire was emptied at them, her instant reaction saving them with a Glyph that blocked every shot. "Blake, we can't get through to them! They've been driven mad with fear!"
"…then we'll protect ourselves," Blake said firmly as she sheathed Gambol in Shroud, taking her bow and wrapping it around the edge to blunt it as best as she could. "Defeat them, and not take their lives!"
Their ammunition from their wild firing soon went out and the monochrome pair moved in, Weiss' Trigger lighting her body up and crackling through the air as she muttered her mantra under her breath. Over twenty Glyphs appeared in an instant, surrounding the rabble as they charged at the pair before Blake seemed to vanish. Weiss slid past all of them, Myrtenaster crackling frost as she sharply slashed at their feet to freeze their legs to the roof of the car. As they initially struggled to get free, flashes of black seemed to pinball from Glyph to Glyph before landing right next to Weiss, a stream of phantom strikes following Blake's path to whack across their heads and necks, rendering them unconscious while also destroying their collars.
"Damn," Blake hissed as she shook out her legs. "Your Glyphs have some serious kick to them Weiss, I could barely keep up with switching positions in between each jump."
"O-oh, I'm sorry!" Weiss fret over Blake. "I didn't consider your previous injuries. Are you alright?"
"Pfft, don't worry, I'll be fine," Blake reassured with a smile before turning to look at the unconscious members, ensuring that their collars had been removed. Little needles in the inside bit directly into the flesh of its wearer and with the oozing black liquid that popped and hissed as it spilled onto the ground. "…the hell...?" Blake muttered as both she and Weiss peered closer at it.
They could just barely make out what looked like tiny writhing tendrils in each little puddle, revulsion and horror sending them reeling away. Oobleck was quick to shift his thermos into its flamethrower-configuration and incinerate each and every puddle, faint hisses and whines coming from the burning puddles as they dried and disintegrated to ash.
"Be sure to destroy whatever trace you find," He said simply. "And don't let it come into contact with you if your aura breaks."
"Noted," Weiss said before she looked behind him to see Ruby and Yang sprinting to catch the train. "Blake, Doctor, cover me while I help Yang and Ruby board."
"On it," Blake said as she took out Gambol in its pistol form, changing its magazines from lethal rounds to non-lethal rubber bullets, Oobleck himself beating her to the punch by simply diving into the oncoming fray of rabid Fang-members, easily batting aside their wild strikes with his thermos before systematically swinging right at their collars, tearing them off as he flowed smoothly into knocking them out. "…or not."
Weiss quickly summoned a number of Glyphs that were locked to the position of Yang, being the slower runner, allowing the pair to hop on as Weiss steadily created more Glyphs to quickly jump to before they finally landed on the roof of the car.
"You okay?" Weiss asked.
"Bastard was whooping our asses," Yang growled as she reloaded Ember Celica, "He was easily as strong as a B-Class Grimm and he was holding back. Set himself on fire and vanished though."
"What's the situation?" Ruby asked as they quickly jogged up to Blake.
"We've tried to convince the Fang members that we're not going to hurt them but they've been driven mad with fear, no doubt from lack of sleep, starvation and constantly under threat of being turned into one of those twisted bodies," Weiss explained as she checked her dust-cartridges, "The majority of them are focused on Doctor Oobleck right now and he's handling them easily enough."
"…alright," Ruby decided after a moment, "Since the train's size and armour won't let us access the wheels and the majority of opposition are on the roofs (and it'd be a REALLY bad idea to try and derail a train we're still on), I'll stay up-top and support him while you three head to the conductor's room through the train itself. Check for any explosives and freeze them solid of you can. All this open space perfectly fits my Semblance while smaller spaces only enhance all of yours."
"Sounds like a plan," Blake nodded.
"Stay safe up here," Weiss cautioned.
"If you need us then call, and I'll bust a hole through the roof to get to you," Yang said with a grin, fist bumping her sister before they hopped down the hatch.
"Good luck!" Ruby shouted as she ran up to Oobleck and Zwei's position, the latter barking and jumping high into the air while curled up like a ball. Ruby grinned as she too leapt and spun, her foot lashing out and crashing directly into the furball, Zwei's body literally appearing to mould around her leg before blasting towards the Fang-members to bounce of each of their head like a rubber ball, outright knocking a chunk of them out.
Both her and Oobleck were simply too fast to shoot or strike, Ruby sharply weaving low to sweep a dozen of them off her feet with a spinning kick before rising up to sharply fire off a hail of front-kicks, perfectly controlled to strike them in their jaws with just enough force before they could even hit the deck unconscious. Ruby could only grin wider as she saw a paladin prototype hop onto the roof of the train, far less armour and weapons than the one Torchwick had but still formidable.
"So you wanna take this one or should I?" Ruby asked as she rolled her ankles and bounced on her toes.
"Switching is most efficient for speedy combatants like us," Oobleck decided, "Be sure not to let your guard down."
"Understood!" Ruby shouted as she flew right at the first Paladin, her body whirling like a buzzsaw with a cry of "Lunar Phase!"
…
"I'd get it if most of them are up-top," Blake said, "But there's nobody down here to stop us? That just screams that something's up."
"Blaaake, what did I say about jinxing something?" Yang asked.
"Yeah-yeah I know," Blake sighed, "But still!"
"We keep our guard up regardless," Weiss affirmed, "…though you're right. There aren't even any actual explosives aside from some grenades. Their calibre isn't even high enough to damage the train's armour."
"Most of the guns and melee weapons were taken with them too," Blake muttered, "This kinda stuff is military-grade…"
"Atlas tech, no doubt about it," Weiss said as she quickly looked over them before sharply stopping to look at the door up ahead, Blake and Yang quickly noticing her suddenly freeze up.
"Weiss?" They called, all three of them now on edge.
For the aforementioned heiress, she could feel not only the presence of something rapidly approaching them but also hear the grating whispers of something she felt it was carrying, the sensation of warm blood on her skin and metal biting into her veins almost making her forget to breathe.
"…dodge…" She muttered at first, her body trembling.
"What did you-?"
"DODGE!" She shrieked as the doors were blown off its hinges, another warrior of similar stature to Erebus bursting through, though his weapon, demeanour and armour were much, much different.
"I'LL FUCKING GUT YOU AND TAKE YOUR SKULLS!" He screamed as he wildly charged right at Yang swinging two gore-soaked battle-axes that somehow had chainsaws integrated into their blades. She put her hands up but wasn't even given the time to use Royal Guard, the swing lifting her clean off her feet and sending her flying all the way into the doors behind them. His armour, though similar in structure to the previous warrior Yang and Ruby fought, his breastplate and leggings were dull white, curved pauldrons pale blue, his white Y-slitted helm baring massive flat horns on its temples and other parts of his armour gilded with a dull brass. Almost all of it was covered in blood and gore, both old and fresh.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLACK QUEEN!" He roared as he smashed his weapons together, "SOULS FOR THE BLACK THRONE!"
"UP YOURS TOO BUDDY!" Yang roared as she sprinted right at him and threw a haymaker with every ounce of force she could muster. He didn't even bother to block, her semblance-boosted knuckles and dust overcharged with her aura exploding into his chest while he lashed out at her ribs, the exchange sending him flying back through the ruined doors he'd just came from while Yang was flung into the wall with a cry of shock and pain.
"YANG!" Both Weiss and Blake screamed as they saw blood flowing from a deep gash in Yang's side, relaxing slightly as it began to rapidly heal with her concentration on the wound. "Are you gonna be okay?"
"Already getting better," She grunted as she stood and raised her fists. "I know Erebus was holding back, but I think this guy is just physically stronger than him."
"That… thing is stronger!?" Blake's voice shook as she stood by Yang with her blades drawn.
Weiss was silent though no less frightened. The moment he had come bursting through the door, her first look at the axes had made her sick. Forget the gore that was still covering them, she could see, feel flashes of something from them, stark mirages of faceless people, hunters and innocents, being quickly and mercilessly butchered in showers of blood. This warrior had killed many people and he'd done so with those very weapons. The style of his armour, his stature, something about it seemed familiar to Weiss. Beyond that though… something else clicked in her head as she stared at the axes.
"…Skill of its making…" She muttered, "…the experience of growth…"
"You say somethin' Weiss?" Yang asked.
Weiss snapped herself out of the trance and readied herself, her Trigger flashing to life in her soul and on her skin.
"He has no ranged weapons and has been alive longer and any of us," Weiss said as if she was reading off a script. "He never holds back when he fights and he favours his left axe over his right, unless he swings both at the same time. He's still relatively inexperienced and has killed low-level mercenaries and hunters. His axes are named Bleed and Bite."
"… Weiss, what the fu-?"
"Dodge right under his arm!" She shouted as he barrelled through the opening again, roaring with his wild swing for their necks. Blake phased back in shock while Yang followed Weiss, sticking close to his left side and his back as the former smashed two uppercuts into his armoured ribs as the latter blasted his back with ice. He ignored them and focused entirely on Blake, his arms blurring and waist constantly moving as he continued to slash at Blake over and over again, her feet and Semblance barely able to keep up with his random and wild attacks.
"DON'T YOU FUCKING RUN AWAY FROM ME!" He screamed as he smashed his foot down, an actual shockwave throwing her off her feet before he raised both axes high in the air to cleave her in half.
"No you goddamn DON'T!" Yang shouted as she grabbed the waist of his armour and heaved, her already active semblance combined with her aura-enhanced muscles yanking him into the air with ease before she continued to bend backwards. Her suplex had him landing neck first, the dull *CRUNCH* followed by his indentation into the floor seemed to spell his end only for him to immediately thrash even harder, his boot lashing out into Yang's mouth as she tried to back away.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" He was rolling around and thrashing on the floor, dropping his left axe to clutch the back of his head. Blake was on him in an instant, fear having made way for fury as she found an exposed joint right under his armpit, ramming her blade through it and sinking all the way to the hilt. It should have punctured his lung and at least cut his heart, but he just didn't stop, backhanding Blake in the stomach as she froze in shock at his resilience and smashing her into the wall. She didn't even get time to land, the man already up on his feet to blast a wild haymaker into her face as she desperately blocked. Her vision flashed white, knives of pain stabbing through her face as the wall of the train dented in around her from his sheer strength.
"BLAAAKE!" Yang screamed as she again launched herself at him, Weiss assisting by using her Glyphs to slingshot the blonde at him with even greater force, her fist crashing into the cheek of his helmet in an explosion of heat and golden flame, his head snapping to the side as she wrapped her legs around his head. In a wordless roar, she rained blow after blow onto his face all while squeezing his neck as hard as she could, sending him stumbling around for a moment before he reared his head back and proceeded to slam Yang into the floor with his face, the impact making the whole train shake. Yang felt her ribs and spine scream in protest so she screamed right back, grabbing his helmet and tearing it off in a spray of sparks and kicking off his shoulders, managing to barely tumble back as his whirring axe-blade bit deep into the floor. Weiss had clambered onto his back, Myrtenaster held in a reverse grip as she raised it to stab down on his neck and freeze his head, only to then stop cold herself.
"Don't, he doesn't have aura!" Blake cried out as she recovered, though that wasn't why Weiss stopped. His head was bald and had one long scar twisting and curving along it with some patches of it black and other patches red, but in the backmost area of his skull were great metallic tendrils that she mistook for metallic hair at first were actually nails that appeared to be lodged deep into bone and most likely brain. She almost threw up as she watched them vibrate before sinking deeper into his skull, his body shuddering before he moved even faster, elbowing her in the mouth and almost tearing her lips into a ragged mess had she not thrown a glyph up in front of her face, even as he tore right through it. Weiss tumbled across the ground, springing to her feet even as her vision spun. She spat blood from her mouth and stood tall between Yang and Blake, the three catching their breath as they watched him shake and shudder. His surprisingly youthful but brutish face was twisted in pleasure as the nails visibly vibrated before he locked onto them, grunting as he smashed his axes together in a whine of sawblades.
"For a guy who doesn't have aura, he hits really fucking hard," Yang spat, "Like, that dude hits harder than the Paladin. And Blake, didn't you freaking stab him up to the hilt?"
"He hasn't slowed down a bit…" Blake confirmed, "I felt Gambol pierce his lung and cut his heart, but he isn't even bleeding."
"Then we knock him out in one big shot," Weiss said, "Blake, you get behind him and cut his legs while I boost Yang as much as I can. Aim for the back of the knees. It's going to take some time and I'm not fast or strong enough to trade with him, so I need you two to cover for me while I concentrate on making a strong-enough glyph."
"Roger-Roger," Yang said with a smirk as she sacrificed a bit of her aura as kindling for her semblance, the room heating up as she blazed with infernal might, all the damage she'd been taking pushing her to her full power.
"Okay," Blake said, her resolve hardening as she gripped her weapons. He was responsible for the unchanged but mutilated corpses in the cave. She didn't feel so sorry for stabbing him anymore: all 'virtue' went out the window in a fight to the death, and this man was little more than a wild killer. No more running: now was the time to stand and fight. Again, there was that tug in her soul as her emotions flared, one that she gave into as the feeling of smoke began to wrap and wind around her.
"B-Blake-!?" Yang started before shaking her head, "Nevermind, let's DO THIS!"
Both shot forward, Blake had expected to lag behind Yang only to almost lose her footing at her body seemingly being constantly shoved forward, being the first to reach the raging madman right as he swung at her neck. For a split second, she though that was the end of it until his blade seemed to slide right off of her, her body automatically pushed backwards and forcing him to overextend his swing for a brief moment. That moment was enough for Yang, her fist exploding off of his face and sending him skidding backwards though he was quick to launch himself right back at the duo.
"COME GET SOME, ASSHOLE! ROYAL GUARD!" Yang bellowed as she brawled with the now grinning warrior. His swing with both axes aimed to rip her from collarbone to hip, her arm shooting up in a block with a flare of her semblance, a bell-like *CLANG* ringing out only for it to be quickly drowned out by the squeal of his chainsaws tearing away at Ember, quickly beginning to gouge into the metal. Gnashing her teeth, Yang threw his axes off to the side as her aura burned even hotter, her corkscrew right-cross blasting into his chest like a burning drill. He stood his ground and swung his right axe at her temple, Yang again perfectly timing the wild swing and absorbing the kinetic energy of the attack, even if each swing made her arms scream in protest, only for him to continue to press down with the chainblades. With her preoccupied with holding one back, he lashed out with his right hand and smashed his armoured knuckles right into her face, snapping her head back before his shot his leg out in an attempt to shatter her kneecaps.
'Rapid Shade-slash!' Blake came low and unleashed a mighty upward cut at his supporting leg, a dozen phantom slashes following in her wake and forcing him back a few steps while Weiss managed to form a barrier Glyph in front of Yang's legs, his balance disrupted and Yang prevented from being potentially crippled.
"Trickster!"
Yang changed tactics: Royal guard may block the initial strike, but those chainblades combined with his manic strength was something the still-healing gash on her side throbbed at unpleasantly. She now bobbed and weaved past his wild flurries, whirring teeth whining through the air as she dipped low under a horizontal chop at her head, coming back with a rising uppercut to his gut that lifted him off his feet. Blake took advantage of the opening, Yang fully seeing her strange new 'form': her body looked as if it was constantly warping and shifting, like the moments where she was about to use her semblance to launch herself forward, and looking closely Yang could see the faint traces of new symbols on her skin, script that she did not understand.
Blake was equally as relentless as Yang, bouncing off the roof of the train to smash straight down at his exposed back, the wispy trail of her body and a downpour of smoky blades following behind her to smash him into the floor. She didn't allow him up, sheathing Gambol and proceeding to bash him in his back with it over and over again with the rapid-fire screech of metal on metal. He certainly didn't stay down, pushing himself right back onto his feet and roaring as he swung at Blake's head, Yang flinching before grinning as the axe seemed to just slide right off of her, Blake slashing up at his wrist to blast his hand upwards as Yang dashed in and did the same to his right. Blake was right behind him as he attempted to stomp her skull in, Gambol and Shroud slashing at the back of his unarmoured knees and cutting through muscle and tendon. Weiss' aura then exploded in a corona of ice, the room-temperature dropping as she thrust her hands forward. Two glyphs locked his wrists above his head, a Time-Dilation Glyph forming directly under Yang's feet.
"NOW YANG!" Weiss shouted.
Yang smashed her foot into the floor as she crouched low, everything around her moving in slow motion as she let her power flow perfectly into her fist. She knew this kind of moment was rare, with Weiss giving her absolute all into this glyph and the absolute perception of time she had, she would not waste it.
"REAL IMPACT…!" Yang intoned as she watched her fist punch right into the warrior's armour, metal folding and crumpling under her knuckles as its impact lined perfectly with the flow of her aura, the flames of her soul turning black as she roared, "BLACK FLASH!"
The walls of the train-car were blown out as the chilly air was engulfed by roaring heat, the warrior literally shooting through the air from the sheer power of Yang's blow and smashing through door after door, from the middle of the train all the way to the very last car.
After a tense moment of waiting and hearing that he wasn't getting up, the three of them promptly sighed in relief, taking a moment to breathe and letting their aura heal their wounds.
"Everyone okay?" Yang asked as she put a lid on her power, the glow of her aura fading as her strength dropped to normal.
"Been better," Weiss said tightly as gashes on her lips healed. "Question is, Blake, are you okay? What was that?"
Blake's strange form had vanished, she herself silent and unsure.
"Probably her Trigger," Yang summed up, "Saw markings on your skin. We'll figure it out later, for now let's focus on getting to the front of the train."
"…right," Blake nodded as the three quickly made their way up through the train, even running across the open platform that once housed a score of Paladins, all of five of them deployed to fight Ruby and Doctor Oobleck (and Zwei of course). Yang couldn't help but pause, looking back up and listening before grinning a bit as she heard Ruby's battle-shouts and the sharp whipping winds that came from her Semblance, not an ounce of fear or hesitation in her voice.
"Someone's having fun," Blake chuckled.
"Yeah, no kidding," Yang replied as they finally made their way to the conductor's car, immediately noticing the thick metal door was locked. "Oh please," Yang rolled her eyes before her straight-right ripped the door off its hinges in a shower of sparks, "Did they really think that'd be enough to stop someone from getting in?"
"Well no, but then again we weren't expecting little hunters to make their way here," A familiar voice said, the three girls immediately on edge, "But then again everything is a blessing in disguise! Except for your strength, I suppose. I mean, struggling to deal with a rank-and-file World Eater who hasn't even fought in the Heresy? Seems that putting you at Lucius's level was a bit too much. Not too far off in terms of raw power, but not exactly close in skill either."
Erebus' unnatural aura washed over them, Blake and Weiss shaking under the wrongness of his soul before Yang managed to break out of it, eyes burning red and hair lighting up. Still, something about his words tickled the back of Weiss' brain.
'…Heresy?'
"Up yours, asshole," She spat, "You'll chew on your damn words with a mouthful of teeth and buckshot!"
"Pfft, you certainly have his pomp," Erebus giggled, before his tattooed face turned dead. "No matter. This train will crash, and you will not stop it. End of story."
He snapped it fingers and the trio felt their bodies warp, all senses going haywire as the world folded, inverted and turned upside down, Blake slapping a hand to her mouth before they landed face-first onto… the top of the train, right behind Zwei and several crates
"…the fuck?" Weiss spat even as her hand automatically went to pet Zwei. "Did he just teleport us!?"
"He did get away from Ruby and I," Yang noted, "But I didn't think he'd be able to teleport others away."
"If he's capable of that, then…" Blake said aloud, the possibilities only further filling them with dread.
Looking back, there were piles of injured and unconscious Faunus while in front from their cover was a writhing sea of them, walls of bullets aimed at the blurred forms of Ruby and Oobleck. She was a force of nature, the trio quickly tracking her and watching as she literally flew from Fang to Fang with bursts of petals, a spinning hook-kick smashing one into five of his other comrades, a sharp side-kick sending him flying into one of the Paladins before she flew up to its arm and sheared its fist off with her signature Lunar Phase. For a brief moment however, they saw that Ruby was sweating, quite a lot: she wasn't tired, but it was a clear indicator that she'd been fighting non-stop for quite some time now.
"PLEASE, WE CAN HELP YOU!" She cried out as she landed behind cover, Oobleck putting his scroll away and now in the fray as he switched in with her, managing just fine against the mass of bodies. "WE KNOW WHAT YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH, LET US HELP YOU!"
"KILL THE HUNTERS!" The one in charge screamed in response, gunfire pouring onto Oobleck's position even as he continued to dodge with his uncanny speed, narrowly side-stepping a downward punch from a Paladin before reducing its arm to molten slag with his flamethrower. Not even looking behind, he swung his mace in an arc above his head, parrying an overhead blow from a larger Fang member and getting behind him as a shield. The trio met up with the still-recovering Ruby, the girl in red flinching in surprise at their sudden appearance.
"What are you doing here? Weren't you heading towards the front car?"
"Reached there but Erebus, that dick," Yang bit out, "teleported us back up here. He won't let us get near the controls. We… we can't stop the train."
"A train full of White Fang who are desperate not to be killed or mutated driven right into the heart of Vale…" Blake realized in horror.
"…th-then I'll just stop the train myself," Ruby said shakily, earning dumbfounded stares from the rest of her team, Zwei aside, "I'll get to the front and use Deep Stinger to slow it down as best as I-!"
"Ruby, no," Weiss snapped, "You barely managed to hold a paladin back, and even if we're all stronger, we don't have anywhere near enough firepower to slow it down! Especially not without dying!"
"…dammit…" Ruby ground out before whipping out her scroll, "I'll… I'll have to warn Ozpin and-!"
"Worry not Miss Rose!" Oobleck called out as he backflipped over a swinging Fang and drop-kicking him straight down into the floor, "I already contacted him! While armed forces are being prepared, the evacuation of civilians is far more difficult given the police's laxness!"
"Those incompetent FUCKS!" Ruby roared, her teeth bared and eyes pulsing chrome silver for a moment, everyone around her flinching before she snorted a breath out and forcibly bottled her emotions. "…Since we can't stop the train, we just have to take down as many as we can and try to deal with the damages later. Are you three alright to get back into it? You look like you've been through hell."
"Try another jacked-up super-soldier," Blake snorted as Ruby's eyes went wide, "Seemed to be from a different… sect. Armour was different, blue, brass and white. And he was… insane."
"Guy had nails in his brain," Yang shuddered, "Seemed to get off to them every time he swung his freaking chainsaw-axes. Didn't have aura but hit harder than Torchwick's Paladin, a clean hit probably would've gutted us. Hit 'em with a Black Flash after Blake cut his legs and Weiss powered me up with her Time-Dilation Glyph."
"We're a bit worn, but we'll live," Weiss said as she gripped Myrtenaster, "Compared to him, restraining this bunch will be afar more welcome task."
"Then let's get to it," Ruby said as she turned and crouched, her Trigger blooming to life on her skin. "Don't be afraid to switch out with each other if you start to run out of breath!"
The four of them sharply breathed and let their power flare before rushing in, Weiss immediately covering them from gunfire with a massive Glyph, Ruby and Blake working together as they joined Oobleck by launching off the extra Glyphs Weiss placed in the air, knocking swaths out while Weiss fired shards of ice-dust at whoever she could. Yang barrelled through the fodder as she let her stored power explode through her veins and aimed for the bigger threats, grabbing the larger brutes by their vests before slamming them face down into the floor or folding them over her fist with uppercuts to their ribs. When a Paladin blared a challenge with its horn and raised its fist, she roared right back and cocked her own fist, machine meeting aura-enhanced flesh and bone with the terrible scream of machine failing to hold up, the Paladin's arm exploding up to the mechanical shoulder and sending it toppling onto its back, blocking the path of the other lumbering titans. As desperate as they were though, the Fang members did not shoot at or attack each other, most switching to melee as Team RWBY strode deep into the fray, Weiss herself fending off the unrelenting assault with a mix of Glyphs, sword-strokes and sharp kicks.
"WALL 500 METERS AHEAD!" Oobleck shouted, "BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
Weiss was the first to act, gritting her teeth as she stabbed Myrtenaster into the floor, focusing all of her power into a massive gravity glyph that brought everyone to their knees before forming a curved shell of interlocking Glyphs atop as many people as she could, the mental strain of conceptualizing and creating each Glyph to its maximum effectiveness causing her nose to begin bleeding and vision swim. Thankfully, it was enough. Reinforced concrete could not hope to withstand the speed and weight of an armoured train, the busy streets of Central Vale first filled with the discontentment of civilians being moved to slowly by the lazy police-force now roaring with and explosion of stone, steel and terrified screaming. The train punched up through the ground and out of an old building that once was the station, destroyed chunks of concrete and the front of the train itself flying through the air and crashing into cars and other buildings, sending the closer civilians scrambling away as the train crashed down into the streets, crushed against itself and tumbling over like cans.
Team RWBY and the scores of Fangs that were on top of the train had managed to leap away from the train right as Weiss' glyphs winked out, the heiress again trying to shield the team before her eyes rolled into her head and her body sagged, Blake barely managing to grab her with her ribbon and hold her tight as Yang acted as a cushions, quite literally catching them both and smashing into a car. Thankfully, no civilians were caught in the initial emergence of the train, though of course they, along with some of the police-force, were more focused on staying close to the spectacle and filming with their scrolls.
"GAAH, SHIT!" Yang cried out at the reopened wound in her side and her rib throbbed, thankfully not as deep but still painful.
"Y-Yang!?" Blake exclaimed worriedly.
"I'll be fine, just that damn cut again," Yang calmed Blake with a reassuring squeeze to her shoulder, "What about Weiss?"
"I-I'm…" Weiss shook the messy haze from her head, grunting as she forced herself to her feet, "I'm alright. Just… stressed my mind trying to fully conceptualize so many Glyphs in such a short period of time."
Ruby was already giving Weiss her aura, the latter breathing out as she felt her body and mind soothed from the overwork.
"Thanks for saving us from eating a wall of stone Weiss," Ruby said sincerely, "You've done an awesome job. Hang back for now, provide support and get as many people away as you can until you feel ready to jump back in alright? Because…" Ruby's face turned grim as she looked at the wreck along with the rapidly recovering Fang-members picking up their weapons. "Things are about to get messy if we don't act fast."
"EVERYONE, EVACUATE THE AREA RIGHT NOW!" Yang's voiced boomed, "GET OUT OF HERE!"
In a flash of sickly yellow flames, Erebus had appeared atop of wreckage, a gleeful grin on his face as he raised his equally burning mace.
"SPILL THEIR BLOOD!"
(TWBY Continued...)
Yes, cliffhanger and whatnot, but originally this and the following chapter was written as one big one, until I realized it dragged on for over 10K words XD. Now an important thing to note: in case you haven't noticed, there are no Grimm involved in the attack on Vale (this'll become more important later on), Erebus is still a dick (surprise surprise) and yes, that was a World-Eater that the WBY trio had to fight. Hopefully I managed to get the batshit insane fighting-style of a World Eater down on paper well enough, so let me guys know how you felt about it! Until then, luv you all and peace ouuut!
