Heya everyone, sorry for being a little late today. Woke up a little late today. Haven't been feeling great. But other than that, here's the chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter 16: A Game of Shadow
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Metal scraped loudly against the marble at their feet, cutting into stone as it swept harshly across its surface in a circle around them. The Darkness surrounding them was thick enough that even sparks were minimally visible. Between them now stood a massive Minotaur that wielded an axe blade of Darkness that could crush them at any moment if they weren't careful.
Eryndûs… A floating citadel of Shadow and flame. This was their battleground. This was the war-ridden road of tension and lingering dread they traveled upon, hoping to eventually reach the end and finish if the source of this Nightmare.
"Hey, think you and Destiny can ice the floor and make some hollowed out structures?!" asked Dante.
"What's the plan of attack?" Weiss asked, the tip of Myrtenaster gleaming in the darkness of the room.
An icy blue glyph soon circled her carefully placed heels, humming into a tense rotation as the girl beside her withdrew her pale white summoning book.
"Oh! I know! We're building a snow fortress!" Skyla exclaimed, her voice only slightly cut off by a sharp clash of metal resonating at their front.
"Not exactly!" Dante called back, clashing with a heavy strike from the shadows into the ground and slashing forward.
"Seriously, what are we doing?" Weiss asked.
"We're building a fortress..." Xera realized, turning to see Destiny's eyes glow as soon as her summoning words were spoken, "But it isn't simply an ice fortress. They're structures that lights up like the northern lights. More light for us to see around in the Dark."
"I see…"
The heiress realized what was planned and jammed her rapier into the ground, willing her glyph to expand as a rushing sheen of ice rolled out from the glow at her feet.
"Tohma!" Destiny's voice echoed out, calling the name of her summon as a mist of white and ice shimmered before her.
From its reaches emerged a white polar bear, shining with thick, ice-forged armor. A glacial helmet hid the animal's face behind a visor, only revealing crystal blue eyes behind a mask of white and shimmering pale blue.
"Freeze this place from the ground up. Make it your glacial playground." Destiny breathed out, her purple eyes emanating a faint blue glow as Tohma turned to the room, a trembling growl creeping from the bear's throat before it took in a long, cold breath.
Weiss's glyph immediately surged outward, expanding before multiplying as several more glyphs appeared across the floor of the sunless room.
"I'll amplify anything Tohma does with my ice Dust, just get it done! And fast!" Weiss muttered, holding her stance as Tohma lowered to the ground, its arms growing tense.
"Weiss, readjust your glyphs to incorporate fire resistance as well!" Xera quickly ordered, glancing her way.
"Fire? Are you worried it'll melt?"
"I am." the phoenix replied simply, pulling a slow nod from the heiress before him.
The bright blue glyphs around them suddenly shaded over in a hue of red, melting together to span out across each of the illuminated motifs across the floor of the dark room. Each one bled into a light red, almost breaching into the realm of pink before stabilizing.
The heiress could only let out a tightly held breath.
"Rawr?" Skyla asked.
Xera gave his partner a nod, "Rawr."
The room suddenly erupted with a blistering blizzard, bursting from the widening maw of Destiny's Tohma as the bear released an icy breath into its surroundings. Ice shards and frozen wisps of wind whipped through and around pillars, slipping into the darkness around them and dulling the sound of clashing within the shadows.
Once stifling air was torn away, broken by a high, glacial wind and ripped apart by a new presence in the widely spanning room. And as that air grew ever colder, ice and frost began to build, forming physical structures all around them.
Areas between pillars froze together, creating walls of thick, hardened ice while the rest of the room began to grow plentiful in spires and columns. New spikes rose and new formations of rock-like faces generated in Tohma's chilling roar.
"Shouldn't we be colder?" Ruby asked, eyes and ears still tuned into the sound of Dante's sword clashing with the minotaur's heavy axe.
"Rubes, you're on fire, it'd be weird if you were cold." Destiny pointed out.
"Oh…" Ruby pried her scythe from the cold ground and wrapped it around her side, cracking its slide and slamming it into place, "Right, uh, I'll just do stuff, now. Yeah."
A concussive blast later, and she was joining Dante in the fray, going back to back with him.
"Listen carefully. This guy hits harder than anything you can imagine. He gets you, it's over."
"So don't get hit. Got it!"
"Not just that Ruby…" he added as they slowly circled and looked around, "He takes a swing at you, you dodge out of the way."
"But, what about you?"
"I'll be fine. By the time he's taking a shot, I'll already be aware and block. Unlike you, I can take the hits."
"A-Are you sure?" she asked Dante, both concerned and unsure of his plan.
"I'm sure. Just like I'm sure right now."
"W-What?!"
Ruby felt the wind rushing at her and ducked down to avoid the axe swing, allowing Dante to quickly spin around and swing his Longsword to halt the axe in place. Ruby had quickly repositioned herself behind Dante before using her Semblance to dart upwards into the air, and rapidly spin around in a vertical motion that turned her into a sawblade of sorts that cut into the obscured Minotaur, forcing it back from Dante.
Ruby had then landed next to Dante and took a stance once more.
"I think we got this…"
"Looks like they're keeping him busy..." Xera spoke up, turning back to the two supports and his partner, "Skyla, run interference. Try to trip this thing up as much as possible and hold its swings along with Dante. Just be a nuisance as much as possible. And don't get hit."
"Aye aye, I shall do the annoying stuffs!" She chirped, springing into a quick salute before dashing off in a trail of her own ribbons.
The room was still dark. But in thanks to Dante's shared Shadow Eyes ability, her vision was greatly improved in the Dark. But the air around them, the shadows sinking down from the invisible ceiling above... It all still felt too heavy.
"Destiny, can you call Kimura out?" Xera asked, turning back to her to catch a confused nod.
"I can, but he's the worst pick in this kind of environment. What do you plan to do with him?"
"I need his fire. He doesn't have to stick around after that." Xera explained.
"If you say so..." Destiny conceded, turning to a new page and speaking another incantation.
"I-Is this why-" Weiss's strained breath crystallized in the cool air in front of her before she pulled her rapier's tip from the icy ground, taking a stumbled step backward, "y-you needed fire resistance in the ice?"
"Precisely." Xera confirmed, his words falling as the ice cracked in front of Destiny and fiery claws tore out of the ground.
Three heads and a blaze of scorched, black fur ripped itself from the clutches of hell and landed harshly on the ground next to them.
"Kimura, listen to wha-"
"Just breathe fire, that's all I ask." Xera interjected, turning his eyes to the clashing noises in the dark.
The beast narrowed his eyes, but his will conceded to the will of his own master. And with a short glimpse to the one who summoned him, he bowed his head and reared back onto his haunches.
Three maws soon opened, drawing in whatever stale air resided within this throne room before furnaces ignited within the pits of its own throats. Bright red glows soon festered, burning brighter than its gleaming eyes as simmering heat flooded out of its opening jaw.
It then sunk its claws into the floor and tensed all muscles forward, leaning into a three-sourced torrent of burning orange flames.
As soon as it did, Xera took his grasp on the fire surging from the creature's maw and redirected it into streams. The beam split, and as the geyser of fire grew stronger, the streams slipped into splitting lines and pierced the icy shells riddling the area around them.
The Darkness of the room suddenly receded. New light finally reached its ageless spatial body before pushing it further away, chasing it off by the light of racing flames.
Those flames found new homes within the icy constructs all around them, sifting through glacial crystals and fire-hardened ice to nest themselves within the structure of each standing obstacle.
And without another second passing, every single piece of ice riddling the throne room they fought in began to shine, like living flames in a night skyline.
It was in this light they finally saw their adversary's movements.
He was fast for someone his size.
The Minotaur's movements were swift, concise, and lacked the buildup most needed to swing the blade of an axe. He was beyond the true understanding of momentum, and whatever force carried his strikes forward was undeterred by the hefty weight of his iron blade.
The beast dipped back to avoid a swing to his neck from both Ruby and Dante, then re-entered combat, taking strikes at the only three that faced him in the shimmering light of their makeshift torches.
"Something as big as you shouldn't be so fast!" Skyla yelled, angrily trying to follow after the Dark Entity as he weaved around the ice structures in his way.
This was good good for the group since the obstacles made his movements more predictable and more counterable.
Immediately, Dante appeared in his way and took the slash of his axe with his sword, stopping it in a harsh clang as a burst of rose petals slipped around him. A deep gash suddenly tore across the minotaur's chest, yanked diagonally upward and straight through his left shoulder.
Dante followed Ruby's attack immediately, tilting his sword back for a moment to send his enemy's weapon into a momentary grind before swinging up and driving the creatures axe overhead.
He entered the minotaur's range and fell into a slide, dragging his blade straight through the tendons of the minotaur's left leg, throwing his left side off all the more with whatever pain they needed to put him through.
Both wounds seemingly went unnoticed.
"You're clever ones, aren't you..."
The Dark Entity pushed away from the wall of ice next to him and slid forward, spinning on a dime and turning to face both combatants behind him.
Two ribbons quickly wrapped around his forearms and elbows, their material latching onto him like coiling snakes from somewhere behind the nearest ice pillar.
"And you?" he tugged, pulling out the girl behind the pillar, "You think yourself mighty enough to-?"
Skyla yanked on her ribbons and pulled herself toward the creature before them, going airborne as soon as she left the ground and forcing him to take another step back.
She gave the Minotaur happy wave as he tore his axe through the air, cleaving it toward her side but stopping just short of it, an iron grasp yanking his arm back.
Mighty was an understatement.
Skyla entered his range within an instant and latched onto his waist, taking hold of his shoulder to turn her momentum toward his back, swinging around from there before climbing aboard.
"Yip yip!"
"Take this!"
Dante's own voice emerged up from below as his sword plunged into the minotaur's stomach, twisting it deep into whatever flesh he could cut through with a glimpse of flashing white passing through his irises.
An unbridled light suddenly emerged from the hilt of his sunken blade, focusing a beam of his white and black Aura through the entity's body. The focused Aura blast slammed through ice behind the minotaur as Skyla smiled gleefully, tugging her ribbons upward.
"Reach for the sky!" she said in a cowboyish accent.
The minotaur's arms were pulled skyward against whatever eternal strength he possessed, all before Dante ripped his blade to the right, carrying both energy and steel as he tore it through the creature's side.
The minotaur let out a gurgled growl, his crimson eyes briefly flashing in their own scarlet light, "Insufferable little-"
"I know, I'm annoying." Skyla smiled, kicking away from the minotaur before he could reach up and grab her, yanking his other arm up and slamming part of his gripped axe-shaft into his face.
As soon as Skyla was clear, a concussive shot rang out through ice and marble. Burning flames flickered for a moment as Ruby's boots skidded across the ice, the barrel of her scythe smoking in the wake of a high-caliber round making its own introduction to the entity's head, only to miss.
The bullet slammed into the drawn patterns on the opposite wall, drilling into black stone before embedding itself there. The minotaur had vanished, leaving behind a fading wisp of shadows in his place before the ice Skyla was about to land on shattered.
Cracks shot out from the immediate area and the small girl suddenly felt the crushing blow of a fist burrowing into her side, her small form sent across the room.
"RUUUUuuuuuuuuddddeee-!" then she crashed into the far wall.
A satisfied smirk crossed the minotaur's black maw. He didn't know why, but that was incredibly satisfying.
"Leo! Use Graviton Restraint!" Ciel called out, rushing forward under the siege of tendrils slamming down across the island.
Each scorched appendage had the surface area to crush a full team in its width, causing the ensuing barrage from the Kraken to shake the entire island of black ice.
"I'm not a pokémon!" Leo replied as he sprinted ahead of Ciel, firing off shots of super densified white and black Aura from his handcannons.
"Do it! It's highly effective and you have advantage!"
"Fine!"
Two white hand cannons rose as Leo took aim, chains rattling in the kicking winds of engines far behind him, "But this is not because you told me to!"
"That's not what I'll tell everyone else!"
Instead of beams this time, large speheres of black and white Aura fired into the dark sky, moving past the Kraken's falling strikes and slipping through gaps in its salvo of smashes. The two spheres met a distance beyond the creature's apparent eyes before the clusters of Leo's Aura suddenly burst with white Aura, tethers of its own glow snapping down and connecting with two tendrils from the grimm's two sides. Four arms grew restrained by magnetized streaks of white Aura, slowing the movements of each appendage touched as their molten lengths all pulled toward the orbs themselves.
"Okay!" said Ciel as she appeared before Leo in a streak of white and black Aura, "Now use Tackle!"
"I refuse."
"W-What?!" Ciel stopped dead in her tracks before turning fully around, "H-How could you say no..?"
"That move has always been illogical." Leo reasoned, taking a moment to fire a bullet surrounded by a beam of his Aura above Ciel's head, knocking a tendril off course and letting it slam into the ground next to her.
She only just stared back at him, unfazed by the crushing attack that nearly took her head.
"B-But…" she sniffled, "i-it's cute when you headbutt things…"
"Not the time, nor the place, sister..." Leo responded, watching as the stone tendril next to her rose and began to withdraw.
"Little girl wants to see something get tackled?!" Yang yelled from Ciel's far side, the girl's head turning to the charging blonde as Yang leapt into the air and slammed her gauntleted fist into the rising stone tendril.
Hardened rock shattered as she drilled her arm into the Grimm's armor, cracking it in an impact of icy Dust before the whole appendage was thrown into the ground.
"How 'bout that!?" Yang exclaimed, landing in a roll before she turned her gaze to the sky.
Above her, Blake fell from a clone-volleyed height with a sharp, icy spear Yang broke off earlier from the island's several spikes.
The raven-haired girl jammed the sharp end of the large javelin into the cracked surface of the tendril Yang threw down, piercing straight through the molten black flesh beneath before spearing the whole appendage to the ground.
Ice chipped as the tip of her spear met the island's cold surface beneath before Yang gave Ciel a small salute.
"Mind doing the honors?"
"Ohohoho, with pleasure!" Ciel smirked, sliding her foot back as she jumped, flipping up through the air before she brought the back-end of her scythe around and descended in a tight spin, then struck the end of the embedded spear with the full force of a ballistic missile, hammering the tendril into the ground while nailing it in place.
"Given this creature's size," Leo interrupted, firing bursts of his aura-encased bullets across the island to strike away other offending tendrils attacking his allies, "we will need more than one spike."
"Way ahead of you buddy."
Yang cracked several more areas of the tendril before her, striking its slightly restrained body of black stone as she ran down its length.
Blake and Ciel were running back from the center of the island, where broken spires and nests of razor sharp spikes littered the jagged ridges of its several layers. Blake dragged two along the ground with her ribbons, their ends skidding and bouncing against the ice below. Ciel ran back with five somehow, and they seemed to be larger than the ones Blake was pulling back.
"You know, I'm pretty sure you're cheating..." Blake exhaled, reeling in her black ribbons as the two dashed along behind Yang, finding places to plant their spears as the tendril began to thrash around.
"Cheating? Oh kitten..." Ciel drawled in emphasis, dropping all five of her spikes to the ground before snapping her fingers, a black, circular pocket dimension opening up below the clattering pile at her feet.
She then raised up her scythe towards the sky as ten, large black portals formed in the sky above.
"This is cheating!"
Ciel quickly lashed her scythe out towards the colossal creature, unleashing forth ten large spikes of ice from her portals.
Blake couldn't roll her amber eyes any harder.
"You good?" Xera asked, pulling his partner out of the confines of the cracked, blackened wall.
Her converse sneakers hit the ground softly with a stumble, but otherwise she gave him a confident smile.
"Yup. I think I'm doing a good job being a nuisance..." she smiled bemusedly, brushing off her skirt as the fire-lit sparks of battle clattered from the other side of the room.
"He's entered a stronger state..." the phoenix pointed out, glancing behind him to see Dante, Ruby, and Tohma interchanging blows with the black minotaur.
Every time it could, Tohma encased another limb of the entity's body in ice. But that only proved to slow him down only slightly, each encasement of ice seemingly breaking faster than the last.
"Can you keep the fortress lit and fight at the same time?" Skyla asked, standing back up straight and balanced again.
"As long as I split my focus, I'll be able to keep the room lit as long as I do." responded Xera.
"That's what's important right now." she stated, falling into a run as she pulled Xera's arm with her, "Hey, Weiss-cream, mind if we ask a favor?"
The duo skidded to a stop beside the heiress, her attention lying on the combatants in the fight as she focused on summoning glyphs to support them. Whenever a dodge was needed, she made it easier due to a directed glyph. Whenever added force was needed to a strike, she applied that as well. But more importantly, she was keeping them mobile and elusive. Any kind of hit would be bad this early on.
"Weiss-cream… I'll try to remember that for the next time I need to address you," Destiny said, giving the heiress a teasing glance.
"Please don't…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So? Wanna be part of the cool club and do something awesome?" Skyla asked, poking Weiss's shoulder as Destiny returned her attention to the actions of her summon.
"As long as it doesn't require licking me Sky…" Weiss responded, giving the girl her brief attention.
By now, she was used to the nickname, but she knew Skyla would change it up on her eventually. She had multiple nicknames for everyone.
"Awe, but that's an important part of it!" Skyla complained, but she quickly pointed one of her blades forward toward the minotaur across the room, "We're going to build a cannon and we need your help."
"I take it we need her momentum lock glyphs?" Xera asked, catching on to the plan his partner was hatching.
"You got it, and a whole lot of em."
"That can be arranged." Weiss stepped back on the marble ground and adjusted her footing, giving the two a quick nod, "Whenever you're ready."
Skyla could only smile, "Let's see just how quickly this thing can move."
She reared her arm back and hurled her right katana into a column of stone to their left, embedding the sharp tip of her sword into the pillar before doing the same in the opposite direction. Her pink and purple ribbons softly sifted through her fingers as she pulled them taught, tying their ends together once she did.
"I didn't know your ribbons had elastic properties..." Xera commented, walking in front of the combined ribbons as he drew up his sword and connected it to the panel at his sweatshirt's back.
"They come with a few perks." she replied simply, then began pulling the ribbons backward along the central marble pathway.
"Weiss, start layering momentum glyphs along a straight line and direct them all forward. It's essentially a big ballista." Xera elaborated, pushing the central knot of the ribbons back from in front of Skyla as the two worked to stretch the makeshift contraption.
"Got it." Weiss affirmed, closing her eyes for a moment before raising her rapier. She ushered her blade forward for a moment before she pulled it outward, the first of many small, slowly circling black glyphs forming behind Xera as they advanced.
"I'll assist as well while I have a moment." Destiny's voice filtered in now, her heels clicking forward as she made her way to Skyla's embedded blades.
Her violet eyes flashed a soft blue for a brief second as she tapped into her summon's abilities, a pale blue hue shimmering over her skin a moment later as she touched where the katanas were dug into the stone columns.
Ice formed and spread upon contact, securing the blade even more into the pillar before her. And as Skyla and Xera advanced, she did the same to the other side.
"How far back?" Xera asked, the tension of the ribbons growing exponentially with every step, but the two kept going.
"A few pillars at least? What do you think?" Sky asked in response, casting her gaze off to her sides to count the structures they've already passed.
"I'd say four, five might be pushing it."
"You think?" Weiss cut in, summoning her eighth glyph now in the horizontal line trailing behind Xera's back, "Four glyphs are enough to accelerate an object to the speed of sound. This is going twice that. Are you sure whatever you're firing can withstand that kind of force?"
"More than sure." Xera replied with certainty, his eyes keeping track of the distance they were pulling out to before he stopped his partner with a nod of the head, "This is far enough."
Ten glyphs now stood between their new position and the crossing pillars they started at.
"You said four gets an object to the speed of sound?" Xera asked, ducking beneath the ribbon and standing close to Skyla's side, his hands gripping the central knot now alongside hers.
Weiss nodded with a soft hum to confirm.
"That'll take us just below Mach 3, about 850 meters per second..." Xera calculated, staring down the line of circling glyphs in front of him before he shrugged his shoulders, "Give or take a meter or two."
"This isn't for me specifically, but you know, for, uh, less knowledgeable people..." Skyla interjected, "how fast is that?"
"That's approximately 1900 miles per hour, or in terms you'd like to hear." Xera sent a humorous glance to his partner beside him as he reached a hand back, disconnecting his longsword from over his shoulder, "A 12.7x108mm Anti-Material bullet travels at 1840 mph, which is the largest bullet made so far."
"Come again?"
At this point, Xera was only purposefully getting more technical to push her, "Think big sniper, but bigger. And powered by a large explosion."
"Ahh!" Skyla slowly nodded, "I got it. Yeah, that's what I was thinking the whole time."
"Sure."
Xera slowly lowered his black sword into the strong pull of Weiss's momentum locked glyphs, each set to a certain directional force and layered one over the other. All of the ebony motifs fell in line in a straight-shot of glowing glyphs, like the rifled barrel of an artillery cannon.
Only, this projectile had a different purpose from the usual catastrophic impact of artillery.
Once the blade was in place, he took a tight hold of its handle as Skyla repositioned, taking a stronger grasp of her ribbons as the two held the tension of their ballista together.
"Destiny, can you get Tohma to tell Dante and Ruby about this plan?" Xera asked, turning his gaze to the summoner.
It may have been a powerful sword-cannon, but it wasn't directable.
They could only fire in one specific spot with particularly minor readjustments, which meant they needed the ones ahead of them to get the minotaur into position.
Their line of sight was a straight-shot to the throne… all they needed was to time the release. The positioning fell to those two and the bear.
"Already on it. Dante's smart, so he'll be quick to react to this." Destiny replied, closing her eyes again as she tapped into her mental connection with Tohma on the battlefield.
"We only have the one sword." Xera stated, eyeing up the end of his blade and the throne beyond it, "Looks like we need to make it count."
"Don't worry, it's just like pin the tail on the donkey. Only from a distance." Skyla commented.
"Riiight, yeah, this is exactly like that."
"What? There's only, like, two differences."
"I see a lot more than two."
"Okay, maybe four."
"Skyla, it's not even the same game at this point…"
"Yatsuhashi, keeping that kitsune over there safe?" Coco asked over her shoulder, her heeled boots digging into the ice as she pulled the rotating barrels of her golden gatling gun around.
The bullet chains in her drum magazine immediately started revving, rapidly feeding into the chambers of each quickly spinning barrel as she unleashed a barrage of bullets into the black mass of stone around the grimm's eyes.
Each glint of light tore a sizable chunk of stone from the creature's body, drilling into its armored shell with every hit.
"He can't! She's terrified of him!" Velvet spoke up, rushing in from the active bullheads and sliding to Coco's position.
"Well it's not like Fox will play nice with her!" Coco growled, the rapid concussive stream of projectiles spitting out of her gun causing her feet to slide back on the gritty ice.
"It's not his fault, he's just…"
"He's Fox, I know." Coco replied, the rotation in her barrels slowing for a moment as she threw a glance at Velvet, "Can you do it?"
"I can try, but aren't I of more use here?"
"Don't burn yourself out, Velvs. You already used your weapon recently on the Leviathan, I don't want you pushing it and having to rebuild the whole thing from scratch if it fails." her leader replied curtly, throwing her gaze into the sky before dashing back.
She snatched the rabbit by the waist and dipped out, leaving the blast zone of a quickly descending tendril as it smashed into the ice she was firing from.
"Go to her, I'll be fine." Coco ushered, placing Velvet back on her feet before turning around. A delicate hand rose to fix her skewed sunglasses, a smirk forming as soon as she did, "This hentai nightmare doesn't stand a chance against all of us."
Velvet nodded, getting out of the area with a blush intact as she moved back to the bullheads. Another salvo of bullets fired off behind her, Coco's gun revving up once more as she swung her way into a bullhead's back compartment.
"Yatsu, go help Coco. We'll be fine here." Velvet quickly stated, walking her way into the bullhead and to the two inside.
Kitsuki sat buckled up in one of the seats, her three tails bundled up around herself as she sat with her knees bent up against her chest. Her arms tightly held them there, and with every flash of red lightning illuminating the sky, she visibly flinched and quivered all the more.
Her guard stood by the open door of the large compartment, hanging onto a handle above his head as he glanced down to Velvet as she passed. He gave her a silent look, something that questioned her of someone else.
"Fox is already out there. He and Coco are holding off just outside. They're working to whittle away at the flesh of this thing and its tendrils, but he can't do much." Velvet informed, kneeling down in front of the kitsune before glancing to her teammate, "Coco's managing to dish out a lot of damage though. Her armor piercing rounds are doing a number to its main body."
Yatsu nodded, his even eyes turning again as they glanced out into the fray.
"Don't worry, they'll be fine." Velvet reassured, then shooed him off with a few flicks of her hands, "Now go and join them."
The tall fighter slowly let go of his handle and stepped out of the bullhead, casting one more glance back to Velvet before drawing his single-edged claymore. Its copper gleam brandished itself in the light of the island's red energy before he took off, disappearing from the rabbit faunus's sight.
"Okay…" the girl slowly exhaled, turning her attention back to Kitsuki.
The kitsune had her eyes snapped shut, lips trembling from the outside world as he tails tightened around her. She was acting like this well before the Kraken showed up. Velvet reached forward, softly brushing the other girl's white hair out of her face.
"It's the storm, isn't it…?"
Golden-orange eyes cracked open for only a second, closing quickly afterward as a flash of red lightning illuminated the compartment they resided in.
It was. And for some reason, the kitsune was afraid of it. But to act like this? Velvet quietly hushed the girl and brushed down her shaking tails, trying her best to comfort her.
"Here, I have something that can help." she quietly whispered, pulling a compartment around from her belt and carefully opening it.
This wasn't just a simple phobia. Something happened to the girl, Velvet withdrew a cushioned pair of earmuffs, custom made for most faunus with two sets of ears. She adjusted it for a few moments before gently resting it over Kitsuki's head.
The soft padding across its band helped hold down the kitsune's ears, negating most of the harsh noises filtering through the furry appendages while also sealing over her human ears.
As soon as it was in place, the kitsune's shaking began to settle.
Something happened to her, someone did something to her… and it severely hurt her. And whatever it was, lightning was involved, Velvet slowly breathed out as she came to that realization, giving the girl in front of her a sad smile.
She hated stories like that.
The sound of a harsh clash shook the walls around her in the next moment, and after a quickly held breath, Velvet's ears picked up the noise of several chunks of brittle stone clattering to the ground.
Yatsuhashi had joined the fight.
Dante flipped in the air and landed on his feet, skidding to a halt as he used his left hand to slow himself down. Another swing from a massive axe made its way overhead to try and crush him, forcing Dante to dash sideways and dodge momentarily before jumping atop the axe.
The minotaur quickly raised up his weapon to launch Dante away, but this proved to only benefit the young immortal by giving him a boost to his jump. Dante flipped backward and swung his sword, discharging an arcing wave of his white and black Aura into the face of his massive foe, resulting in a small scale explosion that engulfed the creature's body in smoke.
Damn… That didn't do as much damage as I hoped it would… His skin has some Aura resistance to it. My Devouring Light attacks are doing damage, but not enough to get through his skin. I either have to make larger Aura Wave attacks or go for a piercing blast, direct body contact. That worked last time, but he'll be more aware this time. I could use… No… I'll save it for when I need it.
"Ruby?"
"Um, aye sir?" The red reaper zipped to the immortal's side, cloak kicking behind her in a wake of rose petals.
"Just Dante will do." Dante quickly corrected, throwing his blade forward to strike aside an incoming swing.
He quickly took Ruby by the waist and dashed, skidding to a spinning stop past the minotaur's flank and around a structure of glowing ice and quickly set her down, then leaned around their temporary glistening cover to see the minotaur now on the other side of the room.
"You're faster than I am. For the moment at least. So I need you to do hit-and-runs on his lower half. I'll take his upper body."
"Right, yeah I can do that. Just lemme know when!" Ruby slipped around to Dante's other side, getting ready to re-enter as soon as he gave the order.
"Tohma, still with us?"
The white-haired teen looked to his side to see the glacial bear standing right next to him.
"You do the same as Ruby, but keep your distance and use your ice for ranged attacks. He won't be able to keep track of us and I'll be the bigger threat out of the three, so his main focus will be on me. All good?"
Tohma gave a small nod and moved off to his left, disappearing behind a veil of sputtering frost and ice.
Dante lowered into a forward crouch, touching the cold ground with the tips of his fingers as he gave one final glance to Ruby.
With a shared nod, he took off.
"Come and get me!"
His request was heard and met within an instant of asking, the minotaur's massive ebony axe swinging sideways at him from the darkness. The swing was accompanied by a concussive blast, the backend of the entity's weapon suddenly lurching forward as smoke and red flame billowed out behind it.
Dante slid beneath the unnaturally accelerated strike and jumped to avoid the next swing, catching the minotaur's arm that swung into his body. Mid side-swing, the minotaur swung his arm down to smash Dante into the floor, but the young immortal quickly moved his body out of the way and hopped onto the creature's arm, leaping forward to his face to stab at his head.
The minotaur immediately threw its head out of the way, dodging the stab whilst bringing up his knee to launch Dante upwards. The young immortal brought his blade in and used the flat side to block the knee that sent him up slightly, blocking a rapid follow-up swing that batted him out of the way and off to the side.
Now that Dante was a good distance away, he twisted himself in the air and swung his hand towards the creature. A wave of ten white and black Aura Swords crashed into the minotaur, some of them shattering while the rest pierced into its ashen flesh.
All of it fell together to keep the entity's attention on one thing and one thing only.
A streak of red dashed in as Dante landed, a careening slash hurled against the minotaur's leg and forcing him to his knee. Large spheres of ice suddenly followed, crashing against the side of his head to disorient him.
He tried swinging his arm at Ruby, but she blurred out of sight and he took another volley of ice to his snout, forcing the creature to defensively raise up its arm to shield itself from the ensuing onslaught.
But Dante's sudden battle cry tore his gaze back up again, smoldering red eyes turning upward to see the immortal swing down upon him.
He quickly grasped his axe with both hands and used the shaft to block the incoming longsword, emitting a small shockwave that rushed through the illuminated room.
"I see now why our King has taken an interest in you..." the minotaur spoke, yanking his shaft into a tilt to try and twist Dante's biting blade away, "You are the son of the First…"
"I have-" Dante grit his teeth and slammed his foot down on the rising end of his enemy's weapon, throwing it back down and keeping it in place, "no idea what you're on about!"
"It does not matter…"
The ground beneath the minotaur's knee began to crack, splinters of ice spilling away from the shattering surface as the entity slowly began to stand.
"Use it…" it growled, pushing into the struggle of biting weapons as Dante's strength pushed back.
"Use what?!"
"Cast off your human flesh… Unleash your true power… Only then will you be able to stop me and protect these weaklings…"
"I wouldn't go underestimating them so easily… It'll come back and bite your head off!" Dante growled back now, pushing forward all the harder.
"Your claim holds no merit. So far…" the minotaur vanished within a rising darkness, appearing high in the air above Dante, "I am not impressed."
Dante spun around and raised up his sword to block the overhead strike. The axe crashed into his blade with the backing force of a recoiling cannon, sending the teen skidding on his heels from the force of the blow.
With nothing to dig into, the crushing strike collapsed past Dante's glancing blade and struck the floor. Numerous chunks of crumbling marble and ice broke and upturned into the air, large slabs jutting straight up and rising into a perimeter of crushed black walls.
Crimson eyes shot to the side to track his opponent, but his sight of Dante was obscured from the upturned shield.
"Hiding will not save you…"
Dante was already on the move, quickly circling around the field of stone while the creature searched. In that moment, Ruby sped in and pierced her scythe into the creature's lower calf, her infiltration immediately backed by Tohma taking a bite at the other.
The two attacks buckled his legs once more and effectively lowered him to his knees again.
Behind the creature, Dante leapt from the shadows and landed atop the minotaur's bulky shoulders, allowing him to upturn his sword and repeatedly stab the creature in the head, reaching about eight times before he was grabbed.
The minotaur's eyes narrowed as he held Dante in front of him, rising as he shook Ruby and Tohma from his legs. His axe rose with him as he lifted Dante and held him up, swinging at the teen's dangling body. But the young immortal had summoned more of his Aura Swords to pierce the wrist belonging to the massive hand that held him, forcing the entity to let go and allow Dante to leap towards him and land a large slash across the creature's chest.
The counterattack threw the minotaur backward, forcing him into a roll as he skidded to a halt in a low crouch. Burning eyes looked upward to see Dante up in the air again, holding his sword with both hands as it was raised high up over his head.
"Devouring…!"
As he was about to finish his technique, he suddenly felt pure black Aura instantly blanket his entire body and form his Shadow Skin, forcing a short surprised gasp out of the young immortal as he realized what happened.
Instead of deactivating his Shadow Skin, he growled and raised up his blade as black and white Aura gathered around his sword in massive amounts.
"Light!"
The young immortal swung down and unleashed a massive arcing wave of his Aura that crashed into the creature, shattering the immediate structures of ice around them in a blast of energy.
As Dante landed on the ground, his Shadow Skin immediately deactivated, reverting him to his normal form.
What the hell just happened?! Why did-?!
He raised up his sword and blocked a swing to his head, gazing at the massive minotaur standing before him with numerous gashes, cuts, and burns littering its entire body.
"Yes...! Yes! That… That is true power and strength! Strength worthy of my axe!"
"Tsk...! Just give it a rest!" Dante unleashed another Aura wave with a roar to push back the axe, following up with another to send the entity backward.
"Ruby!"
A blur moved past the immortal in streaking red and rose petals, the young reaper soaring towards the minotaur with incredible speed.
It raised it's axe up to take a swing, but before he could put any power into it, Ruby rapidly pulled the trigger on Crescent Rose to project herself forward with several consecutive recoils of her gun, pushing her to an even faster pace.
In a brief dash of her whipping cloak, she caught the shaft of the minotaur's axe with the curve of her own scythe and yanked. Two heels dug into the hard, crumbly floor as she pulled. With one more squeeze of her trigger, she jammed the sharp point of her scythe's shaft into the ground, pinning the minotaur in place at the foot of stairs leading to the throne.
"Insufferable worm!"
The minotaur reached over to try and catch Ruby by the throat, but felt a small rush of wind move toward him from behind her. Dante's form slipped around Ruby's frame at a blinding speed, the immortal's blade catching his reaching forearm with its tip and plunging straight through it.
The bloodied white weapon twisted as Dante's momentum carried through, locking the sharp length of his weapon deep inside the creature's arm as he pulled the minotaur's hand away from the cloaked girl. The immortal landed opposite Ruby, sneakers digging into marble as he pushed forward.
Ruby and Dante strained out the creature's arms, pulling both outward and downward as the minotaur's legs began to slowly bend, their muscles struggling to remain standing.
"Now!" shouted the young immortal.
An ear-piercing concussive blast rang out from the center of the room. Two central pillars suddenly cracked and shattered, a crystalline hum of ten glyphs riding alongside the following passing shockwave as every structure of ice still standing shattered to pieces.
A shining glint of black suddenly connected with the minotaur's chest, tip passing through durable hide with absolutely no resistance as muscle and bone quickly caved in.
In an instant, the creature was thrown back under the force of the impacting blade in his chest, ripping him from his strained position on the ground and sending him brutally into the marble stone behind him.
The ballistic sword-cannon built up enough kinetic force to tear the creature's arm from his shoulder, yanked off by Dante's embedded sword in his moment of impact while Ruby's scythe disarmed him of his weapon.
And with a sickening, dull thud, the sword skewered his heart deep inside his chest, sinking into him completely. The black blade's hilt lay crushed against his bones, and as the cold marble chair met his back, the sharp tip of Xera's sword pierced the marble of the throne and pinned him against it.
Weaponless, armless, motionless. It was reduced to nothing under the actions of six children.
How could such a thing happen..?
Dante and Ruby slowly stood, the minotaur's axe clattering loudly to the ground next to young reaper in the dull quietness of the room. Shards of ice rained down around them, breaking against the floor in flurries due to the gale of wind that ruptured inside the wake of Xera's passing sword.
Then, everything grew still.
"You..." their enemy coughed, black blood slipping out with each breath as his one arm grew limp, "defeated me… The six of you…"
His fading eyes slowly leveled on the group slowly approaching the throne, each step taken holding a caution to it he'd expect from wary opposition.
He coughed again, pain seizing his entire body as he remained still, "You did well to beat me… Zeridûl's first challenge..."
"Are there more?" asked Dante.
"Two more challenges await you… But your next task..." he coughed again, another dull pain taking over his lungs, "it will be difficult…"
His eyes returned in their glow once more, turning to face the six who stood before him.
"You may yet hold the merit I could not see... If you truly are worthy…you will reach him… If you succeed, you will greet him at the highest peak of this Dark city..."
"And if we defeat him too?"
"Then you are...", another cough suddenly broke his voice, but he continued, "more worthy than even he could've ever imagined."
His wounds were grievous, whatever life force he had within himself gradually seeped out of him in trails of black blood spilling to the floor.
But even if it was painful, he fell to the blades of those he recognized. His fall here was not in vain. This failure only brightened the possibility of success.
This was exactly what his king was looking for…
"I was stationed here for my reflexes in comparison to the others. And yet…" he trailed off, lungs seizing again in a sputter of coughs.
A weak arm slowly rose, thick fingers rising to rest on the armrest of his once undefeated throne. The shallow light of his eyes sparked and dimmed, a momentary crimson flame appearing in the palm of his hand before he pressed it into the ebony stone.
A subtle warmth suddenly emitted from his blackened chair, a raw energy sifting through it as he calmly reached his shaky hand to the sword embedded in his chest.
And with a pained effort, he withdrew Xera's blade and held it out, handle turned toward its rightful owner.
"Go. Know that you are victors. Carry yourselves high… and you will find peace… as I have…" his voice grew quiet now, a dark scarlet light passing from his throne and into the floor of the room before him.
"We will." Xera responded, he and the others slowly making their way from the throne platform and toward the narrow door behind it.
Only Dante remained behind, glaring at the dying Minotaur.
"Heed my warning...Child of the First… This realm and it's power...is not to be underestimated… You will find yourself seeking...and find yourself wanting… He knows of this… And for that very reason...he made the Realm the way it is. He knows...of all that transpired."
All that has transpired…
"So then...my hunch was right… He has it then?"
"If what I know of and what you speak of is similar, then yes, he does..."
"Tch… Not what I needed to hear… Fine then. At least I know one hundred percent what I'm dealing with."
"He...is unpredictable…"
"Not in the slightest. If anything, he and his kind are always predictable. I will crush him like the parasite he's been."
"Overconfidence will lead to your defeat..."
"Not if I can predict the outcome and what actions he'll take to ensure success."
"He isn't the only one you should be wary of…"
"Hmph… Did you really think I would come here unprepared for that possibility? Or any possibility really? Zeridûl thinks himself clever, but his actions, thoughts and even goals are fairly simplistic in nature, typical of that of any Dark Entity Lord. He simply thinks that because he has a vast amount of power he is capable of outmaneuvering and outhinking us at any step and turn. If anything, it will be his overconfidence and arrogance that will be his undoing. For now, you will die knowing that you failed against a group of humans and a Faunus."
Dante then raised up his left hand and pointed both his index finger and middle finger together towards the head of the Minotaur, a sphere of black Aura building at the center of those two fingertips. As soon as the sphere had been allowed to grow a small amount for three seconds, it discharged into a silent and small beam of Aura that shot right through the creatures head, thus ending its life at last.
As soon as the Minotaur ceased movements entirely, the whole room grew enkindled in a slowly rising crimson flame, his soul falling to the encroaching touch of his own dark red blaze.
Three full tendrils had finally grown still, where countless spikes of ice jammed into the flesh and armor of each arm. The hard restraints kept the grimm's attacks at bay, reducing any more strikes to the limitation of five tendrils instead of eight. That cut down on the damage and the overwhelming force of this creature by an incredible margin, but the danger still remained. They still had the other five to deal with.
It was becoming more and more rapid with its attacks, somehow countering their strategy to pin it down by quickly rolling and receding each arm after every move. Its burning skin beneath its stone-ridden exterior tried to melt through every javelin of ice that pierced its hide, but to no avail. The ice of the island was breakable, but all of it was unmeltable under any entourage of heat, no matter how much energy it swelled through its downed limbs.
"Yatsu! One more should do it!" Coco called out, turning her sputtering barrels to a falling limb above them.
Golden streaks of lead and icy hues slammed into the descending tendril, drilling into stone before Coco stepped back and ducked. Over her head swung the golden edge of Yatsuhashi's curved blade, slamming up into the cracked, already heavily damaged underbelly of the appendage above him. All air in a line split from the impact of his sword as he cleaved through the tendril in full, the grimm's eyes shooting wide in pain as it suddenly reeled back its severed limb from Yatsuhashi's reach. The rest of its discarded arm remained, falling limply to the ground behind the tall man and crushing any expanse of ice it beneath it.
"Nicely done!" Coco complemented, moving past her teammate's side once again as she watched their enemy pull back all its limbs and screech, massive eyes glaring at the residents on the island before it.
Behind them, molten lava slowly oozed out of the interior of the grimm's severed limb, hardening a moment later as soon as it touched the black ice below.
"This thing's core temperature rivals a volcano, so be careful the next time you decide to break its skin." Fox warned, skidding to a halt beside his leader and partner as he turned his white gaze to their hissing enemy.
"Duly noted." Coco responded, giving her Fox a quick lovetap.
He showed no reaction to it. One day, she'll pull a reaction out of him.
"Hey, pretty boy V2. Do you read?" asked Coco as she spoke into her Scroll.
"As flattering as your comment is, my name is Leonard Ms. Adel."
"I knew that."
"Yes, of course you did… In either case, what do you require Ms. Adel?"
"Nothing really. Just calling to tell you to watch with the deathrays. I just shot up one of its arms and it's spilling lava-like blood."
"I see… Dismemberment won't be as viable of an option as I would have hoped it would… Thank you for the notification Ms. Adel."
"Coco to you, hot stuff."
She saw the call had disconnected and smiled as she put her Scroll away.
"It looks like this thing bit off more than it can chew!" Yang called out, staring out at the monstrous eyes of the Dremoha before them, "So much for Dremoha class grimm being all high and mighty."
"Do not be so hasty to make assumptions Miss Xiao Long." Ozpin interjected, moving forward past the fiery blonde as he approached the ridge the Drael Kraken surfaced at, "We are merely stronger than it in this current situation. If there were less of us, this battle would surely be different."
A tendril came sailing down to take the silvered man's head off, but he rose his cane to deflect the heavy strike in a flash of spanning green light. Lines across the creature's arm suddenly formed, cracks shattering across its entire appendage before half of its stone hide broke away.
"Whoa, headmaster?! You've been holding out on us!" Sun called out, but the man at the ridge ignored the comment as he stared into the eyes of his foe.
"Zeridûl may have opened his gate for you, but he did not beckon you here…" the man muttered, watching as the creature before him narrowed its eyes of hatred, malice, and agony, "Who sent you?"
The creature tried again, two tendrils falling now but both were knocked aside by pulses of purple energy. The focused force split the dual strike apart, careening both appendages into the ice at Ozpin's sides. He'd have to thank Glynda later.
"A creature of your intellect should understand my words as much as the next, so allow me to ask you once more..." Ozpin spoke, his grip on the handle of his cane tightening as he leveled his gaze beneath his softly blowing bangs, "Who was it that released you from the prison you were trapped in for so many years?"
His question was met with silence. The Kraken slowly withdrew its two tendrils, its massive appendages slipping over the ridge next to Ozpin's feet before disappearing into the boiling water below.
Ozpin sighed, turning on his heel and walking away from the edge. But a resounding roar broke the silence he left in his wake, tearing down from the sky as the storm clouds above shook in violent shudders of electricity. The red lightning shooting across the sky grew in ferocity, breaking from the confinement of clouds now to reach down toward the island below.
Ozpin could only lower his gaze, the grip on his cane threatening to break the very weapon he cherished as he stepped past Glynda and made his way to the center of the plateau.
"It appears we have attracted the attention of the Storm Drake that nearly took one of our bullheads out of the sky." the headmaster informed, sparing a brief glance to the blonde woman, then did the same to professor Miralla at the woman's side.
The shadow of a winged beast broke through the layer of gray clouds far above them, the new creature descending with a roar of electrified enragement as the entire sky around it shattered in a golden wake of branching lightning.
Their battle with a single Dremoha was now increased to two.
"It looks like we'll be facing two Dremohas in this battle of fate we seem to be locked in." Ozpin sighed, stopping to address the two women behind him, "Have faith in the abilities of our students and their allies. I believe they have all the power they need to face this."
His reflective eyes turned to the sky, watching as the clouds became bathed in the new light of this creature's uncontained energy.
"We fall prey to a will that is not their own. But we have the means to win against the odds stacked against us here on this island."
So… She finally makes her move…
The tip of Ozpin's cane fell to the ice at his feet, an energy stirring within him that he hasn't drawn on for a long, long time.
The game has begun. The turn falls to me now… Allow me to make my own move, then, in this long game we play.
(Omake: Everywhere We Go, by me)
At one of the booth seats within a Panda Tree Diner, the small, two year old wolf Faunus Irene stood on the padded seats, staring intently at her guardian Raum as he returned an equally focused glare from across the seat. He checked the time on his Holographic Scroll, seeing the it was 11:59. The time was almost upon them. The King Class Dark Entity slowly raised up a container that held pieces of orange chicken within, and kept his right hand hovering over the open part of it. Irene quickly readied herself by keeping her arms in a formation as if she were going to draw and shoot.
"Do you know...what time it is..?" asked Raum.
Irene gave him an affirmative nod with her usual "hmph" and lowered herself slightly, narrowing her eyes.
"That's right… Its High Noon..!" replied the Dark Entity as his eyes glowed with a Dark Green Aura.
His hand reached for a piece of orange chicken inside, and kept it there for only a second and a second only before quickly removing the small chunk off food, and saying "Draw!"
And within a matter of two seconds, Raum quickly tossed six pieces of orange chicken towards Irene, all of which she quickly opened her mouth and moved her head in the direction of the pieces of food, not missing a single one as chewed contently, raising both hands in the air as if to declare herself triumphant.
"For a child your age and size, you're pretty good at reacting as quickly as you do. I'm impressed. That, and your appetite is something incredible." he said as she continued eating.
She stopped for a moment and looked at the table to find what she wanted to give them. Along with their order of white rice and orange chicken, they also had ordered some bread that came in the form of a small loaf. Finding the loaf of bread, she picked it up and waved it in front of the Dark Entity, as if suggesting he should eat.
"No thanks. Don't need to eat as much as you, remember?"
Either way, she persisted by waving the loaf even faster.
"Fiiine." He said rolling his eyes.
Instead of taking the entire loaf, he used his right index finger to slice the loaf in half and catch his half, giving the rest to Irene. Content with his decision to eat the bread, the little wolf Faunus began nibbling on her half, but looked up momentarily to see Raum's half was gone. She was shocked to say the least.
"What? I eat fast. Go on. We've got other places to go after this."
She gave him a nod and continued to feast upon her bread.
Not a few seconds later did two women pass by and took note of the little wolf Faunus cutely nibbling at loaf of bread, both of them squealing in some form of...excitement?
Raum was very confused with their actions.
"Oh my gosh!" said one as she got closer.
"She's so adorable!"
"Like the cutest thing ever!" spoke one as she rubbed Irene's head, whom the latter clearly enjoyed.
What the..?
"Hey." said Raum, trying to get the attention of the two women.
"Let's take selfie!"
"Okay!"
What the fuck is a selfie?! And why do they want one?!
"Hey!" said Raum, finally getting the attention of the overly excited women that had got their photo with Irene.
"Are you her father?!"
"She's the sweetest little thing ever!"
"T-That I know. What the heck is that thing you called a selfie?"
"You're really young. Don't you know?"
"It's taking a picture of yourself with someone else in the shot!" said one woman as she showed Raum the selfie she and her friend took with Irene.
"Why is this a thing?" Asked the Dark Entity.
"I dunno. For fun I guess?"
People do this for fun?!
"You know…" said one of the women leaning in close to Raum.
"You're pretty young and hot for a dad…" said the other woman leaning equally close.
Are they trying to woo me? As impressive as their breasts are, not interested at the moment.
"We could help relieve some stress in your life…"
"Maybe even help be mamas to such an adorable little thing as her…"
The "retreat" button in Raum's mind was repeatedly being mashed alongside with his mind coming up with an exit strategy and run as far away as possible from these women.
He quickly slapped down enough lien for the bill, plus a five percent tip, quickly spun around the women, grabbed Irene, and dashed out of the diner, the women dazed as to what happened given this all happened within a matter of three seconds.
Raum ran and didn't stop running as he carried Irene in his arms.
"This is the fifth time within a week that something like that has happened! What sorcery are you using to attract those lustful, voracious women?!" asked the Dark Entity as he still ran, holding Irene out in front of him.
She simply smiled and stuck out her tongue at him.
"Aha! I knew this was your doing! Whatever you're doing, don't do it anymore! At least not while we're in a town! I'm sick of running around like a lunatic because of women! If anything it should be the other way around!"
Irene simply giggled at her guardian as they moved closer to their rented apartment for the time being. They both had to wait for some time until the main group had returned from their "venture."
(Weapons Illustrated 7)
"Well everyone, Ruby's busy with Jaune, Ren and Nora today. So it's basically just me on set today. Please make due with whatever horrible jokes I can come up with in the meantime while I give you today's rundown of the weapon we're presenting." said Dante.
"Actually, I'm here to assist you today. After all, we are speaking of my weapon."
"What the-?! Zeridûl?!"
"Hello Dante."
"What are you doing here?!"
"As I said, I'm here to assist you for today and today only. After All, we have our battle to conclude soon enough, yes?"
"I-I guess… Well, since you're the owner, why don't you give us a piece or two about your weapon?"
"Indeed I shall. As young Dante always says, today we shall speak of my weapon. It has no name." spoke the Dark Entity.
"Couldn't think of anything?"
"Not exactly."
"You totally forgot."
"Moving on before I freeze mr. Dante…"
"Geez, chill out."
Zeridûl simply glared at Dante, who only innocently raised up his hands.
"My weapon was rather simple in terms of capability. And within my hands combined with my abilities to negate Aura, a powerful tool of destruction. My first sword, the one I used before being ejected from Zerath Stark's body, was a giant black claymore; 6 feet in length and 1 foot in width. It was made of light, but virtually unbreakable material by human means. Half of the blade was imbued with Frost Dust for better damage against certain fire using pests, while the other half was imbued with Fire Dusr for increased damage against everything else. I believe you can give some input?"
"Sure thing… So, it wasn't just simply a claymore either. It had a secondary weapon form that could transform into a high caliber sniper rifle, almost like Ruby's Crescent Rose, with select fire modes between single shots, three burst shots, and full auto shots. Each bullet used were hollow point .50 Caliber bullets laced with different dust types for different effects against different type of enemies. He even had bullets made to specifically pierce through people's Aura Shielding, making his weapon not only a magnificent Grimm killer, but also a powerful Huntsmen/Huntress killer if he needed it to be."
"Indeed. After all, one must require a tool for different variations of situations they may come across. While my weapon may not be perfect, it does get the job down for whatever it is I need."
"Like cake-cutting?"
"A more specific type of cutting. Would you like me to demonstrate?"
"You can try. Not that it'd work."
"Hmph… You'll be eager to see what my new weapon is then."
"New weapon huh? Can't wait…" said Dante, "Too bad that'll be the only thing you'll have to defend yourself with."
"Do you really believe that is the only weapon at my disposal currently?"
"It isn't?"
"Aren't you forgetting something?" asked Zeridûl.
"No, I don't think so." replied Dante.
"Are you sure?"
Dante paused for a few moments before he glared back at Zeridûl.
"I won't fall for your deception Zeridûl!" replied the young immortal confidently.
…
"But I'm not deceiving you." he replied honestly in return.
We're getting close to the end folks! We've got two more trials before the big finale for this arc! And then...we move on to the Volume 4 Arc with some special twists and additions! And believe me folks, you don't want to miss it. All shall be tested. And whether or not they survive...is up to them.
Not much else to say.
Don't forget to check out my other new story Knights of White and Black, which is being written in conjunction with Xera Stark's story Rogue Huntsmen. It's totally awesome and definitely a new and fresh way of wrting for me. So yeah, please go check it out!
I highly recommend you all go check out the freaking amazing collab Xera Stark and I are currently working on concerning his story XSRA's Flame. His story overall is absolutely fantastic and is a must read, so I suggest you read from the very start. But, if you're just interested in the awesome collab our two minds put together have created, then mozy on down to chapter 53 of his story for the start. I've said it once and will say it again, you won't want to miss out on this story, and especially this exciting story arc we've created. Not only that, but check out his other awesome and highly entertaining story Rogue Huntsmen. It's just pure awesomeness bundled into one story. Trust me, you'll love it.
Questions? Ask them anytime. I will try to answer without spoiling.
Please remember to review, follow and favorite this story if you really enjoyed it and want to continue seeing more of it. And hey, even tell others about this story! Remember that your support is what helps make this story grow even larger and what helps improve it. With that, I bid you all an excellent week/weekend! Bye-bye now!