Chapter 33: A Dragon's Cause
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Ciel lay on her back with a blanket draped over a flat slab of stone about as large as her, making it at the very least a comfortable place to rest next to the campfire. She was more or less focused on the stars, seeing them shine brightly. With how far out they were in the wilderness, there were no lights from cities to obscure their shine. However, this did make their surroundings much...darker. Not that it was a problem. With Ciel's Shadow Eyes, she had perfect vision in the dark.
However, she didn't know if it was the same for Musashi. True, she did learn Faunus possessed a sort of night vision, but it varied greatly between the types. Though considering Musashi was a dragon Faunus, Ciel had a fairly strong guess she had high visibility.
Speaking of her companion, the young girl looked over to the side and saw the older dragon Faunus sitting on a log near the campfire, sharpening her katana with a small whetstone no bigger than the tanned Faunus' hand.
Looking at the whetstone itself, she saw the small, blackened slab had possessed stretched, hexagonal designs with grey outlines against the blackness of the stone, almost resembling scales. Strangely enough, the whetstone looked as though it was...leaking slightly.
This caught her attention greatly. Not because it was cool. Or shiny.
"Hey, Musashi." Ciel asked sitting up to face the girl, prompting the Faunus girl to stop and look back in return, "Should your whetstone be...I don't know, leaking?"
"Ah, I see this trinket has caught your interest." Musashi sheathed her katana and tossed the black stone to Ciel, who easily caught it, "While we do live in obscurity, some of us have traveled to the outside world to have a grasp as to what it was like. And thankfully, still none know of our existence."
"Huh… So what's with the whetstone then?"
"It's a special tool only found in our clan. A BlackHide Whetstone."
"Woah, cool name!" Ciel stated as she continued looking it over from various angles.
"Indeed. From what my father gathered when he traveled to the outside world of Remnant last year, although our methods for fortifying, repairing and sharpening our weapons and tools is antiquated, our methods are still vastly superior than what the 'modern populace' can do or reproduce with their machines. And it's all in thanks to the BlackHide Whetstone we of the Ryūjinhonō Clan posses."
"Alright. But what makes them so special? Or better for that matter?" Ciel asked.
Musashi gave a proud "hmph" as she crossed her arms and closed her eyes, "Our whetstones are capable of completely sharpening a weapon or tool in less than a minute. Not only is the weapon or tool restored to its original sharpness, but it's actually vastly improved by leaps and bounds, making any weapon or tool immensely sharper than its original state!"
"Woah…"
She had a sudden thought to use it on her scythe when she had the chance…
"As for the 'leaking' bit you mentioned, it's actually what helps make a weapon or tool much sharper than its original state."
"But how, or why does it leak?"
Musashi's violet colored eyes opened once more, looking to Ciel as she explained further "Deep within the confines of our village is an underground cavern, and within it...the remnant corpse of an Elder Dragon Grimm."
That...was supposed to be impossible…
"Hold on a second, don't Grimm bodies turn to dust after death or when they're held in captivity?"
"Naturally, they're supposed to. But this specific Grimm didn't when my first ancestor slayed the creature and built the foundations of the village near the cavern. Its body remained. And from various parts of its body and bones, we created our various tools and weaponry, much stronger than what those in the modern world posses. My weapons were also forged using materials from the dragon."
"And this whetstone is a product of it?"
"Yes. To be precise, that whetstone, and all the others we make, are a chunk of its skin we fashioned into whetstones after we stripped away the hide. To add, albeit a very slow process, the dragon's body regenerates over time."
"Sweet suffering succotash, you guys basically have an infinite supply!"
"In a sense. Materials are somewhat scarce due to our overuse in the early years of the village when it was being constructed alongside various other structures, tools, and weaponry. We only gather the materials we need once a year to allow the corpse to regenerate with a moderate amount the next time we harvest it."
"So...why does it leak then?" Ciel asked.
"When it was harvested the first time and cut away the scales, it was discovered there was a thick under layer of armor beneath the layer of scales that contained blood vessels, or at least, that's what they're assumed to be. Those hexagonal patterns are the vessels themselves, and its blood was a sort of clear silver."
"Hmmm… So if the corpse regenerates over time, does that mean the tools and weapons made from more internal materials regenerate over time? Like these whetstones for instance and not the weapons."
"You catch on quickly. Yes, that clear liquid with a silvery shine to it is indeed it's blood. It's actually what is responsible for greatly reinforcing a weapon or tool that is sharpened with it, and retains the condition of the whetstone itself, neither making it dull, wearing it down, or allowing it to regenerate. The blood vessels always manage to regenerate much more quickly in comparison, which allows usage of the whetstones to be constant if need be."
"Despite being obscure and all, your clan's really cool Musashi!"
"I-Is that so..?"
"Yup!" The young girl replied tossing the whetstone back to her ally, "I mean, you guys are a clan of super dragon Faunus! And you're basically dragon slayers! How is that not cool?!"
"I-I suppose we are 'cool'..."
Ciel let out her mischievous giggle as she sat back down, crossing one leg over the other as her eyes turned back to the stars.
"W-What of your family Ciel? I heard one of the little ones say you come from a clan of...devils…"
The young girl let out a pondering hum, "Well, I guess we sorta devils… But we aren't entirely devils. Kind of like coffee when you add milk, it's a half and half situation."
"Half..? So...you're half a devil… What is the other half then?"
Ciel pondered that as well. To be precise, she knew what the other half was. Or what it should be. She just doubted its existence considering…
…
"Don't really know. Kind of like with your village, we're an...obscure bunch too. No one really knows about us. Heh… We don't even know much about ourselves to be honest. All any of us know is that something messed up happened in between."
Musashi leaned in closer from her log, "There are not many of you?"
"We're basically four. Well, three. We don't what the deal is with our fourth. Never seen him. Or her. We just know they're supposed to be out there somewhere."
"I see… I apologize for prying too much into sensitive matters…"
"Eh, don't sweat it. Even if just the three of us, I like talking about my brothers. Well, my older brother at least, since he's the absolute coolest. The other one? Meh, he can be sort of cool."
Leo had his moments every once a month or so. And even then it was still pretty rare.
"It's good that you have strong relations with your siblings. It's something that should be cherished greatly."
"I know, right?"
They were all she had really, with the very few friends she had. How could she not appreciate them?
"You know, you were pretty eager to come along with me. Not that it's a problem or anything." Ciel said raising up her hands defensively as she sat up, "Just wondering is all. I usually don't get lucky enough to get a new friend in a day, and have them tag along for a totally not life threatening situation."
"Heh… Well, I do have my reasons mind you. To be frank…I'm after a person that's said to wander around the area of that tower."
"They a friend, or..?"
"No… They are an enemy. This person killed the previous head of our village. My father."
…
A mission of vengeance… The children she met outside the village yold her someone had died recently. To think it was her new companion's father was a sudden surprise.
Either way, Ciel could get behind the idea of performing a vendetta.
Sort of.
"That and...well… O-Our reputation of being an honorable clan would be tarnished if we allowed a wanderer to travel our lands and suffer. S-So I decided it be best I travel with you!" She said with a huff as she crossed her arms.
Ciel chuckled at that.
"I'm cool with that."
She didn't have any other reason to be here besides her brother asking her to. Now however, she did have another sort of. And that was to help Musashi along the way in turn given she was sacrificing her time to ensure Ciel's path to the tower was clear.
Not that she needed the help, but it was still greatly appreciated. Besides, who wouldn't want to have a totally hot dragon girl watching their back?
"Well, you should head to bed. We're close to the tower as is, and like my older brother says 'Best be prepared and have enough rest', or something like that."
"Y-You should rest as well, Ciel. You've kept watch the past three nights, I should at least-"
"It's cake, it's cake. I don't need to sleep or anything like that. My body's weird that way. But it's convenient for outings like this. Or when I want to play a lot of a game. Or when I don't want to stop going at… Actually, won't finish that last bit…"
"I-I insist!" Musashi's voice sounded with a heightened pitch to her tone.
Well, if she insisted…
"A-Alright then… Let's turn in for the night then." The young immortal replied rolling off her stone slab and onto her feet, blanket in tow.
Ciel entered inside the tent soon after, and quickly dropped on the mat and settled herself in her blanket, letting out a relaxed sigh before looking at the zip up door of the tent.
Given Musashi's height, as well as the long, obsidian horns on her head, she was having some difficulty entering inside, much to Ciel's amusement and the dragon Faunus' embarrassment.
"As...convenient as these...tents are...they are still...very frustrating!" Finished the dragon, finally entering the tent and laying next to Ciel, "Three days now...and one would expect that I would have much more ease entering inside this contraption!"
"I mean, it's kind of natural since you haven't been in a tent before since three days ago…"
"If only I had a way to temporarily hide my horns…"
"No way!" Ciel exclaimed, "Your horns are way too cool to hide! They got a nice slight curve, little bit rough around the edges…" she continued as she rubbed one of her companion's obsidian horns, "but overall smooth. Sleek and elegant with a touch of roughness to it."
The young girl soon saw Musashi shifting about underneath her blanket, and stopped her rubbing.
"Ah, sorry! I forgot that you're usually supposed to ask Faunus if you can touch their appendages…"
"W-Well, it can be helped… Since you have high admiration of my horns, you may touch them as you please… G-Gently though, if you don't mind..."
"Heh heh… I'm always gentle. Unless asked otherwise." Ciel responded with a wink.
"Wha-?!"
Musashi was at a loss for words for what she just heard, with Ciel only laughing at her stupor.
A chill wind passed over, prompting Ciel to shiver slightly, "Brrrrr… It's kinda cold tonight…"
Hearing some fabric shifting, the young immortal looked back to Musashi, seeing her left her cover whilst averting her gaze from Ciel.
"Y-You can move closer to me i-if you'd like… Y-You'll find I-I'm quite warm…"
…
Certain urges were very quickly buried away within Ciel's subconscious as she silently scooted herself into her companion, who quickly left down the large blanket to wrap up both of them nicely.
Musashi was right… She virtually emanated warmth…
"A-Are you comfortable..?"
The dragon Faunus' spoke more quietly than her usual tone, a hint of embarrassment to be found in between.
With how huddled together the two of them were, Ciel was more than comfortable. Especially since her companion's large, and very impressive bosom served as excellent cushioning.
"Yeah..! Totally fine…"
Even the young immortal's voice had become more hushed.
Only silence remained between the duo, both of them eventually closing their eyes and allowing sleep to take them.
Even though she rarely slept, Ciel had fairly pleasing dreams that carried her through until morning, where she awoke to the great pleasure of being buried between Musashi's great twin peaks, who had clung tightly to smaller girl.
As much as Ciel enjoyed her "morning wake up", there wasn't nearly enough time to enjoy the pleasantries.
At least, not until after they finished with the tower.
And so they stood atop a cliff side, heavily forested with enough massive trees to render them invisible to anyone in the skies, or enemies from below. Even with their superior means of cover, the skies too were very cloudy, blocking out all of the suns rays.
And with the sound of thunder in the distance, the duo were certain that rain was soon to follow.
The field below was filled a great variety of AK 200 Units, the newer, modified varieties Ciel had seen after splitting up from Leonard. Amongst them were a few Atlesian Paladins, those too having being modified to take on a more humanoid shape, similar to their smaller counterparts.
They marched in patrols across various areas of the immensely wide ravine, a few patrol units hanging back at the colossal ivory tower that glowed with circuit-like patterns of black energy, a few cube-like shapes sticking out of various areas of the structure.
The only defenses seemed to be the androids and Paladins below. No anti-aircraft or artillery to keep air and ground forces away. And there didn't seem to be a barrier either…
Instead, all Ciel could see was a steady stream of crystal-clear energy, which seemingly gave off shards of crystals as the energy flowed, that had shot outwards elsewhere.
Calculations were never Ciel's strong suit, nor her favorite. Same with strategy. The only strategy she ever needed was to crush her enemy, but at least in a way that made it tricky for the enemy to defeat her.
Maybe that method itself was a form of strategy?
Shaking her head, Ciel quickly followed the flowing stream of energy with her eyes, and determined it had to be going in the direction of Leonard's tower. But for what reason? The steady and slow flow of the beam didn't suggest it to be used for offensive purposes…
And with the hours of observational techniques and various forms of magic both Dante and Inuba pounded into her brain, she figured it had to be a streamline barrier; energy produced from a stationary structure that flows to another structure to blanket it in a sort of shielding field. Good for keeping people out of an important place.
With this in mind, Ciel wanted to hop down onto the watery, barren field all the quicker, that way Leo couldn't nag to her later about making him wait while "she" took her time.
If anything, it was, or at the very least should be, the other way around.
No one really knew it, not even Inuba or Dante, but Leonard was actually super lazy unless he actually wanted to do something, which honestly, happened once in a blue moon. He never wanted to do anything really, unless Dante had asked him to do something.
"Their numbers are great… But it matters not. Having sheer numbers doesn't ensure victory. Ten highly trained warriors can slay one hundred, even a thousand if they're skilled enough." Musashi stated, "That, and with my naturally durable skin, and your incredible power and speed, we could make short work of them."
"True, true…"
Musashi wasn't nearly as fast as Ciel was, but she was strong, and she had incredibly durable skin. She was quite literally a walking assault carrier, completely bulletproof too.
"Alright, I'm not one for strategy, but I say we tear through the smaller ones until we get to the Paladins, focus of them, and go back to the small ones right after. Rinse and repeat. Easy right?" Ciel asked.
"Simple enough."
"Right? Okay!" Ciel said standing up and moving back a bit, "Dibs on the first Paladin below!" Her voice sounded as she leapt off the cliff.
The young immortal brought forth her scythe from a burst of her black and white Aura, pulling on the pole outwards to extend it slightly, while the pole completely straightened out. The scythe blade shifted as well, with the point aligning with the pole. The blade had expanded to form a wide, double edged greatsword.
Her weapon now took on its sword-spear form.
It was needed after all for the desired effect she intended.
When Ciel came close to the ground, the blade of her sword-spear flowed with her black and white Aura as it crashed into the first Paladin, sending out an explosive, radial blast that ripped apart any and all machine units within a twenty meter radius.
Her assault hadn't finished.
With a chuckle, Ciel spun around and swung her sword-spear outwards, sending out a horizontal wave of her Aura, and followed up with a smashing, vertical slice to send out another. The waves traveled in tandem with each other, destroying the AK Units that dared stay in the path of her attack.
"Your turn!"
The young immortal raised up her sword-spear, allowing Musashi to land on the flat side of her weapon, who crouched low in preparation as Ciel swung her around once and rocketed her companion forward.
Musashi had burst forward like a shell round from a tank, her right hand soon covered in black and crimson red Aura to form scales around her entire forearm and hand, blackened claws soon forming. Putting her transformed hand forward, fingers pressed together like a spear point as she easily passed through the hulking body of the Paladin.
The dragon Faunus' left hand soon took on the same appearance as her right, allowing her to grab hold of the Paladin's leg she had shot through, and easily swung it around like a mere toy. With her makeshift flail in hand, Musashi smashed her mechanical foes to pieces, their bullets simply bouncing off her skin. Some had even deflected off her beautifully tanned skin and shredded the units as she continued her dreadnought-like assault, finally tossing away her "weapon".
Ciel flashed across the field in various sections, dropping in and out of her black hole-like portals, viciously slicing through her enemies with her scythe, like a beautiful goddess of death from the high heavens.
She was virtually untouchable.
Thankfully the ads were easily taken care of one another, but s big game changer came when Musashi's path of destruction had allowed her to line up a majority of the Paladin's. Ciel quickly took note of this and transformed her scythe into its sword-spear form, bifurcating the Paladin in front of her, the force of the swing enough to shatter the earth beneath her as her body was lifted in the air.
Still in momentum, the young immortal flipped forward and turned herself into a spinning blade of destruction, tearing a path through the AK units until she landed on her feet in a low crouch. Her right arm tensed up momentarily to ready her muscles, all the way until she started bringing in her arm across her body, and left her sword-spear fly.
The tip of the spear roared with black and white Aura, piercing through all in its path, continuously tearing through the Paladins Musashi kindly lined up for her companion. With the majority of the Paladins destroyed, Musashi spun and ducked down Ciel's incoming weapon, grabbing hold of the sword-spear as it passed her by and swung it around her to decimate more of the machines.
With and upward strike, the dragon Faunus had used her momentum to launch herself into the air, and brought down the sword-spear with devastating force upon the last of the Paladins, unleashing a combine wave of black, red, and white Aura, each of the colors interlocking and threading through one other whilst tearing apart all of the remaining units.
One of the modified, and heavily damaged AK's, attempted to crawl away with its entire lower half missing, then turned around to aim of its arm guns at the dragon Faunus. It only found the sword spear embedded in its skull, the machine powering down moments after.
The primary assault had been a total success.
"No more on your end?"
"None." Musashi responded.
Both had moved about the watery field that now served as a graveyard for the fallen androids, checking to make sure none would jump up at them and take them by surprise. Not that it'd matter. Ciel was can totally unkillable, and Musashi had nigh impenetrable skin because of her herritage as a dragon Faunus, making the duo truly a match made in Heaven. Or Hell, from the perspective of their enemies.
It was safe to say neither would suffer injuries, only annoyances at their expense.
Musashi heard movement and turned her head to see one of the machines reach up for her, only for a scythe blade to slam down into its skull to permnately put it out of commission.
The dragon Faunus looked to Ciel, seeing her smile as the spinal column-like pole of her scythe retracted to its original state.
"Don't worry, I'll uh...watch your back… Yeah…"
Ciel was most certainly going to watch her back.
Amongst other things. Such as admiring the flawless curvature before her.
"I-I will watch yours as well! If you would allow it…" Musashi said crossing her arms, blushing slightly.
…
Ciel swore she felt her heart skip a beat just now.
Musashi had a tendency to be unexpectedly cute, despite her usual demeanor. But she was more beautiful, if anything.
The duo heard steel shifting, and spun around to see a Paladin standing but a few feet away from them, only, it did not move. It soon simply tilted forward and crashed into the watery earth, a loud thud shaking the ground and splashing the water about.
A figure stood behind the the machine that had fallen; he was very tall and lean, easily towering over Musashi, who stood at six feet even. The man had to be at least 6'5, 6'7. He had messy, slightly spiked hair that reached his shoulders, and somewhat pale skin. His attire was a ragged black shirt, and a dark blue coat that had split coattails reaching his ankles. The sleeves had been torn off, exposing his slender and slightly toned arms, where ragged black bandages had been wrapped around his forearms, hands and even his fingers. He had black pants that had fairly puffed up ends, which were tucked away in black, armored knee-high boots, the plated armor resembling bone.
His sea blue eyes with black slit pupils looked to the dragon Faunus and immortal, as if he just now noticed they were present given.
He let out a huff, "So...you two were responsible for this whole mess of metal?" He spoke with a rough, slightly low voice.
"Yeah, what if we are?"
"A short-stack like you can fight? Hah!"
…
Did he just call me short..?
The man grabbed for the blackened handle of his weapon, placing his armored foot on the dead Paladin and ripping his weapon free. It looked to be a simple khopesh sword, where the black bone handle had a mass of what looked to be red muscle fibers coiled together forming the base few inches of the weapon, with an edge of sharp blackened bone covering it.
The rest of the blade branched outwards an inch by seventy five degrees, and was solid black bone that was dangerously sharp and had a slight curve to it. The tip had a reverse, razor edge, facing the dull side of the weapon. This section of the weapon had to be at least four feet long, giving the weapon a total of five feet in length.
To Ciel, it was a pretty cool looking sword, but she had her doubts if it could block her own weapon, and was certain she could cut through it.
Before she spoke, she noticed something odd with Musashi.
She was trembling. Not with fear, no…but with pure anger. She gritted her slightly fanged teeth, baring them at the stranger as she clenched her fists tightly.
"You..!"
"Huh? Who are-? Wait… Are you..?"
"You're the one who killed my father!" She shouted, her rough voice carrying through the ravine.
Ciel's eyes widened briefly at st the revelation, shifting her eyes away from her companion to the man she called a murder.
"Ah… So you're that old lizards daughter. No wonder I thought I recognized you for a second. You've got his horns." He said pointing to her head.
"You..! Why did you do it?! Why did you murder my father?!"
"Why?" He said slinging his weapon on his shoulder, bouncing it up and down slowly every now and then, "Why should I even tell you?"
"Bastard..!" Musashi said drawing her sword, something Ciel saw for the first time in their travels.
"Hehehehe… So the little dragon has fangs, huh?! Good! Why don't you show me what you got before I cut you down little dragon! Maybe you'll give me a better time than your old man did!"
Musashi let out a battle cry and charged forward through the graveyard of machines, Ciel too late in trying to hold her back.
The man stood his ground and raised up his twisted khopesh blade to block Musashi's own, barely budging under the immense force of the dragon Faunus' strike.
"Yeah, that's way! You've got better kick than that old man! But..!" The man forced away Musashi and delivered a swift side kick to her abdomen, sending her flying back a distance, "You're gonna have to do better than that!"
The dragon Faunus slid to a halt with not even a bruise on her stomach as she stood up shortly after.
"Listen well dragon bitch! My name is Sca'âtha, and I'm telling you to give up now! Now matter how much hatred you have for me in your heart, your blade won't ever be able to leave a scratch on me!"
"Shut up!"
Musashi rushed in once more and swung violently, trying to erase the newly known Sca'âtha from existence with every swing of her sword, and every powerful kick and punch she weaved in. Her attacks weren't amazingly fast, but they were devastating, and that's what counted.
But her opponent was taking all of the attacks easily, blocking or pushing them aside, occasionally lashing out at Musashi. Some hits connected, but they left no markings on the girl, attesting to her highly durable skin.
Seemingly enough, Musashi was actually beginning to push back Sca'âtha, considering his counter attacks grew lesser and lesser as Musashi's attacks had no end. In fact, her attacks were actually becoming quicker.
The man was actually beginning to become more wary of Ciel's companion...and finally, he slipped up.
A forceful upward strike was enough to break Sca'âtha's guard, exposing him enough for Musashi to landing a crushing slash down across his body.
She had cut down the bastard that murdered her father.
At least, so she thought.
Looking closely, his chest remained unscarred and unbloodied, with not even a small scratch present on his flesh.
With a light snicker, Sca'âtha grabbed hold of Musashi's blade with his left hand and swung down with his right swor hand, only for the dragon Faunus to catch his wrist, both holding each other in place.
"Am I gonna have to say it again? Your pathetic blade can't cut me!"
The man headbutted the dragon Faunus and sent her reeling back, forcing her to let go of his wrist and allowing him to bring down his sword.
Musashi skidded back on her heels until she stopped, touching the center of her chest to feel a small trickle of blood. She had a cut where she had placed her hand, but it was small at best given her Aura was already at work healing it.
"How's it feel knowing I can cut you, but you can't me? Must be frustrating." The man commented as he tapped the flat edge of his blade on his shoulder.
Musashi scoffed at his remark, rubbing away the blood from her chest as she readied herself again.
"Can't cut you… Really now..?"
She stared at her blade for a moment, and swung it outwards towards the ground. She swung again, once more, and on the final strike, a large gust of wind had formed from her strike, a large cut in the earth now present where she struck.
The dragon Faunus rolled her shoulders and twisted her neck about to loosen herself up more, "There's not a thing I can't cut. So come on, how about another round?" She beckoned.
"Ha! Idiot!"
Both had rushed one another, dashing across the watery ravine, their footfalls kicking up water as they approached one another. When they were in range of one another, both had swung violently at one another and without pause. Musashi had seemingly stood on even footing now against her opponent, but for Ciel who watched from afar, she saw the truth behind it. Her companion was getting stronger with each swing, and faster too. In fact, her unending strikes yet again put the man on defense, who was clearly becoming irritated with the dragon Faunus' persistence.
"Give it up dragon brat! You can't cut me!" Sca'âtha shouted as he continued defending against Musashi's onslaught.
She only chuckled at his statement and kept up her ferocious, brutal swings, each swipe of her sword splitting the ground where it passed over when Sca'âtha hadn't blocked.
As if to prove his point yet again, the man raised up his arm in the path of Musashi's next downward strike, allowing the katana's sharp edge to fall of his forearm.
His expectations were shattered in the next moment.
Instead of bouncing of his arm like he had thought it would, Musashi's blade had actually cut into his arm, if only a slight bit, before stopping in place. Sca'âtha, clearly surprised by this happening, pushed away the blade and leapt backwards to put distance between him and his opponent.
With Musashi stopping her assault, Sca'âtha had time to examine his arm, frustrated with seeing the cut on his arm before he glared back at Musashi, who held her blade up in front of her across her body, smiling at him.
"What are you smiling about? Don't get so confident just because of one lucky slice, dragon bitch!"
Musashi's grin grew wider as she pointed her sword at the man, "Backing away when I cut you? After saying I couldn't? If I didn't know any better...I'd say you got a little scared just now…"
Sca'âtha gritted his teeth and dashed forward again, "Just die like your old man already!" He spoke leaping into the air.
Musashi brought her sword back and swung at the arial downward strike, clashing with the mid air Sca'âtha. Instead of crushing her like he intended, Musashi's blade actually began cutting into Sca'âtha's own. Before he could do anything else, the man's khopesh blade had been cut through, and with that, the tip of Musashi's blade had ran across Sca'âtha's cheek and across the bridge of his nose, leaving but a minor cut as he retreated back once more.
"Heh… Guess I was right…"
The man let out a sharp breath, looking up to Musashi, "About what?!"
"Your skin isn't all too special… Especially since I've got down the force I need to cut you now." She claimed.
Sca'âtha stared at the black blood that dripped from his blade, and then looked to his hand that covered his face to see similar blots of black blood staining his palm.
"You're not so tough once a person figures out the right amount of force they need to actually cut you. Of course, I would assume you've never really ran into too many people that could cut you."
"You little…"
"I know someone much tougher than you. With but a single blow she brought me to my knees not too long ago. And believe me when I say this...she's a far more terrifying opponent than you are!"
The dragon Faunus darted forward with terrifying speed, leading with a stab that almost skewered her opponent, had he not raised up how broken blade to block her. His weapon suffered more damage as he was forced back on his heels, his anger rising by the minute.
He had enough of her.
Sca'âtha raised up his left hand, and as he did, the water from the ground beneath him began to flow in four separate streams into his palm, forming a solid sphere. With a forceful thrust of his hand, he shot it forward, and the sphere burst with great speed, quickly forming into a spearhead-like shape. The dragon Faunus simply stood her ground and raise up her left hand, letting the water projectile crash into her palm.
The attack seemingly consumed Musashi in an immense torrent of high pressure water, Sca'âtha chuckling to himself from the distance at his supposed victory. When the water cleared however, the dragon Faunus still stood, grin as wide as ever as her palm brimmed with streams of smoke.
The man was more than shocked at this point. Musashi was taking everything he threw at her and dishing out higher amounts of damage with each strike. And then walked. Her pace wasn't all too quick, but she was making her way to Sca'âtha, blade at the ready.
He didn't understand what it was. Perhaps a hint of fear, or maybe something else entirely, but for a few moments, as Musashi menacingly made her way over, she seemingly grew taller and taller the closer she got, so much so he felt she was the one towering him.
He wouldn't have it.
With a loud cry, the man surged forward with his broken khopesh, and swung for Musashi's face. She easily moved out of the way of the clumsy strike that would have taken her head, and instead, only received a cut on her cheek, her grin still present. The realization that he missed suddenly dawned on Sca'âtha, but before anything else could be done, Musashi's black and crimson Aura blazed violently around her as she brought her blade down on her father's murderer.
There were many points in time Ciel could have helped end this fight. She could have frozen time for a few seconds, drop into one of her portal's and appear right next to Sca'âtha in an instant and taken his head. But this wasn't her fight.
At the very least, she was hoping it wouldn't have to be.
This was all Musashi. Taking it away from her would have very likely frustrated her to no end, which is why the immortal hung back in the first place. And so she sat on her rock a distance away, watching Musashi cut away the absolute life from her father's murder bit by bit.
Was she worried? Of course she was. She-
…
It wasn't unnatural to say both Ciel and Musashi grew closer to one another over the span of three days. They fought together, laughed with one another, traded all sorts of stories… They just connected so well.
And in that regard, Ciel didn't wish her...friend, to be harmed.
But as she constantly reminded herself, this wasn't her battle. And it wouldn't be unless Musashi couldn't fight anymore. With how things were looking, it didn't look like she would need help.
The young immortal looked out into the distance, seeing Musashi stand normally with but a few injuries. Sca'âtha had been a good distance away, clutching his chest tightly as his breathing grew heavy, blood slowly seeping from the wound he was dealt.
A nice, vertical slash that left a deep, long cut on his body from his left pectoral all the way down to his stomach.
If it weren't for his highly durable skin, Musashi surely would've bifurcated him.
"You're still alive..." Musashi spoke, drawing her opponent's attention, "Or maybe you've yet to fall down and die?"
Sca'âtha slowed his breathing, and once more gritted his teeth.
It's was a long time since he was pushed this far. About a hundred years if he recalled. But this wasn't one hundred years ago. This was now. And he was leagues stronger compared to how he used to be.
"Don't be stupid…dragon bitch…" he started as he stood up, catching his breath at last, "You think you're winning just because you cut me..? Ha!"
Thunder crashed through the skies with a resounding boom and bright flash of lightning. The ravine the found themselves in, still filled with the broken bodies of machines and the waters began to sound off in a cacophony of watery plops and metallic pings. Droplets fell from the dark skies above, the droplets soon becoming more and more until it poured an immense amount with heavy rain.
Sca'âtha's smile returned to him, wider than ever.
"Feel that? How the water is coming down from the sky? I can feel it… Know what that means?"
Musashi dropped her grin and readied herself in a stance, watching as sea blue aura flowed from her opponent. Strangely enough, the water around him began to shift in violent, streams, encircling him.
"It means...you're screwed!" He stayed pointing to her before raising up his broken khopesh blade, "Bûreal Requiem!"
The water expanded and grew more violent as the individual streams closed in on Sca'âtha, who laughed with great joy until the waters swallowed him up.
A few more moments passed, and the waters died down, revealing something entirely new that surprised both Musashi and Ciel, who continued watching from the distance.
Sca'âtha reemerged, his wounds dealt by the dragon Faunus closed and forming new scars on his body. But that wasn't all. His arms were covered in white, plated bone armor, and had red, wavy markings spanning across them, like that of a Grimm. It wasn't just his arms, but it was also his feet up to his knees. Parts of his chest had been similarly armored, but it still revealed the closed wounds. In his hand, his khopesh blade had been reformed and had much more length to it, but in addition, he had another khopesh in his left hand.
The strangest of all was the white bone Grimm mask that covered his entire head now. It resembled a dragon of sorts, with two black horns that were slicked back slightly and curved upwards. Red markings adorned his draconic mask, but the glow from the eyeholes of the mask shone a sea blue color.
"So...how does it feel like staring at an actual monster dragon girl?!" He asked in a slightly distorted voice, "Bet you're thinking about running now, huh?! Don't even try it! You'll be cut down before you know it!"
Musashi didn't so much as tremble. She was smiling. In fact, her grin was much wider than it used to be.
"Very nice Aura Signature!"
Sca'âtha's face turned from joy to surprise, confused by the fact she didn't so much as flinch.
"I haven't had a fight like this in ages! But still...even with that parlor trick of yours, and your heavy Aura Signature...you're still nowhere near my companion's level of ability to be terrifying!"
"Heh! Alright then! Why don't you come closer and taste my blade, dragon?! I'll show you real terror when I run my blade into your heart!"
…
Ciel felt a little twinge in her heart hearing that. She knew it was a compliment in Musashi's own way but…
Was she actually that terrifying? She thought she was more cute than anything…
Shaking her head, she saw Musashi leap into action dodging streaks of high pressure water from when Sca'âtha swung his blade from the ground-up towards Musashi. The dragon Faunus didn't possess much grace in her techniques or being, but she had a powerful allure of her own as she dodged past and cut through the torrents of water with ease, getting closer to her opponent until she was in range and swung down.
She was surprised when she saw her strike easily stopped by her Grimm-like enemy, who simply raised his sword defensively to halt her.
"What..? Is that it? That your best shot?!"
A loud cry and a powerful upward swing from his other sword, and Musashi was sent flying on her back, a deep cut now on her chest.
A second, three seconds, five seconds.
No movement.
Ciel clenched her jaw tightly as she stood up, readying her scythe.
"Ha, that's all? I release my power and you flop? What a disappointment! No wonder that lizard father of yours fell, you dragon Faunus are all a bunch of weaklings!"
Ciel's glanced focused momentarily before letting out a sigh and sitting back down on her rock, resting her scythe against it as she crossed one leg over the other.
"What about you short stack?" The man asked turning his attention to the girl as he pointed his sword at Ciel, "She was running her mouth about how you're a lot better than herself or me. So how 'bout it? Wanna try your luck before I cut you down too?"
"Eh, no thanks." Ciel said nonchalantly as she waved him off.
...
He was...surprised by her calm demeanor. Much less the fact she didn't give much consideration to his existence.
"What? You scared little girl?"
"Nah. You're just not worth my time, assclown. It's actually pretty funny watching you trash talk when you're about to die."
"The hell did you say?!"
Ciel only pointed past him and sung out for him, "Don't believe me just watch~!"
His head jolted upwards slightly at her remark, then realized what exactly she was talking about.
He was too late in trying to pull a counter swing, and only turned around a slight amount before Sca'âtha had his left arm cut off.
He let out a groan of pain as he flew backwards, landing on the balls of his feet and skid to a halt.
The man's head quickly looked up, seeing Musashi stand tall with her blade across her body, coated in the man's blood.
What infuriated him the most wasn't the fact he just lost an arm. No, he was more agitated by the fact she stood there with a damn smile on her face, like it was the best day ever.
"Playing dead dragon bitch? Even if you're just snakes, that's pretty damn low."
"Huh? Who said I was playing dead?" She said dropping her smile, "No, I was just sitting down and thinking for a while."
"Thinking?!"
"That's right. I'm not much of a thinker, I'll admit that much, but I had to think about how to fight you after you put on that performance of yours. Your Aura got a lot stronger, so did your physical strength and defensive capabilities. Not to mention that water gun attack of yours also had more kick to it than what you started with and that you now have two swords. Overall, fighting you got a lot more technical, so I needed to become more technical as well. And I found my answer."
Musashi grasped her blade, her blood dripping onto it as she held it tight.
"I'll just have to try harder..." With a swipe of her hand across the blade, it crackled to life with a blaze of crimson and black fire, "to cut you!"
A brief shimmer of crimson and black Aura surrounded Musashi's entire body as she surged forward into a powerful, throwing her shoulder into Sca'âtha and sending him backwards. She went to cut him down with her blazing weapon, but her opponent shook off his disorientation quickly and swung, allowing their blades to meet.
Unfortunately, Musashi couldn't cut through the khopesh blades like she did last time, not when durability of his weapons and his striking force were both amplified with his transformation. But with each swing of her sword, and each time Sca'âtha recoiled from blocking her attacks, she new she was getting somewhere.
Luck had favored Sca'âtha briefly when he managed to dodge under Musashi's next swing, and bring his blades upwards to crash into the dragon Faunus' to break her guard. He spun himself quickly and lashed out at her stomach, and sent Musashi flying into a column of stone a machine parts. His assault hadn't finished, for he charged in laughing like a madman, expecting to finish off the dragon Faunus with his next blow.
And yet it would not come to pass.
A black and crimson, scale covered hand emerged from the debris and grabbed a good hold of Sca'âtha by his Grimm-like dragon mask, easily forcing him to the side and into the ground while Musashi emerged, smiling her crazed smile with her blazing sword raised to strike down her father's killer.
It would have been a lie to say Sca'âtha wasn't intimidated by these turn of events. Each time he injured her, each time he had her corned, she always came back at him twice as strong than before.
How was she this strong?
Realizing he was still on the ground, he snapped out of his own thoughts and crossed his khopesh blades together overhead, preventing Musashi's fiery sword from splitting his skull into two.
"Heh! What's wrong? Shouldn't I be dead by now?" Musashi stated as she slowly inched her blade closer to Sca'âtha's face.
There was no end to the fury he felt. The damn dragon before him had the sheer audacity to mock him?
He wouldn't stand for it any longer.
"Hehehehe… Don't worry… You will be!"
Musashi couldn't dodge in time, not with how close she already was. All she could do was stare as a khopesh blade pierced her left arm, leg, with one barely scraping by her stomach and almost skewering her. A moment later and Sca'âtha forced up his leg to kick away Musashi, a high pressure torrent of water creeping in a second after his kick to ensure there would be distance between himself as he got up.
The dragon Faunus was powerless against the surprise attack and was launched into a wall of rock, imprinting her shape deep within the stone. She let out a growl as she opened her eyes, slowly removing herself from the canvas of stone and glaring at her enemy with her piercing, violet, serpent-like eyes.
Sca'âtha hadn't simply gained four extra khopesh blades.
He now had six arms total. The other four arms seemed to be entirely formed of water, exactly matching the appearance of his original two arms until the water slowly became solid and bone white, entirely creating four new arms like his two original ones.
And each of the new four hands held a khopesh, all of which looked to be a mesh of sharp, blackened bone and muscle fibers.
"I told you from the start, didn't I..? There wasn't even a slight chance in hell you could stop me, dragon bitch! Just give it up!"
Even though Ciel decided to sit back for this fight, she was seriously starting to get annoyed with his trash talking. But she particularly murderous whenever he called Musashi a bitch.
Stopping time and shanking him in the skull like she saw in a prison film once wasn't out of her list of options. But as it was, stopping time consumed a large amount of her Aura to be allowed ten seconds at best. Going past ten seconds would only double the Aura drain, and after another ten seconds, triple the consumption, and so forth.
It was safe to say she only used it when necessary, and for emergencies during a battle.
Even with everything in mind, that didn't always stop her from using it selfishly, most of the time for a prank, or just for sheer convenience in a task.
She was really itching to use it either way.
"Ha… Ahahahahahahahahaha!"
Ciel glanced at Musashi, slightly confused but relieved she was alright. At the very least, alright by the dragon Faunus' standards.
"Give up?! Why in the hell should I do that after things got a whole lot more interesting?! Hell, I thought I scared you brainless into not using the full extent of your powers! I'm glad I was wrong!"
Ciel was probably imagining it but...Musashi wasn't really herself right now… Or maybe she was for all she knew. No, she spent enough time around her companion to know better. Maybe it was a gimmick to an ability she was using, which made her really aggressive in response.
"Now then...let's continue the fight, Hydra!"
"Tch… Idiot!"
Sca'âtha rushed forward and ducked under the perilous swing for his neck from Musashi, which cut the column of stone that was behind her opponent in half. The dragon Faunus left herself open to attack, allowing Sca'âtha to swing upwards with his three right arms and cut Musashi. Alas, the cuts were minimal at best, barely enough to stop the dragon Faunus as she kept up her menacing grin and swung down on her opponent.
He raised up his six arms and blocked by crossing his six blades together, following up with a sidekick to her stomach that was accompanied by a blast of high pressure water, and then another spin around sidekick with a similar effect to push her back. Regardless, Musashi only recovered immediately after and still kept charging her opponent, giving him no moment to pause.
Numerous, oscillating torrents of water flicked about Sca'âtha as Musashi sprinted for him, and when when he raised up his blades, he began slashing at the air in front of Musashi. Wave after wave of slicing water quickly sped in the dragon Faunus' direction, crashing into her and cutting up her body, even if they were small cuts. And yet, she did not falter and did not slow, but only kept running forward with her bloodthirsty smile about her, and her loud, menacing laughter.
He couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. He was the one cutting her apart, albeit slowly. She was the one getting injured. But how did she keep recovering so quickly? Her wounds weren't healing all too quickly, that much he noticed. The more he damaged her, the more she seemed motivated to keep pressing on to try and kill him.
The entire situation he bore witness to was absolutely ludicrous…
While he kept lashing out wave after wave of deadly water, Musashi found herself more and more annoyed by the specks of water, and so she decided to raise up her sword or blazing crimson and black Aura and swung down into the ground. The sheer force of the strike violently uplifted a thin portion of the earth, and almost crashed into the Hydra-like man had he not ceased his assault and leapt back.
He had to use it now while it still rained, that way the effect would be greater than its usual norm.
Sca'âtha twirled his blades around thrice and pointed them into the sky, allowing the blade points to touch as a sphere of water began to grow at the epicenter. With a quick motion, he moved his blades outwards, causing the sphere to amass more water and grow until it became vastly larger than himself.
"Grand Torrent Wave!"
With his shout, Sca'âtha swung his blades down and shot the immense orb of water towards Musashi with devastating speed.
Her response was to simply stab her blade ahead of her, but this did not have the intended effect. While the sphere had been cut through, the high pressure water that went past the dragon Faunus began to encircle her and create a large, vortex-wall of water. Proceeding carelessly would very likely have cut her apart, so she ceased her movements briefly.
From what Musashi determined, she'd require a very powerful swing with the added help of her ability, but that would take away part of the damage she acquired. She wanted to save as much as possible for when she'd next run her blade across the body of her foe.
That opportunity came sooner than expected when she saw Sca'âtha had leaped into the vortex from above, laughing maniacally as he did.
"Grand Torrent Rapture!"
Another shout, but a different attack. As Sca'âtha moved his arms, so to did the spiraling vortex of water from both sides. Two quick slashes, and the vortex walls spat out dozens of torrents of piercing, high pressure water that crashed into Musashi, the vortex walls closing upon her brief moments later.
The man resembling a Hydra-like Grimm landed on the ground just a few feet away from his colossal blast of devastating water, snickering to himself as victory was all but assured at the this point.
But he should have known better.
The waters died down and blanketed the vast expanse of the ravine's floor, and at the epicenter, Musashi still stood, sword still ablaze. Her short tailed kimono that had only one wide, loose fitting sleeve had been torn apart, revealing the not so concealing sarashi she wore around her chest that too had minor damage. The single sleeve was missing as well, revealing numerous small cuts that adorned Musashi's arm. The rest of her body had these cuts, and had already stopped bleeding.
The dragon Faunus let out a deep breath and touched the side of her neck with her left hand, where she had a much larger cut compared to the rest of the smaller, insignificant little cuts she received.
"Tch… If this goes on any longer...there might be a chance I'll exhaust myself and die…"
That was the last thing Ciel would have wanted.
Seeing the condition of her companion only made the young immortal want to intervene and end the fight all the quicker, but she had to remind herself constantly that this was an honor bound battle.
She couldn't interfere…
"Good…"
Ciel snapped to attention at hearing Musashi's words, as did Sca'âtha as he glared at her in confusion.
"Good..? You're cut all over! How is any of that good?!"
"It's good for me...because that means I can use my next attack to greater effect."
"Hold on, your next attack?"
"That's right." Musashi commented as she rested her katana on her shoulder, "Remember how you told me I was screwed when it started raining? Well, I can definitely say the same for you in the next few moments."
"Is that right..?"
"Yeah…" the dragon Faunus brought up her blade horizontally and stared at it, "My Semblance is called Reflexive Aggression. It's something that works really well with me given my...constitution." Her glance moved back to Sca'âtha, her draconic smile long faded as she gave him a serious glance, "You noticed it yourself didn't you? How my speed increased? My strength? My reaction time? My durability?"
Ciel noticed it. But the thing that stood out was her overly aggressive behavior more than anything.
So that's what it was…
"And..? Who cares about all that?! Something like that doesn't matter in the slightest!"
Sca'âtha sprinted forward, possibly to end things with his next attack. But Musashi stood where she was, and slid a foot back to get into a stance as she reared back her sword, sharp edge facing the sky, point facing the incoming Sca'âtha, and left hand under the flat edge of the blade to guid it.
"You don't know that half of it…" she silently spoke as the crimson and black blaze around her blade condensed itself to the weapon, "You just don't understand...the kind of trouble you're in for now..."
The Hydra-masked man leapt into the air, spinning as he did until he came to a stop, all six arms outstretched as violent torrents of water gathered around him from the strong rain.
With a loud scream, Sca'âtha had cross slashed downwards towards Musashi, making the torrents of water intersect with one another to form a large, net of water that sped towards the dragon Faunus below, threatening to cut her apart into pieces.
Undeterred, she rooted herself deep as she kept her stance, eyes wide open as she prepared to attack in response.
"Black Dragon's...Royal Roar!"
With a forward stabbing motion, Musashi had seemingly unleashed all of Hell's fury from her sword, as crimson and black fire freely burst forth into a violent, widespread, consuming torrent of flame. The slicing net of water resisted the attack for but a moment before it evaporated entirely, Sca'âtha unable to do anything but raise his arms defensively, consumed by the blast of the Dragon Fire.
The incredible blast of crimson and black flame had died down slowly and receded. The field within the ravine had been wiped clean of both water and the scrap metal from the machines Musashi and Ciel defeated, the ground smoldering with glowing scorch marks and smoke.
Only the pristine white tower remained untouched.
Musashi was panting heavily, her fingers unable to grasp her sword any longer as it clattered to the floor, along with her soon after. Her body felt weak, her strength sapped from as her fresher wounds still bled, droplets falling from her skin and sinking into the earth beneath her.
Musashi's vision was double and disoriented, trying hard to readjust. She was certain her opponent had to be dead after that attack, but she didn't want to take a chance just yet.
The problem was that the dragon Faunus could barely move, much less focus her vision currently as her consciousness slowly faded.
Her ability had taken too much of a toll than she expected…
And so Musashi had finally crashed, passing out and sinking to the floor.
She had won.
That was the idea when she passed out.
A heavily burnt and bandaged hand emerged from a pile of ruble nearby, and slowly allowed the man buried beneath to pull himself out of the ruble. Burns had adorned his body, various cuts and slashes as well.
Sca'âtha had reverted to his original state before he transformed, but that unfortunately for him did not mean his injuries were healed.
The "roar" had quite literally cut and burned away his "alternate form", which had taken most of the damage, but not all of it entirely given his current state.
The only thing that currently remained intact fully was his original khopesh blade, which he used to prop himself up slightly from his kneeling position.
He too was breathing heavily, but he was bleeding far more than Musashi had been before she passed out. Thinking of her, Sca'âtha quickly searched the field and found the unconscious Dragon Faunus. He prepared himself a few times, ready to stand up.
But before he moved another inch, a blade had wrapped around Sca'âtha's neck, which had been playfully tugged upwards twice to emphasize that he had been caught.
"Play time's over chuckle-tits." Ciel had commented, her tone more serious than usual, "Any last words or whatever?"
Sca'âtha turned his gaze to the young immortal, mindful of the scythe blade around his throat, prompting him to make no sudden movements.
"She's out cold, right?"
That was...a fairly strange question.
"So what if she is?" Ciel asked.
"That means...I can tell you the truth then…"
"What do you mean? Come on, none of this roundabout crap. Get to the point."
The man glanced away momentarily, narrowing his gaze as he let out a sigh and looked back to the young girl.
"I'll tell you what really happened...to that dragon's father."
{Weapons Illustrated 14}
"Hey everyone, we're finally back after some long, and exhausting weeks." Dante said with a sigh.
From the side, Ruby was laying on a bench, letting out a loud groan.
"Ruby can attest. So out of consideration for Ruby, I may be running the segment myself today. Let's begin."
A screen moved down, and displayed the katana that belonged to Musashi.
"Today I'll be telling you about Musashi's weapon, Silver Tallfang and Silver Fang. And I'm actually pretty interested in this weapon. But first, a little bit of information before we begin."
The screen switched from Musashi's weapon to a slide of a black, rectangular stone no bigger than one's hand, and all across one side of the stone, covering it all the way to half of center, were silvery colored lines that took on stretched, hexagonal patterns, resembling scales.
"Since Musashi uses this as a tool for her weapon, we'll talk about it as well. This is what's known as a BlackHide Whetstone, a tool exclusive to only Musashi's clan and can be found nowhere else. When using the stone, it not only returns a weapon to its original sharpened state after use, but it also improves the sharpness and the weapon's durability by a small fraction mind. Each time the Whetstone is used, it'll always improve the weapons sharpens and durability by a small portion. So, how exactly is this done?"
Another slide appeared, this time closing in on the Whetstone and having a red circle focused on the silver hexagons.
"The secret lies in the stone itself. From what Musashi explained, the stone is a part from an Elder Dragon Grimm, specifically a cut out piece of its hide. The side where you see the silvery hexagons is actually the underside of its hide, where whenever it took damage, the damaged area would actually be reinforced. Again, how is that you ask?"
Dante snapped his fingers, and formed a glowing pointed stick of white and black Aura, pointing to the silvery hexagons.
"Those silver hexagons? Those are actually blood vessels. Each time the beast took damage, the blood vessels would rupture and secrete the crystal clear blood in order to quickly heal damaged areas, and when it did heal, the area that was damaged would not only regenerate, but also be reinforced beyond its original state. But wait, how come one of these whetstones doesn't grow or regenerate overtime with each use?" Dante asked as he made his pointer disappear.
"Well, a BlackHide Whetstone actually gets slightly whittled down with each use. After it has been used, the most it will accomplish is to slowly regenerate to its original state before being used to sharpen a weapon or tool, the blood vessels being the first to regenerate at a quicker rate. Keep in mind, while having a whetstone that will never degrade or break down, it can only be used in intervals, at least six times within a twenty four hour period, making it one use per every four hours."
The projector switched back to Musashi's katana.
"So, why was all that important to get out of the way first? Well, remember how I just said the BlackHide Whetstone was made using materials from that Elder Dragon Grimm? Musashi's katana and wakizashi are made from the same creature. The katana was specifically made from one of the dragon's large fangs, while the other one, you guessed it, was made from a smaller fang. Hence the name Silver Tallfang and Fang."
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay…" Ruby weakly cheered from her couch.
Dante let out a small laugh, "Using the BlackHide Whetstone is effective with any weapon or tool. It isn't just with Elder Dragon Grimm tools or weapons. The only difference is that by comparison, and Elder Dragon Grimm weapon or tool will have higher durability granted when a BlackHide Whetstone is used, since the weapon or tool is a part of the original creature, it therefore makes the effect more reactive."
A picture of book page displaying two figures fighting a dragon-like creature showed up on the slide soon after.
"From what we've gathered of testimonials from Musashi and her village's records, the creature's scales and claws were tougher than the hardest steel. Their own Dragon Fire techniques barely scratched its surface. As for how the beast fell, we only know Musashi's ancestor that established the village had outside help. As to who it was that helped, no one knows. That secret went with the first village head."
The projector yet again moved to Musashi's weapon pair.
"One thing I enjoyed seeing was how Musashi made her weapon much more dangerous, and that was when she made her weapon flame on. I mean really, that was some Thoros of Myr, Beric Dondarrion nonsense where they cut their hands and lit their swords on fire." Dante said with excitement in his tone.
He calmed himself down and cleared his throat as he collected himself.
"From what I've gathered from my little sister, and Musashi herself, lighting her weapon on fire isn't the only thing she can do. In fact, there's a special trick to all that. You may not have seen it during the fight, but Musashi actually reached into a small pouch she had. Can you guess what it was?"
Another painful groan from Ruby was heard.
"Right you are Ruby. Musashi did indeed use Dust. But it wasn't so simple as coating her blade in Dust. She infused the Dust and her blade with her Aura to give it its properties. It's why the fire was crimson and black, rather than the normal color of fire. The assumption goes that she can use other Dust types other than fire, like ice or lightning, which also means the color and property of her Aura will be incorporated into the Dust coating."
The slide switched to another of Musashi's katana, only this image had the weapons blade blazing with her crimson and black Aura.
"Records also showed that Dust on the materials from this Elder Dragon Grimm actually ended up enhancing the Dust effects, which means the fire Dust Musashi used in tandem with her already volatile Aura effects actually made the flames produced by the Dust burn even hotter than usual. This made the flames around her sword so hot in fact that it'd easily be able to cut through normal steel with ease, whereas without it, it'd take a lot of effort and power behind her swing. We can only assume that any other Dust type she uses in the future will have a similar volatile effect."
The projector screen faded to black before soon sliding back into the ceiling it came from.
"Well everyone, that's all we have for this week. And again, sorry it's been a while, but you know how it is with slaying Grimm and surviving in the wilds. Hint hint…" he said leaning in to whisper, "It's not as easy as everyone thinks it is…"
Another loud groan from Ruby caught Dante's attention as he stood up straight and leaned over the couch to take the exhausted Ruby into his arms.
"There there, we can go rest now…" he began, "Thanks for joining us this week everyone. Tune in next time with Ciel and Leo as they give you a break down of Musashi's Semblance. Bye now."
{Omake: Skyla's Reckoning, by Xer Stark}
«»
Little feet bobbed up and down as Skyla walked.
She couldn't help but wiggle them around with her hands whenever she took the chance, clasping at tiny ankles as the girl atop her shoulders giggled under each touch.
"So small…" Skyla muttered to herself, even smaller hands threading into her hair from above as Irene leaned forward in her perch.
The girl happily kicked her legs now, and Skyla half-wondered if they could bust through rock…
"Anyway, so you have a magic rock?" Skyla asked, her body dipping forward slightly as she spun around, drawing another laugh out of Irene as she twirled. Her purple eyes soon fell on Musashi, Sky's gaze flickering in amusement.
"Yes. However, it's more of a whetstone…and has no rock in it." Musashi replied softly.
Skyla watched her exchange a glance with Ciel for a moment, all three of them trekking through the forest together.
No luck in finding a way home yet.
"Sounds like a fancy rock," Skyla said, looking up as she playfully lifted Irene's socked feet up, the small wolf Faunus yelping and giggling as she fell back. Sky swiftly twisted and gently swung the girl up into her arms, spinning again. "You know, the last time I found something this cute…something exploded."
Skyla's deadpan voice cut the air as the girl lifted Irene up beneath her arms, staring up at her adorable face as rays of light cascaded around them.
"Something…exploded?" Musashi asked curiously.
"Oh, you have no idea." Ciel tacked in now, moving forward to slip behind the smiling Irene to lift her arms up, playing with them in the air.
"You make it sound as if it happens a lot..." the dragon girl responded, following behind Ciel, but just stopping at her side. Every once in a while, she'd take a glance to Ciel as the girl moved to play with Irene's tail now.
Maybe she thought nobody would notice. Especially the girl she couldn't help but steal glances at.
Skyla noticed.
Skyla noticed everything.
Well…except for that time where she threw herself at the ground and missed.
She didn't notice a lot of things that day…
"Explaining it would take a while." Ciel responded, glancing back to Musashi now.
Sky's trained eyes watched how the girl's gaze quickly averted, then glanced back again as if bashfully taking in Ciel's direct gaze, and how her delicate face and white hair framed her eyes.
"Why does explaining need to take time?" Skyla asked, lowering Irene just a little bit. "Here, watch this."
She took the munchkin in her hands and walked over to a tree, lifting Irene up again with a determination in her purple eyes…before pressing Irene forward in the air to just lightly tap the tip of her wagging tail against the tree.
Nothing happened.
"Huh, usually that works…" Skyla muttered to herself, pulling Irene back up onto her shoulders. "Weir-"
A tree suddenly exploded behind her, completely unrelated to the one she just touched through Irene.
"Ahhh…that makes more sense now." Sky glanced back to see the fluttering shards of wood cascade to the ground and smiled. "The less sense it makes, the more sense it makes."
Her nod and confident smile reinforced the fact she fully believed in her convoluted logic.
"I take it back..." Musashi slowly stated, her eyes fixing on the girl in front of her and her white partner. "I believe I know enough..."
Ciel's hand fell to her shoulder softly to give it a squeeze, Musashi's eyes drawing over to see Ciel smile at her just as she stepped forward and walked ahead. "Don't worry, she can control it. Just don't give her ice cream."
"It's not the control I'm necessarily worried about..." Musashi responded, following after Ciel as Skyla hummed to herself, keeping ahead of them. "I'm greatly worried of what might happen should she attempt to control that power of hers."
"Pfft, she has control over it." Ciel sputtered believably as she waved her hand through the air dismissively, only for her eyes to snap away from Musashi in a sign of a grimace. "I think."
"Precisely my point." Musashi's head fell in a nod as she waited for Ciel to draw her gaze back to her. "Perhaps we should help teach her?"
The two looked forward to see Skyla happily diverting her path, taking accentuated and fluid dips in her steps as she lightly stepped from root to root, and rock to rock, then accidentally bumped into a tree and caused it to catch fire.
Something Ciel was quick to dump a raincloud on.
"I swear, she's usually not this…chaotic..." Ciel muttered, closing her hand to dispel her quick portal of rain. "It's almost like she…" she trailed off.
"You said she isn't from this dimension, correct?" Musashi asked, following Ciel's slender arm as she lowered it back to her side.
Ciel nodded. "Different Reality, but basically the same thing."
"Maybe this Reality is affecting her in some adverse ways?" Musashi offered. It was a start to a very plausible question, and Ciel was slowly mulling it over on whether or not it was even a possibility.
"I don't know…but come to think of it, she's never been to a different reality before." Ciel's eyes slowly widened as she muttered something under her breath, her step slowing.
"Did you realize something?" Musashi slowed too, her gaze catching signs of worry knitting Ciel's thin brow and closing her fingers.
"She's…homesick."
Musashi turned her eyes back to Skyla, watching her duck beneath a few branches to let Irene pat them with her hands.
"She certainly doesn't appear so." she concluded.
Ciel's eyes tracked over to the girl now as well, her walk forward keeping slow as her thoughts caught up with her.
"That's because she's really good at hiding it."
"Hiding her homesickness?" Musashi asked.
"Hiding, well…everything."
The two glimpsed forward again as Skyla sneezed ahead of them, a puff of frost and snow encasing the trees in front of her in a cone-like blast.
"Somebody talking about me?"
Irene just giggled more and played with the falling snowflakes.
Heya folks. I know, I know, it's been a month. I have to apologize for that. Spring break was spent home with friends and family, and these past two weeks I've had an intensive amount of coursework to take care of with minimal sleep. I was involved in three different group projects. THREE. Now I have one more. In any case, yeah, tons of school work made it impossible to work, and thankfully the Easter break gave me enough time to finish this chapter and work on the next KoWaB.
In other news, what secret's does our Hydra friend posses? What will happen to Ciel and Leo as they enter the towers with their allies? WHAT DID DANTE EAT FOR BREAKFAST?! (The answer is nothing by the way)
That's all I have to say for now, so with that...
I highly recommend you all go check out the freaking amazing story XSRA's Flame written by Xera Stark. His story overall is absolutely fantastic and is a must read, so I suggest you seriously read it. You won't want to miss out on this story.
Not only that, but check out his other awesome and highly entertaining story Rogue Huntsmen as I mentioned above. It's just pure awesomeness bundled into one story. Trust me, you'll love it pretty much immediately. And hey! Go check out HydraFLow's story Lost in Binary! It's equally as awesome and entertaining, and more than definitely worth spending the time reading and enjoying!
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!