Anime PJ: Personally, I kinda got the impression from the way Ren said it, and that Yang was in no way surprised, that Jaune actually admitted it ages ago and it just hasn't come up until now. I really wish they'd established that everyone knew ahead of time, but from the way it's presented, I don't think it's new information to them.
Regarding the actual chapter, I was very entertained by this. Yang throwing Ruby under the bus, and Ruby joking about being an only child, both got huge laughs out of me. There was also what I assume was a spelling error when Yang was on her own that got a chuckle - it said she was firing "s***" behind her, but I'm pretty sure you meant "shots." I'm childish, I know. This one was a ton of fun. It was also nice to see a bit more of Arthur.
Re: They had lots of volumes for that to come out in conversation, I just wish that'd been framed better instead of being shoehorned in there as "an afterthought". Hell, it could've come up in Mistral, in any season that centered around it, but not even a hint that any of their dynamic had changed. And let's not forget, Amber, Ozpin, and Pyrrha all died because Cinder got the jump on them and sent the dominos falling because Jaune couldn't do the one thing Ozpin asked him to personally do since coming to Beacon!
The dialogue was a joy to write, and yes, that was a spelling error, which I corrected. I had fun writing Arthur into the mix too, since I like to think he's a bit of a foil for Ruby. He's basically the "Hinata" to Ruby's "Naruto". Not an exact parallel, but you get what I mean. Not quite "opposites", but they're different-enough from one another they can continue growing as people by playing off of one another.
LoamyCoffee: Well hot dog~ Weiss and Jack are going on a quest, just the two of them~ Of course, I'm saying this is a chance for them to get to know each other better, considering how they started off.
As for the chapter, I should've known you'd find a way to include at least one Pokemon, that it's one with many applications is bonus as it also scared the bejeezus out of the girls and Arthur. Terror makes people do things. Like Yang being an idiot and attempting to leave her sister to ghosts.
Still, a grand ole time for everyone. And considering the traits Ozzy listed off, sounds like Vincent is getting new friends~
Re: A Fetch Quest, yes. As for them getting to know one another, well… Weiss will be dancing to Jack's tune since he's leading this expedition, but I think there'll be time for them to grow closer. Maybe not explicitly in the romantic sense, but they'll learn to trust one another, and Weiss will definitely be stronger for it. In terms of [Summoning], GS-Weiss is already more-powerful than her Canon counterpart in the same Volume, and it'll only be a greater climb from there, because honestly, all those months leading up to the Vyltal Festival and she didn't train THAT ability to hell and back?
Yeah, I'd been itching to introduce Rotom for a while now, but he won't be the only Pokémon. In fact, the "Ghastly" Grimm is just a Remnant-centric version of Gastly, calling it a "sub-species of Geist" was just convenient. It was fun pushing Yang and Ruby out of their comfort zones in a way that Grimm can't, though thus-far no-one's pointed out a very specific reference I've made with some of her dialogue.
As for the end, glad you caught that, though admittedly, Blake was a bit transparent when she said- "I think I might know someone."
Blaze1992: WHO YOU GONNA CALL!
TEAM RABY!
Re: You forgot the Question Mark (?).
And of course, I've realized just how-terrible that acronym sounds, and won't be using it again~
*NEW WORLD*
'I wonder what Jack has in mind…' Weiss thought to herself as she stood on Beacon Cliff, staring out at the Emerald Forest, the mountains beyond, and the unseen horizon beyond that. And not just the earth, the very sky was boundless and seemingly infinite; doubly-so once Jack had re-drawn the map she'd held in her head her entire life.
Honestly, this detail could slip when you spent all day inside with your nose in a book or polishing Dust Crystals, but the world… the world was massive! Even with as much as she could see, this was only a sliver of the continent she was staring out at. Imagine how much more one could see from the vantage point of say… an airship? If you got high-enough, could you see the bend of the horizon? Or was the world so-vast you could only see that "bend" once you ran out of air up above?
The thoughts were both humbling, terrifying, awe-inspiring, and intimidating in equal nebulous measure.
Before she could ruminate on this any farther and be made to feel smaller than she already did, the sound of gravel crunching underboot caused her to turn around, fingertips gliding to her Myrtenaster.
Approaching her on the footpath was a figure a small deal taller than she. They were clad in a layering of weathered leather, battered chain, and grimy plate armor, a cheap-looking helmet encasing their head with the remains of a read head plume, their visage hidden behind their slatted Medieval visor. The sword he carried was a strange length, and a small circular shield was synched to his arm. Slung over his shoulder was a bag only large enough to hold maybe a day's worth of provision, a change of clothes if you were being generous.
He looked singularly unimpressive.
As he neared her, a familiar earthy tone wafted into her nostrils from the wind, and when the nocturnal glint of jade orbs peered at her from inside the depths of the visor, she realized who it was.
"J… Jack?"
"Yes."
"That's… What are you wearing?"
"Armor."
"I know that! I mean why!"
"Protection."
"RRRRRGH!" Weiss scowled. "Are you going to be monosyllabic the entire trip?"
"Maybe."
"Uugh…"
*NEW WORLD*
The two taking the long, zig-zagging flight of stairs to the base of Beacon Cliff before walking over the rickety rope bridge that was probably older than the two of them put together, Weiss followed closely behind her guide to the point she could play connect-the-dots with the pits in his armor.
It wasn't that she was scared of being in the Emerald Forest alone, she wasn't. But between the earthy smell, the earthy tones of his battered armor, and the fact that he was so-fully in his element that he flowed through the underbrush like water while she struggled to keep up without utterly ruining her clothes, and she felt like if she blinked, he could completely vanish and she'd wind up going back to Beacon empty-handed.
Weiss Schnee never returned home empty-handed. Every foray out of her room, whether it be in Atlas or at Beacon, she took something away from the trip. A material possession, knowledge, a life lesson. Stepping out and accomplishing nothing was like anathema to her, and she wouldn't have any of it.
And that aside… being with Jack, without being at one anothers' throats, it was… nice.
The sound of nature around her and the cool provided by the canopy as they walked the paths used by the forest's many creatures was just a nice bonus.
Things went on like this for a good while, no talking, just walking. On occasion Jack would get his bearings by the old compass he drew from the tool pouch at his side, glance at whatever part of his map they were on, but those delays were never long, and he walked forward with purpose. It was left on her to keep up, and that he didn't coddle her was appreciated more than he probably realized.
After what must've been an hour at least, Jack spoke in full sentences for the first time since they'd parted ways at breakfast.
"Weiss, stay here."
"What? Why?"
*Rustle*Rustle*Rustle*
"Looks like we have company," Weiss said moving to draw her Myrtenaster, only for Jack to lay a gloved hand on her own. "What?"
"Stay here. Watch. Wait. You'll need your energy for later," Jack said as he passed his bag into her arms before he strode forward, the underbrush rustling further before a pair of Beowolves ambled toward him, growling deep in their throats but completely ignoring her.
The first Beowolf lunging at him for a claw swipe, Jack easily deflected it with his shield before slashing its arm off at the elbow, the Grimm yowling and tumbling off to the side before the second lunged at him with claws and teeth forward. Jack for his part leapt up so his feet were pointed to the sky, a ring of smoke signaling his "double-jump" as he dove back down at the Grimm and stabbed his odd-length blade into the Grimm's neck. With a jerk, it died and began to dissolve, leaving the first cradling its ruined limb.
The next moment Jack flicked a dirk from his belt and hit home in the Grimm's eye, a pained howl leaving its lips as yellow-ish eye fluid dribbled down its mask. Whirling around and making a break for it, Jack zig-zagged toward it in a blur and straddled its back, raising his sword above his head before swinging the pommel down into the throwing knife and burying it deep into its skull, the Grimm dropping dead and evaporating, leaving only the thrown dirk in its wake once it finished dissolving.
The altercation only took a few seconds.
"I could've taken them…" Weiss pouted.
"Maybe. But like I said, you're saving your energy for later."
"When will that be?"
"I'll tell you when we get there," Jack said with a jerk of his hand, motioning her to follow.
*NEW WORLD*
As the two continued to hike through the forest, on occasion one, two, or even three Grimm would come out of the woodwork, attention solely fixed on Jack and ignoring the heiress altogether. To that end, she was left holding the bag as he dispatched the attacking Grimm either as brutally, or as efficiently as possible, either or whenever the mood struck him. Sometimes he'd go in for the quick kill like a stab through the eye or a decapitation. Others, he'd hack off limbs, give them a fighting chance only to beat their heads in with his shield and carve them to pieces.
Beyond that nothing else came out to meet them, not even the other animals. It was as though Jack's presence as he cut a swath of death through the Emerald Forest had all the birds and the bugs and the critters running for the hills, both literally and figuratively.
"Oh-hoooo… Looks like we've had a happy accident," Jack hummed holding up his hand for her to stop.
"Why? What do you see?" Weiss asked as she squinted her eyes, hating the fact that compare to Jack, a Faunus, she, a Human, may as well have been blind out here under the thick canopy.
"Spartoi. And plenty of 'em."
"S-Spartoi!?" Weiss gasped. "How is that good?!" she asked drawing her weapon with a flourish.
"Because now you will have some fodder in your stable," the Faunus chuckled darkly. "It wasn't what we originally came out here for, but it'll be a nice bonus."
"But I'm not equipped to fight those things! Maybe Yang or someone like Nora could handle them without any problems, but this may as well be a piece of tin against those things," Weiss huffed, waving the tip of her Myrtenaster around.
"I didn't know you were one to quit when things got tough."
"I'm not. I'm just trying to be sensible about this," Weiss huffed. "Difficulties aside… having some infantry at my disposal does sound rather appealing…" she trailed off. "But still, I don't have anything that could damage them enough to 'kill' them and make them mine."
"You're loaded up on Dust, aren't you? Throw some Magecraft around. Get creative."
"I believe the word you're looking for is 'Thaumaturgy'," she jabbed matter-of-factly
"Whatever," Jack huffed. "You wanna take them or not? I'll have you know, well-equipped Spartoi like this aren't easy to come by. You'd be missing a golden opportunity here. Sure, you could always use lesser Beowolves or Boarbatusk as fodder, but they aren't much good in confined spaces. And these things have thumbs! Actual thumbs! That can carry shit!" he said waggling two upheld thumbs at her. "Come on, don't act like you don't miss your indentured servants carrying your baggage for you while you stand back and look pretty."
" . . . Damn, if you know how to make a compelling argument," Weiss conceded. "Fine. I'll think of something when we get there. You got my back in case things go south?"
"Always," Jack chuckled, tightening his shield on his arm as Weiss led the way.
*NEW WORLD*
Bursting into the clearing, Weiss readied her weapon as her eyes began to adjust to the light, her cool gaze peering across the clearing to take in her quarry.
Numbering a dozen in total and wielding various metal weapons and armor across their skeletal frames, Spartoi were, as you imagine, skeleton soldiers. Borne from possession-type Grimm using Human cadavers as puppets, once the flesh rotted away without a Soul to sustain it, what remained was a calcium-based body of superhuman durability and uncanny resistance to harm surpassing that of un-augmented bone.
A single unarmed and unarmored Spartoi was easy-enough to kill with a heavy-enough sledgehammer and a solid hit to something important. But when the remains of Hunters, Blacklist or otherwise, were left untended to for long-enough in the Frontier, and you could have something incredibly dangerous, or at the very least annoying, on your hands. Few could use guns, fewer still stuck around long enough to learn, and out in the wilderness, few abandoned firearms would be of much use to a Spartoi.
The Spartoi, wielding shields, clubs, swords, and knives, jerkily turned as one to regard Weiss, the heiress' eyes fully adjusting to the point that she could see the ember-like motes of light in their empty eye sockets. Their weapons, rusty and chipped from neglect, were all the more menacing when wielded by the hands of supernatural horrors, all of which were now aiming their attention at her.
"You got this, Weiss," Jack said casually as he walked to the side and took a seat on a nearby rock as though he wasn't in a Grimm-infested clearing.
"Right," Weiss nodded sidelong before turning her attention back to the gathered Grimm. "Well? Come at me!" she roared, the Grimm baited by her arrogance and pride.
[Cue Battle Chasers: Nightwar OST – Battle Chasers Opening Theme]
Like an arrow from a bow, Weiss was off like a shot, a trail of Glyphs left in her wake as the end of her Myrtenaster drew graceful arcs through the enemy ranks. Prancing, bounding, and pirouetting around, trough, and above the group of Spartoi, chips of bone and rusted metal flew in every direction as she thrust and slashed and twirled her weapon while staying tantalizingly out of reach.
She was no Warrior in the Woods, but even as out-of-her-element as she was, Jack had to admit, Weiss was pretty fucking graceful.
Too bad the things she was trying to slay were anything but.
Skeletal heads snapping around at unnatural angles in pursuit of the one whose weapon had bit into the connective tissue holding the bodies together, they snapped their bodies toward them with unnatural, jerky motions, pursuing her looking no worse for wear.
"Great job, Weiss! But next time maybe cause some damage, yeah?"
"How?! They have no vitals!"
"Ah, so you noticed!" Jack returned as Weiss strafed them like a skater tracing a circle in the ice, her attacks not all that different from an impatient child using an icepick to peel scraps of meat from the bone.
Then again, Weiss' choice of weapon was probably… no definitely the absolute worst matchup for this type of Grimm. Nora's war hammer or Cardin's big freaking mace? Infinitely better since instead of having to bash in the meat to get to the bone, you could cut out the middle-man and get straight to the bone-breaking.
Hopefully Nora didn't find out about these things and use them to satisfy her leg-breaking fetish.
"Wait, what on earth am I doing?" Weiss asked as an epiphany suddenly dawned on her. "This is stupid."
"Oh? You come up with something?" Jack asked quirking a brow.
"Quiet, you!" she huffed back, leaping back several meters before taking a knee and stabbing her Myrtenaster into the ground, the glowing white Glyph before her leaving the Spartoi transfixed. "I summon thee… Bacon Bits!"
"Seriously?" Jack blinked as Weiss' declarative invocation caused a plume of white snow-like particles to shoot into the air like a geyser before the form of a palette-swapped Boarbatusk leapt into being from the void, snorting and pawing angrily at the ground.
"Bacon Bits! Roll over!" she said as the cylinder of her Myrtenaster spun and clicked, the etchings of her blade glowing cyan before with a graceful downward sweep, a layer of ice spread out across the ground, frozen grass breaking under its own weight while the Spartoi found themselves rooted firmly to the ground. "GO! Straight down the center!"
The summoned Bacon Bits snorting angrily, with a squeal it tucked in on itself and spun like a tire, shooting off through the collection of Spartoi like a bowling ball to pins.
The sound that followed… was decidedly not like a bowling ball hitting pins. There was a lot of crunching of bone, creaking of metal, and snapping of jet-black tendons as the bodies were thrown every which way.
And at the same time, it'd worked. In a single swoop Weiss had used the tools at her disposal to decimate roughly half of the Spartoi she'd been unable to harm on her own, and using her Glyphs to levitate the still-moving pieces into the air, with a flick of her wrist and a concerted effort she sent those pieces careening into one another like a child smashing their toys together. The broken bodies still holding onto un-life, before they could hit the ground Weiss sandwiched them between another two Glyphs tinged purple, elevating the pressure like a compactor until the still-intact bones crumbled into shards, then evaporated completely.
Of course, the rest of the Spartoi weren't just going to stand still. Stabbing their weapons or bashing their shields into the ground to break free, the biggest ones with shields banded together to pen Bacon Bits back, leaving Weiss to face four armed skeletons alone.
With a sweep of her Myrtenaster, a wave of fire rolled over them, but all it did was make the connecting tissues smolder and stink. Another summoned a gale of wind, but it just washed over them since they were literally piles of bones and no bodies to actually catch. Water was no better.
"Ugh, enough of this!" the heiress hissed as she sheathed her Myrtenaster on her hip and whipped out her right hand.
The tiny clicking of metal parts sliding against metal, carried into her hand from the depths of her billowing sleeve was the Beretta M92G Elite II Jack had bought for her the last time they'd gone to the Megamall.
"Oh? You made it into a sleeve gun?" Jack mused, mildly impressed as the heiress took hold of it. "Well, you certainly have the sleeves for it," he said as she leveled the barrel at the nearest bony brow, arm out straight.
*BAAANG!*
"Uwaagh!" the heiress cried as the over-pressured round was discharged, throwing her off her feet.
"Widen your stance!" Jack called out as her back hit the dirt, staining her immaculate bolero. "Palm the butt with your free hand until you get used to the recoil! And for Etro's sake, bend your damn elbow!" he instructed as her free hand went to aforementioned joint.
"Yeah! I noticed!" the heiress said taking a knee. Taking the time to properly aim and muttering to herself, with memories of her sister over her shoulder, she fired three more bullets into three more brows, but they didn't all take. Unloading the last of her 15-bullet mag, a single Spartoi dragging the upper half of its body forward with a single arm met the heel of Weiss' shoe, killing it for good.
The sound of angry squeaking and groaning metal catching her ears, Weiss looked up to see that Bacon Bits had been backed against a tree, a shield to each tusk as the inhumanly strong Grimm held her Summon back.
"Tch!" the Heiress clicked her tongue, striding up to two Grimm and taking out a knee from behind, the Spartoi collapsing into a pile on the ground. With a wave of her hand, their shields were pulled from their hands with Glyphs, and an errant thought had Bacon Bits trample the Grimm into fertilizer.
The last of the Spartoi's skulls bouncing across the ground and stopping at her feet, the heiress stared down at the ember-like eye sockets before bringing the heel of her shoe down onto it one last time, fracturing bone and killing the Grimm within.
[END OST]
*NEW WORLD*
"Hey Weiss… I get that you want to get as much practice Summoning as you can… but is this really the best use of your time and energy?"
"I like to think so," Weiss said with a satisfied nod, sitting atop a gestatorial chair she'd hewn with Ice Dust. Bearing hers' and its weight were four of the lower-end Spartoi, acting like diligent manservants as they trudged across the forest floor at her command.
"Well… As long as you're having fun with this," Jack shrugged. "Honestly, if I could Summon, I'd probably do the same thing."
"What happened to all that talk of anyone being able to do anything?" the heiress asked haughtily.
"That's more an issue of 'software' than 'hardware'" Jack replied, rolling his shoulders inside his armor. "Still, you should probably hold onto as-much Aura as you can for what I've got planned."
"You mean those Spartoi weren't it?" she asked, realizing they were still moving away from Beacon.
"Oh, not by a long shot," Jack cackled laconically. "Why don't you get some sleep, replenish your tank," he said looking down at his Scroll. "I'll wake you when we're closer on."
"But if I go to sleep, my Summons will vanish."
"Not if you tell them to 'follow Jack'."
"You really think that will work? That I can just nod off and they'll still be here?"
"Do you have any evidence to the contrary?"
" . . . Fine. But if they disappear and I hurt myself, I'm taking it out on your ass."
"Schnee…" Jack said in a cool tone that had Weiss' summons freezing mid-step. "Never… ever threaten me with a good time~"
"You pig!" she cried breaking off a piece of wood and chucking it at him, eliciting a throaty chuckle from the older Faunus.
*NEW WORLD*
"Weiss. Weiss, get up."
"Wha…? What happened…? We there yet?"
"Nope. Had a happy accident."
" . . . Why are you hiding under my chair?"
"Because birds."
"Don't you mean 'because of-AAUUUGH!?" the heiress screamed as a Nevermore started pecking at her.
Not a giant Nevermore like Ruby had duped her into hitching a ride on for a literal bird's eye view of the Emerald Forest. No, it was just a "Juvenile" Nevermore.
Which of course didn't change the fact Jack had walked her load-bearing Spartoi underneath a large rookery, her scream of the first Nevermore packing at her drawing the attention of its other flockmates.
"Look on the bright side."
"What bright side?!"
"If they're giving you a hard time, imagine how much of a bitch this'll be for other people~"
"I WILL BREAK, YOUR, DIIIIICK!" Weiss screeched as she began to fend off the attacking Nevermore.
"Prettier than you have tried, none succeeded~"
"Rrrgh!"
"So should I drop my drawers, or do you wanna do that… yourself~?"
"RRRRRRRGH!"
*NEW WORLD*
Several stabbing and shot-filled minutes later…
"Jaaaaaaack…!" Weiss growled angrily through clenched teeth, her hair a tangled mess,-
"What's the matter, Weiss? You look like someone… ruffled your feathers~"
"Youuuuuuu…!" - enough black feathers to fill every pillowcase between both Team RWBBY and JNPR scattered around her.
"And at least I know you like giving instead of… receiving~"
"ASSHOOOLE!" she shrieked bringing her foot up into Jack's groin.
" . . . "
"OWWWWW!" the heiress cried as she recoiled, holding her foot and bouncing with pain.
"And that was why the codpiece was invented," Jack said as he adjusted the codpiece under his leather armor. "When you're quite done, we can get a move-on."
At that moment, Weiss swore to herself just who would be the first to receive her newly-earned avian fury.
*NEW WORLD*
Their trek through the woods continued, though Weiss abandoned use of her Spartoi-hewned gestatorial chair. If after all this they still hadn't found what Jack had dragged her out into the woods for, such frivolous use of her Aura would only hurt her in the short-term. Like before, Jack took the lead, his ratty, worn, pitted armor cutting a swath of death and destruction through the Emerald Forest, whether it be a Grimm that made the mistake of bearing its fangs at him, a Grimm that he'd somehow lured out of its den, or a particularly large tree branch that he saw fit to hack down instead of just walking around. Jack's armor and choice of weapons were clearly second-hand, possibly even fourth-hand, but they still worked.
Which left Weiss wondering, why the hell was he wearing this when he had perfectly-good leather armor? Sure, Jack was self-assured, but she never thought he'd be so-arrogant that he'd willingly wear cheap armor for a mission. If anything, she knew he wouldn't "settle" for anything but true Huntsmen grade, like Jaune had gotten to replace the barely-usable plate he'd had before.
A cold breath passing her lips, despite it being only the tail end of summer, had the heiress stopping as a shiver ran up her spine.
"We're here," Jack hummed to himself moments before they entered a forest clearing. "Wait here, keep your head down. I'll be back in a moment."
Jack stepping into the clearing before she could ask what he meant by that, Weiss found herself heeding his instructions, taking a knee behind some bushes as she squinted through a gap in the shrubbery as Jack walked into the middle of the clearing.
Suddenly, for no reason at all, Jack began to strip out of his layers of armor, leaving the heiress confused. That confusion turned to embarrassment when he stripped down to his underclothes, a pair of green boxers with pink hearts on them and a tight-fitting black T-shirt. Peeking through her fingers and the brush to guiltily eye his muscular frame, to her renewed confusion the Faunus began to arrange the layers of leather, chain, and plate armor on the ground in spread eagle like a person lying down, weapons and shield included.
After making some last adjustments to the various buckles and straps, his ears perked up, and the Faunus zipped over to her at incredible speed. Clapping a hand over her mouth, he dragged her deeper into the brush away from the clearing, depositing her behind another bush while he took the bag from her hand and went behind a nearby tree.
"Jack, why'd you leave that armor out there?"
"Shhhhhh. Watch," Jack shushed her amidst the rustling of clothes.
Weiss didn't like being shushed, but she followed his instructions, making a concerted effort to hide while eyeing the seemingly-abandoned suit of armor out in the clearing.
At first everything was normal, but then the rustling of leaves and chatter of wildlife tapered off into an eerie silence that smothered everything. The dark of the forest growing ever darker, a half-dozen candle-like lights suddenly flickered into being from the darkness.
[ Cue Battle Chasers: Nightwar OST – Mud & Lead, Blood Red ]
The air chilling around her even further, the heiress had to stifle a gasp as six wraith-like forms glided out into the open, hooded figures with cycloptic Grimm-like masks and various bony protrusions and gangly skeletal limbs wafting out through the air like cloth in water.
The half-dozen Geist circling the abandoned armor like buzzards, to the heiress' surprise, they began fighting amongst one another, claws drawing ichor and bony shoulders ramming others away. It was only when the eldest of the Geists, an Elder Geist of longer body, ganglier limbs, innumerable spikes and a mask nearly wholly-shrouded by its hooded "cowl" remained that one of the Grimm dove headfirst into the armored breast upon the ground. Leather armor and chain mail swelling up like a balloon with air, after several pulse-pounding seconds, the air growing deeper with ominous chill, did the possessed armor rise again.
While the Arma Gigas she'd fought was impressive in stature and possessed a certain knightly grace, what arose within the clearing couldn't be any farther than that.
The leather armor, used but well-cared for, creaked ominously, the greasy marks and flecks of rust on the armor darkening. Links of chain mail grinding and scraping against one another like scales on scales, as the armor took an experimental, lumbering step forward with armored boots, a single flame-like light spilled out of the slatted visor where the left eye would've been. Possessed leather fingers grasping the oddly-lengthed sword, shield on its other arm, as the Possessed Armor slouched forward slightly, the other Geist shuddered, then retreated into the darkness as a bestial hiss spilled out of the now-claimed armor.
"What… What did you do?" Weiss whispered as low as she could manage.
"Surpriiiiise. Your very own 'Dullahan'~" Jack said cheerily.
"Wait, you made that for me?!" the heiress asked, a mix between happiness and terror leeching into her voice.
"Duh, of course. You can't use the Giant Armor everywhere, the collateral would decimate your bottom line," Jack said languidly. "Well, go on. Get out there."
When later retelling this story, Weiss would vehemently deny the undignified- "EEEEEP!" -that quote "allegedly" unquote came out of her mouth in accordance with Jack's retelling.
But squeak the heiress did as his strong muscular leg propelled her out of the bushes and into the clearing, the heiress tumbling and nearly losing hold of her weapon before she tumbled to a stop, the armor's possessed head snapping onto her at such a rate an ordinary human's head would've fallen off.
The Possessed Armor, or "Dullahan" as Jack called it, ambling ominously towards her, the heiress collected herself, right foot back and rapier raised as a dark chuckle wafted through the air towards her, warbling against visor of the cheap metal helmet.
"What… What is this sensation…?" Weiss shuddered as the once-vacant suit of armor regarded her with a tilted head, its single eye flickering at her like a trick candle in the wind
"I had to make that thing appetizing to whatever Geist happened to be around, so I basically steeped that thing in every negative emotion I could think of; that's why so many Grimm came out of the woodwork to pester me but ignored you," Jack explained from the sidelines as he put on some clothes. "What you're feeling right now… That's me, on a bad day, and now it's all directed, at you," he said as he climbed a tree, crossing his legs and interlacing his fingers behind his head. "Word of advice: try not to die. I'll save you if I have to, but I worked very hard on this plan so I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to."
"Gee. ThankSSS!" Weiss yelped as the possessed armor lunged at her, sword set to cleave her skull in two had she not raised Myrtenaster at the last moment.
"You might wanna put your all into this, Weiss! You want a murderous berserker that everyone will underestimate because it looks ratty and beat-up under your command? You're going to have to work for it!"
Weiss, cycling through her Myrtenaster's cylinders, repelled the so-titled 'berserker' with a pulse of Purple Dust, the force of gravity throwing it back, only for the newly-borne Dullahan to stab its blade into the ground, halting its flight before booted heels dug into the ground and it lunged at her once more.
The heiress snapping out her sleeve gun and firing three rounds, the Dullahan brought up its shield over its visor, tanking the rounds with an unbroken clip as it closed the distance. On the one hand, Weiss hated that Jack had "given" the thing a shield at all. On the other, she couldn't help but love his creative streak.
Assuming she got enough out of this fight that she could Summon the damn thing- Was her thought as she was put on the defensive under a rain of powerful horizontal blows from the oddly-lengthed sword, her thin blade battered left and right under the ferocious attacks. Leaping back before attempting a lunge, the Grimm bulled through as the blade skewered it beneath plate and through mail to the other side, the Dullahan bringing the edge of its shield up across the heiress' face, Aura shaved away by the sharpened edge, followed by a knee to the gut and then a headbutt, the heiress sent tumbling away.
"Ugh, seriously?" the heiress groaned as the Dullahan approached her, blade still lodged through its stomach. Reaching into the pouch at her back and drawing out a small cyan-colored Dust Crystal, filling it with Aura, Weiss threw it with a shout of- "ICE!" -as it bounced across the ground and stopping at its feet before exploding like a live grenade, both its legs and an arm frozen in place. The Dullahan chipping away at its icy prison with its sword, the heiress pressed her hands together, scrunching her brow as if in prayer before thrusting her palms forward, a Glyph with feathers spinning rapidly before a murder of Nevermore shot out. The avian effigies assaulting the Dullahan from all sides, beaks and claws picking at chain and leather armor, with a monstrous burst of strength the Grimm broke free of its prison, the shrapnel dispelling the birds leveled against it just in time for a rolling ball of snow-colored bone to plow into it with the force of a speeding car.
The Grimm rolling across the ground, chest armor dented, as it Sparta Kicked 'Bacon Bits' into white power, a Glyph appeared on the Myrtenaster's pommel before the blade was violently wrenched away, the heiress recovering it before the Dust Cylinder ratchetted, lightning dancing along the blade. With a thrust and a crackle of ozone, a brilliant lance of lightning shot out through the air and toward the possessing Grimm. Instead of dodging, the Grimm stabbed its blade into the ground, and only when it was struck did it leap back, the blade drinking in the discharge like a lightning rod. Dullahan rushing forward to reclaim the blade once it no longer crackled, with a powerful underhanded slash, a wave of dirt and sand was kicked up, momentarily blinding Weiss to the flurry of dirks sent at her, more of her Aura shaved away from the surprise assault.
"I need a breather," the heiress muttered to herself stabbing her Myrtenaster into the ground. Ice spreading out, with a twirl of the Dust Cylinder that ice was flash-vaporized by fire, a thick fog forming around her, the Grimm hitting the brakes as it dug in its heels. Its single candle-like eye peering into the fog, moments later it burst open as a dozen phantasmal Spartoi appeared. 'So glad I captured those things.'
Of course, the heiress' breather would be a short one. With ruthless brutality filling its every movement, fighting like a wild dog, the Dullahan used every part of its body, and even some of the Spartois' own, to dispatch them. Bones and weapons flew about, dispelling in plumes of powder until the last Spartoi, literally disarmed, tried to go in for a headbutt, only to be met with one in kind that shattered its skull into a hundred pieces.
'FUCK!' the heiress swore as the last of her Spartoi dispelled, the Aura she'd spent hardly worth the time she'd bought.
To make matters worse, the fog she'd been concealing herself within was dispelled in short order, a single monstrous slash with the flat of the Dullahan's blade kicking up a gale that left her completely exposed.
"Fuck…" the heiress swore aloud as the Dullahan's eye came alight, the ground at its feet exploding as it launched itself at her with tremendous speed. The heiress rotating her Dust Cylinder, runes glowing purple, she swung her Myrtenaster to intercept the Dullahan's own weapon, the collision between monstrous strength and gravity-augmented strikes causing a deafening *BOOM!* that shook the leaves and scattered the birds before both their weapons were torn from their hands.
The two warriors disarmed, in Weiss' moment of shock as her ears rang from the blast, the Dullahan surged forward and wrapped its arms around her waist. Raising her up from the ground and squeezing her like a boa constrictor, the heiress' feet fruitlessly kicked at genitals that weren't there, manicured nails chipping as she fought desperately to free herself. A ragged gasp leaving her as she felt her Aura buckle under the inhuman strength leveled against her, Weiss felt her ribs beginning to creak, her vision darkening at the edges.
"Whoops!"
The next moment a glint of silver caught the heiress' eye, her Myrtenaster sailing towards her off the end of a sandaled foot.
The heiress in too much pain to ruminate on the why of it, with her flagging strength, Weiss caught hold of her weapon. Turning it over in her hands, the Dullahan looked up in time for the slender piece off metal to stab through its visor, burying itself deep into the thing's torso, any resistance akin to murky water as she felt the end of her weapon poke through the small of the Dullahan's back.
"Burn… mother FUCKERRRR!"
That crass expletive leaving her lips, the Myrtenaster's Dust cylinder ratchetting to the desired setting, with a flex of what little Aura she had left, Weiss' blade became alight and the Grimm burned. Tongues of fire leaping though the slats in its visor as it filled with fire, the limbs holding her too spat tongues of flame at the seams, singing her outfit, but she refused to relent even as fine silk and even finer skin burned. With another forceful shove, the Dust Exhaust Port slid through the visor as well, a wave of ice forcing the heated metal to cool and warp. Before the Grimm could even hope to recover, having survived all that by some fell miracle, a flexing of gravity made the armor bulge inward.
Its arms slackening enough for the heiress to free herself, drinking in some of the most-delicious air she'd ever tasted, the heiress dug deep, deeper than she ever thought she could, and willed a jagged glacier to manifest overhead. Stumbling back, gravity did the rest of the work for her, its mangled limbs incapable of carrying it away from the following meteor strike. Powdered ice and dirt whipping the heiress' hair back, when the dust settled literally and metaphorically, the sight that greeted her was that of the Grimm which'd nearly killed her flattened like a bug beneath a boot, its head and one mangled arm poking out.
Whipping out her Beretta, the heiress proceeded to discharge the remainder of her clip into its armored helm.
[ END OST ]
"I uh... I think you got it," Jack said as the Grimm-occupied helmet did an Oscar-winning rendition of Swiss cheese.
Heedless of the Faunus' words as he strode into the clearing, the heiress slotted a fresh mag into the magwell and proceeded to empty that too with a rapid- *Bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*bang!*
"Well... I'm glad I finally got a literal demonstration of 'overkill'," Jack said as the heiress' gun clicked empty.
"That thing is exactly the right amount of killed," the heiress snapped back at him as the 'Dullahan' finished evaporating.
Whatever witty request for a spare vat of battery acid the heiress had in mind died on her lips as the adrenaline coursing through her system finally petered out, the heiress sinking bonelessly to the ground. The last sensation to register before she lost consciousness wholly was that of her body falling into the arms of her guide.
*NEW WORLD*
The next time Weiss awoke it was with a gasp, eyes wide and sleeve gun leaping into her palm.
"Weiss! WEISS!" Jack shouted as he slapped the gun out of his face when she rounded on him. "Compose yourself!"
"What? What happened? Did I win?"
"Of fucking course you did," Jack said inclining his head to the standing glacier she'd hewn. "You've been out a couple hours. How do you feel?"
"Like shit…" the heiress groaned forsaking any measure of decorum. Laying her Scroll on the ground and too lazy to pick it up, she flicked through the settings before finding that in the time she'd been out, her Aura had recovered to a surprising 30%. Jack's own was barely under 90%. "Why's so much of my Aura back? I should be running on fumes."
"Oh trust me, after you laid into that Dullahan, you were on less than fumes," Jack hummed. "But the thing is… The more of your Aura you expend in one sitting, the more intensely you expend it, the more your Aura Pool will grow afterward. Think of it like stretching out a balloon the more you inflate it," he explained. "Of course, this trend can only continue for as long as you don't hit your 'glass ceiling' and plateau. You have an impressive pedigree, on your father's side at least, so that shouldn't be an issue for a decade or two."
"I understood some of that…" Weiss said laying back in the grass, hand going to her forehead as she observed the sky, the sun beginning its journey to the horizon, but not all that far past noon. "How long was I out?"
"You already asked me that."
"Right… Right…" she nodded, throat dry and head foggy.
The next moment a damp canteen pressed itself to her cheek, the heiress too tired to flinch away.
"Drink. You're exhausted," Jack ordered, the heiress snatching the canteen from his hand and sloppily gulping its contents down, greedily sucking at the water until there was nothing left. "Want more?"
"Yes… please…"
Jack nodding and taking the canteen back, he withdrew a Blue Dust crystal from his pocket and held it over the open canteen. His brows furrowing in concentration, a trickle of Aura flowed into the crystal, a trickle of clear water in equal measure following for several seconds before the canteen was fit to overflow.
"Your control's pretty good," Weiss hummed. First time she'd tried that and the teacup she'd been using had overfilled, drenching the fine linens and upsetting father.
Because-of-course, Winter could do the same thing with the precision of an automatic faucet.
"Yeah, but it's not like this is very cost-effective. There is a river nearby, but I couldn't just leave you out for the birds."
"Don't say 'birds'," Weiss growled as she got up into a sitting position, giving the Faunus the stink-eye as her shoulders slumped. "I'm still pissed at you."
"Hey, that murder of Nevermore came in handy, didn't it?"
"I guess it did…" the heiress admitted. "So…"
" . . . Yeah?"
"How'd you know that would work?" she asked. "Making a 'Dullahan', I mean."
"Back in the dark ages, Nobles would make those things for fun so they'd have monstrous attack dogs they could entertain themselves with whenever some commoner or serf crossed them," Jack answered. "Though like anything from that time period, it was more art than science; irony notwithstanding. No clue who's in the market for that kind of thing today, though. I hear it's still done, but…"
"Oh, believe me, if it can be sold, my father can sniff out a buyer," Weiss spat bitterly. "He's like a rat in that way."
"Well, you'd know him better than I. I only hate him out of principle, but you? You hate his fucking guts, and you're his own daughter~"
"That's why I ran away to Beacon in the first place," the heiress hummed. "He thought he could quash my bid for freedom with an Arma Gigas, but that little ploy of his backfired."
"In spectacular fashion, I imagine," Jack nodded. "You think he had that thing sitting around in reserve just to stop you, or-"
"Oh no, he doesn't invest in anything unless he can get something out of it in return," Weiss spat bitterly. "Probably had a buyer all lined up, and knowing him, he would've used footage of our fight to hike up the price if I'd lost," she said as a manic grin overtook her features. "Too bad for him~ I got to screw him over twofold~!"
"Ha! Nice to see you cutting loose like this! It's a good look on ya!" Jack grinned clapping a hand to her back as Weiss let her expressions freely show.
"Heheh… Thanks," Weiss returned with a soft smile. "So… What now?"
"Now? Now we wait… recharge… and head home," he said turning over his bag, a collection of ration bars and snacks pouring out. "Dig in. You'd probably resent being carried like a helpless 'damsel', so if you're going to walk yourself home, you're going to need to get your strength up," he said unwrapping one and holding it out for her to eat. "There's all kinds of innuendos I could make right now, but I'll abstain. Just for today~"
Weiss for her part could only roll her eyes.
*NEW WORLD*
Had Weiss been presented with that quote/unquote "food" at any other time, she would've turned her nose up at it and refused to eat out of sheer principle alone.
As-tired as she was after fighting so-many Grimm and expending so much of her preciosu Dust, she didn't even have the energy to complain, or care that there was a witness to her utter lack of decorum to follow as she ate like a starving animal.
At the least it was filling, and after quenching her thirst the two set off for Beacon, their business in the Emerald Forest thankfully concluded.
"So, how do you think the others' mission went?"
"Meh. Probably just some 'filler'-esque time-wasting nonsense," Jack shrugged.
*Elsewhile…*
"If I knew I was going to be getting rid of a dead body today, I'd have asked for more money," a certain blond muttered to herself.
*Elsewhen…*
"Yeah, you're probably right," Weiss nodded. "Jack?"
"Hm?"
"Thanks. For going the extra mile for me."
"What, that?" Jack asked jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "Phbbbt! Nah, that was nothin'."
"Mr. Braxton. Don't think I didn't see what you did back there," she said waggling a finger at him. "You played it off like an accident so I'd feel like in-the-moment I won that battle all on my own so I could summon the Dullahan later, but I know for a fact you kicking my Myrtenaster into my hands so I could finish it off was wholly intentional."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Jack said crossing his arms and turning away, eyes widening a smidge as the heiress got up on her tiptoes and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek.
"Thank you," she replied, a beautific smile on her face.
" . . . You're welcome," the Faunus returned, only for his eyes to widen as the heiress linked arms with his and leaned into him. "Uhhhhhhh…?"
"I'm still fatigued from my fights. Don't make this weird," the heiress replied without meeting his eye.
"Whatever you say, Milady," the Faunus returned.
*NEW WORLD*
The two hiking through the Emerald Forest in silence for a good hour or so, simply enjoying the quiet and/or one another's company, following the forest trail from those that had come before, the two eventually happened upon another forest clearing, this one bearing ruins not too dissimilar to the one they'd recovered the "Relics" from during Initiation.
The center of the clearing featured a gray stone floor, overgrown with moss and grass, with a few crumbling pillars on the outlier and the occasional surviving arch that could really only hold birds. The site was obviously host to some great and dreadful battle sometime in the ancient past, because scattered about like grave markers were weapons colored orange with rust, so old a stiff breeze could have them crumble like sand. In the center of it all, a grisly monument to the debt that all must pay, was a giant suit of plate armor that had once been worn by a man even larger than the largest man Weiss currently knew; Brice "Brick" Phoenix. Countless blades impaled the torso, the armor as empty as an insect's molted shell, everything from the waist down conspicuously absent, possibly dragged away by wolves many moons ago.
"Oof, good thing Ozpin didn't hide the relics here, otherwise I'd have to accuse him of having a sick sense of humor," Jack hummed as he gave the place a once-over, wondering what kind of beast could've worn a suit of armor so large and heavy, yet still be so-powerful it took a literal army to bring it down if the haunting litter scattered about was any indicator.
"Must've been ages ago… Before the Great War, I'd wager," Weiss hummed speculatively.
"Wanna go around?"
"Jack, there aren't even any bodies left. Let's just cut through the middle and-"
A sudden chill washing over them, the two dove back into the nearby bushes, eyes peering through the foliage, tensed and ready for combat.
"Wuh-oh," the Faunus muttered.
"What?" Weiss asked trying to find what'd caught his eye.
"You remember those Geist that got chased off earlier?"
"…Yeah…?"
"I think they found something new to play with."
[ Cue Battle Chasers: Nightwar OST – When the Smoke Clears ]
The heiress following the Faunus' extended finger, Weiss watched with morbid fascination as the five Geist who hadn't taken Jack's "dark offering" circled the armored remains like buzzards. The Grimm partaking in their dark, ritualistic dance, after a handful of light skirmishes, the biggest of the Geist, which had been buffeted away last in the previous battle, flowed into the armored breastplate and helmet. The remaining Geist took one arm, another, and then the weapons impaled through it, red veins glowing an ominous red spreading across the possessed as they began to rise, a floating, legless torso of sphincter-shrinking-inducing terror letting out an eerie hum through its slatted face shield. While the "Dullahan" Jack had made could pass for Human, what had come to be borne here, could not. One look at it inspired pure, unadulterated terror.
And also adulterated terror, but no-one talked about that variety.
"Ohhh dear…" Jack gulped as he eyed the jagged, floating weapons around the amalgam. "This… is not good."
"What even is that thing?" Weiss asked. While similar to the Arma Gigas, there was something more… savage about it.
"I say we call it 'Blade Fiend', because if someone met that thing in a dark forest… pretty sure they'd void themselves; even before it ripped them to shreds."
"Well, we can't just leave that thing here unopposed…" Weiss said steeling herself, still reeling from her previous battle, but feeling overwhelmingly confident in her abilities at the same time. "Plus, now that I can actually Summon… I'm hungry for more…!" she said huskily, a manic look in her eye, the stormclouds of avarice rumbling in her head.
"Weiss, keep your hunger under control-LOOK OUT!" he said suddenly tackling the heiress to the side, free-floating swords and blade fragments shooting out like bullets and ripping the bush they'd been hiding behind to kindlingat the 'Blade Fiend's unspoken command. "Dammit, girl!" Jack swore as he scooped her up and ran, a wall of sharp pointy metal running perpendicular to his back as he bolted. "You led it right to us!"
"Well how was I supposed to know that'd happen?!" the heiress snapped back, throwing up Glyphs to cover their ear, only strong-enough to slow them down, not completely stop them.
"Grimm Studies! Every lesson should've let you know!" Jack bit back as the Blade Fiend expended its blades, drawing them back toward its main body like a halo of death. "Well…" he said as its candle-like eyes locked onto them. "Doubt we'll be able to walk away with how-damn thirsty you are," he said picking up a pair of sticks from the ground, giving them a twirl as he channeled his Aura into them. "You ready to fight one more round?"
"Hm. Am I?"
" . . . Are you-"
"Of course I am!"
"Alright, I guess I'll let you. But don't go in there directly, treat this like a game of Grimm Souls and you're all out of Healing Flasks."
"Don't worry, I know my limits," she said drawing her Beretta. "Doesn't take a genius to know I'm not running on all cylinders."
Jack taking this as a sure sign he wouldn't have to cover for a suicidal maniac on an equally-suicidal fetch quest, tightening his grip on his improvised weapons, with a burst of speed the Faunus shot toward the Blade Fiend like a bullet from a barrel. Improvised Kali Sticks sounding a drum roll on its torso as he got inside its guard, the Blade Fiend raised its weapons and sword fragments overhead before bringing them down like rain, only for the Faunus to dive between its nonexistent legs and coming out clean.
The bark of gunfire following a moment later, Weiss shot off over-pressurized rounds at the Blade Fiend's helmet, its head jerking to the side and a nasty dent forming before it lunged at her. The heiress manifesting a single powerful Glyph, she shot herself wide and clear as countless blades impaled the space she once occupied, her flailing arms conveying an unspoken message.
One that Jack readily received as he swooped in and caught her in a bridal carry before she could hit the ground.
"That's smart. Keep doing that," Jack nodded before he set her down and went in for another attack.
Diving in for another drum roll, flakes of bark flying off his improvised weapons as he did, when the branches broke in half he dodged the wide blade swings before using its massive arms as stepping stones and jabbed what remained of his weapons into the Blade Fiend's eye holes, kicking off the chest piece before free-floating shards of metal could hit him.
"Jack!" Weiss called out from beside one of the littered weapons. "Catch!"
Pulling it free from the ground however, the heiress hacked and wheezed loudly as the half of the weapon she had been able to free crumbled to rust powder at her touch, the half still in the ground following suit a moment later.
" . . . Hold on a second! I'll try another!"
"Don't bother! Everything here is complete crap!" Jack shouted as he strafed the Blade Fiend, dodging the flying blade shards with the grace of a gazelle. "Oh, you wanna throw shit, eh tough guy? Well two can play at that game!"
Ripping a strip of cloth from his shirt and improvising it into a Sling as he ran, plucking a loose stone from the ground, the Faunus loaded it into his Iron Age weapon and spun it about. The stone whistling as it drew a ring in the air, with a flick of the wrist the Faunus sent it sailing through the air, a loud *CLANG!* sounding as the Grimm's bell was soundly rung, a dent the size of a goose egg left in its wake.
Of course, that rattling was only momentary, and the Grimm renewed its assault a moment later.
Unfortunately for it/them, the Faunus was too quick and too-used to hit-and-run tactics with improvised weapons for anything to come of it, deftly plucking stones from the ground and sending them flying with relative precision, the Blade Fiend's pitted armor growing even moreso as the Faunus continued his guerilla tactics for what may as well have been an eternity in the middle of a fight.
Because the best part about using the Sling as a weapon: Infinite ammo.
"Yeah! Suck it Bronze Age! Iron Age is where it's at!"
"The Iron Age is followed by the Heroic Age! Not the Bronze Age!"
"Really?! Is it really that important!?"
"To me it is! Also, DODGE!"
"I FUCKING KNOW HOW TO FUCKING DODGE, WOMAN!" Jack snapped as he did just that mid-rant. "IT'S NOT THAT COMPLEX!"
Elsewhile in another universe, a green-skinned alien in a turban glared disappointedly at his young ward over the shoulder as that very same topic came up.
"Jack, make me a Sling! I can help!"
"You try using a Sling and the only one you'll hit is me!" the Faunus said as he continued to pester the Blade Fiend. "Shoot it with your gun! That's what guns are for!"
"But I'm running out of ammo!"
"Dammit, Weiss! Don't be one of 'those people' who hoards supplies because you 'might need it later'!"
In Video Games it was funny. In real life, that shit could get people killed!
"Alright! Fine!" *Click* "But this is my last clip!"
"Just don't shoot me by accident!"
"That was one time and you know it!"
"One time is one time too many!"
"Get off my back, Jack!"
"I will if we can get through the rest of this fight without you shooting me in mine!"
The two teens bickering back and forth, the Grimms' attention was strongly divided between the two growing knots of negative emotion brewing within each of them. Its head snapping side-to-side like an indecisive child, its decision was made for it with a round from Weiss' Beretta struck it in the temple, sending its helmet swirling around before it clamped down on it with armored hands.
"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!" the heiress cried as the Blade Fiend flew towards her. "Running, running, running!" she cried as she ran at full clip, the Grimm taking hold of two of its intact swords and trying to cut her in half, only for the Faunus to strike the back of its hands with powerful shots from his sling and make them fall to the ground.
Up until they floated back into the air like pointy Orbitars of death.
"That worked out better in my head!" Jack said as he drew the Blade Fiend away from Weiss. Snatching up another rock and loading it into his sling, a moment later one of the smaller sword fragments flew out and cut one of the straps, his projectile flying askew and him without a weapon. "Seriously!?"
"JACK!"
Looking over his shoulder, he saw the heiress strafing him and the Blade Fiend in kind, drawing the Myrtenaster from her hip before with a swing of her blade, arrows of light were shot at it. Cyan Glyphs stopping it cold and shackling it around the wrists, arms, neck, and the more-intact blades, the Grimm immobilized, Weiss hastily threw her weapon in an arc through the air before interlacing her fingers and bringing the heels of her palms together. Her brows scrunching in concentration as the Glyphs binding the collective of Geist tightened, Jack received her unspoken message loud and clear.
Scooping the Myrtenaster out of the air before it could hit the ground, Jack rounded on his heel before shooting off at the Blade Fiend at full tilt.
Its eyes fixating on him, even as it struggled against the Glyphs holding it in place, the smaller blade fragments, unimpeded by Weiss' Glyphs, shot out like shrapnel. The Faunus whipping up his mane of armor-like hair and batting the bulk of them aside as he closed the distance, testing the trigger on the Myrtenaster's handle, the Dust Cylinder within spun around until he got to the color he liked, and he dove in.
Leaping up and stabbing the Blade Fiend through one of the eye slats, the Faunus let gravity do half the work as he sunk the thin blade deep into its armored chassis. Channeling his Aura into the handle, carved runes glowed purple and the hammer cocked beck before snapping forward, a micro-singularity manifesting deep inside the Grimm's torso, armor caving inward and blades joining the ride as the thing was horribly warped beyond recognition over the course of several second. With a flex of his core muscles as the cyan Glyphs flickered andd died, the Faunus dragged the Grimm's ruined body down to earth, twisting the Myrtenaster, and the gravity well within it, leaving nothing behind but a twisted mass of metal the Geist couldn't free themselves of.
"Hey Weiss… Come over here and finish it off," Jack offered, the heiress nodding weakly as she strode up to him, still warry of the stray sword fragments. The fingers of her left hand interlaced with his own as she rotated the Dust Cylinder, with another flex of Aura, in the heiress' own mind, the Grimm fell to her hand as another plume of fire filled the ruined chassis of blades and armor. The two stepping back as black miasma fled it, the possessed armor began to dissolve like its fellow Grimm.
[ END OST ]
"Well…" Weiss panted as she wiped her brow, the distinct, life-altering memories that would give corporeal form to her Summons pressing against the back of her mind as she felt the presence of the 'Dullahan' and 'Blade Fiend' among others deep within herself. "I'd like to think that today was a rousing success."
"Yeah…" Jack panted in turn. "Blade Fiend was a bit of an X Factor, but I will say, you'll be fucking scary once you get the hang of Summoning."
"Indeed," the heiress nodded with a self-satisfied grin. "Let's go home. I doubt anything else will bar our path."
"Dammit Weiss! You've jinxed us both!"
*NEW WORLD*
AN:
Battle Chasers: Nightwar was a huge inspiration for this chapter, and it shows in my choice of OST; it was also a huge inspiration for a previous "World of Remnant" chapter, but that's neither here nor there.
Sure, the game was based on an old comic that was never concluded in a satisfying manner and had an irregular submission schedule when it wasn't, but stylistically it was way cool and a fun game overall with an "easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master" playstyle that really got you invested in how you'd choose what attacks to use, what gear to equip, and what you'd grind for on fetch quests. The logarithmic upward difficulty-curve of Side-Bosses necessitated both working smart, and working hard, it wasn't enough to just over-power your way through them because 1:1, the Side-Bosses easily outclassed you even on the "Normal" setting.
As for Weiss' [Summoning] "sub-Semblance", from what little of the exact mechanics we're told, I'm led to assume that "tipping points" in the life of the Summoner are what allow the "memories" to "be given form". Of course, as shown with Whitley (in Giant-Slayer's Fanon), the condition the Grimm is in when you encounter it is important too. Whitley encountered his in an injured state, thus they were injured and easy to Summon, but still injured by default. On the inverse, if the Grimm had been weakened right in front of him and then he'd have killed it, the Grimm would be harder to Summon because in his mind it would feel "impersonal". Weiss by comparison fought the Grimm at full strength by-and-large on her own, and the ease of Summoning will be more-dependent on her own experience with that facet of her Semblance than the Grimm's strength itself, now that she's gotten the ball rolling.
Tell me what you think of the creation of the "Dullahan" and "Sword Fiend" through RWBY's Geist, and I'll get back to you next-chapter.