A/N: Hey, I got the 9th chapter out. And, in the same day that I promised that I would.
Woo!
RWBY is owned by Roosterteeth and the late Monty Oum
RWBY the RPG
Chapter 9
Shock and Awe
Ruby watched the fear on Oscar's face slowly vanish as she asked to what she needed, especially after she gave him her assurance that she'd watch out for him.
He nodded and started to crawl away, going towards a large, guarded supply depot near the tents. She watched after him for a moment before making her own way towards the wall.
Once there she quickly, and quietly, scaled the ruined structure before dropping down on the battlements on top and drawing a pair of daggers from her boots. She wasn't a fan of knives. Or, of what she was about to do, but she didn't have time to dwell on that now.
She crept along, stealthily bypassing several of the guards patrolling from the wall. It was actually quite easy. The guards were watching the road for knightly patrols or bandits. Not the walkway behind them on the parapets.
She did still have to kill someone, though. Two, in fact.
The first was a goblin that had just finished taking a leak. She thought that she was in the clear but he turned at the last moment at some sound beyond the wall and saw her.
She didn't hesitate.
She rushed in before he could finish gaping at her appearance and stabbed him once, twice, three times. Almost disemboweling him in the process. He made a faint gurgling sound as he fell backwards only for her to catch him and gently place him on the ground, holding his mouth, preventing him from making any real noise.
He soon fell silent. She checked, cocking an ear for any disturbances.
There were none.
She sighed in relief before taking his heavy carcass and placing it in a convenient, empty barrel next to where he had been… relieving himself.
Then she moved on.
The other goblin was the one positioned where she needed to be. And, conveniently enough, wearing a cloak himself. Though, not nearly as awesome as hers.
She had to smile at that. Otherwise, she'd be crying at what she had to do.
She stealthed up behind him, waiting a moment. Preparing herself, really. Then she thrust a daggers into it's upper back, up into the kidney area, before slashing it across the throat and shoving it off of the platform it was on.
It seized up, almost shrieking from the pain, only to gurgle instead before falling off the platform at her insistence.
Once more she waited. No noise. No activity from below, behind. She had done it. She sighed as she set the knives to one side and unslung her carbine again, ignoring the tremors in her hands as she did so.
It never got any easier. For which she was very thankful for.
For, if she ever lost that disgust, that fear, then she knew that she had become the monster so many thought she already was.
She took in a breath, held it, then blew it back out as she waited for Oscar to make his appearance known.
/ /
As Oscar made his way through the camp as quietly as possible towards his target, a series of barrels all stacked up around a larger, reddish colored one, before him he couldn't help but wonder how he had gotten roped into this crazy stunt by Ruby.
To be fair he thought. It's not like she had all that much of an option. What else was she going to do. Leave him back at camp?
Yeah, he wished.
He sighed at that before continuing to crawl forwards.
Ruby said they needed a distraction for what she needed to do. Something that would be big, and, preferably, loud. The barrels looked to be a perfect target for such a thing. She reasoned that they were probably filled with something flammable, possibly explosive in nature. Otherwise, why all the guards?
Oscar couldn't think of anything else they could be himself. And so, here he was, creeping up on what appeared to be about twenty or so goblins and two or three of the other things.
Or, at least, he thought it was only twenty. He hoped so. It was still very dark, and all he could see were the red pinpricks of ambling lights that were their eyes.
There were an awful lot of red eyes staring out into the gloom, though.
He slowed down down, taking his time as he got closer. He didn't know if goblinoids had good eyesight, but those oversized noses and ears weren't just for show.
As he got there he smelled something strange. It was like, like the air itself was burnt. He paused at that, in a thick clump of grass, as he tried to recall what that reminded him of.
Sulfur!
But, why would goblins be watching over barrels of sulfur? Then his eyes widened as he realized. Black powder! Blasting powder!
Black powder burned. It exploded!
He looked at the oil soaked rag in his hand then back at the barrel a mere ten feet from him now. And swallowed.
This, wasn't going to work.
A fire might distract the guards and the larger troop beyond, but it was unlikely to cause the barrels to explode. Not on ignition at any rate. Not if the goblins had properly stored it. And, not in time to stop the goblins from putting it out before they discovered him.
So, what to do?
He nodded to himself then and began making his way over to one of the open gapes in the wall. The one that was barricaded up and guarded by more goblins including two on mounted crossbows.
Then he waited. Prepared.
For whatever signal Ruby would give him.
It didn't take long.
Just before the chaos started he spied a small flash of light on the battlements to his left. He blinked and paused as he looked at that for a moment in confusion.
When it occurred again he knew what was going on then. It was the signal. He nodded in that direction and sat up from where he had been lying against on the the mounted crossbows platforms and focused on the magic inside.
It felt stronger, closer to the surface. Good.
Because he was going to need it.
He focused on the magic. Focused on the fire within and began to weave together some kind of instinctive hand sign from some half remembered dream of a woman with the same black hair and hazel eyes as his own.
He paused at that hidden memory. Knowing instantly who that was. His mother. He inhaled sharply at the memory. The first he ever had of her.
He held the memory in his mind, his heart for a second before letting it go with a sigh. Then he opened his eyes and focused on the barrels before him and threw out his hands.
A torrent of flames shot out, leaping almost eagerly towards the supply depot, the barrels of black powder there, setting it alight as well as two of the goblins standing there.
The wooden planks making up the barrels crackled and popped from the flames for a moment. A brief second. Then…
Crak-Ka-Thoom!
/ /
The resulting explosion wiped out the remainder of the guards around the supply depot before the resulting flames started falling on and around the troop tents, setting them alight.
The resulting panic, was immediate.
Dozens half naked and armorless goblins began shrieking and running about in a blind panic while others made to gather their armor and weapons as they hollered for orders. All while their tents and brethren burned around them.
Their leader, a gruesomely scarred goblin warlord named Hookfang Bonerattle, stormed out of his own tent to look around at what the Hell was going on, with his three consorts, all nude, just as the fires from the supply depot set another cluster of barrels on fire. They erupted in a towering plume of flames with a howling whoosh! of sound.
The explosion took out more goblins, including nearly all of the remaining bugbears. The flames from the second explosion set even more tents alight as well as blew out a portion of the fortress's remaining wall.
The goblins began to flee in earnest at that, shrieking in fear and rage as they scatter.
Hookfang turned at that and screeched with rage as he realized that all his plans were quite literally going up in flames. His conquest, his empire. Gone.
He then turned and shrieked at one of his remaining captains, ordering them to restore order amongst the chaos while he went back to his tent to put on his armor and equipment, only to stop as he saw that it, too, was on fire. He stood there for a moment in stunned disbelief only to start again as he heard the resounding crack thunder.
He looked up but found no clouds overhead. He stood there, confused, for another moment, only to jump as another crack of thunder went off. And another.
He turned towards the sound and found a figure in red on the battlements, shooting fire from a strange wooden and metal rod in its hands. He watched as both of the goblins on the mounted crossbows fell then, their heads disappearing in a shower of blood.
He snarled and grabbed the nearest goblin to him, jerking the female around and pointing at the figure before screeching with hatred. The goblin he held immediately began to round up other goblins as she stumbled away from his warlord in a renewed sense of fear.
/ /
Ruby dropped down below the inner crenels as the explosives went off and smiled even as she winced from the sound before standing back up as she watched the flames rise into the air.
Nice she thought. Scratch one war camp.
Then she jumped back instinctively as she just barely noticed a flight of arrows striking where she had just stood. She then looked to her right to find a trio of goblins with bows attacking her from the remains of the lookout tower. One per floor.
She glanced over to see if Oscar was okay before grinning and dropping to her knees in a kneeling position and setting her carbine, The Rosewerk Special. She then frowned with concentration as she focused on the goblin archers, ignoring them as they launched their next, individual volleys at her.
The arrows fell down around her, missing her, their flight paths disrupted by the winds created by the fires below. Her carbine's bullets, on the other hand, were not.
With a loud crack! her carbine jumped as she fired the first shot. The gunshot then echoed like thunder as the projectile zinged through the air and splattered the goblin's brains against the wall behind it.
Ruby didn't pause at that. She immediately shifted focus to the next target. Lined up the shot, and fired again just the goblin made to loose its arrow at her.
Another goblin down.
By then, the last one realized the trouble it was in and tried to make a break for it. It turned to flee, but didn't get very far. It took one step away from the arrow slit and had its chest explode in a shower of blood and viscera. It dropped with a gasping cry, dead.
Last goblin down.
She sighed then and turned back to look into the interior of the fort. And the chaos within. The vast majority of the goblins there were actively fleeing from the area now. Which was good for the neighboring villages, in the short term. In the long term, it meant that the local constabulary would be dealing with various goblin troops for months, if not years.
She hated that for them. But, for now, it was the best she could for them.
She'd inform the next closest village about the situation, and the mess they were now in. Just as soon as they got out of here.
Speaking of which, she turned to check on Oscar, and audibly gasped at what she saw. He was still there, hiding up against the platforms. And, the goblins there were finally starting to notice him, even with the glare from the flames around the area blinding and dazzling them with thanks to their darkvision.
She quickly repositioned and trained her carbine on the two goblins, making a quick calculation on the range between the two. She took a quick breath in before blowing it back out, letting the world slow down around her. Then she shot, twice.
Crack! Crack!
With a flash of black blood, both of the goblins fell as their heads disappeared. She stood then and smiled as she discharged the spent magazine and inserted a new one, only to turn and frowned as a hellish scream could be heard from below.
It was the goblin war boss. He was directing a group of goblins to go after her. She almost shrugged at the ridiculousness of that, she had the high ground, after all.
Then her eyes widened.
The war boss. The necklace around his neck. She recognized it. She seen one like it before.
It controlled Grimm!
A/N: I just realized as I was uploading this that I actually gave the named villain a RWBY name, in that it follows the color naming rule. Huh.
Welp, I'm going to go write something else now. Goodnight!
Essiter out!
(P.S. Here's hoping I can get ch10 out before the weekend is over, but I wouldn't count on it. There's Baldur's Gate 3 to get through. Paladin for the Win, baby!)