A/N: Here it is, ch10! Like I promised! And before 12AM. Was afraid that it might come to that.
And, for those of you who are looking forwards the next chapter Clout. I'm uploading it tomorrow. Preferably, in the morning.
RWBY is owned by Roosterteeth and the late Monty Oum
RWBY the RPG
Chapter 10
Withdraw, and Retreat
That necklace, it controlled Grimm!
She needed to grab it, take it. Somehow! She physically moved forwards at that thought only to jerk back as a bunch of arrows bounced off the column next to her. She ducked around, back behind the column as more arrows struck it.
She took up her rifle and shouted, "Oscar! The boss! Get the boss! He's the one we want!" She flinched as a hand axe flew by, skittering off the stone next to her and showering her with sparks.
She shouted, "Oscar!" Before turning and firing on the rest of guards as they made their way towards her.
/ /
"Oscar!"
Oscar looked up as Ruby shouted from on top of the wall. Then he looked at the goblin she pointed at and found that it was looking at him and took a step back as he froze at that. They stared at each other for a moment then the goblin sneered at him before turning to run.
Oscar moved then, jolting into motion as he turned and clambered up onto the platform on his left and ran to the crossbow mounted there. He ducked under the stock before turning to take the weapon and spinning it around before placing the butt of the weapon against his shoulder, noting that it was a repeating model, with three bolts ready.
He looked towards the stilling scrambling mass of green, yellow and orange-skinned humanoids and spotted the goblin as it ran away from him with a trio of females, all nude, like him!
He moved the crossbow in front of the goblin. Waited for a clear shot. Then, fired. The crossbow kicked in his arms as the heavy bolt was launched at the goblin.
It missed, impaling the female to his left.
Oscar ratcheted the crossbow back and fired again as he aimed at the goblin once more.
Once again, he missed. This time, the bolt took out one of the two bugbears running to his left.
Oscar cursed under his breath at that as he ratcheted the crossbow once more. He aimed for the goblin, waited, and shot.
Miss.
This time the bolt was lost in the midst of the mob as it suddenly swelled with bodies and obscured the results.
Oscar cursed at that before turning to run over to the other platform as fast as he could. As he did so, the other goblins guard the broken section started to move to attack him. He paused, briefly, to unleash another wave of flames as they began to run towards him.
The flames set the rotted, dried out wooden palisade and barricades alight as well as torching upwards of five to seven goblins. The rest froze or immediately fled as they saw the attack. Goblins feared magic.
Oscar then took off towards the other platform again. He hopped up on the platform before sliding over towards the mounted crossbow, another repeating crossbow, as another goblin pair tried to stop him.
As he got to the crossbow stand he summoned a mote of energy in his hands and flung it at the goblins as the pair charged at him. They stopped, eyes widen, as they were frozen in place by a summoned wave of ice.
Oscar ignored the two as he once took the crossbow in his hands and moved to aim at the goblin once more. He looked for the goblin, his eyes darting to and fro as he searched for him again over the mob.
He noticed something out of the corner of his eye and glanced over. His eyes widened then. There!
He turned, jerking the crossbow around, and shot. The bolt flew true, blasting the goblin in the lower back, knocking off his feet.
He grinned at that, only to gape as the goblin somehow got back to his feet and started limping off again, now with only the two females with him. He swallowed at that before taking the crossbow in hand and ratcheted back the metal wire used for the drawstring, and took aim once more.
He fired.
The goblin fell, the strange necklace it was wearing flying off then. He breathed a sigh of relief at that before suddenly jumping away from the stand as he heard someone coming up behind him. Someone, or something, large.
Just in time, too, as a massive, purple-colored humanoid creature smashed a club down where he had been standing, utterly destroying the weapon platform as it did.
Oscar didn't bother standing around to deal with that as he turned and ran. It swung at him again as he did so, just barely missing him as it did so.
Oscar felt the wind brush by behind him as he leaped off the remains of the platform and ran into the remains of the mob.
Luckily for him, the remaining goblins were in too much of a panic to try and stop him as he plunged into their midst. He pushed his way past dozens of green-skinned, smelly bodies. Some of them nude. Until he made it through.
He looked over his shoulder then and felt his eyes widen again. The purple creature was still coming after him, plowing through the mob, crushing bodies beneath its feet. He turned around and hightailed it to the corpse of the goblin war boss as the goblins began to disperse around the creature as it continued towards him, relentlessly.
Once there, he dropped down and felt around the corpse for anything, but there was nothing. It was nude after all. Then he snatched up the necklace and stood back up to look around.
The entire encampment was burning by now, too. Which was good because he could now see better. Which was bad because now he could see better.
And, so could the beast behind him.
He took running again, hoping to get away.
"Ruby!" He hollered as he ran towards the gap in the wall where they had entered earlier, hoping against hope that he made it there in time.
/ /
Ruby fired and moved, fired and moved. Again and again. Dropping goblins with every shot, their lack of heavy armor very much to their detriment.
She would rather have avoided this fight, but here she was. At least, she had an advantage. Two, in fact.
Her handcrafted carbine didn't have as much of a reduced range as the goblin's short bows did in the confines on the fortress battlements. The few columns there and the various pieces of rubble making it harder for them to fire at her accurately as she dodged and weaved a midst the terrain.
Also, it held five shot per box magazine compare to their one to two arrows that they could notch and loose her way.
Unfortunately, those were her only advantages.
There were far more goblins than she could easily handle. Plus, her cape kept getting snagged on the various jagged piece of rubble. And in close range the goblins had more than just an advantage on her.
Her carbine was useless up close and her scythe, Crescent Rose, was much the same. In fact, Crescent couldn't even be properly unfurled to use in the confines of the battlements. There just wasn't enough space.
She could transform, to use her claws and teeth. But that would take time that she didn't have right now, while the goblins guards were pressing in on her. More over, she wouldn't be able to use the Rosewerk Special, if she did so, either.
This, was a rapidly deteriorating position, and she needed to vacate it immediately!
But, how? And where?
The battlements were a good twenty feet off the ground from were she was at right now. If she was going to dropping into the interior of the fortress. And the ground, was on fire right now. Obscured by smoke and flames.
To leap off was a risk she couldn't take right now.
"Ruby!" she turned at the shout and her eyes widened at what she saw. Oscar was running, fleeing from the likes of a large mountain troll. Where in the Hells had that thing come from?!
"Oscar," she hissed in fear. "Get away from that Troll!
"I'm trying!" He hollered back, running from the creature with desperate energy as it reached out towards him with one overlong arm.
She turned and jumped from the wall without hesitation then. Diving through flames to roll onto the ground uninjured. She immediately rose into a sprint, dashing towards where she last saw seen the boy through the smoke as she heard him screaming.
She ran through a cloud of smoke to find Oscar being held up in the air by his leg as the troll opened its gaping maw to swallow the screaming lad whole. She gasped at that before dropping to her knees in a skidding slide and began unloading on the creature with her rifle.
The first shot went wide, blowing away a chunk of loose stone by the creature's head. The second, did not. Blowing a hole through its forearm and causing it to drop Oscar with a shriek of surprise and pain as it grasped at its arm in pain. The boy struck the ground heavily, from a height of ten feet, and did not move.
Ruby almost froze at that, but, instead, continued to fire instead, hoping to drive the troll back.
The third shot punctured its protruding gut, causing a gush of black blood to squirt out. At that, the troll finally turned towards her just she shot it again. The fourth shot struck its right shoulder, but did not lasting damage.
She backed away as she raised the carbine again. And fired. The bullet tore a gash across the creature's chest, but did nothing to actually stop it.
She discharged the spent magazine and loaded the next one. Two left. Then she raised the rifle and fired again, and again. Bullets ripped and tore chunks out of the creature's flesh, but did nothing to stop it.
The only one that made it pause for a moment was the glancing wound to the top of its head. It stopped, flinched, as a line was ripped along its left brow, half-blinding it. Then it snarled and stormed towards her again.
She dropped the carbine as her magazine ran out and reached for her scythe, only to be knocked off her feet as the creature backhanded her across the burning encampment. She fell to the ground so hard it knocked the breath out of her before she bounced back up into the air. She rolled with the second impact, getting back to her feet slowly.
She looked around, finding the camp largely empty as most of the denizens had fled. Only to flinch as she heard a bloodcurdling scream from beyond the wall. It was followed immediately by a distinct, otherworldly howl.
She froze at that and whispered, "No. Grimm."
She noticed movement behind the troll as it reached behind its back and drew the modified tree trunk it had for its club as it continued to stalk towards her and grinned. "Oscar!" She called as she continued to back away. "Time's up! We need to move!"
The troll paused at that, it's minimal intellect not understanding what the small, red-garbed thing meant by that. Then it turned and looked over its shoulder as it heard a sound from behind and saw the other small intruder. Its eyes widened then as the small thing somehow generated flames from its hands and shot them at it as a stream of fire.
/ /
The troll howled with fear and pain as the fire engulfed it, setting it alight. It continued to shriek with fear and panic as it dropped its weapon and tore off away from the two, going straight for the stone wall before it.
That didn't matter as the troll shattered the wall on impact and continued running headlong into the dawn. The light from its burning form highlight the carnage going on outside the old fortress as dozen of goblins were being cut down by an oversized pack of Beowolves.
/ /
The only two living creatures left within the watched as the troll took several of the Grimm with it as it ran on, allowing the desperate goblin forces a much needed break. Enough that they may actual survive.
The taller of the two survivors limped up to the smaller and stood there beside them, watching the battle beyond for a moment in silence. Then they asked the other, "Did you get it?"
After a pause the other sighed and said, "Yeah."
The taller one nodded at that and walked over to pick up their rifle before looking around the ruins of the fort's interior. There was nothing left from the flames. From the explosions. Not even the metal weaponry within had survived untouched.
Whatever evidence that could have been used to determine what had caused so many goblins, bugbears and a troll to gather here was gone. As were their chances of using it against whatever or whoever was behind this.
The tall figure sighed heavily at that before walking back over to their comrade. They patted them on the shoulder as they said, "Come. We've taken too long. We got to go before they recover and come after us. Or the knights do."
The smaller figure nodded as the two turned and walked off.
A/N: Well, I hoped you guys enjoy something a little more action packed after the last chapters. Not my best work, if I'm being honest, but entertaining, at least, I hope.
Take care.
Essiter out