We do not own RWBY or any other copyright content. All rights to it go to Monty Oum (God rest his soul), VIZ Media, and their original owners. We own all OCs.
Writing credits go to Uzumaki Ricky, Monsterhuntergod, Sharad the hedgehog, and Traines.
Return of the Dragon Warriors
Volume 1 Chapter 14: Crush of the Titans
Silfrdrengr roared at the Royal Thunderjaw, unfurling his wings wide to make himself look more imposing. Shaking its head, the Thunderjaw's throat rumbled as it roared in kind. The two reptilian titans began to circle each other, the great pillars of the ruins looking like twigs compared to their immense frames. Neither of them had committed yet, waiting for an opening.
'Come on, you stupid Grimm!' the dragon growled to himself, his face tensing up into a snarl.
With the Grimm holding its ground, Silfrdrengr had no choice but to act. Bellowing, he surged forward, attempting to bite into the Royal's neck. However, he was forced to avert the attack as the Thunderjaw snapped at his own neck. Now, right next to each other, the dragon reared up onto his hind legs, using his tail to steady himself, and began to grapple with the Grim's skull. Slashing and wrangling with it as the Thunderjaw bellowed in pain.
Despite the dragon's own strength, he could not hold his larger foe for long. For all his mystical strength and ferocity, the Grimm countered and threw him off with contemptuous ease. It was only then that Silfrdrengr realized just how solidly built the Grimm was. He swiped at it several more times with his wicked claws, yet all they did were surface wounds that swiftly closed shut. Even then, every attempted slash, the Royal snapped at his arms, each time making an echoing sound less like anything living and more like a hydraulic press.
Gritting his teeth, Silfrdrengr decided to try a more drastic measure. Inhaling deeply, he unleashed a breath attack that looked like a storm of razor-sharp blades. The cold steel tornado blasted into the Thunderjaw, pushing it back as it roared in pain. Like a hurricane, the breath of cascading steel carved, shredded, and stabbed into its thick hide as the blast pushed it backward to give Silf some breathing room. However, all the pain did was enrage it further.
As the Royal's eyes burned brighter with hatred, its draconic foe unfurled his mighty wings. With several great wing flaps, Silfrdrengr lifted himself up inside the domed ruins. His back legs reached out with their great talons as they raked into the reptilian tyrant's head. Silfrdrengr then let himself drop out of the air, forcing his own weight down onto the Grimm's head. As it lost its balance, one of the draconic talons plunged deep into the left eye of the wayward monster. Recoiling in pain, the Thunderjaw used its massive tail like a lever to force Silfrdrengr off it, and forcibly wrenching his talons from its face.
Reeling, Silf flapped his wings to keep himself steady. But, for the Thunderjaw, it saw its opening. Lunging forward with speed unbefitting of something that massive and heavy, it bit down on his left wing. Roaring in pain, the dragon was forced to land. Feeling his foe's powerful jaws drive the teeth through skin, flesh, and bone with a sickening crunch, he panicked. Inhaling as deeply as he could, Silf shot a stream of frigid cold energy from his mouth, the blast slamming into the Thunderjaws head like a Solitasian gale. Feeling the unfamiliar extreme cold touch its scarred face, the Grimm reeled back in pain.
Despite it falling back, Silf poured on the pressure, keeping the powerful gales streaming forth. Sheltering it's still working eye against the gale, the Thunderjaw dug its heels into the stony floor of the ruins. Winding back with its tail, it swung forward with its massive skull, slamming Silf straight in the chest. The force took the breath out of the dragon's lungs and bowled him off his feet. Smashing through stone pillars and walls, the dragon landed on its back like a thunderclap and was left there reeling in pain.
Shaking off the cold, the Grimm turned to look at its helpless foe. Opening its mouth slightly, as if in a satisfied smile, it took ponderous, deliberate steps towards him. However, before it could get too close, a hailstorm of razor-sharp steel rained down on its armored hide. The blades dug and cut deep into its thick hide, and the pieces that hit its bone armor left gashes in their wake. Roaring in pain and fury, the Royal Thunderjaw turned in the direction the blades came from with a vicious snarl on its face.
"Leave my dragon alone, you overgrown reptilian reject!" Weiss bellowed in fury, Myrtenaster pointed at the beast standing between her and protecting her draconic partner.
"Weiss! Get out of there! That's a Royal Thunderjaw!" Blair's voice called out.
"I! Don't! Care!" The Schnee heiress snapped back before pointing Myrtenaster down as a glowing, yellowish-white glyph that resembled the face of a clock appeared beneath her.
As the rest of the group finally arrived behind her, Zhan looked at Azura.
"How likely are we to die against that thing?" Zhan asked.
"Almost certainly if that dragon dies," Azura replied as he drew his dulled ōdachi.
"So, we're all just accepting that that thing is real and not our battle delusion?" Rena asked, looking around.
"We can worry about that if we survive this!" Ember yelled before turning her tetsubō into its Bazooka form and opening fire.
The Thunderjaw roared in defiance as it began making its way over towards them at a brisk pace. Letting out a low growl, it snarled at them before lunging forward. However, our heroes backed up as Pyrrha used her Semblance to control the metal on the ground from Weiss's and Silf's previous attacks. Lifting the razor-sharp blades, the Mistrali Champion then rained them down onto the Thunderjaw, trying to target its joints. Roaring in pain, it tried to shrug off the damage and keep moving only for the gleaming steel in its joints to impede its movements.
"Everyone! Now! Before it forces the blades loose!" Pyrrha called out, trying to use her Semblance to push them deeper into the beast's hide.
"We are all gonna die…" Hunter muttered before readying himself.
"That's quitter talk, mister! If we're gonna die, we die gloriously! By going down fighting!" Sylver roared out, drawing his claymore.
"Ah'd rather not die at all, sugah!" Dahlia called out, twirling her wrists to produce Aura drills around her hands.
"Charge!!!" Ruby yelled, hefting Crescent Rose over her head before rushing at the colossal Grimm.
"Jaune, Ren, Whitley! Dig him out of the rubble! We'll keep the Thunderjaw busy!" Azura called out as he readied his ōdachi for another technique.
"You heard the man! Attack!" Yang called out, charging forward with her fists lit ablaze by Dust.
Our heroes rushed into the fray as Whitley, Jaune, and Ren looped around into the Thunderjaw's blind spot. Nora turned her hammer into its grenade launcher form and began firing explosive blasts after explosive blasts at the Grimm, trying to keep it distracted. It roared in annoyance as it tried to whip its tail at Nora, only for Yang to hit it with a fiery uppercut to its jaw. Even if the attack didn't do much, Yang grabbed onto its face and began raining heavy right hook after heavy right hook into its jaw. Each fiery, explosive impact did a little more chip damage to off-balance the beast.
The Thunderjaw roared as it swung its head to try to knock Yang loose. Using her trusty hammer, Nora launched herself at the Tyrannosaurus Grimm and swung her hammer with full force into its ruined eye. The monster roared in agony as it stumbled back, swinging its tail at Nora to try to hit her. Raising the haft of her hammer, Nora barely blocked the swing as it sent her flying.
His claymore in hand, Sylver roared out as he charged the beast. "Come at me, Thunderjaw!" He howled as sparks of Aura came off his weapon.
Jumping high, Sylver stabbed deep into the top of its head. The beast reared and whipped its head back and forth to try to loosen him, forcing Yang to let go. As she fell, she unleashed shots of Fire Dust rounds into its gaping mouth that exploded on contact with the back of its throat. The Tyrannosaurus Grimm coughed and growled as it stumbled back. Ruby fired shot after shot from Crescent Rose into it, only for the sniper rounds to do any damage barely. Snarling, the Beast whipped its tail into the Red Rose Reaper. The heavy tail slammed hard into Ruby, knocking her through multiple pillars and into a wall as she cried out in pain.
Snarling viciously, Yang growled as the ground trembled around her. "Leave! My sister! ALONE!!" The blonde fighter roared as power exploded from her, her hair lighting ablaze in golden flames as her eyes burned red.
"... It pressed the Ruby button." Sylver said with a low growl, readying his weapon.
"Ruby button?" Blair asked.
"It should not have done that…" Azura replied before glaring at the Thunderjaw.
Azura's blade glowed with lightning as he slashed it, unleashing blades of electricity at the beast. The crescent blades of lightning carved into its body, making it roar in pain as it swung its tail at Azura, forcing him to dodge. Sylver pulled his blade loose before bringing it back down repeatedly, stabbing the top of the beast's head with all his might.
Leaping at the Thunderjaw, Yang tried to punch it, only to take a downward swing from its head that sent her crashing back down. Roaring in fury, Yang jumped back at it and hit it with a fiery haymaker that sent all its force back at it with double the power. A small shockwave echoed through the ruins as the blow rattled the Grimm, making it stumble back. Shaking its head as Yang hit the ground, it swung its tail like a massive club and sent Yang flying into the wall right next to Ruby. Ruby, still dazed, shook her head as she looked down worriedly at her sister.
"Yang…?" Ruby questioned in concerned disbelief as her sister struggled to get up.
Soon, the two heard thunderous stomps as the Thunderjaw was upon them. Lifting its head with its jaws open, it prepared to bite down hard on them and end them. However, Azura saw this as his eyes burned with an Aura that looked like azure fire. A powerful, dark, azure flame-like aura surrounded Azura, welling up from his shadow beneath him.
"NO!!!" Azura roared as something shot from his shadow with the speed of a bolt from the heavens.
Yang and Ruby shut their eyes as they prepared for their end. However, to their surprise, it never came as the sound of an impact was heard. Slowly opening their eyes, the sisters looked upon a strange figure clad in azure-blue lightning and a fiery dark-azure aura. Its clawed hands held the Thunderjaw's gaping maw open by its fanged jaws as it held back the beast's massive head.
Wreathed in crackling blue energies, the entity holding the Grimm back was of nearly equal size to the front half of the black clad monster. To the two sisters' surprise, as they looked it over, it appeared as the front half of a tiger, only twisted and warped to look far fiercer and more aggressive than any tiger they had ever seen. It seemed to almost flicker in and out of reality, with ethereal auric energies barely allowing it to hold form. The girls looked on in awe as the other briefly caught sight of the "creature" in front of them.
"RRRRARGH!!" Azura roared as he surged with Aura.
The figure, as if obeying some unseen command, pushed back against the Thunderjaw with all its might. The force and power behind the push launched it back briefly as it reared back its clawed hand, clenching it tightly into a fist.
"AAAAAAARGH!!!" Azura bellowed in fury as the figure hit the Thunderjaw in the lower jaw with a thunderous right hook.
The force of the blow sent a massive shockwave through the ruins, shaking everything around them as the force of the blow rattled the Thunderjaw. Stumbling back, the beast shook its head to try to force its slightly loosened jaw back into place. Meanwhile, Azura panted heavily as the "creature" faded away as if it had never been there. As the adrenaline from his feat began to leave him, Azura dropped to his hands and knees, panting heavily before coughing and hacking from exertion as if he'd just run a marathon with a thousand pounds of weight on him.
"Azura!" Ruby and Yang yelled as they rushed over, swiftly grabbing him and pulling him away from the ruins.
"I'm… fine…" Azura panted.
Yang gave him a deadpan look. "You're a terrible liar, Azura," she said sternly.
"I… know… I just… haven't felt this weak… before." Azura panted hoarsely, starting to cough and hack again.
The two sisters set him down against a rock a hundred feet from the ruins. Even this far away, it was still as if they were still amid the colossal tussle.
"Azura. You stay here and rest up." Ruby said, before rushing back towards the ruins.
"Not like… I could move… if I… tried…" Azura hacked and wheezed.
Yang looked at Azura sternly. "We're going to talk about whatever the hell that thing was later, mister! Because you have some serious explaining to do!" She told him, leaving no room for argument.
"Noted…" Azura groaned weakly, settling himself against the rock.
"I wish you'd be this agreeable all the time," Yang said with a sigh, before rushing off to join the fight.
"I… don't…" Azura muttered weakly before closing his eyes, passing out from the exertion.
As the Thunderjaw worked to reset its jaw, Dahlia pierced deep into its ankle with her Aura drills, trying desperately to bring it down. It roared in pain and stomped the ground, forcing Dahlia off and making her dodge to avoid being trampled. As that happened, Nora used an explosive blast from her hammer to launch herself high into the air. Then, with the force of gravity, she came plummeting back down and used another explosive swing of her hammer to propel herself down with greater force. Bringing Magnhild down with all her might, Nora slammed it into the beast's head, making it roar in pain.
However, using its tail as a lever, the Grimm forced Nora back up before swinging its head like a club. The force of the head swing slammed into Nora, sending her crashing through the ruins as she cried out in pain. Looking up from where he was trying to clear the rubble off Silf, Ren's eyes widened in worried disbelief.
"NORA!" Ren called out in concern.
"Ren, we need to focus! Nora will be fine, but we're all going to die if we don't get the big guy free!" Jaune pointed out.
Ren's jaw tightened in frustration before he went back to trying to clear out the rubble. Meanwhile, Ruby used the speed of her Semblance to propel herself through the air, leaping off pieces of the ruins and slashing with Crescent Rose, trying her best to bring this thing down before it was too late. Yang, her eyes glowing red with fury, unleashed barrages of fiery punches into it to try to wear it down. However, all this did was infuriate it even more.
Lifting its head up high, it let out a roar that rattled the ruins and the ground under their feet. Everyone was forced to cover their ears from the ear-splitting roar. Even Pyrrha was forced to, which broke her magnetic concentration on the shards embedded in the Grimm's flesh and hide. Immediately feeling the change, the monster slammed its massive head into the ground, knocking the Huntsmen-hopefuls off their feet from the shockwave. However, the true purpose of the move was revealed when they all saw the shards of metal fly out of its body and fall harmlessly onto the ground.
"Keep it distracted! I'm going to help Silfrdrengr!" Weiss yelled and made a break for her dragon.
"How?! This thing is kicking our asses!!" Jaune yelled.
"Just keep hitting it!!" Weiss yelled.
"That only works in Mistrali cartoons!!" Hunter snapped.
"Just! Say! Anime!" Ruby called out as she kept slashing and hacking at the Thunderjaw.
"NO!!" Hunter shot back.
"Focus, you two! Get at it!" Sylver yelled.
"I thought you didn't like my sister?" Whitley asked in surprise from where he, Jaune, and Ren were digging out Silf.
"I don't. But I like dying less." Sylver replied.
Ruby and Sylver charged forward as the rest followed in kind. As they fought against the colossal Grimm, Weiss arrived at the site of her trapped dragon.
"Whitley. You and the others help them. I'll get him out." Weiss explained.
"How are you gonna do that?" Jaune asked in disbelief.
"I have my methods. Or at least an idea." Weiss said.
'I'm not trapped; I'm catching my breath.' Silfrdrengr telepathically said.
'You're lucky only to have a broken wing, mister.' Weiss replied telepathically.
'Lucky shot.' Silfrdrengr grumbled.
"Alright. Just don't take too long. I don't know how much longer we all are going to last." Jaune said nervously.
"Just do your best over there, Captain Sky-High." Weiss said.
"Better than Vomit Boy…" Jaune muttered under his breath.
"Let's go, Ren said as he rushed off.
As Ren and Jaune rushed off, Whitely looked back at Weiss one final time before following suit. Weiss then gripped the hilt of Myrtenaster with both hands and began to force energy into it. Soon her weapon began to glow in a pale blue light, and then she swung it in a wide arc. With that single action, a mighty gale blew forth from her blade. Within moments, the cracked stone and rubble were forced off the mighty dragon and soon began to shift his weight.
'Why didn't you just do that earlier?' Silfrdrengr asked through a groan.
'Because I didn't know I could do that until I tried.' She replied.
"AAAAAGGHH!!" Came the baleful cry of Jaune's voice.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha's voice cried out.
Both the dragon and his rider turned to see what had happened. To their shock, they saw that Jaune had been flung face first into a rock face and lay limp on the rocky ground. Pyrrha coldly looked at the black goliath as she rushed forward to stab it in its side. Before the Thunderjaw could bite down on her, Nora leapt forth and slammed her hammer into its head, followed by Daliah attacking its exposed neck with her drill hands. Zhan followed in kind as he swung his axe hard, biting into the massive leg flesh of the beast.
Their quarry's counterattack was swift and terrible. It swung its head and neck around, sending Nora and Daliah flying, and hitting the ground hard. It then attempted to stomp Zhan, with him only barely being able to dodge out of the way. Seeing this, Sylver leapt forward, blade at the ready. Only as he swung, his blade was caught in the terrifying teeth of the Grimm. Sylver did his best to hold on, but he lost his grip and was barely able to catch himself from being thrown into the ravine. But then it turned its fearsome head to look at Whitley with its single remaining eye.
Being under the loathsome gaze of the Royal, Whitley panicked and attempted to throw his daggers at the remaining eye. However, in his panic, one shot went wide and missed entirely. Another bounced off the brow ridge of the Grimm. Before he could throw another, he was forced to dodge a biting lunge. However, before he could attempt anything else, his legs were trapped under the monster's outlying toe. Causing him to roar in anguish under its weight.
'Whitley!!' Weiss and Silfrdrengr yelled in horror.
Clambering to his feet, Silf rushed alongside Weiss into the fray once more. The ground shattered and rattled under the mighty footfalls of the dragon as Weiss used his tall neck as a vantage point. Leaping off, she sprang herself upon the back of the Grimm right as Silf slammed into the side of the Thunderjaw. As it staggered back, roaring from hooked claws in its side, Weiss turned her attention to Whitley.
"Whitley! You and the others help the injured out of here! We will finish it off!" Weiss ordered.
"Are you crazy?! That thing will kill you both!" Whitley yelled frantically.
"Just trust me!" Weiss yelled, barely keeping her balance as the titan beneath her tried to shake her off.
Whitley looked at his sister for a second as she battled the Grimm. Then, with a heavy sigh, he rushed over and helped Dahlia up. As they limped off with the others getting the memo, this gave Silf ample room to work. Using his own weight to target its legs and side, the Royal was forced to focus on keeping its weight correctly balanced. As it was distracted, Weiss stabbed at it in the joints in its armored hide. Trying her best to find somewhere to hurt it most.
Feeling the pricks in its back, the monstrous head of the Thunderjaw wheeled around with shocking flexibility, trying to bite and snap at her. Weiss did her best to dodge, but right before it could bite into her leg, Silf bit down into the Grim's neck. Roaring in pain as it tried to shake Silf off, the dragon's curved, bladed teeth took their toll as he ripped a chunk out of its neck before freezing the wound and torn off flesh with a blast of cold.
'We aren't doing that much to it!' Silf yelled telepathically as he craned his neck back to avoid a furious bite.
'I'm looking for a chink in its back armor! Then I can fire a blast directly into it!' Weiss explained telepathically.
'Well, hurry up! It's not happy!' Silf snapped.
Weiss rolled her eyes at the assertion as she kept stabbing at various points. The malevolent reptilian juggernaut tried again to bite her, only to take a large blast of cold and steel shards in its head. Yet it was then that Weiss noticed the bucking and shaking of the monster began to slow. It was running out of steam to keep up its fearsome assault. It gave her little solace as they were also running out of energy.
Finally, when she stabbed into the beast's back, the long thin blade of Myrtenaster dug deep into black Grimm flesh. The Thunderjaw let out a bellow of pain-fueled rage, reverberating like a demonic elephant through the hills and gorges. Seizing the moment, Weiss plunged her blade down to the hilt before selecting an ice dust round in her revolver chamber. Then, she poured mystical energy into her blade and created a white glyph around her, then let it be unleashed.
In mere moments, the energy disappeared into the massive bulk of the behemoth, but it had a noticeable effect. Spikes of ice erupted from its body at random, hide, flesh, and bone torn as they happened. Equally, its tough hide began to tighten and cure, much like flash-frozen leather. The beast began to slow as frigid air exhaled from its mouth, and black blood oozed from its eye and mouth. Weiss ran down its spine and leaped back onto Sil before climbing up to his head.
'Now's our chance! Give it everything you got!' Weiss yelled telepathically as she loaded her weapon's entire revolver cylinder with Ice Dust rounds.
'Now you're speaking my language!!' Silfrdrengr bellowed back.
The air around the two began to cool, clashing with the warm sun. Silf's throat began to coalesce white- and steel-colored energies as he charged up his strike. Weiss, activating all the Ice rounds she just loaded, created a massive white glyph behind her. Putting every ounce of energy, aura, and mystical forces they had left, they aimed the slow, wounded Royal. And then, in unison, they fired their shots.
Weiss and Silfrdrengr sent two streams of cold and metal to the behemoth, their singular beams soon merging into one massive one. The beam rocketed towards the Tyrannical Grimm, too internally injured and cold to move out of the way. When the beam hit, the beast let out one final bellow of agony before being silenced. Black flesh and white bones were replaced with ice and metal, until it was nothing more than a frozen, metal-veined statue. Raising his own massive tail, Silf slammed it into the ground, shattering the Grimm into a cloud of ice dust and metal shards.
"Rest in all the hells, you damnable beast," Weiss growled tiredly before slumping down onto the back of Silf's head and neck.
'Now comes the hard part.' Silf sighed telepathically.
'And what could be harder than that?' Weiss asked him.
'Explain that you have a dragon to your new friends…' Silf ominously replied.
To Be Continued...