Chapter Twenty Three: Just One Last Breath
...
"Well, cra-"
…
It only took about seven minutes for their little operation to turn to shit, which was actually a surprise for him as even he had to admit this was a horrible idea, but hey, he couldn't NOT listen to those voices in his head.
Thanks Mordred, by the way.
The first five minutes went alright, not much of note.
The imp and the slimes kicked it off- literally in the imp's case. Two guards rounded the corner and got a face full of its crotch, screaming as it latched onto one's mask and started hacking apart the other. The slimes oozed in right after, cutting off their escape.
By the two-minute mark, they alone had taken down five guards.
Easy pickings.
Well, that was before they started grouping up.
They tried to keep the momentum going, but it turned into a very different kind of surprise when a dozen rifles came up at once.
The slimes soaked up the first volley like ballistic gel, streaks of air following bullets in, only to pop out the bullets like little coins dropping out of a purse.
The imp... wasn't so lucky, with chips of stone cracking off with each hit, little gray fragments scattering across the warehouse.
Didn't stop it from swinging, though. If anything, it seemed more annoyed than hurt, carving an ugly gash in someone's shin before vaulting up their chest and going for the eyes.
Then there were his soldiers, who in all honestly shouldn't have been in this fight... they weren't anything near good with a bow, let alone a gun, and were decently outmatched by the White Fang and their mass produced firearms.
The only saving grace was not many went down, only about 3 total remaining from the previous 9.
The leader still had his flag up, so that's a plus in Quin's eyes.
But the real heavy hitter any of them.
It was Revenant.
Every shot, every swing of her claw, and every whispered command to her undead had this kind of brutal efficiency behind it.
And he had to admit once again, she could be an absolute powerhouse when letting loose.
She had long summoned her undead, Helen and Fredrick, the page blinked in and out of view like a faulty light, only to reappear with her rapier halfway through a terrorist's ribs. The giant fuck-off skeleton was waaaaay less subtle, smashing into lines like a wrecking ball made of bones and pure adrenaline.
Do skeletons have adrenaline? Eh, he'll just ask her later.
Quin, meanwhile, kept low and merely attempted to avoid getting shot at... he didn't have much faith in his Witcher constitution to survive a gunshot.
So, his whole job currently was to keep the White Fang from fully surrounding Revvie, as he didn't know if she or her summons could survive dust effects... and he wasn't about to find out.
Though, he was hoping to see her Necromancy activate but alas, her luck was more abysmal than his... unless they shared the same luck, then that made sense.
Shaking his head to focus, he glanced back at her.
Revenant rarely stopped moving, and every time she did, another body hit the floor.
"Any chance I can get some assistance? These inse- AH -ahem, are annoying..." She called out to him as she almost tripped over a severed tailfin- what kinda faunus has tailfins?!
She's just gonna pretend that never happened.
Quin barely had time to mock her before ducking down as bullets chewed at the metal behind him, turning the wall into swiss cheese.
"Little busy here, Rev!" he yelled, laying down suppressive fire on the shooter's position, which totally wasn't him blind firing over a crate.
"You wouldn't be if you stopped missing,"
She sighed as Helen sprinted forwards again, eventually making it behind the rifleman and piercing his nape before he could even react.
Fredrick, meanwhile, blocked a passage between the containers to give her some breathing room... sure, she didn't need it, but still.
Quin, peering over the wooden crate, just let out a sigh of relief before pushing himself up. "Phewww- thanks, I'll take you out to dinner later."
Now that, that had her humming happily to her next victims.
Seven minutes is around when things started going sideways
Not literally, but you get my drift.
Over the gunfire and the clanging of boots, Quin caught it, faint at first, then growing.
Sirens.
Not the fun "Happy Birthday" kind either. The sharp, warbling ones that just screamed "Hey everyone, drive the speed limit."
Revenant's head tilted, eyes flicking toward the walls like she could see straight through the metal. "…What is that?" she asked, as Helen carved down another unlucky soul.
Quin turned up to look at h- oh hey, she finally managed to procc Necromancy.
About 10 odd meters away from Revenant, pinned to the floor by Fredricks bone club, a White Fang lieutenant was slowly becoming enveloped in an eerie white smoke. It started around his torso, where the weapon had collapsed his chest cavity, before spreading to the limbs, and finally the head.
A couple seconds went by before Fredrick picked up its club, allowing the undead faunus to pick itself up and join the fight against its living counterparts... it's rifle barking out as it stepped behind cover near Quin's pikes-turned-gunmen.
Anyways, back to her question.
"You…" He managed to let out before ducking back behind another crate, a grunt in the rafters had started singling him out. "…You don't want to find out."
Her head tilted off to the side. "Why's that?"
"Because," Quin hissed, slapping a fresh mag into his rifle, "I'm like… 40 percent sure they've got a biiiiig prejudice against non-humans."
Wouldn't be too big of a stretch, but he couldn't say for certain they were... he DOES know that they're not really that effective compared to huntsmen, though.
Revenant frowned, glancing at her two summons, then back at him. "…And the other sixty percent?"
Quin leaned out, fired a couple rounds at the grunt aiming for his ass, and ducked back with a solemn look.
"Donuts."
A moment.
"Amazing." she muttered, entirely jealous despite not exactly being able to eat.
Revenant, after a short break, pushed towards another group of White Fang, ready to continue breaking their morale and routing them... which honestly was pretty close to happening.
But before she could.
SKREEEECH
A metal blade slid across the concrete in front of her, scraping the tip against the rough warehouse tiles.
She paused, looking to her left.
A girl stepped out of seemingly nowhere, parasol twirling lazily like she was the star of her own private show. Her hair was an even mix of cotton candy pink and soft chocolate brown, falling in perfect, messy layers as her mismatched eyes, mostly hidden behind long lashes, slowly followed Revenant's figure before shaking her head... not her type, I guess?
Neopolitan.
"Really?" Quin groaned, looking down at this little fucking maniac that'd just become a giant thorn in his side. "You had to show up now?"
Neo tilted her head towards him, the corners of her mouth twitching into a mocking smile.
Yeah, yeah, she did.
Revenant's claws glinted as she shifted closer, drawing the mutes attention back to her.
The air itself tensed like a stretched bowstring as neither made the first move, instead slowly circling each other for the perfect opening.
Eventually Neo found one, her heels clicking sharply against the concrete as she fired off at Revenant like an arrow.
Her parasol flicked downwards in a blur, just barely missing Revenant's shoulder, but used the momentum she created to follow through with a boot to the doll's head.
She managed to roll off to the side like her forefathers before her (Tarnished :3), and as she came up, her claws flashed in a quick, upward arc. The taloms of light cut through air, before meeting sudden resistance at Neo's aura, which absorbed the strike without leaving so much as a scratch.
Huh, guess aura could block magic attacks too.
Neo wasn't particularly fazed as she the force behind the claws provided little knockback.
She skidded back for a moment before thrusting her parasol forward again, again, and again, stabbing at Revenant with a relentless rhythm. Each strike barely dug into the porcelain as the doll continued to step back before the blade could connect fully.
It's a good plan, or well, it had been before she slammed right against the side of a shipping container.
Neo seized the moment, bringing her weapon up in a beautiful slash, aiming to slice her from the chin up... but fortunately Revenant reacted almost instantly, ducking low and shoving a palm straight into her jaw before the mute could properly retaliate.
CRACK
The illusion shattered, the ice cream gals form cracking like glass as it slowly dispersed into the wind.
Neo was already gone.
THUDTHUDTHUD
Oop, nope. There she was.
...
Meanwhile,
...
Quin aimed down his rifle after propping it up against a crate, he could feel the adrenaline pump through his veins as he watched the huntress level fight unfold in front of him.
It was so beautiful it could make a grown man cry.
And he did, but that was only because the stinging sensation of dust was getting to him... turns out, his enhanced senses were terrible when handling with propellants and combustible powders.
Back to the fight, how the hell was he supposed to help little Revvie win? He wasn't exactly a good shot, and he wasn't about to find out how good he really was.
His fingers twitched nervously, while a certain plush squeaked underneath his jacket.
"No, Mordred" He breathed out, looking down to see her face sticking out his inner jacket pocket "We're not burning down anything... we talked about this after last time."
His mind raced through his inventory as he talked with his tactical advisor- greatsword, flare, charm, hells even a phone -but none seemed like a good idea to toss into the middle of that fight.
The moment stretched into seconds, and seconds into minutes as the fight continued to unfold.
Then, out of nowhere, a heavy, thunderous stomp shook the crate he was propped up against and a massive shadow slowly loomed over him, causing him to turn and see a lion faunus clad in thick dented armor, with two pikes impaled in his upper back.
Mufasa.
The guard who had let them in earlier, the one who'd seemed almost friendly, was now a roaring nightmare who definitely killed those soldiers of his without firearms... that, or he managed to get close enough to his armed soldiers to force them to use their pikes again.
He didn't know which was worse.
"YOU," The lion bellowed, his voice laced with rage as spit flew out at mach speed, "YOU DID THIS!"
Quin pushed himself upright to look at him fully, heart pounding as the realization hit... he wasn't able to rely on Revenant to bail him out again, nor could he leech off the efforts of his pikes who kept the forces occupied.
So he tried to muster his best "talk no jutsu.", pulling inspiration from Naruto and One Piece.
"This... isn't what it looks like, we can talk this out... like civilized folk." He backed up a bit, his heart almost skipping a beat as he scraped against the crate.
Mufasa's glare was hot enough to toast bread, his heavy breaths hissed between clenched teeth like a pissed-off steam engine.
"Talk?" he growled. "You brought them here… murdered my brothers and sisters, and now you wanna talk!?"
Okay, that plan was officially shelved.
Thanks, Luffy, for the terrible life advice.
"Well, cra-"
Before he could even finish, he was tackled by the force of a charging rhino. The crate behind exploding into a shower of splinters while the two hit the ground hard, air escaping from Quin's lungs.
"I don't think my insurance will cover that," Quin wheezed, scrambling to his feet.
...
Revenant V Neopolitan.
...
Revenant glared at this little psycho, her claws glinting on the lights ahead as she dashed forwards once again... only to catch sight of the parasol swinging low before it clashed harshly against her side, cracking apart the porcelain.
The sound echoed off the metal containers, sharp and unforgiving.
Neo's heels barely touched the ground as she bounced back, eyes flickering as she drug a finger against her cheek… mimicking a tear falling down.
Boo hoo
She lunged again, her parasol swinging from the side, aiming to catch the doll's neck. Revenant ducked, barely, and managed to snatch a nearby pipe, rusty, bent, but still heavy as all fuck.
She swung it back with all her strength, catching the umbrella mid strike, and forcing the mute back.
Revenant pulled back as well, and the two started circling each other again, much like predators sizing each other up in a cage.
Her eyes shone pale under the flickering lights, she wasn't about to let this mute get the upper hand.
"You reek of failure." She said off-handedly, swinging the pipe low before following up with a swipe from her claws.
The ice cream gals was, unfortunately, able to stop the first with a swift kick to Revenant's midsection, and used the force to push her body up into a backflip to dodge the followup attack.
Revenant pushed forwards and managed to catch her landing with a shove that sent Neo sliding across the concrete. Neo's parasol whipped open, aiming to protect herself from the doll's followup, but Revvie merely stomped the open shield.
Neopolitan was pushed back from the force, but was ultimately okay, and swept her leg low in a spinning kick that caught Revenant's ankle. Her balance wavered, but the doll managed to steady herself while Neo took the opportunity to bring herself back to her feet.
Strike!
She barely ducked in time, a piece wood smashing into the container behind her, splinters flying everywhere.
"Not bad," Revenant hummed, her head careening to the side "But I'm not finished."
Tossing the remains of a loose plank she pulled from a crate, Revenant now had the space needed to call back one of her summons… the other should be alright by themselves for a time.
It didn't take ling before a rapier arrived by her side, its edge gleaming cold and deadly.
Helen, as soon as she appeared, pierced through the air, sharp and aiming straight for Neo's side. The mute managed to twist her body out of the way with inhuman grace, but the blade grazed her midriff regardless, clipping the edge of her aura.
Revenant, taking the opportunity, went in with her tried and tested claws... bringing them up to send more talons at her opponent.
Which, unsurprisingly, didn't take much to defend against as with a quick flick of Neo's wrist, she pulled the parasol open, causing the talons to plink pathetically against the impromptu shield.
But before she could even counterattack.
CRASSHHHH
The two fighters turned sharply to their left, eyes widening as two men slammed into the middle of their fight, crashing through a crate that exploded outward like fireworks of splintered wood and dust.
Shards flew in every direction, some embedded themselves into walls, others fired like deadly missiles toward all the combatants.
That didn't affect Quin, however, as he decisively laid on the floor for a few seconds, trying to catch his breath.
"I don't think my insurance will cover that," He wheezed, scrambling to his feet.
Mufasa soon followed, snarling as he pushed himself up and glaring daggers at… well, everyone.
Neopolitan, seizing the perfect moment, seemingly teleported away like a ghost slipping through the cracks.
His summon took a quick breath, a frustrating hmpf leaving her lips. "She's just as frustrating as you..."
Quin groaned, rubbing a splinter from his arm while staring into the empty space Neo had occupied but a moment ago.
"That hurts, and I hope you know that."
"I do, yes."
"Fun, I'm going to cry myself to sleep later."
"YOU'RE GONNA FUCKING DIE-"
…
He forgot he was still there, honestly.
2803 Words
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Rejoice! Another chapter! 6 hours ahead of schedule!... My girlfriend says I'm spoiling you guys too much, I don't know what she means but eh.
After this arc, there will be a timeskip or two, as the first season of RWBY takes place over like... 4-5 months? So I'm thinking of only doing chapters for half to a quarter of that so this isn't slow paced as hell.
On that note, I'm also thinking of romance options, but I don't necessarily want to break the existing dynamics... so more on that later.
P.S: Stones or Mordred will set fire to your homes.