Chapter 114:

Spreading out her Extension, Ruby completely opened her senses, not even trying to track the attackers closing in with her eyes. Her Extension was like a spectral, invisible version of her cloak, spreading out far beyond the reach of her physical one, its sweeping folds brushing over everything that came within several meters of her, giving her a perfect picture of her surroundings, and everyone within them. On top of that, her other senses monitored the flow of the air around her, the faint sounds filling the enormous room, and the smells that drifted through the air. Putting all of them together built a picture that was as complete and vivid as any her eyes could paint, without being limited to that narrow cone in front of her, the way her vision was.

At the moment, she was near the wall at the far side of the room from where she had entered. Eira's presence had completely vanished, to the point that Ruby would equate it to somebody having mastered Suppression. Through the flow of the air around her, Ruby could sense Eira's purposeful movements. But the woman's lack of presence allowed Ruby's awareness to glide over her, without actually comprehending her. As such, Ruby couldn't get a proper sense of Eira's actions. If Ruby wanted to fight the assassin, she would have to wait for the interval, when Eira's intent preceded her attack. It was a way of fighting Ruby knew well.

She had plenty of experience with assassins, after all.

Mercury, on the other hand, she had no problem reading. He certainly made no attempt to hide his presence as he dashed in. Bursts of silver wind from the soles of his concealed prosthetic feet accelerated his body. Closing in, he went into a jumping spin that allowed him to swing his right foot at her in an arcing roundhouse kick, the movement's speed further enhanced by the wind from his weaponized limb.

Ruby's legs bent, and she dropped down into a crouch, while going into a spin of her own, whipping the edges of her cloak out. She drew her sword, slashing around and up at Mercury, even as her crouch allowed his foot to pass over her head. Mercury's spin brought his left leg around, and he countered with a hooking back-kick, knocking the path of Ruby's slash away, silver and red sparks lighting up the darkness, throwing them into stark relief for the barest fraction of a second.

It caused Ruby to realize that Mercury had no problem fighting in total darkness either. She supposed that such a quality would be only natural to expect from an assassin, even if they didn't possess a faunus' night vision. In fact, such a skill would be especially beneficial against faunus. Faunus' knowledge of their own night vision would lead to them naturally assuming they had an advantage in low-light conditions, which could lead to fatal oversights against an opponent like Mercury. Ruby knew this well enough, mainly because that had been one of the main causes of Adam's downfall, the second time they'd fought.

Still, this was no time to be reflecting on things like that. She had other, more important, considerations. They'd both avoided each other's opening blows. It was a race to see who could begin their next attack first. However, Ruby's awareness picked up the strange eddying of the air behind her, indicating an object she couldn't sense stirring it up. Realizing what was coming next, Ruby abandoned any intent to press the attack on Mercury, instead continuing her turn, following through from her previous slash, bringing herself around to drive her blade at the source of the sensation.

Her attack came right as she sensed Eira's intent, the woman herself appearing out of the darkness, having apparently intended to strike when Ruby tried to continue going after Mercury. Instead, she was forced to bring up a black-gloved hand to block Ruby's thrust. Akaibara's point struck the palm of Eira's hand. Instead of piercing through it, the blade instead stopped, as though it had struck something much harder than flesh and blood, behind the light fabric of a glove. Still, the force of Ruby's body and Aura were in the blow, and Eira was blasted back, her shoes skidding against the smooth floor, before she came to a stop.

Gravity-Dust in her gloves, Ruby noted.

That wasn't all. She could sense Dust woven all throughout Eira's clothes, and in the earring she wore on her right ear. She was reminded of Morgan, how the pirate woman had secreted Dust all over herself, disguised as clothing and gaudy accessories. Eira didn't have as much Dust on her person, but what she did have was more than enough to make her an effective fighter. The gravity-Dust in her gloves had been supported by earth-Dust to harden the fabric to the point where it could stand up to a sword's edge.

Ruby would have pressed the attack. However, responding to Eira had given Mercury the time he needed to come out of his spin, his right leg already descending towards the floor. From the flow of his movements, Ruby could sense that he was going to immediately kick off and transition into a side-kick to try and catch her in the back, if she went after Eira. Her body moving of its own accord, Ruby immediately turned about to meet him. Sure enough, the sole of his boot was flying right at her face. Ruby brought her sword around in a blurring slash, the red flash of her blade catching his boot from the side, biting right through the leather disguising the metal prosthetic beneath it.

Rather than try to follow up with another sword strike, Ruby continued her previous motion, jumping up to execute a roundhouse kick of her own, foot lashing towards Mercury's temple. However, he was able to raise a hand to block her, the force of the kick knocking him back. Mercury allowed it, leaning his body into the direction he was knocked, inverting himself so that he could kick out at her with both feet, producing a silvery whirlwind that threatened to blow her across the floor. Bringing her sword back up, Ruby slashed straight down through the mass of moving air, dividing it neatly around her.

Meanwhile, Eira had once again disappeared into the darkness.

So that's how it is, thought Ruby. Eira and Mercury were fighting as a team. Eira was almost literally hiding in Mercury's shadow, biding her time to attack when Ruby was focusing on Mercury. Meanwhile, if Ruby focused too much on locating Eira, or got caught up pressing the attack once she found her, Mercury would come blazing in, either to distract Ruby and allow Eira to slip away again, or to land a solid hit through an opening left by Ruby's distraction.

It was a competent stye, one that definitely suited the pair as assassins. Eira was definitely the older and more experienced of the pair. She hung back, allowing Mercury to set the pace, while reading his motions and determining the perfect time to jump in. Her intent and action barely had any delay either, indicating serious skill. Eira reminded Ruby of some of the best assassins who had come after her, in her younger years.

But, in the end, that was the crux of it. This was not the first time Ruby had needed to fight in total darkness, not the first time her enemies had tried a paired strategy against her. She had no shortage of experience against assassins. Mercury had been more dangerous, paired with Cinder and her magic. Even together with Eira, he wasn't nearly as threatening. Compared to her fight with Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury, this fight was a step down in difficulty...for now.

The real threat lay in the other two, who had begun to close in, only to stop when Mercury and Eira began their concerted attack. Now the pair of them hung back, watching, waiting... Ruby couldn't be sure of their intentions...well...that wasn't completely true. She was sure of the intentions of one of them, that sinister, swirling mass of malice and viciousness. That person was clear about what he wanted, to slowly drown her in agony, before ending her life. However, his intentions didn't yet broadcast how he intended to do that.

Both of them had stopped at the very edge of Ruby's Aura, suggesting that they were aware of the present limits of her Extension's reach, which meant they might not be strangers to the Mibu Clan's techniques. That was quite daunting on its own. But worse still, Ruby couldn't tell what they meant to do at the moment. Were they planning on waiting for an opening to strike, a layered version of the very tactic Mercury and Eira were using? Or were they waiting for Ruby to wear herself out with her current opponents, and then take advantage of her fatigue?

One way or another, Ruby knew she couldn't afford to waste time or energy on her two current opponents. She had to take them out as expediently as possible, if only to conserve as much of her strength as she could for the ones who were waiting.

Mercury's flight inverted him, allowing him to plant his hands and spring off them, launching himself back a little farther. As he did, he lashed out with a pair of swift kicks, launching bullets of silver wind at Ruby, who slipped between them as she closed in with him again, her form flickering and leaving bursts of red petals in its wake. She seemed to materialize directly in front of Mercury, before his feet had finished touching down.

Desperately, Mercury brought his right shin up to block Ruby's slashing blade, a grimace of anger flashing across his face as he actually felt her blade cut right through the protective Aura to bite into the metal of the leg itself. The action of his move had helped keep Ruby's slash from cutting through the prosthetic in its entirety. Instead, he was very nearly knocked flying by the impact behind her swing. Still, he managed to plant his other foot, stopping her attack.

Then Eira appeared behind Ruby, melting out of the darkness once more, the black energy of gravity-Dust congealing around her raised left fist, increasing the "weight" behind her incoming punch. She clearly intended to take advantage of Ruby's sword being trapped by Mercury's leg.

Except that the blade of Ruby's sword split lengthwise. Her right hand she kept on Ibara, its edge still imbedded in Mercury's leg, while Bara flashed at Eira's incoming fist, not even missing a beat. In this fight, Ruby had a major advantage, in that she had already fought with Mercury before, and had managed to learn his rhythm. As a consequence, anticipating Eira's attacks came down to reading Mercury's movements and knowing the best time for someone to pitch in to supplement them. Eira's own skill in cooperating with Mercury had actually worked against her in that respect.

Despite that, Eira's expression and Aura did not betray any surprise at the move. Ruby figured that would have been the case. It was clear that Mason's agents had been studying her quite carefully. Given that Ruby had displayed that her weapon could bifurcate during her widely-seen match with Pyrrha, it was only natural that Eira would be fully aware of that capability.

So Eira didn't flinch at Ruby suddenly swinging an extra weapon her way. Instead, she used Dust to harden her fist and add weight to her punch, striking straight for the incoming sword with all the strength she possessed, aiming to either knock the sword from Ruby's grip, or break the blade altogether.

Eira's attack had probably shattered weapons before. But that was nothing against the steel forged by the Mibu Blademaster, the pinnacle of Sengo Murasame's skill and genius. Akaibara would not be broken through such mundane force. On top of that, Ruby switched her Aura from using it to blunt Akaibara's edge, to enhancing it instead, unsheathing her sword's true cutting power. Instead of being stopped, Ruby's sword split through the nimbus of black energy swirling around Eira's fist. Driven by the power of her strike, and Ruby's swing, carrying the full weight of the Aura that she'd withheld from her attack on Mercury, Bara also bit through the hardened glove as well, biting deep into the skin of Eira's fist, between her knuckles.

Eira's eyes widened, a flicker of quickly-suppressed pain flashing across her face. She reversed course immediately, a harsh stomp that cracked the floor beneath her canceling and reversing her momentum, launching her back from the red crescent of light that flashed out from the edge of Bara, threatening to split both her hand and arm in two. As it was, Eira's hand trailed blood from a cut between her middle and ring fingers, while she skipped back into the darkness, her presence fading away.

Ruby didn't waste any time. Mercury's right leg still had Ibara wedged in it. He was already beginning to strain and turn, in preparation to use the move to try and wrench the sword from Ruby's grip. Ruby immediately tightened the arc of Bara's swing. However, rather than try and swing at Mercury's body from a separate angle, she instead reversed her grip, opening her hand against the handle so that she forced the back of the sword against its twin, lodged in Mercury's leg, in a move like a palm-strike, opening the fingers of her right hand to accept Bara back, then closing both hands again while using the strength and Aura of her move to send Akaibara shearing right through the metal of Mercury's prosthetic leg.

Mercury let out a pained shout, his metal leg, still enclosed in its concealing boot and trouser-leg, bouncing away, while he reeled back, Ruby carrying past him, finishing with Akaibara held in her left hand with a reverse-grip.

"You bitch!" shouted Mercury, slamming onto his back, sprawling, sparks spitting out from where Ruby's sword had severed his leg, just a few inches below his knee. More than losing one of his weapons, he'd lost the principal source of his mobility. He probably wasn't completely incapacitated, still having the full use of his left leg. But he would be at less than half his full ability, trying to fight like that, able to hop around at best.

As such, Ruby immediately turned her full focus to deal with her other opponent. She dove straight for the flickering presence of the other assassin. Eira's pain had jolted her control. As an assassin, she had probably been trained to quickly suppress pain and continue fighting, regardless of her condition. However, even the act of bringing her sensations back under control temporarily hampered her ability to conceal her presence, and Ruby was able to pick up on it, weak and flickering like a candle flame. It didn't help Eira that her pain didn't just stem from the cut on her hand. Forcefully reversing the momentum of her gravity-Dust-enhanced attack had required utilizing an even stronger application through the leg she'd stomped down. In her haste, she hadn't channeled the force effectively, and the recoil had sent a spiderweb of microfractures spreading through her tibia and fibula, sending painful jolts flashing through the limb every time she put her weight on it.

The damage to her leg also reduced Eira's mobility, so she was left unable to dodge as Ruby homed right in on her location, Akaibara flickering through a series of swift slashes, cutting through Eira's Aura, and her desperate attempt to harden her clothes against the onslaught. Blood sprayed out in brief arcs from a half-dozen cuts across Eira's body, while thin streams of crimson electricity danced across the wounds, leaving her to collapse in Ruby's wake, her blood continuing to leak out across the floor around her as her muscles spasmed weakly.

Coming to a stop, Ruby flicked her sword out to one side, scattering the blood that had clung to the blade, before splitting Akaibara once again, and adopting her usual starting stance, facing fully towards the vicious one of the two presences that remained in the wake of the two assassins' failures.

The lights came on, shining down from above. This time, it wasn't just a few, illuminating a single, narrow path through the room, but all of them, completely illuminating the room to the fullest extent. Slowly, Ruby opened her eyes, allowing them to adjust, before opening them all the way. Glancing around, Ruby finally got to see the full scope of the place she'd been fighting in.

The room, if it could be called that, was truly cavernous, easily large enough to hold the entire space of the promenade leading to Beacon from the airdocks. This had to be a military installation of some kind, though what the military could want with such a large, empty space was completely unknown to her, as was why they would build it underneath a building in downtown Vale.

However, that was the least of her concerns, as her ears were greeted by the sound of clapping, not the faux-polite rhythm of mocking applause, but the genuinely energetic kind. It was accompanied by a squealing, wheezy giggle of giddy excitement. Turning towards the source of the sound, Ruby felt her skin crawl and her stomach churn.

The man before her was terrifying to behold. Maybe he wasn't as bad as Jester, but this man was still a sight to inspire nightmares, his gold eyes gleaming out over slightly gaunt-looking cheeks. Those eyes were matched by the horrifying grin on his face as he applauded jubilantly, jerking with his movements, sending the short ponytail behind his head dancing around as he sauntered closer.

Ruby eyed the man nervously, taking in the brown jacket that he wore over his white shirt. Closing in, he came within the reach of her Extension, and Ruby got a much clearer picture. The man's primary weapons were mounted on the bracers he wore over his forearms, consisting of a pair of folding blades that were mounted near his wrists. The bracers also contained a set of hidden guns. However, the man also sported one other weapon.

He was a faunus...a scorpion-faunus to be exact. Faunus of his kind were rare, arthropod faunus ranking amongst the lowest, in terms of population. In this case, the man's faunus-trait was a scorpion's tail, hidden beneath that jacket of his, likely a secret weapon of sorts. Ruby didn't want to find out just what sort of venom the man possessed, and resolved to be wary of that tail.

For all that he was supposed to be Mercury's ally, this man seemed positively thrilled by the defeat of both Mercury and Eira, continuing to applaud. "Bravo! Magnificent! Brilliantly executed! The pair of them never stood a chance against you, did they?"

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "Who are you?" she asked.

The man paused, his hands freezing midway through another clap. "Ah! Of course! Where are my manners!" He executed an elaborate bow, extending his left hand out to the side, while crossing his right arm over his chest in an exaggerated courtly gesture. "I am Tyrian Callows, devoted agent of the one true goddess."

"Salem," said Ruby softly.

The utterance of that name produced a giddy squeal from Tyrian, and he immediately clapped his hands together more rapidly than before, a childish action that was unsettling coming from this grown...and abnormal...man. "Oh! You know her name already! Wonderful!"

"Yeah...wonderful..." grumbled Ruby. The sight of this man sickened her to the core. Worse still, now that he was within the reach of her Extension, she got a genuine sense of just how strong this man was.

And he was quite a bit stronger than her, stronger than Adam for sure (although, given that Jester had claimed to be training Adam, Ruby couldn't be sure how accurate her previous assessments of his strength were anymore). His Aura swirled about him in a chaotic mess. Sure, there were concentrations around his wrists and forearms, where the bracer-mounted blades were. But there was a substantial concentration around his legs, suggesting that kicks were not an unfamiliar method of attack for him. And, of course, there was the tail. If Ruby had to guess, Tyrian could reinforce both the tail's strength and exoskeleton to withstand hits from weapons like her swords.

The man behind her was no-less formidable, if considerably less...wild. His Aura was unquestionably Tempered, to the point where he'd be able to fend off weapon-strikes with his bare hands. It was calm and still, wrapping around his body in a layer of armor more solid than the most advanced alloy Atlas could hope to churn out. Within that was a powerful core of strength, an intensity of will that Ruby suspected was capable of a form of Projection, forcibly generating more Aura. Deeper down, the source of that will was a pure, concentrated spot of white-hot heat.

Hatred! The man behind her was fueled by a hatred so pure and refined that he could use it to push through every obstacle and overcome every hurdle. He was driven by a singular purpose, and that purpose was the destruction of something...or someone. At the moment, that hatred was calm and contained, to the point that Ruby didn't sense even the barest trace of hostility directed at her. This enormous mountain of a man, who stood behind her, didn't bear her even the slightest trace of ill will. However, the hatred that drove him meant that whatever was supposed to happen to her was nothing more than a means to an end and, if it brought him closer to his goal by even a single step, he wouldn't hesitate to go through with the orders he'd been given concerning her.

There was something else that troubled her about the man behind her. His body had been rent asunder...from within. It wasn't readily visible to the eyes, probably (seeing as they weren't in the back of her head, she couldn't exactly tell), but she could pick up traces of torn muscles, strained and snapped ligaments, that had been rejoined later. Ruby's training as a healer had been basic, so she had nothing approaching Sasame's skills at diagnosis, able to take in nearly all the aspects of a person's condition, and much more besides, in a single glance and a brush of her Aura. That Ruby could sense so much healed damage within the large man's frame was an indicator of how obvious it was. Whatever the man had been doing had torn muscles, snapped tendons and ligaments, and cracked bone. And he'd done it so many times that, even with his Aura supporting his recovery, his muscles themselves were covered with scars, hidden beneath his skin.

It suggested something, perhaps a fighting style, that was extremely self-destructive, which made sense, as the bulk of the damage was concentrated in those beefy arms. Ruby could sense the presence of a substantial amount of raw Dust, carried in pouches at the belt around the man's waist, predominately fire and lightning. That made Ruby balk. Was that man literally stabbing himself with raw Dust, and channeling its power straight through his body? That was a step beyond the typical method of merging Dust with one's body that she'd learned about in class. But it was the only thing she could think of to explain the extent of the internal damage the man was experiencing. It was nothing short of a miracle that he could even lift his arms, much less muster any strength with them.

Still, this was no time to be concerned for her opponent, not when she needed to concerned about him. This man was just as formidable as Tyrian, albeit in a different way, and was also clearly a servant of Salem, which meant that getting out of this mess was contingent on getting past both of them. That was an extremely tall order, if they came at her one at a time, and an impossible one, if they attacked in unison. If these two men cooperated, she would not win. Of that, Ruby was more than sure.

Which made it at least a little reassuring that the large man showed no compunctions towards attacking, compared to Tyrian, whose theatrical mask of faux politeness hid a desire to pounce and gut her with his blades. Long odds were miles better than none at all. Swallowing nervously, Ruby tensed, tightening her hold on her swords, not letting her stance flag in the slightest.

She couldn't hide the shift of her eyes, betraying a fleeting desire to glance behind her and at least get a glimpse of the enormous man looming back there. Tyrian didn't miss the cue. He giggled coyly. "Oh, no need to worry about dear Hazel. He's such a stick in the mud. He also has..." Tyrian punctuated his words with a dramatic sigh of exasperation. "...morals." He shuddered with a look of exaggerated disgust.

"It would be best to get this over with," rumbled Hazel in a deep voice that made Ruby's bones buzz. "Watts has the room on lockdown. The Councilman's forces won't be interfering anymore."

"Yes yes," said Tyrian, flapping a dismissive hand. "Spoil all the fun, why don't you?"

Ruby turned her head, finally getting a look at Hazel, eyes widening as she took in his powerful, eight-foot-tall physique.

Even though she was ready, she nearly missed it. The outward surge of malice from Tyrian barely even preceded his attack, the man leaping at her from across the floor in a blur of motion, arms outstretched, the blades on his bracers flicking up, before unfolding out to extend laterally out on either side of his fists, fittingly mimicking the pincers of a scorpion. He closed with her in a spinning slash, his weapons' movements converging on her from completely separate trajectories.

But Bara and Ibara flashed up to meet them, even before Ruby had begun to turn her head back towards her assailant. Tyrian had leapt off the floor as he'd attacked, pouncing at her with arms outstretched, his right swinging in from above at an angle, the left angling in from almost the opposite. Ruby's swords met those curved blades on their outside edges, as Ruby realized that the pincer-shape of the blades could easily be used to trap an opponent's weapon, if Tyrian was of a mind to. Sure, such a move would put his hands at risk, but Tyrian seemed like the kind of enemy who didn't overly care about his own safety.

Ruby's strikes; enhanced by her Projecting Aura, flawless Flow, and honed technique; managed to deflect the strikes from Tyrian's much more muscular arms, spreading them wide, even as Tyrian's forward momentum continued to send him hurtling towards her. Ruby's swords quickly reversed direction, converging for angled slashes across Tyrian's chest.

However, Tyrian's body tilted forwards, his hands going down to brace against the floor, this forward momentum transferring down the length of his spine to bring his legs up and over to kick down at Ruby from above, in a move that she could almost see Mercury trying to pull off. Those booted feet were heading right towards her face.

Despite that, Ruby didn't flinch back. Instead, she bent her knees, while darting in, getting closer, which was unconventional, given her weapons' reach. Her swords began to bite through the fabric of Tyrian's jacket.

From beneath that jacket, the segmented length of Tyrian's tail whipped about, its hardened, Aura-enhanced exoskeleton batting away Ruby's slashing swords just as easily as her own blades had knocked his initial attack away. With incredible speed, Tyrian followed through by whipping the stinger of his tail right at her face, threatening to pierce between her eyes with its envenomed point.

The tail punched through her head, but Ruby's face flickered and vanished, revealing that Tyrian had only hit her afterimage. In a flash, Ruby was on Tyrian's other side, her swords slashing at him. Pushing off the floor, Tyrian met her swords with his wrist blades, knocking them aside, before his push carried him away, his jacket falling to the floor, cut into pieces. Tyrian landed in a crouch, facing Ruby, his grin, as impossible as it seemed, even wider than before.

"You baited me!" he squealed. "Marvelous! Brilliant skill and technique! No wonder you beat those two, even in total darkness."

"Thanks," grunted Ruby, leveling her swords at the man again.

Tyrian canted his head left, then right, seeming to examine her. "Such flawless technique, and that Aura...You really are Mibu, aren't you?"

"Something like that..." said Ruby warily.

"Oh! How exciting!" squealed Tyrian ecstatically. "I've never gotten a chance to kill a Mibu before. Her Grace forbids conflict with them, you know, something that twisted Jester of hers put into her head, I'm sure."

Ruby fought to keep from rolling her eyes at the irony of this man calling someone "twisted". Granted, he wasn't wrong. If anything, Ruby could tell that Jester was even more warped than the vicious faunus in front of her. Still, Tyrian was more than enough for her tastes, at the moment. She could worry about Jester later.

Ruby steeled herself, preparing for the next exchange. The complete lack of reaction from Hazel cemented her realization that he would not be interfering in Tyrian's fight. If anything, intervening, even on Tyrian's behalf, was likely to draw the madman's wrath, more than anything else.

Then a torrent of pure Aura cascaded down from above in an all-encompassing wave of red. Ruby gasped as it washed over her, swirling around her like the eddies of the air itself, permeating her and making her feel as though she was being wrapped in a reassuring embrace. The sense of that presence made Ruby's tension and fear melt away, for all of a moment, suffusing her with the feeling that everything was going to be all right.

Kyo... she thought, smiling warmly. She recognized his Extension, and had to wonder if he was using it to search the entire city for her. Still, she couldn't imagine him leaving Beacon yet, which meant he was using his Extension to search from Beacon's campus. Ruby had always known that Kyo's Aura was incredible. But this demonstration was beyond even her own knowledge. I still have a ways to go before I can match something like this.

However, the effect of Kyo's Aura was much more pronounced on Tyrian and Hazel. Tyrian cringed, bending his limbs to lower himself even more, twisting his head with a frightened expression as he looked upwards, eyes roving for the threat behind such incredible Aura. Hazel's body went tense, hands balling into fists, lips pulling back to reveal gritting teeth, the man becoming an enormous bundle of nerves.

"Was that...?" asked Hazel.

"My brother," Ruby confirmed, smirking at the pair of men. "You don't have to worry, he probably won't be showing up here. He likes to let me fight my own battles."

Hazel grunted, giving Ruby an appraising look, apparently not certain if he believed her. In contrast, Tyrian's gaze returned to her with a look of anger and...even a little fear.

Did Kyo's Aura rattle him that badly? she wondered.

"We'll have to settle this quickly," snarled Tyrian, his tone lowering to a dangerous level.

Ruby readied her swords.

Then a low rumble echoed from above. The lights flickered slightly.

Hazel's response was to pull a scroll out of one of his pouches. "What's going on?" he asked.

"You're going to have company very soon," responded a polished, gentlemanly voice from the scroll. "A bullhead from Beacon has dropped a party of students and teachers on the building above...and they are smashing their way straight down."

Ruby's smirk widened. Now she realized what Kyo had done. He'd apparently been coordinating with her friends from Beacon, using his Extension to pinpoint her location, so that her teammates and friends could drop in...literally.

"It would seem that we need to wrap this up more quickly than we initially anticipated," said Watts. "We should finish and withdraw before the students make their way down here."

"They're just children," rumbled Hazel.

"Be that as it may, there are still quite a few of them, and the girl is enough of a handful on her own. Deal with her already."

With a bestial howl, Tyrian launched himself at Ruby, blades extended, his tail whipping its vicious stinger through the air at her. Ruby dashed forward to meet him, the pair of them colliding with a ringing clash of steel.

Yang and Nora's combined attack sent a shockwave rushing down the small skyscraper. On all four of its sides, windows exploded outward in a wave, from top to bottom. Before the countless shards could threaten any pedestrians below, they were lined with glowing, purple light, and swept up into a swirling maelstrom around the hovering bullhead. Meanwhile, the roof gave way like paper beneath Yang and Nora, the pair smashing their way down through the topmost floors of the building.

The others jumped out after them. As they did, armor-clad figures rushed out of corridors on all the floors that Yang and Nora had just smashed their way through, making their way to the brand new skylight the pair had opened the building. Upon arrival, they immediately began training rifles and other guns, whether at Yang and Nora, or the group of students dropping down in their wake. However, before any of the soldiers could even think about firing, the storm of glass that Glynda had swept up around the bullhead descended, forming into several weaving tendrils that struck out at the solders, smashing them aside, cutting or breaking their guns into pieces.

Finally, Ozpin and Glynda dropped down as well. "Please continue," said Ozpin, glancing at Yang and Nora.

"You got it!" cheered Nora with a grin.

Nora brought her hammer down on the floor at Yang's feet, triggering her Dust-powered shockwave in the process. Yang dropped right down through the hole that Nora had just made, the shockwave smashing its way down through the next three floors. Yang landed with her right fist upraised, before she brought it down where she landed, Ember Celica blasting a hole through another four floors, just in time for Nora to drop down through the hole with a whoop, slamming her hammer down upon landing.

So it was that the pair of them essentially leapfrogged their way down through the skyscraper. Their friends dropped through the holes they opened, while Ozpin and Glynda took care of the soldiers that boiled forth, like ants from a hill that had just been kicked. In a matter of less than a minute, they'd smashed all the way down to the ground floor. Not needing any urging from Ozpin, Yang and Nora continued.

The farther down they went, the stranger their surroundings became. The first few layers of basements seemed rather normal-looking, seeming to serve as storage spaces. After that, they found themselves breaking through layers upon layers of what was apparently a network of tunnels that ran underneath the building, and many of the others in the area. According to Kyo, Ruby was somewhere a ways underground. The greatest fear that RYNB and the remaining three members of RASP experienced at the moment was that they would reach a point where the basement levels came to an end, leaving them with the choice between smashing their way through several meters of bedrock to reach where Ruby was, or wasting time looking for the actual way down. Neither option was appealing, particularly since the soldiers were even more numerous than before.

Fortunately, as deep down as the room Ruby's location was, it appeared that even the means of one of Vale's Councilmen had their limits. One final slam of Nora's hammer opened a hole to reveal a truly massive open space beneath. Her shockwave knocked several steel supports free, sending them falling to land with loud clangs and crashes, while nearby light fixtures exploded into sparks, several of them falling as well.

The two teams, and their accompanying teachers, landed atop the pile of rubble just created, finding themselves facing a battle to the death.

Ruby and Tyrian were dancing around one another, their weapons flashing blurs, the lights occasionally catching the flat of a blade, punctuated by sparks from their colliding Auras. They fought a lightning speed, exchanging blows too fast for the eyes to follow, flickering from sight one second, only to reappear the next in a different location, before vanishing again. Their battle was one of continuous repositioning as they attacked, blocked, dodged, advanced, and retreated; circling and skirting one another, always seeking a more advantageous position.

Tyrian's style, if it could be called that, was wild and unpredictable, throwing himself into movements that seemed completely uncoordinated at first glance, but soon showed their deadly purpose. He was a dervish, hurling himself at Ruby in whirling, acrobatic moves, striking out with his booted feet almost as often as he did with his wrist-mounted blades. All the while, his stinger-tipped tail lashed out like a striking snake, darting out to hit at Ruby while she was distracted by his other attacks.

Despite managing to keep up with his speed, barely, Ruby was clearly on the defensive. Her swords worked furiously to keep Tyrian's weapons away from her, while her body often seemed to multiply in place as she danced between his attacks, always careful to never lose track of his stinger. She had no idea what kind of poison the venom glands behind that vicious barb carried, and she wasn't keen to find out either. She was hard-pressed. But it was more than her opponent's strength and speed that kept her from finding a chance to strike back.

No matter how hard she tried, Ruby couldn't find Tyrian's rhythm. She'd had difficulty in that before. Some opponents' rhythms were harder to learn than others. Pyrrha's beat was masked behind her incredible skill, while Weiss' methodical, metronomic style had been apparent from the first moment of their sparring match. But Tyrian...Tyrian seemed to have no rhythm. Even when it seemed he was going to go left, he might still go right...or back...or a different direction entirely. He would be in the ideal position to strike with a slash from the blades on his right arm, only to instead pivot his body to swing a foot around at her in a roundhouse. There was no pattern to his movement, no matter how hard Ruby tried to find one. Normally such a lack of rhythm indicated a lack of control and skill. But, in this case, it was clear that Tyrian was anything but unskilled.

At the moment, she was far too busy keeping her opponent at bay to even think about the arrival of her friends, only barely managing to notice them, despite them dropping in in a most spectacular fashion. The tiny flicker of relief that sparked within her was quickly overridden by Tyrian's furious assault.

"Ruby!" shouted Yang, immediately rushing to her sister's rescue. The others weren't far behind her.

However, they came up short when the mountainous form of Hazel interposed himself between them and their beleaguered friend.

"Out of my way!" shouted Yang, leaping and throwing a furious punch at Hazel. To her shock, the man raised his bare forearm, Ember Celica's flames washing over the man's skin to no effect, not even singing the hair on his arms. Her shock was quickly replaced with worry when Hazel shifted his blocking arm, his hand moving to snag Yang's forearm in a tight grip, the metal of her gauntlet creaking under the pressure of those meaty fingers, before Hazel bodily flung her away, throwing her directly into a charging Nora, knocking her over.

Ren and Blake followed in Yang's wake, drawing both their weapons and slashing at Hazel, while flanking him on both sides. Hazel quickly raised his arms, the edges of their weapons glancing off the Aura that armored his limbs. Ren continued to press the attack, while Blake left a Shadow behind her, intending to skirt around Hazel and go help Ruby. However, Hazel's left hand lashed out with speed that belied his bulk, closing around Blake's trailing ankle as she tried to jump past him. Swinging her around, he used Blake's body like a club, slamming her directly into Ren, and sending the pair sprawling.

Then it was Weiss and Pyrrha's turn. Pyrrha led by throwing her shield for Hazel's head. The man's response was a backhanded blow that knocked the metal disk aside. When his arm had finished crossing his field of vision, he suddenly had a view of Weiss, thrusting Myrtenaster straight at him. Opening his hand, Hazel caught her thrust with his open palm, the tip of her sword failing to even break his skin. Weiss pulled the trigger on her rapier, and Hazel was abruptly engulfed in a torrent of flames.

Those flames seemed to do nothing though. Hazel was unfazed. Instead, he stepped forward, the flames flowing over him seeming to engulf his fist as he punched out at Weiss, sending the heat of her own attack right back at her. Weiss called up a Glyph to launch herself back, smoking slightly from the fire. Pyrrha charged in in her wake, thrusting with Milo in its javelin-mode.

Hazel effortlessly caught the shaft of Milo, preparing to either wrench the weapon from Pyrrha's grip, or use her hold on it to throw her aside. However, that was abruptly stopped when Akouo returned from when Hazel knocked it aside, the shield arcing in from outside his field of vision, flying straight for the back of his head. Hazel pulled on Milo. Pyrrha, desperate not to relinquish her grip on her weapon, allowed herself to be pulled with it. The consequence was that Hazel used his grip on her weapon to throw her right into the path of her incoming shield.

Pyrrha twisted in midair, her shield turning in its flight so that its curved face was facing her. Her shift allowed her to plant her feet against the shield's surface, while her Polarity held it in place, Pyrrha using it as a platform to kick off of to launch herself back at Hazel. Milo collapsed down into its sword-form, Pyrrha slashing at Hazel, though he warded off the blow with another upraised arm.

Pyrrha landed, and shifted out of the way. Hazel had been turning to continue fighting her, only to find himself facing Jaune, who charged in with a shout, leading with a powerful slash from his sword. The blade flashed a brilliant white, which extended out to form a brilliant crescent of Aura that was Projected at Hazel, whose eyes widened as he crossed his arms to block the incoming attack. The blazing crescent slammed into his arms, and Hazel growled as he strained against the force of Jaune's attack, his feet digging furrows in the solid concrete floor. With a final roar of exertion, Hazel forced his arms apart, shattering the crescent of light. He still wasn't marked by the attack, but the force of Jaune's strike had definitely left an impression.

"No interference," said Hazel, his voice an authoritative rumble.

"Hello, Hazel."

The sound of that calm voice jolted the eight combatants, even as Ruby's fight with Tyrian continued unabated. Team RYNB and the three members of RASP all flinched at the sudden reminder that Ozpin and Glynda were with them. There was nothing particularly remarkable about what Ozpin had said. Sure, it indicated he recognized the man who stood in their way. However, given his long history fighting Salem, that was hardly a surprise anymore. His tone was normal, completely devoid of hostility or tension, as though he were simply starting up a casual chat.

The reaction his words provoked from Hazel was far more dramatic. Hazel's entire body went still for a moment. HIs pupils dilated, then contracted. His hands clenched so tightly that they began to tremble, the muscles of his arms suddenly standing out completely underneath that bronzed skin. His jaw clenched as well, lips curling back to bare his teeth, a look of fury, so intense and powerful that it was almost elemental, appearing on his face.

"Ozpin..." he growled, his voice a low rumble that almost seemed to make the air itself shake.

The students parted, allowing Hazel to face down their Headmaster directly. Ozpin stood before the enormous man, hands resting atop the handle of his cane, composed and completely at ease, almost as though he wasn't expecting a fight at all.

"I see your grudge still holds strong," noted Ozpin, his voice dispassionate, almost sorrowful.

"Ozzzzzzzpiiiiinnnnn...!" snarled Hazel, taking a step forward. The stomp of his foot shattered the concrete beneath it.

Ozpin didn't move, even as Hazel began to advance on him, murderous intent oozing from every pore on the man's body. "You always forget yourself in your anger," he said calmly.

"I'll kill you!" snapped Hazel, pulling his green jacket off his shoulders, revealing the black shirt underneath. "Every time...!" Reaching up with his left hand, he ripped off the right sleeve of his shirt, baring his arm almost all the way up to his shoulder. "Over and over again...!" His right hand reached up to do the same to his left arm. "No matter what shape you take...YOU'LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

Behind Hazel, Ruby and Tyrian clashed, locking blades, both of them pausing momentarily, Ruby gasping as she felt the intense, contained flame of Hazel's rage suddenly burst onto furious life, completely suffusing itself into his entire being.

"Yes!" crowed Tyrian. "The beast is finally loose! That poor boy really needs to learn to let go more often!"

Ruby growled, gritting her teeth as she glared at her opponent through their crossed blades. Tyrian let out a maddened giggle, and the two of them strained against each other, forcing themselves apart, disengaging. Touching down, they flashed towards one another again, their battle resuming in earnest.

Meanwhile, Hazel reached down to the pouches at his waist. Opening two of them, he pulled out a handful of yellow Dust crystals in each hand. Raising them up, he haphazardly jammed their sharpened points directly into the skin of his upper arms. Crackling arcs of yellow electricity danced across his skin, yellow light illuminating the veins beneath, spreading both down his arms to his hands, and up his shoulder his neck, reaching his face, yellow lights beginning to flicker from his eyes.

"Is he insane?!" gasped Weiss, horrified. "There's no way a person can just...inject themselves with Dust like that! He'd be crippled from the pain alone!"

"Unfortunately, pain is not something that Hazel experiences easily," said Ozpin calmly. "Leave him to me. The rest of you need to help Ms. Rose."

"Ozpin..." his deputy began to say.

"That means you too, Glynda," said Ozpin.

Glynda frowned, unhappy with leaving Ozpin to fight by himself. The students experienced a similar sense of trepidation. Hazel had been a towering obstacle, even before he'd suddenly decided to enhance himself with Dust, taking all their attacks without a single scratch. At the same time, though, it was apparent that Hazel's hatred for Ozpin, whatever lay at its root, completely trumped everything else, including whatever objective he'd previously been assigned. Given that Hazel was apparently happy to completely forget about the rest of them for the chance to throw himself at Ozpin, it seemed that leaving the man to their Headmaster was the best option.

"Fine by me!" declared Yang, smacking her gauntlets together. She and the others prepared to rush right past the fuming Hazel and head to Ruby's aid.

Abruptly, Pyrrha's eyes widened as she heard a series of familiar sounds behind her. "Look out!" she shouted, turning in place.

She activated her Semblance on reflex, a wave of black energy washing out from her. Suddenly, Pyrrha and the others found themselves facing a veritable wall of bullets, brought to a halt by Pyrrha's Polarity. After a few seconds, Pyrrha released her Semblance's hold, allowing the bullets to drop to the ground.

The soldiers that had been infesting the levels above were now dropping down, cables descending, armed and armored men and women rappelling down them. They were accompanied by black, metal bodies.

"Androids," growled Yang.

"Looks like we've got more company," observed Nora unnecessarily. "What do we do now?"

"We help Ruby," declared Jaune. He looked to Ren. "Can you guys on Rainbow keep those soldiers and robots off of us?"

"We will," agreed Ren.

"Then the rest of us will go back up Ruby," said Jaune, trading nods with Ren.

"Right...let's do this," said Yang, turning to face the incoming troops. "You jerks are gonna regret messing with my sister, big time." She smacked her gauntlets together for emphasis.

With that, the battle was joined.

Tyrian's fighting style is really hard to get a proper grasp on, which I think is more than half the point, as that's a practical matter as much as it is a stylistic matter from a choreographic standpoint. That makes writing fight-scenes that feature him...tricky to render in a blow-by-blow manner.

Hazel, on the other hand, is a lot easier to write, given that his fighting-style is way more straightforward. More importantly, his canon skills and abilities gel pretty well with the Aura-mechanics of my setting, which upgrades his threat-level. Ability-wise, Hazel has a lot in common with Indara, from my Crimson Eyes story, which was mostly written well-before the events of Volume 5 revealed how Hazel's fighting style works, although Hazel uses Dust, which gives his attacks a bit more variety.

Of course, this time, he's not up against Ozpin in the body of an undertrained boy, but Ozpin in his previous body. Granted, we don't really get a good picture of Ozpin's fighting ability in his previous (Volume 1-3) incarnation, given that the most we get is a scant few seconds of his fight against Cinder in the final episode of Volume 3. But it's safe to assume he was a good bit stronger in that form than he was in Oscar's body, during Volume 5.