They waded through the odd combination of blood, filth and water. Slowly the enveloping darkness engulfed them, allowing only the senses of hearing and smell to guide them. However, a little witch knows how to cheat.

"The od is being released just up ahead." She says perched up on his shoulders, the only bastion from the unholy muck underneath them. Her eyes closed, her staff's head rested on her forehead as she concentrates.

"Remember the plan, just protect me so I can close it."

The person she is using as refuge simply nodded with a grunt, his armour as black as the darkness around him. Although robbed of his sight, he was still aware of his surroundings. Oddly enough he could not hear anything and the cave they were in was deathly still. Still, he remained on guard as the brand upon his neck was bleeding profusely, a painful sting reminding him that they were still in danger.

"Stop, it's just ahead. Can you feel that cold air?" The little which asked and indeed the black swordsman can feel a chilling breeze upon his face.

"You're going to have let me down here so I can do the ritual…" She says with disgust and the black swordsman could understand. With her height the muck reaches up to her shoulders. As he lowers her down, he could hear her retching and a small smile unwillingly comes to his mouth.

"Just…urgh…make sure nothing attacks me." The little witch says weakly and she points her staff to where the cold air is blowing from. She begins her ritual, muttering under her breath and her eyes closed leaving her completely defenceless. The cave seems to react to her presence, her spell and her guardian begins to hear water sloshing in the distance.

"They're coming." He says but his warning falls on deaf ears as she is entranced in her own spell. He unsheathes his sword from his back, the mighty blade that was as long as him and as thick as his waist. He waded a little out, away from the little witch and waited for the first of the beasts to come to him.

He felt the filth violently rippled nearby him and the sound of gurgling and he struck at it, a horizontal slash and felt his weapon struck. The old familiar feeling of blood and flesh peppering his face. Another monster just a second after the first leapt up at him, a wet sounding growl exiting its jaws. The black swordsman reacted fast, using his metal arm as a club to beat the creature back down into the muck and swiped down with his sword straight into the beast.

A moments reprieve allowed him to quickly assess the area. He could hear more beast coming his way, many more. Normally this would not worry him but now he has to protect the little witch and he was certain that the monsters' attention was fixed on her. He gritted his teeth and reached into his pocket pulling out little spiked balls with fuses. He struck the fuses causing them to be lighted, concentrating on the noises encroaching upon them.

"Three…two…" On two, he threw the balls to the closest mass and after another second they exploded rewarding him with gurgling screams. In the instant the bombs exploded, the cave lit up allowing the black swordsman to see the oncoming swarm of monsters. Giant apes from the look of things with pink flesh protruding from their fur and their faces covered with many eyes all from various creature. A vision from hell of which the black swordsman was used to.

He pulled down the hand on his metal arm, revealing the weapon which it hid. He listened and estimated the largest mass of apes and pulled the rope, firing the cannon. Again he was greeted by the death throes of the creatures. In the flash of light, he witnessed a few of the beasts which snuck up to him in the darkness, only a couple meters away. Using the recoil of the cannon, he swung around as the creatures that were close leapt and cleaved them in half as they were in mid-air.

The blast still ringing in his, he couldn't hear creatures running past his towards the little witch. However, he felt the ripples of water and he leapt towards them with a roar and swung his blade vertically, crushing the monster at the same time cutting it into two. He jumped again towards the second one, spinning to slash down on it. The blade easily cut through its flesh, cutting its head off.

"Not enough." Something rasped in his brain, "You will fail to protect her and she will die among this filth, eaten alive and ripped to pieces because you are too weak. And when that happens, you'll succumb to me."

He grits his teeth, blocking out the images of the little witch's death and ignoring his inner beast and his fear. He turns to face the hoard; a small shiver runs through him as he acknowledges that he will lose her if he fails.

Suddenly the little witch gasps breaking the swordsman concentration and he whirls around, thinking he missed one, that she was attacked and he had failed.

"Guts! I can't-the opening is growing and it's going to swallow us whole!" She screams. They run at each other and the black swordsman picks her up and throws her around his shoulders. She wraps her arms around his neck and quickly mutters something from under her breath and vines crawl from under her sleeves, wrapping around each of her wrists effectively making herself a second cloak.

"Here it comes!" She gasps as the cold air seemed to swallow them. The creatures that were swarming them suddenly disappearing. The ground changed from the water being at waste level to thousands, millions, an uncountable amount of skulls that stretch as far as the eye could see. The sky was blood red and he air was cold, stagnant and an overwhelming feeling of dread overtook both of them. Memories flooded back into the black swordsman's mind and he gripped his sword harder.

"This…we have been swallowed by the plain of death. Guts, your brand is going to attract every single one of the creatures that reside here to you…"

"What can we do? How do we get out?" He asks, voice hoarse as he hears screeches of monsters in the distance.

"We…I don't know. I'm so sorry I can't get us out. You- "She choked down on a sudden sob, "You're going to have to fight until we can find another opening like before. I'm so sorry you always have to do this" she shook on his back as fear and helplessness overtook her. He gazed back at her, and patted the back of her head.

"It's okay. I'm used to it. If I'm forced to use this armour, I need you to keep me sane okay? Get ready they are coming."

And so they fought together, creatures of nightmares relentlessly attacking the pair to kill the man that was promised to them. For 38 hours they fought, injuries mounting on the black swordsman and even the little witch had a laceration down her left arm as a creature clawed at her. Only for minutes at a time they could rest. A couple of times they were forced to use the black armour to fight. However, at the 38-hour mark, the black swordsman could no longer go on. Never had he fought so much in his years of being hunted and now his mighty sword began to become too heavy for him to swing.

"I'm sorry." He gasps as the little witch on his back cried softly. "You're going to have to keep me sane as long as you can. I can't keep fighting without using the armour."

"But it'll kill you" She said quietly but knew herself that they were as good as dead anyway if he didn't use it. He didn't respond but the wolf-like helmet creeped up his back and enclosed around his head and she closed her eyes as her soul entered the armour. Her limp body hung from the vines she had around his neck. In her astral form she reached out, pushing through the od the armour released and pulled at the evil that surrounded his eyes, allowing him to keep his sanity.

The armour forced the black swordsman's body to keep going, to keep fighting with seemly unending strength but it was slowly killing him. His muscles literally burning away for each swing, each jump and even every step he took. Ten more hours he fought in this state, dying as he was losing body mass rapidly and the armour simply took more and more away from him but he could not feel it.

Finally, he saw a light, an opening to the plain of life. There were creatures coming in from this plain, new creatures of death. They were all black, mostly humanoid wolves as large as a man. There was also a large bear like creature with white and red plating around the head with white spikes protruding along its back.

He charged forward, cutting down each creature and new hope rising in his chest per swing. The humanoid wolves were basically cannon fodder, doing nothing but running into his blade. However, the large bear creature proved more difficult. It swiped one of its large paws with sharp long claws at the black swordsman's torso. He quickly ducked under it and swung the large sword at its head, crunching down on the head plate and sinking into its flesh. One of the bear's eyeball popped out with some brain matter but it was still alive. It swung another paw, connecting with his midsection and the black swordsman was flung to the side.

"Guts!" The little witch yelped but Gut's felt no damage despite five of his ribs snapping, two puncturing his lungs. The black armour pierced his flesh with spikes and forced the ribs back into place. Still the armour could do little for his left lung and it filled up with blood. The black swordsman coughed and black, non-oxygenated blood came out. He gritted his teeth, the black blood seeping through the gaps and he charged once more at the monstrosity.

The bear roared, accepting the challenge and charging as well. As they grew close the bear swung first. The black swordsman dived towards it, ducked under its arm into a forward roll (muttering an apology to the little witch on his back) and swung his sword, disembowelling the bear as the blade did a long incision down its stomach. Not even looking back to see if that killed the creature, he ran forward into the light.

As he entered, another wolf creature flew at him, jaws opened wide. He thrusted his sword into the mouth taking half its head off. He quickly looked around and saw a green forest with more of these creatures. But they were preoccupied fighting four women, all with contrasting hair.

"Red, yellow, white and black…" He muttered under his breath. They were fighting with strange weapons, some of them making loud crackling noises. The wolf creatures were being felled by them one by one. The one with black hair saw him, her eyes widening and she pointed her strange weapon at him. The black swordsman's instincts screamed at him and he shielded himself with his sword as he felt something recoiling off through his makeshift shield.

He looked from behind the sword to see all the creatures dead and the four, now that he can see were not women but in fact girls, advancing upon him cautiously. The one of the yellow hair said something in a tongue he could not understand to the one with red hair who simply nodded.

"Release the armour." He said to the little which who dragged the helmet off his head as her soul re-entered her body. She went limp, exhausted from her work. As the helmet was drawn off, the black swordsman could feel his own exhaustion. He fell down to his knees, leaning against his sword so he doesn't collapse to the floor. He untied the vines around his neck and caught the little which as she slid down his back. He held her out with one arm to the four.

"Please…please just help her." He rasped and then collapsed, all remaining strength exiting his body and he slipped into unconsciousness.

A.N: So this will be a RWBY and Berserk cross fanfiction. I've already made several chapters ahead and I'll be uploading them every couple of days. I hope you've enjoyed this prologue. Please leave a comment and criticism is wanted.