RWBY Sharingan Chapter 71: Forward March (Patreon)

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

In quick succession, dust mines laid out across the field separating the settlement from the distance forested kills, went off, the powerful explosions wiping out collections of Grimm. Moments later, gunfire, both from automated turrets and wall mounted weapons manned by others, was let loose, the darkened night lit up by the sudden bursts of light, the airborne Grimm their main targets. More joined in, those among the countless huntsmen lining the wall with long ranged firearms picking off what they could.

Faced with a ceaseless wall of gunfire and explosions, yet the outpouring of Grimm hadn’t stopped at all, their advanced only slowed. It was like watching a blot of darkness march forward, the only thing giving them away as separate creatures being their white bone armoring and the red glow of their eyes which seemed all the more ominous now.

Cinder clenched the handles of her swords tighter.

Talon had disappeared from view, flying far past the fighting.

If it were anyone else, she would’ve assumed they were fleeing all on their own, but he had to be up to something. Maybe using his weapons to thin them out from the rear or trying to draw some of the horde away. She doubted either of those plans would be effective but whatever he was up to, he’d be back to throw himself into this reckless fight.

“We’re really going to have to go down there, aren’t we?” Emerald muttered, a slight tremble to her arms. She may have adjusted to Grimm but that sea of them wasn’t anything like the smaller attacks they’d helped fend off on other settlements.

Mercury’s eyes were narrowed and his arms crossed, staring up in the direction Talon had left in rather than the horde they could be face to face with soon.

“Only after the others.” Cinder reminded her, looking around.

Left, right. The entire wall was lined with every able bodied fighter here.

A lone airship had been sent off long before the attack started to get aid from Argus but between the cautionary evacuation effort that had already been put in place and how all that combined firepower was failing to do anything other than slow the Grimm’s advance, it was clear to everyone here that if something didn’t change they’d have to head down to fight themselves.

But she had no intention of placing them fully on the frontlines. Once all these huntsmen joined the battle, if they all did, they follow their lead and keep careful watch of all things were going as a whole.

The moment things looked like a lost cause with no signs of Talon on the return, they were abandoning this fight.

XOXO

A cave.

A thump filled the air as I landed in front of it, swords coming back together to form my full blade as it floated into my hand.

I glanced over my shoulder.

I’d cut through my fair share of Grimm, exclusively focusing on apathy where I could. I hadn’t been subtle either, flying low enough to be well within the reach and sight of Grimm. And yet none had followed after me, only attacking if I were directly in their path. Not a single one had given chased once I passed the massive horde either.

I doubted it bought them much time but as long as the worst of the apathy’s oddly powerful effect didn’t reach them, they should be able to hold off long enough for me to deal with whatever was in this place.

I turned back to the cave.

All that dark energy, coming together to form much thicker trails of darkness, went deep inside, pointed to whatever was behind all this unusual activity being in here. And the weight of the apathy’s presence was all the stronger for it, that dark energy turning upon me.

Shaking it off, my aura took on familiar icy blue, a trio of whitish-blue glyphs forming in the mouth of the cave.

Mom, Qrow, and Summer.

Recreations of them, made entirely of the same icy blue color of my aura, rose out of the symbols, accompanying recreations of their weapon drawn.

“Kill everything.” I ordered.

The recreations of Mom and Qrow shot forward immediately, disappearing into the cave. The replica of Summer looked over her shoulder, glancing at me past the frosty corner of her hood before following, axe clenched in both hands.

Taking a step forward, I lowered myself into a similar sprint and followed after them, ignoring the weight of the oppressive darkness attempting to surrounding and press itself upon me.

XOXO

“And…we…got it!”

Releasing the hold I had on the old wooden wagon, I stepped back, Summer doing the same, the wheel she fixed into the place holding firm. After testing it by having his horses pull him forward a bit, the old man we’d come across carefully pulled himself out of the wagon to thank us.

Given what we were going to do, I would’ve stopped the charity right here.

“What are you doing this far out on your own, anyways? Don’t you know there’s bears in these woods?” Summer asked, serious despite the stupid joke. Of course she wasn’t going to leave well enough alone.

“If only bears were all we had to worry about.” The old man chuckled a little, Summer’s friendless quickly lowering his guard. One sad story about some destroyed settlement and him being unable to afford to hire anyone to help him retrieve the remains of family that might not even be there anymore and we were sitting in the bed of his wagon, help provided free of charge.

“What with that look?” Summer asked, raising a brow at me.

“What are you talking about?”

“That little mask of yours might be hiding your eyes but the rest of your face is like an open book, you know.” She reached over, messing with the small black mask I’d fashioned to rest over my eyes. “So come on, go ahead and say what you want to say.”

“We’re in the middle of something.” I said after glancing past her and at the back of the old man. He wasn’t paying us any mind, busying himself leading his horses along the dirt trail while humming a tune to himself.

“That we are.” Summer said, pulling her hands back. “But we’re still finishing up some last touches. That leaves us with more than enough time to help someone in need.”

“And if Mom calls us back?” I asked. “You’re just going to leave him?”

“Nope.” She admitted. “But that’s not going to happen.”

Arrogant. There was a time where I never would’ve thought to associate a word like that with her but the way she operated out on missions, be they actual standard huntress business or what we we’re up to, just screamed it. She went around helping anyone and everyone that needed, a busybody that stuck her nose in everyone’s business even if her own wasn’t wrapped up.

It’s how she’d always been according to Mom. And it apparently always worked out for her.

Even so, acting like that kind of luck would last forever was arrogant, plain and simple.

“You never complained about this kind of thing before.” Summer said.

“Those missions were different.”

“And you think that’s enough reason not to help someone?” Summer questioned, shaking her head. “If I only ran around helping people when it was easy and convenient to me than I wouldn’t be much of a huntress, would I?”

I couldn’t help but glare at her.

“I’m saying that we’ve got more important things to focus on than someone else’s problems.” I already knew how this was going to go. No matter how many Grimm showed up she was going to waste her energy protecting this man, going as far as to use her eyes if need be. “He knew what he was getting into when he stepped out into the wilds. We should be saving our energy for the fighting we have to do, not wasting it over something like this.”

“You really do sound like your mom sometimes.” Summer reached over again, ruffling my hair. “Good.”

Whatever she meant by that, we kept moving along with this foolishness.

I understood wanting to help people when she could, it was the kind of person she was, but putting so much effort into helping some stranger when everyone else, the people she actually knew, would be counting on her to be at her best didn’t make any kind of sense.

Choosing strangers over her own family at every corner. I hated that about her.

XOXO

My sprint slowed to a more cautious jog.

The weight wasn’t just wearing down on me anymore. It was actively disrupting my ability to control my aura. Anyone else would’ve struggled to maintain a shield by this point but mine stayed perfectly stable.

However, the summons I’d sent forward using Willow’s semblance had gone far, separating into different directions as they cut down anything they found in the cave. Normally distance wasn’t a problem when I used this part of her semblance, but the apathy and their power was a problem for that, the three of them fading away.

I was getting close to what I was searching for, the dark shadows almost one dark centralized gathering of energy that twisted and turned around these dark craggy caverns.

I just had to keep pushing forward.

XOXO

I raised a foot, bits of wet sand crumbling off my boot.

This whole place was unnatural.

The shitting water behind us were nasty red that sometimes appeared nearly as black as the Grimm. The ground itself wasn’t far off, only a few shades lighter and oddly mushy, even the parts that were untouched by the waves not far off from more a sickly mud. And the sky was an off putting dark red too.

If Salem was anywhere on Remnant and not in some separate realm created by magic like the vaults, this was the place.

I kept my shortsword at the ready, eyes jumping all about. The others, Mom, Qrow, and Summer were all just as on guard, their weapons ready.

“It really is like we stepped into a whole different world.” Summer said, stepping forward.

We were here to scout not fight.

That’s what Summer said.

Mom and I could both open a portal. Getting out of here if something went wrong or this really was where Salem bided her time should be as simple as grabbing those and turning tail out of here.

I stilled my shaking arm.

Hopefully we didn’t see her at all.

XOXO

I should’ve told her more.

I shouldn’t have trusted her.

I should’ve-

I swung my blade, cleaving through a pair of apathy ahead of me. I did the same to the others, switching to Mom’s semblance and forcing myself to pick up the pace as I continued cutting them down.

Just keep pushing forward.

XOXO

I pulled my blade out of the neck of a Beringel, pushing its hulking gorilla like form aside to fade with the rest.

Taking deep breaths, I looked around as I wiped blackened blood away from my face.

The others had finished up, the corpses of countless fading Grimm laid out across the rocky red ground.

The Grimm here were old and powerful. Beowolves were smarter, trying their best to use their numbers to keep us separated. The strongest and biggest Grimm almost exclusively singled me out, trying to crush me beneath their sheer size and power the moment they caught sight of me. Grimm typically known for being more ferocious even in old age were more tempered about it, striking at the worst times.

“If you’re struggling, leave.” Mom ordered, glancing my way.

“I’m fine.” I muttered, finally getting my breathing under control. I’d read about the continent before. No man’s land. Grimm island. The Final Destination. People like to call the place plenty of things depending on what they had to say about it, but stories and accounts all shared the same belief.

This place wasn’t meant for people.

“What was all that, Tally?” Summer asked, looking my way with grin, axe laid across her shoulder. “Have you been holding out on me when we fight? I never seen you move so quickly. It’s like you knew-“

My eyes snapped upward.

A griffon, a type of airborne grimm that could be more trouble than a nevermore, was dive bombing from straight above, bursting clean past the range of telekinesis.

“Move!” I shouted, jumping back, Summer already moving to do the same.

Rather than splitting off after either one of us, it crashed right into the ground, reddish dust thrown up. Hand thrown up to shield against the debris, I kept my sword ready with the right. Why would it-

Sword brought up with both hands, I blocked a pair of curved blades that pressed down hard into mine.

“A mere boy?” Golden eyes. A sadistic crackle that couldn’t come from anyone sane. “No man would dare intrude here yet a boy does? How ironic.” I shifted my weight and he did the same, trying to throw me off balance as his stinger came shooting forward. It scrapped the corner of my mask as we separated.

The others were already moving to rush forward but more diving Grimm joined his sudden arrival, the man that landed across from me, rising to his full height, the hood of his shifting as he gazed down at me.

“Tearing into such a bold child should be entertaining. For a little awhile at least.” He said through another crackle that left a pit in my stomach.

XOXO

Apathy lined the walls.

Some had their heads twisted in odd positions that no human could manage. Others were hunched over, showing off the boney spikes that trailed up their backs. Dimmer, brighter, the glow of their eyes differed from one another.

They all stood completely still as I trudged my way into the final chamber of these spiraling tunnels, every eye focused on me but none daring to come forth or reach out to me with those thin freakishly elongated arms of theirs.

They were waiting.

The moment I faltered, the moment I hesitated and their numbing presence prevailed they would move forward.

But for now, after watching me cut down so many others, sword still at the ready, they acknowledged that their presence didn’t affect me the same way it would any other, my aura shield still up.

Reaffirming the grip I had on my sword I trudged my way forward, ignoring the ominous creatures in favor of following the immense trail of darkness to its center. I could still cut open a portal and apathy, the only thing that’d been in this place, weren’t strong or quick. Retreating would still be easy.

The weight on my shoulders seemed to intensify with every step but I kept at it. One foot in front of the other. Slow and steady.

The tunnel ended.

An…amalgamation.

I wasn’t look at one grimm, but many, all apathy, balled together by this strange darkness. The stuff keeping them together almost appeared to be almost appeared to be a fire made from pure darkness, twisting and morphing more wildly than any flame I had ever seen.

What laid at their center was not another of the apathy.

A glowing red crystal, surrounded by a white armoring in the shape of a budding flower rested at the center of the ball of Grimm.

A Nightmare?

It didn’t matter. Killing it took priority over figuring out whatever this thing I was looking at was.

I took a step forward.

That foot gave out on me and I dropped to a knee, the weight all the combined apathy brought with them soul crushing.

And they didn’t waste a second, advancing from the walls and raising their thin hands as they slowly approached, all of them coming together to form a wall of darkness.

XOXO

A crimson blade cut into the one headed for my side, a kick sending Tyrian tumbling away across the redden ground. A quick slice opened a portal beside me.

“Grab Summer.” Mom ordered. “I’ll grab Qrow. We’re leaving,”

I paused then turned on my heel shooting into the portal, the cold sensation washing over me.

Powerful semblances at my fingertips. A Sharingan. And knowledge of him. I had it all on my side and I still struggled to land a decisive blow on Tyrian. If I managed to kill him here how much trouble could I have averted in the future? If I had a stronger body to go with all that I could’ve-

My feet landed on rocky red ground, eyes widening as a wet sickening squelch reached me.

Pale skin. It went beyond deathly pale, the skin a pure white that crossed the threshold into inhuman. Yet it was a human, or at least something close to human, that wore that skin, a pitch black dress covering her form.

“A boy?” Her voice was low and disarmingly soft, but it echoed within my head alongside my rapid heartbeat as my eyes dropped from the unnatural glow of her crimson eyes and the pools of darkness that surrounded them, down to her arm.

Blood coated part of the dress’s short sleeve.

More blood leaked off her elbow.

Her forearm and hand were drenched in it.

Summer, limp and motionless, hung by the neck from her grasp, wide silver eyes staring into mine. A hole, bloodied and leaking, was just below her stomach.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see straight. I couldn’t even hear, whatever Summer’s moving lips were trying to force out lost on me.

My mouth open, a hellish blaze overtaking my eyes as black flames erupted to life and swallowed Salem whole, tortured screams filling my ears.

XOXO

(A/N: I’m sure it was obvious by his sudden ability to see energy produced by Grimm, but Talon wasn’t exactly rocketing the normal Sharingan this chapter but he also wasn’t just using some random ass pull semblance either. And to no surprise, Summer and Salem had everything to do with him unlocking its next form. The MS is going to be pretty special in this story naturally so I’m looking forward to exploring it more even it’s use will be far more measured compared to the three tomoe one.

Also, it only took 71 chapters but we actually get our first look at the big baddie. I definitely, 100%, mean baddie in the evil way and no other.

That aside my car trouble continues and I’m sure many of you must know how many cascading issues suddenly not having reliable transportation is when you live in a area with horrendous and or nonexistent public transportation. My scheduling for everything is pretty pushed back since I have to rely on other means to get places.

All that’s to say, I’m still going to be trying to hit my three a week but I’ll be honest, don’t expect a powerstone goal for extra chapters for awhile. Also, yes I know, I owe you all an extra chapter. I’ll keep it in mind for the upcoming weekend but I am asking for a bit of leeway until I solve my real life issue first. My writing time is effectively neutered since I have to leave early and plan around other people now which I can’t believe is happening when I’m revealing Salem of all people, but it’s just the way it is.

Car trouble is a bitch.

Thank you all for you’re understanding and I hoped you enjoyed reading.

P.S. Yo? Is this my longest chapter yet? Fitting that it has Salem's first real appearance in it.