Chapter 92: Chapter 87
I picked a leaf from a nearby tree, looking at it for a moment before tossing it away. Nothing too spectacular about it, not that I was expecting anything different. It was surprising how many worlds seemingly evolved in such similar ways. I'm pretty sure this tree had a corresponding twin back on earth somewhere, at least enough on the surface to be unnoticeable of either world's habitants.
Even the grass didn't look anything impressive, but I did grab a sample of dirt and added it to a little baggy for later.
"Oh, oh!" Ruby shot infront of me. "Are you taking samples back to your mothership for later!?" She looked at me expectantly.
"Yup, my gramps wanted samples from this world." In for a penny, in for a pound.
"Y-you don't need samples of people....right?" She shrunk down slightly.
I couldn't help but smile at her antics. I wondered if Kunou would be like her in a few years? "I'm not here to kidnap anyone." I shook my head with a small laugh as something caught my eyes in the distance. "What's that?" I pointed over towards a clearing.
Ruby's head snapped, eyes squinting. "Beowolf!" The words barely left her mouth as her form disappeared, leaving behind a small outline of rose petals.
"What an excitable girl." I muttered, looking where she burst off to. I saw the metal contraption on her back, which I was assuming to be a gun, transform into a very large Scythe. "Okay then." I just blinked as she swung around a weapon larger than herself.
A couple more of these 'Beowolfs' stumbled out of the woods, running at her. She slid under their attacks with ease, using the momentum of her own swings to weave into the bodies of the creatures, easily dismembering them.
They felt to the ground, dissolving into nothingness.
Curious.
I tapped my chin, taking out the notes the old man gave me about this world.
"Grimm, was it?" I scratched my head, trying to make sense of what Zelretch wrote.
Some kind of malevolent constructs that populate the world and are inclined to seek out and kill people, seemingly completely ignoring animals. Zelretch wasn't sure of their origin, nor of how they 'exists', so to speak.
Something to look into.
There were a few drawings to go along with what he wrote. Apparently, they all have these weird bone protrusions all over their body, also each have these bone masks on their faces, otherwise their bodies are almost completely black with weird red markings.
"All done!" Ruby appeared next to me again.
"You're pretty good."
"Uh huh, I'm going to be a huntress." Ruby nodded happily.
"You have a lot of wasted movements though." I idly commented, writing a couple things in the margin of the notes I was given.
"What?" She looked at me with a little surprise on her face.
I could see through her combat style at a glance. "You rely too much on being quicker than your opponents, your attacks had a lot of flair, but you had too many openings. If you were to go against an intelligent opponent, someone used to fighting people, you would probably lose as you are." I walked over to a nearby tree and found a good length branch, giving it a few swings I nodded to myself. "Come at me." I ushered her forward.
"Wait, you want to spar? With a stick?"
I just smiled, turning around, I filled the stick with my magical energy and swept it against the tree. Her eyes practically bugged out of her head as the large object began to fall out with a clean cut through its trunk.
"How did you do that!? Was that your semblance?" she practically shouted. "Wait, do Aliens have Aura? Do they have souls? Wait, is it rude to assume that aliens don't have souls? Am I being accidently Racist? Yang said I need to be careful about that."
"You can assume it's my semblance." I just nodded, more amused than anything at her ramblings. I honestly wanted to pat her head, but I refrained. "So, come, try to attack me."
"Alright, but tell me when your Aura gets low I don't want to hurt you." She pulled her weapon out and it shifted from a gun-like object into a full on Scythe again. Almost lackadaisical with her attention, as if she didn't see me as a threat and this was merely for fun.
"Well, Miss Huntress, are you going to attack or not?" I lazily leveled my stick at her.
That got her attention, as she moved quickly at me, petals showing her advanced speed activating. It didn't look like she was taking me seriously as she used a blunt part of her weapon to sweep at me.
I stepped forward, raising my stick up and piercing right towards her shoulder. Her entirely attack got stopped, she was lifted off her feet and knocked back several yards.
Curious, a red shimmering barrier appeared over her, stopping me from making contact. I actually put more force into it than I intended to test its actual strength.
I flipped open the book again, turning to page I recalled.
Ah, was this the 'Aura' I heard about? She did mention something about that as well. The power of the soul made manifest...or something like that. Seriously, Zelretch's notes are really fucking vague. Kinda feel like he did that on purpose to mess with me.
"Oww." Ruby stood up rubbing her shoulder. "I felt that through my Aura."
Hmm, maybe I should hold back a little bit. "Again?"
Ruby shook herself off, standing back up. "I'll get you this time." She took a stance, somewhat better than before, like she was taking this moderately series. Granted, I didn't know much about wielding a Scythe, but her legs were steady, and she had a solid center of gravity.
She moved, her scythe sweeping towards my torso, she used her whole body to spin the large weapon at me.
My stick made contact, acting like a wall as it blocked her blade. But she apparently anticipated this and her scythe shifted slightly, acting more like a glaive, twisting it around she used her momentum to continue her assault. I met each of her attacks with the slightest movement, while she danced around me with huge sweeping attacks, I merely flicked my stick to block.
The petals around me started to pile up, and I notice that she was only 'sprinting' in straight lines, it made following her movements even easier, if I couldn't already see them easily from before.
She had a good rhythm going, and against one of those 'grimm' creatures it would have been a sufficient strategy, alas..... "Yield." I stepped forward, disrupting her entire movement, placing my stick at the nape of her neck.
She blinked, looking down. "You're good." She whispered "Only Uncle Qrow is able to beat me that easily."
"You're simply not used to fighting other people." I tossed my stick to the side.
"Yeah." She pouted, refolding her Scythe back into its compacted form and putting it away on her back. "But I want to be a Huntress! To fight Grimm and be a hero, I don't need to fight people." She beamed.
I really didn't want to kill that innocence she had.....so I held my tongue. "It seems you can only use your burst of speed in straight lines too."
"What? Noooooooo." She looked away awkwardly. "What gave it away?"
"You only moved in straight lines with it." I laughed. "Keep practicing, you'll be able to overcome that limitation in the future." I smiled.
"Hmph, I keep practicing until I can beat you." She Huffed. "But that was so cool!" She quickly changed her tone. "How did you do that?"
Her attitude was really contagious. "I trained with a good teacher." I smiled happily, thinking of Scathach again. The memories were becoming less and less bitter as time passed, but I still missed her something fierce.
"Aww, I can't wait until I can go to beacon."
"Is beacon a school?" I hazarded a guess as we continue on through the forest.
"Oh I forgot you aren't from 'around here'" She said with the subtlety of a dragon. "Beacon is the best huntsman school in Vale. My dad and Uncle Qrow went there, and my mom too!"
More to mentally file away.
"Theres my home!" She hand gestured towards the end of another clearing.
It wasn't what I was expecting, but it looked rather homey. A large, log cabin with a few others in the distance. And a bit further away, I could vaguely see something resembling a town with some buildings that peeked over the treeline. "So, as grateful as I am....is it a good idea to lead a stranger to your home like this?"
"I'm supposed to help people." She smiled brightly. "And Dad's home, and I'm a Huntress in training."
I just shrugged, different social norms based on how they developed here.
"Daaaad!" Ruby shouted. "I'm home and I have a guest."
"It better not be a boy." Another shout came from deeping in the house.
"Dad!" Ruby shouted in indignation as the sound of footsteps could be heard approaching.
A tall blonde man walked out of a nearby room. He stared at me for a moment. "Hmm....where did I put my shovel? I have the strangest feeling I'll be needing to dig a grave."
I couldn't help but have my lips curl up, he seems fun.
"Dad! Stop being mean, I'm not a child." She puffed up. "I'm going to tell Uncle Qrow."
"Fine, fine" He held his hands up in surrender. "Go get your Uncle, he should be sleeping off a hangover.....somewhere."
"Uhgg, alright." She pouted. "I wanted to show Qrow the Alien anyways." She disappeared in a burst of petals.
"Ruby" He turned and shouted in the directions he ran off to. "I said no semblance in the house, you're cleaning these up when you get back!" He turned back towards me. "An alien?" He eyed me suspiciously. "Is that some kind of pick up line the kids are using these days?"
"Your daughter has an active imagination, so I just played along." I shrugged.
"That girl." He sighed in exasperation. "So, who are you and why shouldn't I be actively be looking for my shovel?"
"Oh gods, will this be how I react when my daughter starts dating?" I couldn't help but thinking about that and shuddered. "Sorry to ruin your fun, I don't have those kind of intentions, besides, she's a bit young for me, I prefer older women."
The man let out a laugh. "Taiyang Xiao-long." He held out his hand which I shook. "Everyone calls me Tai."
"Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg." I returned the greeting. "Your daughter was kind enough to lead me here after I got a bit loss after a Semblance mishap."
"Semblance mishap?" He eyed me.
I just shrugged, choosing to be vague. "She is quite excitable."
"She gets that from her mom." Tai smiled. "So what's this about being an Alien?" He raised an eyebrow, clearly wanting to know the joke.
"Lots of colors in the sky, fell down and landed infront of your daughter, ergo Alien." I summarized.
Tai snorted. "She gets into the weirdest situations." He laughed.
"Well, at least she can handle herself." I pointed out taking a seat as he gestured to a chair. "Took care of a handful of Beowolfs with relative ease."
"A handful?" He rubbed his chin. "How far away were you?"
"Eh, less than an hour out? Ruby would know better than me." I scratched my head.
"I'll need to talk to some people." He sighed. "We usually keep the grimm really thinned on the island, a group of Beowolfs isn't really a huge red flag....but regardless, especially this close to town." He shook his head. "So what're you here for? Not many people visit patch just to visit. Basically its where us old hunters retire to raise our kids."
"Well, I was intending to go to Vale, but well..." I lied through my teeth, using terms I just learned minutes ago.
"Semblance mishap." He nodded. "How does that work?"
I thought for a moment, taking my hat off and reached inside, taking out an apple, tossing it to him.
Could more or less guess what a 'semblance' was at this point, was just going to pass of my use of 'space' as my 'semblance' for now. No idea if this would work, but it was worth a try.
He seemed surprised, staring at the piece of fruit and down back at my hat. "Oh.....cool."
***
So alot of people don't know about RWBY, i'll try to add enough exposition when it matters, but the MC is new around here so he'll be learning things as he goes as well. I have another chapter planned for the day, but I was also considering throwing up a Character sheet, so don't get annoyed if you see that assuming it's a new chapter.
Anyways, if you want to read 5 chapters ahead or support me, visit my pat.reon.com/astoryforone.
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