RWBY: Dark/Blood

Cinder's gaze quickly shot around the battlefield, eyeing each of her potential opponents. The closest was the girl with the hammer, so Cinder decided she would be first to feel her rage.

Cinder spun, her swords extended, in a whirling cyclone of blades as she charged Nora. Nora yelped as Cinder brought the blades down towards her. She raised her hammer and blocked the swords with the handle, each blade landing less than an inch from her fingers. Nora glanced down at the swords and how close they had come, then looked back up at Cinder's face. Little worried or concerned the battle-hardened and sadistic Huntress, but the look on this rebel's face was full of such rage and determination that it scared her. Nora pushed Cinder off of her, only for Cinder to immediately retaliate with a series of swings. Nora held her hammer up to block each of the blows, adjusting her position as Cinder struck harder with every swing and pushed her back.

As Nora raised her hammer to block the next swing, Cinder suddenly raised her leg and slammed her foot directly on Nora's defense, then kicked hard. The kick pushed Nora backwards and caused her to slide across the stone. Towards the end of her slide, her heel clipped a raised area of the stone, and she fell backward, landing on her bottom with a grunt and dropping her defense. She glanced up, and saw Cinder raising her swords and preparing for a kill.

Though Ren considered letting Cinder finish to finally rid him of Nora's nuisance, he decided that this would potentially be the only time Cinder would be open and rushed in to attack. He slid silently across the ground, noting that he was attacking from the side without an eye.

However, Nora saw Ren rushing to attack, and that was all Cinder needed. She saw Nora's eyes glance away from her and look behind her. While Cinder could not hear or see her attacker, she still knew where he was.

Cinder whirled around, crossing her swords in an "x" shape in front of her and ducking behind them. Ren struck her blades first, their two sets of weapons clanging as they met and skidding Cinder back more than three feet. Ren's angry eyes met her own, and they simultaneously pushed off of each other. Ren began lowering his guns to fire, but Cinder was not about to give him the opportunity. She pointed her blades at him and rushed forward with a battle cry, forcing him to react or be impaled. Ren leapt out of the way, and Cinder raised her sword right into his jump. The tip of the blade stuck itself into the side of Ren's torso and cut all the way down his body as he flew through the air, with the blade finally exiting at his waist. Ren shouted in pain and crashed down to the ground, immediately grabbing his side and squeezing the bleeding wound.

Cinder stared over at her injured foe, then heard the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching. She quickly turned her head to see Pyrrha running towards her, her neck still bloody.

Blake did her best to try and keep away. The Huntsman and Huntress that were fighting the Reaper's maniac had managed to knock her away, but the maniac had found a new target: her. Blake jumped backwards as Yang lunged at her, chomping her teeth and screaming in hysteria. Blake raised her blades and jumped at Yang, intending to remove her head. Yang, however, heard Blake's foot strike the stone to begin her jump, and ducked down out of the way, allowing her opponent to pass right over her. Blake frontfliped back onto her feet, her cat-like reflexes allowing her to ensure her footing.

Before she could even finish turning around, she heard running footsteps and a fierce shrieking as Yang barreled right into her back, tackling her to the ground. Blake was pounded face-first onto the stone, her White Fang mask striking the ground with an auditory crack. Blake rolled over onto her back just in time to see Yang leaping into the air above her with another scream. Yang landed on her, causing Blake to gasp for breath as the girl's body collided with her abdomen. Yang sat on top of Blake and screeched, thrusting her head down to bite at Blake's exposed neck. Blake grunted, then threw her blade up horizontally into Yang's path. Yang bit down on the blade when she made contact with it, growling and snarling through her rotted teeth. Blake fully expected the maniac to release the sharp blade, but Yang began thrashing, trying to pull the weapon from Blake's hand. The sharp edge even cut the sides of Yang's mouth, making them bleed slightly, but Yang did not even seem to notice. Blake desperately tried to regain control of her weapon, either trying to release it from Yang's jaws or shove it down her throat. Neither were working. Blake instead took a sharp breath and heaved, thrusting her body upward and throwing her attacker off. Yang rolled on the ground, but immediately began to get back up. Blake leapt to her feet and glanced around.

This was too risky. She fully expected opposition from the rebels in her goal to capture Adam, but Ozpin's forces? The Schnees? The Reaper and whoever this maniac was? As much as she wanted to get Adam… as much as she wanted to hurt him… she had a job to do. She was the leader of her people, and she was responsible for leading them into a new age. With all of this… there was just too much of a chance of getting killed. Blake decided it would be best if she lived to fight another day.

Blake glanced one more time at her opponent, who was almost up despite not having arms to help her. She saw the dirt and blood and almost pitied her. At least, she would have if she was not human. Blake reached up and adjusted her mask, and felt the crack in the middle grow as she pushed on it. She lowered her hand and, without a sound, turned and ran back into the darkness she emerged from.

Yang got back to her feet and listened for her foe, but could not hear her. She growled as she prepared for an attack, but it never came. Just as Yang was beginning to let her guard down, she heard the clanging of weapons nearby. She turned, screeched, and ran to kill whoever was there.

Jaune raised his shield, blocking as Mercury's weaponized boot slammed towards him. He raised his sword with his other hand, blocking Adam's advancing swing. Both rebels increased the pressure of their attacks, but Jaune pushed both of them back.

"Rebel scum," Jaune growled.

"Murderous swine," Mercury spat.

Jaune swung his sword at Mercury, barely missing him as Mercury bent backwards to avoid the attack. Adam lunged forward with his sword, but Jaune dropped to the ground and kicked Adam's feet out from under him, causing him to collapse hard onto the stone. Adam landed on his tailbone, and winced against the stinging pain as the solid ground struck it.

Jaune lept to his feet, pointed his sword down, and stabbed down at Adam. Before his sword made contact with the Faunus' body, Mercury kicked Jaune in the arm, knocking him back and causing him to skid across the ground, dirt and pebbles flying from underneath his shoes. Jaune grunted loudly, then raised his arms again. His sword arm was fine, but his shield arm ached and stung as he tried to lift it. Jaune dropped the painful appendage back to his side and glanced up at his attackers. Adam got back up, and both men were slowly approaching. Jaune, with all the resistance and strength he could muster in his arm, slammed his shield into his sword.

Adam and Mercury's eyes widened as the shield seemed to morph before them. It expanded to reveal mechanical components within, and spread over the width of the blade, transforming and shifting around it. It then collapsed back upon itself and closed up, transforming the original sword into a wider, longer one with more edges and points. Jaune released the last of the shield before it completed its transformation, letting his injured arm go limp. He held the massive sword in his good hand, and positioned himself for attack.

Mercury and Adam simultaneously rushed him, with Mercury going high and Adam going low. Jaune spun in place, then swung his blade in a tilted angle that repelled Mercury's kick and blocked Adam's swing. He swung the sword at Adam's face. Adam recoiled to avoid the attack, though the tip of the long blade chipped his mask. Mercury prepared to go for Jaune's legs, but Jaune suddenly turned and slammed the sword onto the ground, cracking the stone and shaking the loose stones around Mercury. Mercury jumped back to safety.

As the two rebels regarded their opponent, Mercury suddenly heard a yell. He glanced up to see Nora, hammer raised, above him releasing a battle cry. He dove out of the way as the hammer struck down not an inch from his body, cracking the ground. Jaune took the opportunity to swing at Adam, causing their blades to clash. Mercury got back up and faced his new opponent, who gave him a devilish smirk before swinging her hammer at him.

Weiss had fought many opponents in her life. Some of them were extremely difficult de to their strength, speed, or patterns. While she would never admit it, this "Reaper" she was now fighting easily cracked the top five when it came to her most difficult adversaries.

Weiss struggled to block or parry each of the Reaper's broad swings, each of which were extremely fast and extremely powerful. Her long reach and massive scythe blade made her attacks cover a lot of area, which was difficult to block with a thin rapier. Still, the Reaper had not managed to hit her yet.

Normally Ruby would begin to get annoyed when an opponent held her off for this long, but she had gone so long without a challenge! Most of her victims nowadays do not stand a chance. But first that ice cream girl, now this spoiled brat. Both of them got her blood pumping!

Ruby cackled as she increased the speed of her swings, hoping the Schnee would tire before she did. Every once and a while she let her gaze drift from her target and scan for Yang to ensure her slave had not run off. Ruby checked, and saw Yang rushing to attack one of the rebels, who was locked in a fight with one of the Huntresses.

Weiss took note of her opponent's lack of focus. Right after the next swing, Weiss spun around out of the path of the scythe and stabbed her rapier at the Reaper's heart. Ruby noticed that her scythe was not hitting anything and turned her attention back just in time to dodge the attack, letting it pass by her. Ruby stumbled, but regained her footing a few feet away from Weiss. She eyed her opponent, then laughed.

"I've got to hand it to you, Ice Queen," she snickered. "Most people don't last this long against me." She grinned. "But I need to kill you. Your status will make you a valuable kill. Finally, I get to kill a Schnee."

Weiss scoffed. "Dolt. As if I'd fall to someone as low as you. You're disgusting."

Ruby giggled. "Yeah, I'm pretty nasty, aren't I? But you're delusional if you think you can cheat death just because you have some money and a fancy house. You may be powerful, Ice Queen, but you're not perfect."

Weiss stood upright, readying her rapier. "I'm not perfect! Not yet. But I'm still leagues better than you."

Weiss rushed forward, rapidly striking at Ruby from every angle she could. It was Ruby's turn to defend, as she had to constantly rotate her giant weapon to block the onslaught of deadly swings approaching from seemingly every direction. Their two weapons clashed, and they stared each other in the eyes with fury and determination.

Cinder's swords and Pyrrha's spear clashed in the air, each fighter trying to outmaneuver the other. Cinder swung one of her swords to meet Pyrrha's spear, then swung her other blade below. Pyrrha blocked with her shield. Though she was still fighting hard, she was beginning to feel the effects of blood loss.

As Cinder and Pyrrha fought, they suddenly heard a loud screaming and both turned to see Yang rushing them. Pyrrha, now knowing what the maniac was capable of, jumped out of the way and let her go for Cinder. Cinder swung her blades at the girl, but Yang suddenly dropped to her knees, then pushed off with her feet and rammed her face directly into Cinder's stomach, biting her hard through her clothes. Cinder yelped and threw Yang off of her. The bite did not pierce her clothes or skin, but stung nonetheless and would certainly leave a large bruise in its wake.

Cinder glanced around to her teammates. Adam and Mercury were holding off one of the Huntsman and one of the Huntresses, and Roman was doing his best to stay out of the fray while favoring his wounded legs. She turned her attention to her enemies: the maniac was on the ground struggling to get up, one Huntsman was wounded on the ground, one Huntress was a few feet away from her minding her wound, the Schnee and the Reaper were engaged in their own battle, and the other Huntsman and Huntress were fighting Adam and Mercury.

As Cinder noted the positions of everyone, she suddenly noticed that the path back towards their base was open. If she could just bring down this Huntress she was fighting, she could rally the others and escape. It was almost too easy.

Part of her did not want to do that, though. In fact, most of her did not want to do that. She was finally standing up for herself; she was finally feared. She wanted to finish the Huntress off and then take out the rest of them, ending with the Reaper on the other end of her sword. She almost disregarded the possibility of escape and just went back to fighting.

However, she saw Torchwick struggling to stay out of the way. If there was any time for him to get away alive, it would have to be now. That opening may be gone soon, not just for him, but for all of them. Was it better to die fighting, or live to fight another day? Cinder did not weigh her options for long, as she watched Torchwick seethe in agony and knew what she had to do to protect her group.

Noticing that her opponent looked distracted, Pyrrha rushed to attack. Cinder raised one of her swords to block her swinging spear, then raised the other and promptly struck Pyrrha right on her wounded neck with the hilt of the other. Pyrrha cried out in pain and collapsed, dropping down and clutching her neck with her shielded arm's hand, placing the shield to block attacks from above.

But Cinder did not attack. Instead, she turned on her heels to face the exit, placed two fingers in her mouth, and whistled loudly. Mercury, Adam, and Roman all turned their attention towards her, then nodded dodged one of Nora's swings, then kicked right into her gut, knocking her away. He then turned and ran for the opening. Adam parried one of Jaune's swings, then followed. As Adam ran, he scooped up Torchwick, threw the man over his shoulder, and ran after Mercury. Cinder began to run after them.

As she ran, she heard a snarling from behind her. She turned her head to see the Reaper's deformed maniac chasing after her, maw wide. Cinder raised a foot and kicked the maniac in the jaw, knocking her back. She then sprinted as fast as she could to the opening. She heard the maniac screech and the Huntsmen and Huntresses clamor as she ran, but did not stop. She sprinted until she was back onto the street, directly behind her allies, and dashed away to safety in the wasteland.

Ruby had knocked Weiss back long enough to watch the rebels flee. She would have chased after them if she knew the Schnee would not attack her while she was vulnerable. It then dawned on Ruby that she and Yang were the only ones left that were not part of Ozpin's forces. As arrogant and strong as she was, she knew that she and Yang could not take on all of these opponents at once.

Ruby sneered. She knew she was outmatched, but did not want to run. She could not stand losing… the concept was almost foreign to her. She briefly considered that, if she was going to die, she would take as many of them down with her as she could, but she realized that if she was killed, she would not be able to kill anyone else again. Gone would be the screams of her victims, the gore of her kills, the suffering of Yang… no. She had to live. And while it hurt in every bone in her body to do so, she had to forfeit.

Ruby whistled. "Yang!' she hollered.

Yang stopped flailing and growling and turned to face where her Mistress' call had come from.

"Come on, slave!" Ruby yelled. "We're leaving!"

"Oh no you don't!' Weiss yelled, jumping in with her rapier aimed at Ruby's head. Ruby ducked under the stab, and slammed the handle of her scythe upwards into Weiss' nose. An audible crack was heard, and blood began gushing from the Schnee's nose.

Yang ran to Ruby, and Ruby turned and ran with Yang following close behind. Pyrrha's spear struck the ground near them, but they reached a small brush on the side of the courtyard and both leapt into it, out of sight and rage of the Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Jaune panted as Pyrrha went to retrieve her spear. Nora dropped her hammer and rushed to Ren's side.

"Ren-senpai!" she cried. "Are you okay, my love?"

Ren sneered and pushed himself up. "Get away from me," he growled. Nora disregarded his anger. "How dare they lay a finger on my senpai! I'm going to kill them all after I nurse you back to health!"

Jaune shook his head as Pyrrha approached him, one of her hands holding her bleeding neck tightly.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Jaune shrugged. "They f*cked up my arm pretty good. But I'm more worried about you."

Pyrrha sighed and gritted her teeth. "I'm not gonna lie, this hurts really bad."

Jaune nodded. "Lie Ren's hurt too. I think the three of us should get some medical attention right away."

Pyrrha's eyes glanced over to Nora and Ren, then over to the now sitting Weiss, then back to Jaune. She leaned in and whispered. "This won't go over well with Lord Ozpin, will it?"

"No, it won't." Jaune replied. "But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Let's just get you bandaged up before you bleed out."

About a mile into their run, Yang began to slow down. Ruby rolled her eyes, knowing it meant Yang was calming down out of her violent state and would soon be the weak, slow slave bitch she usually was. Ruby herself slowed down in order to let her catch up (as well as to catch her own breath a bit), until Yang was stumbling slowly next to her. Ruby pulled the chain off of her belt and quickly attached it back to Yang's collar. Yang began wheezing, out of breath, hot, sweaty, and dehydrated. She mumbled slightly.

Ruby was seething with anger. As she walked, she suddenly pulled out and activated her scythe, then swiftly swung it at a nearby tree, cutting through it and bringing it down. She was furious. She figured she'd have to take it out on Yang later.

She stopped walking, and Yang did as well, wheezing and confused as to where she was or how she got there. Ruby clenched her fists.

"F*CK!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

Adam clenched his hand into a fist and slammed it onto the hideout's metal door in a loud knock. Cinder looked around for enemies as Mercury helped Roman. The door's grille slid open, and Emerald's eyes could be seen on the other side. They widened in alarm, then the grille slammed shut. The door unlocked and swung open, and Emerald rushed out. She immediately got on Roman's unsupported side and hoisted him up.

"Oh my gods, what happened?" she asked.

"Too much," Cinder replied. "We'll tell you about it once we're inside. Hurry!"

All five rebels poured into the base. Cinder slammed the door behind her.