章 1790: 21
Chapter 21
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"Partners!"
"Partners."
Ruby cheered lightly as she ended up finding Blake in the middle of sneaking her way through the woods (well, she had been sneaking up until the point that she stumbled into a pack of Beowolves)- sure, her new partner wasn't Yang , but Blake was nice and knew a lot about books that Ruby didn't know about and was super cool and had a really pretty weapon even though she really thought that maybe Blake deserved an upgrade and that Gambol Shroud deserved something bigger than 9mm. Like .50 AE, because as good as a sword was, killing a Beowolf or an Ursa or a Boarbatusk was way easier with a really big bullet.
Ooh, maybe she should offer to upgrade Gambol Shroud too- she'd done enough work with Ember Celica and Midnight and Talaria and Thief's Respite and Hush and Harbinger to know how to really give a weapon the works… even if she'd been forced to use something smaller than .50 AE for Thief's Respite, because Emerald said it hurt her wrists to fire something that big.
Ruby didn't really get what the big idea was- Yang fired double barrel 4 gauge shotguns with each punch, and Mercury did the same with every kick (though… his were low pressure Dust bullets that he directed with his aura)- but if Emerald wasn't going to be able to use her own weapon, then she'd shelve the big bullets for now, even though Emerald seriously needed more stopping power- Hallucinations wouldn't stop grimm, and although she approved of Emerald's choice in wielding twin kamas like Uncle Qrow's idol… she was kinda dainty. Or, at least, she was before she'd entered Beacon.
Ruby figured Emerald had learned the value of not skipping arm day by now.
"So… I figure you have something to do with that ringing noise going on," Blake spoke quietly, her voice tinged with both curiosity and amusement as her bow twitched vaguely in the direction of the temple, Ruby's ears also moving in that way as well. "Also- how did you kill all of those Beowolves that fast? I've… never seen anything like it."
"Oh, practice! Lots and lots of practice! Since I was six, really," Ruby chuckled, twirling Crescent Rose and folding it up into its inactive state as she tucked it away on her back again. "That, and Crescent Rose is chambered in 38 mm autocannon rounds. And is an ultra high impact sniper scythe."
"... I'm sorry, did you just say autocannon?" Blake asked, ears going flat against her head and taking the bow with it as she tried to comprehend the image of a girl who was barely over five feet tall wielding a scythe that was larger and probably heavier than her, chambered in a size of bullet that was more akin to gunship or mecha territory than something that was supposed to be used by a human. "That's… absurd. Why do you even need that much firepower?"
"To kill Goliaths."
"... I… see."
"Look, it's always better to have more gun and not need it than need more gun and not have it," Ruby defended her baby, flicking Crescent Rose into her arms and cradling it like a baby as she recalled the pack of Beowolves she'd scythed through like a combine harvester through wheat. Or like a blender through a particularly mushy carton of raspberries. They hadn't lasted long- they'd been drawn in slightly by Blake's overall tension as she tried to sneak past, but the subsequent flare of panic and her yelp of surprise when she'd gotten attacked had drawn Ruby's attention.
And.
Well.
She now had a lot more grimm mass stored inside of her- and she'd even done it in such a way that she'd been able to store the masks properly for maximum gain too! She would have preferred eating them literally, but… whatever. Blake didn't need to see that yet.
"Well… I suppose I can't argue that. By the way- you never said… what did you do to make that ringing sound? It's good for orienting, but it's… annoying to listen to," Blake muttered, wincing a little as she adjusted her bow and tried not to pay too much attention to the warbling chirping ringing sound that was coming from seemingly a few kilometers away.
"Oh! Special tracker bullet!" Ruby answered, bouncing slightly as she pulled out another tracker bullet from her ammo pouch and held it up for Blake to see. "I made 'em back when I was like…. Thirteen, I think? In case I had to track something far away but I didn't have a scent to follow. It's a low impact, high velocity round that has a little ringer in it that gets moved around by the Wind Dust I added into the bullet. They're a little pricey since Dust prices have been going up but it's not like I need that many at a time so hand making them is still pretty viable."
"You hand make your own bullets? That's… quite the achievement. Even I- er… I knew people who were in unfortunate situations, and even they still used standardized mass production bullets when they could resupply," Blake huffed, continuing to walk alongside Ruby rather casually, the two of them making good time towards the temple in the distance. Far off, Ruby could hear the distinctive sound of Ember Celica's oversized shotguns roaring, as well as some other gunfire. Also, the distant roar of an oversized Nevermore. That was never a good sign- usually the only ones that got that big were the really angry ones.
"Well, y'know… Uncle Qrow always did say it's better to learn how to make every part of your weapon by hand in a pinch- that's why I always keep a bunch of Crescent Rose's spare parts on me at a time! Also, tools to fix up other bits too. It won't fix a complete breakage but… my Semblance helps with that," Ruby chuckled a bit awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head as she flicked Crescent Rose out into its full scythe form and folded it back down again as a fidget mechanism, trying to impress Blake a little with her repertoire of skills. "Oh- right! What's your Semblance? Mine's pretty complicated but I call it Grimm Rose… it's… messy and kinda related to why I wear grimm bones."
"You don't have to explain it if you don't want to," Blake murmured, ducking her head slightly as her ears twitched. "Semblances are personal… but mine is called Shadow. I can make clones to take hits for me and help me dodge attacks, as well as imbue them with Dust as an attack. What does Grimm Rose do?"
"... I eat Grimm and manifest their parts and attributes… also I can kinda… explode into rose petals and move super fast? It's… complicated," Ruby sighed, slumping slightly as she explained the most basic parts of her abilities, then decided to maybe offer Blake a little more trust than she needed to as she fiddled around with the shadowy goo of her insides and pulled and-
"What the fuck!?"
"I can… also store weapons inside my body," Ruby cleared her throat awkwardly as she pulled Augury from her chest with a series of horrible squelching and cracking sounds, her entire rib cage seemingly ripping itself out before the damage healed over and left her with her other scythe in hand- though it was still folded up into its inactive form. "It's… I worked on a lot of weapons as a kid, so… yeah. It's… nice to have access to a lot of spares in case I get disarmed."
"... Right…" Blake mumbled, seemingly a bit taken aback by the sudden display of gruesome ability, wincing a little as Ruby flipped and twirled Augury out into its full scythe form and showed it off.
"But yeah, this is Augury. She's… actually a refurbishment of my Uncle Qrow's old weapon," Ruby explained, holding up the scythe and shifting it back into its bastard sword configuration. "His was called Harbinger, by the way. Augury here's got upsized shotguns, a straighter handle, some extra alloys and functionality for my combat style, and also has my own rose symbol on it, see?"
"I… see… um- hey, do you hear gunshots? I think they're getting closer…" Blake pointed out, interrupting Ruby's weapon spiel as her bow perked up and she looked around, unsheathing Gambol Shroud and holding both the sword and the bladed sheath at the ready as the two of them found their way into the clearing barely a few hundred meters right before the Temple- the cliffside they had to return to no more than a kilometer in the distance. "If we grab a relic and run, we should be able to avoid any kind of fight that the others bring with them- they're getting awfully close."
"... We could do that…" Ruby nodded, then pursed her lips as she readied Crescent Rose in rifle form. "Or… we could do what Huntresses do and slay whatever monster is giving my sister trouble!"
"... How do you know it's your sister?"
Ruby snorted. "Blake, I worked on all of my family's weapons, I know what sound Ember Celica makes- I practically built its current iteration."
"Ah."
And that was when Yang, Weiss Schnee, Pyrrha fucking Nikos , and that Jaune guy came flying out of the woods- apparently hurled out by a brutal claw swipe from the absolutely ancient Deathstalker that came crashing out moments later.
And then both Nora and some black haired boy (with a pink stripe in his hair) in green came falling out of the sky after having apparently used a Nevermore as a taxi to the temple.
Well then.
Ruby readied Crescent Rose, slotting in one of her 38mm Dust rounds- high ex, armor piercing, extreme fragmentation, ultra high impact- and chambering it with an utterly threatening Ka-Chunk.
This promised to be an interesting fight.
Or not.
KRA-THOOM!
Notes:
I want you to imagine the loudest gunshot you've ever heard. Now multiply it by ten. Now multiply it by ten again.
That's a big fucking bullet, is what I'm saying.
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