บท 129: Plagued Paragon
The one who charged him first crossed their arms over their chest and pulled what looked to be two batons from their clothes, swinging them outwards to extend them as Arthur could hear a slight buzz coming from them.
Arthur lazily watched him, noting that this for lack of better terms, ninja seemed slow to him, especially after his bout with Aster, sighing Arthur raised his arm and blocked the baton using his arm, sending a jolt down his his arm, "Decent voltage, not going to do much to me though" he chuckled, using his other hand to grab the persons clothes to stop them from escaping while raising his other arm, forcing the two batons up and away before pulling them towards himself and sweeping their legs out from under getting them to fall to the floor on their back.
The person quickly rolling away to avoid another attack from Arthur who was waving his arm to get rid of the left over numbness from the electricity, "Whose next?" he chuckled none of them moving as they all began to unsheathe their own variety of weapons, except one who got into a pose low to the ground, Arthur was guessing to either throw something or a hit and run type tactic.
Seeing them all getting serious Arthur smiled, "Might as well get serious myself" he laughed as his a mixture of mist and light particles burst from his body, blinding the six temporarily as blinking cleared their vision to see Arthur standing still in the centre of the field, now wearing a dark sleeveless trench coat, his hair floating in the air behind him and a white plague doctors mask on his lower face, his eye black except for the iris and pupil white were pure white, the Plagued Paragon as he came to learn after it had replaced Cross in his skills page of the Tome
He looked to the six people, deciding which to go for first, soon locking onto the one who was most likely a ranged combatant, that being the one who had brought their body low to the ground ready to throw something or charge him.
The moment he made his choice his trenchcoat began to float behind him, releasing a dark mist that wrapped around his legs, throwing both his hands back longs claws appeared from the tips of his fingers, one of light the other black.
As the mist congealed around his legs it began to fall onto the ground, before just moving his right foot back and grinding it into the ground smashing the ground as he pushed himself forward, his lower body swathed in black mist appearing in front of the person within seconds, not quite as fast as Ruby, but definitely much fast than most other huntsmen and huntresses.
This person reacted in a split second as they hoped backwards just as he appeared in front of him, their clothes being torn as Arthur slashed his claws across their chest leaving four intersecting claw mark in their, or well his as he noticed a slight bulge under her torn top.
Arthur seemingly by instinct duck down beneath a barrage of bullets aiming for his head, his right hand raising up in another direction as a person with knuckle dusters began to attack him, the swirl of light in his hand beginning to grow as a see-through whirlpool appeared from it spinning as it pulled the persons fists in, unwilling to release them.
Arthur smiled as he noticed the one with the batons was charging him once again from behind him, ducking low to the ground Arthur tackled the brawlers stomach, as they were recovering Arthur grabbed their arm and swung them behind him, using the persons body as a shield, the stun baton wielders sticking them in the back causing their body to jolt and fizz as electricity crackled throughout their body, luckily still having an aura which prevented it from getting too dangerous, but still enough so that they were decommissioned as their muscles jolted and became unresponsive.
The baton wielder unfazed by attacking their own ally used their batons to throw the brawler to the side ready to assault Arthur, but finding his batons sweep through the air, barely having the time to look up as the back of Arthur's foot collided with their cheek sending them flying through the air, crashing into one of the walls around the yard.
"Still want to play this game?" Arthur asked the four remaining working ninjas, "Or would you like to keep going until you're all unconscious and the Military specialist up there comes and arrests you all for assault?" he nodded towards Winter who was silently waiting for her chance to intervene.
Three of the wannabe ninjas froze as they turned their heads up the steps of the hall to Winter, shivering at the mere thought of going against her, The only one not caring being the one Arthur had assumed to be a ranged fighter, who was staring at him intently whilst using one arm to keep the shreds of her clothing over her chest, showing obvious anger and hatred to Arthur.
Quickly two of the remaining figures hopped forwards sweeping their two downed compatriots before they all leaped backwards and into the tree line. Seeing them all leave Arthur remained standing staring into the tree line before chuckling and began to slowly turn around, his eyes shut slowly tracking one of the figures that hadn't escaped and was instead watching him once again, the silhouette of dark blue flame placing one hand behind their back before quickly throwing their hand forward.
Arthur's eyes remained shut as he shot his hand up towards the rapidly approaching projectile which he could see had a very faint flame connecting it with the person like a string, most likely their semblance affecting it in some way.
Not even a second after he raised his hand could he feel something cutting into the aura between his finger, slowly he turned his head towards the figure, a large smile on his face under his mask, visibly noting that the silhouette of the woman looked surprised that he had caught it with his eyes shut.
Opening his eyes Arthur looked at the woman, his eyes chuckling as he gave a small wink, causing the woman to shiver in anger as they pulled their arm back, pulling the black knife from his fingers and back into the tree line before it rustled and went silent once again.
"That was fun" He chuckled beginning to walk up the steps toward Willow's new shuttle staring up to Winter who looked displeased that they had escaped, "Don't worry about them, I doubt they'd be stupid enough to try that again" he said to her, his trenchcoat and mask disappearing back into its uninvoked state in his arm.
"Why did you allow them to escape? they are a threat to the citizens of Atlas, they are to be apprehended" she said, returning her rapier to it's sheath.
"They're no threat to anyone with skills like that, they reminded me of Cardin, untrained, and brutish… except the one with the throwing knifes, she actually felt the most oppressive of the six of them" he explained, "Now, as much as I would like to keep talking, I'm hungry"
He walked past Winter towards the door of the shuttle, standing next to it whilst offering Winter to go first, Winter looked around the courtyard one last time, irritance on her face before turning back to the shuttle and silently entering taking the seat next to Weiss, leaving three more opposite them where Arthur seated himself, the door shutting automatically behind them.
"That was quite an interesting fight, and what an unusual ability, are you able to summon that clothing at any time?" she asked, completely intrigued at the mysteries around Arthur, Weiss also curious as to this sudden new ability of his.
"Normally, yes I can use it at any time, but I try not to, I'm sure you've noticed my appetite after the last few days, that, would be the cause of it, using it and well, just being able to do that, hungers me, so yeah, I can use it at any time, but I'd rather not" he explained to them, Willow nodding in understanding.
"Well, we can talk more about it later if you want, but I believe now would be the best to explain to you two about something" Willow turned to Weiss and Winter.
"As I said, I went to a business meeting before the Ball" Winter remained silent whilst Weiss nodded and said, "Yes, where they sponsored this shuttle"
"Correct, because you see, with help from Arthur I was able to come up with a new business, and that meeting was to get my first backer" She began to explain to them, while they both looked to Arthur for how he was involved in this.
"My semblance, I can change the properties of dust, specifically, in this case, gravity dust, turning it into warp dust, like what you saw me use against Ginger and Trill" he said, recollection on their faces.
"Now imagine what would happen if we could create crystal large enough that they could traverse kingdoms and cross seas" Willow's voice oozed her excitement.
"You could travel across the entire world in a matter of minutes, you could have a job in Vale and return home to Mistral in the same day, cargo could be transported instantaneously, specialty products of Atlas could be sold in Vacuo, support could arrive from around the world if any one kingdom is in danger" Weiss's mouth hung open as she began to process the value such a thing could bring to the world.
While Winter's eyes began to shine, "That would be incredibly beneficial to the military, we would be able to provide more support in assisting the other kingdoms in clearing grimm infestations or even dismantling terrorist plots" Arthur as well as Willow squinted as they heard her words.
"Sorry to say this Winter, but if the military, if ANY military even so as remotely wants to use these gates, I will stop providing the crystals and will actively destroy that kingdoms crystal" his voice serious, while Winter's became one of confusion and subdued anger.
"Do you really want to do that? The military would be able to save so many more citizens if we could travel across remnant without worrying over aerial assaults by grimm, bandits, we could gain reports of large congregations of grimm and arrive within hours to exterminate them and rescue any survivors" she reasoned with him.
"No" Arthur bluntly put, "The moment your general aimed his revolver at my head and fired it, is the day you're military lost any amount of goodwill from me" he growled getting shocked looks from all three of the girls.
"He did what!?" Willow and Weiss simultaneously shouted, while Winter looked to be doubting him.
"No, the general would not do that unless he deemed you a threat" She refused to believe.
"You mean like what he told you?" he asked, getting a small squint from Winter, "You expect me to believe that you just decided to put me on your training program because you thought I had 'potential'?" his words coming out slow and calmly, "I'm not an idiot Winter, I can connect two and two together, Ironwood sees me as a threat and you're at Beacon to watch me and see how much of one" Winter found herself unable to retort to him, so she just remained silent
"But no, I am not letting any military man or woman, no military cargo, no robots… no specialists" he leaned forward his eyes locking with Winter's, "No, Ironwood" he mumbled and leaned back.
"I will be contacting Ironwood over this matter Arthur" Willow said, obvious scorn to Ironwoods actions before turning to Winter, "But, I have to agree with Arthur on this, no military is trustworthy" she added, getting only silence from Winter, "The military is loyal to a single kingdom, not others, if another great war ever sprouts up one day, being able to have the entire military invade another country would result in destruction possibly killing millions or destroying entire kingdoms"
"And I will not support anything like that, I do not want to create an asset for war, I want to create something with you girls, something that Jacques cannot touch, something that could save our name from Jacques negligence" Her voice turning impassioned as she looked at her two daughters, "And I want to do it together with you girls, not as a huntress, not as a military specialist, but as my two daughters" she began to smile brightly.
"So, how about it? Would you two be willing to build up our own future, one not connected to Jacques?" she looked to Weiss first, who was still thinking about the possibilities such a crystal could provide.
"Yes, I, this could change everything" she said, a brighter smile than anything Arthur had ever seen on her sprouting up.
"Winter?" Willow turned to her.
Winter looked to Arthur unsure as to who she should believe, her loyalty to Ironwood still weighing heavily on her mind, "I… will assist" she shortly put after a few seconds of deliberation.
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Alternate Chapter names: [The offer, but not a double entendre] [Ninja in Atlas]
Words: 2,357
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