Episode 3: Chapter 2: Retreat

Chapter 2 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

Blake sliced through a small pack of Ursas on her way across one of the few cliffs that connected to Beacon. All the airships were down, and there was no way she was going to find a boat to get her close enough to the school. As she got closer, she was able to recognize her friends fighting in the courtyard. Yang and Nathan were teaming up to take down a Griffon, while Pyrrha was running a Creep through with her spear. She couldn’t see many of the others yet, but that didn’t stop her from leaping towards the courtyard and slicing an incoming Nevermore in half. As soon as she landed, she saw Weiss rushing towards her with an ice glyph at the ready. Leaping over Blake, she stabbed a King Taijitu right in the head, causing it to dissipate in a split second.

            “Are you all right Blake?” Weiss asked offering her a hand up.  “What happened back there?! How did you get out of the coliseum?”

            “Ruby pulled me and Miles out before it collapsed.” Blake said as she got up.  “She’s taking him out of the city now while we try and finish the fight. Where are the others?”

            “Ren and Nora are over near the amphitheater fighting off several other hordes of Grimm with Coco and the others. Natalie and Evan ran off with Sun and Neptune to try and secure the dorms and get people out. Yang, Nathan and myself have been busy trying to make sure no more Grimm get into the school. With all these monsters, the White Fang, and whoever these new soldiers are fighting alongside them, we’re vastly outnumbered.”

            “That’s never stopped us before.”

            “Hopefully it won’t stop us now. You ready to keep going?”

            “Honestly, I’m amazed we managed to talk for this long.” They both then rushed towards Nathan and Yang to begin fighting off even more monsters.

 

 

 

 

As Ozpin looked out over the chaos, Goodwitch and Beanie rushed in.

            “Professor Ozpin! What should we do?” Beanie yelled.

            “Protect the citizens. They are the one that are in harms way right now.”

            “But what about you?” Before Ozpin could answer Goodwitch, the other elevator doors exploded open, and in walked Mortem, with his sword at the ready, and dark energy steaming off his hands.

            “Imagine; merely a fraction of your sister’s power is enough to get me all the way here Ozpin. I look forward to claiming the rest.”

            “Fool. You would risk an apocalypse out of a lust for power? I will never allow it. Not while I live!”

            “Frankly Ozpin, you were never going to survive this.” Before Ozpin could react, both Beanie and Goodwitch had rushed forward to begin fighting Mortem. Ozpin raised his hand in warning, but before any words could leave his mouth, Mortem created a giant dark energy shockwave that knocked them on their backs and caused all the windows in the room to shatter. Beanie was the first one to get back up, and he quickly rushed towards Mortem, pulling out some water he was keeping in a bottle in his backpack. Forming it around his arms creating swords of water, he rushed forward and began clashing with his opponent. Mortem simply laughed as he parried the attacks from his opponent.

            “I hate it when people I completely outclass try to fight me. So how about you just leave us be?” With one quick motion, Mortem knocked Beanie back and sent him flying out the window. Goodwitch tried to catch him with her telekinesis, but Mortem forced her to defend herself from a few dark projectiles, leaving Beanie to fall to the ground below.

            “You monster!” Goodwitch yelled as she picked up a bunch of debris and threw it at Mortem, which he deflected away with his sword.

            “All you are doing is helping me get closer to what I want.” Lord Mortem said with a smirk.  “So I don’t mind this slight distraction.” Ozpin, finally regaining his footing, rushed forward as well and helped Goodwitch try and take down Mortem. Realizing that he was outnumbered, Mortem quickly summoned an Ursa into the room to try and split the attack. Ozpin backed off from fighting Mortem to quickly impale the Ursa right through the chest. But as he turned around to try and fight Mortem again, three more Ursas were standing in his way. Meanwhile, Goodwitch was clearly starting to lose her ground against Mortem. She would try throwing several pieces of debris at him, but he just simply sliced through everything she threw at him. Finally, when she tried to throw the remains of Ozpin’s desk at him, he simply grabbed a large chunk of it with one hand, and threw it right back at Goodwitch. Reacting quickly, she stopped the piece of rubble in mid-air, but in that split second, Mortem rushed forward slicing through the debris, and landed a blow that knocked Glynda to her knees. She got right back up, but then was met with Mortem crushing her throat and raising her into the air.

            “You fought well Glynda Goodwitch. Unfortunately, that isn’t enough in the long run.” As he said this, he completely drained her aura. As soon as he finished the deed and dropped her withered body to the floor, Ozpin let loose a scream that caused the roof of the tower to fly off into the night sky, sending large pieces of debris to many corners of Remnant.  Some launched skyward, never to be seen again.  Mortem turned to observe his new foe, and he saw that Ozpin was now covered in a green flame. Not truly an aura burn, as it seemed the flames seemed to be physically empowering him instead of just being a visual representation of power increase like a traditional aura burn.

            “I will kill you for this.”  As Ozpin said, the floor cracked due to the sheer power he commanded.  Mortem simply smiled and slowly walked towards his opponent.

            “A pity that your vengeance will never come to fruition.”

 

 

 

 

Natalie did a spin attack to take out a horde of Boarbatusks that had started to surround her. After she finished that attack, she ran over to Evan, Sun and Neptune who were staring down an incoming wave of Grimm.

            “So what do you think?” Evan asked.

            “Well, it might be a bit problematic if one more shows up.” Sun said flipping his hair back.”

            “Well then that’ll be the one I have to take care of.” Neptune said morphing his weapon to blaster form.”

            “What? You’re fighting too?” The two of them laughed at Sun’s remark and got ready to advance as soon as Natalie arrived.

            “What did I miss?” She asked as she set her weapon down in a sniper position.

            “We were just discussing how to take down all these stupid enemies and look cool while we do it!”  As Neptune said this, he pulled out his Scroll and snapped a picture of himself with the Grimm behind him.

            “Neptune, I don’t think now is the best time for trying to create the perfect scenario for your next profile picture….” Sun said pinching his forehead.

            “But It’s been almost three hours since my last profile picture update! My fans probably think I’m dead unless I let them know otherwise!”

            “I think the rest of the world has more to worry about than your profile pic dude.” Evan said. “And so do we unless we actually start moving towards taking these creatures out!” But before they could advance, all of a sudden a bunch of debris and the top of Beacon Tower came crashing down, crushing the horde of Grimm in front of them. Leaping out of the way of the falling debris, they surveyed what had just happened. Then Neptune pulled out his Scroll and took a quick picture.

            “Really dude?”

            “C’mon Sun. It’s not very often that you’re going to see something like this every day!”

            “Enough gawking!” Natalie said turning towards the courtyard. “We still have work to get done!”

 

 

 

 

Nathan grabbed one of his clubs out of the air after hitting a Nevermore right into a giant ice spike that Weiss had created, forcing it to dissipate as soon as it collided with the ground. Meanwhile, Yang and Blake used the bumblebee technique to knock over a bunch of Beowlves like bowling pins. Suddenly, a giant Beringel leapt from the cliffside and created a shockwave from its landing, knocking everybody back a few paces. The creature beat its chest and let out a giant roar, but then was cut short by Nora bashing it in the head from above and Ren slicing its knees. It wasn’t enough to destroy the monster, but it bought everybody enough time to form up as a group and for Natalie and her group to join them as well.

            “They just keep coming!” Nathan said in frustration as his aura burn started glowing a reddish-orange.

            “Stay alert. This could get tricky.” Natalie said reloading her weapon.  As they rushed forward to begin fighting the creature again, the ground started to shake. Dark clouds began swirling above Beacon tower, and all the Grimm stopped what they were doing and roared towards the darkness. Not sure how to react, everybody started cutting down the Grimm one by one, but not even that fazed them. They continued to cry out to whatever was going on atop the tower.

            “What’s happening?” Nora yelled.

            “I don’t know, but I’m not letting this opportunity slip away!” Yang yelled punching a hole in one of the Nevermores.  “We can take down the more powerful Grimm before they stop gawking at whatever’s going on up there!”

            “I’m not sure that’s the best course of action right now!” Pyrrha yelled. “Yes, all the Grimm are distracted, but we still have the human soldiers to deal with, and I don’t think that they’re going to run away when some big powerful darkness appears like last time.”

            “I’m with Pyrrha.” Weiss said as she sent a fire attack towards a small pack of Grimm. “This is radically different from when Cinder attacked us a year ago. She was very cinematic about her attack and what she was trying to do.  This is more like a declaration of war, and we aren’t ready for what we’re facing now or what we might end up facing if we stick around to see what is causing all the Grimm to ignore their basic instincts.”

            “What do the leaders think?” Blake yelled as she sent out an energy blade to knock down an incoming troop of White Fang soldiers. “They’re the ones who should be making the decisions.”

            “I agree with Pyrrha.” Jaune said.

            “I vote skedaddle.” Sun chimed in.

            “As much as I hate to run, we should get out of here.” Natalie said as she fired a few rounds towards some faraway Grimm. “But where to we run to?”

            “Ruby said she was taking Miles back to Patch.” Blake said as she put her weapon away and started heading for the airship docks.  “She told me to let Yang know in case we needed to head that direction.”

            “Yeah, I know where we need to go.” Yang said as she started running ahead of Blake to try and find an airship.  “I can fly one of these things. I’ll get us to Patch no problem.”

            “Wait!” Evan yelled. “We should try to get as many allies as we can out of here as we can!”

            “He’s right!” Weiss said as she started chasing after Yang. “ If we can get a small band of friends together, we can figure out what is really going on and come back stronger than ever! Besides, with an airship, we could find other fighters in other kingdoms and come back to take down this army!”

            “Enough talking! We’re wasting enough time as it is!” Natalie yelled as she launched herself towards the rest of her friends as they began running. All the while, the dark clouds above Beacon tower continued to churn.

 

 

 

 

Mortem stabbed his sword into the ground as he continued to skid towards the edge of the tower. Before he could collect himself, Ozpin was already pressing forward, landing several blows that almost sent Mortem over the edge. However, with a controlled step back, he leapt over Ozpin and landed on the opposite side of the room across from the summoning circles.

            “Give up Mortem. I have defeated my sister at full power eons before you even got a taste of the strength your mistress possesses. I don’t know how she managed to create a communication portal between this world and hers, but I will never let her servants bring her back so that she can eradicate the human race!” As soon as Ozpin finished saying this, Mortem broke out laughing.

            “Fool. Who said anything about joining her?”

            “What?” But before Mortem could respond, a giant pillar of darkness shot up from the center of the room. Lightning shot out high in the sky, and all the Grimm simultaneously roared, and the entire sky turned black. When the pillar faded, in the center of the circle was Salem, kneeling on the floor with the power of darkness practically oozing from her body. As she got up, she waved her hand in the sky, causing energy balls fell from the sky and landed on all the different Grimm down below. Encasing them in darkness, it seemed like they had become more of a liquid, without any physical form whatsoever. Then, with a snap of her fingers, from the pools of darkness rose ten more Grimm in the place of the one that had been enveloped. On top of that, these Grimm clearly were much more powerful than any other recorded Grimm in history. And as soon as they emerged, they immediately began to attack any nearby humans, be they White Fang or otherwise.

            “I would suggest madam Salem,” Lord Mortem said falling to one knee, “to keep your mindless creatures from attacking those who made it possible for your return.” Salem turned around and looked straight at Mortem.

            “And you are?”

            “Zenoma Mortem, master of the Order of the Four Seasons. I am the one who instigated this worldwide revolution to create enough negative emotion to blur the lines between our realm and yours.”

            “And here I thought Cinder had finally gotten all the other pieces in place. Tell me human, what did you hope to gain out of bringing me back to the realm of light?”

            “To be honest my lady, perhaps a chance to rule beside you.” Salem laughed as Mortem said this.

            “Foolish human. Do you really think that just because you have a piece of my soul dwelling within your being, you are my equal?”

            “Far from it my lady. Like I said, I wish for a place to rule by your side. The humans will answer to me, and I in turn will answer to you. As a token of my good will, I will give back to you the piece of your soul that you left in this world.” As he said this, Mortem extended his arm and let the dark power of the dragon flow from his body back to Salem. Salem embraced the gift with a smile, and continued to laugh while Ozpin looked on in horror.

            “You have done well human. However, I don’t plan to rule this world, but destroy it.”

            “What?”

            “I don’t need to explain my reasoning to somebody who is about to die.” With a simple flick of her wrist, Salem sent Mortem flying out over the edge of the tower and plummeting down to the ground below. As she began walking over to where he fell to confirm his death, Ozpin jumped right in front of her and released an energy burst, knocking Salem back a few feet.

            “Don’t forget about me sister.”

            “Ha! Your failure is complete brother! The humans have risen up to claim our power all for themselves! My point has been proven and all I had to do was sit in the dark realm for these past few eons!”

            “Salem, you are only seeing a small piece. You didn’t see when the children I have trained stood against one of your emissaries to protect the world you say they wish to destroy. You haven’t seen how they responded to certain situations regarding racism and fear. You haven’t…”

            “All I see right now Ozpin is humanity tearing itself asunder trying to claim the power of our father. Even before I embraced the dark realm, there were warriors who could stand tall in your ideals. But they all faded away. They all became just scattered petals lost in the flames of war.”

            “Never. Not while I’m still here.”

            “Well you won’t be here for much longer.” With that said, the two of them clashed, Ozpin using his cane and Salem having summoned a blade made of pure darkness. The two of them traded blows, each strike created a huge burst of energy that shook the sky. And it was never one sided. One minute Ozpin would be laying down several strikes on Salem, causing a bunch of dark energy to be expelled from her body, then the next minute Salem would be landing blows on Ozpin, causing light energy to be expelled form his body. However, when Ozpin attempted to lean in for a strike, Salem grabbed his arms, and ran him through with her blade, causing Ozpin to collapse in a heap on the floor. As he lay there, his body gave off a bright light and the wound was instantly healed. But before he could get up, Salem started crushing him with her heel, laughing manically while she did so.

            “You know, I’ve always pictured what it would be like once I finally got out of the dark realm and returned here to kill you. So many different scenarios and fantasies played in my head, but I never guessed that this would be the end result. That foolish human really did me a favor. Cinder would have only toppled Vale if she managed to bring me back, but the scheme of that mortal means that your world is already falling apart and will make it that much easier for me to destroy it!”

            “Please Salem. There’s more to this than you think. Mortem was planning on world domination. I don’t think he’ll stop here.”

            “He’s dead Ozpin. Stop trying to prolong your death with petty fears of a mere mortal.” Suddenly, in a single instant, a sword impaled Salem, causing her to cough up blood.

            “What do you know, you do bleed.” Salem turned her head to see Mortem standing right behind her, holding his buster sword in place right in her back.

            “But…how…I killed you!”

            “Unlike your followers, I always know where mine are and what they are capable of.” As soon as he said this, Lord Aeris floated up on an air current and was carrying with her two aura containment modules.

            “That technology….” Ozpin sated as he backed away slowly and in shock.

            “Yes. Courtesy of the highest technicians of Atlas. You know their capabilities Ozpin, and your sister here is about to die, so I won’t bore you with the details.”

            “It will take…more than a simple weapon to end me human.” Lord Mortem chortled at this as he removed the sword and put Salem in a chokehold.

            “You have no idea what I am truly capable of. And that was what lead you to your demise.”

 

 

 

 

As the airship took off, everybody on board started strapping themselves in except Nathan. As he looked out the side door, he noticed a giant flash of light coming from Beacon tower. Then seconds later, a burst of energy rocked the airship almost causing Nathan to lose his balance.

            “What’s happening back there?” Yang yelled from the cockpit.

            “I’m not sure, but I think it was a good idea for us to regroup. I don’t think we’re out of the woods just yet.” Nathan said as he sat down.

Author's Note

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Reviews

[Shep]

A bag of chips and cold soda end I am ready to watch this story unfold. Awesome chapter love the battle again the details are amazing it puts me right there. Moving on to the next chapter. Please be kind and return the love.