Chapter 61

A week came and went quickly. Mistral was a place where she and Roman had set up quite a few hideouts just in case things went south. As they had, just as Roman predicted.

...Just, not as deep as the rabbit hole went. If it weren't for Cinder-bitch only being the flunky of a much more dangerous person, with power to control the grimm themselves, then they would have run for it.

She didn't care that it was most likely a suicidal thing to do. Once she was sure Cobalt was safe and out of harms way, she would go all in and kill Cinder and then if she got put down by the bitches higher ups, then it was well worth it.

She'd spent a week in the hideout with the best training equipment they had, pushing her muscles to the limit while waiting for Lil' Miss Malachite to find what she wanted. She usually wouldn't have gone all in on strength training, it wasn't really her thing. But she wanted to feel that fire bitches head go crunch between her palms.

She strolled into the bar with a purpose, the noise reverberating through the business halting as soon as she did, just like last week. Roman may be gone, but her reputation still remained.

Not one of these people could take her on, even if they ganged up on her together, and they knew that. They couldn't even take the her of before on, never mind the new her who'd thrown herself into training to murder that stupid bitch Cinder.

Neo made her way to the back where Lil Miss Malachite was sitting, her two bodyguards tense behind her at the sight of Neo, despite how adorably small and cute she was.

Her eyes lingered on the girl of the two. Dusky skinned, curvy, she looked Vacuan. A pretty thing. Cobalt would have been all over her too, not as much as he was over herself of course, but he'd have tried to bed this chick as well no doubt.

The girl noticed her look and flinched a bit. Neo's smile was all teeth. It was amusing that these were two of the top enforcers of the infamous Spider Gang that ran the underworld of Mistral.

'Got what I wanted?' Neo held up her scroll and asked.

Lil Miss grimaced, "...I did," the heavyset blonde nodded tightly, "The Cinder girl, she was spotted out near the Branwen Tribe not long ago, looks like they're forming some sort of team up."

Neo grimaced. That would make things harder. There was a reason she didn't want to fight that Branwen bitch when she was going to kill that blonde bimbo back then. That would make things harder.

'What about Cobalt?' she asked, putting that out of mind for now. She could plan around those problems. Raven Branwen and her little dyke lackey were the only real threats from that tribe after all.

The leader of the Spider Gang shifted uncomfortably, "....I found what he got up to during the Fall of Beacon....you're not going to like it though." she answered, hesitantly, afraid even.

Afraid of Neo's reaction.

'Tell me.' she demanded, narrowing her eyes.

Lil' Miss Malachite sighed in defeat, reaching into her blouse and pulling out a burner scroll before tossing it on to the table in front of her.

Neo reached down and picked it up, turning it on. When the screen lit up, there was already a video file loaded and prepared.

She hit play.

As soon as it turned on, she caught sight of Cinder-bitch, the fat ass Emerald and that smarmy little punk bitch Mercury in a familiar locker room. It looked like one on from Amity Arena, she'd been in a few when she got forced onto their stupid little team for the Vytal Festival.

She wondered for a moment, what these fools had to do with Cobalt. She didn't need to wonder for long though, while the group of three dead twats walking were speaking, the door to the locker room swung open and a familiar boyishly handsome, broad shouldered teenager walked into the room, his hand covering his mouth as he yawned, only to freeze as he caught sight of the trio.

He shrugged, before closing the door and tossing them a wave and saying something.

She saw that fat ass Emerald freeze up and her crimson red eyes go wide. She said something, only for Cinder to smirk and shake her head and Mercury to follow along with a shrug. Neo wished she knew what the hell they were saying, there was no damn audio!

Mercury walked forward, cracking his neck and saying something to Cobalt, who looked surprised, then the older silver haired teen dashed forward towards Cobalt and jumped into the air launching a flying kick straight towards Cobalt's face.

Cobalt's eyes widened for all of a second, before a snarl tore from his lips. Mercury probably expected Cobalt to try and dodge or take a hit from his speed. The peg leg fool obviously didn't know Cobalt like she did.

Because instead of any of that, Cobalt stepped into his kick and took it on his forearm without flinching. She caught sight of Mercury's eyes widening in shock, but had no time to do anything before Cobalt's other hand came up and grabbed him around the shin and spun, slamming him into the wall hard enough to crater it.

Mercury's aura sparked over his form, but Cobalt wasn't done, raising his foot up above the arrogant fool's head, no mercy, preparing to crush his head beneath his boot.

He was forced to disengage though when Cinder came dashing towards him, wielding two massive glowing orange blades, a familiar trail of fire like energy flaring into existence around her right eye.

Cobalt ducked under a slash, stepping back, and then again, weaving between Cinder's series of blinding burning dual slashes. Mercury recovered and sprung backwards across the floor, lashing out with a leg and trying to sweep Cobalt's leg from beneath him.

Cobalt was ready for him, raising his left leg into the air and letting Mercury's leg sweep the right. His left leg came up and kicked off the wall he was pushed back towards and used it to flip backwards in the air driving the heel of the foot swept by Mercury into Cinder's chin and sending her flying back, hard. She crashed into and through a series of lockers, while Mercury pushed himself into a hand stand and lashed out with a spinning kick at Cobalt as he came down.

Cobalt took the hit, deliberately. As the boot slammed into his chest, Cobalt clasped both of his hands around Mercury's legs and then pulled! Mercury's metal legs were not protected by his aura like his normal legs would have been and she wore witness to Mercury's shocked look as Cobalt tore his right metal leg off with pure brute force before pushing forward and driving a knee into Mercury's upside down torso and sending him flying back towards Cinder and Emerald.

While that was going on, she could see Cinder snarling and gesturing angrily at Emerald. The green haired girl seemed to plead with her, but Cinder was having none of it. She gave a frustrated and angry huff, before turning towards Cobalt and staring at him, concentrating.

She was most likely using her semblance. Cinder gave a massive smile and thrust her arms forward at the boy conjuring a massive wave of flame. Only for her smile to be replaced by a wide eyed lock when jumped over it and ran across the wall, avoiding the flames as they roasted the wall behind him and charred it into black slag.

She cut off her flames and conjured her swords again, rising them in a cross block just in time for Cobalt to come soaring at her like a meteor and slam Mercury's leg down at her. Even blocking it, Cobalt's absurd brute strength lifted her up and sent her flying again.

He turned to Emerald after that and said something, only for her to shake her head. She pulled her weapons from where they were sheathed, and hesitated for but a moment, before lashing out at him as she transformed them into their blade form.

Despite her no doubt using her semblance, Cobalt almost easily danced around her attacks, weaving in and out of them, stepping back and dodging here and there, but not attacking back.

That idiot! He was letting that stupid fat ass street rat attack him like that and not hitting her back because he was fond of her!

He was forced to dodge out of the way a second later by a series of wind dust blasts coming from Mercury who pulled himself out of the lockers he'd been tossed through. Neo outright snorted when they slammed into the fat ass bitch and sent her tumbling across the room to slam into the far wall.

Cobalt turned with a snarl and made to lunge at him, only to narrowly dodge back and avoid a flaming scimitar aimed for his face as Cinder came blasting into view again, fire erupting from her feet and propelling her at a much faster speed.

Cobalt grabbed her attacking arm and held her tight, only for her leg to come sweeping around slam into his face like a missile thrust forward by fire from her feet.

Even then, he would have given as good as he got if Mercury didn't come flying through the air like a moron, his single remaining leg extended. Cobalt was forced to not counter attack Cinder and use the leg he was swinging out in a kick at Cinder, to spin and dodge.

He didn't let Mercury get out unscathed though. He spun around Cinder's next slash and grabbed Mercury by the shoulders from behind and pull him back into a rising knee at the small of his lower back. Mercury's eyes went wide and Neo saw spittle fly from his mouth as even his aura couldn't absorb the full force of the blow.

Cinder gave what looked like a roar and shot for Cobalt, only for Cobalt to thrust Mercury forward and make the silver haired idiot headbutt the fire bitch in the forehead and drop her to the ground, hard.

While they were both reeling, Cobalt was not idle and slammed Mercury face first into the ground and spun around his form in the case of Cinder trying to attack herself, only she was still too dazed. A savage grin came across Cobalt's face as he came to a stop in front of Mercury who was on his knee, dazed. He lifted the metal leg up like a golf club and slammed it into Mercury's face, letting go of the metal leg as he did and sending both it and Mercury shooting back to slam into the wall at the far end of the locker room, cratering it and sending debris flying everywhere. Mercury's aura shone over his form, before fizzling and breaking apart as the metal legged tool fell to the floor limply.

As that happened, Cinder finally began pushing herself to her feet, livid fury shining in her eyes, alongside what Neo could well spot was terror. She rose her hands into the air conjuring a fireball that just grew and grew and grew.

Cobalt tilted his head and laughed at her. He wasn't afraid at all. That was, until Cinder turned a sadistic grin on him and jerked her head towards the other side of the room, where Emerald was laying limp against the wall, staring wide eyed.

With a laugh, Cinder turned and thrust her hands in front of her aiming to fire at Emerald! She saw Emerald's eyes light up with terror, but just as the massive sphere of flame was shot forward, Cobalt blurred to the side getting in front of it and thrusting his hands glowing with his aura out and caught it!

For a moment, he actually absurdly held his ground against it before it subsumed him. But, despite that...it never passed by him, only burning into his form and charring the floor black around from him.

It died down a few moments later, and Cobalt's form was revealed, burnt and blistered, his shirt melted away, no aura to be seen on him. Yet still he stood. Neo despite the horror she felt at what she was seeing, felt warm bubble in her core. Cobalt was something else, a complete beast.

Her eyes went wide though when Cinder threw what looked to be a tantrum and thrust her hand out. And...some massive grimm worm thing shot out of her hand towards Cobalt so fast even Neo could barely see it! Its pincer like teeth tore into Cobalt's throat and blood flashed through the air as it pulled back towards Cinder, a massive chunk of Cobalt's neck clenched between its teeth!

Cobalt stumbled back a step, before snarling and lashing out with a rapid kick that caught Cinder in the solar plexus before she could react. She gave a pained expression and even without aura behind the blow, the sheer strength behind it lifted Cinder once again into the air and fired her backwards towards the far end of the room where like Mercury she slammed into the wall and cratered it, slipping down to land on her stupid ass in a daze, her amber aura fizzling weakly around her form.

Cobalt took a single step forward as he clutched his throat and she saw Cinder's eyes go wide as she screamed something. For a moment, she thought everything was going to be okay. But then Cobalt stumbled and fell backwards, his legs giving out beneath him.

He would have fell down onto his back, if that useless fat ass Emerald hadn't finally managed to push herself to her feet and rush over to catch him. She saw tears in her crimson eyes, while Cobalt mumbled something with a smirk.

He said something to Emerald, before his hand rose up..and took a great big handful of the dusky skinned girls fat ass and felt her up, greedily squeezing with all of his remaining strength. He said one last thing to Emerald, before his eyes slowly closed shut, forever. Yet his hand did not release its grip on Emerald's stupid fat ass.

And then the video ended and Neo just stood there. She was dazed, and felt numb. She didn't know how to feel for all of a moment.

Before white hot rage washed over her!

AGAIN! AGAIN THAT BITCHY FIRE WHORE HAD TAKEN FROM HER! SHE'D TAKEN THE LAST THING SHE HAD LEFT! THE ONLY LIGHT SHE HAD LEFT IN THIS SHIT WORLD!

She turned on her heel, stowing the burner scroll in her pocket. No, that was it. Fuck the Branwen Tribe. She wasn't waiting for a smart time or to make any damn plans!

Fire Bitch died today!