94

Chapter 94:

The six members of the scouting party surged forward first. Ruby had expected them to produce weapons. What she hadn't expected was that they'd clearly not rearmed since the scuffle earlier that day. The three rifle-users hadn't fixed their weapons, but had instead reclaimed both halves of their broken ones. Grasping the severed barrel, and its affixed bayonet in one hand, while hefting the stock like a club in the other, they charged ahead of their comrades. The two women who'd wielded short blades earlier had managed to recover their weapons, but they were no more threatening than they'd been earlier in the day. And then there was the leader, who advanced with a pair of knives in his grip.

It was sad to watch, particularly considering the way Vernal hung back behind them, smirk on her face. This wasn't an attack, this was a punishment for those six. Vernal was throwing them to their likely deaths for their failure earlier. The rest of the raiding party was waiting behind Vernal, awaiting her signal to charge.

"Leave these ones to me, Ruby-chan," said Sasame simply.

Ruby nodded.

Sasame took two steps forward, then waited for the doomed attackers. Abruptly, her tail blurred, stretching and elongating to whip around in front of her. To Vernal and the other bandits, it seemed as though the six members of the former scouting party abruptly vanished in a cloud of dust. The six of them were sent flying off to the side, tumbling in the dirt.

"Well...that was disappointing," said Vernal callously.

"So are you," replied Sasame. "Are you ready to start the actual fight now?"

"Fine then," grumbled Vernal.

"Ruby-chan," said Sasame, glancing over, "Vernal-san is yours."

Ruby swallowed, realizing that Sasame had basically given her the hardest fight in the lot. While she had been mocking Vernal earlier, Sasame was well aware that Vernal's level as a fighter was probably a good bit higher than Ruby's. This would likely be even more difficult than the fight against the Shelob.

Ruby stepped forward, drawing her sword, locking eyes with Vernal.

"So...the little brat thinks she's a hero," said Vernal, smirking. "I guess your friend is throwing you to the wolves."

Ruby said nothing, merely working Akaibara through a few passes, before taking her stance.

"Well you're no fun," grumbled Vernal.

Vernal took one step, then shot forward, closing the distance between herself and Ruby rapidly. It was impressive speed, though nowhere near around the level of the Shukuchi Ruby and her teachers practiced. Ruby sidestepped Vernal's first slash from the circular blade in her right hand, dodging to the side and attacking. Vernal easily fended off Ruby's slash with the weapon in her left hand, before spinning in a complete circle to execute a sideways slash with her right hand again. The move was so swift that Ruby barely anticipated it, managing to duck beneath the slash. Vernal followed up with another slash with her left-handed weapon.

Bringing Akaibara up, Ruby blocked the attack, bouncing the blade away. Vernal danced back, while quickly bringing her left hand back around, this time aligning the barrels of the pistol at the center of the weapon with Ruby's torso, and squeezing off several shots. Ruby dodged back herself, managing to evade Vernal's shots. However, as she did, she noticed two things.

First, Vernal's right hand was empty.

Second, there was a whirling sound of parting air coming from behind Ruby's head.

Ruby gasped, shifting to the side, not able to completely avoid the spinning blade of Vernal's weapon as it came flying past her, cutting into the Aura protecting her shoulder. Ruby grimaced, then realized that, while she'd been distracted by the weapon, Vernal had rushed forward. Even as she caught her returning blade, Vernal kicked out, slamming the sole of her boot into Ruby's stomach, blowing her back. Ruby's back slammed into the ground, her body plowing a furrow in the tilled earth. Now looking up, her eyes widened when she saw Vernal take to the air, descending on her, feet first.

Ruby rolled to the side, avoiding Vernal's feet, which had slammed down where her head had been, then continued rolling to avoid the blade in Vernal's right hand, which she stabbed down next. Ruby managed to roll back to her feet, using the movement to fling some of the loose dirt clinging to her haori at Vernal's face. However, Vernal wasn't caught off-guard by the attempted blinding in the slightest, easily deflecting the light spray of dirt by raising an arm, all while she closed in, launching a flurry of attacks.

Ruby worked her sword frantically, parrying the slashes she could, dodging the ones she couldn't. Vernal's offense was intense, her speed and power close in easily rivaling, at times exceeding, Ruby's own. Even if she didn't have access to the Aura-enhanced movement techniques Ruby did, her sheer physical speed was in a class high enough to make her a threat in her own right. On top of that, she employed the compound nature of her weapons to the fullest. These were no shoddy pieces, cobbled together from different components. This was Huntress-level weaponry. Vernal repeatedly tried to line up the barrels of her gun with Ruby's body, so that even slashes that missed could still result in a threatening situation. And then there were the times she occasionally threw one, which would send the blade whirling around on a circular path, only to come flying back in from Ruby's blind spot.

Now that she had a better handle on Vernal's skills, Ruby was careful to keep all her senses on alert, monitoring the movement of everything in her vicinity. With that, she was able to keep up with Vernal's attacks, even when they came at her from unexpected directions.

Seeing an opening, Ruby attacked, slashing at Vernal's neck. However, Vernal easily shifted aside to avoid the slash, then raised her weapon to catch Ruby's descending blade between its two curved ones, trapping it in place with a twist of her wrist. Ruby gasped, leaning away as Vernal slashed at her with the blade in the opposite hand, managing to avoid it, only to catch a roundhouse kick to her midriff for her trouble, the kick knocking Ruby back again, driving the breath from her body.

Ruby's feet skidded in the soft dirt, before she sank to her knees. Before she could find the strength to stand again, she saw Vernal coming at her, going into a spin to put more power behind her next attacks. With a panic yelp, Ruby worked Akaibara furiously, managing to deflect the two slashes from the circular blades, trying to get her feet under her, only to wind up stumbling back from the impact of those slashes.

"You're pathetic!" shouted Vernal, crossing her arms, then throwing them apart, creating a cross-shaped slash with her blades that knocked Ruby clean off her feet all over again.

Ruby wheezed painfully as she slammed into the ground once more, unable to stop herself from going into a roll that pressed her face into the dirt, getting it in her nose and mouth. Coughing and spitting, she tried to get up, only for Vernal's boot to come down on the back of her head, driving her face back down into the dirt.

"You really thought you could protect those worthless idiots?" asked Vernal, using her weight to force Ruby's face down into the ground, nearly forcing her to choke on the dirt. "You'll never survive with an attitude like that."

Ruby focused, then Projected her Aura, the force blowing Vernal back, causing her foot to come off the back of Ruby's head, while she flailed her arms out, trying to keep her balance. No longer restrained by Vernal's weight, Ruby surged up and forward. This close in, there was no space for her to bring her sword's blade into play, so she instead drove the pommel into Vernal's lowest left rib, causing her to yelp in pain as she was knocked back.

"Those people never did anything to you," growled Ruby, shaking her head to throw off some of the dirt in her hair, and caked on her face. "Leave them alone."

"I don't care whether they did anything or not," grunted Vernal, clearly angry at having taken a hit. "What matters is that they have what we need."

"Need for what?" asked Ruby.

"For us to survive," Vernal growled back. "That's what matters out here, not principles, not right or wrong. If you want to survive, you need to be strong. If you're not strong, then you're weak. If you're weak, then you're just fodder for everyone else."

"That's stupid!" shouted Ruby. "You don't have to live that way. You just want to!"

"Oh, and I bet you think I should just set up a farm somewhere, or maybe play protector for those fools," scoffed Vernal.

"What's so wrong with that?" asked Ruby.

"Because weaklings like that are made for us," said Vernal, grinning savagely. "What they have is ours for the taking. If they're too weak to stop us, then it's what they deserve."

"That doesn't make you strong," Ruby shouted back. "That just makes you a bully."

"Oh spare me your elementary school logic," retorted Vernal.

They charged each other again, a spray of dirt and red petals exploding up from where Ruby's feet had been. Vernal was surprised by the speed of Ruby's approach, but wasn't caught off-guard that easily. They met in another clash of blades. This time, Ruby met attack with attack, attacking just as fiercely as Vernal was, while still trying to fend off Vernal's own strikes.

Ruby started off wielding her sword with two hands, bringing it down in a slash that Vernal easily deflected with a semicircular sweep of her left-handed weapon, then following up with a slash across her body with the one in her right hand. Ruby ducked beneath it, releasing her hold on her sword with her left hand, stepping in and rising back up with a right-handed slash. Vernal leaned back, but misjudged the distance, having been used to Ruby's previous range. However, with her right hand holding the handle further back, Ruby was able to increase the range of her slash by a scant inch. That was enough to catch Vernal off-guard, and she flinched as Ruby's sword scored the Aura along her torso.

Stumbling back, Vernal growled in furry, stepping forward to slash at Ruby with her left-handed weapon. Ruby reached up with her own left hand, grabbing the sword higher up on the handle, and letting go with her right hand, meeting Vernal's slash with an unexpected burst of power, the impact between their blades stopping the two combatants cold for a second.

However, Ruby could sense that Vernal had thrown her other weapon, and sensed it circling around to come at her from behind and to the side. Channeling her Aura through her feet, Ruby launched herself off the ground so that Vernal's other weapon only stirred the petals left in Ruby's wake as it passed beneath her.

Vernal caught her returning weapon, and pointed both of her armaments upwards, firing off a series of shots at Ruby as her leap carried her up and over Vernal's head. Akaibara was a crimson streak, Vernal's shots pinging off the blade as Ruby descended behind her, closing in just as Vernal turned to face her.

Ruby went on the attack again, this time even more intensely than before, switching her hands to change the reach and power of her attacks on the fly. Vernal grimaced and grunted, having trouble keeping track of the subtle changes in Ruby's attacks. She might try to parry one slash, only to find her parry coming almost too late, the blade a fraction of an inch closer than she thought it would be. Other times, she moved to block, only for her to underestimate the strength she needed to put into the action, her arm knocked out wide by the impact of Ruby's slash.

Vernal growled, her frustration mounting as Ruby continued to press her. She was the second-strongest member of the Branwen Tribe, second only to Raven herself. Yet here she was, being pressed by a thirteen-year-old. Not only that, but this soft, bleeding heart of a girl was wasting her time and energy protecting a bunch of no-name farmers.

"You're wasting my time!" she shouted, bulling forward, catching Ruby's sword between the curved blades of her right-handed weapon, allowing Akaibara's blade to hit the inner-ring of the trigger-guard, before twisting her wrist to trap the blade. Then she thrust out with her other blade, using that one to lock Ruby's sword as well, so that Vernal was now restraining Ruby's weapon with the strength of both her arms. Ruby gasped, preparing to throw herself back to avoid another kick.

Instead, Vernal pulled Ruby's sword down, using the movement not to draw Ruby in or set her up for a kick, but to instead line up the barrels of her pistols with Ruby's body. Pulling the triggers, Vernal activated her guns' secondary function, four yellow beams of lightning-Dust energy lancing out to strike Ruby's abdomen. Ruby screamed, her Aura flickering visibly, body spasming.

With a chuckle, Vernal pulled back, leaving Ruby to collapse to one knee, forcing the young girl to plant her sword blade to keep from falling over. "You're pretty tenacious, I'll give you that," she said. "You should join our tribe. If you can lose those stupid notions of being some kind of hero from your head, you could actually be something more."

"I will be something more," growled Ruby, forcing herself back up. "I don't want anything to do with your stupid tribe. You're scum."

"And you're an idiot!" snapped Vernal. "Those fools in that settlement, they deserve what's about to happen to them. It's their fault for being weak." Her eyes narrowed and her grin became sadistic. "And it'll be your fault for not being strong enough to stop us. You failed...because you're weak."

White-hot fury flowed through Ruby's veins. Her anger was more intense than she could ever remember it being before. She couldn't believe that this bully dared to think that being willing to attack those who couldn't defend themselves somehow made her strong. To her amazement, Ruby found her anger resonating with something. Looking down, Ruby noticed that the Aura within her sword was throbbing. Akaibara shared Ruby's anger. The sword too despised Vernal's self-serving logic. Now it was ready to strike out as well.

Yeah...let's show her what real strength is, thought Ruby, taking Akaibara in both hands.

Something about the sword changed. For a second, Ruby was afraid that it had broken for some incomprehensible reason. Then she realized what had happened. The sword had split lengthwise, from tip to pommel, separating along the spine. As her hands came apart, Ruby realized she now had a weapon in each hand. Her one sword...had become two.

"What the...?" gasped Vernal, confused by the sight before her.

Ruby looked down at her two swords now, seeing the characters engraved on the handles, where they had been joined previously. The one in her left hand was named Bara, the one in her right Ibara. Bara and Ibara...Murasame-sama said Akaibara means Red Rose. But he used the characters for Red Thorn instead. So...that means that this is a sword with two names, because it's actually two swords.

Ruby's lips curled back, baring her teeth in a grin. Unlike Vernal's sadistic, malicious expression earlier, this was a grin of pure exultation. Murasame-sama said he created this sword to transform. This is what he meant. She's perfect.

With this, Ruby could now use the techniques she had honed under Shinrei's tutelage to their fullest.

For her part, Vernal glared angrily at Ruby. "Don't think that just suddenly having two swords will do anything for you, you stupid brat. You're still going to die."

"We'll see," said Ruby, adopting her own version of the two-sword stance Shinrei used, holding her left-handed sword out in front of her, and bringing her right arm up and over her head, so that the sword was pointed towards the ground, hanging behind her left shoulder.

They closed with one another again, their blades ringing in a furious tempo as they traded blows at a much higher pace than before. Vernal was right in that Ruby's gaining a second sword hadn't suddenly made her stronger and faster. Having a sword in each hand enabled her to up the pace of her attacks though, no longer needing to transfer the blade from one hand to another.

Despite that, Ruby still couldn't find a means of getting an edge over Vernal. The woman was just too strong, and fast enough to keep up with Ruby on top of that. The previous hits Ruby had taken were taking their toll as well, sore spots on her body twinging with every move she made. The ringing sound of their weapons clashing was beginning to make her ears sore.

With a savage grin, Vernal triggered her guns once more, this time channeling lightning-Dust energy along the line of a slash that she aimed downwards, at the ground beneath Ruby's feet. Ruby yelped as she suddenly tilted backwards, her balance thrown off, while her vision was also cut off by the spray of dirt erupting between herself and her opponent.

She's going to hit me! Ruby realized.

For some reason, she wasn't sure if it was panic or simple acceptance, but Ruby's mind went blank. She stopped thinking, stopped trying to envision what Vernal's next move would be. Her eyes caught the glint of the moonlight off of steel as the curved blades of Vernal's weapon pierced through the curtain of dirt above her, before slashing down at her.

Then, despite her mind having stopped functioning, Ruby's body seemed to move on its own. Her balance shifted, her spine tilting her body back farther, so that Vernal's blade sliced through the air just a few inches over her upwards-looking eyes. Ruby sucked in a surprised breath, but didn't have to time to think about what she'd just done. Instead, her legs seemed to move with a mind of their own, kicking off the ground and sending her into a backflip, right as Vernal's second blade emerged from the wave of airborne dirt in a sideways slash, Ruby's feet clearing the line of the attack just in time.

Ruby touched down as the dirt thrown up by Vernal's lightning attack earlier came dropping back down, Vernal herself charging forward, unleashing a flurry of slashes at Ruby, who shifted and stepped slipping around, aside, and between each of Vernal's attacks. At times she moved so abruptly that her body seemed to double or triple.

"What are you doing?!" shouted Vernal furiously.

Ruby wasn't sure herself. It was strange. She felt so light, so relaxed, almost as though she wasn't fighting...but dancing. That realization was when it struck her. This was the technique Shinrei had been teaching her. She had internalized Vernal's rhythm, and was now anticipating Vernal's every move. Ruby knew what Vernal was about to do before Vernal did. She could sense it all, the speed, angle, and timing of every slash, that brief flicker where a blade paused, just before Vernal pulled the trigger to fire a bullet from the pistol.

That was all well and good when fighting defensively, but Ruby needed to go on the offense. That was a tricky shift for her to make. At the moment, she was in perfect synch with her opponent. Now she had to figure out how to turn that around, and add her own layer to her opponent's movement. Still, if she knew how Vernal was moving, Ruby knew she would find her opening.

Vernal jumped, going into a sideways spin that allowed her to bring both of her blades around in succession. Ruby blocked those attacks, stepping forward into the space Vernal had vacated. While she'd been defending, Vernal had let go of one of her weapons, sending the circular blade spinning through the air, arcing to come back around. Ruby quickly brought her swords around to parry as Vernal unleashed a powerful attack at her back. The force seemed to send Ruby stumbling forward, leaving her vulnerable as Vernal's flying weapon came arcing around to slash at her from the side.

The blade cleaved straight through Ruby's body, and Vernal was treated to the sight of the younger girl's red haori splitting in two...before the red fabric abruptly dissolved into a cloud of petals.

"What-?" she gasped.

That was all Vernal managed to get out before she was struck from behind. The blades of Ruby's swords bit into, then through Vernal's Aura. Only speed born of experience prompted Vernal to throw herself forward before Ruby's dual slashes could cut her back all the way open. She stumbled forward, trailing blood.

"You bitch!" she howled, turning around to swing her right-handed blade at Ruby. However, Ruby was already below the line of the slash, stepping in and countering with cuts from her own swords. Vernal screamed as those blades bit through her Aura again. What the hell is with those swords?!

Akaibara, enhanced by Ruby's Aura, was more than capable of cutting through defensive Auras like a hot knife through butter. Indeed, with Akaibara's edges, and the blade's own Aura, it was more than capable of making that kind of cut on its own. (In the future, Ruby would develop the technique of actually using her own Aura to dull Akaibara's edges, to keep her from cutting through opponents in sparring matches, her Aura becoming something of a second sheath for her sword. But that would be a ways down the road.) Unfortunately for Vernal, who had never learned Tempering, her Aura might as well have been paper to the blade of Ruby's sword.

All Vernal could do was try her best to keep from allowing Ruby's swords to strike too deep, pulling away whenever she felt the sensation of pain. However, she knew that was a stopgap at best. Ruby's attacks were drawing blood, which would eventually catch up to Vernal, causing her responses to slacken.

However, her mind was too busy reeling in disbelief to come up with a solution. This girl, this thirteen-year-old brat, was beating her. What was more, this girl was fighting to protect a bunch of stupid townsfolk. This wasn't what Vernal had been brought up to believe. Fighting for others made you weak and stupid, left you open to be exploited, and turned into tools for those with real power. Even fighting for her own tribe was technically a fight for herself. If you weren't strong, if you didn't prove your strength constantly, someone would stab you in the back and climb to the top over your own body.

Even as Vernal's blood spilled from the cuts across her body, it seethed with outrage at Ruby's defiance. It's because of that sword! If she didn't have that damn sword, she'd be dead already!

Of course, in Vernal's case, that was just one of so many excuses, excuses to keep the truth at bay, the realization that she had already lost. At this point, Ruby would only need a single decisive blow to end this fight for good, and that blow grew nearer and nearer with each hit she landed on Vernal's body.

For her part, Ruby was amazed at how well she was doing. This was the first time she had truly absorbed an opponent's rhythm. She wasn't sure how long she could keep this up. Sure, she was pushing Vernal back for now, but all it would take was one slip-up, and things would shift back in her opponent's favor. The cuts she'd made against Vernal were scratches at best. Maybe the blood loss would start to slow Vernal down in time, but maybe not nearly soon enough for it to do Ruby any good. When they got right down to it, Vernal was still stronger than her, and Ruby's Dancing Blade was still the only thing keeping Vernal from landing any hits now.

She needed a decisive blow, something that would bring this battle to an end, once and for all.

She felt the buzz of Aura against her hands from Bara and Ibara, the swords thrumming with eagerness. Ruby's mind briefly flashed back to her fight against the Shelob. She remembered the feeling of merging her Aura with Akaibara's fully, reaching out to bind the air to their control, and using it to strike.

But Kazegiri required too much build-up. She needed a technique that she could perform in the midst of a heated exchange with an opponent, something she could pull off within a single attacking beat, without breaking her own fighting rhythm. Strangely, she felt as though such a move wasn't beyond her. It wouldn't have the full reach and power of Kazegiri, but it would be more than enough for the opponent in front of her. A blade of the wind was far sharper than even Bara and Ibara's blades on their own.

Still reading Vernal's rhythm, Ruby sensed when Vernal threw one of her blades, knew when the weapon would return. She slipped aside from the returning attack, then struck it with her own sword as she did so, sending back at Vernal even faster, which threw off Vernal's attempt to catch the weapon by its handle. Vernal backpedaled in order to properly catch the weapon without hurting herself, giving Ruby the chance she needed to make her move.

Ruby jumped, turning her body horizontal, and going into a rolling spin. The move, ironically, was reminiscent of the attacks Vernal had used earlier. As she did, Ruby brought Bara and Ibara back together. From there, she brought the first two fingers of her right hand trailing up the length of her sword, brushing them against the flat of Akaibara's blade, from hilt to tip. The sword let out a ringing chime, the blade flaring to life, shedding waves of crimson light. Ruby felt her and Akaibara's awareness mingling together. Through that, she was able to feel the air, calling it inwards, condensing it around the blade, becoming an extension of it. Due to the condensed timing, Ruby wasn't able to draw as much in as she had against the Shelob. But this would be more than enough for her.

"Kazebara!" Ruby brought the sword around and down in a wide slash. Vernal desperately brought up her blades to block, but the red streak of Ruby's wind blade cleaved right through them, continuing on to cleave through Vernal herself.

Their battle came to an abrupt halt, Ruby landing and stumbling, having trouble remembering to place her feet correctly, after pulling off an attack she'd only just come up with. In the meantime, Vernal stood there dumbly, eyes wide, her arms falling to hang slack. The severed blades of her weapon fell to the ground, sinking into the soft dirt of the tilled field.

"You..." she hissed. "You..."

A red line appeared on her face, spreading up, then extending downwards, reaching from the top of her head, all the way to her pelvis. The two halves of her body fell apart, splitting perfectly down the middle, sending blood arcing through the air, while Ruby looked on sadly, her expression resigned.

"It's over, Ruby-chan," said Sasame gently, coming up to her, her tail reaching up to drape itself over Ruby's shoulders.

Ruby shuddered, then looked past Sasame to see that the rest of the field was covered with craters in the soft dirt. Here and there, she saw scattered body parts, from those who had been struck so hard that their bodies were blown to pieces. She'd been so absorbed in her fight against Vernal that she hadn't even been able to spare a thought for the rest of the battle, Sasame having taken on the remaining bandits. However, Ruby could see that the battle had been as one-sided as she'd expected, Sasame obviously having won well before Ruby's own fight had finished.

"Did you leave anyone alive?" asked Ruby.

"Just them," said Sasame, gesturing to the groaning forms of the six members of the scouting party they had encountered earlier that day, the ones Vernal had sent ahead, wielding the same broken weapons they had earlier, clearly being expected to die. Now they were the only survivors.

Sasame's tails stretched out, brushing over the prone bandits, her Aura healing them enough to bring them back to consciousness. With pained groans, the men and women of the scouting party stirred, looking up to see Sasame and Ruby staring over them. Their eyes took in Ruby's battered, dirty, and bruised state, then drifted to Sasame, who looked pristine, then went wide with fear.

"Now then...you six are the only ones left," said Sasame cheerfully. "My little sister has seen to your leader personally."

Ruby felt a little queasy at that. Vernal hadn't been her first kill, not even since the bandit she'd killed, back when she was nine. But she didn't yet have all that much experience taking someone's life. The thought of the corpse she'd left behind her had Ruby feeling like she might throw up. To hear Sasame using that as leverage to threaten the remaining members of the raiding party was especially disconcerting.

"Now then," said Sasame, "I've been nice enough to go ahead and heal you six, so you'll be able to walk on your own. If you would do me the favor of coming quietly, I would greatly appreciate it. If you choose not to...you'll be joining the rest of your 'friends'."

The six survivors traced their eyes over what had remained of their comrades and tribesmen, their gazes lingering on Vernal's bisected body. Not only were they taking in the results of Sasame and Ruby's work, but they were also looking at what was left of those who had watched as they were sent ahead on a suicide attack with broken weapons.

One by one, they turned back to Sasame, and wordlessly raised their hands in surrender.

"A wise decision," said Sasame. "Let's return and bring the good news to the people."

This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

That was the thought that went through Raven's head as she stared at the scattered remains of her tribesmen, her people. This was supposed to have been an easy job. The settlement of Keshi-Ki was larger than most, home to several major farms and ranches, producing mountains of grain, vegetables, and meat. Some had called it "Mistral's Breadbasket," given that it supplied the largest percentage of produce to the Kingdom of any single settlement.

It had been situated in an enormous, broad, mountain valley, with steep walls on all sides keeping the Grimm at bay. The high elevation made it difficult for ground vehicles to get to, but a long tunnel, and well-developed airport facilities enabled them to ship their produce out quickly and easily. Normally, raiding a settlement this large and prosperous was a risky prospect, the kind even the Branwen Tribe would have balked at. However, there were two major factors that had made Raven reconsider her plans.

First, the settlement's population was relatively low, considering its overall size. Much of its space was given over to the massive fields that produced the food that made the settlement so prosperous. There were fields of grain and vegetables, and pastures for livestock. But the population of people needed to maintain them was considerably lower than one might have thought, especially with the advent of automated technologies imported from Atlas. That, combined with the natural barriers meant that the defenses were light.

Second, they had let down their guard. Raven figured that they must have been celebrating a successful harvest. Whatever the reason, even the sentries seemed to have largely abandoned their posts, coming in to join in the fun. It was completely idiotic. Natural barriers or not, no place was truly impregnable against the Grimm, so someone had to always be on the lookout. Even if they were throwing a celebration, it wasn't as though positive emotions chased the Grimm away, the way negative ones called them in, so there was no sensible explanation for such dereliction of duty.

Seeing that, Raven had realized she didn't even need the full force of her tribe for the raid. She decided to send Vernal out with a smaller detachment to hit the smaller, even more vulnerable, town of Botan instead. Still having more than half her tribe's people with her, Raven figured that she had enough to make these brainless weaklings regret how lax they'd been.

She'd been wrong.

So very wrong.

Even if she'd brought her entire tribe with her, it wouldn't have been nearly enough. Even though the sentries had all left their posts, someone hadn't missed the approach of Raven and her forces. So, when a single individual confronted them in the empty fields outside the town proper, Raven had been genuinely surprised.

The young man didn't cut a particularly impressive figure to her eyes, dressed as he was in a simple, black, ratty kimono. Sure, the long sword he carried, its back resting casually across his right shoulder, was impressive. But Raven's sword was equal in length, when the blade was fully extended, not to mention it was clear that the young man's sword was just a sword, holding none of the myriad extra options and functions that hers did.

Naturally, Raven had assumed that this young man would be an easy kill. She wouldn't even need to call upon her special abilities to deal with this single impediment. Sure, taking him on herself seemed like overkill, but she supposed she needed to remind her people why she was in charge.

That was when one of her people had taken the task of telling her who this young man was. Kyo was his name apparently. Because of the glowing, strangely familiar, crimson eyes he sported, he was better known by the moniker, Demon Eyes Kyo. It had taken a moment of reflection for Raven to realize that Kyo's eyes were nearly identical to her own, making her wonder if there was some form of relation between them. But that was a moot point. The fool was standing between her and her target, and needed to be taught a lesson he wouldn't live long enough to reap the benefits of.

They'd exchanged a few words, Kyo warning her off, and Raven dictating what was about to happen to him for standing in her way; the standard pre-battle banter. Predictably, she wasn't about to call back her tribe and leave without any plunder. Less predictably, Kyo was undaunted by the force arrayed against him, to such a degree that Raven wondered if he was touched in the head, that he'd so badly misread the situation.

Then they'd begun. The moment Kyo's sword came in contact with her own, Raven realized she'd made a grave mistake. This young man was no ordinary person. In just that brief instant of contact between their blades, all of Raven's experience; the countless times she'd escaped death by the skin of her teeth, all the opponents she'd clashed with; all of that had told her that Kyo was beyond her to such a ludicrous degree that it wasn't even funny. Even the power of the Spring Maiden, her deepest, greatest secret, wouldn't be enough to bridge the gap between them. Kyo stood on another plane entirely.

And he had also dispensed with any thought of mercy towards her. Raven realized that, if she tried to retreat, he would cut her in two easily. Her only option was to order her tribe on the attack. They'd jumped in quickly, throwing themselves at Kyo with reckless abandon...and dying in droves. Raven had fallen back as quickly as she could. When she did, she saw Kyo slaughtering her people.

When the dust had settled, nearly everyone had died, and Kyo hadn't been so much as touched. The dirt of the field was soaked with blood, scattered body parts littering the ground like chaff in the wake of a harvest. And, in the center of it all, stood him. Kyo's Aura swirled and boiled, exceeding anything Raven would have thought possible. Only a tiny handful of her people survived. With an angry grimace, Raven made the one decision that galled her the most. She'd called a retreat, and opened a portal back to their camp.

Fortunately, Kyo had made no attempt to pursue, instead watching with a distant smile on his face as they made their escape. Raven had thrown one last glare at him, before passing through the portal herself, then closing it behind her.

In addition to the scant handful of people she'd managed to bring back with her, all Raven had were those that had been left behind to guard their camp, which brought their numbers to about thirteen, all told. After that, Raven had decided to check on Vernal...only to find that her portal wouldn't open. A chill fell over Raven's body when she realized what that meant.

Desperate to find out for herself, Raven had taken flight, winging her way to Botan to see what the conclusion of Vernal's group's raid had yielded. She'd arrived, only to find the settlement untouched. The reason why became apparent a second later. She'd arrived just in time to see two young women take six of the surviving members of Vernal's party into custody, leaving behind what remained of Vernal herself. She'd heard the fox-faunus explain that the red-clad girl next to her had been the one to kill Vernal.

That was when it sank in for Raven. In a single night, her tribe had been all but wiped out. The Branwen Tribe, which had plundered the settlements of Anima for generations, was now on the edge of extinction. The people that Raven had led, the ones she had sworn to do everything in her power to ensure the survival of, were now almost all gone. The scant handful she had left wouldn't be able to make any meaningful raids. At best, they could pick off a lightly-guarded caravan. Even though she had the power of the Spring Maiden, she couldn't afford to wield it too freely, lest she attract Salem's attention. The Branwen name, once feared across all of Mistral's territory, would become a joke, before it was probably forgotten altogether as what remained of her tribe died out.

Searing rage erupted in Raven's heart. Her anger focused itself on the two girls that had somehow killed Vernal and her group. This wasn't how things were supposed to go! She wanted to exact some form of retribution for what had just happened. She intended to. She was now prepared to throw all caution to the winds.

Forget the plunder! I'll raze this whole settlement to the ground, and leave nothing more than scorched earth in my wake. I'll unleash the full power of the Spring Maiden, and remind all of Remnant what happens when they make an enemy of me! They'll all suffer!

It was at that moment that the short, fox-tailed girl abruptly turned in Raven's direction, her eyes finding Raven easily, despite Raven being...well...a raven, at the moment. The girl had easily sensed Raven's anger and her intent, and had zeroed in on her position instantly.

"I know you're there," said the girl, her eyes narrowing as she turned to regard Raven. "I can sense your malice. If you have any intention of acting upon it, I suggest you come out...right now."

Raven hesitated, her eagerness to attack snuffed out like a candle's flame. This girl, Sasame, exuded an uncanny presence, similar to that of Kyo, if to less of a degree. However, Raven could still sense that this girl was plenty dangerous in her own right.

And then...the other girl had turned around. Raven had been able to tell she was younger than Sasame. But that wasn't what stood out the most. Instead, Raven found herself staring into a pair of familiar silver eyes. It can't be!

But there was no mistaking or denying it; not those eyes, not the black hair turning red towards the tips, not those features on her girlish face. This girl had her eyes...Summer's eyes. Summer's daughter...here? Why? What is she doing with this person?

Just because Raven had left her family behind didn't mean she didn't occasionally check up on them, mainly out of curiosity. There had been a mix of anger and regret, when she'd learned that Taiyang had gone on to marry Summer, after she'd left, with Summer going on to raise Raven's daughter as her own. She'd also learned that Summer had given birth to a daughter as well. Ultimately, Raven had decided to let it go. Summer was welcome to the little brats, if she wanted them.

But then Summer had died. Raven hadn't been surprised. Summer had been an idiot, who was always getting in over her head. Of course Summer would take on some kind of impossible task and get herself killed, probably protecting some worthless backwater somewhere, where the clueless idiots populating it were too weak to save themselves. After spending four years of her life sitting through Summer's diatribes about their duty as Huntresses, about what they owed to the people of Remnant, about their responsibility to protect those who couldn't protect themselves, Raven couldn't help but feel a kind of vindictive satisfaction. Of course that kind of thinking had gotten Summer killed, while Raven herself was still alive.

Regardless of all that, the sight of Summer's daughter standing there was too strange, too unreal, almost as though Summer was there herself, passing judgment over what Raven had done. Ultimately, Raven had found herself retreating, rather than daring to confront the people who had wrought such havoc on her tribe.

And now...Raven rested in her tent, at the center of an empty encampment, the rest of her people keeping themselves occupied, probably mourning the loss of their friends and comrades. In that tent, Raven tried to come to terms with what had just happened, how her tribe had wound up in such dire straits. Only one thing came to mind.

It's all their fault, she thought furiously, the faces of Ruby, Sasame, and Kyo flashing through her mind. They did this.

If it was the last thing she did, Raven would make them regret taking up arms against her tribe, and repay them for all the pain they had done to her. She could return to the settlements they had been protecting, after they'd left, and destroy them. That would make for a good start. However, Raven knew that that would be nothing more than an exercise in pettiness. Those three might not even come to learn what had happened to those settlements until years later. Rather, engaging in such an activity might well draw Salem's attention. Instead, Raven would find out all she could about them, and then find the best way to take her revenge directly.

Raven's mind fixated on Ruby, the youngest, the weakest, the most vulnerable. Her revenge would start there. Sasame had claimed the girl as a sister, for whatever reason, so killing her would be the best way to get back at the fox-faunus. But finding the right opportunity would take time.

And so, Raven decided bide her time and wait. Besides, she had to do what she could to ensure that what remained of her tribe didn't die out. Somehow, she would get her people through this. She hadn't gone through so much, made so many difficult decisions and sacrifices, to have it all come to naught now.

This isn't over, Raven thought with an angry growl.