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Black Rose Blooms SilverCyberQueen_JolyneChapter 22

Chapter Text

The first shot that shook the earth completely cut out all sound for a moment- every single head snapping towards Ruby as she unleashed hell upon the Deathstalker before her in the form of a 38x137mm High Explosive, Point Detonating Fuze, Armor Piercing, Extreme Fragmentation, Ultra-High Impact Dust Round laced with both Fire and Gravity Dust.

It cost four hundred and seventy eight lien to make twelve cartridges.

A single cartridge smashed through the faceplate and erupted into a gout of hellish flame, the impact of the bullet itself magnified ten times over by the Gravity Dust while the explosive material within reacted with the Fire Dust and created a cone of flame that exploded the entire rest of the Deathstalker from the inside out. Grimm material splattered into the air like the burst of an utterly oversized water balloon- liquid tar in black and red splashing into the air before vanishing into a thin cloud of black smoke.

For a moment, the blinding flash of orange flame was the only effect- then, as if held back for dramatic effect, the shockwave erupted from the quickly dissolving corpse of the ancient Death Stalker and blew the rest of it to dust, the sound of rolling thunder exploding across the entire field with such volume that it seemed to shake the earth and vibrate bones.

No one spoke.

No one could speak.

Even the Nevermore, screeching overhead as it had been, fell silent in the wake of such a sheer, overwhelming display of power.

"... You never used that on the practice range at home," Yang muttered- the first to recover and the first to speak due to long experience with Ruby's ridiculous penchant for utterly, impossibly oversized weapons. 

"That's because I only use it when Uncle Qrow takes me Goliath hunting!" Ruby stated proudly in response, her ears twitching as she put on a bright (read: absolutely fang filled and feral) smile to ignore the fact that she'd just fired a fucking artillery cannon right next to her head without ear protection. Beside her, Blake just groaned, hands futilely trying to grasp both sets of ears in a vain attempt to stop the ringing. 

"Owwww…." the cat faunus muttered, wincing as she tried very, very hard to not feel like she was about to throw up, vaguely glaring in Ruby's direction before flinching away from the very sharp mouthful of teeth that were on display- sweet fucking hell she could have sworn Ruby had mostly human teeth before now, what the fuck!?

"... I think… that is the single biggest gun I've ever seen," Nora muttered, barely audible from where she'd been knocked on her ass by the explosive shockwave that had disintegrated the Deathstalker. "I WANT ONE!"

"Nora-no. Just… please, no."

"Awww, but Reeeennnnn~!" Ah, apparently the black haired guy was named Ren.

"I'm just glad we're all still alive after that," Jaune muttered, just loud enough for Ruby to hear- whose smile hadn't left her face as she sidled over to the other group of people with Crescent Rose raised high as she tracked the circling Nevermore as it shook off the shock of the explosion and began coming in on its attack vector again. Unfortunately, she couldn't use another 38mm cartridge- strong as they might have been, moving targets meant a higher probability of missing and if she missed with one of her Goliath killer rounds, then there was every chance that if she shot in the wrong direction she was going to blow up part of Beacon . Which would be counterproductive to say the least.

Unfortunately for the Nevermore, she still had a large supply of 28mm autocannon shells. Not quite custom made, but she'd bought a lot of 'em on clearance after it became apparent that the one gun shop wasn't going to be able to sell any- too damn strong, and only for an overly expensive gun that nobody could use.

All except for Ruby.

Mr. Bronze sure was nice- said that nobody on Patch appreciated weapons like she did.

She'd taken that oversized rifle he'd been unable to sell and made it part of Crescent Rose, as a thank you for all the years that they'd talked for hours on end about rifles and swords and pistols and spears and every weapon one could possibly want.

And now that same rifle, now in the form of Crescent Rose, was about to fire one of Mr. Bronze's custom specials: a 28x137mm High Velocity, Anti-Nevermore round that, upon impact with anything solid enough, detonated into custom-tooled, explosive, Dust reinforced and infused needles like the world's most horrible version of birdshot. Two hundred needles in total, each one hardened with refined Earth Dust, tipped with Fire and Ice Dust in a matrix that would explode into jagged ice crystals that would either puncture through or weigh down any Nevermore until it could no longer fly. Add onto that Mr. Bronze's custom propellant mix…

KRA-THOOM!

Ruby's grin only grew wider as she fired her second, smaller cartridge at the Nevermore with nigh on perfect accuracy- years of fighting all manner of grimm made it easy to track its movements, and Mr. Bronze's stunning skill at machining and creating horrific ammunition did its job with precision and lethality.

The Nevermore, caught off guard as it swooped in, suddenly found a solid lead jacket impacting the back of its throat.

The bullet deformed, the fuze at the back detonated…

And the entire thing lit up in a crackling display of flames and shards of ice that left the Nevermore screeching as it was torn to shreds from the inside out- its torso impaled a thousand times over by massive shards of ice that then exploded in flames and chained in such a way that the beast fell into the massive rent in the earth behind the relic temple and faded away into so much smoke in mere seconds.

"And that… is that," Ruby stated proudly, having completely tuned out everyone else in favor of dealing with the two biggest threats in the area. As she turned to face the others, her grin changed from nigh on feral and full of teeth into something brighter, cheerier, and altogether less threatening. "Tadaaaa~! Oh- also, I think we have Beowolves coming in. Yaaaaang~!"

"Yeah yeah, I'll punch 'em. It's just Beowolves… Gods know you kill enough of 'em back on Patch for me to know how to deal with the things- Hey, Weiss-cream, you still good for a fight?" Yang asked, bringing up her fists as the assembled group of eight (apparently not the first ones there) retreated towards the temple and got ready to get their relics and run- relics that were… apparently chess pieces? Huh. Neat.

"Of course I am! I'd hardly be able to consider myself a Huntress in training if a single grimm wore me out entirely," Weiss grumbled, glaring vaguely in Yang's direction before turning towards the forest's edge- all of them raising weapons and getting ready as the sound of distant howls began to emanate from the trees. 

"Hey- maybe we should just get up and go?" Jaune suggested, pointing towards the adjoining cliff face not too far from where they were. Really, if they actually put some effort into it, they'd all probably be able to get back up the cliff with minimal effort… probably. Most of them would. "Grab the relics and then make a tactical retreat?"

"What, and leave a bunch of Beowolves here for the next group? Naaaaaah!" Nora stated with a wild grin, immediately unfurling her weapon into its hammer form and leaping into the fray- which, it seemed, became the starting signal for everyone else sans him and Ruby. They all charged in and started slaughtering the Beowolves en masse, and even Ruby wasn't idle considering that she was firing off snap shots from Crescent Rose and putting bullet holes the size of basketballs in a few of the Beowolves… with one hand.

Holy hell.

"That's… a really, really big gun," Jaune mumbled, slumping slightly as he held his shield up somewhat pathetically and all but hid behind it with his sword at the ready. He really had no idea what he'd do if a Beowolf came charging up, but with his newly unlocked Aura he could probably handle it… right?

"Mhmm! She chambers anything 38mm or smaller! Though, I guess using anything smaller than 50 bmg lowers the impact too much… it's way cheaper, though…" Ruby hummed, shrugging as she idly withdrew what looked like a 9mm pistol magazine from her belt pouch and shoved it into a hidden slot on Crescent Rose's underside, the end of the barrel visibly shrinking down as she proceeded to continue firing- though with much less force than before. "... Yeah, 9mm is too small. Maybe .22 or 45 ACP? 50 bmg works best. But don't worry- everyone else is handling the swarm just fine, and we'll be outta here before you know it!"

Jaune sighed, straightening up a little at the reminder that the day's tribulations would all be over soon. "How're we getting up the cliff anyway? It's… really tall. I can't climb that."

"... We'll… probably figure something out."

"... Really?"

"Probably!"

"... Well… alright then."

[Behold the Weissicle! This outfit is also a spoiler for chapter 53, so pretend she just looks like her canon self now]