Chương 71: Chapter 67: The Battle of Haven (Part 1)

With a deafening roar, Cinder unleashed her Scorching Caress, a massive wave of superheated fire aimed directly at them. Jaune and Pyrrha raised their shields, their Auras flaring as they absorbed the blast and fought back, rushing the Fall Maiden. Ruby dashed forward to help them, but her path was instantly blocked by a spray of bullets. Emerald dropped in front of her, her dual revolvers spinning.

"You're not getting near her." Nearby, Raven glanced at her second-in-command.

"Take the Schnee, Vernal. But withhold your powers. She's not worth it." As Vernal drew her wind-and-laser weapons and charged Weiss, Hazel Rainart stood motionless. Nora and Ren flanked him, Magnhild and StormFlower raised.

"I don't wish to fight either of you," Hazel rumbled, his deep voice carrying genuine reluctance.

"Nor I you," Ren answered in his fighting stance.

"But we will if you're with her!" Nora yelled, refusing to back down. Hazel sighed, cracking his massive knuckles.

"Very well, then," He dropped into a fighting stance. In the center of the hall, Qrow and Raven stared each other down.

"Running away is one thing, Raven," Qrow said, his voice laced with heavy disappointment.

"But this? You have crossed the line."

"Sorry," Raven replied, entirely indifferent.

"Sometimes family disappoints you like that."

"We're not family anymore."

"Were we ever?" Raven sneered.

"I thought so," Qrow said.

"Guess I was wrong." Qrow swung Harbinger. Raven ducked under the massive slash, jumping back gracefully. She dodged two more lightning-fast swings, clashing blades with a shower of sparks before driving a heavy kick into Qrow's chest, sending him skidding backward. While the siblings battled, Vernal taunted Weiss"Let's see what the Schnee name really means!" Vernal spinning her weapons.

"I am more than a name," Weiss retorted smoothly. She activated a pale blue glyph beneath her boots, projecting herself forward at blinding speed to engage the supposed Spring Maiden. Upstairs, Oscar Pine climbed the steps, clutching his wrapped cane. Noticing Oscar walked up behind him, Lionheart backed away, raising his specialized duel-disk weapon.

"Young man, I don't know who you are or what you think you're doing, but for your sake, I suggest you leave. Now!" Leo warned, his voice cracking with panic. When Oscar continued to advance, Leo triggered his weapon, firing a massive, flaming rock directly at him. Oscar didn't flinch. Drawing upon Ozpin's ancient experience, his Aura flared brilliantly, seamlessly absorbing the concussive and thermal impact. He whipped the cloth from The Long Memory and swung. THWACK.

The brass cane connected squarely with Lionheart's jaw, battering the Headmaster back against the railing.

"O-Ozpin?!" a terrified Leo gasped, rubbing his jaw.

"Not quiet," Oscar simply answered.

"This can't be... I knew you would be back, but... you made it here!" Leo panicked.

"And Qrow found you so quickly?!" Then, a desperate, manic realization suddenly washed over Lionheart's face.

"Wait. You can't have had this form for long. You're... not really Ozpin right now. Boy. Child. If I deliver you to Salem, she'll have to be pleased with me! I can finally get out of all of this! I can finally be free!" The determined Lionheart prepped his weapon again, loading a fresh volley of Dust." What do I do?" Oscar's heart hammered.

"Fight," Ozpin encouraged him. Oscar gritted his teeth, readying the cane.

Down below, the crucible of the safehouse training was being put to the ultimate test. Vernal threw her circular weapons like boomerangs, slicing through the air with lethal precision. Weiss dodged gracefully, but one of the returning blades clipped her wrist, forcing her to lose her grip. Myrtenaster clattered to the floorboards.

"What are you gonna do know, princess?" Vernal smirked, lunging forward to finish the defenseless heiress. To Vernal's absolute shock, Weiss didn't panic. Utilizing the grueling, unarmed self-defense techniques drilled into her by Yang and Ozpin, Weiss moved with uncharacteristic, fluid aggression. She sidestepped Vernal's thrust, used an elegant, open-handed parry to redirect the bandit's momentum, and swept Vernal's legs out from under her.

As Vernal crashed to the floor, Weiss elegantly kicked Myrtenaster up into the air, catching the hilt perfectly.

"I told you, I'm more than a name," Weiss said confidently. Across the room, Ruby and Yang fought side-by-side against Emerald and Mercury. Mercury threw a blistering flurry of kicks at Yang, fully expecting her to blindly tank the hits with her Semblance. Instead, Yang bobbed and weaved, slipping beneath his strikes with the precise, efficient head-movement she had learned from trying to tag an untouchable bald man.

"Getting fancy, huh?" Mercury grunted, genuinely surprised as Yang delivered a punishing hook to his ribs. Emerald, meanwhile, managed to hook the sickle edge of her weapon around the shaft of Crescent Rose, violently disarming Ruby. Emerald rushed in for the kill. But Ruby dropped her center of gravity. Her hands, glowing faintly with Aura, deflected Emerald's incoming blades with flawless, bare-handed parries.

Ruby stepped inside Emerald's guard, delivering a palm-strike to the thief's chest before retrieving her scythe.

"Why are you doing this, Emerald?!" Ruby pleaded, spinning Crescent Rose.

"Salem is--""I don't care about Salem!" Emerald yelled back fiercely.

"But I owe Cinder everything!" Emerald's eyes flashed red. She cast a powerful hallucination directly into Ruby's mind. Ruby gasped as Mercury seemingly appeared directly in front of her, rearing back for a lethal kick. Ruby aimed her rifle barrel and fired. The illusion shattered. The bullet zipped across the room, nearly taking Pyrrha's head off as she fought Cinder.

"Pyrrha, look out!" Jaune yelled. The momentary distraction was all Cinder needed. With a cruel laugh, she unleashed a localized blast of fire, knocking Pyrrha hard to the ground.

"You've both improved," Cinder commented, her amber eye narrowing as she blocked Jaune's heavy sword strike.

"That bald anomaly must have rubbed off on you. But you are still completely out of your depth." Cinder spun, driving a superheated kick into Jaune's chest armor. He flew backward, crashing into a stone pillar and losing his grip on Crocea Mors. Pyrrha scrambled up, her shield raised, refusing to let Cinder finish him. Nearby, Hazel's immense strength was proving overwhelming.

Ren and Nora were faster, darting around him like hornets, but Hazel simply absorbed their blows, retaliating with massive, earth-shattering punches that sent both teens flying backward across the hall. Qrow, currently deadlocked in a blindingly fast, spark-showering duel with Raven, landed gracefully near the recovering Ren and Nora. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Did you locate the entrance to the vault when you secured the perimeter?!" Qrow yelled over the din of battle.

"The platform in the center! That statue!" Ren coughed, pointing toward the large, ornate circular lift.

"It seems to be an elevator!"

"Take position near it! Hold them off!" Qrow ordered, immediately launching himself back at his sister. Ren and Nora nodded, sprinting toward the platform. Ruby and Yang heard the command and broke off their engagements, grouping up near the elevator. Hazel, Emerald, and Mercury approach the four.

"Looks like our objective has been exposed," Hazel comments at them. Their expressions hardened, the playful arrogance entirely vanishing as they moved to engage the students with serious, lethal intent. Weiss, forced onto the defensive by Vernal's relentless, high-powered laser blasts, leaped backward upon a series of white glyphs. She slammed her hand against the floor, creating a massive, thick ice wall.

She stabbed Myrtenaster into the floorboards, the intricate summoning glyph glowing brilliantly as her Arma Gigas began to pull its massive sword from the ether.

"Nice try!" Vernal sneered. She charged her weapons to maximum capacity and fired a massive, concentrated energy beam point-blank into the ice. The wall shattered explosively. The beam obliterated the half-summoned Knight and struck Weiss squarely in the chest. Weiss cried out, her Aura shattering completely as she was violently thrown backward, collapsing onto the floorboards.

"Weiss!" Ruby screamed, losing her focus. Emerald capitalized instantly. She blurred forward, driving the heavy metal butt of her revolver directly into the side of Ruby's head. Ruby crumpled to the floor, knocked completely cold.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled, turning her back on Mercury. Mercury drove a brutal, spinning heel kick directly into Yang's spine, sending her crashing painfully into the base of a pillar. Up on the staircase, Oscar looked down. He saw the broken ice and the overwhelmed students. Oscar saw Ruby Rose lying unconscious on the floor.

"No!!" A profound, white-hot fury erupted in the young boy's chest. Lionheart aimed his weapon, but Oscar didn't dodge. He charged, pouring every ounce of his Aura into The Long Memory. With a fierce, guttural yell, Oscar swung the cane like a baseball bat, smacking Leonardo Lionheart squarely across the face. The Headmaster shrieked, tumbling violently backward down the long wooden staircase. He crashed heavily into Hazel Rainart at the bottom of the steps, bouncing off the giant man's legs.

Hazel remained entirely unfazed, his eyes locked on Ren and Nora as they desperately held the line against Emerald and Mercury. Yang, on the other hand, groaned, pushing herself up from the pillar, her hair beginning to glow with golden fire. Oscar ignored Lionheart, sprinting desperately down the stairs and dropping to his knees beside the silver-eyed girl.

"Ruby! Wake up! Please!" Oscar pleaded, shaking her shoulders.

"We need you!"

Across the hall, Pyrrha Nikos was fighting a losing battle. Despite all her training, Cinder Fall was simply too powerful. The Fall Maiden unleashed a devastating flurry of glass blades and superheated fire, battering against Pyrrha's shield until the bronze Huntress was finally thrown to the floor, her Aura completely depleted, her body bruised and aching. Cinder stood over her, a dark, sadistic shadow crossing her face as she reminisced about the roof of the Beacon CCT tower.

"Just like what they said," Cinder whispered.

"History repeats itself." She raised her hand. Dust and heat coalesced rapidly, forming a lethal, jagged obsidian arrow. Cinder pulled the dark arrow back on an ethereal bowstring, aiming directly at Pyrrha's heart. Cinder released the string. The arrow shot forward with lethal velocity. Right before the obsidian tip could pierce Pyrrha's chest, a hand shot out from the side, moving with a speed that defied the naked eye. CRUNCH. The arrow was caught mid-air, grabbed tightly by a bare, calloused hand.

Jaune Arc stood over Pyrrha. His blue eyes burned with an indescribable, righteous fury. With a single, tightening flex of his grip, he shattered the obsidian arrow into useless black dust. Cinder's single amber eye widened in absolute shock. Jaune growled.

"Not this time." Channeling the immense, unyielding physical density he had forged under Saitama's hellish training regimen, and imbuing it with the massive, white-hot ocean of his amplified Aura, Jaune didn't reach for his sword. He stepped forward, his boots cracking the floorboards, and launched a straight, devastating right hook. Cinder barely had time to cross her arms. The fist connected with the force of a detonating artillery shell.

Cinder was violently thrown backward, her boots skidding across the polished wood. Her Aura flared wildly, struggling to absorb the immense kinetic transfer. She felt the heavy, concussive force echo deep into her bones. It was a fraction of the power, yes. But the terrifying, blunt-force trauma was unmistakable. The phantom sensation of a yellow-suited man shattering her Maiden shield flashed vividly in her mind. Cinder gritted her teeth, her chest heaving as she glared at the blonde knight.

"What did you do?!"

"Just a lot of push-ups every morning," Jaune said, his expression completely serious, entirely deadpan. Cinder's face twisted into an expression of unadulterated, screaming outrage.

"You are NOTHING!!!" Cinder shrieked in absolute rage, the flames roaring around her body, her eyes glowing with the full, devastating power of the Fall Maiden.

"I AM DESTINED TO BE ABOVE ALL ELSE!" Cinder launched herself at him, a blazing tornado of fire and glass. Jaune fought back with everything he had, relying purely on his bare hands and the evasive techniques he had learned in the safehouse. He dodged a sweeping blade of fire, blocked a concussive blast with his forearms, and managed to land another heavy, glancing blow against her ribs. But the Maiden power was simply too overwhelming.

"I WON'T LOSE TO THE LIKES OF YOU!! TO HIM!!!" With a furious scream, Cinder unleashed a point-blank, omnidirectional shockwave of raw thermal energy.

"AARGH!!!" Jaune screamed in pain. The blast overwhelmed Jaune's amplified Aura, sending him crashing brutally to the floorboards.

"Did you think you actually had a chance against me?! You?!!" Cinder snarled.

"You're just a failure with a death wish!" Cinder stalked toward the weakened, groaning knight, her hands dripping with molten fire, her eyes filled with absolute killing intent.

On the other side of the room, Hazel reached down, picking the groaning Lionheart up by his collar and lifting him entirely off the floor.

"You're lettin' that boy make a fool of you," Hazel rumbled in disgust.

"That's not just a boy!" Lionheart cried out, pointing a trembling finger toward the center of the hall.

"It's Ozpin! He's already reincarnated!" Hazel froze. He dropped Lionheart instantly. He looked over. He saw Oscar kneeling beside Ruby, desperately nudging her awake. And resting in the boy's hand, gleaming in the moonlight, was The Long Memory.

"Ozpin...?" Hazel whispered. The calm, stoic demeanor of the giant man shattered completely.

"Ruby! You--" Oscar tried, but the sound was drowned out by a terrifying, earth-shaking roar.

"OZPIIIIN!!!!" Oscar snapped his head up.

"Oh no..." Ozpin thought, sheer terror flooding the boy's mind.

"You thought you could hide from ME?!!" Hazel bellowed, his face contorted in a mask of pure, unhinged hatred. Hazel ripped his heavy coat entirely off his body. He grabbed two massive, jagged crystals of raw Lightning Dust from his pouches and, with a brutal, sickening crunch, stabbed them directly into his own bare arms. His blood vessels instantly turned a glowing, sickly yellow, popping out from his skin as volatile lightning coated his entire body.

His eyes glowed with electrical fury as he let out another intimidating, monstrous roar. Oscar slowly backed away, holding his cane up cautiously, his hands shaking violently.

"Do... do we fight?" Oscar asked aloud.

"No, run!" Ozpin screamed. Hazel leaped forward, clearing thirty feet in a single bound, charging like a runaway freight train directly at the boy. Qrow, while still fighting Raven, notices Oscar's situation.

"Crap!" Seeing the imminent slaughter, Qrow abandoned his duel with his sister, launching himself across the room to intercept the enraged giant and save his Headmaster. Hearing the name 'Ozpin' echoed across the hall, Cinder stopped in her tracks. She lowered her fiery hands, looking toward the chaotic center of the room. Raven and Vernal broke away from their respective fights, walking to Cinder's side.

"Ozpin is here?!" Cinder eyes widened, shock and triumph battling on her face.

"Is that a problem?" Raven asked.

"I'm not sure, but right now we got the upper hand," Cinder looked at Raven.

"We secure the Relic. Now." Cinder glanced down at the wounded, barely conscious Jaune.

"I will deal with you later." As Cinder, Raven, and Vernal turned their backs and walked away, Jaune's eyes fluttered shut, his consciousness fading into darkness.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha crawled desperately to his side, pulling his head into her lap.

"Hold on, Jaune... please..." Cinder, Raven and Vernal approach the kneeled Headmaster of Haven.

"Leo!" Cinder commanded, pointing toward the massive statue in the center of the hall.

"Open the path!" Lionheart scrambled to his feet, nodding frantically as he rushed toward the statue. Cinder raised her hand, unleashing a massive, sweeping fireball directly at Ren and Nora, who were currently engaging Emerald and Mercury.

"GAAH!!" The explosion blasted the two teens violently backward, sending them crashing near the unconscious Ruby. The platform was entirely unguarded. Lionheart pulled his pocket watch from his vest, placing it perfectly into a small, intricate niche on the statue's base. The hands on the watch began to spin rapidly. The heavy stone statue groaned, slowly lowering into the floor to reveal the large, circular elevator platform. Yang and Weiss rushed over to the center of the room.

They helped the groaning Ren and Nora to their feet, while Weiss knelt beside Ruby, gently shaking her leader.

"Are you okay?" Yang asked frantically.

"We're fine," Ren gasped, clutching his ribs as he looked toward the center of the hall.

"But they have the platform." Yang's violet eyes scanned the battlefield in sheer desperation. Ren and Nora were badly wounded. Pyrrha was weeping over an unconscious Jaune. Weiss's Aura was shattered, and Ruby was completely unresponsive. On the far side of the room, Qrow was currently getting punched brutally backward by a lightning-infused Hazel who is enraged to Oscar, or Ozpin, to be precise.

"Yang..." Weiss gasped, grabbing her teammate's arm.

"Go. Stop them."

"We'll handle the enemies here!" Nora encouraged, raising Magnhild with a fierce, defiant yell. Realizing there was absolutely no other choice, Yang gave a firm nod. Her eyes burned red as she broke into a dead sprint toward the descending platform. Before she could close the distance, Emerald and Mercury slid into her path, their weapons drawn.

"You wanna get to them?" Emerald smirked.

"You're going to have to get through all of us." Emerald's eyes flashed, and suddenly, the room fractured. A dozen identical Mercuries materialized in Yang's vision, completely surrounding the blonde brawler in a dizzying, mocking illusion. On the platform, Vernal stepped aboard.

"Make sure to hold Ozpin or anyone from interfering," Cinder ordered Lionheart coldly.

"This won't take long." Cinder stepped onto the platform. Raven paused at the edge. She looked back over her shoulder, listening to the furious, chaotic sounds of her daughter fighting vainly against the illusions. A heavy, conflicted shadow crossed the bandit leader's face, but she simply shook her head, stepping onto the platform beside Cinder. With a deep, mechanical hum, the platform began to lower into the dark, bottomless abyss of the vault. Above them, the main hall descended into total chaos.

Oscar scrambled desperately across the floorboards, narrowly dodging a massive, crater-forming slam from Hazel's lightning-coated fists. Qrow pushed himself up from the rubble, preparing to help the boy. However, he spotted Lionheart taking aim at the boy's back. Qrow raised Harbinger, firing a precise shot that shattered the Dust chamber on Lionheart's weapon. Qrow charged the Headmaster, their weapons clashing in a shower of sparks.

"You betrayed us, Leo!" Qrow roared, driving the Headmaster back.

"You're a coward!"

"I just want to live!" Lionheart screamed in pathetic terror, parrying wildly. As the battle raged, the heroes of Haven fought desperately to survive the night, unaware that the true prize was already slipping into the dark.