Arcane Manifest: A RWBY Story

Chapter 15: Feat of Heroism

Pyrrha dodges a swat from the Atlas Mech following it with an upward slash. Excalibur leaves a trail of bright blue energy which collides against the hull of the mech, sending it staggering backward. Pyrrha, not letting up, closes the distance, but Roman unleashes a barrage of gunfire towards her. She shields herself with Excalibur, but the gunfire simply bounces off her new given arcane wards. Amazed by her magical durability, she rushes towards Roman. Going for a slash to the main body, she's quickly hit by its large hand. Flying through the air, she crashes through the warehouse wall into the street. Skidding on the pavement, she gets up quickly as she felt no pain from the attack. Reminding herself to thank Emrys later on when this was over.

Roman(mech): "My, my, aren't you the durable type. It looks like they really built your armor to last little knight. It just means I got to keep hitting you until there's nothing left. Now die!"

Roman then unleashes another barrage of gunfire combined with additional rockets from its shoulder. Bracing for the impact, she's surprised again not to feel the effect as she looks to see a dome covered in arcane symbols surround her. She looks over to see Emrys concentrating on keeping the shield up.

Pyrrha: "Emrys?! But I thought you were on crowd control?"

Emrys: "Pyrrha, I can make fireballs as fast as Yang makes terrible puns. I think I can stop a couple of people from leaving a crime scene. Besides, I wanted to make sure this fight didn't hurt any innocents."

Pyrrha: "That's going to be a problem if I can't get through his armor. But I think I have a plan to beat him."

Emrys: "And what might that be?"

Pyrrha: "We beat him together, as a team." Emrys smiles and nods.

Emrys pushes outward, expelling the portal and destroying the rockets that were on their way. Re-casting the arcane wards on Pyrrha, his eyes turn a bright white as he shoots bolts of lightning that arc towards the mech. The mech gets thrown into a wall by the force of the lightning. Using the short reprieve, Emrys cast a spell on Excalibur, which shrouds it a layer of white light. He then creates multiple copies of Pyrrha. As the mech climbs out of the hole it put in the wall, Roman sees five more sword-wielding knights charging towards him.

Roman(mech): "I was gone for just a couple of seconds. How are there more of you!?!"

The mech begins to try and fend off the duplicates, which leaves him open for the real Pyrrha to slice clean through one of the arms of the mech. The energy around the blade makes it no challenge for her to do. The mech drops to one knee as the duplicates disappear, leaving just the three of them. It tries to stand, but purple binds shoot from the ground, wrapping around the mech, holding it in place. Struggling in vain, the wrappings forcibly extend another of its arms, which Pyrrha takes the chance to slice it off like the other arm. With no opportunity for it to fight back, Pyrrha unleashes a torrent of slashes as Excalibur glows with a fiery red aura. As she lands the final slash Roman gets sent flying from the cockpit as Pyrrha slices the mech into pieces. The wrappings disintegrate as the two stands over the now destroyed mech. Roman begins to pick himself up, ready to fight the two. But he spots Team RWBY running to join in. Straightening himself out and wiped the dust from his suit.

Roman: "Knight. Magician..."

Emrys: "I'm not a magician.

Roman: "A pleasure meeting you two! Neo, if you would..."

A girl with brown and pink hair holding an umbrella leaps downward and curtsies. All around, the two cracks began to appear and soon shattered to reveal it was an illusion; Pyrrha, Emrys, and now Team RWBY see Roman and Neo escaping on a bullhead.

Ruby: "Dang it! They got away!"

Yang: "And I missed all the fun!"

Blake: "You two alright? Sorry, I had to leave you in the dark like that, but the breaker was the best thing I could think of at the time."

Pyrrha: "Oh! It was no problem at all; we handled ourselves pretty well."

Weiss: "Uh...Pyrrha. Where'd you get the armor?"

Emrys: "Oh, that's me. Sorry." Snapping his fingers, the illusion drops from Pyrrha.

Pyrrha: "What was that?"

Emrys: "An illusion I put on you when I gave you the arcane ward to protect you. I twinned the spell with an illusion to make you appear as a knight, full armor and all. Wanted to make sure your identity was a secret; you are pretty famous, remember."

Blake: "Well, that seemed pretty handy." Ruby kicking one of the pieces of the mech.

Ruby: "Man...I had some really cool team moves I wanted to try."

Yang: "It's okay, Ruby; we'll get them next time."

Emrys: "Yeah, leave us out of it next time. That was enough action for me to last a good while." The six of them begin to head back towards Beacon.

Pyrrha and Emrys walk down the hallway towards Team JNPR's dorm as Emrys offers to walk Pyrrha back to her dorm. An offer which she didn't hesitate to accept.

Emrys: "You fought very bravely out there, and it's very apparent your skill with Excalibur is significantly improving."

Pyrrha: "Well, I couldn't have done it without your help."

Emrys: "*psh* Nonsense, you could've beat him with your eyes closed. I just helped out a small bit, more inconsequential help really."

Pyrrha: "Inconsequential?! Emrys, don't sell yourself short like that. Without your help, I would've been squashed when he hit me through that wall or blown to bits if it weren't for your shield. I would've never sliced through its arms if you hadn't enhanced Excalibur. You're amazing." The two stop as they realize that Pyrrha has taken hold of Emrys's hands.

The two look into the eyes of each other. This had been the first time Pyrrha had met his eyes, and she was amazed. They were a dark blue color, much like the night sky. Even more amazing was that they seemed to shine as if the magic he had been using had permanently left a slight twinkle in them. This was her chance, the chance to tell or even just show him her feelings towards him. She wanted nothing more than to meet his lips with hers. But unfortunately, fate was ever so kind.

Ruby: "*whispering* Guys, they're going to kiss. Look."

The two look over to see Team RWBY peeking through a crack in their door.

Blake: "Guys..they see us."

Yang: "Dangit, Ruby!"

Ruby: "I'm sorry." They close their door, and Emrys and Pyrrha chuckle at their friend's goofiness.

Emrys: "It uh...it looks like we're here."

Pyrrha: "...Yes, looks like it. Well..I'll see you tomorrow. Good night." Letting go of his hands as she walks up to her team's dorm.

Emrys: "Good night, Pyrrha." Softly smiling as she enters her room.