The Bloodied Thirty Pieces

14 - That's Where, You'll Find a Me

With the world whipping past her at high speeds, Ruby Rose, one eye a silver glow, ran into something and landed hard on her ass.

Groaning she rose to a sitting position and rubbed her head, feeling another small welt forming as she looked around for whatever shad had hit. There weren't any trees near where she sat, the path clear for around a dozen metres or so and she couldn't see anyone standing in the immediate area. So what had she hit.

A sound immediately in front of her made the young girl pause. A patch of red grass was pressed flat as if something was laying there invisibly and as Ruby watched the flat patch moved and shrunk to two patches shaped like a pair of shoes. A groan of pain and annoyance made Ruby jump and scramble to her feet, one hand going for her weapon instinctively as she watched the two flattened patches.

"Who's there?" Ruby asked. The patches of flattened grass suddenly sprung up and she heard something land off to her right and disappear around a tree before the forest fell silent again.

Ruby looked around the red-tinted forest, taking several small steps towards where the invisible thing had disappeared.

She heard the air whistle to her right, and as she turned on the sound something hit her in the face, knocking her backwards several steps as whatever had hit her scampered away into the undergrowth, laughing like a child.

Her face turning red from the blow and the rage Ruby growled and spun around, looking for whoever was tormenting her. "SHOW YOURSELF!" She screamed; she only got another round or childish laughter that seemed to dance through the trees, its origin untraceable.

'Fuck this' Ruby thought as she turned sharply on her heel and took off running towards Beacon and her murderers. She made it about a metre when something caught the back of her shirt and pulled her back violently, again putting her on her ass.

Spurring a colourful sentence that would have made Yang blush Ruby sprung to her hands and knees facing the way she had came. In front of her, her legs still fading into view stood a girl with olive-tanned skin and a bright energetic smile to match his luminous purple eyes; in one hand she held a long bulky mitch-match weapon of a long harpoon attached to a rounded box with a gun slapped on top, a hilt sticking from the back of the box and a small spike at the end. In the other hand she was holding a half-eaten red shiny apple.

"Ok I admit I'm surprised you made it past Walt and Nik," the purple-eyes girl said as she threw away her apple and stepped away from the tree she was leaning on, revealing another box-weapon-hilt sheathed at her side. "I was sure Nik could handle you, but I guess not."

"Why are you getting in my way!" Ruby spat as she stood up; her hand reached for her weapon while she stood crouched over, staying low and ready to strike. The purple-eyes girl flashed her a smile and placed her free hand on her other weapon.

"I'm Erika, nice to meet ya," the girl said, ignoring Ruby's question. "What's your name?"

"Yyeaaaah!" Ruby yelled as she snapped her weapon opened and charged. With a great resound clashing the massive scythe met the strange harpoon sword as Erika with a smile drew her other weapon.

"That's a strange name," the purple-haired girl chuckled as she danced backwards and rested her weapons on her shoulders. "Would hate to hear your last name."

With a low animalistic growl Ruby fired Crescent Rose and ran forwards, dropping into a furious spin as she neared Erika. Without missing a beat Erika danced out of the way of the blade but stabbed and swung her own blades filling the air with the screech of metal and metal but doing little to slow or stop Ruby's whirlwind attack, the horrid metal screech barely covering the bubbly laughter of the purple haired swordsman.