Zach: Guardian of the Multiverse

Chapter 17: Qrows, Magic, and Rifts? Oh no.

    After I came out of the Room and put the key back in my pocket, Ruby was chatting with her team and was an old man who I assumed was the mayor of the village and the client of their assignment. Blair jumped back on my shoulder and asked, "How'd it go?"
    "It went pretty well. I created my first weapon. What about you? What did you do while I was gone?" I said.
    "I explored the area a bit. A cat is always curious, you know. Hm?" She said, looking up.
    I look where she was gazing and noticed a single crow perched on a branch a few feet away. Highly unusual, considering that like all birds crows tend to be in groups. There was something about this bird, however, that got me and Blair uneasy. It seemed to be watching me. I shook my head and thought nothing of it as I made my way back to Ruby and the others.

    After I rejoined them, Ruby was finishing up and turned to me. "Hey, Zach." She said, "We were about to check into a hotel for a couple days to rest. What are you doing?"
    "I think I'll stick around a bit, as well. I'd like to know the town and its people before I head out." I said.
    Once we all got our rooms at an inn not far from the village, I decided to sit down and eat, so I went downstairs where the inn had a bar and restaurant for travelers. I got some potatoes, meat, and greens and for Blair a fish once again. As I was eating I felt like I was being watched.
    "Blair?" I said in a low voice.
    "I feel it, too. We're being watched. And whoever it is, he's close."
    "Yeah." I looked around and looked at a low hanging branch outside. It was that same crow from earlier, watching us. I was so uneasy about it that I couldn't finish my meal.
    We went back upstairs and Ruby invited us to her room. I took her up on it, not wanting to seem like a bad guest. I sat in a chair that was next to two beds and Weiss started to talk, "So, Zach. Tell us about yourself. Where are you from?"

    "Well, lets just say I am from a land far away from here and-" I say before Blake interrupts me.
    "Where? Atlas, Mistral, Haven, Menagerie?" She asked, in a kind of interrogative way.
    "Um... Let's say that its isn't anywhere near those places. Where I am from, we don't have Grimm." I say. When I say that, everyone in the room has a surprised look on their face.
    "What?"
    "You... never had to deal with Grimm? Not even once?" Asked Yang.
    "No. We never dealt with Grimm. Only politics, science, and life."
    "Must have been one great childhood." Yang said, sarcastically.
    I never told them about how I was from another dimension in the end, though Blake, Yang, and Weiss were still very suspicious. I can't say I blame them. If a total stranger said they never once dealt with monsters, how would you feel? Pretty soon nighttime was approaching and we wished each other good night.

    Once Blair and I were back in our room, Blair hopped on one of the beds and turned into her human form and stretched. "They seem nice. And I gotta say it's nice to be a human every once and a while." She said as she laid back in her bed.
    "Yeah, although I'm not sure about Ruby's teammates. They all seem a little too suspicious." I gaze out the window at the broken moon in the sky. I wonder what kind of power was able to make half of the moon explode. The thing is a sixth the size of Earth, but I was too tired to dwell on the fact. I look over at Blair and she was already asleep. I took that as my queue to go to bed. When I got to bed I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

    When I woke up, Blair went from her bed and was sound asleep in her cat form right next to me. I got up without waking her and went down to get breakfast. When I was done, I walked over to Ruby and her team. They were talking to a man, probably in his 30s or early 40s, with black hair and a black goatee, red eyes, and reeked of alcohol. He stopped talking to the girls and looked right at me. He didn't say anything, but his eyes said everything.

    "Oh, Zach. This is my Uncle Qrow." Said Ruby with an innocent smile on our face.
    "So, your name is Qrow. Bit of an odd name, if you mind me saying." I said, looking at him with suspicion. There was something about this guy that rubbed me the wrong way.
    "It isn't that bad. My sister's name is Raven." He said in a gruff voice. "Where is that cat you were talking to yesterday?"
    My eyes went wide with shock. After a few seconds of awkward silence, I drew my sword and had it set to dull mode, which isn't easy to tell from a distance, as we were a few feet from each other.
    "Guys?" Asked Ruby, concerned.
    "You," I said, "You were the crow spying on us yesterday. I never pegged you for a shape shifter. Though I am still new to this place, so I am surprised by anything."
    Qrow merely chuckled and brought out a whiskey flask and took a swig. "I'm not a shapeshifter. But I do have powers." He got up and walked up to me, "Why don't we talk outside?" He waked outside with me close behind, my guard way up.
    Once we were outside, Qrow stood about ten feet away from me. "So, where were you yesterday? Looked to me like you were in that old house for a while. Well after you went in, I wanted to follow you. But once I opened the door after you closed it, there was nothing but an empty house. I think its a little weird you vanished without a trace in just a few seconds."
    I slowly clap in a sarcastic way. "Wow. You're an observant one. I was somewhere else." Blair jumped on my shoulder, yawning. "What's going on?" She asked in a low voice.
    "Well, Blair. Turns out that crow spying on us was non other than that guy. He's close to finding out the truth." Since the cat was out of the bag, I talked in a normal tone so he can hear me.
    "A talking cat, huh? That's a new one." Qrow reached behind him and brought out a metal capsule, which quickly turned into a sword that would make the Buster Sword look like a dagger. "So, are we gonna fight? Or are you scared?"

    I quickly swung at Qrow with blinding speed, which flung Blair off my shoulder and she jumped on Ruby's, who came out with her team a bit earlier. I swung my sword with such speed and power it would have cut a tree, but Qrow just stood there and blocked me blow for blow. It was clear he has more fighting experience than I do. No matter how hard and how fast I swung, he would block or parry it.
    "You're not a bad fighter." I said. "But I have something you don't." I used magic to turn the blade into its laser edge and Qrow looked surprised and jumped back a few feet.
    "Magic, huh? Not every day you someone who can do that." Qrow said, with a smirk still on his face, "But I have my Semblance, which won't help either of us."
    "And why is that?" I asked.
    Ruby shouted, "His Semblance is Bad Luck. It changes the amount of bad circumstances to everyone around him in battle!"

    With that I grinned and kept fighting, the laser edge making Qrow more wary, which left more openings for me to go in with some punches. After a few minutes of fighting, the Nexus alarmed.

    "WARNING! RIFT IMMINENT." The Nexus warned. Before either of us had time to think, the very air around us exploded in a huge shockwave that knocked us all flat on our backs. After a few seconds of blurry vision and the ringing in my ears soon stopped and I got my bearings. I noticed we were all flown back over a hundred yards back from the blast. The next thing I noticed was that where we were standing a tear in the air itself opened up. It was similar to how my portals looked, but shaky and unstable. Then something came out of it. Something I have only seen in legends.

    Out of the tear came a huge beast, about 12 feet tall and bipedal, rippling with muscles and was human. All except for its head. Instead of a human head was the head of a bull. With three foot horns on either side of its head and a nose ring. It was roaring with such intensity that it made visible sound waves in the air.

    "What is that?!" Screamed Qrow.

    "It.... It's the Minotaur!" I screamed in horror. What in the world happened?