So The Hunt Begins Again...

Good Fight

Here is chapter 4 for your reading entertainment! I hope you enjoy.

The fight began but neither of us moved. It only just occurred to me I had no idea how Weiss fought. She carried a rapier but that only offered so much insight. She could fight like the servants at Cainhurst Castle who were erratic, or she could be calm and calculated like the fiendish Vileblood invaders I'd fought in the past. Considering she did not move, I thought it best to test her by taking a few cautionary steps forward. Her eyes met mine as she drew her weapon and before I knew it she was in my face. A plethora of calculated jabs and slashes were made to which I dodged and parried off my cane. She was relentless but I met her every swing and I could see her tiring. She stabbed and I sidestepped to her left, then brought my cane up for a quick slash across her side. When she recoiled I moved again for a counter attack, this time just before she raised her rapier I brought my pistol to bear and fired at her. Just as I pulled the trigger a strange rune appeared on the end of my pistol, stopping the bullet from hitting her and redirecting it back at me. I panicked in an attempt to dodge but the bullet grazed my shoulder in said attempt. Weiss saw this and lunged forward aiming for my center. It was at this moment I saw the revolving cylinder at the base of her sword start to rotate and I knew she was going to shoot me. Shoot me she did. I fell to one knee in a flash of smoke and fire as a taste of blood came to my lips. I pulled my mask down and spat onto the floor. She had shot me dead center in the chest and boy did it hurt. Child or not she was fighting hard, I had to step up my game.

I stood to my feet and readied myself as she hopped back. I pressed the small button on my cane and brought it into its whip form. Elegant and dangerous, I thought to myself. I loaded my pistol and took slow calculated steps towards her as blood dripped from my lips. She looked surprised and I took that chance to leap towards her bringing my whip overhead in an attempt to stagger her. As luck would have it, the whip connected across her shoulder and down her front followed by a small white flash. That was odd. The fight continued and we began trading blows back and forth but soon I had a chance to end the fight. As she began to move forward she brought her rapier up to stab but this time I waited until it nearly struck, then fired my pistol. The shot made contact and she fell to her back, losing her grip on her weapon causing it to go skidding across the floor. I raised my whip and swung it back down to cane form, pointed at Weiss's neck. She yielded and I offered her a hand up which she, in turn, smacked away.

"Good fight," I commented, she huffed and went to retrieve her weapon. "Or not." I turned back towards the rest of the team and Yang came forward. "Don't sweat it Ed, Weiss cream can be a bit of a stick in the mud." Ruby came up on her right and nodded. "Can we fight now? Pleeeaaaaase!" I looked down at her and sighed. "I'm sorry Ruby not right this second, would you mind if I took a break first?" She looked a bit defeated at first but then nodded with a smile. As I was lead back to the stands Blake and Yang looked to be getting ready for their spar. This would be an interesting fight to watch.

Seldom have I ever seen a fight end in a draw, but both Yang and Blake stood a distance from each other, breathing rather heavily. They nodded to each other and brought themselves to the stands and sat down. Ruby hopped up and looked to me "Ready?" I nodded and grabbed my scythe from the seat next to me and we made our way to the ring.

We stood across from each other ready to fight. "I'm ready!" I called to Ruby and she nodded to me. I readied the Burial Blade, slamming the blade into the handle and bringing it over my shoulder. Ruby watched my scythe and I watched her. Wonder what she's planning, I thought to myself. She put her scythe, or Crescent Rose as I had learned, over her shoulder and vanished in a flurry of rose petals. I was shocked and began looking around following the petals. I brought my scythe over my right shoulder and across my back into my left hand getting ready to swing, the tip flashed a light blue as the rose petals neared me and our weapons clashed. The sound of the collision rocked the training room as the sparks that flew from each weapon caught the petals on fire. In what could only be described as a dance in fire, we traded blows but none landed. The sounds of the weapons colliding continued to echo through the room. I don't think I have been in such an intense fight, not since Lady Maria.

I took a large step back and extended my scythe out over Ruby's head. Once it was behind her I pulled forward as hard as I could. In doing so I not only pulled her forwards but her hood came down. She was momentarily blinded. I used this to my advantage and brought the scythe across my back, again waiting for the flash. The swing made contact and Ruby was sent flying across the arena, but she rolled and quickly recovered. Once she was back on her feet she jumped into the air and fired her scythe, propelling herself at me faster than a bullet. She made contact with me and her scythe slashed across my chest, this time blood flew and coated the floor, as well as the rose petals fluttering towards it. I dropped to one knee and my weapon hit the ground. She hit me hard, who knew someone so small could pack such a punch.         I coughed blood and made to stand to my feet, stumbling as I did so. I looked to Ruby to yield and she gasped as she saw the blood on the ground. "Why didn't his aura stop the hit?" I heard Weiss ask. "What aura?" The team looked at me in surprise. I put my hand to my chest, only to realise the amount of blood I was losing. She had cut me pretty deep. "Don't worry I just need some blood." I turned to make my way to the stands, collapsing before I could make it. "Ow." I said as I hit the ground and blacked out.

Ahhhhh I'm a piece of shit with all these cliffhangers, but don't worry a new chapter will be right behind this one coming in the following days. Some good news is I've got a proofreader!  A close friend of mine I kidnapped and made play Bloodborne. Luckily he liked it! So here it is chapter 4 of So The Hunt Begins Again... for your reading entertainment!

Proofreader here. I want to clarify, I do not come up with the story. Every piece of credit goes to Jet. I just look for small errors in grammar, or change word order now and again. This is his work, and I appreciate it for what it is. I hope you do too!