Team SHDW Volume 2

Chapter 5: Tipping Point

Ren walked away from the others, "I know my parents did."

"What happened?" Ruby asked

Ren brushed some dirt off of the stone border of a low wall to reveal claw marks, "What always happens."

"The Grimm," Skyler finished with an angry look on his face.

Ren tightened his hands into fists, "Not just any, one."

Ruby briefly faced Nora in confusion, but Nora didn't move her concerned gaze away from Ren, so Ruby turned back to him, "One?"

Ren never answered. With that bright thought, the group was silent before Jaune spoke up.

"Come on," he said, "Let's just get through here. This place gives me the creeps."

"Agreed," Skyler replied, turning to leave along with the others.

Ren lingered for a moment for a few moments, seemingly in thought, but then followed. Ruby was the last to move as she looked over the empty village. Leaves blew through the air behind her after she followed her friends. As the five members of Team RNJRS continued out of Oniyuri, Ren suddenly stopped, sensing something. He put out his hand to stop his four friends, his eyes closing as he focused. Ren drew his weapon, and after seeing this, the others immediately followed suit. A man then suddenly leaped high over the wall to engage them in combat. He immediately took out his weapons in a seamless motion and, laughing eagerly, moved to attack Ruby.

Ren intervened first, StormFlower clashing with the claw blades. Ren attempted to both kick and shoot the man, but he dodged. The two had a couple more attacks and parries until the man kicked Ren several feet away and went after Ruby again, but was blocked again, this time by Skyler, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere in the man's eyes, Kasai now locked in a clash with the claw blades. Skyler pulled the trigger on the hilt of his sword, causing an explosion of fire, pushing them both back. But before the leader of SHDW could react, the man already recovered, ran up to him, and knocked him away.

The man continued after Ruby, who rushed forward with Crescent Rose to meet him. The man used his blades to block the scythe and kicked Ruby backward, but she easily remained upright and they clashed again. But this time, the attacker managed to land a strike on Ruby's right arm, causing her to cry out at the pain and him to laugh. She's didn't break stride though, and leaped back to take a swing at him with her scythe, but he dodged and then landed a moving blow against the body of Crescent Rose, causing a red shimmer to cross her Aura in the area of the strike.

Jaune stepped in at that moment, but the man jumped onto his shield and propped himself up there, giving Jaune a crazy grin. Nora rushed in with Magnhild, but the man just leapt from Jaune's shield to her hammer and up through the top story of a narrow, rectangular building. Holding himself up with his feet on wooden frames to either side of him, the attacker looked down at Team RNJRS.

"We're not looking for a fight!" Jaune exclaimed.

"Who are you?" Skyler demanded.

The man leaned forward, grinning maniacally. He then dropped from the tower, did a front flip, and landed on his feet in front of them.

"Who I am matters not to you," the man pointed at Ren, then to Nora, "Or you. Or-"

He cut himself off, paused, and pointed two fingers at Jaune and Skyler, "Well... you two do interest me."

Jaune and Skyler looked to each other and back at the man with confused expressions before he continued, "No, I only matter... to you."

He pointed at Ruby, and the rest of RNJRS turned to look at her as she tilted her head in confusion, "Me?"