Team SHDW Volume 2

Chapter 9: Bloodmane

Skyler knew he had struck gold when he mentioned her height. It must be a sore spot. Only later did he realize that that metaphorical gold was fool's gold.

"By all means," Bloodmane said through gritted teeth, "Make fun of my height one more time... See what happens."

"I'm sorry, I can't see you. Shall I get a step stool so you can look me in the eyes when you threaten me?"

The girl suddenly disappeared into the ground, startling Skyler. He barely had time to look down to see a shadow snake it's way across the ground, stop at his feet, and all of a sudden, Bloodmane's body popped out of it, slashing at his jaw. Luckily, his instincts saved him, managing to activate his Semblance to slow down time and jump back and out of the way. When he was back on his feet, she had disappeared again.

'What the heck was that?' he thought, referring to her disappearance, 'Her Semblance?'

But he was so busy thinking and looking around for his opponent, he didn't notice the shadow hiding within his own, and Bloodmane popped up out of it, "Peekaboo!!"

She slashed at him with her two daggers, but Skyler managed to to slash back in kind with Kasai, the blades colliding, and the two warriors locked in that clash. The two glared at each other. Skyler thought it was pretty weird how he had to look down at someone while in a blade clash, but kept silent. Because she was actually overpowering him. She then quickly swept his legs out from under him, causing him to start falling.

But just before he hit the ground, he stabbed Kasai into the dirt and pulling its trigger. The resulting blast propelled him back up, and he swiftly kicked his foot up, hitting her right in the chin. As she fell backwards, Skyler was able to land on his feet, but Bloodmane disappeared as soon as she hit the ground. After that, he caught a glimpse of a shadow snaking its way across the ground and towards him.

'So that's what her Semblance is...' Skyler thought before she popped out again, this time pouncing directly at him.

The two locked in another blade clash, this time Skyler managing to keep even with her, but he was slowly beginning to lose ground. The girl smirked at him.

"I hope you realize that this place will be your grave, you arrogant douche," she said.

"Was that your best insult?" Skyler retorted, starting to grin angrily, "It must have been made of paper, because it was tearable."

"Was that a pun, you moron?" Bloodmane replied, holding back a groan, "Because that's just idiotic!"

"I learned from the best, you insensitive jerk!"

This continued for... well, let's not get into specifics. After a while, the clash had lost all of its weight, and the fighting banter just devolved into a huge mess of name calling, which also quickly devolved into a mess of random name calling. As an example, here's about ten seconds of that banter:

"MIDGET!!!"

"BUTTMUNCH!!!"

"EXPIRED COUPON!!!"

"SPAM EMAIL!!!"

"WET SOCK!!!"

"ITCHY SWEATER!!!"

"UNNECESSARY MOVIE SEQUEL!!!"

"I HATE YOU!!!"

"I HATE YOU A SLIGHTLY LARGER AMOUNT!!!"

Any passerby with no context whatsoever could have easily confused this fight as a lovers' quarrel. After realizing their clash was practically ineffective at this point, Skyler began to get a second wind and pushed forward.

"You know what?" Skyler told her, "I don't have time for you, shorty."

The bandit woman's eyes widened before speaking in a calm, soft voice, "...What did you just call me?"

Even the voice seemed nervous at this, ~Um... look, I don't think this is in your best interest right now...~

Now Skyler continued just to spite the voice, "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to offend you... little girl."

Bloodmane jumped back, landed, and took a deep breath, her expression hidden behind her hair. When she looked up at him, he saw the most terrifying glare he'd ever seen in his life.

"Now you've done it."

And faster than he could blink, she closed the distance between them and slashed at his neck, his Aura crackling green at the hit. He sliced back, but she was gone again, and he felt her kick him in the back. As he fell, he felt her grab one of his arms, and Bloodmane tossed him into a tree. His Aura flared up again when he hit the ground and got to his knees, and he felt a major headache, strong enough to make him grasp his head in pain.

~You're starting to run low! How about letting me have a turn!~

"Shut up..." Skyler argued weakly, the sight in one of his eyes suddenly becoming blurry.

~Oh, but I don't think I will! Let me help you! Let me FIGHT!~

Bloodmane stalked towards Skyler, whose hand had fallen from his head, limp. Not really caring about the sudden demeanor change, she reached him and raised her daggers.

"I was really hoping for more of challenge, kid," she said with a disappointed voice before bring down her blades, "Too bad..."

But before they reached his head, his hands shot up and grabbed the blades, stopping the weapons dead in their tracks. Bloodmane's eyes widened in shock as a black-colored Aura flashed across Skyler's body. Shivers ran down the female's spine when she heard giggling coming out of the boy's mouth. Then he looked up at her, a maniacal grin widening on his face and his eyes became black with red pupils.

"That's a lovely face you've got there..." he told her, his voice becoming slightly higher pitched and tone matching his grin, "It would be a shame if someone..."

He then pounced, "RIPPED IT TO SHREDS!!!"
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Man, I've been waiting so long to write Bloodmane's character! She's so overpowered, it's hilarious. viperBreak really went all out in creating her. Me and H20FLAME joke about how she's so overpowered, she could take on everyone we've ever created for this little expanded universe. And we're only half-joking. Because Rose could probably pull it off.

I actually didn't plan to have the voice do anything in this chapter except for regular temptation, but I got the idea to expand this fight into next chapter using it, and then show how this fight ended, and the introduction to one of the freakiest Grimm out there. Till next time guys!