Me: Sure Excal's Exalted Blade is totally awesome, but let's not spam it please.
Players: Spams Exalted Blade.
- - - - -
The Kingdom of Vale was preparing for the celebration of the Vytal Festival. All around the town were ribbons, balloons, and lots of other celebration decorations set up to welcome the other students coming from the other Kingdoms.
Sybairn takes all of this in with amazement, Earth has and probably never will hold something like this with all that political crap they throw at each other, especially since the President of the great country of America formed a political relationship with the Dictator of North Korea. He wondered what happened to them, not that it was relevant anymore, both countries don't have their shape anymore when they were reformed by the Orokin while he was in Cryosleep.
He looks up and sees a poorly worked, but friendly welcoming banner, he chuckled reading, "Welcome to Vale."
"The Vytal Festival!" Weiss exclaimed, arms open at her excitement, "Oh this is absolutely wonderful!"
"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much Weiss." Ruby said, putting an arm against her side, "It's kind of weirding me out."
Sybarin turns and sees them with their weapons holstered with them. He saw them earlier, but never actually noticed them, he wondered why did the girls bring their weapons with them. One of his many questions of the universe that could never be answered.
"How could you not smile?" Weiss turned to her, excitement was growing even more in her, "A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world!"
"Sounds like something that's not big enough to have space for every culture around the world." Sybarin commented.
Weiss continued, ignoring him, "There will be dances, parades, a tournament!" she turns with joyful finesse and continued walking, "Oh with the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking."
Sybarin only rolls his eyes at her.
Yang sighs, "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring."
Weiss turns to her and yaps, "Quiet you."
"Yeah, and there are just wayyy... too many cultures back in my time to like all of them." Sybarin said, sassily, "I wasn't very intrigued by the movies made by this one movie kingdom in one country. They try too hard to make their characters look cool with these... epic cuts where the scene goes slo-mo. You girls have movies, you know what I mean by slo-mo."
"Oh yeah." Yang nodded, "Totally. But it's not a really commonly used element though. It ruins the flow of the scene, and makes them look uncomfortably cool if they tried. Lots of us didn't like it."
They turned to see the port and sees a boat taking port. Sybarin grimaces in disgust at the smell of fish in the air, although there were mysteriously no fish or fishing boat in sight, he assumed it was the smell of the salt water.
"Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks." Yang said, rich with disinterest and boredom in her voice.
Ruby pinched her nose and also grimaced in disgust, "Ugh, they smell like fish."
"I wanna sleep." Sybarin quietly frowned.
"I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today." Weiss said with glee, obviously planning something. She turns to the group and adds, "And as a representative of Beacon, I feel that it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom."
Fed up with Weiss' posh and rich glee behavior, he takes an exaggerated girly attitude making a mocked version of her current excitement, speaking in a mocking girly tone and waving around like a girly idiot, "Oh, look at me. I'm pretty little Weiss. And I am the most important person here in Vale, everyone put the spotlights to me."
Weiss shot him a look while everyone else helplessly snickered. "How dare you!" she snapped.
"But that's how you sound like." Sybarin grinned.
Weiss stammers, "I- I do not!"
Everyone else opposed at the same time, "Yes you do."
Weiss was at a loss and just turns away.
The group proceed walking when Ruby turns to the road turning left and sees a crime scene. She breathes in surprise, "Whoa."
Everyone turns to her and turns to where she was looking at, seeing the crime scene as well. Exchanging looks they follow Ruby to the Dust shop with police tape placed on the broken windows and door in an excessive effort, two police detectives stand and investigate the area recapping on what they have gathered.
Ruby nears the police tape to mark the space of the scene and asks either of the detectives, "What happened here?"
The one who replied had a stubble on his face and wore really dark tinted sunglasses, "Robbery, second Dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle." he walked away to inspect one of the broken windows.
Yang scoughs, "That's terrible."
"They left all the money again!" The other detective with a skinnier build frowned out with a slang accent that Sybarin didn't clearly understand what he said.
"Nah, it doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?" the stubbed detective asked.
His partner shrugged, "I dunno, ya na wha a mean."
"You thinking it's the... White Fang?"
"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough." he frowned, and walks out of the scene following his partner.
Weiss folded her arms in disgust, "Hmph, the White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates."
Everyone looks at her in surprise at her strong statement, and Blake asks before Sybarin could, "What's your problem?"
"My problem?" Weiss says, turning to Blake, "I simply don't care for the criminally insane."
"That's a really harsh way to speak about a group of insurgent Faunas." Sybarin said, uncomfortable with her strong choice of words.
"Sybarin is right. The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths, they're a collection of misguided Faunas." Blake defended.
Sybarin turns to her in surprise of what she described the White Fang as.
"Misguided!?" Weiss exclaims in confusion, and states arguably, "They want to wipe off humanity off the face of the planet."
"So then they're very misguided." Blake argues, and turns back to the scene, "Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of Downtown Vale."
Ruby contemplates on what Blake said, "Hmm... Blake's got a point." she agrees, and added, "Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago... maybe it was him?"
Sybarin tries to piece together the issue in his mind when Weiss continued on her arrogant march of words with an arrogant tone, "That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum." she unfolded her arms and looked to the group, "Those Faunas only know how to lie, cheat and steal."
Sybarin snaps at her, "Weiss, quit it. You're becoming very unreasonable."
"Yeah, that's not necessarily true." Yang supported.
Suddenly a man from the distance yells out in distress, "Hey! Stop that faunus!"
Everyone turns and rushes back to the docks and sees a monkey faunus running out of the ship that just docked, pursued by two crewmen only to lose them when he jumps out of the ship into the dock.
"You no-good stowaway!" an angry crew member yells out.
The group watched as he hung himself on a dock lamp with his tail and started peeling a banana, "Hey! A no-good stowaway would have been caught." he taunted and adds, "I'm a great stowaway."
He leans to the side just in time to dodge a rock that was hurled straight for him, he looks down and sees the two detectives from the crime scene earlier approaching him.
The stubbed detective ordered with a poor attempt to authoritative tone, "Hey, get down from there this instant."
The faunus frowns and throws the banana peel at his face infuriating the detective. Quickly, he jumps off and runs up the main street as the detectives start pursuing him. The group watches as he starts running their direction and dashes right past them.
Sybarin pauses for a moment and suddenly snaps out of his bubble, "Wait, WHAT!? Why did we just let him run past us!? We could have stopped him!"
"Quick, after him!" Weiss yells out in urgency and starts running followed by everyone else.
They follow the chase down into the town and into a walkway. Sybarin tries to keep up saving his abilities when necessary following up right behind Weiss. Weiss turns to a corner where the chase went with Sybarin right behind her. All of a sudden before Sybarin could blink, he crashes into Weiss who crashed into someone else and lands facefirst into the hard brick walkway.
Weiss quickly pushes herself up and watches the faunus jump into an alleyway, she cries out, "No! He got away."
Yang leans over trying to see the person Weiss crashed on and pointed out, "Uh... Weiss."
Weiss looks to her and turns down to where she was pointing to, only to find another girl smile at her, she exclaims in surprise and jumps back. Sybarin recovers from his concussion and get off the girl back to his feet.
"Salutations!" the girl smiled, gesturing a greeting with her hand.
Ruby looked at Weiss in puzzlement, "Um... hello."
"Are you alright?" Yang asked the girl.
"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking." the girl exclaimed happily, still lying on the ground.
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. Then Sybarin asks, "Are... you going to get up?"
Realizing her error there, she nervously smiled in embarrassment and nodded, "Yes." Then with great agility, she jumped back up to her feet and faced the group.
Slightly surprised by her and noticing their close distance from each other, the group all took a step back from the girl at once.
"My name is Penny!" the girl enthusiastically introduced, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Hi Penny," Ruby greeted, "I'm Ruby."
Weiss introduced herself, "I'm Weiss."
"It's Sybarin." he introduced himself.
Then Blake, "Blake."
"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Yang carelessly asked. When Blake jabbed her in the arm, she then corrects herself, "Oh, I'm Yang."
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny exclaimed again.
"You already said that." Weiss said.
Sybairn rolled his eyed and sighed, as if he was so done with her.
Penny awkwardly paused and smiled again, "So I did."
"Well, sorry for running into you." Weiss apologized, turning and walking away.
"Take care, friend." Ruby waved at her as she followed them.
Penny paused for a moment and turned her head up to them in surprise.
The team walked back down the street to where they came from. As they walked down, they all kept to themselves and remained silent, weirded out with Penny's rather odd behavior.
After they've distanced themselves well from the walkway, Yang spoke up, "She was... weird."
"Well," Sybarin shrugged, "maybe she's not good at socializing and doesn't talk well with people. In my eyes, it's clear as day."
"Right." she nodded.
"Now, where did that Faunas riff raff run off to?" Weiss said almost angrily.
Sybarin opened his mouth to rebuke her but suddenly stopped wide eyed when he turned forward and suddenly sees Penny standing in front of them.
Penny leaned to them and asked, "What did you call me?"
Yang shot her hands to chest height and started waving them frantically, "Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely think you didn't hear me."
"No, not you..." Penny said, shaking her head. She walked past the group to the very back... at Ruby, "You!"
Sybarin tilted his head in confusion and curiosity, and exchanged confused looks with Blake beside him.
"Me!?" Ruby yipped in panic and confusion at her statement and close distance from her, "I- I don't know, I- what I-um, uh-"
"You called me 'friend'. Am I really your friend?" she asked with a sense of strong hope.
Sybairn's expression gentled at what he noticed, seeing himself in her desiring and hopeful tone. It was a painful memory as well, at the time he didn't seem like to someone who'd care, but no one actually ever took notice of him which makes it the case. Every once in a while he'd look over afar and see groups of other students in his school hanging out with others on his way home. Even though he didn't want that type of relationship, he was one of those loners who wanted someone to call a friend. If that him was here now, he'd definitely say he'll be Penny's friend in an instant.
Sybairn's bubble popped when he noticed everyone waving their hands 'no' behind Penny's back, to Ruby who was looking to them for help. In a quick move, he gestured for her to say yes, there was no one there to rescue him from his neglective state at his time, but he will be there for Penny. Hopefully, Ruby will see something in her too.
Ruby noticed Sybairn's gesture and turned back to Penny, "Ya sure. Why not."
The girls paused and dropped to the ground, Sybarin only folded his arms and smiled at her in approval.
Penny grew a big smile on her face and joyfully laughed with her arms up, "Sen-sational!" she put her hands down and started listing the girly stuff they could do, "We can paint our nails, try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"
Ruby face tightened in tension and leaned to Weiss, "Oh... was this what was like when you met me?"
Weiss replied, dusting herself, "No, she seems far more coordinated."
"So," Yang turned to Penny, "what are you doing in Vale?"
"I'm here to fight in the tournament." Penny replied.
Weiss blinked in surprise and exchanged looks with Sybairn, "Wait... your fighting in the tournament?"
"I'm combat ready!" Penny exclaimed, doing a military salute.
At that moment, Sybarin suspected she was from Atlas. In his eyes she could only use that with exposure in enough military, unless it was something else.
"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part."
"Says the girl wearing a dress." Blake and Sybairn said simultaneously, both mirroring the other.
"It's a combat skirt." Weiss objected, proudly smiling.
Ruby dashed beside her and gave a proud smile, "Yeah!"
Weiss held out a hand, Ruby slapped it. Sybarin rolled his eyes and scoffed in amusement, noticing that Ruby also wears the same get up as her, how did he not see this before.
Weiss' smile suddenly faded, "Wait a minute." she walked up to Penny and grabbed her by the shoulders, "If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed... rapscallion."
Penny tilted her head in confusion, "The who?"
Out of nowhere, Weiss magically holds up a hideous drawing of the faunus that Sybarin and Blake looked at offended, "The filthy faunus from the boat!"
Fed up and angered to breaking point, Blake shot at Weiss, "Why do you keep saying that!?"
Weiss looked at Blake, "Huh!"
"Stop calling him a rapscallion. Stop calling him a degenerate. He's a person!" Blake rebuked angrily.
Sybarin watched in dismay at the two when he suddenly felt his scroll vibrate in his pocket, he drew it out and reads out the message sent from Ozpin, 'Please come to my office. We wish to discuss certain matters with you.' He puts the scroll away quickly and turns back to the two.
Weiss let go of Penny and started arguing back, "Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like me to stop referring to this trash can as a trash can,"
Blake gritted her teeth in fury and Sybarin started walking up to the two.
Weiss continued gesturing to the nearby lamp post, "or this lamppost as a lamppost."
"Weiss!" Sybarin shot at her, "Cut it out now!"
"Cut what out, Sybairn?" Weiss snapped back, "He clearly broke the law. Give him time, he'll probably join those other faunas in the White Fang."
Blake then clenches her fist and growls in frustration, "You ignorant little brat!"
Sybairn grabs Blake and Weiss by the arms and yells at both of them in frustration, "Enough! Both of you." he turns to Weiss, "Weiss, that monkey has broken the law, but that gives you no right to throw that kind of prejudice to him or the entire Faunas race like that." then he turns to Blake, "As for you, I see why you'd defend that faunus, but the White Fang are insurrectionists and have committed war crimes. Stay out of their affiliations."
Blake yanked her hand from Sybairn's grip and angrily walked away. To her, Sybarin was in no position to stop her, and Weiss had no right to treat the faunus how she does.
Sybairn lets go of Weiss' arm and turns to Ruby and Yang, "I have to go back to Beacon, Ozpin's calling me."
"Sure, we'll take care of Weiss and Blake for you." Yang said, nodding.
Sybairn ran past them, transferred into his Warframe and summoned his Archwing taking off back to Beacon at a high speed.
Yang and Ruby turned back to Weiss and Blake who both went back to arguing.
Yang moved closer beside Ruby and said uncomfortably, "We should go."
"Go where?" Penny yipped enthusiastically.
- - - - -
Sybarin rocketed to Beacon Tower and landed smoothly at the front of the building and walked inside. Multiple students looked at him an awe and amazement to see the rumored Tenno.
Entering the tower and stepping into an elevator, he presses the button that he recalls Ozpin pressing the first time he was there, then he noticed the text placed beside each button stating the floor they're meant for, Sybarin felt like an idiot for not noticing it.
Ozpin takes a sip from his mug looking out of his window, he turns and approves entry when his terminal starts beeping, notifying him of an entering visitor. "Come in." he called out.
The elevator door opened and Sybarin stepped into the office for a second time. "You needed to see me for something important?" he asked, and added, "I have a feeling that this involves something serious and bad relating to me."
Ozpin paused and exchanged looks with Glynda who Sybarin didn't notice until he looked at her, he turned back to Sybarin and replied, "Well, it's nothing bad about you. In fact, Glynda here has been discussing with me concerning your Warframe's abilities to control pure light since the incident you first used them during class."
Sybarin nervously smiled at that reference, "Yeah..."
"So as of that, we have come to the theory that your ability can be effective in combating the Grimm, considering they are the embodiment of darkness." Ozpin explained, and took a sip from his mug and continued, "So we ask of you to test your abilities this afternoon and allow us to observe you to see if our theory proves right."
"Okay..." Sybarin agrees uncertainly and asks, "I will come to you when I'm ready. I won't take long."
"Whatever you deem necessary, but the main focus here is your abilities' effectiveness against the Grimm."
Sybarin nodded, "Alright... I'll call you when I'm ready."
- - - - -
Ozpin and Glynda stood over the cliff and watched as Sybarin flew over to the marked location that Ozpin gave him. Not only was he interested in Sybarin and his Warframe's abilities, but also in how he'll fight the Grimm, he was told that the Tenno have ended the empire that betrayed them and have won against massive armies in small numbers, so they must possess great skill in combat.
Sybarin tried to focus on getting to his assigned station, he was told that it was quite infested with the Grimm at the moment and that it would be the best place to test his abilities. It's not that he disagrees with Ozpin or anything, in fact he's glad he got this opportunity because of the fact that he hasn't actually engaged in what he'd consider actual combat ever since he got here, the only combat he fights are the sessions in Ms. Goodwitch's classes. But it bugs him is that he's got a feeling that Ozpin's interested in his abilities for more reasons that he's not telling him, that they're for something bigger, and Sybarin doesn't like it when those happen.
He continued on and realized he reached his destination when he sees a heavy infestation of Grimm monsters swarming the forest below. He dissipated his Archwing and rocketed down, hammering his Dex Dakras to the ground and knocking several Beowolves off their feet.
The other black creatures turned to him and gave a deathly snarl at the Tenno. Sybarin only got into stance and waited for their first move.
Then one of the Beowolves jumped and slashes its claw at him, but only ended up missing and being sliced in half. Sybarin straightened his sword and faced the pack snarling at him.
As they charged at him, he started taking them out with great skill and grace. Then after having used up most of his ammunition for his Lato and Argonak and performed kills by throwing both of his swords, he finally drew out his Exalted Blade. Sending waves of pure light speeding through and cutting clean through the monsters so easily like how it does for the low tier enemies Sybarin fought.
As he noticed more Grimm of different types hoarding closer to him, he raised the Blade and charged it, releasing a blinding flash of light. But as he used Radial Blind, it didn't blind the monsters at all, it obliterated the Grimm's bodies and left no traces behind. Sybairn looked to the Blade made of pure light and glares over to the next wave of incoming creatures.
Getting into stance with his Blade, he breathes, "Come at me."
The creatures let out their battle cry as they charged at the Tenno. Calmly and skillfully, he bullet jumps to the center of the group of monsters and uses Radial Blind again mid air, obliterating several Beowolves and the Deathstalker with them. Upon landing he slam attacks his Blade to the ground and uses Radial Javelin, spearing multiple enemies at once.
Another Beowolve jumped at him and manages to deliver a slash at him, knocking him off his feet. It jumps on him and tries attempts to bite at him, only to have the Blade made of pure light slice the upper part of its head off from the mouth.
Sybarin bullet jumps to recover and evade the Beowolves that attempted to pounce on him. Upon his landing, an Ursa slashes at him from behind and hurls him to a tree. Another Beowolve slashes at his chest and knocks him to the ground. Then one after another, the Beowolves piled on him as he struggled to keep them off of him, slashing and stabbing all while trying to get back up on his feet.
Learning of his situation, Sybarin charges his Exalted Blade while slashing at the monsters at the same time to keep them off him. He only thought of this as a theory and never actually found any way to find if it works, but what if he focused the Void energy he himself uses along with the energy he uses in his Warframe, both energies together despite being the same can serve as a sort of bypass to make the ability stronger than it normally does but at the cost of more energy.
The creatures of Grimm infesting the area are all coming to him at once, Sybarin took notice of this but wanted to see how far can he push the bypass.
Shortly after, he felt a sudden fatigue in his body and his head lighten, he tripped over himself and crawled away from the Beowolve that landed in front of him.
The Grimm raised its claw and growled to slash at the weakened Tenno. Out of quick thinking, Sybarin finally raised the blade and released a blinding blast wave of light, obliterating all of the Grimm infesting the area.
The Blade dissipated from Sybarin's hand, and the Tenno laid on his back, exhausted. Learning of his discovery, he observed that the bypass worked, but with difficulty and a fatal flaw of it weakening the body due to it probably being unable to handle the amount of accumulating energy. In conclusion, such a method must only be used as a last resort.
Sybairn sighed and closed his eyes.
- - - - -
"I must say," Ozpin smiled, "the level of skill you display in combat is quite impressive compared to what you display in class. Despite the downfalls you've had"
Sybarin shrugged, smiling a bit in pain, "They put up a fight, the Grimm fight like the Infested, they lack strategies and tactics. I was trying something new, but I somehow felt like something was holding me back."
"Well, but you have proved skilled in the field." Ozpin nodded, and took out his scroll, "I believe I will have to look more into this concerning what your ability has done today. The only thing that actually is close to what your Radial Blind has done, is the power of silver eyed warriors."
"Warriors with silver eyes?" Sybarin wondered, scratching his chin, "Like Ruby's eyes?"
"So you have taken notice of them too."
"Well, it's her eyes we're talking about. It's the first thing everyone sees when they look at someone... unless it's the Slender Man." he shuddered at the thought of the faceless, pale, and slender towering fictional monster.
Ozpin grunted in amusement and continued, "I'm sure that after today, you'll just want to rest. So I'll summarize it for you. Silver eyed warriors have the rare trait of having silver eyes, and with that is their ability to use it to petrify the creatures of Grimm into stone."
"Oh..." Sybarin scoffed, "I get it." He stretched his arms and yawned, "Well... I'll be heading back now. I'll probably do nothing over the weekend."
"Well, enjoy yourself for the weekend." Ozpin smiled and walked away.
- - - - -
Sybarin continued up the stairs to head to the upper rooms. But the moment he had sight on the hallway, he sees a black blur and feels his heart stop as it speeds right for him at a split second and ram him down the flight of stairs before he could blink.
Sybarin crashed down the stairs, hitting mostly his head on each step as he slid down the flight of stairs and crashed down the bottom floor again. He groans in shock as he lies down on the floor.
"Sybarin, are you okay?" a familiar voice asked.
Sybarin looks up and sees a double Phyrra looking down at him, "oH Hey pHyRra..." he crackled, dazed, "YOu DIdn'T TelL mE yOu haD A TwIn."
Phyrra tilted her hear and maintained her smile with confusion, "Oh, Blake must have bumped you over didn't she."
"bLaKE...?"
Jaune walked over the dazed Tenno and took him by the arm, "Alright come on, let's help him up."
"Right O!" Nora smiled and took the other arm, lifting the Warframe up.
"You alright there, Sybarin." Ren asked, walking beside them.
Sybarin nodded, recovering, "Yeah... I just... thought I saw the Stalker. I could have swore my heart stopped for a second there."
"Um... who's the Stalker?" Phyrra asked.
Sybarin cracked his neck and took a deep sigh, recovering himself, "The Stalker is an old enemy of the Tenno, and a Corpus avenger to be accurate. He's a Tenno assassin who kills us."
"Well, it's nice he doesn't have a way to get here, right?." Phyrra nodded, helping him up the last few steps.
"I pray to God he never does, if He hasn't abandoned us yet after everything." Sybarin tiredly said.
The group reach the hallway for their rooms and finds the door for RWBY's dorm open. Sybairn frees himself from JNPR's help and walks to the dorm slightly dazed, he walks in and finds the entire team fallen in distress.
He sighs and rubs his eyes, "Do I even want to know what happened here?"