RWBY||Defender of Remnant

Chapter 69: Battle for Remnant: Part 4

3rd Person POV

Evernight Castle

Leaping into the air, Tyrian cackled, bringing a blade down on Sincline, but he blocked. Spinning and knocking Tyrian away with his tail, Sincline bent backward as Ruby's scythe hissed over his chest, slamming into Cinder's blades and knocking her away.

Watts trained his weapon on Ruby and fired, only for a Glyph to appear in front of her, blocking the attack. "Blake!" Weiss shouted, and the Faunus nodded, launching her weapon toward Watts as Sincline engaged Cinder once more.

Tyrian rolled across the ground and came up running, dashing toward Sincline, his blades gleaming. "That's enough," Ruby growled. Heat tore through her body, and silver light exploded from her eyes.

Tyrian cried out and shielded his eyes. The Hound jerked, a horrific, almost human-like scream tearing from his body as he stumbled backward. As he fell, the Grimm arms pinning Yang and Mercury disintegrated.

Mercury smirked. "Nice." He twisted and backflipped, his foot slamming into Hazel's jaw and sending him stumbling into Emerald.

At the same time, Yang launched herself to the side, sending a pair of Dust shells to slam into Tyrian, knocking him back. "About time," Yang said, flashing Sincline a tired grin as she and Mercury backed up to join Sincline and the others. "I was starting to think you were going to leave us yanging."

"Really?" Blake deadpanned. "Now?"

Yang shrugged. "If I'm gonna die, might as well go down laughing." She glanced at Ruby, who was leaning on Sincline for support. "You alright, Ruby?"

"I'm fine," she winced. "Just... that really hurt."

"It must be your Grimm side," Blake realized. "It—"

A scraping sound filled the air, and they whipped around as the Hound slowly pulled itself to his feet. Slowly, he raised his head, and to their horror, the inside core of the monster was visible: a pale, Silver-Eyed wolf Faunus, his scarred face horribly contorted, his right eye covered by a mass of white flesh, pieces of torn skin exposing muscle as black liquid seeped from his eyes and ears.

"Is that...?" Blake trailed, staring in horror at the Hound as he stumbled toward them, his left eye turning completely black as dark energy radiated from the edge.

"You... shall... not... pass!" The Hound snarled as he advanced on them, Watts and the others slowly returning to their feet as Salem's eyes flashed triumphantly.

"It's... a person," Weiss whispered, and realization dawned on Sincline as he turned his gaze to Salem.

"You were going to do that to her," he growled, his eyes flaring with rage once more. No... not rage. It was stronger. Much stronger. He could feel it in his soul. "You were going to do that to Ruby!"

"Of course," Salem replied, waving a hand dismissively as the Hound crawled up to stand beside her dais, his dark flesh slowly regenerating to cover his head once more. The dark energy radiating from his spines betrayed the Entity's presence.

Eyes narrowed, Sincline glanced at his teammates. "Kill her." His voice was calm. No venom. No anger. But the apocalyptic fury radiating from the slits of his visor and his fluctuating aura betrayed the truth. As one, everyone lunged forward, and Salem's forces did the same. Shooting into the air, Sincline spun, his blades shattering Cinder's as she rose to meet him, their weapons sparking as she quickly summoned a new pair.