Guess Who — Roleplayer Guild

So after reading @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN's entry for contest #10, I couldn't help but wonder what exactly happened during those last few hours before Robert sacrificed himself to save Oswald. Which is why, for the past week, I've been working on this short story. Lady's and gentlemen, I present to you...

Some music to set the mood while you’re reading:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbwlGv9SWfY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mo4ytruyas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHGVRxWGJIE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLxv_g_zQkY

Robert had been sitting in the cafeteria eating his lunch with his friends when a sudden explosion rocked the building, announcing the arrival of the Order of Grimm. A majority of the students got out before the building collapsed, but not all were lucky. At first, everyone was in shock. One minute everyone was enjoying the day, and the next bullets and bombs were flying everywhere. But the students were trained warriors, and it didn’t take too long for them to fight back.

RPGD’s leader regrouped with the rest of his team before giving out his orders. “Priscilla, get to the top of that building and give us cover. Daniel and Greyson, you’re with me. We’re going to the frontlines.” Everyone silently agreed on the extremely simple plan and ran off to their positions.

It didn’t take long to for the three to get to the frontlines, though. The entire school was surrounded and all anyone needed to do was pick a direction before finding someone to fight. Robert was ambitious though, and purposely chose to lead his teammates to where the students were stretched most thin. While most areas seemed to have around six teams in each area of fighting, he saw teams MODA (minus Marcus who must have gotten separated from his team), SASG, and BAST fighting off a very formidable number of cultists on their own.

Robert sprinted toward the nearest Order of Grimm member and jumped into the air, his knee colliding with the cultists chin. “Hey guys. How’s it going?” he said as he rolled out of his attack and punched another in the face.

“Good to see you Robert,” Abel responded as he swept the Ampere near the ground, impacting with an Order of Grimm member’s legs and knocking him to the ground.

Gren and Aurellius were using the minigun forms of their weapons to rain rockets and bullets on the pesky cultists.

Sapphire and Oswald were working almost as a tag team with Sapphire going in and out with quick jabs and stabs and Oswald using his shield to cover her back.

Shiro, Amaranth, and Trad were using their shields and swords/spear in a similar style to that of a Spartan by holding up the shield to block incoming attacks and stabbing around the side of their seemingly impenetrable defense.

Sangue swung her Apophis Claw overhead, making the chain ball-like weapon collide with the heads of several cultists and knocking them unconscious.

Diamond’s shadows snaked along the floor of the battle, going unobserved by cultists until it was too late to do anything about the impaling spikes.

Greyson and Ben were going through cultists like a hot knife through butter, seamlessly switching from sword mode to shotgun depending on the enemies distance.

Daniel was a flurry of motion with his swords, keeping back anyone stupid enough to get close.

Priscilla sat above the battle, perched in her makeshift sniper’s nest, shooting to disable the cultists pouring into the area.

Cultists were flying everywhere as the four teams plowed through their lines, until team KPT suddenly arrived. No one knew that they were traitors, so when they arrived a feeling of relief fell over the hunters-in-training. Rumple was the first of the three to attack the students, coming up from behind the leader of team BAST, Ben, wrapping the string of his yoyo around his neck, and suddenly pulling it, snapping Ben’s neck. Everyone turned toward the traitor and his victim, their faces plastered with surprise and shock.

Sangue acted first, sprinting toward Rumple, ready to run her sword through his chest. Lady’s mechanical bird swooped down from out of nowhere and slashed at Sangue though, causing her to block it’s attack instead of finishing her own. Rumple, Kitty, and Lady then seemingly disappeared into the crowd of Order of Grimm that now surrounded the students.

Ben’s death completely changed everything. Before, the battle had been a test of their skill, a challenge. Now, it was a fight to survive. More cultists seemed to be arriving every minute, most likely seeing the low number of students defending that area. Robert took out his scroll and tried to think of someone to call for help, but most of the numbers he had programmed in belonged to the people around him. “We need back-up! Does anybody know someone we can call?” Robert shouted.

“I’ve got some of the numbers for team KESS!” Oswald shouted back. “Cover me while I call them!”

Almost on cue, a nearby Order of Grimm member lifted a large two-handed ax and was preparing to swing it downward on Oswald’s neck. A shot rang out from a nearby building and a bullet embedded itself in the shoulder of the ax-wielding fiend. “I got you, Oswald,” Priscilla assured.

The battle continued with little hiccups, Team KESS was on their way, and team KPT hadn’t yet reappeared in the horde of enemies. Then Robert noticed something. The cultists, they weren’t just swarming the students, or at least not anymore. No, they’re actions had become deliberate. There was a pattern, but Robert hadn’t figured it out yet.

That is until he saw Gren. The God Eater seemed to be the most effective weapon against the the army of cultists, as it seemed specifically designed to take out groups of enemies, but Gren was pretty far from the rest of the students. That’s when it finally hit Robert. “They’re trying to separate us! Divide and conquer!”

It was too late though, and the cultists finally got close enough to Gren to finish him off. One of them used a dagger to stab Gren in the back, weakening him for more of them. Suddenly ten cultists tackled the boar faunus, only making him drop down to his knees. As more came though, continually stabbing and weakening him, Gren finally disappeared in the pile of bodies, the sound of the God Eater’s spinning barrel dying down.

“No, not Gren!” Shiro shouted. In that moment, the tiger faunus went feral and leaped in after his friend, knowing that what he would find would not be pretty.

Abel grabbed the back of Shiro’s collar though as he was still flying through the air. “You go in there after him and you’ll end up just like him. Sapphire! What are your orders?”

Sapphire looked around at the surrounding army and considered the options she faced. “Fall back! Regroup! If they keep separating us we’ll be completely screwed!”

As the students began to leave the swarm of cultists, Trad noticed the unmistakable glint from Rumple’s golden yoyo string. “Oh hell no! That bastard’s going to pay,” he said as he ran into the fray of enemies to get to the boy who murdered his leader and friend. A cultist with a large warhammer charged at Trad, but the boy used his semblance to make it harmlessly rebound off of him as soon as he stood still. He took off again, getting nearer and nearer to his target, until it was too late for Rumple to do anything about it. Trad tackled Rumple, the sun reflecting off the blade as it pierced through his chest. Rumple lied there in shock before bloodloss soon took him.

Trad stood over the body of his former classmate, his semblance activated to keep the Order of Grimm from tearing him apart. After a few moments, he did the risky move of turning off his semblance and trying to dodge the incoming attacks. Amazingly, he pulled this off with complete success, making it back to the rest of the teams.

Somewhere in the swarm of cultists, Kitty and Lady watch horrified, Rumple’s death brought back memories of their late teammember, Gale. An anger rose in both of them, only rivaling that of the friends and teammates of Ben and Gren. Kitty grabbed the nearest Order of Grimm member she saw and pulled a grenade off of their ammo belt, pulling the pin and tossing it at the group of students.

The small frag landed in the middle of the group, nearest to Aurellius and Diamond. Diamond reacted by using her semblance to hopefully cover it and prevent the explosion from doing any damage, but she was too slow. The uncovered part sent shrapnel flying in Aurellius’ direction, while the covered part sent the girl’s solid shadow flying towards her. Aurellius’ semblance had thankfully been on, preventing him from even noticing the damage to his body that he had just received. Diamond on the other hand was knocked unconscious with several shattered ribs and damaged lungs. Everyone else got to a far enough distance to either be unaffected or gain a few cuts and bruises.

Trad walked over to Robert who had been knocked to the ground by the blast. “Come on, up and at ‘em. Can’t fight these guys if you’re lying on the ground, Robert,” he said as he held out his hand. Suddenly, Lady’s mechanical bird swooped down from the skies, It’s razor like wings cut across Trad’s throat and severed his windpipe. Trad stood there a few moments, grasping at his neck and gasping for air that wouldn’t come, before finally collapsing to the floor.

Robert, still somewhat disoriented from the explosion, sat in silent shock as yet another friend died before him. This left him open to be the next target of Lady’s mechanical bird. It swooped downward, ready to tear out Robert’s throat with its razor sharp talons.

“Robert! Look out!” Priscilla cried out. Two shots rang out as they shredded through the bird, turning it into a pile of broken gears and scrap metal. “I got you. You guys need to get back in this. Get your butts moving.”

Lady watched as her precious weapon was completely wrecked by Priscilla’s excellent marksmanship. She let out a cry of anger before grabbing a sniper rifle from a cultist beside her. “This is for my bird, you bitch!” she shouted as she lined up the sights on Priscilla.

“I’m running low on ammo here. I think I’ll have to come down and join you in a few,” Priscilla said.

“Good, because I think we’re going to have to pull back more. We got Diamond unconscious here and tangos quickly starting to surround us again,” Sapphire responded.

“Alright, I’ll take out this last sniper and then I’ll-” The sound of a gunshot cut off Priscilla’s words.

“Priscilla. Priscilla! PRISCILLA!” Robert shouted. He bursted off running, going faster than any of the other students could go to catch up and stop him, sprinting towards the building Priscilla had been set up on. He ascended the stairs quickly, occasionally tripping on the steps, before kicking down the door that separated him from Priscilla.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” he said as he dropped down to his knees. Priscilla’s lifeless body lied before him, blood beginning to pool around her from the hole in her chest left by Lady’s shot. “No Priscilla, don’t leave me. Don’t leave me,” Robert said as tears streamed down his cheeks. “Not you, too. Not you, too.” He clutched her body and pressed it against him. Robert let out an agonized cry before looking into her eyes and closing them.

As he laid her back down, Robert’s face changed to one of vengeance. He picked up her rifle and looked down at the battlefield below, searching for Lady. When he found her, he immediately pulled the trigger, his first shot going wild.  Robert wiped the tears from his eyes and lined up Lady’s head with the sights.

Now that that pesky sniper had been dealt with, Lady pulled back the bolt of the rifle, and turned her attention to the students still alive. Sangue’s head appeared behind the reticle of her scope as Lady put her finger on the trigger, ready to fire. A bullet whizzed by her head right before she could finish though, causing her to take cover from the incoming fire. Where was that coming from? She was sure that she had killed the sniper. Another shot, this one much closer, told her where this new sniper was located. “Must be a new sniper in the same spot,” she whispered to herself as she lined up Robert’s head with her reticle. A sudden flash came from her target’s gun and then everything went black.

As Lady’s head became a red mist from Robert’s shot, he dropped Priscilla’s now empty rifle onto the ground. His face was empty of emotion, with the exception of his bloodshot eyes and wet cheeks, as he slowly descended the staircase. Walking out, he found that it hadn’t taken very long for the situation to deteriorate into so much chaos that it made the previous situation look like it was completely under control. In fact, Robert had gotten out just in time to see Oswald lose both of his arms. Using his semblance, the newly amputated student suddenly warped to Robert’s feet. It didn’t take long for the two hunters-in-training to be completely surrounded and cut-off from any help.

As death seemed to inch closer and closer to the pair, Robert looked up to see the hooded fanatics, and stared them down. “No more. I’m stopping you here and now. You’re not going to kill one more of my friends… not while I still breath.”

“Well, it won’t be too hard to fix that,” said one of them, menacingly.

Robert quickly turned to to him and fired a single shot from one of his bracers. Several members of the Order of Grimm backed away several steps. Shocked and surprised at Robert’s cold and unfeeling act. “You think I’m messing around? Come on! Give me your best shot!” he yelled.

The closest attacker hesitated for several seconds before lunging at Robert. Robert simply turned toward him, lowered himself a bit, then uppercutted. The blade of his bracer cut through cloth and flesh with no problem and quickly killed the man. He let out a gasp before falling limp to the ground.

Next, two more tried to fight the hunter-in-training. One made a downward strike with an ax, while the other tried to stab him in the back with a rapier. Robert blocked the ax strike with his bracers and only then saw the attacker behind him. He pushed the ax upward to unpin himself and rolled out of the way of the rapier, causing the it to impale the  ax-wielder instead. Robert took aim and shot the man in the head, sending bits of skull and brain through the air.

Now the Order of Grimm was coming all at once, realizing that fighting one on one was a bad idea. It was a flurry of kicks and punches, swords and knives, axes and hammers, bullets and arrows. It was absolute chaos, and the bodies were piling up. As one went down though, it seemed as if two more would take their place. Eventually though, reinforcements soon slowed. When one went down, two would take their place every other time. Then only one would replace the fallen. Soon, no one was coming. Things were starting to look up for Robert and Oswald as the Order of Grimm’s forces were thinning out.

BANG, BANG , BANG

Robert suddenly felt three sharp pains in his chest. He looked down to see three holes in his shirt that were drenched in blood. It took a few seconds for his mind to register that it was his blood and what those holes were from. He fell to his knees, grasping at his chest. There was a ringing in his ears that made it impossible to hear anything, but Robert could swear that Oswald was shouting his name behind him. He looked up to see the shooter, just some nameless cultist who got a lucky shot, no one important.

The man had the gun raised to Robert’s head, ready to finish him off. Robert stared into his killer’s eyes, silently pleading for him to do it, to just let the pain end. Not the physical pain from his wounds, but the emotional and psychological pain from losing those he held dear, his friends and family. It would finally be over.

The sudden appearance of the Unsubtle took everyone by surprise. The tank went off a ramp created by the rubble of a fallen building and landed right on top of the man that had shot Robert. The red haired leader fell onto his side as the effects of blood loss began to take hold. His vision was fading as he lied there on the blood soaked ground. The last thing he saw, was team KESS lifting Oswald into the Unsubtle where an unconscious Marcus sat as well, his face covered in bloody bandages.

As soon as the darkness had consumed his vision though, a sudden light replaced it. The light was far off, in the distance, and a lone figure stood between it and Robert.

“Priscilla?”

Hope you all enjoyed.
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The Nameless Writer

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