Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 22]

The Ironwood peeled back under her power, shattering much like her scythe.

Even as it did, more rose up from the ground, punching up with loud, grating noises to form trees all around the battlefield, tall and wide, splitting rock and pushing Grimm aside. Oaks, I thought distractedly. They weren't, of course. They were Ironwood trees, but they were forming in a shape and style of tree Jaune was familiar with. Their branches interlocked above and around them, forming a small forest around their position.

[...]

With my final step, I pushed and kicked off the tree, spinning in the air and hurtling toward Salem, scythe drawn back. The flap of my cloak warned her, rustling and flapping in the wind.

"Again?" Salem asked, turning lazily in the air and watching my approach. Her wings spread out and buffeted her back, taking her out of reach. "Haven't you seen already that-"

Salem backed into a branch.

A branch that hadn't been there two seconds ago, that had sprung to life and cut across the space between one Ironwood tree and the next while she'd turned to deal with me. A branch that cut off her escape even as Salem looked back in shock and anger, even as she reached back with one hand to rip it away.

Those nanoseconds were all I needed.

Salem stabbed a hand out and cast another attack.

The scythe swung through it, the Seal Rune on the blade glowing as it absorbed the attack. The blade carried through, my body flipping in the air as I intentionally took the blade away from her extended hand and beyond, cutting down into the meat of her left wing, severing it close to the base. The weapon shattered on impact again and I travelled through and past, catching myself with one hand on the branch behind.

Salem screamed and dropped, one wing flapping and flailing uselessly as she crashed down to the forest floor, leaving me up above, perched on a metallic bough. It grew under me, supporting my weight while also sprouting a new scythe in a matter of seconds. I took it and pulled it free with a little snap, whispering a quiet thanks to the open air.

The forest hadn't been an attack as Salem thought. It had just been to limit her manoeuvrability in the air. In that regard, it worked perfectly.

And now I have more than her.

Which was fortunate because black light blinked below. I dashed along the bough and jumped, vacating my spot a second before a beam of black punched up, destroying it and cutting a whole in the canopy above.

Landing in a roll, I skidded down to the trunk and jumped for another, hearing the tree fall behind me, severed at the base. The new one I was in suffered the same fate and began to fall, tipping sideways and nearly spilling me out. I was able to ride it down thanks to my Agility and jump out, catch a branch on my scythe and swing up.

Another spell punched through the air behind me, chasing me as I jumped from branch to branch, circling the still cloudy spot Salem occupied, from which beams and orbs of black light would constantly shoot forth. Trees were cut own all around me, some falling even as I jumped onto them and kicked off to reach another.

Not being able to hit your prey because they were fast and in the air sucked. It was good that Salem got to experience it for a change!

"You pest. Come and face me!"

The bell of Vale tolled.

"Not again…"

I took the chance to slip behind a tree for cover and catch my breath as arrows and spells rained down for a second time, now on a Salem who couldn't stay in the air to dodge. I could hear her casting spells at the oncoming attacks and probably smashing them aside, but arrows continued to thud down so she couldn't have blocked them all.

The barrage continued, overwhelming Salem's defence and bathing her body in fire, ice and every other element under the sun. The Ironwood tree provided me cover but even then, flames licked left and right of me, burning away until the tree was toasty warm.

When it dissipated, I peeked around the corner.

Salem's arms and shoulders had arrows in them. Her hair was blackened, and her white face smudged with dirt and, unless I saw wrong, blood. It definitely wasn't mine. Had they managed to wound her? She had her hand out, another spell aimed at the walls of Vale.

I blurred forward.

The spell was cast and shot away the second I rose up behind her. Salem's second wing made too tempting a target and erupted in a shower of blood as I lopped it off. She screamed and sliced an arm back that I slid under, knees scraping along the floor until I was on her other side, our eyes meeting for a brief moment before I sped back into the trees and out of sight.

This was what it was meant to be like in the city. In and out of cover, using my speed to ambush her. I circled around as a spell tore three trees down in the direction I'd been. They crashed and fell behind me, then more coming closer as Salem turned a full ninety-degrees, slicing through tree trunks with an elongated black sword of pure magic.

"Do you think this changes anything?" she roared. "Take my wings. I can re-grow them. Take my army, I will summon it anew. You can't kill me, Reaper. I'll bring this whole forest down on your head!"

Judging from the sound of crashing trees and spells, that was certainly her plan – and not a bad one. Jaune had bought me an arena in which I could excel, and Salem knew it. She turned and continued to rip the Ironwood trees down, slicing through ten or more at a time and clearing a huge swathe, creating an area of open space wide enough for her to see any approach I made.

[...]

"Do you think this changes anything?" she roared. "Take my wings. I can re-grow them. Take my army, I will summon it anew. You can't kill me, Reaper. I'll bring this whole forest down on your head!"

Judging from the sound of crashing trees and spells, that was certainly her plan – and not a bad one. Jaune had bought me an arena in which I could excel, and Salem knew it. She turned and continued to rip the Ironwood trees down, slicing through ten or more at a time and clearing a huge swathe, creating an area of open space wide enough for her to see any approach I made.

A root punched up behind her and tried to stop her by crushing her against the floor. Salem caught it with her one hand, wrestled against and twisted it to the side.

"You can stop your meddling as well! Your efforts are worthless. That's all they've ever been. You bray at destiny as though it can be changed. Well guess what – it can't. You were born a nobody and you shall die a nobody!"

"That's where you're wrong."

Ruby's eyes bulged as Jaune – the real Jaune – ducked out from behind the last root he'd used, the one Salem was still fighting with, and swept in under her guard. He'd thrown aside his armour and left himself in nothing but a tunic and his jerkins, a silvery amulet bouncing on his chest.

Salem gasped and tried to move back, only to falter as the Ironwood root pushed down on her.

Jaune dropped under her guard and fell to one knee, sweeping his silver blade at the monster's stomach like a hero from legend. The blade caught black cloth and ripped through, cutting through skin with an audible slice of a cleaver through meat.

Salem shrieked in fury and brought her knee up, snapping the blade with one well-placed strike and tossing the Ironwood root to the side. Now free, she pushed a hand against Jaune's chest and sent him flying back with a point-blank spell. Jaune crashed into a tree and slumped to its base with a pained moan.

"No," I gasped, unable to help without a scythe and now with Jaune, the source of my weaponry, out for the count. "Get up, Jaune. Get up!"

"Damn you." Salem gripped her stomach, blood oozing between her fingers. "Damn you a thousand times, Jaune Arc. And damn you for a fool as well. Coming out here in person when you couldn't hope to make a difference."

"I think… ah…" Jaune slapped a hand on the nearest tree and smiled through bloodstained teeth. "I think I've made enough of a difference already."

Ironwood roots grew up around the fallen trees, forming a web of thick metallic vines several feet thick around them all. The forest came back to life, reaching up tall as branches bristled with silver leaves that rustled in the wind. In the distance, I could hear the bell of Vale tolling and the stampede of hooves and feet, the Heroes sallying out to reinforce us and finish this once and for all. And with Salem so injured, they might just do it.

Except that Jaune would die.

He dragged himself into a standing position as Salem approached, a bloody trail from prior or new injuries left on the tree behind him. One hand was flat against the tree, commanding the forest to grow but his other was gripping tightly to the misshapen amulet he wore around his neck, one he and Blake shared.

"How do you figure that?" Salem asked. "I hear your people coming. They won't make a difference here. I can use this forest you created to escape, and I'll make them rue your name when I come to slaughter them all. So, tell me, Jaune, what have you achieved in this life of yours?" She planted her hands on her hips and smiled cockily. "What have you truly achieved with the wish I granted you so long ago?"

"You're right that I owe everything I am to you," Jaune said weakly. "I'd have never got into Beacon without you and I'd have never met the people I did, gone on Quests or grown strong. Without you, I'd have died when Ansel was taken by Mistral's army. All of Vale might have fallen and I'd be dead without ever having a chance to explore my goals." He laughed. "So yes, I do owe it all to you. And I learned a lot from you as well." His eyes blazed. "Including how to kill you!"

His fist opened. The pendant dangled down on its chain, glowing faintly with untold power that had been absorbed when Salem attacked him; when she reacted instinctively to his ambush with her most powerful attack at point-blank range. Jaune slammed it and his hand against the tree, pushing the metal inside. The tree swallowed it like liquid, absorbing it into its trunk. The tree. All the trees – all the vines – pulsed with Salem's power.

"So thank you, Salem! Thank you for teaching me Runes. For trying to kill me time and time again and making me strong enough to use them, for pushing me deeper and deeper into the craft so I could do this!"

Jaune's eyes shone bright blue. Visible lines of azure raced out from his palms, sketching up the trees in every direction, like veins or even roots. The Ironwood shimmered and morphed, its bark twisting and reshaping before my eyes.

"Nice speech, Arc. It won't matter. Die now!"

Salem brought her hand down and sent an orb of black punching into Jaune's stomach. Unprotected, it took him up and through the metal tree, crashing down on the other side and dropping an entire Ironwood tree on him.

Too late. It was far too late. I screamed in rage and tore from the trees, scythe in hand.

"You again? Where are you finding these things!?"

Salem turned, almost dodging the attack but not quite. My blade tore through a chunk of her left shoulder, chipping away more of her body. Enough of it. Silver burst from my eyes as my Passive took hold.

Fell Harvest: May use Agility in place of Strength when target ready to harvest

No one had known those exact words, not even my own father. I'd known deep inside that if they heard the word `harvest` then they'd know what I really was, a glorified Farmer. I'd hidden it and lied to those who trusted me most. Hah. No wonder I'd found it so easy to forgive Jaune for doing the same.

One thing I'd figured out, though, was that the word `crops` wasn't in my Passive. Target. When the target was ready to harvest. Harvest being the end of one's lifespan in plant terms. Most crops would die whether they were harvested or not, spreading their seeds before they did. I wasn't sure if that translated to low health or not, but I'd known since the first Grimm in that Dungeon that mine did. Salem was weak at last.

"Time to collect the harvest…"

"You and with what?" Salem laughed. "Your source of weapons is dead."

That was something I wouldn't believe until I could confirm it myself, but it didn't matter. With a wide smile, I pointed up and behind Salem, up toward the twisting vines and Ironwood trees that had sprung up around us in Jaune's last act of defiance.

Dotted across their bark, hanging from branches and springing horizontally out from trunks, were hundreds upon hundreds of scythes, all of them glowing with the power of the spell Salem had used on him. All of them ready to be plucked free and used. Some were even falling as leave, fluttering down from above; a rain of scythes hurtling toward our position. To anyone else, they would have been coming at speed. To me, it was as gentle as winter snow.

"No." Salem stepped back. "Impossible."

"Not impossible. Inevitable. You pushed us too hard, and humans aren't like metal. We don't break under pressure." My knees bunched as I ducked low and fixed my eyes on a scythe drifting down. "We adapt!"

I kicked off in a blur of red, hurtling toward the scythe and snatching it out the air, twisting as I went to avoid an attack from the Goddess that burned away at the tip of my cloak. Completing the spin, I lashed out toward her only to find the scythe parried by a black blade summoned from nowhere. It shattered on impact and Salem snarled her victory.

My body flickered and vanished before her.

"What!?"

Behind, land, kick back and attack – snatch a scythe from a root as I go. I charged in for her back and swung, catching her blade again as she spun. This time, the force knocked her back a pace, red eyes growing wide at the sudden surge in my Strength that was enough to overwhelm hers for a moment.

And then I was gone, sprinting to the next tree, scaling it as explosions ripped the bark below me asunder, grabbing a scythe that was growing out of it halfway and flipping off as the tree fell. Another attack came and I tossed the scythe into it, cancelling the attack while also obliterating the scythe.

It didn't matter as there were hundreds more, one of which I caught in each hand as I landed. One was sent spinning at her, forcing Salem to deflect the throw, but the second I swung myself, blurring in under her guard while her sword was parrying the other.

"This is for Ozpin!"

The scythe ripped through fabric and skin. It shattered before it could get deeper, but the damage was done and Salem reeled back, shrieking at the top of her voice. Her sword came down, splitting the ground in front of her.

I was already behind, a new scythe caught out the air. "And this is for Ironwood!"

A ferocious wound opened on her back. Salem arched and trembled, swinging back in a slash that would have cut me in two if it connected. Her eyes bulged as she caught sight of me ducking underneath, grinning brightly with a new scythe in hand.

I swept up for her over-extended arm, right at the elbow. "This is for Cinder!"

The arm flew up, severed. Salem screeched and brought her other around, hand already missing but a blade of black light piercing through the spot where it would have been. It stabbed down where I'd been, piercing deep. My feet hit a falling tree and bounced off it, new weapon in hand and rushing in for her right side.

"This is for Uncle Qrow!"

Salem's left foot flew away, dropping her to one knee. She swiped her one good arm around, casting a circular ring of black light that cut through every tree surrounding us. They all fell, some sideways, others back. I rode one down, using my Agility to beat the speed at which the tree itself was falling, racing down it and snatching two scythes at once. One, I threw up into the air. The other came in for her again.

"This is for the people of the Mirage Isles!"

The blade cut through her hand as she tried to cast another spell.

I caught the scythe I'd thrown before as it came back down, pivoted on one heel and swept it up into the elbow, cutting off another chunk of her. "And this is for all the people in Vale who died because of you!"

A backflip away had me bracing my feet against another falling trunk, kicking off to snatch another scythe out the air, flip off a second tree and hurtle back in. "This," I roared, aiming for the middle of Salem's back. "Is for my mom!"

The scythe's blade punched out Salem's stomach, spilling blood and gore onto the grass. Salem gasped and fell to her knees, eyes wide and her stump arms reaching for her guts in a futile effort to stem the bleeding.

My feet touched down, hand snatching a final scythe out the air, which I held against her neck and under her chin from behind, eyes burning with silver light and tears, hands shaking. The blade tickled the Goddess' throat.

"And this-" I whispered.

Salem's eyes met mine. "I can achieve anything. I can bring your mother back. Everyone you've ever loved back. Kill me and that path is forever closed to you."

I clenched my eyes shut, gritting my teeth against the thought of Summer and Qrow smiling at me again. Before the thought could take me, I pulled hard. Flesh gave way. The scythe shattered. My Passive cut out, eyes returning to normal, bloodstained and flowing with tears. Salem's head thudded to the floor and rolled away.

"This is for me..."

—Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 22]