Nora had been leaning forward over the railing for most of the fight, her eyes practically glowing with excitement as the massive dragon form filled the screen. The moment Taiyang fully revealed himself in his transformed state, she let out an impressed whistle.
"That is super cool!"
Without hesitation she hooked one arm around Ruby's shoulders and the other around Yang's, pulling both sisters closer as if they had personally engineered the spectacle unfolding below.
"Okay, spill it," Nora said eagerly. "What runes does your dad have?"
Yang watched the screen with a small grin tugging at the corner of her mouth. Even she looked impressed despite clearly having seen this ability before.
"Well, we already talked about Kinetic," she said.
Her gaze followed the dragon as it twisted through the sky. She tilted her head toward the display.
"And you just saw his Meta Rune, Dragon."
The word hung in the air with quiet weight.
Everyone's attention remained locked on the screen as Taiyang's massive serpentine body coiled through the battlefield like a living storm.
Jaune narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to absorb as much information as he could from what he was seeing. Even from this distance the Rune's concept was obvious.
Dragons.
The transformation seemed to embody everything that ancient legends associated with dragons. Power, control over the elements and overwhelming presence.
Below them, the enormous dragon surged forward with terrifying speed. Its size suggested something massive and slow but instead, it moved like lightning.
Clouds spiraled around its body as if drawn into orbit by the creature's existence. Wind roared across the battlefield while distant thunder rolled through the crimson sky above.
With a single twisting motion of its body, the dragon summoned a surge of storm clouds that swept downward across the terrain.
Thunder cracked and rain exploded into existence. Bolts of lightning struck the ground around the giant Atlas fighter with blinding flashes.
Despite her immense size, the hammer wielding woman struggled to respond to the relentless assault. Her body had continued to expand during the fight, growing larger and larger until she now stood nearly equal in size to the dragon looming over her.
Her hammer swung upward with tremendous force. The glowing constructs around the weapon and her expanded into massive translucent barriers that deflected incoming lightning and bursts of wind.
Even so, Taiyang's attacks did not slow. The dragon twisted through the air, unleashing waves of thunder and rain that hammered the battlefield from all directions.
Then the giant woman struck back and slammed her hammer downward. The layered constructs around it pulsed violently before releasing a massive shockwave that blasted into the dragon's body.
But something strange happened. The force did not seem to affect him the way it should have. Instead, the impact rippled across the dragon's scales and vanished.
Moments later the giant woman was violently hurled backward. The stored energy from her own attack detonated outward, sending her tumbling across the battlefield like a ragdoll.
Yang pointed slightly toward the screen.
"Kinetic, multiplied by his dragon rune." she said.
The Rune's effect was obvious even to casual observers.
Every attack the giant woman unleashed was absorbed into Taiyang's body, converted into pure force before being redirected back toward her with devastating results.
Meanwhile her transformation continued to evolve. Her body kept growing. Larger, heavier and stronger.
Now she towered across the battlefield like a colossal titan, her massive hammer surrounded by swirling layers of forcefield constructs that revolved around her like protective moons.
Even Taiyang's lightning strikes struggled to penetrate those barriers.
Ruby crossed her arms as she watched the clash.
"The Dragon Rune is probably one of the strongest pure transformation Meta Runes that I've ever ever seen," she said thoughtfully.
Yang nodded in agreement.
"Same here."
Jaune continued studying the screen. The way the elements responded to the dragon's presence fascinated him. Visible wind currents curled around his body like an obedient wife. Thunder rolled through the clouds as if answering its movements.
Without thinking about it, Jaune murmured quietly.
"In the wake of a dragon, cloud and thunder follow."
The words slipped out before he realized he had spoken aloud.
Yang glanced toward him and gave a small nod. "Pretty much,"
Then she added something else. "Dad's Dragon Rune is at Mastery level."
That explained a lot.
Runes on that level were incredibly powerful. Much less a meta rune that was at that level. They could reshape entire battlefields themselves.
The screen suddenly flashed as the giant Atlas fighter unleashed a desperate counterattack. Multiple layers of her forcefield constructs detached from her hammer and rocketed toward the dragon.
Each construct pulsed brightly before exploding. A chain of violent detonations rippled across Taiyang's body.
The blasts pushed the enormous dragon backward through the air, its massive form sliding several meters as waves of energy erupted around it.
For a moment the battlefield seemed to pause. Then something strange happened.
The dragon grinned. Even from the screen the expression was unmistakable. Taiyang's enormous serpentine body suddenly twisted away from the giant woman.
Instead of continuing their clash, the dragon shot across the battlefield like a golden lightning bolt. Its destination became clear almost immediately.
Qrow.
More specifically, the Atlas fighter wielding the strange fishing rod Rune. The man was still commanding his monstrous elemental fish, sending them darting through the battlefield as they chased Qrow's scattered crow forms.
Taiyang arrived in an instant and his enormous jaws opened wide.
The lightning fish lunged toward him but it never stood a chance. The dragon swallowed it whole. A second fish made of blazing fire attempted to attack.
Taiyang devoured that one as well, amidst the astonished gaze of the fishing hook guy.
Ignoring Qrow and the man, the dragon surged upward.
Higher and higher still.
Its serpentine body cut through the air with impossible speed as clouds gathered around it like a swirling vortex.
Soon the dragon vanished into the growing storm. From the stands the audience could see only clouds.
Only the faint silhouette of its enormous body moved within the storm. The sky above the battlefield began to churn and the clouds twisted into a massive funnel.
Lightning flashed within its depths and explosive thunder rolled like distant artillery.
Then Taiyang's dragon form emerged. It burst from the storm like a divine spear descending from the heavens.
Clouds streamed behind its body in long flowing trails that made the creature appear almost mystical.
The dragon opened its mouth and a beam of fire erupted forward. The attack did not resemble ordinary flames. It looked more like a concentrated laser of blazing dragonfire, a beam wider than two buildings that tore through the air toward the giant Atlas fighter below.
The battlefield lit up with blinding light.
The giant woman reacted instantly. Her hammer swung upward as she summoned layer after layer of massive construct shields in front of her body.
Each shield overlapped the next, forming a towering barrier of glowing defensive energy.
The dragonfire slammed into it and the impact was catastrophic. Shockwaves ripped across the battlefield as the beam pressed against the shields.
For a moment it looked as though the barriers would shatter.
But incredibly, they held.
The enormous woman planted her feet firmly into the ground, her massive muscles straining as the layered constructs resisted the dragon's attack. From the stands it appeared that the two forces had reached a stalemate.
However, Taiyang was not finished. He was still mid decent—and mid descent, the dragon's body began to rotate.
Still breathing the massive beam of fire, Taiyang twisted his enormous serpentine form like a living drill as he descended toward the battlefield.
Wind howled and lightning erupted from the swirling clouds above and thunder roared like the voice of a furious god.
The dragon's massive clawed palm slammed forward. It struck the layered shields directly and at that same moment the entire storm came crashing down.
The funnel of clouds, lightning, wind, and thunder collapsed toward the battlefield in a catastrophic surge of elemental fury.
The resulting explosion of force blasted outward across the arena.
Qrow's gigantic crows scattered in every direction. Raven and Glynda both leapt away from the impact zone with explosive bursts of speed.
Even the Atlas specialists fighting nearby were forced to retreat from the overwhelming power of the attack.
The ground itself seemed to tremble beneath the descending storm. For a brief moment it looked as if an entire small piece of the sky had fallen onto the battlefield.
.
.
Within that chaos, the fighters themselves were already moving again.
One of Qrow's many crow bodies hovered in the air not far from the epicenter of the blast. Its enormous black wings beat steadily against the turbulent air currents created by the collapsing storm.
This particular crow tilted its head slightly as it looked toward the massive dust cloud where Taiyang had struck.
Then it spoke in a deep, gravelly, and distorted in a way that sounded far more monstrous than necessary.
"Dayum," the crow rumbled. "Been a while since I seen Tai do something like this."
The giant bird shifted its wings slightly.
"Something crazy, ain't it Clover?"
Not far away, a man stood calmly on the ground. Clover Ebi glanced toward the enormous dust cloud where the dragon's attack had landed. His expression was one of mild irritation mixed with reluctant respect.
He sighed.
"How the hell did he even eat my damn fishes?" Clover muttered.
A few remaining elemental fish swam lazily around him through the air, their bodies leaving faint shimmering trails as they moved. The Atlas specialist shook his head slightly.
"There goes Elm."
His gaze drifted back toward the crow hovering nearby, then, he squinted slightly.
"And why the hell are you speaking in that weird voice?"
The crow froze for a moment.
Clover raised an eyebrow. "We both know you can speak normally in your crow form."
For a brief moment there was silence. Then, the giant crow coughed awkwardly. It even lifted one wing toward its beak in a strange imitation of someone politely coughing into their hand.
The effect looked somewhat ridiculous. When the crow spoke again, the same gravelly monstrous voice returned.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Clover stared at him. He opened his mouth, clearly preparing to continue arguing about the voice.
But the ground beneath him suddenly collapsed. Without warning the terrain crumbled into a wide circular hole that swallowed the stone beneath his feet.
Clover's body dropped a short distance before he reacted instantly. A faint pulse of willpower anchored him in place in the air. He hovered there calmly, suspended above the newly formed pit.
For a moment he simply stared down at the hole. Then he slowly lifted his gaze back toward the crow. His expression had become perfectly deadpan.
The culprit behind the sudden terrain collapse was obvious. Qrow Branwen's Rune.
Misfortune.
Qrow and Clover were quite familiar with each other, having gone on mission together in the past. They both knew about each of the other's runes.
Throughout the entire battle Qrow's Rune had been quietly interfering with events in subtle but incredibly annoying ways.
The crumbling ground, several stray attacks from Clover's own teammates that had veered off course in ways that should have been impossible given their level of coordination.
And now the latest insult. Taiyang devouring two of his elemental fish mid battle.
Yes.
Misfortune was an incredibly irritating ability to deal with. Clover opened his mouth to comment on this.
But Qrow spoke first. "We're in a fight," the crow said in that same ridiculous gravelly voice.
Clover blinked in confusion, then his eyes widened as his instincts screamed at him.
Without hesitation his water elemental fish surged forward, forming a rotating shield around his body.
It happened just in time. From the darkness below, something massive exploded upward. A gigantic crow beak burst from the hole beneath him.
The enormous black beak snapped shut with a thunderous crack exactly where Clover had been floating only a fraction of a second earlier.
The air itself shuddered from the force of the bite.
Feathers scattered outward as one of Qrow's larger crow bodies emerged from the pit in a violent upward surge.
Clover shot backward through the air, narrowly avoiding the attack. His shield of elemental fish swirled protectively around him as he stared at the monstrous bird now hovering below.
"…Right," he muttered.
Elsewhere on the battlefield the fights had shifted as well. The chaotic shockwave created by Taiyang's attack had forced the remaining fighters to reposition.
Raven Branwen now faced the Atlas speedster girl.
Meanwhile Glynda Goodwitch had taken over the battle against the wood controlling specialist. The bald man stood atop a rapidly growing pillar of roots as thick wooden tendrils erupted from the ground around him.
Massive branches whipped through the battlefield like spears as he attempted to overwhelm Glynda with sheer environmental control but Glynda was not an easy opponent to trap.
Invisible telekinetic constructs formed around her like weapons brought into existence by pure thought. Spears of compressed force shot forward, slicing apart incoming roots and walls of invisible energy redirected entire forests of wooden attacks away from her position.
Floating platforms appeared beneath her feet whenever the ground shifted or collapsed. She moved with calm precision through the chaos, her control over the battlefield almost elegant.
Still, the fight dragged on. The wood specialist's Rune allowed him to continuously reshape the terrain around them. While Glynda could counter his attacks easily enough, eliminating him outright required more direct confrontation.
Meanwhile Raven had taken over the far more mobile opponent. The Atlas speedster was a young woman wielding twin electrified blades that crackled constantly with arcs of lightning.
Her body blurred through the battlefield with terrifying speed. Every step she took left a streak of electricity behind her.
But speed was not the only trick she possessed. As she moved, duplicates of herself began appearing across the battlefield.
Lightning clones. Each one formed from crackling arcs of energy before immediately lunging toward Raven with flashing blades.
The battlefield around them filled with streaks of blue light as the clones attacked from multiple angles. Ordinarily, even a highly skilled fighter would struggle to defend against that level of speed but Raven Branwen was far from ordinary.
Her body moved with perfect efficiency. Her katana flashed again and again as she deflected incoming strikes with minimal motion.
She didn't attempt to chase the speedster. She simply held her ground and cut down anything that came within reach. Even without fully reacting to every movement, her blade always seemed to appear exactly where it needed to be.
Meanwhile something darker moved with her.
Shadow arms.
Long tendrils of darkness extended from Raven's back and shoulders like the limbs of some ancient many armed deity. Each arm ended in a curved shadow blade.
They moved independently from Raven's own body, slashing and sweeping through the battlefield as they attempted to intercept the lightning clones racing toward her.
The effect made Raven look like a strange shadowy asura. Multiple arms of darkness flickering and cutting through the battlefield in every direction.
The speedster zipped around Raven in blinding arcs, her lightning blades clashing against Raven's defenses again and again.
Each time the attacks came dangerously close. Each time Raven blocked or deflected them with flawless precision. The duel had become a storm of shadows and lightning.
And neither side had gained the upper hand yet.
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AN: Advanced chapters are available on patreon