A few minutes earlier, while the Rank 1 battlefield still held together in fractured pieces around the crater, Raven moved like a malevolent shadow.
Her opponent stood across from her, a man cloaked in the same abyssal element she wielded. Their runic energy overlapped in violent contradiction. Shadow clashed against shadow, each trying to consume the other, writhing across the molten terrain like living things fighting for dominance.
The ground beneath them churned and blackened soil rose and collapsed as their powers tore at the environment.
Raven's body dissolved.
In an instant, she shrank and reshaped, becoming a small, sleek raven composed entirely of shadow. The form cut through the writhing battlefield with unnatural speed, weaving between the colliding masses of darkness that surged like tidal waves.
Her opponent reacted, trying to grasp her shadow Raven form but she weaved past the shadow limbs and appeared directly in front of him, reforming mid motion.
The man's mouth opened wide, unnaturally so, stretching far beyond human limits. From within that void, something crawled out.
A golem.
Formed of condensed shadow, it emerged fist first, its arm expanding as it broke free, swelling into a monstrous limb that swung toward Raven with crushing force.
She raised her blade and deflected the strike.
The impact echoed with a explosive boom, but the golem did not stop.
More poured out.
From the golem's torso, from its limbs, from every inch of its grotesque form, smaller shadow constructs began to crawl outward. Each one grew as it emerged, feeding into the whole, layering over itself in a grotesque, ever expanding mass.
It became a chimera of shadow.
A writhing, towering amalgamation that seemed to grow without limit.
Raven stood before it still and unmoving, then she shifted, and her form condensed a very special blade of pure darkness.
The blackness was seemingly all devouring. It swallowed the false light cast by black sun above, a void so complete it seemed to erase the very concept of illumination. It was as if the blade refused to be seen, only felt.
She lifted it slowly, even when the golem roared forward and its mass collapsing inward as it prepared to crush her beneath its weight.
Raven swung.
The blade moved in a smooth, almost languid arc that seemed disconnected from time itself. It never visibly touched the creature. It passed through empty space, her eyes never leaving the monstrous form before her.
Then she sheathed it.
The motion was quiet and final.
For a single heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the golem split.
Down the center.
And then again.
And again.
And again.
The cuts multiplied beyond counting, carving through the massive structure in a cascading sequence of invisible strikes. The creature unraveled completely, its form collapsing into fragments so fine they dissolved into nothing.
From within the destruction, the man was thrown free.
His body was ruined.
Every limb had been severed, not horizontally, but vertically, carved into segments that should not have held together. Blood poured from him as he hit the ground, coughing violently.
But he wasn't finished.
The shadow beneath him surged upward, swallowing his broken form as he attempted to escape into it.
And then it stopped.
The ground itself separated, carved away in a perfect oval, revealing a hollow beneath the surface. The mass of shadow that had tried to carry him vanished, severed cleanly from the world.
Inside that hollow stood Raven.
Her blade moved.
Unsheathing and Resheathing.
A single, fluid motion.
The man reacted desperately, pulling shadow around himself, forming a dense barrier that wrapped his body in layers of protection.
It did not matter as the shield split.
Again and again.
The same unseen force that had destroyed the golem tore through his defenses with effortless precision. The layers of shadow peeled away, revealing him completely, broken and exposed.
He fell.
For a moment, he lay still, then his body changed and his flesh warped.
Bones twisted.
His form elongated into something serpentine, stretching into a massive snake-like creature that slithered forward with unnatural speed. From its face, multiple mouths burst open, each one vomiting streams of corrosive poison that hissed as they cut through the air toward Raven.
She vanished.
Her body sank into the ground like a shadow slipping beneath a door.
The poison struck empty space.
Then she reappeared.
Directly beneath him.
Her blade rose and cleaved upward through the length of his body, slicing clean through his neck. His head separated, spinning free as the rest of his form convulsed violently.
But even that was not enough.
From the severed neck, a shadow hand burst outward.
It grabbed her blade.
The grip was tight, desperate, fueled by raw survival instinct.
They struggled.
For a moment, there was resistance.
Then Raven moved.
Her leg snapped forward, a precise kick that struck the creature's body and sent it flying backward. The force of the motion tore her blade free from her grasp, leaving it embedded within the writhing form as it was launched away.
She let it go.
The sword dissolved instantly, breaking apart into shadow that faded into nothing.
For the first time, there was a subtle shift in her expression.
Paler.
Only slightly but it was there.
She raised her hand again and another blade formed.
The same devouring darkness condensed into her palm, solidifying into a perfect replica of the one she had just lost.
Then four more limbs appeared. Each one held a blade identical to the first, forming a silent, lethal halo around her body.
Her Asura form.
Across from her, the snake creature twisted.
The hand emerging from its neck split and then split again.
Multiple shadow arms extended outward, each one gripping its own weapon. They mimicked her.
The creature grew.
Its body expanded, stretching upward until it towered at ten feet, a writhing mass of shadow and malformed limbs.
Then they moved.
The distance between them vanished in a sonic boom.
Their clash detonated the ground.
Molten shadow erupted outward as their blades met, the force of the impact sending shockwaves through the surrounding terrain. The creature was thrown backward, its limbs severed instantly upon contact.
And then it was cut again.
And again.
And again.
Each strike multiplied into dozens, then hundreds, carving through its body faster than it could regenerate. Its weapons shattered, its limbs disintegrated, its form unraveling under an onslaught it could not comprehend.
There was nothing left.
Only fragments.
Raven stepped forward.
Her additional limbs dissolved, the Asura-like manifestation fading as her body returned to its singular form.
The man's true body emerged from the collapsing mass, falling to the ground in a broken heap. Blood poured from his mouth as he struggled to breathe, eyes wide with something beyond pain.
Fear.
Raven moved past him. She didn't look at him directly. Her blade traced a slow arc through the air behind her.
He tried to speak.
"What kind of damn meta rune is—"
The blade pierced his mouth.
It silenced him instantly.
For a brief, final moment, his eyes locked onto hers.
What he saw there was not rage.
Only coldness.
A still, absolute void that swallowed everything reflected within it. Her face was calm, almost serene, untouched by the violence that surrounded her. Beautiful in a way that felt distant, unreachable, like something carved from ice and shadow.
It was the last thing he saw.
Then he died.
His body split apart entirely, collapsing into a storm of blood and severed pieces that scattered across the battlefield.
Raven stood there.
Alone.
The blade in her hand dissolved once more, fading into nothing as the echoes of the fight died around her.
For a moment, she didn't move.
Then her body shifted as she stumbled
But her expression did not change.
The battlefield still screamed, burned and twisted beneath the weight of greater powers clashing in the distance. Her gaze flicked once toward the horizon where the Rank 2 fights raged like a second storm layered over the first.
Her body dissolved again, not into the small, precise raven she had used before, but something far larger. Shadow stretched and expanded, wings unfurling into a massive silhouette that blotted out the false light of the sky. A colossal raven formed, its body dense with runic power, its wings beating once with enough force to scatter molten debris in every direction.
She launched forward as a black comet streaking across the battlefield.
Ahead, Qrow was already engaged. His body split and reformed through his crow clones, each one darting and weaving as he fought against the teleportation user. The man flickered in and out of existence, reappearing at angles that defied prediction, his blade carving through Qrow's clones as if cutting through smoke.
Raven did not slow.
She collided with Qrow's real body.
Except it was not a collision but a fusion.
Their forms merged mid motion, shadow swallowing shadow, aura intertwining in a way that should not have been possible under normal circumstances. The result was something monstrous.
A chimera.
A titanic bird with two heads. One sleek and predatory, formed from Raven's abyssal shadow. The other jagged and feral, a monstrous crow born from Qrow's monstrous form. Four wings spread wide, layered and overlapping, while multiple shadow arms erupted from its torso, writhing and reaching like extensions of its will.
The teleportation user reappeared right on top of the titanic Raven's head.
His blade drove downward in a precise, lethal strike aimed at the core of the fused entity.
He never reached it.
Shadow limbs burst outward from the creature's head, snapping into existence and wrapping around him in an instant. They gripped tight, coiling around his arms, his torso, his weapon. He struggled, his ability flickering as he tried to teleport away, but the grip held firm, disrupting his control.
For the first time, he could not escape.
However, the chimera ignored him.
It turned and the massive form surged forward, accompanied by Qrow's remaining crow clones that swarmed alongside it like a living storm. Together, they rushed toward the greater threat.
The Flesh beast that the leader of Sleepless had become.
A colossal eastern dragon coiled through the air, lightning cracking across its body as clouds spiraled around it. It battled the grotesque monstrosity that was a massive black sphere of flesh which pulsed and shifted, its surface splitting open again and again as enormous tendrils ending in malformed hands and mouths lashed outward.
Taiyang roared.
A beam of incandescent energy erupted from his jaws, a dragon's breath that tore through the air like a divine weapon. It struck the flesh beast directly, vaporizing sections of it instantly.
But the creature quickly adapted.
Its tendrils moved with terrifying intelligence, striking the dragon's head mid breath and forcing the beam off course. The attack veered sharply, streaming away into the distance toward the Rank 1 battlefield.
Taiyang's eyes widened slightly.
He snapped his jaws shut.
The beam cut off abruptly, the residual energy scattering across the sky instead of continuing its path of destruction.
Below, the flesh beast surged forward again, its limbs wrapping and constricting as it pressed against him. Lightning arced wildly across Taiyang's body as he struck back, his claws tearing through chunks of its mass, but it kept coming.
Then—
"Switch!" Qrow's voice echoed.
Taiyang didn't hesitate.
His massive form collapsed inward, the dragon dissolving as he reverted back to human mid air. The moment his feet found purchase on nothing, he kicked off the air itself, launching away from the beast.
At the same time, the chimera struck.
Raven and Qrow's fused form slammed into the flesh monster with overwhelming force, driving it downward into the molten ground. The impact detonated the terrain, lava and shadow rock erupting outward in a violent explosion.
On the Raven's head, just before the explosion occurred, the teleportation user finally broke free.
The shadow limbs had loosened just enough.
He flickered away, reappearing a short distance from the chimera, breath ragged, body tense.
Then he saw Taiyang whose fist filled his vision.
The impact was devastating.
Bone cracked audibly as the man was launched backward, his face caving under the force. He twisted mid air, as he stabilized himself, his teleportation rune activating again.
He vanished and reappeared behind Taiyang.
His blade swung in a tight arc aimed for Taiyang's neck.
Taiyang reacted.
Dragon scales surged across his arm, forming a hardened defense just in time to catch the strike. The impact still carried immense force, sending both of them crashing into the ground below.
They didn't stop.
The moment they landed, they fought.
Steel met scale, teleportation flickering in rapid bursts as the man struck from impossible angles. Taiyang absorbed the hits, his body reinforced by his runes as he retaliated with brutal, direct blows.
Each strike carried kinetic force that detonated on impact, blasting the surrounding terrain apart. Lava surged upward in massive waves, reaching hundreds of meters into the air as the battlefield was reshaped with every exchange.
They clashed again.
And again.
The teleportation user was fast, unpredictable, relentless.
But Taiyang stood firm.
"You can't beat me," Taiyang said, his voice steady even as he blocked another strike. "Give it up, Sleepless scum."
The man opened his mouth to respond.
Only to choke as a sneaky wooden root burst through his chest from behind.
It pierced cleanly, emerging through his torso as blood poured from his mouth. His eyes widened in shock as he looked down at the intrusion.
Taiyang grinned as the root moved and expanded.
Branches spread outward inside the man's body, splitting and dividing, filling every space within him.
Then it ruptured.
The man exploded from the inside out, his body torn apart in a violent spray of blood, flesh, and bone.
Taiyang exhaled, rolling his shoulders slightly before glancing to the side.
Zeki and Clover.
They stood atop a massive elemental fish that hovered in the air, its form shimmering with a strange, crystalline film that distorted their appearance like a mirage.
The film dissolved.
The massive fish shrank rapidly, condensing into a small construct that hovered above Clover's palm.
Clover smirked. "Yo. Struggling much?"
Taiyang snorted. "I had it handled."
He paused, then added, "But thanks anyway."
The three of them suddenly turned. The remains of the teleportation user lay scattered across the ground.
Then—
They began to glow.
The flesh, the blood, the fragments of bone all pulsed with an ominous light.
Taiyang's expression changed instantly.
"Oh shit. Move!"
They ran but they weren't fast enough to escape entirely.
The remains detonated.
A massive sphere of plasma erupted outward, expanding rapidly and consuming everything in its path. The heat and force blasted across the battlefield, catching the three of them at the edge.
They were thrown back, their bodies battered by the explosion, but they endured. Their Rank 2 physiques absorbed most of the damage, mitigating the worst of it.
When the light faded, they were still standing.
Ahead of them, something loomed.
Velik's fragment.
A silhouette cloaked in darkness, its presence bleeding outward into the environment. The domain pressed heavily against the world, suppressing Will and bending perception.
They could feel it but they could also resist it.
Barely.
If that fragment had true consciousness, they would already be dead. However, as it currently was, the only real problem was its domain.
Taiyang glanced toward the ongoing clash where the chimera fought the flesh beast, the battlefield still tearing itself apart under their conflict.
He stepped forward to assist. The sooner they solved the Sleepless issue, the sooner they would be able to extract the grimm away from Velik.
Taiyang was forced to stop just as he started.
A gigantic glass wall had appeared.
Massive and jagged, rising from the ground like a blade of frozen light. It separated them from the battlefield ahead, its surface reflecting distorted images of the chaos beyond.
Two figures stood atop it.
Sleepless.
One of them, Taiyang recognized.
Cinder Fall.
She looked down at them, her expression calm, almost amused.
"Now, now," she said, her voice smooth. "It wouldn't be fair to interrupt their fight, would it?"
Her gaze sharpened slightly.
"Not when you have me to dance with."
Taiyang's eyes hardened as he glanced to the side.
The menagerie fighters who had been battling her earlier were gone.
Displayed grotesquely.
Their bodies were pierced through by massive glass spears that had erupted from the ground, impaling them in a grotesque arrangement. Blood dripped slowly down the translucent structures, painting them in dark streaks.
The fact that they were displayed in such a manner meant that Cinder Fall was actively wasting her Aura to make the statement that these Rank 2's were beneath her.
Silence fell for a moment, then Taiyang spoke.
"Seems you didn't learn from the Vytal Tournament."
Cinder's lips curved slightly. "I wasn't even taking you ser—"
"You're dead."
Taiyang moved.
A kinetic explosion shattered the ground beneath him as he launched forward, his fist already in motion.
It appeared in front of Cinder's face in the next instant.