We do not own RWBY or any other copyright content. All rights to it go to Monty Oum (God rest his soul), VIZ Media, and their original owners. We own all OCs.
Writing credits go to Uzumaki Ricky, Monsterhuntergod, Sharad the hedgehog, and Traines.
Return of the Dragon Warriors
Volume 1 Chapter 18: Training Day Blues
Several weeks had passed since they started Azura, Sylver, and Sapphire's training regime. Each weekend, they would work themselves to what felt like near-death with added weights being put on each time it got easier for them. Yet the results were noticeable. The rest of the school noticed the clique in their classes doing physical feats that they shouldn't be able to as simple first years. All while gaining the approval of their professors.
Yet as Weiss sat in a large clearing with a set of boxes of medical supplies, none of that mattered. She was given an exemption to tend to Silfrdrengr's wounds from initiation. The frosty autumn winds nipped at her dress as she gingerly prepared a new set of clean bandages. All while the dragon lay in the short grass of the clearing under the shade of a great oak tree. Relaxing peacefully as he felt the cool breeze hit him.
"Does it feel good to finally get out of your puppy form?" Weiss asked as her fingers fiddled with the long rolls of white bandages.
'So much so! I can finally stretch out completely!' Silf mentally told her, glee in his voice as he sighed contently.
"We need to find a patch of sand or rough ground for you to roll on. You're starting to get buildup of dead scales again. People are starting to notice that you're debarking the trees." Weiss sighed, before starting to climb on top of the reptilian leviathan.
'A nice boulder or cliff face should be more than enough.' Silfrdrengr replied, scratching at an itch on his side with one of his clawed back legs.
"If you keep getting any bigger, then we're going to be hard pressed to find one big enough." Weiss grumbled. "Give me your wing. Time for your new bandages."
Nodding, Silf laid his wing out for Weiss to bandage up. Slowly and gingerly she began to wrap it around the wound. The punctures had scabbed up into black spots while much of the area around it was still purple and bruised. The only good thing about it was that the breaks in his wing bones had finally started to heal and heal well.
"I wonder how the others are doing?" She muttered to herself as she carefully weaved the bandages over Silf's wing.
Meanwhile: With the Others
"Come on, you lot! My grandmother can do jumping jacks better than that!! No seriously, that woman is insane!" Sylver barked at the assembled teams, his brows furrowed with disappointment.
"I'm trying, you big, furry dolt!!" Ruby snapped as she panted slightly during the jumping jacks. "Oh gods, I sound like Weiss!!"
"Not you, dear! The rest of these lazy lumps! Arcfall! Pick up the pace!" Sylver ordered, turning his icy gaze to Jaune.
"I'm… trying…!" Jaune panted as he tried to keep doing jumping jacks at a good pace.
"Trying does not cut it! You will do, or you will not! Do I make myself clear!!??" Sylver barked directly into Jaune's face, marching over to the blonde knight to do so.
"Yessir!" Jaune replied as he fearfully picked up his pace.
"You thunder lummoxes are lucky Azura is working on Ruby, Yang, and Nora's new weights! Or I'd sick him and my sister on you lot!!" Sylver barked before looking at Whitley. "I am most disappointed in you, my student! Double pace! NOW!"
"Yes, master!" Whitley cried out as he did exactly that.
"Triple pace for forgetting!!" The wolf boy barked, causing Whitley to groan before complying with his teacher's insane order.
"Not gonna lie, Wolfy! This is weak sauce!!" Nora yelled with a sassy smirk.
"I'm with Nora on this! The sooner those new weights are done, the sooner we can get in a real workout!" Yang piped up with a grin as she kept doing jumping jacks.
Sylver groaned in annoyance before facepalming. "Fine! Go see Yang's boy toy! He's taking forever to get those weights done anyway." He growled, before pointing into the nearby forest.
At Sylver's order, with Yang giving Sylver a dirty look as they left, Ruby, Nora, and Yang walked into the tree line. They still heard the heavy breathing and panting in between Sylver barking orders and criticism at the rest of them. Yet after a short walk, under the shade of two beech trees, they saw the azure clad samurai and the bombastic blue bombshell bent over a set of large and heavy looking metal weight ingots. More lay behind them in a more haphazard fashion, indicating unusual pressure and lack of care from the Zodiacs. Next to them was a large case of electric carving tools and power tools, with matching lightning dust batteries. Sapphire was watching a tutorial on her scroll, while Azura had a power chisel in one hand, and holding a hefty manual in the other.
"Okay. Looks like we gotta switch to the 3/8ths inch head for the inner triangle inscription. And don't put it on high this time. We already broke two ingots this morning." Sapphire said, peeling her eyes away from her scroll to look at Azura.
"I'm on it. I'll keep it on medium." Azura sighed as he stopped the power chisel to change the head. What caught the trio's eyes was the purple shine of Gravity Dust built into the chisel. As their eyes following Azura's hand as he changed out the head, they noticed that he had a full set of them alongside chisel heads for many different other kinds of Dust.
"I didn't know you worked as a handyman, Azura?" Yang playfully said, catching Azura off guard to the point of nearly dropping the chisel head in his hand.
"O-Oh! Hello, girls…" Azura nervously chuckled out as he waved at them.
"Why do all those chisel heads have Dust impregnated into them? And is that a Green Vale Power Chisel?" Ruby asked excitedly, zipping in between Azura and Sapphire to look at everything.
Azura smiled proudly. "Yes, it is. I got it for my birthday two years ago from my father." He told her, showing it to her.
"Don't ask for a gift from his dad, by the way. He's cheap as chips. He only got him a couple of tools when he could have easily bought him the full range." Sapphire replied before turning to look at her scroll to look at another video.
"For your information, Sapphire, I only asked for a couple of tools. I wanted to get the others myself." Azura replied, rolling his eyes before getting back to work on replacing the head on his power chisel.
"It runs in the family then." Sapphire countered boorishly, not even looking at him as she spoke.
"So why are you using Gravity Dust impregnated tools for this?" Yang asked, raising an eyebrow.
Azura smiled. "We are using a modernized version of an ancient Zodiac method for crafting training weights. You use Gravity Dust impregnated tools to etch Gravity Runes into the weights that allow you to use your Aura to adjust the weight of the metal as needed." He explained as he finished putting on the new head.
"And the power tool part? Aside from it being fun?" Nora asked, raising a curious eyebrow.
"This is normally done with a normal Gravity Dust chisel and a hammer, but there are too many between the three of you to do that quickly." Sapphire replied, waving Nora off as she continued to watch the video.
"So, what you're saying is that we are just that damn good, huh?" Yang asked teasingly, putting a hand on her hips to complete the look.
Azura chuckled a bit. "Between Ruby's speed and endurance and the physical strength of you two, we need to use more advanced, heavy-duty runes than expected for these weights to provide you three with a proper challenge." He explained before turning on the power chisel and getting ready to work on the engraving.
"That's not what I heard you say earlier, big blue." Sapphire replied with a know-it-all tone.
"Your silence would be greatly appreciated, Sapphire." Azura replied without even looking at her, a blush on his face.
Yang raised an eyebrow and sauntered over to Azura, before lifting his chin up with a finger. "Oh? What were you saying about us, Azu?" She asked in a low, sultry tone.
Azura blushed deeply and gulped. "I… I was… I was just…" He nervously tried to say, finding himself unable to get the words out.
"Yang! Let him focus!! I want to see how it works!" Ruby annoyedly yelled, adopting an equally annoyed pose as she did by crossing her arms under her less generous bust.
"All right, fine." Yang sighed, before backing off to give him space.
Taking a deep breath, Azura went back to work as he continued carving the runes into the metal, the power tool glowing with his azure-blue Aura as he worked. Carefully, he began etching the runes into each ingot one by one, taking special and precise care to do it correctly. As they watched Azura work, Nora spoke up to Sapphire with a question on her mind.
"So how do we use these things once they're done?" Nora asked, picking up an already finished ingot that had runes already etched into it.
"It's so simple even my brother can use them. Simply funnel Aura into the rune, and the more you put in, the heavier it makes the weight. It gives you some good Aura control training while training your body." Sapphire explained.
"Should be easy enough." Yang said as she crossed her arms.
"And what happens if you put too much in?" Ruby asked curiously, poking at the rune Nora was holding up.
"Then they could become so heavy that you could physically hurt yourself trying to work with them on." Sapphire simply told her.
"That reminds me. After training, we need to go check on Weiss and Silf. There's got to be something we can do to help them." Ruby firmly said, stamping her foot at something.
Azura, having just finished another ingot's engraving, nodded his head. "Agreed." He replied as he set the ingot down with the other completed ones.
"We need to make sure to bring Blair. Maybe she can find something in those crusty old books Weiss is reading that our dragon rider hasn't yet?" Yang chipped in, looking around at the others.
"Maybe. It's worth a try, at least." Sapphire replied, grabbing a second power chisel to begin helping Azura.
"The sooner Silf gets better, the sooner he can take us all flying!" Nora yelled excitedly.
"All right, that should do it for Ruby's weights. Now to work on Nora's. Yang, I am saving yours for last." Azura told the three, setting aside Ruby's completed weight ingots for her to begin putting into her weighted clothes.
"Make sure to get my thighs right this time, Azu." Yang said with a smile before giving him a teasing wink, causing the Zodiac samurai to blush.
Later at Midday: With Silfrdrengr and Weiss
The sun reached its greatest arc in the sky before everyone was allowed to stop training for lunch. They then walked over with lunch to join Weiss and Silfrdrengr in their clearing, some of them moving faster than others. Yang, Nora, and, most surprisingly of all, Ruby found themselves lagging due to how heavy they had made their new weights. Azura rolled his eyes as he slowed down to walk in pace with them.
"I told you three to put less Aura into the runes if you didn't want to struggle too much." Azura sighed, shaking his head.
"Then why did you make them be able to get so heavy?" Ruby groaned as she struggled to follow.
"Because I was getting sick and tired of constantly having to truck in heavier weights! They do not make weights heavy enough without the runes to put into this kind of clothing! You three shot up into the intermediate level faster than even my brother Kenshi did!! Which should be impossible!!" Azura snapped, the mask of calm breaking to show a wave of pent-up frustration.
"I'm not complaining. I'm really feelin' the burn now. Besides, I know you like seeing me sweat, Azu." Yang purred out, a flirtatious smile directed towards Azura.
Azura blushed red at that. "Y-Your silence would be greatly appreciated, Yang…" He stuttered out nervously.
"I'm not hearing a no…" She replied with a smirk, causing Azura to then flee over to Ren, Jaune, and Zhan as they set up the grills.
"Why do you keep teasing him so much, sis?" Ruby sighed out, finally getting a chance to sit down and relax.
"Because it's fun and cute to see him blush. What can I say? I get a real thrill out of seeing the normally composed samurai prince act like a shy schoolboy because of me." Yang giggled, a big grin on her face.
"Same reason I do it with Ren! Put them up sister!!" Nora yelled excitedly and put her hand up for Yang to give her a high five.
"Up top, Nora!" Yang replied, reciprocating the high five.
".... I really don't get you two." Ruby sighed, shaking her head.
"Oh, like you don't get a kick out of your dynamic with Sylver, Rubes." Yang teasingly said.
"Yeah, Strawberry Sunshine! I see how happy the back and forth between you and the North Wind Wolf Prince makes you!" Nora added with a teasing grin of her own.
"Hey!! Are you teasing my Red Reaper Queen!? Only I do that around here and in this relationship!!" Sylver snapped, poking his head out from the coolers full of meat and fish to do so.
Ruby blushed red at that. "SYLVER!!" She yelled in embarrassment.
"Oh, I get it. She's the teasee in that relationship. Yang, how is your sister so adorkable?" Nora giggled out.
Yang shrugged with an amused smile. "Believe me, Nora. I've been trying to figure that out for years." She giggled in response.
Across the clearing, closer to the Oak tree shading Silfrdrengr, Azura panted as he stopped in front of the rest of the guys. Jaune and Hunter were setting up a fold-out table for ingredients, Sylver and Ren were working with the coolers, and Zhan was getting the grills ready. With a snap of his fingers, the lumpy charcoal started to burn with orange flames. With a smile, the tall blacksmith snapped his grilling tongs in his left hand.
"All right. We just need to get some good coals burning and we will be set." Zhan said with a proud smile.
"By the way, Azura, boss. When are you two going to get the rest of us on those Gravity Rune weights?" Hunter asked from the ingredients table as he and Jaune were getting it ready.
"Give me a week. Those three forced me to put a lot into making their weights. I am not used to using power tools on this scale. And I much prefer using the old-fashioned methods." Azura replied, annoyance oozing out of his voice as he wiped away beads of sweat from his brow.
"Fair enough. Honestly, as weird as it sounds to say, I'm kinda looking forward to it. I'm getting some good gains from the physical parts of the training." Jaune replied with a smile as he and Hunter finished setting up the table.
"Is it 'cause you want to impress red head over there?" Sylver asked as he put a large bone in rib roast on a cutting board next to Jaune.
"I don't understand the question. Why would I need to impress Pyrrha? She's my friend." Jaune replied, clearly confused.
Sylver put a hand on Jaune's shoulder sympathetically. "I envy your level of naivety." The wolf prince said with genuine kindness.
"What? What'd I say?" Jaune asked, not understanding his friend's words.
As the food began to be prepped by the guys, they were then covered in shadow. Looking up, they saw the expecting face of Silf looming over them. His forked tongue left his lips to smell the food. Zhan, however, snapped at the tongue of the dragon.
"Hey! We haven't started yet! Be patient, ya' big tundra lummox!" Zhan sternly barked, snapping at him with the tongs.
Silfrdrengr then let out a low, rumbling growl that reverberated through his long throat. When he saw that Zhan stood undeterred, he squinted his eyes and arched his neck back. Then, reaching down with his long tongue, he grabbed the fire poker and held it out like a rapier. Zhan snarled before countering with holding the tongs like a rapier as well.
"En garde, you scaly menace!!" Zhan proclaimed, before the two began to clash with their chosen implements.
Watching from under the shade of the trees, Weiss rolled her eyes at her dragon's antics before a smile soon began to form on her lips as she watched. However, she then noticed the rest of her team walking towards her.
"Hey, girls. Is something wrong?" Weiss asked, now actively ignoring the amateur fencing matching going on nearby.
"Weiss… is there any way we can help speed up Silf's recovery? We wanna try to take some of the load off you." Ruby told her partner worriedly.
Weiss sighed at hearing that, before slowly standing up. "That's just it. I don't know." She replied candidly, catching the rest of her team off guard.
"You don't know? You haven't come across anything in your books?" Yang asked, surprised to hear that.
"Those books are bigger and denser than our overpriced textbooks. It's so hard to find anything in there. They're not written like modern books!" Weiss explained, her exasperation revealing itself in her voice.
"Tell me about it. My back still hurts from carrying the 'Textbook History of Textbooks…'" Ruby groaned, rubbing her lower back.
"Ruby. That wasn't on the textbook list." Blair replied, patting her on the shoulder.
"Then why did Uncle Barry make us get it?!" Yang and Ruby demanded in exasperation.
"Because he loves history. And he's weird." Blair bluntly answered the sisters.
"Look. My point is that, if any of you want to try looking through the books to see if you can find anything, be my guest." Weiss sighed, rubbing her temples.
"I could take a crack at it in the library later. Maybe a new set of eyes can find something you didn't?" Blair asked, shrugging her shoulders a bit.
Weiss sighed. "I suppose it's worth a try. Thank you, Blair." She replied with a smile.
Later That Evening: Library
Weiss sighed as she held a thermos of coffee in one hand and rubbed her temples with the other. Around her Yang and Ruby carried large stacks of books and set them on the table before them. Blair, meanwhile, worked hard to read them, her yellow eyes scanning the pages fiercely like a hunter looking through a forest for prey.
"I haven't seen texts this complex in years. It's definitely several thousand years old at minimum." Blair said as she read further.
"Weiss, where'd your dad even get these?" Ruby asked in disbelief.
"I don't know. He probably bought them because they looked like antiques that could make for good conversation pieces…" Weiss sighed as she poured some coffee for Blair.
Accepting the coffee, Blair drank the full cap before setting it down away from the books. "There is so much information in all of these that it's hard to separate fact from fiction…" She sighed as she kept reading.
Weiss's eyebrow raised up at hearing that. "Like what exactly?" She asked with both skepticism and curiosity.
"Did you know that Dragons could give their Dragon Warriors longer life spans and even the ability to potentially shapeshift?" Blair asked, raising an eyebrow.
"How much longer are we talking here?" Yang asked as she sat down between Blair and Weiss at the table.
Blair shrugged. "Several hundred years at least, according to multiple sources."
"That sounds like it would get boring." Ruby chipped in, sitting between Blair and Weiss at the other side of the table.
"Agreed. Now let's see… magic… elemental magic… offensive magic… defensive magic… Here we are. Support magic. Now to see if there's a healing section…" Blair muttered as she scanned the table of contents of a large book before speaking up when she found the section she was looking for.
"I'm already starting to feel a headache coming on…" Weiss groaned, rubbing her temples desperately.
"Here we go. Healing magic. 'Through the mystical might gained from their bonds with Dragons, Dragon Warriors were even capable of near miraculous feats of healing and rejuvenation magics. They could heal serious or even fatal wounds, restore stamina, and even bring people back from the brink of death. There were even records of reattaching lost limbs.'" Blair read off from the page.
"Perfect! Let's get Weiss to do that!!" Ruby quietly squealed excitedly.
"I don't know how to do that, Ruby!!" Weiss snapped.
"There's more. It says here 'Dragon Warriors could speed up the magic-enhanced healing process dramatically by establishing soul bonds with those other than their Dragons. By sharing soul energy and mystical power between them, groups of Dragon Warriors could perform any healing feat short of reviving the dead. The deeper the established mystical bonds, the swifter the healing process became with healing magics.'" Blair read off carefully.
"So, because I have a bond with Silfrdrengr, I can heal him?" Weiss asked, her voice ringing with skepticism.
"Him and anyone else you choose to establish a bond like that with," Blair noted, nodding.
"Does it say how to do any of this?" Weiss asked.
"It says that you need to focus on the wound, channel magic into the wound with positive intentions, and concentrate on willing it to heal. There's an incantation here that, when uttered, can help enhance the spell if said in the ancient language of the Brotherhood of the Dragon Warriors." Blair told Weiss.
"... That's it? That's all?" Weiss asked in shock.
"Apparently so. It seems magic isn't so different from Aura after all." Blair replied with a nod, shutting the book.
"And we got a kickass, dragon-riding healer on the team to boot!" Yang said with a big smile before patting Weiss on the back.
"Don't get too excited, Yang. A good rule to follow is not getting hurt in the first place." Weiss replied. "Besides, I need to actually accomplish pulling it off first."
"Maybe try it with Silf later? It can't hurt." Ruby suggested, patting Weiss gently on the shoulder.
"I'll do it after dinner and a shower. Despite not doing training, all this stress has gotten me sweaty." Weiss sighed before looking over at Blair. Anyway, what is the ancient language?"
"Apparently, in the ancient tongue of the Ki-Urugal civilization, it's known as the 'Namel-Kug' language." Blair explained to her teammate.
"Definitely sounds ancient. What does any of that mean?" Weiss asked, raising a curious eyebrow.
"Ki-Urugal was the name of the ancient world the Dragons inhabited that meant 'Land of the Great Dragons.' The name 'Namel-Kug' apparently meant either 'Divine Words' or 'Sacred Speech of Authority.' At least, according to the book." Blair explained.
"All right. As fascinating as it is, we've done this for long enough. Let's put all these books back and get out of here." Weiss said before standing up.
With a nod, the rest of Team RWBY got to work putting the books back. Armed with such ancient knowledge, it gave them both hope and a hint of dread. After all, how much can you believe in those old tales and legends anyways? Right?
To Be Continued...