Rage:

Sing, Goddess, of Pyrrha's rage,

Black and murderous, that cost the many

Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls

Of Heroes into the Void's dark,

And left their bodies to rot as feasts

For Beowolves and Nevermores, as Oum's will was done.

Hatred.

That one word was the only way to describe how Pyrrha Nikos felt.

Boiling pit of unmitigated rage at something. Forcing a constant snarl. The want to cause destruction. The desire to see someone bleed. The need to see it die in the slowest manner one could imagine. That was hatred in its purest form.

Pyrrha could feel the sensation devour her whole, the nature of hatred being all consuming. The champion could feel it seeping into every crevice of her being, like a red veil had dropped in front of her. Hatred added kindling to her rage, and that rage fueled her wrath.

While others had left her, had written her off as a lost cause, the hatred never left… never abandoned her like her friends… her teammates. It was her one and only ally in her quest. It was from that feeling, Pyrrha drew strength, the place where she found solace. It was the one thing providing her motivation to continue her fight… to bring revenge on those who had caused her such… pain.

It was why, as the fireballs passed her, –the searing heat boiling metal as they were flung about in every direction- Pyrrha didn't stop. Her hatred-fueled rage was why the blood splattered on her face didn't faze Pyrrha anymore, its putrid, gagging smell was odorless. Even after her aura should have gone, she still had plenty to spare, more than enough to continue her rampaging bloodbath.

"My, my Miss Nikos." The lilting voice sang out amongst the scorching fire bolts, audible even over the walls of approaching fire, the flame's crackling drowning out all but that voice. "It would seem you might be the Invincible Girl no longer."

That mocking voice made Pyrrha growl, the very fact its source was still alive made her hurt. The boiling rage in her grew, its fires being stoked.

I must make her suffer.

There was no hesitation in that thought, no want to work things out, of making sure justice was served. That Pyrrha was long past. That Pyrrha had died a long time ago.

Simply put, this was revenge.

Hatred may have reduced the once great champion to a feral beast, but she was still the 'Invincible Girl'. Pyrrha Nikos did not lose.

At one point of her life, Pyrrha would have been concerned about over draining her aura as she ripped the walls out of the ground, the structure groaning under the strain. Pyrrha might have once been concerned about injuring a civilian, as she sent clouds of metal debris rocketing towards her opponent, the metal clattering before being disintegrated in the inferno separating the two. Once, as laughable as it may be, Pyrrha might have been concerned about her opponent surviving their encounter.

Pyrrha was not pulling her punches as she ripped the floor of the building up, the creaking metal splintering after a point, before encompassing the raging ball of flame approaching her, the glowing eyes never straying from her. The woman lifted a hand, a great gout of fire leaping from her palm and smashing into the airborne floor.

There was no contest as the fire obliterated all it touched.

I need more power.

Hatred gave her just what she wanted as she drew deeper from it, her aura reserve skyrocketing.

Pyrrha's hand swept towards a column before pulling back. A steel support beam ripped from its place, the high pitch whine of it was brief, before it burst into thousands upon thousands of fragments. The cloud of iron filings swept around the approaching inferno.

The open hand clenched into a fist.

Innumerable shards accelerated, the cloud descending at a speed that only a coil gun could provide. Thousands upon thousands of sonic booms shaking the structure as they rocketed towards the source of her hatred.

The fire was too clever, too tricky for that; a light so bright that it dwarfed the sun shone. All that was left of the filings was ash.

I need more power!

Pyrrha pulled deeper on her only ally.

Fire jetted out of the inferno, fire hot enough to melt any person to ash by proximity alone. A visible magnetic field greeted it in a brilliant explosion, the force of the explosion gouging the ground. More jets of flame spiraled out of the approaching wall of fire. All Pyrrha could see was fire as her shield was battered, the sheer velocity of the fiery streaks forcing her back. Back far enough that she was pushed out of the building, the shattered moon coming into view.

The magnetic field started to falter under the assault, the stress of over drawing on her aura starting to hit Pyrrha. I… I need to keep fighting! It was hard to do that when it was a herculean effort to even move your arm, to keep your eyes open, to keep the encroaching fire from consuming you.

"Tut, tut." It was her again, the mocking voice accompanied by the clicking of glass heels. "I should have done this from the start… it would have saved so much time." The voice kept Pyrrha conscious, but by a thread. "Who knew killing an insignificant speck like him would have cost me so many resources."

I NEED MORE POWER!

Hatred turned into pure, unbridled, uncontrollable rage.

It was like a pressure valve opened up as Pyrrha let herself get swallowed by it; she let the hatred-fueled rage permeate her every atom.

A new sound entered the fray, a sound so loud the crackling of the fire was finally drowned out in the din of it. Buildings cracked into myriads of bits, as the warehouse district was consumed in a maelstrom of power. Structures creaked and groaned as they were pulled out of their foundation and flung. Anything Pyrrha could grab onto was sent at the glowing eyes.

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!" Pyrrha could barely believe the screaming voice belonged to her as great warehouses crashed into her source of hatred. "DIE!"

The glowing eyes finally faltered, the inferno finally contracting at the attack. The scale of it was beyond what the fire could handle.

What had been a battle of two elements, fire and metal, the clash finally reached the break-point for one of the two. Fire was being overpowered. The snarl changed at the sound, forming a smile, a nasty, sickening, twisted smile.

Hatred was a wonderful tool of the damned.

Begin, Muse, with the clash between

Cinder – the fiery destroyer - and godlike Pyrrha…

BETA & Editor: Super Saiyan Cyndaquil

AU: Warning for all readers, this is not going to be a light-hearted story, this is no fairytale with a happy ending. Just to make this even clearer, this is a tragedy. People will die. I will try and keep it appropriate for a T rating, but if I can't, I'll change it. Just be aware of that.

So the basics of this story, is that this is the descent of Pyrrha into unrelenting, all destroying rage. I should probably explain.

I'm something of a historian, and when I started to watch RWBY I was rereading the Iliad for a number that is quite high. My first reaction upon seeing it and realizing Achilles = Pyrrha was wondering where exactly the CEASELESS RAGE that is perhaps Achilles' defining character trait was in her.

I decided to rectify that. Hence, we end up with this.

So my biggest influence for this story (outside of RWBY) is the Iliad, a story literally dedicated to Achilles' wrath. Some select parts will be used as a framing mechanism throughout the story as you can see.

Now on to the release schedule; this is a shorter story than my others and will have a definitive end that I can reach rather soon, comparatively. I'm still debating on packaging it with my monthly Acceptance updates. To be sure, this story will have a very loose schedule.

I try and not ask for reviews; putting peer-pressure on you guys is unfair, but it's been a long time since I wrote combat and this story is quite different from my usual style… so what do you think?

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day! :D

P.S. New Dilation and Spoon Equality chapters today. Acceptance got moved to next Friday. Will explain more in Dilation and Spoon Equality's author's notes or check my profile page!

P.S.S. A special thanks to Super Saiyan Cyndaquil for the help, I'm glad to have his input. Also a special thanks to Jo3mm, I finally got to use his art!