"Nora, stop advancing! It's too dangerous!" Jaune called as the hammer wielder kept moving through the crowd of amphibious Grimm. Magnhild had already smashed its way through dozens of crab-like Cancers and occasionally squished the tentacle of a Kraiken that washed ashore to try and assist its brethren against the Huntsman, but Jaune's experience from fighting monsters like them knew that killing this many will attract stronger ones.
"But Jaune, I'm having so much fun!" Nora cackled, crushing the hard shell of another Cancer that tried to charge her. "By the time we're done, we'll be eating crabcakes for weeks!"
"Nora, please, just retreat! It's not safe!" Pyrrha urged, shooting an oncoming Nevermore square in between its eyes with her weapon's rifle.
"Oh, come on, guys! It's fine. I'm perfectly..." she fought back before the sound of something huge surfacing and splashing out of the water in front of them caused Nora to look up, all the excitement from the thrill of combat draining from her face as she looked up at the monolith of black armor-like skin in front of her, two beady red eyes looking down upon her as a massive bone-plated claw leveled with her. "W-what is that?" she shivered, startled by the arrival of the massive Grimm.
"A Leviathan..." Jaune gasped, his eyes adopting a thousand yard stare before he shook himself out of it. "Nora! Run!" he ordered.
Nora couldn't budge. In front of her stood one of the most massive Grimm she had ever laid her eyes on. It easily dwarfed the Deathstalker their team faced on Initiation day at Beacon three times over. Her knees buckled and quivered as she could do nothing, not even cup her hands over her ears as the giant crustacean let out a guttural screech and surged one of its claws towards its frightened prey.
Pyrrha tried to act quickly, using her semblance to try and lock on to Nora's warhammer and pull her away. It worked, but to the Spartan's horror, not in time as she saw the sand below Nora become red and the ginger grenadier break her frozen state to scream out in pain as the tip of the Leviathan's claw snip her at the knee like a piece of string.
"NORA!"
Ren paced around the outskirts of the camp JNPR had set up by the edges of the dunes just on the edge of the Vacuan coast. The martial artist couldn't help but feel something was off. The rest of his team had to be back by now. Jaune, Pyrrha and Nora had already gone ahead to assess the amount of Grimm they were up against on this mission. Apparently, they had to thin out a large massing group of aquatic Grimm on the edges of territory of a coastal town in the southwest coast of Vacuo, but all he had really seen during his time protecting the camp was a lone Beowulf and some scavenging Nevermore out in the distance that didn't pick up on his location yet.
He looked back at his Scroll. The time on the screen read 4:24 pm. "Four minutes late..." he murmured to himself. They had delays before on scouting runs, but something in the pit of his gut told him something was off. He wasn't sure what, but it was a feeling he was dreading finding the answer to.
A noise, feint, but still a noise, drew his attention eastward. Further into the dune grass, he could make out two figures running through the afternoon haze and towards the camp. A ray of sunlight burning through it pinged off one's bronze armor and cast a flash, identifying her even at that range as Pyrrha. The second was too tall to be his crazy best friend, so it had to be Jaune. The feeling grew to be gut-wrenching. Three of them went out. Why were only two returning. Where was Nora?
His eyes grew wide in shock as he noticed something dripping from behind Jaune, who was running at him in clear view now, poised as if he held something on his back, two gloved hands wrapped around him for safety. The substance seemed fluid, but oozed like paint dripping from a brush. It was red like it too. He took a sharp inhale as he realized where, or the lack thereof where, it was dripping from.
"REN!"
He was snapped out of the trance as Pyrrha shook him by the shoulder, her emerald eyes wide with worry as she and Jaune ran up to him, Jaune wasting no time to get the wounded onto one of the sleeping bags. It was there he noticed the extent of the injury: Nora's entire left leg was gone just above the knee. A makeshift bandage that appeared to be hastily wrapped over the stump covered the worst of it, but even that had bled through. Her face was white as a sheet of paper, indicating she had lost quite a lot of blood already.
She wasn't screaming, saying or doing anything. She just lay there, her turquoise eyes narrowed down to pinpoints as she shivered periodically. She had gone into shock far too long ago.
"I'm calling an evac! We can't do much here with just a medkit!" Jaune announced, obviously panicked. None of them were ready for this experience. Not as their first mission out of Beacon as graduates.
Pyrrha nodded as she knelt in front of Nora, checking the bandage, nearly hyperventilating. With her hands shaking, she looked over the injury. She knew she had to change it out; the cloth they used after escaping the Leviathan wasn't doing much good anymore. As she started reaching for it, a hand next to her stopping it before it could even touch the edge. She looked up to find Ren holding her arm in place. "Ren, what-"
"We need a steady hand for this, Pyrrha. I can do it." the stoic answered before she could finish. With a hesitant nod, the champion retracted her arm and passed the medical kit to him, Ren wasting no time as soon as he picked it up to gingerly remove the makeshift bandage and begin disinfecting it before wrapping it with some actual heavy-duty bandages.
"R-R-Ren..." Nora wheezed out. "I-I f-f-froze up, Ren..."
"It's okay, Nora. Try not to talk; save your energy." Ren ordered.
"B-but look at me." Nora whimpered. "M-m-my leg's g-gone. All b-b-because of-
She was cut off as Ren quickly took hold of her outstretched left hand in his right. Looking straight into her scared periwinkle orbs with caring pink ones. "Nora, listen to me. None of this is your fault. These things happen in our line of work. Just stay down and try to relax. I've still got some things to do with my best friend, remember?" he finished with a smirk, Nora struggling to give one back before another wave of pain radiated from her lack-thereof leg, prompting Ren to get back to work.
Pyrrha just watched the exchange and work in disbelief. Ren had known Nora longer and better than anyone else they met had, and here he was, keeping his head level as his best friend was critically injured. She had no idea how he could. If someone like him or Jaune were injured, she knew nobody would know how to remain calm. That thought was interrupted as a gust of hot wind blew down upon her. Looking up, she found a Bullhead had already arrived, and was now in a holding pattern above them as it steadied itself above the group, a single winch lowering down upon them with a stretcher attached to it to help them hoist Nora up. Jaune rejoined his team as he helped Ren gingerly lift Nora onto it, the injured berserker wincing in pain with each movement. It wasn't long before the rest of JNPR were allowed inside via a rope ladder and back off to the safe zones of Vacuo.
"You were lucky to get her here when you did." a familiar teal-haired doctor with long locks of turquoise hair noted as he went over the examination charts with Jaune, Ren and Pyrrha. "We managed to fully cauterize the wound and get her a blood transfusion, but even if you were five minutes late on that dropship, I'd be bringing you bad news."
Jaune gulped at that statement. "So, can we see her yet?" the worried knight asked.
"Not just yet. We're just finishing up with her, but it shouldn't be much longer before you can see her in a recovery room." the medical practitioner explained.
"We appreciate it. Thank you again, Turk." Pyrrha smiled in relief that her friend was going to make it, their comrade giving a smile back before excusing himself to get back to work. "He turned out to be a decent doctor after all." she thought out loud.
"You should talk with him, Ren. He could probably get you a job saving lives here." Jaune chuckled, while the stoic shrugged it off.
Pyrrha smiled at her boyfriend's statement as well, yet her smile faded as she faced the martial artist. "Speaking of which, Ren, you were the real hero out there today. We were all panicking, and you remained so calm throughout the whole ordeal. How do you do it?" she asked, Ren furrowing his eyebrows as he thought of an answer.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I was just as horrified as you were." Ren admitted. "I was just trying my best not to let it show."
Jaune's jaw dropped as he admitted that. "You didn't even flinch when we brought her to you! How do you hide it so well?" Jaune asked in amazement.
With a simple shrug, Ren gave his reply. "It was just something my father taught me about before he passed. There was a time he took Nora and I out camping and she sprained her ankle when we were running from a Beowulf we came across. Even after my father saved us and he fended it off, I was still scared for Nora's sake. He was able to calm me down an after we brought her back to our village he explained it to me. The sense of a keeping a level head can radiate to others around you. Wether you're terrified, angry, or sad, the calmness of others can restore the tranquility of yourself. Did you notice how when I kept my cool while Nora was sputtering that nonsense about her losing her leg being her fault, she ceased and relaxed as I explained to her everything was going to be okay?"
Both his teammates nodded, seeming to understand as Turk reentered the waiting room, motioning for them to come with him. "You guys can see her now." he stated simply as he lead the rest of Team JNPR over to a room a few doors down on their right. Inside, Nora sat propped up on her hospital bed, a large bubble-shaped mound of gauze covering the stump just below her left knee. She went from disappointingly looking at what was left of her extremity to beaming with joy as her friends entered the room. "Hey guys!" she smiled happily, holding her arms out as her team joined her in a group hug. "Ah! Watch the leg!" she exclaimed as she felt Pyrrha accidentally putting some pressure on her bad knee from the lack of space.
"Oh my-I'm sorry!" Pyrrha quickly apologized as she broke off from the hug.
"It's fine." Nora waived it off. "It doesn't hurt anymore, but it's still a little tender." she explained, sighing again as her eyes refocused on it. "I guess this means my days of being a Huntress are over, huh?" she solemnly asked, the happy moment turning grim in an instant for her.
"Nora, this is only a setback for someone like you, isn't it? There's plenty you can still do! Your career's not over yet!" Jaune encouraged.
"There's still not that much with only one leg though, and bionic replacements still cost a fortune!" she cried.
"Not exactly in our case, Nora." Ren explained. "There's somebody we can call and help us out in that regard." he said with a smile as he pulled up one of the contacts on his Scroll and held it up to his long time friend. She cocked her head in confusion at first, before the thought registered and a smile crossed her face once more.
Three Days Later...
"...You're sure you want to be dropped off here?" the white-haired executive called from her personal Bullhead down to the team below.
"You've done plenty, Weiss! We can't thank you both enough!" Jaune replied, waving back.
"Just buy us some drinks when you come back to Vale and we'll call it even!" Ruby yelled as she waived farewell to them before Weiss shoved her back inside.
"Ruby, you dolt! Why aren't you in the cockpit?" Weiss shrieked.
"I left Zwei to hold it while I said goodbye..." the reaper tried to reason, but that just made Weiss complain more until the hooded Huntress finally complied and went back into the cockpit, launching them back into the air as they took off for home. As the sound of their engines rocketed along the coastline, it stirred up the creatures below them, the gargantuan lobster-like Leviathan they recognized all too well surfacing and starting to lurch ashore along with a few dozen Cancers.
Team JNPR ceased their waving as the Schnee Dust Company aircraft disappeared over the horizon to focus on the aquatic Grimm below them from the seaside cliff. "There's a few more than last time..." Pyrrha mentally noted as she readied Milo and Akouo.
"We can still defeat them, right, Nora?" Ren asked. His hammer-wielding friend stepped forward, the bright chromatic pink surface of her new personalized bionic leg, a gift from Weiss' medical technology department at the SDC, glinting in the noontime sun.
"As I'll ever be, Renny!" she winked before turning to the others. "You guys ready for round two?" she said with newfound confidence.
"As we'll ever be!" Jaune said as he unsheathed Crocea Mors and unfolded his shield. "CHARGE!" he roared as the team lunged over the cliff to finish what they originally came to Vacuo for.