The only thing disturbing the silence of the forest was the quiet, even breathing coming from Ruby. She stared through optics of her scope, monitoring the valley below. A black strip of asphalt cut through the valley heading towards vale in the distance. Large amounts of Grimm had been appearing along this stretch of highway which had led to more and more stopped shipments. After receiving many complaints from multiple companies, including an especially large one from The Schnee Dust Company, team RWBY had been sent to patrol the area and try to find the source of all the Grimm. Currently, Ruby's teammates were further on down the highway, each patrolling their own section.
Ruby moved her head away from her scope and let out a yawn. She sat up on her elbow and rubber her eyes, the monotony of laying in one place for hours was starting to get to her. She opened up her scroll and looked at the status of her teammates. Ruby had told her teammates to send her updates of their status every 30 minutes. All of them reported minor Grimm activity, nothing unusual.
"Where the heck are all the Grimm" Ruby mumbled to herself. Ruby looked back down the optics of her scope and checked the road once more. She saw truck trundle down the highway but that was all. Several minutes ticked by before Ruby looked up from her scope again, letting out an exasperated sigh. She stood up, rubbing her thighs and stretching her legs. "I'm just going to take a short walk since the Grimm have decided to not show up" said Ruby. She picked up Crescent Rose, her scythe sniper rifle, it contracting back into a small rectangle. She hooked Crescent Rose onto her back and took off at a fast walk into the undergrowth.
After a couple minutes of walking, Ruby sped up from a fast walk to a jog, and then to a run. Ruby ran through the undergrowth, dodging branches and twigs that snagged at her cloak. She sped by an overturned tree, the bulb of its roots sticking up from the grown still covered in dirt. Ruby, jumped over a crystal clear creek that intersected the path. She stopped for a moment, her heart beating and panting. Her huntress training had kept her in decent shape, so something like this had not been too big of a deal for her. She looked ahead, shrubs and thorn bushes taking up most of the land. Ahead, the land curved upwards into a hill, the angle of its inclination steep and impending. She got down in a sprinter starting positon and looked up at the top of the hill, her brow set. She took in a deep breath and shot off up the hill, rose petals fluttering in her wake as she activated her semblance which let her move at superhuman speeds.
In only a few seconds Ruby reached the top. A couple rose petals settled at her feet from her semblance. Ruby turned to look back the way she came. From the top of the hill she could make just make out where the road cut through the forest. The road itself was invisible from this distance, but she could see the parting in the ocean of green.
"Wait, what's that?" Ruby said to herself. At one part in the clearing of the road, there was a small black smudge. "That can't be the road, I can't see it anywhere else" Ruby said to herself, scratching at her chin as she tried to come up with what the black smudge could possibly be. All of a sudden, her scroll buzzed to life in her pocket. She snatched it out and snapped it open, looking at the thin translucent screen. There was a message notification on it. She opened up her message tab and was assaulted by message after message alert. She flinched and look at the screen, the messages scrolling by so fast she could hardly read them. She tapped one of the messages to stop it from scrolling, and as she read it dread filled her body.
"GRIMM ON THE HIGHWAY, COME NOW. GRIMM ON THE HIGHWAY" the message read.
"Crap!" Ruby exclaimed. She snapped her scroll shut and shoved it in her pocket. She activated her semblance and zoomed back the way she came, covering the distance in seconds. She got back to her original position and saw that were there were previously highway and scrub grass, there was a pulsing mass of Grimm. She heard the resounding boom of her sister's weapon. There were several multicolored flashes as Weiss launched elemental dust attacks the Grimm. Ruby could only get glimpses of Blake as she flashed in and out of the mass of Grimm, her blade making quick work of the Grimm. So far the huntress's were doing okay, taking down Grimm one after the other. But if something didn't change soon, they were going to be overtaken. Ruby quickly unfurled Crescent Rose and slammed it into the ground, her face already coming up to the scope. She lined up her sites and let loose a shot, the recoil pushing her back slightly. Ruby then kept moving from target to target, taking each down with a single shot.
After several minutes of constant conflict, the mass of Grimm seemed no smaller. Ruby looked up from her scope, concerned. Her teammates were obviously exhausted from the battle, and if she didn't find a way to beat this horde of Grimm soon, they would be in even more trouble than they already would. The gears in her mind started to turn quickly, looking for a way to end this battle. But, before she could come up with a solution one presented itself to her. From the direction of Beacon Academy came a squad of armored cars, each looking like a gleaming white, squat truck. Light reflected off of the scuffed metallic surface of the squad cars. Her teammates sprinted off of the road, making room for the vehicles.
As the Squad cars approached the horde, the Grimm's attention turned from the girls to the much larger target of the squad cars. A low growl came from the horde, their teeth and claws hungry for blood. But the Grimm didn't understand that these squad cars weren't like their other prey. The squad cars slammed right into the middle of the mass of Grimm and kept going. The cars pulverized several of the Grimm and injured multiple more. The cars popped out of the back of the horde, their originally metallic surfaces now splattered in dark red blood. Then with a hiss, the sides of the cars opened and a dozen soldiers piled out. Their guns lit up instantly, launching bullets into the horde.
Ruby sighed in relief. "Just in time" She said to herself. She relaxed her shoulder and sat up, brushing a bit of dirt off of herself as she did so. She quickly opened her scroll and sent her teammates a quick message regarding their condition. They responded immediately, telling Ruby that they had some wounds but overall they would live and were fine. A smile pricked up the corners of Ruby's mouth.
"I bet that not every first year huntress can say they battled a horde of Grimm and won" Ruby thought triumphantly. "But we did have some help from the soldiers though". Ruby's face dropped, realizing that maybe the reason why the soldiers were sent was because no one thought that they could actually accomplish their mission. "Whatever, at least everyone is safe and the Grimm are wiped out" Ruby thought. She peeked back down her scope at the highway, looking at how the soldiers were doing. All of the Grimm had been wiped out and the soldiers were currently policing the area, looking for any straggling Grimm.
From behind a small grove of trees, a speck of black moved. Ruby caught the movement and turned her scope to look. She lined up her sights, ready to make the shot as soon as the creature moved again. Then, a streak of black zoomed out from the trees, dashing towards one of the nearby soldiers. Ruby adjusted her sights, lined them up on the Grimm's center of mass and pulled the trigger, the recoil rocking through her body.
But along with the dying cry of the Grimm came a sound that she had not expected to hear: screaming. Ruby looked at where the Grimm she had shot lay. Around its body pooled its dark red blood. But mixed in with it was hints of lighter red. Lying only a foot from the Grimm's body was a solider, curled up in the fetal position. He was the source of the screaming was coming from. He was clutching his abdomen, and from between his fingers flowed bright red.
"Dang" Ruby exclaimed. "The Grimm must have got him before I made the shot" she thought. A knot of guilt formed in her stomach. 'If only I was faster, I could've stopped that". She looked down at where the injured soldier lay. Multiple of his companions had run over and were now treating his wounds. As the soldiers moved their injured teammate onto a stretcher, Ruby got a glimpse of his wound. Her heart dropped and she let out a small cry, the knot in her stomach growing even larger. She felt nauseous and covered her mouth with her hand before turning around and stumbling into the undergrowth. The soldiers wound had not been the long gouges of a Grimm's claws, but a small round hole. The same kind of hole that was in many of the fallen Grimm.
- End of Chapter 1-