To be fair, Ozpin had said the first person you locked eyes with became your partner, and her eyes certainly weren't the first things I found myself looking at. Resigning myself to this form of divine punishment, however, my gaze traveled upwards to meet purple irises emitting a look of pure adrenaline and kickass. Yep, definitely punishment. You won this round, karma.
"It's nice to see you too, Yang." I lied, sarcastically. I sincerely tried to be nice, but the fact that this girl would be my new…partner for the next four years blunted any sort of amicable interaction. Thankfully, her grin merely widened at the sarcasm, and she appeared to contain enough enthusiasm for the both of us.
After a moment, though, she brought her hand to her chin as if in deep thought and frowned slightly. "Although I'm happy to see you can tear shit up, your technique will definitely need a lot of work to match my fighting style." I raised an eyebrow. "That will have to wait until later, though. Just try to keep up till then, 'kay?" Without waiting for a reply, she strode off towards God knows where, leaving me contemplating seppuku.
Unfortunately choosing life, I jogged to catch up to my new…and matched pace with the adventurous blond. I glanced down at Yang to study the golden gauntlets which covered her forearms. The ring of shotgun shells strapped to each weapon and the earlier, incessant use of gunfire instilled a sense of dread within me. I wasn't convinced the words stealth or precision existed within her vocabulary.
"I know you're a little bull-headed, but you could keep from staring," she commented with a sly grin. "I call the girls Ember Celica. Well, these girls anyway," the blond continued pumping her arms. I simply rolled my eyes. "Do yours have a name?"
"Blush and Wilt." Yang snorted.
"So you're a flowers kind of guy," she replied in a tone fighting laughter.
Without bothering to acknowledge the stab at my masculinity, I pulled out my scroll to see if any sort of map or guide had been sent to the students. Although no such type of directional aid had been given, I did notice my personal aura level tab had already been updated to include a picture of Ms. Xiao Long sporting a full green bar. Go figure. While the permanence of her company was difficult enough to handle, I grimaced at the idea of Ozpin watching us so closely.
Looking up from the device, my frown deepened and eyes narrowed at the oncoming break in the tree line.
"Aw, why the long face, forehead fingers?" Yang asked at my change in expression. "Did someone ugly send you a nude?"
"Yang."
"Daddy never called back?"
"Yang."
"Did your girlfriend send you a breakup text?-Yang.-and then send a second message saying 'wrong number'?"
"Yang, we are here," I stated nodding towards the crumbling stone ruins in the middle of an expansive, circular clearing. The peaceful and sunny change in scenery starkly contrasted the dark, foreboding woods, and the picnic-perfect field almost seemed to invite individuals to bury their dead, annoying, blond, and dead teammates in the grassy oasis. Bliss.
"And you doubted my sense of direction," she stated proudly as if her confidence made the words true.
"I never once commented on your path of choice," I replied, exhaling.
"Because you were too busy staring at my lady-bits."
And with that, we ventured into the clearing.
Enlarged, gold and black chess pieces occupied the pedestals lining the only standing, curved wall of the decrepit shrine. Afternoon sunlight filtered through the missing sections of stone, giving the entire picture a warm and inviting quality. I closed my eyes for a moment to enjoy the calming atmosphere.
To my disappointment, Yang was still there when I opened them.
"So these are Ozpin's relics," the blond stated matter-of-factly as she examined the figures. That part seemed self-evident, but, hey, whatever helped her along. "Let's go with a golden pony," she decided with a smile after careful deliberation.
I personally had been leaning towards one of the black rook pieces, but ponies are cool too I guess.
As the blond stared at the shining figurine in her hand, though, a troubled expression settled on her face. "Are you worried about Ruby?" I asked her softly. Her deepening frown answered the question even before she opened her mouth to speak.
At that moment, however, the surrounding tree line erupted into activity as a trio of students hauled ass towards the rubble. While the site of a bleeding Jaune normally wouldn't cause me concern, the breakneck pace of the two students supporting the wounded knight certainly did.
The eastern looking boy on his right appeared ready to collapse, obviously not built for endurance while the short, ginger-haired girl on Arc's left appeared to be chatting with the invalid despite the burden. As they neared the stone structure, however, her voice carried a distinctive, hurried undertone. Although the one-sided conversation appeared directed towards the wounded boy, I wondered if the incessant talking was also a sign of her own borderline panic.
"-and besides, I mean, who's to say its reaction was unwarranted? I know every time a Jehovah's Witness walked into my house-" the girl continued to spout as we rushed to intercept the struggling youths.
As soon as we reached ragged group, I relieved the uninjured male of the weight, and he collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. The din of crashing trees echoed from the dense foliage.
"What happened!?" Yang asked while I inspected the bloodied mess of a student. His airflow came out in short, ragged breaths, and the teen didn't seem to be making any effort to support himself. The front section of his armor bent and crumpled to the left while the black hoodie underneath dangled in tears and ribbons.
The cracks and booms of falling trees resonated more closely, and the ground harbored the slightest of tremors.
"Well, you see, Ren and I had just met up as had been our plan from the start," the ginger detailed rapidly. "That's Ren by the way-Oh, and I'm Nora!" She exclaimed excitedly. The collapse of another tree issued just beyond the edge of the field. "So anyway, we were just passing a cave opening, which have always fascinated me, when Jauney-boy and his red-haired partner came running out chased by the most unpleasant subterranean resident," she continued with a frown. "Brittle bones here immediately took a hit, and Pyrrha ordered us to take him and run while she distracted-"
The massive deathstalker broke into the clearing on the heels of a fleeing Spartan. The easily-identifiable celebrity fighter weaved, ducked, and rolled to avoid the frenzy of its claws and pointed tail. For all of her renowned abilities, the attractive superstar certainly couldn't put up much of a fight. Bringing up her shield to block another tail strike, the impact simply launched the girl across the field.
Chuckling internally at the pinball-like ejection, my mood then immediately soured at the implication of an incapable Pyrrha. "Take him," I barked, roughly dumping the leaking boy on my 'beloved' partner. "Make your way back to the cliffs, and we'll meet you there."
Expecting compliance, I sprinted towards the armored behemoth and its crumpled warrior prey. As the girl struggled to stand, I planted my foot in stride on her shield-strapped back and jumped into the air towards the stalker. Narrowly avoiding being impaled by another tail strike, I corkscrewed past the deadly appendage and delivered three quick diagonal slashes before landing on the bone-plated body.
The beast's left claw whipped up to remove the unwanted rider, and I back flipped off its head to land directly in front of its frothing mouth. As the right pincer came around for a successive attack, I held my sheathed weapon out in front of myself at both ends to catch the open claw in a perpendicular fashion.
The blow impacted akin to an avalanche, and I groaned audibly as my arms burned as if bathed in liquid metal. As the force continued to push me back, the tail coiled back for another attempt.
Although I could undoubtedly tank a direct hit better than the punctured knight, my combat jacket didn't substitute his armor. As the barb jerked downwards, however, I thankfully didn't experience the results. The Spartan's round shield slammed into my ribs, throwing me across the plain.
While my aura took the actual blow, the personal force field merely acted like a layer of armor, and my entire body still absorbed the impact. Despite my lungs screaming in pain, I inhaled raggedly and fought to stand up.
"Move!" What must have been Pyrrha's voice commanded. I threw myself towards the grass again in a rapid, sideways roll.
The force of another tail jab into the dirt threatened to throw me off balance, but I maintained my poise and continued moving in a serpentine fashion. As the deathstalker delivered a flurry of strikes directed towards lucky me, the red-haired warrior sprinted towards us.
Already having replaced the shield upon her back, Pyrrha snatched up and shouldered Blush and Wilt while maintaining her pace. Raising both her sword and my own, the girl summersaulted onto the grimm and drove the blades into the creature's two, front-most eyes.
As the monster screamed viciously and flailed erratically, the star athlete jumped in my direction. Catching my thrown weapon from the girl, we broke into the trees at a sprint before the massive grimm recovered.
Although we couldn't hear or see the others, the odor of Jaune's blood remained potent to my heightened senses, so I took to the lead. Pyrrha didn't question my chosen direction and easily kept pace.
"Thank you for your help back there," she began between breaths. I grunted in reply rather than waste the oxygen. "Hopefully none of the other students encountered that caliber of grimm. At least not before finding a partner."
I glanced over at the seasoned fighter to notice a look of concern occupying her features. In light of our current situation, I was honestly surprised her thoughts weren't slightly more self-centered. In the nicest way possible, the well-being of other students was the least of my worries.
A distant crash in the forest behind us served as a reminder of our pissed, yet still more than capable adversary. We both stepped up our pace.
"How was Jaune doing when they reached the clearing?" This time, she glanced up at me to speak, and I was actually surprised by the look of genuine concern occupying her features. She had literally just met the guy. "I had only unlocked his aura right before the deathstalker jumped us." Her expression darkened. "I never should have allowed us to go into the cave." The crease on her forehead deepened for a moment before she simply shook her head in a mix of frustration, anxiety, and general fatigue.
To be honest, I didn't exactly know how to handle this. The objective side of me wanted to point out that this was day one of initiation, and we were running from a massive, bone-plated scorpion towards a severely injured teammate. The last thing we needed was an emotional liability.
I couldn't help but feel sympathy for the Mistral champion, however, and telling my former teammate to get it together in the field previously had merely produced a cold machine.
I never did decide what to do in that situation as the forest in front of us exploded in a maelstrom of toppling trees and a hurricane force gale. For a moment, a black shadow blotted out the sun as the force of beating wings threatened to throw both of us off of our feet.
As Pyrrha collapsed backwards from the impact of the windstorm, I reached out to grab her arm and caught…Ruby.
After having to take a few steps back to absorb her torpedo like collision (and remain standing which was a feat in itself), I lifted the girl up to eye level, allowing her feet to dangle.
"Ruby, I-" I began.
"Adam, you have horns..." she stated, leaving her mouth open in quiet amazement. She said it like I didn't know. Like we discovered it together. Staring at me with big, silver eyes brimming with wonder, she reached out and tugged one gently.
"It's circling back, you dolt!" A shrill voice shouted behind her. A piercing screech punctuated the end of the sentence, and wings flapped like sonic booms nearby.
"Ruby, I hate everything about you," I concluded, modifying my originally intended statement. Although the girl became crestfallen, we had more pressing issues to contend with.
"Run!" Pyrrha shouted. Dropping Ruby, we took off in the direction of the cliffs. I glanced back at the small group, and my blood ran cold.
Weiss Schnee. Ruby was partnered with an heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Until 6 months ago, I had standing orders to kill the girl and anyone else in the immediate family if the opportunity ever arose on an assignment. I hated her. Although that lifestyle was over, her mere presence proved enough to stir my old animosity.
"Everybody look out!" Pyrrha screamed, jerking my attention away from the privileged little bitch. We had reached the edge of the woods and the rest of our companions as well in front of a small clearing before the imposing cliffs.
Unfortunately, the nevermore held itself aloft between us and our destination. A piercing war cry preceded its attack.
"Ren, Yang, distract it! Nora, ask it to move!" commanded a voice from none other than Jaune, himself. Despite his weakened state, the knight's words carried a surprising tone of authority, and the others obeyed instantly.
As the monster drew its wings back in preparation for an assault, the pair rushed out from the edge of the tree line, unleashing a flurry of gunfire. Although most of the rounds simply missed due to the distance, the combination of constant firing and Yang's obscene yelling caused the beast adequate irritation.
Throwing both of its outstretched limbs in a downward fashion, the grimm launched a hailstorm of massive, razor-sharp feathers towards the weaving figures.
As Ren and Yang attempted to avoid being impaled, Nora sauntered out of the woods. Bringing around the barrel of her pink-trimmed grenade launcher, the ginger girl paused just long enough to blow a kiss.
She fired.
The heavy rounds detonated in pinkish firestorms against the black beast, and with a vengeful shriek, the winged creature took to the air. Unfortunately, the grimm didn't retreat far.
"That changes nothing," the entitled albino stated haughtily. "We'd be easy targets scaling the cliff face if we even got the chance." As much as I blindly disliked the cold-hearted bitch, her point was valid.
We stood in silence for a moment as the two previous decoys rejoined our group.
"We could try to sneak up individually while the rest run interference," I offered. Plenty of problems existed with that course, and I wasn't sure if it truly counted as a 'solution,' but we couldn't fight that thing from down here. We lacked the firepower to bring it down for a melee. Assuming we could even win that.
"That's not an option," Pyrrha said calmly but firmly. She knelt on the ground beside her injured partner, keeping a hand on his shoulder.
"You know we can't fight it from the ground," I replied evenly. I wasn't advocating we abandon the knight, but the longer we stayed idle, the worse our situation would become.
"Well unless you're also hiding a pair of wings and maybe a saddle, we need a different approach," Pyrrha stated with hardened voice. Her green eyes shown slightly colder, and I looked away more out of frustration at our situation rather than anger towards her.
"Pyrrha's right. We can't reach the top by splitting up," Ruby spoke up, looking at the champion before turning her gaze towards me. "I know we also can't put up much of a fight from all the way down here," the red-themed girl said slowly. I raised an eyebrow at her intense expression but didn't interrupt.
"Ruby?" Yang asked, looking towards her sister with concern.
"I think I know how we can bring the nevermore down. I just need you guys to get me up there."
The impact of flying debris wasn't the worst part. While my depleting aura acted as my shield, I still felt the pain from the ejected rocks. And I felt each one. The worst part, however, quickly became the nevermore's shriek. My aura couldn't block that. And as the grimm released a bloodcurdling cry with each pass, ripping long gouges into the earth where I'd been only a moment before, the close proximity of the screech caused the sides of my mask to congeal with blood.
After the beast's third pass, I had stopped wiping my ears in an attempt to hear more than the pulsing fluid. After the fifth, I only heard a constant ring.
I rose to my unsteady feet as quickly as I could. After the creature's seven failed attempts to skewer me with its needle-like beak, the surrounding field looked like a carcass marred by carrion birds. While the beast had also strafed the area repeatedly with 7 foot, spear-like feathers, those attacks stopped when the monster simply had no more extra feathers capable of being thrown.
Drawing Blush once again to continue our endless game, I fired successive rounds at the airborne grimm, prolonging its rage. The bullets did little more than annoy the creature but that was the goal. Although it hated all humans, I was fairly certain that I topped its list. The nevermore circled for another attempt. By this point, I almost wished the damn bird had managed to clip me.
While I couldn't exactly hear my scroll ringing, the vibration in my pocket indicated that the others were ready. Keeping my eyes trained on my new, avian friend, I raised my arm to show I understood the signal. After one more deep breath, I took off towards the dilapidated bridge connecting the forest to the cliff face. As my role as the bait kept my spirits at an all-time low, I chose not to look down.
The uneven stones shook slightly as I sprinted down the walkway. To my left, I watched as the nevermore dropped low to pick up speed. Seeing as how I was rendezvousing with the team at the end of the bridge, and I was only about halfway, I didn't feel very optimistic.
Although the bird's impact with the bridge may only have felt like a tremor to the girls on the far side, that tremor nearly killed me. As I jumped forward to avoid immediate bisection, the beast blew through the entire middle section of the crossing.
Despite feeling like a thousand needles were pricking the entirety of my back, I tumbled onto one of the few supported sections of stone still alive and relatively alright.
As I pushed myself up, the grimm shrieked again and clawed its way higher into the air for another attack. I looked back towards the devastation.
With no way back across, we were now fully committed to Ruby's exceedingly dangerous plan. Actually, seeing as how my role as bait was now locked in regardless of the others doing their parts of not, I supposed that I was the only one unequivocally committed to Ruby's plan. It was a wonderful realization.
Across the way, however, another wave of destruction unfolded on the grassy plain. Everybody's favorite deathstalker decided to make a reappearance for Jaune and his guard. Although the distance partially blurred the ensuing battle, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora appeared to be faring poorly. Even from this far away, the champion's movements were definitely slowed, and the eastern boy's green outfit seemed much darker than it should have been.
I lifted my head to see the nevermore finish making its turn and rear its bone-covered head in my direction. I glanced once more towards the skirmish on the plain before resuming my endeavor towards the pavilion at the bridge's far end.
The flying creature raced to intercept me.
At 100 meters away, I saw a small girl standing with a massive scythe walk to the edge at the top of the cliff. The beast flew closer. At 50 yards away, the girl's sister appeared on the pavilion, crouched and ready to spring. At 20 yards, a line of downward facing glyphs appeared along the cliff side. At 10, both girls jumped.
At this point, the nevermore collided with the stone structure. The entire plan hinged upon timing. Near perfect timing. And the two sisters were the only ones familiar enough with each other to pull it off.
As the beast homed in on me like a missile, scarlet and gold rushed to meet it. In an uppercut motion, Yang's gauntleted fist struck the underside of the grimm's beak. As if in a call and response, the blow was answered with her younger sister's blade to the creature's neck. Yang served as the chopping block and Ruby the guillotine.
Yang asked only that I get out of the way. Ruby was hoping I'd catch her.
Fortunately, I accomplished both.
"This wasn't exactly what I meant," the dark-haired girl said in a small voice. She kicked her feet slightly as they dangled.
Around us, the last few stones cascaded down into the ravine. The stone platform no longer existed, joining the deteriorating body of the nevermore at the bottom of the gorge.
"Since I can't actually hear what you're saying at the moment, I'm going to assume you're thanking me," I replied when I saw the girl's lips move. "Because people start feeling much less generous when the recipient complains."
Standing upon the hilt of my sword which was already pegging the girl's hood to the cliff face, I looked down into her large, round eyes.
"And let me be explicitly clear. Bait never feels very generous."
