It's been two weeks so it's time for the second episode in Talos and the Chimerion! To those of you who read the previous chapter, welcome back! And to those of you just joining us, here's a brief recap:

- In our last installment, we were introduced to our protagonists, Aaron Adamantine, Rolf Ellisworth, Serena Castigo and Balthazar Aether! The night before the entry test in the emerald forest, Aaron overheard four upper year girls (guess who) talking about a mysterious new grimm that was seen in the emerald forest! The morning of the examination has come and will the new students be ready? Find out below!

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Without further ado, here is chapter two-

Written by Alexander Simone

Editted by Carl Lam

Talos and the Chimerion

Episode 2 Enter the Chimerion

The next day the students were lined up on the launch pads. Everyone was in their combat gear and ready to get sent into the forest. Aaron was set up with his jetpack on his back, fueled and ready, as well as his custom made pistol at his side and his grappling hook lying horizontally in his belt across his lower back. Most importantly of all, he had his remote to summon Talos. As soon as he landed, he would have to summon Talos and then nothing could stop him.

"…Saying that, the first person you make eye contact with in the forest will be your partner for the next four years," Ozpin continued his speech, "Once you have found your partner, you must go to a temple in the north end of the woods. There you will find a relic that you must bring back here…"

Aaron wondered whether or not Talos could be considered his partner…

Rolf and Serena were lined up beside each other on the launch pads. They had come up with their strategy the night before. They would use Serena's semblance to land and keep their momentum up. Serena had a unique semblance that allowed her to teleport and completely change her momentum, or if she were holding onto someone else, she could change their momentum as well.

Rolf was in his white armor with silver-grey trim, almost the same colour as his hair. His armor would glint in the sun, often getting in opponents eyes, which in close combat was useful. However it would attract the attention of most opponents from far away as well and that wouldn't do him any favours. Serena wore black leather armor with hidden scale mail underneath. It was silent and suited her ability for stealth and her daggers were perfect for striking without being seen. Her role in her and Rolf's formation was to remain in the shadows and take out any snipers or warn Rolf if there were approaching enemies. They listened to Ozpin's speech and braced themselves.

Balthazar was sitting on his launch pad. He was at the end of the line so he would either be the first one in the forest or the last. It didn't really matter though. He was sitting cross legged doing breathing exercises his parents had taught him. He reflected and realized he relied a lot on his parent's teaching. He looked at the spear on his lap and wondered if following exactly in the footsteps of his parents was the right thing to do.

Balthazar was wearing traditional robes of purple overtop blackened leather armor. Balthazar had added his own personal touches to the armor. He had opened the robes up in the front so that he could run unhindered and shortened the back so that if he had to shuffle he wouldn't step on it. He also had a bad habit of tripping and hitting his shins, so he put some bone plate shin and knee guards on so that if something happened he would not be hurt. Also, they allowed him to let off more powerful kicks.

He looked over to his right and saw Melody, Arya and Cadence lined up together. Arya and Melody were going over how they would find each other in the forest. They seemed completely distracted discussing their strategy in their combat gear. Balthazar couldn't help but remember the days where they used to play castle in the park. Now they were in the exam to get into Beacon, all grown up.

Cadence looked over to see Balthazar looking at their group. He met Balthazar's eyes and gave a cold disapproving look. Balthazar maintained eye contact for a few seconds and then gazed out over the forest. Maybe joining Melody, Arya and Cadence wasn't the best idea. Problem was he didn't know anyone else here. Who else would actually join up with an idiot like him?

"Good luck, everyone" Ozpin said as he finished his speech.

"Oh and one more thing," Ozpin remembered, "We have provided a list of all of the discovered creatures of Grimm. If you come across one that is not on the list, please do not engage and escape back to the cliffs while you can."

Aaron remembered the conversation he overheard about a strange new Grimm, back when he was lost in Beacon. He looked over to the end of the line. On one side of the line was another student meditating. His spear was laid across his lap. He looked like he was a serious warrior, but then Aaron recognized his face and remembered him from the air ship.

On the other side of the line was a group of four girls. All of whom were very pretty. They were dressed in white, yellow, black and red clothes and had their weapons at their sides. They weren't on launch pads which would mean that they weren't initiates. Then why were they here? Were they here for the new Grimm and not him?

Before Aaron could finish his thought he was propelled forward and into the air. There wasn't much time to think about who was or wasn't after the new Grimm. Now he had to think about not landing on his face. He tried to gain some sense of balance before he initiated his jetpack. After adjusting and noting where the ground was, he extended his arms and Aaron entered a controlled descent. After a second he pushed a button on his harness.

Two wings came out of the pack and Aaron's descent slowed to a stop as he hovered in mid-air. The jet pack had been a gift from his mentor. He remembered almost crashing into a silo when he first got it. That nearly got his parents to stop talking to Aaron's mentor. With some convincing, they allowed the mechanic to continue to teach Aaron.

Aaron had modified it a bit to last longer in the air. He had also made it a little easier to control after the silo incident. He wanted full control of his movement, especially if he needed it for aerial combat.

Suddenly a loud blood-curdling scream came from the outskirts of the forest. Aaron looked around for a clearing to land. When he summoned Talos he would be able to get through the forest faster. Aaron found a clearing and landed. He pulled the remote out of his pocket and pushed the button. A distant hum of motors could be heard and he knew that Talos would be here soon.

"Based on the level of sound from the initial push of the button I'd say Talos is 0.335 kilometers away, and given the power output and density of trees, I'd say Talos will get here in 15.6 second… Approximately," Aaron told himself. He found it easier to do calculations when thinking out loud.

Unbeknownst to Aaron, lurking in the bushes at the edge of the clearing was a lone beowolf. The beowolf jumped out of the bushes and bolted towards Aaron. The monster was easily seven feet tall on all fours and bounding fast. Aaron quickly drew his pistol and shot 3 rounds directly into the beast's gaping mouth. Those three shots would normally break through the skull of any Grimm, butapparently this one had more armor. It didn't really matter though.

The beast staggered back and it gave Aaron just enough time to put away his pistol and draw his grappling hook. From behind him, there came a loud thumping and a familiar sound of gears and pistons. Without looking back, Aaron aimed the grappling hook behind him and fired. There was a metallic hiss of a door unsealing. The hook clanged against something metal and Aaron felt his feet lift off the ground as he was pulled back into Talos' open cockpit.

Talos was a twelve foot tall mecha with the cockpit dead centre. It had short stubby legs, but they moved fast. It had long apelike arms covered in gold painted metal plating. The cockpit was located in between the shoulders on the lower chest of the mecha. It was completely cased in a bullet proof glass with three blinking lights around it, two on the top corners, and one at the end of a curvature at the bottom of the cockpit. These lights emitted a powerful force field around the cockpit and the rest of Talos to make it more resilient than any other metal. In the cockpit, various meters and gauges were projected onto the glass so Aaron could check power levels and damage. Unlike some of the other designs from Atlas, this mecha would not fall apart after repeated hits and was much, much stronger.

Though Talos was made of scrap metal, you wouldn't have been able to tell. There was no rust, it was all clean edges and curves, finished off with a beautiful paint job. Aaron sometimes was taken aback that it was made completely from scratch. It was mostly gold, but some smaller parts had been painted blue and trimmed with white. Mounted on top of Talos was a scaled up version of an ancient army helmet to give a bit more of a human look.

Inside the cockpit, metal arms and straps attached themselves to Aaron. They would pick up the slightest movement and would move Talos accordingly. Though the reaction time made it slower than most hunters, it more than made up for it in terms of power and resistance. Each of Talos's hands housed the most powerful firearm in existence, a proton cannon. This entire mechanism was powered by the one design that he had never shown anyone, the dust-fusion engine. Completely clean, 100% efficient and resilient enough to take hits from any creature of Grimm.

As Aaron was strapped into Talos, he didn't skip a beat. Talos kept charging at the stunned lone beowolf. The cockpit closed and Aaron raised Talos giant fist. As the lone beowolf resumed its charge, the fist came down and crushed the beowolf's skull against the ground.

Talos picked itself up and Aaron tried to remember where the scream came from. He eventually decided on a direction and Talos bounded off. The sound of its engines were nearly deafening as it tore through the forest at top speed. Aaron hoped whoever screamed was still ok.

Balthazar was charging furiously through the forest. Only one person could have made a scream like that. Melody. He felt so guilty that he didn't land with his old friends. No matter how much he didn't like Cadence, it didn't justify leaving them like that. If anything happened to them-

He didn't want to think about it. He just had to focus on getting to his friends while he still could. Well, that and escaping the king taijitu that was right on his tail. It had been following Balthazar for a little while now. It was a good thing that he was such a good runner.

It was not so good that Balthazar was not very coordinated. For a split second Balthazar lost his focus and tripped over a tree root. He tried to get up as fast as he could, but the taijitu struck him with the back of its tail and flung him into a tree. He hit it hard and slid to the base of the tree.

After getting back up he picked up his spear and headed right for the taijitu. The taijitu saw it coming and lunged, mouth agape. Balthazar knew that he couldn't beat the taijitu with just his spear so he threw the spear into the taijitu's mouth and letting it get caught against its teeth. The monster's mouth was stuck open and Balthazar jumped back as the giant snake's head crashed into the dirt. Balthazar's violet eyes glowed blue briefly and lightning jumped from his hands and formed a circle in front of him.

"Tempest gate!" Balthazar yelled as the circle of lightning released arced electricity into the taijitu. It began to writhe in pain and then it slumped limp against the ground. After the spell had run its course, Balthazar was about to pick up his spear when he saw a giant mechanical ape-man at the other side of the clearing.

He could see that in its chest was a student. He didn't recognize him, but now that they made eye contact he assumed that they were now partners. The machine approached and the cockpit opened. As the robot approached, Balthazar couldn't help but tighten his muscles a little bit. He felt that the giant metal man could easily crush him by accident. He hoped the other student had better control than that.

"So I was going to ask if you needed help, but I'm guessing that you don't really need it anymore," the student in the cockpit joked. Balthazar smiled a little.

"Well if you had spoken up earlier I would have gladly let you finish this thing off," Balthazar said as he picked the spear out of the dead snake's mouth, "So do you have a partner?"

"Well, I didn't before so I guess I have one now. My name's Aaron," Aaron said introducing himself, "And this big hunk of metal here is Talos, my weapon and mecha."

"Not gonna lie, it's a little freaky, but it is totally awesome," Balthazar said as he inspected the mecha, "and my name's Balthazar, master of magic and novice with a spear. But my friends just call me Bally."

"I would shake your hand, but I'm in a bit of a rush. We can go get our relic in a second, but first I need to go investigate that scream. I can't just leave other students knowing they may be in danger," Aaron said. Balthazar suddenly remembered Melody's scream and face went pale. He desperately hoped he wasn't too late.

"Melody! Crap, we have to get there fast! Hey, how fast can that thing, I mean, Talos, go?" Balthazar asked impatiently.

"Fast. Now hop on, hold on and let's go. We've got classmates to save," and the new partners bounded off into the forest.

Rolf and Serena had been running through the forest together as soon as their feet touched the ground. They were farther ahead of any group as far as Serena had determined and they had almost come upon the north end of the forest. With their original plan, they had avoided many encounters with the creatures of Grimm, however some of the weaker groups were simple plowed through with Serena first weakening the group, followed by Rolf charging straight through it at full strength.

Rolf and Serena were probably the best fighting team in all of Vale, possibly all of Remnant. There was no way that there was anyone else in the exam that had the chemistry they had together on the battle field. After years of training and fighting together they could predict what the other was going to do almost perfectly.

After about forty five minutes of straight running, they reached the forest temple. Serena leapt out of the shadows to join Rolf's side. There were no creatures of Grimm around so they did not have anything to fear for the time being. Something else was off though. Serena couldn't explain it, but something wasn't quite right.

"Stay on guard. I didn't detect any creatures of Grimm, but there's something wrong here," Serena instructed Rolf.

"I agree. Something even smells off. Like someone's been here recently," Rolf said. He looked at the pedestals and every relic was still there. No student had entered the temple and retrieved their relic yet. Odd.

The duo entered the rotunda and looked at all of the relics. They were simple pentagons with carvings on them. Because they were the first ones there, they could pick from any of the pentagonal stones. Serena approached one right at the back of the temple, there was a simple circle on it, but for some reason it felt right to take this relic.

Rolf saw that she had chosen one and walked to meet her. Serena touched the stone and suddenly looked up. Standing on top of one of the temple columns was a figure wrapped in a ninja's garb. She grabbed the stone and jumped back taking out one of her knives. Unlike during her training sessions, she hid her knives for combat in her sleeves. She whipped her arm and out came one of the knives directly into her hand.

Rolf noticed something was wrong so he drew his weapon as well, then noticing the shadowy figure standing on top of the column. How had they not noticed it when they entered? The figure's clothes were baggy enough that neither Serena nor Rolf could tell if the figure was male or female. Everything was covered in bandage like cloth with the exception of its eyes, which felt like they were staring into your soul.

Who or what was this thing?

Talos exited the forest to find itself in a rock outcropping. Aaron saw three students that were beaten nearly to death. One male student was sprawled on the ground unconscious while a female student was standing kneeling over him desperately trying to heal him. His breathing was laboured and he had cuts and bruises all across his body. The girl was injured as well, but at least she was still conscious. Further into the clearing was another female student. She was on one knee, holding her stomach. There was blood all over the rocks around her and around the male student. On the other side of the outcropping was an ominous fog. Something was very wrong here.

"Arya, Melody! What happened to Cadence!?" Balthazar yelled worriedly as he climbed down from Talos.

The girl who was healing the male student looked up. "Bally, go help Melody! We found that new Grimm, but it was too powerful. Please, we can't take it on our own!" The girl shouted. Aaron could see the fog thinning. Something was lurking in it. It had four glowing red eyes all staring at the girl separated from the other two. Aaron assumed this was Melody.

"Arya, you don't have much magic left, you can't go on healing Cadence like this or you'll end up just like him. Get out of here, me and Aaron will take care of this," Balthazar commanded the weakened girl.

"But what about Melody?" She asked. Aaron could see that Melody was not about to move anywhere fast and with that thing lurking in the fog, she probably wouldn't be able to get away. Suddenly the monster leapt out of the fog.

"Melody!" Balthazar screamed. Melody looked back with tears in her eyes.

Without thinking Aaron and Talos leapt to reach Melody. Talos' legs might have been short, but they were by no means slow. There was a loud crash as metal met bone plating. The impact of the crash created a powerful shockwave that cleared the fog.

With one arm, Talos held back the creature. Its mighty hand gripped the bone exoskeleton on its skull. The other hand held an injured Melody. Tears were still in her eyes as she looked into the cockpit to see Aaron looking back at her. Aaron gave a wink.

"Talos, activate megaphone," Aaron said from inside the cockpit. It did not allow sound to travel very well so if he needed to talk to anyone during combat, the megaphone would allow him to project his voice across the battlefield.

"Balthazar, can you come here and get Melody for me? I'll take care of this thing," Aaron blared over the microphone.

"On my way," Balthazar shouted as he helped Arya up with Cadence who was slowly regaining consciousness.

As Balthazar ran towards Talos, Aaron extended Talos' hand backwards away from the monster. Melody painfully climbed off into Balthazar's arms who led her off to the side of the outcropping. Aaron was now able to see the monster that was struggling against Talos' other arm.

The beast was nearly as tall as Talos on all fours. It looked like a giant black lion, with a shaggy black and white speckled mane, and a long tail with what looked to be a mace on the end. Instead of claws, it had three blades protruding from each of its three digits on its feet. On its face was bone plating that extended downwards and merged into two-meter long fangs. All along its stomach and sides were bone hexagons with runes on them, unlike any other Grimm. On its back were two asymmetrical horns.

Aaron lifted Talos' other hand to strike the monster, but then the creature struck the hand that was holding it with its maced tail and attacked Talos with its claws. A flurry of slashes came across Talos. Aaron tried to block but they were too fast. Fortunately, they were not enough to take out Talos' force field. As the monster reared on its hind legs Talos let out a massive punch and knocked the creature off balance. It fell backwards and Talos gained the initiative

Talos let out a flurry of punches and blows to keep the monster at bay. Occasionally its claws would score a glancing hit, but nothing like the slashes it had made before. The beast jumped back and looked at Talos with its four glowing red eyes. It braced itself and let out a massive roar.

It hit with an incredible force and nearly knocked Talos back. Aaron tried to look over to see if Balthazar and his friends were ok but the monster pounced on Talos as Aaron was caught off guard and began to slash again at the cockpit pinning down Talos. The force field was starting to give.

The creature raised its head about to drop its fangs into the cockpit. With the force field as low as it was, if this thing bit into Talos it would hit Aaron directly. He made Talos extend its hands as the beast's fangs came down on Talos and it caught the fangs but the creature was strong. Its fangs were slowly creeping towards the cockpit. Aaron strained against the pressure.

Aaron decided to take a different approach. Instead of pushing up against the monster, he pulled each arm sideways, and the creature stopped its advance and tried to pull away. Aaron put all of Talos' power behind its grip and slowly pulled apart the beasts bone plating. It started screeching in pain and suddenly one of the fangs gave way. It flew to the other side of the clearing and the sudden change of force launched the monster to the other side.

It struggled, shook its head and tried to get on all fours. Aaron made Talos stand back up and then he looked at Talos' left hand that had pulled off the fang. There was a huge gash across the centre of the palm. Even with a small amount of force field, there shouldn't have been that much damage. It also prevented Aaron from using the proton cannon in its left hand.

Aaron looked up at the creature. Along with the fang, came a small section of the plating over the creature's head. Underneath it was an oozing black miasma. What was this thing?

Suddenly it bowed its head and fog emitted from the horn on its back. The battlefield was completely engulfed in fog. Aaron braced Talos for a strike, but nothing happened. Was it going to go after Balthazar and the others? Aaron didn't want to take that chance.

There was a whir of motors and Talos' right hand transformed into the Proton cannon. A sharp crystal protruded from the palm of Talos' hand and each of its fingers was pulled back. As the proton cannon charged, the ions that built up in the cannon pushed back the fog. Aaron could then see the glowing eyes of the monster.

As the fog cleared Aaron could see why the beast had summoned the fog. While under the cover of fog, the beast healed itself. The bone plating was slowly growing back, covering the oozing black miasma. What was this thing?

Balthazar had led Arya and Melody to a patch of trees that Talos hadn't knocked over. Draped over Balthazar's shoulders was Cadence. He wasn't looking too good.

"Alright, we have to stop here," Balthazar gasped. He couldn't carry Cadence any further. The group then sat back down against some trees and started trying to catch their breath. Balthazar set Cadence down and examined him. Most of the large cuts had been healed by Arya, but there was still some broken ribs and internal bleeding to heal. He was far from in the clear.

Arya moved from the tree where she was sitting and started making her way towards Cadence. She was tired and limping, but she needed to heal him or he wouldn't make it through the ordeal. Then again, she may not be able to heal him completely but she had to try.

Balthazar then moved to stop Arya. He held her shoulders and gave her a worried look.

"I have to, Bally. He may not make it," Arya said.

"I know," Balthazar replied. Arya looked shocked. She knew Balthazar and Cadence didn't like each other, but she didn't think that he would kill him.

Balthazar took a breath and continued, "If you heal him, you may end up just like him. Let me."

"Bally, you don't know how to use healing magic. You're all elements and destruction, you could end up killing him!" Arya said.

"No, I know how to use it. I've just never had to because you're around," Balthazar said smiling, "I learned everything about healing magic from watching you. Don't worry, I can do this."

Arya didn't know what to say. If she let Balthazar do this, and Cadence didn't make it, she didn't know if she could go on as a huntress in training. Then again, if she tried to heal Cadence with what little energy she had, she may not make it either. Her conflicting thoughts dueled in her head as she searched for a solution.

"Melody!" She cried in desperation.

Melody had been leaning against a tree. She needed healing as well, but for the time being she could make it on her own. She had also been listening to Arya and Balthazar's argument. If anyone would be able make a level-headed decision it would be Melody.

"Bally," Melody said determined, "I trust you."

Balthazar responded with a nod. Arya backed up and took a deep breath. Balthazar stuck his spear in the ground and moved to stand over Cadence. Unlike most warriors who required dust and weapons to channel magic, Balthazar had a unique gift. He didn't need it. He could channel magic using only his body as a medium. If he channeled his spells through dust crystals, they would grow to exponential power, however they also destroyed whatever encased the dust crystal.

Balthazar looked down at Cadence. Balthazar held great dislike for this man before him. He did however like Arya and Melody, and no matter who was dying before him, he couldn't just let them suffer. Balthazar extended his hands and made a triangle with his thumbs and fingers. He closed his eyes and took a moment's pause before beginning. This would either be really good, or really bad.

A channeling circle of light appeared around Cadence and Balthazar's violet eyes glowed a bright yellow.

End of Episode 2

Tune in two weeks time as the fight against the Mysterious beast and Talos continues!

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