I felt alive. Alex was getting incredibly close to the Ursa, I realised that I could only fall faster if I shot another air blast round, only this time at the sky, I immediately did as the rush of excitement clouded my train of thought. I morphed Soul Reaper into its sword form and prepared for impact. However, I hadn't expected the gun shot to be as loud as it was, I activated my semblance. The Ursa looked up in search of the noise origin, by then I was fully invisible and was ready to strike. Alex knew exactly what I was doing and had picked up her pace but no matter how fast she ran it was too late as I was about to strike the Ursa. Suddenly the Ursa looks ahead towards Alex which led me to hit its shielded head, I deflected off of it as the Ursas head slammed into the ground, cracking its shielding. Instantly letting out an enraged roar the Ursa swiped for me but in the time it took for the Ursa to get back up I was out of its reach. I purposely ran away from Alex's spot so she could put use to her semblance.

Her semblance allowed her to shock enemies and have the possibility to stun enemies, she could easily stun a Grimm but not a human, trust me I knew.

She manages to throw her stun bolt at the Ursa and pin a few bolts from her crossbow into the Ursas back, in between its outstretched spines, as she did this she called out to the fact that the Ursa was indeed stunned. At this moment I turned around and took aim at the paralyzed Ursa. It was stunned in such a way that its belly and chest were entirely exposed, I swapped to my Dust load and set it to ice – ice, hoping it would slow down the Ursa once it's had regained its ability to move, I pull back the bolt of Soul Reaper and squeezed the trigger. The bullet whipped past the trees of the forest and hit the Ursa right in the chest, this bullet was followed by several other of the same type in rapid succession – thanks to how quickly I could pull the bolt of my gun I was shooting with an rate of three or four shots per second, each bullet hitting the soft points on the Ursas chest. I swapped to a more damaging round to help finish off the Ursa. During the time that I had pumped bullets into the Ursa, Alex was also doing her fair share of the work, she managed to impale barbed bolts into the base of the Ursas tail/back which she had now yanked out causing the Ursa to lose a lot of blood. The Ursa looked like it was beginning to slow down; I started to charge towards the beast morphing Soul Reaper into a sword again, I activate my semblance to make it even harder for the Ursa to track me as it was running in the direction of the sun which would flicker between the trees. As I approached the bloodied Ursa it started to lunge and swipe wildly – as if it wanted to escape a cage, I decided that it would be too risky to try to get past the random swipes. I instead run around the side of the Ursa and started to charge in underneath it, I grabbed a scatter round from my belt and loaded it into Soul Reaper, I only had one shot but I was pretty sure that I could make the hit effective. By now Alex had pulled back, she knew what killing Ursas meant to me and she also didn't want to ruin my plan by grabbing the Ursas attention. As I raced under the Ursa I stabbed Soul Reaper into its chest and then sliced across, avoiding its rib cage. However, nearly instant to when I stabbed Soul Reaper into its chest, the Ursa flinched and stood on its hind legs. I was flung into the air by its shear strength; luckily I had managed to shoot the round into its chest, hopefully hitting its soulless heart. However, I could not put all my attention into the fact that Soul Reaper was wedged into the Ursas chest, I needed to brace for a rough landing. I awkwardly landed and managed to reach some bushes before the Ursa worked out where I was; I could only go invisible for about ten seconds before I had to recharge.

I hid from its weakening gaze knowing that if I waited long enough it would most definitely die of blood loss. However, that's not how I wanted it to die, I extended my hidden blade and ran at the surveying Ursa. When it looked away I lunged for the top of its head and plunged my right arm into one of the cracks on its forehead and instantly leapt off is head. The roar of an extremely weakened and annoyed Ursa shrieked through the forest, I used this opportunity of it standing on it hind legs again and grabbed Soul Reaper I then fled from its screams. I morphed Soul Reaper into its sniper form and looked down the scope towards the open Ursa. The strike along its chest revealed the location of its heart; I could go for its brain but because of its age it was protected by and impenetrably sturdy skull. I loaded an explosive bullet into Soul Reaper. I then looked down the sight, located the heart, calmed my breath and shot. The shrieks and screams of the Ursa were returned by the shot of Soul Reaper which instantly silenced it. The forest instantly fell into its standard eerie silence.

"You butchered that thing Zayne" Alex's voice exclaimed behind me.

"... It was fun" I sighed as tried to regain my breath.

I lumbered towards the fallen Grimm, I noticed that it had a few scars and I was quite frankly desperate to have a look at them before it smoked away. The scars mainly ran from its cheeks to its belly, parting its fur and revealing their paths. I noticed two familiar stab marks in it belly, as if it was hit by the same sword twice or a pair of swords once. I stroked its coarse fur and asked: "how many lives have you ended, let alone ruined?" half expecting for the beast to answer me with its dyeing breath, It didn't respond.

The day had grown past its full bloom and had started to die into the night that would confine me and Alex back to our huts, we had to rush or we would not be able to trade with the people that effectively sponsored our lives.

We eventually reached home but only to the sight of one trader, the butcher, this wasn't the best of news since I had used up a half of my air blast round supply today – granted these shots would cost about 50 lien each but, they were still extremely useful. My hood was lowered because I was boiling from my battle and I didn't want to carry my father's trench coat separately from wearing it. The butcher looked at me in shock; I forgot that he didn't know about me being a Faunus, me revealing this after six years must had been a big shock to him.

"Sorry I have never told you before, I just didn't feel comfortable showing who I was to someone who lives within the walls" I explained, knowing that he would understand why I said that.

"No... Its fine I understand being a Faunus isn't easy and it's hard to trust people even if they are in the same predicament as you" he returns as he looked towards Alex. "Also your father was a Faunus too".

I sensed the bitterness of the conversation and changed the subject "we got some good meat; I know that you have been looking for some stock re-supply for a little while".

"You pair are real life savers, I am starting to run low on stock and I knew a few noblemen were looking to have a feast to celebrate the half year at Beacon" he explained with the most amazed look on his face.

"Beacon?" we asked, me and Alex almost speaking in sync.

"Oh yes it's a prestigious academy where people like yourself train to become professional hunters and huntresses" I look towards Alex in amaze "I'm actually really surprised you two didn't know about the place, I am pretty sure that a pair like you could gain a spot there with no hassle, you are practically their ideal pupils!" his voiced raised in excitement as he explained what he had overheard from people that went to his shop.

"I'd like to assume that they accept Faunus too" Alex's voice suddenly enquired, she almost cut off the butchers end to his sentence.

"Oh I'm sure they do, it would be stupid if they didn't really" his voice seemed surprised, granted this was one of the few times Alex had ever spoken to him; she didn't really like older people she didn't know well, and since he ever only came to us for business, we didn't know much about him. Then again this category practically fits any older person in the world but we didn't meet many people anyway so I guess it didn't really matter. Nevertheless, it is a surprise now that I think about how perky she acts with me in comparison to how defended she acts around him.

"Do you know where we could go to find out about Beacon" she asked in the same tone she did before.

"Oh, I don't really know... I could ask the guy that comes in to inspect the supply of meat to meet up with you two, outside your house" he gently replied, I guess he tried to calm her.

"Oh, this isn't her house, I live here but she lives..." as I'm about to show where Alex lives in comparison to where I do she nudges me and stares me down "... elsewhere" I finish.

"Ok I'll tell them to meet you here... it's not hard to find" his voice now completely different after he realised how little Alex trusted him.

"Awesome!" the excitement within me can hardly be contained, I'm sure Alex felt the same way too.

We exchanged goods, the city wall now loomed over the point we met, that deal definitely lasted longer that I had planned but it had undoubtedly been worth it. We walked towards my house and waited for the butcher to reach out of site, as he did we started on heading back to Alex's house.

"You got too close" Alex said gently as she clings to my arm, adding her weight to me. She wasn't heavy so to say but it was fair enough to say she weighed more than I assumed a normal girl her size would weigh thanks to us training and hunting.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. It's just I'm not used to you being open to me and so closed off to others" I apologised, only just realising that it must of gotten too cold for Alex to call the day nice.

"I definitely want us to go to beacon, it would be great fun, good education and it will take the load of hunting to live off our backs for a while" she decided "and I'm sure my family could look after themselves, they can hunt too and mum also teaches kids that live outside the wall".

"So we are telling you parents about the idea then?" I asked.

"Definitely" she concluded.