So... here you have it.. the ...eh.. new chapter.
Now its answer time...
SirMandokarla: Thank you for the nice words. Of course i'm planing on screwing a little with Salem and Cos. schemes, not completely sure to what extend right now though. Regarding the "need" to avoid said and the likes, I think thats cause to how i was taught to write in school and regarding the bodylanuage etc, yeah im still trying to work on that.
LemunRust: I'll take it as a complement that my english is passable enough to pass as my mother toung, though it is not, shocking as it is. As far as i have seen it there should be no apocalyptic devastating errors in this chapter, in case there are, you are free to take them in, they are potty trained and great with kids, or so i heared. :D
Guest and Akshka: *pssst* calm down guys, i will try to post a new chapter every once in a while, but i can't guarranty a certain time frame, cause real life.
Now without further ado, let the show begin. *frontdives into floor*
Chapter 3
This will stop the voices from taking hold. You will have to dream, my angel...
The next day.. 8:00 am…
"Would all students please gather in the great hall, Professor Ozpin has an announcement to make", echoed Glynda's voice though Beacon's halls, causing the students to look up in surprised confusion.
"What's that about?", wondered a certain blonde brawler, walking down the hallway with her team towards said hall.
"Must be important if the headmaster decides that 8:00 am is a good time for an announcement.", added Blake, rubbing the remaining sleep from her eyes.
"Professor Ozpin will have his reasons, i'm sure of that.", commented Weiss from behind Yang, perfectly dressed and styled as expected from her.
"Yeah, but WHY SO EARLY…", whined Ruby, head hangin low, getting taken from her cookie filled dream certainly impacted her mood.
The four teenagers continued their discussion on the way towards the main hall, while at a different place, a certain being awaited the beginning of the initiation test.
Glynda and Ralhyn stood on the cliffs that marked the border of the Emerald Forest, both waiting for the headmaster to announce the beginning of the initiation.
The instructions, Ozpin had given, were clear. Get to the temple, grab an artifact and return to the academy, simple enough.
"And you are sure i don't have to keep the forest in one piece?", questioned the Tenno, arms crossed.
"Yes, as i have said several times now, you are permitted to kill or destroy anything to complete your mission.", replied Glynda, pinching the ridge of her nose.
"Fine, just making sure i got the mission parameters right.", commented Ralhyn, amused about testing the headmasters assistant's patience.
The gathered students waited patiently for the headmaster to arrive, chatting with their fellow students.
All chats died down as Ozpin entered the stage, hands behind his back, as he walked towards the microphone, placed in the stage's center.
"Good morning students, i know it is quite early for some of you, but i would not have called you here at this time, if it was not important.", he began his speech, a curious crowd of students at his lips.
"It is not often that we accept applicants this late in the year and with the vytal festival around the corner it is an even more rare case. Nonetheless i am happy to announce a quite promising late applicant.", he continued as the screen behind him flickered to life, showing Ralhyn aside Glynda above the Emerald Forest.
Many students gasped in surprise at the imposing sight that was the Tenno's Warframe.
It was obviously female, judging by the… features, that caused acknowledging whistles from quite a few of the boys among the crowd, as well as some jealous glares from a few girls.
The frame chosen by the Tenno was a special one to her, only picked when she wanted to blow off some steam on a mission or generally wanting to see things burn, literally.
Ember Prime, queen of flames, possessed a strong affinity to fire, leaving nothing but ashes in her path. Her most outstanding feature were the flames, spouting on top of the crown like helmet. Golden assets following simple elegance, supporting the other aspects of the frames design rather than drawing the attention from them. The sleek black form contrasted the blue sky.
"I expect all of you to pay close attention to our latest student, for she showed exceptional skill in combat.", announced Ozpin, fiddling with a Scroll in his hand to activate the same mechanism that launched this year's applicants into their initiation.
"Glynda, are you ready?", asked Ozpin over the Scroll in his assistant's hand.
"I believe ready is not the way i would put her state right now. If you would have kept her waiting any longer she might just have started to tear up the school grounds.", replied Glynda her head indicating towards the tenno, who, in the meantime, had begun shifting from one foot to the other.
"Now, Miss Suda, i will explain your task at hand.", said Ozpin grabbing the Tenno's attention. "Your mission is to grab an object located in the depth of the Emerald Forest and bring it back to Miss Goodwitch, who will be waiting for you at your starting point."
"And regarding the Grimm?", asked Ralhyn, while keeping her gaze on the forest below.
"You can deal with them any way you see fit. This is a test of your skill after all.", said the headmaster.
"Glynda, would you kindly?"
"Of course, sir.", replied Glynda, pressing a button on her scroll that started the launch mechanism, that catapulted Ralhyn far into the forest.
"So what do you think of the new girl?", asked Yang, arms crossed facing her partner, Blake, who thought of what to say for a second.
"She looks kinda strange if you ask me.", added Weiss before Blake could answer.
"But soooo cool, with that black and gold and that flaming hair..", squeaked Ruby in awe.
"I think those were actual flames, Ruby.", commented Yang.
"That's ridiculous. Who in their right mind would willingly set their head on fire?", snarked the heiress, waving off the blonde brawlers assumption.
"She looked kind of eager to start the test, judging by how she nearly hopped from one foot to the other.", said Pyrrha who joined the conversation, her team following suit.
"Well she looked a little hot headed…", joked Yang, earning glares and groans from everyone around her.
"Oh come on, it was one of my best."
"That doesn't make them any less awful, sis."
"Anyway, her stance indicates extensive combat training, but i didn't see any weapons on her. This could be rather interesting.", concluded the experienced redhead warrior.
"Oh, guys she landed." announced Ruby focusing everyone's attention at the big screen above the stage.
'Please have cool weapons! Please have cool weapons! Please have cool weapons!', thought Ruby eager as always to see new styles of combat in action.
Finishing her landing with an elegant roll that smoothly transitioned into a sprint, Ralhyn did not waste any time finding her target, completely disregarding the Grimm that were hot on her heels, hidden by the shrubbery and trees, or so they thought.
Coming closer and closer to her destination, dodging the occasional tree, branch or stone on the way, the tenno thought about different things, her family, brothers, sisters, friends, her mother, all the things lost to the tides of time.
A growl pulled her from her thoughts, as she came to a halt in a large clearing, the crumbling structure of a ruined building in its center. A single podest was propped on the stone floor, roots and grasses already breaching through it. On the podest rested the relic, though the tenno had more urgent matters to address right now.
Red eyes, fixed on her every movement, searching for a weakness to exploit, shone through the darkness of the shadows. Grimm, many of them, mostly Beowulf's and Ursi, began to enter the clearing, surrounding the tenno.
"How courteous of you to make this easy for me. I didn't want to set the whole forest on fire just because 50 of you thought of me as easy prey.", Ralhyn said reaching towards her back while shifting into a combat stance.
Seconds passed, neither of the two parties taking action, seemingly trying to stare each other into submission.
After what felt like hours of inaction, a pack of Beowulf decided to charge towards the tenno, only to be greeted by a rapidly expanding wall of fel-green fire.
The flames swept over the Grimm's bodies, burning fur, melting flesh and charring bones, leaving behind a carcass, almost as black as the Grimm themselves.
"So you just going to come one pack at a time or will you allow me to have a little fun?", taunted Ralhyn towards a bunch of Ursi.
Taking the bait, that was hung before them, more and more Grimm began to charge towards the tenno, who, to the surprise of the spectators in the great hall, began to chuckle as she unsheathed the katana on her hip, that had seemingly appeared from thin air and slammed her free palm on the ground.
'Nothing better than the smell of burned Grimm to begin the day.', she mused to herself as pillars of the same green fire as before, erupted from under the charging Grimm, leaving nothing but ashes and the smell of a world borning.
And with that Ralhyn set to charge into the horde of, now mostly burning, Grimm, cleaving and slashing apart those that survived the inferno.
"Did she just charged a horde of at least 50 Grimm, only armed with a katana, while everything around her started to incinerate itself?", yelled Ruby, having a hard time lifting her jowl form the ground, figuratively.
"Yep", replied her sister dryly, shrugging though with widened eyes.
"Now i see why she asked me if she could have a little fun while going for her initiation.", commented Ozpin, who had somehow appeared behind team RWBY. The girls slightly jumped from the sudden appearance of their headmaster.
"What do you mean by that, sir?", asked Weiss, being the first to regain her composure.
Ozpin waited a moment before taking a sip from is, somehow always filled, cup of coffee and looked into the face of the SDC-heiress.
"I am not sure how much i can reveal to you, as it would be quite shameful to reveal someone's secrets without their consent. But as far as my knowledge reaches, her aura is influenced by the armor she chooses to wear. I'll allow myself to quote miss Suda on this saying: 'I mostly wear this set when i want to unwind a bit and want to watch the world burn.' Which, as we see now, was to be taken quite literally.", explained the aging Huntsman, which caused different reactions from the girls. Where Weiss stared at their headmaster with wide eyes and frozen from shock that a singular being was capable of this much destruction and call it 'unwind', Ruby was already daydreaming about the possibilities that would come with the new girls abilities. While Yang and Blake were taken aback, cautious of a walking disaster.
"Now that should have been the last one, little short for a warmup but it will do.", mumbled Ralhyn taking a good look at her handy work, a scorched clearing filled with already dissipating and burned remains of the Grimm horde.
Satisfied with the view she turned towards the temple and her target, the relic.
On the pedestal lay single chess piece, the white king.
'I hate symbolism', she thought, grabbing the relic and placing it inside her inventory.
Marking the first part of her mission as completed in her mind she turned towards the cliffs, visible in the distance, towering the sea of green trees, to address the second part: extraction.
To Ralhyn's disenchantment, she encountered no more Grimm on her way to the cliffs.
'So much for the warmup, wasn't this forest supposed to be lingering with Grimm?', she mused to herself sprinting and jumping ever closer to her goal.
After regaining their composure from witnessing the obliteration of a horde of Grimm, Team RWBY, JNPR and Professor Ozpin made their way towards the patiently waiting Professor Goodwitch.
Looking over the edge, Ruby and Yang saw a few burned trees, if the blackened leaves were any indication. The gathered attendees and teachers of Beacon only needed to wait for a few minutes for Ralhyn to have scaled the side of the cliff. Her movements were fluid and agile, as she pulled herself over the edge with a front flip and landed in a crouching position in front of the small group.
"Well she certainly knows how to make an entrance", said Yang gesturing towards the tenno in front of her.
"Am i correct to assume you completed your task, Miss Suda?" asked Ozpin, a soft smile on his lips.
"You sure are, sir.", replied Ralhyn, extending her right arm towards the headmaster, the relic in hand.
"Splendid, if you would follow me now to the great hall, so we can conclude your initiation.", added Ozpin, turning back to Beacon and pacing towards its entrance.
"Ralhyn Suda. You solemnly completed the initiation and retrieved the white king piece, an impressive achievement i must say. Usually you would have been paired with fellow applicants during the initiation, but since you joined us comparatively late i am afraid you will be on your own for now. Make no mistake though, the opportunity to make acquaintances, even friendships, will surely arise during your time at Beacon. A huntsmen or huntress might fight on his own, but never truly alone.", announced Ozpin towards not only the Tenno, but also the present students.
"Now, i guess you all are hungry so i will not keep you any longer. Enjoy your lunch.", he added and dismissed the students with a gesture.
"If you would follow me, Miss Suda. I will show you your room and hand out a few things you might need here.", said Glynda as she walked up to Ralhyn, arms crossed and a slight frown on her face. The Tenno and latest student of Beacon nodded in understanding and soon after the students had left the hall, the two women left for the dorm rooms.