A/N Hello and welcome to the second chapter of my FanFic. As you may have assumed this chapter will be focusing primarily on the initiation.
Clear skies. Sun shining. Birds chirping. It was, in Star's opinion, a lovely day. The only downside was that she had to experience this from 200 meters in the air.
She had awoken this morning feeling extra nervous. After all, this was initiation day. Nephrite had told her not to worry and she had spent the morning with the group.
Once they had made their way to Beacon Cliff it became clear what Ozpin had in mind for their mission.
Snapping back to reality, Star quickly removed Arcturus from her back, unfolding it to its full length. Loading a gravity dust charge. The trees rapidly approached and right before she crashed into them, she pointed her halberd towards the ground and fired. Immediately her descent slowed and she touched down gently on the ground.
Looking around Star noted that she was in a small clearing with dense trees and shrubbery surrounding her on all sides. Were she not in a potentially life or death situation, this would be a lovely spot to relax and enjoy some alone time. Sadly, this was not to be as, as soon as she was done taking in the scenery, she heard the sound of heavy gunfire coming through the trees. Immediately she was off, darting through the trees and foliage. The gunfire continued on… relentlessly. There had to be large group of people, judging by the sheer volume.
As she grew nearer the gunfire tapered off until the last round was fired.
Slashing through a clump of bushes she emerged into a thick cloud of acrid smoke, pulling her hoodie over the bottom of her face. She held her halberd at the ready, prepared to slash or stab anything in the smoke. Oddly enough the sound of music drifted faintly across the clearing. A classical tune that lent a distinctly eerie feeling to the area. Over the music, Star heard a pained whimper, not dissimilar to what a dog might make. Growing steadily tenser, Star loaded a wind dust charge into her weapon.
Raising her weapon over her head, Star began to twirl Arcturus while simultaneously firing it. The smoke slowly began to dissipate from the clearing until only a few wisps remained in the air. Star turned around only to gasp and clutch her hands over her mouth to avoid screaming.
A beowolf, an actual full-sized beowolf, was pinned against a tree by two knives through its forepaws. The most horrifying thing, however, was the fact that the beowolf's torso had been completely opened with surgical efficiency. The skin and fur over its chest had been meticulously cut away so that it hung in two flaps, spread across its sides. Star could see all of its internal organs left glistening in the sunlight, still pulsating and throbbing. The creature was alive! On the ground in front of the mutilated grimm, a leather pouch was lane out, a plethora of metal instruments were each stored in their own pouch inside. Some of them looked surgical in nature while others simply looked like they were designed to cause as much pain as humanly possible. The stricken beast weakly raised its head and attempted to growl only to have the noise devolve into another pained whimper. A scroll, left lying on the ground next to the kit was evidently the source of the music.
Unknowingly, Star had been backing away from the horrendous sight, to the point where she had reached the edge of the clearing.
"Guten Tag, Fräulein." A familiar voice announced from behind her.
Star squeaked in fear, spinning around and whacking the source of the voice as hard as she could with Arcturus, that is to say, very hard. The individual was sent flying into a clump of bushes nearby. Star was left breathing heavily, feeling like she might be about to have a heart attack. "Scheisse…" The familiar voice hissed from the bushes.
"W-w-w-who t-t-t-the h-hell are you?" Star called over.
Her response was another pained grunt as a hand poked over the bush, quickly followed by a familiar face. None other than Octavius Aranea.
Ow. His face hurt.
All he had tried to do was innocently reveal himself to Star by hanging upside down from a tree and startling her. Octavius could understand if Star was a bit annoyed and the thought didn't really concern him, but hitting him with her weapon seemed like an overreaction.
He groaned and clambered out of the bush he had been launched into. Star seemed surprised to see him and simply stood there with her mouth hanging open. "Hi." He managed to grunt.
"What…" Star mumbled as Octavius finished removing himself from the unfortunate shrub.
"Remnant to Star… I said hello." He called, touching his hand to the side of his head. He hissed in pain at the contact. Damn, that girl was strong. "Are you traumatised? Because that would be rather inconvenient, seeing as how you're my partner now."
At that last sentence, Star snapped out of her shocked state. "Oh yeah… HANG ON A MINUTE." Star practically screeched. Actually, Octavius thought that was the loudest she had been in the brief time he'd known her. Before he could even react, Star had dashed forward and had the blade of her halberd at his throat. "What the hell is that." She pointed in the direction of the specimen.
"Oh, that? That's just a distraction while I waited for someone to show up. I had the fortune of landing in the middle of pack of beowolves. Or would that be misfortune… I suppose it's a matter of perspective. Anyway, I killed them all and then this one showed up. Late to the party, I think. I took exception to that and felt that some kind of retribution was required. No better way than to make it up to me than providing some excellent insight into the inner workings of the grimm anatomy." Octavius finished his explanation, much to the continued confusion of his partner. Slowly Star brought Arcturus down from his throat. "Thank you. Now, from what I could see at the top of that tree, there is a rather substantial ruin about 10 km southeast of here. It would be best if we got going." A grin had formed on his face as he waltzed over to the brutalised grimm and began to gather up his equipment. Star followed him over and stared as the creature squirmed, trying the reach the duo.
"What are you going to do with it?" Star asked quietly.
"Kill it. It serves no further purpose now. I got what I wanted." He replied, removing a leather-bound journal from inside the satchel he carried at his side and tossing it to Star. She caught it, deftly, and opened it up. Inside were various images of the insides of the grimm body. Most were of beowolves and ursi but there were several illustrations of more advanced grimm, none were of incredible artistic quality but all were drawn in meticulous detail. What concerned her slightly more were the drawings of the anatomy of both faunus and humans, drawn in the same way as those of the grimm. Notes surrounded all the images detailing weakspots, how the grimm functioned internally, and strategies for fighting various types. When she came to the newest page it revealed an illustration of the grimm that sat pinned to a tree only meters in front of her. Throughout the book she had seen that several of the notes were written in another language. This being odd as there was only one language spoken by society at large. Speaking of other languages, she was pretty sure that what he had said to her when he appeared wasn't part of the common language.
"Hey Octavius. I noticed that you were speaking another language. What was it?" Star asked.
Octavius, for his part, had finished packing away his equipment into his satchel. He looked over at her before responding. "Old Atlesian. It's a dead language so no-one really speaks it anymore. The only regions that do are the most remote parts of Solitas." After a brief silence, Octavius chuckled. "Gods things have gotten serious. Anyone would think you'd never seen a grimm before."
Silence.
"You're not serious!"
More silence.
"I thought you went to combat school. Didn't they show you the grimm, like i-in lessons or something." Octavius' glee was quickly rising. "Oh, my dear sonnenscheine. I hope you learn on the fly because we are about to have an exam."
Star looked around her and saw that the trees surrounding the clearing were ablaze with dozens of pairs of red eyes. "More latecomers?" She mumbled.
"It would seem that way. I wouldn't have guessed that another pack was so close. Lucky us." With that Octavius drew a long bayonet from inside his coat and plunged it into the chest of the specimen. The creature whimpered briefly before falling still, black smoke billowing out from its corpse. Star looked at him, and saw a massive smile on his face. He held his hands up near the muskets on his back and two identical copies of the weapons materialised in his hands. His black eyes had taken on a look that could only be described as madness.
Nephrite was quite content to stay sat in the tree, thank you very much.
A group of about seven ursi were stalking around the base of her temporary shelter. Occasionally one of them would stand on its hind legs and pound the tree, seemingly in an attempt to shake her down.
Nephrite sighed, much as she may wish, she couldn't stay up here forever. Slinging her bow off her back, she nocked a light blue arrow that was cold to the touch. Taking a deep breath, Nephrite let the arrow fly.
Immediately upon impact with the ground, ice erupted, spearing through the bodies of four of the unfortunate ursi. The rest flew into an even more enraged state at the sight of their eviscerated comrades. Nephrite nocked one of her black metallic arrows, and put it through the head of another ursa. A bit of target practise can't hurt but it would probably help to get in some melee combat.
Nephrite stood up on her branch and transformed Ukufa into its dual blade form. With a cat-like leap she reached a lower branch, her tail snapping out to correct her balance.
One of the ursi passed below her branch. Stepping off the branch, Nephrite landed directly on the back of the unaware grimm. Immediately the grimm bucked and reared, attempting to dislodge the huntress in training. Nephrite clung on tight, hacking one of her blades into the creatures back, solidly keeping her in place. Slowly she clambered her way up the demonic bear. Once she had reached its head, she swung her other blade into the creature's head. It crashed to the ground, swiftly dissolving.
Nephrite hopped off the creature and turned to face the other two.
In unison they charged her. Nephrite ducked the first grimm's paw and slashed across its arm. She leaped and backflipped over the second grimm's strike. She slashed with both her blades, one from the above the other from below, severing the limb. The beast roared in pain, but was quickly silenced as Ukufa's blades whispered across its throat.
From nowhere, the other creature smashed into her, causing her to fly backwards into a roll. She came out of it crouched low, tail flicking irritably behind her. "Well that's unfair." She hissed in annoyance.
Snapping Ukufa back into its bow form, she knocked a yellow arrow. This one held more dust than her usual arrows and she could feel the fur on her tail standing on end, just from touching it. Nephrite hastily nocked the arrow as the lumbering abomination charged.
The arrow flew, leaving a trail of arcing electricity and the smell of ozone behind it. It impacted the creature, halting its impetus as its limbs spasmed and its fur burned away. Everything inside its body roasted as it conducted the absurd amount of electrical energy. By the time Nephrite was done all that was left was a smoking husk.
The huntress-to-be admired her handiwork before continuing her mission. She leaped back into the trees, assisted by aura in her athletics.
As she bounded from branch to branch and tree to tree, she had little to do but think to herself. How ironic that, even in a different kingdom, I'd still be fighting grimm in forests. She sighed. Small world after all. In truth this was the first time she had ever left her village. Whilst she had seen pictures of the kingdoms and watched movies and television shows set there. None of it compared to the head swirling size of the cities or the number of people. Nephrite laughed. Quite the stereotypical country girl wasn't she.
Abruptly Nephrite stopped. It had taken her this long to realise that she had absolutely no idea where she was going. Ok, if I was an artefact, where would I be hiding?
Clambering up the tree, she perched herself right at the top, offering a perfect three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view all around the Emerald Forest. The vista was absolutely breath taking. Forest stretching for miles everywhere. Not as good as back at home though.
Taking another look around, her eyes stopped on an odd sight. Someone seemed to be attempting to climb a tree. Attempting, being the operative word there. They were jumping in an effort to reach a branch that stood a few feet above their current position. Nephrite smirked. Let's go find my partner eh.
Braith was making an absolute fool of himself. He had landed quite luckily. No grimm around and no dense foliage keeping him stuck unless he could hack it away. The primary downside to his present position was that he had no idea where to go or where he was. If he could just reach this damn branch…
Yes.
He had managed to get a firm grip on the piece of wood, and with that, heaved himself up onto the branch.
Braith proceeded to climb about halfway up the tree before stopping for breath. God the trees are tall around here. I miss Vacuo. Didn't have to climb anything to see around there.
He took another leap, only to slip and fall. Reacting quickly, he grabbed on to the branch coming to a halt, swinging slightly.
Shit. Now what?
The leaves of the tree rustled ever so slightly.
What was that… Probably nothing.
Someone dropped down onto the branch he was hanging from, almost shaking him off in the process. He clung on desperately as he looked up into the face of Nephrite Opalay.
"God, I wish you were wearing a skirt right now." He thought. Wait did he think that or say it. Oh shit. Nephrite didn't look happy.
The next thing Braith knew he was falling 20 meters to the forest floor below. The rightly pissed faunus still glaring down at him.
He hit the ground with a thud, not having time to even attempt breaking his fall. His aura flared a bright golden colour but stayed intact. Groaning, Braith checked his scroll. Ok, it's not broken. That's good. He checked to find a small chunk of his aura missing, about 5% if he had to guess.
Moments later, and with a lot more grace, Nephrite landed, still scowling. "3 seconds. That's how long you lasted as my partner before things got weird." She growled at him.
"Look, I'm sorry. It was thinking out loud and it won't happen again. We're partners now, like it or not so… sorry." He reasoned. Met her yesterday and I'm already having to salvage our relationship. Gees.
Nephrite huffed. After a few seconds, she nodded. "Fine, I forgive you. Now, do you have any Idea where we are meant to be?"
"Well… I was kind of trying to figure that out when you booted me off a tree."
"I was justified." She retorted.
"Right, right… But we still need to figure out where we are meant to be." Braith stood up and brushed dirt of his outfit.
He was about to continue but before he got the chance to day anything, an ear-piercing shriek shattered the peace and calm that the forest naturally had. Moments later, an enormous shadow passed across the clearing. The duo looked up to see the largest nevermore that either of them had ever seen. The oddest part of the whole situation was that they could see two familiar forms clinging on for dear life to the feathers of the monster.
"Holy shit, is that Ruby and Weiss? How the hell did they get up there?" Braith wondered.
"First, language. Second, I don't know but I think we should probably follow them." Nephrite replied.
"Why?"
"Well, I think they are going to want some help when they fall. Plus, it gives us something to do other than wondering around the forest for hours. Let's get going." With that Nephrite set off at a sprint after the demonic bird, Braith following after her.
Star slashed another beowolf across the throat. It flopped down in front of her, dead. She didn't have time to stop for breath however, as another duo of beasts flung themselves at her. A quick lunge with her halberd, saw the weapon protrude from the back of the first monster. A blast of energised fire dust to the face of the creature directly behind it incinerated the helpless grimm.
Briefly Star glanced over at her partner. Just like before he was surrounded by a ring of rapidly disintegrating grimm. Dozens of animated muskets hovered around him. Immediately around his waist, a ring of bayonets floated. Every few moments a group of beowolves would charge him, those that weren't immediately shredded by gunfire where eviscerated by the bayonet ring or executed by Octavius himself, with a knife slash or bayoneted musket stab.
How does he do that… Right, you live in a world where super powers exist.
A gunshot cracked over her shoulder causing the open maw of a demonic wolf to explode in a spray of gore. Her partner flashed her a manic grin before turning back to face the newest group attempting to assault him.
Star herself set her footing and braced for the next wave. Another group of monsters charged her, but a quick blast sent them all crashing to the ground, spasming in agony as electricity coursed through their veins.
Hack, slice, stab. Hack, slice, stab. Hack, slice stab. The monotony of the battle slowly blurred her thoughts until her actions were simply instinct and reaction. Slowly she found herself backed up against her partner. He flashed her another made smile and she saw that insane look in his black eyes. Star thought she saw something beneath his fringe but lost that train of thought as the onslaught resumed.
That was how the battle carried on. Star covered Octavius' back and he kept anything at bay that attacked from the front. If he saw anything that she missed he would quickly end its hate fuelled existence with a gunshot or thrown bayonet. Likewise, she would often reach past him to impale a creature or otherwise execute it. A ring of slowly disintegrating corpses piled up around them as they continued their dance of death.
Soon they both stopped breathless, waiting for their next enemies.
But none came.
Star watched as the various floating weapons lost their from and simply melted into the thick white smoked that wreathed Octavius.
"Outstanding, sonnenscheine. You said you'd never fought grimm before but you could've fooled me." He complimented her, giving a brief round of applause.
"Thanks." Was Star's response as she caught her breath.
A low growl split through the air as Octavius darted forward. He grabbed the collar of her hoodie and yanked forward, just out of the way of the beowolf's claws that swept down where her hood had been a second ago. While she was pulled out of the way, her hood was caught by the creature's claws, yanking it down.
Octavius dropped a bayonet out of his sleeve, and stabbed it into the bone mask that covered the grimm's face. Replacing the blade he turned to face his partner.
Star waited in anticipation for her partners response. Octavius cocked his head to the side, examining her. "Interesting…"
Star was pretty, there was no doubt about that. Delicate features hid the strength she possessed. Her deep blue eyes shone in the sunlight, their rich colour making a contrast with her pale skin. Leading from Star's left cheekbone down to her lip was a long, jagged scar. It stuck out next to her otherwise flawless skin. Star felt her cheeks flush from having the teenager scrutinise her so closely.
He grinned and shrugged. "Cool." He simply stated.
Star stood there incredulously. "You mean you don't care?"
He chuckled at that. "Why would I? I've got eight eyes; people have bullied me for that in the past. Be a bit hypocritical for me to have a go at you about a scar, don't you think."
"I guess." She said in small voice. "Yeah, yeah it would." She said, more confidently this time. Well it'll be nice not to worry about what my partner thinks. But what about the rest of my team. Star felt the usual anxiety begin to set back in. Pulling up her hood, she used her semblance to artificially darken the area under her hood.
"Oh, so is that your semblance? Can you make things darker?" The spider faunus asked, his curiosity piqued.
"No, I can manipulate light waves. Colour, intensity. I can even make illusions if I try really hard. It also lets me hide my face so that people don't make fun of me for my scar." Star said. She usually didn't talk this much, maybe it was just the fact that she knew her partner wouldn't judge her.
"For the love of GOD! Why are things so serious right now?" Octavius complained.
Star laughed at his outburst. He might be silly and more than a bit crazy. But I suppose I could have gotten a worse partner than him.
"Do you see anything?" Braith whispered.
"Not yet." Nephrite whispered back.
The partners had lost track of the demonic bird somewhere while they sprinted through the forest. Since, they had been travelling in the rough direction they thought it went. They had stumbled upon a clearing but neither could see over the bushes. Therefore, they had done the only logical thing either of them could come up with.
Braith shifted slightly as Nephrite stood on his shoulders, peeking over the bushes in-between them and the clearing ahead. "Wait, I see something. Two people just left the trees. They're making their way over to the ruin. Hang on… I think that's Ruby's sister, Yang was it?" Nephrite reported.
"Yeah it was Yang. She's definitely hard to forget…" Braith confirmed, a perverted grin on his face.
His partner rolled her eyes and kept watching. "There's a person with her, I don't know who she is. I don't see any grimm and I think we are probably safer with more people."
Nephrite tapped Braith's head and he carefully lowered her to the ground. Braith cut the bushes apart with a few quick slashes and gestured for Nephrite to go through first. "Milady." He said, a grin on his face and the subtle hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Nephrite narrowed her eyes at him, but followed through anyway. Together the two walked over to the ruins. Yang and her partner spotted them approaching and the blonde waved energetically.
"Well, well, well. Braith and Nephrite partners eh. How's that going so far." Yang asked as they got over, a grin on her face.
"Good." Braith responded.
"Questionable." Nephrite replied.
"Oh, look at that. You're answering questions at the same time already. Now you just need to answer with the same thing and it's complete." Yang teased, her grin becoming more of a smirk.
"I've had a day." A tired looking Nephrite grumbled, walking right past Yang. The ruin was a lot more simple than she had been expecting. A crescent of pedestals took up the most space. Upon each was a different chess piece. Two of each type, of each colour. The faunus studied the pieces for a few seconds. "Are these the relics?" Nephrite reached out and took a tall piece. I think this is the white bishop.
A familiar screech echoed across the area, prompting Nephrite to look towards the sky. The black form of the enormous nevermore soared overhead but what was more eye catching was the tiny red form of a certain wannabe huntress, plummeting well over hundred meters towards the ground. "RUBY!" She heard Yang cry.
As the girl neared the ground another cry could be heard, growing in pitch until a suspiciously Jaune shaped object collided with Ruby, sending the both of them hurtling into a tree. "Huh. Well that just happened." Braith muttered.
Several explosions suddenly rang out and a large cluster of trees shook. Nephrite ran out of the ruins to stand with the other soon to be students. A large ursa lumbered out of the forest. It stood on its hind legs and roared before falling down… dead? Stradling the now dead monster's back, was a ginger girl dressed in pink and white. Moments later a boy with black hair and dressed in green burst from the trees. "NORA!" He shouted, but the girl had disappeared from her position. Something whooshed past the group by the ruins and the girl, presumably Nora, stood studying the various relics. She grabbed a white rook piece, dancing around with it and singing to herself before another call from what the group could only assume was her partner summoned her back.
"Did that girl just ride in on an ursa?" The girl accompanying Yang asked.
Before anyone had the opportunity to answer her, another earth-shaking force reverberated through the ever more hectic ruin. A red head wearing bronze armour sprinted out of the treeline, followed shortly after by a shrieking death stalker. The spartan sprinted across the field towards the group. Moments after this, Ruby leaped down from a nearby tree.
"Ruby!" Yang exclaimed.
"Yang!" Ruby said running towards her sister.
"Nora!" The energetic girl cried jumping up between the two of them. Yang looked like she was about to explode, and with her that might not be such an exaggeration.
"Did she just ride in on an ursa?" Yang's partner asked.
"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE!" Yang shouted. "CAN EVERYONE JUST CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN?!"
"WOOHOO!" A familiar voice yelled. Moments later a blue blur flew across the sky heading towards the ruin which at this point was the epicentre of the stupidest bullshit that the depraved mind of a random fanfiction writer may or may not be able to come up with.
Before the blur hit the ground an explosion of darkness engulfed the area before fading away to reveal the floating form of Star, with a manically grinning Octavius holding on for dear life around her waist. "DO IT AGAIN!" He yelled, before the dust wore off and he fell to the ground with an oof. Star landed with more grace before helping her partner back to his feet, a smile plastered on her face.
It was about this time that everyone remembered Weiss was hanging on to the underside of a demonic bird. Emphasis on was because she, like her partner shortly before, was currently plummeting towards the ground.
Jaune, the absolute legend that he is, decided that now would be the perfect time to, quite literally, leap into action. Specifically jumping off a tree to catch the falling heiress bridal style.
"Well that's cinematic." Octavius commented. "How's he getting down though?"
Jaune seemed to realise this issue at about the same time, the two falling and landing in a heap. "My hero." Weiss said, sarcastic to the point it made Nephrite cringe.
The spartan girl was still sprinting at full pelt towards the group, pursued by the enraged deathstalker. This didn't last as a swing from the scorpion's tale sent her flying over to the others. "Wunderbar, now we all get to be brutally murdered together." Octavius said as he and Star joined the others.
"Not if I can help it." Ruby said, clearly trying to look cool and not doing a great job considering she was a fifteen-year-old girl with a comically oversized garden tool. She fired her weapon, recoil sending her flying towards the insectoid grimm. The first swing of her scythe didn't even scratch the bone plating on the grimm's body. "Don't worry, totally fine."
"What do you wanna bet she dies?" Octavius whispered to Braith.
"Die? No. Horrifically injured and in immense pain? Put me down for twenty lien." Braith answered, earning him a punch to the arm from Yang, who promptly ran after her little sister. The nevermore from earlier had circled back around and swung its wings releasing a barrage of spear like feathers. Ruby's long cape became impaled by one of the weaponised feathers sticking her in place while the others blocked her sister from being able to reach her. Yang cried out to her trapped sister but a white blur shot passed her.
Surprising everyone, wall of ice appeared and stopped the descending stinger of the deathstalker. From Nephrite's perspective the duo seemed to talk for a moment before Yang finally made her way over to her sister, wrapping her in a hug.
"Guys that thing is circling back." Jaune interrupted.
"Oh, don't worry. A little bit of getting murdered never hurt anybody." Octavius said cheerily. Everyone else stared at him, deadpan expressions on their faces. "What?" He grinned.
"Look there's no sense dilly dallying. Our objective is right in front of us." Weiss pointed out.
"Fair enough, don't do what you don't need to." Braith commented.
"Run and live, that is an idea I can get behind." Jaune said, clearly relieved. He, Ruby, and Star each walked over and grabbed a relic. Jaune took a white castle, Ruby took a white knight, and Star took a white bishop piece. They all looked at each other and nodded before returning to their respective partners.
With a crash the deathstalker tore itself free from the ice. "Time we left." The so far passive ninja stated.
"Right, let's go." The reaper said, taking a surprising amount of charge. With that the dozen huntsmen and huntresses set off in a seemingly random direction.
Another ruin was present only a short way away and the team didn't take long to reach it. Nephrite took cover behind a fallen pillar, Star rushed over ducking down next to her. She peered over to see Octavius and Braith standing behind a boulder, weapons drawn. The others had all taken cover behind the pillars that dominated the area before the main body of the ruin.
Before the group had a chance to catch their breath, the earlier deathstalker smashed its way through the tree line. "Crap." Nephrite hissed before she and all the others sprinted out of their temporary safety. Nora stopped to fire several grenades at the attacking nevermore before Blake, Yang's partner from earlier, and Ren jumped in to deflect the attack of the scorpion. As the others made their way towards the central tower, Octavius stopped along with Pyrrha and Ren to pepper the insectoid grimm with gunfire.
Nephrite ran onwards, along with the rest of them, towards the central tower structure. The tell-tale shriek of the nevermore tore through the air. Instinctively, Nephrite leaped forward into a role, only seconds before the bridge was obliterated as the grimm smashed into it. She jumped back to her feet, looking behind her to see Blake, Ren, Octavius, and Pyrrha fighting the enormous scorpion. None of their attacks could penetrate the thick armoured exoskeleton of the grimm.
She slung Ukufa off her back and nocked one of her explosive arrows. Nephrite carefully aimed the arrow and let it fly, the projectile flying toward the overgrown insect's 'face'.
The arrow connected solidly, exploding in flame and causing the grimm to screech in agony as it was temporarily blinded. The monster lashed out randomly with its pincer and the side of it connected with an unprepared Octavius. He had been rubbing his eyes moments before, blinded by the sudden flash of light from the fire, one of the downsides to having very sensitive eyes. The blow sent him tumbling over the edge of the bridge.
Nephrite gasped in shock. Oh god! Did I just kill him?
It didn't take long for her to get her answer as Octavius appeared, typical grin on his face, running through the air treading on the floating muskets that he fought with. He jumped onto the bridge and winked at Nephrite. "Next time please watch your aim."
Nephrite huffed. "I was just trying to help…" She grumbled. If Octavius heard he didn't let on. Octavius continued running after the main group as Nora swung her hammer down, obliterating what remained of the bridge and sending her and Jaune flying through the air towards the cliff.
Ruby, Yang, Blake, Weiss, Braith, Star, Octavius, and Nephrite had met at the main tower. Ruby moved forward to take charge. "Ok, Yang, Blake, Weiss, and I are going to try to take down the nevermore. We need you to go that way…" She gestured off down a bridge leading away from the tower. "And try and find a way out."
"Good." Braith said. "I was under the impression that we were going to fight these things."
Silence.
"Wait I thought we all agreed that we wouldn't fight them back at the ruin?" He pleaded.
"What's the matter Braith? You chicken?" Yang teased.
Braith cleared his throat, looking embarrassed as Yang turned her attention to her baby sister giving her a bone crushing hug. "Oh, look at my little sis all grown up and making plans."
Nephrite chose to take charge of her little group. "Alright guys, you heard the girl." With that, she took off down the path, wasting no time in carrying out her mission.
"But I wanna kill things!" The spider faunus complained. However, the rest immediately followed, Octavius right behind her, Braith after him, and Star bringing up the rear. With the sound of explosions and gunshots in the background the team ran on until they came to a large round stone platform.
"Guys?" Star piped up out of nowhere.
"Yeah Star?" Braith responded panting slightly.
"I think there's something under the bridge."
A slight tremor passed through the stone beneath their feet. The group stood around back to back looking out for anything unusual. Nephrite felt nothing but cold determination set in. Octavius was still caught up in a sense of psychotic joy and Braith was admittedly nervous. Having grown up in the deserts of vacuo he was always taught to look out for the tremors that often signified a sandworm grimm was near. This was not unlike that. Star felt a twinge of fear as a shadow passed over the group. The four of them looked up to see not one but three serpentine heads peering down at them.
White bone masks covered the creatures faces. Enormous mouths stretched beneath burning red eyes. The creature's body was covered in black scales, protected by thick bone armour. Its body was not unlike that of a dragon with a long spined tail whipping around in the air as it pulled itself up onto the bridge.
"Scatter!" Nephrite screamed. The group ran in opposite directions as the heads snapped forward. Nephrite leaped into the air and backflipped, sending four arrows flying at the creatures armoured head. They clattered off leaving no affect. It was a similar situation for Octavius' first volley of gunfire, however one round did slam into the head's eye. The wounded head screeched before attempting the devour the spider faunus. He pirouetted out of the way stabbing at the armourless area at the base of the grimm's skull with the bayonet on one of his muskets.
Braith took one of the heads, head on…
Somewhere in another universe a fanfiction writer was laughing hysterically at his own terrible pun…
He stabbed the blades of his gauntlets into the flesh of the grimm's mouth holding it wide open. The creature's breath was hot as he stood inside its maw.
Nephrite looked across from the head she and Octavius were fighting and saw this. "Star!" She called out, getting the hoodie wearing huntress's attention. "Help Braith!" Nephrite had to dodge to the side again as the head bit down on the air where she had just been. "Does anyone know what this thing is!" Nephrite fired an ice dust arrow into the creature's face, weighing it to the floor. Octavius sprinted in and grabbed a long stick grenade from his coat, priming it and throwing it down the monster's throat. A few seconds later a muffled bang resonated from the base of the head's neck, severing the appendage which fell to the floor and disintegrated.
Star had moved over to Braith. He was still holding the mouth wide open above his head. Star sprinted up to the head and leaped into the air, swinging the axe blade of her halberd into the side of the abomination's neck. The weapon slammed through the neck severing the head. Braith unceremonially launched the severed head over the side of the platform, it trailed smoke all the way down to the layer of white fog.
The group turned back to face the grimm, it's remaining head peered at the four of them before letting out a horrifying scream. Each of them clamped their hands down on their ears, Octavius and Nephrite were particularly affected due to their faunus heritage. The stumps of the grimm's severed heads bubbled with a viscous black liquid. As the huntsmen looked on in ever growing horror, or excitement in Octavius' case, two new heads grew form each stump, thrashing around in the air before settling into their positions. The creature now had five heads, because there is no such thing as sensible, totally-not-ripping-off-Disney, creatures.
"I think I've remembered what kind of grimm this is." Octavius piped up. "It's a hydris. Native mostly to western Mistral with, quite evidently, a few cases popping up in Vale." The group had to dodge as the grimm snapped one of its heads forward where they were standing. Octavius continued. "They are known for being able to regenerate their heads into two more."
"How exactly do you know all this?" Nephrite questioned, wondering just how much trivia the faunus had, packed into his brain.
"I didn't have many friends as a kid. I spent most of my time reading." Octavius called back. If he felt in any way sad about this fact, he did a good job of hiding it but Nephrite felt a slight stab of pity before the psychotic laughing of the huntsman in training brought her back to the present. Octavius had gone on the offensive, stabbing at lightning speeds with both his muskets at the head that had tried to kill them moments earlier. The others moved in to help him, each of them taking a different head while Octavius held the remainder at bay with volleys from his muskets.
It didn't take long for them to realise the futility of their actions. By the time they stopped hacking and slashing the creature was little more than writhing mass of heads. Grenades and dust blasts had left craters all around the platform.
Nephrite panted for breath. How the hell are we supposed to kill this thing. Her eyes fell upon a large chunk of rock, blown out of the floor by one of Star's dust blasts. Suddenly she had an idea.
"Octavius!" Nephrite called to the musket wielding faunus. "Can this thing heal wounds that aren't to its heads?"
Octavius didn't move his head but she could tell he was looking at her. "No. It can't heal anything else. It's pretty single minded about that." He grinned at his own pun and broke into laughter at the irritated sighs of the others.
Nephrite rolled her eyes. "Braith, your semblance lets you move through stuff, right?" He nodded. "Star, do you have any burn dust?" Star ejected the vial of burn dust from her weapon and tossed it to Nephrite. She held the cartridge next to the rock and her hands began to glow. Slowly, the rock took on a red crystalline appearance. When she was done, Nephrite collapsed, falling onto her back. Braith ran over to check if she was okay. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Just a bit of aura exhaustion, I'm not used to fusing objects this large."
After a few more moments, she climbed to her feet and began to explain her plan.
They all stood ready to perform their roles. Octavius stood in front, several grenades, muskets, and bayonets floating in the air around him. Nephrite stood behind him, several wind dust arrows nocked. Star was next in line Arcturus held ready for her role. Braith stood in the rear, hefting the dust infused rock.
"Now!" Nephrite yelled. The group sprinted forward, Octavius fired several volleys of musket fire into the amassed heads, most of it rattled off the bone plate armour but several hit vulnerable points in the armour causing a satisfying number of shrieks. Before peeling off to act as a distraction, he sent over a dozen grenades into the mass of heads. Moments later explosions rocked the platform, vaporising the heads nearest to the blasts.
Nephrite came up next. She took a deep breath carefully aiming her arrows. She released her breath and sent arrow after arrow into the grimm. The heads were sent all over the place as concussive blasts rocked them.
Star ran towards the disoriented grimm and called upon her semblance. Blinding bright flashes covered the area, emanating from the blue clad huntress. The already stunned grimm was blinded causing yet more screeching as it attempted to figure out what was going on.
Finally, it was Braith turn to fulfil his part of the plan. Star turned around to face him, holding her halberd low. He jumped, landing on the weapon. Star proceeded to launch him through the air towards the grimm. Several of the heads who had managed to remain coherent snapped at him only for him to pass right through them. Braith sailed through the air towards the main body of the grimm. Organs and flesh shot past him as he passed through the monster's body. Right on cue he let the makeshift bomb go, along with one of Octavius' grenades. He flew out of the grimm, deactivating his semblance and tumbling along the ground.
The trainee hunters ran from the grimm as it wondered what was going on. It didn't have to think for long however as the grenade detonated. The grimm screamed an unholy scream as it was engulfed in flames from the inside out. Its heads whipped around before succumbing to the flames and falling still, slowly disintegrating into black smoke. Octavius laughed maniacally at the grimm's final moments, drawing several concerned looks from the others, who simply breathed a sigh of relief.
Nephrite looked, for the first time since separating from Ruby and the others, towards the main part of the ruin and saw the tiny form of Ruby being propelled through the air by the recoil of her sniper-scythe. She landed on the side of the cliff and proceeded to sprint up it, carrying the enormous nevermore with her. When she reached the top of the cliff, her momentum severed the giant birds head.
"That looks really cool and all but how does she plan on getting down?" Braith pointed out, completely killing the mood.
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward you will work together as… Team RWBY." Professor Ozpin announced. Led by… Ruby Rose."
Applause filled the hall as Yang ran over, wrapping her stunned looking little sister in a hug. They left the stage shortly after.
Nephrite, Star, Octavius, and Braith were shepherded onto the stage by Professor Goodwitch.
"Octavius Aranea, Braith Tallarn, Star Andromeda, and Nephrite Opalay. You have collected the white bishop pieces. You will henceforth be known as… Team OBSN. Led by…" The group tensed up.
"Nephrite Opalay."
Nephrite stood, quite shocked for a few seconds. Braith clapped her on the shoulder and congratulated her. "I'm sure we're in good hands."
"Thanks guys. Don't worry, none of my rules are gonna be crazy." She laughed, still enjoying the moment.
"You may want to consider rethink your statement." Octavius said, in an uncharacteristically serious tone for him. "Wir werden gefickt."
A/N
Thank you so very much for reading the second chapter of my fanfic. I wanted to spend a little more time on fights in this one as the last one had literally nothing even resembling action in it.
For anyone who happened to be wondering, the song I imagined Octavius playing in the first scene would be 'Tempo Di Valse' by Antonin Dvorak. I thought it suited the scene well because it's a bit eerie.