Small tremors rock the area, alerting a pair of green eyes to search around for any nearby threat. A revolver in his hands at the ready, hammer cocked back and fully loaded. He kept ready for a few more moments before eventually relaxing once more, slowly easing the hammer of his gun forward.
He slipped the gun into the holster underneath his trench coat, taking a moment to figure out where that tremor came from if he could. He soon realized that it had to be something on the surface since there was a discernable direction of the tremor. He looked from where he figured north was and where the tremor came from and shrugged to himself. He began walking towards the direction of the tremors, pushing his way through some of the brush and trees in the way.
After walking for a few minutes, he felt like he might have just been imagining things, thinking he was feeling things that weren't even there. That was until he shoved his way through the final bit of branches to see something he honestly had no clue to expect.
He found himself in an area with no trees, at least none that were standing, all of the trees had been blasted apart, even some trunks were uprooted. As he looked towards the center of the area, he saw that there was actually a crater that made up the center area. He almost ran to it but hesitated when he saw something black shoot up from the crater and land just a few feet in front of him. He didn't have to think twice when it landed, he pulled one of the guns from its holster and aimed it at the black mass in front of him and cocked the hammer back. Now that it wasn't air born, he could see the white plates and spikes with the distinctive red coloring of a grimm.
It struggled to recover from its fall, but eventually stood up. As it did so, he saw that it was a small Beowulf, but injured or not, a grimm is still dangerous so he kept his gun on it. It moved to go back to the crater but stopped and sniffed the air, and slowly it turned to him, turning its burning red gaze onto him. He didn't hesitate as he squeezed the trigger, letting the bullet fly out with a thunderous BOOM. It quickly covered the short distance and found its target in the grimms showing eye. The bullet tore through, blasting all that was the beowulfs head away from him; fur, blood, bone and plates sprayed back as the grimm fell. He felt a sudden relief as the monster died, but as soon as it left, the suspense grew back as a loud roar echoed from the crater.
He immediately drew his other revolver in the other hand, cocking the hammer back and taking aim at the crater. As he did, several more black masses shot up out of the crater, one far larger than the others. A voice called out from the crater after them.
"Vete a la chingada!" One final mass shot out of the crater, followed shortly by a familiar looking guy climbing out of the crater, looking very pissed off. The two made eye contact and the one that just climbed out of the crater, Amarillo, knew him as the trench coat from the locker room. Each opened their mouths to say something but a growling drew their attention away to the grimm, who now were mostly recovered and staring at the two students, hatred in their eyes, and the larger mass stood over the rest and glared down at Amarillo as if claiming to the rest that he was their kill. Amarillos grip tightened around his gladius, a short, wide bladed sword, as he stared right back. The pack of beowulfs diverged, leaving the smaller ones to out number the trench coat and the obvious alpha to take on Amarillo.
"Names Fitt by the way, partner." Amarillo never broke the gave with the Beowulf, not letting his guard down.
"Introductions later, right now, I'm really pissed off and need to let off some steam." Fitt laughed as he twirled his guns on his fingers, stopping them to point at the group of small beowulfs in front of him, where his new partner had a one on one, he counted him versus at least eight to nine. He cocked the hammers back and stood silently, waiting for them to move. He didn't have to wait long as both the pack and the alpha charged as one. Fitt opened fire on the group, the first two bullets finding their marks, blasting into a beowulfs mouth, shattering the plates on their faces and launching them back with a spray of blood. Fitt began walking forward, still firing as the grimm charged. Two more shots rang out, the first landing square on the nearest beowulfs face plate, causing it to recoil and allowing the second shot to hit the soft fur of its underbelly. As the grimm fell, Fitt counted down out loud, moving backwards from nine.
"Seven." He said after nailing another shot to one of the beowulfs eyes, killing it instantly. By now the grimm had reached Fitt and began their attacks, swipes and bites and pounces. All of which Fitt was moving out of the way, some narrowly missing and one even giving the bottom of his coat a new opening. While he dodged and counter attacked, taking them down one at a time, the alpha had finally crossed the distance to reach the unmoving Amarillo.
As it reached his massive claw up to try and stamp out the swordsman as quickly as possible, it found its claw hit thin air and dust as Amarillo deftly moved to the side, still staring it down. It attempted a follow up with the other claw and managed to hit something, only a small chuckle from its prey met it though as it found four of its clawed fingers falling off and Amarillo once again moved to the side and his sword raised as if he had just swiped with it. The alpha stumbled back, allowing Fitt to glimpse their fight for a moment, genuinely surprised that Amarillo was doing so well going one on one with an alpha and with just a plain sword. That was until he saw what looked like an almost jittering, moving and near invisible edge to the sword. His concentration broke as another Beowulf of the five remaining swiped and caught the side of his head, his aura managing keeping the his head on his neck but barely filtering the pain as he stumbled and tried to shake dizziness from his head, a small stream of red flowing from a gash on his temple. He looked up to see two of the Beowulf pounce at the same time, intending to finish him. Fitt moved to bring his guns up but everything seemed to move in slow motion as he realized he wouldn't make it in time, and as if an angel had seen his plight, a burst of rose petals surrounded him and a pair of booted feet slammed into the left beowulfs face, sending it into the other and launching them away.
Fitt blinked a couple times as he stood up, the dizziness finally leaving and he looked down at his rose tinted savior; small, brunette, red and black clothes and wielding a massive red scythe.
"Are you alright?" Her high pitched voice cleared through the ringing in Fitts ears as he nodded to her. Ruby smiled at him and looked back at the remaining Beowulf, all five stood in between them and the crater where Amarillo and the alpha still fought. Fitt glanced down at his guns, a single bullet in each gun, he smiled and aimed them at the Beowulf. All five charged at once, causing the two to take a step back and making Fitt fire his last two bullets, causing two of the five to collapse in their charge. The two students braced themselves to counter the charge when a white figure sprinted past them, almost sliding across the ground, it stabbed the ground with a rapier and a cylinder in the guard spun to the color blue. A blast of ice erupted forward. spreading up from the ground, catching the three remaining Beowulf and holding them in place for another spike of ice to shoot up and through their chests, instantly killing them. Fitt looked at the other new fighter, a pale girl wearing all white with bright white hair, a small scar running over one of her eyes.
"You need to stop running headlong into everything you idiot." She stared coldly at Ruby. Once again, Fitt opened his mouth to say something but the sudden roar from the alpha drew everyone's attention, the alpha charged once more, throwing its all at Amarillo, who dodged almost all but the final hit of the alphas frenzy of attacks. Its final swipe, aimed for Amarillos mid-section, made contact with his sword. Using the full force of its swing, Amarillo spun himself around, switching his place with the alphas and opening its back to him. He stepped back and readied his sword to swipe, even when the Beowulf had stumbled out of the swords range. Amarillo, in front of the others, swung his weapon, the blade nowhere near the alpha. However the alpha threw its head back as if it had been hit and its blood sprayed out of a massive horizontal wound on its back, nearly spraying the sword wielder. It collapsed in a heap, leaving the four students surrounded by bodies and in silence for several minutes.
"Well that was new." Fitt finally spoke, believing the danger had passed and that it was safe for him to speak. As he said this, Amarillo collapsed against the dirt hill of the crater, exhausted. The three ran over to him, Ruby reaching him first and immediately falling to the ground next to him. Before the questions started, he held up his hand with the index finger held up, asking for a moment. He continued taking several deep breaths before letting his hand drop.
"Are you alright?" Ruby yelled out before the others opened their mouths, making the exhausted student smile. He nodded, his breathing eventually slowing down and he began to stand up slowly, shrugging off everyones hands as he stood up. Fitts hand stayed out, his face hoping for a handshake, which he soon got from his new partner.
"Amarillo Varelo, nice to meet you Fitt." Ruby and the other girl looked over at Fitt and saw the wide smile he had. The gash on his temple had been patched up by his aura but the blood that escaped was still there.
"Brakus Fitt. That's my full name." Fitt let go of the handshake and looked over at his two saviors with the same smile.
"And what should I call the two guardian angels who saved me?" He shifted his gaze at the two girls next to them with a smile still. The girl in white turned her head in a sort of disgust, while Ruby simply giggled at the others discomfort.
"If you must know, My name is Weiss Schnee, of the Schnee dust company." She turned her head away from Fitt again after introducing herself.
"My names Ruby." The small brunette extended her hand to Fitt, which he eagerly shook. Amarillo took the time to look around, trying to gain his bearings while the others conversed. He spun in a circle, trying to see through or over the trees, eventually finding the cliff where he was launched from, and from there discerned proper north from their location. He looked back to the group, seeing Fitt and Ruby happily talking but his eyes locked with the steely gaze from Weiss. He raised an eyebrow at the girl in white, and acting as if that was her cue, she walked straight over, her upbringing showing clearly in her walk, her posture and the way her face seemingly formed the perfect resting bitch face. It reminded Amarillo exactly of Fost, if he was taller and less friendly looking. She stepped right up to him, her eyes leveling right at his shoulder. The two stood that way for a second, Weiss' cold glare meeting the confused look of Amarillos.
"Just how, if I may ask, did you manage to take down an alpha, alone?" Amarillo's eyes widened at Weiss' sudden questioning, especially with what felt like an angry tone to her voice. Even Ruby and Fitt's conversation was silenced when they heard Weiss. Amarillo tried to think of a way to explain how little even he knew about his abilities. What he wound saying wasn't remotely close to what he wanted.
"How? I'm stronger than it, why? jealous?" He leaned down to Weiss' eye level as he said this, and he saw the immediate effects, and instantly regretted his habit of sassing people. Weiss' pale face began heating up with a pinkish hue as the taunt somehow stuck. Amarillo wanted to high five and slap himself at the same time, but got the chance for neither when he felt a finger solidly poking his chest.
"Alphas can prove a challenge for trained and experienced hunters, clearly neither of which you are, and on top of that, you killed the damn thing with out touching it. So I'll ask again, how?" Ruby and Fitt began moving towards them on hearing Weiss' break in composure, but stopped in their tracks when they saw Amarillo close his eyes and start to extend his hand to Weiss.
"Listen idiota, we don't have much time, I can explain everything I know on the way to the temple if you want to come with us. That's the best I can give. Deal?" Weiss stared at Amarillo for several seconds before slowly taking his hand and shaking, causing the taller student to smile in relief. The handshake broke and Weiss began looking around, taking a note from Amarillo and trying to get a hold of her directions and surroundings.
Amarillo looked at the other two of their group, who were simply staring in amazement at how smoothly things had just turned out. Amarillo laughed at his companions expressions, and sheathed his sword with a solid click. The rest of the group followed suit, Rubys scythe folding neatly into its form that Amarillo had originally seen in the locker room. Brakus however pressed a button on both of his revolvers, letting the barrels and cylinders fall forward on hinges. He emptied the used casings and rolled the empty cylinders under one of the several rows of bullets underneath his trench coat, fully reloading them. He snapped both shut at the same time and holstered them, taking all of about three seconds to do all of this.
"Impressive." Amarillo couldn't help but to comment out loud, Ruby on the other hand seemed to almost be drooling over his guns, especially as he flawlessly pulled off his routine with them. Both of the guys laughed at the small brunettes expression, unfortunately snapping her out of her state. She blushed a bit and scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.
"This way!" Weiss yelled out, pointing in the direction towards the opposite of the clearing, following parallel to the cliff. As the group looked at her though, both Brakus and Amarillo face palmed, almost loud enough to be heard by everyone in the forest. Weiss turned around at the noise in confusion, seeing Brakus still holding his head and Amarillo looking her dead in the eyes. He forked a thumb behind him, almost the exact opposite of where Weiss was pointing.
"North is yonder, princesa." Ruby stifled a laugh, and looked back and forth from Amarillo and Weiss. The latter of the two began walking towards the group and in the right direction.
"Shut up..."
-Fost-
Fost broke through another dense cluster of bush, the branches scratching at any exposed skin and scraping against the steel plate of his armor. He had been running like this for about five minutes, trying to cover as much ground as possible. Fost slowed his pace, moving to a jog to save his energy in case of a fight. He was feeling more and more on edge however, as the entire time he has spent in the forest, he hasn't heard or seen any sign of grimm or student. His thoughts shifted to concern for his new friend, given that the last he had seen of Amarillo was him cannonballing into the forest at top speed.
Fost slowed down even more, continuing to think of Amarillo, He was good at reading people and he could tell Amarillo was a good guy. Someone he could rely on, trust, know to have his back. Fost, stuck in his mind, soon found himself in a clearing, open blue sky above him. He looked around, trying to find anyone or anything nearby. As he did this, a snapping sound echoed from the forest behind him. He spun around, readying his hammer and pointing the spiked bottom at the tree line.
He stood like this for a few moments, completely motionless and lowered breathing, all of his original training from Atlas showing. Several birds shot out of the tree tops, signaling that something was coming. Another snapping sound, like whatever it was breaking the branches straight off the trees. A silhouette slowly came into view, obscured by the trees and lack of light in the forest. Fost could see that it was rounded, large and fast, and now heading straight for him. His grip tensed on his hammer as it closed in. It was only a few seconds away now, and Fost slowly lowered himself to ready for any attack.
It broke the tree line with a massive leap, easily flying over Fost, but the sunlight clearly showed what it was, even before it landed. A huge shield, bronzed with four segments being held out from the center by what looked like several rods. As it flew over, Fost saw the driving force behind it, seeing the faunus with the round bear ears from the cliff. She landed with a thud behind him, the shield slamming together again with loud clangs. She stood up and turned to face Fost, her body just as tensed as his. The two stared at each other for several seconds until the faunus started smiling and letting out a relieved breath. Fost relaxed as well, letting a smile break through the pink hair on his face. He stood up fully as well, also standing just a few inches shorter than the faunus, and moved the hammer over his shoulder.
"Guess we're partners now huh?" She slipped the shield onto a pair of small hooks on her back.
"Fost Reddin. Nice to meet you." He gave a small bow to the faunus, who kept smiling and even gave a small laugh at the bow.
"Nadora Mei. Pleasure to meet you too." She moved towards Fost to stop his bowing, when a low rumble reached the two students. Nadoras face paled as a realization hit her, and she immediately began backing towards the opposite tree line.
"Fost... We need to get going now." Fost gave her a very confused and turned around, facing the forest where the rumbling was coming from.
"Hey, what ever it is, I'm sure that two hunters can take it right?" Her face kept the pale expression even as Fost tried to calm her. The rumbling grew louder, and seemed to have small gaps where the rumbling stopped, almost like footsteps. Nadora stopped backing up but still held her clear fear of what approached, Fost on the other hand seemed ready to take the challenge. He readied himself again, aiming the spiked end towards the trees. His new partner reluctantly pulled her shield from her back, keeping it in one solid piece. They held their ground while the rumbling grew, slowly changing into a massive pounding sound, scaring the birds from their trees. Fost lowered himself to the ground when he saw a huge silhouette shoving its way past some of the trees. It moved around and seemed to stop as it looked in the hunters direction. Then with a speed that made Fost take several steps back, making him stand next to Mei. The two watched at the silhouette closed the distance in seconds, its arm swinging around and causing several rows of tree to seemingly explode.
The silhouette stepped forward into the daylight, making Fosts jaw drop. It was very clearly a grimm, it had the distinctive black, white and red colors, but that's where Fosts knowledge ended. This grimm stepped out from the tree line, now missing most of its trees, on all fours and pushed itself up onto its rear legs, the bones in the hip clicking as they repositioned. Its height reaching the top of the trees and it stared down at Nadora and Fost. Three glowing red eyes stared out from its face, a strange mix of human and boar. Red lines ran up from the eyes to its back where a large white plate covered most of its back. The lines ran over the plate and split out to the four limbs, all tracing along the grimms natural armor covering its shoulders, elbows, hands, knees and feet. Its skin was the normal pitch black that grimm have, except this one looked leathery and tough.
Fost was ready to make his move when he noticed something in its right hand, some thing large. A tree, this grimm was smart enough to use weapons! Fost looked over at his partner who shared his expression of fear. The beast let out a monstrous roar, causing the hunters to flinch in pain, and Nadora started backing up to the forest.
"It can't move very fast when its standing like that, RUN!" She immediately spun and booked it into the forest, leaving a conflicted and fearful Fost alone. The grimm raised its club, intending to crush the small hunter. His instincts kicked in and he quickly side stepped out of the way, letting the club smash into the ground and the leaving the grimm bent over with its head at the perfect position. He readied his Warhammer, twisting part of the shaft and causing the gem in the head to flare up violently. The grimm looked over at him in time to receive a literal explosive slam to its face, causing Fost to slide back with the shockwave. The grimm stayed unmoving as Fost recovered, he looked to the smoke covered body with hope that he took it out. His hope was quickly crushed however as the body began moving, pushing itself upright again, the grimms three eyes boring holes down at Fost. Its jaw, the point of impact from Fosts hammer, was lodged far off to the left. The creature seemed to stress to open its mouth. As it did, the jaw slowly snapped back into place, and the grimm let out another roar at Fost. His eyes widened and his pulse raced at the sight of a grimm ignoring all pain and damage that it seemed to take. He backed up a few feet before looking to the tree line his partner ran through.
"Fuck...Mei! Wait up!" He yelled out as he sprinted through the tree lines, being chased by another roar of the grimm.