Chapter 3
The rest of the journey to the temple was uneventful for the two partners. Ember had carefully navigated them through to ensure they wouldn't get lost. Her sense of direction was impeccable and the pair found themselves at the northern end of the forest. They saw a variety of white and black chess pieces laid out on pedestals in front of them. Not a single one was taken so Ember assumed that they had gotten there first. She moved forward checking the area for any sort of traps, not putting it past someone as enigmatic as Ozpin to leave one extra test for them to overcome. Once she was sure that there was no danger in it she turned to Lavender and asked,
"Which one do you think we should take?" Lavender looked at the pieces for a moment before picking up the black knight piece. Ember was surprised at how quick she was at picking it and asked "Why the black knight?" Lavender looked up and said,
"My parents used to tell me stories all about knights. It's why I wear this kind of armor." She then blushed and looked down and said "Plus it… goes with your outfit." Ember just grinned and said
"Then let's head back." The bushes next to them rustled and both partners drew their weapons. They both looked around cautiously looking for whatever threat might come for them next. Suddenly Dorado and Mikado appeared out of the bushes in front of them with their own weapons drawn. They all looked at each other for a minute before lowering their weapons. Dorado was the first to speak up,
"Well hello you two, small forest isn't it?" Mikado had a bit of an annoyed look on her face and said,
"Come on Doro we've got a mission. We need to find the relics." The Faunus blushed upon being called by his childhood nickname and started to walk forward. Ember decided to be polite and pointed behind her before saying,
"Relics are over there" The two friends thanked her and went towards the relics. They both spent some time observing the chess pieces, evidently trying to make a decision. Ember had a feeling of dread as she thought of what these pieces might be used for. "Please don't pick the black knight, Please not the black night please…" she thought. But her hopes were immediately dashed when Mikado picked up the black knight and said,
"Perfect, now how do we get back?" Ember was still angry that, out of all the pieces there, they would pick the other black knight. She didn't want to hurt Lavender's feelings immediately after saying she could choose the piece and doubted that the other two would just change pieces because of some girl they barely knew asking them. She still held out hope that she would be wrong about everything and that the relics wouldn't really mean anything. Even though she felt uncomfortable being near Dorado, she wouldn't be so horrible as to leave two people in the middle of a Grimm infested forest.
"There is a quick path we can take back." Ember told them, remembering the path she saw in the air "There's a gigantic lake with a sort of natural bridge across it. Just follow us and we can lead you back there." Before they set out they saw a huge amount of smoke coming from off in the distance.
"What is that?" Dorado wondered aloud.
"Probably some irresponsible team setting off a forest fire" Mikado answered. The group set out following Ember's lead through the forest. They all made excellent time until coming across a gigantic lake. They could barely see the other edge from where they were standing. Unfortunately the natural bridge that Ember had mentioned was nowhere to be seen. There were only a few small masses of land in the middle of the lake.
"I thought I saw a land bridge." she said. "Now how are we going to cross?" Dorado moved up past her and pulled out a few light blue, diamond shaped, objects from his pocket.
"Leave this to me" he said. He threw the pieces down onto the water in front of them, causing it to freeze and build a makeshift ice bridge. They all began to cross this bridge and made it to the land mass in the middle before the lake exploded behind them. Their ice bridge shattered in the explosion and it was a mad scramble to get to the islands in the middle. Behind them they saw the source of the "explosion". A huge shark Grimm had slammed its head into the bridge and partially surfaced out of the lake. The normal black of Grimm was almost nowhere to be seen. Instead its body was completely encased in a gray natural armor. The only part left uncovered were its blood red eyes which had small holes in the armor to allow it to see.
"A Kamohoal, in this forest!" Ember shouted in surprise. Before anyone could do anything the creature resubmerged itself in the water. They stood around on the islands looking below for any sign of the creature. Dorado threw his ice bombs again and said,
"If we're slow and subtle it might not see us and we can leave." Ember looked at him and yelled
"Are you stupid! We weren't exactly loud when we first crossed. What makes you think this will make any difference!?"
"It was just a suggestion! You don't have to bite my head off!" Dorado yelled back.
"The Grimm will! Just shut up with your dumb ideas! If we step on that ice we'll be destroyed!"
As if on cue the Grimm resurfaced and once again smashed through the ice that had formed. Only this time they were ready for him. Dorado began throwing his fire bombs at the beast while Mikado shot at it. The blows hit the Grimm's armor and didn't even scratch it. However they did manage to make the Kamohoal roar out in anger. Rather than submerge to it's previous depth again it went just below the surface and began to jet towards the students. The island shook from the impact that it made and the two attackers were thrown off balance. Mikado nearly fell off into the lake before being saved by Lavender. Ember cast her daggers into the water, trying to hit the Kamohoal. Only one of her daggers connected and managed to lodge itself into the armor. She was nearly pulled off when the beast went back to the depth of the lake but managed to retract her blade just in time. The four of them were right back where they started, the creature wouldn't let them leave and it couldn't hurt them unless they tried. Ember looked at the four of them, understanding the importance of their lives, and moved to Dorado.
"I'm sorry for what I said to you." she apologised, sucking up her pride and hatred she said "I think I know how to get us out of this, I need all of you to help."
The beast swam around its prey from below. Constantly keeping an eye on them, just waiting for them, daring them to try and escape. The four nodded in agreement and Dorado began the first part of his plan. He pulled out a jagged white object and threw it at the surface of the lake. The bomb exploded in a burst of electricity travelling all throughout the lake. They heard the beast scream in agony once again. He threw another ice bomb and made a floating chunk a few feet away from them. The Kamohoal burst through the ice again and Mikado started shooting at its body. The hits still just bounced off his armor and only egged the beast into another run at the islands. This time however, Ember aimed her daggers and shot the beast on its approach, leading her shot to hook it. The threads connected and managed to get into the Kamohoal's armor. She tried as hard as she could to pull the beast in and was stuck in a tug of war with it. She dug her feet into the ground and pulled with all her might but still found herself being slowly dragged towards the edge. The other three picked up on this and started to help pull it with her. With the four of them all pulling and putting all of their strength and Aura into it they were able to to get half of the creature's head onto the bank of the island while the other half was still in the water.
"Now!" Ember shouted. Dorado let go and threw his ice bombs against the creature. He continually layered on as much ice as he could, trapping it with its head outside of the water. Without the usual force behind it the Kamohoal had no way of breaking this thick layer of ice. Trapped like this Lavender pulled out both of her swords and jumped into the air. She slammed down, stabbing her swords into the eyes of the monster and twisted them in even further. The Kamohoal thrashed in pain trying to get its attacker away from it until it finally let out its last roar and stopped moving. The dead creature slowly floated away, still connected to a huge chunk of ice. The four of them had a collective sigh of relief and sat down for a moment's rest. Dorado got a bit of a scared look on his face and stared at the rest of them.
"Um, guys" he said nervously "I don't have any ice bombs left." He had completely forgotten to save some for crossing the lake. Ember spoke up and said
"Well then, looks like we'll be swimming." The four of them stood silent for a moment before breaking out into laughter. Finding it funny that they were so focused on fighting that no one had thought of the aftermath. They were all just relieved to be alive after facing such a monstrous Grimm.
Later they returned to the cliff and handed in their relics. They were all moved to a huge auditorium where Ozpin stood on stage in front of a large screen. He had been calling the names of all those that went through the forest and assigning their team. Just as Ember feared he was assigning them by the type of piece they had retrieved and Ember knew she would be forced to work with Dorado as a teammate. Eventually Ozpin announced to the cheering room,
"Ember Flame. Dorado Mortega. Lavender Light. Mikado." Ember was surprised that not even Ozpin would say her last name. She shook it off however and walked onstage with the rest of the her team. "The four of you retrieved the black knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team EMLD" The head of Beacon had pronounced their team name as emerald and Ember saw images of the four of them forming forming the acronym EMLD on the screen behind him. Ozpin continued to the final part of his speech and said " Led by… Ember Flame!" The crowd cheered out again and Ember saw Lavender once again giving her a silent thumbs up. However this time neither of them was nervous and Ember returned the favor with a proud grin on her face.
The ceremony continued on with Ozpin naming teams such as CRDL led by a boy named Cardin. Afterwards he brought out a team that consisted of the blonde boy from the cliff, Pyrrha, a guy in a green sort of suit with slight bits of pink on it, and an orange haired girl with a pink skirt. Ozpin announced their names,
"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR." Ember made note of their names before Ozpin continued "Led by... Jaune Arc!" Ember gasped in shock. Was that clumsy looking Jaune Arc really a better leader than Pyrrha Nikos? She was actually rather impressed that her judgement of him was completely wrong. She looked forward to seeing someone better than than Pyrrha in action. Pyrrha then gave Jaune a friendly little punch to the shoulder but ended up causing Jaune to fall over. While everyone else laughed Ember merely looked even more confused,
"Maybe he's not so great after all" she thought. Ozpin went on to call what Ember could only assume was the last team.
"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY." Ember made another note, this time about the bow girl's name. Ember was actually rather impressed to see that Ruby had survived a trip through the Emerald Forest at her age. Ozpin went on to finish his announcement "Led by… Ruby Rose!" Ember was completely awestruck that Ruby was made the leader of her team.
"I can't believe someone so young has both been accepted to Beacon and become a team leader." she thought. Ember looked up to see Ruby getting hugged by her sister. A tear formed at the corner of her eye, "Never take her for granite Ruby." Ember thought as she wiped it away.
"It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year." Ozpin finished.
"They certainly are" Ember thought. She looked around her and smiled knowing that Lavender would be there to watch her back, a smile that dropped when she looked over further to see Dorado. The usual wave of anger washed over her and she muttered under her breath "Gonna have to get used to him." The night went on and Ember put away her anger. Ozpin's words about the year echoed in their heads. They had no idea how true those words would be.
