Hey guys! Sorry that this chapter is so late, I was very busy with my guests, but now that they are home, I have a lot more time to write. So

enjoy! Also, I have a new MLP fanfiction planned, you can check my profile if you're interested in that.


Chapter 4: Many Hands Makes Light Work

Noirti's mind raced, she couldn't stop thinking about her dream, about her brother. She was rudely awoken when she was launched in the air. She still held her composure while she reached for her weapon and swung it open. She looked for a place to land, but she couldn't find a tall enough tree, so she shot behind her a few times to keep her in the air. She saw a black figure fly past her. She suddenly remembered her dream once again, how her brother turned into a Nevermore. She turned her head to it and looked for it, and it wasn't that hard. She spotted it immediately and saw that it was a very small Nevermore, and she wanted to take it on, so she began to get over to it.

The Nevermore noticed her coming at it, and took action. Noirti quickly opened her weapon to full length to prepare her defensive approach. The Nevermore sent feathers running her way. Noirti dodged most of them but she hit the last one up and hit it once again to the bird. It grazed it's wing, but the only thing it managed to do was anger the Grimm even more. Noirti put her weapon back to its rifle form and shot to get close to it, and once she was closer, she opened her weapon to its scythe form and caught on to it, and it wasn't pleased with Noirti being on its back. She extended the short rest of the weapon and stabbed it into the Grimm, and shot as many times as she could before she had to pull it out to avoid losing it as the bird shook her off. She ended up running out of bullets as she was thrown off. She hastily put dust infused shots into her gun. Before she could start getting back to the Grimm, she was abruptly stopped from falling by the bird catching her in its mouth. Noirti quickly aimed her gun in one of the eyes and shot, making the bird flinch and open its beak. Noirti fell, but with her free hand, Noirti caught the bird's beak. She pulled herself up and aimed Sombres Angemort into the bird's gullet, shooting as many times as she could before she pulled herself up onto the nevermore's head. She shot at the other eye, which effectively blinded it. Noirti carefully crawled to the bird's back and opened her weapon to it's full length and stabbed it into the bird to stay on. The bird flew blindly, not knowing where it was going. Noirti watched the cliff come closer and closer. It felt like ages before the Nevermore flew head first into the cliff. Noirti jumped off the bird and to the cliff while her weapon switched to her gun form. She put her get to the wall and jumped off while shooting at the cliff to launch her away from the useless Grimm. She soared once again over the tree tops, this time with a slight smile. She felt good taking out her anger on the Nevermore, now it was time to search for Rougea. She found a large tree and opened her weapon to its scythe form, catching the tree and twirling down it and landing on a tree branch, somewhat high off the ground. As she put her weapon on her back, she listened intently.

"I hear someone." She whispered to herself. "Please be Rougea." She begged.

Ornnie watched as those behind her sail into the sky, smiling when she saw Noirti go first. She anxiously awaited her turn. She was itching to use her weapon. It was a lovely weapon that could morph easily from a sword to a gun for both. They were stored as brackets on her wrists. She got ready to open the swords as the person next to her was flung into the air. A large smile was plastered on her face, but she frowned right before she launched, as she saw Noirti go for a nearby Nevermore. However, Ornnie couldn't dwell on it too long as she was suddenly launched into the air. She flicked her wrists and her bracelets morphed into swords and she held them tightly in her hand. She twirled around and dived down a bit into trees, which she used to slow her down, even if it was dangerous to her aura, it was the only thing she could do. After she went through three trees, she noticed she was going straight to a rock.

"Well that would hurt." She joked with herself. She put her right sword back and extended her hand and closed her eyes. She then opened them after a moment and a barrier formed around her front. When she ran into the rock, it broke apart and Ornnie landed on the other side. She put away her other sword and smiled.

"Perfect." She giggled. She heard shaking in the nearby branches. She walked over to the sound and peaked in. "Ica?" She asked. She was greeted by a large ursa lunging at her. She jumped back and pulled out her swords, readying her stance. She quickly turned one of her swords into a gun and aimed it at the ursa.

"You're a big one, aren't you?" Ornnie asked it as it jumped at her. She dug her sword into the belly and shot it a few times. The ursa landed on the other side of Ornnie. She smiled at it. "Come and play." She teased it. The ursa growled at her and ran at her again. Ornnie rolled to the side and swiped her sword at the ursa, cutting a large laceration in its side. She ursa growled in pain as it stumbled to turn to Ornnie. She shifted to her feet and turned her other sword into a gun. She aimed both guns at the ursa and shot at the ursa until it fell to the ground, dead. Ornnie smiled at her work. She put her weapons back and turned around to see three more ursi growling at her.

"Oh dear, the more the merrier." She chirped, but gulped as the three large Grimm inched nearer to her. She quickly reformed her swords and prepared for the attack. The three jumped at her at once. Ornnie panicked, and quickly put both her swords away and tucked into a ball, while creating a barrier around her. The ursi jumped onto it, but bounced off, giving Ornnie a chance to try and take out one of them. The first one, the smallest of the three got itself back up first and ran to Ornnie. She immediately got back on her feet and opened both her weapons, both as swords. Ornnie stood her ground as the ursa ran at her. At the last minute, Ornnie crouched as the ursa jumped over her head and she stabbed the two swords into its stomach and the ursa squealed in pain. She ripped the two swords away from each other, tearing a huge hole in the bottom of the ursa. It fell to the ground, obviously dead. Ornnie looked to the others, both of which getting up. She turned both her swords into guns and aimed on at each and shot, rolling out of the way when they went to tackle her, making both of them crash into each other. Ornnie shot at them once again until her guns clicked, she was out of ammo so she switched to her swords and waited for them to run at her.

Ornnie knew that she couldn't take both of them on, so she threw one of her swords at one of ursa and it hit it's head, but it didn't kill it, so Ornnie had to throw her other one. This time, it killed it. Ornnie kneeled down and prepared to put her barrier up as the Ursa lunged at her. She looked to the ground and set it up, but she never felt the weight of the ursa bounce off it, instead, she felt the weight of a person stand on it. She looked up and worked as hard as she could to keep it up. She was pleasantly surprised to surprised to see the ever so familiar blue figure stabbing the ursa with her trident.

"Ica!" She chirped as Ica quickly jumped off and Ornnie stood. "Thanks for the help."

Ica was one of the last people to go. She watched as that purple girl, who she still didn't know that name of was, was first flung into the air, immediately followed by the red girl that she had been talking to. It was sometime before Ornnie was launched too, but right before she was in the air, the purple girl veered off course and right at a Nevermore. She watched in horror as razor sharp feathers sped past her and almost hitting other students. She couldn't watch from there, as she was flung into the air as well. She kept her weapon on her hip, knowing it would be useless to help her land. She had to rely on slowing her descent and her aura protecting her. Ica grabbed onto tree tops to slow her down until she could hold onto a branch and not fall. She pulled herself up on the branch and looked around.

"Oh, where is Ornnie? I hope she didn't get herself into trouble." She sighed as she grabbed onto the branch and swung down, getting to the branch below her and then to the ground. She started walking in search of her friend. She had made friends with her on the airship. Ornnie had turned back to follow Noirti and saw her leave just as she arrived, she instead sat next to Ica and talked to her. From there, they only hoped to be together, and this was their one and only chance to do so.

"Ornnie?" Ica finally yelled, in search for her friend. She heard rustling and approached it, when she got near, a boarbatusk rolled out and over Ica's head. She fell back and gasped in surprise, before she could stand, five more followed it. Ica scrambled back and stood in the middle. She was surrounded by the grimm. She quickly pulled out her weapon as the first was rolling at her, she jumped out of the way and got back on her feet after rolling. Another came barling at her, she had to dodge again. She finally got the chance to start her weapon's progress on opening into a machine gun. She waited until it was done while she ran out of the way of charging boarbatusks. Ica found herself in the center of the six grimm once again. She aimed at one, and studied it, then realizing that the only part she would be able to hit would be the stomachs.

Another boarbatusk charged at her, but this time, she waited for it to get close enough then hit it with her weapon, knocking it back. Ica opened her weapon to a long trident and held it above her head until it was ready to stab into the belly of the beast. Once it was done, she plunged it into the stomach. she didn't have time to marvel at it, as two rolled at her. She jumped out of the way of the two boarbatusks and watched as they ran right into each other. Like beetles, they were in their backs and having trouble getting up on their feet. Ica stabbed her trident into their stomachs. There were three left, and Ica knew that it wouldn't be much trouble for her. The three final grimm charged at her, and she couldn't dodge away from them without getting hit from another. She swung her weapon down quickly and she closed her eyes. When they opened, they turned from a natural blue color to an icy light blue and her hair looked as if it was frozen. She swung her weapon over to the first Boarbatusk and she hit it on it's face. When she hit it, frost coated it. It fell, obviously dead. Ica turned to another one and did the same thing, and finally turning to the last one and hitting it right before her eyes and hair returned to normal. She looked at the boarbatusks, and then stabbed her trident into the belly of the three boarbatusks that she had just killed. She then put her trident away and started walking.

After a few minutes of wandering around, Ica heard growls and swords clanking not super far away. She immediately ran to the source of the sounds, that is when she saw Ornnie fighting throwing her second sword at an ursa. Then in a flash, the other ursa began running at her. Ornnie crouched down, and activated her semblance. Ica quickly opened her weapon and jumped on to Orrnie's barrier and stabbed into the belly of the ursa, throwing it to the ground.

"Ica!" Ornnie chirped. Ica jumped off the barrier and Ornnie stood. "Thanks for the help."

"No problem, happened to be at the right place at the right time." Ica said while closing up her weapon.

"I guess we're partners." Ornnie pointed out.

"Looks like it, well, shall we go looking for the relic?" Ica asked as Ornnie yanked her swords out of the ursa and closed them up. The two girls smiled and started walking in a random direction, just hoping to find the relics.

Rougea waited for her turn to be sent into the air, which wasn't that long, she went right after Noirti. Moments after she was into the air, she clearly saw a Nevermore flew passed, and then Noirti going straight for it. She frowned at her going away from her, but she knew she couldn't stop her. She looked forward again and pulled out her weapon and started to extend it into its long spear form. When she saw a black flash zip right by her face, she turned and saw a barrage of feathers flying right at her. She lifted her weapon up just as a feather reached her. The feather pinged off the shaft of her spear, but more were coming. Rougea quickly created a glyph that she held to the end of her weapon and blocked the feathers away. finally, when they stopped coming at her, she focused on landing safely. when she got about 20 feet from the ground, she created a glyph on a tree in her path and landed on it, feet first. Then she gently stepped off and onto the ground.

"Noirti better not be getting herself into trouble." Rougea sighed. She held onto her weapon and looked to the sky, trying to find Noirti. She only caught glimpses of the heated battle between Noirti and the Nevermore. Rougea could only hope that no Grimm would attack her while trying to find Noirti. She was able to stay up with Noirti, until she heard a growl to her left.

"Oh no." She groaned and looked around her, seeing glowing red eyes. She couldn't tell how many pairs there, but she noticed Noirti on the bird, so she quickly switched her dust to her fire and threw some out the end of the spear and to the largest cluster of eyes. She hear yips, and knew it was a group of beowolves, and a large one at that. Rougea took the time to take care of some of her problem, as Noirti and the Nevermore weren't going too far yet. She turned to the next largest cluster.

"Come fight me!" She hissed and ran at the beowolves, reading her spear for attack. She stabbed the first one, making it fall to the ground, then she sliced at the next. She looked up to see Noirti and saw her falling. Rougea quickly sliced one last beowolf and used her glyphs to get higher to try and catch Noirti. She stopped when Noirti was caught by the Nevermore. Rougea watched in horror as the Nevermore flew away from her. She quickly jumped to the nearest tree and jumped through the trees, occasionally using her dust to take out some beowolves. She was relieved when she noticed Noirti was able to take on the Nevermore. Rougea returned to focus on killing more of the Grimm chasing her. She made her way back down, jumping down onto one of the beowolves. She stayed on it and swung at the other ones before the one she was on tried to get her, so she jumped off and killed it. She looked up once again, and spotted Noirti flying off, the Nevermore no where in sight. Rougea encased some of them in ice and ran after Noirti. She periodically shot dust at the beowolves while she chased after Noirti. Once she went out of her sight, Rougea turned to the rest of the beowolves, and shot one last flame at them, scaring them away. Rougea took the chance to walk. She was no longer in danger but she only wanted to find Noirti. She tripped over a tree branch and fell on her hands. Her weapon bouncing away. She quickly regained herself and picked up her weapon, and continuing to walk forward. She reached a small clearing.

"Oh, it's just you." She heard a voice say. She looked up and saw Noirti perched in the tree.

"You know, I had to avoid all those cursed feathers." Rougea pointed out.

"You're fine, you're still here." She pointed out, getting ready to get out of the tree.

"True, that was an impressive fight with the Nevermore." Rougea praised. Noirti shrugged and began climbing down the tree.

"Why did you fight the Nevermore." Rougea asked once Noirti was on the ground.

"It was too close." Noirti shrugged. Noirti turned around and started walking. She decided it would be best to go away from the cliff.

Ican watched as his fellow students were flung into the air. He worried deeply that the fall would take all his aura. He regretted pulling Noirti's tail. He had no idea who he would be partners with, seeing that Noirti probably wanted nothing to do with him. He sighed and pulled out his weapon, getting ready to be lunches into the air. He ignored everything that Noirti was doing. He had just enough time to change his weapon into a shotgun. Once he was in the air, he shot at an upward angle, to get him as close to the ground as possible. He slammed into the ground. He felt that his aura was almost gone, if not gone. He put his weapon away and checked his scroll, and swallowed deeply. His aura was completely drained from the hard fall. He put his scroll back and dusted himself off before briskly walking to find someone to defend him. In the woods, he heard rustling. Being the last one in, he only hopped it was someone else and not a Grimm. He was overjoyed when he saw bright pink hair. A girl with a saber in hand that had a pistol mounted on top emerged.

"Oh, I am so glad to see someone, my name is Ican." He introduced. The girl smiled.

"My name is Oshi, are you the last one?" She asked, her voice sounded like she was having the time of her life.

"Yes, and I won't be able to fight much, I have no aura." Ican explained.

"That's fine, we haven't seen any Grimm." Oshi explained. Ican looked at her with a confused expression.

"I found two others who are already a team." She continued and turned behind her. "It's fine guys! Just a dude!" She yelled. Two more people emerged from the forest. One was a girl and the other a guy. The boy had short silvery gray hair and had a large coat on. She girl and long, curling brown hair and a simple brown outfit.

"Good thing Oshi found someone, I'm Tial." Said the girl.

"Liemmen." The boy said tersely.

"Nice to meet you, the name's Ican." He introduced. Tial nodded.

"We heard from the woods, and we also heard that your aura is low. Don't worry, we've got you covered." Tial responded.

"Thank you for the help, we should go find the relics before we attract Grimm." Ican offered and began leading the three others he just met away from the cliff.

Noirti and Rougea arrived first, they found the ruins with the relics. The relics were a variety of leaves from plants. Noirti looked at them.

"How odd." Rougea pointed out.

"Here, this one is poison ivy." Noirti said, carefully picking up the leaf and putting it in her bag. Rougea nodded while she watched Noirti. Two more people stumbled out of the woods. Rougea quickly turned and aimed her weapon at her, thinking that they were Grimm. Instead, it was Ica and Ornnie.

"Welcome to the party." Rougea joked.

"You fighting that Nevermore was very impressive." Ica said to Noirti. She simply nodded. Four more people stumbled out of the forest.

"We'll, it isn't a party without eight people." Rougea said. Ican smiled.

"I'm just glad I didn't have to fight any Grimm." Ican sighed. "It was great that I met Oshi, Liemmen, and Tial." He added.

"Come pick your leaf so we can go." Noirti sighed. In the corner of her eye, she saw something dart passed, but she ignored it, just wanting the rest to get their relics. She looked in the direction of the thing she saw, watching carefully, until she saw two pairs of red eyes. She looked closer, until she saw two heads of a snake, one black, one white.

"King Taijitu!" Noirti called just loud enough for everyone to hear. At the same time, Ican saw another figure inch in, he instantly recognized it as a Grimm.

"There's a Deathstalker right over there." Ican added.

"Perfect." Noirti mumbled to herself, annoyed.

"Rougea, Ornnie and Ica help me with the King Taijitu, the rest of you help listen Ican to Ican with the Deathstalker." Noirti ordered. Every nodded, except Ican who looked to the Deathstalker.

"Keep it busy!" Ican yelled, those who were with him nodded and sprung into action while Ican thought of a plan.

"Ornnie, Ica, deal with the black head, Rougea, help me with the white one." Noirti ordered. Ornnie smiled and opened her weapons, Ica did the same.

"Don't hit me, I'm going up." Noirti said.

"Don't worry, my aim is impeccable." Rougea assured. Noirti nodded and reloaded her gun with dust shots and jumped into the air, shoot twice to get up enough then opening her scythe and hooking it on its neck. She landed on it neck and opened her weapon to its full length and stabbed in through its head. She held on tightly and guarded her face with her hand and fire exploded onto the black head. It thrashed about. Noirti was only just hardly able to stay on. It didn't help that Ornnie and Ica were making light work of the white head.

The white head stroke down at Ornnie and Ica, but Ornnie put up a barrier which the snake broke off one of its teeth on.

"Wait, I have an idea." Ica said and picked up the tooth. Threw it up in the air and hit it wit her weapon. She then it down and jumped up. She flipped and kicked the tooth again, then as she was about to fall, she kicked it once more and it went straight at the head and went straight through it's jaw. It exploded through, and the white head fell. At the same time, Noirti pulled her weapon up a bit and turned it into a scythe, pulling the head open. Rougea threw hoards of dust into the mouth until it fell. Noirti worked her weapon out and jumped off the King Taijitu before it hit the ground. Noirti looked over to Ica and Ornnie.

"Great job everyone." Noirti praised.

Ican stood on a rock, watching the others fighting. Ican finally figured out what had to be done.

"We need to drop the stinger!" Ican yelled. The others seemed that they heard, but they couldn't react, they were too busy with not getting hit too hard from the Deathstalker. It struck down on Tial, but she raised her shield to avoid getting a direct hit. "Liemmen! Get on top, shot the stinger!" Ican ordered. Liemmen nodded and shot with his two semi-automatic pistols at the scorpion.

"Tial, help him!" Ican added. Tial hit the face of the Grimm with her shield before running to the side. Liemmen was able to climb on top of the Grimm and jump to catch its tail. He used one hand to hold on and used the other to shoot at the base of the tail before he was flung off and into the tree. Ican sighed.

"Tial, go! Your turn!" Ican yelled and watched Liemmen to make sure he was fine. He breathed a sigh of relief once he was on his feet and helping Oshi to distract it. Tial got up on to the tail of the Deathstalker. She used her sword to slice at it as many times as she could, before she was also thrown off. She got on top of her shield and rode it to the ground. Ican looked to Oshi, then looked to the stinger of the Deathstalker and noticed it was almost off.

"Oshi! Finish it off!" Ican ordered. Oshi quickly jumped into the air and onto the Deathstalker. She then jumped up and sliced the rest of the stinger off and kicked it down to make sure it had enough force to finish off the Deathstalker. It squealed and fell to the ground.

"Great job, how is everyone?" Ican asked while he quickly turned to check on Noirti and her fighters.

"I'm doing great!" Oshi responded.

"So am I." Tail added.

"A little sore, but fine." Liemmen answered.

"Great, you are all great." Ican praised. Noirti and her group walked over to Ican.

"That was too easy." Noirti pointed out, looking around for something that she couldn't quite place her finger on.

"They're Grimm, they're too stupid to make any plans other than attack." Ican pointed out.

"I guess you're right, lets get the relics and go." Noirti sighed. Ican nodded and started to walk to the leaves. He was about to pick up the poison ivy one, but he was stopped when a very large Nevermore swooped down.

"Prepare your weapons! Protect Ican!" Noirti yelled while she got her own weapon out. Ican ran back to the others and pulled out his own weapon.

"Put yours away, you'll get yourself hurt." Noirti hissed.

"I'll be fine." Ican insisted. Noirti sighed, but she knew she had no time to fight with his about it. The Nevermore was coming back. When it flew back over the group, it launched feathers at everyone, but they all managed to escape the wrath of the feathers, except Ican, who was grazed on the cheek right below the eye. Noirti saw the blood dripping down his face, but he didn't mind. Noirti, on the other hand, felt really guilty that he had been hurt. She sucked it up, however, and turned to everyone.

"Rougea, help Ornnie up there." Noirti ordered.

"Someone get Oshi and Liemmen up there too." Ican ordered.

"Rougea, get the girl, I got him." Noirti quickly demanded and turned to Ican. "Watch our backs, help catch us if one of us falls." Noirti quickly added and ran over to Liemmen and grabbed his shirt. "Hold on tight." She told him and shot at the ground, launching them up. Rougea quickly created a glyph.

"All going up get on." She said. Oshi and Ornnie both stepped on the glyph that Rougea had formed. "Once you land, you'll need to jump, I'll catch you." Rougea promised and began the process of getting them up to the level of the Nevermore. Noirti had gotten her and Liemmen up.

"Hey! Feather brain!" Noirti yelled.

"Can you please not tease it while you're holding me!" Liemmen begged, trailing behind Noirti.

"Fine, I'll tease it when you're in the air!" Noirti hissed and checked behind her and dropped Liemmen. He screamed and flailed. Rougea was about to use a glyph to catch him, but she was too busy for in them under the frets of Oshi and Ornnie to keep them safe. Liemmen yelled as he fell, but stopped once he landed, he noticed that he was on top of the Nevermore. He quickly pulled out his weapons and used the knife under one of them to hold on. He could still shoot with both. Ican sighed as he watched Noirti drop Liemmen.

"Ican." Tial said. "I think I saw more Grimm coming."

"Why are there so many Grimm?" Ican groaned. Ica turned.

"I don't think that Lie-whatever guy isn't doing so well." Ica pointed out. Liemmen had stopped shooting and just focused in holding on tight. Ornnie pulled him up while Noirti focused on keeping the Nevermore over the clearing.

"Are you okay?" She asked, while using her free hand to deal some damage to the Nevermore. She was hardly staying on.

"I-I'm fine." He tried to assure her, but he was still trembling and Ornnie wasn't convinced.

"I hate to do this, but for the safety of us all, I've got to do this." Ornnie said and picked him up and threw him off the Nevermore. He yelled loudly again. Rougea reacted quickly.

"He's going down!" Oshi yelled down and focused on the attack again. Noirti got close to the bird and got on. She turned her weapon into a scythe and held onto the birds neck.

"What is going on?" She asked, obviously annoyed.

"Poor guy is scared of heights." Ornnie sighed.

"Oshi, why don't you head down, send Rougea and Ica up." Noirti sighed. Oshi nodded and started heading down, with only minimal assistance from Rougea. Once she landed, she ran over to Rougea.

"She wants you up, you and Ica." She relayed the information. Rougea nodded.

"Lets go." Rougea quickly said. Noirti got off the bird again, she was desperately trying to focus on keeping Ornnie safe, along with herself while Rougea and Ica worked on getting up. The Nevermore was getting impatient, it finally flipped over, dumping Ornnie off. Noirti quickly hurried over to her and caught her and made her way over to Rougea.

"We need a plan." Rougea said.

"I know." Noirti hissed. "Rougea, don't let Ornnie or Ica fall. I'll distract it." Noirti quickly said. She was almost out of ammo, but she had just enough to get Ornnie on the Nevermore. Noirti also got up and onto the bird. Rougea also got Ica up and she went into a tree to watch from below. Noirti reloaded her gun and shot down onto the bird to hurt it more. The four girls focused on trying take down the bird.

Below, Ican watched carefully for the mysterious Grimm. He wasn't surprised to see a large horde of beowolves.

"To me!" Ican quickly barked. The others flocked to him. "There's a lot of them and four of us, be careful." Ican ordered.

"Oshi, I want you out front." Ican quickly started. Oshi nodded. "I want you, Liemmen and Tial to be right behind her." He continued, watching the beowolves inching closer. "I'm going to the side and sneak up on them. Be careful and good luck." Ican who joy ordered and pulled out his weapon and ran over to the side. The others began to do just as Ican said. Oshi went in first, shooting at a few of the beowolves before getting closer. The others did the same. The carved through as many as they could as Ican watched. He waited for the right moment, but it never came. He saw a large beowolf walking up.

"Get back!" He yelled as loud as he could as he ran away from the horde of Grimm. The others fell back, gathering back to Ican.

"What's going on?" Tial questioned.

"There's a giant beowolf, we need to focus on it. Oshi, Tial, work with taking down the beowolf giant. Liemmen, take care of the others. I'll do my best to help." Ican explained. Everyone nodded. They hurried off to go fight the last of the Grimm.

Noirti was getting annoyed at the Nevermore, it just wasn't dying. She had no clue what she had to do, but with the others helping, it wasn't too hard to keep it distracted. Rougea stayed in the trees. She used her dust to attack when she had a moment when she didn't have to catch Ornnie or Ica about to fall. She knew that Noirti would be fine without her help, so she solely focused on the other two. Ornnie and Ica focused on hitting the Nevermore with all they have; and Noiri focused on distracting the Nevermore enough for it to try and get Noirti more than the others. Nothing was stopping it. Finally, Noirti made her way around into the back of the Nevermore.

"We need its head off." Noirti quickly said while reloading. She quickly turned to Rougea and pointed at Ornnie and Ica, then to the trees. Rougea nodded, she understood what Noirti wanted. "Jump off, go to the trees." Noirti ordered. The others nodded. Noirti jumped off the bird and lured it down. Ornnie and Ica both put their weapons away and jumped off. Rougea waited just a few moments to catch them with her glyphs. She got them to the trees.

"Follow her!" Rougea yelled and jumped to the next tree. Ornnie and Ica followed close behind. The Nevermore got close to Noirti. Rougea quickly placed a glyphs behind her feet and flung her forward. The Nevermore flapped its wings faster to catch up to Noirti, but Rougea did it again. The Grimm launched its razor sharp feathers at Noirti, but Rougea quickly used her glyph to catch them and she just let them drop into the forest, dodging the few that she and the others ran into. Rougea saw that Noirti couldn't continue like this. She quickly changed her dust to ice and shot it at he Nevermore's tail. It encased it in ice. Noirti noticed this and waited for Rougea to launch her back. Once she was launched back at the Nevermore, she hooked her scythe on to the head. The Nevermore snapped at Noirti, but it couldn't do anything, mostly because it was being dragged down by ice in its tail. Rougea shot more ice at it. Noirti tightened her grip on her weapon. Once the Never more was near, Ornnie and Ica jumped on with their weapons open and tried their best to weigh it down.

"More ice!" Noirti yelled. Rougea shot as much ice as she could and Ica used her semblance to add as much weight as she could. "Shoot me up..." Noirti started, but paused, "now!" She yelled and shot as many times as she could, and Rougea used her glyph to launch Noirti up in the air. Ornnie and Ica both put their weapons away and jumped back onto the tree and scrambled up. Noirti's upward force and the weight on the back of the Nevermore forced the head to rip off. Rose petals scattered around from the Nevermore. Rougea took a deep breath and slouched down. She almost fell but Ornnie caught her.

"Are you okay?" Ornnie asked. "Did you get hurt?"

"No." Rougea shook her head and breathed heavily. "I'm- I'm just... tired." Rougea answered. Noirti landed in the nearby tree. She instantly noted Rougea's condition.

"Take it easy, you did a great job." Noirti said as she started climbing down. Ornnie and Ica started to go down too, but Rougea waited a moment before using one glyph to get herself down. Noirti looked over to Ican and the others, but she was left with her mouth hanging open.

"Go!" Ican yelled. They were just about to run into the large mass of beowolves. Oshi quickly ran in first. She was followed by Tial and Liemmen and Ican hurried to the side to pick off the beowolves. Oshi got to the large beowolves and soon followed Tial to help her. Liemmen focused on getting the Beowolves back. He was having trouble on his own, but Oshi and Tial had to focus on attacking the large beowolf. Ican sighed and knew that he had to get in. He shook his head and readied himself, he ignored the aching pain under his eye and carefully charged in, strategically slicing at the beowolves. He got near Liemmen.

"I'm here to help, watch my-" Ican started, but was cut off by an intense pain in his back. He turned and killed the offending beowolf.

"Ican!" Liemmen called, surprised by the sudden attack. "Get out of here!" He hissed.

"No! Keep fighting!" Ican ordered. Liemmen sighed and continued. Oshi and Tial worked well together, bouncing off each other and taking turns hitting the beowolf until it fell. At the same time, the last of the beowolves fell at the hand of Liemmen. Noirti had just seen Ican limping out. He was weak.

"Ican!" Noirti chirped and ran over to him.

"I'm fine." He insisted.

"It's my fault." Noirti sighed.

"I'm fine, it's just a scratch. Lets get back quickly." Ican said softly. Noirti nodded as the others came back.

"Everyone, get your leaves and lets go." Noirti quickly ordered. Those who still needed one, hurried to grab one and they hurried back to the school.

The first year students stood to the side of the stage, and anyone else who wanted to come had sat down in the audience. They had turned their leaves in and let the professors put together teams and Ozpin decide who was the leader. The first group went, then another, and Noirti was getting nervous. Finally, Ozpin called a name that was recognized by her.

"Ican Mayforce. Oshi Vernlore. Liemmen Aquas. Tial Cormer. You brought back the oak leaf, and you will work together as Team IOLT." He announced, pausing for tension. Noirti was fascinated by the name, they were named after the gemstone, iolite. Ican wore a bandage under his eye, another bandage was wrapped around his torso under his shirt, which was a new set. "With the leader Ican Mayforce." He announced. Ican let a small smile form on his face. Oshi smiled widely, ready to explode from happiness. The crowd cheered. One person, who Noirti noticed to be Nammen, stood and yelled;

"Way to go brother!" Noirti knew that he was talking about Liemmen. They left the stage and Ozpin readied to announce the next team.

"Noirti Violetta. Ornja Mappleseed. Ica Froid. Rougea Scarlet. You brought back the poison ivy leaf, togeth you will make Team NOIR." He announced. Noirti's tail twitched, and she only hoped to control it. Ozpin looked at Noirti. She tried to look at him to tell him no. "With the leader, Noirti Violetta." Ozpin announced. Noirti's tail wouldn't stop flickering.

"Great job, Noirti!" Garcen yelled from the audience. Noirti only hoped to get off the stage. Ica looked to Noirti.

"So that's her name." Ica whispered to herself. Noirti was relieved when she could escape the lights and the attention of the people.