Chapter 4 – The Next Step
Pyrrha was glad to be on this journey, she truly was. It gave her the chance to track down the woman who had murdered the boy she loved and a reason to get up and do something with her life. She was also travelling with her friends. Nora and Ren were amazing and somehow as crazy and steadfast as ever, and while she didn't know Ruby quite as well as her teammates, their teams had been friends for a long time, and she was a nice girl. Ruby was as open and joked as much as she had remembered, but she also seemed more mature than she had remembered, just in the little actions she did. She still had her silly moments like food dares with Nora, but there were times when she was entirely focused, like when she took down tons of Grimm attacking that village and helped lead an effective rescue operation for everyone injured or stuck there. It was possible she just hadn't ever noticed that side of Ruby before, but also possible that she only became that way since the Battle of Beacon. For all that though, she's bothered.
It's not her teammates or what they're doing that's causing her to feel bothered, or even going back to Mistral (those feelings are more bittersweet than anything), it's the lack of Grimm. Aside from the town that got attacked, they haven't run in to anything greater than a couple of Beowolves or Creepers. Not even real packs of any of those, one or two at worst. Which makes Pyrrha wonder what could be waiting for them if a stronger, older, more intelligent Grimm is trying to lead an ambush on them.
The attack on the settlement before was in some ways a relief, as horrible as it was to think about. It explained where some of the Grimm had gone off to. Looking at the battle afterwards though, it wasn't enough to explain it. Ruby had taken down an impressive number of Grimm by herself before the rest of the team arrived and got there, and all together they easily cleaned up the rest, but it still didn't feel like enough to explain how peaceful it was on every part of their journey. Pyrrha tried her best to push such thoughts from her mind, blaming them as paranoia from what happened to Beacon. That it won't happen here or at Signal, because this time they'll be ready to stop it.
The view of the town in front of them as they exit the forest path they were travelling along also brightens Pyrrha's spirits. The town is in classical Mistralian style. The architecture, the clothing, the colors, everything has a very familiar feel to it. What is surprising is the greeting they get at the entrance. An older man, who appears to be a town official of some kind possibly the Mayor given his hat, waves them over. Ruby approaches eagerly and says "Hello, sir. Whaaat seems to be the issue?"
"Well it was something that I was hoping you youngsters could help us with. We've been plagued by attacks from a particularly strong Grimm these past few weeks."
"A single Grimm? The same one each time?" Ren asks, sounding slightly more invested than usual.
"Yes, it seems to be the same one attacking us each time, though it's form is often different. We've managed to repel it every time, but our warriors haven't managed to kill it, whenever it's overwhelmed it just retreats into the forest and comes back again within a couple of days." Pyrrha notes that those are some interesting qualities for a Grimm to have. Fighting alone and different forms are unusual for most Grimm, though the skirmishing attacks just denotes a certain level of age and intelligence. From the look in Ruby's eyes, she seems to be considering all that as well.
"We'll take it down sir, don't worry. After we hunt it down do you mind if we rest here for the night before we carry on our journey?"
The man's face lights up with hope "Of course, we'd be more than happy to let you stay the night and give you some supplies if you could defeat this Grimm for us. As mayor of this town it's the least we could do, thank you so much." Pyrrha's surprised at how long it had been for her to not recognize his ceremonial garb and headdress that indicate his position. Reflecting on it, she realizes it hasn't been since her first tournament victory that she went down to any of these small towns.
"Alright, let's take down the Grimm" Ruby says punching her fist in the air. Pyrrha wondered at how she could be so carefree at times (Did she just not worry or was this some sort of personal mechanism she made to help keep the Grimm away?). She didn't know how to say anything about that, how to question Ruby on that without seeming rude, but after about fifteen minutes of travelling through the forest Ren brought up a relevant question.
"How do you know that we can take on the Grimm by ourselves? If it's hunting alone then it must be quite powerful?" Ren doesn't seem worried, just curious.
"It's because the village is still standing. They didn't have any Hunters to go with us, so this Grimm has probably only been going against their regular guards. If it's strong enough to do some damage and smart enough to retreat, but not enough of a threat to destroy them outright it'll probably be a perfect challenge for us." At Ruby's words, Pyrrha nodded along, feeling reassured that the leader had studied the situation well, despite how carefree she could seem at times.
"Besides, we're awesome, so we'll take down any nasty ol' Grimm that's trying to hurt people." Those words however don't make Pyrrha think that Ruby's really getting the situation clearly, and Nora's enthusiastic encouragement of that sentiment just sets her to grinding her teeth before she lets out a soft sigh.
Nora starts chattering away at Ren while they head off in the direction that the Grimm was sighted as heading off in. After about a half-hour they come across a clearing in the woods and Ruby holds up a hand for everyone to stop. "The Grimm is probably going to be nearby this area somewhere. I'll scout ahead with my speed and try to draw it back here. We can use this clearing as a good place to fight it without the other trees getting in the way of our shots or combinations."
Pyrrha nods, feeling conflicted again. Ruby could seem so immature at times, and yet at others she showed herself to be an effective and thoughtful leader. As she zipped off Pyrrha decided to try and focus on the good, and she was glad that she had someone almost as strong as herself helping them out on this journey.
Nora and Ren were busying themselves trying to debate Team names which Pyrrha listened on with some amusement. She didn't really care what the Team name would be herself, but it was interesting to hear Nora and Ren's opinions and the reasons they tried to use to back them up.
"PRNR for team Primary is the best choice. There are the most members from team Juniper so Pyrrha's name should be at the front, plus it connects to colors, Ren. Well, sorta, but that's good enough." Nora boldly proclaimed while Ren lightly shook his head.
"RPVR standing for River is the best team name because Ruby is the only team leader of our group and we're following her on her mission." Ren voice is calm, but he seems to be standing firm against Nora here.
"River isn't even a color, so we can't use that."
"While the team names generally relate to colors, they don't have to. Which is beside the point as River is generally seen as referring to blue, like most clear rivers would appear to be to our eyes."
"Objection! The defendant will clearly note that none of the team members on this team use the color blue as a major element on our outfits, therefore your argument is invalid."
"Overruled" Ren states in a monotone, but with a slight twitch of his lips that shows he's actually quite amused by all of this. "There is only one Primary color heavily used among members of the team (red, and only by half the team), hardly making it a more suitable name than River."
Nora, looking for assistance, casts her eye on Pyrrha. "C'mon Pyrrha, you agree that we should go with Primary, right? You'll get your name first~" she sing-songs trying to tempt her to Nora's side.
Pyrrha says "While flattering, I'm not sure that a team name is necessarily-" She hears a crack behind her and stops talking, turning around. She can't see anything yet but can feel a slight vibration coming from the ground. "Get ready, it's coming here" she says as she draws Milo and Akouo.
Instantly her teammates move into battle ready positions, Ren drawing StormFlower and leaping up to a tree branch, aiming his guns across the clearing where some motion could be seen moving the trees on the other side. Nora pulled out Magnhild and readied herself to charge at what was hidden by the trees.
They hear a shout of "Incoming!" From Ruby and see a bunch of stone in-between the tree branches, moving towards their scarlet clad leader. Ruby was backing away from it in the air, shooting at it with her rifle. She flies across the clearing as the creature bursts through the trees. It's a conglomerate of rocks that seem to be piled together to make a torso and then four more for its 'legs' and 'arms' that seem to be tethered to it by and invisible force, not directly connected to the torso. Sticking out from one of the rocks is a white and red mask, denoting it as a creature of Grimm.
Ren is leaping through the air shooting at it, causing the Grimm to raise one of its arms in defence while Nora jumps forward and smashes the other arm away before it can get near Ruby or Pyrrha. The rock goes flying around, but slows down as it goes farther away, almost like it's stretching like a rubber band before ricocheting back. Ruby jumps well over it and switches her gun mode while Pyrrha jumps on it, using it as a literal stepping stone to strike at the beast's torso with Milo in sword mode, but the sword scrapes off the rock, the cuts shallow and almost completely ineffectual.
Ruby fired at it, using her new laser firing mode that seemed familiar, but Pyrrha didn't have time to focus on that right now. The lasers were doing more damage than her own strikes, but not nearly enough to be effective as a strategy for taking the Grimm down. Using her semblance Ruby rushed down at an arm and struck it with her scythe. Pyrrha flipped away from the Grimm kicking at her while using her semblance to increase the force behind Ruby's strike. It cut in a third the way through its arm, leaving cracks running throughout it.
The monster's other arm prepares to strike Ruby down as she's trying to pull her scythe free and escape, but then moves to block Ren's strikes. Ruby pulls the blade out and dashes over to Nora calling out "Nora, Sugar Rush." Pyrrha and Ren distract the creature some more, sensing what Ruby is going for as she grabs a giddy Nora and swings her around quickly before letting her go. Nora soars across the clearing, slamming into the arm with Magnhild and shattering it into several hundred pieces with her mighty hammer blow.
An arm of pitch-black darkness with a few bone studs extends out from where the arm would have been attached to the torso. The arm sweeps out reaching toward one of the largest trees that's been felled nearby. Oh no you don't, Pyrrha thinks, jumping up and using her shield and Polarity to avoid the Grimm's attacks and furiously slash at the Grimm arm. The creature screeches in pain and flails as the arm falls apart under Pyrrha's blows and begins disintegrating.
The creature, still disoriented, is caught off guard by Ren who slashes at the creature's mask. The Grimm goes into a rage, it's free arm almost knocking Ren aside before Nora redirects the blow upwards with a hammer strike. "It's trying to protect it's mask, that's it's weak spot" Ren calls out to the others. The Grimm is now raising its arm in front of its mask, obviously trying to protect its head from attacks as it starts to back out of the clearing.
"If it's trying to protect the mask then we-" Ruby begins to say before Pyrrha interrupts her.
"I can get it" she says, rushing forward with Milo in spear mode.
"Uh, ok good initiative. Let's back her up and make an opening, Crimson Lotus Storm!" Ruby runs around the creature a whirlwind of petals appearing as she calls upon her Semblance. Ren moves from left to right, strafing the creature and causing it to adjust its arm as it tries to react to his shots while dealing with Ruby, who's all around it. Nora uses that distraction to throw herself forward, boosting ahead with a grenade and knocking the arm upwards and out of place with her hammer.
Pyrrha had intended to just use her semblance to weave her spear around the arm and hit it several times with that, but she can appreciate the opening they gave her. She hurls Akouo at the Grimm's mask before jumping up. Her shield cracks the mask even more than the slashes Ren did, before it flies back to her with Polarity. The shield meets her mid air, and she uses it to leap at the mask, piercing straight through it with a powerful thrust from her spear.
The creature collapses almost instantly, the rocks falling to ground with a loud clatter. The Geist appears in its place, hovering in the air for a second before disintegrating. Pyrrha goes to retrieve her spear while the team chats about their victory before finding that Milo is now fully stuck in the rock. "Well, that's disappointing."
"Maybe we can chisel it free?" Ren suggests, before Nora adds on.
"Yeah, let's smash it open" she says holding Magnhild up high, as if there would have been any question otherwise what she'd be using to break open the rock.
"N-" Pyrrha goes to ask her to stop, before thinking for a moment and then saying, "Just wait till I say so." She gets a grip on it and channels her Aura into the weapon. "Alright, go ahead."
Nora takes a few strides forward and brings her hammer up like she's trying to score the high prize on a fair game, slamming it into the rock. The rock breaks apart sending Pyrrha tumbling down, but her weapon was protected by her Aura, so Milo looks unharmed, though the rock she was standing on broke apart sending her tumbling down on her rear. She can't help but laugh at the situation. It wasn't incredibly funny, but with the tension of battle gone, it felt hilarious to her and everyone's laughing along with her soon.