Chapter 7
Disclaimer-Do not own the series or Actucal characters. Only the plot and the OC characters to come.
( Finally passed the 20,000 mark!, so now my story should reach out to others and go up in rating. Hoping for it anyway, so like all my other remarks. If you truly enjoy the story, leave a review and anything else other than that just send me a PM. Aside from that, thanks to all the followers and readers that favorite the story. Enjoy!)
Beta by Animegirl 144
The Emerald Forest of Death?
…
The morning had come and gone already, bringing a new day of merriment. Recounting what had happened in my life was simple, but do I want to do so? Hell no, so I got up from bed and went to get dressed for the first test. I wondered what it was about. Could be some secret test or how we would come along teammates… DAMN!
The rumors were that students got to choose their teammates, but was that true? If so, who would I need to choose to get by without failing? So far the people I've met are Lucius, Blake, Jaune, Weiss…I think Blake is the only good choice. Then again, I can't trust her or even know who she really is. Weiss is cute, but likes to throw a temper most of the time. Jaune…is just Jaune and Lucius got beaten up earlier.
Such a hard decision to make, but it had to be done at some point. I walked into the locker room with a look of wonderment on my face, what the hell to do now. When I realized where I was, it made me look around to find that a few people were here. A short girl with red hair, a tall one with long flowing blonde hair… who looked very familiar. Walking further into the room, a guy with a ponytail and an orange haired girl walked pass me.
I really didn't pay any attention to them, when someone had pulled my arm. I tensed up, ready to strike the enemy, but Jaune smiled at me. I relaxed before he could notice my battle stance and smiled back at him.
"What's going on Arc?" I asked, curious of what he was doing.
"Nothing buddy, just need your help again." He answered.
"What help?" I questioned.
"Remember that girl from last night? I need you to help me talk to her again." Once again, answering the question without sparing a single detail.
"I don't think that's a good idea, maybe another time?"
"Too late, there she is at the end of the locker room. You're my wing-man, so just spot me bro."
"I'm your bro?"
"Yup."
It was too late to argue; he had pulled me towards Weiss and another girl. She was taller and with long red hair and wearing armor. I knew her from my notes and was surprised that she would be hanging around someone like Weiss. She must want a powerful ally as well, interesting. In mid conversation, Jaune walked in, right between them like he was there the entire time.
He was always so confident in what he does, which is usually good thing…sometimes. I stood off to the side, catching Weiss's staring in my direction. Staring was too polite; she was actually glaring at me, but it was broken when she went back to dealing with Jaune. I stood idly by, watching the exchange between the two of them; it was like watching an old married couple argue.
Jaune switched over to the other girl with his cool persona, trying to get her to join his team, which would be a dent in my plan that I just comprised of just a few moments ago in my head. I decided to jump in without being invited, copying Jaune's actions from before.
"Do you even know who she is?" Weiss stated to Jaune, trying to bring his hope down.
"Of course we do, she is Pyrrha Nikos from the cover of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flake box." I said, walking aside Jaune with a smirk on my face.
"Oh, that's you! Wow!" Jaune gushed, like some fangirl.
"Yeah, it was really cool. Of course the cereal isn't really good for you."
"So now that you know who she is, you aren't in a position to ask her to join in your team." Weiss said in an irritated tone of voice, now that I had stepped in.
"I guess you're right." Jaune admitted in defeat, lowering his head.
"I think you'd make a great leader Jaune," Pyrrha complimented cheerfully.
"Oh, stop it," Jaune bounced back to life.
"Really, stop it. You shouldn't encourage his behavior." Weiss said once more, slightly lecturing the other girl.
"How about you just leave him alone, Weiss," I suggested to her bluntly.
"Not to worry. It sounds like Pyrrha is for team Jaune. Maybe I can pull some strings, get you on the team as well?" Jaune played her off like a fiddle, moving in closer to her face.
"Alright, that's a bit too close. Pyrrha some help please?"
That was when a spear had been launched from Pyrrha, spiking Jaune into a nearby locker. I waited behind, debating with myself on whether or not I should go and assist the guy. Before I could come up with an answer,the intercom turned on, relaying a message throughout the school. A woman was informing the students (us) to report to the field; that was where the game would begin.
I came to the decision to help Jaune out, but he was already gone from the locker room by the time I looked over to his area. I suppose it didn't really matter to me, but he could of at least waited for me. Mentally, I slapped myself because I shouldn't be caring about what other people do with their lives. My mission was the only thing that I should be focusing on.
The phone in my pocket started to ring loudly. I looked around to see if the coast was clear, which it was because all the students had left to the field. I hid behind a locker and placed the phone to my ear.
"What is it?" I asked with some irritation.
"Oh, already to the point? Maybe I just wanted to check up on you," Roman sounded sincere over the phone.
"Really?" Expecting the right answer.
"No, but good try anyway. Now let's get down to business, what are doing right now?" He demanded from me.
"About to go to our first session. I hear it's about a forest and survival."
"The Emerald Forest to be exact. It's to weed out the weaker teams."
"Ok, thanks for the tip."
"Now to repay me for that tip, I want you to get me some blood samples from the creatures of Grimm."
"…What the hell! Do you know how dangerous one of those creatures are?"
"Yeah, but that's why I am making you do it. Plus, it's much easier to encounter those things in the Emerald Forest. It's a death trap, after all."
"You've got to be kidding me."
"No, I'm not, but you could believe I am if you want. Whatever makes you go head first into the forest and get my samples. Good bye."
The line cut off and I sighed to myself at the task. Get a sample from these monsters that will kill us, without hesitation; such a great job. I really needed more pressure than living a life as a spy at school, getting good grades and falling in with the right crowd. Sounded easy; if only it was really that simple.
That was when I remembered about school, the test! I was going to be late because of Roman, that bastard. He was going to get me into trouble on my first official day. I ran through the academy to find the place that I needed to be at. When I reached the cliff side, Ozpin and a known huntress that Roman had said stopped his raid at the dust store were looking at me critically.
"You're late." Ozpin said without remorse.
"Sorry about tha-" I tried to say.
"Get on the platform." He demanded.
I looked at him strangely for a moment, but did as I was told. I stood on some odd platform, while I turned back to him to explain myself.
"So the reas…AHAHAHAH" I yelled as the platform had launched me through the air.
"Land on your feet." He shouted, with a hint of humor in his voice.
It was the last thing I heard, before I focused on my task. The man was really cold hearted, but I knew he had his reasons. Flying through the air wasn't enough, but the right way to land was just going through my head. If there weren't any trees, it would be the simple roll, but they were, of course, in the way. I felt my body starting to descend closer to the ground, and I knew that it was time to make it or break it.
I was about to active my blades, when a very similar yo-yo had shot out towards me, grabbing me around my arm and pulling me towards a set of trees. Trying to grasp the situation at the moment, I saw Rilkel on a tree branch as he unwrapped his strings around my arm, allowing me to gracefully plummet towards another group of trees, what the hell!
I felt myself hit a branch, then another, the third one was unexpected, but still it hurt a lot! It felt like an entire five minutes before I finally hit the soft ground.
"OUCH!" I yelled in pain, as focused on calming the pain.
That was when I noticed that I had landed softly on the ground. Why was my landing so soft? Maybe it was because I had hit a few branches before I finally reached the ground. I moved my hands around and felt something odd brush past my hand, so I decided to circle back.
That was when I got a reaction, and snapped my eyes open. My hand was on the cleavage of some blonde girl, from close up, she looked like… OH CRAP. That was when her eyes had snapped open and she looked into my gray eyes. Then to my hand on her left breast, and she screamed.
I got up from her rather quickly and kept my distance for her reaction. We knew each other from the past, but we were never on good terms with each other. Yang finally got up from the floor and stared at me with a smirk on her face.
"So you got to feel me up, Loner. I bet that will be the only time a woman lets you touch her, what a shame." She said without a hint of shame.
"Woman? You're the one to talk, Hothead. I recall that you tend to throw yourself out there. Now, I'm going to have to wash my hands." I shot back with a playful smirk.
"Shut up! Why are you even here? I didn't expect they would accept someone who only studies all his life. You know that you need fighting experience." She said with a sour expression.
"At least I didn't just barely pass with the bottom of the barrel test scores. Really only being talented in combat is not a good thing." I said with the same expression on my face
"Fine, be like that. I am going off in this direction." She said, while walking on direction.
"That's fine with me. I'm going to follow you." I followed closely behind her.
"Why are you following me!"
"Because I am only a loner with no fighting skills. So don't worry about it. I'll help you out."
"So you're going to stand in the background?"
"Yeah, that's kind of the plan."
"This is why I disliked you back at Signal. You only tried to use me for training."
"Well, it was a fair exchange, since you cheated off my answers during tests."
"How did you know that?"
"I'm not blind, I spotted you a few times looking over my test."
"YA!" She said getting close to me.
"YA!" I said getting close to her face, only mere inches away from each other.
We both noticed how close we were and backed away from each other with a faint blush on each other. Silence soon fell between the both of us; we had used each other in Signal. When we first started at Signal, she wasn'ta good scholar and I was a loner that didn't care for anyone else. What we had were set balances that improved with time; I wasn't her friend. It was only a way to get stronger in a short amount of time.
We kept on walking like nothing was wrong, we were trying to reach the end of the forest or something like that. I really didn't know what to do right now… except to follow Hothead around to be safe. It was the only reason, maybe a few others as well. We reached a clearing and I felt another presence of the forest.
Hothead had stopped as well, looking around for the source. I had turned my back to her and watched behind us. Despite our differences, we had worked together at Signal to complete tasks. The presence only got stronger, as we waited for the enemy to appear.
"It seems that we are going to have to fight together, Loner." She said excitedly.
"That's fine with me, Just don't slow me down, Hothead." I said in response.
"Want to bet on it? Whoever makes it back to Beacon first, wins a prize."
"You're on, bu…"
That was when the creature had struck. A tree was sent flying towards where we were positioned. We both dodged to the side, as she activated her gauntlets and I just got into my combat stance. Four Ursas approached,ready to draw blood. I waited for the target to get close, and they both split off. One half went towards me and the others were going after Yang.
I focused on my targets, getting ready to counter their attacks. The first one came in with its claw. I flipped over its arm lunging forward and kicked the creature in the head. Using the Ursas head as leverage to extend my time in the air, I used the moment to round kick the second Ursa with all my strength. The Grimm had been kicked away into the trees, causing a few of them to fall over.
The other Ursa had used this time to grab me from behind and threw me towards the ground. The pain shot through me, while I skidded across the floor. When I finally stopped, the injured Ursa came back and tried to smash me into the ground. I rolled out of the way and hurried back to my feet. Staring at the two with a frown on my face, I decided to stop playing around and got into running position.
"Active, Bloody Star. First gear."
The moment that those words had left my mouth, the sneakers that I was wearing had transformed into a pair of Rollerblades. It had the appearance of regular roller skates, but instead of plastic, it was metal. The front of the blades had a blade coming out of them, along with the edges that had smaller blades. The wheels had started to grind against each other, causing the ground to shake slightly while I was in my stance. I waited for them to attack, my wheels spinning rapidly as each second passed by.
When the Ursas had finally reached my position, I propelled forward, disappearing from the sight of the Ursas. What felt like a second to them was only milliseconds of what I saw. I reappeared a few inches away from the two of them. Sliding across the floor to reposition, I then took off again. This time, with a target in mind, I unleashed another roundhouse kick. The Ursa couldn't evade, using its arm as a shield to block the attack.
To its dismay, the arm that's been cut clean off as the Ursa screamed in pain. Before its entire head was cut off from the force of the attack, it was a clean kill. Blood gushed out of the creature's wounds, while it fell to the floor dead. The other creature had looked at its partner and decided to run away from the fight. Of course, I didn't let him as I appeared in front of him and rapidly kicked him with a flurry of blows.
Each direct hit had opened up a wound, causing it to bleed out. The pain it felt was only the beginning of what was to come and I wanted to make it suffer. The idea had crossed my mind…I couldn't let myself stray down away from what I need to do. Ending this sooner was what I needed to do, so my final kick had revved up with enough energy to pierce the Ursa's body, straight into its heart.
I slowly watched it try to squirm away its last few moments of life, before it finally stopped. Its body laid motionlessly on the ground. Its blood was pouring from the wounds and I collected my sample. I looked around for Yang, but she was already gone. Damn it! When I finally decided to turn around to leave, I was face to face with the barrel of a gun. Even before I could utter a word, a shot was fired that could be heard throughout the entire forest.
