And so it continues, this very much unwanted summer… Ah, you guys have no idea how much I loathe summer. My only solace so far is that for the past several days, it's been fairly cool. Of course, it won't last, but it sure doesn't stop me from wishing that it would last all year long, these cool days. Oh well.

Aside from my hatred of summer, not much else going on in my life aside from work and VERY, VERY slowly yet surely looking around for a better job… how discouraging. Though to be fair, I'm hardly a particularly motivated enough person to take initiative so I only have my own self to blame.

Heh, anyways, onto the chapter!

P.S. Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out. Had a few things to tend to in addition to this chapter being considerably longer than usual.

Chapter 9

Jeanne's combat prowess was certainly lacking a lot when compare to other freshmen, a fact that everyone including the blonde herself knew very well.

However, while she was substandard when standing next to the likes of her teammates, that didn't mean she was completely incompetent at fighting.

When that first Grimm had lunged at her from out of nowhere, she'd been able to instinctively leap to the side to avoid its attack, even freeing her shield from her side and activating it to further protect herself from the Grimm. It had been by a measure of both some luck and some skill that she had been able to bash her shield into the beast's side just as it had passed, knocking it away from her slightly.

This had been something that had occurred just a few minutes, her also instinctive shrill scream at the time having managed to alert her nearby teammates – as well as several other teams due to how loud it was – to the now sudden onslaught of Grimm.

And with her team now at her side, Jeanne could say that she was only on the verge of wetting herself in fear rather than completely overcome with horror at the sheer number of Grimm surging out of… well, everywhere, it'd seem.

"Eat this!" she heard Nora scream giddily, the auburn haired girl spinning like a top before Magnhild smashed right into the side of a large Beowulf, knocking the Grimm clean off its feet and into a small crowd of other Beowulves that had tried to approach from the side. It had only succeeded in knocking them all down, but that quickly changed when Nora switched Magnhild into its gun form and blasted the small group to oblivion with a quick grenade shot.

To Jeanne's left, just several feet away, was Pyrrha, the redheaded regional champion expertly moving among two Ursas. Using Milo's gun form, she shot exactly four rounds, two into each eye of one Ursa while then taking the time it staggered to parry a huge paw from the other one before retaliating with graceful swing of Milo as she effortlessly switched it into its Xiphos form. She then switched it into its javelin/lance form and thrust it forward, the now long weapon pushing the wounded Ursa very far back due to its length.

As for Ren, Jeanne could see him out of the peripheral vision of her left eye, the young raven haired man stabbing a Beowulf to death with the blades on his Stormflower. After it died and dissipated, he then roundhouse kicked another Beowulf that had tried to bite him and followed it up with an unrelenting barrage of bullets as it stumbled.

As for Jeanne herself? The girl was currently engaged in a blade/paw lock with an Ursa of all things.

Thankfully it was a fairly small Ursa, but it was still quite strong and its great weight bearing down on her wasn't helping things at all. Due to how it'd suddenly tried to attack her, she'd accidentally used her sword to counter its swiping paw instead of her shield.

Grunting in exertion, Jeanne knew that attempting to overpower the Ursa was a futile thing, but thankfully an idea came to her then and there. While there was a fair distance between her torso and the Ursa's – nearly out of her arm's reach – it was still possible to reach out and touch it and she did so…

…with her shield. And with as much speed and strength as she could muster.

The shield bashed into the Ursa's stomach with some force, not enough to budge it back, but enough to grab its attention and divert some of its efforts from the clash. This gave Jeanne enough time to take a brief step back before then jumping forward. With a fierce cry that contrasted with her waif-like face and figure, she swung Crocea Mors with all the strength she could muster at the Ursa's neck-.

-And watched as her blade successfully decapitated it.

Bereft of its head, the Ursa naturally died… but as its body began to disappear into nothingness following the swing, a Beowulf pounced at Jeanne from directly behind the Ursa, using its still disappearing body to keep itself hidden until the last possible moment.

It worked, for Jeanne could only gasp in surprise right before impact. Both she and the Grimm went sailing through the air a good several feet before hitting the ground hard. Jeanne was most thankful that the crash and ensuing tumble ended up with the Beowulf being thrown off of her.

But it only bought her a second's reprieve at best; the Beowulf had already recovered and made for her again. She immediately tried to stand up and move away, but only got up on one knee by the time the Beowulf reached her again, intent at ripping out her throat with its sharp teeth. A hasty block with her shield was enough to stop this and even disorient the Grimm – Jeanne can embarrassingly say that hitting the shield headfirst really hurts thanks to a personal experience – enough for Jeanne to fully stand up and kick it away.

"Oof!" She couldn't help but groan out. Being a fairly clumsy fighter in general, she'd kicked the Beowulf back awkwardly, nearly hurting herself more than she had probably hurt it just now.

Still, in doing so, she was able to give herself a few seconds to catch her breath and try to assess the situation.

From the looks of it, her teammates had been spread further out due to the number of Grimm encircling them all. Thankfully, it seemed like the number of Grimm coming their way was steadily decreasing, with plenty of the dark beasts rushing past this area entirely to go elsewhere.

However…

Pyrrha, for all of her talent and training, was slowly being pushed back as three more Ursas now showed up, boxing her in and keeping her from using her superior agility and Milo's gun form to her advantage.

Ren, having about an average amount of aura, was already beginning to visibly tire in the wake of the never parade of Beowulves that seemed to be gunning solely for him. Were they all simply coming from one direction, he'd have probably been able to keep them at bay solely through running and gunning, but alas these Beowulves were smart; some would try to attack from his front, whilst others would rush at him from his right, forcing him towards the trees and bushes. Whenever he got too close, one or two more would rush out of hiding and attempt to hit him, only failing due to a combination of his reflexes and Stormflower's blades.

And as for Nora, she'd also been surrounded, the two Ursas and the many Beowulves making up this rapidly forming circle being too close for her to fire off any rounds without the explosion hitting herself, yet with only a few moving forward at a time to keep Nora from using Magnhild's hammer form for crowd control.

As far as she herself went, Jeanne was probably the luckiest of the bunch – for a certain definition of lucky. Because of the much greater focus the Grimm were putting on her teammates, she only had to deal with the stragglers of the bunch in more or less one on one battles. However, most of these 'stragglers' tend to be larger and stronger than most of their brethren here and were fresh, having bypassed everything else in favor of just going for her.

The Beowulf she'd kicked just a moment ago had gotten back on its feet and now eyed her viciously. But it didn't move towards her; no, instead, the wolf-like Grimm seemed to slowly move from side to side, watching as she shifted her guard to accommodate its constantly moving position.

Something was seriously wrong here. The Grimm shouldn't be this… this smart! They were all far too coordinated and using actual tactics against them. Combined with their sheer numbers, it'd only be a matter of time before she and her friends are completely overwhelmed.

"I'm the leader here!" Jeanne muttered to herself harshly. "Come on, think! Think!" She had to do something!

Because if she didn't… then she and her team will end up paying a dear price.


Glynda was an excellent huntress, her abilities well above even the lofty norm of accomplished huntsmen and huntresses. This was something many believed about her and what she also believed about herself.

However…

…Even the greatest can be brought down if the enemy vastly outnumbers her.

Such as now when one surprisingly small Boarbatusk was able to somehow slip past her constant waves of attacks and defenses to nearly skewer her on its right tusk. It was only thanks to her well trained reflexes and instincts that she was able to avoid the attack, albeit not quite completely; as the Boarbatusk now passed by and fell victim to her immediate counter attack – in the form of a focused blast of aura from her riding crop – its tusk was able to graze her side a little, enough to draw some blood.

Hissing only slightly from the sharp pain, Glynda was only marginally affected by it, having taken far worse during her adventures earlier in life. Still didn't make it hurt any less.

It also still didn't stop her from using her semblance to make the ground all around her promptly cave in, sending a plethora of Beowulves and Ursa falling into the newly formed pit.

Then with a wave of her arms, the ground she'd ripped apart and moved to make the cave-in was immediately levitated into the air and sent spiraling down upon the now trapped Grimm at Mach speeds. They all barely managed to let out a collective cry before the attack killed them all.

Sighing in slight weariness and ever increasing frustration, Glynda took a moment to rub her forehead, trying to make sense of this situation.

As she did this, one of the now few remaining Beowulves that had avoided the cave-in leapt over the wide pit to get to where Glynda was at, standing atop what amounted to a pillar of earth thanks to her earlier efforts. It tried to swipe at her as it closed the gap, but without even looking in its general direction, Glynda slayed it instantly, lashing out physically with her riding crop with enough force to destroy its head.

Glynda sighed again. There weren't too many Grimm left gunning for her now, with plenty of others passing right by this area to head elsewhere. Time to clean this up and go check on the others as soon as possible.

Spreading out her arms and closing her eyes, her concentration reached a level of such intensity that the very air around her visible rippled from the effort.

To the remaining Grimm, this was the warning sign to run away.

Alas, they weren't fast enough to do so.

Glynda's semblance worked its way on them all, lifting all of the remaining Grimm more than several yards into the air. Many of them roared in surprise, others in anger, and even some in what appeared to be worry. It mattered not to Glynda what – if anything – the Grimm were feeling and it showed in her intense expression.

Then she thrust both of her hands into one another and now all of the levitating Grimm, still so very much under her semblance's control, did likewise and with immense speed.

All at once, the 20 or so Grimm left, consisting mostly of Beowulves and Ursas, smashed all together into one big ball of black mist as the sheer force of their collision wiped them all out.

Promptly dispersing the black mist all over the area with a far more casual gesture now, Glynda opened her eyes to survey the area. Needless to say, in just very short order she'd made swift work of the Grimm that had swarmed her initially… and with only a very minor injury to boot.

But this did very little to make her feel better. Just the opposite in fact. For if this many Grimm had come after her and Jaune, then just how many Grimm were the students being forced to deal with right now?

She may have tasked Jaune five minutes or so ago with the duty of going to help and round up the students, but now that she's gotten rid of the Grimm here – odd; a number of them had run off not long after she'd sent Jaune off – she could afford to take a more active role now.

Using her semblance yet again, she broke off some of the ground pillar she was standing on and levitated it – with her still atop it – into the air and across Forever Falls at a slow pace. Reorienting herself, however, the now levitating bit of land began to pick up some speed as she turned towards the northeast area of the massive red forest, for that was where most of the students had gone off to collect sap from.

As she moved along, taking in a bird's eye view of the forest below, Glynda could hear dozens of Grimm roar out in rage and… fear?

Her already fierce looking eyes narrowed even more behind her glasses. Something amiss had just occurred, it would seem.

And whatever it was, it was sending the Grimm into an odd kind of frenzy.

And like hell she'll let either of these two oddities harm her students anymore.

The speed of her levitating ground increased a little more as she thought this. Time to end this situation before it escalates anymore.


Ruby used her speed semblance to effortlessly rush from one spot to another all around the area, giving the Ursas chasing after her a very hard time keeping up with her.

Realizing that the dense forestry in this area made using Crescent Rose in its scythe form rather impractical yet also making it that much harder for Grimm like the Ursas to move about freely, the leader of team RWBY had opted to become both a distraction and a mobile cannon.

She demonstrated her latter self-imposed role by taking aim at two Beowulves that had unintentionally lined up and shot just one round at them, the bullet piercing through the throat of the one in front before doing the same to the one right behind it.

The Ursas roared in indignation at what she'd just done and while they were incapable of catching her, their roars of fury were still enough to make her unconsciously gulp in worry.

She'd wanted to become a huntress because that was what her mom had been. She'd wanted to become a huntress because huntsmen and huntresses got to go around saving people and that was the right thing to do…

…But now being faced with so many Grimm, the normally so-called 'fearless' Ruby Rose was feeling fear for the first time. She'd fought plenty of Grimm in the past as part of her training, but mainly Beowulves and even then their numbers had been nowhere near this great, with three more Grimm popping up for every one that she and her friends put down.

Like spiders bleeding out of the walls in an old run down house…

Shivering slightly at that kind of icky thought, Ruby made the mistake of slowing down a bit… which in turn allowed a Beowulf to silently pounce upon her from in between two trees nearby. It was only thanks to her instincts and quick reflexes that the young girl was able to duck under it in time to avoid damage.

Yelping as she did this, Ruby then bolted off at full speed, the sheer shockwave from her run being enough to uproot some of the trees and bushes nearby whilst also blasting the Beowulf back.

She looked back just in time to see something shocking though – one of the Ursas reaching out to grab the launched back Beowulf and put it down so that it could join its brethren.

A Grimm had saved one of its own…

Just what the heck was going on here?!

Ruby's thoughts were interrupted – not for the first time – by a vicious round of gunfire, courtesy of Blake who now popped up near her after shooting down several Beowulves with Gambol Shroud's gun forms.

"Just how many of them are there?" Blake muttered, more to herself than to Ruby.

Ruby, not exactly the smartest in regards to conversation and the like, even among battles, still ended up answering the question anyways and truthfully so. "Dunno… but definitely more than we could probably handle."

She watched as Blake grimaced. The grimace remained as she then switched one of her weapons into its katana form and cut down a tree, resulting in it falling back and landing on top of an Ursa that had tried to come at them from the south. It didn't kill the bear-like Grimm, unfortunately… but it managed to stun it and keep it pinned down for the time being.

"Weiss and Yang are off over there in a more open area," Blake then said, looking all around them cautiously for another attack. "Thanks to how both of them operate, they're doing pretty good keeping the Grimm at bay, but there's no telling if more won't show up to overwhelm them."

Ruby then took that moment to look back in the direction she'd come, seeing the Ursas and the Beowulf off in the distance yet surely covering more and more ground right now. They roared as they saw her gaze at them and seemed to visibly double their efforts to get to her and Blake.

Ruby quickly turned back to Blake. "Then we should all regroup. I know you and I originally wanted to stick here in this area to get some of the Grimm's attention on us, but if there's really a lot more of them, then we'll all need to work together as a team."

Blake nodded – and then her eyes immediately widened in surprise.

Seeing this, Ruby meant to ask what was wrong, but then her instincts screamed at her to move. She obliged by jumping as far as she could to her left, careful to avoid jumping into any trees. Blake did likewise as well and just in the nick of time as a Boarbatusk had come charging right out of the bushes near where they'd just been.

Missing them, it let out a feral cry of what appeared to be disappointment.

And this only caused Ruby's eyes to narrow in confusion. Just what was going on here? The Grimm were still just as violent as they always were, but now… it was almost as if they were much more aware of things…

"Ruby, come on," Blake said, shaking the young girl's shoulder lightly.

It certainly snapped her out of her thoughts, to say the least. "R-Right…"

Seeing the Boarbatusk now grind to halt and charge in their direction a second later, both the team leader and her friend ran off as well to rejoin their team.

With the Boarbatusk on their tail along with the Beowulf and Ursas from earlier as well, both the R and B of team RWBY couldn't help but run just a little bit faster than they would otherwise.


As both Ruby and Blake had silently been expecting, Weiss and Yang were slowly yet surely losing ground to the legion of Grimm that were all but at their feet constantly.

"Just. Back. Off!" Yang could be heard yelling as she fired three shots, one for each punctuated word, at the massive Ursa before her.

But because of how much bigger and tougher it was than 'normal' Ursa, her shots were staggering it and merely agitating it.

And as the blond brawler was coming to learn, this wasn't really a good thing.

The Ursa roared after the third and final shot from Ember Celica and lurched forward again with surprising speed, forcing Yang to leap back before she could be crushed under its body weight.

She was gritting her teeth in a mixture of both frustration and genuine worry.

Earlier when the Grimm had first started crawling out of nowhere, she'd honestly been rather excited – nothing like some Grimm slaying to spice up the day. She was an adrenaline junkie that way.

However.

Her thoughts on the matter had changed fairly quickly when the Grimm kept on coming. When four more would pop up just to take the place of one each time, Yang had lost her happy-go-lucky smile in short order and was forced to take up a more long distance approach.

Not that it was hardly as effective as what Weiss was doing.

The W of team RWBY, with her versatile skills, was making full use of this more open area to pick the Grimm off rapidly, using her glyphs to speed up whilst using various amounts of Dust – mainly ice Dust – to incapacitate or otherwise slow the horde of Grimm down. Her weapon, Myrtenaster, was only directly used to literally stab the weaker Grimm such as the Beowulves to death only when they were at their most vulnerable.

As for Yang, a young woman who mainly relied on close up fighting, she was fighting an increasingly unfair battle; due to the sheer number of Grimm that were still making it past Weiss' perimeter, close range combat was no longer an option lest she want to expose herself dangerously to attacks from all sides. She may have confidence in her fists, but her fighting style was meant for one-on-one situations, not one-on-hundred. At least she thought it was a hundred; too many Grimm packed together to accurately count.

At any rate, she was forced to rely heavily on Ember Celica to push back the Grimm, but that wasn't doing much good right now. For the Ursa was still standing and only getting angrier.

It roared at her fiercely. Yang wasn't amused. "Yeah, yeah, shut up! I'm not having a good time either!" she exclaimed to the Ursa before taking a risk here. She dashed up to it quickly and delivered a quick one-two combo to its torso, aiming for its ribs. Ember Celica fired as both hits connected and Yang heard and felt something break under the force of her two blows.

And fortunately it was enough to make the Ursa fall onto its back in pain, howling.

Unfortunately, this didn't stop the Beowulves and other Ursas around it from closing in on Yang.

Mumbling a curse or two under her breath, Yang backed off hastily and quickly reloaded her gauntlets, which had run empty just now. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face; she didn't have many rounds left. Soon, they'd all be used up and she'd be screwed.

This couldn't be said for Weiss, though.

A harsh scream resounded throughout the area, immediately grabbing Yang's attention in time for her to turn and see a Beowulf land a lucky strike on Weiss just as she'd been about to dash past it. Its wild swing caught Weiss in her stomach, claws first. It stopped her dead in her tracks and thanks to the momentum she'd built up until then, nearly caused her to drop her weapon.

Then the Beowulf lifted the heiress and smashed her into the ground hard before violently kicking her away, conveniently in Yang's direction.

"Urgghh…" This was the only sound Weiss was capable of making as she tried to shakily get back on her feet, but the few hits she'd just sustained had done some serious damage thanks to having been taken so off guard. She wouldn't be able to get up in time to stave off of the other Beowulves that were now hording around her.

But like hell this was going to happen on Yang's watch.

"Weiss!" the blonde cried out in worry. Only for that worry to change in pure anger. She and Weiss may have some disputes, fairly minor, but she'd be damned if she let the Grimm hurt her teammate.

Her semblance activated from rage alone, her blonde hair becoming glowing brightly with energy whilst her eyes turned a fierce red. She then leapt lightly into the air, right fist cocked back. "Stay like that! Keep your balance!"

Weiss halted her movements just as Yang slammed her fist down into the ground with tremendous force, her semblance increasing the power of her strike greatly.

The ground split open slightly from where she struck, but that hadn't been the point of the action. The entire ground within twenty feet of Yang shook violently, as if a small earthquake had just occurred. While far from devastating, it was still enough to take the Grimm all by surprise and make many of them lose their balance.

Weiss, prepared however slightly for this, was able to remain fairly unaffected and promptly leapt back towards Yang when the tremors seized, though not before stabbing a Beowulf in its throat.

"You alright, Weiss-cream?" Yang asked as the girl now joined her side.

Weiss huffed tiredly, the hits having been pretty strong for a Beowulf. "If you're still calling me that, then I guess this situation can't be too bad…"

Yang allowed herself a slight chuckle. "Dunno about that. There are a lot of them this time around…" she said in a fairly serious voice.

This prompted Weiss to look at her briefly. Yang must have had quite the expression on her face if the Schnee heiress promptly nodded with a tightened expression.

Yang cocked back her fists while Weiss shifted Myrtenaster's Dust cartridge to a different one. They both then moved back to back in order to survey the Grimm still left.

And as the Grimm began to all get back up now, it was clear that they hadn't appreciated what Yang had just done.

"How much aura do you have left?" Weiss asked of Yang.

"About 75% still. Took some hits earlier on when the horde kept coming. You?" Yang eyed a particularly small Ursa, this one being a little shorter and noticeably slimmer than the usual ones. It seemed rather fast compared to its kin.

"Under 50%... those hits had really taken me by surprise. Not to mention how much I used up just to use my glyphs…" Weiss commented.

Yang looked all around them slowly. Thanks to her little 'ground pound,' the Grimm horde had been knocked apart a bit, enough to let her and Weiss get a better count of the Grimm.

"About a few dozen of these punks left… think it's enough for us?" she asked.

Weiss' grip on her weapon audibly tightened. "Let's hope s-."

She was cut off rather abruptly when the Grimm began to howl in surprise… and fear?

Something shot out from among the trees and an instant later one of the Ursas went sailing right over the two girls.

With its head missing.

Yang, always the vocal one of team RWBY, gawked unabashedly. "What the fuck?!"

The Grimm roared as one, prompting her and Weiss to look in the direction the now dead Ursa had been thrown from… just in time to see some of the Beowulves attempt to run away while the rest immediately surged towards… well, whatever had come.

And whatever had come was evidently unaffected by the Grimm horde focusing upon him/her/it?

Yang and Weiss could tell this much when they heard another Ursa shriek in agony before collapsing, whatever had happened to it being covered up by the Grimm horde's collective mass. Then a Beowulf was launched into the air, split almost completely in two.

A thunderous crash was heard and a pathway was practically made in the Grimm horde as more than several Beowulves were blown back through it. They all ended up landing near Yang's feet and the blonde looked down in time to see a deep fist impression left in one of them – presumably the one to directly take the attack – before dissipating into their usual black mist upon death.

Then more than several screeches were heard in rapid succession and Yang and Weiss could only watch in utter shock as they saw the horde visibly shrink in size.

That was when they finally saw him.

Their hand-to-hand combat professor, Jaune Arc.

He emerged from the horde of the remaining Grimm, his head turned so that they couldn't see his expression. His black coat billowed in the wind as he lightly leapt into the air… whilst lifting another Ursa.

Then he spun several times rapidly before actually body-slamming the large Ursa on top of another one, doing so with such force that both practically exploded from the impact.

But their professor wasn't done just yet.

Yang and Weiss looked on with silent, rapt attention as Jaune used the very impact to bounce himself towards four Beowulves clustered together. Nearing them, he then lashed out with an attack too quick to be seen – Yang was fairly sure it was some kind of punch, though – and one of the Beowulves collapsed instantly, a hole where its heart should have been.

As this one fell, Jaune surged forward like a tsunami, his very presence rooting the other Beowulves in place from sheer fear, it would seem. He reached out with his other hand and stabbed in between the rib-like white armor that one of them had, his hand easily piercing through its pitch black flesh. It howled in agony and immediately tried to retaliate, the pain restoring it to its senses. It shouldn't have bothered – Jaune reared his hand out and then smashed it quickly into its lower jaw, shattering it.

Then grabbing hold of the shattered jaw, Jaune used the disabled Beowulf to guard against a vicious slash from the third one, which only succeeded in putting the meat shield out of its misery. And leaving itself open as well.

As if sensing this, the fourth Beowulf lunged forward now with tremendous speed, its arms blurring as it unleashed a torrent of slashes with its claws at the areas that its brethren had left open, hoping to land even one strike on Jaune.

But to Yang and Weiss, its efforts appeared to be hopeless.

"W-Wha-?!" Yang couldn't help but yelp out and with reason.

For now Jaune, somehow and someway, was behind the two Beowulves in an instant, already marching onto the other Grimm that left. She and Weiss watched with slackening jaws as the two Beowulves then found themselves ripped to shreds not even a split second later and all without Jaune having even appeared to touch them.

Jaune came to a sudden stop when the remaining Grimm howled at him in unison, prompting looks of confusion from Yang and Weiss.

Seeing this action, Yang couldn't help but find herself wondering just what the hell he was doing now.

That was when a Boarbatusk came charging out of the crowd of Grimm still left, the naturally boar-like Grimm startling quiet.

And it was at that same second that Yang realized something, prompting a gasp of wonder and shock.

The remaining Grimm hadn't simply been howling so loudly like that for no reason; they'd done it so that Jaune, whose blindness was apparently obvious even to them, wouldn't hear the Boarbatusk approach him.

What. The. Hell?! Just when had the Grimm ever been this smart?!

Nonetheless, Yang immediately felt compelled to call out to the professor, shoving aside her shock instantly. "Hey, look o-!"

But alas, her warning was unneeded.

Because again, Beacon's newest professor surprised her and Weiss big time.

As the Boarbatusk neared him, Jaune literally skipped forward, twisting his body so that he narrowly avoided the Grimm's tusks… by getting in between them. He was just a second away from being struck by the Grimm's face.

Or so Yang thought, that is.

Jaune's left leg suddenly shot up and came crashing down in a beautiful axe-kick that connected with the very top of the Boarbatusk's skull. The Grimm's skull audibly cracked, sending shivers racing down Yang's and Weiss' spines. And then grabbing hold of the tusks as the Grimm was knocked down, Jaune pulled.

The screeching the Boabatusk unleashed as its tusks were ripped right off would haunt Yang's dreams that night. The blonde brawler of team RWBY was pretty sure her heiress teammate would be experiencing unpleasant thoughts on the scene as well for the rest of the day.

But their new professor didn't seem to care much about that, assuming he knew they were there… for he didn't seem intent on stopping with just that.

Rearing one of the tusks back, he rammed it through the Boarbatusk's right eye before throwing the other at a Beowulf that had tried to run off into the forest of Forever Falls. Both Grimm struck by the tusks now dissipated into the air, their deaths quick but far from painless.

The remaining Grimm, utterly frozen from the violence just unleashed before them, were unnaturally silent, their red eyes glued to Jaune with an intensity that neither Yang or Weiss had ever seen in them before.

As for the two huntresses-in-training themselves, they could scarcely move from where they were, unable to believe what had just taken place.

One thing was certain though, amazingly enough…

"…Is it just me, or is he somehow holding back a little," Weiss said in a very low voice, unable to speak any higher. "I mean… we were actually able to see his movements this time around for the most part."

"Looks that way," Yang replied, the blonde eyeing the once again motionless professor with a surprising amount of intensity.

He may have very well saved their lives with just his brief time here so far. While she held a great deal of confidence in her own power and skill, Yang had had the feeling that in due time she and Weiss would've been overwhelmed by the Grimm. Even if Ruby and Blake had returned to aid them, the sheer numbers and the increasingly obvious tactical intelligence of the Grimm would've brought them down in fairly short order.

Yet… in just the span of barely a minute – as hard as that was to believe – Jaune Arc had easily turned the situation on its head. Where there had once been more than a few dozen Grimm, thanks to his actions earlier when he'd joined in, the number had dropped by more than half.

Were all of the professors this damn good? Yang couldn't help but ponder that right now despite the situation.

"Ms. Xiao-Long, Ms. Schnee."

Yang, despite her efforts, jumped a little at the sudden calling of her and Weiss by the professor.

Jaune's head was only slightly tilted in their direction, his face still turned away from the two as he looked ahead(?) at the still frozen Grimm. "Are the two of you alright?"

"…Just some minor damage, professor Arc," Weiss managed to say first. "Nothing to be too concern about."

"I see. That's good," Jaune replied. A certain sense of cheer could be detected in his voice, which sort of made Yang look a little worried. It just contrasted a little too much with the tense posture he had in addition to, well, this equally tense situation with the Grimm… who were now beginning to move again.

And evidently, they no longer seemed intent on staying back; all of the remaining Grimm now began to slowly charge towards Jaune, ignoring her and Weiss completely.

A sigh escaped from Jaune, its suddenness again taking Yang and Weiss aback. It sounded like the kind of sigh one would let out when confronted by something stupid. Yang should know, since it's the same kind of sigh Weiss had come to frequently let out in the face of team RWBY's antics. Why the hell this was something she was noticing and comparing, Yang didn't know.

"Give me just a few minutes or so, ladies… and once this is taken care of, we'll be evacuating along with the other students," Jaune said calmly as he began to walk forward to meet the remaining horde.

And when the clash between him and the Grimm began in earnest, Yang and Weiss could only remain where they were, unable to take their eyes off the massacre before them.


Pyrrha grunted as she managed to deal a deathblow to the final Ursa that had tried to box her in. It'd been a hell of a tough time dealing with the Ursas, but she'd managed to break free of them and strike them down after using Milo's Xiphos form to cut away lightly at their feet until they backed off enough to have some more breathing room.

That said, she hadn't emerged unscathed; armor covered in dust and even dented or outright missing pieces at some points, her left cheek swollen with a nasty bruise courtesy of an Ursa's palm, and some long gashes on her back from one particularly strong slash from another Ursa that had spotted an opening, it was clear that the regional champion had taken some serious damage from the tussle she'd been forced into.

It made her greatly reevaluate Grimm in general. Up until today, most Grimm she'd faced had usually been under controlled conditions back in Mistral during her training. And while that couldn't really be said during Beacon's initiation, she'd had others at her side in addition to the number of Grimm they'd had to fight being considerably few in number.

She will admit that she'd found most of the Grimm at the time to be rather underwhelming, but today had opened her eyes to the true severity of the threat they posed. Their numbers now seemed all but endless to her and from the glimpses she'd caught of them going after her friends, it was clear that at least when in large packs, the Grimm could demonstrate surprising intelligence, making themselves that much more effective at potentially slaying overconfident trainees such as herself.

Well, not anymore.

Now that she had a much better grasp of how they worked, Pyrrha resolved herself to not take them so lightly anymore.

First thing first, though… time to aid her teammates.

First, the redhead dashed over to where Nora was. She went for the auburn haired girl – currently being beaten down on by three Beowulves – first due to the potential crowd control she could pull off with Magnhild. It would come in handy in helping Ren and Jeanne fight off the Grimm that were going for them.

Nearing the downed rambunctious girl and her three attackers, Pyrrha threw her shield at one of the Beowulves as hard as she could. It connected solidly with the side of its face and made it stagger off of Nora. Immediately using her semblance to manipulate Akouo, the redheaded amazon had it rebound off of the other two before returning to her.

"Nora! Please get up!" she yelled to the girl as she then switched Milo into its gun form and immediately fired upon the three stunned Beowulves. With quick yet careful shots, she killed them just as she finished closing the distance between her and Nora…

…Just as more Beowulves began to pour out from in between the trees just several yards away. Pyrrha could say with complete confidence that they didn't look happy.

But thankfully for her, Nora was quick to get up. And while looking more than a little bruised, the auburn haired girl was still looking as lively as she usually did. Her eyes narrowed in anger and that was all the signal Pyrrha needed to promptly move back a bit.

A wise decision indeed.

With a battle cry, Nora switched Magnhild into its hammer form and smashed it with all of her strength and rage into the ground, firing a grenade just as it made contact to further increase the impact's power.

The first several Beowulves to come pouring out from the forest didn't see it coming and were immediately sent sprawling to the ground as the shockwave from the hammer strike made the area violently shake. The rest remained standing due to being able to steady themselves against the trees nearby and even then, they'd nearly lost their balance.

The sight of this made Pyrrha narrow her eyes in confusion and worry.

That the Beowulves would attempt to steady themselves like that… not only did it once again display a surprising level of intelligence for them, it also demonstrated something oddly human-like about them… it unnerved the redhead, to say the least.

Alas, now wasn't the time to let such things get to her. She had to fight.

"Nora! Fire at them!" she said to her friend as she charged forward at a fairly slow speed, Akouo now back in her hand.

"With pleasure!" Nora exclaimed with nearly mad glee as she immediately switched Magnhild back into its gun form and fired two grenades at the crowd of Beowulves. Both grenades struck their marks and exploded with tremendous power, killing the Grimm unfortunate enough to have been caught in the direct blast while those near the slain ones survived albeit blown back from the force.

This provided Pyrrha ample opportunity to clean up the ones left. Now leaping into the air, the redhead ended up smashing shield-first into two Beowulves, knocking them both down and promptly slashing at their necks with Milo, slitting their throats and rendering them at death's door.

Those two dealt with in one swift swoop, Pyrrha switched Milo into its javelin form and extended it, practically turning it into a spear. She gracefully swung it all around her several times, nicking the Beowulves within range.

Some of this 'nicks' proved to be just that – minor injuries. But in the case of some Beowulves, it proved to be more severe than that, Pyrrha's attack cutting certain tendons or piercing particularly deep into the skin.

Regardless of the severity of the damage, all Beowulves were taken by surprise and left literally being taken aback, with all of them stepping away in some form.

Pyrrha felt her muscles scream at her from how fiercely she'd done this, the past several minutes of desperate fighting, in addition to the damage she'd sustained, getting to her now. But nonetheless, she pushed on. Allowing fatigue to get to her now could easily be her undoing.

Especially one when Beowulf managed to recover quicker than the others and tried to lunge forward, swiping at her side. It was only thanks to her trained reflexes that Pyrrha was able to pivot to avoid the attack while also countering in kind, actually managing to cut the Beowulf's jaw with the round edge of Akouo, before delivering a leg sweep that made it fall to the ground. A graceful stab of Milo to its skull quickly put the Grimm down for good before it could fully react to any of these actions.

Huffing greatly, Pyrrha immediately backed away as the other Beowulves began to recover now and inch towards her.

Just as she did so, she heard a now familiar sound pierce through the air and before she knew it, a grenade struck one of the Beowulves towards the back of the group right in its face. When the grenade exploded on impact, the shockwave was enough to blow the other ones forward along with Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha?!" Nora could be heard crying out in worry as the redhead in question went sailing back.

But Pyrrha wasn't Mistral's regional champion for nothing. She managed to turn her slight flight into a roll as she hit ground and managed to swiftly end up on her feet right next to Nora. "I'm fine!"

Growls from all around them silenced any further chatter, however, and in between the red trees of Forever Falls, more Grimm could be seen closing in.

Pyrrha switched Milo into its gun form and slowly took aim in one direction while Nora pressed her back to hers and took aim in the opposite direction.

The redhead couldn't quite suppress the gulp as it happened.

Things weren't looking too good at all…


It had taken more than a little time, but through great effort, Jeanne had managed to fight her way over to Ren.

It certainly hadn't been easy though, as the blonde girl's clothing could attest, with cuts and tears all over her battle dress. The armor she wore also sported scratches as well and dirt littered everywhere upon her, the result of being knocked into the ground a few too many times by Ursas.

Amazingly though, the girl sported few actual injuries, with the worst merely being some large scratches and a few bruises upon her arms and legs from some bad blocks and the likes. As for her face, only cut could be seen, the result of a very close call with the teeth of a small Beowulf.

This was all due to her aura level, which was considerably above average from first year trainees and even above most second and third years as well. Jeanne had no problem saying that if there was one thing she had that was to her advantage, it was her aura level.

But alas, not even in this situation would it do much good; with so many Grimm all but literally flooding the area, her aura would be dwindled down to nothing if she was ganged up on.

That said, though… "Ren, you okay?!" she asked as she and him neared one another, the onslaught of Grimm on their side of the area seeming to come to an abrupt end. For some reason, all of the Grimm in this part of the forest had suddenly started to roar and head elsewhere, as if something much more interesting had caught their attention.

Jeanne couldn't fathom what such a thing could be, but at least it took the pressure off them for now.

"I don't think I'll be leaving my bed for a few days after this," the raven haired teen remarked dryly. Because of his low level of aura when compared to his teammates, he was perhaps the most beat up of the four, his clothes torn in various places and lightly caked with dirt and blood. He had a large yet not apparently fatal gash upon his back, what little aura he has left likely being what was preventing it from bleeding too much.

The sole male of team JNPR then pointed tiredly yet determinedly to where Pyrrha and Nora were at, the two girls in question all but impossible to see as Beowulves and some Ursas surrounded them entirely. "We have to get them out of there… and get ourselves out of here as well."

He tried to limp his way over there, Stormflower only barely wielded in his hands. When he staggered forward a second later, Jeanne all but dropped Crocea Mors completely as she rushed to help him remain standing.

"I know! I know…" Her face scrunched up with frustration. "But how?" she whispered to herself.

As things currently stood, it was all but hopeless. While the Grimm that had been coming after her and Ren had taken off for parts unknown, the two of them were still hardly in good shape. Pyrrha and Nora were currently being surrounded and Ren was completely out of bullets. As for herself, Crocea Mors was a 'classic weapon,' meaning it had no gun form to speak of. The only way for her to fight would be to do so up close, but in this situation that'd only barely take some pressure off of Pyrrha and Nora. Certainly not enough to make a difference in the long run and doing so would also require her to leave Ren to fend for himself since both hands would be needed to wield her sword and shield.

But damn it, she was the leader of team JNPR! Her friends were all in danger! Like hell she could just give up here!

But what to do? There was no way she could fight her way through that many Grimm to stand beside her partner and Nora. And she couldn't drag Ren along with her up to that crowd of Grimm; that'd only be signing his death warrant. Yet to leave him behind also put him at risk of an ambush!

She needed a way to try and split the crowd up though, just enough for Pyrrha and Nora to get out of there and they all make a break for it, but ho-?!

A sound suddenly caught her attention, a sort of whirring sound that she only vaguely recognized.

A quick glance to an increasingly tired Ren told her that he heard it too.

And it seemed to be coming from somewhere above them.

So they both looked up wildly, their eyes immediately locking onto something off in the distance yet quickly approaching.

Or rather someone.

"Professor Goodwitch!" Jeanne nearly exclaimed into Ren's ears. The blonde woman appeared to be using her semblance to levitate her way across the entire forest, using some piece of ground as a platform of sorts. No doubt, she was looking for the other students.

And unfortunately, she wasn't looking in their direction. Also, she appeared a little too far away for even Jeanne, with her loud voice, to be able to reach her with a shout.

Still…

"We have to get her attention," Ren said firmly as he tried to stand on his own now. Jeanne made a note that he unconsciously limped a little in the direction of Pyrrha and Nora.

"But how…?" Jeanne asked herself aloud as she looked all around for something.

But there was nothing that could be used. All that was around them were-.

"Trees!" she then proclaimed in a sort of joy.

"Tre-?" Ren had been about to say tiredly, only to stop abruptly when Jeanne suddenly returned her shield into its holster form and put it away whilst running closer to where the crowd of Grimm were at.

Jeanne felt his eyes on her, but didn't say anything though. Instead, she felt like smacking herself a bit for not thinking of this sooner. After all, a true huntress doesn't get by through just power and skill alone; sometimes ingenuity is required. As well as taking advantage of one's surroundings.

Spotting a particularly tall tree, Jeanne took just a second to size things up before she gripped Crocea Mors tightly and swung at the base of the tall tree.

A loud thwack greeted her ears along with the sound of slashing and gunfire and explosions from nearby. Pyrrha and Nora were still holding their own against that seemingly endless crowd and it was this almost simple fact that caused the blonde to swing her blade again as hard as she could.

Another thwack resounded through her eardrums and the tree lurched slightly to the left. She swung a third time and it lurched even more, but still not quite enough.

A pained cry – Nora's from the sound of it – now echoed through the air followed by a fearful cry of "Nora?!" from Ren. This prompted Jeanne to swing a fourth time with far greater strength than she ever thought herself capable of mustering.

So strong was her final swing, carrying all of her strength and weight into it, that it finally sliced the rather thick base of the tree completely. It now tilted dangerously to its left and fell completely just as Jeanne leapt forward and tackled it painfully with her right shoulder.

She then shouted as loud as she could. "TIMMMMMMMBBBBBEEEEEEEEERRRRR!"

She prayed that her two trapped friends wouldn't be took taken aback by her sudden shout and dodge right away, the tree now falling towards the crowd of Grimm frighteningly fast.

Thankfully, her shout seems to have caught the many Beowulves and Ursas by surprise, many of them actually tensing up suddenly when she'd screamed.

Even more thankfully, as the shadow of the large tree fell upon them, the crowd of Grimm began to hastily break up on instinct to avoid being crushed.

And what a crash it was.

Jeanne didn't know how heavy on average the trees here in Forever Falls were, but this one seemed to have weighed a ton, if the thunderous impact it made upon hitting ground was anything to go by. The sharps cries of pain from some Beowulves as well, some having been most unlucky in attempting to avoid it.

"Pyrrha, Nora! Run now!" Jeanne then screamed out.

When the tree had hit the ground, it'd kicked up a lot of dirt and fallen leaves, rendering it impossible to see anything for the moment.

And yet… Jeanne somehow knew that her friends were still alive and well.

And as both girls suddenly appeared from out of the unintentional smokescreen, making a mad dash out of the split up Grimm horde, Jeanne could only tear up in joy.

Whatever may happen next, she managed to save her friends.


Glynda had been levitating through the sky at a most hasty paste. It's been several minutes since she'd taken flight and during that time, she'd quickly made a circle above the areas where she knew students to have been in.

Having ensured their safety via an aerial bombardment of sheer power upon their attackers, she'd then directed all of them to a more abandoned area of Forever Falls.

A quick call to Ozpin with her scroll had also ensured a bullhead being flown to the location right now in order to get them all out of here.

Alas, her duty was far from done just yet; both teams RWBY and JNPR, along with her assistant professor, were still unaccounted.

What made this particularly worrying was that most of the Grimm had appeared to be heading for the area where team RWBY had last been known to be in. The very same area that she'd caught Jaune rushing off to earlier when she'd told him to do so.

After the little time she'd known him, Glynda held Jaune's skill at a pretty high standard, the young man having more than proved his ability in combat. Still… with so many Grimm heading in his general direction, she couldn't help but worry for his safety.

As strong as he was, surely one simple mistake could spell misfortune for him, especially if team RWBY had been injured enough to require he divide his efforts between keeping them safe and fighting the Grimm off.

That had been when something caught her attention, putting her thoughts on a sudden hold.

A thunderous thud resounded throughout the forest and it was enough for her to nearly lose her concentration from the sheer suddenness of it all.

Turning around, she saw dirt being sent flying high into the air and that was all it took to tell her that no doubt students were over there.

Brusquely changing direction, she headed right for it just as the debris from the crash finally began to settle…

…Revealing team JNPR now on the run from a crowd of Grimm. The young Lie Ren appeared to be all but carried, however, by the rambunctious Nora Valkyrie, who herself looked more than a little bruised up, a fact that could also be said for Jaune's younger sister, Jeanne, and her partner, Pyrrha.

A fact that was sure to change if the Grimm got their claws on them.

Which was something Glynda most definitely wouldn't allow at all.

No more students would be getting hurt today.

Raising her riding crop high into the air, aura became visible in a purple color as it coalesced just above the crop's tip.

Then when it formed into a ball of pure unrestrained aura, Glynda launched it downwards to the horde of Grimm that now gave chase after team JNPR.

Ah, how reassuring it was, to hear the cheering cries of her students – mainly Jeanne, it'd seem – as the Grimm were eradicated in a huge explosion of a brilliant purple light.

Time to round them up and go find team RWBY and her assistant as well.

And then after that… time to head home.


Blake's cat ears, still hidden under her large bow, twitched as she heard a massive explosion go off in the far distance.

She wasn't the only one to have heard either.

"What was that?!" Ruby asked in shock, slowing down slightly in her running to turn and see if she could spot the explosion.

"Hopefully, some help," Blake replied as she kept running alongside her leader.

It'd taken much more time than they'd have liked, but they'd finally managed to either outrun or kill the Grimm that had been pursuing them and now the two of them could safely dash back to where Weiss and Yang last were.

It pained both her and Ruby that they couldn't get back to them sooner, but alas the Grimm had proved that troublesome to shake, not to mention how hard it'd been for them to fight back in the tight spaces the trees and bushes provided for them.

Blake could honestly say that she was greatly worried for her partner… and Weiss as well. Though it's only been just a few weeks since the school year started, Yang had already grown on her a lot thanks to her lively yet surprisingly insightful attitude. Hell, even Weiss, despite her still occasional snobbishness, had come to be rather endearing in her own way. Hard to believe she once hated the girl for simply being a Schnee.

"Stay sharp, Ruby," she said as her eyes narrowed. As she ran, she proceeded to grip her blade tightly. "There's no telling just how many Grimm might be left or in what condition Yang and Weiss will be in."

"Right!" Ruby's own silver eyes narrowed, the thought of her sister and partner being hurt clearly causing her to focus to an almost unnatural degree.

It was enough to make Blake respect the young girl that much more, the ability to switch between such a carefree persona to a much more serious one on and off the battlefield honestly being a trait that amazed her.

So much so, in fact, that had she been listening a little more attentively she might've noticed that no more Grimm seemed to be roaming around. Or that the sounds of fighting had ceased completely.

Because of this, she and Ruby could only come screeching to a sudden and very stunned stop as they reached the clearing where the W and Y of their team were at.

For in the clearing stood an utterly stupefied Weiss and Yang along with none other than the new professor, Jaune Arc, whose blind eyes regarded their arrival with a calmness to it that left Blake feeling rattled.

But what rattled her even more… was the fact that the once red grass of Forever Falls was now dyed pitch black in color.

Somehow, someway, she knew immediately why this was.

The Grimm… whenever they were slain, they always faded into a pitch black mist that either fell to the ground or was blown away by the lightest of breezes.

And given the what the situation had been with the sudden onslaught of Grimm…

Blake inwardly shivered, her entire body remaining rooted to the spot as her eyes traveled back and forth between her two thankfully fine teammates and the one clearly responsible for this… this mess.

…Just how many Grimm had he killed to render the entire clearing black in color?

She suddenly felt his eyes – his blind eyes, she had to remind herself – move from nowhere in particular to her. Just how in the world does he do that? It honestly feels like he can actually see where she i-!

"U-Uhmm…" Ruby then began, causing all eyes – Jaune's included – to turn to her.

Blake watched mutely as Ruby looked around as well, taking the sight of the black clearing in before finally saying what was on her mind.

And Blake couldn't help but mentally applaud the girl for saying almost exactly what she wanted to know.

"So… did we happen to miss anything?"


And bam! Done!

Again, huge 'SORRY' for the wait. Alas, I didn't particularly feel like splitting things up into two or three chapters regarding this Grimm invasion of the forest – it just doesn't warrant that kind of length, so to speak in my eyes.

If it seems like team RWBY and JNPR as well failed to show off much of their mad skills, then don't worry. This entire situation was intentional and my reasoning for it will hopefully be explained well in the next chapter or two for this. That, and I plan to wait until later to show off their awesomeness in other fights down the line.

Until next time, everyone! Take care!