The bright, yellow sun brightened up the forest in which the students of Beacon Academy had just been launched into by their professor, Ozpin. Trees were everywhere, some broken down and left with claw marks or slashes from the Grimm and students.

One of these trees soon was parted. Adeth himself slashed the blade of his nodachi through a branch, making it so himself, along with his three other members, would be able to pass. Adeth was first, of course, followed by Nasam, lightly touching the grip of her katana, Kauve, small book in hand, and Shung, holding the strap of his backpack with one hand as it passed over his shoulder.

"We are nearing the relics," Adeth announced, unemotionally. "Do not let this make you drop your guard. Grimm are near. I cannot afford to lose any of you, especially you, Kauve."

Kauve gave out a long sigh, but continued to read his book. "Understood, once more."

In what seemed like half a second, Shung took his backpack off, but the strap stayed on. It formed into a boew and Shung nocked an arrow from the quiver that had formed on his strap. He closed an eye and aimed, releasing his arrow.

The arrow flew from the bow, and rocketed forward. It whistled through the air, towards the intended destination. The metal tip of the projectile then pierced the black fur of an Ursa, causing it to come out the other end. The mighty beast fell with a roar.

The three looked towards Shung. He shrugged nonchalantly. "What?" He asked. "You said we can't lose him, so I took care of the nearest grimm."

Adeth was the first to move on from what had just happened. He knew Shung wasn't telling the truth, and he was soon getting more bored by the second. Silently trekking through the silent forest and avoiding any danger was not at all what he had wanted. But it was for the betterment of the team. If he didn't do as told and went off screaming in a rampage, drawing grim, Kauve would have to put him down for a while.

The small group of four continued through the forest. They eventually parted the trees, with Adeth sheathing his weapon at the sight. He looked down, seeing as they were on higher ground, and gazing upon the green grass ahead of them in the clearing.

The true destination was right ahead. A circular temple made from stone. From the looks of it, this could have once been a nice temple, but now it was decrepit. Stone pillars held up what was left from the top, and slight pieces of the temple were broken, and fallen stones laid on the ground. Moss was growing, hanging from the pillars.

Adeth, along with the others in his group noticed what was left of the temple, the only things seeming to be untouched by time, or at least cleaned up. There were platforms, each of them holding the relics, some gold and others black. Without a word, Adeth took a step forward and slid down the hill and down towards the lower ground.

He slowly descended, and then jumped from the side. He landed down on the grass, in a kneeling position with his head down, and then rose. He walked towards the temple, the others quickly joining him.

He and the rest of the team reached the temple and set foot in it. The four began to do as they wanted. Shung was keeping himself busy, staring at the destroyed parts of stone and moss. Kauve studied the temple, bringing out his notebook in order to write down what he saw. Nasam studied the relics, which were chess pieces.

"Which ones should we get?" Nasam stood, having to bend down a bit to get a good look at the relics. She looked at Adeth for the answer. "You should choose. Each set of partners has to choose a piece."

Adeth pondered which piece he should choose for the team. He wanted to choose a piece that would suit his interest and one that suited what was needed in his plans. There was no second thought in his mind as to what piece the group should choose.

"This one," he said. He picked up the black queen piece. "The queen. It suits what we are doing. Plus, a king, such as myself, is nothing without his queen." He studied the piece as he spoke.

Adeth looked up and saw Shung grabbed the other queen already. He was staring off into the distance, tuning out what he was saying. Kauve was taking notes. He saw Nasam, and saw as she made direct eye contact. Seconds later, her face turned a shade of red, and she looked away quickly.

Adeth told himself there was no need to try and figure out what she was thinking. There was no need to do so, and all that was needed was to follow the next step in the plan.

Conaire never really had much of a problem with Ursai. They were big, yes, but he could see them as small and cuddly stuffed animals. Was that weird? Yeah, but he still couldn't shake that thought.

To him, even the actual grimm wasn't bad when he had to fight them. They were heavy hitters, but they struck about as fast as a snail, and that was on a good day. A few ducks and jumps was all that was needed, and then a good strong hit to either its chin or gut. He liked how it was simple for him.

He didn't like being chased by around fifteen Ursai. He especially didn't like it when Nogi continuously shot down his ideas. She could totally annoy all of them to death. She was close to doing it to him, after all.

Conaire would snatch a branch from a trees, then throw it towards the Ursai. "I'm telling you, it will work!"

"And I'm telling you that I should give you to them for dinner!" She replied.

The two continued their sprint, jumping over fallen trees that occasionally came up, and having Conaire smash through paths. Eventually Nogi would place a hand on Conaire's shoulder to signal to stop.

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the dumb one," he complained, looking in the direction of the continuously following grimm. They were relentless. "Why did we stop?"

Nogi responded by spinning her staff and finally stopping it on the ground behind her. "Shoot the fire from the flamethrower at me when I spin this."

Conaire didn't know what to say, but any chance to shoot fire at this girl he'd take it. His gauntlets were extended, and the silver cylinder popped out as Nogi begun to spin her staff outwards.

Flames spewed out from the cylinder, onto the staff. The heads of the staff would catch fire. Conaire wasn't sure whether this was logical or not, but man, did it look cool. Or hot. Whichever

He watched her turn towards the area of the grimm. She made her staff into her tonfa, and then would continue spinning it from the grip before smashing the foreheads together for a fraction of a second, then continue to spin them.

"I'll need you to back me up, alright?" She looked towards Conaire but didn't wait for an answer. "This fire should give more of a hurt to the Ursai."

"Let's kick some Ursai butt," Conaire responded.

"I'll take eight, you take the remaining seven," Nogi told him.

"Wait, why do I get less?"

"Because," she said, rolling her eyes, "you're a slower hitter than me."

"But I'm a stronger hitter."

"Conaire, look, if you want more, then you can take on nine while I deal with six. Are you good with that?"

"Yes."

"Finally," she sighed. "You're like a little kid."

Conaire didn't have time to respond. The fifteen Ursai finally showed up. The fourteen all behind the one out front were all the same. They had black fur, as dark as night, and had bony spikes on their backs and arms, along with bone-like masks with red detailing. Their red eyes seemed to glow.

The leader was an Ursa Major. It was like its companions, but much larger. It had the same mask and spikes, but also had bony plating on its back and legs. The red eyes of the beast radiated anger for having driven it so far as it stood on its hind legs to let out a ferocious roar before getting back onto its normal position.

Conaire grinned wickedly. "Mine."

Conaire was on the Ursa Major in a heartbeat. He rammed in and caught the Ursa Major with a strong uppercut to the chin, knocking its head upwards, allowing for Conaire to continue his onslaught of hits.

He worked on his footwork as more Ursai came at him. He moved his feet as they came at him, but maintained the same position with his knees bent. He knocked one Ursa into another, then blasted away three into a few trees. The last three were taken care of one by one.

Nogi was keeping herself busy. She kept her tonfas spinning as she rammed them into Ursai. Her quick barrage was unmatched, knocking away two Ursa with a strong jab with her tonfas, a shotgun shell blast, and a burn from the flames.

Her tonfas eventually got locked together to form her staff, which she kept spinning. She knocked away three Ursai with a smack of her staff and finished up just as quick as she started.

She didn't have much time to celebrate, as the Ursa Major would then clap both her and Conaire together, extinguishing the flaming weapon. They grunted, and Conaire looked at her. "So, ideas on taking down the Ursa Major? Punching didn't work. Even in the sweet spot."

"The sweet spo-?" Nogi stopped herself as the two jumped back. Those few seconds between the jump and landing where enough for her to realize what he meant. Conaire knew this and couldn't help but smirk as she looked at him with a bit of red on her face. "Shush. And I don't have anything his time. Can't you pull out your semblance again?"

"The more I use it, the quicker my body gets damaged," He admitted with a sigh. He pushed Nogi out of the way and attempted to match the Ursa Major's side swing with his own punch, but failed and got knocked into a tree. Nogi saved him, running the forehead of her staff into the Ursa Major's face and blasted it with a shotgun shell before it bit down on him.

She helped him up quickly and got into her battle stance just as fast. "Anything sharp?" She asked, moving her eyes away from the beast and towards Conaire. "Decapitation would be great. Sadly, I don't have any stab-stab item on my staff or tonfas."

Conaire raised a fist, and a blade popped out of the top of his gauntlet, above his fist. "I have this. But it's gotten a slight bit dull," He admitted. "I'm not a stab-stab kind of guy. But I have an idea. I'll show you why I used to be called the Salamander." He then gave a thumbs up before running at the Ursa Major.

He two blades retracted, and Conaire jumped into the air. He clashed his gauntlets together, sending sparks outward. The crystal of dust used for his flamethrower would break, and near the gauntlets streams of fire would be seen flowing around it.

Conaire hit the ground and didn't miss a beat. His arm flew up to meet a slash from the Ursa Major. It made a rip in his hoodie, but he didn't mind. He swiftly moved his fist over to the Ursa Major's stomach, and landed a strong blow, sending pain coursing through the body of the beast.

Conaire knew this wasn't the only thing. It felt as if it had just gotten a blast of fire to its stomach. It would feel like a strong scorching blast, making the large bear jump off the ground lightly to gain some ground.

The streams of fire were gone, but Conaire knew this was their effect. Each one of his punches would already deal a good amount, and the effect of the dust would help immensely. But he had to at fast. The time limit of three minutes was ticking down.

Conaire threw a quick flurry of punches towards the bear. It stumbled back, up until Conaire lowered his body, making it follow his fist as he landed a clean uppercut. "Feel the flame!" He laughed. He ducked a blow, but he then got a headbutt, seeing him back wide-eyed.

The Ursa Major then growled. It began to charge towards Conaire, who was ready in his battle stance. There was a surprise, when the large bear launched itself off the ground and over Conaire. He gazed at its stomach and realized it was charging towards Nogi.

Nogi was slow on the draw. She pointed the forehead of the tonfas at the beast. She was still too slow on her fire. She punhed straight, but it was all in vain.

Suddenly, the bear was launched towards a tree. Nogi glanced at it, seeing a large mark on its stomach, along with its head now laying elsewhere. She saw a bits and pieces of a strong material. She followed the trail back towards her direction.

Finally, she looked towards where the bits ended. It was at Conaire, who was standing with both fists stretched out forward. He was panting heavily, and Nogi could see his eyes. They seemed to be lit ablaze. An aura of fire seemed to come off of him.

Suddenly, the fire in his eyes ceased, along with his aura. He dropped to he ground. He felt pain coursing throughout his whole body, most of it being towards one of his arms, as it stung with pain, all while feeling as if something was dripping and sliding down his arm.

Nogi quickly went over to check on him. "Are you alright?" She asked. She looked over at Conaire's arm, and her eyes widened. "Oh man... you're bleeding quite a bit."

"S-seriously?" He stuttered. He looked over and saw blood flowing from the cut he Ursa Major gave to him. It went straight through his hoodie and cut. "Well, that's a thing... no worries." He ripped the rest of his hoodie and held it out towards Nogi. "Uh... mind tying this around the wound? It's red, so I guess people won't notice the blood."

Nogi nodded and grabbed it and began to do as he said. "Thanks for the save. I guess you don't get a point for that?" She asked.

Conaire laughed lightly, but groaned in pain afterwords. "No, guess not. And it wasn't a problem," he said honestly, "my body just does things without my brain sometimes. I activated my semblance and just brought out the blades and stabbed. Now my blades are shattered and my body hurts from using my semblance again."

"What was that thing you did, by the way? You know, when you smashed your fists together," she asked when she finished. "Looked fancy."

"It was dust. The dust I use for my flamethrower." He held out his good arm and the silver cylinder of his flamethrower poping out. It hurt, but he maintained it for a few seconds before returning both weapons to their idle forms. "It breaks with a hard enough clash, and then gets attracted to the surrounding gauntlet. I came up with his while making my weapon years back."

"That's pretty smart. You may be stupid with other things, but you're at least smart combat and weapon-wise." Nogi stood up and looked around. "Can you stand?"

"Of course I can!" Conaire replied, then attempted to stand. He winced in pain and then sat back down. "Not. I cannot. My aura's all depleted and the pain isn't helping. My semblance isn't helping either." He sighed and closed his eyes.

Conaire opened his eyes and saw Nogi sitting next to him, looking down. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for you to get better. No point in going without my partner."

Conaire squinted and looked at her. "Are you doing his just to get even with me?" He asked.

"Don't make me slap you," she replied. "I just don't want to leave you here. It would suck to come back to Beacon and say my partner died before even getting to the relics."

"Thanks," Conaire said in a sarcastic tone. "You really do care..."

"Just shut up and lean back and relax. Makes my life easier."

Conaire would laugh lightly, then do as she said. He leaned back and laid on the ground. He stayed there quietly, watching the clouds pass with Nogi until he was rested and at his best.