Author's Note: Hurray! A new chapter! Sorry that this took a while. School work, life, the universe, everything. 42, guys. 42. So, here we are at last. Initiation has officially begun. Let the show go on!
Chapter 6
Wind rushed past Andrew's ears as he fell towards the Emerald forest. The wolf squinted his eyes slightly to keep the wind from causing them to sting. He saw his fellow students falling through the air around, some already employing attempts to slow their fast decent.
He caught sight of the Schnee hopping from rings that appeared under her feet, her decent becoming controlled and gradually slowing with each hop.
On his other side, he saw Reginald in his bright gold combat gear falling through the air backwards with his hands behind his head as if he was simply resting on a couch instead of falling toward a collection of extremely sturdy and unyielding trees.
"Show off," Andrew muttered to himself as he fell closer to the trees. The sound of the wind was so loud that he could barely hear his own voice.
Off to his right he heard a girl cry out: "Birdie, no!" Before he could look for the source of the shout, he plunged past the canopy of the trees.
The Faunus pulled the collapsed rod of Fenrir's Fang from his belt and held it in front of him like a handle bar. As he passed between the trunk of two trees he extended the quarterstaff. The spike and bayonet on the ends of the weapon dug into the trunks of the two trees and held fast.
The remainder of Andrew's momentum sent him swinging around the weapon like it was a trapeze. He continued spinning around the staff until he eventually slowed to a stop and was left hanging between the two trees.
Andrew kept his grip on the weapon as he fought back the dizziness that fell on him. After a moment, the wolf's head cleared and he looked down to gauge his fall.
The glowing read eyes of a beowolf met his own and the Faunus and Grimm simply stared at each other.
"Hi." Andrew said. "I need a cushion." Then he retracted the ends of Fenrir's Fang and he dropped to the ground. His boots slammed into the head of the Grimm with a satisfying amount of force.
The beowolf let out a yip and its head slammed into the ground. Vapor began to rise as Andrew walked over its corpse and further into the forest.
"Find a partner and get a relic form the abandoned temple north of here." Andrew said to himself. "Shouldn't be too hard." He set off through the trees, moving without making a sound.
His yellow eyes moved from left to right, keeping an eye out for any movement, his grey wolf's ears perked for any sound. Goal number one, find a partner. Preferably a partner that he would be able to get along with. That didn't seem overly likely, given the what he'd seen of his fellow first years.
Darren had never liked him at Herald, and Andrew doubted that becoming partners would only make their relationship more frosty. The wolf suspected that Darren wasn't much of a fan of Faunus, for whatever stupid reason the knight had.
Andrew ducked under a branch and continued running through his options.
The kid with the bird's nest hair had Andrew about as much confidence as Darren did. The look the kid had given him on the cliff was proof enough of that. It was hard not to have mutual feelings.
And he was never going to be her partner, no matter what Ozpin said. He'd rather leave than be stuck with her. For a dark moment, Andrew considered the thought of violence if it came to it, but he shook it away. That'd just mean she had won after all. He wasn't going to let that happen. There were other schools if the situation came up.
Some of the brush nearby rustled and Andrew hefted Fenrir's Fang, one part of the weapon extending, making the rod into a bayonetted rifle. He tracked a slight movement in the bush and fired a quick, precise shot.
The bullet met its mark and there was a howl. A beowolf leapt out of the shrub. It didn't take another step before a second bullet impacted with one of its glowing red eyes. The Grimm stumbled and fell to the ground, its body already starting to dissolve. Andrew lowered the blue staff and continued his trek north.
Marie was an it-depends option. She had stopped Darren from antagonizing him, but had lectured him immediately there after. There was also that moment in front of the tree from the other day. She had some kind of resentment of misgivings about Faunus, he was sure of that. Probably not the best choice.
The same logic applied to the Schnee. He doubted working with the heiress would be pleasant if she was anything like her father. It was well known that the family was not particular fond of Faunus, whether they were member of the White Fang or not. No, she wasn't a choice.
Pyrrha Nikos wasn't a bad choice though. The invincible girl. A legend of his generation. Four time sequential winner of Mistral regional tournament. Now there was a huntress waiting to happen. Andrew trusted his instincts about the red head.
Emily Virden wasn't a bad choice either. She had shown him empathy and trust from the beginning and there wasn't any kind of animosity between them. She could work as well.
Another rustle brought Andrew out of his thoughts. He fully extended his staff and focused his senses, slowly moving his eyes and keeping his ears keyed to any movement. There was nothing that his senses could detect. His instincts, however, were telling him that he was being watched.
The Faunus slowly began to move, his booted feet not making any sound as he walked. He waited for his moment.
There was a movement behind him and Andrew suddenly whirled, his staff lashing out against the incoming attacker. Fenrir's Fang struck the beowolf squarely in the snout and the hound was knocked aside. The Grimm landed on its feet and roared at the Faunus in rage.
It bounded forward and slashed at Andrew with its claws. The Faunus parried the strike with one end of his staff before attacking with the other end. He struck the monster in the head again and it retreated a couple paces.
Andrew spun the staff and got into a new stance, waiting for the Grimm's next strike. The beowolf let out a growl and reared up.
Off to Andrew's left there was a hail of gun fire and a controlled volley of bullets tore through the Grimm in front of him.
The Grimm let out a sound before falling to the ground, its remains starting to dissolve.
Andrew looked to the source of the gunfire as Reginald stepped out of the brush, hefting a black and gold tommy gun in his hands.
"And that's twenty lien to moi." The ram said with an appalling attempt at being noncommittal. "You can pay me at your earliest convenience." Andrew rolled his eyes.
"That doesn't count." He said. "I could've taken him easily." Reg shrugged.
"Probably. But you didn't. I did, and saved you time and energy too. I also took care of his buddy while you having fun." The ram nodded his head to the side, indicating another dissolving beowolf. Andrew shook his head.
"I could've taken him too. It'll take more than a couple of beowolves to take me down. Or to convince me to pay you anything." Reginald raised an eyebrow good-naturedly.
"I'm starting to wonder if you even have twenty lien to give me." He waved a hand dismissively. "We can argue about it later, partner." Andrew raised his hands in defeat.
"Alright. Checkmate. I'm still not paying you." Reginald bowed with a smile and waved a hand toward a path.
"I believe we have a relic to collect." He said. The two Faunus set off down the path and Andrew had to admit to himself, that his partner could probably have been a lot worse.
Emily weaved through the tree, trekking on feet made silent through years of practice. Few recognized the advantages studying dance could provide. One such advantage was learning how to move smoothly and silently. No one wanted to dance with a partner who would clomp around like they were wearing heavy boots. Another advantage was being much more sure of footing when moving.
The result was that the blonde cat moved better than most through the brush of the forest, even thought she was not used to the environment or specifically trained to move well in the forest.
Silence was useful for her right now. She was at a disadvantage with the closeness of the trees. Wind's Edge was a useful weapon, but a whip could be hard to use in tight spaces, no matter if it was designed to wrap around cover or not. The dagger form of Wind's Edge could work at close range, but it wouldn't be as much use for causing real damage.
Emily moved through the forest and kept an eye out for Grimm as well as her fellow students. She'd caught sight of some of her fellow students, like a beautiful and buxom blonde who had completely obliterated an Ursa, but they had already acquired partners.
She idly wondered what would happen if there was an odd number of students. What would happen to the odd one out? The thought was ridiculous, of course. Beacon undoubtedly accepted enough students to create an appropriate amount of teams for each class. Nevertheless, she hadn't found a partner yet.
An idea struck her and she quickly scaled a nearby tree, hoping that she would be able to spot more students from the higher vantage point. She'd also be able to avoid more of the Grimm in this manner.
She began to jump from tree to tree, steadily moving north, listening for any sign of her fellow students.
It wasn't long before she heard the sound of combat off to one side. Emily changed her course and moved towards it.
She landed on a sturdy branch and looked into a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing she saw the girl she had been comforting the previous night, Marie, fighting an Ursa. Emily was caught off guard by the style of combat the girl was using.
Marie was apparently weaponless and fighting with only her hands and feet. The only weapon or armor that was on the girl was a pair of maroon bracers that matched the girl's hair and jean jacket. Other than that, she simply wore black combat boots and a dark pair of pants and shirt.
The fact that Marie didn't have a weapon and that she was only five feet tall, however, didn't seem to have been given to the girl.
Emily watched as Marie bobbed past a swing from the rather large Ursa and drove her hand in a palm strike into the Grimm's chest. The Ursa stumbled back like it had been hit with a heavy hammer. The maroonette paused for a moment before she swept her leg out and drove it into the Ursa's knee.
There was a loud crack and the Grimm fell to the ground. It rolled over onto its stomach and tried to rise, but was hindered by the knee that Marie had broken. Emily saw her opening and reacted.
She lashed Wind's Edge out and the sharp segments of the chain whip cut through the air and wrapped around the front leg on the Ursa's already injured side. Emily yanked back on the weapon and hopped back out of the tree. The branch she had been standing acted like a pulley and the force of her descent made the segments of metal cut cleanly through the Ursa's limb. Emily landed lightly on the ground and the Ursa, deprived of a second limb, fell uselessly to the ground.
Marie didn't waste any time. The moment the Ursa collapsed she hopped lightly onto the Ursa's back and a pair of short wide blades slid out of the bracers on her forearms. She slashed both of her arms and the blades cut through the Grimm's neck.
The monster's head dropped to the ground and the human hopped off of the body as it began to dissolve, the blades sliding back into the bracers and out of sight.
"Hey." Emily said. "You alright." Marie met her eyes as she spoke.
"Yeah. You partnered up yet?" Emily smiled.
"I am now." The Faunus said.
"Thanks for the assist." The human said. "Where'd you come up with the trick to cut that leg off?"
"Saw something like it in a video game that was being played in a store. The main character was wearing white and had a hood on. I don't remember the title."
"Huh." Marie said. "Inspired."
"Thanks." Emily replied, her cheeks turning slightly pink at the praise. "It was nothing. I'm sure you could've handled it." Marie shrugged.
"What could've happened is irrelevant. You helped a lot. Thanks." Emily's cheeks heated and she waved her hand vaguely northward.
"We've got a relic to collect. We should probably get moving." Marie nodded and the two girls set off towards their objective.
Author's note: The first part of initiation has been completed! Everybody is all partnered up and heading for the temple. Question for you all. What pieces do you think everyone will take? Also, Assassin's Creed fans will hopefully notice the reference I made during the chapter. Whelp, that's all I've got. I hope to have the next chapter out faster than this one. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Until next time! Hasta!
PS: Special thanks to Arlnoff for catching the typos I had missed in edit. I apologize for those. :)