A few nights after the qualifying exam, all of the remaining students stood at the launchpad for the hover cars to send Huntsmen on missions. All of the potential students stood shoulder to shoulder, Headmistress Dorothy stood with a glass of tea in her hand, her assistant, Todd was quietly scribbling notes into his book. "I bet you all understand why you're here." Dorothy spoke, taking a sip of her tea.

"This is the true test to see if you newcomers will become the pride of Shade Academy. I suppose a good metaphor for what comes next in the following five days is forging the blade in fire, tempering it to the perfect sharpness." She said with a smile, Silas stood somewhere near the back, somewhat annoyed by the fact he was pretty sure everyone else in the crowd was taller than him.

"In roughly a few minutes, a large airship will land here capable of carrying you to our dedicated testing area. A 50 kilometer stretch covering rivers, caves, cliffs, deserts, and everything else Vacuo has to offer in its diverse, if somewhat arid climate." She explained, lifting her hand to her ear to see if she could hear the sound of the airship approaching.

"This area is not secure, and Grimm roam it entire on their own volition. Yet, it is probably the largest stretch of nature far away enough from the cities that we don't have to worry how violent things will become if we trained our students there." Dorothy elaborated, waiting for a second, and after an awkward pause continued to speak.

"Looks like I got here a little too early, and now it's time to stall until the airship arrives! Any questions about what you know so far?" She asked, slowly walking behind Todd, whose attention got broken from his notes. "O-oh, they're asking me? Okay then." He said with an awkward chuckle, one student with violet hair raising her hand to speak.

"Vacuo's known for being pretty hot… If we're going to be out there for more than a few hours, will we be getting water?" She asked, Todd nodded in response. "You'll be given canteens in your basic supply pack, along with a sleeping roll, and a scroll to both track your aura, and allow us to monitor your progress. We will monitor you without an attempt to intervene unless one of you need medical attention." Todd stated, making the expression on the violet haired girl fill with worry.

"Sadly, Grimm do not know of patience, and in the 2500 square mile area you will be traversing, we will have a response time that will vary. Some of you may die, which is just an unfortunate truth of what bring a huntsman entails. It's why we were stringent with the request that if you don't wish to go face to face with your own mortal coil, you won't be punished if you decide to quit." Todd spoke grimly, which made Silas take a deep breath.

Silas had to fight his second thoughts constantly, especially since he doesn't have any passion for this. To him, it was a means to an end, but was that end even worth it? 'I can't wuss out now… I trained 5 years to find him.' Silas thought to himself, breaking his cloud of doubt, though he ended up clenching his hands so hard his nails almost cut into his flesh. Soon, the hum of the airship began to be heard, the wind displaced by the engines caused a massive gust of wind, rippling clothes and hair. Silas lifted a forearm to shield his eyes.

"Finally!" Todd said, getting tired of answering depressing questions, the airship landing near the pad, the doors on the bottom opening and a long walkway sliding out until it pushed against the floor. "Alright everyone, please enter single file, no pushing or shoving." He said, gesturing as Dorothy walked onto the ship first, followed by him and a long line of students. Silas didn't go until he was one of the few left, making him last in line as he walked into the ship.

After all the students entered, the doors shut, and the walkway retracted back into the chassis. The ship took off, the rumbling from the engines hitting the ground, before it slowed to a quiet reverberation in the floor of the ship. Dorothy walked up to a screen, hitting a button, turning the screen on to reveal a map of the greater Vacuo area.

"On each cardinal direction there is a temple. A temple of wind to the south, a temple of water to the west, a temple of fire to the east, and a temple of thunder to the north. Each one has an emblem that you must take back to the central temple to pass the exam. Each temple is flanked by Grimm, so it will not be a safe trip no matter which direction you must choose." Dorothy began to explain, before changing pictures to something else.

"Here's the catch… You must team up with a partner as soon as you see them, and you will not be able to pass until each one of you have a -different- emblem, or else you will not pass. There is a maximum of 4 people per team, stealing emblems is not allowed, but you may trade emblems with other students as long as both students agree." She continued, slowly walking back from the students as they began to hover over the central temple.

"This will take place over 5 days, if you can't claim a symbol and return to the center temple with an emblem, you do not pass the exam and will be sent back to Umbra, You are all provided with Scrolls for mapmaking and information gathering as you please. Understood?" She asked, nodding coming from several people as she explained. "And one more thing." She said, hitting a button, causing the floor to open wide, dropping all of the students from it with screaming from many of them. "Have fun! Don't die!" She shouted out of the hole, watching as they all fell several hundred feet to the ground.

"Do we have to do that every time?" Todd spoke, pulling out his scroll to check the surveillance cameras. "I'm talking Ozpin into doing this with his own students, it's funny every time." She replied, opening her own to observe her falling students. First was the person she was interested in the most, Lazarus, who was fresh from the hospital. He was quickly loading bullets into both revolvers, pointing the first one at the ground.

"Six shots of fire Dust…" He said, unleashing a hail of bullets into the earth that exploded into flames, slowly heating the ground to a hissing red glowing rock, each shot hitting the ground making the circle of heat bigger and hotter. "And to match, 6 rounds of ice Dust." He muttered, spinning the pistol and firing six shots into the ground right where he heated up the ground. The ice dust quickly froze overtop the near lava hot ground, until it began to crack and melt. Suddenly, a blast of hot steam fired up from a small hole in the ice, launching into the air at hundreds of miles per hour and hitting Lazarus directly.

Blocking the heat from his face with both his arms, the pseudo geyser he made stopped his fall, turning his skydive into a gentle landing on the ground beneath him. Dusting off some of the water and rocks on his long black coat, spinning both revolvers and tucking them back into the holsters of his coat. "I'm surprised that worked." He muttered to himself, before he was distracted by the sound of screaming coming from the sky.

"Amateurs." Lazarus sighed to himself. Giving his sore leg a stretch, they removed the bullet from it and closed the wound, but the feeling of the stitches made his leg harder to move than he'd like. Quickly, Dorothy switched to the person who was falling and screaming like an afraid chinchilla, who was Silas.

"Oh… The Weathersky boy. I forgot he joined the academy at the last second." She spoke to herself, as she watched Silas flail in mid air, which made his descent a little slower than Lazarus' hawk like dive. He reached into his belt, pulling his two blades out and flipped stomach down, trying to find something he could hook the blades into as a brake. Eventually spotting a large tree, he spun both his blades and slammed them as hard as he could into the wood… Then realizing the blade didn't slide down like they wanted, they caught.

His grip wasn't strong enough to hold on for a sudden stop, so the blades slipped out of his hands and stuck to the top of the tree. Silas then proceeded to his every single branch on the way down, before landing face first on the bottom in a heap. This made Dorothy cringe. "Oooh… Nasty." She chided, but Silas slowly got onto one knee, looking at the top of the tree with blurred vision.

"She's gonna kill me if I left her blades in a tree…" Silas said, limping over to the tree and hugging his arms around it, starting the process of sluggishly climbing up a 100 foot tall tree to get his blades from it. His aura was already waning and he didn't even fight anybody yet. To be fair, he didn't expect to fall from an airship either.

It was a slow climb, so Dorothy switched off the monitor, leaving Silas slowly climbing the tree until he hit the top, wrapping both thighs around the tree, reaching up with both hands and gripping his blades. "Aaaand they're free!" He shouted with excitement, jerking his shoulders back to realize only then they were stuck in there really good. "Oh no…" Silas muttered, realizing he'd have to pull harder.

"Okay, you can do this… One good yank and you can start this mission." He muttered to himself, gripping hard enough to turn his knuckles white. "Annnd… GO!" He shouted, leaning back with all his weight, and tugging the blades loose… then throwing them so hard they both fell off the tree and hit the bottom a few seconds later. Silas was now upside down, hanging from the tree by the grip of his legs.

"...This is bad." Silas complained, trying to sit back up, but feeling the sudden swaying of the tree from a gust of wind, along with a pain in his ribs. "C'mon… Just… Grab the damn tree." Silas demanded of himself, but he still couldn't do it. Silas squeezed his thighs harder on the wood and went back to being upside down. "There's one thing left to do… My secret technique." He concluded, before putting both hands in front of his mouth.

"CAN SOMEBODY GET ME DOWN? I'M STUCK!" He shouted, not sure if anyone could hear him, but he was shouting as loud as he physically could. "Please!? I'll make you my mom's famous cookies!" He shouted, before a dizzy spell made him stop. "W-woah… Hey, the blood's rushing to my head!" He said, his voice wavering a bit, when he heard the rustling of some bushes.

"Aww yeah, rescue team~" Silas said, pumping his fist excitedly, until his heart sank. It was a Grimm, a Beowolf. Though, a fairly small one who was slowly walking up to the base of the tree, sniffing it and giving a predatory growl, sitting down at the base. "Hey… Buzz off Beowolf, I'm in a situation up here." Silas complained to the beast, who didn't react to his speaking. Silas gently swayed his hands. "Shoo. Shoooo! Why aren't you shooing?" Silas complained, though he was trying to cover his nervousness with frustration.

The bushes rattled again, and now two more beowolves approached, though they were bigger and covered in bone like appendages over their muzzles and shoulders. One growled, standing on the tree and sharpening its claws on the wood. "Damn it…" Silas sighed, covering his face with his hand and shaking it side to side. "Okay, Beowolves… I know this looks bad. I'm upside down, my ribs might be broken, I'm stuck in the tree like a curious cat… but this isn't negative emotion!" He pleaded to the Grimm, seeing more Beowolves approach from the bushes the first few exited from.

"Okay, this joke is much less funny now that I see like ten of them." He said, when suddenly his legs began to tremble, holding onto his weight was getting harder and harder by the second. "This is awful…" Silas exclaimed, swallowing quickly as he tried to sit up again to grab onto the branch, but the same pain in his ribs made him jump in pain.

"So this is how I die… A Grimm Pinata." Silas said, closing his eyes in the shame he was feeling at the moment. Suddenly, shots rang out that made Silas jump, his eyes shooting open. A man with red hair was firing potshots at the mob of Grimm collected at the bottom of the tree. "You were sitting around feeling sorry for yourself, why did you NOT think Grimm would show up?" The man shouted, a bullet piercing one Beowolf's skull, sending it to the floor.

"Drop down, grab your weapons. I'll cover you!" He shouted, getting on one knee and firing more and more shots at the Grimm. Silas was a bit apprehensive at the idea of diving into the gunfire. But his legs were starting to go numb. He let go, falling down and kicking off a tree to slow his momentum. Between shots, Silas dove into the Grimm, grabbing both his blades and sliding between their legs on his back to make some room.

"Okay, I'm low on Aura, so I'll run interference, see if you can get more shots on them!" Silas shot back, which made the red haired man smirk. "Perfect." Firing 6 shots off at a time, reloading with one hand while the other aimed and shot, making a perpetual stream of bullets. They chased after the tired Silas, which made them ignore the attack, Some of the wounded Grimm slowing down and struggling, which he quickly shot in the head to dwindle their numbers. Silas dove against a tree, turning the other way and diving back into the pile of Grimm. Ducking between each swipe with his superior speed, finally landing a few slashes against them, just enough to keep their attention off the fact that precise pistol shots were raining from the other side of the clearing they were at.

Leaping with one leg off a Grimm's swipe, Silas launched himself overtop the mob, landing on his feet just behind him before sinking back down to one knee. "Running will just make you die tired, we need to split these Grimm into two groups so we can finish them off!" The redhead shouted back at Silas, who nodded quietly.

The redhead ran into the group, landing a few swift kicks to a Beowolf, as Silas waved over the attention of the remaining Grimm, the group of 5 beasts split into two, Silas getting two and the man getting three. As the man looked at Silas, he just came to a realization. 'That's the kid who fought me back at the robbery, damn it…" Lazarus realized exactly who he was, though it seemed like Silas was too exhausted to think, and was more acting on instinct.

"These are the bigger ones, don't attack unless you think you can avoid getting hit. I'll give you covering fire." Lazarus demanded, Silas nodding his head as one of the Beowolves pounced at him. Silas landing onto his back and landing a quick slash to it's chest. Silas then turned invisible, getting out of the way of the next Grimm slamming into the first. Silas quickly lept to the bottom branch of a tree, diving off and planting a slash into its throat while riding its head. The beowolf growled, grabbing Silas by his arms and throwing him off hard enough that he bounced. The other monster slammed its head into him in mid air, knocking the wind out of him and slamming him into a tree hard enough for all the leaves to fall off.

"Damn it, kid." Lazarus growled, having to ignore the Grimm he was going to attack to rescue the younger huntsman. Silas caught the fangs of a beowolf between his blades, prying its jaw open as Lazarus stomped over, planting a gun in the back of its head and firing three shots, destroying the Grimm. The other one blindsided Lazarus, landing slashes on his chest and sending him rolling along the Ground. Silas collected himself, getting back onto his feet and interrupted it's onslaught on his new ally by doing his now signature flying knee to the side of his head, sending the beast to the ground.

"That knee thing really works." Silas said with a chuckle, before a loud growl sent a shiver up his spine, the three beasts that Lazarus ignored have painted a target on the young man. Lazarus got back up, shoving Silas to the side when one tackled him to the ground, opening its maw to bite Lazarus, before getting a gun in his mouth.

"Don't pat yourself on your back." He said, shooting the beast down its throat, killing it. Silas sighed, holding his blades out and trying to channel his aura through it. The blades flickered a shade of purple, albeit a weak looking one. Putting the two blades together about an inch apart, the glowing became a ball of plasma in the center. Another Grimm charged at Silas, which made him throw the ball of plasma from the blade to its face, causing an explosion of electricity and fire that blew half it's face clean off, bringing the number down to three.

"H-hey, that worked!" Silas shouted in excitement of learning that little trick, despite it seemed… less than reliable, though it left him open for the next attack, a hard swipe that launched his lithe frame nearly twenty feet into the air, with girlish shrieking coming from the shock of being launched so high into the air.

"F-Fallinnnng!" Silas shouted, Lazarus firing a few shots to stun the beast, Silas landing on the Grimm as it roared as Silas. "Hi." Silas greeted, almost casually, before stabbing his blades into both of the Grimm's eyes. "Stab." He said, casually, the Beowolf trying to buck him off like a wild bull, which caused more girlish screams to come from Silas. The blinded beast fell onto it's back, nearly crushing Silas in the spikes on it's shoulders. Silas pulled the blades out of it's eyes, charging the blade again and slicing it like a hot knife through it's neck, killing the next one and leaving two.

Silas started taking some deep breaths to recover, since he began to feel his Aura fade. "Sorry, you need to take these two!" Silas shouted to his assumed stranger, Lazarus bit his lip and reloaded his guns with more fire dust. "I didn't want to use all my dust right away… But these guys are pissing me off." He muttered, marching forward determined with a limp, blasting bullets upon bullets in both beasts, turning their back to face him as each bullet caused a fireball, sending them recoiling back in pain until both fell, dead.

"Done." Lazarus said, blowing some of the smoke from his gun as he walked back to Silas, who was leaning against the tree. "You alright?" He asked, before Silas stared at his face, his expression immediately changing from tired to anger. "It's YOU!" Silas shouted, tiredly leaping onto Lazarus, grabbing him by his black and red leather jacket. "You're that punk from the bank! You're that punk who shot me! Who the HELL let you into the academy!?" Silas shouted, the fury coming from almost nowhere for Lazarus.

"Chill." Lazarus said, shoving Silas, but Silas had a grip on Lazarus' coat, swinging a wild punch at his face, which Lazarus just casually dodged. "You pull a gun, threaten innocent people, and kick me, and shoot me several times in the face, and you're telling ME to chill!? The nerve of you, man…" Silas said, seething clearly at the man he fought just a week ago.

"You know what happened after I took the money? I got betrayed." Lazarus said to the angry Silas, not sure if he could hear him or not. "I still can't run that fast on the leg they shot me with, I'm pretty sure I'll have problems using it for months. The police made a deal with me. I become a student and track down who hired me." He explained, Silas letting go of his coat.

"I wished it was anybody else who saved me." Silas complained, putting his hands on his hips. "Look, I don't want to be here. But if this is my way out, I'm going to give it my all." Lazarus said, though it sounded somewhat forced. "So… Someone ruined your life, and you joined the Academy to find them." Silas said, looking at his own feet.

"Pretty much, yeah." Lazarus replied, which made Silas' eyes shoot wide. "Oh no… no no no no…" Silas stammered, putting his hands on each side of his head in disbelief. "What now? Did you break something?" Lazarus asked, confused, slightly walking up to the shorter raven haired man. "We're the same. Like… Eerily the same to the point I hate it." Silas complained, pointing a finger to him, but Lazarus just tilted his head slightly, waiting for him to explain.

"SERIOUSLY, WE'RE THE SAME." Silas almost shouted now from the exasperation coming over him. "I hate the academy. Someone ruined my life, I begrudgingly joined the academy in order to find him. Just… Switch out 'being forced to' with 'because I hate my dad." Silas explained, which made Lazarus rub his temples. "Oh god, we really are the same. That is so lame." He complained, Silas sighed a little bit as Lazarus gently walking up to him and pulling out his scroll.

"They said the first person I meet is my teammate. So… Let's make a plan, alright?" Lazarus spoke, pulling up the map on his Scroll, setting it on the ground and laying it in front of him. "So… What's your opinion on caves?" Lazarus asked, Silas looking at the Scroll like it was him learning a new language. "Uhh… There are caves on this map?" Silas asked, kneeling down a little closer as Lazarus narrowed his glare at him. "Have you ever used one of these things? It's touch interfaced. Watch." Lazarus said, zooming the map in by moving two fingers simultaneously.

"The temple of wind is a somewhere in a cave system according to the topography… The temple of fire is in a desert, the temple of lightning is on a mountain, and the temple of water is on the coast. With my bad leg and you being… you." Lazarus continued, which made Silas glare at him unamused. "We could probably have the easiest time if we just explored the caves for the emblem, before planning our next move. Any questions?" Lazarus said, looking up at him.

"I guess that's what we're doing." Silas said, standing back up and stretching both his arms, trying to recover from the last fight. "To the caves!" He proclaimed, pointing a finger at what he assumed was south.

"That's west, Idiot." Lazarus corrected him, which Silas responded by turning to the left and pointing that way instead. "CAVES. LET'S GO." He said, loudly in annoyance.