Arc 1, Chapter 13

Pleasantries

Weiss slid Myrtenaster free from the Beowolf corpse. Glistening, black blood ran down the handle and onto her knuckles.

Again, she glanced over to see how her companion was faring. Again, it served only to frustrate her.

Pyrrha hurdled one of the Grimm, dragging her blade across its eyes behind her as she went. She landed, effortlessly slammed a second Beowolf out of her way with Akoúo, her shield - while simultaneously transforming Miló, her blade, into its javelin form. She cocked back and threw it overhand. It exploded outward, whistling through the air, and easily found its intended target, an unlucky third Beowolf. The creature was left pinned to a large boulder, speared directly through the forehead. She turned back around and, with another swift blow from her shield, she caved in the first Beowolf's head while it thrashed about in blind agony.

Then she lifted her arm, and the air around her began to hum gently as she focused her semblance. Her weapon pulled itself free from the stone in which it was embedded and began to return to her, soaring towards her outstretched hand. While it was still traveling, the spear hit and tore clean through a fourth Beowolf - and Pyrrha herself felled a fifth with her shield, looking away and then back again just in time to catch her spear out of the air. It landed comfortably in her palm.

Five Beowolves slain - in maybe twice as many seconds.

Not a single strand of Pyrrha's hair had slipped out of place. There wasn't so much as a bead of sweat on her skin. She inhaled. Exhaled. Calm. And then continued fighting - as though she hadn't just casually performed a feat that would awe most aspiring huntsmen and huntresses. As though she really was the invincible girl.

Weiss gritted her teeth and turned away again. A Beowolf leapt at her. She raised a glyph and the Grimm promptly slammed against it, shattering its own bones, and fell to the ground. She had performed that particular maneuver countless times. And she had always thought it an impressive enough display.

Now? It felt simplistic and clumsy. All brute force, and no finesse. Any rank amateur could have used a glyph as a shield, had they possessed her semblance.

Weiss had always been something of a perfectionist. She had spent countless hours alone, locked in various training rooms, making sure her every motion - every individual strike delivered, every single measured step taken - was absolutely flawless… And yet, watching Pyrrha flow through the creatures of Grimm like a force of nature made her realize that she could have worked even harder. She could have put in that extra bit of work every night. Expended that extra ounce of effort. Even on those nights when she had been left so exhausted that she had crawled back to her bed on her hands and knees, she had still been capable of more...

As much as she loathed to admit it, Weiss had recently begun to understand that there was no such thing as flawless – not in daily life, and not on the battlefield. There was no such thing as perfection.

But, Pyrrha Nikos, the four time champion of the Mistral regional tournament, was damn close.

Weiss directed all of her frustration towards another Beowolf, spearing this one through the chest.

There were certainly enough of the creatures to share...

The two huntresses in training were currently attempting to re-scale the mountain heights, but they were making excruciatingly slow progress, stalled by an army of Beowolves that now seemed to be crawling all over the rocky mountainside. It was disturbing to think that this many of the monsters could have simply appeared in the dead of night, as though from nowhere. Only the previous evening, there hadn't been a single Grimm to be seen for miles in any given direction.

But this was more than a pack. This was an infestation. An army. In all likelihood something terrible was happening. Something terrible always seemed to be happening, for whatever reason. Weiss sighed. As if this morning hadn't already been difficult enough...

Behind her, Pyrrha shifted Miló into its rifle mode, dropped to one knee, and took aim. Several sharp cracks followed, each one accompanied by a howl of anguish.

Weiss had actually been approaching one of the creatures - when its head exploded, forcing her to skip backwards out of the splash zone. "I had that one!" she declared indignantly. "Be careful where you're aiming!" When she received no answer, she turned back to her fellow huntress. "Pyrrha...?"

But Pyrrha didn't seem to hear. Each time she fired her weapon, she was already maneuvering to line up the next shot, entirely certain that the previous would land. On several occasions, a single expertly timed round dropped two or three of the charging Grimm at once. And all the while, Pyrrha's face remained frozen in a mask of silent concentration. Soon, the Beowolf corpses were piling up around her more quickly than the bodies could disappear...

Weiss stopped in place, not bothering to conceal her astonishment. Her weapon fell listlessly to her side. "Unbelievable..." Here she was, fighting for her life against dangerous monsters, soulless abominations - while Pyrrha Nikos was stepping on bugs.

It was the single most marvelous and disheartening thing she had ever seen.

But, still, she wasn't about to simply stand around and allow someone else do all of the work. Her pride - damaged though it was - would never allow for that. So, she dropped to one knee and plunged her sword into the ground, conjuring a glyph beneath her feet. This one, however, bore a clock face.

The hands immediately began to rotate wildly - whirring like giant fan blades - and at the same moment, all of the Grimm around her seemed to slow...

It took a long while, but eventually they managed to eliminate all of the nearby Beowolves.

Weiss bent over double, gasping for breath. An enormous black fog of disintegrated Grimm hung thick in the air above them. More of the monsters would almost certainly be arriving soon. Several times already, she and Pyrrha had thought themselves in the clear, only for yet more Beowolves to descend on their position. However, for the moment, it seemed as though they could rest and regain some of their strength... or, that was what Weiss had intended.

Pyrrha apparently had other plans. The most recent bout of combat had only just ended, but already she was traveling uphill along the path again. She hadn't bothered to spare Weiss so much as a backwards glance. She was much too focused on looking ahead.

"She doesn't even seem tired," Weiss muttered in disbelief. Then she snarled, forced her sore legs into motion, and followed.

Their planned destination was that same hill where they had found their target the evening before, near the summit. That was the last place that they had seen their friends and teammates, so obviously that would be the place Jaune would be headed. Or, at least, that was the conclusion Pyrrha had arrived at when she awoke to find him missing in action. Then she had started the journey to find her leader... without bothering to ask for Weiss's opinion on the matter.

So now, Weiss was stuck ignoring the painful stitch in her side, and trying not to lag too far behind.

She pulled the collar of her – still damp – jacket up a bit higher, making certain the bruises on her neck remained hidden from view. She hadn't yet mentioned what had happened with Jaune - and to be perfectly honest, she wasn't sure why she was staying quiet. What reason was there for her to hide what had occurred? Perhaps she didn't want to worry Pyrrha. Perhaps she didn't want to blindly condemn Jaune before he had the opportunity to explain his actions.

Or perhaps it was merely routine. She knew very well that the marks on her throat would disappear by the end of the day. The little bruises always did. You hid them until then, so no one could see.

And then, suddenly, Weiss was furious again. A child again. She did her best to swallow those feelings. Tried hard to think about nearly anything else.

She took a deep breath, raised her shoulders and stood up a bit straighter. She decided that she was going to be having a few words with a certain Jaune Arc. His strange, unwarranted aggression had been completely unacceptable. Weiss understood that they had never exactly gotten along, that she had maybe treated him... a tad harshly at first. However, she also felt that he shared a portion of the blame for that. He had stubbornly refused to take 'no' for an answer, after all.

Yet, despite all of that... romantic unpleasantness, she had recently begun to think of Jaune as... well, not a friend precisely, but a cordial acquaintance. And she had never known him to behave... like that. She would listen to his justifications, and then she would decide what to do about all of this accordingly...

"I see someone ahead!" Pyrrha called out, drawing Weiss's attention.

Weiss squinted, following her fellow huntress's gaze. "Is it… Jaune?" she asked a touch hesitantly.

But, again, Pyrrha had already taken off without her, treading through the melting snow. Weiss sighed and then followed after her. A bit of rudeness could be forgiven. The poor girl had lost track of her - almost comically inept - partner again. Who knew what sort of trouble he would find his way into without a guardian...

When they drew closer to the figure, however, they discovered that it was... Cardin. Pyrrha deflated visibly.

Cardin had his mace at the ready in his hand. "Oh," he muttered as they reached him. "It's only you two." He seemed disappointed, as though he would have preferred to meet with a creature of Grimm instead.

It was a sentiment that Weiss shared.

She was about to say as much - when she noticed that her leader was slung over Cardin's shoulder. "Ruby?" she gasped, quickly moving in closer to check on her. "Is she alright? What happened?"

Cardin obliged her by tossing the sleeping girl into her arms. "She isn't hurt," he grunted. "Asleep. Maybe you'll have better luck waking her up than we did."

Weiss put an ear up to Ruby's mouth and listened carefully to make sure she was breathing. Then she sighed with relief. "Don't scare me like that," she warned her sleeping partner, rapping her knuckles hard against the girl's forehead. "You dolt." But she couldn't help but smile.

"This is normal for her then?" Cardin asked.

"Yes, unfortunately," Weiss replied. She took a thumb and forefinger, and clamped her leader's nose shut. "Give it a second..."

A moment later, Ruby began to snort and splutter, until her eyes popped open in panic. She swatted Weiss's hand off of her face and sucked down a few desperate breaths. "What's happening!?" she cried, frantically looking around at everyone. "Sit rep!?"

"You overslept," Weiss replied dryly.

"Oh." Ruby nodded as though that explained everything. "Sorry about that, Weiss... And, you can put me down now."

Weiss - who was still carrying her leader in her arms - considered this for a moment. Then she abruptly dropped the tiny huntress into the snow.

Cardin had watched the entire exchange impassively. "So, you're all... actually kind of stupid, huh?"

Weiss opened her mouth to retort, but Pyrrha hurriedly stepped between her and Cardin. "Have you seen Jaune?" she demanded of him impatiently. She had waited quietly while they determined that Ruby was alright, but it was obvious that all of this casual conversation - this inaction - was torturing her. She wanted to keep moving.

"Really?" Cardin chuckled. "You guys managed to misplace both of your team leaders?"

Pyrrha clenched her fists. "Have you seen him?" she repeated.

Cardin stopped grinning. For an instant, it looked as though he might say something argumentative - but, then he appeared to think better of it. Instead, he shrugged and answered her question. "No. I haven't seen him."

Pyrrha swore angrily. As far as Weiss was aware, that was... a first.

Cardin quirked an eyebrow in surprise. "Watch your language, young lady. If your sponsors hear about this, they might take your picture off of those cereal boxes."

"You think this is funny?" Pyrrha snapped back. And this time, she actually drew her weapons. The motion was so quick that Weiss almost missed it.

Cardin eyed the cold metal contemplatively. After a few moments, he brought his hands up in mock surrender. "I think," he said, measuring his words, "that Arc is competent enough – just barely, mind you – to keep himself alive until we can rescue him. Now, if you'll put that away... I will help you look for your boyfriend."

Weiss thought back to what she had just seen Pyrrha do to all of those Beowolves. She decided that Cardin had just made a remarkably intelligent decision.

Very slowly, Pyrrha nodded and then stowed her weapons. "Right," she said quietly. "Let's keep looking." Then she turned and began to walk off. Once again, she hardly seemed concerned with whether or not anyone was actually following along behind her.

There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence, as the group watched her go.

"Jaune is missing again?" Ruby asked eventually.

"He is," Weiss replied. She tugged her jacket collar up.

"Wait... Again?" Cardin nearly performed a double take. "As in, more than once? In the two days that we've been out here? Wow. How does Arc manage not drown in his cereal in the morning?" Then, shaking his head and muttering, he started after Pyrrha. "I almost feel sorry for all of you..."

Ruby jumped back up to her feet, and brushed the snow off of her clothes. "Hey, Cardin, so... where is the rest of your team anyway...?"

"Alright," Sky said evenly. "How bad are the injuries?"

"Oh, uh..." Nora replied, still somewhat in shock. As it turned out, realizing that you were alive only moments after resigning yourself to a gruesome death was a somewhat disorienting experience. Her pulse was still pounding in her ears. She managed to turn and look to her two injured friends. "Well, there's Ren's shoulder-"

"I don't care about him," Sky said dismissively. He gestured to Yang's prone form. "How is she?"

"We haven't had the chance to check on her," Ren grunted.

Sky immediately strolled past the members of team JNPR to the unconscious girl. "Well, she doesn't look good..." He nudged Yang with his boot, rolling her over onto her back. The front of her shirt was torn nearly in half, starting at the collar. "Ah... Maybe, I should rephrase that," he mused. Then he bent down, lifted up Yang's arm, and examined it. It was covered in blood from shoulder to wrist. "Looks like she was... bitten. Do you guys have any bandages?"

Wow. Yang's boobs really are enormous... "Uh... Yeah. Bandages." Nora looked around stupidly, but found that, as per usual, Ren was way ahead of her. He was already rummaging through one of their packs, throwing aside any unneeded gear. He found the medical kit and tossed it to Sky without a word.

"These bite marks are... all the way around her upper arm?" Sky blinked in confusion. "Did she... stick her arm down a Beowolf's throat?" he asked in amazement. "She's lucky it's even still attached at all." He soaked a cloth in disinfectant and started to clean the injury, muttering. "Punches a Beowolf from the freaking inside..."

Meanwhile, Russel and Dove had taken up Nora's previous position, forcing back the excitable tide of Grimm at the bottleneck.

Both of their combat skills had improved significantly, Nora noticed. The members of team CRDL were keeping the creatures from drawing in too near, and simultaneously covering for each others' blind spots. And though she was watching them closely, she couldn't quite figure out what it was that Russel was doing with his daggers... He was nicking Beowolves with only glancing blows, leaving them with only the shallowest cuts, but still the creatures would then erupt into flames, or collapse to the ground and convulse in a storm of electricity. It was some sort of technique using dust, Nora assumed...

Ren let out a pained groan - and that immediately stole her attention away from the fighting. Her partner was trying to remove his jacket. The sleeve was already soaked through with blood, pasted down against his skin. Apparently, he had reopened his own injury when the Alpha Beowolf had thrown them all aside.

Nora bounced over to him as quickly as she could. "Ren, let me help," she said hurriedly, easing the jacket off of his shoulders. "I can fix this again... I mean, probably..." She wiped some of his warm blood off of her hands. Ren looked awfully pale. Nora would have been tremendously worried, were it not for the smile he wore.

"It would seem like we made it," Ren sighed. He leaned himself back against the boulder behind him, and closed his eyes.

Nora crawled in close and hugged him as gently as she could. "Yeah. We made it."

"For now," Sky added, ruining the pleasant moment. He walked over and dropped the med kit into Nora's lap. "Her arm is fine now, and there were no other cuts or bruises that needed attention. She'll recover. Now... quit it with the cuddling, and re-wrap your partner's bandages before he bleeds out."

"Right," Nora said, quickly moving to do just that. "And... uh..." She gritted her teeth. "Thank you."

Sky paused in place when he heard the words, slowly breaking into a grin. "For what?" he asked her innocently.

"For saving our lives."

"And...?" He waited expectantly.

"And... sorry. About before. For... making fun of your team." She turned her head so he wouldn't see how red she was. "For saying we would have to rescue you."

"Apology accepted." Sky looked like perhaps he was enjoying the situation a bit too much. He was smiling like this was all some sort of game - and he was winning.

Still cheerful, he turned around, scooped Yang up off of the ground, and then set her down beside Ren and Nora. "Does this one have a jacket? She's shivering." He placed the back of his hand against her neck. "Her skin is freezing. How did she even survive the night dressed like this?"

Nora blinked a few times at that.

Yang's aura was depleted - meaning her semblance wasn't active. She had never before seen Yang complain about the temperature, so she had almost forgotten that the cold could affect her... under certain circumstances. Nora quickly but carefully shifted Yang back into her sleeping bag and threw a blanket over her. Then she went back to working on Ren's shoulder. The bandages weren't done... strictly by the book, but she tried her best and did manage to stem the bleeding.

She even tied a little bow on top.

It was beginning to seem like everything might turn out okay...

Despite how tired she felt, Nora found that she wanted to dance around and shout in joy and make snow angels in the slush. It was probably a mixture of relief and adrenaline. Instead, she kept herself pressed tight against Ren while he rested. The rise and fall of his chest was comforting. It meant he was still alive.

That they were both still alive.

But still, a pack of Beowolves was howling and fighting and dying only a short distance away. The crack of gunfire and the sounds of metal striking against bone was ringing out. Every time Nora inhaled, she could smell cooked flesh and burnt fur. They wouldn't necessarily be alive for much longer.

Sky, however, appeared perfectly at ease. He sat on top of a large rock, curiously flipping through the pages of a black book he had found near Yang's sleeping bag, and chewing on a ration bar he had stolen from Ren's pack. Occasionally he would glance up at his teammates - but only so he could cheer them on sarcastically.

They didn't seem to appreciate that.

"Hey, Sky?" Russel called out after one such comment, ducking under a Beowolf's claws. "Are you planning on, maybe, helping us at any point?"

"You look like you've got it handled," Sky replied. He seemed bored.

Russel wasn't amused. "Bite me."

Sky looked out at the crowd of snarling Beowolves. "I think there's already a line..."

Dove drove his sword hilt-deep into a Grimm and then fired a several rounds directly into its chest cavity, causing its body to twitch and jerk in interesting ways. "You really don't plan on doing anything, Sky?" he asked, sounding annoyed and amused in equal measure. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"I mean, I was the one who killed the Alpha Beowolf."

"After I had already crippled it," Dove replied.

Sky shrugged. "But you didn't kill it, did you?"

"I'm gonna come over there and kill you in a second."

"Wouldn't that be a neat trick," Sky chuckled. Then he hopped back up to his feet and looked to Nora. "Be ready to fight again soon," he advised her. "You'll need to switch back in when someone starts to get tired. It seems like we're gonna be at this for a while. There's no sense in exhausting everyone at the same time."

Nora rested her hand on Magnhild's hilt. "Do you have any idea where all these Grimm are coming from?" she asked.

"Not a clue," Sky replied. "We hadn't seen so much as an Ursa the entire time we were out here. Then this morning we wake up and start climbing the mountain to reach your coordinates - and suddenly we're wading through the fucking things. You want my opinion? I suggest that you call for our ride home, and then we can all wait it out right here until they arrive. I would do it myself, but if Cardin found out that I was the one who made the call early, I would never hear the end of it."

Nora considered that. "You want us to leave... without completing the mission?"

The thought hadn't even occurred to her. Ozpin had given each of them a small homing beacon, which they could activate at any time. It would alert the pilots who dropped them off, signal that they were ready to be evacuated. But it was only meant to be used once they had completed their main objective, or if they were in extreme danger...

"I can't imagine Ozpin would fault us." Sky said. "You and your friends just nearly died, after all." He started walking towards his teammates, perhaps finally ready to assist them. But after a moment, he paused, and looked back to her. "Oh, and when we get back to Beacon, make sure to tell Yang that she owes me one."

Nora opened her mouth, realized that she didn't have a reply, and then closed it again.

Sky hadn't bothered to wait for an answer anyway. Instead, he continued on towards his teammates, grinning and whistling as he readied his halberd.