Chapter 21 - A Most Cunning Plan

The Lone Courier's reaction to the Deathstalker crashing through the debris would have been easily predictable to those few who knew him well. In fact, even those who knew only of his reputation would have had good odds of predicting his response. The Courier unslung the Hécate II and fired a singular round at the abdomen of the creature. Of course, he did not expect this to stop the gigantic Grimm, rather the attack was intended to gauge the effectiveness of his weapons. The Dust based round made a soft ping as it impacted the carapace of the Deathstalker. For a split second the Courier wondered whether it had even penetrated. However, any doubt was erased upon the pained screech that oversized scorpion had made. Despite the seemingly significant effect that the bullet had produced, once the smoke from the Dust round's detonation had cleared, the wound, despite the reaction of the recipient, was almost imperceptible. The bloody hole was only the size of the round. Painful, but nowhere near lethal. Maria probably wouldn't even pierce the carapace. As he and Pyrrha continued to flee from the terrifyingly large scorpion, Markus idly concluded that the Grimm's carapace would act similarly to sloped armor on tanks. Its curved nature would mean that smaller caliber bullets would bounce. All in all, to him, this meant that he would need to get creative.

As far as he could tell, they were not going in any particular direction and he was unwilling to abandon Pyrrha to being eaten by an oversized scorpion so he simply followed her. As there had not been any significant change in scenery, and the Deathstalker was gaining, Markus worried that he would need to resort to more reckless measures. Just as he was contemplating how long Pyrrha could survive without his intervention he noticed that the trees were thinning. Therefore he bided his time knowing that change was imminent that could provide him with new options. At this point however, both the Courier and Pyrrha were dodging the swipes of the pincers. He needed to put some distance between them and the Grimm. The Anti-Materiel Rifle was out of the question, unslinging it would take too long, so he turned only his torso and without stopping fired three 9mm rounds into one of the Deathstalker's eyes. Another squeal pierced the air as the Grimm reeled in agony at having one of its eyes blinded. The Courier turned back and saw the contents of the clearing.

This clearing appeared to contain most of the other students. Only White seemed to be missing out of all those he had so far identified. Behind where all the kids stood, there was a dilapidated ruin. While clearly ravaged by time and nature its walls and columns still remained upright in some sections. Markus' enhanced eyes spotted chess pieces of various colors on pedestals. He presumed this was the mentioned temple and artifacts they had been searching for. They were lucky to have found it by running in a totally random direction.

And then White appeared. She seemed to have fallen from the sky, using some form of Dust based witchcraft to break her fall. But then, if she had fallen from the sky, what had she fallen from?

Markus and Pyrrha had managed to get nearly a dozen meters between them and the Deathstalker before the pair reached the group.

"Great," Yang said with almost uncharacteristic mix of pessimism and sarcasm, "the gang's all here. Now we can die together."

Not likely, the Courier thought. Even the worst case scenarios in his ended with no one dead. A giant scorpion wasn't that much of a threat. Before he could voice any objection to the fatalistic view, Ruby spoke.

"Not if I can help it."

And with a battle cry that was exactly as one would expect from a fifteen year old girl, she charged at the Deathstalker so fast that she appeared to have a motion blur.

"Ruby, wait!," her sister yelled. Ruby of course, ignored this. The Lone Courier was interested in seeing how combat effective these kids were. Just from his impressions of their outfits and weapons he did not have high hopes. Both reeked of the opulence of a long peace. Practicality and efficiency were both sacrificed in favor of aesthetics. Still, Aura gave them an undeniable advantage. Such as being able to move at speeds which caused them to blur slightly.

The impact with the scorpion caused Ruby to merely bounce off rather pathetically. While Markus considered helping, no one else felt the need to, and Ruby appeared fine.

"D-Don't worry! Totally fine."

She yelled back to them, turning to face the Grimm. She fired a round from her weapon directly into the faceplate of the Deathstalker. Of course, it ricocheted, causing no damage. She started to run. Yang started to run towards her. As far as the Courier could see getting closer to the Grimm would not help in the least. His contemplation was interrupted by an earsplitting caw. He looked up and saw where he assumed White had come from. The mother of all Nevermores had arrived. This one was roughly twice the size of the one that had disturbed him previously, and this time he couldn't use his Gauss rifle. Unfortunately.

The titanic bird cawed before flapping its wings several times sending loose feathers nearly as tall as the Courier down in dozens. One appeared to have pinned Ruby's cape while the others had blocked Yang from reaching her.

Really, thought the Lone Wanderer, A cape. Who did she think she was? A superhero?

It quick glance revealed that none of them wore armor except Pyrrha, and hers was almost entirely decorative. Some of them wore heels. Heels! It was almost humorous how unseriously they approached matters of life and death. Aura must be more potent than he realized if these kids could afford going into combat with nothing other than it for protection.

Just as the Deathstalker tried to stab the red themed girl, White used an arcane glyph to propel herself into range of assistance and then another to erect a wall of ice. And she appeared to be lecturing the girl. While there was no doubt Ruby deserved it for her utter thoughtlessness in her attire, White was not exactly one to talk in that regard.

At least she appeared to be marginally competent, unlike Ruby who had so far only managed to nearly get herself killed. Even if it was through the use of sorcery.

They appeared to be conversing, while neither of the threats were eliminated; the Nevermore circling and the Deathstalker thawing.

Of course then Yang hugged her sister. The Courier ignored all of this with a resigned air. Not a stone's throw from them was a giant scorpion and they were having a moment of sororal bonding.

They had all gathered once again, the Deathstalker seemingly contained. For now.

"Nevermore is circling back. Ideas?" Markus asked.

He could not make any plans as he was ignorant of the capabilities of others present. Without knowledge of the resources available to them, he could not formulate a method to eliminate the Grimm.

"Our objective is right in front of us, no sense in dilly-dallying." White said.

The Courier had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Chess pieces would not kill the bird or the scorpion. And he knew they would need to die sooner or later. Preferably sooner.

"She's right," Ruby said, "our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things."

Markus had to resist rolling his eyes again. A giant killer bird that could fly faster than they could run was not just going to leave them alone. They were going to have to deal with it one way or another.

Regardless, it wasn't his life that they were risking. No matter what happened, none of the worst case scenarios ended up with him dead. On their own heads be it.

Markus grabbed the nearest chess piece, a golden rook, as Ruby grabbed the one next to him, a golden knight. He was eager to get out of here. Working with amateurs annoyed him. It was clear these kids had no real idea of what they were doing and were just making it up as they went along.

The ice holding the Deathstalker's pincer started to crack as it began to struggle more vigorously.

"It's time we left," said the quiet, green wearing guy.

The Lone Courier sighed mentally (he had been doing that a lot lately) and resigned himself to this "plan." If they were going to do it, they would have to do it quickly. Good tactical sense would dictate that they all focus their fire on the giant scorpion while it was still trapped and kill it while it was incapable of defending itself. It was too late for that now in any case. Perhaps the ice might give them enough of a head start to lose the Deathstalker. He doubted it.

AN: The Lone Courier, as a man of science, is mildly annoyed by Dust and semblances, thinking of them as basically magic and not liking anything he doesn't understand.

There is no real way that I could write the characters as essentially professional elite soldiers when they wear heels. Instead, I will be writing this story under the concept that this period of peace has led to aesthetics over practicality. With weapons designed to fight Grimm, not wars. The mains are the equivalent of the "summer knights" from A Song of Ice and Fire; born in a time of peace and plenty, know nothing of war and hardship. And, even in canon, RWBY's (metaphorical) Winter is Coming.