A/N: Well folks, here it is! A grandiose treasure trove of a long chapter X) I admit, the first third I was a little questionable of, but the rest of it I thoroughly enjoyed writing about! Hopefully you guys enjoy the action to, as we dive right into a 10K+ Pre-A/N's chapter like never before :D...which is sure to be riddled with many bugs (not including death stalkers) and errors since I fleshed this out in under a day...
ENJOY!
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~This will be the day we've waited for~
Cinder and Salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue.
~This will be the day we open up the door~
Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence.
~I don't wanna hear your absolution;~
The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall.
~Hope you're ready for a revolution~
Outside his window, dozens of students can be seen steping together and looking up in awe as the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals
~Welcome to a world of new solutions~
One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out Crescent Flame and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself.
~Welcome to a world of bloody evolution~
The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side.
~In time, your heart will open minds~
The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more.
~A story will be told~
When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon.
~And victory is in a simple soul~
"Ruuubyyyyy!" Nora shouted as the scene came into focus. With the harsh winds blowing passed the two of them, it was understandable she would need to shout so loudly despite Ruby being possibly five feet away at most.
"Yeah?" She replied.
"This is the best idea everrrrrr!" Nora cheered with a cheeky grin.
"I know right!" Ruby chuckled, looking at the forest below them. "Now we got a bird's eye view of everything below, and we'll go incredibly faster!"
"Yeah!... By the way, I forgot to ask something!"
"What's that?"
"How do we get down?"
"..." Ruby looked back to the ground below them, a small shroud of regret slowly growing over her head. "...I didn't think that part through..."
"Do you... Do you think we should jump it?"
"Might as well." She shrugged. "Just give me a minute to time this, don't rush me."
"Push you? Ok!"
"Wait- What?! No! I said-"
*bomp*
"Waaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh-!" Ruby's pleas were too slow. By the time she was ready to correct herself, Nora gingerly took the initiative of helping her new friend off the creature's feather, smiling as she was plummeting to the ground below.
"I am such a good person!"
...
"Hello? Pyrrha? Did you hear that?" Blake spoke, trying to get her attention. For the last thirty seconds the girl appeared to be in some form of trance, just looking in one direction this whole time.
"Umm... Blake?" She finally spoke, slowly raising a finger to the sky. "Does Ruby have some sort of flying ability or something?"
"Huh? No, why?" It only took the following of her finger to figure out what she meant.
There she was. It was Ruby! Her pride and joy of a sister-like friend! Descending from the sky. At a fast pace. Flailing her arms. And nothing to stop her.
"Heads uuuuuuuuuup!"
"Oooooh boy-"
*CRASH!*
For better or worse, Ruby's plummeting collision course was caught none other than the very body of a young Jaune Arc slamming into her, both students being thrown into the thick burly trees surrounding the forest and tumbling down one of the many hardwood oaks to it's branches. The impact to her head was enough to rattle the caring brain of Ruby, the poor girl seeing nothing but stars being chased by cartoonish versions of wandering Grimm chasing them.
"Ugh..." She moaned with swirly eyes, head bobbing back and forth from the dizziness. "What was that? Ngh.." She shook her head fervently, trying to clear her head of the ringing sound going through it and the wobbling feeling through her body.
"Ahem." Jaune spoke, catching Ruby's attention. Much like her, he was also stuck in the large tree, legs being trapped as his body dangled from one of the bushy ends of the branches. "Hey Ruby."
At the same time, both Blake and Pyrrha were looking back to the trees mixed feelings of confusion. Blake knew Ruby was the adventurous type that would do nearly anything and everything to accomplish a task, within standards of course. Hurtling through the air though at who knows how many miles per hour, followed by being caught from a young blonde boy at quite the convenient timing? That was a new one. At least that did add two more students to the roster of people who've made it to the temple now.
To most people, they would consider the headmaster of this prestigious academy to be rather insane. After all, it's not everyday some headmaster goes about his business of putting children through a dangerous initiation which involves flinging them via catapults into the wide green wonder of the woods, tasks them with traversing the dangerous monster-infested forest of the Grimm, send them on a scavenger hunt that apparently took the form of chess pieces, instructed them to return to the steep cliffs from which they were all flung from, and defeat any and all monsters they come across in order to be graded and evaluated on their level of skill followed by placing them on different teams depending on their standings and who they met first.
Then again, they wouldn't make such an incompetent leader the headmaster, so he must be doing something right.
Within the few minutes leading up to this, the last of the teams had finally paired up with one another, each of them meeting someone for the first or second time since the initiation started. Weiss, to her regret, came across Jaune dangling from a tree, Ruby crashed into Pyrrha after using her semblance to find Blake and was then accidentally picked up by Nora riding a rampaging Ursa, Blake came across Pyrrha while the red-haired girl was fighting off several Grimm with her bare hands, and Yang came across Ren after punching the second head off a two-headed snake he was fighting. All in all, the matchups could be described as weird, but they were the events that brought everyone together at long last.
This also included various antics and shenanigans between a few of the groups though as they searched for the lost temple as instructed. With Pyrrha's keen sense of tracking, followed by Blake's great hearing thanks to her hidden Faunus features, they were the first to come across the strange monuments and relics Ozpin tasked them with finding. They had the best luck. On the other hand, Jaune and Weiss had the worst of this luck. Instead of finding what they at first believed to be a glowing artifact, it turned out to be the stinger from a giant deathstalker, the very creature being awoken from it's slumber and giving chase to the young Schnee and flinging Jaune from his tail when he refused to let go.
Ren and Yang were probably the only ones with the least amount of trouble compared to the other teams, seconded only by Ruby with Nora. On the whole, their task seemed the most normal out of the bunch, only encountering a Grimm or two here, fighting off an Ursa there, and they were close to finding the temple even as we speak. As for Nora and Ruby, their previous ride ended up leading them to a dead end as the Grimm crashed into a husky tree, flinging the two girls off while collapsing from exhaustion. With nothing else to do, after Nora put the Ursa down to keep it from harming them, the girls went with what they thought was the second best option.
Finding a much larger and dangerous Grimm, which brings us to where we are now.
"Did... Did Ruby just fall from the sky?" Pyrrha asked in amazement.
"Would you be more surprised if I said i was surprised too?" Blake's never seen her do anything of the sort before. Though to be fair, she hasn't seen her in the last seven years.
*GAAAOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUU*
Their mystery was put on hold as the two girls looked towards the edge of their clearing at the sound of the monstrous voice. What they at first thought was going to be the rampaging charge of an Ursa turned out to be the death cry of the of the very creature. With steam rising from the back, the creature collapsed to the ground, revealing Yang who was cracking her knuckles with the same level of enthusiasm as when she started.
"Ha! I'm on seventeen!" She said, patting herself on the back.
"The creatures wouldn't be attacking us as often if you kept the volume down." Ren commented coming out of the thicket.
"Hey look, it's-"
*WHOMP!*
Pyrrha's discovery was cut short by the sight of the Valkyrie girl who just dropped from the sky, slamming her mallet to break the impact of the fall with great excitement.
"Touchdown!" She cheered, smiling up to the other two. "Hey ladies! Either of you seen Ren or Ruby? I've been looking for Ren everywhere, and for some reason she wanted me to push her out of the sky."
"Ugh... no I didn't..." Ruby mumbled, coming out of the woods as she rubbed her head. Her attention would've immediately stuck to the sight of Blake before her if it wasn't for the nearby temple within the clearing. "Huh! Nora, we found the temple!" She cheered, both girls quickly dashing to the monuments as Blake just smiled.
"Yup, that's the Ruby I remember."
This was it! This was the long search they've been waiting for, people of interest withholding! After a perilous journey, tons of danger, and a thrilling ride, both girls had finally come across the promised lands they've been searching for! Both Ruby and Nora could only ooh and awe at the sight of the marvelous treasures, their long awaited adventure having finally come to an end!
There was only one possible piece either girl could think about taking, both smiling with glee as Ruby and Nora grabbed a rook.
"I'm Queen of the Castle!"
"I'm Queen of the Castle!"
"We're Queens of the Castle!" They cheered, throwing an arm around each other.
"Nora?"
"Ahhh!" Like with the singing both girls screamed in unison as they jumped into each others arms, frightened at the startling voice of Ren approaching from behind them. And just as quickly as that, both girls blinked to themselves at the following question.
"Wait who's standing?" Ruby asked.
"Not me."
*THUD*
Ren waited for both girls to pick themselves off the ground, bracing himself for whatever jumps of excitement Nora would greet likely greet him with.
He was right to be ready.
"Ren!" She rejoiced, throwing herself at him as he did his best to fight her off. He was glad she was okay after all this time, but he would prefer her first instinct not to crush him in an Ursahug, again.
"Calm down Nora, everything's fine." He tried to convince, struggling to keep the girl's overpowering might from killing him.
"About time you got here." Ruby's eyes shifted from the two as they located the sound of the relieving voice. Like Ren himself, she braced herself for whatever tackles of joy Ruby would throw at her.
Unlike Ren, she wasn't quick enough to react to Ruby's semblance.
"BLAAAKE!"
"Oof-!" Blake yelped as she was tackled to the ground, Pyrrha just chuckling at the sight of Ruby's excitement as she went on and on about missing her and everything she's done.
At the same time, Yang just watched the scene as the two step-siblings were reunited. Even to this day, she wishes she had her own little sister like that, someone she could teach and protect. It often made her wonder at times if they would've had the same sister-sister relationship like those two did, or if they would be shouting at each other constantly, which was still somewhat preferable.
All the same though, she was just as content with watching
"Any chance this belong to you?" Jaune moaned, rubbing his aching side with spear in hand, coming out of the woods.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha was relieved like the last two girls, not just at the sight of Jaune himself being okay, but that he carried her spear all the way back to her. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah...never better." He groaned rubbing his head as he handed over her weapon.
"My spear!" Pyrrha overlooked it with great enthusiasm, giving him a respectable bow in return. "Thank you so much, Jaune! By the way, what happened to you?"
"Yeah, it's not everyday superboy goes flying through the air." Yang commented, checking to see if he was okay too.
"Speak for yourself." Ruby joked getting back to her feet with Blake.
"Huh? Oh, that! Well, I was exploring a cave with Weiss and-!" He nearly flinched as realized the missing party member. "Ah! Weiss! We have to go back for her!"
"Whoa, hey, calm down!" Yang shushed as he tried to run passed her. "What's going on?"
"Weiss! The cave! Big Grimm-!" He fretted, panicking over trying to explain himself as quickly as possible while wanting to go save someone at the same time.
"Jaune, what are you talking about? What happened to Weiss?" Pyrrha asked calmly. Jaune took a deep breath of fresh air as he tried to explain everything at once.
"I was exploring a cave with Weiss because we thought it might lead to the temple or something." He explained. "We used a torch when I- err... it blew out, when we saw what I thought was the relic we needed. Turns out it was just a giant scorpion Grimm thing-"
"Death Stalker." Ruby quickly interrupted, catching the group's attention.
"Huh?"
"Death Stalkers. They're pretty much like Jaune said. They're usually nocturnal and only hunt at night though." The white-hooded girl went on to explain. "If what Jaune said is true, then someone definitely angered it from it's nap. Weiss isn't going to be able to kill it with her rapier either, it's exoskeleton is going to be too thick to penetrate."
"How the heck do you know that?" Jaune's question was on practically everybody's mind. All they got for a response was a grinning Ruby resting her hands behind her head.
"My Grandma was a scientist, She taught me a lot about Grimm she used to work with."
The best kind of lies are the truths mixed with the lies. That's the one line Roman always nailed into Ruby's head. Whenever you're going to be lying about something, you need to add a bit of truth to it. On the off chance someone has evidence supporting otherwise, the liar is going to start making up more things on the spot and be in a world of trouble from attempting such a simple charade. However, if someone was to mix truths with the lies, then they could go into easier detail to counter any piece of evidence that someone tried to throw at them.
Plus, it wasn't like she was actually going to say some lady with the seeming ability to control Grimm taught her. Chances are only half of them would believe that anyway.
"Ugh, who cares," Jaune said moving on, "we still have to go back for Weiss! Who knows what kind of danger she's in!"
"What do you mean? Weiss is doing just fine." Nora said looking back.
"What makes you say that?"
"Cause I can see her running back." She replied, gesturing with her thumb.
All eyes turned back to the edge of the clearing. Just like Nora said, there was Weiss Schnee, the heiress herself, panting with exhaustion as she ran through the woods. They didn't have time to process the thought of what she was running from as immediately following her, crushing numerous trees in the process in it's wake, was the dreaded Death Stalker Weiss and Jaune had awoken from it's slumber to begin with.
The Schnee girl herself was more than in a hissy about everything she's been through up to this point. Taking a split second pause to set about another glyph, the ground below her started to glow until she jumped from within it. The power behind the rune itself gave her ample opportunity and dexterity to jump another ten yards away from the creature just before it was closing the gap between them. This had been the method she's been using since the start of this little scorpion-and-mouse chase, relying solely on her Glyphs to escape her predator.
The process of doing this for the last several minutes had been exhausting, but it beat the alternative of her being killed by the Grimm chasing her. Between that monstrosity and the other Grimm she had hastily been escaping from since the start of this running spree, she was about to drop dead at any moment, only motivated by the possible side effect stopping would've caused.
Death.
"Huff... Huff..." Weiss panted, finally running up to the group. The Death Stalker itself seemed to be staring curious at the young Hunters and Huntresses, pondering what to do as it hissed. "I hate... huff... huff... Death... Stalkers..."
"Hey Weiss!" Ruby greeted chipperly.
"Not now, I-" Out of all the frustration, she was actually a little relieved by the sight of Ruby among her other fellow initiates, some more preferred than others. "Ruby? Jaune? Huh! Pyrrha!" The further down the list she went, the more excited she was to see said person.
"Are you alright, Weiss?" It warmed Weiss' exhausted heart to hear such words of compassion and worry from her idol. She couldn't wait till this was all done and they could be on the same team together!
"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied, looking worriedly back to the giant Grimm that followed her. "What are we gonna do about that thing."
"I say we kick it's tail." Yang suggested, stepping forward as she cracked her knuckles.
As if to demonstrate the severity of her woods, Yang took no pause as she began assaulting the giant beast with nothing but brute force. She quickly delivered a fast flurry of her attacks to the monster's head, trying her best to outmaneuver each of the creature's shaky movements while at the same time dodging each of it's swipes and attacks from it's tail.
What should've been a relatively easy battle for her slowly started becoming a battle of wits. No matter how many blows she tried to deal with the creature, doding to another side as she avoided it's deadly tail, the monster only continued to hiss and roar at her, not backing up in any detail as it tried to attack his prey. Saying Yang was growing frustrated just from trying to topple this thing would've been the very definition of understatement, the poor girl trying to jab a dozen quick jabs into it's unguarded side, only to be met with the same results.
With the instance that she tried avoiding the creature's tail, she found herself outsmarted by the giant bug. Unlike before when it simply drove it's tail in front of itself, this time the creature reacted to her blasting herself away from it's trust, quickly turning to the same direction the blonde turned as it slammed one of it's massive claws straight at the girl's body, sending her flying into the several trees Ruby and Jaune crashed through.
Thankfully, her grand aura and semblance helped in recovering her stamina and energy a bit, but left her with an underlining problem that she hated to admit to herself.
This thing's skin was too tough! She only got a few feet away from the group, grumbling as she squeezed her fist, before Weiss interrupted her, blocking her path towards the creature with her arms stretched to each side.
"I mean an actual plan, Yang. That thing is huge, and I couldn't even cut it when I tried." She said looking over her sword. She could recall each and every cut she dived into the creature's flesh when she tried fighting it, only to be met with nothing more than mere dent-like punctures at most. More importantly, she wanted to keep Yang from repeating the same mistake over and over again. This wasn't just a Death Stalker. It was a Grimm that was smarter than all the others as it learned from it's mistakes.
At least to a point where it knew to predict Yang's movements.
"We might be able to kill though if we all work together." Ren said pulling his guns out.
"Well that's fine, but what do you wanna do about the Nevermore?" Ruby wondered, earning confused looks from several of the students.
"What Nevermore?" Pyrrha asked. Ruby didn't even need to say something as she just pointed to the sky.
All looking up at once, they saw the giant bird-like Grimm Ruby just spoke about. The size of the bird was gigantic, nearly the size of an actual plane in comparison, if not a few feet larger in all manner. Looking back on it now, only deciding to think about it after all this time, Ruby began to wonder if it wasn't the best idea to find a sleeping Nevermore, stir it awake by cutting it's foot and plucking a feather, and hitch on the sides of it for a ride in order to find the ancient temple they were searching for.
Then again, it did pretty much work as well as Ruby and Nora expected, so, you know, win-win... Well more like win-win with a side of an angered Nevermore that would never forget about how much you hurt it.
"I think it's still upset when Nora and I woke it up."
"Yeah, plucking some extra feathers for a souvenir probably wasn't the best idea either." Nora added, looking over one of the giant features she kept on her person for such an occasion.
"Ya think?!" Weiss yelped. No, it wasn't enough that she had to deal with the giant scorpion along with the rest of the group, now they had to deal with a giant flying Grimm as well. "We should just take the relics and get out of here while we can."
"Are you kidding? I haven't even gotten to kill a single Grimm yet!" Ruby complained, pulling out her scythe. "My grade's going to be the lowest if I just take this thing and run."
"Wait, Ruby!" Pyrrha panicked, grabbing Ruby's arm. "You can't fight with your scythe out here!"
"Why not?" She better have a good explanation because at this point, Ruby was at a cross. If she didn't kill any Grimm, she wasn't going to get any grade worth mentioning, and there was no telling how many points she possibly needed to be on the same team as Blake's!
"Because of the fire!" She pointed out.
It was only now that her reasoning dawned on her. All throughout the forest was, of course, wood. Wood had a tendency to burn greatly, especially the wood was dry and stale when the flames erupted. If Ruby had gone ahead and used her fire from the very beginning she'd be setting everything aflame with her ballistic fighting style.
On top of the flames spreading to literally every edge of the forest, it would be capable of possibly killing several of the other students taking part in this initiation test in addition to the hundreds of Grimm that lived within these woods. Not to mention with all the flames spreading madly, the amount of smoke created within this forest would make it impossible to find and rescue the remaining students if any of them remained in the woods when the flames went off, much less see any of them from any rescue from the air.
Basically, it was either not fight or risk killing anyone in the forest, including herself.
"Awwwwww..." Ruby moaned. She knew better than to tempt it even if it meant getting a higher score or ranking. She wasn't going to risk hurting her friends, especially Blake. "There has to be something we can do then?"
"I already said what to do! We just have to grab the relics and run." Weiss repeated, grabbing several of the remaining pieces and tossing them to the other students, saving a golden rook for herself.
"But Weiss-!"
"No... No, Weiss is right, Ruby." Blake spoke up, much to Ruby's sorrow.
"Not you toooooo..." She moaned.
"No Ruby, I mean seriously, we should fight it at the cliffs! Your fire shouldn't affect anything at the cliffside!" She stated.
"...Ooooohhhhh!" The truth finally came to the young red-hair-tipped girl. If nothing could be done about her fighting around here, then the only solution that did leave was to fight it at the cliffs. The other students actually had no issues with this plan either. For Weiss, it finally meant getting everyone somewhere safer even if it did mean still fighting the two creatures. As for everyone else, they were willing to help Ruby if it meant her getting some points, not to mention how much it might help their own standings if they all worked together to take down these giant creatures. "Fine, we'll fight it at the cliffs!"
"Ugh, fine," Yang groaned rolling her eyes, "but I still call dibs on kicking this thing's butt!"
"Whatever! Let's go!" Weiss ordered, leading the run from the creatures as the students followed.
The students ran side by side, only taking brief glimpses behind them to see the oncoming Grimm that pursued. Every now and then the farther students did what they could to slow the creature down, Blake shooting back at it with her weapon with Nora blasting the ground near it with her grenade launcher, causing it to stumble long enough to distance themselves by another yard every now and then.
The pursuit from the creature was fast and just as dangerous as the creature itself. Several times over, the group came across another creature of darkness, whether Beowulf or Ursa, several times assisting the greater Grimm by giving chase to the retreating students. It was during those times they were rescued by Yang and her quick actions, managing to deal a single blow to the oncoming Grimm that chased, doing what she could to knock them out in one blow and into the way of the giant scorpion that chased after them, being trampled or swat away by the creature's giant claws.
It only took up to three whole minutes of running before the group finally came upon the cliffside. It's amazing what one could do when their life was being threatened by a giant insectoid trying to devour them all, alongside a giant bird flying around the air. Thankfully the other Grimm within the forest stopped giving chase at this point, whether due to their numbers dwindling in size or simply afraid of the creatures tracking the students themselves.
The cliffside itself was nothing short of amazing in all honesty, the surrounding ledge of the cliff riddled with pillars and stone monuments stretching throughout the entire clearing they came across. Many of them were dwindling to dust and debris, several of them toppled over and ruined through the passage of time. And that wasn't even the most impressive architecture left behind through the ages.
What really took the scenery before them were the giant bridges and building standing up from the center itself. The strange monument rose from the very depths of the cliff's chasm, the base of it being lost within the surrounding fog alongside the bridges and pillars. The force of time was no match for any of the standing structures, the grand steeple that rose from the chasm standing testament against nature's very own might. It was the method intended for the students to traverse upon their return to the cliff side.
Now, it was going to be their battleground.
"Come on, pass the bridge!" Jaune yelled, being the farthest of the group. No one could resist looking back every other moment, seeing the approaching Death Stalker only seconds behind them.
*Caaaaaaouuuuuuuuuuuuuu!*
The piercing cry of the Nevermore echoed throughout the valley, soaring through the skies until it perched atop the very steeple they were planning to run to, forcing them to hide themselves behind the surrounding pillars out of the Grimm's sight.
"Now what?" Yang called over to the pillar several yards to her left where Pyrrha and Nora were.
"Let's just give it a good whackin', that'll send it running!" Nora suggested, excited at the thought of fighting the giant bird thing.
"I can kill it!" Ruby called back, being at the pillar ahead of them, next to Weiss and Ren.
"Yeah, I'm sure we all can, Ruby! We need a more solid plan!" Yang retorted.
"No, I mean really! I can kill! In one hit!" She paused looking down the forest as the Death Stalker approached, only a minute away. "And the Death Stalker too! I just need them both at the same time!"
"You want us to WHAT?!" Jaune yelped in disbelief. Oh sure, that made sense; give Ruby an opening to hit both the Nevermore and the Death Stalker at the same time and everything will be hunkydory soon after!
"Trust me! Unless you have a better plan, I'm all ears!" The options weren't that hard to choose from. Either let someone who claimed they could handle it do it, or be the guy to decide what everyone did immediately after within the next minute before the Death Stalker showed up.
It wasn't that hard to decide.
(A/N: Now is the preferred time to start playing Red Like Roses while watching the following scenes.)
"Well... A-Alright," Jaune called back, "what do you want us to do in the meantime?"
"We slow it down!" Nora cheered before diving into the open.
Whether anyone had a plan at that moment became pointless as Nora began the assault, shooting at the Nevermore with it's grenade launcher as the students began to run. The Nevermore roared with vigor as it shot dozens of it's razor sharp and heavy quills all at the same time, bombarding the students as they scattered out of the way, all preparing for the fight that was about to take place. The blasts from each of Nora's shells provided adequate distractions and annoyances for the large bird of prey, blasting it enough to cause it to stumble, forcing it from it's perch as it flew over once more.
Yang took the initiative with the Death Stalker as she charged it, firing her fists behind her as she launched herself into the air before it. The distraction was enough for Ren to get in hundreds of shots from his automatic pistols, the tiny bullets doing nothing to penetrate it's armor, but caused more than a slight irritation for the eyes it was bombarded with against the small pellets. Pyrrha ran for the bridge with Ruby as she looked back to this, providing cover fire with her sniper at each of the creature's eyes, actually managing to blind the third left eye it had with her superior sniper bullets in comparison to Ren's, though the results were negligible with the few targets she could hit in comparison.
The barrage of bullets provided more than enough of a distraction Yang took the beast on with full force, blasting atop the carapace of the wounded creature as it defended itself with it's massive claws. Yang only grinned as she took that as more of a challenge from the creature, blasting directly at the creature's claws to penetrate it's thick shell. And Weiss, with the opening clear, quickly rushed to Nora as she activated another of her glyphs to lighten the gravity, jumping away with the girl as she shot back at the scorpion creature once Yang blasted herself away from it's face again.
The entire process ended up being fruitless, the creature's thick skin being too rough to penetrate, but provided more than enough of a distraction from it as Ruby and the remaining students ran for the steeple across the bridge.
"That thing's tail is going to get in the way." Ruby commented as she looked back. Her commentary was cut short at the sight of the Nevermore approaching from the side again, sweeping away with the valley. "Any chance of you guys slowing that thing down too?"
"I'm on it!" Pyrrha replied as she took shots at the Nevermore's face. While she didn't manage to blind it like the first Grimm, she managed to irritate's eyes enough for it to swerve out of the way of the temple, taking it's time to come back for another loop.
"Ruby, you sure you can kill them both at the same time?" Jaune asked a little worried.
"Yeah, but I need you to do something else." Ruby ordered, pointing back to the Death Stalker. "I need you to cut off the tip of that Death Stalker's tail!"
"YOU WANT ME TO WHAT?!"
"I said-!"
"I KNOW WHAT YOU SAID! But why?"
"Because it'll make throwing it much easier!" She answered as she continued up the steeple with Blake.
"She's want... She wants someone to throw it?!" Jaune officially gave up at this point. Nothing could be said or explained at this moment when two giant monster were in the midst of terrorizing the other students. All Jaune could do at the time was shrug his head in annoyance as he ran back across the bridge, telling Pyrrha about his tail-cutting job before letting her resume her work.
Back at the Death Stalker, the monster continued it's assault on the students during Jaune's return. The monster was slowing down indefinitely but it wasn't showing any signs of slowing down or retreating from it's targets. It took many of Yang's hits and barely shrugged them off as it neared the students little by little, forcing them closer by the second towards the cliff. Yang herself was actually surprised by how durable the creature was, her fists beginning to hurt slightly from the blows she was inflicting on the creature. Thankfully her own semblance only empowered this pain as her strength increased, but there was no telling how long the creature would keep pushing back before either her semblance gave out or her fists did.
Weiss did what she could to support both parties, providing Glyphs that either lightened the gravity before both sides, allowing Ren to dodge another swipe from the Death Stalker, or providing Air Support for Pyrrha who was single handedly shooting at the Nevermore's mask to keep it distracted. Her position never changed yet she provided the most crucial assistance for both parties. Several times Yang found herself owing Weiss, her miraculous glyphs appearing just in time for her to use and dodge out of the way of the creature's stinger.
"Weiss!" Jaune called out as he ran over. "I need your help! Ruby needs me to help cut off the stinger!"
"She wants you to what?!" Weiss asked with the amount of disbelief as Jaune was in.
"Yeah, I know, I said the said the same thing, but she has a plan!" He assured.
"Fine then, just get into position, I'll get it to freeze." She replied. It didn't matter to him if he couldn't understand her exact words, all he was preoccupied with was trusting in Ruby's plan and Weiss' assistance as he ran to the creature himself.
"Ruby!" Blake called to Ruby as the two ran up the steeple. "Is there anything you need me to do?"
"Just help Pyrrha with-"
"LOOK OUT!" She yelped, suddenly tackling Ruby to the ground steps.
Not two seconds ahead of her and Ruby would've found herself either impaled by the giant feathers that suddenly stabbed into the tower, or found herself hurtling to her own death at the sight of the crumbling stairs ahead of her that came off from the feather's impact. Thankfully there was more than enough room to jump across the shattered walkways, the feathers themselves providing enough of a footstool for Ruby to leap across if needed.
"Whoa... Thanks Blake." Ruby said, getting back to her feet as Blake glared at her sister's attacker. "Try and help Pyrrha slow that thing down, see if you can get it to shake off more of it's feathers, then get off the bridge with Pyrrha when everyone's ready!" She instructed.
"You got it." She didn't need to be told twice, having enough motivation at the bird for nearly killing her best friend. Activating the rope in her weapon, she tossed the bladed end into one of the surrounding poles that ascended from the valley before jumping off the staircase she and Ruby were on. What few seconds of dread, terror, and confusion that filled Ruby's mind was swiftly replaced with excitement and awe as she saw Blake actually swinging from the rope with a burst of speed, the blade refusing to give way from her weight as she fell to the chasm itself, even passed the bridge Pyrrha was on.
The sniper herself watched with curiosity at the sight of Blake's jump until she saw the same girl spring herself above the bridge, using her momentum to lasso herself under and over the bridge just as the Nevermore neared the bridge. Before it could launch another attack, Blake released the grip of the blade from the bridge as she threw it over the Nevermore's neck, startling the creature again as Blake lassoed herself onto the back of the creature, wasting no time to spread across it's back as she delivered round after round of bullets into the creatures feathers.
Like the Death Stalker, they did little against the creature's flesh itself, but helped loosen dozens of the deadly features which popped from the bird with each shot. Little by little, few by few. Just enough to shake off any of the loose ones while keeping the bird capable of flight for Ruby to unleash her plan.
At the same time, the Death Stalker continued it's assault on the previous party just as Jaune entered the fray. Confused by his appearance at first, Yang looked over to see Weiss preparing one of her Glyphs, signaling the girl to the stinger to which Yang grinned to, nodding back in confirmation of the plan as she saw Jaune once again.
With Nora firing off several more stumbling shots to the creature's feet, Yang waited until Ren cleared the way once more before she started her massive assault on the creature once more. The others waited back as they continued firing at the creature with their ranges, Jaune waiting for the split-second timing he needed when Weiss got the creature's tail in it's place. After several seconds of blasting the creatures claws away, showing no sign of slowing down, the Death Stalker hissed as it did last time, attempting to impale Yang upon it's tail.
That was it's last mistake.
With lightning quick reflexes, Yang blasted the gauntlets towards the beast and herself away just as the creature landed it's stinger on the ground where Weiss had the glyph prepared. No amount of preparation or timing could've prevented the creature from it's folly at that point. Not even two seconds after missing and impaling the ground, the creature's tail suddenly began to freeze to the ground itself as a large pillar of pure ice rose from the surface, catching the entirety of the stinger's tip in it's frozen prison, long enough for Jaune to deliver one fell swoop upon it's tail, cleaving the stinger's tip from the tail itself. Blood and purplish venom dripped from the creature's gushing wound, hissing in cries of pain as it roared.
Having gotten to the top of the steeple, Ruby observed her surroundings from the seemingly-bottomless chasm to the Grimm both groups were fighting. Taking a deep breath to herself, she pulled out her Crescent Flame from under her cloak, admiring the blade briefly with a sigh.
"Deep breath... calm and patient... and the flames won't hurt me..." Ruby muttered to herself.
With her conviction solid and her conscience clear, she began twirling the Scythe about. What at first seemed like some sort of parlor tricks and twirls slowly began to give birth to the weapon's glowing aura. Little by little, sparks of flame slowly erupted around the young girl until it erupted into a giant ball of flame, spreading on all sides of her until the fires themselves engulfed her into a giant, growing, sphere. Regardless of the heat rising from it or the flames erupting forth, nothing gave way in Ruby's stance as she continued enlarge the flame, sacrificing large heapings of dust in the process as the fire continued to grow little by little.
It was only during a brief flash of the fire's flame that Pyrrha's attention shifted to the growing ember at the top of the steeple.
"My word..." She muttered. Forget setting the forest on fire, if this thing got out of hand in the a city, half the town would burst away under a giant flame! Even as the remaining students dropped their attention to see this, they never turned away from the current task at hand.
"Nora!" Yang called over, grabbing the girl's curious attention. With a simple gesture of her thumb, the Valkyrie grinned as she started shooting round after round at the Death Stalker's front. Each burst gave enough of a kickback to push the beast several feet from the ground, rising little by little with each round fired. After it rose up to a good 45* angle from it's current position, the Valkyrie thrust herself forward after reshaping her grande launcher back into a mallet, bursting from her point to the creatures location where she smacked it's underbelly, toppling the creature onto it's back.
The Death Stalker could only cry out in more pain as it struggled to get back to it's footing, legs squirming creepily in a spider-like manner as it failed to flop over, wagging it's shortened tail with nothing but fear. With that out of the way, the rest of Jaune's explanation mentioned, Yang prepared herself as she activated her semblance once more, granting her surmountable strength needed to preform her next amazing feat. WIth one massive tug, she slowly began to swirl the creature around, the rest clearing away from her as she rotated the creature about.
To help with this, Nora saw her opportunity as she jumped to the other side of the rotating creature. Using her gavel as nothing more than a battering ram, with each roundabout the creature neared her, she smacked her mallet to the side of it's head, helping Yang twirl the creature across the ground until it was ready for the grand toss that was needed.
With the growing fire, Pyrrha cleared from the bridge as the rest of Ruby's plan began to fall into place. From atop the Nevermore, Blake saw the glowing mass of fire with amazement, the flames only continuing to grow on while Ruby continued to be envelope in it's flames. Knowing this was the moment to strike, Blake lassoed herself one last time under the creatures neck, swinging herself across the cliff until she was on the other side with the remaining students, catching up and running with Pyrrha as she exited from the bridge and away from the nearing Nevermore.
Then, the plan finally came to pass.
Opening her eyes from within the flames, seeing the pieces fall into place as planned, Ruby leapt ahead of the Steeple's top into the air just as the Nevermore flew by. Within an instant, with what should've been a massive ball of weight, Ruby swung the Scythe underhead as the igniter of the blade pushed into the opposite direction, hurtling like the boosters of a rocket as Ruby pierced the massive bird's neck from overhead. And Ruby was only too far from finished with her final attack.
The boosters continued to flare, granting enough force and power for Ruby to actually lift the beast overhead with her scythe, twirling it about in the air at increased speeds until the creature itself started spinning along with her. The remaining fire within the large ball of light slowly dissipated as the blade of the scythe started to grow, growing redder and hotter with each passing swing of the scythe's powerful blade. Eventually the blade began to glow until it was as big as Ruby, being nearly three times the size it was when it penetrated the bird's neck where it came from.
That was the signal Ruby was trying to send, Weiss with sure of it. With one more call over to Yang as she and the Valkyrie girl continued to spin the scorpion about, she stabbed into the ground itself as the last-needed glyph grew from under Yang. With a large shout and a massive toss, amplified tenfold thanks to the assistance of the nearby glyph, Yang threw the creature with a mighty heave, sending it skyrocketing towards the Nevermore Ruby continued to flail about with fury and skill.
And as it all came together, Ruby managed to time the spinning of the Nevermore perfectly as she snagged the Death Stalker just as it came through. With every last ounce of strength, every last ounce of dust, she threw not just the Nevermore, not just the Death Stalker, but the large dust-created energy of fire into the chasm below the cliffs, sending the bird, the scorpion, and the burst of energy in one glorious blast into the fog's impenetrable wall.
*Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!*
All the students shielded their eyes. Before them erupted a massive wall of fire, the flame spreading out like a wall, covering the entirety of the steeple as well as the cliffside in a glorious mound of pure fire. It engulfed the steeples which eroded away into mere dust, it more than engulfed the two Grimm as it incinerated them to nothing more than mere dust, and most importantly, it engulfed Ruby Fall herself.
"Rubyyyyy!" Blake called out to the fire with worry. Time was of the essence. None of them had a plan for what was to happen or what they could do except for Ruby from the very beginning. She couldn't approach the tremendous fire, she couldn't jump into without knowing of the scorching consequences. All she could do was wait it out until she saw some small beacon of hope that told her Ruby was still alive.
Thankfully, she didn't have to wait long.
No longer than ten full seconds passed until the massive wall of flame slowly dissipated to nothingness. Despite everything they saw, all the fire, all the burst of energy, all that raw power, the flames slowly dwindled until nothing remained of the destructive flames. And there, in the air, was the same Ruby who put together this wondrous plan, head held high with a grin and her scythe fully in hand.
"Told ya I could do it!" She cheered.
*ssst*
"Huh?" She looked back to her weapon again. As opposed to her weapon shooting her forward like she had planned, there was only a brief sizzling noise and a small bout of smoke from the igniter. She had used up all the dust in her weapon, without even intending to. So, like most sane people, she said the only sensible thing she could think of. "Uh oh. AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" She screamed as she started plummeting to her death.
There was no debris below her thanks to the incineration of her large burst of energy. Even if there had been anything remaining, the distance to them still would've killed her in the oncoming fall. There was nothing for her to land on and no use of summoning Wolfie, the dog himself not being able to materialize through the fog-like cloud below. All she could do was pray.
"Ruby!" Blake shouted again as she rushed towards the cliffside.
Like she did with the Nevermore and the Bridge, Blake quickly tossed her blade over one of the nearby pillars on the ground, which thankfully withheld against the oncoming blast from the cliffside. With one grand dive, she jumped over the ledge just as Ruby fell, diving herself quickly until she caught the girl in her arms, just several feet away from the maximum range of the weapon's rope. With a sigh, Blake just smiled as she looked down to her hooded friend, the girl grinning back to her with slight embarrassment.
"Eh heh... I guess I kinda overdid it with the whole 'fire thing', huh?"
"Ya think?"
...
...
"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Ozpin spoke out.
After the several minutes it took to find an alternative route to the cliff side, the students, all initiates included, had finally returned to the Academy for a momentous celebration. Before them was the academy, the students, Ozpin himself, everybody that would be there to commemorate their glorious occasion that would incite them to their future teams.
Above the headmaster himself were two monitors, each displaying a facial image of the students he read out as the team was formed. Like stated earlier, it was here that the students would forever find themselves stationed in one of the following teams for the rest of their lives. Not one of the mentioned students had any issues with who their teammates were, all of them great friends with one another who welcomed the team forming with great enjoyment!
Sadly, none of the remaining eight could say the same. They didn't not like one another, far from it. They were mostly worried about who was going to be on who's team from this point forward. For the next four years, they would spend most of their academy life with the following students, possibly being separated from the others for the indefinite future. They promised they would always be friends regardless, but they still held out hope for who their teammates were going to be.
"The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces." Ozpin continued as the students stood in respect and honor. "From this day forward, you will work together as... Team CRDL [Cardinal]. Lead by... Cardin Winchester."
Like before it, the team bowed respectfully as a round of applause was elicited from the audience.
Now came the moment of truth.
"Ruby Fall, Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie-"
Ruby's world froze, along with the other remaining girls. Whoever was going to be the last member of their team would most likely be one of their top choices. As for the rest, they would lose out on whoever they wanted for their own team pick. All of them praying for something spectacular to happen with the next set of words.
Please be Blake. Oh please oh please by Dust, let Blake be my partner...
I'm really hoping for Jaune here. I think he'd make a good leader...
RENRENRENRENRENRENRENRENRENRENRENREN-!
And the fourth member was...
TO BE CONTINUED.
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...
...
A/N: ...Naaah, could you imagine what a dick move that would've been after waiting all this time XD?
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...
...
And the fourth member was...
"Blake Belladonna!"
"Yes!" Ruby cheered.
"Awwww." Pyrrha moaned internally, keeping her composure maintained.
"Nooooooooooooooo!" Nora cried waterfalls. In an instant, she was from her spot, and the next one reappearing near Ren, clutching onto his leg like a clamp. "WHY IS FATE SO CRUUUUUUUUUUUEL?!"
"N-Nora!" Ren yelped, trying to pry Nora from his leg. "Can we please not do this right now? We're in the middle of an assembly-!"
All the same, Nora wasn't the only one watching with disbelief and trauma. Weiss could only drop her jaw mentally. Out of all the people in the world, why in god's name did Pyrrha not just end up on someone else's team, but why almighty did it have to be Ruby's!? This couldn't possibly get any worse!
And all the hooded Ruby could do was smile over to Blake briefly, the Faunus girl doing the same, and then to the headmaster himself.
"You have all gathered the black rook pieces and completed your initiation with flying colors. While I admit the methods were unorthodox, no one can deny your groups range of quick thinking, nor their ability to adapt to any given situation." Ozpin complimented, looking over the young students. "As such, from this day forward, you shall be known as Team RBPN [Ruben]. Lead by... Ruby Fall!
Ruby herself could only blink at that announcement. Did she just hear that right? Did she hear any of this right? She couldn't believe it, not a single word of it. Yet, when she gazed back to the other two, still dumbfounded beyond compare, there they were, smiling back at her, Pyrrha even nodding in acceptance of her official title as Team Leader.
"Wha... M-Me?" She repeated. She didn't have any time to react as Blake quickly embraced her in a tight hug.
"Oh, I'm so proud of you!" She cheered.
"Your orders are my command." Pyrrha nodded politely with a small salute.
"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!" No introduction was needed for that screaming teammate.
And like before, Weiss was met with nothing but disbelief. Perhaps that was the normal reaction to anyone who entered a nightmare, because this assembly was becoming short of anything EXCITING!
"This couldn't get any worse..." She mumbled.
"And now for the following." Ozpin announced. "Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. Lei Ren. And Jaune Arc."
"WHAT?!" It took all of Weiss' years of development skills to keep from shouting at that very moment. Now was the best time she found herself to stop saying it couldn't get any worse. Her only regret was not stopping a minute sooner.
"Ohhh yeah!" Jaune cheered, pumping his fist with excitement. He could finally cross off 'Having Weiss on his Team' from his list! Even after the announcements, most of the students presented themselves respectfully before the headmaster, save for Ren who continued to scrape his foot against the ground as he struggled with Nora refusing to let go, or stop crying.
"Your team shows promise, balance, and equality between each team member individually. But united, I believe you shall stand tall." Ozpin complimented, like the group before them. "Therefore, it is with great pleasure, I present to you with the team name, WYJR [Wire], and your team shall be lead by... Weiss Schnee!" Like the team before, even as he struggled to, both Ren and Yang congratulated the Schnee girl with great pride.
At least something good happened after all the trauma this day would cause.
"Well Weiss, looks like I'll be calling ya boss from now on, huh?" Jaune grinned, throwing his arm over Weiss. "Just remember my little snow angel, I'm up for any task you could possibly need." He reminded as he flexed his incredible muscles before her.
"First rule as the new leader; no touching the new leader." She said firmly without any emotion. The ambience she was giving off alone was enough to make him back away two feet.
"Sorry."
"It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year..." Ozpin commented as she observed his recent students.
"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
Definitely an interesting year.
...
...
With the initiation at a close, and the assembly finished for the evening, Ozpin found himself where he always preferred finding himself.
Walking down the peaceful halls of the academy, with a cup of fresh brew in hand and serenity filling the air, Glynda herself following alongside behind him as she looked over her data.
"Nothing to say about the ceremony, Ms. Goodwitch?" It was unlike her to remain given the events that happened. It was a nice change of pace all things considered, he was just wondering what sort of argument she was going to have with the turnabouts.
"I see no reason to question you at this point." Glynda replied. "After all, you always have some ulterior motive behind everything. And even if you didn't, you actually didn't do anything wrong that I can find this time. After all, Ruby did score five more points than Pyrrha with her little stunt with the Grimm."
"Hmhm, I think I preferred it when you argued against me. I always felt so smart when I rebuttal everything you said." He joked.
"Well, all things considered, I suppose I must resign myself with asking. Are you sure putting the girl in charge of the team was so wise? I don't think anyone would pay it second mind if you had Pyrrha leading them." Unlike before, she didn't give him any chance of countering this. "Oh, don't worry Ms. Goodwitch, it's all part of my carefully calculated planning." She mocked in a teasing tone.
"Heh, took the words right out of my mouth."
"Well at least now I'm sure I know the reason this time. With so many people looking to her, she'll have too many prying eyes to keep her busy and away from searching for the maiden." She realized.
"Why don't you just take my job too if you're going to take all the fun out of it?" The delightful chuckle on her expression was all he needed to look back.
It's just as Goodwitch said, this would definitely keep Ruby from having more free time during the next four years. Every little distraction was another distraction away from the maiden, and gave him ample time to bring Ruby out of a certain someone's hold. Besides, even if that wasn't the reason, he was still surprised with her recent development and skills. She was very rough for sure, definitely needing training in how to use her dust more conservatively. But that's what schools were for, to learn from one's mistake. And here he was after announcing that Ruby would be the leader of her very own team.
Now he just had to wait and see how long it would take for him to regret it...
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...
