AN- I would like to apologize for the wait. I was planning on finishing and releasing this chapter about 8 Days ago, but work hit me like a wave and just made it hard to fine time to write the rest. Work should be slowing down here in the middle of Dec so hopefully I will be able to get out 1 or 2 chapters a week. I hope you enjoy.
Ozpin was watching the screen, showing the fight with Pyrrha and Onyx. He looked at the aura level of Onyx. He noticed that his aura fluctuated, giving the Grimm a chance to strike him.
"Should we pull him out?" Glynda asked.
"No… I think we should see where this goes. He still has most of his aura left and I believe Pyrrha will be able to stop the bleeding. The claws look like they did not penetrate the ribs so the muscle took most of the impact. I think he will be fine for the most part" Ozpin deduced.
"How are you sure?" Glynda asked.
"Honestly, it's a hunch" He said while sipping his mug with a smile.
Ozpin was staring at the screen when he noticed a little droplet of water fall on it. About a second later, another and then another until rain started to downpour. He smirked as Glynda pulled an umbrella out for them.
Pyrrha quickly ran to Onyx's body. She got to her knees and turned him over. She saw the three gashes from the Alpha. The blood was coming out slow but steady. She put her fingers to his neck to check his pulse and put her ear to his mouth. As she was looking, listening and feeling, she felt a pulse as well as light breaths on her ear and could see his chest rising and falling.
'Thank goodness' She thought to herself.
Pyrrha attached her shield to his back and sat Onyx up and under hooked both arms and pushed forward on his locked out legs. Carefully she brought Onyx to the standing position and put both of his arms around her neck and propped him on her back. She changed her weapon into a rifle and held it in her right arm, ready to shoot and headed off for shelter.
Pyrrha had been traveling for about 30 minutes going tree to tree to hide from the rain, taking breaks when needed and checking Onyxs wound. She eventually found what looked like to be an abandoned dust mine shaft. She quickly went into the opening and slammed the open door shut. She gently took Onyx off her back and set him on his back. She overlooked his wounds again and sighed.
'He's going to need something to clot the blood and disinfect it. The forest should have something, I just need to go back out in the rain' She concluded.
She saw a raggedy old torn coat and threw it over Onyx to try and keep him warm. She grabbed her shield and javelin and left the mine shaft into the cold rain.
Pyrrha had been running for 5 minutes and found a little clearing with a mixture of plants. She searched very carefully to find the right one. She grazed her hand over multiple plants until she found a white flower.
"Yarrow, this will do" She said as she was able to pick two handfuls.
She stuffed them into her belt around her waist and left the area. She headed back towards the Dust shaft but took a different turn and was running until she skidded to a stop when she spotted a particular fruit tree. She walked up to the lemon tree and picked five lemons and sprinted back to the dust shaft. As she walked back into the dust shaft she closed the door and set her items on a piece of wood. She took the jacket off Onyx.
She quickly unbuttoned his top and carefully took it off enough to expose his chest. Pyrrha blushed a little, getting a look at his decently toned abdomen. She shook her head and refocused on his gashes. She reached for her little cape that hung off her belt and tore a piece off and started to wipe the blood from the area. She grabbed the lemons and cut them in half. She began to squeeze as much juice in each gash to clean it the best she could. She then took the Yarrow flowers and laid them next to her. She put a couple in her mouth and started to use her saliva to wet the flowers and chew very carefully until a flowery paste was made. She took the paste and carefully spread it out inside each gash to help stop the bleeding. She finished putting the last of the paste into his wounds and ripped another piece of cloth and dried the area around the wounds of blood. She opened her little pouch on her left side and pulled out a roll of gauze and wrapped it around his chest three times and tied it in the back. She pulled his top back on and buttoned up his shirt and put the old coat back over him.
Pyrrha let out a deep anxiety filled breath and sighed in relief. She grabbed a few broken boards and put them in a teepee. She reached in her pouch and pulled out a lighter and lit the tinder. She pulled Onyx closer to the fire and she sat on the other side. She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her head on them. She closed her eyes and decided to rest for a bit.
Onyx groaned as he opened his up he was hit with some uncomfortable pain. He waited a second before he fully sat up. He looked around and could see a dying fire to his left and what looked like Pyrrha sleeping next to it.
A loud crack of thunder was heard. Pyrrha jumped up with her weapon in hand facing the door. She calmed down quickly knowing there was nothing there. She turned and saw Onyx Sitting up and awake.
"Onyx! Thank goodness, how are you feeling?" She questioned.
"Sore as long was I out?" He asked.
"Honestly I don't know, after you passed out, it started to downpour hard so I got you out of there as fast I could. I patched you up the best I could and made a fire. I fell asleep a couple times waiting for you to wake up, I'd say maybe midnight." She explained.
"You patched me up?
"Yea, after I brought you here I went back out and was able to find some plants and lemons. I used the lemons to disinfect your wounds as best they could then filled them with some plant paste I made. The plant I used was the Yarrow flower. If you make it into a paste like substance, it helps with clotting and reduces infection chances, then wrapped your chest in gauze. " She explained.
"Thanks Pyrrha, I appreciate it," Onyx said with a smile.
Pyrrha gave her own smile and a small nod. Onyx slowly stood up and walked to the door and opened it.
"Onyx, what are you doing? You should be resting still, you just woke up" She said with concern.
"I think I can handle a little walk, plus I was trying to get a better look at what time it is" He said as he closed the door.
"By doing what?" She asked.
"Well since Ozpin jammed our scrolls to block the time on them, we can't use them. I'm used to telling time with the position of the sun or moon, but since it's still raining and cloudy as hell, I can't see it, but from the way some light shines through, I'd say sometime after one o'clock in the morning" He explained.
"Wow, how often do you do that?" She asked.
"All the time. I had to when I was back home because I never had a scroll, just a clock in our house, but I liked to be out and about most of the day so it just came naturally after a while I guess" He explained. "By the way, where are we?" He asked.
"I think it's an abandoned dust shaft," She said. "Wait if it's after one, then we may only have seven hours at the most to find two artifacts" She explained.
"I guess so, but don't you think there is more to this test?" Onyx asked.
"What do you mean?" She questioned.
"Well Ozpin said we have two objectives, find an artifact and another we don't know but need to figure out. He also said if we don't make it to the cliff in time we fail, which would make getting to the cliff in time an objective. So right there his test has some holes to it" He explained.
"Okay that does have some sense around it. Now that you mention it, he did say we fail the test if we don't make it back in time, but said if we don't get an artifact, then we just fail the objective but not the test" She said.
"Exactly, I think he hid the test answers within his words. Let's think about it some more and come back. Until then let's try and find two artifacts just in case we are overthinking it."
"Agreed, but where do we go?" Asked Pyrrha.
"Let's try this mine, if Ozpin hid artifacts in this forest, he probably put them in structures or a cave to make it not impossible"
"Okay, let's go," Pyrrha said as she and Onyx set off further in the mine.
Onyx and Pyrrha used their scrolls for sources of light as they walked in the mine further. Coming to two different splits, they finally came into a clearing. The ceiling was about thirty feet high and in the center was a mix of crystals. Onyx and Pyrrha walked up to them.
"You think one is an artifact?" Onyx asked.
"No, these are all just dust crystals" Pyrrha said as she picked up and examined it.
Onyx was to the left of Pyrrha. While standing there he felt a chill go down his spine. He slightly turned his head to the right and his eyes went wide. He jumped and crashed into Pyrrha tackling her out of the way of two fist smashing the spot she had been in. They rolled about ten feet away from the fist. As they come to a stop they both look back towards the attack and see a Beringel turning towards them on all fours.
"Um Onyx, you have a plan for this one?" Pyrrha asked with a hint of nervousness.
'A Beringel in a dust mine, this isn't the best situation. We can't take it straight on, otherwise it will probably crush us' Onyx thought to himself. 'Crush us...crush…' Onyx thought as his eyes looked towards the Grimm then to the ceiling. 'The ceiling looks pretty loose as it is, just needs a little more and it will collapse' He thought as he looked at the pile of dust crystals as a small smirk formed on his lips.
"Pyrrha we are going to collapse the roof on it. Move back and fire a few rounds to loosen the ceiling a bit more, I'm going to distract it and grab a dust crystal, follow my lead after that" He said as she nodded and jumped back and switched her javelin to a rifle.
Onyx charged parallel to the Grimm and launched a volley of wind gusts at it. Successfully hitting it and pissing it off, the Grimm charged at Onyx as three shots were heard in the mine. The Grimm charged at Onyx and raised its right fist and slammed it towards Onyx. Onyx Back flipped away from the fist and formed a javelin of wind and launched it into the top of the Beringels right hand pinning it to the ground. Onyx landed and ran past the Grimm back towards the crystals. Grabbing the crystals, he placed them into his pouch on his right thigh.
"AHHH!" Onyx yelled in pain as a hand grabbed his upper body.
"Onyx!" Pyrrha yelled as she watched the Beringel grab Onyx and squeeze his body.
Pyrrha quickly threw her shield effectively hitting the face of the Grimm. The Beringel yelled in annoyance and threw Onyx into a wall causing a partial portion of the wall to fall onto him with his aura absorbing most of the direct impact. Pyrrha ran to help Onyx, only to be stopped by the Beringel punching her into the mine wall effectively disarming her shield from her. Pyrrha slowly sat up against the wall. She put her hand to her head to help sooth her dazed state.
Onyx slowly lifted his head to see the Beringel making its way to Pyrrha who was still dazed from the hit and wall collision. He froze, memories flooded into his mind. Every nightmare showing his failure. He closed his eyes.
'Not again… Please let it be enough' Onyx thought as his eyes sprung open.
Onyx sent a wave of wind in all directions, blowing the debris away from him. He bolted for Pyrrhas shield and formed a current toward the two. The Beringel lunged its fist towards Pyrrha as Onyx left his current above its arm and threw Pyrrhas shield into the elbow joint of the Grimm. The shield lodged itself into the arm of the Grimm. Quickly thinking, Onyx capitalized and used the ceiling to propel himself towards the Grimm. Onyx landed on the shield forcing it to tear through the rest of the arm fully cutting it off. The Beringel yelled in anguish as it moved back away from the two. Onyx landed and looked back towards Pyrrha.
"You okay Pyrrha?" He asked.
Pyrrha didn't answer right away. She was stunned when she looked at his eyes and noticed they were no longer a do-decagon pattern. She gave his eyes a thorough look. The new pattern had a black pentagon shape inside an upside down star that was inside a right-side up star surrounded by twelve dots.
"Your eyes… how?" She said, still stunned.
"I'll explain later okay, but for now get your rifle ready and follow my lead" He said as he took off towards the Beringel.
Onyx ran towards the Grimm with Pyrrhas shield in hand. He launched her shield at the Grimm hitting its face causing it to stumble backwards more. The shield ricocheted back towards him and Onyx formed a hammer and swung it towards the shield and hit it sending it flying towards the Beringel and hitting its face again caused the Grimm to fall on its back. Onyx lept up towards the ceiling and took the three fire dust crystals from his pouch and lodged them into the cracks of the ceiling. Onyx jumped away and landed near Pyrrha. Pyrrha pulled out her rifle and shot the crystals causing an explosion.
The explosion caused the damaged ceiling to collapse onto the Beringel burying it. Onyx eyes widened as the ceiling didn't stop there as the rest of the mine was about to have a cave in. Onyx hooked Pyrrhas shield to his waist and ran and grabbed Pyrrha and picked her up bridal style and ran towards the exit. As rocks started to fall faster Onyx formed a current and jumped into it with Pyrrha sending the flying towards the exit and launching themselves outside the dust shaft. Landing outside, Onyx set Pyrrha down and fell to his knees taking several deep breaths.
"Onyx are you okay?" Pyrrha asked with concern.
"Yea, it's just using that can take a lot out of me" He explained.
"What do you mean that?" She questioned.
Onyx pointed to his eyes as he looked at her. Pyrrha noticed that they were back to their normal pattern.
"I'll explain later. As of now it looks like the sun is rising. I was off by a bit on what time it was it seems. We better get moving so we can make it back to the cliff in time, can you walk?" He asked
"Yea, It seems I sprained my ankle but I'll manage" She said.
"Good cause I'm going to need some help" He said in between breaths and a chuckle as he put his hand to his chest.
"It looks like you opened your wounds. Come on we need to get you some actual help before you catch a serious infection or something" Pyrrha said as she put his arm around her neck and started back towards the cliff.
As Onyx and Pyrrha walked towards the group of people near the edge, they noted they were the last to get there, but still in the time frame. Ruby is the first to catch sight of the two.
"There they ar- Onyx are you okay!" Ruby said with concern blitzing towards him.
"I'm fine Ruby or at least will be," He said with a light smile.
Ruby helped Pyrrha with Onyx the rest of the way to the group. As they reached the group, Onyx noticed that not a single person had an artifact but he also noticed what state some people were in. He started to wonder when Ozpin started to speak.
"I'm glad you two were able to make it back and with an hour to spare. I'm going to keep this brief. As it looks like, I see none of you have come back with an artifact. It looks like all of you have failed your objective" He exclaimed with a light smile. "With that out of the way, would the following individuals stand off to my left. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long as well as Onyx Kanuchi, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. The rest of you please go and collect you things, better luck next time" Ozpin said with a smile.
"What! Why do we fail and they don't!" One of the failures said.
"Well that's for you to figure out and me to know, now please be off" Ozpin said as the other eight left the cliff.
"Ummm professor, why did we pass, I mean none of us passed our objective and we all made it back in time." Ruby said, being a little confused.
"Well let me explain from the beginning. None of you were going to pass your first objective because there were no artifacts out in the forest for you to get" He explained.
"What! So you lied to us?" Weiss yelled in surprise.
"Yes I did, but for good reason. This year's test was different from the past, so I set up a scenario where it would be no different than if you were getting a mission from a client. You never know if the information you are getting is solid and factual, which leads into what the second objective is, anybody know?" He asked.
Everybody started to think until Onyx spoke up.
"It was teamwork," He said.
"Elaborate Onyx" Ozpin said with a smile.
"It all makes sense now, you didn't tell us because you wanted to see what our natural instinct was when presented with an option to either go alone or be able to team up and look together. Not only does teamwork up the chance of succeeding in the mission, but also the survival rate, especially in the case a mission goes bad." Onyx explained.
"And since Beacon has teams of four, you wanted to see how well we work with another person" Blake explained.
"Correct. If I were to pass a person who doesn't truly care for the well being of his or her teammates or one that can not work with others, then not only will that put the mission at risk, but everybody's lives at risk as well. I passed you all because you showed tremendous teamwork. If I form a team with people who can work together and care for each other, the mission may still fail, but the team has a better chance at surviving and fighting another day. " Ozpin said while sipping his mug. " I will also say that the limit number of students I was going to accept was a lie as well. That was mainly to see who would focus on themselves and well, you all know why I wouldn't pass people like that" He said
"That does make sense," Yang said.
"Now if there are no more questions, I'm sure you all would like to get cleaned up and changed. Your ceremony and team placement will be at two o'clock in the auditorium, please do not be late. Oh and can you please help Onyx to the infirmary Ms. Nikos, it should be quick and shouldn't make you late" Ozpin said.
"Of Course professor" Pyrrha said with a smile as she left with Onyx for the Infirmary.
Pyrrha helped sit Onyx on the bed in the infirmary.
"Okay can you tell me what happened?" The Nurse asked Onyx.
"We were fighting some Beowolfs and during the fight my aura fluctuated somehow and the alpha was able to get a cheap shot and used its claws and gashed my chest. Pyrrha here was able to help patch it up the best she could," Onyx explained.
"Okay take your top off so I can see the full damage" The nurse said.
Onyx unbuttoned his top as Pyrrha started to leave to give them privacy.
"No, you need to stay. I need to know what exactly you used to patch him up" The Nurse said as Pyrrha nodded.
Onyx finished taking his top off and exposed his chest. The nurse unwrapped the gauze and took a look of the three gashes across his chest.
"Slight swelling but not too bad. It looks like the wound opened up recently but only a little. What did you use?" The nurse asked Pyrrha.
"I used lemon juice as a disinfectant and then chewed up some Yarrow and mixed it with saliva to make a paste and used it to stop the bleeding," Pyrrha said.
"Well make sure to grab a sucker on the way out. There's a slight infection still but you definitely prevented anything serious" She said with a smile making Pyrrha give a small smile. "You were lucky she was there, this could have been a lot worse. All you should need is some pills and I'm going to stitch this up to help your aura with the healing" The nurse said as she turned to Onyx. "You can take your leave now Ms. Nikos, Onyx will be at the auditorium later" The Nurse said.
Pyrrha smiled and gave Onyx a wave as he waved back as she left the room.
"So how long will the stitches be in?" Onyx asked.
"Well it seems your aura is already at work, but I would say 2 days minimum. You don't have to worry about getting them out, they will dissolve. I am going to tell you, you will probably have three nasty scars" She said with a serious expression.
"It's whatever, at least they didn't cause real damage" Onyx said with slight disappointment, accepting his situation
"Ohh you will be fine, look at like this. You got these scars, jumping in a dangerous situation with the odds against you, saving a poor defenseless girl and almost losing you life" The nurse exaggerated. "Plus these scars may just give you a fan club with the girls. Imagine, all the girls being like "Oh Onyx, your hands are so ruff and powerful", and once they see the scars they would pounce on you like the manly prey you would be to them" The nurse teased.
Onyx's face turned a shade of red that puts the color red to shame. He tried to speak but kept getting his tongue caught.
"Young men are so fun to tease" She said as she held her gut while she laughed. "Now put your top back on and be on your way" She said,
"Wait… I thought you were going to put stitches in me? Onyx questioned.
"Well while you were all hot and bothered I put them in. You didn't even feel a thing, you're welcome" The nurse explained.
Onyx put his top on and quickly left the infirmary still flustered and went to change into a non damaged uniform.