Chapter Twelve: Everything Dies
I look down at the tree branch currently impaling my chest. Reaching up, I brush a bit of blood off the splintered wood.
"…Ow?" I murmur, shocked. Shouldn't this hurt moRE! OH, IT HURTS MORE! IT HURTS A LOT MORE! AAAUUUUGGGGHHH!
"Looks like you're in trouble there, Guardian." Oh says, floating beside me.
"AAAUUUGGH!" I scream. "I… AAAH! GET ME DOWN!"
"Oh, okay." He says, darting behind me. I feel a slight flash of heat, and the branch suddenly sags, forcing me to slide forwards off it.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" I scream as the bark scrapes against my insides, before devolving into wordless gibberish as I fall twenty more feet to the ground. I can hear my shins crack from the drop, but the pain is nothing compared to the hole in my chest.
"Oh, be quiet! It'll all be over in a moment, just stop making it worse!"
Choking back another pained cry, I close my eyes and wait silently. Waves of pain wash over me, but I can feel them slowly start to recede. Lower, and… lower. Moments later, I sit up, marveling at my newly repaired flesh and armor.
"I… I honestly don't believe it." I gasp, patting my chest.
"Oh?" Oh says. "Didn't I tell you about the regeneration? Long as I'm around, you'll have no problems!"
"You did…" I trail off. "But I didn't believe it, you know. Until now, that is." I add hastily.
A rustle in the undergrowth nearby brings a swift end to our conversation. "Hide." I whisper to Oh, who quickly transmats back to… wherever he goes.
Turning back towards the bushes, I blink when I see a woman standing in front of me.
"Hello again!" Pyrrha says.
"Traveler damn it!" I roar, slamming a fist into a wolf-like Grimm – Beowolves, I believe they are called – as I storm through the forest towards Jaune's landing zone. The punch itself doesn't do much damage, not without the strength of a Titan, but the millions of volts of electricity flowing out of my fingers do the trick.
A howl breaks out to my left. Turning around, I see a leaping Beowolf atomized by an errant stream of Arc energy leaping from my robe. Not one of my usual abilities, I'll admit – but a Guardian's Light reacts to their emotions and desires, and since my primary emotion is fucking pissed off and my primary desire is to kill everything, well… I've been having difficultly keeping my power contained while I make my way through the forest.
On the downside, it's making it difficult to charge my super. Every time I get close my concentration slips and the Light just drains away in random flashes of power. Thankfully, the discharges will calm down along with me in a few minutes. Or once I 'solve' the problem. Preferably via a quarter-inch of lead and tungsten, applied directly to the cranial region.
The problem being that red-haired woman. Try as I might, I simply can't imagine a reason why she'd deliberately separate us that isn't malicious. Combine that with her following us earlier, and Jaune's 'accidental' encounter, and, well… It doesn't look good. In my infinite wisdom and forbearance, however, I have decided to give her a chance to explain herself before I invert her abdominal cavity. And shove that fucking spear up her –
Breaking into an unexpected clearing, I quickly assess the scene before me. This place is… destroyed. The soil has been churned up as if by dozens of stomping feet, the trees sporting bullet holes and other various wounds. I can see the rubble from what looks like a crushed boulder. "What in the Traveler happened here?" I mutter.
My answer comes in the form of a massive black feather slamming into the earth before me. Leaping aside, I swiftly pull my Arminius-D from beneath my robes – no telling if they have cameras out here or not. Flicking my sights to the sky, I scan for more Grimm. After a moment, a flash of motion sends me scrambling out of the way as another feather slams home.
There – over the trees! I can see a vast, avian Grimm. Probably Nevermore, from the files I've read they're quite common in Vale. It's flying away quickly, though two colorful blurs on its back concern me. Slinging my rifle behind my back, resting comfortably against the red spear, I reach into my robes again to produce a sniper rifle – the 1000 Yard Stare. Better for killing people than monsters, in my opinion – but I need the scope more than the rifle itself. Zooming in, I can see the blurs resolve into two figures. Ruby, and… some other girl. I can't honestly remember, but she looks vaguely familiar. Maybe I saw her in line at the cafeteria or something.
Oh, wait, I remember. White hair, stupid dress. What's her name? Something Snow? I don't know if I know her name. Questions for later if they somehow survive. Hm? This might be promising. If Ruby slips off and dies – well, tragic, but a perfect opportunity. Consulting the local map, I can see that the Ghosts I called in are still following her at a safe distance. Good, they should swoop in if they get a chance.
Turning my attention back to the map, I see Jaune moving away from my position. Opening a voice channel, I call out to him. "Guardian!" I bark. "Stay put! I'm coming to you."
"Hm? Oh, sure… no, no Pyrrha, I wasn't talking to you. That? Yeah, my helmet has a built-in radio, I'm talking to –"
"That redhead with you?" I snap.
"Um, yes? I'm sorry, but we kinda made eye contact, so…" His voice filters through the channel uneasily.
Fucking hell. Alright… ugh. Plan A is down. Can't kill her – nowhere to hide the body, so plan B is right out. Plan C it is then. "That's… fine." I say reluctantly. "But keep a damn close eye on her. Remember our earlier conversation today? Well, she damn near killed me to keep us apart, so she has an angle on this. I need you to be careful around her until we figure it out."
His voice crackles back through the speaker. "…Understood. Jaune out."
I stare at the empty voice channel for a moment. "Damn. He actually hung up on me." I chuckle.
A fierce growl snaps me away from my HUD. Scanning the undergrowth, I can see the massive bulk of a Grimm barreling towards me. Ursa, I think it's called. Stepping back, I snap 1000-Yard Stare up and put a round into its mask before it makes it into the clearing.
Surprisingly, it doesn't die. The bone of the mask must be tougher than it looks, as it deflects the bullet just enough to only blow off half of its skull. Gurgling in pain, it slumps to the side before resuming its shambling charge. Fairly impressive, for a simple construct of Darkness. Might be better to target limbs first in the future.
The Ursa's slow speed allows me to easily evade it with a single jump, the massive beast straining to stop itself from barreling past me. Moving forwards, I put the monster out of its misery with another shot from the Stare, blowing the rest of its cranium into red chunks. Not blood, oddly. Their insides are just… red. No guts, no organs. I suppose this confirms their status as paracasual constructs.
Though, if Grimm are simple creations of Darkness, who made them? Better question, who's making them? Because there's no way they form naturally, and if their numbers were limited the people on this world would have hunted them to extinction long ago. Some mad Golden Age scientist? An ancient machine, mindlessly repeating its last command? Some malevolent being from another world?
Who knows? Nobody on this planet seems to, from the data I've gathered. Despite being the greatest threat to all life on the planet, they don't seem to know anything about them. Just catalogs of different variants, basic strengths, weaknesses, and behaviors. Nothing else. Nothing about their history, origins, numbers, communication, anything. Hell, they don't even know how they sense people, besides some vague nonsense about being 'drawn to negative emotions'. Which honestly sounds a hell of a lot like propaganda. 'Don't complain about anything or the Grimm will come and eat you' gives governments a pretty bulletproof excuse to abuse the living shit out of their people.
And don't even get me started on their damn weapons. Infinite armies of melee-focused supernatural monsters with the size and strength of dozens of men, and they use fucking swords. Why? It's just… retarded. It's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I suppose before firearms were reinvented, sure, but what's their excuse now? It might sound a little hypocritical since I'm also given to punch and stab things on occasion, but these people can't regrow arms and come back from the dead.
It just… nothing about this world makes sense. And that's not even counting the obvious time discrepancy. The Exodus Yellow left Sol just over a thousand years ago, but these people have records several times older. And yet they're undoubtedly from Earth. Their media, their vocabulary, it's all rife with references to Golden Age culture. Hell, even the fact that they speak perfect English is impossible, due to the fact that thousands of years of linguistic isolation should have made us all but unintelligible to each other. However, there's precedent for this, oddly enough. In the Distributary, the Awoken's pocket universe, thousands of years passed with only a few centuries going by on the outside. Something similar may have happened here, minus the whole 'pocket dimension' shtick.
And then there's the fucking moon, split into pieces. And those pieces, even though gravity should have pulled them back into the moon or spread them into a ring, also maintain their positions perfectly relative to the rest of the moon. Clearly, something is keeping them there.
An alert on my HUD snaps me out of my internal rant, beeping furiously at me. A message from Jaune? I open the voice channel to check in.
"Oh, Traveler! It's not the relic! Run, Pyrrha, run!" A voice screams.
I hear the sounds of hurried footsteps, with some sort of bellowing in the distance. "What's going on over there?" I ask.
"Urs!" Jaune yells. "Giant Grimm! It's a… a scorpion or something! We need help!"
"Head towards my position," I command. "I'll set a marker for you."
"Hurry!" He says, before cutting the channel.
"How did you fuck that up?" I yell, crashing through the forest on the trail of a massive Deathstalker.
"I'm sorry, I just panicked, okay? That Grimm got between us and – crap!" Jaune swore. "Almost took my head off. Are you here yet?"
"A few more minutes," I say, weaving around a confused Ursa. "It'd be faster if you weren't running away from me!"
"And do what, fight the giant bug monster!?"
"YES!" I roar frustratedly. "Do that! You're immortal, for the Traveler's sake! What are you even afraid of?"
"I thought you told me dying would blow my cover!"
"It will." I say, firing into a pack of Beowolves who decided to join the chase. "Just win instead."
"Oh, it's that easy." Jaune snarks. "I don't even have a gun! What am I supposed to do with this pointy stick?"
"Stick it in the damn thing! It's a fucking sword, not a fighter jet!" I yell.
"I don't even know how!"
"Ugh," I grunt, drawing Worldline Zero again. "I'll try and close the gap. Keep moving, there should be a set of ruins up ahead, you'll be able to take cover there."
Closing the channel, I focus on a small trench up ahead, carved into the ground by an errant stab from the Deathstalker's tail. Tesseracting is fast, but unfortunately, it needs some kind of ledge or drop-off in order to trigger. I'd rather not bother and just summon my sparrow, but this planet has no orbital transmat link, so I'm out of luck. The ditch should do, though.
Once again, just as I feel myself falling, I squeeze Worldline Zero and Tesseract engages, using the momentum of the movement to enhance my Glide. As I soar above the treetops, I can see the Deathstalker rampaging towards a set of stone ruins about a half-mile away.
Slowly, I can feel the energy in my Glide give way, friction and drag slowing my flight. Allowing myself to drift back to the earth, I hit the ground running and immediately repeat the process, rapidly closing the gap.
Bounding ahead of the beast, I see Jaune and… Pyrrha, I guess, weaving in and out of the forest. I'm not sure why they bother, the trees don't even seem to be slowing it down. Jaune is fine, blessed with the infinite stamina all Guardians possess. Pyrrha seems less so, breathing hard and starting to visibly slow. I guess Hunters here aren't made for cross-country. Although… maybe she'll stop and get eaten by the Grimm? That'd be convenient. We'd probably be kicked out for not rescuing her, though – that would kind of defeat the purpose.
Drawing up next to Jaune, I stow Worldline Zero and quickly scan through my storage matrix – I can't just give him any gun. Unfortunately, a Guardian's weapons are a bit… more, than what humans use. Our Light fills them, it's what grants them their unparalleled lethality. But if you don't have enough Light… then they're only good for mantlepieces. And a brand-new Guardian won't have enough Light to use most of the weapons in my arsenal.
After a moment, I find the exact weapon I'm looking for. Reaching back into my robes, I pull out an old assault rifle, optics cracked and frame worn and rusted. The Khvostov, the first weapon I ever found. Seems appropriate for a new Guardian. Signaling for Jaune to sheathe his sword, I throw the weapon over to him. "Take this!" I say.
"What… hey, this is a piece of crap!" He says, inspecting the cracked lens.
"It's the best you can use, so get used to it!" I yell, looking back towards the Deathstalker. Looks like it's gaining. "Keep running!"
At that moment we finally break into a clearing, at the end of which our objective looms. I can see a golden glint coming from the ruins. "Okay, here's the plan," I say. "I'll distract it, while you shoot. Hey, you!" I yell, getting Pyrrha's attention. "Run ad control!"
Seeing her confused expression, I silently curse. Of course, they wouldn't know what that means. "Just kill anything that tries to distract us!" I say.
With a nod, she holds out her hand. Belatedly, I realize her spear is still strapped to my back. "Fine!" I shout, tossing it over. "But next time I get my hands on the fucking thing, I'm going to shove it so far up your ass you can taste the tip!"
She has the good grace to at least look embarrassed before I turn around and skid to a stop. Immediately, the Deathstalker is upon me. I hear Jaune and Pyrrha yelling something, perhaps a warning of some sort. A massive, chitinous claw begins to descend towards me.
Smiling grimly, I do the last thing a monster like that would expect – I step towards it, into the blow. Instead of dodging hundreds of pounds of Darkness and chitin, all I have to do is sway under the limb connecting it to the creature's carapace. Its momentum, unable to stop as abruptly as I have, carries it over me. Reaching up, I thrust a hand towards one of its leg joints, sending a massive burst of electricity into the limb.
With a keening wail, it's leg spastically jerks about, unresponsive to the creature's commands. "Hmm," I mutter. "Note to self – despite not possessing nerves… or muscles… electricity still disrupts their motor control." I wonder why whatever made these would engineer such a crippling weakness.
Dancing backward, I slip out from under the beast. Spinning around, I can feel it's ancient eyes lock onto me. With a flick of my wrist, I fling a storm grenade at it. A localized thunderstorm materializes in moments, striking the monster with bolts of lightning as sheets of rain lash its face.
The creature reels back, clearly injured but nowhere near dead. A glance at its health bar indicates only about a quarter of its health has been taken off, likely due to sheer mass. A second look indicates its glowing red eyes are a significant weak point. "Jaune!" I yell. "Target the eyes!"
A stream of bullets slams into the monster, though nowhere near as accurate as I'd hoped. Still, a single round embeds itself in an eye socket as the Deathstalker begins to thrash about, desperately trying to pin me in its claws.
Normally I'd simply retreat and shoot it from a distance, but this is Jaune's chance to learn and grow. That means I need to keep it facing him, or he'll never stand a chance of hitting anything vital. So, I step back just a bit, barely enough to keep out of its reach. I can practically feel the monster growing more and more frustrated as I continue to dodge, each time a hairsbreadth from certain death.
I can hear the cracks and pops of more firearms nearby – probably Pyrrha, fending off any other Grimm that followed our trail of devastation, but more students could have shown up. Still, we got here pretty fast, I'd be surprised if anybody else made it yet. Oh, wait, the girls on the bird.
I risk a glance up. If they hitched a ride on that thing, they certainly would have beaten us here. Sure enough, as I drop into a blink to dodge another desperate swipe, a pair of figures step into the clearing behind the Deathstalker. They seem confused, but I see them raise their weapons to interfere.
"We've got this!" I call out to them, ducking under a stinging tail. "Leave it to us!"
Ruby Rose feels sick to her stomach.
Right in front of her, her first and second friends at Beacon are both fighting for their lives against a Deathstalker. The massive Grimm seems to be winning too. Izanagi can't do anything but dodge its deadly attacks, while Jaune's bullets just skate off its bony shell.
Well, Ruby Rose came to Beacon to be a hero, and a hero doesn't leave a friend in need, no matter what! Raising Crescent Rose, she prepares to hurl herself across the clearing, when a pale hand seizes her hood, strangling her.
"Weiss!" I croak. "Let me go! They're in trouble!"
"Hm." She sniffs, looking towards the ruins. "I don't see how it's our problem. The relics are right there, let's retrieve them and end this horrid test."
"Weiss!" I whine. "Look! They're losing!"
"I'm NOT losing!" Izanagi bellows. Wow, he must have really good hearing!
"See? Even he says so. Come on, Ruby." Weiss says, letting go of my hood and wiping her hand against her dress. Hey, my cloaks not that dirty! I've only… I… well, I washed it like… three days ago!
"Wait! We're definitely losing! Come help us!" Jaune cries.
"Shut up, Guardian!"
"You're going to get me killed! Again!"
"Ruby, I don't –" Weiss begins, hand already reaching back for my hood.
Too late though. In a flash, I'm already on top of the Deathstalker, Crescent Rose biting into the armored sheath over its legs. Disengaging, I whirl around, firing a shot to increase my momentum. This time, it bites through, severing the leg cleanly.
"Damnit, Jaune! Just kill it already!" Izanagi yells, throwing himself back to avoid its pained spasms.
"I'm out of ammo!"
"I gave you THREE HUNDRED ROUNDS!"
"I'm out, okay?"
With a cry of fury, Izanagi steps forwards, arms thrust out to the sides. Ooh, is he about to use his semblance? Given the electricity arcing from his coat, it seems like it. Leaping backward, I fire Crescent to steer myself towards Jaune, who's struggling with the magazine on his rifle.
"Where'd you get that?" I ask curiously.
"Urs gave it to me." He says flatly. "Piece of junk is what it is, three hundred bullets and nothing… look!" He says, pointing.
Snapping my gaze back to Izanagi, the electricity in his coat has multiplied, to the point where he seems to be covered in lightning. I see him bring his hands forward, palms thrust out towards the Deathstalker. "UNLIMITED POWERRR!" He yells, as bolts of lightning streak towards the Grimm.
The Deathstalker spasms as the lightning strikes, exposed skin charring and bone armor peeling back. A moment later, the Deathstalker flies backward, dissolving into pure electricity. The enemy defeated, I can see Izanagi limply lower his arms, energy fading into nonexistence.
"That's… so… cool!" I squeak, racing up to him. "What was that? Is your semblance lightning? Then how did you use fire with Yang? What –" I'm cut off abruptly when a large palm lands on my head, ruffling my hair. Ooh, that feels nice – no, wait! Breaking free, I stamp on his foot. Ouch! Why do his boots have armor? It isn't fair! "You're trying to distract me." I huff.
"No, no…" He chuckles. "I'm just glad I got to kill something worthwhile today."
I frown. That sounds kinda… weird? A sudden hand on my shoulder has me involuntarily stiffen up. I look over as Jaune steps up, trying to catch my attention. "Hey, guys… the relics are right there. Should we go?"
"Eh, why not." Izanagi sighs. "I'm good now. Sorry for stealing your kill."
Jaune snorts. "'Good' would be the last thing I'd call you."
Izanagi turns to look at him. "What would you call me, then?"
"Hmm…" Jaune hums. "Evil? Manipulative? A sociopathic bastard with no morals?"
"Hey!" I say. "That's not nice. What did Izanagi ever do to you? I thought you were friends!"
Jaune stares at me blankly. "He shot me."
"Duh," I say. "Yang told me that story last night. It was kinda your own fault." Seriously, who'd be dumb enough to walk onto a firing range while people were still shooting?
He shakes his head, apparently giving up. Score one for Ruby Rose.
"…So… shall we grab the relics and skedaddle?" Izanagi asks.
"Um, sure! Whatever that means!" I say.
Walking over to the ruins, I see a bunch of pedestals, all with… chess pieces on them? Izanagi looks around, before swiping the nearest three off the pedestals and tossing them to us. "Here we go. One ticket to Beacon academy, prepaid and first-class." He looks back over to me. "Ruby, where are you gonna keep that? You don't exactly have pockets."
"You don't have pockets either!" I say, pointing at his robe.
"I don't need any. Watch." He says, before stashing the relic inside his robes. When he pulls his hands out, they're empty. "Magic."
"What?" I say. "How'd you do that? Do you have storage tech built into your clothes?" Running over, I pat the spot where he stowed it. Not even a bump.
"Trade secret." He whispers. "Now, then." He says, louder. "Let's blow this joint and go home."
Walking over to the other pedestals, he starts grabbing the relics and piling them up in the middle of the ruins. "Um… what are you doing?" Jaune asks nervously.
"Having fun." Izanagi says, tossing the relics to the ground. "Now, let's see… proximity sensor? No, a Grimm might set it off. Infrared? Short-range, but it'll work…" He trails off into a steady stream of murmurs.
"Are you booby-trapping the relics?" Pyrrha asks incredulously.
"Of course," Izanagi says, distractedly. "Guardian 101; resource denial. If you can't take it with you, make sure your enemies can't either. Nothing lethal, just a small amount of chlorine trifluoride with a few other odds and ends. Small boom, lots of fire. Relics will live, and whoever's stupid enough to set it off should too."
"You can't do that! And what enemies?" Weiss cries.
"I just did, and other students. We had to fight a giant Deathstalker to get here, I'm not making this any easier for them." He says, stepping back from his handiwork. "If you'd like to defuse it, be my guest." Weiss shivers, but doesn't move.
"Okay then!" Izanagi says, clapping his hands together. "We should leave now, because the infrared sensor is going to arm itself in four seconds." Me, Weiss, and Pyrrha all fall over each other trying to scramble away from the ruins. Jaune just sits there, laughing.
"You know he's fucking with you." He wheezes. "I bet the trigger was already armed. And while he's a sociopathic bastard, there's no way he would have set it to blow if any of us came near it. That'd be dumb as hell."
"Oh… um, I knew that." I say, blushing brightly. Weiss and Pyrrha both look indignant.
"How'd you know?" Izanagi cries, throwing his arms up into the air.
"Oh told me a bit about how you work." Jaune deadpans. "Besides, you wouldn't have offered to let Weiss get close to the thing if it was actually going to hurt her."
"What happened to me being evil?" Izanagi mutters.
"Hey, Ruby…" Jaune says, trudging through the forest towards the cliffs. "Whatever happened to that giant bird from earlier?"
"Hmm?" I say. "Oh, me and Weiss jumped off when we were close to the ruins."
"Weiss and I." Izanagi instantly says. I stick my tongue out at him.
"So… where is it now?" Jaune asks.
I open my mouth to reply, when a dark shadow falls over our group.
"CAW!"
Immediately, Izanagi stops dead in his tracks, before turning back to the rest of us. "I'm done. You guys go handle this." He says, waving us off.
"So that's it, you're leaving us?" Weiss spits.
"Yes." He says. "What kind of test is this if I do all the work? This is your chance to grow and strengthen." He says, looking to Jaune."
"…" We all stare blankly at him.
"By the way, dodge." He says languidly.
I hunch over, feeling the wind ruffle my hair as a massive black feather soars over my head. Several others slam into the ground around us. Looks like the Nevermore is a bit too high to accurately aim. It seems to agree because it immediately starts to spiral lower and lower.
"Um, okay then!" I squeak. "Shoot it!" I open fire on it with Crescent Rose, bullets mostly deflected from its steel-like feathers. Jaune and Pyrrha both open up as well, while Weiss, takes out her rapier and starts shooting spikes of ice at it.
I quickly spare a glance at Izanagi. He's just sitting down, in the shade of one of the feathers. I frown, before turning my attention back to the fight. Doesn't seem like we're doing much damage. "Guys!" I say. "This isn't working!"
"We need to ground it!" Jaune yells. "Bring it down and it's a sitting duck!" He pauses, lowering his weapon. "Anybody got anything that can take it down?"
"I do," Weiss says confidently. "But I need it to get a little closer before I can."
"How close."
Weiss frowns. "Maybe… 50 meters?"
"Alright, then." Jaune says. "Cease fire, don't waste ammo!" Once we all stop shooting, he points to the embedded feathers. "We need to focus on dodging these, taunt it. It'll run out of them soon, and we might piss it off enough to make a pass at us. Ruby, you're the best shot out of all of us, so keep plinking away at it, don't let it get bored and fly off."
"Um… I don't have a lot of ammo left." I say.
"What caliber do you use?" Izanagi says suddenly.
"Um… .50 BMG?" I say.
Izanagi reaches into his robes again, before pulling out a green box and flipping it towards me. "Use these." He says. "They'll probably pack more of a punch than you're used to, so watch the recoil."
"Okay, go!" Jaune says, darting off while weaving through the trees. I follow him, running around and occasionally shooting at the Nevermore.
Eventually, the rain of feathers slows to a crawl, and the Nevermore unleashes a piercing caw of frustration. Gathering itself, it swoops downwards towards Izanagi, talons outstretched. He looks up at the bird, eyeing it with disinterest.
"NOW, WEISS!" Jaune cries. Weiss raises her rapier, before a pair of glyphs flash into being, as ice covers the Nevermore's wings. With a croak, it loses control before smashing into the ground. Right on top of Izanagi.
"NO!" I scream. He's got to be alright; he melted that deathstalker with his bare hands, a stupid Nevermore couldn't kill him! Pyrrha and Weiss leap forwards, stabbing and slashing at its wings to keep it down, while Jaune takes a knee and starts shooting carefully at any exposed body parts.
I race forwards, scythe unfolded. Firing repeatedly, I can see what Izanagi said about the recoil. Moving faster than I ever have before, Crescent Rose cleaves through the monster's neck like a hot knife through butter, ending the Grimm.
"Good job, folks." Jaune says cheerfully, slinging his rifle over his back. "Let's get out of here before more shows up."
"What about Izanagi?" I cry, stepping towards the slowly dissolving body of the Grimm.
"He'll be fine," Jaune says, waving a hand towards the carnage. "Well, maybe not, but he'll live."
Racing over towards the impact site, I frantically search for any sign of Izanagi from under the dissolving bulk of the Grimm. I see dirt, a few shell casings… blood. My heart leaps into my throat. Grimm… don't bleed. As the Nevermore finishes dissolving, I finally see Izanagi come into view.
He looks… okay. Not even his robes are ripped. Sitting up, he gets to his feet before dusting himself off. "Traveler, what took you guys so long?" He says nonchalantly. "I thought I was gonna have to actually do something for a moment there."
Weiss goggles at him. "How did you survive?" She yells. "I… that Nevermore should have killed you!"
"Disappointed?" He chuckles. "Don't worry snowflake, you'll get your chance." I can see Weiss gritting her teeth at the nickname.
"You're hurt!" I cry, swooping towards him. Using my semblance, I whirl around him, searching for wounds. "There's blood!"
"Hm?" He says, looking over his shoulder towards the crimson stain on the ground. "Oh, I'll be fine." He says.
"You're not fine." I grump. "When we get back to Beacon, you're going straight to the hospital."
"Make me." He leers, stepping up out of the crater to tower over me. Stupid tall people. I drink milk! Why won't I grow?
"…By the Traveler, will you two stop flirting and get moving?" Jaune yells, flapping his arms. "We're burning daylight here, and I'm not exactly eager to find any more of these things."
Izanagi and I shoot apart, both raising our voices.
"Dude, she's underage!" Izanagi says.
"I'm not… Jaune, stop!" I babble, cheeks burning.
He chuckles, before walking off and waving for us to follow. We fall in behind him, an uneasy silence pervading the atmosphere. Until two people crash out of the undergrowth beside us.
"Yang?" I say, befuddled.
"Oh, it's the stalker." Izanagi says, pointing at the other girl.
Jaune peers over at her. "You're right, it is. Ten glimmer they were just eavesdropping on us?"
"Twenty glimmer they were there for the last five minutes."
"What happened to you two?" Weiss says, looking towards Yang. I follow her gaze. Sure enough, Yang's usually flawless hair seems… rather singed. Oh no.
With a sigh of exasperation, she turns to us. "We made it to the relics, but it turns out the teachers put a trap on them. As soon as we came close, the whole pile exploded everywhere and set the entire clearing on fire."
"Uh… right." Izanagi coughs. "Definitely the teachers."
Yang's gaze turns to him. "Urs…" she says, menace creeping into her voice as her eyes glow red. "Care to explain?"
Izanagi looks frantically to me and Jaune for help. Oh, wow, the ground is really fascinating right now. Further away, I can hear Jaune whistling softly. "Damn." He says. "So, it's a long story..."
A/N: Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, well... I'm altering my update schedule for this fic. I recently picked up a second job, so I simply don't have time to pump out three chapters a week anymore. From now on, Exodus Yellow is moving to once-a-week updates, Monday afternoon. Sorry. On the plus side, now that we're getting into the meat of the story expect longer chapters like this one.