The Pledge
Beware that the light is fading. Beware as the dark returns. This world's unforgiving, Even brilliant lights will cease to burn.
AN: For this segment, assume that any characters that do not appear met as normal, and are following the normal timeline until they do appear.
Weiss Schnee
"Still with me!" Weiss called, she couldn't see him, but Mandricardio was starting to falter.
"Just land! I'll catch up!" he shot back in her mind… he'd be fine, he was a ghost… It was kinda strange that gravity even worked on him, but what did she know about ghosts. She summoned a glyph beneath her feet, but leapt off it after a quick angle to slow her descent. She stepped on air, leaping down from each glyph, and her speed faltering as Mandricardio grunted in her head. "I'm good!"
She didn't respond, unsure if he could hear her from this far away, and just concentrated on getting down, she bounced off her next glyph and hit a tree with her shoes, bouncing off that and summoning one final glyph before she hit the ground. She huffed, brushing off her skirt of a few leaves.
"Oh hey she's… fast, uh oh." Mandricardio suddenly said in her head… and this time she just had to respond, even if he couldn't hear her.
"What do you mean she's-" she turned to where she could sense her companion… and watched as the red blur came to a skidding halt… and Mandricardio was still quite far behind her, even if he was coming closer. "Fast."
Ruby Rose looked up at her, and Weiss recalled the words of Ozpin… well… it wasn't the worst person to have as a partner. Pyrrha would have been better, but Ruby had been a close second anyway.
"Oh hey, you've already found her," Mandricardio complained as she watched him come into 'view', dropping that invisibility trick of his and taking a few moments to lean against a tree as Ruby and Weiss just took a few moments to stare at each other.
"Come on, let's go," Weiss started walking, grabbing Ruby by the hood and starting to drag the younger girl along. Suddenly Mandricardio burst out laughing again. "And what are you even!" she was very annoyed with him, turning towards her Servant… and then caught sight of what had caused him to bust out laughing.
Jaune, hanging from a tree, his hood pinned by Pyrrha's spear, and struggling to pull himself free… she'd let this one slide. "Oh, hi there!" she looked towards Ruby, who was looking… right at Mandricardio, who was still doubled over laughing. "Uh… are you ok?"
"He's fine, ignore him," Weiss ordered, and Ruby looked towards her before Mandricardio righted himself, and waved. "What the hell are you doing," she seethed under her breath.
"She's your partner now, so she gets to know," he said, Ruby raising an eyebrow as Weiss let go of her hood.
"Um… are you mute?" Ruby asked, confused as Mandricardio walked up towards her… and she seemed rather unnerved suddenly at the fact he was partially see through.
"No, just unable to speak to anyone who isn't me, now go make yourself useful and scout ahead," she ordered, and Mandricardio just huffed, before walking forward, Weiss following after him, and Ruby following in step behind Wiess.
"I didn't see him before…" Ruby muttered and Wiess scoffed.
"Good, I'd have preferred if he stayed invisible," she complained as Ruby raised an eyebrow as Mandricardio moved through a tree.
"...So is he like your semblance or something?" Ruby asked, she had a lot of questions, and Wiess did not have any answers, nor was she going to give them even if she had them.
"What he is, isn't important, just that he's a… teammate," she put it in simple terms, and Ruby nodded as Mandricardio looked around, poking his head through a bush. "We should hurry, I don't want a bad grade, so let's-" whatever she was going to say was cut off as a Beowulf flew out of the bush, Ruby and Weiss watching as it passed through Mandricardio and ended up landing in front of them, and looking around slightly confused.
"That's not the only one here," he said, and Weiss spun around, Ruby suddenly vanishing in a flurry of petals as Weiss pulled out her rapier, Mandricardio 'dodging' the next few swipes from the Beowulf that had originally leaped at him, not he needed to.
"Ruby!" Weiss screeched in annoyance as the next Beowulf leapt out at her. She jumped back as the whole pack started to pour out the brush. She jumped back as Mandricardio suddenly leapt over her, the Beowulf following him jumping over her and then slamming head first into the one he'd passed through, which had been the one that had attacked Weiss.
"Gotcha!" Ruby suddenly appeared in a blur of red, slashing clean through the two beowulfs that had collided. Knocking them both back further as Weiss spun the chamber of her revolver.
"Give me a headcount!" she ordered, and Mandricardio huffed.
"Twelve, including the big one," he responded as Ruby leapt back, joining up with Weiss as Mandricardio pulled his shield of his back.
"Twelve!" Ruby also responded, before looking at Weiss. She grunted in annoyance before putting one foot forward, and dashing at another beowulf, hand on the trigger.
"Make that eleven," she put the tip of her blade right into her target, pulling the trigger and causing the beowulf to be engulfed in flame. She smirked, and then grunted as one of the other Beowulfs attacked her side, sending her skidding and her aura flickering for a moment from the impact.
"Stay focused," Mandricardio ordered, out of the corner of her eye she could see him leading six beowulfs on a merry chase, dodging around their wild swipes as Ruby swapped her scythe into its rifle form and took a shot at another Beowulf, putting a bullet between the eyes.
She didn't respond, instead focusing on the take infront of her, like he'd just asked her too. Some dust and a single strike was enough to take down one, and with her Servant playing keep away with half of them, that meant there were only four to actually deal with, more than enough to cause some trouble, but easily doable.
There was a crack, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the tree behind the beowulf she'd blown up with fire fall to the ground, itself also on fire. Ruby swapped her rifle back to scythe form. "Right, I got this,"
"Take her and get out of here," Mandricardio suddenly said, rushing around to try and force the beowulfs to focus on him directly, drawing whatever attention he could as flames started to engulf the forest.
"We can-" Weiss started to respond before he shouted her down.
"I'm not saying you can't, I'm saying it's not worth it to fight in a fire, now go!"
Weiss grunted, but grabbed Ruby's shoulder, "Hey-"
"Don't argue, let's go," she said, dragging Ruby away from the fight as the flames started to get bigger, Mandricardio still dancing around the pack of Beowulfs before smirking as the flames grew even higher, vanishing as the alpha howled in anger.
Ruby Rose
Weiss had let go of her rather quickly, and now the two of them were a decent ways from the forest fire that had been started. It was at this point she laid into Weiss.
"What was that! That should have been easy!" Ruby complained towards Weiss, who scoffed as that transparent guy suddenly appeared in a little spark of golden light, who was saying… something that she couldn't hear, but she could see his mouth moving.
"Yes I get it, don't set the forest on fire," Weiss grumbled, and the guy crossed his arms as Weiss stared directly at him before pointing at the forest fire. "I struck it perfectly, that shouldn't have happened."
Ruby, looking between the two, decided to pipe in. "Actually you kinda just released a lotta fire dust after striking it so… maybe it was just the amount of fire? We are in a forest," Ruby offered, and Weiss huffed and the armored transparent guy nodded and lifting his hand towards her.
"Ugh!" Weiss groaned before turning around. "Let's just go, we have a test to complete," Weiss complained as the transparent guy gave Ruby a wave. She waved back, and he smirked. He pointed towards Weiss as she was storming off, before following after her… she didn't know who this guy was, but she liked him, he was helpful, even if he was… probably some sort of ghost. A helpful ghost! Because Grimm couldn't strike him, so he could have them chase him, which was cool.
Still, she followed him, and followed Weiss, because they still hadn't been able to figure out just where in the forest they were yet… actually, Quickly, she pulled out Crescent Rose and slashed a tree with it, making an improper cut so as to only trip it behind her, and leaving behind a nice large stump to serve as a marker, just in case they came back this way…
This had nothing to do with a bit of frustration with Weiss' attitude, and not understanding what was going on with the ghost guy… none whatsoever.
Nightingale
Her face was glued to the screen practically as she watched the final pair be formed. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie… she'd already watched Jaune Arc's encountered with Weiss Scnhee, but the heiress had already been paired up with Ruby Rose at that point, and Pyrrha Nikos had come along only about two minutes later to pair up with Arc. She'd been glued to watching those two until she and Ozpin had observed Nikos unlocked Jaune's aura, which had significantly boosted her confidence in his ability to survive the rest of this exam.
On the other hand, Ozpin's torn sleeves from her previous manhandling of him were still evident, so it wasn't like the tricky headmaster had gotten off the hook for this stunt. Glynda had left to actually check Jaune's records herself, given her outburst, and Ozpin hadn't stopped her, nor had she returned yet.
"You know I'm going to have to fight with her to allow him to stay, right," Ozpin complained as Nightingale huffed. He was not ready for this, the boy might have such a close variation of her name, but he was clearly no Jeanne… or more accurately, he was like her before she'd even joined the french army, and that did nothing to boost her confidence.
"You should not put so much stock in old stories and legends Ozpin," she cautioned, swapped screens to watch Lie Ren as he palmed a King Taijutsu to death, nodding in approval as he walked off, and ran face first into Nora Valkyrie mere seconds later. "And that's the final pair."
"So what's your assessment so far of everyone else," Ozpin started and Nightingale started rapidly flipping through screens, skimping out details in favor of the bigger pictures as she watched dozens of pairs of students flip by, and finally caught one.
"Watch my tablet," she ordered, throwing the thing into his arms, causing Ozpin to stumble a little bit as she zeroed in on her target, she could just barely make them out from here… one faunus girl and a human male, both struggling with a large grimm, one of the Deathstalkers that prowled the forest. Before Ozpin could even object, she leaped off the cliff, and began jumping from tree to tree towards her targets. By her estimation, they had thirty seconds before aura broke on one of them, and against such a creature neither had the firepower to bring down, as the girl had a lance/bow, and the boy a pistol/sword, they weren't going to survive.
Failure was better than death however, and she pushed herself, leaping across the trees as she heard the scream. Twenty seconds. She dropped down, sliding down the tree she was on before kicking off it, and then breaking into a run, pulling a stick grenade out of her belt and pulling the pin with her mouth as the back of the creature came into view…
She made it with mere seconds to spare, throwing the grenade before leaping over the creature, the explosion from below causing it to tilt upwards in surprise as she spun her pistol out of its holster, planting a bullet into one of the creature's many eyes, the two applicants behind her as she made her order, the boy bleeding from a rather nasty wound already as the girl was holding her now broken bow.
"Retreat! I will be with him shortly," she ordered sternly. She would treat him the instant the threat was dealt with, and a quick snap of her fingers ensured that a big of magical healing meant he wouldn't bleed out at the moment. He hadn't been stung, just slashed across the chest thankfully. That would have been a worse wound to treat. She leapt forward, going between the deathstalker's claws as the girl helped the boy to his feet, the two hobbling away as she pushed the grimm back.
She was best against human opponents, she knew this, but even beasts were within her grasp. She did not possess the pure destructive power of any other Berserker, but she knew, she knew she had enough. A deathstalker was a fearsome creature, but to her? To her it was little more than an obstacle in her way… and she had a new tool to use, one that made her even more durable… and just a bit more destructive.
She kicked the deathstalker back, and it skid into a tree, the tree breaking as it hissed at her, and lashed out with its tail. She dodged, and grabbed its stinger, and with a grunt of effort, ripped the golden point right off. Purple poison spilled onto the ground as it hissed in absolute pain, she threw the golden stinger to the side before getting into a very basic martial stance, and took a deep breath… her soul, her body, and her mind were all devoted to one single cause.
She rushed forward, her hand engulfed in her pink Aura, and forming the object that was her semblance… it was a scalpel, not really, it was a blade that covered her two fingers. For her, it was a scalpel, a tool perfect for precision cuts, but it was also perfect for cutting through armor, tough skin. Her semblance was the ability to have the medical tool she would need, at all times, without the need for preparation. The perfect scalpel to cut through skin, through armor… through bone, without infection.
But it was also a weapon, one which would serve its purpose right here, and right now. The deathstalker swung quickly at her with a pincer, and she ducked under it, swinging her hand at an angle to allow her scalpel to slice off its pincer. It hissed in pain again as her aura took a massive hit. For as effective as this weapon was, it drained far too much to be a practical weapon. It was only a weapon in the last resort function. She decided to end it, moving her arm and cutting the deathstalker down the center, splitting its 'head' in two before turning around as it hissed before falling slack. She summoned her blade, and guessed her aura was already at about three fourths of capacity just from those two swings alone. But she had something more important.
She rushed to the side of the boy, who's broken aura was not healing his wound. He was still wincing in pain as she got to work, pulling bandages out of her back and removing his wrecked armor. "Hold still," she ordered, even as the teenager seethed in pain.
"Who are you?" the girl, a Faunus with a lizard's tail…
"I am the school nurse, be aware that with my intervention, you have failed the exam. Once I am done with him, you will proceed back to the top of the cliff, understand," she recited what Ozpin had told her she was… allowed to do. He couldn't stop her, no one would, and no one could, but he told her what to tell students if she intervened to save their lives.
"Oh…" the girl looked distraught, as she should with her failure.
"Ugh… better than… dead," the boy groaned out, and Nightingale just applied more bandages to his chest wound, as well. He would need stitches later, but this would do for now… she stood up, helping the boy to his feet as the girl helped him stay standing, and she gave them directions to the nearest safe area, before pulling her scroll out and flipping through screens again, looking for any other students in absolute danger… and then she saw another pair. Two faunus this time, surrounded by a horde of beowulfs with a forest fire raging around them. She sniffed the air for smoke, and then shoved her scroll back in her bag before rushing off. No rest for her, there never would be.
Ozpin
He stared quietly as he watched Nightingale run off, Glynda finally coming up behind with, and he barely turned his head as she spoke. "Sir, we are going to have a talk later about this," she stated, and he just hummed in response. He'd already accepted he was going to get chewed out by her sooner or later. "But ignoring his now evident forgeries… is there a reason you are allowing him to stay, and don't give me that crap about old stories again, he isn't one of them,"
"Then perhaps you should pay attention to what the sensors have to say about his Aura levels," he responded as Glynda brought up the cameras again, before mumbling someone.
"What on… they're nearly off the charts, but he didn't," she muttered as Ozpin hummed.
"To answer that question… his partner unlocked his aura just a few minutes ago, staggering isn't it?" he admitted, and Glynda nodded, before starting looking through the other cameras.
"Disregarding Arc… going by the progress the other applicants are making, they should be at the temple soon, within a few minutes at most for a majority of your 'hopeful' group… except for two, or should I say three," Gylnda brought up as Ozpin hummed, looking at the very same screen Gylnda had brought up.
The one showing Ruby Rose, the lost Weiss, and the mysteriously transparent boy in armor. That magical presence that Avicebron had warned him about earlier… it was clearly a servant, there was no question about that, but having watched it was evident his ability to interact with the physical world was severely limited… but that just raised new questions.
Such as how a human without magic, had a Servant following her around and aiding her in combat through creative use of his own limitations. Forcing grimm to chase after him knowing that he couldn't be injured was rather ingenious, but that's besides the point. They were also the farthest of his group of hopefuls from the temple, which was concerning.
Flipping through the cameras again he focused on Arc and Pyrrha who were… about to enter the cave with another trapped Deathstalker… why did students insist on going to these strange places even with his directions, did they never listen? He flipped to another screen, showing miss Belladona and miss Xiao-Long reaching the forest temple, and deciding on their artifact among the chess pieces that remained. And the daughter of Taiyang just decided to grab one of the 'white' knights… and that was when chaos completely broke loose just moments later.
Mandricardio
This plan was up there with Jason's stupid plan to kill that pack of giant demonic boars that one time. Currently, he was leaping from tree to tree in a rather hopeless attempt to keep up with Ruby and Weiss, who'd managed to hitch a ride on a stupidly massive black bird. How Weiss had even thought about, nevermind accepted this stupid idea, was beyond him, but what was done was done… and now he was chasing after the pair on his own.
Of all the- His thought was cut off as something smashed the tree out from him, and he slipped down, falling with a grunt as he landed on the ground, turning just in time to roll out of the way instinctively as some sort of giant rock golem tried to smash him. It wouldn't have done anything, but he'd still rather not.
He kicked himself up off the ground as the golem monster tried to smash him again… so he ran, just deciding that if he couldn't do anything to the- an explosion rocked the area, and he looked to the side, seeing a girl carrying what seemed to be some sort of rocket launcher, and a boy a fox tail and a pair swords. The girl leaping back as the golem turned towards her, the bit of rock she'd knocked away with the explosion being replaced by the tree that had now been uprooted.
"You have got to be-" The girl complained as Mandricardio gritted his teeth and groaned, before rushing out in front of the two, pulling his shield off his back. It was a pointless gesture, outside of trying to make himself seem like a threat. The boy quickly started firing shots from the barrels on his swords which just dinged off the literal rocks the thing was made of… goddamit! What he wouldn't give for…
He dodged out of the way of the tree limb as the girl yelped and fired another rocket at the arm, blasting it clean apart before switching the massive weapon into a large axe form, the fox boy running around and trying to draw its attention to him… he didn't know if he could but… well it would allow him to catch up to them if it did work, and draw this thing away, because he doubted it was anywhere near as fast as his horse.
He started running, the creature still turning, apparently still locked onto him for, some reason, despite the damage that the other two were inflicting on it. And as soon as he was out of sight, he made a call, focusing on where Weiss currently was, falling from the sky.
"Ride! Brigliadoro!" he ordered… and the neigh of a horse came from behind him. He smirked, leaping into the air, and landing on… a ghostly horse. God… dammit, well, better than nothing he supposed. And the ground was shaking behind him, so clearly the thing was following him, if not very fast.
He rushed towards where Weiss was, whatever the hell this thing was hot on his heels… dear god he hoped this wouldn't backfire badly.
Ruby Rose
"Great, now the gang's all here, now we can die together," Yang said as Weiss was looking somewhere else from her place on Jaune's back… and Pyrrha was laying on the ground after being thrown towards the group by the Deathstalker. Well the gang wasn't all here, that transparent-
There was a loud crash and everyone watched as said transparent boy, on a ghostly looking horse, rode out of the forest, with a giant rock monster quite far behind him, leaping off the horse, causing it to vanish as he landed among the rest of the group, to the confused stares of everyone else. "Well I stand corrected, now the gang's all here I guess," Yang recited, and Ruby huffed.
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" she called, leaping into action, and Yang held out her arm.
"Ruby wait!" Yang called as Ruby flew at the giant scorpion grimm screaming… and was easily swatted aside by a pincer.
"Don't worry! Totally fine," she called, a bit uncertain of her own statement as she turned to face the deathstalker… and then shot it in the face and started running away. Yang started running towards her, calling her name as the giant Nevermore circled back around from above… and then from where the transparent boy had come from a giant ROCK MONSTER burst out of the woods, ok it was a rock and tree monster, but still!. The transparent boy seemed to groan as he ran towards the thing, likely to do that thing where he drew attention to himself, rather than actually fight it.
Suddenly, the Nevermore fired a large barrage of feathers towards the ground, one of them pinning her by her cape, and several trapping Yang as the Deathstalker screeched behind her. "RUBY GET OUT OF THERE!" Yang screamed, and Ruby just kept tugging on her cape, she didn't care if it tore but it wasn't! Gah! For once the combat capable clothing has betrayed her!
The deathstalker skittered forward, raising its stinger. She looked towards it, fear in her eyes, and closed them as Yang called out her name… and then a crack, "You are so childish," Ruby opened her eyes, the stinger mere inches from her head, but it was trapped, encased partially in a wall of ice. Weiss was kneeling before her, and they were both atop a glyph. "And dimwited, and hyperactive, and don't get me started on your fighting style," she started, looking down towards her before closing her eyes. "And I am aware I can be… difficult. But if we're going to do this, we're going to this together… all three of us. So if you'd stop trying to show off, I'll be… nicer," Weiss said, and Ruby looked over… the wall of ice was also encasing another creature, the struggling Golem, who had both arms, and its legs caught in the ice with that transparent boy was standing behind her, but the wall was cracking slowly.
"I'm not trying to show off, but I want you to know what I can do," Ruby responded, Weiss offering her hand and helping her up. "Now… let's get those artifacts and scram,"
"Good idea," Weiss muttered, and both of them winced as the wall cracked, the deathstalker hissing and the golem thing struggling, both girls making a run for it alongside the transparent boy. Yang running towards her and giving her a hug as Jaune, pointed up towards the sky.
"Ok, so, all well again good, but that wall ain't going to hold those forever, and that thing is circling back, what are we gonna do," Jaune gave, a very quick description of the situation.
"No sense in hanging around here, our objective is right here, so everyone grab one and let's go," Weiss pointed out.
"We grab the artifacts and get back to the cliff, no point in fighting this battle," Ruby gave after Yang let her go, looking at the remaining chess pieces.
"So run and live. That's an idea I can get behind," Jaune nodded, everyone looking between each other and Yang counted on her fingers.
"Hang on, there is nine of us," she pointed out, and everyone except Weiss and Ruby looked towards the transparent boy, who shrugged.
"Don't worry about him, let's grab and go," Weiss retorted, a very loud crack suddenly being a very nice motivator. Ruby went for a chess piece, grabbing the golden knight, while Jaune grabbed the golden rook, the two nodding to each other.
Finally, the deathstalker roared, the ice about to give way. "Time we left," the boy in green admitted.
"Right, let's go together," Ruby ordered, leading the way as the group of nine ran for it, before the creatures in ice break free, and the bird could begin its attack run.
They were going to make it, it was just a matter of time.
Gudao
"Holy shit," he muttered, Robin, Hans and Avicebron all crammed around the television with him as they stared at the screen, Robin's jaw had dropped open, Hans was actually silent, and while he couldn't tell just what Avicebron was feeling, it was probably the same amount of shock he did.
On screen, they were watching the camera as the group of nine was running towards the cliffs together… Mandricardio with them. "He's…"
"So he was the Servant…" Hans muttered as Avicebron just leaned further in, Robin grunting as he pushed the Caster away from the television.
"Stop hogging it, I gotta see this!" Robin complained, and Gudao looked at the other camera feeds on screen. Nightingale was carrying students out of a forest fire, the Deathstalker and Golem had gotten free from the ice and were in the process of chasing after the hopefuls… it was amazing, all eight of Ozpin's hopefuls were working together… and they had a transparent Mandricardio with them.
"But something's wrong with him," Gudao muttered, trying to get a closer look at his friend, but the screen was not exactly providing a very nice feed of the group of nine…
"It's obvious, he is not solid. His physical form is… incomplete," Avicebron pointed out.
"But why?" Hans questioned and Gudao's scroll started ringing, he picked it up…
"Yeah Oz?" Gudao asked, his friends all looking at him as Ozpin spoke.
"Give me a sitrep… do you think that they'll be able to make it," it was very fast, and very stern. Gudao looked at the screens again. Three very big Grimm, all of them clearly very powerful, against eight students and a Servant that was… probably very weak at the moment.
"From where I'm sitting the odds don't look good… not impossible, just not great, but I don't know what any of them are really capable of, except for Mandricardio," Gudao gave, and Ozpin hummed.
"The Servant?"
"Yeah, that's who it is… an old friend," he focused on them again as the group reached some really massive ruins, huh, so there actually was a forest temple.
"Well then… I await to see if they can manage this fight… together," Ozpin said before hanging up, and Gudao looked to Robin… and nodded, the Archer getting up and running out the door, but he remained glued to the screen alongside the two Casters.
This was going to be big.
AN: And cut… The next chapter is going to be a big one everyone. But for right now, I'll leave you all with this. Initiation has just gotten a lot tougher… get ready everyone, for its going to be one wild ride.
The pieces have been gathered… and now the players take center stage.