"I'm not going to mince words, students, this is not going to be easy, or safe. You already understand the risks, I'm sure, but I want to make it absolutely clear."

The General was completely serious, that much was obvious, and from the way his gaze continued to shift back to Naruto, it was pretty clear he had something else to say.

"General, sir, both AWBN and RRYN are fully aware of everything I know about the System."

Ironwood seemed taken aback somewhat, but to his credit he recovered quickly. "Very well. Allow me to move on, and explain the plan in detail."

The military man gestured to his desk, a map of Mountain Glenn springing up from the depths, holographic in nature.

He quickly adjusted it, flattening the three-dimensional landscape into a flat street-map. "This is from out latest scans, but it shouldn't have changed. Now, these four points," the General began, pointing to the four glowing dots on the map, "are our spike locations. Each team will split into their partnerships, and be assigned a squad. You will descend, clear the area, plant the spike, and wait until the order is given to activate it. Once activated, you will defend the spike until the Shai-Hulud emerges, where you will be flown back up to the Daedalus as we engage. Is that understood?"

Ironwood received a chorus of nodding in response, and let out a slight, almost silent sigh, before moving on, dismissing the projected map. "Brownes will take you to your squads, so if there are no more questions…"

Naruto and Ruby looked to their respective teams, but it appeared that the clear-cut briefing was just that.

Ironwood gave them all a confirmatory nod, before stepping back up the stairs. "Then if you'd like to follow me, I can hand you over."

"So, we're babysitting? I thought we were on some kind of difficult mission, not keeping an eye on some kids."

Naruto winced at the less-than-stellar reception he and Pyrrha appeared to be receiving.

"Enough, Barnes. Angel 1, this is Naruto Arc and Pyrrha Nikos, your assigned Hunters. Arc, Nikos, this is Angel 1. I'll let them introduce themselves, I still have to show the rest of your crew around," Brownes said, giving Naruto and Pyrrha no room to retreat as he roughly pushed them forwards.

The two Hunters-In-Training looked about as awkward as they felt, until a burly man stood, stretching out a hand. "I'm Lieutenant Slate, Angel 1-Actual. Nice to meet ya."

Naruto took the massive hand in his own, feeling the bones rearranged themselves beneath the man's behemoth-like grip. "I'm Naruto. Nice to meet you too.

His hand released Naruto and gave his partner a more delicate shake. "So, let me introduce you to the rest of Angel. The asshole on the left is Corporal Barnes, Angel 1-5. The one who looks like she'd rather be deployed already is Corporal Liym, Angel 1-4. Angel 1-3, Corporal Strong, is over there, talking to our pilot, and Corporal First Class Argon, Angel 1-2, is currently getting our equipment sorted for the op."

Naruto and Pyrrha nodded a greeting to the gathered soldiers.

"I meant what I said, L-T. Did the wife leave and not take the kids?" Barnes asked, standing up from his seat on a crate, to his towering height of… shorter than both Naruto and Pyrrha.

Barnes seemed to realise that fact at the same time Liym did, her raucous laughter serving to diminish his threat even more.

"Ease off, Barnes. The General recommended them himself, so I reckon they can handle themselves. Besides, you telling me you don't recognize Mistral's champion in the flesh?" Slate said, Pyrrha playing up her polite public persona, giving the man a smile.

Barnes rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Scraggly here's who I'm worried about."

At this, Pyrrha let some of that persona slip. "Naruto is an excellent leader."

Naruto met his partner's eyes, shaking his head slightly.

Barnes whistled mockingly. "Oh, a leader? Did you draw straws? Maybe a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors?"

Naruto did a double take. "I'm sorry, what did you say? Did you just say Rock-Paper-Scissors?"

Barnes seemed taken aback. "Uh, yeah?"

Naruto shook his head disapprovingly. "It's Paper-Scissors-Rock. Not Rock-Paper-Scissors."

This only seemed to rile Barnes up. "What the hell are you smoking, kid? It's always been Rock-Paper-Scissors!"

Liym added to the atmosphere by continuing to laugh, struggling hard to prevent herself from falling off her seat on another crate.

"Seriously, I don't know how you guys do it in Atlas, but it's wrong. It's Paper-Scissors-Rock. No arguments."

"Alright then kid, wanna put your money where your mouth is? Atlas'll show you a thing or two, sparring! One on one!"

Slate raised an eyebrow at that. "You sure you wanna do that, Barnes?"

"Yeah I'm sure! I'll flatten his ass in one move!"

Slate sighed, before turning to the blond Huntsman-In-Training. "Don't break him. We need him for the op."

Naruto just nodded. "Sure. I'm guessing he won't settle down or follow orders if I don't, right?"

Slate gave a tired nod. "I've been dealing with this for years, now. Just shut him up and he'll fall in line right quick."

"C'mon coward!"

Naruto rolled his shoulders, quickly shedding his weapons as he stepped to the side, an open area on the metal floor seeming better than fighting right amongst the soldiers and crates.

Barnes followed suit, taking the top half of his armor and donning it, leaving the helmet behind.

Another heavy sigh followed Barnes as Slate stepped up. "I guess I'll officiate. I'm going to stop you when enough damage has been done, we still have a job to do."

More noise followed as more and more people stepped up to watch the coming entertainment.

Which also meant it drew the attention of his friends, too.

"You can do it Naruto!" Ruby cheered, jumping up and down.

"You've got this Narutoy!" Nora cheered even louder, hammer held aloft above her head, Ren doing his best to prevent the ginger from getting involved.

"Ha. More kids, huh? Couldn't afford to hire the real deal?" Barnes spat, cracking his knuckles.

Naruto didn't bother with responding, standing relaxed.

"Alright. Start!" Slate shouted. No countdown, no preparation, just action, and that appeared to be what Barnes was used to, as he shot forward.

Naruto swiveled at the last second, sending the soldier off-balance, the teen's hand pressing against the soldier's back to push him away, gaining some distance.

This appeared to piss off Barnes, who turned around with a stumble and a snarl, and began running at Naruto again.

Naruto dodged again, Barnes' fist passing just millimeters away from the teen as he kneed the man in the chest, before darting backwards once more.

'This isn't even really a fight. It's about intimidation,' Naruto realised, as Barnes panted, pacing back and forth, taking it slow for a change.

Naruto stood tall, using his height to his advantage. "This isn't even a fight. Stop complaining," He said, voice laced with Intimidating Presence as he took a step forwards.

Callisto and Cadejo emerged from his shadow, one on his left, the other his right. Startled yells and guns were raised, but Naruto held up his hand, the two bound souls halting at his command.

"If you had Aura, maybe it'd be different, but you don't, and it isn't. Just shut up, sit down, and behave," Naruto continued, voice still laden with Intimidating Presence.

Barnes reacted in a way that Naruto hadn't expected. "Well, shit. You're probably right. I mean, damn."

The man stood to attention with a rueful smile. "But this was a pretty good way for you to reveal what you can do, you know? Now we know where you sit."

Naruto relaxed, a curious look on his face. "That was what, a test?"

Barnes shrugged. "Don't blame me, that's on the L-T."

Naruto turned to face Slate, who gave a half-hearted shrug as well. "I like to know where you're at, and Barnes is usually aggressive anyway."

"Hey!"

Slate ignored the interruption. "I can take reputation, but I ain't ever heard of you, so I wanted to check. Considering all that, you're definitely up to par, so to speak. I've had to work with a couple Mistralians in the past that thought they were hot shit, turned out they could barely work out which end of the sword was the sharp one."

"I was just surprised they didn't cark it," Liym said, kicking her legs back as she relaxed. "I lost forty Lien on that."

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at that, something the newest member noticed as he walked over. "Yeah, that's why I always bet against her. She's got bad luck when it comes to bets."

"Shut it, Strong."

Strong laughed. "Hey, at least I'm not talking about the ship-wide strip poker tournament. That you lost. Really quickly."

Slate ignored his squad, gesturing to Cadejo and Callisto. "So, that's your semblance? Summoning?"

Naruto nodded. "Something like that."

The large man raised an eyebrow at that. "Huh. Well, they look friendly enough. Pretty easy to distinguish from regular Grimm, at least."

Callisto strode over, effectively slumping into a sitting position and stretching out, Slate giving her a tentative head-rub.

The bear let out a quiet roar of satisfaction, and Slate smiled, looking like some kind of proud grandfather.

"Careful, L-T, you might lose your status as grumpy old man if you keep that up!" Liym piped up, as she donned her armor. "Wouldn't want that, now would we?"

Slate's reply was drowned out as speakers blared on. "All units, approaching AO. Green in five."

And with that, it was as if a switch was flicked, Slate relenting and stepping back from Callisto, grabbing his helmet, placing it on his head. "Argon, get over here!"

Naruto turned to see a clean-shaven man jogging closer, a crate in his hands. "Sorry chief. Got the gear, though, Quartermaster wanted to have a disagreement."

Slate nodded. "Get ready, then. Arc, Nikos, this is my 2IC, Argon."

The introduction was brief, but Argon wasn't one to shirk a handshake, quickly greeting the two Hunters-In-Training, before he too donned his armor and helmet, as Slate opened the crate and began handing out various pieces of equipment.

As Liym took what looked to be a large shotgun, she let out a whistle. "Woah, L-T, what's the occasion? You never let me use the biggest one."

Slate gestured towards Naruto. "Ask them. According to the General's briefing, these two have seen the big beastie we're going after."

Naruto and Pyrrha shared a glance. 'More than seen it, it ate a part of me.'

"It's not something we can really hope to fight. It's just that the Grimm inside Mountain Glenn are much stronger than usual," Naruto mused. "Anything less than the best firepower and there's a pretty good chance we'll be overwhelmed."

Strong shrugged. "Way to motivate, kid."

Naruto dismissed Cadejo and Callisto, the two summons disappearing into smoke and merging back with his shadow. "I'm just saying it how it is."

Slate loaded a belt into his massive rifle, pulling back on the charging handle. "What are we expecting to see out there, Arc?"

"Beowolves, Ursa, Creeps, maybe some bigger Grimm like Deathstalkers or Nevermore. Hopefully not a Goliath, but we'll see."

Barnes seemed to choke on air. "Hopefully?"

Naruto shrugged. "Nearly died the last time I fought one, but I'm a little stronger now. With the amount of firepower we have, we should be able to kill one if we need to. I'm just saying I hope we don't have to, because that's a lot of ammo."

This time the interruption was much louder as a klaxon sounded off, the soldiers standing and slinging their weapons.

"This way you two," Slate said, gesturing to the two to follow him. "It's about to get windy up here."

Slate timed it perfectly, indicating years of experience as what Naruto had assumed to be a large wall slid open, buffeting all the contents of the hangar with wind that whipped his hair back, the sudden noise nearly deafening him.

"Come on! We're in Skyhawk!" Strong shouted over the wind, pointing to one of the large military aircraft that sat, engines warming.

Razorback was an apt name for the aircraft, sharp and angular as it was, a pair of stabilizing fins along the top, a particularly vicious-looking turret beneath the angled cockpit. Much like a Bullhead, however, it had doors on the side, and as Angel Squad clambered inside, Naruto and Pyrrha followed, gripping tightly to the metal railings.

Angel hooked themselves in, grabbing cables and hooking them to their armor, as Argon and Strong grabbed a door-mounted minigun each, opening a box on the side of the door and grabbing a belt of ammunition, feeding it into the guns.

"All set Skyhawk!" Slate called out, and the pilot of Skyhawk gave a thumbs-up from the cockpit.

"This is Skyhawk-Whiskey-Mike-Delta-Six-Six, departing."

A voice came over the internal comms of the Razorback. "Copy that Skyhawk-Whiskey-Mike-Delta-Six-Six, departure registered. Kick some ass for us out there, Angel."

And then Skyhawk fell.

Naruto felt his stomach lift inside his body as Skyhawk plummeted, engines roaring as they kicked in, the Razorback leveling out and steadying, cruising at a decent speed as they entered Mountain Glenn's airspace.

A quick cast of Mana Sight meant that Naruto could see clearly, and the result of that meant that the sky was suddenly pockmarked with tiny yellow dots.

"Incoming!" Naruto shouted, and not a second too soon as small Nevermore began effectively suicide-bombing the Razorback, already overwhelming the auto-cannon on the front.

Yellow turned red as Naruto managed to Observe one, and suddenly he realised that the swarm was simply growing bigger by the minute. "We're attracting a lot of them!"

Strong and Argon opened fire, the Hephaestus-M72's spitting hot Dust-rounds in a stream as they traced through the air, carving swaths of space between the feather-laden air, even as the Razorback's armor plating suffered dents and scratches.

Skyhawk was holding, though, and Naruto and Pyrrha used their shields to prevent any unwanted passengers from getting inside, and soon the Razorback passed low enough to stop the swarm from pursuing en masse, as the Daedalus's point-defense systems went live.

Naruto and Pyrrha watched in awe as the massive aircraft opened multiple panels, gigantic turrets sliding out and rotating.

Each barrel fired a beam of glowing blue energy, incinerating sections of the swarm at a time, Skyhawk only just managing to reach the minimum safe distance as another beam killed at least two hundred of the pursuing avian menaces.

"Woah," Naruto said involuntarily, and Slate laughed.

"Every time we get rookies aboard for an op like this, their reactions are the same. There's a reason why nobody dares mess with Atlas."

Naruto nodded along. "I can see why."

Pyrrha's eyes met Naruto's, and he gave her a subtle shake of his head in return.

"Angel Actual, we're approaching the drop point. Get the Spike and get ready, I'm going to have to bug out fast and rearm."

Slate gestured to Barnes, who grabbed the Spike from the rear of the Razorback, before the Lieutenant turned back. "Arc, I want you and Liym as our pointmen. Nikos and I will take the rear, Barnes, Argon and Strong in the center. Sound good?"

Naruto placed a hand on his sword. "You're the more experienced here, I'm deferring to your judgement."

"Ten seconds!" The pilot called over the radio, and Slate nodded to Liym, who gave her shotgun a one-handed pump for dramatic effect.

"Five seconds!"

The Razorback skimmed the street hard, engines whining in frustration as they strained to keep the Skyhawk only a few inches above the ground, and Angel, plus Naruto and Pyrrha, piled out, already opening fire as notifications popped up for Naruto.

[Quest Created!]

[Operation Kingslayer]

[Defeat the Shai-Hulud.]

[Rewards: 750,000 XP, Skill Book, Title]

[You've entered a Raid Zone!]

Naruto raised his shield to take the claw of a Beowolf Alpha as Liym blasted it straight in the chest, hurting it enough that Naruto finished it, Crocea Mors slashing through its neck.

They were already under attack, and they hadn't even placed the Spike yet. Naruto wasn't ecstatic with his luck so far.

They were already running low on ammunition.

Beowolves and Ursa swarmed them still, attracted to the sheer amount of Aura that he and Pyrrha both possessed, though he imagined his was a considerable bit more of a wider margin in comparison, it still dwarfed the locked Aura that all of Angel had.

Not that unlocking it would do any good. At this point, it might overwhelm their senses, and without the time needed to get accustomed to it, they'd perish.

There was also the matter of Aura attracting Grimm much the same as negative emotions did, but that was a lesser known fact, not quite easily found out by the public, and was also the very same reason why most, if not all Hunters lived outside of small villages, instead of inside them.

For cities it didn't really matter all too much, the consolidation of people made Aura virtually indistinguishable compared to negativity.

Naruto didn't know why this was running through his head. He was getting distracted, and now was definitely not the time to ruminate on one of Goodwitch's lessons.

Another claw met his shield, Naruto shrugging it away without much thought as he cut through the offending Grimm, barely paying its dying form any mind as he moved onto the next target.

"We're nearly out, L-T! Two mags!" Argon shouted, and Slate shouted a grunt of understanding as he opened fire on an Ursa Major, his heavy machine-gun belting rounds into its thick hide without pause as Pyrrha quickly got atop it, wedging her blade through the crack in its skull plating.

They had a moment of respite after that, or at least as close to one as they could as the city seemed to leak Grimm from every crack.

"Calling a drop now, ladies, take a step back!" Slate called out over the gunfire, and his call was soon proven true as an angular crate, vaguely reminiscent of one of Beacon's rocket lockers, hit the ground between them, sending a plume of dust and grit into the air as it slammed down.

"Can you cover us, Hunters?" Slate asked, as his gun clicked empty.

Naruto nodded. "Not like we have much of a choice!"

Slate grinned at that.

Pyrrha walked backwards towards the crate, rifle spitting out rounds, and Naruto did much the same, stepping back and slashing at whatever got within his reach.

They'd closed up their grouping to reload, and it would cost them, they'd have to push back through again, but at least they had rounds to do so.

"Naruto, now would be as good a time as any to stop holding back!" Pyrrha called out over the noise, and Naruto glanced in her direction for a moment.

"You sure?!"

Pyrrha slashed the leg of a Beowolf and quickly shifted her weapon, putting a round in its head. "If you don't, we may not make it out of here anyway!"

Naruto nodded. His shield became his sheath, and he stored it on his belt, Barnes looking at him like he was mad.

"What the fuck are you doing, kid?!" He screamed, as Naruto took an Ursa claw on his sword alone.

Naruto paid the soldier no attention as he cast Mana Shield, the construct appearing on his arm, just smaller than his actual shield, leaving his hand free to cast.

And cast he did.

A Gravity-Infused Mana Blast sent the nearest cluster of Grimm rocketing towards the sky, spinning as they became distant, and Naruto watched with satisfaction as the automatic targeting of the Daedalus incinerated them with a shot.

Barnes looked as if someone had placed him into an alternate reality, staring at Naruto in shock.

"Get your shit together 1-5!" Slate shouted. "Worry about it later!"

Naruto continued to pay Barnes no mind as he stepped forward, a Beowolf getting Shield Bashed backwards, where a Mana Slash carved it and three more in half, the return slash cutting through two more.

Something Naruto understood about the military was calling out what he was doing, and it appeared that this was in fact how Angel operated, because the moment he called out "Flashbang!" all of Angel took cover, and the Mana Flash went off in the air, Grimm roaring as Naruto went to work.

He and Pyrrha were like fluid, flowing their way through the approaching monsters like they were nothing. It was incredible to witness, and bear witness was exactly what Angel were doing as they fired shots at any straggler that Naruto or Pyrrha missed.

But something felt wrong to Naruto.

A quick Observe bore fruit to his investigation, and Naruto realised what was wrong.

Quantity over quantity.

The Grimm they were fighting weren't over level twenty.

But there were just so many of them.

How?

Where were they all coming from? There hadn't been anywhere near this many the last time he'd been here, so what happened?

"Pyrrha! I don't know if I can hold this up! I'm going to have to slow down a little!"

And he was. Mana Shield was consuming 5MP/s, and that left him with a little over 3MP/s regen. And with the rate he was using his spells, he was going to be out of Mana fast.

At least a single cut from Crocea Mors killed any of the Beowolves, and even the toughest of Ursa took less than five. The backup from Angel also meant that he effectively didn't have to worry about finishing the crippled ones, as Liym effectively took over, her shotgun discharging buckshot into their skulls, as Pyrrha became the other pointman.

Plans were meant to be adjusted on the fly, anyway. He was always better at thinking on his feet.

"We're in position!" Slate called out, as a burst from his HMG removed the chest of a Beowolf. "Clear the area, and we'll set up the Spike!"

A burst of Spinning Mana Bullets turned the nearest group of Beowolves into corpses as Naruto dismissed the Mana Shield, flipping his grip on Crocea Mors so that he could hold it in reverse, using his arm, with the extra defense that the blade provided, to block incoming attacks. It wasn't better than using an actual shield, of course, but Naruto's shield didn't have edges that were so sharp they never need be sharpened.

An Ursa found that out the hard way as it strayed too close, and Naruto removed its grasping paw for it, which it seemed to object to, until a round from Strong's rifle dissuaded it from any further complaints.

It also gave him a free hand to cast with, something a nearby Alpha Beowolf didn't like very much as it found its entire torso suddenly missing, a Mana Lance courtesy of the only one who could hitting it hard enough that it seemed to be in shock.

The radio in the helmets of Angel crackled, and, loud enough for both Pyrrha and Naruto to hear, came unfamiliar voices.

"Apache-Actual, Spike is ready!"

"Gold-Actual, Spike is planted!"

"Prism-Actual, we're set!"

Slate motioned to Barnes, who pulled the Spike out of the pouch on the back of his armor, giving it a twist.

The Spike, which up until that point had been more of an oval-like device, suddenly opened up, a massive spike, for which Naruto assumed it was named, plunging out the bottom. Barnes wound back, and drove it into the ground, only for the spike to dent the concrete.

"Shit!" The soldier swore, and tried again, to no avail.

"Toss it here!" Naruto called out, and Barnes did so, throwing it to Naruto, who deftly caught it in his free hand and, in one smooth movement, Aura lighting up his arm, drove it into the pavement with a resounding crunch.

"Angel-Actual, hit it!" Slate shouted into his helmet's microphone, and Naruto did so, slamming his hand down on the glowing red top of the Spike.

At once, four shuddering ripples pushed through the ground, and sent shivers down the spines of anyone on the ground.

Then the howling started.