Ruby stood up, feeling her legs were strong, and went to the entrance of the cave. She looked around but couldn't see anything through the storm. She would have to risk it. The teenager stepped out into the cold and was a few feet away from the entrance when she felt a presence above her.

She dove forward and rolled up onto her feet, looking at whatever tried to attack her. She was expecting a grimm, but saw a transparent beowulf of immense size. It didn't have any of the bone plating grimm normally has, and it was a lot skinnier then it should've been.

The worst thing about the situation however, was the fact her aura wasn't recharged from the earlier beating. It dropped it's front limbs to the ground and lunged forward, headbutting her in the torso and knocking her down. Ruby rolled out of the snow, holding her aching chest and stood to run. Before she could get very far, the beowulf like creature grabbed her ankles, pulled her down, swung her over it's head and slammed her into the ground.

Her vision blurred from the impact, she saw a hulking shadow approach. Komoth knelt down and picked Ruby up by her hair, dragging a yelp from her lungs. "I told you to stay put didn't I?" She punched his arm, hoping he would let go. "Didn't I?" He repeated after giving her a quick shake, drawing out another cry of pain.

"You're not going to keep me here," she replied. "My team will find me, and you." She looked straight into his eyes, and immediately regretted it. They were filled with so much malice and hatred that when she saw them, Ruby could feel her heart beat quicken to unprecedented levels. She felt the adrenaline rushing through her veins. She had to get away from him, now!

She beat against his arm and kicked at his chest, but the armor was too thick and his grip was too tight. Then he dropped her on the ground and pointed toward the cave. "Get inside. I need information, and you're going to give it to me."

"Why would I do that?" Her breathing was coming under control again and the rush was slowing. Luckily, at that exact moment her aura kicked in, meaning she could get away. She stood and turned, swirling herself into the rose petal whirlwind and dashing away at high speed.

Komoth's left hand rose from his side, electricity crackling between his fingers, and fired a bolt of lightning straight for Ruby. When it struck the static radiating from the bolt drew the petals back into her form and she fell to the ground, shivering from the aftereffects of the lightning.

Komoth came into her line of sight and towered over her. "I told you to get in the cave. You'll freeze to death out here." He hit her with another bolt and held it for a good long while, sending her screams throughout the tundra. Too bad they were in the middle of a storm, otherwise others may have heard it.

By the time he was done, Ruby's tears were frozen to her face, her throat like a heavy grit sandpaper. He picked her up by the waist and threw her over his shoulder between the spikes on his right pauldron. She whimpered when he started walking, each step sending more pain through her body.

The bright side, she wouldn't freeze to death with the heat coming from his body. The down side, she failed to escape. The only thing she remembered after that was immense heat and pain for a long time.

Komoth ran for hours across the frozen ground, scanning the area looking for a place to stop. It's not like the cold bothered him any, but he was getting tired of carrying a half conscious teenage girl. He needed to heal her injuries in the very near future or the rigorous travel would be deadly. He still had questions that he needed answered and was not thrilled about the idea of looking for another person he would have to drag around.

As luck would have it however, there was another cave nearby. He went inside and dropped Ruby on the ground near the back. He knelt down and used Heal Life on her. The shock would take a while longer to wear off, so, better explore in the meantime. He went to the mouth of the hole and summoned his White Balverine to stand guard.

The next thing Ruby remembered was finding herself in a different cave made of ice this time. She propped herself up on her hands and looked around. The first thing she noticed was the change in location, and the next was the ghostly creature from earlier staring at her.

It looked very similar to one of Weiss's summons, but it was a different creature. She tried to stand, but her legs were too unstable. She could barely keep herself off the ground. "I guess I'll just have to bide my time."

"Bide your time for what?" Ruby turned toward Komoth as he walked in. "Better not try to escape again, not until you tell me what I want to know. You're lucky I found this place when I did. Much more running would've killed you." He sat on a nearby rock and pulled a book from underneath his breastplate.

"You can't keep me here forever. I'll find a way to escape. I can wait." She glared at him and he glared right back.

"That's going to be a while, if at all. You see, I don't need sleep. I haven't slept in decades, and I can run for longer then you ever thought possible. I don't need water, and I don't need food. There's no way you can wait me out unless you are the same as me, and even then, you'll have to wait for me to die of old age if you were to try. Obviously I can catch you in that smokescreen thing you pulled, so don't bother trying to do that again."

He began rifling through the space in between his chest and breastplate after putting away the book. "Which do you prefer? Meat or vegetable?"

"You're giving me a choice? Why?"

Komoth sighed. "I may be a bad person, but even I have my limits, especially with the state I'm in right now. So I ask you again, meat or vegetable?"

"Meat, I guess." Komoth pulled some sort of meat on a bone out from his armor, making it even less appealing then it already was. He handed it to her and it was all she could do to not drop it. She managed to rotate her body so that she was laying against the wall.

As Ruby ate, she could feel her strength returning. It was as if the meat was packed with caffeine or something. "What's in this stuff?" She asked in between bites.

"Protein. It tends to have strength giving properties." He said nothing more for the remainder of the day. No matter what she said, all he did was look at her in response. After a while, Ruby fell asleep.

That's when he needed to make his move. People tend to sleep when it's dark, so what better time to lay siege to a city?