Entrance Exam Part 2
Blaze's heart pounded both from fear and exhilaration. The pack was closing in, he could hear their howling.
Blaze and Umbra had stopped for a short while, in order to get their bearings and catch their breath. That's when the pack had caught up.
But the pack had increased in size, drawn to the fear they felt from the duo. The fear of being hunted.
Now Blaze could hear the Grimm crashing through the forest, hear their labored breath over his own. Umbra ran a few steps head.
What do we do? Blaze thought, panicked. Umbra was right, the forest is way too dense for us to fight. Both of us are just students, which means neither of us has the experience to fight a pack this size. Maybe we can…
Suddenly the forest ended; they entered a large clearing. In the center was an ancient ruin of some kind of stone building. Pedestals sat around the edges of the ruin, two gleaming silver chess pieces sat on top. The relics.
"Umbra!" Blaze panted, "I need you to go grab a relic, you're faster than me! I'll hold off the pack as long as I can, just go!" He half expected Umbra to argue, stating the obvious that Blaze could never hold off the Grimm alone. but he only nodded, and put on a burst of speed. Blaze slid to a halt, and turned around, pulling out Silver Flame. The beowolfs burst from the woods, streaks of black trailing from their inky hides.
"Bring it on," Blaze smirked.
The first Grimm leaped forward, claws extended. With a shout Blaze swung his blade, decapitating the creature. He rolled under the claw of another, cut through the chest of a third, and fired bullets into a fourth. With a yell he jumped off its fading body and slammed his sword into a beowolf's chest. The blade cut though the Grimm and the slammed into the ground.
The boy tried to pull his blade from the soft forest earth to defend the next attack, but before he could, a beowolf jumped into him, knocking Blaze to the ground. Panic shot though Blaze as he gripped the jaw of the beast with one hand, desperately keeping it from closing over his exposed throat. His second hand was closed around the creature's neck, keeping it at bay. Saliva dripped from the beowolf's mouth and onto Blaze's face, soulless eyes glared down at him. Blaze cried out as pain exploded through his leg, a second Grimm was trying to sink its teeth into his shin. His aura quickly faded as the rancid jaws closed.
Blaze was out of options, except one - an option he shouldn't have, the reason he kept his wrist hidden under bandages.
Heat flared through his hands, he could feel fire burning through his veins.
A knife shot through the Grimm's neck, stopping inches away from his head. At the same time the pain in his leg suddenly ceased. Blaze stared in shock at the black blade.
As suddenly as it came the blade was removed and the Grimm pushed off his body.
"Get up idiot!" Umbra shouted, throwing Silver Flame next to Blaze. The blue eyed boy leaped to his feet and grabbed the weapon.
"Stay close to me, it's the only way we're gonna get through this," Blaze said. Umbra grunted in response.
"Hey!" a voice suddenly shouted from the trees, "You boys need a hand?" Both boys turned in surprise.
Right as a Grimm leaped towards the Faunus.
"Umbra Look out!" Blaze shouted.
A flash of silver slammed into the Grimm, cutting its head off.
Blaze grit his teeth and slammed his weapon into Grimm, they had no room to be distracted. Behind him Blaze heard the sound of metal clicking together as Umbra shifted his weapon from knives to a quarterstaff.
"We definitely could use help!" Blaze shouted as he ducked under a swinging paw.
A Grimm leapt from his blind spot, its teeth slamming into Blaze's shoulder. As he cried out in pain his aura flickered down to dangerously low levels. Managing to stun it by punching its eye he pushed Silver Flame into its skull.
Gripping his injured shoulder, Blaze backed up until his back touched Umbra's. The dark haired boy was breathing hard.
"Where on Remnant is that back up?" Blaze said through gritted teeth
"Above you," a voice said. Blaze risked glancing up to see two girls sitting inside of a large, pink, floating bubble. The bubble popped and the girls fell down beside the boys. One had light pink hair in a long braid and was holding a spinning silver and pink bladed nunchaku; the other, wearing a vibrant green shirt with black vine-like patterns on the sleeves, was holding a gold sickle.
"Hey," Green Shirt said, standing up from the crouch she had landed in.
"Hey," Blaze responded. "Thanks for the back up."
"Focus!" Umbra shouted, "we're still being attacked and are completely overwhelmed."
"Right," Blaze said, "We need a plan, quickly." He looked around at each member of the group, each fighting.
"Pink!" he shouted. "You made that pink bubble right! Can you do that with Grimm?"
"Yeah," she said leaping backwards and landing next to him, "but I have to touch them first."
"Fine just do as much as you can. Umbra! I need you to leap up using the bubbles and kill the Grimm inside. Your attack style is the only one fast enough to do it. Me and sickle will stay on the ground."
"You got it!" Pink shouted. She rushed around the swarm, dodging and avoiding any attacks. As she touched different Grimm, they floated up in large pink bubbles. Umbra ran and leapt, landing on the stair-like bubbles, leaping from one to the next until he was above the bubbled Grimms. When he stood on the highest bubble the Faunus leaped down, the bubbles popping right before he made contact, allowing him to kill each Grimm before leaping to the next. He landed on the ground, killed the Grimm around him, then leapt up the next few bubbles, repeating the process. Pink deftly evaded the Grimm, touching them wherever she safely could.
Nodding, Blaze turned to Green. "You got my back right?" he asked.
"As if I'd let someone die in front of me!" she called back.
Gripping Silver Flame, Blaze fired at the Grimm running towards him. Leaping forward, Blaze stabbed one in the chest, then turned and cut across another's face. With Pink and Umbra killing the Grimm in the air there was less on the ground to deal with, but even with the extra help Blaze didn't dare let his guard fall.
The boy stabbed, cut, dodged, and killed but Grimm wouldn't stop coming. He jumped back to avoid a slicing paw, but he stumbled over an exposed tree root. Blaze cried in alarm, flailing his arms to catch balance.
A Grimm jaw closed around his arm and threw him. Blaze slammed against a tree and fell, pain exploding across his body as his aura broke, Silver Flame falling from his hand. The boy's body pounded with pain, the world blurred around him. Blaze tried to push himself to his knees, but his arm flared in pain. He cried out and fell back down. His aura had managed to keep the Grimm's fangs from sinking too deep into his arm, but blood still pooled around him.
Suddenly the girl with the green shirt stood in front of him, weapon in hand. The air simmered around her and suddenly she ran forward, killing the Grimm that had broken Blaze's aura. But she moved at inhuman speed - zipping, dodging. Blaze's eyes could barely track her. His head pounded and he wondered how hard he had been hit.
Umbra landed on the forest floor, stabbing the last few Grimm, as Green killed the small swarm around Blaze.
Umbra walked over and offered his hand, which Blaze took, wincing as the Faunus helped him stand.
Swallowing and closing his eyes, Blaze leaned heavily against the tree, his head pounding, the world moving underfoot.
"We need to get out of here," Umbra said, "more Grimm might be on their way."
Right as he finished speaking a roar echoed around the four students. Blaze looked over to see an Ursa Major crash though the trees.
"Oh come on," Blaze muttered.
Suddenly something thin and white twisted around the Grimm's neck. It flashed yellow and a spark electricity exploded around its head. It roared in pain and fell to the ground, fading as it died.
Behind it stood the boy with the white suit Blaze had seen with Weiss. He yanked the white line from off the Grimm's neck, which Blaze now saw was a whip, and deactivated the electric Dust he had used.
"I got the relic!" A voice called behind the group. Blaze turned to see Pink standing on the ruins, happily waving the piece she had picked up.
"Well, that was intense." Turning to the boy in white, Blaze said, "Hey thanks for the…"
But the strange boy had already turned and was walking away.