Bloodborne Twin Chapter 8

The two Hunters rode down the elevator in silence, and as it reached the main floor, Ella followed Eileen through the opened door and out of the lobby in the direction of the school's cafeteria.

As they walked, Ella kept to her thoughts. She wasn't thinking about the food, but about the initiation. What would it entail? she wondered. Could it be that she would have to fight some elite Huntsman in order to join? Would she have to fight an entire horde of Grimm and hopefully survive? Other ideas jostled in her mind, but they were more of an uncertainty due to her experience, and the only source of information would be, once more, the one she was following. She doubted Eileen would volunteer anything further, but nonetheless she could ask. Perhaps they would talk about it during lunch.

They eventually reached the door to the kitchen area. Once inside, she saw that the kitchen was spacious, yet there were many stoves, sinks and countertops being worked by chefs, cooking and preparing meals for the students at lunch hour. She was in awe of all the assortments of food they'd prepared. There were fruits and freshly cut vegetables, cooked beef and pork, chicken and turkey, breads, a large, strange fish with a long sharp nose, and… some kind of flat pie covered in cheese and pepperoni? Drinks were equally varied, ranging from milk to clear water.

All of these options made her mouth water just by looking at them all. Sure, she had had dinner with the Clansys for three days, and their meals were good, but their assortment had nothing on this.

Eileen chuckled at the sight of her colleague looking all over the food with hungry eyes. "What do you think?"

She was mesmerized. "There are so many options to choose from," she muttered in stunned astonishment. "I don't know where to start."

"Well, we don't have all day," she replied with an amused look on her face. Ella felt something gently pressed against her stomach and looked down to see that Eileen was handing her a tray. "Here, pick what you want."

She held the offered tray in both hands and walked to the vast assortment of food. She really did not know what to pick, everything looked so appetizing. Eventually she picked an apple, a grilled salmon, a few carrots, and a bottle of water. She grabbed the utensils after that, and with that out of the way, she followed Eileen out the same way they had come in. They did not go very far down the hall before they came to a door that read: Lounge Room, Staff only.

"This is where we usually eat during lunch hours," said Eileen. "Of course, those of us who live here eat at our own living quarters."

"You all have living quarters here?"

"Yes, near Beacon Tower. We wouldn't want to be living in the student dorms now, would we?" She adjusted the plate to be balanced on one hand, and she opened the door with the other.

"Oh, Eileen," said the unknown woman with a very familiar, kind voice and accent. "It's good to see you again." Meanwhile Ella followed suit, with the door held open by Eileen's free hand. "And who's this girl you brought with you?" She turned to look at who the voice belonged to.

The Lounge room was spacious enough. It had four tables with six chairs surrounding each one. It also had two vending machines and three shelves, filled with various items, and the walls had a few various posters. That was all irrelevant to her, however, in light of the familiar, womanly occupant who was already in here before them. Her skin looked pale and had very faint outlines, showing she was in her early forties, and her hair had the mixed color of auburn gray. Her white outfit consisted something akin to a more up to date medical professional. Her gray eyes were looking right back at her. She had seen this woman, or perhaps someone just like her, back in Yharnam before, but their personal meeting was not in a good way, and right now she could not tell if she is the real one.

"Io… sefka?" She asked stiffly. Her instincts were screaming at her right now to take action before this woman could do more harm, but she couldn't do it due to the fact that she could be the real doctor from the clinic. So the question was; is she the real Iosefka? She really did not want to feel guilty in killing the wrong one.

The good doctor felt uncomfortable under the Hunter's gaze, along with the question itself, as if they had met before. She would admit that she swore she had heard that voice somewhere before, but she could not remember where first off. "Yes, I am… have we met before?" She asked as she tilted her head a bit in honest confusion.

Before she could answer that, Eileen had beaten her to it. "Yes you have, actually. This is the Good Hunter from Yharnam I told you about."

Iosefka looked at Eileen confused and with narrow eyes. "Are you certain this is her? I only remember meeting a woman in a white mask." She had been told stories from Eileen about the Good Hunter, how she had slain beasts with barely a struggle, and how she conjured fire from her hands. Although the details somewhat matched the woman she had met in person for the first and last time, it just seemed so outlandish for a Hunter to have fire coming out of her hands.

Ella's mind meanwhile was beginning to lean towards the mad imposter, but that still was not enough evidence to suggest it. She sounded genuinely confused, and the mention of her white mask only proved the two of them had seen her wear it, which left her conclusion to be indecisive.

Eileen looked to her companion, knowing that this was the opportunity for Iosefka to prove she was the innocent one, and to end Ella's silent paranoia. "Go ahead, show her your mask."

She looked back at Eileen only for a moment, but in a split-second she understood why. So she set her tray of food on the table, reached inside the folds of her coat for the mask, and held it out for Iosefka to see. She saw the woman gasp, her eyes wide in surprise and fear. Still, she made no overt attempt to run away, but whether it was because of calm or because of being paralyzed with indecision, she could not tell.

Iosefka was very much surprised to be meeting the Hunter who had showed her mercy back at the clinic. She stretched her hand out for the mask. "May I see it?"

Ella handed the mask to her, and the doctor slowly held it close for inspection. Her bare fingers traced the smooth, white painted surface. It looked almost rather worn, but it still looked as if she had just seen it yesterday. This was the Hunter who had killed her that night. The night when all she ever wanted was someone to end her suffering of being… that thing.

"I remember this," she exasperatedly said. She looked up to her, looking her straight in the eye. "So you were the one who killed me that night." She gave her a soft smile. "Thank you."

Ella looked at her, incredulously confused: "For… what?"

The good doctor understood her confusion after knowing who she was and still is. After all, the Choir agent who experimented her changed herself to look like her and well… almost talk like her. That woman barely kept her sanity together when asking someone outside to bring more survivors to care to them as 'patients' she would call them. "For ending my misery when I was a Celestial Minion at the clinic. I was turned into one of those things to… 'help her ascend' she said to me." The last part she said with disdain.

She sighed and blurted out, "sometimes I think the night must have broken her sanity."

"What happened in that clinic," she asked, her curiosity now becoming more interested to knowing what happened behind the scenes.

She already expected her to ask about it, and it took her years since her new childhood to come to terms with it. The Healing Church did not exist in Remnant, as a matter of both fact and relief, and she was free to speak her mind about it. She had already told her story to Eileen, Glynda, and Ozpin, so there was really no point in keeping it from the Hunter who ended her, if only to give her the short version of it. "Well, you already know that I was once a doctor of the Healing Church. For several nights since the plague came, I devoted all my time and resources, experimenting to find a means of combating the plague, and on that one Hunter's Night, I came to the very cusp of finding a cure but…," she sighed and her voice became solemn this time. "After you left I was in my lab. I had no assistants working for me, I always tended to work alone. But out of nowhere I was held in a choke hold and got stabbed in the neck with a syringe. It was only a moment before my assailant drew it out.

"I didn't know what she injected me with at the time, but I was feeling so much pain, inside and out, and before I completely turned into that horrid thing I turned to look at my attacker. She looked just like me, and I didn't know why until later on."

She lowered her head a bit and slowly shook, sighing quietly. "All my research and hard work, burned to ashes for a mad woman's scheme to become a Great One." Then she looked up to the Hunter with a pleading look on her face, "I'm sure you already know the rest, but please tell, what happened to my imposter? Did you kill her?"

Ella nodded her head, "yes I did, though I had to reach her through the mob of celestial minions."

"I see. Well whatever the case, I'm just glad it's over." She made a mental sigh of relief, and for the moment, all was silent. Then she looked up to her again with a gentle smile on her face. "You know, I remember that, when we last spoke to each other, I said I would be looking forward to seeing what you looked like when the night was over. Perhaps… if you would like, maybe we could start over?"

Ella remembered their last conversation back at the old clinic as well, but the growing madness of the Healing Church tore that promise apart with just one syringe. Here in Vale, however, maybe they could fulfill that promise now.

"I'd be glad to." she said with a smile. She leaned in a bit and extended her hand out to retrieve her mask. "My name is Ella."

Iosefka knew what the gesture was meant for, so she stood up and handed it back to her. "And I am Iosefka Ashcroft, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

-45 minutes later-

Ella and Eileen stood behind the academy near a long line of metal platforms at the edge of the cliffside overlooking the Emerald forest. It had the picture of two axes crisscrossing each other and a wreath, making this the symbol of Vale. Ella felt well fed and re-energized after a long day of travel to get here, although it made her wonder why they were at the edge of the cliff. During their meal, Ella tried to convince her friend, even Iosefka, to know what this initiation entailed, but to no avail, saying that it would only spoil the surprise.

Just what were they hiding that could be so important? For all she knew, it could just turn out to be easy.

"You're here, and just on time." The two hunters turned to see Ozpin and Glynda approach them. "Please, stand on the platform." She did as instructed and stood on the metal platform, although this made her question why. "For years you have survived the harsh world of Earth, and for one long night you fought through Yharnam as a Hunter, but today your knowledge and skill will be evaluated in the Emerald forest."

"Normally for students, this evaluation will have them be placed in teams," said Glynda, "but for new staff members, this test will let you earn your place in this academy if you succeed."

"The objective of this test will be to find an abandoned temple at the northern end of the forest containing a single relic. You will guard that relic as well as your standing as you return to this cliff, and we will be grading you accordingly. You will be meeting opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die, any questions?"

"I do, actually." Said Ella, "what would happen if the opposition becomes too much to handle?"

"We will be monitoring you, but we will not interfere if it ever happens. Facing the enemy, no matter how large, will require you to test your resourcefulness. Are there any more questions?"

She shook her head. "Good. Now, take your position." That short sentence alone made her look at him in question.

"Wait, what do you mean take position? Aren't you going to be dropping me off or something?"

"No, you will be conducting your own landing strategy." He answered passively.

She got confused even more, but all of a sudden she heard gears beginning to turn underneath the platform she stood on. Her mind had quickly put two and two together, and she widened her eyes and her face grew pale in horror in what he really meant, but at the same time it made her furious for not being told of this.

She glared at Ozpin, "why you son of a-," she never got to finish that sentence as the platform catapulted her hard into the air screaming. Ozpin meanwhile looked-on at the fleeting form of Ella in amusement as he took another sip of his coffee.

The Good Hunter learned something that day; easy was never the right word to say.

-Meanwhile; in the air over the forest-

She was scared…. no, it was more than that, she was terrified!

She was slowly rolling end over end, panicking as she sailed over the Emerald forest. She had never been in a situation like this before and she probably never will if she did not figure something out soon, and at this altitude it would only be a matter of time before gravity decided to take over. What was she suppose to do she wondered in her panicked mind.

Her survival instinct kicked in, however, as she tried to stop herself from rolling, calmed herself and went into coming up with a plan. Ozpin said to conduct a landing strategy, but how can she achieve that? She could try to grab onto one of the branches, but what are the odds of getting impaled by one? There could be the chance of a pond nearby, but the way she was seeing almost everything from where she was there was going to be no chance of crashing into one.

Meanwhile, gravity finally decided to start pulling her downwards to the earth. She had to come up with something soon or else she was going to be a wrecked up corpse. She looked around for any options available until suddenly, she saw a lone beowolf, a young one at that, wandering in the clearing… and she was on a collision course directly toward it. This somehow gave her an idea that may be crazy but it just might save her life. She pulled out and split her Blade of Mercy, and switched the dual blades in reverse grip. The beowolf's back was to her, but she changed that by making a drawn out sound loud enough for it to hear her.

Meanwhile, the beowolf was wandering around aimlessly, minding its own business until it heard a strange shout coming from behind it.

"WOOOWOH!"

It turned around only for it to widen its eyes in shock as it was instantly collided and stabbed deep in both of its lungs by a speeding human rocket. She crashed into the beowolf, using it as a landing cushion to hopefully stop her forward momentum as she shut her eyes at the last second. It somewhat worked as the dying monster slid along the ground a very short ways on its spiked back, but she felt the pain all over her from the impact. It was only brief thanks to her Aura protecting her and healing her injuries, but the same could not be said about her head feeling light for some reason.

She soon slowly opened her eyes, but her vision was all blurry, and she felt dizzy and weak just from trying to move. Then slowly, with shaking limbs, she groaned as she got off the now dead and dissolving beowolf, forgetting about her buried blades in its chest as she walked haphazardly for about five feet away from it. She slowly moved her head around and shook herself to clear her vision, and eventually she was able to see the large clearing and tree line all around her. She moved her body around next to get rid of any aches she might still have. She will admit it was quite the wild stunt she pulled, but she reminded herself and kept what she said back at the docking area.

Humans were never meant to fly.

She looked behind her to see that the dead Grimm was nearly dissolved. She only took one step to grab her blades before hearing growls from all around her. This must have been the rest of its pack, save for the alpha who must be hiding somewhere in the woods. So she abandoned the blades and grabbed Simon's Bowblade off her back, switched it into its bow form, and made ready with a nocked quicksilver arrow.

The first beowolf came at her from the left. She turned, drew the arrow and fired it in quick and accurate succession as the arrow pierced through its heart. It was actually a distraction, however, as another beowolf was already charging up behind her right. She already heard it coming even before she killed the first as she spun, folded her weapon back into a sword mid swing, side stepped out of the way of the pouncing Grimm and sliced it in half. Then she unfolded the sword into a bow again and fired a steel arrow at a third beowolf charging from the south end. The arrow struck true, punching all the way through the skull.

After a fourth beast was fatally struck down, the pack leader hidden in the foliage let out a haunting howl, evidently having decided that enough was enough, in this way signaling the remaining eighteen demonic werewolves surrounding her to charge in, blocking any chance of an exit. One of the beowolves made the mistake of jumping for her, however, and she saw this narrow opening as the only opportunity to escape, activating her Old Hunter's Bone and narrowly teleporting past the demon wolf. Once behind its back she smacked her palm on its back and channeled her Semblance into it. The beowolf yelped in surprise of being touched, but suddenly it felt its body heating up drastically, and before it could comprehend what the heck was going on, its body began to burn from the inside and bursted into flames. The pack saw its comrade burst into fire and backed away in separate directions.

This was just where she wanted them to be.

She dashed the closest one, who was equally distant from the others, and gripping the sword in both hands to her left side, she ducked and swung her sword twice in a deep, diagonal arc creating a deathly X mark. Two of the creatures were closing in while the others half surrounded her. She chopped off a slashing arm that had tried to claw at her and then swung her sword upwards, its needle-sharp tip opening a bloody gash on its neck that proved ultimately lethal. The second one made to pounce on her, hoping to hold her down so the rest of the pack could finish her off, but it had almost telegraphed its attack to her in this fashion and so the ill-timed jump ended with the sword running right through it mid air. The dissolving body was thrown over her shoulder.

Seeing three of them now deciding to close the distance, she pulled out her Winter Hawk, took quick aim and shot each of the soulless creatures on their heads. She had to admit this pistol was quite powerful, as one shot was all it took to shatter their skull masks like so much porcelain and to blast their brains in pieces.

The beowolves at her sides tried to seize the distraction and closed in for the kill with huge strides, but the leftmost of them only got a deep, diagonal slash through its chest for its trouble, then a stab through the heart that instantly killed it. She pulled the sword out by kicking the dissolving corpse, giving her the boost necessary to give the one on the right a shoulder bash. The attack stunned the creature, giving her enough time to swing her sword and slice half of its head off, with enough momentum left for her blade to find its mark straight through the jaws and spinal cord of another monster.

What had been a fearsome pack twenty-two members strong had been reduced to a measly six at the hands of this huntress. These six, however, prowled out of her range; whether hesitant to provoke this dangerous enemy or biding their time, she could not tell. Quinn had told her that Grimm could learn from their mistakes almost like any other animal, and those that grew in age not only put on more muscle and grew deadlier claws and spikes, but also became sly and cunning. That was another thing that separated them from the beasts she had grown used to killing, and she was unsure whether to be disturbed or not.

But pouncing from behind her and out of the forest line was the alpha itself. She narrowly escaped its claws and landed somewhat in the middle of the clearing, the six minions backing away as if this was the alpha's fight. The alpha, however, had a different idea as he barked at them to attack her now, and the alpha joined in as well. She acted quickly by using the Old Hunter's Bone again while on the go and had to squeeze through the narrow opening, but a lucky beowolf scratched her mid dash. Her Aura kept her safe, but the scratch staggered her a little, and it was enough for one of the beowolves who stopped mid charge to tackle her to the ground.

Ella was pinned to the ground under the monster's weight, her sword knocked away from her hands and instead was using her left arm against its neck to hold back the jaws of the beowolf from biting her head off. Good thing she remembered being in a situation like this before as she pulled out her throwing knife with her free hand and plunged it into the Grimm's infernal eye. Her attacker howled in pain and pulled away just a bit, but enough for the Hunter to kick it off and away from her. It was but a sliver of an instant, but she made the best out of it as she sprang to her feet and struck at the Grimm with both hands. It went ablaze at once. Its howling became an ear-splitting shriek of agony and its fellows backed away, giving the Hunter enough of an opening to retrieve her bowblade and make ready for the charging Grimm approaching her.

To an onlooker, it would appear that the clash had been choreographed, because she was dodging the beowolves' attacks by the skin of her teeth, while her own strikes would always find the weak point of her enemy. One went down after her blade sliced its throat clean. Another had its ribcage torn in half by a vicious blow. A third would end sprawled on the ground after its swipe only struck thin air, the huntress teleporting behind it and burying her blade on its back. A swift kick sent this corpse towards a fourth beast, the impact staggering it and leaving it totally exposed for the strike that took off its head. The fifth and last minion roared a challenge and charged at her, and instead of cutting him down she went teleporting a fair distance away from it and threw the sword with Aura enhanced strength like a javelin. The charging beowolf tried to stop in panic, but it was too late as the sword skewered it in the chest.

With the minions out of the way, only the alpha was left. It was pissed, its plans for ambushing the human ended in failure, and now the monster had cost it the whole pack to be slaughtered. It bellowed out a roar as it lunged for her, prompting her to teleport out of the way at the right time and ran for her sword. The alpha went after her, and just when she pulled it out she had to duck underneath a swipe and teleport passed another swipe, going passed between it's legs. It tried to backhand her as it turned around, but she jumped backwards out of the way and pulled out her pistol.

As it was, she could have dispatched this monster without effort, but a spark of an idea blossomed in her mind, so she waited. All she had to do was time her shot right.

Just as the alpha was about to slam its claw down on her, she fired her Winter Hawk. The bullet made a sizable enough hole on its bone plated chest, suddenly knocking the air out of its lungs and staggering the soulless beast to its knees. It was dazed and confused, but not yet dead. This was the window of opportunity for her to exploit as she ran up to the kneeling monster and stabbed her hand into the beast's chest where its heart was, and instead of heating up and combusting the body, her gloved hand briefly lit up in flames and channeled them into its body, unleashing the fire within. Another ear-splitting shriek seared the air before the monster was knocked away by a fiery blast which sent it sprawling on its back. Part of its insides were thoroughly cooked, and the heart was burned to ash. Even its fur was being set aflame from the blast. The alpha groaned in its death throes, smoke billowing out of its mouth before it collapsed, lifeless.

Ella quickly walked up to the burning yet dissolving corpse. She placed her steaming red hand, the one she used to cook the alpha from within but burned her glove in the process, just over the fire. The flames licked her red skin, but did not bite: she was outright immune to them. She knew her clothes were not so resilient, but her Aura (once called magic) would strangely repair and protect them whenever they got cut or nearly torn. Fire on the other hand was a different matter. Whenever she heated her blades her Aura would keep her gloves and parts of her outfit from burning up, but if she conjured fire from her hand, her Aura would be more focused on the Semblance (once called inner power) and the gloves would just burn away.

Like the heated blades, she absorbed the heat coming off of the corpse, but she also absorbed the fire as well, both of them being converted and replenishing her Aura while also strengthening her Semblance. She had done this since it's discovery during the hunt, and more often than not, it had proved to be a lifesaver. Before the discovery, her Aura would regenerate slowly throughout the night, and whenever she was in danger she couldn't always rely on those powers to save her. It was only when she had accidentally placed her hand on a torch that she had realized something about her Semblance, and more.

Most of the fire was absorbed through her palm, and her Aura was fully replenished. Her skin had soon returned to its normal pale color which didn't bother her in the slightest. When she had first seen the skin of her hand turning red after conjuring fire, she had freaked out, thinking she had burned herself, but she had not felt any pain, which was odd. Whenever she tried conjuring another flame nothing else happened. Coming with the assumption that this could be something that she was limited to doing, she stuck to using heat and the occasional fireball.

Satisfied, she moved her hand away from the corpse and inspected her sleeve. It was not exactly spared unfortunately, it was singed halfway through the cuff. She sighed in frustration for the mistake. Whenever she used her Semblance in unleashing fire, her clothes tended to get burned, but whenever she went to the Hunter's Dream and back her outfit would once again look brand new as if nothing ever happened. Now here in the waking world, she would never get that luxury ever again. She would have to be more careful from now on.

She then went all over the clearing looking for her fallen items. She picked up her used arrows, but one quicksilver arrow was damaged beyond repair, bringing down her ammunition count to five. She picked up the throwing knife, a snap inspection confirming it was still sharp enough for use, and finally picked up her Blades of Mercy. Sliding everything back on their proper places, she soon went north to the forest temple, or at least she hoped she was heading north.

-Meanwhile-

Back at Beacon cliff, the three professors were monitoring the performance of the Good Hunter, and currently their thoughts were mostly in the positive, save for Glynda.

"Well, she survived her landing and her first bout of Grimm." Glynda commented as she looked at the few camera angles of their initiate and spoke her thoughts. "Her resourcefulness and quick thinking are commendable, but her style of combat and use of her Semblance is rather questionable."

"If not without finesse of course," added Eileen. "And since it's the same style she used in Yharnam, I'd say it's still helping her quite well so far."

"You were with her the whole time coming back here, so you must know."

"True, and it's still the same if not better."

Glynda tapped a few things as she filled in the numbers on the Hunter's performance. When she was first told of Ella's tale through the former Crow Hunter's eyes, she was skeptical and admittedly frightened at first. Learning that she used her Semblance to kill both man and beast disturbed her to the point where, if that young woman were to ever come to Vale, she would have had her arrested on the spot and be put behind bars for the rest of her life. But that was back then, and by taking a while to process all the information gleamed on her, she came to realize that Yharnam was not the same as the rest of the kingdoms, even if that city was not apart of the world of Remnant. The monsters and people there were infected and insane, giving the young lady no choice but to kill in order to survive. She could only imagine the kind of horrors she had to endure.

Glynda did have some relief, however, in knowing the Hunter still had a heart when sending survivors to the chapel. Seeing the video, meeting her in person, and with Ozpin filling her in on their meeting was proof enough that Ella was still human and had a strong will which spoke volumes. Still, it was her duty to keep her students safe, and she could not fully trust her psyche just yet.

Ozpin, meanwhile, was half listening to their conversation while his eyes remained focused on one part of Ella's body which hovered above the flames; her red hand. Eileen told them stories of her use of Pyrokinesis, and her ability to absorb fire and heat into herself baffled them. They had all seen over the years students with pyrokinetic abilities, and had seen students who could absorb certain natural elements to make their Semblance stronger or regenerate their Aura. A pyrokineticist that could both strengthen a Semblance and regenerate Aura would be an extremely rare individual. The only thing that seemed off to him was her hand being red before it disappeared from having her Aura being fully replenished. Eileen had never mentioned anything about that sort of condition.

'I wonder,' he thought as he rewound the video, paused it at the right moment and took a picture of it.

"Speaking of Semblances," said Ozpin as he looked to Eileen, "Miss Corvo, do you remember seeing her skin turn red before?" The Headmaster showed her a zoomed-in image of the Hunter's red hand. She narrowed her eyes and hummed in thought as she went through all the memories of that night.

"I'm not sure if I have," she answered uncertainly, "I mostly watched her from afar so I may not have noticed… wait."

"Hmm?"

"I remember her battling against Dark Beast Paarl in some graveyard outside Old Yharnam. The monster was ancient, completely malformed and skeletal in its appearance. It was also enveloped in lightning."

"Lightning?" Asked Glynda with a single eyebrow raised in confusion, but more so in curiosity.

She nodded. "Yes, as difficult as it is to believe, but the old beast was not immune to fire, and Ella tried to exploit it the best she could. Paarl, however, was becoming more aggressive and faster despite its size, and soon she was starting to be on the receiving end of its attacks. Just when I thought she was going to die, she did something I thought I'd never see her do.

"I was quite surprised when her arms were on fire and proceeded to go all out against the beast. After I was done seeing Paarl being turned into a smoldering pile bones, I looked at Ella to see that her arms were completely red. From the distance I was at, I thought she had overtaxed her powers and burned herself, but there was no scream of pain coming from her. She was looking at them, too, and was wondering about the same thing. Looking at this now, I think perhaps this is something else."

"Hmm." He hummed in thought as he looked back at the picture.

"Perhaps it could be a side effect of her Semblance." Glynda theorized, "something as a way to indicate her limit."

"Maybe, and I do have a theory of my own, but I believe it would be best to monitor the rest of her progress until then." A side effect could be one thing, such as a certain little girl at Signal Academy with a speed Semblance who left behind rose petals as a side effect, but his gut told him it was an error to take it as a sign of danger. For now this was something beyond their understanding, but Ozpin thought of something that just might add up. One that seemed more troubling.

"Are you sure you don't wish to share it with us?" Asked Eileen.

"Like I said, it's just a theory, one that I hope I'm wrong about."

That answer puzzled the two professors as they gave each other looks of concern, but Ozpin continued as he changed the subject to more pressing matters while looking at the monitoring screen on his Scroll.

"Oh, that seems to be concerning."

The two professors looked down at their Scrolls, wondering what he meant. It soon dawned on them that Ella was apparently going in the wrong direction, and this made Glynda give an expression of that of a metaphorical sweat drop. She looked to Eileen to see if she was feeling the same way, but she looked surprisingly unconcerned. Still, she sighed as she thought of one thing for certain.

This was going to take longer than she expected.

A/N: Okay… umm… yeah, I took quite a while with this didn't I.

I'm really sorry I made you all wait this long for chapter 8 to be out. I will admit it right now that this chapter was giving me a hard time. It was not just the combat scenes and the dialogue that gave me a hard time, my biggest dilemma right now is Ella's Semblance. I have made it seem a little confirmed that it is Pyrokinesis, but I was thinking that it would have a dark twist/version to it, or perhaps a complication, hence the red hand. I had it all planned out in my head at first, but the more I wrote about her Semblance, the more my mind would spring up doubts that what I had planned was not going to be good or too confusing for the readers to understand. I understand that this is fanfiction, and I know that someone is going to yell at me; "dude, this is fantasy and anime crossing over with a video game! Of course they're not meant to make any sense! That's why it's called imagination!"

Normally you guys are right, but my mind tends to want to go for things that would make more sense for everyone, and it's starting to be a burden at this point. Well I'll have to make a decision in chapter 9 soon. Otherwise my indecision will get me stuck.

Anyways, besides my indecisions, I guess you are all surprised to see Iosefka in this story. Don't worry, she's the real one for sure. Now I'm pretty sure you are all wondering if I'm going to be putting in non-Hunter characters into this story as well. The answer is yes, but I'm not sure who else given my choices in the game and their background. I guess I'll try to figure something out as I keep writing.

Shoutout goes to CruxMDQ for his amazing proofreading and editing.

This is kyro2009, signing off.