"RUBY ROSE, I WILL NEVER TRUST YOU ANYMORE!" Weiss screeched at the top of her lungs as we rode on the bottom of the nevermore. It had been awhile since I last rode a monster. But never in my life did I expected that riding a nevermore would be so... Exhilarating.
If I could, I probably would do it more often.
"Cheer up Princess!" I laughed as my tail excessively wagged back and forth from the adrenaline pumping through my veins. "When do you ever get to ride a nevermore?"
"When we get down, I will mutilate you!" Weiss threatened, clutching onto the feathers for her dear life.
"Good news! You can turn me into a rug soon, because the temple is over there!" I hollered over to her, pointing to the tiny structure way down below us. "Okay Weiss, do you trust me?"
"No I do not! We have already established this!"
"Too bad, you gotta jump! See you on solid ground!" I gave her a two finger salute and leaped off the nevermore. The air rushed to my face as I fell straight down with my arms securely attached to the side of my hips. Slight pains erupted in my ear as tides of wind howled in it. Squinting my eyes below, I searched through the area to safely fire my ammo for proper landing. Before I could attempt my landing strategy, a strong impact rammed me on the side of my body and we collided onto a tree. A cloud of daze whirled in my head, making my sight unsteady. But I could still kind of make out the fuzzy figure hanging upside down from the tree and apologetically waving.
"Hey Ruby." His arms dangled uncomfortably, letting the blood rush to the tip of his fingers and to the top of his head. "You think you can help me get down from here?" He somewhat pleaded.
"Hey Jaune. Maybe you should hang around a little longer?" I chuckled and rubbed the side of my body where Jaune collided against. I could feel the bruise forming on the side of my body. Whoever or whatever threw him really wanted him gone. I breathed slow and hard through my nose to bring myself back. My ears wiggled to the familiar horrified voices in the background. They were trying to distinguish the person idiotic enough to ride a monstrous beast and then started gasping that 'she was going to fall.' I glanced up and watched a white blob hastily descend from the sky.
Well, I did tell her she needed to jump...
Clumsily standing on my two feet, I grasped Jaune's shirt and tugged him down, unhooking him from the tree's grip. He fell down with a surprised yelp and managed a 'thank you'. With my semblance, I bolted in a swarm of rose petals to seize the falling girl. My arms curled around her waist and I twisted my body, protecting her from crashing entirely below. My body skidded against the floor and overturned the grassy meadow to mud and dirt.
"See. You can trust me," I painfully chuckled as Weiss awkwardly pressed her body onto mine. Secretly, I was enjoying the warmth of her curved figure with my arms snuggling around her body.
"A Schnee always keeps her words," she said with a face devoid of emotions. She gripped my collar and rattled me, banging my head against the floor.
"Ack- Wei- Stop! This isn't how you mutilate someone!" I yelped in pain, trying to break free from her grasps. The back of my head pounded against the ground while my eyes admired the angry heiress at such close proximity. Even when she was angry, she still looked good. However, having my head thumped against the floor wasn't the best position to marvel her. I gently pushed her to break free from her violent reign of terror.
"Hmph. Serves you right," she snorted, trying to hold back her smug smile.
Letting my true nature get the best of me, I whipped out my lady finger and held it up for her to see its vulgar splendor. She was taken aback by my crude gesture and she furiously stomped off, muttering incomprehensible words. Enduring the dull pulsating pain residing in my head, I followed behind Weiss to meet up with the rest of the students.
"Hey Rubes!" My blond sister threw her arm around me. "Guess you got partnered up with Ice Queen here." Weiss scoffed at her nicknamed and proceeded to retrieve one of the relics.
"Yeah, our friendship is quite... Nifty," I said, and glanced to the person next to Yang. "Hey Blake, I guess you're stuck with my sister for four years. Sorry about that." Yang whacked me on the shoulder, pretending to be offended by my statement.
"Beats having Weiss for four years," she chuckled. Blake laughing? That was something new. Even in our conversation that we held, I could barely get her to talk or let alone crack the corner of her lips.
"It's not that bad once you warm up to her," I shrugged. On the positive side, I wasn't a stuttering mess like the first time I met Weiss.
"Can we stop talking about me and get a move on already?" Weiss joined our conversation. "We have the relic already, so let's -"
An unusual roar reverberated deep from the forest, collecting everyone's attention.
"Look Ren! It's death stalker! Let's break its legs!" An orange hair girl squealed excitedly, pointing to the grimm scorpion rampaging through the trees. The death stalker was pursuing the red hair gladiator right on her tail. It was swinging its pincers wildly left and right, but only to be dodged by the girl's quick reflexes.
"Nora, I don't think that would be a good idea." The black hair boy spoke up. Another shrill screech resounded from above, reminding everyone that there was still a nevermore circling around the temple. My eyes scattered between the two grimms and I tried to analyze the situation in hand. It wasn't the nevermore I was worried about, it was the death stalker that might be a challenge.
"Yang, do you think you can break the death stalker's plated armor?" I asked. I haven't seen Yang in combat for many years. In other words, I haven't seen how strong she was or if she fought in any way different.
"If I get beat senselessly and activated my semblance, then maybe." She shrugged at my question. Yang getting her ass handed was the last thing I needed. Of course, I can pierce its armor if I switched to my dust blade, however, I already used my last batch of dust.
That means there was only one thing to do.
"Okay guys we're retreating," I bluntly stated.
"Run and live, that's something I can do." Jaune joined the group with a relic in hand. "Pyrrha! We're heading back to the cliffs!"
As everyone was on board with the idea, we sprinted through the forest with the two grimms pursuing from behind. Once we reached the cliff, we rushed across the stoned bridge. Before we could make our way through, the nevermore dive-bombed and destroyed a portion of the overpass. Cobblestones crumbled away as the foundation of the structure became unstable. Pyhrra gripped Jaune's shirt and hurled him to a safer zone. Stone bricks collapsed as the students retreated away to escape from falling into the ravine. However, one student was not lucky as the nevermore caught her by surprise.
As she fell down from the bridge, she activated her semblance to catch her footing. Before she could regroup with the rest of us, the nevermore fired piercing feathers like a harpoon. The grimm circled below, guarding the distance that lied between us. It was strategically draining the girl's aura as she tried to evade the grimm's onslaught with her glyphs. At this rate, she will run out of stamina before she could make it back to us.
"Yang! Blake!" I called out. "Distract it." Clacking sounds and the smell of gunpowder fired down onto the monstrous avian. Unloaded magazines grazed its feathers, proving useless to draw its attention away from Weiss.
Okay, desperate times called for desperate measures.
I unfolded my weapon into her scythe form and dived down into the ravine.
"RUBY!" I heard my sister's voice yell out from behind. "BLAKE, LET GO OF ME!"
"It's suicide if you jump down!"
Their voices drowned out from the howling wind as I plunged further down. Unleashing a number of bullets to build my momentum, I swung my scythe against the back of the nevermore and left a gash on its body. I quickly hopped off its rear as the nevermore collided onto the walls of the canyon. The metal blade of my scythe grappled onto the cliff walls to secure myself from plummeting to my death.
"Weiss!" I shouted across the chasm. "Get out of here!"
It wasn't safe for Weiss to stay down here anymore. From the look on her face, it didn't seem she could hold her glyphs for too long. She depleted nearly all her aura to fend off the grimm's tactical attacks. The nevermore shook its head, recovering from its stupor. It extended out its wings and emitted a loud bellow as its claws pushed off from the steep rock walls. Its red eyes scoured through the ravine, looking for its next target of attack. Red beastly glares held onto mine as I hugged close to the cliff walls, holding onto Crescent Rose extended shaft with my foot supporting against the walls.
Oh fuck, I'm a sitting duck.
I slightly loosened Crescent Rose from the rocks and angled myself for a counterattack. All of a sudden, someone plunged down and lodge their weapon onto the avian's back. Witnessing it tumble further down, my eyes squinted below to the white clothed individual hanging onto the nevermore's back with her rapier as her only source of stability. The grimm screeched in pain and violently thrashed in hopes to dislodge the toothpick size weapon. With one shaky deep breath, I activated my semblance and flew towards the thrashing bird. I raised my reaper blade high above my shoulders and slashed down on the nevermore's wing, joining Weiss for the wild ride.
"You know, when I said get out of here it doesn't mean die with me," I frowned at heiress.
"I refuse to let you be my sacrifice in my place," she annoyingly growled, letting her pride get the best of her.
"Well aren't you sweet and caring."
The grimm perched against the cliff walls to recover from its third surprised attack. It lifted itself off, but failed to ascend due to the amount of damage it sustained. Together, we crashed further down into the ravine.
"Whatever you do Weiss, don't let go!" I shouted at her, grabbing a fist full of feathers.
"Why would I even let go you dunce!" She screamed back.
The nevermore slowly plummeted down with its damaged wing. It smashed and scraped the walls of the canyon like a cat trying to get out of water. However, climbing back up proved to be an impossible challenge as the walls were steeper and slipperier the further we traveled down. Its body tumbled in the air, and soon with a loud sickening thud, the grimm crashed down onto the flat surface of the earth. Groaning from the amount of head trauma that occurred in a single day, I slid down from the creature and rubbed my face.
"You okay Weiss?" I questioned, trying to massage my temples from the swirling sensation.
"Never better," she replied with a groan as she slid back down next to me.
A very faint screeching softly crossed the nevermore's mouth. I snapped myself back from the spiraling sensation and remembered that there was still a living and breathing grimm right next to us.
"Hey Weiss?"
"What Ruby?" she sighed long and hard. She was pinching the bridge of her nose to recover the senses that she lost.
"Would you want to ride the nevermore back up if it made a fully recovery?"
"Absolutely not."
"I thought so."
I shakily stood up and placed the blade of Crescent Rose onto the neck of the grimm. With a click, the recoil of my scythe guillotined the nevermore as the blade cleanly severed through its throat. Black particles drifted into the air as the grimm reduced into pieces until it turned into nothing. I settled back down next to Weiss with my knees curled against my chest. I rested my cheeks against my knee caps and watched the heiress as she tried to unravel the situation we were stuck in. "So, what are you thinking?" I asked, trying to get in her head. I relaxed down with my back pressed against the floor and stared at the open sky that was lightly covered with fog.
There was many options to get back up but none of them were safe. We could climb our way up with our weapons as our hook, but Weiss obviously wouldn't like that. We could probably walk to the top, but who knows how long that will take. Maybe Beacon will send an airship to our rescue, but we don't know how long that would take and what inhabited the bottom of the ravine. If only Weiss wasn't stuck down here with me, I probably would have let the nevermore live and ride it back up.
"I don't get how are you so calm about this!" Weiss dramatically raised her voice. Her hands ran through her forehead to her silky platinum hair. From a single glance, I could tell she was stressing and panicking.
"Experience," I blandly answered. It wasn't on purpose that I got myself in these sort of predicaments, and it wasn't like I enjoyed it. For some reason, problems just like hounding me down. Maybe it's because I used up all my luck from partnering with Weiss.
"If only I hadn't trusted you to ride the nevermore in the first place!"
"Hey, I told you to get out of there. It wasn't my fault that you decided not listen to me," I said with a tone of annoyance. I turned my head to avert her icy glare.
"It was your single minded leading that got us stuck in this dilemma in the first place!"
My body angrily jerked back to face her and my unfiltered mouth slipped."And it was my single minded leading that saved your scrawny ass just moments ago!" If we were going to play this way, fine.
I don't mind bringing out the big bad wolf.
"Who said I needed your help in the first place!" She yelled, her voicing echoing through the canyon.
"For fuck sakes Weiss. I saw you running low on your aura. I saw you running out of stamina. It was written all over your bitchy face! You think I was going to let you fucking die down there? Well, think again Princess. I don't leave people behind to die," I shouted back at her.
Before Weiss could snap back at me, a roar echoed somewhere in the desolated valley. I tried tracing the direction of the sound, but it was no use. The sound resonated against the rock walls, making it difficult to detect. I ran a frustrated hand over my hair, trying to calm myself down. "We need to leave Weiss. We need to leave now." It was too dangerous to stay here any longer and yelling would make it worse as the grimm would track us down. We needed to find shelter or find something. This wasn't about completing initiation, it was about surviving.
"Fine. But this time, I lead." She crossed her arm and refused to meet my eyes.
"Fine. Lead the way, your majesty." I gestured my arms in a mocking bow. Before I followed Weiss, I extended Crescent Rose and left a scar on the wall, marking a symbol.
"What's that suppose to be? Your bad drawing?" She jeered, eyeing the arrow that I carved on the rocks.
"Just in case they send a rescue team down for us. That way they know which route we took." I arched my eyebrow, hoping she could make a decent comeback from that logical statement. But I was blessed with disappointment instead. She rapidly blinked in disbelief and huffed as she turned around, walking through the valley path. I held in my snicker as she couldn't come up with any rebuttal. After trudging through the path for a few hours, we managed to find a cave somewhere at the bottom of the valley.
"This will do Weiss, the sun is setting and its dangerous for you to travel since you don't have night vision."
Normally I didn't travel during the night. But after my a few years of traveling, I got use to it and started to woman up against the creatures of the night. Weiss didn't respond and sat down against the cave walls. Minuscule streams of wind blew by, meaning there was another opening on the other side. Typically, it would be best to travel and see what was down there, but who knew how deep it ran. And leaving Weiss here alone wasn't the best option either.
I sat next to her and let the silence hang in the air. Cold drafts filled the cavern, sending shivers down our body. I glanced at the prideful girl and noted that she was biting her lips as she was holding back her shivers. With an internal sigh, I scooted next to her and draped my cloak over her cold body. She accepted my gesture without putting up a fight. Even though we had our sudden dispute a few hours ago, I didn't really understand why I still liked her. It was more than just her pretty face. There was something about her that I couldn't exactly place my finger on.
My heart thumped loudly as my shoulder brushed onto hers. She was so damn close to me that I was sure that she could feel the vibration of my heartbeat. Hell, I was sure that it was loud enough that Yang could probably track us all the way down from the cliff. My fingers rapidly tapped onto the floor and I closed my eyes to think about something other than Weiss.
"I'm sorry." A soft mumble voiced into my ears.
My eyelids fluttered open and I turned my head to the heiress in awe. Weiss Schnee, apologizing? That was peculiar.
"What for?" I angled my head curiously. My ears flapped against my head like a confused puppy.
"Saying that I didn't need your help and blamed you when you only meant to save me," she answered with her downcast eyes hung low to the floor.
"It's okay," I whispered. My actions were quite impulsive as I relied more on my natural ability from experience. "I'm sorry for having such a... Um, foul mouth. And I'm really sorry that I called your face bitchy. It was uncalled for."
"It's common," she stated frankly.
Really? Not beautiful? Not gorgeous? Not sexy? But bitchy? I mean, I wasn't the one to talk but at least that was what mostly filled my mind all the time.
"Then they have a weird definition of bitchy." I chuckled, scratching my cheek with my finger. She should be getting more compliments than insults with her looks. And if looks could kill, the Sword Angel would be finally rolling in her grave right about now. Weiss cocked her head in confusion from my comment.
"Ah it's nothing," I waved my hand dismissively. "So um - Why Beacon?" I started fidgeting the ends of my cape.
"Simple, I prefer Beacon over Atlas." She breathed onto her hands and rubbed them together.
It was definitely more complicated than that. It wasn't a simple choice to choose one academy over the other. It required more thinking. It was similar to comparing two guilds together. It wasn't just preference, there were also facts to weigh and considerations to take in. But I didn't want to probe her any further than necessary.
"So even the resident of Atlas thinks it's also a shitty place," I joked. I took a quick glance out the cave, only to see the sun still setting.
"You've been to Atlas?" Weiss suddenly asked, seeming very interested in our topic.
"Yeah, very briefly. Your people are quite... Welcoming," I scornfully mocked. I flinched once I realized what I had just said. "Ah- I mean them, not you. You're nice and like-"
Weiss raised her hand to interrupt me from my ramblings before I dug my hole further. "I get it Ruby," she nodded understandingly.
"This is nice how we're not arguing."
"I suppose it is."
"We should keep it like this," I smiled playfully and nudged her shoulders with mine.
"Don't push your luck, but your suggestion is duly noted."
Then a clear notable roar howled in the valley, sounding very close within our vicinity. Weiss and I looked at each other with worried eyes. I fumbled back onto my feet and prepared to unravel Crescent Rose from my holder. Walking cautiously towards the cave entrance, I poked my head out to investigate what was out there.
"Oh fuck," I swallowed.
"Ruby Rose, can you please stop cursing."
"Uh, sorry. Habit. But you're not gonna like this. There's an uh- Elder death stalker that will knock our front door step any minute," I nervously laughed. I heard Weiss get up from behind and stood next to me.
"Oh..."
"Yeah, oh..." I said with a mocking tone. "Well, we either go out with a bang or let it barge into our safe haven." I walked out of the cave and extended Crescent Rose to her majestic scythe form. "Are you coming to help?" I looked over my shoulder at Weiss as I slung my giant garden tool over my shoulder. Without a word, she followed behind me. The death stalker stormed in front of us once aware of our presence. Its eight legs trampled the hard dried floor, creating a cloud of dust behind its trail.
"How much of your aura have you recovered?" I asked, positioning into my battle stance.
"About half." She replied back, gripping her rapier on her waist.
"Am I leading or are you leading?"
"We made this clear earlier, Ruby. I said I was going to lead." Weiss's eyes were focused on the death stalker as she drew her weapon from her side.
"Aye-aye captain," I whimsically saluted.
"You think you can cut the legs?" She questioned.
"Can I?" I retorted amusingly
"You dolt! Can you?!" she shot a glare at me.
"I really don't know. I can try, but I don't know how tough the exoskeleton is considering how old it is." I gave her an honest shrug.
She rolled her eyes at my uncertainty. "Fine, let's try it at least and we'll go from there." Summoning a glyph under her feet, she flashed towards the scorpion grimm to take it head on. I fluttered in the wind behind her, keeping a watchful eye as I observed her every move. With a quick stab, Weiss's rapier pierced the floor and a column of ice partially encased the death stalker.
Taking my chance, I swung my weapon straight ahead to sever the four legs. My blade shattered the ice and left a cut on its first leg, but was unable to slice through. The scorpion roared in pain and dangerously flailed itself around. Weiss and I dashed back to evade its frenzy. I tilted up to the sky and saw it was slowly getting darker. The mist in the surrounding area wasn't doing it justice either. This wasn't good. At this rate, we were going to be at a severe disadvantage.
Then an absurd idea popped in my head.
"Weiss, how much dust do you have?" I looked at her.
"Which one?" She inspected the chambers of her rapier as she rotated it.
"Blue and red."
"Half each," she answered.
"Okay good, now give them both to me." I stuck my palm out like a little girl getting candy. Two dust crystals were placed gently on my hand while my other free hand searched through my pouch for an empty cartridge.
I didn't want to resort to this method, but there was no choice. Weiss had two purified dust crystals which will emit a bigger and powerful explosion. Never in my life have I used extremely high quality dust because the repercussions were quite large. Sure my dust blade can emit a one sided explosion, but I also get caught up in the blast if I were to swing it around near me. It was like a fiery pressure slapped against my face except my aura protected me most of the time, depending on how much I have originally.
I switched Crescent Rose to her other modification, unraveling to its glorious blade. Weiss skeptically observed my actions as I shoved the cartridge into the slot.
"Ruby... What are you doing," she asked with concern.
"Remember the time we first met and we exploded?" I shifted the lever.
"How can I forget about that you dunce!" She quickly went back to her old self again.
"Well, pretend that grimm was you except I'm using these two bad babies instead!" I gave her a reassuring smile, being as positive as I could be.
"Ruby, that's suicidal..." she whispered quietly.
"I'll be fine Weiss. After all, I am a dolt or a dunce or whatever you call it. Just make sure to cover your ears and keep a safe distance."
Weiss never stopped me, as a matter of fact, she couldn't. It was the one method that was quick to beat sundown and gave us a chance to live the next day. If not, then it gave her a chance to live the next day. Dying in a battle was something I can totally live with. Readying my blade, I burst in a wave of rose petals.
With one swing of my blade, I set off the biggest explosion in my record book.