GRYD - Chapter 2 -Unite Or Die
The sun shined bright on the new day, the light of the morning peeked through the windows of the common area. As it did, various students began to wake up.
"Glyph," said Macro with a nudge to Glyph who was still asleep, "it's time."
Glyph slowly opened his eyes, and began to stretch out. He yawned as he got up.
"I still don't know how with all your discipline...you never wake up without help."
"Old habits." grunted Glyph
"What would you do without me?" joked Macro
"Oversleep."
"Probably."
"Anything to report?"
Macro and Glyph looked to the student body which was still waking from their sleep.
"Nah," stated Macro, "most of them stopped after they realized one of us was still awake. I'm very surprised though by the amount of troublemakers here. It's...yeah."
"They'll stop, or else." said Glyph bluntly
"Right. That, and the fact that once we're in our own teams, we'll get our own rooms, and we can lock those."
"Simple joys."
"There you go. Now come on, let's suit up, something tells me we don't have long."
With a nod from Glyph, the two head over to their gear and once again don their Hunter attire. As Glyph puts on his overcoat, he grabs two semi-long sticks from his bag and puts them in an inner pocket. Macro makes sure his pack and supply pouches are secure, checks on his shovel, and then mounts it on his back.
"Ready?" asked Macro
"Ready." said Glyph
No sooner were they ready in their gear than the door opened and Squire stepped into the room.
"Students," he said in his deep voice, "welcome to initiation day. Today, you will be paired into partners, then teams. You have ten minutes to be ready. Then you'll be escorted to the Emerald Forest. Be ready."
With that, Squire turned and left, shutting the doors behind him. Once closed, the students became frenzied and began to collect their stuff. Macro and Glyph however merely waited against a nearby wall, preparing themselves mentally for what was to come.
Eventually, the door reopened, and Squire, along with some assistants, began to escort the students out of Beacon and towards the outside world.
The students were taken to a cliff just outside the boundary of the school. Below was a massive forest as far as the eye could see. It was vast and deep. On the cliff itself, there were silver pads of metal lined up alongside the cliff. Standing at the very border of the rock was Headmaster Night, looking over the forest with clear determination. As the footsteps of the students graced his ears, he smiled and turned around to face them.
"Greetings everyone," he said with a kind smile, "I hope you slept well. For today, you will need your full concentration, skills, and ability to adapt on the fly. For today, you enter the Emerald Forest."
He made a sweeping gesture to the forest itself, and the students looked out upon their soon-to-be proving ground.
"The forest is many things. It is the place where bonds will potentially be formed forever, but also, it is a place where you get to prove you belong here. As you all likely know, as this has been a practice for many years, there are Grimm in this forest. Many in fact, and of many types. It's incredibly likely you'll meet a few while down there. I give you this advice. Think, then act. Do not underestimate the Grimm."
His tone shifted on this last sentence, becoming more serious than before. The students looked at each other nervously at this, including Glyph and Macro. Night seemed to notice this and shook himself out of it.
"On a lighter note. Your partners. As is tradition, once you are in the forest, you'll begin to look for a temple. Along the way, the first person you make eye-contact with is your partner for the next two years. You and your partner will go to the temple and pick out one relic. Then, bring it back to the cliffs. The duo that grabs a similar relic will be paired with you and your partner, and thus make a team. There is no trading or stealing of relics to get on the team you want. Same games for partners. We have camera set up all over the forest, we'll know if you cheat."
Some of the students shifted anxiously at this. Macro nudged Glyph and nodded to him in solidarity, Glyph returned the gesture.
"Squire," said Night turning to his second-in-command, "prepare them for launch."
"Yes sir. Students. Please guide yourselves to one of these platforms."
Squire motioned to each of the panels, and one by one the students made for them until they were all situated firmly on them.
"These launchers will literally launch you into the forest. You'll have to figure out how to safely reach the ground yourselves. I trust too many of you won't get hurt."
He smiled evilly, to which many of the student became nervous.
"Remember, the person you make eye contact with first is your partner. Find the temple in the forest, grab a relic and come back here."
"One last thing." interjected Night with a grim look, "You know there are Grimm in here, and we'll leave you to deal with them should it come to that. But don't think we're going to save you should things go wrong. I know you heard that line about the cameras, and that's true. But both myself and Squire will be rooted right here for the whole initiation. Do not expect help or rescue. You would not have it in the real world for the most part, so you should not expect it here. You have been warned."
He turned to look back at the forest, his back now facing a slightly scared student body. Squire nodded at his statement and looked at the students, "You heard him. Be ready for anything. Now..."
Squire reached into his pocket and pulled out a device with a singular button.
"...let the initiation...begin!"
He pressed the button, and both suddenly and randomly the launcher flung the students into the air in random directions. Night and Squire watched as they flew through the air and descended towards the trees.
"Good luck my students." said Night without emotion
Glyph stayed calm as he flew through the sky, when the trees rapidly approached his eyes scanned all around him. Finally, he saw an open patch of ground and smiled. With nary a motion he vanished, then reappeared a split second later on the ground unharmed. He sighed in relief, then reached into jacket and pulled out a pair of escrima sticks. He pushed a button and they extended outward in both directions, giving him even more weapon. Glyph then loaded up the ends of the escrima with Dust bullets and locked them into the staffs for use. Content with his setup, he carefully walked out of the clearing and into the forest itself.
Macro raced towards the treeline, and once in range of a branch, he grabbed his shovel off his back, flipped it so the serrated edge was facing away from him, and drove it into the tree branch. The sharp edge nearly cut through it, but he was stopped just enough to slow down his momentum and then use the remaining bit to dislodge himself, flip through the air, and land safely on the ground.
He laughed as he looked up as the nearly chopped through branch, "Ah, wish you could've saw that dad, it was just like you said. 'Give it enough, and it'll give right back.' Ok, so...got to find Glyph."
Elsewhere in the forest, the other students began to land and search for others. One of which was the rabbit-eared Faunus Leilani. She landed with simplicity on the ground, no tricks needed. Her expression though was one of fear as she looked around.
"I didn't see where Yasmine landed," she said to herself regretfully, "let's go...this way!"
She raced off in a random direction hoping to find her sister.
In another part of the forest, the one known as Reyson landed on the ground with great impact like a meteor, literally shaking the earth around him. As he rose from the ground he drew a pair of curved swords that were attached to his legs and began to look around hungrily.
"Where are you...?" he asked the open area, "I can tell you're here..."
A rustle of bushes nearby got his attention, and from them a Boarbatusk emerged. He snorted loudly at Reyson, who grinned evilly in return.
"Ah, look at you, you think you're getting the drop on me. Cute."
The Boarbatusk charge at Reyson, who didn't hesitate to rush back. As the two were about to collide, Reyson went into a slide, and used his swords to trip up the Grimm. The Boarbatush flipped through the air, then rolled on the ground until it stopped.
Seeing the exposed underbelly, Reyson flew forward and stabbed it with his swords. It squealed loudly before bursting into smoke. Reyson held the position as he watched the smoke vanish into thin air. He then smiled.
"Ah, bliss. Grimm count for the day? One. Not a bad start."
Another rustling got his attention, and Reyson turned to see a small group of Boarbatusk now looking at him. Reyson laughed happily at this, "Everyone wants in? Fine, let's go!"
The two forces charged at the other so the battle could begin.
Glyph continued through the forest, he went at a decent pace so that he could be ready for anything that might appear. The snapping of a twig made him stop, and he readied himself for combat. From behind him, an Ursa appeared and tried to slash at him. But Glyph sidestepped and slammed one of his escrima into the Ursa's head, sending it backwards.
The Ursa roared as it righted itself, but Glyph looked at it unflinchingly. Again the Ursa charged, Glyph waited for it, then with quickness avoided its attacks and struck back with his escrima. No matter how quick the Ursa attacked, Glyph dodged it and struck back. After one particular set of movements, Glyph flipped his hold on one of the escrima and jabbed the end of it onto the Ursa's head. The contact made the escrima fold back onto itself, and released an explosion of force that sent the Ursa straight to the ground. Glyph followed up with another blast from his other escrima, killing the Grimm, and causing it to dissolve.
He rose slowly from his position and centered himself with a few deep breaths. No sooner did that happen than another rustling came, and two Ursa arrived to attack Glyph. He prepared himself for battle when out of nowhere two bolts of energy struck the Ursa, knocking them back. Glyph turned to see the girl called Diana standing nearby, her whip full extended and a smile on her face.
"Looks like you could use a hand." she said playfully
Before he could respond, the Ursa returned to their feet and charged at each of them. Glyph used a similar technique to before to battle his Grimm, but also added in some kicks and jabs to try and disorient the Ursa.
Diana meanwhile used her weapon to anger and confuse her opponent. She would snap the end of the weapon on the Ursa's head to stun it, then wrap the body of the whip around certain limbs to pull it a certain direction, or knock it to the ground. She had total area control, and Diana loved every minute of it. Eventually, she stopped playing around, and after knocking the Ursa to the ground, wrapped her whip around its neck and twisted the handle in a way that let the whip unleash energy blasts right into the Grimm itself. Killing it instantly.
She looked to Glyph, who was finishing up his fight as well. He jabbed both escrima into the chest of the Ursa, firing two bolts that went right through it, defeating the Grimm. Done, Glyph slowly turned to Diana.
"Nice moves...partner." she said with a smile
"Likewise." he replied
Diana stepped towards him, as she did, she wrapped her whip around her arm, which snugly warped around it until it made a bracelet of sorts. She then extended her hand to Glyph, to which he happily shook it.
"Diana Artemisia."
"Glyph Masterson."
"I know."
"Same."
This made her smile even wider, "Oh, studying up on me?"
"No." he replied simply, "My friend Macro did."
"The military guy?"
"Yes."
"Ah, that explains it. Disappointing. Oh well. Come on partner, let's go find a relic."
With a wink she motioned him to follow. Glyph sighed with annoyance but did follow.
Deep in the forest, Leilani frantically searched for her sister. She constantly stopped and shouted out for her sister, but no response came, causing her to become even more frantic. Soon, she entered a large clearing to catch her breath.
"Where are you sis?" she asked desperately
In front of her, a rustling made Leilani turn. She lit up with hope.
"Yasmine?"
A growling filled the air, and a Beowulf merged, it's teethed bared and claws already extended for battle.
"Oh no."
The Beowulf lunged at Leilani, but instead of running, she held her ground and raised her arms for an attack. As the Beowulf got closer, the drawings on her arms began to glow, and eventually popped off her arm and formed color coated claw blades. Protruding from beyond her knuckles, she thrust the claws into the Beowulfs head, instantly killing the beast.
It dissolved before it hit the ground, and Leilani went from a hardened expression to a remorseful one, "You're not my sister, where are you Yasmine?!"
Before she could get her next direction, several more Beowulf's appeared.
"Oh come on!" she shouted exasperated, "How many Grimm are in this forest?"
She readied her claws on both arms for battle.
"Duck!" came a shout
Leilani ducked down out of instinct, and immediately a wave of bullets came from across the clearing and plowed into the Beowulf's. Though it didn't kill them, it did knock them backwards. Leilani turned to see Macro firing a machine gun type weapon at them. Once close enough, he converted the gun back into his shovel and sliced through the Beowulf's with ease until they were all gone.
Finished, Macro turned to Leilani, who was still knelt on the ground, he extended a hand to her, "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I did have that though."
"I figured, just wanted to be sure. Military attitude."
"Yeah, I understand."
She looked at him, then lit up, "Oh! You were the guy with Glyph, in the common room."
Macro laughed at this, "Not my usual identifier, but yeah. I'm Macro, Macro Camof."
"Leilani Kaleido." she responded kindly
"Pleasure Leilani. Look, I know you probably wanted to be with your sister, but..."
"We're kind of partners now. I get it. Wait, how did you know me and Yasmine were sisters?"
"It's a long story, mind if we walk and talk? We need to get to the temple."
"By all means."
Weapons still out, they headed out of the clearing and back into the forest.
Elsewhere, Yasmine was walking alone, looking around for any indication of life. Suddenly, four drones appeared out of the sky and lowered themselves in front to her.
"Nothing yet?" she asked
The drones beeped, and Yasmine shrugged sadly, "I knew it was unlikely she'd be too close by. Guess we'll keep looking. Two in front, two in back."
The drones beeped again, and formed around her in a protective manner. After a little more journeying, two of the drones began to beep loudly. This caused Yasmine to tense up and move the other drones to them.
"Be ready."
They waited, and soon a mob of Boarbatusks emerged. But instead of attacking, they fled right by her and headed back into the forest. This left Yasmine extremely confused.
"What just happened?" she wondered aloud
"That's right! Run you beasts!" came a voice
Yasmine again tensed up, and from the nearby trees came Reyson, breathing heavily and moving at a snail's pace. He didn't even take notice of Yasmine and tried to walk by her.
"Come on! I only killed twelve of you! That's not even including the first one, so that's a baker's dozen! I'm going for twice that today! Come back!"
He roared angrily when no Grimm reappeared. Reyson tucked his swords away and dusted himself off. Only after all of this did he notice Yasmine.
"Hi." he said with obvious curiosity
"Hi." said Yasmine, clearly not amused
"You...didn't happen to see any Grimm go by did you?"
"Yes, they're long gone by now though."
"Darn it."
A silence filled the void. Reyson looked around in all directions for quite a while before looking back at Yasmine, who had not taken her eyes off of him.
"You single?" he asked
"Excuse me?" she replied slightly outraged
"Not that like, partner wise I mean. School-wise I mean. You single?"
She sighed heavily and nodded, "Yes."
"Good! One problem solved. Reyson Heron."
"Yasmine Kaleido."
"What kind of name is that?""
"The one my parents gave me."
The drones beeped angrily at Reyson, who became a little nervous.
"Ok, ok, call down, call off your toys."
This caused the drones to beep even louder, and even start to glow.
"They're not toys, they're my weapons. Remember that."
"Noted. Noted. Well then...aren't we supposed to something important? Or something?"
"Yes, we are." she said still displeased, "Stay close, my drones will find the temple. And don't go chasing Grimm!"
"Ah come on...it's what I do-"
She glared at him and the drones again glowed angrily at him, causing Reyson to put his hands up in surrender, "Ok, ok, temple chasers we are. Go team."
Yasmine shook her head but didn't respond, and began to leave. Reyson pulled out his swords and muttered bitterly to himself as he followed.
In a massive clearing, stood a small temple outcropping. One that had been weathered by age, but still had many podiums that held chess pieces. Diana emerged from the forest and saw the temple, immediately lighting up.
"Partner! Found it!" she said looking over her shoulder
She raced to the temple and snatched up one of the pieces. Diana came back as Glyph emerged from the trees. She showed him the piece.
"Queen, poetic huh partner?"
"Not really." he said bluntly, " And that's not my name."
"I know, it's a nickname, or a pet name."
"I'm not your pet."
"I know, you're my...partner! Ha, ha, ha."
Diana again smiled playfully, but was brought down by Glyph's serious expression.
"Ok, ok. I won't spoil the moment. Do you mind holding the piece though? No pockets on the dress."
"Sure." he said taking the piece and putting it inside his overcoat
"Thank you...partner."
Before he could reply, gunfire filled the air. Glyph especially took notice of it and made his way towards it. As it got closer, Grimm emerged from the trees, facing off against some unknown enemy. Both Glyph and Diana readied themselves for battle, but the Grimm were soon defeated by Macro and Leilani.
"You good?" Macro asked Leilani
"I'm good." she responded, though slightly out of breath
"Good. Nice job Leilani."
"Thanks. You're not so bad yourself."
"You're too kind. I think this is the...oh hey, Glyph!"
He turned and saw Glyph and Diana, and went over to them, Leilani followed.
"Hey Macro." said Glyph, happy to his friend alright
"Good to see you made it, and you got a partner! The dancer, ironic."
"You're telling me."
"Ha, ha, boys." said Diana a little annoyed
"No disrespect meant," said Macro calmingly, "it's just a personality clash of sorts."
"You're telling me."
Both Diana and Macro laughed at the joke. Leilani meanwhile had her eyes glued on Glyph.
"Hi." she said meekly
"Hi."
"Remember me?"
"I do."
"Oh, good."
"Yeah..." said Macro seeing where this was going, "don't try and force words out of Glyph. It never workds."
"I'll remember that." remarked Diana
"Um," started Leilani looking around, "have you two seen my sister? Long black hair, kind of a conductors outfit?"
"Not that I saw."
"Sorry." added Glyph
Another rustling made them snap their heads to the tree line, and from it, Yasmine and Reyson emerged. Upon seeing the other, Yasmine and Leilani raced to their sisters arms and hugged the other.
"I'm so glad you're safe." said Yasmine
"Same to you!" exclaimed Leilani, "I was looking everywhere for you!"
"Same here."
Yasmine now looked beyond her sister, and saw the others, including Macro, whom she pointed to.
"He your partner?"
"Yeah, he yours?" answered Leilani and pointing to Reyson
"Unfortunately."
"Hey, I'm right here girl." said Reyson offended
"Call me that again and I'll sick my drones on you."
"Letting it go."
"Nice job sis, already warming up to your partner." teased Leilani.
"Not by choice."
"Again!" said Reyson getting their attention, "Right. Here!"
"If you all are done," interjected Macro, "we kind of need to get some relics?"
"We already got ours," said Diana, "Still plenty for you all though."
"Good, we'll get them then. What piece did-?"
Another noise got their attention, and from the bushes came the boy in the green sweatshirt and the girl with pink hair and green kimono. They walked arm-in-arm into the area.
"Aaron." said Macro
"Erin." said Glyph
"Why did you say that name twice?" asked Leilani
"Cause that's Aaron." answered Macro
"And that's Erin." added Glyph
"Huh?" Reyson said confused
The boy and girl giggled, then separated.
"I'm Aaron." said the boy
"And I'm, Erin." said the girl with a bow
"That's confusing." stated Diana
"That's why we call them "The Lovers"," noted Macro, "saves time."
"It is efficient." revealed Yasmine
"I like to think so."
"So you two are a couple?" asked Leilani
"Yep." said Erin, "For a long time now."
"Happily for a long time now." added Aaron
The two looked lovingly at one another at this, causing some of the others to get uncomfortable.
"They're like this all the time." said Macro at this, "Wait, how did you two stay together? They flung you into different parts of the forest. I saw it as I came down."
At this, The Lovers laughed and reached into their clothing to pull out a necklace.
"There's a locater in it." said Aaron with pride
"So we can always find each other. And we did!" Erin said with glee
"It's technically not cheating..." said Yasmine after some thought
"Clever." added Glyph
"Thank you." said Aaron with a bow, "Now, I wish to get a relic and leave this drab forest, anyone with me?"
All except Diana and Glyph nodded, and they proceeded to get the pieces. As they reached the podiums though, the ground began to shake. All of them tensed up at this, and began looking for the source. Suddenly, a large group of Grimm exited one part of the forest, but like before with Yasmine, they raced right by them without a second thought. This made them all confused.
"What was that about?" asked Diana aloud
Glyph didn't answer, but instead looked into the forest where the Grimm ran from. The ground began to shake again, and from the trees game the elephant Grimm known as a Goliath. But something was off about this one. It's base skin was not black like most Grimm, but rather blood red. Macro raced over to Glyph to get a better look at it.
"That's not right." said Macro worried, "I've seen Goliath, they don't look like that, and they certainly aren't aggressors to the extent that they would cause that kind of panic."
As if to answer that claim, the Goliath raised its trunk, and then extended it to unleash a massive roar. The pitch was deafening, and the force alone made Glyph, Diana, and Macro skid backwards. The others looked on in fear at this. Glyph however recovered and armed himself for battle.
"Grab the pieces, then get over here!" he barked at the ones at the temple
Instinctively, three of them grabbed a piece without looking at the others, then went to their partners and joined the others.
Reyson smirked at the Goliath, "Eight against one? I like our odds, red color or not! Oh, and the blood red color is my thing! Get your own shtick!"
The Goliath looked at them all, then roared again, but this time to the sky. They all looked at it in confusion, before feeling the ground shake again. Nervously, they turned around and saw another blood red Goliath marching towards them from behind.
Yasmine glared at Reyson, "You had to say it."
"Oh, like I knew it could summon its brethren!" Reyson bit back
"Focus!" ordered Macro, "We can still do this."
As if to answer that callout, the Goliath's in unison rose up on their hind legs, and together slammed onto the ground. A fissure from the landing was created, and raced towards the group.
"Dodge it!" shouted Glyph as he saw it coming for them
They all dodged in one direction or the other, the fissures met in the middle and from the now several foot gap rose fire. Separating the two groups.
On one side was Diana, Resyon, Yasmine and Glyph, while on the other was Leilani, The Lovers and Macro. The two sides looked to one another fearfully, unsure of what was happening.
"Sis!" cried out Leilani
"Stay strong Leilani! I'll be right there!" said Yasmine
"Something tells me that thing will try and prevent that." pointed out Reyson
He motioned to the Goliath, which was now marching to one side of the fissure directly towards them. The other Goliath did the same thing on the other side.
"We're on our own." said Glyph getting back to his feet and readying himself for battle
"Any ideas partner?" asked Diana doing the same
"Don't die."
"So clever."
"Hit it hard and fast," said Reyson flashing his grin, "don't let it breathe."
"As stupid as that sounds..." started Yasmine with reluctance, "it is a good plan for the time being."
"Ha, I got you to compliment me!"
"Don't get used to it."
"Focus." overrode Glyph, "Attack!"
On the other side, the others formed up as well."
"Ok, listen close," said Macro quickly "stay in pairs, do not leave anyone alone. Attack from all directions, see if it has any weakness. We'll go from there. Go!"
Both sides raced towards their foes. On Glyph's side, he used his teleportation to hit the Goliath from all angles with both his escrima and his bullets. Nothing seemed to work though. Diana let loose the bolts from her whip, but they too seemed to bounce off. Yasmine added bullets from her drones, but like the others, they didn't work. Reyson slashed and stabbed at any part of the Goliath he could get to, but his blades bounced off like it was a stick hitting solid steel.
Macro and Leilani teamed up to try and overwhelm the Goliath, they used their weapons in blade form to try and take out sections of it. Meanwhile. Aaron unloaded his crossbow weapons into it, while folded a Naginata into a long range rifle to assist with the attack. No matter what though, the attacks didn't work.
The Goliath's, angry at their attackers, stunned them with a stomp, then blasted them with their trunk roar, and sent them flying backwards.
Glyph found himself next to Yasmine, and as he helped her up, he noticed her cat's eyes. His expression became one of revelation.
"Chessmaster." he stated
"Don't call me that!" she barked back
"No, your semblance, you can use it to help us, right?"
"Possibly, but I can only analyze what I see and know."
He held up his escrima sticks, "My escrima are short range, but I can make them into a shotgun for one powerful blast, my Semblance is teleportation."
He then pointed to Diana, who understood what was going on, "Oh! My whip has numerous tiny gun ports, and my Semblance is being able to create projections of my dance moves which can attack foes."
Reyson stepped forward, "My swords transform into cannons on each of my arms. And I use momentum to build up my Aura for a powerful slamming attack."
"Now you know," stated Glyph who pointed then at the Goliath, "now save us."
Yasmine nodded and stepped towards the Goliath, her drones in tow. She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them with intensity and they glowed in response.
The world melted away for her, all but herself, her drones and the Goliath remained. Through her eyes and her drones eyes she began to analyze her foe. Parts of the Grimm became highlighted, and words became attached to it, showing her what she needed to know. The more data she got, the more she would mutter to herself. Eventually, it died away and she found herself back in the world.
"Listen closely," she said with confidence, "the Grimm has been altered somehow, it's made its skin much harder, probably why its red and not black. However, it's got some weak spots. The upper joints on the legs don't have the same strength. Furthermore, it's eyes, mouth, and trunk don't have the same kind of protection either. We focus on those spots, cripple it, then use a powerful enough blast to finish it off."
"Let's do it." acknowledged Glyph as he made for the Goliath, but Yasmine stopped him
"The others need to know."
"I'll be right back."
He teleported away, and the remaining three began their attack.
On the other side, Macro and the others were fighting a losing battle. At one point, the Goliath knocked Erin to the ground, and tried to stomp on her, but Aaron got in front of her and created a barrier around them.
"No...attacking...my...girl! he said with a groan as the Goliath crashed his shield
"I love you." said Erin happily
"I know. I love you too."
Macro used his gun to force the Goliath off of them. Then Leilani brought them back to a safe distance. As they did, Glyph showed up.
"What took you?" asked Macro
"Still not done." answered Glyph with a motion to the other side, "Look. It's weak in the eyes, the trunk, and the upper part of the leg, focus on that. I have to get back to my team."
With that he teleported away. Leaving Macro a little bitter but understanding of the situation.
"Ok, we can do this. Lovers? Use your precision to try and take out the eyes. Me and Leilani will go for the legs. Then we'll try and bring it down somehow."
"If you can weaken it, I can do that." said Leilani confidently
"Ok. You heard her. Let's go!"
Back with his team, Glyph helped the other exploit the weakness of the Goliath. He teleported Reyson onto the side of it so he could slash the legs with his blades. Then he did the same with Diana, but teleported her onto its head, where she wrapped the trunk with her whip and blasted it from multiple angles, causing it to roar in pain. Then sent bolts into its eyes, making it go into a frenzy. Yasmine used her drones to attack the remaining upper legs, while keeping one close by to continue scanning the creature.
After a series of attacks, Yasmine smiled, "It's almost there! Finish it!"
"My pleasure!" cried out Reyson who rolled behind the creature, "Get clear!"
Diana and Glyph jumped off, behind the Goliath, Reyson held out his swords, which began to grow and formed massive cannons on his arms. He glowed and the cannons began to charge.
"Eat this."
He released the energy and the Goliath was flown forward. With its weakened legs it couldn't recovered and skid onto the ground. When it stopped, Glyph teleported in front of it, a shotgun now in his hands. He held it right to the top of its head. The Goliath's eyes opened, and Glyph could see pain in it, but also something else, something he couldn't described. This caused him to hesitate.
"Close your eyes. It's over now." he said softly to it
The Goliath closed its eyes, and Glyph fired the shotgun, killing the Grimm. It vanished before him. The other joined him, and looked sadly at their "victory".
On the other side, The Lovers worked together to precisely strike at the Goliath's eyes. Aaron's crossbow arrows exploded with dust powers upon each contact, creating a menagerie of effects to occur on the Goliath's head.
Leilani folded her claws back to revealed wrist mounted guns, she used them with Macro's machine gun to weaken its legs. After several successful waves of attacks, as well as several dodges when the Goliath struck back, they could tell the Grimm was weakening.
"That's as good as it'll get Leilani!" called out Macro
"On it." she replied
She lowered herself onto one knee, then launched into the air with incredible speed. Everyone was taken aback by this.
"Huh, didn't see that coming." noted Aaron
"New meaning to "getting high", huh?" joked Erin
They all waited, but before they could see the result, the Goliath shook itself back to strength and released a roar that blasted them back. It then prepped itself to charge. Before it could though, Leilani crashed into it from above, crashing right into its back, causing a loud "SNAP" to be heard. The Goliath clumsily fell to the ground, and disappeared soon afterwards. Leilani sat on the ground, catching her breath from the experience she just had.
"That's a new high for me." she said exhausted
"I don't think you meant the joke you did, but it was awesome none the less." said Macro helping her up
"Yeah, you go girl." said Erin with a smile
"Very impressive." added Aaron
"Thanks," acknowledged Leilani after she dusted herself off, "let's check on the others.
The fire in the fissure disappeared, and the two groups reconnected. Leilani and Yasmine immediately checked on the other, while the rest merely chatted about what happened. Macro and Glyph went to the side though, away from them.
"This wasn't normal," said Macro stating the obvious, "Goliath are never this close to schools. They hate it, they know it'll bring trouble. And that color? That's new. What's going on Glyph?"
"I don't know." he said, then turned to look at a camera in a nearby tree, "But I think someone might."
Far away, Headmaster Night and Squire watched them with great intensity.
Much later, back at Beacon, the students are assembled as Night and Squire announced the teams. Four girls are on stage.
"...forming Team PRME. Lead by Primrose Madonna."
The girls leave the stage, claps follow as they do.
Night then looks at a list and looks to the crowd, "Next, Macro Camof, Erin Flushe, Aaron Forrest, and Leilani Kaleido. Forming Team Meal, and lead by Macro Camof."
The four happily look at each other during the forming of the team, each content with who they are with. They then leave and Night again looks at the list.
"Finally, Gryd Masterson, Reyson Heron, Yasmine Kaleido, and Diana Artemisia, forming Team GRYD. And to be led, by Glyph Masterson."
Glyph and the others look at the team they are with and have a mixing of emotions. Some content, some unsure. But they nod to their new partners and leave the stage. Now done, Knight takes center stage to address them all.
"Welcome all the new teams. You will now live together, work together, fight together, and learn together. It is through teamwork that we grow, that we evolve. I hope you do not take this lightly. Welcome to Beacon, well and truly. Your journey, begins now."
*credits*