Authors Note: Real quick, I made a more condensed version of this story. Basically, I put whole sagas into single chapters to help people read it easier. If you don't mind waiting longer for chapters and prefer to read entire sections of June's life and her friends, then I recommend that you read that instead. So far the story is purely condensed and adds nothing else to the story, so there's no need to go through that one for more content. Other than that, here's chapter 16!
Levi had found himself to be the most social of Team JULI, but he was also known to be an excellent supporting player. He was excellent in that field, but he wasn't very good at resolving bigger social issues. He usually left that to Ino, as she was admittedly better at it, but this time she was one of the people involved. Thankfully, by the time they started their fourth year, it seemed that she felt better about it, figuring that June had been the one to advance her semblance. Ino still didn't know how she truly felt about it, but she saw that June was just trying to help her become a more skilled Huntress. Although things were fine now, the rest of the team thought the problem was never going to get fixed and that the team might fall apart. Thankfully, it didn't come to that, and they could continue their last year together.
In their first semester, JULI would be assigned to protect an outside village as they packed up to move into Vale. Because they were moving to Vale, Beacon was going to provide support to the moving village. The assignment would take almost a week and they would have to stay in tents for a place to stay. However, the places they would be staying would get less comfortable as the rest of Outlook would pack up. JULI was sent out in an airship and the trip there wouldn't take more than a day. During the mission briefing, the area was told to dangerous, and was one of the reasons for them moving. "If it's that dangerous, then why did they move there in the first place," Ino had asked Ozpin, who had been providing the briefing. "You see, it was only recently that Grimm activity had started to increase, as the village has been fine there for years. So far we don't know the reason for such an increase but these are reports from two months of monitoring, which confirm that they had also been hiring more Hunters," Ozpin had replied. He kept on, adding that they would be taking an airship back after preparations. Before any of them could ask, he told them that the ship picking them up would have another team to assist in bringing the people to Vale. This would be to let JULI rest and not be away from their studies for long. Before the briefing was ended, though, Levi had one more question. "Before we leave," Levi started, "how do we have scouting reports for a village that was outside Vale?" Ozpin had sighed and started to explain, "As sad as it is, we couldn't just send a Huntsman or team out the day they asked for help. In order for me to make it worth the manpower, I had to have confirmed reports showing that they needed help to the council." As bad as it seemed, the village was able to survive in the meantime, so JULI didn't complain and kept their opinions to themselves. With that, Ozpin had dismissed them and they departed to Outlook, the village in question.
After their day flight, the team had settled down in Outlook. The Huntsman Vale had assigned had left when they got there, letting them take over. It was a nice village, most of the people very respectful to JULI, with the mayor adding that he wished to show them around if they weren't moving. It seemed JULI would get a day off, as Grimm activity was low for the day. Levi found himself hanging out in the bar, but it was to bring Uruclay somewhere to socialize. Neither of them drank but Levi had wanted to meet new people, and he told Uruclay to come with him. Uruclay, surprisingly, had found someone to talk to. The bartender had retired from the Atlas military to relax somewhere else, and Uruclays interest had gotten the two to talk. Although the bartender had wanted to move to see a new place, he still had pride in his kingdom and loved to boast to Uruclay. In the meantime, Levi would look for someone else he could talk to. Surprisingly, however, he didn't find anyone to stay in conversation with, so he eventually stayed with Uruclay to hang out. Uruclay and the bartender had been talking awhile, revealing that he was supporting of the move as he wanted to see another kingdom for once. Eventually, Uruclay and Levi would leave to get some sleep, as they would need it for tomorrow.
They soon figured out why they were sent. In only the first full day they would be there, the Grimm activity was high and a lot of them attempt attacking Outlook. JULI had been spread out protecting the four sides of Outlook. Levi and Ino were guarding the longer fences while June and Uruclay covered the smaller of the four. This was done to maximize each others skills, as Levi and Ino were more focused on range then Uruclay and June. Levi, although being primarily a support, could hold his own. He was left to taking out Beowolves and the occasional Ursa at range, which seemed to be very deterring to the beasts who focused on close range slashes and pounces. There were times of silence, though, and Levi used the time to rest and restock on ammo. There was a point where it felt like Grimm hadn't come back in a while, so he was wondering if the rest of JULI were having the same thing happen, or if they were taking all the action. It was then that he was interrupted. The surprise party was a pack of Beowolves and an Ursa, and some of the wolves, including the Ursa, were more armored and advanced than the others. A group of six Beowolves attacked him first and all at once, but he was able to dispose of them relatively quickly while dodging their first rush. He was out of ammo because of it, though, which led to the other wolves attacking him in succession. They were the more armored, smarter ones, and they knew that he would have to reload eventually. Levi had to switch to his secondary cylinder in order to take out the second wave. This was also the cylinder that could hold larger rounds, which proved to be useful against the heavier wolves. However, they were still a challenge, with a couple getting a few good slashes on him that dropped his aura down to three quarters. After that, the only one left was the Ursa. Levi could tell it would be a challenge before fighting it, as it was almost pure white with armor. He would start by firing at it , seeing what it could take and what it would take to kill it, which proved to only annoy it when he was using his weaker rounds. Once he switched to the opposing cylinder, though, it started to show some response to his shots. After finding this out, he started to experiment to see what got to it the most. After testing and dodging when it got too close for comfort, he found that a few shots with some ice dust would immobilize it for some time. He started to load more ice dust when the Ursa started to rush him, and he was almost caught fully off guard. It shouldn't have been able to do this but it had a sudden speed boost, as if it knew what he was trying to do next. Levi realized his mistake, and that normal tactics may not work on it. Instead of ice he would have to use something else. The Ursa had found that he relied on range and started to get as close as it needed to in order to hit him. Levi was forced to dodge more often, but he was able to mix his reloading, dodging, and firing into one swift motion. Whenever it got a hit in, though, it would prove disastrous to his aura. After getting one of these hits in Levi's aura was brought down a quarter, which was worse than any other Grimm that had gotten to him that day. Levi began to steer the Ursa closer to the forest and away from Outlook. It seemed that the Ursa had followed him straight to it, and it was not as smart as it appeared. The forest was perfect for Levi as it would provide cover for him while the Ursa would be left to struggle getting past trees and other shrubby. Although it was very strong, it would take a lot on its part to break past some of the trees. While it would try to break past them, Levi could easily pelt it with dust to weaken it. After about ten minutes of this, he decided to use his ace. As the Ursa got stuck on another tree trying to get him, he charged up the Rote Bedrohung. After it was done, the Ursa had showed that it was never hit with something that powerful, but it wasn't enough to kill it. After he loaded another cylinder of his heavy ammo, it went down with another couple of shots. That was the last notable fight Levi had for the day and he would be off by nightfall. This was mostly because June decided that she would take the night shift, and everyone went with it. Levi wished that there was more of a night life, but with the moving it seemed that nobody bothered to go out at night, and if they were, they only there to pack up some more.
After the first day it seemed that it was getting better. There were less Grimm coming close to the town than before, so JULI got more breaks from the action. After scouting reports confirmed that Grimm activity was low enough, JULI was allowed to rest for the remaining part of the day. Levi and Uruclay found themselves hanging out with each other. The first thing that they did was get food, as they were both starving. Levi found a tent that was being used as a place to eat during the move. While they were there, they talked about Outlook and what each other thought of it. "It's a nice town and well defended, " Levi started, "but I don't think I could live somewhere that wasn't within one of the four kingdoms." Uruclay thought for a moment before he added more to the conversation, "Guess you're right but we should get used to it considering it's our job to help defend places like these." Levi added that he had a point, but followed up that he didn't have to wander, and also saying that he just preferred living in the city. "Besides," Levi started again, "you're a good example of a Huntsman who's doing something different, Mr. Atlas official." To someone who didn't know him, a remark like that came across as a little arrogant with the way he phrases it, but Uruclay knew that it was just a joke. In all truth, Levi was happy and a little proud that his friend had found something he wanted to do after he graduated from Beacon. As for him, he would do what most Hunters do once graduating and see what the future had in store for him. After getting lunch, they tried to find something else to do. However, there wasn't much and they found themselves playing games on their scrolls at their tent. When they got back, they found that June was by herself reading. They thought that she was still out, but after being back for a couple minutes she had left again. In the meantime, the two would hang out for the rest of the day. When night had fallen, Levi would try to get more sleep, as there was nothing better for him to do.
Although he wasn't used to it, getting extra sleep had been a good choice on his part. The reason was that the team was waken up early because of high Grimm activity in the morning. He was happy but that meant that June went from working the night shift to immediately working in the morning. Levi was shocked to see her unphased when she greeted them outside the wall. JULI would take the same positions that they usually took, Levi getting the longer wall. The Grimm activity was higher than usual for the morning, but it was also higher than if it was the middle of the day. It didn't seem that bad at first, with the only Grimm being Beowolves, albeit armored, but they were near never ending. Every time he would strike down a couple of them they would be replaced some time later. Their armored state only made the situation worse. In one case, he was struck after he tried reloading, as some of the wolves were keeping an eye on his movements. When he looked as though he was reloading, a pair of them had lunged towards him. They had struck him head on, knocking him back closer to the wall. The damage was substantial and it dropped his aura down to half. However, Levi used the knock back and time it gave to reload and quickly dispose of the Grimm. It wasn't the end of his struggles, though, as a group of Griffons had decided to go for him. He was thankful when he realized that they didn't have a Sphinx pack lead. Griffons weren't pushovers, though, as they immediately landed a hit on him. It didn't hurt him as much as the several quick slashes and headbutt that he just took, though. After being hit, he put a few heavy rounds into one and then slid under it to hit its underbelly, which had killed it fully. The pack had about six of them, so there were five left after that. He would have to focus on keeping his distance, like usual, but it would be harder with the flying Griffons. The first thing that he did was fire at the wings of two of them. It didn't seem to do much damage but after a couple seconds the Griffons were forcefully brought to the ground. The dust Levi fired were gravity crystals that would keep them down for the meantime. He started to fire at the other ones, although he couldn't get more gravity dust on the others as they started to fly sporadically. He prepared to fire a charged shot at one of the ones that were untouched, but before he could one of them charged him. He was forced to dodge while still getting the Rote Bedrohung ready to fire. Once the time had come, he lined his shot up and was able to get two of them with a single blow. This had caught the others off guard and let Levi finish the two Griffons who had been pinned before. There were two left but they wouldn't go down without a fight. Before Levi was able to follow up, the two had charged him. The combined attack would prove difficult to dodge, as when he tried to dodge one the other would follow up to hit him. The first hit had gotten him down to almost twenty percent of his aura, but he was able to put a few shots into the one that just attacked him. The other had geared up to rush him again. Before it could, however, Levi had put everything into it. The hail fire had killed it outright with the other weakened from before. After reloading quickly, he had fired his last remaining dust, which had finally put an end to the beast. With that over, the rest of the day would go by more smoothly, mostly being that Levi was forced to call it a day to let his aura recover. What surprised him the most was June's actions coming back from her defending. It was the first time he ever saw her collapse from exhaustion, or anything. She had come to the tent they were staying and had simply fell on her bag and was knocked out. Levi figured out that she hadn't slept since they got there, also finding out that she would act as a scout when the team had some free time. What got his attention, though, was that she was able to hide being fatigued well. After that, Levi had went to get rest, as the next day would be the last.
The morning was chaotic. The airship picking up JULI to replace them with the escort would come in the afternoon, so their trouble wasn't over yet. The day had also seemed to attract even more Grimm than usual. Levi's job would be harder, and the rest of JULI would find difficulty as well. At first it seemed that there was just a lot of Grimm instead of stronger ones, but as the afternoon drew near, the beasts had started to appear stronger. After Levi had killed some beowolves, a couple of Ursa's had charged him. He dodged the first and ducked under the second while firing at them both, and while their backs were turned he was able to kill one and weaken the other. He loaded four more shots and fired. The final rounds had killed the last of the two. Levi wouldn't have much time to recover, though, as he was interrupted by some Griffons. However, the same as last time, they weren't accompanied by a Sphinx leader. They were different, though, fighting harder and more ferociously as though they wanted something. It was odd but it would prove worrisome as they wouldn't give Levi any chance to recover. When he had to reload he would find himself being ganged up on by the others in the pack, forcing him to dodge and ignore reloading. He was starting to get pushed into a corner, and the Griffons were attacking faster, which was draining his aura rapidly. He had been put down to fifty percent before he was forced to used one of his trump cards. Levi had a bad habit of waiting to use something important for the last second, something that might get him killed some day. The Rote Bedrohung had recently been upgraded as a suggestion from June. Although she brought it up, Levi had been considering upgrading the weapon for awhile. He hadn't had much practice with it but it would have to do for now. The new upgrade allowed the weapon to separate into two different pieces, with one piece becoming a revolver and the new piece becoming a prod/blade hybrid that used one of the cylinders as an energy source. The prod was able to switch the effects it had on things depending on the dust used, but the blade end could also be infused with dust to apply effects to things, besides being just a blade. Although he wasn't familiar with it yet, he was still able to cut down the closest one while using the revolver counterpart to suppress the others. The dust he used in the prod had been infused with fire dust that was able to burn through the Griffon and kill it with relative ease. It was a lot more effective than he thought it would be, so it was a good revelation. He had ran empty in the revolver and the others started to rush him once they realized he was out. It would be less extreme than the day before, with his new weapon and that their was less Griffons than yesterday. He was forced to slide under the first one, cutting its underbelly while doing so, and then reloaded his revolver. Levi then fired at the ground in front of another one. The dust he was using was earth dust and the ammo had caused an eruption of dirt that knocked the griffon into the air, which had stunned and damaged it. There was one left he hadn't touched and it had caught him off guard, damaging him and lowering his aura. After that, he used basic ammunition to finish off the one he cut early. The griffon that had been stunned was just recovering when he used his prod to electrocute the Grimm, and then he finished it off with the revolver. That left one out of the three left, but before he could start attacking it again, something had started to cast a shadow above him. It seemed that he was wrong to assume that the Griffons didn't have a pack leader. The Sphinx had crashed down with three other griffons, throwing Levi back and draining his aura even more. He was running below fifty percent already but he couldn't get help with the Griffons blocking him, so he was forced to fight. It had been years since the last time he fought one and, although he wasn't one hundred percent confident in himself, he was curious to see how much he had improved. He knew he would have to reassemble the Rote Bedrohung in order to stun the beast, but he would have to take care of the Griffons first. Two of them had started to charge at Levi, and when they got close he had crouched down to cut at their legs. The heated blade had cut the unarmored legs like butter, disabling them for a bit. He then used lightning dust to stun the creatures, which had prevented them from flying away. While they were stunned, he replaced his ammo with sticky rounds and fired them at the remaining two. These had been gravity dust projectiles, and he had used them to get their heads forced to the ground. He then loaded some fire dust and put a whole mag into one of them, which had killed it outright. Then, he turned and had to kill the two stunned Griffons behind. He had killed the first one with a quick slice to its head, but before he could get the other one the Sphinx had used its tail to launch a fireball at him. He was forced to dodge and the delay had let the Griffon recover and fly off. It was a problem but he had to focus on the other that was stunned. However, it had also recovered in the time the Sphinx gave it. With two Griffons left and the fact he was low on ammo, he was starting to see a problem. Levi started to put the Rote Bedrohung in its original form while the Sphinx started to use its fireballs as mortars. After half-a-minute of dodging he had his full weapon back, which he started to charge up. There was another problem coming up, though, as the Griffons had recovered and started to charge him again. The one he cut the leg off of had started to charge him faster than the other, and looked as though it was willing to kill itself to return what Levi had done to it. It held a grudge but Levi wouldn't let that happen. When it had just gotten to him he was able to sidestep and fire at where its leg used to be. It shrieked in pain and Levi had started to get close to use a raw dust crystal to kill it, as the Rote Bedrohung was still charging. When he got close, it used its wings to knock him away. What seemed to be a last ditch effort was actually to get Levi in place. It was then that one of the fireballs had hit Levi. It hit hard, the blast sending him back and dropping his aura to five percent. The Rote Bedrohung had also been knocked away from him. He was cornered with no weapon to defend himself, and the pack had seen this. The Sphinx and the two Griffons had started to approach him. Levi stood up but he wasn't concerned at all. If Grimm knew how to distinct facial expressions, they would've been a little cautious getting close. Something had started to rumble underneath the Grimm, stopping them as they started to look around to see what it was. Nothing was close but before they could get closer to Levi, it got more intense and started to stun the creatures. Then, a collection of pillars formed from earth had started to rise up and hit the Grimm from below. The force was enough to kill the two Griffons and stun the Sphinx, and while this was happening Levi had grabbed the Rote Bedrohung and fired its charged shot at the Sphinx. His semblance had been his clutch the entire time. Although he was thankful for it, it was a bitch to train with as in order for it to activate he needed to be below ten percent of his aura. Its power was to cause quakes in the surrounding area that could change in intensity as per his command. Because if it activation conditions, the semblance didn't cost him aura for the first thirty seconds of use, but it was dependent on how big the quake was. The pillars, however, was something he did himself just in case he was weakened, which involved planting earth dust with detonators around the area. The Sphinx was still recovering from the quakes it was hit, and it was severely damaged by the shot. Levi then loaded heavier rounds into the second cylinder and had unloaded into the stunned beast. The damage it had taken before the earth pillars had hit it had made a second charged shot not needed to kill. It had been reduced to a black corpse that started to decay after a couple seconds. Levi had collapsed once they were gone, exhausted from the battle. His aura wasn't completely drained but he would need time to recover.
After Levi had reported what happened, June took over his side to let him recover. The day had started to go by fast, and although he was recovering, Levi was helping with the final preparations before leaving. The ship to take them back to Vale had arrived as Uruclay had almost been taken out. The team to replace them would take care of the defending for the rest of the day, and for the trip to Vale. JULI had packed up and got on the airship to head back. On their way, it seemed that June was back to studying something on her scroll. Some time into the trip, June had to talk to Levi about something. "What you want J," Levi was the only one who called her that, but she didn't care, "I just needed to talk to you about something," and then she sat down beside him with her scroll. She sent him the footage she had of him fighting, and then explained that she was going to try and give him tips on his CQC. "I appreciate the help but I wouldn't want to cut a hole in this thing," Levi had added in a sarcastic and almost showing off tone. June only sighed and told him to get his scroll. He complied and the two went over what she saw while Levi also explained in detail what he did because the footage was a little weird. After about an hour of reviewing, Levi wanted to stop and June had let him rest more. The airship had landed back at Beacon and the team had settled down. Ozpin had given them a day of rest, though, so the team had used it to just relax, much to Levi's delight...
