Weiss blocked a swipe from a Beowolf as she ran right into a clearing, before turning around and steadying herself. She hadn't ever encountered a real creature of Grimm like this before, and just from that one hit she blocked, she felt that this was far more vicious than anything she had ran into before. But she wasn't about to back down because of this oversight. In fact, this would be an excellent chance for her to prove herself worthy of being a team leader. If she were to slay a creature of Grimm that had invaded the initiation she'd no doubt be recognized for that achievement alone.

"Left foot forward... No... Not that forward." Weiss muttered under her breath. "Just wait for an opening... NOW!" Weiss charged forward, but unfortunately was cut off in her attack when Ruby appeared in front of her suddenly and reared up to swing, the two crashed into each other and the Beowolf snarled before swiping at them. Ruby thinking fast, grabbed Weiss and the two sped away in a blur of white and red while the Beowolf merely howled but then smelled some other potential prey off in a different direction.

"What was that?!" Ruby whined at Weiss who merely huffed and walked off ahead of her.

"What was that?! You nearly got us killed with your stupid antics!" Weiss stomped as she glared at Ruby. "What's a child like you doing at Beacon anyways?!"

"Well maybe if your sense of direction was better, we wouldn't be lost right now!" Ruby snapped back at Weiss, cutting down a tree with Crescent Rose in rage as she followed behind Weiss before the pair stopped suddenly.

"I-Is that a Nevermore nest?" Weiss took a step back.

"it would seem like it." Ruby now brandished her scythe.

"We've clearly gone the wrong way. Let's leave before it wakes up. I would not want to end up on the wrong side of that giant Nevermore's beak." Weiss slowly took a step back as it's eye opened from dust that flew towards it from the tree Ruby had previously chopped down.

"Uh oh..." Ruby glanced at Weiss who looked as alarmed as her.


Yang started to look around the Forest. "Ruby!" she called out for her sister. "Alix?!" she also didn't mind the idea of partnering up with him.

"Ruby?" Yang peered over a bush but a Badger bear lunged at her instead. "Nope." She then chuckled while dodging a couple of more swipes from it.

"Jeez, is that all ya got? You couldn't hit the broadside of a-" everything suddenly went red for Yang as it would feel as though all time stopped for the girl as a single strand of her hair fell to the ground. "YOU MONSTER!" Yang screamed before unleashing a flurry of punches at it.

"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAAA!" Yang yelled out as the last one sent the badger bear flying through the foliage. Just as another one appeared right behind her. "YOU WANNA GO TOO?!"

however, a stab would be heard behind it's back as it fell down and a kusarigama attached to a ribbon flew from it's back and into the hands of Blake Belladonna who offered a bit of a smirk towards Yang, who's eyes turned from red to their normal lilac.

"Partners?" Yang asked.

"Yep." Blake nodded and continued ahead of Yang quietly.


Back with Jaune and Pyrrha, the two were merely walking through the forest., Pyrrha cutting through foliage in their way to clear their path out. She did however miss a branch that hit Jaune in the face and cut his cheek. "Ow..." he grunted.

"Say Jaune... Is your Aura not active?" Pyrrha asked, noticing the cut on his cheek. "Your aura should have healed that..."

Jaune looked down and away from her. "I... Never got mine activated before I came here." he admitted.

"Jaune... As I'm sure you know, Aura is one of the things that makes this job possible." Pyrrha stated.

"I could actually use a bit of a refresher.. I uh... Didn't do good on the topic back in my last school." Jaune admitted.

Elsewhere in the Forest it seemed as though Ren had found himself caught by a large constrictor snake that had disarmed him of his weapons.

"Aura is essentially our souls made visible. It protects us with a barrier. All living things have it."

The constrictor snake moved to bite at Ren's head, but it's teeth were halted by his free hand as his Aura seemingly was repelling it back, forcing it to let go of him, allowing him to catch his breath.

"All living things?" Jaune asked.

"Yes, that would include the animals we've been encountering in this forest. However, that doesn't include the Grimm. For they lack souls. They are the darkness to our light." Pyrrha explained.

Ren picked up his bladed pistols off the ground and ran at the constrictor snake while it hissed at him, firing at it.

"Sounds like the plot to a really cool video game!" Jaune remarked.

"It's a little more complicated then that. I'd be glad to tell you more after initiation." Pyrrha chuckled a little. "But for now." she took his hand and held one of her hands to his chest.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." both Pyrrha and Jaune's auras glowed. Pyrrha's was a reddish color while Jaune's was a pure white.

"W-What'd you just do?" Jaune asked, looking at the glow that encompassed him now.

"I activated your aura." Pyrrha smiled as Jaune's cut now healed itself. "You seem to have a lot of it. Now, it won't heal grievous injuries like lost limbs or protect you from feeling pain. It will however provide you with a layer of personal protection. Again, we'll talk more about this after. For now, let's just continue. I think I see something ahead." Pyrrha started ahead with Jaune quickly following behind her.

Lie Ren took a deep breath as the snake was dead now before suddenly he heard something from right above him in the trees.

"PEERAW! PEERAW!" called out what would seem to be a strange animal till Nora descended from a tree, now hanging upside down in front of Ren with her usual goofy smile.

"I still don't think that's what Sloths sound like." Ren smiled back to her.

"Boop." Nora poked his nose with a giggle.


Back at the cliff Ozpin now sat on a bench that overlooked the entire cliff and was watching the footage of the initiation on his scroll.

"I still don't quite understand how that Ren boy can deal with Miss Valkyrie." Professor Goodwitch shook her head.

"That Jaune kid, doesn't seem to be the brightest either." noted another professor behind them that was walking up, also watching with a scroll in her hand. She wore a long labcoat over a black turtleneck sweater. Her pink hair was tied up neatly in a bun on her head.

"Professor Peach, glad you could join us." Ozpin smiled to his colleague as she sat down next to him.

"Professor Ozpin? What'd you choose as relics this year?" Goodwitch asked him before a slight alarm blared on all of their scrolls. Their footage was now focused on Ruby and Weiss, whom had just woken up the sleeping Nevermore.

"H-How could they have not found that?!" Professor Peach asked in concern.

"I don't know, but it seems as though these new students are going to be truly tested." Ozpin remarked.

"The few beowolf stragglers is one thing. But this..." Professor Goodwitch shook her head.


Ruby and Weiss were slowly circling around the nevermore, the pair walking around it, their weapons out and ready in case it attacked.

Ruby then smirked with an idea. "We're looking for the relics, right Weiss?" Ruby asked, speaking into her scroll to Weiss.

"Y-Yeah?" Weiss was nodding along.

"Let's get a better vantage point!" Ruby ran at the Nevermore and jumped up stabbing her scythe into it's lower body.

"YOU DOLT!" Weiss ran in as well, stabbing Myrtenaster in right next to where Ruby stabbed as the Nevermore cried out and started to flap out it's wings.

"Oh no!" Ruby panicked.


Alix and Erika came upon a clearing that seemed to be where some ruins were. "Hey, do you think..." before Alix could respond Erika sprinted ahead of him. "Hey wait up!" he ran after her.

Blake and Yang weren't too far away as Yang glanced over at the ruins. "Hey, do you think this is the spot?"

Blake simply shot her an annoyed glance before walking to the ruins.

"Hold up, Erika!" Alix called out as Erika snatched a black chess piece. It was notably a knight.

"Hey, ya gotta keep up if ya wanna have a say in teams!" she snarked as she pocketed the chess piece and turned away, but not before Alix stopped her just as Yang and Blake had arrived.

Yang noticed Alix, but before greeting him decided to pick a piece. "Hey, how about a cute pony?" Yang asked Blake.

Blake simply smiled and nodded. "Sure."

With that Yang took the White Knight piece and walked over to Alix. "So this place wasn't too hard to find, was it?"

"Yeah, I mean I kinda saw it a little from in the air. It was still out of the way of where we were launched though and pretty easy to miss." Alix shook his head.

Erika glanced over at Blake. The two staying quiet before Erika smirked to her. "Cute bow."

Blake just rolled her eyes at this interaction before walking over to Yang.

"We're going back now. You guys can tag along if ya want." Alix offered.

"I'm waiting on my sister. I'm sure she'll show up here any moment." Yang stated.

"Alright, suit yourselves then." Erika turned away and started ahead of Alix. "Hey, wait up!" he ran after her.

"Those two are colorful characters, aren't they?" Yang chuckled.

"You know, them don't you?" Blake tilted her head.

"I know Alix, not so much that girl he was with." she shook her head.


Jaune and Pyrrha happened upon a cave that had weird carvings on the outside of it. "This must be it!" Jaune remarked eagerly.

"Uh Jaune..." Pyrrha was still trying to decipher the carvings when she was pulled along with him into the cave.

Using just the light of his scroll they continued into the cave before Jaune tripped.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called out in concern as he stood himself up, though the light in his scroll wasn't working anymore as a glowing yellow object floated in front of them.

"That's it Pyrrha! We found the relic!" he reached up and grabbed a hold of it. "Gotcha!"

"Um... Jaune..." Pyrrha remarked as the relic was starting to pick him off the ground.

It started to pull Jaune towards it, showing it's true face... it was a giant death stalker.

Jaune let out a scream in fear that seemingly reached the ruins, which turned out to not be too far from the cave.

"Some girl's in trouble!" Yang noted.

Alix and Erika were almost out of ear shot when they heard the scream. "We should help them." Alix insisted.

"Or we could go back. It's not really our business, is it?" Erika stated.

"Erika, we're huntsmen. It's our job to help people." he started to run back.

"Ugh... I hate it that you're right." Erika followed him now.

"Blake, what should we do?!" Yang asked before out of nowhere Ruby fell from the sky.

"HEADS UP!" she called out while falling towards Yang, giving her very little time to react.


Commentary: It is mostly similar interactions between characters, although again the Grimm here are played up as a force not to be trifled with as much. The Emerald Forest was supposed to be cleared of all Grimm before Initiation and the test was mainly to be consisting of fighting Normal animals in the forest. But it seems that there are still some Grimm about. Apart from that it's mostly similar. Jaune also does have a vague idea of what Aura is, even though he doesn't know the full extent. I feel like even your average joe on Remnant would have an idea of what aura is even if they don't know everything about it. Next time we get to end off Initiation.