Chapter 5: Wandering the forest.

A friendship forged in battle is a nigh unbreakable bond. A friendship born of overcoming differences

between the sides is oftentimes even stronger. It is also more fun to write about.

The Emerald Forest is not the kind of place one would ever willingly wander in. The largest forest in all of Remnant, it stretches for hundreds of square kilometers, and every square meter is chock-full of danger. Cliffs blending in beneath the woodwork, pitfalls hidden under the dense grass and forestation, wildlife fiercely defending their domains. Yet worst of all are the monsters of Grimm, who swarm this forest and come in many shapes and forms. Whether it's your standard issue Beowolves, hunting in packs and driving their prey to exhaustion before ripping it apart, whether it's the Boarbatusks, always eager to skewer their enemies on their razor-sharp tusks or turn their bones into mush with their spinal plating, whether it's the graceful, cat-like Cheshers, hiding in ambush and striking when their victim cannot see them, Kelpies that can bite a man's head clean off or shatter their ribcage into fine dust under their hooves, or other, even more sinister specimens. The point is, it's a dangerous place to be, and no sane man or woman should ever set foot here lest they perish forever and ever and their corpse never be found. As such, it would be quite surprising, shocking, even, to see a pair of girls no older than seventeen running at breakneck speed through the woods, with one hopping between the tree branches with an outright feline grace, while the other, built far sturdier, was straight up charging through, knocking down occasional tree and tearing through the shrubbery.

Even stranger, however, would be their destination, some place yet unseen by the two, yet from the sounds it was easily deductible that there was a battle raging: anguished howls of Grimm being torn apart, the whirling of steel, the cracking of bones of Beowolves being flung around like muppets and the creaking of trees falling down because of it. And indeed, as Blake and Yang began maneuvering between some of the felled trees, they began to catch stray glimpses of the battlefield, or, to be precise, the slaughterhouse. A thick layer of ash was covering a small clearing beneath the woods, with dozens of Beowolves just raring to get their turn and jump into the fray; and in the middle, a lone figure leaping to and fro, wreaking havoc upon the opposition: a pair of great sickles merging together and breaking apart so frequently it was as if Darius was wielding not one, not two, but three weapons at once, all enveloped in thick black fog dripping off of them and towards the ground, dissipating moments before reaching the soil. Darius' fighting style was savage, almost erratic even: vanishing in a puff of smoke and reappearing meters away to slice at another Grimm, it was almost as if a wild animal was throwing itself at the steel bars of its cage, desperate to break out. Yet behind his every move, every step and every swing, there was terrifying precision and unearthly strength: each step put him the exact right distance from his target to either evade their blows by a hair or position himself into ideal striking range; every blow was finding its target and if not killing it, crippling it terribly. Every spin and swap measured out and fluid; a deadly stream of shadows and steel, sweeping up everything in its way. And then there was the black mist surrounding his figure, swirling around him like a vortex and changing shapes by the second, sometimes funneling as a burst of flame, evaporating whatever happened to be in its path, sometimes lashing out like a shadowy tendril, either outright destroying the stray Grimm, or immobilizing them long enough for the man to follow up with an executioner's strike, sometimes surging off the blades of his scythes as a wave of energy, rending reality itself.

Yet as the two watched on, for about two minutes now, Darius did not stop for a second to pause and catch his breath or re-ascertain the situation; instead, with every Grimm he felled, with every corpse that dissipated into ashes under the soles of his boots, his bloodlust, that terrible flame burning up inside him, seemed to burn ever brighter, demanding he move faster, strike harder, push himself further, kill more and more, until there was nothing. The two of them had to intervene.

Blake and Yang exchanged glances as the former made sure the latter was ready to make a move. After that, Blake took aim with her pistol and unloaded a shot directly into the head of one of the Beowolves, causing it to burst like an overly ripe watermelon slammed into the ground with great force. She was ready for Darius to react somehow to her sudden intervention, maybe turn around and lose his guard for a moment, leaving himself open to the other Grimm, and she was prepared to move in and assist. What she did not expect, however, was that he would simply turn around and slash in their general direction with the blade of his conjoined scythe, loosing another wave of dark energy, slicing the tree she was sitting on clear in half and decimating about two Beowolves in front of them. And while she was able to swiftly jump off the branch she was perched on, evading the attack, Yang had taken the brunt of it and was promptly tossed several meters away, saved only by her aura. Unfortunately, she had no time to check on her newly acquired partner as another pair of monsters had taken the place of the fallen, charging directly at her.

One of the creatures had pounced at her from several meters of distance and slashed directly at her face… and then landed directly on its own as its target turned out to be a mere decoy, with the real Blake appearing right behind it and beheading it with a well-aimed strike. Without pausing for a heartbeat, she unsheathed the Gambol Shroud and turned around, pressing the trigger right as the second Beowolf began swinging at her, decking it into the occipital plating and staggering it for a second, just enough for her to finish it off with the swing of her cleaver-like sheath. She heard a gunshot going off behind her; a second later Yang came flying out from the depths of the forest, propelled by the sheer force of the shotguns in her gauntlets, and rammed her fist square into the face of one of the larger monsters, exploding it with the incredible force of a shotgun-propelled punch.

With all three of them in the fight, the culling of Grimm proceeded at a much faster pace as the trio was chewing through the opposition: Blake's improvised kusarigama had formed a killzone of about two meters in radius around her, slicing up anything that dared enter, Yang was leaping between targets driving them into the ground with a singular punch, which then propelled her in the direction of a new victim, while the omnidirectional meat grinder that was Darius sowed death with the mix of steel, Semblance and pure rage. One by one the pack members were either crushed, sliced, or fled on their own, leaving only the three of them.

But as Blake thought the fight was finally over and she could breathe out, she heard a metal boot pound the earth behind her and the sound of steel whizzing through air close in on her. On pure reflexes, she engaged her Semblance and dashed to the right of her, watching a shadow clone of herself be sliced clear in two by a massive curved blade, and before she knew it, the scythe had gone a full circle around Darius and swung at her once again, leaving her barely enough time to pull her blade up to block. Struck with terrible force, she was flung into the air like a soccer ball, and again, she just barely managed to twist her body to not fly headfirst into a tree and land safely. She saw Darius make a step towards her and was prepared to continue dodging, but suddenly the figure turned around and slammed the scythe downwards behind him… and was stopped mid-swing by Yang grabbing hold of it millimeters in front of her face.

"Calm down, Darius! It's over, we're not Grimm!"

To a wayside observer the fight would seem to have entered a stalemate, but Blake could see Yang's arms slowly giving in, micron by micron, as Darius' entire body mass and strength struggled to bring the blade down. For three seconds the clinch continued… and then he stopped, dazedly staggering away from the blonde and dropping to his knees, reaching for his face and ripping the mask off.

"Dear Light… I'm so… so sorry..."

For about five seconds he was gasping for air, before finally normalizing his breath and standing back up, with the mask back on his face. With a hand pressed against his forehead, he muttered, answering the silent question on the lips of both girls:

"My apologies… I'm… I'm not used to working with people… and I tend to get caught up in the fighting. I hope you weren't hurt?"

"No, we're fine. You alright?"

Finally confident enough to close the distance, Blake left the woodwork and neared the figure in the cape, the cloth now more resembling a torturer's outfit than Hunter's attire. His breath still heavy, he turned his head to face her, but it wasn't Darius' gray eyes staring at her. Instead, Blake was looking at two pools of liquid darkness, thick as night. Taken aback on pure reflexes, she asked another question:

"What's with your eyes?!"

"That happens to him when he's excited. It's kinda similar to what I do, except apparently in every fight and not just on a few special occasions. Should get back to normal right about now," the answer followed from Yang, who was in the process of meticulously cleaning her clothes of anything she could and sighing in frustration at anything she couldn't.

"If only it was just excitement. Then the tranquilizers would work..."

He whispered that sentence, but although it avoided catching Yang's attention, Blake's ears still picked it up. As she looked at him again, she saw the usual gray eyes with a subtle hint of steel, albeit they were pierced by a web of capillaries popped during the fight.

"In all seriousness though, it's just a little side effect of me activating my aura. Maybe a story for another time." His voice was still drier than usual, but his breath had normalized.

"You know, I would ask you if you two were just dropping by or got attracted by the howling, but, frankly, I'm just too exhausted to care as of right now. So I'll just thank you right now and move on with the program. Thanks for saving my butt, as well as all attached limbs and extremities. Now, I don't suppose you have an idea of how to get to the temple?"

"Not in the slightest," Yang answered, "We were hoping that whoever we might have found here would have one, but I guess it was all in vain."

While this conversation was going on, Blake was thinking. She couldn't get rid of the feeling something wasn't right. Beowolves aren't stupid, but running almost immediately after we arrived? There was at least a couple dozen of them left, why leave so quickly?

What's that smell?!

"Hey guys. Maybe we should get moving." Blake was slowly coming to a shocking realization.

"We definitely should, however you seem worried. What's wrong?"

Darius began turning his head around, smelling something too, although neither could understand what exactly it was they were picking up.

"Well… don't you think the pack retreated a little too quickly, Yang? I managed to kill about a dozen, you got seventeen. There were at least that many left, this couldn't make all of them change their mind, even if Darius did kill quite a lot of them before us."

"Yang… don't you smell it, too? It's smoke." Darius' expression was covered with the mask, but his voice sounded absolutely lifeless. "And I don't know about you, but I don't see any campfires. That means there's a forest fire coming our way."

"Which only makes my suggestion more valid: we should run!" Blake hurriedly observed their surroundings, looking for the source of the fire and the direction in which they should be falling back while Yang's nose finally picked up a faint trail of smoke.

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from with this. Let's get going… Darius?!"

A look at her second companion made Blake shiver. Darius' entire body seemed to be shaking, his fingers burrowed deep in the crust of a tree he was been leaning on.

What's going on with him? His breath was normal last time I spoke to him, why is he gasping for air again?!

"Darius?" Blake's call went ignored as he seemed to have frozen in place, unable to get a grip on his breath or his body. Raising her head, she saw the clouds of smoke hovering above the treetops in the distance.

"We don't have time for this! Grab him and let's get out of here!" Before she even finished the phrase, Yang rushed to Darius having a meltdown and grabbed him under the arm, which finally woke him from his paralysis. The man slapped himself in the face and carefully freed his arm from Yang's grip, giving her a thumbs up as thanks. As the trio began running, they heard a tree cracking and falling behind them. They didn't have much time…

"What was that?! This was supposed to be easy!"

As the two girls were catching their breaths after running for their lives, Weiss was cursing fate for stranding her with her teammate.

What were the odds I'd get stranded with the most useless teammate ever? Becoming a Hunter was supposed to bring me stability and fame, but all I can see is my untimely demise at the hands of my own teammate!

"Yeah it was! Maybe if you exercised even the slightest bit of caution with the placement of your strikes, I wouldn't have set the forest on fire!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Weiss let out a frustrated growl as she recalled the events of the last ten minutes. Who could predict that her companion, having vanished so abruptly before she encountered a small pack of Beowolves, would have reappeared right in front of her as she was about to impale the fell beast with a well-aimed strike? As great as her weapon was, it was a seven year-old piece of engineering and lacked energy funnels, thus requiring commitment of the wielder with every blow as the energy would be released regardless of whether the strike actually connected or not. Thus, when Ruby completely shattered her battle strategy by smacking a Beowolf right in the face, Weiss had to make a choice between either killing her teammate or releasing the energy elsewhere. This time, the "elsewhere" was a tree which promptly burned to a crisp, igniting the nearby plants. Unable to withstand the elements, the two girls had to retreat away from this part of the forest, which eventually led them here, where the fire couldn't spread for whatever reason. The question is: how long until our luck runs out and our total lack of cooperation dooms us both?

"I'm just surprised that someone who talks so much would communicate so little during an encounter! Or even just use your eyes! Couldn't you see I was in the middle of a strike?"

"Oh, I'm sorry you need me to win a battle. I was doing just fine on my own!"

This is not how this works, you dolt! Eventually the frustration and anger at her teammate became too much to bear and Weiss snapped: "Well, congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way into Beacon! Congratulations, bravo!" she clapped as she began walking away, steaming with anger. Utterly infuriated as well, Ruby took out her scythe and swiped away at a tree in a fit of rage, the blade easily slicing through wood, which immediately caused Weiss to turn around and continue berating her:

"Get a grip on yourself! This kind of impulsiveness is why we're in this situation in the first place! Do you have any idea what self-control is?"

"Do YOU have any idea what being a human being is?!" The girl in red completely lost any semblance of civility, staring her white-haired counterpart straight into the eyes. "It hasn't even been two days since we've known each other and you've been pestering me for every single move I made that you saw! Who do you think you are and what gives you the right to constantly treat me like a kid?!"

"Oh, I don't know: maybe the fact that you've been behaving like an immature child for the entire time I've known you? You don't listen to others, you refuse to cooperate in childish attempts to show off and you can't keep yourself under control! What other treatment do you expect?!"

By this point both girls were screaming at each other, each one bubbling with rage. The only thing that stopped them from drawing weapons was the lingering thought at the back of their minds that they still had an objective to complete. And whether they liked it or not, they would have to do it together. Thus, Weiss mustered all her self-control and drew a deep breath to try and broker peace.

"Look. We are both teammates now and we will be for the next four years. We don't get a say in this matter, so eventually we will have to come to terms with that. So. Maybe now that we've let out some steam, could we maybe start moving before all relics are grabbed and all of this has been for nothing?"

Unfortunately, Ruby was not as eager to let go, still reacting with hostility in her voice:

"You don't even know where we're supposed to go!"

"Ah… Ehm… We're going… to-o-o-o the Forest Temple?" This time, she couldn't even force a confident tone.

"You see?! You have no idea where to go but you're bossing me around, again! Why?!"

"Oh come on! You don't know it either!"

"No, I don't, but at least I'm not pretending I know everything! You are an insufferable jerk who constantly pretends to know it all and a bossy attitude and I… Arrrgh I HATE YOU! WHY DO YOU KEEP ACTING LIKE YOU'RE PERFECT?!"

At some point Weiss must have burnt out and gone numb to Ruby's wailings. After the little girl finally ran out of breath and just stared at her in silence, her response was dripping with cold, reminding Ruby of why her companion was commonly referred to as "the Ice Queen":

"I. Am not. Perfect. Not yet. But I'm still leagues better than you."

As Weiss walked away, all Ruby can muster in response is "You don't even know me…", suffering from emotional burnout just as badly as her colleague. A shadow loomed over the two girls, making them both look to the sky…

"Ouch!"

"What?.. Oh, I'm sorry, Jaune! Wait… Why haven't you activated your aura?"

Trudging through a forest is no easy task, especially if one is trying to cut the way by going through the thick of things, avoiding the tread-out paths. Insects seeking to defend their homes from intruders; nature itself irritated by humans disturbing its peace. A tree branch slapping Jaune across his face and sending him stumbling to the ground was annoying, but not critical to their success. Luckily, the clumsy Hunter-in-the-making got away with a simple scratch on his face. An inch higher and he would be missing an eye, not just some droplets of blood. This, however, did not dissuade Pyrrha from apologizing for what seemed to be the fifth time today, something very common amongst Mistralians.

"Eh-h-h, my what?" Confusion was palpable in Jaune's voice. He doesn't know what aura is? Where'd he study? Brushing the thought off as currently unimportant, Pyrrha extended a helping hand, helping her companion up. His aura is completely dormant. Might be something I can help with...

"Your aura, Jaune."

"Gesundheit." It would seem Jaune had never even heard of that word, confusing it with a mess of sounds that a person makes while sneezing. Something was seriously off with his education…

"Jaune… Do you know what aura is?" A sneaking suspicion emerged in the redhead's mind, but she decided not to interrogate her teammate, instead focusing on remembering the techniques of unlocking the aura in the field. Jaune, meanwhile, made his best impression of a confident smirk. Acting is clearly not his strongest side.

"Ha! Of course I do… Do you know what aura is?" Pyrrha decided to play along.

"Aura is the manifestation of our soul." She remembered one of the earlier lectures in Sanctum about the duality of nature and how humans fit into this hulking machine that is the world of Remnant; her eyes lost focus as she began reciting the lecturer's words. "It shares our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt like you are being watched without knowing that someone was there?" A rhetorical question, not necessitating an answer, although Jaune still whispered a confused "Eh...Yeah".

"That's it. With practice, our aura can be our shield, like this one," she tapped her shield as an example. "Every living being has one. Even animals!"

"What about monsters?" came a predictable question.

"No. The monsters we are fighting lack a soul as they lack life. They are the creatures of Grimm: the manifestation of animosity. They are the Darkness, and we are the Light."

"Right. That's why we fight them!"

"It's not about why, Jaune! It's about knowing. Understanding both Dark and Light helps us manifest our aura; everyone has some of both. By bearing your aura outward as a force you can deflect harm: all of our tools and equipment are conduits for aura. You project yourself and your soul while fighting…"

"It's like a force field!" Jaune's excited exclamation disrupted Pyrrha's focus and made her let out a quiet sigh at such a comparison. I suppose that's something.

"Yes, if you want to look at it that way. Now…" Suddenly she came closer to her companion and occasional apprentice, reaching out for his face with her hand. "Close your eyes and concentrate."

Slightly shocked from the unexpected contact, Jaune had no choice but to comply. Concentrating her aura, Pyrrha imagined her energy flowing into Jaune, bringing light to where there was none and jumpstarting his own aura, similarly to how her father first unlocked hers. Opening her eyes, she found both of them glowing with a faint light, her own body engulfed in red akin to the color of her hair, while Jaune emanated pure white. A smile crossed her face from seeing her teammate with closed eyes, slightly dumbfounded from the feeling of energy overflow. He's kind of cute like that…

Is that you falling for a knight in shining armor who barely knows how to swing a sword?

"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." And as we hold the line against the everlasting abyss, may our Light shield us against the Dark that would consume this world. Sacrificantia aeterni remanent.

I might have gone a little overboard with energy…

"Pyrrha?!" Jaune barely managed to grab the girl as she lost her balance for a second.

"I'm alright, Jaune. I used my aura to activate yours. The problem is, I don't have much experience in such matters, and I might have used a little too much of mine. But: the energy that protects you now is your own," she said, still gazing at him beaming with light. At a moment's notice, Jaune's little scratch began to close. Within five seconds, there wasn't even a trace of it left. Pyrrha's eyes slightly widened in surprise. I haven't poured that much energy into him! "You have a lot of it. Now, maybe help the lady a little? Unlocking auras is not really my specialty, as I have mentioned."

"What is it?! You alright? Are you hurt?" Completely missing the hint, the young man locked eyes with her, concern so obvious in his look that Pyrrha couldn't contain a laugh.

"Jaune… Has anyone ever told you you are an incredibly funny person?"