Chapter 05: Ominous Appearance
Jaune flew through the air, already Hardening his bones for preparation of a rough landing before he collided with a person? Jaune shook his head free from dizziness and looked at his unfortunate cushion.
"Eh-hem!" Ruby looked up to see him hanging upside down from a higher branch. "Hey Ruby." Jaune said.
Bow Girl and Yang stared at them from the temple. "Did your sister just fall from the sky?" the former asked.
"I…" Yang began but was interrupted by a growling sound in the forest in front of her.
A large explosion was heard and an Ursa appeared from the forest. Another explosion was heard from behind it and the sound of Nora going "YEEEE-HAAAAW!"
The Ursa collapsed, revealing that Nora was riding it against its will.
"Awwww... It's broken." Nora groaned as the Ursa started to decompose.
Nora dashed onto its neck and observed the carcass as Ren came up behind her.
Ren was panting and leaning on the monster. "Nora! Please... Don't ever do that again."
When he received no response, Ren looked up to see that Nora was gone. Just empty space where she used to be.
Nora was instead at the temple, looking at a golden rook relic. "Oooohh." She grabbed it and made various poses.
"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" She sang.
"Nora!" Ren yelled. Nora stopped dancing with the rook on her head, then saluted, dropping the relic into her hand. She left to join her friend.
"Did that girl just ride in on a Ursa?" Bow Girl asked Yang.
"I…" Yang began but was again interrupted. This time by the sound of the Death Stalker as it chased Pyrrha into the clearing.
The Death Stalker attempted to grab Pyrrha, who dodged by jumping through its pincers. "Jaune!" She yelled, noticing him in the tree.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune responded, getting himself loose.
"Wow." Ruby looked at the Death Stalker and hopped down from the tree to the temple.
"I'm coming." Jaune preparing to jump down as well, before stopping and looking upwards to the sky in surprise.
Ruby landed in front of Yang and Blake.
"Ruby?" Yang was surprised by her sudden appearance.
"Yang!" Ruby raised her arms to give her sister a hug.
"Nora!" the girl herself yelled, interrupting the sister as she suddenly appeared between them, giving them both a shock.
Pyrrha was still being chased by the Death Stalker in the nearby clearing.
"Did she just run all the way here with a death stalker on her tail?" Bow Girl asked another question while Nora waved her body around having fun and Yang tried to keep in the built-up frustration.
*BOOM*
The part of the forest where Nora and Ren had just emerged from, literally exploded, revealing Cardin, Russel, two other armored boys and an Alpha Creep Grimm. Then without any acknowledgement to the others, Cardin and co. continued their deathmatch with Alpha Creep.
"Ooohh! An Alpha!" Nora squeezed her weapon in excitement. "Ren, I wanna go join in!"
"Nora, no!" Ren responded. "If go in like that, you'll cause more harm than good as a sudden distraction to our fellow students."
"Did those guys coincidentally bring their fight with that Grimm all the way here?" Bow Girl asked Yang again.
Yang figuratively exploded. "I can't take it anymore!" Her eyes turned red and flames visibly appeared around her. "Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"
There was a bit of silence lasting exactly two seconds as Ren ran up to join Nora, then Ruby decided to point out something to Yang "Um… Yang." She said, then pointed up.
Weiss was holding onto a talon as she flew through the air, hanging from an enormous Nevermore.
"How could you leave me?" Weiss screamed down at her partner.
"I said jump." Ruby replied as she Yang, Blake, Nora and Ren watched from below.
"She's gonna fall." Blake mentioned
"She'll be fine." Ruby answered.
"She's falling." Ren observed.
Jaune, having gotten himself up from the branch to a suitably higher one, prepared to catch Weiss as she was falling.
Jaune jumped from his branch, catching Weiss mid-air, but then realized that he didn't have a plan following this and the two fell to the ground with Weiss landing on Jaune's back.
"My hero." Weiss sarcastically comments as one of Cardin's troupe was smacked by the Alpha Creep's tail away from the group to land near them.
"My back." Jaune strained to speak.
A second smack, from the Death Stalker this time, and Pyrrha was sent flying to the ground near Blake, Ren, Nora, Yang and Ruby.
"Great! The gangs are all here, now we can all die together!" Yang commented in sarcasm.
"Not if I can help it." Ruby says as she charged towards the Death Stalker.
"Ruby! Wait!" Yang tries to warned her sister, but to no avail.
Ruby! No! Don't be a Leeroy Jenkins!" Jaune yelled as he got up to follow her.
Ruby fired her weapon behind her, using the recoil to attack the massive scorpion.
Unfortunately Ruby's attempt failed and the Death Stalker swatted her away with its armored claws.
"D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!" Ruby said as she slowly got up.
Ruby then turned to see the Grimm attack her. She quickly fired at it dealing no damage, but the recoil at least, helped her get away as she ran to regroup with the others.
"Ruby!" Yang followed Jaune's charge to her sister in order to help.
Ruby continued to run but the distance between them was large and the Nevermore was also chasing her.
The Nevermore then fired its massive feathers at Ruby, but was hindered as Jaune got between them and raised his shield to protect them both from the feathered hail.
The Nevermore then fired more feathers This time blocking Yang's path to Ruby. Yang suddenly stopped because of this.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha yelled in shock as she feared for her partner's life.
Jaune and Ruby's predicament has given the Death Stalker time to catch up with them. It raised its tail, readying itself to deal a fatal blow to the young knight.
"Ruby!" Yang tried to reach through the feathers as a white blur travelled past her.
As the Death Stalker's attack was about to land, an ice wall appeared to freeze it in place.
"You are so childish." Weiss spoke in the sudden silence.
"Weiss?" Ruby asked as she is sat on the floor and Jaune lowered his shield in relief.
"And dim-witted, and hyperactive." Weiss continued, getting up from her knee to face Ruby. "And don't even get me started on your fighting style."
"But I suppose… I can be a bit…" Weiss tried to find the right word. "Difficult. And if we're going to do this, We're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off. I'll be… nicer."
"Thank you for catching me earlier," Weiss said to Jaune as he raised his finger to indicate himself, if he would be getting nice words as well. "That's it. Nothing else." Jaune wilted in disappointment.
Ruby then stood up and responded. "I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this."
"You're fine." Weiss replied, walking away.
Ruby breathed a sigh of relief, then closed her eyes and clasped her hands as she gratefully whispered, "Normal knees."
Yang ran up to her sister and hugged her. "I'm so happy you're okay."
The Nevermore screeched, still flying in the air.
"Guys." Jaune pointed up to the flying Grimm. "That thing's circling back. What are we gonna do?"
"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying." Weiss answered. "Our objective is right in front of us." All eight of them looked over to the relics.
"She's right." Ruby agreed. "Our mission is to grab an artefact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things."
"Run and live… that's an idea I can get behind!" Jaune also agreed. At this point everyone is in agreement. Jaune then looked over at Cardin's group. "MONGREL!"
After he had gotten Cardin's attention, he yelled out, "The relics are over here. You guys have to pass, not win!"
"Don't tell me what to do, Faker!" Cardin yelled back, smashing his mace on Alpha Creep's face and detonating it simultaneously to send it flying back a bit. " We're gonna pass and win!"
"Well, I tried." Jaune looked back to the others. Ruby grabbed a Golden Knight piece and Jaune grabbed a Golden Rook.
Meanwhile, the Death Stalker was starting to break free from the ice. Noticing this Ren declared to the group. "Time we left."
"Right." Ruby agreed. "Let's go." She waved for the others to follow her.
Yang stood still as the others followed.
"What is it?" Bow Girl asked Yang, to find that she was staring proudly at Ruby as she leapt on a boulder and motioned the group onward.
"Nothing." Yang smiled as she decided to catch up with the others. Blake followed shortly behind.
The group had now left the forest and entered a different set of abandoned structures, with Cardin's group now among them("How did you guys get away?" Jaune asked. Russel was the one who replied. "We ditched it. Winning's not worth potentially failing Initiation"). The Nevermore was still circling them.
As they moved forwards, They eventually hid behind some pillars near a bridge that led to a large tower the Nevermore was using as a perch. The flying Grimm screeched at them, making it clear that it knew where they were.
"Fuck." Jaune and Cardin said in sync.
"Well, that's great." Yang commented from behind the same pillar as Ruby.
Behind the group, the Death Stalker and the Alpha Creep charge out of the forest, assumedly having followed them there.
"Oh man run!" Jaune gave the order as he and Pyrrha charged to the next pillar.
Ruby and Yang follow suit and Ren decided they all need cover. "Nora distract it." He told his partner.
"Russel, protect her." Cardin ordered his own partner as well.
Nora, Ren and Russel charged into the clearing between pillars and Ren dodged a volley of feathers from the Nevermore. Nora took out her weapon and used the grenade launcher to barrage the flying Grimm, preventing it from attacking the others as they approached the bridge while Russel stood in front of her, blocking all the feathers that were aimed at her.
From behind, the Death Stalker and Alpha Creep charged to attack Nora while she was firing her weapon. Fortunately, Blake, Ren and the two others with Cardin countered its attacks for her and Weiss used her semblance to put some distance between them and the monster.
"Go, go!" Pyrrha yelled as she made it to the bridge. She took out Miló in rifle form and fired at the armored Grimm following them.
Blake, Ren and the others narrowly made it to the bridge before the monsters and together, the entire group cross. The Death Stalker and the Alpha Creep were unable to follow them due to the small width of the bridge.
Unfortunately, the group weren't out of danger yet as the Nevermore flew into the bridge, knocking out the middle section.
Jaune, Ruby, Yang, Weiss and Nora end up on the tower side of the bridge while the others had to defend themselves against the Death Stalker and Alpha Creep while standing on a very small segment of the broken bridge.
Blake was knocked back by the massive scorpion as the others struggled with keeping them at bay.
"Man, we've got to get over there." Jaune said, worried that the seven of them won't be enough. "They need help!"
"Let's do this." Nora agreed, standing beside him.
"Yeah, but, uh... I don't think i can make that jump." Jaune loomed over at the massive gap between them.
Nora chuckled at this, then knocked Jaune back a bit as she changed Magnhild into a hammer. She then jumped into the air and hit the end of the broken bridge. This caused the part Jaune was standing on to jolt upwards, launching the young man to the other side.
"Oh, wait. No, no, no!" Jaune yells as he flew through the air.
Nora stood on her hammer as the bridge bellow her crumbled. She fired the weapon so that the recoil sent her forward towards the Death Stalker.
As Nora arrived, she slammed her hammer into the beast's head. The Grimm retaliated by striking its pincer at her which she quickly jumped back from.
Unfortunately, Nora's evasive maneuver caused her to knock into Bow Girl, sending the black-haired girl of the bridge and into the foggy pit below the bridge.
Thinking quickly, Bow Girl used her weapon as a whip to swing herself up. As she did so, she noticed the Nevermore flying around them. She decided to swing herself up towards the Grimm and used her Semblance to gain the extra height needed. Once she reached it, she struck at its face then ran across its back, slashing at it as she did so. Finally she jumped down and landed near the top of the tower, where her soon to be teammates were standing.
"It's tougher than it looks." Blake reported what she learnt from her stunt.
"Then let's hit it with everything we've got!" Yang replies as she readied Ember Celica.
The Nevermore flew back at them as the girls ready their weapons.
The girls each fired their ranged weapons as the Nevermore got closer. The barrage of weapons didn't work as the Grimm flew through the tower, knocking out the supports that kept the girls up.
Each of the girls climbed the rubble as it fell, Blake using her semblance, Weiss using her Glyphs and Ruby and Yang using recoil to get themselves higher.
"None of this is working." Weiss observed as she and Ruby got themselves on a platform together.
Ruby looked over at Blake's weapon in it's whip form and Yang keeping the Grimm occupied. "I have a plan." She tells Weiss. "Cover me."
Meanwhile Jaune's group were still fighting the Death Stalker while Cardin's group continued their fight with the Alpha Creep. The armored scorpion used its tail to stab the closer part of the bridge. This unbalanced the team as the remaining part is only balancing on a single pillar.
"We gotta move!" Jaune told the others. So they all charged at the Grimm.
First the Death Stalker attacked with its right claw but this was blocked by Pyrrha who then used her sword to cut at it. Next came its left claw, but Jaune followed Pyrrha's example by blocking it, then jumped back a bit towards Pyrrha.
"Cover me!" Pyrrha nodded and proceeded to shoot at the scorpion with her weapon in rifle mode, while Jaune brought out his Key again.
"[Open, Gate of the Maiden!]" Jaune declared, "[Virgo!]"
The celestial maid once more appeared in front of him. "What do you wish of me, Master?"
"Sink the Death Stalker's legs into the ground and then assist us till the battle ends!" Jaune ordered, putting his Key away and readying his weapons again.
"As you wish." Virgo slammed her hands onto the ground. "[Spica Sink!]"
The ground underneath the scorpion caved in around its legs then promptly hardened up afterwards. Ren took advantage of this, firing his weapons at the Grimm, but this just caused it to lunge its tail at him. Ren swiftly dodged it and climbed onto the tail as it ascended, giving him a good vantage point to fire his guns.
Nora fired her explosives at the Death Stalker as it pushed Jaune and Pyrrha away. Recovering quickly, Pyrrha threw her spear at one of the scorpion's eyes, causing it to shake in pain. This shaking caused its tail to launch Ren at a wall behind it, he was saved by Virgo before he impacted it.
"Ren!" Nora cried. Jaune batted away a stray attack from the frenzied Death Stalker, which was trying its best to rampage but was still stuck in Virgo's trap. As he did so, he noticed the stinger was loose and would fall at any moment.
"Pyrrha!" He yelled, indicating at the stinger.
"Done!" Pyrrha threw her shield at the stinger, causing it to fall and dig into the Grimm's head. Strangely, the shield bounced back in an unnatural way and returned to its owner.
"Nora, nail it." Jaune gave the command.
"Heads up." Nora replied as she jumped onto Jaune's shield, which was being held above the boy's head, and fired her weapon as Jaune jumped. This caused Nora to be launched high into the air, and she smiled the entire way.
As she descended, she fired again to gain some speed and started spinning. When she reached the ground, she smashed her hammer into the stinger, embedding it deep into the monster's head.
The impact from the strike caused Pyrrha, Jaune and Nora to be launched away from the bridge and onto solid ground. But as they were doing so, Pyrrha retrieved her spear from the Grimm that then fell into the foggy pit, disappearing into the darkness.
The four tried their best to recover from the ordeal. Ren was especially out of breath as he collapsed on his face.
"Excellent work, Master." Virgo intoned to Jaune as she sat him up. "Will there be anything else?"
"No, Virgo." Jaune said between panting breaths. "You can go." She then disappeared.
"Wh-Who was that?" Ren asked with his face still in the dirt.
"Ill explain later. Lets just rest a bit and check on the others." Jaune replied, getting the other's agreement.
Unknown to the group, a shadowy figure in a hood spied on them from a distance. "I see now. I wondered what caused that Elder Death Stalker to leave his nest. Still, I'm not satisfied yet. Beyond this sunny-haired human, there are still three more humans I sense with magic, all currently in combat. I'll check on the others. It's always good to have good contingency plans. Hehehe..."
Hunter Profile
Name: Ruby Rose
Age: 15
Title: The Red-Hooded Girl with a High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe
Aura: Red
Color Motif: Red, Black
Semblance: Petal Burst. This allows her to move at superspeed with the addition of temporarily transforming into rose petals while doing so. In 'rose petal' form, she is not only able to gain limited flight, but also becomes capable of carrying others with her as long as she's capable of carrying them.
Sex: Female
Alignment: Lawful Good
Likes: Her family, Crescent Rose, Cookies and Milk, her friends
Dislikes: Grimm
Bio: Ruby is the youngest daughter of the Xiao Long-Rose Household and was trained by her Stepuncle, Qrow Branwen, to become a Scythe wielder. She really likes sweets.
KingVessel: Well, this was a bit confusing, tying in Virgo's addition to team JNPR. I'll do my best to find situations to summon her more. So Next Time on "A Knight's Guide to Becoming a Hero" is "Fu! Sion! Ha!" Please review.