I rewrote the ending of the last chapter, so that'll be why this might not make sense if you haven't read the rewritten one.

Also a reminder for the four way mental conversations

'Erebus talks like this'

'Ker talks like this'

'Raven talks like this'

'And Kratos like this'


It's now been a few hours since I arrived back with Pyrrha and the rest of the group are here after making sure Pyrrha's sleeping well. And everyone's sitting in the living room and some of RWB_ and JNPR are looking at me with anger because I refuse to tell them what happened to Pyrrha. While the rest of them were just worried about her.

"What happened to her?" Ruby asked for the umpteenth time.

"*Sigh* I said it and I'll say it again. It's Pyrrha's decision on when she'll tell you all what happened. And it might take a while because it's quite serious." I say.

"We could see that." Weiss says.

The group look at Qrow in hopes of him telling them but they get roughly the same response, before starting to argue with him. My scroll vibrated and I checked to see that James messaged me.

James: How is she?

Me: She broke down when we got outside. And the mood here is pretty shitty. She's sleeping right now, so we'll have to wait and see later.

James: I see… I was planning on giving them their official hunter licenses but it seems that will have to wait.

Me: Actually, I think you should do it, help get their minds off Pyrrha for a bit.

James: Alright, tell them to meet me at my office.

Me: Alright I'll see you there.

I put my scroll away before summoning a mini version of the dragon I absorbed. The arguing bunch of teens carrying deadly weapons and a huntsman who seems to be eternally drunk did not notice it, but Raven did. The dragon roared loudly which scared the ever living shit out of the arguing bunch. And this got a chuckle out of Raven at the expense of Qrow's health.

"Now that I have your attention. General Ironwood wants you to meet him at his office." I say before they could say anything.

"But did you really have to do that?" Blake asks.

"Of course not, but that was the easiest way to get your attention, now are you going to Ironwood's office or not?" I ask.

The teams look at each other before nodding, "We'll get our weapons, hold on." Ruby says.

"So," I take a seat, "got anything new with you and Erebus?" I ask Raven.

This makes Erebus sleepily peek out from Raven's hair and Ker to come out of my shadow to stretch. But before we could continue there was a shout of shock, we look to the source and it was the old man who I forgot about.

"Oh right, I forgot you were here. Who are you?" I ask him.

"Uhm… Pietro Polendina, pleasure to meet you… and your grimm." He says nervously.

"Don't worry he's not going to hurt unless I say so." I say.

"And this lazy little fucker won't get down from there unless I need to shower or there's a threat. Argh! That fuckin hurt you stupid fox! Argh!" And so the fighting between the miniature elder grimm and Raven began.

"So yeah, nothing to worry about. And did you say your last name was Polendina, the same as Penny's?" I ask.

"Right, yes that is my last name because I'm the one who created Penny, and the one who repaired her after Beacon's fall."

"I see, looks like it's time to go now." I say as I face the two teams plus Oscar and Penny all ready.

"Alright we're ready to go." Ruby says.

(Small Timeskip)

The trip to James' place was relatively quiet with the only one talking most of time is Penny, who was trying to brighten the group's mood but failed as she only got short replies from one of them before being silent again. And the trip the office was filled with silence, similar to the whole rest of the trip.

"Welcome everyone, please come in." James says.

"So what'd you call us here for James?" Qrow asks.

"In regards to team RWBY's and JNPR's performance in the recent events, I have elected to make the eight of you official huntsmen and huntresses."

This got them to perk up, not as much as they would have if Pyrrha was okay but it was still something.

"R-really?" Ruby says with excitement leaking through her voice.

"*Chuckle* Yes really, congratulations. From today on you all are the protectors of humanity, the ones who'll help the helpless and the barrier between grimm and the people."

"What about our hunter licenses?" Weiss asks.

"Already in your scrolls, which means you are ready to start accepting missions." James says as he hands each team a tablet. "Those are the missions available to you currently."

Both teams quickly start to look through the possible missions but the excitement on their faces slowly fade away the more they scroll through.

"What kind of 'missions' are these? Watching over a bunch of kids, buying groceries, taking out the trash… these are chores more than anything!" Ruby protests, which gets a chuckle out of James and Qrow.

"Well we all have to start somewhere, you can't expect any self-respecting general to send out fresh huntsmen and huntresses out to exterminate large packs of grimm, or one potentially dangerous one, no matter how good they are before they get their licenses. You all lack experience and you'll get that by working your way up to the missions you were probably thinking you were going to get." Ironwood explains.

"But-but-" Ruby starts to protest again but gets interrupted.

"Just leave it be Ruby. We can't really do anything about it." Weiss says.

"*Sigh* Fine, then lets start of with taking out the trash, at least that won't require that much effort." Ruby says.

(1 week timeskip)

It's been a week since Ruby and the others have gotten their licenses and they've been burning through multiple missions a day which allowed them to start taking grimm extermination missions starting from today. And in that week they also trained like hell either with each other or the ace ops.

And over the week Pyrrha has gotten better every day and now she's mostly alright, she's learned to live with the knowledge about her other half and is now starting to take the beginner missions that RWB_ and JN_R took when they started.

James also told us about his plan with using Amity Colosseum as a communications tower to broadcast the threat of Salem to as much of Remnant he can reach.

We're now back in James' office since he has a mission for me, Raven and Qrow and a joint mission for RWB_ and JNPR.

"Thank you all for coming, as you know today is an important day. The election for the next councilman or councilwoman will be held in a few hours from now. And it is teams RWB_ and JNPR's mission to be stationed at the election site as security along with Penny and Marrow." James says and team RWB_ and JNPR leave after they get their missions on their scrolls.

"Qrow, you are to help guard the vehicle transporting vital materials to turn Amity into a comms tower. Raven and Dominus, your mission is to exterminate a potentially deadly grimm spotted in an ice cave around 30 km away from the south wall. You will be transported there and back with one of my ships. Any questions?" Seeing that none of us did, "alright you may leave, the details on where you need to go are on your scrolls."

We all leave and Qrow goes to the vehicle he's going to be guarding while me and Raven head to the already waiting ship.

"Looks like I'm going to have the advantage here, since we're likely going to fight something that probably has some control over ice." Raven says once we're well on our way.

"Oh really now, you're not the only one with fire." I say as I take out one of my blades and pour some mana in it to set it ablaze.

"You really think two flaming blades are going to outmatch the effectiveness of a fireball?"

"You'd be surprised with what I can do with these two."

"I'm sure I will be, so what's our plan here. Are we going to lure it out?"

"That would be the best way to fight unrestricted, so yes we are."

(Small Timeskip)

For the rest of the flight we spent the time talking about the little details of our plan. The pilot says we've reached the drop point and opens the hatch. Raven jumps down without hesitation and I follow suit. Once we're far away enough from the ship, Ker comes out of my shadow and I get on him before we fly down. Raven transforms at just the right time to slow down enough for a comfortable landing and the no longer mini Erebus lands next to her.

We already know what we're going to do, Erebus ignites himself and I ignite my blades before we enter the large cave opening. We find that it's one large main path many smaller branching paths but we follow the main one since the grimm wouldn't have been able to fit through any of the branches we've seen.

We walk deeper and deeper into the cave for a few more minutes and reach an even bigger room that's circular and is bigger than the main path but there's nothing inside other than some natural blocks of ice and lots of spikes of ice jutting out of the ceiling.

'Ker, do you sense anything'

'I do, but I can't pinpoint where exactly. I don't think we're fighting a grimm Kratos, we might be fighting one of the true monsters from the old ages.'

'I see we'll have to be extra careful then, warn Erebus and Raven about this.'

'Alright.'

'Where do you think it is?'

'I don't know, it's either not here or it's hiding, I find hiding more likely. We would've seen footprints outside if it went out'

'It might be hiding above us, I think I can barely see something beyond those ice spikes'

'Alright, everyone attack it on 3. 1, 2, 3!'

And we all send our attacks, Erebus sends a big fireball, Raven sends a fire slash, Ker shoots a shadow tendril at it and I throw my blades as I overcharge them with mana which will cause them to explode on impact. And when all the attacks hit, it caused an explosion of extreme heat before the cave started rumbling and the spikes of ice slowly start to fall.

'Get ready, this is probably the monster'

And I was right as the spikes impact the ground they all shattered and kicked up snow in the process. Nothing happened until suddenly there was a loud and low growl and a couple loud footsteps that sounds like something is getting up. Before we see two piercing glowing orbs of icy blue before it travels down what I assume to be the monster's neck. It lets out a deafening roar, amplified by the echoes and the force of it blew away all of the snow revealing the monster to us.

It had thick layers of ice shielding its head and all around it's body which is shaped similarly to a dragon but it doesn't have wings. Both it's front and back claws are covered in razor sharp and likely some very dense ice. Or maybe it isn't even ice, it might just be something similar but much stronger. It has multiple long spikes of ice jutting out of its shoulders and along its back as well. Its tail is also lined with thick ice and it ends as a club.

'We're in for one hell of fight huh?'

'We are, so get ready.'