Back with the students, Cinder and Neo were calmly making their way to the relics, hearing nothing but the sound of their footsteps. They have not come to any contact with any Grimm yet, which was making the amber eyed girl curious.

"Where are all the Grimm?" she asked aloud as Neo turned her gaze to her as they continued walking. Tilting her head in confusion, Neo gave the elder girl a curious stare.

"Oh, sorry what I mean is, that this forest is suppose to be full of Grimm and we haven't encountered one for the whole time we've been here. I would've at least thought we would've run into a few but none have been seen yet." She wondered.

Neo facial expression to into realization as she pointed a finger upwards, stopping Cinder. She then picked up a flower and held it in front of Cinder, confusing the fire wielder before the former closed her eyes.

As she did, the flower slowed for flower petals as it changed into something else. The flower was now a beautiful lily fully bloomed making Cinder's eyes go in shock.

"Fascinating." She commented. "You can change objects in different shapes?" she asked.

Neo shook her head earning a confused look from the older girl. Neo then pointed to the tree before walking over it, she placed her hand on the log and close her eyes once again. Soon, the tree was engulfed in a bright pink glow and the tree was suddenly a cherry blossom tree.

"Oh I see, you can make illusions." Cinder commented as she walked over to the tree, reaching out to touch the bark herself and became surprised when she could actually touch illusionary tree. "Physical Illusions that can be made real due to your semblance."

Neo nodded her head in agreement as she canceled her semblance and the tree went back to normal. She then gazed at Cinder with curiosity in her eyes with her hands behind her back.

"You wanted to see my semblance as well, didn't you?" Cinder asked as Neo nodded her head rapidly. Unfortunately for her, the amber eyed girl gave her a mischief smile. "Sorry Neo but you're gonna have to wait and see."

Neo held a sign showing a shocked face. 'Aw but why not?'

"My semblance is… a little different from others." She said cryptically before giving the petite girl a mischief smile. "Plus, what fun would it be if I just spoiled the surprise." She giggled as Neo tilted her head in confusion.

'Surprise?'Neo held up a sign with a confused face and a question mark before simply tossing it to the side. She then walked over to Cinder and poked her in the side with her finger earning a giggle in return.

"Hmhmhm, what?" She asked as she gazed at Neo's expression, she had a pout on her face with her cheeks puffed up like a hamster. "You really want to see my semblance, don't you?" Neo nodded her head rapidly.

"Hmm," Cinder put her hand in thinking pose. She then raised her own finger and simply gave Neo a tap on the nose. "Nnnoooopppe!" She teased and Neo continued pouting before going into a frenzy and started poking her companion in her sides, hopefully that tickling her would get her to talk. Sadly, all it did was make Cinder laugh at Neo's attempts in trying to get her to talk.

Adam and Ilia made it into a clearing as they finally reached the temple that were trying to find. While the bull faunus walked into the clearing, he found his partner no where to be found before hearing whooshing sounds coming from the trees. Looking up he saw Ilia swinging from branch to branch with her weapon before she came into the open somersaulting in the air before landing gracefully on her feet.

"Tada!" she expressed in glee as Adam gave her a deadpanned stare.

"You done?"

"That's it!? No score on my awesome somersaulting skills, I've been practicing that for two weeks and that's what you give me?" she asked in a fake hurt expression earning an eyeroll from Adam.

"Yes, that's it."

"Oh come on, at least give me a score." Ilia exclaimed with a pout on her face and her fists planted on her hips.

Adam replied with no hesitation in his voice. "Out of 10, I give it a nine point five."

"9.5?" Ilia repeated. "what did I do wrong?"

"You were late." He smirked as she gave him a punch in the arm.

"Jerk."

"Oh, look Carmine, more people to meet up." An energetic voice said and they turned their attention to the girl with green eyes and a pink bow in her hair. "It's a pleasure to meet you." She introduced herself as she held her out towards them. Adam raised an eyebrow at the girl's hand before Ilia took it upon herself to shake it.

"It's nice to meet you too. I'm Ilia and this dark and brooding character over here is my brother Adam." The chameleon faunus greeted back as the bull faunus glared at the latter.

"I'm Penny and I'm from Atlas. It's a pleasure to meet you friend Ilia and friend Adam."

"I wouldn't go as far to say we're friends just yet." He muttered earning a kick in the shin from Ilia while Penny was oblivious to what he said, as she was filled with joy at making new friends.

"My partner over there is Carmine." She pointed over to the taller girl who was examining a crystal orb.

"She doesn't seem all that friendly." Ilia said as Penny just gave her a smile.

"She's just shy." The orange-haired girl said as Adam made his way over to her partner.

Carmine was still examining the orb with curious eyes until she heard the sounds of footsteps becoming louder. Looking up, she saw an unknown peer in front of her so she decided to go ahead and greet him.

"Hello there." She said with a small wave of her hand.

"I assume you are that girls' partner." Adam said pointing his thumb over his shoulder, causing Carmine to look over her shoulder and gaze at Penny who was busy chatting with Ilia. "Yep, she's my partner alright. She's a ball full of energy."

"Agreed." Adam nodded as he then gazed at the orb she was holding. "I also take it that the orb you're holding is what we need to bring to back."

"Yep, each one has a different color. I was thinking about picking up amber but I went for the blue instead and Penny has Orange." She explained.

"Why the latter?"

"It reminds me of home, Vacuo." She said and he nodded his head not saying anything more. He then went over to the temple behind her and up to the table where there was a selection of 6 more orbs, 3 different colors though. Yellow, Silver, Green, Pink, Amber, and Scarlet.

"Ilia." He called out to her who was suddenly beside him in a blink of an eye.

"Yes?"

"Go ahead and pick one." He gently ordered as she gazed over the orbs, pondering which one she should choose only to stop and have a frown on her face.

"I um… don't know which one to pick. Do I pick just anyone?"

"Of course, whichever you feel comfortable with." Adam answered. He wasn't going to make her choose a color that she didn't like, all he knew that these orbs were just a objective that they needed to bring back to the cliffs. It wasn't as there was a hidden adjective behind it.

"Alright then I choose… this one." She decided to pick the yellow one as Adam picked up the Scarlet.

"I'm going with this because it reminds me of my semblance and how I need to train it." He said and then they heard more rustling from the trees behind them and the sound of a Grimm. Putting away the orbs, everyone pulled out their weapons ready for a fight as the sounds of the Grimm came closer.

Suddenly two Grimm came flying out of the trees, both Beowolfs and they landed in front of everyone with a hard thud. One of them got up and released a howl as if it was ready to attack making everyone get ready before it suddenly collapsed on the ground and died before disappearing.

"See told you we find them." Mercury said with a smirk on his face.

"Right because running blind in a forest and kicking every Grimm on the way is a good plan." Emerald said in an annoyed tone.

"Well it worked didn't it?" He gave her a shit-eating grin.

"Grn… you are so difficult…" She grunted in as she raised her hands, shaking like she wanted to strangle him but couldn't so she just dropped them and gave him a glare.

"Hehehe, top or bottom?" He joked which actually earned him punch to the gut. "Ugh!"

"And Vulgar, let's not forget that." She said with a tick mark on her forehead. She then turned her attention to up ahead and saw all the other first years staring at them. 'Great just what I need, a freaking audience to laugh at my misery.' She thought as she dragged Mercury over to the temple ignoring the looks from everyone.

"Well, that was something." Adam commented.

"Yeah, and something tells me it isn't over…" Carmine added. And as if the gods were right above her, they heard what sounded like laughter coming from the other side. Turning their heads, they saw an amber-eyed girl laughing with tears in her eyes as she tried to pry Neo off her back whose legs were currently wrapped tight around the former's waist and was poking her sides.

"Neo…. Please… stop.. can't breathe….. hahahaha…." Cinder chuckled as Neo then settled for banging her fists onto the older girl's back who was recovering her breath. The petite girl stopped her attempt with a pout on her face and released Cinder before crossing her arms and looked away from the amber eyed girl who then took the chance to pull on Neo's cheek who swapped it away like a child. They then noticed the rest of the students and saw the temple in front of them.

"Oh wow, we're here." Cinder said in amazement. She was busy too laughing because of Neo that they were completely unharmed or encountered any Grimm on the way that it was unbelievable. Neo pulled out a sign that said 'Unbelievable' before tossing it aside and saw familiar faces bringing a small smile to her lips. Neo then grabbed Cinder by her hand and dragged over to the others.

"Great everyone's here, anyone else?" Carmine asked aloud.

"I think we're good but…" Adam looked around and narrowed his eyes as he realized something. "This is easy… too easy."

"You don't think they forgot about us, do you?"

"Of course not, friend Ilia. Father always told me about the trials here and that they have cameras monitoring our every move, so they would not have forgotten us." Penny reassured as the chameleon faunus nodded her head.

"SO what's missing, a giant boss battle where everyone has to fight for their lives to the brink of death?" Mercury asked in a sarcastic tone. Suddenly they heard a roar enter their ears, looking upwards they saw two massive creatures flying above them in a circle watching them. A Nevermore and a Griffon.

"You just had to ask?" Emerald growled at her partner.

"Oh come on, that could've been anybody. It's not like it can get worse." Mercury replied defensively.

Then they all heard rumbling, looking at the ground that shaking before their feet. Trees were crashing down earning their attention and coming close to them they saw a Deathstalker approaching them as it was hunting its prey and right behind it was a King Taijitu slithering.

"Anything else you wanna add for us?" Carmine was glaring at the silver haired teen who simply just sighed at shrugged his shoulders.

"Other than the fact that the universe just loves screwing with me, nope I'm good."

During the entrance exam of Beacon Academy, there were two parties that would be observing the new students that enter the school. The main branch is of course the headmistress Salem who along with her associate Hazel who was evaluating the students' performance individual and teamwork. The side branch are the students consisting of second, third-and-fourth year students watching the new recruit that have joined the academy and have their own opinions of the students.

However, there is always a third party. Those that watch the show from the shadows, monitoring all the students' behavior, body language, everything about them for the possibility of recruiting them or eliminating them so they aren't a threat in the future.

Up on a mountain near the abandoned temple, there was someone sitting up on the edge of the cliff with their legs swinging back and forth. The most noticeable feature though was that there encased in a red cloak with tears at the bottom of the fabric.

"Oh look at all the new years… they all look so adorable playing pretend out there like little children." She said while gazing at all eight students.

"This is bullshit!" Mercury shouted as he dodged another attack from the Death Stalker. The scorpion growling as it kept trying to hit the boy with its pincers before settling on using its tail. Mercury was able to jump back in the nick of time as the tail hit the ground causing a small crater.

"You're the one that decided to call out the obvious!" Emerald shouted while firing bullets at the scorpion Grimm's head only to bounce off. "If you want someone to blame then blame yourself!" She shouted before changing her guns into kusarigama form and used them to grapple herself towards a tree when the Grimm charged at her.

The Death Stalker Grimm roared loudly before raising its tail and suddenly some liquid shot out of its' stinger. Green-yellow acid shot from its tail towards Mercury whose eyes widened at the sudden attack.

"Whoa." He shouted as he used his boots to blast himself into the air with dust and then landed over to where Emerald was. "Did… did that thing just shoot acid?"

"Grimm can't produce acid, right?" Emerald asked in disbelief at what she just saw, watching the acid pool in the area that Mercury was currently standing in. "Right!?" she called out once again before she saw another spray of acid coming towards her, Mercury suddenly grabbing and jumping away with air dust to another spot.

Getting to a distance, both teens hid behind the tree as the acid flew right by them.

"So any ideas on how to kill a grimm with the ability to shoot acid?" Mercury asked.

"Other cutting off its tail without getting shot at, no I don't." Emerald replied before ducking from an acid shot that was close to her.

"Alright then, I distract you cut off its tail." He said before running ahead.

"Wait what are you—Ugh!" Emerald groaned in irritation before jumping up into the trees to find a good position.

Mercury moved side to side as the Death Stalker kept shooting acid. Running in front of it before sliding directly underneath the grimm and stopped by its tail. Mercury took the opportunity to deliver a few kicks to its legs only for the Grimm to turned as it growled and then released more acid at the student.

Mercury used his boots to jump back away from the deadly strike before clicking his feet on the ground where boots suddenly started releasing some steam. He raised his right leg and swung it forward, as he did a blast of steam dust was released and headed towards the Death Stalker, hitting it dead on.

Mercury then fired a bunch of blasts full of steam at the Scorpion Grimm, each shot hitting him and covering the area in steam forming into a smokescreen. As the Death Stalker tried to find its prey, a sound of a chain and suddenly a slicing sound was heard.

The Grimm had lost its stinger as it embedded itself onto its head as the smokescreen cleared, it saw no one in front of him. Up above him was Mercury who smirked and dove downwards while doing a front flip and once he got close, he raised his right leg and delivered a power axe kick, immediately killing the Grimm.

He then landed on the ground with a perfect landing did a small bow.

"And another one bites the dust." He said as Emerald came behind him, groaning and rolling her eyes at words.

Over to Adam and Ilia, both Faunus were busy dealing with the Taijitu as the snake Grimm slithered around them, both halves eyeing their prey in wait for the perfect opportunity to strike.

While they did that, Adam spoke to Ilia with a calm look on his face.

"Ilia, play tag." He said while keeping an eye on the Grimm. Ilia's lips curled into a smile at the mention of the game.

"Read my mind." She said before camouflaging herself and disappeared causing the white half to hiss and then sprang forward, the black half following right after. Adam swiftly dodged both attacks before taking his sword and stabbed it into the black half, allowing him to ride on the back of the snake and get out of the death circle.

High enough, he pulled his sword out of the snake and jumped off landing onto the grass stumbling before stopping himself. Seeing the dark half coming after him, he started sprinting away. He dodged left and right as the snake kept trying to swallow him alive but missed every time. Adam then ran towards a tree and as soon as he got in range, he started ninja running up the tree and jumped off when the snake bumped it's head into the massive tree slightly knocking it down.

Backflipping in the air, Adam took out his sword and raised it above his head before using his momentum to descend and then stab the Dark Taijitu in the head, causing the serpentine to cry out in pain as it started slithering wildly like an uncontrolled animal.

"Tch… Hold still, dammit!" Adam commanded as he tried to steer the dark half away into the temple or something heavy but was having trouble with it. The white half was closely in on them but stopped when it was suddenly hit in the eye causing it to stop moving. It stopped as it tried to figure out who had attack it only to see nothing in its view before suddenly getting hit again.

As the white half was busy being stunned, Ilia was camouflaged on its back slowly walking on its body and towards its head. Once she made it near the head, she transformed her whip back into a sword and stabbed it right in its eye, hurting the grimm as it also lashed out wildly around. She held on tight as she kept riding the Grimm trying to make her way to Adam.

Adam gazed at Ilia, making eye contact before they both nodded their heads in agreement. Adam pushed his sword further into black half causing to cry in fury as it slithered faster towards the white half with Ilia activating some lightning dust on her weapon that did the same thing with the white half. As both halves raced towards each other right at the last second, Adam and Ilia released their weapons off the grimm and both jumped high up the air. As the Grimm crashed into itself, Ilia and Adam were in the air with the latter holding his sword out.

Ilia then released multiple slash attacks with her whip that was infused with lightning dust towards Adam, who used his sword to block each attack all the while his sword glowed red as if it was absorbing all the damage. After Ilia ran out of lightning attacks, she gave a thumbs up to Adam who smirked before turning his body and dived towards the grimm, sheathing his sword. He then took a deep breath as his hair started glowing and so did the markings on his outfit, when he was 10 meters away from the grimm the air around them tensed as Adam then unsheathed his sword and unleashed his semblance onto them, releasing a samurai slash attack on the Taijitu chopping them in half.

Landing on his feet, Adam swung the sword as if he was cleaning off blood from an enemy before slowing putting it inside the sheathe and stood up, Ilia coming behind him with a smile on her face.

Up in the skies, the Nevermore was flying around as it fired talons off its wings towards a flying duo. Penny and Carmen were in the sky with the former carrying the latter as they maneuvered through the air dodging and each of the talons fired at them. The Raven Grimm roared as it turned around and suddenly swooped down to the ground, with the pair following.

As they descended, Carmine had tapped Penny on the hand allowing the latter to let her go and dive down towards the creature. Once she reached it, she took out her sai and stabbed the Nevermore's eyes causing it to howl in pain and temporarily stopped its sudden movement.

Penny swung her arms around as her swords started gathering in a circle formation right in front of her. Settling in place, all the swords around her started to building up energy as a Penny held out her hands and a small green sphere for in front of her slowly getting bigger by the second.

Carmen pulled her arms up, her weapons still inside the Nevermore's eyes and forced the Grimm to fly wherever she directed it to. She flew into Penny's direction where the latter was almost done charging her attack as the sphere grew to the size of a meteor. Penny then move her arms back before pushing them forward, firing a giant green laser beam towards the Grimm.

"Eat laser, you damned bird!" Carmine said before pulling her sai out and jumped off the bird descending to the ground. The Nevermore didn't have time to do anything as it was engulfed by the attack, screaming in pain as its body was slowly disintegrated by the laser and scattered with the wind.

The redhead had her arms crossed as she was close to hitting the ground until Penny had swooped in the nick of time and caught her friend. As they flying, Penny looked at Carmine with bright eyes.

"So, did I do good?" Penny asked with excitement in her voice. Carmine rolled her eyes at her partner's cheerful attitude before turning her head.

"No." she said causing Penny to frown before feeling a poke on her cheek causing the latter to look up and saw Carmine with a smirk on her face.

"You killed it." Carmine stated earning a smile from Penny who proceeded to hug her causing the latter to groan at the strength of the former and let out a small sigh.

Cinder and Neo were jumping and dodging as the griffon above them kept swiping its claws at them, roaring in fury each time it was missing. The Griffon used its wings to flap them forward brushing some dirt towards the two girls.

Cinder used this opportunity to drop her hand to the ground before pulling it back, in front of her the dust quickly formed into the shape of glass projectiles and she fired them forward. The spikes hitting the Griffon's body embedding into its legs and wings.

The Griffon Grimm let out a cry as it was being attacked, before raising its injured wings and flew directly towards Cinder. As in got in front of her ready to bite her, Neo suddenly intervened and holding Cinder's arm with one hand and her umbrella unfolded out in front of the grimm.

Once the griffon bit its prey, both girls had shattered into a million pieces and glass was in their place instead. Griffon became confused as it raised its head trying to find them, not noticing that Neo was slowly walking onto its body. Jumping over its face, Neo whacked the head several times with handle of her umbrella and then used its head to springboard off the Griffon backwards and away from it.

The grimm was a bit daze as it shook its head back and forth while turning its body unaware of the danger to its side. A few meters away, Cinder was holding her swords that were transformed into bow and had an arrow that was superheated ready to fire. Finding her mark, she fired the bow and it shot off towards the griffon as it struck through the bone and hit its head.

Griiffon roared in pain before collapsing to its side and fell onto the grass, its body slowly dispersing into ashes and scattered along with the winds.

Cinder put down her bow as Neo floated down to her side like Mary Poppins and landed softly on the ground.

"And there we go." Cinder said before turning to Neo. "I showed you my semblance, what did you think?"

Neo smiled as she clapped her hands with her eyes filled with amazement.

"Well now, that's the pretty good workout if I do say so myself." Mercury said as he and Emerald came up to the pair.

"Quick acting all smug, I was the one who cut that Grimm's lancer remember." She said as Mercury turned to her with the same expression.

"True but I was the one that got it distracted and delivered the killing blow, and it was my plan after all. So I think I deserve some praise." Mercury informed her.

"The only time you'll get any praise from me is the day I put on a maiden's outfit." Emerald said as her partner's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Oh, is that a challenge I here?"

"You are so—"

"Okay." Carmine interrupted keeping the two from going at it. "How about we focus on getting back to the cliff and then you two can continue your lovers' quarrel there?" She called out as Emerald turned to her with an angry look on her face.

"Lovers with this guy!?"

"I wouldn't mind." Mercury said while shrugging his shoulders with a grin on his face.

"That was so fun. It's been so long since I fought any Grimm, it's just been Faunus and humans lately." Ilia said while stretching her arms out.

"Hm." Adam nodded his head in agreement. "Does everyone have their crystal orbs?"

"Yep." Ilia called out as she pulled out hers, as did the others.

"Alright, let's head back then. Shouldn't be too much trouble…" Adam trailed off as he saw Ilia converse with Penny who was overjoyed with meeting the chameleon faunus causing him to sigh. Carmine coming up beside him and gave him a punch in the arm.

"Guess we'll seeing each other more often huh." She said while walking away with the bull faunus following her. As everyone left Cinder suddenly stopped as if the air around her was tense. She slowly looked around her and saw nothing but the trees and her teammates in front of her making her wary on what was happening.

As she took her first step, she then felt it. A presence was right beside her, turning her head to the right a bit she saw a hooded figure with their cloak waving as the wind blew against them.

"Hey Cinder!" Someone called out to her and she looked up over at Neo and the others who were waiting for her. She then turned back to the figure only to find out that they're gone causing her to be confused.

"Sorry, I'm coming." She apologized before following her peers back to the cliffs where they would be assigned their teams. As she walked, she couldn't help but wonder at the figure she just saw.

Was it a ghost or was it real?