Chapter 5: Grimm Studies 3: Nevermore
I don't own RWBY. If I did, [insert thing I dislike about the show here] wouldn't.
Azure (1st Person)
"Hello class." Port announced. He got vague mumbling in response, with a few scattered 'Hello, Professor.'s mixed in. I stifled a yawn. I had been up late working on a slinger prototype (definitely not reading fanfic, nope), and caffeine can only do so much. Thankfully, I am the assistant, and so get to fiddle around with the presentation software while Port did the talking.
"Today we will be learning about the feathered fiends - Nevermores!"
I chose that moment to speak up. "Griffins, Manticores, and Sphinxes have feathers too." I queued up the photos, and made my way to the front of the stage-podium-I forgot what it's actually called. I turned on the projector, displaying an image of a Nevermore in flight.
"Nevermores are the most common flying Grimm, at least on Sanus. They look like a mix between a condor and a raven, with a few other elements thrown in as well. They have the standard white bone masks and glowing red eyes. They also have the weird bat-claw-things on their wings, because they might need to pin something in front of it while feeding." I switched photos to a side-by-side comparison of a flock of normal Nevermores with a Giant Nevermore. "They come in two sizes, small and extra-large. The small ones might actually be hatchlings, but they don't appear to grow so the jury is still out." I got blank looks for the last statement. Oh, right. That expression doesn't exist on Remnant. "Err… expression from my hometown. Anyway, while all of them can claw, bite, and ram stuff, the big ones can also shoot their feathers as-" I am a teacher "freaking dart-missile-things. The feathers are very sharp and very accurate, at least over short distances. The two kinds fight very differently. The small ones swarm you-"
"Unless you shoot them first!" Port said forcefully, holding up Blowhard (the axe-shotgun).
"- and the big ones will strafe the ground with feathers, before dive-bombing whatever survived the strafing. They can ram through stone walls at high speeds and come out fine, as I am sure some of you are well aware." I glanced over to the star teams. Note to self: reference the 'why is it when something happens, it's always you' meme at some point.
Pyrrha PoV (3rd Person)
Pyrrha sat, notebook in front of her, as she watched Professor Azure monolog. He made little hand gestures while he talked. Not just pointing out things on the screen,
"The Nevermore's name is from a poem by Edgar Allen Poe, called 'The Raven'. It's about a guy who runs into a talking raven that can only say the word 'Nevermore'." His eyes flicked over towards where Ruby and Yang were sitting. "There is also some other context I am going to leave unmentioned here, but I am willing to give a physical or digital copy of the poem to anyone who asks. Now, without further ado, Port's story."
With that, Professor Azure walked to the far back of the stage, as Professor Port walked to the front and center. As Professor Azure sat on a chair and pulled out a laptop, Professor Port began to speak. "My story today is of a hunt from when I was a second-year here at Beacon. I had gotten into a disagreement with a fellow student, who did not like that I was as skilled as I was. One late night, our disagreement turned into a fight, and he said that if I could take down a Nevermore alone, he would stop insulting me, and more than that, the loser would run across the campus in only his underpants."
"You made a stupid bet while drunk, got it." Professor Azure snarked without looking up from his laptop.
"SO," Professor Port said a bit too loudly, "it was one fine morning I set out into the woods between Vale and Mountain Glenn with Blowhard and some ammunition. The woods were dark and treacherous, and filled with Grimm. I crept over small branches, evading the many…"
Pyrrha couldn't remember what happened next. She tried to be a good student, doing all of her classwork, paying attention to teachers, apologizing when necessary, and so on. But listening to Professor Port drone on about what seemed like each step he took and how stealthy it was made it fade into a babble of 'blah blah blah blah blah'.
"Port! We get it! You're really frickin' sneaky! Now can you please get to the fight!" Professor Azure yelled.
"How rude." Professor Port grumbled.
"Sorry." Azure said without a trace of apology in his voice.
"Anyway, I eventually saw a Nevermore flying high above the trees. Swiftly I drew Blowhard, and with impeccable accuracy I knocked it clean out of the sky! It turned out to be a small Nevermore, but then a giant one came swooping down right behind me! I dodged to the left swiftly, firing a shotgun blast into its head as it passed. It tried to catch me with it's wing, but I jumped on top of it, and started hacking away. It soared up into the clouds and rolled to try and shake me off, but I held on. It tried to launch its feather darts to fling me off, but I climbed up its wing as the feathers were launched and leaped onto its head! It tried to buck me off, but I held firm, ramming my axe blade into its head again and again and again until it finally dropped. I pulled a camera I had borrowed out of my pocket, and took a picture before it dissolved into ashes." Professor Port chuckled. "The student I made the bet with was very… what's a good word?"
"Salty?" Professor Azure suggested.
"Salty?"
"Slang."
"Interesting. Anyway, the other student was very salty, especially after he had to streak across the campus." Professor Port finished his story and took a bow.
Azure shut his laptop with a snap. "The moral of the story?" He stood up, and put the laptop on his vacated chair. "Don't make stupid bets. Now, to the giant dome thing I built! Oh, by the way, team JNPR, y'all are fighting the Nevermore I caught, so go grab your stuff."
Giant dome thing? Pyrrha wondered.
Several minutes later, crouching behind a boulder inside of the giant rock dome with a very small entrance that had appeared behind the school, her question was answered.
The dome was very large, and hollow. It was built like a cage rather than a solid dome. While a good chunk of the normal terrain on the cliff was still there, there were definitely rock formations that had not been there before. When she had asked Professor Azure about how he made it, he had answered with "Hot chocolate and a lot of rock Dust." But, his voice had gone very level and calm when he said it, so he was probably lying. Why waboop it probably didn't matter. Sorry. Wait, that sounboop.
She was worried about the fight. While she was pretty confident that they wouldn't die (all else failing, they could have Nora break open the dome and run for it), she wasn't certain they could beat it. She had just started giving Jaune the extra training, and while Ren and Nora had a normal amount of skill, the four of them hadn't practiced at fighting as a team yet.
As it was, she was crouched behind a boulder hiding from a feather barrage while Ren tried to distract it and lure it over to him and Nora. Jaune had found a rock formation with a loose chunk of dome nearby, and got the idea to try and knock the dome down on the Nevermore and trap it. Pyrrha had acted as a springboard to get Nora to the outside of the dome, and then went to go deal as much damage to the Nevermore as she could. Nora had slammed her hammer down with grenade blasts on the left and right bars on the chosen dome section, not quite knocking them free. Jaune was - oh no, Pyrrha thought. Jaune was running across the entire arena, trying to get over to where Ren and Nora were. She quickly switched Miló into its rifle form and shot the Nevermore in the side. Her bullets being normal bullets, and the Nevermore being the size of a semi truck, this did very little, because Jaune was practically peeing his pants and the avian Grimm was going after the biggest source of fear.
Fortunately, Jaune was very, very good at not dying, and the Nevermore was charging him so it couldn't throw any feathers. Jaune ran until he reached where Ren and Nora were, and ducked behind the rock. The Nevermore overshot, slamming into a wall.
Nora brought her hammer down on the bottom bar of the selected spot, and with it the chunk of dome.
The noise was tremendous, as the upper bar barely held on before snapping with a sound of tearing rock. It crashed into the Nevermore, pinning it to the ground but not quite killing it. Pyrrha ran over to the fallen Grimm, as Nora dropped down from the dome and Ren and Jaune popped out of hiding. The assembled team just started whaling on the Nevermore's head, a flurry of pistol fire, sword slashes, and hammer bashes caving in it's head, because Grimm don't really have skeletons outside of the spikes. After the Nevermore dissolved into ashes, team JNPR just… stood there, for a few seconds.
Jaune was the one to break the silence. "So… we killed it." His face lit up. "We killed it!
Professor Port's voice sounded from just behind them. "That you did." They turned around rapidly. No-one was there. "Now, please come back over to the class."
The team climbed out of the dome to clapping from the rest of the class. "Good work," Azure said. "You killed the thing pretty quickly, all participated pretty evenly, and made use of available environmental hazards. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that second period starts in about a minute, so you should probably get going."
The assembled students looked at each other, and started running back to Beacon.
AN: I got this out on time. I might upload a better version later, but no guarantees. Also, please add a review, especially if you catch a spelling error, it gives good feedback.