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RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.
Chapter 16: Nyaraloths
The remainder of Ruby's Day was rather uneventful. The only thing that she really took note of was odd looks from her teammates, and the slightly more than occasional glares from some of her fellow students. Cardin Winchester was one of the primary people who seemed to be fixated on her.
It was no secret that Cardin Winchester was a bully. He liked to pick on people who were weaker than him, or who he saw as beneath him. The Faunus were a prime example of that. Jaune Arc was another. Ruby was someone he saw as beneath him. However, he hadn't accounted for the fact that Ruby grew up learning to fight from my sister. As such, though she looked smaller and weaker than many of the students at Beacon, Ruby was anything but weak.
Cardin's notion that Ruby was weaker than him was rather quickly disabused during combat class the next day. Goodwitch was having students participate in spars against people that were significantly different in skill level. It was an exercise meant to be heavily one sided in the better students favor. She was trying to encourage the less skilled students to think outside the box. Brains beating brawn, and all that.
Cardin was matched with Ruby. Cardin was nothing but brawn. It got worse when he was angered. It was an unremarkable match, save for the fact that Cardin lost through only his own fault. He tried to charge at Ruby and hit her with an overhead slam.
Ruby responded by nimbly dodging out of the way, and allowing physics to take their course. Cardin overextended and tripped out of the sparring ring. To add insult to injury, Ruby didn't even bother bringing in Death's Thorn. As such, Cardin was dealing with a case of severely hurt pride.
Other than that, though, the rest of her week, and the majority of the following week, were uneventful.
The same held true for me and my own search. The hall of records is absolutely massive.
Anyways, things were calm and routine. The only major difference was an interesting revelation. Apparently, Jaune Arc faked his way into Beacon. A set of forged transcripts that he managed to get by Ozpin. I asked Oz about it after I found out. Oz admitted that he hadn't realized that the transcripts were faked until after the initiation where Jaune, apparently, proved himself more than capable. According to Oz, it wasn't just fake transcripts. Jaune had managed to get himself entered into the systems of the school he claimed to attend and Vale's huntsmen registry. The boy had been thorough. Untrained, but meticulous.
Ruby overheard the exchange that Jaune had with Pyrrha about it. It was a few nights after their meeting at lunch. She was practicing in a rather secluded place. The rooftop of the main dorm building. Pyrrha and Jaune came through, Pyrrha with the intention of training Jaune a bit. They talked, but Ruby didn't listen until Jaune's outburst about his actual skills and the truth about his transcripts. Pyrrha, dismayed and dejected, left. Ruby followed shortly after.
Other than that, though, nothing really happened outside of routine. All though, Ruby's practice did bear fruit. She found herself able to summon forth her power without the crutch of a whistle. Unfortunately, she still whistles when she summons it, not out of necessity, but out of habit. And you know what they say about habits.
All in all, a routine was maintained. Thursdays, I helped teach her how to actually utilize her power. The first thing I taught her, and probably the most useful thing I ever would teach her, was how to see souls. A fundamental ability for any Reaper… or Revenant as the case is. She took to it rather well. Though she did find it rather disconcerting. Especially when I asked her to practice using it during her time in Remnant.
And use it she did as well. It was actually a weekend when she first found the need to use it. It was two weeks later. One of the Beacon professors, Peach if I recall correctly, required a sweet sap that is really only found in the trees of Forever Fall Forest. Another location I believe that Conquest had a hand in naming.
They took a few bullheads and professors, and spread out through the forest. Each bullhead had three teams. Teams JNPR, RWBY, and CRDL shared one and I'm not even going to pretend I know which teams were in the others.
They landed in the forest shortly after noon. And with a warning from Glynda, they were off. Team JNPR minus Jaune, and Team RWBY struggled to keep their jars full. Jaune departed with Team CRDL. As it turns out, Nora had a major sweet tooth and would drink entire jars of the sap almost faster than they could fill them. Ruby asked Yang to hold Nora back so they could fill the required number of jars.
The process was slow, but steady. They had just finished filling up their last jar when three members of team CRDL came running through. They were yelling for Goodwitch. The only words that they could make out were 'Cardin', 'Sap', and 'Grimm'.
Ruby immediately took charge.
"Ren, you and Weiss go get Professor Goodwitch. The rest of you with me." Ruby commanded.
The pair nodded and took off. Ruby whistled and took a look around. Her silver eyes immediately spotted the souls of Jaune and Cardin. Next to them was a strange, empty void-like space. Presumably the Grimm.
"This way!" She shouted and they hurried to where Jaune and Cardin were.
The two boys were in a clearing. Cardin was slumped over, next to a tree and barely conscious. Jaune was desperately trying to defend himself against an Ursa Major. A particularly pokey Gamma III Grimm. Jaune raised his shield to block a swipe from the monstrous Grimm. Ruby noted a strange black aura surrounding the shield and Jaune's arm lifted ever so slightly upward. The Ursa's attack was handily deflected. Jaune swung his sword upward and decapitated the Ursa Major.
He walked back to Cardin and roughly pulled the bully to his feet. Ruby didn't hear what Jaune said, but Cardin hurriedly nodded. When Jaune let him go, Cardin ran past them. Jaune saw them and smiled.
"Hey guys." He greeted.
The two teams greeted him.
"Well done, Mr. Arc." Glynda congratulated him as she approached. "Though your form could use some improvement. Come, students, that's enough excitement for today."
The two teams fell in line behind Glynda.
"If that offer still stands, I'd gladly accept the help." Ruby heard Jaune whisper to Pyrrha.
Pyrrha smiled and nodded.
They continued back towards the bullhead. A loud cracking of a branch caught Ruby's attention. Ruby stopped and turned in the direction of the sound. She tried to see if there was anything there.
"Ms. Rose?" Glynda asked when she saw one of her charges was scanning the forest.
Ruby motioned for silence. The two teams stopped and listened. Another loud cracking branch was heard. Ruby saw the Grimm first. Her eyes widened.
"We need to hide, NOW!" She commanded in a quiet voice.
Only the two teams heard her. Glynda was about to say something when Ruby summoned Death's Thorn and hoisted herself into a nearby tree. The rest of the students did the same. Glynda, seeing no other options and confused by the surety of Ruby's voice, joined them.
A Grimm Glynda had never seen before wandered by, underneath them. Ruby narrowed her eyes and watched as a Nyaraloth scouted out the area. It's 360-degree vision offered no information as to the whereabouts of the Beacon residents.
"What is that?" Blake, recognizing the need for stealth, whispered to Ruby.
"Nyaraloth." Ruby whispered back.
"What should we do?" Weiss asked.
"Hide." Ruby responded.
The Nyaraloth stalked around underneath them for a good five minutes before it gave up its search. It soon continued on its way through the forest. When Ruby was sure that it was far enough away, she dropped back to the forest floor.
"Ms. Rose, what was that?" Glynda asked.
"Nyaraloth. An Omega I Grimm." Ruby answered, looking in the direction the stray Grimm had gone.
"One?" Yang asked, we could have taken it.
"Omega I, Yang." Ren corrected. "Though, she is right, we probably could have taken it."
"Maybe, but Nyaraloths have a nasty habit of warping reality around them." Ruby responded. "And there was only one… why was there only one?"
"Isn't just one a good thing?" Jaune asked.
"Maybe, but there is never just one Nyaraloth. You never attack a single Nyaraloth, unless you're intent on wiping out the whole crowd." Ruby replied. "Dad would want to know…"
"As interesting as this is, we should be getting back to Beacon." Glynda said.
"Sorry professor, but I'm not going back just yet." Ruby said.
"Ms. Rose?" Glynda questioned, with a glare.
"Omega class Grimm fall under my father's purview. And that particular species is not known for hunting alone. Consequences of failing him scare me more than Beacon ever could." Ruby explained. "I have to find out what a Nyaraloth is doing alone."
Ruby summoned Death's Thorn and pulled herself back into the trees. She was gone before Glynda had a chance to stop her.
"Students, return to the bullhead. I'm going after Ms. Rose." Glynda ordered.
Her glare was enough to stop them from following after her.
Ruby dashed through the trees. Moving as fast and as silently as she could. The Nyaraloth wasn't moving that fast, so it was easy for Ruby to catch up to it. The Omega class Grimm wandered through the underbrush. Ruby watched it quizzically as it made its way towards the mountain near the center of the forest.
The beast began climbing the mountain. Ruby followed it until it slunk into a cave underneath the rails that ran around the mountain. Unfortunately, Ruby couldn't see very well in the dark. That didn't stop her though. She cautiously followed the Grimm deeper into the cave, one arm braced against the side wall. The cave curved downward sharply and began to heat up. The Nyaraloth picked up its pace. Eventually, the cave widened out into an absolutely massive chamber. The Nyaraloth casually walked down the side of the rocks. The room was only illuminated by several flowing rivers of magma at the cave's floor.
Looking around, Ruby saw thousands of Nyaraloths swarming around the cavern like ants. She could see several hundred more holes all around the massive chamber. Only two things stood out among the massive crowd of Grimm.
The first was a humanoid figure climbing along the far wall. It was difficult to tell exactly what it was, but Ruby thought she could see that the figure had a horn and possibly a tail. She assumed them to be a particularly crazy faunus. The Nyaraloths appeared to have not seen him yet.
The other object of particular note was the statue. Against one of the walls of the massive cavern was an equally massive statue. The statue appeared to be carved and pieced together of some sort of dark rock and a lighter rock. The light from the magma made it difficult to tell for certain what it was. She could make out the details of the statue's shape.
The statue depicted a massive being. It had a humanoid shape with four arms. Two of which seemed to sprout from a second torso affixed to the statue's back. The legs each appeared to have two knees. A large tail sprouted from the being's lower back and ended in a mean looking mace like structure. The being's head was even stranger. It appeared to extend from what would be the neck of the back torso and the neck of the front torso. It had a piece of rock carved to look like a helmet over the head. Strangest of all, the head appeared to be a massive glowing green emerald.
It was strange. She had never heard of any descriptions of the being that the statue depicted. She took a picture and would later show it to me. Even stranger was that I had no clue what it could be either.
While she was inspecting the statue, she noticed that the faunus had climbed their way to the statue. They were making their way higher. Now that they were closer, she could indeed see that they had a single horn and a tail. She could also see a long weapon of some sort attached to their back.
She watched as they climbed their way to the top of the statue, where the large emerald was. Using their tale, they latched themself in place. She watched as they placed something behind the statue's head. The person began waving their arms through the air. To Ruby, it looked like they were working out some sort of problem.
It was about this time that Ruby began recording a video of what she was seeing.
Things got weirder when the figure stopped waving their arms about. They appeared to point in a direction and their hand seemed to glow a dull orange color. To Ruby's astonishment, a glowing portal appeared a short distance away from the statue. The glow was enough to get the attention of the Nyaraloths below. They started scrambling towards the statue and the faunus perched atop it.
The strange faunus glanced around the chamber before climbing on top of the statue's head. They appeared to roll their shoulders before raising their right hand above their head. With a crack of their neck, the Faunus leapt off the head. A loud explosion rang throughout the chamber. Ruby almost dropped her scroll as she hurried to cover her ears.
The faunus was propelled higher into the room as the head of the statue was blown free from its place. The giant emerald flew straight into the portal opened by the strange faunus. Ruby watched as they fell into their own portal and the portal closed.
Seeing the frenzy, the Nyaraloths were in, Ruby decided that it would be wise to make a hasty retreat. She got up and ran out through the cave as fast as she could. She was fortunate that the cave had no branches. It did not take her long to reach the entrance of the cave.
"RUN!" She shouted as she saw Glynda coming up towards the cave.
The professor didn't hesitate this time. She immediately. Froze Ruby in place with her semblance.
"Ms. Rose, what-" Glynda began before she heard the sound of the Nyaraloths rushing through the cave.
Considering Ruby's frantic reaction, and the sheer volume coming from the cave. Glynda hurried back to the tree line and hid. Just in time too, as hundreds of Nyaraloths began pouring forth from the cave. Glynda glanced at Ruby as the horde hurried off into the forest.
"That's not good." Glynda muttered to herself.
When the horde vanished. Glynda and Ruby hurried and made their way back to the bullhead. Fortunately for them, the Nyaraloths had not gone towards the bullhead. They lifted off and returned to Beacon.
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Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.
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