"What the?! Why are there so many Ursa?!" Russel nervously stepped back, his knives at the ready. "There's no way that fight could have attracted so many!"
"The sap..." Weiss turned to the recently killed Ursa Major which was slowly disappearing. "I read that the sap from Forever Fall trees can attract Ursa."
"So it's Jaune's fault!" Russel shot Jaune a venomous glare as Pyrrha helped him to his feet.
"No...not Jaune...Nora's team..." At that moment, everyone's eyes widened, remembering Nora and Cardin smashing trees, most of the sap being carried by the wind. I immediately took my jar of sap, throwing it at a nearby tree. As the sap splattered to the ground, it caught the attention of the group of grimm, buying us a little more time. "Jaune! Can you still fight?"
"Well..." Jaune nervously looked at the many Ursa. "I'm not in great shape, but I can still try."
"No." Pyrrha firmly shook her head. "Right now having an exhausted teammate will only slow us down. And there are still more Ursa attacking other teams, I don't know how well Ruby and Jacey are doing on their own. they still haven't come back with Port."
"Damn..." she's right. "Okay, Pyrrha take Jaune somewhere else and go check on your group."
"Wait a minute! I don't wanna stay here and fight these monsters! I'll take care of Jaune!" Russel desperately yelled, eager to find a way out
"Right...as if you wouldn't immediately ditch him and run off on your own the second you got a chance. You stay here and help us, or the next thing I throw at the Ursa to distract them is gonna be you."
Russel grit his teeth, silently glaring at me, but otherwise didn't try and talk back, turning to face the grimm. Of course, I'd never actually do that to Russel, I just need to convince him that I would. Trying to appeal to his sense of morality would be completely useless.
"Right now our only option is to try and hold these grimm off."
"But Aero-" There was a deep roar as the sap distraction stopped working, the group of Ursa charging towards us.
"GO!" I and the rest of Chartreuse stood in front of the pack, keeping their attention on us.
Pyrrha hesitated for a moment before nodding and pulling on Jaune's arm. "C'mon, you heard him. The sooner we deal with the other grimm, the sooner we can come back and help them."
Jaune looked reluctant to leave, making a bitter face. "Alright, you believed in me, so I'll believe in you Aero!" he said before lowering his sword and running off deeper into the forest with Pyrrha.
"Here they come!"
The large group of Ursa surged towards our team like a black wave intending on snuffing us out. It was honestly enough to shake one's resolve.
"Weiss, we'll take their attention for a moment, try and give us some obstacles!"
"Got it!" Weiss nodded her head without a word of complaint, immediately closing her eyes to focus, despite the horde of grimm coming at us. How she managed to do so in an intense situation like this is beyond me. But it's up to us to make sure we don't betray her trust.
Raelin and I immediately charged in toward the swarm of grimm. Russel grimaced for a moment, hesitating before running in right after us.
"Raelin draw the grimm's attention for a brief moment. Russel, come give me a hand, I need some extra muscle right now."
Raelin threw both of her chakram, the bladed discs smacking into two of the grimm and enraging them. Then ricocheting off to hit two other Ursa before returning to her hands. The creatures roared, turning their attention to her, with the other Ursa next to them following suit. As the group ran towards her, I fired the chain on my spear at ankle-length level, the claw gripping tightly onto one of the trees.
GWOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRR!" The first Ursa that ran into the chain was too angered by Raelin's attack to notice it. The beast was heavy but clumsy, tumbling down and crashing face first into the ground.
Russel and I held on with all of our might, grunting as two more of the Ursa ran into the chain. The both of us just barely strong enough to hold the line taut and trip them. The fallen Ursa piled up at the front, causing the grimm rushing in behind them to crash into the pile and temporarily stop the group. Unfortunately, the weight of several grimm proved to be too much. My spear's grappling claw tore a chunk out of the tree it had gripped, and the chain became slack.
"Alright, I'm ready to begin!"
No sooner had that happened, when Weiss finished her preparations, stabbing her rapier into the ground. Immediately four large pillars of ice rose into the air next to us. The pillars were evenly spaced with about 5 feet between each one in a square formation. The temperature in the surrounding area plummeted many degrees in response.
"Everyone, take shelter in the pillars and use them as choke-points!" I said, calling out to them, and recalling the chain back into my weapon. "If we're careful, only one Ursa should be able to squeeze through at a time! This should help prevent us from being swarmed!"
Running between the spaces of the pillars, the other three did the same. With the grimm hot on our heels, they mindlessly charged at us from all sides.
The Ursa in front of me roared, lunging at me with a bite. Holding my spear out horizontally, I blocked the fangs of the large grimm. The Ursa hung onto my weapon, slowly pushing me back with its large size.
"Oh no you don't!" Yanking my weapon down, the Ursa's head was pulled downwards as I drove my knee upwards into the bear's chin. Its eyes widened in pain and it stumbled back under the force of my blow. "Now!" Lashing out with my weapon, I aimed for the neck of the Grimm. My blade dug into the creature's neck, producing a small burst of shadows from its throat. The grimm staggered back, injured, but still alive.
"Damn, it was too shallow!" I had to limit the length of my swing, otherwise, I'd have hit the icy pillar instead. Even though the pillars were preventing us from being overwhelmed, they also limited the movements of someone with a long weapon like me.
As my injured Ursa staggered back, another one tried to take its place, slowly inching past the other. However, I wasn't about to just sit back and make that easy for it. Quickly thrusting my spear forward, the blade stabbed into the grimm's eye while it was stuck trying to squeeze in.
GWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAR!
The monster cried out in pain, covering the destroyed eye with one of its paws. But while I was busy dealing with the second grimm, the first one had already launched its crushing blow. A heavy paw came from above landing squarely on my chest and knocking me flat on my back.
"Aero!"
"I'm fine! Focus on your own grimm!"
The last thing we needed right now was someone having a lapse in concentration. If even a single person couldn't hold the line, we were doomed.
The Ursa from before fell towards me, intending to crush me with both of its claws.
"Dammit!"
Pointing the other end of my spear at the grimm, I fired the grappling hook at the creature's head. With the metal claws digging painfully into its face, the Ursa panicked. As the beast wildly thrashed around, it gave me time to quickly jump to my feet.
Pressing one of the buttons on my spear again, the grappling hook retracted. Quickly yanking the large grimm towards me.
"HAAAAAAH!"
Lunging forward with my weapon, my spear stabbed fiercely through the creature's neck, completely piercing through the other side. Yanking my weapon back, I kicked the dead Ursa. The large grimm falling lifelessly onto its back.
"Phew..."
Sadly I was far from being done, as a new grimm immediately noticed the available gap to me, and began advancing to take the dead one's place. The Ursa who had one of its eyes gouged out was still there, but had become more cautious to attack.
Having a brief moment, I quickly looked around at the others.
Weiss seemed to be holding her ground relatively well. Her precise and elegant moves allowing her to maximize what little room she had to fight. She seemed to be carefully maneuvering the grimm she was fighting so that the one behind it never got a chance to interrupt. Unfortunately, her rapier, while fast, wasn't meant to cause heavy damage, so she seemed to be having trouble dealing any serious injuries to the Ursa's thick hide. And she didn't have any time to focus on using her dust attacks.
Russel was only just BARELY holding on. His acrobatic combat style was quite restricted in this small fighting space. Not to mention that in the show, he wasn't very strong either. Russel's speed seemed to be his saving grace. His fast knife attacks discouraging his grimm from advancing very much.
Raelin was...oh wow. I thought she'd have the hardest time holding the line out of the others. However, one of the grimm in front of her quietly stood in place, making it tough for the ones behind it to attack. Every now and again, one of the grimm would start to squeeze past the docile Ursa, only to be met with quick slashes that forced them to retreat again. If I had to guess, I'd say that Raelin has some sort of calming semblance.
This stalemate went on for a while with both sides pushing each other back and forth, making no real progress.
My Ursa roared charging towards me as I quickly took a step back to avoid its attack. The large paw ended up missing and slamming into one of the pillars of ice around us. The pillars were starting to take considerable damage from the many grimm and beginning to fall apart. At this rate, they won't last much longer.
'This...this won't do.' I thought to myself.
Right now our team was only managing to hold off the grimm. But sooner or later, one of our members is probably going to fall before we kill them all. Russel being the most likely person. We NEED to reduce the Ursa's numbers to get through this, even if it's risky.
"Raelin." I continued to fight off the ursa in front of me while speaking. "Can you use your semblance on more than one of these grimm?"
I expected her to simply nod or shake her head, but surprisingly enough, she spoke.
"No, I can only use my semblance on one target at a time. And it's better that way."
"Wait, why did you choose NOW to start ta- nevermind, got it." I shook my head, giving up on that idea. "Weiss, I need your help with something."
"I'm a little busy right now in case you hadn't noticed!" the girl bit out, her breath somewhat tired.
"We're going to create a small distraction, when that happens, everyone push back your Grimm. Weiss, I want you to remove the ice pillars, and then support me with glyphs."
"Are you crazy?!" Russel was already tired, but he still found the energy to scream that out. "Those things are keeping the grimm OUT!"
"You're going to collapse any minute Russel. When that happens, grimm will rush through that opening and we're barely holding them off as it is! We have to take the gamble!"
Several of the grimm crashed into the pillars, causing the structure to shake. By now the grimm had stopped targeting us, instead attacking the icy pillars, knowing their destruction would likely mean ours as well. Through the gaps around us, we could all see the grimm glaring at us with their glowing red eyes on all sides.
"That's it! Screw this all of this!" Seeing the terrifying image in front of us, the exhausted Russel finally broke down. "I'm getting out of here! I'm not just going to go down with the rest of you chumps!"
"What?!" Weiss was concentrating on the formation, so she could only turn her head to glare at him. Raelin for her part didn't say anything, however, her gaze became colder towards Russel.
"Alright you know what, that's enough!" I snapped. "I'm getting tired of you making things difficult for everyone!"
Weiss grunted, still trying to focus on keeping her grimm from damaging the frozen pillars too much. "Is this...ugh...is this really the best time for this?!"
"YES!" I glared at Russel. "Slacking off and trying to get other teammates to do his work for him. Trying to abandon the team when everyone is in danger! And now refusing to work together as if it was everyone for themselves. We might not GET another chance to do this if he keeps acting up!"
"You idiot!" Russel sneered. "You can act like you're in charge as much as you want, but you're not the boss of me! I don't have to listen to you!"
"YOU..." I could feel my anger rising. Right now everyone was in dire straights, fighting for their lives and this fool was worried about me bossing him around! "You know what!?" I furiously bit my lip to calm down. A dull pain starting to ache inside me, I felt a metallic taste in my mouth as my temper started to fade. "You're right. I'm not the boss of you."
"Uh...y-yeah!" he said, sounding confused and indignant. Wondering why I had suddenly stepped down.
"If you'd like to take your chances and run away from us to survive, be my guest."
"What? Really?" Russel's confusion became even more apparent, as suspicion crept into his tone.
"Aero?! What are you doing?" Weiss cried. More and more cracks started to appear in the pillars.
"But predators always go for the weaker and easier target. If you run out towards the encirclement of SEVERAL Ursa all alone, who do you think they're going to target first?"
"I...well..." Russel stammered, obviously knowing the answer.
"If you don't want to think of me as your leader, then don't. I don't need your respect. But you wanna live just like the rest of us. So USE me."
"Use...you?"
"Use us to survive. And we'll use you to survive too. When this is over, we can go back to ignoring and hating each other, okay?!"
Russel grit his teeth, looking down as a combination of fear and resolution appeared on his face. "Alright, alright!" He yelled, his trembling eyes becoming more focused. "Just...make sure we all get out of this, okay!?"
I nodded. "That's the plan."
We all got into position as Weiss stopped supporting the ice. No sooner had she stopped, when the whole thing collapsed and shattered like glass under the onslaught of the monsters.
"You better be right about this!" Russel yelled.
"Raelin, aim one of your attacks towards that last jar!"
Throwing one of her chakrams, the bladed disc hummed as it flew through the air. Smashing into the last sap filled jar, a faint sweet fragrance appeared. Immediately the grimm attacking us briefly paused, turning towards the direction of the scent, but that was enough of an opening.
Lowering my stance, I charged at the grimm in front of me, slamming my shoulder into its stomach. Ordinarily that wouldn't have much of an effect, however, attacking a distracted opponent was far more effective. The large Ursa staggered back, losing its balance, and was pushed back several feet. The others followed suit, forcing back the grimm too close to them as the icy pillars around us dissipated.
Standing on its hind legs and rising up to full height, my Ursa angrily roared, swiping a large claw at me. I quickly ducked under the blow, my spear lashing out and sweeping one of the legs of the grimm. With one of its legs knocked out from under it, the creature stumbled, falling on its face. Pressing the button on my weapon, the claw shot out from the bottom of the spear, gripping onto its leg. "Weiss, now!"
The white-haired woman twirled her rapier, pointing it at me, as I tugged on the grimm on the claw to the left, like a fisherman reeling in a big catch. A white glyph appeared under the Ursa, propelling it in the same direction I was pulling it. The creature let out a roar of surprise as it was lifted off of the ground. A large ring of white glyphs appeared around our group as I swung the beast. Each one of the glyphs pushing the grimm on a circular path while I swung the creature around. "Everyone duck!"
The three others in the group immediately crouched down avoiding the chain that swung over their heads. The grimm whirled over my head, round and round in the circle of Weiss's glyphs. Picking up speed with every rotation.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Taking a big step forward and yanking on the weapon with all of my might, the Ursa soared through the air towards its companions with terrifying force. The other Ursa were unable to get out of the way in time as the grimm flung towards them at high speeds smashed into a group of four Ursa like a wrecking ball. Despite their large size, all of them were sent flying by the crash, two of them being killed from the devastating attack. The Ursa used as the wrecking ball had practically exploded under the impact and died.
"Alright! Three more down!"
With this, the pressure on us should decrease a little, though not by much. Even if we divided up 7 grimm between 4 huntsmen, that'd be less than 2 per person. Although, not everyone was at their best right now. Even if we split up to try and get more room to fight, there's no guarantee we wouldn't attract the attention of other grimm.
"Aero! Watch out!"
"Huh?"
When two of the Ursa had been sent flying, they had naturally crashed into one of the many trees and shattered them from the weight. One of the two trees fell towards me. I immediately dove to the side, but I had noticed the falling tree too late, caught up in thinking. The large tree slammed into the back of my feet mid-jump. I hit the ground sooner than expected, being sent tumbling a few feet and losing my weapon.
Seeing me on the ground separated from the others, the remaining Ursa all turned their attention towards me.
"No..."
That brief lapse of focus had been extremely costly. The remaining seven grimm swarmed me seeming like a dark horde.
'Was this it?! Was this as far as I managed to go?! I'm supposed to prevent the disaster of Vale! To...to just die here?! To let everyone else die as well?!'
"Stop..."
'No...NO! I refuse to go back to my old scared self! I'm not the weakling that needed to be rescued in the Emerald Forest anymore!'
I clenched my fists as hard as I could, my knuckles turning white from the force. The Ursas immediately leapt forward, their monstrous frames crashing towards me.
"STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
I subconsciously screamed for everything to stop! Unwilling to accept the dark reality in front of me as the grimm fell closer. I waited for the inevitable weight of the Ursas to crash into me.
And waited.
And...waited?
But, it never came.
My eyes widened as I was met with a stunning sight.
"Wh...what is this?"
The large grimm in front of me had stopped, just a foot before my face much to my confusion. Its burning red eyes were still focused on me but it had become still. Was it dead? I slowly reached out to touch it.
"Ah!?"
I stumbled backwards in surprise as the Ursa in front of me snarled, trying to swipe at my face. However, it was unable to reach me, its body seemed stuck, hovering in the air. Around me, Russel also floated, the Ursas around him hovering as well. Looking around, all of the previously rampaging grimm floated harmlessly in place. While they roared and thrashed their limbs, their bodies weren't able to move any further.
"Aero?" Glancing towards the voice, I noticed Weiss and Raelin were also floating, looking at me with a confused expression. "Did...you do this?"
Wait. WAS I responsible for this?
"I...ugh!" A sharp pain suddenly ran through my brain forcing me to grab my head. Intense exhaustion suddenly spread through my body as if I had sprinted several miles. At once, the grimm and my team visibly shook, slowly starting to lower back to the ground.
"Aero! Don't lose focus! Keep them like that as long as you can!"
Gritting my teeth and enduring my intense headache, I strengthened my will, trying to focus on the grimm. Although my headache intensified, the Ursa stopped descending and continued to float. While the rest of my team landed on the ground.
"Weiss...guys...if you're going to do something...you better hurry!"
Weiss nodded. Using her semblance, a dozen white glyphs appeared in the air in various spots all around the hovering grimm. "Everyone now! We need to strike while the grimm are vulnerable!" she said. As her feet touched one of the white glyphs, it shot her forward at high speed. She aimed at a grimm that was floating upside down, piercing its neck while it tried to get back to the ground. The light in the grimm's eyes faded and she shot towards another glyph.
At once Russel and Raelin understood Weiss's plan, each of them jumped towards their own white glyph to launch themselves. With the added speed and force of the glyphs, the three of them flew like lightning all around the battlefield. Quickly making short work of the grimm who were still helplessly floating and unable to control themselves.
During this time, I forced myself to hang on for as long as I could. When the last grimm was finally killed, I let out a massive gasp of air, not realizing I had held my breath. Like a puppet losing its strings, I crumpled to the ground with a dark purple flash of aura breaking around me. Sweat poured off of me as I lay there still gasping for breath.
"We...we did it?" Russel looked around in elated disbelief at the still disappearing grimm on the forest floor. "WE DID IT!"
"Haaaaaa..." Weiss let out a sigh of relief, wearily leaning against a nearby tree.
"Ugh." I slowly pushed myself up. "Pretty sure that fight shaved a few years off of my lifespan. If I hadn't-" Wait a minute...
My eyes suddenly shot open at the sudden revelation. "That was my semblance!" In the heat of the moment, I had completely forgotten about that! "Just now, when everything was floating! That was me!"
Weiss shook her head. "Yeah we get it Aero, you did that. Thank you, I'm sure you think you're very cool."
"Ah? Wait, why aren't you..."
Oh. Fuck. The real Aero already unlocked his semblance. This is common knowledge among the students in my class. So they wouldn't find this strange or exciting like I do at all. If anything they'd just find it suspicious if I suddenly announced it.
"Nevermind, just got excited..." This IS still an incredible moment...but it would have been nice to celebrate it with others.
Thankfully after that exhausting event, no more grimm ended up appearing. Since our team was spent from the prolonged fight, we stayed where we were, managing to rest for awhile until...
"OHMYGOSH! There you guys are! Aero are you alright?! Guys, I found the last group!" Nora appeared first followed by the rest of her team. Sophie and Cardin looked especially beat up.
"Alright..." Sophie nodded. "I'll go tell Port and the others. Meet us halfway when you're ready." she paused, glancing at Cardin for a moment, before shaking her head and leaving.
"Oh uh, hey Aero..." Nora waved at me with a sheepish look, quietly walking by my side. "I uh, turns out me and my team may have been somewhat responsible for the large number of Ursa that appeared. And...we all got a month's worth of detention."
"I didn't even do anything..." Blake murmured bitterly.
I ignored Blake, turning back to Nora. "Yeah, I figured it was you and the others who had a hand in that."
The normally energetic girl avoided my gaze, her eyes drifting downwards with a guilty expression. Neither of us spoke for a while as we started towards the other groups. I occasionally glanced at the depressed Nora silently trudging along.
"Haaaa..." I let out a deep sigh at this. To be honest, I can't find it in me to be mad at Nora despite what happened. It would be nice if she changed, but it's not like want this incident to permanently scar her.
I lifted a hand, patting the sorrowful girl on the head. "Well, it is what it is I guess."
"Huh..." Nora looked up at me in surprise, her eyes going wide.
"I did predict an unexpected attack would happen right?" I asked, with a small chuckle. "Everyone makes mistakes. Some of them are...bigger than others. It's a part of life. Thankfully your mistake wasn't unfixable since no one got hurt."
I took my hand off her head. "Everyone's on a team, so that we can help cover for each other's mistakes and imperfections. So use this event to become a better Nora."
"A better Nora..." the girl quietly said to herself.
She was silent for a while before finally, nodding firmly. "Yeah...yeah! Aero, from now on I'm gonna work towards being a better Nora! Ah, wait I already came to this school to be better. Um, okay! Then I'll become even better than what I would have before!"
"That's more like it."
Unsurprisingly, the field trip was announced as canceled when we got back to Professor Port. Thankfully our other classes were also canceled for the rest of the day. Very likely not wanting to overburden the students after what just happened.
"Ugh..." I pushed open the door to our dorm, the rest of ARJN lifelessly dragging themselves inside and getting to a bed.
"Mmm...Aero, that bed is mine." Jaune wearily said after I had fallen into it.
"I don't care, I already laid down, and I'm not getting back up. Just...go sleep in mine or whatever." Jaune hesitated for a moment before sighing and going to a different bed.
Feeling something cold on my neck, I reached around, finding a crimson leaf that had fallen on me. Pulling it off, I was about to toss it away before remembering something.
"Hmm." Holding the leaf in my hand, I tried to replicate that desperate feeling when surrounded by the Ursa from before. The leaf silently laid on my palm, not moving. "Come on..." Despite focusing even harder, there was still no visible progress.
'I nearly got killed unlocking my semblance! So I'm NOT about to just sit back and get nothing after going through all that!' At this point, my head started to hurt and my body was still tired from the field trip, however, I still refused to budge. Eventually, the leaf lightly twitched, before slowly lifting up and hovering an inch off of my palm.
I laid there in silence, quietly watching the leaf float. Unable to take my eyes off of it for even a moment.
"This...is my semblance." I quietly murmured to myself with a smile.