Ruby woke up the morning after the dance, her body heavy and aching. Just like she thought, she regretted pushing herself so much during the dance, even if it was really fun. She rolled over onto her back and just stared at the ceiling. It would take a bit of time for her to wake up. Even after a few hours, she wasn't sure she'd be at her best. Maybe she'd need some coffee to help kickstart her brain… She closed her eyes, hoping to maybe get a little more sleep.
The banging at the door jolted her awake. She heard the others groaning as they woke up, too. She could see Blake rubbing her eyes and Yang yawning.
"What is that?" she heard Weiss say. "It's so early…"
"Delivery for Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long!"
"What did you two order?" Blake asked, her voice a bit deeper than usual.
"We didn't order a damn thing…" Yang hopped down from the bed and stretched. "Ruby?"
She heard a small bark from outside, and that woke her right up. Ruby slid down the ladder of her bunk and ran over to the door. There was a man in a green jacket and hat on the other side. He was holding a pet carrier, and just as she thought, Ruby saw Zwei pawing at the grate.
"Ruby Rose here!"
"Yeah, Mister Taiyang wanted to get this little guy to you." He set the carrier down and handed Ruby a clipboard. "I just need you to sign on the dotted lines to confirm that he got to you safely, and we'll be good to go." Ruby used the attached pen to sign, not taking any time to actually read what she was signing. "And this was with him." He took off a backpack and handed it to Ruby, saying, "Food and some toys, it seems."
"Thank you so much!" Ruby moved his carrier inside and, once the door was closed, opened it. Zwei leapt out and started running around the room.
"A dog?" Weiss asked. She drew her legs up as Zwei bolted past her, leaping into Yang's arms. "What is a dog doing here?"
"There's a note in here with the food!" Ruby unfolded the paper that had been tucked away with all of the cans and started to read. "Dear girls," she read, "I'm leaving Patch for about a week and Qrow's screwing off in Mistral or something, so I'm sending Zwei to you. I've sent all of the food he should need and some of his toys to help keep him busy. Love, Tai."
"Seems a bit weird to send a dog like that, but it isn't like he shoved him in the mail," Blake said. Yang set Zwei down on the bed and he walked up to Blake. The two just looked at each other for a moment before Blake slowly extended her hand and placed it on his head.
"B-but why a dog?" Weiss asked. "It just seems so… unhygienic!"
"Hey, it isn't like you're perfect either, Weiss. You were a snot nosed brat once, weren't you?" Yang asked.
"W-well…"
Zwei jumped down and walked over to Weiss before sitting down. He was panting, and tilted his head at her. Ruby and Yang looked on contently, and Blake just seemed like she was still trying to process Zwei's sudden appearance. Weiss finally gave in and reached down to pet the dog. Not before shifting her body to lie on her stomach so she could keep more of her body away from him. He licked her hand and Weiss recoiled.
"Come here, Zwei!" He ran to Ruby and she scooped him off the ground. With a little spin, she plopped him onto Weiss's bed. "He won't bite you or anything!"
Zwei crawled into Weiss's lap and made himself at home. She squeaked and gaped at him, but her expression softened over time. She started stroking his fur once it was clear he was no harm, just like Ruby said.
"He is kind of cute, I guess."
"Timing could be better though," Yang said. "We're on a mission in a few days. Not sure if we'll even be in the city. Think we can dump him on Nora's team?"
"Well, we don't know if they'll be here either," Blake added. "We have a little bit of time to figure it out, though, right?"
"I hope we can keep him close…" Weiss whispered.
"You got attached quickly," Ruby said, grinning at her friend. "Well, I'm awake now! How about we all go on a little walk with Zwei to really get the motors running? And Blake is right, about the whole mission thing. We can talk about what we're going to do with him while we're out."
The next day, Ruby and the others gathered in the auditorium where they were first introduced to Beacon, back at the beginning of April. The room was filled with holographic job boards. For the next week, the students would be going into the field with professional huntsmen as mentors to get more real life experience. The girls were wandering around, looking at jobs to try and see what might pique their interest.
"Oh, boy, look at this. Yet another search and destroy mission," Ruby said, stopping in front of another board. "How many of these have we seen?"
"Hey, look at this!" Yang pointed to the mission's location. "Quadrant 5, in the southeast of Vale."
"The southeast?" Blake's ears perked up.
"Come on, guys. I know you're excited, but do we have to? We know the military is on the case." Weiss said.
"Well, yeah, but don't you want to see how it's going?" Blake asked. "M-maybe they're there and they might need a little help!"
"Maybe… but from students, though?" Weiss crossed her arms and raised a brow. "Are you sure we wouldn't be doing more harm than good?"
"What do you think, Ruby?" Yang asked. "Want to give it a shot?"
"Well…" Blake and Weiss were giving her particularly intense looks, and she wilted a bit under their fervent gazes. "I mean, it couldn't hurt, right? Our main job would be to just kill Grimm with a professional to keep an eye on us. We could just sneak off a little bit when we're not busy killing things…"
"Yes!" Blake tapped the job to accept it as Weiss sighed and entered the team's name. Then a notice popped. It notified them that freshmen like them weren't eligible for that mission. "What? No…"
"Is something wrong, ladies?" Professor Ozpin walked over to the group, mug in hand and Scroll under the arm. "Ah, that job. Yes, it seems the southeast is absolutely crawling with Grimm. We thought it might be a bit much for first years such as yourselves." He glanced over at Blake, and her ears twitched. "But… between the night I met Miss Rose, Miss Belladonna's run in with the White Fang before the summer, and your performance at the docks only a few weeks ago, I think I can make a special exception…" He fiddled a bit with his Scroll, and then motioned for Blake to try accepting the job again. No issues on her second attempt. "You're involved enough as it is. I assume you'd have found your way to the southeast one way or another if you were really that serious. Best to give you some backup, in that case."
"Thank you, Professor Ozpin!" Blake exclaimed. "We won't let you down!"
"Well, you won't be letting me down if you complete your mission, learn something of value, and come back to school safe," he said with a little laugh. "No need to worry too much about anything extra. I look forward to a stellar report upon your return, Team RWBY."
"So we're set!" Yang bumped her fists together, then started inspecting her hands. "Maybe we should run into the city and make sure our weapons are all good to go. We did just take a mission we weren't supposed to, after all."
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea. I want to pick up some more Dust, too." Ruby said. She wasn't sure how rare they were, but after her little excursion with Neil, Ruby wanted to see what Crescent Rose could do if it was outfitted with hard light or gravity Dust.
The next morning, the girls gathered at the airship dock. After their shopping trip, they asked JNPR to look after Zwei. They received an S-mail with a bit more information about the mission, and it included the name and a photo of the huntsman they'd be working with.
"Did you guys think that Professor Oobleck was a huntsman? License and everything?" Weiss asked.
"Nope! Just thought he was a big history dork," Yang said. She scanned the sea of people, looking for his forest green head of hair, large spectacles, and jittery movements. "I'm not really sure where he is, though…"
The girls wandered around for a little while, but the crowd only grew more dense, rather than thinning out.
"Ah, girls, there you are! RWBY!"
Turning towards the voice, the four were stunned. Ruby and Yang burst out laughing. Weiss thought she was looking at some oddity or alien artifact, while Blake just lifted a brow in confusion, and the opposite ear drooped. Oobleck was wearing a long tan safari jacket and a white safari hat.
"Professor, you look… very dashing today!" Ruby struggled to get the statement out without laughing.
"Why thank you Miss Rose. Now, girls, as you would've read last night, you were instructed not to bring your bags. We'll be living off the land the best we can, and in the worst case scenario, I've packed all of the provisions we'll need. While the mission was labeled 'search and destroy' this is more reconnaissance than anything. We exterminate what we can, but we are to gather information on how populous the Grimm in the southeast are so we can pass the information off onto the authorities. Now, let us board the airship." The girls walked past him, and he cleared his throat as he turned to follow. "Also girls, it is not 'professor', but 'doctor'. I didn't earn a doctorate not to be given the proper respect."
The airship took off, and the girls settled down in seats around the ship. Ruby had brought a large black backpack with her, and rested it on her lap, hugging it like it was a big teddy bear. Doctor Oobleck was pacing back and forth on the ship, inspecting just about everything he came across. When he stopped by Ruby, he stared at the bag in her lap. She smiled up at him nervously, but he was stone faced.
"Miss Rose."
"Yes, pr- doctor?"
"You did read the S-mail from last night, correct?"
"It, uh… might've slipped my mind…" she looked to the side, not wanting to be caught in the obvious lie. He just sidled over to look at her again.
"Very well," he calmly said. "So you simply ignored me when I reiterated the information it contained before we left?"
"Maybe…?"
"I see, I see. Most unbecoming of a leader. Well, we're already in the air, but I'm going to need you to leave that bag on the ship when we land so it can get sent back to Bea-"
"I can't!"
The other three looked at Ruby and Oobleck out of curiosity when she cried out. Oobleck himself just raised a brow.
"Young lady, what in that bag could be so important that you can't just let it return to cam-"
Zwei popped his head out of the bag, looking around the airship. When he looked at Oobleck, he barked.
"We're on our way to investigate a deadly urban jungle filled with bloodthirsty hellions and you thought it was a good idea to bring… a dog?"
"I, uh…" Ruby's eyes darted behind him at her teammates for support. The only one who didn't look like she disapproved of what Ruby had done was Weiss, and that was because she was making funny little faces at Zwei.
"Fabulous!" Oobleck plucked the dog out of the bag and started dancing around the ship with him. "Canines are known for their perceptive noise and heightened sense of smell, which are incredibly useful tools to have on hunts such as ours, and being your pet this beasty is sure to be extremely loyal and well trained!"
Ruby just nervously chuckled to herself. She was expecting to get yelled at, but everything had worked out in the end. She didn't want to leave Zwei alone, and even though she trusted Jaune and the others, she didn't want to just leave him with strangers one day and be gone for a week. She didn't know if his little dog brain would know it was just a short trip or if she'd abandoned him.
"Doctor Oobleck, sir? I have a question," Ruby said.
"What is it, Miss Rose?"
"No offense but, um… I never really thought of you as a fighter."
"Well, you're right on the money, my girl. I fancy myself more of an intellectual, but I can handle myself in a fight! I'm also rather well suited for this mission in particular, given its nature."
"Its nature?" Weiss asked.
"When I was scolding your leader, I mentioned an 'urban jungle'. You must know the implications of such a statement," he said.
"A city?" Blake asked.
"I thought the only cities outside of the capital were all along the coast. Not in the mountains," Weiss added.
"That's the point. I think he's talking about Mountain Glenn," Ruby said. "It's the one time Vale tried setting up a city that wasn't along the coast. It… didn't end very well."
"Precisely. In my years of study, I've become quite familiar with the architecture of the city, so I'm the most well suited to guiding a team of students through it. Steel yourselves, girls. When we touch down, the mission begins. This is not a game. We will be in the wild, and the Grimm will be out to kill."
The airship dropped the party off on the outskirts of Mountain Glenn. From the skies above the drop off point, Ruby could already see the black masses of the bodies of scores of Grimm. Just how many of them were there? Once the five of them and the dog had been dropped off, the airship ascended and sped off back towards Vale. For the next five days, they were completely on their own. Checking her Scroll, Ruby saw that she didn't have any service. Doctor Oobleck might've been a professional, but if he were to somehow go down…
"Now, our first order of business ought to be finding a place to set up camp. I believe I'll get to doing that with our new canine companion here."
"What about us, Doctor?" Blake asked.
"The four of you should secure the perimeter. Now, to maximize efficiency and minimize the risk of casualty, you should- Grimm."
"What?" Ruby asked.
"Grimm. A Creature of Grimm, approximately 100 yards from us right this moment."
The girls turned, and just as he said, a Beowolf walked from out behind the dilapidated remains of a high rise building. It hadn't noticed them yet. Ruby shifted Crescent Rose into its sniper form and trained her sight on it.
"Wait," Doctor Oobleck said. "We've come here to observe. We need to learn where its pack resides so we can pass the information onto the ones with the real firepower. Split up, and follow it. Protect each other if need be, and after enough time, it'll lead us right to the rest of its pack."
"Um…" Yang pointed towards a group of Beowolves that emerged from around the same building. "You mean that pack?"
"Why yes." One of them turned to the group, then made some sound, like a harsh, demonic bark or howl. "And now they've seen us." He picked Zwei up. "Scatter, now."
Then he was gone. Blake grabbed Ruby and dragged her off as Weiss and Yang went in the opposite direction. They hid behind the remains of one of the buildings as they heard the pounding of the Grimms' feet against the pavement.
"So, what do we do?" Ruby whispered. "About a group this big?"
"I think our only real option is divide and conquer. Maybe this will be a good time to try out that new Dust we bought?"
"Right." Ruby loaded a new Dust magazine into Crescent Rose, filled with hard light rounds. She had no idea what this would do, but she had to find out eventually. Ruby peaked out from behind their cover to see what was going on. There were a few Beowolves around, but nowhere near as many as just a minute ago. Three or four, maybe? She could only hope that the others were safe. "Do you have gravity, Blake?"
"Yeah. I'll start with that. Mind if I lead?"
"Go for it."
Blake dashed out from behind the wall at one of the Beowolves. It saw her and swung. Blake just barely dodged in time, leaving behind one of her Shadows. When the Grimm's arm met the Shadow, it was thrown into the air. Ruby followed it up into the sky and fired. When her bullet hit its target, a disk of hard light appeared, cutting the Grimm's entire arm and foot clean off. It landed on the ground hard, and Blake went in for the kill as it struggled to get up. Another one of them charged Blake from behind, and Ruby fired, catching it right in the neck. This hard light disk decapitated it.
Something yanked at Ruby's cape, and the collar choked her as she was thrown through the air. She crashed into another wall, and even with her Aura, the hit still smarted. She looked up, and a Beowolf was looming above her. It seemed larger than some of the others she'd seen. It swung at her, and she Burst behind it towards Crescent Rose. She grabbed it and turned towards the Grimm, but it was already bearing down on her.
"Ruby!"
After she heard Blake's cry, she heard a gunshot, and then the Beowolf flew back as if it was a ragdoll. It landed and skidded for a few feet. It pulled itself up and shook its head. Ruby started firing at it, but it dodged her bullets, seemingly having learned from what happened to its brethren.
Before it was on her, Ruby jumped onto the wall she had left Crescent Rose by and fired. She missed, but hit the ground. A hard light shield shot out at an angle, and the Grimm crashed right into it. Ruby Burst above it and fired on the ground again at the Grimm's flank. Her hard light severed its foot. Blake shot at it, but she missed. The Grimm was offended all the same, and snapped at her. It ran at her the best it could with its three remaining limbs. When it bit at her this time, Blake left another Shadow, this time encasing the Grimm's snout in a stone statue she'd left behind. It struggled vainly in its attempts to free itself. The girls walked over to it, Ruby shifting Crescent Rose into its war scythe mode. The two nodded at each other, leveled their blades at the Beowolf's neck, and swung.
Weiss faced down a Beowolf, Myrtenaster tightly gripped in her hands. She spun Myrtenaster's cylinder until a cartridge of lightning Dust was in the barrel. She hadn't used this type of Dust very often, so it was risky and stupid, experimenting in live combat, but she had to learn at some point. The Beowolf was observing her, but it hadn't attacked just yet.
Weiss cocked Myrtenaster's hammer and thrust it forward as she pulled the trigger, shooting off a bolt of lightning at it. That provoked it, and it charged her after dodging. Weiss cocked the hammer again and shifted to block. She wanted to close her eyes, but she forced them open. She needed to time this perfectly. She pulled the trigger when she felt the slightest movement against her sword, and then the Grimm started to convulse as it was electrocuted. As it recoiled, she spun, both her body and Myrtenaster's cylinder. With a cartridge of fire Dust in the barrel, she pierced the Grimm and set it aflame.
Yang coalesced her Aura into a ball of energy and launched it at a Grimm, knocking it back. She did it a few more times, but they didn't seem to do much more than irritate it. She went Hot, and she could feel more energy pooling in her palms, and this time, the blast was noticeably larger, but she was more winded afterwards. This one knocked the Grimm down, and Yang started sprinting before it could compose itself. She jumped into the air and fired Ember Celica down when she was directly above it. The recoil sent her flying up. Yang fired another shell into the air, throwing herself back towards the ground, and she brought her heel down on the Grimm's head.
Weiss watched as the Beowolf Yang had downed started to move again, throwing her off balance. She gestured with Myrtenaster, conjuring her Glyphs, and fireballs struck the Grimm in the back, setting it ablaze like the one she had just stabbed. A third Beowolf charged Weiss and pinned her to the ground, knocking her weapon out of her hand.
No matter how she struggled, she couldn't move. The Grimm's breath on her face was surprisingly warm, and not in a good way. Without Myrtenaster and her Dust, her Glyphs' capabilities were greatly limited, and with her pinned like this, she wasn't even sure what she'd do with them to save herself.
As the fireballs struck Yang's Beowolf in the back, she saw the larger one bowl over Weiss. Without a second thought, Yang fired Ember Celica into the ground and launched herself at it. There were several prominent bone-like spires jutting out of its back. As Yang passed over it, she reached down and gripped one of them, her muscles searing as she used even more of her Aura than Hot was already burning to give herself a power boost. She flipped and threw the Beowolf, and it crashed into a collapsed wall a few dozen feet away. Yang felt her Aura shimmer and break, and she fought through the exhaustion to go and check on Weiss. All of those energy blasts earlier clearly weren't the best idea, if she was already spent.
"Thank you, Yang," Weiss picked herself, wincing as he moved her right arm.
"You're not hurt too bad, right? Arm isn't broken or anything?"
"No, I don't think so." Her arm was hot. Weiss knew it was a normal sensation, like when puncture wounds steamed as they were healed, but it was alien to her. She wasn't exactly used to being hurt so badly she needed the Aura assistance. "I could use some help, though."
"Of course." Yang helped Weiss up as delicately as she could, glancing over at the Beowolf. It still hadn't moved. "We should probably clear out before he wakes up."
"Myrtenaster is over there." Weiss nodded towards where it had fallen. "I'll deal with this."
Yang didn't want to let go of her, but after a few seconds she did so she could run over and pick the rapier off of the ground. Weiss looked over at the Beowolf and took a breath. She conjured a Glyph below it, lifting it off of the ground. She conjured a second one, directly above it. The two Glyphs sandwiched it. Then she conjured a third, fourth, fifth and sixth, completely enclosing it. She pressed more and more, compressing the Grimm until it finally popped, wisps of black smoke seeping through the cracks in her Glyphs.
"That was… grim." Yang said upon her return.
"Very funny, Yang." Weiss rolled her eyes.
"Pun not intended." She slipped the sword into Weiss's belt and offered her a shoulder to lean on.
Ruby and Blake continued their patrol of the area, after their original encounter. They walked back to back, making sure to cover each other's flank. Ruby still had the hard light Dust loaded into Crescent Rose. It seemed especially effective, though after seeing what it did to Grimm, she shuddered at the thought of what it might do to a human or faunus.
As they were walking, Ruby heard a faint bark. She stopped in her tracks and started looking around. She saw the white tips of Zwei's ears behind a piece of rubble and lightly nudged Blake, urging her to follow. When they came upon him, Ruby collapsed Crescent Rose so she could pet him.
"Over here, girls," they heard Doctor Oobleck say. "I've found a good place for us to make camp for the night."
Ruby picked up Zwei and she walked with Blake into the ruined building their teacher had called out to them from.
"Are Weiss and Yang here?" Ruby asked.
"Not yet. I'll go out to make sure they're alright soon. I take it you have engaged in combat?"
"A little bit," Blake said.
"Then you've done well to make it out in one piece." He led them to one of the upper floors, where he had laid out sleeping bags and put together kindling for a fire. "What went through your minds, I wonder…"
"Excuse me?" Ruby said.
"Why, exactly, are the two of you here?" They shared a look, clearly confused by his question. "Your motives; your reason for having come to Beacon. Will you tell me?"
"Oh!" Ruby rubbed the back of her neck, a bit embarrassed for not having picked up on that earlier. "Well, that's easy! I want to be a hero, like my mom!"
"Really? Something as simple as that?" He asked.
"Well, it's the truth. She fought to protect people, and I want to protect them, too, so I have to fight."
"A simple goal, but still noble. And you, Miss Belladonna?"
"Well…" Blake's shoulders dropped slightly and she clasped her hands together. "I don't think it's anything as notable as Ruby, but… I just want to make the world a better place, that's all."
"That's all?"
"Well, huntsmen do more than just kill Grimm. I think somewhere, I'll be able to do something to help people."
"I see." He had been carrying his thermos the entire day, and he took a sip at her answer. He turned from them, Zwei following with him. "I'll leave it to the two of you to start the fire. I'm going to find the other two. Don't leave this building until we return."
The two of them left, and Ruby rummaged through her cloak for a magazine of fire Dust Rounds. She could've sworn that she had brought them with her. Blake sat against one of the walls of the room they were in.
"What do you think that was about?" Blake asked.
"I don't really know. I think it's a little late to ask us why we're here when we're already in the field. It isn't like someone who can't answer would've made it this far. Maybe he was just curious about what we had to say, instead of testing us, or whatever."
"Yeah, maybe."
Yang had to help Weiss walk for a few minutes, but it didn't take very long for her to insist that Yang let her walk for herself. Yang was their vanguard, fists raised and Ember Celica cocked in case something showed up and she needed to blow a hole through it. They weren't quite sure where the other Beowolves had gone. They didn't know how large the pack was. Maybe they were all dead. Maybe they decided to run off after hearing the death wails of their brethren.
The sun was quickly setting, and night would soon fall. Being out in the dark, with the both of them as drained as they were probably wouldn't end well. If the Grimm had run for now, Yang didn't have any reason to believe they wouldn't suddenly get a lot more brave when it was darker and harder for them to be seen.
"It's sort of beautiful, don't you think? The sky, I mean."
Yang looked up and saw the stars glittering up above like hundreds of little lights in the cosmic sea of the night sky. The view in Patch was definitely better than it was in Vale proper, but even that view wasn't as nice as this one.
"Why, yes, the view is stellar."
Yang and Weiss jumped, turning towards the voice and brandishing their weapons, only to see Oobleck looking up at the sky and drinking from his thermos. The two groaned and calmed down.
"You scared me half to death, Doctor!" Weiss complained.
"Well, you two are the ones who got distracted by the sky in this hellscape. You're quite lucky it was only me that found you. Isn't that right, little friend?" He looked down at Zwei, who happily barked. "See, Yang? Your own dog agrees with me."
"Zwei, I can't believe you'd do this to me…!" Yang sounded genuinely hurt, but Weiss thought it was all just an act.
"Come now. I've left Ruby and Blake in our camp to get a fire started. We're turning in for the night once you two are safe."
They walked in relative silence for a time. The only sounds were that of Weiss making little noises whenever she had to stop herself from almost stepping on Zwei because of how closely she was walking behind him.
"I asked the other two, so I may as well ask you," Oobleck began. "What drove you to Beacon Academy? The path of a huntress?"
"It just sounded fun." Yang's answer was almost immediate, like she had barely put any thought into it. "Getting to kick ass, take names, save people and see the world, all with my little sister with me? And we get paid for it? Why wouldn't I want to do something like that?"
"How beautifully self centered. A very refreshing perspective, rather than the typical hero story I hear. And you, Miss Schnee?"
"I simply want to honor my grandfather's name. We may be known for corporatism, but I wanted to follow a different path."
"Bound by honor and duty, are you? Well, with how accomplished you are as a student, I'd say you're making quite good progress."
When the four returned to the building, Zwei took off to find Ruby and Blake. When Yang, Weiss, and Oobleck arrived, the four friends shared an embrace, relieved to see that they were all in one piece. They huddled around the fire that Ruby had started.
"Alright, girls. You eat your dinners and then hurry off to bed. I'm going to secure the perimeter and make sure nothing will slip in, catch us unawares, and devour us. Any volunteers for the first watch?"
"Yo." Ruby lazily threw her hand up.
"Very good. Miss Rose, if you'd follow me, I'll show you to your post."
She picked herself up off the ground and went with Oobleck, Zwei following after them. He brought her to a portion of the floor where the wall had almost completely been destroyed, giving her a good view of Mountain Glenn down below. Off in the distance, Ruby could see a wide forest, and she could've sworn she saw some movement. She squinted, trying to see if she could make anything out, then she saw a massive flash of white. It was a pair of enormous tusks. They were hard to see, since their bodies were black as pitch, but she could still make out the Grimm marching through the trees.
"They're… massive…" She grabbed onto Crescent Rose, saying, "they're too close to Vale, aren't they?"
"Yes, they're close, but they mean no real harm."
"Grimm? That doesn't sound right…"
"Grimm are interesting creatures. They aren't all necessarily mindless. They age, as we do, and as they age, they amass wisdom. Young fledglings are wont to throw themselves at human settlements as soon as they get a smell of the negative emotions they so crave, and it often costs them their lives.
"Their brethren who survive see this. They see that humans and faunus have killed their kin, and they learn we're dangerous. They grow, they adapt, and they become stronger. That's where we get the likes of Alpha Beowolves and Ursa Majors. Yet even these elder Grimm still die. So they learn to avoid us.
"They learn that their efforts are often for naught. That no matter how they cut us down, they will only draw more of us, and we will be angry, and we will want revenge. Those Goliath have probably lived for centuries, and are content with wandering aimlessly, if it means getting to live another day."
"Grimm… learning… that sounds so… weird," she said.
"I understand how you feel. It baffled me when I was younger as well. This shouldn't by any means make you feel sympathy for the Grimm. Even if they know not to attack us, they're still Grimm. If they see an opportunity, they will still strike. They know we are a determined species, and that we have strength in numbers, but if they ever find themselves with something to help even the odds, they will strike. Now, I'll be going. Do keep the others safe, Miss Rose."
Ruby settled down against one of the walls that was still intact, cradling Crescent Rose in case of an emergency. Zwei sat down next to her. She lingered on the final words Oobleck had said to her, as she looked at the Grimm out there. How exactly could she keep people safe? Knowing that there were Grimm that dwarfed her, were centuries old, and had learned how humans fought, how exactly could she keep people safe if they ever did get so bold as to finally break their streak and go on the hunt?
