Here's chapter 20, everyone.
As Weiss and Ruby continued to run through the forest, hearing the rifle shots closer, they quickly observed the area, finding normal animals for once running off in fear. Weiss sniffed out any scent she could that would help them find whoever was fighting faster. "I think I have something."
Ruby nodded, not taking the time to question Weiss' senses as she followed the white wolf until they both reached where they needed to get to. "Pyrrha, what should I do?!" Jaune's voice was heard by the two partners, while Pyrrha jumped back from the Taara Alpha and Singe they were fighting.
"Whoa, a Singe! I've always wanted to fight one!" Ruby exclaimed as she brought her sniper up and aimed at it, while Jaune looked over, shocked to hear other people. "Hey, Jaune! Didn't think we'd run into you two again."
Pyrrha couldn't afford to look over as she held her shield up when the Singe shot out a fireball, successfully blocking the attack. "Jaune, be careful!" Pyrrha called out to him when she noticed the Taara Alpha was running at him, but before it could pounce, Ruby shot at it, sending it flying towards the Singe.
Jaune gasped when he saw the electricity on the Taara Alpha going off, making the Singe roar in pain as an Alpha's electricity was much stronger than a normal Taara. "Oh man…" The blonde boy ran over to Pyrrha, checking on his partner to make sure she was okay. "You're not hurt… Right?"
When she shook her head, Jaune sighed in relief, feeling guilty that he wasn't able to help yet. "Don't drop your guard though. They're only incapacitated for the moment."
When the blonde haired boy noticed them getting up, he gulped and looked over at Ruby, but gasped when he saw the white wolf. "Gah! Ruby, look out!" He said, pointing at the wolf, making Weiss nervous at how he reacted, but she yelped when she saw what happened next.
Pyrrha turned and quickly aimed at the white wolf, but Ruby instantly got in front of her and held her arms out. "Wait, don't! This isn't just a wolf! It's Weiss! My partner!"
Blinking a few times, Jaune looked down at the white wolf, getting a nod from her to confirm what Ruby had said. "W-What?!" Before anyone could explain anything else though, Pyrrha cried out in pain when the advice she gave to Jaune was ignored herself when she was hit by the paralysis shot from the Taara. "Pyrrha!" Jaune instinctively got in front of his downed partner, sword and shield in hand as he was faced by both the Taara Alpha and the Singe. "W-What do I do?"
Pyrrha was writhing on the ground in pain, so Ruby and Weiss quickly ran over, with Ruby holding Crescent Rose in scythe form, and Weiss holding Myrtenaster in her teeth.
"You fight, and make sure these monsters don't reach your partner." Ruby said, glaring at the Singe and Taara Alpha, hating how they had hurt a fellow student. "Remember what we said too about dust, Jaune. You can use it on your weapon."
The blonde huntsman in training couldn't deny that he was nervous, but then he realized something. "I-I don't really have dust on me." When the Singe roared, he yelped in fear, holding his shield up when a fireball shot at him.
Luckily as he said before, his shield was durable enough to hold the attack back, and Weiss quickly took the chance, running off to the right as she got the Singe's attention, while Ruby took another shot at the Taara Alpha, getting it to attack her.
Jaune felt like he couldn't do a thing and watched the two he had met when he first got onto Beacon fighting his battles. "Damn it…"
He heard Pyrrha weakly call out to him. "J-Jaune, I… Have dust… You can use…"
The boy gasped and knelt by his partner, looking as she couldn't move an inch. "Pyrrha! U-Um, maybe I can lift you up and-."
"N-No, I said… I have dust on me. Use… It. I won't be able to move…" Pyrrha explained, making the boy even more nervous for her, and when he turned to see Weiss slashing at the legs of the Singe, he saw it roar in pain, sending her back with a punch. "Weiss!" Jaune turned to face Ruby, seeing her having a tough time with the Alpha as it nearly clawed her, but the swipe sent four lines of electricity, hitting her and making her yell in pain. "Ruby! No, no, no… Pyrrha, what do I do with the dust?!"
Pyrrha couldn't respond as she had lost consciousness, making Jaune shake in fear, but when he saw his two, would he call them friends? To him, he said yes. His two friends panting from the hits they took, he slapped himself. "Think! Think!" His eyes widened when he spotted a blue crystal, so he grabbed it and looked back and forth at the two battles. "Please be what I think this is." He chose to go to Weiss first, since he had no idea how well of a fighter she was as a wolf, calling out to her. "Weiss! Keep it distracted!"
The white wolf looked confused by that, but she had no time to question it, nodding as she spun around, sending a lightning tornado at the Singe, who took the hit, effectively keeping it on a short paralysis pause. While it was like that, Jaune tried to use the dust crystal, but found it not working. "What is he waiting for?" Weiss thought to herself.
"C-Come on! Why isn't this thing doing anything?!" Jaune yelled as he started banging it against his sword. Weiss couldn't believe the boy was even in Beacon at that point, and she gasped when she saw the lightning tornado was beginning to fade.
She let go of Myrtenaster for a moment to warn him. "Jaune, get away! It's about to be freed! I can handle this!"
Hearing her say that made the boy freeze. He was ordered to just run, so he saw the white wolf pick her weapon back up. Still, he couldn't move and shook his head as he ran over, the lightning tornado still partially up. "Use this on him. I think it's water. I have a plan."
Weiss couldn't argue and dropped her weapon. "Press the button on the bottom. It'll open the chamber to swap out one of the crystals." The boy looked nervous, but when Weiss growled, he yelped and went to it, taking out one of the crystals and replacing it with the water one. He held out the weapon to her and Weiss took it in her teeth.
The lightning tornado had vanished completely, freeing the Singe as Jaune took a step back and Weiss quickly ran towards it, prepared to use the water dust. The Singe slammed its fists on the ground, sending spinning fire pillars at Weiss, but the wolf dodged some and swung her blade to send water at the others.
When she got close enough, Weiss sent a slicing water wave at the beast, coating it in water and putting its flames on its body out. Jaune nodded, looking over at Ruby who was doing her best to dodge swipes with her semblance, making sure not to dodge into the electricity again.
"I can't even get a shot in…" Ruby said, continued to dodge the furious Taara, but gasped when Jaune got in the middle of her and the Alpha.
His shield held up enough to keep the beast back, so he pushed it back and the Alpha growled, jumping away since it expected an attack. "Ruby, I don't know if you can't, but would you be able to launch that giant… Tiger lightning thing into that… Um, fire ape?"
"Do you not know their names?" Ruby gave him a questioning look, getting a sigh from the boy, so she shook her head and focused. "I did it before, so yes."
"Good. Weiss is coating it in water, so if I get his attention to use a lot of electricity, I want you to get it thrown into the… Whatever that ape thing is called." Jaune explained.
"Singe. And the tiger is called a Taara, though that one is an Alpha." Ruby said, looking over at the Taara who stared them down, ready to pounce when it needed to.
"R-Right. Well… Just try out my idea." Jaune said, bracing himself as he ran to the Taara Alpha, getting its attention, so it growled at the boy. Even though he was afraid, seeing how his friends were hurt seemed to get the boy to at least try. "U-Uh, you… Taara thing! Over here!" He shouted at it, trying to get in between the Taara Alpha and Singe, who was busy trying to grab Weiss as she was continuing to coat it in water, making it angry.
Ruby positioned herself behind the Alpha, preparing an earth dust shot to give it enough force. "I hope this works, Jaune."
After the Taara Alpha swiped at Jaune and the shield blocked not only the attack, but the electricity after it, the Alpha was angered, so it reared its tail up, preparing its attack. Ruby's heart was racing a bit, since if Jaune wasn't fast enough, he could end up like Pyrrha.
Once it was charged up completely, Ruby knew she didn't have another chance, so she took the shot and the strength of her round was amplified by the coating of rock added to it. It hit the Alpha directly and Jaune dove to the side, narrowly missing the Alpha as it was sent into the Singe, who had been completely coated in water at that point.
On contact, both the Taara Alpha and the Singe roared out, almost like they were screaming bloody mary from how amplified the shock was. Jaune examined them for a moment, both going still for a moment before falling on their sides. "D-Did we do it?"
Ruby fired two rounds, both hitting them in the head for a confirmed kill. "I would say so… Yeah. Good idea, Jaune." She smiled at the boy.
"Heh… Thanks, I… Wait, Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled and ran to his downed partner, who was still knocked out. Once he knelt by her, he gently lifted her up a bit. "W-What should we do to help her…"
Weiss walked over, dropping Myrtenaster from her teeth as she examined the scarlet haired girl. "There's a cave Ruby and I stayed in for safety, so we can bring her there till she wakes up."
Ruby nodded, kneeling next to Jaune and putting his hand on his shoulder. "It's our best bet, and I promise we'll keep watch over the entrance of the cave."
Jaune looked between his partner and Ruby for a few moments. "O-Okay." He wasted no more time and lifted Pyrrha up, as Ruby grabbed the scarlet girl's weapon.
After making their way to the cave, Weiss noticed the sun's location and whimpered a bit. "We still don't have a relic yet, Ruby."
After Jaune set Pyrrha down, Ruby looked equally as nervous. "Oh... Right."
"I'll go find the relics for us…" Jaune suddenly said, surprising the two.
"Um, what? What do you mean you'll go find the relics? Jaune, no offense, but… If you went off without Ruby or I, you won't make it to the relics." Weiss stated, though out of worry.
"What else can we do?" The huntsman in training questioned. "If we don't bring any relics back, we all fail and we'll end up getting kicked out of Beacon."
Weiss turned to look at Ruby, sighing to herself. "Would… Would you be okay if I went out and tried to find them?"
Ruby's worried a lot for Jaune, but for Weiss, it was near impossible to stop her heart from beating too fast. "N-No way. I can't let you go alone."
"That girl is hurt, Ruby." Weiss said, looking over at Pyrrha. "And you can keep her safe. With me, I can track any of these beasts well enough to steer clear of them."
"I-I still don't like this…" Ruby said, expressing her opinion as she saw Weiss sigh.
The white wolf let out a small smile. "I know… I'm sorry." She grabbed her weapon with her teeth and ran out of the cave, ignoring Ruby's cries for her to come back. "I'll make it up to you, Ruby Rose."
As Weiss was running through the forest, she tried to sniff around here and there, hoping her sense of smell was strong enough to tell where the beasts were. It wasn't a full lie, but Weiss had to say something to Ruby to get her to worry less about her.
Luckily for her she managed to not run into anything on her run, most likely because other students were probably distracting most of the other monsters in the forest. "Come on… Where are those damn things."
She stopped when she almost fell off a ledge, looking down it at the field below. In her sight was the ruins that held the pedestals of relic pieces. The white wolf cocked her head to the side, wondering if those were even the relics, so she jumped down and slowly approached.
"They look like... Chess pieces?"
As she got close enough, her eyes widened. She saw in the distance, four people were walking away from the ruins. She knew from the mane of yellow she saw that one of them was Yang, so she swayed her tail and ran towards them, dropping her weapon to call out to the blonde. "Yang!"
After hearing her name, the blonde huntress in training turned and yelped, seeing a white wolf running towards her. "Whoa! Did that thing talk?!" She exclaimed as she prepared to fire at Weiss, not knowing it was her.
Weiss yelped and stopped, backing away slightly to show she wasn't trying to attack anyone, while Blake, Nora and Ren had their weapons focused on her. "Y-Yang… It's me, Weiss…"
Yang blinked a few times, taking in what the talking wolf had said to her. "What?" She looked at the white fur and blue eyes, but still felt it was unbelievable, so she started to laugh. "Y-Yeah, sure you are. Oh man… Am I like, going crazy or something? Seriously, you guys don't hear this wolf talking, right?"
Blake was frozen on the spot, hearing the wolf call itself Weiss, while Nora looked confused herself. "I mean… It did just say your name, and it called itself Weiss. Hey, Ren, do we know a Weiss?"
Ren shook his head, keeping his guns trained on the wolf still. "No, but we still don't have reason to believe this wolf isn't just another beast from this forest."
Weiss began to whimper, making Yang lower her gauntlets. "Yang…" The blonde could hear her voice a lot clear at that point, so a few steps was all Yang needed to take. After getting close enough, she knelt down by Weiss and looked at the wolf. "S-Surprise…" She gave a smile as best she could.
Yang couldn't believe it, so she hugged the wolf, feeling terrible for aiming her weapons at her. "Oh my goodness… Weiss, I… I'm so sorry. If I knew it was you I would've never aimed my gauntlets at you." She rubbed the wolf's fur, making her tail sway as she nuzzled into Yang.
"I don't blame you, you oaf. It's my fault for not telling you my semblance." When she felt Yang pull away and give her a questioning look, she sighed. "It's a lot to explain… But right now Ruby is keeping watch over Jaune and his partner. We still need our relics though."
Yang looked over at the pedestals and nodded. "Right. I'll grab em for ya. You just lead the way to Ruby and the others." She smiled and chuckled a little. "Man, a wolf… That's gotta be a new one for sure." Weiss playfully rolled her eyes at that, though she was happy Yang was there with her.
And now more people know. So let's see if Weiss will be able to feel more comfortable with her 'semblance' around more people.
Also, sorry if the fight in this chapter seemed too fast.
To JJ- This isn't much of a spoiler, but she will train herself later, and I'm glad you and others are enjoying the Willow and Raven scenes. With Nora, I didn't want it to be an exact copy of a canon scene, so I like making differences here and there.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 20. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 21.