Blue team, along with all the other with three other first-year student teams were the first to participate in the field exercise. Teams RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, and Blue stood on small grey platforms overlooking a cliff. Fred, who was on the far right of the line, wondered if it was some sort of spotting or mapping exercise, or maybe even long-distance target practice. If it was the latter, he knew who would win, glancing over at Linda cradling her almost sniper rifle as she checked the magazine of their newly designed cartridges. Glynda spoke up, giving the instructions they were to follow, "each team has a selected area, you will hunt this area for a specific Grim, some sort of Alpha that I have painted with a symbol on their backs, your goal is to eliminate the target without killing any other Grim. The first team to get back earns 80 points and each team after earns five points less, so if you were to finish fourth, you would earn 65 points. Killing your target earns 10 points, and you gain another ten for not killing any other Grim, and each Grim killed subtracts one point from those ten, further details have been uploaded to your scroll. Everyone understand?" Heads nodded down the line. "Alright everyone," Ozpin said, "I want you all back safe, so stay in your area, do not venture outside of it. Exercise starting in, 5, 4,3, 2, 1… the square under his feet lurched, and Fred suddenly was launched into the air, as he overcame his surprise, he angled toward his team's section of the Emerald Forest and looked back at his team. Each of them was flying through the air in a line, though fairly spread apart, he knew they would head to his landing site, the only one they would all see. As the ground approached, adrenaline kicked in, (Or as Kelly dubbed the enhanced awareness state that was triggered by their augmentations, Spartan Time,) and things slowed down, he grabbed his rifle off his back and kept it close to his chest so it wouldn't be damaged in the fall, then tucked, rolled, and tried to soften the impact anyway he could. He hit the ground and the dirt around him shot outward, creating a mini crater. He grabbed his rifle and surveyed the area, it was a simple clearing surrounded by trees, so Fred crouched behind a bush and waited for the rest of his team.
"Fred, that sounded nothing like an owl," Linda said as she and John walked into the clearing.
A voice called out from behind a bush, "but I've been practicing, and I thought that sounded pretty good." Said Fred, as he poked his head out from behind the bush.
John interjected, "I thought that wasn't that bad, but nowhere near as good as Sam's." Kelly came running out of the trees just then, and called out, "We need to hide, there's a Bear Grim thing chasing me, and I don't want to kill it and have points taken off." Fred grabbed John's hand and tugged him over the bushes and rocks he had been hiding behind before. Kelly and Linda each scaled a tree, trying to get high into the thick branches just as an Ursa emerged from the tree line on the opposite side of the clearing. It began to sniff with its nose high in the air and slowly began to move towards Fred and John. Linda looked over to her friend in the adjacent tree, who looked down, then with a look of realization, began to unload her weapon, she then proceeded to wrench the bullet out of its brass casing, Kelly then took the shell and threw it directly at the Ursa's nose. The shell bounced off, but a small plume of dust formed around its head, and the Ursa began to sneeze and started barreling back towards the tree line, batting at its nose. Linda looked through her scope and scanned the area before giving the all clear. And within ten seconds the team was back on the move, searching for caves, where they were supposed to be able to find the alpha scorpion grim that they were assigned to take down.
After running through the forest for a few minutes, Blue team looked up at a cliff with a network of caves pockmarking the face. Blue team looked up at the caves and inwardly groaned at the multitude of areas they would need to search. "Alright," John announced, "I'll, take left, Fred, right, Kelly, take the center, and Linda, find a good position to cover all of us. I want you to search the smaller caves first, then once we've cleared those, move to the larger ones, and then we set up for each, Kelly, you willing to play rabbit?"
"As always," she responded, rolling her pants legs up. The team broke off, working like a well-oiled machine, each member taking their role seriously and completing it efficiently.
Ten minutes later, all the caves except the largest one had been searched,and nothing had been found except a few sleeping beowolves, being careful not to awaken the slumbering Grim, each cave containing the monsters had been marked on the outside a spot or two that Linda could hit to block off the entrance, keeping reinforcements from joining the alpha once it was awakened. Using the same strategy that would keep the beowolves in, Blue team decided to try to create an avalanche to finish off the alpha, and they marked areas on the cliff face which would create a rockslide when shot, then agreed on the exact plan.
After another five minutes of preparation, Fred and John were standing outside the cave and Linda was perched high in a tree, when a loud roar echoed across the cliff face and Kelly came sprinting out, almost flying into the tree line. Linda's rifle cracked four times in quick succession, and three cave entrances crumbled, trapping the still groggy occupants inside. A large pair of claws slowly emerged from the largest cave, followed by a giant head covered in glowing red eyes and a low flat body, before a large tail with a wickedly sharp barb snaked out of the cave. John and Fred peppered the armored carapace with a hail of bullets. The tail whipped out, stabbing into the ground where Fred had been less than a second ago as he dodged out of the way before rolling and coming up on one knee. The tail rose up to strike again, but Linda's rifle cracked once again and one of the grim's eye exploded in a shower of red blood. It roared and looked around for the source of the sudden pain, but was quickly distracted by Kelly running by, sprinting back towards the cliff. Seeing the original perpetrator of the interruption, the alpha scuttled back towards the cliff, and the ambush spot. In their moment of celebration, Fred and John failed to notice the segmented tail swinging around to hit them from behind until it was almost too late. Fred tried to duck below the swinging appendage, but got hit in the shoulder and flew straight into a tree, John saw his teammate fly by and flattened himself to the ground, and luckily the tail flew just above his head. As Kelly lured the alpha into the ambush spot, Linda unloaded almost an entire magazine into the cliff, and as rocks started to fall, Kelly ran back to help Fred up. The alpha tried to run back towards Blue team, but Linda shot once again and hit the stinger, swinging it towards the cliff and embedding it into the rock from the power of the shot, holding it in place as a rockslide fell around it. As the dust settled, a black mist wafted out from underneath the rocks, signaling the alpha was dead.
Fred's left shoulder had been dislocated from his hit, and he had decided to wait to relocate it when medical help was closer since there was a low risk of him needing to fight on the way back. Once they arrived back at the top of the starting cliff, they waited for the other teams. Team JNPR showed up a mere three minutes after Blue team arrived, and they greeted Blue team with surprisingly warm smiles and congratulations for people they had met only the day before and had accidentally dissed the team leader. Ren walked over to Fred and asked, "do you want any help with your shoulder?"
Fred responded, "no offense, but I'd rather have one of my teammates do it, at least until we get to know you all better."
Ren shrugged, then went to go calm down Nora, as it looked like she was about talk John off the cliff, (literally as well as figuratively). Fred called Kelly over to help him reset his shoulder, he stuck his arm out, and she shoved it forward as Fred rolled his shoulder. The joint popped back into place with a loud crack, and Nora's eyes lit up as she whispered, "awesome" under her breath, Ren remarked, "Hmm, the rolling of the shoulder would increase the short-term pain, but would overall help to heal over the long term, I never thought to try that." While Pyrrha looked on with a concerned expression, Jaune simply barfed and fainted after seeing the unnatural snap and relocation.
"Good job everyone, and I am glad you are all back in one piece." Ozpin said as he addressed the assembled students. Team RWBY had arrived just a few minutes after team JNPR, and CRDL five minutes after that. "The scores and evaluations will be posted this evening via your scrolls, however, ther, will be an announcement on the boards in the main hall 30 minutes earlier. I hope you all enjoy your weekend, and I will see you all on Monday, and students," he said glancing pointedly at team RWBY, "Please don't get into any trouble."
AN: I will try to be better about responding to comments, I enjoy hearing what you guys have to say and any ideas you may have.