Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, nor am I affiliated with Rooster Teeth. I know, shocker, right?
The Emerald Forest, Kingdom of Vale
Something was… off. The Beowulf could sense that much. Weird sounds, smells of metal and death, and… fury. Panic. The Grimm in the forest were in a frenzy due to the students ripping and tearing their way through the greenery.
The Beowulf caught a whiff of a foul, burning smell. It couldn't tell where the stench came from, though. Then, suddenly, there was a whoosh from behind it and the Grimm fell to the ground, minus a head. Behind the Grimm's rapidly decomposing body stood a slender, well-built girl with long, wild hair under a beanie, wearing gold high-tops, black jogging pants, and a high-collared black jacket with a coiling serpent embroidered on the sleeves in gold. She held a large segmented broadsword, perfect for cleaving Grimm apart.
Across from her, another girl, shorter than the first, was fighting a Beowulf of her own. She was maneuvering around the Grimm rapidly, attacking with dual kama scythes and occasionally diving through a pale glyph and reappearing out of another one. She ducked under a swipe from the Beowulf and leapt towards it, catching it around the neck with her scythes, swinging around onto its back. She pushed off the creature's spiny back, cleanly severing its head. She flipped through the air, her white cloak flaring as she landed.
She brushed a reddish strand of hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind an ear, adjusting her skirt and armored corset as she stood up.
"All good over there, Summer?" The first girl called out, returning her sword to its mount on her back.
"Yep! All good over here!" The second girl, Summer, replied cheerfully.
"A'ight, let's go." The first girl dashed off into the underbrush.
"Wh- Trace, wait! Hold on!" Summer yelled. The first girl, Trace, slid to a halt.
"Summer S. Rose, daughter of the two fastest Huntresses in the history of Remnant, is asking me to slow down? Gimme a break…"
"No, it's not… Just warn me when you run off like that!" Summer pouted.
"Uuugh… fine. But only because you're kinda cute." Trace sighed, jokingly.
"I- wha-" Summer stammered as Trace grabbed her by the collar of her cloak, dragging her along.
Emerald Forest, with Niko and Kira
"Hey, hey! Are those the ruins?" Kira ran ahead, pointing at the wide maw of an eerily-familiar cave.
"Not sure." Niko replied, heaving his axe from his back into his hands. "Got a light?"
"One sec…" Kira pulled out one of her pistols and shot a branch off a nearby tree, catching it as one end burst into flames. She quickly pulled her other hand away, shaking it a bit. "There."
Neat trick, Niko thought, as Kira led him into the cave.
Emerald Forest, with Wren and Taiga
"Yo, Catwoman, you sure we're going the right way?" Wren called out, somewhat sullenly.
"It's Taiga, and yes, we are." Taiga crept through the bushes, internally cringing at Wren's noisy, almost bear-like gait as he crashed through the brush.
"Alriii~ght…" Wren groaned. He rolled his shoulders a couple times. Starting to get pretty boring…
After a few more moments of silence, there was a loud boom from further into the forest, accompanied by gunshots, thudding footsteps, and a cry of, "Not a relic!" Wren immediately perked up, as did Taiga, but for a different reason.
"We should take a look at that. Usually whenever something blows up, my sister's involved somehow."
"Hehehe, yeah!" Wren pumped a fist in the air victoriously.
Emerald Forest, with Summer and Trace
The pair heard the yelling of combat from a ways away, and after a brief discussion, decided to check it out.
"Who knows, maybe we'll find those relics while we're at it." Trace shrugged, trailing behind Summer.
Emerald Forest, with Niko and Kira
"Shiiiii~t!" Kira yelled as she ran from the massive scorpion Grimm, a Deathstalker, trailing close behind. Niko merely grunted as he ran as well, his heavy armor slowing him down.
Kira stumbled slightly, causing her to topple over and trip Niko as well, both of them falling down ungracefully. The Deathstalker clicked its massive claws together as it approached them, and they closed their eyes and accepted their inevitable fate…
But before the Grimm could lay a claw on them, Wren came flying out of the underbrush, fast as a bullet, landing a leaping kick in the scorpion's bony faceplates. As Wren kicked off the Grimm's head, Taiga burst forth from the bushes with a glowing-hot katana in her hands, sliding under the Deathstalker's raised claw and slashing at one of its exposed legs, causing it to click and screech in pain. It lashed towards Niko and Kira with its tail, but they rolled away from it, regaining their footing and joining the fray.
"Seriously, Kira? I leave you alone for twenty minutes and you nearly kill yourself?" Taiga chuckled. Kira mumbled something as she readied her rifle.
"You with the rifle! Cover us! Taiga, go for the claw on the side you hit. Big guy, you take the other side. Move it!" Wren called out, slamming his fists together.
"What are you planning?" Niko asked, tightening his grip on his axe.
"To bring out the big guns." Wren replied. He crashed his fists together again, and when they separated, his gauntlets burst to life, sliding forward and forming a set of jaws around each fist, cocked back like a bear trap. He leapt forward, the rest of the fighters springing into action.
Taiga opened her assault with a barrage of burning knives, embedding themselves in the Deathstalker's joints, and followed up with a slash to the legs, nearly severing the already-weakened appendages. She drove her long katana through the exposed flesh just behind the creature's claw and into the ground, drawing her short blade and hacking the arm off in a single motion.
Niko, on the other hand, started with a more direct approach. He slammed his axe into the plating of the claw, embedding it into the bony exoskeleton, forcing the claw open. He let go of his axe and pummeled the joint that connected the claw-arm to the carapace. There was a sickening crack as Niko felt something snap under his fists. Focusing on the elbow now, he threw one uppercut to the joint and grabbed his axe, still embedded in the claw plating. He jumped over the claw, bringing his axe with him and twisting the appendage in the process. He twisted his axe slightly and the shell of the claw cracked like a walnut, eliciting a screech from the scorpion. He removed his axe and brought it down on the Deathstalker's broken limb.
Kira stayed back while the other three rushed forward, taking aim at the Grimm's eyes. They shot towards Taiga, then blam. One eye down. Then towards Niko, and blam. Another eye down. The scorpion readied its tail for a strike to Wren, and she lobbed a pair of coins towards it, detonating them as they clattered against its carapace, staggering the Deathstalker.
Wren opted to take out the tail after Kira's save, wrapping tendrils around the stinger and swinging around it, stopping on one of the segmented tail joints. He kicked back, pulling the tail with him. With his free hand, Wren punched the base of the stinger, his gauntlets snapping shut and severing the spike.
"Now! Someone finish it!" He yelled. Wren glowed slightly, using his Semblance to bolster his allies' strength as he held the tail down.
Kira and Taiga drove their swords into the Deathstalker's plated forehead as Niko slammed his axe into the gap between plated segments. The Grimm gave one last screech and click as it faded away to ashes. Wren stood up, dusting off his vest as his gauntlets returned to their stowed form.
"That was fun." Wren exhaled.
"Agreed. Now, don't we have relics to retrieve?" Niko asked.
"Sorry, who are you?" Wren was glancing at Niko.
"Niko Asterius." The boy said, heaving his axe onto his back.
"And I'm Kira!" Kira sang out.
"I remember you! You crashed into me earlier!" Wren snapped his fingers.
"Oh, yeah… I sorta did…" Kira chuckled and scratched the back of her head.
Emerald Forest, with Summer and Trace
"Woahh…" Summer gawked at the fight as she and Trace watched from a ways away. The entire area reeked of gunpowder and smoke after the death of the massive Grimm.
"They've got that on lock. C'mon, Summer." Trace said, motioning for the smaller girl to follow.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah! Those relics should be around here somewhere!"
"Wait, Summer, didn't Professor Pine say something about a ruined temple?" Trace asked.
"I… think so?"
"Then that oughtta be it over there!" Trace said, pointing further down the path.
"Huh? Wait, yeah!"
"Onward! Let's go!" Trace shouted, taking off towards the ruins.
"Yes!" Summer ran after her.
Emerald Forest, with Kira, Niko, Taiga, and Wren
"Hey, are those two…?" Kira trailed off, seeing Summer and Trace running past.
"Going that way? Hey!" Wren called out, his voice echoing in the clearing.
"What?" Trace turned around, jogging in place.
"Where are you going?" Wren shouted back.
"The ruins are this way!" Trace yelled.
"What?"
"The ruins! Y'know, the relic-y ones?"
"Oh, those ruins!" Wren mused. "Hey, wait!" Wren's group scrambled after Summer and Trace.
-XNTW-
"Hey, sis… Are these…?" Kira asked, gesturing towards the many pedestals, some empty, indicating that someone had already passed through.
"Chess pieces. Huh." Taiga finished. She kicked at one of the loose bricks in the ground and it clattered a few feet away.
"These are the relics, huh? So we just need to grab one per pair and get back to the cliffs?" Niko glanced around as if waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"Ooh! In that case, let's grab the same kinda piece, Taiga!" Kira's eyes were practically sparkling.
"Sure, I guess." Taiga walked over and grabbed a gleaming rook. Kira followed suit and grabbed the black rook.
Summer walked over and picked up a black knight piece, returning to Trace, who was scoping out the amphitheatre-like area around them.
"Now to get back to the cliffs…" Summer mumbled.
"Hopefully no more big Grimm along the way. I'm beat." Wren sighed. "Just the small fry for me, thanks…"
-XNTW-
"Mr. Arc?" Oscar asked, surveying the forest from atop the cliff.
"Yeah?" A knight replied, clad in white and gold armor with a red sash tied around his waist and a long white robe with gold stitching and accents over it all. Underneath the robe and armor he wore his signature hoodie, a keepsake from his time at Beacon many years prior.
"It seems the last of our students have retrieved their relics. They'll be back soon, I imagine."
"Should I tell the others to get the arena prepped for the entrance ceremony?"
"Go ahead." Oscar said, taking a deep breath and smelling faint traces of smoke wafting from the forest below.
"Those kids are pretty strong. Wonder how they'd fare if they had to fight Salem." Jaune mused.
"Well, that's the past. And besides," Oscar chuckled, "They're still no match for us yet." He poked Jaune's arm with his cane.
"Heh heh… That's right. I bet Yang would love to take Qrow's kid on."
"Much as I love Yang, if they were evenly matched in terms of experience, my money's on Wren." A new voice chipped in. Jaune yelped and fell down.
"Dammit Ruby!" Jaune cried from the ground.
"No matter how many years go by, you're still the same old Vomit Boy!" Ruby giggled. She adjusted the cloth she wore as an eyepatch as she spoke. She extended a hand and helped Jaune to his feet.
"If I may, Ruby, why are you here?" Oscar asked, resting his hands on his cane.
"Oh, you know, just making sure Summer's doing fine! You know Weiss'd kill me if anything happened, and…" She trailed off.
"Well, by the looks of it, she can certainly handle herself. Those warp glyphs are some pretty wicked things." Jaune said, tilting the Scroll in his hands towards Ruby.
"Yes. This is shaping up to be a very… interesting year." Oscar chuckled, turning towards the forest once more as a large explosion rang out from the sea of trees.
A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
I'm thinking about posting the sketches of all the characters online in the near future, so keep an eye out! I'll have a link in the author's notes when I get that sorted.
Thank you, and see you next chapter!