Alright, the part I've been waiting quite a while to write – the missions! Or rather, mission since it's just JNPR I'll be focusing on, heh heh. This is one of several parts planned that I've been eager to get around to for multiple reasons, partially because some stuff I'd been thinking through have finally been fully finalized in my mind. Said stuff is by no means super drastic, but it will be interesting, this I can assure you.

Now, other than this, there's really not much else I can bring myself to say – life is same as always, and there's only so many times I can repeat myself about 'things picking up in this fic' before even I get sick of myself, ha.

So, with that one quick statement out of the way, let's get started!

Chapter 21

Beacon's annual dance came and went without a hassle.

With the moods of all the students and staff considerably alleviated as a result of the nightly festivities, it was time for them to now put their all into what came next.

In this case, this meant missions. After all, how can any of the students claim to be aspiring huntsmen and huntresses without being able to put what they learn into practice?

With a quick speech by the headmaster, all of the first years had been essentially turned loose to meet up with their teams and look through the almost frighteningly extensive lists of missions they could pick from on the viewscreens provided in the room.

It just went to show how many people are out there that were in need of help, Jaune had thought.

That said, there was an actual sense of excitement about him now. It'd always been one thing to simply go and help others the way he's been doing up until now, but to now be sent on an actual mission as if he were an actual huntsman… just something about it seemed so cool, appealing to some childish part of him that he'd thought had died long ago.

This was by no means a bad feeling, though certainly an odd one. Dare he say it, he actually felt a little relaxed, a result of last night when he and his partner had spent a better portion of the evening just talking.

It'd felt really nice to just be able to sit down like that and just talk.

And judging by the small yet heartfelt smile on Pyrrha's face as she walked beside him, it was clear she felt the same way too, something he appreciated more than he could ever express in words. And Nora and Ren, who were walking on his other side, looked rather pleased still, have looked pleased ever since he and Pyrrha had returned to their dorm last night.

Now, just why were they walking, however? And away from the viewscreens that listed the missions?

Why, because the headmaster had surprisingly called them, much to their collective surprise.

After having bid a quick goodbye to team RWBY, team JNPR had promptly responded to the headmaster's summons that had been messaged to their scrolls and now walked to where the man was at.

"Be sure to kick some butt!" had been the parting words from Ruby.

Anyways, JNPR didn't have to travel too far to meet with the headmaster, merely head to another room nearby.

As they entered the room, Jaune's good mood took a bit of a hit upon seeing the rather serious expression on the headmaster's face.

"Ah, good," said headmaster commented upon noticing them.

"Is something wrong, headmaster?" Jaune asked as he and his team neared.

"No, not quite. But thank you for asking," the man replied, his signature mug in one hand while his cane was in the other. "My apologies for the sudden summons, but I pulled you aside for something a bit… special."

"Special, headmaster?" Pyrrha asked in interest.

Nora suddenly gasped, her own hands shooting up to the sides of her face. "Are we getting a special mission?!"

Ren looked to his friend in mild annoyance and worry. "Nora, mind your manners, please…"

Headmaster Ozpin merely chuckled, however. "You are on the mark, Ms. Valkyrie," he calmly stated, his words causing Nora to practically cheer.

"Not that we're ungrateful for this mission, but why us?" Jaune politely inquired, however. He'd suspected as much when they'd gotten the summons, but still it was odd.

"Because in light of your actions during the most recent incident, it's clear that all things considered, team JNPR is among the most capable of the first years," the headmaster answered, taking a sip of his cocoa. "It is therefore only natural to give you four a mission more suited to your skill level and potential."

A quick glance to his teammates told Jaune that they were pretty much eating up the headmaster's words, which were true, but he still felt something amiss. His instincts were rarely wrong and while he felt he had to learn to not always go leaping into things right away, now more than ever, Jaune was feeling something was going on.

Alas, there was no point in getting too worked up about things. Over the past several days, even weeks, he's become increasingly self-aware of his own changing emotional state.

"Out on the frontier, there's a town by the simple name of Sol, ironic since it's always cloudy out in that area," the headmaster began. "It's a town whose populace is comprised entirely of Faunus and specializes in farming. Recently, a considerable wave of what's believed to be Grimm have been appearing near their borders and they'd lost a fair number of people to this wave already, to say nothing of livestock and crops too."

At that, Jaune quirked an eyebrow. "Believed to be Grimm? There's a chance it isn't?" Though he was asking for confirmation, Jaune knew what was going on here.

Well, no not really. But what he meant is that it was certainly extremely odd for Grimm to be able to pull essentially hit and run tactics like that. It would be one thing if they were all older and therefore smarter Grimm, but that would also mean they'd be larger than the average Grimm too. And if there was even the slightest possibility it wasn't Grimm, then that'd mean the supposed Grimm can't possibly be that much larger than the average since there'd be no way they could be mistaken for a group of bandits or whatever.

The headmaster, clearly knowing this as well, nodded. "Team JNPR, your mission is to head out to Sol and investigate this matter. And if it really is Grimm, exterminate them. If this is not the case, then I shall leave it to your collective judgement on how to proceed from there. I would highly recommend leaving as soon as possible – this has been going on for several weeks and this news has only reached us recently due to technological differences in communication between us and Sol."

And that was just about the gist of it all.

The next few minutes were then spent with him and his friends asking the headmaster for some additional details, which the man provided before sending them on their way.

As today was the day for teams to head out on their missions, everyone was already dressed and had gathered their weapons from their lockers and so, team JNPR had promptly made their way back to their dorm for just a moment to hastily gather some personal effects of theirs before then heading to the nearest bullhead. The headmaster had already called ahead to inform the pilot of their destination.

In the span of just several minutes, team JNPR was already flying over downtown Vale.

The four of them took this time to look over the districts down below in all their splendor, but their minds were filled with the details they'd learned.

"So, this was quite a surprise," Ren commented out of the blue.

"At least said surprise is something cool!" Nora then retorted. "I mean, how many other teams can match our awesomeness?!"

"Team RWBY?" Pyrrha jokingly said, but not really – said team really was quite skilled. And on a random note, apparently, Weiss found out that her sister was in Vale and out of excitement had pretty much forced her team to select a mission that would keep them in Vale, just so that they – or rather, she – will have a decent chance of running into said sister.

Looks like team RWBY will then be working with the Atlas military, at least to some extent, Jaune thought.

"Still, it's all very odd," he actually said, rubbing his chin. "A wave of Grimm utilizing hit and run tactics rather than just wipe out the entire town? That's definitely new."

Pyrrha nodded, now serious. "Assuming it's even Grimm at all… though I honestly can't fathom who or what else could do this."

"At least this town is still standing though, right?" Nora now chipped in. "I mean, yeah sure, it definitely sucks that they've been getting hit like this, but better than being totally wiped out."

Jaune was inclined to agree. Though the mere thought of how many must have already died was painful to dwell on, so long as most of the populace and their homes and livestock remained, they can inevitably rebuild. A rather long running clinical way of looking at this, but sadly, this was reality.

But more than that, why them?

Even taking into account their involvement in the paladin incident, especially his involvement, surely there were second, third, or even fourth year students who likely have experience dealing with more unusual missions.

That the headmaster had opted to pick them, first year team, to deal with this was strange. While Jaune could objectively say that yes, he and his friends were certainly more skilled than most other first years, this didn't mean that it was suddenly alright to be sending first years to do things more qualified and older students could likely do.

…

…

…Perhaps he was just overthinking things a bit. Again, he was always so quick to trust his instincts. And while the number of times his instincts had been wrong was admittedly a very small number, he couldn't simply go risking any sort of conflicts that could've been avoided, especially when said conflicts could potentially impact future attempts to help others.

Still, he would be on the lookout for anything really amiss. Because no matter how he looks at it, the very nature of whatever was going on near Sol was clearly out of the ordinary. That alone warrants all of his attention.

If this is perhaps some long-term ploy the headmaster is carrying out via him and his team, then he'll gladly play along, so long as he can still save others.

"Whatever exactly is going on," he suddenly spoke up, cutting short the conversation his friends had been having while he'd been deep in thought just now. He smiled softly and assuredly. "We'll be sure to take care of it for the sake of Sol's people."

Pyrrha smiled. "Right."

"Yeah!" Nora was beaming.

Ren merely closed his eyes and smirked a bit, nodding in agreement.

Their faith in his words honored him. And it helped to relax him, actually; only now did he realize just how tense his body had suddenly felt. But now thanks to their obvious trust in him, he could feel said tension swiftly be alleviated.

With their destination easily being hours away, he decided it was best for him and his team to close their eyes and get some rest for the time being.

They were going to have a busy time ahead, after all.

Some hours later, when he was able to take a bit of a break, Ozpin headed outside to watch as some of the last few first-year teams began to head out, either into Vale or even further beyond.

At the same time this was happening, some bullheads were making their return, a number of second and third-year teams aboard. Unlike the first years, who spent a solid portion of said first year honing their minds and bodies throughout the school year, seconds years spent roughly half their time abroad while the other half was spent learning more advanced topics. As for third years, a bit more than three quarters of their time was spent on missions while the last quarter was spent studying extremely specialized topics.

Anyways, it was now about this time of the year that many of them began to return to Beacon and he smiled and would nod in the direction of the many teams that called out in greetings to him.

…He noticed some teams had yet to return, which made his already weary heart grow even wearier.

Although his students were always among the best and brightest, they were naturally by no means invincible – casualties do still occur. Such was the sad fact about being a huntsman or huntress.

Sure, said teams that have yet to show could simply be running late. It was by no means not too uncommon for some to simply be unable to communicate with others while out in the field, but there was still always that all too real possibility that they had died and with no immediate way to confirm this yet.

Ozpin stayed outside for quite a while, waiting until almost all of the first-year teams had taken off while many of the second and third year teams had returned and now began their eager trips back to the campus to debrief and destress.

"Here you are," Glynda commented as she approached him, she being the only one around right now. "…I take it you've sent out team JNPR."

"I have. Hours ago, in fact," he answered.

Glynda grimaced. There was no need for her to say why she was so upset.

What he'd told team JNPR earlier was indeed true. All of it was true in fact.

What he had left out, however, was information that only he and those amongst his little circle were privy to.

While he wouldn't dare claim to know who exactly served Salem this time around, he always did his best to try and figure out the general movements of those he could surmise to be the immortal woman's pawns.

Qrow was not his only field agent, merely one of his most trusted and skilled.

The others… sadly, he's lost communication with most of them. And there was not a doubt in his mind that they'd been killed.

The last he'd ever been updated, there'd been movement out in the Grimmlands. Word of a single individual being spotted leaving said Grimmlands, where Salem lived and ruled, had made its way to Ozpin but that was all that he'd been informed of.

Everything about said individual, from their name to their appearance and abilities, was completely unknown. The only thing that was known was that said individual was a man of a considerable age and that was about it, which hardly narrowed down the list of potential suspects he's formed over the years.

And every time he's tried reaching out to his field agents, he was always unable to do so. Again, there was no doubt they were killed.

That so many of them had likely been slain and before they could even send additional word to him said something truly frightening about this individual's battle prowess.

The only thing he'd been informed of other than the person's gender and apparent age… was the general direction he'd been travelling in.

…and though certainly a far distance away from the Grimmlands, Sol lied in this individual's general path.

The wave of Grimm that was apparently assaulting the town on a regular basis… there was not a doubt in his mind that somehow there was a connection between this mystery and this unknown individual.

Hence why he'd sent JNPR. Not necessarily to investigate this oddity amongst the Grimm – though this was still very much an important thing to do – but rather to possibly discover the identity of this enigma and report back to him.

"Well," Glynda said with a huff. "What do you think their chances are like, Ozpin?"

"I honestly can't say. From a purely objective perspective, certainly not all that good… but then, the same could've been said of them during the paladin incident. An incident they'd emerged from alive and well," he replied.

"True, but even then… I've said it before many times already, but I don't approve of this at all."

"Neither do I despite sending them on this mission. But even so, it had to be done. This individual, whoever he is, has been slaying every huntsmen and huntress sent his way… yet he's also left alone every settlement and town that had undoubtedly been along his path."

"With the obvious exception of Sol," Glynda responded.

Ozpin nodded. "Yes. But even so, that this person has left all the other settlements completely alone along with their inhabitants means that this person doesn't kill needlessly."

"And you're hoping that somehow this odd moral compass of his will prevent this enigma from killing team JNPR should they come into contact with him?"

"So long as they don't give him reason to treat them the same way he's treated the others prior… yes." Ozpin sighed. "I'm aware of how big a gamble this is, Glynda. But we've lost so many good people already. We don't have the technology capable of remotely monitoring his general path from so far away, much less with any great amount of detail and he's already killed so many good people as is… we had to change things up."

"Do you feel this person is worth so much trouble? Worth throwing away the lives of so many people, now potentially including some of our students?"

"Considering just how many huntsmen and huntresses he's killed within so short a time, he may very well be one of the mightiest pawns the Queen has ever had under her thumb. While more recent 'battles' with her forces had been entirely done via counter-intelligence tactics amongst other moments of subterfuge, there will always be times where sheer brute force is necessary."

"In other words, the Queen is tiring of using a scalpel… and that this man, her hammer, is preparing to be swung," Glynda murmured as she stood directly by him.

"Most likely, yes."

Glynda's teeth gritted quite audibly. "I see." She turned to leave. "Now more than ever, I truly do hope you know what you're doing, Ozpin. I know we can't always make the most ideal of choices, but even so… this really isn't sitting well with me."

"I feel the same, Glynda," Ozpin replied. "Just please have faith in our students."

Glynda let out an indignant huff, as if to say she would've done so anyways and then took her leave, resulting in him being on his lonesome.

And not for the first time today, he sighed heavily.

Once again, he's lied.

He already knew who exactly this 'unknown person' is. Someone he's had some level of contact with in the past and certainly not someone that he was on good terms with.

Ever since the death of young Gretchen, the man has always held him in pure contempt. So much so that he'd even go as far as to fall under Salem's thrall just to eventually take revenge against him.

"And he's certainly been putting his strength to terrifying use…" he mumbled.

The man's strength was something Ozpin was familiar with, albeit to an extent; not once in the times he's had the chance to see him in action had he seen the full extent of that man's power and skill.

And this lack of information only made Hazel Rainart that much more dangerous. It would be easy to plan ways to counter his demonstrated level of strength but said plans could be thwarted so very easily if the man really was just that much stronger, which Ozpin feared to be the absolute truth.

Thus, the mission he'd sent JNPR on was just as much a reconnaissance mission on Hazel as it was a Grimm extermination mission.

…Hazel, likely because of his sister, held something of a soft spot for youngsters. As cruel a method as it is, Ozpin was hoping that by sending JNPR against him, he'd let down his guard enough to give the team a genuine fighting chance. And combined with the abnormal Jaune Arc, perhaps said chance wasn't so small after all.

Oh, by no means did he expect team JNPR to somehow actually win against Hazel, but at the very least he was hoping that going up against him long enough would allow them to take note of what exact tactics he's been recently using. Learning even that much would make planning for or around Hazel that much easier for him.

And so, with all this in mind…

"Please," Ozpin whispered. "Do return in one piece, JNPR."

Jaune woke in an instant, going from the land of dreams to reality without any lag whatsoever.

He did so just in the nick of time – the pilot of the bullhead just made an announcement that they were about to touch down.

He smiled slightly. Looks like they'd arrived without issue.

By now, due to the sheer length of the flight, it was already late in the afternoon, late enough that the sun should be gently setting in the great distance, but he couldn't tell since, true to what the headmaster had said, the weather here was quite cloudy.

Looking out of the bullhead, Jaune looked upon the town of Sol, said town looking rather dated. To be expected since this was out in the frontier; out here, modern technology and equipment weren't exactly readily available, resulting in many villages and towns being built from scratch 'the old-fashioned way' as some people had taken to saying.

That is to say, through the use of their own hands and whatever relatively primitive equipment could be made out of the surrounding environment.

However, Sol looked to be a fairly old town, old in the sense that it's clearly had time to be fully settled into by its inhabitants who have in turn done their best to try updating the town's architecture and technology as best as they could. Indeed, compared to most other places out in the frontier, Sol was positively fancy.

As the bullhead circled above the town for a moment, Jaune could make out many people still milling about on the town's streets looking up at them in obvious interest. This was clearly their own little marketplace. Further down the roads the people had built, he could make out the farms and associated facilities out on the edge of said town, where their large crops could be seen.

"Wow…" he heard Nora say, the normally rambunctious girl speaking almost quietly as she too looked upon Sol. Looks like she nor Ren had ever passed through such a town during their travels over the years.

"Yeah," he said in agreement, his small smile growing a bit. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

By now, the bullhead was beginning to touch down. Due to the town's layout in addition to the abundance of plant life as well as wild life, the bullhead was unable to land too close to the town, so it instead it had to head out towards the plains that lied well past the town's crops and unofficial borders, whereupon team JNPR bade a quick goodbye to their pilot and proceeded to briskly walk down the nearest path that led to the town.

As the four of them did so, they all looked around, taking it all in.

Jaune let out a quiet sound of worry; he'd noticed it from up above but hadn't bothered paying it too much mind in favor of focusing on the beauty of the town even in this gloomy weather. But here on foot, he could better see the damage the town had sustained from the Grimm that had apparently been attacking them. Said damage was in the form of numerous busted trees, smushed grass, hastily mended fences and noticeably small herds of farm animals out in the extremely large and open fields, herds that were now being moved in by the currently working farmers.

The numbers had been thinned and significantly so, Jaune noted grimly. This Grimm attacks were certainly devastating and efficient. Out here in the frontier, where technology was severely lacking and quick communication was a luxury ill-afforded, it was up to the settlements to basically look out for themselves for the most part. So if they start suffering losses of any kind, it could very quickly spiral out of control for the people living in them.

That Sol was still standing and look fairly well overall spoke admirably of the people's resiliency, but it now went without saying that they could only take so much more before things are truly impossible to salvage.

"Looks like the… mayor? Is that the proper term here?... Well, looks like he's out here to greet us," spoke Pyrrha sheepishly.

And sure enough, as they neared the town, there was a growing crowd in the marketplace, which this road they were on led directly to. At the head of said crowd was a short and stocky buffalo Faunus, his horns large and thick while what was visible of his forearms from this distance were covered in rather thick hair, resembling that of an actual bull.

"Hello there," Jaune greeted as they closed the distance. "We're team JNPR from Beacon academy. We're the ones who will be handling your request."

Again, it was obvious that Jaune and his friends were clearly not from around here, a fact made all the more evident by the way the crowd looked at them and mumbled amongst themselves. But when he just spoke, many that heard him practically cheered.

The buffalo Faunus in particular, definitely the mayor, was practically on the verge of tears. "Thank the heavens!" he yelled in a booming voice that vaguely reminded Jaune of professor Port. "Welcome to Sol, you four! You've no idea how happy this makes us!"

The man quickly walked forth, hands outstretched, an action Jaune dutifully returned and before he knew it, his hand was practically enveloped by the man's hands.

"I'm sorry we couldn't exactly give you a heads-up about our arrival," Jaune said. "I'm Jaune Arc, by the way. This here is my partner, Pyrrha Nikos, and these two are Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren."

Introducing his team, he watched as the man enthusiastically clasped their hands in greeting, which they returned.

"No worries at all, you young bucks!" The man was practically laughing. "Our lack of fancy technology just goes without saying, you know? Ah, I'm Dean, mayor of Sol! On behalf of the people, I officially welcome you!"

Jaune and his team couldn't help but smile in response to the man's cheeriness, but Jaune's smile only lasted for a split second before he adopted a serious look.

"Thanks, it means a lot. Now, not to rush anything, but do you think there's somewhere my team and I could stay for the duration of our mission here? Additionally, is there somewhere we all could sit down and discuss the details? We'd been briefed before coming, of course, but I'd like to get the info directly from you and others."

Dean nodded eagerly. "Of course, of course… alright, you lot! Clear the way! We all got business to get back to!"

The crowd collectively grumbled and groaned as their mayor yelled at them, but they obeyed. Jaune took note of how swiftly they went back to their 'business,' namely in that it wasn't so much resuming business but rather beginning the process of closing up for the day. People were quickly drawing close wooden or steel shutters, supplies and other goods out in the open were gathered up and taken inside and doors were loudly opening and closing rapidly. The blond teen could even hear many of them locking up too.

"Follow me – I'll lead you to our inn. Best in town!" Dean said in a joking tone.

Jaune allowed himself a quick laugh, primarily because the inn in question was really the only one in town.

One had to appreciate jokes like this, he silently thought.

Him and his friends followed after the stocky mayor to said inn and in no time flat, they'd been directed to two rooms directly across the hall from one another, one for the girls and the other for the boys. JNPR promptly went about putting their personal stuff in their rooms and after locking up, they headed downstairs to the inn's very own diner, which was made entirely out of thick wood and lumber.

Combined with the intentionally dim lighting, it certainly had a homey feeling to it, but as they sat at a large table, said homeliness was nowhere to be found as they all now looked quite serious.

"Now then, where do you want to start?" Dean asked as they got settled in, some drinks – beer for Dean and water for the rest of them – being brought just as the mayor leaned forward in his seat.

"From the beginning," Jaune replied. "From what my team and I were briefed on, entities believed to be Grimm started to attack the town several weeks back, hit and run tactics based on the information given. Can you elaborate on this?"

Dean nodded. "Honestly, don't know what to tell you – one day, everything was right as rain, just like always, then the next thing we knew, a wave of Grimm came from the west and suddenly hit our farms near the outskirts of Sol. At first, the damage was pretty light, just some busted down fences, screwed up barn doors, stuff like that. Gave us all a damn good scare, that was for sure. But the next attack, which happened just four days later, was much worse."

At this, the mayor's expression tightened as did his grip on his beer mug's handle. "A solid dozen of our chickens got slaughtered by some Beowulves while those Ursa ones literally tore through several cows and pigs. They also ended up knocking around a lot of the lamps out in the barns over there and started a small fire that ended up spreading to our fields a bit before we could put the flames out. But it was during the third attack just the night after that…"

"…They targeted people," Ren quietly finished.

Dean nodded slowly. "Damn it all… Archie – one of our best farmers – along with his wife Tiffy and their kids got killed by the Grimm first. They lived the furthest out from the town, so that made sense… but then the Grimm just sorta circled around the town a bit and attacked one of the businesses too, a nice little souvenir shop of sorts that we had going on for the occasional outsiders. The owners, Keith and Louise, were torn apart along with the shop."

Jaune's right hand balled into a fist upon hearing the broken tone of the mayor's voice. "And this has been repeating ever since? And just to confirm, these really are Grimm behind the attacks?"

"Yeah, we're all damn sure it's Grimm now. I know it sounds crazy since I don't remember those hellish things ever behaving like this, but it's definitely them. And to answer your first question, yeah, more or less. As you probably saw, we've been doing our best to repair the damage and try to keep our cool, but that's nowhere near as easy as we'd hope it'd be."

Jaune could only silently agree. With how drawn the Grimm are to negativity, sometimes all it takes is just for one settlement out on the frontier to be having one particularly bad day to draw a small wave of Grimm to them. And if that happens, more often than not, said settlement ends up getting wiped out.

The people of Sol here have clearly been doing their best to act as if things were normal enough, an admirable thing given just how long they've been holding out for, but now that he got a good look at Dean and some of the other people here in the diner, it was plain as day for him to see how frayed their nerves were.

The cheers and enthusiasm from earlier, that hadn't simply been genuine relief on their parts – it was deliberate overacting on their part, a hyperbole of themselves as a way to keep their emotions and sanity intact.

These poor people…

"I see. In that case, can you please describe how exactly these attacks played out?" Jaune now gently asked. "I know recalling them is painful… but if you could tell us where exactly the Grimm seemed to be coming from as well as what other kind of odd behavior they were exhibiting, my team and I can plan things out."

There was a flash of pain in Dean's eyes as he vividly recalled what had happened during prior attacks, but the mayor proved his mettle as his slightly wrinkled face tightened up with resolve.

"You got it," Dean responded. "But first, we're gonna need some more drinks, I think." He then promptly chugged his entire mug and motioned for the diner's sole bartender to come fill it up again.

Jaune shared a look with his friends and then without a word spoken, they too chugged their drinks and asked for refills before continuing their conversation well into the night, all the while remaining on alert in case the Grimm chose this night to launch another attack.

No such convenient attack came, leaving team JNPR and Dean alone and with all the time in the world to continue talking.

It was a long while before the team finally finished their discussion with the mayor and bid him a good night.

They all then went to bed in complete silence, dwelling on the information they'd just gained.

Tomorrow, their efforts would begin in earnest. The four of them honestly couldn't wish for the next day to come fast enough.

Hazel awoke in a literal instant, going from unconsciousness to alertness at such a speed, one would be forgiven for thinking he might have been faking it.

But of course, there was no one around to make such an observation. After all, he always made a move on his own.

Well, perhaps not so much anymore, he silently noted as he watched the several Beowulves nearby eyeing him almost hungrily.

Except rather than act on said hunger, they merely sat there, waiting.

For his orders, that is.

The behemoth of a man let out a sigh as he stood up, his personally made campsite suddenly feeling oddly stuffy somehow.

Being around the Grimm in any capacity was not something most could say they would be comfortable with doing, much less in the same way that he's doing so right now. Not even with how long he's been in Salem's… employ, could he say he's grown fully used to the Grimm.

Unfortunately, he had a job to do.

Namely, testing out the limits of this new ability he's recently gained. Well, he says 'recent' in that it's one he's only noticed over the past several weeks or so, but how long he's actually had it is unknown. In any case, when he'd first realized he could exert some minor degree of control over nearby Grimm, Salem had all but demanded in her usual way for him to push this new ability to its limits.

And sadly, that could only be done by essentially amassing a small personal squad of Grimm with which to wreak havoc with.

There was only so much he could order them to do when left to their lonesome selves, thus he had to travel east until he found some live targets with which to practice on.

And in this case, said 'live targets' had taken the form of a town called Sol.

So far, his ability had proven to be quite effective, having allowed him to issue brief orders to the Grimm even from a fair distance away. At first, he'd only had them mess around with the town's outermost fences and grasslands and had since then gradually escalated.

It pained him somewhat to have the Grimm kill people, it truly did, but it had to be done in order to determine just how much control he had over them when they were in the middle of their violent assault. It was important to know, after all, whether or not it was possible to rein them in during the middle of attacks, just in case there needed to be a change of plan.

Really now, it was sad that things had to be done this way, but it's just the way it is…

…Oh well. In all fairness, even though it did upset him, it was a very mild feeling; it's been a very long time indeed since he's ever truly felt concern for others. His many adventures during his youth had long since jaded him to the point of near-numbness and the loss of his sister, his one sole light in his weary life, had only made it that much worse.

And if nothing else, he could console himself with knowing that by the time he was done fully conducting his little experiment here that Sol would simply be one of many settlements out here in the frontier to be lost. An odd way of consoling himself, sure, but it is what is. Sol was far from a special town.

One of the Beowulves growled as it suddenly approached him. Hazel slowly quirked an eyebrow as it neared him, the wolf-based Grimm seemingly begging him to be let loose.

Through the connection he had with this Grimm, he could feel its endless bloodthirst beckon him, threaten to overwhelm him, leave him as the one subservient to the Grimm-.

-Except it failed and miserably at that too.

"Enough," Hazel stated in his usual tone of voice, that of a calm yet commanding individual. And in response to his one-word reply, the Beowulf staggered as if struck before hastily moving back in line with the other Grimm.

"Hmph." Hazel eyed the Grimm and did so until they all ceased their mild whining and went stock still. After once again showing who was in control, he turned his back to them without a single care and looked up.

It was a cloudless night, leaving the broken moon clearly visible to all. He looked up at it, now feeling introspective.

"Just how long will it take to avenge you?" he murmured sorrowfully.

Gretchen had been the only thing that mattered to him in their later years together, his guiding moonlight. And ever since her death at the negligent hands of that bastard Ozpin, ever since then Hazel could only dwell on thoughts of revenge.

Gretchen's death could've been so easily avoided. She'd never been ready to go to Beacon in the first place and yet even though her inexperience had been as plain as day, Ozpin had still allowed her entry into his school… and now look at the outcome.

Hazel's massive hands balled into tight fists as he grimaced at the mere thought of the man he held responsible for all this.

But even as his rage burned like a star within him, he was able to keep himself under control for the moment.

There was a part of him that acknowledged the absurdity of his current circumstances. Here he was, serving a being like Salem, whose plans for humanity were far from benevolent, and in doing so had committed numerous atrocities… and all just for the shot at killing Ozpin for good.

Thanks to the immortal magic wielder, he knew well the curse of resurrection Ozpin had been given. Simply killing him would only cause him to eventually revive in the body of another. Certainly, such a thing would make his quest for vengeance a fruitless one.

But even so, he would not give up. His emotions may have dulled immensely over the years as the result of the many times he's been exposed to humanity's darker side, but never had he ever given up once he's put his mind to something.

For his sister, he will find a way to kill Ozpin for good. And if that means having to continue testing out and mastering this new ability of his, then so be it. If it means having to kill every huntsmen and huntress placed in his path, then he will slay them without mercy.

And all of this shall be on Ozpin's hands, not his. This all could have been avoided if he'd simply denied Gretchen entry.

And now, one day soon, he'll deny Ozpin his next shot at life.

He swore it.

That's right, time to start introducing the other star players in this fic! Won't reveal anything, but I have some plans here for Hazel that I hope you all will find entertaining. Same thing goes for Watts and Tyrian, both of whom will be making their debut in due time as well!

And don't think I've forgotten about what I've written up until now about Cinder and Neo and the White Fang. They'll be getting their time in the spotlight soon too!

Until next time, everyone. Take care!